#they're still very much framing for the main event

[doom-dreaming]

so i did what any normal, sane, and rational person would do and overhaul-edited a multi-chapter fic right before a week-long trip to see family on the other side of the country. you know. regular behavior.

anyway. after giving the more the merrier the space i needed to not violently attack it, i've edited it to be more cohesive in tone and just got it to a place that i like better and feel good about

i've edited the original versions of the posts as well as what's up on ao3, so i'll reblog all 4? 3.5? chapters again shortly

#at first i was just gonna edit the first chapter but then i . did all of them #i left ch. 3 alone for the most part #but i wanted to match the other chapters to it a little better #they're still very much framing for the main event #but now it feels like one whole fic to me #not weird taped-together bits #and now i feel like i can finally relax and work on other things #i'm almost done with the wintery oneshot #it's very cute if i do say so myself #it'll probably be posted right after i get back from this trip #as usual thank you for reading these tags #i love and cherish you

[my-writings-and-musings]

Transformers ROTB

Mirage x Reader

(Hurt/Comfort)

It's a billion degrees here so thinking is hard and I've been imagining cold... This fic of Mirage keeper reader warm after a snowy rescue was born. As the last fic proves, I just love writing Mirage cuddles, and can you blame me?

Look at him. Absolute cuddlebug. Has to be.

---

Everything was cold and aching when you came to, but considering you'd expected not to wake up at all, you could tentatively call that a win. Too exhausted and pained to shiver, you cracked your eyes open as sounds finally drifted into focus. A blue figure moved through the darkness with curses of frantic frustration, their inhumanly large frame bent over a pile of damp wood they were having no luck lighting. Recognizing their familiar shade of blue in the brief flashes of light from their attempted fire, you perked up despite your exhaustion.

"Mirage?"

The mech snapped his helm around, optics wider than you'd ever seen them as he looked at you in total disbelief.

"Hey, you're not dead!" he gushed as he crawled across the cave, looking so overjoyed he must not have believed you'd ever speak again. Too worn out and stiff to chuckle, you managed to crack a smile as the mech leaned over you, seemingly drinking in your presence as if he hadn't seen you in ages. Not having the slightest clue how you'd gotten here, you found your head free of worry despite your injuries, and you couldn't resist the urge to crack a joke.

"Should I be?"

"No, definitely not! Don't you go getting any ideas!" Mirage replied, his tone a solid mix of playful admonishment and serious warning. Adjusting a small emergency blanket that you'd been loosely swaddled in, he fretted long enough for you to pick up on his worry despite the continued jokes. "I've busted my aft keeping you alive this long, you don't get to put all my hard work to waste."

"What happened?" you asked as you tried to hug the blanket closer, numb fingers making it nearly impossible. Confused but able to recall a blurry series of events, the lack of other Autobots stuck out to you, especially when you remembered the whole group had been together in battle the last time you'd seen them. Not seeing a single other being in the cave activated your worry. "Where's-?"

"Shhh, questions take stamina you can't spare. I'll do the talking for both of us." Mirage interrupted gently, still teasing but sounding much softer as he encouraged you to lie back. The warmth of his servo and the comfort of his much larger frame beside yours allowed you to relax and listen, but as you did so It became apparent you were still quite exhausted, and you had to fight the urge to sleep. A fascinating narrative made consciousness stick around despite your heavy eyelids. "It took some expert tracking, but Bee was able to find two sets of tracks; a big ugly bot and the human he was tearing after. Unfortunately enough for him, we found him first."

Now you could remember how you'd gotten into this mess; running from a Decepticon and trying to lose them in the dense, frozen forest... The last thing you'd seen of Mirage had been the main battle, and you couldn't even begin to recall how long you'd been out in the cold, but it was good to know everything had more or less worked out. If only you weren't so terribly cold...

"I don't know how you outran him, but you were sorta... asleep and awake when we found you, so cold you weren't even shivering. We called Noah, and he's arranging to meet Optimus somewhere "clandestine" and escort a medic this way. They're gonna look you over and then pretend they didn't see us." Mirage continued. Nodding in incomplete understanding, you tried to keep your eyes open, and would have yawned if you'd had the strength. You knew what was being said meant a lot to you, and that a doctor was very much in order, but it all felt so far away. Aching body going increasingly numb, you barely found the strength to reply.

"Thank you..." you croaked, so terribly tired you couldn't convince yourself that staying awake was worth it. Mirage reacted swiftly, cupping his hand behind your head and looking into your eyes. The fear in his optics made you yearn for the energy to comfort him, but as it was you couldn't even understand why he was so upset.

"Don't thank me, just stay awake, yeah?" he encouraged, positive facade crumbling as he scooped you up in a panic. Feeling his chest, which radiated a reduced but still appreciable amount of warmth, you sighed and leaned into his embrace. The speedster held you tightly against him, digits patting your cheek as he tried to get you to focus on him. "Talk to me, Y/N, tell me what I can do."

"Cold..." was all you could say, exhaustion all but dragging you down into unconsciousness. Only your desire not to upset him kept you awake, but you knew there was precious little fight left in you. Mirage frantically reached back to the damp wood he'd been attempting to dry and ignite with his blaster.

"Okay, okay... I can... Scrap, I can't get this to light!" he cried in briefly hopeless frustration, his servo transforming back into a limb so he could hold you close to share what little warmth he had to spare. The pain in his expression compelled you to comfort him, but you didn't have the strength to do anything but lay your hand on the glowing center of his chest. You only wanted him to know it was alright, but the mech took much more from the gesture, his optics widening before his brows furrowed in determination. "Plan B then; come here."

Snapping open his chest panels and revealing the beautiful yet surprisingly soft glow of his spark, he pulled you close, allowing you to practically snuggle against the heat generating essence of his being.

"Sorry if this is weird... but it's warm, right?" he said quickly, aware of the awkward intimacy even if the situation was desperate. Being held so close allowed you to finally thaw after hours of exposure, and the feeling of life returning to your limbs was soothing enough to compel you to sigh. Cradling you tightly against his spark, Mirage sat back against the cave wall and relaxed at your increasingly less pallid complexion, returning to a more playful tone filled with affection. "My spark always runs hot, part of being an Outlier. I'll keep you close until the doc gets here. Least I can do for my little space heater."

Smiling back at the joke, you sighed once more and touched your hand to his spark, able to feel the soft hum soothing your aching body. As much as you still yearned for sleep, being so close gave you the strength to stay awake a little longer, the growing ease in his frame compelling you to keep going for both your sakes. A tender cupping of your face helped make you all the more certain that everything was going to be alright.

Mirage continued to encourage you, the devotion in his spark more than warm enough to keep the dark, frigid cold of the cave at bay. "You just keep getting nice and toasty. I've got you..."

#transformers #maccadam #tf #mirage x reader #tf mirage #rotb mirage #transformers rotb #tf rotb #rotb #transformers: rise of the beasts #rise of the beasts #human reader #self insert #transformers x reader #x reader #hurt/comfort #fluff

[leftduck9986]

Foreshadowing, out of order?

In storytelling, is there a single word that means "the opposite of foreshadowing"?

WARNING: in trying to wrap my head around this, there will be wittering!!!

Wikipedia tells me that a flashback is a method of foreshadowing.

The Bullet Catch in the NZF minisode, being a flashback as well as told before the "present day" [speculated] event it sets up a clue for, well, that's what I've understood foreshadowing to mean until now, because isn't foreshadowing always presented before the event it foreshadows comes to pass?

The flashback/memory minisode, A Companion To Owls, is told after the "present day" event it foreshadows. Does that still count as foreshadowing, or is it instead considered "the big reveal" because it is told after?

And is this all that is meant by various things in Good Omens 2 being "out of order"?

The Hiding Miracle and the Memory That Both Foreshadows and Reveals It?

Indeed, it was a tiny miracle - as titled in the soundtrack - that worked as planned and "barely moved the dials" (but still a miracle in which "Noone will have noticed A Thing" however tiny it was, and that "Nobody notices he's here (...) Nobody can spot him, (...) especially if they're looking for him").

I believe it was the first of three events that happened that night, which, became the main focus of this "quiet, gentle, romantic" season, but paling in comparison to the other two events. Moving on!

Returning to how A Companion to Owls isn't told until after The Hiding Miracle and clues us in as to what was actually going on: this tiny miracle was made to appear far more powerful than it actually was, with the use of showmanship:

The ceremonious setup of being positioned on the circle in the middle of the room hidden under the carpet, between Aziraphale and Crowley; he could have been standing, but instead, "Jim... Sit in this chair." And it's a beautiful chair, like a throne, but Jim being taller wouldn't have worked for the image of the 'W' (similar to the 'W' shape made with Shadwell standing between Aziraphale and Crowley at the airbase, in the book Good Omens.)

ta-da!-look-at-this-very-complicated-and-powerful-miracle-that-we-are-doing

Why perform at all then, for an audience of none?

Ah, they're not alone, oooOoOoOOOoOoOooo, spooky. Go and see for yourself: check out the bottom left area of the screen when Crowley returns to the bookshop and says, "I'm BACK" (this is to do with the "framing opportunities" secret mentioned in the Gavin Finney BTS article https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/gavin-finney-bsc-good-omens-2/) Aziraphale calmly replies, "Yes, I can see that" and later gasps, reacting to something happening off-screen at 40m41s.

So this performance, not yet knowing who their audience might be, could be as a precaution, just in case.

Gabriel instinctively crosses his hands and is confused when Aziraphale and Crowley uncross them - or likely because Aziraphale was even standing there at all - because he remembers, or rather, in his mind's eye, sees the shape left behind by a missing piece of furniture.

The ceremonious setup of being positioned in the centre, between Sitis and Job, this time in the background to have Bildad appear a little shorter in height for the stylized 'W', then crossing his hands. The pot containing Sitis and Job's children being the circle, hidden by the circle of carpet (robes) made as Sitis and Job embrace.

ta-da!-look-at-this-very-complicated-and-powerful-miracle-that-we-are-doing

Had we seen Jim's and Crowley's conversation about memory before The Hiding Miracle instead of much later in episode 5, then it would have been foreshadowing, yes?

*temper rising* A "reveal," or "out-of-order foreshadowing"? (VBUAXNAUSX*keyboard smash*NYVIFGNOMAI) grrrrrr!

...

After the Job story is told, (save for the final scene) and Aziraphale calls for Crowley, my head-cannon used to be that Aziraphale wanted to talk about hair -

Aziraphale: Crowley, I gave you lovely long locks in my retelling of this story, how about you? Crowley: Nah, "shoulder-length bouncy 'bob'" is what I put - a "Lob" I think is what they're calling it these days.

But now I think that, to book-end Crowley's beginning with, "Your boss said that to Job, do you remember?" (imo they are so good at blending in, they can act human better than any human can act human! So, while feigning the memory span&loss&retention of a human, of course they can remember most everything. Angel stock: constitution of an Ox, memory of an Elephant.) Aziraphale may have wanted to remark on Jim's crossed hands from the night before and how similar it was to Crowley's doing so; that it was evidence of Gabriel still somehow being able to connect with images from his memory. "Crowley? You also did that thing... does Gabriel remember?"

If each minisode contains something that foreshadows or reveals what magic tricks occurred during this season's present day events, I feel that the only thing left is from "The Resurrectionists" minisode, where Crowley Goes Large (woah, woah, woah, another case for The Song Is The Clue?!?) ... or makes himself, something or someone else tiny.

"Size and shape are simply options" after all, so I do wonder about Hell's Usher, where the only time we've seen him is when he is small enough to fit in a bathtub and yet he is HUGE in the opening title sequence of season one. Behind him, Noah's Ark stranded between two damaged buildings (or one damaged building and maybe the Pleasure Cruiser Morbillo?)

