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wardens-stew · 3 years

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The Mask Falling Hints MASTERPOST

Clearly I have wayyy too much time on my hands!

I have compiled a list of information Samantha Shannon has divulged on social media about The Mask Falling, mostly paraphrased from her Tumblr and Twitter. Some of it dates back as far as 2016, so it’s not certain that all of it will happen - I’ve included an asterisk for the tidbits in which Samantha explicitly mentioned that it was pre-editing. I didn’t include a link to the original source because that would be too much work, but if anyone has questions I can probably find it pretty easily! The recent ARC reviews also include some hints, but I haven’t included them because that would be a crap-ton of text. Feel free to add anything I missed! Anyway enjoy the fruits of my obsession!

Hints:

We will find out how badly Warden was affected by Paige’s torture - there’s a lot about the effects of her torture in the book

The non-binary character is a free-world spy, pretending to be French

Paige has issues with drinking water and showering

Paige will make another valiant effort to get Warden to talk about his feelings

Paige’s demisexuality is clarified - she reflects on the way she wants in comparison to the way the allosexual Nick and Eliza do

Paige gets slammed into the wall by someone, but not Terebell (also not Warden, because then she would be very dead)

The grey market storyline continues

Etymological connection of Arcturus meaning bear-guard and Mahoney meaning descendant of the bear is worked into the books

Paige cries

Paige’s PTSD is a thread throughout the book

Paige has mental and physical difficulties following her torture

“The scope of everything gets bigger, there's more focus on the free world and how it interacts with Scion, and you'll find out more about Rephaite history and the origin of clairvoyance.”

You may figure out what happened to Procyon

Warden’s aura type is mentioned*

Paige starts calling Warden Arcturus. They have a discussion about it. But she keeps calling him Warden in front of other people.

The prologue begins about an hour after The Song Rising

Warden asks Paige to teach him Irish

Contains clues as to the big secret at the heart of the series

Warden does a few very sweet things

We’ll find out a reason why Nashira considers Warden a possession rather than a partner*

Paige is at her most fragile

One of the characters eats an orange

There is a distinct Priory parallel in one section of the story

Paige asks Warden if Rephaim can get drunk

We will find out if Rephaim can get physically ill

We’ll get a piece of information that may help us understand the Rephaite logic behind Warden feeding on Paige’s aura

More about the golden cord

Paige’s feelings with her father will be explored

We will find out why it was common knowledge amongst Rephaim that Terebell and Warden were once mated

Warden might tell us what would happen if he tried to eat

More about voyant-amaurotic sex will be explained

We will learn more about the Rephaim’s internal politics and conflicts

We get to see Paige’s birthday

We we’ll find out how Warden knows how to develop Paige’s gift*

Paige and Warden butt heads over right and wrong

We’ll find out why Warden said that Sargas are the only Rephs who choose their mates

We’ll find out more about the half-urge

We’ll find out more about the complicated history between Warden and Terebell

Warden is planning to learn Gaelic (pre-editing)

We’ll find out two of the reasons why Warden hates Nashira so much*

We’ll find out about the promise Warden made to Nashira that she alludes to before the Bicentary

Warden says something with an exclamation mark

Warden will tell us more about the memory of Terebell, and how it was a prelude to one of the defining moments of his existence

Paige visits Warden’s dreamscape a few times, but we only see it once

Paige addresses the author directly

Nick isn’t in the book at all

The plot takes place only in Paris

Paige dies her hair red

A character Samantha did not originally plan to be in TBS4 now is

There’s a big scene in the Sainte-Chapellle in Paris

The book is shaping up to be the darkest book in the series, but also contains the most jokes

Paige feels really ill for most of the book

Samantha starts hinting at the Grand Backstory of the series

Paige is under strict orders to stay inside for a month, but she breaks the rules to explore Paris

The main antagonist was born in “the burning summer of 2019”

We’ll find out about two of Warden’s past relationships

Paige and Warden have to get food deliveries from a guy called Albéric because they’re not allowed to go outside

There’s espionage

Warden uses the super unnecessary word “sennight”

A lot of the book takes place underground

We learn if a non-polyglot could ever learn Gloss

There is a Very Awkward Conversation*

There is a time skip between the fourth and fifth books

Warden smiles a lot… with his eyes

The ending will change everything

Scion must change its public face due to an event that happens at the end

People who liked The Mime Order will love it

TBS4 picks up when Paige is resting.

It will go into more detail about how Rephaim emerge

It marks the beginning of Beautiful Dresses in The Bone Season

It introduces a Rephaite character Samantha absolutely loves, with her favorite Rephaite name

There’s a scene Samantha has wanted to write for years

The ending is very dark

There’s a cute priory reference

There’s a character Samantha loves - “she’s so cool that I don’t know how a nerd like me invented her”

“The relationship between Warden and Paige gets deeper and more complicated in this one, and you get to know Warden a little better.”

“[Paige and Warden] are together a lot in this book, as they’re sharing a safe house in Paris. It’s the first time they’ve spent a significant amount of time with one another since they escaped Sheol I. You’ll actually glimpse the ways they both react to being stuck inside in The Mask Falling, as they’re meant to stay hidden in a safe house for a month so Paige can start to recover from her ordeal.”

“It’s a love song to Paris in the way The Mime Order was a love song to London.”

“[Paige and Warden do have some happy calm moments.] Although there’s a lot of action in the book, there’s also quite a lot of downtime. Paige is still recovering from her ordeal in the Archon, so she can’t always be out in the world kicking ass. She’s resting as well, trying to get her strength back.”

“I won’t lie, The Mask Falling is a book to fear . . . but there are some nice bits. Including some coffee-drinking.”

“[Paige and Warden] do so much in this book. So much.”

“Most of the characters who didn’t go to Paris are absent from TBS4.”

“Paige and Warden do so much in this book, I just couldn’t cram any other storylines in. However, several old friends do turn up in it, as well as a bunch of new characters I hope you’ll love as much as I do.”

“Paige [experiences the messiest-most-intense emotion in TBS4]. She goes through the emotional wringer in this one.”

“The second ‘arc’ has the same main characters and the same antagonist. The difference has more to do with the setting, the scope of the narrative, and the type of battle being fought against Scion. You’ll have a better idea of what I mean when you read the end of TBS4.”

“This book puts both [Paige and Warden] through the emotional wringer, but there are lighter parts as well.” “Nick meets an old friend while he’s in Sweden and Paige and Warden will be staying in central Paris, on Rue Gît-le-Cœur. You can see some of the locations from Book 4 here: [x]”

“TBS4 is basically just a long Hurt/Comfort piece with occasional and reluctant splashes of Action/Adventure”

“THE MASK FALLING leans a little more Adult than the other BONE SEASON books. The whole series is officially classified as Adult, but the first three aren't far off YA in terms of sexual content, violence etc. THE MASK FALLING is . . . maybe a tiny bit sexier.”

“Doing my final reread of THE MASK FALLING and naturally I've noticed a recurring phrase that I have used no less than thirty times in the manuscript.”

“It blows the world of The Bone Season right open. It’s where everything changes. It takes place in a brand-new setting and forms the bridge between the two ‘arcs’ of the series. I hope the ending will show readers get why I really do need seven instalments to tell this story.”

“Books 1-4 is what I call the “Scion arc”, but Scion is still a threat in Books 5-7. Book 4 is kind of in the middle, with more of a focus on Rephaim than there currently is in Book 3.”

“He’s in Book 4, he’s French, he’s voyant, and I’m writing his introduction scene now. I think I love him?”

“The draft is about 140 000 words long – a little shorter than The Mime Order – with a veritable tonne of action, espionage, international politics, eerie catacombs, old enemies, new friends, and messy, intense emotions packed into that word count.”

“This one combines my favourite elements of The Bone Season (Warden and Paige chats), The Mime Order (syndicate weirdness) and The Song Rising (heists and angst)”

“The fourth Bone Season book is well underway, and things are about to take a very dark turn for Paige.”

“It’s mostly focused on Paris, but you’ll find out bits and pieces about what’s happening in both England and Europe.”

“She’s suffering from PTSD and aquaphobia following her water torture in The Song Rising, so she’s pretty much in the ringer for the whole book. There are a few light moments, but she’s under a lot of stress from the start.”

“While I wouldn't call it spy fiction, TBS4 is delving into espionage territory as Warden and Paige, still exhausted from their tremendous efforts against Scion in The Song Rising, attempt to navigate the convoluted political and criminal networks of Scion Paris.”

“Book 4 is a touch more political, laced with subterfuge”

Lists:

Things you’ll see:

The carrières of Paris

A masquerade (ofc)

A mysterious character you haven’t seen in a long while

Arcturus Mesarthim saying ‘hm’ about 18 times

Five words:

Revelations

Politics

Water

Heartache

War

Three adjectives:

Macabre

Emotional

Seismic

There is a lot of:

Warden and Paige

Rain

Classy interior decor

Angst

New characters include:

A spy so fashionable and icy cool I’m unsure of how a nerd like me created her

A tall, irritable Frenchman with a bit of a God complex

A terrifying new Rephaite with an uncomfortably sexy voice

It has:

A Parisian underworld

A demisexual MC

A masquerade ball

Catacombs

Forbidden, angst-stricken desire

Verbal consent

Acknowledgement of periods

I can promise:

Parisian buildings TOURISTS LOVE. Notre-Dame? It's there, there's a masquerade INSIDE IT. Sainte-Chapelle? Oui. Versailles? Naturally. The Eiffel Tower? Oh, we're climbing it

Getting DOWN and DIRTY. (By which I mean literally, down, into the catacombs.)

People who arrive in Paris SPEAKING FRENCH because they have been given a job for which they have the correct SKILLSET *bangs table*

No crêpes (#OhCrepe), but CHAUSSONS AUX POMMES

ROOFTOP PICNIC

Not everyone is STRAIGHT

Chic OUTFITS, all quite filthy by the end

Locations:

The beautiful Sainte-Chapelle, my favourite place on Earth.

Rue Gît-le-Cœur, a major location in the book and previously home to the Beat Hotel.

The famous doorway in the Paris Catacombs. The inscription translates to 'Stop! This is the Empire of Death.'

Rue Montmartre, where we may or may not encounter an old face.

Preview in gifs:

Originally posted by cinemagraphs

Originally posted by queeniegoldtsein

Originally posted by cumlelerinruhu

Snippets:

Out-of-context chapter title: Chapter 3: Gloomy Coffee

Part names*:

1. To Pay Thee Free

2. Turn the Anchor

3. Eurydice

Quotes:

“What the fuck is that?” she whispered to me. “Looks like a frozen rainbow.”

“The horizon was as red as if the fire still burned. I watched the sunrise from the roof. Fog breathed into every nook and alcove of Paris, laced over the dark crests of the river, blanched the skin to the pink of salmon. I was sure the air was still spiced with the tang of smoke.”

“So,” he said, “we are choosing larceny.” “Always so surprised when his criminal friend commits crimes.”

“I wouldn’t usually care who you’re riding at any given time”

“I sensed all of this was very important, but I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about”

“I picked up the floundering ribbons of my dignity and started over”

“His home was in decay, and mine lay in the shadow of the anchor. Scion had made wanderers of us.”

Current opening line (circa Dec 18, 2018): “The sun had been climbing over the cliffs when our ship had pared away from Dover.”

“Someone who had heard of me and whose first response had not been to try to kill me. What a treat.”

“A hollow ache stretched out within me. It started in the chambers of my heart, in a place that reached eternally for Ireland.”

“‘I promised you we would stay together,’ he said. ‘In the absence of other options, I will follow your lead on this matter.’”

“‘I’m fine.’ ‘Your attempt to mask the darkness under your eyes serves as compelling evidence of that. As does the full bowl of coffee.’ I cocked my head. ‘Did you just master sarcasm?’ ‘Paige.’ ‘It’s a cup of coffee. With… no handle.’”

“‘There’s no fireplace,’ I stated. ‘No.’ ‘But how are you-‘ A wild laugh was bubbling up. ‘How are you going to cope without one?’ ‘Cope,’ Warden repeated. ‘You need one. To stare into, pensively. Did you know,’ I said to him, ‘that you do that a lot?’ He tilted his head, which only set off a fit of silent laughter. My ribs ached in protest.”

‘I mustered all the breath I had left and screamed, until I folded on myself and my voice burned to nothing.’

‘Who can break you now, Black Moth, now there is nothing left to break?’

#the mask falling #the bone season #masterpost #hints

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minvaleria93 · 4 years

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EMPIRE • chapter 4 • Under New Manag

_________________________

•• DISCLAIMER ••

A part of this chapter is based off of Peaky Blinders.

_________________________

That's all," Taehyung waved his hand. Everyone in the meeting room glanced at each other in both shock and confusion. Why exactly was he leaving? And when exactly was he going to be back? And why did he appoint Marco Bizzarri in his role while he was going to be away?

Everyone pushed back their chairs and cleared out from the room, but Esther who remained in her seat at the other end of the long table opposite Taehyung. There was a moment of silence that broke the moment the door was closed. "You didn't say why you are leaving and when exactly you are going to be back," Esther stated.

Taehyung rested his elbows on the surface of the table and rested his chin upon his knuckles. A devilish grin danced across his face. "Will you seriously miss me that much?" He arched his brow up at her.

Esther rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "I'm only asking because appointing Marco Bizzarri in your role will only interfere with my work plans."

"No need to worry about that, or work for that matter."

Esther frowned. "What do you mean?" Taehyung leaned back in his chair and rocked side to side as he looked at Esther with the same grin.

••••

The walls were made out of brown oak and the hardwood floor was a deep brown colour. Bookshelves were stuffed in some parts of the wall just bursting with books. Some were new and some were old with dust on them. There was a massive marble fireplace on the right which had yellow and orange flames dancing wildly with a velvet black sofa and armchairs and a small coffee table in the middle. Opposite the fireplace were four tall and large French window that stretched down to the polished floor, overlooking the estate. A chandelier hung down from the tall ceiling, and lastly there was a long, polished, and ornate table in the middle of the room which looked as though it

They all sat around the table waiting patiently for Bang Si-hyuk, or as he was known by others, 'Hitman' Bang, or Bang PD. Just then, the doors swung open and a man dressed as though he had walked out from the 40's era entered the room. He had dark brown hair that was a curtain of obsidian, fair skin and brown eyes. Bang Si-hyuk's eyes eyes traveled to the seven men who stood up and bowed. He smiled proudly at them and approached the table, taking the seat at the head of the table facing Namjoon.

Bang Si-hyuk was the man that started it all. He was the one that made the boys who they were.

••• Flashback seven years ago •••

The sound of bins rattling, and cats screeching at each other, and the trains speeding played music in the air. Jungkook constantly looked over his shoulder, as well as Taehyung, but the others told them to keep looking forward and keep up.

"Are we sure about this?" Jimin asked in a hushed tone, afraid that if he spoke any louder even the dead would hear.

But before either of them could answer, they had reached their destination. A man, wearing a long trench coat and a hat stood leaning against the wall under a single street lamp directly next to the bridge where the trains were.

"Jimin's right," whispered J-Hope.

Jin clicked his tongue. "Come on," he adjusted his bomber jacket. "We thought this through enough and we're here now."

Namjoon nodded. "Exactly." The boys glanced at each other before they all marched together towards the man.

He could hear them. He could hear them muttering amongst themselves and that caused a smile to dance in the corner of his mouth. The muttering faded and he tilted his chin upward, the hat casted a dark shadow on his face, revealing just his chin and lips.

There was a very pregnant pause that lingered in the air as they stood before the man in silence. Bang PD turned from the boys and lowered his head back down. "I sense that some of you have doubts," he said. "No?"

"He's psychic as well?" Jungkook whispered to Taehyung who pouted with a shrug. Bang PD exhaled a deep chuckle that made Jungkook and Taehyung look at him with wide eyes. He heard them.

"Is everything ready?" Namjoon asked.

Bang PD pushed himself away from the wall. "Are you boys sure you want to pull this off?" He asked as well. "There is no turning back from here, you understand that? You will have to leave your lives behind. If you go through with this you will have to make it seem like you were never here during the robbery. What you are about to do is going to be one of the biggest heists ever. So..." There was a pause as he made eye contact with everyone, taking in their expressions, the way they held themselves— everything. And then he asked them again. "Are you boys sure you want to pull this off?"

Namjoom looked at his friends with a questionable expression. If they wanted to back out, now was the time.

Yoongi brushed his thumb across the tip of his nose and steppest forward. "Where is the car?" He held his hand out.

Bang PD held Yoongi's gaze before he swung his hand inside the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out two keychains; one with the car keys and the other had two silver keys. Bang PD shifted his eyes from Yoongi to Jin and tossed him the car keys. "You're the driver," he said. Jin, confused only nodded. The plan was that Yoongi was going to be the driver, but this man had other plans.

"Everyone sticks to their roles as planned," said Bang PD. "Only yours," he pointed at Yoongi and Jin. "Changed."

"So what am I going to do then?" Yoongi asked.

Bang PD took a small step forward, and everyone held their breaths. "Jin, is the driver" he said. "J-Hope, gets into the surveillance cameras and the alarms. Jungkook and Taehyung are the moles that will give you access to the casino. And you three are the robbers."

There was a short moment of silence that filled the space between them, before he looked at Jungkook and held up the key with a round head. "This one will let them in," he said, and then he held up the key with the squad head. "And this will open the jackpot." Jungkook nodded and held his hands out and caught the keys.

"In the boot of the car you'll find bags and a black case," he paused. "Use them."

The boys nodded, and this made Bang PD smile as though they had already succeeded in the robbery. "You have two hours before closing time."

••• End of Flashback •••

"Welcome," Bang PD greeted with a smile. "It's been a while since I had my boys in the same room like this." The men in the room exchanged looked with smiles under their noses. Being in the same room and hearing their ex Big Boss calling them his boys built a prideful feeling inside their chests.

"I have met with each one of you throughout the last five years from time to time regarding some work, but now that we are all here we are going to be a family whole once again."

"It's good to have everyone back together," said J-Hope. "Just like old time." Everyone at the table nodded.

"Right you are, J-Hope" smiled Bang PD. "I'm sure Namjoon has told you all about the next big thing, correct?"

"Something about...how should I put this," Jungkook hummed. "Oh, a deal on the table, was it?" Namjoon shook his head with a small smile. Jungkook has grown even more cocky and confident over the years, so seeing him like this was amusing.

Bang PD laughed. "Yes," he replied. "And the promise is so good, that we can't refuse. Casinos, powered, money— and more." Bang PD leaned back in his chair. "But first you will have gain everyone's respect on this side. You are known here and there, but you have some people who don't agree with you as well. You'll need to take care of that first. Make sure that they know who really runs these ends."

"Done," Taehyung said shortly as the others agreed.

"Then you'll have to find a place or two where you will bribe the people with the deals. Show them what you have to offer. And also something to pass the time for you boys." Bang PD said. "Jin, you left your restaurant business and your lovely wife will get bored beging stuck home all day with nothing to do; think about that." Jin sat in his seat with a thoughtful expression on his face as those words sunk in on his.

"J-Hope. Jimin," Bang PD turned to the two. "A gentlemen's club where they can also dance the night away, no?" Jimin and J-Hope looked at each other. They never opened a business together, but now they were considering. And if they worked together they could be huge.

"But I'm sure you can all come up with something," Bang PD chuckled. The men at the table nodded as they all thought of how they were going to take care of their first task.

"By the looks on your faces and your silence I take it you have something in mind?" He asked. The men glanced at each other sideways before they looked at the man sitting at the head of the table while smirking.

Bang PD nodded. "I will make a few arrangements then."

••••

She pushed on the black door and stepped out into the street. Her hair was pulled up into a loose ponytail, her cheeks were tinted pink and she held her phone to her ear. "So," Se-ri began. "My best friend is back in town and she didn't think to call."

"Oh, stop being dramatic," Isabel said. "Where are you?"

"I'm on my way to the flower shop," Se-ri replied. "I haven't visited my parents in a while."

Isabel nodded even though Se-ri couldn't see. Se-ri's parents passed away a two years ago in an accident, but Se-ri believed that there was more to the accident. "Do you want to help me out with a few things after?" Isabel asked.

Se-ri's eyes widened. "Did you finally give into the whole thing?"

"God no!" Isabel shouted. "But I don't want to cause or start anything, like last time. So do you want to help me?"

"Is this the wine tasting we're going to?" Isabel exhaled a sigh and Se-ri knew her answer. "In that case, I'll join you happily."

"Of course you will," said Isabel.

There were white baskets that had flowers with butterflies dangling from the roof shelter, and there was an arch around the entrance of the shop made up of nothing but white and pink roses. The cool air condition kissed her skin making goosebumps to appear and she inhaled a sharp breath.

The white, polished, marble floor looked smooth as a calm river. The white walls had fairy lights on them that looked like they were floating stars. There were followers all over the place. Some where in pots, some where on shelves, in boxes on tables. And there was a stairway that led to the upper floor where the till was.

A young woman, with hair dark as the night, lips a faded shade of red and a porcelain-like face with pink cheeks placed a box of flowers down on the table and brushed the piece of hair away from her face with the back of her hand. She exhaled and smiled at Se-ri. "Can I help you?" Asked Suni.

Se-ri held up the roses she held in her hand and gave them a small wave as she smiled back at the owner of the shop. "I'd like to pay for these," she said.

••••

They walked down the streets of Seoul. The moon hung high up in the almost night sky, which now looked as though it were a beautiful painting of colours; pink, tangerine and purple and dark blue. A couple of stars were visible here and there, but once the sky would be pitch black they would shine as though they were crystals of sugar, scattered all over black marble.

They turned right, and came to a black building with tall windows and a set of stairs that had a red carpet that ran all the way down the corridor. The cars outside were not even parked, but sat in random spots with uniformed drivers smoking, chatting and engaging with prostitutes who waited for customers.

For a famous place, it was very dark, but filled with people. The sound of muffled music that didn't even sound like it had been rehearsed came from the closed doors around the corner of the corridor. There were men and women standing around, some talking and others in each other's faces. As the people in the corridor caught sight of who had just entered the club they all thought the same thing, the nerve of them.'

They reached the main room. It was a circular room with tables scattered to one side and a dance floor to the other. The sound of laughter and chatter was muffled in the room by the loud music. The smell of cheap perfume from the woman, alcohol and cigarettes filled their nostrils like a deadly gas explosion. Women were dressed in clothes that blearily covered anything and they were attached to a man— or a few men who were dressed to kill.

Apart from dancing, smoking and drinking, the people were playing cards and sniffing snow off of the tables, the back of their hands, plates— anything with a straight surface.

The look of disgust on their faces as they looked around the room, and the noise from the musicians made in their heads feels like someone was pounding on them with hammers. "What the fuck is this din?" Yoongi shouted.

Namjoon's brows shot upwards and then back down as a small smile appeared in the corner of his mouth. "This," he began. "Is what they call music, my friend."

"Jungkook," said Jin, as he watched the youngest smirking at the women passing by. "Please."

J-Hope looked around the room, his hands in his pockets as he searched for a table large enough for the seven of them. "Hey!" He roared at the man and women with their lips attached. They quickly pulled away and looked up at him alarmed. "Take that somewhere else." The man and women jumped to their feet and rushed out from the room.

"I got us a table," said J-Hope with a sly smile.

Namjoon held his hand up to a waiter as he sat down next to Taehyung. "One bottle of Jack Daniel's!" He shouted.

As they waited for their bottle of whiskey to arrive, they all sat quietly just taking in the many familiar faces of people who had bad blood, but would love to see them fall. " That's Yoo Se-Joon's nephew over there," said Jungkook, gesturing to the man in a cherry-brown suit and light brown hair.

"Christ," said Taehyung, as they all looked around the room. "Everybody in here is a fucking face."

"It's alright, Taehyung" Jin patted him on the back. "This is a Gap in the Market." Just then a waiter with seven shots and a bottle of Jack Daniel's approached the table and placed them down.

"Let's line them up," Jungkook rubbed his hands together. "Shall we?" They all laughed, watching the youngest set up the shot glasses before he reached for the bottle.

"Gentlemen," a man dressed in a black and white tuxedo placed a hand on Jimin's shoulder and looked down at everyone with a smile. "I'm afraid there's been a mistake. You will have to leave."

"We just bought a bottle..." said J-Hope.

"Some of the men," began Shin. "Say they recognise you. From personal experiences." The men at the table exchanged a quick glance to one another, but didn't speak or move from their seats. Shin exhaled a soft sigh and continued. "They say you have no business here without an agreement—"

"Tell them," Taehyung cut the man off. "We are on vacation."

Shin leaned down closer so they could hear him more clearing over the loud music. "They say this is provocation and that you are breaking the rules..." there was a pause that followed as Shin looked at each of the men sitting before him. He took a deep breath and spoke again. "They say you are Bangtan Sonyeondan."

As the words left the man's lips, Yoongi noticed a familiar face raising a full bottle of champagne and threw it across the room, aiming it at his head. Yoongi pushed his chair away from the table and the bottle flew past his face and smashed against the wall.

And that's all it took. Namjoon grabbed the tie of the man who came at him by wrapping the tie around his hand and then raised his fist to the man's jaw.

"Come here," hissed Jimin, as he slammed his attacker's face on the table.

Jungkook grabbed a bottle of Spirytus Vodka and swung it at the man's head. J-Hope raised his fist to one of the waiters trying to grab him and he watched as the waiter stumbled backwards and collided with the table behind him. Jin grabbed a chair and swung it at the man approaching him. The chair broke and Jin exhaled a heavy sigh. "Oh, stop whining," he rolled his eyes at the man crying on the floor .

Taehyung held his arm up, blocking a blow from the man and head-butted him. Yoongi stroke a punch to his attacker one after the other until he had him on the floor and his knuckles were dripping with blood.

As the fight continued the musicians began to play a song with the same rhythm as the fight. It was more upbeat and with every punch, kick, blow it was like they were hitting a beat.

And then a gun shot went off, and immediately both the music and fight came to a stop. Jimin grabbed a silver ice bucket from a random table and threw the cold water with ice on the man lying on the floor. "Put some ice on him," he said. The man attempted to stand, but Yoongi placed his foot on his chest, forcing the man down.

There was silence. It lingered in the air, thick and heavy, like a blanket. The dancers had all curled together in a tight crowd, there were tables tossed over, glass was on the floor and the alcoholic spilled out was enough to make someone drunk just by breathing in the air in the room.

"Get out." Shin said, as he stood on a table while pointing his shotgun at Namjoon.

Namjoon walked through the chaos in a drunk-like-swaying motion. He looked up at Shin for a moment and then turned to the people watching. "We came down here not to make enemies," a pause as he shook his head. "No," he whispered in a mocking tone before speaking in a more clear and loud voice. "We came here to make new friends! And make those of you who are always last as those who are on top."

Namjoon turned back to Shin. He held the man's gaze for a moment in a silent battle before a smirk appeared in the corner of his mouth. "Come on in boys!" He called out over his shoulder.

The doors to the room were thrown open and in walked men dressed in black suits telling everyone to get up and leave.

"What is going on?!" Shin bellowed as he watched in horror at what was going on before him. Two men, with their guns pointing at Shin forced him down from the table and took his shotgun away from him.

J-Hope steppest up on the stage and grabbed the microphone stand. "This place is under new management," his voice echoed though the room. "By order of Bangtan Sonyeondan."

#bts fanfic #bts #bts taehyung #bts jin #bts namjoon #bts yoongi #bts jungkook #BTS jimin #bts jhope #bts mafia au #reblog #Wattpad #bts gang #bts gang au #mafia #gang au

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miss-mishka · 4 years

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The Old Guard (Image, 2017) vs Youth (comiXology, 2020): A Completely Biased Comparison

I don’t really know what this is, kind of a crack review, because I had more to say about these two recent reads than I could fit in my Goodreads reviews. So it will be a long read if you opt to proceed. Be warned: ADULT LANGUAGE BEYOND THE CUT, I make no promises that my words will be coherent throughout & sarcasm will abound as I discuss two mini/limited issue comic series’ that I’ve recently bought into.

They are:

1)The Old Guard, 2017 Image Comics 5 issue miniseries release, written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Leandro Fernandez

Main cast, above, left to right: Sebastien le Livre aka Booker; Nile Freeman (no alias, currently); Andromache the Scythian aka Andy; Nicolo di Genova aka Nicky; Yusuf al-Kaysani aka Joe. Noriko is also a related, but not pictured, character.

2) Youth, 2020 comiXology Original 4 issue miniseries, written by Curt Pires, art by Alex Diotto

Main cast, above, from left to right: River, Jan, Kurt, Frank. Trixy is also a main character, but not featured on this group cover. (That wasn’t deliberate on my part. Since it’s a new series, I wanted a cover shot to help you if you want to shop for the series & this was the only one with most of the group clearly visible.)

So now let’s get to some plot.

The Old Guard is a group of warriors that are much harder to keep dead that your average person. Their ages range from Andy, estimated over 6,000 years old, to Nile, 27 per issue #4. The hows & whys of their ability to recover from injuries up to & including death, are completely unknown, but the ability can end with the same lack of understanding as it began. Andy has found 6 others like her in her time on Earth. 1 has died.

Youth is the teenaged couple Frank & River running away from their home town, meeting up with the older teenaged, possibly early 20s,trio that comprises rest of their group. While fleeing cops, drunk & high after a party, the group’s van is struck by what appears to be a meteor. It does, but doesn’t kill them. They each get a special power from it & all can suddenly fly.

Their enemy/obstacle/villain:

For The Old Guard, it’s big pharma bro Steve Merrick; his security chief, former CIA agent & the one who led Merrick to Andy’s team, James Copley; and the ‘mad’ scientist Dr. Ivan.

For Youth, this is it. Bootleg Nick Fury and the government resources at his disposal. (Take note, this is the one clear win that Youth has over ToG. I love & want more Don.)

Relationships:

Joe & Nicky

Andy & Noriko

Frank & River

Frank & Trixy (just hooking up to help ruin the actual relationship above)

While both comics have their group dynamics, they also have a clear gay couple at the center of their storylines. For The Old Guard, it’s Joe & Nicky. For Youth, it’s Frank & River. But Frank seems to be questioning, as he’s drawn to his new female acquaintance, Trixy. Kurt & Jan also seem attracted to Trixy, but the relationships between those three are not explored in these issues. River is most definitely immune to Trixy. So, Frank & River fall into the dysfunctional relationship category while Joe & Nicky, together over 900 years, are #RelationshipGoals.

So what’s the 411?:

For The Old Guard, Andy, Booker, Joe & Nicky sign on for a job from Copley to rescue some kidnapped schoolkids. Izza traaaaaaaaaaap! While the team decides to go on the offensive & track Copley down after he’s learnt their secret, Nile is killed in action only to find that she’s one of the ones that don’t stay dead easily. Andy goes to retrieve the new ‘recruit,’ the first since Booker in 1812, while the guys go to a safehouse to search for Copley. When Andy & Nile finally arrive at that location, they find Booker recovering from severe injuries while Joe & Nicky have been taken. It becomes a rescue mission for their captured brothers in addition to the seek & destroy goals for Copley. Along the way, Booker & Nile bond. Andy’s a tougher nut to crack. While Booker tries to locate their targets, Joe & Nicky are being tortured by the mad Doctor “for science” in hopes of discovering a profitable immortality drug for Merrick’s biz. Booker conveniently finds the whole Merrick operation taking place in Dubai, so off they go for their rescue mission & revenge. But...well, IZ ZA TRAP! Booker’s done with this undying thing & has sold the team out to see if Dr. Ivan can cure him of life while using the others to defeat death. Andy & Nile, though, aren’t helpless lil ladies. Neither are Joe & Nicky. With rescue under way, Joe & Nicky convince the doctor to let them go, then kill him, then find the others, meet Nile for the first time, kill Merrick as one happy new family, take off for Malta(yeah, in the comics, they’re THERE again), vote Booker off their island for 100 years & then leave him alone to be found by one very salty Noriko - she’s well-brined after 500 years in the ocean & batshit insane, to boot. That’s the first of three arcs planned for this group. About 160 pages over the 5 issues & not a panel wasted, in my opinion.

For Youth, River’s got a lousy step-dad, Frank has a lousy job; together they hate their town & lives, but maybe kind of love each other. So River says let’s steal my stepdad’s cherished old Mustang & run off for California. The car gets a flat, but there’s no spare to replace it & they ran away with no money because they’re teenagers. While broken down in a Walmart parking lot, the car draws the attention of Kurt, who grew up learning some mechanical stuff, appreciating the classics & is willing to offer help. Upon hearing that it’s a flat tire & the couple has no means to replace it, the decision is made to torch the car (it’s a Mustang, HOW DARE YOU?!) & get into the van with Kurt & his two female travelling companions. The five barely exchange names before they’re off to a party where alcohol & drugs mix to make Frank & Trixy horny for one another. River sees them making out & starts to leave when the cops show up to raid the party with all it’s underage & illegal happenings. River, such a sweetheart, is ready to leave Frank & Trixy to be arrested, but Kurt makes sure they all get away together in the van. A high (emphasis on high cause Kurt did some cocaine at the party) speed chase ensues with just a little awkwardness among the group as they realize that Frank & River were together & Trixy only kind of cares that she was pulled into their mess. Before there can be arguments, hairpulling slapfights or other drama over the man, the speeding vehicle is demolished by a meteor slamming to Earth. Except it may have been aliens? In issue #2 we see this:

After this faceoff, these celestial beings go at it, destroy what appears to be their home planet & create the space debris that hits the van & gives the youths powers. It totally killed Jan for a little bit, but that’s ok because Jan has the best powers. She came back from death & can track other powered people without Prof X’s massive Cerebro setup, which is handy when you’ve got Bootleg Nick Fury tracking you down because of the ‘anomaly’ that hit you. Trixy? She’s got a temper. When Don Thunder descends upon them with a small army of soldiers, Trixy turns them into twisted piles of gore and metal. I’m not sure what she did, but it was messy. I imagine in a movie the squish, crack, snap, pop, burst & splat sound effects would reign in that moment. With that dealt with, the group makes plans for what they should do next. Which is apparently, rob an armored truck (can anyone guess whose idea it was?) because they have no money for food or lodging. The heist does not go to plan because the guard driving the armored truck is distracted so he doesn’t see River standing in the road trying to stop the vehicle until the newly powered kid STOPS the vehicle. I’m pretty sure the guards, especially the driver whom they made sure we knew had a pregnant wife, are dead. Frank’s upset about this, blames River, who honestly could have flown off as soon as he realized that the truck wasn’t stopping as planned & the now very strong River smacks Frank into a wall. This pairing is not destined for 900 years together, I imagine Yusuf would continuously chop off his hand rather than strike Nicolo in a non-fun & consensual way. But the Youth gang still grabs some money bags and flies off. While multiple people capture it on their cell phones. Modern technology is an enemy to both the Youth & Old Guard. The kids take their money & go party. Alcohol & drugs again. Frank & Trixy making out again. This time when River sees his man with the girl, he declares the relationship over & storms out of the club. Killing a few people & knocking a sizable hole in the building to fly off while Frank freaks out & Trixy realizes this guy might be too much drama for her edgy self. We’re at the end of issue #3 which closes with this gem:

The more you know, right? Issue #4 has Don recovering from his injuries after Trixy’s finishing move failed to eliminate him (Dictionary: fore*shad*ow, verb: be a warning or indication of (a future event)). He sees video of the armored truck robbery on the news (O! these pesky kids with their cell phone cameras & viral videos) & he’s back on the hunt for the gang. River’s gone back home to the place he always went to to be alone when his stepdad was too much to deal with at home. Frank finds him there, because he had been shown that spot. It was their spot. It’s a sweet reunion where Frank still loves River despite the carnage so long as River still loves Frank with the cheating. A win-win lost-lost. And our Bootleg Nick Fury has his remaining eye on the lovebirds & is ready to attack! Jan, Kurt & Trixy see breaking news of the fight Frank & River put up against the government goons & Trixy is outvoted by the other two that they’ll go help their acquaintances of like 48 hours. The time they take deciding & getting there, though, puts them unfashionably late. Frank is seriously injured causing River to go Dark Phoenix so that the others can get Frank to safety. It fades to black, skips forward 3 months & implies that Frank’s going it alone in California where he was meant to be with River, but River is gone. (So obviously not dead, but captured by Thunder who clearly has his own powers because River’s Phoenix fire definitely didn’t kill this Superspy.) But Trixy’s all consoling and explains how Jan is locating other kids with powers - posthumans, they’re called - all around the world & they’ve decided to start searching for them to create a bigger group. Frank says it’s like the X-Men, but Jan isn’t quite Xavier level leader, so I say more New Mutants. Frank declines to be part of it. Trixy leaves him on a nice, sunny beach & goes to find Jan who portals them here, the most obviously “Not X like” structure in the world for their not a Bootleg X-Men/New Mutants series to take place in in the future:

(JFC, the colors alone are classic Wolverine! Originality. Did you maybe want to try that with this series?)

