#which is unfortunate I need to give her more love she puts Carl a lot more on center stage like wild honey? darlin? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

clinicsharmartia · 2 months

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DISCLAIMERS BEFORE YOU PROCEED!

This is a DELAYED character review. I know what’s going to happen to them in s2. I’m saying this as to say that I’m fully aware of the dramatic irony of some of these character reviews 😭 also this is a transcript from an audio I sent to my friends when I actually finished S1 so I’m sorry if some bits don’t make sense. I’ve edited a bit but not entirely.

TWD CHARACTER REVIEWS - SEASON 1

Rick Grimes: 10/10. He is an amazing person, he’s an even more amazing father. He's selfless, kind, gentle, understanding, caring, protective, loving, brave and so much more. The relationship that he has with people around him is so nice to watch. Him owning up to things immediately without knowing how people react is such a nice characteristic about him that I really hope he doesn't lose. He’s just— ugh I love him. I can’t wait to see how his character progresses and how his relationships change.

Lori Grimes: 9/10. She's an amazing mother. She's an amazing wife. She is a good person who is trying her best. So many people hate on Lori Grimes because she ‘cheated’ with Shane. He was a rebound. If I was in her situation I would do the same. You get told that your husband is dead during the apocalypse, which means he’s DEAD, never coming back, and you’re forced to live in the woods with your only son who only looking up to you in this moment. It is such a devastating situation to be in. You’re mourning and grieving while trying to keep your only son safe in this horrible horrible world and the next best thing to your husband, the closest thing your him, walks up to you to give you comfort, protection and security. Of course she would turn to him. Of course she would sleep with him. I would do the same thing. And the guilt on her face, you know she regrets it so much. She's so kind and sweet and protective. I know it's not gonna be for very long unfortunately but from what we have with Lori Grimes I cannot wait to see her progression in the show a character, as a mother, and as a wife.

Carl Grimes: 10/10. I'm pretty sure I teared up a bit when I first saw him on screen because he's just so little he's just a baby it's just a little baby boy he is so small. My maternal instincts kicked in fucking immediately when I saw him on screen. He's just a little kid and this is what I love about Carl Grimes. He is accurate representation of what happens of what would happen if you put a child in the apocalypse and then them having to go through puberty during the apocalypse. I am so fucking excited to see his character progression. I cannot wait for him to be sassy. I love him mwah.

Shane Walsh: -10/10. I know we need characters like him in these types of media, and I know that he was an important part of the plot, and I KNOW that he is a well written character, but I hate him so much. The only time I want him on screen is when he’s dying. The only time I want to see him open is mouth is when he’s screaming in agony. I hate him. Disgusting filth.

Daryl Dixon: 8/10. He's a very very funny character with a lot of baggage but he’s so loving and caring, just in his own ways. You can really tell that he wants to protect everyone there and that his act is just an act because he can’t admit to loving anyone. He’s a complex character and I like it a lot. Also, the way that people treat him in this season is so horrible. You come back after hunting for the group of people that you have decided you were going to look after and you see this guy rock up and he says “yeah your brother? yeah I left him for dead after I locked him up to a metal pipe on the top of a roof in the sweltering heat surrounded by zombies LOL. I'm Rick Grimes by the way” and people get upset with him getting angry at that? Then, people are saying you shouldn’t go and find him because no one likes him. And then you go after him anyways BECAUSE HES YOUR BROTHER and you find his SEVERED HAND instead. And then you come back and your camp gets attacked by walkers and one of your camp mates get bit, and when you say you should kill him to prevent any pain or suffering, people call you crazy and weird. WTF! Wtaf. Daryl is getting so much hate from them like what. Anyways I love Daryl, I can’t wait to see how his character develops and how his relationships change, and how he adapts to the new environments and people (because we all know what he’s like).

Glenn Rhee: 9/10. Glenn is an amazing guy. He's funny, a bit stupid and has some great lines as well. He's very smart, very valuable and his humanity and compassion is what really makes me love him. He saw a random stranger surrounded by zombies and instead of doing what he was supposed to do he took time out of his mission time out of that situation to save him. What could've very much gotten him killed to help the stranger. And then the stranger comes back and makes him do something that he really doesn't want to do (covering yourself in blood and guts and gore and walking through a street of zombies which could very much kill you in a second is not something he wants to do) but he does it anyways because he does it for the people that he cares about. Then he comes back to camp and the whole ambush happens and they're about to burn one of the camp members bodies and he yells at them and he says “we don't burn our people we bury them”. That line made me so so emotional and it means so much to me that they added that in because it is such an emotional and beautiful line for me. It honestly really highlights him as a character and the humanity and compassion he carries even after everything. I really loved him again. I can't wait to see his character progression, I can't wait to see how his relationships progress as well and how his skills are able to be used in the long run.

Dale: 8/10. I really love him. He’s a great guy doing his very best to try and teach and help the group. He is the word of wisdom, he is the one you look to for guidance. I absolutely adore him. Although, dragging Andrea out of suicide was not great, didn’t like that. Can’t wait to see how he’ll help the group in the future.

Andrea: 6/10. She is a little bit annoying, but she seems quite smart. I don't like how she treats certain people though. Like, I can't explain it but the way she goes about some things just urk me really bad. I think she has a lot of room for improvement, but right now she's okay. I want to see what she can bring to the table though.

Carol: 9/10. BAD ASS BITCH. She is amazing and funny and trying her best. I cannot wait to see her healing process and how her relationships change and how her skills develop. I love her.

T-DOG: 7/10. He's cool, I like him a lot. You can tell that he's trying his best and he has a nice voice. I think he can do a lot of good for the group in the later seasons as we can see that he's already helped quite a bit. Also, his loving and caring nature is really nice to see. Merle called him a racial slur and threatened to hurt him and still he went back to chain the door shut so he could have a chance to survive. He's super cool.

#twd #the walking dead #twd s1 #character analysis #rick grimes #lori grimes #carl grimes #shane walsh #daryl dixon #glenn rhee #dale horvath #andrea twd #carol peletier #t dog

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druid-for-hire · 4 years

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new hadestown au: BIKER ! EURYDICE, in which she’s a rogue lone-wolf biker dwelling in the urban jungle of a Neo Tokyo-type city called Hadestown, wracked with biker gangs, violence, poverty, corruption, and civil unrest, still recovering and rebuilding from an apocalyptic event many years ago. Heavy-handed with the AKIRA inspirations here, haha.

She fights for herself on the dangerous streets, an illegal racer with a consistent top-three placement and a reputation for ferocity that earns her the money she needs to scrape by. And then she meets Orpheus: a dopey bartender who has no place being in her business.

okay okay okay i’m gonna be jumping around a lot here. be warned. thanks @supercantaloupe, @regzillas, @birdmanlyss for your contributions! (sorry if i missed someone it’s been a while)

she's a lone wolf in a city infested with biker gangs and it's brutal

she's run over plenty of limbs in her day

then there's orpheus, this gentle, kind-hearted soul, an indie musician and shes like. fuck. now i gotta keep this bastard safe

puts a long pipe with a mess of bolts and metal on the end in his hands and tells him he'd better buckle up and learn to fight the road

this sort of thing is common among biker gangs to cause destruction and knock people off their bikes onto the road. other types include mallets, hammers, baseball bats, etc

shes small but knows a lot of self defense and is very good at handling herself on the road

besides teaching orpheus to steel himself and yes use that pipe on people, push them off and jam it in their wheels and let it break if it does, she's gotta teach him to hold on while she pulls all this crazy shit on her bike

she avoids taking him on the road because having to fight people gives him so much stress but he also stresses about her so it's all weird

the first time orpheus sees her run over someones arm hes like ""???????????????????!!!!!!!!"

"Don't worry it doesn't happen often" "WHAT IS 'OFTEN'"

she has a red songbird on her helmet and flowers on her jacket

and flowers painted on her bike too probably

or patterns like on the album cover

orpheus thinks it’s the prettiest shit he’s ever seen

so eurydice races, right? everyones like “who is this tiny little upstart” and then she takes off her helmet and shakes out her hair and everyone loses it

somethingsomething ig hades (who is something of a crime boss here, similar to Tombstone from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, but not so unambiguously villainous in nature) becomes a contractor and he catches her in like, a bad contract that's hard to get out of without some kind of consequence

and now orpheus has to topple a capitalist again

anyway she like, meets orpheus in this little bar he works at

it's about lower middle class, so it's not too bad but it's still mostly populated by like, poorer people and bikers, etc.

they meet and it's cool and fun blah blah Come Home With Me shit

also this is a scene:

biker!eury: we gotta cross through downtown orpheus: what???? but there's a riot going on there! right now! eury: that's too bad, it's the fastest way! that's why you get this! (tosses him her pipe weapon) orpheus, barely catching it: sajskhsfdfs ???? eury: and i am gonna take this. (kicks open a trunk and takes out a rifle) orpheus: ???????!!!!???!?? WHERE DID YOU GET THAT AND DO WE REALLY NEED IT eury: Yes we do now come on orpheus: H-HOW did you get it eury: (loads gun) no worries orpheus: No i have many worries HOW DID YOU--

actually, on this emergency ride, orpheus proves surprisingly competent with her pole weapon—ruthless even, and eurydice wonders just where and how the hell he learned that

the conversation she has with him about that is the same one where he shows her his old, old scars

(besides ruthless—orph has apparently learned how to pose and intimidate. he does stuff like putting the tip of the pole-pipe to the asphalt as they’re riding, skipping on the road and creating sparks)

eurydice loves her bike more than certain relatives

certain complications lead to it being destroyed by hades as punishment for doing him wrong. and it destroys her. that is her most trusted sacred bike, that thing has been with her since she was a teenager

once she repurposes that devastation into white-hot anger orph has to physically restrain her from hunting hades down and breaking his kneecaps with a thick lead pipe

he's never seen her this absolutely devastated and furious

he goes to persephone for more work because he wants to buy eurydice a new bike

he keeps it a secret from her until he leads her out to a garage, hands over her eyes

(some of these bits are copypasted from my friend @regzillas)

orpheus takes his hands off and says Tada!!! it's just like the old one, there's no painted birds but she can do that. She just stands there in total silence mouth open, and orpheus goes 'so? do you like it?' before she bursts into tears. and at first orpheus is like :O!!!!! oh no!!! do you not like it? and eurydice through sobs just says 'nobody's ever done something like this for me’

it's... beautiful, it's touching, it's deep and it's love and she's so in love and she loves him so much, and she cries and holds him close and takes him in and she's so overwhelmed by her emotions, full of the care that orpheus so freely gives to her; and it's a breath of newness, fresh air in the cycle of dread and bitter anger that haunts the city (but she's still going to find hades and shoot him in the foot)

he just holds her and kisses her head

they spend the day painting it, the day after he buys the bike

hand-painted. and they both leave their handprints in paint on it, like carl and ellie do on their mailbox in the beginning of Up

a significant amount of time is spent thinking of a good name

theres lots of joking and eurydice playfully shoves orpheus and he falls over into paint

okay i wrote something like. Obnoxiously long for orpheus. i sort of have his backstory in this down, but i don’t have anything for eurydice unfortunately :( suggestions are welcome! but first: Hermes

biker!au hermes owns a chain of bars, several of which find their patronage among the ruffian youth, several of which are more refined and serve the middle class, and another several of which serve the upper crust hermes has a hand in every world and it serves him pretty well, and his chain is a bit of a channel of communication and its unspoken rule that whatever socioeconomic class or gang or organization you're a part of, hermes' chain is neutral territory no fighting allowed

eurydice walks in and hermes just gives her a Look and taps the 'no fighting' sign and she huffs

hes >:( if anyone does try to start shit. the honor system is strong enough that usually the other patrons will just throw them out, and if there are really problems, they'll hear from hermes personally

he maintains a very strict "no bitching in my fucking kitchen" atmosphere

and now, Orpheus

this really is kind of akira but without the government conspiracies; the city is a neon corrupt hellscape that’s still struggling to rebuild after an apocalyptic event that wiped it all through. the city is wracked with frustration and violence and anger, there are still urban ruins everywhere and the scars of rebuilding and struggle are plain in every corner of life; plain to see are the shells of ruined buildings, gigantic boats levelled from the sea and left in the middle of inland sectors.

orpheus was abandoned by his mother at an early age—kind and timid, he had to learn fast how to be suspicious and cautious in cruel ways. he couldn’t land himself a spot in any of the groups that other ragtag raging folks had eked out for themselves, still too hesitant or ungraceful or young for any of them. sure, he made friends, sitting and talking with lots of people, but never got to really team up—all he could do was just fight for himself in the blown out corners of the city. weapons made from whatever he had. a young child already spitting blood and teeth in hadestown’s vicious ground-floor landscape.

hermes is his mother’s close old friend, though the times they see each other are few and far between. when he saw him, hermes hardly recognized her son, wild-eyed and clawed and alone in one of the city’s more dangerous neighborhoods, with a pole full of screws slung over his back. how did she lose track of her kid for so long? he thinks. and takes him in.

hermes eventually realizes that his mother didn’t lose him. meanwhile, tiny orpheus, kind-hearted orpheus, despises hermes at first. he’s full of suspicion and desperately wants to lean into hermes’ kindness, but the streets have taught him to hold back. he spits curses at him, though the words slide right off hermes’ shoulders. it’s not genuine. just frustrated. and picked off of the delinquents that were his friends, just like most everything else about him.

(hermes knows he’s gotten his trust when orpheus starts getting soft, when he’s crying over littler things; it means he’s been deemed safe to be vulnerable around, and he damn near starts crying himself.)

orpheus owns a little vespa! it’s covered in stickers, some of them worn out and old, some places with just the adhesive and the fuzzy white paper from where he tried to pull them off. some of them aren’t even proper stickers and just shit he peeled off from places while he was wandering around and stuck onto the vespa

even in canon i see him as the kind of guy who like. you look at him and think jesus how is this guy still alive he’s so noodly and soft, but he’s unexpectedly sort of street smart

anyway i mentioned this before but didn’t elaborate. biker au orph, to eury's surprise, does have his collection of scars, since he had a bit of a rough go at life

also he’s just ungainly and runs into shit

you can see em on his sketch page. he has a bit more than what’s shown, but what’s visible is a little slash across the bridge of his nose onto his cheek, and two on his left forearm. he probably has a stab scar in his side from just getting fucking knifed. the ones on his left forearm are from when a drunk coming out of a bar charged him with a fork

eurydice also has scars. kind of hard not to with the kind of life she lives

ok thats it. For Now. i don’t know how persephone or the fates or the workers factor in, if at all. I barely know how Hades factors in, mostly what i’ve said so far and that he does what he does to support himself and persephone. ah well! just have this

as this is extremely based off of AKIRA, i verily recommend listening to the movie’s soundtrack. besides the fact that it slaps hard as hell, the opening song, Kaneda’s Theme, has the perfect vibes for the city and the tone of eurydice and orpheus riding at night through it

#hadestown #hadestown art #hadestown fanart #hadestown au #broadway #musicals #biker au #my art #this au first came into being because i wanted eurydice with fingerless gloves

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dramaticviolincrescendo · 3 years

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The concept of selling your childhood home (which you don’t even live in or provide for anymore) to get money for your own place without giving thought to where everyone else would go, and then describing it as “getting on with our lives” sits wrong with me. It feels like what Fiona did in her final seasons, only rather than distancing from the family for personal ambition, it’s for a new family. I get it: the idea is sound and would work, in theory. But...

What about Liam? Where would he go? He’s a minor. He’s not even in high school yet despite skipping a couple grades. He relies on Carl and Debbie more than anyone else right now, and if they’re scattered, that will be impossible as neither of them make enough to support another dependent.

What about Frank? Where would he go? Sure, they don’t think about Frank a lot (though I wonder if that will change soon), but if you expect Liam to go with him as his father, then Frank will need a place to go. We’ve also seen a general acceptance that he is part of the family and lives with them this season. No one questions him being there, and no one throws him out.

What about Carl? He just started saying how he’s turning the basement into an apartment for himself to make his own space while staying comfortably at home. He started a new career that already put a lot on his plate to think about. Now isn’t the time for him to be hunting for a place too, at least not ideally.

What about Ian and Mickey? They’ve been on a rollercoaster lately, and neither of them have what could be considered stable long-term employment. It was born of monetary necessity and pandemic lack of options. Yeah, the Milkoviches are next door, but the main threat has been neutralized. They don’t have to go, and for the most part, they haven’t discussed it on screen with any regularity to indicate they’re actually looking.

What about Debbie and Franny? Much as Debbie is still using Franny for her own purposes this season, she’s raising her daughter in that house. The utilities are in her name, and she appears to take primary responsibility for their home. The others pay her their shares. Ultimately, no matter whose name is on the deed, Debbie arguably has more say than most of them on what happens to the house because she’s run it for some time. (Not to the extent Fiona did, but overall.)

There’s a fascinating dichotomy here in how Ian/Mickey is a foil for Lip/Tami. Ian and Mickey had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles just to be together. Even when they’re at odds on little things, they’re just that—little. They get past it and move on because they love each other, and for once in their lives, that’s enough. They also come from the same socioeconomic background, which means there is no gap in expectations of standard of living to take into consideration. They don’t want vastly different things out of life, unless we count Ian desiring meaningful roles where he can help people while Mickey is content to fly under the radar with schemes of questionable legality.

Lip and Tami don’t have that. They’re the opposite: they had a kid and ended up in a situation where they’re going to be together when, by their own admission at the time, they didn’t love each other. We still haven’t heard them say those words on screen, although their affection has grown and they’re devoted to each other. They also come from very different backgrounds, which has been a sticking point for them at multiple junctures. Lip doesn’t like the expectations and overall aura that Tami’s family exudes, which makes sense. They’re everything that he’s found contemptible since the pilot. Tami doesn’t like the environment on their street or the things that Lip has done for survival or his own pride, which also makes sense. They’re everything the middle class is generally trained to look down on or even fear as where they could end up if they don’t struggle to maintain their position in society.

I think why Lip is struggling is because he’s never really been one for compromise, so if he can’t figure it out on his own and make things “right” in the way he deems most appropriate, then he feels like he failed. He alludes to that in the garage, and where Mickey was able to navigate Ian’s feelings to support but provoke into action earlier this season when he felt similarly, Lip and Tami don’t have that same dimension yet. She was absolutely right in saying that he fixed nothing because he could go to prison. He needed to hear it because what he did was wrong and stupid. But the support wasn’t really there. Meeting on common ground wasn’t there because they aren’t there yet on the big things, as we’ve seen over and over. With the house in s10, Tami was the one who settled for what Lip wanted to do. This time around, Lip refuses to settle for what she wants to do, even knowing that part of it has to do with helping her dad keep their house too and would definitely benefit everyone monetarily despite the unfortunate nature of the atmosphere.

