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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Charles Schulz vs Andrew Dobson: What a Blockhead!

There are certain things about Dobson’s behavior and particularly his approach at being a nerd and presenting himself as someone who enjoys the art of storytelling that I have issues with. Issues I want to tackle on in more detail within later entries quite a bit.

One such tendency is, that he mocks directly or indirectly the work and accomplishments of others.

See, if Dobson doesn’t like you as a content creator because he does not like something you work on, he will try to show it. He will make stupid assumptions of you (like how he accused Kojima of being a sexist creep because of Quiet and how he deals with “male gaze” in MGS compared to Death Stranding), half heartedly mock you (look at anything he makes about Ethan Van Sciver) or he will call a piece of work boring and dull based on a minor element instead of overarching problems (calling Batman the character a white supremacist based on the dumb work of only one author).

By doing that he also tries indirectly to insinuate that he is better in some manner, though most of the time it really just shows his own ego and that his pet peeves are rather petty compared to the overall quality of the work he criticizes as well as its flaws.

One such sight of ego boosting while mocking the work of his better is in my opinion to be found in this comic he uploaded sometimes around 2016/17 randomly online.

This comic in my opinion is both laughable and insulting. Why? I will explain soon.

First however I want to clarify that I get that this comic is supposed to be a joke mostly. The old “What others expect, what I expect” thing, where the punchline is supposed to be the discrepancy between the two fractions and what they expect, mostly by making one of the expectations come off as worse than the other. However, I find the punchline to be Charlie Brown (and as such what Dobson seems to see as something he does not want to be favorable compared too) quite insulting. Why, as I said, will be elaborated on sooner.

First, let me just get on the part I find laughable: The fact that Dobson in his own head seems to believe he can be even remotely compared to people like Paul Dinni, Bruce Timm, Greg Weismann, Justin Roiland, Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other character creators and animators whose creations we see in the first panel.

Dobson, don’t make me laugh. Putting aside the fact that those people are animators more than cartoonists, what makes you even believe in your wildest dreams you are on the same level as them? The fact you too are an animator, seeing how you graduated from an art school with a degree in that field? I have seen your contributions to the field and honestly, I would expect a bit more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tdWNCrIxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6PfiUCxHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PyonOqClf8

I give you credit, you can animate. Which is more than I can say for myself when it comes to the arts. But when you look what other freelance animators can do online, some of them younger than you and NOT with a degree in animation…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=FmkAcGz1BJk&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IfPfjSaDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUoxQ4qSfs

Viviepop’s demo reels alone are just gorgeous to look at and more fluid than what I have seen of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFlha-KOKCc

And it is not just the technical quality, Dobson. It is also just the overall “originality” of your work. Cause this is the thing with those animators hinted on in the first pic and even many, many freelancers/fanartists as well as webcomic creators online: They have a spark of originality in presentation and storytelling that you lack. I will one day go more into detail for that, but here is the most brutal thing I can say at the moment: I know shitty porn fanfictions, that have more plot development and character growth than all of Alex ze Pirate.

Your characters and stories tend to be derivative and you barely take any risks in telling a story. Neither in your fanbased work (like the Miraculous comics) nor your original content (mostly because you take comfort in four panel strips anyway) and when you have an idea for something on which the basis idea actually sounds good, you screw it up by a lackluster execution. One example I want to give for that, would be this fanart of yours in regard to Steven Universe.

(I apologize for not getting one in better quality) This pic was something Dobson created around 2015 for Steven Universe. The picture is supposed to show Lapis, trapped under the ocean following the events of the season 1 finale of the show. A very emotional situation if you are aware of why Lapis sacrificed herself and was “banned” to the ocean floor. Short explanation: Fused with Jasper and then took primarily control of the fused being they became (Malachite) by using her water powers to bond it with heavy water chains on the ocean floor, so that Jasper would not hurt Steven anymore.

How much of that was even an emotional strain on her and her psyche was in one episode of season 2 even a theme, as seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK3l8mGNhMg

I am not even a fan of the show and I get the emotional weight and impact of Lapis actions.

So… why is that not conveyed in the artwork? If you are so talented Dobson, why is none of the strain and despair on the character? The idea of a pic showing Lapis under water, longingly looking up, even in despair is a good basis for a fanart. But the execution lacks any emotional detail. You want to know how I would execute the thing if I had the artistic talent? Make the picture a huge horizontal pic, where we slowly decent from water surface down the ocean. The light getting dimmer. Blue turning into dark. The silhouette of a hand and an arm similar to Malachite’s in the background, trying to travel up, the fingertips barely touching the surface. Heavy chains around the flesh. Symbolic of the fusion trying to break free and cause havoc. And down on the dark bottom, beaten and exhausted Lapis with tears in her eyes and chains all over her body like she is Jacob Marley, desperately trying to keep Malachite at bay for the sake of the only being on earth who ever showed just a little bit of kindness towards her.

Why can’t we have something like this here, Dobson? If you were even remotely as original as the creators you want to be compared with, I think you could come up with something like that and perhaps even draw it.

But you know, his delusions of being as good as them is one thing. It is even funny.

Pissing over the Peanuts is another. Dobson, what are you trying to hint at?

That people comparing you to Charles Schulz and his creation is in your eyes automatically a sort of insult? That it is something that should at best only be a mockable punchline in a comparison?

Just to clarify a few things: I am NOT much of a fan of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts as a property. As a child, I was just not very entertained by them. Yes, I saw animated movies, episodes and specials of them here and there and my grandparents gave me volumes of them to read, but as a whole I never thought them quite as entertaining than other comics or cartoons I watched. Some parts of Peanuts animation felt to me often times like just dead air (especially parts of Snooby dancing with Woodstuck, as they had no function to move the plots forward) and I really could not stand how some characters treat Charles on a regular basis. I mean, we all agree that Lucy is one of the worst female characters in fiction and that even while we hate Family Guy, this clip likely gave some of us some sort of satisfaction, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkJAx8FycI

But before the Peanuts fan out there go and want my head on a silver platter, let me make one thing clear: I may not like the Peanuts franchise… but I respect it and the man behind it.

Charles Schulz drew the comic strip from October 1950 till late 1999 (the final strip being finished months before it would be published on February 13 of 2000, one day after he died of colon cancer) , creating a total amount of 17,897 Peanuts’ strips. His work marks a major impact in the nature of newspaper comic strips and inspired many people out there, including Bill Watterson, to create comics or be in the field of animation. His achievements include among other things, that he created what many people consider the first animated Christmas special ever. The names of his creations became nicknames for the Apollo 10 command module and its’ lunar modul. Four of the five Peanuts movies in existence (animated made for tv specials not withstanding now) were written by him. And the fifth was only not by him, because that one came out in 2015, a decade and a half after he died.

And speaking of things Schulz wrote for the Peanuts, let me mention two things. Two things that though I am not a fan of the Peanuts, I have mad respect for existing in the realm of animation. Two animated specials that stuck with me ever since I was eight.

“What have we learnt, Charlie Brown?” from 1983 and “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?” from 1990.

In the first special, which functions as a semi sequel to the fourth Peanuts’ movie “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown”, the characters actually travel across France and after ending up on Omaha Beach and Ypres the special turns into a tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War 1 and 2, elaborating on the sacrifices made during the war by showing actual footage of fights, recordings of Eisenhower and reciting the poem “In Flanders Fields” among other things. Do you know how impactful it is to learn about the world wars as a small kid, by being reminded of the actual sacrifices others made in order for your own grandparents to survive?

And speaking of grandparents, I lost my grandmother as a child by cancer. So when I saw the second special I mentioned, you can bet it stuck with me. After all, of all the things in the world, the Peanuts addressing the seriousness of cancer by having a story where a friend of Linus is diagnosed with leukemia and we follow the emotional impact it has on Linus and the girl? Again, I may not like the franchise, but I am not ashamed to admit I think the special treats the subject with a lot of respect and dignity while telling a good story. You bet your ass I get a bit teary eyed when the little girl survives her leukemia treatment and finally gets on that swing again. Those two specials alone are more mature than ¾ of the shit Dobson likes to gosh about, including his oh so precious gay space rocks. And just for those things existing I have respect for Schulz, his creation and the impact it had on so many people. As such, Dobson “belittling” the Peanuts, at least for me, is a freaking insult. The only way Dobson could have been even more insulting is if he called Schulz something derogative. Dobson should be glad if his life’s work in total could even amount to 10% of what Schulz has done and achieved.

Cause Dobson, you are NOT a Charles Schulz. Schulz served during the second world war on the front, fighting actual Nazis instead of calling idiots on the internet fascists for not liking Star Wars. He had integrity and work ethics that drove him to draw and write over 17.000 strips, while you can not even finish one FREAKING story. He knew how to tackle a mature subject, while you make shitty shipping jokes involving Ladybug and Cat Noir and claim Steven Universe knows how to be about psychological trauma, when it just romanticizes abuse. He may have drawn simplistically, but at least he could tell a joke instead of constantly berating others for not sharing his opinion. He did all of that and more without having graduated from college.

And what have you done, Andrew Dobson?

If Dobson reads this, there is one thing in my opinion he should take away from more than anything else: That if people compare him to Charles Schulz’s work, that it means a) he should not be ashamed of it and b) they overestimate him.

#adobsonartworks #andrew dobson #so you are a cartoonist #syac #sjw #peanuts #charles chulz #charlie brown #snoopy #fuck you #animation #steven universe #disney #cartoons #cartoonist #adobsonartwork

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natsunoomoi · 3 years

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Holy crap. So like with the previous post I was thinking about Fushigi Yuugi again and kind of checking up on what was up with Byakko Senki cuz I haven’t checked on it in awhile and it looks like it’s on hiatus right now and she’s working more on Arata Kangatari, which is cool cuz I thought she finished that, but I guess not and she just took a break to like finish Genbu and do Byakko or something.

But also I was scrolling through her Twitter to find that she is really into this Chinese movie “Legend of Luo Xiaohei” and so I was checking that out cuz so ironic that Japanese mangaka that got her big break writing manga about an ancient China setting is interested in a Chinese movie. So just looking through her Twitter thread and apparently she found out about Luo Xiaohei from watching a CM while watching Modao Zushi. LMAO It’s amazing, but this situation just feels like an ouroboros eating itself because I have a high suspicion that her work on Fushigi Yuugi imported into China back in the 90s was probably a huge influence on Chinese creators and artists to write their own stories about their culture and helped to popularize the xianxia and wuxia novel movements in more modern times. On top of that MXTX said she was inspired by a D. Gray-man fanfic and while she mentioned that title specifically, I think in the periphery Fushigi Yuugi itself and more recently Arata were probably an influence too. Growing up a number of my Chinese friends also said they got into anime overall because of Fushigi Yuugi because it was an anime and work from Japan about their culture and arguably done pretty damn well.

In terms of the danmei movement as well, I’m pretty sure Fushigi Yuugi was included in what started the movement as the movement was influenced by Japanese BL that came in via Taiwan, and the beginning of Fushigi Yuugi had the whole thing between Nuriko and Hotohori even though that kind of went nowhere, Nuriko dies to everyone’s depression (I have several friends who refuse to watch the rest of the series after Nuriko dies because it’s not the same), and that whole ship goes off a weird deep end with Hotohori marrying a woman that looks like Nuriko. Also, the exact reasons for Nuriko being in the harem and all that. There was a whole lot of shipping in the 90s from Fushigi Yuugi and it was one of the first series that had a male cast that was almost entirely ikemen and I think the actual first reverse harem. A number of shows probably simultaneously popularized the female gaze in mainstream anime, but Fushigi Yuugi was definitely one of them. Like literally one or two years before there was a lot of manly men and guy’s guys kind of anime characters, but beautiful ikemen, no, not really. In 2021, there are some things about the series that are a bit problematic, but it’s influence on the world is pretty significant. It was one of the first shows I’d seen that had any kind of reference to homosexuality or transgender in it and although it’s not necessarily portrayed well, the fact that it was there and that Nuriko was such a beloved character it started a conversation and helped us to get to a time where the topics she represents can be more discussed. I’m actually not even sure what pronouns would be appropriate for Nuriko because of her reasons for what she did and in Japanese the pronoun problem is actually really easy to get around because you just don’t have a subject or speaking in 3rd person is totally normal. But still, without her the minds of thousands or even millions of fans around the world would not have been opened as early to LGBT topics. Her existence, even problematic as it might be, allowed people to consider and love a character of a different sexual orientation or gender identity than their own and just open their minds to just not being a homophobic, biphobic (cuz relationship with Miaka?), or transphobic piece of shit.

Then also Genbu Kaiden and Uruki’s powers. Yeah.... I mean, also kind of with the earlier discussion, the idea of dual cultivation I don’t recall even being brought up much before in most media, but such ideas were also banned and repressed in China at a certain point. Documentation shows it was more of an ancient practice that suddenly became known about again. The book I was talking about that has it more explicitly written is banned in China has its only original surviving copy in the Japanese National Library as it was one of the books brought to Japan by scholars escaping persecution in China and bringing with them books to escape one of the many episodes of mass book burning. According to my Chinese lit professor who had us read an English translation of that book as a part of our curriculum anyway. Supposedly the translator of said book had to go to Japan to read the original in order to write the translation. There’s apparently a number of ancient Chinese texts like that because book burnings were a thing at different points in Chinese history, so if you are a scholar of Chinese lit if you want a complete picture of your field for some texts you do actually have to come to Japan to do your research. But yeah, that power mentioned in that very book Watase-sensei gave to Soi, and also the story of Fushigi Yuugi takes place in that very library that contains that ancient copy of a banned and would have been lost to the world book. If you’re asking why a “dirty” book would be something a scholar would grab to save, ancient lit scholars do regard it as a rather well-written piece of literature even though the content of it is basically taboo.

But also the Fushigi Yuugi Suzaku Ibun game is a hot mess when it comes to this same issue because if you romance Nuriko you can save her from death and my friend Hikari said she wasn’t sure if she was happy about fucking with the universe like that. (I’m not either.) Nuriko’s death was such a huge impact on the story and everything. Also, notably, most of the Suzaku Shichiseishi died, but Nuriko had the LONGEST tribute. Like Chiriko and Mitsukake’s was like a tag on of a few minutes. Hotohori’s was too even, but it was addressed more in the later manga chapters the publisher pressured her to write and in the OVA series afterward.

Also, like Fushigi Yuugi other than the Neverending Story was one of the original sucked into a book holy shit how do I survive stories. Idk if SVSSS is influenced by it in that way, but it’s fair to draw the parallels because of the similar theme. It’s just canonically Taiitsu Shinjin is not behind the the system in the book and in a number of ways Shen Yuan is more competent than Miaka. Miaka gets a lot of shit though and when I re-watched FY a second time I actually found the gripes people generally have about it make up only a small part of the series. People just talk it up so much that it seems like a huge thing when it’s not. Plus the technical canon is only the original TV series because that’s where Watase wanted to end the story and that is an emotional rollercoaster that makes you cry so good. But like there’s some other kinds of parallels as well like how toward the end and like the last two episodes you hate Nakago up until the exact moment you find out why he’s an absolute asshole, and characters straight up criticizing him about how he’s an asshole the whole damn series just gives the same kind of feels that SY gave criticizing the original throughout SVSSS. Can’t say for sure, but Fushigi Yuugi has a lot of clout in a general sense.

But yeah, Watase-sensei said that she was really surprised by the animation quality of Chinese animation these days and she thought Japanese anime was going down in comparison. Same, yo. Same. But still, her work was probably a huge contributor to the movement that allowed MDZS to exist because her art is damn beautiful, Chinese influenced, and she had one of the first works in Asia to like bring the subject of LGBT issues into the mainstream after years of oppression from mostly Western influence because in pre-modern Asia no one gave a shit before and there’s a significant amount of classical novels that address some form of LGBT issues at least in Japanese lit and like even academic documentation that notes Confucius saying that doing it with a guy was better than with a woman. And the author of the work that probably was very influential to BL back in the 90s watches MDZS. She noted that there wasn’t any in the actual anime, which is true, but I think she helped that series to exist and she watches the anime so it’s kind of exciting.

I hope it influences her to go finish Byakko, but OMG I want her to finish Arata too because I like Arata. I should try to find time to read more of it because the anime is too short and the wiki descriptions of what’s happening are so damn confusing and incomplete.

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whatifitscool · 4 years

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Recapping the brief history of the TNT Championship – Promoting new talent or securing the legacy of Cody Rhodes?

by Tim

For the month of April 2020, AEW held another tournament in their debut year to determine who would go to the finals at the Double or Nothing PPV for the newly announced TNT Championship. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had affected promotions worldwide and forced AEW to tape multiple episodes without a live crowd, including the entirety of this tournament. Despite this, AEW still delivered their quality product and viewers were treated weekly to the joy that is professional wrestling. Demonstrating that they are the leader of the wrestling industry, AEW were the first to use their own talent to make up for the lack of crowds; a move that has since been imitated by WWE.

A mid-card title on the level of highly coveted championships like the Intercontinental Championship would potentially offer newer stars the possibilities of further exposure in AEW while simultaneously developing the competitiveness of their burgeoning mid-card. Has the introduction of the championship been a success? Has it given opportunities to younger talent? Or has it only been a showcase for Cody Rhodes?

The tournament brought together significant names in the AEW ranks who had graced our screens or were in matches on PPVs but up until that point, they had not been considered as being realistic contenders to any of AEW's then-current championships. The only exception to have competed for the AEW World Championship was Cody. Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and Kip Sabian are dynamic additions to the AEW line up and each have considerable followings due to their efforts in the independent scene. The other competitors included veterans Dustin Rhodes, Shawn Spears, new signee Colt Cabana and perhaps the most exciting of this year's signings - Lance Archer.

Prior to the tournament taking place, Cody was forced to relinquish his ability to challenge for the AEW heavyweight title due to interference from MJF. Though this was resolved in a serviceable match, Cody would quickly meet his next challenges – firstly with the arrival of Jake Roberts. When introduced to the Dynamite faithful, Jake would deliver a cutting and scintillating promo to announce that he had a client. The man is truly a gift with words and his role as harbinger prior to the arrival of Lance Archer was inspired. Archer's introduction was as a part of the crowd with Manager Roberts. They didn't introduce him by way of a sneak attack a la Moxley (though this was amazing), Jake Hager or Proud and Powerful, to name a few. What has been consistently great about AEW's feuds is how varied they are. Where Cody has been concerned, there's almost always been a slow burn build with teases of betrayal and trials to endure, culminating with an eventual confrontation – with the way his feuds have been presented, Cody has been positioned as the baby face of the company.

Regarding the path of the eventual finalists, viewers would see Cody in a competitive match-up against Darby Allin however the weak transition from Cody taking a Coffin Drop into what looked like an attempt at a crucifix pin hurt the quality of that match's finish. A more interesting match in Cody's path to the TNT Championship final was against the reliable Shawn Spears who kicked out at the 2-count after taking two successive Cross-Rhodes finishers, only allowing his shoulders to stay on the mat for the 3-count while he was held in the Figure Four. Storyline-wise, it teased that perhaps Cody's Cross-Rhodes wasn't as effective.

Enter Lance Archer. Despite his matches going for more than 10 minutes each, the build-up of the Murderhawk as a monster was nothing short of convincing. In his match against Colt Cabana, he laughed off strikes, delivered a pounce that sent the not-diminutive Cabana across the ring before eventually carrying him from the top turnbuckle and delivering a thunderous Blackout. In his match against Dustin Rhodes, he would showcase an impressive arsenal that included power and acrobatic moves while also teasing the ineffectiveness of the Cross-Rhodes when he kicked out at 1. QT would offer to throw in the towel on Dustin's behalf before Cody would come in to offer the same, only to watch as his brother was forced unconscious by the EBD Claw.

Is Cody a fan of Rocky 4? Many have probably drawn comparisons between this feud and Stallone's classic with Cody and Dustin filling the roles of Rocky and Apollo, respectively. Especially when Cody didn’t throw in the towel and watched while his brother fell. Arguments could be made that Archer filled the role of the towering Ivan Drago, albeit with a more sadistic side as he relentlessly taunted and tormented the younger Rhodes in the lead-up to their confrontation.

Rocky 4 comparisons aside, another highlight in this feud was the meeting between their managers. Arn Anderson would memorably say to Jake Roberts, “I want you to be real limber when I Spinebuster your ass and shove your head where the sun don’t shine.” Fantastic!

With the emotional stakes raised along with the motivation to avenge his brother, the showdown was set for Double or Nothing where Cody and Archer would collide in the final to decide who would be crowned the inaugural TNT Champion. Fitting for his monster-status, Archer entered the arena by choke slamming some poor soul while accompanied by Jake Roberts. Cody entered, accompanied as always by the Head Coach of the Nightmare Family, Arn Anderson. They convincingly played this as a tough bout for Cody. Suiting his in-ring persona as the baby face, he was on the receiving end of a lot of punishment. Almost shortly after the first bell rang, Archer hit him with a Blackout. Notable highlights included when Cody pulled out the DDT on Archer. Archer later responded with a Spinebuster. Great bits of fan service for new and old fans alike. But when all was said and done, Cody won after hitting Archer with two consecutive Cross Rhodes.

It was a David vs Goliath (Rocky vs Drago) bout and although I’ve read some criticism that the match was too long for Archer, I do enjoy lengthier paced battles. The length of the match was suitable because they needed the time to tell the story, to show a physical bout, to continue selling that Archer was a believable monster and Cody had to demonstrate his resilience in order to overcome adversity and capture a championship. And when the dust settled, AEW moved on to the next storyline, which set up one of the most interesting schedules for a wrestler I’ve ever seen.

