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matan4il · 3 years

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Buddie 402 meta

Let’s start with some Buck and how this ep is reminding us all along of his progress. Remember him at the start of season 1, rash and reckless and told off by Hen for solving everything by smashing things? Well, he still gets to smash things, but now we also see him cool, collected and resolving problems by figuring out awesome and smart solutions (the baby monitor feedback, the chimney). All this parallels his emotional progress, where he went from being the “dumbass kid” as Bobby refers to him in ep 101 to giving Chim advice on his relationship with Maddie from a mature place.

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I loved the bit with the roommates and the feelings realization during lockdown together. A comical wink at what Buck and Eddie might have gone through if Eddie did quarantine at Buck’s before he went home to Chris? ;) IDK, but it’s a fun thought. *gasp* And they were roommates!

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I mentioned this in the 401 meta and I’m keeping up my promise to follow this, how Buddie are a team with preferred roles, infinite coordination and mutual reliance. Just one ep later, we have it again, down to Buck rappelling down a rope while Eddie holds him, even attaching the equipment on him instead of Buck doing it for himself, passing him the ax and being so in sync with him. Battle boyfriends!

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Ok, I title these posts ‘Buddie meta’, focusing on anything related to Buck, Eddie, them as a ship and the characters/couples that parallel/connect to them, because that alone is way too many words already. But I have to mention the scene where Chim and Athena’s story arcs climax in intertwined cuts. Everything about that is amazing, not just the acting, but the editing, the music, the build up to how we get to this moment to make it so effective, even the way they managed to create two totally different scenarios that both culminate in the need to ‘push!’ It’s masterful. It’s the show telling us, ‘look at me, look at how well I know my craft, at how I build a story and its meanings and parallels, at how good I am when I do it.’ This is the show earning our trust and our love, proving that we’re not just wasting our time when we give it credit and invest time and thought into analyzing it.

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Chim isn’t paired up with Eddie in this ep, but I had to think about their parallels. Chim comes to see he’s been scared and that’s why he ran away, but he figured it out and came back to his child, just like Eddie did. But Chim came back to his kid and to Maddie, realizing it’s gonna be better if they’ll be scared together. Eddie returned to Chris, but how sad is it that at the end of the day, he didn’t have a partner to be scared with? When he was discharged, Shannon felt she had to go. And even later on, she didn’t feel she could stay and be with him, asking for a divorce. How wonderful would it be if in Buck, Eddie finally found a partner he could be scared together with? Because in practicality, that’s what’s been happening since 204, when Eddie was overwhelmed by and terrified of the bureaucratic system and Buck found a solution for him (Carla… don’t get me started about her speaking of invisible strings of love to Chris with Eddie right there, that scene was too sweet, and just think about the fact that it exists thanks to Buck), or another example of how Eddie went to Buck when he was scared about having let Chris down in ep 312 and Buck is there to listen, as well as to help with a solution. Just another reminder that in all ways but one, they truly and fully are partners.

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The mystery woman turned out to be a therapist, no surprise there. However, Buck’s exact words to her were a pleasant one, as was the way Oliver delivered the line. So I’ll step into speculation territory again (please don’t allow me to keep doing this). TBH, I actually don’t think this will immediately lead us to Buddie or a bi!Buck. I think this will first play out in the context of telling Maddie and his parents how he really feels when they will come into town. We already knew from 316 Buck sometimes holds back on some of the things he feels, like how it’s taken him years to tell Maddie about his feelings of loneliness and abandonment, so this falls in line and I do believe he will have to go through this family drama first to figure himself out. He will have a crisis, it’s not going to be easy to get through, but it will be so very important. But then, later on, I think the show might return to these words and build upon them as a parallel. Because if we are getting Buddie, then this is a slow burn. Gotta throw in a couple more obstacles first, like going through an identity crisis… those obstacles will only make the journey that much more worthwhile when we get to the final destination. And I do see over time more and more of a possibility this destination is that Buddie will be together canonically.

Thank you so much again to the incredible @bicepsie for doing the gifsets for this meta, I know that these are a lot of work and you get bombarded with my messages in what is in our time zone the small hours of the morning, when the ep had just finished airing, and you do it with love and so beautifully. I really feel like I can’t thank you enough, love! xoxox

#402 #911 season 4 #buddie #evan buckley #evan buck buckley #eddie diaz #edmundo diaz #buddie meta #911 meta #911meta #9-1-1 #christopher diaz #chris diaz #honest to god #they are partners #wm #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc

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fundeadasylum · 3 years

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Was I the only one who felt the ending of Great Pretender was a bit...disappointing? I don’t even know if that’s the right word I’m looking for...

Spoilers for Great Pretender under the cut.

It kind of had the same problem BNA did where all of this other stuff had never been established and then it was really shoved into the ending. Putting aside how ridiculous it was, because con shows like this are ridiculous and that’s what makes them so fun.

But suddenly we were introduced to this new character we were supposed to care about but never had time to because we had, like, four or five episodes to get to the know them. On top of that we were also supposed to care about Laurent to the same capacity that we care about Edamura. But this wasn’t Laurent’s story, it was Edamura’s. But now it suddenly is Laurent’s storry and its been Laurent’s story this whole time and we were supposed to care about that?? But the show?? Never gave us any indication that we should? It never indicated that it was anyone’s story but Edamura’s. You can’t change the main character in the last half of the show, what the hell.

ALSO.

Edamura had a fantastic mental breakdown in the finale.

His character went through a great arc of development and he suffered a severe trauma that both his dad and Laurent put him through. That breakdown was deserved and visceral and impactful. It was a culmination of everything he’d been going through finally boiling over, of Edamura finally putting his foot down and having enough. It was really, really good.

But nope. It was fake. It was all an act. It was bullshit.

That was so disingenuous to his character. That was such bullshit. He had to deal with becoming a ch*ld traffick*r, he had to deal with the thought that he’d killed his friends, he had to deal with killing someone for the first time in his life. Sure, he turned into a person he probably despised, but after literally being betrayed and manipulated by the people he thought he could trust, why wouldn’t he stick with something he knew was consistent, something he had control in. He didn’t have anywhere else to go, as far as he knew, and honestly, the Director of the trafficking ring had been the person who was nicest to him in like literal years. I don’t blame him for staying with her.

And you want me to believe that he just. Is totally okay with working with Oz and Laurent after what they did to him!? Are you kidding me!? They emotionally abused and manipulated this kid, they ruined his life and forced him into a life of crime when he was trying his hardest to get out of it. Just so Laurent could get his petty fucking revenge. Which ends up NOT MATTERING AT ALL and negates THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE DAMN SHOW with that stupid post credit scene!

Speaking of things not mattering. We all knew the whole “you screw up, you get left behind” mantra was bunk, obviously. But they kept trying to hammer it in. In fact, it was the whole reason Dorothy was supposed to have died in the first place! Because they screwed up! Those were consequences for their actions! That was the lesson! This whole show, there’s been this running theme of Edamura messing things up but either they still manage to pull it off or someone works his mistake to their advantage or something. It really emphasized Edamura’s honest character (even if some of those actions were??? like giving James the original painting??? why???? did you do that????) and made the moment of him getting Cynthia and Aby killed all that more impactful. That was a huge blow for him, because that was the one time there was no coming back from that screw-up. He’d fucked up so bad that he got people killed. Which led to his drastic change and growth as a character. And it was really, really good! There needs to be consequences for character’s actions to matter or make an impact on the story! And it was obvious that Edamura still had some kindness in him. He genuinely seemed to care about the Director and had a mother-son bond with her. That was really important. He literally didn’t have anyone else!

Oh, but, no it was all an act. He didn’t react at all when he found out his friends were alive because he’s cool now. Oh yeah he’s totally fine with working with Laurent, uh huh, sure, okay. Fuck the hell off.

God, I could carry on about this for literal hours. I’m so disappointed.

TL;DR

- No one had time to care about Dorothy. We know nothing about her except she was a bubbly conartist who loved Laurent.

- Laurent was suddenly the main character the whole time, not Edamura, whose story we had actually been watching. That is not a “twist”, that is bad writing and bullshit.

- Edamura’s breakdown in the finale should have been real and was well deserved. Even if it had resulted in his death, it would have been very poignant.

- The post credit scene negates the point of the existence of the entire show and ruins any emotional impact whatsoever. There is no rewatch value--or any value at all--when you render the show pointless.

- There were no consequences. Ever. At all. The “good guys” always won and never suffered any losses.

- Everyone’s just supposed to forgive Laurent and Oz because TTnTT Dorothy died because they messed up and ooohhh nnooo it’s so sad, look at my tragic backstory, feel bad for meeee wwwaahhhh

- Laurent and Oz emotionally abused and manipulated Edamura and everyone is just okay with that???? Hey, dipshits, there’s a con artist rule and it’s “YOU DON’T CON YOUR OWN TEAM”.

TL;DR 2.0 - Great Pretender is only good if you don’t watch the second season.

#i'm actually really fed up with shows doing this #i have zero faith in any ''original anime'' netflix airs now because #fool me once shame on me. fool me twice shame on you. fool me three times and fuck off.#the great pretender #great pretender #shut your mouth sage

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dramaticviolincrescendo · 4 years

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The thing is, Ian was right. Mickey doesn't know any better, the writers on the show made sure of that, because for them the only important thing about Mickey is his devotion to Ian. But we're a bit more realistic about it and can analyze Ian's actions without being limited by someone's poor imagination.

There’s a lot to address here, so please forgive me for the lengthy response, anon! 🙂 I’ll preface all of it by saying this: my general opinion is that if Mickey has what makes him happy, we should support that regardless of how we feel about the other party (with obvious exceptions like physical abuse, etc.). If Byron was what made him happy, I would support him even if I couldn’t stand the guy. The same goes for any other character in any other franchise, at least for me. Now, onto your points:

I’m not sure which scene you mean when you mention Ian saying he doesn’t know any better, but I’m definitely with you on our ability to analyze Ian’s actions. The problem here is that analyzing will always be colored by perspective and implicit bias. If your fave is Mickey, anything that hurts him will look a whole lot worse than what he does that hurts Ian and perhaps lead to conducting a less than thorough analysis or rejecting sensible arguments about Ian’s character. Based on the number of posts I see about how Mickey is the only good thing on the show, I’d argue that that is a very real danger in many of the takes on Ian as well as everyone else. I’ve seen some pretty heavy demonizing of characters who hurt Mickey’s feelings or aren’t actively sweet to him, which is a bit unrealistic since that’s life and Mickey certainly never seems to mind or let it keep him down for long.

As far as him not knowing better, on the whole, I don’t think that gives Mickey much credit at all. Actually, it doesn’t really give him any credit, which is sort of surprising given how vehemently people defend his IQ, academically and emotionally, against what amounted to a joke. Mickey knows that Ian messes up and does things that are questionable at best and hurtful at worst. He’s not an innocent, pure character who endures heartache after heartache to throw himself at the brick wall of earning Ian’s attention. He gives as good as he gets and has hurt Ian too. They’re human and written very realistically in that regard. Their love for one another allows them to forgive transgressions and move on, not hold grudges or “not know any better” with regards to what they deserve. Love isn’t about what we deserve, and I think it’s important to remember that a relationship won’t last if it’s based on an arbitrary numerical score of who has done more harm than the other. Things happen. Poor decisions are made. They can allow that to break them or work through it. Mickey has actively chosen to work through it because at the end of the day, he loves Ian more than he is interested in finding something else. In earlier seasons, Ian similarly chose to work through it with someone who might never be in a position to come out and begin the full relationship that he so desperately wanted. That’s beautiful to me, not contemptible.

As far as the only important thing about Mickey being his devotion to Ian, we’ll also have to agree to disagree. 🙂 In the early seasons, while Ian was certainly the catalyst for it, Mickey’s story was about coming out more than his devotion to Ian. That’s why we have the scenes where he taunted Kash (focus: keeping his secret), purposely got sent back to juvie (focus: hiding from Terry if he found out), and got married (focus: self-preservation). We do absolutely see a rising devotion for Ian during this period, of course, and there’s no argument that his character was written expressly to be Ian’s love interest. The writers still made him a well-developed one with his own motives, fears, and desires outside of Ian in a way that later love interests didn’t get. (My own belief is that they didn’t intend for the later relationships to last like they did Mickey, but regardless of the validity there, Mickey was written as a character with more depth from the very beginning and existed before anything with Ian ever happened.)