So, now he’s come up with an idea that he thinks would make her happy and “fix” their situation, only it means driving a wedge into the family because even if some of them agree, this won’t be unanimous and it means taking away their home so they have to scramble to find something else. Yes, Ian and Mickey had thrown around the idea of getting their own place as a married couple, but they’re the only ones. Carl is comfortable at home. Debbie and Franny are. Liam and Frank are. That’s five people being ousted who had no intention of leaving before.

I understand where Lip is coming from and am fascinated to see what the outcome will be, especially considering what they are not yet aware of regarding Frank. But I don’t think he’s making the right decision, at least not for the right reasons or with the right amount of forethought regarding how this will impact his siblings.

#shameless #shameless spoilers #shameless meta

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chandelier-s-notebook · 3 years

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Doodlewash April 2021 prompt 18: Dragon

I made another AU. Because I don’t have enough of those I guess.

Also. I don’t really know how I feel about the pacing of this, and there is so much telling. It’s just a first draft, I need to sleep on it before I like it, but I don’t have time to do that. So while it’s fresh off the line, please enjoy this fic.

If anyone wants to be part of a taglist of this Dragon Rider AU, feel free to message me/send an ask/or mention it in reblogs.

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This was the best school fieldtrip ever. Ridiara Prep had taken its students to the Premier League Juniors’ Dragon Racing Finals.

The day’s races were not only for national championship spots, but it was also a school day – which meant that huge swaths of the stands were reserved for half price student tickets.

The Manbri National Junior’s Dragon Race Eventing had space for four jockeys from each of the sixteen districts. Even before the Finals the people of The Yaston District knew that two slots would to go Number 35 and Number 13, or as their names, Technoblade and Dream. It was just a toss up to see who slots three and four would go to.

Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo sat in a cluster about as far away from the action as you could get. Not my choice, no they’d much rather be pressed against the rails, leaning over the edge watching the events unfold. Unfortunately, the seats provided by Ridiara Prep where all the way in the back corner. And if they were going to be confined to the back-most section, then these boys were going to sit all the way in the back and be petty.

The air in the stadium was electric as school started pouring in from all over Yaston.

Tommy was a bored kind of excited. The kind where you sit still and do other things while the anticipation builds internally. The kind where you know what to expect, but the energy and the thrill gets you going.

Tubbo was to bouncy type of excited. The kind where you can’t stay still and can’t help but look around at everything. The kind where you absorb the energy of everyone else in the room and let it out with your movement.

Ranboo was the talkative kind of excited. The kind where you can’t contain yourself; where you ramble on and on about the things on your mind. The kind where you know that you might be annoying everyone around you, but you don’t care.

At 10:50am the first fleet of four racers came onto the course. The crowd screamed. The racers flew their dragons into the cages. At 11am the jumbotron screen showed the gates fall down and the cages lower below the course as the jockeys shoot forward.

The dragons weaved around each other and the course. Six laps around, the first two to cross the finishing line on the last lap would move onto the next round.

The course had a simple winding fight path with straight-aways, sharp turns, and more rounded ones. There was also a lower and upper flight limit, the dragons could overtake each other by going around or over or under, but you had to catch up first.

There were sixteen racers in the Finals, which meant seven races over the course of the day. Technoblade and Dream were on opposite sides of the tournament bracket so it would be in the afternoon when they faced off – if neither of them choked on their way to qualification for the Nationals placement flight.

The crowd had just as much energy at the end of the day as the beginning. The Nationals team was going to be Number 35, Technoblade; Number 13, Dream; Number 54, Punz; and Number 3, Puffy. The final race of the day was simply to put them in the tournament brackets.

Ranboo and Tubbo were Technoblade fanboys. They were screaming for their favourite to win. Tommy was just as excited, but it was infinitely less obvious. He just didn’t express his joy, but he did have on a dopy smile the whole time, and his eyes narrowed when anyone overtook Technoblade.

The thing about the Juniors’ League was that it was the lowest age category with the over sixteen rules. And honestly the only difference between above sixteen and below sixteen was the saddle. Those under sixteen raced with a saddle, while those over had foot stapes attached to a harness wrapped where the saddle would sit on the dragons. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a hard shift when kid turned sixteen, they could start practicing with foot stapes at twelve, but racing rules changed at sixteen.

Techno had his reigns held tightly in his hands. Held perfectly so when his dragon pulled forward, he could lean back comfortably. So when he did turns he could shift is body weight easily from foot to foot. Techno’s hair had been braided and curled into a bun at the base of his skull, his roots where very brown as he hadn’t had the time to dye it back pink recently.

Unlike Techno, Puffy was leaned all the way forward. She held the reigns much closer to the bit and saw hunched over close to her dragon’s neck. She was concentrated and gave a little shout whenever she passed someone. Whether she was falling behind or pulling forward.

Dream was much the same as Techno, but his blond hair was cut pretty boy short. He held himself with confidence and seemed to be outwardly enjoying himself while staying super competitive.

Punz was leaned forwards as well. He pretty much stayed super competitive the whole time. He trades spots with the rest of them a few times. None of the four was ever clearly ahead.

In the end, the standing where: Techno, Puffy, Dream, Punz. The crowd blew up when they realized that Puffy got second, she was a fan favourite and it was always an event when either Dream or Techno were knocked down a placement. And neither where salty about it, so no one gave a shit. They gave cheers.

Then it was time to leave. There were only so many so many school busses and Ridiara Prep hadn’t managed to book the first wave, or the second, they were on the third wave of busses. So they had a lot of time to kill. And after the second wave of students left, the teachers let the kids run free.

Tommy had a plan. He was going to sneak into the dragon stalls and see the racers. Tubbo was all for this plan. Ranboo wasn’t.

But Ranboo did give in, in the end.

The three of them whispered to each other as they ran around and tried to find what they were looking for. And they did, Tubbo had found a map and they slipped past security. Of course once they were inside the dragon stables Ranboo warmed up to the idea.

“Can we go find Carl?”

“Carl? Technoblade’s dragon?” Tubbo asked. “Oh my god we could go find Technoblade’s dragon. Let’s go find him.”

“Come on!” Tommy bolted. “Let’s go find the red dragon.”

“Carl’s scarlet.”

“Fanboy much Ranboo.”

“Shut up Tommy.”

The three kids looked at every dragon they passed and named which racer they belonged to. They finally reached Carl’s stall.

Ranboo put his hand up for the dragon to sniff. Carl came closer and bonked Ranboo’s hand with his snout. Then Tubbo did the same. Tommy was keeping watch while the other two interacted with Technoblade’s dragon.

“Hey!” a voice called. “I don’t think you kids should be here.”

“Is that Dream?” Tubbo whispered.

“Yes,” Tommy whispered back. “Hey big man!” Tommy shouted to the third place winner. “I’m allowed to be here.”

“You are?” Dream humored him. “What about your friends? Are they allowed to be here?”

Tommy pointed to Tubbo, “He has plus one privileges, not sure about that guy though.”

Ranboo snorted. “Thanks man.”

Dream walked up behind them. “You kids should leave. Just go and I won’t call security. Also, Techno really doesn’t like people messing with his dragon.”

“It’s fine,” Tommy dismissed. “Carl loves me. Don’t you boy?”

Dream shot Tommy a strange look. Then there was thumbing from Carl’s stall, like he was waving his tail and there wasn’t enough space. Dream glanced at Carl. “Huh.”

“See?” Tommy in all his bravado put his hand through the bars on the door into the stall. Carl started rubbing his snout on Tommy’s palm. “We’re good man.”

“I will call security.”

“Do that.”

“Don’t do that.” Ranboo grabbed Tommy and started pulling him away. “We’ll be on our way. Sorry for breaking and entering.”

“Ranboo!” Tubbo scolded. “Don’t make it seem worse than it is. We didn’t break anything.”

“I believe you.”

“Good.”

“Tommy. Come on. We should really get back to the class.”

“Why? I’m just going home?”

“Yeah?” Tommy continued to shrug off Ranboo and play with Carl. “Who’s a good boy?”

Dream smiled softly at the exasperated and apologetic looks Tubbo and Ranboo were sending him. “I’m very sure that Technoblade doesn’t like when people mess with Carl.”

Tommy waved his free hand. “I’m not messing with him.”

“Messing with who?”

And that was went Tubbo and Ranboo froze. On the one hand; Technoblade, they were messing with his dragon and should apologize and dip. On the other hand; Technoblade, must fanboy.

Dream gestured to Tommy petting Carl with no regard for his safety.

“And?”

“And?” Dream gestured more expressively. “Kid petting your dragon?”

“And?”

“You don’t let me do that?”

Tommy turned around to stick his tongue out at Dream.

“You aren’t the kid?”

“But why can the kid? I let you interact with Spirit!”

“Carl’s not Spirit.”

“Obviously.”

“Techno can I ride with you home? I don’t want to take the bus.”

“Yeah sure,” Techno said without a first thought. “My dragon. I make the rules.”

“Did you just?”

Techno turned to the sound. “And you are?” he asked Tubbo.

“Uhm.”

“That’s Tubbo.”

“This is Tubbo?”

“Yeah. But of a bitch isn’t he?”

“No?”

“Other guy is Ranboo. My other friend.”

“Right.” Techno turned back to Tommy. “They coming over for dinner?”

“Can they? Will we all fit on Carl?”

“No. But I brought Andrew. He could probably fit all three of you. You’re all tiny.”

“Well Technoblade.” Tommy’s voice took on a bratty quality. “We’re only fourteen, that’s not super small Mr. nineteen.”

“Do you want to ride Andrew home or would you rather crawl back into the hole you came from and take the school bus on?” Techno deadpanned.

“Andrew.”

“Cool. Let’s go get him.” Techno kept walking down the corridor to Andrew’s stall a little further down.

“What just happened?” Ranboo asked, still processing a few sentences behind.

“Technoblade’s my older brother.”

“Wilbur’s your older brother,” Tubbo corrected.

“Wilbur has a twin.”

“Huh?”

“Come on. Let’s go. We get to ride Andrew home. I’ll drive, you two and just sit tight.” Tommy took both of his friends’ hands; he knew they wouldn’t be walking on their own for a few minutes more.

The racers were all tacking up their dragons for the return journey and the busses had yet to come for the third wave of school children. Tubbo and Ranboo settled themselves into Andrew’s saddle ina daze while Tommy strapped his feet in.

Dream was still following, pestering Techno about his little brother.

“Hey Toms. Do a few loops around the track while you wait for me.”

“Yessir!”

And they were off.

Tommy waved to the teacher before flying off into the skyways behind Techno. Just letting him know not to wait up for the three boys.

#TommyInnit #Tubbo #Ranboo #Technoblade #Dreamwastaken #Captain Puffy #Punz #Dragon Rider AU #DoodlewashApril2021

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - You're Kidding Me

So we’ve finally come to the last of season two’s filler episodes. Let’s see if we can knock this one out real quick.

Summary: The front door of the mysterious seashell estate vanishes, trapping the group. They try to find another way out but find a spinning top whose magic regresses Cassandra and Lance into toddlers and Shorty into a baby. They’ve only have an hour to find the top and reverse the effects or the changes become permanent. Unfortunately neither of Rapunzel’s or Eugene’s parenting methods keep their now childish friends on task.

So Why Did No One Stand Watch Last Night?

They were all sleeping right next to the entrance, and after the run in with the mirror monsters, you would think that they would have taken turns standing watch.

But nope, the front door vanishes when no one was looking cause they don't have any foresight.

A Low Budget Doesn’t Excuse Filler

Like most of season two, this is yet another episode that adds very little to the overall story. It’s slightly better than the Return of Quaid or Curses, but not by much. I put it on the same level as The Forest of No Return, as I do like the mains’ development, but there’s really no reason why such episodes exist to begin with.

The meta reason for staying in certain places for three episodes, instead of only one or two, is because of budgetary reasons. The crew have to build new sets and models for every new location or person the cast comes across. This costs money to make, so the higher ups wanted to reuse assets. Which is understandable, but not an excuse for utilizing them poorly.

If you need to stay in one area or have characters reappear, then you need to give story reasons for that. Ones that tie back to the overall narrative and/or the mains’ character arcs.

The shell house and Matthews should be more important than what they are as they both have connections to the ultimate big bad of the series.Adria shouldn’t be wasted for a whole episode when she’s the only one driving the plot in season two and has limited appearances. Vardaros and its people shouldn’t be a one and done thing if you’re going to spend so much time setting them up. And there’s still one off episodes, locations, and characters who aren’t brought back and add nothing

Not only does this make for a weaker story, it also undermines the cost saving measures that you tried to implement to begin with.

This Isn’t Representation!

Get it?!

She’s a top!

She’s totally gay, but like not really, cause this can also be interpreted as a dominatrix joke, and there’s no other real indication of her orientation outside her like smiling at her best friend/crush/sister sometimes and keeping that rose her creepy ex-boyfriend gave her.

And don't give me any bullshit excuses about Disney not letting the crew make Cassandra canonly gay/bi.

The Owl House aired just this year, the same year as Tangled’s final season. Also Globby and Carl from Big Hero Six were both confirmed to be a couple on screen a month after this episode came out. Both shows would have been in development at the same time as Tangled was. Both would have been subject to the same regulations and restrictions while writing their stories.

It isn’t “Disney” that stopped the storyboard artists from having Cass be a confirmed lesbian, it’s Chris and Ben, the head writers themselves, who failed to write it into the story properly, if at all.

Chris is the one who made Raps and Cass “sisters”. Chris is the one who wouldn’t tell the crew about his ‘twists’. Chris is the one who had Cass crush on Andrew, even after he tried to kill her. Chris is the one who made Cassandra ‘straight’ and has since used gay baiting to keep her fanbase in his pocket.

Like I am really damn sick and tired of Casspunzel stans defending Chris on twitter, when he’s the very one who sunk thier ship to begin with. I’m also really fed up with certain fans trying to bully others for not accepting their “Cass is a lesbian” headcanons as fact because what the storyboarders say on twitter after the show is over with isn’t gospel and isn’t real rep.

I don’t care if you ship Cass with Raps or headcanon her as being gay. Ships and headcanons are great and can be a lot of fun. But fuck you if you ever try to shame people for not sharing your ships/headcanons. Not only is it biophobic and acephobic to insist that there’s only ever a binary option when it comes to orientation and shipping, but it also reinforces harmful stereotypes and tropes about people in the queer community.

Like, yes, I personally may be an introverted angry bitch who’s an LBGTQA member and activist, but that doesn’t mean that every introverted bitchy woman in media is a lesbian. What kind of message does that send people when that’s the only character archetype that’s given representation or is loudly proclaimed as ‘gay’ by the wider audience? Fuck that noise!

I Know Humor is Subjective but...WHY?

Why did we give the baby a beard? How does that logically work? Did anyone outside of the crew actually find this funny?

TTS has like this one out of touch dude throwing out jokes that don’t really land with the target audience. Fans have called it ‘boomer humor’ but it’s actually ‘Gen-X’ humor. Not only because Chris and Ben are Gen Xers but because this is the type of crap my older brother would find hilarious.

Gen Xers are between Boomers and Millennials and so their humor is this weird blend of gross out shock humor, ironic nihilism, and out of date stereotypes that are only mildly better than those of the previous generation before them. They’re the generation who gave us Beavis and Butthead, South Park, and Clerks.

That’s not a criticism of Gen X as a generation, but rather just an acknowledgment that they’re worlds away from the neo-dada absurdism, more socially conscious, and globalized humor of Gen Z.

So Why Is the Bad Guy Telling the Heroes How to Foil His Plans?

Like he not only tells them how to fix their problem and how long they got in order to do so, but he also informs them how it happened in the first place. This goes directly against his plans. Had he simply said nothing and stayed out sight, then Raps and Eugene would have been lost for the full hour and most likely not have saved everyone on time.

I like to headcanon that Mathews is just “that asshole” that loves to taunt and tease but in a that manner that gives him plausible deniability. He also may just be bored, since he’s a ghost trapped in one place all the time. Yet that still doesn’t change the fact that he shot himself in the foot here.

Raps and Young Cass’s Relationship Is the Same as Raps and Adult Cass’s, and That Is a Problem.

Condescending, manipulative, hypocritical, and bossy is the way Rapunzel treats everyone. She doesn’t understand the actual difference between a child and an adult. She only understands who she who she can and can’t boss around. And those people that she can’t place under her thumb are labeled antagonists by the show.

Nor does she actually care about what either kid Lance or kid Cass has to say. She’s just being proformative, and young Cass can see through that BS, which why her methods do not work. It’s not because she’s not ‘strict’ enough; it’s because she’s not being honest.

Meanwhile Child Cassandra is just as combative, rude, bullying, and entitled as Adult Cassandra. In season three she regresses even further and becomes more violent than before.

Unlike Rapunzel, Cassandra wasn’t trapped in a tower for 18 years with zero human contact outside of her abuser. She escaped that fate and was raised in a loving home. That doesn’t mean that there won't be scars, but I still expect her to be more mature than her seven year old self. Just because she’s whining about not being special enough at 24 instead of screaming about the floor being lava doesn’t mean that she’s still not throwing a temper tantrum.

Like I should not be seeing a replay/foreshadowing of their main conflict here. They aren’t children. They’re dynamic isn’t that of a mother and child. It’s not even a big sister looking out for a little sister type relationship. Its two immature women dragging innocent victims into their bitchy cat fight for dominance over the other.

If you want me to take their issues seriously then give them real stakes to disagree over, mature behavior that I can root for, and a resolvement that doesn’t reverse any potential development that they could have had.

Matthews Plan Makes Zero Sense

For starters, half the group being kids isn’t enough of a reason for Rapunzel to stay at the shell house. Even if the effects of the time top became permanent, then Raps and Eugene could just leave and take the kids with them. Either to finish the road trip, or go straight back to Corona. Not that there’s any real reason to get the Dark Kingdom anyways, nor is there a ticking clock stopping Raps from trying again later if she chose to.

Rapunzel also is not obligated to become anyone’s mother. If she took them back to Corona than Cap would undoubtedly raise Cassandra all over again, and Lance and Shorty could be adopted by someone else. Any of the pub thugs might take them or even perhaps the King and Queen since they missed out on raising their actual daughter. Though for my money I’d get Monty or Xavier to take them in. They seem the most mature and both are shown to be good with kids.