For the end of “Season 1″ of Youth, which implies there will be more. The single issues of the 4 part mini account for 125 pages & I consider several of those pages wasted.

Final Verdict:

With powerhouse publishers like DC & Marvel having decades worth of this content, Youth was entering a very crowded arena. The only thing it focused on as a lure to draw attention from the big leagues was the relationship between Frank & River, but representation has come a long way & Youth needed more. More story development, more group dynamics, more SOMETHING. Because I read the series in a world where I now know that The Old Guard exists & what Greg Rucka did with that series in simple & overt representation is a master class that Curt Pires needs to attend before any 2nd season talk for Youth. The world, my world, is ready for immortal gays. We’ve seen it, we need more. If River’s still alive, as I suspect, then there’s potential, but it shouldn’t magically erase all the issues that Frank & River had as a couple. They are not anywhere near the level of Joe & Nicky. And if/when Youth returns it needs to focus on the characters that we’re supposed to engage with & keep the focus on ALL OF THEM. Comics take art, with or without words, to tell some incredibly entertaining & complex stories. Don’t waste the space on blackness & block quotes, no matter what Marlon Brando is doing with mailboxes. Create the visuals & worlds in your head & tell the story with your heart so it comes to life for all of us. That’s what Rucka did with The Old Guard & I want to see more writers, artists & publishers striving to attain that level for us. I’m spoiled to it now & you can expect this kind of insanity from me if you fail to reach for this bar.

If you cannot tell by the end of all this, I am completely biased in favor of The Old Guard & if you can afford it, but haven’t done so yet, BUY THE BOOKS! Youth gets points for effort & dragged for everything else.

#comic review #youth (comixology)#the old guard #sleep deprevation does this to me

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joysmercer · 5 years

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b99 season 6: a timeline

*****ONLY ACCURATE FOR 6x06 AND LATER******

E1 (“HONEYMOON”): Tuesday, 5/15 - Tuesday, 5/29/2018

First day of Jake and Amy’s Holt-less honeymoon – Wednesday, 5/23, which also happens to be the date Jake was originally planning to propose on (x)

E2 (“HITCHCOCK AND SCULLY”): Wednesday, 5/30/2018 E3 (“THE TATTLER”): Thursday, 5/31/2018

E4 (“FOUR MOVEMENTS”): Friday, 6/1 - Friday, 6/22/2018

Jake’s Birthday – sometime between 6/18-6/20

E5 (“A TALE OF TWO BANDITS”): Day 1 – Day 2 2018 (?)

Gas Explosion on Halloween – Wednesday, 10/31/2018

The Santiago’s visit for Thanksgiving – Thursday, 11/22/2018

Secret Santa, hosted by Jake and Amy – around Tuesday, 12/25/2018

The Coldest Night of the Year – Sunday, 1/6/2019

E6 (“THE CRIME SCENE”): Monday, 1/7 – Sunday, 3/10/2019

Amy punches Jake – Wednesday, 2/27/2019

E7 (“HONEYPOT”): Wednesday, 3/13/2019 – Sunday, 3/17/2019 E8 (“HE SAID, SHE SAID”): Monday, 3/18 - Friday, 3/22/2019 E9 (“THE GOLDEN CHILD”): Monday, 3/25 - Wednesday, 3/27/2019 E10 (“GINTARS”): Saturday, 3/30 - Tuesday, 4/2/2019 E11 (“THE THERAPIST”): Monday, 4/8 - Wednesday, 4/10/2019

E12 (“CASECATION”): Friday, 4/19/2019

Waterpark – Saturday, 4/20 - Wednesday, 4/24/2019

E13 (“THE BIMBO”): Thursday, 4/25 - Sunday, 4/28/2019

B-Plot ends – Tuesday, 4/30/2019

E14 (“TICKING CLOCKS”): Wednesday, 5/1/2019 E15 (“RETURN OF THE KING”): Thursday, 5/2 - Saturday, 5/4/2019 E16 (“CINCO DE MAYO”): Sunday, 5/5/2019

E17/18 (“SICKO & SUICIDE SQUAD”): Wednesday, 5/8 – Wednesday, 5/15/2019*

* if 7x01 begins right where 6x18 left off, Season 7 will probably open on Jake and Amy’s actual wedding anniversary. Cheers!

explanations for the dates are under the cut!

Things to keep in mind:

The B/C-plots, for the most part, are not included in the calculation of the times here, because they rarely line up with the A-plot. For example, it’s unlikely that Terry spent more than a few days unable to have enough confidence to make decisions in “Honeymoon,” let alone a few weeks.

I didn’t take weekends into consideration unless otherwise noted. There is a weekend squad, but we know that the regular detectives also sometimes work weekends (enough so that on more than one occasion, Holt has rewarded them with “weekends off”).

Time-stamps within the episode are used as guidelines, but not always as the rule, unless there is a specific number of days given.

Jake’s birthday is somewhere between 5/21 and 6/20, so the one that Gina missed (referenced in “Return of the King”) had to have been the 2018 one, which means that Gina had to be out of the office before 6/24 (the Sunday after 6/20) – hence why the first 4 episodes are all squeezed together.

E1 (“HONEYMOON”): Tuesday, 5/15 - Tuesday, 5/29/2018

The first post-cold-open scene probably happens on Thursday, 5/17: Gina says that Holt is taking “another personal day,” implying that he was gone at least one day after the wedding.

Jake and Amy reach Mexico two days later after, so Saturday, 5/19. Based on dialogue / events they attend / shirt changes, Holt leaves on Tuesday, 5/22. Jake and Amy’s extension begins the next day, 5/23. They are back at work “one week” after Holt leaves, so Tuesday, 5/29 (it could also be Monday 5/28, but it doesn’t really matter because the start date of 6x04 is locked in on a Friday anyway, so might as well give them a full week.)

Continuity Problem: “Captain Holt is at a 49 & improving 8.6% per day” implies that the first scene takes place ~5-6 days after the cold-open, but given Holt’s lack of usual Holt-ness the rest of the episode, we can assume his calculations are off.

Continuity Problem: Amy says that “This is the first time all week” Holt has left them alone, but based on the activities they’ve shown, he’s really only been tagging around with them for, like, 4 days. I’m using the shorter version because 6x04 has to end as early as possible.

E2 (“HITCHCOCK AND SCULLY”): Wednesday, 5/30/2018

Jake is wearing a different shirt here than he was wearing in 6x01. So, the earliest that 6x02 can take place is Wednesday, 5/30.

E3 (“THE TATTLER”): Thursday, 5/31/2018

The next day. It’s a bit odd to have a reunion on a Thursday, but roll with it.

E4 (“FOUR MOVEMENTS”): Friday, 6/1 - Friday, 6/22/2018

Like I said before, because of Jake’s canonical birthday, Gina has to be out of the office before 6/24.

Gina gives her two-week notice in the cold-open.

She stays back Monday-Friday the week after she’s supposed to have left, implying that her official last day was a Friday (assuming that the squad had the weekend off after the Gina-rama festivities, and, of course, she meant exactly 2 weeks). Therefore, she gives her two-week notice on 6/1, her official last day is 6/15, She leaves 6/21, and the episode ends on 6/22.

This timeline locks Jake’s birthday in to the very end of Gemini season, between 6/18-6/20 (with his birthday drinks being the weekend after). Either that, or he (for whatever reason) decided to hold his celebrations a week or more after the actual day.

E5 (“A TALE OF TWO BANDITS”): Day 1 – Day 2 2018

I literally have no idea when this is supposed to happen, except that Day 1 happens on the same day as some kid’s Bar Mitzvah (so probably over the weekend) and the whole thing takes place before Christmas (Trudy says “see you at Christmas!” at the end).

It’s probably also before Halloween/Thanksgiving (so over the summer/early fall) because those events + the holiday season happen pretty close together and we would have probably gotten some indication of those dates approaching during the episode otherwise.

E6 (“THE CRIME SCENE”): Monday, 1/7 – Sunday, 3/10/2019

The murder happens on a Sunday, so Day 1 is a Monday.

Day 51: the briefing room shows 2019 monthly stats on the board, indicating that we’ve officially gotten to the new year, and it’s already February (or later)…

Since it has to be February by the time Day 51 rolls around and Day 1 is a Monday, the episode can start on either December 17, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, or January 7.

December 17 as a start date means that they were working straight through the holidays, which seems unlikely. Christmas/NY Eve as start dates are also unlikely, for obvious reasons. Therefore, Day 1 is Monday, January 7 (and Day 51 is 2/26/2019).

Day 52: Amy punches Jake – 2/27/2019

The Episode takes 8 weeks, 6 days (56 days + “one week later”): the episode ends 3/10/2019.

E7 (“HONEYPOT”): Wednesday, 3/13/2019 – Sunday, 3/17/2019

The episode starts with Jake saying, “this is the third secretary you’ve fired in 3 days,” which indicates that it’s been at least 3 days since the end of 6x06.

E8 (“HE SAID, SHE SAID”): Monday, 3/18 - Friday, 3/22/2019

Day 1: start case

Days 2-4: amy working nonstop; Beefer gives text messages

Day 5: final 2 scenes

Everything has to happen on a weekday because the office that they’re investigating is open throughout.

Continuity Problem: Amy has 3 weeks off; she’s caught up on her paperwork (by which the show meant that she really had no Sergeant duties), and it’s unlikely that Holt would let her sit around and do nothing for that amount of time. However, things always come up unexpectedly, and she’s not doing much anyway in E9-10.

E9 (“THE GOLDEN CHILD”): Monday, 3/25 - Wednesday, 3/27/2019

E10 (“GINTARS”): Saturday, 3/30 - Tuesday, 4/2/2019

Nikolaj probably isn’t in school during this time, at least in the beginning.

E11 (“THE THERAPIST”): Monday, 4/8 - Wednesday, 4/10/2019

As per the B/C-plots, and the fact that therapists probably don’t schedule appointments on the weekends unless absolutely necessary, all of this had to have happened on a weekday.

E12 (“CASECATION”): Friday, 4/19/2019

The earliest this could occur is 4/17; otherwise, it’s illogical to say “our anniversary is coming up.” It’s also been “almost a month” since 6x09 (when they last “hung out”).

I made it a Friday so they could take “next week off” without having to go back to work first.

E13 (“THE BIMBO”): Thursday, 4/25 - Sunday, 4/28/2019

Continuity Problem:

The B-plot takes 6 days (5 tallies on the whiteboard, plus 1 more where Amy’s squad tells her to stop competing for lunchtime greatness), which poses some…problems.

Four of these happen at the same time as the A-plot; two are unaccounted for. However, there aren’t enough days left if Jake and Amy come back from their week off on Monday, 4/29 like they’re supposed to. The latest date they could conceivably come back to work (which would also serve as the first day for the episode) is Saturday, 4/27.

There were three choices here:

Jake and Amy return on Saturday, 4/27. The A-plot lasts until 4/30. The two “remaining” days for the B-plot occur at the same time as ��Ticking Clocks” (5/1) and “Return of the King” (5/2).

Jake and Amy return on Friday, 4/26. The A-plot lasts until 4/29. 1 remaining day occurs on the “Free Day” of 4/30, and the other happens at the same time as “Ticking Clocks,” on 5/1.

Jake and Amy return on Thursday, 4/25. The A-plot lasts until 4/28. Both remaining days occur on the “Free Days” of 4/29 and 4/30.

Logistically, it wouldn’t make sense for one of the remaining days to happen during 6x15: Terry would have to a) randomly change his shirt multiple times/day for some reason, and b) comes back to the Precinct more times than shown while dealing with Gina’s problem. Option 1 doesn’t work.

Amy’s dentist appointment is the morning of 6x14, and the last day of “The Bimbo” is 9:07am-lunchtime, so Option 2 doesn’t work either.

Therefore, Jake and Amy start work again on Thursday and The B-plot continues into the afternoon of 4/30. I mean, do you really need a whole week at the waterpark anyway?

(why was the heist on Cinco de Mayo, instead of, like, anything in June. why)

E14 (“TICKING CLOCKS”): Wednesday, 5/1/2019

E15 (“RETURN OF THE KING”): Thursday, 5/2 - Saturday, 5/4/2019

Day 1 is a weekday – Gina has a business meeting on this day.

Continuity Problem: Jake tells Gina that she’s been blowing him off for “the last few months,” but it’s been much longer than just a few months.

Continuity Problem: The B-plot supposedly takes place on Mariano Rivera’s birthday, which is actually in November.

E16 (“CINCO DE MAYO”): Sunday, 5/5/2019

E17/18 (“SICKO & SUICIDE SQUAD”): Wednesday, 5/8 – Wednesday, 5/15/2019

Day 3 is a Friday (at least, that’s what CJ says in his video). Considering that Terry is only just receiving his Lieutenant’s package, the finale probably occurs right after 6x16.

The episode takes 7 days (until 5/14); I’m assuming that the final scene of Holt as a Patrol Cop occurs the day after, or 5/15/2019. This should also be when the first scene of 7x01 happens. Happy anniversary, Jake and Amy!

#brooklyn nine nine #c: jake peralta #c: amy santiago #p: screw light and breezy {jake & amy}#c: raymond holt #c: rosa diaz #c: charles boyle #c: terry jeffords #c: gina linetti #b99 season 6 #idk what else to tag #b99timelinepost #myposts

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jahaanofmenaphos · 4 years

Photo

Art by the awesome @tommieglenn!

Of Gods and Men Summary:

When the gods returned to Gielinor, their minds were only on one thing: the Stone of Jas, a powerful elder artefact in the hands of Sliske, a devious Mahjarrat who stole it for his own ends and entertainment. He claims to want to incite another god wars, but are his ulterior motives more sinister than that? And can the World Guardian, Jahaan, escape from under Sliske’s shadow?

Read the full work here:

ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

FANFICTION.NET

TUMBLR CHAPTER INDEX

QUEST 07: DISHONOUR AMONG THIEVES

QUEST SUMMARY:

Due to his status as the World Guardian, Jahaan wound up as part of Zamorak’s heist team. Their task? Steal the Stone of Jas from Sliske and return its power to Zamorak. Jahaan gets to learn more about a god propaganda had always skewed, but will he be on board with Zamorak’s plan in the end…

CHAPTER 4: THE HEIST

Morytania. The cruelest and most unforgiving kingdom in all of Gielinor. Sure, you had the lawlessness of the Wilderness, but that was mere anarchy - bandits and small groups of various races and creeds carving out a little piece of something to call their own, no matter how corrupt it was. Morytania was organised chaos, apt as it was the only Zamorakian kingdom left in the world. Morytania was a land of darkness and evil, inhabited by various creatures secluded in the region, scarcely seen outside of the kingdom’s clouds. Such species include the vampyric race, werewolves, ghosts of unruly souls, ghasts and more. While some humans still remained, most of them were helpless under the tyranny of the vampyres.

During the Second Age, the northern and western areas of Morytania belonged to Zaros, while the southern parts belonged to Saradomin and were known as the ‘Hallowland’. Once Zaros was deposed by Zamorak, the new diety gave Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan, a vampyre lord who followed Zamorak during the God Wars, permission to conquer Hallowland as a reward for his hand in the rebellion. It wasn’t long before Draken seized Hallowland for himself and renamed the city as ‘Meiyerditch’. The citizens were held in the city so that Drakan's vampyres could drink their blood as ‘tithes’. And so, Hallowvale turned into a blood-farming ghetto, the sky permanently darkened so that vampyres were no longer hampered by the sun. The death that Drakan brought destroyed the lands of Morytania. He turned fields into swamps, and any that died in their murky depths became undead known as ghasts. Lush forests were transformed into dead clusters of trees. Since its taking, Meiyerditch has been changed into an unrecognisable public squalor. The city is entirely isolated by massive walls on its north, east, and west side, and the south-eastern sea at its southern end effectively boxes the city in. To say that the conditions within Meiyerditch are terrible is an understatement. The city is overcrowded, with humans herded into small wooden apartments that have long since lost walls and roofs to the rot. Food is rare, and many are forced to eat rats to survive. Clothing and other basic necessities are also in short supply. All throughout the city, dying citizens can be seen huddled against walls and in the dark confines of alleys. The ghetto is divided into six sectors, each of which has a number of residents barricaded within. The inhabitants of these sectors pay forced blood tithes on a rotational basis, so as to prevent the large majority from dying of blood loss. Despite this ‘measure’, many citizens do not survive the tithes.

This is only a portion of the kingdom: Mort Myre Swamp lies in western Morytania, plagued by ghasts. It was once a beautiful forest by the name of Humblethorn, but was turned into a swampland once the evil denizens of Morytania descended. The Haunted Woods is a long-dead forest, the remnants of a once luscious and tranquil forest that spread across Morytania. However, when the vampyres arrived, the whole land began to decay and rot. Then there was Mort'ton, a village situated in Morytania, south of the Mort Myre Swamp. The town was once famed for its funeral pyres, though now it is populated by afflicted, strange zombie-like creatures that are the result of a disease which spread through the town some time in the Fifth Age, infecting the population. Nowadays, Mort'ton lies in ruins and, though the Sanguinesti Affliction is no longer contagious and does not present a threat to visitors, the afflicted citizens of the town still wander the streets, and derelict buildings and streets are prowled by shades of long-dead spirits, making the place even more hostile. Directly to the south was the ramshackle town known as ‘Burgh de Rott’ that served as the base for the Myreque rebels who fight to reclaim Morytania from the vampyres.

In the late Third Age, an army of Saradominist soldiers from Misthalin, led by six brothers - Ahrim, Dharok, Guthan, Karil, Torag and Verac - attempted to eradicate the evil creatures of Morytania. These commanders had been given extremely powerful sets of armour and weapons by a mysterious stranger, a follower of Zaros, and led their army with valour through the gloomy swamps of Morytania. Saradominist forces pressed from Paterdomus on the River Salve, all through Mort Myre Swamp, to the walls of Darkmeyer itself, the capital of the Sanguinesti region and the twin city of Meiyerditch. Darkmeyer was Drakan’s residence at the time. Here the brothers made a heroic but bloody and catastrophic stand against Drakan's forces, slaying many. However, as they did, the mysterious stranger that had blessed them before their campaign arrived and told them that they must die, and when they fought with Drakan once again, their powers were greatly diminished. They received horrific wounds and many of their soldiers were killed. The troops were forced to retreat back to their camp. The army tried to treat the brothers' injuries, but their wounds proved fatal, and they all succumbed to their injuries. The soldiers were distraught; they knew that without their commanders, their campaign would end in failure. So, pausing only to bury their dead generals in six barrows, they turned back and fled to their beloved Misthalin.It was here the Barrows Brothers were laid to rest, but they did not rest in peace, becoming the property of their new master and serving as his undead soldiers.A stone’s throw to the south of the Barrows’ graves was Sliske’s lair.

Without the aid of Moia’s teleportation, Jahaan doubt he would have made it on his own. At least, not for a year of so, and likely missing some limbs along the way. It seems as if everyone else had the same idea, arriving in flurries of magic one after the other.When Jahaan landed, he instantly wretched, the sudden onslaught of decay and rot assaulting his senses, the smell unbearable. He’d landed in sodden mud that coated him up to the ankle, scrambling to free himself before he sunk any further.Welcome to Morytania, he grumbled internally, shaking off a few flakes of mud which accidentally splattered onto the back of Zemouregal’s armour. Luckily he didn’t seem to notice.The assembled group quietly trekked through a tiny portion of the swamp until they arrived at the entrance Viggora had described. Prising open the hatch, Bilrach climbed down first to scout out the area, waving the all-clear after a few moments of scanning. However, when they all made it down, their hearts collectively sank.The tunnel was lit, torches protruding from the rocky walls, and on a plinth in front of them was a small handwritten note. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a poem, reading:‘A Poem for the Lost’Think no more of the bright, blue skies aboveYou can barely see five fingers raised in the darkThe green grasses you ran through as a child are goneNo longer surrounded on three sides by earth, wind and seaDoes your red blood even flow or heart beat anymore?North, east, south and west are all the sameOnly light and dark combined can guide you now

Using a small spark of fire magic, Moia burned the note, announcing what everyone was thinking, “He’s been waiting for us.”Instantly, Zemouregal snapped around to Jahaan and cornered him against one of the walls, growling, “Did you say something to that snake, World Guardian?” he spat the title as if it were a curse. “You were so chummy with Sliske and his Zarosian pals at the Ritual, after all.”Jahaan glowered up at Zemouregal, not letting the size difference put him off as he argued, “Hey, Sliske’s no friend of mine. Don’t you start throwing around bullshit claims you can’t back up, or we’re going to have a problem.”Roaring a chilling laugh, Zemouregal smashed a fist into the rocks behind Jahaan’s head, breaking of chunks as he did so. “Is that a promise, or a threat?”“Besides, Sliske can sense the Mahjarrat,” Jahaan defiantly countered, making a good show of not being fazed by the towering figure looming over him. “He probably tracked your movements!”“We’ve been here for mere minutes,” Zemouregal snapped back. “How could he-”“ENOUGH!” Enakhra shrieked, the flames in the torches flickering with cowardice as she did so. “It doesn’t matter how he knew - all that matters is that he does. Zamorak’s plan of stealth is null and void now. We have to charge through and make sure we get to Sliske before he disappears with the Stone again.”“Enakhra’s right,” Bilrach concurred. “Stealth would have been ideal, but we can’t waste anymore time. He’s waiting for us, that means he wants an encounter.”“So we need to go, now,” Moia finished, leading the way down the tunnel. Her momentum didn’t last long before she was surrounded by cave openings on all sides, clueless as to where to go first. Above each one was a coloured paint stroke.“Vich way?” Jerrod sniffed at the openings, trying and failing to catch a scent.“Oh blast, does anyone remember the poem?” Lord Daquarius asked, realising, “I think Sliske left us clues on that note.”Looking guilty, Moia didn’t answer. After cursing an unfamiliar word, Khazard snapped, “Useless halfbreed! We needed that!”“Well how was I supposed to know!” Moia whirled around. “And don’t you DARE call me-”“Blue skies!” Jahaan loudly cut in, silencing the quarrel. Once everyone was listening, he quietly repeated, “The poem mentioned blue skies. Look for something blue.”In moments, the group had found the blue paint stroke above one of the doors and quickly proceeded into the next tunnel.“Five fingers,” Jahaan stated the next clue he remembered, unsure as to how he could remember such a poorly written poem over the name of Lord-...fuck. Nevermind, the poem is more important.Pointing to a ‘V’ over one of the doors, Bilrach announced, “The Infernal symbol for five. This way.”They continued on like this, making light work of the rest of the tunnel system until they reached one last corridor leading to a large expanse. Upon brief inspection, it was a crudely constructed maze with wight guards patrolling at every turn.After peering out from their safe spot to survey the best route, Moia declared, “We’ll have to sneak past them. If we alert them to our presence, more might arrive.”“We can handle whatever comes our way,” Khazard declared, drawing his mighty longsword, the blade glinting in the low torchlight.His ears pricked to the never-ending footsteps of the marching wights, Bilrach countered, “We might get overrun. Who knows how many he can spawn? If we falter this early on, all this effort was for nothing.”Nomad stepped forward. “Leave it to me - these wights are no match for my prowess. I’ll deliver the Stone to Zamorak with ease.”Sliding in front of him, Zemouregal sneered, “Nice try, mage, but I wouldn’t trust you to deliver a letter. You’re not leaving my sight.”“Oh, and you think you have the power to stop me?” Nomad challenged, jeeringly. “How droll.”“When this is over, I’m going to deliver you to Death in parcels.”“Gentleman, please!” Lord Daquarius interrupted, the vain in his forehead bulging. “This is getting old. Let us but aside our petty differences and take down these wights together. We must not fail Lord Zamorak.”Wordlessly striding past Lord Daquarius with a self-righteous grin carved into his ashen face, Zemouregal summoned a bolt of smoke magic and blasted the closest wight to pieces before anyone could stop him. Instantly, five more rounded the corner, their green glowing eyes lighting up the end of the hall.“There. No more debating. You’re welcome.”From the sounds of the incoming footsteps, more wights were arriving.Summoning fire to her palms, Enakhra growled, “Zemouregal? You’re an asshole.”

From the looks of the scenery Jahaan passed as he slashed through the horde of wights, Sliske had clearly devised some elaborate stealth-based mazed, complete with glowing masks to avoid, patrolling wights to assassinate, and levers to toggle certain doorways and passages.The Zamorakians had botched all of that, charging through with the subtlety and grace of a fox in a hen house.Fortunately, they didn’t get overrun by Sliske’s wights. In fact, the danger they presented was more to one another, accidentally tripping over each other’s robes in such a narrow corridor, or sending a spell that shot past an ally a little too close for comfort, or straight up just running into one another as they barged through the wights.Yes, Zamorak would be pleased...

When the group made it past the wight guards and into the next room, they weren’t thankful for what greeted them; a narrow bridge, crowding them all together once more, that approached a large set of doors. A basic representation of Sliske’s face was painted upon them. Not egocentric at all…Embedded onto either side of the doors were two wooden masks; one, the picture of glee and mania. The other, morose and miserable. Enchanted, the pair of them - magical energy radiated from their carvings, and it allowed them the power of speech.“Welcome, welcome! It’s so nice to have guests!” the joyous one cheered, the positivity positively sickening.The dirgeful mask seemed to concur that his partner was annoyingly over the top, remarking, “Must you be so incessantly cheery all the time, Light?”“Oh come now, Shadow, we hardly have visitors,” Light tried to reason, its joyful energy never wavering. It’s voice was an over-enthusiastic replica of Sliske’s own, with the dial turned up to eleven. “Besides, they’ve made it this far. They’ve come to play our little game! Won’t that be fun?”“No. It won’t be,” Shadow grumbled. Like its mania-induced counterpart, this mask, too, spoke with Sliske’s accent and intonation. However, unlike its opposite - and indeed unlike Sliske himself - this mask’s voice sounded earnest, genuine, not a parody of emotion. “I suppose the sooner they leave, the sooner I can sleep and be rid of you. Fine, fine. Get on with it.”The elation (and subsequent irritation) of Light managed to increase tenfold. “Fantastic! Now, this game is rather simple, once you get the hang of it. There’s shadow and light energy gauges on this here door, and two of you must keep them balanced at all times. Thing is, the energy beams are in the Shadow Realm, so a couple of you more skilled fellows will have to open up a window into it for the others to connect themselves to the streams. A few delicate wights are lurking around with knowledge of how to crack the door’s code, so stealing their memories will make unlocking the door a doddle. Ah, but there are a few troublesome souls waiting in the wings to overrun you all, so you best delegate a couple of agents to defend against them. Careful, too much light or shadow energy will cause a bit of an explosion, and I’m not quite sure any of you would survive, which would be such a shame.”Shadow sighed with the world-weariness of a broken down furnace. “Just steal the memories of the wights, balance the energies, unlock the door, try not to die. You don’t need all that nonsense, Light. Just get to it.”Light sighed himself this time, but his had the hint of a chuckle. “You really are no fun, are you old chap? Nevermind. It’s time for these fellows to get cracking! Best of luck, you chaotic little so-and-so’s!”

The team quickly got to work after the masks grew silent. Jerrod would sniff out an undead guard and bring him to Moia for his memories to be read. Meanwhile, Nomad and Enakhra kept the shadow and light energy streams balanced, respectively, as Bilrach and Khazard used their prowess with the Shadow Realm to keep windows into it open. Zemouregal fought to defend the room from the undead hoard that tried to break through. When the wights ended up encroaching from all angles, Jahaan and Lord Daquarius ended up fighting them off too.

Low moaning echoed from the wight Jahaan tangled with. Once it was dead for good this time, he called out, “How’s everyone doing?”Looking around, he saw Enakhra and Nomad straining under the pressure of the energy beams, trying to keep them in balance.“We need more light energy!” Nomad called out, and he would get a brief moment of respite to relax while Enakhra all but crumbled under the increased pressure.Fighting under the weight, Enakhra shouted, “Moia, how much longer?”With her hands on a prayer-like motion, Moia channeled her focus into the wight Jerrod had brought before her as it struggled under the werewolf’s grasp. “Soon. I have three of the four runic symbols required.”This wasn’t reassuring enough for Enakhra who, unfortunately, crumbled under the weight of the beam, crying out as the energy engulfed her. Hearing this, Zemouregal shot around and charged towards Enakhra, throwing her out the way as he took the weight of the light beam himself. While Enakhra struggled to catch her breath, panting and choking from the pain, Zemouregal kept up his end of the beam long enough to rectify the damage his female Mahjarrat comrade had unintentionally inflicted upon the energy metre. Soon enough, it was Nomad’s turn to bear the pressure, but luckily, he managed it well. Still, this little switch-out had left Zemouregal's corner undefended. As there seemed to be less monsters coming into his section, Jahaan pulled double duty, running across the chamber to dispatch the conga-line of wights that had piled up in such a short amount of time. Eventually, Enakhra was recovered enough to defend against the wights, but she did not volunteer to retake the beam from Zemouregal. Naturally, she didn’t even say thank you.“It’s done!” Moia exclaimed, backing away from the guard she was harvesting a memory from and sprinting over to the door, quickly inputting the combination. As soon as the last symbol was twisted towards, the assault of the undead hoards ceased, as did the light and shadow beams.After a series of clinking metallic sounds from inside the door’s mechanism, it swung wide open.Inside, straight ahead, a platform, built for the Stone of Jas.But there was no Stone of that platform.There was only Sliske.

DISCLAIMER:

As Of Gods and Men is a reimagining, retelling and reworking of the Sixth Age, a LOT of dialogue/characters/plotlines/etc. are pulled right from the game itself, and this belongs to Jagex.

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#runescape #sliske #zemouregal #enakhra #nomad

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saiangelo999 · 5 years

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2019 T.v. show Tracker

Part 2

Animes

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Finished it. Read the novel. Checking out the Cdrama (The Untamed). Obsessed. Watch it, it’s worth it.

Currently watching season two! Jing Ling is so precious and all the chibis are SO CUTE!

Dororo

In progress (~episode 20) - Love it so far! Excited to see where it goes!

Update: Dororo was always precious but I just appreciate this child more and more as the episodes continue. I really enjoyed the lighter episode with the opposite village and the swordsmaster. Also, I am glad that Itachi finally died... but tbh I can’t hate him. Dororo is soo forgiving, my precious child.

Edit: Completed. Enjoyed the story and the way that it was wrapped up.

My Roommate is a Cat

Completed - Loved it! Super cute, fluffy and touching. Fun to watch! Really enjoyed the show and REALLY want more! Please make a season 2!!

Fruits Basket 2019

It’s definitely doing its job of hitting the heartstrings true to Fruits Basket lore (I loved the manga). That opening (1) tho is so depressing really setting the mood for the show I guess... I’m excited for more and aware of the pain that is yet to come. But I am excited (and hopeful) to see them do justice to the plot this time. Update: s1 is almost over and I really enjoyed it!

One Punch Man

Loved it!! Finished season one! It was way too short... Will watch season two when all the episodes come out! I actually found the show to have a lot of parallels with The Disastrous Life of Saiki which could be the reason that I enjoyed it so much. I really don’t know how all the fans who watched it when it was first released could have waited so long for season two.

Ruroni Kenshin

Randomly started it cuz I was planning on watching it for a while and it was on Netflix so I thought - why not. Liking it so far but I haven’t gotten very far yet so it’s hard to form an opinion atm.

Dramas

Bad Guys

Completed - Good Binge.

It was very addicting, very interesting premise that captured my attention initially. It’s a good binge, but around episode 10 the show, the show sort of fizzled out for me. The hitman’s storyline (Jung woo) was a bit too melodramatic for my taste and was a bit off-putting, however I absolutely loved the psychopath’s story. That definitely kept me hooked throughout. One huge plus of this show is the action, and it is a lot of fun to watch if you don’t think about the show too much.

Gibo to Musume no Blues

Completed - Loved it! I’d highly recommend it!

This show was so adorable and so sweet and fun to watch from start to finish. I really enjoyed this slice of life and the warm stepmother and stepdaughter relationship throughout the show. It was very heartwarming to watch. I loved how all the characters were treated with respect and didn’t seem like hollow caricatures, I liked the relationships portrayed in the show and the general warmth that this show had throughout.

I am still not over what happened to Ryoichi :( , but I can say that I absolutely loved every single character in this show. The baker definitely grew on me more and more throughout the later half of the show and he became very lovable. Overall, this was a great drama that I am glad I checked out!

Children of Nobody/ Red Moon Blue Sun

Completed - Loved it! 15/10 would recommend!

This drama was really really gripping. I like how the story didn’t feel very formulaic, and I admit I was quite unsure what was going on in the first 2 or so episodes. But once the plot line was set in motion, I was along for the ride. One huge reason for that is probably the main character Cha Woo Kyung, she won me over very quickly and her backstory was very intriguing. I also really like Yi Kyung’s character as well as his team, though it did take me a while to warm up to him. The children all did a phenomenal job as well - I especially like Ha Na and Si Wan’s acting.Si Wan is another huge factor that kept me watching, the child actor did a great job!

One thing I definitely appreciated with this show was how morally grey all the characters were, it made them more relatable. If I were to compare it to similar mystery/crime kdrama’s I’ve seen, I think so far this would rank the highest - the plot was engaging, the characters were interesting, there was absolutely ZERO focus on developing a romantic relationship and the topic - abuse (child primarily) was handled well.

