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being-of-rain · 4 months

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My thoughts on Wild Blue Yonder! A little late because the time between the 60th anniversary episodes almost exactly lined up with a visit from my girlfriend. We had a great time, and watched this episode together, but I didn't want to take enough time away from her to write this!

When I saw some EU fans joking about how the episode was going to be an adaptation of Scherzo, I wasn't prepared for how many similarities it had. And it was soooo good. I love some really fucking great Doctor Who. I loved the horror aspect, I loved the duologue aspect, I always love a mystery opening act where the Tardis team has to search for clues and theorise about where they've landed. Oh and a shape-shifter who takes on someone's whole identity and thoughts is a concept that always tickles my fancy.

One of the few nitpicks I have is that I'm not quite sure how the countdown/shifting corridors and the robot connect: if they're part of the same self-destruct system, why is the robot seemingly much older than the ship? If they're not part of the same system, why is there a countdown to the moment the robot presses the button? Why not just have the ship destroy itself, and why would the ship need to 'reconfigure itself to become a bomb' if it had a self-destruct? But (much like Heaven Sent, which the solitary shifting setting is reminiscent of,) the small logic hiccups don't really take anything away from how good the episode is.

A slightly larger nitpick is that the ending isn't the strongest, with the TARDIS coming back right when and where the Doctor was thinking that it should, and then the Doctor realising he picked the wrong Donna because of a miniscule detail (that the audience couldn't pick up on, so it feels a bit of a cheat and a cheap emotional shot). So some of RTD's most common flaws there, but again the negatives really don't stack up to much compared to the quality of the rest of it. Also, I didn't notice the Tardis screen at the end that showed a scan of Donna's arm until my rewatch, and, in classic me fashion, it put me in mind of a random Dr Who EU story. In this case, Project: Nirvana where the Doctor reveals that the Tardis automatically scanned someone coming onboard and flagged an eldritch-monster-shaped issue with her. It does make me wonder if the Doctor thought to scan Donna himself, or if the Tardis did it (and he took the credit, perhaps trying not to think about how he might never have noticed).

But that's enough with nitpicks, what are some other fantastic bits? The throwaway phrase "goosebumps like Braille" is rad as hell, and would've made a great episode title I think. I've had ideas before about the Doctor's compulsion to think and solve problems in front of him being a direct threat, so it was cool to see that idea here. The Doctor worrying about 'invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe' at the end was a vague but incredibly compelling hook for future plots, and infinitely more interesting than the Meep's final line from the previous episode. I love all the tiny subtle ways the not-things were off and unsettling, as well as all the ways that were so over-the-top that I was laughing through my shocked horror.

The Timeless Child and Flux references were fantastic peeling back of the Doctor's emotional walls, and it was nice tying in with what is technically the show's previous season, even though it came out 2 years ago now. Also... it's a little hard to mention those references without dunking on Chibnall in comparison, who didn't tap into the Doctor's emotional state anywhere near as intensely in several years as this episode did in one scene (You could tie this into the Doctor regenerates into what they need/opposite theories, with Thirteen being a relatively repressed Doctor and Ten Point Three being a relatively expressive Doctor). It was particularly nice to have the show actually establish what the consequences of the Flux actually were, because god knows Thirteen's episodes weren't interested in doing that. On my rewatch of series 13 a few months ago, I was amazed at how basically every element of the Flux is confused and contradictory, and at the end my brother and I were convinced that the Ood in the Division ship (or God Ood as we started calling him) must have reversed the very almost total destruction of the universe, because the show simply refused to acknowledge any of that destruction itself. I guess they split the difference and said half the universe. But unpicking the bizarre illogic of the Flux is a whole other post.

Keeping in mind that the next episode hasn't come out yet, Wild Blue Yonder feels wildly out of place in the middle of an anniversary trilogy. A trilogy where the bookends are RTD modern-day blockbusters filled with fan-favourite character returns and niche villains from the show's long history, and the middle is a limited-cast sci-fi psychological/eldritch horror. But that absurdity detracts from the episode in absolutely no way whatsoever.

And speaking of absurdity; the mounting hype and talk of big things happening in the next episode, on top of bringing back a long-forgotten old villain and a long-awaited new Doctor, is just making it more and more ridiculous that the episode is called The Giggle. I can't wait for it though, I'm really enjoying these specials.

#my thoughts #dw spoilers #donna #ten #suuuch a good episode #hard not to dunk on Chibnall when I say I'm enjoying TV Dr Who much more than I have in ages

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billpottsismygf · 4 months

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The Church on Ruby Road (spoilers)

Oh my god! I absolutely loved that! Ncuti Gatwa is phenomenal. He's got so much presence right from the start, and there were some lovely little Doctor-ish quirks that he got across very nicely. I particularly liked his disdain for the Goblins' supposed time travel, him loving the name Lulubelle and the way he rattled off his police interview answers (though the bit about the proposal was perhaps a little too Sherlock). On a sadder note, his 'maybe I'm the bad luck' line was also delivered really well.

Ruby Sunday is pretty cool too, though I'm not quite as sold on her yet. Millie Gibson's performance felt just a trifle stilted to me, but I hope that goes away as she relaxes into the role. I loved her family, especially her gran. It's so nice to have a wider companion family like this again. We got it a bit with Yaz (and sort of Ryan and Graham), but I hope we get to see a bit more of this lot!

I wasn't sure what I was going to think of the Goblins, but I really like the alternative physics time travel thing they have going on with the language of luck. The Doctor's line about learning the vocabulary of rope was great; some real 'resonating concrete' vibes. But yes, the Goblins were fun and interesting. I don't know if they'll become anything particularly iconic, but not every villain needs to be.

The musical number was enormous fun. Obviously the first part was released ahead of time, but the Doctor and Ruby launching into a second part was unexpected and fantastic. Ncuti has a damn good voice. There have been questions about whether a musical episode of the show could work before, and I'm definitely here for it if there's ever a plan to give us more than just one song! Ruby's own ability to sing (improvisationally!) was also quite nicely set up with her being in a band.

Perhaps the best part of the episode was when Ruby was taken out of time. Her mum being a far more jaded and unhappy person, with even the lighting getting dimmer, was incredibly effective. Her declaring she was happy alone with tears in her eyes, the Doctor also crying, really got me. Ncuti's performance throughout that as well gave me a lot of faith in what's to come (not that I needed any, given what I've seen of him in Sex Education). (That 'then why are you crying' also had more than a hint of Amy crying for Rory.)

I have to mention the timeless child stuff. As with what he did with the flux in Wild Blue Yonder, I'm over the moon that RTD is taking things from the last era and actually doing stuff with it. I know there will be people angry about it because they expected him to retcon the whole thing, but I far prefer this approach. Granted, I never minded the timeless child stuff that much (unlike the flux), but it was really effective having the Doctor actually bring up the fact that he doesn't know where he's from. I wonder if RTD is planning to do anything more with it, or if it will just be used as character and relationship building material.

Smaller stuff:

We got another mavity mention, so is this just here to stay or is it part of a longer arc?

The way the gloves work didn't make sense to me. The way the Doctor explained them was as if the weight just shifted to the glove (which makes sense for making balancing and gripping easier), but if that's the case where does the extra weight come from when pulling the rope down? Oh well, I'll just imagine they're magic weight deletion/creation devices and move on with my life.

That spike through the Goblin King at the end was brutal! I'm surprised they were allowed to show it. No blood or anything, I suppose, but still!

Ruby's mother (we presume) was somehow still walking away after the Doctor's whole escapade with the Goblins. Bad directing (I might have bought it if she were much further away on a long road) or an indication of more at play? Either way, presumably this isn't the last of that plot thread!

What the hell is going on with Mrs Flood? When she was watching the Doctor towards the end, I thought it was pretty strange, and then in the mid-credits sequence I started to wonder if she was something more than she seemed. Then came the look to camera and her line about TARDISes… Technically, this could be a weird little moment a la Feast of Steven, but it seems more likely something else is at play. The Toymaker could bend the rules of reality, so perhaps she could be part of the legions he mentioned, able to break the fourth wall at will. We shall see, I suppose!

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fordarkisthesuede · 3 years

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Hey! this will sound out of place probably but I randomly run into one of your asks where you said that Disney’s handling of the show could’ve been way better. I watched the show fairly new so I don't know if there was an event while the show was still airing but I really wonder why do you think like that. (I hope I don't come across as mean. English is not my first language so I'm not the best at expressing myself.)

This is probably very very late, but "Disney's handling of [Gravity Falls] could've been better" is very much related to their terrible scheduling system.

It started out with about 3 episodes a month. The first big gap in the airing was between the Summerween episode (S1x12) and Boss Mabel (S1x13) was 5 months, from October 5 to February 15. This was actually around the time I started watching, because people on here kept talking about it on here!

But a 5 month gap MID-SEASON is still unheard of for regular shows. It technically wasn't even the MIDDLE of the season! There's only 20 episodes! You'd normally produce a whole season of a show to air over the course of a year to have a steady amount of content and keeps eyeballs primed and ready, with a 4-6 week long break for the winter holidays.

From 1x13 - 1x17, new episodes were twice a month, so every other week. But 1x18, Land Before Swine, aired about 1.5 weeks after 1x17, and then Dreamscaperers another 2 weeks after that. You remember that cliffhanger, right???? The Shack is destroyed, Gideon's run amok, the twins were going to be sent home for SURE.... People on here were OBSESSING over Bill Cipher. EVERYTHING was Bill. Every meme, every newly-discovered hint, every theory, every fanart was Bill-Bill-Bill *Bill* *Bill!* *BILL!* BILL CI ~ THE TRIANGLE GUY!

And we had to wait 3 weeks until the season finale, Gideon Rises aired. Imagine having to WAIT FOR THAT DAMN CLIFFHANGER SEASON ENDING. THREE F*CKING WEEKS.

But maybe you're still like "that's not too bad, it's bi-monthly, right? Maybe a little fickle. Doesn't sound horrible." Oh, my sweet summer child. You don't know the worst of it.

Season 2 started a day over the 1 year mark since Gideon Rises, and kept up tradition of 1 new ep twice a month, with the usual winter gap...and then, 2015 happened:

The proof's in the wiki page. Imagine, you wait patiently for 2x11, Not What He Seems, and get THE BIGGEST PLOT TWIST EVER PREDICTED BY FANDOM, with everyone losing their SH*T over what happens next....only to wait for the new episode for 4 months.

And again, it's not a real mid-season break. It wasn't like the next episodes hadn't been made yet, either. And they kept up a rough twice-a-month airings (sometimes with a 2-week gap, and other's 3) until...

WEIRDMAGEDDON.

THE EPIC 3-PART FINALE. PINES FAMILY VERSUS BILL CIPHER. THE SERIES ENDING. A BIG MOMENT FOR THE SHOW, THE FANS, AND EVEN DISNEY XD,

got split up into another 4 month gap.

Imagine it. IMAGINE how you're all excited for the series ending, a little scared to see what happens, and sad to see it go. The first part is so exciting, so full of promise, so easily ready to marathon with the rest - it'll be like watching a movie premier!

But that horrible goddamn mouse only laughs in your face. "Ho Ho! A marathon? Not on my watch arms, buddy!"

You've seen Part 2. You know how great it was. The emotional reconciliation, Mabelland, the series callbacks, the build-up to the fight with Bill. Can you, with your streaming services and dvd/bluray sets and pirated material you can watch at the drop of a hat even FATHOM what it was like to have to wait 4. Damn. Months. for the series to end?

To this day, I don't know of a show that's given that kind of haphazard hate-boner of a schedule. (Except for maybe Wander Over Yonder, which only ran 2 seasons for 3 years until it was cancelled.)

I'm sure Disney has excused it away with the dying breaths of cable on the wind and the growing popularity of streaming services, but I want to take your anonymous shoulders gently in my hands and look you dead-on so I can tell you this, from the bottom of my heart:

Gravity Falls wouldn't have made it without it's very, very dedicated fanbase. I was there for every episode live-stream after 1x15 aired. I only started a tumblr to keep up with the fandom. We waited for a 2-season, 40-episode cartoon show to complete for 4 years, knowing that the likelihood we'd ever get a movie out of it later was <0.

I just don't think Disney gave 2 flipparoonies about their animating department, let alone this show. They didn't make much merchandise for Gravity Falls. The vast majority of it back then was fan-made, with the official stuff being sold strictly online. I was lucky to find a single t-shirt in a Hot Topic up until the first break of Season 2, and then they slowly started bringing out Waddles plushies, the POP Vinyls, and of course the physical copy of Journal 3 by the end of the series.

TLDR; Disney didn't really care about this show, man. :/

#gravity falls #ask #sorry for the very very very long wait #anon #I'm getting caught up in my tumblr asks #been a while since i used the desktop #in comparison Cartoon Network keeps great scheduling #just look at the air dates for Steven Universe S1!#Sure they had some gaps later on but it was NOTHING like the Gravity Falls Hiatus'#I've never forgotten #and never forgiven #hot belgian waffles was that a f*cked up schedule #I Survived the Gravity Falls Hiatus is a badge of honor ok #anonymous

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ffej16 · 3 years

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THEinc-HIM Daily Bible Meditation - February 21 - Full Text

FEBRUARY 21

PSALMS: 21, 51, 81, 111, 141

PROVERBS: 21

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 SAMUEL 14:1 - 52

NEW TESTAMENT: JOHN 7:31 - 53

PSALMS: 21

1 The king rejoices in your strength, LORD!

How greatly he rejoices in your yeshu`ah!

2 You have given him his heart's desire,

And have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah.

3 For you meet him with the blessings of goodness;

You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

4 He asked life of you, you gave it to him,

Even length of days forever and ever.

5 His glory is great in your salvation.

You lay honor and majesty on him.

6 For you make him most blessed forever.

You make him glad with joy in your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the LORD.

Through the loving kindness of Ha`Elyon,

he shall not be moved.

8 Your hand will find out all of your enemies.

Your right hand will find out those who hate you.

9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger.

The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath.

The fire shall devour them.

10 You will destroy their descendants from the eretz,

Their posterity from among the children of men.

11 For they intended evil against you.

They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.

12 For you will make them turn their back,

When you aim drawn bows at their face.

13 Be exalted, LORD, in your strength,

So we will sing and praise your power.

PSALMS: 51

1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.

According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions.

My sin is constantly before me.

4 Against you, and you only, have I sinned,

And done that which is evil in your sight;

That you may be proved right when you speak,

And justified when you judge.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.

In sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.

You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean.

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins,

And blot out all of my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a right spirit within me.

11 Don't throw me from your presence,

And don't take your holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways.

Sinners shall be converted to you.

14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness,

O God, the God of my salvation.

My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

15 Lord, open my lips.

My mouth shall declare your praise.

16 For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

A broken and contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise.

18 Do well in your good pleasure to Tziyon.

Build the walls of Yerushalayim.

19 Then will you delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,

In burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings.

Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

PSALMS: 81

1 Sing aloud to God, our strength!

Make a joyful noise to the God of Ya`akov!

2 Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine,

The pleasant lyre with the harp.

3 Blow the shofar at the New Moon,

At the full moon, on our feast day.

4 For it is a statute for Yisra'el,

An ordinance of the God of Ya`akov.

5 He appointed it in Yosef for a testimony,

When he went out over the land of Mitzrayim,

I heard a language that I didn't know.

6 "I removed his shoulder from the burden.

His hands were freed from the basket.

7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you.

I answered you in the secret place of thunder.

I tested you at the waters of Merivah."

Selah.

8 "Hear, my people, and I will testify to you.

Yisra'el, if you would listen to me!

9 There shall be no strange god in you,

Neither shall you worship any foreign god.

10 I am the LORD, your God,

Who brought you up out of the land of Mitzrayim.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 But my people didn't listen to my voice.

Yisra'el desired none of me.

12 So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts,

That they might walk in their own counsels.

13 Oh that my people would listen to me,

That Yisra'el would walk in my ways!

14 I would soon subdue their enemies,

And turn my hand against their adversaries.

15 The haters of the LORD would cringe before him,

And their punishment would last forever.

16 But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat.

I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock."

PSALMS: 111

1 Praise the LORD!

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,

In the council of the upright, and in the congregation.

2 The works of the LORD are great,

Pondered by all those who delight in them.

3 His work is honor and majesty.

His righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered.

The LORD is gracious and merciful.

5 He has given food to those who fear him.

He always remembers his covenant.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,

In giving them the heritage of the nations.

7 The works of his hands are truth and justice.

All his precepts are sure.

8 They are established forever and ever.

They are done in truth and uprightness.

