#the episodes are five minutes each and they're just cute and fun

[transformersslutt]

Favorite G1 Scenes & Characters (so far)

@cyber-streak suggested that to celebrate two years of me having this blog I should give a review of some of my favorite scenes and characters that I've watched/posted about so far, so here we are! And yes, I'm aware it's been two months since then I'm slow, ok?

I'm only going to do my top five favorites for each so this doesn't go on for too long, and technically cyber-streak said "or" in their ask, but I decided to do both.

So, without further ado:

Top five favorite G1 Transformers' characters so far!

#5

Any scene where the seekers randomly switch color schemes

So, this one is just a really fun unintentional gag because of animations errors. Everyone knows that G1 is filled with error after error, but the seekers just swapping colors and getting mixed up is the most consistent one and I love it. There will be multiples of characters in one shot, someone will talk with another person's voice, someone will literally change into another mid-shot. It's great.

#4

When Megatron Made an Optimus Clone the First Time

I just think this part is funny because of all the implications. Megatron just casually has an exact replica of Optimus to use as a demonstration and it's so realistic that the seekers think it's actually him at first. Like, he didn't have to have it be like that. When did he build it? Did anyone else help him make it or did he do it alone? How is he so familiar with how Optimus looks that he can just make it? All possible answers are hilarious.

#3

The Cliffraj SceneTM

If I'm being honest, I mainly like this one because my friend ships them so listening to her rant is entertaining. It's cute and all and it's a fun lighthearted moment that is the end of the character arc for Cliffjumper in the episode.

#2

Rumble and Frenzy Beating Up Skywarp

I'd like to think I'm not the only one who thinks this scene is one of the best in G1 period. Not only is it the first appearance of Frenzy, but it has Soundwave threatening Thundercracker, Skywarp calling Frenzy a geek, Skywarp threatening to step on Frenzy and actually attempting it, and the cassette twins beating up him while Soundwave and Thundercracker just watch in silence. Really shows what happens when Megatron is gone for 10 minutes and Starscream isn't screeching about taking over.

#1

Bee Ramming into Starscream

As you can tell, 99% of my favorite scenes from this show are just ones I find funny, and this is no exception. Gears tries to give Starscream a fair warning, Starscream says that he isn't stupid enough to fall for it, and then Bee comes flying out of fucking nowhere to ram into him and make it to where Starscream basically called himself stupid. Comedy gold!

-------

And now, onto characters!

#5

The Insecticons

Ok so I know this is technically three characters-but shut up. I like these guys (obviously). They're funny. They have fun voices. Their alt-modes are adorable little buggies. What's not to like? Plus, story-wise they add a lot. They're technically Decepticons, but they butt heads so much with Megatron and the others that almost every episode they show up in has them betraying Megatron in some way (usually for food) and causing problems which is a fun change of pace. Plus, even with them causing problems for the Cons, they never team up with the Autobots meaning our heroes now have two enemies and it's a great time. For me at least

#4

Jazz

Be honest, who here doesn't like Jazz? He's a cool guy. He's always up for some fun and blasting some loud music and just being goofy while never getting embarrassed by it! But he can get serious when it comes down to it and while he hasn't had his own spotlight adventure episode, he's done a lot even in just the few episodes I've covered and at the very least assisted in saving the day may times

#3

Starscream

At this point I don't even really need to explain why Starscream is here, especially G1 Starscream. He's literally got a trope/character archetype named after him! What more can I say about him that hasn't been said hundreds of times before? He's entertaining, he and Megatron are great foils to each other, he's arrogant and prideful and schemey and ambitious which often bites him in the ass and yet he's not stupid and right about the problems with Megatron's plans 90% of the time, he has an iconic voice and the perfect name, he's literally the blueprint for an entire group of Cybertronians, etc etc etc.

#2

Soundwave

We all agree that Soundwave is the most competent member of the Decepticons, right? He's a single father of at least six cassettes and is basically babysitting others. This version of his is a bit more ambitious and willing to take command in Megatron's absence, but he's also one of the few bots on either side that hasn't majorly fucked something up. He gets his jobs done most of the time and is largely the reason the Decepticons know what's going on with the Autobots. He's a bit of a klutz and a bit panicky in bad situations, but it's endearing.

#1

Bumblebee

He's baby. That's reason #1. He's cute and small and yellow and I love him. Also, I just think he's a fun character concept. The smart-mouthed yet sweet baby of the Autobots trying to gain the respect of those he admires even though he already has it. I just feel there's a lot of potential there for shenanigans and fun dynamics, especially with the G1 versions of all these characters. Plus, even though I hate Spike, I also like the potential of their friendship and Bee in general being the one to get along best with the humans. His name is also very funny and cute.

#transformers generation one #transformers g1 #maccaddam #starscream #optimus prime #megatron #cliffjumper #mirage #ratchet #skywarp #rumble #frenzy #soundwave #bumblebee #gears #insecticons #kickback #bombshell #shrapnel #jazz #trailbreaker #sideswipe #ratings #val talks

[raina-at]

I have some more coherent thoughts on why GO S2 didn't quite land for me. Under the cut because spoilers and because I don't want to harsh anyone's squee.

First, and I've said this before, pacing. Most of the season was either spent running around headlessly doing something or other, and the "real" plot (what actually happened to Gabriel and why) was condensed into two five-minute exposition dump scenes, with Crowley in Heaven finding the file and with the memory flashbacks for the Gabriel-Belzebub stuff. And the problem is that I felt none of this was especially well set up. None of this information was integrated into the plot organically or foreshadowed. It was "tell, don't show", unfortunately.

Second, efficient storytelling. I especially noticed this in Episode 5, where they spend so much time with Aziraphale running around getting the shopkeepers involved. Yes, it was cute. But it went on faaaaaar too long. I heard somewhere that no matter how delightful a scene is, if it doesn't contribute something essential to the plot, or make us understand something about the characters, it should go. And some of the stuff we saw this season was just so very self-indulgent and just there because it was cute or funny. And if they'd managed to set up the plot and the big twists in the end properly while having fun with the cute and funny and the whimsy, I wouldn't have a complaint. But fucking around for five and a half episodes and then cramming all your story and character development into two five-minute info-dump scenes doesn't make for very efficient storytelling.

Third, characters. I'm sorry, I don't buy Nina and Maggie's "romance". No, they're not together at the end, but it's strongly implied that they might be in the future. And I don't see it. What did work for me was the feeling I got near the end of the series that Aziraphale and Crowley were actually using Maggie and Nina to dry-run how they might move forward with each other. The feeling I got that Aziraphale actually set up the dance not for Nina and Maggie, but for himself and Crowley. And that's why it was so important for him. (another pacing issue here, since we spent so much time in flashback, I a) couldn't remember Maggie's name until Ep 5 and b) had by that time forgotten why they started messing with them in the first place because, you know, it's never mentioned again.)

Next, Gabriel. So I get that Gabriel was saying no to Apocalypse II at his "trial" because he didn't want to fight Hell at this point (not because he gives one shit about humanity). But why did he and Belzebub meet at the pub and agree not to have an Apocalypse II? What's the motivation for this sudden raprochement? They were eager for the war before. They punished Aziraphale and Crowley for stopping it. The jump from "shut your stupid mouth and die already" Gabriel to the Gabriel who met Belzebub at a pub was so jarring and extreme. Gabriel comes off as a complete and utter dick in S1 and in the Job flashback. And now he's making arrangements with Hell? WHY?

Third, why, WHY didn't Crowley tell Aziraphale about why Gabriel was memory-wiped and demoted? He had plenty of time during their talk when Aziraphale told Crowley he was going back to Heaven. Crowley says "I understand a whole lot better than you do", but he doesn't tell Aziraphale vital information. And it makes. no. sense. Especially since he knows that Aziraphale might well be walking into the exact same situation, and might get treated as badly or worse than Gabriel if he refuses to go along with what the Metatron wants. And he has to suspect that the information he has might actually change Aziraphale's mind. "They want you to ogranize Apocalypse II and will mind-wipe and demote you if you refuse" MIGHT be information Aziraphale needs, is entitled to, and would have an influence on the decision he makes. It makes no sense from a character perspective that Crowley wouldn't give Aziraphale this information because a) Crowley knows Aziraphale is risking his life, but Aziraphale doesn't and b) it might just lead to Aziraphale changing his mind, which is SOMETHING CROWLEY DESPERATELY WANTS. IF the writers wanted Aziraphale to not have this information, they should have made sure that we as the audience know this, but Crowley doesn't. Because it makes NO SENSE for Crowley to let Aziraphale run head-first into danger without even trying to warn him, and not just about the general toxicity of Heaven - fair point - but also about the extremely concrete, real and present situation Aziraphale is walking into. It's entirely possible that Aziraphale would have gone to Heaven to prevent Apocalypse II anyway, but at least he'd know what he was walking into, instead of being completely blindsided by it. Essentially, Crowley lies by omission to Aziraphale because he wants him to make a more fundamental choice "our side or your side" "heaven or me". But the thing is that this isn't just about their relationship, it's about Aziraphale's life and very existence. So the way it's written now, he deliberately withholds vital information from Aziraphale because he wants to force Aziraphale into choosing Crowley on principle, and not because of concrete circumstances. And while that's understandable, it's also a Bit Not Good. It's him deciding what Aziraphale needs to know, not Aziraphale making an informed decision. And I see this aspect of it, but at the same time it's also wildly out of character because he's deliberately withholding information that Aziraphale needs to protect his very existence. He was so panicked the whole season about something happening to Aziraphale, and then suddenly he's not even going to tell Aziarphale that he's walking into a death trap? The longer I think about it, the less it makes sense to me. Especially because everything else about the scene was so, so good. So real, so emotional, so understandable, from both sides. (I also thought Crowley was being an asshole about the kiss and Aziraphale's "I forgive you" was both warranted and the worst thing he could have said at the time (I want to hurt you as much as you just hurt me), but at least I felt it was in character and earned - "I need to kiss you now because I need you to know unambiguously what I want from you" "You asshole, you made our first kiss angry, desperate and violent instead of gentle and loving, the way I've been wanting it to be for about a thousand years or longer" is brilliant and perfect and heartbreaking)

So, like I said before, it's not like it's bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I just felt with a bit more discipline and structure, it could have been as truly great as Season 1 was.

#good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens spoilers

[ferret-does-stuff]

So in case you haven't heard, there's a really good Fangan that's been dropping episodes every weekend called Danganronpa: (He)Artless Deceit. It's only got 4 episodes, each around 20-30 minutes but so far it's been an incredible experience. Below the cut are my opinions on the characters based on introductions and predictions for their possible role in the story. I may make a seperate post for theories on the mastermind when the prologue is completed. Spoilers below!!

So first let's cover our protagonist, the Ultimate Rizzler herself, Akira Hayasaka. Firstly, I absolutely love that she has such a distinct, vivid personality that really contrasts her against other protagonists. Also, her double talent is interesting, especially seeing as one is so dangerous and criminal. I think she'll end up having some kind of solidarity with Kyouran as they have criminal talents and I think she's set up to foil Izanami, as Akira's talent and Izanami's beliefs conflict. I absolutely adore her interactions with Tomoya, they're such a funny duo.

Speaking of Tomoya, he's definitely in my top five favourite characters. He's just so funny, his sprites are over the top and you just can't help but love him despite his huge ego. I've seen theories that he and Shion switched talents, which actually sounds pretty plausible, as I'd imagine an Ultimate Therapist to avoid huge conflicts with others. If you ask me, it sounds like he needs to be recieving therapy more than administering it. Either way, it's fun to bully him.

Rei Fukuno is such an interesting character, I would've expected her to be an easy target given her blindness but her personality definitely shows that she'd be more likely to be a culprit than a victim, after all who'd suspect the small, weak blind girl with a useful talent that has potential to be used against the cast?

I don't have particularly strong feelings for Takeshi? It may be that his design doesn't appeal much to me, but his personality depicted in the wiki makes me like him a little more. I hope to see more of that caring side of him.

Otome is a character I sympathise with, I know how easy it can be to lose your temper and act irrationally grumpy when you're tired. I predict that she'll be an early death, I think a manga artist's execution would be cool to see though, so hoping for culprit. Now that she doesn't have to worry about deadlines, I can see her chilling out and coming out of her shell throughout the story.

I absolutely LOVE Itsumi, her design, her personality it's just... whhdiwjwhw. I feel so bad for her, dealing with nasty comments from strangers. If she dies I will ugly cry hard on the cold hard floor. Also, where can I get that hoodie??? I want one so bad.

Satoru is so suspiscious but I can't help but love him. He's just like me fr honestly. Given his wiki bio, he seems to be an entertaining person to listen to, so I think he'll hold some sway in the trials. Plus, if you've watched the trailers you'd know that he has one of the famous "unhinged" sprites. I think he has potential for a bigger role later on.

Honestly Shion is so cute and I love her personality. I think there'll be tension between the twins as I think their parents are divorced? Either way I think she has a higher possibility of dying than Tomoya.

I absolutely love Kiyoshi, he's so cute and I love the puppets. As much as I want him to survive, I think an Ultimate Puppeteer execution would be amazing and I would cry if he died. Like a lot of other people I believe that he might be trans, which may be why he dislikes his feminine appearance. If he is, it will probably play a part in the story, perhaps in a motive like the secret one?

Katsuhiko is such a fun character, sure he's the "sensible" one but how easy to annoy personality will definitely lead to shennanigans, probably led by Hideyoshi.

I love delinquents who become better people, so I love Hideyoshi. I think he and Katsuhiko will become the new Ishimondo which probably means that they'll meet a grizzly fate. Either way, hope to see more of him.

