#we were also playing here to slay and for some reason they were ganging up ON ME | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dzamie-oc · 3 years

Text

15 - Floral

What’s so scary about a flower-breathing dragon? Well, the flowers, for starters. I rather like playing around with alternate breath weapons.

Length: 2100 words Rating: T (death, mild body horror) Summary: A man tells the tale of his failed expedition to slay a flower dragon, while a boy listens in.

-----

Isaac sat in the corner of the tavern, eating a sandwich his dad, the owner, had given him. He knew not to pester the customers - especially the well-armed ones - and in turn, he was protected by common decency and the knowledge that an adventurer who struck a child for no reason was on a fast track to get beaten up, themselves. So, he would often sit and listen to their tales of glory, and tonight was no exception. For now, he focused on one peculiar-looking fellow. His face was grizzled, and everything about him gave off an air of danger, and of experience with danger... with the exception of his left arm, which hung limply at his side, covered in wildflowers in all colors from the elbow down.

“Nice arm,” another patron had said, mockingly, “did you fist a dryad?”

“Like it?” the man growled, “the dragon of flowers is giving out free samples if’n you want one of yer own.”

This only seemed to spur the other fellow on, as he laughed and jeered, “you found a dragon that breathes FLOWERS, and you STILL got your ass kicked? I guess age catches up to everyone!”

They were joined by an elf. Isaac couldn’t tell if their ears were long enough to be a girl elf, but he could tell, even through their inhuman grace, that they were limping; a quick glance at their feet, and the boy saw one covered in flowers just like the man’s arm. “Appearances are deceiving,” they said. “Had we not taken its threat so lightly, perhaps we would not have left six corpses and a live dragon behind.”

The elf’s addition, at least, seemed to give the mocking man pause. “You lost six men? How?”

“Four men, two women,” the grizzled man corrected, “and it would’ve been five and three if the two of us hadn’t bolted before its second breath. As for how...

“The dragon’s lair was easy enough to find. Middle of the forest, suddenly there’s this huge, flowering... hedge of some kind. Only one way in, so we take it. It felt like being in a corn maze, except there’s flowers all over the place. Mildred, here (he gestured to the elf), suggested we use the old trick of sticking to one wall until we get through it, in case it is a maze. Turned out not to be, but it was a good idea nonetheless.

“So we’re walking through the dragon’s lair, or garden, or whatever, and we see this big, purple flower - seriously, like twice the size of my head - all closed up, like it hasn’t bloomed yet. The eight of us, we figure we should figure out what to do about it - cut it away, ignore it, or what. We don’t wanna burn it, because if the fire spreads, well, we’re right in the middle of it. But as most of us are standing around like clever people, this one hotshot - think his name was Tyrill or something - gets it into his mind that he should just go up and whack it. With his fist. And it’s not until he’s got his fist cocked back, readying a punch, that we see him, and before we can drag him away or even shout at him not to be stupid, POW! He smacks the flower. And it explodes! Well, it opens in an instant and a purple gas bursts out. Most of us are able to retreat back away from it, but Tyrill obviously gets a face full of it.

“Now, obviously we want to get him away from whatever that flower was, but none of us are stupid enough to run into the mysterious purple gas, so we just wait there. And Tyrill just turns to us, says ‘hey guys, I found the dragon!’ and then... plants his face into the middle of the flower. Not even like it’s a pillow. The petals close up around his head, and start dragging him through the hedge. None of us wanted to leave him to die, of course, but that gas made him do... whatever that was, so we couldn’t risk it. I assume he died, of course, but it’s not like any of us actually saw the bodies.

“We continued on, following the winding trail through the flowers, and then saw what looked like a pair of jaws, but plant. Or, if you held your hands like this (he pressed his forearms and hands together, then opened his hands and curled his fingers in - a venus fly trap, although neither Isaac nor the taverngoers knew of such a plant). This part here, this isn’t how we lost all those folks, but how to avoid losing more if you try to follow in our footsteps. Now, I don’t recall what exactly we used - Mildred, do you? No? Ah well, it’s not important - but we threw something small at it. A knife or a stick. The damn thing snapped shut faster than you could blink, in case someone had accidentally brushed it while walking by.

“There was also this one flower, growing easily a dozen feet up, with a thick, sturdy-looking stem. We rested for a while near it, and for some reason, one of the gang decided to lean against the plant. You’d think we would’ve known by then, but, well, I guess she was tired. None of us paid any heed until she said it felt itchy, and when she tried to move away, it had stuck fast to her - or she had stuck fast to it. Me and one of the other guys tried to pull her off of it, but it didn’t work - the guy planted his foot against the stem for leverage, but all that did was get it stuck, too. Poor dude had to keep going with only one boot. Still, a better fate than the lady found. I can’t say what, exactly, it was doing to her, but she started screaming in pain at some point and couldn’t stop ‘til she was hoarse. Healing magic helped for a while, but it would always start back up again, until she pleaded for us to not waste the magic and to stop making her suffer longer.”

The grizzled man finished off his drink and stared down at the table. “I’ll confess to some measure of cowardice, aside from fleeing the dragon,” he said, “she asked for a swift death, and I faltered. One of the others had to be the one to grant her that.

“...anyway, where was I? Right, well, it turned out that the dragon was waiting just further ahead, in a flower-covered clearing. Dozen feet long and a tail to match, white scales with yellow and green patches, a flower tucked under each horn, and at the end of its tail was a big, purple flow- oh, gods above. Mildred, I think I know what happened to Tyrill. The dragon, its tail ended in a purple flower, and it looked awfully lumpy, like there was something under its scales. I don’t know how, but I think its tail... ate him.

“It said... something. I think it asked us a question, but I don’t think any of us were paying attention to the words of a beast. I made sure no more strange flowers would somehow strike from behind us, Mildred drew her bow, and three of the others just charged right at it. The dragon took a deep breath, and a moment later, three bodies fell to the ground, covered in these flowers.” He held up his arm to show his botanical injury. His story had attracted the attention of several other people in the tavern, and someone had ordered the man another drink. “Even those who tried to shield themselves, all that did was cover their shield in flowers as well.”

One of the onlookers asked, “so, did you get caught on the edge of the blast?”

The man shook his head. “No, the first one only hit those three, but the other three of us quickly bolted before it could take a better shot. Unluckily for us, we had to run down a straight path away from it, and so it got off a second attack just as we rounded the corner. Well, Mildred and I. Samuel - I think it was Samuel who hung back as well - lost both legs, an arm, and a fair amount of his upper body. Last I saw of him, he shouted at us to leave him and run. And run we did, as quick as we could while not running into any more of those crazy plants. It was a stroke of luck that we didn’t find any other beasties as we fled back here.” His gaze swept around the table. “And that, boys, is why I’ve no shame in admitting I ran from a ‘flower dragon.’”

With his story concluded, a few of the others swore vengeance on the dragon, while others told them to stop fooling about. Isaac, however, made plans of his own.

Late at night, the boy crept out from his room and snuck out of his home. With a jar full of dirt, Isaac wandered through the dark woods, on a mission. Before long, he found himself before a hedge of flowers that bloomed even at night. The boy took a deep breath, put on his best serious face, and stepped inside.

He kept his eyes peeled for weird flowers, and, on seeing a big, red one, stopped well before it. “Mister flower dragon?” he called, though not too loud in case the dragon was asleep. “Or, miss flower dragon? The man didn’t say. Your flowers are very pretty.”

Something rustled in the hedge to one side. Isaac took a step away, just before a draconic head poked through a foot or two above his head. The dragon looked around, then noticed and focused on the boy. It tilted one way, and asked, “aren’t humans diurnal? It’s very deep into the night for a human.”

“I don’t think I’d be allowed to go if I tried during the day.”

“Ah, a young one. And what brings you to my home, little one?” The dragon stepped out of the hedge as though it wasn’t there, and laid down around Isaac. His way deeper and his way out were cut off by white, yellow, and green scales, but he found it didn’t scare him much. “I hope you aren’t thinking I’ll eat a bully for you. ...well, maybe if you can lure them here.”

Isaac shook his head, then held out the jar. “I saw the flowers you gave that man’s arm, and they were very pretty. May I have some? Only, not on my body, because my dad would freak out.”

“I would hope so, or I think he would not be a very concerned father. Set the jar down, and I’ll give you some flowers.” Isaac did so, and the dragon breathed over the opening of the jar. Colorful flowers immediately sprouted and bloomed in the jar, as well as on the ground around it. Isaac took another step back, just in case, and found himself nearly stumbling over the dragon’s tail. “Now, if you put just a drop or two of blood a week in the pot, they should stay nice and healthy. It doesn’t have to be yours, it doesn’t have to be human. Use a mouse if you like.”

The boy, however, was staring at its tail, which looked kind of lumpy on the underside. “Did you really eat that guy with your tail?” he asked.

The dragon shook its head. “My tail doesn’t eat, only holds. I will let him out in the morning, but for now, he is in a deep sleep. ...did you hear what to do with the flowers?”

“Oh, okay then. In the story, he didn’t really do anything, so that would have been very mean to eat him for just that.” The sound of the dragon’s claw tapping the jar drew his attention, so he nodded. “Do I have to water them, too?”

“No, although it won’t kill them.”

Isaac picked up the jar again and slowly climbed over the dragon’s body, taking care not to kick it. “Okay, thank you! I’m glad you’re really nice and aren’t gonna eat that guy.”

The dragon laughed. “Of course. Four is more than enough to keep me going for a week; this enthusiastic fellow can leave if he likes.” As it watched Isaac walk back towards the entrance, it began to slip back through the hedge. “Goodnight, little one.”

“Goodnight, flower dragon! Thanks again for the flowers; I’ll take good care of them.”

Unseen by Isaac, a scaly head with a flower behind each horn popped up above the tall hedge, watching him depart. If any creature got too close, it found itself beset by flowers.

#dragon #dragons #smaugust #flower #floral #writing #writers on tumblr #tw body horror #tw death #smaugust 2021 #text

9 notes · View notes

revchainsaw · 3 years

Text

The Crow (1994)

Alright Cult of Cult. Do I really need to introduce this one? Let's get all 90s and gothy and maybe brace ourselves for a bit of cringe, but like in a fun way. It's the Holy Grail of Hot Topic, 1994's the Crow Starring Brandon Lee.

Sermon

Apparently before the auto industry totally crashed Detroit was already a total fucked to death pile of burning shit, or at least that's what the crow would have you believe. Sorry Bruce Campbell, and other people from Detroit, but mostly Bruce Campbell. According to the Crow the city of Detroit is the kind of place where gangs of warlock anarchist arsonists will bomb buildings, and murder and rape whoever they feel like and then walk around bragging about it the next day with absolutely zero consequences. Funny then that if Detroit was so bad they had to go to film this movie in Wilmington North Carolina which is definitely a fucked to death pile of burning shit. I can say that, I'm from there and I got the fuck out. My brother is going to kill me if he ever reads this. (It's okay, these are all jokes people). Did you know they also filmed the Super Mario Bros movie there ... also cuz they needed a really shitty looking distopia. Moving on ...

The ludicrous criminality of the Crow's Detroit is particularly on display on Halloween. In Detroit (apparently) Halloween is known as Devils Night and it's legitimately just a night of pure lawlessness and chaos and kids aren't even safe to get candy, except later when we do see trick or treaters. Eric Draven, hunky goth rocker who sort of looks like he could be Bruce Lee's Kid and his fiance are murdered by a gang of vicious criminals. One year hence, Eric is resurrected by a mystical crow (that is actually a Raven), to exact his revenge on the gang that murdered him.

He paints his face like sad Alice Cooper and refuses to listen to Joy Division, just covers. He murders Tin Tin (a knife guy) just for his long gothy duster, he murders Fun Boy and forcibly ejects heroine from her arms and tells her "Go be a good mom now" which actually works. (have I told you about our Lord and Savior Sting? He gave me the strength to get off drugs), he blows T Bird up dick first, and then comes for Skab? Scraap? Scooby? in a meeting of all of Detroits villains and just about kills them all.

He is supported by the most 90s little girl to have ever graced the screen, and I am here for it, and Officer Albrecht, who's played by Ernie Hudson but I like to call him Zeddemore: The Most Underrated Ghostbuster. The leader of the bad guys, who I cannot beleive wasn't played by Brad Dourif or Tom Waits, is pretty interested in the occult. He keeps his witchy girlfriend around and she makes him fun dishes like smoked eyeballs, and her main use is that she knows that the Crow is the Crows weakness. They set Tony Fucking Todd on the bird, and I guess you just have to hurt the bird and not kill it, and Eric loses his healing factor and other macabre undead powers.

The Crow, Jimmy the Raven, pecks out Dr. Girlfriends eyeballs, I honestly forget how Tony Todd gets offed, and Top Dollar gets Gargoyled (that is impaled on a gargoyle). Funnily enough that is more Gargoyle related impaling on screen then in the actual movie Gargoyle: Wings of Darkness where a Gargoyle is supposed to have impaled a guy.

The Benediction

Best Feature: Injustice League

In the Crow we have not only a set of super memorable villains but they are played by the bad guy all stars. John Polito as the most lowly of the bad guys as a kind of sleazy pawn shop owner who buys ill gotten gains. Tony Todd, who's size is really on display here, the freaking Candy Man is in this movie. T Bird is the head of Top Dollars goons and is played by David Patrick Kelly, you might know as the "Warriors Come Out and Play!!" bottle guy from the Warriors, or as Jimmy Horne from Twin Peaks, and of course Top Dollar himself is played by Michael Wincott. Wincott is not a particularly celebrated actor but has played villains effectively in Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, and Dead Man.

Best Set Piece: Detroit Style Hot Dogs

The Set design of the Crow is perhaps one of it's most fantastic features. It's very moody and ethereal. It's just real enough to not take you out of the film, but fantastic enough to set mood and theme above realism. From Eric Draven's apartment, to the church where the final battle occurs they are all fantastic. I think that's why I really wanted to shine the spot light on a very minor set piece that would get nary a mention but just as effectively represents the qualities I was just talking about and that is the Maxi Doggs Hot Dog Stand, where a lot of the films exposition for audience surrogates takes place.

Worst Effect: Freeze Frame

At a few points in the movie the film makers made a strange decision to do these freeze frame transitions. I only noticed it twice in the movie where it was particularly stupid. I'm sure the film makers at the time thought it was a moody and atmospheric choice that highlighted the suffering that Eric Draven was going through, but it didn't age well. If you don't have the sensibilities of a goth girl from 1994 then it's very very hard not to laugh at just how self involved the movie is about it's super sadness.

Worst Feature: Tragic Accident

Solely based on the film itself, it is that very gothic and dated sensibility that hurts the Crow. The little sarcastic dance he does when he flees the police, quoting Edgar Allen Poe, and bowing to Albrecht. These affected behaviors that I'm sure seemed snarky and right on to the target audience only serve to make Eric Draven seem like an unbearable neck beard edgelord and not the troubled dark soul he's supposed to be. I'm sure at the time it seemed unique and gothy but that shit went out of style for good reason, people could see through it. It's a shame that the Crow himself was some of the cringiest parts of this movie now that I'm seeing it as an adult and not a 13 year old middle class boy with no real problems.