The first half of s4 shows Mickey on his own merits. He’s handling his new position as a patriarch of the family, running the business while Terry is fairly hands-off and watches. He decides to help the Russian girls and ends up going into business with Kev. We learn a lot about Mickey’s character outside of Ian during that time. In fact, there are only a couple of scenes that really focus on him missing Ian until finding him becomes Mickey’s task: asking Kev if anyone has heard from him, the bathroom scene, and the later Alibi scene. Otherwise, the early s4 writers showed us a Mickey who was compassionate, ambitious, utilitarian, entrepreneurial, and collaborative—all without tying it back to Ian. Kev and V are renowned friends of the Gallaghers, but Mickey doesn’t grow closer to Kev in an attempt to learn more about what happened to Ian. He doesn’t help the girls because he thinks Ian would want him to. In fact, with the exception of those scenes I mentioned, we have no reason to believe that Ian is on Mickey’s mind at all while he’s doing these other things. He has a life outside of Ian just like the opposite is true, and s4 went to great lengths to show us that.

The second half of s4 is, once again, about keeping his secret until he decides to come out. (Read: decides to, is not forced to. More on that in a moment.) Yes, his devotion to Ian is once again the catalyst for some of his decisions, but there’s much more to it than that. Once again, we still see scenes with Mickey operating on his own for his own purposes. He doesn’t leave home entirely because he wants to be with Ian—he also wants to escape from his wife and pretend that things are the way they used to be. He doesn’t scam money from the rich guy or take more than his cut from the register at the Alibi to protect Ian—he does it for self-preservation so that Svetlana won’t get him killed. He doesn’t go to the baptism to keep up appearances and protect Ian—he does it to keep up appearances for himself and because...well, like it or not, that’s his son. The lattermost is something Ian specifically does not want him to do, and if he does, he wants to be there. Mickey goes against his wishes because it’s about protecting himself (and perhaps, by extension, their relationship), and rightfully so. Coming out at the Alibi does once again tie to Ian as a catalyst for change in Mickey’s life, but it didn’t have to happen. Mickey could have grabbed his coat, told everyone goodnight, and left with Ian. At no time did Ian tell him that he would leave if Mickey didn’t come out to everyone or admit they’re a couple, even if he did make reference to the fact that Mickey was hiding and not free. All Ian wanted was for Mickey not to treat him like a mistress or expect him to stick around if he did. Instead, it was a logical culmination of Mickey’s written development to come out. He’s stronger and more independent than he used to be. He’s capable of taking care of himself and surviving in the world without relying on Terry. He’s in a position where yes, he’s still justifiably terrified of coming out and what it’ll mean where Terry is concerned, but he’s able to do it. Ian is a catalyst for it, but being devoted to him isn’t Mickey’s only reason.

In s5, a lot of Mickey’s story does revolve around his devotion to Ian, but not any more than Ian’s revolves around devotion to him in the second half of s3. We still see Mickey doing business and running the family, but having Ian be his more central concern makes sense because Ian is sick and the writers have already told us that his health is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. In denial or not, Mickey knows this. And so we see his story center around Ian because, to an extent, it has to. Ian is mentally and physically sick. He’s adjusting not only to meds, but to a label that makes him feel ashamed and afraid. Mickey is devoted to him, and so Mickey does everything he can to take care of him. But here’s the thing: that scares Ian too. He’s seen what happens to the people who try to take care of Monica. He knows how it felt to try only to be ignored or betrayed or abandoned. The breakup isn’t about anger at being coddled or, by my interpretation and Ian’s own words, him being selfish. It’s about him seeing that Mickey’s devotion is going to keep him from living his life and ultimately (in his opinion) hurt him beyond repair, and so he sets Mickey free. It hurts him, yes, but it does work.

Because even though we don’t see it happen on-screen, s6 through s9 can’t possibly be Mickey sitting in a prison cell pining over Ian. If that was going to happen, we’d have seen it in s4. By this point, we know who Mickey is outside of Ian and can assume that he’s operating in much the same way on the inside until he figures out what he wants to do. We know he and Svetlana had a business arrangement where they took out contracts for work he could do in prison. We know that he makes a business acquaintanceship with Damon, which means he was probably involved in dealing or smuggling while there. Neither of these things can possibly revolve around devotion to Ian because they could conceivably keep him from Ian longer. His sentence is fifteen years, and if he’s counting on being out in eight to be with Ian, he needs to be on his best behavior. He’s not. He’s unapologetically not when he sees Ian again and talks about what Damon is. Ian looks less than comfortable with it, but that’s not why they ditch him—it’s because he might get Mickey caught with his behavior. Even breaking out happened once he was able to solidify an opportunity working for a cartel, so while Ian may have been another catalyst (besides the obvious desire to get out of prison), the decision wasn’t about devotion to him. The only decision that was about that was the one he made at the border to let Ian go without making him feel worse about it. He’s devoted to Ian, so he knows that dragging him along on the run into the unknown won’t be good for him. He needs stability and a support system and medication, none of which Mickey can provide if they cross that border together. So, out of his devotion, he lets Ian go. They have a heartfelt goodbye and separate for what they think is the last time.

Does Mickey’s devotion lead him to turning himself in? Absolutely. But not before spending another long stint living his own life. The writers make sure we know that he had a life without Ian playing a role in it, once again conducting business and operating successfully on his own merits. They’re limited in what they can show because Noel wasn’t available, which made logistics important, but they didn’t leave him high and dry or insinuate that he was waiting around in Mexico for an excuse to return to Ian. He was once again a successful businessman in the illicit economy. When he returns in s10, his storyline does then appear to revolve around devotion to Ian more—but it doesn’t. Mickey has people he hangs out with in prison separate from Ian and with no ties to him. With the Byron situation, it wasn’t about proving devotion for Ian when he thought Ian questioned it—it was about hurting Ian because of what happened at the courthouse, even after he found out what Ian was really afraid of. If the writers were only interested in showing his devotion to Ian, he would have ditched Byron the second Ian told him that he was scared of his disorder and ruining them. He doesn’t. He sticks it out because Mickey is so much more than his relationship with Ian: he’s independent, vengeful, hot-headed, impulsive, and stubborn. These are traits that have been set up by the writers throughout the series both with and without ties to their relationship, and he very adamantly adheres to his revenge-plot-turned-catalyst-for-Ian-pulling-his-head-out-of-his-ass because he isn’t all about devotion to Ian.

I completely respect your opinion on the matter and appreciate the opportunity to discuss it at length! Ultimately, it boils down to this for me: the writers get a lot off flack for some of the narrative decisions and, of course, they won’t always be to our liking. Opinions and preferences assure us of that. I don’t think it’s about us being more realistic or more capable of analyzing a character, though. Everything above was written. It wasn’t spelled out and handed to us, no, but the writers put it there so that we could then analyze it. There’s no analyzing a blank slate or someone whose only narrative is devotion to Ian. The writers have given us a wealth of things to consider when it comes to all the characters, Mickey included, and we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation if they didn’t. Mickey is intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and more than capable of standing on his own two feet as both a fictional person and a character. If he chose Ian, then it’s because he has weighed all these things and found them to be nothing in the grand scheme of their love for one another. Again, though, we can agree to disagree. Thank you for this ask—I find myself writing more about Ian, so I had a lot of fun thinking back over the series to answer it! 😃🧡

#shameless #meta #Mickey milkovich #Ian gallagher #gallavich #I probably shouldn’t tag this because it’s inviting vitriol #but it’ll get shared anyway #so please be kind folks #this is just my opinion #and ultimately defends Mickey

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ryqoshay · 3 years

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Tri-Arame: Take the Lead Right

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.4k Rating: T with my signature implied off camera M finish Time Frame: First year of college? Maybe second? Dunno yet Story Arc: Stand Alone

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Author’s Note: I really do intend to write some scenes for my other fics, honest. But a, I can’t help where my µ’s muse leads and b, I checked a few versions of the ship tag last time and found the results... lacking.

Also, the link to the inspiration for this scene will be in the followup post.

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“Mmm… that was so~ good…” Yuu leaned back and let out a content sigh. “Setsuna-chan and I are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.” She grinned. “Maybe someday we’ll be as good as you, Ayumu.”

“I think you may already be there.” Ayumu said, raising her last bite as if to toast the idea.

Setsuna shook her head. “No, I believe Ayumu-san is still the best cook among us.” She offered a smile to the blushing redhead before picking up her plate.

“I’ll take that.” Ayumu said, reaching over. “You two made dinner, so I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?” Yuu asked.

Ayumu nodded. “I should be done before the episode airs if one of you wants to set things up.” With that said, she stacked the three plates and moved everything over to the sink.

As she began washing, Ayumu couldn’t help glancing over regularly toward the others. She enjoyed watching Setsuna’s excitement as she unlocked Ayumu’s laptop and brought up the streaming site. It came as no surprise that a moment later, sounds from the previous episode started coming out of the speakers as the anime addicted girl skimmed through it for a review.

For her part, Yuu remained in her prior position. From there, she could see the screen, but like Ayumu, she seemed more content with watching Setsuna.

“Ne, do you think we have enough time to make tea?” Yuu suddenly asked after a few minutes.

“Probably.” Ayumu responded. “Want me to put on the kettle?

“I’ll get it.” The twin-tailed girl bounced up. “Anyone else want some?”

“Yes, please.” The redhead nodded.

“Setsuna-chan?” Yuu asked.

“Mm?” The raven-haired girl startled from her review session and looked up.

“Tea?”

“Oh, yes, sorry, yes, thank you, please.” Despite where her gaze was directed, her attention was obviously still on the show.

Yuu laughed lightly and moved to the kitchen to fill the kettle. Not long after, Ayumu finished with the dishes and headed back to the kotatsu. However, instead of taking her usual spot on her own side, she settled in directly next to the girl already there. For her part, Setsuna glanced over and offered a quick smile.

Once the tea was ready, Yuu brought it out to the table and sat down on the other side of Setsuna from Ayumu. It was almost perfectly timed as Setsuna was ready to switch tabs, refresh and begin streaming the newly uploaded episode. Finally settled, the trio, crowded comfortably together, began to watch.

As far as Ayumu was concerned, the anime in question was yet another high fantasy with powerful heroes, dastardly villains and a decidedly contrived romantic subplot. But Setsuna was utterly obsessed with it, having collected the entire manga set, several hard copies of popular doujinshi, a few posters and even figures of two main heroines. And Yuu was quite enthusiastic about the series as well, though nowhere near Setsuna’s level.

As such, it was more her girlfriends’ passion for the series that interested Ayumu than the anime itself, but she paid attention nonetheless so she could participate in the conversations that would inevitably follow the ending credits. Tonight’s episode was particularly important as it was the season finale.

And befitting of a season finale of such a series, the action was packed to the brim as the heroes confronted the villain. Still, despite the visual spectacle, Ayumu stole many glances over to her girlfriends to observe their riveted attention. But when the big bad was finally defeated and the storyline began to wrap up, Ayumu expected the other two to relax a little. Except they didn’t. Both Yuu and Setsuna continued to stare, almost unblinking at the screen.

Were they expecting something else to happ… Oh…

“Awww~…” Setsuna, unsurprisingly, was the one to vocalize her reaction as the protagonist confessed her feelings to the heroine who had fought by her side for so long.

The scene was a sweet and fitting culmination of everything that had happened between the them, but Ayumu couldn’t help feeling like things could have been handled better. Early development had felt awkward and forced and it had taken more than a couple episodes before Ayumu could agree the two had chemistry. It was quite different from the angelic doujin Setsuna loved so mu…

Eh?

Ayumu blinked as something soft pressed gently against her cheek. And as quickly and unexpectedly as it had come, it was gone. She turned her head just in time to catch Setsuna leaning over to peck a kiss on Yuu’s cheek as well. Then, with a blossoming blush, Setsuna settled back down and began fidgeting with the hem of her shorts.

Cute. By the gods was that cute. But… is Setsuna-chan really satisfied with just that much?

Ayumu was all too aware that Setsuna maintained a fear of pushing her desires onto others. It was why she refused to take any sort of official leadership role within their school idol club when it reformed, despite the other members respecting her knowledge concerning idols and regularly turning to her for advice. Ayumu assumed this was also why Setsuna seldom was the one to offer invites for her friends to join her in shopping for anime merchandise, even after the three of them had a fairly well-established tradition of going together. She would sooner go by herself than believe she was inconveniencing a friend with her own desires.

And while Setsuna had become fairly open with hugs and holding hands, this felt different. Very different. And Ayumu was more than a little intrigued. And she wished she could give voice to her thoughts and tell Setsuna that it was alright to desire such things from her girlfriends as they were more than willing to participate.

