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namism · 2 years

Text

rating names with: sanji

➳ category: in-universe · female reader who uses (but not limited to) she/her pronouns

➳ warnings: a little nsfw, minor spoiler warnings for ep 808/ch 844 and below

➳ notes: i can’t stop writing these short posts but an actual sanji fic is coming soon, trust 🫲 for now, check out my second sanji fic here! i forgot to add tags the first time so it doesn’t appear in searches :(

“Mellorine” - 3/10

Used to be a 7/10 but became a 3/10 at best.

“Mellorine” was Sanji’s default pet name for a woman he was infatuated with before you started dating him, so if he were to see a beautiful girl his first instinct was to suck up to her by calling her “Mellorine,” a unique nickname that has frankly become overused.

Back when you were still crushing on him, you would dream to the moon and back for Sanji to call you “Mellorine” because it meant that he found you just as attractive as the many women he had his eyes on; this desire grew the more you kept your feelings to yourself. He would use the nickname on Nami the most which sparked envy within. But it didn’t take long for Sanji to drop it when he found out that you liked him.

Since then, he would reserve the nickname only for you and mix it with the occasional “(Y/N)-swan.”

Sanji kept calling you “Mellorine” until he began calling you other pet names which he thought suited you better. You were (and are) indeed as sweet as mellorine, but he figured he should find other names for you to go by.

And although being addressed as “Mellorine” had made you the happiest person alive, you were starting to feel a little troubled with it.

Sanji would use it as a default nickname so much that it didn’t feel too special anymore—a little selfish, you know, but it was widely used for other girls that the moment Sanji began using it only for you, it made a few heads turn especially from your crew.

“I thought Nami was ‘Mellorine,’” Luffy wondered aloud, prompting everyone to think the same. Nami glared, then punched him across the face.

“Get the hint, will you?!” she yelled.

It felt like a shared nickname with somebody else, and you weren’t a big fan of that. Hence a 3/10. (You decided to give bonus points for creativity.)

Your name - 4/10

Not bad, but Sanji only calls you by your name if he’s being serious and has something to bring up with a negative connotation or if he’s talking to somebody else and has to namedrop you. You seldom hear him call you by just your name nowadays because he would always prefer adding his famous “-swan” or “-chwan” honorifics.

The most recent memory of Sanji calling you by only your name was when you were still a regular at Baratie, back when you barely knew each other. And truth be told, it wasn’t long until he resorted to calling you pet names to charm you.

“(Y/N)-swan” - 6/10

This deserves a 6/10 (can surprisingly be cranked to a 7 if he calls you this in the right times) because it’s cute and fascinating to hear Sanji’s linguistic habits.

Sometimes he says “(Y/N)-chwan” depending on the mood, but either way you appreciate Sanji’s unique honorifics. It's funny in the best way that he has his own pronunciations and endearing at the same time. Sanji puts a lot of emphasis on his tones, especially in the presence of the ‘W’ in “-san” and “-chan,” which is one of the many things you like hearing the most from him.

He prefers to call you with the “-swan” honorific because it reflects exactly what he sees you as: a swan, an animal of grace, beauty, and intricacy, and he likes reminding you of that because he's naturally transparent with his feelings.

He pronounces honorifics the same way for other women but it doesn't bother you at all; Sanji’s honorific usage might have begun as a flirt tactic, but now that he’s in a committed relationship with you, his usage is more likely out of habit.

“Princess” - 8/10

This can also be cranked to a 9 on the proper occasions.

The One Piece universe has prominent royal bloodlines so calling a woman “Princess” nine out of 10 times means that she is indeed a princess. Sanji knows this very well because he was once royalty, hence why he seldom calls you as such. But wishful thinking betrays you and you've come to love being addressed as “Princess” without telling him.

You don't want to be the daughter of a real monarch—especially not in this universe—because royalty means having to deal with external and internal pressures from your kingdom, and that is the last thing you want to experience. But you and the rest of the Straw Hats once had to play pretend as royals from other nations, so when it came to interaction, you were called "Princess (Y/N)" often.

You were raised far from royalty so the closest you ever got to being a real princess was dressing up and letting your imagination handle the rest. Sanji doesn't know about this silly childhood dream because it was never the topic of conversation, and it's a little embarrassing to converse about it with a former royal so you kept it to yourself and never told anyone.

That's pretty much how you developed a secret liking to the term and it merely intensified when Sanji himself called you "Princess" while in disguise. At the time, you were doing your best to ground yourself to reality because Sanji's form of address meant a lot to you. Not only did it feed into your childhood desires, but it also made you feel special that he saw you as someone worth calling a high rank.

However everything then was not real, and only lasted for a few hours until you and your crew rid yourselves from the island and escaped. Once aboard the ship, it was back to your ordinary life as a pirate.

The nickname “Princess” would only resurface when Sanji unknowingly randomizes the nicknames he should call you or when he lets it slip in bed. He won’t realize it because he’d be too concentrated on something else, but he’ll most likely catch on the more you react to it.

In particular, you always soften when he lets the nickname slip up and get pretty clingy soon afterward. Sanji would suspect a thing you have with the nickname and do a few tests to see if he’s right.

And he is, so he begins to call you “Princess” more often just to see how you would react.

“Angel” - 10/10

A perfect 10/10 including its variants, with “pretty angel" and “angel face" being at the top of the list. It arguably becomes dirtier in bed though.

But Sanji uses this a lot as if it’s your name; your crew’s lineup is basically Sanji, the rest of the Straw Hats, and “Angel.” Though if your name is (even something remotely similar to) Angel, Sanji would use a variant so that it doesn’t feel like he’s calling you by just your real name.

He likes casually calling you “Angel” because it’s a reminder that he sees you as one, and also because it’s easy to pronounce and remember. That way, people would easily know that you’re taken and only his, so he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else stealing you.

Honorable mentions

“Sweet” - Alternatively, “Sweetheart.” It deserves a special mention because it was one of Sanji’s alternatives to “Mellorine” back when he was still getting to know you.

“Honey” - Another honorable mention that can be an alternative to “Mellorine.” Very endearing, and very sweet like honey itself. It was never your favorite, but it did make you smile a couple of times before.

Overall, Sanji’s nicknames for you are more on the sweeter side because he wants you to feel special. He’s open to other nicknames as long as he knows that you feel good about being addressed by it; if you are, then he is more than willing to call you as such to make you happy. If you aren’t, then he’ll gladly stop and apologize.

#op sanji #sanji #one piece sanji #sanji x reader #sanji x y/n #vinsmoke sanji #sanji smut #sanji imagine #sanji x you

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symptoms-syndrome · 8 months

Note

do you wanna rate different sonic designs? like when you put 'sonic designs over the years' in google images the third one (for me) is an image with different sonic designs and the year that one's from haha, i'd be really curious to hear your opinions!!!

I FORGOT TO FINISH THIS anyway here it is now. I have a 10 image post limit tho booooo.

HELL YEAH I DO I'm bad at ratings but I'm going to give my opinions!!! Under a cut bc. Long AF. The Sonics I chose are somewhat arbitrary TBH, and mostly focusing on box art and drawings instead of in-game models

Classic 1991 Sonic Box Art Sonic (Japan)

Fun little guy!!! Adorable! Not my favorite and I think the airbrush style isn't really my thing, but it's very Of The Time and I can respect that. He looks like what he was made for, a mascot for kids! Very friendly

Classic 1991 Sonic Box Art Sonic (USA)

Not gonna lie. Least favorite Sonic design. He looks kinda mean. I don't like his mohawk thing going on. IDK he just looks mean to me and I don't like him very much, I don't see why they had to change the design for America. They didn't change the sprite in the game. He doesn't have the same friendly and fun vibe. Why is his belly shaded like that.

Sonic Adventure/Adventure 2 Box Art (1998-2000)

This guy fucks and I love him. What is that pose? Cool as fuck!!! No respect for staying on model or whatever simply Vibes. He's so stretchy and I think I remember hearing this style was inspired by graffiti, which I can absolutely see. It's iconic, it's cool, it's dramatic, 11/10 all around. It's such a distinctive style and very, very On Brand for Sonic in the late 90s/early 2000s. He's just a cool cool guy!!!

Modern Sonic (general 1998-2000s/today)

Diehard Sonic fans are killing me w their mind RN. If ur not in the Sonic fandom u may not understand, but diehard Sonic fans have extremely strong opinions about their Favorite Modern Sonic or How Modern Sonic Should Look and will start a riot at Sega headquarters over them changing the hex code of his blue or the length of his spikes or legs or what the fuck ever. I'm not even joking people got SO MAD over this change:

Anyway I'm not one of those people. Modern Sonic is just. This guy! You look at him and he's Sonic. To me he's the Base Sonic, the Default Sonic, and I love him a lot! He's my favorite mostly just because I have the most associations with him. He's the Sonic that was in almost all the games I played. He's cool!!! Recognizable from classic Sonic while still looking different, has a lot of personality, distinctive silhouette, all that art school design stuff. But also he's just Sonic! He's cool he's simple. I don't have strong opinions about his design vs others because to me he's just Sonic and I love Sonic very very much.

Sonic Boom (2014-2017)

This guy was REALLY controversial, mostly because it's the biggest design change for Sonic that isn't like, a conditional thing (werehog, Excalibur Sonic, etc.) I really like his design though! They were going for a like, all the Sonic characters are very nature-y (the tape, live on a beach/island in grass roof houses, that kind of thing) and Eggman is very modern and robotic. I think it's cool to give them such distinct looks, also the redesigns to the rest of the cast really emphasized their skills and differences so they didn't look as alike as before, which I like.

I didn't like the Sonic Boom series TBH, it felt too self-deprecating and shallow compared to what I'm used to. A lot of the characters felt very flat, which was disappointing for such a cool redesign. I also hated Sticks (the character on the right) in general, I found her annoying and her character was just kind of a joke on paranoia and stuff like that. But strictly design speaking, I really like Sonic Boom. Not more than regular modern Sonic, but I think it could've been a cool side franchise type thing if they'd like. Been better about it. I also love his neck scarf it gives him puppy vibes to me. Like a golden retriever fresh from the groomer.

Movie Sonic (2020-)

I LOVE THIS GUY!!! He's just a kid! They did a good job of making him look a bit younger than regular modern Sonic, which fits his whole Vibe. I like how they gave his spikes that cool texture while still keeping the shape of Sonic, I was concerned about how they'd do that when the movie was first announced.

He's adorable! I wanna hug him!!! He gives me little brother energy! You look at him and you know what he's about, he's a kid who likes fun!

Okay now getting into some specific designs because! It's my blog and I want to.

Sonic Riders (2006-2010)

This fucks severely. I love the really cool shading style and outline! And the animation for it is sick as hell too!

youtube

IDK it's just super fucking cool I love his shoes and his goggles. He just looks extremely cool, like a big brother in the 2000s.

Sonic OVA (1996)

He's so cute! I like him, he's a little less chibi-esque than classic Sonic but still very cute. I think it fits his attitude, like he's sort of childish in the OVA and he looks like a young teen to me.

Werehog from Sonic Unleashed (2008)

FUCK YEAH MONSTERY SONIC he's so cool. He's so tough looking and I like how they made him really different while still being distinctly Sonic. His arms are stretchy too! I wish Unleashed had polished his gameplay more so he'd be more appreciated.