Something else that may be revealing of stories yet to be told of the past, while also foreshadowing a near-future event:

Based on what Crowley said, this is not the first time Crowley and Aziraphale have performed a half-miracle together! Whatever biiiig miracle they're about to do (speculated event #2) could still be completely balanced and undetected, but then a plume of miraculous activity emerging from the circle gateway (privately speculated event #3) is what poor Aziraphale will appear to take the blame for.

Things being out of order may have started with the question, are season two's present day events being told out of order? There are other things appearing out of order as well, for example a change in the order of colours in the Rainbow (for "present day" episode two only I think, beginning Violet then Red, etc.) Or, in this case, narrative devices being so intertwined, one flashback-event can contain images and phrases that both foreshadow something yet to happen as well as to reveal what happened in a part of the story already told.

As always, please no asking or tagging Mr Gaiman as this blog post contains theory and speculation, thank you.

#The Hiding Miracle and A Companion To Owls #wittering on #please forgive me #Good Omens 2 #foreshadowing #out of order #the big reveal #narrative devices #relearning something forgotten or learning something new? never too late #overthinking technical words and probably VERY wrong about it #Good Omens 2 theory #The Song is The Clue #Good Omens book reference “stylized W” #Tiny Miracle #Crowley Goes Large #“Size and shape are simply options” #Hell's Usher goes large? #Good Omens #Good Omens Opening Title Sequence #Good Omens 3 speculation #first time making GIFs such fun! #good omens meta

[nevertheless-moving]

stormlight au number 35 (help me i'm lost in the sauce)

Jasnah, Dalinar, and Renarin (surviving Kholin Radiants) travel from End of World all the way to right after Gavilar's death.

Vengeance pact still happens, but plays out very differently. We don't need absolutely every man in the kingdom to join the army, alright Elhokar? And we're making sure Dalinar is there to accept their surrender, actually win in reasonable time frame and 'conquer' them (no Alethi want to live out there anyway, and as long as they send gemhearts in tribute we won't enslave them. actually elhokar, your sister wanted to talk to you about slavery—).

Honestly, just an excuse for:

A) Adolin to have a breakdown that his entire family has been replaced by voidbringers, before eventually accepting with relief that they're still his family, they've just become voidbringers, but its ok because he loves them and will protect their increasingly heretical actions with his life. Hugs his glowing red and green eyed little brother a lot.

Adolin: do I — should I also learn to read?

Jasnah: do you want to?

Adolin: not really, no.

Renarin: to be honest, it's probably for the best if you just focus on being, well, a good Vorin Alethi. One of us probably should be, if we don't have a desolation as a distraction.

Adolin: ok! sure! I can do that. Also thought id mention that if possible, I would personally appreciate *not* having a desolation.

Jasnah: it may prove necessary.

Adolin: I know, i know. Just thought I'd put my feelings out there.

Dalinar: and we'll need you to produce Kholin heirs. Neither Renarin or Jasnah are likely to, and I'm not remarrying a younger woman.

Adolin: Sounds good!

B) Kholin family to have way too strong a reaction to this random darkeyed surgeon in training when they visit Kharbranth, scaring the absolute shit out of said darkeyed surgeon. Adolin walks into a wall when he sees Kaladin. He doesn't even know about the Radiant thing, it's just that

C) Kaladin dresses really hot in this au. Ok. I lied. this is actually the main reason for this au. It — there's a whole chain of events. I – don't look at me like that. The character development works, alright?

A lot of it boils down to distracting people from groping the female medical trainees.

He realizes that breathing in a certain way, while it makes you focus better and move faster, it also makes you more...present somehow? people pay attention to you, for better or worse. Some of the ladies teach him that there are different ways to channel people's focus on you, if they're looking anyway.

And apparently, for the first few years Kharbranth medical students, light and dark eyed alike, have basically no protections from wealthy patients or Lighteyed chief's of staff who are a bit too interested in teaching you to use your safehand, and its not like Kaladin can challenge them to a duel - he doesnt know how to fight, and it would get him and the person hes trying to protect kicked out of the program. So much for honorable lighteyes being real.

But I mean. If wearing some eyeliner, and a gemstone in your hair, if taking your right glove off first after an exam, conspicuously leaving the left on while talking, if bending over to pick his clipboard up in a certain way... if it gets people to not focus on his friends...

...one could probably get pretty angsty with this concept, ngl.

The Stormlight understanding and oaths come in time. There might also be some Radiant Disguise Superhero hijinks, havent fully decided but it's not really a major stretch from canon to say that Kharbranth struggles with violent crime. Also Kaladin gets to learn about institutional racism in school. It's great. I have a lot of Kaladin thoughts but so does everyone in this au so its ok.

Kholins visit Kharbranth:

Jasnah: you've been moping for days. Is your new fixation of the week not responding to your advances?

Adolin: I don't want to talk about it

Dalinar: son, you've clearly been in a mood—

Adolin: look, I'm not — the individual is not suitable for my station, alright? I'm not courting someone I could never actually marry, because that would be stupid.

Jasnah: while it would complicate matters, you know your brother and I have plans to alter the alethi codes around eye color, considering they're clearly a crude derivative of radiant mythologization

Dalinar: I thought we agreed that was low on the priority list

Jasnah: You said that uncle, Renarin most certainly did not agree, and his arguments are sound

Adolin: He's just some surgeon, alright! He's not just darkeyed, he's a darkeyed man. I said I'll get over it! I always do.

Dalinar: ah.

Jasnah: ...did you say surgeon?

Adolin: Yes? Why?

Dalinar: why does it —

Jasnah: how did you meet?

Adolin: He was — he was with this group of women at a winebar, and he was dressed like – but it turned out he just goes to protect them from - and it was so — why are you asking me about this?

Dalinar: Oh! A darkeyed surgeon. Protecting, you say? He sounds...honorable.

Jasnah: Very honorable.

Adolin: He is! He volunteers at this house for injured soldiers, and you wouldn't believe he'd never been to war, I mean his spear Katas — he's – it's like he was born for it —

Dalinar: He sounds like a fine young man. Perhaps you should bring him to meet us.

Adolin: I — while I appreciate that father, I really do, I thought I was the one who was supposed to well. I mean my role in...all of this is to produce heirs and look proper, right?

Jasnah: Hm. when you put it it that way...

Dalinar: I mean, Navani and I might be able to...

Jasnah: Don't be ridiculous. I'm perfectly capable of producing a child, should it prove absolutely necessary,

Adolin: Jasnah?

Jasnah: Provided the man you're courting is of worthy quality.

Adolin: We're not — I haven't been courting! I didn't think it was an option! I don't even know if he's interested! From what I can tell he has people throwing themselves at his feet all the time!

Jasnah: An abnormally honorable darkeyed surgeon, natural warrior, magnetically charismatic personality...yes that might make a worthwhile addition to the family.

Dalinar: I can write to Elhokar at once, recommend that he and Aseuden —

Jasnah: Uncle we've been over this — this is exactly the sort of thing that led to me insisting you come with me on this trip! If we cripple his ability to lead—

Adolin: Are we — are we moving into the discussing the future part of the evening, because I can go guard the door—

Dalinar: wait, when you say produce a child, you don't mean through soulcasting, right?

Jasnah: I don't see why I should answer that question.

Adolin: Yeah, i'm just going to go guard the door now

#stormlight archive #my au #stormlight au #nevertheless cosmere #stormlight au no 35 #adolin kholin #just to be clear adolin fully believes his family is voidbringers now he's just ride or die #they kept the time travel thing secret at first and then when he hysterically confronted them they explained kind of badly. #Dalinar: we're not—well technically we are the voidbringers. but that term is widely misunderstood! #and once Adolin was convinced they were still the same people he stopped asking religious questions

[abla-soso]

"Anatomy of a fall" is a good movie that I would normally forget about after the second viewing. But I think I keep coming back to this movie because the reactions to it are fascinating to me.

One of the main themes of this movie was that you can't psychoanalyze and frame people's entire personhood and lives based on dissecting a very specific set of events and circumstances. Especially not in a sensationalized case in a court drama.

And what do American feminists do? Isolate a single moment from all contexts and present it as definitive proof of women being the eternal victims in any broken marriage.

Amazing.

The "you're not a victim and I'm blameless" speech became a viral clip on social media, so much so that it made me curious enough to watch the movie. Imagine my surprise when I saw the context of that scene and realized that moment in the fight happened right after the husband accused the wife of cheating and she scoffed it off and tried to guilt trip him for still feeling upset it and about her shameless lack of guilt.

He was being irrationally petty and unfairly judgmental during the fight (most people are when they're mentally ill with intense unresolved issues) and she defended herself against his bullshit and expressed some legitimate grievances, but this was not all. In that "epic feminist monologue" she was insisting he wasn't a victim because she was also trying to absolve herself of all guilt of any of her wrongdoings.

And when she couldn't, she reacted in a physically abusive way. And when she needed to save herself in the trail? She insisted that he was a victim after all, lol. But not her own victim, of course not, but a victim of his own sever mental health issues that has nothing to do with how she treated him.

Yet when the defense wraps up their summary of her husband's psyche and spells out the suicide motive you can hear her tell him: "that's not what he was like!". She had enough honesty with herself in that moment to admit that her husband's personhood and motives can't be summed up by that fight.

It's pointless to make a complete and final assessment of either her or her husband's character based on that emotionally charged fight alone.

The movie's main motif is: "fixation kills understanding". It’s not unusual for married couples to feel like they have a PhD in their partner's psyche, and to some level, they kinda do. They probably know each other better than any other person on Earth – but it’s still not enough, and never will be, to sum up an entire person. And the gaps that are left to fill are up to anybody’s guessing. You can drill down into a relationship to a microscopic level — trying to analyze every comment, every small action, every rumour — but that the more you try to take in, the less you know.

But American feminists would rather feel vindicated about their own ideological obsessions than acknowledge any nuances or moral complexity in any story about gender dynamics, broken marriages, and mental health.

It's amazing to me how they talk about weak married men with such vicious contempt. As if they're morally deficient for failing to live to their "manly duties". As if only married women are allowed to react to mental illness and unresolved issues in petty, unfair, irrational ways.

Perhaps the movie was trying to tell you guys something and you completely missed it.

#honestly most of the reactions to husband character were gross and kinda disturbing #like why are you projecting so hard on this character instead of analysing him through the movie's specific lens? #some of you need to seek therapy for real #anatomy of a fall #movies

[zahri-melitor]

Some more coherent thoughts about Gotham War, now it's settled on me.

(Spoilers below cut, for length and as it's still only Wednesday)

It's not a huge surprise, but Selina's whole 'train henches to steal from the rich non-violently!' ended up being a complete side issue that only existed to get the plot moving. Nobody's conception of this plot, in two years time, will really include this detail, despite the thousands of words spent arguing how ridiculous it was.

Yes it remains a poorly thought out plan on Selina's part (she's never heard of earning money legally) but the narrative also frames it as long term ineffective from the very first issue and knocks it down on multiple occasions.

DC editorial definitely tried to dress this up as a full family event, but realistically it was a Bruce, Selina and Jason event, written by their three current writers, with solid bit parts played by Tim and Dick.

Vandal Savage remains ridiculous and ready to sacrifice anyone and I appreciate that about him. As a villain he was just the right level of stakes for this event.

I enjoyed getting to see Scandal, even if her fans would say she got done dirty here. Scandal usually has enough sense not to believe anything Vandal says, and I admit I was somewhat waiting for some level of twist here as to why Scandal was all for immortality at this point in time, but it never came.

I still agree it felt a lot like three separate plotlines intersecting, but I think they managed to land the event successfully (while leaving some nice loose threads). I actually appreciate they didn't overreach in their goals.

