#which was arguably the worst day of 2021

[tomorrowusa]

Right now is the time to get involved in the defeat of America's most dangerous enemy since the Cold War.

The traditional election season, starting on Labor Day, is a thing of the distant political past. And considering the magnitude of the threat to democracy, even waiting for the end of the primary season may be too late.

The worst president in our history is, arguably, stronger within the leadership ranks of the Republican Party than he has ever been. He is now the most dangerous presidential candidate in U.S. history. As a consequence, the great question before the rest of us is whether enough of us are ready to do whatever is necessary to defeat this threat as we have all those that have come before. Sadly, there is reason to believe that this time we may not meet the challenge. Right now, Donald Trump is one of two people who could be our next president. The race, at the moment, between him and President Joe Biden, is too close to call.

The people with their heads up their ass over Biden's age are either hypocrites or dissemblers. On Inauguration Day 2025, Donald Trump will be 95.66% of Joe Biden's age. And Trump will also be older in January of 2025 than Biden was upon assuming office in 2021. Biden may have a lifelong stutter but he is still grounded in reality in a way the narcissistic nepo baby Donald Trump never was.

Joe Biden by any objective metric has been one of the most successful presidents in modern U.S. history. He has led the creation of more major legislative initiatives benefiting the American people than any president in 60 years. He oversaw the creation of more than 14 million jobs during his first three years in office. He has brought down inflation and reduced the prices of vital medicines to affordable levels. He has restored American leadership worldwide, expanded our vital alliances like NATO, and stood up to our enemies. All presidents face challenges and make missteps. But it is hard to deny that in the wake of the U.S. economic recovery, the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the expansion of NATO, and the creation of new Indo-Pacific alliances, Biden’s record is formidable. That a president with this record is in a horse race with a candidate who is a menace to the country, who led an insurrection, who is a pathological liar whom courts have found to be a fraud and a rapist, and who has no real ideas, no credible policy proposals, no record of actually ever achieving anything for the American people is chilling.

In normal times, over 40% of US voters would NOT pick a notorious sex offender for president. But these are not normal times.

You would have thought that the sight of mobs carrying Trump flags and weapons and chanting for the death of Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, would have been alarm enough. You would have thought the same of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape, in which he confessed his impulse to abuse women. You would have thought the two dozen women who accused him of abuse would have had that effect. Even if none of those things were quite warning enough, you would have thought the findings in the E. Jean Carroll case would have been enough. After all, respected federal judge Lew Kaplan wrote, “The fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused—indeed, raped—Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case.” It should have been enough. But so far, it has not been.

And who would have thought that the party of Ronald Reagan is now led by a stooge of the Evil Empire?

You would have thought that Trump reaching out on national television to our Russian adversaries for aid during the 2016 campaign would have been enough. You would have thought the conclusive findings of every major U.S. intelligence agency that Russia sought to aid Trump’s campaign would have been enough. You would have thought that Robert Mueller’s finding 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by Trump would have been enough. You would have thought Trump kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and taking his word over that of our intelligence and law enforcement communities would have been enough. You would have thought his illegally withholding aid to Ukraine to seek dirt on Joe Biden would have been enough. You would have thought his impeachment for that would have been enough.

Are you willing to spend more time and money than in previous election cycles to end a major threat to Western democracy and to undermine homegrown fascism for at least the rest of this decade?

So, ask yourself, is that enough to make you do more than you have done? Is that enough to commit for the next 10 months to do more than you have ever done during an election year? To give more? To canvas more? To spread the word more? To help get voters to the polls? To ensure every member of your family, your friends, your co-workers do the same? The stakes are too high to do less than everything you can.

I rarely quote Margaret Thatcher and would probably disagree with at least 90% of her views. But she did know something about winning elections and combating the USSR. If she was good for just one thing, it's for this observation in a speech made in her retirement.

[N]o battles are ever finally won; you have to go on winning them by example and by being prepared to defend your way of life against those who would attack it.

If we learn just one thing from the Trump threat, it's that we can never rest on our past laurels. A slacker democracy is one which will not outlast a determined demagogue.

Civic involvement by pro-democracy citizens is absolutely necessary to maintain freedom.

#democracy #threat to democracy #donald trump #democracy vs. totalitarianism #trump is a tool of russia #trump is a sex offender #if you hate freedom vote for trump #register and vote #vote blue no matter who #support democratic candidates #the biden administration's economic growth programs #civic involvement #david rothkopf #bernard l. schwartz #election 2024

[rivetgoth]

Over on Twitter there was a meme that was like “Post 10 bands you've obsessed about at some point in your life,” so I decided to list the first 10 that came to mind 🤔🤔 Note that this isn’t my current or all-time top 10 bands ever, but 10 that I can remember being obsessed with at some significant point in my life.

1. Skinny Puppy — Duh.

2. Culture Club — A landmark band for me, Culture Club was my entry into 80s pop which would evolve into developing my adoration for the New Romantics, 80s alternative, and eventually industrial and goth music. Also the second band I ever actively went to see live!

3. IAMX — One of my favorite bands of all time since around 9th grade, over a decade now!! One of the only bands I have a tattoo for. I could fill an entire post (or two, or three, or…) on just my adoration for IAMX alone, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

4. Ministry — Inescapable, isn’t it? Regardless of the eternal love-hate relationship I have with this band there’s no denying the incredibly significant effect they’ve had on my life unfortunately. The first industrial band I got into post-Skinny Puppy.

5. The Velvet Underground — TVU (along with TBP, below) was arguably the band that got me into music. Period. I’ll never forget hearing “Venus In Furs” and “The Black Angel’s Death Song” for the first time and just thinking it was like nothing else I’d ever heard before. It was everything to me as a teen.

6. Severed Heads — Another one of my favorites to this day, though I’ve had obsessive periods in phases. They kinda baffle and excite me like literally no other band. Like a puzzle I’m always trying to solve. Love love love them.

7. The Birthday Party — Ditto with TVU. “Mutiny In Heaven” shaped me into the music lover I am today, it gave me a taste for something that was like nothing I’d ever heard before and “like nothing else” has been a significant staple of the most evocative songs/bands for me ever since.

8. Joy Division — Community college circa 2017 I had Joy Division on constant rotation, they really got me through it lol. One of the first GOTH bands that I dove really deep into. I was already listening to goth music at that point but at that point in time Joy Division really resonated. I wore my Unknown Pleasures shirt everywhere seconds before it was cool. I still voted for The Cure on the recent “best goth band” poll tho LMAO.

9. Magazine — A more recent addition, Magazine fucking saved my life when I got COVID in 2021 and subsequent relatively severe psychotic symptoms shortly after. Literally just spent every quiet moment listening to ‘em to fight off some of the worst thought patterns I’ve ever had in my life, for months.

10. Steam Powered Giraffe — My middle school heartthrobs 🖤🖤🖤 A bit dated now but man, SPG was everythinggggg to me for a short moment and I think this secret part of my past explains some of my music taste to this day tbh lol 😭 They were thee FIRST band I ever actively saw live, and the most significant connection is that Bunny Bennett’s coming out was genuinely the thing that spurred me to soul search and realize I was trans within the same year :’)

What are yours??

[michaeljoncarter]

Not to be mean, but to be mean, Jon was an annoying kid and Chris is so much better. Chris' whole character arc is so good and Clark and Lois adopting a child was such a good concept. Clark doing for a kid what his Ma and Pa did to him will never not be better. Also, what is your opinion of the twins Lois and Clark adopted recently? And how do you fill about Kon (kinda) stealing Mon's place as an adoptive brother of Clark? I just don't get why Clark can't have two brothers instead of one.

the twins are… fine? i've honestly never had less of an opinion on something. they're there. i don't hate them. that's about it. honestly, i feel like the fact that i've gotten approximately 900 asks talking about all the various superkids over the past couple days and not a single person thought to mention the twins says more about their impact that i could lol

and oh boy. ok. i have MANY thoughts about the mess that is the current version of mon-el and about mon & kon in general. this is about to be stupidly long and borderline incomprehensible

the crimes committed against mon-el in rebirth have nothing to do with kon. this is yet another thing that's been done solely to prop up jon

i'm clinging to every scrap of self restraint i have to not fly off into a whole spiel about the specifics of it because like. jesus christ. it is zero exaggeration probably the worst comic i've ever read. but in short, bendis essentially turned the entire legion into a jon kent fanclub in his cursed losh reboot, and mon was just one of many casualties

he was turned into this weird oc whose only character traits are being jealous of jon, throwing temper tantrums, and saying shit with weirdly racist undertones. and also he's kryptonian now for some reason. and a biological member of the el family. and jon is his grandfather. i guess. hell is real

and just because i know most people only know mon from the cursed hexed evil cw supergirl version, which really isn't that different from bendis's version (i doubt that's a coincidence tbh), i gotta stress how completely opposite that character is to how he's been characterized in the comics

again, not gonna get into specifics in the interest of not having this turn into a novella, but here's a quick comparison just to give you a sense of how bad it really is. (i'm sure there are better examples in older comics, but i read bendis's losh at the same time i was reading the New Krypton saga, and this one in particular caused me physical pain)

(Adventure Comics (2009) #11)

(Legion of Super-Heroes (2021) #9)

(Adventure Comics (2009) #11)

(Legion of Super-Heroes (2021) #9)

i'm focusing on mon here, but again, the ENTIRE legion was just as horribly character assassinated for jon's benefit. mon's was one of the worst imo, but it wasn't the worst. spare a thought for the brainiac 5 girlies, who had to see their boy drained of literally all recognizable traits & turned into to jon's Quirky, airheaded sidekick

here's another New Krypton comparison just because

(Last Stand of New Krypton #3)

(Superman (2018) #15)

none of this was done for kon. again, it's another case of everything about a character being completely rewritten to make jon the main character of their story instead

before all this, mon & kon existed at the same time with zero problems for years. they were both allowed be in clark's life. one of my favorite storylines is actually mon's stint as superman stand-in during New Krypton, which does a lot of really good developing/exploring of their relationship. again, gonna hold back from getting into the specifics of it, but it essentially turns them into foils, and it's.... so good. they were so cute

(Superman #694)

even before this, they had a fairly lengthy history together. they haven't directly interacted that much compared to other characters, but still, i'd say erasing mon from superman comics arguably takes more away from kon than it does clark?

legion timelines are too convoluted to get into, but the 1990 shenanigans deleted clark from mon's origin, and in 1994, it was remixed so the role he played was given to kon instead

(Superboy (1994) #19)

it wasn't until infinite crisis in 2006 that the original version came back. since rebirth superman is post-crisis superman and flashpoint hit in 2011, if you wanna be pedantic about it, the rebirth version of clark only really knew mon for ~5 years, but (apart from a ~3 year blip post-infinite crisis) he & kon have had a relationship since 1994

they met for the first time less than 2 years after kon was first introduced, and his relationship with mon was what got kon involved with the legion for the first time... which has all now been completely erased because now jon and only jon is the main character of legion comics

(and it's not just kon this happened to. kara & clark have also had their histories with the legion and everyone in it completely wiped (along with just... the history of the legion as a whole) to give jon center stage)

honestly, i wish it'd been done in an attempt to give kon a more significant role in clark's life. that would be way less frustrating, way easier to fix than the mess we have now, and would also mean there was finally someone at dc who gave a shit about someone other than jon

#LONG post #ask #anonymous #conner kent #kon el #mon el #lar gand #and in the latest installment of 'unnecessarily wordy posts about things no one but me cares about' !! #tumblr lost its mind and deleted random sections of this like 10 times so. refusing to take responsibility for any weird mistakes #at one point i ctrl+ved and i have no idea where the hell it put what i had copied. lmk if you find a random sentence fragment in there lol #the switch to the new post editor is going well so far #god tbh the only reason i don't accuse bendis of straight up stealing mon-el's whole character and slapping it onto jon instead #is that no part of me is capable of believing that man read up on the legion well enough to even be aware of mon's history

[leqclerc]

Previous anon again

I totally agree that carlos is like half (maybe more) here but like where's ferrari here? You have a driver slowly going rogue and they just sit there and looking like passengers. You can't expect to be taken seriously as a top team when you can't control a driver who basically has a win + a pole under his belt and is also way back in the standings.

It also really baffles me the way he seems to have Ferrari in a chokehold. Here's the thing.

We started the season, with bold statements and promises that Ferrari will finally deliver a car to CHARLES specifically. A car worthy of a championship and worthy of his talent. Binotto's head was also apparently in danger, as his contract is coming to an end, and basically only a title can help him keep his place.

So what happened in these couple of months? Why now are he just happy with random victories and equal status in the team, when you spend the 2021 season again, hyping up the tifosi about CHARLES bringing the championship back to maranello?

No, you're absolutely correct. I think this is where a big part of the outrage and backlash is stemming from. Of course Carlos has his own ambitions, but they're actively letting him put that ahead of the team's best interests. The management is completely passive to the point of frustration, and then instead of admitting they made mistakes or trying to course correct, they only double down when everyone can see they're in the wrong.

I don't want to subscribe to conspiracy theories but it really is disconcerting and nonsensical. It's not a case of Carlos outperforming Charles and giving them reason to reconsider who they back for the title. He's miles behind in any normal scenario. Everyone can see it, but they just don't seem to care. So I guess internal politics and Santander and all of that is playing a bigger role than we have assumed. Why Ferrari, an iconic legendary powerful racing team is bending over backwards to satisfy Team Sainz, is beyond me.

It's like they believed in the title up until a certain point and then they just thew threw the whole thing out. I don't want to say it started soon after Carlos got that extension but... It was just sad seeing Ferrari care less and less about the WDC and Charles pretty much being the only who who still believed/believes. At this point it's just cruel to keep him hanging on and keep him loyal through 2020-21 with the promise of 2022 being his to lose, and then pull the rug right from under him in arguably the worst way possible. No one could have seen this coming. Genuinely. People assumed they'd lose the title because, idk, Red Bull built the superior car, or they're bested by mechanical issues, or whatever. But whatever is happening now... no one could've foreseen that. It goes against logic and the statements Ferrari had fed us for months/years which is why it hurts. At this point it's deliberate, the lack of willingness to fight for it, and that's more disappointing than them losing it through bad luck or genuine incompetence would've been.