This however is not the low point of the movie. It's not news now and if you're reading some dudes review of The Crow on Tumblr then you probably already know the story. The worst thing about The Crow is that Brandon Lee was horrifically killed on set while filming this movie due to some negligible prop malfunctions. A series of unfortunate events that lead to the actor spending 6 hours in surgery fighting for his life before eventually passing. It was not a quick or painless death and it's really impossible to watch the movie without an appreciation for the fact that this kind of fun dark adventure was going to be a vehicle for Brandon Lee's career wound up taking his life. He was 28. I really wish I could have just bitched about the goofy goth stuff and moved on, but that's not the world we live in.

Best Effect: The Gargoyling

Maybe I should have called this best kill. But I'm not sure which it is. The slaying of Top Dollar at the Climax of the film was just super effective. The pointed wings impaling his chest and that horn coming out of his mouth, it was morbid and excellent and just fit the tone of the movie perfectly. I mean how many other movies can you say Cause of Death: Impaled on a Gargoyle.

Best Bird: The Raven

I tried very hard to look up the name of the bird that primarily performed in this movie and could not find anything. There was a Raven once upon a time called Jimmy the Raven, but that was in the 50s and I don't think birds live that long. There was a team of Ravens performing as the crow, they were chosen over crows for their larger size, and more imposing silhouettes. I just think it's so wonderful to see these often maligned birds get a chance to show off their talents. Corvids of all kinds are incredibly intelligent creatures. Im a sucker for animals, if you haven't already figured that out. I really liked seeing the ravens hit their marks, particularly the one whos job it was to drop the wedding ring into Sarah's hand at the end of the film. You can see that greedy little bastard do his trick and then look of camera at his trainer like "treat please!". It's very cute.

Best Actor: Top Dollar Performance

I'd love to take this opportunity to just put praise upon Brandon Lee, he truly gave everything for this role, but unfortunately with what was put to film we actually have very few character moments with Eric Draven. Stuff happens to him, and he does killings and fights. There's definitely some personality, but I felt like I walked away knowing almost nothing about who Eric Draven was. He was clearly a good dude but that and a few hobbies and a relationship and you don't really have a character yet. He's unfortunately not given a lot of acting to do, instead just relegated to stunts and action sequences. That were notably cool.

The bad guys in the Crow have a lot more character and among this who's who of character actors, Michael Wincott takes the cake. Hell he was standing next to Candyman himself, Tony Todd and still stealing the scenes.

Best Character: A Few Good Apples

Is the best character in The Crow really going to be the cop? The commissioner Gordon stand in? yeah, it is. Not to be political, but I don't like cops, but I guess in a world with magical birds and eyeball smoking I can suspend my disbelief and let Ernie Hudson be #1 cop dad. His character is really the heart of the film, since all Eric can do is brood and fight, we have to care about someone in this movie.

Best Sequence: Halloween Party

The best sequence of the movie is of course the scene where Eric Draven busts in on the Devil's Night party planning commission. I think Top Dollar brought Scrappy Doo there just so he could lure out the crow, knowing the baddest assholes in all of Detroit would be gathered it was likely that somebody was going to kill the beast, or if they couldn't at least Top Dollar could get a feel for his enemy. It's a bullet flying action sequence with a ton of weight. I can't put my finger on this all to common weightless third act problem that big budget super hero and action flicks have nowadays, but whatever that issue is, the Crow does not have that issue. From this point on the Climax feels earned and I am invested. For that reason, The Crow is honestly better in spite of its awkwardness, than many of the super hero movies out today.

Worst Sequence: My Guitar Gently Weeps

Speaking of brooding or fighting. The best sequence was fighting, the worst is brooding. I get that Eric was in a band or something, but didn't he have shit to do. It seemed like it was a cool idea for a shot, but for like a whole seen, watching somebody play an 80s guitar solo, that stood out so brazenly from the choices of music in the rest of the movie was extra corny. It felt like someone's( dad trying to relate to their kid. Oh you like Music. The Dresden Dolls eh? Oh man, then you're going to love Slash's Snake Pit!

Summary

The Crow is dated. It is iconic but I wonder how many of the people that hang that poster on the wall have watched that movie since they were kids. It's interesting how what i've liked and disliked about this film have changed so much sense I was a kid. It's a cheeseball fiesta. If you have matured at all beyond thinking that being sad is the same as being deep then you're going to like it a little less than you did when you were younger, but it is still solid. There's not much to hate on. I'd watch it over and over again. I was really afraid it would not hold up at all, but returning to The Crow was a completely positive experience.

Overall Grade: B

13 notes · View notes

noragami-ru-manga · 4 years

Text

Magatsukami. On Yato’s attitude towards his job

I might be a little late for the party with this kind of analysis (I mean, magatsukami who? we only know Yatogami-sama, the god of fortune). Still, have fun with this one *throws another lengthy-ass post at you*

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that my favorite character in Noragami is the noragami himself. I mean, what did you expect? Yato is an excellent protagonist who holds the narrative focus really well and whose character development is interesting to observe. A lot of things can be and have been written about him, his relationships with Father / Nora /Hiyori / Yukine / Kazuma / Ebisu / etc. What I want to examine is his attitude towards his calling of a magatsukami, or god of calamity, throughout his known life.

Past

I think it makes sense to start from the beginning, i.e. from Yato’s childhood, when his job was nothing but a game to him. Father created him to “cull the heard” and named him Yaboku. He knew what Father’s wish was from the start, even before he got Hiiro as his instrument. Naturally, there’s nothing to say about Yato’s attitude towards his role as a magatsukami at this point – little Yaboku probably doesn’t even know the term. Here, Father is teaching him how to be a god – in his opinion, anyway.

Rule #1: gods can do whatever they want. Father teaches by example: Yaboku can come and take anything on display in the market without paying for it; since no one can see him, no one will notice anything missing, and if they do, they won’t know who stole from them. A nice little lesson, isn’t it?

Rule #2: gods must fulfill human wishes. Father means his own wish, of course, but divine instincts show through, so Yaboku regards any request as a wish/prayer – like when his victims beg for their lives, for example. Except Father’s wish (or Yaboku’s own wish to make his father happy) is stronger, so those prayers go unanswered.

That’s how Yaboku starts fulfilling his role thinking of it as merely a game. What’s curious is that he seems to have had doubts about Father’s wish before the very first “game”:

But even if he’s had those doubts before, they are completely gone when Father praises him. After that Yaboku hasn’t given much thought to what he’s doing, cause the more ears he brings home, the more Father praises him, and what else can a child dream of? And as a child he also asks his innocent questions that make your skin crawl – e.g., how come there was another human inside the belly of a woman he “played” with?

That’s how it was before a nameless shinki stumbled upon Yaboku – a shinki whom he named Sakura and who started calling him Yato by mistake. Sakura starts teaching Yato right away, probably without even stopping to think where he got those disturbing habits in the first place. It’s understandable though since she hasn’t been a shinki for that long. Sakura doesn’t know much about the Far shore, including things that are crucial to her survival – like how the water from a spring can heal her blight; it’s unlikely that the thought of a god having a parent who’s raised him to be way he was would have crossed her mind. But she has some very strong views of good and evil, and she starts conveying them to Yato as well, and with a nice and clear reasoning at that. Sakura doesn’t tell him that stealing is wrong “because she said so” – she explains that taking others’ belongings and disrupting the established rules of human interactions by doing so will lead to driving other people away and being left all alone. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have time to teach Yato the value of human life before he takes her to “play” with him instead of Hiiro.

Of course, Sakura is shocked that Yato’s used her to just up and kill an unsuspecting man, so she stings him and runs away. However, she comes back after her conversation with Tsuyu regarding the nature of the gods and keeps teaching Yato to love and have sympathy for humans. Nevertheless, the incident with the man who was dragged by his horse shows just how much Father’s lessons are engraved in Yato’s brain. The first thing to come to his mind is to slay the horse; luckily, Sakura is fast enough to tell him that he’s supposed to cut the rope, so the man is saved and Yato gets his first show of gratitude from a living human (Father doesn’t really count). From this point on, Yato is not as keen to go and “play” with Hiiro, but he doesn’t abandon his games completely because he still wants to be praised by Father.

So Yato keeps “playing” with Hiiro while also helping out humans with Sakura. It’s the beginning of recurring future situations when Yato will have other shinki whom he won’t use to fulfill Father’s requests and simply disappear for a while to do his job as a magatsukami instead.

It’s pretty obvious that Yato has never got over Sakura’s death – he prefers the name she’s given him, and he also gives his new shinki a part of her human name. But there’s something else to consider. When Sakura explains to Yato what shrines are for, she asks him to be respectful towards any and every wish, and he remembers that.

It’s the same thing he tells to Rabo in “The clash of the gods of calamity”. It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly this extra takes place, considering the only historical reference here is the Toshima clan, which existed in 8-15th centuries, and there’s no way I can determine the time period by people’s clothes. Knowing that Yato was born in 10th century doesn’t help much cause it means that the events of “The clash of the gods of calamity” could take place anytime between 10th and 15th century.

Anyway, for a small extra like this, quite a lot of things actually happen in “The clash…”. Yato is seemingly working on his own now. For the usual payment of five yen he is asked to avenge a girl who was robbed and killed by a female thug from her own village. He and Hiiro come upon some ayakashi-possessed bandits while looking for that woman. They try to kill Yato but fail cause he kills them first, without hesitation or regret.

By the way, the “clash” of the gods of calamity isn’t that much of a clash, really – Yato and Rabo simultaneously slay the last gang member and that’s how they get to know each other. Well, sometimes that happens.

I find the next scene very interesting though. Rabo is pouring wine to Yato’s cup, not knowing that the latter has never drunk the stuff before since Father thinks he’s too young for that. As soon as Yato hears Rabo saying that if his father forbids then he really shouldn’t be drinking, he chugs down the entire bottle. It shows how Yato is already trying to defy his father, even if it is with small acts like that since he’s unable to do much else. And Hiiro calling him Yato and not Yaboku proves that at this point Yato is refusing to go by the name his father has given him and uses the one Sakura’s made up instead. And as they say, drunkenness reveals what soberness conceals; so when Rabo expresses the thought that Yato’s impressive battle skills could attract the attention of samurai, Yato says the same thing Sakura said before, adding a little more of his (or rather, his father’s) thoughts to it.

And yes, Yato actually finds the woman he was tasked to kill by the victim’s brother, and brought back a kimono. After all, the brother’s wish not so much about killing that thug as. It was about bringing back the kimono that was stolen from his sister’s dead body so that she may rest in peace. The drunken confession and the situation with kimono show that Yato, who was torn between Father and Sakura as a child, has learnt to compromise. He will be doing what his father demands of him and fulfill his role of a magatsukami because Sakura asked him to treat every wish with respect.

We don’t know what Yato had been doing for the next 300-800 years. Chronologically, the next event in his life we know of is the slaughter of the Ma clan, which happened sometime 200 years prior to the events of the manga. By that time, nasty rumors about him have been going around on the Far shore.

How true the rumors of Yato’s avarice were is hard to judge. Apart from the Bubble era, when his customers would pay him in thousands of yens, he is shown to only ever take 5 yen per wish. Granted, he’s had some side jobs as well since saving up for his shrine by granting wishes only is pretty much impossible. He’s tried to become a pop-idol, has sold rhinoceros beetles and Bishamon doujins, but even in those cases his prices, apparently, would always fall to 5 yen in the end (or maybe that’s the price he’s wanted to have and simply used the old marketing ploy of fake discounts).

Or maybe what Kazuma refers to as avarice is Yato taking the money for the prayers in person and for every one of them. After all, renowned gods have a different approach to granting wishes. They can’t possibly respond to every single prayer left at their shrines, so there’s probably no clear proportion to the number of prayers heard and granted in their case. People simply pray to them and hope that one day their wish comes true and the gods try to grant those wishes whenever they can, but unlike Yato, they don’t actually appear in front of their believers.

Anyway, when Kazuma pleads him to slay the Ma clan, who are turning turning into ayakashi en mass, Yato does ask whether he can actually pay for his prayer. But when Kazuma answers that he’d rather return his name to his mistress than become a nora, Yato agrees to grant his wish without down payment.

If you really think about it, Yato didn’t have anything to gain from this particular job. Suppose Kazuma keeps his word and pays later, so what? He’s a shinki, not a living human; is there any point in granting the wish of someone who can’t help Yato spread his name among the living? The way I see it, Yato shouldn’t care whether other gods or their shinki know about him, as for him the only thing that matters is to be remembered by humans. It’s also not a job from his Father that he wouldn’t have the guts to turn down. And yet Yato takes the request anyway without even telling Kazuma how much he’ll have to pay. Maybe he thinks that Kazuma can figure out on his own that the price is 5 yen; or maybe he doesn’t intend to get the money at all.

The thing that caught my eye in the scene where Yato slays the Ma clan is his reaction to their deaths. He starts cutting them as usual but then stops and doesn’t want to continue, so Hiiro has to persuade him to keep going.

This whole situation is probably an unwelcome reminder that he had to mercy kill Sakura, who also turned into an ayakashi. I actually find it curious how Yato seems to make a distinction between shinki and humans. If we go back to his childhood again, he used to kill humans without giving much thought to the fact that dying kind of hurts. But he instantly recognized that Sakura was a shinki and helped her wash away her blight for no apparent reason. In other words, he knew what compassion was (which Tsuyu also noted when Yato came looking for Sakura to Sugawara-no-Michizane’s shrine) but he only felt it for shinki, not humans. Sakura was the one who made him extend that compassion to humans, too (I’m starting to think that this post should be renamed into “1000 and 1 reason why Sakura is awesome and deserves more love”). What I’m saying here is that maybe, apart from being reminded about Sakura’s fate, Yato is unwilling to kill Bishamon’s shinki because he’s started to value human lives less than shinki’s once again. After all, killing people is his job , and he has to do that a lot. Sakura may have taught him compassion towards humans, but at this point she’s been dead for the second time for like 800 years or so. Yato may have relearnt to not feel sympathy towards humans who he had to kill in order to grant other peoples’ wishes. Killing shinki deliberately, on the other hand, is not something he usually does, unless it’s in a fight with another god.

Anyway, Yato does finish the job and slays every shinki of the Ma clan but one, earning himself both a mortal enemy and his first friend.