#sonicposting

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babymilkawa · 3 years

Note

HI ITS ME CAN YOU PRETTY PLEASE WRITE SOME HCS FOR SUGAWARA IF HIS GF IS SICK. ALSO I DUNNO HOW MANY OTHER CHARACTERS YOU DO FOR EACH HC POST CAUSS I FORGOT TO CHECK, but if you need like three i’d really love hinata and daichi as well :D REMINDER OF SUGAWARA SUPREMACYYYYYY

HERE ARE SOME THINGS I MADE AS A BRIBE

ILL TAKE IT// but yea I didn’t rly put a limit cos ppl are decent enuf to not request like 10 at a time right?? 😅 here ya go swaglorddd

sick s/o headcanons with:

sugawara koushi, hinata shoyo, sawamura daichi, kenma kozume

gn!reader :)

sugawara koushi

if you show up to his practice wrapped in layers of clothing and a red nose, he’ll excuse himself immediately and force you to sit down on the bench while he goes to coach ukai’s store to get some meds for you

when he comes back, both his hands are carrying two plastic bags

one of them has your stuff, warm food that isn’t greasy and cough drops too

the others are cold drinks for his teammates aww karasuno’s mom

you are forBiddEn to have the drinks too except for the warm water he put in your water bottle

rly wished you’d go home first instead of waiting for his practice to end but it doesn’t seem like you want to

he’ll look to the benches every few minutes to see your sleeping form

during break, he’ll gently move your head onto his lap so you don’t have to lay on the hard bench

as soon as they’re dismissed he’s giving you his jacket cos “it gets cold in the night time” and warms up ur hands

if you try to keep ur distance so he doesn’t get sick too, he’ll joke that you prolly already got the whole team sick

making you pout and him pinching ur cheeks 😖

once you reach your place, he’ll linger outside of your door,,,unwilling to let go of your hands SOB

“I’ll come back tomorrow morning ok? I’ll also bring porridge but you still need to eat something else and don’t forget to drink hot wat-”

“yes, yes I know koushi...now go home so you don’t catch a cold too”

but even when you’re standing by your window, you’ll see him looking around your house, tryna figure out which window belongs to your bedroom

and as promised, he comes back the next day with hot porridge and makes sure that your water bottle is full with warm water

and that your backpack has extra cough drops

he’ll still hold your hand and kiss ur forehead

maybe part of him wants to get sick so u can take care of him djhfjdhf

hinata shoyo

he’ll pout a little once he finds out your sick but he’ll still stay by your side!

he’s still overflowing with energy but doesn’t wanna tire you out too much

you’ll hear him stop by your house in the mornings with a volleyball in his hands and maybe kageyama behind him, eating

he’ll bring random snacks from coach ukai’s store and place them at ur door

you’ll sit by ur window and he’ll sit outside of it, telling you about his day, what he did, how practice was

“y/n no one clapped for me T-T”

cos ur usually clapping for him after every successful hit

“kageyama was just yelling at me saying how my spike wasn’t even that great but I know you would’ve said it was good :((“

“aww shoyo, I’m sure it was! Don’t listen to him, ur trying ur best:))”

pet his hair

yes ur the one who’s sick but he misses u

will stop by ur house everyday

I mean he already does that

u usually help him with hw but he doesn’t think he shud ask u when u sleep

all his energy will just go p o o f when he sees u sleeping

he’ll prolly hear windchimes or smthing hahahah

but he’ll be able to sit quietly until you wake up

kageyama’s like HaaH???

SHH

but hinata’s tryna figure out his hw without u helping ok

once ur better, he’ll give you the bIGGGEST hug and sway you side to side AWW I MISS THOSE HUGS

and catch you up on evthing that’s happened

meaning everything that’s happened in the last 5 mins cos he already tells u everything 🙄

sawamura daichi

he’ll make sure you have everything for school

brings you your hw, explains to you the concepts

will call u during lunch or smthing cos it’s boring w/o you

dating him means ur automatically good friends with asahi and sugawara so they’ll check up on you too

and sugawara will tell you how daichi won’t stop talking abt how he can’t wait till u get better dhhdjfjdjs

sometimes you’ll catch him having tea with your mom on your front porch and she’s tryna embarrass you hahhsjdf

Ok but that scenario is just,,, so,,, hubby material yk

like he prolly came by to drop some food and ur moms making him stay and gushing abt how handsome he is

“so you’re the one making my y/n all happy”

rare occasions that daichi blushes #1

he’ll softly knock on ur door and u quickly pretend to be asleep

places sthing on ur desk then just leaves the s o f t e s t kiss on ur forehead and whispers sweet dreams GAHSJFOEJ

when he’s gone you look at what’s on ur desk and it’s a flower crown from ur first date 🥺

keep him ok

will prolly do sthing like throw paper airplanes at ur window

and then when he sees you open ur window he’ll hide behind a tree and watch as u go outside to pick them up

inside he’s written little notes like “get better!” Or “i miss you!” or “WHAT ARE U DOING AWAKE GO BACK TO SLEEP”

like sir u woke me up with all that tapping 🙄🤚🏻

once ur better, you walk into the vb gym first and u can hear him yelling at Tanaka and noya then when he sees u walk in he’s all “oh, y/n” 😌

PLS TANAKa and Noya WORSHIP U NOW SJDJSKKS

in the first couple of days you’re back he’ll still keep an eye on you and have his arm around your shoulder

occasionally putting his hand on your forehead and sneaking a kith 😚

kenma kozume

u didn’t tell him at first that u were sick but he still found out 🙄

“ur sick, aren’t you”

“huh?? No I’m not :((“

will look at u like this -_-

and yk if u stay home from school, he’ll find excuses to hang out in ur room

kuroo will be calling like “is freaking kenma there?!”

yea he’s spooning u

since ur sick, hE’ll be the one to pet ur hair

if it helps u fall asleep

won’t play games in ur room like he usually does cos he doesn’t want the sound and light to distract u

he’ll most likely bring u take out bc he can’t cook and will prolly burn down ur kitchen cos he got distrayced by the tv or smthing ahHa

will check ur temp like every 5 min I swear

“no- ko i rly don’t think my temp is gonna change every 5 min”

“but just in case-“

-_-

he’s smart ok so he’ll tutor you with late hw if u need it

will sit next to you and wiggle his toes by ur feet :3

once ur better, y’all go back to ur usual gaming and eat the hell out of junk food 🤪

a/n: rly hope u liked it 🥺💕 daichi’s was my fav hehe and TY @ilauvcoldpizza FOR HELPING ME W KENMA <3

haikyu!! masterlist

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blookmallow · 3 years

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Can you do a rating on child animatronics like you did with the clowns

i sure can

welcome to animatronic nightmare preschool

theres a trend ive discussed about spirit before where all their female animatronics tend to be either the “old hag” type, or “creepy little girl” - and now that im thinking about it i actually couldn’t think of any boy characters ive ever seen. i dont know why this is exactly. theres something to analyze there but im not really sure what it is. i found a few but almost ALL of them are little girls. i dont know what to say about this but i did notice it

there IS a boy in this group though:

ring around the rosie

enter the ritual

just some nice kids having a fun time. it may be cliché at this point but i love the “spooky nursery rhyme” trope anyway (and y’know, ring around the rosie was already creepy to begin with. im not sure if the theory that it’s really about the black plague is actually true but its still highly questionable to include the line “ashes, ashes, we all fall down” in a childrens rhyme with no explanation either way)

for some reason the fact that none of them have hands and its just their sleeves tied together is really funny to me and i dont know why. they also dont have feet and im not sure if its a technical limitation for convenience purposes or if they’re supposed to be little ghost children but it definitely comes across like they’re little ghost children who tied their sleeves together to try to feel like they’re holding hands which is very cute. 10/10 big fan of this one

i already mentioned harriet hustle in this post, shes fantastic

angeline

i LOVE this one shes SO cute

i dont really understand how she's supposed to be scary, the description is like "she'll scare the lights out of your guests" or w/e but like, she's just. a kid who can see ghosts. she herself isn't even a ghost. i like her id adopt her i think she'd be a fun addition to a graveyard scene 10/10

abandoned annie

ok technically this one is a doll but im counting her anyway, shes one of my FAVORITE spirit animatronics bc A) i love creepy dolls B) shes cute and most importantly C) her entire fucking face unhinges i need y’all to watch the video on this one its so good 12/10 ive said this before but animatronics that do something completely fucking unexpected are my absolute favorite

broken girl

completely batshit. horrifying. shes actually initially standing upright and then snaps backward and screams and the image does not do it justice i highly recommend the video for this one. not much there as a Character but as “really effective way to scare the shit out of someone” its, i would imagine, incredibly effective. 9/10

there’s also menacing molly who looks similar and has the same kind of “facing away from you but then snaps backward” scare but is on a swing and sings “I see dead people, I see ghosts 💖i see the things that hate you the most” before she does her jumpscare which is incredibly funny to me

double trouble

creepy little girl trope meets creepy twins trope, at first glance i thought this was just like, discount grady twins (which it looks like they also have, in blatant knockoff form. they’re uh, not good) but it looks like their description backstory is that they killed their mother and disappeared with their rumored-insane father so its slightly different. one of their phrases is “daddy says we have to play outside :( he doesnt want any more blood on the floor” and i love it

they have a pretty good sense of personality and character to them even if its not necessarily groundbreaking. 7/10

ellie hatchet

i love this one bc so many of the creepy little girl animatronics are just pretty much standing there being creepy but not ellie. she’s fucking DONE with all of you. you come near her she will swing an axe at your face. 6/10 not really a big stand out but i appreciate her undying rage

lunging lily

shes spooky. she jumps out at you. thats about it. i dont really have anything to say about this one. that sure is a creepy little girl that jumpscares you. i like that she goes “help me... help me...” before she jumps out but i feel like it would be hard to get the timing right for that to actually work as a lure to make guests curious where the sound’s coming from since most of these are motion activated. anyway 6/10 shes just not very interesting

johnny punk

one of the rare boy characters, i have actually seen him in store and just completely forgot about him because he was that uninteresting. he doesn’t really do much and his backstory on site is just like, “He's got a nice house, loving parents and a severe attitude problem.”

like this isn’t an undead child back for revenge against those who wronged him or a crazed circus runaway or anything. he’s just a bratty kid. hes like a 13 year old who just saw Joker and has decided to make it his entire personality. this comes across less as a threatening figure and more just like some shitty kid who thinks he’s cool. i glanced at the comments on the wiki page and it turns out absolutely everyone hates him which is completely hilarious to me

2/10 nobody likes you johnny go do your homework and apologize to your mother

i also found limb eating zombie boy, who is considerably better

gross. bloody. would probably be pretty effective if you had him like, placed among some boxes or something so people dont see him at first and aren’t expecting him there. pretty standard zombie. i dont have much to say. He’s Fine. 6/10

mommy’s favorite

ive seen this one in the stores several times, I think we have her there now, and i just don’t. get it? she just moves back and forth with the “shhh” gesture and it’s like, ok, she’s vaguely creepy, but what’s going on here. she just says “don’t wake my mommy! she’s been sleeping for a long time!” so i guess the implication is that her mother is dead and she doesn’t understand, which is just sad rather than scary. the description says she makes mommy’s tea just how she likes it with five drops from the special skull bottle, which could imply she killed her mom, which would make more sense as a horror character, but if that’s How Mommy Likes It that implies the mother instructed her daughter to unknowingly poison her, which is horrifying but in a way darker sense than a spooky halloween prop lmfao

anyway if i have to go digging into descriptions to try to figure out what this character is or what shes supposed to be or anything i just dont feel like its a very effective character design. and i did read it and i still dont really get it. 2/10 i just feel like im missing something here

anyway there’s a bunch more variations of “scary possessed child” that are all basically the same, so im just gonna close this out with:

swinging skeletal boy

allo there, guvna

look at this dapper little victorian child im gonna cry he’s so cute

he just swings but has this surprisingly endearing soft little voice which COMPLETELY contrasts the weird shit he actually says. hes this precious little skeleton kid with a sweet little voice who goes “your skin is so nice :) can i have it? haha. that’s okay. I’ll take it when you’re sleeping”

absolutely love animatronics with that “wait WHAT did that thing just say” factor to them i love this guy 11/10 good boy my new son

i would also like to mention that people are also continuing to dunk on johnny punk in this guy’s comment section too fsadkflj people hate that shitty joker kid so much their hatred has bled into other completely unrelated swinging children

#spirit halloween #spirit animatronics #halloween #halloween animatronics #pinned

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silkpetals444 · 2 years

Text

07/12/21

SKINNY FOR CHRISTMAS - DAY 11 - LIMIT 550 CAL

breakfast - vanilla chai tea w/ almond milk (5 cal)

lunch - monster energy ultra white (10 cal) + 2 spearmint thingys (2 cal) + 2 spicy potatoes (281 cal)

dinner - homemade chilli w/ rice (254 cal)

snacks - none

NOTES - i only ate the spicy potatoes to avoid looking suspicious, otherwise i deffo would’ve said no. also sorry because i forgot to actually post this yesterday 😭

#calories #meanspø #not actually pro just using tags #pro ania #thin spo #anamia #anoressic #anorexi4 #pro ama #skinnnny #ana tingz #tw ana things #tw disordered eating #tw ed thoughts #tw ed related #ed diet

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something-very-special · 3 years

Text

Call Her Back

Probably already a post with this title from the Let’s Play but it’s appropriate.

Thoughts on Replicant up to Ending A (and change):

This game is pretty. I guess it didn’t really hit me because I’ve always thought that the original NIER was pretty, but this game can be very pretty.

