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phoebepheebsphibs · 7 months

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Hide & Seek references compendium

I put so many little easter eggs and hidden things in my Hide and Seek fic, so here is my little ongoing list of references I purposefully put in the fic for those of you who like this kind of thing idk man

Chapter 1, Disney's Hercules: "Hey, Mack! Ya wanna buy a sundial?" Disney's Jungle Cruise: “Trader Sam’s! Come shop at Trader Sam’s! He’ll give you a great deal on shrunken heads! Two of his heads for one of yours!” the Holmes Hotel, Hugh's Pies is a reference to Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron series, Lilo's Stitches and Embroidery is a nod to Disney's Lilo and Stitch, "Crusty the Crab" is a nod to Spongebob Squarepants, Chell's Portal Stop is a reference to the game series Portal, and the final scene is from the ROTTMNT episode "Hidden City's Most Wanted".

Though this is not technically a reference or Easter egg, I wanted to add this note… I made a point of referring to Splinter as Lou Jitsu when he was mad or angry or selfish, and as Hamato Yoshi when he was scared or sad.

Chapter 2, Leo's determination to have Raph call him "the world's greatest ninja" is a reference to the film, Leo's quote "Land safely!" is taken from the episode "Mystic Mayhem" as well as the episode "The Evil League of Mutants", Leo's complaining to be leader is a nod to his future role, Raph referring to his father as a "sewer monster" is a reference to the episode "Man vs. Sewer", Splinter has a flashback from the episode "Goyles, Goyles, Goyles" and the line "OW! Why, you little--!" is also taken from that same episode.

Chapter 3, Mikey's dream is obviously a nod to all that he will do in the future.

Chapter 4, The origin of Lace Face from the episode "Man vs. Sewer".

Chapter 5, Phineas and Ferb "Escape from Phineas Tower": "That's some mole!" The line "Raph! Your enormous body is crushing me!!” is a reference to Disney's Lilo and Stitch, "sweater town" is a reference to the Gravity Falls episode "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel", the line "I didn't want to believe it, but... *sigh* science." is taken directly from the ROTTMNT film as well as a moment when Leo mentions that Donnie was wrong, Donnie uses two really's, a reference from the episode "Breaking Purple", Donnie gives Leo the comic seen in the episode "Jupiter Jim Ahoy!"

Chapter 6, Splinter's tv flips through several channels which include clips from media. These include a Thomas Sanders vine with "Weatherman Al", the quote "My leg!" from Spongebob Squarepants, part of the Fairly Odd Parents' theme song, Mrs. Cuddles' catchphrase "Let's be friends forever!", "I've got bad feeling about this" is a quote from Star Wars, the fake show about "Goosey" is an easter egg to @gooeseyleo and her Gooseyleo series. When Leo goes onstage, he does "a few improvised dance moves", which is a nod to Ben Schwartz and some dance moves he did in the Netflix improv comedy special "Middleditch and Schwartz”. The Lou Jitsu play the boys perform is a parody of the Godzilla franchise and the Pacific Rim films. Donnie's line "I strive for accuracy" is a reference to @sleepis4theweak 's comic (which I think about every gosh darn day), Horsebot-3000 and Splinter's line "I liked Horsebot-3000" are references to the show Community, season 3 episode 7: "Studies in Modern Movement".

Chapter 7, in the illustration Leo and Donnie are wearing Transformer and Decepticon t-shirts, respectively, and in the background you can see spray paint that spells out "Atomic Lass", as well as a drawing of the turtles' weapons.

Chapter 8, a young BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY make an appearance, as does a very young Harvey Hokum from the ROTTMNT comics. When Bebop tries to sell Leo, he calls him “Shelly”, a reference to my pet turtle of the same name. In the illustration you can see a goldfish on the shelf, which is meant to be Piebald.

Chapter 9, How It's Made, APRIL O'NEIIIIILLLL, Harvey Hokum, Warren Stone and Kendra are referenced, "Operation Blue Suede Shoes" contains the title of a song, a reference to how in the show there are several similar code-names used for the characters ("Purple Rain" for Donnie, "Yellow Submarine" for April, etc.) Leo says that Mikey has empathy amplified, a reference to the fanfiction of the same name written by @filsa-mek on AO3.

Chapter 10, the boys watch "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit". Leo promises to never leave Raphael alone and to always find him. Raph offers several scenarios that actually happen in the future where Leo searches for Raph - sewer monsters (a reference to the episode Man Vs. Sewer), getting captured by bad guys (the episode Bug Busters), and aliens attacking (the events of the film). The chapter as a whole is also based off of a few sketches I made - one of which shows the boys watching the film with Splinter, and one where Raph has a bad dream and wakes up to seeing he hurt Leo, who offers to help and gets the bros together for a turtle pile.

Chapter 11, the episode is heavily inspired by an episode of the audio drama series Adventures in Odyssey, specifically the episode "Mandy's Debut". The line "Wow, the shortcake of death" is a reference taken from said same episode! During Leo's flashback, a reference to the meme "She knocked that smug look off my face, but fourtunately I had a smaller smug look underneath" when Leo takes off his sunglasses to reveal a cooler pair of sunglasses underneath. Leo and Raph make a note to the fact that Leo is not the eldest in this universe.

Chapter 12, Raph, Leo, and Mikey teach April a game they play in the episode "Late Fee". When using sign language, Donnie tells Leo to "Stop yelling at me", which is inspired by a moment in Spy Kids 4. April introduces Raph to Ghostbear's starting career. Mikey repeats a line from the episode "Bug Busters", which is "Remind me not to ask questions anymore." Mikey uses the phrase "hydrate or die-drate", which is taken from a meme but is also something I say constantly as well. When in the Hidden City, Splinter hears people calling out to customers, one uses the lyrics to the Fairly Odd Parents' theme song, another is selling Mary Poppins' umbrella, a third is selling the three mystery journals from Gravity Falls, the fourth is selling Cinderella's glass slippers, and the last one is selling the Stanley Parable bucket of reassurance. Ochimizu is a Japanese mythical elixir of eternal life. The introduction and origins of Loathsome Leonard and the Mud Dogs. Malicious Mickey uses the "creepy doctor" line from "Stuck on You".

Chapter 13, Donnie delirium is directly based off of my own experiences with delirium, as well as his and Leo's conversation about whether or not Leo would miss him when he dies (which was an actual conversation I had with my mother when I was sick with croup as a little girl). The second half of that conversation was adapted from a scrapped fic called "The Kids Are All Dying". Donnie references the song "Big Yellow Taxi". The seven-tailed fox comes from Japanese folklore, but specifically this one was a reference to Naruto! Mikey sings the first line of the "Wonderfilled" song by Owl City. The secret ingredient being a discontinued soda was inspired by the ending of the musical "Be More Chill". The toad yokai becomes Heinous Green.

Short story, in the illustration you can see several signatures and sketches on Leo's cast, such as Raph signing "Mad Dawgs" and Mikey drawing his stickers. On the wall behind Leo is an eye exam that has the words "RISE" and "PHOEBE" on it. There's also a computer monitor in the back with Leo's vitals on it, as well as a notification about the trackers, and a list of all Hamatos Donnie tagged.

I will update more when I post new chapters... ;)

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #tutant meenage neetle teetles #rottmnt raph #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt fic #rottmnt fanfic #fanfiction #i understood that reference #reference #easter eggs #hidden refrences #did you catch that?

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letswreakhavoc · 4 years

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BJ v BY

I wrote my mad post already, telling people that are reacting poorly to stop but I wanted to actually write a post about my thoughts about this whole thing and see who it resonates with. This ended up very long, my apologies and many thanks to those who actually read it.

Full warning to my BeauJester friends, I fall more on the side of BeauYasha and my interpretation of a lot of the BJ moments read to me as not as intense as others read it. Which is totally fine, we all read into and interpret things differently to each other and each and everyone of those interpretations is valid.

So here we go

The original crush confession from Beau didn’t surprise me really, but the way it was worded through the whole discussion didn’t read to me very serious at all.

“It’s just- I don’t know- it’s just a crush!”

“She’s fun. She makes me laugh. I like her ridiculous plans. I think she’s complicated and layered. I don’t know.”

“I’m not gonna like act on it or anything.”

“I don’t think she thinks that I’m her type. She’s- she’s got a thing for Fjord.”

When Veth asks about it’s seriousness she confirms it’s just a crush.

“It’s not gonna change anything. Don’t let it change anything!”

All of this reads to me like Beau is sort of explaining “It’s Jester, who wouldn’t have a crush on her?” It read to me like Beau is explaining her crush on her straight friend that she knows she is going to eventually have to get over, no matter how enticing it may be to explore the possibility.

I can totally see where people are coming from in reading that Beau is pushing down or minimizing her feelings in a way. Which she very well might be, but even in that circumstance it still feels to me like Beau is confessing this crush on who, as far as she is aware, is her straight best friend so that she can maybe start to move past it before it becomes an issue within their friendship and within the party.

Taking this, alongside the fact that Beau has never even gotten close to exploring any part of her feelings towards Jester just cements this in my mind. She obviously is being respectful as Jester grapples with her feelings, exploring romance in a realistic sense, struggles with all of the god stuff going on with Artagan, but she never even speaks to someone else about it in any deep sense after the conversation with Veth.

Then, with the Talks Machina clip that’s been circulating again recently, this still doesn’t read to me as “Beau is in love with Jester” in any sense. It just reads to me that Beau isn’t just wanting to have sex with Jester, that her crush, however big or small it may be, isn’t the same as her messing around with Keg or Reani. This seems obvious to me, even with me casual interpretation of the crush in the first place. Of course the crush on your best friend that may or may not be that serious is different to your one night stands, you know?

Switching to looking at BeauYasha, we have flirting from the first episode onwards, consistently every time Ashley is at the table. At first Beau/Marisha talk about it in a simple view of lust. Beau finds Yasha hot, but she knows that’s not an attainable thing, and leaves it be. She doesn’t want to create tension within the group. And then close to 50 episodes on, where in these feelings may or may not have been growing, Beau finds out that Yasha is mourning a dead wife, and immediately starts to stamp down any feelings, however strong they are, because now it’s really inappropriate in her mind.

All the while though they keep talking, and flirting, and getting to know one another more and more as time goes on. Yasha goes through hell time and time again only to keep showing up, keep coming back, even after hurting Beau in altered states, always comes back to make sure she can try fix it.

We have things like

“I toss and turn hoping to hear thunder again.”

“I move all the way up to Yasha and I say.. ‘Hi.’“

“Beau is in front of me and I will very sheepishly put my hand over where I stabbed her and cast healing hands”

Yasha carries Beau away from Obann, taking an attack of opportunity in the process to protect her.

“You should be very proud of your daughter. You are very lucky to have her.”

“Those are beautiful...” “Well, so are you.”

“Beau you are so beautiful!”

The constant in battle flirting and banter

Do I even need to mention the flight?

And many many more moments, moments you can view here.

Up until we have Yasha breaking free of her shackles and letting go of her grief and pain. Ultimately letting Zuala go, and now it’s become all too real for Beau. It’s suddenly a distinct possibility in her mind and she can no longer contain the feelings she’s been ignoring for 7-9 months now.

We finally get to a point where Beau almost explodes, it reads to me like she couldn’t really hold onto it anymore and sought Fjord out to talk to him about it, and she mentions Jester in what I read as a respectful sense. Fjord admits that he is grappling with his feelings and Beau respectfully tells him that she also had some kind of feelings for Jester at some point, but she minimizes them again. Whether that’s because she didn’t want to upset Fjord, or because that’s just what Beau does, or whether it’s because her feelings actually HAVE minimized, we don’t know yet.

But she ultimately admits that she’s felt something for Yasha for a long time, that she has been containing, that she hasn’t addressed because it wasn’t the right time, it wasn’t appropriate. In Beau’s mind it was not at all a possibility until now.

A lot of people have been interpreting the part where Beau says “it kind of transfers, you know” in a way that perhaps her feelings for Yasha, in her absence, transferred to Jester. Jester her first proper female friend in a very long time, possibly forever that cares for her, looks after her, etc. I can sort of see this interpretation but I also think it’s completely normal even if that isn’t the case. People can have multiple crushes, people can have feelings for more than one person. And now we have Beau grappling with which one is more serious for her, and which one she may want to act on, if any.

On top of this, something else that really caught my attention was Jester’s reaction to Beau and Yasha’s flight. Her investment into the situation immediately reads to me that Jester has an investment in Beau and Yasha’s possibility together, and ultimately that reads to me that Jester has no romantic inclination towards Beau at the moment. Not to say it couldn’t happen, but at the moment it doesn’t read that way to me. And it’s possible that this is also what Beau reads from Jester’s investment in her and Yasha being alone together rather than jealousy or similar.

What has been frustrating me the most in this situation is seeing people posting and alleging that BeauYasha has had no build up, that there is nothing there compared to BeauJester and other similar things that I find crazy because I, and many others, have been seeing these things from day one. They’ve been happening the entire time it’s just been few and far between until recently because of ABC’s Blindside.

I’m not saying this is everyone, but there is an unfortunately loud group being particularly awful and I hope that this very very long explanation maybe gives some perspective about how others have read into these ships and how they are playing out. Calling it “retconning” I think is immature and premature all at the same time. Beau is still grappling with her feelings and what they mean, as is Jester, and as is Yasha. Let’s just see how it plays out, without being nasty to one another?

Don’t forget to love each other, guys.

#beauyasha #interpretations #beauregard lionett #yasha nydoorin #jester lavorre #pls be kind to one another guys

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sophieakatz · 3 years

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Thursday Thoughts: My Top Ten Muppets

Listeners of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour recently cast their votes to rank the best Muppets – an impossible decision, really. And yet, once the top ten list was read aloud on the podcast, I found myself completely unsurprised. It’s a list that made sense, a list of safe bets. It’s also an incredibly Muppet Show-heavy list, even though the competition was open to Muppets of all properties, including Sesame Street and my beloved Dark Crystal. The full top 25 list, available here, reveals that a few Sesame Street Muppets ranked in the teens, but still. We all know the top ten is where it’s at, and this top ten was neither creative nor representative. It struck me as a list of popular Muppets, not a list of the best Muppets. Most of my favorites weren’t on that list at all!

So, here’s my take on the ten best Muppets – and because I don’t believe in objective Muppet rankings, I want YOU to reblog this post and tell me your favorites!

10. Swedish Chef

The Chef came in ninth on NPR’s rankings, and I gotta be honest, I’m on the same page with them on this one. Maybe it’s the fact that when he comes onscreen, there’s no way to predict how the sketch will end. Maybe it’s the bizarreness of human fingers on Muppet arms – and knowing that those arms indicate a frankly superhuman feat of teamwork going on under the table. Maybe it’s just the Popcorn video, which always brightens my mood. Whatever it is, the Swedish Chef is definitely tenth best.

9. Fozzie Bear

I like Fozzie. He’s an underdog, never giving up in his pursuit of fame and audience acclaim. And even though his whole shtick is that he can’t succeed – Statler and Waldorf always get bigger laughs during his bits – he objectively has succeeded, because he’s still around and making us laugh after all these years.

What puts Fozzie in the top ten for me, though, is that I genuinely find his jokes funny. Honestly. I really do. So maybe Fozzie Bear sketches don’t really work for me, but Fozzie Bear himself does.

8. Rosita

I mentioned my disappointment before in the “official” ranking’s lack of Sesame Street characters. Sure, the cast of The Muppet Show has had a notable cultural impact, but it would be a disservice to Muppetkind if we ignored the impact of their friends on Sesame Street.

I could never forget Rosita. She’s not the most popular Muppet; she’s never had a super catchy song or a roll-on-the-floor-laughing one-liner to rival the others’ success. But her “Spanish Word of the Day” segments have a permanent spot in my memory. She’s sweet, she’s sincere, and she’s an excellent friend to her more famous fellow Muppets. (And as a bilingual Muppet, she’s really hecking important – there’s an episode where she deals with some kids making fun of her accent, and it’s equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming!)

7. Rowlf

While other Muppets have one-note personalities – see number 10 on this list above, and number 5 below – there’s also Muppets like Rowlf. He’s not an “Anything Muppet,” by any means – he’s a character in his own right – but Rowlf is a dog who rises to any occasion. He sits at the piano to bring both beautiful classical pieces and hilarious parodies to life, and it’s all music to my ears. He can be the Straight Man to more chaotic Muppets’ antics, but just one clip of “Veterinarian’s Hospital” proves that he’s got enough silliness in him to take center stage.

And all the while, no matter what role he’s playing, he’s still that chill dog I adore – calm and adorable, with that round black nose, those big fluffy paws, and those floppy ears just begging to be scratched.

6. Deethra

As much as I love the original Dark Crystal film, the Netflix prequel series Age of Resistance has one big thing going for it: its characters. The protagonists of this show draw me in and make me care, quickly and continually. And best among them all is Deet. Deethra the Gelfling – small and beautiful, kind and powerful. She cares wholeheartedly about the world around her, and that care begets a wisdom that balances out her naivete in fascinating ways.

Muppets are so often silly, and we love them for it. But Deet embodies the Muppets’ potential to tell a serious story, a potential we would be remiss to ignore.

5. Animal

Oh my god, Animal. If you want to talk about the sheer silliness of Muppets, you need to talk about Animal. There’s just no way around it. He’s loud – in both sound and color scheme. And he’s absolutely bonkers. I know every drummer has an Animal in them, and it’s likely that all humans do. We’re just not all comfortable with letting him out to play.