I guess they are. By own admission, they are. They want to be a team that randomly appears on the podium and wins here and there and apparently that's it, that's enough, that's satisfactory. Never mind Charles, but what about the guys at the factory that worked their asses off to build a car that could genuinely fight for the championship after two years of having difficult cars? Happily throwing away points like this is honestly so disrespectful to many, many people and the efforts they're putting in. At the end of the day they will bring neither the WDC nor the WCC to Maranello, that's pretty much a given by now. So I really wonder what the attitude is like back at the factory among the everymen that don't have a say on track, what they think of Ferrari squandering their chances like this? 🤔

#replies #anonymous #discussions and predictions #.longpost

[cyraptor]

My Tears of the Kingdom Review

Hello, I guess this is a followup to my “Top 20 Zeldas of 2021” list from last year, since I just beat the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, and now I need to find out where it fits in the rankings. I think this is going to end up being more of a proper review than anything I wrote in that list, though, because I have… well, a lot to say about it. I’ll try not to spoil anything major, but if you want to go in completely blind you may not want to read this.

Before getting into the review itself, let me preface this review by making two statements:

Firstly, I think I played this under the worst circumstances possible. In mid-April I decided to replay Skyward Sword since even though I played it when the remaster came out, I never put it into ~the document~ (long story don’t ask). Still enjoyed it, and had a hankering for more Zelda, so I decided to restart Breath of the Wild, which I got maybe halfway through a couple years ago but never finished. When I started doing this I didn’t actually realize that Tears of the Kingdom was releasing so soon, and I ended up finishing BOTW just a few days before TOTK released. Why this is a problem will become evident throughout this article, but basically, it’s just way too much video games.

Secondly, a sequel to Breath of the Wild, just, like, wasn’t the new Zelda game I wanted. I liked BOTW quite a bit but I thought its formula was just too large-scale and unfocused to act as a template for every future Zelda game. Using its more successful elements as a springboard for a slightly more structured, story-driven, somewhat traditional Zelda game would have been ideal for me. BOTW’s almost entirely freeform nature was cool once but I don’t think it needed to happen again. I’ll try not to hold that against TOTK though.

So let me start this review by just coming right out and saying that this is unequivocally, objectively a better game than BOTW. With one exception, every single element from BOTW has been expanded upon and/or improved in some way. Referring back to my Top 20 list, let’s address my criticisms of BOTW one by one and how TOTK fares in comparison:

1) Weapon degradation and weapon variety. These are both still in the game. There’s still a sort of unnecessarily huge amount of different weapon types (and there’s arguably double the amount since “decayed” and “pristine” variants exist for most of them). However both of these are rendered a little less annoying by the new “Fuse” ability, which allows (read: basically forces) you to fuse a weapon or shield with a monster horn, rock or basically any other item in order to increase its attack power or imbue it with a special ability (e.g., attaching a mushroom to a weapon will cause enemies to bounce off it, attaching a piece of ore will cause it to fire magic spells, etc.). I never quite got a full grasp on how the system works, but I think the weapon half of the fusion just informs how the fused weapon is wielded, i.e. as a one-handed sword (quick swing), two-handed sword (heavy swing), or spear (thrust). And then the fused item determines what type of damage it inflicts (slashing or blunt, basically), I think? So for instance, fusing a spear with a blunt object like a Frox tooth results in a “pulverizer”, which is wielded like a thrusting spear but is good for breaking rocks or armor but not so much in inflicting damage to enemies. Anyway, all this is to say that since you’ll inevitably have a ton of monster parts on hand to fuse, you have way more flexibility in the sort of weapons you can have in your inventory at any one time. This also gives monster parts more versatility than just using them to craft potions as in BOTW. I dunno who was crafting hundreds of elixirs with their stockpile of hundreds of Bokoblin horns in BOTW but it wasn’t me. Oh also you can attach the same sort of shit to arrows as well, which gives them the usual bomb/fire/lightning/ice ability but also you can like, stick a Keese wing onto one to make it fly farther. It’s cool in theory but you also have to pull up the quick menu every single time you fire an arrow, which becomes extremely obnoxious when fighting an enemy that requires tons of arrows. No spoilers but if you’ve played the game you know which one I’m talking about.

2) The cooking system. This is basically the same as it was in BOTW with a few extra recipes. This didn’t really bother me in my BOTW replay after I looked into how the cooking system works a little more. It just wasn’t explained very well in-game in BOTW. And TOTK just assumes you played BOTW and explains virtually nothing about any system present in its predecessor. TOTK adds a nice recipe book that keeps track of what meals you’ve made (or received) and how to make them, though, which is a huge improvement.

3) Enemy variety. Another huge improvement on this front. There’s easily twice the number of enemy types as the previous game. Additions include Boss Bokoblins which are big pig guys who command small armies of Bokoblins and look like what Moblins should have looked like in the last game, there’s flying enemies, there’s returning classic Zelda enemies like Gibdos (with a weird new twist) and Like Likes, there’s new mini-bosses like Frox (which took me almost the entire game to figure out how to fight effectively, but that’s on me) and Flux Constructs, and there’s actual proper boss monsters instead of fuckin Blight Ganon variants. Combat is basically the same aside from the fact that some new enemies require new strategies. I feel like silver enemies showed up way earlier in my playthrough than they did in BOTW. Like a sixth of the way through. And once they do, one silver enemy shows up in every camp and they’re just an utter bore to fight. Even with a reasonably high-powered weapon you’ve still got to whale on them for like 20 seconds while they lie helplessly on the floor. Not challenging, just annoying. Besides that though and the one mini-boss type I refuse to name for spoiler reasons, the monster situation is an improvement.

4) Lack of dungeons. This one’s kind of a wash-leaning-slight-improvement to me. Replacing the Divine Beasts from the first game are… kinda sorta actual dungeons! They’re much more sprawling than the Beasts, although they have a similar completion pattern in that you’re essentially just told to activate five consoles scattered throughout the temple and you can do them in any order and in any way you like. Three of the four main temples are basically open-air and you have a lot of creativity in how you’re able to progress through them, to the point where I felt I was cheating or breaking the game in a couple cases (Fire Temple I’m looking at you), which didn’t actually feel good to me because I feel like the reason I had to do that in those cases is because the “intentional” solution was not obvious! And then the Lightning Temple was inside a building and felt a little bit more like a regular Zelda dungeon, which I preferred. But I also kind of missed the unique mechanisms of each of the Divine Beasts. But also the temples are much less samey. Like I said, kind of a wash, but I didn’t HATE the Divine Beasts to begin with, so it’s fine.

5) I didn’t mention this in my Top 20 list, but it was something I noticed about BOTW on replay. The side quests suck. BOTW has 76 side quests which sounds like a lot but most of them are just “bring me six bear asses, which you almost certainly will have already accrued ten times the amount of by the time you reach me so you can just close out the quest immediately after receiving it,, and i’ll give you a reward of 100 Rupees, which is a pittance in this game”. TOTK has almost 3 times as many side quests (some of which have been upgraded to side ADVENTURES - an in-game distinction I was never really clear on), most are much more involved and more fun, and make the world between the story-related bits feel way more alive and fleshed out. Another huge improvement.

The one thing I think is a downgrade from BOTW is the new sage abilities vs. the old champion abilities. These are the companion-based abilities you get for clearing each of the four main story branches. In BOTW, each had a cooldown of several minutes, but were extremely useful. Mipha’s Grace revived you with full health if you died (useful for casual exploring, but not too overpowered to be useful in brute forcing combat), Revali’s Gale boosted you like 100 feet straight up (essential when exploring), Urbosa’s Fury was a lightning AOE attack basically mandatory for fighting Lynels, and Daruk’s Protection let you take a free hit once in a while. In TOTK, the abilities themselves are a huge downgrade. Sidon’s water shield I never quite figured out outside of the boss battle designed around it. Tulin’s just give you a horizontal boost when gliding (and I guess maybe can blow away monsters in combat, but usually isn’t useful for that). Riju’s is kind of like Urbosa’s in that there’s a lightning AOE but it’s way weaker and you have to waste an arrow to trigger it. Yunobo’s is maybe the one ability that’s an upgrade over his predecessor as you can fire him off like a cannonball and break through huge piles of rocks and shit. There’s also a fifth ability that I won’t mention because it’s kind of spoilery but also because describing it would make it sound cooler than it actually is. The main problem with the new abilities is how they’re activated. Basically after you complete one of the main quest branches, the sage will from that point on fight alongside you as a spirit, using their signature weapons. This is kind of cool and useful although having four or five ghost dudes running alongside you takes away from the feeling of isolation a little bit, but no biggie. But in order to activate a sage’s ability, you have to run up to them and press the use button to queue it, and then press it a second time to actually activate it. The reason this is bad is because in combat, the time when you most often want to make use of these abilities, the sage spirits are fuckin running around and attacking, and you have to go find them. And they’re all the same color so you have to, like, take a second to pick out which is the one you want to use. It’s particularly egregious with Riju, who fights with melee weapons but whose ability is ranged, so you have to run up into the mass of monsters where she’ll be fighting to set up her ability, then retreat to actually use it. The BOTW champion abilities could be used anywhere with a single button press. What the fuck!

So aside from the last bit, that’s big improvements all across the board. And as I already said, TOTK’s just overall an objectively better game than Breath of the Wild. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that a better version of BOTW is practically ALL THIS GAME IS. And at the risk of making assumptions, that seems to be all that it ASPIRES TO BE. A lot of people have dismissed Tears of the Kingdom as being “BOTW DLC” and while that’s an utterly laughable notion from, like, a scale standpoint - this game has easily twice the amount of content of BOTW - when, looking at, like, the TYPE of new content, I don’t think it’s that far off the mark.

So, so much of this game is “here’s all the stuff from BOTW again, just in a different form”. You need to activate a dozen or so towers to unveil the entirety of the map. There’s a gated tutorial area where you get all your Zonai powers, which are conceptually the same thing as BOTW’s Sheikah runes. There’s 120 shrines in which you have to solve puzzles using said powers. There’s four story paths to complete involving the four major races culminating in a dungeon in which you receive a power from a warrior from one of said races, and after these four branches are complete you can face the main antagonist in and/or above and/or below Hyrule Castle. There’s 12 collectibles scattered around the world from which Link can obtain a memory of a past event (TOTK has more interesting memories but the way to obtain them is more boring. P.S. fun fact you can spoil yourself to the game’s major twist almost immediately at the start if you go after all the very-easy-to-obtain Dragon Tears first like I did). And so on. And like, the stuff IS technically new and different, but it’s new and different in the way that Jakku is new and different from Tatooine. Which is to say, not that much.

What seems to be one of the game’s biggest points of praise is the Ultrahand/Zonai Device system, which allows you to build structures and vehicles by adhering different mechanical parts together. This is kind of fun and the physics system is surprisingly robust, but outside of requiring it to solve some of the shrines it’s not too integral a system to the game. Also most other devices become pointless once you realize you can cheaply build a hoverbike out of two fans and a control stick and fly goddamn wherever you want in the whole map (100% necessary to do in the Depths to remain sane imo… more on that in a moment). It’s fun, you can do silly things, but I kind of got that itch out of my system when I played Garry’s Mod 18 years ago. I’m glad people are having fun with it, though, and I guess I’m even more glad they’re able to.

A criticism that sounds like a huge strike against the game but surprisingly isn’t is the fact that the entirety of the Hyrule map is reused from BOTW. A lot of areas have undergone changes as a result of the catastrophic event that begins the game, but for the most part the differences aren’t massive. I’ve compared it to pre- and post-Cataclysm World of Warcraft a few times now but I don’t think anybody I know understands the reference, but it’s a perfect one, so y’all’s loss I guess. One major change in the overworld is the addition of caves - they did a really good job keeping them feeling fresh and distinct from one another and they further cement the fact that Hyrule was constructed by hand by the developers instead of just being generated from a heightmap like so many other open world games. It’s one of those things that’s like, I can’t believe this wasn’t in the first game, it fits in so seamlessly.

If Hyrule was the only map in the game, I think the asset reuse would be a whole lot less defensible, but it’s not. There’s two other levels to the map, the first of which is the Sky, which consists of a bunch of floating islands hanging motionless over Hyrule in a very Skyward Sword-like manner. The largest of these islands by far is the starting area, which is roughly the same size and function as the Great Plateau from BOTW. The islands are otherwise pretty small and sparse. You can get to some using the towers (which launch you like a mile into the air), but some of the more remote ones require you to use the time-reverse ability on pieces of debris that fall from the sky (or if you’re like me and don’t realize this is the intended way until near the end of the game, build a flying bicycle). It’s very pretty up there, with some lovely autumnal foliage and perpetually sunny weather, and you can see the entire map of Hyrule beneath you, which is pretty impressive. There’s a surprising amount of asset reuse among what few islands there are in the Sky, but there’s enough unique content that it again doesn’t bother me that much. It’s the one thing that feels like something truly new for this game, even if it is cribbed from another Zelda. I don’t mind it… it’s nice up there.

What is not nice is the third map, the Depths. The Depths is a massive underground cave that is below Hyrule. It’s huge; the same size as the Hyrule map. In fact, it IS the Hyrule map, for the most part, with the heights inverted (canyons become high ridges and mountains become deep valleys) and anywhere there’s a body of water in Hyrule, it’s represented with a solid wall instead in the Depths. To be clear, I’m almost certain this is meant to be obvious, not, like, some sort of lazy trick. But the entire Depths does feel unbelievably low effort. When you first arrive, the entirety of the Depths is completely pitch black and you have to activate “lightroots” (of which there are 120, located in the same places as the shrines in the overworld) to light the surrounding area and clear the fog of war on the map screen. However, even when the Depths are fully lit, it’s all a dark, gross monochrome turquoise color. The whole thing is riddled with tons of identical copy-pasted spooky trees and roots and rock formations and every single part of it looks the same except for the area under Eldin, which looks the same but also has some lava. Roughly 50% of the floor throughout the entirety of the Depths is covered in “gloom”, which is identical to but distinct from the “malice” from BOTW, which semi-permanently reduces your heart meter if you stand on it too long. Getting around it is a fucking nightmare due to its size and the complete lack of consideration in making it traversible like the overworld. And aside from a Yiga Clan-related questline (which contains the majorly useful Autobuild ability despite being completely optional) and two of the temples, there’s not a whole lot down there besides - get this - all the DLC exclusive and amiibo-activated armor and weapons from the first game (and that reminds me, since I haven’t had a place to mention it elsewhere, there’s only like half a dozen new armor sets in the game, everything else is from BOTW). The other purpose of the Depths is just to be a harvesting area for Zonaite and by proxy Zonai Charges and Crystalized Charges, which act as fuel for Autobuild and for increasing your Zonai Device battery meter (which is all rather poorly explained in game btw). And grinding for that critical shit in this hellhole is misery. God, I hate the Depths. One of my least favorite areas in a game, ever. If you only go down there to fulfill questlines and not to get all the collectibles like I did, though, I guess it might be tolerable. Trying to be at least a little charitable here.