This in particular just kind of struck me as I was going across the Northern Plains. It had been dominantly gray, overcast skies up to that point because Part II of the game is meant to be. You know. Bleak. But I walked out onto a bright, sunny day with an expanse of blues skies, the mountains in the backgrounds, the ivy a burst of green growing up the rusted sides of the train tracks and it just kind of hit me that the game can be very pretty.

(Then I got punched out by a Shade.)

It’s definitely not a matter of massive graphical overhaul. The models look much better (getting a good look at the Twins during the finale, they really are beautiful) and I’m sure the environmental poly count is much higher and just overall smoother, and there are little touches here and there and just the capacity for better atmospheric lighting... I mean it all helps. But NIER is a game that’s always had fantastic art direction, making the most out of its budget through atmospheric tuning. There’s something uniquely beautiful about its muted palette and the way it uses its spaces that elevates it beyond the its actual technical limitations. It doesn’t look like an end-of-generation PS4 game, but that’s not an insult; it looks very much like itself from ten years ago, with its solid art direction, but touched up where it matters.

Does the sidequest grind seem... better...? I haven’t really dug into the BEST part of the game (spending 30 hours grinding out weapon upgrades) but I mentioned before my theory about how the sidequest grind is supposed to be carried out across multiple playthroughs and that’s why it sucks. To my surprise I finished Ending A missing only one sidequest (your friend and mine, Life in the Sands), with all of the other ones being more or less... pretty natural? The only thing I really needed to go out of my way for was Memory Alloy but all the other components didn’t really give me the kind of grief I remember from my playthroughs of the original. ‘Grief’ of course being relative to getting the platinum trophy, but my first time through the game I gave up finishing a few outstanding sidequests (specifically, fixing the lighthouse broke me-- I could not find 10 Mysterious Switches!)

Maybe I just got lucky, especially with the Machine Oils. Maybe some weird muscle memory kicked in. I feel like there were a few purchasing options that weren’t open originally, too, to ameliorate some of the grind, but it might also be a case of those options being cost-prohibitive so I just didn’t really acknowledge them... whatever the case the sidequest grind felt overall pretty painless. I dunno!

I really need to know how to manipulate events. For literally seven playthroughs straight of the latter half of the game I always did the keystone quest as Junk Heap (start) - Forest of Myth - Junk Heap (end) - Facade - Aerie. It wasn’t until I did a run with my college roommates and Popola gave me the Aerie letter before the Facade in invite that I realized the Aerie wasn’t actually programmed to be the last event.

Absolutely blew my mind, and ever since I became aware of it, it feels like the game goes out of its way to make sure the Aerie always comes before Facade. When I did my Let’s Play of NIER I kept a save file from the start of the kystone collection so I could re-do the events in case they went ‘out of order’ (according to my headcanon)... which they did. I replayed the latter half of the game again in order to get things the way I wanted them to be, same order, and fortunately it cooperated the second time, but I still don’t understand what the trigger is, if there’s a way to manipulate it, or when the determination is even made.

And then they throw the Little Mermaid into the mix, which I wasn’t expecting (that is, I knew it was added, but I’ve been mostly avoiding spoilers -- and happily, the changes have largely been a delight, I’m so excited for the subsequent playthroughs -- but the way it was posted about made it seem like it would happen after and apart from the keystone quest. Not so, my friends).

The reason for this is just the emotional escalation of each factor of the quest. The Forest of Myth is weird and little else (at this juncture, of course). The Junk Heap is a personal tragedy, but the actual tragedy has already occurred and you’re just experiencing the fallout. Facade is a powerful and personal tragedy that deserves to be experienced later on. The Aerie is a terrible place and nobody misses it it’s an enormous loss and profoundly traumatic for the party, and it feels like the appropriate apex to basically force them to go to the Castle and finish the fight, having already lost far too much.

Also it’s just super weird to me that they see that devastation, they literally wipe an entire settlement off the map, and then the next day everybody’s super excited to go to a wedding.

It also becomes even weirder that you go to Popola post-Aerie and nobody mentions ‘yeah that didn’t go so well’ but coming out of Seafront they have a legitimate conversation about the loss of the ferryman and the people they’re never getting back. I guess that guy had a personality but I still think maybe somebody should mention the smoking crater where people used to be.

Then again it’s legitimately funny to me how basically everybody is just agreed the world is better off without it.

This might also just be an issue of familiarity. Maybe if I’d always ended on Facade, or actually known that they could be swapped out as they are, it wouldn’t feel so weird. I definitely got used to the pacing with the Aerie at the end and I feel like I got into a debate with somebody about how it’s more appropriate for Facade to come last so this might just be a personal thing. But it’s still a personal thing and I’m still vaguely irritated I can’t figure out how it works.

Anyway I blew up the Aerie So that’s that problem taken care of.

I feel like the ambiance surrounding Wendy was a little creepier this time. I swear I heard that good stock creepy child laughter in the background.

Then the ferryman left This was a nice bit of foreshadowing; following the Aerie events I wanted to hop over to Seafront to take care of an extant sidequest only to find the ferry dock in the Northern Plains empty. I thought that maybe this was just a weird way of railroading you to make sure you went through the Village first, even though there were no scenes that would trigger just by being in the Village.

Alas.

Not gonna lie, when the couple was first introduced I thought for SURE it was going to be the wife who wound up dead. I guess it’s because the guy had a purpose as an NPC so yeah, I was tricked. Good design decision; the ferryman is talkative and bright and definitely difficult to forget and even though he was kinda obnoxious there’s a definite void where his dialogue was. It’s clever too that you’re forced to use the ferry at least once so you can’t escape the dialogue that you’re presented with, meaning that even if you don’t really make use of the ferry you’ll always have that contrast between him at the start of Part II and the other guy (his brother, maybe?) taking over the job and just not really talking to you afterward.

Episode Mermaid First of all, to be clear, I’ve not done the Route B playthrough yet. All I know about the Little Mermaid is what’s presented on the surface, what can be gleaned from there, what I remember reading in the Grimoire NieR short story. This is very much just an impression and reaction to the first encounter and it’s pretty cool.

I like that they managed to go into yet another genre style aping a point-and-click adventure.

I like the atmosphere of the wrecked ship. It really brought me back to the ‘ghost ship’ level archetype with its little hints of spookiness.

I appreciate that it ties subtly in to the Haunted Manor (technically the Part I Seafront dungeon) with Weiss’ utterly irrational fear of ghosts.

I love every excuse they find to get Kaine and Emil (and especially Kaine) out of a situation. It’s almost a running gag that Kaine keeps getting knocked out of dungeons and boss fights. None of them are quite as great as her getting Rules Lawyer’d in the Barren Temple, but there’s something delightful about “Let’s get you some fresh air, we’ll be right outside, be careful!” and then bookending it with Kaine and Emil just chilling at the end like “Well yeah there are a lot of holes in the hull we just popped in.”

(I forgot to go backward to see what happens if you try to take them into Seafront proper, gotta remember that next time.)

Interesting thing when you find some of the dropped apples is that Nier and Weiss talk about the dinner they had with the couple. This was actually a really sweet and oddly emotional conclusion to the added sidequest between the bickering couple-- entirely missable. I would assume the dialogue just doesn’t trigger if you didn’t do the quest but it was a nice touch.

I appreciate the use of dead bodies in the hold.

(That’s a sentence.)

But for the game’s focus on violence and excess of blood it’s very selective in how it uses actual corpses. Any time you see a dead body it really emphasizes the seriousness of the situation. The corpses in the hold and the blood spatter -- especially compared to how bright and clean Seafront as a whole is -- was surprisingly effective. Again, just good atmospheric buildup.

Bit of an anticlimax as a boss, though. It is a really cool boss, between the environmental buildup to the fight and then actually unveiling her, but for how big and scary she is the fight itself went by fairly quick, and the actual finale (the postman whacking her hand telling her to go away she’s groooooss) felt a bit weird in comparison to the way the boss fights in the rest of the game usually play out. Of course, I don’t have context of her dialogue (I can take my guesses, her holding out her hand to Hans as he freaks out and attacks her is already a palpable tragedy) and by the way the scene was framed I suspect the Route B reveal is where the most important part of the scenario lies.

And the seals came back! It’s the little things.

“I wish I was Fyra.” So in the original Replicant the conversation between Emil and Nier before Sech’s wedding was apparently an implication that Emil had a crush on Nier and wanted to marry him. It was ambiguous enough that people had to ask for clarification and some players interpreted it as a weird, childish expression of looking up to and respecting Brother Nier. It was clarified in the Grimoire NieR that Emil is gay and crushing hard on Brother Nier, and this line of dialogue here seems to have been... not made explicit, but changed even between RepliCant and ver. 1.22 to make the implication a little clearer, at least insofar as he isn’t interested in girls. (It winds up missing the implication that he’s into Nier specifically, though.)

...which is funny, because it colors his introduction to the King of Facade somewhat differently. These two meeting is honestly really sweet on a few levels (Sechs recognizing him from Nier’s descriptions, which implies that Nier’s been visiting Sechs regularly and so proud of his interactions with Emil he told the king of another nation all about him, and the King is legit excited to meet him) but then a couple of minutes later Emil is all ‘I’m so jealous of Fyra’. He isn’t crushing on Nier, but he is totally crushing on Sechs.

Endgame At this point in the game the distinction between Brother and Father has become mostly lost and the final charge is pretty much the same as

wait what’s up with the music in the Lost Shrine? This is Snow in Summer.

Or an arrangement thereof. That particular track level from Snow in Summer winds up getting used in a few new places and it has this kind of weird, vague sense of dread that makes it work pretty well. Utterly threw me off in the Lost Shrine, though (I think it’s appropriate given its connection to the Shadowlord/Gestalt Nier so slowly re-introducing it in the climb is pretty cool). It also builds insanely as you climb, which is a very cool effect but, um, I’m just here to pick up some sidequest items right now this feels like a little much.

There isn’t much to say regarding any impact or differences in the large part of this area of the game. It’s a good final dungeon, it carries good momentum, it works as well as it ever did (that is to say, rather well). The emotional beats are great and translate equally well between the protagonists, although I have to give the nod to Papa Nier during a lot of this just for the imagery of such a big, powerful man becoming so broken the further he goes in (and Kaine being strong enough to toss him around like a rag doll anyway).

The final flashback with Nier and Yonah also feels better with Papa Nier. I always read it as, of course, Papa Nier having his moment with Yonah, giving her the flower, and as he lays back down Yonah does the same big sigh like she’s trying to emulate her dad and it’s really sweet. This is another one of those moments where it’s not something that feels wrong in Replicant, but just having that comparison in the back of my head is something that I just can’t help.

Is Papa Nier still Best Neir? Yes.

But there’s room in my heart for Brother. I’m glad the bizarre marketing decision happened and both of these characters can exist.

...and then we reload the save. Okay, okay, so-- so here’s the thing-- I figured that’s a good place to conclude a session, right? Get to the ending, prepare for the next run. But I also know that Route B starts with Kaine’s unskippable novel segments. I’ve read them, of course, so I figure I’ll just reload into Route B so I can make a save after the novel sections, really get into the meat of Route B when I’m fresh.

So skim through those--

Beat up the Knave--

Skim through the rest--

Educated Warrior... didn’t pop...?--

Wait what’s this camera angle--

Why am I outs--

oh my god

KAINE AND EMIL HAVING GIGGLY GIRL TALK AROUND THE CAMPFIRE OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING

THERE’S MORE.

THERE’S. MORE.

I legit short-circuited. Going in I knew they added the Little Mermaid. I knew they added Ending E. Those were things I suspected would be added and went out to specifically confirm; beyond that I’ve been keeping myself completely spoiler free.

I had no idea there was more. I had no idea this was happening.

I’m so excited.

And a goofy thought for the road

“I polished you with a special cloth, I poured warm water on you--”

“Wait, you poured water on me?”

/imagines Emil running blindfolded eight hours across the Southern Plains with an 8oz plastic water cup, getting to the library, splashing it on Kaine, waiting expectantly

/nothing happens

/walks dejectedly eight hours all the way back to the Manor

#NieR #NieR Replicant #Musings #Ramblings #OH MY GOD WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS #I AM SO GLAD NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THIS

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anghraine · 3 years

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@laufire tagged me in a fic meme!

The Game: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag some authors!

1. Even in Gondor, Éowyn was cold.

Tolkien, WIP: an AU take on the Éowyn/Faramir hair mingling scene with f!Faramir/Fíriel. I’ll probably fold it into daughters of the great at some point, but haven’t yet.