Her Private Life

Really loving Ryan Gold so far!! He’s actually super considerate and kind? Love it! Quite like the female lead as well. Love her relationship with her best friend, they are absolutely adorable! Not too happy about what I heard about the Eun Gi thing where they did the Reply staple of making the viewers assume that he’s her brother only to find out he’s interested in her romantically and that they aren’t blood-related... why is this trope so popular? This reminds me a lot so far of Reply 1997.

Update: show is moving on in a very cliche way... extremely predictable so far. Will maybe stick w it bc I love Ryan’s character and the couple are adorable. TBH I didn’t start this for the plot. Another gripe that I have is just why do kdramas always do the thing where the main couple are meant to be and met during their childhood? I don’t get why that’s so popular... But I do respect the fact that Ryan’s real mom did not abandon him and that arc was resolved quickly.

Overall, it was better than a lot of other dramas in this genre and it was done with much less unnecessary drama. I appreciated how the side characters were handled and liked that they were given time to have their own sub-plots. A decent show all in all.

The Fiery Priest

Loved it! I like the mix of the action and comedy that was showcased in the show. I found this show to be very similar in the plot structure, comedy (to an extent) and characterizations to Chief Kim so I enjoyed the show a lot and had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the show. It’s a fun show that keeps you hooked for more, and like Chief Kim don’t expect any romance between characters to really develop.

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Shin Hye Sun is just gorgeous, omg. She’s also a really good actress. I really liked seeing her in this role coming out of watching Still 17 to see the sheer difference in personality. I am enjoying the contrast. Also, I like her chemistry with Myungsoo. I don’t care for the second lead nor can I bring myself to empathize with him. I also am somewhat disappointed with her family sub-plot because so far it seems pretty cliche so I’m hoping for a plot twist or two.

DNF.

Project S The Series: Spike

I FINALLY finished it! Really loved it. Great acting, loved the pace of the show and how realistic it felt. I really liked watching the team come together and grow together. The few female characters were a delight - Jern is so lovable and adorable. Bright is very sweet and does a lot for the team. Puen’s relationship with the entire team was interesting to see - his strong bond with Singha and now Than, his relationship with Jern and ofc his friends. Than’s relationship with his dad was also portrayed realistically right til the end. It’s a good watch, and I’ll definitely re-watch the series.

Ao to Boku

So addicting, waiting for the last episode to be subbed. Please get subbed!

Update: it was subbed! Finished it! Enjoyed the drama overall. A nice mystery/friendship/slice-of-life one. Be warned that although there is a bit of mystery it is mainly a slice-of-life/friendship drama.

The Untamed

I enjoyed it overall (tho I did end up skipping over some episodes). I thought that it was a faithful adaptation to the novel considering the censorship issues. I love how they took out a lot of the explicit gay but still somehow made parts of the show gayer. Also I LOVE fairy. Fairy is an adorable fluffball that owns my heart <3.

DNF - He is Psychometric

Melo Suits Me/ Be Melodramatic

So... they really made one of the cutest love stories tragic huh. I’m really enjoying the show so far, I love the friendship between the main 4 leads. I am interested about the industry and I like the balance that the drama has with its humour, friendship, love and slice-of-life elements. I really like the actress and her manager couple they are so cute! I kind of wish I have more cute mother-son moments with the kid so hopefully in a future episode.

Update: Finished it! Liked the ending overall, had one minor qualm. I really liked the Director (Yeller) that was introduced. He was an unexpected delight and I love his dynamic with Eun Jung. I did like that they did end up subverting a romantic relationship and left it platonic. That was unexpected.

T.v. shows

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 6 - Finally finished it! Lot of fun, and enjoyed watching yet another season of the show. I really enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo heist this year and thought that was a lot of fun. I personally didn’t really feel Gina’s absence too much though her going away words were cute near the beginning of the season.

Broadchurch

Completed - Completely binged season 3! I love this show!

I forgot how beautiful the cinematography in the show was! Their little village is gorgeous. It’s a bit jarring to watch it after a year or so because my memory of season 2 of Broadchurch was quite hazy. Nevertheless, I absolutely love this show. This season was very different from the previous ones, and it had a good build up but the final reveal of the culprit was quite... predictable. However, there was a twist that came with the reveal that came completely out of the blue. I liked the way Alec/D.I Hardy and Ellie handled the issue at hand and set an example of how cases of rape should be handled within the police force. It was also really nice to see Beth’s growth, the vicar and what Maggie were up to! I also enjoyed seeing Alec and his daughter’s relationship grow. Too bad its cancelled... here’s hoping that one day they’ll renew it.

Stranger Things season 3

I personally liked it a lot more than season two because I felt that it had more growth from the characters. I liked Eleven’s character growth and how the dynamic of the relationships changed and seeing the kids grow up. But, I’m definitely getting a bit tired of this show... because although I did enjoy this season, I still feel that in a way it was redundant.

Derry Girls s2

I loved it! So funny. So adorable. Love the characters and the ridiculous situations that they put themselves in (or are put in). Sister Michael is still my fave, her lines are always pure gold.

Anne with an E season 3

Trying to keep track of it as it is airing on CBC. I missed the second episode :( But I watched episode 3 and the foreshadowing for the residential schools omg

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ctl-yuejie · 5 years

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HP!TayNew

part 5: delicate

( 4.5 k)

thanks as always to @earthpodd , @sluttynewwiee , @bl-phillip @ziq-panda + @somewhatavidreader for the cutest live-commentary & sweet comments

read on ao3 (part 1 2 3.1 3.2 3.3 4 6)

Newwiee knew for a fact that he looked great in green. Too bad that he had gotten sorted into Gryffindor. Even worse that his BF was a Hufflepuff.

“I’m over wearing red all day”, he complained to Tay, pouting. “And it only gets worse in winter. Now we have to wear sweaters and scarfs in house colors, too.”

“Red looks good on you though.”

Tay quite liked how the gold stripes on Newwiee’s uniform seemed to mirror the yellow of his.

Newwiee absentmindedly poked his finger into Tay’s sweater while he stared at the Slytherin students in their class and let out a dejected sigh. Tay ruffled his hair and turned his attention back to the giant snail to his feet.

“Green would make me look slimmer as well. I wish people would stop spoiling me by saying that I’m thin.” “I never said that”, Tay snickered. “Fatty.” Earning a slap from Newwiee.

With his thick protective gloves, Tay was guiding another snail away from where they were standing.

After getting points deducted by professor McGonagall for hexing his clothes Newwiee had stopped trying to charm them. He was a brilliant spell-caster. But he had nothing on Hogwarts’s magic.

“Wouldn’t it be great to see if a Blast-Ended Skrewt would win a fight against a Streeler? Whose venom is more toxic, you think?” But Newwiee wasn’t paying any attention to him, most likely trying to figure out how to he could get his hands on a Slytherin robe. He had bugged Gun about this before. But besides the obvious difference in size, Gun hadn’t understood the appeal of his uniform to Newwiee. “They aren’t even THAT green”, he had said and refused to ask a friend to borrow a sweater that would fit Newwiee.

Putting his hands onto one of the sharp spikes, Tay pushed another Streeler’s shell away from him and made it reroute to the other end of the clearing. It was their exercise for the hour to herd the escargatoire into their winter den.

Suddenly there where hands on his shoulders and he whirled around almost losing his footing. Off had sneaked up on him and was laughing at Tay’s reaction. “Oi, Peng! What are you doing here?” Tay was happy to see his friend. “Had a special herbology class down at the grounds.” Tay knew what special herbology classes meant. He looked at Off in excitement, his eyes begging his friend to say what monstrous plant they had examined. “Made a quick trip to the Whomping Willow.” Off wasn’t impressed by dangerous plants and had stood at a safe distance throughout his class, but with Tay making his overexcited face the class had totally been worth it. “Ahhhh, I wish I could get close to that thing…At least we have unicorns on our curriculum this year.” “Don’t mean to disappoint, but most likely Hagrid will just make you trace them and collect their hair. We never saw an actual unicorn in class.” Tay looked crestfallen. “It’s fine. Rumor has it they don’t like men that much anyways”, Off tried to salvage the situation. “I thought they might be okay with me”, Tay mumbled dejectedly.

While he was talking he had forgotten to hold off the Streelers and Newwiee almost got run over by one. Shrieking he jumped onto the rock next to him to evade touching it.

From across the clearing Hagrid was checking up on them. Tay awkwardly gave him two thumbs up before having a look around. He wasn’t that interested in gastropods but he had to admit that Streelers were right up his alley. Enormous in size and with both toxic spikes and a venomous trail they left swath of destruction. Tay was buzzing in excitement. The shells would change color hourly making the clearing look like a kaleidoscope. Beautiful but dangerous. “What an abundance of nature”, he exclaimed.

Off was raising an eyebrow at him.

Pointing to Newwiee still perched on the rock like a cat he asked “What’s he doing?” to get Tay’s attention back. “Ogling the Slytherin’s.” “Is he still not over this? Gun complained to me about getting harassed by him.” Tay gave him a look like he agreed that Newwiee was starting to get way too obsessed with wearing Slytherin robes. Newwiee would definitely look great in green but the lengths he appeared to be willing to go to wasn’t something Tay was able to follow.

With a tap to Tay’s shoulder Off said goodbye and made his way back towards the castle. “Love you Peng!” Tay called after him, Off raising a hand in response.

Newwiee sighed again. The only reason he hadn’t dropped Care of Magical Creatures had been Tay. And Tay wasn’t paying any attention to him at the moment. Next thing Tay knew was that he got pushed against the nearest snail, starting off his next round of arguments with Newwiee.

Tay had been right about one thing. He really had no idea to what lengths Newwiee was willing to go to in order to get his hands on a Slytherin robe.

After a study session Newwiee held Tay back, making sure that no one around them was listening.

Off and Gun hadn’t realized that they were hanging back, arms around each other as they walked down the corridor.

“Let’s break into the prefect’s bathroom”, Newwiee whispered into Tay’s ear, holding onto his shoulder. “What?” Newwiee had to hush Tay before he could protest. “We follow the Slytherin prefect into the bath and grab his robes once he gets into the water.” Tay wasn’t sure if this was supposed to count as a plan. “We could steal them somewhere else? Or not at all?” He tried to argue back. Newwiee turned to him indignantly. “If I have to take them away from someone I want it to be at least a prefect.” “You don’t have to take the…”, Tay sighed. “That’s breaking a ton of house rules.” “But it’s exciting!” Newwiee met his eyes conspiratorially. “I just don’t see how a furius professor McGonagall and a sad professor Sprout are exciting to you.” It was a fruitless exercise to try an persuade Newwiee. “Your idea of excitement is talking to the ghost of the Fat Friar in the Hufflepuff basement.” “He has a lot of interesting thoughts on religion!” Tay objected. But Newwiee wasn’t listening. “Don’t worry about the professors. We just have to not get caught.”

‘We’ Tay thought. Of course he was included in Newwiee’s plans.

They met in the boy’s restroom on the fifth floor the next Sunday. Only wearing some dark pants and their white uniform shirts to make it more difficult to connect them to their houses.

There had been a slight change of plans. Not knowing the layout of the prefect’s bathroom put them at a disadvantage so they decided to break in first and then hide and wait. With some hasty digging they at least knew the usual time the Slytherin prefect was using the bathroom.

After making sure that no one was around they went outside and headed down the corridor. Passing the statue of Boris the Bewildered they arrived in front of the door that lead to the prefect’s bathroom.

The few days they had had to prepare for the heist hadn’t been enough to wangle the password out of one of the head boys or girls. Which meant that they had to improvise.

Crouching down in front of the door they brooded over the options. It had been silly to assume that standing in front of the door would give them any clues. A sweet scent wafted underneath the door and tickled Tay’s nose. “Urghhh”, he scrunched up his face. “I really don’t like Ylang-Ylang oil.” Newwiee looked at him confused “It smells more like vanilla to me.” Before they could start to get into a fight about bath salts they heard a click from the door and it unbolted. They sneaked in, closing the door softly behind them. Tay hadn’t expected that they would even get this far and felt really lost. Newwiee appeared to have trusted in their abilities as he didn’t seem to be surprised about actually getting in. Tay watched him pull out his wand.

“Homenum Revelio!”

No reaction.

It seemed like luck was on their side and no one had entered before them. They made there way through a narrow entrance that opened up into a big oval. The room was dominated by a large swimming pool-like tub. The water was perfectly clear only steam rising up from its surface towards the ceiling. They hadn’t bothered with illuminating the room so the only light came from outside, passing through the stained-glass windows making the place look even more magical than it already was. The only sound was coming from a bouquet of faucets, water in different colors slowly running down, filling up the bathtub. A heavy floral scent wafted through the room. Behind the enormous bathtub a bunch of changing cubicles were lined up against the wall. The thought of a hot bath was really tempting and Tay couldn’t stop himself from imagining what Newwiee would look like with wet hair, water running down his chest. Trying hard to stop his train of thoughts the next thing he knew was Newwiee dragging him over and pushing him inside one of the cubicles. Pointing his wand upwards he incantated a protective spell, conjuring a shield that would make the cubicle stay hidden so that no one would be able to see or hear them. They left the door ajar to better survey the room.

Tay crouched down, heart beating wildly. This protection charm was advanced magic and he hoped that Newwiee hadn’t overreached and could actually uphold its effect. “Hope they will come soon. I haven’t tried this spell over a longer period of time.” Newwiee seemingly relaxed leaned on Tay, eyes fixed on the entrance way. Tay started to panic. He couldn’t even tell if it was the humidity of the room, Newwiee’s proximity or the certainty of the discovery that made him dizzy. Just when he felt like he wanted to bolt and get away from the room voices could be heard.

Lights turned on and the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and the Slytherin prefect entered the room, already stripping off their clothes while they were walking towards the tub. They had some light banter going on between them and when they were fully naked they canon balled into the water. The Slytherin prefect relaxed against the edge of the pool, calling out towards the hallway. The head boys of Ravenclaw and Slytherin skittered inside and hastily stripped down to join the two seniors. Realizing that they weren’t planning on using the changing cubicles Tay let out a soft sigh, immediately clapping his hands over his mouth. Newwiee’s charm seemed to still be working. On the other end of the pool the prefect turned some of the faucets and soon not only the tub but the whole floor was covered with foam and bubbles.

Newwiee’s eyes were fixated on the Slytherin captain’s robes that were lying on their side of the pool. They both had a sturdy build, so they should fit. Adrenaline was pumping through Tay’s veins and he clung to Newwiee’s arm in order to not black out. “I get the robe and then we run.” Tay’s heart was in his mouth but he straightened himself up, getting ready.

Bolting from their hiding place scaring the boys in the water Newwiee yelled “Accio” and a Slytherin robe flew into his arm as they slid across the slippery tiles of the bathroom towards the exit. Having underestimated the amount of bubbles, it took them longer than expected to cross the room and when they entered the hallway they were wet from head to toe.

Tay was laughing hysterically as they made a dash towards the exit. “Colloportus!”, the Slytherin prefect yelled after managing to get his hands onto his wand. The lock on the door clicked and they were trapped. “Alohomora!” Newwiee yelled in return but they were running way too fast and he couldn’t aim properly. Just as they were about to collide with the door Tay stretched out his hand.

“Annihilare!”

Not only the lock was blasted open but he took the whole door with him. Besides being naked the force of their exit had the Slytherin’s shaken so it took them some time before they went after them.

Blinded by the explosion Tay and Newwiee grabbed onto each other as they turned the corner. They had an advantage of a few corridors but besides not having thought about where to go moving was made more difficult as Tay was shaking with laughter and clinging to Newwiee’s arm to steady himself. Newwiee was partially in a state of shock, already regretting to have asked Tay to come and break some school rules with him. This wasn’t a simple case of breaking and entering anymore, but school property getting blown-up. Tay didn’t know how many stairs they had taken to get to higher floors but he felt his energy getting drained making it hard to go one. His laughter came out as wheezes and he couldn’t control his breathing.

Chasing around the same block on the seventh floor several times, they started to panic more and more. Seemingly from all sites footsteps of running people could be heard and they didn’t know where to go. As they ran past the same wall for the third time, Newwiee noticed a small wooden door opening up in front of them. He grabbed Tay by his arm and steered them through it.

They crashed into the back wall painfully, Newwiee almost hitting his head but Tay pushed his hand in between just in time. Wooden sticks rained down on them and they all but expected the next Slytherin to open the door and drag them out. There was no way this ruckus could have gone unnoticed. But nothing happened.

Looking around Newwiee could hardly see anything in the dim light but he was quite sure that he was standing in a cramped broom storage room.

With his arms full of Tay.

Trying to stand up straight and disentangle himself Tay was shaken by another fit of laughter, forehead colliding with Newwiee’s shoulder. “Oi, Tay. Shush.” He wasn’t listening to what Newwiee was saying feeling like he wasn’t in control of his body anyways. Still giggling he turned his head slightly breathing against Newwiee’s collar.

“What did you do to that door?” Newwiee tried to sound reprimanding but the amusement in his voice was obvious. “I blasted it.” Tay started to shake with laughter again, his weight almost dragging Newwiee down to the ground. “Like a real picaroon.” ”A what?” Newwiee would never get used to the words Tay tended to throw around. “A bad person.” Tay snickered against his neck. “Shush.” Tay chortled but managed to calm down a bit.

“Your hand okay?” As if he could do somethings about it Newwiee took Tay’s hand in his, softly touching its back where it had come into contact with the wall. “I can’t feel anything.” It wasn’t a lie. Tay was far too distracted by Newwiee stroking his hand. After getting soaked by bubbles Newwiee’s shirt clung to his chest, Tay noticed that he wasn’t wearing anything under it. “So slutty.” Newwiee tried to turn his head so Tay could see his look of disbelief but Tay’s hair was in the way. “You should see yourself right now.” he whispered back instead. “I’m not that handsome though.” Tay said while pulling himself up to face Newwiee. His voice was serious. He meant it. Newwiee was ridiculously handsome and he couldn’t compare. Tay wanted to explain himself some more but realizing how close they were his words got stuck in his throat.

He could feel Newwiee’s breath on his lips.

It should’ve felt ticklish but he was so focused on their proximity that his body seemed to be numb to any external sensation. The only thing he felt was his heart beating loudly and his chest getting tighter and tighter. He had no idea what Newwiee was doing, whether he was staring back at him, aware of how weird Tay must be looking, whether he was thinking about their pursuers, or if his mind had wandered to the robes. All Tay could focus on where Newwiee’s lips. His eyes started to strain as he continuously had to cast them down. Slowly Newwiee’s lips vanished from his angle of view.

Electric bolds ran through his body when their lips touched.

Only fleeting while both had been swaying towards each other just so slightly at the same time. But he had felt the touch and could still feel the tingling sensation that got left behind. All air had left his lungs and he leaned against the wall in order to not fall down as all strength left his legs. He was trembling. Newwiee was looking at him questioningly with widened eyes. They still were close but Tay tried to melt himself into the wall behind him. Newwiee moved his body forward and panic rose inside Tay.

“Sorry”, it escaped him as a barely audible whisper and he bolted not caring about the Slytherins waiting for him on the other side.

He stumbled through the corridors, disorientated and head void of any idea where he should go.

How he wished that their lips had never touched. How he wished he had pulled Newwiee closer and really kissed him. How he wished that he would’ve played it off, like it was an accident. Because it had been an accident. How he wished it hadn’t been. How he wished that Newwiee had felt nothing. How he wished that it had been Newwiee’s intention to kiss him. How he wished he had had the courage to kiss him earlier. How he wished he had never tried to stay so close to him. How he wished to have never come here. How he wished to have known Newwiee earlier so he could’ve had the chance to make him his.

Somehow, he made it to the Hufflepuff basement undetected. His hands where still gripping the Slytherin robe and the few people around the fireplace looked at him in confusion. Without explaining himself he went inside his room and hid beneath the covers.

He pulled the Slytherin robe tightly to his chest, in substitution of not having anything that belonged to Newwiee to hold onto.

Instead of having Newwiee to hold onto.

He wanted to have him next to him so badly.

Tay bunched up the robe and the side of his blanket to form a bolder. Holding onto it he imagined Newwiee lying there next to him. He would throw a leg over his side to hold him in place as he would slowly kiss up his neck. Hands in his hair he would hold Newwiee’s face before kissing him on the mouth. Getting their bodies as close to each other as possible to feel him everywhere. Tay imagined how Newwiee’s lips would taste on his, how he would kiss him until Newwiee would open his mouth to get more air. How he would put his head into Newwiee’s nape and leave more kisses beneath his ear. He could almost trick himself into thinking that Newwiee’s hand would hold onto his waist before moving to his back to pull him close and hold him tight. Like Newwiee had done so many times before. As friends. He thought back to the second their lips had touched. Angrily he flung the Slytherin robes away from his bed and punched the cushion. He wrestled with the blanket tears of frustration pricking his eyes. What if Newwiee hated him now. What if Newwiee hadn’t even noticed their lips touching. What if it was all in Tay’s head. What if they couldn’t go back to how they were before.

Off found Tay tangled up in his blankets fast asleep. Sometimes he wished they could switch bodies for a day so that Tay wouldn’t stress out so much all the time.

The following week was stressful for everyone around them.

Tay had decided to carry on and act like nothing had happened but whenever Newwiee would get close to him he would withdraw completely. After he had pushed Newwiee’s hand away then Newwiee had tried to touch him for the umpteenth time that day Newwiee had gotten moodier and moodier. Tay couldn’t do anything against it. Forgetting that their lips had ever touched was clearly not working but he couldn’t find the strength to explain himself which let to himself getting even more irritated. They argued with each other as always but there was no lightness in their banter, comments cutting and almost hurtful. They couldn’t stay apart from each other, aware of how entangled their lives and themselves had become. But when they were together they were wearing each other down leaving each other exhausted and disgruntled.

They had calmed down a bit by Wednesday. Gun let out a big sigh of relief as he watched Tay and New climb the astronomy tower next to each other grabbing Off’s hand and moving it to his head so he would pat him.

They settled next to each over on the observatory as always but there was more space between them than usual. Tay turned away from Newwiee and rolled onto his side. His chest hurt and he couldn’t bear to look at him for much longer. Newwiee really seemed to not give much weight to their lips brushing. Neither of them was saying anything and their silence continued for the next days, much to the distress of professor Flitwick who had taken quite a liking to their bickering.

Over the weekend Newwiee seemed to have vanished. Tay missed him immensely. He blamed himself for pushing Newwiee away when the other wasn’t even aware of what was going on inside of his head.

He thought he had figured their relationship out by now. How could he still be so unsure about what he wanted himself. Newwiee had put his hands on his many times, they had been a constant presence on his shoulders and his waist. In return he had hugged Newwiee, held his hand and put his head onto his shoulder. That was all he wanted. He didn’t need to kiss Newwiee if it meant that they wouldn’t be the same anymore. It was frightening to think about walking up to Newwiee, but this really was his fault. And him blowing hot and cold shouldn’t cause Newwiee to suffer.

Decided on putting an end to it once and for all he grabbed the Slytherin robe that was still in his room and started to look for Newwiee.

Rain was pouring down outside so he decided to focus on the inside of the castle. After canvassing all classrooms, he went up to the 7thfloor and waited in front of the portrait of the fat lady. Some first-year students eyed him up and down suspiciously when they past the entrance for a second time and he was still lingering in the corridor. Finally some fourth year students were approaching.

Talking to them didn’t help much. It seemed like Newwiee hadn’t been back to his dorms for the second day in a row. Tay was sure that his classmates were telling the truth as they seemed genuinely confused by Newwiee not being by his side this whole time.

Dejectedly he turned around and wandered down the corridor.

After telling Off and Gun tentatively about what had happened that day, only leaving out the part when his lips had brushed Newwiee’s, Gun had perked up at the description of the broom closet. By chance it seemed like they had stumbled upon the so-called room of requirements. “Papii and I go there all the time”, Gun playfully raised an eyebrow at Off, cocking his head. “Because that’s where we keep all of our clothes”, Off added cool. “Thought about banishing your tonics there more than once.”

Having checked all the places Newwiee tended to frequent he decided to follow up on his only remaining lead.

Not knowing what room Newwiee might have wished for he ran up and down the corridor imagining a place that would bring them back together. A room that allowed him to enter. A room where he could find him.

Slowly a big cast-iron door with intricate details started to form. Impatiently he bobbed on the balls of his feet when at last a door handle formed and pushing it down he went through.

What he entered was less a room but the nave of a cathedral.

Between gigantic pillars of stone an array of things was piled onto each other. Wandering inside he became aware of the amount of secrets this place must hoard. Statues, stuffed animals, several musical instruments and a never-ending arrangement of instruments and furniture. To his left one of the piles was made up only by books and almost reached the ceiling. Several meters above the floor Newwiee had caved a hole into this paper-tower and was lying there with closed eyes.

“Newwiee!” Tay could hear his voice break.

When Newwiee opened his eyes and turned towards him Tay simply held out the Slytherin robes not trusting his voice. Gingerly Newwiee climbed down from where he had been perched and landed in front of Tay’s feet. Their eyes met and Tay’s heart-beat calmed down by a bit when he was awarded with a soft smile. Newwiee put his hand on Tay’s, throwing the robes onto the ground. Tay knitted his brows together in confusion. “I don’t know if I really want them. Might feel weird to wear them, even if they’d look good on me…” He crinkled his nose. Tay had to smile against his will. Newwiee put his hand on Tay’s shoulder and when Tay let him do so without pushing him away he could see him relax.

This was all he wanted.

Asking for permission with his eyes Tay sighed when Newwiee nodded in answer. Putting his arms around Newwiee’s waist he hugged him tightly. They stood like that for a while until Newwiee amusedly patted his head, surprised at the sudden clinginess. “What room is this?” Tay asked, resting his head against Newwiee’s collar bone. “This is the room of hidden things.” Newwiee replied sheepishly. He had tried to play it cool, but saying it out loud he realized how helplessly corny it sounded. Tay giggled and slowly entangled himself, left hand never letting go of Newwiee’s shirt. This was good. They were good. This was all he needed.

Having Tay look at him with such fondness, Newwiee’s lips curled into a smile, eyes twinkling. But standing this close he had to swallow hard.

Newwiee could feel his lips tingle, remembering how they had touched Tay’s.

to be continued

part 6

#hp!taynew #hp taynew drabbles #tay tawan #newwiee #taynew #new thitipoom #newtay #i had so much fun writing this #tay is a hopeless romantic and newwiee is sappier than he lets on #more pining

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thedazedyouth · 6 years

Text

It’s You Who Hung The Moon

An Alfreyco series that I may or may not actually finish. Updates will be slow. I don’t know how many chapters it’ll be, but at least 4-5.

Summary: Alfredo’s introduction to the Fakes is through a failed assassination plot.

Make All The Sound You Want

There’s a particular haze that has weaved its way into the very concrete that forms the rough streets, to the glass that stands overwatching the insignificant ants scuttling about. The entrancing lights of the repeating buildings pull the needy, lonely and lavish into a state of constant daydream; a place where nothing means anything and a footstep is consequential.

Life has a twisted meaning within the borders of Los Santos. The sun beams down upon the city yet it is shrouded in sentient shadows and no named people. The very scent of the city can twist innocent minds into lethal beasts, snarling and laughing.

Crime is rampant, while the bystanders prefer to turn a blind eye to save their own skins.

How does that make them better?

Blood has leaked down from the heavens and stains the sidewalks, the encompassing mountains and every grain of sand that sits just before the lapping waves; and it is ignored.

Questioning the fabric of Los Santos’ reality will only lead to the unravelling of a city built upon graves and refusal to acknowledge unspeakable crimes that should remain as silent sin. Only whispers of the act the Gods above have witnessed make it further than closed doors and bribed corruption.

Amorality overtook as the trend of the century, and apathy snaked in closeby; together the pair destroyed a generation with hopes and faith and turned them into nightmares and unrecognizable reflections.

To the ones with fresh blood, that has yet to find its way onto a back alley in the dead of night, Los Santos is a miracle. A place to start again and wash away the regrets and mistakes that slyly follow you. It’s somewhere to settle down, start a family and live the life destined for the normal.

No one smiles at the passing sign that says “WELCOME TO LOS SANTOS” and thinks they’ll end up running past faded posters plastered against brick walls down a trashed and forgotten street. No one would believe the blood pooling from their side, their hand being steady as they pushed against the wound and their other kept a tight grip on their silver handgun. No one would imagine that the man keeping them stable and upright would be someone they planned to assassinate the night previous.

But Alfredo Diaz has never had a normal life.

Thrills Don’t Come For Free

It wasn’t a bad thing that Trevor had finally gotten comfortable around the crew. He wasn’t so tense that you could visibly see him hold his whole body at a nervous angle, and he wasn’t a ton of bricks when anyone hugged him; in fact now he’d completely melt into it after being touch starved for so long. There were no complaints from about area.

When Trevor was an awkward newbie, he was punctual. He showed up to every heist a hour ahead of time, just in case, and he was always in Geoff’s office to discuss plans before Geoff even got there. Trevor liked things to be tight. He’d rather kill a target straight away rather than toy with them; unlike the other Fakes, who need some kind of release and being sadistic seem to work.

He slowly loosened those restraints as he picked up things from the Fakes; little habits they had that went mostly unnoticed. He found that it was more fun to draw things out, fuck with a victim a little before their doom.

Sadly, one of those restraints he let go was his perfectionism, in a sense.

The Fakes first noticed a pattern starting about six months into his appointment as the new leader. They were robbing a jewelry store; Geoff realized his and Jack’s anniversary was approaching and although she said no gifts, he couldn’t help himself. It wouldn’t be a surprise but she could get anything she wanted.

It was almost time for the heist to begin and Trevor was nowhere to be found. They were a few members down; Ryan and Gavin were negotiating with another crew for territory, so they needed the extra pair of hands.

Jeremy was furiously texting and calling Trevor’s phone only to be left on voicemail and a petty read.

Geoff was grumbling as they waited in Jack’s car, something about the respect in this crew and how he should whip them into shape, literally.

Ten minutes later, there was a sharp series of knocks on the drivers window. Trevor was standing there, black sunglasses with the price tag still hanging off and an iced coffee in hand, the ice cubes almost completely melted.

Jack rolled down her window. “What the absolute fuck, Trevor.” Total and utter exhaustion was distinct in her voice, with a pinch of tired annoyance. “Where the hell have you been?”

Trevor took a long, exaggerated sip from his drink “Uh, I reckon that’s pretty obvious,” he said calmly.

Jack pinched her brow and sighed deeply. Mentally, she was trying to find the words to chew him out but the lack of surprise took away from the anger. So instead she threw up her hands in defeat. “Fuck it, then. Let’s fucking go.”

Trevor stood back to let Jack jump out of the car, Geoff, Jeremy, and Michael followed suit. Michael was trying to stifle his laughter as Trevor took another thirty seconds to walk a few meters to throw out his coffee into a dumpster.

When he joined the crew again, Jack gestured towards the store they were across the street from.

“Ready?” she asked.

Trevor fixed his sunglasses, and nodded.

The Lads and Trevor were beaming in amusement as the crew made their way towards the jewellery store, Geoff was regretting every choice that lead him to that point while Jack was planning her retirement.

The heist went as well as the majority of their heists; barely escaping and leaving a trail of fire and explosions behind them. They quickly made it back to the car, Jack was quite content in the passenger's seat. A simple, shining set of gold and silver bracelets dangled together as she reached over and wiped away some ash from Geoff’s face.

The couple gazed lovingly at each other, only for a few moments but long enough to discomfort the trio in the backseat.

“Can we go now? The cops are gonna be on us soon,” noted Trevor, looking anywhere except in front of him. His new sunglasses were sitting askew on his face, if he noticed he didn’t bother to fix them.

Jack broke the stare to snap back at Trev. “You don’t get to say anything, not after that shit you pulled today.” She turned to Geoff again. “Let’s go, babe,” she said sweetly.

Jeremy and Michael snickered on either side of Trevor, who was too afraid of Jack to say anything to shut them up.

Catch Fire With Me

Alfredo walked calmly down the passageway, the two guards either side of him were starting to blend into the shadows and he couldn’t tell if it was real or just the dark lighting. The fact he would have believed the former was telling to how he’d been in the city for too long.

Five years ago, Alfredo would have pictured himself dead in a ditch if you asked him; but here he is now. He was entering the business of one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the city. An offer was sent out to Fredo, it wasn’t stated but he knew what would happen if he deemed himself too good to show up.

So there he was, walking into a meeting he didn’t know what about and his best gun was in the hands of some brute next to him, it was mentioned in the request that he should bring it.. Not exactly how he pictured his Thursday morning but better than doing nothing, he supposed.

The hallway was quickly ending, and a simple white door was waiting at the end. Stood before it was another two guards, their suits were the same as the ones beside Alfredo; but these ones were obvious. They didn’t blend in, didn’t disappear, these ones were meant to be seen, to put fear in him.

The one to the left only moved his arm to reach over and open the door. The guards beside him kept moving, slightly pushing Alfredo forward when he hesitated for a moment, with his own gun too. The fact that he knew nothing about this meeting unsettled him, it wasn’t how he usually handled business deals.

The room they entered was extended, it was clearly designed for office meetings. There was a wall of windows overlooking the streets but they were covered by velvet curtains. There were a series of chandeliers hanging over a long, maple table; a man sat at the very other end, hands clasped together and a suit similar to the ones his guards wore.

“Good morning, Mr Diaz.” His voice was smooth, but it boomed throughout the room. “Take a seat.” The man gestured to the seat directly to his right.

Alfredo held his best poker face as he walked, unguarded, to the other side of the room. He pulled out a chair and slowly sat down. He kept the guards in his peripheral visions but made eye contact with the man next to him.

“My name is Caden Sparks. You must be wondering why I called you here today. I have a proposition for you that I hope you’d be interested in.”

Alfredo remained silent, allowing the man, Sparks, to explain further. Sparks stood up, he paced to the large curtains and pulled one open. The bright sun was sharp in Fredo’s eyes, but after he adjusted to the light he could see Sparks standing, almost watching the city with curiosity.

“I assume by now you’ve heard of the Fake AH Crew,” Sparks continued, still not facing him.. “Over the years that crew has grown more powerful, faster than anyone I’ve seen before. I’ve encountered them more times than I’d want but every time, they’ve proven that they’re nothing more than a bunch of arrogant children who are drunk on their power. It’s no secret that the famous Kingpin was the one who built the crew up from nothing, he’s always been in control, of his crew and the city. But something no one realized, is over the years Ramsey has given up the reins. He’s old, too old to be holding so much power. There was a change in the Fakes’ operations, a subtle change but a definite one. Not just once, though. The title of boss was passed over again. At first, I had no idea how to find this new, mysterious leader. But after searching for months, I found him.”

Sparks stopped, leaving the room in a tense silence. Alfredo processed what he was just told and realized what his job was going to be.

“And you want me to kill him,” Alfredo said.