Four years later Kazuma seeks out Yato to repay his debt, which only increases my suspicions that Yato had no intention of ever taking the money for killing Bishamon’s shinki. He even fails to recall who Kazuma is and needs to be reminded. Naturally, Kazuma has to ask why Yato, who was rumored to delight in murders, decided to help him. Yato’s answer is curt: Kazuma made a wish, he granted it, end of story. Later, when Yukine asks the same question, Yato responds with “because I wanted to”. I think that he says that automatically to protect Kazuma, who also acknowledges at one point that Yato could have admitted that he he’d killed the Ma clan because he was asked to but opted to silently run from Bishamon instead. It’s obvious that Yato doesn’t tell the whole truth on both occasions. It’s possible that he decided to grant Kazuma’s wish because he’d admired Bishamon since he was a kid and even was somewhat jealous of her power, so he wanted to help. But his main reason had to be Kazuma’s loyalty to Bishamon. Even back then Yato couldn’t keep his shinki from leaving him, and Hiiro has never belonged to him fully – not only was she a nora, out of all her masters she served Father first.

The last episode from Yato’s past before the events of the manga worth examining is meeting Daikoku and Kofuku. It happens around 1900’s; Daikoku is turning into an ayakashi because he’s got mad at Kofuku for releasing their surrogate son shinki Daigo, thinking that it would be better that way. Kazuma refers him to Yato saying that the latter can cut anything, even separate memories from their owner. Yato, who happens to have only a regular knife, not a shinki, pretends to do just that. The circumstances of their meeting are interesting to me cause they solidify a certain trend. It’s ironic that Yato’s job as a magatsukami gave him his first healthy relationships – first his unlikely friendship with Kazuma, who then introduced him do Daikoku (and through him with Kofuku) when Daikoku also sought help from the god of calamity.

In short, here’s a picture of Yato’s attitude towards his job as a magatsukami before the main plot of the manga. In his childhood, he was a god of calamity for a specific person and thought of his calling as a game and a way to please his father. Then Sakura made him reevaluate his views of his responsibilities as a god. The time Yato’d spent with her was not enough to change him completely, but the foundation was made. We don’t know for sure if he started granting other people’s wishes on Father’s order or if it was his own decision to do what Sakura told him, that he needed to answer any prayer no matter what it was. But if the story with the kimono is indicative of what sort of work he’s been doing, then it means that, for centuries now, Yato has taken to granting wishes that had to do with punishing criminals. Maybe the reason he didn’t pity his victims was because they weren’t all that innocent themselves.

Present

Yato is introduced as a “delivery god” in the beginning of the manga. The fact that he is actually a magatsukami won’t be revealed until chapter 27, To be fair, Kofuku does mention that he is, in fact, a warrior god, so he’s killed people, but Daikoku corrects her and says that he doesn’t do that anymore. However, in the very first chapter, when Yato learns that his client Mutsumi’s trouble is bullying, he offers to resort to violence.

Judging by Tomone’s reaction, she doesn’t take him seriously even when Yato says that slaying is the only thing he’s good at and proceeds to ask Mutsumi to list the people whose heads he needs to take. As far as she knows, Yato keeps saying things like that but actually slays ayakashi, not people. Would he really have killed students to sort a problem like that? Considering that later chapters show him only going after criminals, I think not. It’s just that old habits die hard, I guess.

Chapters 27-28 show in detail what kind of jobs Yato does as a magatsukami. Both of these he gets from Father through Nora. What’s interesting (especially compared to the anime) is that he agreed on the first one on his own – he wanted it to be his last job with Hiiro before stopping to grant these kinds of wishes completely. It’s a prayer from a woman who thinks that her daughter’s murderer’s punishment is not strict enough. Contract killing is a pricy thing, so the woman offers Yato a wad of cash that he refuses to take and only accepts his usual 5 yen.

Yato could have taken the entire bundle, which would have solved his financial problems for some time at least. Or he could have chosen any sum other than 5 yen to symbolically detach this job from the requests he takes as a delivery god – but he didn’t. He refuses to accept the whole wad because the life of that criminal has no value to him, but he takes his 5 yen because, for him personally, this wish has the same worth as any other.

The second job is a serial killer who supposedly killed four people and buried them in his garden without ever being caught by the police. This time Yato does not speak with the client directly, so he asks Hiiro if the information is 100% accurate. I personally wouldn’t trust her on that, but apparently Yato finds her words – that the one who’s asked to kill the murderer was his own mother – convincing enough. Except this case turns out to be more difficult that the first. The target has a son, whose mother, according to Hiiro, was the guy’s last victim. Yato decides to go through with the task, but first he locks up the boy in the next room. And again, it’s not clear whether he even gets paid for this job since it turns out that the client is long dead and the second part of her wish was for Yato to find a place where her grandson could live in peace. The difference in Yato’s behavior in this situation and “The clash of the gods of calamity” is significant. He felt no remorse in “The clash...” when he was killing those thugs. Here though, he is hesitant at first, just like with Bishamon’s shinki, because he doesn’t want to leave a child fatherless. He only makes his decision when Hiiro implies that the kid is also in danger. And Yato still tries to at least not traumatize the boy by killing his father right in front of him.

And now we’re at the point which was mentioned in the beginning of this post. In Yomi, Ebisu asks Yato why he exists and Yato replies that his job is necessary because the Heavens fail at doing theirs. There’s evidence to that: just before this exchange Ebisu says it himself, that he’s heard Yato’s name in some oral traditions, and Hiiro earlier called the kind of work Yato does “the Yatogami miracle”. So Yato the god of calamity actually has (or at least had) followers other than Father, it’s delivery god Yato that doesn’t. Father and Hiiro also do anything in their power to persuade Yato that people need his job. Of course, he doesn’t like that he has to be kept prisoner to fulfill his functions. He seemingly only agrees to do what he’s told because it’s the best course of action for him at the moment and goes berserk when he realizes that Hiyori might forget him if he doesn’t go back soon. Nevertheless, Father and Hiiro’s manipulations combined with genuine gratitude from those who need “the Yatogami miracle” have an impact on him, which is evident in his answer to Ebisu.

Whether Yato likes it or not, his words about the cracks in Heavenly justice (or more specifically, “the holes in Heaven’s net”, which is supposed to catch all evil-doers) mirror Father’s opinion of the Heavens. Father’s plan to simply kill people and thus diminish the number of those who believe in gods seems to be really flawed to me. So maybe he understood that, too, and chose a different approach. I’ve written earlier that we don’t know if Yato started granting other people’s wishes on Father’s orders or Sakura’s request. But I can imagine that it was part of Father’s plan. Originally Yato was forbidden from even talking to strangers. However, having noticed that he was changing because of Sakura, Father might have started to teach Yato to answer prayers of revenge/restoring justice – to show him how often gods don’t respond to people’s wishes before it’s too late and the only thing that’s left is revenge. Yato may not have given a lot of consideration to that, thinking that he was doing what any god should be doing – answering prayers to continue his existence. But the number of wishes like those only grew, and so the idea that he really was a “necessary evil”, as Father puts it, became more and more ingrained in his mind.

Another important aspect of Yato’s attitude towards his job as a magatsukami is that, in a way, he has an addiction to it. The last time he returned to this field of work he was literally kidnapped and held hostage. But he’s never actively tried leaving Father and Nora before.

There are multiple reasons why Yato wouldn’t leave until he was told he was free to go. Firstly, he simply didn’t have anywhere to go. Sure, we’ve been shown that his previous shinki weren’t completely unconcerned about him – after all, they would come to Kofuku looking for him. However, since no shinki other than Yukine (except Hiiro) stayed with him for longer than a year, he probably wouldn’t have much commitment towards them. (The official translators actually raised an interesting question in their blog; at least, I never thought much about it before. As we know, it’s established that there are lots of gods who are born from small wishes and don’t exist for long but still manage to name a shinki or two. Kunimi’s first master was like that – he was a doll-like god with his own miniature shrine, born from a game. This wasn’t enough when the children who made him up stopped believing in him. When that god disappeared, the name he gave to Kunimi did not, so as long as Kunimi has a master, he will always be a nora. Here’s the question: how many of Yato’s shinki thought that he simply stopped existing and went looking for another master? Kofuku says that sometimes Yato would go missing for years, so the shinki who got the -Ne name not long before he’d return to Father (you know, the ones that would come to Kofuku) were either eaten by ayakashi or found another master and became forever noras).

Secondly, Father and Nora provided him with food and protection from “wild” ayakashi, so Yato didn’t need to think of places to spend the night. After all, he wasn’t always so lucky as to find a large shrine with a roof like Tenjin’s; sometimes he would sleep besides statues of Buddha.

Thirdly, he couldn’t go against his father’s wishes. Even though he’s had other believers (how else his name would appear in those oral traditions Ebisu was talking about?) he is convinced that Father is his lifeline. When Hiyori saw Yato’s reaction to those who commit suicide, she thought he hated them because they throw away the lives that shinki would love to have lived. That is true, but it’s not the only reason. Unlike renowned gods, Yato is in the position of someone who could die any moment. Unlike humans though, he wouldn’t have a second chance as a shinki, or go to the afterworld where he already is – he would simply stop existing and no one would ever remember that he was there. To him there’s no difference between gods who don’t appreciate their immortal lives or suicidal people – from his point of view, they all willingly give up on something that he’s working so hard to gain.

And if he wanted to keep that something, he had to work as a god of calamity.

Fourthly, no matter how different Father’s and Sakura’s lessons and approaches were, the one thing Yato’s learnt from them both is that he needs to grant any wish. Not because someone has to do the dirty work when the Heavens are idle, not because they support his existence as a god – it’s something he has to do because it’s the right thing to do. It’s ingrained in his mind. Even the actual plot of Noragami starts when Yato decides to grant Hiyori’s wish, even though she’s never finished her sentence, and takes her 5 yen on his own initiative.

And we also shouldn’t forget that, even though it doesn’t concern him anymore, up to recently Yato still wanted Father’s praise. Father doesn’t say a single nice thing to him now, but that’s not how it’s been before.

On the other hand, Father keeps newspaper clippings of mysterious deaths caused by “the Yatogami miracle” the same way normal parents have keepsakes made by their children. Except that doesn’t make Yato happy at all.

Finally, Yato reveals one more important reason to Yukine after he’s released Nora and decided to become a god of fortune.

On the surface, Yato seems to be quite full of himself. When he does something impressive or, alternatively, other characters question his competence, he responds with “how long do you think I’ve been a god?” Yet none of the hundreds, maybe even thousands of other jobs he’s done would give him recognition comparable to his work as a god of calamity. Sure, people would sometimes give him beer or food as a tip for his “delivery god” jobs. But Rabo told him that his battle skills could win him glory among samurai. People would offer much larger sums of money for contract killing than for cleaning bathrooms or looking for missing pets, even if Yato wouldn’t take them. The more he killed, the more praise he would get from his Father.

I think this quote from FMA describes his situation perfectly:

Yato keeps saying that the only thing he’s really good at is slaying. No wander he would want to keep doing something he thinks is his strong side. Getting praise and gratitude from others is important, but every person has the need in self-actualization. His job as a magatsukami has been giving him exactly that – not just the chance to know that hi’s good at what he’s doing, but to see it with his own eyes. Kazuma may not have been too far off course when he said that Yato delighted in atrocities: even when he would occasionally have doubts in what he was doing (like killing Bishamon’s shinki or the serial killer who had a son), some part of him must have felt that satisfaction and pride of a job well done.

In short, Yato’s attitude towards his job as a magatsukami is very ambiguous. It would give him protection from his enemies (ayakashi), food and shelter, the absence of which may not be lethal but is still notable. It would also deprive him of the possibility to have autonomy in his actions, to move around freely and decide anything in his life. It would bind him to Father, the man whose magnificent child rearing methods are the reason Yato’s mental state alternates between that of a thousand-year-old god, a bratty child, or a rebelling teen. It’s also led him to Kazuma, Kofuku and Daikoku and later Ebisu, and each of these encounters has brought something good to his uneasy life. It would always remind him that killing is the only thing he’s good at while showing just how good he is.

Future?

Yato found his will to stop doing the job of a god of calamity when Ebisu showed him that making others happy doesn’t always mean granting others’ wishes. He saw that a god can have their own will, like Ebisu having his own wish to decrease the number of disasters in the human world by controlling ayakashi. He released Hiiro after being unable to do that for a thousand years. Whether he knew that a god doesn’t get to name a shinki they have once released is unknown, but what’s done is done – he will never “play” with Hiiro again.

However, “god of calamity” is not a mere description of his previous functions. A god’s “profession” is also their nature. Kofuku can cause a pandemonium by the sheer force of her aura alone. Ebisu, a god of fortune, is tremendously lucky (well, safe for being falsely accused and executed he is a pretty lucky god). The problem Yato currently faces is that when he was working as a magatsukami he didn’t think twice about how his actions would affect other people. But now he can’t get rid of the thought that even if he isn’t a divine assassin anymore, his nature as a god of calamity hasn’t changed, so he is the reason of all the bad things happening to the people closest to him.

Hiyori says to Yato that he’s been her god of fortune for a while. That’s nice and all, but all the problems that Hiyori’s classmates list have been caused by Yato directly or indirectly. The accident? If Hiyori hadn’t tried to save him from the bus, the accident wouldn’t have happened and she wouldn’t have become a half-ayakashi. The call girl accusations? Yato was the one possessing Hiyori’s body and giving his visit cards to anyone he could find. And the fact that he calls himself a “delivery god” even in original Japanese only exacerbates the matter. In Japan, house calling a prostitute is referred to as “health delivery”, so the reaction to his visit cards is understandable. And though the hospital incident has been staged by Father, he’s done that because he got mad at Hiyori for trying to lead Yaboku astray from his true path of a god of calamity. That’s quite the food for thought. Moreover, even though Yukine and Hiyori go out of their way to make Yato a god of fortune, even though he tries his hardest to achieve that, he can’t get away from being reminded of who he used to be.

To make Yato a god of fortune, Yukine suggests that he keeps doing what he’s been doing, only with a different goal in mind – slaying ayakashi, not humans, and do all that without being asked. But if his methods haven’t changeв, is there a chance that we’ll still see magatsukami!Yato again? I’m NOT saying that this is how the story will end, because it would completely undermine the message of this series. However, when Bishamon nearly killed Father, it was Yukine who decided to strike her when he saw Yato passing out; it was his hafuri power that sundered the Heavens. But Yato also felt something in that moment– something he hasn’t felt for a long time.

So… who knows?

P.S. if you have a Yato overdose from this post, please don’t blame me

#noragami #noragami manga #Yato #magatsukami yato #noragami meta

172 notes · View notes

hopecountysfavhoe · 3 years

Text

‘Cold’ Chapter Fifteen Pt. 1

Rating: PG13? Idk it’s mild

Word count: 2,176

That night the Deputy fell asleep on the couch. It wasn't a great couch but it was better than that clinic bed. She was comfortable enough, at least until she heard Carmina crying from her room. Remembering what she told Kim about how she'd help with Carmina, the Deputy slid out of her blanket and shuffled her way upstairs.

She didn't want to wake up Nick and Kim if they weren't already awake so she quietly crept into Carmina's room. Carmina stood inside her crib while holding onto the side bars. Her tiny lungs were so strong, and so loud. It was incredible.

When Carmina saw the Deputy she let out another wail, making sure she knew she wanted attention. Now, the Deputy didn't know the first thing about how to be a good parent. Her mom wasn't exactly the pinnacle of motherhood and she didn't even know her dad so when she was around Carmina it was all a crapshoot. She just knew what not to do, and what Kim told her to do.