9 He has sent redemption to his people.

He has ordained his covenant forever.

His name is holy and awesome!

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

All those who do his work have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever!

PSALMS: 141

1 LORD, I have called on you. Come to me quickly!

Listen to my voice when I call to you.

2 Let my prayer be set before you like incense; ‘

The lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a watch, LORD, before my mouth.

Keep the door of my lips.

4 Don't incline my heart to any evil thing, ‘

To practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity.

Don't let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness;

Let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head;

Don't let my head refuse it;

Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.

6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock.

They will hear my words, for they are well spoken.

7 "As when one plows and breaks up the eretz,

Our bones are scattered at the mouth of She'ol."

8 For my eyes are on you, LORD, the Lord. In you, I take refuge. Don't leave my soul destitute.

9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me,

From the traps of the workers of iniquity.

10 Let the wicked fall together into their own nets,

While I pass by.

PROVERBS: 21

1 The king's heart is in the LORD's hand like the watercourses.

He turns it wherever he desires.

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,

But the LORD weighs the hearts.

3 To do righteousness and justice

Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

4 A high look, and a proud heart,

The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

5 The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit;

And everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.

6 Getting treasures by a lying tongue

Is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

7 The violence of the wicked will drive them away,

Because they refuse to do what is right.

8 The way of the guilty is devious,

But the conduct of the innocent is upright.

9 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop,

Than to share a house with a contentious woman.

10 The soul of the wicked desires evil;

His neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

11 When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom;

When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

12 The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked,

And brings the wicked to ruin.

13 Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor,

He will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

14 A gift in secret pacifies anger;

And a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

15 It is joy to the righteous to do justice;

But it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

16 The man who wanders out of the way of understanding

Shall rest in the assembly of the dead.

17 He who loves pleasure shall be a poor man:

He who loves wine and oil shall not be rich.

18 The wicked is a ransom for the righteous;

The treacherous for the upright.

19 It is better to dwell in a desert land,

Than with a contentious and fretful woman.

20 There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise;

But a foolish man swallows it up.

21 He who follows after righteousness and kindness

Finds life, righteousness, and honor.

22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty,

And brings down the strength of its confidence.

23Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue

Keeps his soul from troubles.

24 The proud and haughty man, "scoffer" is his name;

He works in the arrogance of pride.

25 The desire of the sluggard kills him,

For his hands refuse to labor.

26 There are those who covet greedily all the day long;

But the righteous gives and doesn't withhold.

27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination:

How much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

28 A false witness will perish,

And a man who listens speaks to eternity.

29 A wicked man hardens his face;

But as for the upright, he establishes his ways.

30 There is no wisdom nor understanding

Nor counsel against the LORD.

31 The horse is prepared for the day of battle;

But victory is with the LORD.

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 SAMUEL 14:1 - 52

14:1 Now it fell on a day, that Yonatan the son of Sha'ul said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Pelishtim' garrison, that is on yonder side. But he didn't tell his father.

2 Sha'ul abode in the uttermost part of Gevah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men;

3 and Achiyah, the son of Achituv, Ikhavod's brother, the son of Pinechas, the son of `Eli, the Kohen of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an efod. The people didn't know that Yonatan was gone.

4 Between the passes, by which Yonatan sought to go over to the Pelishtim' garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side: and the name of the one was Botzetz, and the name of the other Senneh.

5 The one crag rose up on the north in front of Mikhmash, and the other on the south in front of Geva.

6 Yonatan said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us; for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.

7 His armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart: turn you, behold, I am with you according to your heart.

8 Then said Yonatan, Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will disclose ourselves to them.

9 If they say thus to us, Wait until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up to them.

10 But if they say thus, Come up to us; then we will go up; for the LORD has delivered them into our hand: and this shall be the sign to us.

11 Both of them disclosed themselves to the garrison of the Pelishtim: and the Pelishtim said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.

12 The men of the garrison answered Yonatan and his armor bearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. Yonatan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me; for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Yisra'el.

13 Yonatan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor bearer after him: and they fell before Yonatan; and his armor bearer killed them after him.

14 That first slaughter, which Yonatan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.

15 There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the eretz quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling.

16 The watchmen of Sha'ul in Gevah of Binyamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went [here] and there.

17 Then said Sha'ul to the people who were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. When they had numbered, behold, Yonatan and his armor bearer were not there.

18 Sha'ul said to Achiyah, Bring here the ark of God. For the ark of God was [there] at that time with the children of Yisra'el.

19 It happened, while Sha'ul talked to the Kohen, that the tumult that was in the camp of the Pelishtim went on and increased: and Sha'ul said to the Kohen, Withdraw your hand.

20 Sha'ul and all the people who were with him were gathered together, and came to the battle: and, behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, [and there was] a very great confusion.

21 Now the Hebrews who were with the Pelishtim as before, and who went up with them into the camp, [from the country] round about, even they also [turned] to be with the Yisra'elites who were with Sha'ul and Yonatan.

22 Likewise all the men of Yisra'el who had hid themselves in the hill-country of Efrayim, when they heard that the Pelishtim fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.

23 So the LORD saved Yisra'el that day: and the battle passed over by Beit-Aven.

24 The men of Yisra'el were distressed that day; for Sha'ul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food.

25 All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.

26 When the people were come to the forest, behold, the honey dropped: but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.

27 But Yonatan didn't hear when his father charged the people with the oath: therefore he put forth the end of the rod who was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.

28 Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father directly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. The people were faint.

29 Then said Yonatan, My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.

30 How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for now has there been no great slaughter among the Pelishtim.

31 They struck of the Pelishtim that day from Mikhmash to Ayalon. The people were very faint;

32 and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.

33 Then they told Sha'ul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood. He said, you have dealt treacherously: roll a great stone to me this day.

34 Sha'ul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and tell them, Bring me here every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat; and don't sin against the LORD in eating with the blood. All the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.

35 Sha'ul built an altar to the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built to the LORD.

36 Sha'ul said, Let us go down after the Pelishtim by night, and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. They said, Do whatever seems good to you. Then said the Kohen, Let us draw near here to God.

37 Sha'ul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Pelishtim? will you deliver them into the hand of Yisra'el? But he didn't answer him that day.

38 Sha'ul said, Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people; and know and see in which this sin has been this day.

39 For, as the LORD lives, who saves Yisra'el, though it be in Yonatan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people who answered him.

40Then said he to all Yisra'el, Be you on one side, and I and Yonatan my son will be on the other side. The people said to Sha'ul, Do what seems good to you.

41 Therefore Sha'ul said to the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, Show the right. Yonatan and Sha'ul were taken [by lot]; but the people escaped.

42 Sha'ul said, Cast [lots] between me and Yonatan my son. Yonatan was taken.

43 Then Sha'ul said to Yonatan, Tell me what you have done. Yonatan told him, and said, I did certainly taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and, behold, I must die.

44 Sha'ul said, God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Yonatan.

45 The people said to Sha'ul, Shall Yonatan die, who has worked this great salvation in Yisra'el? Far from it: as the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day. So the people rescued Yonatan, that he didn't die.

46 Then Sha'ul went up from following the Pelishtim; and the Pelishtim went to their own place.

47 Now when Sha'ul had taken the kingdom over Yisra'el, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Mo'av, and against the children of `Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Tzovah, and against the Pelishtim: and wherever he turned himself, he put [them] to the worse.

48 He did valiantly, and struck the `Amaleki, and delivered Yisra'el out of the hands of those who despoiled them.

49 Now the sons of Sha'ul were Yonatan, and Yishvi, and Malki-Shua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merav, and the name of the younger Mikhal:

50 and the name of Sha'ul's wife was Achino'am the daughter of Achima`atz. The name of the captain of his host was Aviner the son of Ner, Sha'ul's uncle.

51 Kish was the father of Sha'ul; and Ner the father of Aviner was the son of Aviel.

52 There was sore war against the Pelishtim all the days of Sha'ul: and when Sha'ul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.

NEW TESTAMENT: JOHN 7:31 - 53

7:31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, "When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than those which this man has done?"

32 The Perushim heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief Kohanim and the Perushim sent officers to arrest him.

33 Then Yeshua said, "Yet a little while, am I with you, then I go to him who sent me.

34 You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come."

35 The Yehudim therefore said among themselves, "Where will this man go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Diaspora among the Yevanim, and teach the Yevanim?

36 What is this word that he said, 'You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come?'"

37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water."

39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Ruach HaKodesh was not yet given, because Yeshua wasn't yet glorified.

40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, "This is truly the prophet."

41 Others said, "This is the Messiah." But some said, "What, does the Messiah come out of the Galil?

42 Hasn't the Scripture said that the Messiah comes of the seed of David, and from Beit-Lechem, the village where David was?"

43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.

44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 The officers therefore came to the chief Kohanim and Perushim, and they said to them, "Why didn't you bring him?"

46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"

47 The Perushim therefore answered them, "Are you also led astray?

48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Perushim?

49 But this multitude that doesn't know the law is accursed."

50 Nakdimon (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,

51 "Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?"

52 They answered him, "Are you also from the Galil? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of the Galil."

53 Everyone went to his own house,

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speter-sparker · 5 years

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Spideypool fic rec #2

ya boy is back at it again with the whole procrastination thing, and if I'm going down, ill bring all of you with me.

other recs by me: X

1) Peter Parker's Home for the Wayward Villain by BeanieBaby [90k, complete]

summary: A really long redemption story.

my thoughts: you know how every ship has That One Fic? The one that every person who recs fic recs? This is it. In a world where Peter Parker was never bitten by a radioactive spider (but still lives in a world of heroes), he still has a chance to make a change.

additional info: found family, strangers to friends to lovers, slow burn, POV peter

2) Said the Fly to the Spider by BC_Brynn [20k, complete]

summary: Peter is being courted by Deadpool. With words. And life-saving.

my thoughts: so damn good. the story is character and relationship-focused, with witty banter and dumb jokes - in short, the perfect spideypool fic. Pacing is on point, side characters are in character, just... *chef kiss* beautiful.

additional info: friends to lovers, slow burn, POV peter

3) the kubler-ross theory by antivenom [80k, complete]

summary: Peter loses Gwen in a split-second of motion. It takes much, much longer for him to find himself afterwards.

(In which Peter deals with a loss that immobilizes him and permeates through every drawn breath. In which his grief is a visceral abstraction that he can touch, that he can feel. And in which, with a little help, with time, with acceptance, with anger, with sadness, with Wade, he learns how to live in a world without her.)

my thoughts: if you read nothing else on this list, READ THIS. It deals with the aftermath of Gwen Stacy’ death, and how Peter copes (or doesn't) with the aftermath. This story is a love letter to everyone who has lost someone - the stages of grief, the anger and confusion and emotion are so real. Everything is brutally honest, the author doesn't hold back punches - in fact, it's because of this that I love how Wade and Peters's relationship is written. They are both shown as flawed characters who are trying so damn hard and their relationship feels real. The same can be said for every character in this fic - the relationships with aunt may and MJ and other supers are beautifully thought out and written.

additional info: HOPEFUL ENDING, slow burn, pre-relationship, hurt/comfort, POV Peter

4) I'll Tell No Lies by doctorestranged [78k, complete]

summary: When a series of murders take place, Peter Parker goes undercover in Sister Margaret’s to get intel on Tony Stark’s prime suspect: Deadpool. Except, Peter is horrible at lying and this seems like a dreadful idea. Peter goes in hoping to get enough information so that Spider-Man can save the day, but like everything in Peter’s life, it becomes a bit more complicated than that.

my thoughts: The pacing is so fun - it’s a murder mystery with a heavy side of romance, featuring Tony not-angry-just-disappointed ok-a-little-angry Stark, a very done Weasle, and one taxi driver.

additional info: strangers to friends to lovers, SMUT, POV Peter

5) Without Ever Letting You Know by TimidTurnip [8k, complete]

summary: So something weird is going on with Deadpool, that's nothing new. Spewing flower petals is hardly the strangest thing the merc has done. The part that is confusing Peter is that Deadpool doesn't want Spider-man around. WTH.

my thoughts: mmm, hurts so good. Love how they examine Peter’s personality and relationship to Wade in this one.

additional info: Hopeful ending, PINING, friends to lovers, POV Peter

6) i know your secret by jilliancares [8k, complete]

summary: “I’m your new neighbor,” Wade forged on, oblivious to Peter’s state of shock, and he stuck out a scarred hand. Peter gripped it, feeling numb, and gave it a shake. Did Wade realize who he was? No, clearly not. He was acting way too normally. Wade was one for dramatics.

my thoughts: Fluff CENTRAL. Wade and Peter are given a playful relationship that can only be described as puppy love.

additional info: fluff, identity porn, friends to lovers, POV Peter

7) The Naked Truth by CAPSING [20k, complete]

summary: Wade is not a cat person. But maybe he'll make an exception to get into some cute guy's pants.

my thoughts: CAT FIC! THERE'S A CAT!

additional info: pining, strangers to friends to lovers, vet!peter, Wade is still Deadpool, POV Wade

8) The Boys Wear Red... by Orcusnox (Cat9894) [108k, complete]

summary: Wade is a hero, Peter is a merc.

my thoughts: HOLY HECK??? if you thought Spider-man 3 was dark, Raimi ain't got nothing on this. My biggest worry going into this was that Peter and Wade would just swap places and character, but that could not be further from the truth. Peter is dark, but in a way that fits who he is, who he would be if he jumped off the deep end. Everything in this feels thought out and works well together - the character writing is smooth and logical, even for side characters. The plot is fun and exciting, the banter even more so.

additional info: Hopeful ending, some smut later, gore/violence, past mentions of abuse, frenemies to friends to lovers, POV Peter

9) Allostasis by ruralfishingcat [42k, complete]

summary: Peter had a tendency to put up walls to isolate himself; even as Spider-Man, he could only suffer through so much death and destruction. It was precautionary, really, and those he'd pushed away would thank him were they aware of the circumstances. Of course, Deadpool had his own tendencies, one of which was to break down said walls (fourth ones included). As grating as it was, a small sliver of Peter hoped the mercenary would be able to succeed.

my thoughts: fucking cute my dude. Identity porn to the max, and a butt crap of pining.

additional info: friends to lovers, protective Wade, identity porn, POV Peter

10) what light through yonder window by hellornothing [14k, complete]

summary: The figure moves quickly, but Peter’s faster. He’s still adjusting to the sudden brightness, so dark red is really the only thing he takes from this initial encounter, but it’s enough.

‘Deadpool?’

-aka the one where they get together via late night window visits

my thoughts: THESE TWO! *clenches fist* ya know? just them realizing they have massive heart boners for each other

additional info: friends to lovers, fluffflufffluff, mama mia that's a lot of F’s, POV Peter

11) Patron Saint by isaDanCurtisproduction [58k, complete]

summary: Peter is desperate. Hungry and alone on the streets, he's ready and willing to do anything to change his situation, even if just for a night. And sharing a stranger's bed would be no hardship, especially when the alternatives include dumpster-diving for dinner and sleeping, arms wrapped around him, beneath a chilly and indifferent sky.

Then a man named Wade Wilson steps into his life.

my thoughts: The plot is simple and allows for GREAT character moments. I clutched my heart cause they were so cute and just GAAAHH! the chemistry is great, the banter is fun, the plot is on point. 10/10 would (and do) recommend

additional info: strangers to friends to lovers, no actual smut, be prepared to clutch a titty, identity porn, pining, homeless Peter, POV Peter

12) better than being alone by darkavengerz (darkavenger) [6k, complete]

summary: Peter's been asked to attend a children's birthday party as Spider-Man, and he's surprised to discover someone else masquerading as him when he turns up at the party.

my thoughts: this is so them. the story is character-focused and just so gosh darn fun. I love my boys just harassing each other for funzies

additional info: friends to lovers, fluff, POV Peter

13) Nobody's Business by DittyWitty [6k, complete]

summary: Peter really wasn't supposed to out himself to Deadpool.

my thoughts: insecure Peter, meet insecure Wade. Now go use big boy words and fucking COMMUNICATE

additional info: friends to lovers, POV Peter

14) you grow up and you lose touch by scarlett_starlett [53k, complete]

summary: Peter always thought that when he had kids, there would be someone by his side.