“Setsuna-chan.” Yuu broke the quite among them.

“Y-yes?” Setsuna sputtered in response. “Wh-what is it, Y…?” She was cutoff as Yuu leaned in and pressed her lips against hers.

Something twisted within Ayumu. Apparently, she wasn’t just intrigued…

“Hah…” Setsuna breathed as the two parted. Her head wobbled a bit as her expression became dazed.

Yuu chuckled. “If you want to take the lead, you should at least go that far.”

“R-right…” Setsuna pouted as her blush deepened.

More. Ayumu also wanted more than just a peck on the cheek, and more than that.

Of course, that would mean she would be the one taking the lead at this point. Ayumu understood Setsuna’s reluctance to push beyond where she had left off. And it didn’t help that Yuu had teased her about the times she had given in fully to her desires and done whatever had been necessary to satiate them.

But who could blame her for giving into the temptation provided by not just one, but two irresistible girlfriends? And now, tensions were obviously mounting among them, Setsuna was adorably flustered, and Yuu was sitting with a smirk that made Ayumu want to wipe it off her face with her lips. Of course, her desires would be boiling over at this point.

Oh, to heck with it. Let Yuu tease her later, she could be embarrassed then. If neither Yuu nor Setsuna were going to do anything else, Ayumu would.

Setsuna jumped with surprise as Ayumu placed her hand on her cheek and guided her into a kiss.

Yuu giggled. “Looks like Ayumu can go that far.”

Though the teasing was likely directed more at Setsuna, Ayumu felt the need to respond as she pulled away a little.

“But why only stop there, Yuu-chan?” The redhead murmured before trailing a few kisses across Setsuna’s cheek. She smiled as the raven-haired girl shivered when her teeth grazed her ear. “Why not go even farther?”

“That’s a good point.” The green-tipped girl conceded.

“Ayumu-san… Yuu-s-Ah!” Setsuna gasped as Yuu joined in.

As Ayumu made her way down Setsuna’s neck, she placed a hand on her shoulder and began to guide her down. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the credits were rolling for the anime stream and made a mental note to apologize to Setsuna for making her miss the last few minutes, as well as delaying the post-credit discussion.

As for that conversation, Setsuna could take the lead for it as that was one place where she excelled. And perhaps someday she might have the confidence to take the lead right in the trio’s current activities.

However, for the time being, Ayumu knew that if her desires were to be fully sated, she would have to be the one to forget her reservations and progress things. It wasn’t easy, but…

Setsuna whimpered.

Yuu moaned.

… or… perhaps maybe it was…

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Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic

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reminiscingdreamer · 4 years

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Criticism on the end of Case 4

I love Great Pretender. The art is spectacular, beautiful, and unique; the characters are interesting with well-defined personalities and pasts; it’s funny; it has a lot of heart while not shying away from the darker stuff; and seeing the villains get their just desserts in the end satisfies that timeless desire to see rich assholes eat dirt for the sins they always get away with.

Then Case 4 waltzes along and… there are a lot of mixed feelings in me for this one.

On one hand, it has many of the attributes of the previous arcs but on the other, there’s a sense of non-satisfaction at the end for several reasons.

The first one is that every character an arc focuses on finds peace with themselves at the end, but the emotional payoff for Edamura simply isn’t there.

Edamura’s hang-up is twofold: one is his relationship with Laurent and the other, bigger one (and the main focus for Edamura) is his relationship with his father.

In the relationship between Laurent and Edamura, no matter how Edamura expresses his desire to live an honest life, Laurent keeps ignoring his wishes. No matter what Edamura decides to do or where he goes, Laurent will set up a scheme to rope him back in. He can never know if Laurent has really let him go and the life he leads is truly peaceful or if it’s another one of Laurent’s plans to loop him back. I’m personally surprised Edamura didn’t develop paranoia from this kind of behavior.

In the relationship between Ozaki and Edamura, we have this charged atmosphere between them that the show does beautifully to illustrate. It shows Ozaki’s side and what really happened, and then we see Edamura’s anger, his reluctance to forgive, and his attempts to do so.

Case 4 is supposed to be a culmination of all the frustration Edamura feels towards Laurent and his hatred towards his father. And it does culminate towards the end when he pours his heart out about how he feels being constantly left in the dark and jerked around by Laurent for his selfish grudge con and Ozaki for fucking up and leaving behind his family without thought to the emotional toll it took on them or how it could ruin them. For fuck’s sake, his reputation followed Edamura and prevented him from getting a job. That moment Edamura held that blade to his father with all that emotion on his face, I truly felt that.

And then Laurent goes, “glad you aired that out!” and that was the end of that. No proper conversation or scenes between father and son afterwards showing how they may have begun to patch their relationship, neither Ozaki or Laurent acknowledges how their actions hurt Edamura, and Edamura just lets everything go. I think the show was trying to depict how Edamura took Abby’s reminder to heart and just forgave but… for all the show does a good job illustrating the tension, it doesn’t do a good job illustrating the forgiveness part. Nothing is addressed.

Even as I write this, there’s a very uncomfortable knot in my heart. It doesn’t feel like there’s a resolution. Edamura sets off to try coffee from around the country seemingly in preparation for a coffee shop and Ozaki is there doing whatever and their relationship is just left up in the air. Did they patch up? How? What did they do together since? Did they do anything at all? The thread dangles. But maybe it’s just that I hold grudges. I don’t know.

I feel like Edamura’s resolution got a bit tangled up in the threads the show began to weave about his relationship with Suzaku.

The show keeps hinting that Edamura will betray the group to help her instead and despite being an unforgivably despicable person for running a human trafficking ring, the moments of humanity she shows towards him really sells that they’ve gotten close. Edamura even gives her a little cat figurine which is monumental considering what it represents to him. But the show never delivers on anything at all with their relationship in emotional terms. We know Edamura got close to her for the con but I keep expecting the show to connect that relationship with Miki and reveal another aspect of Edamura’s feelings about her or the circumstances surrounding her which would then somehow connect to Edamura’s present relationship with Ozaki.

Instead, none of it connects with Edamura coming to terms with his feelings about Ozaki, and I think that’s why it feels so messy towards the end. Edamura releases everything in one burst towards the end, leaving almost no room for the show to do anything about it.

What would’ve sold Edamura being at least okay with his dad are little snippets of them working towards an emotional compromise throughout the episodes but since they can’t do that or else it’d ruin the “clever reveal”, they simply set it aside and said, “well, everything is forgiven somehow” and move on.

Edamura’s resentment towards his father is so baked into the scheme of the plan that the show is forced to forego the emotional character arc in favor of their reveal. That... isn’t too good. It isn’t bad writing, necessarily. Maybe bad outlining.

Compounding the ending’s messiness is the second issue I have with the arc’s ending: the reveal that Cassano, Sam, and Coleman aren’t in fact rotting in jail like they deserve but are just… chilling together???

When I first saw this scene, I thought “oh, some character must be hallucinating or it’s a dream!” but no. The show was entirely serious about having them suddenly be buddy-buddy with the main cast who ruined their lives and tricked them out of all their money.

Team Confidence and Dorothy’s team before them is all about bringing down rich, influential scum but now we have these three assholes who has undoubtedly hurt many people with their bullshit just hanging out together. It takes away their entire shtick of being something like modern day Robin Hoods who serve a kind of justice to people who are normally untouchable.

You can’t tell me that those three were part of Laurent’s ridiculous fucking network all along either because Coleman had history with Cynthia so unless you’re suggesting Coleman was under Laurent’s thumb aaaaall the way back then, as far as I’m concerned, everybody is suddenly somehow okay with each other.

Snow of London is undoubtedly my favorite arc, so seeing Coleman casually there on the same boat as Cynthia set me off. I felt betrayed. That emotional moment at the auction when Cynthia remembered Thomas and how Coleman took that away from her… was all some kind of what? Hoax? Lie? It didn’t matter after all? What the fuck is this supposed to mean? Did any of their cons mean anything? What the fuck was the point then?

Finally, we have the pièce de résistance, the dreaded snippet at the end everyone despaired over, the one… the only… dead character was alive all along! And with amnesia! Everyone’s favorite twist!

When I read how people hated the post-credit scene, I grew extremely nervous. With great anxiety, I watched it and just went, “oh. This old hat.” Honestly, with all the other unbelievable bullshit that the previous episodes pulled (really? Building an entire skyscraper and replicating the rooms? That’s really going off the deep end of suspension of disbelief even for this show), the only thing I felt was exhaustion and the thought, “yeah, this might as well happen too.”

I’m not as upset about it as other people seem to be although yes, it’s cheap and always will be, and yes, it’s unnecessary. But hell, the way the whole show was going and resolved was also cheap so it’s just another thing to add to the pile to the point it’s almost unmemorable to me. I can even pretend it didn’t happen.

#great pretender #edamura makoto #laurent thierry #ozaki seiji

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misplacedgamer · 4 years

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Meta on “Farewell”, aka the Reylo Theme that Never Was

So I was listening to TRoS soundtrack on Spotify and of course I immediately went to the track “Farewell” (because I like to suffer), and I noticed how...weird it sounded when isolated from the scene it’s placed in. Listened to it a few more times, and I definitely think it lends credence to the theory that there was supposed to be a different ending, and maybe even that it was originally intended to be a triumphant love theme ala “Across the Stars”. And since I have nothing better to do this Christmas, let’s walk through it shall we? I have also been watching the scene for my comparison, so if you’d like to see what I used for comparison please click here. Theory continues under the Read More

The first 40-45 seconds actually line up really well. It’s a reprise of Rey’s theme, but quiet and fading. I think Rey’s death was always supposed to be in this film, or at least a scene where she falls after defeating ol’ Palps. I’m not sure why Rey would fall after deflecting lightning with two sabers full of the entire will of the Force when Mace Windu did the same thing by himself with one lightsaber, but honestly that’s another post for another time. Rey falls, the scene pans down, and her theme cuts out immediately as Ben’s hand enters from the pit. So far, all good.

Next we get maybe my favorite part of the song: Kylo Ren’s reprise. I know I probably shouldn’t like it because that’s not who Ben is anymore, but I think the grief and tension he feels in this scene are high enough to mimic how he always felt as Kylo, so it’s acceptable to keep here. It’s so great how tense this music is, not the full orchestration of his theme but just a few notes for the leitmotif. There’s also a really great part here where the violins swell like it’s going to morph into Rey’s theme (showing just how complementary the themes for these two are), but it never resolves; it just sits there and you feel completely how lost Ben is without Rey. The music does start to get chopped up here though. There’s a bit more of a swell around 1:23 on the Spotify song that’s not in the movie, but it’s not completely cut and I think the shorter length works in the film’s favor so still nothing too bad.

So next we have the hug and the heal. The music sounds about the same for both of these, but it all sounds a bit weirdly timed. Like Ben should start hugging her on the swell of this section (1:38 in the attached video) but he hugs her around 1:34 instead. The cut isn’t even on the swell either, so it all feels a bit disjointed to me, but this might be a nitpick, so idk. If I’m honest him placing his hand on her stomach to heal her seems a bit out of time too. At 1:55 in the video the music drops and switches to another section, so to me that seems like when he should pull away and start to heal, but he’s already touching her. This whole part seems like its a bit fast forwarded, but just the video, so the audio is just out of sync.

The music slips back in time though, and this next bit is great. Everything from the hand touch to Rey saying “Ben” is so excellent. Before the touch, the music starts to slide back into tones that remind me of Kylo’s theme, like maybe it's not going to work, but then the hand touch comes and the music back to a major key. It’s Rey’s theme at first, but then it swells into something wild and screeches to a halt because you (like our heroes) can’t believe it. Is this really happening? Are they really both back? Did they really make it out ok? You can see it on Ben’s face too, the disbelief that Rey’s really alive, like he’s just waiting for it all to be an illusion. And then the music halts, letting everything sink in, and Rey calls Ben’s name and smiles the widest smile (I fucking love this smile, it’s so beautiful). And for me this is the last time this music really fits what’s going on in the scene, so how fitting that it’s on something so lovely.

And now, at last, we get the kiss, and this is where things get wonky. I don’t understand the musical timing of this at all. The kiss happens in the middle of a bar, and it’s such a quiet moment too. Y’all know how Star Wars scores its kissing scenes; it is not subtle. So to have it both start and resolve quiet is a little odd. There’s also been Twitter/Reddit posts going around saying that Rey is definitely supposed to have dialogue here, and I agree. I think what was supposed to happen was a quiet conversation where Rey just pours her lonely heart out, and that’s where Ben smiles then passes out.

