#I MADE IT LOOK LIKE A SERIAL DIALOGUE THING | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

huhniebowl · 9 months

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hi!!!! could you possibly do something where the reader and dom are on a podcast together?? i think that would be super fun☺️☺️

anon, this is probably the funniest request i've ever worked on oh my god.😭 i had so much fun writing this! thank you for sending it in!

this is heavily inspired by the drake podcast with bobbi. i also read a few of dom's interviews, so a good bit of the dialogue is based on some things he's actually said.

this is dialogue heavy just so you all know! hope you love it!

You move the mic stand that your crew set up, so it’s level with your face, and adjust yourself under the blankets of your guest star's bed.

“Okay, tell me when,” Dominic says. He’s holding the clapperboard, and watching your crew for his signal.

“Marking.” He says into the mic, then snaps the take. He grins, while one of the crew members come to take the clapperboard. “Ah, bet you didn’t think I knew about that huh?”

It’s episode seven of your podcast, and you somehow managed to get Dominic Fike as your guest. You’ve been a fan of his for years, and have followed him through his ups and downs of fame, fortune, and misfortune.

You’re a little shocked at how well you’re keeping your composure by being able to have your favorite artist featured on your show, but you're thankful for it.

“Hello everyone, welcome to episode seven of I’m Not in Your Bed, and today I’m here with.”

You look over at Dominic, and he leans into his mic.

“Dominic Fike. How are you guys today.”

“Are you talking to me or the viewers?”

“The viewers.”

“This isn’t live though, so you won’t get to know their responses.” You turn on your side so you're facing Dom, and move your mic in front of you.

“Well yeah, but, isn’t that like proper podcast etiquette or some shit.” He starts to trail off towards the end and he looks at the staff. You hear a few of them chuckle, and you almost do too, but you can’t break character.

“Who taught you that?”

“Well, I just sort of.” He pauses for a moment, “Fuck you.” There’s no bite to it, and the staff laughs out.

"You think Drake is watching this?" He asks, fixing the glasses on his face.

"Maybe, he was my episode four."

"Were you in his bed too?"

"Yeah, I was."

"Fuckin’ cheater dude." That earns him a few laughs behind the camera.

“How does it feel having a stranger in your bed?” You ask. Dominic tilts his head in thought.

“Well, it’s not too weird. I used to have random women in here all the time.”

He then grabs hold of the mic and stares dead into the camera. “Not anymore though. Completely abstinent. Not fucking. Stop having sex. I’m talking to you. The one watching me say this while probably planning on having sex later.” You stare at him and press your lips together, letting the silence after his proclamation linger in the air.

“And how’s that been going for you?”

“You know, it’s been well. I’ve stopped a lot of crazy shit recently. Stopped smoking, stopped drugs. Stopped drinking more than 4 cups of coffee a day.”

“How do you like your coffee.”

“Black. I hate that creamer shit.”

“You know it’s reported that some of the most known serial killers drank their coffee black and were Capricorns?” Dom’s eyebrows raise.

“Oh fuck, really?”

“No, I made it up. But you feel a little crazy now don’t you?” Dominic drops his head and starts laughing, the staff right along with him.

“What’s your sign?” He asks once he gathers himself.

“Cancer.”

“Ah, that makes sense. You probably have a mommy kink or some shit huh?” You look at him in disbelief and suck your teeth when your staff betrays you with giggles.

“I do not–”

“Momm–.”

“Dominic.” You warn, glaring at him. He bursts out laughing, and you can’t help the scoff you let out.

“You know, they do say that Capricorns and Cancers are the mom and dad of the zodiac.” You try to reason.

“You’re the mom right?” He asks. You squint your eyes at him and dig around the space between you two. He’s simpering at you, trying to prove his mommy kink bit.

“I lied, I'm a Leo.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I know.” You pull out a little knitted beanie baby from the blankets. It wears the hat Dominic had on during Coachella. “A fan made this for you right?”

“Yes, she did! Isn’t it sick?”

“It is. How does it feel having some of the most creative fans there is out there?”

Dominic looks between you, and the plush, then reaches his hand out for it. “You know, it's almost surreal. This fame shit kinda came out of nowhere for me, so there was a huge adjustment period I went through when it came to people supporting me and giving me things they put so much time into.”

You nod, letting him continue.

“I think I’m still adjusting to it really, but nothing brings me more joy than like seeing this stuff you know? I love my fans, and I’d be nothing without them.”

“It seems they love you back just as much, if not more.” Dom grins and nods, “Yeah, I’d say so. They’re so fucking creative.”

“Have you read your fanfics?”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

“Because I have one right here we can—” You stop mid-sentence and pull out your phone.

“Are you serious?” He looks at the camera as if he was Jim from The Office when you ignore him, and begin typing with urgency.

“This is the most excited I’ve seen you since this started.”

You ignore his comment and hand him your phone with a fic pulled up.

“Read this.”

“Yo, do you read these yourself? You found this way too fast.”

“I found this one last night. Now read.”

It’s a Tumblr story you saved for this very moment, and you wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“Smut? What’s smut?” He looks at you for an answer, but you just gesture your hands toward the phone for him to keep reading.

It’s silent for a few, and you signal your cameraman to zoom in on Dominic’s face.

You watch as his face morphs into confusion, then surprise, then what you assume is mild interest, before he’s pulling the phone back and his eyes are blown wide.

“Holy fucking shit y’all write porn about me?” The crew erupts into laughter, and you tuck your lips in to avoid laughing too.

“Smut.” You say.

Dominic glances from you, back to the phone.

“Why am I kinda turned on by this.”

“Because I wrote it.”

Dominic whips his head towards you, and his mouth drops.

“Wait really?” You don’t respond, reaching down to the floor and pulling up a box of Reese’s Puffs cereal.

“Reese’s?” You ask, dropping a handful into your mouth and holding the box out to him.

“Where did you—” Dominic keeps the same shocked expression and turns back towards the camera. The cameraman starts to laugh again and zooms in on his face.

“When did you—” He stops, watching you chew with mild interest to his confusion. So he presses his lips together, clicks your phone off, and folds his hands together over his lap.

“Yeah, let me get some.” You wordlessly lean over and Dominic tilts his head back so you can shake some cereal from the box into his mouth.

“Good?” You ask while chewing.

“Yeah.” He nods. Silence ensues while you both continue to chew while staring at each other. Then at the same time, you turn to the camera with monotone expressions. It’s unplanned, and the crew let out chuckles once again.

“So how was touring?” You swallow, and reach down towards the floor again, pulling up two bowls with spoons in them. Dom’s learned not to question you anymore at this point, and just accepts a bowl.

“It was fucking fun dude. I wasn’t expecting everyone to know the words of my album for the first few dates since I toured a solid week after the release.”

“Resse’s, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Lucky Charms?”

“Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

You pull up that box, and pour some into his bowl, then yours. “It must have felt incredible to hear them yelling it back to you. Did it?”

“Oh man, I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever get used to. A lot of my songs are me just fucking around and making stuff that people can dance to you know?” You nod, and bring up a jug of milk, filling up your bowl, then Dom’s.

“So when I’m performing, it kinda feels like me and my fans are just kicking shit up. I’m dancing, they're dancing, it feels good. It’s fun. Whatever’s bothering them can just be forgotten for a bit.” He takes a spoonful of cereal to his lips and hums around his spoon.

“I was at one of your shows, the LA one. And what I noticed was that your energy on stage is unbelievable.” You press your cereal down into the milk with your spoon, before continuing.

“Like, you look so youthful, and just in your element up there. You bring such an intense and loving energy to every show and I strangely found myself missing you when it was all over and I’d never even formally met you until now.”

It’s silent for a moment, Dominic soaking up your words while you begin eating.

“Was that your way of confessing? Are we like gonna kiss now?”

You roll your eyes and your crew giggles.

“No, but seriously, thank you. That means the world, especially when like I said before I’m still adjusting to this shit.”

“Well for what it’s worth, I think you’re navigating through all this perfectly. It’s why I became a fan in the first place. Your talent is unique to you and only you. And I mean it when I say talent like that only comes once in a lifetime.”

You point your spoon at him, “I’m sure I can speak for all of us when I say we’re beyond lucky to experience you and all your greatness in our lifetime.” You give him a big smile.

Dominic stares at you, and you can’t read his expression but you also don’t look for too long. Opting to look into your cereal bowl, because you could feel the love-sick look that was about to show on your face.

“You’re too good at this sentimental shit dude, what the fuck.” His voice sounds a bit choked up, so you try to lighten the mood.

“Don’t start crying on here or I’ll be forced to use it as my thumbnail for views.” The staff comes to your aid with laughter, and Dominic joins in.

“You wouldn’t do that.” He goes to wipe his face with his shirt but is met with silence and your face back to its deadpan. He looks between you and the staff, then the camera. He speaks a little unsure, his voice going up a pitch.

“Right?”

You fully break character and full-on laugh. Unable to keep up your act with him.

The podcast continues for a bit longer before you bring it to a close.

“Is there anything else you’d like to say before I take a nap in your bed?” The cameraman zooms in on Dominic.

“Um, thank you for having me. This was easily my favorite interview I’ve done. The cereal was great.” he laughs and holds up the bowl. “To my fans, I love you all so much, thank you for always showing out for me.”

“Please continue to love my album, and stay tuned for what’s to come.” Someone behind the camera whistles, and everyone begins clapping.

The camera zooms out and shows you staring at Dom with the expression you feared the most. You’re looking at him with a dopey smile, cheek resting against the palm of your hand.

One of the staff calls out your name, and you blink, jumping up and looking at the camera, then back at Dom who’s looking at you with a shit-eating grin.

“Oh my god, were you falling in love with me just now?”

“No, what.” You scoff, looking around like he’s crazy.

“Holy shit, you were totally falling in love with me!” He laughs while moving up and pointing at you excitedly. The staff once again, betray you and join Dom. You mutter curses and pull back the blankets, stumbling off the bed and speed-walking away. The camera follows you, as you go behind the staff and all the equipment.

“Wait, I’m sorry!” Dominic’s still laughing, hopping up and following after you.

“Let me take you out to dinner, I’m sorry!” He calls, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and slinging himself over you, while you cover your face and groan.

The camera follows you both all the way out until you turned the corner. Laughs still loud and boisterous on the set.

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butchsophiewalten · 2 months

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Was waiting until ep 4 to ask but for the character opinion bingo thingymajiggy could you do bon (the spirit/evil murder robot ) if you haven't already

Oh my god, Bon. I love Bon so much. I'm so glad that I love Bon so much.

Bon, the animatronic rabbit, has over the course of the couple last years become one of my favorite characters. At this point, he's right up there with Jenny and Sophie. So when we first got that Findjackwalten "Bon" reveal, I was very... apprehensive? For me it was just really underwhelming. I honestly think my biggest complaint was just that, aesthetically, he was so much more boring than Bon, the animatronic rabbit. I love Bon. What I didn't love was this like, clip art character. He was just a guy? Like a human guy? He didn't even look fun. There was so little there to sell me on the idea of Bon as a character. It's funny, though, since I really think part of what frustrated me was that the part that made Bon an Evil Killer was divorced from him being a rabbit. Which is a really silly thing to say, but I just honestly hadn't expected there to be any 'form' of Bon that came aesthetically separate from the mystique of the rabbit animatronic. And I love rabbits, they're my favorite animals. (Well, hares are, really. But rabbits get to share the love.) So it was a very petty kind of upset.

But oh my god, seeing "Bon" in this episode has totally turned me around. Like wow, he is fun! He is aesthetically interesting! Which is why I've written that 'so relieved' point on top of the one that usually says 'wasted potential'. I'd had an idea in my mind of what "Bon" would be since we saw that "Bon" text on Findjackwalten in fucking January of 2022. That's a lot of time to stew in your thoughts. If "Bon" ended up being something I wasn't happy with, I was gonna be really disappointed. But I wasn't!

It's been really fun learning to attribute some of my favorite aspects of Bon, the killer animatronic, to "Bon", the white ghost, because they are effectively the same. I can't help but find him really cute, honestly? I love his girlish mannerisms. I love his penchant for.. Fashion? I say this remembering one of the old entries on the Martin's Secret Lair findjackwalten page. His love of music? Y'know, obviously he kills people and is evil and manipulative. But he does it cutely. Definitely the rabbit aspect is doing something to endear me.

Beyond that purely emotional endearment, I'm genuinely very interested in him as a character as well... It's a little hard to talk about, though, since my feelings are so new and so poorly thought-out, honestly. But something I've been thinking about for a while is his relationship with Rosemary... From how I see it, he seems to have a strange sort of infatuation with her. He calls her Rosie... he puts her in Sha... Less objectively, his little shrine to her in Souvenir seems very elaborate to me, at least relatively. And assuming the "Rose broken. Will fix you" dialogue is diegetic and we're meant to think that Bon spoke to Rose before killing her... Well, it's just very interesting to me that he seemed to try to explain to her what was going on. It's really fucked, honestly, and it's something I'd really like to know more about. His conversation with Susan in 4 makes me think his criteria for killing people has at least something to do with, like, whether or not he likes someone. Really really fucked and really, really interesting.

God there's really so much to say about Bon... But I'm nervous too, since I don't really know how well I can articulate what I feel. It feels a little like there's warring factions in me, between the Me that thinks the animatronic serial killer is so Silly Cutesy and Me that's really horrified by and invested in the Lore and Context behind everything that Bon, as a character and narrative force, is actually doing. Not that those feelings necessarily can't coexist. The way he talks to Susan is so unsettling to me... it's strangely tender, honestly. Like a genuine attempt for comfort, despite the context. I feel like I have a million little half-observations to make, but none of them amount to a full thought. Bon is really fucked! I'm so happy that I find him actually really cool and interesting! I want to take him clothes shopping and feed him Tchaikovsky records. Martin said he liked Classical music but I think that's. well not Wrong but inarticulate. I think he's a Romantic girl. He loves some Beethoven. Some Liszt. whjat am i even saying anymore

#ask #i have to cut this post off a littlebit shorter than I had wanted because i have real life obligations....ugh #i should get to 24/7 talk about the walten files. for a living

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bonefall · 5 months

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I'm sitting and looking at somebody's take about the scene of Willow Tail's death

"Clear Sky is fabulous here, and the deaths look karmic. Willow Tail dies blind bc she was so blinded by her wish of revenge she put innocent cats under threat and led to deaths of a medicine cat and an innocent kit. And Wind Runner, who prevented Moth Flight from saving Tiny Branch, lost a life to an injured leg just like he did. Beautiful."

Ig I'll just leave it here like a tribute

"the deaths look karmic" is the only correct thing in this passage. Yes, the writers ARE obsessed with punishing women, gruesomely zooming in on how much pain and suffering they're feeling when those horrible bitches finally get their comeuppance. Glad they can at least recognize torture porn when they see it.

Go one baby step further-- why do the writers keep choosing to frame the women as primarily responsible when Clear Sky is the same violent, egotistical tyrant he always was?

Willow Tail does die blinded-- by Clear Sky. The way he is constantly brutalizing every woman and foreigner in front of him. Just like how he was smacking Moth Flight before he ordered Red Claw to go up into the tree to beat the shit out of Micah and confiscate medicine, because he doesn't care when people die of treatable illness.

But, sure. Sure, it's Willow Tail who caused the death of Micah, when she sees Moth Flight's face sliced open by a known serial murderer and jumps to her defense, and then learns that Red Claw has been ordered to attack a doctor.