That’s what’s so great about watching Animal do his thing. He has no inhibitions; he is freedom, he is chaos. And he lets me feel a little freer by association.

4. Hup

I talked a bit about underdogs in the Fozzie Bear section above. There’s an essay to be written about the Muppet as underdog; it’s an essential Muppet quality. Muppets are characters you logically wouldn’t expect to succeed, but they persevere, nonetheless.

Hup is the underdog of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. He’s the Podling who wants to be a paladin. Dear god he’s adorable, dear god he’s funny, and dear god do you root for him (and his spoon) to save the day! Of all the characters in this show, he feels the most Muppety – and that’s why he’s higher on the list than Deet. He’s still a serious character in a serious story (when he cries… my goodness), but he’s got that classic Muppet spirit to him.

3. Elmo

You know, I just don’t get why Elmo gets such a bad rap. Is it that people think he’s annoying? Sure, he is! Muppets are objectively annoying characters – they all are. Yes, even the one you’re thinking of right now. But I fricking love Elmo. He’s joyful, he’s spirited, and he’s exploring the world around him in that carefree way only a child can – and he brings you along on that adventure! “Elmo’s World” is your world. “Elmo’s Song” is your song. Elmo’s laugh is fricking infectious. And yeah, I’m probably biased by nostalgia (my dad’s Elmo impression cracks me up to this day), but Elmo is a darn good Muppet and he deserves our respect and admiration.

2. SkekSil

On a completely different note… let’s talk about the Chamberlain. There aren’t really that many Muppet villains. There are plenty of Muppet henchmen, providing comic relief for a human actor who isn’t supposed to be seen as that much of a threat anyway. The Skeksis of Dark Crystal are a notable exception, and SkekSil, better known as the Chamberlain, stands out among them. He is evil and he is smart. I hate him, and at the same time, I am fascinated by him. He knows what he wants and how to get it, even though he’s nowhere near as strong as the other Skeksis. He is, in his own way, an underdog. He believes in himself, and he wields that confidence as a weapon, calmly explaining to his enemies why they should do what he wants. You just can’t look away. He’s an amazing character, embodying the dark side of Muppethood.

1. Cookie Monster

When my mom first shared that episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour with me, in which the hosts talked about their favorite Muppets, I first thought, “How could you decide?” And then Stephen Thompson said his favorite was Cookie Monster, and I shouted “YES!!!” out loud. Because he’s right – Cookie’s the best.

Cookie Monster is eternally funny, whether you’re five or fifty-five. Everything that comes out of his mouth is pure gold (“Why me not get royalties?”) He’s got the best songs – not only the classic “C is for Cookie,” but also “Me Want It (But Me Wait),” “Me Am What Me Am,” and the “Healthy Foods” rap. All the stuff I love about other Muppets on this list – the unpredictability, the ability to fit into any role a sketch requires, the lack of inhibitions, the confidence, the chaos, the unexpected moments of wisdom – he’s got it all. He’s irreplaceable, he’s lovable, and he’s the top of my Top Ten Muppets list.

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fly-pow-bye · 3 years

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The Powerpuff Girls - The Good Episodes!

After we use mouthwash to wash the taste away of those last 10 episodes, it's time to reveal what I think are the top 10 best episodes of The Powerpuff Girls. This was way harder to make than the worst list for many reasons, but I believe I found my top 10.

The same rules I used for the worst list apply to this list.

Once again, it has to be either an episode or a special of the original Powerpuff Girls. I decided The Powerpuff Girls Movie would have been too easy to put here.

I have to say one bad aspect about the good episodes as well. They're going to be pretty minor, and fixing them could potentially be bad for the episode, but I still think there's got to be something that could be considered bad.

This is my opinion and my opinion alone. There were some episodes everyone loves that I didn't like as much (Power-Noia, for example), and vice versa. If someone felt these episodes weren't that great, I respect their opinion.

Let’s begin!

10. Telephonies

This is the series' first villain team up episode, and it's a bold decision to make it after each of the villains involved in this only appeared in one episode each. One would think this would be better if they fleshed out the villains in different storylines before deciding to put these villains together. However, with Telephonies, it just works. A part of this may be due to how simple and clever this plot is, with the Gangreen Gang making prank calls to the Powerpuff Girls, falsely saying that a villain has run amok, and the Powerpuff Girls rush in to beat up the villain despite them not actually doing anything evil.

The calm scenes of the villains in their off-duty are all clever, with Mojo Jojo sleeping on the couch, Fuzzy Lumpkins just having a nice bath, and Him just sweating to the oldies. Mojo Jojo's reaction to this gets a special mention here that I must quote: "Oh goodness, I better not SNORE!" It all ends with a fight scene, and it's not the usual one. It's not the absolute best villain team up this show has ever done, and that would be pretty sad if it was as this was the first one, but the way the villains are used puts Telephonies among the funniest episodes of Season 1.

Bad thing: Maybe it's because of his strong competition with the usually amazing Mojo Jojo and the eccentric Him, but Fuzzy is the weakest link of the three victims.

9. City of Clipsville

I do want to be fair to the post-McCracken era of The Powerpuff Girls. Sure, Season 5 and 6 are the weakest of the six seasons for many reasons, but once in a while, there are episodes that hit it out of the park. City of Clipsville is an episode that pokes fun at shows that ran for so long that they found excuses to just reuse old clips because, back in the day, nobody could just pull up an old episode unless they religiously taped it. After using clips from Cover Up and both of the Monkey See episodes, the episode shows its true colors by showing off clips from episodes that both don't exist and probably shouldn't exist.

We get it all: scenes with the Powerpuff Girls as babies, the Professor getting married, the Powerpuff Girls as boy-crazy teenagers, and even short little comedic scenes like the Powerpuff Girls losing the ability to fly and the Mayor remembering the Professor making a giant pickle. I almost wish there were more scenes to talk about, which is why this is relatively low, but what is there is really good. A shining spot in what is otherwise a rather dull season.

Bad thing: I know this is going to be controversial, but I'll say it anyway: I think they spent a little too much time on the teenager scene. I'd trade a lot of that scene for just more rejected Powerpuff ideas. I know why they did it, I know they wanted to make it even longer, and I know everyone wanted to see even more scenes with the Rowdyruff Boys. Maybe it's how some fans actually took it seriously and wanted them to expand on this concept despite the scene lampooning the whole idea of grown up Powerpuff Girls acting like stereotypical teenagers. I guess with that upcoming CW show, they got what they wished for in the end!

8. Bought And Scold

Bought And Scold's premise is pretty solid in itself: Princess takes control of Townsville and, in revenge for not being allowed to be a Powerpuff Girl, decides to make crime legal so the Powerpuff Girls are out of a job. It's perfect for Princess; a petty law she made out of vengeance against her enemies, not really caring that making crime legal would affect not only Townsville's economy, but possibly affect her economy in the end as well. While I do like how they handled crime being legal by showing a bunch of little scenes of criminals with the decree in their hands, and the contrast between those scenes and the scenes in the end, it's really the second part of the episode that makes this one of the best episodes.

After we see a rather long scene showing the effects of this new law in Townsville, Bought and Scold becomes one of those "from the villain's point of view" episodes, which is not too common with this series, and the latter half of the episode does very well with that aspect. One could argue Stuck Up Up And Away, her debut episode, also shows this off with Princess, but that's just her whining to her daddy to give her superhero-grade super suits. Here, we get to see where she sleeps, how she yells at her daddy, and, for the only time ever, we even get to see her in utter fear at her father's potential anger when her house gets robbed. That last one is really something that puts this episode near the top for me; once this episode gets to the ending, it adds an extra dimension to her spoiled brat character that sadly just doesn't appear anywhere else.

Bad thing: What was next for Princess in this plan to rule over Townsville? Just delight in being the ruler of a crime-not-only-ridden-but-encouraged city? Yes, there is implication that Princess promises her daddy that she's going to be the best town ruler ever, but they don't go beyond that.

7. Forced Kin

Season 4 suffered a lot from having episodes that were a half an hour long, but here's a plot that is somehow good enough to deserve all the time it gets despite having a high-concept plot. Alien comes in, Powerpuff Girls can't beat the alien, they have to get Mojo's help, they basically try to out-evil each other, Mojo eventually goes crazy and defeats the alien, the end. There's no story to the alien, there's no complicated plot, just Mojo Jojo vs. an alien. They could have easily put this in 12 minutes.

It's the way everything comes together that makes this episode great: the alien being this prophet who can predict all of the Powerpuff Girls moves and counter them, Mojo Jojo teaching the girls the way of the evil genius, how wacky Mojo Jojo's evil plans are and how they manage to work in the end, and Mojo Jojo's unpredictable-even-by-the-alien tantrum in the end. Combined with the rather epic scale of the alien invasion, this is a must watch for sure.

Bad thing: Apparently, this nameless alien is the most evil being they have ever encountered? Why? Because it can beat them? What about Him? Maybe they're not counting the more psychological villains.

6. The Bare Facts

The Powerpuff Girls' main character are three girls that are supposed to represent three different aspects of one's personality, and there's no episode of Powerpuff Girls that really treats it that way more than this episode. We get to see each of the Powerpuff Girls lay down those titular bare facts to the Mayor, who was kidnapped by Mojo, each with their own different way of telling that story. Each Powerpuff Girl gets their own art style, too, a highlight being Bubbles' cutesy crayon drawings. Each of these perfect little girls tell the truth, each in their own little way.

There's plenty of jokes along the way, too. Bubbles keeps going off the record to talk about flower drawings or clouds, Buttercup just keeps trying to get to the end, and Blossom keeps trying to make the story all about herself. And, of course, there's the ending, which really shows why this episode is called The Bare Facts and gives the episode some rewatch potential. It's one of the more unique episodes of the series, and one that plays to its strengths. If one watches this episode and doesn't know who their favorite Powerpuff Girl is, I don't know who that person is.

Bad thing: Bubbles has those aforementioned crayon drawings, Buttercup has this dark comic book style, and Blossom's is just...pink. I get it, the joke is that the pink Puff is making it all about herself and her leadership skills, but it does seem like the weak link of the three, just like that pink villain from Telephonies.

5. Just Another Manic Mojo

Going from one Mojo Jojo episode to an episode with Mojo Jojo to another Mojo Jojo focused episode, one could probably argue from this list that Mojo Jojo is my favorite recurring villain in the show. As silly as saying the arch-nemesis is my favorite villain, though I do have some villains I wish were featured more often, it's hard not to think he is with episodes like this. Even beyond his first appearance in Monkey See, Doggy Do and his origin story in Mr. Mojo's Rising, this is the quintessential Mojo Jojo episode. Much like the second half of Bought And Scold, this is a day in the life episode, this time featuring everyone's favorite evil genius monkey.

An episode about a villain going to the grocery store can only really be good as the villain and his reactions to everything. Also, this episode heavily focuses on his famous catchphrase, using it as a really good running gag. It's not all just regular stuff, either. We get to see the machine that dresses and gets him ready for the day, he yells at kids to get out of his evil moat around the volcano, and he eventually just can't help himself to do a plan to exterminate those "bugs" once and for all once he gets the chance. This is the best spotlight on a particular villain this series has ever done, and it's only fitting that it was a spotlight on its most notorious.

Bad thing: The Powerpuff Girls themselves don't get that much of a role besides being annoying to Mojo, which is for this episode's plot, but it's not really playing to any of their strengths.

4. Something's A Ms.

Something was a miss, and this episode sure wasn't! The episode starts as a big mystery, as the girls have to figure out how these mysterious thefts were happening, all while Miss Bellum is acting so odd. All between, this episode reminds us what Craig McCracken's favorite movie is. I still haven't watched that movie, and that should be a testament to how good this episode is that it's still this high. It's as if references don't ruin episodes if they're good enough!

The mystery, the hidden jokes, and the final fight scene all add to the quality of the epsiode. Not just the final fight scene with the girls, but with a character that deserves a lot more respect than she got a decade-and-a-half later. It's also a breath of fresh air that the Powerpuff Girls managed to figure out what was really happening, and it's not just the villain just suddenly revealing themselves to their utter shock. An excellent ending to what would be a potential Sedusa arc, even if it's not quite the last time we ever saw her.

Bad thing: The fireplace scene, while great looking, isn't really something that The Mayor would do. That did take me out of the episode to think, "yeah, that's got to be a Big Lebowski reference." It is, by the way.

3. Meet The Beat-Alls

Lately, it's been a recent controversy among Cartoon Twitter that cartoons nowadays are just trying to reference popular things like Sonic the Hedgehog just to make people go "oh my goodness, they're nerds like me!", and I never got why that was inherently bad. If I was making cartoons, I would totally be sneaking references to my favorite games in them. Well, after that Big Lebowski-O-Rama that was Something's A Ms, here's an episode that's nothing but Beatles references. It's not even subtle about it. Song titles, album covers, parts of the Beatles history, and even the Beatles themselves in their 60's cartoon designs make a probably unauthorized cameo in the middle of the episode. It is a laugh riot.

I did say Telephonies was not the best villain team-up, and that's because that honor goes to this episode. Even if one doesn't know about the Beatles, and that could be more likely than one might think among today's youth unless they grew up on the Beat Bugs and would apply to me as a kid, the episode is still entertaining. It's not like the villains are out of character, I could see Mojo Jojo ending up in a Yoko Ono situation. This episode doesn't need any help to be as good as it is.

Bad thing: Him has always been betrayed as someone who is way beyond the other villains, but he's just another villain that just happens to shoot lasers out of his hands in this one. Even in an episode like Birthday Bash, another contender for greatest villain team-up episode of the series, he was treated as a villain far beyond the villains in the jail cell, taking over the news and Professor Utonium's mind.

2. Uh Oh Dynamo

Giant monsters? Awesome. Giant robots? Also awesome. Giant robots fighting giant monsters? Even Jet Jaguar led to that amazing flying kick scene in Godzilla Vs. Megalon. There's no giant lizard monster seemingly skidding on his tail here, but that doesn't mean this half-hour of power deserves any less respect.

I haven't even touched upon an episode that put a major focus on the Powerpuff Girls' father figure, and putting this near the top may be me trying to make up for that. The first half does make one kind of feel for the Professor's plight, as, while the girls can easily handle crime themselves, he doesn't want to see his children get hurt. The second half is just as good in a different way, with lots of creative scenes. The attacks from both the giant fish balloon, which became kind of a recurring character in their own right even for just two episodes, and the giant robot Powerpuff Girl. Monster fights, city destruction, family issues, this episode has it all and more. I should also give a special mention to this episode's sort-of-sequel.

Bad thing: This episode does have a little bit of that issue everyone had with Daylight Savings, which was an episode I thought was just in the mediocre category, in that the Professor's insistence on being an overprotective dad does cause the episode's problems. I'd say it's the least justified here, even if it does lead to the giant robot.

It was so hard to make this list, because there's so many episodes just as deserving to be in a best list. Here's the next best thing: an honorable mentions list. All of these could have been the 11 spot, or at least the first four, anyway.

Bubblevicious - The danger room scene that really pushed the envelope on TV-Y7-FV violence and Bubbles turning into a vicious monster leads to a great character study for the little blue one.

Speed Demon - With its dark atmosphere that would only be matched by Samurai Jack years later, it's hard to forget this one, as much as our minds really wanted to.

Child Fearing - I almost put this episode in the list, but I felt there was too much Jojo. I still think about "if I was a bunny I'd HOP HOP HOP!"

Him Diddle Riddle - There's so much variety in Him's riddles, one may ignore that some of them seemingly make no sense.

Bubble Boy - This episode's idea of having Bubbles try to hang out with the gross boys is a really good one. Most of the Rowdyruff Boys' post-"The Rowdyruff Boys" appearances have been hit or miss, but this one's the biggest hit. I would talk about the first Rowdyruff Boys, but I felt Bubblevicious was superior.

I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future - I already mentioned Live and Let Dynamo, so I'll go with this one. An amazing Rocky & Bullwinkle parody that really nails it down. Having the late great June Foray appear as the villain helps, too.

The Powerpuff Girls Rule - Hooray, I justified the rule of including specials! I was surprised on how much I liked this one. Maybe it is a good watch after watching the rest of the series, as there's tons of in-jokes. The fast pace didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

Finally, #1. I wanted to surprise everyone, but...

1. The Powerpuff Girls Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever!

That GIF's "Fly fly fly fly, pow, bye bye bye bye bye" was an intended name for this blog, but I felt that was really annoying, so I shortened it, and that's how Fly Pow Bye was born: from this episode. It's a relatively simple concept, too: it's a rainy day, and not even the criminals want to be outside, so the Powerpuff Girls have to pretend to fight crime using toys. After 2020 and the seemingly eternal quarantine it caused, this episode is even more relevant!

There are so many scenes in this that will stick in anyone's memories. Buttercup as the monster that surprises, Blossom's Miss Bellum impression, the Professor filling in for Bubbles and just wants to get it done, Bubbles and Buttercup dressing up as Fuzzy and Him, respectively, and even near the end, where, in a scene that is definitely similar to what happens in childhood playdates, Bubbles and Buttercup just decide to play video games during Blossom's epic Mojo Jojo impression/hide and seek game. During this project, I wanted to find an episode I can say that was more memorable, more quoteworthy, and more relatable than the very episode that gave Fly Pow Bye its name, and, while there were episodes that were very close, I'm still going to give the gold to this one. The Powerpuff Girls Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever is the Powerpuff Girls' Best Adventure, period.