For some reason Carmina has been extra clingy lately according to Kim, something about sleep training, honestly the Deputy couldn't really remember. But she was going to be leaving tomorrow and one night with her goddaughter didn't sound like the worst thing in the world. So, she walked over to the crib, plastering on a smile for the screaming toddler and lifted her into her arms.

She bounced her body a little bit, resting Carmina on her shoulder. Kim said she was never hungry at this time of night so it wouldn't be that. Her diaper wasn't full so it didn't need to be changed. The only reason the Deputy could think of for Carmina's screaming was she wanted to be with someone.

And that was exactly what she wanted. As soon as the Deputy started bouncing her and whispering to her about how big and loud she was getting (in an adoring tone of course) Carmina quieted down right away.

After spending a little while with her, the Deputy put Carmina back in her crib so she could sleep. She made it out the door and was almost down the steps when she heard the beautiful sound of a screaming baby once more.

With a sigh and a soft chuckle the Deputy turned to walk back up the stairs. As she crept up the stairs the door to Nick and Kim's bedroom opened and Nick stumbled out, still half asleep. He had on sweat pants and an old t-shirt that was inside out.

"Don't worry, I've got her." The Deputy whispered as Nick rubbed his eyes. When he opened his eyes the Deputy was giving him a reassuring smile.

"Ok, thanks." Nick said with a yawn and turned to go back into their room. The Deputy opened the door to Carmina's room again. Finding the same scene she found the first time.

This time she held Carmina and when she finally calmed down she brought her downstairs. When they snuck out of her room she made the hushing noise to Carmina. Not that it would really affect her, she didn't even know what that meant, but it was good to interact with her. She brought Carmina down to the couch, angling the baby monitor on the coffee table so that Nick and Kim could see the couch on their screen.

The Deputy laid down on her back with her head propped up on the arm of the couch, holding Carmina on top of her. Carmina looked thrilled to be on the couch with her, crawling all over her stomach with curiosity. "You win for tonight, but you have to promise me you're going to sleep ok? If not then I'll have to bring you upstairs alright?" The Deputy explained in a hushed whisper to the baby.

Carmina looked around her living room with a sparkle in her eyes, she acted like she wanted to play but the Deputy kept her glued to her hip. "Would you like for me to tell you a story?" She asked and Carmina stared at her.

She babbled something in baby talk and laughed. "Ok, well I don't actually know any baby stories so I'll make something up." The Deputy brushed some of Carmina's hair out of her face absentmindedly. "Oh I've got it. Ok, settle down, Auntie Dep's got a story for you."

Carmina didn't really 'settle down' per say, she just directed her attention to the hand brushing her hair.

The Deputy held out a finger for both of her little hands, giving Carmina something to play with while she told her the story. She spoke in a whisper, hoping that a light tone would help Carmina fall asleep.

"Once upon a time, and this is a true story by the way, once upon a time there was a princess. And this princess was just a little baby but she was beloved by everyone she met. Everyone loved her so much because she was so innocent, so pure, everyone was jealous of her happiness. So, the princess's subjects all worked very hard to give her little gifts or make her laugh, just something to make her happy because when she was happy, they shared a small piece of that happiness. The princess loved these people because no matter who they were, they were like her family.

"Now this princes wasn't just a sweet little princess, she was an awesome, cool princess that didn't take no as an answer. And just like all princesses need, she had a knight. Now, the knight was tired, she felt old despite her youth, she was almost tired of being a knight but, when this knight met her new princess...she was thrilled. This princess was full of energy and life and she showed her knight exactly what was worth it in this world. And from the minute the knight was appointed to the princess she swore that she would fight every dragon and she would slay every monster that ever tried to hurt her princess, because that was her duty." Carmina had laid down on the Deputy's chest, her eyes growing more and more tired from the Deputy's story.

"Are you proud of yourself princess? Because everyday you're teaching this knight how to keep fighting." She asked Carmina who was already half asleep. Pleased with herself and her calming story, the Deputy closed her own eyes. She kept two hands on Carmina, one on the back of her head and neck and the other on her back to keep her from moving. Anytime Carmina moved, the Deputy would be able to feel it and react so she wouldn't fall.

What the Deputy didn't know about the baby monitor was that anytime it picked up sound it transmitted it to the main baby monitor in Nick and Kim's room, and when the baby monitor was sitting on the coffee table they could both see and hear everything that was said.

When Nick came back to bed Kim was awake too. She was so used to always being up with Carmina that she couldn't fall right back to sleep. Nick could, he basically fell back into bed and landed face first into his pillow.

Kim let out a small chuckle at her tired husband and stared at the ceiling, hoping it would help her fall asleep. She wasn't feeling tired and was just antsy so she turned over in bed. The baby monitor was sitting on her bedside table facing her so that she could see everything going on in Carmina's room. Except it wasn't showing her Carmina's room, it was showing her the living room for some reason.

Kim rubbed her eyes and looked back at the baby monitor trying to figure out what she was looking at until she realized the Deputy has brought Carmina down to the couch with her. Carmina didn't look very tired, instead choosing to play with the Deputy's fingers. She could tell that the Deputy was saying something but she couldn't really hear it so she turned the volume up louder.

"Ok, settle down, Auntie Dep's got a story for you." She heard and hit Nick's arm to wake him up.

"Wha- what? What's wrong?" He asked quickly sitting up.

"Look," Kim motioned to the baby monitor and listened intently. Her and Nick both listened to her story, Kim had to wipe a tear out of her eye. "She's so gentle with her." Kim remarked in a whisper. Carmina was falling asleep on the Deputy's chest, perfectly content with herself.

"See? You don't have to worry so much about her, the Deputy is ok." Nick said and kissed Kim's cheek.

"Tell me you haven't noticed any differences with her?" Kim said and turned around to face Nick. Nick sighed and looked down at Kim's hands taking them in his own.

"I have but, you just heard her, being around Carmina is helping." He made the point and Kim nodded.

"Still Nick, I was there when she was waking up, I was there in the clinic when she was trying to walk and talk. She'd looked like she'd lost all hope, she acted like she lost her fire." Kim gripped Nick's hand back and looked him in the eyes. "Please, keep an eye on her. She doesn't want to stay here I know that, but I need to know that she has someone watching her back." Kim begged and Nick nodded.

He placed a kiss on her hand. "Of course I will. After we rescued her, the gang and I we made a pact to always keep an eye on her. No more travelling or doing stupid stuff alone, that was our deal. I ain't breaking a deal like that." He assured her and Kim made a pained smile.

"Thank you. You're gonna be an amazing dad." Kim told him with confidence and Nick smiled back at her. They kissed and Nick went back to bed. Kim rolled over to face the baby monitor, watching the Deputy and Carmina sleep together.

Hoping to keep the Deputy longer, Kim created an elaborate excuse about needing help around the house. Just small stuff like reaching a book on a high shelf (they're the same height but whatever, the Deputy didn't think to hard about it) or helping fold laundry. The Deputy was certain that the doctor put her up to this as a way of getting light exercise without overdoing it. She was also convinced that Kim still wanted to know her name. It was fine with her, she knew that out of everybody she'd met, Kim would probably be the most understanding.

It wasn't that the Deputy didn't like her name she just legitimately didn't know if people would laugh at it. It wasn't a terrible name, just unfortunate, and if certain people heard it was her name she'd never hear the end of it.

"What are you thinking about?" Kim asked when she came back from carrying a small stack of towels into the kitchen. The Deputy didn't respond, she was staring ahead in space on the couch.

"Deputy? Hello?" Kim asked again and waved her hand. The Deputy seemed to shake out of her trance and looked over at her.

"Sorry, did you say something?" She asked, not realizing that she'd been zoning out.

"I just asked what you were thinking about." Kim asked innocently and carried the empty laundry basket into the laundry room.

"Oh sorry, I don't really know where I was just then." The Deputy rubbed her forehead and rolled her shoulders. "Hey Kim?" she asked and Kim liked her head out of the laundry room door.

"Yes?"

"Would you like anymore help around here? Because if not I was gonna go find Grace or maybe Mary May."

Kim was quiet then she walked into the living room. She sat down next to the Deputy. "Deputy, I know you don't really want to hear this but...I'm worried about you. It's not that I don't trust you but I know that if you go out and hear someone needs help then you'll rush to go help them, which is wonderful but in your condition? It could be bad. All I'm asking is that you give yourself a couple more days of resting, please?"

"But Kim I've been resting for over 6 weeks, I'm ok now and besides, it's just a talk. I'm not going to go yell at John or anything like that." The Deputy kept her tone gentle and Kim shook her head.

"I know, and you are one of the most resilient people I've ever met but please, I just have a really bad feeling about this." Kim's eyes were sincere, she really did have a bad feeling about this.

"How about I just talk to Grace and see how she's doing? I promise I won't do anything stupid, and I'll be back for dinner." The Deputy promised and Kim looked relieved.

"Thank you." Kim thanked her and smiled.

#sorry i’ve been so inactive #I’ve been ✨struggling✨#no promises but imma try to post more #far cry 5 #jacob seed #far cry #john seed #jacob seed x deputy #jacob x deputy #joseph seed #female deputy #deputy oc #jacob seed x fem deputy #jacob seed fanfic #Jacob seed fan fiction #jacob x fem deputy #fem! deputy #far cry OC #FC5 OC

3 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Review: the Gory Sequel Expands the Universe

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Sitting somewhere between a TV event and a ready made film franchise, the second part of Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy transports us back to the late ’70s and into the heyday of the slasher movie. Bookended with our core ’90s-set story, this segment tells the story of the Camp Nightwing massacre of 1978, as told by C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), the sole survivor of the slayings. Loosely based on the books by R.L. Stine but leaning into a hard R-rating Fear Street Part 2: 1978 is teen-centric but is about as suitable for teenage viewers as its influences – ie. it depends on the kid.

Playing with late ‘70s and early ‘80s stalk and slash traditions, the movie is mostly clearly influenced by Friday the 13th, and tells the origin story of a similar masked killer. But just like Fear Street Part 1: 1994 it takes pleasure in subverting those tropes and also expanding out the wider mythology of the universe. It’s clever, it’s playful, it’s extremely gory and it’s reminiscent of a more innocent time for the genre. If you bought into Fear Street ‘94 you won’t be disappointed.

Leaning further into the bitter rivalry between neighbouring towns, the perfect and privileged Sunnyvale and the seemingly cursed Shadyside, Fear Street ’78 kicks off with rebellious youngster Ziggy (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) being tortured by awful Sunnyvalers who think she has stolen money from them. Ganged up on, wrists bound above her head and strung up from the very tree where the legendary Sarah Fier was supposedly hanged as a witch, the Sunnvalers taunt her then burn the inside of her arm with a lighter in a bit of foreshadowing we are bound to see come full circle in the final installment. As with ’94, this is a tale of scrappy outsiders pitted against the wealthy but cruel Sunnyvale crowd and here the rivalry is even more on the nose – the night of the massacre coincides with the annual camp ‘colour war’ – a playful Shadyside vs Sunnydale nighttime game.

Sink as Ziggy is electric, which is crucial since, staying true to tropes of the original slashers, quite a few of the secondary characters in Fear Street ’78 are initially very annoying. She’s fierce, furious and self possessed while her sanctimonious sister Cindy (Emily Rudd) is the preppy, polo-shirted, virginal archetype of the final girl. Other secondary characters who would definitely be destined for the chop in the bog standard slashers (Fear Street has some punches to pull – don’t assume you know where this is going) are preoccupied with sex and drugs. There’s more going on here though.

Taking place over one night, as well as the threat of the madman with the axe indiscriminately hacking to pieces campers and counsellors alike (yep, a bunch of little kids get offed), a secondary plot sees Cindy and the rebellious Alice (Ryan Simpkins) delving further into the history of Sarah Fier, via the notebook of Mary Lane (Jordana Spiro) whose daughter Ruby was affected by the curse. Underground tunnels, buried bones and glimpses of a dark past set up what we might see in part three, while dual narratives keep things snappy and full of peril – no one is safe.

The three films were shot back to back with 1978 shot last of all, and director Leigh Janiak, who clearly has a genuine love for horror, has packed the film with references and easter eggs for ’94. It’s another reason why releasing all three weekly on Netflix is a smart move. Audiences can enjoy picking up the nods – we’ve met Nurse Lane before! Oh, that’s why Nick has a limp! Etc etc – and when all three are available we can watch back in reverse order.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Which is better – ’94 or ’78? It’s a moot point and will almost certainly depend on whether you prefer ’90s horror or ’70s/’80s horror. Both films, however, maintain a consistent tone, sympathetic performances from the young cast, an absolutely banging soundtrack and an element of surprise. As a standalone it’s a fast, fun watch with lots of nods to classic films and a good sense of humour, but as part of a whole, Fear Street is building to become something genuinely unique and special of its own.

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 and Fear Street Part 1: 1994 are available to stream now on Netflix. Fear Street Part 3: 1666 will be released on July 16.

The post Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Review: the Gory Sequel Expands the Universe appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2VpKKmy

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

kim-lexie · 4 years

Text

april favorites.

music.

keshi. the definition of low-fi chill bops. honestly, i don't typically gravitate towards this genre, but i must say his vocals are incredibly stunning and i enjoy the variety of sounds he utilizes in his tracks. i love the vibe, it is the epitome of driving down an empty backroad while the sunsets, just chilling in the silence. some favorite tracks would have to be ‘atlas’ and ‘summer’, and ‘right here’ and ‘blue’ (as i begin to type his discography, i should just say listen to it all). once again thank you to the influences that brought this gem of an artist to my attention jae of day6 and jen le of wongfu production. the realest homies.

youtube

‘nonstop’ by oh my girl. literally already know that this will be added to my summer bops playlist bc that is exactly the feeling that this track evokes. i love it and i appreciate finding a girl group that slays vocals! this track has been on repeat nonstop since i heard my homegirl, nathalie posted about them on her instagram! (def check her out as well she is always a favorite here is the link to her channel)

dramas & movies. *beware spoilers*

a little thing called first love. another i watched with a bestie while in quarantine. it was a lovely little perk up at the end of the day watching a drama with a friend. i ended up loving this cute little drama. i loved how they both were falling in love with each other, not just a one-sided crazy crush. it was a lovely and refreshing to see this. i loved the part where we heard youn-ian’s internal dialogue when miao-miao first said his name, and he was like wait did she just call my name. and that fact that he got all salty because she confessed first and he wanted to confess. literally was so mad at him for a minute. i must say that lai kuanlin is a precious bean, and completely stole my heart. his character is seriously a gem of a human and wanted to protect her and help those around him. i loved the familial relationships and how encouraging her father was when she finally found her dream in fashion, and how youn-ian and kai-tuo were able to resolve their differences and ended up coming together. even though this drama had major elevations in character development by not making a one sided crush, for some reason it needed to maintain the silly notion that the girl always gets tripped up thinking she isn't good enough for him. like excuse me girl you're a queen and he is lucky enough to have you in his life. and it also need to be silly and have her try to hide their relationship because that is always a good idea and has gone well in every other drama that tried. and i loved how he was like frick it all going up to her as they painted the bus and said ‘something’ is missin’’ and drawing a heart with her paint brush, leaving everyone collectively shook. overall give it a 9.5 out of 10 i really loved it! it was cute and cheesy!

also must add how disappointed i am that wang runze doesn't have an instagram like come through honey.

i’ll go to you when the weather is nice. this gem has its own post because it needed more than just a rewind.

time to hunt. watched this one via scener with my friend and it was definitely not my typical pick because it was quite violent in nature, and just not my cup of tea. but with a cast line up like this one i just had to watch and support. the whole dystopian concept was hard to digest, like they have to rob a casino probably not the best choice because bad guys run this under ground casino. like the whole gang is going to come for you silly. and like the reason it was called the hunt is because this assumed gang dude is hunting them down because they stole. and he ends up being a freaking cop, and ends up killing all their families, and now is after the group of friends. the way it as filmed and the editing is next level. it was seriously mad good. one scene that really stood out to me what the scene on the beach, like man the juxtaposition when they are playing running around on the beach and his friend gets shot by the firecracker in his dream, and it’s because at that same moment he was shot by the dude and died. like woah. i would probably give it a 8.5 out of 10. literally had me on the edge of my seat the whole darn thing.

also i think i’m just going to try and get these rewinds up at some point in life. and i’m just going to not apologize for being late anymore because it is my norm at this point.