2. Elrond did not call the Council.

Tolkien, WIP: a (new) AU where Faramir is the one sent to Rivendell. I’m not writing it in a long fic sense, but I do have some snippets.

3. Gwen did not often dwell on life before the Searing.

Guild Wars, WIP: a canon-compliant one-shot focused on Gwen Thackeray’s last day before the Searing, ft. the GW: Prophecies PC (here, Irene Fairchild).

4. At least, Lady Georgiana thought, Darcy had the mettle to write to her of his engagement himself.

Austen, WIP: a canon-compliant fic dealing with the responses of Darcy’s canon and headcanon relatives to his engagement/marriage. This first bit is posted here.

5. The Steward was fortunate in his children.

Tolkien, WIP: an AU take on Denethor and Faramir’s relationship, with f!Faramir. Another piece of the Fírielverse.

6. Faramir was born under the Shadow, son of a weary father and wearier mother.

Tolkien, WIP: a canon-compliant take on Faramir’s childhood and his first dream of Númenor.

7. My dear Edith,

I hope you and your brother are well.

Guild Wars, complete: a canon-compliant epistolary take on the GW: Prophecies’s PC’s last day before the Searing. Here.

8. Eldarion had no queen.

Tolkien, complete: a canon-compliant fic where Eldarion has an arranged but happy marriage to Faramir and Éowyn’s younger daughter + lifespan angst. Here.

9. “Is there no deed to do?”

Tolkien, WIP: the opening to we also are daughters of the great, a Fírielverse fic with Éowyn and Fíriel first getting to know each other. I wrote and posted the first part a longggg time ago; the newest section begins with:

Fíriel was easy to talk to, Merry found.

10. “But Lizzy, you can tell us whether it is like or not.”

Austen, WIP: the opening to tolerably well acquainted, a fic that was originally tracking the development of Elizabeth’s feelings for Darcy at Pemberley, and then kept going. The current chapter’s draft begins:

By the time that Elizabeth reached the signature, she could nearly have crumpled the letter in her hand.

11. I always thought of myself as Ascalonian first, and Krytan second.

Guild Wars, WIP: a slight AU of GW2 from the POV of the human noble origin PC w/ missing sister storyline, where making the PC/her sister proud Ascalonians has a significant impact on them and their choices. I’ve been poking at the fic, pro patria, for years, but the current section begins:

I’d opened my mouth to ask something else, but Frazarblade suddenly interrupted me, slightly raising her voice.

12. If Darth Vader did not avoid the sight of his daughter in carbonite, he certainly did not seek it out.

Star Wars, WIP: the third part in an AU-of-the-OT f!Luke series. This part, The Jedi and the Sith Lord, follows Lucy and Vader after she’s captured by the latter in Cloud City (for AU reasons I won’t get into here). Like the last few, I started this a long time ago, so the beginning of the new section is:

Anakin didn’t hesitate.

13. In the first few years after his escape from Yakone, Noatak drifted: from place to place, from name to name.

Avatar, WIP: from One More Tomorrow, an Amon-centric f!Tarrlok fic (...I do understand that this is a) very predictable for me to write and b) of very limited interest to other people). It’s actually part of a longer series, though not nearly as lengthy or the f!Luke one or as involved as the f!Faramir one. The new section begins:

Amon had already stopped walking.

14. Boromir and Fíriel could both command man and beast alike.

Tolkien, complete: a short Fírielverse fic about Fíriel grieving Boromir/meeting Pippin. Here.

15. In her heart, perhaps, Fíriel knew what must happen.

Tolkien, WIP: a Fírielverse fic about Fíriel after the destruction of the Ring and Denethor’s death in battle, deciding what to do about Aragorn’s claim in the midst of grief for her father and uncertainty about her future. Here.

16. When Leia told them the truth, Jyn and Cassian said nothing.

Star Wars, complete: a Leia/Jyn/Cassian fic set after Leia finds out that Vader is her natural father. Here.

17. They escaped the way they arrived.

Star Wars, complete: AU Jyn/Cassian fic where the main cast of Rogue One makes it out of Scarif alive, and it turns out everyone has assumed Jyn and Cassian were in a relationship. Bonus grey-ace!Cassian and autistic!Jyn. Here.

18. Jyn never forgot the moment when her mother’s body slumped to the ground.

Star Wars, WIP: AU Jyn/Cassian fic where Jyn, Cassian, and Bodhi make it off Scarif together, only to get sucked into the Death Star and forced to pass themselves off as Imperials without getting caught. Another one that I started a pretty long while ago; the most recent part of it begins:

As Jyn made her way back to the hold, she caught the murmur of voices.

19. Augustus Jones was a gentleman.

Austen, WIP: an AU where Wickham gets murdered after the Netherfield Ball and the cast of P&P are suspects. Darcy/Elizabeth, of course.

20. Jyn imagined herself with Princess Leia, sometimes.

Star Wars, WIP: a Leia/Jyn/Cassian Everyone Lives AU where Jyn struggles with being into Leia and Cassian at the same time.

I think that’s about the right fics, anyway! Basically: now and then I jump straight into the story, but most often, I begin with a statement that’s kind of ??? in terms of where the story is going, but then ‘zooms in’ to provide some context/background/revelation of what’s going on before we head into the story proper. I think of it as orienting the reader, basically, and I’m usually a bit ????? unless I can think of a way to do it. I didn’t include my original stuff on this list, but I generally do the same thing there.

My fave of these is probably:

In the first few years after his escape from Yakone, Noatak drifted: from place to place, from name to name.

It does the thing where it starts from this kind of distant perspective in order to narrow in later, but I think it does a much better job than usual of giving an idea of the story’s focus, and I like the phrasing.

tagging, if you want to do it ... umm, I’m not sure who has this quantity of fic, but: @ncfan-1, @ladytharen, @kazaera, @brynnmclean, @irresistible-revolution, @steinbecks

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shownuxhyungwon · 3 years

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@minhyukie, @nervousnotion @memehyungwon and @coups mentioned me in their “content creator year in review” and I figured why not go through w it! c:

first creation and most recent creation in 2020: hyungwon on/off camera and misfortunes in the kitchen with changkyun... wow... gif making process really changed drastically for me this year...

one of your favorite creations from 2020: jooheon on body positivity/positivity in general hands down... I think about his message so often

a creation you’re really proud of: just some cute hyungwon faces bc this coloring? god I really am so proud of myself for this I did that... took me SO LONG to match the gifs but I love love love how it turned out :_____( !!!!!

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: I used the jiminfilter for the 1st time w a wonho open mind performance and I haven’t used it since... it was just a fun one! last year I was terrified of compilation sets and performance sets bc they’re so hard to color imo but this year I decided to challenge myself and ended up discovering that I genuinely LOVE compilation sets they take a while and coloring is something I always take forever on but when it all comes together it’s just... so nice :’( my fav was just some cute hyunghyuk moments and as for performances... I’m okay w them now... not my fav to gif but not as reluctant w them lol... fav was wonho open mind @ m!countdown

a creation that took you forever: shownu running to relieve his hangover and all the commotion it caused took me like 6 or 7 hours? w no breaks bc I got OBSESSED w working on it... it took me so long bc I had to screen record and encoding those frames took FOREVER plus having to tell everything that went down in 10 gifs was so difficult bc I had to compile multiple scenes in a single gif... and then I had to blur ALL! OF!! THAT!!! plus including text and then I got even more obsessed w making the set match and also the gif limit wasn’t as big as it is now and— suffice to say it would have taken more time but I realized how long I’d been working on it and had to let it go omg... it was stressful(ish) but overall I really liked how it turned out!!!!!

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: wonho’s 2020 bday which is one of my all time favs from this year a lot of the tags mentioned the last 2 gifs and... yeah... it was easy to make but also incredibly emotional... but overall I’m so happy w the coloring and the scenes I ended up choosing!

a creation you think deserved more notes: I don’t really focus on notes tbh? I just srb queue sets and call it a day I’m just happy making gifs! plus I post too many sets anyways 😅

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: wenee!!!!! I honestly really like the name wonho chose and I’ve made a couple of gifs of his time as a soloist and this set was of when he announced the fandom name! :’) and also I’ve liked nct for a few years now but this year I decided why not make a gif blog for them but I straight up forgot about it until a couple of days ago when I was cleaning my folders I saw an nct folder and was like OH... maybe I’ll start it up again lol

a creation that breaks your heart: 5 years with monsta x for sure... pain.

a simple creation that you really love: shownu w minggom... I think about this at least once a week... also smiley wonho during his 1st look interview brings me literal joy

a creation that was inspired by another one (add both your creation and the one that inspired it!): minhyuk’s 2020 bday was inspired by janice’s (@kihoseok) what happened in 1993? set which I love sm!!! 💓

a favorite creation created by someone else: @memehyungwon kihyun 2020 bday edit is SO PRETTY! I remember looking at it and my jaw literally dropped to the ground! :0 @minhyukie minhyuk’s firsts from 2020 blew me away as well! it’s just so beautiful and really nice to look at *-* @hyungkyun mx astrology changkyun aquarius set I looked at it and remember thinking “this is so wild” bc I really really was blown away by it! research queen!!!

some of your favorite creators from the year: in no particular order and ofc no need to do this if you don’t want to! I just love their gifs!!! @joohuns, @monxgifs, @minhyukie, @kihoseok, @coups, @hyungkyun

and for good measure, a couple creations of yours that you love: I’m shameless... these are my top 10... ck’s 2020 bday, jooheon and his love for beanies, jooheon as emoji’s, just some cute wonhyuk moments, favourite mxray s3 episodes/moments, black hair shownu (another fav coloring), jooheon and the Egg treasure hunt on mx is on holiday right now, kihyun + his love for dogs, mx love killa @ inkigayo and hyungwon on minhyuk’s 보그싶쇼 (ep. 17)

#WHEW WHAT A YEAR #tag game

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anangelicday-mrwolf · 3 years

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Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 63 – Time

Raizel answered oh-so-serenely to Frankenstein’s question, Frankenstein and Lascrea tilting their heads.

And then a rustle, so dim that no ordinary human ear would have detected it, spread through Lascrea’s phone.

Immediately following was an ear-splitting shout, which broke the calm of the listeners’ faces for a moment.

“...You’re laughing. Is it safe to assume that the worst is over now?”

<Haha, so is my voice like a yes-or-no sign to determine whether we’re out of the woods? That’s not so bad.>

Tao sounded like the usual, the auditory depiction of his usual stance, making a good-hearted smile while scratching the back of his head.

But of course, everyone knew that it was not the time yet to relieve their shoulders of the tension.

When Lunark was urgently hospitalized after her life-dealing battle against the Dark Spear, Lascrea had a chance to receive Tao's post-disaster-report from Seoul – or rather, she had a chance to talk to Raizel over the phone, who was reported by Tao.

She relayed to Frankenstein how Seoul just suffered a calamity out of norm, and thanks to her he was now aware of what took place in the capital city of the Republic of Korea.

However, Frankenstein had not the faintest idea of why Raizel was with Tao.

The only scenario he had expected from Raizel was to leave whatever that is to happen in Korea to KSA and RK and wait and rest at home.

Since Tao is in charge with everything whenever Frankenstein is not present, there is no chance at all for the said RK to leave the scene too soon.

Which led to a conclusion that Raizel decided to leave his respite and join Tao.

Which was not at all a good sign for Frankenstein.

“I give you a chance to show what a talented diplomat you can be, Tao. So let’s hear it – give me the 5 w’s and 1 h regarding why I’m listening to both your voice and my master’s voice.”

<Haha... Boss... You do realize Master Rai is right here, don’t you?>

“Of course I do. And he would be bewildered if I don’t say something like this.”

<...How unfortunate that there’s no way for me to counter that.>

Despite his half-hearted tantrum-slash-jest, Tao was already waiting for his moment to dispense what Frankenstein was anticipating.

“Yes, but I’d thought there’s nothing that requires my master to take a late-night trip.”

“That is good.”

Lascrea broke her silence to add to the conversation switched to the speaker mode.

Frankenstein nodded in agreement and kept his attention on Tao’s speech.

“So there must be loads of witnesses. And tons of footages taken by passersby. Since it broke out in the middle of a night when KSA had only a limited number of personnel, not enough to control the perimeter or the media.”