The Fighting Champion

Addressing the viewer, Cody delivered another in a line of charismatic promos drawing parallels between himself and Tom Brady and how he was never the first call. Holding up four fingers, he declared that he would turn a pace and cut a schedule like no wrestler before and issue an open challenge. Cody would like to retire by the time he’s 40 and with the pace he was talking, I couldn’t help but think of a repeated phrase in Hamilton, “why do you write like you’re running out of time”. Cody’s going through matches and maybe even storylines like he’s “running out of time.”

I’ve seen Cody deliver a promo live when he attended a show in Australia. A show he couldn’t participate in due to an injury. A show he didn’t have to attend. But he came down anyway and the audience was appreciative of him showing up. He is passionate and genuine about his love for the business and after his promo about the TNT Championship Open Challenge, I was keen to see him show – together with AEW’s roster – what they could offer bell to bell. This was not going to be shenanigans on the level of a certain 24/7 championship.

The first challenger for Cody’s TNT Championship would be Jungle Boy. This made sense based on his impressive performance against MJF at Double or Nothing. The match up was not overly long and allowed both competitors a chance to show off their skills. MJF would also factor into this match slightly when he was seen mouthing off to Jungle Boy, jealous that Jungle Boy got a title shot before he did. Cody would show colour in the match and the two later crashed through a table, leaving Arn’s jaw on the floor. Including Arn’s facial expressions in the broadcast adds to the presentation of these matches as they either tell a story or echo the audience’s reactions. Cody would win this match in 10:11 after he dropped Jungle Boy with a Cross Rhodes, spiking him somewhat in the process. Though Jungle Boy was unsuccessful, it showcased the young man’s potential. Please give him a solid singles run soon and pick up on his feud with MJF. These two clearly worked so well with each other and there’s further matches to explore with their natural chemistry.

In an interesting match-up, Private Party tag-team member Mark Quen would receive the opportunity to challenge next. Prior to AEW, I hadn’t seen anything Mark Quen had done but this kept things fresh by giving him a singles opportunity. In their debut year, AEW undoubtedly have reels upon reels of highlights and I think Quen delivering an amazing 450 splash onto Cody on the ring platform should be one of them. In the closing minutes, they also delivered a crisp reversal when Quen went for a shooting star press that was caught by Cody who immediately applied an ankle lock. Beautiful work from both and Quen would be forced to submit in 11:43. Cody had overpowered yet another competitor but allowed them some time to shine. No sooner had the show of sportsmanship ended that Jake Hager would appear, entering the ring and eventually putting hands on Arn, backing him into the corner. He would then toss Cody and powerslam him before Private Party and Matt Hardy would save him. The Inner Circle sans Jericho would also show up to help. Once the referees broke this up, Cody got on the mic and said, “Jake, I think I know what you’re asking. You want a TNT title match at Fyter? Is that what you want? You got it!” A very quick progression from the match that just finished and the announcement of their upcoming clash overshadowed the next match in Cody’s march to Fyter Fest.

That booking all but guaranteed that the next person to challenge Cody would lose. Prior to their introduction, Arn noted that the next person to challenge was checked out by him and he was someone that Cody could take it to and hone his skills. Side observation: Again, is Cody or the writers’ fans of the Rocky series? I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Arn Anderson and trainer Mickey Goldmill in Rocky 3 who was handpicking talent for the champ to fight.

This lead to the then-hottest free agent’s introduction to AEW. And it was a very organic introduction to Absolute Ricky Starks. The former NWA World Television Champion has been broke but as he declared, he has work ethic and grit and he was ready to go the distance. May I say that Ricky Starks has awesome ring entrance music? It’s so good!

During their match, a story was still being told. While AEW was demonstrating that they’d opened their doors to competitors from any promotion, there were multiple cuts to Jake Hager intently watching the match to study Cody’s moves, developing the next feud. Starks would prove a nimble and savvy competitor, scouting and preventing a Cross Rhodes attempt as well as preventing a moonsault and hitting a superplex. After they traded several pins, Cody would eventually hit a thunderous Cross Rhodes to win the match at 08:34. Though this was the shortest of Cody’s TNT title defences, Starks was enjoyable to watch. He was so impressive that he was offered a contract with AEW shortly after the conclusion of their match.

At Fyter Fest, Cody and Hager would collide in a match where there was an answer for almost every single one of Cody’s moves with the MMA specialist countering most submissions as well. No Cross Rhodes was landed during this match. I also liked Excalibur calling out the Vader Bomb with Jericho then correcting him and saying that it is the Hager Bomb. Hader Bomb? Cody also hit a beautifully delayed springboard cutter. In the closing minutes Cody would crawl to the ropes while held in an ankle lock, being slapped silly by Catalina in the process. Arn would run interference with the referee while Dustin sprinted out to engage Hager. Hager fought him off. Hager would eventually hit Cody with the uranage and apply a choke but Cody would use his weight to keep Hager’s shoulders pinned to the mat for the 3 count at 14:15. A creative way to finish, seeing Cody retain while protecting Hager as the (mostly) undefeated MMA monster that he is.

The Arrogant Champion

Storyline-wise, Cody’s character was being painted as somewhat invincible with his ability to overcome any opponent and on the 15/07/2020 episode, the signs of the overconfident champion began to creep in. This was evident in his aggressive start against Sonny Kiss and the arrogance was on display when he opted to do a set of push-ups in the ring instead of keeping his head in the game. Cody would lose control of the match and Arn would chew him out by saying, “Get your head out of your ass!” There was another great shot of an Arn reaction, wincing as he saw Sonny Kiss deliver a huge axe kick into Cody’s back. Cody missed a lot of his offence because Sonny had him scouted. This was most evident when Sonny countered out of a Cross Rhodes to deliver one of his own. Arn would later breathe a visible sigh of relief when Cody kicked out of a 450.

Not even an Alabama Slam on the entrance platform, superplex or cross face could put Sonny Kiss away and Cody’s frustration showed, arguing with referee Aubrey Edwards, yelling out after each near fall, hitting more vicious attacks and even taking the top turnbuckle cover off. After getting slapped around by Sonny, Cody eventually hit a furious Cross Rhodes to end the bout in 10:44. Despite the unsportsmanlike conduct during the match, Rhodes still had time for a hug at the end and raised Sonny Kiss’ arm in respect. A courageous effort from the Concrete Rose whose tag team with Joey Janela needs more exposure on the main show.

The following night, Eddie Kingston would make his way out to challenge for the title, delivering an incendiary promo befitting the Mad King. He is a magnetic personality and an amazing addition to AEW. During his captivating promo, he not only threatened Arn but was successful in goading Cody into a no-DQ match and there was nothing technical in what transpired next. This was presented as a brawl with Kingston bringing the aggression, at one point hitting Cody with his own weight belt. Cody was shredded by chops, rocked by body shots before he eventually got his own back, delivering a back body drop on Kingston onto the exposed concrete floor. There was a great shot where Kingston maintained eye contact with the camera while delivering two clubbing blows across Cody’s face while he was on the ropes. Perhaps showing that he is willing to sacrifice his body during this lengthy storyline as champion, Cody was on the receiving end of a power bomb onto thumbtacks. The man does not back away from showing colour or taking painful bumps. Towards the end of the match, he went back to the Figure Four to take advantage of Kingston’s compromised knee. He was slapped in the face during this attempt, slapped Kingston back in return and locked in the Figure Four forcing Kingston to tap at 11:21. Cody was victorious once more and despite the loss, Kingston was not fully vanquished as we have seen in recent weeks on Dynamite, with his sights now set on Moxley.

I initially didn’t know what to think of Warhorse as a competitor as I’d never seen him before. In fact, the first time I saw his match against Cody on 12/08/2020, I felt underwhelmed. I could see the story here where Cody’s offence had been scouted and going back to the well too many times to get the figure four locked in. On a recent re-watch of the match, I enjoyed it a lot more. Again, I don’t know much about Warhorse but I do hope he gets to come back as he is a dynamic and rocking personality. Cody as the overconfident and arrogant champion did something early on when he backed Warhorse into the corner and during the break up, he condescendingly tapped him on the chest – shades of Okada. Arn would encourage him by saying, “Don’t let your anger get in the way of your talent.” But again being the overconfident champ, Cody did the push-ups, pissing Arn right off. I noticed that a lot of the time Cody was on the attack, it was during the picture-in-picture segment – isn’t this usually reserved for heels? Is the arrogance going to give way to an eventual heel turn or was it just there to set him up for the fall?

I mentioned the “going back to the well” and in fact, the first figure four attempt was reversed by Warhorse. The second was reversed into an inside cradle. Warhorse also saw through the sunset flip and reversed that into a pin attempt. Third time was the charm and although Warhorse held onto Cody’s leg to prevent the hold from being applied, Cody would eventually lock it in and Warhorse would tap at 10:32. Because this was a guest spot and not the beginning of a contract for Warhorse, Dark Order unceremoniously kicked him out of the ring at the end. Cody would be knocked down and while Arn Anderson was preparing to fight them off, this lead to the introduction of Matt Cardona. He would deliver his Radio Silence finisher to them and it would lead to a brief reunion between these friends.

Scorpio Sky’s challenge for the title involved walking past Cody, looking at the title and looking back at Cody before nodding. No words exchanged. It was cool. It’s great that he has been freed up from the huge tag team division and has moved near-seamlessly into singles competition. He is a star already and AEW really needs to give him a solid push as a champion and this could have been the beginning of that.

Unfortunately the only memorable things from this match involved Cody embracing more douchebag tendencies like having an overflowing entourage, being announced as the “Prince of Pro Wrestling”, blowing a kiss to disapproving fans and having a lot of his offence during the picture-in-picture. Though it started as an evenly matched bout between the two, any excitement for what could happen was dulled because of how lacking this match was. There was no threat that Sky could capture the championship and it wasn’t a fair representation of what they are usually capable of. During the match, Schiavone would make the points that the work on the ribs, defending the title nearly every week and being EVP of AEW all added up to trouble for Cody. He again overcame the challenger, dropping Scorpio Sky with his second Cross Rhodes at 11:46. Sky wouldn’t accept Cody’s hand to pick him up afterwards. The tease that the two were upset with one another after the match was drowned out almost immediately by Mr Brodie Lee’s video message announcing his intention to challenge next.

“Tick tock, Cody. Time’s up!”

The Fall?

Up to this point, Cody had demonstrated his resilience. He was the first TNT Champion after overcoming the intimidating Murderhawk. He issued the open challenge and fought off all comers, turning the pace and cutting the schedule he promised. His baby face tendencies slowly changed to arrogance and being full of himself. I personally dig the push ups gag. It was a subtle detail but it slightly recalled his excellent heel work in NJPW and ROH.

After the introductions (including the “Prince of Pro Wrestling” moniker), Cody tried to get in an offensive flurry but was quickly overpowered by Mr Brodie Lee. His hubris would lead to his time being up at 3:10 on 13/08/2020 and Cody lost his TNT title.

If Arn’s face could tell the story, it’d say that this was the night when everything came crashing down. But it didn’t stop there – Cody was being stretchered out and the Dark Order brought him back to continue their assault. Arn was taken out. Cody was hit over the head with the bag containing the smashed up former TNT Title. Dustin and QT had already been disposed of. Not even Brandi was spared as Anna Jay choked her out on the entrance ramp. The Nightmare Family was dismantled in one fell swoop with the nightmarish image of the entire Dark Order standing over them. It felt like Bane had waited for his opportunity for the Batman to be weakened before taking him out in a quick and decisive victory.

Mr Brodie Lee – seen in so many of the impressive Dark Order promos, menacing in the well-articulated manner in which he spoke, the exalted one who didn’t suffer fools – finally delivered on all of the threats and squashed Cody like a jobber. This should have been the beginning of the Dark Order’s era.

Yet they were defeated by the combination of Dustin, QT, Matt Cardona and Scorpio Sky at All Out. And even though his first title defence on 09/09/2020 against Dustin was a success, taunting Cody at home via the camera by saying, “Come home, Cody!” he had one other successful title defence against Freshly Squeezed Orange Cassidy on 23/09/2020. On the same night, Cody returned to AEW after Cassidy’s defeat and fought off the Dark Order singlehandedly. Sporting black hair and a black suit, I couldn’t help but think of the return of Superman (black suit) even though he looked more like Bruce Wayne. Furious, Lee would challenge Cody to the dog collar match, which he subsequently accepted the following week.

I’ll get this out of the way first. I have never seen a dog collar match. The commentary did raise that the Roddy Piper vs Greg the Hammer Valentine dog collar match is still talked about to this day so I’ve made a note to seek it out one of these days. But I digress. What transpired on 07/10/2020 was crazy! It had everything. The story of Cody seeking to gain his self-respect and his title back. Commentary hyping up that Cody gained 14 lbs prior to this match to prepare himself for Lee. The nefarious villain Mr Brodie Lee. It had comedy in the form of Alex Silver getting clocked twice. They showed colour with Cody first getting cut up after a DDT and Lee following later in the match. There was a huge package piledriver through a table next to the ring. Cody would also hit his moonsault off the top rope. The drama was created when Lee kicked out of the Cross Rhodes at the 1 count. The attacks utilising the dog collar and chain combo were creative. I’ve never seen Cody use the Final Cut move but it was great in story as he was pulling out all the stops. The combination of wrapping the chain around the mouth, eyes and face of Lee followed by the Cross Rhodes would finally put Lee out for the 3 count and Cody won at 20:26. This match qualified as one of the best matches that Cody (and Mr Brodie Lee) had delivered in AEW. It is memorable in so many ways.

But I find that I’m somewhat torn about this title match. After months of anticipation and prior to his debut in AEW, Mr Brodie Lee was revealed to the Exalted One of the Dark Order. He quickly went into contention for the AEW heavyweight championship at Double or Nothing before he was choked out by Moxley. Though he was killed off as a threat to Moxley and he has left that picture for the time being, it seemed fitting that he’d be the best choice to take out Cody and bring in a new era as the TNT champion. His devastating squashing of Cody in their first match was awesome to see because it finally switched things up and Cody didn’t overcome yet another giant. And because he was such a monster, why would he have difficulties in taking on Dustin and to an extent, Orange Cassidy? With Mr Lee holding onto the title for just under 2 months, it feels like an opportunity wasted for more fun with the Dark Order and if they could have made his title reign a little longer, Cody’s clawing back to the TNT Championship picture would’ve felt more earned. It felt like outside of AEW, Cody needed a break and Brodie Lee was simply the transitional champion while waiting for him to return.

What’s next?

Has the TNT Championship been a success in shining the spotlight on AEW’s burgeoning mid-card? To a great extent, yes. With Cody being a natural and experienced talent in the ring, he was one of the best to act as the conduit to give opportunities to talents like Jungle Boy or to give, up until that point, traditionally tag team competitors like Mark Quen and Scorpio Sky a storyline chance for gold. The TNT Championship also attracted independent talents like Ricky Starks and Warhorse. It also introduced Eddie Kingston and showed Sonny Kiss’ competitiveness – two of my favourite matches in Cody’s list of defences of the title. My only complaint would be that the quality of those matches didn’t match the ones on PPV against people with more experience and exposure due to having worked in either NJPW or WWE.

Has it given the newer stars more opportunities to shine though? That’s where it gets murkier. While Jungle Boy and Quen were the first two challengers, they’ve mostly been returned to tag team work, which is a shame. Especially so in Jungle Boy’s case who, in time, I think will have a number of instant classic matches with MJF. I can see those two perfecting their in-ring styles and creating a series of matches on the level of Steamboat vs Flair.

Sonny Kiss and Jake Hager have also been relegated to mostly tag team duties. Sky appears to be trapped on AEW Dark where he’s in a feud against Shawn Spears. I feel that Sky should stay on Dynamite so he gets more opportunities; he was the first man to pin Le Champion so they should have been pushing him hard. Starks is gifted on the mic and his rivalry with Darby Allin could yield some great results if they give them time to work. Sadly, Warhorse hasn’t come back to show why he rules ass.

While Archer, Lee and Kingston have been or are currently in the heavyweight picture, this is to be expected based on their reliability and bankability as stars.

Though the TNT Championship has given newer stars some opportunities, it’s largely been a storyline device centred on Cody as a champion. Fun Rocky influences aside, it’s been good to see the character work from him on a near weekly basis. As we’ve seen, he’s been a fighting champion, an arrogant champion and set up a classic scenario where his pride lead to his downfall and as the hero, he had to rise up and overcome the villain. He has mused that it is romantic that he can’t challenge for the heavyweight title but with his intention to move to the heavyweight division, it could be nearing time on him closing this chapter to let the newer stars fight it out for the title. His gains have been mentioned more than once on Dynamite and given that he had a 20-minute time limit draw with Orange Cassidy on 14/10/2020, it makes sense that their rematch could be where Cody will drop the belt to Cassidy who is red hot right now and transition to the next challenge.

I have to say that I’ve appreciated this approach to the title as a storyline device instead of a monthly or quarterly feud (e.g. where one challenger is the perpetual thorn in the side of the champion until they get a title shot at the next PPV). I’ve just recapped almost 5 months of a championship mostly focused around one wrestler. While newer talents have gotten some more exposure on TV, this has also served as a great introduction to a new title. It might also be the crowning achievement in Cody’s legacy as he was the first holder of this title reminding people that you don’t have to be the first call to make something of yourself. It’s an underdog story and the choices in who he tangled with also showed that these talents may not have been the first call either but they certainly have the skills to be in AEW and on a show that regularly beats WWE’s NXT in the ratings every Wednesday.

Will people remember Cody’s reign as the inaugural champion (and third)? It’s a case of we’ll have to wait and see. But if you appreciate underdog hero stories (with shades of Rocky thrown in), then maybe you will be remembering the beginnings of the TNT Championship fondly in coming years and what it has done in developing the stars of tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what Year 2 of AEW brings us.

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piccolina-mina · 5 years

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The dynamics on this show are interesting, but I love how there are groupings because so many of them have such similarities. Objectively speaking, even characters you find unfavorable or unlikable are often in some way similar to characters you like. Like you have:

The Runners - Liz, Alex, and Rosa

Liz didn't used to be a runner which makes her so interesting. She said something broke in her after Rosa died and she was restless ever since. Running was something she resented in her mother and Rosa, but then she ended up doing the same thing. She and Alex, they're good at running towards things they can make sense of, concrete things, purpose: running towards science and achievement, war and battle, danger, but they run away from feelings.

Those are terrifying and harder to make sense of. Feelings and connections. In all of their relationships (friendships and romantic: Diego, Arturo, Maria, Michael), they always have one foot out of the door. It's not that they don't love someone or care, they show all of that in their own ways but it takes work for them to not bolt. They're fighting against their nature. It's survival and self- preservation. Rosa runs to escape too. Ironically, while the other two run for themselves, Rosa does too but also runs for everyone else. She thinks it's better to put a divide between her and the world.

The Internalizers - Kyle, Alex, and Max

This group, fks me up on a personal level because of this, but many of the characters have a bit of this quality, but these three really embody this to the hilt. But they all showcase it differently.

Kyle functions the best. He functions so well people don't even realise or consider he has problems. He's good at giving the illusion that he's sharing more than he really does, and he's great at coaxing other people to be more open, but he doesn't always practice what he preaches. He holds onto the past a lot in part because he doesn't want to repeat it. But that boy has internal battles, and no one really notices. The two people who do are Liz and Alex, but both are runners, and one is a heavy internalizer too.

Alex is one of those internalizers who feels everything but doesn't emote and show it. So he comes across like he's unfazed, but he keeps everything in. It's possible it's an effect of his abusive childhood. It's a conscience effort for him to express most feelings and he distributes them carefully and usually with specific intentions.

Max is the most emotionally open but he's the sort who internalizes blame like no other. It's actually funny that so many fans hate him because he would just take that totally accept it. He'll take blame for things whether it was his fault or not. Guilt eats away at him. He's the poster child for depression out of the three aliens. Hides his pain, sadness, most of his feelings that affect him and him alone, he buries.

The Caretakers - Maria and Kyle

They take care of people. Often at their own expense. There's a reason why Liz feels safe with Kyle, why Alex despite their history is less guarded with Kyle. There's a reason why Liz can confide in Maria. Why Michael responds to Maria, Why Max is at ease around Maria. Kyle and Maria are natural nurturers without even trying to be. They probably have the warmest vibes around them.

They make people gravitate to them with their personality and energy. They're the reason there are quotes about protecting your space, because they have a draw that the wrong people will siphon from at it can be at their own expense.

They take care of people, but they don't have people taking care of them often. They present themselves as if they don't need it. Kyle allows himself to be "a distraction" but also hints at wishing his needs were met too. Maria takes care of her mom without complaint but also doggedly pursues anything that can make her mom better because she misses her mom but she's also tired.

They're the emotional support characters everyone leans on. They tend to needs: physical, emotional, sxual, and mental.

*caveat. Max can also fall into this too. Some of his caretaking is out of guilt (Arturo) but he shows this most with his siblings. Later on with Liz. His entire life is the three of them. But it's limited. We saw that with how neglectful he was with Cam, how it doesn't extend to his mother etc.

The Fixers - Michael and Liz

This is probably why the Science Bros is so appealing even though Michael often treats Liz like trash. They're both highly intelligent, STEM geared, and born and bred fixers. If you have a problem, they can pull off some of the emotional labor (we see that with Liz and Maria when she's made aware and Liz and Isobel and Michael and Isobel and Michael and Maria), but they're fixers first and foremost.

