So I have a big theory and I don't know where to put it, so here it goes:

The thing that's gonna incarnate in Yuri's stomach isn't Aono. Is the patron god of the village, Kubinashi sama. The dark Aono is the real Aono.

Based on the whole thing with Sota and the school inventory, we know the ghost always come back, because you're not supposed to offer them anything, and as soon as you do they're turned into evil spirits. We also know from the Sota situation, that every time someone comes back, a part of the patron god, with them. In Sota's case, his "friend". The part where Aono says that it isn't Yotsukubi sama, nor a ghost, but at the same it is, shows that the existence of Kubinashi is not something that's fixed. Furthermore, my theory is that Kubinashi sama is feigning being Aono (the "good" one) due to Yuri's agreement.

Think about it. Yuri and Aono were only dating for two weeks, yet Aono seems to be the perfect boyfriend, despite Fujimoto knowing that he only dated Yuri because he felt bad for her, and that he didn't really knew her. My theory is that this Aono is the part of the agreement of Kubinashi with Yuri: it gave her her perfect vision of Aono, so that she would be satisfied with it and never taking back her agreement. This is why this Aono doesn't have complete memories of how he died, or his childhood. Is an incomplete version of Aono. This Aono also evolves with the time. Every time Yuri changes, Aono also changes to satisfy her desires. This is why the normal Aono didn't know about what happened in the aquarium, but as soon as Yuri learned about it, he suddenly was able to.

Dark Aono is the real Aono, which is why he only comes when certain steps are taken. As the boyfriend of Yuri he doesn't want to hurt her and he is technically part of the deal with Kubinashi. Similar to Sota, who is part of the deal, and is seemingly the perfect brother, that is also part of the deal; Kubinashi only brings back the parts of the deceased the one making the contract remembers. The "dark versions" that appear are the real ones that have grudges and can't pass on. This also explains why he wanted her to eat food of the other world, that way if she gets stuck there, her agreement with Kubinashi will be void.

Dark Sota holds a grudge to his mother for "forgetting him", and to his brother for "causing his death". Dark Aono does not hold a grudge to Yuri, but as a dark spirit, both of them have the desire to grow stronger by getting offerings and sacrifices. The reasoning of this is that those things are different; offerings are usually made directly to the deceased, normally on their tombstones or the family altars, sacrifices are made to deities, and can be done anywhere. So far all the offerings have been made directly to Aono (the food, the eyes) which is why only the dark Aono, the real Aono takes them. The normal Aono can't take them, cause he's not real one, thus they aren't his to take. This explains why the normal Aono couldn't enter the storage room, but dark Aono could. This also gives a possibility: normal Aono can't afford to let Yuri know that he's not the real Aono, cause otherwise that would void the agreement. In agreements, the spirit cannot lie, but they can hide things. This is also shown on the agreement to bring back Sota, Hiroto wasn't told that he was gonna come back as an evil spirit. In the same, Yuri wasn't told that Aono was gonna come back as Dark Aono, and to make her less suspicious, Kubinashi decided to disguise itself as the perfect Aono. If Kubinashi has control over all the spirits in the village, then he could keep dark Aono at bay, except when Aono is called directly, cause that's part of the rules. That's also why normal Aono remembers everything Dark Aono does, cause technically, spirits are part of Kubinashi's domain; not enough to control what they do, but enough to know what they do.

So, Yuri sacrificed herself, offered her life in exchange of Aono. Now based on the Kubinashi ritual, we know that every ghost agreement isn't made with the ghosts, but with Kubinashi sama; the ghosts are only part of the exchange. And Kubinashi sama makes use of the sacrifices however they seem fit or convenient. In the kids case it involved a game, but in Yuri's case it involved being reincarnated. We also know ghosts can't really come back, except as well.. ghosts. So that further solidifies that argument.

Part of this theory is that Nozomi's family is a family of ommyoujis. But that due to the times changing, and the lack of sacrifices, they probably left that tradition behind, and thus Nozomi was never really talked about her heritage. This part comes from the fact that Nozomi's grandma seems to know a lot about the village story with Kubinashi, and despite being a ghost she has powers that ghosts otherwise don't have, like taking over Nozomi without her permission, entering her dream, or taking control of the snake in Nozomi's dream. This also comes from her clothing, which are clothes people wear to funerals (the visitors are the ones that wear it, the deceased usually wears white clothes), but black clothes are also associated with the highest rank of Shinto priests.

Furthermore, Nozomi's grandma is effectively Nozomi's shikigami as of now, one out of devotion and not sacrifice. This is why she helping her during her dream was accepted, she is technically an extension of Nozomi.

Another part of why the agreement with Yuri is different, is because they're kids. Yuri is a virgin who's in age of conceiving (the chapter showing her having her period wasn't a coincidence). Ghosts cannot come back, but deities can, given they have a vessel. In this case, Yuri's stomach. The fact that Yuri's family has a history with Kubinashi isn't out of the question, neither. It's is possible that like Nozomi's family, Yuri's family must have a tie to the Kubinashi ritual in some way. If the Kariya family has a tie to sacrifices, it could even possibly explain what happened to Yuri's older brother. Let's not forget that in some traditions you're supposed to sacrifice your first born. This could also explain the situation behind her older brother.

Now I know this is wild but, my theory is that Yuri's parents had to sacrifice his older child, and had Midori hoping she could be sacrifices instead. As per the rules, only the first child was accepted, and they grow to hate Midori because of this. They had Yuri either as an unplanned pregnancy, or in hopes of having a second boy to replace the first one, but it failed. This is also why the first child is never really talked about.

So, not only the Kariya family has something to do with sacrifices, and abnormal virgin pregnancies related to deities; Yuri would inherently be sacrificing her first born by making her birth a god.

So, the theory is this: the village where Yuri lives is controlled by Kubinashi, and her family has a tie to it by doing sacrifices, and Nozomi's family by being priests. Yuri didn't make an agreement with Aono, she made an agreement with Kubinashi to bring back Aono, and now she has to birth Kubinashi, while Aono returned as just a dark spirit.