One last thing, and it’s about the story - I won’t be discussing the plot, so no spoilers. BOTW set a weird precedent in that the game itself didn’t really have too much of a story outside of the four Divine Beast quests. All of that game’s “story” happened in the past, and is presented in flashbacks and memories. You wouldn’t think they could (or should) do the same thing in TOTK, but they somehow manage to, which is kind of impressive. The story is more engaging and interesting than BOTW’s imo, and it has some interesting Zelda timeline implications. I don’t really give a shit about the idea of all the Zelda games belonging to a cohesive timeline

I closed out my BOTW review in the Top 20 list by calling it innovative and describing it as Nintendo taking “uncharacteristically huge risks”, and I stand by that. In comparison, Tears of the Kingdom feels like the complete opposite. It’s safe. It does all the same shit again - granted the shit is at least GOOD shit - with very little that’s truly, truly new. I think anyone who disagrees with this is deluding themselves. It’s shockingly un-Nintendo-like. There are a few exceptions (looking at you New Super Mario Bros. U), but Nintendo rarely goes back to the well to quite this degree. The closest thing the Zelda series has had to this is Majora’s Mask reusing most of Ocarina of Time’s assets - but they were used to build a completely new world and narrative. I guess there’s also, like, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, but it’s not as if SMG2 reused half the levels from SMG1 with new stars in them, you know? Also both of those examples came out only two or three years after their predecessors! It’s, frankly, hard to see why this game took six years to come out. This doesn’t feel at all like six years of new work. I mean, I guess games take longer to develop now, and I’m anti-crunch and all that, so if that’s how long it took to make this game, that’s how long it took, but… I just don’t feel it’s really reflected in a final product built so heavily off its predecessor, especially when BOTW itself only took I think 3 or 4 from scratch. I kinda just wish those 6 years were used to develop something more, well, innovative. It almost feels like a replacement for TOTK than even a sequel. If you haven’t played BOTW, there’s almost no reason to now, just watch an hour-long “Breath of the Wild - The Movie” cutscene compilation on YouTube.

Having said all that - and holy shit that’s a lot more “all that” than I expected to say - I did enjoy my time with Tears of the Kingdom quite a bit, and probably would have even more if I hadn’t played BOTW start to finish in the weeks preceding it. I’m sure it’s more of a pleasant homecoming than an overstayed welcome to fans who played it years ago and have been hankering for more of the thing they loved. I don’t regret playing it or anything, and I had a lot of fun with it aside from the godforsaken Depths. Maybe just don’t play both games back to back.

Anyway let’s circle back to that Top 20 list and find a place for Tears of the Kingdom. In a world where BOTW didn’t exist, I think it takes its place at #4, and maybe even overtakes Wind Waker at #3. Yeah, for all my negativity, it’s still undeniably that good. But I don’t know what to do on a list with both BOTW and TOTK on it. TOTK is the better game, but does it lose points for lack of originality? Does it take a higher place and BOTW gets knocked down? I don’t know. Who gives a shit. I just wanted to spend 4 hours ranting about a game I sunk like 200+ hours of my life into. No more Zelda, no more open world games, no more video games, it’s time to join the farming commune.

#zelda #the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #review

[kierancampire]

Oh, health update

So today has been confusing and concerning. So when I woke up I immediately felt almost completely fine, but it is usual for me to wake up better but get worse as the day goes on, so I was thinking maybe that'd happen but I felt fine. Now, keep in mind yesterday I was running a fever, had a really bad headache, intense stomach pains and nausea so bad that I couldn't even think of food, I was lethargic, my body hurt intensely, and I had an irritated throat.

Wanna know what today's been like? Initially all I felt was my stomach (which was arguably the worst thing yesterday), but it was nothing compared to yesterday, it just felt mildly irritated and pained slightly, it was almost nothing compared to yesterday. Then towards the end half of the day my stomach feels mostly fine, but weirdly every so often it feels like someone is pinching my throat shut but it goes away instantly if I drink. I had breakfast completely fine, for lunch I had hotdogs and diced onions with ketchup, then some chocolate, for dinner I had another chicken burger and seasoned waffle fries, then for dessert I had some biscuits, 3 of which were chocolate! No issues! Ate it all like normal!

I have two theories currently. During 2022 and I believe 2021, I repeatedly kept having illnesses that were exceptionally intense and incredibly bad, but they literally only lasted 24-48 hours, then instantly disappeared. This could be that, a really intense one day illness. Or another thing I have noticed, once again, often when I have been ill I have noticed I'll have a really bad day or two, improve for a day or few, but then come crashing back down with the illness becoming really intense again for a few days, then I start healing. So it could be that too. I am hoping for a one day illness, but life has made me feel I should never expect the best, as the worst always happens, it's why I am so scared for UC in 2024, the worst always happens. But we will see tomorrow/in a few days, maybe I'm lucky for a change, I am just glad today was nothing like yesterday at least

#personal

[saudimains]

Pure cleanx

His slaying numbers were fine, but just fine. Scump was arguably the worst player in the CDL in Stage 4. Ultra could go on a run – they are the 2021 runners-up, but at the end of the day that run will likely come from Insight and Cammy, not CleanX. His brilliant 1.17 in SnD make that easier to swallow for Ultra, but it's really hard to trust CleanX for fantasy purposes with such shaky stats in respawns. The entry SMG ended with a 0.90 KD overall, the worst of any player to qualify for Champs, as well as an awful 0.87 KD in Hardpoint. There's never a better time to hit form than right before Champs and Octane could be perfectly poised to take home his first title.ĬleanX is an amazingly talented SMG, but Stage 4 he was one of the worst players in the CDL. Octane has had a rocky season, with LAT struggling to stay out of the bottom placements in Stage 2 and Stage 3, but in Stage 4 LAT took the title and showed why they stuck with this roster through thick and thin. In Stage 4, Octane put together a 1.12 KD with a 1.10 in Hardpoint and a 1.20 in Control on his way to the sixth-best stat line in the entire CDL. Octane, the human turret, always shows up when the end of the season comes around and Vanguard has been no different. With CoD champs happening across one weekend it comes down to which version of Seattle shows up – Major 3 world-beaters, or Major 4 bottom of the barrel? Octane Seattle's only issue throughout the 2022 campaign has been consistency as they often struggle to maintain the same level of performance each week. Pred has been especially good in Hardpoint where he sits with a 1.10 KD, an exceptional return for an SMG player. Pred has been frying throughout and has shown that he can do everything the top SMG players in the league can do, and maybe even more. The best SMG on the year as a whole deserves a spot in the "Players to Target" even if he got off to a slow start this season. In an unpredictable year it's been Cellium providing a constant high level and he should be awarded with his first MVP honors. Coming into this tournament in good form, the flex player for Atlanta FaZe is looking at his best, and he's always been someone that shows up on the brightest stages putting together an absurd showing during the Cold War Champs as well. With a 1.22 KD on the season headlined by a 1.25 KD in Hardpoint, the MVP in my book simply has to be Cellium. Players to Target CelliumĬellium and Dashy have been in a two-horse race for MVP for a long time, but it's impossible to look past Cellium for the award and for the top spot in this cheat sheet. In the most unpredictable Call of Duty of all time it's time to take a look at some players to target and to fade for the final tournament of the season, CoD Champs. Vanguard has been the most mixed year in the history of the CDL with each major having a different winning team and each of those winning teams finishing outside the top six at every single major other than the one they won. Mega King: Flat Sheet 275x270cm / Fitted Sheet 182×203+50cm / Pillowcases 48×74 (x2)Ĭlick HERE to view our online Algodon range.This article is part of our Call of Duty series.King Single: Flat Sheet 200x265cm / Fitted Sheet 107×203+40cm / Pillowcase 48x74cm (x1).Generous 40cm & 50cm walls on Fitted Sheets.Launching August 15thĪlgodon 300 Thread Count Pure Cotton Sheet SetsĪvailable in White, Stone, Silver, Pink, Charcoal and Faded Denim. Explore our latest and embrace the Tommy Bahama feeling of adventure and total relaxation with touches of paradise. Tommy Bahama is here to ease you into and island state of mind. We encourage you to live spontaneously and relax in style, no matter where you are. Tommy Bahama Home Get that island feeling – no island required.Sourcing all natural cotton fabrics and luxuriously soft textural accents is the heart of our Algodon lifestyle. Designed in Melbourne, Australia we are committed to excellence in design, quality and style for your home. Algodon ALGODON is defining Cotton luxury for the home.

#Pure cleanx

[aracaj]

Renaissance Writers

We Need to Have a Moment of Silence for Wanda Maximoff’s Character Development (A review of WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

Jacara Kelly

June 20 2022

After learning of Wanda Maximoff’s importance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, I took it upon myself to binge watch the entire season of WandaVision in one day/evening: this day being a very random Tuesday. And honestly, it was worth every minute of sleep I missed that school night; and I immediately understood why Wanda had such a strong fanbase. I experienced every emotion while watching this insane story unfold, and this ultimately led to my extreme love for Elizabeth Olsen, who makes Wanda Maximoff a really difficult character to hate. So, I guess you could imagine my surprise when she became the villain in the newest edition of the Doctor Strange Franchise.

WandaVision, released in January 2021, tells the love story of Avengers Wanda Maximoff and Vision… well, what could have been their love story, had Vision not been killed in Avengers: Infinity War. Dealing with overwhelming grief, Wanda uses her strong powers for the worst, creating an alternate reality that impacts the lives of once normal civilians. The show stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda, Paul Bettany as Vision, Kathryn Hahn as Agatha, and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeu. The execution of this entire season and how perfectly the story unraveled was really amazing to me. This is arguably the best series to be released in Marvel’s phase four, which is rumored to be coming to an end soon. Olsen’s performance as Wanda in this show was amazing. It was captivating, and her talent is one that keeps an audience hooked even while binge watching a nine episode show on a school night.

Another thing that I loved about this series is the way time passed. WandaVision begins as a 1950’s sitcom, and by the end of the season, the show was a Modern Family type sitcom. This is something I’ve never seen done before in a show, and watching the show go through different era’s on television was very entertaining. The show got nominated for 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, and the fact that it only won two of those 23 is something I will never forgive the award show for. I would recommend this show to anybody who asks for it.

Given the way that the limited series ended, I was convinced that Wanda was doing great and put the negative use of her powers away for good. So when it was revealed (very shortly into the movie by the way) that Wanda/the Scarlet Witch would be the villain, along with her reasoning behind being the villain, I was confused to say the least.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. In the movie, the Scarlet Witch is fighting to attain the powers of America Chavez to move through the Multiverse to be with her family that she created in WandaVision. But… in the series finale of WandaVision she seemed to have put those mistakes behind her and realized that they aren’t real. I believe that the cast did a wonderful performance, especially Gomez, who is only 16 years old. She did a great job as this character, and I heard that Anthony Mackie even was her acting coach at one time. I would recommend for people to watch this movie once, but I’ve definitely seen better from Marvel.

A lot of fans (especially  my mother) were disappointed in this movie because they didn’t like the way that Wanda was portrayed as a villain. Personally, Wanda can do no wrong in my eyes, so my views on the character didn’t change at all after watching the movie. Again, this is all thanks to the great Elizabeth Olsen, who amazed Wanda Maximoff fans playing both the hero and a villain and still was able to be a highly adored character.

[sidetongue]

he’s a wet sock

#but also lowkey the love of my life #i went for a drive to get dinner tonight #and moby slipped out the door behind me #so i was like ok you can come #and usually the dogs ride in the boot as its big and spacious and waterproof #but i was like come on lad you can sit in the front next to me #and he sat up there so quietly #and watched out the window as we drove #i rolled down the windows and he just tossed his head back #wind in his ears and all #we were listening to the song 'judy you hung the moon' #and moby was so relaxed and carefree #and it completely washed away my harrowing worries from today #which was arguably the worst day of 2021 #but anyway we dont have to talk about that #because moby made it all better #and i am constantly indebted to this little wet sock for all he has given and continues to give #i love you moe #you incredibly stupid little muppet #moby #dogs

[one-time-i-dreamt]

not a dream

Just remembered that a K-pop idol completely lost his career seven years ago when he announced that he was getting married and his former fans dropped him, started slandering him to everyone who'd listen just because he dared to 'go against them' and still attack him in 2021 because they're that pathetic. In an industry where other fans defend idols committing DUIs, SA, domestic violence, etc., all sorts of crimes basically, the one who got the worst treatment is the person who did nothing but pursue his happiness in his personal life, while still working hard in his professional life, which apparently doesn't matter because "oppa betrayed us when he got married!" It's so weird to think that Lee Sungmin is still person non grata in K-pop in 2021. He just dropped a song and a lot of people are acting like he doesn't exist. He was crazy famous before this. You wanna know what those fans hold against him, besides the fact that he's married? Apparently he signed some albums with his nickname, that his wife allegedly gave him, and didn't invite his superfan fansite (person who followed him to all his schedules prior to this and took photos of him) to his wedding, and since that person had a whole lot of influence in the whole fandom, they managed to turn everyone against him with fabricated tidbits that made people resent him. I don't know how they, as adults, read the list of complaints that they wrote up against him and think those things are rational. Even if they were heated back then, how can they stand behind it now, still, seven years later, when they had some distance and time to think about it? The fans said they would boycott the group he was in if his company (arguably one of the biggest South Korean entertainment agencies ever, home to SHINee, EXO, Super Junior, SNSD, NCT, SuperM, Red Velvet, Aespa, BoA) didn't kick him out of it, so they decided to listen to them and made him sit out every comeback ever since, despite still keeping him under contract, thus allowing the fandom a power that it never should've had. You're not entitled to control somebody's personal life just because you got to their concert or buy their album. It's so weird, so weird. The guy who was accused of beating up his pregnant girlfriend and pressuring her to have an abortion still has fans, the guy who was accused of being a pimp still has fans, but the guy who got married and never harmed anybody and always treated his fans nicely (except if they crossed the line, which they did, many times, where upon he would only ask them not to do things like that again) is the one who still has a hate mob against him and has his projects boycotted to this day?