For those who haven't read Moth Flight's Vision, btw, Willow Tail is revealed to be the villain all along because she was planting rabbit bones on the border. This made Clear Sky mad because Wind Runner said "make your cats respect the borders YOU invented, bc MY cats didn't eat those rabbits" and she didn't just accept his answer of "nuh uh."

That's why it's totally the WOMEN'S fault that Clear Sky was throwing this tantrum, and not his own. Being offended is a totally valid reason to deny medical treatment and do assault and battery. Why would you ever hold a man in a position of power accountable for his own actions?

Wind Runner also didn't kill Tiny Branch through medical neglect. Clear Sky did. Can't believe I'm still saying this.

HE was the one who prevented Acorn Fur from getting help. He keeps insisting that he never needed Micah or any other foreigner to heal Tiny Branch's ailments. He didn't want Micah when it was a cough, and he didn't want Moth Flight when it was a fox attack.

-Said in the Sap Confiscation Scene

-Said as Tiny Branch is dying, confirming that yes, he DID stop her from getting the help right away.

Wind Runner PROPOSED an embargo at a meeting that SkyClan was absent for, AFTER Clear Sky had already insisted on denying medical treatment to Rocky and got Micah killed. Wind Runner's hypothetical embargo was broken less than a minute later when it's revealed SkyClan was late by several hours because Tiny Branch got attacked by a fox.

Here's how long they're held up by Wind Runner, though. All 214 words, less than a full page in dialogue, of it.

How long would you guess this took? Was everyone here speaking at 0.025 speed? Did someone hit the slow motion button? Were they escaping out of a time bubble?

Why's Shattered Ice never mentioned as killing Tiny Branch, btw? The one who actually did physically hold up Moth Flight (but not the other three Medicine cats, Dappled Pelt, Cloud Spots, and Pebble Heart), even if it was for less than 30 seconds? When he's not even from Wind Runner's Clan? CURIOUS INNIT?

I need to remind you that he was also responsible for preventing Acorn Fur from being fully trained. That was HIS choice. HE closed the border. HE stopped Moth Flight from completing Acorn Fur's training. HE is in the middle of a book-length hissy fit about being told what to do.

And, yet, Moth Flight is held up for less than 5 minutes after Clear Sky forced Acorn Fur to save his son alone until signs of infection set in, and this is all Wind Runner's fault.

So he later kidnaps Moth Flight, expecting Wind Runner to just trust that THIS time he takes a hostage he's not starving them like he did to Jackdaw's Cry, and not launch the two Clans into war. Redemption arc, btw.

And then he gets to be framed like a hero even though he is 100% responsible for every single one of his actions and escalated the situation at every turn. ZERO consequences for him, because him letting his own baby suffer and die was "punishment enough."

The bloodthirsty tyrant, child abuser, woman beater, and known liar was totally justified because It Made Him Sad When Wind Runner Didn't Trust His Word :( This was all actually an evil, scheming woman's fault for planting bunny bones, lol. So she totally deserves getting her eyes ripped out.

At MOST, the narrative considers Wind Runner and Clear Sky "Equally Bad", but only Wind Runner and Willow Tail get personally punished. With death and agony. Surely, SURELY this is not because of writer misogyny? In the Arc of 7 Fridgenings? Perish the thought.

Anyway, glad that I've curated my dash enough to not see that take out there in the wild. Who would even write something so ridiculous, Gray Wing?

#bone babble #warrior cats analysis #Clear Sky #Moth Flight's Vision #DOTC hate #Willow Tail #Anyway everyone it is now our job to be as annoying as possible and stan Willow Tail at all costs #Willow Tail Did Nothing Wrong legion rise up #cw misogyny #seriously though. fucking BUNNY BONES???#BUNNY #BONES

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mads198-9 · 3 months

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The Alcott

POV: the WIP made it out of the google drive

Summary: “If he’s a serial killer then what’s the worst that could happen to a girl that’s already hurt?” - Lana Del Rey

Warnings: None really, some explicit language though. Just some fluffy angsty dialogue to either help you sleep or keep you up at night. This is my first time writing for Joel (and practically ever) so I apologize if it isn’t Hemingway-esque. This is not edited but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I’m debating a smutty pt. 2 😗

@amydunnewithmen (where the delulus run wild)

————————————————————————

3 minutes.

It had taken Joel all of 3 minutes to set fire to a year of your life. A year of longing, patience, resentment, guilt and every ounce of shame that Joel had clutched to his chest since September 26th, 2003.

It took you over two decades to find an ounce of peace. A place to, finally, let yourself breathe. To close your eyes out of comfort rather than necessity. You’d barely crawled out of the last city you scavenged. A metropolis that fell into a desolate isle. All you’d ever known of people was the way they’d looked with fungi crawling through their veins and seeping out of their orifices. Never a true person. The closest you’d come to other conscious humans were those who had already abandoned their humanity for the sake of surviving. What they didn't realize was that for them to live, they had to give up everything they’d ever lived for. You didn’t consider these men to be ‘people’.

Looking at your facilities it was nothing short of a miracle, it was a miracle that you’d found Jackson. A single woman dragging her depleted muscles through feats of snow, a trail of blood broadcasting your vulnerability to anything within a mile’s radius.

You don’t remember how you’d found it but you remember your pleas. Your claw marks on Jackson’s fortifying wall. You fell to the ground the moment they’d opened the gates. Almost relieved to have had a gun pointed at your head, because at least it was a person. Someone to end your suffering. You didn’t care in what way. A saviour in the form of a man nonetheless, one you’d come to know as Tommy. Tommy Miller.

He was how you’d found Joel. How Joel found you.

It was Tommy who’d found what was left of you, Maria who had housed you, but Joel who’d really saved you.

It started pure. For you at least.

The first you saw of Jackson’s newest constituent was his and Tommy’s embrace. Maybe that’s why you were never scared. Not of him, not of what he'd done, because you saw the best of what he could do. His reason for all that he had done. Family.

You hadn’t felt your heart stop in ages. Up until him, fear was the only thing that had the power to constrict your chest.

No words were spoken between the two of you for months. As the Tipsy Bison’s bartender you were the loosener of lips. An observer by nature, a listener by force, a tolerator of none. His drink order spoke for him those first few months.

Whiskey. Neat. No ice to dull its sting. A welcomed burn to the back of his throat but he sipped it like water. Years of practice of not only enduring pain, but learning to think he’d deserved it.

It was the first thing of substance you’d ever said to him. Your words numbing him like the whiskey in his glass. It took two minutes of silence for him to scrape the floor of the bison with his barstool and drag his ass out of the bar.

You blew it. Or so you’d thought. If anything, you had initiated what would be the most painful and pleasurable experience of your life. One that brought you to your knees in more ways than one. It felt stronger than any romantic pull you’d experienced. Every pace further from him began to hurt. A religion.

From that moment on Joel thought about more than just the glances you’d given. Your perception of him wasn’t wrong in the slightest but it gave him something new to think about. To dwell on and give his fist motivation when the house was silent and his needs too great.

Months of simmering tension and lenghtneing conversations that tugged the corner of his lips up led you to what would become your favourite place. The eventual route of all your pain.

His arms.

Before the age of 25 you’d experienced every horror the world had to offer. You’d spent your life running, burning the memories of your old life with every fire you’d lit to warm your skin. All while everything within you froze with time. You’d never had a moment to explore your thoughts let alone your body.

Joel was the first. In every way imaginable.

Even in heartbreak.

In all of Jackson, Tommy was the one to know Joel best. He’d seen the colour come to his brother’s cheeks at the mere mention of your name and he’d seen the way his eyes bored holes into those who gave the two of you suggestive looks in public.

The jealousy of the men who thought they had a right to fuck you and the envy of the women you ‘stole’ Joel from. The looks of outrage that painted the churchgoers faces chipped away at his resolve every time the two of you were together and only reinforced his shame.

Echoed his anxieties of whether or not he was ‘too old’ for you. Too destructive to be around such innocence. Too hardened by his years alone. How your presumed father issues were the only thing that drew you to him.

The hunter’s voices won out in the end because he lost you, at the alcott.

The last thing he wanted, he’d done to you.

You’d once loved it here. The Alcott. A space delegated to the books that once littered the halls of the ravaged homes across Wyoming. A place that Maria saw as a solution to your lack of a purpose.

Even after everything, you can’t imagine leaving.

You hadn’t left in the weeks since Joel drove a knife through your chest. Weeks you spent curled up in the back of the shop, surrounded by books, their pages riddled with love stories and sonnets, ridiculing you with their happy endings.

Draped in the flannel he’d long left, finding yourself relating to it. At first glance, an abandoned piece of cloth, but you saw it as much more. It was something he no longer had use for. Something he chose to leave. A landmine of memories. Its scent sending you into a spiral with every inhale.

It took less than a day for his resolve to crack and less than twelve hours for Ellie to tell him that he’d been a dick and only six for Tommy to see the change in him. For once in his life Joel Miller was cold. The left side of his bed that once held you now held the weight of your pain, his loss. The shattered look in your eyes as he’d told you to move on painted itself to the backs of his eyelids. His own voice haunting him, telling you to find yourself outside of who you are with him. That he’s too old for you. That you were only a kid and no matter how bad the world had gotten he wouldn’t take advantage of that.

What he didn’t know was that the time spent with him made you feel like a woman, not the solitary girl everyone else saw you for. The days spent with his lips against you were the only times in which you’d believed that your skin was your own.

But he didn’t realize that, or did not let himself because he was bad. For all intensive purposes Joel Miller was a serial killer. A lethal weapon. Nothing that could provide you with the warmth you sought. The warmth he knew you deserved. And god did he want to be the one to give it to you. Joel had spent the last twenty years of his life preserving life, not experiencing it. Hell he still was, patrolling the outskirts of Jackson four times a week. This time taking the long way home just to pass by your house. It was as he expected, as much as he’d kicked himself he knew you, craved you, understood you. So it was no surprise to see no light coming from your house. No noise either. At first he panicked. His mind his own greatest enemy in how it conjured up a thousand scenarios of you leaving Jackson, all ending with your heart stopped and skin blue.

Where on god’s green earth could you have gone. Where you’d never left.

The Alcott.

You hadn’t heard him come in.

“You're still here.”

Questioning you in his thick southern drawl, draping across his words like honey. Damn it. Damn him for still making you blush.

His presence isn’t what startled you, it was the fact that it was Joel. Your Joel, now just Joel.

“I never left.”

He regretted everything he’d ever done to you the second he saw your wide eyes boring into his own. Glossed over in every shade of pain.

He didn’t have to ask why, he was sure he knew, but he asked anyway. Never a man to stumble over his words he could barely get two syllables out.

Looking down to his shifting feet then back to you he asked you what he already knew.

“Why?”

“Because I love this place. What used to feel like our house. Even if it’s cursed now.”

He thought his heart would start screaming with the way it was beating.

“I, uh” clears his throat “I didn't want to darken y’doorstep. Anymore than I already have I’spose.”

“Funny. I’ve had the lights off since you left.”

You practically slurred your words. What was left of you both had been draining you emotionally, in only the 2 minutes he’d been here.

“So… I, uh. I was g’nna ask ya, how’ve ya been?”

Your laugh was as dry as the Texas heat Joel had come from. But less familiar.

“Why are you really here Joel? You’ve always been shit at small talk, didn’t suppose that changed in the last week.”

“Jesus” A week? “Feels like a lifetime since the last time I saw ya.”

“Funny how a ‘lifetime’ is what seemed to be between us. Different generations and all that bull shit.”

“Look kid -”

“No. Don’t you dare call me ‘kid’. Don’t make me feel smaller than I already am. Those people out there may have beaten you into submission but I am an adult. I’ve been one since I saw my first infected. I’ve been on my own and just fucking fine without anybody since I was a so-called kid so I dont want to hear another god damn word. You and everybody else think I can’t so much as cross the street without holding your hand but I've done more than that with less.

You know I survived on my own.

Before you.

And if it’s up to you, I will after, but I don’t want to.

For the first time in my life I got something I wanted, needed, and I don’t want to give it up.

You.

Ellie.

Tommy, Maria, the baby.

Jackson.

Living.

It’s more than surviving.

But apparently not to you.”

“That is not true.”

You didn’t realise you’d stood up until you could feel the heat radiating off of Joel, his flannel, everything.

“Then what is huh? I was a quick fuck. The first wet thing you’d felt in twenty years or what?”

You were yelling at this point and Joel hadn’t moved an inch. Not giving you anything. Not even a response except for the pinching between his brows. And it was killing you.

“You know it wasn’t like that -”

“Then what the FUCK was it if. not. real?!” Emphasizing each word with a pound to his firm chest.

Nothing you said from then on was comprehensible. Just sobs ripping from your chest as you threw your weight into him. Sinking into the floor, dragging him down with you.

His arms shooting out from his sides to enrapture you the second he felt your knees buckle and tears flow. Pulling you into his lap as your body shuddered. Immediately finding the crook of his neck. Inhaling him again. Finally, you couldn’t tell if it made you cry more or less but all you could notice was Joel. All you could feel, hear and smell was Joel. The smell of firewood dotting his skin mixed with the old spice soap he’d managed to scavenge on last week’s patrol. The feeling of giving into his arms again, coming home, and the sound of him cooing, and sniffling?

He’d lost it. Thought he’d lost you and that was his breaking point. Feeling his own tears seep into your hair you knew it was real. You knew he meant everything he’d said back then. Back before Jackson got to him. Before he’d let his own mind turn on him. And as much as it’d hurt then, it felt good now.

“Shhh, shhh.

I gotcha baby. I know, oh I know. More than you could imagine.”

“Please, please, please.”

Holding your face, and your heart, in his calloused palms he looked you in the eye.

“Please what, baby?”

Looking like a doe at his doorstep, your crumpled frame fitting perfectly within the confines of his lap.

“Please don’t leave. Please stay. I tried, I tried so hard to be good to you, for you.”

“Oh honey, you were, fuck you are baby.

The best I’ll ever get, all I ever want.

I’m not leaving baby girl.

Never.

Even if you ask me to, I’m not going anywhere.”

And this time, he didn’t.

————————————————————————

This sounded so much better in my head -

W o w

I actually wrote something… hot damn.

I’m debating a second part?? of smut??

#Spotify #joel miller #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller fluff #joel miller angst #joel miller x reader #joel miller x female reader #the last of us #tlou #the last of us fanfic #pedro pascal #the alcott #taylor swift #the national #joel tlou #joel the last of us #angst with a happy ending

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reeeallygood · 4 months

Text

911 Lone Star Rewatch: 1x02

Okay here we go again!

First note: I whip my hair back and forth is perhaps the funniest choice for a song to be playing in Owen's car when he pulls up to the fire house. Like I understand it is supposed to fit in with the fear of balding storyline we have in this episode. But it immediately made me think of this:

TK asking his father if he got laid.... Tells us so many things about their relationship.

Ahhh the mercury food. I forgot about this call. Which is surprising because it is HORRIFIC. Especially since the lady that jumps first has my name. (but also I would have discovered the mercury immediately because I always pick those kinds of sandwiches apart when I eat them)

You know what. I need to see Carlos tackle more people. There has been a distinct lack of Carlos tackling people--I understand he fought off a serial killer last season, but still. More tackling. But poor Carlos is honestly so stressed throughout that entire scene.