Shima please tell me about your galaxy brain human Lucario AU I wanna know how it all pans out

NDASKMADMLASMKSA OMG ANON I am more than happy to share :'D This got really REALLY long, I hope you enjoy a good read lmao

So we have. Lucario. As a human. Possibly named after an actual Pokemon Lucario, idk. He's still Aaron's apprentice—trains under him at the castle to become an aura user. However, human Lucario is like. 15, making his connection to Aaron that much more powerful bc he's pretty much baby and Aaron's in his mid twenties practically raising this kid by himself. Lucario views Aaron as kind of a father/guardian figure? He's still so uptight at this point tho;; and he views Lady Rin as a mother (which. Is. SOFT). Rin and Aaron might be in love, it's hard for Lucario to tell, he doesn't Romance. He just focuses on his aura training. Pssh.

Fast forward to the time of the Big Pokemon War. Aaron realizes the only way to stop the fighting is to go find Mew at the Tree of Beginning. However he knows that this is a huge sacrifice—and knowing how loyal Lucario is to him, Aaron knows he'll follow him and be subjected to the same fate. And Aaron's like—Lucario is just a kid, you know? He still has so much more to experience and live for. So while it fucking breaks his heart to shatter Lucario's trust in him (for the time being) and totally ruin his father figure status, Aaron "betrays" Lucario and traps him inside the staff. It's some crazy magic aura crystal thing that seals something inside of it, whether it be a Pokemon, human, spirit, or whatever else. At this point it's also for Lucario's safety—bc nothing can really touch him while he's in there, and they're in the middle of a war, so yeah it's just really good timing and planning to protect his kid. However Aaron, being the adorable himbo dumbass he is, kinda forgets that this is an aura crystal, and therefore needs aura to "unseal" it essentially, which would set Lucario free. Unfortunately after Aaron goes to the Tree and gives up his life to stop the war (cue Titanic music) there's not really any other aura user around. They're pretty rare, even way back then;; so Lucario falls into a deep slumber, being sealed, and is kept there for about 1000 years.

And then!! Ash fucking Ketchum enters the picture!!

Lucario is suddenly woken because he senses Aaron's aura nearby. Absolutely pissed at Dad for leaving him behind, Lucario escapes from the staff and goes to attack, but stops when he realizes Dad is actually not Dad, it is adorable 14 year-old boy who has a similar aura to Aaron. Cue a very disgruntled teenager running through the palace, totally out of place and confused. Eventually he's stopped by Lady Ilene, who explains what's going on. Naturally Lucario's heartbroken—not only is his master/dad/guardian dead, but so is his mother figure, and everybody else he'd once known in the castle. Bc Ilene looks so similar to Rin, Lucario takes comfort from her. Ilene does her best to console him and asks if he'll do her a favor. He leaps at the chance to make her happy—apparently he's a sucker for getting good Parent Figures to like him—and agrees to go help Ash and co. find Pikachu at the Tree of Beginning.

Instead of Lucario doing the Naruto run ahead of the group (which like. How the fuck is he so fast...) he actually sits in the car in the passenger's seat with Kidd doing the driving for him, bc hell if a human can run for that long and not be totally wiped out afterward (also he just woke up from a 1000 year nap. Yeahhh. Not gonna happen.) Also baby has no idea what the fuck a car even is so he's a bit nervous around it, and Kidd's like "Um yeah no I'm not letting you drive. Just tell me where to go" so Lucario uses his aura to lead her. Things progress p much the same way, with Lucario getting strangely attached to Ash despite not wanting to, at all, but it's hard because Ash is just Perfect and a Good Boy and pretty much gives Lucario the sort of attention he craves. Eventually tho that all comes to a head when Ash brings up his friendship with Pikachu. Lucario's still bitter about Aaron and honestly can't bring himself to trust any of them—and is pissed at himself for having taken a liking to Ash despite that—so that leads into their giant fight in the first step of their enemies to lovers trope. Ha. Even so, he still gets consoled by Max (and is given CHOCOLATE!! Which is the most fucking heavenly thing he's ever tasted), and witnesses Ash unable to sleep bc of his honest worry for Pikachu. Lucario does some Deep Thinking to himself about his relations to the group.

The next day, the group activates the Time Flower that recorded Aaron's entire abandonment of Lucario. Believe it or not being a young kid in training for a war tends to give you a bit of trauma, so Lucario freaks out a little and starts attacking the hollow projections of the enemy Pokemon. Ash manages to calm him down. Lucario collapses and asks why Aaron had abandoned him. What did he do wrong? Why would Aaron turn against the kingdom? Why did Aaron trap him in the staff? He doesn't know shit and it's frustrating. Ash comes up to him and apologizes, and as soon as the waterworks turn on Lucario's like oh nooo. Oh NOOOO. Here's this boy laying his heart out on his sleeve and is so honest and open and sincere that he can't help but feel awful for how he treated him. Lucario immediately forgives Ash and is like "I will now protect you with my life" bc Ash is baby and Lucario realizes for the first time!! He's made an actual friend with somebody that isn't his dad or the queen! And if he's friends with Ash that means he can be friends with Brock and May and Max and Kidd too. The prospect is EXCITING. He can trust these people now, he knows, because they saw what happened and they believed him about Aaron. They're choosing to side with him over the "kingdom's hero" and that honestly means a lot—it's a huge commitment and Lucario's just. Super grateful that he has a group of people backing him up. Lucario promises himself that he'll reunite Ash and Pikachu, bc if he were given the chance he'd reunite with the people he once held dear too. Ash and Pikachu really care about each other and Lucario admires and respects that a lot and he wants to make Ash happy so!! He's like. It is my personal mission to see that we find Pikachu successfully. And Ash is just like :'D !!! And it's that moment when Lucario realizes that he might like Ash a biiit more than he originally thought he did. Huh.