Instead, he has a mouthy mercenary acting as a chef every night for him and his newly adopted son and a narcissistic billionaire philanthropist paying child support on the sly. But Peter figures it isn’t all bad, especially when Miles loses that dullness in his eyes whenever Wade slips on the banana peels he ‘strategically’ places all over the apartment for Peter as a joke.

my thoughts: usually not one for kid fics - the kids aren't well written and characters tend to be OC. But this one, this one, just shattered my every expectation. The relationship between Peter and Miles, Peter and Wade, and Wade and Miles is phenomenal. The story and plot are wonderful, with themes that you can't help but sink your teeth into. The pining is off the walls. The characters are rounded and complex and grow so much with each other. I cannot recommend this one enough, please by GOD go read it

*** side note: go read everything by this author. go, get outta here! go!

additional info: SLOW burn, friends to co-parents to lovers, PINING GALORE, POV alternating but mostly POV Peter

15) A Vicious Cycle by DecimalDrones [2k, complete]

summary: Peter can't remember the life he and Wade supposedly shared together. It's alright as long as he's happy, though, isn't it?

my thoughts: y’all. Y’ALL. okay, this one is short and sweet but when you finish, go back and read it a second time. The double meaning and context make this fic DELICIOUS. I also recommend checking out their other fics - they’re a bit longer but still easy to finish in a day.

additional info: established relationship, POV Peter

16) on staying around by WylderWolf [4k, complete]

summary: Fourteen pages of loud fart noises.

(also there's some, like, emotions and stuff, and then they bump nasties. it's pretty rad.)

my thoughts: charming little thing with pining wade. Also, they’re both idiots (but what's new)

additional info: friends to lovers, pining, smut at the end, POV Wade

#fic #fic rec #spideypool #spideypool fic rec #peter parker x wade wilson #Peter Parker/Wade Wilson #wade wilson x peter parker #wade wilson/peter parker #peterwade #wadepeter #im doing this instead of homework but whats new

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iamdeltas · 4 years

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I was watching Saberspark’s review of SU: Future, and at the end of it, he reflected on Steven Universe as a whole, and said that on an S A B C D F ranking he’d put it as low A, upper B, not a God Tier show but still good. I do wonder what he’d rank as God Tier. Maybe Adventure Time?

But now I’m wondering what cartoons I’d rank as God Tier and... I don’t really know? As much as I give the hyping of Avatar: the Last Airbender a lot of grief, I’d still probably rank it as God Tier because it was ambitious with its themes and was really well executed with only a few issues. But other than that, I honestly don’t know what other shows I’d rank as high? I adore Steven Universe but I still wouldn’t rank it that high. I appreciate that it went for very ambitious themes and I do still take offense to the fact that anyone who says anything nice about SU feels like they have to preface it with “it was flawed but...” because everything has flaws, even the cartoons that are the collective Internet’s darlings! But it did have flaws, and considerably more than ATLA. I do have a soft spot for MLP:FiM but absolutely no way would I rank that anywhere near God Tier. Gravity Falls never struck me as a show that would merit that ranking either. Back half of s2 was very meh, and it never struck me as being very ambitious with its themes tbh, apart from providing kids with Lovecraftian horror. Star vs the Forces of Evil is a solid Hell No. (Wow did that show drop in quality...) I love She-Ra and the Princesses of Power but it took a while for it to get Really Good. Seasons 1 and 2 were... they were okay. But it wasn’t until season 3 when it finally started showing a lot of potential, IMO, and that’s about halfway into the show. I believe that Legend of Korra had higher highs than ATLA but lower lows, so I don’t think it quite makes it. Over the Garden Wall might be a solid contender? So might Infinity Train, but it’s also not done yet, I think, so I would rather hold off on ranking it. Tangled the Series is... fine, not near God Tier in my opinion. I think We Bare Bears is done? And I liked it a lot, very cute show, but also not something I’d rank as God Tier. Wander Over Yonder is in a similar boat, and also I’m still very miffed at how it handled its “Wander tries to be a matchmaker for Lord Hater and Lord Dominator” plot (MAYBE don’t put Dominator rejecting Hater so close to the reveal of her Actual Plans that narratively show how Actually Super Irredeemably Evil she is?! Maybe don’t have her launch into a song about how Super Duper Incredibly Amazingly Evil she is right after she rejects Hater romantically? Because that has the very fun side effect of framing her lack of romantic interest in Hater as Proof that she’s Totally Evil and I HATE THAT SO MUCH. Ahem.).

Can’t remember what other cartoons I’ve watched...

Also, honestly, I’ve not watched Adventure Time, but from I’ve heard about its ambition with its worldbuilding and characters and themes, plus the fact that it very much kicked off the cartoon renaissance of the 2010s, I feel like if I ever ended up watching it, I’d rank it as God Tier also.

#s says some words

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firesign23 · 5 years

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Trivia Tuesday

So, technically Tuesday so I’m posting this now. I’m sure it will seem riveting in the morning. 😂

I ran into a major kink in the next few chapters of in the wild blue yonder and I’ve been freaking out for days. I have chatted at multiple people. I have rejected their very valid suggestions because it never quite answered the fundamental conflict. I wailed that a happy ending was impossible, woe. All due to a relatively minor plot point changing a timeline. Ridonk.

And then I was making collages for fics I’m not writing (well, at this rate I might eventually) and started wondering what I’d title those fics, and of course a vague 1920s/30s mystery vibe brings to mind Dorothy L. Sayers because of course it does. And I was reminded of this scene from Busman’s Honeymoon and all of a sudden all the little tendrils coaelesced into something resembling an answer, even though the specifics are rather different. Apparently I am incapable of writing a story without prodding at this idea of love and independence and identity. I apparently know what I like.

"I only know that I started to behave like a pig and thought better of it. Peter—it hasn't upset the—the things you said before? It hasn't spoilt anything?" "To know that I can trust you better than myself? What do you think?... But listen, dear—for God's sake let's take that word 'possess' and put a brick round its neck and drown it. I will not use it or hear it used—not even in the crudest physical sense. It's meaningless. We can't possess one another. We can only give and hazard all we have—Shakespeare, as Kirk would say.... I don't know what's the matter with me to-night. Something seems to have got off the chain. I've said things I didn't think I could say if I lived to be a hundred—by which time most of them wouldn't be worth saying." "It seems to be that kind of day. I've said things too. I think I've said everything, except——" "That's true. You never have said it. You've always found some other phrase for it. Un peu d'audace, que diable!... Well?" "I love you."

And from there my mind threw up the following Rilke quote, and I think I know what I’m doing now?

“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”

So there you are, the strangest source of broken writer’s block to date.

(Full scene from Busman’s Honeymoon below the cut because I had a hell of a time cutting down the quote and really it is the whole thing)

"Well," said Harriet, as her lord returned from seeing the Superintendent to the door, "he wasn't unreasonable, after all. But oh! I do hope there won't be any more people to-night."

"Nous menons une vie assez mouvementée. I've never known such a day. Bunter looks quite haggard—I have sent him to bed. As for me, I don't feel like the same person I was before breakfast."

"I don't even feel the same person I was before dinner. Peter—about that. It's frightened me rather. I've always so loathed and dreaded any sort of possessiveness. You know how I've always run away from it."

"I've reason to know it." He made a wry face. "You ran like the Red Queen."

"I know I did. And now—I start it, of all people! I simply can't think what came over me. It's frightful. Is that sort of thing always going to happen to me?"

"I don't know," he said, lightly. "I can't imagine. In an experience of women extending, like the good Dr. Watson's, over many nations, and three separate continents——"

"Why separate? Do ordinary continents come blended, like teas?"

"I don't know. That's what it says in the book. Three separate continents. In all my experience, you are completely unprecedented. I never met anybody like you."

"Why? Possessiveness isn't unprecedented."

"On the contrary—it's as common as mud. But to recognise it in one's self and chuck it overboard is—unusual. If you want to be a normal person, my girl, you should let it rip and give yourself and everybody else hell with it. And you should call it something else—devotion or self-sacrifice and that sort of thing. If you go on behaving with all this reason and generosity, everybody will think we don't give a damn for one another."

"Well—if ever I do anything like that again, for heaven's sake don't give in...you wouldn't have, really?"

"If it had come to the point—yes, I should. I couldn't live in a wrangle. Not with you, anyway."

"I wouldn't have believed you could be so weak. As if a possessive person is ever going to be satisfied. If you gave in once, you'd have to do it again and again. Like Danegeld."

"Don't be harsh with me, Domina. If it happens again, I'll take a stick to you. I promise. But I wasn't sure what I was up against—la femme jalouse de l'œuvre, or a perfectly reasonable objection, or just marriage as such. I can't expect being married to be just like not being married, can I? I thought I might be heading the wrong way. I thought if I showed you where the hitch was—I don't know what I thought. It doesn't matter. I only know what you said, and that it took my breath away."

"I only know that I started to behave like a pig and thought better of it. Peter—it hasn't upset the—the things you said before? It hasn't spoilt anything?"

"To know that I can trust you better than myself? What do you think?... But listen, dear—for God's sake let's take that word 'possess' and put a brick round its neck and drown it. I will not use it or hear it used—not even in the crudest physical sense. It's meaningless. We can't possess one another. We can only give and hazard all we have—Shakespeare, as Kirk would say.... I don't know what's the matter with me to-night. Something seems to have got off the chain. I've said things I didn't think I could say if I lived to be a hundred—by which time most of them wouldn't be worth saying."

"It seems to be that kind of day. I've said things too. I think I've said everything, except——"

"That's true. You never have said it. You've always found some other phrase for it. Un peu d'audace, que diable!... Well?"

"I love you."

"Bravely said—though I had to screw it out of you like a cork out of a bottle. Why should that phrase be so difficult? I—personal pronoun, subjective case; L-O-V-E, love, verb, active, meaning—— Well, on Mr. Squeers's principle, go to bed and work it out."

#Trivia Tuesday #my fanfic

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tristala · 5 years

Text

A Thank You To a Wonderful Show

It was a rainy Saturday morning and I was bored. I didn’t have anything else to watch since I just got updated with all of the series I love and I wasn’t in the mood to read for the day. Then I remembered a new series that’s visually interesting was already out and has been airing a few episodes in that August so I looked for it and tried out OK K.O. Let’s Be Heroes! for the very first time. Needless to say I was immediately drawn to it. For one, I thought that the characters would be stereotypical (especially Rad and Enid) but they were actually good characters. I was mildly surprised when I saw how the teens first reacted to K.O. They weren’t jerks to him and even treated him nicely. I mean, the kid got our Enid say “Have a...nice day.” and meant it. Those first two episodes were great pilots. It established everyone and the world nicely.

The show was a bit foreign to me at first cause while it is similar to Looney Toons or Wander Over Yonder it has it’s own flair with unique wacky expressions. Not a single episode has ever failed to make me laugh. The animation’s great, it has so much energy with it’s diverse angles/perspectives and I was never bored. It gave me genuine joy every time I watch it.

The plot’s not bad and the series makes an effort to let it be it’s own thing. There are so many references, specifically anime references that I just can’t- I busted my gut from laughing so hard at how Enid wants to be a (Naruto) ninja and just being an all out weeb. Rad being a macho meat head with a heart of gold is nothing new but the way they delivered it was still very cute. K.O. is just a pure cinnamon roll (I seriously think that that’s the new secret formula these newer stories are coming up. There’s Steven, Deku, Tanjiro and Emma to name a few). They weren’t stereotypes. Enid may be the most “reasonable” out of the trio but she still acts as immature as Rad for the most part. I just said that K.O.’s a cinnamon roll but I love the fact that they decided to make him lock T.K.O. up. They felt real, for goofy characters at least.

The characters are the shining glory of the show. They are three dimensional with different goals and passions.

K.O., Rad and Enid have such great camaraderie and chemistry and they just love each other so much and express it freely. It’s so pure but other characters’ relationships are as equally great too.

Carol and K.O.’s mother and son dynamic is really adorable. The show doesn’t treat it as a weakness. In fact, they let us see that it’s pretty positive! Also, K.O. may be a mama’s boy but he’s not really spoiled, Carol has raised him well with discipline and a lot of love.

Venomous and Fink are an adorable duo. Though unlike Carol, Venomous spoils Fink too much XD. Nevertheless, It’s still fun to see them care a lot about each other. Might as well replace boss and minion into dad and daughter.

The Boxmore family is oddly sweet (just not Boxman’s treatment towards his kids) and with the merging of Boxmore and Venomous they became a whole lot more enjoyable to watch.

It’s no surprise that I ship Voxman. I just find it so appealing. You have this villain who has potential and was just too dedicated in trying to destroy the plaza and an evil bio-engineer who loves the intensity and passion the other one gives off.

Honorable mentions of relationship combos:

Rad and Enid’s families, Nick and Joff, Red Action and Enid with Rad and K.O., Real Magic Skeleton and Brandon, Dendy and K.O.,Gar and Carol.

It really bummed me out that it was cancelled, a great show like this doesn’t deserve this treatment. There’s still so much to be explored, so much more adventures that could be had. But I guess in the end, I’m still so glad I got to have this experience and this show will always have a place in my heart.

The finale’s today and before any of us watches it I just want to say thank you to the fandom for making great content and let’s all have fun till the end!

OK K.O. Let’s Be Heroes! is the very definition of wholesome. I love how it gets really insane and heartwarming. I love the world and art. I love the action and animation. I love the characters and their relationships.

I just adore everything about it. This show is a gift to the world.

Thank you for making me really happy.

And thank you Ian and everyone else who made this show!

#OK KO Let's Be Heroes!#OK KO Let's Be Heroes #OK KO #Mah Posts

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des-shinta · 6 years

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Discussing this publicly as...Y'see, me getting comments like this DM'd and Emailed to me? That's why I even keep bringing Zi-O up or have stayed even tangentially involved. it’s not to keep sniping at it, it’s putting out there that you can choose another target, as this horse is out of this race until it is all said and done. Hell, that was the entire point of the last post about it. I’ve been through this song and dance and want people to stop bringing it to me. Though I am not calling out KaijucorpsTokuandrobots and his opinion of my work or in any way attempting to publicly shame him. Frankly, his is the most civil DM I’ve received on this thus-far and why I have chosen to cite it. They have otherwise escalated to Death Threats for me not wanting to watch a show that It’s clear I won’t like. I just...I’m seriously just done with this fandom. Marzgurl’s two twitter threads on the missed concept of the ‘Ally of Justice’ are so on the ball for how bad it’s been getting. I WANT to do and have been doing exactly as KaijuKorpsTokuandrobots is demanding and leave it alone for others to hate or enjoy as they wish to, and as I stated my position and bowed out weeks ago I would like to leave it be. I mostly have kept silent on my commentary since outside of...what, a handful of posts in the time it’s been running, not counting repetitions of the same subject such as the show being predictable, expanded reply threads, or snarking at crap? Though That’s part of why I format my videos and reviews the way I do, to better explain the positions I take. The extended in-depth length is for those unfamiliar or familiar with the media to see more of it than is present in shorter-length ones that's just the opinion piece, with my perspectives and analysis set between the recap. Doing this allows it to be more objective than others, and provide a better explanation for my perspective. It is not done to lead them to a subjective conclusion that ignores facts on a matter simply to make others opinions align with mine. That’s just manipulative and arrogant and...well, if you knew me or paid attention to my conduct, you’d know that isn’t me. If I did and was, in the Kyoryuger videos I could’ve just said “you’re all wrong about Daigo”, instead of addressing how there were legitimate grievances one could have against him due to his character archetype being one that grates on a lot of people and super sentai overuses, and also ones that had been blown out of proportion in the face of those who have legitimately erred in the same fields Daigo was blamed for but didn’t actually do. I could’ve just ignored the fandom complaints instead of acknowledging the reasonable ones and providing evidence against the ludicrous or exaggerated ones. For if you notice, I always supply evidence of why I have the perspective I do. For It has not nor has ever been about my opinion being the right one, it's about putting thought into one’s entertainment and seeing if it holds up under scrutiny. That’s what a reviewer’s job is. I’m an analytical and introspective person, I THINK about things. I LIKE Informing people about things, I believe facts and trivia are neat and fun to share, and media content regardless of genre, age or demographic that put in that extra effort to have all these big allusions to other work seamlessly woven into them and work for their story gives them a whole new layer of depth that is absolutely wonderful, especially if it is to other things I have enjoyed. And conversely, when I see something that has held itself to higher standards in the past acting as if it could not care less, I am compelled like many to call it out for that, and explain why that is. To paraphrase Linkara, “By teaching you how something is Bad, you learn how something is good, and if you are a creative type yourself, these are then tips to avoid creating something horrible.”