Nancy! There she is. Still surprised that she wasn't in the pilot! Unless I missed her?? But I don't think I did.

They already have Grace in better costuming for this episode! Her clothing is a lot softer and relaxed, which fits her character better. Plus it doesn't look like they are dressing her to make her look older as much as they did last episode.

Okay, so about Michelle. The part of her character that does interest me is all of her volunteer stuff. The work she does with the homeless community and the part in this episode with the little boy who needs an inhaler. I wish they had spent more time on that because it's very compelling.

So Carlos recommends that Michelle goes to a curandera. How superstitious do we think Carlos is? Like he kinda admits that the story about his aunt's experience with a curandera was a little ridiculous. But I don't know... I get the feeling that he believes some of it. Not sure that he would ever admit it, but I think he does. Like Carlos seems like the type to scoff and say 'ghosts aren't real', but the moment he hears some creepy shit in a haunted building he's about to scooby doo run his way out of there.

Owen using almond milk for his cappuccinos is perhaps the worst sin he has committed.

Judd and Owen confiding in each other already! So early! Already on the road to becoming best friends! But Judd checking in with Owen about his cancer diagnosis and asking about how TK is taking everything-- JUDD RYDER THE MAN THAT YOU ARE.

Oh yes, the racist lady! How could I forget this was in this episode. Ugh, her avoiding Marjan when shaking their hands. And honestly, Marj is so patient with her even though she's a complete bigot. Which makes Marjan losing her job for insensitivity towards someone in the field in season 4 just that much more unfair to her.

There are so many choice pieces of dialogue in this scene though. There of course is the iconic "sure ma'am, but just so you know I am a homosexual" and Judd's simple "no". But also TK's kinda confused "we don't have any cuffs, Cap..." And Mateo's super quick "On it!" to going to get the zip ties. So good.

Last night I slept in my stileeettooos. Holiday Inn.

Carlos' little "totally" after TK says he wants to zone out before work is so funny. He's so whipped. Like, 'yeah whatever you say. I am so in love with you.'

I honestly forgot about the bald nightmare sequence until it started. And it's just so great from start to finish. Even if the freckly bald cap they have on Rob is terrifying. Also, Mateo still being nice and complementary even in Owen's nightmare speaks volumes.

On a more serious note, the whole part with the woman choosing death over letting him rescue her because he's bald is obviously a metaphor for how Owen would rather risk his cancer treatments not working--which could kill him--over risking losing his hair. And it's seen as insane and overdramatic even by him in the dream, which strangely enough I think was an important step for him realizing that he needed to let go of his worries about his appearance.

How does Rob Lowe manage to have great on screen chemistry with like... everyone. How does he do this??

And the gas leak call with the guy who has paranoid delusions! This episode has so many iconic calls!

As an aside, if a cop ever just burst through my door I would be so incredulous and angry. But a firefighter, on the other hand. Like when Paul crashes into that one apartment. I would just be like 'whatever you say sir'. Firefighters have my trust.

Wait. wait what was that headline on the news article that the man with paranoia had up on his wall?? The enslavement of kpop what?? Can someone who has quick access to it let me know the full thing. How have I never noticed that before.

The entire scene with Judd and Owen on horses is so great. Like the whole thing is just such a sweet gesture on Judd's part. But does anyone know if the hat that Judd gives to Owen is the same one he has when he goes to the hill country? That's awesome if it is. But I can't remember if it looks the same or not.

Also, Uncle Cash reveal when???

Slow down, Tiger

Carlos' shirt is really hanging on by a single button through that whole scene. I wonder if they did multiple takes of the button ripping part? Does that mean Rafa had to change his shirt every time?

"I don't do this a lot" "Clearly" TK THAT WAS MEAN. I understand why you said it, but ouch!!

I would like to state that at this point in the episode my voice recording is just me sadly saying, "Carlos and his snapper :(. TK is so hurt :(. Judd in his hoodie :(."

YEE-HAW

Another lovely episode! And to no one's surprise, another 10/10

If you made it to the end of this, here is your star for the good noodle board: ⭐

Previous episode thoughts

#911 lone star rewatch 2024 #911 lone star #So many fun responses to my other one!#this is exciting!#The whole rewatch was such a good idea

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thetombedspirit · 1 year

Text

Wednesday Headcanons and My Theories for Season 2

HEADCANONS

1. That wasn't Tyler!

It is my personal headcanon that antagonist!tyler is not Tyler but rather a whole other person. After all, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is that they were two people sharing a body: the respectable scientist and the homicidal serial killer. Kinda like Flayed!Billy from Stranger Things; the Hyde, his alter ego is dormant, but once Laurel gives commands, he's activated.

And like the f@#!ing grooming b!+ch she is, Laurel will name it Garret like a creep. I’M SORRY, BUT MY BRAIN THOUGHT OF IT AND NOW IT WON’T LET IT GO!

2. Not a Love Story

Honestly, I feel like a love story so soon into the show, especially a love triangle, was jumping the gun SO MUCH, especially for such a stoic character like Wednesday. It just made no sense to me realistically. Like, maybe after some more ‘evolving’ on Wednesday’s part in terms of friendship, then maybe she could consider ‘romance’ in season two, but as it stands now, it’s just a little weird for me personally.

And in terms of LGBTQA+? I’d headcanon Wednesday as a demiromantic asexual.

My Theories for Season 2

1.Tyler Redemption Arch

With Laurel gone (either dead or incarcerated), Tyler is supposedly left without a master. Or maybe Wednesday’s his new master with her victory over Laurel (kinda like Teen Wolf’s Matt and Gerard). This could leave Tyler to learn to control his Hyde side and maybe make amends with Wednesday and the other Outcasts. I wouldn’t jump back into romance with this story arch, but who knows?

2. Morning Song In Charge

I have a theory that with the dearly departed Principle Weems out of the picture, Morning Song, the mysterious siren cult Bianca’s mother’s involved in might take advantage of the vacuum to earn a couple more dollars, which could mean some sinister changes to the school. Like Umbridge levels of sinister. And Bianca will have to be forced to take a stand for her friends, her Nevermore family, when it goes too far.

3. Looking Through Sunglasses

So, the stalker has been theorised on multiple times and one of suspects with Yoko Tanaka, a vampire student who is not only a member of the Nightshade Society, giving her resources and opportunities, but is also one of the only cast members who doesn’t have much dialogue, or any, during the whole show’s runtime. The only instance we actually see her speak is in the application video.

Not only does her status as a member of the Nightshades give her time and resources, but she was also the one who Enid roomed with when she lost her patience with Wednesday. And with Enid being the go-to gossip hound, I’m sure Yoko soaked up all the information about Wednesday’s investigation and tendencies.

And don’t forget, Rowan Laslow, an excommunicated member of the Nightshades, was antagonistic towards Wednesday before his untimely demise. Maybe Yoko decided to jump on the Wednesday-Be-Gone band wagon after the whole Crackstone scenario, deciding that Wednesday was a force to chaotic to leave unchecked.

So a little friendly warning should go a long way. Right?

4. Goody will be the final antagonist

I don't believe Goody is really gone, not so soon into the game, anyway. Morticia told Wednesday that while Goody was a powerful witch, her vengeance and power consumed her ‘until she couldn’t save herself’. And whilst healing Wednesday, she smiled almost in relief, but not the sort of "yay, I saved you!" relief; more like a "this is working out better than I hoped" relief.

So I believe that as season 2 goes, Goody will slowly come to possess Wednesday's body, taking control and performing her magic once more: all in a nefarious plot to exact her vengeance on Jericho and Normies once and for all. And it'll be up to her Outcast friends to save her and help her fight back, despite Goody claiming that Wednesday was descend to be alone.

Right now, I’m playing it out almost like the boss battle in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost!, where Wednesday is fighting for control, whilst the others are fighting to keep hold of Goody’s Book of Shadows to try and find the spell that will save Wednesday.

Anyway, those are my personal headcanons and theories for now! Hope you enjoy and I can’t wait to find out more!

#wednesday tv 2022 #wednesday addams #tyler galpin #laurel gates #morning song cult #bianca barclay #yoko tanaka #rowan laslow #the hyde #joseph crackstone #goody addams #morticia addams #wednesday headcanons #wednesday theories

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hollow-keys · 2 months

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Top 5 Second Doctor stories

Oh, hi! Uhhh

Somehow my brain completely skipped over second and thought I had to narrow down every story in Doctor Who to a top 5 😭. This is much easier. I could see myself shuffling the ordering around, but basically:

5. The Macra Terror

Authoritarian crabs... IN SPACE. Yeah, that's the pitch. No thoughts, just fun. Shame it's missing.

4. The Enemy of the World

It's silly, it's fun, I love it. The Doctor tries to take them to the beach and gets shot at because the main villain happens to look exactly like him. He convinced his friends he's not his evil doppelganger by miming playing the recorder. Salamander gets sent into the fucking void. Peak Doctor Who.

3. The Mind Robber

They just let themselves be silly. The TARDIS team lands in a world entirely made of fiction, shenanigans ensue. The fictional characters only speak using dialogue from their original work. We meet a fictional fictional character from Zoe's time. The Doctor has to reconstruct Jamie's face and fails miserably so they could recast him temporarily because Frazer Hines got chickenpox. They don't make TV like this anymore.

2. The Evil of the Daleks

It's about Jamie and the Doctor's undying trust in each other, it's about the human spirit being undefeatable, it's about ushering in 4 blessed seasons without a single Dalek episode. Truly a tragedy we're missing most of this serial.

1. The War Games

THE swan song for the second Doctor and includes the only episode of Doctor Who to ever make me cry. The entire thing is a Marxist critique of war made by a card carrying communist, the Time Lords have never been better in all their televised appearances since and the ending is heartbreaking but it's so good. It's the sort of thing that makes you want to create art about it.

But despite how much I love the idea of the story and a lot of the execution is also stellar, there's 4 things holding it back from being a solid 10/10:

It drags in places, which isn't surprising given it's 10 episodes long. This is my most minor criticism.

The racism and misogyny. Expected yet sigh inducing.

Treating all the soldiers like they're the same and allying up with British soldiers from the Boer war as easily as Union soldiers from the American civil war, despite one set fighting for colonialism and one fighting against slavery.

The ending wasn't given the gravitas it deserves. I assume they just weren't trying to be too heartbreaking about it, but Katarina's death in the Daleks' Master Plan was given its appropriate weight so I can't entirely put it on era of television.

It may be weird to include this much criticism on a post about best stories but it really is one of those "recommended with asterisks" stories to me. Makes me want to eat drywall (mostly positive) too much not to be on the list but that doesn't mean my criticisms go away.

Thanks for asking!

#second doctor #doctor who #classic who #asks #📨

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olderthannetfic · 8 months

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Been thinking about daring to try to get into vidding (but I have zero knowledge about video editing lol) and wondered if there are ship manifestos that are in fanvid-form, so to say. Am shocked that there are only six on AO3. Though I guess it may have to do with videos being taken down because of copyright stuff?

(One of them was by you by the way if I'm not mistaken, ha! And now I want to watch Veritas: The Quest. Your video got me interested.^^)

Haha. I was going to say!

Veritas is a fun dumb time. It makes me sad that they never released properly. (And yes, my love of baaaaaad "archaeology" canons full of magical woo and tomb raiding goes way back. Also my love of fake death and fake betrayal plots.)

AO3 is only moderately popular for fanvids, and mostly in a very specific community of people who send vids to the small-scale fancons—the sorts of people who founded OTW and who were vidding on Livejournal. (It won't be because of takedowns. The AO3 work would still be there, just with a dead embed.) That lack of popularity overall is part of why you don't see so many video manifestos, but I think it's more a terminology thing:

I think it's rare for vidders to call their vids "manifestos". I don't think of that one video as a vid that is a manifesto: I think of it as a vid I made to include in a manifesto. Instead, we tend to call them "pimp vids", but you don't tag with that because it's presumptuous. It's something you say retroactively about other people's vids or that you tell a vid beta you're aiming for. You don't get to decide if your vid successfully pimps people in any more than you get a say in whether you go viral, you know?

There's a weekly vidders' zoom run by DC Slash (one of the tiny slash cons), and we just had a week where we brought in vids that got us into fandoms. A lot of other people's were ancient, blurry VCR transfers because they've been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can show you some of the vids that have gotten me into fandoms:

Killa's Haven vid Soldier annoyed me so much. What is that one brief flash of a scene? Did that dude die? It's not that sad a vid though? What the hell? So I had to watch just to find out. (Yes, he died. But he got better. Because Haven.)

The fact that I know and like Killa didn't hurt, but it's not like I loved the vid itself: a lot of it was my sheer annoyance at that one shot.

Of course, then, I made my own Haven vid, Captain Kidd, that was supposed to be an angry deep dive into show lore and how the other sanctimonious, fake-moral but actually pretty useless characters were treating my blorbo. (This is a theme with me, it appears.) It was not even 1% supposed to be a pimp vid...

To date, this is by far my most successful pimp vid, luring a whole bunch of people into the show just in time for it to massively jump the shark. (Damn it.) I've never even seen the ending.

More recently, akiv's Beyond Evil vid I'm a Ruler made me fall hard for Beyond Evil. Imagine my shock when what looked like a relatively normal buddy cop series starts with one of them secretly investigating the other as a serial killer. It was so much more intense and fucked up than I realized! Yessss.

After bouncing hard off of DMBJ, it was this Youtube vid Hei Ye falling for the Thorny Flower that got me intrigued again. The tone is so obvious and the dynamic is so clear, which really helped me get interested in a franchise that's often pretty hard to follow plot-wise.

I admit I never actually watched canon, but this Mr. Queen vid by Mozzaphne made me go look up a plot summary so I could read all of the fic. Lots of youtube vidders overuse show dialogue and mix it horribly over songs, but this one was really well done and adds a lot to your understanding of the character dynamics.

I don't think my foray into Detroit: Become Human was entirely because of a single vid, but Figure 8 by Dirty Mind Gene definitely helped. I knew it was a video game with robots. Nobody fucking told me it was a Caves of Steel ripoff with a jaded cop getting his mojo back via getting to know his robot partner.

I of course then went and made one with all of the zillions of deaths in the game because I love that shit. This apparently also got at least one person into the fandom.

Another vid a different person mentioned pimping them into a fandom was Lola's Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty vid ME!

It's a fabulous vid, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the central (canon) ship is supposed to read. Sadly, my personal opinion of the show is that Tang Fan is a perpetual victim and piece of shit who puts his own shallow grasp of morality and his personal feelings over the greater good, often getting characters killed unnecessarily. (I hear this is largely due to some questionable adaptation choices where they swapped who's the hothead and who's the one cleaning up messes.)

I've noticed that fluffy bunnies who watch the show tend to think Tang Fan is ~nice~ because he spouts modern morality instead of a selfish little bitch because he refuses to face the reality of the setting he's in and find the best real world solution instead of holding out for an ideal he'll never attain and thus making everything ten times worse. It reminds me forcibly of tumblr wank where people see themselves as these great moral leaders but lack all grasp of nuance. Their sensitivity extends only to their own feelings.

Yes, Sleuth left me with a lot of rage...

How dare the writing pretend like Tang Fan is the moral arbiter of anything, when my own personal fave, whom half the cast thinks is a villain, is constantly cleaning up after him, trying to keep the body count low, trying to maintain order as everybody else flies out of control...