It still finished out with two separate plotlines: Bruce and Selina and Jason; and Dick and Tim and the rest of the family. Structurally this again reminded me as much of Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul as Batman #138 did; the main plot and then the far more interesting Dick & Tim sideplot which is what I go back to reread. (Chip Zdarsky is clearly also a fan)

Also promisingly for an event yes, it did actually shake up the status quo and push the participants off in new directions.

So Bruce is now doing the Loner Batman thing (in that he's locked out of the fam computers/comm lines), Selina is officially 'dead' (what is with all these fake dead people with titles, Penguin is too right now), and Jason has what's effectively permanent fear toxin response to stressful situations. Also, apparently, we are getting Dick and Barbara back 'running' the Batfam while Bruce is on the outs.

As far as Bruce goes, what has been really notable in this event is how much Chip Zdarsky loves early 2000s Bat comics and their dynamics, and particularly Joker's Last Laugh. There's a lot of structural things about how this event was shaped, what specific characters did, and emotional beats that feel very JLL as someone who's read it at least half a dozen times. It's not the only influence, but it's a pretty prominent one.

Bruce ending the event in a position where he's effectively not working with most of the other Bats actually tracks reasonably well over to Batman & Robin, to my surprise. It makes sense that it's just Bruce and Damian and they're focusing on homelife and domestic relationship details between the two. It gives Bruce an excuse for why he's closely focused on Damian there.

I will admit I have not been reading Catwoman, but from the event it seems they're spinning her off to keep moving her back into a more antihero position. Tini Howard clearly has a direction she wants to take Selina.

I actually think this has pretty interesting storytelling potential for Jason. It means that he has to stay calm, or has to overcome his own fear to achieve things. It gives him a goal? Matthew Rosenberg clearly seems interested in using it for his Jason storytelling and he's got Jason right now, so...

I'm personally delighted by how much Tim Zdarsky wrote into this storyline. He used the space more to show off Dick and Tim's brotherhood and what Tim is good at, rather than push the Tim side of the Zur story we're all expecting to occur (there's that waiting Zur-Robin costume). Means he's planning it for Batman as a title itself rather than getting it tangled up here.

"It was the only way to become the second-best Robin". Yes, this is Tim getting to show off his core competencies - he probably is the only Bat other than Bruce who would have extensively studied all the trophies. Dick would remember a lot of them simply because a lot of the trophies are from old adventures, but pretty much all the others are not particularly retrospective, respect the past sort of members of the group, while Tim has always been surrounded by the shadows of the past. I loved this note.

I haven't talked about Babs yet! She's in green, in glasses, sitting down at her computers with a novelty mug, directing everyone, answering to Oracle. That's her! That's my Oracle!

I do think Bruce expecting Dick to take over running the Batfam right now is a big ask, given he's also running the Titans as the main superhero team on the planet and handling Bludhaven, but Tom Taylor's writing both those books so I don't expect to see the stress catching up with Dick there. Benefits of writer choice right now, I guess. Also personally 'Babs and Dick organise everyone while Bruce has a breakdown elsewhere' is one of my favourite Batfam dynamics so you know, I'm pretty excited if we actually get to see this play out.

New Lazarus Pit in Gotham! This won't be a problem at all.

#z canon read throughs #gotham war #gotham war spoilers #tuesday spoilers #newish comics

[twig-tea]

City Boy, BL, and when Queerness is "Allowed"

Alright. @stuffnonsenseandotherthings tagged me in a post about City Boy and asked if I'd seen the show, because I hadn't mentioned it. I chatted with them in the comments for a bit and came around to what I want to say about this show.

For those who haven't heard of it, this is a Korean BL framed as "real"; the four actors play characters with the same names as their real names, their social media accounts treat the events of the vlog episodes as real to their lives (both their personal accounts and the show accounts, as far as I can tell), nothing on the channel says this isn't real, and the show is framed as though it's actually happening and is filmed by the actors themselves as slice-of-life, with some 'found footage'-style additions. The season is over, but the accounts still post shorts with the actors acting as the characters, and they still do lives "in character".

First, I've seen the show, and it's very well done. The acting is good, the chemistry is good, the visuals are good, the kissing is good, the story is good. If they hadn't framed the show this way I would have been shouting about it. If you want to check it out, it's on YouTube for free with subs. Check out stuffnonsenseandotherthing's post linked in the first paragraph for more about the show if you're curious.

But I was uncomfortable with the way this show has been made and marketed, and so I've stayed quiet about it.

Here's the thing. In addition to the very real problem that fans have with separating the actor from the character, chemistry from real feelings, and business gay performances from being freed from the closet, there is also something really insidious about the way people are allowed to be gay in play only, but real gay men are often hated on by fandom. The things "straight" (I put in quotes because a lot of assumptions are made all the time about BL actors) actors are allowed to do that gay men are not is infuriating.

Several months ago two of the men who appeared on His Man S1 decided to create a BL together. These are two gay men who were "shipped" by fans but did not actually date in real life. They filmed a vlog in the style of 'what their 1 year anniversary date would look like' (clearly labelled that way, but the video itself was immersive), and they got so much hate that they took down the video and backed away from making any more, and made a public apology. The criticism was that it was "cruel" to the feelings of one of the men acting in the video--infantalizing, insulting, and just more evidence that fans do not understand the difference between reality and performance.

I should say, the main shipped couple from S2 of His Man who did get together also make vlogs--real ones about their actual lives--and they seem to be thriving, thank goodness. They have more subscribers and around the same number of viewers as Cityboy_Log. But they had the power of being promoted by the show they were on partially behind their success, and they get a lot of suspicious comments about whether they are 'faking their relationship for views'. They are affectionate but not performing any heat the way City Boy does, and while they both seem pretty shy and not like they're dying to make out on camera anyway, I'm certain they have to temper what they do and show on camera in order to maintain their paid partnerships and magazine spreads. Ironically the same actions that are getting the actors of City Boy attention are what would likely get SeongHo and JunSeong "cancelled".

Anyway. All this is to say, CityBoy_Log is well done but I worry about it as a concept, and what it's setting its actors up for (and what its encouraging in fans). One change of not using the actors' real names would have been enough to make me cool with it, but it is what it is. If you're going to watch it, please watch it knowing that it's not real, and knowing that Korean gay men would not be able to make it either as fake or real content without being rejected by the audience.

#city boy log #bl meta #typed so that i can stop thinking it #putting my thoughts on main instead of in the comments of your post stuffnonsenseandotherthings #thanks for knocking out of my head what i've been wanting to say about this show

[void-ink-studios]

Arrival of a Little Star

Alrighty folks, it's part two of the kid fic!

Don't mind me, let me just put Scarab through the emotional wringer of his life. It all ends well, don't worry!

Also, there's art for you! But it's at the end, so you'll have to read for it :)

Enjoy, as always!

Word Count: 2,500

As seemed to be the recent trend in Scarab's life, the next life altering event did not come in the form of a bang, crash, angel choir, or any other appropriately urgent sounds.

No, this one came in the form of a whimper.

It was quiet at first. Quiet enough that Scarab wasn't even certain he was hearing anything.

Another day guarding the burrow had made his brain turn to mush. He was tired. So very tired.

Prismo had managed to coax a few hours of sleep out of him, occasionally. But only when the beetle looked like he was about to fall over, and only after many reassurances that Prismo wouldn't leave the burrow unguarded and would wake him up if anything had happened.

But Scarab was trained for this. He'd been trained to patrol and protect many brood burrows, he was built for this, he could protect one. Never mind the fact that he was one of several guards, who all traded off shifts so the others could rest and socialize. No, he could do this.

His sleep deprived stupor didn't do much other than let his mind play with memories. Memories that mutated into fear, and fear that projected onto his task.

He thought of disgruntled gods, ones who still hated him for his job, barging in and destroying the burrow in a rage.

He thought of the Boss, of them finding out and deciding this was a waste of pantheon resources and erasing everything.

He thought of Orbo, deciding to punish him once again, this time by taking away something far more precious than his wings.

He knew none of these things would happen. Nothing could enter the Time Room if Prismo or himself didn't allow it.

The Boss didn't care enough about affairs like this to get involved, not unless his tiny little brood somehow threatened the architecture of the multiverse.

And Orbo was in no position to try anything for now. Not with him sequestered away in the Archives, at least.

He rationalized as much as he could. But that wasn't enough, not enough to prevent his thoughts from rampaging through his heart.

Scarab had taken to explaining away his tears as left over hormones when Prismo fretted. But he knew from the look on the Wishmaster's face that the lie was a poor one. Those were the moments Prismo was most successful in tempting sleep out of him.

But Prismo wasn't here right now. He was up in the main chamber of the Time Room, monitoring the TV Wall and waiting for potential wish makers. And Scarab was alone, fighting his own lead heavy body to stay alert.

It was in this half asleep, anxious stage, only a few months into the brood period, did the whimper begin.

At first, Scarab didn't hear. It was so quiet, it blended into the background strange humming that was ever present throughout the Time Room. So quiet that it was unclear if a noise was made at all.

But it didn't stay that quiet for long.

There were a few moments of silence. Then the whimpering returned. Louder this time. Loud enough for Scarab to notice.

His antenna perked up, and he blinked the tiredness away from his eyes. He hummed, letting his mind follow the sound.

Yes, whimpering, that was the noise.

Hmm...

Wait, what?!

His entire body shot up as the realization hit his frame. He pressed his ear to the wall of the brood burrow, listening carefully.

There it was again, soft little whimpering, and the distinct sound of tiny claws scratching at the wall.

Scarab's body felt freezing cold as he listened.

No...

No no no, this wasn't right...

This was far too soon for them to be trying to leave... They still had several months to go, potentially even a year left! And that's not even counting their pupa phase.

They weren't ready, they're too little, there's no way they weren't, there's no way they've pupated already, much less be ready to emerge.

He remembered, back in the Mounds, a few of the grubs under his watch emerged early. It happened every once in a while, one of the many reasons only a few eggs from every clutch made it to nymph hood.

It could be because of a number of reasons. Parasites attacking the grub, environmental stressors, or just plain bad luck.

The ones that emerged early never made it very long afterwards. They were far, far too tiny. Sickly. They were often missing limbs, or their lungs were too weak, or their shells were too soft. They never stood a chance.

And now Scarab was listening to a tiny hand try and dig their way out far, far too soon. His one and only grub.

His body shook, trying to hold back tears. He needed Prismo. But he didn't want Prismo seeing this. His heart was already breaking, he didn't need to see the Wishmaster's expression when their little one took their final breath.

The longer he waited, the louder the whimpering became. It sounded like crying, with awfully familiar sounding distressed chirps.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to leave them like this, but dear Glob he was scared of opening this burrow. He couldn't move. Couldn't speak.

So he decided to chirp back.

He made soft, soothing noises, loud enough to hopefully be heard through the wall. He called to them, gently tapping his own talons against the wall.

The whimpering hiccupped but called back. They chirped, so clearly distressed, little claws trying to make progress on the wall.

Scarab had thought ahead in that regard. He had made the wall here weaker than the rest of the Time Room. Soft enough for new talons to dig their way out. Not exactly like the burrows back home, but similar enough to achieve the same effect.

"Come on, love... you... you need to dig your way out."

He didn't know why he started speaking. Maybe it was the only thing he could manage. Maybe because he remembered when he first emerged, how scared he was being surrounded by the darkness.

At least not let their few moments be full of fear and uncertainty.

He continued to chirp, thanking Glob that it at least made the crying settle, even for a moment. The tiny chirps continued, the scratching become more and more certain.

"Th-That's it, love... You can do it."

"What's happening?"

Scarab's breath hitched, taking every ounce of will power to not burst into tears at the Wishmaster's voice.

"P-Prismo... L-Listen."