“Exactly. Y’know, you’re just as smart as they say you are.” Sparks turned around again to face Alfredo, he was grinning. “Now Mr Diaz, I hope you understand how important this is. A simple bullet, that I will supply, will alter the course of this city and it’ll all be because of you.”

“What if I refuse?” Alfredo raised. It was a half-assed threat that he wasn’t stupid enough to mean but needed to know the risks of this job.

Sparks ignored his comment, he slowly paced towards Alfredo. His hand slipping into his pants pocket, Fredo’s body tensing as he prepared to run. Instead of pulling out a gun, it was a small item that flashed in the sunlight. Sparks leaned onto the table next to Alfredo.

“This bullet.” He held the small metal object between two fingers up to Alfredo’s face. “That gun.” He pointed to the guard holding Alfredo’s sniper rifle. “You’ve got a week and if you miss, if you fail for any reason, I’ll cut off your limbs and throw you off the pier.”

Alfredo took the bullet from Sparks’ hand. “Good thing I’m the best shot in town.” He smiled back at him, the threat meaning nothing to him, nothing could scare him. “Do I at least get a name for this guy? Or will you set it up for me?”

“Trying to make me do your dirty work, Diaz? I appreciate the snark,” Sparks said. “You’ll track him yourself, though. His name’s Trevor Collins. Make a display out of his body, I want everyone to see it.”

Curse My Eyes

The penthouse was often filled with a bunch of lazy bodies, laying around together without directly interacting. When there wasn’t a heist being planned and there was no other crew to talk with, most of the Fakes spent their time either working out some repressed anger or being normal adult men; playing video games.

Gavin had gone on a spree after he and Ryan came back from their negotiation and the crew was only just getting around to the pile stack next to the flat screen in the lounge. The Lads plus Jack and Ryan each sat around the TV, yelling at each other and laughing.

Trevor and Geoff had managed to discreetly slip away as the others were preoccupied. Geoff made sure to lock his office door behind them; they had been holed up in there for days, keeping any stray eyes away. Even after Trevor took over control, Geoff kept it his space. Trevor claimed he did better work surrounded by chaos rather than blocked away from it.

Geoff sat behind the desk, Trevor had taken to pacing back and forth. Geoff tsked, shaking his head at the boy.

“Sit down, dumbass. Let’s figure this out,” he said.

Trevor sat down quickly, still feeling like it was a demand despite his own position of power. He leant his arms on his knees, his hands fiddling together as his brain pieced together the information they had received.

“We needed that land, Geoff. We’ve already promised the Vultures downtown that they can use it for their operations.” Trevor sped through what he’d already said a hundred times. “Tell me again exactly what Ryan said happened.”

Geoff sighed. “The negotiation went perfectly, Gavin was his usual amazing self; we got everything we wanted and a little more. But two days ago they contacted Gavin and called the whole thing off. They didn’t give a reason,” he explained. He stayed quiet to let Trevor think things through.

“Are you sure there’s no one else that can get use those weapons?” Trevor asked.

Geoff nodded. “You know there isn’t”

“Without that land, the Vultures aren’t going to give us their supplies and there goes a couple dozen deals and close to a million bucks.” Trevor covered his face with his hands and groaned into them.

“Bet you’re regretting taking over now, huh?”

Trevor ignored Geoff’s joke, a resemblance of a plan had popped into his head. “Okay, set up another meeting. Gavin takes Michael and Jeremy, I want them apart of the talk. I want them manic and intense, whatever they can to make Gav seem like the sane one. No one leaves the room until we get what we want, Ryan and Jack will go as backup to make sure of that. You and I will go to the Vultures. As far as they’re aware, we’re moving ahead with the deal and pray Gavin gets it before we have to fight for it.”

Geoff stood up, Trev following suit, and nodded in approval. “When?”

“Tonight.”

“Alright, I’ll let the children and Jack know the plans.”

Geoff left the office, Trevor stayed behind to peer out the windows. The city was blinding, the noise was thankfully dulled by the time it reached him that high.

Finally, with a plan in motion, the last few days caught up on him and the sudden withdrawal hit him. He hadn’t gotten the chance to leave the penthouse, meaning it had been too long since he’d had a proper coffee; not one made hours ago and left in the percolator on the kitchen bench.

Trevor checked his reflection in the window, and noticed the bags already starting to form under his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair and headed out. He past through the lounge, assuming everyone had been filled in and continued for the front door.

“Treyco, where you going? We’ve got shit to do,” Gavin called from the lounge floor.

Trevor was steadily losing steam and couldn’t find the energy to turn around as he responded. “I’m heading out, I need s’more caffeine.”

Words, Wars and Symphonies

It was too easy to find him, Alfredo was looking for more of a challenge from this guy. But after finding a picture of him and running to through the city’s street cameras, Alfredo found his target visiting the same run down hole-in-the-wall cafe multiple times a day, the record was fifteen if he counted the late night runs.

Alfredo surveyed the area, and found an abandoned apartment block just down the street. A third story room offered the best position, so he took up shack there. It had taken only three days for Alfredo to be ready to complete the job, but then his target disappeared.

When Alfredo was first observing the store, he caught a glimpse of the target trailing closer and he considered doing it right there but decided against it. Too many witnesses to deal with. So Alfredo watched him leave, and now he was regretting that choice. He watched for another three days, silent and still, for the target to come and he never did.

His pattern changed suddenly but it was the only place Alfredo knew he should be. There was no other place in the city that Alfredo could find that the target frequented. So he waited there, eyes watching but his mind racing.

He’d been so sure this would go off without a hitch, he thought by now he’d have enough money to settle down somewhere outside of the city. But now he was planning his escape. If he failed, he was dead; and he’d worked too hard to get where he was just to end up as a body washing ashore.

Alfredo was too good to end up like that.

He trusted his gut and waited. He stayed in the apartment, never letting the small cafe out of his sight.

After hours of waiting, he was rewarded.

He instantly recognised the puff of black hair bouncing towards the store, he jumped into position.

The target was tall and lanky, there wasn’t much too him and Alfredo was wondering if it would’ve been easier to just punch the kid a few times instead of wasting a bullet. Although, the target didn’t seem like much of a threat, he was a Fake. That made him more dangerous than Alfredo would ever know, and he was expensive. Fredo could last off this paycheck for years.

So Alfredo lined up the shot. Through the scope he watched the target take a coffee cup from someone within the stall. Such a mundane place to die in. The target was still as he watched the traffic and drank his coffee.

Alfredo breathed in, he finger gently resting on the trigger. Everything was just right. He held his breath and squeezed.

#fake achievement hunter crew #FAHC #Trevor Collins #alfredo diaz #geoff ramsey #Jack Pattillo #michael jones #Gavin Free #ryan haywood #jeremy dooley #it's you who hung the moon series #alfreyco

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rhodirachel · 6 years

Text

Fray | Chapter 14 | A BTS Fanfiction

Chapters

| FRAY NOTICE |

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 [END] |

Summary

What you thought was your life turned around by losing your job at a publishing company, another unexpected twist occurs as your life crosses into the fate of someone else- a boy by the name of Min Yoongi, a gang member.

Rating: M (for language only)

Words: 4722

Relationship: Min Yoongi (Suga/ Agust D) x Reader

Warnings: Explicit language, gang details, violence

“The bell tolls

And suddenly

I can’t bring myself

To let you go

Anymore.”

“Three, it’s going to be okay. He’s going to come back, sooner or later.”

Those were the words that Five said like a mantra as I scoured the entire apartment, looking for any sight of Six. As soon as I had walked into the door with Five, I threw down everything- my keys, hat, glasses- and looked for the boy. The way his face looked earlier when he looked at me- his sobs- angry and devastated. I had to leave, though; I had to help sort out everything with Five when (Y/N) was taken.

Now he was gone. Two days later, there was still no sight of him. Five and I had been keeping a lookout for him, but I know Six. He wouldn’t have gone anywhere that we would have suspected him to be.

There was no note this time, and he had no cellphone. Every minute that he was out there, I was afraid. For all I knew, my suspicions could have been right and Two may have hired a hitman on Six.

How the hell am I supposed to know if he’s alright, now?

Only two good things came out of that entire day, and it’s that (Y/N) and the boys are out of the station now and that they didn’t recognize me when I came with Five. I was so scared they’d recognize me, even after all these years, that I almost said “Five” instead of the fake name he had given himself, “Hyuk Jae So”, or “Detective So” as the others called him. Since I would spend lots of time at Six’s gang house before I went off the grid for a year, I had the fear that they would notice me right away. I guess that was a long time ago, though, wasn’t it?

Everything’s changed so much.

Despite the calm morning from outside, nothing felt calm in my apartment. In Six’s room, the papers were still all strewn and crumpled, with teardrop stains on them and tears. I couldn’t stop staring at it for the longest time, but here I was now, sitting on the couch and not even so much as attempting to make breakfast. My sickening stomach was too overwhelming to eat anything.

Today was the day, too, when we were supposed to go over to father’s house. When we were supposed to do the heist.

Although it would have been easier with him, to distract anyone that may have been at the mansion at that time while I went and got everything, it’s not that I can’t do it alone. It’s quite the simple plan, really. He would have went and gotten father’s fingerprint while he was asleep, and spent the rest of the time in the mansion distracting people. While he would have been doing that, I would have been in father’s office, grabbing all the banking information. The only difficult part would be that I need to find where he hid it in time. I know he has it in there because he told me once, but never where it was in the room. As long as I could have found it before anyone came into the room, we would have been fine.

Now Six is missing, and I need to complete it on my own.

With a sigh, I got up from my couch and grabbed my car keys. It was time to go see mother and father.

________________

The drive to Gangnam-gu was relatively peaceful, but the underlying fear of getting caught when I try to do all of this began to seep into my mind. It wasn’t until I was pulling into my father’s driveway that I really realised this is happening.

My father was never one to be humble, and so of course, with the money he made, did he have a mansion. Even to this day, it is unlike any other home I’ve ever seen. It was a beautiful mixture of marble with grey and blue bricks, all cool-toned colours. It was accompanied by its own cobblestone cul de sac, with a well-sized fountain in the center. The rest of the estate had a myriad of offshoots and walkways to their own little areas of the outside grounds, and as I looked closely in the back, I could see the old entrance way my brothers and I would take to get to the garden. I smiled. The garden always was my favourite.

Walking up to the front door, I barely had to knock twice before someone was opening the door for me.

“What is your business with Mr.- oh, excuse me, Chan! How are you doing- what brings you here today?”

I smiled at the man who was standing before me in the suit I’ve seen him wear since I was a child. “Butler Jeo! I haven’t seen you in forever! I’m doing good, how about you?”

“Well, I’m doing okay. As you may know, there have been a lot of things going on at the Chan residence.”

“Yes, I heard. That’s actually why I came to visit.”

“You’re the first to come, of the three of you,” he said, referring to Two and Six as he motioned me inside the house.

“Really?”

“Yes,” he said, as if he was even surprised himself. “I will call your mother down and make some tea for the both of you.”

“Alright, Jeo. Thank you.”

I made my way into the sitting room as he went to go get mother. Gazing around the room, it was almost heartwrenching to think of all the times we spent as a family here. When Four was still alive and with us, when Five wasn’t gone; when Two was different and Six was just a little, innocent kid. When things were a lot happier, and when things were a lot simpler.

“Honey, you’re here.”

Turning around to see the one who greeted me, mother was standing in the doorway with her smile as fake as ever.

“I’m here to talk about the arrangement,” I said bluntly.

The strained smile she donned faded when she realised what I was here to talk about, and she immediately turned around and shut the grandiose doors to the foyer. The room grew stiffer as she walked toward me, sitting herself down on the sofa next to me.

“How is father doing?” I asked, turning towards her.

“Well, don’t listen to what they tell you in the papers, that’s for damn sure,” she said, reaching into her pocket and grabbing a cigarette. “The doctor’s have known the whole time it’s because of liver poisoning from his incessant drinking. They just don’t want the press getting that information.”

She lit up her cigarette with a match, putting the flame out and continuing, “He has practically every symptom in the book. He’s been vomiting blood, he’s lost weight, his skin’s been yellowing, and the doctor’s just told me yesterday that they’re seeing cases of muscle loss. He’s been bedridden for a few days, now, but it’s worsening quicker than they imagined.”

I sighed, nodding my head slowly as I took it all in. She offered me a hit off her cigarette, and I gladly took one before giving it back. “And how have you been doing?”

“Three, you and I both know you couldn’t care less. Now, what is it you really wanted to talk about?”

Glaring at her, I mumbled, “I came here to get the money. I just need the fingerprint from him and his banking information. But, come to think of it, that might not be it. I need you to get his social security card, his birth certificate, and I also need another form of identification for him. He’s bedridden, do you think you could get his driver’s license?”

“I’m still getting my twenty percent, correct?” she pressed, putting out her cigarette.

“Yes.”

“Good. I know where we keep the fire-box that has all of those documents. Do what you need to do; I’ll go get those papers.”

She and I both left out seats on the couch, however splitting both ways when I began to trail up the marble staircase in the main hallway. Making my way to the second floor and walking down the corridor, I stopped at father’s bedroom before opening it slowly.

I didn’t want to knock on it, in case he was sleeping since I didn’t want to wake him. Luckily he was as I stepped inside, meaning that my job here would be a lot easier. I wouldn’t have to waste time waiting for father to fall asleep.

Mother wasn’t kidding when she said that father wasn’t doing well; with just a glance, Hae Chan I could give anyone the impression that he was deathly ill- and technically, he was.

As I came closer to him, I pulled out a small pad and a box of ink. After multiple visits with him to banks or dealings with money throughout the course of my life, I knew that father had another way of protection against those who would maybe want his money- and that was his fingerprint. Cautiously, I opened the box of ink and brought it as close to father’s hand as I could. Then, picking up his finger as gingerly as I could, I dipped the index finger into the box, making sure that it was all coated in the ink.

A thumping sound in the corridor caught my attention, and I almost dropped the box of ink as I began to panic. Frozen still, I turned around, waiting for someone to walk in through the door.

One minute, I counted.

Two minutes, I counted again.

Waiting just another moment, I quickly took the pad from earlier and pressed father’s fingerprint to it as well as I could without possibly waking him. Bringing it back up to my eyes for inspection, it looked perfect.

I sat down and the breath that I had been holding in for some time let out with a sigh. Putting both the small ink box and pad back into my jean’s pocket, I sat down on a chair right next to the bed of my father.

He looked as if he had already signed a contract with Death itself. Thinking about the last time I had seen him a year ago, I don’t know if I could have said he looked any different. Yes, he looked ill, but I don’t think that’s why I think he looks the way he does. There was something… different. Almost… fateful.

Other memories clouded my mind- better ones with better days, when my brothers and I would dance and play in the house and garden, with the maids and butlers and ourselves, when we were young.

Our father was never there, though. Always off doing something, always needing to be somewhere where we weren’t. Not until we were older, that was, and he could start grooming us to see who was going to be the heir to his legacy. Where he could groom us to, one day, be exactly like him. A carbon-copy.

Looking at him, I wondered if he ever felt remorse for it all. For our family. For killing Four. Or for “killing” off Five. I wondered if he ever felt sorry for any of the things he’d done.

Because for once in my life, I did. Because, in the end, all I was doing was becoming more and more like my father.

I stood up from the chair and didn’t look back when I closed the door.

Taking the staircase once more, I made my way up to the third floor of the house. At the end of the corridor was my father’s office, and as I slowly walked toward the door, I kept checking behind me to see if there was anyone there. Luckily, there wasn’t, and maybe I was being paranoid, but I wouldn’t want to find out what would happen to me if anyone here found out what I was trying to do.

As I made the door, I finally took one last look over my shoulder and opened the door.

The office looked like it did even when I was a younger and still living inside the house. Greens and browns were definitely the themes of the room, with an almost Victorian-esque motif. Much different from the contemporary feeling from his office in Yonsang-gu.

I quickly closed the door and began searching. Although they were stashed away neatly, there were no less than hundreds of papers and folders laying in the room. After searching around the papers for a few moments, I felt stupid. There was no way father would have let his information like that loose in his office. No, he must have hidden it in a drawer, compartment or something of that nature.

Moving toward the drawers of his desk, I began ruffling through them and almost none of them had anything.

When I reached the last drawer on the right-hand side, however, I found a small black box. Opening it up quickly, there were no papers like I was hoping for there to be but instead, there was a key.

Taking the key, I looked around me frantically to see if there was anything in the room that visibly had a keyhole. I tried looking in the closet for anything, the desk that father kept off to the side and all of its compartments, I tried looking back at his office desk again- but nothing. Glancing down at my watch, I realised that I had already spent thirty minutes just looking for the information.

Knowing that I couldn’t mess up any of the papers in the office, I took a jacket that hung off a hanger in father’s office so I could throw it in utter frustration. How long was it actually going to take me to find these papers?

Then, as I picked up the suit jacket to hang back up, there it was.

I almost laughed in hysteria after spending the time digging through his office just to see a little safe neatly built into the wall, with a keyhole that was to be used presumably with the key I was holding in my hand.

The key felt heavier than ever in my hand as I brought it up to the keyhole. Holding my breath, I slowly put it in and turned it until the safe door opened.

All of the papers that I had been looking for were in there. I could see all the banking notes and other small files on his accounts and his finances.

“...Chan III? Are you there?”

I could hear muffled noises grow louder and louder, and as my heart beat in my chest faster and faster by the second, I grabbed the files as quickly as I could without hesitation. Closing the safe door, I immediately hung the jacket back up and put the papers into the breast pocket of my blazer.

“Sir, are you alright? What are you doing in here?”

One of the butlers, one I did not recognize, had opened the door and was staring at me rather suspiciously. I smiled in return.

“I was just reminiscing, that’s all.” ________________

“So, these are all of the files?”

“Yes,” my mother replied as I checked them to make sure. Her voice dropped into a whisper, “So, you have everything?”

“Yes, I do,” I said, flashing her a small smile. “I’ll be leaving now. Goodbye, mother.”

“Goodbye, Three.”

The pitter-patter of rain greeted me as I stepped out into the cul de sac. Figuring that it had started whilst I was in the mansion, I jogged to my car and opened it up, swiftly crouching ducking inside. The engine hummed as I backed out of the driveway and headed back towards my house with all the papers on me.

The ride back to Yonsang-gu wasn’t by any means eventful, but as I was turning to make my way down the corridor of my apartment, I saw a silhouette by my door. I froze, unable to see who it was because of the overly large hoodie they were wearing. The hood was up, and their back was facing me, anyway.

Slowly, I walked closer and closer to the person. They were simply sitting on the floor, their legs crisscrossed and their head resting limply on the wall next to them. I could now tell that their clothes were completely drenched, meaning they had been walking around in the rain for some time.

I walked in front of the person and my brows furrowed. “Six?”

He looked like a fucking train ran over him twice. His skin looked exceptionally clammy, with his eyes bloodshot, his eyelids droopy, and bags so dark they resembled a shade of purple that of a plum.

“What- are you okay?- I was worried fucking sick- where did you go-”

“I want to see Five.”

The resolve in his voice made me sigh. Taking out my house keys from my pocket, I murmured, “Let’s go get you changed, then.”

I let Six get into the shower quickly before getting dressed and heading out again. It wasn’t even until we were halfway to Five’s apartment and across the Hangang bridge that I realised I forgot to put all the banking papers away. Cursing under my breath, I pressed forward on the gas pedal, wanting to get there as soon as possible.

When we reached Five’s apartment, Six’s brows furrowed. “This is where he lives?”

To give him credit, the place didn’t exactly look like something you’d see in a catalogue. The neighborhood and apartment weren’t exactly great, but as even a detective, trying to live in Seoul of all places- it was hard, financially.

“Yes, now, Six,” I said, gripping his arm with a firm hand. “Before we go in there, I need to tell you something.”

“Yes?” he asked with a suspicious tone.

“You cannot tell Five about stealing the money. I already got everything, because you were gone.”

“Wait- what? You went all by yourself?”

“I just had to get papers. What’s going to happen next is actually transacting the money- but enough about that right now. What is most important is that he cannot know. ‘You hear me?”

“Yeah, I get it,” he mumbled.

“Good,” I said, letting go of his arm and patting it.

The both of us proceeded to get out of the car. I cringed as we walked up the old, chipping brick staircases that led to his front door. Everything about the place looked old- but you could tell Five tried to keep is as tidy and nice as he could, with pottery around and even a small garden of flowers. I smiled at the personal touch.

Six knocked on the door, however Six barely gave time for Five to reply before pounding on the door again.

“Coming! Who is it?”

I could hear Five’s voice; you could tell he was frustrated, but was trying to sound as polite as he could. When he opened up the door, he smiled when he saw me- but when he saw Six? Five took a step back, letting out a breath that sounded like it was the equivalent of getting punched in the gut.

All of us stayed silent as we took in the situation. Six and Five had not seen each other in fourteen years. The last time Six ever saw his big brother was when he was eleven.

Eventually, Six threw his arms around Five, the two of them embracing in silence for what seemed like minutes.

“I missed you so much,” Six managed to muster. “I- I missed you too, Six,” Five murmured, “I’m so sorry it took this long- I’m so sorry.”

After the two let go, we all entered into Five’s apartment. It was an older looking studio apartment, but Five somehow managed to make it work, with everything looking fairly clean and organized.

“Go ahead and sit down in the living room; I’ll go make us all some tea,” he nervously smiled, rushing into the kitchen and leaving us in the foyer.

“You go sit down, I’ll be right back,” I said to Six, following Five into the kitchen.

Walking into the kitchen, I could see Five frantically pulling out the teapot and leaves, filling it with water as fast as he could and lighting up the stove.

“Hey, are you alright? First, you seemed great but then you were all jumpy just now,” I said, leaning against the countertop.

“I don’t know,” Five said, setting the teapot down on the stove. “I was so happy- but then just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, “this feeling of fear just overwhelmed me. I haven’t seen him in fourteen years, Three. Fourteen. I was gone for the better half of his life.”

Five leaned against the counter, head in his hands as he continued, “I just- what do I even say to the kid?”

“I know it’s scary right now, Five,” I advised, “but maybe just ask him to catch you up? How are you supposed to make amends with him if you two don’t even know that much about each other anymore?”

Nodding, Five sighed as he lifted himself from the counter and went to grab teacups. “I guess. It just sounds a lot simpler than it might really be.”

It was silent after that. Only a few moments later was the water from the teapot hot enough, and we both went back into the living room where Six was.

“What’s that?” Six asked, glancing over at the other plate of food Five was carrying.

“I had grabbed some hotteok from someone earlier, but you look like you need it more than I do.”

Even though the start-up conversation that ensued was rather awkward and filled with patches of silence, they finally got it all out. They finally caught up after fourteen years of life that they both had missed from each other. By the time that they were both done, it was nearing the evening, and we were on our fourth pot of tea.

“So, that’s why I couldn’t know… because you were a detective.”

“Not entirely why. We just didn’t know who you really allied with.”

Five set his cup down, clearing his throat. “Six, I’ve built my entire life, from that day, around taking down CHAN. Yes, I was already doing things to contribute to taking down CHAN before the day of the accident, but not like this. I’m sorry, Six… but I just couldn’t risk it. I didn’t know what you would have done. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Six whispered back.

“There’s also something… something that I need to tell you.”

“You know everything about the case now. But, the only problem… right now… is that we only have evidence to imprison one person. That’s you, Six.”

The bewildered silence was stifling in the room, and I muttered, “What?”

“The best way we can bring down CHAN,” Five sighed, “is if you turn yourself in, and give what information you have to the police- I can get you a lighter sentence, but this is what has to happen. Six, we don’t have enough evidence to imprison father yet- your information could finally give us a warrant we’ve been trying to get for years!”

“That’s fucking ridiculous!” Six exclaimed, slamming down his cup. “Why can’t you just give them this information? You’re fucking one of us!”

“You think I haven’t already thought about that?” Five said, raising his voice only slightly. “Six, they can’t know that I am really Hae Chan V and not Hyuk Jae-So- I would be taken off the assignment because I am a relative and they would say that jeopardizes the case!”

“I cannot fucking believe you,”I chuckled- however in fury, not in humour. “You just fucking reunited with your younger brother and not you’re ready to just throw him in prison.”

“If Six just cooperates, I can get him a lighter sentence! Three- it’s not like Six can just walk in there and give this information to the police. He’s committed crimes! Crimes we have evidence for!”

“We all do!” I barked, stilling all other words in the room. “We were born in this life, Five! Even you have done shit that you’re not proud of! We all have!”

Five shook his head, grabbing his cup again as Six stood there in silence.

Suddenly, there was a call. I looked down at my phone to see that it was mother. Did something happen? Did they find out the papers were missing already?

“I have to take this call.”

Getting up from my seat, I walked into the kitchen as I pressed ‘accept’.

“Mother, did something-”

“Your father was attempted to be assassinated. He’s… He’s got a bullet wound near his heart. He isn’t dead, but…”

“But…” I breathed.

“We don’t know how long he’s going to last… with the liver… and with this, now.”

I didn’t utter a single word back as I closed my phone, ending the call. As I walked back into the living room, I felt Six and Five’s eyes on me as I shared the news.

“Father’s been shot. It was an attempted assassination.”

So many things were running through my mind as Six and Five began to panic. Who would have tried assassinating him- who, in fact, could have?

But then it dawned on me.

“‘It has to work the first time’,” I said, replaying the comment from my memory out loud.

“What are you talking about, Three?” Five asked.

“Don’t- don’t you get it?” I replied, exasperated. “Two’s the fucking one! Father is the reason he tried to hire the hitman! That’s why he couldn’t hire a lackey. It ‘needed to work the first time’ because, right now with the other gangs in peacetime, who would have tried to assassinate him?”

“Think about it. Two’s been expanding his territory, too, did you know that? I walked into a fucking teahouse in Jung-gu and you could tell he was in control of the premises because of the girl working there… that’s why he’s been trying to get this mess with the police and (Y/N) over with as soon as possible. It’s because he’s been planning to overrule father. Don’t you realise that Two was supposed to take over the position now? Especially now that father’s sick. Something must have happened between the two- I don’t know what-”

“Oh my God,” Five breathed, connecting the dots to what I was saying. “We need him, though, he needs to face justice for all he’s done! We can’t just let him die!” “Well, from what mother’s saying, they don’t know what’s going to happen to him now,” I replied grimly.

“We need to get to Two,” Five demanded.

“What are you guys going to do?”

Five and I both turned to look at Six who for a while had been utterly quiet. His voice was unreadable, to say the least.

“We have to take him down, Five,” I muttered.

“... I know.”

The both of us shared a look when we essentially said we were ready to kill our brother.

“Do… do you have a letter? I need to do something first,” I said.

“Sure, I’ll go grab you one.”

Five hurried to and fro, grabbing me an envelope from a drawer in the kitchen. Taking it, I made my way back into the kitchen, making sure no one saw what I was doing.

I had to sift through his drawer again until I could find some paper to write a letter on. Spending a few minutes writing it, I folded it and placed it in the envelope with the other papers I had in my breast pocket. Maybe it was good that I brought them with me, after all.

As I walked back into the living room, I saw Five holding some firearms, ready to leave. He handed me a revolver as I knelt down and ruffled Six’s hair. He rolled his eyes at me as I smiled. Maybe for the last time.

“You’ll know when to open this,” I said with a wink.

With that, Five and I left Six in the living room and headed toward my car.

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#bts mafia au #yoongi x reader #btscreatorsnet #bts gang au #bts angst #bts fanfiction #bts imagines #bts reactions #suga x reader #bts scenarios #bts #bangtan boys

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that-shamrock-vibe · 6 years

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Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day the movie is first shown in the U.K, now I know that is over a month after it was released elsewhere but I have been told not to post any spoilers about these films until certain people have the option of seeing it. In any case if you have not yet seen the movie go and see it then come back and read on.

Ant-Man and the Wasp vs Incredibles 2:

Before going into my character analysis for the movie I want to reaffirm what I said in my non-spoiler review about the connections between this movie and Incredibles 2 and why I think Disney has self-sabotaged itself and the victim is Marvel.

Firstly I enjoyed both movies, I saw both movies before the mainstream U.K. and at the time of this review have already posted my spoiler review for Incredibles 2 so don’t feel I’m spoiling anything here. But yes I thought Incredibles 2 was a near perfect movie, it had been 14 years in the making and the wait paid off. I also thought Ant-Man and the Wasp was a very charming and enjoyable movie and a good follow up to the first film.

The only issue with the two being released so close together, again mainly in the U.S. rather than here in the U.K, is that both movies and franchises are essentially family superhero movies. Yes Incredibles centres on that family dynamic but Ant-Man deals with father-daughter dynamics as a B storyline both with Scott & Cassie and Hank & Hope, but also now in the sequel we have the mother-daughter dynamic with Janet & Hope as well as the husband-wife dynamic with Hank & Janet.

In my opinion, having both movies so close to each other particularly both being Disney properties, was a mistake. Not only because both had a lot of expectation going in but also when you look at the opening weekend box office for both movies. Incredibles 2 made over $182 million whereas Ant-Man & the Wasp made just under $79 million, both of which obviously don’t count the U.K. because the U.K. had over a month to wait for either film and yes Ant-Man did beat its first movie opening weekend but a Disney Pixar movie has beat the latest movie in a 10 year juggernaut franchise.

Characters:

Scott Lang/Ant-Man:

As I have said before, this is Paul Rudd’s franchise and he certainly proves why just in the first 10/15 minutes. The scene where Scott is playing with daughter Cassie in his house because he can’t leave the house were very charming. I love the fact he built those cardboard tunnels and giant ants to simulate what it is like to be Ant-Man pulling off a heist was very cool. I especially like how it played into Cassie’s arc in the movie but I will get into that when I talk about Cassie.

Speaking of him not leaving the house; I loved the exposition as to why he couldn’t leave, it was because he sided with Cap against the Sokovia Accords but was released from the Raft on the condition he completed a 2 year house arrest stint. It brings the movie into somewhat present day minus a few months and also gave exposition as to why Hank or Hope weren’t in Civil War.

Also I liked seeing repercussions to him going to the Quantum Realm at the end of the first movie, not only with that “dream” state he was in but also the link he gained with Janet. I was slightly worried when it first started that it was going to be another PTSD story akin to Tony Stark in Iron Man 3 but thankfully it was not.

This did also get him back into his superhero antics. When he was essentially abducted by Hope, I liked the fact that the chemistry was still there, I did not really see it there in the first movie so thought this time around it was still there but again I didn’t vest much into it.

Paul Rudd’s comedy when in scenes with Hank & Hope was excellent. I loved how he stated that he destroyed the suit under Hank’s orders but then Hank got mad saying it was his life’s work but then when he revealed he didn’t actually destroy it his reason for not doing so was because it was Hank’s life’s work. It was really funny. Also the wing and blaster envy he was getting from seeing Wasp in action was also funny.

I also enjoyed the size jokes with the new Ant-Man suit malfunctioning causing Scott to not be able to control the size he goes. Particularly at Cassie’s school when he was stuck as essentially a midget but realistically child-sized, Paul Rudd sold those scenes beautifully.

Hope van Dyne/Wasp:

Just for the record, Hope is not my second favourite character in this movie, but because her name is in the title and she is who she is I thought I should put her second, in reality she comes just above Cassie.

The reason for this is, Evangeline Lilly essentially played an angry nagging den mother in this movie and I was promised The Wasp. Now yes I have made my peace with the fact the comic-book version is Janet van Dyne and to be fair we did see her as the Wasp so I am okay with that but considering throughout the first movie Hope was vying to be put in the field and then the look on her face when she finally got the suit at the end was so rewarding that we were left gagging for her to shine here...then it didn’t even seem like she appreciated it half the time. She was moaning at Scott for leaving to go to Germany with the Avengers, she was moaning when Scott told Luis where the laboratory was which then led Burch to them, she just seemed like she was looking for any reason to be mad at Scott.

Also, I have said it since I saw the first image of her from the movie, I HATE the fact she has long hair in this movie. Wasp is supposed to have a short messy bob or a pixie cut. How she had it in the first movie was perfect for the character yet here, I know it has been two years and hair does grow, but it just seemed unrealistic to have that much hair in that small helmet. The two theories I have for this is Evangeline Lilly said she just wanted long hair or they wanted her to resemble Michelle Pfeiffer. Either way I was not keen. It seems that every female character in this universe needs long hair and a face full of makeup regardless of the tone of the actual character.

And that’s another thing, there were times in this movie when Hope’s hair looked shabby and she wasn’t wearing make-up, yet in the next scene after she’s suited up and finished fighting she retracts her helmet and suddenly her hair looks silky and she has a full face of make-up...either that suit deals in great hair and beauty or there is a continuity error right there.

Now despite my issues with the character, I did still like Hope in the movie, mainly when she was fighting as the Wasp and at the end when she’s reunited with her mother. She had one of my favourite lines in the movie which was when the heroes were cornered by Sonny Burch before that brilliant car chase and after seeing him she just goes “Seriously? This guy again?!” which made me laugh because I also didn’t understand why he was in the movie.

I wasn’t a big fan of the costume; Yes it was supposed to match the Ant-Man costume of this universe which is very much motorcycle attire but this time around with wings however, I thought the costume at the end of the first movie looked a lot better. Yes bare arms on a protective suit aren’t exactly practical but that’s more or less how the character looked in the comics, or with no helmet.

Now there were apparently plans to debut the Wasp in Captain America: Civil War and have her accompany Ant-Man, after seeing this I am thinking maybe they should because it wouldn’t have been for a whole movie and maybe she would have come across better both there and here for being included. Although I did like her line to Scott saying “If I had come, you wouldn’t have got caught”.

Overall I am not overwhelmed by Evangeline Lilly’s first on-screen outing as the Wasp but I don’t think I am underwhelmed either. I am slightly disappointed both because this is the first instance of a female Marvel superhero to have her name in the title of a movie and also the fact there are talks of Wasp leading the new Avengers team after Avengers 4 which going from this I have doubts in, but she was still good my watch.

Hank Pym:

I loved Michael Douglas in this movie, he was so much funnier and personable here compared to the first movie. I love how the movie showed us a glimpse of gritty and dark Hank Pym from the comics in his relationship with former friend Bill Foster and pretty much creating Ghost yet showing no remorse for any of it, I would have liked to have seen a hint of the fact in the comics he was physically violent towards Janet at one point but I get this is a light-hearted movie.

On the subject of his comedy, he was fantastic in his snide remarks towards Scott, very much playing the disapproving father-in-law role and Scott and Hope weren’t even together in this movie. As I said before, I love that back and forth between Hank and Scott about Scott destroying the original suit then revealing he didn’t for the same reason Hank gave as to why he was angry he thought he had. Also when it looks like Scott and Hope are on a more even level in the relationship, the fact Hank turned around after this somewhat tender moment and said “If you;re doing making eyes at my daughter, could you go get my lab back?” This was definitely my type of comedy I love blunt dry humour with a dash of cynicism and Michael Douglas provided that in spades.