And then the show made it all better by tormenting Tang Fan in the iddiest way possible. Ohohoho. It's not just that he gets his face rubbed in his own inadequacy and inability to save people. It's the ridiculously over-the-top flashback to "You're my only friend" right in the middle of the death scene. Way to twist the knife!

I, of course, have made my own vid for this fandom, Tiny, Pretty & Angry, and it is absolutely a manifesto, just not a ship one. It's a manifesto about how Wang Zhi is not only the most competent, but also the actual moral center of everything and fuck all of y'all if you don't agree.

In fact, there's probably another reason we don't call them manifestos:

In the oldschool Media Fandom vidding traditions, most vids are video essays and manifestos, really. That's a lot of the point of the aesthetic: making an argument. Partly due to technological limitations and partly due to vidding being innovated by slashers who were constantly challenged about their ships, the pretty visual spectacle styles so common in AMVs and currently on Youtube were largely absent. Meta argument was everything. That's the default.

Here's another one of mine that's pretty explicitly a fuck you to how most people in Untamed fandom see Wen Ning.

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rreskk · 1 year

Text

I’ve made a deep analyse of Trevor’s character and how Steven Ogg portrays him.

The first thing we are introduced to when it comes to his demeanour is how feral he is, mentally and physically in appearance. The first mission he is in, we are able to see not even his most extreme behaviour. Rockstar has made a great job at presenting Trevor slowly throughout the gameplay, we get to know him more through dialogue and his impact on the story mode. We are introduced to a dirty looking drug addict who takes pleasure in killing, but we are slowly introduced to a weak man who hides under the influence of violence and drugs to fill the void of his self-hatred and misery.

Another thing I’ve noticed about him throughout the story mode, he is extremely loyal. Unlike Michael who’d refer Trevor as an ‘old friend’, we can see from Trevor’s side that he refers Michael as his ‘best friend’. I don’t know about you, but I really pity him at this stage. He’s really in favour of Michael and despite how fast and willing he is to kill people, he refrains himself by doing any physical harm to Michael, or any of his friends, no matter how much they can screw him up. Trevor is definitely undermined by Michael, almost mocked. It reminds me of high school friend groups where you have the clear leader (Michael) and the person who just follows you around and is the source of entertainment, but humiliatingly (Trevor).

This could link to how he was treated in the past. His mother was clearly abusive, mentally, towards him, and we can see the effects it has on the character more into the gameplay. Trevor is prone to gaining a strong attachment to certain people and things, and we know he has a deep fear of losing it. He even states it himself during a mission with Michael. I don’t know at the top of my head but it goes along the lines of: Michael: “What’s wrong with you?” Trevor: “Oh, some abandonment issues.” If you’d link this to the point I made before about his loyalty, he is too blinded by Michael’s lack of interest in him personally to walk away. Trevor is attached to Michael, and is obviously scared of losing him again after his ‘death’.

Although his mother was abusive, we can see his take on older women and his major interest in them. Patricia really pulled a great impression on him, like a motherly figure, that he confuses that with romantic love. Trevor craves female presence as it fills the void of having such an absent and broken mother. He is deeply offended if anyone mentions his mother, even if it’s a small detail in the subject. He is still wounded by his past and deals with it through older validation, drugs, and obvious anger issues.

If we look at how his father affected him emotionally, we can view this by how he perceives men. Any man in GTA, we can see Trevor treat them rather hideously. That could be dehumanisation, physical abuse, or mental abuse. Floyd is the best to explain this. While Floyd is rather sensitive and weak, Trevor picks on him constantly and he dominates other men to fill the void of his father who physically dominated and abused him. His unhealthy mechanisms grows in his criminality and he turns into a heavy drug user, serial killer, and thief.

Though Trevor mentioned he dropped out of school in his adolescence, he has advanced vocabulary and even stated by Wade that he is an expert in numbers. Although Trevor isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, he is intelligent enough to gather some advanced vocabulary that you couldn’t imagine an unstable man like him to think or produce such words. His heists all seem to be successful despite lack of planning and detail, and he incredibly observant. The first time he met Davey personally, he recognised him, even though Trevor never actually saw him before. His instinct told him that he met Davey before, being of course correct as Dave was the sniper who shot Brad, mistakenly, in the prologue. It’s clearly impossible for him to realise completely, but the intelligence he has to simply trust his instinct is impressive and mind blowing.

His desire and lust of sex and the need of sexual tension would suggest how unloved he was during his early life. It is common for people who had lack of motherly attention would grow in need of sexual pleasure, and would often find it in women, presumably older women. Trevor mentioned how he masturbates to relief his emotions, implying how isolated he is to be finding the need of touch every day. During moments where you can play Trevor and pick up prostitutes, when focussing on the activity, he’d end up moaning out love confessions and would sometimes go: “Oh, mother!”

I think Steven had done a fantastic job in portraying Trevor due to his detail in voice, gestures, and manic looks. Steven can produce such a strong tone of voice when yelling, making Trevor intimidating and mental. His effort in giving Trevor the signature gesture of his hands when explaining, presenting how unstable and feral he is, even when he’s talking normally. No one else could produce such a character and I’m thankful Steven created such a unique person.

In conclusion, he is literally a sad old man.

#trevor philips #GTA V #grand theft auto #so sad

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just-jae · 3 months

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Hazbin Hotel 7-8 (Spoil McNoil)

Hazbin Hotel is indeed not an action show.

But at least they tried to have some action.

Should they have tried tho?

(I'm gonna start out ripping, but, I don't hate this show, it's actually pretty funny that does some things super well but then just bumble fucks other big moments)

I mean, here's the thing, they're great at street fights, apparently. Vaggie vs Lute was pretty brutal, I felt like I was watching two bird tear eachother apart. Like a scene out of Gardians of Ga'Hoole.

But the ninja anime fantasy, martial arts type stuff was pretty weak, and didn't really track as something the characters would utilize. Like, Alastor is a cannibalistic voodoo serial killer from 1930's New Orleans. And twice before we've seen Alastor grow and contort to intimidate, kill, etc. But he doesn't do any of that against Adam except for that one aesthetic moment. Instead it's got generic "Tentril powers, GO!" vibes. Husker and Charlie also have this problem. Why is an American Gambler using cards like ninja stars? He can fly dude-- or, can he?

Can Husker fly?

And Charlie- like, she has a sheild, but she can only really use it to protect herself :/ Like, girl, just go inside.

Lucy beating the shit out of Adam was cut so short, Like, 2 secs and 4 punches b4 Charlie goes "DAD STOP ITS TOO MUCH"-- no, let Lucy COOK; I think it would have actually been an interesting point to make on how the reason Lucifer gives for discouraging the Hotel is sinner's being "The Worst", yet here he is clearly having a fit of violence (an understandable one but, Charlie, who's never even been to heaven except for a bs court hearing, has to remind a high-ranking angel to have mercy.) Charlie, razz and Dazz transforming didn't really do anything-- it actually felt more like a game of thrones reference, which would be fine if Razz or Dazz DID anything except die. They also didn't explain Carmilla's motive for helping them well. Like, neat entrance, but the build ups to the pay offs didn't exist :,O

And the voice acting: These guys are great singers, but the noises they make when they get hit, their mid-battle dialogue, is so corny and tonally off for certain characters. Like, Alastor and Charlie's yells in particular are- pardon my accent but cringe af.

Charlie in particular has so many anti-climatic moments. If they meant for her to not be particularly good at fighting, maybe establish that and not have all these super dramatic badass magical girl moments that just lead to her getting dunked on. It was so anticlimactic jeezuz christ.

And really it's more about picking a tone, the anti climactic moments could have been funny if they framed it as a funny moment or a joke, but it's framed seriously so it's read seriously.

But, who doesn't bumble fuck around how to end something though. I've read some juicy, golden touch stories that really freaked out on the gas and steering at the end. So, this isn't anything uncommon, especially for relatively new creators.

They have flaws, who doesn't. I loved so much about this show even when my first impression going in was just cringing at it not being what I expected. This is a critique of love, guys, I genuine wish the best for this show, bc it's apparent that when Viv has the freedom and breathing room she needs to plan and pace, she can cook up a good ass goddamned meal (See: Helluva Boss, Season one). This was them crunching and smushing a ton of story and moments into too-few episodes, which, looking back could have been done better, but its easy to see how something can be better once it's done and out in the world. (See: literally any amature artist 2 seconds after posting their work)

The season finale ended with so many good set ups tho! :D

Lilith vacaying in heaven, having made a deal with Adam.

Alastor becoming desperate for a way out, having made deals with Vaggie and Charlie-- And far more explicitly there against his will. Also--is a future antagonist?

Yes PLEASE. I love that they showed Al loosing his shit through his eyes even with the smile he's always wearing. And they built this up before hand having him talk previously about wearing a smile, basically as a mask.

PENTIOUS

YOU REDEEMED FU-

(I was actually cringing at Pentious the entire time inep 8, I'm sorry but he's so hard to take seriously-- even his "death" was funny as hell. I love him but its like how someone loves a clumsy puppy that destroys your house without neither malice nor remorse)

Also: The exorcists switching leaders- I am wondering how things are gonna change with them, especially given how much more sadistic and violent Lute is. Like, Adam just liked laughing at sinners. He saw them as insults to his existance, his mini-me hates and seems like she just enjoys violence and malice, using ego and "they deserve it" narratives as an excuse to indulge in acts that ordinarily would lan someone in hell.

Overall-- Not the best season finale I've ever seen, execution-wise through these 8 episodes (like, Vaggie got her wings learning to fight for love, but she's been doing nothing but supporting and protecting Charlie this whole time. There was no hint that she was bitter or wanted revenge). They definitely needed to pace and build things better but there's so much to love. Like, Seeing Alastor in his element with Rosie and Nifty was so fun, even if they were small moments (his laugh is so stiff tho, c'mon Al.)

The finale did a good job setting up the future, but I don't have much more to say than that. Hopefully, now that they know they're getting a second season, they'll just, breathe on this one a bit more ya?

I'm glad I watched it, I cried, I laughed, I cringed, I yelled at Pentious for subjecting me to second hand embarrassment. It's great :,D

Also- I hope he doesn't read this and takes it the wrong way, but Vox reminds me of my brother-- Especially with the scenes where he's watching the battle :,D

#hazbin hotel #spoilers #alastor #alastor the radio demon #charlie morningstar #it was ok #season 1 finale #brownthoughts00

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aredheadedmess · 2 years

Text

Pied Piper || JJK [8]

Summary: Y/N L/N, an investigative journalist for the Daily Bullet, usually doesn’t see much out of the ordinary; A missing person’s case gone cold, an old case reopened and solved with updated technology, the thrilling excitement when another puzzle of one of the biggest serial killers is cracked. But when an old file resurfaces, she brings back a past that should have been burned with the file a long time ago.

Pairings: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Chapter Warnings: One swear word, talks about disappearing children, allusion to the paranormal and unexplainable things, this is also a very dialogue heavy chapter. let me know if I missed anything

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Mystery/Thriller, Paranormal, Strangers to Friends

Chapter Rating: Pg-13

A/N: I'm back! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out 😓 I lost motivation to do a lot of things, and when I finally got back to writing this, I scrapped my original idea and rewrote. I can't tell you guys how many times I rewrote this haha... and then uni started up again so I unintentionally pushed this to the side. BUT now I'm back and I hope to finish up this series soon! There's a couple of major things that I want to happen before it ends, so look forward to a couple more chapters! I hope you like it! 😊

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist

6 September, 20XX

It shouldn’t have taken you as long as it did to get here; standing on the front porch of the most recent disappearance victim. After your talk with Jungkook, you knew there was no easy way of approaching the subject with the woman. The questions you needed to ask demanded so much from the person answering. So you kept to yourself.

For the past two days, you kept yourself tucked away in your room. You paced the floor, thoughts running a mile a minute about everything that had happened so far. From when you first drove into town, to the heavy conversation with Jungkook a day prior. You tried to find the best way to ask the questions to get enough information in return without hurting the victim even farther than they already were. But there really wasn’t an easier way.

The front door slowly opens only far enough to peek outside; the chain on the top of the door restricts it from opening any more. Martha peeks through the crack. You smile gently at her, hoping she will recognize you from when she saw you a couple nights ago. She offers a small smile in return.

“Hi, Martha,” you begin slowly. “Is it alright if I come in and ask you some questions?”

She nods, almost frantically. She shuts the door, and you can hear the frantic movements of the deadbolt being shifted around before the door swings open again.

“Sure, sure.” She waves you in. “Yes, come on in. Would you like something to drink?”

“Water is just fine, thank you.”

As you enter the house, Martha nods towards the living room seating. You make yourself comfortable as she grabs a glass of water for both you and her.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.” You smile. “Please, get comfortable.”

You gesture to the couch opposite the one you are on. Waiting until she gets settled in, you review the notes you’ve already made in the file you brought along with you, preparing your pen to take any more notes. You take a deep breath. Hopefully you can get all the information you need to get your foot in the door in this investigation.

“I was hoping to ask you about what exactly happened two nights ago?” you ask slowly.

“Of course.” Her face hardens into a look of determination. “I am willing to answer anything to find my daughter.”

“Thank you. Now, can you describe to me how you found out she was gone?”

Martha sighs, leaning back into the couch. She clasps her hands in her lap and fiddles with her thumbs.

“Well, it was two nights ago, as you said. I had been home after work for a little while, preparing to make dinner for the two of us.”

You nod and tilt your head in curiosity.

“Where do you work?”

“I’m an antique dealer at a pawn shop in the next town over. I work eight to four on the weekdays.”

Martha smiles at the thought of her work. She must seem to really enjoy what she does.

“Okay. And you mentioned ‘the two of us’. Is it just you and your daughter?”

“Yes,” she hums, nodding. “Her father left us when she was little. It’s been her and I since she could walk.”

She looks up at you, waiting for you to ask another question. Instead, you gently nod your head, letting her know she can continue her thoughts. Martha glances back down at her restless hands. She clears her throat, licks her drying lips, and takes in another breath before speaking again.

“Well, I went upstairs to check in on her, and know her plans for the rest of the night. When I made it to her room, she was at her desk, working through the most recent packets for her classes. We had talked for a few minutes before I went back downstairs to continue working on dinner.”

“So you had seen and talked to her before she disappeared?” you ask.

“Yes. She seemed completely fine.” Her brows furrow as she shakes her head slightly. “She never mentioned anything alarming. Her and I have a really good relationship where we try not to hide anything from each other.”

You nod. There is a moment of silence between the two of you as you write down some of the key notes. The only sound being the scratching of the pen against the paper. Your eyes lift up as you finish, nodding again for her to continue.

“I was in the kitchen in the middle of cooking when I heard the radio suddenly playing.” Her head tilts in the direction of the kitchen. Your eyes follow, catching a glimpse of an old radio, weathered from the many years of use. “I thought it was just Ayesha, but when I looked over, the room was empty. I thought it was odd at first, but the damn thing is so old that it will sometimes turn on by itself. I didn’t think anything of it until I realized what it was playing. It was something that I’ve never heard before. We always leave it on one station, so when it does turn on, it’ll play that station. It’s never once changed to a different one.”

Your eyes never leave the radio. Standing up, you walk towards it.

“Is it this one, here?”

“That’s the one.” Martha’s voice is close behind you. She must have gotten up herself as you made your way to the radio. “I had walked over to it to turn it off, but when I got to it, it wasn’t even on in the first place. But, it still kept playing this odd tune. Something like a flute playing through the speakers.”