Izanami is just so HgauwhshaiJJuHRauiwuw. She's so pretty and she looks like a fairytale princess???? I think she's already being set up to be an antagonist, she dislikes "sinners" and seems to be suspiscious of Akira already. I think she's going to be a culprit, possibly killing Kyouran as he's another character I imagine she'd dislike.

Speaking of, Kyouran is probably my favourite at the moment. I love Robin Hood style characters and there's definitely more to him than meets the eye. Plus, his design is super cool and he reminds me of a victorian era thief.

Chiemi is also another favourite of mine, I can't believe how cute and kind she is! I can definitely see her being best friends with everyone, I see her as a middle game victim, maybe chapter 3? I think her optimism will eventually lead to her death.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't like Yumeo. I thought I would, but I like cold characters, not rude ones. The way he treated Tomoya was terrible. I may eventually come to like him after development but so far, nope.

Chou is the last one I think, and I love her too! I think her nad temper will definitely lead to her being an early culprit. I think she's super interesting!

#danganronpa heartless deceit

[br1ghtestlight]

Ask and you shall receive, pffffft!!

I have invaded your inbox to ask what your favorite aspect of Boys Just Wanna Have Fun-Gus is (because I know it’s one of, if not your most favorite episode)!! What draws you to it?? Do you have a favorite line or moment??

i do love that episode!!! I think it was one of the first bob's burgers episodes i ever remember watching which means it also has a weird nostalgia factor for me lol

i love bob/gene focused episodes and i love episodes where the kids wear their raincoats (idk i just think they're cute :3) and the tina/louise subplot is also really cute and funny with so many great character interactions that feel so Real. it's like comforting in a way? my favorite bobs burgers episodes tend to feel small like they're very isolated in a good way (the spider house rules and cheaty cheaty bang bang are other good examples) it's just like. this family hanging out with each other for twenty minutes and thats it. peak cinema

every bob and gene interaction in this episode is gold and i love how they get a happy ending!!! gene saved all the mushrooms using his weird naming method and got them back to the car using his melted cheese fingers and bob is so happy its just so NICE to see him get a win (when bob was already so happy w/ his one half of a mushroom). the dialogue between gene and bob feels so sweet and natural, like them talking about surviving the apocolypse together and bob saying mushroom hunting is like apocolypse training. "maybe no apocolypse jerky." they're just so happy to spend time together its such a wholesome episode!!!

it's definitely one of my favorites but there are probably four or five other episodes that are tied for first place so its hard to say 100% bcuz they're all very different episodes. the hurt soccer is another one i absolutely love. its so STUPID <3

#ask #bob's burgers

[enhypia]

HS ; couples

couples answers questions with the choice of drinking instead of answering

pairings: lee heeseung x gn!reader

genre: fluff, angst if you squint really hard

words: roughly 1.4k

masterlist ⸺ series masterlist

~guides and warnings~

italics - reader speaking

bold - heeseung speaking

[enclosed] - interviewer speaking

italicized bold - both reader and heeseung speaking

[enclosed bold or italics] - question (depends on who's speaking)

heavily inspired by: rec.create lie detector games, cut truth or drink

warning: contains and mentions of !!! drinking, swearing

i don't promote underage drinking, save your livers

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

hi! i'm (y/n)

hello, my name is heeseung!

and we're together

we're couples!

[you guys were invited here today as couples for a fun little drinking game, you guys were aware of that right?]

yes

we are

[okay, for this game, questions will be asked and if you refuse to answer, you drink, it's that simple. should we start?]

let's go, i can't wait to drink

so you won't be answering the questions?

i mean, it's free alcohol

*hee shakes his head in disbelief

[how long have you been together?]

we actually just had our 3rd anniversary last week

so 3 years now <33

[how did you two meet?]

pffft- *(y/n) laughs

can we just choose pass

shot!

*hee offers the shot glass to (y/n) and both take a shot, laughing after

we're drinking this early on damn

we met through a mutual friend

i was brought as a wingman

i think you can guess how it went

[but how did you guys become a couple?]

we got closer after meeting and i think it was obvious to the both of us that we were interested in each other

yeah but it still took a lot in me to ask you out

he stuttered the first time he asked me on a date

did i?

*(y/n) laughs at the memory

you went "hey, so uh you wa-"

*hee cuts (y/n) off by squishing their cheeks

we don't need a reminder

*(y/n) swats his hand away

but it was cute, don't worry

*(y/n) pats his head making heeseung smile

[okay, how about we officially start the game now?]

*both nod and played rock paper and scissors to determine who gets to ask first, (y/n) wins

*(y/n) reads the card and chuckles

[was it love at first sight?]

it wasn't

like i said, i was supposed to be a wingman so in my head, they were already off limits

i don't believe in love at first sight so *(y/n) shrugs

[do you have/did you have doubts with us being together?]

goddamn *(y/n) drinks

*heeseung is wide-eyed

no honey, not like that, i will answer, it's just that i need the alcohol boost

*the shock goes away

i was about to shed tears not gonna lie

*(y/n) rolls their eyes

when i agreed to becoming heeseung's significant others, i had no doubts, i knew what i felt was true and i knew his was too. the doubts were mainly on myself?? like "what if he just wakes and he doesn't love me anymore" but everyday heeseung proves to me that that will never happen

*(y/n) smiles at heeseung

*heeseung looks away trying to hide the smile and blush appearing on his face and he takes a shot refusing to meet (y/n)'s eyes

*(y/n) picks up a card and laughs

[if i become a zombie and had to eat people to survive, would you stick by side?]

heeseung gets scared easily i don't think he will

but if it's you...

*(y/n) raises an eyebrow

wait let me think about this more clearly

see! *(y/n) laughs

*heeseung continues to think

omg just say no!

but it's you !!!

i know it's me but baby we both know you'll run the other way once i start to eat people

...... you still love me right?

yes heeseung, i still love you

*hee :D

okay! next question!

*he picks up a card and laughs

oh i like this one.

[would you date any of my friends?]

*(y/n)'s mouth drops in shock

*(y/n) ultimately decides to play with heeseung

i mean.. *(y/n) reaches for a shot

*the grin on his face disappears

yah!

*(y/n) bursts into giggles and takes a shot

yah~ !!

[would YOU date any of my friends?]

*hee's eyes narrows and takes a shot for revenge

*both laugh at their antics

the answer is no guys, i love his friends but they're pretty much like annoying siblings

sorry (y/n)'s friends, (y/n) is the only one for me

but i'm pretty sure someone who used to be in my circle would jump at the chance

really ?? who ??

*(y/n) gives the look

AH! -

*scene cuts as he says a name

moving on.

*(y/n) picks up a card and laughs

[do you wish i offered to pay for more dates?]

MAN I WISH I COULD PAY MORE ON DATES

i like paying for our dates, but arguing with them is hard

yeah there was one time we spent 10 minutes bickering about who will pay, so we just made an agreement

we take turns per month, like for this month i'm the one paying for all the dates, then on the next month (y/n) will be paying

but everytime it's his month, he always tries to go out a lot, and when it's my month he opts to stay in

hehe

hEHE ??

*heeseung picks up a card and reads the question intently

*he is in deep thought

what is it?

[will you agree to an open relationship?]

ohhh

open relationship is when it's okay if you see other people right?

yup and i don't think i'd agree to it. you?

me as well

sorry im selfish, heeseung is mine, i do not share ;)

*heeseung laughs

yeah, sorry it's not for me, i don't think i can stomach seeing another one hold (y/n) , find your own

*(y/n) raises glasses to cheers and both take a shot

[it's okay not to drink if you answer]

yeah we know

but it's free alcohol

and drinking makes it more fun

*they hi-five

okay! next question,

[if i had to move away for many years, would you wait for me?]

yes.

wow no hesitations

yes i would wait for you

*(y/n) :O

yes

okay we get it

*they laugh

but i will, you're worth waiting for

your patience says otherwise

are you doubting my ability to wait?

do you hear yourself when you're playing?

that's with games, you're not a game, you're not something i play

*(y/n) blushes making heeseung laugh

shut up okay i get it

i also do not actually trust my patience

SEE ?!

*heeseung bursts out laughing

so instead of waiting i'd probably just go to them and/or visit them a lot

or just move in with me

*(y/n) avoids heeseung's stare

is this still related to the question or the present

huh? *(y/n) acts clueless

WAIT-

*camera cut

*we see both of them sporting a blush with big smiles on their face, and the alcohol evidently lessened

[freestyle! ask any question you want]

wah, i don't know what to ask

*he is thinking, everybody shut up

just keep it simple

no i want it to be hard

i can just actually follow the rules and drink instead of answering

*hee pouts

no you won't

*(y/n) :P

okay!

[did you like ... when we first met?]

oh the 'friend'?

yeah

*(y/n) drinks

*heeseung :O

*(y/n) xD

no heeseung, i did not like them, i really just saw them as a friend

ohh ouch sorry buddy

*they share a laugh

oh it's the last one

[question for both: what does loving each other feel like?]

awww that's a cute one, i'll go first

loving heeseung feels like the comfort your favorite songs bring you. it feels like the excitement you get whenever your favorite show releases a new episode. it's the deep sigh in content you release whenever you smell your favorite scent. it's just, loving him feels like everything your favorites make you feel.

*heeseung is not tearing up, definitely not, that's just sweat, he is also 100% not blushing, it's just hot

*he takes a shot and (y/n) laughs at his antics

now how am i supposed to beat that?!

let me be more romantic gosh

respectfully, no.

*both laugh

okay uhh, loving (y/n) feels like riding a rollercoaster. from all the emotions while waiting in line to exiting the ride. loving them is like the feeling of hitting a high note you previously couldn't. it's winning multiple prizes at the arcade. loving (y/n) is like the softness of a sunrise and the absolute wonder in staring at a night sky.

*(y/n) takes a shot not even bothering to hide their blush

why are we so cheesy and poetic when we're intoxicated damn

*heeseung laughs and agrees

forgive us if we're cringey

not our fault you're single

heeseung! :O

*he stays unapologetic

and that's it!

thank you for having us~

bye~

»————-　♡　————-«

bonus: youtube comments

masterlist ⸺ series masterlist

a/n: sorry this took so long, i caught up with everything i missed in my classes, i'll try to update the series more frequently. i will also be posting timestamps later since it's been days since i last posted. i hope you also like this one!! jay's will be posted next, please look forward to it <33

#enhypen #enhypen imagines #enhypen scenarios #enhypen x reader #speak or shot #enhypen series #enhypen heeseung #lee heeseung #enhypen fluff #heeseung #enhypen x gender neutral reader #heeseung fluff #lee heeseung fluff #heeseung x reader #lee heeseung x reader #heeseung imagines #heeseung scenarios

[silentxxsoul]

5B Reaction dump (I have no witty title here I’m fucking exhausted from the last three days):

First, I have to word vomit more thoughts from my last post because I’m feeling some way about the promo.

I know from the promo that Buck and Lucy kiss and like, if it’s not a cheating storyline I’m fine with it. He’s spiraling in his own way, so I can see him reverting to sex/intimacy as a coping mechanism. Plus I think Lucy had the potential to be a fun character, and honestly with the loss of Maddie and Chimney, and Eddie moving to the new job (and considering Oliver talked about the character struggling with the change in an interview a while ago) he’s going to need a fresh ear to be a sounding board. They really could have a fun duo of being competitive and one-upping each other, and if there’s friends with benefits that lead to deeper convos and self discovery I’m all here for it.

HOWEVER I refuse to believe that Buck, with all the character growth we’ve seen, would go out for drinks with the team and make out with a coworker in the bar, with everyone around. While having a girlfriend. Clearly Hen knows something’s up by her looks in the car, so it wasn’t discreet. The character assassination for the sake of plot is always gong to be a hard no from me. Not only is it OOC, but cheating storylines are fucking awful and goes against what Buck is about. The kid didn’t even move on from Abby for MONTHS despite it being clear they were over and her telling him not to wait for her. I really, really hope BT had a breakup before this, and that this isn’t the “wrench”. There’s just so many ways to convey the spiral and self sabotage (and clearly the writers/SR read the fan fics so pick something from there, Tim) and I’m holding on to my last vestiges of hope that this isn’t a cheating arc.

Let him hit rock bottom, in fact I want that because I want him and Eddie to finally confront the compounding traumas, both individually and together. Because they’re so interwoven as friends (and my hopeless dream of Buddie) and they deserve to work through this.

Just not like that. I hated it with Hen and I still hate it now.

So, I’m suspending disbelief until the episode airs and the rest of this dumpster fire will be reaction to the actual episode.

(I'm not fine)

Seeing them back on screen ahhhhhhh ♥♥♥

Uh, hows the dude fucking alive? I'm dead seeing that

Bobby is so done with him and it's been two minutes lmao

Harry!!! Domestic Bathena!!! Give me all the fam scenes!!!

Bobby a gossip? Noooooo /s

YOU CANT COME OUT WITH SHIRTLESS EDDIE LIKE THAT I NEED TIME TO PREPARE

AND YOU CANT FOLLOW UP WITH THE CUTENESS OVERLOAD OF HIM AND CHRIS AT BREAKFAST

He's experimenting with cooking ? ? ? WITHOUT BUCK ?? Uh oh.

Also, the convos with May and Josh and Linda my heart ahhhhh

They're feeding us with this montage, even though we are watching the slow spiral I'm loving it. L O V I N G

Chris roasting Eddie marks my first bingo box and it's been five minutes lmao

"You need to move on, I have." My fucking soul. Oh my god, my soul hurts.