The collapse/death is also a little weird, cause the music does quickly divert back into a minor key, indicating that yes, something bad is happening here, but its not totally sorrowful either. This section resolves on a light, almost wistful tone. The film uses it to show him passing into the force, but it’s so weird. Combine that with the footage looking like it’s been reversed and it’s all a strange effect.

So finally, I would like to get to the crux of why I think this track was intended to be something completely different: the last minute of it that, as far as I remember, is not in the film. So around 3:56 in on Spotify, the trumpets of the Resistance/the space battles come in. I believe this part is in the film, and it plays when Poe and Finn spot Rey in the air as Red 5, but it immediately cuts to the next track, “Reunion”, without a fade out. The problem with this is that there’s one last big swell of music near 4:18. It has a sweet violin buildup, then a great sweeping long section of strings and a choir and everything. THAT feels like the kiss music there. Right there is the huge “Across the Stars” sting that the Reylo kiss needed. So I’m wondering if maybe that’s where the kiss was supposed to go, or maybe that Ben was supposed to pass out then when it cuts to Red 5 in the air it’s a surprise that he’s with her, and they kiss again. When I originally heard it, I thought that it cut to everyone cheering outside, Rey and Ben would watch it inside the throne room, then they would kiss as a culmination/celebration of them winning. Then it would smash cut to the Resistance and everyone coming home.

I know there are holes in this theory, but honestly I feel like the song proves this scene was supposed to go very differently. I’m not even sure it was originally called “Farewell” in the first place. It resolves so joyously and hopeful that it feels like it was originally called something else. Why would you end your song meant to underscore a death scene with sweeping strings and happy music when the very next track is a happy reunion and you could have just put it there and had the music carry over between the scenes? If I had to guess, this was originally meant to be the Ben/Rey love theme, probably called “You’re Not Alone” or something equally sweet and it was changed because they changed their minds at the last minute. Now I’ll just continue to live in my happy place where Disney plans to retcon this movie due to backlash and Adam agrees to come back despite the mistreatment his character received and Rey is allowed to be the grey character she’s always been instead of a pure cinnamon roll who’s only evil was due to her lineage.

Oh, one last thing: that sweeping melody used in “Farewell” at the end is also used in the “Finale” during the ending credits. It starts at 6:30 goes until the opening crawl theme starts and it’s fucking beautiful.

Edit: It also appears throughout the track “Rise of Skywalker”, which for some reason plays over the Resistance reunion scene. Weird that no Skywalker has risen there yet, since Rey’s not yet taken their name. It’s almost like there should have been a Skywalker there....maybe one who’d risen from the Dark Side, from a literal hell pit, AND who’d just risen off the ground after collapsing from his wounds. HMMMMMMM

If I’ve made any errors, please let me know. I only have the death scene footage on hand, so I wasn’t able to double check the stuff after Leia fades, and I do not have every Star Wars leitmotif memorized, so I might be wrong about some of this. Also just htm if you wanna discuss TROS or anything else Star Wars, I’d love to talk. Thanks to @youunderestimatebensolo for the footage!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!!!!!

#reylo #ben solo #kylo ren #rey #john williams #tros #tros spoilers #almost 2k words #on a film score piece #sounds about right #sarah rambles #sarah writes meta #star wars meta

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rooneywritesbest · 4 years

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Initiate Phase 4

In the year 2020, Marvel will be undergoing a few needed changes to their slate of films. The first film that will drop is the DLC layer of content needed to fill in the gaps of what was occurring with Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow. When she was on the run from the Sokovia accords at the end of Captain America Civil War. Ushering in a sense of clarity to a point of the marvel timeline that goes unnoticed from the apparent transition of Civil War to Infinity War.

In addition to the Scarlett Johansson getting the kudos she has earned from her tenure of being this iconic character for the past ten years of the MCU: From her first appearance in Iron Man, 2. Juxtaposed to her death in the mega-blockbuster Endgame that was the culmination of everything Marvel intended. However many felt her death in the film was unwarranted. It was also ironic and felt cruel that she didn’t get the same amount of entitlement that Iron Man was bestowed from his reputation of films.

The success of Robert Downey Jr, and being a cog in the machinations that fueled his universal sacrifice; leading to audience reactions towards his departure as being the one who made everything possible. Many would go on record without Iron Man, there would be no MCU. Yes, that is the case, however, many would fall into the symmetrical comic accurate casting later down the line. Johanson was a prime example of this.

Kevin Feige has gone on record with stating that the true mission of phase 4 is to give a deeper sense of spotlight for characters that went unnoticed during the events of Infinity War, and Endgame. Feige also said, “The movie everyone always asks us to develop is a Black Widow film”. The prayers have been heard, and come May 1st, 2020 fans will get their wish. In the form of a deep-dive character study from the direction of Cate Shortland and the team at Marvel; Given the track record of success, this film was already in good hands.

My personal thoughts, at first, I was skeptical of this idea due to the fact Widow is dead. The only way possible that this concept could be greenlit is the reveal of it being a prequel.

The first trailer gave a deeper context of what the film was hiding. It wasn’t a formulaic film that the company usually spits out year after year. It was a blueprint of how to adapt. Black Widow feels exactly like a reskin of Mission Impossible with Romanov taking center stage instead of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hawke.

The supporting cast of team Widow is rounded out by newcomers in the form of Florence Pugh portraying Yelena Belova. In the comics, Belova is the second to don the title of Black Widow. It only seems fitting with the death of one comes another. In the world of comics Belova is a member of the Thunderbolts.

Another character that finally makes an MCU appearance is the Red Guardian. In all honesty, I don’t really know too much about David Harbour’s character. In my opinion, he feels like a combination of Fat Thor and Captain America. I truly feel look for Harbour to be the comic relief sprinkled throughout the Marvel flick.

Getting back to the Thunderbolts, and the premise of the Avengers type organization formed by General Thunderbolt Ross. Surprisingly enough member of that team is in this film in the presence of Taskmaster.

Taskmaster is a villain that many don’t know. Only the truest of fans who dive into the abundance of comics and the various forms of cartoons will understand the concept of the mimic ability of Taskmaster.

Something that has been shown off in the film. The second trailer gave immediate praise to this subtle detail. Widow has an encounter with the masked foe, and he can know her entire pattern move by move, and step by step. The combat appearance of Taskmaster is evident; however, the gripe many have with the silver screen debut of the villain is the appearance of costume.

I don’t have a problem with Taskmaster, but some feel he looks like a motocross biker. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Maybe the bigger picture many are missing it could be his prototype or first costume.

Moving on speaking of costumes Johannson has a few various costumes in the new film. For example, finally getting a comic accurate representation of the Black Widow costume from the comics. Also, Black Widow will don an all-white suit that feels very nostalgic of Eva from Metal Gear Solid: 3 Snake Eater pointed out by director Jordan Vought Roberts.

The action is running on all cylinders an element of narrative clearly evident through the screenplay. One gripe is that CGI is a little unworked, and feels out of place. The cycle of the film is still early so give it some time to polish some things.

In closing, Black Widow has a tough job of being a swan song for this character. While also injecting new life in a franchise that is undergoing a massive rebuild. I feel the crew at Marvel Studios will nail the premise of this film like they always do.

Im not worried at all, however on one note for a closing thought; how cool would it be if a post-credit scene attached to the film was a highlight reel or a memorial of sorts.

Marvel is moving away from the infinity saga that spanned 23 movies, and three phases. Now in Phase 4 with a new vision for the future Marvel is on track of success, and is not gonna stop any time soon.

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Ranking Luffy's 20 Best Knockouts For The One Piece Anime's 20th Anniversary

We love One Piece because of its themes - the idea that, because the ocean is so vast, you'll one day find a place where you belong. That even though others may tear you down or forget about you, your dreams will never die. That it's your duty to stand up for your friends, because you know they'd stand up for you. Those are all beautiful and well developed motifs in the One Piece world. But you know what else is beautiful and well developed in the One Piece world? Luffy's ability to knock someone out.

Thanks to Luffy's grit and Gum Gum powers, we've been treated to some of the best KO's in anime history in One Piece. And I think, since the 20th anniversary of the anime is October 20th, 2019, we should celebrate twenty of them here. And I think, in the first spot, we should have...

20. Don Krieg

I'm gonna start with this one because it always felt like Luffy, using Gum Gum Gatling, and then Gum Gum Pistol, and then 2 Gum Gum Bazookas, and finally finishing off Krieg with Gum Gum Giant Gavel, was executing a combo move. Like if he'd accidentally pressed X instead of B at the end there, he would've gone for another Gum Gum Pistol and lost the quick time event.

19. Charlotte Cadenza

This one earns a spot on the list because of the desperation of it. We don't usually see Luffy go all MMA on someone, but in trying to make his way back to meet Sanji, he chokes out one of the big quintuplets. That's raw, and I hope that, when Luffy finally faces down Blackbeard again, he busts out a Rear Naked Choke on him or at least a Kimura Armlock.

18. Holdem

This obviously isn't the first Red Hawk that Luffy's ever used (Other notable uses include his fight against Byrnndi World in the 3D2Y special, against Hody Jones, and in that awesome tag team attack with Law against Doflamingo.) But with work by key animator Takashi Kojima, his Red Hawk against Holdem is especially beautiful. I could watch it all day. And I have.

17. Oars

Luffy gets the chance to knock out not one, but two giants in Thriller Bark, with the first being Oars and the second being a Gecko Moria that's gone all Shadow's Asgard on everybody. However, I'm gonna give this spot to Oars. Not only does this Gigant Bazooka come after a battle with the entire Straw Hat crew, but we also get an X-Ray of Oars' spine as it happens. It's pretty rad.

16. Kuro

I can't imagine that, even after evaluating every possible outcome or option, that "Man of a Thousand Plans" Captain Kuro would've thought that he'd be defeated by a goofy rubber head screaming in his face and then caving his skull in. It's not the most humiliating way to go out, but considering Kuro spent years trying to enact the perfect scheme and talking trash about being a pirate, it's on up there.

15. Foxy

I'm a Foxy stan, a Long Ring Long Land Big Fan, and a Davy Back apologist. I LOVE this arc, and I love Foxy. But that doesn't mean that I didn't rejoice when Luffy finally got the win here. However, I have to give most of the credit to Bin Shimada, who is the best at voicing truly obnoxious One Piece villains (He also voice Wapol.) Heck, he's one of the best at voicing villains in general, as his versatility has also led him to being behind the roar behind Dragon Ball's Broly.

14. Usopp

Oh, I picked a sad one. The battle between Luffy and Usopp is the most depressing in One Piece's history, with Usopp pouring everything he has into a fight where defeat is almost 100% inevitable, and Luffy being forced to beat up the crew member that he often relates to the most. As a fight, it's equal parts thrilling and depressing, and as the start of the perfect Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs, it's....also equal parts thrilling and depressing.

13. Buggy

This is the battle that would set the standard for inventive conclusions to One Piece fights and even though it's less dramatic than some of the finishing blows to come, it deserves a spot on this list due to how iconic it feels now. It's a final fight that teaches you that One Piece just might be somethng special when it comes to handing defeat to its villains.

12. Cracker

I like this fight because it establishes two things: 1) It makes Luffy a genuine threat to the stability and heirarchy of Whole Cake Island (even if he's not ready to take on Big Mom directly yet), and 2) It shows us that the Sanji Retrieval Team can get the job done. Also, I like pairing this fight with the last one with Buggy, because in both cases, it's Luffy getting a crucial assist from Nami and they make a great team.

11. Lucci

Luffy's fight against Rob Lucci is one of the most well-constructed fights in anime, a contest that flip flops between a battle of nearly equal strengths, a desperate underdog journey, and an immensely satisfying and almost terrifying conclusion. Luffy closing his eyes and screaming while pummeling Lucci through the wall is such a visceral, violent way to end this fight and shows that while clever inventiveness can be handy in a battle on the Grand Line, sometimes you just need sheer will.

10. Sea King

Not only is this a "Yeah! One Piece is the best!" punch, but it's also an integral part of the "We Are" opening. If I was a DJ, I'd play that song at every club I worked at. People would be like "DJ MERRY, PLAY THE LATEST POST MALONE!" and I'd be like "Right on it!" and then I'd just play "We Are" again.

9. Wapol

As I mentioned, Wapol is one of the most obnoxious anime villains out there. So if he didn't get something that would deserve a spot on this list, I would've rioted, or at least been very disappointed on Twitter. Luckily, Wapol, pleading with Luffy, gets rocketed into the Drum Island stratosphere. It's literally the nicest option for him.