Then again Rapunzel has been shown twice now to not give a damn about abandoning orphans, so even the ‘dump them at an orphanage’ or ‘leave them alone in the woods to fend for themselves’ isn’t entirely off the table either. I wish I was joking, but I’m not. Sadly, only Eugene’s love for Lance might be the one thing to stop her from doing just so, and even that’s iffy.

As for the missing door from earlier, if that was all that was stopping them from leaving then the time top shenanigans were fully unnecessary altogether.

I Actually Like Eugene and Rapunzel’s Conflict Here; I Just Wish It Was In a Better Episode.

Each of their viewpoints stem from their upbringing.

Rapunzel is unique in that she was simultaneously emotionally abused and neglected while being physically spoiled. Especially once she found out that she was princess, where she was then handed nearly anything and everything she wanted. She doesn’t recognize that getting your every possible whim come true can be damaging. Nor does she have any comprehension of what living in poverty is like and how this many toys is wasteful to someone like Eugene who had so very little and stole to survive.

She does however associate limits, boundaries, and orders with abusive behavior because she’s been denied autonomy and respect her whole life. She’s never seen what healthy parenting looks like and how rules can be applied correctly.

To Rapunzel no orders is ‘freeing’ and ‘validation’ is all that is needed to get a child to listen to you. Which doesn’t work for her because she doesn’t understand that real communication is more than just giving a compliment now and then.

Meanwhile Eugene lacked any sort of anchor at all. He was left to his own devices at a young age and had no one to rely on for emotional needs and, after leaving the orphanage, no one to provide physical needs either.

It’s telling that he and Lance latched onto Quaid as the only authority figure in their life, despite Quaid never out right adopting them. He was the only sense of stability that they had who they could trust wouldn’t hurt them, despite being strict with them.

And now that Eugene has gotten older and is reformed, he can probably understand why Quaid was so harsh on him and Lance. Quaid probably did more to try and help them turn from a life crime than even Rapunzel did. Like meeting Rapunzel was the inciting incident that inspired Eugene to make that leap, but the groundwork was already laid out for him to do so elsewhere. Things like his good communication skills, respect and empathy of others, and understanding of boundaries had to be learned from somewhere, and if not from the Sheriff of Vardaros than who?

What I’m getting at is that, while Rapunzel rejects her parents methods but then fails to break her learned habits from them anyways, Eugene is the reverse. He’s come to embrace his mentor’s teachings, but he fails to implement them correctly because he’s not Quaid. Being authoritative isn’t his strong suit. It goes against his usual nature as the easy going person that he is and so any attempts to come across as forceful fail as they’re hollow.

Kids know authenticity and genuineness when they see it. The children reject Rapunzel because she’s not being real with them, yet they also reject Eugene cause he’s not being honest with himself.

It’s a complex and mature conflict. Neither person is fully right nor wrong, and only by learning from each other and adopting both methods can they achieve their goal.

TTS can be deep when it wants to be. There’s a good foundation here for mature themes and complex characterization. It’s just the series doesn’t ever commit to it.

Whatever personal drama going on here about two young adults trying to cope with their past traumas and how that affects their current life and future goals is completely lost in the magical goofy antics and low stakes situation. Even the stuff about Eugene and his relationship with Quaid is reduced to nothing but a one off joke rather than being genuinely explored as a point of development.

Imagine how much more powerful things would have been if Angry and Red were brought along on the trip. If this argument was over them and whether or not they should adopt the two girls themselves or consider other options. That would be something with real weight. Something with a choice that had actual consequences attached to it. Something that would permanently affect all involved parties. Something that wouldn’t make the two leads look like outright dicks for abandoning two children for a second damn time in a row.

You Have 70 Feet of Magical, Indestructible Hair! Why Are You Afraid of a Bunch of Dogs!?

You’ve fought off giant monsters, killer robots, and supernatural beings with magical powers. What do you mean you can’t hold off a pack of guard dogs while busting down a stuck door? Why is Eugene the shield for everyone and not the actual unbreakable hair that you use as a shield all the damn time? And Why did we have to rely on Shorty again to be the deus ex machina of the episode?

At this point the writers should have just made him Demantius instead of the monkey.

What Happened To This New Dream? Where Did It Go In Season Three?

Most fans who do enjoy season two happen to be big New Dream fans as this is by far and away the best season for them. I’ll admit that the series, up to this point, had me actively liking them together, despite being originally lukewarm to the pairing in the movie.

Their conflicts were for the the most part mature and real. They learned from one another equally and had open communication when it didn't involve ‘marriage is a trap’ BS. Things, like compromising on differentiating future goals, honesty and communication, and making time for one another and extending effort into a relationship while being true to yourself are all relatable issues.

Even today's episode featured the topic of having kids and parenting. Which is a discussion you absolutely need to have with your prospective spouse before entering into any long term commitments and signing any legal contracts. For real, I’ve seen marriages fall apart because they didn’t agree on whether or not they wanted children.

I don’t know what went down between writing season two and season three, but things quickly took a sharp turn away from this dynamic and nosedived into a pit of uncomfortable bullying and gross sexist implications here after.

Matthews Plan Goes Against Zhan Tiri’s Plan

Yeah so Matthews is one of Zhan Tiri’s disciples, but he apparently doesn’t know of her goals/plans, cause she needs Rapunzel and company to reach the moonstone, not stay stuck here.

The meta reason for this that the Zhan Tiri’s story was altered at the last minute and the writers failed to make sure there was any sort of consistency between what they already set up and where they actually wound to actually taking the plot.

The in universe reason is that Zhan Tiri is an impotent moron, but that’s not what the writers were going for so it’s a fail.

Conclusion

I like the New Dream stuff, and Matthews is at least entertaining despite being incompetent. Everything else about the episode is ‘meh’ tho.

#tangled #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tangled the series #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #anti-cassandra #eugene

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-4th Place

To anyone who plans on making a reboot of their favorite show in the future, you might want to take notes on this next pick. Because if you ask me, this next series that I'm going to talk about is the best example of how to do a reboot properly.

#4-Ducktales (2017-2021)

The Plot: Scrooge McDuck is the richest duck in the world, who made it big by also being one of the greatest adventurers of all time...ten years ago. Sadly, after an unfortunate accident with the family, Scrooge is forced to live the life of a normal businessman-er-duck. Up until Donald Duck asks Scrooge to watch over his nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. What starts off as a single day of babysitting soon turns into a life of adventure as Scrooge gets back into the adventuring spirit to show his new family what the world really has to offer.

Now I want to make one thing clear: As of the moment of me writing this review, I have seen a total of zero episodes of the original Ducktales. That being said, despite my limited knowledge of the series, I still think it’s fair of me to point out how this is hands down the best reboot as of late (and I’ll explain more as to why that is later). And besides, from what I’ve heard from fans who have watched the original, Ducktales (2017) is a pretty faithful adaptation of the beloved franchise. The reason is that I believe this show remembers the two most important rules of making a reboot.

The first rule of a reboot is to try something new while still being faithful to the source material. Doing something like that is simple as a writer just needs to keep what the fans love and change what they hated. And trust me when I say that the writers of Ducktales (2017) knows how to do just that. For the most part, the show is about a family going on crazy globe-trotting adventures while still learning that family is the best adventure of all, much like the original. As for the characters, most of them keep their fun personalities. Scrooge is still a stingy miser with the heart for adventure, Launchpad is still the lovable idiot who can’t fly a plane, and Donald Duck still remains the one who gets stuck with all the bad luck. Then some characters have their personalities/roles revamped into something that improves upon the original. The best example is Fenton, who is still the wannabe superhero but is now a scientist in this show, wherein the old one was just Scrooge’s accountant. This way, both the hero and the man-DUCK-who’s behind the mask are equally capable of saving the day. There’s also Mrs. Beakley, who was originally a nanny that nagged Scrooge’s ear off for putting the kids in danger. In the reboot, she’s treated more as the anchor of reality to the more oddball characters, who also used to be a kick-butt super spy in her younger years. It is still the same role, but a different interpretation.

Now, some characters receive grand changes to their original personalities. But from what I’ve heard, those changes are made for the better. And there are no characters that need it more than the children. More specifically, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. This show does something that I’m eternally grateful for, and that’s giving each of these three their own distinct personalities and quirks. For years I couldn’t for the life of me tell the triplets apart. They had the same design, the same voice, the same personality, and the only difference people had to go off of are their different colors (which really didn’t do much to help). Here, they have different designs, voices, and now defining character traits for each of them. Huey is the smart and responsible boy scout, Dewey is the annoying attention seeker, and Louie is the best character in the entire show, and I WILL FREAKING FIGHT YOU ON THAT! And let us not forget the most appreciated change: Webby. From what I’ve heard, fans hated the original Webby, as she was nothing more than just the stereotypical girl of the group. Here, she’s given an actual personality and a fun one to boot. Webby is the ecstatic thrill-seeking adventurer who is skilled in combat training (thanks to her grandma) and is (of course) a socially awkward girl who wants to make friends. Like I said, this show took the idea that the fans hated and changed it into something that they’ll love. Which makes sense why the writers mastered this because they themselves are real fans of the show.

It is clear how much the writers are fans of the Ducktales franchise as they filled Ducktales (2017) with many references. And not just references to the original series but also references to the classic comics by Carl Barks and even the NES video game from the 1980s (seriously, this show will make you feel things about the “Moon Theme” you wouldn’t think was possible!). Even the show’s animation seems to be a homage to both the cartoon and comics. Not only do the characters and backgrounds have a more comic book style to them, but the characters also work on a mix of realistic and cartoony logic. And let me just say, it is refreshing to see characters in a Disney show have cartoon logic to them since Wander Over Yonder got canceled. And it’s not just Ducktales that the series reference, but even classic Disney movies (of course) and other shows in the Disney Afternoon lineup. And when it comes to these references, it’s more than just a subtle wink to the fans. The writers actually go out of their way to write a story around these beloved characters, so people who don’t get the joke won’t be one-hundred percent lost. For instance, without giving anything away, the writers found a brilliant way to reintroduce Darkwing Duck in this universe that feels right for this famous character. And if you ask me personally, these are the best ways to handle references for a reboot. Make them work within the story, even if you don’t fully get the joke.

This brings me to the second most important rule of a reboot: Make a quality product even though it is based on something else. Let us pretend that the original never existed. Would Ducktales (2017) still be as good as it is now? Personally, as a person who has never seen the original, I think it is.

This is another show that mixes slice of life episodes with adventure ones, similar to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And just like Friendship is Magic, both are equally interesting because the characters themselves make them so. No matter what situation the Duck Family are in, the audience will care about it because the characters care about it. In fact, I think Ducktales (2017) handles the mix of slice of life and adventure much better than Friendship is Magic. In MLP: FiM, the adventure-based episodes force the characters to stick to their simple personality traits to move the story forward, and character-based ones help them grow. In Ducktales (2017), because the characters regularly go on adventures, they grow as characters no matter the situation. For example, my favorite episode is “The Great Dime Chase” where the main plot is Louie finding Scrooge’s #1 dime after accidentally spending it. While in that same episode, Dewey and Webby try to solve a mystery around the boys’ mom. We get a great lesson about the importance of hard work and a fascinating plot of an overarching mystery within the season, all taking place within the same episode. Both are interesting, neither feels as though it overshadows the other, and the characters develop along the way.

Another thing this show mixes well is comedy and drama. A lot of shows recently tried way too hard to find that perfect mix. Ducktales (2017) is one of the few examples that nails it. The comedy is hilarious, the drama is endearing, and neither feels like it’s prioritized over the other. The show starts off with this mix as well, where others that I’ve talked about seem to start off as purely comedic only to take themselves more seriously later on. That isn’t entirely a bad thing, but I feel as though Ducktales (2017) is the best way to go about the method. That way, fans won’t be complaining about how much “better” the show used to be in its first batch of episodes, much like Star V.S. the Forces of Evil.

Unfortunately, while I recommend this show, it’s not without its fair share of issues. Or rather, issue, as there really is only one problem I have with it. And that problem can be summed up with one name: Dewey Duck. For the most part, I dislike Dewy. Because he’s nothing more than a Ben Schwarts character. No disrespect to Ben Schwarts himself, but lately, it feels as though he only plays the one character from time to time: The egotistical attention seeker slowly and surely learning to be a better person who realizes that not everything is about him. That’s the character he plays in both Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), and it’s the character he plays here. And the thing about these characters is that they’re not as lovable as Ben Schwarts thinks they sound. In fact (and, again, I mean no disrespect to the actor. I’m sure he’s a lovely person in real life), every single one of these characters comes off as kind of annoying rather than as the lovable rapscallions I’m sure they’re meant to be. However, there is one thing worth mentioning about Dewey. While he’s portrayed as annoying when used for comedy, Dewey is surprisingly a compelling character when used for drama. The thing is, he’s rarely used for dramatic moments and is meant as a source of comedy. Hence why I said I disliked him for the most part.

Other than that, there aren’t really that many problems with the show. Well, there are, but they’re mostly nitpicks that the series more than makes up for. Is it weird that the kids are voiced by adults? Yes, but the actors do a great job at being sincere and have great comedic timing than any kid could have. Are there changes to characters that fans might not enjoy? Probably, but I have yet to have seen anyone that has annoyed me as much as Dewey has. Are the villains just evil for the sake of being evil? Yes, but that’s not really a big deal. In fact, a villain doesn’t need a heartbreaking backstory as to why they’ve become so evil. They just need to have a great personality that’s fun to watch, which every villain in the show has (aside from season two’s antagonist who’s basically a Disney surprise villain. And I hate them with a fiery passion). Does it feel as though the show suffers from “too many characters” syndrome? It sometimes does, but each character has such a fun and unique personality that I find it hard to forget most of them.

So really, Ducktales (2017) is the best reboot in recent memory. This is crazy, seeing as how lately it feels as though Disney doesn’t even know how to properly reboot their own movies to save their lives. This is why I feel as though people should take notes on what Ducktales (2017) does if they ever feel like rebooting something they loved as a kid. Because this is more than just a retelling of the same story that people know by heart. This is a fantastic show with even better characters, stories, and tone. Whether you’ve been a fan since the beginning, or a part of the new generation of viewers, odds are you’ll be screaming Whoo-Ooo with every episode.

(Also, a word of warning to those who haven’t watched the show yet: Beware the theme song. Trust me when I say it’ll be stuck in your head until the day you die)

#top 20 of 2010s #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #what i thought about

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letterboxd · 3 years

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Found Family.

Riders of Justice writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen opens up to Aaron Yap about grimly funny fairy-tales, woke teenagers and creating an accidental Christmas movie with hunky muse, Mads Mikkelsen.

“Genres, that’s just a sales tool really. That’s to give people, show people, ‘are we having sushi or are we having Italian?’ Sometimes I like it when you don’t know what you’re getting.” —Anders Thomas Jensen

It’s stupidly easy to sell writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen’s new film Riders of Justice on its thirsty pulp appeal alone. Who can resist the promise of Danish acting force Mads Mikkelsen finally getting a decent John Wick-ish vehicle of his own, stoically meting out anguished, bloody vengeance to a cadre of underworld thugs? Certainly not, among many Letterboxd members, Harlequinade, who was moved to write this ode:

“MikkelGod sporting a bushy beard MikkelGod wearing a military uniform MikkelGod wearing a suit MikkelGod having this whole silverfox daddy thing going on MikkelGod killing a man with his big beautiful bare hands MIKKELGOD 🤗🙏🏻😍”

But to dismiss Riders of Justice as another entry in the seemingly endless slew of action-revenge pics would also be to undersell its other layers. Much more than Wick, your average Liam Neeson thriller-of-the-month, or even the recent avenging-dad flick, Nobody, Riders positions itself in a more emotionally and psychologically rewarding space, one perhaps closer to its tonally fluid South Korean counterparts. “What lingers,” Douglas Davidson writes, “are the questions Anders presents and the strange hopefulness that flickers upon the credits roll, burning like the embers of a dying fire in the darkness of night.”

It’s of a piece with all of Jensen’s directorial work thus far. A prolific screenwriter who’s penned everything from soulful early Susanne Bier heartbreakers to the recently misfiring The Dark Tower adaptation, Jensen, as a director, has found a sharply honed groove in the form of grimly funny, genre-defying modern fairy-tales populated by oddball characters forced to contend with the chaos of the inscrutable cosmos around them.

Causality plays an even more pronounced role in Riders. The film’s unlikely heroes—hard-bitten special forces soldier Markus Hensen (Mikkelsen) and a trio of bumbling data wizards (Lars Brygmann and Jensen regulars Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Nicolas Bro)—are drawn together to take down a vicious biker gang, but also preoccupied with processing the hows and whys of grief and trauma, and of course, the value of revenge.

Amid the terse blasts of gunfire, the film foregrounds scenes of connection and healing between its characters, an assortment of progressive teens and bumbling middle-aged men whose unusual found-family dynamic recalls Jensen’s previous dark, offbeat comedies like Adam’s Apples and Men and Chicken. As More_Baddass writes, the film gifts us some “Christmastime therapy of an unorthodox family”.

Over Zoom, we spoke about whether it’s possible to make Mikkelsen less handsome, why Denmark won’t be getting a sci-fi blockbuster anytime soon, and the time that Jensen and a friend tried to break the Guinness World Record for movie-watching.

‘Riders of Justice’ cast members Lars Brygmann, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Nicolas Bro.

Riders of Justice is one of your more action-packed films. Did you watch any other action flicks, or were there any specific movies that inspired you while you were designing and creating the action in this film? Anders Thomas Jensen: It’s funny, because it’s always subconscious. I never look for inspiration directly because for me, that would be weird to do because then you’re just copying. Definitely in the back of my mind, there’s a lot of action movies and a lot of revenge movies that I’ve seen in the past that will work their way in there. The process for me is very, how do you say, unconscious? What’s it called?

Intuitive? Intuitive, that’s the word. Thank you. First of all, a revenge movie is not easy, but it always has a strong lead and it has a strong will, which is obviously really good if you want to do a script that moves forward. Hamlet is a revenge story, right? I love Once Upon a Time in the West. I love that. The Searchers. The Sting, I guess, is also a revenge movie. Also, there’s so much identification in people who are wronged.

Wish fulfilment. Yeah that too. It’s one of the obviously basic human feelings. Revenge, love. There are these emotions that you’ll do dramas based on long after we were here.

I understand that you took a break from directing for a while and you were spending time raising your family. I’ve noticed, with Men & Chicken and Riders of Justice there’s a lot of attention paid to parenthood, and the role of the parent. Was that intentionally woven into these narratives and something you were thinking of? Yeah. I don’t do it on purpose, but I can definitely see that every movie I ever made I’m very much a part of it. So the whole father story is part of my life in this movie. I have a teenage daughter who I sometimes feel like … I don’t at all have the emotional tools that she and her friends have. This new woke generation that I’m aware of; every single feeling and the environment and everything. I was brought up in a different way. So that’s quite personal in the story, the whole ‘father who has to learn how to communicate through feelings when he’s not very good at it’.