I don’t see how that can be viewed as being smug or any different than anyone else that does the reviewer thing, as my presenting of facts and the evidence supplied from interviews, analysis, data, records and what-not in the video content I make (and often these large blog posts) is always divorced or set separately of my Opinion or snark about something so it is uniquely distinguishable on which is which. My opinion does not superceed all of that, my opinion is a result of knowing and being aware of all of this, seeking out this information as I love to learn facts and trivia about stuff I enjoy, and presenting them all in a condensed collection of content. Analyzing the common themes, tropes and plots the writers on a show make use of in their original works (the Toshiki Inoue Drinking game, anyone?), and the conduct and statements they and the producers have made over the course of their careers inform the direction their work can take, as all of that can play a factor in the final product that results. And it’s not like I’ve never been wrong as a result of my research being erroneous or the knowledge I’ve gathered being faulty, and I’m more than capable of admitting it and have done so when told. if you’ve seen my videos on the Garo Franchise, I’ve had to do so a number of times because there are Not a lot of good, Reliable sources on it, and some of them have misreported information or treated Fanon opinion as if it were canon fact without verification. In example I had believed that Shou Aikawa and Toshiki Inoue were the writers to The series Garo The Crimson moon because it was originally reported they were the only ones writing on it. That turned out to not be so, and I was unaware of that as no-one had written differently in any of my usual resources. That wasn’t malicious ignorance or smug self-assurance, but operating off of the information that had been provided. Since that new information corrected me, I haven’t repeated something that wasn’t so.

But It is NOT about people lying to themselves about what they enjoy. To cite the specific gripe, I don't think Kyuuranger fans are lying to themselves in liking it and have never at ANY point said that about THAT show or any other media, I think they didn't see what others, including myself, disliked about it or didn’t find it disagreeable themselves. That’s not lying, that’s having a different perspective on it and what angers/annoys/frustrates others they don’t have a problem with. Everyone has a different perspective, I just put a lot of thought into explaining mine, why I have the gut reactions, revulsion or love I do for something. That doesn’t make me automatically right, that’s giving you all the evidence to why my perspective is the way it is, and the reasoning of my own instincts. Hell, in the entire year Kyuranger was Running, I only discussed or made mentioned of it around a dozen times in any significant manner in that period after I dropped it. Most of them? When it was Relevant to discuss it or refute something that had been spread in the fandom which was a factual Lie or blown out of proportion. I otherwise left it alone for people to enjoy or hate on as they wished and stayed out of it...until people kept berating me to give it a second chance. After MONTHS of this I finally caved and watched more of it.. and proceeded to predict every episode of the series simply from the ‘next time’ trailers. One of the bigger things I called before it happened? Revelations of Quervo’s betrayal and his related possession by Don Armage. Why could I? Because it was a cliche. Raven’s and crows by Proxy of Tengu (quervo’s creature themes) in Japanese Literature/mythology are most commonly used as either Divine Messengers or traitors to their cause; the latter often from selfish, self-serving motivations or malevolent corruption. Quervo ended up not diverging from that latter interpretation. And I saw them as taking that route with it (as opposed to Just Redoing Utsusemimaru's story from kyoryuger with Tsurugi as...well, Kyuranger redid a lot of stories from previous sentai), because of the derisive and flippant manner the show treated Death as both a consequence and tragedy before making it reasonable that they would do so. All that informed because of my experiences with Japanese storytelling tropes, mythology and the Eastern take on The Heroes Journey Monomyth. But I dropped it in the first place because it was clear it was not going to be something I would enjoy and I would be spending the whole year bashing it, but I didn’t want to do that. I went and did the ‘don’t like, then don’t watch’ thing people often want from those in the detractor camp of series people like when they don’t want to hear a dissenting opinion, and instead went to watch “wander over yonder” and other series I did like which did many of the same things Kyuranger did in ways which were more appealing to me. As That Pointless hate and bile was not something I wanted to spread or have infest my life. I did not want to rally a crusade of bloody vengeance against the show for every perceived slight. For That’s not the person I am or want to be. And with how horrible 2017 was for me personally (including my Stepfather withering away from an incurable disease before dying and relatedly being thrown out of my home), it was something I could do without. I decided I was done with it, and made my exit calmly and rationally as a Mature adult would when they decided they didn’t like something, and only brought it up when it was relevant to bring it up after that, until other people dragged me back. Would you honestly have preferred it if I spent week after week angry at something and pointing out every single way it was messing up? ‘cause anyone can do that. Many people still did. it’s not like I was ever a deciding voice, just another sharing the same perspective. I would’ve just done it with the framing device of explaining the context of why people disliked it, as opposed to bashing it on the principle of it existing. So why Should I be the guy that Goes onto every blog, every forum and lambasts any person that ever said something good about it with a bulletpointed list of reasons? Hell, I avoid the Tokusatsu forums in their entirety because OF my experiences with that fandom Toxicity. And The reason I ended up predicting the content as I did when I finally gave in? It was Because I am very well-versed in Science fiction and space series tropes Kyuuranger as a series called upon (star trek, star wars, babylon 5, farscape, gundam, Battlestar galactica...the list goes on as I prefer sci-fi stuff to fantasy series) alongside super sentai ones due to me having watched over half the franchise and the afore-mentioned mythology awareness, and thus could ask myself ‘From what I’ve seen before and this show has been doing thus-far, how could they go about doing this plot they’ve teased in the next episode?’ Watching the first Five episodes of the series was more than enough to provide that. And Five these days is considered lenient now, many Reviewers have reached the point of doing it in One, depending on their familiarity with the general signs of poor execution in the genre, medium or premise of the related story. Once more, it wasn’t about being right, it was about thinking on and applying the experiences I have had to the subject matter, and speculating on where it’s going, only to find it was as I had Guessed. My continued dislike of it being because those predictions included ‘what are the bad ways they could do this story’ as well, and finding more times I guessed that to end up being true. And I do this with...basically everything. My roommates and family are astounded by how often I call plot twists in advance of the story’s seeding of it. One of the reasons I don’t like M Night shyamalan movies (besides all the other reasons people cite) is his twists are ridiculously transparent to me. I literally had the response to the twist that Bruce Willis’ character in the Sixth sense is dead of “yeah, and?” because I didn’t think that was what they were building up to, I just thought that was the quirk of the movie’s story. the same with the old lady being the Devil in “Devil”. Months ago My roommate showed me the movie “Cabin In The Woods”. I had never seen nor heard of the movie beforehand. AS I later learned, It is Notorious as a movie where people do not see the plot twist coming. In the first few minutes of watching? I guessed the plot twist. It is actually a very good one that I do not wish to spoil here and was pleasantly surprised at how they went about executing it, but I Figured it out because I’d seen a lot of the works of The movie’s Writer Joss Whedon. If someone were to propose I had a superpower? That’s basically it, I predict narratives from precedent of their content, it’s genre, and their creators. I am VERY good at doing this once I know where they’re going. That is, after all, how I guessed the entire second half of Kamen Rider Ryuki’s story without having seen it beforehand from making a Phoenix Down Joke. My roommates and I love the Venture bros, Season 7 is currently Airing, it has been wrapping up a number of it’s previous hanging plot threads and story seeding. Of them I guessed from the watching of previous seasons: Vendata being the blue Morpho and the Monarch’s Dead “Father”. The Monarch and Rusty Venture being Half-siblings as Jonas Venture Senior had Sex with The Monarch’s Mom. And Rusty being a clone. There are others, but there’s spoilers involved.

I was excited about all of that, because the series had been building up the suspense about answers to those questions for years or seeded paralleling stories to them previously in the series (I.E Hank, Dean and Dermott’s relationship). I was elated to learn I’d been following the deeper lore of the show as they’d intended from their intermittent seeding of the story, that I’d connected the clues as they’d wanted them to be connected. And for all of that to add up? That’s Good storytelling.

And it’s not like I’m always right about that stuff either or desire media to bend to how I predict it would go. if I’m not experienced with a certain story engine, I’m less likely to be right and more willing to go with the flow to explore it, and conversely really open to things that defy my expectations.

I’m a huge fan of .Hack and the Megaman battle networks series, and other stories using Virtual settings for storytelling (though Not SAO, I’m in the camp that dislikes SAO), thus was very experienced with the tropes, storypoints and themes Kamen Rider Ex-aid was making use of. I played this same ‘game’ with it...and It proved me wrong very often with how it was taking things. I didn’t see where it was going, as the show was not Predictable nor following the expected formula’s. Sometimes I disagreed with or was critical of what it was doing, such as the lacking focus on Hiiro Kagami’s relationship with his lost Love Saki and her impact on him. For how important it was to the series and his Character it was very poorly grounded, established and explored even with the Later Snipe miniseries going back to her death to further flesh it out, as it was something that needed more than the show was able to give for it to fully justify where they took it and all the connected links in the story it chained together. Or, say, Kiriya’s Death in how Toei tried to make money off of a character death by selling commemorative shirts to it, as that’s a scumbag thing to do and made it seem like they ordered his death just to sell merchandise. it wasn’t true and was just a bad marketing decision, the reaction to it being so hostile as Toei had pulled crap like that before and had shown itself tonedeaf to that conduct.. But for the most part, I adored how original a lot of it was by it’s end, most of my early criticisms they took the proper steps to mediate, and at the end it used all of it’s assets very smartly. I enjoy it not because it conformed to some pre-scripted narrative, but because it defied and exceeded my expectations of it, and tended to blow up my expectations in the best ways possible. whatever nitpicking that’s applicable to it doesn’t negate the overall good it did and quality it put out week after week.

And even with those nitpicks and any other criticism I voice, it wasn’t about me being personally right and the show wrong about how it did it, but areas in which the product was flawed and the areas in which it could have been improved. Pointing those out? That’s what a reviewer does.

But To bring it back to Zi-O as this is ultimately what this is all about with people wanting me to shut up about it despite me already having done so for the most part...with the extensive experience concerning the Writer and Producers I have had in almost everything they’ve worked on, how Negative that experience has been, Time travel stories being something I really adore and read/watched/played a lot of, awareness of how easy it is to screw it up if you don’t care about addressing contradictions or think of how to do it without such, and the first episode and the ones I’ve been dragged into commenting on since by people sending me messages Just like this one, I’ve done this ‘how would they likely do this from everything that’s been presented’ exercise with them and ended up being mostly spot-on with the predictions Thus-far. I’m not going out of my way to do it or bash every little thing, I’ve been trying to do what I did with Kyuranger and Leave it be unless there’s something relevant to say, or someone drags me back.

Again, the post I linked to up top? That was another attempt to do that, showcase what is the standard expectation I have for a series using a time travel story device so you see where I’m coming from on this. And yet, half a dozen people instead shot me angry messages and death threats, some of them telling me ‘Beast Wars Transformers is Shit and makes no sense and zi-oh was already doing it better than that because it intentionally decided to not play by any rules, even the ones it made up.’ ...The fact it ‘explaining’ it’s ‘rules’ and calling people losers for bothering to care about story consistency is locked behind a subscription paywall instead of it being part of the main series seems to be lost in this. ...Is this the one people want to fall on their sword over? Really? Guy’s, it’s a show run by a man who’s known for crappy conduct and screwing people over. There are better targets for this, and people who are more active in shaping public opinion than the one who’s moving towards retiring from doing web-video content altogether because of medical reasons!

You want me to leave Zi-O alone, just let others enjoy it blindly? That’s what I’m doing. Stop bringing it to my doorstep and dragging me back. You’ll just see come occasional snark when I’m given the prompt, that’s it. If there’s no supplied prompt you won’t even see that.

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seenashwrite · 6 years

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Walkthrough for “There But For The Grace”.

If interested - Go read it first before continuing on. This is about the plot point stuff (i/e - hints for the end, amongst other things) and the theological drops I sprinkled throughout.

I genuinely did not intend for this to cause brain freeze. Hoo-boy. Many sorry. There’s about a 40/60 split at this point of the “got its” vs. “didn’t quite got its”, so that’s on me. Not that it was incredibly necessary to catch the loop-di-loop in order to like it, though you might like it more once you know.

So I'll walk you through my thought process in the least disjointed manner I can manage. Which... hoo-boy, part deux. Tagging folks who commented on the story/to me directly, certainly no expectation on my part for you to read and/or reply. Seriously. Legit. Etc. And stuff.

This took longer to write than the story. #no lie

Okay, lotsa screencaps, so I don’t (a) end up c-p’ing the whole damn thing, and more the reason (b) so can underline.

And for ALL our brains’ sakes, I’ll call our dude Michael, and other world’s dude Mike from here on. Plotting stuff in red, theological stuff in blue, randoms (Nash Be Nashin’ and SPN canon stuff) in green.

The title is from that proverb “There but for the grace of God go I”, and as ye olde wiki explains....

....and then, there’s this:

Hopefully you picked up on something being “off” with how I was writing ol’ Mike as the story went on. I got slightly tricksy in some places on purpose regarding characterization, but hey - Mike and Michael are essentially the same angel in concept, just on different planes, right? And stuff apparently took a left turn when the apocalypse went through over yonder. So while they didn’t really re-tell the history of Apocaland beat-by-beat (thank Chuck), the inference I got is that the basic shit went down - he boots Luci after he rebels, etc. Blah blah blah, y’all know this.

Quote from Michael:

So maybe Mike came at it from the same angle when he killed his Luci. Who knows. Though I will say - if it was some sort of duty for him and not pleasure, I wouldn’t think there’d be boasting about pulling Luci apart, nor would the knee-jerk be to string him up and torture him, at least, if he’d suddenly re-appeared before me one day. YMMV.

This is good summary from the wiki, whoever wrote it did a bang up job:

Michael is meticulous. He slow-plays things. It’s not about being power-hungry; he had power. He was essentially God. For him, this is tied up in honor and loyalty and righting wrongs and all that jazz.

Again - that hesitation. He never stopped loving Lucifer - and Lucifer never stopped loving any of them, we see this big time in the Elysium ep when he “killed” Gabriel. Much internal conflict with these folks. And then there’s Mike, who iced (our) Gabriel and tortured (our) Lucifer in the blink of an eye.

There’s my characterization base of operations.

---> Could be interpreted as Michael or Mike - applies to both. Mike would find pleasure in taking inventory of what he planned to rule, how we aren’t worthy of anything but being subjects; Michael is perhaps glad to see plenty of justifications for what he feels he’s still destined to do.

---> “Learned” for Mike = the observing we saw in the finale, comparing-and-contrasting to his world; “learned” for Michael could be (a) via Dean’s mind, and / or (b) what he could’ve seen from Mike’s mind when he whooped his ass, a.k.a. Nash’s Sneaky Twisty Thing, re: Michael is now in Dean’s body.

So, how is that, Nash? you may ask.

Dunno.

Perhaps the distraction of Mike getting wailed on by Michael allowed Dean the opportunity to eject him, maybe Dean’s been wearing Mike down mentally. And though Dean/Sam - being the ideal hosts - have greater tolerance than us regulars, it’s gonna leave them weakened, it’s just got to. Hell, just being possessed by fill-in-the-blank leaves ya with the weeble-wobbles for a bit. Primo chance for Michael to set up shop in Dean.

Then, Nash, since angels need permission, how’d Michael do that? you may ask.

Occam’s razor --> Dean gave Michael “the soul”/”the entity”/whatever permission, and that goes across the realm, alt timelines/dimensions/whatnots. Or, maybe Dean chose the lesser of the two evils, so to speak - he’s boned at this interval anyhow, so if the opportunity arose, if it’s me, I’m choosing the frying pan over the fire - at least I’ve bought myself (and my loved ones, and the world) some time. Either of those work for what I intimated in the story.

Bottom line: however it went down, that’s for your imagination to choose.

A point that’s called back to later, as well as Nash Be Nashin’, RE: I’ve no idea why they opted to dress him in that style. There’s other stylings that are stark contrasts to Dean’s without going full-court-press cosplay, but whatevs. In any event, assuming my premise is taken - that the worlds played out the same for the most part and the ‘20s were a fave and would explain the wardrobe - this can apply to both Mike and Michael.

For those of you fortunate enough to have missed slogging through Sunday school, allow me: S&G was apparently a hotbed of sin, and they were gonna get the fire-and-brimstone treatment. Abraham asked angels who visited him if they’d spare the righteous, because there was at least one group there who was: his nephew Lot’s family. Two more angels were sent to investigate, Lot was awesome to them, welcomed them in without knowing they were angels, etc. So when time came to fire things up, the angels fessed up about who they were and why they were there, and told them (Lot and his crew) that they needed to just leave and not look back. And whoopsie, Lot’s wife found out that wasn’t metaphorical, as when she turned to get one last look at her home going up in flames, wha-BAM! She got turned into a pillar of salt.