8. Doflamingo

Doflamingo's defeat is a long time coming. Shown as a particularly malicious guy back during the Skypiea arc, then shown to be an agent of the underworld with a hand in weapons and trafficking, then revealed to be the false king of Dressrosa, he's needed a punch to the everywhere for almost 15 years of One Piece's run. And Luffy gives it to him, knocking him down through the streets of the city that he terrorized for so long.

7. Blueno

Power-ups are fairly expected in shows like One Piece. But that's not a diss on them at all. I LOVE when a protagonist gets notably stronger and can pull off cool new moves and maybe gets a new haircut. But Luffy going Second Gear and then absolutely making a mockery of Blueno is something to behold. Blueno's look of stunned disbelief makes it even better, and it's just a warm-up for the war against the rest of CP9 to come.

6. Crocodile

For most of the Alabasta arc, Luffy is 0-2 in battles against Crocodile. But, while Dvorak's New World Symphony: 4th Movement plays, Luffy uses the blood that he's shed to counter Crocodile's sand to knock him up through Alubarna. It's rare to hear someone call "rubber bro uses his magical fists to shatter the internal organs of an evil desert-themed gentleman" a truly majestic scene, but this is beautiful work. If there was a Church of Eiichiro Oda, this would be painted on the ceiling. Get lost, Michelangelo.

5. Arlong

The trend of "Luffy beats the main villain of the arc by knocking him through something large" that we've seen with foes like Crocodile, Enel, Lucci, and Doflamingo was established here with Arlong. Horrified at the way that he's treated Nami, Luffy uses a Gum Gum Battle-Axe to turn Arlong's vertebrate into chowder.

4. Enel

Luffy using the body of a psychopathic tyrant to ring the Shandorian Bell, thus proving to Mont Blanc Noland's descendent that the City of Gold did exist and freeing the citizens of Skypiea from Enel's reign is both poetic and just a cool looking set piece. It's a reminder of just how fulfilling reading/watching One Piece is, and how the details of the story often culminate in these big, lovely bouquets of fisticuffs and never lose any of their meaning or importance along the way.

3. Katakuri

No, this isn't a typical knockout, as Luffy falls down first and Katakuri dropping feels like more of a spiritual defeat than a physical one. But with the knockout of Katakuri comes the changing of an ideology, and the allowance of failure, something that Katakuri had never given himself before. So it not only signals the end of the fantastic main duel of the arc, but legitimate character growth for the antagonist. Also, it comes after the Fourth Gear Snake Man fight, which is one of the best animated episodes in the entire show.

2. Charlos

The most gif'd moment of One Piece ever, Luffy punching Charlos so hard that it seems to break the anime needs no explanation. It's perfect.

1. Bellamy

"Do I know how to throw a punch, you ask?" Luffy rearranging Bellamy's skull after Bellamy mocks his belief in dreams and myth is a perfect distillation of one of the themes of One Piece: Those who believe in something VS Those who simply want to tear down those beliefs. And though the fight to follow your dreams and live a free life on the sea would continue, Luffy scored a victory for it here. Dreams: 1, Bellamy's Ability To Go Without A Neck Brace: 0.

What is your favorite One Piece knockout? Do you agree with the placements on this list? Let us know in the comments!

----------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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langst-wins · 5 years

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the last thing i'm gonna say about voltron, unintentional queerbaiting, and major s8 plotholes, and then imma shut up and let y'all be free from my long bitch ass s8 posts so we can get back to regularly scheduled klance fanfics & fanarts

yes, they queerbaited us with shiro as rep. not in the sense that he wasn't queer but in the sense that they hyped us up for his relationship with adam, made us think we were gonna see an adashi reunion, and we ended up getting like 90 seconds top of LGBT content over the entire series.

no, I highly doubt they did it intentionally. yes, they did admit they fucked up and apologized several times. yes, I appreciate the apology and I understand that they're human beings and people make mistakes and overlook things sometimes. like they said, they never meant to make anyone feel baited. they really thought they were going to get a good response. lauren called voltron a "learning experience" in the open letter to the fandom after s7. I think she meant learning experience in general ofc but I think she also meant they've learned how to and how not to do LGBT rep in a show.

but I will absolutely be taking any promises of LGBT rep from lm and jds with a grain of salt. i will absolutely be watching their future works from afar and not getting myself too invested until the series ends and I can watch it as a whole while knowing what to expect.

I dont think they MEANT harm but y'all...they fucked up. they know it, and they apologized. it shows maturity that they apologized in that open letter after s7 and at the final nycc panel, and again, I appreciate that.

but I would rather they have not said anything about LGBT rep, ever, and just let gay shiro be a nice surprise. then, the minimal rep we received would have been wonderful and a nice warm surprise instead of a huge disappointment. it was only a disappointment because it didn't live up to the hype they made for it. and I know the hype was partially due to marketing they had no control over, but it was absolutely partially them, too.

they didn't promise LGBT content in LoK and canon korrassami ended up being a nice surprise even though it was minimal. that was how they SHOULD have done shiro's sexuality if they knew it was going to be a small thing. I would rather they have kept their lips zipped about LGBT, not announced gay shiro ahead of time, and just it be what it was when seasons 7 and 8 came out.

again, I dont think the bait was intentional, but it was bait all the same.

you are not crazy or too sensitive if your feelings are hurt/you feel baited by this show. you are not a shitty person if you just dont trust them right now. dont let people tell you otherwise. it's okay to take a step back from their work and wait to see how their next show plays out before you get involved.

i really do love voltron, even though s8 was confusing af, seasons 1-7 were LIT. I enjoy bits and pieces of s8 but mostly it was a let down. not only because of rep, just because a lot of things didn't make sense to me and a lot of the problem solving just felt way too convenient.

like I feel like every conflict in the plot was resolved way too easily and/or in ways that didnt make sense. and I feel like most of the characters' futures in the credits didnt really match up to those characters personalities. specifically lance, hunk, and keith.

lance staying on earth with his family, spreading allura's message to carry on her legacy? makes perfect sense, valid af. lance becoming a farmer? not so much. I feel like he would have been better suited as teaching classes as a pilot instructor at the garrison or smth similar. altean lance still gave me whiplash and left me confused af but he looks so damn 👌👌👀👀🙌🙌😭 with his cute ass altean marks that I'm just gonna let that one go for the sake of aesthetic.

hunk becoming a chef? not ooc necessarily but I feel like he would have been better suited as a diplomat. y'know. ambassador to earth sort of thing.

keith aiding in recovery efforts and being a humanitarian (...alien-itarian...? idk). okay let's be real we all knew this edgy boi has a soft ass heart. I think hes just mature enough now to let his walls come down and not be afraid of caring ig. which is sweet and nice and all. but I feel like he wouldnt...JUST be doing that. like he would still want the battle and the adrenaline and the badass mf fight sequences. that's kinda his Thing.

shiro marrying a rando? I would have preferred adam to not die and them end up getting back together once shiro returned to earth. i just feel like there was no reason to kill off adam? shiro has already suffered so much, what was the point? but i'm not gonna hate on curtis bc we dont know jackshit about him and for all we know he could be a bombass dude. shiro looked happy tho and it's better than him being forever alone so I can hesitantly accept that ig. but on one condition and one condition only: their ship name must be shirts. if their ship name is not shirts then I dont want it

allura's death was pointless. i havent seen anyone disagree with this one so far. her life was full of suffering and then she died. like can we all just agree she was done dirty and it was entirely unnecessary.

dont come @ me with "you just dont like s8 bc your ship wasnt canon"

that's not it at all.

they could have made this season so amazing and still not have made klance canon. they could have left me disappointed in no klance but still happy because the finale made my heart go dynamite BOOM. I could have ended the last episode with no canon klance and still been smiling because the plot was bitchin' and the characters were all alive and happy.

but they didnt, so I wasnt. it just...wasnt a good season. it had good aspects, yes, but as a whole? meh.

season 8 was poorly handled. it really was. it had so much potential to end with EVERY character having a positive ending and still have an actual satisfying conclusion to the war. I know they wanted to show how heavy and serious and heartbreaking the war actually was, but you can make an emotional, heavy finale without killing off a main character and leaving her main character love interest lonely and grieving. like im sorry killing allura and leaving lance sad and lonely was not necessary at all to the plot it just flat out wasnt. they did those characters dirty and they did allurance shippers even dirtier.

allurancers cheered seeing their ship canon then had it ripped out from under them and my heart honestly grieves worse for my allurance and allura stan fam than my klance fam. they did y'all so wrong and i'm sorry it had to go down like that.

sheith shippers got fucked over when all that development and relationship and growth culminated into basically nothing in the final season. like as a broganes stan even i was taken aback by the sudden radio silence between them so I cant imagine how let down actual sheith shippers feel.

us adashi shippers? obvious. adam's death was not necessary. and dont tell me it was to show the heaviness and realness of death in war because vld does NOT have a track record of dead characters staying dead. they could have at least gave us some mild development with shirts (lmfao im so sorry but shirts) and let us see more of curtis as a character. like...literally just two 60 second scenes would have been nice. they could have easily fit that in.

us klancers got fucked over by unnecessary parallels to canon ships. they could have made it a cute platonic friendship in s8 and let us enjoy it and proceed to enjoy fanon klance without all those blatant parallels to shay/hunk that just left us confused. and the parallels in earlier seasons. like why did you have to make so many parallels to romantic moments and romantic tropes if it was platonic. why did you have to go and do that. what was the point.

s8 could have ended in such a way that shippers of every ship in the fandom were satisfied with the finale because their faves were treated right and the plot was fire. it had so much potential in the first half and could have been so damn good.

it wasnt though. the entire thing was so confusing and nothing about it felt like vld. It feels like a spin off or a reboot. I dont like s8 as a whole and I doubt I ever will. it might grow on me in time but I'll never fully like it, y'know. everything about it felt so tilted and off and just wrong.

but it really just be like that sometimes ig.

#i wont be responding to comments on this #feel free to send an ask w your thoughts #but no promise i'll answer it #klance #voltron #sheith #allurance #adashi #vld

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literaetures · 5 years

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i sobbed my heart out during avengers: endgame so here are my fresh thoughts straight from seeing it (overall: it made my nerdy heart soar)

this entire franchise has been with me through everything. i read the comics, i watched all the movies, i grew up with this piece and it came such an important moment in my life that i felt amazing to see all of it laid out on screen. it felt like a true labor of love that they created and yes there were odd and questionable choices and some plot holes and things you can criticized but honestly? they brought back so many scenes and lines from all of those iconic movies over the years. they brought back all of the literal moments that made me fall in love with this whole universe and sitting in that theater filled with the culmination of all of that in a span of a three hour movie with very good pacing for the things that they did was astounding and entirely unforgettable

i sobbed so hard at the end that i couldn’t speak until the character credits ended

captain america means the absolute world to me and to see him finally get the story and attention that he deserved? it felt so right and so good and it felt like justice for his character after everything that happened post-ca:tws

he and peggy finally got that dance! he got a life! he got the life that was frozen and taken away from him and he got to Live! and Thrive!

the music!!! as they danced!!!

sam taking the shield!!! that’s what i’m talking about!!!

bucky Knowing when steve went back and still hardened from his time as the winter soldier and knowing that it had to be sam to talk to steve and take on the mantle (i wish we got more bucky and more of that beautiful relationship that was established because!! um!! hello!! how could you leave it like that???) but i understand with the timing and pacing and with needing to give sam the spotlight and taking up the shield (AS HE RIGHTFULLY DESERVES) it had to be done (but i’m going to be bitter about it)

that one salt grain of gay? annoying that it was a salt grain, but did i still freak out and give a “hell yeah” in the theater? absolutely

thor seceding the throne and valkyrie being the “king of asgard”??? my longest yeah boy ever

“proof that tony stark had a heart” ENDGAME MORE LIKE END ME

tony getting to have that final conversation with his father after years of regret and bitter resentment and it being the best closure for him after his big sacrifice that was beautiful

someone must have called it already but “i love you 3000″ is the mcu “always” (but with way better context and actually worthy of being the ‘it’ phrase)

time-traveling was the p e r f e c t plot device to bring back all of those nostalgic lines and scenes and moments to b

“that’s america’s ass!”, “that is america’s ass” !!! this entire running joke? iconic and Everything

honestly there were so many good lines and great jokes in here

thor’s viking transformation before the final battle? my longest yeah boy ever part 2

STEVE USING MJOLNIR!!! STEVE IS WORTHY!!! i genuinely jumped out of my seat and started shaking my friend sitting next to me!!!

i loved the role reversal of gamora and nebula where nebula is able to work from a clearer square one and gamora a different one which allows them to achieve their sisterly bond from a different route but not a less valid one. it’ allows them the time and space to get to know each other and learn about each other and see each other from a new perspective in order to meet that same end goal of sisterhood and i love it

peter has a whole hoard of moms now!!!

pepper and tony fighting back to back!!! hell yeah!

pepper potts in general!!