You study the radio. The bright red paint is wearing off most of the antique. The knobs on the front have been used so much that the sides are worn down enough to see where your fingers should hold them. The glass covering the frequency indicator is slightly scratched when the light hits it just right. You glance around to the back, noting that it had been modified to use the house’s electrical system to stay powered. Though, when you look down at the wall socket, there is nothing plugged in.

“Did you unplug it?”

You glance up at Martha, an eyebrow raised in question. She nods as she looks at the outlet herself.

“Yes. I was trying to get it to stop playing. But nothing changed even after unplugging it.”

“That’s odd.”

Your brows knit together trying to come up with a logical explanation. Maybe the radio has a backup battery for when the power is out, to keep it playing. But when you glance at the back of the radio again, you realize there is no way a battery with enough power of any size could be hidden away.

Leaning down to plug the radio back in, you wait for any sign of electrical problems. Perhaps there was just a short after having it plugged in for so long. You aren’t an expert of the topic, by any means, but maybe if you could find where the problem might be, there would be at least one thing explained away.

“I remember hearing the stories that the folks around here would say about the disappearances,” Martha utters. You lift yourself back up to face her. “You know, the old tale of hearing faint music drift through the air, something that no one else hears but the person that will disappear. I didn’t believe it all at first. Mostly because it was all of the elders saying it, which you know, sometimes they aren’t always in the right space.”

You hum. Even from the short time working on this case, you read and heard most—if not all—the folklore surrounding the disappearances. Martha meets your gaze, a stone cold shiver running down her spine, and a flash of fear in her eyes as she begins to recall what she experienced.

“But there was something that just clicked in me once I realized that I couldn’t turn it off. I knew that it was the Piper’s music. The same music that was in the stories. I can’t tell you how fast I ran back up to Ayesha’s room. I opened her door, hoping that she would still be in there, at her desk. But the room was empty. As if she had vanished into the air. Everything was left like she had just stepped out to use the bathroom or something. The only weird thing about the room was her window.”

“Her window?”

“Yes.” Martha’s voice is stern. “She never has it open during the night. It gets drafty in her room, and the open window doesn’t help. Especially on cooler nights like that night.”

You glance up to the top of the staircase, as far up as you can see from the position you’re in. In the darkness of the upper floor, you can make out the beginning of a door frame just past the top of the last step.

“Is it alright if I took a look in her room?” you ask.

“Yes, of course. Follow me.”

Martha leads you to the staircase, flipping the lightswitch on the wall beside it to light the way. She takes a hesitant first step. Grabbing onto the railing, Martha ascends the stairs with you in tow. The boards creak under the weight, and one stair in particular screeches loudly as if it were shouting in agony. You glance around once you make it to the landing. There are three doors, one of which is wide open, showcasing the simple hallway bathroom. Martha pushes open the door nearest to the stairs.

“This is her room.”

The bedroom is just about as big as the studio apartment you use to live in during your college days. A twin bed is situated in the corner beside the window, its purple sheets crumpled slightly from someone sitting on the edge of the mattress. The closet doors a foot or two away from the foot of the bed. A small desk, papers and books scattered across the surface, sits up against the wall on the opposite side of the room from the window. The chair is pulled out and twisted as if someone had just stepped away from the desk. Your eyes glance over to the window where a light breeze is gently tossing the light purple curtains towards the center of the room.

You take a step into the room, skimming through the contents of the papers on the desk before making your way to the window. You lean down to scan the frame and stick your head outside, memorizing the view. You can see the top floors of the school several blocks down, and the old general store is just down the street from where they live. Pushing yourself back into the room to face Martha, your eyebrows furrow. One brow lifting in question.

“And this is exactly how you found it?”

She nods. She plays with her fingers as she avoids any eye contact with you, barely even looking at any of the things in the bedroom.

“Yes. I didn’t touch a thing. When I saw she was gone, that’s when I came running over to find you.”

“How did you know about me, anyway?” You tilt your head as you ask.

“It’s not that hard to find a new face roaming the empty streets.” Martha shrugs. “My daughter had mentioned about a woman who looked to have been collecting information about the town, so I had assumed that you must have been a reporter or something. And the Jungkook boy has the only place that would make sense to hold a new visitor.”

“I see,” you hum, glancing out the window one last time.

You step closer to Martha with a gentle smile resting on your lips.

“I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. I hope that I can give you the answers you need,” you speak with sincerity.

Martha shakes her head, stepping toward you herself and takes your hands in hers. A hopeful look takes over her features.

“No, thank you. I know that you will be able to help this town. I have a good feeling about it.”

“We will find her.”

“Thank you.”

You shove your notes and dead laptop into your backpack. The duffle bag for your clothes lays open on the bed, a couple of items still lounging about.

“What are you doing?”

Jungkook’s sudden presence startles you slightly. He’s very quiet, you’ve come to learn, showing up out of the blue when you least expect it. He leans against the doorframe, arms folded across his chest.

“I’m leaving,” you mumble, still preoccupied with packing to give him anything more than that.

A scoff rings out in the air. You furrow your eyebrows and glance up to where Jungkook stands. A strained smirk is painted on his face. His tongue pushes into the inside of his cheek. “I knew it. You’re just like the rest of them. Promising that you’ll help, only to leave this town in the dust once you get confirmation that we are just a bunch of hopeless cases.”

You quickly stand up from your crouched position on the floor. Getting up in Jungkook’s face to tell him your thoughts has become a lot easier the longer you’ve been here. So when he stumbles back slightly from the sudden close proximity, you feel a sense of pride swell in your chest. Though, you don’t focus much on it as you briefly explain why.

“I need back up. I’ll only be gone for the rest of today, so stop jumping to conclusions. You don’t know how hard I’m trying to keep the promises I’m making.”

Jungkook must have sensed your tenacity as he steps back, raising his hands in surrender before turning away towards the living room.

He wishes you a safe trip back into the big city.

The closer you drive to the town’s borders, the heavier the air feels. It’s as if there is an invisible force field over the town and the energy from it continuously affects you negatively. It doesn’t help that there is a dark storm rolling in over the mountains as you drive away. You can hear the rumbling of thunder from the inside of your car. It’s going to be a big storm.

As your car creeps up to the town boundary, you catch a glimpse of something dark from the corner of your eye. You turn your head to see what it is. Your eyes grow wide. Standing behind the welcome sign to the town, a dark figure seems to wave at you in the shadows. Though it has no distinct features, it looks as if it is grinning widely at you as you pass by. A cold shiver runs up your spine.

“What the f- Shit!”

As you turn back to face the road, a small herd of deer sprint across right in front of you. You have to slam on your brakes to stop you from knocking through the innocent animals. You manage to stop inches away from an unsuspecting dear. It’s frozen in the middle of the lane, staring your frantic form down. Too close for comfort. After taking a moment to catch your breath, you honk, sending the deer into a slight frenzy, and scaring it away. You glance through your rear view mirror at the sign as you start back up again, but there is nothing there.

“Yoongi!”

A head of shaggy brown hair whips towards the sound of your voice. Yoongi’s face lights up as he recognizes who you are. He rushes to stand in front of you, a look of worry taking over his face. He eyes you up and down like a worried mother, looking for any kind of injury.

“Y/N? Where have you been? It’s been a month. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” Yoongi spits rapid fire questions at you. You both have joked in the past that he should have become a rapper with how fast he speaks sometimes.

Confusion is written all over your face. A month? You had only been working on the case for a week and a half at most.

“No it hasn’t? It’s only been like two weeks.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he scoffs.

“No? My phone’s been dead, but there’s still no way that-”

“Ms. L/N?”

Your eyes light up at the sound of Namjoon’s voice. Turning to face him, you rush out what you needed to ask of him.

“Perfect. Mr. Kim, I need all the help I can get.”

Namjoon raises an eyebrow, a strong gaze watching your every move.

“Are you still working on that case? We have tried everything we can to help that town.” He shakes his head absentmindedly. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

“No.”

Both Namjoon and Yoongi look at you like you’re crazy. Did you just say no to the boss? Taking this case changed you quite a bit. Before, you would have never faced Namjoon the way you are right now. Before, you would submit to whatever Namjoon had told you to do as he would take over and close up most of the cases you worked on. Some of the surrounding employees must have heard or felt the shift in the air as they stare at the three of you without even trying to hide.

“I won’t take that as an answer,” you continue. “I need anybody that I can get. Forensics, paranormal, literally anyone.”

“Look L/-”

“Mr. Kim,” you interrupt.

Your voice is unwavering. Your feet are planted into the floor as if he is trying to knock you down with his words. Your eyes bore into his, trying to get your message through his thick skull.

Namjoon takes in a breath. He closes his eyes, bows his head slightly, and raises one hand.

“Fine. It won’t be very many, since most departments are busy with their own cases, but I’ll let them know. Min, go with L/N.”

A smile creeps up onto your lips.

“Thank you, sir.”

You walk up to the door of Jungkook’s Bed and Breakfast, bags in hand, and Yoongi on your tail. Before you step up to the porch, you turn to Yoongi.

“Be aware that you may not get the warmest of welcomes.”

Yoongi’s brows crease and a small pout forms on his lips.

“What do you mean?”

Without another word, you face forward again and walk up the steps. The front door swings open before you have the chance to ring the doorbell. Jungkook looks at you with a raised eyebrow.

“You call your boyfriend your backup?”

You push through the door, forcing Jungkook to move out of your and Yoongi’s way to get inside quickly. The sun is beginning to set and you didn’t want to stay outside any longer after what happened earlier in the day.

“One, he’s not my boyfriend,” you call out as you walk through the house to get to your room. “He’s got a fiance. Two, there will be others coming tomorrow. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

You glance back to see Jungkook grumble out something under his breath at your last few words. He takes one quick look at you, then Yoongi, rolling his eyes before speaking at you rather than the person he is referring to.

“He can take the room next to yours.”

Taglist: @jjin-kun @rosiekook @joyfulhopelox @lavienjin @swanguk @stanny-uwu @areigahto @seokout @bonobonoyaaaahh @seajae @sugainmybowl @fluffyjjkk

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cranberrytart451 · 6 months

Text

Opinion:

The fnaf movie actually upset me in a way that bayverse transformers couldn't: I was never once convinced of character motivation.

I see a lot of people liking this movie, and that's valid. You can like something that is objectively bad, but you can't disregard criticism either.

If you want the next fnaf movie to be better, you need to separate your feelings from objective facts. Not in a "facts don't care about your feelings" way, but in a healthy way. By both recognizing bias and confirming emotions.

I also hate posts saying things like "if you didn't like the movie, fuck you. If you thought this scene was bad, you are stupid and wrong."

Shocker. It seems like it's the first time you've met a person with a different opinion.

Objectively, as someone who is not a filmmaker but knows a lot about how films are made, this movie took a lot of effort to even reach the screen. People poured their souls and passion into it, and that should be admired and respected.

But high effort doesn't always equal effective product.

Spoiler below:

First off, the camera work in this film was sloppy. This was not shot like a horror film. It was shot almost like a comedy.

There were too many close-up shots (reaction) and not enough wide. We never get the real scale of the animatronics in the film as the angles of the camera were parallel with them.

The lighting is too bright. Darkness should have been this movie's best friend as it would have made the puppets look more realistic and creepy. I work at Chuck E Cheese, and it becomes a liminal space the moment the lights are off. They should have used that.

The score is bland except for opening and closing credits.(I think the only thing the movie hits on the head is the opening credits with the arcade pixel art showing Springtrap leading the kids away.)

There are shots that are either too long or too short, messing with the pacing.

Do not get me started on the writing. This movie thought it was really clever, but no dialogue stood out except for "I always come back." (Which they should have left for the end credits scene)

Vanessa. Do I even have to start? She should have been the main character.

Do you understand the horror of living with a serial killer? A CHILD SERIAL KILLER!? Her entire life would be on edge. What if she didn't know her dad was killing and only found out through the course of the movie? This could have been a mystery horror movie.

They wasted what they had. That's the problem with this movie. It didn't focus on the right things and put too much emphasis on nothing subplots.

(Getting a little emotional because-)

(Are we gonna talk about how the aunt was killed in Mike's house and is never brought up?!)

Mike also AGREED TO GIVE HIS SISTER AWAY FOR DREAMS OF HIS DEAD FAMILY. Let me repeat. DREAMS. NOT EVEN HIS DEAD BROTHER'S GHOST.JUST FUCKING DREAMS.

... you might say he changes his mind. But the fact that he so readily does it in the first place pisses me off.

The aunt might be a karen, but she is right. Get Mike away from that kid. He doesn't prove to me in this movie that he is a good fit to raise her ONCE. He clearly loves her, but not as much as his dead brother or his own selfish guilt.

Characters can have flaws, but he doesn't redeem himself in my eyes by the end of the film.

Kid actors were kids actors. Nothing special. Not too annoying though.

The tone is inconsistent. Not even in an intentional way. It's just a roller coaster. One second, they build a fort the next Vanessa threatens to shoot Mike.

3/10

I wanted to like this movie. I had such a low bar for it. I can not believe it reached the depths of the ocean.

Fuck this movie hurt. I can't even say I liked it subjectively, cause it was so boring.

#fnaf movie #fnaf movie review #im sorry but i cant recommend this one #wathc the Bananna Spits movie or Willy's Wonderland instead #at least those movies are funny to watch with friend #rambling into the void #christ im just sad #ive been in the fnaf fandom from Markipliers playthrough #this movie would have been better with markiplier reactions #or having him as the main character #just my opinion

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demifiendrsa · 2 years

Photo

Eiichiro Oda x Gosho Aoyama OVER 100 Miracle Talk that was featured in Weekly Shonen Jump 2022 issue #34 and Weekly Shonen Sunday issue #35.

Eiichiro Oda x Gosho Aoyama OVER 100 Miracle Talk - Part 1

Last year, both One Piece and Detective Conan surpassed 100 volumes. A miraculous dialogue between the two mangaka who have been at the forefront of the manga industry for many years has finally come to fruition!!

‘Jump’ and ‘Sunday’ Back Then…

– In a previous interview, Aoyama-sensei said that “it’d be interesting to have a talk with Oda-kun. As comrades who will reach 100 volumes simultaneously, I would like to talk about various things”. Oda-sensei answered in a comment that he “had never met him, but feels like a comrade in arms. I know how tough getting to 100 volumes is, Aoyama-san! Congrats on 100 volumes of Conan!”. This legendary talk is now finally coming true.

Aoyama: Oda-kun doesn’t really show his face much, so it’s an honor to actually see it haha.

Oda: Aoyama-san does show his face in a lot of places, though. But I’m really happy. I didn’t think I’d ever met you.

Aoyama: Me neither haha. I always thought there wouldn’t ever be a future in which I met you.

Oda: I was pretty impressed earlier because I got a business card from Weekly Shonen Sunday’s Editor-in-Chief. “I got a Sunday business card! This kind of stuff actually happens!”, haha.

– I have been looking for something you have in common, and it seems Oda-sensei was born in 1975 while Aoyama-sensei was born in 1963. You both share the same zodiac sign having been born in the Year of the Rabbit.

Aoyama: That’s right. Do you know about that Year of the Rabbit legend? Tetsuya Chiba-sensei was born in 1939, and Mitsuru Adachi-sensei was born in 1951. Both of them were also born in the Year of the Rabbit, separated by 12 years. I was also born 12 years after Mitsuru Adachi-sensei, and you were born 12 years exactly after me. We got no one after that.