That's why they work so well together and probably will be at the forefront of getting Max back if Michael can keep it together. Michael is the most literal fixer. A handy man and mechanic, the go to for any fix. He's not calculated though. He's impulsive and wants immediacy. He jumps into the first solution he wants it fixed now.

Liz wants it fixed right. She weighs the options and has to figure out the best solution. So they're so similar in that regard but still clash. But that's how they both end up dragged to a healer in the desert. Do they believe it? No. But a fix is a fix.

The Moral Compasses/Arbiters - Kyle, Liz, Cam

Kyle and Liz are definitely the moral compasses of the gang. They're balanced and fair. They run on both logic and emotion effectively. When one threatens to supersede the other, they catch it and correct it. They're driven by what's right. They're moral and conscientious. You can trust that they're always pointed at due north. They have codes they live by. Affirmations.

Cam is like this too. It's interesting how she was set up to be an antagonist, but what's right was prioritized over personal gain. She didn't compromise her ethics even for her sister. She lost her job doing what was right at her own expense.

The Masked Posers - Isobel and Alex

Posers isn't meant negatively, but I couldn't think of a better way to word it. Just FYI.

These two spend so much time hiding behind a carefully crafted facade and mask that sometimes they lose sight of themselves. They both ended the season having to meet themselves in the mirror. Alex is tapping back into who he was (that leather jacket 😍) and Isobel has to figure out who she is outside of Noah and Max.

They're shackled by image and projecting specific ones. But their masks crack and you see bits of what's behind them. They have the most prominent and consistent identity issues.

The Survivors/Outlaws/Rebels - Michael, Maria, Rosa

They're all survivors in their own way, but these three have a very distinctive style. Virtual outcasts of the town. Who they were was decided by outsiders whether they fit the profile or not.

They do what they have to do to survive, and they don't compromise or make apologies for it. They are who they are and they own it.

They're the ones who are inclined to break the rules or laws. Michael and Maria are both hustlers who do what they need to in order to make ends meet. Rosa self-medicated to survive. Michael is the known troublemaker and rabble rouser, Rosa is the town pariah and stain, Maria is the weirdo.

The Protectors - Michael, Max

The brothers probably clash so much because they'll both do whatever it takes to protect their people, but they don't always agree on how to do that. They will fight for you if they care.

Max can extend this farther and does since he's a cop. Michael protects the people he cares about and doesn't give a damn about anyone else. That circle is very small. So far, he protects Isobel, Max, Alex, and Maria. That's it.

The Riders - Michael, Maria, Cam

They are ride or die for their people. No questions asked. Even if you're fking up. They'll bitch but have your back. They will ride shotgun to your crazy every time.

Michael visibly didn't agree with things Isobel did or suggested and verbally and physically disagreed with Max a lot, but he'll still ride with you until the wheels fall off.

Maria endlessly supports and held a decade long grudge on Rosa's behalf. Knew a lot about Rosa and how troubled she was but was her ride or die anyway.

Cam knew Max was lying to her and put up with a lot, but she had his back the whole time.

#anyway I just thought that was interesting #roswell new mexico #kyle valenti #maria deluca #liz ortecho #rosa ortecho #I'm sorry that person most people hate is clogging up the tag with random posts but no worries I think I'm done for now 😊#Roswell nm angst hours #my babies i still left some out tbh #but groupings fascinate me and you can almost always put characters in set groups

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Spider-Man: Life Story #2 Thoughts

Very mixed feelings....again

SPOILERS

Let me get this out the way Bagley is the man on this book. Beautiful art work, beautiful colouring, the works. I especially love him drawing a MJ reminiscent of his 90s take on her but with more modern art flourishes.

Now onto the nitty gritty.

For the last issue I said I had mixed feelings because the premise for Life Story seemed at odds with what was advertised.

Reading ahead for the solicits for the series it became clear that what we were apparently going to get was the events of Spider-Man’s life playing out in real time wherein each of the stories still happened in the decade/time period they originally occurred in but Peter himself would just be the age he’d realistically have been. For example if Peter was 15 in 1962 then in theory when he deals with Kraven’s Last Hunt in 1987 he’d be 40.

Reading this issue though...even THAT isn’t what this book actually is.

What this book actually is... is Chip Zdarsky’s fanfiction.

It’s just a general Alternate Universe.

It’s not even a What If wherein you presume history to be the same up to a point of divergence then explore the repercussions of that divergence.

Like you’d think wouldn’t you that the changes in Spider-Man’s history would be as the natural result of either him aging in real time or him or at least the natural repercussions of dealing with real life history more realistically. Like you’d have thought in the last issue Norman Osborn going to jail would be because of the Vietnam War in some way.

Nope.

He goes to jail because Peter just decides in this universe to spill the beans on him.

Even before that Peter’s history was different because how and when Norman confronted Peter about his identity was radically different as well, not to mention Gwen learning his secret.

Gwen is perhaps the centrepiece of why this is just fanfiction and nothing more.

Zdarsky is very plainly a Gwen stan and you can tell from this as well as his OTHER alternate universe in his Spec run where he had Gwen and Peter also end up together.

So here Gwen and Peter got married and were married for a long while and that’s the status quo we’re jumping into.

Gag me.

But it goes deeper than that.

I’ve never been impressed by Zdarksy as a Spider-Man writer and this issue is perhaps a microcosm of why.

This story, this series had a central premise but that’s not the real premise the real premise is for this to be just Chip Zdarksy randomly remixing and changing pieces of Spider-Man’s history anyway he desires.

Like He’s going to vaguely hit certain beats per decade.

In the 1960s Norman will find out who he is and Flash will join the army.

In the 1970s Gwen will die and maybe MJ and Peter will hook up and there will be clones.

In the 1980s if the cover is to be believed he will be buried alive.

In the 1990s we’re probably getting clones.

But it’s superficial. It’s hitting the beats in spirit but not in sunbstance.

Gwen for instance does not die via a bridge, a Goblin and a misplaced webline.

She dies because Harry (not Norman) throws a bomb at a clone of Gwen stuck in a test tube who was actually the real Gwen.

The issue’s quality honestly very much depends upon how far you personally are willing to buy this AU as being just randomly different.

Because of the false advertising it’s curtailing my enjoyment for sure.

But more than this my enjoyment is curtailed because an awful lot of the changes I strongly suspect are not the result of Zdarsky actively choosing to change things but Zdarksy simply being a crap writer and not understanding the characters in general. Also just being bad at common sense things in his writing.

Let’s go through some of those things:

· Mary Jane getting drunk. Nope. Sorry. Mary Jane was all about her party girl facade and keeping people at a distance, she’d never have compromised her cover and potentially allowed herself to lose control like that. She loved to party and yeah probably enjoyed alcohol but in a controlled manner

· MJ chewing out Peter for allowing Flash to die. WTF was that? MJ knew Peter was Spider-Man and was alternatively sympathetic towards him or else repressed that knowledge because it upset her. It took the Puma invading his home and endangering her life very directly after YEARS for her to finally let that out. Here she sips one too many martinis and it slips out? Not to mention MJ NEVER blamed Peter for Gwen’s death nor Captain Stacy’s. She understood that he couldn’t do everything even with his power and that was when she knew Peter was the guy who literally snapped Gwen’s neck by accident. Does she blame Iron Man and Giant Man for also allowing Flash to die. How does she, or Peter in fact, know Peter would’ve been in Flash’s platoon to protect him in the first place?

· MJ being engaged to Harry. ARE YOU SERIOUS! MJ had COMMTMENT ISSUES why the fuck would she be engaged to him! She also never regarded their relationship as serious at all and broke up with him FFS! This is like screwing up Peter’s origin!

· MJ and Peter tolerate Harry’s drug abuse. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr what?????????????????? Peter ‘guilt/responsibility’ Parker...just sits back and allows his best friend to kill himself with drugs? Mary Jane does that too? MJ whom it was implied in the Drug Trilogy KNEW about Harry’s problem and drifted away from him because of it? WTF Zdarksy.

· MJ is...a DJ...Um....huh? I suspect all of the above can be explained via Zdarksy adopting a simplistic, superficial and frankly possibly somewhat sexist attitude to MJ’s ‘party girl’ label

· Why is Norman still in jail? We know from Marvel Knights he had a contingency in place if he was ever jailed wherein Aunt May would be kidnapped and Peter thus forced to liberate him, a plan he had in place since shortly after he found out Peter’s identity. In this universe Norman knew Peter’s secret for ages BEFORE acting on it so he had plenty of time to dream up that plan but here the plan he made AFTER he was jailed was to get his son to hire a professor to create a clone of himself upon which to pin the blame for his crimes???? That doesn’t even make sense since it doesn’t exonerate him!

The general public would just find out that in spite of the overwhelming evidence the Green Goblin wasn’t Norman Osborn just someone who looked like and had his exact genetics (could genetic science even detect a difference between an original or a clone back in the 1970s?). How does that exonerate him? Wouldn’t someone question if maybe Norman just had the clone created after the fact which is exactly what he did?

Why even go to the trouble of doing that, you might as well have someone with plastic surgery or a mask look like Norman Osborn and reveal they framed Norman for some reason. Or have ANYONE ELSE dress up as the Goblin instead, like Harry for instance instead of having him be...ugh...the Black Goblin...In Hobgoblin Lives Macendale revealing he wasn’t the original Hobgoblin created enough doubt that his case stood a better chance surely Norman could pull the same trick...you know....like he has in canon...twice...Also what was Norman’s plan anyway, the clone of himself gets jailed then he gets free and then...he goes back to being the Goblin...what?????????????

· Norman considering Peter his true heir makes no sense. Yeah eventually Norman dreamed up that scheme but it took him years and multiple defeats by Peter whilst feeling harry was a failure. In this universe none of that history is there, he even respects Harry to a degree so why would he feel Peter was the better choice for his heir?

· Norman dreamed up the clone scheme because he wanted to shatter Peter’s sense of identity. If his hang up was Peter would make a great heir for himself back during the Clone Saga or even after why the fuck did he try to recruit the real Peter instead of just creating a clone for himself? Because to Norman a clone is genuinely a lesser, not a true person at all. So why make a clone Peter in the first place?

· Why do the clones of Peter and Gwen adopt the last names ‘Parker’. Surely a guy called ‘Ben Parker’ who looks just like Peter Parker, who’d dead uncle was Ben Parker, who is also married to a woman who looks like Peter Parker’s dead wife, named after the mother of Peter Parker’s dead mother-in-law would raise some questions. Was Zdarsky really so adverse to just calling them ‘Ben and Helen Reilly’

· I get that they are both clones but the implication here is that Ben and ‘Helen’ are now in a relationship. Why? Ben couldn’t possibly have all of Peter’s up to date memories and Helen was presumed to be the real Gwen ever since she and Peter got married (I’ll explain why in a moment). That means from Helen’s point of view the man she married and was in love with was Peter and not Ben and from Peter’s point of view, sure he married a clone and not the real deal but...so what? From MJ’s point of view in the 1990s Clone Saga most of her relationship with Peter, including their marriage had actually been with the clone not the real Peter, but he was the person she had that history with and was in love with. Helen IS the woman Peter loved and married and she even implies as much when she states because she has all of Gwen’s memories she and MJ will always be friends. So why are she and Peter breaking up? Why is Peter acting like the woman he actually married and had many years of matrimony with dead when in effect he loved two identical women and one of them died. He’s acting like he’s a widower and Helen is meaningless which doesn’t make any sense. Same with Helen, she’s just hooking up with Ben because he’s a clone like her and is nearly identical to her husband but...he isn’t. Peter is the man she loves, Ben hasn’t got all his memories or anything. It’s just a mess

· What was Warren’s plan here? Replace the real Gwen with a clone, put her in a test tube and then somehow this will allow him to be with her? I know Warren is nuts but his mania when it comes to Gwen always made sense within his warped logic

· Warren cloning Gwen and giving her away doesn’t even make sense. Warren only cloned Gwen because she died, he wanted to in a sense bring her back to life. He never tried to clone her when she was alive and practically engaged with Peter. He didn’t even like the idea of any version of Gwen potentially being with Peter, which is why he created a clone of himself to hook up with the Gwen clone he created. Here he’s created a clone of Gwen to what? Trick Peter into marrying the fake while he gets to keep the real one in mint condition in a tank? What??????????????????

· The reason I say Helen must have been the one who married Peter is because there is no way in Hell Warren would have walked the real Gwen down the aisle to marry Peter. Not ever. But if that is the intention...it makes no sense

· Why is Warren nice to Peter? In those silver age stories he was gruff and not that nice to him a lot of the time precisely because he was jealous of him. What, because he has the real Gwen that means he’s okay with Peter?

· Doc Ock is a reformed bad guy because in spite of the age difference and the fact that he’s nearly died multiple times (like I dunno in the accident that gave him his powers in the first place) marrying Aunt May and having a heart attack made him change his ways. Um...no...No, no, no those things would absolutely not cause Doc Ock to change his ways. He never really loved Aunt May, he just had affection for her because of his own Mommy issues and he’s nearly died countless times. Like surely the fact that he remained a villain after all those times, including his near death misses across Superior Spider-Man and Slott’s run, barely sort of reforming right at the end of ASM #800, is proof Doc Ock isn’t the guy who stops to smell the roses after a near miss. Not to mention in this universe I guess Spider-Man didn’t stop the wedding in time so Otto actually married Aunt May and then...was content to just wait until she died to get that island she inherited....

· Zdarsky apparently loved those Marc Webb movies because he not only wrote Gwen closer to Emma Stone, not only shipped her with Peter, but also leaned in on the Osborn sickness thing and decided to borrow the whole ‘Peter is a better son than you Harry’ angle from the Raimi movies too. Because why use the real canon I guess

· Why does anyone blame Peter for not helping Flash when fucking Iron Man and Giant Man are in Vietnam too?

· Why kill Flash? Again, wasn’t this series supposed to be Spider-Man’s life just in real time? You’ve just blown up all those Hobgoblin and Agent Venom stories playing out in real time because you wanted to do something arbitrarily different that also wanted to pretend like MJ would be super angry about Flash dying because Peter could have saved him...somehow...what?

· I’m sorry but...how the Hell is the Vietnam War still happening if Iron Man and Giant Man are involved? In the actual 1960s-1970s you had to suspend your disbelief about heroes involved in the war because realistically they would have altered it’s outcome, much as Superman could’ve ended WWII in a day. But in this AU Captain America, Iron Man AND Giant Man, super powered beings with immense intelligence and tech resources are actively involved in the war. Why the fuck are the Viet Cong still a thing at that point. I’m not trying to diss the real life Viet Cong, but realistically they might be able to fend off the then contemporary united states military but IRON MAN too? No absolutely not, Stark would’ve found a way to deal with them very easily just as Doctor Manhattan did in Watchmen

· Why is Iron Man even involved? Wasn’t Tony Stark’s whole origin about him realizing weapons are bad, war profiteering is bad, it hurts everyone. Why then is he using his weapon of war, the Iron Man armour, to help fight the Viet Cong??????????????????

· And on top of all this shit...the timeline doesn’t even make sense. This is essentially the Clone Saga/the Death of Gwen Stacy reference right? Okay cool...the latter happened in 1973 and the former in 1975...so why the fuck does this issue happen in 1977 with the epilogue in 1978????????????????????

I guess if you just entirely turn your brain off and treat this as akin to the Ultimate Universe where things are different for the sake of being different and all the riffing on the original history is fanservice then it’s enjoyable enough.

But as advertised, as obviously intended...its immensely problematic.

And frankly, once and for all this issue alone has convinced me Zdarksy is not a good Spider-Man writer because he clearly does not get these characters.

P.S. The redesigned costume looked...nice....but again it plays into the ‘this is different for the sake of being different’ thing rather than actually being a change that’d be natural due to the alterations in history.

P.P.S. Once again the real life historical aspects of the issue aren’t really relevant to the primary plot of the issue, and are window dressing at best. Actually they’re even more window dressing that issue #1

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missjackil · 5 years

Text

My 14x17 Opinion

Game Night

This was the first new episode since “The Announcement” and I have to say I was putting off writing it. I usually post these the day after, but I procrastinated so it’s a bit late. So forgive my butt-hurt tardiness and let's have at it.

I enjoyed this episode, though it wasn't without some issues. I must say that I was pleased that it wasn't as Sam-lite as I thought it would be from the promo pics, trailer, and knowing Jared didn't work a lot that week, I will always want for more Sam in an episode, but all his parts were necessary and high quality in this one, so I'm not angry at all.

We start the episode with Donatello making cookies, singing Raindrops are Fallin’ on my Head, which made me smile. It made me think of Butch Cassiday and The Sundance Kid and I love that movie, and if J2 ever want to play the leads in a remake, I would be willing to pay for it myself!

Donny gets interrupted by the door, and we know this is a problem because its the first 5 minutes of SPN, let's be honest. As soon as I see the bad guy’s wedding ring, I think “Shit... here comes Nick”. I thought he was gonna kill him and I'm glad he didn't. I like Donny, he looks like my dad. 😊

Back at the Bunker, the fam is getting ready for “Winchester Game Night” and Dean is playing Mouse Trap, and having no luck getting it to work. I had that game as a kid too and was never able to get it to work either, but it was fun putting it together! I did think it was a little sad but fitting, that Dean would have played that game as a 4 yr old, but leave it to John and Mary to give Dean a game made for older kids, that never worked out the way it was supposed to and had too many small parts he could choke on. (the irony is not lost on me)

Mary and Jack are in the kitchen. I could literally almost smell the Jiffy Pop popcorn. A Saturday night staple at my house growing up (any of you out there ever taste that greasy salt left on the sides of the foil pan? Good stuff!) and Mary starts in with the questions for Jack. I got a kick out of him telling her its annoying, and her face after. It’s ok Mary, he’s fine, he’s just a teenager now. Something I guess she never got to experience from the adult side.

Sam is out getting pizza, and all the times they’ve had pizza, I never really saw what Sam likes on his. Apparently both he and Dean like lots of pepperoni. Good choice boys! The joy is short-lived (of course) by Donatello’s call, and Dean and Mary go off to help. I loved Sam sitting there researching. I have always loved his look of interest and concentration during these times. Smart!Sam moment #1 he figures out the language is ancient Hebrew, #2 he has the moment of realization that he knows it’s from the Bible, and knows what chapter and verse. (demerits for the writers though for not knowing Peter is in the New Testament and is in Ancient Greek, not Hebrew, but kudos for Sam/Jared for at least knowing the book is located near the back of The Bible)

Mom and Dean in the car. Now we have the talk about how wrong she knows she’s been but how appreciative she is to have this time with him and Sam. Uhoh... sounds like lines typically given to a character who is soon to be killed off? Hmmm we’ll see. Soon they arrive at Donny’s to find Nick. He says he's poisoned Donny and to save him, they have to help him. He wants to talk.

Back at the bunker, violent rage!Sam awaits!! GOD that gave me tingles in the best way! I loved Dean leading Nick down the hall in cuffs, in slow motion as if leading him to his execution, and Sam standing there with his chest puffed out like a friggin’ bulldozer, and the snarl and slam attack against the wall!! (hand me that towel, please??) Dean backs Sam off, lots of brother touching going on, but we need intel, we can't kill him yet.

Now Sam is in self-loathing mode.... he thinks everything is his fault. So many people dying because of him. This is gonna be a big issue soon, I promise. Mom talks Sam off the self-deprecating ledge and tells him he gave Nick another chance because he’s a good man and that's why she’s so proud of him. Sam softens up into the sweetest “aww shucks ma” smile and I want to hug him💕 also, still lines are being spoken by mom that are synonymous with being killed off.

Now, I procrastinated talking about Cas and Anael because the whole thing was boring. I'm not a wife hater but at least make her necessary if you’re going to cast her. I was ok about her role as Sister Jo for Devil’s Bargain but she hasn't been necessary since. Cas wasn't even necessary in this episode. We knew he was hiding the fact that Jack killed the snake, and there are probably 1000 other ways they could have reminded us that the Samulet is still around and maybe they can use it, than for him to find a similar one in the thrift shop or whatever that place was. I dug Methuzula though, he was the oldest dude in the Bible. He wasn’t an angel, for any of you worried about him liking lasagna or why he couldn't just smite Cas... its because he's HUMAN just extremely old.

On to more interesting things.

Nick wants to talk to Jack. I was not pleased with Nick referring to Jack as his son. Im not 100% convinced that the writer (and all involved really) remembered that Jack isnt Nick’s son, but added that as a note of empathy Nick has for Lucifer, you’d THINK someone, particularly Jack would say “Im not your son” ?? but anyway, he gives intel to Jack and also gets his blood (dun dun dunnnn)

Sam is again a smarty pants and knows the antidote for Thalium is Prussian Blue (makes note) and figures he can hack the live feed (brains are so sexy) I also love that Sam’s word is the go word. So many more decisions are made because Sam thinks its the best option than he's ever given for in the fandom. So Sam and Dean take Nick with them to find Donny.

I really love the broments in this part. Dean tells Nick if he tries anything funny, Sam will shoot him. “And if anything happens to me....” “Sam will shoot me” “To start!” says Sam... because if he hurts Dean, Sam isnt letting him off that easy. But in true SPN form, as soon as Sam and Dean are separated, shit goes south.