Mads Mikkelsen and Andrea Heick Gadeberg in a scene from ‘Riders of Justice’.

Would you consider Riders of Justice a Christmas movie? Well, it’s so funny because I didn’t see it at all before one of my editors said. No, I wouldn’t because I didn’t pay attention to it at all. The only reason it ends on Christmas is because that’s the perfect coming together of a family. I needed it in the end, but it could have been Easter, but it wasn’t. Perhaps it is a Christmas movie now because it does have Christmas in it.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? There are several, but I think the first time I had was Lawrence of Arabia. I saw that when I was very little, when I perhaps shouldn’t have seen it. But when I was around ten, I got a bootleg copy of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. VCRs were a brand new thing and we got a VCR. I saw that film every day for half a year and I still know every line in it. It’s not getting out of my head. I love that film and I think from there on, I knew that I wanted to do films.

As a screenwriter, do you have any other screenwriters that you respect and admire? I have many. Billy Wilder is one of my favorites. Also, Ingmar Bergman, the Coen Brothers, Robert Towne, but many others also. There are a lot of good screenwriters.

I can see elements of those writers coming through your work, especially the first three. You’re really good at blending elements from different genres and putting strange characters together. Are there any other genres you want to explore that you haven’t yet? Well, it’s funny because every time I open up a new streaming service, I look for sci-fi movies first. I’m part of the Academy and when I get the screeners, I’m always checking for sci-fi. I have a love for sci-fi, but unfortunately I’m born in a country where doing a sci-fi film would just be insane. It’s never been done. If you have a really big budget, you have five to six million here. So it’s just something that won’t happen. But of course, you could get ambitious and write a sci-fi movie and hope you could do it somewhere else. I hope one day [to] do a good sci-fi movie, or at least something within that genre because it is a favorite.

But I also have to say, basically, I love all genres. Perhaps not rom-com that much, but I really like Westerns. I like war movies, revenge movies, dramas. I love to mix genres. Every time I do a movie, I get this from the distributors: “What are we going to call it?” Because it is this mix of genres. Genres, that’s just a sales tool really. That’s to give people, show people, “are we having sushi or are we having Italian?” So people don’t get confused. But I think sometimes I like it when you don’t know what you’re getting. That’s also what I love about the Coen Brothers and other directors that play with genres, is that I never know where it’s going.

‘Riders of Justice’ writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen.

Let’s talk a little about Danish cinema. You have your Lars von Trier, you have your Vinterberg and Susanne Bier. Is there an older Danish film that you would recommend that people should see? I actually thought about it and it’s going to sound arrogant, but I couldn’t find one. Not when I compare to what else is out there of American, French, Italian, British, German, Russian and Asian. No, there isn’t. Of course there’s Carl Dreyer. He’s an icon in early, early cinema. That’s the obvious thing to say, but no. For me, Danish cinema starts in the ’90s. Also, I haven’t watched many Danish movies before that, because there aren’t that many. Some people will hate me for saying this, but that’s how I feel.

Are there any recent Danish films or filmmakers that you can recommend? This year I saw a film called Shorta, which was great. It was made by two directors with no budget, about two cops venturing into this Muslim part of Copenhagen where there’s a riot. That was really a promising debut. Also, I really like the idea they had. They made a lot of great stuff visually and for almost no money.

What are your movie-watching habits? You said when you turn on a streaming service, you look out for sci-fi movies. Do you have any other weird behaviors? It’s crazy, but if I really like a movie, I see it many times. I also see it many times where I do not look at it. I hear it. I will just lie with my back to it and just hear the movie. Actually, if the movie is really good, it also works without the picture.

I think that’s [as] weird as it gets, otherwise I’m pretty much normal. I used to binge-watch. Actually, I tried to get into a Guinness Book of Record with a friend when I was fifteen, where, for five days continuously, we watched movies. I can’t remember if it was 107 movies. We watched movies and we had a video store sponsor us. We were lying in an all-night video store, and just saw films until we collapsed. That’s the craziest thing I’ve done, but we never got into the book because there are people that are better at not sleeping, so somebody else beat the record by far.

Do you have a list, or a record of what you watched? No, but there was a journalist that asked us what number afterwards. He asked me, “What film was the film number? 47, 46?” I remember him being very impressed that I could differentiate them.

It would have made a great Letterboxd list. Preserve it for eternity. The funny thing is years after I would actually see a film, and I would get an hour into it and I would go, “Oh, I’ve seen this one.” It was because when I saw the last 30 films, I was unconscious.

I need to ask about Mads Mikkelsen because he’s massive with our community. You’ve worked with him for quite a long time now, so you’ve got a pretty solid working relationship. Having just watched a number of your films in a short period of time, it was impressive that you found that range in him that maybe other filmmakers haven’t tapped into. Is there a type of role that you want to see him in that he hasn’t had a chance to play yet? Yes. There are many roles, but I don’t know. I could put a job description or a feeling on it, but it’s much more complicated with Mads, I think. We have this common thing that we love exploring people who lie to themselves, whether it’s comedy or drama. People who are not being honest with themselves and people who have this screwed up self-image, which in all the films we’ve done together, his character has. There are many other characters I would love to explore with Mads.

His looks are quite specific in each film. He just looks like a different person each time, which is great. You just want to see how he is going to look in the next one. His wife is like that too. She’s always excited and she was so happy this time because he wasn’t ugly. Normally he doesn’t look very well, like in The Green Butchers. Because he’s so handsome, so I try to do him not so handsome.

Riders is the hunkiest he’s been in your films, I guess. Definitely. The competition isn’t tough, though. You’re up against a guy who masturbates and a guy with a bad receding hairline. But it is by far his most hunky.

Related content

Softspacedad’s annotated rundown of 46 Mads Mikkelsen films, and ‘Mads Mikkelsen movies ranked based on how good of a father he is’

‘Mads Mikkelsen is filled with rage and has only one eye’, a list by King

Onebear’s lists of all Danish movies released within each cinematic year since 2009

Anders’ list of films by Danish directors or in the Danish language

Leyner’s list of Danish films nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film

Mikkel’s list of Danish Christmas films

Follow Aaron on Letterboxd

‘Riders of Justice’ is screening now in select US theaters and available on demand. Images courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

#anders thomas jensen #mads mikkelsen #mads #danish cinema #danish director #danish film #riders of justice #revenge movie #revenge film #action films #action film #denmark #the green butchers #men & chicken #letterboxd

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justjessame · 4 years

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The Deal Chapter 7

GREENE FARM~DAY AFTER DARYL’S NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY

I woke up next to Daryl in an actual bed! Feeling amazed at the luxury, after all the nap I’d taken during Carl’s trauma was more of the pass-out not aware type of sleep, I cuddled into Daryl’s side. The side he hadn’t pierced with one of his own arrows. I felt him shift under me and chuckled.

“You are the world’s worst patient, Daryl Dixon.” I whispered, glancing up at him. I’d managed, through sheer force of will, to get him to agree to a sponge bath after dinner. And I even convinced him to let me run back to our tent for a change of clothes for him. Now all the gunk and blood was clear from him, and I had a promise that he’d take advantage of Hershel’s offer of a shower, as soon as he was given the ok.

He groaned after my statement, looking down at me with his version of a pout. Which meant he was glaring at me. “And ya can be a naggin’ nurse, Jessica Grimes.” He grunted, softening his irritation by kissing my forehead. “Don’t know why I had to let ya clean me up last night.” He muttered.

I gave him a look. “As I recall, you didn’t seem to mind during that washing.” I raised an eyebrow as I remembered locking the door and taking my time to be very thorough.

Daryl shrugged, but I could see him fighting a smile. “It wasn’t completely horrible.” He answered, looking at the lace curtains covering the windows. “Might even let ya help me in the shower, since I’m injured and all.”

I laughed and crawled from the bed to find Hershel. I wanted to make sure that Daryl was ok to come back to our tent. He wasn’t going to rush, whether he liked it or not. I found the farmer on the porch, enjoying the morning. He assured me that Daryl would be fine to return to his daily routine, barring stealing another horse. I chuckled and thanked him after he told me Daryl could shower the next day.

Returning to the invalid’s room, I found Andrea offering him a novel and Daryl warning her that if she ever shot at him again, he “best be dead.” I nodded, and then looked up at her. “If you don’t know how to properly handle a weapon, perhaps Dale was right, and you shouldn’t have one.” I glared at her before she could open her mouth for one of her glorious retorts. “Leave.”

Daryl was watching me closely as I sat down on the bed. “She fucked up, Jessi, but we’ve all fucked up one time or another.” He said, taking my hand in his. “Let it go, I have.”

I shot him a look and he smiled. “Ever fuck up and nearly kill someone?” He just stared at me. “Because that’s what Andrea did. She couldn’t see through the glare of the sun, and she shot at you. She was aiming for that thick head of yours, Dixon. If she was better with weapons, you’d be dead. And so would she.” It was a statement and I meant every single word of it. “Jessi,” he whispered, clearly not expecting the force of my reaction to the situation. “Baby, I’m OK. She didn’t kill me, hell, I did worse to myself yesterday.” He was trying to calm me, but this was one topic that it wouldn’t work.

I pulled my hand free from his and leaned closer to his face. Cupping it between my hands, I stared into his eyes. “You’re not dead because of her lack of skill, Daryl. That’s not a win, not when I know Dad will insist everyone learn their weapons better. You’re not dead because Dad hasn’t had a chance to teach her up.” I sighed and ran my thumbs along his cheeks. “She isn’t right for this world, I know it, and it’s going to get someone killed.”

His hand slid to cover mine, holding me to his face. “Then we watch her.” He agreed. “We make sure that she doesn’t screw up. Jessi, you can’t just get rid of people because they’re-”

“Dangerous?” I scoffed. “That’s what Andrea is, it’s what Shane is. They’re both ticking time bombs, the only question in my mind? Which one blows first?”

HOURS LATER~OUTSIDE OUR TENT

Daryl and I had agreed to disagree on the Andrea situation. His let bygones be bygones made me want to scream, but I understood it too. This new life, with walkers trying to kill us, and people not much better, made some strong. Unfortunately, Daryl felt that we just had to train up the weakest to make them better suited.

I did agree with the sentiment. For instance, Carol would probably learn to survive. Dale? Well, Dale was pretty much a hippy type, but if it came to killing walkers, he was game. That was a mark in his favor. His fear of ending a human’s life, however, was going to end up problematic. People, I could tell, were going to be just as dangerous to us as walkers. I mean, Dad told us what happened in Atlanta with the “gang” he’d halved the gun supply with, and let’s not forget Dr. Jenner.

Here’s my list for people in our group who would probably learn to survive better: Daryl Dad Shane (that kills me to admit) Me Carl Glenn (he’d be higher on the list, but he wasn’t raised by my dad) Lori (iffy, she’s still a little timid) T-Dog Carol (once we find Sofia, or we put the poor child to rest, whichever) Dale (once his bleeding heart savior shit is put in its place) Andrea

That’s how it would work, in order of best chances to least. See who’s last? Yeah, because she’s not going to make it. Even if she learns, she’s going to still make the stupidest decisions and then we’ll be the ones to clean it up or take the hit. I didn’t share the list with Daryl. Because honestly, I think he might have taken it as a personal challenge to prove me wrong. That and his head would grow three sizes too big to fit through the door of the tent, since he outranked my dad in the pecking order.

He was happy to hear about the shower. Whether it was the actual bathing, or the fact that he was going to do his damndest to get me in that hot water with him, I’m not sure.

We spent the day listening as Dad planned to take the group shooting (told you so), and then work on the areas surrounding where Daryl found Sofia’s doll. Daryl, I was happy to notice, would be staying back with me. I begged off the shooting practice by holding up my bow to my dad. He laughed and rolled his eyes, but walked away without a fight. Daryl was watching me and I saw his interest in my response and I knew he was wondering if I could use a gun.

“I can shoot guns, Daryl.” I answered him before he could form the question. “My dad was a sheriff’s deputy in the south. Of course, I’m proficient in gun use.” I rolled my eyes.

He gave one of those gruff chuckles I loved. “Didn’t want to give yourself a little practice? Practice makes-”

“Perfect, yeah, I might have heard that before.” I watched his eyes grow darker at the memory of the last time I was told about it.

I ran over to the RV to see if Dale needed help with watching over us all on the roof. I’d rather be with Daryl, but I also knew that every little bit helps. It’s how I caught Glenn acting twitchier than usual and asking Dale if Andrea might be on her period because she was acting crazy.

He actually thought, and I quote, “I’m only asking ’cause it’s like all the women are acting really weird. And…and I read somewhere that when women spend a lot of time together, their cycles line up and they all get super crazy hormonal at the same time.”

I coughed and he realized that I was standing nearby. “I can attest that I am NOT currently having my period, but thanks for asking, Glenn.” I grinned at his blush. “Andrea’s off her rocker most days, as for the OTHER ladies,” I raised an eyebrow to remind him that I knew who he was thinking of, “I’m sure that’s not the issue either. We’re dealing with the apocalypse, dude, what did you expect?”

Dale grinned at me and agreed. “I’m gonna advise you to keep your theory to yourself.”

I nodded, “Telling a woman she’s PMS crazy brings out a whole new round of nuts.”

Glenn, far from looking reassured, looked more twitchy. What the hell?

“Want to tell me what’s going on?” Dale asked, and I nearly walked away, but thought I might want to hear the answer.

“You’re old.” Glenn started, and I closed my eyes at the poor boy’s tact. “You’re… you know things. So what if someone told you something that someone else should know…”

I rolled my eyes as Dale told him to stop being dramatic and spit it out.

“There’s...there’s walkers in the barn and Lori’s pregnant.” He spit it out alright, and I nearly did too. Fuck, WHAT?

“WHAT?!” I had to keep myself from screaming. They both remembered I was standing near them and who I was. “I’m guessing Dad doesn’t know?”

Glenn shook his head. I ran my hands over my face. Fuck, this was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Dale asked if he should speak to Hershel, and I considered it. Having Hershel explain himself to Dad would be MUCH better than one of us. I nodded. As for Lori? There’s no chance that baby is my dad’s. NONE. Great, a baby Shane. Unless Dad raised it. Wasn’t there proof that nurture was JUST as important as nature?

“About Lori,” Glenn started and I held up a hand.

“She can figure it out,” I said, trying to school my features from shock to whatever I could manage. I shook my head. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear this entire mess of a conversation. Dale? Do you need me to stand watch?” He shook his head and I walked away.

Finding Daryl sitting by our tent, I knew he’d be able to tell something was wrong, but I hoped I could distract us both. His smile made those damn butterflies in my stomach start up again. It was better than the nausea Glenn’s news made me feel.

“Wondered where ya got off to.” He said, patting the ground beside him, but I shook my head.

“Had to make sure Dale didn’t need help with watch.” I offered and he nodded. Standing he loomed by the tree he had been sitting against.

“Does he?” He asked, and I shook my head again. “So what’re we gonna get into all alone while they’re gone?”

I raised an eyebrow and was gratified when he rushed to me and smothered any further conversation with a burning kiss. I sighed into him, trying desperately to be careful of his wounded side.

“I’d really like to carry ya inside the tent,” he whispered against my lips.

I smiled at the thought of it. “If you screw up those stitches, I’ll catch hell from Hershel.” I giggled and took his hand. “Besides, I’m perfectly capable of walking with you inside the tent, Daryl.”

The others were gone, except Dale, Carol, Glenn, and the Greene family. And entering our tent, I watched as Daryl groaned and lay back on our sleeping bags. I knew this killed him, being at anyone’s mercy, even mine. Yet, I loved that he trusted me enough to allow it. I bit my lip and looked down at him, fully clothed and clean, thank God. I could still see the ear necklace and all the blood and gore from the day before.

“What’re ya lookin’ at?” He asked, his gruff voice husky and his eyes barely squinting to take me in.

I smiled and laid down beside him. “You, Daryl Dixon, I was looking at you.” I ran my hand up his chest, careful of the bandaged side. “And I was wondering something.”

I knew his eyes were closed without looking, because I felt him sigh into my soft touch. “What’s that?”

“Why was your mouth coated in blood yesterday?” I asked, sitting up on my elbow to look down at him. I saw him grimace slightly, ut-oh.

“I might of eaten a squirrel,” he stopped and wouldn’t look at me, “raw.”

Ugh, I thought, I’d kissed you yesterday and hadn’t even noticed. “Ah.” Was all I said, and I felt him twitch. “Remind me to never ask that question again.”

He chuckled at that. “So tough, but won’t even eat meat straight from the source. It was still warm-like.” He shook his head and met my eyes as I grimaced. “Should have warned ya, but your kiss was all I could think about on the way back.”

“I can’t fault that logic.” I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him again. When I pulled back, his eyes were more black than blue. “Since you’re injured, I should probably take care of you, right?” I asked, we had been so focused on our first night together that we’d never gotten to much more than the full act, so I wanted to be sure.

I watched his Adam’s apple bob with a swallow. He nodded and that was all I needed to get into caretaker mode. I gave him a smile and began kissing down his neck, flicking against his pulsepoint and feeling his hand run down my back and then back to my head. I kept going, unbuttoning his shirt and kissing each inch of skin that was exposed as the buttons fell open. His nipples were taunt, and I spent a moment enjoying each one before returning to my route. Down his stomach, nuzzling his bellybutton, and then my fingers found the button on his jeans.

“I probably shouldn’t completely undress you,” I whispered against his skin as I flicked the button open. “Just when I do, we’ll be called to defend the damn world.” I felt him chuckle as my fingers opened the zipper. “But I’ll make sure everything necessary to your recovery is bared to my attention.” His fingers slid under the tightness of my braid and I smiled against his pelvic bone. He lifted his ass long enough to free that part of him I was most concerned with, and then he was free. I hummed in approval. “Oh, I’m more than certain I can make you feel all better, Mr. Dixon.” I looked up to see he’d put his other arm under his head to get a better angle to watch me. I smirked at him as my tongue flicked against the head that had given me such pleasure in the bright light of the moon. “Just let me know if there’s anything that you need to make a full recovery.” And with that I engulfed him with my mouth, my hand moved to the base and together with my mouth and tongue, I worked him.

“Shit, Jessi,” he hissed, his fingers tangled in the depths of my hair. “Yeah, fuck, just like that.”