So here might be the first subconscious “Hmmm” from your mind - that doesn’t really sync up with what we know of Mike. I don’t think he gives a shit about how much he sins to get what he wants. I bet he can’t even spell benevolence. Read this in Michael’s voice, though, and I hear that whole justifying thing again, the “don’t really want to, but got to” mindset.

See above, RE: “...but I labored more abundantly than them all”. Plus, speaks to arrogance, applicable to both Michael and Mike.

---> “The” earth, eh? ;)

---> Theology-wise, Michael’s only named a couple times, if memory serves... actually most of them are name dropped just a handful of times... did they namedrop Gabe as the one who told Mary she was preggers? I’m not looking it up.

Anyway, theologians have assigned certain “messages” delivered and punishments as being enacted by specific angels, I won’t go down that road here, I’ve no clue how they managed to arrive at those conclusions. Point is that Michael was a guardian, of heaven and of certain places/people on earth, depending on where God assigned. I wanna say Daniel and the lion’s den was one of them. Not looking that up, either.

---> "Temporarily”, hmmm.... that other world looked plenty definitively apoca-sized to me. In any event, floods is a ref to the Noah story, and if memory serves, Michael is thought by some to have been the “angel of death” that struck down the firstborn sons during the plagues of Egypt.

Also also - I’d speculate he’s taken on some self-imposed blame for Lucifer sneaking into the garden and tempting Adam & Eve, as he is so convicted in SPN land about righting the wrongs Lucifer brought upon the world, and that’s the event that kicked shit off.

---> O.T. (old testament) God took no shit, got smitey on a dime. New Testament God (a.k.a. - post-Jesus time) flipped a switch to a more fatherly figure.

---> The absence thing is SPN canon.

---> The differing legends is me thumbing my nose at their neglect of both their own canon and theology. #dammit Dabb

---> So, again, choose your poison - Luci getting into the garden, then Michael having to wage battle in heaven to boot him (and, let’s be real, he likely had followers that got nailed, too), etc. etc. etc.

---> The plans refer to the stuff up there from the wiki - that was an intricate damn plan. Deceptive, sure, but again that whole “bigger picture” mentality.

---> RE: beloved - yeah, that’s not sounding like the Mike we’ve been presented with.

Now that’s a pretty detailed thing to know about a random coffee joint in a random town in a random state in a strange world, wouldn’t you say? ;)

---> Trinities, trifectas, triples - threes are trendy numbers in stories and legends and oral tradition, so it comes up here multiple times, as well. And he’s talking about Jesus, of course, and the green Nashy line is me thinking “Wonder what he thought about Amara?”

(’Cause I’m of the thought that Amara + Chuck = God, yin-yang and all, but from the very black-and-white Michael’s perspective, I could see him playing nice but not buying into it, and I mean, he was part of the crew that banished her on Chuck’s orders, so there you go. He may not have even been privy to the scoop that they were the corporeal forms of light/dark, maybe just of the understanding that she was his meddling aunt, and of course he was gonna do whatever his dad told him to do. Anyhow, I think that adds additional texture to why it frustrates him so much that Luci couldn’t fall in line, why Luci always had to ask questions. ---> and that’s just me, there’s no way y’all could’ve inferred it from just that, you’re not psychic, I’m just sharing. I digress. I’m good for some heavy digressin’.)

There is a specific things-come-in-threes story that’s my baseline, but I’ll tell you further down after #3 hits.

On we go...

The chick we come to know as Grace does not catch his eye because she is pretty or sweet or in need of assistance or pouty or flirty or super-smart, or even beautiful or too shy and bookish, but if she’d just take off those damn glasses and let her hair out of that ponytail she might be, whatever trope you wanna throw on her - she’s a sinner, another hopeless sinner in a long line of humans who were/are fucking this joint up.

---> There’s several feet-washing stories in the Bible. I hate feet. That’s not in the Bible, and has no bearing here. Add it to your Nash factoids. Moving on.

The one I had in mind is below, and Imma c/p the pertinent parts because lazy. Bolding is mine, natch. In Luke 7....

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”

40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

[parable]

44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

The other 4 gospels - Matthew, Mark & John - tell a similar story. (But in John’s the woman isn’t a random - it’s one of the sisters of Lazarus, the guy Jesus raised from the dead. #cool trivia digression)

--> “Hot as hell” and “thank God” is just Nash Be Nashin’.

--> Start of the main trinity (1A)

--> Again, he’s not digging on her because she’s so awesomesauce in some typical way; she’s a dichotomy to him, sin with sweet. He’s a black-and-white kind of guy (and pretty much every angel we’ve met). It’s interesting to him, that seeming heel-turn. We’ll call back to those verses above here in a bit, with respect to how he feels about her as he spends more time with her.

Quickie trinity.

Nash Be Nashin’.

Recurring theme, forgiveness; also - that sound like Mike to you? At least, at this point? Eh. Maybe. If he’s trying to manipulate. But on the other hand - if this were Mike - has she got something he wants/needs? Manipulate Dean, sure; manipulate rando server chick? Possible. But nah.

---> Would Mike ask that? Why would he care? But Michael might, trying to get a bead on this human. ‘Cause remember, this is an angel who has had sparing contact with humans since he’s been in charge, he’s been dispatching angels for the heavy lifting, he’s not been boots on the ground takin’ care of business for quite awhile. His only in-depth contact has been the Winchesters, and that was only when he had to step in.

---> Also, close siblings recurring theme (close because able to joke around as well as later, when she mentions he’d vent to her about his time in war but not to the same degree as he did the rest of their family)

---> the main trinity of this story, part deux (and don’t get ahead of me; fine, I’ll do it for you: no, Michael having the nickname I mention later isn’t Biblical)

---> Lucifer was called The Morning Star (see also dictionary, re: “luciferous”)

---> Now that would be a really pretty damn specific thing for Mike to know.

---> The keep an eye out - again, reinforcing the theme that Michael whiffed not seeing the Lucifer thing coming; also lawbreakers looking out for the authorities, a contrast with an authority - God/Michael/et al - looking out for wrongdoers.

---> Park with a sandbox, Nash Be Nashin’

---> Bit tricksy; could go to Mike coming from his world to here, could be Michael feeling like this is a world he doesn’t know anymore after all his time in the cage; regardless, sets a tone of “She gets me”

Whether you cotton to my assertion that Michael may feel guilt for not seeing the Lucifer stuff coming and preventing his initial ingress (Eden), it’s theology 101 that Lucifer brought all things evil and sin and demon and hell and blah blah blah to humankind. And Michael beat him in heaven, but it’s been less offense and more defense ever since; reacting to Luci vs. bringing the game to him. Which is what Michael was finally doing, when the Winchesters didn’t agree to be vessels and let it play out like he’d planned.

So, Saint Michael on the theology end, ruling heaven in Chuck’s absence on the SPN canon end, and Michael’s arrogant, to be sure. He assumed his plan would go off without a hitch, and maybe if it’d been the Hardy Boys instead of the Winchesters, it would’ve [shrugs]

---> Nash Be Nashin’ - trying to poke your subconscious to think about that shot of them falling into the hole, to the cage

---> Could we describe Mike as “broken”? I couldn’t. More to the point, does he behave as if he might consider himself “broken”? Hmmm.

---> I guess that last bit could go either way; for me, I’m thinking of how Lucifer must’ve behaved in the cage, which we got a taste of via Sam’s hallucinations, and perhaps it being too quiet once he was gone. Sometimes being left alone with your thoughts is a bad time.

Again, canon - Lucifer never met a quiet moment he didn’t wanna fill.

So this is just me doing a second sin in the sin trilogy for Michael, as well as adding another piece of common ground between him and Grace with the nickname thing. The only Biblical truth there is the whole “Mark of the Beast” thing. Next time you get drunk or lit on whatever, read you some Revelations, it’ll either knock you out the rest of the way or give you fantastic nightmares.

What I just said, RE: second part of the Michael Lies Super Easy When It Comes To This Chick trilogy. I mean, not really - it’s coming from a good place, he doesn’t want to scare her, and if he told her the truth, where would he even start? Especially with her not being religious. He’s so far behind the eight ball, he’s under the pool table.

---> So here’s the trinity tale that’s the base for why I put this in the story. It’s in all four gospels (Matthew/Mark/Luke/John), and it’s about how at the Last Supper (which happens right before the crucifixion of Jesus goes down), they’re talking about how one of them would betray Jesus (re: Judas), and an apostle named Peter speaks up.

(Oh! Speaking of, there’s another triple play for ya - Jesus ends up on a cross between two criminals. Okay, back to the passages)

Matthew:

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Mark:

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Luke:

But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

John:

Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

---> Grace be shinin’, Nash Be Nashin’

---> What made him kiss her / risk the “sin”? She walked with him. (”Lord I am ready to go with you...”). She listened. She comforted him. She forgave him when he asked for it (re: for scaring her). She believed he wasn’t a horrible “person”. Prompted him to consider there might be a place/time where he wasn’t (see below, RE: “perhaps”).

A la....

But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

---> You may’ve noticed I didn’t call him Michael until Dean was gone during the kiss - that was on purpose. Because that was him making that decision, no (potential) Dean influence on board. And I didn’t have him call Dean by his name, being very distant throughout, until they talked about brothers, their common ground. He’s finding common ground with humans - a new kind of hallowed ground - versus being solely their guardian or their punisher, depending. This is (likely, hopefully) a good thing.

---> RE: sin - see below

---> This is your call to make - was it actually apple-flavored lip balm? Or was it strawberry/random fruity-flavored lip balm like Dean thought, and it just tasted like apples to Michael?

In any event, RE: “tasted like sin” - apples have been commonly used in art/stories as representing the fruit Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil back in the garden, a.k.a. - the original sin

HOME STRETCH!

[Full disclosure: based on early feedback, from here on out - if you were an early reader - you may notice there’s been a few tweaked lines since original publish, so I may be about to clarify things that are now - with the tweaks - obvious to you. I’m just sayin’.]

By this point, I’d hope you’d been kinda thinking, “I appreciate Nash’s effort to make Mike be not a complete asshole, but holy moly I have been suspending my disbelief like a mo-fo as this went on, why does he give a shit about this chick or about chatting with Dean all friendly, etc.”

---> That “Why didn’t we....” part should scream “THIS ISN’T MIKE”. I hope.

---> It’s been about 10 yrs. since Stull / when Michael took the dive

---> “Is there...” / “Perhaps” -- and maybe it’s this one. Maybe it’s the world he’s always known, but not been part of; remains to be seen. He’s a different dude. This ain’t the same angel that went into that cage. Like Chuck said - he’s a mess. Or maybe, now, could we say... was a mess? Hmmm. Different, though. Definitely different. Not terribly un-canon, not a huge jump to make, in my mind.

And, you know, The Cage was Luci’s big punishment, right? And he’s fine. Anytime we saw him, in the caboose version or just-been-sprung, he’s been same-ol’, same-ol’. So maybe it’s simply an isolation room, and it’s only been BAD-bad for Sam and Adam and Michael, because Luci was there messing with them, because he’s bored off his ass. That’s why I posit The Cage may not be anything beyond blank space, as it were, if Luci’s not present.

What Mike would “likely” bring? Nah. Mike’s on the express train to domination. He’s not messing around.

Nash Be Nashin’. I am, on occasion, poetic. “His” is a callback to “my Michael”, and the “g” in “grace” is lower case on purpose. [clears throat, c/ps from up yonder....]

Grace don’t come in just one form, yo. There’s lots floating out there. Just gotta pay attention. Know what to watch for.

And here’s the hammer:

Hmmmm....

---> Dean knows Mike’s been thinking of it; to quote Black Widow, that’s not a question that needs answering.

---> “Still”? “Do-over?” - Mike’s had his apocalypse. Do-over of what? That implies Mike’s tried to pull off Apocaworld, Part Deux here, and... he hasn’t tried at this point. He’d said they were already looking into what all other worlds they could get to before Jack’s birth caused our rift and they saw an opportunity for a better way, but Mike’s not taken a run at our world; Michael has. (Bit of a misleading, open-to-interpretation / could apply to Mike line, though, I grant you.)

---> “over there” - already mentioned “head to the cage”, ergo “there” is “cage”

---> “act” / “figure it out” - thaaaat’s nooot Miiiike, your subconscious sings!

---> Say I’m Mike.

I’m a tactical mofo. I know how to spot an enemy, it’s why I was gonna take out Jack emotionally if I couldn’t cripple him or kill him. I hit this new world. I’m inside a very handsome I MEAN powerful bod. I am locked and loaded. What’s first on the agenda now that I’ve got the ammo?

I take out potential threats. Dean’s an obstacle, true, but he’ll be tucked away going night-night for at least a bit, and I can likely wash-rinse-repeat as needed. Obstacle, though - he’s not an inherent threat to me. Lucifer’s out of the way. Raphael’s out of the way. Gabriel’s out of the way.

Oh. Oh noooes, FML: I’m not out of the way.

And holy shit - the holiest of all the shits - I could take myself out. Isn’t he in the Fort Knox of binding-thingy-traps-whatever?

But wait. Waaaaait, wait - that cage must be made of aluminum foil, I can see Dean’s memories. Some tacky decoder rings opened it up, his brother Sam got pulled from it, then the angel of death got Sam’s soul out of it, rando witch called up the caboose of it like it was Uber, Lucifer popped Dean and his crew in-and-out of it, and didn’t that demon Crowley use parts of it for some ill-explained ingredient to hold Lucifer hostage like it was melty MacGuffin cheese? Is there not a doorman or something?! Can they get pizza delivered down there, too, I mean TF?

Ooooh, now this is interesting. Chuckie told Dean Michael’s beyond his repair. Lucifer said Michael’s a mess... well. Consider that source. But still. Risk not too high, reward could be very high.

Yeah. I’m totes arrogant enough. This is gonna be a cake-walk.

---> Except... time moves differently in the cage, we know that. So Lucifer’s been gone for... hell, who knows how long. What state Michael might be in now is a mystery. He’s had time to regroup, at the very least, without his chief antagonist lording over him. So is it implausible that Michael could be the key to nailing Mike’s ass to the wall? Might it even be probable?

The board of directors at NashHole, Inc. voted “Yeeeeessss”.

Again, bro-love, evergreen recurring theme. So, here it is:

If I’m Michael, my perspective would be that Mike can handle his world how he pleases, and he did. But now he’s on my turf. I’m taking great umbrage with this power-hungry twin of mine coming over here and having the audacity to make decisions, take over my destiny, etc.

And then another part of it - Michael’s not only had a lot of time in the cage to get his mojo back, he’s also had time to process the whole situation, what led him to this place, the part he played. I’d imagine a part of him is still gripping onto his convictions, while on the other hand starting to realize that there are parts of this world - and people in this world - that already make it a paradise despite all that Lucifer/demons/the supernaturals have done.

Maybe an apocalypse isn’t the answer. Maybe Lucifer doesn’t have to die. Bottom line, that ain’t Mike’s call to make; it’s Michael’s.

Last thing!

Handful of you asked about how Mike would’ve opened the cage, how a fight would’ve gone down if Michael’s still in Adam, what about Adam, and my answer is - does it matter? I know, I know, that sounds snotty; it matters in the sense that you asked, so it matters to you. Where I’m coming from is that this isn’t what the story is about, not for me. But hey - you fill in those blanks however your heart desires, truly. Or pretend that twist at the end never happened, and think of this as Mike the whole way through. :)

.....

That cage is made of chewed gum and pipe cleaners, a hamster could get in there, I’m done, I’m DONE, okay bye.

@ellen-reincarnated1967 @waywardjoy @copperseraphim @bumbleball13 @inlovewith2dcharacters @impandagrl @theoriginalvicki @mrswhozeewhatsis @littlegreenplasticsoldier @butiaintgonnaloveem @salt-n-burn-em-all @sixtysevenandwhiskey @anticipate1003 @juppschmitz @smi727 @casismybae @jalove-wecallhimdean @salvachester

#Nash Responds #Nash Elaborates #and all over your faces #it's long #but interesting I hope #on god I didn't mean to make this complex #I wrote it over a few days #like maybe three hours #quick for me is my point #the graphic was more time consuming #so I assure you #'twas not intended #as a deep dive #oof #I'm so apologizing #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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isadancurtisproduction · 6 years

Note

Hello! I love your writing, and I'm super grateful you've decided to share that with us. Reading your stories gives me the impression you probably have awesome taste in other people's fan-fiction too. If it's not too much trouble could you maybe rec some of your favorite fics when you have the time? Or point me to it if you've already done so?

The pressure is on!

I figured I’d just go through my favorites and see what my absolute faves are. There are still soooo many. And I’ll uh, organize them and give a little about why I like each one? I’ve never done a fic rec list before, so this should be interesting.