The Wishmaster raised an eyebrow, but focused. Scarab halted his own chirping for a moment, but the moment was long enough. Long enough for the whimpering to return, and the distress call to vibrate painfully into his heart.

Prismo's eyes widened, immediately joining Scarab's side.

"Wh-Why didn't you come get me?! C'mon, we need to get them out of there!"

Scarab resumed his reassuring chirps, keeping his head pressed against the wall, but still holding back the pink dream.

"Prismo. S-Stop. Just... Listen."

Prismo startled by how upset Scarab's voice sounded. He took in the Auditor's face. A face of deep fear and... despair.

His stomach fell out from under him, that was clear on his face.

"...Lovebug...?"

Scarab shook his head, just continuing to chirp and encourage the little one to keep going. The noises were getting louder, clearer. It was obvious, the wall was getting thinner. He let his eyes meet Prismo's.

"I-It's part of our development... W-We have to dig our way out..." His eyes turned back to the wall. "N-Nearly there, love, keep going... I'm here, we're both here..."

Prismo looked like he wanted to help. He wanted to help them, help Scarab, do anything other than sit there and look at the beetle's heartbroken expression.

"Scarab... why are you so upset...? This is a happy time, yeah?"

Scarab squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "I-It's too early, Prismo... Th-They're not supposed to be e-emerging right now... They're too l-l-little... Th-They won't make it... I-I-I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Prismo had a sobering expression. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, stopping himself from shedding tears, and listened. He listened carefully to the tiny chirps responding to Scarab's trills, to the razor edge his partner's voice was on, to the small cracking from the Time Room wall.

"Lovebug..."

"I'm sorry, Prismo... I'm sorry..."

"Lovebug, listen to me."

Scarab held his breath, but nodded.

"Scarab, whatever happens... I love you. You know that, right?"

He nodded again.

"Good. Whatever happens, I'll be right here."

Scarab's antenna started picking up on smells, new smells, yet so achingly familiar. He opened his eyes, looking down as small pieces of the wall fell to the ground.

"You're s-so close, little one... Come on, love, finally push..."

"You can do it, sweetie. I know you can."

Scarab let out a shaky breath at Prismo's added encouragement. It made the ache warm, just a little bit, knowing the little one wouldn't be alone or afraid in their few moments here.

The beetle squeezed his eyes shut as he heard a crack, then pieces of the wall falling away. The chirps were so loud now, they must've broken through.

He heard Prismo gasp a little, more pieces falling away. Scarab pushed through the last chirps he could manage before he collapsed. He couldn't look. He couldn't bring himself to face what was shaping to be the worst moment of his life.

"Oh my glob" he heard Prismo whisper. The tiny chirps echoed all around his head, squeezing every ounce of breath out of his body. His antenna trembled, picking up the new smell in the air.

It was so much like Prismo, but also so much like himself. It was sweet, something akin to spiced honey, something so familiar, something that should've been comforting.

But it wasn't... It just made everything hurt, hurt in a way Scarab didn't know he could feel hurt.

He heard Prismo either conjure or dissipate something, and the tiny chirping petered out. He flinched at the sound. So it was over then...

"Scarab...?"

He shook his head.

"Scarab? Open your eyes."

"...Is it over...?"

"N-No, Lovebug. Look."

He sighed. Nothing to do but face fate.

Scarab willed his eyes open, fist looking at the new hole in the wall. It was small, so so small... Too small...

He turned slowly, to look at Prismo. There were tears there, and for a moment, Scarab's heart shattered. But... wait, he was smiling. These were... happy tears...?

And then his eyes caught the little bundle of blankets in the Wishmaster's arms.

"Come here... Come look."

Scarab took a few steps closer, talons hesitantly pulled the blanket to peer at their little one.

"They must be tired after all that... They fell asleep as soon as I wrapped them in this."

Asleep?

They were so little, smaller than any nymph he had ever seen. They looked comfortable in Prismo's arms, and, blessedly, asleep. He could see their chest rise and fall, steady.

Scarab's breath caught as he got a look at them.

The first thing he noticed was their color. Their shell was such a lovely rosy, red, a perfect mix of their colors. It dipped into almost a purple at the ends of their limbs, which appeared to almost float apart, similar to Prismo's legs. They also had the same star core as Prismo, floating gently in their chest, pulsing with cosmic magic. Their feet sparkled with little hints of stars.

Their hands were so little, tipped with yellow claws. They indeed seemed to have a second set of arms, but much smaller than the primary set. Still articulate, but much too small to be used the same way as their upper hands.

Their face was pink, more like the Wishmaster's shade than his own. The head, which seemed almost too big for them, was cradled in a collar of fluff, a deeper shade of red speckled with patches of yellow. They had only one set of mandibles, as opposed to Scarab's two, and tiny. Their eyes were closed but clearly huge. Their antenna waves in the air like grass caught in a breeze, feathery and light.

They were perfect.

Scarab didn't know what to do at first. His antenna twitched, his breath unsure of where to go.

"Th-Th-They're... They're alright...?"

Prismo sniffled, but nodded. "They're alright... They're actually a bit big for a baby this young..."

"B-B-But... But they're so small... Nymphs aren't supposed to be that small..."

"Well... Maybe that's why they came out so early... Maybe they spend a bit longer as a nymph than what you might expect. They are partially me, after all."

Scarab took a moment to process those words.

A baby.

His baby.

Tears spilled from his eyes as he shook with relief. He felt his legs give out from under him, barely catching himself on the wall to slide down to the floor. Prismo joined him there in a heartbeat, kissing and nuzzling the side of the beetle's head.

"You want to hold them...? I know how much you need to touch."

Scarab wordlessly nodded, feeling the weight of his little one settle into his arms.

The reaction was almost immediate. He silently sobbed, leaning his head down to nuzzle affectionately. His mandibles chirped softly, gently tracing the edges of their soft little face. His antenna reached to brush up against theirs, taking in their scent and letting them smell his.

The little one slowly opened their eyes, chirping curiously. Blue, they were huge and blue, just like Prismo's. He smiled, sobbing through a laugh as tiny hands reached and patted his face.

He chirped right back, letting the sound wash over them.

They immediately cuddled closer, their chirps becoming louder, more confident.

"I think they recognize you, Lovebug."

Scarab nodded, unable to stop crying. "H-Hello, little one... Oh, my little s-s-star... You're so beautiful... You're perfect, so, so perfect. You d-d-did so well."

He couldn't stop chirping, heaping praise upon his little one. Not as long as they kept responding with tiny little squeaks and trills of their own, even giggling as he nuzzled into their neck and cheek.

"They're here, Lovebug. They're here."

Scarab nodded. He let the Wishmaster pull him into an embrace, just like he did all those weeks ago.

"Can you get some rest for me...?"

Scarab shook his head. Not now. Not when he was still greeting his child.

"Hmmm... Well, if you won't sleep, at least help me name them."

Name them...?

Yes, they can't name themselves, can they? No, they're far too little for that. He looked into their little face, into their big blue eyes.

"...Luna."

"Luna?"

Scarab nodded. "Luna. I know it in my shell. This is Luna."

Prismo gave a wobbly smile, curling around his little family.

"Luna it is. And they're safe, Lovebug. They're safe."

Scarab nodded, having finally stopped crying. Prismo gave the both of them a sweet peck on the cheek.

Safe...

They were safe.

His little star was finally safe.

#prohibitedwish #scarab x prismo #scarab the god auditor #prismo the wishmaster #prohibitedwish fanfic #prohibitedwish fankid #kid fic #fan child #my art #digital art #wrath of the wishmaster

[dervampireprince]

ASMR | Elisabeth das Musical - Der Tod x Listener SFW Death Becomes Entranced And Seduces A Lonely Prince

[M4M/GF4M] [Prince! Listener] [Seduction] [Manipulation] [Kissing - no character death, lore here is Death's kisses can kill if it's 'your time' but if it's not they don't but they're still cold and cause temporary frostbite-like symptoms] [TW implies the listener is depressed and has been experiencing suicidal ideation, Death at points advises the listener to kiss him which would kill them, please skip this audio if you think these issues could affect or trigger you and if you are affected by these issues please seek help and contact hotlines in your country. This audio is fictional, Death's attempts to be a voice of suicidal ideation should not be taken seriously nor applied to real life.] 

I've been wanting to make this audio for so long. While I've left it ambiguous enough to be enjoyed as an original audio, this character is actually from my favourite musical 'Elisabeth das Musical'. It's a German-language dark queer historical romance where Death (Der Tod) is drawn to those who think about him, in particular it follows the life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, and her son Rudolf. The musical does deal with serious mental health topics and some historical events from that time including the rise of fascism so please know that going in, but if you think you can handle such topics then I couldn't recommend the musical enough. 

The original 1992 Vienna production is on Youtube with English subtitles, that is my favourite production and means a lot to me as Uwe Kroger as Death is just... perfection to me, very much gender envy and has been a big influence on me and helped me with accepting myself and my gender expression, and his characterisation of Death as this genderfluid, pansexual otherworldly being is just beautiful. And if you enjoy then I'd also recommend the 2005 Vienna production which is also on Youtube with English subtitles mostly for the few extra added song and Serkan Kaya's performance as Lucheni.

For those of you in my Patreon Discord server, I streamed this musical last Sunday in there for you guys and it finally felt like the perfect time to bring this audio to life. And if Kronprinz is still around, I know you were requesting a Der Tod audio for a long time and I hope you're happy with this one. The listener in this audio series takes the place of Rudolf, but you don't need to know anything about the musical to understand these audios. I chose to present them more like my original royalty series audios as Elisabeth das Musical is not very well known outside of mainland Europe and Japan, so I hoped by framing it this way with a photograph of myself cosplaying Death from a couple years ago would entice more people who aren't familiar with the musical. 

I love this musical so much, European musicals in general are my biggest interest and if you go searching for them it wont be long until you find my sfw account @emptymasks posting too much about them. If you're interested in learning more I have some masterlists and info posts pinned on my emptymasks Tumblr, but also as part of my subathon rewards I am doing a stream on my Twitch explaining about infodumping about European musicals and I've been working on some video essays for years that I hope to get finished this year that will be up on my emptymasks Youtube channel. I also run @europeanmusicals . If any mutuals or followers from my main or side blogs finds this... well hello there, I find myself nervous to drop this in the euro musical tags, as if people are going to find this format of fanwork weird but well... I had fun, I hope you guys are nice about this (nice doesn't mean you have to like it, but please don't be mean about it if you just don't enjoy asmr or audio content).

Something something if I had a nickel for every time Prince voiced a personification of Death from different fandoms I'd have three nickels.

.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

#elisabeth das musical #todolf #der tod #european musicals #der tod x rudolf #death x rudolf #der tod x reader #der tod x listener #the vampire whispers #royalty kink #Youtube

[thegeminisage]

star trek: the motion picture rewrite

star trek the motion picture was bad so i'm fixing it. here's how

problem #1: everybody got interesting setups and nobody got any payoffs.

problem #2: ilia and decker were just not that interesting (sorry ilia and decker) and they either needed to be more interesting or have less screen time or both.

problem #3: it took more than half the film for the enterprise to even leave earth. this seems like poor pacing, which the overall film also suffers from.

problem #4: those damn 20-minute cgi scenery sequences. enough is enough.

sorry in advance but this post won't make much sense if you haven't seen the first star trek movie, "star trek: the motion picture." i don't have the time or patience to re-explain the entire plot! the novelization also ties into this but i do explain some of that.