Oda: I wish we could fit Akira Toriyama-sensei somewhere, but he doesn’t belong to the Year of the Rabbit haha. …I do have to recognize I have only known much about Weekly Shonen Jump. Do you have knowledge on other magazines, Aoyama-san?

Aoyama: Not really. At first, I brought my work to Weekly Shonen Magazine, and I was told “it didn’t really fit with them, so take it to a different publication”. That’s when I brought my work to Sunday, and that’s where I have been since then.

Oda: You made your debut in 1986, right? What hits were there back before you debuted?

Aoyama: Well, I was a ‘Magazine Kid’, so it’s not like I read much of Jump, but I still enjoyed works like ‘1·2 no Sanshirou’ by Makoto Kobayashi and ‘Ore wa Teppei’ by Tetsuya Chiba. When it comes to Sunday, it was Mitsuru Adachi’s ‘Touch’.

Oda: I did read ‘Touch’, and also Mitsuru Adachi’s ‘Rough’.

Aoyama: I also remember watching Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘Urusei Yatsura’ TV Anime.

Oda: After debuting, you serialized ‘Magic Kaito’, ‘YAIBA’ and ‘3rd Base 4th’, being ‘Detective Conan’ your fourth work.

Aoyama: Right. Meanwhile, Oda-kun hasn’t drawn any series other than ONE PIECE?

Oda: Indeed. I’m a one-hit wonder.

Aoyama: A one-hit wonder! With a way-too-big one-hit haha.

Oda: What other series were serializing on Sunday when you started ‘Detective Conan’?

Aoyama: Well, it was a truly amazing time back then. Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘Ranma ½’, Kazuhiro Fujita’s ‘Ushio to Tora’, Mitsuru Adachi’s ‘H2’, Nishimori Hiroyuki’s ‘Kyou Kara Ore Wa!!’... The line-up was absolutely terrifying.

Oda: I did read ‘Ranma ½’, it was really fun! Just reading different magazines, no matter how much time you spend on it, what you end up reading or seeing is completely different too. Back when ‘Detective Conan’ started, Jump had Akira Toriyama’s ‘Dragon Ball’ and Takehiko Inoue’s ‘SLAM DUNK’.

Aoyama: I read ‘Dragon Ball’! I love Toriyama-sensei’s art.

Oda: I was a ‘jumper’ at that time, but this is something I wanted to ask you if we could ever meet: how did you view Jump back then? Jump sales were incredibly overwhelming during that time, but a bit of conflict came later when Weekly Shonen Magazine surpassed its circulation numbers.

Aoyama: I have to apologize, but I didn’t care at all about that haha.

Oda: Ah, so you didn’t even bother with it haha.

– I would like to ask about your thoughts and memories back when your series started. When you both published your very first chapter, what was it like?

Oda: I started serializing ‘ONE PIECE’ in 1997, two years after ‘Dragon Ball’ ended in 1995. It was a shock for all of us newcomers who came to the magazine to claim the series’ abandoned throne. At that time, the fight for the place ‘Dragon Ball’ left would begin, and for 2 years everyone would get their series compared and completely crushed, until I finally survived.

Aoyama: Amazing haha.

Oda: It was a time in which both ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘SLAM DUNK’ ended right after the other, and lots of people thought Jump would be in huge trouble. I remember the cover of the Jump issue in which my series started appeared on the front page of a newspaper, showing the cover of ‘ONE PIECE’ next to the headline ‘Jump is overtaken by Magazine’. And it’s not like I had any responsibility over it at all haha, but I still remember feeling really frustrated.

Aoyama: As for me, when the first chapter of ‘Detective Conan’ was going to be published, I was supposedly going to appear at the center of the cover of the magazine. Thing is, during the World Cup Preliminaries, Masashi Nakayama scored a really great goal and my cover was replaced with him… That’s why Conan’s cover, which was supposed to appear with the first chapter of the series, had the bad luck to appear with the second chapter instead haha.

The Competitive Spirit Created by Jump

– What do you two think of each other and other mangaka who also have successful works?

Oda: After ‘Dragon Ball’ ended, the world of shonen manga was dominated by two works, ‘Detective Conan’ and ‘The Kindaichi Case Files’. Conan was always winning.

Aoyama: Ah… Seriously? Haha.

Oda: That was indeed my perspective. Jump’s supporting hit work back then was ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ by Nobuhiro Watsuki. I was one of Watsuki-sensei’s assistants. I won’t really hesitate saying this, we were proud our seniors led the shonen manga world with battle-focused manga, so we honestly thought “mystery manga shouldn’t be at the top of shonen manga” haha. Watsuki-sensei himself had the stance that “if a series wasn’t always performing like his, it couldn’t be at the top of Jump”. That’s why I always considered ‘Detective Conan’ an enemy to me and thus didn’t read it. I even had thoughts such as “I’ll drag you down, haha…”. Not joking, I used to think of you as an enemy until now haha!

Aoyama: No way, an enemy!? Oh my haha!

Oda: Looking at your reply, it seems it was only me who thought we had some sort of rivalry haha. Please, say something like “that’s how Jump should be”! Have you ever looked at someone as a rival?

Aoyama: Not really. When it comes to Kanari Yozaburo, Seimaru Amagi and Satou Fumiya’s ‘The Kindaichi Case Files’, I used to have this “I won’t lose” feeling, but they’re still series with pretty different genres.

Oda: When I looked at the whole manga industry and glanced at the top, ‘Detective Conan’ was always there. I was pretty aware of it all when I was nothing more than a newbie, but it is true that when you reach the top, you stop seeing it.

Aoyama: But I was overtaken right away, right? Or am I wrong? Haha.

Oda: I was pretty desperate back then, so I’m not entirely sure how it all went. Since I started this series I've been trying to do my best for myself, so I stopped looking at my surroundings.

Aoyama: That’s amazing, but it was really hard for me too. Doing a detective series on my own requires me to always think about my story and art, which leaves me no time to think about any other series.

Oda: Basically, the moment you start a serialization, you stop looking at what’s around you! I have a lot of respect for you, being able to still continue during all this time.

– Have you ever thought of rookie mangaka as your rivals?

Aoyama: Rivals… I wonder. I guess others are others, and I am myself haha.

Oda: You’re pretty peaceful. When did you build that kind of mentality?

Aoyama: I would say from the very beginning.

Oda: For real!? Didn’t it feel like a competition when you were younger?

Aoyama: When I was younger, other detective works started to appear on Sunday since ‘Detective Conan’ was performing well, so I did have that feeling of ‘not wanting to lose’, but that’s about it. It may sound weird, but I don’t think I ever felt like I had any enemy. As I mentioned earlier, ‘The Kindaichi Case Files’ was there, but it was a different work.

Oda: I see your enemy scope are mystery series.

Aoyama: Yep. But still, there weren’t many mangaka drawing detective series back then, so I felt it was something I was doing on my own. That’s how I concluded others are others, and I am myself.

Oda: For me, it has been during these past few years that I have been able to keep a similar state of mind. Until now, I have been aware readers often get disappointed if ‘ONE PIECE’ doesn’t publish a new chapter, and I felt responsible for that. It has all changed lately thanks to new, younger writers that have grown up in Jump and rather support me even when I’m on a break, taking a lot of weight off my shoulders. This is also why I have stopped caring about fighting with other manga series. It truly feels like I have finally the freedom to face my fans at my own pace.

Aoyama: Ooh! It seems you have been pretty busy until now.

Oda: I wonder why, though? Is Jump’s system that bad? Haha. It’s a fierce competition. If what you draw is not good enough, it will obviously get canceled. Is it the same for Sunday?

Aoyama: Yes it is. But on that Sunday from the old days, editors wouldn’t tell mangaka their series’ rankings. After ‘Detective Conan’ reached Chapter 10, I had to ask them to give the rankings to me and started to follow them secretly.

Oda: Perhaps Jump shows the rankings and questionnaires deliberately to their mangaka in order to fuel their inner fighting spirit. That’s something anyone, even I, worries about when starting a series, since you always want to know if you can survive or not.

– ‘YAIBA’, your serialization before ‘Detective Conan’, managed to reach 1st place in the rankings 2 times during its final chapters, right?

Aoyama: Yes! I was so happy to finally reach 1st place I asked the editorial department to put it in my coffin, since I was sure I’d die from overwork haha.

Oda: I see you had some attachment to numbers! Don’t you feel some frustration if you lose those placements, then?

Aoyama: Yeah, but ‘Detective Conan’ has been in 1st place since the series pretty much started… It’s a bit odious to say that, so I’ll stop haha.

Oda: Haha, I understand that feeling too.

– How much pressure have you both felt carrying the flagship of the magazine for so long?

Aoyama: Pressure? Zero haha.

Oda: That’s the same for me!

Aoyama: I mean, I thought it was Shogakukan’s fault for letting me draw this series haha.

Oda: I have always been conscious of my own selfishness, so the more my fighting spirit grew, the more I thought it was my whole fault if the series had to end or fell in popularity.

– That’s really hard to imagine.

Aoyama: Honestly, if I had felt pressure, I wouldn’t have been able to draw.

Oda: Yeah. If you stop to think about it for a second, it’s kinda scary how much stuff I sometimes have to carry. I think only people with our kind of personality can survive through all of this.

Aoyama: I think so too.

– What do you think of each other’s art?

Oda: It’s appealing. It’s super appealing! Even when my only knowledge was about art, I thought it was really unique. Honestly, distinct and unusual art styles are the ones who can survive in this manga world. And it wasn't only that, but when I read the series I felt a mysterious appeal. Kids, adult men and women can all feel that same charm and become fond of the series, which is why I always thought it would become a success.

Aoyama: I was really surprised when I saw there wasn’t a scene of Luffy eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi! If it had been me, I would have drawn a “Dokkun” SFX after he ate it haha. In ‘Detective Conan’, the main character also changes his body after consuming a drug, but even if I try to draw those same sensations, I think ‘ONE PIECE’ expressions feel way fresher. Also, those elder designs from the Gorosei who appear in the Levely Arc are amazing! I honestly don’t know how to draw those.

Oda: I think that was something good from my younger self. I made them appear a long time ago, but when I look back into it now, I don’t think their designs were bad at all. Still, those characters haven’t really shown their actual value yet.

Team ‘Detective Conan’, Team ‘ONE PIECE’

– When it comes to TV Anime adaptations, many voices end up overlapping. Yamaguchi Kappei voices Shinichi Kudo, Kaito Kid and Usopp; Ikeda Shuichi voices Akai and Shanks; Furuya Toru voices Amuro and Sabo; Ootani Ikue voices Mitsuhiko and Chopper…

Aoyama: No wonder they do overlap considering both anime have been going on for a quarter of a century.

Oda: When I watched ‘Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween’, I was surprised at how many voices I did recognize. Yuriko Yamaguchi, who voices Nico Robin, appears (as Christine Richard). In the Dressrosa Arc, there were a lot of voice actors from ‘Detective Conan’! Megumi Hayashibara, who voices Ai Haibara, played the role of Rebecca.

Aoyama: Furuya Toru, who voices Amuro, also appears as Sabo, a pretty good role! And Ikeda Shuichi voices Shanks in your upcoming FILM RED, right Oda-kun? He also voices Akai Shuichi in ‘Detective Conan’, which is a pretty popular role.

Oda: He didn’t appear in your last movie, did he?

Aoyama: In ‘The Bride of Halloween’... Fufufu, haha.

Oda: But in ‘Detective Conan’ he does appear more frequently, right? In ‘ONE PIECE’ many times the members of the crew have to separate, so there’s a lot of examples of regular characters who take holidays quite often. “Sanji came to dub for the first time after 3 years”, haha.

Aoyama: It took 7 years since Akai left and appeared again, and I even thought of spoiling it after 2 years had passed. Vermouth also took 5 years to appear once again in the TV Anime since her last appearance.

Oda: I didn’t expect for the TV Anime to continue for so long, many of the voice actors are getting old. Some time ago, Mayumi Tanaka, who voices Luffy, asked us with worry what would happen if she died, so Masako Nozawa, who voices Kureha, told her “If you die, I’ll take your role” haha. I hope they all stay as healthy as possible. Aoyama-san, do you usually talk to the voice actors?

Aoyama: Before Coronavirus happened, we had ‘movie launch parties’, so we used to talk a lot. Some time ago, I saw a fireworks display from my living room, so I called all the voice actors and improvised a huge banquet in my house. It was really fun, even though it was still a lot of work haha. You keep doing it, right Oda-kun? That’s amazing.

Oda: We usually just do self-service, and I tell them I’m doing a takoyaki party! Then I cook it all without asking the others haha!

– Oda-sensei, you said in an old interview that you are “glad to be close with all the anime staff”, and all of this really does give the impression you get along with animation and production staff.

Oda: Yeah, it’s always been that way. The TV Anime started a really long time ago. All of them have become my relatives at this point. Even my children have known them since they were small, so it’s almost like a family relationship.

Aoyama: Mine’s not that far of a relationship, but I have stated many times with determination that “this actor should voice this character”. For example, Koichi Yamadera, who voiced Tsutomu Akai, a character that recently appeared in the anime, was chosen by me. I sometimes also change the characters in the manga after listening to the voices of their voice actors, thinking to myself “so this is their voice”.

Oda: I shifted Chopper’s role to a mascot character after hearing his voice in the TV Anime, even when I had a policy of not drawing mascot characters, but Ootani Ikue’s voice was too cute haha.

Aoyama: It’s the same for me! When I heard Ootani’s voice as Mitsuhiko, I thought it was so cute I started to draw his character cuter.

Oda: Aoyama-san, you also overlap voice actor names with their roles, right? Like Takagi-san or Furuya-san.

Aoyama: Wataru Takagi-san had an unnamed role back then, but when his character appeared in the TV Anime he became Detective Takagi because he introduced himself saying “Please call me Takagi”. I made him take responsibility and even appear in the series with his real name haha. Furuya Toru’s case is, in fact, a homage to Gundam’s Amuro Rei, a name I separated to give birth to two names: Furuya Rei and Amuro Toru. I hope ‘Gundam’ fans will be pleased with this. Did you watch ‘Gundam’, Oda-kun?

Oda: I did see ‘Gundam’, and I liked it. But I think the experiences we had with it are pretty different.

Aoyama: I see, then you didn’t watch the ‘First Gundam’ (Mobile Suit Gundam)?

Oda: No, it was indeed the ‘First Gundam’. The boom of the series happened back during your teen times, Aoyama-san, and after that, when I was a little kid, a second boom came. I was under the impression that those rebroadcasts were already a big hit.

– How are you two usually involved with your series’ movies?

Aoyama: I involve myself since the very beginning of the movie. From scenarios to the content, up to getting too involved and frowned upon haha.

Oda: Also, ‘Detective Conan’ releases a movie every year, right? I wonder if the disconnected nature of the stories in the series is what makes it work so well, since in my case every chapter is connected to each other. I have to continuously think about the story in the weekly serialization, so I can’t really think about different stories. I guess our brains work differently.

Aoyama: Usually, one case lasts about 3 to 6 chapters in ‘Detective Conan’, which makes it easier to plan for a movie. But in ‘ONE PIECE’, any case lasts too long haha. That length may be what makes it difficult to make more movies for the series. It seems pretty hard to handle some sort of side-trip to a different island when all the characters are already on their journey to find the One Piece.