I really liked him in that opening scene where they once again de-aged him and in my opinion he looked better here than in that opening scene from the first film, it was more believable that this was Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne of 30 years ago. Also yes the superhero scene with them is pretty much the same as the one during Hank’s explanation of Janet’s death from the first one but just to see Hank Pym as Ant-Man is something I will take in any form.

Also I liked in the end it was him who went into the Quantum Realm to rescue Janet, it was pretty much the only action he had all movie because otherwise he was behind a computer. I thought the reunion with his wife was very sweet and touching although it did very much play like a traditional elderly couple or a prim and proper greeting of just almost a peck. These are two seasoned actors and yes while they are slightly elderly it wouldn’t have hurt the movie to allow a true passionate moment to make the audience feel the joy of the original superhero couple being reunited after 30 years.

Like I mentioned in my non-spoiler review, the size-jokes in this movie were better than the first one and they were pretty much shared between Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Scott provided the physical comedy while Hank provided the technological gags. I loved that Hot Wheels toy car storage set being used as various different transportation for them, I really liked shrinking the lab as a travel case and the fact that Hank probably designed it because of the retractable handle was brilliant. Also the workforce of giant ants in the lab were brilliant. Slightly silly in places but it’s that kind of movie.

Janet van Dyne:

Michelle Pfeiffer is back in the superhero universe and I am personally thrilled with her performance here. I loved how comedic she was particularly in that opening scene, I never knew she could be that funny. That 80s wig sold her de-aging but also how they de-aged her face took me right back to seeing her as Selina Kyle in 1992′s Batman Returns.

The fact there was that massive easter-egg of seeing her as a shadow in the Quantum Realm in the first movie but then expanding on that by having her meet Scott and create that mind-link with him was really quite clever. I also was very intrigued by her newfound powers, I like how they explained it was essentially a mutation from the Quantum Realm and I am glad it wasn’t a physical mutation but the fact the powers don’t seem to be specific to anything and instead seems to be energy that can do various things intrigues me and makes me want to know more.

The fact we see her when Hank Pym reunites with her looking like a hermit but still having her Wasp suit on just without the full helmet was very cool. It did kind of make her look like a Sand Person from Star Wars especially with that coat that came out of nowhere but I thought she looked great.

Also her promo image mislead me as I have been thinking since they were released that her hair was typically Michelle Pfeiffer and would be blonde, but I am happy it was grey and that her hair was brunette in the opening as Janet should be.

I am slightly disappointed we did not see her take part in any action particularly since she was one of the better Catwomans for her action scenes but I do also get why she wasn’t involved.

Ava Starr/Ghost:

Just when you think the MCU has solved its villain problem after a string of successful villains first with Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and then from Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 through to Thanos finally making an impact in Avengers: Infinity War, we take a step back with Ghost.

Now that is not to say Hannah Jon-Kamen was in anyway bad, in fact I liked her quite a bit as an actress. I thought her emotional backstory of how she went back to save her father but was caught up in the explosion that killed both her parents and left her constantly in pain struggling between two realms was compelling and made for a very interesting character. Also as a villain I thought she was spectacular to watch from a VFX standpoint.

The fact she was constantly stuck in quantum entanglement made for some of the best VFX I have seen for any character in a comic-book property in quite some time. It was chilling but awesome. Also made for some excellent fight sequences between her and Ant-Man.

However, while I understood her motivation, it did not ring true with going full villain, because she wasn’t she was just someone who was doing bad things for personal reasons not because she is villainous herself. It's almost Killmonger-esk as both were villainous to avenge their parents.

Also I didn't understand why we have a second Scott Lang/Ant-Man movie, but the villain targeted Hank Pym again. Scott just seems to be fighting Hank's battles now he has retired and it just screams out the fact Hank Pym should have been Ant-Man in Phase 1.

Then you have the fact that she is once again a one-movie villain but rather than dying she is somewhat reformed when Janet heals her almost instantly after returning from the Quantum Realm despite the fact that Ava was trying to kill her in order to gain quantum stability.

Overall I do see a future for this character but I am going to explain how when I talk about the future of the MCU further down because it does involve a lot from this movie.

Cassie Lang:

I loved Cassie here, I thought she stepped up her game from the first movie and the fact she was so willing to be a superhero bodes very well for the future.

Particularly with how this movie ends and sets up Avengers 4, I am fully behind the explanation as to why she is recast from Abby Ryder-Fortson here to Emma Fuhrmann there. Especially as it seems to indicate the arrival of Stature. Yes currently in the comics Cassie is Stinger rather than Stature but I hope they do go with Stature first at least and then see the evolution into Stinger.

I really enjoyed her wanting to be her father’s partner in crime until she realized Hope was a more fitting partner for the time being. Although the fact that the end of the movie happened, it may mean when we see her in the future she has drawn from the comics where she became Stature after her father’s death at the hands of Scarlet Witch.

I also liked how Cassie stalled for her dad when Agent Woo came knocking and he was speeding back to the house. It did show a lot of promise for her ability to cover for heroic deeds.

Luis, Dave & Kurt:

I did think if you just had Luis in this movie it would have been enough, Kurt and Dave were very much just there. Luis was on point as always and that scene where he explains situations but everyone is talking in his voice for this movie was spectacular. It helped to fill in the gaps between the first and second movies.

I did think the three of them jumped the shark a bit particularly with the forced humor in places but I loved the fact Luis again got in on the action more-so than he did in the first movie. He is proving himself to be a great civilian sidekick to Scott.

Also it did only occur to me in this movie that David Datmalchian, who plays Kurt, has really been jumping back and forth from Marvel to DC, he was in the first Ant-Man then in between the two movies went over to DC TV to be in not only Gotham as cult leader Dwight Pollard who is responsibly in that universe for resurrecting Jerome and cutting off his face, but after that he was in The Flash as Abra Kadabra. I have to say, he has a brilliant range as an actor because I did not click any of the three characters were the same actor until watching this.

Bill Foster/Goliath:

I do feel slightly sorry for Laurence Fisburne because, just as David Datchmalchian has jumped between the two comic-book franchise juggernauts. he has effectively jumped ship from DC to Marvel first playing a race-bent Perry White in the DCEU and now playing Goliath here. Both are very well known characters but in my opinion I prefer him as Perry White, because here he did not make much of an impact.

As I said when talking about Pym, I did like seeing the fact that both these scientists were former friends but now effectively hate each other, even though Bill was willing to lie to the FBI about not seeing the heroes because of that reason. However, while yes I understood why Bill did not like Hank, I do feel that jibe about Janet was a low blow particularly when Bill and Janet seemed to still be on friendly terms.

In terms of his superhero days, he is retired from action at present much like Hank and Janet, although Janet was forced into retirement due to being presumed dead for 30 years, and we do not even get a flashback of him in action like we do with the Pyms. I did like when he and Scott were comparing sizes because it is such an easy joke but never really been used in this manner, however I would have liked to even of seen a picture of him in his Goliath suit on his wall or something.

Also the fact that in the comics Goliath was killed by a fake Thor in Civil War does pose the question of where this character goes from here, if at all because as I said I was not really a fan of him here.

His relationship with Ava I thought came across very genuine in the belief that they were surrogate father and daughter, I liked how Bill took Ava in to somewhat try and make a better life for her despite the fact she was then made an Agent of SHIELD and somewhat used by them. It was very much a struggling father angsty child sort of relationship but it worked well for the movie.

I am glad he somewhat redeemed himself and by the end of the movie I was glad he didn’t die but once again I do not know where the character goes from here.

Jimmy Woo:

Agent Woo was very much the new Agent Coulson, hopefully this means he will not be demoted to his own TV show but I would not mind seeing him turn up in a Marvel TV series because I feel he’d be better suited there.

He had some funny lines like wanting to learn Scott’s slight of hand trick and he was great exposition when he was explaining to Cassie at the start of the movie what happened to Scott between Civil War and this movie. But overall I saw him as just an obstacle in this movie much like Paxton was in the first.

Jim Paxton & Maggie Lang:

Speaking of Paxton, he and his still fiancée Maggie were very much just there in this movie. I really am growing to detest seeing Bobby Cannavale in all movies I see him in because yes he was good in Will & Grace but that character worked with his acting range, Paxton in the first movie was yes an obstacle for Scott and had some believability as Scott’s ex’s new man but here it’s almost like he was on happy pills or something and Scott’s BFF.

I am glad to see Scott and Maggie are getting along better as co-parents but again aside from that the two did not really leave an impression.

Sonny Burch:

Again, Hope said it best when Burch showed up and she said “Seriously, this guy again!” Because I felt Walter Goggins kept walking or driving into the wrong movie, yes this was a somewhat heist movie and in a good heist movie there are either multiple jobs or parties at once but Butch had zero presence or anything really to do with the main storylines despite the fact he kept trying to obtain Pym’s lab for the technology inside.

End-Credits Scenes:

So there were two end-credits scenes here, one meaty one after the title card appeared mid-credits and one throwaway one right at the end which involves Scott’s giant pet ant playing the drums after silent shots of his house.

The meaty one involved Scott, Hope, Hank & Janet setting up a portal to the Quantum Realm in order to harvest more quantum energy for Ghost to remain stable. While he is in there, the Pym-van Dyne family all disintegrate along with everyone else who disintegrated at the end of Infinity War. This leaves Scott trapped in the Quantum Realm and sets up where we’ll find him in Avengers 4.

MCU Future:

This sets up the plot for Avengers 4 rather well as it does seem as though Scott will time travel through the Quantum Realm and appear in the future which is why we have an aged Tony and older Cassie. They will probably then time-travel back to the Battle of New York in 2012 which is why we have the original Avengers still alive and Thor back with his long hair.

Outside of the next movie, I see a S.H.I.E.L.D. prequel in the works, yes there was one penned after The Avengers which was then altered to a Black Widow solo movie before being scrapped for the Black Widow movie we have now coming up, but now I see more potential for an actual S.H.I.E.L.D. prequel. First of all the de-aging technology in this movie on Hank, Janet and Bill were all better than on Michael Douglas at the start of the last movie, but also it will be a chance to see Hank, Janet & Bill as the original Ant-Man, Wasp and Goliath in action. It would also be a way to bring back Ghost and see her arc as an Agent of SHIELD explored over the span of a movie. Something to consider and something I would be very keen on seeing.

Overall I rate the movie a 7.5/10, it was a great movie but I am not sure if it holds up to the first movie which I rated a 9. It has some great fight scenes, it’s great seeing both Wasps on the table and Ghost was great but there were a lot of unnecessary plot points and characters as well as a lack of comedy the first movie had which lowered the score a bit.

So that’s my spoiler review for Ant-Man and the Wasp, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Marvel Movie Reviews as well as other Movie Reviews and posts.

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daleisgreat · 3 years

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Dale’s Top 31 Gaming Experiences of 2020

Welcome to the 2021 installment for my ranking top gaming moments and experiences of the previous year, regardless of what year the game was released in! Besides ranking my the games themselves, This encompasses all videogame-adjacent experiences aside such as movies, board games, accessories and hardware related items and possibly more! This will be a lengthy read so I suggest right now inputting ‘Ctrl + D’ to bookmark this page, and/or make use of a handy ‘read later’ app like Pocket. This year’s recommended background reading music is a soundtrack I recently got clued into from the MojoMenace community in the form of the score for Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst you can check out by click or pressing here. If you somehow manage to want more of these behemoth reads, than I will point you to my previous year-end recaps here: 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016 To assist with this read, here are some in-article page anchors to instantly jump around to bookmarks on the rankings! CHAPTERS Part 1 – Rankings 31 through 25 Part 2 – Rankings 24 through 18 Part 3 – Rankings 17 through 12 Part 4 – Rankings 11 through 7 Part 5 – Rankings 6 through 4 Part 6 – Rankings 3 through 1 PART 1 – Rankings 31 through 25 31) The Worst Wrestling Game of all Time! For a project I will detail later on I had to relive the abyss of wrestling games that is WCW Nitro on the N64. It is a port of the PSone version, and it was as awful as I remembered first experiencing it two decades prior. If you want to experience broken controls, insufferable slowdown, and a flatout painful experience of a game, then Nitro is where it is at. Instead of playing the games, I will instead opt to link you to this clip of the PSone version because it has these so-bad-it’s-good FMVs of the wrestlers trash talking on the character select screen.

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30) The Remake Frothingly Demanded for Years….Delivered!

I was ecstatic to see the Final Fantasy VII fanbase finally get the modern-gen remake they have been craving for years. I only consider myself a mild fan because I started that game several times, and only progressed shortly past Midgar in my farthest attempt. Through Midgar is what the Remake covers though, and going by all the coverage I have seen, it looks like Square shocked the doubters and nailed it by expanding on that section of the original game with a ton of new content and storylines to flesh out that iconic setting and cast. I played the demo and loved the stunningly overhauled visuals and combat. One day I will play the full game, but for the time being I will be sufficed with my former podcast co-hosts’ cutouts of the cinematics for most of the game. 29) FMV-Camp Returns! A couple years back on a Game Informer stream they jokingly started playing a modern day Sega CD FMV-style choose your own adventure game, Late Shift. It was a throwback to those camply FMV games that dominated the SegaCD. However, this one actually had solid production values and all around acting for an indie release, and the Game Informer crew slowly got into it as it went along. Seeing them navigate through the first chunk of the game inspired me purchase it, and I finally got around to throwing it in this year and is it a breezy game to get through in under three hours. The storyline branches off in all kinds of directions based on your choices, so I played through it twice and got pretty different endings both times in this game that sees an overnight car park clerk getting forced into a heist job against his own will. The developers at Wales Interactive went on to make a couple more games in this FMV style like The Complex, The Shapeshifting Detective and The Bunker, and I feel they are on the right path with how much I got into Late Shift so I wound up putting all three of those other games on my radar!

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28) Hey, Watch me Ollie!

The emotional nostalgia burst that poured down upon me within minutes of firing up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was insane. Almost instantly within loading up my first two minute run I could tell the game just felt like how I remembered the awesome PSone game I played to death. Having almost all the memorable songs from the soundtracks of the first two games also incredibly helps. I believe it was intentional on the developers to have the very first song to boot up when playing being “Superman.” This near perfect HD remake/update of the first two games erases the poor attempt done on the 360 and PS3 several years prior. This would have ranked much higher if I had a chance to put more time into this. 27) Unexpected Carnage Following up on last year’s entry where I made the retro purchase of the Jaguar, I had one more session with Atari’s “64-bit” feline with my friend Derek. One Jaguar game I was eager to get some two-player co-op in was with its version of Total Carnage. It was the “bigger and better” sequel to Smash TV, another arcade classic I cherished. Never playing the sequel though I was eager to start it up with Derek, but only upon a few minutes in we realized this was a grave mistake due to the Jaguar port being rough around the edges and only limited continues allowed which resulted in us making very little progress. Before Derek left I remembered I owned Midway Arcade Treasures on the 360, which had Total Carnage in its line-up. We popped that in, and mercifully that fun-yet-brutal version of the game allowed infinite continues and we absolutely capitalized on that option and proceeded to knock out a huge chunk of the game. It mixes up the room-style gameplay of Smash TV and opens it up into levels that scroll up like Ikari Warriors and Mercs, but with that same style of over-the-top action. 26) Unleashing Destruction in the Streets and Rings

At the beginning of the year longtime friend Steve and I had a fun night planned catching a minor league hockey game an hour out of town, but of course a blizzard spoiled that for us by closing the highways. Luckily we had a back-up plan of meeting up for a game night that included marching through the entire tag team championship mode of WWF WrestleFest and all of the arcade version of Final Fight. Steve also had the arcade follow-up to Saturday Night Slam Masters that never received a home release in North America in Ring of Destruction that we tore each other apart in. Finally, I demonstrated FirePro Wrestling World to Steve, and we busted out our vintage favorite football game, ESPN NFL 2K5. It was a hell of a game night, and thank goodness for back-up plans! 25) And the Keighley goes to….

The last few years I have been looking forward more and more to the end-of-the-year videogame award show Geoff Keighley puts on. His annual award showcase keeps improving each year, and has a far lower amount of compromises that the decade’s worth of VGAs on Spike had to endure. Each year Geoff keeps getting closer to that sweet balance of acceptance award speeches, game trailers/reviews and special live performances. He stepped up bigtime this year for not having a crowd in attendance, and I was dreading throughout the show for any one of this virtual award nominees to have an audio or video snafu at any moment, but luckily everything worked out. There were some impressive game reveals too with an intriguing teaser for a new Mass Effect game focusing on the original trilogy characters stealing the show. I have seen a notable contingent criticize Geoff for lack of focus on awards, but it seems almost right where it should be. He tried going all awards the first year he had control, but it was overkill and an insanely long show. Sure, there are spots that can use some tweaking, but for the most part The Game Awards I feel are a worthy end-of-year award show for the industry I have been enjoying for the past several years now. PART 2 – Rankings 24 through 18 24) Online Gaming Therapy The pandemic undeniably made 2020 a rut of a year for everyone. I miss meeting up indoors and hanging out with friends and family as much as the next person. I was able to do some alternate social distancing outdoor meet-ups with friends and family during the summer and fall, but North Dakota’s winter put a halt to that. What has significantly helped has been doing more online gaming than I usually do this year in general. I will cite a few more examples as you read on below, but I want to highlight this so I can be thankful to have a perfectly viable way to still game with friends and family during the pandemic. I have played a lot of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! online with my dad and brother this year. I love my game show videogame adaptations, but one quirk I want to point out in the Xbox One version of Jeopardy is that it does not have the option to traditionally input responses, and instead offers three multiple choice responses instead. I would call blasphemy on this, but there has been so many releases of Jeopardy! over the years that it was actually kind of a neat alternative way to play the classic game show……this time! 23) Love for Videogame Coffee Table Books This past year has seen a surge in videogame hardcover tomes that have been an indulgence of mine the past few years. It started with Pat Contri’s “Ultimate Nintendo” line dedicated to reviewing all the games on the NES & SNES. I have Kickstarted two similar anthology books this past year focused on the Dreamcast and Vita. The Dreamcast book is still in production, but I already received the Vita book in the mail, and a quick flip through of it already indicates it is an exhaustive look at the Vita’s library.

There have been a couple other books that are less all-encompassing and focus more on showcasing artwork based on the system with supplemental interviews with developers who worked on it. The two I have on those are based on Sega’s Genesis and Master System consoles. These are perfect coffee table books for friends and family to flip through, and a nice refresher on history to see how others have perceived and rated the games I grew up with. I also took advantage of the recent Humble Bundle charity offering that collected nearly 100 videogame-themed eBooks for around the suggested $35 donation. I need to one day get a viable tablet or eBook reader for all these. Any suggestions? When Pat Contri sent out a tweet last summer seeking additional writers to help with the upcoming N64 book of his Ultimate Nintendo line, I sent in a resume with my credentials and shortly after trading a few emails was welcomed onto the team! It has been a trip and a half revisiting N64 games I have not played in decades or had yet to discover until this project. As of this writing I have at least a couple hundred hours into the N64 games I am covering! That blurb for WCW Nitro to kick this year’s rankings off is just a teaser of what to expect to see in my full review of it in the book. So yeah, this project has been keeping me busy playing a lot of N64 this year, and I cannot wait to see the book in physical form! Be on the lookout on Pat Contri’s online storefront to order the forthcoming N64 book, and to also order the past NES & SNES books! 22) BOOK-SHAKA-LAKA! Reyan Ali’s book I had on pre-order for well over a year about NBA Jam and the creators from Midway did not disappoint. Here is my quick take on it from my Goodreads.com profile review….

NBA Jam by Reyan Ali My rating: 5 of 5 stars I had this book per-ordered for a while. Based on the amount of interviews conducted going into it and combined with it taking four years to compile I had high expectations going in. Ali did not disappoint with a quick, but thorough history on everything that lead up to NBA Jam, its breakthrough success in the arcades, at home and with the NBA players on the road and the many ups and downs with the franchise and publishers at Midway and Acclaim in the years that followed. Interviews from developers and NBA players are featured throughout the book that help paint a picture on every vital aspect of NBA Jam and why it became a hit in arcades and has a lasting impact to this day. The back third of the book touches on the other various iterations of NBA Jam and eventually the downfall of the original creators at Midway. Even being a fan of the game since it first debuted, I came out of this book learning plenty of new facts and insight from the creators and its many fans that I cannot help but give Ali's NBA Jam my highest recommendation. View all my reviews 21) Bite-Sized Gaming

I chose this spot to recognize the smaller indie Xbox One games I would warm up with for about 20-30 minutes before diving into a longer game with. Most, but not all of them were featured on Game Pass. Hyperdot was an intense little puzzler that I was really into until my reflexes were not fast enough for the later stages to keep the dot alive by avoiding all kind of spherical traffic before time expired. Ping Redux tested my billiards/geometry skills in order to get a pixel from one end of the level to the end. Clustertruck I once again put way too much time into this year, but THIS year I felt like I made legitimate progress on my truck platforming skills and have made it into final world of stages and cleared all the bonus winter and Halloween stages! It is addicting and frustrating in all the right ways! Definitely do not skip past this one on Game Pass!

Top Run is the first runner I invested serious time into since Jetpack Joyride. I would say it is still a few notches below that classic runner though because the grind for unlocks here is a bit much, but the neon pixel graphics and head-bopping 80s-synth score keeps me coming back! Finally, Night Call is a fascinating narrative mystery game where you are a taxi driver forced into undercover work to track down suspects for the police by using casual passenger chit-chat as a cover for interrogation. Very cool art style, and diverse range of quirky, deep, mysterious and alarming passengers had me revisiting more for the engaging dialogue and narration choices more than the mystery at large. 20) Hadoken 2020 Welcome to the fighting game section of the rankings, well save for but one other game I shall touch on later. As usual, I played a ton of online fighting games with my longtime online fighting buddy, Chris. We revisited a couple classics in 2020 that we ignored for far too long since our last go around in Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur VI, and it was a lot of fun trying out the season DLC passes for those games I completely forgot I purchased. Both Namco joints are a blast, and I regret not playing more of them during this generation. I got a chance to briefly dabble with a few SNK vintage re-releases in the King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown franchises courtesy of many physical releases from Limited Run Games. I need to make more time to come back to these gems!!! Retro Fighters is an online game accessory company I associate with their specialty retro fight pads, and I got a handful of them this past year-ish for Genesis, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. I found myself a big fan of all three pads, especially the N64 pad now having a more traditional two-grip feel instead of its….unique…three grip setup from Nintendo. If you are unfamiliar with these guys, definitely give their website a perusal for some excellent retro controllers!

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Finally, I want to shout out Street Fighter V receiving its last major update in 2020, the “Champion Edition” that launched its final season of DLC, and saved me a lot of time grinding for in-game currency to unlock all past and future DLC characters and stages! Only had a chance to go to SFV a handful of times in 2020, but they were memorable sessions, and caught on video too! I keep neglecting PS4’s share video and editing software and finally took advantage of it by uploading one of my battles with Chris on my YouTube channel you can check out by click or pressing here. Another night I got together with a bunch of the fine folks from the MojoMenace/SupertheHardest podcast community for an epic SFV night and even though there were a couple of well-tuned SFV vets on there that dominated, we all still had a blast that evening! 19) Driving Games 2020

2020 was a weaker year for variety of racing games played compared to previous years. There were a couple smaller indie games that were part of my rotation with the nearly graphically blinding Music Racer that turns driving into a musical rhythm game and I miraculously did not endure a seizure with. The awesome Outrun-homage, Horizon Chase Turbo, received continued scattered play from me throughout the year. Super Night Riders is a fun little tribute to Hang-On which I nearly 100% its small slate of courses with the exception of a final endurance track which combines all the tracks in one continuous run and if a few collisions are made it is thus impossible to recover from. I revisited that last race far too frequently before ultimately taking a break from it. Rock ‘n Racing DX was a game I repeatedly saw for sale nearly every week on digital stores, but I was weary with it looking like a watered down version of Super Off Road. After finally chancing it off a $2 sale I can now confirm it is a bad controlling version of Super Off Road everyone should avoid and its muted beats definitely do not rock. V-Rally 4 was a free Xbox Games for Gold in 2020 that I had a blast tearing up the virtual dirt tracks with in this rally-sim! Monster Truck racing games continued with the latest Monster Jam game, Steel Titans. Still not a five star driving game by any means, but nowhere near as buggy and a big step-up from Crush It, which I will give credit to experienced driving game developer, Rainbow Studios now being behind the series.

Retrowave on Steam hit all the guilty pleasure 80s neon visuals and synth-wave musical vibes I am a fan of, but its slot/timing based gameplay did not gel with me. I put a little time into Sega Ages branded update of Virtua Racing on Switch. This is easily the best Virtua Racing has ever played and looked, and M2 implemented a slew of quality-of-life features to make this the definitive version of the game. Hot Shots Racing I played a few times off Xbox Game Pass and it tries to capture the early polygonal look and feel of Virtua Racing. Very nice homage that all Virtua Racing fans should seek out! I also played many hours of six N64 racing games for the forthcoming Ultimate Nintendo book so be on the lookout for that with my reviews for both Top Gear Rally games, Top Gear Overdrive, Re-Volt, Rally Challenge 2000 and Big Mountain 2000.

Finally, the racing game I put the most time into in 2020 once again is Wreckfest. I continue to be impresses with developer Bugbear’s support for this title. In 2020 they launched a second season pass that they are still releasing new vehicle add-ons for as of this writing. They also introduced a new Tournament mode that has constantly updated Daily, Weekly and Monthly challenges that earn its own exclusive currency to be used for unlockable cars available across all modes with that accrued currency. The challenges have been fun and have a variety of wacky themes like winter season races going on right now, and options that have lawnmower vehicles launching killer snowballs. My brother and I have been regularly playing it online once or twice a month for the better part of 2020. A feature I find myself taking advantage more for racing games on Xbox One is using the Spotify app for custom soundtracks. I briefly dabbled with it before, but upon discovering the NFSsoundtracks website I have been using it a whole lot more. That website scours YouTube to recreate a plethora of past driving game soundtracks going back to the 8 and 16-bit eras. If a game has a licensed soundtrack, they will comprise a Spotify playlist of all the licensed songs that are available from that soundtrack on Spotify. So far I would say about 75% of each soundtrack is represented on Spotify, and it has helped exponentially reliving favorite scores from Road Rash, Demolition Racer and Burnout Revenge in modern racing games. 18) Retro Game Writing Frenzy

I doubled down on the amount of “Flashback Specials” I produced in 2020 where I celebrate systems on their milestone anniversaries by recapping my favorite games and memories of certain consoles. Some of them were mini-specials where I only had a limited experience with certain systems like the Saturn, PSP and Neo-Geo, while others were for systems I had well over a decade of hands-on experience with and thus many tales to recount which resulted in exhaustive pieces for the NES, PSone, PS2 and Xbox 360. That 360 piece especially did a number on me and went way longer than I anticipated…but I had a lot to say :D 2021 will see a lot of platforms having milestone anniversaries of their American launch, and I doubt I will have time to get to them all, at least with how I have been covering most of them in detail anyways. Part of the fun I have with these specials is busting out each retro system and hooking up and replaying several of my favorites to see if they stand the test of time like Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! and The Punisher on NES, or to spend some time on lost treasures I picked up and barely put anytime into like CastleVania: Rondo of Blood on PSP and both Rad Racer games on NES. Regardless, if you have been sticking with me through these endless pieces, than please accept my many thanks for indulging my memories and stories of my gaming past! PART 3 – Rankings 17 through 12 17) Shmuppreciation 2020

I was honored to curate the selection again for the annual “Shmuppreciation” celebration for the mojomenace.com community! Previous years saw me pick a different shmup each week to scorechase on for the NES and SNES, and for 2020 I thought I lined up things perfectly by picking five shmups (AKA shooters/space shooters) that were all going to be available on the TurboGrafX-Mini that was set to release in mid-March. Well, on March 11th the pandemic was officially declared, and it was already in full effect in Asia by that point where production of the TG16-Mini was scheduled so it was no surprise to see the announcement of a delay for a few months on the mini console. That did not deter the MojoMenace community however and we plugged away with our scheduled lineup. Some of the 2020 lineup I own and have an alright amount of experience with like Blazing Lazers. Others I had little to no experience with like Lords of Thunder, Super Star Solider and Soldier Blade. The surprise hit of the 2020 selections for me was Galaga ‘88/’90. I played my fair share of traditional Galaga over the years and always heard of the TG16 version, but never played it, and it amped up the traditional Galaga gameplay and graphics just enough to make it stand side-by-side with its equals of the day! It was gratifying to see it be a hit with the community and receive the most entries of all the 2020 lineup. 16) A Long Awaited Fourth Rage in the Streets

I have so much nostalgia of the original Streets of Rage trilogy. It was an unexpected surprise to find it available on Game Pass on its day one release. I put about four hours into that game over its first two days, and absolutely treasure those two days with it as I felt my skills organically improving as I picked up on combos and enemy hit patterns. The new graphic style felt like it capture the essence of its past while successfully evolving it to modern day 2D tech standards, and the same can be said for the all-new original soundtrack that lived up to the high pedigree established in the first two games, and then some! I wound up picking up the vinyl for it, and the soundtrack has been in heavy rotation in my playlists ever since. The only downside is after those first two days of playing it, I took a week off before revisiting and almost instantly found myself losing a few steps from where I last left off. It was then I realized if I desire to beat this game, I have to essentially dedicate a couple of days solely to it to where I can “get good” at it and plow through it in a sitting or two. I guess I can tone it down to easy, and if it was not a Streets of Rage game I probably would, but the thing is with how I am playing so far, yeah the game can get tough on the normal default difficulty, but it is a fair challenge, one that nails that delicate balance where I know dedicated practice will pay off in the long run. In the end, that is how I want my Streets of Rage 4 experience to be! 15) Ryo’s Rally Cry

Last year Shenmue III fulfilled my 18-year long anticipation for the latest adventures featuring Ryo Hazuki. In 2020, a series of three DLC packs were unleashed in the early months of the year. I was not expecting anything too extravagant because all three packs were bundled together for $9.99, and compared to season pass story based content in other games that typically go for double-to-triple that, I had a feeling it was going to be more mini-games than anything, and that is essentially what we got. The first DLC focused on Bailu Village with several treasure hunt mini-games hunting down tiny Bailu Chan collectibles, which was no fun at all, and after the first treasure hunt zone I referenced a YouTube video to blitz through the rest. They were worth going through because they unlocked stat boosts for Ryo to use in the several Battle Rally races that gave a final score based on time completed and number of enemies beaten throughout it. Those stat boosts made Ryo faster and stronger, so it was worthwhile to knockout more foes before the finish line, and that part of the DLC proved to be a fun type of challenge. The second DLC was a cruise ship full of casino-themed mini-games and a couple small story quests. To activate it was tricky because you needed to make about 15 minutes of progress in the second half of the game. Luckily, a new game can be started from the back half. The casino games are decent little distractions, and the only highlight of the ship was earning raffle tickets to use on a prize wheel used to unlock several extra slick costumes for Ryo.

The final DLC was a story DLC that is sprinkled throughout the back half of the game. It is a bit of a chore though, and nothing extraordinary. If you remember the Chan signs that use four tea cups arranged in certain patterns, then be prepared for a series of those quests that are only available after completing a few main story missions. It is mostly a lot of backtracking to find a rogue agent, and only leads to a couple simple fights, and the only interesting thing I got out of it was for one part of the several-part series of quests you go undercover on a dinner date with Shenhua with some intentionally campy lines. I would only recommend playing it if you were playing through Shenmue III for the first time and that way the quests seem like an organic series of side quests you stumbled across, because by the time the last part of this DLC was available, I already replayed my way through about 75% of the second half of the main quest that transpires in Niaowu. If you are wondering why Shenmue III is ranking a fair way into my rankings with my middling time with the DLC, well that is because of the astounding Shenmue III-themed releases I picked up from Limited Run Games in 2020. A few months back Limited Run had what felt like a Shenmue appreciation day and released a special edition of the game with all the lackluster DLC on the disc, in addition to bonus collectibles that I usually do not go for, but in this rare exception did. They also put out some absurdly priced vinyl options of the soundtrack. Shenmue III has a mammoth soundtrack, so big it took seven CDs and eight vinyls to cram it in. To get the complete vinyl set, it was for around $200-250, so I opted for the CD set for $50 and a special “best of” two record set for $40. Yeah….did not anticipate blowing nearly the price for a Switch on Shenmue merchandise in one day, but I managed to cut myself off before going too nuts. 14) Vinyl Love 2020 Speaking of that Shenmue III vinyl, this will be a good way to pivot to rank the videogame OST vinyls I procured over 2020. Data Disc released their curated Shenmue II record. It is like the one Data Disc put out for the first game in the series which is a hand-picked selection of songs on one LP. I recently listened to it, and at least Data Disc ensured to maximize their minutes with their selections. Data Disc also did a second printing of another Yu Suzuki classic with the OST for Outrun. Other highlights include a complete set of five records of the Tetris Effect OST from Limited Run Games. Many kudos to Limited Run for including an MP3 download code with their records, and it was much appreciated for that set, and as well for their Streets of Rage 4 score. I have heard mixed reception for the SoR4 OST living up to the lofty bar established from the first two games, but after listening to it many times on my record player and in my car, I can attest for it being a win in the series and is right up there with the first two games. I will give a couple last quick shout outs for the OSTs for The King of Fighters ‘98, Street Fighter III, Quake, Celeste B-Sides and Kentucky Route Zero comprising the remaining LPs I picked up throughout 2020. To this day I continue working out to DDP Yoga 3-4 times a week, and having one of the game vinyls on in the background is the ideal background jams for me while I stretch myself to pieces! 13) Pinball 2020 Longtime readers are familiar with ritual weekly habit of competing in the four table weekly high score challenges in Pinball FX3, and yes I am still continuing that tradition every Saturday morning where I will practice and rank up abilities on one of the four tables that is up in the weekly challenges, and then attempt to best the high score for each of the four tables. It never gets old, and it helps feed my pinball addictions. Props to Zen for their output of Williams tables, and I am about 50/50 for using their “remastered” versions with animated toys and additional graphics on the table, and appreciate the option to press a button to flip to the original design. I still popped in Pinball Arcade on PS4 several times throughout 2020 because I feel those are more accurate-feeling real life physics of those pinball tables, but Zen’s versions are a solid alternative. Plus they added one of my favorite tables, Champion Pub, to the PFX3 roster in 2020, now just give me No Good Gophers and I will rest happy!