Even though I know what's coming next this sequence is giving me mad anxiety. I'm talking acid reflux and all. On the bright side I'm glad they're going back to the action rescues.

ooh, Eddie going into combat mode I'm digging this. You could literally see the flip switch in him, going from exhausted to 'in the zone'.

It's almost like a Buck v Eddie argument over who lives and who dies based on Eddies parents and the kids. Just spit balling here...

Yea, hella reckless yikes. She legit could have got them killed before he was even in the bed of the pickup.

You know, I didn't anticipate this Josh convo. Like, you weren't that upset by Claudette being an absolute bitch to May and doing the same thing?? Wtf dude.

Buck keeps checking her out, so I think I'm safe in my cheating arc assumption. Barf.

Eddie, bby don't withdraw

this is stuff straight out of fanfic but I'm still losing it :( Eddie needs a hug

I feel for Hen so much yall I can't wait for Maddie and Chim get back.

Babes I'm not ready to move on

I'm living for the Bathena scenes tho

See, I see him trying to back out and can't figure out how we got from A to B.

Yep. Fucking hate it.

Literally dozens of other options and instead we went here.

I guess the ride home with Hen makes sense because he's gonna need hella guidance here. She's going to tell him to come clean, he's going to keep it a secret. It's all gonna blow up terribly.

(also we probs know the reason for the MW twitter fiasco...)

AND THEN YOU KISSED BACK DUMB ASS

THANK YOU HEN

Wait Hen, no. You were supposed to be the voice of reason!!! DID YOU LEARN NOTHING?!

Honesty is the best policy, then cut to Eddie hiding his issues. Babes your tired, go to bed.

High key glad for the Chris convo though omgggggg

Oh its for sure the hoarder fella.

He's got the baggy eyes more prominently, but look at that hair

Wait he wants back, so Bobby's going to mandate therapy and boom breakdown era

This is really going to parallel the Lawsuit era huh

Ohhh fuck dude EDDIE NO

Taylor, I'm gonna throw up for him

Not the ILY before the 'intentionally hurt'. JFC dude she's really going to half ass move in, Maddie shows up in S3 and he leaves for the breakdown and then TK finds out the truth. Christ alive this is bad.

Bruh you can't even say love without tripping over it.

I hope you enjoy working with the chick you locked lips with Buck, it's going to be hella awkward.

Hen's face is MY face. What a cluster fuck.

#911 fox #911 fox spoilers #reaction dump #aka dumpster fire of words

[cauldronofmorning]

what are the top five gay episodes of MASH, as well as top 5 emotionally destructive and top 5 comedic, as I'm led to understand they're all different

ooh! though do keep in mind that I haven’t done a full rewatch in years, so I could miss a few, so in no order: Gay: 1. Welcome To Korea: Trapper leaves Hawkeye with no note but a kiss and lasting damage for both him and BJ, but also Hawkeye/BJ fall for each other in like five minutes.

2. The Joker Is Wild: what is there to say except Hawkeye is the bottom, BJ is the top, and the shadow of Trapper is still very much there

3. Operation Friendship: Winchester/Klinger is underrated, and Hawkeye is literally bedside vigil for BJ’s injured wrist 

4. Rally Around The Flagg Boys: As close to a lampshade of Hawkeye’s sexuality as they could probably get, and BJ is mighty protective of his husband.

5. Bottles Up: it was a toss up between this and Temporary Duty, but Major Houlihan is so very gay kids *cyberman voice* pain! pain! pain! 1. Dr Pierce and Dr Hyde/Bless You Hawkeye/Depressing News: (Depressing News counts as a Hawkeye breakdown episode, both the speech and the mania) there’s a lot of Shit Happens To Hawkeye, and I wanted to give a few that hit my own personal trauma buttons

2. Goodbye Farewell and Amen: it’s a finale where your bipolar and I will die on this hill main character starts out in a mental institution and that’s not the only angsty thing

3. Dreams: I can’t rec @gayfranzkafka‘s essay on Mulcahy’s dream (and the show) enough, but also when I was watching this show as a teenager, Winchester’s dream (flashy tricks but you’re just not good enough) and the foreshadowing for Bless You Hawkeye always stuck with me

4. The Life You Save: David Ogden Stiers is just so... good, and I kinda wish I hadn’t started with late season six so I get the full “Winchester starts off you think a snobby Frank expy but shows his kinder/vulnerable side” trajectory 

5. Preventive Medicine: that fucking arm grab at the end, just let me die comedy!: 1. April Fools: HawkBeejCharMarg are a cute as hell foursome, and I’m amused that the show does so many straw General characters that “it was all a prank” comes off as a genuine surprise

2. Hot Lips And Empty Arms: one of the first Margaret episodes that wasn’t just the movie-like “she’s authority and we need to humiliate her” and Loretta Swit is the best actor to play drunk (aside from maybe David)

3. Picture This: Hawkeye is a bratty bottom but also needs attention, and it’s fun how it all escalates, plus after so much angst it’s kinda a relief when BJ obsessing over his home life is played for (not mean) laughs

4. The Yalu Brick Road: one of the first few episodes I caught and watched it (Dr Winchester and Dr Hyde, the Bilfold Syndome and this) so I have a soft spot for it, plus BJ/Hawkeye acting like a married couple

5. Carry On Hawkeye: please just watch this scene

#sorry it took so long #plenty of other episodes too #mash #m*a*s*h #Anonymous

[kemonododo]

Decided to rewatch the whole series after seeing the finale, here's my thoughts as they come along part 3

There was an old He-man reboot that was cancelled after two seasons, season 3 was being set up as the horde conquering Eternia with He-man and his kingdom being forced into hiding as rebels. Apparently She-Ra would also appear, though knowing that show she'd be lucky to be 1/4th as interesting or engaging as our Adora. I'm saying this because, even though that cartoon was cancelled before it could finish it's story, we were lucky enough to see ours to it's end and in a way that story they wanted to tell exists here with us now. Plus I always disliked that they called themselves "The Rebellion" when they weren't really rebelling against anything, but they are now!

Poor Adora, even after all this time she still has that hero complex eating away at her, telling her she's useless unless she's serving others.

Entrapta's ramblings about space this season are very relatable.

Catra's face when she sees Glimmer be manipulated, you can see so much behind her eyes. Fear for her standing, flashbacks to her own manipulation, shock at how unprepared Glimmer is for this. Love how Horde Prime sees right through her afterwards, she has no power over him.

Poor Entrapta, she hasn't been with the other princesses since season 1, they're opinion of her has been soured by her betrayal and appearance to not care. We know she loves her friends and is trying her best, but the wound is still sore.

Horde Prime using Glimmer's dad as a bargaining chip is extra horrible when you remember that this is when she discovers he's alive.

It's great that the show takes a moment to allow Adora to come to grips with no longer having a clear destiny she can follow. She's so used to being told what to do, this is the first time she's truly making her own decisions. Agency that Shadow Weaver begins to take away from her later.

I love Catra's internal struggles in these first few episodes. She's trying to do what she's been doing, working her way up the ladder, but she can't. Not anymore. Her heart isn't in it, she knows this isn't what she wants, she's just going through the motions. Spending time with Glimmer is the only thing she enjoys, she finally slows down for a moment to just enjoy someone's company and really bond. Her turn to good isn't a 180, we see her mind working and how she comes to the decision of sacrificing herself. Seeing that Horde Prime is a complete psychopath helped of course.

I love how Horde Prime's ship has star themed beds.

I don't know how they did it, but they made Hordak recognizable among the other clones. It's like twins, once you get to know them the difference is obvious. You can look at a clone and see he's Hordak, yet he looks identical to the others. It's remarkable.

These flashbacks Catra has, wandering the empty corridors that her decisions have left her in, it's a testimony to how far she's come that they don't reaffirm Adora's betrayal to her anymore. She wants to absolve herself of her sins, and she decides a sacrifice is the best way. She wants to go out on one good grace, redemption by death, but that action and her apology is what makes Adora sure she still has good in her. Catra has shown she is willing to be good, and that alone is enough for Adora to give her another chance.

This is the first time the best friend squad has been together since Glimmer pulled the queen card, a lot of the wounds are still fresh. I definitely think this is the point Bow and her truly realize they love each other, they probably had a schoolyard crush but the realization of where they are without each other and how much they mean to each other, something really deep sparked here.

The Star Siblings are here to show what life under Prime is like, but also as a quick show of the Rebellion's message expanding. That's a little underdeveloped though, which is mostly a product of time.

Adora's little "she's not my friend" bit is adorable but a bit out of place imo, Adora hasn't really been this outwardly lovestruck over Catra before, and while Adora has decided to give her another chance I don't think that reignition of love would have happened yet.

The thought that Entrapta went out to find that LUVD crystal to bring with her in the slightest hope she would find Hordak and that he would recognize it. Plus the noises she makes and the fact she immediately adopts Wrong Hordak and that we get to see her without her mask, ah she is so cute!

Hive Mind Catra is terrifying and tragic, it feels so violating. He talks about how she wanted Adora to save her, how afraid she was when she was assimilated. We see that numbness and how it would seem appealing to her, but under the cracks Catra is still suffering, and Adora promises to bring her back, tells her how much she cares about her, transforms into She-Ra to save her. And finally, they are together again.

I love Adora constantly checking on Catra, this is the first time in years she has been with her, she just wants to be with her. Catra starts falling back into her old ways though, that anger still persistent, and Adora's honeymoon phase is over already and for a second we're all afraid nothing has changed. You can see Catra doesn't want to make that mistake again, and she finally lets Adora help her, and likewise Adora finally steps back and lets Catra help her too. They've both grown so much, and that growth is what allows their relationship to blossom.

It's great that Spinnerella and Netossa get their time to shine this season. Their arc here parallels Catra and Adora's earlier, and I would say it's unfortunate they have to go through this, but I love the angst.

Double Trouble! Back for a five minute appearance where they admittedly don't do much, but hey they're fun to watch and have some great lines so it's worth it.

Catra in a healthy relationship, with friends that don't fear her and people she sees as equals. People she can just joke around with and be teased by. You love to see it.

Melog is a pretty important addition, as he gives Catra someone that she can fully trust without the baggage from before. He's literally her therapy support pet, and he's the one that stops her from running away again.

Shadow Weaver's little speech here is great, she's been told that the First One's made the magic stronger when they did the exact opposite. It's a commentary on colonialism, "we brought you civilization, our conquest was good actually" is a very common lie.

Catra holding Adora's hand, Glitra kiss, Best Friend Squad hug, Catra's smirk when Adora says she's right. You love to see it.

I love how Noelle made a self-insert character and also decided she should be evil. "So the only person I'm fighting here is... My own wife" is a mega ouch.

I love Wrong Hordak so much, he not only shows how the Horde Clones are just regular people without the influence of Prime but he is also ridiculously cute.

Did I mention how much I love the new She-Ra look? I liked the old one but damn this blows it out of the park.

I will admit the Heart having a failsafe a d Mara having a rebellion of her own is a bit out of nowhere, but it was a nice reveal of the origin of Grayskull.

I'm a huge sucker for friendship saving the day messages I admit. Not the rainbow lazer kind, but that love and kindness reaching through Prime's control is beautiful. Plus it's wonderful for Catra to see what real friendship is like.

This is a great little moment with Castaspella and Glimmer, this is the first time they've seen Micah since his death.

I love Shadow Weaver so much, she sees Adora and immediately shifts into child manipulation mode. This is the first time I'm actually getting pissed at her though, obviously because she's starting to drive her chisel between Catradora but also because she's reversing all the development Adora has had up until this point.

Hordak: "Go, then maybe these memories and imperfections will leave me " Entrapta: "Remember, your imperfections are beautiful!" The fuck I'm crying in the club again.

I love this Catradora moment, "what do you want Adora" "I have to do this". Obviously their relationship isn't going to be easy after all these years, and both these girl's flaws and insecurities are flaring up again and driving each other apart.

Adora tells off Shadow Weaver for good, she ruins people. This is a huge moment for this character, SW has convinced herself she is the good guy and that she is making the necessary actions to save the world, but this is the one moment she really looks back at herself.

"Adora chose Shadow Weaver, not me. Adora doesn't want me, not like I want her" oof ouch my soul. That with Adora's memories, it's clear they can't just go back to the way it was anymore. They're love is too important to them now.

My headcanon is that Shadow Weaver is drunk here. She's slurring, she's drinking, her daughter is going to sacrifice herself. Maybe her decision to die was one she made totally wasted lol.

Catra promised Adora she'd look out for her, and the soft version of the promise song in the background. Ow ow ow ow my heart.

Glimbow canon!

Mara is here, telling Adora the same thing Razz told her in the 3rd episode of the entire show. Stop looking for what other people tell you to do, you have a choice.

Spinnetossa, Seamista, Entrapdak. It's cliche, but love conquers all is a message I'll never tire from.

I started tearing up with the Glimmer Micah fight, and full on sobbing when Angella appeared. Something that didn't really stop.

I was mixed on SW's sacrifice, but I think it works. Each of them were trying to take the selfish way out, to die for the ones they love. So it's fitting that SW is the one that does it.

Fuck yeah Hordak! What a monumentous but short lived moment.

CATRADORA!!! God, the confession, how Catra whispers it but how Adora hears it as a scream, how it wasn't Catra that made Adora weak but infact the exact opposite, how they're both so surprised and relieved that these feelings they've felt for years are real and strong and true and reciprocated. It's the best conclusion possible for them and it makes me cry so much.

This beautiful moment, where Adora saves Hordak, the ultimate repayal for him saving her all those years ago. He remembers her. Fuck I'm sobbing again.