Oda: Not only that, but the crewmates onboard keep increasing so with anything that happens there is not only one reaction, which just makes the story keep getting extended. Let’s put it this way, if the number of detectives in ‘Detective Conan’ increased, wouldn’t that give you trouble?

Aoyama: I really don’t want to increase the detective team… Hahaha, I’ll definitely not increase it.

– What was your experience watching each other’s movies?

Oda: ‘The Bride of Halloween’ was really cool!! I was surprised when I heard ‘Detective Conan’ was increasing its female readership since I have always thought it was just a shonen series in which a bunch of little kids resolve cases. I wondered why that was, and completely understood it when I saw the movie. “Ah, so they really like the police characters and all these handsome grown men”.

Aoyama: Out of all of Oda-kun’s movies, the one I like the most is ‘ONE PIECE FILM GOLD’. It was fun since I have always liked sparkling places like Las Vegas haha. I want to go to that Casino Ship, Gran Tesoro!

Oda: Seriously!? Thank you!

Aoyama: If I had to mention something all of our movies have in common, is that in ‘ONE PIECE’ and ‘Detective Conan’ there’s always an ‘expansion’ in the ending.

Oda: That’s the right and classic way of royal-road shonen manga, isn’t it?

Aoyama: Oh no, I’m not referring to the narrative with ‘expansion’. In ‘Detective Conan’ we expand soccer balls, and in ‘ONE PIECE’ Luffy can expand his whole body. The bigger they are, the more exciting it is!

Oda: So that’s what you meant haha. Big is always justice, I guess it’s pretty clear we’re both from Ultraman’s era.

Aoyama: I remember that in ‘FILM GOLD’, there were turtles moving cars at the Turtle Car Race. Are you the one that comes up with these ideas?

Oda: I usually leave all the ideas to the scriptwriter, and I only check the contents of the movie and fix whatever needs to be fixed. Movies belong to directors so that’s something I shouldn’t be doing, but if I don’t do that, I can’t really take responsibility. You draw key frames for your movies, right?

Aoyama: I’ve been fulfilling that role since the very first movie, ‘The Time-Bombed Skyscraper’, and it has been increasing steadily. This year I have drawn around 20 key frames.

Oda: I’m pretty sure fans can easily notice which are drawn by you!

Aoyama: You could draw movie key frames too, Oda-kun.

Oda: If I were to put too much work into the movies, then I wouldn’t be able to continue regularly with the weekly series, so it’s difficult to handle. I do know that in order to maintain the series popularity I have to attract new fans and generate more worldwide buzz with a movie at least once every three years, but it’s honestly really hard! I know if I have to do it I’ll be pretty picky, I’m aware of my own personality even if at first I didn’t really like it haha. In the end, I end up meddled even in advertisement processes, I check the booklets handled at theaters and their production deadlines, and just supervise everything. I also keep an eye on posters’ layouts and design.

Aoyama: You seriously love this hahaha.

Oda: Still, I feel bad for my junior mangaka. I created a culture at Jump in which the movie would be a success if the original author gets involved, so everyone has started to be borrowed to work on them. To my surprise though, these youngsters are really enjoying it.

Aoyama: Not at all, I think it’s really good! Everyone seems to be enjoying it!

– What do you think of your protagonists?

Aoyama: Conan is everyone’s organizer.

Oda: To me, Luffy is the easiest character to draw. I always knew that he would be the character that would stay the longest with me.

– If that’s so, what character do you think you’re the only person that can write them?

Oda: I think that’s still Luffy. Many scriptwriters try to deal with him but I have to fix his sentences all the time, otherwise people wouldn’t accept him as the Luffy they know. Does ‘Detective Conan’ have a character like that? A character that always needs to have their lines fixed?

Aoyama: In my series it would be Gin! Everyone always tries to make him say “I’ll kill everyone” and I have to tell them “No, he wouldn’t ever say that” hahaha.

Oda: I understand that, the character we always must fix in any movie is the same character only we can write. It’s a pretty weird relationship, isn’t it? From a reader’s perspective you can notice small details if the character acts differently, but as scriptwriters it feels like a completely different character.

Aoyama: I always have to 100% fix Gin. Lately, scriptwriters just hand me the script so I directly fix him hahaha. Sometimes it’s written as some sort of love-comedy scene, like “Aoyama-sensei, save me”, and I’m like “Eeeh? Seriously?” hahaha.

Oda: Then you immediately fix it, the work becomes a success and they keep relying on you.

Aoyama: Exactly haha. But it does make me happy they rely on me!

‘Detective Conan’ and ‘ONE PIECE’ Decisive Points

– If you look back at the more than 100 volumes you both have published, which would you say was your most decisive point in the series?

Aoyama: That’s hard to say, but if I had to choose some point, it would be the chapter I wrote back when I was discharged from the hospital after taking a break due to a sudden illness. That chapter started with Akai and Amuro pointing their pistols at each other (Volume 95, Chapter 1009).

Oda: That sounds so cool! When was that chapter released?

Aoyama: Four years ago. I took a long break, so for my comeback I had to draw something popular, which pushed me to make that cool scene. Although until then I hadn’t really been writing anything in the series aiming at that moment.

Oda: I feel the exact same as you, but my decisive point would be something more recent. Luffy got a new power-up called ‘Gear 5th’, which is something I have wanted to draw for a long time.

– It’s surprising you both chose such relatively recent chapters. In ‘ONE PIECE’ Chapter 1044, the real name of the Gomu Gomu no Mi is revealed, and Gear 5th appears letting Luffy fight changing his whole body.

Oda: I drew this because I really want to have fun, and I think that it’s okay if people don't like it. I just want to play around with my battles. Since I was an assistant, I have felt that silly expressions that were so characteristic in manga have been gradually lost. Putting a light bulb in a character’s head when they come up with some idea, or making the character’s legs go in circles when they’re running, for example.

Aoyama: Right, also those eyes popping out.

Oda: I have always loved those symbolic expressions, but they keep disappearing. Nobody draws them anymore even though they’re our predecessors' creations who also left many formulae we still use. Battle manga has to keep getting more and more serious to keep up with readers’ expectations and I honestly hate that. I definitely don’t want my work to become a serious manga like that. I want and have decided to have fun, and I feel like I’m finally able to do that. When I was drawing this, I actually had fun.

Aoyama: (Looks at Gear 5th pictures) Woah, amazing! I really like the design, it’s excellent. I’m also impressed that you are able to draw these kinds of faces.

Oda: Thank you. When thinking about its concept, you can think of it as if it suddenly became ‘Tom & Jerry’.

Aoyama: Yep yep. I liked ‘Tom & Jerry’. I just can’t forgive Jerry, hahaha.

Oda: Jerry? Oh no, I supported Jerry!

Aoyama: Really? Tom always tried really hard, but Jerry was too sneaky. I hate Jerry a lot. Although if I had to compare one of them to Conan, he would probably be Jerry haha.

Oda: When I tried to draw it for the first time, it was pretty difficult. The world of ‘Tom & Jerry’ works because of both characters, so I struggled a lot looking at the difference in attitude between Luffy, who was making pranks in the middle of the battle, and his serious opponent. But in the end, I feel like I actually pulled it off. The older you get, the harder and more tiring it is to draw battles, isn’t it?

Aoyama: Well, there aren’t many action or battle scenes in ‘Detective Conan’, so when I have to draw them I do it in high spirits. Still, it usually ends pretty fast considering it’s just shooting soccer balls. A long time ago though, I did get tired of it while drawing ‘YAIBA’. When the Japanese Archipelago became a dragon, it was hard for me and my assistants to pull off those drawings. Even with that, drawing action is a fun experience.

Eiichiro Oda x Gosho Aoyama OVER 100 Miracle Talk - Part 2

Changes During Serialization

– ‘Detective Conan’ has been in serialization since 1994, and ‘ONE PIECE’ since 1997. Since those days to today, what has changed?

Aoyama: Back when I was serializing ‘YAIBA’, I was addressed as “Aoyama-san”. But the moment I started serializing ‘Detective Conan’, everybody addressed me as “Aoyama-sensei” haha. My editor kept addressing me with the “-san”, but for people from TV stations or magazines I started being “Aoyama-sensei”.

Oda: I’m always addressed as “Oda-san”. When I have to deal with younger editors, they all usually use honorifics and so do I, since it’s a hierarchical relationship between us and I cannot complain in such situations. Still, I don’t like it because I’m not a “-sensei”, I’m “Oda-san”.

– What has changed the most from then until now when it comes to the serialization itself?

Oda: My weight has indeed changed. When it comes to mangaka, there are those who lose weight and those who gain it. From the moment I started the series, I started to get fat. It was common for me not to eat for 2-3 days, and I didn’t even have time to eat because I felt sleepy while at it. That’s why I usually don’t eat as much as other people, because otherwise I can eat a lot. Your body starts to feel weak and threatened, so it absorbs anything you ingest. Still, I don’t eat, I gain weight and I just lose at everything. …I really don’t enjoy talking about this hahaha.

Aoyama: Haha, I used to be quite fat. Due to it I got pretty sick and the doctor told me I had to lose weight, which I did, but I think I’m slowly gaining it again.

Oda: Now talking seriously, it’s like you unconsciously and unwillingly gain some sort of mysterious power. Anything you say can become some kind of big deal. “Is people really doing this because I said it?”, and stuff like that.

Aoyama: Yeah… I was honestly thinking the same, haha. I can’t really say many bad things.

Oda: I have started to feel the responsibility of being careful with whatever I say because my name has grown a lot. Even if I myself haven’t changed, it feels like my surroundings and people around me constantly are. Many times my editors are already fans of the series and tell me “I have been reading your work for a really long time”, which makes it hard for me to be harsher, and I become way kinder.

Aoyama: We also have many assistants or animation staff who are long-time fans of our work.

Oda: But in the end it’s all people who do a really good job, because they really love the series.

– If you were allowed to leave your current position and draw anything you wanted, what would it be?

Aoyama: I want to draw a ‘Journey to the West’. As a battle story. I have always loved Goku. He’s the strongest character ever, isn’t he?

Oda: It’d be great if I were to answer “a mystery series” here, haha. But I could never pull off such a series, I don’t have a brain for that.

Aoyama: Hahaha.

Oda: I have already drawn everything I wanted to draw. I did want to draw robots in the future, but I decided and have already done that in the series. Everything I have ever wanted to draw is already packed into ‘ONE PIECE’, so if I was asked to draw one more time, I would draw ‘ONE PIECE’ again.

Aoyama: Aah, that’s really great. If I was asked to draw another ‘Detective Conan’... I don’t know… Hahaha, I do have lots of things I would like to draw in the series too, so I might do that.

“Love Comedy”, “Friendship” and Character’s Charm!

– What do you two think is your manga’s power?

Oda: I think the most important feature of manga is for it to be “a tool to make friends”. I know it’s a pretty common topic, but in fact I did make many friends when I was a child through it.

Aoyama: I hope ‘Detective Conan’ helps people with their love relationships haha, that way readers can fall in love like the characters from the series. But well, those mostly end up as “murder love comedies” hahaha.

Oda: It’s all a dream world, so I always strive to draw beautiful scenes.

– Speaking of love comedies, Aoyama-sensei previously said that “romcoms”, “adventure” and “friendship” are the “3 elements of shonen manga hits”, and it is clear Aoyama-sensei is good at “love comedy and adventure”, and Oda-sensei is good at “adventure and friendship”.

Aoyama: Love comedies… You haven’t drawn anything like that, right Oda-kun?

Oda: I haven’t. There’s a tradition in Jump that states love comedies are love comedies, battles are battles. They’re two separated genres and totally different works.

Aoyama: Oh well, I guess love comedy developments while battling are not for Jump.

Oda: I haven’t read many of those either, but ‘Detective Conan’ integrates those elements properly! I think you make a really good use of those settings.

Aoyama: Well, I do enjoy love comedies, but I guess you’re not really interested in them, Oda-kun.

Oda: I’m not confident I could draw those, it’s a bit embarrassing haha.

Aoyama: On the other hand, friendship is a tough theme for me. It’s not impossible for me to draw, but I don’t really come up with stuff I think “Oh, this is cool”. I think the only characters I can picture that topic on are the police academy members.

Oda: ‘Detective Conan’ actually has a lot of romantic relationships, right? It’s full of bidirectional feelings. But I also know that if I draw romance, some of my fans leave. I think it’s fine when they’re one-sided feelings, but if it goes both ways, both characters lose fans.

Aoyama: I won’t leave haha.

Oda: Ah, seriously!?

Aoyama: On the contrary, I think it’s exciting. Most of my characters have couples. It’s quite rare to find one without a partner.

Oda: People seem so supportive of couples! That’s something I didn’t really read when I was a kid. During the old days of Jump, there were mangaka that wouldn't even draw women. That’s why I’m one of those that sent submissions with female characters. I did want to draw strong women, and I think characters like Nami were quite rare back in those days.

– Nami’s popularity was reflected all over the world in the Popularity Poll commemorating ‘ONE PIECE’ reaching Chapter 1000.

Oda: Yeah, we did a worldwide popularity poll. When it comes to the two main female characters, Nami proved to be overwhelmingly popular in Japan, while adult women like Nico Robin seem to be more popular in the rest of the world. Feelings and tastes are entirely different from one country to another.

Aoyama: I know ‘Detective Conan’ is pretty popular in China, but I don’t think that makes much of a difference. Still, Ai Haibara is pretty popular, especially overseas.

– Ai Haibara got 1st Place in the “Major Female Character Popularity Vote” that ‘Detective Conan’ held to commemorate the screening of ‘The Bride of Halloween’, getting an illustration drawn by Aoyama-sensei. Still, it’s amazing to look at the number of characters that appear in both works’ popularity polls.

Aoyama: And the number keeps increasing. Even in ‘Detective Conan’ there are characters such as Chihaya Hagiwara, who have only recently appeared.

Oda: Aoyama-san, how do you execute your characters’ appearances?

Aoyama: By pure intuition. If I think I need some sort of new character, or that it’s missing in the series, I just draw it. How do you decide the name of your characters, Oda-kun?

Oda: I take them from various places.

Aoyama: There was a pretty funny one. Sanji, Niji, Ichiji. “For real?”.

Oda: I had been thinking of drawing Sanji’s childhood for some time already, and also had thought of setting up him having one brother, but my daughter was really into ‘Osomatsu-san’ back when I was serializing that part of the story. I want my daughter to like my work, so I tried to compete with the sextuplets by making quadruplets hahaha.

How are Readers’ Impressions Dealt With?

– I’m sure you both receive lots of fan letters from readers every week, but what kind of feedback are you most pleased to receive?

Oda: I appreciate any kind of feedback, but I’m especially happy with people who write what they liked about that week’s chapter specifically. “So that’s what you paid attention to”.

Aoyama: When I read those comments, I go back to the manga and read those parts. I start to grin and read it over and over while thinking “Oh yeah, that was good”.

Oda: Ah! Have you thought of sending your own fan letters, or have you ever sent one already?

Aoyama: Not at all. I think it actually takes a lot of work, but it sounds amazing.

Oda: Thank you for that.

– Every time ‘ONE PIECE’ and ‘Detective Conan’ publish a new chapter, fans are really excited to talk about them. Do you two read your readers’ discussions?

Oda: I wanted to talk about this with Aoyama-san, too. It seems that there are a lot of discussion groups recently, right?