MAIN PLOT

it wasn't a GREAT plot but i'm keeping it mostly the same, except a few changes:

the enterprise leaves much earlier in the film. all the interpersonal drama can happen ON THE WAY to v'ger and it would make very little difference to the main script and series of events, but the reminds that they're only x hours away from interception would help keep things tense and moving along. also, it would get spock in here earlier. we went a LONG time without seeing him.

the engines can still fail at the outset and get fixed by spock, but it's kind of weird that he shows up out of nowhere. i would change this to kirk leaving him messages - and spock finally answering at the exact right moment (more on this in spock's section)

less of those long cgi sequences, obviously. the enterprise deserves all the fanfare in the world but we do have other stuff to do. maybe we can learn a little about v'ger through the ilia-probe in bits and pieces before we get there rather than learning all at once at the end - the book sort of did that and it was better. but i think we just need to cut them to allow time for a LITTLE more interpersonal drama - the balance of interpersonal stuff to plot stuff was WAY off, even after you consider how the tos episodes are somtimes

i don't think decker should fuck the probe.

the book and movie seem to disagree on whether the ilia-probe really "is" ilia or a very convincing copy. i think we would do better to leave it open, as scifi so often is, because both answers feel slightly wrong to me

kirk just taking the ship at the end and going "ok thattaway" was heartwarming but lacks any semblance of logic. rather than beaming down to debrief, though - in case they don't let him go back up - i'd like to see him doing a power move where the required personnel for his debrief come to HIM. and THEN when the dust clears he can go "thattaway"

CHARACTER ARC: KIRK

there's a lot more on this in the book than the movie, but kirk begins this story three years post his five year journey. in the movie he's framed as "washed up" but the book sometimes implies he's "damaged." starfleet offered him the promotion to admiral to keep him out of space because his was the first ship to come back relatively intact after a five-year and they're using him as a poster boy for their pro-space propaganda. (kirk wholly disagrees with "intact"; he lost a total of 94 crew members over those five years and objects strongly to his new legendary fame.) it's worth noting that bones begged him NOT to take the promotion and he and some other officers actually RESIGNED over it.

also, for the first year back on earth, starfleet totally just SENT HIM A WOMAN? to like keep him distracted and "happy." he got honeypotted into not going back out into space. how many planets have tried to trap people by making them happy? how many times has kirk refused to stay in such a place because it leaves him nothing to strive for? and then, irony of horrific ironies, he was trapped on earth. he doesn't realize this woman was basically sent to pacify him until the very beginning of the film/book. anyway, this woman's name is lori, she's gonna matter just a little bit later. after she left, kirk got pushed into a desk job he was utterly fucking miserable in. he notes that it was the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he suffered greatly for it.

when the "intruder" (v'ger, obvs) is revealed to be approaching earth (via brain implants? stupid, let's just switch to everyone seeing it on TV), kirk, for totally normal reasons, jumps at the chance to take the enterprise away from decker ostensibly because he's got more experience but also because (the book gets into this) he feels like he's been jerked around on a string for the last three years by the admirals (specifically he names nogura to give us a face but they were all in on it) and also that he's totally dead inside. he has to guilt trip bordering on BLACKMAIL nogura into letting him back aboard (ie bringing up the fact that he placated kirk with a woman and sweet promises instead of like...actually caring about his PTSD). we're keeping that part because it's sexy and fun.

the question the movie seems to be asking is, "is jim kirk too old and feeble to captain the enterprise again?" i would like to posit instead we go with "is jim kirk too DAMAGED to captain the enterprise again?" they really put him through the wringer in season 3 in particular and that total nervous breakdown from the romulan espionage episode was supposed to have been REAL before they changed it, so i'm sticking it in that three year timeskip instead. in the book, jim fucks up several times - can't figure out his seatbelt, gets lost, and notably fails to be able to save his former honeypot lori and his new vulcan first officer (off-brand spock) during a transport malfunction - they get rearranged horrifically and then die right in front of him. rather than frame this as jim being old and out of practice i'd like to frame it around the totally untreated PTSD of space and his five-year finally catching up to him.

the book ALSO gets into how jim feels more at home in space, how being away from it gives him physical symptoms almost like withdrawal, and how he felt he has been brought back from the dead and out of a miserable, meaningless life when stepping aboard for the first time. IMPORTANT FOR LATER.

at the same time though i think we might greatly benefit from mixed feelings - perhaps JIM HIMSELF has wondered if he was too damaged to get back out there - if, after everything, part of him wasn't a little hesitant to go back out into the unknown and risk putting himself through the kind of hell he got put through in some of those later tos episodes. maybe he wanted the captaincy to prove it to himself, yes, but also it was something he was determined to do (even though part of him was a little worried about doing it) because he thought he was the only one that COULD. there's a hidden element in this film of facing one's fears to benefit emotionally, so it would be important to squeeze something like this in, even if it's only in hints or light implications.

the ultimate answer to jim's question of course is that he ISN'T too damaged to be back out in space, especially not if spock and bones and the others are out there with him. but to get into that we have to move to...

CHARACTER ARC: DECKER AND ILIA

i'm putting these 2 together because (sorry) i don't care very much. side characters in trek are always supposed to just highlight the main characters anyway, right? again, i'm so sorry. anyway so. in the movie and especially the book, ilia is pretty constantly sexualized - deltan females and their pheromones or whatever - and she has very little personality. decker is mostly just mad (justifiably) that kirk stole his job after 18 months of prep and sad that ilia got zapped, but we feel neither of these things very strongly. the movie doesn't even MENTION decker's father killing himself in space* which is a huge waste of potential when you consider the name of the game re: kirk's arc, at least in the book, is PTSD.

*matt decker, will decker's father, is the captain from doomsday machine (consider this a spoiler warning): when a giant machine showed up and engaged in battle with his ship, the constellation, he evacuated his crew to a nearby planet and stayed behind, planning to go down with the ship. unfortunately the machine was a planet-eater, and ate the planet his crew was on, so his crew all died while he listened to them beg him for help, and he later tried to suicide bomb the machine with the enterprise and then later one of its shuttles, which tragically ended in his mostly-pointless death. kirk did at least use the idea to suicide bomb the machine with the damaged constellation and have himself beamed out just in time though, and he had the record made that matt decker died in the line of duty, omitting some of his shadier actions so as not to stain his memory or whatever.

ANYWAY, i think the only way to make decker and ilia interesting is to foil them with kirk and spock. decker is who kirk was before his five-year: smart, capable, ready to take on anything and chomping at the bit to get out there and bite off as much as he can chew and then some. also, he's emotionally distant from women because of his status as captain/his need to not be tied down so he can explore space.

ILIA on the other hand is more like spock - she has limited telepathic abilities, she is othered and sometimes sexualized by the people around her because of her VULCAN BIOLOGY sorry because of her race, and she has a passion for learning and pursuits of intellect. and also a semi-formal telepathic link with decker - they had met before, and were preparing to bond (the way a vulcan might), and then decker more or less got cold feet and left her at the altar because his own passion for being in space left him unable to commit. but she WENT AFTER HIM (important for later) and wound up as the enterprise navigator.

for decker, instead of showing kirk up once near the beginning, apologizing, and gradually learning to get along with him, i think i'd like him to be showing kirk up a lot - being subtly snide when kirk can't work his seatbelt, for example. this film has no real antagonist aside from an incomprehensible alien entity, but we could bring a little humanity to it by having decker justifiably resent not only being confronted with ilia again but also having his captaincy snatched away from him after EIGHTEEN. MONTHS. of prep. that's some serious bullshit.

but, while decker IS younger and more familiar with the enterprise's redesign, while he's had more recent space hours and suffers from none of kirk's PTSD, what he lacks is experience - this was the whole basis of kirk taking the fucking ship to begin with, and the movie as it is kind of totally invalidates that plot point. to that end, near the end of the film when they're in v'ger, i would make a bigger deal out of kirk knowing better than to perform the scan - because that's what got the klingons killed (when v'ger interpreted their scan as hostile). decker, shaken, realizes his own hasty decision would have resulted in all of them dying horrifically, and rather than kirk grudgingly respecting decker first, we get it the other way around - decker grudgingly respecting kirk, and kirk returning that respect after decker stops being an asshole. this does the job of helping the AUDIENCE respect kirk after spending so much time wondering if he was indeed too washed up and damaged to do the job, and it helps to begin to warm us up to decker too.

also, it would be fun to have decker overhear bones arguing with kirk or spock or even talking to chapel or something, to know that kirk was thought too washed up EVEN BY THE ADMIRALS (who decker does respect bc he doesn't know better yet), and then for decker to realize later kirk got jerked around - and maybe realize, once he begins to see kirk as a person instead of an obstacle, that something like that might be in his own future even if he succeeds in almost every possible way, as kirk had. we might even use this to get into decker's dad basically killing himself after losing his crew - it can go other ways than right for captains. it can also go so, so, so wrong. (this would require some exposition, though, since we can't expect everyone to have both seen the episode and remember the details.)

another moment that wasn't used to its full potential is when decker basically has to honeypot the ilia probe - this is extremely difficult on him emotionally, and kirk knows all about the perils of emotionally difficult honeypot missions (sorry that i'm linking to this twice). i think decker realizing kirk has done this same kind of thing like a zillion times and that's part of what led to his breakdown gives him respect not just for KIRK but for the position of captain itself - he would have no choice but to do this to protect 500 lives, if it were him. you don't get to tap out when you're captain. and this is good for kirk too, because in sympathizing with decker (and the horrific situation of having to honeypot the image of his dead lover) he can learn to sympathize with himself, and forgive himself for being at less than his best during his own worst moments - some of them during the five-year, some of them after, when he felt weak and without purpose. it also gives him the job of connecting the audience to decker - through him, through thinking of decker as a younger version of him, we can forgive decker for being an asshole earlier and sympathize with his pain. and he becomes someone we root for.

as for ilia - i think she should have gotten to yell at decker rather than passively act like he wasn't even there and hide her pain. her pain at being left behind and betrayed and having to find her own way could mirror spock's (more on this in a sec) but it could also mirror v'ger and its abandonment issues, even though she was abandoned by a boyfriend and not god. there's only so much you can do with truly misogynistic writing but she could've been likable!! her sitch and spock's are the same and she gets to complain while he refuses! even one iota of a personality would have helped so much.

ALSO, on that point, at least one conversation between her and spock would have done a lot to make her more interesting too, because then she would be adjacent to him. spock, too, left his home planet to chase after a space captain he was in um a relationship with, and that bit of kinship ("your answers are not here") could lead to a bonding moment - i think spock would respect what she's doing and that would lend her a lot of credit in the eyes of the audience. much like v'ger, much like spock, ilia has left her home to find out who she is, and part of that answer lies within emotion, within the people she loves: in this case, decker. i would also, if we HAVE to fridge her (DO WE?? more on this in the ending section), choose to have her take a blow meant for decker - her last act being one of love, because the film IS ultimately about love's importance, even in spite of all the pain it also causes (see: decker in his grief).

which leads us to...