Scorpia sees Catra again after leaving her, and of course she hugs her.

And it's over. The best show ever made. Netflix automatically resets your watch history and here I am looking at the button to play Season 1 Episode 1 again. This 1 and a half year journey feels like a millenia, it feels so long ago that Adora first picked up that sword. This is a show I will cherish forever, I can see myself binge watching in the retirement home already.

#she ra #spop #analysis

[we-rate-tmnt]

Oh sweet! Had a huge crush on 2012 karai too she was awesome :P also the brief time when she hung out with splinter and the turtles and there was a moment when mikey called her their sister during battle i think, that made me so soft 🥺 tbh she and Leo's relationship weirded me out bc they're adopted siblings obvs they didn't know but the writers did, not a big fan of their decision. can u rate the tmnt reincarnations next? like in general, i want to catch up with tmnt but idk where to start :)

I think everyone who watched tmnt 2012 had a gay awakening when Karai appeared 

I love those episodes where she bonds with the turtles and Splinter. One time, when Mikey hummed the theme song, she giggled. It was a parallel to when they traveled back in time and the same exact thing happened. Mikey hummed the song and baby Karai giggled. I like the subtle dynamic between Mikey and Karai, it gives me the warm-fuzzies. 

And yeah, the writers were pretty damn weird about that. 

But now it’s time for the big. bad TMNT overall ratings!

I can talk about every single little thing in each series, including art style correlating to tone, but I’m going to give a run down of what I enjoy the most. The ratings are going to be a bit different, as I’m rating them by ‘version to watch/rewatch first’

With the good original cartoon sliding in, it’s...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

The very first thing I ever said when I watched this was ‘hehe turgle’ because of how small and squishy they looked! The art style is really cute and gives a very warm vibe. It reminds me of when I used to watch Gilligan’s Island when I was a kid, a bunch of goofy characters in potentially life-threatening situations. For me, it’s a show to watch for shits and giggles, rather than a serious plot. I don’t really think this is the best starting point. I prefer going from a dark series to a lighter one, so I’d watch this one maybe after a different reboot. Also, I adore the 80′s Shredder, he’s fun to watch and to make fun of. 

5/10

Next up is the one I watched on Youtube (but since I didn’t know how VPN’s worked so most of the videos were blocked except for Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) 

This one made me go ‘hehe turgle’ less, but still quite a bit. (They’re so short what). I think out of all the series, this is the one I’d start with. The plot is well organised (with a few bumps but what story doesn’t?), some well thought out character development and many, many interesting side characters! Bishop, Leatherhead, Baxter Stockman, these characters were so neat in this series. This show I feel was the darkest, and I guess 4kids agreed as some episodes were banned from airing when they first came out and I think there’s one that never finished production as it was too graphic and violent’. The voices in this series are so recognizable. Like here, read this is Mikey’s voice: “See what I made ya do there?” Anyone who knows the voices can easily imagine them. The animation is very clean and there’s some epic shots in there as well. The soundtrack is implanted in my memory and when I rewatched it, I had to pause and think for about five minutes when I got swept in a wave of nostalgia at a few familiar notes. And despite what everyone says about Back to the Sewer, the theme for that season was a bop. I think this is the best place to start if you like dark shows and all the episodes are on Youtube (In Canada because it’s blocked everywhere else).

9/10

This one is the show I love dearly, grew up on and still have a tiny plastic Katana from a Leo figure I can’t find:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

This show in terms of tone slides right in between the 2003 and 1987. There’s so many light-hearted episodes and jokes mixed in with some real scary shit. This one was the first version that made them seem like actual 15 year olds, rather than early 20′s. This is also the show with the most accuracy in terms of ninjistu. I adore the animation and art style and there’s so much going on in this show, there’s no way I’d be able to unpack even half of it. April really developed in this show, she became a Kunoichi and got a badass weapon and she trained. She didn’t become a ninjistu master overnight and that was so important to the character. I love the designs of Shredder’s henchmen in this show, Dogpound/Razar, Fishface and Tiger Claw. Beebop and Rocksteady were a huge highlight in every episode they were. It was nice to see them be shown as actual people before they got mutated, along with their clashing personalities that eventually made them into a great team. Also I can’t stop thinking about ‘I will crush your head like the blueberries,’ I love that line. Cute, fun but with a very serious and real edge, neat characters and designs. A really great show! This would also be a great starter, but the episodes are harder to find for free (unless you have Hulu) 

8/10

Now for the series I am currently obsessed with and am BOUNCING for excitement for the new episodes this month,

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Oh oh oh I love this version SO much!!! This how has so much expectation subversion and is really different from the rest. A lot of people were (and still are for some reason???) complaining about this version. ‘Oh no Raph is leader, they’re all different sizes, why are they all Party dudes, etc etc.’ I think that a lot of this is based on the idea that the makers did this as more of ‘change for surprise’ when really, it’s a well thought-out decision. Raph is bigger because it helps him reign in his strength since he could easily hurt others and he’s older, so he assumes the leader position not just by default, but because he’s the one who’s the most grounded. Donnie is a softshell so he relies more on technology to protect himself, Mikey is the perfect balance of funny and annoying, Leo isn’t leader to explore a different aspect of his character. I’m not going to talk anymore about the characters as that is for another time. The art style and animation is AMAZING LIKE WOW. It’s so dynamic and bright and creative! The opening has me speechless alone! This series is still airing and has a lot of potential, with Shredder and Kraang replaced by Baron Draxum (voiced by JOHN CENA, like not a joke, he’s voiced by the wrestler) as the main antagonist. I think this is also a good starting point as it’s fresh and has around 30 episodes, so it’s faster to watch compared to the 100-200 episodes of the other series. 

8/10

I’m not going over IDW since I haven’t read too much but I strongly advise using it as a starting point, it’s not finished and the order is tricky to navigate. 

Idk so far but don’t start here, maybe after watching 2003/10

I hope this helps in your quest for turtles and thanks for the ask! 

[scifinal]

DW s12e10: It's Quite Unfortunate That This Child Keeps On Regenerating

It's only fitting that the first post on a blog called "SciFinal" should be about a season finale.

Not that fitting is the fact that in said post I'm going to begin where it all started for me.

Part One: How I Even Got into This Mess of a Show in the First Place

While I call myself a huge Doctor Who fan, even a – *gasp* – Whovian, I must admit I am not as familiar with the franchise as I would like to be; I've seen the new show, I've seen Torchwood (though, admittedly, I had to force myself to finish the fourth season – but that's a story for another day), I've listened to a handful of audio dramas (including Kaldor City, which I consider to be canon for both DW and Blake's 7) – mostly Torchwood audio dramas, but who cares, – I've read a couple of comics, I've got a novel or two somewhere on my bookshelf, I've seen the first couple of seasons of the classic show, but that's about it. I can't say I grew up with it – it wasn't on TV when I was a kid, there isn't an official Ukrainian dub, et cetera, et cetera. I first heard about it when I was about thirteen, when my classmate did a project about something they liked – and was pretty dismissive of my peers' hobbies at the time, believing myself to be somewhat above them, so I didn't pay much attention.

Then somebody finally pressured me into watching it (I believe I was fifteen or something back then) and I loved it. The first two episodes of the first season, I mean. I watched those, texted my friend something like "consider me a Whovian now!" and abandoned the show completely only to return to it maybe several years later.

I loved it. This time, for real.

Doctor Who has been with me ever since that time, it has a big soft spot reserved for each and every Doctor ever in my heart, and for each and every companion. I know full well it's cheesy, and it's stupid, and it's technobabble-y, and it's glorious in all of its cheesy technobabble-y stupidity.

And I hate this finale.

Part Two: Doctor, Why

I hate this finale – because I hate Chris Chibnall. Mind you, not the gentleman himself (I don't even know what he looks like, and I can't be bothered to Google), I hate what he did to Doctor Who.

Now, when it was revealed that the would replace Steven Moffat I felt... nothing. What did you expect? I had no idea who the man was. I know now he's made Broadchurch, and I know he wrote a bunch of stuff for Torchwood back in the day, including Cyberwoman. I had to drop Broadchurch because of how well-handled the depressing atmosphere was, and I love the flawed, dumb, sexy-cyber-bikinied, almost-fifteen-minutes-of-Ianto's-whining-including (I know because some time ago I literally cut almost every single moment of Gareth David-Lloyd whimpering, moaning, groaning, screaming, and mugging at the camera out of the episode and made those bits and pieces into a beautiful clip show called "I HATE THIS" to explain exactly why his face was and still is so punchable) mindless fun that is Cyberwoman (this is also one of the two episodes in which they actually do something fun with the pterodactyl living inside Torchwood's underground base). The latter also led to the creation of one amazing in how it develops Ianto's character audio drama entitled "Broken". I love Broken. I am now forcing you to look at its cover because of how much I love it.

Here we go. Now, back to the point of me rambling pointlessly

In his video "Sherlock Is Garbage, and Here's Why", a well-known YouTuber hbomberguy pointed out how Steven Moffat's problem is that he is more than capable of writing a good one-off episodes, but ultimately fails at managing multiple complex, overarching stories, as visible when you look at the difference between Moffat's individual episodes and his run on the show.

Now, I believe that Chris Chibnall suffers from the same affliction: he's a good screenwriter but a terrible, terrible showrunner. Sure, he's made Broadchurch, but Broadchurch, in its essence, was a complete singular story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There were no bigger, incomplete arcs expanding at the expense of other episodes, and the show did exactly what it was originally designed to do: it told an uninterrupted story.

Here comes Chris Chibnall's run on Doctor Who.

Now, while Steven Moffat was ultimately not very good at managing overarching stories, he tried to do so nonetheless, and the fans seemed to like his attempts. And while I can't be sure as to whether it was Chris' original vision for the show or he and his co-writers were merely trying to emulate Moffat, he attempted the same. A friend of mine has even pointed out how, to her, it was painfully obvious how the writers of the finale were desperately trying to copy Moffat's style (to give you some context, she grasped it from a 30-second clip of the CyberMasters' reveal, and that clip basically consisted of me filming my laptop's screen and laughing at their design, making the video wobbly and the audio distorted). At the time of writing this post this friend hasn't seen a single episode of Chibnall's era and, as far as I know, has no wish to do so – mainly because of two reasons that both have something to do with the finale:

Somebody's already spoiled it for her, so who cares;

I ranted to her about how shit this finale is and now she hates everything about Chibnall era.

I am very sorry for the latter, since I genuinely believe there are some nice episodes in these seasons, and I especially like the "historical" ones, they really are quite a lot of fun, I like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison fighting badly CG-ed alien scorpions, I love Lord Byron and Mary Shelley running around a haunted house trying to escape from a Cyberman (even though it's all too similar to the Agatha Christie episode from Russel T Davies' run), I adore that episode about Rosa P–– oh, wait, no, that one was crap and ripped off Blake's 7... Anyway, I love Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, I am a big fan of Graham, I like Ryan just fine, and I can put up with Yaz, even though it's been two seasons and I've still got no idea what's her personality supposed to be, and I absolutely love the new Master (he reminds me of a cute little pug with a big Tommy gun). There is plenty of good stuff in these two seasons, they are lots of fun to watch, but this finale... Oh god, this finale.

Part Three: We Had All of Time and Space at Our Fingertips and We Ended Up with This

We are getting to the point of this whole thing. I would love to begin with the obvious, the twist, but there's so much wrong with this who-cares-how-many-parter than this one big thing.

It is inept. It is impotent. It is incompetent. It is bad at almost everything except its okay camera work, somewhat good (for a British TV show, I mean) effects, and its really solid performances.

Its editing is tone-deaf to the extreme. There is a moment in the final episode where Ko Sharmas asks who will be the first to cross the Boundary and step into the unknown, and immediately it cuts to Yaz walking towards it, all fast and silent. I would love to show you a clip of it, but I don't have one and I can't force myself to download the episode and sit through this shitshow again just to present you with a ten-second clip. Nonetheless, that part is not edited like a dramatic moment. You edit comedies this way. Bad comedies. Bad editors edit bad comedies this way.

Its plot is incoherent. There are several plot threads in this finale, and they're managed in a way that doesn't make the viewer care about all of them at the same time, rather the viewer goes "oh, I've completely forgotten this was happening" and then, before they can even begin to care, the show cuts to something else. It's all over the place and oh so annoying.

The plot armour is painfully obvious despite every attempt to disguise it. There wasn't a single, solitary second when I believed the Doctor was really going to sacrifice herself and, lo and behold, here comes the old guy ex machina to do it for her. The only questions I was asking at that moment were "How are the writers going to prevent the Doctor's death now that they've seemingly created themselves a way to go on forever?" and "How can Whittaker care so much about her performance in this scene she's literally almost crying?". I wholeheartedly related to the Master asking "So why are we still here?" and shout–– hiss–– mumbl–– whatever-ing "Come on, come on, come on!" – at that point I've suffered through at least forty-five minutes of utter nonsense, people going preachy, religious Cybermen with Dalek motivations, that absolutely ludicrous scene in the previous episode when the show was trying its worst to make me perceive autonomous flying Cyber-heads with laser eyes as a serious threat, a shit twist and... Oh.

I've got to finally touch on the shit twist, haven't I?

It doesn't make sense. No, I mean it. I guess it makes sense from the show's writers' standpoint to retcon everything in a way that would allow them to go on forever without having to come up with a way to circumvent limited regenerations, yes. And I won't be touching upon all the lore people say this twist has ruined. No. It doesn't make sense as it is.