#not a dream #sungmin #lee sungmin #super junior #kpop #music #long post

[seyaryminamoto]

I'm just thinking about what you've said in the past about Zuko's morals in The Southern Raiders and what bugs me the most is that Zuko could have easily been Yon Rha. Yon Rha's big sin, as far as Zuko knows when he makes his proposal (before Katara tells him the whole story), was raiding the Southern Water Tribe in a manner which lead to someone's death, and Zuko raided both Kyoshi Island and the Southern Water Tribe. Zuko would be an acceptable target for vengeance under his own standards.

:'D very fair point of view, Anon. I've always focused on another angle with this particular problem, namely the fact that Zuko's traumatic Agni Kai happens because he was trying to defend soldiers from being used as bait, slain in battle as though their lives were meaningless... and then he's offering Katara his assistance with killing a soldier if that's the only way to become her friend. There's such a profound incompatibility between both ideas, such a massive rift in reasoning, that I can't help but wonder if Ozai, intentionally or not, actually taught Zuko through their Agni Kai that the lives of their people aren't worth anything after all.

In general, that episode's plot is just... very questionable. I understand these kids are jaded, they've seen pleeenty of ugly stuff and even done some ugly stuff themselves, but the core of the problem with Zuko, back in the day, was that his violent pursuit of the Avatar caused lots of trouble and nobody liked him because he was being a selfish ass who wanted to fulfill the Fire Lord's orders at all costs :'D so... as blind as Katara may be over anything to do with Kya, it baffles me that neither Sokka nor Aang would step up to tell Zuko that this sort of ridiculous reasoning, impulsive behavior and willingness to resort to violence is EXACTLY what made him an asshole during the months he chased them, and that changing sides without changing those violent impulses doesn't amount to jackshit. I'd honestly prefer it if Katara were the one to tell him as much, because then she'd have the bonus of telling Zuko: "That's funny, because this sort of BS is precisely why I can't trust you!" and Zuko would be at an even bigger loss than before :'D but of course, when emotions are involved, Katara loses sight of reality and common sense, it's true...

Looking at it the way you do, just imagine if Yon Rha had told Katara "Oh. Sorry. Nice to see you again!" the way Zuko does with Suki :'D I'm pretty sure she would've actually killed the guy without even hesitating.

It's not to say that Zuko has objectively murdered anyone with the particular cruelty Yon Rha killed Kya: as far as we know, he didn't. We do know, however, that he's imprisoned people in nightmarish conditions (something even his sister cannot be said to have done), as he does in LOK, conditions bad enough that one of those prisoners (who, arguably, wasn't in the worst of conditions) said he'd rather die than return to that imprisonment. So, however "deserved" the Red Lotus's imprisonment might have been, dehydrating a waterbender and freezing a firebender for well over a decade sounds like one hell of an act of cruelty, which says he's perfectly capable of cruelty, all the same as Yon Rha was, and Zuko can't even say he's following someone's orders: he's the one who chooses to do this, plain and simple. So cruelty is NOT beyond Zuko. He can be harsh and nasty whenever it suits him. Despite what he'd have the audience believe, he isn't truly the poster child of peace and kindness :')

As you've said, Zuko caused lots of damage with his careless actions back in Book 1, actions that could have certainly cost lives if this show had been written to be grittier and darker than it was.

As a careless, casual example, here's the typical, boring old trope of "there's a kid in danger and the hero swoops in to save them!" (and there's poor Sokka on the background too ;_;). That ship just comes into shore, breaks all the ice it cares to, and it could have cost at least the two lives of those in the scene here (and who knows how many more that we aren't seeing). Is this not the same as attacking someone deliberately, with killer intent? Sure, it's not, but the ultimate outcome would be the same: someone's died, and it's your fault. And if you're a good person, you would feel bad about it. In fact, you might not even be able to think of yourself as a good person if anyone's death can be pinned on you.

Again, we don't know for sure that his actions cost any lives, but that they could have speaks for itself. That he was once part of the Fire Nation killer machine, that he was a tool to his father (even if not one he particularly cared for), should have made him all the more willing to understand that soldiers are as brainwashed as he was. No, this isn't to defend Yon Rha by any means, he was indeed a piece of shit... but Zuko doesn't even wait to meet him to confirm this. He's ready to help Katara kill a guy who, for all he knows, could have spent his whole life repenting for his actions (yes, we know that's not the case, but if the show had wanted to give us more nuance in the Fire Nation army, it could have been). Zuko doesn't even hesitate, and he even eggs on Katara until she finally decides she's not going to do it -- then he proceeds to badger Aang non-stop about how he MUST kill Ozai, funny how that goes. Which allows the interpretation that Zuko didn't learn anything at all from the Southern Raiders adventure.

In the end, if Zuko's actions cost any lives whatsoever (like, I don't know, maybe lives of the people whose food he stole in the Earth Kingdom (: what, me still being salty about this in the year of 2021? Noooo waaaaay...), you're quite right to say that it'd be fine, as far as his own philosophies are concerned, for Zuko to be executed by the injured party. It'd only be fair, right? Yet I guess that's the beauty of Zuko being Zuko: fairness isn't part of it. Justice? I don't think he's actually familiar with the concept. His sister made lots of mistakes, same as he did, but has he attempted to help her find her way, same as he was helped? Has he given her another chance? The answer is nope. Chit Sang is a convicted murderer who claims he didn't do the crime he was put in jail for: Zuko doesn't even bother asking any questions about who he is, or trying to get to the bottom of this problem. He's fine with getting the guy out of prison without first confirming whether his story checks out or not. Even back in The Blue Spirit, when he was "under" Ozai's thumb, and Ozai's priorities should have been his own, he decides that it's more important for him to capture Aang himself, and somehow the show spins that situation into "hey, Zuko's not that bad :>" when... everyone knows he's not setting him free out of any selflessness on his part, in fact, it's the entire opposite.

So yeah, more sketchy Zuko things that remain unresolved, unaddressed and go ignored all the time. Again, things that don't make much sense with the character he's supposed to be. And as usual, it's stuff we're supposed to shrug off or make a thousand excuses for in order to always find a way to see Zuko as a perfectly good person, when, as I've said before, being good takes efforts Zuko often didn't bother making, not before his "change of heart", not afterwards either.

#anon #welp I guess my Zuko posts have been doin' the rounds #:'D #and no they never are about the things I like about him #... which... #... do I like anything about him? #O_O #well that answers that LOL

[buttherainbowhadabeard]

Promising Young Woman (2021)

*contains spoilers*

Revenge is a dish best served stone-cold sober…

Delightful and dimpled British star Carey Mulligan has had a successful career to date, playing alongside leading men such as Leonardo DiCaprio (‘The Great Gatsby’), Ryan Gosling (‘Drive’) and Michael Fassbender (‘Shame’). Despite not always being centre stage, many of Mulligan’s film choices have been eclectic in terms of genre, and it seems this winning combination of offbeat and orthodox have all led to her explosive lead role in the indie assault on the senses that is ‘Promising Young Woman’.

Carey is Cassandra Thomas, a 30-year-old whose promising career as a doctor went into a tailspin when she dropped out of medical school following the rape of her best friend Nina Fisher at the rough hands of their classmates. It’s implied that Nina – overwhelmed by what happened to her and the lack of support or investigative interference – committed suicide, and in the years since, Cassie has dedicated her life to avenging her friend’s death. Rather than continuing to try to take the claims up with police, Cassie turns unconventional vigilante and offers herself up as hot-mess boy bait, spending her nights fake falling-down drunk in bars and clubs to see and document how many men attempt to take advantage of her. Going so far – arguably stupidly so – as to let them take her home, Cassie abruptly reveals her sobriety to shock them into acknowledging and lamenting their predatory behaviour.

These scenes in particular are deliciously satisfying – that moment the self-proclaimed “nice guy” realises his unwilling date is more than aware of her surroundings and is going to confront him about them. The genius of these moments is in the power of Mulligan’s swift and drastic transformations. She doesn’t need to threaten or produce a weapon to take control, her stark sobriety is enough.

Making her feature filmmaking debut, director Emerald Fennell has had her fair share of femme fatale experience as head writer on Season 2 of TV’s addictive ‘Killing Eve’. Her love of strong, clever but chaotic women are all bundled into one with the creation of Cassie. She’s a Villanelle-esque sexy sociopath with a skewed moral compass, complimented by a noughties heavy soundtrack featuring a screechy orchestral remix of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’, a rom-com inspired routine to Paris Hilton’s ‘Stars Are Blind’, and DeathbyRomy’s cover of the Weather Girls’ ‘It’s Raining Men’.

‘Promising Young Woman’ could just as easily be called Privileged Young Men. With a narrative that draws on #MeToo, toxic masculinity and on campus rape culture and rituals, this is a film that is unapologetic about its subject matter and in your face about its opinions on it. There are not-so-subtle traces of trends that are played out in real life today, like dismissing women’s allegations to protect men’s reputations. Whilst Nina’s life was destroyed and her credibility doubted, male peers like perpetrator Al Monroe (Chris Lowell) and his sleazy friend Joe (Max Greenfield) were given glowing references, advanced to the top of their fields and became popular pillars of their communities, industries and social circles.

Although predictable for me, the eventual reveal of the one good man from Cassie’s past being complicit in Nina’s rape (her happy-to-take-it-slow boyfriend Ryan played by a charmingly goofy Bo Burnham), is a gasp out loud moment. Her world is once again shattered beyond repair when she realises the relationship that has made her happy for the first time in a long time was built on a lie (or to give him the benefit of the doubt, a very bad mistake). He is the first man she felt she could trust, be herself around, and fall in love with, but she discovers that underneath he was at worst, another one of the guys, and at best, an indefensible bystander.

You’d be forgiven for thinking ‘Promising Young Woman’ is all anti-men. Everything about it - on the surface and in the trailer - screams angry, bra burning feminist. However, it’s more nuanced than that and takes more of an anti-bad men, anti-bad women and anti-bad behaviour stance, as many of the movie’s female characters also have to confront the fact that their refusal or disinterest to speak up and call out abuse has enabled criminal conduct to set in, rot and spread. Cassie - an anti-hero herself - holds a grubby mirror up to the faces of the women from her college days with varying degrees of cunning and callousness, from feigning the abduction and pimping out of the University Dean Elizabeth Walker’s daughter, to tricking an inebriated former classmate (Alison Brie) into thinking she was unfaithful, or worse, sexually assaulted, in a hotel room.

Cassie’s methods are extreme and quite frankly mad, but her motives are steeped in an obsessive desire to do right by her friend and seek justice whatever the cost (the latter playing out in tragic but successful fashion in the finale). She is an intentionally entangled fly, luring spiders of all shapes and sizes to the centre of the web, daring them to do their worst. Most times she is well prepared, and even when it seems like she’s bitten off more than she can chew, another dose of vigorous vengeance is plunged in (even if it has to be done posthumously!)

Physically too, she’s a calculating chameleon. From pigtails, flowery blouses and flats for a girl-next-door look, to blow-job blotted lips, tight dresses and skyscraper stilettos to give off a late-night pick-up vibe, every element of her outfit is deliberate and devious. Dressed up in a wig the colour of a Rainbow Paddle Pop and sexy stripper nurse outfit in the film’s final act, Cassie is the literal sexual objectification of the promising young medical practitioner she could have been. Instead, she’s a practitioner of pain, turning Monroe’s bachelor party into her plastered patients.

Handcuffing Al to the bed upstairs, it looks like she’s reeled in her biggest fish to date. “It's every man's worst nightmare, getting accused of something like that,” Al cries, to which a deadpan Cassie replies “can guess what every woman's worst nightmare is?” But soon the tables turn when he breaks free, overpowers her and smothers her to death with a pillow. It’s a brutal and distressingly drawn-out scene, and it takes a while before it hits you that she really is dead and this is where her sad story ends. Joe and Al burn her body. It’s all over. Or so you think.

We cut to Al’s wedding, and as Juice Newton’s ‘Angel of the Morning’ plays, Ryan begins to receive scheduled texts from Cassie, taunting him from beyond the grave with a juicy contingency plan. Using Al’s ex-attorney Jordan Green (Alfred Molina) and his regret and grief over representing the wrong party to her advantage, Cassie had sent him incriminating evidence about Nina’s assault and her own demise in advance. “You didn't think this was the end, did you? It is now” the first texts read, as police sirens wail and officers emerge from the woods to arrest Al for murder. “Enjoy the wedding! Love, Cassie & Nina” the final messages say, followed by a perfectly placed winky face emoticon as Fletcher’s ‘Last Laugh’ cues the end credits. It’s a gratifying water cooler moment, bona fide badass yet bittersweet, but you’re still left wondering if it was all worth it.

‘Promising Young Woman’ could be cut from the same tortured heroine cloth as ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, with Nina and Cassie’s friendship rivalling ‘Thelma & Louise’. It covers a lot of taboo territories and topics, from slut shaming to consent and coercion, and evokes the harrowing Margaret Atwood quote “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them”.

‘Promising Young Woman’ is not for the faint hearted, and anyone who fears the film may be triggering should stay well clear. It’s not always easy viewing and it’s not always fair, however it’s more than just a pitch-black comedy or clear-cut tale of rape-revenge. It’s a brave, bold and original satire with bite and brains.

4/5 stars.

#promising young woman #carey mulligan #emerald fennell #bo burnham #laverne cox #alison brie #chris lowell #max greenfield #alfred molina #connie britton #cassie #nina #jennifer coolidge #cassandra thomas #nina fisher #killing eve #revenge #black comedy #metoo #toxic #britney spears #the weather girls #paris hilton #juice newton

[twomanyideas]

The Grill Next Door

A collaboration by @mdelpin​​​​ and @oryu404​​​​

Gratsu Week 2021 Prompt(s): Impress, Smile, Smokey Pairing: Gray x Natsu

AO3

Summary: Natsu had to repress a loud snort when he caught his first glimpse of his neighbor. The guy was dressed in only a pair of black boxers, his fair skin slick and shiny from the thick layer of sunblock he had applied. His back had white streaks and missed spots all over it from where he hadn’t been able to distribute it evenly, and some of the lotion was sticking to the dark hairs on his neck.