I moved slowly, then faster, then slower, making him moan and gasp. His hand in my hair tightened and I knew he was ready, but he did the unexpected, he yanked me from him. “Get up here, Jess.” He growled and my mouth met his with a hunger that was even more than the night before. “I need ya. All of ya.” He moaned against my mouth, and I felt his hands sliding down to my own jeans, undoing them and tugging. “Pull em off.” He ordered and I pulled back, kicking off my boots and ridding myself of my pants. “Now climb on top.” Demanding, I thought, but I was powerless to deny him.

I straddled him and then he snapped up into me. We both moaned at the feeling. We hadn’t thought it was right to try in Hershel’s house, in a stranger’s bed, but this, I rocked my hips and felt sparks between us, this was US. He pulled me back to him, so most of my weight was on him. I was trying to be so careful of his wound, but he wouldn’t allow it. Not now, not here, here we had to connect. And so, my covered chest was tight against his, even as he quickened his pace of thrusting. He swallowed my screams of pleasure as I was fed his own. And for the first time, but not the last, when we came, we didn’t part.

And for a brief moment, I forgot about the walkers in the barn and my newest sibling on the way.

#daryl dixon x ofc #rick grimes daughter #eventual negan x ofc #Smut #angst

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jazziehart · 4 years

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Character Dissection [Rachel Berry]: Episode by Episode - Season 2A

Hello everyone and welcome back to the character dissection series. Once again I’m going to be on the topic of Rachel Berry. I’ve already covered Season 1 by splitting it into two parts. I’m going to be doing the same for Seasons 2 and 3. Today we are going to be covering the first half of Season 2 which is from Audition until A Very Glee Christmas. I will be breaking down her character episode by episode much like the first two posts. Unfortunately, these posts will not be as positive so reader beware. If you are a Rachel fan, this may not be for you.

Let’s start off with the season 2 premiere of Audition. Rachel starts off the episode much like her usual self. She’s now dating Finn and seems relatively happy. However, this happiness is short lived when she finds a foreign exchange student named Sunshine Corozan. She originally apporaches Sunshine to join the Glee Club thinking that she wouldn’t have much to add, however when she hears Sunshine begin singing, she realizes Sunshine is most likely going to be her main competition and may even be *gasp* better than her. After this Rachel tries to make it her mission to discourage Sunshine from joining the Glee Club. Originally she pays off Karofsky and Azimio to slushie her and some of her fellow glee clubbers in front of Sunshine’s locker to scare her off. When Kurt and Mercedes shame her for trying this, she comes up with a new tactic. This is quite possibly one of the worst things she does in the entire series which is sending Sunshine to a crack house. This is Rachel at her very worst. She’s always been self absored and wanting to take the competition out of her way but this was extreme even for her. I wish she would’ve just sent her to Cheerios practice or even to Sue’s office. It would’ve accomplished the same goal of keeping her away from Glee Club while being a lot less cruel to someone who she barely knew. Anyway, soon Tina and Mike find out and alert Will who scolds Rachel and tells her to make it right with Sunshine. Rachel agrees to and invites her to actually try out for the New Directions which she does and has a fantastic performance which you can see Rachel seething throughout. Unfortunately, Sue has found out about Sunshine and tips off Vocal Adrenaline to take her into their school which makes the club angry knowing she probably wouldn’t have left if not for Rachel. Finn also scolds Rachel for what happened and Rachel fears he’ll break up with her to which Finn tells her that he’d never break up with her which gives some relief to Rachel. Rachel goes to rehearse on her own to prepare to accept the backlash of her actions in Glee Club which is where the episode ends.

Next up is Britney/Brittany, another episode where Rachel has a huge part in. Rachel’s first big scene is when the Glee Club takes tablets courtsey of Carl the Dentist and she is one of the few members whose teeth turn blue which she’s upset about saying she flosses between classes and takes good care of herself to which Carl says it’s probably genetic. Later, she and Finn are talking in the hallway where Finn expresses his disappointment about no longer being on the football team. Rachel, selfishly makes it about her and says she’s glad he wasn’t on the team saying he’d probably leave her for a cheerleader. Finn is upset that she believes this and talks about how he feels bad about himself to which Rachel says she wants to be the only thing to make him feel good which Finn doesn’t take well to. Their conversation is interrupted by Santana and Brittany with Santana snarking at Rachel and Brittany saying she’s more talented. Finn laughs rather than defend Rachel which makes her upset but Finn says maybe Santana has a point and adds that he’s trying to be honest, much like what Rachel said to him before. Rachel then goes for her appointment where she has a Britney Spears fantasy which inspires her to change her wardrobe which Finn doesn’t take well to at all, especially since other guys are constantly looking at her. Rachel talks in Glee Club about how she realizes it’s okay to dress like a pretty girl and feel good about yourself from time to time, something that actually isn’t a bad speech at all but is overshadowed by fan speculation about why Quinn is looking away from Rachel which is something I’ve addressed in a previous post. Rachel comes back to Glee practice later that afternoon to find out Finn is back on the football team which she’s upset about even though she previously gave him her blessing. Rachel soon confronts Finn in the locker room as he’s trying on his uniform and wants him to quit the team trying to make him choose between her and football which is yet another selfish move. Later on she purporsely has Quinn test him by asking him out on a date which Finn declines. Rachel is so happy about this she pretends like she realized she was wrong on her own. This is something that’s always annoyed me about Rachel at the end of this episode. The truth is she tested him and he passed. Can you imagine had he actually taken Quinn up on it and had gotten back with her then how mad Rachel woud’ve been? It would’ve served her right for trying to test him when Finn had done nothing to say that he would just leave her for a cheerleader. I know Rachel brought up how he left her to be with Santana and Brittany but he only went on one date with them and didn’t like it. Besides at that time he was trying to find himself something he had the right to do. Anyway I’ll get more into that when I analyze Finn. The show ends with ‘The Only Exception’ which was actually a poor choice of song for the situation and it was la-di-da Finn and Rachel are fine.

Moving onto Grilled Cheesus, one of the few episode Rachel actually doesn’t have a lot of storyline in. She lets Finn touch her breast and is once again making a selfish comment when the Glee Club can’t do any religious songs. She over dramatically exclaims that she found the perfect song and it was ripped away from her like Sophie’s daughter. She eventually performs the song anyway when she’s outside with Finn lighting a candle for Burt so I guess it wasn’t ripped away huh? Anyway she doesn’t have much else of a storyline in the episode since she’s Jewish and this was more of an episode about Christianity.

Up next is my personal favorite episode of Duets. In this episode Rachel’s trying to be more selfless and follow in Finn’s footsteps, one of the only times during the entire season that she displays this quality. She thinks that Sam should win so he feels a part of the group which Finn agrees to. She overdramatically says they need to find a way for her to lose a competition. Let me just go on another rant. One thing I couldn’t stand about Glee (this is on the writers end) was that anytime Rachel gave a really good performance the entire club would just vote for her. Meanwhile, when anyone else killed their performance, it was never met with as much enthusiam, case in point, this episode. Everyone voted for themselves except Finn and Rachel who helped Sam and Quinn win. This is something that made me annoyed just because it was a real slap in the face to some of the great vocalists in the club like Mercedes and Santana. Anyway back to the episode, Finn and Rachel end up picking a duet and perform it offensively as a priest and catholic school girl which the club obviously finds awful. They end up getting Sam and Quinn the win and things work out. Rachel soon notices how sad Kurt is and decides to talk to him. She lets him know that even though he’s lonely, he’s not alone and decides to perform a duet with him that is one they both love and the two start to form a friendship, one that actually helped Rachel become more humble as time went on.

Up next is the Rocky Horror Glee Show, another one of the best episodes. This episode starts off with a bang with Rachel once again selfishly claiming the lead female role. When Will says that girls need to split the lesser female roles of Columbia and Magenta, Rachel makes a comment that pisses me off. She said it’s standard Broadway practice to save their voices. If any role should’ve been split, it should’ve been the lead. Rachel should ‘preserve her voice’ sometime but once again nothing is said another than a throw away comment from Mercedes. Anyway Rachel is just jazzed about the musical and doesn’t realize what a toll it’s taking on Finn, though she does come to his defense when Brittany and Santana are making rude comments about his body. Anyway Will cancels the musical saying he was selfish for wanting to put it on in the first place but agrees to let the New Directions put on the production for themselves, something they seem happy about.

The next episode is Never Been Kissed, another episode Rachel takes more of a backseat to. Her biggest part in the episode is when she tries to do the opposite and keep quiet, something no one expects from her and when she once again is the lead in the mashup (so much for opposites am I right?). Anyway the only other storyline she has is when the guys reveal that they’ve been using Coach Beiste to cool off and she glares at Finn who tells her that he’s never done it.

Moving onto The Subsititute which starts off with Will getting sick and Rachel taking over the Glee Club, something Santana doesn’t take kindly to and tries to attack her for once again only wanting the lesson to revolve around herself. The club soon gets a subsititute in Holly and Rachel isn’t fond of her in the least. She finds her to be goofing off too much and tries to convince Will to come back to the school as soon as he can saying Sue (who’s now acting principal) would replace him. Holly tries to talk to Rachel and soon gets her more onboard with her lessons as the two do a duet. When Will is fired however, Rachel is the first one to come to his defense and says he’s the best thing that happened to the school, not her. An unlikely statement.

Up next is Furt which is probably one of my favorite episodes. Rachel tries to rally the girls to get their boyfriends to defend Kurt from Karofsky, something Quinn isn’t too fond of saying that she isn’t dating Sam (yes you are girl don’t lie to yourself you were literally on top of him making out two episodes ago). Anyway Rachel tries to talk to Finn who’s more worried about his reputation which Rachel is upset with him over saying she’s never been more disappointed in him. Later at the wedding she is constantly trying to keep Finn’s attention insisting on him telling her how pretty she looks and the two actually seem relatively happy at the wedding but all that changes in the next episode.

Special Education is probably the most complex episode for Rachel, especially since at the beginning she finds out that Finn lied to her about not sleeping with Santana last year, something she’s clearly hurt about. The two are fighting and it leads Rachel to try to hurt him the way he hurt her. Enter in Puck, she invites him over and makes out with him, fully intending to have sex with him but Puck stops it saying he can’t do that to Finn again. Rachel is upset but seems to understand. Rachel is at her most selfish in this episode especially after she finds out she doesn’t have a solo. She’s constantly rude about Sam and Quinn having the duet and even places ducttape on her mouth babbling about how her talented is wasted in the club (you literally are giving everything don’t even). Anyway Will calls her and the rest of the club out about their bad attitutes and they prepare for Sectionals. Rachel actually is less selfish when she helps out Kurt with his audition for a solo for the Warblers. The two soon are bonding when Rachel reveals that she and Finn broke up after he lied about being with Santana which Kurt was surprised that she didn’t know. Rachel soon finds out the entire club knew about it which leads to a huge argument before the New Directions go on. Rachel isn’t too happy about being background but is glad when the New Directions tie the Warblers and move onto Regionals. She and Finn hug and start to put the past behind them. However, the next day Rachel reveals about what happened with Puck which clearly hurts Finn, especially with what he went through last year with Quinn and he breaks up with Rachel for good. A fitting ending to this episode.

Finally we get to the mid-season finale of A Very Glee Christmas. Rachel tries to win Finn back by singing a song to him and even trying to pick out a tree with him. However, Finn isn’t ready to forgive Rachel for what she did to him and leaves her.

Let’s talk overview. Rachel somehow has become even more selfish this season and I have no idea where it stemmed from or why it happened. Even in the finale she keeps trying to force Finn to get back with her, something he’s told her that he’s not ready to do and still needs to heal. Honestly Season 2 Rachel is probably the worst she is throughout the series. This actually gave me an idea about another subject I wanted to cover in the favoritism that was displayed towards Rachel by the show which will probably be written after my character overview. I hope you enjoyed this. Stay tuned for the second half of Season 2.

#rachel berry #glee #glee season 2 #finchel #Faberry #puckleberry

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dbh-is-a-crime · 4 years

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All Dbh Chapters

@kaydel your reply to my ask has inspired me to give my thoughts on each of the chapters.

Chapter 1: The Hostage

Is honestly a good first chapter, the tension and stakes are high, it pulls you in. There's a reason people who played the demo were hyped for the game. And regardless of what I think of Cage's writing, it's not the first time he's done a solid intro to a game. (Swiftly followed by garbage but I digress..)

We learn something about deviancy and how it starts, we get a sequence of dialogue based gameplay to set up how important it is to the story, and we get a taste of Connor’s somewhat underdeveloped investigation gameplay.

I will admit that there are several lines I kind of like in this scene (’You can’t kill me, I’m not alive’ I’d like this even better if Bryan didn’t love it so much) And most of the outcomes are very cool!

Chapter 2: Opening

Is not a chapter, it's the opening credits. It's not really interesting, but it's not as bad as Heavy Rain's, only because it's about half as long. Kara was robbed.

Chapter 3: Shades of Color

What a title am I right! And no, it's not just because of the paints. This chapter, title aside, isn't bad! We don't learn anything about Markus but it sets the world up nicely. It's one of the cooler open areas. It shows off the graphics nicely.

And all of that is promptly ruined by the overly heavy-handed scene with the protesters. With the follow up of the back of the bus! Also the preacher guy is weird what was the point of that.

Chapter 4: A New Home

Easily one of the most (if not The Most) boring chapters in the game. Mundane QTEs? We all looooooove those! At the end of the chapter you get some exposition to a very nice composition (this game really would be nothing without the music) and that part is actually ok. But the mundane housework gameplay doesn’t get a pass, even if it is to give context for what the life of an android is like. Would be 100% better if there was 40% less housework.

Chapter 5: The Painter

A solid chapter! Learning about Markus through his interactions with Carl? An actual good narrative device? Unbelievable. At surface level their relationship is sweet and Carl is so supportive of Markus growing beyond his programming. Though there is a darker undertone that mirrors the caged android birds. And that it’s all a gilded cage. And I like both of those interpretations, they’re interesting.

The music mini game is interesting the first time you do it but after that I’m never picking it again, chess it is from now on.

Chapter 6: Partners

Connor’s return after 5 chapters. I think that might be the longest break between appearances for any of them. Anyway this chapter is mostly fine. It sets up Hank and Connor’s troubled partnership and shows us what most of Connor’s gameplay is going to be. (Detective work and trying to reason with Hank) It would be interesting if there was an option to let Ortiz’ android go, seeing as there if a version of the scene where you don’t find him. But I guess it’s too early for Connor to be disobeying.

Chapter 7: Stormy Night

Classic David Cage has women being abused by men! Unfortunately this is one of Kara’s best chapters. The tension from the very first moment if real, and as soon as Alice runs up stairs, you just know what’s going to happen. Without fail, every person I’ve ever watched, immediately tries to follow her. Honestly? Solid way to make me care about the kid.

I know some folks have problems with showing child abuse on screen, but my opinion is that they kept the worst of it as implied, like in the failed ending of the chapter, you don’t see it actually happen. So I’m personally okay with it, but I can understand why some may disagree.

10/10 for the chase/escape scene. It’s stressful as hell but honestly the music just makes it...like idk the moment Kara deviates? I nearly, literally screamed the first time. The build up to it is so good, and you as the player are determined to protect Alice and will fight through the programming to do it.

Chapter 8: Broken

Gonna be honest, Markus’ deviating scene falls a little flatter for me. I’ve watched several people play for the first time and actively not want to break programming and retaliate. Which makes the fact that its a scripted event you can’t avoid frustrating to them. I guess we just haven’t seen any anger from him yet so it doesn’t feel like the reaction you expect? (I get that it’s supposed to be him finally cracking, the story just...doesn’t convey that very well.)

Also the fact that you get punished for staying silent with Carl dying is shitty.

Chapter 9: The Interrogation

Talk about fucking tense! This scene is a real challenge, in either difficulty. Unless you don’t care about the android self-destructing?

I don’t have much else to say, it’s not a bad scene but there’s not a lot of substance to it. The ‘the day will come when we will no longer be slaves’ line is...the start of the truly terrible writing choices in this game.

Chapter 10: Fugitives

Not a bad scene. Getting to choose to steal a bunch of stuff is fun, and the fact that you can steal all this shit and then go and sleep in the car is pretty funny. I don’t like the house or Ralph, just because it’s another chance to put a female character at risk from a male character. 7/10 I’m never picking the house. (Also did you know you can fail to steal from that guy in the laundromat and he wakes up lmao)

Chapter 11: From The Dead

Ok this is going to be kind of a controversial opinion...but I’m tired of this scene. While it’s true that no scene in the game holds up on the 20th watch/play, this scene lost most of it’s shock value on the 3rd watch. Now that being said, the sound design in the scene is brilliant. And putting the audio processor back in does still give me chills, but the rest of the scene? I mean, I guess cannibalising other androids is a pretty powerful story action. But the fact that you can take all of the things you need from dead androids if you search hard enough kind of ruins that for me.

Also idk why but everyone collectively thinks that Markus screams when he reaches the top of the slope and I have no idea why.

Chapter 12: Waiting For Hank

Boooooooring. Ok, getting beat up by Gavin after refusing to make him coffee is mildly interesting. But the fact that Hank just hates you in the scene is honestly quite tiring. Like, his opinion of Connor will inevitably go down at least once, you can’t avoid that. Also there’s nothing to explore in the office so...

Chapter 13: On The Run

Both versions of this scene are very tense. And not in...a super fun way. Like ok, Kara has that empowering woman moment where she cuts her hair, great, but the rest of the scene isn’t that good. (And the version with Ralph is downright disturbing.)

Chapter 14: Jericho

Oh god let’s players cannot do this part. And the amount of time I’ve spent watching people run around clueless because they weren’t paying even the slightest attention or follow the obvious path, makes me hate this chapter. I also hate it because the gameplay isn’t very interesting. Markus’ precog is mildly interesting, but that’s really it. (The end of this chapter has some pretty stunning visuals tho)

Chapter 15: The Nest

Ok, the opening conversation with Hank is cute if Connor is trying to be nice. Though the actual chase is pretty tense. The music is on point as always, because the composers for this game were very overqualified for the job. Also the fact that you get punished for not saving Hank both amuses and vexes me. You don’t catch the guy because you were a shitty partner. But what was the point of taking the risk with Hank if there’s no reward? (Yes I know he still ends up in evidence lock up but that’s hardly reward enough for risking your partner’s life)

I mean okay the pigeons flying through the roof is pretty funny, but the investigation in the apartment isn’t all that interesting. Also I’ve just realised I haven’t mentioned the Zen Garden once but honestly most of the scenes there aren’t that interesting anyway.