Literally not even 30 seconds after that revelation Regirock attacks and Lucario almost has a fucking aneurysm because he JUST made friends with these people!! And now they're going to get killed if he's not careful! Story of his life. He immediately shifts into Protect Ash Mode™ and hurries everyone to safety. Things are crazy. Lucario has too much of a burden on his shoulders. He's stressed. But Ash is with him and that makes things a little bit better so he focuses on getting them to where they need to go and protecting them along the way. Big job for such a young kid. Whew!!

Traveling through the Tree of Beginning, weird antibodies keep voring people, and it's not fun. At one point Lucario takes the bullet for Kidd, but is mysteriously released (probably bc of his aura and his connection to Aaron, who gave up his life, which gave energy to the tree and to Mew. So there's a connection there. The tree kinda sees Lucario as one of its own.) Finally, finally! Ash and Pikachu are reunited! Lucario can immediately sense how close they are and how much of a bond they have. Seeing someone with so much history with Ash makes Lucario a bit shy around Pikachu, but it’s cool, they warm up to each other eventually!

Right after this, Ash and the others find out that May, Brock and Max were devoured by the antibodies. Lucario barely has any time to grieve for them before the Regis burst in and essentially trap him as Ash and Kidd are attacked by the cells next. Lucario watches in absolute horror as Ash is swallowed up. It’s like Aaron all over again—and this time it’s worse because Ash hadn’t done anything wrong, and Lucario had really come to trust him and admire him as a person. It’s absolutely fucking heartbreaking. He watches in hollow-eyed despair as Pikachu and Ash’s other Pokemon cry over him. Everything sucks. The world is a nightmare. Lucario almost wishes he’d gotten swallowed too. Why is it always him that’s the last one standing, the only one left, the remainder to deal with the carnage and the loss by himself? Then Mew performs its voodoo magic and lo and behold!! Ash and the others are miraculously revived! Lucario is absolutely overjoyed and relieved. It’s then that he realizes he’d be absolutely devastated if he lost Ash for good—even more so than Aaron. At this point he’s kinda come to terms about Aaron’s death, though it still hurts because there’s so many questions left unanswered.

Of course right after this Mew collapses and everything goes to shit again. Great. (Can he get like five seconds to maybe just breathe?? Idk.) At the center of the Tree of Beginning, Lucario finds Aaron’s gloves and things start to click into place. Maybe...the stories were true? Lucario activates the Time Flower there and realizes what Aaron had done, his noble sacrifice, and why he couldn’t bear to get Lucario involved. Lucario breaks down in tears bc he’s so relieved and yet so unbearably sad. Aaron was like his father. Someone who cared for him so immensely and deeply. Aaron urged Lucario to continue on and live his life to the fullest—that’s what he wanted for him, after all. But at this point Lucario isn’t sure if he can. Mew needs saving, after all.

Lucario decides he’ll follow in Aaron’s footsteps and save Mew, no matter how sad it makes him to have to leave his new friends so early. Ash immediately protests, along with Kidd, and Lucario tells them that it’s a risk he has to take, just like Aaron. Mew and the Tree need his power more than ever now, and he can’t just abandon them. He starts to pour all of his aura into Mew, but it’s not enough. Ash puts on Aaron’s gloves and jumps in, deciding to help out. Lucario is grateful but also very panicked because Ash literally just came back to life—he couldn’t bear losing him a second time, especially since he already lost Aaron. Lucario tries to bump him out of the way but Ash absolutely won’t let him!! If they’re going down they’re going down together. Ash tells him that he can’t watch Lucario take on the burden by himself over and over—that he wants to split the weight and make things even. Cue a very emotional tense moment between two boys about to sacrifice their lives together. Neither of them want the other to die, but they don’t really have a choice. Mew absorbs their power and then…

Lucario wakes up.

And he’s alive. Holy fuck!! (There’s no fucking way I’d kill him nope not happening not this time bitches)

Apparently splitting the burden of giving one’s life energy to another with a second person eases the consequences—leaving both Ash and Lucario alive (which makes him realize that if he’d gone with Aaron all those years ago and split the burden, both of them would have lived. But strangely Lucario wouldn’t trade that opportunity for what he has now.) Ash literally jumps on him and hugs him so tight he nearly dies a second time, but it’s fine. It’s a good way to go.

The tree is safe, and so is Mew. Ash rejoins the others, bringing Lucario with him. They all have a merry little reunion, and then head back to the castle together.

At this point, Ilene thanks Lucario for all he’d done—for Ash and co. and for the tree and Mew. She then sets Lucario free—saying he can do whatever he wishes, he can follow any path in life he wants to now! Suddenly there’s a whole world full of possibilities, and that world is there for him to explore. He can practically hear Aaron encouraging him to take a step into the unknown, journey to his heart’s content, make tons of friends, and master his aura. Except Lucario isn’t really sure he wants to take the trip by himself. He bashfully asks Ash if they’d be alright with him joining them. Ash is absolutely fucking ecstatic, of course. He asks Lucario to teach him how to properly use his aura, and Lucario has a big self revelation moment like “The student has become the master” and it’s magical. So we hit off a brand new adventure with Lucario traveling with Ash, Brock, May, and Max, and teaching Ash how to hone his aura! Which gives us more aura Ash moments, which everybody craves! And it’s kinda gay and lovely!!

And that is my rewrite happy ending for Lucario and the Mystery of Mew thank you goodnight ✌️

Aspect Groupings, IMO

Hi, first off, huge shoutout to @communistvriska who makes brilliant classpecting posts (they’re walls of text but it’s good text). But she made this fantastic analysis of the relationships between aspects and how they’re related to their positions on the aspect wheel (link).

So, I know, like, the post above is considerably more canon, but it made me remember that I think of the aspects in groups, too. It’s definitely a different system, and it doesn’t make quite as much sense w.r.t. the aspect wheel, but it’s my take (albeit a tepid one). And honestly, screw canon.