But the absolute worst thing of all was that he obviously had no idea how to use a barbeque properly.

0-0 Summer was arguably the worst time to be moving. Who in their right mind would want to spend all day inside unpacking boxes when it was 90 degrees outside? Definitely not Natsu, and yet here he was, dragging another box full of stuff up the stairs in his new home. He was grateful for his friends, who had been there when he’d gotten the key and helped him clean the house, paint some walls, and install the larger pieces of furniture. But now that there was only the smaller clutter left, he was on his own, and he was missing out on all the summer fun. His friends were all enjoying themselves without him; spending their free time at the beach or the pool, barbecuing in their yards, raiding the ice cream parlor… “Soon…” Natsu sighed to himself. Soon, he could join them again. He just had a few more boxes filled with necessary items to go.

He’d already unpacked the ones filled with kitchen utensils and Happy’s stuff. All that was left were his toiletries and a few clothes. He’d sort through the rest of his crap bit by bit, one or two boxes every night until he was done. That way, he could still get the most out of the vacation days he'd pulled out for moving. He opened the box he’d brought upstairs with him and groaned; of course, he’d grabbed the wrong one. Instead of towels and shower products, he was looking at some of the housewarming gifts he’d gotten. A key hanger from Lucy, because he was always losing his keys. A baking set from Erza, which Natsu had to admit was the most optimistic gift he’d ever gotten, and a cute houseplant from Wendy, carefully wrapped up in brown paper, with wet paper towels to keep the soil moist.

There were a few more small gifts, but Natsu’s attention was drawn to the flat package at the bottom. More specifically, to the image that was on it, giving away what was inside: a bright pink flamingo kiddie pool. “So you can have a pool in your backyard!” Sting had grinned when Natsu unwrapped the gift. It was obviously a gag gift, and at the time, Natsu had seen the humor in it. He’d even joked that he’d call Sting for a pool party once he was all settled in, but right now, it only fueled his longing to do something fun. Actually… Screw unpacking, he’d do that later. One look through the window, at the bright blue sky and the burning sun, was all it took to finalize his decision. He picked up the box and took it downstairs again, quickly watering the plant before it could die in the summer heat, and putting it on a windowsill. Leaving the rest of the box’s contents for now, he took out the inflatable pool and started digging through one of the other boxes in search of his swim trunks.

He’d done enough for today. He was going to sit in his backyard and enjoy his stupid pool, damn it. Once he’d changed into his swimwear, he applied a thin layer of sunblock he’d found during his search for a towel. He went outside with the pool under his arm, sticking his foot out when he slipped through the sliding door to keep Happy from sneaking outside.

“Sorry buddy, you can’t go out yet,” he apologized, knowing that it was for the best.

They'd only moved in a few days ago, and Happy needed to get used to his new home. If he were to run away, he'd get lost trying to find his way back to their old apartment, and the last thing Natsu wanted was to end up like Rogue, who had spent all night frantically searching for Frosch when he had just moved in with Sting and failed to shut the front door behind him fast enough. Still, Natsu couldn’t help but feel guilty at the sight of Happy pawing at him from behind the glass. Maybe he could get him a cat leash tomorrow, so he could at least explore the backyard safely. One thing was for sure, he’d definitely give him some of his favorite fish treats to make up for a few hours of sitting alone inside. With that in mind, he smiled and took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh summer air and the delicious smell that came along with it. It was one of his favorites, and he instantly recognized it. One of his neighbors was grilling in his backyard. Too curious for his own good, Natsu followed the scent. His nose told him it was coming from the house to his left, from the backyard that was only separated from his by a tall wooden fence. Tall, but not tall enough to keep Natsu away. He was just able to peek over the top if he stood on his tippy toes.

He wanted to get an idea of who was living next to him, that’s all. Okay, and maybe he wanted to live through them a little as they indulged in one of his all-time favorite summer activities. \

Natsu had to repress a loud snort when he caught his first glimpse of his neighbor. The guy was dressed in only a pair of black boxers, his fair skin slick and shiny from the thick layer of sunblock he had applied. His back had white streaks and missed spots all over it from where he hadn’t been able to distribute it evenly, and some of the lotion was sticking to the dark hairs on his neck. But the absolute worst thing of all was that he obviously had no idea how to use a barbeque properly. “You know, your food is going to cook more evenly and taste a lot better if you close the lid,” Natsu suggested, bursting out in laughter when the guy jumped and almost dropped his tongs. “Idiot!” He whirled around and glared at Natsu, waving the tongs in the air as he stomped closer. Damn! This guy was actually pretty cute when he was mad.

"I almost burned myself. What were you thinking?!"

"That you weren't doing those ribs the justice they deserve," Natsu retorted, frustration rising within him once he managed to tear his eyes away from his half-naked neighbor and focus back on the grill. All that delicious aroma-filled smoke that would've added so much flavor to that gorgeous meat was getting away!

It was a fucking crime.

"Pay attention to what you were doing, you jackass! You gotta flip them over!"

The guy quickly returned to his grill to tend to his ribs, cursing as he fumbled with the tongs while trying to keep a safe distance between the searing heat of the barbecue and his own bare ribs.

"Man, you really suck at this," Natsu couldn't resist pointing out.

"Oh, and I suppose _you _could do better?"

In all honesty, Natsu was a terrible cook. He lacked the ability to multitask in the kitchen, always made an enormous mess, and often combined ingredients that his friends insisted should never be combined.

However, cooking and grilling were two completely different things to him. His dad had taught him how to cook meat on an open fire or a makeshift grill during camping trips since he was little, and he had it down to a fine art by now.

"You're damn right I can," he scoffed, taking the question as a challenge and being kind enough to climb over the fence and invite himself to his neighbor's backyard so he could show him how it was done.

"What are you doing?!"

"Saving your meat, of course! Move over."

Too stunned by what was happening, the guy didn't protest when Natsu snatched away the tongs. He just watched with his mouth open as Natsu flipped the ribs and set the grate to a higher level, making sure they'd cook slower. And much to Natsu’s amusement, it wasn't just the grill he was staring at.

Satisfied with his intervention, Natsu closed the lid and stepped back. "There, that should do it!" he grinned, putting the tongs down on a plate on the nearby table so he could hold out his hand in greeting. "I'm Natsu, by the way. I just moved here last Wednesday."

"... Gray," his neighbor replied, frowning warily but still accepting Natsu's hand and shaking it briefly. "Do you always stick your nose into other people's business like that?"

“Just wait, you’ll be thanking me soon enough.” Natsu said, amused by his neighbor's grumpy tone. “Anyway, you should be fine as long as you leave the lid closed for about an hour.”

“An hour?” Gray complained, “I thought grilling was supposed to be faster.”

“I mean, do you want fast, or do you want good?” Natsu drawled suggestively. He wasn’t sure if it was the beautiful weather or just the high he felt from having had a hot guy so obviously checking him out because normally he wasn’t much of a flirt, but he felt the urge to test the waters. “Cause I could show you both.”

Gray surprised him by laughing heartily at his innuendo. “There is seriously nothing subtle about you, is there?”

“Nope.” Natsu agreed and laughed along. “Well, it was nice to meet you. I’ll leave you to your grilling, gotta go set up my pool.”

He climbed the fence to get back into his yard, hearing Gray yell behind him. “You’re going to get yourself killed. Just use the gate next time.”

“But then, how could I show you my best asset?” Natsu retorted once he was safely over, chuckling as Gray muttered something he couldn’t quite make out. He wasn’t too worried, though. After all Gray had said next time.

0-0

Gray looked back at the grill, already tempted to open the lid and check on the ribs. What was he supposed to do for an hour? He’d mowed the grass earlier, and he didn’t feel comfortable staying inside while the grill was going.

The sun felt overly hot on his skin and he found shelter under a tree in his backyard. Playing on his phone had netted him ten minutes of entertainment and two group conversations he wasn’t all that interested in.

Maybe Natsu did know what he was talking about because the smell of the ribs cooking was making his mouth water in ravenous anticipation. Thinking about his new neighbor brought a smile to his face, especially since he heard odd noises coming from the other side of the fence. Didn’t he say something about a pool?

With all this time to kill, maybe he should go return the favor and see what he was up to.

With that in mind, Gray walked over to the fence and peered over it, unable to hold back a snort when he saw Natsu sitting on the ground and puffing air into a pink flamingo-shaped pool.

"Wow, I guess you really are full of hot air."

Natsu looked up at him, flashing that grin Gray was quickly developing a weak spot for. "So you think I'm hot?"

Yes, he sure as hell did, but he wasn’t about to give Natsu the satisfaction of saying so. At least... not yet.

“I think you’re having an awfully hard time blowing, which is… disappointing.”

"Huh. Never had any complaints before." Natsu shrugged, returning his attention to blowing air into the flamingo.

“Why don’t you let me show you how it’s done?” Gray said, feeling confident.

God knows he’d blown up a ton of these things for his brother’s kid. He’d quickly learned there was a little trick to it. You had to squeeze the valve as you blew into it or the air wouldn’t get in properly. Clearly, his hot dumbass of a neighbor didn't get that.

“You want to show me how well you blow?” Natsu tilted his head, looking amused by Gray’s suggestion. “How can I say no to that?”

Gray let himself into Natsu’s backyard, using the gate that connected their properties, like a normal person, and grabbed the pool away from Natsu. Using his trick, he quickly filled both rings of the pool.

“Color me impressed.” Natsu whistled in appreciation once Gray set the pool down on the grass. He filled it with water from the hose, which he oh so charmingly put between his legs, giggling to himself as he swung it around.

How the guy could go from flirting to acting like a five-year-old within the blink of an eye was beyond Gray, but he had to admit that it was oddly endearing.

Natsu jumped in with both feet as soon as the pool was filled, watching with glee as water sloshed out onto the grass from his efforts. He sat down, stretching his legs out in front of him, and immediately propped his arms around the pool’s rim.

“That feels so much better!” Natsu moaned happily.

Now that Natsu was inside it, Gray couldn't help but notice that the pool could fit two people, albeit a little snugly considering their size. And though normally he wouldn't be caught dead in one of these things- especially a pink flamingo one- it was a very hot day, and Natsu’s yard was a lot shadier than his.

"You want in?" Natsu asked, his lips stretching into a mischievous smile.

Gray’s eyes were drawn to the slightly pointy canines, finding them incredibly sexy, and he immediately wondered what kissing that mouth would feel like as Natsu patted the empty spot next to him invitingly.

What had gotten into him? He’d just met the guy, knew next to nothing about him, yet here he was acting like a hormone driven teenager. It wasn’t like him at all, but he couldn’t deny the chemistry that sizzled between them, so palpable he could almost touch it.

Besides, what was wrong with having a little fun? It was summer, and he had been in a bit of a dry spell for months.

That thought decided him.

“I suppose I could join you for a bit.”

He had just stepped one foot inside the pool when, to his surprise, Natsu stopped him. “Hang on a minute. I didn’t say you could come in. I only asked if you wanted to.”

“If you want in-” Natsu winked at him. “It’s gonna cost ya.”

“Cost me?” Gray sputtered in protest. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious. I will be more than happy to share my pool with you on this incredibly hot day, but only if you share some of those ribs with me.”

Gray had already been planning on doing that, but it was infinitely more fun to make Natsu work for it.

“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, which only netted him greasy fingers from the sunblock he’d slathered on earlier. “It seems to me like you’re getting the better end of the deal here. This is just a kiddie pool after all.”

“Alright, you drive a hard bargain, but I can respect that. How about this then? I’ll throw in some of my world famous special sauce.”

“World famous?” Gray scoffed, “It’s probably just something you picked up at the grocery store, but… okay, I’ll bite.”

“You promise?” Natsu gave him a cheeky smirk, one that ignited a need in Gray to get in that damn pool right the hell now and show him what he intended to do.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Gray said. “Just don’t complain if it ends up being more than you bargained for.”

Gray was so determined to get in there that he completely forgot he was already partly in the pool, and tripped over the edge when he tried to step in. He caught himself with his hands but still ended up splashing Natsu, not to mention had the wind yanked out of his sails.

He looked up to see the damage. The water had darkened Natsu’s pink hair and flattened it against his face, softening his features and somehow making the bastard look even more attractive. Gray watched in rapt fascination as a drop of water traveled from Natsu’s cheek, joining others on its way down his neck and over his chest until rejoining the rest of the water at waist level.

“You’re right,” Natsu laughed loudly, slicking his hair back and away from his face. “That was definitely more than I bargained for. Nice entrance, by the way.”

Gray was utterly mortified, and he scrambled to sit down, desperately trying to come up with a witty comeback, but before he could say a word, Natsu had already splashed him. 

“There you go. No need to make that face. It’s a pool. We were going to get wet, eventually.” Natsu shrugged, his expression gradually changing to distaste as he looked at the water.

“Dude, what did you use for sunblock, SPF lard?”

“I burn easily!” Gray protested, smoothing out the bits of sunblock he could see on his skin.

“Yeah? Then maybe you should actually get it on all of your skin. Turn around.”

“It’s hard to reach back there! Besides, you just want an excuse to get your hands on me,” he argued, but did as he was told anyway, turning his back to Natsu.

“Yeah, that’s the idea. Are you complaining?”

Gray pouted but remained silent.

“That’s what I thought.”

It was hard to miss the smug tone in his voice.

Natsu’s hands spread the globs of lotion evenly across his back, occasionally stopping to knead on one of his muscles and then concentrating on his shoulders. Gray closed his eyes, biting his lip so as not to let on how much he was enjoying it. If this was what he got in exchange for some barbecued ribs, he'd love to know what other types of food Natsu liked.

“There you go.” Natsu said, giving his shoulders one last squeeze. “You can turn around now. It should be safe for you to walk in daylight again.”

Gray turned just in time to see Natsu lean back into his previous position.

“Are you implying I'm some sort of vampire? Cause I’m not the one with the pointy teeth.”