Bad thing: If there's any bad thing to say about this episode, it's that I'd wouldn't recommend it as a first episode. Viewers of this episode need to know what the Powerpuff Girls usually do.

The Powerpuff Girls is a classic cartoon, and one of several cartoons that defined Cartoon Network in its classic era. It's no wonder why Cartoon Network just didn't want to let the Powerpuff Girls go, whether it be wanting to force a Season 7 despite the crew not wanting to do one, to that rather unfortunate event that happened in 2016, to letting it get the Riverdale treatment. Whatever happens next, all I can say is hurrah for Cartoon Network and the Powerpuff Girls. Bye.

See you on February 27th!

#fpb ppg mini #fpb ppg 1998 #fpb reviews #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Charles Schulz vs Andrew Dobson: What a Blockhead!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And what have you done, Andrew Dobson?

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

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

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prodigiousvisions · 3 years

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Headcanon/Divergence? [1] (Yosano): Childhood, The Great War, and life after the war.

Initial disclaimer and semi-related note(s)–

So if part of this looks familiar to you, that’s probably because you read it before in its original, rudimentary state. I have quite a few regrets of impulsively deleting my Yosano blog (vivificamortem) tbh due to having an episode, and one of them was not saving the original post of this when I first wrote it. That being said I still think it’s important enough to warrant a rewrite even if I don’t exactly recall the specifics. As this eventually becomes very Fukuzawa and Ranpo orientated/centric, I just want to make it clear this will not apply to your respective muses of these two unless we discuss it. These are considered backstory supplements and characterizations of Yosano and Yosano’s main verse. She does not have mains for Ranpo or Fukuzawa at this time, and I usually... don’t do mains? But for specifics like this, this would probably apply to potential, future mains and warrant mains of these two. If that makes sense. Anyway. This will also include a bunch of new HC details I didn’t have before.

I was going to be mean and not put this under a cut lol but I’ll be merciful since it is extremely thorough and lengthy. 2,300+ words lengthy, and that’s not including this disclaimer. I know I asked people to read this once finished but realistically I cannot ask that in good conscious unless you are genuinely interested/care and actually are into BSD lol. Fleshed out details+conceptualized explanations/characterization below. Content/mention warnings for suicide ideation + attempts, and neglect.

CHILDHOOD

Yosano was an only child. She was not a beloved child, a planned child, nor a wanted child. Her parents would have been inclined to give her away instantly had they not compromised to raise her as a sort of... ‘help’ for the couple’s wagashi shop. It was a regret far before the first sleepless night when she was a baby, but they decided to grin and bear it. Raising Yosano was an arduous task and they made it very clear in how they behaved toward her as she was growing up. Saying that she was simply neglected wouldn’t even begin to describe it. In response to this, as a young girl Yosano developed a loud, brash personality that would more often than not get her in trouble both at school and with her parents. Being punished was never fun, but at least it garnered their attention for a little while before they went back to essentially ignoring her presence. Her adapted personality would not lead to any fruition for her lonely soul at school either, most kids finding her annoying, scary, or would simply view her in scorn for being so outspoken and strange. She began to believe the outlook of her parents: her only use was to be a shopkeep of the family business. The girl debated with herself often what was the worth of life, what was the point to live, if not to live and be frowned down upon at every other moment. Troubled and depressed, Yosano tries her hardest to cope, keeping her chin up but her eyes glued to the floor when in seclusion.

At some point or another Yosano and her parents find out about her ability and the extent of it all. It freaks Yosano out at the start, thinking about how ridiculous it is that someone who contemplated on a daily basis what they truly benefited out of being alive could potentially alter the fate of someone’s life and grant them a second chance. Then for once, she finds worth in herself. It wasn’t something she could actively go and show off of course, but it gave her a purpose. Her dramatized exterior of self-entitlement and loudmouthedness proceeds on of course, but her outlook begins to shift. She has hope. She can do something good for people. And have a (figurative) place doing so.

This new purpose was an open door opportunity not only for Yosano, but her parents as well. At the first opportunity to do so as they are tired of taking care of this child, they’re quick to send her off, knowing how valuable that ability and its potential was. In this case, it was the military (either catching wind of her ability or deciding to now call on her due to the necessary role in their war strategy) demanding for Yosano to take part personally. It was a ridiculously easy feat to get their permission to send her away. She was technically no longer their responsibility while she was away. Hell, they hoped she would never come back.

She wouldn’t. And that was that. That was the last time she ever saw and would be in contact with her parents.

THE GREAT WAR

It’s worth reminding everyone that Yosano was a child, and the gravity of her new circumstances didn’t quite dawn on her before it was too late. At the start, she was excited to show that she could have worth and be surrounded by people that would appreciate her for what she did. It would be the first time in all of her life that would happen. And it is for these very reasons that she has such strong, genuine, sincere reactions during the chapters/times she is midst the war. While maintaining her semi huffy and self-imposed air, she was also able to allow it to falter a little because for once, she didn’t need to resort to that to be paid attention to. In their initial praise, it did freak her out at first, the foreignness being so strange to her. But she appreciated it, she truly did. (Note: this obviously doesn’t apply to Mori lol.) The unnamed soldier that Yosano interacts with at this time especially strikes a chord with her. His kindness makes her think that maybe if she was fortunate enough, she would have liked to have someone like that as a brother. Maybe someone like that could have stopped the pain she’d endured with her parents. But that was in the past! He was lending her more toward the perspective of hope just as he told her that she was doing for him and the other soldiers. The creation of the butterfly clip, again, freaks her out because she’s unsure how to react to kind gestures. It is the first of its kind– a present, meaningful in its weight and sentiment in a way that she would learn later would continue to influence her life in various, monumental ways. His present interest in poetry is also something that Yosano would find herself enjoying, too. At the time.

Honestly, I really don’t even think it’s worth elaborating on Mori cause. Well. That whole ordeal speaks for itself. His manipulation and obsession grosses her out at its minimum / start and would later be the colossal trigger and collapse of her mental stability and lead to lasting trauma even as an adult. But anyways, back to other details worth note in this timeframe.

The war efforts proceed and we reach the point where things are looking grim and soldiers are getting near fatally injured faster, and coming back in droves. She realizes rather quickly that she bit off more than she can chew; to have to bear witness to these men being on the brink of death and quickly ‘revive’ them like some sort of automated robot would, naturally, mess up anyone. Her haughty behavior drops quickly as she becomes more quiet, tired, horror creeping up her body gradually in the form of slowly raising goosebumps. She’s wondering when the war will be over, and starts to second guess her purpose. Is what she’s doing right? But she’s not hit rock bottom, not yet at least, as the unnamed soldier reassures her the second instance. He relays how her saving him would bring him back to his family. He tells her: “I’m glad that you’re here.” And it makes way for Yosano’s first instance of ever crying in front of someone, feeling an overwhelming amount of gratitude to being seen and the need to trudge forward to protect. Protect those who had a life to return to. He’d been living proof of the importance of life– that life wasn’t always so cruel to others, that she had a chance to be surrounded by those who cared about her too. She cries in her vulnerability.

Things turn for the worst. Every day is a living nightmare. She can wipe away blood from her body, others’ body, but she will never be clean of the endless pools of blood that stained her hands after her treatments. Even at the age of 11, she comes to the realization that she is the single force that shackles all these people to the torture of having to throw themselves into battle again and again for futile efforts. She’s on the brink of a nervous breakdown constantly, but consoles herself with the thought that the unnamed soldier will be able to tell her it’s alright, maybe even help her figure out a way to get them all out of there. Yosano doesn’t want her ability, hell, she’d opt to having no purpose over this. She would trade her life for all of these people. She just needed this to stop. It’s all her fault.

The person who was the embodiment of her last shred of sanity and piece of hope commits suicide and dubs her the Angel of Death, and that was her final breaking point. The sliver of belief that providing good for people and having a purpose is ultimately gone. Her worldview that she started to have hope for shatters. It was a cumulative, gradual raise of hope for a better life to have it all smashed to the ground. This tied in with the actual events she lived through, clearly, do not help. Trauma blocks it out of her memory later on, but there are plentiful, deliberate suicide attempts from the young girl afterward, wanting out of this hell that her own hands allowed to bear fruit, but for various circumstances and reasons, her attempts would not work and/or she would simply not be allowed to die at Mori’s hands. She is a hysterical, screaming, crying mess until she is no longer able to cry anymore. If not suicide, then alternative methods. Yosano would attempt to blow the ship up with the explosives that were stored at the bottom – it would have been a far crueler end than prolonging everyone’s destined death, but ultimately fails at that as well.

LIFE AFTER THE WAR

She is apprehended and taken away to an institution where she spends three years in a void of a space, living on earth as if her spirit has long been faded. She is a shell of a person, succumbed to her own despair and doing the absolute bare minimum. Humanity only ever makes itself present in jaded eyes that blink sometimes and the agonizingly slow rise and fall of her chest to indicate that somehow, she was breathing. Living, but not alive. Not really, anyway. She may as well be rotting away, unkempt, unpure, and wishing life would simply put her out of her misery. Devoid of any hope, feeling death would be a start of repenting for her crimes. But it was never that easy. Why would it be?

Ranpo and Fukuzawa rescue her. We all know how that goes. Let’s touch on some details of after that.

After rescuing her, the duo have Yosano reside with them in Fukuzawa’s apartment. While Ranpo and Fukuzawa managed to recover a glimmer of hope in Yosano by rescuing her alone, the hope is discarded as she feels she is unworthy of it and they essentially are put in a position where they have to rehabilitate her. These two people cared enough about her to try to help her– she can see it, despite going about like a walking corpse some days. But guilt is overbearing, suffocating, and it shakes her down with constant night terrors that she is too drained to scream at as well as frequent moments where she blacks out without prompting. At this time, the butterfly clip she dares not to remove from her person is a reminder, a grim heavy burden she forces herself to carry on her shoulders that she was not a good person and that this was her karma and hers alone. She should not forget that no matter how good intentioned Ranpo and Fukuzawa were to her. There was absolutely at least one more time she attempted to take her life. Needless to say, it’s a painstakingly slow process, taking about a full year before Yosano can even start to really improve outside of talking to them here and there.

(I feel like this behavior / state is EXTREMELY similar to how Kyouka starts off as, too, so my Yosano would definitely take to Kyouka more strongly than some others. But that is an entirely different conversation for some other time.)

Once she gets to a point where she can process things again and forcing herself to come to terms with the fact that these two will simply not allow her to remain dormant, Ranpo takes to tutoring her to help get her back on track to where she left off in her schooling, as she was getting stable enough to where Fukuzawa had confidence she could get better. This process was also slow, but Ranpo is quite the good teacher when he wants to be! The endeavor is a success, and she is able to enroll again in public school, where she is still piecing together why she was granted this second chance at life. It feels pitifully ironic, all things considered. As time does, it also grants an opportunity for growth and change. Eventually, she gradually shakes her way out of her shell at snail’s pace. Some days were still harder than others, of course. Getting poetry assignments would make Yosano have full on anxiety attacks where the only solutions of getting her to calm down were to have Ranpo or Fukuzawa at her side, or if at school and neither were present, to be sent home. These instances lessened over time, thankfully, and the episodes would turn to bitter, depressing moments where Yosano would tense up and try to pass it off to Ranpo if she was able in a way that while seemed lukewarm in how she expressed it, certainly held its weight of obvious trauma.

(She never liked to talk about her issues. Never. And instead almost always opted for distractions as her method of coping. It is a major flaw of hers that you can absolutely call her out for even in present time.)

Yosano will never truly return to being 100% normal, but that’s fine, as she really was never at 100% anyway. Schooling in its own right helped her cope with things and served as a distraction from negative thoughts, and she found herself enjoying it and studying harder than ever before. Assisting in the preliminaries of helping around the detective agency also allowed her to grow into the figurative seat that Ranpo saved just for her. No longer did she have to be abrasive to garner people’s attention, either, becoming more comfortable with an occasional snarky tongue when the situation allowed it, and slowly being allowed to live as herself for the first time. It was truly shocking to see that people liked her for her and not the potential of weaponizing the dangerous ability that she had. Once more was her ambition to help people reignited, but it would be done on her own terms. Compelled by her convictions as schooling was coming to a close, she decided that she would go to pursue higher education at a university while formally getting a degree to become a doctor. It is then when she got accepted that her new self would truly shine, becoming as close as she could to be at peace. This endeavor was sped up to lightning fast speeds because of her drilled in skill of being all the more studious and essentially holding the knowledge of what it entailed already.

Not necessarily integral details, but while in university, she did pick up the hobbies of taking up Kickboxing Classes as well as Dance Classes and are longstanding interests of hers that she maintains even after finishing her schooling. These, too, serve(d) as time slot distractions to keep her thoughts at bay when her mind decided to be a little cruel to her at some moments. Poetry no longer leaves a bitter taste in her mouth and is now a newfound interest of hers. She even writes poetry of her own at times. As of present time, her butterfly clip is still a symbol of burden she chooses to carry and a reminder, but it is also representative of metamorphosis, a chance at a new beginning– a new life. That there was value in life, and that you should live on for those who could not.

#unwind the scroll. >> long post.#/ ...what are tags ill figure this out later #/ i always said i suck at writing backstories and stuff and i didnt know what to write for yosano but turns out. i have a LOT to write for #/ yosano. should i put this in her carrd bio? maybe i should.

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elsarah · 4 years

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Favorite clips of s5

Thank you so much @smblmn for tagging me, I love the idea! While the season as a whole was kinda underwhelming, it was full of amazing clips and I do have a lot of favorites. Here’s my top 10 and a few honorable mentions. I tend to have one favorite clip by episode, except for episode 8, which I REALLY didn't like. I didn't rank my picks, I'll just list them chronologically.

And since I didn't have the opportunity this season, I'm also making gifs to illustrate my picks :) I need the practice, as you can see.

Ep.1: Samedi 0:25 - Le choc

One of my favorite things this season has been the symbolism and the metaphors around sound and silence. In the first episode, there were 2 occurrences: Arthur seeing Noée for the first time underwater at the pool and him looking in the street as snow falls and slowly realizing he's gone deaf. I thought this was an amazing idea and that it gave disability more depth and beauty.

And that look at the camera in the last seconds… And the piano music… It was so chilling.

Ep. 2: Jeudi 20:59 - La nuit de

Globally, the scenes at the association were my favorites, even though I have a complicated relationship with them. Before shooting started in October, someone from the crew promised they would invite me on set during the filming of these scenes, but they ended up breaking their promise. I try to be as drama free as possible on the internet so I didn’t talk about it publicly but now that the season has ended I’m like “Why should I bottle this up, I’m not the the one who screwed up and I’m still hurt about it”.

The first time I watched that clip in January, I was heartbroken. Not just because of the missed opportunity but because I realised I never got to experience what Arthur did; there was no association for me, no one. But I still have a really soft spot for this scene because it's just gorgeous. The aesthetic is incredible and I totally understand what Arthur feels (minus the alcohol). Overall, as bittersweet as it is, it's probably one of my top 3 scenes this season (and it looks like it's one of David's too, this man has great taste). I can’t help but feel for the teenager I was and I wonder how I would have felt watching it then.

Ep.3: Vendredi 13:12 - Check de frérot

Arthur and Basile's friendship was one of the highlights of this season, heck Basile WAS the highlight of this season. Basile and Arthur never shy away from hugs and I'm living for it. I'm so looking forward to see more of Basile in season 6 (since I guess we'll see more of his relationship with Daphné). I loved seeing him be so well-intentioned, despite his usual clumsiness. Seeing Paul in a more serious register (for instance when Arthur lashed out at the boys in episode 6) was delightful.

Ep 4.: Lundi 19:02 - Les entendants

This one also belongs in my top 3. This is the representation I was looking for when I learned Skam France would tackle hearing loss and deafness. It doesn't come in the same package for everybody, and I love that they tried to show it through so many different characters. The situations described here are universal among deaf people.

On a more personal note, I loved that the extras were actual deaf people and sone of them well known. The lady interpreting is Jennifer Lesage-David, co-director at IVT, and she helped David and Niels a lot this season. And the girl speaking about her relationship with her dad is Lulu, she has a YouTube channel with her sister where they raise awareness about hearing loss. The instagram post that was published that day also featured a lot of people I more or less know.

Watching this clip was an experience in itself. I was attending a conference that night about deaf TV archives. The clip dropped 2 minutes before it started and I had to wait for it to end to finally watch. It was excruciating. Also, half the staff of IVT was there and I actually ended up watching the clip in front them. There were like "Wait? Jennifer was in Skam?".

Ep.4: Vendredi 20:43 - Ma vie a changé

While I'm still sceptical about Noée falling in love with Arthur so quickly (this sign song is unambiguous), I think this is one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole series. I don't care very much about this being romantically coded, I just choose to focus on the sign song, because I'm so happy they featured deaf visual arts.

My friend and I spent hours trying to decipher what the song could be about and our interpretation differed a lot from Winona's original text but we loved doing this. David was curious to see how my friend would understand it (especially the part where Noée signs a growing love which she cradles) and he was so happy when she understood it right.