<Exactly. As for the footages, we can deal with them with the common protocol. Besides, I’m here to help, so no worries there. But as for the memories of the victims and witnesses...>

“...So you’re saying my master...”

No sound could be heard past the phone.

However, sometimes silence can serve as an assurance more functional than any syllable spoken.

And sometimes silence can serve as a weapon deadlier than any vowel articulated.

Especially when it comes from Frankenstein.

“There must be at least dozens of victims from this case, and if master applied his power to every single person included...!”

<Frankenstein. I am fine.>

Right when Frankenstein’s voice was about to skyrocket, Raizel’s words flickered like a crane settling down on its nest, so very smooth and effortless.

As much as Frankenstein was enraged, he knew he could not stay enraged if Raizel himself seeks to drop the subject.

Although that did not mean his rage met its demise; now he was upset.

His rage, having lost its exit, moved onto a topic not very far from its original prey.

“Anyways... You’ve been keeping it a secret that you’ve made a tenant out of a member of Cerberus.”

<Uh... Well... Yeah. It just happened. Hahaha...>

Tao retorted with a laugh, but Frankenstein could clearly see Tao in deepest regret.

Regret that he should not have opened everything in relation to the trouble at Seoul, in fear that something else might happen if he does not share everything to his boss.

And no reminder was needed that to Frankenstein, this was far beyond a mere disobedience.

“Forget it. What can I say, after everything that has happened? If it weren’t for that Cerberus friend of yours, we wouldn’t have dealt with the disaster at Seoul. In fact, I should be rewarding Takio for winning her over.��

<Oh, speaking of which, maybe you could really do that for Takio, boss.>

“What? Did he beg to me to forget about how one of my safehouses was blown up because of that fiend called Kornel?”

<Uh, no, but... He has a favor.>

“A favor...?”

Right after the pseudo-zombie breakout at Korea was officially closed, naturally all victims were immediately sent to KSA headquarter or hospitals in association with KSA for check-up and treatment.

Which resulted in the overflow of all beds available with victims of body modification and victims of the aforementioned victims.

Because of which the RK, Yuigi, and KSA agents that took part in the incident could only sit and get in line.

Which naturally served as a reminder for Takio.

“...That was meant to be a joke. Sort of. Thanks a lot for making a real deal out of it. So, what is this symptom that you’re talking about?”

Tao retraced his memories – that is, he retraced Takio’s memories based on Yuigi’s testaments, on what she had gone through during Kornel’s raid on the safehouse.

Which resulted in Frankenstein’s silence, something that Lascrea and Tao found as a puzzlement.

There is not a soul left upon Earth who can match Frankenstein with research, so they doubted this would be something not even he can do something about.

However, their concern was proved as meaningless, at least hinted by what Frankenstein said.

“Are you sure...? You swear that she lost control of her own body? With her conscious alive, trapped in her own form to watch and hear and comprehend everything that her own flesh and bones were wreaking?”

<Yep. That’s what she said.>

They knew what Tao spoke of was strikingly similar to what followed Frankenstein’s loss of his body to the Dark Spear.

Hence Lascrea and Tao felt their hearts wince and shrivel, dreading the potential connection Frankenstein could make between Yuigi’s mystery and the Dark Spear.

However, the next moment they could make out a perplexing mixture of anxiety and excitement in his voice.

“Tao. I want you to prepare everything I’d need to run full examination on her, on the double. I want to get started as soon as I make it. I'll be on my way soon enough.”

<What? You mean... You're coming over right now?>

“Frankenstein, I fear your body yet requires...”

Lascrea, perhaps having waited for a moment to make the suggestion, offered as Tao posed a concern.

Nevertheless, Frankenstein was already smoothing out his attire, the gesture adamant.

Upon which Lascrea chose to give up on reasoning with him.

Her history with Frankenstein was neither old nor thick; yet she had an advice from Gechutel that it is impossible to make Frankenstein give up on his resolve when he looked like what she was beholding.

Most importantly, even Raizel himself was remaining wordless on Frankenstein’s decision, and her intuition was telling her that it is futile to talk to him anymore.

Still, Frankenstein was not the type of a man to keep his people worried, especially his master, regardless of his speechless stance.

“I’ll be right there, as soon as I finish treatments and check-up that won’t hold me for more than 10 minutes.”

“...In that case, I shall relay the message to my medical personnel.”

“That will be more than appreciated.”

“Sure thing. I shall see you in a bit, master.”

<...No need to hurry, Frankenstein. The last thing you can save at the moment is time.>

As he watched how the voice chat on Lascrea’s phone was terminated, Frankenstein could feel the edges of his eyes trembling, in reminiscence of Raizel’s final words.

When Raizel said there was no need for him to hurry, it meant more than the fact that Frankenstein did not need to be so impatient with his return to Korea.

After he returned the phone to Lascrea, Frankenstein was all alone, free to shift his eyes back to Lunark’s bed.

‘Time...’

The blonde man went over the term again, as he felt how the vessels and ventricles in his body were flinching and twisting.

Time.

That was what both he and Lunark needed.

There was no telling when Lunark will awaken, but he knew once she does, he will not have time.

He will not have time to settle with his feelings for her, to decide whether to let go of them. Or explore them. Or accept them.

‘Wait... What did I just say?’

Accept my feelings for her?

Frankenstein ferociously rubbed his face, realizing how he forgot about Muzaka’s request regarding Lunark’s feelings for him.

At then someone called out for his name, and he half-forced his eyes off from Lunark.

Whatever his conclusion may be regarding the werewolf, there was no denying that he needed time.

And he needed to stay away from her for the time being.

(next chapter)

Now the time has come to unravel the mysteries introduced in this fic so far, and the next chapter will feature a puzzle that was flung in Frankenstein’s face in the very beginning chapters of this fic, which is the reason why he decided to return to Seoul asap when he learned about Yuigi’s symptom. Actually, there are so many mysteries that I wanted to discuss through this fic, and I happen to be writing about one of them right now as I compose Chapter 68. I took a lot of care as I came up with this one, but it did not make it any easier for me to write about it. :P But I promise I shall do my best. :)

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rigelmejo · 4 years

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random notes about drawbacks/positives of mia:

My biggest incompatibility with the massive immersion approach (and in general a lot of good modern study methods) is I hate flashcards. It’s not that I dislike them as a concept - I am just super bad at concentrating on them. I am NOT good at doing the following: focusing on small bits of information, studying for short periods but Regularly, Reviewing Regularly, and sometimes I just genuinely can’t retain small concentrated reading sentences to the point it takes me 10 MINUTES a flashcard in order to understand/study it. As you can imagine, that last part is NOT efficient, and ends up making flashcards even slower for me as a study method then they’re ever meant to be. I can’t control when I’m unable to figure out/concentrate on small bits of information, so some months flashcards work as intended for me (I can review 10-20 in 10 minutes), but other months suddenly 10 flashcards takes me an hour. So I am not good at sticking to flashcards consistently - once the hard months hit, I don’t keep up with reviews, because they suddenly take way more time then they ‘should.’ However, when I can focus I try to make up the difference - and do 20-100 cards a day while I have the ability to do flashcards at a regular pace. On the upside, I’m proof you can do the SRS flashcard reviews, in a very chaotic way, and still get benefits. How I’ve done flashcards: cram 300-1000 in a couple weeks to a month, including whatever reviews I need. 2nd month - review if I can still focus, and do a few new cards (like 5-15 a day at most). By the time I can’t focus, most words are relatively-known and I only would need to review them once a week or every few weeks - if I COULD focus on reviews. However, I only actually review once a month or less at this point - and I’ll only review 20ish cards usually in that rare instance, unless I have a good day. I will not usually review the majority of those cards until my next burst of can-focus-on-flashcards usually in 2-3 more months. I have done all my flashcards THIS INCONSISTENTLY, and I’ve still retained a lot of what I studied. What I think helps: immersing in other content when you can’t do flashcards, so that you’re often still being exposed to words you studied (so they’re easier to not forget even though you stopped doing flashcards). So yeah... inconsistent flashcards, and some immersion exposure, and I was able to keep some of the gains SRS flashcards generally provide people. I can’t do flashcards consistently, and I usually have to do them in big-chunks then abandon them, but they do help me boost up how much I know when I DO use them.

More regarding my incompatibility with mia. The big thing is: I’m just not a flashcard person, not a consistent person. I have to vary what I’m doing regularly, or I burn out/struggle to focus. When I was in school, I would do the following to study: take notes/focus intently when being taught, then read the textbook/materials if I needed more help. Before tests, or to ‘review’ I would reread my notes from beginning to end of what I needed to remember. This would refresh my memory. If I still forgot/did not understand anything, I’d pinpoint that info in the book/ask my teacher/go online etc and try to just focus most of my ‘harder’ studying on those parts I was struggling with. Usually just taking notes/focusing, then reviewing everything in bulk right before I needed it (so maybe once every few weeks), was enough. When I couldn’t take notes, I would instead skim through book chapter summaries, and rewatch lecture videos if there was a digital copy - focusing most on the videos when info I forgot/sounded like key information was mentioned. Basically - notes, summaries, short cheat sheets, were all my friends. For tests like math and physics, I would read my notes AND make mini-sheets of all key formulas and how to do them/what I needed for them (usually I already had a sheet I just kept adding to over time/rereading). I could not use flashcards back then - I couldn’t focus, not consistently, not the way they’re meant to be used. It took me too long to even make them to warrant them being useful to me (I take SO long to make flashcards, its also a focus issues - also why when I do SRS flashcards I usually just grab some premade deck cause it keeps me MOVING and actually STUDYING instead of getting frozen in a task).

This has always been my go-to study method. When I started chinese, this is how I learned 400 characters/basic words. I bought a reference book with mnemonics, and would make myself read through it (as if it were notes I took). Occasionally I’d flip through old pages again, just to see if I still recognized old stuff, but mostly I just kept moving forward. So like - flip back every couple weeks to skim old pages, but read forward every day. I got through half the book before I burned out (because... reference books with their short entries of information? a lot like flashcards in structure, except thankfully I don’t regularly review afterwards like I would with flashcards). It still took me 10-20 minutes for 10 entries in the book, but unlike flashcards it was a one-time task. When I got done, I had learned them pretty well - and I didn’t do anything to review them. They were just reviewed with immersion naturally, and eventually when I started studying common words these characters came up again (so if I forgot any, I relearned them easier then). This approach is roughly how I learned all words not in my premade-flashcard decks. I’ll read a chinese book - just start reading through it, looking up words I want to learn. I don’t review them, I don’t look them up again. Sometimes, maybe once a month, I’ll reread an old chapter to see what progress I’ve made - and then lookup unknown words then, as review since I didn’t remember them the first time. It sucks in a way... that SRS flashcard style study methods just.... do not work consistently for me. They are still beneficial, because in short month bursts I can quickly learn 500-1000 things with SRS (which is faster than some classes introduce words). But overall I have to rely on other study methods. Which for me feel inconsistent in progress since I can’t measure it as easy lol! Even with no SRS, doing ‘bursts’ of this read-intensively note-like materials, then very occasionally skim old material again, does seem to work out okay for me. Back when I learned to read french, I did no flashcards. I looked up a common words list (and used my class vocabulary lists). I read through them once. Before tests (if for class), or every few weeks, I re-read/skimmed the word lists. By 3-4 months I learned the first 500 words. Then, since french has a lot of ‘similar’ sort of words, I just sort of dived into reading and then picked up words mostly that way - just checking a word list every month or so to review known words and make sure I didn’t have some big gap of missing vocabulary.