“howard potts” i screamed!

peggy still having steve’s picture on her desk in the 70s + that whole scene of steve looking through the window but knowing he could never interact :(

still! having! the compass!

the scene where the whole team jumps into space for the first time and you see the entirety of space in steve’s eyes? big same

seeing the entire wakandan army ready to fight that good fight!!!

wanda and her ICONIC line and destroying thanos + carol’s amazing haircut and WRECKING the ship!!! we stan

i love that we saw how much time had passed and how it really did feel like a journey. this was a journey and we lost people but there’s still a good fight and we have to see our stories through

also we are just going to ignore nat’s death scene (bc like. come on. are you kidding me.) and most of thor throughout the movie (bc come on. are you kidding me.)

this series. this felt like a satisfying “ending”-- or the most satisfying ending that something of this magnitude could have. it felt like it did justice to all of my years of love and care for this series and these characters. getting chills from seeing all of them come back from those portals “on [cap’s] left” and fighting that good fight one last time. seeing their journey through the years. seeing everyone back on screen if only for a moment. hearing that iconic theme music. seeing so many character arcs get a good ending (and ofc many just setting up for future shows and movies) it was beautiful and i think it was due to the time travel. that really felt like i walked through those 10 years and enjoyed every moment of it and i’m really glad i got to experience that.

thank you. i don’t know who i should thank, but thank you for all of the years and all of the stories and all of the memories. i could do it all day-- all over again

#personal #avengers spoilers #endgame spoilers #i'm a Sap with so many emotions #doesn't fit this blog i know but it means a lot to me #so here it is

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mrmallard · 5 years

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So I understand that the Marvel fanbase is coming under fire for overrating every Marvel property, lobbying for RDJ to get an Oscar and attacking anyone who makes dumb memes at the expense of Marvel. The way I'm seeing it is that the dam finally broke with Endgame, the fans are stanning too hard and the people on the sidelines have had enough of Marvel hype - in a way, Marvel fans are kind of being approached as the next Superwholock.

I get it, but I actually enjoyed Endgame a lot. My friend was kind of a dickhead in the theatre, yelling and whooping along with everyone else (and leading the charge at one point of the movie which gave me a fucking headache - I just wanted to watch in awe), but I enjoyed the moviegoing experience and I clapped and all that along with the audience. There was also a part near the end - no, not the big spoiler right at the end, before that - where I got kinda teary. Like I have to give it to Marvel, they know how to make a hype action scene. It was at that point where it legitimately felt like it was the end of an era, that everything was on the verge of culminating. It was a lot of fun, and the 3 hour runtime felt somewhat justified.

There was a good stretch of time where I just didn't care that much about Marvel movies, and with DC putting out Man of Steel, BvS and Suicide Squad, I was just super put off of superhero movies. Even now, I'll only watch them with friends. Even without the stanning, I get the backlash.

But I wanted to mention - without speaking for post-Wonder Woman DC movies - that during my short time being pulled into comic movie fandom from the sidelines, I only had negative experiences with DC fans. When Batman vs Superman flopped with critics and audiences, suddenly it's all this big conspiracy about Disney buying reviews and skewing the data. I talked shit about Man of Steel being a bland, faux-artsy mess, and a Henry Cavill fanblog told me to kill myself for not understanding what Zach Snyder was going for. It was a depressing shit show that reeked of the laziest "lol deconstruction of happy" mindset the entire way through, except for these pretentious cutaways of Superman as a kid and being a shirtless drifter in Alaska, and there were fanblogs who were so brainwashed by some face value "vision" that they took a hot take on the movie and responded with suicide threats.

Even when I was lenient on Batman vs Superman, giving it credit for the more interesting direction of Lex Luthor but criticising the drawn-out runtime and crummy action - "nah mate it was the best you just don't care about it like we do fuck off". I haven't had a positive history with DC fans, and my opinion of the Zach Snyder era of DC movie fandom is that it was full of toxic, dour assholes who defended schlock because it represented this alternative vision compared to Marvel's formula of making generic comedy-action blockbuster romps.

I could change directions and start talking about Marvel movies I've enjoyed, but I did want to say that regardless of my enjoyment of their properties, I'm over this idea of stanning these big companies and attaching my personality to a brand. There was a good stretch of time where I was like "oh boy, I want Endgame to become the best-selling movie of all time!" - even now, I think it was a very enjoyable movie and I'm glad it was received well. But all that this entails is that Disney made over three billion dollars on the back of one movie. And I don't like the way that Disney has been expanding its empire, I don't like the sort of sway that the Disney corporation is going to have as it continues to grow. I enjoyed Endgame - but I can't see any actual, tangible value in it making more money than James Cameron's biggest blockbusters. It all feeds a homogenous media machine that may very well change the way that we enjoy any sort of media as we know it.

And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there were blogs who got a similar pithy response from angry Marvel fans as I did from angry DC fans. Hell, I could see Marvel backlash attracting scores of discourse blogs being incredibly toxic and rude - I got one Henry Cavill fanblog, and a handful of Superman blogs following me after that. Marvel discourse is probably like having a flaming brick pelted into your face in comparison - strength in numbers, instead of getting bothered by stragglers.

After Endgame, I've settled down and returned to my usual habit of listening to people talk about Marvel movies while not putting in the time, money and attention to get involved with the zeitgeist. I don't begrudge big nerd-culture megafans like I used to, but I got my fill and I'm peacing out. I just wanted to talk about my fan experiences and how I perceive this current turn in the fandom-sphere.

If y'all have your own stories, perspectives or responses, my ask box is open.

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mattearq · 6 years

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Avengers Infinity War Review

Avengers Infinity War is a culmination of 10 years of the different characters featured in the Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe. The new film directed by the Russo Brothers (Captain America Winter Soldier, Civil War) return to helm the third Avengers film taking over director duties from Joss Whedon who helmed the last two previous Avengers films. Infinity War features a huge ensemble cast probably the biggest list of characters featured in a Marvel film. All of the actors from the previous 18 films in the Marvel’s ever growing cinematic universe return to reprise their iconic roles that began with 2008’s Iron Man.

The new film picks up right after Thor Ragnarok and we are finally introduced to the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) who has been teased since the post credit scene in the first Avengers film and featured briefly in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanos proves to be the greatest threat in the universe and it’s up to all the heroes to stand together and prevent the Mad Titan and his followers from gathering all of the powerful Infinity Stones and wiping out the universe. The Russo Bros return to helm the third entry in the Avengers movie and were able to craft a film that’s funny, heartbreaking, dark, and just plain on exciting. The film is very dark as Thanos is probably the most ruthless villain to be featured in the MCU and unlike the previous films I don’t recall ever hearing a funny joke or quip from Thanos as he means business and the film doesn’t hold back when it comes to showcasing his powers. The action scenes in the film are big and are all on the level of the Airport Battle from Captain America Civil War with the amount of characters on screen.

All of the actors from the previous 18 films in the cinematic universe are here and it is a joy to watch the many different character interactions. Finally seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy interact with the other heroes was perfect and it’s amazing how the Russo Brothers were able to keep everything consistent with the characters and their personalities from the different movies. There never was a moment in the film where I felt that a character was out of place or out of character. Every actor brought their A game to the film with my favorites in this one being Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Zoe Saldana (Gamora) and Josh Brolin (Thanos). The interactions between Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was another thing that I really liked in the film as I couldn’t wait for these two characters to meet and seeing it on the screen didn’t disappoint.

Infinity War is a very huge movie as it is a culmination of 10 years and 17 different films from the Cinematic Universe. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen any of the more recent entries as this film ties up a lot of loose ends from previous films and makes plenty of past references. The pacing of this film is very fast and it doesn’t let up after the opening titles. I felt that it went to fast at some parts and wish they would of went into a little more details with some characters and their actions but at a 2 hour and 39-minute runtime there is already so much you can fit. I hope there are deleted scenes on the Blu-ray or maybe even a 15 minute longer extended version. Alan Silvestri returns to score the film and the dark ominous themes are still playing in my head. The Russo Brothers were able to craft a huge movie that lived up to its hype and delivered exactly what I wanted in this movie. This is definitely a movie that needs to be experienced on the big screen especially if you’re a comic fan as it was amazing to finally see all these characters that we’ve grown to love and care about interact with each other and fight their greatest foe.

4 Q’s out of 5

#QReviews #marvel cinematic universe #Avengers #InfinityWar #2018Films #marvel studios

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therulerofearth · 7 years

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The End of the Comedy? (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) (SPOILERS)

Spoilers

I began writing this immediately after seeing CXG episode four. I decided to wait until after episode five and I’m glad I did because it significantly changed my outlook on how the series will progress. Other delays include work and procrastination. I had seen a lot of chatter online talking about the sudden harsh tone shift of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three episode four. I had also seen many comments wishing for a return to form. I was very eager to explain that did not find this tone shift the sudden “180” other people did. I still do not. I still find it, rather the completion of a turn that began with the Season two finale and built to here. However now I find this post needs to facilitate more than explaining that tone shift, but also what that shift means for the series going on. However we still must explain how the season two finale got us here.

We can disregard the fact that season two contained the dark reveal about Rebecca’s past as well as the metal parody, “What a Rush to be a Bride,” which now feels like prep an allusion to this coming turn in tone. The final sequence on its own sets the tone for this season. I love the final scene of the season, and could easily make a post based solely around it. It’s horrifying.

Rebecca going off to hide in the season three premiere is essentially metaphoric for her trying to escape the dark trail events set into motion. Given that she views her life like a work of media, she likely sees the dark tone and is trying to escape it. This culminated in a Les Miz-esq number. Not exactly the darkest, but not exactly the brightest. When Rebecca does return she is weak and scared, and her friends don’t help her with that. In that season premiere she has two mini breakdowns in front of her friends when they argue her ideas, showing just how clouded Rebecca’s head space is…oo that could make a good post. This sets a distrust towards them in Rebecca and furthers the turn by making her look for a new assistant in Josh Chan’s destruction. This distrust also effectively ending her old comedic antics with gag. She can still sit back and drink and “generalize about men” with them, however she does not trust them to handle this.

So she turns to Nathaniel, and while there is a lot to be said about episode 302, not a lot of it pertains to Rebecca. What 302 shows for Rebecca is really just how much she has been changed by Josh abandoning her. She seduces Nathaniel claiming him the worst person she’s ever known. Claiming she’s always wanted to be evil like him but it was always a failure. “Strip Away my Conscious” is the exact opposite of “I’m a Good Person,” however this isn’t a continuity error. This is Rebecca changing her narrative, and in some ways admitting to her true natures. All her lying and scheming from before mostly resulted in failure. But when Nathaniel reveals his plan to strike his family to her she instantly has second thoughts. Because Rebecca is ultimately a good person who can be a little misguided in attempting to achieve her ultimate goal: happiness. She runs off and tells Josh off in “After Everything You Made Me Do (That You Didn’t Ask For),” a song I have done a dedicated analysis of.

Episode 303 is mostly Rebecca doing damage control after revealing so much to Josh. Rebecca is further attempting to be in the same happy romantic comedy as she resumes her lying antics, however throws some dark things in there. The lies she tells the tabloid are quite a tell in how dark she her mind is getting. That turn is lurking underneath the whole time. And then her medical files are brought into play. And she can no longer escape, though she tries to get Nathaniel to take her away.