CHARACTER ARC: BONES

we have to have a brief interlude here for bones. unfortunately, bones in this movie is little more than an extremely loveable afterthought. while fixing his ENTIRE deal is out of the scope of this tumblr post, what i WOULD do is give him more screentime by having both his AND spock's lives upended by the same event: kirk, the Main Character(tm), choosing to take the admiral stripes and "abandon" them.

i think theres enough evidence in tos to argue the case that bones places a lot of importance on jim and spock's lives - he claims to hate space, but he never resigns, and he finds meaning in taking care of them, even if (to my own interpretation), he can sometimes feel like a third wheel to their legendary "friendship" (so legendary that it's historically important both in-universe and in real life). when kirk agrees to "retire" and let starfleet make him their poster boy because he has PTSD and burnout, bones CANONICALLY objects to what starfleet is trying to do to him so strongly that he literally resigns. again, kirk notes in the book that "retiring" is the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he came regret it deeply. so kirk needs bones back - in the book, he says outright he needs bones back because he, gaslit, cannot trust himself to be making solid calls emotionally, and he wants bones to call him out if he steps out of line.

for fun, i think bones should be a little more pissed about being "drafted" and like genuinely grumpy rather than fond and gruff - at least, until kirk apologizes. he tells bones all about being yanked around by the admirals and being honeypotted and how much he regretted not listening to his advice...and the gaslighting, not bones's medical expertise, is why kirk feels he needs bones now - why all of earth needs him, because this is a mission to save the entire planet. i think bones LOVES to be needed and especially by jim and/or spock, and he of course has a natural desire to caretake, so after the apology he could soften up to "gruff." he found meaning in what he was doing on earth, but he finds meaning in this too, and kirk telling him that of COURSE he can leave if he wants solidifies his decision to stay, even at the end of the film when the immediate threat has passed. put simply: he loves kirk and spock, and, like them, he wants the three of them to stay together, even though they previously broke his heart.

i think also that once spock comes aboard this gives bones a second job, which is to poke holes in spock's outward unemotional demeanor, which he genuinely is doing from a place of love (since it was bones who said the release of emotions is healthy). instead of standing around and being a lovable and nostalgic set piece, this would give him an actual purpose and an arc, even if his arc (healing spock via negging, healing jim via not gaslighting people) is holding up the other characters.

and speaking of spock...

CHARACTER ARC: SPOCK

post five-year, spock goes back to vulcan to undergo the kolinahr, a ritual meant to purge all remaining emotion from vulcans. he does this because he detests his human half and the many weaknesses and challenges it brings him etc etc but i also would like it if he does this because kirk retires - he has no logical, ready-made excuse to be around kirk and bones anymore, and just like kirk, he truly felt at home on the enterprise, where people valued him for his skill and what he could do rather than what he was (or wasn't). (this sentiment from spock is semi-canonical - it's in william shatner's tarsus iv novel, collision course.) kirk and bones are both an important part of his support system and it is crumbling without any way to save it - of COURSE he chooses not to feel emotion rather than face that pain. every human being ever has wished at some point or another they could numb themselves rather than hurt, and spock is half human, too. (that said, i would also not complain if kohlinahr was spock's way to escape the trauma of what the five-year did to HIM, making him feel emotions differently than what he believed was acceptable, changing him fundamentally as a person, and kirk only agreed to resign because space wasn't worth it without spock aka because he got dumped, but this is a minor detail.)

while on vulcan, kirk, equally adrift, sends him messages (this does admittedly make more sense if kirk only resigned because spock did) - but spock is potentially kind of mad at him (if kirk resigned first) and also trying not to feel anything, so he ignores those and goes out into the desert to get rid of all his gross icky feelings. when the masters read his mind and see that jim accidentally contacted him telepathically (which...girl WHAT was that all about did they bond fr during amok time) and that "his answer is not here," he reads or listens to all the messages at once (maybe including the deleted one spock prime had from aos...ouch), gets emotional (or resists, but it's a near thing), and realizes that if he can't purge kirk from his mind he has to at least find out why. the last message can be about the intruder (v'ger) and their fucked up engines, spock can feel reluctant concern and race to the rescue.

spock is initially very very cold to his old shipmates because he is trying to hold onto his logic and not allow the emotion back in his mind, but absolutely nobody is having this. like in the movie, kirk and bones drag him away to the lounge to interrogate him (he should admit to feeling kirk telepathically here just as he did in the book - i don't know that i'd go into the whole bond business in this movie because that's just writing fanfiction and is also a lot of exposition but i would never deny fanfic writers their fodder).

later, after talking with ilia, who did a brave thing (in spock's eyes, anyway, because he is terrified of what HE'S doing) by chasing down her man to give him an earful, spock is troubled, which prompts bones to start going IS THAT AN EMOTION I SEE MR SPOCK? (and make him more troubled). i think spock grieves ilia's death in his own way because of how much like him she is, or was. all of this culminates in his choice to attempt to mind-meld with v'ger, in the end - if he isn't a human and isn't a vulcan, WHAT is he? if he can't live with the emotion and he can't purge it, what is he supposed to do? if he dies in the mindmeld so be it, but at least he will have been useful - iirc, i think it was roddenberry or leonard nimoy who said that was always a primary motivation of his.

of course, AFTER the mindmeld, he does indeed realize that logic is pointless without emotion, and that he's been adrift not BECAUSE of his emotions but because of his refusal to deal with them and his refusal to feel. so spock, too, will decide to stay at the end of the film.

side bar on the scene where spock cries for v'ger: it's kind of dumb because v'ger is so unknowable. i think spock crying could be a bigger deal - maybe with happiness, as he holds jim's hand, or maybe when he thinks they're all gonna die (kirk says when he sees spock crying "it's not for us" but like what if it was though). i'd prefer him to cry after he finishes laughing post mindmeld of course but either instance could work.

and finally...

THE ENDING

i don't mind the ending in its plot - that v'ger really was just looking for its creator, as a child looks for its parent - but i really want the question of whether or not the probe IS ILIA to remain open. if you make an exact copy of a person that truly believes it is the original, is it? if it's indistinguishable from who ilia used to be even to itself, is it ilia? i like leaving this open because i DON'T like fridging her, but i also think it stretches believability to have this machine magically extract a consciousness and put it in a robot when we had a whole episode of s1 revolve around this exact same plot twist (is chapel's now-android fiance really still her fiance just because he thinks he is?)

it should be spock's idea to have a human join with v'ger - it was the joining with humans that ultimately led to HIS feeling emotions he was unable to ignore, which ultimately led to his understanding and acceptance of emotion and its value in general. spock would see the ilia probe as still being ilia, but in distress, as he was when he came aboard the enterprise, as v'ger is now. and he knows what fixed him (holding jim's hand lol sorry i mean accepting his emotions) and what would fix her.

and then of course decker does join with her - volunteers, insists even. i think he takes the chance on optimism and hope - something kirk lost along the way due to various traumas - but also because this film is about the importance of love, and he can't bear to live without his, even in facsimile. it's partially a sacrifice too though - decker's life and body as he knows it in exchange for the earth's safety - because that's what kirk would have done, what he HAS done. he did learn from kirk after all.

and kirk learns from him too - decker, who by now will know about the awful years the brass put kirk through prior to the start of the film, would tell kirk to give 'em hell, like it's something that can actually be done, because at his heart he's an optimist, and that's something kirk sorely needs emotionally at this low point in his life. a very gen-z-saving0the-millennials moment. (apologies to both gen z and millennials.)

so after the dust has settled, kirk, who has just saved earth, can basically ask for anything he wants, and what he wants is not to get sent out to pasture again. so that leads into him refusing to leave the ship and letting the admirals and everyone else who wants to debrief him come to HIM instead of him going down - he finally has back what he needed, which was simply control and agency over his own life, and his loved ones - since spock and bones decided to stay aboard. i would have liked some challenging action moment prior to the ending with the ilia-probe and decker included, a moment to highlight that kirk has still got it (kind of like his badass moment in the deadly years where he saves the ship in .2 seconds once they cure his dementia). but insisting that they see v'ger directly and not deal with its probe is okay too.

FINALLY, after we've established that kirk is In Control again and not just like, stealing a starship, we can do his scene where he begins a new five-year mission, and when directing sulu, says, "out there - thattaway."

THEMES

HOPEFULLY this ties together the various themes and foils in everybody's arc - the main ones being the importance of dealing with emotions, even painful ones, the importance of love, and the question "who am i?" - the theme of seeking answers

kirk wants to know who he is - is he still a starship captain who braved the unknown and returned alive? he tried to numb himself (or rather starfleet tried to numb him) after his five-year mission with a woman and a desk job and it didn't help - he had to risk getting back out there to do himself any good at all.

spock asks if he is a vulcan or a human, and seeks to answer the question by purging emotion, but must answer it by accepting the emotion instead - and he learns this from v'ger, who is asking the same question and cannot answer it without emotion anymore than spock could. spock is and always will be both vulcan AND human and no amount of resistance on his part can change that.

bones feels adrift without loved ones to take care of - who is HE if kirk won't even listen to his advice not to "retire" - and of course he is someone who takes care of others. which is a little sad because it's not a deeper arc, but it sort of rhymes with his whole deal in tos and there ARE five other movies. there's also a little bit in there about being willing to try again after your heart's been broken, which is also something kirk and spock are struggling with, to have the trio's arc rhyming with each other.

decker asking who he is - is he a real captain or a psycho case like his dad and kirk, is he someone who could have been ilia's husband - and ilia wondering if she is someone who could have been his wife, and later the PROBE wondering if it's truly ilia or not. MORE questions that have to be answered by overcoming fear of emotional pain - decker takes the chance and joins with her to answer both his own question, and the probe's - and, of course, v'ger's.

THIS CONCLUDES. my movie rewrite. i am so glad to have gotten it off my chest, which is the main reason i wrote it, but i don't think it's terribly popular...so if you actually read this whole thing you're a rock star. okay BYE!!!

#liz makes stuff #liz's star trek stuff #liz's meta #star trek #star trek the motion picture #star trek: the motion picture #star trek tmp #personal #star trek blogging #WHEW. that too so long. barely finished in time. wrath of khan SOON!!! #tmp lb #tmp #st ep edits

[animehouse-moe]

Skip and Loafer Episode 6: Drizzling and Flickering

Well, six episodes in and we've finally got our first proper conflict in the story. I'm not at all disappointed or anything that we're this far in and getting it, rather I feel like it's a really great spot to place it. Talks of love and relationships, becoming aware of the social aspect of high school, the stress of exams looming on the horizon. It's a really great point to break things down and take a look at how things need to change.

And change they do. We start with Fumi gushing about having a crush at school, which completely catches Mitsumi off guard. It's a really simple thing, but having these characters at different stages in their social and romantic lives at high school is really great, and goes to show that different people progress at different paces. Both sides of the conversation are really cute though, and are a nice and fluffy way to get into the episode.

Moving forward, the comedy of the episode wastes no time rearing its head, and continues to land rather well. Whether it's visual effects to add to a character's demeanor, or an entirely delusional dream skit, it gets done what it sets out to do: get a laugh out of viewers.

Coming back to reality though, I really love how much the rest of the school is forcing Mitsumi to become aware of Shima Kun. She prefers him as the guy that reminds her of her family's dog, not the popular child movie actor that one in three girls has confessed to. It's really great seeing how they use pieces like this play into Mitsumi's comparative lack of social awareness. They're slowly but surely whittling away at that innocence and lack of understanding, and shaping her into a Tokyo high school student. Of course, more to come on that later.

And now we arrive at the main event: Shima and Mitsumi's spat. By all means, it's a very trivial little argument between the pair, but it really feels as dramatic and tense as a high schooler would think it is. There's a really great balance to that end, in that the argument is just the right amount of dramatic without stretching itself too thin. There's not a huge amount of yelling or animosity towards one another or anything either. It's just, both Shima and Mitsumi have been tense lately, and struggling in their own ways. Mitsumi had the catalyst of people spreading rumors about Shima that put her on edge, and Shima was still harboring feelings about that first time he met Mitsumi. Together it creates a pot that finally boils over, and it's a really well done piece.

Also, my goodness, the layouts for this scene were absolutely stellar. The lighting was gloom and gray, the angles always made sure to make use of height, and the layouts are constantly aware of space and use that to depict how close Mitsumi and Shima are, and how distant/separate they become during the conversation. The closeups/single character focuses are only used to separate the pairs when they end up on opposite ends of the conversation. When Mitsumi's talking about how important school and exams and stuff are, she's standing up while Shima sits down, or we're seeing a close up of her face. Similarly, when Shima bites back at Mitsumi, or when he's soaking up/disagreeing with what she says, we'll get only him in frame.

Even things like the blocking of the characters, it fits perfectly. Mitsumi is the one that's always turning to face Shima, while he stays neutral and faces forward. Such a simple piece that speaks to their approach to people, as Mitsumi always engages and is directly interested in them, while Shima can be cold and indifferent in most cases.