The twist is revealed to us by a madman that claims to have hacked into a database, claims to possess control over the Doctor's mind, and gives the Doctor and the audience no actual solid proof that the Timeless Child is, indeed, the Doctor. We have Ruth, sure, and she's nice enough (damn, I want that vest), and she's a Timelord that happens to own a TARDIS that looks like a blue police telephone box, and she calls herself the Doctor. Here's Ruth:

I really like Ruth. She also makes no sense from the show's timeline standpoint, since the Doctor's Type 40 TARDIS only got stuck looking like a police box in 1963, so there's no reason for the Doctor to not remember being her.

We also know that the Judoon have identified Ruth as "the Fugitive"... except in one of their previous appearances in the show they weren't able to identify their targets exactly and thus were seeking out non-humans. There is a possibility that they were only looking for a Time Lord on Earth.

You know what? It's possible that Ruth is actually the Master messing with the Doctor. I have just as much proof of this as I have of the fact that the Doctor is some kind of an endlessly regenerating superbeing.

But this is not the most maddening thing here. I loathe it, but I don't loathe the twist itself: I loathe its lifelessness, I loathe how empty, how unemotional, almost robotic it feels. When somebody'd spoiled the finale for me, I got angry, and I started asking questions, and when later I saw the actual thing...

This gif. I can't even explain how accurate it is. I stood there, in the middle of my kitchen, episode paused, holding a cup of cold tea and desperately looking around as if in my surroundings I could somehow find that emotional reaction that this show failed to evoke. I was ready to burst into tears of how empty it felt, and how empty I felt, and how the same show that has Christopher Eccleston go from literally foaming at the mouth with pure hatred to shocked silence in a matter of second because of one sentence that you, a viewer, can't help but be astonished by failed to make me feel the tiniest speck of literally any emotion. And slowly, I felt that vast void in my chest fill with sheer, pure, flaming hatred for the person who made me feel nothing, for the story that left me not bored – but empty.

And the next moment, in its own unique way of being absolutely tone-deaf, the show introduces the CyberMasters, looking ridiculous, being asinine in concept, making me burst into laughter with their dumb design. Wow.

So.

Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who is no longer a show. Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who isn't even, as somebody on Stardust said, a fan fiction. It's a rollercoaster. A lackluster rollercoaster that lifts you from the vast caverns of frozen hell, devoid of any life whatsoever, soulless and abandoned, to the heavenly torture of being so bad, so utterly awful and ridiculous, that you can't help but laugh as you watch something you used to love be distorted and deformed to the point where you can't recognise it anymore nor really care. This is what Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who has become. And I'm going to continue my ride on that grotesque rollercoaster. I'm going to pirate that ride and get on it again. Because I'm a masochist. Because I want to feel something, even if it's hatred towards those that make me feel nothing.

Because some time ago my fifteen-year-old self watched the first season and learned a lesson that I hold dear after all these years – that I can't abandon hope, and that someday, somehow, things are going to get better. That the future is being written right now. That the future can change.

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #doctor who review #i hate this #review #sci fi

[manjuhitorie]

Hitori-Escape Tour 2019, they're at the halfway point, so time to post reports!

消せます！

Disclaimer: These were all pilfered, ransacked, polished and ravished from my JP Twitter mutuals,,,, Who are all such kind souls,, Not only have they used their memory skills to seed Rie's words, but they even bothered to share the concert's happenings with the world wide web, AND they have urged me forward to keep on translating them... So I'll take the liberty to post them organized here... When you pass by any JP Rie fans on twitter, click hearts...💘 Shinoda’s name is shortened to SND, ygarshy’s to yg(a), and Yumao to Yu(ma) throughout...!

1 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/3/2019 at Takutaku in Kyoto! Report! 

Yumao's tweet "Our tour starts today! I have cut my hair too short."

The first show, the first step….

SND looked back at both of the members to say “Let’s do our best guys.” Yg nodded back. Yuma started it up…

●SND played FAST guitar while singing, yg howled out harmonies on [a] chorus. Yu snickered at one of SND's slips.

SND used Leader’s jaguar on a [very very special song].

They did their best…

●SND “Its hoooot... We always came to Takutaku in the winter so now I’m experiencing Takutaku in it's true form.... Can I take a drink break, fwaaaaah, it's hot y'know? I'm even properly hydrated y'know? This water is gonna churn in my stomach, gehh I feel sick....”

SND: "RAISE THE AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!!! I DON’T GIVE A DAMN IF ALL OF THE POWER IN KYOTO GOES OUT!!!!!! GIVE TAKUTAKU ALL THE ELECTRICITY!!!!!!!!!! LIKE IT'S OPERATION YASHIMA!!!! (*In reference to the wonderful Evangelion episode: https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/Episode:06).

●Shinoda’s band introduction was “On bass ygarshy, on drums Yumao, and on guitar and vocals is I Shinoda. Music and lyrics brought to you by wowaka.”

●SND “Umm…We have merch…But the towels? T-shirts? They all sold out… No seriously I’m just…. We really did bring a hefty load of stock…Thank you all… Also what else sold out?” Crowd “The cap! Pens! DVD! Pouch!!” Shinoda “‘OK, whatever..... Thank you…’” ←That is exact verbatim, SND spoke in English. All that Netflix watching is showing.

●SND “By the way ygarshy, did you know they’ve stopped selling HimoQ?" yg: ....... >>>*BWOON*<<< *responds with only the sound of his bass* *HimoQ is an old school gummy candy by the brand Meiji, and-

--yg turned away with a smile that couldn’t be concealed. While behind them Yumao was playing his drums while just repeating “HimoQ.... HimoQ..... Why HimoQ...”

●Lastly there were also many reports on people being showered on by SND’s sweat. Stay hydrated please sensei

●Nishimaki Taichi their cameraman’s comment: I was drenched in the sweat of Takutaku’s splintering heat until just a minute ago, yet now that I’m almost back home, this whole day feels like it could’ve been a dream. Lol

This is the start of a fabulous new year.

●Shinoda’s comment My ears are still pulsing,,, Takutaku of Kyoto, thank you so much. I’m glad I was able to come and be a part of your 45th anniversary, I’m happy I was able to see everybody’s faces. The journey begins. We’ll be in Okayama tomorrow, hope to see you there.

●The setlists I won’t repeat, just to avoid spoilers for any possible goers!

2 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/4/2019 at CRAZYMAMA 2nd Room in Okayama! Report!

All members have interactions, I'm relieved..

●SND “Yesterday was so hot I thought I was going to puke, I’d only ever been to Takutaku in the winter not the summer… I came to Crazymama today shaking in fear but… Air conditioning is the BEST! The number one necessity for any venue is!!!! heavy-duty!!!! Air-conditioning!!!!!”

●As soon as SND started talking about yesterday, Yumao dashed up front in a rush to talk. He asked to borrow SND’s mic so he could join in on the MC,

The way they were standing next to each other got them called out for looking like a stand-up comedy duo.

●Yu “Yesterday I mouthed the words ‘Were concerts always this painful?’ to ygarsh 5 whole times and he didn’t understand me,” SND “Well of course not (laughing).” Afterwards when Yu did ask him, ygarsh responded with "They aren’t." Yu thought he was the only one dying, ah sweet relief~, he says.

●Yesterday did Yuma really get exhausted enough to collapse against the wall? Did SND slide atop speakers to then stick the landing, singing with his knees against the floor? It's out there...

●Yu and SND bickered with each other over who watches more Netflix. (They both praised the Netflix show The Naked Director etc. on Twitter recently also).

●SND “By the way ygarshy did you know that cicadas actually live longer than 1 week?”

ygarsh “BWOON♪”

(Cicada’s having only a life span of one week is a common myth in Japan. Also this interaction mimics yesterday, is SND subtly taunting yg in new ways the new staple for the Mannequin intro? Amen.)

●SND tweet: "Thank you Okayama, after doing 2 concerts in row, I see that I really am capable of singing. We'll be back,, until then,,"

●Katou Haruhisa, the founder of LUCK'A Inc. who’s produced Rie’s merch for so many tours, QRTed today's official backstage photo and strutted with pride: "They're all wearing great shirts lol #I made this"

3 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/12/2019 at the five morika in Iwate prefecture! Report!

Yumao's tweet "Tomorrow is Morioka. The next day is Sendai. I hope to see you there!" 

●In a small box with but a platform as the stage and a metal bar between the rockstars and the crowd, what happens if a SND sizzles up and sits down on the bar, gets up and gets down on the floor? FAN SERVICE. LOTS OF FAN SERVICE, THAT'S WHAT. SND was poked by fans, clapped by fan, had his head pet by a fan…. Amazing..

●SND praised the drama "Methanol” he watched on Amazon Prime. ●SND blessed the cool air of Morioka and rebuked the weather up in Tokyo. "I've still been walking around in shorts and sandals." *Looks down and checks himself out* "I ate such a ridiculous amount of grilled meat yesterday, I'm worried about my figure" "We all ate a ridiculous amount"

●SND "By the way ygarshy did you know that honeybees' body temperature can go up to 50 degrees celsius?"

　yg "....*BWOOON*" (goes into bass intro)

(The series...It's certain.. last time it was SND's provocative tidbits about a snack discontinuing.. then long-living cicadas, now..this.)

4 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/13/2019 at Sendai darwin in Miyagi prefecture! Report!

●All the effects smoke made Yumao, in the back of the stage, look like a mirage... Yumao got up and called himself a mirage... Yumirage bamboozle... From there the crowd was riled up into cheering: “Yumao~ Yumao~ You’re so cute Yumao~” 

Yuma kept posing and hugging his hands against his chest* “Thank you...” SND “You pretty boy...” Yuma “I'm snatched everybody... My wig is like snatched...” SND “Snatched, snatched... What are you a Twitter fangirl.”  (*Yumao was using the fujoshi term "尊い".) ●During encore intermission the electric fan next to the stage picked up yga’s shirt and blew it up, exposing yga. Laughter was induced among the crowd, and SND, who missed the whole thing, was left all confused as to why everyone was laughing—. ●SND “By the way ygarshy, it’s Friday the 13th but, did you know that Jason doesn’t actually use a chainsaw?”

　yg “*BWOOOON*” ●Someone dived during the last song... As in, a fan started climbing up on other fans and rolling around up there. Staff handled it, and their love for Rie is blazing but... Etiquette and respect for the show space is the best way to enjoy the best show!! Please... SND’s tweet: “Sendai performance complete. Thank you, thank you, thank you”

5 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/25/2019 at Koube VARIT in Hyougo prefecture! Report!

Yumao's tweet "Today is Koube, tomorrow shall be Hiroshima. I hope to see you there!"

●SND MC speech "Did you guys have fun today? I think there's a lot of mixed emotions right now. If you didn't have fun, know that we're coming back here again. And then if you still don't have fun again, we're still coming back here again." ●Encore intermission! Crowd as they were walking back out "ygarshy! Yumao! Shinoda!" Yumao, pretending to be a person in the crowd in a scheme for instigation: “Yumao~~!” The crowd “Yumao….?” Yumao “Yumao…? Yumao!!!” Crowd “Yumaooo~~~!” SND “You sound like a Pokemon, crying your own name as if you’re a Pikachu.” Yumao “Yumao!" SND "Can neither of you (or yg) talk normal on mic."

Yumao *Goes and sits down at his drums* Crowd "Yumao~" *Plays a drum trick*  “Yumao~~~”  *Plays an even more flavorful trick*  “Yumaoooo~~~”  *EVEN MORE*  “YUMAOOO~~~~”

 SND “He’ll keep doing that if you keep it up, so keep pampering him.”

●SND “Backstage, they have redbull right, so before the show I couldn’t get over how delicious it was and I kept glugging, and so I was ready to burp throughout the whole first song. SND tweet after: I was in danger of deranging into the wet pants monster.  ●Also Shinoda was hopping around playing guitar and he bumped into ygarsh at some point, of who seemed super annoyed—. ●SND “Remember last show, I mentioned Jason, I said there's actually no chainsaw? Well I watched the second movie and, he gets attacked by a chainsaw in that one!” yg *Makes a face as if questioning if that gag was his queue* SND *Nods* yg *>BWWOOON<* (Into the Mannequin intro)

●In the post concert photo Yumao seems to be drinking a Chocola BB, a vitamin B2 supplement to help with acne, mouth sores, and overall exhaustion....

●SND tweet: Koube concert: complete, thank you all. Playing at VARIT is, truly, fantastic,,, I’ll meet y’all in Hiroshima tomorrow. Until then,,,

6 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/26/2019 at Second Crutch in Hiroshima prefecture! Reports! 

●SND “By the way ygarshy-kun, did you know that Mocomichi Hayami started a youtube channel!”

  yga *>BWWOOON<*

(*Mocomichi, dubbed “The olive oil fairy“, is an actor who gained internet fame after his displays on the TV show ‘MOMO’S Kitchen’ where he would dump HUGE AMOUNTS of olive oil over his food, ignore the recipe requested of him, and then praise his cooking like crazy in the end. He was a riot! And he’s truly skilled at cooking! He's won Gourmand cookbook awards, he loves olive oil, he has his own kitchen brand, he was in the Kamen Rider 555 movie where he got killed by monsters halfway through, he loves olive oil- Anyway his channel is here.)

+ SND used wowaka’s red jaguar guitar in today and yesterday's concerts. Introduced (W)HERE with "As Hitorie we only make good songs, we only make God songs. And this is a good one even out of the good ones".

●Crowd “What did you guys eat for lunch!” SND “For lunch I ate soba.” Crowd “Booo! Eat okonomiyaki!” (*Hiroshima is famous for it) “Screw that assholes!!!” “Whyyyy just try it!!!”