Smut Smut

A Helping Hand by Bexorz

An A/B/O fic just to let you know, but it subverted my expectations excellently, and it’s a really sweet, smutty fic

One for the Books by mokuyoubi

They fuck in a Library. It’s everything I love, reading, books, reading about books, reading about Spideypool fucking near books, and the underestimation of Peter Parker based on his whole Nerd Shtick

Peter Parker’s Tiny Bathroom Window by blackredallover

Jesus Christ in a bag, what a trope. It’s p much what it says on the tin, with an extra helping of dat ass

Because of Unlocked Windows by Marble Aide

I mean, just, really hot stuff here. Also it’s mildly dub con, if that’s a no-go for you, but spoiler alert, it all ends good

Monday Morning Massages by TheMadKatter13

Speaking of dub con, and also, they’re really into it? Like, good for you guys, knowing what your kinks are. And excellent use of lube

Coming Home by reservoirgays

Somebody’s got a crush on that Spidey booty and I’ll give you one guess on who it is. Also, DP straight up doesn’t recognize non-lingerie, silly boy

Does This Count As A Foursome? (Hint: It Doesn’t) by alphasaceraptor

Absolutely one of my favorites. I mean, so much sex, but also, good people. Look at these good people, doing their superhero jobs, and taking a short break to hide from some bad guys in a conveniently placed closet ;)

baby, i’d victoria your secret anytime by ghostsoldier

Everyone has read this, right? Because it’s the greatest. DP feeling pretty in panties and a bra ;)

Swapping Places by illooninnate

It’s very real, them. Like, they feel very themselves in this. It’s nice. Also mild anxiety and mild dubcon, but very sexy?

WIPs but Worth it…

Happenstance by HelloAfternoon

More Identity Porn, because that is my lifeblood. It runs through my veins and keeps my heart beating. Peter the civilian, just tries to be helpful, and instead he catches a certain Deadpool’s eyes.

You Big Disgrace (series) by spiekiel

There are 2 fics in the series, both finished and able to work as a standalone, but the series is technically unfinished. And I think I might have an obsession with “Wade shows up at Peter’s house in the middle of the night” fics.

Spider Boxes (Series) by alicat54c

Part 1 is done. Part 2 is unfinished, but I have high hopes because I need to know what happens. Alternate DP movie plot, wherein DP meets Peter, not Vanessa

I Like Birds by chinashopbull

This is long, but it is beautifully written and still being updated, and Peter has Asperger’s/ASD and is a wonderful Spiderman. I seriously recommend this.

Say Anything…Except That by cortexikid

Gotta love this slow burn Friends to Lovers combo because Hot Dang! And hey, this one updated in 2017, so my hopes are going strong.

Fluff

what light through yonder window by hellornothing

I’m serious, the amount of “DP crawls through Peter’s window in the middle of the night” fics I have is outrageous so here, have another, it’s sweet

act your age (not your shoe size) by cherryvanilla

If I just chant the words “Identity Porn! Identity Porn!” over and over will you read it? It’s cute~ I promise. Peter is jealous of himself. It’s adorable

on staying around by WylderWolf

Slow burn for a 4k fic, and is violent and vulgar in a casual that almost refreshing. And ugh, the 4th wall breaks are so good, so organic, so real

The Dead Pool Motel by CrimesOfADeadpool

Cute little oneshot wherein Wade Wilson runs a motel and Peter Parker comes to stay for a little bit

What You See Is What You Get by merycula

After getting hit with an unknown beam during a fight with Mysterio, Peter can’t see Wade’s scars. Deadpool is so adorable confused and so is everyone else and Peter is a dear.

Hot Cocoa and Heroes by ChuckleVoodoos

Deadpool breaks into Peter’s apartment. Need I say more? (I’m going to anyway) DP is hurt and Pete-the-Civilian patches him up and it’s hella cute

Not so Fluff but still do it

I’ll Always Protect You by WillowSong

Someone didn’t get the memo. Don’t mess with Peter Parker. His BF is totally shredded and will beat you up.

Stay This Way by Orcusnox

This hurts so good. The kind of pain that pierces like a copper dagger diagonally through your heart. I mean, really. Great. Very great.

Peter Parker’s Home for the Wayward Villain by BeanieBaby

Regular Guy Peter Parker starts a Farm and accidentally adopts all of the bad guys in the Universe and it’s adorable. Please sedate me.

We Give and We Give by Only_1_Truth

Peter tears himself apart to be able to keep giving, to the world, to the people who need saving.

Little less blood, little more blue by Francium

Deadpool. Breaks. Into. Peter’s. Apartment. With a goat. Playing the guitar. It’s everything anyone could ever want.

Loyal to he Maze by DecimalDrones

Protective Wade is great. Protective Wade protecting Peter is better. Protective Wade protecting Peter professionally is a tongue-twister, but is also the best, and also this.

Said the Fly to the Spider by BC_Brynn

DP really wants to get with Peter and Peter is not helping him out at all. It’s adorable how just done Peter is with everything.

Stray away by mydickisthealpha

Peter is crushing on DP so fucking hard. Like, it’s detrimental. And adorable. He’s in completely over his head

Deadpool’s Dating? What the… by Ninjababe

My favorite excuse for everyone to go “What? DP is dating nerdy, bland Peter Parker? Who is definitely a civilian and not anything else?” And then Peter and DP shove their relationship in people’s faces and it’s great

Half Your Age (Plus Seven) by fancastical

This was pure joy. I mean, reading it was pure joy. I could not keep the smile off my face. You really get to watch these loons grow, as people, and experience new things every day and I’m just so goddamn proud. If you read nothing else, read this.

#askIsaDan #fic rec #spideypool fanfiction #spideypool #spideypool fic rec

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gamelycan · 3 years

Text

New show on Netflix called, Kid Cosmic. The writers know their tropes and when to subvert them, and they know their intended audience. While I am only on the third episode (there are 10 episodes and 5 youtube shorts at the time of this post), I can whole heartedly recommend it.

Plot of the show is basically, kid who has wanted super powers finally gets them, but he’s bad at it. Oh, and the creator is Craig McCracken, who notably has worked on the og powerpuff girls, foster’s home for imaginary friends, and wonder over yonder.

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forkanna · 6 years

Link

[AO3 LINK] [EF LINK]

NOTES: Really, I am sorry about the long delay. Mostly a lot of personal business that doesn't matter in the slightest, haha, but I've also just been really distracted by leisure pursuits and other projects. I promise I haven't forgotten this fic and it will get posted.

It would take another full day of circuitous travel before they made it back to Wicca Falls. First, as per usual, they plotted to head East to confuse their trail, then this time South and West over Quadling Country until they could skirt the Outer Vinkus northward to their home. Though Fiyero's offer of lodging at an abandoned castle had been tempting, they both agreed that the safety of their little cave was what they needed that night.

However, they only made it as far as the Thousand Year Grasslands when the weather began to turn. At first, it only seemed to be a stronger headwind, but they were still leagues away from Neverdale when they were forced to land amongst the tall fields. As ungainly as their landing might have been, they were thankful it had not been any rougher or they might not have lived to tell the tale.

"Great Oz, what is this?" Glinda yelped as their cloaks were whipped around them.

"A storm — and a twigging good one!" Having to hold down her hat and broom, Elphaba felt herself being buffeted around, and in the open grassland there was nothing behind which they could take shelter. "Glinda! Don't let go of me!"

Lying as flat as they could, they were able to keep from being knocked down or otherwise inconvenienced. The broom was the worst of it; so much wind seemed to encourage it to take flight, and there were times both witches had to leap atop it to keep from losing it altogether. On one such occasion, Elphaba just scarcely managed to snatch her hat before it was carried off into the wild blue yonder.

"It's just a hat!" Glinda called out over the gale forces. "We could get you another one!"

"You gave this to me!" she cried as she stuffed it into her cloak, no longer trusting it to stay atop her head. "I could never let it be taken from me in such a… an unworthy fashion!"

Glinda had no answer to that. She felt one in her heart, thought of one, but the words sounded so silly that she couldn't quite force them out.

Once the worst of the winds had finally died down, they cautiously began to stand. Then the air stilled completely. It was so sudden that Glinda found herself half-crouched and blinking, completely at a loss for what she should do next.

"That was horrible," she finally breathed. "Just… just whipped up out of nowhere, and we almost crashed!"

Elphaba took her rumpled black hat out of her robes and plopped it on her head. Glinda often wondered if she had a spell on it that helped keep it secure during their usual flights. "No… not 'horrible' — Morrible. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but she's to blame for this wind."

Her companion clutched at her arm, and Elphaba embraced her back to afford her some comfort. "She knew we were flying. Maybe she thought we'd slam into the Kells!"

"Oh, Lurline knows what she thought! That devil woman, that, that… blowhard!"

"She did at that," Glinda quipped. Elphaba only glared. "Sorry. My mouth gets ahead of me when I'm scared."

At that, Elphaba ran a hand over her hair, sighing. "I'm sorry. This whole situation is so infuriating to me that sometimes I forget that you must have your own feelings about it. But we'll-"

When she suddenly cut off, looking upward, Glinda's eyes followed to see a flock of crows swirling into the sky. Whether they were crows or Crows was unclear. It was such a stark omen, like a black cloud rising from the far East, that she found herself holding her breath, as if waiting for the consequences to crash down on the pair of them immediately.

"I'm… I'm afraid again."

"What?"

"Nessa," Elphaba breathed. "I'm sorry, I know I've said this before, and things turned out so badly… but…"

She dropped her eyes, both frustrated and full of hot shame. But Glinda couldn't hold it against her. She didn't even wish to try. One hand passed up and down her friend's back as she leaned up to press a kiss into her cheek.

"Let's go check on Nessie. I know you won't be able to sleep if we don't."

"Sometimes, I think you know me a little too well." They both shared a bleak smile before mounting the broom and taking off at top speed.

~ o ~

As it happened, there was something to distract them from making it to Colwen Grounds. A very prominent, very strange something.

By the side of the Yellow Brick Road, very near Nest Hardings and the seat of the Munchkinland government, was an odd little house. This wasn't all that strange to Glinda on its own; why shouldn't someone live just to the side of such a well-travelled route? Would be easy enough for their friends and family to find them. However, she could tell by the look on Elphaba's face that this was a house that did not belong.

Upon getting closer, it was easy to see why. The house seemed to be a single large room, and was drably painted a greyish colour. It was the single most unimpressive building Glinda had ever seen in all her years — including some of the Quadling shacks. No polka dots on the doors, no stripes on the eaves… not even a little gargoyle by the chimney. Just plain, grey wood, slapped together into an ugly dwelling, which only looked yet uglier for having just appeared there. The state of disrepair seemed to suggest it had been dropped, but that was impossible… wasn't it?

"I don't know what to make of it," Elphaba breathed as they descended. "How could a house not be there a couple of days ago, and suddenly be here now?"

"Maybe it was already there, and it was just so boring nobody ever noticed," Glinda reasoned. "I mean, it's a teensy grey hut. Who cares?"

Apparently, that was not a popular opinion, as a crowd had already formed. Several members of Nessa's Pike Guild had come to regard it warily, polearms at the ready in case some beast or witch came charging out to have their heads. Many other citizens were also beginning to approach in a slow trickle from the city proper, slowing yet more the closer they got.

"We probably don't have much time, Elphie. What should we do? Stop here, or go on ahead to check on Nessa?"

"She's already here."

The nature of the scene before them began to seem different now that they could see Nessarose flanked by her guards, staring down the house as if it were already alive and ready to gobble them up. It would have been comical if the witches weren't equally frightened.

"Elphaba!" Nessa screamed the moment they came into view. "What have you done?!"

The green woman started. "What have I done? Come to see if you were alright, that's what I've done, and no more! What's happened?!"

Though the polearms raised to pierce them when they drew close, Nessa's raised hand forestalled them. They did not draw back, but remained at the ready, waiting for her signal. Unlike before, she was now dressed to the nines, black-and-white striped socks drawing attention downward to her glimmering shoes. Though her violet cape and silvery dress were no less impressive.

"She cleans up nice," Glinda muttered out of the side of her mouth. Elphaba only elbowed her as they drew within easy speaking distance.

"Elphaba, I need you to swear to me," she said in a tight voice, chest heaving with the force of her every breath. "You are the only powerful witch I know of in this entire kingdom. I know you did this, I know it! But… if you swear on our mother's grave that you did not, I may consider that something else happened."

"I swear on both Mother and Father's graves," she told her solemnly, handing the broom to Glinda so she could stride forward and take her sister's hands. But Nessa drew them away. Elphaba sighed and said, "Nessa… I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Father and about Boq, but I did not do those things myself. The latter was an accident — I was trying to help!"

"And what about Father? You drove him to an early grave! How could you betray Oz this way? I don't care about your reasons, about Animals or- or whatever! You turned your back on Munchkinland, and the Wizard!"

Her voice was hard as she hissed, "He gave me no choice. I tried to meet with him, to smooth things over and give him a second chance, and… and he has only proven to me that he is not fit to lead the Land of Oz. Too weak to stand up for what's right, too…" She shook her head. "I don't know what we should do, but I have to do something! If I just stood by and let him use the Animals' freedom to distract us from the real problems in his people's lives, then I wouldn't be able to live with myself!"

The more Elphaba went on, the more uncertain Nessarose seemed to be. But then she waved a hand to the side. "Enough! I… I don't believe you. There's no proof of any of what you say, and until there is, it's just… just noise!"

Elphaba wound up to speak again, clearly incensed, but Glinda cut across her, "But we really didn't cause that storm! In fact, it almost knocked us out of the sky, clear on the other side of Oz! Do… did you see anything? If it happened here, what did you see? Anything at all!"

"Nothing. Just the cyclone coming from the South. I… well, I've never seen anything like it! And there seemed to be something in the eye, but no one could tell what it was until it fell on…"

Something was too silent in the way Nessa cut herself off. Her lovely eyes were wide and fearful as she glanced between the two others, as if she knew to continue would be to bring doom upon herself.

"On what?" Elphaba whispered. "Or who?"

"Whom," Glinda corrected. Both Nessa and Elphaba slapped one of her arms apiece, and she stepped back, rubbing them with a pout on her lips.

"Come on, Nessa. Tell us."

After more hesitation, she glanced over at the house, then back at them again. "Do you… remember that boy, Fiyero? The one who was at the Ozdust Ballroom wi-"

Neither of them let her finish. Both witches raced toward the drab, dilapidated house with all the speed they could summon, cloaks billowing out behind them.

"Can you see anything?!" Glinda shouted a few minutes later when they had circuited the house.

"Only from here!" Elphaba announced from the front. Glinda circled around to join her, where they both crouched down. "Can you see? There, through this gap!"

"No! Move over!" Given the new perspective, Glinda squinted through the crack, raising the small wand she had once been given by Morrible and lighting the tip with one of the paltry few enchantments she had memorised. "Oh, look there, around the center! I see something!"

Sitting back a few seconds later, they exchanged a worried glance. The house was not flush with the ground everywhere, but there was little chance he had come through the ordeal unscathed. Most likely, he was already dead and cold.

"We can't be too late," Elphaba breathed, beginning to tremble. "I… I refuse to believe it!"

Laying a hand on her arm, even as her own eyes streamed, she whispered, "I… I don't want to turn him into Biq, but… but if there's anything we could do… shouldn't we try?"

They should. And they would.

"What are you doing?" Nessa demanded as they knelt a few paces away from the front of the structure, withdrawing the Grimmerie and leafing through it. "Not this again! You can't be serious!"

"You have no idea how serious," Elphaba snapped. "If there's even the slightest chance…"

"But it's madness! You know what happened to my Boq, so what- how could you ever consider doing such an awful thing to anyone else?!"

As Elphaba continued to flip pages, Glinda screamed up at her, "I love him! So if you don't mind, you can shut your twigging mouth, you… you dictatorly traitor!"

"This one!" Elphaba cried out, slapping her hand between the pages. Glinda leaned over her, a dubious expression in place. "What? What's the matter?"

"Isn't that the one you tried to use to make our straw-stuffed mattress softer?"

"No! No, I don't think so…" She peered down at the page, then glared up at Glinda. "This isn't the time to second-guess me! It's the best spell I have!"

"Then I'll cast another one," Glinda said as she leafed through the back of the book, ignoring the outraged cry from her companion. "If we both concentrate, and don't get distracted by the other person's spell, then it should be fine! We've both cast spells at once before!"