In other pinball news, I also continue to throw in the rotation Demon’s Tilt, the awesome homage to Devil’s Crush/Dragon’s Revenge. I cannot get enough of those scintillating TG16 throwback visuals and its metal soundtrack! I only threw in the neon-infused visuals of Hyperspace Pinball off Steam a few times in 2020, and I just wish that game took off more and received some home console conversions. Love the bumpin’ soundtrack, trippy graphics and distinctive boss battles that keep me coming back to it. I need to one day dive into recent pinball/platformer hybrids Yoku’s Island Express and Creature in the Well. I briefly tried out the former, and yet to put time into the latter. Finally, in sad pinball news, the private pinball club I started going to I wrote about in last year’s recap, Fargo Pinball shut its doors last year after failing to sustain business a few months into the pandemic. The owners will still operate about a dozen machines they have on constant rotation at a local brewery however, so there is still somewhat of a local pinball presence to take in. For the two or three times I made it out to Fargo Pinball however, I was in pinball heaven. 12) Handheld Gaming 2020

Last year I wrote about in this section how I made serious headway into Mother 3 on the GBA by the end of 2019. So the first few months I spent wrapping up Mother 3 on my backlit-modded GBA. So that meant I beat it legit with no save states, and a lot of trial and error on boss battles. The only part I did not care for was an underwater maze to navigate through while keeping an eye on oxygen levels, but otherwise I very much enjoyed my time with Mother 3, and mad props to Fangamer’s companion guide for being the quintessential supplemental material to guide me through it. After finishing that, I put a couple hours into the Metroid-esque Scurge: Hive on GBA before throwing in another throwback in the form of GameBoy Color’s Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. A year or two back here I wrote how the first Turok on GameBoy was an old-school style action-platformer that won me over, and the sequel is more of the same, but with slightly more fleshed out levels, now color graphics, and a couple interesting shmup stages for variety! It had some old-school difficulty, so the Retron 5’s save states and cheats and I had to take advantage of in order to power through it!

Currently, I am ever-so-slowly working my way through a fan translated copy of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 on DS. I loved the first game in the series and how they mixed up the gameplay by taking it out of the courtroom and having visual avatars to control and visually maneuver around locations. I am currently on the third case of AAI2, and the translation successfully maintains the whimsical spirit of the Ace Attorney series and has an interesting twist where Miles is now having to side with defense attorneys against his will. I picked up two unique re-released retro handhelds this past year. Firstly, I picked up the Mario Game & Watch that was released to celebrate Super Mario Bros.’s 35th anniversary. Super Mario Bros. is the first game I ever played, and first game I ever finished so it goes without saying that game is quite special to me and having it in this unique handheld form is a saccharine treat! The second old school handheld I had to import from Japan in the form of the Game Gear Micro. For those unaware of this Japan-exclusive, it is a working Game Gear about 10% the proportion of the original model. Sega only made several versions of it in Japan, with each one having only a handful of exclusive games. I went with the one containing the Aleste collection that contains five Game Gear/Master System games in the acclaimed space shooter series, one of which is an all-new game designed with the Game Gear’s limitations in mind in GG Aleste 3. My cramped fingers were somewhat able to play the games on the Micro (make sure to get the magnifier accessory in order marginally make out the visuals), and it is a nice discussion piece, but I think I will put more time into these games in the future with the PS4 copy of Aleste Collection that came with the bundle I ordered from Play Asia. PART 4 – Rankings 11 through 7 11) Podcast Guest Hosting 2020 I guest hosted on three podcasts in 2020. I had what ended up being my final recurring guest slot on the penultimate episode of Your Parents Basement podcast. It was my 13th guest host appearance there, but I made sure to make it a clayyyysic one with our analysis for the dubious action-sports SNES title, Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball. I remember going into that episode initially tepid to start off our discussion for the game by admitting I could not figure out how to shoot the damn ball and had to look up a guide online how to figure it out, but was quickly relieved to hear all three YPB hosts had to do exactly the same! Also, there were some regular segments of the show where we all rate the game on a themed where entertaining shenanigans ensued. YPB has since posted one surprise end of year special since having their main series finale, and here is hoping to see them pop in again for more surprise episodes. I will be forever grateful to them for taking my suggestions at covering games I have been meaning to get out of my backlog for ages like Shadowrun, Metal Gear Solid, Crystalis and Earthbound. Click or press here to check out that YPB episode I guested on in 2020.

I was thrilled to guest host twice on the PSnation Podcast in 2020. While it is a Playstation themed podcast, host Glenn always specializes with healthy doses of retro gaming talk in each episode. In March I joined him in covering the FFVII Remake demo that just hit, and we of course had to inject a ton of retro gaming topics in the agenda too (click or press here to download). In November I came on again to anticipate the future by previewing the imminent launch of the PS5 and celebrate the past by dissecting 20 forgotten facts of the PS2 for its 20th anniversary (click or press here to download). While both podcasts were marathon recording sessions, I do not regret a minute of it as I always have a phenomenal time podcasting with Glenn! He recently announced they will be rebranding PSnation with news to come in the near future after a hell of a 14-year run, and I wish nothing but the best for him and his staff to see what they have in store! On a final note in podcasts, I have been continuing my occasional un-vaulting of select episodes from my long-deceased videogame podcast, On Tap. Throughout 2020, I uploaded about an episode a month to my YouTube channel, often having them coincide with a relevant anniversary or one of my flashback special articles. Some of the ones I uploaded this past year are all several parts of our history of comic book videogames episodes and most of our history of RPG videogames episodes. Also a couple of our movie review episodes where we analyze cult classics like The Wizard, FFVII: Advent Children Complete, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and both Tron films. I made a playlist of the 28 episodes I have un-vaulted as of this writing you can navigate to by click or pressing here. 10) Switching It Up

In early April of 2020, I had penned in a pretty epic vacation I was anticipating for quite some time, but as we all know, by April of 2020 we were a few weeks into the pandemic and those plans quickly went up in smoke along with everything else in the world. It may have been a good thing those plans got cancelled because that same weekend a water pipe burst at my home and that whole weekend was spent cleaning up the aftermath of it. It was a couple days after the fact of that ordeal and I was simply a mess, and needed some form of a pick-me-up. I was holding off on a Switch for three years by this point, and three years was about what I held off on purchasing a Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One, and so I convinced myself to get out of my slump by going out and buying a Switch. It helped big time! The first games I played on it were a couple of different SNES games I played online with my nephew Carter. We first played the original Super Mario Kart, and within seconds of starting a race he blurted out, “Dale this looks old!” He was not a happy camper, but we did manage to have a modicum of fun playing two player co-op in Brawl Brothers and Joe & Mac. Other notable Switch games I put some time into this year are Golf Story, Sega Ages Virtua Racing, Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35. I love battle royal Tetris and Super Mario Bros.! Golf Story is the ultimate spiritual successor to the beloved Mario Golf games on GBC and GBA. Also, I highly recommend playing with a pro controller in docked mode, and with Hori’s Split Pad Pro in undocked mode. Despite its bulk, I vaster prefer them more than the painfully tiny JoyCons. In 2021 I hope to invest significantly more time into my Switch! I have picked up many retro re-releases recently with their frequent sales that I must try out! 9) Wrestling Games 2020

2020 was a year like no other for me when it came to wrestling games. The first half of the year started off with me only playing FirePro Wrestling World, the first new wrestling game I put serious time into since WWE All-Stars. I played quite a bit of the PS2 and GBA FirePro games, but the thing that hooked me on the PS4 version was downloading hundreds of created wrestlers to replicate my all-era dream roster, and clearing all 50 scenario trials. I got up to the final trial where the goal is to win a match with a 100% fan approval rating. Thing is, in order to replicate, the opponent has to get in just as much offense and back-and-forth near-falls to make it as exciting as a televised match, and by doing that I put myself at great risk to lose…which happened every time. I vow to complete that final trial in 2021! Speaking of WWE All-Stars, I volunteered to review its spiritual successor follow-up, WWE 2K Battlegrounds for my friends over at PSnation. While it has some notable flaws holding it back from matching the fun arcade action of WWE All-Stars, 2K Battlegrounds still has a lot going for it and is at least worth checking out. Click or press here for my full review to get my complete breakdown of WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Finally, as I have mentioned earlier I have been covering a number of wrestling titles for the upcoming N64 book project. As you read above, it was a whole new definition of pain experiencing WCW Nitro all over again, but at least other games held up better than I thought they would. I finally was able to put major time into the four import N64 wrestling games and came out of those with a whole new appreciation of this era of wrestling games. Seriously, AKI’s six wrestling games on the N64 are arguably the best spread of wrestling games in videogame history, and I wish I can expand on it more, but you’ll have to check out the book once it is available for my final word! I promise if you bookmark this page I will edit this page with a link to its online store listing once it is available! 8) Breath of the Wild Progress 2020 Another year gone, and another year where I have yet to finish The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I have good reasons though! I was making headway steady play a couple times a month until about July. I finally conquered the fourth divine beast, and more importantly I finally reached all the towers and unlocked the complete map. I also moseyed around most areas of the map, even the barren Gerudo Desert, I spent a good chunk of this year in to ensure I did not skimp over any cool hidden areas, or Korok seeds…although I am sure I missed quite a few. A major nagging sidequest I put to bed in 2020 was completing the founding of Tarrey Town for Hudson after running countless fetch quests for Link’s former colleague.

The only major thing in the core storyline I need to do is finally make my way through Hyrule Castle to vanquish Ganon….but I have so many other side quests and DLC quests I desire to finish before properly completing the main quest! I made one attempt at completing the Master Sword Trials that have the beneficial reward of doubling the power and durability of the Master Sword, and while it was a brutal endeavor, the challenge felt fair and encouraging of me to put forth the effort to practice and become better like on Eventide Island! I would also like to unlock the Master Cycle Zero for Link, but that set of DLC missions is mammoth, and if I do get around to them, it would likely be after I finish the main quest. Anyways, I was making that routine headway and finishing BotW in 2020 seemed possible, but then I had to step back and put most of my spare game time onto my N64 assignments. I should wrap up my N64 work within the next few months, and plan on diving head-first to pick up where I left off in Breath of the Wild! That motorcycle shall be mine!!! 7) Year of the Mini Consoles I thought I was done buying the “mini” line of classic consoles with pre-programmed games by the end of 2019 after acquiring the Genesis Mini that went along with my NES and SNES Minis! That was not the case though as 2020 saw me add three more to my collection. The Neo-Geo Mini has been out for some time now, but Amazon had huge markdowns on them in 2020 with bundled controllers. For those unfamiliar with it, the unit is designed as a mini-arcade cabinet, but also has ability to plug into a TV via HDMI cable to play the pre-programmed 40 games that way too. It has all the many expected fighting games on there, plus a variety of other genre hits from SNK. I also picked up the Game Gear Micro, but you can see my thoughts on that a few rankings above where I go over my handheld gaming moments of the year.

Finally, I picked up the TurboGrafX Mini, which had to endure a last minute shipping delay by a few months since it was originally scheduled to ship in March right after the pandemic was declared. It is a hell of a collection, with a killer line up of American and Japanese games. Part of me was wishing there was an easter egg to unlock the English translated Sega CD version of Snatcher, but no luck! There is still an unbelievable lineup on here with two Bonk games, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, several classic shmups like Blazing Lazers and Galaga ‘88/’90, one of the Crush pinball games, and so many more! There was a couple I wish would have made the cut like World Court Tennis and Final Lap Twin because of their charming RPG story modes, and at least one of the FirePro Wrestling games, but what is included is still a hell of a package, complete with probably the best UI of any of the mini-consoles that is overflowing with TurboGrafX/PCengine fan service! So many people in America missed out on the small-yet-mighty TG16 library in America, and this is the best way to be introduced to it to the public! CGQ did an awesome launch stream that has footage of most of the included games if you want to know more about the platform!

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PART 5 – Rankings 6 through 4 6) The Year of Videogame Documentaries! If there was any upside to all the time spent locked down at home in 2020, it was that it helped everyone catch up on a lot of past and current shows on various streaming services or old school physical media. 2020 saw several videogame themed documentaries release, and not a single one disappointed which is why I am ranking this experience so high. Netflix released a six episode docu-series on pivotal moments in the early decades of videogames, titled High Score. It does not shed much new insights if you are up-to-speed on your videogame history, but if you only have a passing familiarity with the roots of videogames, or have younger members of the family who are curious than this is a good place to start because they have high production values, and fun animated sequences to keep your attention throughout. It does not cover the entire history of games in six episodes, but each episode serves as a nice refresher course on key moments like the rise and fall of Atari, Nintendo revitalizing videogames in America with the NES, the 16-bit Wars, popularity of fighting games in the early 90s, and id Software shaking up the gaming landscape with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Next up is videogame YouTuber (and heading up the N64 book I am contributing to) Pat Contri teaming up with Kevin J. James for the documentary, Not for Resale. It has an interesting theme about life as an independent videogame store owner and retro game collecting. It thoroughly covers a wide range of topics from this perspective of videogame retail, and I encourage you to check out my review of the documentary by click or pressing here. Another documentary I reviewed in 2020 for my blog actually first released in 2015, but I somehow never heard of it until 2020. I am talking about Nintendo Quest, and it is all about one man’s journey to collect the entire officially licensed American NES library in one month with only his own funds, and only by visiting stores and collectors in person with no online buying at all. It was quite the ambitious goal, and was a fun journey to watch to see if he could or could not pull it off. Click or press here for my full review.

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Next up is Console Wars. I devoured Blake Harris’s novelization of the 16-bit SNES/Genesis rivalry, and was stoked to hear it was going to receive the big budget feature documentary treatment. It took a few years, but it finally released in 2020 as a CBS All Access streaming exclusive. There is no shortage of vintage photos, ads, clips and commercials inserted throughout the interviews and narration that transported me directly back to the early-to-mid 90s! They could not squeeze in everything from the book into 90 minutes, but they still managed to hit a lot of major and minor moments from the 16-bit wars. Despite this being well-documented territory, this was a terrific refresher, and recommended viewing considering the surplus of major and minor players from that era they tracked down to interview. Insert Coin is an exclusive on Alamo’s streaming service, and is the ultimate supplementary piece to Reyan Ali’s book on NBA Jam I mentioned earlier in this list. If you do not have time for the book, make sure to watch this because they track down most of the major players at Midway/Bally/Williams to chronicle the rise and fall of the company, and touch on so many of its arcade hits. Yes, even Revolution X gets an entertaining scene with previously unseen production footage of band members’ voiceover recording sessions. I loved Cruis ‘n USA, and was a little bummed to see the ho-hum treatment of it in the doc, but if you have killer memories of the NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Defender, NFL Blitz, Smash TV and so many other Midway arcade classics, then you definitely want to check out Insert Coin! Pretending I’m a Superman: The Tony Hawk Videogame Story is available to buy or rent off YouTube. I have heard many good things about this doc, but I have sadly been neglecting it for many months, which is not right since I was an avid fan of the Tony Hawk games from their heyday, but want to give it props here because I have good faith that it will not disappoint!

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That is it for the traditional documentary features I have seen in 2020. For the past couple years I have provided a long list of YouTube links of my favorite gaming-related videos throughout the year. In place of that is a few documentaries I want to highlight here that hit in 2020 from a few YouTube creators. Norm Caruso, AKA The Videogame Historian did not disappoint in 2020 with several new docs/mini-docs, with the two that stood out the most to me being his exhaustive deep dive into Mario Paint and tracking down the original developer to interview for his look on the infamous MS-DOS versions of the early Mega Man games. I also am constantly amazed at the steady stream of shorter and lengthier documentaries No Clip releases on their YouTube channel, and the crapshoot that was 2020 did not slowdown their consistent output. I highly recommend their well-researched videos on the history of two prolific developers – Creative Assembly and Arkane Studios. EA received well earned high marks on their incredible remaster of Command & Conquer early in 2020, and No Clip released a coinciding video with many of the original and remaster developers on un-vaulting original material and digging deep to cram in as much unreleased or barely seen content in as possible.

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If you were a child from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, then you undoubtedly remember spending countless hours in school trying to master the original “souls-like” game, Oregon Trail. MinnMax released a comprehensive look at this classroom favorite filled with interview clips from the original programmers on how it came to be, and even tracking down Steve Wozniak for his reflections on this iconic title. Finally, I want to shout out this awesome DIY-spirited documentary celebrating NHL ‘94 that came out in 2020 and went to great lengths to pay homage to that classic hockey game by tracking down the primary head programmer, going to great pains for a very brief interaction with Jaromir Jagr and chronicling the current eSports scene of NHL ‘94.

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Sorry for the deluge of recommendations, but that should provide many hours of entertainment and videogame history to last you throughout 2021, and then some! 5) Acquiring my First Console Near Launch Since the Vita! The headline does not lie, the Xbox Series X marked the first console I purchased within the first couple months of a console launch since the Vita! After getting burned on launch window consoles malfunctioning on me with the PS2, 360 and PS3 I instilled a “wait three years after a console launch to buy it so the hardware is likely less faulty” self-imposed policy. I did exactly that with the WiiU, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. I was originally going to do that with the XSX/PS5 also, and I guess the thing that nudged me out of that edict was hearing multiple podcasts, website hardware reviews and YouTube content creators’ analysis of the system’s hardware, UI and overall performance in the opening weeks. The more I heard in the first couple weeks, the more the Xbox Series X sounded right for me. This is primarily because the UI/dashboard is nearly identical compared to the Xbox One, and that I can plug in my external hard drive I have been using for the Xbox One directly into the XSX after I complete my initial setup. After doing that it would be like I was playing on my Xbox One again, but with vastly superior hardware and faster loading times. I got a Samsung 55” Black Friday 4KTV special to finally upgrade into the 4K era and be properly ready for the 4K optimized games. My backlog was so huge that I did not mind the XSX did not have any major first or third party exclusives until two and half months later with the release of The Medium. Enjoying faster load times on games like Wreckfest and Borderlands 3 is more impressive than I thought it would be. I am also by this point well invested into the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem as I have elaborated on in previous year-end articles, and having all first party exclusives coming to Game Pass day one is another deciding factor on why I went with the Xbox Series X first. Now here is hoping this system does not brick on me or I am returning back to my self-enforced waiting policy! 4) Conquering the Lands that Border a Third Time!

Speaking of Borderlands 3, that was a terrific alternate method for me to hang out with my buddy Derek through these quarantine times. Several years back we gradually worked our way through Borderlands 2 over the course of a year, and we started up the third game around Halloween of 2019. It took a little over a year of playing only once or twice a month, but we finally finished the core campaign of Borderlands 3! Most of the gaming press bags on the Borderlands games for its style of humor, but to me it kind of rings familiar to Family Guy. Both franchises throw a lot of gags and jokes at you from all angles, and some of them hit, and some of them miss, and that is fine! Humor is subjective with about half of the jokes jiving with me, and that is A-OK because they all do not need to be LMAO zingers! The addicting co-op gameplay of Borderlands is what keeps me coming back, well that and the perpetual quest of finding all types of fun weaponry and loot I had equipped for far too long (rainbow-explosion grenades being my prime example here). I like the angle of Borderlands 3’s central hub being on a spaceship…even if its design is of the labyrinth nature that I frequently became lost in. The biofuel truck mission was an early favorite of mine and remained a running gag with Derek throughout 2020. The pair of primary antagonists here may not usurp the unforgettable villain that was Handsome Jack, but it was still a fun journey pursuing them and meeting their dad to detail their nature. Right now Derek and I are a good ways through one of the DLC packs for the game, Guns, Love, and Tentacles that is themed around saving the wedding of Wainwright & Hammerlock with the assistance of the mysterious bartender, Mancubus Bloodtooth! It features a refreshing twist on gameplay with longer levels, different vibe of scenery and a more challenging-but-fair difficulty. Needless to say, I am greatly looking forward to marching through the rest of the DLC packs throughout 2021! PART 6 – Rankings 3 through 1 3) Spooky Gaming 2020

You will see soon why my yearly installment for Spooky Gaming ranked so high this year. First off, I kept up my yearly tradition of playing the 360 launch game, Condemned: Criminal Origins on Halloween! I think that is at least three, maybe four Halloweens in a row now! Only made a little over an hour of progress though on a couple sessions due to not as much free time as I hoped and it took a bit more than I presumed to navigate through a couple tricky levels, but I pushed through a couple more chapters and one day promise to finish this! Two new spooky games released right around this past Halloween that were both must-buys for me, but regrettably have yet to start. Pumpkin Jack looked like a fun simple action-platformer with graphics and gameplay quality intentionally designed from the early PS2 days which looked like a fun early 2000s throwback from a couple streams I saw. The second game is the next installment in the “Dark Pictures” anthology, following 2019’s Man of Medan that received a rave recounting from my 2019 rankings! That game is called Little Hope and it has a similar structure to Man of Medan, where it follows a group of travelers stranded after a bus crash who stumble into a nearby mysterious/haunted small town that is full of secrets. I watched one stream of its opening scenes, and was delighted to see the narrative choice-based gameplay returns and will determine how many of the group members will remain alive by the end of the playthrough. I want to play this like I did Man of Medan in one sitting in an evening with Derek & Brooke in the midst of a thunderstorm! That will happen in 2021!!

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Finally, the highlight of spooky gaming season was surprisingly returning to Xbox One’s Blair Witch Project. I wrote here last year that I loved its atmospheric setting of looking through the same haunted woods from the movies for a lost child, but I unfortunately got stuck about an hour or two in while searching through the woods for my next objective. The woods were too dark!!! So this past Halloween season I booted up Blair Witch Project with the mindset of not even looking to make any progress and to simply put on the gaming headphones and take in that appropriately dark atmosphere of exploring the spooky woods for about 10 minutes before moving onto Condemned.

Well, something unexpected happened during those 10 minutes and I accidentally stumbled onto my next objective and quickly got absorbed into the narrative and could not put the game down! I loved how the character Ellis gradually starts to get wrapped up into the eventual supernatural surroundings that gradually get implemented and do not ruin that awesome initial eerie setting. The way the camcorder was used for gameplay to solve some puzzles was creative, and using the late-90s Nokia-esque cell phone for storyline bits was an unexpected nostalgia trip. Yeah, some of the use of flashbacks/supernatural enemies can be a little hokey at points, but for the most part it keeps up the suspense and thrills, and it caught me jumping on several occasions while playing with the volume blasting on those headphones. The last level pulls out all the scary, mind-bending stops, and was a ride that I had no idea when it was going to end, and even though the ending was a little middling, the ride on the way to that final destination was awesome and had me gripped in throughout. Blair Witch Project is currently on Xbox Game Pass, and is some ideal late night/Halloween season gaming that I highly recommend to all! 2) FINISH HIM!! Usually I would lump this in with my yearly fighting games recap, but my time with Mortal Kombat 11 rose well above the rest of my time with other fighting games that it climbed out of that group and rose to my #2 gaming moment of the year! For the first half of 2021, I had semi-frequent online sessions with my aforementioned fighting game buddy, Chris! Whenever a new DLC character from the DLC pass released every several weeks, we would usually meet up one of the following weekends and experiment away with the new member of the roster. If I really dug a character, I would then do repeated playthroughs of that character in the Towers of Time in order to unlock more costumes and other gear for that character. That wound up happening with both Joker and Robocop, as I had a ton of fun with both of those characters’ moves and fighting styles.

The announcement of the Aftermath DLC halfway into 2020 totally caught me off guard. It was a new storyline expansion DLC that lasted only a few hours, but continues the same best-in-class production values of fighting game cutscenes that seamlessly transition between fights. Best of all, it brings the DLC characters into the narrative to freshen it up, and is highlighted by Shang Tsung being your uneasy ally/rival throughout which resulted in yet-another killer MK storyline to take in, even if it was a little shorter. Oh yeah, NetherRealm Studios inserted the likeness and voice of the same actor who perfectly portrayed Tsung in the first Mortal Kombat film, Cary Tagawa. My nostalgia for that 1995 movie knows no bounds, so it was a thrill to have Tagawa return to MK11 for the Aftermath storyline. Another movie related surprise was new costume DLC for Sonya, Raiden and Johnny Cage that use the likenesses and voiceovers from their 1995 movie cast counterparts with Bridgette Wilson, Christopher Lambert and Linden Ashby all returning. I am so thrilled to see the games fully embrace the fandom for the 1995 movie, and doubly thrilling is that the new Mortal Kombat film set to release later this year that legit looks kind of promising based on the trailer and general buzz in the movie/gaming press. Another surprise update to MK11 was the inclusion of cross-network play. So that meant I could finally play against my brother on Xbox One! I was skeptical trying it out when my brother and I lined up a day to play that it would be a laggy mess playing on different systems against each other, but we played for about an hour with no problems, and all my costume and gear unlocks carried forward too! Countless thanks for the developers adding this support, and also many props to Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo for making it so to see it start to become a little more common to other online games in general throughout 2020! So yeah, this all added up to me revisiting MK11 more frequently than I thought I would with the nonstop support from NetherRealm Studios in 2020, and thus it more than earned its #2 ranking on my list, and technically my #1 video-game ranking because…. 1) Global Board Game Domination!!

Once or twice a year, dating back nearly 15 years I have met with mostly the same group of friends for marathon sessions of my favorite board game, Risk. That game is notorious for taking anywhere from two-to-five hours to finish in order to take over the world via smart strategy and lucky dice rolls! Every time we play, we bust out pretzels, beers, Chuck Norris shots and end the night playing PS3 Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘12 until we get sleepy! I always look forward to these nights, and they are kind of like a second Christmas to me because it only happens once or twice a year. As awesome as these are, my technical prowess in Risk strategy and luck in dice rolls leave a lot to be desired over the years, and I am almost always the first or second person eliminated. Regardless of that, I want to give props to Mike, Jim and Paul for the decade plus of priceless Risk memories and moments. A couple years ago Mike moved and my brother Joe has been filling that fourth chair! We have played a couple five player games over the years, but our 2020 night (which luckily emanated about a month before the pandemic hit), saw Jim’s nephew Matt join us for our first five player game in some time. This was Matt’s first game of Risk and thus a learning experience and I had to be the spoiler to ruin his first game and wound up eliminating him first from the game. From there though it was still relatively early as far as the army bonuses goes within an average game of Risk, but a domino effect happened and I was able to capitalize on eliminating Matt and gaining his territories and within about an hour eliminated everyone else on my own!!!! I was in disbelief, and as much as I hate to admit it had somewhat of a brief emotional moment upon winning that game because in our 15-ish years playing, I have only won once before early on and it had to of been at least 10 years since that and I was not use to things going my way, and in that fashion to boot.

The way that game played out resulted in an oddly short-ish two hour game, so we decided to get another round in that night. Now that Matt had his warm-up round in, he had a better grasp of the game and this was a more traditionally close, longer game of Risk where the excitement was in the mobilization of armies and territories in those early rounds and to see who would make the first big attack move in attempts of expanding their territory. Hell yeah, I was all-in on this five hour game of Risk!!! Now as this round unfolded this will be very hard to believe, but I swear I am telling the whole truth that against all odds the same exact thing happened and I eliminated everybody and won the second game as well!!! I am still dismayed thinking about how well that night went for me in Risk, and highly doubt it will happen again! So for me, predominant loser and usually first one out in a game, to full on run the board and eliminate everyone in two consecutive games happens you damn well bet that night is going to be my best gaming related moment of the year!! THANK YOU!!!! I somehow achieved a degree of brevity this year, as last year’s insane best-of list went around 18,000 words, but I was able to….kinda….tighten my word count this year by clocking it at roughly 12,000 words!! My endless thanks for sticking with me all the way through as I recap my favorite (and worst) gaming moments/experiences of the year. Now, to keep up with tradition, after all that perusing and me rambling on for way too long…are you ready for a chuckle or two? Well, then, let none other than John Cena take care of that for you with the following embedded video to close off another best-of list. See you all next year!!!

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Previous Year’s Best of Recaps - 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016

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bishreview · 6 years

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Top 20 Films of the Year

I think it’s about time I did something about films so here’s my list for the top 20 movies. This year has seen a rise in quality superhero films, some strong horror flicks, but I’ve felt genres like comedies and science fiction have really dropped. This list will include films that were released to Australian audiences in 2017 but will miss the Oscar nominated ones at the start of the year because they were classified as 2016 still. Enjoy.

20. Spider Man: Homecoming

Superhero films really did well this year, with Spider Man’s first lead film in the MCU a pleasure to watch from start to finish. Focusing on the high school aspect rather than the superhero aspect (like all previous movies of the hero have done), Holland brings the role to new levels of excitement, humour and reliability, making this maybe the best film incarnation of the hero.

19. Split

Split is a different sort of film. It’s a super-villain film, disguised as a psychological thriller, disguised as a horror. James McAvoy’s role as the character Kevin, a person who has multiple personalities, is incredible as he switches between different personalities, with their own characteristics, with ease. M. Night Shyamalan looks like he’s making a comeback, and it’s exciting to watch.

18. Raw

Have you ever watched a film so gross but so engaging that you can’t look away even though you’re disgusted by what you’re watching? Because that’s Raw. Julia Ducournau’s unique film about cannibalism is incredibly unique and brilliant, whilst also being one of the hardest to watch films I’ve ever seen. Big warning to those with weak stomachs.

17. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi will probably go down as the most decisive Star Wars film ever. Disney have made it clear that they are avoiding canon in their trilogy, turning away from the comics and focusing on the films. With The Last Jedi they took it further, taking risks throughout the whole movie. In doing so, they made the most unique Star Wars film yet, and maybe the strongest since the original trilogy, focusing on the balance of the force instead of the usual ‘good vs. evil’.

16. John Wick: Chapter Two

John Wick is such a brilliantly written character. Although the second instalment in the hit-man, revenge franchise looks more into his past and the organisation he was a part of, we still know little about the ‘Boogeyman’. Keeanu Reeves is brilliant as the titular character and Derek Kolstad has again written another amazing story, creating one of the most interesting and unique cinematic universes.

15. A Ghost Story

There are some movies which capture your imagination and place you in a story that you can escape in. A Ghost Story is a different story. It’s heartbreaking but makes you feel warm. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara are brilliant as the two leads, holding a chemistry which is hard to create so naturally. Although it’s slow at times, there is a certain beauty throughout the movie, drawing you into the love story even at it’s slowest moments

14. Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky is a really fun film. With a great cast including Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Riley Keough, and Daniel Craig, the heist film is an entertaining watch. Although heist films sometimes feel cliched, Logan Lucky utilises the American car racing competition NASCAR as its setting, allowing the film to explore a different range of characters, making it one of the most intriguing heist movies in years.

13. Wonder Woman

The DCEU is getting really hard to watch. Justic League, released late this year, was more of the same average flicks which has plagued the franchise since Man of Steel. Before that though was Wonder Woman, the cinematic universe’s saving grace. Gal Gadot is incredible as the iconic superhero, carrying the movie all the way through with her engaging performance. Mid-way through the year I stated this film was the saving grace of the franchise, and that could never be more true now.

12. The Big Sick

Rom-com’s have never really been my thing. I often feel their stories have been done over and over again and that the genre doesn’t try to be do anything different. The Big Sick though is a story which hasn’t even been attempted by the industry yet, a movie about religious and cultural traditions and progressing forward with them. Kumail Nanjiani explores his real life story in such a tongue in cheek way that you can’t help but love the story and the characters.

11. The Lost City of Z

I was remembering this film the other day (I’ve only watched it twice) and the feelings I got from it still gives me the chills. The exploration of the jungle in James Gray’s film about real life explorer Percy Fawcett is gorgeous. It’s a slow burning movie that depicts Fawcett’s addiction to the Amazon rainforest in such a mesmerising way that you often forget that he’s searching for gold, rather just wanting to live in the Amazon. Charlie Hunman is brilliant as the lead and it’s a movie that will stick in your mind for a long time.

10. Thor: Ragnarok

2017 was a great year for the MCU, and Thor: Ragnarok was the shining light. Although the previous Thor films have been some of the more weaker entries in the franchise, Ragnarok was able to give the titular character his best story yet, combining the comic with the Planet Hulk storyline. With incredible performances by Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson and Jeff Goldblum, NZ director Taika Waititi created the best and most fun Thor that has ever hit the big screen.

9. The Beguilded

The Beguilded was a strange watch. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name, the film explores lust, forbidden love, obsession, fear and hate in a stable manner, balancing these themes effortlessly. Sofia Coppola has deservedly won awards for this film and will hopefully be nominated for a few more after being snubbed at the Golden Globes.

8. Silence

If I were to pick a film that I have seen this year that still disturbs me it would be Silence. Set in 17th century Japan, during the Tokugawa shogunate, Silence follows two Christian priests (Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield) trying to track down their mentor (Liam Neeson) whilst continuing to spread their outlawed religion. The movie is very graphic and doesn’t hold back on the Crucifixion techniques that were implemented during this period. Garfield also delivers the performance of his career, pulling you in emotionally to his character’s experience.

7. War On The Planet of the Apes

It was always going to be hard to complete the Apes trilogy, as the first two films of the franchise were both amazing. War though is best of the three. An incredibly emotional experience as we watch Caesar and his fellow apes fight for survival against humans. Andy Serkis is again incredible as Caesar, continuing to prove that he’s the best actor in a motion capture suit.

6. Logan

Superhero movies were truly a shining light in 2017. The fourth comic book movie on this list (and the highest), Logan (based on Old Man Logan comic) is an incredible experience. Allowing the movie to have a restricted rating was a risk but it paid of as it allowed the character to be at his brutal best. Hugh Jackman will always be Wolverine and Logan was a perfect way to send off nearly two decades of the character on the big screen.

5. A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls (can also be called How to Tear Someone’s Heart Out) is the saddest film of the year. It hits you deep in the feels, ensuring the audience cries their eyes out by the end of the film. Lewis MacDougall is incredible as the lead, and the supporting cast are brilliant, especially Liam Neeson as the voice of The Monster. The film blends a heartbreaking story about cancer with a beautiful fantasy world, utilising water-colour animations to bring the audience into the imaginary world.

4. T2: Trainspotting

T2 has been a long time coming. A sequel to the incredible original (Trainspotting) has been rumoured for a while, and Danny Boyle has finally delivered two decades on. Bringing back the beloved Scottish gang, led by Ewan McGregor, T2 doesn’t hold back on themes of getting old, reminiscing on youth, and trying to make up for the mistakes of youth. With all four of the characters being on a path which joins them back together, fans of the original will feel blessed with this sequel, whilst new fans will straight away connect with their stories.

3. The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist is a perfect homage to the greatest film of all time, The Room. Delving into the creation of the aforementioned masterpiece, The Disaster Artist is about more than having a laugh at the people who were involved in making it. Instead it allows a sympathetic view on the desire to be an actor, to create film as an art form. Both Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero are respectfully portrayed by the Franco brothers, allowing a look into the hardships they faced during the making of The Room. It’s a fantastic story, both hilarious and relatable, and could be the Franco brothers best performances.

2. Dunkirk

I’ve always felt like Christopher Nolan has an obsession with outdoing himself every movie. After the epic (albeit flawed epic) which was Interstellar, it looked like he was going to stick on the sci-fi route which had dominated so many of his previous films. Instead he made Dunkirk a history piece about the Allies biggest failure in World War II, the loss of France. The film is tiring to watch, moving slowly and feeling like it’s in a constant route, as every small victory is followed by the plan going wrong. Fionn Whitehead is terrific in his debut mainstream role, and Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy and Harry Styles also bring in strong performances, suggesting that Dunkirk may be Nolan’s best work.