And just look at this gif, I was shocked when I realized it. They went through the trouble of animating shadows of Shima and Mitsumi on the desks. Such a small detail, but it adds a comparative world of information and feel to the cut.

In addition to that, P.A Works has been working some real magic with their 3D art. If you look hard enough you'll see it for sure, but as a supplemental piece it's amazingly well blended with the rest of the 2D work.

Anyways, back to the story. I really like how both characters work through the little dispute. Mitsumi still doesn't really have any strong friendships or anything at school, so she's left to her own devices in dealing with it and in turn overthinks (though in a good direction) because of it.

Shima on the other hand has a far more expressive stance, as he wanders through his mind in the presence of an old friend. It's also the first time we really see Shima express, let alone confront his feelings on things, and they do a really good job of continuing that air of indifference while approaching that subject. If I had to explain it, they nailed it in it being like there's a fly buzzing around Shima almost. It's not something driving him crazy, but he's forced to be aware of it and wants to, well, deal with it. Also, it's a little detail, but I like the little playful back and forth between him and his friend to start things off. His friend jokingly finds it funny that Shima is expressing emotions, which Shima doesn't take all that kindly to because opening up just to get laughed at isn't really a great feeling.

Both mull it over, both make it slightly awkward at school, and both want to come to terms/apologize over it. Pretty textbook high school drama, if you ask me (which I think is a good thing). Before that though, I really loved this piece between Mitsumi and Egashira. They've already grown close as Egashira's dropped that facade of hostility, but I love that she's kept her character. Still snarky and sorta "above" Mitsumi, but open to helping her out and being a good friend.

And now we arrive at the big moment in the episode: the apology. It's well worded and the perfect amount of awkward and earnest, from how Mitsumi approaches Shima right up until they laugh it off together.

Though first, this cut of Mitsumi dashing down the hallway to catch up to Shima. Really great work and I love how they're willing to shake things up for bigger moments. There's also really meaningful work put into how it looks in motion. They're incredibly aware of the 3D space they're working in, and all all sorts of subtle effects to heighten the viewer's awareness and feel of that space.

Anyways, back on topic. Like I said, awkward and earnest, Mitsumi really puts her charm on display once more to coax Shima out of his shell. It's a really great and warm moment that brings the two undeniably closer, and allows Shima to well and truly make a new friend.

Also, it took me until the end of the episode to realize that the rain was all about Shim and Mitsumi. It symbolized the struggles and lows of their friendship, and it was only once they worked through those that the sun began to poke out and shine down on them.

Though the episode effectively ends here, I still have so much I wish I could talk about, but I'll leave it as footnotes.

The overall use of space and static camera angles that puts a focus on character acting

The use of closeups and focus on body parts to convey emotion rather than facial expressions (Shima adheres to this rule the whole season basically, which I think is great)

How, even though Mitsumi is sort of deluding herself to her crush on Shima, she brings forward the point that boys and girls can be really great friends without any sort of romantic context

How each of Mitsumi's friends provides support in a different way (the go-getter Egashira, the comforting and warm Mursahige, and the awkward yet thoughtful Kurume)

So yeah, once more Skip and Loafer provides a world of expertise and understanding, edited down and shaped into an episode that's super easy to digest but leaves you full of messages and sentiments, with a hearty helping of heartwarming moments.

#skip and loafer #skip to loafer #スキップとローファー #iwakura mitsumi #mitsumi iwakura #shima sousuke #sousuke shima #mika egashira #yuzuki murashige #makoto kurume #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #anime #romcom anime

[project-sekai-facts]

have you seen that theory about vbs not being the original owners of their sekai, and if so what are your thoughts about it?

i stared at this post for a few minutes wondering if you were talking about a post that was written by me and then i checked twitter and a post about RADder being the original owners popped up on my fyp so i'm assuming that's what you're talking about (also i realised that my post is. still in my drafts).

i go full pepe silvia under the cut. uh. sorry.

yeah anyway i do agree with that theory. kinda. The Street SEKAI is mentioned multiple times in the initial cards to have been around for a while, though this could be referring to the fact that SEKAI take time to grow before they manifest fully to the owners (think about School and Wonderland SEKAI, which probably took years to reveal themselves). But it could also imply that someone else contributed to the SEKAI before VBS. I actually talk about the theory briefly in that first linked post, so we'll continue from there.

so I don't think it was RADder. And yeah basically my only reason is that they're too old. MEIKO was released in 2006, considering the only date mentioned in the game is (Autumn) 2021, this is after An was born, when RADder was already pretty successful. Also we don't know enough about SEKAI physics to confirm this, but Miku seems to be more important than MEIKO so maybe space-time wasn't broken until 2007, and RADder is probably even more successful at that point because of the CDs they recorded when An was a baby.

the SEKAI just doesn't work in the time frame. What we know is that the Street SEKAI was formed by dreams and aspiration. Which is kinda the case for most SEKAI but Street SEKAI was more specifically formed by the passion its creators have for these dreams. and while RADder had big dreams to be top musicians in the world and was passionate about that, they were like realistically never gonna achieve that, but also they were at a point where they were doing very well and were very successful and on their way there. they didn't really need the help from Miku as much as VBS needs it.

Now the way Nagi talks about some things in Light Up the Fire definitely could be read a certain way, especially when she talks about passing on RADder's dream to the kids in the audience at RW, but I still don't think RADder being the original owners entirely works. Honestly the easiest point to argue for that claim is that the Street SEKAI has a very strong attachment to RAD WEEKEND, which on the one hand could be part of the fact that Taiga very clearly never moved past it and never fully processed the death of his sister, but it makes a lot more sense to be a trait tied to the people who aspire to surpass it. also MEIKO outright says that's why the attachment to RW is there in her initial 2*.

However,

I don't think it's entirely out of the question for some of the other side characters to have an influence over the Street SEKAI. As I've mentioned, the SEKAI has a strong attachment to RW, and all of them have the same goal of surpassing the event. Also the 4 older VSingers in the SEKAI (MEIKO, KAITO, Luka, Miku) all takes traits from the members of RADder. Which makes a lot of sense for the main mentor figures in the SEKAI to be based on the people that the kids look up to.

There is an argument to be made though that they gave up on their dreams to easily. In LUTF, Taiga decides to crush all their dreams and Tatsuya (+ his group), Arata and Kotaro all leave, like, they just give up while (an admittedly very shaken) VBS sticks with their dream.

Tatsuya and EVER leave because all this time they'd been just carrying on until they eventually saw victory, but after taking a beating from Taiga, they realised that there's some things that you won't be able to overcome and give up.

Arata leaves because even though he has skill, Taiga was able to get through to his weakness - Souma. Taiga realises that Arata has experienced a similar loss and grief to he did, and although Arata is trying to carry Souma's dream on his behalf, Taiga knows from experience that Arata is just clinging on to Souma's dream as a way of coping with his loss, rather than actually trying to uphold it (basically he calls him selfish). Arata isn't able to argue back, feels a lot of guilt over that, and leaves.

Kotaro is like. particularly interesting and also most eligible for Miku therapy. He's genuinely really scared and overwhelmed by Taiga's challenge, and gives a poor performance when he has to stand up to him, and straight up gets called shit and weak by Taiga and the audience. Dead serious. Afterwards he literally has a breakdown, calls himself an idiot for not being able to sing and then goes on about how he's shit at everything and apologises because should've given up ages ago because all he's ever done is drag everyone else down before literally running away and DAMN do I hope he gets development on that in the Toya event.

all things considered i'd honestly say that all of them to some degree could've contributed to the formation of the SEKAI, Souma included (honestly he seems the most passionate about it even though he was forced to give up). all of them were passionate about it but then there's always the fact that they all gave up really easily, although they were reluctant. that said, toya did the same thing in the main story so...

Although,

There's still an argument that the Street SEKAI was just formed by the four of VBS, and Kohane was just the final piece of the puzzle that made it reveal itself. Three passionate people who are wholeheartedly devoted to their dream and one ordinary girl who wants to do something that she can dedicate herself to and feel passionate about. inverse MMJ if you will. fate is probably canon in project sekai also like i've mentioned this a few times before so that could play a part in all this.

but come to think of it, the sekai doesn't even reveal itself to Akito and Toya until really late in the main story. supposedly they still heavily influenced it but that's a bit... odd? don't you think? like the only other times that happens is N25 and WxS, wherein the SEKAI was made by only one person and let the others in later, but this was a SEKAI that was supposedly made by all 4 of them. so if you think about it hard enough, could the street sekai maybe do that again?

Also,

Nagi is very important to the VBS story and lore despite the fact that she was very obviously written in much later in development. Going back to the fate thing, at RW she states that since RADder is over and she's over, she now has a new dream, that being that she wants the next generation to be inspired by what they achieved and carry on their legacy. While when she says that, she's talking about An and Akito in the audience at RW, it's stated multiple times that the "next generation" includes all of VBS, and all the side characters. so yeah, the fate thing. I doubt the game will ever do anything about it since they're side characters, but I think it can be argued that they contributed to the SEKAI a bit.

i wrote this in so many increments and in the wrong order and now it lacks any cohesion whatsoever and i have no idea what i'm even saying at this point and i think i sort of proved it and disproved it simultaneously but like. yeah. it's an alright theory. i have some thoughts on it.

#project sekai spoilers #theory #mod talks #asks #part of this may or may not be copypasted from an essay i wrote on another blog so if any part of it seems familiar shhhh no it doesn't

[a-dragons-journal]

You often mention you have bad episodic memory. Could you please elaborate on that? How does that manifest for you? I ask because I think I've got the same problem and it's quite frustrating! Like, if you asked me what happened in my personal life in the year 2018, I would have absolutely no clue where to even begin without looking up stuff in my journal or asking people if I was in school/what year, and even then. Baffles me when people are able to remember stuff like this.

So, there's three main types of memory:

Episodic memory, event-memories, where you can "watch" or "relive" an event as it happened,

Semantic memory, knowledge-memories, where you remember a fact but not necessarily an event tied to learning it, and

Procedural memory, knowing how to do a task without necessarily remembering learning how.

My semantic memory is pretty decent, with the exception that I'm fucking terrible with names and dates. I can spit facts out at you all day long. My episodic memory, however, is absolutely rotten, which I suspect is tied to my time-blindness. I remember many facts about my life, but I remember very few actual events past, like... a few months ago. And there's often no rhyme or reason to what gets saved - I still have a vivid flashbulb memory (a type of episodic memory) of a few seconds of walking down the street (I think back to our motel) past some juniper trees during a vacation to Mesa Verde when I was like eight, where absolutely nothing notable happened, but I have zero episodic memories of the rest of that trip. Similarly, I "remember" visiting the Coliseum, in that I remember that I've been there and many of the things I learned while I was there and even the facts of specific events that happened, but I have very little in the way of actual memories of the place - I can "see" maybe one "frame" of it in my head if I try; the rest is nothing.

The time-blindness ties into it in much the way you describe; if you ask me for things that happened to me in a specific timeframe, unless I've made a deliberate note of it along the way (ie, I know I awakened as draconic in 2017) I have no way of knowing when exactly something happened and have to reverse-engineer it through what I know happened before and after it and when those things were, because my brain processes time basically as "today," "yesterday," "earlier this week," "within the last couple of months," and "the past," and everything within each of those timeslots might as well have happened only a day or two apart.

(This unfortunately goes the other way, too - my brain processes the future basically as "later today," "tomorrow," "later this week," and "the future," which sucks for deadlines because they don't feel real until they're right in front of me because something that's two months away feels exactly the same as something that's two years away.)