Mom calls Sam and lets him know Donny was shot up with Angel grace, as Jack figured out, Nick was playing them. Now the fight between Sam and Nick ensues! Nick tells Sam why he used Donatello, which was to bring Lucifer back, “You can't, he’s dead he’s in the Empty” Sam says but this show’s self-awareness gets me sometimes lol Nick’s like “Cmon Sam you know no one stays dead anymore” and Sam starts kicking his ass.

Now, I have already seen a million of you whine and complain that Sam didn’t kill Nick. It’s almost as though some of you have never met Sam Winchester. Of course Sam could have killed Nick, and most of us wish he did, but Sam has stopped himself from killing humans before. He stopped himself with Jake in AHBL and also with Toni in 12x01. Unfortunately it always bites him in the ass. Could it be that Sam thinks if he can kill a human with his bare hands that he’s a monster? This isn’t bad writing folks, this is Sam’s character.

Nick takes advantage of Sam’s hesitation and starts nailing him with a rock. Spewing crap about Sam being Lucifer’s Perfect vessel and such.... this can only mean that issue will be coming up soon! Sam gets in the car and starts laying on the horn for Dean, calling out to him... Dean hears Sam is in trouble, enough playing around here time to kill some demons.

When he gets to Sam. he sees he’s badly injured. Sam can hardly hold on to consciousness, protective!dean kicks in! Apply preasure to the blled, call 911, call mom. Now check for brain damage and play a counting game with Sam This hurt my feels so much, it made it feel so much more serious than all the other head injuries he’s sustained. Dean and his caring big brother smile and light hearted speech so Sam doesnt panic just kills me in the best way!! Sam tries to count with him a little and breaks into “You always put me first... your whole life” and manages to muster a little smile. Dean knows Sam believes he’s checking out, and you see the fear all over Dean’s face as Sam fades away. (OMG these 2!! Every freakin time!!)

Meanwhile, Mary and Jack found Nick and he has summoned Lucifer and just about to take him in again (Lucifer looked pretty cool,,, gotta say) and Jack zaps Lucifer back into the rift (no not forever guys... cmon) and starts torturing Nick. Mary kinda flips out telling Jack to stop. He’s contorting his hand, burning him from the inside out... not simply killijng him. Mary is full on worried now. Jack stops and Nick is laying on the floor. Mary is in shock and tells Jack to go help Sam, He heals him and Dean cant even hide his relief as he turns away to catch his breath.

Now Jack returns to Mary who is more than worried about how Jack was torturing Nick. We know the Winchesters dont mind killing, but draw the line at torture. However, Mary stupidly poked the bear. She could have just kept herself and Jack calm and talked to the boys later, but she poked and poked till Jack freaked out. Though I am wondering if Jack was also hearing Lucifer when he was shouting “Leave me alone!!” But in any regard, he looked at Mary and something happened. Fade to black.

Aside from the Cas/Anael part, I really enjoyed this episode. A few issues yes, but it hit most of the marks needed for me to enjoy an episode. Ive already rewatched it twice and will again and again.

On a scale of Bloodlines to Lebanon, I give this a strong 7.5 without the Cas/Anael bit it would have been an easy 8.

#14x17 spoilers #game night #my opinion #i dug this one #love this 2nd half a lot

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willowlark369 · 6 years

Text

Conflicts of Duty

So, between the Infinity War trailers and finally getting to see Black Panther, I had a few ideas that needed to be written.

Read this on AO3.

“Do you ask this as my brother or my king?”

Shuri spoke the words softly, her tone more serious than she typically used. She didn’t want to admit that as she progressed on her project, her confidence in the simplicity of the solution had changed. To verify that her algorithm could do as she proposed—as she had bragged that it could—she had been forced to begin learning two different fields of science: neurology and psychology. Both fields were far removed from her preferred fields of programming and engineering. Given more time, she was certain that she would be successful in her goal of helping Sgt. Barnes regain his independent agency, but it would not be as quickly as she had previously projected.

On the other hand, the technology she already possessed allowed her to review a person’s memories from their perspective. Initially, she only had visual and audio information, but recently she had cracked the barrier for internal processing. She had spent weeks reviewing the life of James Buchanan Barnes as intimately as the man himself had. She had witnessed truly awkward moments that made her question just how sane any boy or man could truly be and gave her a recurring case of boys are icky feels. She also had seen some things which did not match the man she had believed Steve Rogers to be from the American movies she had watched with Baba.

As discreetly as possible, she had reached out to Dr. Stark. She had been expecting her request for information on the BARF to be rejected out of hand. At the very least, she was expecting to be questioned extensively or to have him demand regular updates, for him to meddle. Everything Steve Rogers and his compatriots had said in her presence about the man indicated that he was little more than a petulant child, prone to throwing tantrums and hoarding his possessions regardless of how many might benefit. Instead, he had been perfectly willing to send all his research to her, including the fab-specs for the device itself. The packet even included an impressive amount of studies and papers. He outlined his issue with making the device more available, which seemed to stem entirely from the power source being a really teeny arc reactor.

It was when she realized that he had included the fab-specs for that where he moved from Tony Stark, billionaire white boy, to Dr. Tony Stark, holder of four doctorates and five honorary doctorates. Despite what her sources, both media and those who had worked alongside the man, had said, Stark had shared a closely guarded secret with her, had treated her as a fellow engineer and genius. He had fought against publicly sharing the technique for miniaturizing his father’s arc reactor; he had kept every version of the ones he had built out of anyone’s hands except for his. Yet he had, after a five-minute discussion, just sent her everything. Then he had told her what had gained her that level of trust.

“I worked with your father,” Stark had said, his voice sounding suspiciously thick with something. Her mother’s voice had that same quality occasionally. “He was… he was really something. Hated me but up front about it and why. No spin; no recriminations; no directives. I’ve come to appreciate that kind of honesty.” He paused to draw an audible breath. When he continued, his voice sounded stronger, more certain. “Your father had a vision, of how the world could possibly be, of how to fix something he had broken. I know how that looks on a person.

“Anyway, T’Chaka was one of the few on the panel willing to actually listen to the people meant to be governed by the Accords, so um, we ended up talking a lot. You know how that works. Inevitably, conversations shift, and other things come up. He mentioned you, his brilliant daughter who refused to quit tinkering even when she should have been in bed.” Dr. Stark had chuckled. It was a warm sound, not quite the same as Baba’s had been but similar enough to make her ache a little. “God, he couldn’t stop bragging, you know? Every time you or T’Challa could even remotely be connected to a topic, you were, and he was so, so proud of everything you were doing, were leading others in doing.”

“That’s why you trust me more than your own leaders? Because my father was proud of me?”

“Well, that’s the grown up responsible thing to say and you should definitely use it as the main reason if anyone asks, but honestly? He mentioned a rant you went on about how Leia was the true Balance of the force and Luke was mostly just making messes like brothers do. Anyone who prefers the Ambassador over other characters is someone worth knowing. And the brother bit really reminded me of someone, so double the marks in your favor.”

Between all the chaos of Erik Stevens’ temporary coup, the fallout from it, and learning new subjects in order to help the first broken white boy T’Challa had brought her, she hadn’t been feeling generous as she continued sorting through Barnes’ memories. Part of her could recognize the hero from the American movies and shows she used to watch curled up next to Baba. She could see a man who had to fight to prove himself and never gave up trying. But she could also see how Steve Rogers had just never listened to the advice of others and made messes that just kept growing harder for others to clean up.

And he had used her grandfather’s gift to Howard Stark, a symbol of trust and promised loyalty, to do a lot of it. Dr. Stark had never brought up Siberia, not once, but she had seen it through Barnes’ eyes. She loved her brother, but she had seen him be so focused on revenge and making amends that he forgot to even ask about someone he had fought beside.

She could absolutely create a replacement for the Captain America buckler. It would be simple, boring. It would be hardly any effort at all to work in improvements. After all, she knew her people’s most precious resource far better than a colonizer in the Forties had.

She just didn’t want to.

But she understood that she had a duty to Wakanda, and through that duty, to her king.

“Does it matter?”

“A sister may refuse a brother a request if it goes against her heart.” Shuri raised her chin, unintimidated by the big brother she loved to tease about exposed toes in her lab. She gave a silent prayer to the Mother Bast for strength of will. Okoye had made this dilemma between two loyalties look so easy, yet this seemed harder than watching T’Challa fight his challengers had been. “But a loyal subject is bound to the will of her king. So do you make this request as my brother or as my king?”

“You will always be my sister first, Shuri,” T’Challa replied after a long moment. There was that strange thickness of tone again, on yet another person. Like she would a frustrating project, she examined her brother carefully.

She saw the same look in his eyes that he had when showing her the building he had purchased in Oakland for the Outreach Program. She thought of the memories she had watched and the old interviews she had started binging on to try and understand why people would think the things they did about Dr. Stark. She thought of how weighted Baba had looked in the last years of his life and the determination in every line of Okoye’s body as she aimed her spear at her own husband in defense of what was right. It occurred to her that maybe she knew how wanting to do better looked on someone, too.

“As your sister, I advise against providing more help to Steve Rogers. The debt you believe you owe for your pursuit of vengeance for our father is not to him and continuing to assist him in his endeavors is a betrayal of the ideals Baba spent so much of his last months working towards recognizing. Steve Rogers is a man who will not listen to any who tell him that he is wrong and refuses to acknowledge the rights of anyone who may find themselves in the path of the collateral damage he leaves behind. He is a face for everything Baba feared about the world discovering the truth about Wakanda and everything our uncle and cousin spent years stewing about. Even now, he flaunts the law our father died to see ratified, without regard to potential collateral damage. Arming this man, who claims to be a hero but whose actions show otherwise, is as foolish an idea as your stupid flip-flops and will make you look just as stupid in the long run.”

“He’s been good at getting the job done.”

“When will you learn that just because something works does not mean it cannot be improved? There is more to being a hero than defeating the bad guy. If you don’t believe me, have Nakia explain it to you. She does it better than me.”

“Something you are not good at?”

“You couldn’t handle me if I was perfect,” she quipped. Then she set her expression into something resembling solemness. “I understand that the danger incoming is great and that we will need everyone working together to have any hope of succeeding, but he is unworthy of that symbol and the trust that comes with giving him a weapon of my design.” She paused as an idea came to her.

“What’s that? I know that look. That’s the one you get before you play one of your tricks!”

“I think I may have a way of fulfill both callings. Changing the design will take away the symbol he betrayed with his actions and allow me to hide one of my remote disabling switches in it.”

“The ones you developed to prevent Wakandan technology from falling into the wrong hands?”

“Just so, my king,” she said, including the crossed arms and slight bow. She grinned when he batted at her a few times. She should make a few memes comparing him to an actual cat. Just for kicks. She grabbed a designing tablet and began working, too distracted by possible rebuilds to worry about maintaining complete focus on her conversation partner. T’Challa was used to it by now, surely. “If I change the design, he will also be more limited. I can take away his range, make him unable to tag team an opponent. That will be useful if he decides that only he knows how things need to be done again. It will need to be similar enough to a shield that he won’t question but different enough that he will be forced to adopt a different style.”

“You truly believe him to be an enemy?”

T’Challa sounded shocked. Shuri returned her gaze to him. He looked as lost as he had when preparing for Challenge Day. She had to stifle the urge to call for Mama or Okoye. She was too young to handle her big brother looking like that. A flash of Barnes’ memory settled behind her vision, steadying her as it steeled her resolve.

“Steve Rogers believes himself to be a good man. Everything he does comes back to that belief. He divides the world into two groups with it. Everyone who agrees with him is also good; everyone who doesn’t, isn’t. Because Steve Rogers believes that he is a good man. What can a good man do if not the right thing? Would that not make others wrong?” She took a deep breath, silently hoping to emulate Baba with her next words. “Believing is not the same as being. To be a good man, one must show compassion to all, even one’s enemy; one must build bridges, not barriers; one must be honest but not cruel; one must be willing to see worth in all things.”

“You’ve been watching Moulin Rouge again, haven’t you?”

“Baba has never steered me wrong before.” She gave T’Challa a sad smile. “Why would death change that?”

“When did my little sister become so wise?”

“Well, one of us had to be, and you were too busy staring at Nakia.”

“I do not—”

“You do so! It’s cute. Everyone thinks so.”

They bickered back and forth as she continued to work. If occasionally T’Challa would regain that lost look, well, Shuri was mature enough to not mention it. Even brothers could be broken, and she was good at fixing broken people.

She had so much practice, after all.

#MCU #Black Panther #Shuri #Fem Power Challenge 2018 #Magi's Fics #not steve rogers friendly #Tony Stark Friendly #fanfiction #T'Challa's a bit of an idiot but he's trying to do better

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fadedtoblue · 7 years

Note

I'd normally just message you about this, but I think it'd make some good meta. What do you think when folks say "Matt belongs with Karen and Daredevil with Elektra" ?

Sorry it took me so long to finish this, as you know with me…I ALWAYS HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS. I appreciate the question though and I enjoy the chance to think about this concept more deeply…I certainly made a lot of effort to make sure my reasoning felt logical? Disclaimer: this is going to focus more on DDS2 Elektra than post-TD Elektra because there’s a lot that isn’t entirely clear about where her characterization is meant to go from that storyline. I don’t want to muddy the waters up too much so I’m just drawing the line here now. I might write something separate regarding the end of The Defenders b/c I’m seeing some conversation popping up here and there around the motivations behind that ending but, yeah, not super relevant here. I also apologize in advance b/c I think I’m going to go off on a couple of meta tangents regarding both Karen and Elektra before I get back to addressing the crux of the concept so…bear with me!

Let’s start out by quoting some words from Mr. Cox himself, who was fairly consistent in falling back on some variation of this hypothesis in almost all the interviews I’ve read / watched with him during press for DDS2 – this quote isn’t quite exact to the question, but it’s close…I’m also sure there are better ones, but this was just the first one I had accessible:

With Karen, he’s Matt Murdock. He’s the kind of man he’s always wanted to be. She brings out of him a kindness and a generosity and a belief in law and order, and right and wrong. She taps into something that is the kind of person he’s always seen himself – the kind of person his father wanted him to be. But Karen doesn’t know about Daredevil, and that’s undeniably a huge part of his life.

With Elektra, it’s the opposite. She knows all about Daredevil. She accepts that, and encourages him in a way that no one else does. But she also sees a dark side, or she tries to draw out of him a disregard for law and order, a disregard for people and property, and those things which isn’t who he is.

On a super simplistic, superficial level, yeah – it makes sense. Karen and Elektra were already involved, in very different ways, with the two sides of Matt’s hyper-compartmentalized lifestyle. As a result, I understand why there’s this intrinsic pull to connect Karen with Matt’s ‘day’ life and Elektra with Matt’s ‘night’ life, and then draw the line from that to, “Matt loves Karen, Daredevil loves Elektra” and vice versa. I disagree, however, with the basic premise of Charlie’s statement / this kind of statement in general, mainly because while Karen and Elektra both make very useful props to further illustrate the trials and tribulations of one very confused and conflicted Matt Murdock, you can easily remove both of them from the equation and come to exactly the same answer: which is that Matt Murdock was already a kind, generous man, with a belief in law and order and right and wrong, coupled with an absolutely hypocritical flagrant disregard for law, order, people and property every time he runs out and pulls on that mask. If you look up the word denial in the dictionary, it might as well have Matt Murdock’s pretty face filling up the page. My point is…Karen didn’t make Matt better and Elektra didn’t make Matt worse. Matt was already the man he had chosen to be, and for some reason it seems easier to credit / blame either one of these women for his inherent character traits when in fact, this was the person he already was before either of them came into the picture.

Now, I think a better way to phrase this concept is that Karen is attracted to what Matt Murdock represents, and likewise, Elektra is attracted to Daredevil represents, and that is why Matt belongs with Karen / Daredevil belongs with Elektra. And to this I say….mmmm maybe, maybe not. Based on what we’ve been given so far on the show, one could argue that neither Karen or Elektra have yet had the opportunity to fully experience both sides of Matt Murdock and maybe neither of them ever will. But I think there is enough here to try to figure out whether the Karen –> Matt / Elektra –> DD line of thinking holds water, and whether either of them have a better shot of being the right fit for both sides.

Let’s tackle Karen first.

On paper, there’s a lot that should work between Karen and Matt. It’s sweet and innocent in a way that so many things aren’t in Daredevil’s world. They share a lot of similar qualities – real go-getters for truth and justice and light, stubborn and quite headstrong, but still caring and empathetic individuals. I can see why they get categorized as the nice / healthy / safe option. But the primary problem with all of that lies in the fact that the foundation of their apparent relationship might as well be built on sand – almost everything they think they know and love about the other are at best half-truths, at worse, straight up lies: Matt, a blind, super stand-up handsome attorney with a genuine heart for justice, lives quite the secret double life as Daredevil, crime fighting vigilante with a not-talked-about-enough rage problem, and Karen, sweet, strong, spunky secretary with a heart of gold, has a secret murder on her conscience and an as-yet-to-be-determined dark and tragic backstory that may completely turn our opinions of her on its head. My issue with this is less that they keep secrets – who doesn’t keep secrets in this universe? – but that the image they’ve built up of each other and have become attracted to are very incomplete versions of themselves, and thus renders their relationship sadly superficial in a way they weren’t even aware. Which means the ironic thing about them being the conventional, safe romantic option is that nothing about them is actually that conventional or healthy or safe at all. Their relationship can be summed up by them lying to each other and to themselves about almost…everything, which isn’t a judgement of either character, it’s simply facts.

Now to be fair, from a storytelling perspective, this doesn’t mean there isn’t some hope of salvaging a meaningful relationship even with the deceit (one could argue this is exactly what they managed to do with Matt and Elektra). It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a television show deploys that old trope: two people who thought they knew each other realize they didn’t actually know anything about each other, harshly re-examine everything they’ve built up about each other so they can knock it all down and start from the beginning, etc. But I think the show has laid some interesting track with Karen’s character development, and I question whether pursuing a romantic relationship with Matt would honor that development in a positive way. My interpretation is that Karen, despite her propensity to get herself into very questionable situations, doesn’t actually want the danger. Yes, she finds herself more often than not running toward it, and she has an incredible amount of empathy for those who do not operate fully in the light, but that doesn’t mean she enjoys being in these dark and dangerous situations. She doesn’t want to see people she cares about get hurt. She doesn’t want to see herself get hurt. I do think she accepts that danger is oftentimes an unavoidable part of the process toward uncovering the truth (something that she learned from Ben and I think a huge reason why she worked as hard as she did to get as far as she did with Frank) – that danger in service of that truth can be tolerable, sometimes even bearable to live with. I’m not sure the way Matt goes about it, however, is compatible with her newfound tendency toward self-preservation.

As poorly as the post-DDS2 revelations were handled in The Defenders, I can still appreciate the little character nuggets they did throw out at us to better flesh out Karen’s headspace and motivations. I know the way it played out frustrated a lot of people – it frustrated me too. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that her stance on Matt as DD was not really that far outside the realm of believability. She’s not an idiot or a wet blanket or whatever negative descriptor you want to throw in here. She’s someone who has gone through a shit ton of trauma and wants to feel like she has some control over her life. She wants to be doing something that gives her purpose and fuels her passion (which she has found, through investigative journalism). And here’s the kicker: she wants to survive long enough to do these things. I know, I know, she still gets herself into some pretty crazy situations but I think to her, these situations are worth it if they can fix the things about her that are broken? If they can right the wrongs that lurk in her past, and if they can give her life a sense of meaning and purpose. I just really and truly don’t know what a relationship with Matt would offer her except all of the danger without any of the personal payoff. To constantly wonder about his health and safety and what her proximity to him does for her own chances of survival. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that their relationship only gains positive momentum when there’s nothing else is happening to fuck shit up. But the second any sort of outside stressor gets thrown into the situation, it might as well be like throwing a grenade into their personal growth. And the big reason for the constant imploding of progress always boils down to Matt and his secret identity. Which is such a salient reminder to me that when Karen fell for Matt, she didn’t know about Daredevil and thus was never afforded the choice in whether she wanted to be involved in Daredevil’s shenanigans. Honestly, it’s also not like she knew him long enough or well enough to have him consider her in that part of his life anyway. But this only highlights to me just how damaging these lies and omissions have been and how confusing they are to untangle after the fact, especially in light of all she’s been through personally. This is why I don’t really blame Karen for being wary and self-protective post-identity reveal and why I have to wonder about what positives this could hold for her as a character other than to check off the canon love interest box for Matt Murdock*.

* A point that is interesting to me when compared to someone like Claire, who while not a comics canon relationship, was still meant to fill in that love interest role in DDS1. People have complained about her not getting her fair share of exploration as Matt’s love interest (a complaint I certainly shared back in S1) but regardless, once Claire had the information she needed to evaluate Matt and what this potentially could mean for the two of them, I think she made the very healthy choice to nope the hell out of there.

Karen may be “better” for Matt…but is Matt “better” for Karen?

And what about Elektra?

At first blush, Elektra represents every violent, id-driven impulse Matt Murdock tries to hide from the world and only chooses to unleash when he dons the Daredevil costume. Her introduction to Matt’s world is of a woman who exists as unfettered passion, of caution thrown to the wind, no thinking – just doing. It’s not surprising that this sort of encouragement leads to stolen cars, breaking and entering, damage of property, and almost-murder. Fast forward ten years later, and it seems that not much has initially changed, that present day Elektra still embodies so much of the young woman who first gave him the taste of pleasure through pain, and conveniently presents as an avatar for Matt’s darkest desires, the one who validates Daredevil’s actions and very existence. The fact that she comes to Matt looking specifically for Daredevil’s help, and ropes him into a crime-centered mission whilst unintentionally undermining the work that he does as Matt Murdock, lawyer, makes it easier to put Elektra in the “wants DD, not Matt Murdock” column. Some would probably take it farther and argue that nothing about Elektra is worth redeeming and that her influence should be kept away from Matt at all costs.