And then the episode that did not have the theme song, for it would make the last song redundant. The intervention does not go well. In 303 when we first watched Rebecca ignoring Heather we found it funny. Oh look she is so caught up on Josh Chan stuff that she’s ignoring her friend, yep that’s a Rebecca thing to do. Well it turns out Rebecca is ignoring Heather because she is annoyed at her friend’s indecisiveness and inability to actually go after something. A trait that is fairly common in successful go getters like Rebecca Bunch. She then reveals a thought that we didn’t even realize she had bubbling under the surface about Valencia, who is rightfully hurt that Rebecca called her pathetic for “forcing her dream wedding on some other girl.” This one is most believably of all if them to be a spur of the moment insult. However Rebecca’s thoughts on Paula are echoes of what she’s already said. And my exact thoughts since season one. Paula made Rebecca crazie-”I don’t like that term.” But she did. Paula made Rebecca crazier. “Little bit.” In season one episode one, Paula was moved by just how much Rebecca and Josh’s story seemed like a love story and calmed her down and told her what she was doing were the normal actions of someone in love. This gave Rebecca an approval she never felt from her mother and spawned the surrogate mother dynamic between them. And from this moment forward Paula would just keep egging her on to pursue Josh Chan even when Rebecca was ready to do the healthy thing and give up. When Paula finally does see she needs to give up, very far down the series, Rebecca still proceeds anyway, having been spurred on by all the previous positive reinforcement. She doesn’t need her surrogate mother’s approval now that she doesn’t approve. She’s gone this long without her actual mother’s approval. So yes. Paula helped drive Rebecca down this path, though she should not be entire blamed, that ultimately comes to this dark turn. The turn that would complete with Rebecca thinking her ex would push her into a hole and kill her only for him to pull her away from it. Yes. This is where the turn ends. This is where Rebecca can no longer cling to the fantasy in her head and had to face reality. This sudden shift in her headspace causes the impulsiveness that results her sleeping with Greg’s dad. And only after doing that does she actually confront reality in her walk of shame with “The End of the Movie.” But this number shows just how ill fit she is to confront it. Well rather the aftermath of the number. The credits of a movie play over the end of the episode. Her movie and reality are bleeding together, much like I pointed out in my previously mentioned analysis.

So while originally I was going to conclude by saying that there will be no return to form, that this is the form now, episode 305 and particularly its ending gave me a realization: Not returning to form would be symbolic of a failure in Rebecca’s recovery. That sounds so comforting and beautiful; to know we’ll get back on form and Rebecca will heal. Except that doesn’t make sense. Rebecca wasn’t okay before season 3. Now it is the focus however. Returning to form would be what expressed a lack of recovery. But rather just shoving the issue underneath a bandaid again. I don’t believe that is the story Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna are telling. It could very well be and the story will end with Rebecca still miserable or worse with jolly music numbers and jokes around her. But I don’t think so. I think Rebecca will recover. But it will be a long, slow, and painful process. And expect relapsing, and for the people around Rebecca to grow impatient with those relapses. In fact a return to form most likely would imply another relapse. But even if she does relapse I think she will recover by the end of the series. And for Rebecca’s recovery to begin the comedy had to end, and for her recovery to complete she cannot be allowed to renter that comedy in her mind.

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themalicealyce · 6 years

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Sarcasm and Puns: Chapter Two

You’re an introverted person, have been all of your life but it wasn’t as if you were shy, you were just content to have your only friends be your brother and your roommate. Though when your brother’s young daughter makes friends with the human ambassador of monsters you open up to the idea of having a larger group of friends.

Everything seems much slower in autumn, the chill in the air causes the world to screech to a crawl as the leaves change, even the city seemed less lively. You always thought this was true but over the course of the last couple of years you discovered there was an exception to the hushed state that this time of year brought. This break from the lull of dreary, sluggish afternoons came in the form of a hyper six year old, fresh out of school, tugging you towards the playground with the single minded determination of a freight train.

Slow burn, like really slow and lots of friendship with the whole group. Originally posted on AO3.

You basically had to drag Morrigan away from the park and by that time the sun had started to sink low in the sky. It wasn’t quite setting, but it was definitely getting late in the afternoon. The earlier azure expanse had been morphed into a gradient mixture of oranges that faded from red to pink to an inky indigo that was partially obscured by the looming grey clouds. These clouds seemed ever present during this time of year and they had only drawn closer together since this morning in a threat of rain, darkening further as you continued in your walk. Unaware or maybe just blissfully uncaring of the general lethargic look of the world around her your niece had held your hand and skipped the whole way back to your brother's place. She told you about her day at school, her hair and backpack bouncing along with her carefree rhythm. Morrigan finally seemed to be settling into the new city and that made you able to breathe a little easier about the decision to press your brother into moving closer to you. For the past few months she had pouted and protested about leaving all her first-grade friends behind and had seemed just as resistant to the unfamiliar school. Your brother seemed to immediately pick up on her sudden change in mood as well, happily taking Toriel’s phone number when you gave it to him in a whirlwind of relieved excitement.

Lost in a haze of your thoughts, you barely even noticed when you came face to face with your apartment door. You chuckled to yourself. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence to find yourself suddenly home after a long session of daydreaming. You pulled your keys out of your pocket with a small smile, you were prepared to sit back on the couch and spend the remainder of your day pleasantly zoned out. Life seemed against you though. You heard a clattering noise followed by a loud yelp coming from inside the small living space. You briefly let your forehead fall against the solid wood of the door with a dull thud accompanied by an annoyed sigh that passed through your lips in a manner that felt all too routine. Pushing yourself away from the door you steadied yourself before easily managing to get it unlocked, taking a moment to mentally prepare yourself for whatever could possibly be waiting for you inside. You flung the door open, perhaps a little more dramatically than strictly necessary, though you would make an adamant argument for your theatrics. You scanned the open layout of your apartment for the source of the disturbance.

Finding it quickly, you stood in the door frame frozen in your tracks, unable to do much more than stare, slightly bewildered, because this was certainly a new sight to come home to. The living room was much more of a mess than normal. All of it seemed to culminate in a cluttered disarray towards the center of the room. You felt yourself caught somewhere between a disappointed groan and unstoppable laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of what was happening.

Your roommate was sat with his back to you, pressed against the coffee table with his legs crossed. He had gotten out what appeared to be one of your old decks of playing cards and was surrounded by what had to be a new case of shiny store-bought plastic poker chips that were scattered haphazardly across the hardwood. He had ditched his usual jacket, it lay flung across the sofa and his hair that was cut short on the sides with the top was dyed a slightly metallic cyan color was messily sticking out in nearly every direction looking like a melted mohawk. He had grabbed onto a tiny black and white kitten that squirmed and let out annoyed little mewls in his hands. He had been trying to force it to play cards, of course he was. He whined distraught when the cat knocked over one of the few stacks of chips that was still standing, even though they were stacked far too high and were bound to fall over anyway. Your recently adopted kitty mewed indignantly and wriggled again, though still weakly, in his hands trying to wander off, unamused by his antics.

"Aw, come on! You’re not even trying!" he reprimanded the cat in a huff before snuggling the small, bored animal closer to him. "Vincent Evan Warren. Will you stop harassing my poor kitten every time I leave you unsupervised?" you asked using your best scolding mother voice as you finally shut the door behind you and tossed your keys onto the kitchen counter.

Vincent, to his credit, managed to look sheepish for a moment at the stern use of his full name, though that quickly dropped into a child-like frown. "I'm not harassing him! I'm teaching Sir Hemsworth how to play Texas hold 'em. He's not a very good at it though." You sighed, failing to repress the urge to pinch the bridge of your nose in a defeated gesture even as you felt a small, amused smile start to creep its way onto your face. "His name is Hemlock." you told him calmly for the umpteenth time since you brought the kitten home. Vincent looked at you as if he was considering the information then lifted the cat up to his ear like a small child might when speaking to a stuffed animal, his short stature and large, round eyes completing the innocent look.

"What's that? Yes?" Vincent thoughtfully nodded along, playfully over acting. "Okay, I'll tell her." he looked up at you pulling the cat away from his face and setting the ball of monochromatic fluff down on his lap. "Sir Hemsworth says Hemlock is a depressing name and prefers the title that the Queen of Kitties bestowed upon him after he was knighted for saving that bus full of baby red pandas." he commented in an off handed manner as if it was common knowledge, already dealing new hands for himself and the tiny cat. You couldn't stop yourself from giggling maniacally because your roommate was such a child sometimes and you knew it was one of the reasons he was your best friend.

“You are a complete and utter dork.” you smirked when you stifled your laughter and regained your breath. He broke into the first real smile since you came in. “Na.” he waved off the comment and made a vague attempt to gather up the poker chips near him into a sloppy pile.

"You don’t get to just say ‘na’ dork.” you shook your head as you walked over to the couch. "Yeah, whatever. Even if I was a dork, not that I will ever admit to that, you would love me anyway." Vincent smirked pushing the cards away, abandoning the endeavor entirely, instead standing to join you.

"I'm not calling him that by the way, no matter how many dumb heroic stories you make up." you added as you slumped ungracefully down on the couch and grabbed the remote that was half buried underneath the mess he made from the table in front of you. "Well I'm not calling him Hemlock." he quipped back, stealing the remote out of your hand as he sat down next to you and turned on the tv. Immediately upon lighting up, the screen displayed a rather flamboyant looking, pink and black, humanoid robot in the middle of whatever campy straight to tv movie that was currently playing. You recognized the robotic monster immediately, flashy costume doing nothing to hide his unique appearance.

You groaned dramatically, looking from the scene to Vincent. “Really?” Vincent had overrun your TV’s DVR with Mettaton, which you couldn’t decide if it was better or worse than his previous anime obsession that ruined your Netflix queue. He innocently turned to give you an oblivious smile "What?" he asked. "He's pretty freaking awesome," he shrugged at your continued deadpan look of judgement. "Don't even act like you don’t binge watch his cooking show in secret like a really lame guilty pleasure." he added, ignoring your distaste to focus back on the screen.

"Well I can't watch it with you anymore.” You answered the accusation snidely. “What! Why?!” He gasped in indignation.

“The last time we did together, I came home the next day and it looked like a fucking glitter bomb detonated in our kitchen." you pointed out rolling your eyes thinking about how you still found stray sparkles in there sometimes. "THAT WAS LIKE ONE TIME!" he protested loudly, startling Hemlock who had nearly fallen asleep in front of the tv. You chuckled quietly to yourself at his sudden defensive tone and hummed noncommittally.

“Well now you get no coffee.” He huffed, getting off the couch wandering off to the kitchen. You could still see him because of the open layout of your shared apartment.

“Nooooo, you monster!” You called sarcastically after him flinging yourself dramatically across the couch with a hand across your forehead in a mock Victorian fainting spell.

Vincent couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of him. “Do you want some coffee?” He asked standing at the machine. “Na, I really don’t need to be up too late I got work in the morning.” You answered getting back up into a sitting position. “Well, that’s exactly why I need it.” He answered, easily working the machine. Vincent worked mostly online, but also took frequent trips out of town. He tried to explain it to you, but whenever somebody asked you what he did you gave the vague answer of ‘He works with computers or code or something.’ Soon enough, he was in his work position, laptop on his lap and coffee nearby, face buried in the screen while still listening to the tv. You and Vincent stayed up for a while after that, flipping through tv channels and talking about random things that crossed your minds. This went on until it was past the point that you should have gone to bed especially since you had work so early in the morning. You grunted a good night to your friend who by now was bleary eyed and surrounded by a couple of mugs that had held an unhealthy amount of coffee. He didn't even look up from his laptop as he gave you a weak wave that ended up looking more like he was shooing you from the room. You turned the tv volume down to a whisper and lazily rolled off the sofa shuffling off to your room with Hemlock yawning and following at your heels.

As soon as you crossed the threshold you shed your jacket off and switched out your jeans for a pair of soft pajama bottoms. You collapsed on your bed before leaning over the edge to lift Hemlock up as well since he was still too small to make the jump by himself. You rolled over and found yourself falling effortlessly into a dreamless sleep for the first time in days.

#undertale fanfiction #undertale #sans #sans x reader #sans/reader #fanfiction #ao3fic #ao3

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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August 12th-August 18th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from August 12th, 2019 to August 18th, 2019. The chat focused on Catians: Resurrection by Cortney Cameron (Writer) and Luyi Bennett (Artist).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Catians: Resurrection by Cortney Cameron (Writer) and Luyi Bennett (Artist)~! (https://catians.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until August 18th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. Do you think there will be any larger consequences to Rose’s brutal rampage, especially in terms of how human society might react to rumors of the guardians? Overall, how does Rose’s brutal rampage make you feel about her as a character?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. Do you think Rose is gone for good, or can she somehow be saved? If she is saved, how do you think she might be changed as a person. Also, how will Rose’s absence, and the second tail’s absence, affect the guardians?