So I guess: for me the biggest positive in mia is the suggestion to immerse often, frequently, and with a variety of materials. So that you practice different skills, learn a variety of things - and so you can move to something you like, if you get bored/unable to focus on one specific type of material. With mia you can read novels for a month, then get sick of reading and just watch shows/listen to podcasts when you walk, then if you’re burnt out from that you can just browse social media and check out fanfics/manhua/friends posts in the language for a few days or weeks before picking up longer materials again. The point is just to find ways to immerse, and do it. Simple advice. SUPER simple advice. But incredibly useful - every single time I add more immersion, I notice a boost in my comprehension. I notice actual improvement over time. I can’t pinpoint ‘why’ it happens, so unfortunately I’m not sure which complementary study methods or ways of immersing are helping me precisely with improvement in which skills. But I can tell that I am improving. I would 100% agree that immersing more is worth trying, at any language learning stage, as much as you want to. I immersed in the first months in both french and chinese, and I did much better than with japanese (where I did not immerse for 2 years and so my level stayed A1 beginner for like 2 years...). My French last time it was tested was around B1, which is fine since I just wanted to read and guess where my skills are closer to A2 and dragging it down? (Yes. Yes of course its speaking ability, of course). My chinese as far as I can pinpoint it is around HSK 4, as far as material I can easily read/listen to, as far as the practice tests I can take online. (Which, again, I’d self evaluate and say my comprehension is at HSK 4 or higher - I definitely can rely on good ability to guess meanings with hanzi and my comfort following grammar easily to boost comprehension a bit higher, but my speaking/writing is lower and I definitely only feel totally comfortable discussing topics that are manageable at HSK 3 - and my production grammar-wise is understandable but SO full of ‘this is the wrong way, use this instead’ which I’m working on...). So like... I got much farther in a year with each language I immersed in - even with the limited immersion I do actually do! So more immersion - better. While I’m on the topic of immersion: if you like reading, read often and early. I am better off for telling myself “its not hard to read” and just diving in the deep end. Was it hard? ahahaha yes. ;w; But, I realize if I’d put off reading until say HSK 4 or HSK 5 knowledge in chinese, reading would be EVEN HARDER because I’d be so much worse at quickly reading through grammar/gathering context clues. Reading is a mix of actual reading skill, and vocab. I built up a lot of the actual reading skill by starting to try to read super early. So now my main struggle is generally just lack of vocabulary - and since I understand all surrounding grammar very well, its easier for me to roughly-guess at unknown words function and still follow the gist of what’s going on. Reading early also means, for words and hanzi I DO already know, I learned to recognize the many contexts/phrases they show up in and the various words they combine into earlier. So again, when I’m looking at a new text the hardest words are new vocab made of ALL unknown hanzi - if I know one hanzi in the word, it’s something I can often approximately guess the meaning of especially when I understand the entire rest of the sentence. If a new word is spelled with all known hanzi, I can look it up once or twice and generally remember it very fast - since its connected to what I already know. If I had waited to read until I’d learned more vocab, I would have less of a reading skill foundation to rely on right now. And based on what I’ve read of at least some people’s experiences on chinese-forums.com, many readers will go through a STEEP uncomfortable period when starting to read chinese. Something vocab does not totally mitigate. I think it just takes many hours, of the reading skills getting less and less hard, and then eventually things get more comfortable. There is also the issue of ‘comprehensible’ reading material - depending on your tolerance for ambiguity, chinese can be painfully incomprehensible for a long time. Generally people feel comfortable once they comprehend 98% of a material. But in chinese, even once you learn thousands of vocab, depending on your reading skills and abilities to ‘guess from context clues’, you will not be at 98% yet. Even if you can guess from context clues, that isn’t solid comprehension its still ambiguously understood material. So to get used to reading chinese as a learner, you have to start getting used to how it feels to read stuff only 80% comprehensible. Only 90% comprehensible. And if you get good and learn a lot of vocab and grammar and understand it better when you see it - 95%. Which is still not the range of ‘comfort’ yet. The quicker you learn to not be stressed by the ambiguity, the less painful reading becomes. And the more tolerable it is, the more you can read, and the quicker you can learn more, and the quicker you’ll REACH 95% to 98% comprehensibility. But if its so painful you refuse to keep reading, to keep using reading to push comprehensibility up... it is going to be a long way until you hit 98%... Graded readers are great, and give you stepping stones to transition this experience. Graded readers are MADE to be 98% comprehensible at different learning levels, so they will FEEL comfortable. And if they do feel uncomfortable (because you don’t have high enough comprehension), then they will at least drag your comprehension up - and still be more tolerable than the alternative of even LESS comprehensible native speaker chinese language materials. Basically though... find a way to force yourself through the harder ‘intolerable’ early parts. It happens whether you know 500 words or 2000. So you’ll have to do it eventually. I get demotivated if I’ve ‘studied a lot and still understand nothing’ so my foolish self dived off the deep end at 500 words, then at 1000, then at 1500, then at 2000. Cause I kept trying to read, being frustrated at its difficulty and stopping after a few weeks, then trying again once I’d learned more! But wow did that early trying pay off. Now that I DO know more words, if nothing else the comparison of how NICE it feels to read now in comparison to in the past, motivates me a ton. If I just started reading recently, and all I knew was it felt ‘this hard’ then I might want to give up. But like... when I started, and knew 500 words, my graded readers were PAINFUL. Genuinely intimidating. Once I pushed through one? They felt easy as pie, and graded readers at that vocab-level felt so easy they got boring. Now I find graded HSK 4 material and usually read through it super fast or don’t even bother. So I can 1. read more comfortably. And 2. because I’ve BUILT up a higher tolerance to ‘ambiguity discomfort’ I can allow myself to read harder materials if I do want to - because I can still TELL it feels easier than it used to.

Finally, about MIA the study method as a concept. So... either because the site is long and people don’t like to finish reading, or maybe the writer is not good at summaries - but people often get confused about how to do it. Particular detail questions about how to do ‘this specific suggested activity’ make sense. But there’s a lot of people who ask “do I just turn on the language shows, and?? How do I learn?” Which, fair enough. So, as I understand it, here’s a summary: You want to learn a language. Find yourself a grammar guide - a free website, a book, whatever. Read the summary/guide, or skim it, whatever gives you a ‘preview’ of the language’s structure and what you’ll be getting used to over time. You will use this guide to reference later in the future, whenever grammar in stuff you see confuses you. You can use multiple guides later to reference. Right now, just zoom through a guide and get a general sense of the language you’re abut to learn. You can also wait to do this step until later, whenever you want. The sooner you do it, the sooner grammar will be less mysterious to you. Find yourself a pronunciation guide. Go through it, you don’t have to be a perfectionist about ANYTHING you do before or after this. Just go through, listen to it all, try to notice how its different from your own language. Notice if there’s any major differences like tones, sounds or patterns your own language doesn’t have. You don’t need to memorize, you’re just becoming aware that these aspects exists and are different. Again, this is to get you used to the language you’re about to dive into. This should probably be done early on. Look up some info about the writing system, if it is different from your own language’s. You will probably find some explanation introductory articles for beginners. If there’s any explanations about how it works, or why it’s like it is, read through it. This will help you understand the system better. You don’t need to memorize - although you may want to save a couple hundred common words, or a copy of all the letters, or a copy of a couple hundred common characters, or a copy of the radicals that combine to make characters. Read over this copied info a few times every once in a while, as you’ll see these things a TON once you start immersing. You find yourself a premade deck of SRS flashcards (use Memrise app, Anki program/website, some alternative) of common words in that language - ideally in sentences, but single-words work if that’s all you can find. Ideally with audio - but again, whatever you can find. You may also find an SRS deck of characters (like Heisig Remember the Kanji)/writing system specific info, if you want, to go through that deck early on to help you more with recognizing the writing system as you encounter it. Whatever decks you get, you will study those for 10-30 minutes a day. You can start doing this from day 1. (Or be like me and be inconsistent about it - just try to keep progressing forward and learning new material, even if you don’t always study. For me it was better always to move onto new stuff, instead of review, if I only had time to do one out of the two things.) Find yourself stuff to immerse with - shows, stories, audios, comics, social media, whatever. You will try to immerse every day, and try to immerse as much as you enjoy. Do this from day 1. When immersing: use either the language you are studying’s subtitles or else none at all. When watching/listening - look up words as desired, mainly though focus on context and trying to understand as much of the gist of what’s going on as you can. Over time you will pick things up. For reading - look up words as desired, and in the beginning you may look up a TON of words because you need to look up at least enough to follow the Bare Minimum Gist of What The Main Plot is. You NEED to understand at least basic context, with whatever your immersion material is, in order to learn new words from context. So: you might start with reading simple graded readers. You might use shows/books/audio of things you’ve already experienced in english, so the context is clearer to you. You might read summaries in english ahead of time. If you need more context in order to use immersion to learn any new things - then go ahead and give yourself more context. Immersion will feel difficult at first, the joy is watching you start to just ‘naturally’ pick up more. Audio immersion - for some of this, you do not need to attempt to ‘understand the gist of the plot’, you can just use it to attempt to pick out all the specific words in the language, the language’s rhythm, and get used to the language. If you’re only using an audio to learn the sounds of a language, you can probably use it as ‘background sound’ while doing other daily things, since it won’t require as constant focus as it would if you were trying to catch every single word you knew as you listened. There you go. You’re all set. Do this for a year and see where your progress is at. Quit doing this if you aren’t seeing some improvements, since if that’s the case a different study method may be better for you. Don’t do this method if you don’t like it - whatever gets you to study, is the right methods for you. No point doing something that doesn’t work for you. Eventually, as you make progress, you will decide on goals and notice mistakes/shortcomings in your skills. When that happens, add additional study materials/tasks as needed to focus specifically on those things as desired. For example - if you notice your pronunciation sucks, you may start using audio-focused flashcards, or go through a pronunciation guide again more carefully-thoroughly this time. Or - you realize your writing is bad, so you go through a grammar guide again and do the exercises, and get language partners and write to them regularly so that you get corrections. Eventually, you finish a common word flashcard deck - find a new deck, or make one, with new words you want to learn or need to based on your goals. The massive immersion approach is a basic plan of immerse-while-paying-attention+study new words/review words regularly, it doesn’t include every single thing you might do or want to do.

Anyway, mm. tldr: massive immersion approach suggests doing immersion of all kinds, from day 1. I couldn’t agree more, every time I add more immersion when studying a language it helps so significantly and over time. however, mia also has half of it’s study method based on SRS flashcards - if you are not a flashcard person like me, my alternative study ‘method’ above works. It’s not perfect, its probably not as effective. But it works if you can’t focus on SRS flashcards reliably. Finally, I summarize mia a little.

#rant #study method #mia #mass immersion approach

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feverdreamsuggestion · 5 years

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i can’t read your submission requirements because i’m on mobile what do they say

ghdfjk oops i forgot mobile is an issue -

“if you wanna submit some feverdream suggestions pls make them in second person (ie “you feel hot” - this has been an issue w pas submissions) and send ‘em through the ask. also preface them with an asterisk * so i know its a suggestion if ya can. they’ll hop on in the queue and come out whenever the queue hits them. please do not spam the inbox, that makes it harder for me to get everything sorted and makes other people wait longer to see their stuff posted. it’s not fair to send me like 10 things in a row y'know. if u have a lot u wanna submit please limit yourself to

#ghfkjgfd sorry i've been a lil awol oops #not a suggestion #Anonymous

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anne-lister-adventures · 4 years

Text

Friday, 10 May 1839

7 1/4

Before dressing wrote note to Mr. Waterhouse – Cold East wind as yesterday Fahrenheit 46º inside and 44º outside at 8 3/4 a.m. and breakfast having sent down my note for George to take to ‘John Waterhouse Esquire Well-Head’ purporting that if it suited his convenience and his own views of those of the rest of the Committee, I should be happy to see him on the subject of the temporary cavalry barracks at anytime he might appoint today, tomorrow, or Monday –

Breakfast over about 9 1/4 Isaac Hemingway having waited a few minutes – A-[Ann] sent for him to say she had heard from Captain and Mrs. Sutherland and he, I.[Isaac] H-[Hemingway], and his father John H-[Hemingway] were to have the stone at 10d. per ft.[foot] –

Same terms of lease as Bentley of which I read aloud to him the material parts – Average thickness of bed to be taken at 6 ft.[feet] at 10d. = 5/- per yard superior – Rent to commence from 1 July next, and 1st payment to be due 1 January next – 400 yards at 5/- to be paid for per annum – Got or not – And if more got, more paid for – If the bed thinner, to be allowed for – If thicker paid for after the additional rate of 10d. per foot –

I fancied S.[Samuel] W.[Washington] would not take any notice of any additional thickness that was much under a foot – No! Hemingway thought anything under 6 in.[inches] should not be thought of – But I distinctly said A-[Ann] and I could say nothing on this subject – There would be the lease to go by, and Mr. S.[Samuel] W.[Washington] would do what was right –

A-[Ann] and I would probably go to Landymere on Monday or Tuesday and take Booth with us to see the 400 yards square plot (term 4 years – To be paid for in 3 years) staked out –

It might be a few minutes past 10 when A-[Ann] and I went into the North room to Holt whom we had sent for very early this morning about the Rookes coal-loose – No restrictions necessary – Mr. Whiteley could loose no coal but 4 or 5 (H-[Holt] said 5 or 6 before) acres of his own except what belonged to Captain and Mrs. S-[Sutherland] and that H-[Holt] said before would have to be loosed by an engine –