As with almost everything about Elektra, it’s not that simple of course!

I think the first step is looking past the bullshit storyline Elektra got saddled with regarding the Hand and the more superficial backlash toward her character because she had the balls to not only represent but encourage the other equally valid part of Matt’s life as Daredevil (and this can’t be said enough, but Elektra deserves ZERO culpability for Matt’s inability to balance and prioritize his own shit). When you do you’ll find there are quite a few fascinating insights into her character that develop over the course of DDS2, which may not serve to make her relationship with Matt any more “normal” or “healthy” (both terms that are laughable when used in relation to Matt Murdock anyway), but do provide a really crucial prism through which to examine what they could be together.

In my opinion, the thinking that Elektra is good for DD and not Matt is short sighted. Yes, she is an incredibly skilled fighter and appears to have a higher level of respect for Matt’s activities as Daredevil than she does for Matt’s work in law. But is this actually true? We know that Elektra likes to conveniently play up the femme fatale role, throwing in a bit of the enabler / bad influence for good measure. We also know she views the world with much more disdain than Matthew, and has a less stringent moral compass than…well, almost everyone. But as this wonderful post by @xtltokio highlights, at the heart of it (and I’m focusing on DDS2 here) Elektra is actually one of the good guys. And I quote:

Elektra was fighting a war, a bloody, messy and complicated war. But most of all she was fighting for the right side. In addition to being raise to be a Assassin, a weapon, she was also a soldier in a war she believed in. She hated and was terrified of turning a weapon to The Hand.

As a valued soldier in the Chaste army, Elektra is literally all about taking out the bad guys (yes, by killing them), rooting out evil and dispensing justice against the Hand. She’s just quite a bit more pragmatic about it than Matt. And it’s funny – we all know and acknowledge that Stick is an obnoxious asshole but no one ever questions whether he’s on the right side of the war while he’s cutting down ninjas left and right, do they? But I digress. Now, the flashback sequence in TD 1x07 in particular does a lot to put some of Elektra’s actions from 10 years ago into further context, especially this quote from Stick: “[Not killing] doesn’t make him good, Ellie…it just makes him weak.” What is it that makes Elektra’s moral code so much worse than Matt’s? That she has no hesitation in dispatching people she perceives to be her enemies so that she can keep the people on her side of the war safe? Is her sin that she sometimes enjoys the thrill of the kill (honestly, I still find this assessment to be a little questionable). And what does that say about Matt, who has a strict moral code about not killing, but most certainly derives a certain level of pleasure and willingness to embrace a lack of self-restraint when it comes to violently injuring his opponents?

When it comes down to it, Matt and Elektra are two people cut from the same cloth, coming of age in the wake of trauma and violence, trained by Stick to harness their anger into something deeper and darker and we know one of the only reasons Matt didn’t descend down to the same darkness was because his training was cut short. So we have to realize this is some absolutely crucial context to judge her character by. When we do, we know that for as much as Elektra exhibited unhealthy, and yes, sometimes toxic behaviors in her early relationship with Matt (though it was also in service of a mission and not necessarily indicative of what she would have done on her own), we also know that Matt changed a core part of her being, or if you don’t think it went that far, can at least admit he planted a seed of change within her. And the fact that this inherent goodness within her has been brought up so many times in show canon that I honestly don’t believe it’s incidental. I really believe that even in the wake of The Defenders, making sense of that potential goodness will be a core part of Elektra’s story should she reappear again in the future. And it is within this potential for light that I find possibilities for a successful Daredevil and Elektra pairing, and even more so in one for Matt and Elektra.

It’s funny to me when people say Elektra loves Daredevil and not Matt Murdock because she fell in love with Matt Murdock before Daredevil ever existed. She was the first one to know and embrace the duality in him. She also knows that Daredevil isn’t a separate part of Matt – Daredevil is Matt. Admittedly, it took him longer to understand the duality within Elektra, but for all of his self-righteousness, he never lost his belief in her. Even with the lies, they have never been anything other than themselves with each other. The way they viewed the world, their personalities, their abilities, everything was out there for each other to see and explore. The biggest thing Elektra hid from Matt was her work with the Chaste and relationship with Stick yet even that is the kind of lie that ultimately Matt would 100% understand because of own his history and familiarity with Stick and his causes. And I don’t think this can be said enough, but does anyone remember when Elektra actually develops as a character over the course of DDS2? Like how by 2x08 she has genuinely accepted Matt’s desire for the light, no strings attached? She is GLAD that she didn’t snuff out his darkness? And when Matt asks her to leave, she DOES. She is willing to walk out of his life because he believes they are corrupting each other and as hurt as she must have been in that moment, she does exactly what he asks of her. And remember how she is willing to be convinced by Matt that she doesn’t have to be a weapon for the Hand, and she makes the choice to fight on his side? And how she is absolutely frustrated with his desire to save the Hand hostages because she rightfully identifies it as a trap, but she knows how he is and she helps him anyway. Even Father Lanthom directly rebuts Matt’s statements at the beginning of Defenders, when Matt questions whether Elektra would be disappointed in him for abandoning Daredevil. Because he’s clearly heard enough about Elektra from Matt’s many visits to be able to piece together an image of this mysterious, damaged woman that isn’t just the coldhearted monster people seem to think she is, but the feeling woman who actually cares about Matt’s desires and wellbeing that exists underneath. It’s odd that all of these things seem so casually discarded in favor of highlighting Elektra’s darker tendencies, huh?

If you ask me, there seems to be quite more going for Elektra than initially meets the eye. I fall back on this Elodie on Elektra quote a lot, but I think it sums it up so nicely:

They seem to be very different, but maybe deep down, they are quite similar and that’s where their bond comes from. She comes across as being the bad girl and he comes across as being the good guy, but maybe they’re both somewhere in the middle. Maybe Matthew isn’t that good and maybe Elektra isn’t that bad. They complete each other.

So it all boils down to a few key factors for me.

Let me preface this conclusion by saying that I honestly don’t think Daredevil’s story, at least if they continue to follow the blueprint set up by his very long and robust comics history, includes any sort of Happily Ever After. The closest thing he’s got to any sort of safe and stable relationship is with Foggy and I do think in the end, Foggy will (probably) be the one left standing. But the question is whether there’s any truth / logic / weight in the concept of Matt belongs with Karen and DD belongs with Elektra. And ultimately, I say: no. I believe that just as Karen and Elektra both deserve someone who can fully appreciate them for who they are, Matt also deserves someone who can appreciate him for who he is, for both sides. If you were able to break Matt into two halves, then sure, each of these women would probably be more appropriately matched with one half over the other. But Matt isn’t two people. Matt is one. So if I have to consider which person would actually work best with Matt as Matt Murdock and Matt as Daredevil, Elektra will have the edge for me.

I don’t doubt that they’ll take Matt and Karen back down that road in S3 but as someone who may not ever love this character, but can still respect the changes they’ve done with her, I just can’t see how this is going to work without making Matt into a completely different person, or sacrificing a lot of the strides they’ve made with Karen’s characterization. They’ve done such a stellar job giving Karen stories that allow her to stand on her own, even when she stumbles and makes mistakes and forces me to curse under my breath for the umpteenth time. And it’s not that I feel like she doesn’t deserve to also have romance and softness and love, it’s just that based on all of the things we know about her, I’m not sure Matt can ever give her what she needs, or vice versa. Time and time again, Matt had demonstrated that Karen just isn’t that high of a priority in his life – given the choice between Elektra and Karen, 9 out of 10, he’s going with Elektra. And the sad thing is that I’m pretty sure there was absolutely zero active intent to abandon and belittle Karen, but his actions and his words were always in character, and the message was crystal clear. Sure, there are ways that Matt can certainly be a better person and friend and boyfriend, but there will be limits to that growth because Matt Murdock still has to be Matt Murdock. As long as Daredevil exists and Matt lives his life on the edge of some unpredictable danger, I think that’s just going to be one edge too much for Karen Page. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to eliminate that fundamental disconnect between the sweet Matt and Karen they hypothetically want to be based on the fronts they put on for each other – the one that seems so nice and healthy and safe – and the one that is reality, the frustrating and messy and confusing one where you acknowledge that maybe although they’re two people who have enough in common to be good friends and care deeply for one another, but the future just isn’t there, much like how it ended with Matt and Claire.

Most Mattelektra shippers will be the first to confess that this is no model relationship. We know it’s not healthy. We know it’s messed up. These two clearly have a bond that seems to defy reason or logic and sometimes, even sanity. But even so, at its core, their emotional connection is still rooted in a foundation of unconditional love, understanding, and belief in one another. It’s the sort of thing that leads them to give more to each other than they’d ever been able to give to other people. And because they know each other just that well, and believe in one another to such a degree, they are willing to run headlong into danger and death for it. This bond hasn’t always been used in the best way, nor have they ever had the chance truly be their best within it (I would say that Elektra’s death in DDS2 cut that potential tragically short for now), but I do think this quality gives them a very unique potential to bring out more from each other and to eventually become the best possible people they could be, within the context of their existing flaws and shortcomings. I think it’s more realistic (within the world of the show) to see Matt change himself enough to be a better partner for Elektra without sacrificing the things that make him who he is. And in turn, I can see a similar trajectory for Elektra, where she can also figure herself out and find a purpose for her life with a freedom that she was never afforded before, but also have someone who is supporting her and encouraging her along the way (mostly) without judging her.

*goes back to see what the ask was about* SO YEAH. Does this answer your question? Who the hell even knows.

But now you get to read my very long thoughts and you (and anyone else) can feel free to tell me what you think…I’m even open to some respectful discourse and disagreement as long as it doesn’t devolve into trashing my ship. I know I’m not as emotionally invested in Karen’s journey so maybe my reading on her is off…if I am, I’d love to hear some other takes. I’m just glad I’m done writing this thing :D.

#mattelektra #matt murdock #elektra natchios #karen page #matt x karen #matt x elektra #marvel's daredevil #daredevil meta #thegunlady #asks #answers #meta #my thoughts #text #lots of text #p talks about stuff #like i said #i tried to be somewhat objective even though my bias is obvious and i know i wasn't entirely successful #open to respectful replies / discourse :)

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zayntoxicateme · 7 years

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After the overwhelming success of his debut solo album, all eyes are on VMAN38 cover star Zayn Malik as he readies to release his follow-up. If you think the attention might have gotten to him, think again: music's most in-demand superstar may also be its most humble.

August 16, 2017 Over the week leading up to my interview with the elusive Zayn Malik, much of my time is spent reading up on the endless list of articles that paint him as the bad boy who broke millions of teenage hearts after leaving One Direction. While it would be a much easier story to tell you that Zayn fulfilled every post-Destiny’s Child Beyoncé, rogue boy bander stereotype imaginable, that wouldn’t be honest. The truth is that Zayn Malik is not a "bad boy" at all. In fact, he might be the furthest thing from it.

When we connect, it hardly registers that the person I’m speaking with is a celebrity—let alone one that has accrued 23 million Instagram followers, over one billion streams on his critically acclaimed debut album, an estimated net worth of $45 million, and the world’s most in-demand supermodel as a girlfriend. (Not to mention that his name literally translates to “beautiful king.”) He speaks with ease, offering the types of down-to-earth insight that I would hardly expect from someone who has been known to cancel arena-size shows due to anxiety. When we converse, I begin to understand that this is because I’m not speaking to Zayn, the ultra-famous boy who left One Direction—a fictionalized character and narrative that’s as publically manufactured as the now-dismantled band itself—but rather Zayn, the artist and individual.

“I hope people get an insight to me as a person, because I’m not the most open book in terms of my personal life. I hope people get an understanding of where I’m coming from or what I’m thinking and what I’m going through, and feel closer to me through that,” he offers earnestly when I ask him what motivates his work. “I just want my music to speak for me, and if it does that successfully, then I’m happy with what I achieve.”

Zayn’s first solo album, Mind of Mine, was heralded as his musical declaration of independence, and that understanding colored the ways in which it was discussed. The album was a commercial success and positively received, but the overwhelming majority of what was written about him in that time period failed to focus on the album’s innovative sonic qualities—of which there were many, most notably the way it blended so many musical genres. Instead, many chose to endlessly dissect what it symbolized. One recurring narrative saw critics interpreting the record’s unabashed sexual overtones as a statement that Zayn was no longer a boy in the eyes of popular culture.

“I don’t think it was necessarily that experience that made me a man,” he reflects. “I was becoming a man at that time anyway, and that experience was a validation of my decision-making at that time. Maybe I became a bit more in the driver’s seat—a bit more in control—and that was the first decision I made that reflected that in my life. I think it was a natural growth as a human being and as a person. I feel like I’m still growing every day, as everybody is. I don’t know everything and I’m willing to learn, so I believe everything is a natural progression.”

Zayn seems to acknowledge that Mind of Mine was a testing of the waters. When speaking about his forthcoming sophomore album, this becomes clear: “I feel like my songwriting definitely developed, just because I’ve been doing it so much. I feel like the songs are a bit more organized, where I felt like, before, that Mind of Mine was a brainstorm. That’s why I called it Mind of Mine, because it was ideas that I had that I put out. This one is more thought out. I had more time to process everything and go through it all. It’s an evolution.”

According to him, this evolution means building on the hybridized pop-R&B-soul sound he introduced on the first album, which he accomplished with the continued help of sonic wizard Malay (the same Grammy-winning producer responsible for large parts of Frank Ocean’s two albums). “There’s a couple of songs on the record that I’ve done with Malay that for me, personally, I’m really proud of,” Zayn says. “Just in the sense that I feel like they’re real songs. And I don’t mean to say that to discredit the songs that are out on the charts at the moment. I just feel like there’s something really classic about some of the music that we’ve done together, and for that reason, I’m really proud of some of the songs that are going to come out. I feel like it really shows me as a songwriter and a vocalist.”

He also hints that the new record will see him experimenting with hip hop, thanks to a few featured guest artists whom he’s wary to name so early on (the album isn’t due until later this year). A popular Internet theory is that Nicki Minaj will be one of them. Given his collaboration with Taylor Swift on the smash hit “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” at the beginning of this year, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he would bring in more heavy-hitters to assist.

This blending of musical genres will also see further homages paid to his ancestry. When speaking about “Intermission: Flower,” a beautiful track off Mind of Mine sung in Urdu—the language of Zayn’s Pakistani father—he says that he was touched by the overwhelmingly positive response to the song and that we can indeed expect to see more music drawing on his heritage: “I definitely focused on that for a couple of songs on this record that got this same underlying tone of India and the place that my grandparents originally came from. There’s definitely influences of that in there. Hopefully people like it this time around, as well.”

In his creative process, Zayn doesn’t limit himself to any strict methodology: “I can hear something in the moment and then record on the mic. Sometimes, it might not be a lyric or it might be a sound. I’ll come back to it later,” he explains. “Or sometimes, I’ll have an entire song written on my phone and I won’t know what the melody is yet or how I’m going to sing it, but I know what I want to say.” He clarifies, “I go into the studio with that already written and I’ll try to fit lyrics into a melody. I do it both ways, depending on what I feel is good to do on that beat.”

If he’s feeling any pressure regarding his sophomore release, it doesn’t come through—nor does any desire to fulfill anyone’s expectations of him. When we begin to talk about the various narratives that have dogged him throughout his career—including “the mysterious one,” as he was dubbed in 1D—he shrugs it off: “For me, personally, I don’t ever try to dwell so deep on labels and boxes and places that people want to put you. I believe that we as individuals are in charge of the way people perceive us. There are negative and positive sides to every human on this planet. That’s the way it is. You just have to accept that. If I were to overthink that, it would affect me.”

One such label that Zayn must frequently deal with when it comes to the media is his status as the most widely known Muslim in the western world. But again, he tries to let this roll off of him, demonstrating a healthy boundary with the public. “My faith is between me and God, and whatever that God is, that’s between me and them,” he maintains. “That’s where I draw the line: the specifics. I am a spiritual person and I do believe that everything happens for a reason, so I do have faith in something. I just don’t wish to specify what that is. I don’t want anybody to feel like I’m trying to dictate or wave my opinion on anything. I’m just doing what I’m doing. My religion, or whatever that is, is between me and God, and that’s just how I want to keep it.”

This same struggle to embody certain prescribed ideals and ideologies is also what Zayn cites as the root of his anxiety, which is now largely behind him thanks to an enlightened, almost Zen disposition. “When people don’t always fit that grain, it’s very confusing for the public eye that’s watching because they don’t understand the full ins-and-outs of every emotion that that individual is going through,” he offers. “I think the anxiety comes from the frustration of not being able to explain that to people. Since I explained that I have anxiety, I’ve diminished it because I dealt with what was giving me anxiety: feeling the need to uphold all of these fucking pressures and these things that people want from you. Once you let that go, the anxiety diminishes. It doesn’t really exist anymore because you only care about what it is that you want to give to people. Whether they perceive that in the right or wrong way is ultimately not your choice. It’s out of your control. You can’t always control it, and you just accept that. With that goes the anxiety. Anxiety comes from not being able to control every aspect.”

In a culture that still has a stigma surrounding issues relating to mental health, Zayn’s openness about his anxiety is a sign of bravery that shouldn’t be minimized or overlooked. It’s the hot-button issue for Generation Z, among whom anxiety and depression are on the rise according to recent studies and surveys conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One cultural mechanism Zayn cites as a contributing factor to his generation’s collective anxiety is social media: “It’s become ridiculous to me. Even angles of pictures can’t be taken a certain way because that’s not the cool way to take an angle of a picture. Everyone’s personal opinions and what they believe in, how can you amalgamate all of that into one thing and expect that not to create a problem for people’s minds? That’s my personal opinion, [that] it’s not really that developing for us as people. That for me is the main reason why I don’t believe in [social media]: because I believe it breeds sheep and not lions.” (Zayn himself largely reserves social media use for interacting with fans about his music.)

When you ask an artist what they would be doing if they weren’t creating music, you often get a passionate answer akin to “I was only ever going to do music,” but this is not the case with Zayn. After being presented with a question about what his life might have looked like had he not shown up for his fateful X Factor audition, he takes a moment to contemplate. “I think about that quite a lot. I think about alternative realities. I think I’d be at university and I would have done my English degree. I think I’d be looking for some employment to do with English lecturing or literature. I love poetry and writing—obviously, I’m a songwriter—so, it would’ve been something that would still give me the feeling of a creative outlet within my writing.” It’s an alternative that seems unimaginable to his audience of millions, but to Zayn, it’s entirely plausible.

Of course, even in this reality, music isn’t Zayn’s only creative venture. In 2016, he published Zayn, a photographic autobiography of his life post-One Direction. If Mind of Mine is to be read as the musical insight into how his brain operates, Zayn is the visual companion. Earlier this summer, he dropped a highly anticipated capsule collection designed in collaboration with Donatella Versace for the brand’s Versus line. If you had told him that this was to be in his future a year earlier, though, he would have humbly insisted that you must be lying. “I had no idea that Donatella even knew I existed,” he gushes excitedly. “Then, she started to make a few outfits for me, and a few looks for performances and red carpets. I built a relationship there. She mentioned to me that she wanted me to be involved creatively and asked me to draw some ideas and we had a couple of meetings. I sent her some stuff and she liked it, and we went from there. It’s crazy. I’m honored to be involved, and it’s been a really fun experience.” The chance to collaborate with Donatella Versace is an experience that hardcore fashion devotees would dedicate their lives to having, a fact that is not lost on Zayn, who seems awed by being offered yet another creative outlet by a world that’s embraced him to such an unfathomable degree.

Zayn Malik does not come across as a celebrity because celebrity is, essentially, a distraction to making music. When I ask him if he has any personal philosophies that help him stay grounded, his response strikes a note that reveals him to be both the average 24-year-old and the wise-beyond-his-years artist I’ve come to know in our brief exchange: “Don’t take things too seriously and always try to have a laugh. I think that’s the main point in life. We have such limited time, and the main thing that we have to do is have as much fun as we can. That’s my main mantra that I try to live by.”

#zayn #magazine interview #interview #Z2 #zquad #zolo #I'm so fucking excited about Z2 I can't even stand it

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fmlfpl · 5 years

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Lineup Lamentations - GW10

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

FRIDAY DEADLINE!!!

And if you missed it for subscribers Friday (Thursday) My Life episode came out yesterday !

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WALSH

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Otamendi and Saka

IN: Kelly and Hudson-Odoi

After talking myself around in circles on the My Life pod yesterday I decided to return from whence I came going with my initial feels for transfers.

Otamendi is obviously diabolical and is not a man to be trusted as if he ever was. Schtoneyboy off the bench as first CB sub this weekend was telling for me, and even with Rodri ded for a bit it leaves us no more sure of the CB situation there than we had before.

Saka is a good lad and he seems like a really nice human bean but after blanking for fun I am discarding him like a used something or other.

In comes one of my all time favorites Martin Kelly and new little baby child CHO.

Kelly I think might just have the CB job from now on next to Mom as first choice pairing - he's actually been good this year somehow. I also don't really need him/the spot at all for the near term. Seemed like the best least painful way to pry some money out of the couch cushions and make a significant upgrade in the xi all the while.