Chapter 16: Time To Decide

Wow where do I start on how uninteresting this chapter is. You learn very little about Markus’ companions, you get to have a conversation with a magical minority, and you get a line about an android being dragged behind the back of a car. (After reading the wiki about James Byrd I feel genuinely sick and could not be more disgusted that this was used so clumsily in the game.)

Chapter 17: Zlatko

His name sounds like a brand. Also this is my least favourite Kara chapter. They go to his place for almost no reason (just so they can get caught) and we get a 20 minute scene of Zlatko being a cartoonish monster of a man. Also this has been pointed out and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Why is Kara scared of Luther when she sees him? Like...??? Anyway re-finding her memories is boring, finding Alice is also boring, and hiding from Zlatko is just stressful. Nothing interesting to the story happens here, except that Luther joins Kara and Alice.

Chapter 18: Russian Roulette

Perhaps the shortest chapter in the game. It’s not like...super boring, but it’s not interesting either. Also don’t forget to notice the picture on the table or you’ll have no chance of getting the good ending later! Seriously, they should have made it a requirement for the scene to move on if it’s going to be that important.

Chapter 19: Spare Parts

The whole freerunning thing at the start is lame. And the fact that you have to grab the android and then release him to get the best outcome is confusing as hell. (I have seen many folks fuck this up.) The part where you sneak around in the guard house is actually kind of cool. Also North go down if you’re nice to people....I love this game.

Chapter 20: The Eden Club

Pity the lesbian sexworker androids!!! In all seriousness though this is a chapter I do not like. The endings are unfulfilling, the whole storyline is gross, poorly written and very Cage-esque. (Also why would you make the two android lovers the same model?! Just make one of them one of the other 8 female WR800 models you have!) I mean I guess I can say that the glowly design of the sexclub is nice or whatever.

Chapter 21: Pirate’s Cove

Ok this is a personal one but I don’t like this chapter. Something about the family dynamic between the three falls flat for me and so the whole scene being about them makes it...ehh. Also Kara under threat again! Woohoo! The scene on the carousel is kind of cute and the scene composition is nice, but the fact that all the Jerrys are standing around watching is a little weird. Also bait us with rA9 crap why don’t you! we’ll just never learn anything about this i guess

Chapter 22: The Bridge

I like this chapter to be honest. I know Pirate’s Cove is meant to be relaxed but I find this chapter more relaxing. Even if it ends with a gun to Connor’s head. I mean it’s not that hard to not get shot really. And seeing Hank start to care and question their mission is interesting. I don’t know, I guess I just like the visuals of the snow and the bridge. (Anyone notices that it goes from raining to snowing like three days later, wtf)

Chapter 23: The Stratford Tower

Now this one is complicated. Because I like the breaking in and getting up to the broadcast department part, I even like the pre-speech tension. Markus carrying the weight of history and knowing his words will shape what people across the world think of androids.

The music as he gets ready to start the speech is....just so good. But then he starts talking and.....mmmmm press x for civil right yes please! Press square to end slavery? Absolutely! God...the writing in this scene is Bad. Which is a shame! Because it squanders the carefully crafted tension built up until this point. I like the energy going into this scene, the idea that they’re about to take a stand, make history. But it is unfortunately ruined for the sake of a poorly executed racism allegory.

Chapter 24: Public Enemy

Ok, going to investigate the crime scene of what you just did as Markus is pretty good. Its not an original idea, that was the opening sequence for Indigo Prophecy, but it still works I’m not going to lie. Also the cop from the Hostage showing up to thank you if you saved him is cute. The fact that Hank is starting to question Connor and look for signs of deviancy in him is also nice! Also I hate it but going after Simon gives you a more cohesive storyline if you’re going for a deviant Connor route. (Can I get an F for Simon? He can die so many different ways)

Chapter 25: Midnight Train

Can’t believe that the chapter about the underground railroad is literally called Midnight Train. Yeah the dialogue in this? Shocking, terrible, absolutely unforgivable. Rose I am so sorry this happened to you. Also a cop arrives to....put Kara in peril at the hands of a male character again! Can’t go a chapter without that!

Chapter 26: Capitol Park

Hmmmmmmmmm. ‘We have a dream’? ‘I can’t breathe, but I’m still alive’? Hi, yes, hello? David Cage is doing it again, yeah he’s co-opting black history for his story about androids, somebody needs to stop him. Why did no one stop him.

Ok, most of this chapter other than that is ok. It’s not particularly good, but it’s ok. (wiLL yOu bE gOoD oR eViL?!?!1)

Chapter 27: Meet Kamski

Ok this man is so creepy and emotionally manipulative and as a narrative tool I’ve actually come to love it. Like the tone of this chapter is such a breath of fresh air. Maybe it’s just the fact that they added a new character after such a long time and that he knows more than he ever lets on. rA9 baited again...

Also this is Connor’s turning point in a way. You can still choose to change your path later on, but this is the real moment of truth where a character pushes him to reveal where he’s at. (Also the fucking MUSIC)

Chapter 28: Freedom March

Oh no. I’m so sorry Markus you deserve better. I hate this chapter if you can’t tell. The combo of the black history slogans and the jesus music is too much for me. Also the good ending is locked behind Simon being alive/Spare Parts success route??? Also F for that random android who’s name is John that we hear about twice.

Chapter 29: Last Chance, Connor

I usually keep a low profile with Gavin so I miss out on the beatdown unfortunately. But having the option is hilarious. If you don’t sacrifice at the march, Simon is alive, interrogation bad end, Rupert and the Tracis escape....can you even find Jericho?

Just a thought, anyway this is short but tense chapter. Don’t hate it.

Chapter 30: Crossroads

Kara’s part of this is dumb as hell. The Alice twist literally destroys the storyline but anyway...

Markus has very little to do until the end. His version is ok, but Jesse’s line delivery leaves something to be desired. (You’re one of us....)

Connor’s is easily the most interesting of the three concurrent stories at this point. Going in to capture Markus/North, chasing them through the hold if ur a machine..very good.

And....going deviant. Okay yes that still gets me, I did actually shout YES!! out loud the first time I witnessed it. The music’s slow build in the scene, and most of the dialogue (if you choose carefully) swells to this point and...and..it happens!!

Like idk I’ve only been slowly building up to this for 9 hours, sue me.

Chapter 31: Night Of The Soul

I like this chapter! Or Markus’ version anyway. Connor’s...well the Hank version is just sad. The Jericho version is fine.

But Markus? Visiting Carl’s grave or the man himself is such an emotional moment for the character. And the single humanising moment he’s had in several chapters. The conversation is so weighted with his doubts and fears and Jesse Williams gives a beautiful performance! (Also as I’ve said, the alarm system saying ‘welcome home markus’ kills me on impact)

Chapter 32: Battle For Detroit

Is a good chapter. What, did you expect me to say it isn’t? Cause it is. Or some versions of it are.

The tension in all three characters stories, regardless of which version, is perfectly hit at this point.

Kara’s....ah fuck idk I mean the border version is ok? The others....kind of suck? The guy letting them through with high public opinion and Markus doing a peaceful demonstration is kind of cute and sort of makes sense in a way.

Markus’ versions (both in which he is alive) are pretty cool. The revolution is hard, and I do like that it ends with him saying that they haven’t won, they’ve only started a war. The demonstration is kind of dumb, and I actually prefer them getting shot and then the news anchors suggesting that maybe androids are people in their own right that humans refused to acknowledge. (Feels more real, ya know?) Also black folk song!! Why??

Gonna be real, most of Connor’s versions of this scene are pretty good. Cyberlife tower is tense as hell but he’s a fucking badass. Machine Connor on the roof gives us the best line in the game. ‘What’s up lieutenant, ran out of whiskey so you came here looking for trouble?’

So that’s some of my thoughts on each of the chapters of dbh, I could go into more depth but my eyes hurt and I’ll probably hit post limit soon.

#dbh meta #ramblings #mine

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cepmurphy · 4 years

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“Urg! He’s got a face fall of teeth!” – The Woman Who Fell To Earth

From now until New Year’s, I’m going to be reviewing S11 of Doctor Who in time for S12. Why? Because there’s various things about S11 I don’t think anyone discusses, so I’m going to do it. And naturally, we start with ep1, The Doctor In An Exciting Adventure With Tim Shaw. Chris Chibnall went into S11 with entirely new writers and directors, a new composer, the first female Doctor, and a pledge of no returning monsters in S11 (i.e. a fudge for New Year’s). It was all going to be new. Did that work? It certainly results in his first episode looking and feeling like no other Doctor Who episode I’ve seen before it. No other episode in S11 looks and feels like this either. When we open with Ryan and his grandparents, it feels like we’re watching a BBC drama. It starts with a deliberately unflashy vlog; we move into natural lighting, wide shots of the grassy outdoors, and domestic drama as Ryan loses his calm and refuses to accept Graham. Where Rose deliberately harkened to contemporary soap operas, The Woman Who Fell To Earth starts off feeling like The A Word. When the science fiction shows up, it starts as abstract yellow slashes in the very air. The lighting, camerawork, and music all presents this as something weird rather than exciting. Something is distorting the genre. And then, the train attack. A BBC drama has been invaded by a sci-fi horror. We’re in a world of darkness now; Sheffield is a city of shadows and grungy alleyways and empty streets. Our first alien is a pulsing mess of wires that flashes from within, something completely alien and faceless. When we get a humanoid villain, he’s a sinister Predator-like figure. He leaves bodies so disfigured they can’t be shown on screen and he wears severed teeth on his face. This is odd enough on rewatch. When I first saw it, I was transfixed. Was this what Doctor Who was going to be like? The answer is “no”, we don’t get this dark and horrific and completely weird after, and that’s a bit disappointing. Still, as an opening I can’t fault its confidence. This is not Moffat’s Who, or RTD’s, or the Classic Era, or even Chibnall’s previous stories. But does the story work, and does it set up the characters for later?

There are some weak points. Why did Tim Shaw’s bundle-o-wires leave the cast alive if it was planting bombs to kill them later anyway? Never explained. Ryan’s dyspraxia comes in during his climb up the crane to help Carl, treated in the story like this is the point where he tries instead of giving up, but we’ll be returning to him and the bike later anyway. And Tim Shaw comes from five thousand galaxies away, a detail that doesn’t fit in with the more grounded, grungy setting of this story.

However, for the most part, this works. It’s a simple plot to start us off: a rich dude is hunting the Most Dangerous Game, and he’s cheating. This is the key thing, the bit that the Doctor and the show flag up as the worst part, not that he’s a killer but that he’s petty. He’s a sadistic thug who taunts and dismisses people, who kills when he doesn’t need to, and then gets pissy when the Doctor notices that he’s cheating at his test. He wants to be seen as the Big Man but he’s just a cheap bully. “Tim Shaw’s a big, blue cheat!”

He’s still a threat, due to that petty brutality. He fits the dark-streets sci-fi horror of this episode – he’s an unsettling, nasty, brutal thug and he’ll kill you. (Making him a major planet-shattering ubervillain, now, that’d be silly, right….? Oh no.)

A simple plot means a greater focus on selling the new status quo, the character dynamic, and it does: the characters work by cooperating, and the Doctor is a low-key, often practical figure. Throughout the story, there are constant scenes of discussion and questioning to figure out what’s going on, and everyone – not just the Doctor figuring it out for us – gets to play a role. Crucially, the Doctor recruits them to find out facts for her, and each character has a different social group and a different method to find them out. We learn something about them when Graham and Grace turn to colleagues, and that Graham does it in person, and when Ryan checks Sheffield social media, and when Yaz tries (and fails) to use her job. Ryan’s continuing issues with Graham marrying his nan are less key than the fact Graham is mostly not pressing the issue, but Grace does; when Ryan snarks “second husband”, both grandparents look at him, but Graham looks away. Graham spends the whole thing trying so hard to get Ryan to accept him as “granddad” and putting up with a lot of guff, and we learn a lot that he’s putting up with it when it’s clearly emotionally draining.

And we learn something when despite all that, Ryan is left depressed when he thinks Graham’s blaming him for what’s going on.

And Yaz’s first bit of police stuff! On first watch, it feels like she rarely does this again – however, on rewatching them closer together, you will start to pick out numerous moments where Yaz reacts and deals with situations exactly as you’d want a policewoman to do. This is where it starts, and is the most explicit: a scene of her keeping the peace with calm authority and common-sense decisions, and asserting herself over older women.

Then there’s the new Doctor. Very, very quickly, we learn who the Doctor is – as with RTD’s debut of the Ninth, we learn about her from how she enters the fray and interacts with people. This Doctor is someone who doesn’t actually know anything on but is working it out, and working out her response, on the go. This Doctor turns to everyone around in the crashed train and brings them into a discussion, tries to form them into a group and trusts them to assist her. This Doctor doesn’t kill Tim Shaw but gives him the means to go home, so he can be saved from the DNA bombs he’s triggered. (Okay, she tricked him into absorbing them, but she’s never intending to kill him, just force him to piss off.)

The most defining thing is that this Doctor builds her new sonic screwdriver. When the Doctor was without sonic or TARDIS in The Eleventh Hour, the sonic was returned as a reward by the story at the very end. The Thirteenth doesn’t need it given to her. We see her make something, and – just as she works out what’s going on – we see her do it with what’s around her. Her new sonic looks like a thing that has been hammered out in a shed too, it’s no sleek sci-fi gizmo born from within a time machine but a piece of DIY engineering.

And that’s one of two big things in this episode that will last throughout the series: the Doctor is grounded, not a figure of great sci-fi power but someone who has to plot and make things. The second is the story is grounded as well. The world isn’t at risk, just a few people in one city. Which city? Sheffield, not somewhere with the TV glamour and loving building porn shots of London. The Thirteenth Doctor gets her new outfit from a charity shop, key intelligence comes from a bus driver, the villain’s grand scheme is to abduct one man, and the Doctor attends a funeral. The stakes are low by the standards of the show, but it’s not treated as such. “They’re not important,” Tim Shaw says about the little people, and is condemned for.

We’re not dealing with the Lost Lonely God here, we’re dealing with a smart, practical woman “sorting out fair play throughout the universe” who works with people like bus drivers and blokes doing MVQs, and who will stick around for your funeral (and a very normal funeral presented in a normal way, a coda that lasts several minutes, not a quick beat). It’s a strong, confident start, setting out a way of doing Doctor Who and saying: this is what we can do. Come along. Unfortunately, following it up with a Coming Soon montage of actors is a terrible way to build interest. It’s a bunch of people staring at the camera in different clothes. Where’s the excitement? How will kids know to care? We’ll end positively and remember the greatest man of Sheffield, the drunk kebab man who threw food at Tim Shaw. “Eat my salad, Halloween!” Legend.

#doctor who #doctor who reviews #Jodie Whittaker #doctor who s11

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whateverisbeautiful · 5 years

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Reveling in Richonne

#148: The Defender (9x07-9x12)

So before 9x14, there were more little notable tidbits here and there. Michonne had to defend her stance a lot and go through it. And even though she didn’t seem to have a whole lot of people behind her, I was on her side completely. I could see her perspective loud and clear so you know...

As for 9x07, I like that Siddiq seems to be one of Michonne’s closest confidants because he’s a really good person and because Carl’s the one who brought him to her. Grimes looking out for each other even after they depart.

Michonne has a moment in 9x07 where she tells Yumiko, “I know what it’s like. To worry about your family. To carry the burden of protecting them. To feel guilt when they suffer.” Everything Michonne is doing and has done is for her family, and not just her immediate family but for the larger community family they’ve built. She wants to do what’s best for all of them.

Yumiko says they’ll all be fine. And Michonne says, “Because you have to be. I would know.” And she reassures them they’ll find a home. That’s also something Michonne would know since she went from being a lone wolf type to truly finding her home and the family she was meant for.

We also learn that Maggie left without even saying anything to Michonne which is tough and strange. For some reason the two had a falling out that doesn’t ever quite get explicitly addressed .

Michonne tells Siddiq she kept her promise to Judith by getting that new group to Hilltop and so now she’s going to go home. And it’s sweet how all of this really was because she heard Judith out and wanted to honor her daughter’s wish.

Siddiq asks what about her promise to Carl and she says it’s not that simple. And it’s true, after everything she’s been through sometimes the rules change. Just like if Carl or Rick would’ve gone through that Jocelyn stuff they would’ve adjusted too.

Y’all, I don’t even want to address the uncalled for hostility Michonne’s met with when she pulls up to Hilltops gates in 9x08. 🙄 But I will say that Tara needed to turn that attitude all the way down cuz she had me watching like...

Michonne and Carol have a little exchange and get to talk about the kids which is nice. I’m glad someone acknowledged Michonne as a mother and not just the Head of Security like we’d been seeing. And it makes sense that Carol would be the one to do that.

I’ve alway wanted Carol and Michonne to have more scenes together since they’re both strong women who have gone through a lot of the same things. So I appreciate that in this moment they at least acknowledge the similarities in their journeys when Carol says, “You and me, we both lost children and we kept going.”

It’s deep cuz losing a child is the toughest thing to go through and they two of them have seen it happen many times and been personally affected from it. And yet years later these two are still standing cuz they have an immense strength within them.

(Side note: So the wigs…can we talk about it for a sec? 😬 For Michonne’s wig, I get the idea and I like the idea. But all I gotta say is they are lucky Danai can pull off anything cuz the execution of this wig was not always on point to say the least. Like the taping of the edges to start. 🤦🏽‍♀️ They are in Atlanta! Black hair capital. To have a wig like that...they could have done better. I’m just saying. But again, Danai makes it work cuz she just got it like that.👌 And for Carol’s wig, again the idea and the significance of the longer hair isn’t bad, but still that execution was not the move.🏽)

Later in this episode, Michonne says how she knows she didn’t make easy choices but, “at least they’re alive so they can hate me for it.” I’m still unclear as to what would make the others behave this way towards Michonne.

Even if she did cut places off, no one ever stopped and said hey I know Michonne used to have the most sound head on her shoulders of us all so maybe if she’s making a drastic decision there’s a valid reason for it.

People seem to know what Michonne went through, or at least the gist, but still gave no understanding. Michonne’s mantra now is that there’s a whole lot of broken world between the communities so they’ve gotta focus on taking care of their own. And yes would it be nice if they could all just be united? Definitely. That’s what she’d really want. But also right now Michonne’s at a point where she has to do what she has to do for her family, the same way Rick did.

Rick straight up kicked Carol out of their community in season four to protect his own, so drastic measures have been taken before for the sake of protecting your family.

Michonne really does feel like she’s looking out for the best interests of everyone if they stop traveling so much cuz it would keep everybody a bit safer. Not just Alexandria, everybody. When she tells Siddiq at least their alive to hate me it’s because she genuinely sees her decisions as having kept everybody alive. She didn’t cut things off to punish, dismiss, or divide. It was to protect and save.