The coal lies differently there from here – Rises towards the East – But still on shewing H-[Holt] the plan he seemed to shew the general dip as from West to East – There is a throw-down that prevents W-[Whiteley] getting any more than 4 to 6 acres except what belongs to the S-s[Sutherlands] which H-[Holt] repeated (as he said before) should be let at £150 per acre to W-[Whiteley] if he applied for it – The S-s[Sutherlands] should have a power to send down their agents to inspect W-s[Whiteley’s] works whenever they (the S-s[Sutherlands]) thought fit –

H-[Holt] would let W-[Whiteley] have the loose for as long as he wanted it – could get about an acre in a year – The loose is an old level that has been driven which W-[Whiteley] ought to have the power of cleaning out – Suppose limited to get the coal under such and such ground – Hemmed in by the S-s[Sutherlands] – And the ground on the upper side, Priestley Green &c. not belonging to the S-s[Sutherlands], has no coal – It breaks out there – Loose to be £10 a year to be paid from the time of signing the agreement –

An application from A-‘s[Ann’s] Bouldshaw tenants, Messers Holmes and Co., to Captain and Mrs. S-[Sutherland] thro’ Holt for the engine coal in the 2 little fields adjoining the road (from 2 to 3 acres of coal) – Would give £130 per acre – Holt thought full as much as it was worth more than he should like to give for it himself –

On Holt’s going A-[Ann] had Mr. Parker respecting her Navigation stock – 4 shares sold at £434 each the purchaser taking the dividend due at midsummer = 4 x 9 = £36. A-[Ann] signed away the 4 shares to Messers…. Tew and Co. bankers Wakefield – the money to be paid to P-[Parker] and A-[Adam] on Monday or Tuesday next £600 of it to be paid immediately to Marian for Lee Lane; and as to the rest A-[Ann] would write word what she would have done with it –

Gave P-[Parker] Hinscliffe’s coal lease with instructions for the new agreement – P-[Parker] seemed to think it could not be safely done by Memorandum – Nor Holt nor Hinscliffe can possibly tell how much can be got – But H-[Holt] thinks the quantity cannot exceed 1 1/2 acres – The agreement limited to what is under the road, the 23 perches of plantation and the 3 acres + of the one field called Flashes lying alongside the Crownest carriage road –

Mr. Crossland wants a copy of his lease – Gave Mr. P-[Parker] the lease back with him to be copied and then returned immediately – This led to the mention of the temporary cavalry-stables – P-[Parker] said they could not raise the money – I said the stables should be on the reserved ground and might extend, if required along the top of St. Anne’s Street – Just put my finger on the the narrow out-of-line Street on Mr. Day’s plan, as if merely done to light Mr. Abbot’s cottages –

Then miscellaneous talk about the resignation Ministers &c. the bringing in Lord Pollington &c. &c. Robson in London the great man of business of the Mexbroughs – Not much done here –

Had proposed before A-[Ann] left us (perhaps about 11 1/2 or later?) the giving Messers P-[Parker] and A-[Adam] £50 a year for their Agency for us both; and said they would be better paid than P-[Parker] would be for going over to N.[North] Cave (to see Miss Marian about the Lee Lane title deeds) 2 days away and expense for four guineas – A deputation would cost her six guineas – She had best come over –

I said they P-[Parker] and A-[Adam] would have nothing to do for A-[Ann] and me but be receive the rents and be responsible for them, and for all payments to Booth – To give notices to quit, and to let free of expense – To do, in at the £50 per annum; what law stewards usually did but to be paid for all extra law work – But would by and by given clear written directions – Mr. P-[Parker] staid till 12 10/’’ then till 12 55/’’ wrote all but the 1st line of today – Then till 1 10/’’ wrote as follows to Marian to go tonight –

“Shibden Hall – Friday 10 May 1839.

My dear Marian –

Mr. Parker has just been here, and said he had a 1/2 written letter which he meant to send you by this evening’s post – We told him to inform you, that the money would be ready for you any day after the fifteenth – He said the deeds could not possibly be ready – Miss Walker will make no difficulty about this – It will be a great convenience to you to have the money; and you had best take the opportunity –

It seems, a deputation (respecting the copyhold) would cost you six guineas; and Mr. Parker’s going over, he told us, should be charged four guineas – Little enough for his 2 days of time and travelling expense – Your best plan would be, to come over as soon as you can –

Answer Mr. Parker’s letter by instructing him to get on with the deeds as fast as he can, adding that you intend to be here on the fifteenth (Wednesday next), and will then settle everything –

Do not hesitate – We can take in your maid without any trouble – Put posters to your carriage, and be here by seven in the evening, to dinner –

I forgot to mention Robert Geoffrey in my last letter, and to ask you to let him know, that, on consideration, I thought it best to give up all thought of his coming here –

Miss Walker is out – But I am sure I may send her love – Affectionately yours A L-[Lister]

You must count upon being here a few days; for your business cannot be done in less time – You will be awakened early in the morning by workmen, but will not, I trust, be subject to any other inconvenience” –

All the above just filled 2 pp.[pages] – had written so far at 1 25/’’ –

A-[Ann] returned a few minutes ago, or, at least, I have heard her bell ring – with A-[Ann] read her my letter to Marian and wrote her copy of what she ought to write to Marian and of what she ought to write to Mr. Washington with Bentleys sstone lease to be copied by him for the two Hemingways as desired by Mrs. Sutherland –

1/4 hour at luncheon – I took a little cold roast roll of beef and then hot gingerbread which A-[Ann] said she enjoyed – She seems better today – She has Mr. Horner this afternoon, and is just gone to him now at 2 3/4 –

Then went out to Robert Mann and William Lord and Ben and Thomas Sharpe filling carts (my own 2 horses – the 3d.[3rd] in the stable) with clay from the Laundry court road to near the glen bridge – Ordered the third horse out, and the clay to be carried on the top of the embankment between the back Lodge gates and the rock bridge – With Robert Mann there levelling after the carts till 5 –

Then a little while at Listerwick saw Holt and Joseph Mann on their return from Hannah Walker’s – They went to set out the 300 yards of ground A-[Ann] is to have alongside the Crownest carriage road – Nothing set out –

H.[Hannah] W.[Walker] wished all to remain as it is till after hay time she will then oblige Miss Walker who is to have what she wants whether she, H.[Hannah] W.[Walker], sells the coal or not –

Told Holt to write again for the engine bill from Low Moor – Back with Robert Mann on the embankment just before 6 – then with him about explaining what I wished to be done – Told him I had made up my mind not to hire a gardener at present, but would take him R.[Robert] M.[Mann] at £50 per annum till his banks-man’s place at Listerwick was ready for him – Said Holt had told me, it would be a year first – R.[Robert] M.[Mann] very well satisfied – Said he would do anything – He would do the best he could – Said I wished the horses to earn their keep – He must talk things over with Booth –

I should appoint to pay and to do what I myself did when at home – I hoped all would go on well – Robert to advise B-[Booth] about the colliery and to write to me this to the care of Messers Hammersley’s if he thought proper – With Robert the joiner and Mrs. Lee a little while –

Then with A-[Ann] dressed – dinner at 7 20/’’ – A-[Ann] read French (in the North parlour) coffee – Read the newspaper and then wrote the last 19 1/2 lines till now 9 25/’’ – Then sat talking to A-[Ann] till came upstairs at 10 40/’’ fine but dull day and cold East wind as yesterday Fahrenheit 44º inside and 36º outside at 10 3/4 p.m. – then at accounts (making up rough book) till 11 20/’’ –

[symbols in the margin of the page:] N ✓

[in the margin of the page:] Stone let by A-[Ann] to the 2 Hemingways

[in the margin of the page:] Rooke’s coal loose

[in the margin of the page:] vide p.[page] 78.

[in the margin of the page:] Sutherland Rookes coal £150 per acre

[in the margin of the page:] Sutherland Engine coal £130 per acre

[in the margin of the page:] A-[Ann] signs away 4 Navigation shares

[in the margin of the page:] A-‘s[Ann’s] new coal lease to Hinscliffe

[in the margin of the page:] will give R.[Robert] M.[Mann] £50

Page References: SH:7/ML/E/23/0039 and SH:7/ML/E/23/0040

#anne lister code breaker #anne lister #ann walker #marian's last visit

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ryouverua · 5 years

Text

Love Across the Universe

So life after DR looks....................... interesting.

Going into this was so weird and for a moment I couldn’t figure out why. And then I remembered that because I had ended up spending a good chunk of the game as Shuichi, I had forgotten that this scene was originally presented to us from Kaede’s POV - which makes this very interesting. We never got to see Shuichi’s thoughts before Rantaro died and Kaede was found as the culprit - before he went through an incredibly traumatizing event and ended up reliving his worst nightmare. With just a limited ‘before’ picture, it’s pretty easy to treat Shuichi’s thoughts as his de facto state when they’re.... really.... not, even during the quieter moments. What will his voice will be like in this scenario? It’ll be nice to even get a bit of insight.

WAIT

I thought they didn’t remember the actual kidnapping itself - did they?

Is this a blend of pre and post first flashback light? Am I reading entirely too into this??? Probably tbh but still -

He did wake up with the uniform on so yeah, post-talents, but...

......... This is an incredibly condensed version. Shuichi’s giving us a narrative flashback then?

I’M TALKING TO KAEDE AS SHUICHI THIS IS WEEEEEIRD

Gonna be honest I liked it better when most of you were dead

Shuichi still looks to Kaede for some leadership, of course. That hasn't changed.

Yeeeeeees Shuichi thoughts on the prologue give me moooooore

AAAAAH EVERYONE IS HERE!!! ;A;

Again, this is post-flashback light, so.... Tsumugi is probably feigning fright. Maybe? This is supposed to echo the pre-light scene, which lends some weight to the theory that she’s playing up her reaction both times. However, seeing as she was exposed to the original flashback/blackout light everyone else was, wouldn't she be experiencing all of this for the first time too? Is there a chance the first round was genuine? Hell, could this be genuine, because having a giant mecha with guns on their arms jump in your face is a solid 10/10 on the intimidating list?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO NOT GO LASER-FOCUSED ON ALL THE TSUMUGI LINES HERE

The whole team is back together though.... Ghgh. I remember this part vaguely...

Talk about establishing character traits quickly. 8′) This was a pretty great intro as far as showing what everyone is like, quickly.

They had Maki and Kaito bouncing off of each other this early too...

YOU

HOLY HELL I FORGOT HOW MUCH I MISSED YOU IN THE GAME

He was just so collected and aware....

.... I feel like this joke was a lot more drawn-out.

.......................... I have to know how they're going to handwave this. He decided to cancel it?!

Birds of a feather and all of that

GGGH GODDAMN, OKAY

.... okay once again all the Monokid antics are kinda dragging things along but this was admittedly funny

It is really, really hard to miss all of the jokes about the truth of the world once you’re on the other side. Like, damn. I feel like they were probably a lot more blatant than I realize in the game, too.

Rantaro stop being such a leader, damn.

Seriously this is 100% why he had to go, huh. I could see him swinging the protagonist or rival role in the last game.... or even an investigative role. He just has enough of all three traits - smart, taking charge, lone wolf, etc - that he’d be a complete stage-stealer.

Aaaaaw, thanks -

.... uh -

O h .

WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY

Is it because of how blatant he’s being about it

How they’re not even hiding the show aspect anymore

Is it because Monokuma looked at a class including Miu, Kokichi and Korekiyo and said, ‘yup! These guys would be perfect for a dating show rather than the original killing game I planned!’

Kaito out of everyone here you will have the least problems in getting someone interested in you.

I guess the difficulty comes in him not being oblivious to it w h o o p s

IS THIS SERIOUSLY ‘DATE OR DIE’

....... It’s true but it’s still not great AND YOU STILL KIDNAPPED THEM AND ARE COERCING THEM TO -

Wait

Would Kaito still have his illness in this universe??? Doesn’t that mean he’s going to die anyway????? Or would this mean he was given it in the first or second chapter?! HEY MONOKUMA -

‘Also I’ve planted a life-threatening illness in one of you. No spoilers, though!’

......... Would this potentially mean that this could have happened ahead of the actual killing game, and none of the kids got with each other which resulted in the killing game actually happening which actually makes this ‘Life before DR -’

That was the premise of DR1′s bonus mode if I remember correctly. Huh.