...Unfortunately I have no real solutions for the memory thing. It's just how my brain works. If there's a workaround, I don't know it. Potentially a side effect of the suspected undiagnosed ADHD, from what I understand.

#rani talks #asked and answered #anonymous #journaling

[just-another-boring-bisexual]

I Saw Priscilla so You Don't Have To: A Review

Before I begin, I should say a few things.

First, there will definitely be spoilers for Priscilla (2023). I'll try not to give too much away, but instead, do so in a way to add context. Second, I am not a Priscilla hater, but I'm not a stan, either. I can acknowledge that neither Elvis nor Priscilla were perfect, and that both made mistakes regarding their relationship. Finally, this is my opinion. I may reference other works, including Elvis (2022), but do not intend to tear one down in order to build up another. You are free to disagree with anything I say, all I ask is that you do so respectfully and don't spread hate.

That being said, let's get into the review!

The first thing I should note is that even if you didn't know who the director was, you'd still be able to tell it was a Sofia Coppola picture. Much like with Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), there's a strong emphasis on the visual aesthetic of this world. Through Sofia's lens, the realm of Graceland feels more grounded and feminine. It honestly ticks all the boxes of a Sofia Coppola film, including regularly utilized elements such as:

The female protagonist/feminine perspective

A coming of age

Visual montage

Prominent soundtrack

The ups and downs of relationships

While the story arc revolves around Priscilla maturing into adulthood, the pacing felt a bit unbalanced for me. For the first half of the film, she's a teenager, and the following decade is briskly told through the last hour. The script tends to focus on the more intimate moments between her and Elvis, so several several major events happen in just a few shots (ex. the wedding, Lisa Marie's birth, Priscilla and Mike Stone, etc.) I get that not everything from Priscilla's book would be present in the film, but I feel like a greater balance could have been exercised.

Next, I should talk about the casting. I feel like Cailee Spaeny did a fine job as Priscilla. Even though she's the main character, I don't feel like I have much else to say about her beyond the fact that she's able to convey Priscilla's growth over the decade and a half span.

Now let's talk about Jacob Elordi.

While he's definitely a different Elvis from Austin Butler's interpretation, I didn't hate Elordi as much as I initially though I would. Since most of the scenes follow Elvis and Priscilla's day-to-day life as a couple, there are far fewer demands of Elordi's character than there are of Butler's. Despite the few flare-ups, his character feels very understated throughout the entire movie. One thing I should note is his constant mumbling; if you have auditory processing issues like me, you're definitely going to miss a few of his lines.

There's definitely been some controversy over how Elvis would be portrayed in this film, and I feel that, in that sense, the movie's going to play out a bit like Barbie, where what you anticipate from it is what you're going to get. For those going in believing the film will expose Elvis as an abusive p*do, then that's what they're going to take from it (even though they show several scenes where Elvis decides not to have sex with Priscilla before their marriage). For the people who have read Priscilla's book and are familiar with the story, it will feel a lot like her book. The main thing is that context is key. Since I'm already very familiar with the story and events, I found myself filling in the blanks in some places. I can only wonder how those going into this with no frame of reference will interpret the final result, especially since the movie ends so ambiguously (After telling Elvis that she wants a divorce, the final scene shows Priscilla saying goodbye to the women she was closest with at Graceland and driving through the gates while Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" plays).

There are a few scenes that depict the darker side of Elvis, but the film was honestly tamer than I expected. Some of the scenes included are the pillow fight, him threatening to send her back to her parents, and the disagreement over his songs. While he loses his temper each time, he immediately apologizes after. The bible study scene shows a devastated Priscilla rush off to the bedroom, but dosen't show anything beyond that. The climax includes the infamous "r*pe" scene, but the action never goes beyond kissing. Overall, the content felt very tame considering the film's R rating (they honestly could have cut one of the two uses of "fuck" and slid with a PG-13 rating). I feel that this tameness is to allow the film to be more palatable to a general audience that may only have a base level of knowledge about Priscilla and Elvis. Elvis' use of baby-talk is heavily toned down, and the dialogue really pulls its weight when trying to provide context and add references.

There are a few things from the book that either I was expecting to be included, or had hoped would be present. While not pleasant, I was expecting "Kurt" to be present in some capacity (they most likely wouldn't show anything onscreen, but enough to get the point across). I talked about the bible scene already, but I expected them to go all the way (assuming the R rating wouldn't have been as tame as it was). I was hoping the interaction between Priscilla and Jerry would have been present, but this did not happen. In fact, all of the Memphis Mafia members almost feel like a faceless mass, like none of them have distinctive identities (I did enjoy the instances of them horsing around and being dumbasses together). The Circle G Ranch is never mentioned, which I found odd, considering in her book, Priscilla talked a lot about their experiences on the ranch after the marriage, and how she enjoyed it so much (I would have at least enjoyed the lasagna scene). The main thing that bothered me was the under-utilization of Dodger (or whoever that generic southern grandma was, because she sure wasn't Dodger). While Priscilla also develops bonds with Patsy, Alberta, and the other wives (if Joanie and Sandy hadn't been named, I wouldn't have realized they were even in this movie), More could've been done with Dodger. In the book, Dodger plays a bigger role in Priscilla's time at Graceland, acting as a grandmother figure and providing context about Elvis. Overall, I would have liked to have seen Priscilla develop closer bonds to the women of Graceland, but there's only so much that can be explored in a limited amount of time.

I will note a few things I did enjoy. Like I said earlier, the visual aesthetic is strong, but one thing I particularly enjoyed were the home movie scenes. The frame was squared, the edges were fuzzy, and it really gave that intimate feel of discovering some lost home movies. I also enjoyed some little details present (Elvis' reading glasses make an appearance!), but these moments feel few and far between.

Overall, I feel like one's own frame of reference and attitudes towards the subjects will heavily influence how one views this movie. Everyone will have something different to say about it, and that's perfectly fine.

#priscilla movie #priscilla 2023 #priscilla presley #elvis presley #elvis and priscilla #I can't believe I spent over an hour and a half writing this

[xenofiction-design-project]

Kinda both love and hate currently owning a book so obscure I can literally find no information about the book itself or the author.

It's called Belevenissen met dieren uit de jungle (Dutch) by Tjebbe Franken and is about the experiences someone (presumably the author but not made explicitly clear) had living with wild animals in various jungles, mostly in Java. It's not a very good book and involves a lot of painful-to-read animal abuse but I am honestly far more fascinated by what's going on behind the book, not the book itself.

Thing is, there is practically no information on this book out there. I could find a few now-defunct secondhand listings and one from a Dutch library (also defunct, it appears they no longer own the book), but there's no publication date or year, no information on the author, nothing on the publisher, basically nothing out there that gives me any more information than the book itself does (which is little, it barely lists any information inside other than the main text).

I did find one mention on a Dutch war history site for a guy who was involved with WWII with the same name as the author, but I very much doubt they're the same guy. But again I have no real time frame to look for because this book has no publication date. There's also another guy named Tjebbo Franken (with an O) but again this is not my guy.

So yeah this is kind of a reverse lost media situation where I own the media itself (bought it on a secondhand book market with no context) but I do have a dozen questions about where it came from, who wrote it, what happened to the author, when it was written, when the events in the book itself happened, was it published in another country in another title first, why is the publisher so vague and does it have no information on it out there, are the experiences in the book those of the author himself or of another guy he interviewed? Questions, questions and more questions.

If I could hazard a guess I'd say the book was written in the late 1800s to mid-1900s (largely due to the absence of some modern technology) and the experiences written about are those of the author himself, who was presumably a Dutch guy living in Java (then part of the Dutch East Indies, fuck colonialism btw) who also visited other areas of the world. It's all still very vague but this is the closest guess I have based on the text of the book itself.

#tekst #tek reads

[bloodgulchblog]

s2e2 here we goooooo. i have not found a better way to do this, so i'm doing it the same way.

once again, spoilers and uncharitable opinions and unfunny jokes.

So anyway, to do my minimal diligence in telling you what's going on, Kwan Ha shows up again at the end of episode 1 (she's the one Soren's kid has been sneaking off to and talking about monsters with).

Anyway.

Episode 2 already off to a bad start.

Halsey is somewhere talking to a girl named Julia, asking her about what she sees when she leaves this place (Julia doesn't say much) and about a man in charge.

Chips on the table: this is a Spartan-III and the man is Ackerson. I'm putting my bet down here.

Also, she gets a nose bleed and passes out so that's normal.

Then we have Kai talking to Riz and about her injury, and Riz insisting she's fine. Kai even suggests Riz put her pellet back to reduce the pain and Riz says:

Kai and John talk about how they kinda miss Halsey because at least she trusted them vs Ackerson.

I've mostly been distracted by this frame, though, because it has some Spartan names we haven't seen in it:

So we know there are at least 5 teams and they're using some old canon Spartan-II names.

Also, we've had it stated directly that it's been 6 months since the end of season 1. Which is a very short amount of time to have had multiple planets glassed, those campaigns each generally took months to fight out in the main canon.

What's important here, though, is that Cobalt team (mean jocks from earlier) are being put on standby while Chief knows they are still out on a mission and haven't come back yet, so he's getting upset.

We don't get any conclusion to this yet because it's time to jump.

Kwan is back, like I said.

I'm glad Kwan is back tbh because -- let's be clear, the show's bad and I felt like Kwan's subplot went fucking nowhere and didn't contribute much, which seems to have been a pretty common opinion. But if the show ejected the asian woman character just because that subplot was received poorly, it would've been much worse than having a weak subplot in the first place.

Kwan, as a survivor of Madrigal, is supposed to be in indentured servitude on the Rubble but she's gone on the run and is being tracked down by a guy with a scanner reacting to this fucking spike they put in her ear.

There's a chase scene, and she manages to rip out her ear tag and ditch her tail for a bit down in this trash compactor type zone, then she manages to space one of them and kills the other by stabbing him in the fucking head with her tag???

I think the implication we're supposed to pick up from the dialogue is that Kwan was accepted onto the station by Soren, but now that Soren's gone her indenture belongs to other (worse) pirates.

Meanwhile, this man (Louis) is suggesting that Riz take it easy and Riz, who has been beating a table with a sledge hammer, is taking that super well.

And there's physiotherapy.

Louis is a Spartan washout. He talks to Riz about how there can be more to life than being a Spartan, but Riz struggles with that and is clearly worried about being perceived as weak from the injury she got at the end of S1. She says some hard shit that she immediately walks back because Louis is an old friend and you can tell they care about each other. It's a million times better than the shit they did with Chief and Soren back in S1 and thank god.

Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice...

Chief is having a conflict with Ackerson about not clearing Silver team to go do missions because he thinks Chief's account of events at Sanctuary (the Covenant were already there before the glassing began, and they retreated from the fight with him) is suspect.

Ackerson tells him that the marine (Perez) doesn't corroborate his story and TV Chief shows character growth from last season by not manscreaming about it. Very proud of him.

I am kind of starting to enjoy Ackerson's nefarious shitweasel bit, it's more entertaining than a lot of what Halo TV makes me watch.

Laera (Soren's wife, I should use her name) confronts the crew of the ship that left when Soren got bagged. (I just don't care about Soren's subplot so I didn't bother to cap it, sorry.)

Meanwhile Kwan has an argument with Kessler (Soren's son) in the hidey hole they've been using as a hangout spot about the reality of the situation.

Did I mention Kwan has better hair this season? She does.

Anyway, then Silver Team is doing a training exercise. Riz is struggling. Also, they have her running SO FAST so you know that she's supposed to be the show's version of Kelly.

Also, we actually get some endearing Spartan interactions which are the only thing on this show that I truly like. (Vannak teases Riz about losing and brags about how he never loses, Kai and Riz are like ugh at him.)

Anyway, I'm out of images again. See you soon.

#halo tv spoilers #s2 liveblogging #paramount halo negative