CHO seems like just a good pick at 6m. Couldn't find the final ball against Ayax midweek but he's got a lot about him and he seems like he could be a good long term pick. I am worried about him starting this weekend after rattling off back to back 90s, but if I did something more passive and waited I would have been priced out. Getting him ahead of Turf Moor also feels a bit poopy, but again, keeping my eye on the long term like I have been doing his season with transfers so far and it's been feeling good to me.

GK:

Pope (CHE)

Pope in a bad fixture even tho they've been great at home so far.

Not expecting much here...and if I'm honest 3 cleans through 9 is about the minimum of what I would have expected out of them to date. I'll take it...but I'm not thrilled about it.

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold & Robertson (TOT)

Trent and Robbo remain like the faithful servants they are.

Tough fixture against the potatoheads on Sunday but the OOP boys can always pop up with points any given weekend.

Love them and one of my greatest successes this season has been to hold both from GW1. With Alisson back I suspect everyone will be trying to get both in very soon with their fixtures turning.

Lundstram (whu)

Pointstram gets in there as my third lad. Fucking legend god Lundcuck just such a good guy. Pretty unreal how he's been going this season so far. And they said we wouldn't have a 1b in the game this season.

MID:

Salah (TOT) and Sterling and De Bruyne (AVL)

Mo Raz and Kevin the three amigos go again. Not much to say about dem boyz. Good picks solid pillars in my squad straight down the spine.

City team sheet always a bit of a mindfuck but meh. Can't drop points in the league so hoping for actual first choice even though I'm sure we'll get Bilv Jezuz Mahrez up top. Life.

As shouted a lot on the My Life pod Mo could be in for a big weekend. He's never been more of a diff than he is right now so a haul would be most welcome. Go on Mo.

Hudson-Odoi and Mount (bur)

Rounding out the midfield is new friend CHO and his possible actual IRL friend Mount. Couple Chelsea guys in mid feels great.

Have had Mount for a bit and adding CHO oozes value to me. Buying players who are priced like they are on a 14th place team but they are covert on the 3rd best team with the 3rd best attack in the league seems good.

Again, not expecting a ton this weekend but looking at the medium term points should flow.

FWD:

Pukki (MUN)

Still holding / clinging to Pukki. Was close to going down to Neil who I do love immensely but it just didn't seem like a great use of the transfer. I still believe in Pukki and I think he's just a quality guy.

Four blanks on the bounce have been a tough pill to swallow no doubt but I still think he'll get points. Stats have been down compared to the opening few games when he was on fire, but his stats aren't horrible by any stretch. Anyway, I'm holding him. Fucking come on you Finn fuck.

Abraham (bur)

Treble on Chelsea attack with Tammy is the last piece of my puzzle.

Up against two really bad shitty CBs this weekend I actually think Tam could do some things. Feel like his movement will be too much for them to deal with it will just come down to if he is able to finish.

CAP:

Sterling (AVL)

I just couldn't keep the sadist in me quiet and I've done the thing of end of week cap twist onto Raz.

I did that gut check - if Raz fired this weekend and I had cap on Kev I would be completely despondent and probably would be crying actual tears. I don't want that. If Kevin fires and I have cap Raz I wouldn't feel the same things. Emotional and pain management in...

If that isn't the right way to pick cap and guide me then I don't know what is. I did genuinely spend a couple of hours contemplating Mo for cap but in the end it just seemed too insane. That's that. Raz you fuckboi score some goals this weekend you owe me.

—

ALON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Cantwell

IN: Hudson-Odoi

I had to listen back to wtf we talked about on Friday My Life episode because I legitimately couldn’t remember what conclusion we came to regarding my moves... The temptation to take a hit for a triple move of Aubz/Gunn/Cantwell out is soooo fucking real but it is probably better to just hold my horses one more week and go into next week with two frees while fixing a big problem in my fourth mid slot.

Enter CHO who could sneaky just be a really great assist/BAP machine guy.

Floating the other transfer to deal with probably Gunn and Aubz next week.

Just hoping CHO starts this weekend...

GK:

Gunn (LEI)

This just makes me sad.

Leicester don’t even shoot in bulk so there’s not even that save-point potential in this. It’s just gonna be another 0-2 pointer as per usual.

DEF:

Just noticing now that all my defenders are away this week which I fucking hate and is really bad.

Lundstram (whu)

Lundy is such a good boy. This fixture isn’t terrific but it’s cleanable and SHU have been a well drilled and well coached tight ship you gotta just back’em.

Tomori (bur)

Chelsea I do not expect to keep a clean here with Burnley now just good at attacking. Feel like this could be a high-scoring one if Tammy/Wood finish their chances.

Rudiger back soon and hopefully Kante back soon will make this team much tighter.

Söyüncü (sou)

I feel worried about Leicester defense...

They were reeeally tight and putting up fantastic numbers when they were in their conservative shell formation but I’m worried that Brodge is not getting the balance right in the “more open and attacking” formations and styles that they’re playing now in the good fixtures...

It’s a delicate balance to go from extreme to extreme and honestly it might not be possible (and maybe that’s why none of the top managers in the world really do that).

We’ll see.

MID:

Salah (TOT)

He’s gonna shred these.

Sterling and De Bruyne (AVL)

They’re gonna shred these.

Hudson-Odoi (bur)

Mainly just praying he starts and then take it from there... This is the type of match where he’ll need to be the main creator mainly by taking people on constantly maybe drawing PEN15s and everything. Gonna be great come on Frank don’t fuck around get the boy in there.

FWD:

Aubameyang (CRY)

Ugh. Fucking ugh. Back to back seasons I trust Gilligan on his nightmare Arsenal Island and he fucks me.

I’m expecting maybe 2 shots and another blank? Anything better then that is just a cherry on top. Won’t even be happy if he hauls I honestly will not.

Abraham (bur)

Tammy is excellent. Keep it up Tamela.

Pukki (MUN)

This is a disaster? Or this is fine dog in the house on fire? Or this is actually fine and Pukki is just good going through a dry spell? Don’t know. The returns are always darkest before the dongs as they say.

CAP:

Sterling (AVL)

Sticking with my initial read and gut of the situation when I put the armband on him on like Sunday.

Villa love conceding chances from the right, Fred Gilbert can’t defend, I’m just rolling with the player in crazy red-hot form and looking extremely good on eye-test too.

It seems good to do when all of the things that we look for all line up to just not overthink it and go for it. Fuck it. Come on Raz.

—

RANDOM SLACKER OF THE WEEK: DESERTBUG

The words of Random Slacker are not officially endorsed by this website nor any employees of FML FPL LLC.

TRANSFERS:

OUT: N/A

IN: N/A

Perfectly fine week to do this sneak preview thing because it's early in the season and the other Slackers who are in my minileague (three of them) are either likely to miss out on an early Friday deadline or they've been so absent from Slack lately that they won't even notice I did this.

Anyway, I don't care if they know what I'm doing this week because I'm not doing anything. The team is in decent shape to roll out eleven this week in an old-school 4-4-2 as I had already ripped the Bandaid off of the lesions named Otamendi, Puke-y and Haller who had been in my team.

They've all been shipped off to Gunga Galunga Land over the prior weeks and I'm a happier lad for having done it. I've still got qualms over Little Toddy Cantwell and a few other niggly little issues, but I'm in a good spot to sit tight and get more info from another week's worth of EPL action.

GK:

Pope (CHE)

The Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State and Servant of the servants of God (or so Wikipedia says) gets to go this week and every week, because his backup plays for Swansea City.

With that many names, it seems like the whole lot of them should clog up the goalmouth and keep clean against Chelsea, or at least so I can hope. Saves points at least?

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold (TOT)

Here's hoping that Trento recovers from his Ebola or whatever kind of virus he got yellow-flagged over. Would be really nice if these clubs could get their players to mix in a little bit of hand-washing in their daily routines. Could see some nice points from the lad if Spurs' recent ineptitudes continue.

Tomori (bur)

Auto-start given my other options, and could be a dud, because Burnley has managed their way into a goal or more in eight of their first nine matches (only Pool has kept them out so far), but that kind of worm-eating magic has to come to an end sometime.

Soyuncu (sot)

Umlaut-master goes in another match that doesn't exactly feel great, as Soton has only been kept out once this season, but Foxes are good and maybe this will be the GW that he puts his giant cranium on a floater and buries it for me.

Lundstram (whu)

Yup, another road start from my defenders, which feels bad, cuz Hammers could totally put it together at any time and leave me with a one-pointer, or they could continue to disappoint and Points-Lord Lundy of Stram could produce the goods again.

Definitely worth rolling the dice and I don't really have any other good options so there you go. I'm certainly not going to put Fred Guilbert from Iowa into the lineup for his match at City.

MID:

Salah (TOT), Sterling and DeBruyne (AVL)

This has got to be the week that this trio of big hitters starts hitting big with their big whatevers. RIght? RIght?

Yeah, Pep-Roulette can always strike but whatever, I'm not gonna lose even a moment of time worrying about it. Time to "Laissez les bons temps rouler", as they say down in the Big Easy. Beignets and coffee would be an awesome accompaniment to the 0430 wake-up I'll have for the City match, but I doubt anybody is going to be fetching them for me. Pout.

Mount (bur)

Picks himself, given my options, but if anybody's going to mess up my keeper clean, let it be Fat Frank's chosen one.

FWD:

Aubameyang (CRY)

Everybody agonizing over him because they brought him in just in time for his two blanks, but I'm just going to focus on his 39 goals and 9 assists in 58 EPL matches, his 9 goals in 14 Europa matches as a Gooner, (57 returns in 72 matches overall, btw), and his prior 112 returns in 127 matches with Dortmund and remember that he's just an absolute top-drawer striker.

Bring on the AubameDancing!

Ayew (ars)

Brother of Andre gets the nod in my eleventh slot because Arse gonna Arse, and they've conceded in seven of nine matches so far.

I like his chances of doing something better than the probable three point ceiling that I would get from trotting Todd out there against a desperate United side that has a quality defense.

CAP:

DeBruyne (AVL)

Yup, I saw RazzyMan put three past the Atalantans on Tuesday with assists on the other two Citeh goals, and that would be a cap haul of 26x2=52 if he did that in an EPL outing, but my nickel says he doesn't do that in back-to-back outings and I like a Kev who should have hauled last week and who only went 60 minutes in that Champs League match midweek.

C'mon Kev, do this for me! Lead the lads to a century score! The FPL drought of GW8-9 has to come to an end at some point, right?

#lineup lamentations

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sportsleague365 · 5 years

Link

1) Shaw puts Salah in the shadeLuke Shaw’s display at Old Trafford was his best for Manchester United under Ole Gunnar Solskjær, according to the interim manager. To see Mohamed Salah replaced on 79 minutes was all the evidence required. Solskjær said: “[When] they take Mohamed Salah off you know Luke Shaw has played a good game.” The left-back was a blur of defensive obstinacy. Solskjær said Salah’s threat meant Shaw could not attack as much as desired and this is understandable given the forward’s quality. But the prevailing caveat regarding Shaw’s contribution in most games is that he does not create enough when roving forward. If Shaw can add more overlapping play, crosses and bursts into the area then United will have an extra dimension and the potential that got him the move five years ago from Southampton will have finally been realised. Jamie Jackson • Match report: Manchester United 0-0 Liverpool Solskjær questions Liverpool’s treatment of Rashford – video 2) Hazard central to Chelsea’s improved displayLeaving Gonzalo Higuaín on the bench until extra-time appeared bad faith in a big-name striker signed on an 18-month loan with attendant hefty wages. But with Eden Hazard as a central attacker, and Pedro and Willian flanking, Maurizio Sarri selected the trio who dug in for December’s 2-0 defeat of City. This display was as solid as Chelsea have looked since and Hazard was licensed to exhibit his individual genius. The Belgian may be reluctant to play centrally but Sarri was in little position for taking a long-term view. With former manager José Mourinho, working as a TV pundit, unhelpfully reminding viewers of the broadcaster DAZN Spain that Hazard has “the talent and personality to wear the Real Madrid shirt”, Chelsea’s star may not be around beyond the short term. If Sunday was his final Wembley appearance for Chelsea, he graced the occasion; his Panenka shootout penalty was an impudent beauty. John Brewin • Match report: Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea (City won 4-3 on pens) 3) Ranieri confounds over SessegnonAt half-time, Claudio Ranieri removed Ryan Sessegnon and Jean Michaël Seri: the latter because he might have otherwise been sent off, the former because the manager remains unconvinced by one of the brightest young talents in the country. Many things have gone wrong for Fulham this season, some of them out of their control, but the treatment of Sessegnon is increasingly curious. At 18 Sessegnon is not the answer to all their problems, but the issue is that he is not even being given the chance. Having set up their goal against West Ham with a forceful low cross and generally been their most threatening player, to take him off at the interval was baffling. It was hardly a surprise that, despite having the better of the second half, they could not create any clear chances, much less score a goal. Nick Miller • Match report: West Ham 3-1 Fulham Ryan Sessegnon reacts during Fulham’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images via Reuters The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email. 4) Nuno on hi-tech – and low cunningOn the face of it, Wolves’ 1-1 draw at Bournemouth was a perfect advert for VAR. There were three dubious penalties and another that might have been given to Wolves for handball by Chris Mepham. But of the four, only Ivan Cavaliero’s foul on Ryan Fraser – which was outside the area, and might not have been a foul anyway – was close to the “clear and obvious error” that is theoretically required for a decision to be overturned. The rest were all subjective. Though VAR in the Premier League will increase the number of correct decisions, it will also heighten the sense of injustice at the debatable ones. Once technology is used, players have a much greater entitlement to the correct decision – or, rather, the decision they perceive to be correct. The issue was summed up by the Wolves head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, when he was asked whether the reaction of his players to certain decisions showed they were hard done by. “I don’t know,” he said. “You cannot always trust the reaction of the players – sometimes they cheat.” The biggest problem with technology will always be humans. Rob Smyth • Match report: Bournemouth 1-1 Wolves 5) Manchester City women go ContinentalManchester City, having fallen apart this time last year from a similarly unbeaten starting point, have found the answer to staying competitive across the board and their blueprint may well be one Arsenal will pore over come the summer even if the Gunners stumble first across the finish line in the league. Arsenal have been bullish in their assertion that the league, and Champions League, have been their priority. Yet City have shown this season that compromising one trophy for another does not have to be a given. “We knew that we wanted to still be in the FA Cup, we’ve done that; we wanted to stay top of the league, we’ve done that; and to come here and win the third game of the week shows what a great squad we have, the great staff we have behind us and all the great work people don’t see,” said City’s captain, Steph Houghton. Suzanne Wrack • Match report: Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal (City won 4-2 on pens) Manchester City celebrate beating Arsenal in the Continental League Cup final penalty shootout Photograph: Chloe Knott/Man City via Getty Images 6) Reversal puts Hasenhüttl in a fixWhen Southampton ended Arsenal’s 22-match unbeaten run on 16 December at St Mary’s – in Ralph Hasenhüttl’s second game in charge – it was a performance and occasion that teemed with intensity; a clear example of a new-manager bounce. At the Emirates on Sunday, the most striking aspect of the club’s 2-0 defeat was their flatness and fragility. Hasenhüttl had enjoyed two clear weeks to prepare for it after the home loss to Cardiff but his team conceded the goals early on and fell apart. They could have leaked four or five by half-time. Individual errors remain a massive problem and can Hasenhüttl legislate for those? But the broader picture is two points from an available 12 and a group of players that look inhibited. Hasenhüttl appeared to have the weight of the world on his shoulders afterwards. He has to find a way to unlock the tension. David Hytner • Match report: Arsenal 2-1 Southampton Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images Europe7) Turf Moor’s elephant in the cornerThe presence of VAR was also felt at Turf Moor – though there is no truth in the rumour that it would have sorted out the confusion over the award of the corner that led to Burnley’s first goal against Tottenham. VAR is not going to be wheeled out next season for every toss-of-a-coin line decision in the course of a game and in any case, given that there was still room for debate even after several slow-motion replays of Jan Vertonghen and Jeff Hendrick sliding over the line together, there was no clear and obvious mistake. Mike Dean’s decision became important in the context of the game because a goal resulted from the set piece, but VAR cannot be used in hindsight either. Even if an amount of guesswork on the part of the referee was necessarily involved, Tottenham should still have defended the corner better. Paul Wilson • Match report: Burnley 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur 8) Gerard Deulofeu is coming of ageGerard Deulofeu has promised much but failed to deliver since his arrival on English shores with as a fresh-faced 18-year-old with Everton in 2013 – yet could he finally be coming of age after his dazzling hat-trick left Cardiff City stunned? Growing up in Lionel Messi’s shadow cannot be easy, especially after he was given one final shot at Camp Nou last season. But the shackles were off on Friday night as the Spaniard used the Cardiff City Stadium as his playground to lay bare Cardiff’s defensive frailties. Playing around Troy Deeney, his irrepressible movement terrified Sean Morrison and co, and he had the cool head and firepower to make his chances count. His maturity in front of goal allowed him to pick out the bottom corner before calmly finishing a pair of one-on-ones. So could this be the game where Deulofeu proved he is ready to become one of the Premier League’s better performers or will it prove to be another false dawn? James Candy • Match report: Cardiff City 1-5 Watford Gerard Deulofeu celebrates Watford’s fourth goal, scored by Troy Deeney, against Cardiff. Photograph: James Marsh/BPI/REX/Shutterstock 9) Free-wheeling Zaha pays homage to HodgsonRoy Hodgson celebrated becoming the oldest person to manage in the Premier League by witnessing his side dismantle Leicester. Having worked across Europe, Hodgson has learned how to get the best out of players of all styles and ages. The 71-year-old has finely tuned Wilfried Zaha since arriving at Selhurst Park, giving his star man the freedom he requires to earn points. There were another two goals for the winger on Saturday, making it the first time Zaha has scored in three consecutive Premier League games, earning praise from Hodgson who says Zaha is benefiting from concerted team effort to score more and, ironically, being liberated by having a central striker. Zaha proclaimed on Instagram: “Today’s win is for you gaffer,” alongside a photo of a smiling Hodgson. They might use different platforms to show their mutual admiration, but they are certainly getting the best out of each other. Will Unwin • Match report: Leicester 1-4 Crystal Palace 10) Lejeune brings comfort to NewcastleNewcastle fans welcomed Miguel Almirón to Tyneside with a special “Wor Almirón” banner and, in return, the £21m Paraguay playmaker brought searing pace, smart swivels and slick passes to the party. He and Salomón Rondón competed for man of the match honours, with the midfielders Sean Longstaff and Isaac Hayden not far behind. But one man’s influence should not be underestimated. Newcastle’s shaky start to the season coincided with Florian Lejeune being sidelined with a ruptured cruciate ligament but since the centre-half’s return they have improved appreciably. Lejeune is an excellent defender whose comfort on the ball, technical assurance and vision enables Rafael Benítez’s 5-4-1 formation to switch seamlessly to an attacking 3-4-3. His party trick is switching play courtesy of long diagonal passes and the latest example prefaced Rondón scoring the first goal against 10-man, all but relegated, Huddersfield. Louise Taylor • Match report: Newcastle 2-0 Huddersfield Source link The post Premier League, Carabao Cup and Continental Cup: 10 talking points | Football appeared first on 10z Soccer. #CarabaoCup #PremierLeague #ManchesterCityWomen

#CarabaoCup #PremierLeague #ManchesterCityWomen

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artaydemora-blog · 5 years

Text

(Power Blog #3) Elijah Who? Part 1.

Elijah Who? Part 1.

Sister, Brother,

I know some or many are a bit curious, because it does seem that I just showed up out of nowhere with Power Adam (.com) and with a few good pungent messages ...

So Here's the Short Pungent Part of My Testimony, 2 Incidents:

So, years ago ... I heard from God, the Holy Spirit gave me such a strong phrase (message) and after that I just couldn't turn off the voice of God. Every time I took quality moments or time to pray, BOOM ... God was sharing/ revealing, and it was during such a time when he said that he was going to prepare me—put an Elijah Spirit on Me.

I was young and even though I grew up in a Christian House-Hold I wasn't too sure what that meant. After researching a bit in the Bible, I kind of got scared, at the time I was not spiritually mature or Biblically confident about what I was discovering, and so I let it torment me. Yes, I let the devil (so to speak) torment me with the details ... Why Me? How? When? And so, I began to deny, ignore and even question the whole experience. I also began to shut down the voice of God, How? Easy, I Just Stopped Praying LoL ... Pushing away as well any thoughts, feelings and voices coming from me or my inner man (spirit) regarding this issue ("Calling").

However, despite not praying & ignoring, noticing that my personal life was in a state of “Break Down & Confusion”, I felt so drawn to at least attend a Church occasionally, at times frequently. I guess my logic at the time was this, hearing an encouraging sermon and being in a public arena of bible reading along with praise & worship was surely going to be comforting & safe, that it would at least keep or help drown out the voice of God (attempting to personally speak to me).

But God is so clever, one day I came out of a church service with the realization that "I Can Run But I Can't Hide". While attending a church service, after ministering to the crowd—a guest speaker/ preacher (who also turned out to be a Prophet of God) called me out ...

After the sermon he looks out into the audience (listening to God) he points to several people (one at a time) and gives them a personalized prophetic word. Soon after, looking in my direction he points me out and tells me to stand up (recalling a bit). He pauses to listen … then he tells me to lift my hands up & stretch my hands out.