RebelVampire

1) My favorite scene is probably the one where Rose gets swallowed by her own creation. The story starts off really kind of light-hearted, gets a bit of a dark twist, and then everything culminates in that scene. It was the right blend of both unexpected yet totally sensible that really made it stick with me and kind of scare me a bit. So I appreciate it for being able to inspire that feeling in me. 2) I kind of feel like at least the cops are gonna notice something. Like maybe there'll be that one nosy detective who everyone thinks is crazy but is constantly noticing all the weird stuff going on and insisting they investigate. Thus, the guardians will have their activities hampered cause at leat one person will be suspicious. I don't know how to feel about Rose's character other than she's a good showcase of what happens when you don't address grief properly. Cause you wind up going down the crazy street and releasing your emotions in...well not so good ways.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. What aspect of Rose’s grief over Jason did you identify with the most? What can we learn from Rose’s mistakes in terms of how we deal with grief in real life?

Luyi

Hi there, Luyi (the artist) here! I want to say thanks so much for taking a look at Catians this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what people think!

I don't think I can address the other questions without spoilers(!), but let me throw my two cents into the mix for the last two: 5) My favorite illustration is when Rose wakes up in the forest. I'm pretty happy with how the lighting turned out in that scene.

6) Rose's grief is a big driving force of the overall story. The writer, Cortney, has struggled with grief in her life, and it plays a big role in the birth of the villain. I am honored and humbled by the chance to illustrate this prologue, as it addresses a massive emotional response that most people have no choice but to face in their lives.

The Q

I'm still reading, currently, but so far I really enjoy the lighting on page 15, especially panel 7.

Also, the juxtaposition between the fairytale-esque cat's world and the very realistic human world is extremely interesting!

Though I must admit, so far in the epilogue, I'm having a hard time figuring out where the plot wants to go. Do you all feel the same way? Or differently?

All in all, a very interesting story! I think the artwork is really solid - and it's TOUGH making cats expressive! I'm really excited to see where it goes from here.

snuffysam

@RebelVampire It would be interesting if some detective notices the weird stuff going on. The police dropped the murder case against Jason, so involving them in the story in the future would give Rose yet another reason to be antagonistic ("you weren't there when i needed you" and such).

My favorite character is Rose just because, so far, she has the most depth. She started out kind-hearted, but over the course of the prologue we get to see her descent into sadism due to her grief. Watching a character arc unfold like that is always interesting to see, as it teaches us lessons about handling grief in real life. For instance, learning the difference between justice and revenge.(edited)

snuffysam

@The Q I'm not sure I had the same troubles figuring out where the plot wants to go. This prologue seemed like it was introducing us to the story's future antagonist - someone who was corrupted by the power of the tail. Felix's "choose better than I did" statement seems to imply that there will be another tail user soon, one who will take more of a protagonist-y role. The short time skip where Rose learned to use her powers seems like it will be foreshadowing for us watching our future protagonist learn in real time, and learning about Rose's character arc now could help set up future parallels in the story.

The Q

@snuffysam True, now that you mention it! I was maybe a bit quick to type that up before I had time to digest the prologue haha

Now I'm just excited to see what'll happen to Rose from here on out! Will we see her again? Is she gone for good? Is she gonna create more people?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. What exactly do you think the abomination that Rose created was? What about it caused Felix to warn the Council that the guardians needed to be chosen? What do you think the abomination will do now?

RebelVampire

3) My favorite character right now is probably Felix. Just a good cat who wanted to save someone, but then it all went wrong. But I mostly appreciate the end of the prologue where Felix uses the last of his strength to try and salvage stuff and admit his mistake. 4) I think Rose can be saved, and I actually think she has to. Cause usually these things like an all for one package. You can't have a complete puzzle if one of the pieces is missing. So she has to be saved for whatever their ultimate goal is going to be. I think even if she is saved, though, it'll be a temp thing. I think she'll overall just be too traumatized by her actions and have too much pent up guilt to really function in life normally again.

5) My favorite illustration is probably the last page of the prologue with all the cats looking all serious and dramatic. https://catians.com/comic/chapter-0-page-24/ I really love the lighting and texture on the fur. Plus, something about the white cat's design makes just chuckle and want to hug said cat. 6) For me, I think I most identified with the first part where she was in the shocked denial stage. Her emotions were really poignant to me at that part, and I think regardless of where your grief goes from that point, that is always the first stage. In terms of what we can learn...well ya know, revenge ain't great. And you need to accept the loss and not try to clean to the past, because it leads to some unhealthy stuff. Unfortunately, gotta accept the memories and grow and move past it. And not murder people and create abominations. Probably.

7) I liked seeing Rose and Felix the most since they got the most screen time. I liked how their interactions had both this understanding yet fundamental misunderstanding cause of the species divide. And I kind of like that Felix could just flat out not see how grief had affected Rose until the end, cause it felt a natural consequence of their interactions. 8) I feel the abomindation was a creature that was without a soul, because can't create souls or something. And because of that it's now going to go on an endless rampage of eating trying to get a soul. Only you can't get souls by eating people so it will thus never be fulfilled. And this is why ya gotta warn the council, cause can't have soul eaters on the loose.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Who do you think the guardians will be, and what will they be like? What sort of tasks do you think they’ll be tasked to do? Also, do you think they’ll even be willing to adapt and help the cats?

Cortney

Hi, I'm Cortney, part of the Catians team along with @Luyi (who dropped in above). I'd like to thank the Comic Tea Party for featuring Catians this week! I have really enjoyed the discussion, users' excellent analyses, and @RebelVampire's very thought-provoking questions. 1. It's really tough for me to pick a single favorite scene, but I think I'd actually echo @RebelVampire on Rose getting absorbed. @Luyi did an amazing job bringing this to life -- I was worried the concept would be hard to understand, but she illustrated it just like I imagined (a credit to her intuition and skills). As creepy and horrifying as the scene is, it was extremely satisfying to see it play out on the page just as it did in my head. 5. My favorite illustration is so hard to choose... I think I've narrowed it down to between the Great Cat, Felix and Rose admiring the tombstone, the last scene with final cats (which, I'm a little embarrassed to admit, always gives me goosebumps!). The perspective and lighting on the tombstone scene is beautifully done. I think Rose's pose is confident, like her mastery of her new abilities is sinking in, and this foreshadows her shift towards taking action. P.S. I always laugh at the white cat, too, @RebelVampire -- he'll be back in the next issue, even more absurd. (edited)

6. As @Luyi mentioned, I've struggled with grief in my life, having lost both of parents fairly young. My first major loss, my father, occurred before I started the Catians story proper, and I think that experienced shaped Catians and its themes. My second major loss, my mother, occurred just before the conversion of the manuscript into a comic, and (since I was a little older) it provided even more perspective on grief, life after death, and different ways of processing loss. I try not to judge her reactions too much, since her loss was more violent and traumatic than anything I've experienced, but yeah, as @RebelVampire pointed out, Rose displays rather ineffective and self-destructive coping mechanisms. I really empathized with her when she was feeling "void," like she didn't even exist, after losing Jason.

7. I enjoyed @RebelVampire's breakdown of Felix and Rose's interactions, and the fundamental disconnects that ultimately plagued their communications. I do wish we could've had more time to see Jason and Rose interacting, but maybe we'll learn more about the pair down the line. @The Q I have to give a huge kudos to @Luyi for giving the cats expressions that look natural and also (in my opinion) pack emotional punches. Also, thanks for commenting on the site! @snuffysam Great analysis of the prologue!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Do you think the guardians will be at risk for misusing their role in the same way that Rose misused her powers? Will the cats take measures to prevent another repeat? Overall, what can we learn about the concept of power corruption?

RebelVampire

9) I already mentioned this in general for fave illustration, but I still enjoy the lighting and technique used for the fur. Fur is a really hard thing to illustrate, but all the cats just look so soft and I want to huge them all and pet the computer screen so I can pet the great cats. 10) To be fair you can cheat and look at the cast page for this one. I don't know what they'll be like inidividually, but on the whole I think they're going to be reluctant and inexperienced. I want to assume there'll be some magic battling and that they'll try to stop the abomination. Maybe the abomination can like drop pieces of itself that in term become abominations. As for willingness, umm, probably not. Like maybe one will be like "yaay sounds fun" until they realize oh shit, it's not a game.

11) I think the comic's strengths are its balance of tones. Like the comic is really good at switching from benign seriousness to semi-disturbing horror really quickly in the span of a few panels, and that's really hard to do while maintaining good pacing. But it really helps bring the drama of the horror forward and make an impact. 12) 100% yes, the guardians will be at risk. Probably not from grief like rose, but power is a powerful drug and no one is immune. Honestly, I don't think the cats will take any measures to stop it, but more they will be wary to trust, which I can't blame them for. Overall, though, I think what happened to Rose shows that no matter how nice a person is, things can go south real fast when you push hard enough and give someone power they arent ready for.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Overall, why do you think The Great Cat dictated that humans and cats should work together? By the end of the story, do you think cats and humans will have a better relationship, or will it not make a difference?

RebelVampire

13) I am looking forward to meeting the guardians and seeing how the cats get them onboard while also keeping rose looming in the back of their minds. Sounds like the makings of great drama. 14) I think The Great Cat thought both species balanced each other out in a complimentary way. That and cooperation sounds better than both species fighting for the rights to dominate the planet. By the end of the story, idk. I feel like the relationship will be more or less the same, but maybe with a smidgen more trust thrown in as humanity shows its own merits that makes cats think "ok they arent all abomination creators"

NiaNook

1. Can't say I have a favorite. There's a lot of parts in a lot of different places I enjoyed 2. I don't see human society reacting to the guardians being anything big.... YET. They eventually had to discontinue looking for Jason's murderers, after all. It was thrilling to see Rose using her new abilities to brutalize those gangsters, and I can sympathize with her. She's frustrated, empty, filled with grief, and wants to avenge her husband. She let that grief and vengeance get the best of her and showed an uglier side of herself, but I can't see her as a bad person for it... maybe flawed, desperate, and human, but not bad. 3. With just a prologue, let's go with Felix, for now. He seems to be a very good and very wise, kitty (wisdom still increasing as he learns from his mistakes, of course!) 4. I don't have a lot of hope for poor Rose, though if she can be saved, what a happy turn of events that would be! She seemed to have an understanding of the mistake she made as she was being absorbed at the end.(edited)

NiaNook

5. This page, maybe. https://catians.com/comic/chapter-0-page-19/ The atmosphere and those two panels of Felix looking at her and turning away really show a lot of strong emotion (Mixed with the dialogue, it was just a really powerful and foreboding page) Felix genuinely just wants to help her. 6. What really made it hit home the hardest was seeing her still struggling to get out of that pit of grief, long after it's already happened. It's not easy to let go. Sometimes you feel like life has played a cruel prank on you and you desperately wish to reset it, but you can't. Your mind goes all kinds of crazy places trying to cope and fill that emptiness, and later you'll realize you're still empty and did something you regret (maybe not as extreme as killing people, but you get the idea). 8. I think the abomination is an embodiment of the sorrow and emptiness Rose couldn't get rid of. She gave it form, and poetically, it swallowed her. Something tells me either that creature isn't completely gone and it may cause more harm to others. 10. The prologue and the image in the site banner almost look like they're from 2 different stories, so there's a lot of mystery about where the guardians come in and what they'll be like, but it will probably have something to do with getting rid of those pink abominations

NiaNook

11. and 13. (combining these two) The comic is a lovely combination of expressive art and thoughtful, inspired writing. I actually peeked at it a few weeks ago when I was checking out the book club listings and unintentionally ended up reading through the whole thing! It just kept giving me so many questions, so many exciting or unexpected twists and turns, and there was something so delightfully bizarre about regular humans mixing with magical guardian cats that left me wanting to see where it went from here! What are our little kitties even up to when they're not chasing birds or sleeping beside us on our beds? What's up with these cat deities? How can such divine creatures be so fluffy and adorable!? (hehe) I'm hoping for more of all of this. More bizarre cat stuff. More strong character conflict, and uncovering answers to their mysterious way of life. 14. Perhaps it's something about combining different strenghts; cats are the wise decision makers, humans are the hands that move things along, or something along those lines. I sure hope it improves their relationship, because from what Felix tells us in the beginning, these humans have not been very kind to cats at all

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Catians: Resurrection this week! Please also give a special thank you to Cortney Cameron (Writer) and Luyi Bennett (Artist) for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Catians: Resurrection, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://catians.com/

Buy Catians’ Hardcopy: https://www.amazon.com/Catians-Resurrection-Prologue-Second-Tail/dp/1096221403

Catians’ Merch Store: https://catians.com/merch/

Catians’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/catians

Catians’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/catians

#ctparchive #comics #indie comics #webcomics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic bookclub #webcomic book club #comic tea party #ctp #catians #catians resurrection #luyi bennett #cortney cameron

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