“No, but you are the one who offered to bite me.”

“True.” Gray laughed, and not wanting to lose the mood, he made his move, adjusting from a sitting position to a half straddle. He leaned in, close enough that he could feel the slight puff of Natsu’s breaths on his face as he murmured, “I can still make that happen.”

“You talk too much.” Natsu said just as quietly, peering into his eyes for a split second before closing his eyes and bridging the distance between them.

Gray hadn’t expected Natsu’s body to feel so warm against his, especially considering they were both wet from the pool water, and he instinctively pulled him closer. As arousing as the kiss was, and Natsu sucking on his tongue was definitely doing things to him, he realized he had no urge to push for more.

That should have been his first warning.

But he wasn’t really thinking about anything. His world had narrowed down to sensations. The torrid heat of Natsu’s mouth, the sharp sting of teeth nibbling on his lips, and the tingling pleasure of his hair being tugged, coupled with the sounds they were both making. Needy moans that would have embarrassed him if Natsu hadn’t sounded the same.

Gray liked it all a little too much. Already, the thought of separating filled him with a sense of dread. And perhaps that should have been his second warning.

He was busy running his hands up and down Natsu’s back when he felt him let go of his hair. His hands trailed down to his chest, but no lower, and he pulled away, leaving Gray to chase after him. Confused and more than a little disappointed, Gray opened his eyes. Natsu sat perfectly still, his eyes slightly widening as he sniffed the air. “THE RIBS!!!” Oh crap! He’d forgotten all about the ribs!

“Go open the lid,” Natsu urged, scrambling to get up and out of the pool. “I’ll be there in a few minutes with the sauce.”

Gray watched Natsu enter his house and then hurried over to his yard. The food smelled even better than before and when he opened the lid and poked the ribs with the tongs; he saw they were indeed done, the meat tender and ready to fall off the bone. Rather than stand around waiting awkwardly, he grabbed two beers from his fridge along with plates, napkins and utensils to bring outside.

He opened the sliding door that led to his backyard and found Natsu brushing sauce onto the ribs from an unmarked blue bottle. There was a content smile on his face as he worked away, and Gray felt a flutter in his stomach at the sight.

Shit!

He’d never been one for one-night stands, so why had he thought he’d just be able to go along this time? Because Natsu was hot and seemed willing?

Gray wanted to know more about him, but he wasn’t sure if Natsu felt the same way or if this was just a game he liked to play. What would happen if he played along to its inevitable conclusion? Would that be the end of it? The two of them- probably awkwardly- moving on as just neighbors who happened to have hooked up?

Was it wrong of him to want more?

Natsu looked up then, waving at him and gesturing him over. His smile widened when he noticed the beer bottles Gray was holding.

“Ooh, beer wasn’t part of the deal! I must have kissed you real good!” Natsu teased, accepting the bottle and easing some of the uncertainty Gray had felt about whether things would turn awkward after their make-out session in the pool.

“You’ll notice this is only domestic beer, so I wouldn’t get too full of myself if I were you.” Gray retorted, still playing along.

“Meh, beer is beer, and it goes great with ribs.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”

The back and forth was nice, but Gray was itching to ask what was really on his mind.

Can I keep you? Or will you run off after the next pretty face that strikes your fancy?

The lid of the barbecue closed again, and Natsu walked over. “They should be ready in about five more minutes.”

He clinked bottles with him and took a swig. Gray followed suit and decided to just go for it. He’d rather know what to expect than hope for something that wasn’t meant to be.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” he blurted out, sounding a bit more eager than he would have liked.

“Sure, shoot.”

Natsu gave no sign he knew what was coming, or at least that’s what his relaxed posture seemed to broadcast.

“Do you do this kind of thing often?”

“Moving? God, no, I hate it with a passion. Might as well bury me here cause I’m never doing it again.”

“No,” Gray frowned. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” Natsu mock sighed, “I’m just trying to think of an answer that won’t go to your head.”

“What?” Gray didn’t know what to make of that answer. Was he trying to find a way to let him down gently?

“No, I don’t do this type of thing often.” Natsu admitted, meeting Gray’s eyes and holding his gaze. “Look, you’re hot and turned out to be fun to mess with, so I figured there was no harm in seeing where that led. But I’m not expecting anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Gray wanted to ask if that meant that he’d like to date, but to his chagrin, all that came out of his mouth was, “You think I’m hot?”

“See?” Natsu said, sounding amused. “What’d I tell you? Right to your head!”

He put his beer bottle down on the table and traded it in for the tongs and the plates before hurrying back to the grill to check on their food. Satisfied, he turned it off and heaped a large serving of ribs onto each plate.

Gray followed him to the table, only then noticing the sliced watermelon Natsu must have brought with him from his house. He bit into one to buy himself some time to organize his thoughts.

Next to him, Natsu had already begun to dig in, messily devouring the ribs, stopping only long enough to take a sip from his beer. Gray shrugged and did the same. It wasn’t like his table manners were anything to write home about, either. The moment the meat from the ribs touched his tongue, his taste buds were assaulted with flavor. Sweet, salty, spicy… all blending together in perfect harmony. It was by far the best ribs Gray had ever tasted. He could hardly believe they’d come off his grill. He glanced at Natsu admiringly. Not that he noticed, focused as he was on his plate.

“So, what other things can you make?”

Natsu looked up at his question. There was a glob of sauce at the corner of his mouth, driving Gray all sorts of crazy with the urge to kiss it off him, but he held strong.

For now.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but this is it. I can’t cook worth a damn.”

“That’s too bad.” Gray tried but failed to suppress a smile. “Guess I’ll just have to show you all the best places to eat around here, then. You busy tomorrow night?”

Natsu shook his head, breaking into a smile so blinding it wiped every single thought out of Gray’s head. Save one.

"Nope, I'm all yours," Natsu answered after what looked like a brief moment of contemplation.

Gray sure as hell liked the sound of that.

“There’s just one thing…”

Natsu tilted his head and scrunched up his nose in silent question, which was just perfect.

“You’ve got a little something there,” Gray said, leaning in and licking the sauce off before claiming Natsu’s lips hungrily.

The kiss tasted like sauce and beer, but most of all, it tasted like more. And more was definitely bound to follow soon, tomorrow night, and many more days after.

Gray could feel it.

#fairy tail #gratsu #gratsuweek2k21 #natray #gray x natsu #natsu x gray #Gratsu Week 2021 #fics #other #prompt: impress #prompt: smile #prompt: smokey #humor #flirty

[kstewdeux]

@inukag-week

June 13th, 2021 - Marriage

| Battle Couple | Warmth | Promises | Hands | Firsts | Transformation | 

Submissions Also Posted on Ao3

You Are My Sunshine

“Kagome’s... safe,” Inuyasha mumbled - unable to look anyone in the face as he tried to keep his composure. He didn’t even know why he felt so shocked but he was. For once, once, he thought something was going to go his way. That...that he’d get to experience how the other side lived. He’d had such dreams - not that he ever voiced them aloud. Dreams built from decades of watching people go about their daily business from a safe distance. People going about their day doing mundane tasks. Keeping gardens and talking with their neighbors. Children playing together. A couple cuddling next to a fire in comfortable silence. There were dreams too. Dreams that he’d believed until very recently would never happen for him. Like a wedding with friends and family in attendance.

Yes, for as long as he could remember he’d had forbidden dreams of a calm life. A happy life. A simple life.

A safe one.

One filled with security the likes of which he’d never known and which he’d never know apparently. Why couldn’t he have nice things? Was he so inherently flawed that the gods couldn’t even give him this? Was asking to have something normal too much? Couldn’t even have the one woman on this god damn earth who loved him stay!  Oh no, she had to get banished five hundred years into the future because that made sense. Because that was fair. Can’t get married to a man made up of two halves that equal nothing. Who should’ve been drowned at birth. A monster. An asshole.

A nobody.

Someone like him couldn’t be normal. Didn’t deserve a wife and god knows he’d be a shit father. Not like he knew the first thing about...

Still, despite what he was telling himself, images of that dream life he’d hoped for wouldn’t stop playing in his head. Cracking and shattering like glass.

Inuyasha’s initial anger began transitioning into despair. 

It wasn’t the worst thing in the world that those dreams had been crushed. Her fate arguably could’ve been worse than being flung back on her side of the well. Fuck. Kagome’s soul could be trapped in that piece of shit jewel fighting Naraku for the rest of time itself. Truth was, he’d done his job too well. A bitter irony pill he just had to swallow. He’d protected her just like he promised. Just like he’d always done.  Nothing would ever hurt her again. Thinking he should get a bonus just for doing his job had been stupid. So stupid. Hell it was a miracle he’d managed to...that...

Taking a gulp of air, an almost inaudible whine escaped against his will and in response, Sango stepped forward hesitantly to reach for him with a subtly shaking hand.

“Inuyasha, what...”

Shaking his head, Inuyasha turned and ran before his friends could ask him any more questions - his heart absolutely shattering as the initial shock wore off. He’d been stupid. So, so stupid. Of course someone like him didn’t deserve a reward. Didn’t deserve a family or love or anything worthwhile. He’d killed far too many humans and demons to deserve anything more than a special place in hell. Been rude and mean and...

And evil...

Gasping for air, Inuyasha stopped suddenly in a tree branch and pressed his back against the bark while his chest heaved and a lump formed in his throat.

What he did or didn’t deserve aside, Kagome was safe. That was what mattered. That was all that mattered. So what if...if he wanted her to stay here? Wanted...wanted to settle down in the village with a house on the edge of the meadow where the well sat and...

Wanted to sit around the hearth with her in his lap and his chin resting atop her head...

Wanted to hold his wife late at night like he’d wanted to do since basically forever...

Wanted to come home to someone who was waiting for him...

Who loved him...

Who smiled when she saw him...

Who made him feel...

Sliding down the rough trunk, Inuyasha dug his claws into the wood and tried to lock those dreams into a box where they couldn’t hurt him. Today had been a good day after all. They defeated Naraku. The jewel...the jewel was gone. They’d completed their quest. He was being selfish. So selfish.

A faint whimper escaped him as he choked back a sob and tightly clenched his eyes shut.

This wasn’t the time to get all emotional about shit he couldn’t change. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d ever...ever really talked to Kagome about what she wanted. Maybe...maybe the well let her go back because that’s where she wanted to be.

His heart clenched at the thought that she hadn’t wanted to stay with him at all before somehow cracking more when he accepted that was probably the case. Why would she want to stay with someone who always made her feel second best? Who’d almost let her die chasing after another woman? A dead one at that. Who was rude to her and...and just cruel and heartless and...

Tears freely streaming down his cheeks, Inuyasha continued doing a mental long, long, long list of why he was a bastard who deserved exactly what he’d just been served. He deserved to be abandoned. He did and despite his best depressed efforts, he couldn’t think of a single reason why Kagome would stay here just for his sorry ass.

He’d done nothing to deserve her. Put in no effort. Why would she have wanted to stay with him? And even if she did, she was gone and there was nothing he could do to bring her back. Nothing at all...

She might as well be dead. It’d almost be better if she were.

How long Inuyasha sat there in that tree was anyone’s guess but what his friends did know was that when they went to bed Inuyasha was still missing and the next morning he was there.

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms

But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken

So I hung my head and I cried.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away

Usually the sun and love had one thing in common. The closer you were to it, the warmer you felt. Usually. Usually that’s how those two things worked. Unfortunately, however, Inuyasha had no one to love and today’s winter sun gave light but no warmth. Just shitting its blinding light over all the poor sons of bitches trying not to freeze to death. And then, of course, the stupid yellow ball of light had the audacity to dip beneath the horizon leaving a cacophony of oranges and reds in its wake, looking like a damn bloody rag and signaling the end of yet another disappointing day by ushering in a biting cold that cut straight to the bone.

Yeah, definitely for the best she went home. She knew what she was doing and...and he’d been trying to get to her. If only to see her one last time and apologize for what a pathetic excuse of a man he’d been.

And you know, stay with her maybe. If she let him. Which hopefully she would. Shit he’d even take just being a casual acquaintance that occasionally visited her for tea. It wasn’t like he needed a roof over his head. He’d lived over a century with nothing but the shirt on his back and while the quest had made him accustomed to luxuries, it wouldn’t be that hard to fall back into old habits. Besides, anything was better than how we was currently living. Not that it was bad per se but it was too damn cold and quiet in this house. Back in the day, neither of those things were ever a problem but anymore he...

It didn’t matter. Right now he just wanted to see her again. Tell her how he felt and what he wanted. Hopefully one day convince her to...to, you know, marry him and shit. 

Letting out a melancholy sniff, Inuyasha pulled the fur higher onto his shoulders and stared into the cheerfully burning fire in his smaller than average home. He purposefully asked them to keep it small. Anything bigger would clearly be made for a family and he didn’t have one. Never would. Going home each night would’ve been torture - a reminder of those dreams he’d tucked away. Instead he had a nice tiny hut on the edge of the village where he could keep warm at night and stay out of the rain. Sango had been the one to decorate it and Miroku supplied him with some additional comforts over the course of the past two years. A little table. A pot. Few bowls and cups. A little chest for furs and things he wanted to keep safe.

Or hidden. Like a certain oversized satchel. Most of the things within it had been either used or integrated into his home. The sleeping bag, for example, he used as his bedding - both for its warmth and the comforting scent it still held after all this time.

Amber eyes glanced over to the purple plush object while his frown lines deepened incrementally.

Did Kagome ever think about him? Sure he figured she missed their group as a whole but did she think about him specifically? Did she ever have dreams of what a future with him might’ve looked like? Or cuddle her pillow at night pretending it was him?

Probably not. No one sane did shit like that.

A chilly wind bypassed the mat covering the door and with a long sigh Inuyasha took that as his cue to go to bed. Alone. Like he always had and probably always would.

Sighing heavily, Inuyasha knelt down to unzip the bag just enough for him to crawl in before grabbing the pillow he’d haphazardly made, getting in and pulling the fur over the bag for extra warmth. Wrapping his arms around the lumpy sack and cradling it against his chest, Inuyasha closed his eyes and let Kagome’s scent surround him. Soothing away the crushing loneliness and pushing away the strange numb feeling that constantly plagued his every waking moment. If just the extremely faint and muted scent clinging to scraps had that effect, he couldn’t even imagine how the source of that smell would make him feel.