Aoyama: Ah yes, on the Internet. Like with Youtubers.

Oda: Many people in my series’ discussion groups try to predict future developments of the series. Some of them get stuff right haha, which is why I try not to read many of them hahaha. Do they get stuff right too in a detective series like ‘Detective Conan’?

Aoyama: They do guess stuff. They’re sometimes pretty quick figuring out things. In the end, it’s just 1 person against millions of people. If they united their knowledge, cases could be solved in less than a day.

Oda: Against millions of people! That’s truly impossible hahaha!

Aoyama: Detective lovers like to guess and think a lot. Many readers guessed Renya Karasuma was the boss of the Black Organization.

Oda: What do you do in a situation like that? Is it troublesome?

Aoyama: No, rather I just say “People guessed it, so I’ll reveal it”, and I just reveal it haha. There are still more secrets beyond that, actually. Do you read your readers’ predictions and overturn them, Oda-kun?

Oda: Well… There are some things I can change and things I cannot. When reveals are too big, my readers can guess them since I have foreshadowed them all. Due to this I try to come up with the most interesting developments and always go beyond readers’ imaginations. When I started the serialization, my only way to connect with fans was through fan letters. I never thought the world would become the way it is now, with everyone talking about everything on the Internet. If I had known times like this would come, I would have never given hints in the series haha!

Aoyama: I see.

Oda: However, I’m sometimes asked if many outside-the-box theories are true or not, and I kind of feel bad for those who come up with them when I inadvertently give some answer. I probably have destroyed lots of ideas everyone was thinking about without knowing what would happen in the future with just a single word. I feel bad about it, so I recently came up with the best answer: “Yes, that’s right”. I think it’s an answer that can be taken either way haha.

Aoyama: That’s indeed one way to settle it hahaha.

– Foreshadowing moments that are recovered after many years is a common trait of both of your works.

Oda: When I read ‘Detective Conan’, I was surprised at how tight and solid all the settings were. My approach is a little bit different, since there’s some obvious foreshadowing, but at the same time I have created a lot of voids in the series. This method of leaving various blanks lets me think like, “this point could be connected to this other one this way or that way”. Aside from the exaggerated foreshadowing that happens every few decades, you can also take your time to pick up plot points that have been left pending. If you create reasonings and threads for everything like in ‘Detective Conan’, it will be harder to execute later on!

Aoyama: Back when I was working on ‘YAIBA’, I used to draw in the same way you describe. People would be really surprised when later on the series I connected parts I left open in the story.

Oda: Yeah, but you work differently now, Aoyama-san.

Aoyama: Now I work with everything firmly in place. ‘Detective Conan’ is a big mystery as a whole.

– Aoyama-san, when did you start telling your editors about the identity of the Black Organization boss?

Aoyama: Well, I’m currently with my 13th editor, but I have been telling them about that since I had my 8th editor.

What’s the Secret to Reaching 100 Volumes?

– When drawing your series, how are you able to change your mood if you get stuck? Oda-sensei answered previously like this: “I don’t change my mind. I want to keep drawing, so I put myself under a lot of pressure by calling my staff and telling them to wait for me”.

Oda: Isn’t that an interview from a long time ago? Nowadays I need to take way more breaks and I have become quite health-conscious. How do you clear up your mind, Aoyama-san?

Aoyama: I play video games and watch movies. But playing is playing, and work is work. I can’t do anything if I don’t separate those two. I have never been able to do two things at the same time.

Oda: What games do you play?

Aoyama: ‘Kantai Collection’ and ‘Animal Crossing’. Easy and simple games.

Oda: Don’t you do any physical exercise?

Aoyama: Nowadays I don’t, but I used to play baseball.

Oda: Before Coronavirus, I used to gather some friends to play soccer together, but with time I have realized it’s a little too tough of a sport for my body. I also used to be in the soccer club, but I’m so out of shape now I have completely abandoned that career hahaha.

Aoyama: I was in the kendo club, but I don’t move my body as much now. I only go out to buy lunch.

Oda: We’re a bit unhealthy, aren’t we? I also go out to walk and play ‘Pokémon GO’.

Aoyama: Maybe I should start walking too haha.

– With serializations this long, how do you figure out when to take breaks?

Aoyama: Right now, Conan runs in three-chapter bursts and then takes a break while a spin-off takes its place for a fairly comfortable pace, so I can take about a month to draw the storyboards for a single case.

Oda: That only works because of the kind of series ‘Detective Conan’ is, right? Haha, people are more accepting in regard to Conan going on break because the case ends beforehand. ‘ONE PIECE’ on the other hand is a constantly progressing story so I can't have long breaks in the same vein as Conan. Nowadays I’m starting to get more breaks from Jump, so I can relax a bit more. Though ultimately one still has to work even when the series is on break, huh?

Aoyama: Right? I don’t rest at all. If I'm not drawing the manga, then I'm doing work for the movies.

Oda: There's no rest for the weary, is there? Hahaha.

– Do the two of you have any secrets regarding continuing a serialization for more than 100 volumes without taking that many breaks?

Aoyama: Nope. People ask me about it often, but I honestly don't have any secrets to reveal. How about you, Oda-kun?

Oda: Ditto! To begin with, it's not like it was my intention to surpass 100 volumes.

Aoyama: When ‘Detective Conan’ first started I thought it wouldn’t last longer than a volume, but around the second chapter or so, I thought: “It's actually getting popular?”. I was surprised at how it was constantly number one in the rankings. At that point I knew it'd be trouble if I didn't expand on the story more.

Oda: I've always wanted to end the series. That being said, I also think about how there's so much I still want to or need to draw.

Aoyama: I totally get that! There's still so much story left to tell!

Oda: You're really having a blast, Aoyama-san. I think that's amazing. I've also been told by senior Jump mangaka: “It's incredible you're having so much fun.”

Aoyama: Really? Why's that?

Oda: Because everyone is struggling to continue drawing.

Aoyama: What? Seriously? That can't be right.

– So if there is a secret to your success, would it be enjoying what you do?

Aoyama: Yeah, I think so. The more you enjoy drawing, the faster you want to get to putting out great storyboards.

Oda: You really love mysteries! Do you ever get tired of drawing different cases?

Aoyama: I do love them. I've loved Sherlock Holmes since I was a child, y'know? Coincidentally, in elementary school I wrote in the graduation album that I wanted to be a mangaka specializing in private detectives.

Oda: What I love is the times where I freely draw the settings for different islands. Ever since the story entered the Grand Line, I've been free to do whatever I want. Fierce seas in which kingdoms can’t see or interact with each other, or islands with totally different cultures and climates… When the story reaches a new island I illustrate all of that. So if I were asked what I'd want to draw more of, I'd like to be able to draw islands like that unfettered, but I have to take my lifespan into account hahaha.

Aoyama: Ahh, yeah, there's some similarities to that in ‘Detective Conan’. Like for example, if I want to draw soccer, then I can center a murder case around a soccer player. Though that has to be in the confines of 3 chapters or so. If I had a secret as to how I've been able to continue this long, that might be it. ‘Detective Conan’ allows me to draw whatever I want. For things I like such as baseball, all it takes is finding a good opportunity to center a story around them.

– When the two of you are drawing, which do you think gives you the most trouble? The artwork or the plot?

Aoyama: Both, probably. Both can be a pain, but they can be fun too, right?

Oda: Ohh? For me it's the plot that's troublesome. I never get tired of drawing! After the planning of the storyboards is done then it's all about drawing, so I often find myself wanting to get done with storyboards sooner. I love drawing so I wish I had more time to draw what I want, but even when I don't have a lot of time I manage to make do somehow. It's the storyboards that I'm slow with.

Aoyama: I think I was the same way back when I was your age. If not, there's no way I would have been able to keep a schedule with only three hours of sleep. I was a real mess back then and barely made it all in time, compared to now where I can be calm and collected.

Oda: Though when not asleep one can keep creating and be successful, right? Meanwhile, it's when one is at rest that they become most anxious.

Aoyama: When I was sick and admitted into the hospital I couldn't help but worry. "Is it really okay for me to stop there?” and such.

Oda: Yeah, I get you. It gets you totally anxious! I was sick once for a bit, and despite being in the hospital I took my color tools with me and did a color spread from the hospital.

Aoyama: It's hard to calm down. Even in my case I asked to draw a special illustration as a gift to Sunday Super readers, and the fans got angry at the publisher. “Aoyama-sensei is in the hospital and you're still making him work?”, hahaha. Even though it was me who asked to do it.

Oda: Being in the hospital you'd think that I'd rest and relax. Instead I got excited and really wanted to draw, and insisted that just one color page wouldn't hurt me. Being in a serialization is like being chased in a race. Fundamentally there's no such thing as downtime, because deadlines are always around the corner.

– Generally speaking, what are editor meetings like for you two?

Aoyama: They're usually around 2 in the afternoon. The editor comes to my house and for a while we discuss stuff like TV and magazines for a while. Discussions about the manuscripts begin in the evening.

Oda: Your meetings seem to be long!

Aoyama: They sure do! The editor in charge usually comes up with ideas for the culprit's methods, but there are times occasionally where we can't come up with anything. We'll come back around to it the next day in those cases where we end at midnight. A long time ago we'd stay up until dawn coming up with ideas but not so much now that we're older. How do your editorial meetings go?

Oda: All of mine are via phone.

Aoyama: Wow, voice only?

Oda: A long time ago we'd meet in person, but before long it just became easier to take notes and speak on the phone. After all, one can tell someone's expressions through their voice, and when listening to the tone you can tell their reactions as to whether they like something or not. Though getting back to me, ours is a continuing project, so we get through the meetings one week at a time with the mentality that we have to clear that week to get to the next one.

How Long until the Final Chapter?

– Both of your series have reached their critical junctures together. The identity of the Black Organization's 2nd in Command ‘Rum’ has been revealed, and ‘ONE PIECE! has reached its final arc!

Oda: Truly at the start I thought ‘ONE PIECE’ would end in five years, and in about a year and a half Luffy's crew of ten would have gathered together. I thought of it like a video game but I was far too naive! It's not that I wanted things to keep getting longer, that's just what ended up happening!!

Aoyama: Same, haha.

Oda: Have you thought to yourself “Okay, it’s time for ‘Detective Conan’ to end”?

Aoyama: This is between us, but I've already drawn the storyboard of the final chapter.

Oda: What!?

Aoyama: Maybe I shouldn't have said that? I don't want someone to come and steal it, haha. So as I mentioned earlier, I was in the hospital for a bit once. I got to thinking that people can up and die without warning, so I figured why not draw it? This was about five years ago. So I figured drawing the storyboard wouldn't be a big deal, though for now it's a stand in.

Oda: I guess it was just on a whim. But if you actually drew it, at least you were able to do it at your leisure?

Aoyama: You could say that, yeah. It wasn't such a big deal because I've already decided on the major details, but there are arcs and stories I'd have to get to beforehand…

Oda: How long will it take until the final chapter?

Aoyama: That's a secret, haha. I might decide to redraw the finale in the future… Hahaha.

Oda: I've always pictured what the final chapter of ‘ONE PIECE’ would be like, though from time to time, the situation surrounding it changes. It will still be over whenever the One Piece is found in the series, haha. Anyway, this next arc is the final one.

Aoyama: Seriously? Is it really going to end?

Oda: Yup, to me this is really the final arc.

– I'm just going to act this flat out. How many years are left until the final chapter?

Oda: I'm not sure how many years it will take... I have answered this question so many times already I have lost credibility, so I don't think I should answer, hahaha.

Aoyama: Haha yeah I think that too.

Oda: I shouldn’t really say this out loud, because so far I’ve been pretty off, but I'd personally like to go for three more years.

Aoyama: But you don't know for sure. It all depends on how the characters act.

Oda: We're all merely navigators in these stories.

– Oda-san, does your editor know how the story will go up until the end?

Oda: I'm on my 11th editor now, but I make it a point to tell every successive editor the entire story from beginning to end. Though it's become a bit of a pain lately, so I've been breaking it up into parts haha. Although some of the particulars change from time to time, the goal remains the same. There have been some outrageous plot twists during the serialization, but the flow of the story has been so rock solid that past editors are surprised. They ask me: “Are you sure you can just do that?”, but then they don't remember anyway, hahaha.

Aoyama: Hahaha, have you drawn the finale yet, Oda-kun?

Oda: I've got notes of all thoughts I've made before they reach a new island, as well as a notebook of the most profound mysteries of ‘ONE PIECE’ that I've created.

Aoyama: Maybe I should steal it, haha. Though I've also got my notes on the Akai Family and their resolution, which is about three pages or so? When I get a new editor I let them have a look, but it's so complex they don't remember, so by the time the story reaches the serialization proper they're surprised by the events, despite me not deviating from the notes I showed them. Though well, the finale is already there. When I give that over it'll be in one go.

– Do you have any plans for after the final chapters are done?

Oda: I'd like to go on a trip and stay at a new place every night.

Aoyama: I'd like to move.... Or that’s what I would say, but I also don't want to either. It's probably not much better than Oda-kun’s, but I've got a lot of stuff which makes moving a pain.

Oda: You wouldn't go on a trip?

Aoyama: I did once upon a time. I went to London to have a look at the British Museum because ‘Detective Conan’ original manuscripts were exhibited there. I also went to the Vauxhall Bridge to get materials for Mary and Vermouth's showdown there. Though after that, Coronavirus happened.

Oda: I want to go overseas and travel to hot springs around the entire world until I die!

Aoyama: A long time ago, I wanted to go to Brazil to see the World Cup. Though when I was leaving Japan, the passport inspection dude stared at my passport for an uncomfortably long amount of time. I asked him if anything was the matter, and he said “I was worried because I want to keep reading the continuation of ‘Detective Conan’. Please have a safe trip and return.” Like, seriously? Hahaha.

Oda: He realized who you really are. It is a fairly unusual name… It'd probably be embarrassing to say it out loud in the hospital.

Aoyama: Like someone saying we share the same name, haha. But lately I've been secretly referred to as just “Aoyama-san”.

Oda: My name has become a big deal as of late too, so when at the hospital out of consideration for me, they've been careful in calling me out. Though I was already getting shout-outs when I was only partially famous.

– Are there any highlights fans should be on the lookout for going forward?

Aoyama: I have to draw a case where Rum once had both of his eyes, as well as how that connects to Akai Shuichi's father Tsutomu. Maybe that'll be interesting for readers, haha.

Oda: For me… This is tough to answer. There will be lots to see for sure, but I want readers to be surprised, so I don’t know if I should say it here…

Aoyama: True.

Oda: Well, for now, the “past” will be a big deal. Something once happened in the world during the Void Century, which will come to light soon and should prove both fun and interesting. What I find the most fun is when the readers are enjoying themselves. It's truly a ton of fun!

– Give us your closing thoughts, please!

Aoyama: I don't want ‘ONE PIECE’ to end before ‘Detective Conan’!!

Oda: Ah! That's what I was going to say too, hahaha.

Aoyama: Haha, good luck continuing ‘ONE PIECE’...

Oda: Well, when the time to end comes, let’s make it exciting!

Aoyama: That’d be amazing, haha.

– Thanks for coming today.

#One Piece #OP #Eiichiro Oda #Weekly Shonen Jump #Detective Conan #Case Closed #Gosho Aoyama #Weekly Shonen Sunday #manga #long post #One Piece spoilers #OP spoilers #Detective Conan spoilers

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