‘So Shuichi here are 15 love keys. HAVE FUN!’

.... Also, uh. K1-b0 exists, so wouldn't they be watching through him? Guess that’s something they wouldn't want to bring up here...

“You really put the ‘ace’ in ‘space’, huh.”

Okay, just normal instructions from here. Dating tickets, FTE, etc... seems easy enough. Time to finally unlock all the bonus stuff!

P-Please don’t put it that way...

And look at this picture, redesigned with Shuichi at the helm of it all!

I’m just going to take a moment to appreciate how poorly he’s taking the whole dating show with his inner dialogue lmao

same though

#Ryou plays drv3 #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #drv3 salmon mode #Shuichi Saihara

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angel-princess-anna · 5 years

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APA’s Take on Downton 2019

First of all, whoever had the brilliant idea to have a 10 minute recap of the show before the film and include *those* scenes from S4E3 like.... it did not set a great tone for me. I had warning thanks to some awesome friends who messaged me, but yeah.

Anyway though here’s my very opinionated thoughts. For reference, here are the A/B spoilers.

tl;dr: this film did not give me anything I wanted, and really wasn’t about the characters, it was about making money. It felt like it was a farce, not a sequel. And Anna was grossly out of character. S6CS remains my ending.

This is my personal opinion, after one viewing so might be a bit knee-jerk; super long; contains major spoilers:

(sorry I get really rambly and repetitive towards the end)

One of the main overall issues was that the pacing was... bad. Like the TV show has short scenes but this was like... on speed. And a lot happened off screen and was just mentioned. Everything was very, very rushed. And it felt sloppy to me.

And it wasn’t so much that it was because there were too many storylines. Because there barely were any personal storylines!! And’s what was lacking. The heart of the show isn’t Downton the house; it’s the characters.

Something that I’ve always thought about the show, is that your opinion on an episode or season really does depend on your favorite characters (and/or why you like the show overall). And it’s the same for the film. It’s an ensemble show and that’s the nature of it. An add-on movie therefore needs to appeal to fans of all and it does not imho.

I’m an Anna x Bates fan, and a downstairs fan. And I went in thinking, well this is gonna be pretty classist to believe that all the servants would still want to be there in 1927 (the year however is not that clear in the film). But you don’t even really have time to think about what should be going on, because it’s such a rush of a bit of preparing and then the weekend of the royals being there. There was no time for organic personal storylines, more or less. Thomas got a tad but tbh, less than I thought he would?? Daisy and Andy are apparently engaged but don’t even act like it?

The film isn’t a true sequel to me because it’s not showing us where these characters would go with their lives after the show. The plot was chosen first and it’s obvious.

And that creates a feeling of disconnect that makes the film seems isolated from the TV show. Like it wanted to be stand alone, but also had to juggle using established characters. But it could not honor the 52 episodes before it. And I mean, you can’t cram everything people loved about the TV show into 2 hours, no matter what they all say. However, the most major issue is that the film is plot driven, whereas the show was character driven.

As I feared, the downstairs characters were caricatures. They more or less all shared one plot, or facets of it (barring those mentioned above). Even upstairs really didn’t have as much going on either personal life wise other than Edith and Tom (well and the new characters, but it shouldn’t be about them at all). But that is a fraction of the cast. This is not at all Downton Abbey to me, with several interwoven plots. There wasn’t 22 plots lines, nor 11 even if divide them into one plot per couple.

I primarily wanted to see Anna and Bates with their son, their much longed for child. But he was barely in it for five seconds, with only one of his two scenes actually with his parents, which undermines his symbolic importance in the TV show.

I really did fear Anna being out of character and concocting a stupid scheme. And then it turned out to be worse. She drugged someone and blackmailed another. W T F. It’s like Fellowes forgot who she is. Like okay she wasn’t drugged in S4 but that is really disturbing all the same, and why would Anna blackmail someone after she herself has suffered at the hands of it (i.e. Vera).

And of course while I am super super glad that Anna and Bates are happy and not being traumatized, I also would have like a sense that they overcame a lot to get this point, and that vibe is just so missing that it makes it seem like their film counterparts don’t have their TV show plots as a backstory. Hell, we barely actually saw that they were happy, given that their child was in one scene with them??? Where was the “devotedly raising their son” that the TV Guide promised???

I mentioned this in the spoiler post, but you know S3CS and the Marvelous scene? Why didn’t I get something similar with Bates toasting Anna??? You can be lighthearted and still be poignant. And that is what is missing. It wasn’t poignant with them at all.

I mean it makes sense that it’s not tragic and of course I didn’t want it to be. But it lacks depth and cheats the characters. Having a fun romp is nice, as is levity, but DA also needs to be poignant, or it's meaningless and superficial.

Like the happy part with them is really that they saved the day and the honor of Downton. Yeah nope. I had thought I was gonna complain about how they put the honor of Downton first before their child, but because of the short amount of days covered in the film, it kinda makes sense as to why we didn’t really see him but it’s that Fellowes put honor of Downton first before their child when he wrote this plot. We could gotten at least had a line of Anna saying to Bates, ugh the royal visit means less time with our kid.

“It’s got everything all the fans want”, except not only did I not get Anna pregnant again nor a whiff of a hotel (which I knew were pipe dreams but when you tell me the show is over and I can dream up my headcanons... LET THEM HAVE THEIR DREAMS!!), but I didn’t even get to actually see my favorite character again. Fellowes changed her personality to fit his plot, and it stinks. This is what happens when you make a plot first for what was a character driven TV show.

I cannot understand why Fellowes thought, ah yes, the favorite storyline people had of Anna's was Anna Bates Investigates. I'll pepper it with "fight fire with fire" and then make her... drug someone and commit blackmail??? (and remember why she said that line in S1E5? because someone was directly happening to the man she loved. Yeah). Instead you know, showing her happy with her family. The Anna at the end of the TV show is not the same Anna as S1 or S3. She had to overcome so much. While of course I don’t want overt references because I want her to have healed and moved forward with her life, film!Anna seems to have no knowledge of her past.

Why is this weird scheme Anna’s plot in the first place? It’s even worse than I thought it would be??? Because Anna has always been labeled a Good Person and also the “moral center” were we supposed to think that what she did was a good thing? Did he confuse her with O’Brien? Do all lady’s maids need to scheme and Anna hasn’t done enough of that??

And when you have been through a lot of horrible traumatic things, you want more mundane stories. Not some weird out of character mess. I’m very defensive of TV!Anna, but her two subplots are being rightfully panned.

Even though Brendan was also doing a play during filming, Bates managed to be in it decent amount. He didn’t really have plot beyond being in on the one scheme of Anna’s but tbh I didn’t need him drugging people either.

I know I ought to be grateful that Brendan was able to be in the film and that Bates is like... live. But tbh I feel like I deserve more than that. They could have made better use of Brendan’s time.

Also having BB (who I will still refer to as that because again, I don’t like the film’s name choice for him, and clearly he had no canon given name before now) in only one scene with his parents and then the gallery scene with the nanny like. Nope.

Again, I get Brendan’s limited availability but I really could have used A LOT more Bates Family moments, considering how long it took them to have a child. And... not like Joanne wasn’t available and they could have had Anna doting on him more. It’s just the one scene for a hot hot second. Like we had more of him in the end of S6CS and he was literally just born. YEAH.

Like Anna went through a lot to have him, and I get that filming with kids can be a struggle but for a woman who once said “when a woman loves a child, it must stay with her,” she might like... spend more time with her kid than work on her schemes. Fellowes basically stripped her of the one dream she got fulfilled after all the trauma, along with her morals. What she did here is not strength, let me say that.

It’s one thing to shove off the Crawley kids, but it’s for not a couple who not only longed for a child, but also is working class, and who we have always known would take an active role in their child’s life...

But yeah the lack of shippy scenes, like Fellowes wtf, married couples can be romantic, and I got no kiss. I have to wonder if that one still is from a deleted scene.

I mean I love teamwork stuff! But with A/B you can't just give me that and say "here have this it's shippy, haha #TeamBates!", (Team Bates has three people on it now though!!) and the film is lacking actual romantic moments or family moments. And a lot of Anna’s plot happened off screen so it’s not like we even saw him discussing it with her???

And sorry Mary, but one of those scenes with her could have been swapped to Anna with her child. And the friendship lines were so... again... just there, when it could have been really nice. And the scene where she mentions staff leaving to Anna and I’m like... can Anna and her family leave and get their hotel? No?? Did they give up on that dream??

(On a shallow note, the wigs were horrendous in this. Mary’s bangs/fringe was horrid, and I’ve already voiced my opinion about how I don’t think Anna would ever get a bob and damn that wig was so wiggy. Pro tip: if you have to use a wig, don’t cheat and use ones you just plop on an actress’s head. I think the hair was a sign of how out of character Anna was gonna be in this film.)

I get that the more mundane things isn't as exciting for the casual audience for a film, but if Fellowes wanted this to be sequel to the TV show, it can't be some throwaway thing. He has include furthering the characters' lives. And instead he stuck them in stasis, and forced them into these plots because he came up with it first versus writing what was logically next for them.

And that’s because Fellowes didn’t want many status quo changes (along with wanting it more stand alone and time constraints). I honestly am unsure what the scene with Violet is really saying. At a different time I would have said that if Violet died, that was the end, but maybe it was saying that Downton the franchise will continue without Maggie Smith as Downton the estate will without Violet (also that scene with Violet and Mary was the few that had depth in the film; Thomas could have been deeper imho but at least he had something).

I get that some people don’t mind filler, but the TV show overall was a serial, and if this is the new ending, I need more than filler. A/B got a baby out of the finale, what did they get out of this? Just stasis. That’s not an ‘ending’, time really hasn’t moved on, has it?

Clearly, the issue is that S6CS was written as the end, and the film only has that feeling with Violet and her health. The Bateses needed to leave and get the hotel. I guess maybe Baxley isn’t canon in Fellowes’ mind after all, but at least figure out what is going on with Daisy and Andy??

I have said this approximately 1 million times, but what I love about DA is the characters. If you aren't gonna build off of 6 series of backstory and go with the organic plot of the characters' personal lives, then no thank you. This film fails to be Downton Abbey to me. It fails to be a continuation.

Anna and Bates deserve more children, they deserve the hotel, they deserve the world after all the pain and suffering. They deserve all their dreams. You all know I love their son so so much. But what they got in the film was not enough. This was crumbs of what could have been.

Things could be worse but this was... not. good. And I fear that any subsequent films, if they were to do them (without Violet/Maggie??)... would also not have an sense of an ending. Let alone an ending. Which S6CS had, and was super poignant. The TV show left me in a good fulfilled place. This is a tacked on add on doesn’t do that at all for me.

And if Fellowes is holding off on certain things for future sequels, then when does it end? Do Anna and Bates only ever get the hotel if Joanne says no to sequel to the film (it would be easy for Brendan to say no)? Are we still gonna end up with more shallow plots that don't advance the characters' personal lives? Because when would Fellowes know to do that if there's literally never an ending again? BB came at the end of the show because Fellowes stalled on it on purpose for their child to come at the end. What was the end anyway. The film wasn't the future that they were set up to have.

I get that there was only two hours and you can only do so much. But that also proves that there was no reason to do this film if there wasn’t that many established loose ends to wrap up. And what I consider loose ends (e.g. A/B and the hotel), were ignored.

While yes, the TV show did continue because it was successful i.e. money, Fellowes had an idea because it hadn't ended yet. A/B potentially will never have more children or leave DA and get the hotel all because of greed. We could dream of those things still where the TV show let off. Now... I don’t even know. And it really upsets me that they took that from them. And from me. BB was my reward for staying when I should have raged quit (i.e. S4E3). There’s more to Anna and Bates’ lives than just being loyal servants. Quite a lot. So it’s kinda insulting.

But we are supposed to be happy they are alive! Be happy no more trauma! But I mean, it cost Anna her characterization. I didn’t suffer though several years of pain and misery for the movie to just be filler and OOC. I’m going back to the S6CS as my ending where Anna was actually in character.

If this was a film to a totally unrelated to Downton Abbey that Fellowes wrote, with a whole cast of characters that never existed before in some other castle, it would be a glitz fun romp (that’s light on human drama) but you just cannot force characters with 52 episodes of development and exposition into these "roles" for this plot driven film.

But for me, this is not at all what I wanted if we had to have this film.

#da 2019 #da movie spoilers #film: anna #film: bat #film: anna x bates #film: baby bates #film: my meta

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