For those interested, here’s what we interpreted (roughly translated into English):

Like two souls lost in the storm, Swayed by the tide, Never really seeing each other Until ours eyes meet. Something is growing inside me, something new, That sets my heart beating. You take off my mask and the truth in your eyes, Fills my heart. Look at me, I also see you.

Ep.6: Mercredi 18:31 - Un simple bout de métal

Also one of the scenes I was expecting the most this season, especially when it transpired that Noée was a bit radical. Her letter echoes my own fears and I thought it was really on point. Arthur admitting he needs her made my heart melt, he's so lucky to have met her. And Winona was amazing in that clip.

Ep.7: Vendredi 20:31 - Sourd dating

Just like for "Un simple bout de metal", I was also expecting that scene. I like that they made Noée and Camille voice their opinion like both faces of the same coin. It was a great way to address cochlear implants as they're a sensitive topic in the deaf community. I think this is one of the most shining example of the research work they did. They could have just stopped at Noée’s letter. But since they had deaf actors like Lucas, who is also implanted and has faced prejudices from radical Deaf people in the past, they had to show implants were not evil and that the situation was more complex than just “Doctors who want to act as gods”.

Learning Noée’s backstory was also interesting, although I didn’t expect her to be an "ex-implanted" deaf. She explains that she learned sign language at the association, which can't be more than 3-4 years ago (and if you look closely in ep 3, when Arthur checks the website, she says she joined the association at its beginning), but there's no way Noée would have that proficiency in sign language in just 4 years of practice. Winona's fluency in sign language is clearly that of someone who grew up with it. I loved being able to notice these subtleties.

Like all the clips at the association, it was a joy to watch because of the atmosphere and the sign language. The deaf extras were lovely. I actually got to meet a few of them last month and had an amazing time with them.

Ep.9: Vendredi 20:17 - Choisir pour toi

Coline. singing. Do I need to say more? I like that both Noée and Alexia had their shining moment and as clumsy as the story got, I appreciate that the writers didn't try to pin one girl against the other and make one superior. Noée had her sign song and Alexia her own composition. And both were breathtaking. What really gets me in this scene are the colors. I'm a sucker for aesthetics.

And of course, it was great to see Alexia stand her ground and break up with Arthur. I have nothing but respect for her and I'm team Alexia + happiness all the way.

Ep.10: Lundi 10:04 - La même vie que vous

When Melchior, Laura and the brochure subplot was introduced, I was a bit wary because their introduction scene was really, really awkward (it wasn't very well tied at first). By their second scene, at Arthur's place, I was sold. It was great to address accessibility and show that there's no point putting people with disabilities in the same bag, because there are hundreds of them and the needs are different. What doesn't change is our wish to live our life at the fullest, just like abled people. And this scene was precious. Seeing Arthur endorse this new part of him and support his peers was everything.

Ep.10: Vendredi 20:47 - Le meilleur des mondes

I'm still very emotional about this scene. Like�� I don't know what to say, the music still sends shivers down my spine.

Honorable mentions :

Ep.1: Mardi 11:59 - 3, 2, 1,…

One of the only things Robin told me about the season when I met him at IVT was that the first clip would drop on New Year's Eve at 11:59 p.m.. That date became a beacon during fall and oh you wouldn't believe how much I waited for that clip to drop and how much I was looking forward to it. And it freaking delivered. The atmosphere, the tense music, that first shot on the loudspeaker, the confetti clogging it gradually… That teaser was a masterpiece.

Ep.2: Like… the whole episode actually. The alarm clock concept was genius.

Ep.4: Samedi 10:15 - Nouveau style

One of these gorgeous clips without dialogues that still say lots.

Ep.5: Samedi 10:03 - Maîtriser le langage

Oh my, this one was so relatable and a joy to watch. Camille explaining that sign language and mimes are different, Arthur being that dimwit asking about swear words and being told off for speaking… Kuddos to the deaf extras who had to pretend they didn't know any sign language, it was so funny (looking at you, Enzo).

Ep.6: Samedi 8:30 - Mythos

Seeing Arthur lashing out at his friends was cathartic. He roasted them so well, I wished I had his ability to speak so well when I'm angry. A+ work.

Ep.6: Dimanche 14:41 - Envie de rien

Alexia being the real MVP, as always.

Ep.7: Samedi 2:15 - Pool Party

It’s strange, because even though a lot of the story went down in this particular episode, it must be one of my favorites, like… tied with episode 2. It has probably a lot to do with the fact there were mostly deaf characters and that they had so much fun together. It’s something I can relate do, the sheer joy of signing the night away, which is something I didn’t get to experience until very recently.

As gorgeous as the underwater scene is, I'm not a fan of Noée and Arthur's almost kiss. I picked this scene because I love the moment of sheer joy that follows; everyone joining in the pool and having fun together. And of course the rise of Camika. I know it's a bit convoluted to have the two openly gay guys fall for each other first time they meet but… it just worked so well.

Ep.9: Mercredi 21:34 - Frère

This clip was about to make the top 10 cut when I remembered about another one and I had to remove it. Just Basile being lovely Basile.

Ep.9: Jeudi 17:30 - T'es pas tout seul

This clip was so important, bless the nurse and bless Jérôme. I wish Jérôme was my audiologist, to be honest.

Ep.10: Samedi 13:39 - Maman

Arthur's mom was so lovely and I'm so sorry she had to go through this shit with her trashcan of a husband. I liked her relationship with her son and her reassuring him he's not like his father was very soothing. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Arthur at the end of this season and I appreciate he’s well looked after after what he went through.

Ep.10: Jeudi 17:46 - Recommencer

Just like "Nouveau style" from ep 4, it's another one of these silent clips that has lots of meaning. Arthur putting back his glasses, slowly accepting his life won't be the same and that he has to move on. Except now things are clearer. Skam France love its symbolism and while sometimes it's very poorly done (like the love triangle emphasizing on Arthur's balancing between two worlds), more often than not it's very compelling.

Now I want to rewatch everything, so see you soon I guess :)

#skamfr5 #Manon rambles #I'm so sad my gifs look so ugly #I spent a lot of time on them but smart sharpen in a pain in my butt #I can't control it very well #oh well #I'll practice and I'll get the hang on it #my edits

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psyga315 · 4 years

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Fixing RWBY Volume 4

Volume 4 is… interesting, to say the least. It is obviously a breather volume, but at the same time, it tries to hammer home that every character is suffering to some degree. It also tries to do a sort of Game of Thrones-style “location-based arcs”, where multiple plots unfold across different areas. The only problem is that not everyone gets that spotlight. I can point you guys to the scene where Ruby sees Jaune training and nothing comes of it.

This is where I was beginning to see the problems of RWBY (dropped out midway through Volume 1 and only picked it back up before Volume 3), but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where exactly. Some critics have pointed to Volume 4 as a place where things begin to fall apart, especially in regards to Blake’s character. Then again, she was drawing pictures of the man who abuses her so…

As such, I’m going to tackle this Volume and try to tweak it so that it’s better. As before, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel or slap unneeded characters around. At this point, the only biggest change was Hazel’s appearance earlier in the show. With that in mind, we should begin with a meta-story first.

Keep Moving Forward

Volume 3 was a success and hype for Volume 4 was at its peak. Because RT managed to sell the idea that RWBY was gonna get dark way earlier than they did, I don’t see them using RWBY Chibi for anything other than training people to use Maya. Although there were plenty of animators from Volume 2.5 that used Maya, the ones RT picked out had experience with Poser and thus, they need to bridge the gap before the big Volume.

Around the same time, Miles and Kerry begin to realize that they’ve undertaken a rather ambitious task. Realizing the limit of their age earlier than they did (no joke, part of the reason the Faunus subplot got ditched was because they considered themselves too young and inexperienced to properly tackle it), they had an emergency meeting to figure out how to handle this Volume.

One solution was to simply keep the girls separated for one or two episodes before they’re reunited, nipping the problem in the bud and allowing the plot to continue. Miles insists that there should be a longer degree of separation. After all, all these girls have been traumatized and this isn’t going to be a simple pat on the back for them. The idea is then extended to one volume, to which Kerry suggests that the girls spend two Volumes separated. One where they’re getting over their trauma and the other where they’re doing something about their situation.

Instantly, the idea sticks and plans for both Volumes 4 & 5 began to take shape. Now comes the question of how to handle the high concept of four, maybe five plots going on at once. I’d assume that, with the Volume 2.5 thing, RT would have a lot of animators they could call upon. And so, a means to tackle the idea was formed: Much like how RWBY split up, so too should their animators. Miles and Kerry would continue to write scripts for the episode (barring suggestions from each animation team) and the four animation teams would handle their respective arc.

We have Team Mistral, the main team that deals with all the RNJR scenes and scenes that don’t involve the other members of RWBY, such as Salem’s Lot and Oscar. Then we have Team Atlas, who handles Weiss’s scenes. Team Menagerie handles Blake’s and Team Patch deals with Yang’s.

M&K also decide, this time, that, if they’re going to get serious, they should at least set up some sort of timeline. This leads to a month of brainstorming between them and other members of the crew to figure out what sort of hijinx would happen in a 6-8-month timespan and more importantly, how the saga would unfold. Should it all be at the same time or split across different points? Miles argues that it’d get too confusing, so at the same time would do.

They also decided to plot out how Volume 4 would unfold. Each episode will have RNJR as a major focus, with the members of RWBY sharing focus each episode. The way it works would be as follows:

· Episodes 1, 11, and 12 would focus on RNJR and WBY.

· Episodes 2, 5, & 8 would focus on Weiss.

· Episodes 3, 6, & 9 would be on Blake.

· Episodes 4, 7, & 10 would be on Yang.

· Some episodes would sprinkle in scenes of Salem’s Lot and Oscar.

This obviously messes up the flow of Volume 4, but at the same time, it would give everyone proper focus instead of randomly across the entire volume.

With the hype of Volume 4 reaching critical mass, it premieres on October of 2017 (remember, they delayed Volume 3 by a year to get the additional animators) and this is how Volume 4 would be tweaked…

Salem’s Arc

The first thing we see is Salem’s group celebrating their victory over Beacon while berating Cinder over getting injured. Salem destroys any vague wording she had given in the original and outright says that the method of which Cinder took her powers was considered unnatural and that she did not expect Ozpin to have a Silver-Eyed Warrior in his academy. Hopefully the audience can put two and two together that she’s talking about the Grimm-

[cue that clip of the audience reacting to the Volume 4 trailer and someone shouting “IT’S SUMMER!”]

… Salem explicitly points out that Cinder used the Grimm and that’s why she got fucked up by the Silver Eyes.

Most of these scenes stay as they are with the exception of Hazel being the new member of the group and thus be introduced to Watts and Tyrian, the latter of which being the one who saved Cinder last Volume. Hazel shows some remorse to the Fall of Beacon (to the point where he takes over Emerald saying “it’s almost sad” from last Volume) but when Salem says Ozpin was killed, he is relieved. At least something good came from the bloodshed.

Another change would be that Salem assigns Watts to Atlas instead of Haven. Her reasoning is that, with the CCT being down, she’d need to find a means to see what’s happening in Atlas. Watts understands and prepares a transport to Mantle, knowing he can hack into it with relative ease. When Hazel gets his assignment to talk with Sienna Khan, he asks if Tyrian would be a better choice, since… Y’know, Faunus. When Salem considers switching Tyrian’s job with Hazel’s (hunt the Silver-Eyed Warrior) Hazel and Tyrian instantly reject the offer. Hazel because he doesn’t want to hurt Ruby and Tyrian because he wants to hurt Ruby. Note that Salem doesn’t mention anything about the Spring Maiden. It’ll become apparent why in Tweaking Volume 5.

Also, I’d keep Salem’s motherly nature in this scene because that was always the nice contrast to Ozpin and considering how I dialed up the untrustworthiness of Oz, having Salem treat her minions like children instead of tools or assets would set up a huge contrast.

Cinder’s scenes are kept the same. At some point, I want to establish that the reason characters seemingly teleport all over the place is that it’s something Salem’s Seers can do. This would be done by placing multiple Seers across Remnant, which his why Watts is also going to Atlas, and then using one Seer to teleport to the other.

Oscar’s Arc

I like to thank Vexed Viewer’s video on how the creators screwed up introducing Oscar, since it gives me an easy means to avoid all the shit they did.

Oscar’s arc begins same as it does, but this time, his aunt (who we actually see) enters his room and asks if he’s okay. This has been the fifth night in a row where Oscar has had night terrors, almost centered around the exact same thing: the Fall of Beacon. Despite living so far away from Vale, he remembers the massacre vividly. More importantly, he remembers fire. Lots of it.

One of the episodes would end with focusing on him, only for a voice to pop up: “Hi! I’m Professor Ozpin!” That’s clearly more of an ending bit than a beginning bit.

Episode 6 and 7 would be where we see a good chunk of Oscar’s story unfold. Obviously, we have Ozpin trying to get Oscar to go to Haven, Oscar wants nothing of it. He has dinner with his aunt where, slowly, Ozpin takes over Oscar and forces him to go to Haven, convincing Oscar and his aunt that he always wanted adventure. Even without a body, Oz manages to find someway to ruin someone’s life to have his way.

Also, we don’t have him take the train. That’d be like if in Lord of the Rings, everyone was walking into Mordor and suddenly some 12-year-old kid flies in on the hawks. He’d be in actual walking distance from Haven. About an hour away. The encounter with Hazel stays the same, but Oscar has a slightly longer conversation with Hazel where he asks him if he’s ever been pressured to do something he doesn’t want to do. Hazel, having no idea about Ozpin’s reincarnation, tells him he has, but the reward would be to have peace of mind. This motivates Oscar to fully commit to going to Haven.

Also, skip the stinger because we’re going to use that for Volume 5.

Yang’s Arc

It’s mostly the same, but Port and Oobleck aren’t in the house since they’re dead. Also, Ironwood states in a letter that he apologizes for DQ’ing RWBY and that there’s no need to thank him for the arm so we can get rid of that meme.

There’s another plot detail, one that I’ll establish in Weiss’s arc, but the long story short of it is that the news plays footage of the ball where the Trophy Wife laughs about Vale lacking proper defenses, setting the already upset kingdom into fury, since those defenses were Atlas’s and as far as everyone knows, they were part of the problem. Taiyang is forced to go out and help quell the demands to go to war on Atlas.

Here’s how I’d structure it:

Episode 1 would have Yang adjusting to life without the arm. The simple montage of her doing chores which gets interrupted with Adam flashbacks.

Episode 4 has Taiyang giving her the prosthetic. She tries to wear it, only to have flashbacks of not only Adam, but injuring Mercury and Blake leaving her. She gets her signature hand trembles as she remembers the train from Volume 2, Gretchen’s death, and Raven telling her about Summer. It ends with her asking if she should really become a Huntress.

Episode 7 shows her watching the news when the Trophy Wife footage comes on and sees Weiss attacking her with a Boarbatusk. For the first time since arriving in Patch, she feels concern for her teammates. She knows that Ruby would be safe since she has Jaune and the others and Blake can die in a fire for all she cared. Taiyang comes home, tired and even battered a bit, having to stop some people from committing Atlasphobic attacks, which led to a Grimm attack. They have a chat about the state of Vale and Yang asks Taiyang why she even became a Huntress in the first place, to which Taiyang replies that she wanted to be like her mom, Summer. After she left and was presumed dead, Ruby had been menaced by a small bird Grimm (I’m going there) and Yang tried to fend it off. This was the spark that led to her being a Huntress. Yang, however, doesn’t buy the idea and goes to bed.

Episode 10 would bring the Atlasphobic attacks right to Yang’s home as the house is bombarded with people citing Taiyang as “Ironwood’s bootlicker” and “a droid sympathizer”. They want Taiyang’s head because if he’s not with them, he’s against them. The sad thing is that most of them are traumatized people who lost loved ones to the attacks. Yang wants nothing of it, but the moment the group grabs Taiyang and tries to string him up, her anger flares up, grabs the arm, and slaps it on her. She goes in and saves Taiyang from getting lynched but when it comes time to attack the crowd, she flinches and remembers attacking Mercury and recalling the words of doubt Blake casted in her head. She ejects the arm and, realizing she’s fighting people without awakened Auras, fights to knock them a few out before calling everyone out for letting fear control them. This obviously doesn’t instantly resolve the tensions with Atlas, but it does inspire Yang to return to being a Huntress.

Episode 11 has Taiyang, after healing up from the beating he got, talking to Yang about Raven. Because she knows about STRQ in this tweak, we don’t need to do the whole “oh, so now you talk about her” thing, but Yang does ask what Raven meant with Ozpin valuing Summer as a Pawn. Taiyang asks when she met Raven and notes that she would add that little detail. He then explains to her that Summer was special, just like Ruby, and that she was sent on special missions that none of the others were invited to. With Ozpin kicking Raven out, having favoritism placed on Summer and making Qrow his personal Huntsman, he slowly dismantled STRQ and Taiyang has quite a bit of upset over that. Realizing that this is what’s happening to RWBY, Yang decides to head to Haven…

Episode 12 has her using her motorbike, only to be stopped by a Huntress, Heather Shields, who asks for her help in tracking down a bunch of bandits. She isn’t interested until Heather says that their leader is possibly in league with the White Fang as they have a Grimm Mask. This piques Yang’s interest since this could either mean Raven or Adam.

The reason I added this subplot about Atlasphobic attacks is that I really didn’t want that ballroom scene to be in a bubble and I also wanted to emphasise the whole “angry at Atlas” thing.