Please, take these with a grain of salt, because I am most definitely not writing these all out feverishly at 2 am. (No Keep Reading tag we you die like men)

Space-Time-Void: The World Aspects

These are the three aspects that are intrinsically connected to the fabric of reality. Yes, I’m excluding Light in this definition because of its alternate meaning, which is the one that seems more often used metaphysically in Sburb. But yeah, you have Space and Time, which are opposites in a sense (Space is the tangible reality and Time is the intangible but still real liminality), but then Void, which is absence, is basically the opposite of them both.

These are the most meta aspects, in a certain sense, because physics is based upon them. But they’re also the most tangible ones. They’re the ones with the most concretely singular definitions. They’re the ones that affect the dimensions that we can pass through (if Time counts as a dimension).

Going off of more symbolic representations of them, Space is creation, Time is revision (it’s basically the big fix-it tool of the cosmos), and Void is... well, it’s not really destruction; that’s Rage’s purview. It’s more of uncertainty. You’d think that would fit best with the Next aspects because they’re all about what’s going to happen next, but ACTUALLY MEGAN it doesn't quite fit there. Those aspects know where they’re going or where they might go. Void doesn’t know. Heck, it doesn’t even know the past sometimes (re: Equius’s Pesterquest route). But Void still fits the whole building metaphor because it’s like when you’re working on a Minecraft castle and you have no idea what to do next. Wondering about that sort of thing, and just waiting and walking around the building you’ve built, is rather important to the creative process, imo.

Mind-Heart-Blood: The Self Aspects

These are the three aspects that are intrinsically connected to one’s sense of self: body (Blood), mind (Mind), and soul (Heart). (Insert Vriska (Vriska) joke here (and another one about missing close-parentheses in Python (if you can’t tell, this was mostly written while sleep-deprived)).) But Blood is significantly more abstract than that: it’s also about one’s relationships with others, but in a different sense than Heart is. Blood is about bonds, and Heart is about emotions. And Mind is about logic, which, you could say, is an opposite of both of them.

You could even go so far as to compare Mind, Blood, and Heart to the Modes of Persuasion - logos, ethos, and pathos (respectively). Again, they’re representative of different aspects of a person’s psyche. But, like, I have no idea how you might apply that.

Okay, I have an idea with how that’s kind of being applied. Terezi’s the big Mind (translation: galaxy brain) player, and she’s all about lawyering and rules and logic. There’s your logos. Dirk’s the most developed Heart player, and he’s all about convincing through appeals to emotion, and that’s for the most part how he manipulates the narrative in the Epilogues and the ^2. There’s your pathos. And Karkat, the Blood player, uh, most of his leader stuff is in a sort of Cincinnatus-type of way; he’s not being the trolls session leader or the presidential candidate cuz he wants to, he’s doing it because somebody’s gotta step up and do it and he wants to do the right thing. There’s your ethos.

Breath-Light-Doom: The Next Aspects

These aspects being grouped together is why I made these groupings in the first place. Because, when taken deeper than face level, they all refer to one’s future. Breath is destiny (this is kind of a stretch, but “Winds of destiny, change!”), Light is chance, and Doom is fate. Yes, those are all synonyms, but they also refer to different aspects of one’s future. Destiny is about the biggest picture, where you fit in to the grand scheme of things; but it’s also about where the wind takes you here and now. It’s an extrapolation of your current path. Fate is about the fixed waypoints and endpoints, where the path will bottleneck, where you will go no matter what. And chance is about how much the path can divert along the way, and how much leeway the bottlenecks hold, and what you need to do to modify the biggest picture.

The more literal definitions of these aspects are Breath as wind; Light as, well, light (insert another Vriska (Vriska) joke here); and Doom as... uh, death.

I, uh, I really don’t have much else to say here. Uh, you guys take this one.

Hope-Rage-Life: The Now Aspects

This grouping, for me, is the most confusing (partly because they’re the aspects left over once the obvious ones are grouped together). Because Hope and Rage being tied together makes sense, obviously, but what does that all have to do with Life?

Well, I think they’re all mental attitudes, in a way, how we act now and how we choose to look at existence. Hope is optimism, Rage is pessimism, and Life is idealism. Take note: none of these are realism, not even Life. They’re all coloured lenses: When you look with Hope, you see the best version of the future. When you look with Rage, you see the worst version of the future. When you look with Life, you see your desired version of the future. But none of these are the real version of the future. Sure, they’re all beneficial in their own way, but sometimes you have to take those lenses off. I feel like Hope, Rage, and Life players have the hardest time taking off their own lenses.

Then there’s more literal definitions of the aspects: Hope is belief, Rage is destruction, and Life is growth. Very loosely speaking, these are the actions that you’d take in order to fulfill the respective mindsets. Like, I’m optimistic about Vrisrezi Real HS^2 Endgame (this optimism might be misplaced), so I’m believing super hard in that coming to pass. I’m pessimistic about Order of the Stick ending on any note other than the Snarl winning (but tbh this pessimism could also be misplaced), so I’m like “okay heck with it let it get wrecked big-time”. I’m idealistic about how I can eventually get not depressed (I pray that it’s not misplaced), so I’m working on growing in the not-depression area.

In like the grand scale, with reference to all of them

I’m not looking at these aspects in their relationship to a session. I’m more looking at them based on what they are, by definition. All these aspects are interconnected, they’re all related in different ways, especially in terms of definition, so you could absolutely make different groupings based on their definitions. This is just my take.

One thing I noticed about the Aspect Wheel is that it’s a cycle, the cycle of being. Space is about creation and birth, so you start there. You aren’t yet anything more than a substance, but then comes in your Mind, and you’re administered Hope, that you will yet be something more. And then you take your first Breath, and there begins your Life. You learn and are enLightened, and Time passes. You grow up. You learn to manage your Heart, and you have to fight against Rage, and then you form bonds of Blood. Your Blood spills out after long, and ultimately you have to face your Doom. You enter the Void. And there it ends, but there it also begins.

Wow, that got pretentious.

I have to wonder how religion would work in a setting like Sburb, if at all. The classpect system is pretty irreligious. But I’ll save that for a later post. Maybe.