1. Get Out

I watched Get Out again last night and it still hits me the same way as it did the first time I watched it. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut is incredible. The comedian jumps into a genre unfamiliar to him, in a horror/thriller, and he delivers. Get Out is a unsettling film, raising issues of racism (and anti-racism) without making it overbearing. Daniel Kaluuya is incredible as the lead and will hopefully get rewarded during award season, and the supporting cast of the film (notably Lakeith Stanfield and Betty Gabriel) help create a chilling atmosphere throughout the whole film. The twist ending also may be one of the most impactful non-events in film history, with the expectation of what is going to happen making more of a statement than what actually happens (it will make more sense once you see it). Get Out is an incredible film, close to the best for this decade so far, and my number one film for 2017.

That’s my film list. It came out later than I wanted it to but I’ve just been hammered with work at the moment. I’ve completed the Top 50 Singles of 2017 list and that will be released tomorrow so stay tuned for that. Thanks for the support and hopefully you’ve enjoyed this list.

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youngeditor1999 · 7 years

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Why Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams Deserve Everlasting Happiness Together: An Essay by a Hardcore Shipper

Ok, so before I begin this, you should know that I am a hardcore McDanno shipper. Aside from Kono and Adam, they are my number one O.T.P. on Hawaii Five-0. I am literally so obsessed with Steve and Danny and their relationship, and I'm not ashamed of it, either. Therefore, this comment I'll most likely come off as biased, but I have very good logic behind what I'm about to say. (Also, I can already tell that this post is going to be verrrrrryyyy long, so buckle up and get comfy if you are planning to read everything I've written.)

To start, I see many comments reading, "They have great chemistry, they should still be together, they are endgame..." etc. while all of this is true, to be honest, they are better suited off as friends. They tried to make a relationship work, but usually, it did not.

"But they were together on and off for five seasons!" Is what some of you are probably already thinking. This is true, but unfortunately, it does not mean that they are forever meant to be together.

Remember Billy, Catherine's ex from season 3? Just to clarify, he died in the middle of season 4. However, before he died, he was trying to get back together with Catherine. She had chemistry with him, too. The only problem was that she was legitimately already with Steve at that time. To be honest, I always liked her better with Billy then I did with Steve. They just went better together, in my opinion.

So Catherine and Steve were together. Then, in season 5, she and Steve went to Afghanistan (or some other, terrible, Taliban filled town) in order to save somebody that had helped Catherine when she'd been in the military. If you'll recall, at the end of that episode, Catherine decided to stay behind to help the people get their son back. Steve went back to the United States, heartbroken and crying.

All of this made me still think that Steve and Catherine still had a slight chance to make it. But then.

BUT. THEN.

Catherine returned in the season 5 finale to attend Kono's wedding. Ok, cool. Steve has a date for the wedding of the century. That was all fine and good. Obviously, that was the same episode when they broke up. To be frank, I always thought it would be Steve that broke up with Catherine, obviously so he could go FINALLY be with Danny, his one true love. But instead, Catherine broke up with Steve, citing that she decided to go do some good, volunteer work in a foreign country. I remember her saying to Steve, "Five-0 is your thing. Please, let this be mine."

Then her car to take her to the airport arrived, and she got in. She made a phone call.

Now, to the viewers who had history with this show, they knew that as SOON as she punched in a code before speaking that it was no good. Steve's mom, also a spy, had done the same thing in previous episodes, so they knew what was up. The real slap in the face, though, was when she said to the voice on the phone who she was-badge number, name, the whole nine yards. Then, we hear a male voice on the other end of the line ask, "Is he fooled?" (Or something similar). Catherine's reply came sharp. (Again, not an exact quote, but pretty close. I think you'll get the memo). "He doesn't know anything. He thinks I'm volunteering," she said.

It was then that I officially stopped wanting them to be in a relationship. I get why she couldn't tell Steve, but still! She fucking choose that same life/lifestyle that his mother had had; a lifestyle that she knew he hated. If she truly loved and cared for him as more than a friend, then she would've rejoined Five-0, or at LEAST have found a cool, different job in Oahu.

But no. She literally betrayed Steve, and for what, anyway? We never did get a good understanding or explanation of why she decided to join the C.I.A. It is a concept that stills boggles my mind to this very day. Most recently, Catherine came back for the 150th episode, which is where this clip is obviously from. But this point, I was beyond done with her. I was so irritated when she came back, especially because she interrupted Steve's date with Lynn. Oh, right. And she never told Steve that she became a spy, so he was clearly shocked when she divulged this piece of information.

This brings me to my next point. Steve, his mom, and Catherine had to fight off some bad guys after his mom, and then hide from them. When the doorbell rang at the safe house, it was the rest of the Five-0 team, minus Danny who was in New Jersey to be there for his dad who'd just had knee surgery. (In real life, Scott Caan was busy with his new family and couldn't schedule to film the 150th episode). Steve had called Danny earlier that day to tell him what was going on, and Danny decided to call the rest of the team to help him.

Yeah. Danny called the team. Not Catherine, who probably knew that they were gonna need backup. Danny, who wasn't even there, called the team and made sure they were there for Steve.

That's just one example of why Steve and Danny are so important to each other and belong together; much more so than Steve and Catherine. Let's go back few years, to season three. Danny had accidentally stepped on a bomb. The bomb would explode if he stepped off, killing everyone in the vicinity, himself included. Steve know this, but he stayed anyway. Even at Danny's persistence of him to, "Just go, Steve. Go me there for Grace. Get out of here, save yourself!", Steve did not budge. He insisted on staying and they talked and tried to get Danny to forget why he was even there in the first place. His persistence in not wanting to go proves that they have more than friendship, especially when he knew exactly what to talk about or get Danny calm enough so that he would momentarily forget about the bomb.

Fast forward to season four. The episode where the building collapsed had to have been the most dramatic episode of season four. To refresh, Steve, Danny, and the rest of the team were in a paring grange, looking for a victim. I don't speak exactly remember why, but the rest of the team left the garage, except for Danny and Steve. They investigated until they found a man bound and gagged, tied to a chair in a separate room. Just as they were figuring out what he was saying, which was, "BOMB!" the bomb went off, collapsing the building.

That episode was solely focused on Steve and Danny and how they were gong to get out of their predicament. Danny was also badly hurt, his leg trapped under a cement pillar. Steve didn't give up. After freeing Danny, he temporarily managed to fix his wound, and then created a mini-bomb that would let the people looking for them where they were. It worked and they were free. Once out, they exchanged their first ever "I love yous" while hard-core hugging. This was no "hey bro!" hug. This was an "I am so serious about this, I really do love you," hug. And I don't think I'm wearing shipper goggles for that moment. I genuinely think that that meant what they said. They embraced for a really long time, surprisingly longer then what I would've thought producers would've liked.

After that epic bromance scene, season five was filled with plenty more bromantic/ shipper-O.T.P. feels. That was the season when they went to therapy! Ok, fine, true, it's because they are "work partners" and it was mandatory, but you can't tell me that they weren't acting like a married couple throughout all of those scenes. There is one episode from that therapy time period in particular that I am thinking of, and it has everything to do with undercover work. It's the part of the episode where there is a huge bank heist and Danny and Steve decide to head to an apartment across the street from the robber so they can spy on her and see what she is planning on doing next.

The Five-0 team (but more importantly, the production staff and possibly Peter Lenvok) could have had anyone do this. They could have had cousins Kono and Chin watching out or even the odd combination of Grover and Chin. But no. They choose Steve and Danny. Shippers all across the globe rejoiced.

The best part of their stay in the place (besides, of course, seeing how Danny and Steve would live with each other if given the real chance to) was when it was nighttime and one kept a lookout while the other one slept. Steve decide to watch first, so Danny slept, and he randomly woke up in the middle of Steve's shift. He noticed that the "Perfect Partners" workbook the therapist had given them had been moved, which he thought was funny, because Steve already made it a known that he didn't want anything to do with the book. So he said something about it, and Steve didn't confess to moving it, even though we all know that he did.

Steve then told Danny a story about his youth; a salty that made him seem more human in Danny's eyes. He started it of by saying, "Music. I'm into music," when Danny asked why his hobbies were. "So?" Danny had retorted. "That's a cop-out. Everyone is into music." "No, I meant I'm into playing it," Steve responded. He then told Danny the story about when he was a junior in high school and was in the school talent show to play his guitar. But he had had major stage fright and hadn't actually gone through with it, getting off the stage before he even began. He said to Danny, "That is the reason why I still don't play the guitar to this day," Steve had finished the story. He also add that he had previously never told anyone that story before, which is why it was an important plot point in the McDanno tale. Once he was done, Danny laughed at him. "A little bit of stage fright stopped you from forever playing the guitar?" He'd asked. They then had one of their cute little arguments over the whole issue, and right before Danny went back to sleep, he said, "You know, after all we've been though together...your father...my brother...I would be thought you would've opened up to me more by now." Steve causally responds, "I just did." The McDanno universe (myself included) lost all chill, reblogging that moment over and over.

Later, at the end of that same episode, Steve, Danny and everybody else were at Kamakoahs to eat. Steve and Danny had to leave early, in order to go to their thereby appointment. Ruth, who we met earlier in the episode, was really confused. Remember, she was the old lady who thought that Danny and Steve were gay and living together, to which Steve responded, "We're not gay, we're Five-0." Later, after she left, Danny said, "You know, I would've just vine with the gay thing." So that happened, which does is why Ruth was so confused. As they left, she said, "Wait. I thought they weren't gay." The rest of the team didn't even deny it, they just joyfully laughed, as if to say, "Yeah, girl, we know. They're just faking it. We know they are gay together."

So they walked to Danny's Camaro, and that's when a fan fiction moment happened. You possibly know what I'm talking about. In case you don't, fanfiction moments are those little things in which you think, "Yeah, this can definitely only and will only happen in this fan fiction universe. Sigh." But then the thing from the fan fic actually does happen on the real show, and life suddenly becomes magical. Anyway, this fan fic moment was when Danny revealed that he'd gotten Steve a gift. After telling Danny that he didn't do his part of their assignment, joking that the dog ate his homework, we find out what the gift is. In the trunk of the Camaro, Steve pulled out an elegant black guitar case. Steve had asked, "What is this, Danny?" Danny, his usual snarky self, responded, "It's a tuba, you schmuck. Just open it and you'll see." Inside the case was a beautiful, new guitar which Danny had purchased specifically for Steve. As Danny looked on proudly, Steve muttered, "Danny, Danny, DANNY," with a small smile on his face. He strummed a few strings, and they had a little back and forth conversation about Steve's new instrument, including some things about why Danny had purchased it in the first place. I don't remember what exactly was said, but I do recall that Danny had gotten it for Steve so that he could get back into playing again. Then, Steve put the guitar back in the case and looked thoughtful for a moment. He slammed the trunk of the Camaro and tossed the keys to Danny, saying, "You know what? You drive." Danny caught the keys, a look of pure shock on his face. "I drive. Wow," a stunned Danny said as he accepted the gesture. "Don't get too excited," Steve had replied as he climbed in the passenger seat for the first time in a long time. "I'm still controlling the radio." Driving away, Steve did exactly that, messing around with the switch from the passenger seat.

Ok. That scene was very important for many reasons. Let's start with guitar. Danny didn't have to get him that. Steve never asked him for it, he simply told Danny a story. A story which he had never told anyone before, ever. This obviously includes Catherine, which doesn't make sense. If they were so close, wouldn't Steve have trusted her enough to tell her this about himself? But he never did. He chose to tell Danny instead. Danny went above and beyond what any purely platonic friend would, and it showed. I'm not saying that friends can't buy friends nice gifts for no reason, but it just felt different, in that case. I know that whenever my friends tell me something about themselves, I don't immediately rush out to buy them some thing hella expensive for no reason at all. And it wasn't even the fact that he bought Steve a gift for no reason. It was the fact of what it was, combined with the fact of the story (as mentioned above). It also didn't hurt that Danny could see that that life experience really affected Steve, and that he missed playing his guitar. Steve was extremely touched by the gesture, and Danny was so proud of himself for buying that expensive instrument for Steve. I don't think Danny had ever done doe thing like that for anyone before, not even the people in his family. It was especially worth it to him when Steve admitted to loving at first touch. The smile on both of their faces when the guitar was revealed says enough about this topic, in my opinion. It proves that A) They care enough about each other to listen, talk, and reveal information about themselves without getting made fun of (at least not too much, anyway) and B) they are willing to go the extra mile just to make each other happy.

The other reason that end scene was crucial was the whole "Danny is driving " thing. For those who are casual watchers, it is important to know that basically, ever since the day they met, Steve has been driving Danny's Camaro. This fact has been brought up many times before in the script, and it is the main source of their many "carguments" (I'm not telling you what that is. You can look it up yourself if you don't know). It was even brought up in one of their therapy appointments from earlier in season five. For Steve to actually let Danny drive for once was a huge milestone on his part. He was so affected, surprised, and touched by the gift of the amazing guitar that he felt like he had to let Danny drive after that. It was a compromise he was willing to make. It also shows the progress that they made in their relationship that day, and it was just more overall proof that they are the endgame couple.

I could clearly go on and on forever about these two. Another really good example of their relativity is when they have to go to couple's counseling as part of their mandatory therapy. Do you all remember that? Just for a refresher, that was the one where Steve literally signed them up for couples counseling; as in husband-and-wife couples counseling. Anyway. That episode is "feels worthy" in its entirety (especially the ending where they were just chilling at a table, eating lunch together. Also, Steve round Danny's arm to "feel the effects of the lotion". Sure, Steve. If that excuse works for you...).

Beside those specific examples, there have multiple hugs and touches that have lingered for far too long. Danny calls Steve "Babe"; a nickname he rarely calls anybody else, and Steve calls Danny "Danno". True, this is mostly to annoy him, but as Danny gets to know Steve better, he slowly realizes that he actually doesn't mind it. "When I say 'Danno'...it's a term of endearment," Steve said in season one when Danny was protesting it. Much to Steve's surprise, Danny responded, "Do it every day, then. I like it." Steve smiled all goofily, and it was worth it for all those times of Danny yelling at Steve to not use it. Another point to bring up-they are the few people to ever use each other's full names; Steven and Daniel, respectively. The only other people who occasionally call them by their full names are the few times their parents (sometimes not even that, but a parent-like figure) have been on the show. Whenever they call the other by their full name, it's usually to prove a point, to get the others attention, or even just to subtly let them know that they are different from what everyone else knows. Again, this is just my opinion.

Then there are various innuendos that refer to Danny and Steve in a non-bro/non- platonic way, including the amount of times they say, "I love you," to each other. The one after the building collapse made sense, but every time they say it after that is just to mess with shippers. They really do love each other, though. In fact, at the end of one particularly memorable occasion, Danny combined nickname with an I love you. He was talking to Steve about something, and at the end of their conversation, he looked up at Steve and said, "That's why I love you, babe." All of the McDanno shippers died a little bit that day. (Well, I know I did, anyway.) Also, side-note: Remember the "air hearts" from season two?! Oh! And that time in season three where they went fishing together and then got stranded for almost the whole episode? Tell me that wasn't one of the greatest things to ever see on Hawaii Five-0, and in the McDanno world...! My point is that they have all these endearment terms that they say to each other, sometimes for no reason at all. They are saying them because they want to, not because they feel like they have to. To me, it doesn't feel forced onto the characters, either. It just seems natural and easy with them. Even people who don't ship them (yes, there are some) raised eyebrows at the amount of times they are unusually sweet on each other.

I also want to mention episode 8 from season 7, specifically the ending. (SPOILER ALERT. Duh.) It was an emotional episode all around, but after the Five-0 team arrested all or the bad guys, and all of the hostages were free again, they all individually hugged it out with one another. Steve and Danny were a good space apart from each other. They were smiling and looking at each other, clearly enjoying the fact that they were both ok. Finally, Steve broke the silence by saying, "What, no hug?" Even the casual viewer would be able to tell that he was disappointed and slightly sad about this fact. And then Danny Williams said the most scream-worthy thing he's said in a long time.

"If I hug you, I might kiss you, and then where would it stop?"

ASDFGHHJKLLKJFFDSAA. That was literally my reaction to that quote, aside from screaming and jumping up and down. True, people could say that they were just so relieved that both of them were safe, and that's why he said it, but honestly? I don't think so. First of all, they looked at each other, goofily smiling for way too long, as they usually do. Next, Danny said, "then where would it stop?" If he had left that part out, it would be less scream-worthy. In that one sentence, everything Danny Williams has ever actually, truly wanted was finally made clear. He wants Steve.

Catherine has never done anything like this for Steve. Honestly, she was always too busy playing the damsel in distress and worrying about herself rather than Steve and trying to fix the problem at hand. Even though she was in the Navy, same as Steve, Danny somehow understands this fact better than she does. The funny thing is that Danny was never in any sort military whatsoever. To clarify, I'm not even talking about all of the times where Danny has casually made fun of what branch Steve served in. In my opinion, Danny understands the things that happened to Steve while he was over there, and he can relate to the trauma he went through. Catherine, on the other hand, never wanted to talk about serious issues with Steve, even if he brought it up. Most of the time, unless it involved a problem she was in, she gave no care to what Steve's past experiences had been. However, I know that this argument is, as my Algebra II teacher would put it, "weak sauce", so you can come after me for that if you'd like. Anyway, back to the point. I just think that Catherine was a poorly developed character from the moment we met her. Aside from occasionally helping Five-0 with some cases, she didn't really add any substance to the story, especially when it came to matters involving Steve. In fact, the only real, solo plot lines she ever really got was the things with Billy, her ex, and then of course the would "I'm going to stay in Afghanistan" Taliban thing. She also got the spy story line, which was bitter to many, and it didn't do a great job on making me believe that she and Steve could ever be in a real relationship. It was lazy acting, especially on Michelle Borth's (the woman that plays Catherine) part. She could have done a lot better, including trying to convince the writers and producers to come up with a better story for Catherine. Ok, to be fair, I think that if that dumbass spy storyline was better, it could've possibly saved their sinking relationship. But alas, it didn't, and in all honesty, I thought it was a dumb plot twist. To me, it wasn't even a plot twist, but I regress. To get back on topic...even when she was with Steve, actually in a relationship with him, there were still things with Danny that made her side–eye and question them. Obviously, I have examples, but that would take too much time to write all of them down. Trust me, though, there's many examples of this.

Overall, given all of the great evidence I have provided, it is clear to see why Steve and Catherine do not belong together. They will never be my personal endgame, anyway. Danny and Steve have something special; something more than friendship, or even a silly, fun bromance. I will 100% stand by the McDanno ship until the day I die. Even if it has absolutely no chance of ever legitimately becoming canon, I will not give up. Fuck, when the show eventually, ends and if they are STILL not together, I will be shipping it. (And also writing letters/making phone calls/leaving messages on all of their social media's to the production staff and writers questing why the hell they baited us after all of those years and then never followed through on it.) It is my belief that if two people are meant to be together, they will find a way to be together. Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams clearly are these two people. They have gone above and beyond on showing the world what love really is. Catherine and Steve have not. Sure, they've had a lot of fun together, but that does not begin to compare to the amazing relationship that Danny and Steve have built for themselves. I will never lose hope about McDanno.

Catherine is just another thing standing in the way. Danny and Steve WILL be together one day. For real. Forever. It's just a matter of time and bravery. The fans are more than ready, and the writers have been leading up to a real relationship between them for years. I don't care who you ship, you absolutely cannot deny the fireworks happening between those two. Mark my words and take this long-ass...thing I've written as proof. But until everyone (writers, actors, fans, literally everyone involved with Five-0) gets their shit together...well, at least there's a fanfic for that!

If anyone would like to discuss post this with me, feel free to message me directly. I'd be thrilled to talk to you about McDanno. And of not, that's cool too. I'll always be here, though, if you need to desperately drop a line(:

#McDanno #OTP #steve mcgarrett #danny williams #mcrollins #ShipDefense #NOTP #hawaii five 0 #h50 #longtextposts #Fanfiction #TheyWillBeCanonJustWait #opinion #Whoeverdoesn'tshipthencanGTFO #soulmates #Morethanabromance #Ships #ShippersGoggles #shipppergonnaship

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tardisgirlepic · 7 years

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Ch. 1: “Extremis” Analysis Doctor Who S10.6: Don’t Trust the Text: Double Fake Out

Don’t Trust Anything You See – Massive Double Fake Out

In the very first chapter of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, I gave the advice not to trust anything you see in DW. I’m going to repeat that caveat again here. What you think you see is not necessarily true. There is so much more going on in “Extremis” than the text suggests.

From the very start of the episode, the subtext says don’t trust everything we are seeing. With Missy and the Vault, there is an inverse reflection of the sun on the water (red arrow), shown below, so things are upside-down from how they look. And things are distorted because of the distorted reflection, which is also disjointed. This suggests there may be a lot more time involved in the whole Vault thing than what it appears. In fact, to contribute to this disjoint nature, the scenes with Missy were dispersed throughout the episode.

We never see Missy going into the Vault. How do the Doctor and Nardole even get the Vault, which is in the middle of the lake, to the university building? Please note that I do believe she is in there, but the subtext suggests it’s not that simple. Also, there are huge gaps of time here. Over many years, I’ve come to trust the subtext over what we think we see.

Did you find it odd that Nardole feeds the Doctor lines like an actor or like someone who has forgotten what they stand for? River is one of the architects of this rescue plan, so Nardole doing River’s bidding isn’t surprising. Besides, Nardole is also a mirror of the Doctor. Interestingly, the Doctor is being programmed here. My question is: what does it mean about the realness of this Doctor?

This type of situation in the subtext comes up a lot. In these cases, I assume that the main events happened at some point, however, not quite the way they appear. I trust the subtext.

Don’t trust the computer simulation part, either, unless you are reading the subtext. I’ll get to that in a few minutes, but lets look at “The Next Doctor” first to see how it informs us.

Massive Double Fake Out Foreshadowed in “The Next Doctor”

In “Extremis,” we’ve been led to believe in the text that the part with Missy is real while the rest of the episode is part of a computer simulation. But the subtext suggests that things aren’t the way they seem throughout the episode. Don’t trust anything you think you see.

The 10th Doctor episode “The Next Doctor,” which I highly trust, says there is a massive double fake out going on with the 12th Doctor. I’ve been wondering for years how this would play out, so this is really exciting for me.

In the 10th Doctor story “The Next Doctor,” Jackson Lake believes he actually is the Doctor. Therefore, at the beginning, we along with the 10th Doctor are led to believe Lake is, as the 10th Doctor states, “The next Doctor. Or the next-but-one. A future Doctor anyway.”

Missing Memories

However, Lake has memories missing, like the 12th Doctor, although Lake’s memory loss is much more extensive. And like the 12th Doctor in Season 8, Lake is searching for whom he really is. He also doesn’t remember his wife, which is similar to the 12th Doctor not remembering Clara, his alchemical wife. Additionally, Lake doesn’t remember he has a son until the end. His young son is a slave, helping to power the CyberKing warship.

Lake starts getting his memories back when the clock strikes 12.

Sonic Screwdriver

Because Lake runs around and acts like the Doctor, he certainly seems like it until Lake and the Doctor go to break into the dead reverend’s house. The Doctor notices the tool Lake is calling a sonic screwdriver, which is our first clue that something is wrong.

DOCTOR: Oh, front door. I'm good at doors. Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver? NEXT DOCTOR: Yes. I'd be lost without it. (It's an ordinary screwdriver.) DOCTOR: But that's a screwdriver. How's it sonic? NEXT DOCTOR: Well, er, it makes a noise.

(He taps it against the doorframe.)

NEXT DOCTOR: That's sonic, isn't it?

I squeed in delight when the reference to “The Next Doctor” came up in “Thin Ice.” Spider had already stolen the 12th Doctor’s screwdriver.

DOCTOR: What happened to the girl? BILL: Does it matter? The boy's the one with your magic wand. DOCTOR: Sonic screwdriver. BILL: How is that a screwdriver? DOCTOR: In a very broad sense. BILL: All right, how's it sonic? DOCTOR: It makes a noise.

So DW is showing us once again, but from the 12th Doctor episode, that the Doctor is mirroring Jackson Lake.

Anyway, Lake, not knowing he is Lake, says this whole thing started with Jackson Lake’s death. He was a teacher who came to London 3 weeks prior and died a terrible death. However, his body was never found. Then, there were a string of murders and children abducted. Lake’s death seems to bring on terrible consequences, or at least it’s the beginning of it.

Fob Watch

The 10th Doctor notices that Lake is wearing a fob watch, shown below. The Doctor opens it, but it falls apart. Therefore, it looks like Lake is not the Doctor.

However, here’s the problem. The subtext says the watch is more than it seems. If you listen carefully before the Doctor opens the watch, there are whispering voices.

I trust the subtext.

The presence of the voices suggests that there is a very powerful perception filter on the watch, and Lake’s Time Lord consciousness is inside. We’ve seen perception filters used to create the illusion of a whole second floor of a building. I’m assuming the 12th Doctor has Merlin skills, which create very strong perception filters. Therefore, it’s possible that the perception filter makes it look like the watch falls apart (which is odd) when opened by the wrong person at the wrong time, even the 10th Doctor.

Over the episode, Lake and the Doctor both come to believe he is not the real Doctor.

Roman Cross

Jackson Lake, shown below, is associated with the Roman cross, a symbol of the 12th Doctor. However, the 10th Doctor in the scene is also associated with the cross, so he is also playing the 12th Doctor. This is just like “Extremis,” where we have one 12th Doctor who looks real and another 12th Doctor who, at the end, doesn’t.

Clara, River, Lake & Missy

Jackson Lake’s last name is special because it’s a water term and suggests that he is related to River and Amy Pond. In “Deep Breath,” Vastra associates Clara with the lake, so Jackson Lake is related to Clara, too.

VASTRA: Well, goodness me. The lake is ruffled at last. I often wondered what you'd be like when you lost your temper.

From the Merlin legend, which we examined in Chapter 10 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, both Clara and River are associated with the Ladies of the Lake. River came out of Lake Silencio and killed the Doctor, and by Clara’s association with him, he gets trapped in the beautiful tower of the legend (confession dial castle) and dies over and over.

Since Missy was using Clara as a proxy, I see Missy as a sort of Lady of the Lake, too. (In the same way, I also see her as a remote stellar manipulator, which refers to the Hand of Omega.) Therefore, it’s really interesting that “Extremis” somewhat connected Missy to a lake by putting the Vault in the middle of a lake.

Mercy, Missy, the 12th Doctor & Rosita

Mercy, a possessed character, who seems very much like Missy, is shown below. She is a dark mirror of the 12th Doctor because of the Roman cross (red arrow). (She walks past other crosses during this scene.) Anyway, like Missy, she seems like an evil Mary Poppins with the umbrella, although without Missy’s charm.

Also, like Missy, she is in a graveyard and commands Cybermen, so this certainly also ties in the 12th Doctor and Danny Pink.

Later in the episode, she is the pilot of this colossal CyberKing vehicle (white arrow), which is rising above the wall near where Rosita (red arrow), Lake’s companion, is standing. Rosita is a transitional companion, who is more proof that there is more to Lake than it seems. Rosita is a Spanish diminutive of Rose, so Rosita is a mirror to Rose. Not only that, Rosita has no qualms about putting Lake and the Doctor in their place, like River, Donna, Bill, and Nardole. Interestingly, all 4 of these characters have connections to the 12th Doctor or Caecilius.

Mercy (yellow arrow), along with several Cybermen, are in the mouth of the colossal beast. That she’s possessed isn’t clear until the end when she figuratively wakes up, looks around, and screams.

This CyberKing vehicle, which has red eyes, is a close mirror of one from “Hell Bent,�� with the Doctor (yellow arrow) being the one, along with the general, who is in the nose/mouth of what looks somewhat similar to a CyberKing-like ship (the Gallifreyan Capitol). The 2 white arrows point to eye-like areas. In fact, they are djinni circles, which suggests that they may be connected to the Eye of Harmony. That’s not surprising given that the symbolism here represents the CyberKing ship from “The Next Doctor.” And the Doctor is the pilot, the Star Whale.

Lake & His Son Are Still Prisoners at the End

Near the end, Lake, shown below, carries his son (red arrow) through the fiery area with the Doctor (white arrow) close behind. Check out the chain (blue arrow). All 3 of them are prisoners, and it has nothing to do with being in the building. This situation extends beyond this episode. However, Lake thinks he isn’t the Doctor when the subtext says he is. How does this stack up to “Extremis”? Keep reading.

Based on Lake not remembering his son until the end, this suggests the 12th Doctor doesn’t remember his own child or some other relative besides Clara. That’s not surprising since “Time Heist” tells us that to protect people he loves, he’s forgotten who some of his family members are. Likewise for them.

Lake suffered a fugue state, now called dissociative fugue, when he saw his wife murdered. Some of the symptoms could describe the 12th Doctor.

Wikipedia says

Dissociative fugue, formerly fugue state or psychogenic fugue, is a dissociative disorder.[1] It is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state is usually short-lived (ranging from hours to days), but can last months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity.

The 12th Doctor was having a lot of trouble understanding whom he was after regenerating. Can a dissociative fugue explain why the Doctor is choosing different aliases? Perhaps. It could also be that he’s been duplicated and looks like a schizoid man.

The Computer Simulation Doesn’t Add Up, Either

Oddities in “Extremis” don’t stop with Missy’s part, so don’t trust what you see. If anything, just as in Jackson Lake’s case, things get weirder between the text and the subtext in the computer simulation. For example, some things are literally upside down. Also, the Doctor is not totally correct about random numbers. Additionally, if he were only a simulation, I would not expect some of the symbols in the episode to show up in the simulation. Finally, there are oddities with the Veritas and Vault, which I’ll talk about in the next chapter.

Upside-down Stairs in the Library Metaphor

We’re back to the Library metaphor just like the subtext said we had to be, and we’re in Rome too, which the subtext also said would happen. If you missed this explanation, it’s in Chapter 10 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who. I suggest, however, you start at the chapter before, which is the start of my pre-airing analysis of the clips from “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.”

Check out this image below where the stairs (red arrow) in the Library are upside down. Notice, too, the Doctor is standing in the middle of the center circle while no one else is. He is seriously trapped inside several containment circles, all within a djinni circle. Bill, Nardole, and the Cardinal are also trapped. I would not expect this if everyone is really a simulant.

Upside-down stairs do tell us something is wrong. This seems like the 11th Doctor’s first 2 Weeping Angels episodes, “The Time of Angels” and “Flesh and Stone,” where they jumped impossibly high up and impossibly ended up on the ceiling, which was upside down from where they initially were. Obviously, no one jumps in “Extremis,” but the upside-down symbolism is there.

Why would the Monks program upside-down stairs in a simulation? It seems a very strange thing and a waste of time for the Monks to do, when there are so many more important things to program in order to run this type of simulation. The Cardinal said the Library was designed to confuse the uninitiated, but upside-down stairs aren’t confusing to me.

I would never waste my time programming such a thing. Unless it’s code, which is how I’m taking it.

The Doctor, being aware of his existence, is sentient, no matter if he was real or not to start out.

If I were him, I would make stealth clones of myself to have more Doctors working on the problem. Then, I would find a way to leave myself clues of what is happening by changing the programming of the simulation. This is similar to the Vardies. They became sentient and changed the initial conditions of the programming.

The upside-down stairs, therefore, could be clues the Doctor is leaving to tell him things are opposite to how they appear. If that’s not the case, the stairs are at least clues for us.

Here’s one more thought about this. If Donna, for example, can become part of the computer environment in the Library and then become reactualized at the end, the Doctor, as a sentient mind, assuming he wasn’t real to start out, might be able to become actualized, too. On the other hand, he could very well be real to start with.

Random Numbers in Computers

The Doctor talks to Bill about computer-generated random numbers in “Extremis.”

DOCTOR: Computers aren't good with random numbers. If you ask a computer simulated person to generate a random string of numbers, it won't truly be random. And if all the simulated people are part of the same computer programme, then they'll all generate the same string. The exact same numbers.

The Doctor is correct that computers aren’t good with truly random numbers, unless there is a good external stimulus used for the computer to key numbers off of. However, unless it’s a really poor simulation, he is wrong about all the computer-generated people generating the same string of numbers. Moffat gave us the answer to the poor simulation possibility. The Doctor already said the Monk’s simulation was too good. Therefore, the Doctor is definitely wrong, which begs the question of why?

Please don’t assume it’s poor writing on Steven Moffat’s part. In order to be able to read the subtext, we should never assume things that look like mistakes are poor writing. Typically, things that are wrong are clues. It’s up to us to ask why they are wrong.

Anyway, if I were to program a simulation similar to what the Doctor is talking about, each simulated person would call a subroutine to generate their own random number. Therefore, it would be unlikely, given good initial parameters, that a small group of people, like we saw at CERN, would produce any like numbers between 2 people, let alone the whole group.

However, there are other ways characters could arrive at the same string of numbers. For example, say the Doctor is like CAL, where his living mind has been uploaded to the computer. Let’s say people like Bill have had their minds uploaded, too. Or we could make duplicates of Bill and the others, so they actually are simulants. Either way, to make the Doctor and everyone think they are simulated, all we have to do is to change people’s digitized memories from within the program to use the same random number. Then, we tell them if they all come up with the same number, they are simulated.

The effect is the same as what the Doctor said. However, the intent is different. In this latter case, the Doctor would be real, but the Monks want him to have an identity crisis, making him think he isn’t. It’s duplication and identity theft, like what was done to Prisoner 6 in The Prisoner.

The Doctor’s memories being affected has already happened in the subtext back in Season 9 in “The Girl Who Died,” which is a reference to the 4th Doctor episode “The Deadly Assassin.” I’ll get to this in a few minutes because this Classic Who episode seems to be driving so much of what we are seeing and have been seeing for some time.

BTW, if we can’t change memories through computer programming, we can get Doctor Moon from the Library to brainwash people to use the same numbers. It’s just a different type of programming.

Bill & the Oval Office

Bill enters a door leading to the Oval Office of the President of the United States. She is associated with a painting of a reflection of a river, so she becomes River’s reflection.

Then, she sees the dead president, and we see her reflection in the light switch plate (yellow arrow). Therefore, we know there is another face of Bill. Later we see that this face of Bill is not real.

Her mind could be real, though. Let’s say she is CAL, who saw herself as having the body from her memories. We know, however, that she is a mind of pure consciousness. We could program her body to disappear like Bill’s, even though her living mind still exists. Doctor Moon could do that.

Normally, I wouldn’t overthink this, like I am. However, I want to show you that different ways exist to explain what is happening and have people be real.

Everything we see could be happening in a computer, like the Matrix, with living minds. In fact, there is quite a bit of subtext to support this. Certainly, CAL from the Library is one example, but there are plenty of others.

This is Inception. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly suggest you do. In DW, we’ve seen dreams within dreams. We could also be running nested simulations. The possibilities are endless, really. We’re back to the case of never really knowing if we are in a dream or simulation or reality.

The Horse, the Man & the Architect

Behind the Doctor in the President’s Oval Office, there is a statue (red arrow) of a rebelling horse and a man standing on the ground. The Doctor is both the rebelling horse (the Architect) and the man from the poem in “The Beast Below.” This is all part of the rescue plan.