Weiss’s Arc

Quite literally the same arc, but with a battle between Weiss and Jacques because he didn’t really have any earned comeuppance in Volume 7 and it’d be a better place for “This Life is Mine”’s rock version than battling giant bumblebees.

Episode 1 has Weiss more subdued than her earlier Volumes, showing her father’s leash is well on her neck. She is asked to visit her father, leading into episode 2, which has no actual changes outside of the reasoning for Ironwood’s embargo being more vaguely worded, since we want to illustrate that he’s going 1984 right now.

Episode 5 is Episodes 6 & 7 of the original mashed up into one episode. However, we get a shot of Watts recording the ball, then using the Seer to teleport to Vale and hand his recording to a local news outlet before moving to Mistral with the Seer.

Episode 8 is Weiss mastering her summon and sneaking out… Only to be caught by Jacques. Jacques is well aware that Weiss’s songs were nothing but hate speeches to him and he demands respect. Weiss refuses, telling him that he’s a poison on the family. Jacques remarks that she’d technically be poison too, since the Schnee children share his DNA. It soon leads to a battle in the Schnee manor where Jacques over relies on Dust as he isn’t a skilled fighter while Weiss over relies on her summon. As such, the two are evenly matched until Jacques runs out of Dust. Realizing that her fighting has become sloppy, she goes back to using her Glyphs and uses one to pin Jacques in place in a manner similar to how Watts pinned Ironwood in their V7 fight.

Episode 11 has her try to get on an airship before Ironwood stops her and tells her about the closures in place… Then assures her she has clearance to go, inquiring that she goes to investigate Winter’s findings on Haven. She jumps at the chance because she thinks Winter is there. Episode 12 is her on a private military aircraft with Pilot Boi.

Blake’s Arc

… Oh boy. You can tell why I saved this one for second last. Blake’s arc is by far the most infuriating of the arcs and really sets a bad standard for her. I remembered flipping her off when she said “we’re not going to fight the White Fang” when I was first watching Episode 11 because I had it up to here with her tomfoolery.

So, instead of making the battered abuse victim abuse Sun and chilling at her parents’ place as the rest of her team suffers while being stalked by someone who has a big lesbian crush on her, we’re gonna rehaul her entire arc.

Episode 1 has her secure passage on a boat. It’s not as grand as a liner in the original, but it’s not the rinkydink rowboat she was on in the comics. Rather, a simple cargo ship she had to bribe in order to get on. She has no clear goal in mind and when asked where she’s going, she says “nowhere. I just want to keep running.”

Episode 3 plays similarly to Runaways and Stowaways, but Sun stalking Blake is removed. If he wanted to be a good Samaritan, he shouldn’t dress up like some fucking cultist for no discernable reason other than “le bait and switch!” Instead, he’s there because SSSN need a lot of supplies and money to back to Haven and Sun is just doing his job as a security guard. He plays catch up with Blake whose moody nature causes a Grimm to attack them. The Grimm is defeated, but the ship has taken damage and must make a pitstop. When asked where it’s landing, the captain says “Menagerie” and this fills Blake with fear.

Episode 6 has Sun and Blake arrive on Menagerie, where it’s actually crowded this time. Failing that, the big problem is that they’re intolerant towards humans, since this is their turf. Obviously, the captain is met with tons of scrutiny and forces Blake to do the one thing she’s avoided her whole life: Talk to her mother.

I should explain something before we continue. In this tweaking, Ghira was killed by that group of people in Adam’s short. This explains the sudden shift between White Fang leaders and Adam’s words in Volume 3. In honor of Ghira leading a noble cause, Kali was given the title of Chieftain of the village I forgot the name of (Kua Kuana?) With her status, Kali could grant humans a temporary pass. And so, Blake reluctantly visits her and we get a touching reunion.

We also see Blake get introduced to the Albains, who in this tweaking aren’t telegraphing that they’re bad guys and are genuinely trying to get in Kali’s good graces. When Blake gives the Albains the business of the White Fang killing people, they state that they’re well aware, as they have Adam in custody and will sentence him to exile in the wilds of Menagerie where he’d most likely meet his end at the hands of monsters. Keen eared viewers would notice that Salem said that Adam was meeting Sienna Khan so… what gives? Well, that’s going to be explained in…

Episode 9 has Blake and Kali talk a bit about Ghira, we have that much needed talk, but instead of Sun busting it, it’s Fennec. He reports that Sun had been kidnapped by renegade White Fang members, but not saying that it was their members that kidnapped Sun. This causes Blake to give chase and goes to the outback where we get to see one of the vicious monsters Blake talked about instead of leaving it to the imagination or DC.

There, we see Sun and Blake were able to defeat it with moderate difficulty before they see Adam. The three fight, but as Blake’s trauma kicks in, Sun protects her and ends up knocking Adam senseless, revealing that it isn’t even Adam, but Ilia using a Semblance that makes her camouflage as other people (think Neo’s Semblance, but on a smaller scale). Blake and Sun are confused before Ilia knocks Sun out and retreats. I should also mention that in the battle, they also knock the scroll out of her.

Episode 11 has Blake explain to Sun why she ran (without her being a bitch about it) and Sun says why that reason’s bullshit. Kali and Corsac come in and they converse about how Adam is still out there. Kali shows plans for a raid on Haven and Corsac feigns condemnation of Adam’s actions. Blake then states that the White Fang has gone too far with its corruption and must be destroyed.

Episode 12 isn’t focused on Blake, but rather on Ilia, as she reports to the Albains and informs them on why she had to disguise herself as Adam. It’s here we find out that, yes, the Albains were in on Adam’s plans the whole time, but had to keep up appearances. They then explain that their goal is to try and prevent Menagerie from going to Mistral’s aid.

Ruby’s Arc

Finally, we get to RNJR. This is gonna be a long one since they’ll have all 12 episodes, even if they appear in only one scene. Let’s knock these out of the park by saying that Episodes 1 & 2 relatively stay the same, but episode 2 has them arrive in Shion just as Raven’s team attacks. This leads to a battle where Ruby battles her sister’s mom and doesn’t even know it. However, Ren sees the mask and freaks. Making matters worse is that the Nuckelavee appears and forces Raven to retreat. The group manages to hold off the Nuckelavee, but are unable to defeat it, leading them to run with a Huntsman following them, the same one that died in the original.

Episode 3 has Ruby talking to Ren about what the hell was up with his freak out but Ren refuses to talk and Nora isn’t helping matters. The huntsman introduces himself as Shiro Wan and says how he’s been assigned by Lionheart, the Headmaster, to investigate a recent string of bandit attacks. He then says that, if they can help him with the bandit, he can get a good word in to bring the group to Mistral. Ruby later confronts Jaune on his training with Pyrrha’s video as Jaune berates himself for letting Pyrrha die at Beacon, saying that if he was stronger, he would have helped her. We end the episode with him confiding in Ruby something: “Ozpin tortured Pyrrha…” That or he wants to kill Cinder.

Episode 4 reveals that Qrow is not only following them, but is talking to Raven about the Spring Maiden. Raven feigns ignorance, but her wording leads Qrow to confirm that she knows where the Spring Maiden is. Also, I want him to say this:

Qrow: If you don’t tell us, we’re all going to die.

Raven: And who’s this ‘we’ you’re referring to?

Qrow: EVERYONE, YOU DUMB FUCKING EDGELORD BITCH!

… I just want to do that.

Episodes 5, 6, and 7 are relatively the same, but Tyrian kills Shiro. Episode 8 has Jaune lay into Qrow about Pyrrha and Qrow tries to defend Oz by saying that Pyrrha chose, but Jaune brings up how he saw the contrary, even asking Qrow if they informed Pyrrha about Salem and the Relics, to which he sadly says no. Episode 9, 10, 11, and 12 are relatively the same as well, with only two exceptions. The first is that, in the flashback for Kuroyuri, we see that Ren makes friends with a ten-year-old girl before Raven and her bandits attack. Nora is also there and with her depression and the bandits, the Nuckelavee is let loose onto Kuroyuri, the ten-year-old last being seen with Raven and looking at the destruction with remorse. During the Nuckelavee fight, Ruby’s silver eyes act up, freezing the Nuckelavee in place for Ren to hand some final blows, rather than “hold arms down to win”.

The stinger isn’t really plot important, but reveals what will immediately happen in Volume 5 as Jaune, Nora, and Ren, with Pyrrha’s shield (if you’re gonna say she has extras, at least show she has extras), carry it over to a house and knock on the door… It’s clear what’s going on, but as the door opens, we cut to black. To be continued in Volume 5.

DVD Extra

I’d say four extra stories starring each member of Team RWBY. Maybe even adapting a story from the comics?

And that’s Volume 4… The next tweaking is going to be my final one and I’m gonna go out on a bang.

#RWDE #RWBY #RWBY rewrite #rewrite

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langst-wins · 6 years

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Okay so y'all are sleeping on the After Buzz interview!!! There's SO MUCH Klance goodness to unpack here, it's full meta worthy.

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Okay, so I'm sure by now everyone who regularly views the Klance tag has seen a short 20-30 second video clip from this interview going around. We're all pretty hyped about it (as we should be!)

For those who haven't seen that clip because they live under a rock: it's basically a 45 minute interview all about The Fued episode.

Here's the thing though: that 20-30 second video clip does NOT even CLOSE to do justice to the significance of Klance hinted at in this interview!! That clip isn't even the best part, imo! I highly recommend, before you even scroll down to read this meta, that you click on that video and watch from about 34:50 to about 37:20. That's the clip I'm gonna write about.

Watched it? Okay. Good.

Now listen up.

Somebody was in the Klance tag earlier tryna get people down by saying the interviewer was the one who brought up Klance, but if you watch the video clip I reccomend above, that's not true at all.

The interviewer was asking in general about how they decided who would pick who at the end of the episode. Lauren is the one who brought up Keith and Lance and their dynamic, pretty much out of the blue.

The interviewer asked how they decided who was gonna pick who, and they're talking about who wrote the episode, giving Tim credit, etc.

Lauren started saying Bob was trying to get the better of the team, and having them all choose someone besides themselves and having everyone get chosen, and show they all respect each other, was the only way to beat Bob.

But JDS had a different view.

JDS: "I think Bob was just trying to help them realize it. I don't think he had it out for them, I think he was--his endgame was, like, I want these guys to work."

I know JDS was trying to sound like he was referencing the entire team here - but honestly? I don't think he was.

I say that because, when I first watched this episode as a Klance shipper, this was the exact thought I had regarding Klance. I flipped because I was thinking, "Wowza, Bob's really out here tryna bring Keith and Lance together, huh. Number one Klancer right there, ol' Bob." I've always thought that Bob was low key trying to play matchmaker for Klance and this kinda sort of confirms that in a way, I think.

JDS: "We were like 'how's this gonna happen?' then we read it and we were like '...oh that's pretty smart, yeah.'"

LM: "That is a good way for that to happen."

JDS: "It all worked out, yeah."

I don't understand how this relates to the team as a whole.

I don't understand how this relates to the team platonically choosing each other.

They all like and respect each other. We already know this. What does JDS mean by "how its gonna happen"? How is what going to happen?

Good way for what to happen, LM?

Keep in mind, Bob is essentially an all-knowing deity. If Keith and Lance have romantic feelings for each other, he for sure knows, and was trying to help them realize it just like JDS said.

After this, the interviewer continues on talking about Keith and Lance dynamic and how theres always gonna be that little bit of antagonism between them even though they're mostly getting along now. The interviewer even brings up the "dont miss" snippet scene that pretty much everyone but Klancers brushed off in season 7.

And if you listen while the interviewer is talking about Keith and Lance and their dynamic, LM is kind of saying "yeah" in the background in a weird way, like she kind of sees, the same way I do, that the interviewer is thinking along a line of Klance.

It sounds like she maybe doesn't want to talk about it? It's hard to explain, just listen to it.

And LM kinda awkardly says "aww" at one point while the interviewer is talking about Keith and Lance dynamic. Like I'm sorry but..why aww? And why so awkwardly?

I think LM's mind is thinking in a way geared toward Klance/not spoiling Klance in these last few moments of the interview and she's trying to placate. Again, it's hard to explain, just listen for yourself.

The same person in the Klance tag earlier who was tryna get people down pointed out that, after this, JDS compares Keith and Lance to a relationship he has with a buddy of his. Debbie downer said JDS thinks of Keith and Lance as friends.

I dont think so.

I think they say little things like this to kind of hint at Klance without straight up spoiling Klance. They throw in comments like that to throw water on the fire, so to speak, to keep people from catching on.

(Also: he's not wrong at all. At this point in the show Keith and Lance ARE buddies. It's slow burn. They aren't romantic yet - but they will be.)

But also...RIGHT after JDS makes the buddy comparison is when the moment happens of LM talking, the popular 20-30 second clip that's been going around tumblr.

This is the part I'm sure you've all seen. Lauren says that Lance is maturing, moving on, and opening up by calling Keith the future. She also puts emphasis on Keith's name. "I think KEITH is the future."

And after this is yet another moment that negative peeps are tryna bring KICKers down with; Lauren says Keith is so perturbed by the whole game show thing that he doesn't put much thought into who he chose.

But...that doesnt quite add up.

Earlier in the interview, they were talking about how Keith is just so calm through the whole thing.

LM and JDS said it's because they couldn't really get a hold of Steven Yeun to revoice the lines in a more concerned tone. They make a joke about how he's not exactly easy to get ahold of (lmfao yeah we've noticed.)

Then JDS points out that it really works out, actually, that Keith is so calm, because after flying magical mechanical space lions to form a giant magical mechanical space man, there's likely very little that could perturb Keith at this point, so his meh attitude toward the game show makes sense.

That doesn't add up with him being "so perturbed" by the game show thing that he just chooses at random.

Either he's calm and collected during the game show or he's not. It can't be both ways.

So did Keith choose Lance with a calm and clear mind, or was he shaken and choosing at random? They were very inconsistent with this.

But imo? Keith isn't one to get very riled up or perturbed by things like this. Keith also isn't one to make such an important life or death decision of who should be free to leave without putting any thought into it. That doesn't match his character at all.

LM and JDS did something they often do here, which is the good cop bad cop routine.

One of them hints at Klance, then the other pulls back and tries to make it seem less romantic. Then the one who tried to make it seem less romantic hints at Klance themselves, and the one who originally hinted at Klance tries to ease it back a little.

They do this constantly when discussing Keith and Lance in any way. It's like a rhythm they've got going to stoke the flames and then splash a little water in; not starting a wildfire, but not putting it out completely.

Another thing I noticed: they said earlier on in the video that, originally, the game show was meant to be the final episode before they got back to earth.

Originally, the stakes for the game show were supposed to be "win and you basically get wormholed back to your solar system."

They decided to switch the episode order around because it didn't feel right to have them get back to earth right on the heels of a silly game show; it made the stakes seem like they were less serious, and they didn't want that (makes perfect sense! Good call!)

One note of specific pessimism for Klancers after season seven was that we got that one he's like, the future moment and then Lance turns right around and is angry and snapping at Keith in the episode where they were going space mad.

This made a lot of Klancers lose hope because they felt like any potential was fizzled out when that one moment early on in the season was almost all the Klance we got (I personally think there were more Klance moments than just the Fued in season seven, and I even think Lance snapping at Keith about running away was a low key Klance moment, but that's another meta for another time.)

But...apparently...the space mad episode was originally meant to come BEFORE the Fued.

Y'all know what that means?

It means that, originally...Lance was going to snap at Keith about running away...and then he was going to call Keith the future later on.

This makes a hell of a lot more sense in the terms of Klance being a slow burn. It was the change of episode order that threw us.

Also notice that...they didn't specifically talk about any other characters or the relationship between any othercharacters. They JUST talked about Lance and Keith.

The interviewer asked in general how they decided who was going to choose who...and the showrunners just straight up spent three minutes talking about Keith and Lance without a single mention of the other three paladins.

The interviewer didn't bring up Klance. Lauren brought up Klance. The interviewer saw the opportunity and started digging a little, AFTER Lauren brought it up.

I just...

You guys.

All of this, plus the fact that the Garfle Warfle Snick logo is an exact replica of the irl Dating Game logo, plus the fact that Josh Keaton said this episode contains "a lot of foreshadowing," plus the way Lance looked so kind and soft when he called Keith the future, plus the confused looks Pidge and Hunk had when Lance and Keith chose each other, like they sense this was more than a bro moment?

Guys. Come on.

KICK.

#voltron #klance #vld #klance meta #kick #klance is canon king

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rin-the-shadow · 4 years

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30 Day TMNT Challenge: Day 8

Day 8: Your favorite episode of your favorite series.

Well, this is going to be a tough one, in part because I don’t really have just one favorite episode. If you were to say to me, “You can only have one episode of this series to watch for the rest of your life,” honestly, I don’t know if I’d be able to answer that question. So we’ll go with some of the biggest ones I’ve liked.

Reflections: This one actually used to be my favorite episode as a kid, because it compiled most of my favorite battles from season 1 into one place. I grew up as that one kid out of probably everyone else who actually liked clip shows, particularly if they collected my favorite things. Since this one contained Splinter’s fight with Shredder, events of “The Shredder Strikes Back,” bits of the battle from “Return to New York,” and “Secret Origins.” Since I was that kid who would happily watch the same episode five or more times in a row, I was more than happy to have the Secret Origins battle not even a full episode after I first saw it. And of course, everything culminating in a dog pile (er, turtle pile) because Raph and Mikey’s fighting crushed the graham crackers.