S2 Rewatch - Maggie’s Take [ 207 ]

oh honey we’ve got a big storm coming...

Favorite scene

We’re getting to the point now in the season where all these questions become a million times harder to answer. All the scenes have an oomph to them. All the characters are at their richest. All the performances go off. So forgive me for cheating and giving multiple answers from here on out most likely. So in 207, three answers jump to mind. 1) The sequence where Farkle is having his true meltdown, before “Santa Fe.” From a writing standpoint, I remember I was really proud with how that scene turned out. It was a fun challenge, trying to capture that anxiety and panic and loss of reality. A fun fact that you may or may not know is that nearly all of the lines of dialogue said by the hallucinated characters are repetitions or variations on dialogue that has actually already been said in the show, meant to highlight how Farkle’s brain has taken these (usually offhand) comments and held onto them obsessively and in some cases even warped them into something more antagonistic than they were. Then there was the pattern of tying the sentiments together into one overarching monologue of sorts, repeating that thematic word over and over, “enough.” It was just so fun to write, and I’m really happy with how it came together. 2) The Dylan, Lucas, and Asher argument in the booth. Ooh, buddy. This was a true turning point, both for the narrative and for Asher and Dylan as characters. To me, that is the scene where they rise from supporting characters to mains, and in some ways it’s a long time coming. I love how it highlights the imperfections at play between that trio, and the way that Lucas and Asher know exactly how to get at one another, but nothing gets me more than Dylan’s “HEY” and stepping in between them. How Dylan snapping seems to be what pulls Lucas out of his anger, and how Dylan’s anger only lasts seconds before it shifts into like shock / concern... ugh I love him. I love them! Definitely a standout scene, even back when I first wrote it, but even more so now that Dylan and Asher have such larger roles in the third season. 3) The unintentional coming out scene between Riley and Charlie. The whole thing is just rich with tension, like I love the moment where Charlie is like you can’t tell anyone you can’t -- and she just interrupts him and it goes dead silent until she’s emphatically like I would never tell anyone... like chills, bro. Chills. And the relief that comes from Riley finally understanding why he’s been acting the way he has... so good. The follow up to this choice is the Zay and Charlie scene at the end where the freedom of someone knowing seems to allow him the strength to kiss Zay in their studio... I love them. I love it all. Whew. 

Favorite performance

It’s getting hard... it’s getting tough to choose... like “Santa Fe” is up there because of the raw emotion of it and what it represents for Farkle and his arc. “Loser” is great too, mainly in concept, as we have Dasher acting as Lucas’s subconscious mind essentially and all of the cool choices in the production of the number. But I think I will have to go with “Waving Through A Window,” as that is such a standout performance in my opinion. It delivers emotionally, it has a cool flow and concept, there’s snow... whenever it comes on AMBITION shuffle I’m like oh yeah. Now we’re talking. And I love the visual of Isadora being stuck on the acting block / courtyard table, always inches from falling off the ledge but managing to avoid disaster. It’s just a really cool visual in my head. So that’s the top for me I think.

Favorite character (within context of the episode)

I literally can’t choose. I don’t know what to say. I think I’ll say maybe Charlie and Zay? Both in their storyline together as well as individuals. They’ve both got great solos (“Consideration” and “Exhale”), Charlie has his devolution emotionally and Zay finally (righteously) snaps at Angela. They find refuge, in Riley and Harper and of course each other. There are standout moments throughout the episode for their relationship -- holding hands at the top in the studio, Charlie hugging Zay in the hallway to comfort him and telling him it’s okay, the fraught moment of Charlie snapping at Zay about being at his locker which feels like a tiny unintentional step back, Charlie’s frazzled kiss on the cheek in public, the ending scene with another handhold and the softest kiss... ugh I love them. They were at a peak this episode, which makes sense considering what’s about to come...

Favorite line(s)

“You know what, you’ve got a lot to think about. Let me just get out of your hair. Best of luck with this next phase in your life, sir. Save a little social security for the rest of us provided climate change doesn’t kill us first!” --Lucas James Friar, to Eric

“I mean, but what am I going to do instead? Follow in the footsteps of my mom? I won’t survive veterinary school, Mister E. And you can only cure lung cancer once!” --Darby Winters

“Might be nice to help combat the impending danger of climate change and issues with renewable resources by studying environmental sciences or maybe aeronautical space engineering in pursuit of space materials that could be used as new energy sources. Ooh, or a rodeo clown!” --Dave Williams

“Actually, I’m near-sighted. But I wear contacts.” --Dylan Orlando, in response to Eric asking if his future plan is “short-sighted”

“I looked into “space cowboy,” but as it turns out you need a degree in aerospace engineering as well as a license to boy cows, and that seems like a lot of work. So then I thought, well, if I don’t have the capacity to work, what else is there in this capitalistic hell we call society? Sure, I could probably enter myself in human cage fights and scrap to death for spare change, but I think that would hurt after a while and to be honest, I think I’d feel a bit like a piece of meat if I took up that mantle. Who would I be fighting to impress? The bourgeoisie? Hard pass. But after some deep, probing soul-searching, I finally hit the one. Trophy husband. Now, I know what you’re thinking. To accomplish such a grand ambition, I’d have to get someone to like me. And that’s a pretty hefty task, believe me I know, but I’ve devised a work around. This is, as Dave would say, galaxy-brained thinking, Mister E. I’m going to put an ad on Craigslist.” --Lucas James Friar

“It’s easy to say you believe in someone. Showing up for them is a different story.” --Zay Babineaux

“We’re friends, Lucas. We care about you. Asher wasn’t lying about that. And when you decide you want to do something about this, we’ll be there. When you need us... we’re going to be there for you. No matter what.” --Dylan Orlando

“I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but the truth is it all comes down to endurance. How long you can take it, how long you can stick it out until it ends up being your shot. The true test of who lives the dream is who hangs on… and who gives up.” --Harper Burgess

An underrated moment

There are so many it would be so hard for me to pick one if I thought about it too hard, so I’m gonna go with my gut. My favorite mini moment in the episode is during the end montage, when Dylan climbs in the window to comfort Asher. There’s a lot of small details I like about it that occur just within like 30 seconds -- Asher’s routine with crushing up his anxieties (a thing elaborated on in Cruel Summer), how commonplace it is for Dylan to climb in the window, and how he jumps into comfort mode and they both fall into that without any words at all. I just love it. And I can picture the way Dylan kisses his cheek and then his shoulder and then rests his head against him so perfectly... I adore them. They are angels.