THEN YG TALKED

SND “And ygarshy gave Yumao an egg sandwich.” yg “… ...Uhm..”  Crowd “!?!?!? Woooahh!!!” yg “Shut up for a second.” Crowd *Still bustling, not listening* yg “Over something so silly…. why are you all excited….” yg “… So uhm I just wanted to say that…. Yumao likes eggs.”

Post show Yumao tweeted “I like eggs.”

●SND tweet  “The Hiroshima show: done. A rare event occurred today huh. Y’all were lucky… in a way? That aside I had fun. Thank y’all. I’m off to have a drink.”

7 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/26/2019 at Sapporo SPiCE in Hokkaido prefecture! Reports!

Yumao's tweet "Today is Sapporo. I hope to see you there! Ahh the first magnitude stars".

●SND ”Hokkaido, you’re so full of spirit! It’s ‘cause RSR had to cancel the first day, isn’t it!? How many of y’all missed out on seeing Number Girl?” *Hands rising all over* SND “Muahaha!!!! Well I already got to see them!!! Poor you!!!” (*Rocking Sun Festival last month was canceled due to Typhoon 10 hitting Hokkaido).

●Shinoda rued and revered the heat. Said that Sapporo’s been the second sweatiest show after Kyoto.  Crowd “Let’s make it the hottest!” SND “No! You can’t beat it. That was a traumatic experience, I thought I was gonna die. But we can still make the excitement levels the hottest!”

●Encore intermission and the usual outfit change: SND “Aren’t you hot in that?” Yumao “Yeah, this sweatshirt is way too big for me. Oh, because it’s Shinoda’s” It was too hot for SND so he made Yumao wear and promo the official merch. SND opened his mouth to make a comment when the crowd slipped in with “Yumao you’re cute wearing that~~ so cute~~!” cheers. SND “Shut up I’m talking!!” SND “….I’m sorry for yelling!” ‘Apologizes before things go downhill’ Crowd kept the spirit high by asking ygarsh if he wanted to eat pizza, yg nodded his head, then scooted towards the mic as if to say something- but turned back... He tricked everybody!  Rie weren’t going to let him get away with that, they had to pick on him for revenge!

Crowd “Hello! [At yg]” SND “What?! You’re resorting to teaching him the basics of conversation?” (SND and Yu laughing out loud) SND “He’s not an AI y’know??” (Yuma has his hands on his stomach at this point). yg *Still not talking* SND “Ahh what are we gonna do with him” SND “yga~rshy~kun~, have some fun with me~~!”

　yg “*>>>BWOOOOON<<<*

●SND tweet: Sapporo concert: complete!! That was way too fucking hot!! Damn ridiculous! That’s what makes it so good. Thank you.

8 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 10/10/2019 at UMBER in Shizuoka prefecture! Reports!

Yumao's tweet "Today's Shizuoka!"

●A wild cockroach appeared before Yumao and SND backstage during the intermission.

It was a huge one, scurrying across the stage walls throughout the end of the show regardless of its own size.

●yg offered Yuma the rights to his front stage mic for Yuga and SND to be able to talk about it together, so he pulled at his mic in front of him…. Only for the cable to come spiraling out, yanked from the jack, off went the XLR connector, and all. yg's power move left him laughing hysterically. yga laughed!!!!! He laughed as he gave Yumao a powerless mic!!

●With the power move to piston off of, “Professor Yumao” was on the case to give a “lecture” with his cockroach wisdom! He told us about how the ones with the perfect figures come from the outside and live under trees, german cockroaches like to stay inside and come from the inside...

SND “Back when I used to live in a rundown apartment in Nagoya, there was 2 perfect cockroaches always waiting for me in front of my apartment”. Yu “Outside, right!!”

yga *Frozen up and now hiding against the wall*

●Prof. Yumao also gave another lecture about Shampoo from the anime Ranma 1/2, complete with “Ne!” imitations, SND piped in also until he realized something- and then got angry at Yuma because only few will know who he’s talking about....

SND “So tell me, what time is it?” Yu “Time to talk about things everybody will understand!” SND “No it’s encore time!” Yu " :O "

yg *Still hiding against the wall away from the nerds*

●SND “ygarshy! Ygarshy! Get a good look at this!” yg *Nods at him* SND *Proceeds to pose like the Dragon Ball Z Kamehameha* “Hah!” yga “>>>>*BWOOOOOOOOON*<<<” 

●SND tweet: “Shizuoka show: complete, thank you so much. I had a lot of fun. We’ll be back. Nagoya will be tomorrow. Until next time,,,”

9 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 10/11/2019 at SPADE BOX in Aichi prefecture! Reports!

●Hasegawa-san, the drummer of SND’s past past band “Dr. Right” from around 2007 (See video of youngin SND and crew performing: https://nico.ms/sm11604475?ref=share_others_spweb…), he also payed a visit to the show!!!! And took pictures with SND!  >See https://twitter.com/toshiya230/status/1182631585230704640

●First song SND immediately messed up the first note and the music halted, Yu and the crowd had to urge him onward-!

●SND “Hitorie is great. Hitorie’s songs are great. Only badass songs. Before I joined, Leader sent me demo versions and said “I want to do songs like this”… Electricity rushed through my veins, this is gonna be a revolution, am I really going to be a part of this?! I thought.”

●The stage at the venue is one that shook like crazy from everyone’s vigor, Rie seemed to enjoy the ride.

●SND “I left Nagoya, went up to Tokyo, and now I’m back in Nagoya, singing nonetheless... I’m not embarrassed carrying the mic to sing non-guitar songs anymore."

●SND "After 9 shows doin’ this, it's really hit me. Hitorie really make great songs! But even among all of them this one is peachy… Wait no one says that? This one’s at the tippy-top. ….Wait no one says these words in Tokyo, nor Nagoya?? Ah whatever let’s go” (The original words were ドンズバ and ダントツ, both old niche words).

●Encore intermission, Yumao came out in front of the mic then… Clenched his fist up into the air and stood stout! SND “You’re not gonna talk, now, what are you doing?” Yu “Freddie Mercury, is in the house!!”

“This move isn’t in Bohemian Rhapsody, b/c once the scene starts he’s already on the piano but, before the show Freddie does the *poses again*!!! SND “So that’s what you were doing? Even though you play drums? Drums aren’t a piano?” Yu *👌* SND “They are a little bit similar huh hahaha”

●Rie wished everyone safe travels home through Typhoon 19! They even cut the MC short to ensure swift departure- SND “I bet y’all would go off tweeting “Their chitchat was so long I couldn’t get home! Fuck them!” Well we’re fortunate, one day later and it would've been cancelled.."

●Then, the usual Thing.... SND “ygarshy, ygarshy! A fly seems to have sorta, landed on your bass over there!” yg *>BWWON*< (Interrupting SND’s sentence with a rushed note).

●SND tweet "Nagoya concert: complete. SPADEBOX shakes like crazy, it's such fun. Thank you so much. Make it home safe y'all. And let's meet again. Until next time."

🍕~~END~~🍕

((((((Shinoda, constantly: "I have a phobia of bugs" Also Shinoda, constantly: *His ways to provoke ygarsh involved cicadas, bees, cockroaches and flies.* + *Advises people dealing with heartbreak to go watch videos of giant hornets VS Japanese honeybees.* + *Draws super detailed cicadas in his manga Chikyuu Monogatari.*

Shinoda you maso.)))))

Ahhhh also! If you're a member Hitori-Atelier!-- (Which you should be!!! Because not only are Hitorie snazzy and there's the upcoming message campaign, but ALSO because Rie is always seeking more vigor which I KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE, I've seen your liberal usage of the almighty exclamation marks and emojis. You can't hide it, so show 'em some more of your energy!!!!!🙌🙌🙌)

--Shinoda has been periodically blogging about backstage tidbits and I've been translating those for fun so, plop: https://privatter.net/u/boat_manju 

#ヒトリエ #long post

[ghostmartyr]

What does the manga add to Roy and Riza's relationship that the anime doesn't have? Asking out of curiosity since I'm an anime only and they're still one of my favourite pairs of all time!

Oh, ha, I didn’t specifically point to the manga because I have anything in particular against Brotherhood (…or 2003 for that matter) it’s just not my canon, and I’m used to specifying which version of FMA I mean when I talk about the series. I do have a list of petty grievances against Brotherhood, but there is nothing fundamentally altered between Roy and Riza.

..

I mean. Yes. A number of my petty grievances are related to them. And feel slightly less petty as thought is spent on them.

But I would need to go back and watch the anime scenes again to point out the specifics of why.

[many hours later]

(As a note about this post, since I guess I did make the choice of tagging it, this is heavily critical about some specific moments in the Brotherhood anime, but before I get started I want to emphasize that my problems, with the exception of an example that spans a volume, don’t cover even two minutes of video. These things exist, and they bug me, and I clearly have things to say about them, but Brotherhood is 64 episodes long. My impassioned hatred of a few choice features isn’t indicative of my overall feelings on the anime.

Essentially, this is me having fun whining. Not trying to set off landmines. I hope it proves enjoyable.)

So there is this scene change in the first five minutes of episode 19 that has my eternal hatred and I have no plans to ever forgive. That has been true since it aired, and it is still true here today, because I am insufferably stubborn.

(I actually did a session about it before. I’m probably going to repeat most of it, but have a link if it interests you.)

That is not the dialogue the manga goes with.

In the manga, Riza’s interaction with Roy is focused on “what the fuck were you thinking why are you here.” Both versions have the scene with her berating Mustang for endangering the mission to save her.

In the anime, the above screencaps are what follow. After giving him a hard time for showing up at all, she thanks him for saving her life. Sweet, I guess, except Roy fires back with a mission-focused response.

If I were doing an anime-only meta thing, something could be said about the hypocrisy of Roy playing hero only to lecture other people about concentrating on the mission, and it would just be another cute thing. I guess. If I were in a charitable mood maybe.

But this is the first anime adaptation I sat through properly, angsting about every twist and turn and change.

My grudges. They last.

In the manga, Mustang brings up the slightly more personal aspects of what has happened. The reason he runs after Hawkeye is that he just lost Hughes, he won’t lose her, and he loses his head entirely. They have the yelling session over it, and he basically yells back the equivalent of, “yeah yeah fine -sulk sulk sulk-”

They leave Fuery and Hayate behind, and we have the presented moment.

Going to assist Riza is not the Proper choice for the military operation they’re running. It was a dangerous thing for Roy to have done, and she rightfully calls him on it. But he does it because he cares, and the fact that he cares is why all these people follow him. He’s a hopeless, idealistic dreamer at heart. His squad is loyal to him because he’s loyal to them.

Roy Mustang is a damn softy.

In the anime, Riza’s the one to call attention back to the whole life-saving motive. In the manga, it’s Roy.

In the anime, when it comes up, Roy dismisses it.

In the manga, when it comes up, Riza apologizes for worrying him.

It’s a small moment, but small moments are allowed to matter, and when small moments are changed, it leaves a bigger impact than if they were just left alone.

In the anime, this exchange, plus Hawkeye’s smile after, suggests that the sentimentality of the relationship comes primarily from her. Riza’s the one having her heart warmed when they have a job to do.

…That’s a slightly meaner way to put it than the scene perhaps deserves, but there is no unfair bitterness like unfair bitterness towards Brotherhood for me. Whining about this adaptation is a thing I do, despite honestly loving the majority.

Anyway, in the manga, the scene is both of them putting legwork into their dynamic. Hawkeye yells at Mustang for showing up out of sentiment, but when he expresses that sentiment in the aftermath, she expresses understanding of his perspective. He did a stupid thing, but they’re a team, and both at ease with their interplay.

In the anime, stop talking Hawkeye, don’t you know we have a job.

The manga is a conversation, the anime is putting a wall up to prevent that conversation. Especially annoying is that the character putting the wall up is the one who initiates the conversation in the manga. The anime drags Mustang back from his emotional openness and pushes Hawkeye to be more so, then provides a dismissal of her acting that way.

Besides being an inverse plus a step back for their relationship, it. also just feels kind of sexist. Instead of the man talking about feelings, the woman is. When the man talks about his feelings, it’s greeted with understanding and respect, when the woman talks about her feelings, it’s greeted with the instruction to put it somewhere else.

The fact that they changed it bothers me, because the way it is in the manga is great. It’s one of many small moments Roy and Riza have where they are shown to respect and care for each other.

The anime version doesn’t add anything, and lessens the mutuality of that bond.

I snarl in its general direction.

The other change that springs to mind is of a similar cloth.

Mustang and Hawkeye encounter the Elrics before they’re aware of Hughes’ death, and Mustang makes up a story about Hughes retiring in the country with his family so that they won’t go looking for him.

Hawkeye greets this with the face of judgment. “Why are you treating him like a child all of a sudden?” He’s never shied from giving Ed adult responsibilities before. This is a blatant lie. Roy says they don’t need any further obstacles to their journey.

A few moments pass. In silence, in the manga. In the anime, Riza points out that they’re going to find out someday. Then…

“…Who am I trying to kid?”

(Funimation, the heck is with some of your translation choices. Did you just keep the simulcast version for the official DVD subs?)

So there are a few things. The most obvious difference is the dialogue changes. Hawkeye is more insistent about how the Elrics will find out at some point, then after Mustang makes his character commentary, she calls it cruel instead of sighing and moving on to the next topic.

The other most obvious change is that Mustang smiles after calling himself soft in the anime.

These all sort of play together.

In the manga, Hawkeye is just as judgmental as she is in the anime, but she allows Mustang the space to dwell on his choices for himself. She asks him one question about how he’s treating Edward, then they walk in silence, her disapproval creating a tangible aura.