* And Here is The Shocker: He then tells the pastor of the church to run to me, to Smack my Hands & Bless me ... Quote: "For the Words of God Are Inside Him".

Now there are a few other details about this experience that I can share but remember this is the short version of my testimony.

The 2nd incident that also stands out: I was at another church service (in a different church), at the end of the service the pastor makes an alter call for prayer. Now there are a few chosen leaders there aside from the pastor (some with a vocal prophetic voice) that minister along with the Pastor.

Standing in the alter for prayer with countless others, one begins to lay hands on me with a much needed basic prayer for blessings & guidance, shortly after another man of God lays hands on me and begins to pray, this one prayed silently but then suddenly he begins to boldly whisper in my ear, prophesying, "A Sword & Whip! You Will Rise With Fire On Your Lips! God Is With You!"

So aside from God reaching out to me, there were other like-kind incidents; however, during that season I was still battling with intrigued excitement and with overly questioning & doubting "torment". Long-Story-Short, Years ... Later to Present Day after many running away and many “wilderness or desert” like seasons my head space is better, my emotions are better, my spiritual maturity is greater (& still evolving ...) But here is the point behind all this, what is an "Elijah Spirit?"

Well, an Elijah Spirit is referring to the like-kind Calling or Mission of a Biblical Character in The Bible (See 1st Kings Holy Bible), his mission (in short) was to call a wandered away people (the nation) with false outlooks (& "gods") back to God.

John the Baptist Had The Same Anointing, Calling The People To Repent from Wrong & Evil Actions (Sins)—Quote: “for the Kingdom of God is at Hand" (Matthew 3:1-2 Holy Bible).

What does "The Kingdom of God is at Hand" Mean?

Sister, Brother, let's quickly summarize & somewhat paraphrase a bit—review ... go way back ... The Kingdom of God (Love, Harmony, Joy & Peace) was already established, that is before it was disrupted by a self-seeking rebellion led by Lucifer and his deceived followers (Angels). Then sometime “before or after” this rebellion, God creatively expands the Kingdom on a Huge Rock ("Planet") that we all refer to as Earth. On this planet he creates diverse beings (creatures) and provision for sustainability & maintenance, then he creates man (or mankind) with a new creative intention ("twist"), these beings will be made in his image (likeness) * See the book of Genesis, Holy Bible.

Now, the mysterious part of Satan & the fallen Angels is that God doesn't destroy them, after the heavenly banishment he allows them freedom to roam around (to a degree ...?). Why? I'm not going to get into this mystery at this time, but it strongly has to do with the implementation of a new plan—'CHOICE' (a plan of choice, testing & life lessons). This is one of the reasons why he (God) planted “a Choice-Tree”—the Tree of The Knowledge of both Good & Evil and allowed Satan to access the garden as well. Anyway, again, I'll save touching on this revelatory topic (perhaps) for another time ...?

After the fall of man (listening to Satan & making a 'Wrong Choice'), God seems to sit back and just let Humanity "Be" so to speak. He allows humanity to live their lives with trial & error with the battle of good & evil within them and around them. And let's just say, "but occasionally" God would step in to help clean up a mess or get us out of a rut or a bad direction that we have put ourselves in ... (The story of Noah, The Tower of Babel are 2 great early examples).

But again and again, God continues to let time go by (letting us be), yet he never fails to step in from to time to time to give us (Humanity) a boost so to speak in the right direction ...

He reaches out to Abraham, Jacob (Israel) Joseph ... A Lot of Time Goes by and Then Suddenly This Higher Intelligence ("Alien Being") so to speak Steps in Again. Apparently This Time God Wants to Make Himself (Widely) Known and Give Humanity an Even Greater Boost in The Right Direction, a 'Greater Be' Direction so to speak (the beginning of re-establishing a Kingdom Direction) on Earth.

Hence, (the Biblical Prayer) "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It is in Heaven" ...

So, he introduces himself to Moses as "I AM WHO I AM" ("I AM") which seems to have a coded message, suggestion—a deep reference to his introductory declaration (but this too is a topic for another time). So (in short, as many of you already know the story), God sends Moses to liberate the descendants of Abraham who have fallen into a long season of slavery & oppression.

After a display of God's power & authority (AMAZING MIRACLES) the mission is successfully accomplished. Now this Greater Being (God) is finally ready to be very forthcoming & candid, he shares information to (again) help boost humanity in a greater direction—a heavenly direction/ a Kingdom Direction.

So, not only does he share a strong portrait or blueprint of his intended design (so to speak) but he also gives many "Do Nots" as if suggesting "Hey, I've watched you long enough let me help you establish my original objective (plan & design) a Harmonious Outlook/ a Heavenly Kingdom Extension on Earth—The Original Intended Way of Living (Life) ... "Do Not Kill" (your fellow man), Do Not Bear False Witness (against another), Do Not Covet Your Neighbors House (Stuff???), Wife ... and so on & so on ... This event is recorded in the book of Exodus chapter 3 (Holy Bible).

I shouldn’t fail to mention that he (Moses) gets a revelation as well, that in the future another will come (a "Messiah") to reach out--help & reveal God’s will, one of the many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled (this text can be found in Deuteronomy 18:18, 19 Holy Bible).

So, God has revealed himself to humanity and has given us a profound boost—direction: ethics, values—moral codes … After that event he continues to sit back—intervene and then sit back again (“watch us”) … stepping in often or occasionally to help, guide, direct or redirect …

And he intervened by raising up and using sincere & authentic devotees (men/ women) and/ or prophets to hear and personally or publicly remind, reveal or expand information—knowledge/ wisdom; just to randomly name a few: Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Samuel, Anna, Deborah … John the Baptist … John of Patmos (the book of Revelation).

So “the Kingdom of God is at Hand” means that “On Earth as It is in Heaven” has been and is on the move, Getting Closer & Even Closer …

The End of Age or Time is Getting Closer & Closer … This Life-Lesson Schooling Ground (On Earth) is Coming to a Close (Ending) … Judgement Day is Drawing Nearer & Nearer … And it all officially started once God began to step in to deal with Man (address the condition of mankind) from Abraham to Moses and so on … from John the Baptist to Jesus …

And this is why John (the Baptist) preparing the way for Jesus, Cried Out “Repent, Repent (and be baptized) for the Kingdom of God is at Hand”, meaning that with Jesus arrival the end of this age is getting closer & closer …

* “Repent” simply meaning, ask for pardon (forgiveness) and change your outlook toward embraced wrong or evil thoughts/ actions. By doing this, it will help you begin to embrace higher thoughts (good & right thinking) & higher actions (doing good & right) instead.

Amen, what’s great about Jesus coming to earth, teaching & affirming himself as the long awaited messiah, then sacrificially paying the kind of price we deserve (himself) for us all, resurrecting and then departing (to “go and build a place for us”) is that by doing so he has left us the Holy Spirit to help us do what's right, do good (“Greater Be”).

* Jesus said the gospel must be preached throughout the world and then the end will come … (Matthew 24:14 Holy Bible).

Surely since then generations and specific regions have heard the gospel and time has gone by and by as prior generations and even this generation have come to witness “End of Time” prophecies being fulfilled. Heralding that we are now even closer to the end of age and at the brink of the Kingdom of Heaven that is to come (“On Earth as it is in Heaven”).

Dear Reader, one of the greatest signs fulfilled or practically fulfilled is that about 95 to 98% of the whole world already know about Jesus; however, (the Holy Spirit has informed me that) something is missing …? Too many “Though Seeing—They Do Not See—Though Hearing They Do Not Hear”, too many are not grasping—fully understanding the Authenticity nor the Grandeur of what Jesus Christ did/ represents and are therefore lacking faith or a strong faith in the Godly Restoration plan of salvation—that begins here as well while we are on earth. The awakening growth, life-giving and altering journey …

The security for eternal life & the life changing process (with the help of God’s Holy Spirit) has been tainted with religious works, religious division & competition and therefore individuals are taught and too many have come to wrongly believe and embrace that (the restoration gift & the teachings of Jesus) as a way of life can only be achieved and attained through a way of church or to be more specific through “the (so called) right way” of someone’s church.

We must take (the spirit behind the letter) into consideration and realize that the reason why the early church gathered for meetings in random or in specific places to meet was because they were under negative scrutiny & persecution. Also, not only to encourage & motivate each other but to send them out to proclaim the good news (the gospel), meetings were established as well to educate new comers with biblical history (the witnessed & recorded events): from Adam & Eve to Moses, from Moses to Jesus, the recorded promises of God, the comforting & faith building scriptures and so on … And is why ...

(Dear Reader, Get Ready This is About To Get Quite Intersting and Very Informative, along with a Pertinent Warning inspired from Above & From Biblical Scriptures and it All Continues & Ends in Elijah Who? Part 2.)

Question: What Does (The Spirit of) Elijah, Jesus Christ and the Anti-Christ Have in Common? 🤔

In Part 2. Vital Information That Your Pastor, Priest or Preacher is very likely not sharing with you and why?

Also in Part 2. An Added Bonus of Information that the Holy Spirit Suddenly Insisted That I (Must) Include ...

* "Knowledge is Power" and We Are That Generation ... a Power Generation!

* See Ya in Part 2.

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lawlight-week · 7 years

Text

Lawlight Week Exchange

Title: Hear, Heart, the Beat of Goodnight

Name of creator: @silvia-aivlis

Created for: @mr-frog-man

Prompt: Coffee shop banter (This turns out to be an AU involving coffee shops and proceeds from bickering to banter… eventually. :p)

Characters: Main - Light Yagami, L Lawliet; secondary - Touta Matsuda, Hideki Ide; more making an appearance or being mentioned

Rating, warnings and no. of words (for fics): General; no warning unless you count s l o o o o w buildup; 7048

Hear, Heart, the Beat of Goodnight

‘Here’s hope that tomorrow you’ll realise coffee-making is a human art. Someone who just relies on a cheap, lifeless machine cannot become a real coffee master.’

‘Mind how you talk about My Wammy’s invention. He made a name with his coffee in London long before your father was born. I’ve been learning from the best since the age of ten.’

No one could explain why the two cafés at the twelve-level Heartbeat shopping mall were both located on the same floor with less than five metres distance between them. Nor did anyone know why there had to be two open cafés selling coffees and muffins when there was not even a proper restaurant in the shopping complex.

The arrangement simply did not sound reasonable business-wise, but it must be said that the owners of Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner were very kind people and had always wished the other café the best form of peace.

‘Rest in peace’.

Their wishes gained a new fervour when Investigation, the town’s best-selling newspaper, published the following article:

EXCLUSIVE:

Heartbeat revamp post-Yotsuba purchase

Add bistro, cut café

Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner have long been the only choices for hungry shoppers at the labyrinth that is Heartbeat. The lack of diversity has been the complaint of many. NOT ANYMORE! Your faithful Investigators, Shuichi Aizawa and Kanzo Mogi, are able to confirm the upcoming addition of a gourmet restaurant in the town’s largest shopping mall. Yotsuba Corporation, the new owner of Heartbeat, has plans to improve…

… ‘We don’t want two similar cafés. One is perfectly enough and the other will be replaced by Yotsuba Gourmet, which will provide more seats and a larger variety of food choices with increased space and investment.’ Arayoshi Hatori, Yotsuba’s Vice President of Marketing, claimed the land owner will decide which café needs to say goodbye in the next month. ‘Quality and popularity are essential criteria for consideration when we make plans for any premises under Yotsuba’s wing.’

Who will stay and who will fade? Our fellow Investigators will be checking on the ‘quality’ and ‘popularity’ of Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner in this upcoming month. The battle is on. Stay tuned to see who will survive!

‘Worthless paper. As if they actually had any influence on Yotsuba’s decision.’ At Kira Kira Café, Teru Mikami closed his issue of Investigation muttered contemptuously.

‘Light, what should we do?’ Misa Amane asked.

With hearts in their eyes, she and Kiyomi Takada (the newest of the four full-time workers) watched Light Yagami, the handsome owner of Kira Kira Café in his late twenties, rest his chin on the back of one hand while contemplating an answer. ‘A newspaper may not influence Yotsuba directly, but it can influence the public, and consumers’ opinion may affect our business and shape Yotsuba’s opinion.’ Light reasoned. ‘I wonder how Investigation is planning to do this ‘checking’. Anyhow, we have to…’

‘A wise business decision. I’ve always thought there’s no need for two coffee shops so close to each other.’ On the other side of Heartbeat 3/F, Nate River of Wammy’s Coffee Corner offered his very sensible comment regarding the Yotsuba Corporation’s business plan.

‘And that’s all you have to say? That it’s good we’re facing a survival crisis right now?’

Nate took a little time to play his hair (which, for some reason, was white despite his young age) before responding, ‘… there won’t be a crisis if we win, Mihael.’

Mihael Keehl sprang up and Mail Jeevas, who was sitting next to him, yelped in pain when Mihael’s left shoulder haphazardly bumped into his right arm.

But before Mihael could open his mouth, the last and eldest participant in this conversation spoke. ‘We should make Wammy’s as popular as possible, serving the best coffee and snacks we can. Let the reporters and other people “check on” us and attest to our superiority over Kira Kira. Anyhow, we have to…’ The dark bags under his eyes might have made another person look exhausted, but they totally failed to hide the sharpness in L Lawliet’s gaze towards the ‘enemy’s territory’.

Neither café had walls and L’s unfriendly regard soon met its rival in Light’s intense glare. Neither person bothered to greet or acknowledge the other’s existence in any way.

‘… we have to send them packing.’

‘I saw that Mrs Yagami was very interested in Wammy’s seven types of latte this afternoon, but was too polite to actually ask.’

‘She was just interested in the drawings on your banner. And that wasn’t even your own doing. You just asked that Linda girl whom River knows to draw for you.’

‘But can’t Master Kira Kira actually keep mama’s attention with his own coffee?’

‘She just happened to look around when I talked with my sister. And I should mention that Sayu doesn’t drink coffee except those that I make. She hates everything that’s on sale elsewhere but begs me to make her café au lait every day in high school. That’s why I began making coffee and getting better day by day at such a young age.’

Same as many people who visited Heartbeat for the first time, the two men ogled at Kira Kira Café on their left and Wammy’s Coffee Corner on their right, seemingly unsure which way they should head for.

‘Hey, since these two cafés have to kill the other if they want to stay after the revamp, what d’you think they’ll do? Maybe wage a price war?’ The slightly taller man wore his large rucksack in the front instead of at the back, and although he was busy searching for something inside the bag’s main pocket, it did not hinder his passion for gossip.

The other man, shorter but with shoulders a little broader, did not carry a bag but had a digital camera around his neck—a tourist?—and he was quick at dismissal. ‘No, that’d just look desperate… What are you looking for?’

Staggering as he dug into the rucksack aggressively, the taller man collided with two other walkers (who entered Kira Kira and Wammy’s, respectively) before answering, ‘I can’t find my pen… where is it?’

‘Mind you don’t drop anything or bump into more people.’

The banal exchange would have completely escaped everyone’s attention—no one would have cared enough to question why a tourist would need a pen in the middle of a shopping mall—but all was changed when a 91 mm × 55 mm piece of paper chose this exact moment to leap out of the rucksack. Its spectacular consecutive somersaults would put most Olympic gymnasts to shame, but what truly captured the audience’s attention was the large, red logo blazoned on it. When it finally landed on the corridor between the two coffee shops, there was no mistaking what it was.

The signature magnifying glass printed on every issue of Investigation.

Reacting as quickly as he could, its owner stooped and covered the logo with one palm. He then cautiously picked it up, confirmed that the name Touta Matsuda was still attached to the other side of the card (as if it could run away), and slipped it back into his rucksack.

When he stood up, Matsuda gave a tentative thump-up to his fellow Investigator, but Hideki Ide rolled his eyes and muttered, ‘Fool, you immediately trying to cover the logo just makes us more suspicious! If anyone has seen it, we can’t even pretend to have just received the business card from a random reporter!’

Matsuda shuddered. ‘But we’re supposed to be “secret customers”… well, no one has been looking, right?’

If anyone had really been looking, it would have been easy to recognise the card’s prominent logo—the corridor was very narrow and there was nothing between it and either café, after all. Gulping at the dangerous prospect, Matsuda looked around nervously.

A bespectacled, stern-looking waiter in Kira Kira was busy talking to a customer (answering queries?), while a lanky boy wearing a pair of goggles and looking like he had just entered adulthood was cleaning a desk in Wammy’s. None of them had actually noticed his business card giving a gymnastic performance, right?

‘Let’s hope so. Anyway we should start. Which one should we try first? And I still have no idea how we’re going to visit two coffee shops in one afternoon without arousing suspicion.’

‘Don’t worry about looking suspicious all the time, or you’ll look even more suspicious!’

‘And who just did the most suspicious thing not a minute ago?’

‘Ahem.’ Both Matsuda and Ide jumped. Amid their whispered argument, they had not noticed the approach of the goggled waiter from Wammy’s. ‘Sorry. Is there anything I can help? Maybe you’d like a cuppa coffee? We’ve got excellent cappuccino.’

One hand gesturing towards Wammy’s invitingly, Mail put his other hand on Matsuda’s shoulder and began leading the two ‘tourists’ to the entrance.

Matsuda and Ide had no choice but to walk in. They missed Mail feigning holding a magnifying glass at their back, but certainly could not miss the barista who looked like he had not slept for a year, who had seen Mail’s signal and who then proceeded to recommend Wammy’s various kinds of espresso to the two undercover reporters.

They ordered the recommended cappuccino and were seated at a pair of black and white single seater sofas. The drinks arrived quickly, but the coffee mugs had not even touched their lips when a chirpy female voice reached their table.

‘What’s so special about cold brew coffee, then?’

Matsuda and Ide’s attention was immediately caught by Misa who, though wearing a waitress uniform, was sitting on a red plush chair just next to the entrance of Kira Kira Café, with a glass of cold coffee in her hand. She asked her question in a raised voice, ensuring that everyone at Wammy’s could hear her every word clearly.

So did the person who replied to Misa. ‘Cold brew coffee is made by steeping coffee ground in cold water. Compared to iced coffee which is just hot coffee cooled down, cold brew coffee is sweeter, less bitter and more mellow on the stomach. Since it doesn’t need ice to cool the coffee, it is also less watery. This is another important factor why cold brew tastes so good!’

L narrowed his eyes at the sight of Light Yagami answering Misa Amane’s (undoubtedly staged) question with a smug smile on his face. The young owner of Kira Kira Café had stepped out of his usual spot behind the barista table, leaving Teru Mikami (who had finished his conversation with the customer) to perform pouring some precious cold brew into glasses as ostentatiously as possible.

‘Cold brew takes a long time to prepare. That’s why it’s usually more rare and expensive, but Kira Kira Café has developed its own unique way to make cold brew coffee efficiently and at a low cost. It is the only place in the entire Heartbeat plaza where you can taste this delicacy!’ With a grandiose arm movement, Light concluded his pompous speech, drawing applause from Misa, all other women and a couple of men in Kira Kira and—to L’s annoyance—one of the Investigation reporters at the other side of the aisle.

‘Matsuda, what’re you doing?’ Even Ide could not suppress a grimace.

‘He’s such a good speaker! I wish I could speak that well too!’ Matsuda finally tasted the cappuccino in front of him, but his unfocused gaze suggested cold brew fantasies. L just wished he could steep the reporter (and the entire Kira Kira Café) in Antarctica for a cup of cold brew malignance.

Taking after Light’s example (not that L would admit it), L slid out of Wammy’s barista station and made his way towards Matsuda and Ide. Nate caught on immediately, exchanged a high five with L and went to fill in.

It took less than five seconds for L to reach the reporters’ table. ‘Actually you can make cold brew at home as well. What you need is just time, not any elaborate equipment. It’s not that difficult. There’re plenty of recipes on the Internet you can google.’ He spoke in a low voice because unlike someone, he did not need to be heard by people in the opposite shop.

He took a second to smile innocently at The Someone (earning a death glare in return). Then, to the shock of his audience, he shook his shoes off and stepped onto a grey single seater. Crouching in his seat, he placed the objects in his hand (which Nate had just given him in their high five) on the table—a few coffee beans and a miniature coffee machine.

‘A lot of coffee tastes bitter due to a lack of precision in grinding and brewing. Coffee making is about science, especially in the case of espressos. The mixture of coffee beans and the exact time to grind them—you don’t want to grind for ten seconds too short or too long because that may destroy the beans’ flavour and aroma.’ L dangled two coffee beans right in front of Matsuda and Ide, the faint chocolatey smell getting stronger as he waved his fingers slightly. ‘But Wammy’s has long perfected the best formula for that. The heat and pressure to exert through an espresso machine also requires deliberate calculation, but thanks to the innovation of Wammy’s founder, Mr Quillsh Wammy…’

L droned on. Though perhaps not as charming as Kira Kira’s young and handsome boss, he successfully caught Matsuda’s attention with the semi-functional miniature espresso machine, and the reporter’s eyes shone with wonder when the tiny buttons clicked and buzzed under L’s command. Ide, who had been grumpy from the beginning, hid his face with one hand. He did not want to look at his naïve companion.

‘Feel free to ask me any questions.’ L concluded his demonstration with a small smile. ‘I don’t mind providing whatever information you’ll need for writing your article. There’s no point in pretending you’re not from Investigation any longer, I think.’

Ide added another hand. He did not want to look at this world.

‘Don’t talk when you know nothing! Kira Kira Café is so much more than “an amateur playhouse”. Since the day I was old enough to board a plane on my own, I’ve travelled with every penny I owned to learn about different coffees around the world!’