#2020 #april #rewind #favorites #review #cdrama #kdrama #drama #korean drama #movies #music #kpop #keshi #nonstop #oh my girl #a little thing called first love #i'll go to you when the weather is nice #time to hunt

2 notes · View notes

jq37 · 5 years

Text

**spoilers for sophomores and stagecraft the NYC Fantasy High Live Show**

I never actually got an ask explicitly asking for this recap so I didn’t do one because I’ve been super busy but I wanted to do a quick post on it before I go fully in The Unsleeping City mode. This is all off the top of my head.

I know we kinda knew the gang went back to school after S1 because of the little epilogue they had but that's still so wild. Imagine getting arrested and slaying a dragon and almost dying (and *actually* dying in some cases) and then having to go back and be a Sophomore with a bunch of kids who, as far as we know, have little to no practical experience (except the 7 Maidens who kick ass and not only slayed a dragon but did it for no reason except they felt like it, which is metal as hell).

Sidenote: I was gonna say "a bunch of kids who might as well go to Mumple," and as I was considering it, I realized that it's never actually explained what exactly that school's deal is. But it's such an unpleasantly named school that you're immediately like, "No thanks. Hard pass."

IDK if BDG watched the full FH season before he played or if Brennan just briefed him really well but he matched the tone and the setting from the first word out of his mouth. Him going up to the gang and being like, “You’ve done murder, right?” was just like an instant hall of fame line for me.

And all the regular cast slipped right back into their roles so well. They may not have remembered all of their spells and attacks but they remembered all the character stuff 100%

Possibly my fave line of the night was when Aguefort bamfed out of the room and Siobahn did a little leaning on the fourth wall, “He just did a teleport spell. The rest was flavor.” It was so smooth.

My headcanon of Adaine’s life being mildly inconvenienced by random visions when she’s trying to, like, have her damn breakfast is validated.

Oh, the other great Adaine line in this ep was when Falinel was trying to get her back and was like, “I get that you’re a teenager,” and she was like, “Do you?”

Also, I think it’s funny that Brennan didn’t expect Adaine to use the identification spell, even though the whole story hinges on the the gang fighting a monster using a powerful magical item that none of them recognize.

“Don’t Emily Axford me on the live show.” She’s a verb. I love her so much.

Brennan explains that Fig and Riz are touring and “in deep cover” respectively and, hilariously, no one is very curious about the second thing at all. It’s like, “Same shit as usual.”

So Kristen’s highlights. Because I think doing this person is easiest for my memory.

Kristen is having ANOTHER crisis of faith and, this time, her tentative solution is to change Yes! to Yes? Which doesn’t help at all and arguably makes things worse because now her spirit guardians are a bunch of annoying philosophy majors (because Brennan loves dunking on himself as much as I love dunking on him).

Tracker MVP Line: I feel like if you don’t want to join a cult, Crossfit is a bad call.

Kristen playing the gay card to get Adaine to walk into her room (“Come in and be an ally. Are you an ally?”) and then Ally announcing that she and Tracker are both naked has equivalent energy to that scene in Critical Role where Percy knocks on Vex’s door and Laura gleefully announces that she opens the door buck naked.

Gorgug is the most naive of the Bad Kids and also most likely has the most comprehensive knowledge of sex stuff which is hilarious to me. The duality of man.

Toss-up favorite Gorgug moments were his constant, “He’s doing it!” to Hargis’s awful acting and him grabbing the wig from Iris and turning into a cloud of gnats wearing tiny wigs (which Brennan allowed at the audiences). That second thing was such an off the wall bonkers choice. That was like an Emily choice.

Oh, there was a moment when he got hit by a charm ray and everyone went, “Awwww” and then Zac went, “I’m immune,” and everyone went bonkers. I cannot stress how wild the energy in the room was.

Also, during Gorgug’s intro when his parents are like, “We’re just super happy you haven’t died and gone to hell yet so far.”

Fabian’s whole conversation with Cathilda about his mom attempting to use the kitchen was gold.

Likewise, the whole interaction between him and Gilear was AMAZING. Fabian and I had the exact same reaction to hearing his engine was full of bees.

Sidenote, I love that he hates that Gilear is dating his mom and has zero self awareness that he’s doing the exact same thing with Adaine’s sister.

Lou/Fabian wasting good rolls on pure flavor is very on brand.

The best thing about Fabian is he’s entertaining when he’s succeeding big and he’s entertaining when he’s failing big.

Oh, my fave Fabian line I think is when Hargis comes in and is like, “You’ve murdered, yes?” and everyone is like yeah except for Kristen and he’s like, “OK but you’ve facilitated a lot of murder. You’ve blessed me to commit murders several times.”

Aguefort totally DESTROYS Gorgug when he tries to point out that maybe the school isn’t being run in the safest way and it’s amazing.

Also, Brennan as Aguefort prompting everyone to yell, “Chronomancy!” was very fun.

Truly, the most iconic moments of the session were BDG’s nat 20 roll to fool Iris as Professor Bargis (I can’t believe we got truly the only scenario where that worked because I thought he was doomed), Gorgug making his dex save for petrification (s/o to riz-gukgak) and then throwing out that “to be or not to be”, and Brennan grinning and slowly lowering his laptop screen because Hargis just did a one liner and killed the boss.

This is really far down for this comment but I really didn’t expect Adaine to pull the wig right when she did and trigger the combat. I mean, if she hadn’t, it would have run even later and I got home pretty late as is, but I really thought there was gonna be at least one conversation between the Id-ing the wig and the fight.

Sidenote: My fave Bad Kid dynamic is that everyone is constantly ganging up on everyone. It’s exactly how I remember all my friend groups in high school being.

Adaine makes very good use of spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Ray of Sickness. They’re like her go-to’s and they’re really low level.

Did Brennan write this villain just the make fellow teen jokes and to have a valid reason to say, “You snatched my wig?” Discuss.

This is way longer than I intended.

Anyway, as good as it the show was (and it was amazing) the wildest part for me is always gonna be that, after the show, I met Brennan and got confirmation that he has a tumblr, that was his account on that one post, and he is aware that I dunk on him on the regular. Truly not information I thought I was going to get when I started doing these and yet here we are. The internet is wild y’all.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #the other reason this took so long is I had to spend a full week processing the fact that brennan recognized my tumblr icon when he saw it #truly a wild turn of events

90 notes · View notes

soundsof71 · 6 years

Video

youtube

TURN IT UP! Joe Walsh with The James Gang, “Walk Away”, 1971

The James Gang was one of those bands that hit so much harder live than on their studio records that it’s almost impossible to believe that they’re the same guys. Their two 1971 albums offer the perfect contrast, Thirds (from whence comes this glorious single), and James Gang In Concert, recorded in May 1971 at Carnegie Hall and released later that year.

I’m surprised the hall was still standing when they were done. It’s the loudest slab of vinyl I’ve ever put on a turntable -- even with the volume turned all the way down, the racket coming straight out of the needle scraping through the grooves unamplified was flat out unbelievable. Very much in keeping with the ethos proclaimed in the liner notes of the previous year’s James Gang Rides Again, “Made Loud To Be Played Loud.”

This performance from Germany’s Beat Club, first aired July 24, 1971, somewhat splits the difference between the civilized, if still loud, studio band, and the utter savages (in a good way!) of James Gang on stage. Surely you’ve already pressed play, and heard Joe Walsh absolutely ROAR into this thing. If all you know of him is what you’ve heard on the radio or with the Eagles, you’re in for an eye-opening, and ear-opening delight.

I had once thought of this song as a pleasant bit of science fiction. The MAN in the song is the one who wants to talk about his feelings and where the relationship is going, while “you just turn your pretty head and walk away.” Riiiight. Because that’s how men are. Just won’t shut up about relationships. ‾\_(ツ)_/‾

Well, maybe Joe really IS that way, because the song sounds pretty damn persuasive, and other than being a little condescending, it’s not especially mean, which automatically sets him above most men of the day.

(1971 was the first great year for a wide swath women artists in classic rock, but women as a lot were alas still not faring well at the hands of male writers. Still aren’t, either, which is a story for another day.)

I actually started rethinking this song when I read what Stevie Nicks had to say about Joe Walsh, who she describes as "the great, great love of my life.”

She said of their breakup: “It nearly killed me. We had to break up or we thought we’d die. We were just too excessive. We were busy superstars and we were doing way too much drugs. We were really, seriously drug addicts. We were a couple on the way to hell.

But there was no closure. It took me years to get over it — if I ever did. It’s very sad but at least we survived.

He was the one I would have married, and that I would probably have changed my life around for a little bit, anyway. Not a lot.

[my note: the fact that she concedes that she’d have changed only a little bit, and only “probably”, suggests that she’s maybe not exaggerating the rest.]

There was no other man for me. I look back at all the men in my life, and there was only one that I can honestly say I could truly have lived with every day for the rest of my life, because there was respect and we loved to do the same things. I was very content with him all the time. That’s only happened once in my life.

This man, if he’d asked me to marry him, I would have. There was nothing more important than Joe Walsh — not my music, not my songs, not anything. He was the great, great love of my life.” (more here)

So on top of being better at relationships and rocking harder than you might have thought, he’s also a terrific technical guitarist, and a hilarious storyteller. I heard him tell a story on the radio in 1988 or so, involving him and George Harrison, that I’ve never seen documented, but I dropped everything I was doing to listen.

I even remember exactly where I was -- in the back room of the bookstore I managed in Washington, DC, way past time to go home, but I didn’t want to miss the end of the story during the long walk to my car.

This is paraphrased, but it’s pretty damn close. I started telling this story to everyone within earshot right away, and you’ll get why.

(btw, I don’t have a picture of Joe and George together, although they shared a stage a time or two. There are quite a few pictures of Joe and Ringo, though -- not only did Joe play in some editions of Ringo’s All-Star Band, they’re married to sisters! Marjorie and Barbara Bach, so yeah, they’re brothers in law.)

Anyway, Joe said that the one piece of advice he gives every guitarist trying to learn the instrument, “Learn to play every song The Beatles ever did, and sound exactly like they did. Doesn’t matter if you hate The Beatles or don’t want to sound anything like them when you’re done, but once you can play everything they played, exactly the way they sounded, you can do anything that it’s possible to do on a guitar.”

Well, there was one song that was vexing him, the very last one that he still couldn’t figure out -- “And Your Bird Can Sing” from Revolver. When he finally got it, he was beside himself. He called up George Harrison to make sure he was home (both fellas were living in Los Angeles at the time), said, “Stay there, I got something you gotta hear!”

He packed up his amps and his guitar, drove over to George’s house, and started setting up. “What is it?” asked George. “Just wait,” replied Joe, and kept setting up.

When Joe finally unleashed a note-perfect “And Your Bird Can Sing”, George fell out of his chair laughing. “How the hell did you do that?” “Well, it took me long enough to figure out,” Joe said, “so I was going to ask YOU how YOU did it.”

George said, “The way *I* did it was John and me playing in unison, and then double-tracked! I can’t figure out how you did it by yourself, even though I just saw you do it!”

Well, Joe was left feeling pretty good about himself, managing to sound like the equivalent of four Beatles guitarists all by himself, if a little exasperated to have spent so much time figuring out something that he should have known better than to try -- but he did it anyway. THAT’s Joe Walsh for ya.

I hope you’ve already hit play AGAIN on that blistering take on 1971′s “Walk Away” up top, because Joe really was killing it that year. There’s more to him than you probably think, too, so if you’re into the heavy guitar thing, you should definitely do some exploring.

Led Zeppelin fans in particular, I’m looking at you. Joe and Jimmy were friends from Jimmy’s days in The Yardbirds, and it was Joe who said, man, you’ve gotta quit monkeying around with that Telecaster. When you’re ready to rock, switch to a Les Paul -- and indeed, Jimmy bought his first Les Paul (known as “#1″) from Joe in 1969, for $1200, which Joe says he flew out to hand-deliver to Jimmy. Says Jimmy, “Joe brought it for me when we played the Fillmore. He insisted I buy it, and he was right."

(btw, nifty pic from Joe’s Twitter feed of him and Jimmy hanging out after LZ’s February 12 show at The Garden in 1975!)

I wouldn’t want to say that Led Zeppelin’s approach to live jamming was necessarily influenced by James Gang, but I’m saying that they were similar and Joe got there first. LOL And seriously, if you dig live Zeppelin, you NEED to know more about live James Gang and early solo Joe.

(More details about #1 than anyone but a gearhead would want here, here, here, and here, but hey, maybe you’re a gearhead!)

To give you a head start for exploring more James Gang and early solo Joe, I’ll add one more video, from 1972, “Turn To Stone” featuring Fanny’s Jean Millington on bass absolutely slaying dragons on this monster. As Joe told Rolling Stone,

"Turn to Stone" was written about the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War and the protesting that was going on and all of that. It's a song about frustration. Also, I attended Kent State. I was at the shootings. That fueled it, too. In those days it felt like the government's priority was not the population. They had an agenda that was about something other than doing what was necessarily good for the country.

A few years later [in 1980], I decided to run for president myself. [Ed. Note: Walsh pledged to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem.] I thought it'd be a great idea and I had fun with it. And the reason I did it is because there was, and there continues to be, a very apathetic attitude toward voting. There's a total separation between the federal government and the people. So running for president was an attempt on my part to get people to care enough to go vote. But people just don't bother. And that's why it's not working.