Secret Origins: If I had to pick just one, it would be part 2 because of the fight against the Shredder (when they still think the one in the simulation is his ancestor) and the mechanics around controlling the illusion, as well as the fantastic cliffhanger at the end of the episode when they escape the machine only to be confronted by the real Shredder. The dialogue in that moment is some of my favorite in the entire series.

Mortu: “Still, I can’t understand how the Oracle Pods malfunctioned.”

Shredder /off: “Oh, but I do.”

Leonardo: “No! It...it can’t be...I finished you off myself...You...can’t...be alive...”

Shredder: “You merely separated my head from my body, a courtesy I will gladly extend to you all, for none of you are leaving here alive!”

The Monster Hunter: Don, Mikey, and Casy Jones dress up as bigfoot to scare a conspiracy theorist. That is all. But actually, there’s also the subplot with Raph helping Leo get back up to peak condition. I think it’s one of the first episodes where I saw Raph actually getting along with Leo, and one of the first which helped me conceptualize Raph as expressing through actions moreso than words.

Tales of Leo: Because again, I am that person who will sit there and watch a clip show on repeat for I don’t even know how long as long as it’s collected clips I like. This is probably also the birth of my appreciation for stories that focus on the recovery part of characters getting injured and whatnot. As I’ve gotten older, I’m also finding that each of the stories often says a lot more about the respective storyteller than it necessarily does about Leo himself, particularly in how they frame the story.

Same as It Never Was: Because, as I’ve said before, I am stereotypical as all heck, so as a stereotypical 2003 fan, I’m almost contractually obligated to list this one. I think this one is just notable because, as a kid, it was so completely shocking to me, and as an adult, it’s given my brain quite a bit to mess around with and think about. Like, for example, is it a variation of the same timeline in which the turtles exist within their own universe? If so, could it be Ultimate Draco sending Donnie through time that caused this timeline to exist in the first place? Or is this merely a parallel universe where he disappeared for unrelated reason? While events within the Image Comics run and the Turtles Forever movie may offer some clues, the movie didn’t exist at the time I watched, so the possibilities were almost endless.

Exodus: This episode is actually the first one that spawned my “Critical Danger Threshold Theory,” which is basically that, in a given series, a villain has a critical danger threshold which they cannot cross. However, if it is crossed, the villain in question is now too dangerous to be allowed to remain as things are. Typically, this triggers an endgame in which either the villain or the hero is killed. Traditionally happens at the end of a series, but may also happen at the end of seasons or individual story arcs, depending on the villain’s function in relation to the plot and character arcs. This is not the same as a moral event horizon, as a villain can become functionally irredeemable long before they become too dangerous, and a crossing of the MEH is not necessary to cross the CDT. Shredder was one of the first villains I witnessed crossing the CDT, so it certainly left an impact.

However, this was also the episode in which I finally put together that, rather than an ensemble cast which was entirely interdependent and could not carry a show with even one of them gone, focus episodes notwithstanding, what I had were four fully-formed protagonists who were all equally capable of carrying the show by themselves if need be, just as long as one was still alive. The moment I realized this? The exact moment that Leonardo was stabbed through the shell.

An honorable mention goes to Insane in the Membrane: Not for being one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a cartoon, but because these writers somehow managed to make me feel sympathy for Baxter Fricking Stockman of all characters. Considering how arrogant and condescending he could be, that takes some serious skill.

I have a lot of other episodes I like besides these, so if one you would want me to ramble about didn’t make the list, definitely drop a comment or inbox ask on it, and I’ll probably have something to say about it. There are quite a few that definitely should have made the list, and one that I moved to a later prompt because I won’t be able to fill that one, so I’m opting to use the space for that episode instead.

#30 day tmnt challenge #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2003 #reflections #secret origins #tales of leo #the monster hunter #return to new york #same as it never was #sainw #exodus #insane in the membrane #like sheesh writers did you make a personal challenge to yourselves?#well congratulations you succeeded #rin rambles #semi-long post #rin does fandom #rin makes up writing stuff

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vrainsrewatch · 5 years

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episode 19 thoughts

this is... the most screenshot heavy post i’ve made so far, lmao, so please bear with me. as i’ve said, this is one of my favorite duels, and there’s a lot that gets covered here. like, seriously, i haven’t written this post out yet but i can guarantee this will be my longest so far lmao.

the beginning of the episode starts off fairly standard, and mostly dueling:

i really do love the pacing of this duel. i was glued to the edge of my seat while watching these episodes. i remember it so clearly, too, because i’d been binge watching from episode 16 that day, and got to like, 24 by the time i stopped, lmao.

ai does a lot of cute/funny stuff this episode, to help break up some of the more dark tones of the rest of it, like this:

it really makes me miss hi in this form :( i really like his soltis form, don’t get me wrong, but i miss him on yusaku’s wrist lol. i would say when things were less angsty, but, well. lmao.

we very quickly get akira’s rad boss monster summoned out:

and seriously, i just love the animation for it. it’s so sick. the door, the fire, how it looms behind him at first.... aaaaaa. so cool.

and of course the classic:

the worst part about this line is it’s said so often (esp in arc v LOL) that i actually. have slipped up and said it in normal, day to day conversation before. my boyfriend looked at me for like a minute and gave me the deepest sigh i’ve ever heard the first time i did that pff.

also:

i couldn’t not screencap this, given what my blog is for LOL

every time something reminds me of that painful final duel, i have to screencap it and make you guys sad with me. if i have to be sad seeing all this stuff, knowing where their relationship goes and how the series ends, so do you.

also, though, i forgot how often this was brought up before the bohman duel lmao. it makes that theory look a lot more credible, so it’s cool that it had all these little hints towards it, even if it ultimately wasn’t true.

seriously, my heart. i don’t think i need to talk much about this scene to make y’all sad, but really. they went from this to i loved you. ugh, god, i’m so sad thinking about it lmao.

there is so much to talk about between akira and playmaker and even blue angel in this episode, so i guess we’ll start here.

it is hard to decide that you want to take control of your trauma and do something about it. it is not easy. to see yusaku fight for that right so thoroughly is incredible, and really, really validating.

more sadness! seriously, this is too much. this deck was created specifically for him by ai. i don’t like this anymore lmao

but even besides that, often times the protag’s decks mean a lot to them, obviously, but i love that it wasn’t built strictly by yusaku. his cards were literally made by ai, and i think that’s such a cool twist.

but then, akira’s speech:

i talked last time about akira wanting to handle things himself, and i briefly touched on him thinking he knows best...

but i really admire how calm yusaku stays at that tbh. he gets angry, reasonably so imo, but he takes this so well. i know i was a much more volatile kid then he is, so respect lol

i’ve spoken at length already about akira, but i also want to talk again about how oblivious he is. he is so blinded by his own thoughts and feelings on the situation that he doesn’t stop to think about how yusaku might be feeling -- and worse, honestly, how his sister might be feeling.

it was why he was so visibly shocked when emma mentioned a few episodes ago that aoi wasn’t just a little kid anymore. it’s so clear that he still, at the moment, sees her as the six year old girl he swore to protect, and not the sixteen year old person she’s become. he doesn’t think about how she might be feeling towards his actions, or why she does what she does.

this is highlighted as early as episode 6 iirc, when he asks her why aren’t you happy? as much as i, personally, dislike his character, i can’t deny it’s very realistic and well written.

speaking of aoi:

i love how she’s written in this episode, too. but her entrance here is great, and i love how she stands up to him about this. it’s minor, but it’s still a good step. when she’s blue angel -- or blue girl, or blue maiden -- she feels comfortable doing that. at least a little, and it obviously grows throughout the series. i hope that transfers over to the real world for her, too.

and then, we finally get the full story:

i remember flinching when he started talking about it, remembering the shots of yusaku getting electrocuted from his duel with revolver.

i really love this. i said it last episode, but vrains handles yusaku’s trauma so realistically and it’s amazing.

i remember originally staring open mouthed at my tv screen while this part played. we got a bit of it from the other episode, but the full context truly shocked me. where’s that post that says “who thought this was an acceptable backstory to give to a card game protag” bc honestly??? YEAH

it’s still hard to watch. it’s still hard to see play out, even if it’s only fiction. even though i’ve seen these clips so many times, and written about them in detail a few times too. doesn’t matter lol. watching it in context actually still made my stomach drop.

which leads me to talk about reactions to this, actually:

the two that vrains focuses heavily on are blue angel’s and kusanagi’s, and they contrast really well here imo.

blue angel’s is a normal reaction. it’s horrified, both at the thought of it happening and at the fact that someone would actually do that to another person -- a six year old child, no less.

kusanagi’s is strained. he is angry hearing about this, thinking about jin. we’ve been told, and have seen in the last few episodes, how much the lost incident impacted kusanagi and his brother, but i really love that the show tells us that here, too, and shows the difference between hearing about a tragedy and being involved in some manner.

i did not expect it at all when first watching vrains, and honestly, it still impresses me how gracefully they handled it coming off of arc v (cough, shun i love you but really cough cough). no hate on arc v at all, it’s my third favorite ygo very close behind gx, but the difference between the two on how they handle these things is staggering.

this whole section makes me thing that ryoken talked to yusaku fairly often, after the first time. which is something i don’t see brought up often? but that’s so important imo. it meant that yusaku had someone encouraging him not just once or twice, but on the regular, but also it meant that ryoken was constantly risking himself to comfort that child.

we don’t see too much of ryoken when he’s a kid, but we do see him scared and crying over the lost incident. the fact that he was able to talk calmly to this child so many times is really amazing. it also makes more sense as to why ryoken feels so guilty over calling the police -- he probably felt that maybe if he had just kept up his encouragement, the kids would’ve all gotten out okay and his father wouldn’t be in a coma.

this was so powerful. it’s obvious, and i think anyone with half a brain would understand that the LI isn’t something that a kid would recover from easily, but i love this anyways.

he wasn’t saved. and even if he was in body, it’s still something he and all the other victims will live with for the rest of their lives.

this also is something i don’t feel like people bring up enough, but does this mean that yusaku went around asking the kids at the hospital when he was rescued? it’s not hard to believe they were all put together, at least for a short amount of time, but it’s still something i feel like people overlook.

i also love this, because it’s nice foreshadowing to how revolver feels. he’s not captured, not like yusaku and the lost kids were, but he is a prisoner. and just like ryoken saved yusaku, way back then, he is determined to repay the favor.

not just because of that, either. because that voice meant so much to him. because that voiced saved him. because that voice understood him, and was there for him in his hardest moments. god i love them.

i love this shot. it’s so dramatic, how the match the drum beats with flashes of everyone’s reactions.

but it drives home his point, and while i know most of akira’s development came through emma and aoi, i’m sure this helped, too.

i’ve sung vrains praises this entire post, but i’ll do it again -- this is incredible. this is so realistic. it’s so well portrayed. and it’s really honest to god incredible that we got a protag in ygo who was shown going to therapy.

ygo has always dealt with some pretty dark subject matter, and it’s never really been shy about showing it on screen. i’m not saying that at all. arc v obviously dealt with some pretty heavy stuff, and while i haven’t seen zexal (keep shaming me please) i know it does, too. 5ds obviously has the dark signer arc, and the later arcs concerning bruno and also yusei’s father, and gx has... well, it’s entire third and fourth season.

but we see everyone healing via card games. we see those shows talk about these things, but kind of at the same time, skirt around the subject matter; or if they do go deep into it, they pull out (ie 5ds) or the characters don’t get resolved properly (ie arc v).

idk where i was going with this but i just really love that this happened, this was shown on screen, and they stuck to yusaku’s character. they didn’t just... up and make his trauma and his world view disappear at the end. he has a bittersweet ending, but it suited him and his development. a lot of people were mad about it, and i get it -- i wanted him to be happy, too.

but that’s not always the case, and it’s really important to me that vrains doesn’t pretend it is.

anyways, though, i’m almost done with this episode i promise lmao. before the episode ends, we get this:

and i think it’s honestly kind of cruel that akira says this, after everything, and still maintains his point of handling it himself. he has heard, first hand now, how horrible the incident has scarred yusaku for life. and yet, he still is stubborn in refusing to relate or at the very least empathize.

what i mean by that, since we obviously see him attempt to last episode, is he refuses to look at it from someone’s else’s perspective or in a way that might make him uncomfortable. the way my boyfriend describes these kinds of people is that they “haven’t had their bubble popped”.

everyone has a bubble when they’re born, and that bubble shields you from realizing that the world is a cruel and hard place. even if you go through hardships, sometimes your bubble stays put, and you think that is the worst of what can happen.

i’m explaining this very poorly, because i’m running on not much sleep and i’ve been typing about this episode for like, far, far too long, but essentially, he refuses to step out of his comfort zone and recognize, in playmaker’s case, that he doesn’t have a right to interfere and that playmaker’s desire to handle it himself is justified and helpful for his healing. and in aoi’s case, that just because he does a lot of good for her doesn’t automatically mean ignoring her for work and keeping her locked in their house is an okay trade off. and also that she’s not a child anymore -- she’s nearly an adult and she deserves to be treated as one.

those thoughts seem to unsettle him. you can kind of see it in how detached he is after hearing all that come from playmaker. blue angel is visibly shaken up by what he’s said. akira doesn’t even flinch, because he’s not really listening right now.

i’m glad he learns to, or at least learns how to start, later on.

anyways, i think that’s enough for this post lmao. this took forever to type up, so let’s hope i actually have time to cover up to 21 here today LOL. if you read all that, thank you for your time on my kind of dumb vrains thoughts :’)

#vrains #episode 19

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natsspammityspamspamham · 4 years

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Dino Watches Anime (Nov 28)

Obviously, I’m not going to list the ongoing anime that I’ve still watching as that hasn’t changed much. I will put the ones that I recently completed though!

Recently Completed!

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

I was going to put this in chronological order until I realized that I just wanted to get this piece of crap out of the way. Seriously, I regret watching this show. I HATE how it’s the highest rated out of all of them! It’s almost an 8/10! I gave it a 4! Here’s why:

This anime started out okay. I liked the sound of its premise. I liked the idea of teenage psychology being pushed but not as life-or-death but more of status. Because believe it or not, sometimes a person values their image and status more than their life. That plot was... kind of there? I don’t know. It was mostly boobs and ass. Those jiggle physics don’t stop here. They make sure to remind you that every character in this anime has large assets and asses every two seconds.

The characters are probably the most deplorable part of this show. They were so bad. Seriously, we just took the worst parts of every trope and threw them together! The “I don’t talk to anyone. I don’t have any friends. I’m EDGY and don’t belong here. I’m this close to selling myself to Orochimaru for power”, the “cardboard houseplant that’s so monotone that it hurts”, the “double-sided dipstick that will take out a person’s intestines and use them as a jump rope”, and the “arrogant older brother who is way more accomplished than his sister”. We also have more assorted bastards, but those are the main ones. The characters ruined everything. Their interactions were so coarse, forced, hard to watch, and everything is executed so poorly that it made me wonder whether people rated this for ulterior motives or not. Everyone here is an asshole.

Let’s look at the first three characters:

“cardboard houseplant that’s so monotone that it hurts” - Shoya Chiba isn’t even a bad voice actor. He does give me Hiroshi Kamiya vibes though (not a bad thing), but his voice acting in this show was hard to listen to because his expression didn’t change and neither did his voice. Seriously, over 12 episodes, he has that same expression. Someone threatened to harm him, and he’s still looking like a dead fish. I can’t describe how much worse it is to have a main character whose facial muscles don’t move. He has no personality.

“I don’t talk to anyone. I don’t have any friends. I’m EDGY and don’t belong here. I’m this close to selling myself to Orochimaru for power” - I like her design, but what else is going for her? How many times does she need to say, “I don’t need friends. I just want to move up in school.” Bitch, I get it. You can calm down. You keep doing things for other people but you say you don’t care? She arguably gets the most growth. Akari Kito voiced her and it was just like how any other person on earth would voice this character.

“double-sided dipstick that will take out a person’s intestines and use them as a jump rope” - She’s exactly what she sounds like. She’s in that gif. She’s sweet and nice until you catch her being not that. Yurika Kubo did a pretty alright job voicing her. Nothing really to say here besides I hated her with a burning passion.

Music was alright. Animation was... Lerche standard. Nothing special. It looks nice until you are flashed so many times that you can’t tell what this show is even about anymore.

This is one of the worst shows I’ve watched in a while. It wastes a perfectly good premise and voice cast.

Kekkaishi

2006 was a good year for anime, and this probably got swept over because Code Geass took the fall season by storm. But this anime was genuinely good. I wanted a good shonen/comedy with action and this filled that void and more. I even read some of the manga before realizing that I just don’t like reading manga that much.

I genuinely like the cast of characters and find them amusing. I also like how they incorporate a stay-at-home dad who wears an apron and no one judges him because it’s what they see as normal. We have a female character whose not being sexualized every few seconds. Sunrise did cheat a little with other female characters though because the manga made their proportions okay while the anime decided to make them look more like a Barbie rather than a human. The animation was pretty okay too. For 52 episodes, it did some pretty okay stuff but with today’s technology, it’s probably not as “wow” as it was back in the day.