It isn’t simply Hawkeye judging him. He’s judging himself. In the anime it comes off as a, “tee-hee, what a silly softhearted boi I am.” So in the anime, she vocally objects to what he’s doing.

In the manga, Mustang takes in his inability to break the news to the Elrics as the emotional flaw that it is, and Hawkeye lets him off the hook. He doesn’t need a lecture; he knows his shortcomings. It’s not great, but he’s the kind of person who doesn’t want to tell Ed and Al that Hughes is dead because Hughes tried to help them.

Again, Mustang’s softness is part of what endears him to his crew. It is not always a good trait. Sometimes, as in this case, it’s actively causing problems. But it is who he is.

Riza knows this, and she can let this failure pass with a sigh because Roy knows it too. The anime version has a smile when it’s nothing to smile over. The manga version is more, “hahaha… fuck.”

Roy and Riza know each other and themselves extraordinarily well. They might have the boundaries of superior and subordinate, but they are comfortable enough in their understanding of each other that they are allowed to be themselves. It’s the conversation thing. There is an undercurrent of figurative dialogue to their relationship that never stops.

When they do call each other out in the manga, it does not keep the conversation from flowing. It continues it. Both of the above changes take it to a stuttering halt in their scenes.

Then we have episode 30.

After which, I do not have memories specific enough to shout about things or know if there are things to shout about, but episode 30.

-screams forever and ever and ever-

-intersperses screams with tears of anguish-

From what I know of being an FMA fan, it is difficult to be an FMA fan without being passingly familiar with the debates of which version is better. Usually it’s Brotherhood vs. 2003. My personal, obviously right opinion, is that this is the wrong way to do it, and it should be manga vs. 2003, because really it’s an argument over which plot is better, and Brotherhood’s plot is the property of the manga.

I also think it’s impossible to really debate. The two series have different feels and themes. They are both extremely well done, meaning that which one you prefer comes down to personal preference.

I’m pretty sure people who bother to have those discussions could say a lot more on the topic, but that’s my general, broad stroke, very glossed-over perspective on it all.

I mention this because I think anyone who loves FMA should read volume fifteen of the manga. If you’re not a manga person, you don’t want to read 27 volumes of manga, yeah, understandable. You have your version of the story, enjoy it, you shouldn’t feel the need to read the original if you don’t want to. The idea that you have to pour every bit of content into your brain to be a good fan is pretty unhealthy.

But I recommend volume 15 regardless, because the anime does not come close to presenting its content. It is four chapters devoted to the Ishvalan War. Outside the framing device (Ed going to return Hawkeye’s gun and asking about what went down), the entire volume basically stands on its own.

It is a harrowing, intimate depiction of the genocide campaign. That is the focus of the entire volume.

Scar’s backstory is moved to an earlier section in the anime, and Mustang burning Hawkeye’s back is moved to the Envy fight, so this might be an unfair barb to throw, but I still want to say it. The anime covers this volume in one episode.

-goes back to screaming-

(Honestly though, some of the best fun I ever had in fandom came from being on a forum full of manga fans and all of us yelling our despair over Brotherhood’s choices. You would never believe that this anime was considered the gold standard of anything.)

But we’re here for Roy and Riza!

There’s only one thing that sincerely bothers me to pain of the irritation of the above. Most of my sulking is just why did they do this to my favorite volume. Mustang and Hawkeye’s stuff is mostly intact. Except when it isn’t.

Chronologically, the first complaint is that when Riza’s father collapses (dies), Mustang is alone with him. In the manga, the scene ends with a shot of Riza, watching, terrified, from the doorway.

Also known as the scene where Roy calls Riza by her first name.

-still screaming-

The cemetery scene is truncated. The anime jumps right into Roy and Riza discussing Roy becoming a soldier. The manga starts the scene out with the focus on funeral things. Roy asks if Riza has other family, and what she plans to do now.

After that, he offers her his number, and they get to talking about the military and Roy’s dream.

They also cut this.

In the anime, Roy discusses his military life through the lens of Master Hawkeye’s opinion on it, asking if Riza is going to disapprove as well. Roy starts talking because he assumes that’s how she feels about it, and preemptively defends his perspective.

In the original, when Roy hands Riza his information, she asks, “For the rest of your life…?” It’s followed by the above panel.

Roy’s monologue about his aspirations and his dream for what he can do as a member of the military happens because Riza asks. Not directly, but her addition to the conversation prompts him to talk about his views, and he mentions that those views are why he studied alchemy. In other words, why he’s standing in front of a grave, awkwardly trying to talk to his dead master’s daughter.

Following that, the original pays more attention to the lead-up of Riza entrusting Roy with her father’s research. In the anime, she jumps straight from the ideals topic to asking if she can trust him with it.

In the manga, there’s that beat of contemplation after Roy brings up alchemy, and how his master didn’t teach him everything.

Riza tells him that his dream sounds wonderful.

Another beat.

That’s when she tells him that her father did leave his alchemical secrets behind. Words about this are exchanged for a small number of panels.

In the anime, she asks Roy if she can entrust her father’s work (dream, values) to him. Directly after the dream dialogue.

In the manga, when Roy tries to bring their discussion back to Riza’s father, and what he did with his research, Riza redirects him. It isn’t about her father. It’s about her, and by consequence, Roy, and how Roy’s dream inspires her.

“That dream… Can I entrust you with my back so that I can help make it come true?”

The anime severely underplays the significance of Riza offering her father’s research to Roy. They address it a little once Envy is being dealt with, but in the manga, all of the discussion of Riza watching Roy’s back is drawn from how Riza’s back is what’s given Roy the power to rise as far as he has.

It goes from maintextual subtext to subtextual subtext.

Also, the cuts to their conversation just plain means that there’s less of Roy and Riza interacting. The two of them are very, very young, standing in front of a grave and talking about ideals. The longer manga version allows the quality of their youthful awkwardness to truly shine.

The scene is dropped in the middle of the volume, whereas in the anime, it opens the Ishvalan flashback. There’s much to be examined about how that affects the emotional impact, but… geez that gets to be a lot of threads. Trying to go through all of the ways they crammed a whole volume into one episode is just going to make me dizzy.

Even if the theoretical focus of this post weren’t shipping, I’m not sure my brain would be up for that. There’s just so much going on, and the time allotted means it’s a Frankenstein job.

The one major difference for Roy and Riza, which I can’t believe they went with, and can’t believe my sad feelings every time I watch the episode and confirm yeah, they really went that way with it.

Why why why why why why why why must you hurt me this way.

SO!

THE ANIME VERSION!

OF ROY AND RIZA MEETING IN ISHVAL!

Riza walks up and says hi after noticing them because Hughes is babbling about his future wife.

Yay.

The manga version does not. does not do that.

It.

That’s not how it goes.

At all.

In the manga, Roy and Hughes run into each other on their break and start chilling together. Hughes gets a letter, does his excited babbling, Roy tells him to stop being a stereotypical red shirt, when suddenly

Oh noes.

Roy and Hughes react as fast as they can, which might or might not end up fast enough, when a bullet goes through the Ishvalan’s brain.

There’s quiet for a moment, then Roy gets behind cover because oh no gunshot, and Hughes tells him to chill, it’s all good.

“We have the ‘hawk’s eye’ on our side. […] A real ace sharpshooter… who’s causing quite a stir in my circle of friends. She’s still in the academy but because she’s so skilled… they brought her to the front.”

Guess who.

Hughes and Roy, being the good people they are, go back to camp to thank the sniper for saving them. Hughes is his cheery self. Roy is not noticeably perturbed.

Then the sniper drops her hood and stands up.

You could say I prefer the manga version. It has Riza being a badass, and adds to the shock they both have of seeing each other here.

Riza gets her own little horrified section of panels all about it.

She was just helping out two soldiers. She didn’t realize until after she fired that one of them was Roy, and that he’s in this hell too.

The other thing that I enjoy about this particular sequence of panels is that in the manga, they come up a bit earlier. Throughout the manga, Ishval flashback panels are everywhere. As this scene is initially presented (Hawkeye looking at Mustang through her scope), many chapters earlier, it looks like maybe they’re on opposite sides.

Or maybe it’s just me who thinks that’s a thing.

In any case, it adds some serious drama to their reunion. In the anime, the drama is entirely that they are both here in this awful war. In the manga, a Mysterious Sniper saves Roy’s life and turns out to be his master’s daughter.

It’s just cooler, okay?

Their conversation when Riza becomes Roy’s aide is also truncated. Riza says her specialty is guns, because death doesn’t linger when you use them. Roy tells her, with what I feel is sympathy, that’s just a deception to make the work easier. She agrees, but because she’s decided that work is necessary, there we go.

…

I thought that would be my last thing, but now that I have volume fifteen open, I can’t help but go to the scene during the Envy stuff. I won’t touch the main scenes of that, though I’m sure there are changes, because this is already too long and I’ve officially gone through the things that personally affect my view of the anime, which… was, at some point, maybe, the point of the ask. ^^;

Basically, I will never stop if I go through everything, but in case it isn’t obvious, I really love the fifteenth volume, so to Envy we go.

Huh. They really didn’t alter much. The core’s all there. Because of the placement, Mustang gets docked a few lines, and he is rewarded one of Riza’s (about making the tattoo as illegible as possible) in return, but it’s basically the same, with the addition of Riza thanking him.

I have no particular feelings on that. The ending of the scene is different because it’s not intended to go with the rest of the Ishvalan War, and… I guess  I could manufacture some dislike over Riza expressing gratitude instead of the pure stubbornness the manga has. It distracts a little from why she’s asking those secrets to be burned off. They’re in a hell of their own creation. The soft thanks blurs the cutting edge.

Which isn’t to say I can’t have other problems with it.

As a manga reader who enjoyed Brotherhood as it was coming out, as well as someone who is writing this mostly from memory and going over only specific scenes, I have no way to ascertain how clear it is to anime fans what happens with Riza’s back and when. In the manga, it is excruciatingly clear that her father puts his research on her back, that is how Roy comes to have Flame Alchemy, and that is what Riza asks him to burn off.

Since that’s all in volume fifteen, the next twelve volumes are read with the understanding that before Riza is instructed to watch Roy’s back in case he falls, she offers him her back, and brings the ruin of Flame Alchemy to Ishval.

That history defines them. Their own choices plant them in that war, but Roy uses the alchemy she gives him out of hope for a better world to commit genocide. It’s a horrific weight on both of them, and his decision to have Riza, of all people, watch his back after the war?

Dude, it is such an amazing ship detail. Riza entrusts her back to Roy. He, in turn, entrusts his to her.

I get why it’s moved. Sort of. Given that volume fifteen is given one episode, I get why it’s moved. It’s most heavily relevant to Roy’s rampage against Envy.

However, I don’t think the power of knowing the depths of their connection earlier on can be understated. Roy and Riza’s devotion and synergy comes from watching their shared idealism burn the people they wanted to protect to a crisp, and their commitment to never letting that happen again. They create a hell through their good intentions. Having done that, they do not abandon their good intentions. They refine them and continue forward.

That is what binds them together. They rise from the ashes of their flames.

I do not, for the most part, think Brotherhood does them a major disservice. My gripes are pretty much all listed above, and my praises are endless.

But if you really love Roy and Riza, I’d seriously recommend reading the manga at some point, because there’s stuff the anime doesn’t bother with. AKA, yes, there is even more royai to be uncovered, don’t you want to seeeeee? :D :D

This kind of obviously grew past what you were initially asking, but I hope it serves a satisfactory answer regardless! Thanks for the opportunity to spam my love for these two!

…Through spamming my hate of stuff, but we’re ignoring that.

#Fullmetal Alchemist #FMA #royai #tl;dr #asks

[austennerdita2533]

How do you think Rory and Jess are celebrating New Year's? Because they're together, right?! I like to think they are by now!

I’d like to believe they’re together, too! In fact, I’d like to believe it so much that I wrote a thing about it…a oneshot, if you will. The damn thing just poured out of me yesterday. I don’t know what happened, but there was no stopping it lol. Sorry not sorry.

(A03) (FF.net)

Happy New Year, my lovely friend! Here’s some post-revival Literati for you to start off 2019 right. 💗

xx Ashlee Bree

Like A Calendar, The Heart Skips Forward

With drunken crowds, ugly tinsel streamers which hang in windows, and snow that’s beginning to stick to the city streets in inches as deterrents, they decide to spend the night in. At home.

The baby’s with her grandparents tonight, probably high on too much sugar and Dr. Seuss. Knowing Luke, he’s likely baby proofing everything again to be safe while Lorelai’s using scary voices so her granddaughter never goes near the stove (but hey, neither did Rory, and she’s turned out fine, hasn’t she?), so she and Jess have plenty of time to themselves. That’s a rarity these days, especially with a toddler in the picture. Alone time seems possible only at ungodly hours in the morning anymore, or during nap time, or in stolen minutes between hectic work schedules. So they’re grateful to Mom and Luke for the offer to babysit every now and again. And they love to do it, to spoil her little angel rotten with small town affection and attention. All the people of Stars Hollow love it, too.

As for Rory and Jess, they enjoy these adult-only nights. It’s a time to revel in intellect, in intimacy.

They love to tune into the timbre of the other’s conversation and fade into each new day talking, listening. It’s exhilarating to them to share new ideas. To uncover deeper feelings in their relationship, but also for them to reach further into the world to figure out what more they can do. Experience. Be.

Parties hold no charms for them this evening. Neither do bars or over-priced concert tickets. Invites from friends go unanswered because they forget to read their messages. They’re more than content to spend the night far away from the end-of-the-year bombast, anyway, with nothing but each other and the hum of this ratty old radiator for company.