TURN IT UP!

youtube

Oh what the heck, and one more from July 20 1971, from the French TV show Pop2, “The Bomber” (from 1970′s Rides Again) which includes a quick little nod to “Beck’s Bolero” along the way. (Well, technically I suppose, Ravel’s “Bolero”, and indeed, Ravel’s estate made them remove the reference from initial pressings of the album!)

And another note for LZ fans: Joe does some crazy stuff with his bare hands at around 2:30-3:30 going into “Bolero” that Jimmy did with a violin bow. THAT’s Joe Walsh for ya.

TURN IT UP!

youtube

388 notes · View notes

truthbeetoldmedia · 5 years

Text

The 100 6x06 “Memento Mori” Review

Along with its impeccable world building, what Season 6 of The 100 has done so well is remind us that no matter how strong one’s moral compass is, every action has a reaction. Monty’s words to “do better” may be lingering in the minds of all of our heroes, but then again, they weren’t exactly expecting to encounter body snatchers in their new world.

Episode 6x06 of The 100, “Memento Mori,” written by newcomer Alyssa Clark and directed by P.J. Pesce is reminiscent of the “old” The 100 in more ways than one, but with a Sanctum twist. There are equal parts lore and moral conflict, and a pinch of backstabbing thrown in for good measure.

Heart Over Head

Try as he might to remain rational and think with his head, Bellamy was certainly not expecting this curveball: Clarke is dead. Josephine restrains Bellamy in her bedroom, and we can tell once she’s thrown Murphy in there with him that it’s been torn apart. While Murphy attempts to subtly convince Bellamy to stay and take the mind drives for the rest of their people, Bellamy has a one track mind. Clarke is gone, and there’s no bringing her back. (Or is there?)

It’s heartbreaking to see Bellamy mourn Clarke in such an outward way. We missed this in the years lost on the ring, and even in the brief moments we did see him grapple with her death, it was clear he was going about it logically. After all, Clarke had just told him to use his head. Now though, after Jordan has reminded him that his heart is what allowed him to be such a heroic and inspiring person, his head seems to have taken a back seat in his processing.

Though Bellamy tells the rest of Spacekru at the end of the episode that they must do what Clarke would want and survive, it’s likely he won’t be able to stick to that for long, at least I hope not. Murder is wrong, kids, but this has been a long time coming. Bellamy’s passion is what makes him such a standout character. That version of him resurfacing would be the cherry on top of such a good season.

Once a Cockroach, Always a Cockroach

The tagline of the season is “Face your demons”. While for Madi this is the Dark Commander and for Diyoza it may be her likeness to Hitler, for Murphy it’s what he’s seen in the afterlife and his unwillingness to go back. This is a character that has cheated death so many times that’s he’s never perhaps grappled with the thought of his own mortality. Now that he knows there’s a way to cheat death forever, he must decide whether to be the hero or slay his demon.

It isn’t surprising in the least that Murphy has taken a deal to save himself. After all, this is his trademark. Even he knows it. However, it’s difficult to tell if his motives will change at any point in the season. What does Josephine have to do to lose him? Though Murphy acts in this episode like he can deal with losing Bellamy, we’ve seen just how ferociously loyal he is to those he loves.

When Clarke, Abby and co. threatened to test the nightblood solution on Emori back in Season 4, Murphy literally had to be restrained. He promised he’d kill Clarke if anything happened to her. Now more than ever, Murphy has a family. Something tells me that as much as he refuses that fact sometimes, he won’t let the Primes harm them — especially since he’s witnessed death firsthand.

Murphy has always been an unpredictable character though. Just when he seems the most bastardly and selfish, he bends and does something to save someone. I wouldn’t be surprised if Murphy turned into the hero of the season.

Echo, Emori and Raven

When Josephine tells an oblivious Echo that Bellamy has gone into the forest on a scouting mission, she’s suspicious but she takes the bait. Josephine figures this will buy her enough time to sway Abby and get the nightblood solution, but she still sends Jade to follow Echo.

While Echo is ultimately looking for Bellamy, she finds herself mercy killing someone who’s quite literally being eaten alive by a tree and learns about Josephine/Clarke from Jade. While it’s nice to see Echo go off on her own and have an independent storyline, it’s short-lived when she returns to the compound and reunites with her friends.

However, we still got a brief taste of a possible new pairing: Echo and Jade. Both spies, they have the potential to either grow closer as they empathize with one another, or play a very entertaining game to see who can gather more intel. Either way, I’m seriously hoping we get more of these two.

Meanwhile, Raven and Emori help Ryker, a Prime, work on the radiation problem. However, once Raven knows about the body snatching, there isn’t much working at all. While it’s understandable that Raven would question the morality of this all, the argument seems to go in circles. Ryker defends the way of the Primes as a significant aspect of Sanctum culture, and Raven argues its immorality.

Raven doesn’t seem to persuade Ryker, but it’s possible that his mind may change later on and he may become a key ally in helping our heroes to defeat the Primes and get Clarke back. He seems the most willing of the Primes we’ve met to break, anyway.

The issue here is that Raven continues to argue that she’s done nothing wrong, she’s innocent, and she has no demons. She can’t realistically keep up this facade forever, no matter how much she projects onto other people. Raven is a character that needs a serious reality check, and soon. She was once one of my favorites, but I’m beginning to lose hope that Raven can redeem herself from all the bitterness and egotism.

The Mysterious Spiral

Also in the forest are Octavia, Diyoza and their new friend Xavier. Octavia has been exposed to flares that rapidly aged her hand, and the aging is rapidly spreading. Xavier fears she may only have hours before the aging spreads to her mind, killing her. So, the three unlikely confidants search for a possible cure. It turns out that Xavier is a fan of homeopathic medicine. He collects the sap from a tree to apply to Octavia’s wrinkled skin, and while it doesn’t exactly help, her hand does begin to twitch uncontrollably.

The gang soon discover that her tremors aren’t random at all. In fact, they’re forming a spiral that shows up elsewhere in nature, and inked on Xavier’s skin. He says this anomaly called him and it is calling Octavia now.

While it’s unknown what exactly the anomaly is, it’s likely that it will give Octavia some kind of purpose she didn’t have before. Maybe it will even encourage her to live. Octavia’s demons are arguably the most difficult to face of any character on the show, so she likely needs some strong ammo to fight back.

I have to note that watching Octavia and Diyoza’s unlikely friendship blossom has been nothing short of a treat. This is a pair so many were hoping for at the end of Season 5 when they had a brief interaction in the Eligius ship, and one that is definitely not disappointing now. Diyoza and Octavia both have a lot to regret, so it only makes sense that they help each other get their humanity back.

Befriending the Dark Commander

Not knowing that Clarke is dead, Madi struggles in this episode with a commander who won’t let up taunting her. Gaia calls him Sheidheda, the Dark Commander. While in a deep meditative state, Madi speaks to Sheidheda and attempts to reason with him. However, he acts as the metaphorical devil on one’s shoulder, encouraging Madi to kill Gaia before she herself is harmed. Madi questions his words, but once she wakes up in chains, she seems to second guess herself. And when Madi learns that Clarke is dead (in the most heartbreaking scene, might I add), something clicks.

Madi banishes Gaia, and with Sheidheda now by her side, plans to kill everyone in order to avenge Clarke. While half of me was jumping for joy at this new heart-heavy side to Madi, the other half of me was frozen in place, worried about what may become of her without Gaia to guide her, and with this new, evil spirit guide.

Lola Flannery’s performance as Madi in this episode was magnetizing. My eyes were completely glued to the screen during her scenes. Even the most innocent of characters like Madi and Jordan have been forced to face their demons in Sanctum, which means that Lola has had to show a whole different part of her range. It’s always exciting to watch actors explore different sides of their characters, like Marie Avgeropoulos with her rendition of Blodreina last year. I’m anticipating many more Madi scenes worth singing praises about in the near future.

Mother Knows Best?

Still in the dark about Clarke death is her own mother, Abby. Abby has been so preoccupied with finding a way to save Kane that she’s ignored every suspicious thing Josephine has said to her. While Josephine originally believed that Abby would be her most difficult challenge, she’s actually been the opposite. Josephine takes Murphy’s advice and uses all of Abby’s demons against her, bringing up her addiction and her questionable decision to sell out her husband on the Ark.

Josephine doesn’t just taunt her with her past actions though. She tells Abby that she fears what will become of her if she loses Kane too and reminds her that she needs her mom. Abby falls for this hook, line and sinker. I have a theory that once Abby finds out about Josephine and learns she was the last to know, her priorities will shift. Her real demon should be what she’s done to her daughter. She can probably live without Kane, but can she live without Clarke, knowing she’s, at times, been an arguably bad mother?

Can’t Get You Out of My Head

When Murphy tells Josephine’s dad on her, she’s forced to bargain with him and give him the mind drives. Instead of dwelling on the impending shitstorm coming her way, Josephine ends her day by telling herself tomorrow will be better, taking a mystery pill, and laying her head on her pillow. When she closes her eyes though, Clarke is alive inside her mind! And then: boom, out.

I never had a doubt in my mind that Clarke would be alive somewhere, somehow. After all, she’s a fighter. This could be of course because Clarke is a synthetic nightblood and this may not pair with the memory drive as well as a natural born nightblood would. If this is the case, it would certainly spoil Josephine’s plan.

So there’s a way out of this for Clarke. Now the rest of our heroes just need to figure that out and hurry up!

Once again, this episode left me speechless in a way that only The 100 can. Right now, there are a bunch of unconnected storylines all taking up equal parts of screen time. I’m eager for that moment when they start to intertwine. I suspect that Gabriel may be the missing link in all of this. Perhaps he’ll have a way to save Octavia and even get Clarke back.

Stray Thoughts:

I miss Jordan. I can only suspect that given his situation with Delilah, he won’t want to just try to survive. Maybe he’ll even team up with Bellamy and Madi to get Clarke back (wishful thinking?).

Bellamy sitting outside by himself crying was so heart wrenching but so, so telling. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Josephine and Bellamy saying “Shut up Murphy” at the same time was excellent.

Where is Indra this season? I miss her and her words of wisdom dearly.

Jessica’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on the CW.

#The 100 #Memento Mori

7 notes · View notes

ettadunham · 5 years

Text

A Buffy rewatch 3x17 Enemies

aka bad break-ups

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and rant about it in 10-3k words. What you can expect: long run-on sentences and disjointed observations, often focused on one tiny detail about the episode. What you shouldn’t be expecting: actual reviews that make sense.

And today’s episode finally brings Buffy and Faith’s relationship to a breaking point, in all of its subtextual glory. Meanwhile, I kept rewinding as I tried remembering where the layers of deception started, and the “they don’t know that we know that she doesn’t know that we know” games ended.

And I guess the honest answer is that I still don’t know. The episode doesn’t really end with a flashback answering at what point did the characters realize that something was off… But that’s also part of the fun, as one tries to look for the small signs they could’ve noted as well.

First of all, let’s just all acknowledge this delightful outfit:

We’re entering the stage of truly iconic Willow looks, folks.

Anywho, back to the Fath/Buffy/Angel mind games

Not to toot my own horn and say I told you so (like some characters), but by the end of the episode, I once again got stuck on the deliberate parallel drawn between Angel and Faith as Buffy’s love interests. It’s no coincidence that Buffy asks for a break between her and Angel just when her relationship with Faith has completely fallen apart.

During this rewatch I definitely got the impression that Buffy’s decision there was more of a result of where the whole thing with Faith left her emotionally, than Angel pretending to be bad for the episode. His betrayal was fake and pre-agreed upon. Faith’s was real and devastating.

I guess there’s also a weird BDSM theme here with the comments they make around the chains… So if we roll with that, the comparison is that Buffy and Angel had their safe words there. With Faith… not so much.

To drive the point home that Buffy’s conflict here is with Faith, and this is all about that broken trust, let’s also look at the scene between her and Willow, where she’s talking about seeing Faith and Angel together the night before.

Willow: No way. I know what you're thinking and no way! Buffy: You're right. Faith would never do that. Willow: Faith would totally do that.

We again see here Willow’s clear dislike of Faith, which I find especially fun as we also have Xander voicing some of his classic anti-Angel sentiments in the same episode. I do hope that I’ll have the energy to delve a bit more into that a few episodes from now.

But more importantly, look at Buffy’s line. Her response to the idea of Angel and Faith getting it on isn’t that Angel wouldn’t do that. (Remember, Angel, her boyfriend, the one who’d be cheating on her?)

It’s Faith wouldn’t do that. Faith wouldn’t do that to her.

The conclusion one can draw from that is that either she doesn’t trust Angel to begin with, or that her trust and faith in… well, Faith, is much more important to her right now. Personally? I’m leaning towards the latter.

There’s once again a lot of innuendos as well. (That we’re calling subtext for some reason, even though the sexual and romantic undertones are essentially textual at this point…) Like after Buffy and Angel come out of the movie theater, all full of pent up sexual frustration, and Faith shows up to steal Buffy away literally saying “Don’t worry big guy, just keeping her warm for you”.

I’m…

Faith: *does or says something that defines her relationship with Buffy in an undeniably sexual / romantic way*

me:

And then when they meet up at the library afterwards, and Faith does her usual routine of calling Buffy “girlfriend”, and is all touchy with her… Buffy shies away from her touch, and the rest of the Scoobies note how chilly the atmosphere suddenly became.

All that is to say that while Angel plays a prominent role in how this episode unfolds, and the parallel raised between him and Faith aren’t just serving the theme of Buffy’s relationships with them, but both of their characters as well… The real conflict itself plays out between Buffy and Faith, with all of its subtextual and romantic undertones that the show is once again leaning into.

It’s a break-up. It’s Buffy and Faith breaking up. That’s what’s happening here.

Something that I was struggling with however, is pinpointing where Buffy or even Angel and Giles started suspecting that there was something else going on with Faith. When Faith goes to Angel first, I was still unsure on where he was coming from, so I kept looking for signs that he was already reading her intentions. In retrospect though, I assume that Angel’s reactions there were actually genuine, despite Faith laying it on all pretty thick.

On the other hand, she also appeared with bloody hands after killing sympathetic demon guy who tried to help against the Mayor. So that was probably a dead giveaway once Buffy and Angel started putting two and two together.

With Buffy herself, there’s a pretty great little detail that happens when she and Faith discover dead demon guy in his apartment. (Which I wish I noticed myself, but was pointed out to me by someone else.)

Faith reaches into the other room for the light switch, not even looking, and Buffy sees her doing it. She completely gives away herself and the fact that she was in this apartment before, and the show smartly doesn’t draw our attention to it.

So when Buffy afterwards comments about how the way the demon guy was killed was ‘somebody’s idea of a party’, I couldn’t help wondering if that was a pointed jab at Faith. To get a reaction out of her and confirm whether or not she was involved.

Still, I remained unsure as we actually get the scene between Buffy and Willow after this happens. It’s also implied that Buffy hasn’t actually talked to Angel about what she saw between him and Faith the other night at that point, so they haven’t yet had the chance to cook up their Faith reveal plan.