I’m just mad that they developed a character only to kill him a couple of episodes later. That’s sad.

The soundtrack was pretty standard, but I was impressed by the fact that I liked the voice acting. I originally wasn’t as much of a fan of Hiroyuki Yoshino’s works because I found his voice annoying, but when he finds the right character (like Yoshimori or Eraser Mic), he works really well. It’s unfortunate that a lot of the main cast aren’t as prolific as they once were, but I guess that’s life.

No one was hurt in the making of that gif.

I rated this a 9/10 because it was for pure enjoyment. I didn’t have this much fun watching an anime in a while. This is the anime that got me binge-watching again.

Nobunaga Concerto

This anime has a blaring problem. It’s not the story, it’s not the writing, it’s not the characters, and it’s not the music. It’s the art. Watch any clip and it will give some Berserk flashbacks.

The writing was pretty good too. The story was genuinely interesting, but in the end, it didn’t feel like it did enough. It didn’t cover enough. The dialogue and the incorporation of modern culture with the historic parts were smart. Saburou was really likeable and oddly adaptive. The characters around him (the historic ones) are pretty cut and dry. The music was pretty good too! The art and lack of adaptation are the only things truly holding this show back.

Mamoru Miyano plays the main character and obviously makes him charming and funny, Yuki Kaji plays Nobunaga Oda, and Nana Mizuki plays Oda’s betrothed. I actually didn’t know anything about Oda’s tale prior to this anime so don’t think that’s required.

I rated it a 7/10

*Another important note is that they get suddenly racist in the last episode. A black guy appears, and people scream that it’s a monkey like they’ve never seen a darker-skinned human before. It was honestly disappointing.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

Okay, this anime surprised me because of how much I liked it. It wasn’t even anything special. They took the same JC Staff rom-com tropes and put them into another anime combined with some fairy tale lore. But this anime was so entertaining and charming with its cast that I genuinely didn’t hate any of the characters. There were a few moments that made me go, “okay, that’s a bit too much”, but a girl going around punching people with neko boxing gloves? That’s pretty cool. Ookami was a really funny character who I actually found a bit interesting which is weird for a story that’s supposed to be superficial and comedic. Ryoushi is practically a spitting image of my anxiety and personality but in a charming way? He has some cool moments. He’s almost a little like Zenitsu. Courageous when push comes to shove but he’s actually awake. Ringo was the innocent loli until she wasn’t because if you mess with her friend, she will poison you. Again, they made these references to regular rom-com anime and fairy tales that completely roll together nicely. JC Staff didn’t mess this one up, and as always, there’s a tsundere Rie Kugimiya role in there somewhere.

Because I enjoyed it so much, I gave it a 9/10.

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha

I literally finished this one an hour ago, read the last chapter of the manga, and went “what the heck?” Because... I enjoyed this, but I also didn’t? Bitter-sweetness at its best. Houko Kuwashima is a really underrated voice actress because she hasn’t taken that many big roles as of recent, but she has incredible range. The characters of this are incredibly plain, but I don’t mind that because they aren’t painful to watch unlike the first anime I mentioned (seriously, I watched the last three shows on this list to wash that bad anime out of my brain). Everyone in this anime seems to be perfect in one way or another because they don’t really wish ill on anyone. Not gonna lie, characters like that aren’t for everyone because “everyone is a scum at some point in their lives”. I definitely respect for the need of balance. The story is pretty simple and plain and so is the art. The music was nice and pleasant. Basically, it’s a palette-cleanser of an anime after watching some bad anime. It’s about developing middle school romance and this... “teenage” couple on the side. It’s about friendship! And discovering yourself, and yes, one character found out she was gay, and I was rooting for that character so hard only to find out that she didn’t get her conclusive ending. Everyone else gets some bullshit ending one way or another! This is published in the same publication as Bungou Stray Dogs, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell if I didn’t look it up.

I rated this one an 8/10 because I enjoyed it still despite the ending being a little idealistic, sad, and far-fetched (seriously, someone becomes a god and gets their existence erased).

#dino watches anime

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kaialone · 5 years

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Kirby Star Allies Translation: Sound Staff Round-table Discussion

(This contains late-game spoilers for Kirby Star Allies)

On the official website for the Star Allies soundtrack, they recently posted a little "round-table discussion" featuring Shinya Kumazaki (General Director), Hirokazu Ando (Lead Sound), Jun Ishikawa, and Yuuta Ogasawara (both also worked on the sound and music).

It's basically a little "preview" of the sort of discussions from the booklet that is included with the sountrack itself.

If you’re interested in reading my translation, head under the cut.

Note that when they mention the titles of some of the tracks, I translated those myself too, because no official English translations exist as far as I am aware?

And I used the localized names of games and characters here, because I feel more people would know them.

Now, onto the translation itself.

Sound Staff Round-table Discussion

The booklet included with "Kirby Star Allies - The Original Soundtrack" will feature a round-table discussion with the general director and sound staff of the current title.

In commemoration of its release on February 14th of 2019, we are adding a small extra episode to this website, which is not included in the book itself.

Please have a look.

An Anthology Title that Welcomes a New Face

Kumazaki:

One of the themes of "Star Allies" was to aim for an "anthology" of the iconic Kirby, to act as a milestone for its 25th anniversary. Mr. Ando, who is part of HAL Laboratory's leading sound staff, and Mr. Ishikawa, who has been working with us from the very beginning, what are your thoughts on the musical composition?

Ando:

This project left an impression that was like "Do you know your roots?", but it did have this strong feeling of creating something fairly straightforward and iconic. Though there was also the intention to make it interesting with things like quirky melodies and sounds, similar to the "Planet Robobot" days.

Ishikawa:

Altough I was somewhat aware of it, as a composer I don't create melodies or chords with the feeling of it being an anthology like that.

Kumazaki:

I see. The main theme of "friends" was not to create that either. In taking advantage of each idea, the decision came naturally. (*This will be featured in the Sountrack Booklet) And the new face, Mr. Ogasawara, who has many struggles and build up his career, now ended up participating in a Kirby sound production for the first time. I would image that there was a lot of pressure, but what did you think?

Ogasawara:

Yes, I did feel a bit more comfortable when I worked on the music for the minigames at first, because those have a different approach, but I really felt the pressure when it came to the main part.

Kumasaki:

You did already have a career prior to this, but integrating took a lot of time at first, right? Mr. Ando, who is also under my supervision, had a somewhat sour reaction for a while, so I thought "Is this gonna work out?" Your seniors were hard on you, weren't they?

Ogasawara:

Yes, that's right.

Kumazaki:

I always felt that it's nice to see teacher-and-pupil relationships like that, though. Like we discussed (*This will be featured in the Sountrack Booklet),"The Wind that Blows on Earthfall", which Mr. Ogasawara was in charge of, eventually reached a degree of perfection that even left his seniors speechless. But, "The Ancient Tower Towara" also ended up becoming a heroic, marvelous song. ...Mr. Ado, Mr. Ishiwaka, do you know this song? Tetteteeen, Terereterereretettetetteen♪ (He hums the melody)

Ando:

That melody is very Ishikawa-like.

Kumazaki:

Yes, correct. I was actually thinking of the flute phrase that flows through Meta Knight's stage in the Popstar level.

Ishikawa:

Oh, I see.

Ogasawara:

For me, it all started with a tower like that, too.

Kumazaki:

Mr. Ishikawa, you were in charge of Meta Knight's stage. That was a first for you too, wasn't it? Now that we're talking about this, while I do supervise everyone, we don't discuss these topics among one another that often.

Ishikawa:

That's right. For the most part, we don't communicate with words, but with sounds and numeric values.

Ogasawara:

Creating these songs was also the busiest time of the production, so there was less time to talk. It felt like we we're creating them telepathically.

Kumazaki:

When you enter the 4th scenario, the Space level, it's the first time that there's 3 composers at once. With a promising new star joining, I thought this new development was beautiful as I directed it, and divided it like that. But, I was pretty busy during the development of the main part. Since before its completion, I thought about incorperating elements of something like an anthology title in the free updates. But, without being limited too much by that, I also thought that we should create songs that aren't for anyone else, by utilizing the sound staff's raw creativity.

Ishikawa:

As part of that, there was a reference to an old song, a short version of "Drawcia Soul" from "Canvas Curse", that made it in. But it's assigned to a "break" situation... Final Boss music as a "break"?

Everyone:

(laughs)

Ishikawa:

It's like "That's the Kumazaki way". Though if you hadn't said "It's an anthology" earlier, I think I would have said "Why are you using that song for a break?".

Kumazaki:

That was... because I didn't want to let people relax. (laughs) There's no time to rest, the battles continue. I wanted them to be immersed in such a trance-like state. It's the most difficult mode, which was added with the free updates, so there was also the intention for some of the series' most punchy songs to be featured. And that song seems to be the one that shows Mr. Ishikawa's secret creativity the most, so I had been looking for an opportunity to use it.

Enough Voice Clips for "Seven Generals of Magic"!?

Kumazaki:

Mr. Ogasawara, earlier we talked a bit about how you, the new face, demonstrated skills that even amazed your seniors, and created a lot of Kirby-like sound effects (*This will be featured in the Sountrack Booklet), but you were also present for the voice actors' recordings, and following the sound effects, you were even asked to incorporate voice clips into the game.

Ogasawara:

Right.

Kumazaki:

For the voice clips of the bosses, I remember showing the battle with President Haltmann from "Planet Robobot", and explaining "We made made something like this recently". During that time, for Haltmann's voice, the emotion-filled voice clips from the actor were adjusted for the game by Mr. Ando, and incorporated by me and the programmers. It's not just about being the voice of a character, but also adapting it to the scene, and refining it as a part of the game's soundtrack. My intent was to integrate it with the background music, but it went so far that I wanted to make Haltmann's battle music complete with that voice. So this time around, I listened to that, and thought "I want them to fit the scenes just like this", as the the voices of the Three Generals of Magic were put in.

Ogasawara:

Right. Making voice clips as sound effects in itself was easy by using past works and the like as a reference, but... Since I had never worked with the sounds of so many voices at once before, it was quite difficult to find a balance for their volume and the like, when it came to actually putting them in the game.

Kumazaki:

They play alongside so many different actions, way beyond what I had in mind. It's amazing. I thought that was pretty brave of you, Mr. Ogasawara. (laughs)

Ogasawara:

Personally, I wanted to make good use of them, since the voice actors put so much work in their performances...

Kumazaki:

And you also wrote a list of the sound effects, with instructions for the programmers, along the lines of "please have them play with a timing like this".

Ogasawara:

Yes. In that case, I made several lists for the Three Generals of Magic.

Kumazaki:

Since you were so particular about the specific finer details, Tanifuji, the programmer in charge of Three Generals of Magic, eventually started calling you "Death Ogasawara". (laughs) When they were about half finished with the first one, the blue General, you dropped another huge list for the red General on them. And as they were working on implementing that one, the dread for when it would be the yellow General's turn is what lead to you being called "Death Ogasawara"... (laughs)

Ogasawara:

Well... I did make seperate lists in several steps, because I thought it would be nice to be just slightly ahead. And then the programmer who was implementing them, Mr. Tanifuji, had some nightmares where it was like "There's actually Seven Generals of Magic now...!" (laughs)

Everyone:

(laughs)

Kumazaki:

You just keep putting them in, but the work won't end, and another list will show up.

Ogasawara:

I made so many variants, it really must have felt like it was "The Seven Generals of Magic".

Kumazaki:

But as a result, they don't feel like simple programmed patterns, even if you replay many times. Like the character's personalities were completed through these enhanced battle voice clips... Considering it was your first time, I think you did a good job, Mr. Ogasawara.

Surprising Sound Effects with Familiar Objects

Ishikawa:

The sound effects, and not just the voice clips, are completely different depending on wether you're watching a demonstration, or you're actually playing. For example, the Friend Train makes a "chooo choo" sound, but it uses different wave forms when it loudly plays on the "Friend Train" screen and when you press the button to jump. I thought it would be alright to use the same wave form for the sound and only use different values, but that didn't work out. Though, both of them are just me blowing into empty nutrition drink bottles, by myself, in the middle of night. (laughs)

Kumazaki:

Right. A similar sound may be used, but it's actually different sound material each respective time. Could you tell everyone about what some particular differences are?

Ishikawa:

In scenes where letters appear with audible sound effects, a sense of distortion was absolutely necessary. So I'd distort the wave form and put it in, have it play, see that it was not enough distortion and go back, change the distortion, and put it back in. And then it'd be too disorted, so I'd try again... With nothing but that distortion method, it took me about half a day of trial and error. In the end, the distortions and all the familiar sounds that play when you press buttons were made individually. In short, I know I said it before, but the way you hear the sound changes depending on wether you are hearing it while watching, or you're playing yourself. Even with sounds that are similar, there are cases where you need to change the wave form level, rather than just fiddling with the numeric values.

Kumazaki:

I understand. Everyone, please do try to listen for those differences for yourself when you play. Either way, I think it would be fun to play again if you think about how the "choo choo" is actually Mr. Ishikawa blowing into nutrition drink bottles.

Ishikawa:

The curling sound was me beating an empty can with my fist. (laughs)

Kumazaki:

That's Ice's friend ability Ice Curling, right? The "plonk" sound when it hits a wall.

Ishikawa:

I dug up an empty can from the trash. (laughs)

Kumazaki:

There's some things where you can try and try again to adjust them, and some things where it's some well thought-out recordings with nearby staff members or tools. The same is true for voices.

The Calories of the Entire Staff Combined?! The Voice of Void Termina

Kumazaki:

It's not just voice actors, some of the voice clips made use the voices of development staff members who understand the game well, too. One of them is the final form of Void Termina, or rather, what appears to be the voice from the 4th form. But, Void Termina was considered a mysterious being that can be anyone. And do you remember how because of that, someone said "let's put in multiple voices", rather than a single one?

Ando:

It was around three people, if I recall correctly...

Kumazaki:

Yes, it was the voices of four people. You, Mr. Ando, being a regular with in-game voice clips, Mr. Ogasawara with his comparatively younger voice, as well as Mrs. Todo, the director of "Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, because we wanted a woman's voice, too. And me. We wanted to try out a cry made by mixing voice lines from the four of us.

Ando:

By the way, what did we say? I can't remember.

Kumazaki:

It was "Irohanihoheto, Kirby".

(Translator's note: "Irohanihoheto" is a quote of the Japanese poem "Iroha". Notably, an edited quote from the poem also exists as an unused audio clip in Kirby 64.)

Ando:

Oh, right.

Kumazaki:

We each uttered those same words, "Irohanihoheto, Kirby...", all recording seperately. When I told you, you said "Oh, we're going with that". (laughs)

Ando:

But during the recording, I wasn't really sure what sort of guy would be saying it. Because I can't draw, you see.

Kumazaki:

That's true.

Ando:

And I don't know about Mr. Ishikawa, but I personally don't know the story completely. Ah, but I did know that it would be something that would show up at the end like that.

Kumazaki:

You say that, but I thought I had explained it properly from the start...

Ando:

Truth to be told, I didn't really understand the explanation, so...

Everyone:

(laughs)

Ando:

So, the recorded voices were to appear in the game afterwards, so they had various mixing and effects applied to them, right?

Kumazaki:

That's right. I wonder if as a result, it did manage to not be anyone's voice, but a mysterious being. With Void Termina's demon form and angel form before that, the workload for the staff members involved piled up, too. My recorded screams for King Dedede's voice didn't need to be altered that much by comparison. But what can I even say about that voice...? This development had one impass after the other, and it's like that voice is filled with all the energy and calories that my whole body had used up by the time it was over...

Everyone:

(laughs)

Kumazaki:

But seriously, during that recording I really did go over my limit so much that even now I think I'm about to collapse. The thought of at least someone out there enjoying it in the end lifted spirits, including those of the sound staff. But, it got to a point where you'd wonder if we had all gone a bit crazy, because this whole development devolved into something like an all-out war of the HAL Laboratory staff.

That's the end of that?! Surpassing Limits

Kumazaki:

There were long hardships, but I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to talk so frankly about the mood during the development, thanks to this round-table discussion that Okada, the soundtrack producer, organized.

Ishiwaka:

We normally never talk this much. We should celebrate this.

Kumazaki:

Yes, a celebration for this discussion. Though, I've talked with you many times, Mr. Ishikawa. A lot of times were while supervising, but we also had countless bizarre talks in the cafeteria at night...

Everyone:

(laughs)

Kumazaki:

Mr. Ogasawara, what did you think, looking back like this?

Ogasawara:

So many things were hard at first, like the BGM, the sound effects, the voice clips, and discussing those here. But I also feel sort of relieved.

Kumazaki:

I'm very glad to see a promising young man be so successful in this one. Development was difficult, but you did not let the pressure get to you, and truly worked hard until the end. Now then, what about you, Mr. Ando?

Ando:

This one has a lot of truly grand songs. I've never made final boss class songs with such an amazing, huge orchestra-style before. But, I guess you could say "It's an anthology, so when there's special songs like that, many people will be happy, right?" Putting in more and more will eventually become kinda tough.

Kumazaki:

I was impressed when you said to me "We're doing this much? Isn't it enough already?", in the middle of the work on this. But, even as you said this, you were working incredibly fast, Mr. Ando. There were times where, even if you had been asked for huge songs with difficult themes, you would just show up surprisingly quickly, with your arms wide open, saying "I did it!"