So next, it’s interesting cuz my favorite part of 9x09 was in the “previously on” part lol.

Michonne’s voiceover does a briefing on the past and mentions everything that went down. And she says “We lost friends we loved…my true love.” And y’all, that alone took me out. 😭🙌🏽

I really loved hearing Michonne refer to Rick as her true love, even if it wasn’t within the show. Rick is her true love. It’s just the gospel truth. 💯

And then she says, “But even now, six years later, his hopes for the future live on.” And it’s so sweet cuz she says that over clips of Judith and RJ. They’re Richonne’s legacy. 😊👌🏽

So listen, during 9x09 Negan got out of his cell and if the goal is to redeem him, then having him immediately go into Michonne’s home at night and walk right into Judith’s room ain’t a great start. That’s so creepy and violating. 😖

But I do adore the precious drawing Judith has above her bed. It’s Rick, Michonne, Carl, RJ, and Judith. The royal family. And it says the truest statement ever on the top, “My family is always with me.” Amen, Judith. 😊🙌🏽

As Negan’s about to hop the gate, Judith stops him with a gun cuz she’s about that life. (Although whoever was supposed to be watching her, while Michonne was away, was def slacking.)

Then Negan and Judith have this whole little exchange and Judith is quite fearless.

Negan tells Judith, “You know when your mom and dad - when they locked me up, they told me that I was gonna be good for something.” And I just appreciate hearing Rick and Michonne be referred to as “mom and dad”.

And I like that he acknowledges the wonderland that Alexandria’s become. Despite Judith’s knack for making her own decisions she does at least know who’s boss when she tells him, “Rules are rules. My mom decides not me.” Which is nice to hear, even if she does let him go afterwards.

Michonne and Daryl also have their first convo post time jump and it’s nice to see them together.

(Side note: I knew they wouldn’t address it or show it but I was very curious as to how the conversation would go when Daryl explains to Michonne why Rick was even in that bridge situation in the first place. Cuz if it was up to Rick…he would’ve been at home with her that day. But Daryl, Maggie, and a fake friend horse unfortunately had other plans.😒)

Michonne tells Daryl that Judith found the new people and vouched for them so she does too and Daryl’s with it. In regards to Paul dying and them bringing him back to Hilltop for closure, Michonne then says, “It’s gonna mean a lot to them. Bringing him back. Burying him.” You know this speaks to her because she didn’t get that closure with getting to bury Rick.😔

Daryl knows too and sincerely says, “Sorry I couldn’t do that for you.” I appreciate him saying for her specifically, cuz of course he wanted to find Rick for him and everyone else too but he knows that it would have especially meant a lot to Michonne, cuz in losing Rick she lost her soul mate.

And Michonne looks at him and says, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do that for both of us.” Cuz it’s true these two are the closest people to Rick. It’s his wife and brother and so it is sweet to see them have this moment of understanding more than anyone, what not finding Rick has felt like.

It’s nice that now Rick has a wife and best friend who still feel the weight of his loss six years later and keep his memory alive.

Michonne also thanks Daryl for trying to find Rick and “for after” cuz those two went through it big time in between this time jump.

When they’re confronted by Whisperers at the bridge, I love the shot of Michonne walking with two walkers behind her like her OG days in season three.

But what’s cooler is that, while the image is reflective of the past, this isn’t the same s3 Michonne. This Michonne has a whole family now and doesn’t just get her strength from the dead, she lives for the living. And slays for the living too.👌🏽

I’m glad Aaron is a real one for at least starting to understand where Michonne is coming from with why she feels these communities need to stay in their own lanes. There’s some sadistic people out there, with Alpha being top of the list, and they know that now.

I’m also here for Judith being a woman of her word. She said she’d shoot next time she sees Negan and that’s what she does. On site.👏🏽

Next time we see Michonne is in 9x12 and she’s confronting these deceptive Alexandrians about the radio stuff. She has to give them a dose of reality when she lets them know this sneaky stuff not only could get people killed, it already is getting people killed.

She tells them that putting themselves out there when they don’t have to is dangerous but Father G feels like cutting themselves off from their friends is dangerous too.

Aaron steps up and defends Michonne’s point of view because there are literally masked enemies out there now that confirm exactly what Michonne has been saying.

And Aaron speaks nothing but facts when he says, “We put Michonne in charge of security for a reason. Her judgement has saved us time and time again.” Thank you Aaron for that dose of solid truth. Louder for the people in the back. Michonne’s judgement stay saving lives. 👌

🏽Siddiq brings up the fair and that Michonne turned it down which upsets the people. But, after seeing how the fair went down, I’ll be honest, the petty in me was like…do 👏🏽y’all 👏 🏽see now 👏🏽that 👏🏽Michonne’s 👏🏽insctinct👏🏽 is 👏🏽always👏🏽 right!?

They’re lucky she’s not the “told you so” type because she knew the fair could be dangerous and leave them all vulnerable and well, exactly that happened. Yes Michonne is leading with an iron fist and I’m not saying she’s perfect, but they gotta at least understand that sis has a point. A lot of valid points, if you ask me.

It’s good Michonne is so levelheaded and mature too because a lesser person might’ve been like; you Alexandrians better listen to me...

In Michonne’s first exchange with Negan since the time jump, she shows up to his cell and wants answers as to how he got out and why he came back and what he was planning.

Negan really is still trying to talk all big like he’s in control and tells her how he was in her house and could’ve killed her and a lot of people but Michonne calls him right out and knows he came back cuz he knew there was nothing out there for him. It’s a read. 💯 This whole scene is a read from Michonne and I’m here for it. 😌

Negan again gets too personal when he tells her, “You’re keeping me in here to remind everyone how merciful the great Rick Grimes was.” Keep that name out your mouth, Negan. 😤

And then Negan really tries to offer to be some kind of sounding board for her which is low key insane lol.

I was a little shook that he’d even think Michonne would even consider an offer like that. Sounding board!? Ain’t nothing sound about that man. Being in that cell so long clearly has him not thinking straight.

When he refers to Michonne as the leader, she says she’s not but both Negan and I were like come on girl, you’s the leader. 😂

He mentions he knows she wrote up some constitution, and it was cuter when Rick referred to it as that. Just saying. And then Michonne sees Judith by the window and is surprised and I was like yes girl, your daughter is buddy-buddy with Negan and we need to nip that in the bud asap.

Michonne then confronts Judith at home. But first she watches as Rick and Michonne’s peaceful prince, RJ, sleeps. Precious. ☺️

Literally everytime they show RJ I just feel like we’ve won the best award. Whenever he’s on screen I’m just like...

Michonne asks why Judith was spying on her and Judith says she wasn’t, she went there to see Negan. Michonne is surprised to learn she’s been talking to him and so she asks why. Judith says she feels sorry for him and Michonne is adamant when she says, “He is not your friend, sweetheart.” It’s the truth.

And then Judith has the tween response of, “Well obviously.” Michonne asks, “So if he’s not your friend then why are you talking to him?” and Judith says, “He listens to me. Not everybody does.”

It’s interesting cuz so much of what a parent does can go unnoticed. Michonne listened to Judith with Connie and Co and personally escorted them to Hilltop to keep her promise to Judith. But sometimes when you’re a kid you don’t see that.

This moment between Michonne and Judith reminds me a bit of Rick and Carl’s exchanges in the past. And in both situations, even when they don’t see eye-to-eye, the love and care they have for each other is always so evident. It’s why they so fiercely protect each other.

Michonne tells her, “I don’t want you to ever go near him again.” And Judith asks why not so Michonne explains, “There’s a reason that he’s in a cage, Judith. He is a monster.” And I was like...

And then Judith gets passionate when she says, “No he’s not. He’s a human being.” Girl, if you were in that lineup you’d feel different. 😬 Pretty sure that’s a direct quote from Michonne’s mind. 😂

Michonne clarifies saying, “But he has done monstrous things. He’s killed people. People I cared about. People your dad cared about. And if we ever let him out it would start all over again.”

Judith counters with, “But mom, he did get out. He’s not like that anymore.” And Michonne says, “I get why you want to believe that. But people don’t really change.”

And then Judith responds with the deep statement, “You did.” This really resonates with Michonne. And I think this moment resonates with her for a lot of reasons.

Michonne has changed and evolved a lot over the seasons. Especially from a lone wolf to a valued family member. She also changed leadership styles after going through trauma. So she knows Judith has a point that she changed. And I think it hits her that Judith has noticed these changes within her.

You can tell it stirs up a lot in her so she pauses and tells Judith to go to her room. And Judith again has the tween response of, “Why?” and Michonne is just honest and says, “Cuz I need a minute.” It’s the healthiest approach to be honest like that and take some time to process all this.

Again, it’s tough cuz Michonne is expected to balance so much. She’s expected to be hands on as both the Head of Security/Leader and as a mother of two. It makes it difficult to have moments to breathe. So as weighted as she clearly feels in this moment, I’m glad she at least takes a moment to herself to process.

Michonne has a good heart and a balanced character, so she’s open to hearing people out. And we see that when she has a sweet moment with Aaron where she thanks him and Aaron again reiterates his understanding of where she’s coming from.

Because she’s willing to be a team player, she tells Aaron that she won’t veto the councils desire to go to the fair. She admits she thinks it’s a terrible idea (and she’s right) but she also cares to value their rights, plus it’s for the Kingdom, which she cares for.

Aaron says he hopes they don’t regret this and Michonne agrees and unfortunately they all will.

But at least this moment shows that Michonne is willing to do what the best leaders do which is take a step back every now and then and let people lead themselves.

As people pack up for the fair they stay on this shot of Michonne alone and sitting very contemplatively. And it’s tough seeing how much she has to endure alone when normally Rick would be right by her side.

It’s also tough cuz Michonne’s gut feelings are so right so often, so it can’t be easy to know that her people are willingly putting themselves at risk for something she knows will be a mess. But they lived and they learned…well most of them. 🙃

And that’s everything that goes down with Michonne and her family in the events leading up to the meaty Michonne episode we get in 9x14. It’s a tough one but also really significant so you know I’ll break it down. 👌🏽😭

gifs source: @michonnegrimes

#richonne #s9 #9.07 #9.08 #9.09 #9.12 #all hail the queen

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praphit · 5 years

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Doctor Sleep and The Mystical Black Man

So, I saw the trailer for this movie. I quickly realized that this was a sequel to my favorite horror movie "The Shining".

And I quickly realized that this movie trailer was promoting a movie that was STUPID - not just "stupid", but "sssToopid!" Nahmeen? There is so much about "The Shining" that I enjoyed, and it seemed as though this sequel was just going to be amping up the supernatural elements. Normally, it would have bothered me that a movie titled "The Shining" wasn't really about the shining. But, Jack Nicholson is so good!

I didn't care for his wife though. I could never tell whether Shelley Duvall's character was supposed to be kinda "out there" or that maybe Shelley Duvall simply wasn't a good actor. I also didn't even care about the kid and his shining. Like I've said many times before, kids aren't very interesting. Give him some crazy pills, punish him for writing “REDRUM” on the wall, and send him to his room! Give me more Jack and that creepy hotel!

I was so busy shouting out "sssToopid!" throughout the trailer that I didn't notice what the movie was titled.

Later on, I saw a poster for this movie.

Now, at this point, I still wasn't connecting this poster with that trailer. I saw the title and said to myself - "This is sssToopid." What the hell does "Doctor Sleep" mean anyway? I saw from the poster that Ewan McGregor is in it. What is HE Doctor Sleep? Is this a horror movie? What is Ewan McGregor the villain? How is he putting people to sleep? What is he choking them out? So, there are vampires, werewolves, demonic spirits, and then Ewan McGregor?! Look at this picture.

His nose is bleeding. Do you know why his nose is bleeding? - cuz he was thinking too hard. This is our villain??! C'mon, man!

Say it with me now - "sssToopid!"

But, once I finally connected the two, I then realized that because I'm a big Shining fan, I'm going to have to see this craptastic movie!

So, here we go! - the sequel to "The Shining" that we didn't need or ask for:

This sequel is about the little kid that I didn't care about (Danny).

Now, people, I'm about to put a hard lesson on you. Sometimes, cute kids grow up to be jerks. NOT ALL OF THEM! But, take ten cute kids you know... at least half of them will grow up to be jerks. People, this is not me talking, this is math!

Danny was one of the unfortunate ones. Danny grows up to be a real piece of shit. He does something awful in the beginning of this movie that is never really resolved. Perhaps it's bad writing or maybe they're just hammering home what a piece of shit Danny actually is.

Let's say that they made a movie from the perspective of the person who shot Bruce Wayne's parents. The shooter feels terrible, runs off, fixes his life and moves on. Some might be like "Wait a minute! What about the family that he destroyed?" ROLL CREDITS :) I'm talking about it more than the movie did, so I'll move on.

He ends up running away from himself, his alcoholism, and all of the crappy things he has been doing.

He runs off and meets a lovely man. I call him “lovely”, because at first sight of Danny (who is a stranger to him), he offers him shelter, a job, and a path to sobriety. A bit contrived wouldn't you say? Maybe there are people this thoughtful, selfless, and compassionate in the world... I damn sure haven't met them. People like that aren't raised in Baltimore (where I live). Here, if you ask someone for a dollar, you might get punched in the face.

So, Danny gets the miraculous help that he needs, and then finds someone else on this journey away from himself - a little girl who also "shines". This girl's shine is the strongest around, apparently. This girl has a cult of... pretty much vampires (who feast off "shiners") following her, which eventually springs a now clean Danny into action - this is the plot/thrill/horror.

Rebecca Ferguson is in this, btw

- she plays the cult leader. SHE IS AWESOME! She nails the role! You can see why someone who's lost would be drawn to her and the cult. You can also see why the cult loves, respects, and fears her. So, if you're looking to start a cult, be sure to take plenty of notes from Ferguson's performance, and you'll be on your way! If done properly, being a cult leader pays well!

I also must mention that the mystical black man made his appearance again (played by Carl Lumbly). He’s actually the unsung hero of this movie.

It's always good to have a mystical black man in your life. If you don't have one, you can count on me:)

There's a lot to love about this sequel (despite me making fun of the writing); it actually surprised me. I spoke about Ferguson, but her cult also has life to it. A lesser movie would have simply had randos in the background and never get into their personalities, or any dialogue or backstories. You get a sense of family from the vampire-like cult:) The CGI in this is also dope! All of the way through I was digging it. And I love the battle fought against alcoholism here. Danny wasn't some lovable, functional drunk - he was a drunk asshole like his drunk asshole dad. It was real. I thought that the movie handled all of that well.

My only real issues come again with the writing ( mainly at the end). There are a handful of plots lines that don't really need to happen (which would of helped this film be shorter, and it def needed a trim). The main thing that didn't need to happen is going back to the infamous hotel (not a spoiler - you see that action in the trailer). Now of course we want that epic fight at the end. I'm simply saying that based off of the writing, it didn't make sense. Going back to the hotel is stated as very dangerous, the little girl then asks "why they should even go back?"... and she is not met with a strong reason - cuz there isn't one. And everything that happens in the hotel from that point onis... kind of absurd. BUT, none of this took away my enjoyment of the film. I didn't care about lil' Danny, but I care about the piece of shit he became. I care about the world of the shiners. And did I mention Rebecca Ferguson?? She has a hold on me. I'm willing to be her first cult member.

Grade: B

I have to say that the naked, old, ghost woman from the first movie is back! - and freer and more unashamed of her ghostly body than ever before.

It's like she couldn't wait to be nude and in front of the camera. There were times when it seemed like the camera person wanted to move away from her, but she wouldn't let them! - she wanted that close-up, baby!

You might notice that I didn't mention "Doctor Sleep" much. Yeah, that's because this movie doesn't either. Not unlike "The Shining" not really being about the shining. "Doctor Sleep" isn't really about the good ol doc. The doc is Danny, though I won't tell you why. But, even if I did, it honestly wouldn't matter. Him being referred to as that doctor does not move or build the story at all. THIS movie was actually all about the shining.

The way that this movie ends, I'm sure they'll at least think about another sequel. And I'm sure it'll have a title that has nothing to do with the movie. It'll be titled "Nude and Creepy", but won't actually be about that nude and creepy ghost lady until the 4th installment.

#doctor sleep #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #stephen king #movie reviews #Horror Movies #praphit #alcoholism #ewan mcgregor #rebecca ferguson #cults #jack nicholson #The Shining

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flameontheotherside · 4 years

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Thinking v Following

Sometimes, unfortunately, I'm always thinking which is probably why I don't have much in common with most people. Lol jk...😝

I wrote about being independent on my spiritual journey because I don't like how some people act in most spiritual circles. Doing my own thing, sharing my experience and growing without some know-it-all breathing down my neck about how I lead my spiritual life. I'm at a point where having a hand to hold is necessary. Yay meeeeee! 😆 I'm a big kid now.

I do enjoy some authors and speakers.

However I wouldn't go out of my way by saying they are my guru. Like join their groups or glue myself to their shit. They simply offer an opportunity to THINK and come up with my own conclusions! Do I agree with all their research and "facts"? No, but as I learn and grow from my experiences what I didn't find possible in their work, suddenly makes sense.

Some of my favorite teachers are:

Delores Cannon, Brian Weiss, Georgio Tsukulous, Michio Kaku, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, and Erich Von Daniken.

They have a ton of knowledge and research. They aren't intuitives or "psychics". They are scientists and I love science, experiments and data. They don't belong to a specific spiritual group either and I love that about them. When I watch their documentaries or specials I feel like a REAL student.

I don't feel or get the same out of watching wannabes on YouTube.

They have always some kind of monetary agenda. They get paid to lie or tell people what they WANT to hear. They don't backup their claims with research and data. That's why I wouldn't want to be a guru or teacher. I don't have the credentials to back up my claims. I don't have a degree in parapsychology and I don't want to pretend to! I hardly give two flying fucks if people are on board with me! Hell, sometimes I'm not even on board with myself!

Certificates and a shiny piece of paper saying they are a "qualified" spiritualist guru doesn't do it for me. Anyone and shell out a few hundred bucks and call themselves one. Anyone who brags about it is on some kind of power trip. Everyone is intuitive. You're not special just because you can read angel tarot cards and swing a pendulum. No one needs a dinky piece of paper for that. It's just another money trick for the teachers and the people tricked into believing it's necessary!

Some of my friends get offended.