First impression vs your reread impression

Obviously, even when I wrote this last year it felt major. Because it is. This is the turning point episode, literally and narratively. It’s smack in the middle, and from here I knew everything was going to be bigger and more, especially since we pulled the (metaphorical) trigger with Farkle. We knew that was a narrative risk, but we felt strongly about it, and we took every method we thought possible to set it up well, be cautious about it to y’all (with trigger warnings and hotlines, etc.), and then follow through on it in a way that balanced realism with care and attention. I think we managed to pull it off, but it was a great relief that you all reacted so well to it (in terms of the narrative, not like joyously LMAO) and trusted us to carry it forward. That kind of trust in a writer means a lot, and that’s what I’ll always remember when I think about this episode. Thankfully, we all survived it, and now here we are on the cusp of S3. Insane. And now onto 208... the storm is here...

the fuck

I literally just entered Master 2, won one battle (no defense battles in my log) and got into Master 1.

LOL. God it’s so easy to climb ranks lately due to the dwindling playerbase. (Looking at my alliance list, where I do have a lot of OP ppl friended for their core memories, but quite a few are hitting Grand and Legend (and Masters 1) compared to times previous. RIP.

Well, thanks for the free xes, I guess. (I’m not gonna stay in this rank since I’ve finished my 36 battles for the week and that’s too much tryharding in a mode I despise for a meh increase in weekly income.)

Though the extra stars would be nice since I’m so heavily gated by gear—I literally can’t get R1 gear without hitting pity and now you have to upgrade to R2 using the same stuff you use to craft R1, so... hahaha...  people complain about abrasives but you don’t have an abrasive shortage when you don’t have gear to use them on. ONLY GALAXY BRAIN PLAY HERE FOLKS

Doctor Who: Which Monsters Will Return in Series 13?

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Spoilers: contains reference to unofficial series 13 filming photography

Doctor Who began life as a time-travelling sci-fi show with a historical bias and an educational bent. One thing – or, rather, one race – changed all of that: The Daleks. Those oppressive pepper pots gave the public a taste for the fearsome, the far-off and the fantastic, and the following five decades would be stacked with all sorts of aliens and monsters, from the sub-slime to the Drashig-ulous, and everything in between.

A new showrunner always wants to put their stamp on the series, but if novelty is vital to Doctor Who, then so is nostalgia. The allure of bringing back an old foe to put face-to-face with a Doctor’s new face is too strong to resist. At first, Chris Chibnall let Jodie Whittaker settle into her performance unburdened by the baggage of monsters past, but it wasn’t long before the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master and the Judoon arrived to claim their places in the ever-expanding continuity of the Who-niverse.   

Series 13 is on its way, and yet more familiar monsters have been spotted as joining the fray. Here are the alien races confirmed as returning, along with some speculation as to who else might come back in the seasons to follow…

The Sontarans Are Back!

The Sontarans – those war-like, unbudging, unblinking little kick-ass clones – have been spotted on location, so they’re a shoo-in for 13’s thirteenth. We first met the Sontarans in 1974 when Jon Pertwee’s dashing, debonair Third Doctor caught a crash-landed specimen of the species, Linx, abducting scientists from present-day Earth (using timey-wimey-ness) and putting them to work fixing his kaput spacecraft back in Medieval England. Later, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor encountered them on a barren Earth in the future, again abducting human beings, but this time to study them like lab-rats in a bid to probe mankind’s weaknesses and thus their ripeness for conquest. Sontarans showed up again later in his tenure to invade Gallifrey in perhaps one of Doctor Who‘s most overblown yet underwhelming of stories, ‘The Invasion of Time‘ (an episode that features the world’s longest chase sequence involving the same swimming pool and gym corridor in monotonous rotation). Each time the Sontarans appeared in Classic Who they lost a little of their mystery and lustre, to the point where their appearance in the much-maligned sixth-and-second-Doctor team-up, ‘The Two Doctors’, was largely superfluous. 

The Sontarans used to look like malevolent jacket potatoes. They sported weird, ventriloquist-dummy mouths and bristly little beards. Their weapon of choice was a noisy torch that triggered fatal bouts of over-acting in its victims. When Russell T Davies brought the Sontarans back to battle with David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor in 2006, they were upgraded to match the show’s new-found popularity and bigger budget. They had sleek and shiny new metallic-blue body armour, almost perfectly spherical heads, and a voracious appetite for conflict and killing that was finally able to be properly conveyed on screen. Blustering and almost comically pompous they may have been, but, boy, did those doppelgangers give UNIT a run for its money in the massacre stakes. Showrunner Steven Moffat leaned into the comically pompous aspect of the Sontarans for their return in seasons six through eight, in the shape of Dan Starkey’s Strax, a played-for-laughs associate of the Doctor, who was perhaps one of Sontar’s most pacifistic sons – although he did enjoy sojourns to Glasgow to fist-fight with the natives.

So what mode of Sontarans will we encounter in season 13? Apparently they’re going to be back in the black-and-grey combat gear of their 1970s heyday. But will they be brutal and militaristic – Doctor Who‘s very own Klingons – or will they be more Strax-like – Doctor Who‘s very own Ferengis – perhaps with an invasion story that’s equal parts Keystone Cops to Charlie Chaplin? Or will we see a story wherein a breakaway faction of the clones wants an end to war and the right to individual autonomy – Doctor Who‘s very own Borg?

One tantalising possibility presents itself, one that could bring back yet another of the show’s long-unseen menaces…

Could The Rutans Join Them?