I'll always love you and make you happy,

If you will only say the same.

But if you leave me and love another,

You'll regret it all some day:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Inuyasha’s eye twitched as Miroku continued to negotiate with the headman - per the norm demanding more than what was fair and the poor bastard was too desperate to really argue the price down. The demon they’d been contracted to kill wasn’t even that strong - an admittedly large yet pathetic rabbit demon who unfortunately had an affinity for the town’s crops and thatch roofs - but the amount of work they’d put in wasn’t a factor in Miroku’s price. Twins consumed twice the amount of food and with another baby on the way, the monk’s little family was going through an obscene amount of food at the moment.

“I know you.”

Inuyasha blinked once before realizing the young woman was speaking directly to him and in response, he subtly turned his face towards her.

“You were with that girl, right? The witch?”

Miroku’s head whipped towards the possibly suicidal woman so quickly the poor man got whiplash but his knee jerk fear was ungrounded. Instead of getting angry and ruining the negotiations, Inuyasha simply sighed.

“She was a miko. Not a witch.”

The woman cringed and bowed slightly.

“Was a miko,” the woman repeatedly softly before bowing lower and groveling, “I apologize. I didn’t mean to speak ill of the dead. I just assumed...”

“Oí Miroku! If the fucker won’t pay, we should head back instead of wasting my time,” Inuyasha interrupted in a strange mixture of his usual anger, a hint of desperation and a dash of urgency. The monk nodded before offering to do the job at a much reduced price that was much more palatable to the villagers. Within the hour, the job was done and the men were heading back with a single barrel of rice instead of three.

“Kagome may yet return,” Miroku suddenly offered - his opinion both unwanted and asinine, “Instead of punishing those who remember her, perhaps you could simply reply that she traveled to her home country and the journey is...”

“She’s not coming back.”

The defeated statement was unexpected and disturbing.

“When...when did you reach this conclusion?”

Inuyasha shrugged before adjusting his hold on the barrel perched atop his shoulder.

“This is the third spring. She would’ve come back if she could,” the half-demon replied in a casual tone but Miroku knew his friend too well and could read him like a book. This conclusion devastated Inuyasha who was taking the pain as par for the course and was coping the only way he knew how.

By ignoring it and acting like he didn’t care.

“Well perhaps you will be able to travel to her world,” Miroku offered quietly and Inuyasha gave another non-committal shrug. It had recently come to light and quickly became common knowledge that every three days Inuyasha had been trying the well.

And every three days he was met with rejection. A weaker man would’ve gone mad by now.

A long tense silence fell until they had made it three quarters of the distance home and Inuyasha suddenly stopped.

“The scents gone. On her stuff I mean. It’s gone,” the half-demon admitted in a pained whisper - his amber eyes averted as the emotions he kept hidden from the world danced across his face in rapid succession. Grief. Anguish. Anger. Loneliness. Despair.

And then, just as quickly, the half-demon composed himself and sniffed.

“Like I said she’s not coming back so there’s no point in acting like she’s alive. For all intents and purposes, the bitch is dead,” Inuyasha chuckled darkly, “There’s nothing left of...”

“Kagome will always be present here,” Miroku interrupted quirky, “She lives on in you. In Sango and I. In Shippo and in every being on this earth whose lives she touched. Just as the sun dips below the horizon, simply because something cannot be seen does not mean it does not exist.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and picked up his pace. Stupid monk always tried to sound deep but usually his ‘deep’ thoughts were just horseshit.

“Kagome’s kindness touched and healed us all...”

Okay, that wasn’t horseshit but it didn’t need to be said. Monk basically pointed out that water was wet and expected that to comfort him. If anything it made him miss her more.

“Like I said she’s not coming back. Probably found some nice son of a bitch in her time and...and...,” Inuyasha repeated before trialing off with a frustrated huff, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Miroku chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before sighing heavily and addressing a point he’d been meaning to discuss with his grieving friend for quite some time.

“Kagome will not have chosen another so quickly. She loves you. I am certain she will...”

“Kagome loves everybody,” Inuyasha snapped bitterly - cutting off the monk’s piss poor attempt at pep talk at the knees, “That doesn’t make me special.”

Shaking his head in defeat, Miroku followed Inuyasha the rest of the way home in uncomfortable silence.

And from that day onward, Kagome was never mentioned by her friends again. Well, at least not to a certain half-demon who was slowly descending into madness with unexpected poise and grace.

In all my dreams, dear, you seem to leave me

When I awake my poor heart pains.

So when you come back and make me happy

I'll forgive you dear, I'll take all the blame.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Winter was much more tolerable when there was another warm body to hold. Shit everything was more tolerable nowadays.

Adjusting his face so his nose was buried at the base of Kagome’s skull, Inuyasha tightened his arm around his wife’s waist and drew her closer to his chest. She’d finally come back and for the first time in his life, he felt whole. Complete. Bathed day in and day out in Kagome’s warmth and affection. The fire that had been extinguished when she departed was now a raging inferno. Their anger still burned bright and their fights caused pyrotechnics but their love was equally intense and every fight now ended in a much more...well, positive way. Probably not in the healthiest way but he was never, never going to question whether making love to his wife instead of addressing the real issues was healthy or not. Sometimes he even pushed her into an argument just to get he wanted without having to ask outright. Again, probably not healthy but who gave a shit? Kagome came back. Specifically to be with him or, at least, that’s what she told him and that woman had never lied to him before.

Sighing in relief, Inuyasha gave his wife a light squeeze while thanking every god that existed she came back because he didn’t know what he would’ve done if she hadn’t. After three long ass years, she’d come back and instantly forgave him for literally every perceived wrong - how he handled whole Kikyo fiasco had given him some major heartburn over the past three years. He’d spent many, many sleepless nights thinking about how his overly sensitive woman might be keeping him waiting just to be petty but given that Kagome agreed to be his wife pretty much immediately it was fair to assume that wasn’t the case. Besides, Kagome seemed willing to let bygones be bygones even when Kikyo did get brought up on very rare and very random instances that he did not initiate.

In any case, since Kagome returned from that world that smelled like shit, life had been good. More than good. Fan-fucking-tasting more like.

Humming happily, Inuyasha snuggled closer to his wife who let out a happy coo of her own and together they slept. 

Those dreams hadn’t been so impossible after all.

#inukag week #InuKag week 2021 #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #Inuyasha #Kagome

[thebakingqueen5]

KW 2021: Missing Scenes

Day 3 for Kataang Week 2021 hosted by @kataang-week with the prompt Missing Scenes!

This was arguably the most obvious way to go about this prompt but I wanted to write it anyways because if there’s one missing scene that should’ve been included in the series, it’s something to bridge the gap between EIP and Sozin’s Comet.

Links: AO3 | FF.net

Summary: Another year, another summer, another week of prompts celebrating our favorite couple. Kataang Week 2021 Day 3: Missing Scenes. Bridging the gap between the Ember Island Players and Sozin’s Comet Series Finale.

Word Count: 2.8K

It was another cool night on Ember Island. The moon was beginning to rise and was lighting up the corridors and central courtyard while the Gaang got some food to replenish themselves after a long day of training and preparations.

Sozin’s Comet was a mere few days away, and tensions were higher than ever. Earlier that day, the true plans of the Firelord had been revealed: that he was planning to use the comet to wipe out the Earth Kingdom entirely, which meant that Aang had to face him on the doomsday itself at the latest. It was a challenge he felt none too prepared for.

He thought that he was going to get more time to master his earth and firebending, but with this newest revelation, it was pretty clear this was not the case, and the stress was beginning to get to the young airbender.

The practice battle against Toph posing as the Melonlord had Aang’s stomach tied in knots. Before today, the final fight seemed so distant, almost inconceivable, something that he would only have to do when he was absolutely ready for it. But now? It was coming, and it was coming fast, and Aang had no idea how to handle it.

The boy hadn’t really thought about what he would do when he finally faced Ozai. He assumed that by the time he mastered all four elements, the solution would be obvious, but it wasn’t. Everyone else seemed convinced that killing him was the only option, but that went against everything Aang had been taught by the monks. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like him. How was he supposed to do something so drastic when he didn’t even believe in it? There had to be another way, something he was missing, there just had to be!

“I have a surprise for everyone!” Katara called as she walked into the clearing, immediately snapping Aang out of his intense thoughts. He briefly glanced up from the plate of food in front of him as everyone’s eyes turned to the crimson-clad waterbender, a rolled up tan scroll in her hands.

“I knew it!” Toph exclaimed. She grinned devilishly as she looked up from her wooden bowl of rice. “You did have a secret thing with Haru!”

Sokka, Suki, Zuko, and Katara all blinked at her in confusion and gave the blind earthbender a bewildered look, unsure of where her supposed epiphany came from.

“Uh…” the waterbender responded slowly as the others returned to their meals. “No. I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this.”

She unfurled the parchment in her hands, making a slight swish noise.

“Look at baby Zuko,” she cooed. “Isn’t he cute?”

The paper in her hands was in fact a painting showing a happy, bright-eyed cherub of a baby laughing as he played on the beach. He looked to be quite young, having only a tiny topknot on his head and a mere two teeth in his small mouth while a tiny shovel and sandcastle lay on the ground next to him.

Everyone except for Zuko laughed and “aww”d at the adorable picture while the firebender stared at the others gravely.

“Oh, lighten up,” Katara admonished when she noticed his lack of response. “I’m just teasing.”

“That’s not me,” the firebender said, opening his eyes to look at her. “It’s my father.”

The Gaang looked on in shock as Katara rolled the scroll back up. They were all wondering the same thing- how could such a precious baby have become the most cruel man on the planet?

“But he looks so sweet and innocent,” Suki frowned, her voice faltering.

“Well, that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster,” Zuko spat. “And the worst father in the history of fathers.”

“But he’s still a human being.”

Everyone turned to look at the source of the voice. Aang’s back was hunched over his tray of rice and beans a few feet away from them, and a deep frown rested on his normally cheery features.

“You’re going to defend him?” Zuko questioned.

“No,” Aang clarified. “I agree with you.”

“Firelord Ozai is a horrible person, and the world would probably be better off without him,” he said as he stood up and turned around to face them, “but there’s gotta be another way.”

“Like what?” Zuko deadpanned.

“I don’t know,” Aang shrugged. He turned his gaze down and away from the others, eyebrows tilted upwards in concentration, when an idea came to him.

“Maybe we can make some big pots of glue, and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can’t bend anymore!” he said excitedly.

Zuko smiled sarcastically. “Yeah, then you can show him his baby pictures, and all those happy memories will make him good again.”

“Do you really think that would work?” Aang asked eagerly, oblivious to Sokka and Suki snickering behind the firebender.

“No!”

Aang sighed heavily and hung his head in defeat. He needed to find another solution, think out of the box somehow. He stared at the ground for a few moments in exasperation before hopping down the stone steps to pace under a hanging orange lamp in the courtyard.

“This goes against everything I learned from the monks,” he said, walking back and forth. “I can’t just go around wiping out people I don’t like!”

“Sure you can!” Sokka interjected from the sidelines. “You’re the Avatar! If it’s in the name of keeping balance I’m pretty sure the universe will forgive you.”

Aang’s arms and slumped upper body shook violently with rage.

“This isn’t a joke, Sokka!” he shouted. “None of you understand the position I’m in!”

How could they, after all? They hadn’t been at the Air Temples a century ago. They hadn’t been raised by the Nomads to be peaceful and treat every life as sacred. He was the last of his people, and somehow none of them could see that. To them it was the simplest decision in the world- just get it over with and save the world, but it wasn’t to Aang. It wasn’t as cut and dry as that.

“Aang, we do understand,” the waterbender frowned. “It’s just-”

“Just what, Katara? What?”

“We’re trying to help!” she said angrily, her temper also rising.

“Then, when you figure out a way for me to beat the Fire Lord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it!”

Aang raised his arms in frustration with the last few words and stormed off in the direction of his room, feet stomping loudly against the stone floor.

“Aang, don’t walk away from this,” Katara began as she made a movement to follow him.

Zuko put a hand on her shoulder, and the waterbender faltered, turning towards him.

“Let him go,” he said quietly. “He needs time to sort it out by himself.”

The waterbender huffed in indignation and began walking towards her own room.

“I’m going to turn in early tonight,” she muttered, arms wrapped around her torso. “Good night, guys.”

“Good night,” the rest of them mumbled back, all but Zuko turning their attention back to dinner. The firebender scrutinized her receding figure as Katara turned the corner and went down the left hall to her room. He knew she was likely going to talk with him anyways that night, but the least he could do was make sure she gave the airbender enough space to cool down.

After a few minutes of glaring at the corridor, Zuko turned back to the ragtag team of misfits and their lively voices. Though he had been traveling with Team Avatar for some time now, the way they managed to turn the subject of conversation to the Earth King’s bear Bosco in such a short amount of time would forever be a mystery to him, but nevertheless he listened attentively and heard from them all the latest exploits of what went on beyond Fire Nation borders.

Meanwhile, true to her word, Katara went back to her room and attempted to sleep, but it was an effort in vain. The last few days had been weighing heavily on her- she and Aang had never experienced such a tumultuous period in their friendship before, and between the kiss during the play and the past ten minutes, it was safe to say there was some tension.

She closed her eyes and groaned, tossing and turning to try and find a comfortable position to no avail. She just couldn’t take her mind off it. Katara stared at the ceiling and let out a short huff before sitting back up with a new fire in her eyes. She wasn’t going to sit around, no, she was going to face her problems head on like a rock!

“Toph would be so proud,” Katara chuckled as she wrapped her kimono on over her bindings.

With as much stealth as she could muster, Katara carefully opened the door from her room and crept down the hallway until she was facing the entrance to Aang’s.

She stared at the block of wood intently. It almost seemed like a cruel metaphor- the barrier between her and Aang not only physically, but emotionally as well.

Nevertheless, Katara was here to get things done.

The waterbender didn’t want to knock and alert everyone else of what she was doing, but she also didn’t want to show up unannounced and startle Aang. After a few minutes of careful consideration, Katara concluded that the latter was the lesser of the two evils, and she slowly pushed the handle and entered his room.