They live in an old building so it’s no one’s fault when a malfunction occurs, as one often does.

Luckily, the heat works fine thanks to Jess and his patient tinkering. (Rory never says it out loud, but she swears he’s inherited this from Luke.) Countless hours he spends bent over tools with a concentrative crease in his forehead because their super, Mel, is a slovenly middle-aged coot who binges too much Netflix and refuses to answer knocks on his door from any of his tenants past 9 P.M. Mel likes to blame this incompetence on narcolepsy, but truthfully, it’s because the couch has molded to his prone body by that point, the television playing episode after episode of Frasier or The West Wing, so why trouble himself to move? Better yet, why not put his ringer on silent and ignore all the incoming calls he receives?

(Spoiler alert: he does.)

Encountering one of the Seven Deadly Sins in an actual person still seems a little ridiculous to Rory, borderline unlikely here; especially in a city teeming full of worker bees who supposedly never sleep, but they’ve managed well enough with the radiator on their own. And by well, she means she’s prone to kicking the darn thing any time it roars like it’s a beast straight out of Kevin McCallister’s nightmares in Home Alone.

It’s cozy and comfortable in the apartment tonight, however. Just the way they like it.

That means Rory’s in her favorite pair of slippers, big cumbersome things with floppy ears and shaggy puppy faces curiously similar to Paul Anka’s. Her hair’s loose, fallen past her shoulders, and her arms are stuffed into an oversized Cashmere sweater. Meanwhile, her boyfriend’s walking around barefoot, half-naked in a pair of boxer briefs and a green v-neck tee, his jeans in a ball near the door, seemingly impervious to the December weather.

Is he secretly a werewolf or something, she wonders? An alien? Or just some weirdo who sweats when it’s only sixteen degrees outside, a furnace for girls like her who huddle closer for warmth and never utter a word of complaint?

Music plays low in the background. It’s a playlist curated on one of their phones. Songs from Bjork, the Clash, the Distillers, so many other new and old bands - their favorites - add to the ambiance of this eclectic space they call home.

A half-edited manuscript perches on the edge of the coffee table. Its pages are blotted with black ink and arrowed notes that spill wide into the margins because Jess had spent the morning editing his latest draft, unsatisfied because his characters aren’t where he wants them to be yet. Books litter the kitchen counter. They sit scattered across the floor in organized piles near shelves that are already overflowing, some still stuffed in paper bags because they’d pilfered a thrift shop earlier and now can find nowhere to store the bulky bastards. (Typical for a pair of bookworms who will never have enough reading material between them.)

Appointment reminders and cute little post-it notes stick to the refrigerator in an array of colors. Most are in Rory’s hand, flourished in cursive or silliness, except for the few Jess added by famous authors or musicians because the words moved him; or because he thought they’d start her day with a pretty thought. A smile. A laugh that’d brighten the blue of her eyes.

The living area’s a messy snapshot of their family life with its stench of stale coffee, cologne, and baby lotion. There’s a jacket thrown over the arm of a plush designer sofa and way too many half-empty boxes of Pop Tarts fighting for space in the cupboard with jars of smooth peanut butter and pureed carrots. A laundry basket holds many of the little one’s toys: choo-choo trains, baby dolls, a Batmobile, three sets of ABC blocks, a Wonder Woman figurine, and a stuffed robot aptly named Bee-Doo.

The remote control is always lost somewhere unknown. They might as well attach a key finder around its middle. Or perhaps they should rip up the floorboards instead - a lá the Tell-Tale Heart - because it never takes less than twenty minutes to find the stupid gadget. Either it’s buried under cushions, kicked under miles of folded clothing or prose, or it’s stuffed beneath pillows with spare kernels of popcorn and pens attached to the buttons. Worse than all of that, though, is how the lost-and-found treasure hunt never seems to diminish their scrolling-for-something-to-watch minutes at all. Not in the slightest!

Later, they order takeout from five of their favorite places. It’s too much food for two people to consume in one meal, but who cares? It’s never stopped her or her mother before, so why start now?

There’s pizza, burgers, Thai, Chinese, and one heaping order from that Indian place she’d found around the corner about a month after they’d moved to Brooklyn. It has the most delicious, pungent food so naturally that leaves Jess scrunching his nose and Rory twinkling appreciatively because he’s caved to her doe-eyed pout for once, her belly and heart happy for getting their way.

“See here, mister: victory is mine! I knew you loved me too much to deny me. Admit it,” she says before pecking him sweetly on the cheek.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says after he pays for the delivery and dumps the bags on the table. “Whatever you say.” He remains noncommittal, but the truth shines in his eyes. “Just don’t complain about the cold when I open all the windows. It’ll take weeks to air out the stink in here—weeks. Probably three.”

“Two.”

“Three,” he fires back.

“Two.”

“Okay, two…maybe.” He brushes hair from her face and lets his fingers linger, then smiles her favorite crooked smile. “If we’re damn lucky, anyway.”

After dinner, they eat cheesecake with a bottle of wine. Ice cream with cones is Jess’s dessert preference usually, but they’re out, so they settle for booze and a tasty variation on dairy to help them compile their to-read lists for 2019. He’s on the left side of the sofa, her on the right. Call it a private, serious exercise. Extra points docked for peeking or flirting.

Such a silly idea it is, really, this hoarding then exchanging of lists. Yet it’s a fun way to pass the hours before midnight. Even more fun when they discover the selections that align, and those that don’t, sending them into a tizzy’d discussion about literature and writers the other still needs to know. Pretty soon, another list follows full of recommended titles Jess thinks she should read in the New Year, and vice versa.

Lane had called them a cute agoraphobic couple once, many years ago, if Rory remembers correctly. And by golly, what a label! If only she were here to see them right now, tangled in warmth and limbs and solitude.

She beams at the memory because that’s what she and Jess were back then. It’s what they still are. It’s who they want to be this New Year’s Eve, and the next…and the next…and for every one after for as long as they can live them like this: in love, happy, and together. They’d live this way forever, if only wishes like this could be granted.

“What I wouldn’t give for a Fairy Godmother right now,” she blurts out without thinking, all wrapped up in blankets and curled tight into his chest. “To have a dash of Disney magic or two in my possession would be supercalifragilistic.”

“Why? You don’t need saving.”

“That’s true.”

“So is it Prince Charming you’re after?” Jess asks with a quirk of the eyebrow.

Frowning, “What kind of girl do you take me for? I’m a feminist.”

“You want to freeze the world like Elsa then, huh? Is that it?”

“No.” Tracing his lips with her forefinger, Rory pauses. Reconsiders. “Well, I mean…only if I got to spend all of that time skating across it with you.”

“You mean falling,” Jess mutters.

“Rude! Read my lips: skating.”

He shrugs then. It’s followed by a smirk. “Impossible things are happening every day…or so it goes.”

Giggling, she shoves him, then covers her mouth with her hands.

“Wow, I can’t believe you’re quoting Whitney Houston from Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Who are you?”

“Like you haven’t seen it. Give me a break.”

“Many times,” she says, “but that’s not the point. The point is you’ve given a Gilmore ammunition to mock you for the rest of your life. Hasn’t Luke warned you about this? We’re unapologetic mockers, Mom and I.”

“Jeez, you’re mean,” Jess says with a shake of his head and an affectionate pinch to her side. “I should start calling you Grory.”

“Hey, no fair! I’m no Grinch. No Grendel, either.”

“Pre-coffee, that’s arguable.”

“I demand a re-write,” she says, crossing her arms, determined for her pout to win out for a second time.

“No way,” he replies. “That’s too much work, Green One.”

“Fine. As long as you realize you’re stuck with me regardless.”

“Am I?”

“Aren’t you?” Rory asks like a question that dangles then deflates. Her voice catches with uncertainty. The sound’s worse than the squeal a lobster makes in a boiling pot as she shifts onto her ankles on the sofa to pin him with a wide-eyed look, her heart pounding, mouth drier than Death Valley in the middle of a drought. Color rushes to her cheeks because Jess remains silent before her…because he reaches for the tattered copy of Persuasion that’s perched near his feet so he can underline one of Captain Wentworth’s most famous passages in black ink. I can listen no longer in silence, it reads. You pierce my soul. She knows the quote well. She knows it by heart.

However, it’s not until Jess scribbles down his own line onto the page with some rogue pen he’s found teetering on a shoe with no mate, his hand trembling, the apple in his throat bobbing like it’s been pinched by some invisible force he never saw coming; and it isn’t until he places the book in her lap so she can read what he wrote, that joyful disbelief betrays her. That her tears start flowing and flowing. They cover her face in red-eyed tenderness and devotion.

One look back at him, and she knows he feels the same. The love between them so real and so right, it fills the calendar with fulfillment they no longer wish to live without.

Marry me?

Two words, and the jerk’s a poet. Two words, and it’s only him she sees. Two words, one question, and Rory’s faced with an answer that takes no energy to give at all.

I’d be honored to be the Anne to your Wentworth, she writes back with shaky fingers and a grin so big she can barely see. So yes! Yes! A million times yes!

Wine switches to scotch sooner rather than later after that. Then talking turns to kissing, kissing moves to roving touches without either one of them noticing.

Both hands of the clock reach nearer and nearer to twelve as Rory pauses the movie they weren’t actually watching with a yawn, her sapphire diamond sparkling in the T.V’s muted light. Then she stands to refill their glasses one final time before 2018 ends, slippers scratching against the carpet. Jess wraps his arms around her waist while she pours. He smells of booze and sex and home.

Eyes closed and body rocking, he places a kiss against her arm, her shoulder, her neck, her mouth. He leaves a promise there that tastes of all that awaits them and more.

Together, they watch the snowflakes fall and drift to the fire escape outside their window, a moment of quiet before they pack the rest of the leftovers away so they can head to bed with this year lapsed behind them like another chapter closing. The page turns, and before they know it, December endings become January beginnings. The calendar’s blank and in wait for prose that has yet to be written, both of them looking forward to another 365 days full of learning, laughter, commitment, and so many more family firsts along the way.

#ksfd89 #literati #literati drabbles #literati fanfiction #rory and jess #ashlee bree's writing endeavors #my writing brain has two modes #either 1) blocked; or 2) write 2k in one sitting #there is no in-between

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Also glad everybody's good 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Like all the patients and stuff :p. Anyway and I just have to say it one more time, I love Jordan xD <333.

Lastly for my little final thoughts that promo looks inSANE but like chill ಠ_ಠ but also I am eyes 👀👀👀👀👀 because it looks interesting :)))

AAAANYWAY! Time for the :D. . .

REVIEW

I loved this episode! I actually enjoyed it way more than I thought I would :D. Nobody was super always (I mean the entire time xdd) mad at each other and everything was just kinda chill :))). But still a bit intense, especially with the fungus lung infection lady - although anything else intense I expect happened in the first five minutes, that I missed XD

I already talked about how I love a good gay (lol person - nah I mean scene mostly xDD- well, actually) - well, ANYTHING, lol, so I don't think I need to say anything more on that, other than: <33333333 I love them :))). I mean he seems alright and I love Asher, he's my boy, so, :DDDD. Also 😭😭 :'((( at the story but :')) glad it all worked out for you this episode :p. Love you my child.

JORDAN love you <333 That's all there is to say

LOL I'm just kidding there is a little bit more xDD. Just thinking how she used to be so judgemental, and while she has her moments still, she's really not anymore, she's still awesome but she's mellowed out a bit and is just generally softer and kinder :')). While still going for what she wants and what her patient needs!! And having compassion :)). Like, Asher is still judgey fairly often, but she's really grown without completely abandoning her character (as in her personality lol), and I love that for her :)))). I just, I love her <33333

Also Glassman's story with Andrews was HILARIOUS LOL. And it really does prove, or at least remind us, that he used to do this political stuff all the time, and that he really did/DOES even, know what he's doing 🤔🤔. Interesting, and nice :)).

And like I said lol them all going so insane for softball is great XDD

Anyway, lastly, Shaun and Lea :)). I love them! And though obviously I wish they communicated more early on, I'm proud of them :). They're growing and they've got this and they're adorable lol :') <3. Lol, so cute, my babeys :)). Love them <333. Despite their occasional awkwardness xdd. I am surprised I enjoyed this storyline, but I really didn't mind it :p. Still, I love them :))) <333333.

Overall! I really did enjoy the episode :)))! I think it's one of my favorites! Or at least one of my favorites of this season. I don't know, it was just chill, and fun, and even though it had SOME excitement and tension, it was rather laid back and nice :)). Plus, it was funny, even hilarious at parts lol, and that's always a nice touch. Especially so soon coming off everyone being angry at each other xDD. It was a nice change of pace, definitely partly because it simply WASN'T everyone being angry at each other lol. Overall great, a nice breather :))).

So yeah! I loved it, it felt like it focused more on personal storylines which is nice now and then :D, and I honestly just really enjoyed the- well, I won't say laid back again, but 'peaceful' doesn't quite fit does it lol? Well, the just vibing energy of it all :).

It was really, really good :)). This has been my review of. . .

The Good Doctor, Season 5, Episode 12: Dry Spell

I'm pretty excited for the next episode :D. I'll be here again next week for my review of. . .

The Good Doctor, Season 5, Episode 13: Growing Pains

See you then!!

#the good doctor #tgd #oasis's tgd chatter #lovely :))) #my blorbos #my boys #my babeys #my children #these are both tags and merely words (like that I'm speaking :)) ) #lol nearly moth but both XDDD #that would've been a little awkward lol #aaaanyway :))) #more reviews (or maybe just the larger one for right now lol) in a minute :))