On the other hand, she’s talking to Willow here, and we find out later that Buffy, Angel and Giles were all keeping their suspicions and the plan a secret from the rest of the Scoobies. So she wouldn’t have told that Willow quite yet either way.

Willow also comments about Buffy being “on edge”, which once again points to her probably thinking about Faith going rogue already here.

I do believe that Buffy’s “Faith wouldn’t do that” line is genuine though, even in that case. Buffy still wants to believe in Faith, even if they’re preparing for the worst.

So when Angel and Faith show up in her room, part of her must be devastated as the confirmation of Faith’s betrayal sinks in. As well as just being on edge, knowing what’s coming.

And what’s coming is a whole lot of classic posturing and sexual innuendo from Faith’s part, as she’s tempting Buffy with making out with Angel in front of her just to spite her (we already established which of their betrayals sting for Buffy more…), and being very up-close and personal with a supposedly chained up Buffy.

There’s a lot more going on in this scene of course, with Faith somewhat sarcastically rambling about her horrible childhood, and Buffy delivering some pointed jabs about being better than Faith, or Faith only being able to turn Angel to her side with a magic. We once again see proof of just how low and fragile Faith’s self-esteem actually is, and how easy it is to hurt her, despite what she claims.

I guess Faith’s speech about how she constantly felt inferior to Buffy is especially worth repeating:

Faith: You know, I come to Sunnydale. I'm the Slayer. I do my job kicking ass better than anyone. What do I hear about everywhere I go? Buffy. So I slay, I behave, I do the good little girl routine. And who's everybody thank? Buffy. Buffy: It's not my fault. Faith: Everybody always asks, why can't you be more like Buffy? But did anyone ever ask if you could be more like me? Angel: I know I didn't. Faith: You get the Watcher. You get the mom. You get the little Scooby gang. What do I get? Jack squat. This is supposed to be my town!

It’s one of those lines, where you’re not exactly sure how much the character actually believes of what they’re saying. Faith putting on Buffy the fact that she was unable to connect especially rings false, when you think about just how hard Buffy worked to have that connection with Faith.

But there’s also no denying in that Faith feels like the world let her down. And that includes Buffy. Because despite Buffy’s best efforts, she could never take Faith’s side unconditionally. She could never be just like her.

Buffy doesn’t have the luxury of losing herself in someone else, or to choose them over her responsibilities. (Well, I guess we’ll have to re-examine that in a few seasons from now though…) She needed Faith to meet her halfway, but Faith was already too far gone to turn around for that.

But hey, at least Faith’s got a new apartment out of the deal as of last episode. Evil does take MasterCard I guess.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

6 notes · View notes

tearlessrain · 5 years

Text

time to subject myself to Dracula: The Dark Prince, aka another bad movie starring another dude from black sails. this time with 100% less horny on main because my only real motivation for watching it is it truly looks to be a whole new caliber of horrible and I have to see it.

witness my standards for incomprehensibly bad movies being raised prohibitively high in every way imaginable under the cut

I seriously doubt that.

this was made in 2013 by the way, not 1994 as the graphic design of that logo might suggest

oh good, once again we’re opening with an exposition narrator. except this time it’s a woman and she has less vocal inflection and emotional investment than an amazon echo.

I feel like she’s gonna tell me to turn left in 800ft

it feels like a dragon age epilogue, but just. worse.

WE ARE WATCHING A TRULY HIGH QUALITY MOVIE TONIGHT MY FRIENDS

I can’t even describe how bad this is, you really need the sound. that’s where the true lack of quality shines through. siri’s depressed sister is talking about pre-vampire dracula’s epic feats in battle to more weird sepia dioramas and the dying soldiers sound like they hired muppets to voice them

HOLY WIG BATMAN

also this dude is obnoxiously jovial considering he’s supposed to be dracula, even if this is pre-vampire

oh no dracula’s advisors, who all wear black hooded robes and scowl ominously, have betrayed him and killed his wife, how unexpected

someone drew these, looked at them, and thought “yeah that’s good enough to go in the final movie”

the characters are speaking both english and what I assume is... romanian or something? transylvanian? it’s not spanish or welsh I can tell you that much. anyway there are no subtitles and also no rhyme or reason to which they’re speaking at any given time so I hope I’m not missing anything important. probably not.

so like... they killed his wife, yes. and he went on a murderfest in what appears to be a church in revenge, makes sense. now a dude who... I think maybe he’s supposed to be a priest or something? but he wasn’t speaking english so I can’t be sure, then a voice over said “I have killed for god, the hand that fought for him will now be turned against him” but I’m unclear on who was speaking. this movie is an absolute clusterfuck and we aren’t even five minutes in yet. this is still the prologue.

now zombie alexa claims dracula was cursed with immortality “in punishment for his defiance” but I’m still not sure... what defiance. he killed the dudes who murdered his wife and that’s somehow not okay despite his apparent status as a war hero, a designation that implies a LOT of killing has already happened?

fucking finally, the title screen. usually a prologue clarifies what a movie is about but I went in thinking I knew and now have absolutely no idea what I’m watching.

a carriage drawn by friesians is rolling through a misty forest with wolf howling sound bites playing at random in the background to vaguely urgent music, now this is what I’m here to see.

nevermind the carriage is too slow so they’re leaving it because that’s a thing people do (?????)

“Lady Arwen, we cannot delay”

seriously though everyone’s mumbling so much I can’t understand them much better than when they were speaking whatever the other language was

BOOTLEG XENA RIDES AGAIN

but this time she’s accompanied by esme. we don’t know who esme is yet either.

there she goes

and now the knights are being attacked by hilarious squeaky goblin things? who I guess are led by this power rangers villain with, again, an unintentionally hilarious voice. it’s like a bad batman impression.

with every minute that passes I become less certain of what I’m actually watching.

they’re looking for the “light bringer” and telepathically overseen by the world’s most halfassed lestat dracula

they’ve also got some random prisoners in a cage wagon

okay the prisoners are being taken to dracula’s castle and I’m sorry for such an image-heavy post but I NEED you to understand the community theater level of set design/quality we’re dealing with here

“what is that?” cardboard and mod podge is my guess

so far the only thing esme has done is fall off her horse and be knocked unconscious, and now a Roving Band of Misogynists has appeared to harass Bootleg Xena 3.0 in the most generic way possible (the words “what ‘ave we got ‘ere” accompanied by a chorus of malicious cackling and some whistles have been spoken)

oooh no the ringleader of the Roving Misogynists has been given a name, and it’s ~Lucien~. I have a horrible feeling that I’m about to bear witness to the worst romantic subplot in the history of cinema.

oh for... I thought at least bootleg xena 3.0 would be a Strong Female Character and fight them off, but she just rapped lucien on the head with her sword and then they stole her very important box and left as obnoxiously as they came

OH NO SHE’S ASKING TO GO WITH THEM, SOMEHOW THAT’S HER PLAN I THINK I’M RIGHT SHE’S GONNA HOOK UP WITH LUCIEN AND IT’S GOING TO BE HORRIBLE.

“trust me” she says to esme, who, wisely, obviously does not.

I appreciate the timely thunderclap every single time the castle comes on screen

who the fuck are you, did you wander onto the wrong movie set

nope okay they’re not gonna explain that shot at all we’re just moving on to a shot of a weird angel shadow doing slow flamenco moves on the ceiling while ominously gurgling, and the prisoners being led into the throne room

“what’s happening to us?” I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE SAME THING, PRISONER #3

oh never mind that guy from before wasn’t a priest, he is remfield, chancellor of this kingdom, which means the last scene he was in makes even less sense

AKSLDGHJFGAKDLFJGHKAJGHFDKLFDS;GJokay so. remfield introduced himself then said “I will see that your needs are tended to.” then dracula in his new white contacts gets up from his shadowy throne, circumnavigates the cluster of prisoners, sniffs them dramatically, and walks back to his throne. remfield then says, “come, I will see that your needs are tended to” because proofreading is for COWARDS

now remfield is... literally giving the prisoners a tour of the castle and going on the “oh you’re our guests and many pleasures and adventures await you” speech and somehow the prisoners are accepting this despite the fact that they were just carted in on a barred wagon in shackles and got sniffed by a bad alucard cosplayer. they have a fucking harpist.

seriously, who the fuck are you

she’s just been twirling around in the background of this entire scene for no discernible reason no matter what rooms they go into

what the hell am I watching

yeah they’re just going for that incredibly suspicious food and also seem weirdly okay with the ambient clusters of scantily clad lesbians no one will explain okay they deserve whatever happens to them

WHOA TITS apparently this movie is a different rating than I thought

remfield: the newcomers have settled in

dracula: I d o n ‘ t l i k e s t r a n g e r s

then why pray tell have you brought them directly into your home in chains. I cannot stress enough how avoidable this situation was for you my dude

“just think sire, once the light bringer is in your possession no one need die again” “except those who defy me” [ominous chime as the angel shadow on the ceiling continues its sensuous flamenco dance]

meanwhile in the misty blue filter forest of eternal night, some guy in a tricorn finds a gold amulet that I think bootleg xena 3.0 dropped, and the power ranger villain rides menacingly in a random direction for a few seconds

I’m still waiting on whether this masterful display of cinematic calvinball has any cohesive story to it.

ah joy and we’re back to The Non-Adventures of Xena 3.0, Esme, and the Roving Misogynists

as an aside, I’m not calling her that just to be dumb, I’m calling her that because they still haven’t given her a name even though her sidekick got one in the first five minutes

they’ve opened the box and revealed... the light bringer, which is a wooden staff. because it is not shiny gold, the roving misogynists regard it with confounded disgrunglement and scoff at xena 3.0′s insistence that it can defeat dracula

these guys sound like what an eleven year old thinks gangs of ne’er-do-wells sound like. like cartoon weasels, if the weasels were also mediocre pirates who have heard of women, conceptually, but never seen one. like goblins in a pre-written D&D campaign run by a slightly overwhelmed first time DM.

HUR DUR WALKING STICK NOT TREASURE, WOMAN DUMB

it’s what cain used to slay abel, apparently. given that zombie alexa mentioned that dracula is the descendent of abel, this leaves us with the terrifying implication that someone did put at least some vestige of effort into writing this movie.

oh good she’s finally gonna fight lucien

no she failed again. please someone just punch the shit out of lucien so he’ll stop.

NO WHY ARE YOU MAKING OUT STOP IT GOD HAVE SOME STANDARDS WOMAN. STOP PLAYING FLOATY ROMANTIC MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND THEY ARE LITERALLY STILL STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ENTIRE BAND OF ROVING MISOGYNISTS

I thought it might at least be a trick but no she is actually, genuinely starstruck over this profoundly mediocre olde-timey frat boy who called her “sweetheart” while she was trying to explain to him why the ancient dracula-defeating relic was important.

this guy.

we did it boys, we found a worse love story than twilight

also I just. I wish I could convey with words the way the roving misogynists react to every single thing lucien and sometimes xena 3.0 says like the world’s worst greek chorus in a literally neverending stream

lucien (post makeout and xena 3.0 explaining again that the relic is ancient and powerful and they’ve searched for ages to find it): well we may not be knights but we can respect that

[cacophony of rowdy but understated agreement]

lucien: what do you think boys, should we give it back?

[assorted grumbles of assent]

xena 3.0: hm, a thief with a conscience

[gruff mercenary-esque chuckling]

lucien: maybe even a heart

[chorus of “ooooooOOOooh”s and some whistles]

it just goes on like that in every scene they happen to be physically adjacent to, they never shut up but also never actually contribute or say anything meaningful

ah, the mysterious leonardo has appeared. I think he was the one they were trying to take the light bringer to so that’s handy

“what is happening here? what is this flirtation?? is this the people to share your sacred secrets with???” - leonardo, the only remotely rational person in the entire movie

oh he is schooling these idiots, finally someone with sense. it’s bouncing right off of lucien, but at least he’s saying it.

“the scourge” - leonardo

“scourge!” “scourge!?” “scourge?” “hrgghhg??” “hrrm...” - the roving misogynists

power ranger villain and his squeaking goblins vs leonardo, the most useless female leads of all time, and the roving misogynists. who will win.

not the people watching this movie, I can tell you that much.

oh no, the lightbringer isn’t working. this will do nothing to convince the roving misogynists that it isn’t a walking stick

oop, wilhelm scream

oh no lucien has picked up the light bringer

goddamn it he’s the chosen one isn’t he

yep he activated the stick and now we all have to suffer

oh xena 3.0′s coming for power ranger villain maybe she’ll actually do something

nope she bounced off him and now he’s grabbed her and hauled her onto his horse

“you’re coming with me” he says in his weird batman voice, to make sure the audience can tell that he is in fact taking her with him

and esme has yelled “no” to make sure we remember that she’s in the movie

wait what the. did lucien just yell “xena” is that her actual name what the fuck. what the fuck. I had to have misheard that. okay I can’t tell what he’s saying for sure but someone’s bound to say her name again at some point in the movie so I’ll revisit that.

and on that note, I think I’ll end here, because there ended up being a LOT more to unpack in this movie than I expected, it’s after midnight, and I’m tired.

tomorrow, we follow lucien as he presumably goes to save some lady he wildly disrespected and then made out with one time whose name may or may not actually be xena, and hopefully figure out what the hell is even going on with dracula, remfield, and their castle full of artfully strewn half naked harpist lesbians and dancing ceiling shadows. because right now I really don’t have time to unpack all that, and I have a feeling it will only get worse.

#this is #a masterpiece #no description of mine can hope to do it justice #hypnotically incomprehensible #tearless liveblogs

11 notes · View notes

kapanbenernya · 6 years

Text

Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide 2 -- Extreme Rat Extermination Service

So not long ago, my friend told me about another game on steam that he wanted me to check out. The game in question was Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide 2. He said it’s some kind of four player co-op game like Left 4 Dead 2. Actually he needn’t explain the game to me because I actually owned Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, the game that came before this one. I remembered buying it years ago and unable to actually play it until years later because my PC and my internet could not support the game. Actually now that I think about it, I still never get to really play it because nobody is still interested in the game. You know what? Let’s forget everything I said about it and refocus on Vermin 2.

Yeah, I’m just gonna call it Vermin 2, the full game’s name is too fucking long

In Vermin 2, you are some guy/elf/dwarf living in some Victorian Era London type of world fighting giant rats and buff white dudes. This very basic and very unrepresentative description of the world and the lore of the game might just net me an invitation to the chopping block by the Warhammer fanboys, but I don’t care. Look, it’s a Warhammer lore okay, so cheat-sheet's probably there’s a god or some gods with their respective cults and war happens, hopefully involving hammers. Here’s what I can gather from the prologue: a rat guy and some lovechild between a viking and an orc wants to open a portal to somewhere not good, and our heroes must stop them.