Chris Chibnall said in this Radio Times interview that he would only consider bringing back old favourites if they’d already appeared in the post-2005 iteration of the show. That means no Sea Devils, no Axons, no Drashigs, no cybernetic pirates with killer robot parrots perched upon their shoulders. But might he make an exception to allow an old foe from the classic series to ride into the modern era on the coat-tails of a qualifying species like the Sontarans?

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The Rutans look like the result of a union betwixt a floating brain and a jellyfish. The Fourth Doctor found one in Victorian England imitating, manipulating and murdering the occupants of a lighthouse. These are the creatures with whom the Sontarans have been locked in an aeons-long battle that has raged across the galaxy, claiming in its wake countless millions in collateral damage. Might we see the Sontarans face off against their sentient-snot rivals using Earth as a battlefield, with only the Doctor standing between humanity and oblivion? I think we’d all enjoy seeing the Rutans updated for the 21st century, rendered so they resemble what they’re supposed to be, and not a plastic bag filled with Vaseline that someone has stuck a torch in. 

Return of the Weeping Angels

The Weeping Angels have also been seen on set, so expect to enjoy some counter-chronological tomfoolery in season 13.

The Weeping Angels were, of course, the brainchild of Steven Moffat, who set them against the Tenth Doctor and Martha (Freema Agyeman) in ‘Blink’, one of the series’ most warmly-regarded episodes to date, classic or contemporary. While ‘Blink’ had its share of timey-wimey-ness, it was at root a simple story, simply told; a satisfying blend of heart and horror, pathos and peril. Each subsequent appearance of the Angels has diluted their impact, although Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor two-parter ‘The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone’ did a commendable job of maintaining much of their menace whilst also doing something a little bit different with them.

The question now is: where have these angels left to tread? We’ve had their spooky debut, their far-future follow-up and a companion swan-song that also saw the city of New York petrified (both figuratively and literally). Many potential scenarios suggest themselves: an Alien-esque race against time on-board a spaceship with an escaped Angel wreaking havoc?; the Doctor entering their quantum realm to communicate with them directly?; the Doctor hurtled back through time by an Angel and having to contravene, or at least bend, their rules on occupying the same point in time and space twice, perhaps by secretly piggy-backing a ride in his/her own Tardis?

I’m secretly hoping we’ll never see a true origin story or get a glimpse of their home planet. Some things are better left mysterious (though many would level that same comment at the events of ‘The Timeless Children‘).

Given that the Angels have been snapped on a sleepy suburban street somewhere in contemporary Europe we can assume that the action is going to be a little more Earth-bound. But might the re-appearance of the Angels (barring their very small prison-based cameo in ‘Revolution of the Daleks’) coincide with the introduction of John Bishop’s Dan, and, if so, what heart-ache might the unforgiving gargoyles have in store for him?

Is The Judoon‘s Story Finished?

The Thirteenth Doctor put herself in the Judoon’s crosshairs when she interfered with their pursuit of a hitherto unknown version of the Doctor, played by Jo Martin. Her solidarity saw her snagged by the Judoon at the climax of ‘The Timeless Children‘, and dragged off to a prison complex that bore more than a passing resemblance to the infamous Time Lord facility ‘Shada’ (glimpsed in all its glory for the first time in the animated reconstruction of the incomplete Tom Baker serial of the same name). The Doctor escaped, with Captain Jack’s help. Does this mean they’re both to be considered fugitives of the Judoon? It all depends who hired the Judoon. If they were employed by the Time Lords to track down Jo Martin’s Doctor and punish her for absconding from The Division (one distinct possibility) then surely the Time Lords would have to re-enlist the Judoon to recapture the Doctor, the one reasonably huge snag there being that all of the Time Lords are dead.

Still. It’s never stopped them before. 

When Will We See the Master Again?

Sacha Dhawan‘s Master doesn’t just chew the scenery: he chews the galaxy. His hysterical, histrionic, genocidal iteration was one of the true highlights of series 12. It’s debatable whether this Master comes post-Missy (after all, few things in the Who-niverse can truly fell a Time Lord, least of all a script) or pre-John Simm (more likely); what isn’t debatable is that we’d love to see him return. He’s almost certain to. Though perhaps not in series 13’s reduced run of eight episodes.

Who Else Could Return?

There may not be room for it this series, but might Chris Chibnall or some yet-to-be-specified future show-runner consider redeeming the Slitheen? Season one’s ‘Boom Town’ showed that there was plenty of pathos lurking behind the raucous farting of this on-the-run criminal family. Could we see their home world? Meet more of their species? Capitalise a little more on their imposing physical presence and terrifying strength? Make them a credibly scary and engaging villain?

And perhaps the Reavers could return to mop up whatever mess the Master has made of Gallifrey’s timeline.      

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Which monsters do you think deserve another crack of the whip? Let us know who you’d like to see making a return…

The post Doctor Who: Which Monsters Will Return in Series 13? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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So I just woke up...

And found a ton of posts of the Avengers/non Avengers when they get mad and.....just.......

They get like a rage dominance or something. So my brain goes "dude, as a dragon Kage should do that" but I failed to realize she DOES but it's different.

Allow me to explain:

I'm writing Kage's origin story (which starts in Iron Man 2008) and it introduces her and a slight rage issue she has. When Yinsen dies, he goes after some of the people outside but when Kage comes out, he bare recognizes her as she is a huge black dragon 3 times bigger than him. When of the terrorists try to shoot an rpg at them she literally catches that bad boy in her jaws, snaps it in half and eats that SoB. No shits given when it explodes in her mouth cuz she uses the shrapnel to fire back at them all while shielding Tony as he blasts off to get away (may I also mention she has Yinsen's body coiled in her tail because she can't leave him, even tho he's dead, there since he didn't deserve to die for saving her and Tony).