By this time, Nessa was flapping around near their shoulders, whispering, "Are you sure any of this is wise? Maybe we should just… let him be…" Hearing how that sounded, she added, "Because of what we did to Boq. I know, I've seen how important he was to both of you, so… do you really want to wish the same fate on him?"

Glinda felt a pinprick of curiosity at that line. They both loved Fiyero. She had suspected, given a few of the glances they exchanged, turns their conversations took over the years — but had told herself it was ridiculous. Fiyero had never expressed any true interest in Elphaba, other than his farewell the day they left for the Emerald City. And anytime she lamented losing him, being apart from him, Elphaba had said nothing. Only let her prattle onward like a child.

What would have happened if they did not have to run from the Wizard's armies? Would they have fought over Fiyero? Lost their friendship because they both desired him? She couldn't imagine it now. Yes, it was possible, but she simply did not think she had the stomach to fight with Elphaba about something that seemed so… petty.

And she couldn't focus on that. Stopping her thoughts in their tracks as she landed upon a page, she whispered, "I have mine; it's a protection spell, but I think if I modify it… say an 'ah' instead of an 'ey'?"

"Yes, we'll have to do what we can. There's no time." Holding the middle sheaf of pages exactly vertical, they both tilted their heads so they could read the script of their respective spells. "Nessa, do you mind?"

"Do I mind what? Oh." Stepping between them on her still-unsteady legs, Nessa grasped the middle pages, trying to hold her fingers out of the way of any words. "This is insane…"

"Good. Thank you." Clearing her throat, Elphaba began to chant, "Eleka nahmen nahmen, atum atum, eleka nahmen…"

But Glinda had to block that out, and fast. If she let herself get rattled or distracted by the other incantation, it would only muddle her own, so she set to work immediately, speaking the words and swirling her hands to help pull in the mystical energies of spellwork. Line after line flew from her lips as she read aloud, until she was completely lost to time.

Finally, she let her spell loose. An instant before, she had more sensed than actually saw Elphaba's hands fly forward to do the same; the light was so subtle that she was sure most non-witch residents of Oz would see nothing at all — only the results, which would not be visible due to flying under the house.

That was the intention.

Something obstructed Glinda's spell from reaching Fiyero where he lay. Two somethings: dusty brown shoes, adorned with a buckle but otherwise very plain. Her eyes screwed up, puzzled as she stared at the twinkling light of her magic befalling them. What were those doing in the middle of the road?

Then she realised the shoes had not been abandoned. So narrow had her focus been on casting her spell that she hadn't even looked further upward until the magic began to fade, settling into its new home. Up the dingy white socks, the rolled-up cuffs of blue material that seemed to be pants — except it stretched up over a middle and a chest, even hooking over two shoulders by way of straps. Only by the time she saw rosy cheeks, a gaping mouth, and brown braids did Glinda finally realise…

This was another person. Quite a tall person for the average Munchkin, and dressed in such strange garments! But there the stranger stood, all the same, open-mouthed and completely shocked by the sight of witches doing their witchly business.

"What…" Glinda cleared her throat, fingers finally beginning to curl away from the Grimmerie. "Who- I mean, where did you come from?"

Nessa dropped the pages as she drew back, as surprised as her former classmate. Elphaba, however, had scarcely taken her eyes off the eaves underneath the house; she was willing Fiyero to present himself, for anything to take place. Inwardly, so was Glinda, but she was also worried about what she might have done to an innocent bystander with her spell.

"G-Goodness me!" the person squeaked — a woman, if the voice were any indication. She hadn't been sure, what with how she looked. "Y-you talk! You queer little folk can talk!"

"Of course we can!" Nessa burst out, more startled into responding than meaning to have said anything. "Y-you… how did you do that?"

Still heavily distracted by her surroundings, the strange girl breathed, "Do what?"

"Make a house fly! I've… not even our great and terrible Wizard can do something like that!"

"A housefly? I- w-well, you don't 'make' houseflies, th-they come on their own! Of course, Uncle Henry's always sayin' that I don't help any, on account of I leave the butter dish out, a-and then they come 'round because they can't resist Aunt Em's butter, s-so… maybe I do make houseflies, after all, and if that's gonna be a problem, then I'm awful sorry! But the butter dish is closed up right now, so they shouldn't come, should they?"

No one responded. Not a single Munchkinlander did more than cough.

"Do… you mean to say that you can lift an entire building… with only the use of a butter dish?" Glinda finally asked dubiously, trying not to sound too disbelieving.

"What?!" she squeaked, a hand flying to her bowlike mouth. "Oh, no, no, no! I can't lift a whole house! Goodness, I'm only a little thing, aren't I? Ain't heard of anyone liftin' anything like a house all on their lonesome! Not without a pulley! A-and I haven't got a pulley! There's one in the barn, but the barn is…" Her hand swept to one side, but a second later it fell as she gaped at the rolling fields of blue maize, the swaying of the Fighting Trees. "Is… not here. Or I'm not there. Am I? M-maybe I'm not even in Kansas anymore…"

Nessa reached down to help Glinda up, and she gratefully took the hand. Privately, she worried about unbalancing the new-to-walking woman, but things turned out alright. Then she straightened her cloak and asked, "Dear thing, what's your name?"

"My name? Dorothy. Dorothy Gale, if you please." She reached out to the sides as if to curtsy, then seemed to start when she grasped only at the sides of pantlegs. Dipping her head shamefacedly, she announced, "I… I'm so underdressed, I… you all look so lovely, and I'd b-been out working with Uncle Henry before the storm! What a state to be in when I meet new people!"

"A pleasure to meet you," Glinda said, curtsying and managing it just fine. "My name is Glinda Upland, of the Upperuplands. This is Nessarose Thropp, the Eminent."

"How do you do?" Nessa greeted her with a wooden bow, as if not quite sure she ought to be bowing. Really, everyone was shocked; it was only Glinda's breeding that allowed her innate sense of decorum to override her complete surprise.

"I do well! Oh, it's nice to meet you both!" For the first time, the girl chanced a hesitant smile as she turned to where Elphaba still crouched over the book. "And… and who might you be?"

After a moment, Elphaba glanced up at her. Her expression was slacken, empty, and Glinda felt her heart seize to see her that way. "It didn't work."

"What?"

"The spell. It didn't work, he… he isn't…" Then everything about her changed. Boiling to her feet, she bellowed directly at the girl, "What have you DONE?!"

Dorothy shrank back from the shout, all of her budding good humour replaced with fright. "Done? Wh-why, I haven't done anything at all, I p-promise!"

"This is your house, isn't it?" No answer. She took a step forward, hands curling into fists as she bore down on the girl who was just scarcely shorter than herself. "Answer me, you fool!"

"Y-yes! It's my home, I- what is it, what's wrong?"

"You MURDERER!"

Elphaba's hands had just barely begun to swirl, to conjure a spell of some sort, when Glinda dashed forward and tugged the arms down. "Elphie, stop!"

"NO! Let me go, let me go this instant! She can't be allowed to get away with this, I won't-"

"I don't understand!" Dorothy was wailing, backpedaling toward her house and tripping over a crack in the bricks, so that she sat down hard in the grass between road and house. "AH! What- oww!"

At the same moment, a small black creature came pelting out of the house, as well. It yipped and barked at Elphaba, and Glinda didn't quite know what to make of it. It seemed like some sort of cross between a dog and a cat, but it was unlike any creature she had ever seen.

"She'll be shredded to pieces," Elphaba was growling, straining against Glinda's grip. Nessa merely stood nearby, indecisive but eyes wild at the scene playing out. "Crucified and whipped until — no, that isn't fitting at all. I'll just have to drop this godforsaken house on her!"

Gritting her teeth, Glinda tried to turn her around to face her, but it was slow going, and the barking from the odd little thing was distracting. Once she managed it, through a lot of grunting and straining, she snapped, "FABALA!" That got her focus, alright. "You can't do this to her! You are not a perpetrator of murderosity, and I won't let you act like you are!"

"It was Fiyero!" she snapped directly into her face. Glinda couldn't suppress a wince. "How can you not be upset? Don't you care? I thought you loved him!"

"I did!" Tears were on her cheeks already, and she hadn't the slightest clue when they got there. "And I do! But… but if he has gone… oh, Elphie, what's it going to change to take revenge on this poor young one?"

The words began to sink in. She knew they did; the way Elphaba's eyes turned down and to one side showed her as much. Given more opportunity, she could have talked some sense into her companion.

However, they never got a chance to sink in any further. At that moment, there came a great BOOM! that filled the area, startling the Pike Guild and all the Munchkinlanders further back.

"AHHH!" Dorothy screamed out, covering her head with both arms and pressing herself back against the steps as the small dog-cat ran to her, nosing at her arms.

Rising up from the billowing smoke in the middle of the road was a sight that sent chills down Glinda's spine. High, forbidding white hair, pinched, fishlike pale features, and a billowing dress that disguised an equally-billowing figure.

"You," Glinda breathed, a hand going to her mouth.

"How dare you attack this poor girl!" she announced, raising an arm to level a crooked finger and a pointed, painted nail at the two witches. "Haven't you evil witches caused enough harm to Oz?!"

"Here's someone I can drop a house on," Elphaba growled, eyes narrowing to slits. "Madame Morrible… I might have known. I might have known it was you!"

But the moment she took a step toward the vile press secretary, she snapped, "Guards!" And the guards fell into line between them. The armoured and polearm-wielding Munchkins, looking quite uncomfortable but resolute, aimed the weapons in their direction.

"Wait," Nessa said in disbelief, taking a step out from behind her sister. "What are you doing? I haven't given an order — and I order you to stand down!" Nothing happened. "I demand you step aside until I call upon you!"

"They aren't yours to push around anymore," Morrible chuckled darkly, with a wolfish look that only they three would ever see. Dorothy was cowering by the house, the guards facing the wrong way, and all the citizens of Nest Hardings too far away to see anything clearly. "Several months ago, I learned of the coup they were planning against the Wicked Witch of the East, and decided to bide my time. Why dirty my own hands when it's not strictly necessary?"

"Wicked… Witch of the- who is…" But it began to dawn on the poor paraplegic. Her eyes swept to Elphaba, then back to her traitorous troops, none of whom met her glance with even a hint of sympathy. She breathed, aghast, "Me? You think me a witch?"

All Morrible said in response to that was, "Blood will out." Then to Elphaba, she snapped, "I suggest you leave this place, before I am forced to attack you forthwithly! The Wizard is still most displeased you could not see his generosity for what it was, and you've caused enough trouble for too long!"

"Not half as much trouble as I-" But the tugging at Elphaba's arm told her Glinda did not agree, so she turned to hiss, "What?!"

"Let's go. They're all stacked against us, we… we can't stay." Her longing eyes flicked to the house again, but she only sighed before saying, "Please, Elphie? Let's just… fall back and figure out what to do without all these stabby things pointed at us!"

The green nostrils flared. Then she hissed, "No good deed goes unpunished. I spared the brat, and all of Munchkinland is still against me, are they?"

"No! They just… don't know what to believe right now! Please don't-"

"FINE." Picking up their broom, she mounted it immediately and glared across at their adversary, who looked like a cat with a mouthful of bird feathers. "This is not the last of me, you tyrant! May you and all who serve you meet the ghastliest of ends!"

"That's my line," Glinda hissed. "I'm the Ghastly one!"

As she swung on behind Elphaba, Morrible called out, "So be it! Retreat like the cowards you are!"

Glinda could tell this was as important to Morrible as the confrontation itself: building herself up as their saviour in the eyes of the Munchkins, even though she had scarcely done a thing other than exist. It was all showmanship. She and the Wizard really were a match made somewhere unpleasant. Still, she couldn't spare her the brainpower. Turning to Nessa, she asked, "Are you coming?"

"NO! What makes you think I'd ever-" The points of the spears raised toward her when she tried to take a step toward the Pike Guild, and she turned back to the two of them, face paling and eyes downcast. "Well… as long as you're offering…"

"Mark my words!" Morrible was calling out at their backs as the three so-called witches took off into the Western sky, leaving behind a potential new friend, and the remains of an old one. "You will come to rue the day you ever crossed wands with a real witch, you… you pretenders! You charlatanous charlatans! Stay gone, if you know what's good for you!"

To Be Continued…

#The Coven of Oz #wicked fanfiction #the wicked years #the wizard of oz #forkanna writes #forkanna the writer

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tumblunni · 6 years

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AWW C’MON FFXIV

one of the biggest barriers to me getting back into it is just how SLOW the beginning is when you don’t have any friends to help you out like it legit took me a whole week of constant grinding just to reach level 15! FIFTEEN! IUts really fuckin slow even by usual mmo standards! and like.. all that slow is supplimented by huge amounts of quests and story and being required to do that main story in order to access goddamn ANYTHING, such as (for example) the additional hairstyle customization options you get at level 15 which I KINDA GRINDED SIX DAYS FOR, ONLY TO FIND OUT I NEEDED TO FINISH 8 MAIN STORYLINE QUESTS FIRST.

Like normally i would be HAPPY for an MMO that has loads of well made story scenes and ties progression more to quests than to grinding. But its just.. so unappealing to me?? Its That One Style Of Storytelling That Turns Me Off Immediately. I fuckin hate pretentious fairytale stylings. like not even when its told in the nostalgic writing style of a kids’s story or has a fairytale art aesthetic, those are some of my FAVOURITE THINGS. Nah when its the nostalgic writing style of fuckin specifically shakespeare and the only aesthetic is fuckin tolkein AGAIN. Like its really fuckin noticeable that the entire FF series has a bazillion original species in every other game but as soon as they made an mmo its Now Only Elves And Dwarves And Giants. And like.. the one anime addition of catgirls, and also making orcs/demons fuckin boring bishounen people with ‘all men are dragony and all women are 12 year old lolis with hair decorations’ as a fuckin species trait.o r I guess maybe the roegadyn are both orcs and giants combined and the au’ra got all of the leftover terrible traits..? And that’s 80 times more obnoxious when everyone talks like YE OLDE FUCKIN LITERATURE CLASSE AYE MY BOY YONDER DAWN DOTH BREAK OVER BIGASS FUCKOFF MOUNTAIN, HERE TAKE A STICK AND KILL 5 SLIMES like they literally fuckin sub ‘nightsoil’ for ‘shit’. this is an actual thing that someone thought would sound clever and fantasy-ish, instead of like an internet parody... And as far as I know the japanese version doesn’t even do this?? And neither did japanese FF12?? I FEEL SO LIED TO! Like these two worlds are still the most simultaneously cliche and overdeveloped ever, but i would at least enjoy my experience marginally more if the wall of text didnt stretch out every word to its maximum syllable potential..

BUT YKNOW DESPITE THAT DESPITE THAT BEING MY PROBLEM I AM NOW SAD AT FFXIV MAKING EXACTLY THE FIX FOR ME

They added a REALLY interesting and Dear God Relief feature where you can literally buy your way to the start of the latest expansion, story-wise. Which is a really great idea tbh, it kinda sucks to see ‘level requirement 80 must have beaten main story’ on this entire separate thing that you just bought. Kid me was dumb and didnt read all the conditions on old FFXI stuff... And I mean, anyone who complains about this being pay to win is being a dumbass, since all it does is promote you to the base level required for that storyline. Like the maximum here is level 60 with the equivelant job quests finished, so like.. there’s at least One Thing that makes you less than horribly underprepared compared to everyone else, but you’re still just a newbie wearing big boy pants. You can never pay to win for any level anywhere near the cap, it’s just pay to skip the more boring beginner sections. And probably get your ass kicked after cos all u hav is base equipment and none of the optional sidequets content or learned experience from the actual story...

BUT STILL I’M MAD BECAUSE there’s no way to do this without skipping the story!! your 60 levels of beginner quests are flagged as complete and you can never even see what you missed unless you watch someone else’s lets play i guess

and I know I just said that the story is really cumbersome and slow and badly written and cliche and i have no investment in anything but like that’s only 99% true, I actually WAS interested in the job training plotlines! a smaller self-contained sidequest with a cast of mentor npcs and story directly tied to your combat strength, rather than having to mop up loads of way underlevelled quests arbitrarily just to unlock the ability to actually exceed that level. gahhh Also i have a soft spot for the thieves guild- umm i mean the ‘seamstresses’ (or what was the actual joke about it? i think that was the discworld version XD) Mostly because they don’t talk like overly fancy pricks but also dont have too much of an over the top fakey oliver twist poor person voice. have I mentioned how its double annoying playing this game as a brit and hearing EVERYONE as some american guy doing the most stereotypical accent? Its a japanese game, why did you even do this!! srsly, this and ff12 have so many of the same dub fail. Oh, but also i like the thieves guild cos their plot is actually somewhat interesting, with the secrecy and stuff, instead of just I Am Mentor Man I Am Good At Job But Probably Tsundere Or Something For Six Hours. Also nice that there’s a full cast of this piratey crew and you get to interact with bossman’s admin guys sometimes, and get a general sense that he’s the comedic bumbler that’s only kept alive by their competance. (I call it.. the Plumeria Principle..)