Warriors from the northern region with horned helmets? Wonder where the inspiration came from

Our heroes are a ragtag band of five people which includes a soldier with kickass facial hair, a religious nutter, a fire witch, a scottish elf-woman, and discount Gimli. The gang was formed in the events of the first game which I have absolutely no idea how it happened because I didn’t play it, and I have no intention of checking the lore. I mean have you SEEN the lore? If you can be bothered to check, it’s actually rich and ornate, with multiple race and languages. That’s why I will never touch it without a 10-foot barge pole; I still aspire to have a decent sex life someday.

But I’m getting sidetracked, so here’s how the number of heroes will affect the gameplay

The hero you choose will define your play-style. Or to be more exact, the play-style you prefer will mostly dictate which hero you will find enjoyable. You wanna be a quick whoosh whoosh DPS? Go for the elf. You wanna be a stone-wall tank? Go check out the shield-bearing duo: the soldier and the dwarf. You wanna be kinda useful and kinda useless at the same time? Go for the character that looks like he’s from Bloodborne. Interested in being the prick that fills everyone’s screen with bullshit? The fire witch’s your lady, matey. But that’s not all the depth that comes from choosing a hero. You got 3 class for each hero, each offers different passive buffs and hero skill. Don’t think you can try them all instantly though, the game’s gonna make you work for it. You will have to unlock the classes by leveling up with the first class already unlocked from the get-go.

I mean if they didn’t do that, I’d be able to make a joke about being in a classless society etc etc.

After you’ve chosen how highly you are ranked above the local commoner, in comes the weapons. Your main bread and butter is the melee weapon. Of course there’s the good old stereotype on the weapon variety: fast but weak, strong but slow, and medium but medium. The only ones that are a bit different than the rest are the weapons that’s paired with shields, which allows you to block more incoming attacks from enemies before getting your guard broken. Okay, let’s see the variety of shield weapons available: fast but weak, strong but-oh bother, it’s just the fucking same. Mind you, these weapons are not shared among heroes, for each weapon are exclusive to one hero and one hero only. So don’t think you can cheat the game by giving the whoosh whoosh elf a goddamn mace and shield.

But as the old adage goes: “man cannot survive on bread, rats, and buff dudes alone”, so here comes some tasty peanut butter spread to save us from blandness in the form of ranged weapons. As with the melee weapons there are also varieties of different types of ranged weapon for each hero and class, and also like melee weapons, exclusive to each hero. Now, don’t expect to me explain the uniqueness of each weapon type and/or combinations, because that shit’s up to you to try and decide which one’s up your alley.

With those weapons explained, care for a little test drive on rats and buff dudes?

Believe me when I say there are a lot of enemy variations in this game. First off, there’s two factions of enemies going hand in hand to knock the living shit out of your party: the Skaven and the Chaos Army. Although for simplicity matters, I preferred calling them rats and buff dudes respectively, simply because that’s what they are. To start, you’ve got the mob enemies. They’re weak, plentiful, bland, and makes up for 90% of the enemy. And then there’s the elite enemies. They are enemies that have different behavior and approach towards your party. There are ones that disables a player, the ones that punishes loners and drags them away from the party, area denial, the big tanky mini-boss, and so on. These elite enemies are unique in design and therefore can be easily distinguished from the mob by audio cues and vision, especially after the in-game characters shouted callouts before the enemy can even be seen anywhere in this plane of existence. But the one thing I find curious is that design-wise and gameplay-wise, I find that the elite rat enemies are more interesting than the elite buff dudes. I mean you got the sneaky rat and the hooker rat that makes you stick together, the gas rat and fire rat that pushes you away from a beloved choke point, and gatling rat that’s 100% bullshit. But the elite buff dudes are just variations of even buffer dudes that charge in blindly with the mob with roughly the same results or fat dudes with magic hurricanes that’s just here to fuck your shit up, fam.

I gotta admit, still hilarious when it happens to everyone except you

Well, what else can I say about the game?

It’s your standard co-op four player PvE combat goddammit, what else do you wanna know? You grab your friends, choose your weapons, pick a map, and slay some rats. Simple, true and tried ever since the old age of beat em’ up games to the crowned exemplar of the 4 player co-op FPS genre: the Left 4 Dead series. But as of writing the previous sentence, why do I suddenly think that If I was given a choice to play Left 4 Dead or Vermin 2, I'd prefer Left 4 Dead? I mean they were basically the same: traverse map towards the objective, enemy mobs spawning at the worst possible timing, and stupid stupid teammates that just gotta fuck shit up right before the level exit. After taking my time to reflect on both games, I think I kinda know why. I think it’s because some of Vermin 2′s elements is pretty fucking shit.

You see, the enjoyment of the game doesn’t stem from the gameplay alone.It’s also affected by the amount of bullshit you gotta go through to actually experience the gameplay. And with vermin 2, the bullshit comes from having to struggle with the bad netcode. My playtime was 23 hours, and I’m quite sure the amount of time I spent waiting for my friend to be able to connect to my lobby is about a third of that. No joke, you know the worst record? 30 minutes. And even after the four of us can connect, it’s everybody’s guess whether or not we’re still gonna be a four man party after the level or someone’s gonna get dropped from the lobby for no particular reason. And what happens when someone or everyone got dropped? That’s right! Restart the fucking lobby!

And by restart the fucking lobby, I mean more gambling whether or not the fucking thing’s gonna connect again.

Another lesser complaint I got is the weapon power system. Unlike L4D which just plops you the same weapon on every campaign, in Vermin 2 you gotta find your own weapons via lootbox that you get by completing campaigns or challenges. Thing is, the weapon power you can get from the lootbox is capped based on the difficulty that you play. So get this, you start out with bad default weapons which will result in you getting beaten to mulch which motivates you to get better and better weapons until you hit the cap. What’s next? You have to move on to the harder difficulty with your capped weapons, which will result in you getting mulched again. So there you go, trapped in a cycle of mulch-ification towards better weapons. The small number of maps available didn’t help either. Only 13 maps in total, compared to 12 maps in L4D and L4D2.

13 is less than 12? This guy’s off his rockers

Yeah, yeah, dodgy mathematics aside, do remember that every map from L4D is divided into 4/5 segments each. That adds up into around 48/60 maps total, and I needn’t elaborate further to show you that 48 is bigger than 13. That’s not taking into account the numbers of custom maps readily available. Yeah, who’s the brainlet now, bozo? And I swear, the quick play is deliberately messing with my party. Somehow we always end up on the map where we gotta pop some pimples in a cave. If not that, the one where we gotta connect the lines on some temple. I swear to God, small map pool or not, this is ridiculous. It’s like this map tosses off the map RNG every once in a while so it gets chosen.

Now, if you’re a smarter person, you’d have followed the dotted lines all by yourself and successfully deducted the 20 car pile-up all these problems caused. But since unlike me and my big smarty brain, you didn’t know that 13 is less than 12, I fucking doubt it. Here let me explain to you and your slowy slowy boo boo brain.

visual pun, ladies and gentlemen

That’s right, 13 maps, 4 difficulty, and there you go on the mulch-ification cycle. Hope you don’t get bored of running the same levels again and again before reaching the higher difficulty. I know I sure did.

In Brief

After all the spanking I gave the game in the last paragraphs, it’s still fun, and it’s still a good alternative for L4D. Especially more so if you like L4D, but you’d like it more if it was melee-focused, class-based, grindy, and all-around dodgier. It’s kind of a shame really, because I can see that this game had potential to be better, but in the end it just got tossed aside with the remark “like L4D, but made by somewhat incompetent spods”. All because while the core gameplay is very much fun and functional, the elements that support it ends up being a hindrance, not unlike a brake on a car that could go off randomly. This game kinda proves that you can make a gold bar shaped like the world’s sexiest pair of titties, but bury it in deep enough bullshit and people are going to stop giving a shit, mainly because you already had shit deep enough to fertilize the Sahara desert.

P.S.

I am very much aware that the connection problem might stem from me and my friends’ own internet connection, but I did rule it out because L4D works like magic in comparison, and this proves that SOMETHING had to be wrong with the game to cause all the connectivity problems.

27/8/2018

#Vermintide 2 #vermintide #steam #pc games

18 notes · View notes

thannxx · 6 years

Text

On Give Up Tomorrow [Paco Larranaga’s Case]

It’s already three in the morning and I just finished watching the now viral documentary of Paco Larranaga, one of the alleged suspects in the Chiong sisters’ rape slay case. The case of the Chiong sisters recently became a speculation on social media after the release of the trailer of its movie adaption entitled “Jacqueline Comes Home” and along with it was the unearthing of the documentary covering the alleged injustice experienced by one of the main suspects, Paco Larranaga.

I watched the documentary with a skeptic mind. Everyone in the comment section of the film’s trailer kept talking about the corruption of the justice system in the Philippines. It was one of the rare times I witnessed people actually “going against” a rape victim’s family. It intrigued me to the bone. Usually people would sympathize with the family. Who wouldn’t? But this was a case of two sisters who were abducted and gang-raped, one thrown into a ravine and the other gone missing. Yet people were actively criticizing and actually condemning the victims’ family, insisting that said case is the epitome of how corrupt our justice system actually is.

I researched on the case of the Chiong sisters first. There were a couple of articles on the internet, all narrating the rape-slay story of said sisters. The crime was actually described to be the worst case in Cebu hence the huge attention not only by the public, but by the former President Estrada as well. It was an interesting case, indeed. I found out Paco Larranaga was exiled to Spain where he is now serving the remainder of his life sentence.

So what was this documentary?

The documentary has been all over my news feed on Facebook. I tried to watch it a couple of times but only got to do so today. I watched it with a skeptic mind. I can’t afford to let the majority’s opinion taint my insight on the case. I was neither for the prosecution nor the defense. I was a mere curious speculator.

I initially thought the documentary alone was actually one-sided and I can’t help but regard it as biased at some point. They did interview the Chiong spouses and even the investigator who claimed Paco was one of the perpetrators. However, I can’t help but note that the documentary focused on Paco’s family so it’s but natural that they include [even intentionally curb] statements that would further the family’s cause. Although admittedly, there was that constant lingering thought of what if’s. What if? What if Paco was indeed framed?

The fact that the case was sensationalized nationwide made me think that it was indeed susceptible to frame ups although this is a mere speculation. It was repeatedly emphasized that the police were rather apprehensive to catch the perpetrators; strengthened further by the fact that even the president himself wanted in on it. I suddenly recalled the cases we discussed in my Constitutional Law II where we focused on the Bill of Rights. One striking case was Nida Blanca’s murder. There was an alleged ultimatum to the police. Thus the thought of the police going out of its way to find a suspect, regardless of who they are as long as there was someone, was not far-fetched. I had a similar feeling in Paco’s case--again, another speculation.

My scale of skepticism gradually tilted in favor of Paco as the documentary went on. Although I still find some parts of it rather problematic, because let’s face it, the media is capable of manipulating facts, that is a given. Remember framing? Anyway, the greatest plot twist was Thelma Chiong, the victims’ mother, herself. I found the documentary quite problematic in some aspects but I found Thelma Chiong even more problematic. I know I’m not in the place to conclude based on a short statement and airtime of Thelma but I seriously can’t help but think there was something up with her. This was further reinforced when I heard about the trial judge’s explanation of his verdict. I’m actually thankful I got to see the documentary after taking up Consti Law II because it exposed me to cases of partial and dismissive judges.

My thoughts are all based on the documentary so it’s apparently susceptible to mistakes but based on the judge’s explanation itself, it is quite apparent he didn’t really look into the case. There was kidnapping but no evidence of the rape so he didn’t give the Chiong 7 a death sentence? In my opinion it was a postscript excuse, the judge’s sentencing the suspects to double life sentence instead of a death penalty. He knew there would be something wrong about him giving a guilty verdict and so to "console” his self, he tried to give a “more subtle” punishment. Plus the fact that he dismissed a lot of procedural issues from the prosecution was really questionable. And the prosecutor’s theory that the photo of Paco with his friends thereby proving his alibi was merely photoshopped on the basis that Paco’s chair was black and the others’ were white and that he was the only one not looking at the camera? My goodness what a lame theory for a prosecutor!

Now on Thelma Chiong’s behavior during one particular interview. It was proven, even broadcasted by the media, that she went to visit the suspect-turned-state-witness Davidson Rusia and gave him cake, clothes, and even money. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, I really did. Naturally, a rape victim’s mother would hold a perpetual grudge against the person who ruined her child’s life. It’s even worse here because that was two of her daughters, it was a gang rape, one of them was thrown into a ravine and the other went missing. But mothers are different. Some would hold a grudge, some would want to kill their child’s rapist, some would earnestly clamor for justice, and some would actually choose to forgive. I wanted to think Thelma was one who chose to forgive and was simply grateful to Rusia because his confession played a huge role [a turning point, in the words of the trial judge] in the conviction of the accused. It was only normal for her to feel such, there was nothing wrong with it. But what I did find rather problematic was how she sensationalized Rusia. She was actually proud that they chose to make Rusia a boy-next-door in his photo in their appeal brief! Again, what. the. actual. fudge. It’s one thing to forgive the person who ruined your child’s life, that is completely understandable, but to sensationalize him? That was just plain irrational. It actually seemed like they merely wanted publicity most especially for Rusia which still perplexes me.

Although in the end, I think we still cannot base our sympathy for Paco Larranaga on the fact that even the Spanish government intervened for the alleged injustice he suffered. They may have found probable reason to conduct all means necessary for Paco’s clemency. But we also have to consider that it is only normal for them to do so because Paco is a Spanish citizen. Remember the Filipinos we fought for in Indonesia? We would really fight to the end for our fellowmen, find every reason to prove that they deserve otherwise. In my opinion it can be a similar case. Still, I can’t help but think about the what ifs. Although again, it’s just one documentary and let us not forget they did focus on Paco’s case so it is possible there was some “framing” done.

All that’s left now are more speculations. The documentary did not clear things up for me, in fact it even raised more questions. I do sympathize for the Chiong family. Regardless of how problematic I found Thelma, it is a fact that their children were raped, the other one even killed. There are theories that the corpse found may not have been Marijoy and that Jacqueline may actually be alive. But they are mere theories. Regardless of, my heart goes out to both the Chiong and Larranaga family.

All that we have are plain theories. There will always be that nagging thought of manipulation from both sides, that cannot be avoided since both would want to clear their names and obtain justice. Still, they are mere theories. I hope we don’t judge based on the documentary and film alone. Let us not choose sides. Let us not carelessly jump to conclusions. I’ve been seeing a lot of criticisms of the Chiong family, all on the basis of the Larranaga documentary alone. There might have been a rape victim, there might have been someone killed, there might have been injustice, there might have been corruption of the justice system. But all of these are just might have beens. I myself was shaken by the documentary, I admit that, still, in the end, I choose not to pick sides.

I know a lot of people will not agree with me on this, they might even say I’m plain indifferent. Well, I am. Because I’m not choosing sides. Although my scale of skepticism did tilt towards the Larranaga’s, I still prefer to remain partial until further evidences surface.

**Okay, this is a really long post. I know most of you will not even read this. I just had to share my thoughts. Maybe some of you can enlighten me if you have more information on the case, I would gladly welcome it. :)

#t #opinion

10 notes · View notes