‘Weren’t you hospitalised for “drinking too much coffee” one day in Paris? I’m sure that’s quintessential professionalism.’

‘That was not for drinking too much coffee. That was for drinking poorly-made, unhygienic coffee! And you can bet I’ve put all the lesson I learnt into Kira Kira’s operation. Unlike you, who couldn’t even properly remember when you’ve heard the other day.’

‘The mall is going to close in fifteen minutes. Mind the time, Yagami-san!’

‘Thank you, sir. Leaving soon!’

‘The mall is going to close in fifteen minutes. Mind the time, Lawliet-san!’

‘Thanks.’

The security guard walked away while Light wiped the last water droplet off the coffee funnel. After placing both the cloth and the funnel back to their usual places, he took off his apron and grabbed his belongings, preparing to leave.

Save for the very rare days when he enjoyed a holiday, he was always the last to leave. The third floor of the Heartbeat shopping mall was almost totally silent and empty.

Except for The Enemy, the perpetual pest, of course.

Though L was acting strange. He strode out of Wammy’s, walking quickly but also deliberately keeping quiet, eyes scanning for something. He kept putting a hand behind one of his ears while circulating Wammy’s, but Light did not understand what he could be listening for—they were the only two people on the third floor now, and the faint rustling sounds they made certainly did not deserve special attention.

Apparently L did not find what he wanted to, because when he emerged from the back of Wammy’s again, he was actually heading for the other coffee shop, a most suspicious expression on his face.

Light hastened to block him when he was deemed too near Kira Kira Café. ‘What do you want?’ Light asked, clearly not welcoming the trespasser.

L blinked at the question. After looking around and then trying to stare behind Light (who tried his best to prevent that), he finally spoke. ‘Didn’t you hear anything?’

Despite looking somewhat serious, this guy was utterly full of crap. ‘I only heard whatever sounds you’ve been making.’ Light folded his arms and straightened himself, hoping he came off as intimidating. ‘And?’

L stared and looked around again, but to no avail. ‘Nothing.’ He finally deadpanned and returned to Wammy’s.

Now it was Light’s turn to become suspicious. He paid extra attention to L’s movement at the same time as he prepared to leave, but nothing happened.

L was also leaving. He usually left at the same time as Light—just before the security guard locked the mall entrances. Light had the nagging suspicion that L sometimes hid and slept in the mall at night, but he never had any proof. He just did his best to make sure L could not break into Kira Kira without him finding out (which was a difficult task because both cafés did not have doors or walls, but he had many tricks in his pocket).

L leaving the building meant Light did not have to worry about being sabotaged, but it did not automatically make his way home more enjoyable.

Even today, he still could not fathom what unkind deity could possibly make him and L Lawliet not just operate competing businesses next to each other, but also live on the same floor in the same building. Exasperation at divine nastiness was a loyal buddy when they boarded the same orange and green one-decker every night and day, throughout their three-year tenures in Heartbeat.

The two baristas always sat at the back row, one occupying the left-most seat and the other the right-most. The ride was quiet save for the sound of motion. Only a handful of other passengers scattered in the front while an awkward silence filled the air. Light never talked to L and vice versa, each preferring to look at the neon lights and street lights that forced insomnia onto the city.

The ride took less than fifteen minutes. Silence followed their steps off the bus, at the lobby and in the lift. As the door to the lift opened, they walked towards their respective apartment along the narrow and straight corridor, salmon pink ceramic tiles dull and fatigued under pale lighting.

Light stopped in front of the second closest door to the lift, opening his bag for the keys. L passed him without saying a word.

‘Hope you sleep well tonight…’ Light’s murmur was soft and sudden, but certainly loud enough to be heard.

L looked over his shoulders.

‘…so that you won’t hallucinate non-existent voices again. Watching you do that pains me so.’ Light made sure L was looking at him before flashing a scornful smile.

‘Or maybe you’ll develop better sensitivity overnight. Difficult task, I know, but senses are essential for making passable coffee. Unlike pain, which you seem partial to but is actually useless.’ The retort was quick and L did not even put up an expression. Instead, a staring match was declared and sharp, pitch-black eyes were fixed on dark brown, almond ones.

The match was intense but short-lived. A few seconds later, Light plucked out his keys and proceeded to open the door, while L resumed the way to his apartment. Both knew to preserve their strength for the next contest because their rivalry had lasted day and night and stretched from Heartbeat to home.

If they did not win this round of sparring, there would always be another one the next night. After that, they would always board the earliest bus tomorrow and continue fighting with every cup of coffee they made. The feud had trained them well and added flavour—an unorthodox but refreshing spark of spice tinting caffeinated lives with crimson. Every night they closed their eyes to rest, they had the vision of defeating each other next day to look forward to.

But they would not be looking forward to that a month from now. Competition was now not just a game in their daily routine, but a battle of survival.

‘You know what? As much as you boast your knowledge of coffee to every customer, you only ever serve yourself affogato. It’s like you’re just going after the ice cream instead of the coffee. You even went for a second scoop today without the drink.’

No response was unforthcoming, only a stare.

‘I just find it hypocritical that you open a café, yet you seem not very interested in your own coffee. Skills can’t make a barista great without passion. Why don’t you open an ice cream parlour instead?’

‘It sounds like you live off coffee alone. I thought one’d die with that, but I’m obviously ignorant of alien biology.’

‘Who…’

‘And your observation skills are simply excellent. We’ve just been neighbours for three days and you already conclude that I like ice cream more than coffee. In fact, I’m just experimenting making ice cream with Wammy’s own coffee. I haven’t even eaten anything except affogato these days.’

‘…’

‘Coffee to you is just coffee, but to me it can live in anything. Revise your slogan. Passion can’t make a barista great without imagination.’

Under the enthusiasm (read: pressure) of the two café owners, Matsuda and Ide visited two more times and acquired more than enough materials to write in the Life section of Investigation a series of articles which, spinning the angle of competition, were actually just introducing Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner to the readership. Though unskilled in masquerading themselves, the pair proved to be proficient journalists. Their appeal to ‘visit the cafés and choose the winner yourself, dear reader’ worked—three weeks saw a noteworthy increase in the customer toll of both shops.

The scythe awaited the losing shop in one week’s time, and tension and anxiety shrouded all staff members of both sides. Even without prompting, all full-time staff had opted to take no leave before they could be certain of their café’s fate. Light began to have bizarre dreams of first-class Robusta coffee beans seeking a job in employment agencies or begging for money with a coffee cup on the street.

He wondered whether his arch-enemy from Wammy’s was as dedicated to the welfare of coffee beans in his dreams, but L might not even have time for sleep these days. The number of nights Light suspected L of staying at the mall overnight had increased drastically. For nearly every day in the last two weeks, L would disappear right after the security guard’s cue call and not be seen in the last bus at night. He would also mysteriously appear at a very early time next morning without having been in the first bus, the size of his eye bags suggesting that he had slept very little or not at all. Was he hiding at Wammy’s at night, using the time when no one was in Heartbeat to invent some ‘secret weapon’ recipe?

Last night was another one like this and Light’s solitary journey to and from home was imbued with the apprehension of not knowing what L was up to. The feeling did not abate while Light, arriving at Kira Kira in the next morning just five minutes after the mall was unlocked, found L already hunched up in one of Wammy’s sofas, inspecting something tiny between his thumb and index finger.

Apprehension turned to dread as Light neared the barista station that he covered with a red cloth before leaving. One look sufficed to tell him that the creases on the cloth were different. Different from what he especially arranged every night before leaving, and different in a way that could only be caused by a human. Dread burst into scorching rage at the implication, pushing an incensed Light into Wammy’s Coffee Corner without thinking.

It was so early in the morning and no one except L was at the café, so Light found himself standing in the middle of enemy territory in no time.

L seemed to take no offense at his nemesis butting in without invitation, which in Light’s eyes confirmed his guilt. But when Light tried to grab his white, round necked T-shirt in a fit of anger, he slapped the hand away and growled threateningly.

‘I don’t know how you know, but you clearly deduced that someone has entered your shop last night after you left.’ L said, standing up and moving defensively while Light scuttled left and right for a chance to strike again. ‘And you’ve somehow decided that it was me.’

Light took two more small steps, and then halted. ‘And you’re going to deny it like the liar you are, saying that I have no proof.’ The venom in his voice might be alarming, but Light did not motion further because what he just said was technically true. That L had stayed overnight was his suspicion. Though the older barista definitely had motivation to sabotage Kira Kira, he obviously would not be stupid enough to give himself away, and Light would have to find out on his own what the other man had done. ‘You better not let me find the proof, then. Sorry for disturbing.’ Light turned away tensely, without meaning his apology.

‘The culprit did not have time to do anything, because I chased him away before he could.’

Light swung back angrily at the implication of L’s words. ‘So you admit you were here last night!’

‘And why do you think I’m admitting this to you?’

‘You somehow want to win my trust, but fabricating a trespasser is hardly believable enough to achieve what you want.’

‘Ah, but there’s not an ounce of trust in you. You’re as pressed out as the coffee beans in an espresso machine.’

Light began indignantly but L continued despite that. ‘I wouldn’t fabricate an unbelievable tale because I know it wouldn’t work. I’m only saying this because it’s the truth. I have two more things to say. The second thing is that I invite you to stay behind, starting tonight. I believe the person may come back within this week, maybe on this very night.’

‘… What? And you said “second”?’

‘The first thing is that I invite you to look at this.’ L handed Light what he was keeping in his palm all this while.

‘I don’t know whether I should wish that you and Keehl would make peace or wish you be rid of him. I’ve never had this problem so I don’t really understand the hardship when even your staff doesn’t agree with the way you make coffee.’

‘I don’t really understand the happiness of having to running a bunch of drooling puppets around oneself either. But I guess some people just need constant admiration from blind followers.’

‘Will you lose your voice without spitting insult on innocent people? Everyone now working full-time at Kira Kira has all been my faithful customers at one time! My staff admire me because they appreciate my coffee! Yours can’t even be paid to praise your lousy drinks.’

‘Well, if you must know, all of my full-time staff have actually been Mr Wammy’s protégés and I’m training them to open their own coffee shops one day, to spread Mr Wammy’s coffee philosophy post-mortem. Dissonance is encouraged because it helps them learn and I don’t need the world to revolve around me. And anyway, once they give their idea more thought and taste, they’ll finally realise that I’m right.’

‘… you don’t need the world to revolve around you but “they’ll finally realise that I’m right”… very convincing, absolutely inspirational…’

‘… pot calling kettle black…’

Light’s feet trembled slightly as they touched the vinyl flooring without the protection of shoe soles. Wearing just socks in a public area made Light feel more exposed than he actually was, and he could not help but doubt his decision to stay at the mall overnight with L.

‘Don’t give me that face. We need to be as quiet as possible as we move and your boots are too loud. Wear shoes with rubber soles next time.’

As if he could have predicted this when he chose his footwear in the morning. And as if there would be a next time.

L had studied the blind spots of the mall’s surveillance cameras and the security guard’s routines very well. Working together, the two men successfully stole two spare keys from the large set in the security office and hid in the female restroom opposite it (they knew no female guard was on duty today and decided that it was the best strategic position).

Technically, they only had to wait until all security guards locked and left the building. Guards were only stationed outside the mall at night, and when the morning came, nobody would have the interest to check the surveillance feed inside unless there was any complaint about unexplained lost or damage of property.

But something was clearly different tonight.

‘You’re right.’ Light hardly believed that such words could come out from his own mouth. Opening the restroom door very slightly, Light observed the movement—or lack thereof—outside. ‘The last guard should have left already, but he didn’t. What’s he doing in the security office?’

‘Bidding for time. And if I assume correctly, he’ll probably switch off all surveillance cameras soon. Maybe he already did, so as not to leave any evidence of his activity. I’m pretty sure the feed was switched off last night, or he would have known it was me who scared him away with those card boxes near the boutique, but he didn’t pay attention to me today, and was just generally jumpy instead. He probably thinks that “accidentally” switching off the feed for one or two nights is a much less serious crime than there being evidence of him actually sabotaging Heartbeat’s shops.’

‘But why would he do that? So now you’re not totally lying, but I still don’t see why a security guard would have motive to harm a coffee shop.’

‘Two coffee shops, I believe.’

‘Whatever. If your theory is true then it’s just…’

‘We’ll find out when we catch him in action.’

L gripped at the cufflink in his palm—the same one that he asked Light to inspect in the morning. According to L, since the time he heard odd noises before the mall closed, he had tried to stay inside at night as often as he could, hiding in a restroom from which he could detect suspicious movement around the café area, certain that Light Yagami and his cronies were plotting to strike when no one was watching over Wammy’s. Last night was not any different.

Light first scoffed at the idea that he might do something underhanded at night (how distrustful must L have been to suspect such a baseless theory?), then balked when he heard about L hiding in a restroom, and was now trying hard to ignore the irony of himself doing the exact same thing.

L’s wait had not been fruitless, but he was surprised to recognise the outline of the security uniform under the dim moonlight from the window, and even more so when the approaching person did not enter Wammy’s Coffee Corner but Kira Kira Café.

In Light’s opinion, the most dubious part in L’s story was that L, upon the ‘instinct that the trespasser was up to no good’, decided to distract the security guard by overthrowing a pile of card boxes just outside the restroom. L claimed that he assumed the guard would come to inspect what happened and planned to ambush him then, but the man was frightened away instead, and did not emerge to tidy up the card boxes until Heartbeat was ‘officially open’ again. Near a chair in Kira Kira, L discovered a cufflink that belonged to a security uniform, confirming the identity of the trespasser who had nearly tripped at the exact same spot when he ran away.

‘The good news is, if he’s that weak-kneed and clumsy, it probably won’t be that difficult to get the truth out of him, once we catch him guilty on spot.’ L concluded when he finished his tale.

Light remembered being unsure whether he should believe L. ‘… let’s say that you’re telling the truth and that he’ll really try whatever he wanted to try again tonight… why would you “invite” me?’

But for some inexplicable reason, he remembered the answer that followed even more.

‘Because you’re already making a fuss.’ L continued before Light could complain. ‘Because you’re actually not the enemy this time. And because I know you would care and work with me to stop the ploy. Because you don’t make coffee for your little sister every day and get sick in France for a security guard to harm Kira Kira Café.’

Light remembered being speechless at this explanation.

Though, at the same time, he was not that surprised. Just as L picked up on who Light Yagami was from their nightly bickering, Light also understood why L would react so drastically towards any possible threat to Heartbeat’s cafés. Because L needed coffee to honour the man who raised him. Because he cockily believed that his coffee was the embodiment of perfection (like Light). And because he had devoted his life, spirit and soul to his café (also like Light).

Light understood perfectly.

He was brought back to reality by the opening of the security office’s door. He signalled to L and the game was back on.

EXCLUSIVE:

HEARTBEAT CONSPIRACY

Why is the Yotsuba Corporation poisoning everyone’s favourite coffee shops?

Loyal readers of Investigation would have been aware of the ongoing epic battle between Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner in the Heartbeat shopping complex—the war where only one can survive! Everyone in the city all have our idea of which café should stay after Heartbeat’s revamp, and are eagerly awaiting the Yotsuba Corporation to announce the final winner!

But what if Yotsuba does not intend there to be a winner at all?

In a bold midnight excursion, the owners of the two popular coffee shops uncovered the corporate giant’s egregious attempt to disgrace and oust both shops from the mall without incurring public backlash! Through employing a security guard!

Shocking? Yes! Preposterous? Well, we may not have believed it ourselves if we haven’t been there and seen it with our own eyes! Luckily, the café owners are as brilliant as the espressos and cold brews they make, and have actually asked us to be witnesses beforehand!

So this is it! The revelation of the Yotsuba Conspiracy! Brought to you first-hand by your faithful Investigators, Touta Matsuda and Hideki Ide!

…

Receiving Lawliet-san’s signal, we evaded the outside guards (who, unlike the inside one, were innocent, as far as we know!) and entered Heartbeat. One of the locked entrances was already opened for us, and we soon stationed at a safe spot on the third floor.

…

And it began! Unaware that everything he did was observed by FOUR pair of scrutinising eyes, the security guard unscrewed the pipe connecting to Wammy’s Coffee Corner’s espresso machine, pulled out a small packet and began to pour the content into the pipe!

Having the evidence of crime safely recorded by the Investigators’ superb night vision camera, it was time to reveal ourselves! Look at the security guard’s face when he saw light coming out from two other torches, and the two coffee shop heroes standing right behind it!

…

It took little to persuade the culprit to tell the truth. According to him, the Yotsuba Corporation regretted its announcement to keep one café operating and wanted its new bistro, which would be directly run by Yotsuba and was considered a project of utmost importance, to be the sole premise offering food and drinks in Heartbeat.

But by that time, Kira Kira vs. Wammy’s had already attracted much public attention thanks to Investigation, and the management thought it unwise to disclose its intention without a better excuse. Therefore, they bribed the security guard to taint both coffee shops’ water. When coffee lovers complained of food poisoning, Yotsuba would have the best reason in the world to expel Kira Kira and Wammy’s from Heartbeat!

In tears, Kurou Otoharada said he regretted accepting Yotsuba’s bribe and kneeled in front of Lawliet-san and Yagami-san to ask for their forgiveness. (Though Yagami-san was too busy putting on his shoes back to reply.) Otoharada also claimed to possess evidence that would prove Yotsuba’s guilt.

…

The Yotsuba Corporation had declined comment as of publication.

Weeks after Matsuda and Ide’s article scandalised the whole town, Light and L boarded the bus with satisfaction under a clear night sky. They had just ended a negotiation with the Yotsuba management and would soon see a considerable sum of money deposited in their bank accounts. They had agreed to settle out of court since they considered the damage to Yotsuba’s public reputation brought by Investigation’s report as sufficient revenge. The money would also allow each of them to open a bigger coffee shop at a better location.

Both Kira Kira Café and Wammy’s Coffee Corner were going to leave Heartbeat once and for all.

Light had been extremely amused during the negotiation, when one of Yotsuba’s men in suit offered a permanent waiver of rent as part of their compensation.

‘You really thought I’d been fighting this hard because I was scared of leaving your dingy mall?’ He snorted. ‘Kira Kira could have opened and succeeded brilliantly anywhere, anytime. I just couldn’t stand the thought of losing.’

Losing to Wammy’s when they had been rivals for three long and hard years had been unacceptable. But the contest had ended abruptly, without either of them becoming a clear winner or loser.

The funny thing was that they seemed to have learnt and understood a great deal about each other during their rivalry. His cold brew recipe was still a top business secret, while L’s espresso machine was still non-replicable, but otherwise their competitiveness had brought them close.

If they would look at each other’s way, the distance between the one-decker’s left most and right-most seats was in fact minimal. They would have been able to see the all of each other clearly.

But even tonight, the journey on the bus still ended in familiar silence. The wait in the lobby and in the lift was equally reticent. L and Light walked shoulder-to-shoulder, mutely, on the corridor until the latter stopped at the second door nearest the lift.

Light remained quiet. They probably would not open a coffee shop next to each other anymore. They would not compete anymore. There was no point in throwing verbal jabs anymore. Dedicated to their work as they were, they might not even see each other in this corridor often from now.

Something always disappeared along with the end of one of life’s chapters, did it not?

But he made the wrong decision of wearing his bag on the left shoulder tonight, so when he turned left, he could not help but include L in his vision, and the strangely receptive man immediately glimpsed back.

Now this was awkward. Did they really have to talk? Why did he choose to wear his bag on the left?

Silence pervaded as Light chose his words carefully, but L was one step ahead.

‘Now can I finally get a taste of that cold brew? Maybe I’ll finally figure out how to make it after tasting.’

Light did not expect that. ‘What?’ His first reply was not very sophisticated, and he quickly remedied that by adding, ‘I’m sure my cold brew isn’t something you can “figure out” just by tasting it. I’m interested in why you’d ask that, though. Oh!’ His voice became a little loftier. ‘Maybe it’s because your espresso tastes like metal and can help me work out the secret of your magic machine?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. My espresso doesn’t make people think of machines.’

‘As far as I’m concerned, you’re the dense one who just made an absurd proposal.’

‘I just tried to say something different now that the situation has changed. Do you prefer that we be rude to each other even now? After resolving our rivalry and even going through a semi-alliance?’

‘But what you said is still rude. Try again.’

Light found it easy slip into the familiar rhythm of banter, but he was also curious what L would do next. It was even a little amusing to watch L looking challenged by the task of saying something ‘not rude’.

Finally, L blinked and his expression cleared. ‘Goodnight, then.’

He actually seemed proud of what he came up with, and Light could not resist laughter any longer. His voice exploded in the quietude of the night. He tried to stop, but ‘… lame…’ was all he managed to say before mirth took control.

‘Now who is rude?’

‘… Well… haha… well… I guess I’m sorry, then.’ L was not at all convinced when Light still could not erase the wicked smile throughout his ‘apology’.

Light took a deep breath. For some reason, even though the day had mostly gone well for him, he only felt the most relaxed now. The unexpected shot of cheeriness lifted his heart and made him fly.

When he spoke again, his smile was softer, more sincere. ‘Indeed, we’ve been rude to each other for so long, and even the most normal greeting sounds like an improvement.’

Maybe they would board the bus together again. Or the train. Or a taxi? Or they could just invite each other for coffee, if they wanted to.

Coffee never made itself. It needed great baristas like Light Yagami and L Lawliet.

‘Goodnight.’

—Hear, Heart, the Beat of Goodnight—

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