In the very back, she saw Aang’s silhouette in the partially open paper divider splitting the balcony from the main room. Katara walked closer to him, and she sat down silently at the opening of the divider when she saw him in deep concentration. He had been meditating with four small candles, some water, and some rice buns on a wooden board in front of him. The dim light of the candles highlighted Aang’s tense features, contorted in frustration.

“I know you’re there, Katara,” the airbender said after a few moments, apparently not as concentrated as she thought. “I could hear your footsteps from a mile away.”

The girl blushed furiously in embarrassment and promptly decided the floor was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Katara apologized. “I just wanted to talk but I get if you’re busy-”

Aang sighed and bowed his head in reverence to the spirits before opening his eyes and turning to look at her with a kind expression.

“It’s alright. Meditating wasn’t really getting me anywhere anyways,” he said sheepishly. “What did you want to talk about?”

Katara twisted a lock of hair around her finger and scooted closer to him.

“I’m not here to lecture you or anything. I’m not here to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do because ultimately it’s up to you and only you. You’re under a lot of stress right now, and I get that. I just don’t want, well, us,” she gestured between them, “to be a part of that stress.”

The airbender laughed nervously and looked at the trees around them to avoid her gaze. He subtly wiped his growingly sweaty hands on his cotton shirt, praying to all the spirits that she wasn’t talking about what he thought she was talking about.

“W-w-what do you mean? You, me, we’re f-friends! Good friends! Th-that’s all there is to it, right?”

“I’m talking about last night at the play,” Katara responded quietly, fingers fidgeting around in her lap. “We should talk about it.”

“Thanks a lot, spirits,” Aang groaned internally. He sighed and tucked his knees into his body.

“I think we both made it pretty clear that we want different things, Katara. It’s alright, really,” he said with a sad smile. “I made a mistake kissing you, especially after you already said you were confused, and I’m sorry. You don’t have to worry about me- I’ll get over it. I just don’t want to lose your friendship. I’d rather we just pretend like it never happened.”

The regret in his eyes was as clear as a full moon against the backdrop of a cloudless night sky, and it killed Katara from within to see it.

“We both said a lot of things that night, Aang,” she frowned. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot the last day, and I didn’t explain myself very well.”

Aang looked at her hesitantly, silently pleading with her to continue. The waterbender tried her hardest not to grin when she saw his unintentional yet extremely endearing puppy dog eyes and instead threw her head back to look at the stars above them.

“I don’t want to lose your friendship either, Aang,” Katara murmured, gazing up at the sky. “You’re the first person I’ve known from outside my tribe, the first other bender I’ve met- you showed me the world. You were my first real friend, and... also my first kiss, first three actually.”

Heat rushed up to their cheeks while Aang became very invested in the wooden flooring, eyes fully concentrated on the patterns of the boards .

“...but more than that,” Katara continued, “you’re the first person I’ve cared for this much, and my brain, my heart, really, doesn’t quite know how to feel about that.”

She tilted her head to the side to look at the boy next to her, who was now also staring at her with newfound hope.

“So yeah,” she exhaled loudly, “I’m confused. But I don’t want to pretend like none of that night ever happened, because if I’m being honest, a part of me wanted all of the… all of our kisses to happen.”

The two sat in silence for a few moments while Aang tried to process her words and formulate his own response.

“So…” Aang trailed off. “Does that mean this, us, still has a chance?”

Katara looked at their intertwined hands and gave him a sad smile.

“Maybe, but that’s just it, Aang. We can’t, not right now.”

The airbender’s cautious smile immediately dropped and was replaced by a frown as he broke eye contact.

“We’re in a war,” she murmured apologetically. “No one, especially not us, can afford to do anything differently. In three days, you’re going to be facing the Firelord, which means in three days, one way or another, this war will be over, and sacrifices will probably be made.”

“Katara, you’re not saying-”

She shook her head. “I’m not saying that, but war means making hard decisions, and in that moment, with that decision, we can’t let emotions cloud our judgement. No matter what sacrifices might be made, we have to end this before it’s too late.”

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t come to that,” Aang said firmly. “I don’t care what it takes.”

Katara smiled at him and leaned in to gently press a kiss to his cheek.

“I know you won’t. I also know that whatever happens with the Firelord, you’ll do the right thing. Not because you’re the Avatar and you have to, but because you’re Aang. Because you’re my Aang, and my Aang always does the right thing.”

The airbender let out a breath of relief, heart practically glowing at her faith in him, and enveloped her in an embrace.

“Thank you, Katara. For everything. For being here for me the last few months, for getting me out of that iceberg, for coming here tonight telling me what I really needed to hear. It means a lot.”

Katara happily returned the hug and squeezed him tight. “Of course, Aang.”

She furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed the circles under his eyes as they broke apart.

“It’s getting late,” Katara whispered, her fingertips lightly tracing his cheeks.

“I’ll leave you to all this-” she gestured to the candles and food, staring quizzically at the contents of the board. “-Avatar business and whatnot. I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thanks, I’ll try my best,” Aang laughed softly as the girl stood up and began walking back to her room. “Good night, Katara. Sweet dreams.”

“I know you will, Aang. Good night and don’t stay up too late- you’ll need your rest.”

The waterbender quietly exited and Aang released a heavy sigh as the door closed with a soft thud.

The airbender turned back to his spread, closed his eyes once more, and resumed his meditation, hoping that somehow, by some miracle, there was another way waiting for him.

“I sure hope you’re right, Katara. I’ll need that luck.”

#kataang #kataang week 2021 #kataang week #kataangtag #aang x katara #ember island #wrote this way later than I should've

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Truman Show.

Inspired by Letterboxd data that revealed it to be a lockdown favorite, editor-at-large Dominic Corry looks at the ever-evolving importance of contemporary masterpiece The Truman Show.

It has long been apparent that The Truman Show is an unnervingly prescient film. The story of a man who becomes aware that his superficially idyllic life is, in fact, a live-streamed television show has gone from being high-concept to every-day.

Thanks to the three Ps—the prevalence of mass urban surveillance, the proliferation of reality television and the pervasiveness of video in social media—the notion of cameras filming our every move is no longer a paranoid fantasy, but real life. The twist being that, for the most part, we all willingly signed up for it, and did all the filming ourselves. As Yi Jian saliently observes in his review: “Not to get all ‘we live in a society’ on Letterboxd but I know a person or two in real life that would actually give anything to trade lives with Truman, it do be like that sometimes”. It indeed do, Yi Jian.

So it’s something of a cliché at this stage to point out how we are all living in some version of the The Truman Show, and you don’t have to be a member of the royal family to feel that way. Yet, somehow, the film has become even more pertinent over the last eighteen months. And it’s a pertinence reflected in the massive uptick in viewership for the film as seen in Letterboxd activity.

During the month of February 2020, the last moment of the Before Times, The Truman Show had a modest 1,235 diary entries. That number tripled in April of that year, by which time the seriousness of the pandemic had become clear. And by July, deep in the worst of the pandemic, Truman fervor peaked, with a further 178 percent leap over April’s numbers, firmly placing it in the top 200 films watched by our members in a year of lockdown. (By the way, ‘diary entries’ mean activity where the member has added a watched date; many thousands more also marked Truman as ‘watched’ in those dark months, but didn’t specify a date.)

It’s not difficult to imagine why we might become more interested in revisiting this eminently re-visitable film. During lockdown, social media—including Letterboxd—took on a greater presence in terms of how we communicated with each other. We got used to seeing footage of faces more than actual faces. We were all the stars of our own ‘Truman Show’, and simultaneously the audience of everyone else’s ‘Truman Show’.

Christian Torres boiled it down effectively when he wrote: “Now every movie I see seems to be related to my life in quarantine. I am Truman and I want to escape.” And Sonya Sandra eloquently captured the film’s increased contemporary significance in her review: “This is a real-life daylight horror film. The best kind. Even more relevant in 2021 than ever. We are all Truman, we all want to find what is real in our fake lives filled with media, capitalism and ideology. And it’s our job to fight the storm and get to the truth of it all. Nothing is real, everything is for profit, and everyone is selfish. Go out and find what is real, because it’s definitely not here.”

With its deft, dazzling blending of the profound and the humorous, the optimistic and the cynical, it’s difficult to think of anything released since The Truman Show that comes as close as it does to being a modern-day Frank Capra movie. It’s hopeful, but has its eyes wide open. There’s a darkness in the themes of the film that is never replicated in the colors on display.

While everyone involved delivers career-best work, we must principally credit the triumvirate of talent at the center of the film: director Peter Weir, screenwriter Andrew Niccol and star Jim Carrey.

Star Jim Carrey and director Peter Weir on the set of ‘The Truman Show’ (1998).

Weir is a director who inspires much online love whenever his name is mentioned, but he isn’t really mentioned all that often. Or at least as often as he should be. The Australian filmmaker has delivered masterpieces across multiple genres, and it’s extremely sad that he hasn’t directed a movie since 2010’s not-quite-true World War II drama The Way Back, arguably one of his lesser works. That’s also, insanely, one of only two movies he’s made since Truman, the other being Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the wide and rabid affection for which regularly kicks up on Twitter (not to mention demand for a sequel).

Weir doesn’t do many interviews, and while this 2018 Vanity Fair article marking Truman’s twentieth anniversary has many quotes about the film’s modern relevance, Weir doesn’t offer any commentary to that effect, presumably preferring to let the work speak for itself—though in this 1998 interview he did talk about the relationship between the media, the general public and the people we become fascinated with, as a “complex situation”.

The Vanity Fair article does, however, reveal a fascinating ‘what if’ scenario relating to Christof, the god-like director of the in-movie TV show played by Ed Harris, who offers up a pile of pretentious auteur clichés: mononymous, beret, etc. (beyond the whole god thing, that is). When Dennis Hopper, originally cast in the role, wasn’t working out, Weir considered playing the role himself, which would’ve added yet another meta layer. It brings to mind how George Miller styled Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne) after himself in Mad Max: Fury Road, or how Christopher Nolan’s haircut shows up in most of his films.

Ed Harris as Christof in ‘The Truman Show’ (1998).

And, at one point, it could have gone mega-meta. Weir, in the 1998 interview, talked about a “crazy idea” he had, a technical impossibility back then but easily achievable with live-streaming now. “I would have loved to have had a video camera installed in every theater the film was to be seen [in]. At one point, the projectionist would … cut to the viewers in the cinema and then back to the movie. But I thought it was best to leave that idea untested.” Imagine.

Weir also played a role in helping to shape the originally much more overtly dark screenplay into the cheerier (on the surface at least) shooting script, which is solely credited to fellow antipodean, New Zealand-born Niccol, also a producer on the film. Both men have done the majority of their work in America, but it’s tempting to credit the film’s tone-perfect sense of heightened Americana to the degree of separation offered by their foreign provenance. In any case, it’s clear that open-air mall designers were paying attention.

Niccol’s original screenplay made his name in Hollywood, and revealed a storyteller excited by big ideas. He moved into directing with the smaller-scale Gattaca, released a year prior to Truman (itself delayed to meet Carrey’s availability). Niccol’s subsequent filmography includes several legit bangers (Lord of War hive step up!), and his endearing dedication to lofty allegories in a genre setting makes him an increasingly rare breed in Hollywood.

Like Weir, he is not the greatest fan of giving interviews, but the Vanity Fair piece quotes him making an interesting point: “When you know there is a camera, there is no reality,” thereby making Truman “the only genuine reality star.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by MusicMoviesMe, who writes that “‘Truman Show’ beats all other reality shows out there like Bachelors, Survivors and Kardashians. Come on, when you know there’s a camera at your tail, there’s no reality. So yes, Truman beats all reality shows out there bar none!”

The role was perfectly suited to Jim Carrey’s affected mannerisms, and his status as one of the world’s biggest stars meant he could relate to Truman more than most people. Then, at least. Nowadays, of course, we are all Truman.

“It is always incredible to see how far The Truman Show was ahead of [its] time,” observes The Closer79. “In a world where celebs are monitored 24/7 and we are showered with unnecessary private information on the web, where talent-free wannabes become famous and where you sometimes [wonder] what kind of surreal show society you are in—Truman and his fake show life cleverly have anticipated all of this. Only Truman knew nothing of his luck and he was granted an escape from his glass prison. We don’t really have this possibility… Aren’t we all Truman? Sometimes even voluntarily…”

Austin Burke concurs: “I have always known that I really enjoyed this film, but I had no clue that it would hold up so well years later… Could this be because the strange world that he finds himself in is far more similar to our world today? Possibly, but the idea and themes are so much more relevant now compared to when this originally released.” And while DallasFrance is conscious of piling on about the film’s prescience, his review highlights how there really is no limit to the film’s meta qualities:

“Instead of writing a review about how this film predicted social media, or how we’re all Truman, or yadda yadda yadda, I’ll instead fixate on the miraculous fact that two absolute legends were cast as primary viewers of the Truman Show:

1. The old lady from The Running Man who starts betting on Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger). ‘He’s one bad motherf*cker!’

2. The villain from The Karate Kid Part II:

‘Live or die, man?!’ ‘Die!’ ‘Wrong!’ *hooooonnnkkk*

I’ve never seen either of these actors in any other roles. With the second one, I felt like I was watching a character from my childhood watch a character from his childhood come to realizations about the characters in his childhood. So actually… the movie’s really about me.”

Never change, LB membership.

We are all generally pretty aware of how ahead of its time The Truman Show was, but that doesn’t lessen its impact. Maddie’s review shows that there’s always some new angle to consider: “Imagine being an extra in this movie… You would be an extra, playing an actor, playing an extra. Think about that long enough and tell me that doesn’t make you want to walk into the ocean.”

Kev goes even further: “Watching other people watch somebody else while also watching that person while also watching the person watching over that person is a great reminder that watching is weird, and to be watched is to not own yourself. Don’t watch, don’t try to be watched. Just live.”

Or perhaps Will encapsulates the film’s ability to present an ever-evolving message best, writing that, “clearly, this is video proof that we live in a simulation.” Beyond mere prescience, The Truman Show is a telling mirror to whatever era it is viewed in. Its message will continue to evolve.

Now that we’re finally (touch wood) emerging from the pandemic, it will be fascinating to see what The Truman Show has to say about its audience and the world they live in, in years to come. Rest assured, it will be well-documented by you, the Letterboxd audience.

Also: can Peter Weir please make another movie? Like, seriously.

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