I tell them not to! The fact they might get their tities in a twist kinda proves my point. They feel threatened because they know the game is bullshit. When they offer unsolicited "advise" with their pinky in the air and talk about their courses and certs like they are hot shit, I bring them down to earth. When I talk to my friends, I don't want to talk about spirituality. I just want to talk about life. They get it. They understand our knowledge is just a side show.

I miss Nicky from Texas. She is amazing. She is very smart, articulate and intuitive but made sure when we debated (not argue) or talked about spirituality that she still doesn't know squat. We both love and enjoy the same scientists and teachers. She's one of a kind. I wish more people were like her. She's a realist and just talking to her about stuff opened my mind without putting on a power trip.

😘❤ I love you all!

Check out my store where I offer detailed and credible readings. Please note that pricing is subject to change.

Please visit: Twin 🔥 Medium

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧Don’t forget to take a look at Erik’s blog run by his amazing mom Dr Elisa Medhus. Lots of stuff about his afterlife and 💩 at channelingerik.com.

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fiction-boys-rule · 5 years

Text

I Got You

Pairing: Shane Walsh/Sage(OC)

Warnings: drowning, swearing, fluff

Summary: Shane reluctantly lets Sage go with Daryl into the woods to search for Sophia, unaware of the unfortunate event that will follow. While on the search with Daryl, Sage suddenly gets put in danger, forcing her to be separated from Daryl and the rest of the group.

Before joining Rick's group and meeting Shane, I had never believed that being in a group with other people was paramount to being successful in surviving the hell bent apocalyptic world that humanity has to live in now. Up until meeting the group that I am a part of now, I had dealt with the consequences of the zombie apocalypse by myself. Sure, I had encountered many dangers and setbacks of being alone, but I never thought that I would feel the need to change my survival skills in the future.

One hot day while scavenging for water, I found a small shack and I woke up to a crossbow being pointed at my face. That was my first introduction to Daryl. He had convinced me to join his group and I soon met Shane and Rick, who gave off strong leadership roles. A few months after joining the group, I became disliked by many. I was commanding and defensive, and speaking your mind without limit was frowned upon by many. But I ended up catching the attention of someone I never would have expected to be interested in me. Shane and I soon became close friends and he and Rick supported me and defended me with the group and my opinions regarding crucial decisions for the group.

About two months ago, Shane and I were sent on a run by Rick and we ended up getting pretty hot and heavy inside of an abandoned building. I refused to take it any further physically and was surprised when Shane respected my decision. Since then, I have seen a much gentler side of Shane than I had ever expected. We managed to keep our relationship pretty secret for a while, mostly since I wanted privacy and Shane is one of my first actual boyfriends. Following the reveal of our secret, people have been much more wary of me and many have stopped openly defying and judging me. I would say I like it this way, but I don't like that it took for me to get in a relationship with an ex cop to gain respect and fear from everyone who hates me.

Truthfully, I would say Daryl and Shane are my only friends. I have always been more of a socially closed off person and I don't tend to trust easily. But I am fine with spending most of my time helping Rick and Shane with anything they need. In this time, people can be a liability. The fewer people you are close to, the better off you are.

"Need help with that?" Daryl asks.

"No, I'm good. Do you want any help later today with your search for Sophia? I know you hate people worrying about you, but the thought of anyone going alone into those woods is pretty batshit crazy and stupid."

"Guess I'll be batshit crazy then."

"Daryl, seriously. I don't have much to do around here anyway. Shane always has me on a tight leash and it's about time I start going out and doing things myself. Without him always looking over my shoulder."

"I'm leavin' when the sun starts to set. Meet me at the stables."

I nod, walking into the house and setting down the basket full of plants and other herbs.

"Maggie, I seriously don't know why you make me do this. Half of these plants I just guessed with because they all look the same. How can you read books about plants?" I hold up the book of natural remedies and she grins.

"Hey, Sage. I just wanted to take some work load off my dad. He has been drainin' himself too much. Which means it's about time I start leadin' around here. I'm sure you did fine. Even if you did that bad, practice makes perfect."

"Whatever you say. Need any more help?"

"No, your lesson on making the remedies will be tomorrow." she grins.

I groan, faking annoyance. She laughs as I walk out of the kitchen and into the living room, seeing Rick sitting on a couch.

"We're all out there busting our asses and you're in here relaxing on your ass?" I grin, sitting next to him.

"Well, look who's talkin'. The girl who came in here to sit her own ass down on the couch."

"Smartass." I tease.

He chuckles, laying back, "Just so you know, I'm goin' back to workin' once Carl is out of the woods."

"You do know we are technically out in the open and the woods are kind of far away from the house?"

He grins, "Who's the smartass now?"

I smack his shoulder, making him laugh even harder. I missed that sound. He's been through so much and I feel so bad for him and Lori. The group doesn't give him enough credit.

"How is he?" my voice softens.

"Gettin' better every day. Just wish he would get better faster."

"Patience, Rick. He lived at least."

"I know. I know." he mumbles.

"Well, this lazy ass needs to go work. Do you know where Shane is?"

"No idea. Don't exactly keep tabs on anyone anymore. How are you holdin' up? I know you like to help, but don't take on too much responsibility."

"Well, who else is going to be able to lead without you doing it?"

"Already thinkin' of usurping my throne, Sage?"

"Honey, I've already taken it."

We laugh, a foreign sound I still have to get used to.

"I'm actually going with Daryl to go searching in the woods. I don't feel good with him going alone. Too much shit going on up here with him," I point to my head and shake it.

Rick nods, sighing, "I know. I would talk to him but he won't listen. Carol is very grateful though."

"Let me know if I can do anything for you as your temporary replacement for the throne. It feels like we don't talk enough."

"Yeah…" he mumbles.

"Alright, well I am going to get going. I'm here for you, Rick. With anything you need. We all are."

"Thank you." he smiles.

I leave, striding out of the house and heading to the pastures. I spot Shane on top of the RV, talking to Andrea. I keep walking, reaching a hill near the woods and stopping at the top. I sit, inhaling the fresh breeze that blows. My hands grasp the grass, and I exhale.

"Hey, baby." Shane greets.

I open my eyes and smile up at him, patting the spot next to me. He sits, groaning.

"You're getting old." I tease.

"And you're not gettin' any funnier." he remarks.

He laughs and I smack his arm, snickering.

"Asshole."

"Well, I'm your asshole."

"Sadly." I tease.

He scoffs, grabbing my forearm and pulling me closer. I pull away, smirking. Standing up, I watch as his eyes stare up at me with a mischievous look in them.

"Can't even take a joke." I say.

"Me? Who became abusive when I said the truth about their humor?" he smirks.

I gasp, crossing my arms and walking away. His hands wrap around my waist and pull me back.

"Let go, Shane!" I exclaim.

He laughs, pulling me further back and he falls to the floor, dragging me down with him. I laugh, yelping as we hit the floor. He groans, hands never releasing me. I try to fight him off, pulling at his hands and attempting to roll away.

"Nah, you ain't goin' anywhere." he whispers, tickling my stomach.

"Shane, stop it!" I plead, laughing and rolling to the side, almost crying from laughter.

He climbs on top of me, hands wandering my body and tickling me even more.

"Shane, stop it!" I yell, making him laugh even harder.

Finally, his hands stop and he falls to the side. I exhale, attempting to catch my breath. I look to the side, staring at him. He is on his side, leaning his face on his hand and looking at me with a boyish grin.

"Fuck you." I mumble.

He smirks, grabbing my hand.

"So abusive." he whines.

"Should have thought about that before you made a move on me in that abandoned building."

"I liked you too much to keep actin' like a friend, Sage. You were too important to pass up. I like you, a lot. More than all of your abuse."

I laugh, smiling at him.

"Any plans for today?"

"Going to help Daryl with the search for Sophia in the woods."

Shane frowns, "You're goin' with him?"

"Yeah, I'm supposed to meet him soon at the stables. I felt bad letting him go alone and no one else has the balls to do what he does."

"I'll just tell Andrea to keep watch and that way I can go with you-"

"Shane. No. I'll be with Daryl. I'll be fine. Plus, we spend all day together. A few hours apart won't kill us."

"Are you sayin' you hate spendin' time with me?" he asks.

"You sure do love to take what I say out of context."

He smirks, and I roll my eyes.

"Plus, I could learn some very useful tracking skills from Daryl. Shane, you need to stop worrying so much. You're going to start getting gray hairs that show how old you are getting from all the stress you put on yourself."

He sighs, looking off towards the farm.

"Hey, I just don't want you overworking yourself. Just like you keep me in check, I need to do that to you too."

He looks back at me, smiling slightly, "Yeah, I just like you. A lot."

"Yeah, you said that already."

He rolls his eyes, "And I don't like you doin' all this stuff. But I guess you're right. Between the gun lessons I'm givin' you and Daryl's trackin' lessons, I feel more confident in you."

"You weren't confident in me before?"

"Now look who's takin' my words out of context."

We laugh, and he grabs my hand, running his thumb across it. I grab his shirt, pulling him forward. He grins, moving on top of me. Leaning down, he kisses me and I still get that giddy and nervous feeling when we do this. I grab his neck, pulling him down. He groans, moving his leg to have a better position. He pulls away, kissing my neck and chest.

I sigh, combing my hands through his hair, relishing in how soft it always is. He exhales, groaning softly when I lightly scratch the back of his head.

"I love when you do that." he whispers.

"Oh, I can tell." I say.

We laugh, pulling away and sitting up on the grass.

"Andrea and I are due for another run soon. Wouldn't be fair for me to disapprove of you goin' with Daryl. I trust him."

"Yes, what a hypocrite you can be." I tease.

Laying my head on his shoulder, his hand goes around my shoulders.

"I'll be okay."

"I know." Shane mumbles.

"For the record, I like you too. A lot. Even though I don’t say it as often as I should."

"No worries, baby. I know you do. I know." he kisses my forehead, making my heart swell.

"Well, I should probably get going. I don't want to be late and make Daryl stop letting me tag along."

We stand, walking together back to the farm. Arriving at the stables, I release Shane's hand.

"Be careful, alright? Listen to Daryl, for fuck's sake."

"Okay, I know. I'm not a little girl."

"But you can act like one." he smirks.

I gasp, "Thanks, asshole."

I walk into the stables, but Shane pulls me back. His eyes hold a peculiar expression in them when I look up at them.

"I like you. A lot. Come back in one piece, okay?"

"Alright, I will. This is what I'm talking about when I say that you're going to start getting gray hairs from all this stress, by the way."

"I know, I know," he rolls his eyes.

Looking around, he leans down and kisses me. Pulling away, he smiles.

"Don't be late."

"If anything, you're going to make me late." I tease.

I smile one last time at him before walking in. Daryl is at one of the far stables, petting a horse.

"Ready?"

"Yeah. Are we taking a horse?"

"Yeah, goin' to cover more ground. I would give you one of your own, but-" "Trust me, you don't want to do that. I am very inexperienced in that field and am not to be trusted."

"Alright then, get on."

We get on the horse, heading into the woods. The silence is enough to make me uneasy.

"I think I should check out the river bank. You never know."

Daryl huffs, "I don't think that's a good idea." "Daryl, at this rate, we'll be here all night. Come on."

Daryl sighs, stopping the horse.

"Fine. Don't wander off. Holler if you get in trouble. Here, take this knife."

I get off, walking towards the river. I twirl the knife in my hand, sighing to relax my body. I near the edge of the river, the loud sound of the current speeding past filling my ears. The water from the recent spring downpours have made the river a deadly current that drags everything along with it. My feet crunch the gravel and the water crashes along the rocks. My steps falter when I spot something bright on the rocks in the river. I slowly approach leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the item.

A bright pink shoe is nestled between two rocks. It could be Sophia's. I should probably get it and take it back to see if Carol can say if it is Sophia's. I sigh, slowly stepping on a rock at the edge. The frightening conclusion comes into my mind that maybe Sophia fell into the river.

I hesitate, looking back to the woods. Maybe I should tell Daryl. But I decide against it, fearing that the shoe will float away. I step forward, slowly progressing towards it and stepping carefully on the rocks to not slip. I reach the shoe and reach forward, straining my arm to reach it.

"Sage!" Daryl yells, startling me.

I turn, seeing a walker in the water with its hands reaching for my foot. Daryl jumps off the horse, making his way towards me. I turn too fast, and my body leans backward. I lose my balance, and fall backwards.

He isn't going to make it.

I fall into the water, gasping as the cold water soaks my back. I hold my breath as I fall in the water, body in a state of shock from the freezing temperature of the water.

'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.'

A sinking feeling occurs in my stomach when a terrifying reminder enters my mind.

I can't swim.

I swing my arms, reaching for something, anything. Opening my eyes, they sting and it's useless, I can’t see anything. My foot scrapes on something and fuck, the pain.

My head resurfaces, and I don't see Daryl anymore, I just hear the loud current. I take a quick but deep breath before my body sinks back down.

'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This is how I die. This is it.'

My body feels heavy and my mind is telling me to keep going, but my body is protesting.

Suddenly, my body feels weightless. I reach, grasping, but I only grasp air.

I want to scream, but nothing comes out. I am blinded by bright light and them my back hits something hard. My ears are ringing and fuck, my head is throbbing.

I groan, breathing heavily.

"Fucking shit," I groan, grabbing my back. I wipe my eyes, looking around. I landed on a rock. Turning slightly and ignoring the pain from my neck, I see that I fell down a small waterfall into a small creek.

"Just my fucking luck." I whisper.

I lay back down, body on fire. I don't want to move, I can’t move. A strong gust of wind blows, making me shiver. I exhale, looking to my left. A set of bigger rocks leads to an embankment with trees and some shelter. I exhale, gasping as I attempt to sit up. My whole back throbs in protest and I look up, seeing the sunset. It's almost going to get dark. I bite my lip, sighing. I lay back down, afraid to move. Hopefully the rock will be my protection for the night.

I don't sleep the whole night, afraid that if I fall asleep, I won't wake up again. Every small sound in the distance makes my body tense up and heart race. The pain has reduced to a permanent throb that surrounds the back of my head and neck. My back stings and my body is cold, so cold. I sigh, closing my eyes. I look up at the sky, admiring the bright moon. Shining without a worry in the god damn world. I hope no one is out looking for me. I hate when anyone sacrifices anything for me. The group will do just fine without me. I don't think I can say the same for myself.

Faster than I thought, the sun comes up and fills the creek with golden light, making the water shine and gleam.

I slowly slide off the rock, standing in the shallows. My vision from my left eye is slightly blurry, making me extra wary of my surroundings.

"Follow the sun back home…" I mumble, staring at the sky.

I should have paid more attention during Rick's lessons.

Walking through the limited forage, I find myself in an area with more clearings, making me anxious. I don't feel very comfortable with being so easily open to being spotted. My feet maneuver themselves easily through the foliage, accustomed to Daryl's lessons and Shane's instincts. I freeze when I hear rustling in the bushes ahead. Crouching, my eyes narrow and my heart pounds.

Rick appears, looking warily around the area. I frown, starting to stand. Rick flinches, raising his gun.

"I'm not dead yet."

He scoffs, lowering his gun and walking towards me.

"You are truly something else, Sage."

"I've been told. Now help me up. I can't stand."

He chuckles, grabbing my elbow and helping me up. He then embraces me tightly in a hug, making me cringe.

"Careful, Lori might come out all of a sudden and beat you over the head with a stick."

"I'll take the hits for you, Sage. Don't worry about that." Rick pulls away, grinning.

"Please tell me Shane didn't go on some vigilante mission to find me."

"He almost did. It took a few of us to hold him back. Daryl tried lookin' for you and came back when it got dark. Shane lost his mind, tried goin' at it with Daryl."

"Fuck," I mumble, "some things never change."

"Shane went with Daryl to go lookin' for you. Don't know when they'll get back."

"What are you doing out here alone? You should be back at the farm taking care of Carl."

"Lori's got it. Didn't want you stayin' out here for longer than needed."

"Rick, you really have to let go of some of that cop mindset."

"Easier said than done."

"Oh, I know. I have to deal with Shane, remember?"

Rick chuckles lightly, shaking his head. We finally make it back to the farm and if Rick hadn't been with me, I would have screamed with joy.

"Hershel's goin' to help you and you'll get better."

"But Hershel should be helping Carl, and I don't want to-"

"Stop bein' as stubborn as me. Come on, let's get inside. You need help."

I sigh, holding on to him tighter as we walk towards the house. Carol and Lori look up, smiling. They come over, hugging me. My back responds with a paralyzing sting, but I hug them back nevertheless.

"Alright ladies, if you'll excuse us, Sage needs to get looked at."

I pull away, smiling lightly as I walk into the house with Rick. Glenn shakes his head and Maggie cries with relief, giving me another painful hug. Hershel walks in, beckoning me into the spare bedroom.

"A little privacy please," Hershel turns to Rick.

Nodding, Rick exits the room and Hershel starts to pick and prod at various parts of my body. I wince when his fingers squeeze on a certain part of my head.

"Slight concussion. You feel like throwin' up?" "No, but my left eye is blurry."

"Hm," he says, moving to my neck. I wince, inhaling.

"I got some medication to give you. No sleepin' for another few hours. I got some ointment for your back but other than that, only time will tell. Just try to rest-"

"Without actually resting." I finish.

He smiles, "Exactly. I'll be back."

I sigh, biting my bottom lip. My luck sure hasn't run out. I hear footsteps and turn, seeing Shane at the door. I smile, patting the space next to me. He walks over, kneeling in front of me. His eyes search my face, hands grabbing mine.

"I'm fine." I mumble.

He nods, leaning in and kissing me. My hands grasp his hair, accustomed to the motion. He pulls back, leaning his forehead on mine. He sighs, thumbs rubbing my neck.

He kisses my forehead before standing and sitting next to me.

"You got some god damn luck."

I laugh, leaning on his shoulder, "Yeah. Guess so."

Hershel walks in, handing the ointment to Shane.

"Rub it on her back. As much as she needs. Make sure she doesn't fall asleep."

Shane nods, glancing over at me. Hershel leaves and I smirk, "Well, put those hands to work."

He scoffs, shaking his head. I turn and Shane pulls up my shirt. I flinch when the cream makes contact with my skin, my back stinging more than before.

"Want me to stop?" Shane asks.

I shake my head, sighing. After a while, the feeling turns to a numb one and the feeling of Shane's hands on my skin is more soothing than painful. He pulls my shirt down, setting the ointment aside. I try to stand, but falter. Shane grabs me, pulling me back down gently.

"I got you. Don't worry. I got you."

His hands make their way into my hair as I settle against his chest.

"I got you." he hums, rocking me back and forth.

#shane walsh #The Walking Dead #shane walsh x reader #shane walsh imagine #shane walsh fic #shane walsh x you

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