Oh and lol also even if i could skip the story bits I hated, i probably wouldnt cos this thing is so fuckin Lore that i’d be completely lost... T_T But aaaa its tempting!! Cos I picked a bad starting town that had a plot and mentor npc that I didnt really care for, and now i really wanna switch to (weirdly enough) the one for gridania the land of the most boring elves and none of the job classes I want to use. She was just a really cool character! I can’t remember the pirate town equivelant tho, I just think that was my fave town aesthetic and fave jobs and stuff but the npcs were boring. I want elf mom!!! But seriously after fuckin SO MUCH WORK getting to level 20 before i decided i wanted to restart AAAA and then i wasted a bunch of my money on appearance change coupons to try and sate the restart temptation but then i realised No It Was Elf Mom I Miss so now i have a bunch of that cash shop content on that character and its impossible to transfer or somethin?? i couldnt even figure out how to send money between your own characters, which sucks cos some really nice guy gave me 30000 gold for no reason when i first started up the game and i legit DID NOT KNOW HOW TO USE CHAT YET so i was like running after him all WAAAAIT LET ME FIND THE KEYBOARD TO SAY THANKS xD But then i was just using that character to check out some of the other intro towns, it wasnt my main so i never used the money :(

so yeah anyway now I’m stuck here grumpy and debating whether i should buy this aaaaa and i cant even remember the name of the clearly-a-thief-but-dont-call-it-that class so i can pick the right thing to buy... And also i dont know if this only skips job training quests and not main story quests? or if there’s any way to recap main story quests at least? so it might not be as bad as I think. And maybe i could just pick whatever class I hate most to get all the exp in, and then i can have the level requirement to use my damn expansion but still go back and restart another job questline. and it’d probably be easier lol with all the boosts of having some other job high levelled! wonder if there’s a job with a terrible plotline that jus coincidentally lines up as a great thief supporter...?

#blunni thoughts

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geekyreverie · 7 years

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My fave episodes of Wander Over Yonder (part 2)

So, it’s the second part of the list!

Both seasons of Wander Over Yonder are great! And they are so different! The second season is more about Lord Hater and his feelings to Lord Dominator. At first I wasn’t excited about this storyline that much (I loved how it was in the first season and I was afraid that now the show might lose it’s special touch), but soon I realised how wrong I was!

This season is totally amazing and deep and touching! And I do adore and very impressed the way Hater’s character and his relations with other characters are developed! So let’s go! My favorite episodes from Season 2! 11. The Greater Hater Hater chases Wander as usual, but suddenly a mysterious stranger (whose ship is way cooler) appears. This episode is a great untroduction of the new character. It has an awesome intrigue and it shows different approaches of Wander and Hater to the new guy as well which is amazing! And the joke in the titles with Hater/Vader is one of my favorite gags from the show!

12. The Breakfast The episode shows the morning of Wander and Hater in a really creative way! The screen is split in two areas, and these two parts make a great contrast! I absolutely enjoy this idea and its realisation on screen! So smart and very precisely, accurately done! Never seen this in cartoon series before! 13. The Fremergency Fronfract Because of the anesthetic’s effect Wander and Hater become friends (for a very short time). First of all, I like the Superman reference here very much! It’s funny and actually the words are clever! I mean who Wander actually is? And yeah - he’s not just a fool, he’s actually cool, I can’t argue with that! :D Also I love episode’s end, it’s touching and sad. And funny too as well, wonderful mix indeed! 14. The Wanders Wander’s personality is split in many pieces and it’s up to Sylvia to get the one and only Wander back! I absolutely love the episode and its message! I love how it focuses on different aspects of Wander’s personality and tells that every part is important, even the one that seems annoying. :) And what makes my heart melt is the most important part, could this show possibly get any better after episodes like this?! It seems so perfect! The helper seeks to help because he knows what it is to be helpless. Aww! I love this guy so much and really wanna know what’s behind this! 15. The Axe Oh no! Commander Peepers is fired! Hater, don’t do it! I feel so sorry for Peepers here! The song in the episode is just heartbreaking! And the kind of questions Hater asks makes me giggle! So here we see how it actually works: Hater knows so little about invasions and Peepers does all the stuff, but still they need each other and make a great team, haha! Peepers is so cool in the episode’s end and the dialog between him and Hater before! Hilarious! And yeah, I like that feeling of competition in conquering planets!

16. The Cool Guy One more episode about Hater, Peepers and that conquering thingy. :) I often wondered what it would be, if Peepers tried to conquer a planet without Hater - and now we can see! I really love Peepers’ lines about Awesome and Hater’s actions in the end of the episode. Makes me love these two even more! And the remark that Commander’s goals are evil is an interesting one! Complicated! I feel for them, but actually they are bad guys or... well, that’s that interesting line that goes through the whole show. 17. The Battle Royale It’s in the middle of the season, it changes the direction of the plot and it’s epic! So very epic! Lord Hater discovers that Lord Dominator is a girl and fells in love with her! It’s really funny and ironic how he shouted that he hated Dominator few seconds before! I like how ironic WOY is! Another great detail here is how mighty Hater becomes when it comes to his hate to Wander. Oh, he really hates this guy!

18. The New Toy To impress Lord Dominator Hater builds his own car! I like the design of it! :D And I find the commercial bizarre, made me laugh out so loud! It’s nice to see very many Hater’s attempts to be cool and his embarassment. I also like their conflict with Peepers. Hater’s love line brings not only drama, but comedy as well! 19. The Eye on the Skullship I like that in this episode we see Hater and his actions from a different point of view - from one of his fans! The episode is again about the watchdogs and their feelings, I like that in WOY no one is left behind, I mean even minor characters. 20. The Bad Hatter Wander’s hat is now in Hater’s hands! I like Wander’s hat and I think it deserves more attention. Now we know more about it, we know its history, it’s not just some cool accessory, it’s alive, alive! :) And once again I like the message. I like how Hater is mad at the Hat, though it seems like the problem is not in it. Oh well, poor hat.

21. The Show Stopper Hater performs a rock concert (to impress Lord Dominator! nice try!). And Wander helps! This episode is one of the best! I do love Hater’s theme song and I absolutely enjoy watching their perfomance with Wander. Wander is so good and Hater is just... HATER!! Oh boy, I can listen to the same song for hours and hours and Hater can sing his song for DAYS! Wow! He’s so active and energetic! Just watching him fills me with energy too! I like how Sylvia works together with Peepers and the last perfomance of the song totally rocks! The lyrics - aww, just daww!! Actually this song gets better and better with every loop! :D

22. The Cartoon Another Hater’s try to impress Dominator - now with the help of the most sophisticated and respected art form in the universe - the cartoon! It’s hard to express how I love this episode, it’s incredible! I love the idea, stylization and references, cast, songs (especially the opening one) and actually everything about this episode! Solid writing too! And I literally can’t stop laughing all the time, one of the WOY’s best! POWER!! And Hater’s remark how hard animation is just... wow! 23. The Bot Wander makes friends with Lord Dominator’s Bot. One of the saddest episodes of the show! I won’t say much about it, except... oh well, that silent scene at the end! It’s perfect in every way, everytime I remember it, I feel I’m still impressed. 24. My Fair Hatey The musical episode and... MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FROM THE SHOW! And one of my favorite animated musicals ever!! I mean it! I rewatched it many times and I can’t get bored! How can you stop rewatching it, it’s so precious! The quality of animation and music numbers is incredibly high, I absolutely enjoy it and it totally deserves to be in one line with full-length movie musicals. I love how it concentrates all best things about the show in 1/2 hour! The action is so powerful (indeed!). The gags and songs and action continue for the whole half hour non stop, from the very beginning to the end, everything here is awesome! The songs are stunning and inspiring, they reveal all characters motives and feelings so well! And the mood changes so many times here, from excitement to despair and then to new hopes again, it’s amazing how many emotions are covered in one episode! And it brings the main plot to the new point. For me it’s the top episode of the whole show so far! 25. The Robomechabotatron It’s the name of a giant robot that can stop Dominator. I find this episode extremely funny and I stand for Wander’s point here. Though it seems kinda doubtful the way he brought it (the team was counting on him anyway), so that makes the episode especially interesting to think about. 26. The Flower Wander and Sylvia are trying to save the flower from Lord Dominator. This episode literally made me cry. It’s so emotional and touching, it actually hurts to see Wander’s tears! And Wander formulates one of the greatest messages: Just because I'm sad doesn't mean I've given up hope. 27. The End of the Galaxy It’s series finale so far. The contrast between approaches of Wander and others is great! It’s sad to see Wander stands alone. Despite many threatening and menacing moments of the episode (it definitely should be like this), it’s still very positive. It’s a great finale of the season, but... not of the whole show! The story is so rich, and many lines are not finished yet! It shouldn’t end this way, come on! So... if you agree, please sign in the petition! https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-encourage-disney-to-make-wander-over-yonder-season-3 @disneyxd

#wander over yonder #savewoy #trending 27th #woy #disney

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fangirlingabout · 7 years

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Entertaining to the MAX

As someone with an... approximate knowledge of the DC universe and more specifically the BatFamily (most of which being from littlenightwing), and as someone who just enjoys really funny comedies and great animation, I pretty much was doomed to love this movie.

But hell, even without all that “””bias””” what makes this movie so especially bitchin’ is how it succeeds at pretty much everything it sets out to do. Make a good follow-up to the Lego Movie? Check. Strike a great balance as a kids movie? Check Two.

Bring the BatFamily to the big screen again (FINALLY) in a way that can make general audiences fall in love with them? All checks. All of them, those checks are yours now.

Be a good spoof movie---a genre so dead it needed to be revived with little tiny lego defibrillators? A THUNDERSTORM OF CHECKS RAINING DOWN FROM THE HEAVANS.

Doing a Comic Book Movie

Adapting anything to film is magic trick and a half, but adapting comic books---90 years of them, for that matter---is a whole magic show. It’s no small feat to capture the heart of the characters and world and what makes it so beloved.

Add that on top of the magic you need to perform to make a good spoof movie, which takes that deep understanding and builds off it (ayyyy) in exaggerated, hilarious ways. Plus, like I said, the entire spoof genre has been left in the hands of the people who made the Scary Movie franchise, which has fallen so far from... well, I don’t want to say grace, but you get my point. There’s only been bad parody movies coming out in the mainstream for years now.

But if I’d trust anyone to manage both kinds miracles, I guess I’d have to give it to Phil Lord and Chris Miller! Even if you don’t know their names, you’ve probably laughed at their work (well, with their work): Clone High, Cloudy a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, (A few episodes of) How I Met Your Mother, (the pilot of) Brooklyn 99, and, obviously, the Lego Movie itself.

Basically, these are two writer/directors best bros who I’ve loved ever since I was young with Clone High because that’s exactly my sense of humour---and they’re still killing it to this day.

And thank god, they manage to nail this movie on so many levels.

What really rocks is how thoroughly they understand Batman’s corner of the DC universe---not just for the amazing, nerd-level-100 references from all sorts of Batman media, but because in order for the comedy to really work, they have to make a super-fan love for all things Batman infectious.

And it works. So, so well!

And the parody aspects of this movie work for the same reason. It’s like the old saying goes “it’s funny because it’s true.” Sure, it’s exaggerated for a punchline, but if it didn’t come from a genuine place to begin with that exaggeration wouldn’t be able to carry the movie.

The BatFam and Rogues Gallery

AND THIS IS THE BEST PART.

See, the BatFamily hasn’t come to the big screen aside from the mostly-straight-to-DVD-but-if-they’re-in-theaters-they’re-limited-release animated movies, which leaves legions of starving BatFam fans waiting for their favourite characters to even get a slight mention or blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background reference.

The Arkham games (and of course the comics themselves) are enough to keep them alive, but the fact that 1997′s Batman and Robin killed all possible BatFamily movies for basically 20 years means it’s been rough.

So, now we have the first real inclusion on the BatFamily! It’s a parody of them, but at least since it’s a good parody that does demonstrate some understanding of the characters and how meaningful their relationships are, it’s enough! At least, for now. My hope is that having a popular, awesome movie with some BatFamily members in it will open the door to even more BatFam to come!

Because look, I have to take this character by character for a second to really show why this could hopefully be the building blocks (AYYYYY) for something even greater down the line (or, great in a different way, I should say).

Let’s start with Dick Grayson as Robin. This Dick Grayson is mostly a parody of the original TV boy wonder, Burt Ward. Which works, even though it’s not an accurate portrayal of more modern incarnations of his character. Michel Cera somehow managed to really make this character endearing when he could’ve been pretty annoying, as high energy as he is.

The best comparison I can make for animation fans is, well, Wander, from Wander Over Yonder, but without the country accent. There’s an adorable beating heart always on display that makes him lovable---he’s even got some quieter moments thrown in there---and the way the lines are delivered never crosses that line into annoying-sidekick territory.

So, this Dick is a good Dick. He still serves the role even modern Dick Grayson did as Robin, to be the hopeful light in the dark knight’s world.

And see, if they took inspiration from lego Dick Grayson at all when adapting modern Dick, I hope they keep that idea intact---because no matter what incarnation of Dick we’re going for, his humour and kind lightheartedness even in the face of a dark world and immeasurable pain---that’s what makes him a wonderful son character for Batman.

Well, that and how much they love each other, obviously, but thankfully, that’s another thing this movie doesn’t skimp out on. Since its a comedy, the writers get away with Dick using the words “dad” or “padre” (dad) or even “batfamily” a glorious amount of times. So even if there’s since going to be a wait before we get to see a serious portrayal of their father-son relationship, it’s honestly enough to know some people in Hollywood actually know.

Barbara/Batgirl gets a great role as well. Not necessarily all points are stellar (the recent Killing Joke movie aside, I’ve been told Barbara and Batman don’t have a relationship that’s sexual in nature most of the time, so it’s just kinda... creepy; thank god they didn’t make them end up together in this movie), but it’s small in comparison to the awesomeness of lego Barbara.

Granted, I know much more about Dick Grayson than I do about Barbara (you know who to thank for that), but at the very least, I appreciate that her role in this movie is competent, well-accomplished straight-man and not damsel in distress, which even I know is so not Barbara (The Killing Joke is hard story to adapt without, y’know, using her as a plot device in kinda awful ways, so I’m just glad to see her not be used that way).

That’s the kind of thing I hope they’ll carry over when it’s time for a more serious Barbara story. In this movie, she feels a bit too much like Wild-Style from the first Lego Movie, and I would’ve loved to see even more of Barbara’s character and what makes her unique (again, this is something I need to learn), but yeah, definitely a step in the right direction.

Alfred’s had some great adaptions over the years in terms of movies, but I will say I don’t think it’s been acknowledged before what a father figure (and in turn grandpa figure) he is in the BatFamily. Good to see him get his due.

And I mean overall, there’s this whole other side to Batman, BatDad, that has been sorely missing from cinema. We’ve seen the brooding loner Batman done well, but there’s so many stories to tell when you bring in his surrogate family, and you can see that in this movie!

Oh, and the Joker?

Absolutely adorable. Which... isn’t something I’d normally advocate saying, but they really have fun with his and Batman’s relationship in such a great way. Protect this clown child please (again specifically this version).

And that’s not even counting the dozens of other rogues that get a hilarious cameo in this movie. It’s all so fantastic, I need to rewatch it just to get all the jokes involved with them because I was laughing so hard I missed some.

So it works as a (spoofed) BatFamily story, a comedy and a parody movie, and even just a really well done animated kids movie in general.

This is definitely what I would call a hyper-active movie---the jokes come hard and fast and don’t really stop---but it can also take it’s time for the characters (and hell, even for the comedy; long, quieter jokes that just keep going are always a risk, but like the sloth scene in Zootopia, the times they make that gamble it pays off).

Even just as an animated movie, look at this shit:

The photo-realistic Lego-based animation from the first movie combined with a neon colour scheme that ends up being so fitting for Lego Gotham... is bootiful. It’s some beautiful animation (and the comedic timing just makes it better)!

And the score? The score is always hilariously timed---every song choice is there for a specific purpose. That’s probably the best way to look at this movie: not a moment goes to waste.

Really, it’s a family of excellent elements all working together to make one hell of a whole.

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