Later on after Tony builds her arms and her partial suit and they go to the desert to save the village from the same terrorists, she ends up getting really mad for seeing a terrorist kill a child and ends up eating the man in a rage. When she calms down she sees the village people are terrified of her so she returns to Tony with blood (and said guy's leg hanging from her mouth) on her, she flies off not wanting to scare any one else but is caught by the military when Tony catches up. [Bonus: she goes back to the village at a later day in her normal form to apologize for scaring everyone and they all praise her as a hero, Tony doesn't know about that]

When Obidiah comes to take Tony's Arc Reactor, Kage is there but he has her subdued with a "special toy" he made (I'm still doing research but I'm thinking a chain with electricity or something since it kinda is her weakness) for her. Tony and Rhodey end up saving her but Tony tells her to stay there at Stark Manor while he goes after Obi since the electricity caused a short in her arc reactor and it was shooting out sparks. She agreed but she found out about what Obi had done and the file he had on her, via her derping around on Tony's pc, she donned her rage form and flew straight over to where Tony and War Monger were. She was able to catch war monger off guard and with Tony's help draw him into the upper atmosphere. Tony's suit as well as war monger were not equipped to handle being this high but Kage's was. Once her body had entered into the cold her body morphed into its galaxy form and she held Tony in her talons but war monger grabbed her tail and ended up pulling them both back down so Kage flung Tony away from them and dived. Tony was almost sure that drop killed them both but when he came down war monger had Kage in his hands by her neck, clearly broken. Pepper was taking a bit longer to put the huge arc reactor into overdrive and War Monger had caught on to it so he was just out of range so Kage, who wasn't actually dead, charges into him and is dragged into the explosion as well but unlike Tony, her arc reactor had completed exploded in the blast.

Over the years, Kage has a bad habit of when in rage mode she kinda sorta eats people. After nearly eating Tony when her HUD display was hacked while fighting, she secretly designed a helmet that acted as a muzzle. Tony wasn't aware of this until when She tried to defend Tony from Bucky (in Civil War) and Steve's shield accidently busted off a huge chunk of the helmet and revealed it. Tony of course questioned her (after Steve and Bucky left) as to why she did it and she finally broke down and told him why.

Since she had to go into hiding, it was Tony's idea that instead of hurting people she should help them so because of that she went to medical school and ended up meeting Stephen Strange, the neurosurgeon.

Of course the accident happened and she lost her wings and arms then she went with him to Kamar Taj and learned magic. She had honestly thought she had her rage side contained due to all the meditation and training with the ancient one but when Kacelius attacked the sanctum and separated her and Stephen it had returned and with a vengeance. This time around her rage side was so uncontrollable due to pent up rage that the ancient one had to lock her in the mirror dimension for nearly a week until she calmed down. It was then that she was given a special collar made by the ancient one to help her channel her rage and she ONLY entrusted Stephen with the special spell to use it (due to her knowing her death was approaching).

Since then, Stephen was the only one that could truly control her (and she trusted him completely) when she became enraged.

Thus brings us to Infinity War. When everyone fought thanos, Kage begged Stephen to release the collar from her so she could go after him but being her keeper (and seeing the future) he knew he couldnt since it would only lead to her demise. When thanos got away she questioned him and he only answered with "I have my reasons my love as you will soon see" then he pulled Tony aside and gave him special set of gloves saying "don't ask questions but when she gets too hard to handle, use these against her.

Being distraught over her loss of Stephen she when into rage mode and her control collar broke but Tony being severely mentally and physically distressed didn't think to use what Stephen gave him to calm her and due to this she was hurt badly.

Once they got back to earth, Kage stayed with Tony but she was pretty much a ticking time bomb of rage. All it took was one misplaced word and she was instantly in rage mode but this time Tony remembered the gloves. When he put them on, instantly they formed a barrier around Kage and she seemed to be held in a statis but when he walked inside the barrier she was wrapped in what looked like Stephen's magic. Tony held out his hands and she lowered her head to him then leaned into his touch and said "I know you are Tony, but please allow me to see you as Stephen just a moment longer" she whispered and he saw his reflection in her eyes and he was Stephen. He then knew why he was given the gloves, he was the only one that knew she wouldn't hurt him and he would not hurt her even when she was enraged. He was now her keeper.

Eventually, he had built the gloves into his suit (with Kage's help) so when she became uncontrollable he could nearly calm her instantly but there came a day when the gloves didn't work.

They were fighting against an unknown enemy (I'm getting there, eventually) and one of them ended up gaining mental control of Kage and no matter what Tony did the gloves didn't do anything. She knocked him out of the sky then held him down and he thought it was the end. Suddenly he felt as if he was transported to a dream and Kage stood there not as a dragon but as a human. She told him that this was her human form she took while in hiding and he said she made a beautiful human. Not giving any thought, she ran to him and kissed him and whispered that she knew she was being controlled and this was the only way she could be saved. With that she faded away and a searing pain spread surged thru his body. When he returned he found he was face to face with Kage but as a dragon too. She had given him the gift of dragon transformation.

With his newfound self, he fought against her and ended up driving out what possessed her but at a great cost. Because she transferred nearly all her power to him using her clan's forbidden magic, she was then on the brink of death, in the middle of the battlefield. Not knowing how to save her, he flew her back to his home so she could at least have a few last moments of peace. She tells him that she was sorry she had to do it but without it he wouldn't have the energy to destroy what had taken over her but he resents not being able to save her. With the last of her energy her body morphed into a human and told him that he wanted her to stay, she would have to be a human but he shook his head and said he wouldnt have her any other way than as a dragon. With that she faded away but then it seemed as time froze around him. She reappeared but in a different type of dragon, "you didn't really think id leave you Tony" she joked and he ran to her and hugged her, "what happened? I really did think you were gone" he asked, "oh a bit of time travel thanks to a friend of mine. Sorry it took this long" she grinned showing him a watch (if you get this reference imma hug you).

Anyways this post got dark sad and angsty real fast so imma go back to sleep now. All of this was typed in my half sleep delirious state so I dunno if the latter half (after the IW bit I mean) will be actual but now I sleep.