When we apply the concepts of the Architect and “Time Heist” to this situation, the Doctor here probably does not remember why he is really here because he had a memory wipe, like what happened in “Time Heist” to wipe away any guilt of robbing the bank. The Teller could sense guilt.

Since the Doctor is both man and horse here, I have a hard time believing he is not real.

Is this Doctor really alive but brainwashed into believing he is not? This certainly goes along with what “The Next Doctor” subtext is saying. We don’t have any hard proof that says the Doctor is not real. Likewise, we don’t have any hard proof that Missy’s Doctor is real.

Another possibility, which has support, is that the Doctor is a simulated version that has become sentient. Gaining sentience certainly has come up many times in the subtext for years. In the latest reference, we saw this happen in “Smile” with the Emojibots and Vardy. In my analysis on “Smile” we saw the Doctor mirroring an Emojibot, and we also saw Rory mirroring the sentient Rorybot, as an example I gave from “The Girl Who Waited.”

The Eagle Comes to Abduct Ganymede

In my analysis of “Oxygen,” we looked at the Greek myth of Ganymede and the eagle. Here’s the payoff of that. In the President’s Oval Office, there is an eagle with outstretched talons ready to grasp something. It’s not surprising then that the Doctor places his arm next to the bird in such a way as to make it look like the eagle is grasping him (red arrow), shown below. The Doctor is Ganymede being abducted by the eagle. This is a carefully crafted camera shot, where the Doctor never crosses in front of the bird or the frame of the painting, which just so happens to be a reflection of a river (yellow arrow).

Once again, this subtext makes it really hard for me to believe that this Doctor isn’t real. Why have this as subtext if what the Monk said was true? Well, it could pertain to the “realest” Doctor, whoever that is. However, I’m applying it here, especially because this is similar to what happened in “The Next Doctor.”

In the image below, the Monk, on the other hand, represents both River’s reflection (yellow arrow) and the eagle (red arrow). Since the Monk is associated with River’s reflection, just like Bill, the Monks are more than they seem. Keep in mind the Doctor is in a war with himself. How does the Doctor defeat himself?

Anyway, we are back to the Monks abducting the Doctor, which should not be surprising, if you’ve been following my analyses from the beginning. It’s what we examined back in Chapter 14 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who from “Tooth and Claw.” The subtext in that episode shows that the Doctor is the Scottish boy abducted by monks.

There’s also Melody Pond’s abduction by the Headless Monks. It’s a theme. In fact, being in the Oval Office is a reference back to the 11th Doctor episode “The Impossible Astronaut,” where we saw President Nixon and heard a little girl calling for help. Later, we saw the little abducted girl in the astronaut’s suit. The little girl, however, is not who we thought she was. I started alluding to that back in Chapter 13 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who. The little girl represented The Ghost and the 3 hidden faces of the Doctor.

Interestingly, in “The Next Doctor,” there is a bird that looks like the same eagle, which has outstretched talons like the one above. This angle admittedly makes it difficult to see the whole bird. I invite you to check out the video of the episode, as the eagle shows up several times, along with a second bird, which also looks like an eagle. Anyway, the image below shows a skewed camera angle, so we know things aren’t the way they seem. The eagle appears to either be grasping at the books, which are metaphors for River, or it’s grasping for Jackson Lake. I could make a case for either one.

One interesting thing about this scene is that Lake talks about children being abducted just before we see this image.

The Eagle & the President

There is a symbol of an eagle in the middle of the carpet (red arrow), shown below. This is a metaphor for the president. The Doctor (green arrow) is sitting in the president’s chair, making him a mirror of the president. However, the president (yellow arrow) took his life.

Before we see all this, Bill sees the news about a White House blackout where the president hasn’t been seen for at least 12 hours. This is a reference to the 12th Doctor, or at least one of his faces, who took his/her life. This explains a weirdness I saw earlier, which I’ll explain in a few minutes.

The Monks said they killed the Doctor over and over, so the president’s death represents one way they’ve done it. The Doctor has been suicidal, at times, which may well be part of the plan here by the Monks. Make the Doctor take his own life, so he doesn’t regenerate.

The Doctor is also associated with the eagle via the flag behind him (red arrow). He is both Ganymede and the eagle because he is the abducted child who escaped, as well as the Architect who is coming back to fix things.

2 Crosses & 2 Doctors

Regarding the president taking his life, I mentioned something weird came up. The weirdness came up earlier in the episode when the Doctor sat in the chair in the Veritas’ cage. There are 2 crosses at the top of the chair (red arrows), shown below. This was very surprising, as I expected to see 3, one for each face of the Doctor. The President’s death could explain why there are only 2 crosses.

Additionally, the 2 crosses matches the 2 images (red and yellow arrows) we see below once this Doctor sends an email to the other Doctor.

The 2 crosses and these 2 images above also make it difficult for me to believe that this Doctor is not real.

Hypothesis

Right now, my hypothesis is that this Doctor in the simulation is a real living mind being put through a very elaborate fake out designed to break his spirit, very similar to what we examined in my analysis on “Knock Knock” with Prisoner 6 from The Prisoner series.

What could be better for people trying to conquer Earth (also a metaphor for the Doctor) than to confuse the Doctor with what is truly real and what is fake? Especially when he has become more vulnerable with his blindness.

I won’t be surprised if most everything is happening within the computer. Just envision the Doctor being CAL. This is how I’ve been picturing this playing out for years. All along, he’s been having problems understanding what is real and what is not, and we’ve seen that through the Great Work. Since he is mostly conscious now, he is aware of the dilemma. However, there is still mind control going on.

The Prisoner, Mind Control & the POP Directive

At the end of “Extremis,” the Doctor emails himself a message from within the computer simulation, which has a possible link to “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

In my analysis on “Knock Knock,” we looked at one of the meanings of “Pop Goes the Weasel,” which was played at the end of the episode from the Vault. POP was the directive to protect other people in the iconic British TV series The Prisoner. The Doctor’s emailed message, shown below, basically is the POP message: “Save Them.”

The Prisoner is absolutely being referenced in Season 10. Mind control, brainwashing, mistaken identity/identity theft, and other psychological methods are used to try to break Prisoner 6, like what is happening to the Doctor. We may get some of our answers to whom is doing this by looking at a Classic Who episode, which has the Master framing the Doctor for murder and trapping him in the Matrix in a fight for his life.

The Doctor Is So in Trouble: “The Deadly Assassin”

In the 12th Doctor episodes, the 4th Doctor episode “The Deadly Assassin” is heavily referenced. In fact, this classic episode is where the Master uses the word “extremis.”

We’ve already examined numerous references to the Eye of Harmony, which first shows up in “The Deadly Assassin.” However, there are other very important allusions to look at, which, in part, explain what we are seeing and have been seeing for some time. The Doctor is so in trouble with Missy, especially with his blindness.

What Referencing the Doctor’s Prydonian Birthright Means

In this Classic Who episode, the Doctor receives a premonition that the president of Gallifrey will be assassinated. And, to his horror, he will be the assassin. He tries to stop it back on Gallifrey by leaving a note with the Prydonian Seal (red arrow), shown below.

HILDRED: I found this in the capsule. (Spandrell takes the Doctor's note and reads it.) SPANDRELL: To the Castellan of the Chancery Guard. I've good reason to think the life of His Supremacy the President is in grave danger. Do not ignore this warning. The Doctor. And he signed it over the Prydonian Seal. ENGIN: Apparently he is or was at one time a member of that noble Chapter.

A few seconds later, Spandrell gives us some important information.

SPANDRELL: He's a Prydonian renegade, sir, and as you know, when a Prydonian forswears his birthright, there is nothing else he fears to lose.

In “Extremis,” the 12th Doctor says

DOCTOR: On my oath as a Time Lord of the Prydonian Chapter, I will guard this body for a thousand years.

So both the 4th and 12th Doctors have nothing left that they fear to lose. That’s not surprising given both Doctors’ situations. The 4th Doctor will end up being executed if he can’t clear himself. With the 12th Doctor, we saw a never-seen-before side of him at the end of “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.” He is really suffering from River’s death, and the subtext also suggests he’s suffering from his missing memories of Clara.

The Doctor’s oath was very serious, and he broke it. Uh…oh. The consequences can’t be good, but whom does he answer to?

However, we know the rescue plan required him to break his oath. He made multiple promises, according to “The Pilot,” so what about those?

How did the 12th Doctor get into this mess with executing Missy? What all did Missy do because 1000 years is a long time? How did the executioners convince the Doctor to become involved in this? Who’s watching the watcher of the Vault?

Premonition Means the Master Corrupted the Matrix

A premonition shows up in dialogue in “The Girl Who Died,” when the Doctor first sees Ashildr.

CLARA: Okay, so, why are you staring? DOCTOR: I don't know. Nothing, probably. Too much time travel, it happens. CLARA: What happens? DOCTOR: People talk about premonition as if it's something strange. It's not. It's just remembering in the wrong direction.

This obviously is a reference back to “The Deadly Assassin,” meant to tell us Missy is probably fiddling with “reality.”

Anyway, regarding the 4th Doctor, his note doesn’t help. The Master frames him, making it look like the Doctor commits murder. Then, a Time Lord tortures the Doctor, trying to get him to talk. Spandrell stops the torture, and the Doctor talks to him.

DOCTOR [on screen]: Well, this is the bit you won't believe. People talk of a premonition of tragedy, but I actually saw it happening. I saw the President die as vividly, as clearly as I can see this room now.

I find the next part very interesting.

ENGIN: Precognitive vision is impossible.

I’ve found this statement very odd given all that we’ve seen in nuWho. How then is the Doctor able to look backward and forward in time? Unless, that is, the Master or Missy is using the Matrix or something similar to mess with the Doctor’s mind. This sounds like the Matrix has been corrupted.

Another possibility is that we are in the Dark Times when the old rules applied, we’ve seen several Dark Time monsters, like the spidery creature the Empress of the Racnoss. There is certainly circumstantial evidence for this being that time period. This is a topic for a future chapter.

“The Most Dangerous Game” & the Battle in the Matrix

The Matrix, according to “The Deadly Assassin” episode, normally contains the minds of deceased Time Lords, which actually is what we saw with the Cloister Wraiths in “Hell Bent.”

However, living minds can get uploaded. It is clear to the 4th Doctor that a living mind is in the Matrix. In this episode, we find out what the Matrix is

SPANDRELL: What is the Master like on mathematics? DOCTOR: He's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. He's almost up to my standard. What's that? ENGIN: The APC control. DOCTOR: APC? ENGIN: Amplified Panatropic Computations. DOCTOR: Brain cells. ENGIN: Yes. Trillions of electrochemical cells in a continuous matrix. The cells are the repository of departed Time Lords. At the moment of death, an electrical scan is made of the brain pattern and these millions of impulses are immediately transferred to the DOCTOR: Shush. I understand the theory. What's the function? ENGIN: Well, to monitor life in the Capitol. We use all this combined knowledge and experience to predict future developments.

The big “C” room of brains in TRODM certainly sounds to me like a visual representation of this dialogue above. And this is one reason why I have believed that the Eye of Harmony is used to make predictions.

The Time Lords keep something called biog data (a.k.a, bio data) on each living Time Lord. However, the Master deleted his.

The TARDIS Wikia says:

Spandrell and Engin cannot comprehend why there is no bio data extract for the Master in the APC Net (aka the Matrix). This is a network of past and present Time Lord minds that acts as an enormous database and future forecaster. The Doctor decides there must be an unauthorised second access point into the Matrix. The Master used this to forecast the assassination into his mind and then wipe all trace from the Matrix. He reasons that either the Master or the assassin working with him must be inside the Matrix. Despite the stern warning from Engin, he interfaces with the Matrix to find him.

This technique of forecasting could easily be used in the Test of Shadows. Just project a string of numbers that everyone then repeats for the test. Sadly, if this is true, living people could be taking their own lives.

Here’s the 4th Doctor below (red arrow) interfacing with the Matrix through electrodes on his temples. The 12th Doctor could easily be interfaced to a machine like this.

What ensues with the 4th Doctor is reminiscent of the short story by Richard Connell “The Most Dangerous Game.” If you haven’t read it, it’s a great short story. The Master’s proxy in the Matrix hunts the Doctor as prey. The whole scenario looks real, including the Doctor’s blood.

The Doctor gets a leg wound and says that he rejects the reality. While the wound and blood disappear, they return right away because the Master has control of the Matrix and inserts his own reality. As the Doctor says, he is experiencing illusions and dreams.

Outside the Matrix, the Doctor is in trouble because of the various wounds he gets, along with the hand-to-hand battle he has with the Master’s proxy in the Matrix, who is the chancellor. The Doctor narrowly escapes really dying. Then, outside the Matrix, the Master tries to kill him and destroy Gallifrey.

While in the Matrix, the Doctor’s body isn’t real, even though we see him as such. It all happens in virtual reality. If the Master wanted to, he could have the Doctor’s body disappear or someone like Bill disappear, yet Bill could still be outside of the Matrix hooked up to the machine, just like the Doctor is.

Is that what happened to Bill in the simulation? Or is Bill really a shadow character?

The Allegory of the Cave: Reality vs. Shadows

Sadly, I had written this section months before Season 10 started, but I never posted it because it’s from my unfinished chapter on the Library Metaphor. So here’s a small part of my Library chapter.

What’s happening with CAL and the Doctor can be partially explained through the Allegory of the Cave. Plato wrote about this allegory of reality vs. the shadow world of the cave in his work the Republic.

In it, a group of people have been chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, only allowed to look at a blank wall. The hidden jailers project shadows of real objects on the wall. The prisoners, knowing nothing else, believe the shadows to be real, so they live their lives mind controlled in a world of illusion. They know nothing of what actually is causing the shadows.

Plato likens philosophers to the prisoners who gain their freedom and walk into the sunlight. They come to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all.

Like the cave prisoners, CAL and the Doctor have been mind-controlled prisoners. Doctor Moon and the Dream Lord (or someone controlling the Doctor) are the ones using dreams and other techniques to keep CAL and the Doctor unaware of the real situation. CAL and the Doctor have been programmed, so to speak, to see only the dream world.

Symbolically, Rory (a Dinosaur metaphor) died in a cave at the end of the 2nd part of the Silurian episode, “Cold Blood.” (The Silurians, like Vastra, have been on Earth since the Age of Dinosaurs, and now live underground.) After that, Rory got converted into a plastic Roman. CAL got converted into a control node of the Library computer before her body died. Since Rory and CAL are mirrors of the Doctor, the Doctor got converted into something, but his initial self died. In “Deep Breath,” his mirror was a cyborg, which is what CAL is.

There is an irony, however, in the Library. Many shadows are actually real, while the “real world” is a deception. When the Library is under attack by the shadows, Doctor Moon tells CAL the truth that the “real world” is a lie while her nightmares and the Library are real. Something similar is happening to the Doctor. (Ironically, BTW, the Dream Lord’s dreams are actually very close to the truth.)

The Doctor has to wake up fully to be rescued from his imprisoned state to save the universe. But what is the universe really?

That begs the question: Doctor Who? It’s the oldest question in the universe, according to the Walter Simeon’s Great Intelligence and Dorium Maldovar, the blue alien who lost his head to the Headless Monks. If it is the oldest question in the universe, the Doctor has to be the first thing in the universe. So what exactly is the universe?

As far as CAL is concerned, the Library and her dream life are the universe. After all, her grandfather built it around her to keep her entertained, so she was the first person in the universe. In a similar way, the universe must have been built around the Doctor.

The Test of Shadows & CAL

I mentioned the shadows being real in CAL’s Library. This actually excites me now to revisit this because I wouldn’t have mentioned this otherwise. It does add something to the notion that the so-called shadow people in the simulations may be real.

Star Trek, the Holodeck & the Matrix

It’s clear we are in some sort of virtual reality. The question is where?

When I saw “The Girl Who Died,” because of the premonition linking the episode to “The Deadly Assassin,” I wondered if the Doctor really was in the Matrix.

However, many ideas have been put forth over the years in the subtext (such as a computer, android, cyborg, Dalek, Matrix, Void), so I hadn’t come to any conclusions.

“Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood”

For example, just before “The Girl Who Died,” we saw “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood,” which featured a couple of Star Trek references. In the image below, we see the Doctor once again standing in the middle of the mural of Jörmungandr on one side and a boat with the 3 crew of the original Star Trek series on the other.

The second Star Trek reference is on the flood door, shown below. 1701B refers to the Enterprise-B, the starship used in the crossover movie Generations, which features some of the original Star Trek crew, along with the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew. In this movie, we see former Captain Kirk in the Nexus, which is an extra-dimensional realm in which one's thoughts and desires shape reality. Time and space have no meaning, allowing one to visit any time and any place that one can imagine. The Nexus most closely sounds like a cross between the Void in DW and the Ghost of Love and Wishes gemstone. In the Void, space and time have no meaning.

In the 11th Doctor episode “The Big Bang,” the Doctor flew the Pandorica into the Void to close the cracks in the universe.

“Oxygen” & the Void

We examined the opening to “Oxygen”: “Space, the final frontier.” It’s also the first line of the opening credits to Star Trek. The Doctor also mentions something else twice.

DOCTOR [OC]: Space, the final frontier. Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting.

The Doctor’s use of the void is really curious here. It doesn’t seem to be the standard astronomical usage. A cosmic void is a large region of space that contains very few or no galaxies. I see lots of stars in the background, so it doesn’t look like a cosmic void. It seems unlikely that he means the Void, but it’s possible.

“Extremis” & the Holodeck

Once again in “Extremis,” we get a Star Trek reference after Bill and Nardole run out of the CERN projection.

BILL: They're not real?

NARDOLE: No, no, they're holograms. They're holographic simulations. And the people in them, too.

BILL: Sorry, what?

NARDOLE: You know, like the holodeck on Star Trek, or a really posh VR without a headset. Through there, those places, that's basically Grand Theft Auto.

Is there really a holodeck-type simulation running? We saw that in “The God Complex,” where the hotel with rooms containing people’s greatest fears, is actually a holographic prison. Once the beast (red arrow) collapses, the hotel starts disappearing, until we see the hologrid and computer in the image below. The Tivolian and Minotaur are actually real.

This certainly could be part of the Matrix, too, and the Eye of Harmony under the floor of the Panopticon in the Gallifreyan Capitol.

Before the Minotaur dies, the Doctor translates its words

(The Minotaur growls.)

AMY: What's it saying?

DOCTOR: An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift. Then accept it, and sleep well. I wasn't talking about myself.

(The Minotaur dies.)

The Minotaur, which is a mirror of the Doctor, is talking about the Doctor. This does suggest the Doctor is in a prison ship with a holodeck, like the Starship UK. However, I haven’t seen anything definitive yet that says where he is. Since there are multiple Doctors (real or not), he could be in multiple places, which was implied in “Extremis.”

The choice of the Minotaur goes along with the Greek story of Icarus, which we’ve seen before in our examination of “The Pilot.” The Minotaur interestingly is a hybrid, part man, part bull, whose heritage is connected to Poseidon, the Greek sea god, who is also god of other waters, of earthquakes, and of horses. Once again, there is a connection here to the sea.

BTW, Danny Pink, after he integrates alchemically with Clara in “The Caretaker,” is associated with the flag of Bardados, shown below, which has Poseidon’s trident on it. Therefore, the Doctor is associated with Poseidon, which goes along with fish and sea creatures symbolizing the Doctor.

I do expect that we may see some type of sea episode, given that sea creatures are metaphors for the 12th Doctor. Or was Loch-less as close as we get?

The Matrix, Missy & the Master

We’ve seen the virtual reality world in the Matrix data slice that Missy was uploading minds to in “Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven.” So Missy could very well be controlling the Doctor through the Matrix, especially since Danny Pink, a mirror of the Doctor, ended up there.

On top of that, we see projections from the Matrix in “Hell Bent.” The Cloister Wraiths are projections of dead Time Lords from within the Matrix. However, there is something curious in the Cloisters with the Doctor and Clara.

In the image below, the Doctor (red arrow) and Clara (white arrow) have 2 concentric, broken circles around their heads. Also, both the Doctor and Clara have 4 crosses each on the compass points. The circles suggest that both the Doctor and Clara are beings of pure consciousness. The broken parts of the circles suggest that they are not trapped. Therefore, they are either ghosts, or they are living minds inside the computer.

If we go by “The Deadly Assassin,” Missy and maybe the Master are using the Matrix to lure the Doctor into a deadly trap. After watching “Extremis,” Missy will most likely want revenge. Because of the huge number of references to “The Deadly Assassin,” I’m betting she and the Master have a large hand in what is happening, beyond what we’ve examined.

BTW, in “The Deadly Assassin,” we learn a bit more about the Master’s powers.

ENGIN: What about his character?

DOCTOR: Bad.

ENGIN: Oh, Doctor, could you please be a little more specific?

DOCTOR: Yes. He was evil, cunning and resourceful. Highly developed powers of ESP and a formidable hypnotist. And the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.

ENGIN: What?

DOCTOR: Well, that the Master would meekly accept the end of his regeneration cycle. It's not his style at all.

ENGIN: But that's something we must all accept, Doctor.

(Engin hands the Doctor a drink.)

DOCTOR: Thank you. Not the Master. No, he had some sort of plan. That's why he came here, Engin.

The last we saw of John Simm’s Master, he was burning up his own life force. Is he trying to steal the Doctor’s regenerations?

The Master’s ESP capabilities explain why Nardole talks about the friend in the Vault sensing the Doctor’s injuries.

NARDOLE: What if you came back injured or sick? You really think our friend down there won't know that? Won't sense it? Look at me!

Real Life: Some People Think We Are Living in a Simulation

The idea of living in a simulation comes straight out of the headlines. Several rich people have hired scientists to get us out of the simulation they believe we are in. In fact, Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc. believes that life is almost certainly not what he calls “base reality.” Popular Science had an article about a year ago about it.

However, whether one is living in reality vs. dreams is a very old question. In Daoist philosophy, there is an ancient text attributed to Zhuangzi (c. 369 BCE – c. 286 BCE). His most famous story was that he dreamt of being a butterfly. He woke up and didn’t know if he was Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.

#doctor who #twelfth doctor #bill potts #nardole #river song #clara oswald #eleventh doctor #amy pond #rory williams

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deiupvote · 4 years

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A couple of weeks ago, I showed my son National Treasure, and the whole time I kept thinking “damn, I really miss Nic Cage”. I knew that he was pretty much in the DTV world for the past 10 years, but I didn’t realize to what level. Turns out that Nicolas Cage made 29 direct-to-video movies in the 2010’s, and almost immediately, I was determined to watch every one of them. So I did. In no particular order:The Trust. 7/10.A not half-bad way to start things off. It's a little under-cooked at a brisk 90 minutes, but him and Elijah Wood play well of each other. Cage gives his character some quirky traits in the first half coming across as a likeable guy trying to do something he shouldn't, but quickly turns to full-on bad guy in the second half. There's a good story here but it's never fully realized. We are treated to a Cage Out though in the third act, which is always welcome. 1 down, 28 to go.Kill Chain. 8/10.This one was really enjoyable! It's sort-of 3 different stories or vignettes that all come together in the second half, which is where Cage enters the picture. He never Cage's Out, playing pretty restrained the whole time (though there is one moment where he comes close). The writing's a bit ham-fisted, and the characters are pure stereotype, but it's well crafted and a very entertaining 90 minutes. So far so good. With 27 to go, things are looking up!The Runner. 5/10.Unfocused and uneventful. It’s well cast and there’s a feeling of “this is a real movie” but it wants to be too many things. There’s a decent movie buried in here, but at a brisk 82 minutes, it’s hard to find. There’s no Cage Rage on display here, instead playing it very understated. It’s quality acting though. Three films into this little odyssey, and so far these are more than just paychecks for him, doing the best he can with what he’s given.Rage. 6/10.It’s OK, but it’s sloppy. The whole time I’m wondering why nothing seems to piece together, and it’s ultimately all in service of a shock ending that undermines everything that came before. Once again, Cage is solid in this. He keeps things entertaining where others may have had me checking out. One intense Cage Out, but I expected more based on the title and premise. Nevertheless, we journey forward. 4 down, 25 to go.Between Worlds. 10/10.I’m going to be fast and loose with the spoilers on this one. Joe is a down-on-his-luck truck driver who lost his wife and kid to a house fire some years prior. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, Joe is at a gas station pit stop where he finds Julie being choked out by some dude. Joe steps in and knocks him out, much to her dissatisfaction. Why? Because 1 hour prior, her daughter was in a motorcycle accident and is now in a coma, and because of a childhood incident, knows that if she is unconscious she can cross over to “the other side”. So her plan was to have some rando choke her in a rest stop bathroom so she could guide her daughter back to the land of the living. Joe interrupted the process, so he offers to give her a ride to the hospital. Once there, she asks Joe to choke her in the hallway so she can try again to reach her. “Something” goes wrong, and instead, Joe’s dead wife is brought back in the daughters body.The next 30 minutes see Joe moving in with Julie and playing house while dead-wife-in-daughter (DWID from this point on) slowly creeps around trying to seduce him. It’s the halfway point when Joe is made aware what is happening, and by extension Julie and the movies 1 other character. They all accept this very easily.It’s around this time that we get to a scene where Joe and DWID are fucking, interspersed with a scene where Joe and his wife before she died are also fucking. In both of these scenarios, his wife wants him to read poetry while they fuck. The poetry Joe proceeds to read in both scenes is from a book titled, I shit you not, “Memories by Nicolas Cage”.More stuff happens, and at the end of the movie, through various circumstances, Joe is doing a classic Cage scream-cry, one arm hugging a jack-in-the-box that presumably belonged to his daughter, and in the other, he is dousing himself in gasoline. He then lights a cigarette, which of course ignites his entire body, and he smokes in a completely normal manner while his body burns. This all happens while Leader of the Pack is playing, a song that holds absolutely no significance to anything that has come prior.Throughout, music that feels directly ripped from Twin Peaks is playing, and the whole atmosphere is begging to feel like David Lynch. Is the kind of movie you would find on Cinemax at 2am on a random Wednesday in 1995. It’s fucking glorious.At this particular moment in my life, my greatest fear is that with 24 films to go, I will never again reach these heights.Inconceivable. 7/10.It’s your typical nanny-isn’t-who-they-seem-to-be sort of deal, but it’s actually entertaining enough. It’s all pretty rote stuff, but there’s nothing offensively bad here. Cage gets 4th billing, with absolutely nothing to do other than play the can’t-see-what’s-really-going-on husband. He’s still decent at it, but this actually does feel like a paycheck movie for him, given that I can’t find any reason he would have looked at the script and thought he had something interesting he could do.The Humanity Bureau. 3/10.Lame, cheap, uninteresting near-future story that doesn’t have anything new to say that hasn’t already been said better in dozens of other movies. Cage is actually asleep at the wheel on this one, just kind of making his way through. In fairness, he isn’t given anything to do. Thus far, these movies have managed pretty decent supporting casts. Here though, it’s pretty much Canadian TV extras. Things are starting to feel rocky with 22 left.Outcast. 4/10.Meh. Anakin Skywalker is a 12th Century Knight escorting hunted royalty to safe haven. It’s surprisingly not as cheap as I expected, but it’s a completely unoriginal and boring movie. My only reason for watching, Sir Nicolas, does not even enter the picture until the final 30 minutes. He really hams it up with the old English accent, but he can’t save the movie at this point. Things are gonna need to start turning around soon. Maybe a Between Worlds injection every 3 movies.Primal. 6/10.A movie where a Jaguar, a killer and Nicolas Cage are all loose on a boat in the middle of the ocean should not be this dull. It’s no fault of Cage, who hurls some great insults throughout when not chomping on a cigar, and the rest of the cast seems game (except you, Jean Grey), so it really comes down to the film itself, which just doesn’t use its premise to the fullest. The whole thing is visually bland, too. It’s so muted it borders on black and white sometimes.I had high hopes going in, but thanks to this little journey of mine, I now know director Nick Powell from yesterday’s Outcast endeavor, and as soon as his name popped up in the opening credits, those hopes came crashing down.Running with the Devil. 7/10.Flawed and sloppily made, but still entertaining enough, mostly due to its surprisingly A-list cast that never gets to do much. It's not nearly as cool as it wants to be though. What Feast made a great joke about in its opening few minutes, this movie tries to do for real, to eye rolling effect. Cage is very low-key in this, with Laurence Fishburne of all people having the most fun. His characters sexual proclivities serve no purpose, and an early montage of them would be pointless if he wasn't so much fun to watch. Perhaps the biggest disappointment though is that Nicolas Cage and Adam Goldberg get some screen time together, and rather than take this opportunity to have them out-anxious each other, nothing comes of it. I'm so d-d-d-d-d-disappointed.A Score to Settle. 8/10.Went in expecting a typical revenge flick, but was pleasantly surprised to see something more. Cage is really great in this, and I'm more and more impressed by him with each movie. He really disappears into each role, never doing the same thing twice even if he sometimes is playing similar characters. There are a few moments of the Cage Madness here, much in the same way that Christopher Walken or Sam Rockwell try to dance in every movie they do, but the more subdued acting takes center stage.The Frozen Ground. 8/10.Tight cat-and-mouse type that focuses on the procedural more than the thriller aspect and is better for it. Cage is in top form, and Cusack ain't half bad either. Might I want to dip my toe into his DTV output next? Perhaps. 17 to go first.211. 1/10.Jesus Fucking Christ.Dying of the Light. 6/10.Dark. 7/10.As it exists in its official form, it’s a middling CIA thriller with an intriguing Cage performance being the most interesting part.In it’s “Director’s Cut”, which is even less of an actual movie than Donner’s Superman II, everything is much more intriguing, and had Schrader been able to make an actual final cut, this could have had the potential to be great. The concept of a dying CIA agent spending his last days trying to catch a dying terrorist is a solid one, but it isn’t fully realized in either version as is. Cage’s performance is a little manic in both, but more fleshed out and sympathetic in the later. CIA business aside, I’d have liked to watch 90 minutes of Cage just losing his mind. Actually that movie could be 3 hours long and still not be enough.Stolen. 9/10.A cheap Taken knock-off crossed with a heist movie that’s a stupid amount of fun. Josh Lucas is gloriously unhinged here, out Cage-ing the man himself. Can the remaining 14 keep up?Arsenal. 5/10.DTV mediocrity that tries too hard to be cool. Cage is hamming it up in a small-ish role, and certainly makes his scenes entertaining, but the rest of the DTV-All-Stars are bland.Seeking Justice. 8/10.It’s packaged as a revenge thriller, but it’s much more in line with 13 Sins/The Game/Nerve. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous, but it’s a lot of fun to watch. It doesn’t use its New Orleans setting as well as Stolen, but the two would make for a hell of a double feature.Dog Eat Dog. 7/10.Weird movie, but compellingly so. Shrader gets his editing jollies off that he couldn’t do on Dying of the Light, but I’m not sure it does much to add to a movie that is otherwise a pretty simple tale of low-level criminals wanting to hit it big. Cage and Dafoe is a great pairing, but it’s never fully utilized, outside of an odd, half-naked condiment fight.Vengeance: A Love Story. ?/10.After the first 10 minutes, where you can fill a card 100% while playing Cop Trope Bingo, you get the deformed child of two very different movies. In the first movie you have a fairly dark, if poorly constructed, movie about the aftermath of an assault and rape where any one aspect of which could have been explored, but instead the writer and director give us a Whitman's Sampler of plot threads with none of them fleshed out beyond the initial idea. Nicolas Cage is not in this movie.In the second movie however, Nicolas Cage stars in what I can only think to describe of as City of Angels 2. After tragically losing his dear Maggie to that damn logging truck, Seth moves out of LA and assumes the identity of John Drormoor, becoming a policeman who years later becomes involved in the lives of a mother and daughter in the aftermath of a violent attack. After what is obviously Seth/John trying to communicate with Cassiel at the edge of a waterfall for guidance, he is given a much warranted promotion from Angel to Avenging Angel, serving due justice to the duos attackers.These two movies have been edited together. I don't know how to give this a numbered rating. There are 10 remaining.USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage. 3/10.A poorly made movie that plays like a work of complete fiction. The use of a famous quote 50 years before it was coined is particularly atrocious, as is Tom Sizemore, acting as though he were Tobias Fünke trying his best at an Academy Award. This is the first straight-up bad movie thus far. Up until this point they’ve either crossed over into so-bad-they’re-good or Cage has given a performance that keeps things entertaining and watchable. USS Indianapolis is just a lame movie across the board.Joe. 7/10.A solid movie with a really great performance by Cage, but I found its most engaging storyline sidelined by too many others that make the movie feel really long. There is no fun to be had here, and little worth revisiting down the road.Color Out of Space. 8/10.Delivered what I was hoping for on most accounts, but continues to prove that adapting Lovecraft, especially on a low budget, is very difficult. There are some real horrors on display though proving that practical effects are still king, and Cage is great, showing again his talent and desire to really put his all into every role.Grand Isle. 6/10.A came cast keeps things going for the first hour, which is essentially a single location play, but it all starts to fall apart in the third act. Grammer has about 10 minutes of collective screen time and only 30 seconds of those shared with Cage. KaDee Strickland is the most surprising here, matching Cage's enthusiasm and keeping the whole thing very entertaining, but it ultimately amounts to very little. The low-budget also doesn't help, constantly referencing a hurricane that is never seen. A shame really, cause you can see the potential for something greater here.Looking Glass. 5/10.A thriller without thrills, trying so hard to be mysterious and failing at each try. Cage is given nothing to do but walk around and look confused for 100 minutes. Things rarely happen, and when they do they make no sense by the end. There's a solid first act setup with some cool ideas, and every single one is wasted. I was hoping for something along the lines of 8MM, but this was not that.The final 5 remain.Mom and Dad. 8/10.A deranged concept which Cage is perfectly suited for, but like my issue with Nicholson in The Shining, he’s already a little crazy before he goes crazy. I love the tone set with the opening credits, but Taylor goes to frenetic too quickly, never letting us settle in before cranking things up to 11.All that aside, it’s a totally bonkers movie and watching Cage let loose is always 100% entertainment. As a whole it just lacks the finesse to bump this up to top tier.Trespass. 8/10.There’s more than a few stupid character decisions, and I don’t love the way the flashback structure is done, but the performances across the board are really good, and the intensity level is consistent throughout.Pay the Ghost. 7/10.A pretty decent spookfest that creates a moody atmosphere and some chilling imagery. While “Color Out of Space” falls in the horror genre, and Cage has done more than a few thrillers, this is the only actual scary movie he’s ever done. I’d like to see more.Army of One. 4/10.Cage sounds like he’s doing a Rain Man impression the entire time, and the movie is narrated in a Wake Up, Ron Burgundy style which is just awful. A very unfunny movie that is more annoying than anything else.Mandy. 10/10.There was no better way to end this journey. Cage is smartly restrained for a majority of the picture, but when the beast is let loose, THE BEAST IS LET LOOSE! A fever dream of a movie that delivers on all accounts, and something that will be re-watched in years to come.https://ift.tt/3aS7gqL In order to keep the title streamlined I said "direct-to-video". Perhaps what I should have said was "movies that did not have a nationwide theatrical release". via /r/movies

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