Ando:

Yeah, I did make a lot. And that's the end of that.

Kumazaki:

(laughs) True... I think we probably won't cram so many songs into a Kirby title again. There are many more episodes like this that we can't show here, but are featured in the booklet that's included with the soundtrack. If you happen to be interested, by all means, pick it up. We would appreciate it.

And that's it for this translation.

I hope you found this interesting and/or helpful?

I don't have a ton of experience with translating quotes of real people (as opposed to in-story text), so my apologies if it sounds a bit unnatural at times.

Either way, thank you for taking your time to read this!

#kirby #kirby of the stars #kirby star allies #kirby translations

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precuredaily · 5 years

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Precure Day 119

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 21 - “Shine in the Night Sky! Starlight Friends” Date watched: 6 May 2019 Original air date: 2 July 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/M57LaTA Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

I think I’ll try defying gravity

No, you’re not reading the dates wrong, I DID watch this on Monday, I’ve just been very behind myself this week. Why? Exhaustion I guess. I watch an episode and screenshot it and maybe pick out a video clip, and then I upload all that to Imgur and Vimeo and get the screenshots in the right order because Imgur shuffles them around, and then I’m exhausted and don’t want to write about it that day anymore. I wanted to be through the Kiryuus’ arc by today. But whatever. As long as i can get 22 done by Tuesday.

So, Karehaan has rotted away, Moerumba burnt out, and Dorodoron crumbled to dirt. The Precures have recovered the fountains of Trees, Fire, and Earth so far. It’s Michiru and Kaoru’s turn now, and oh goodness the turmoil is palpable. They readily volunteer to defeat the cures, saying that they’ve been infiltrating the human world to figure out what makes them tick. Which is true, they just leave out the part where they’re internally struggling to not become attached to them. They vow to each other to do it and get it over with so they don’t have any lingering regrets, and with that vigor they arrive at school the next day. They walk straight towards Saki and Mai in a threatening manner but the heroines are nonplussed and instead invite them out to a stargazing party!

The sisters are so surprised they snap out of evil mode for a minute, but they regain their composure and Michiru agrees they should go. Kaoru is indifferent, but her sister reminds her later it’ll be a good chance to take them out. What they don’t realize is that Kenta, Hitomi, and Yuuko have also been invited, complicating affairs. Everybody sits around at Mai’s place talking for a while, Kenta is telling awful jokes, and even Michiru can’t hide her disinterest.

Mai realizes they must be cold, wearing only their uniforms on a chilly night, and offers them some blankets to wrap themselves in (this will be important later). They politely accept them but while everybody else gets caught up in looking at the stars through Mai’s father’s telescope, the two of them are clearly bored out of their minds and just want to end things. They almost have a chance when Saki and Mai go downstairs to get some food for the group, and they try to attack them from behind, but Mai’s mother interrupts. They think they were seen but she doesn’t say anything about them possibly attacking her daughter, so everybody returns upstairs.

Everybody talks some more about what celestial body they would be, which segues into Mai’s father showing off a piece of a meteorite he keeps in a display case. The sisters go back outside to think and talk some more. They reflect on various statements by Mai’s mother about everything dissolving eventually and wonder for a moment if they even need to do anything if time will do it for them, but ultimately they eschew their relationships, insisting that they’ve always worked fine together, just the two of them, and they don’t need anybody else, so they levitate into the sky and cause a blackout to spread around the area. They fly in front of the moon and Michiru reveals she has stolen the meteorite as she turns it into a shooting star uzainaa. The fairies tip off Saki and Mai that trouble is afoot and they run out to see the monster (but the Kiryuus are somewhat hiding). They transform and fight it, but its shooting star attacks cover a wide area and threaten to damage Mai’s home, so they move to get the uzainaa away. They speak passionately about how important their families and friends are and how they don’t want any harm to come to them from this monster attack, and they put particular emphasis on how glad they are that Michiru and Kaoru came out tonight, and despite being a bit socially awkward, they’re still precious friends to the Precures.

Kaoru and Michiru are taken aback that the girls are fighting on their behalf and don’t know how to react. Bloom and Egret continue their onslaught of friendship and dispatch the Uzainaa to kingdom come. As Saki collects the Miracle Drop and wonders who sent the monster, Mai sees something fall to the ground... her father’s meteorite. She picks it up and looks at the sky to see where it came from, only to notice two figures flying in front of the moon. The gears are turning in Mai’s head but things really come together when everybody says their goodbyes at the observatory. Michiru hands over her blanket and a leaf falls out of it, the same kind of leaf as the trees up on the hill. Mai puts the pieces together and realizes the Kiryuus were behind this. Saki remains clueless, and the siblings don’t know that she knows, but that night each of them stares off into the sky, for different reasons, pondering the future:

What an absolutely fantastic episode. Michiru and Kaoru are caught between their duty and their compassion and they are having to try harder and harder to convince themselves which side they’re on. There’s a lot of visual symbolism of this with the lighting. When they arrive at school they’re cast in shadow, because of their evil intentions, and they remain in shadow all the way until Saki surprises them with the invitation, at which point they are abruptly cast in light, because for a few minutes they’re just ordinary students.

They remain illuminated while Mai explains the invitation to them and Michiru states they’ll come. Kaoru doesn’t care, she’s never been one for facades. As they walk away, they slip back into shadow when Michiru mentions this will be an excellent chance to catch the girls alone and put an end to them.

she is literally slipping back into darkness

At Mai’s party they are lit again as they pretend to be ordinary, but every time they step outside to talk between themselves, they are in shadow again. The major exception to this is when they are about to attack Saki and Mai in the kitchen, where they’re lit by the interior lighting, but the actual shot of their hands reaching for the girls is shot from underneath, so their arms are in shadow. And also glowing purple energy, but you know.

The really cool part, in my opinion, comes when they’ve finally given into their mission and decided to attack. After Bloom and Egret give their resounding speech about how they’re fighting for the sake of Kaoru and Michiru, they are extremely shaken, and the light and shaodws dance over their faces, visualizing their confusion and externalizing their inner turmoil. We’re trying to kill the Precures but they’re fighting for our sake?

Once again, after they leave Mai’s house at the end of the party, they’re cast in light because they’re affiliating with the heroines, but in their final scene, they’re entirely in darkness, staring up at the sky wordlessly, because they’re being their true selves. In a way, the light is the mask they wear when they enter the human world, and darkness represents their true selves, but they’ve blurred the boundaries. Next episode, the masks come off, but who’s really underneath?

The scene where Mai’s mother almost catches them being evil elads to an interesting speech by her that they take to heart. After she drops her teacup, she comments that “everything with a form eventually breaks,” a statement that can mean a lot of things. She goes on to state that this transient nature of life means it’s all the more important to care for things while they’re around. Michiru and Kaoru ponder this later on, also thinking about Saki’s comments that they’re all “friends in the starry sky.” Unfortunately the Kiryuu sisters aren’t strong enough to shake off their conditioning yet, and they angrily dismiss this sentiment because all their lives, they’ve only ever had each other, and only ever needed each other.

Their arc is so fascinating to dig into, I could probably find even more to analyze.

On the light-hearted side of things, there’s some great imagery where all the girls are comparing themselves to celestial objects, and wild sight gags.

Kenta’s jokes are so cold, everybody has frozen.

Saki is a black hole, sucking up all the bread.

Mai’s father is an explorer.

Also, Michiru and Kaoru make more allusions to the Moon and Wind, respectively, a hint at things that are.... quite a ways away.

Here’s something neat: we finally get some acknowledgement that Saki and Mai realize Michiru and Kaoru aren’t exactly behaving normally.

So, yeah, they’ve noticed them behaving oddly, but throughout it all they’ve still been friendly, helpful, and they’ve learned and grown. Can you imagine Michiru and Kaoru at the beginning of this arc helping out at the bakery, or bothering to come to this party? Their objective was observation, maybe infiltration, but along the way they gained a genuine appreciation for the land of greenery, and the people they met all like them. The value of that cannot be understated.

Next episode, everything comes to a head. There’s no more hiding, no more pretenses. Everything is on the table as the Kiryuus reveal themselves to the Precures. Look forward to it.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari

Miracle Drop Count: 1

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Futari wa Precure Splash Star #FWPCSS21 #PCD119

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honeypiehotchner · 5 years

Text

the envoy -- takeshi kovacs fic part one

Okay, so. I told myself I wasn’t going to write another fic because I don’t have the time. But here we are.

I watched episode 3 earlier today (“In A Lonely Place”) and this fic just decided to pour out of me. Yes, there will be multiple parts. It’s following a similar storyline, but a few details will be altered (no pun intended).

That being said, welcome to yet another fic of mine. Altered Carbon style.

Don’t forget to let me know what you think! I love feedback especially on a world as new as AC <3

---

Words: 1,599

Summary: Set in episode 3. Replace the dealer with Nym and there you go. She has a lot of secrets to be found out later.

---

Nym Rolark is a longtime friend to Vernon Elliot. She’s who he goes to when he needs any…well, “hardware” as Kovacs put it.

But what Elliot fails to mention to Kovacs is just how feisty this Nym is.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Elliot?” Is the first thing that comes out of her mouth. Kovacs’s smirk doesn’t go unnoticed, but she doesn’t verbally acknowledge him just yet. “I told you to call before you come over.”

“I know,” Elliot admits, a hint of apology in his tone. “But this is kind of last minute.”

“My least favorite phrase,” Nym comments, turning around to cross her arms over her chest. “And I don’t do favors for anyone, so who the hell is this guy?”

“Takeshi Kovacs,” the man in question answers, still smirking. It’s annoying. It makes Nym want to slap it right off his face.

“The Envoy?” She replies with disinterest, then looking to Elliot. “Why did you bring him here?”

“I need some hardware,” Kovacs answers for himself. “Lethal kind.”

“I don’t own anything that’s not lethal,” she deadpans, turning back to Elliot. “Who’s paying?”

“I am,” Kovacs answers again, getting a little irritated himself that she won’t speak directly to him.

“Of course you are,” Nym rolls her eyes. “What’s your price?”

He shrugs his shoulders, but not in the nonchalant way. In the arrogant way. “Whatever it takes.”

Christ, she thinks, the quicker we get this over with, the better. “Fine. Right this way.”

She leads the two men – one friend, one…enemy, or what she isn’t sure just yet – down the hallway to her basement door. She knocks twice, mostly out of habit, before shoving the door open, flicking the light on. She doesn’t bother looking back to see if they’re following, trusting that Elliot is either leading the way or Kovacs is fast enough to keep up with her.

She hears two sets of footsteps, though, so the former must be true.

When she reaches the hardware room, she bends down to lift the garage door up, flicking these lights on as well.

“These are the classics,” she announces, a little annoyed that she has to, but since the Envoy is new, she does. She moves over to a locked vault, scanning her hand before saying, “These are the new additions – they’re expensive.”

“I’ll take your best.”

“That’s subjective,” Nym fires back, gesturing to the classics. “Those are my favorite, therefore my best.”

Kovacs smirks. “What’ll do the most damage?”

“That depends on the person.”

Elliot glances between them tiredly. “Listen, you said you need this stuff now. Can you stop picking a fight for five goddamn seconds so we can get your shit?”

Kovacs gives the man a look, wondering where in the hell that came from – and why Elliot thinks he can speak to Kovacs like that all of the sudden – but all it takes is one look at Nym to see.

The Elliot family have been more of a family to Nym than her own family has. And that’s all Kovacs can tell. But that alone, in combination with Nym’s attitude, is enough to make him back off.

“Ingram 40 flechette,” Nym holds up what, despite her previous comments, is arguably her favorite of the more advanced weapons.

“There we go.”

“Prototype?” Kovacs asks.

Nym doesn’t hear any malicious intent behind his words, but her comment comes before she can register that. “Who do you think I am?”

And Kovacs’s reply is just as quick. “Someone who really has an issue with people like me.”

“With strangers,” she corrects him, then nodding and muttering, “You’re one to talk.”

“Seriously?” Elliot nearly groans.

“CTAC R and D,” Nym continues, picking back up on the real conversation at hand. “Uses flanged armor-piercing rounds. Ten-round clip. Homing tech onboard.” She watches as Kovacs – the dumbass, she thinks – places his hand at the bottom, causing her to offer a warning. “Don’t put your hand there.”

He almost looks offended. “Why?” And when she reaches to grab the gun, he pulls it back.

She sighs. “Do you want me to show you or would you rather me let you learn the hard way?”

That arrogant smirk crosses his lips again before he gives in, handing the gun over. Nym doesn’t miss a single beat before saying, “Watch your head,” to which Elliot ducks as she fires the gun at the wall. Kovacs raises his eyebrows at the bullet lodged a few inches into the solid concrete. “Stay down,” she instructs when she sees Elliot beginning to stand. She presses the second button, the bullet flinging itself back to the gun.

“That’s why,” Nym explains, wanting to add dumbass at the end, but deciding against it. “Reverse the field generator, the flechette homes through a plasma chamber, autoloads right into the mag.”

“Is that new?” Elliot asks, his fingers grazing the bullet hole in a daze.

“New to me,” Nym smirks. “Got a pair of them last week.”

“I’ll take one,” Kovacs speaks up, bringing the attention back to him – he has a habit of that, she thinks.

“Alright,” she nods, handing him the gun while eyeing what he already has in his hand. “Is that custom?”

Kovacs glances at the weapon in his hand before shrugging, this time in the I don’t know way.

“You mind?”

He hands it over without a fight, or a sarcastic comment, surprisingly. “Modified second series Nemex?” Nym asks in shock. “Where did you get this?” She doesn’t even have one here.

“From a guy who doesn’t need it anymore.”

“Fair enough,” she nods, handing it back. “That’s where half my inventory comes from.”

“And the other half?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Kovacs smirks again. “You got any blades?”

“Do I got any blades?” She replies, rolling her eyes. “Come this way.”

She tips the box lid, revealing her vast array of knives. She’s collected these the longest, so she has a larger selection.

“Tebbit knife. Tantalum steel alloy blade. Flint in the pommel for weighting.”

Nym smiles proudly at Elliot.

“Bioweapon coating?” Is Kovacs’s only question.

“Runnel’s coated with Reaper,” Nym answers easily, handing him the knife. It’s her favorite of the blades. Her personal choice in combat. “Betathanatine.”

“Shit scientists cooked up to study near-death experience,” Elliot adds.

“Deeper you stab, the more dose you get.”

“Ring it up. Plus whatever he wants,” Kovacs nods toward Elliot.

“I already know what he wants,” Nym rolls her eyes, heading back to the main room. “Sunjet 2320?”

“You already know,” Elliot calls after her. “Classics never go out of style.”

“You know it,” Nym agrees, placing the Sunjet on the counter. “Is that all?”

Kovacs nods. “I think so.”

She holds out the DNA scanner with a tired look. And when Kovacs makes no move to walk over, she sighs. “Either you pay or I keep the stuff. Your choice.”

He smirks again, the arrogant kind as he practically waltzes over, taking his sweet ass time before placing his thumb on the scanner. The screen goes from orange to green, bringing a smile to Nym’s face.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

That smirk stays on his face as he gathers the weapons and stuffs them inside a…pink Hello Unicorn back pack.

“Seriously?”

“What?” Kovacs raises his eyebrows, teasing before bringing the bag up and kissing it.

“Nothing,” Nym shakes her head, accepting Elliot’s side hug. “Can I ask why you need all this shit?”

Elliot furrows his eyebrows. “You never do.”

“Well, you’re not normally bringing strangers in here,” she reminds him, shooting Kovacs a glance. “Let alone an Envoy looking into Bancroft’s death.”

“Well, Bancroft’s only been murdered once.”

The glance Nym sends Kovacs turns heated. “You don’t believe he killed himself, huh?” Everyone seems to think the ass was murdered. Everyone except Nym. And the police, apparently, because they couldn’t find any evidence of a murder. Just of a suicide.

He shrugs. And doesn’t say another word.

“Seriously, Elliot, why are you friends with him?”

“Not friends,” Elliot clarifies quickly, sensing Kovacs is almost on the way to commenting about it, too. He looks to Nym, squeezing her in the hug a little tighter. “He’s helping Lizzie.”

Immediately, Nym’s expression changes. “How?”

Elliot explains everything, and explains his original reluctance to let any of it happen, but Nym understands. She knows he’ll do anything for Lizzie. Because Nym would too.

“How much is it costing? I can help, you know I—”

“Actually, Kovacs is covering it.”

“Oh,” Nym nods, giving Kovacs a more respectful nod this time. “Well thank you.”

“Technically, Bancroft is covering it,” Kovacs clarifies. “It’s just on the tab.”

Nym nearly rolls her eyes. He’s got Meth money and suddenly he doesn’t know how to handle himself. That’s what normally happens when you get your hands on that amount of money. Nym saw it firsthand in her own family.

“Well,” she sighs, patting Elliot’s back. “I’ve got somewhere to be, so, not to be rude—” She pauses to glare at the Envoy when she hears him snicker. “—but get the hell outta here.”

“Us too,” Elliot chuckles. “You have fun.”

“And you be careful,” she punches Elliot’s shoulder. “I mean it.”

“I will.”

“What about me?” Kovacs speaks up, completely ruining the moment.

“Don’t take this personally,” Nym smirks, “but I think you can handle yourself, Envoy.”

He smirks in return, and Nym swears she hears a chuckle come from his chest, but she isn’t sure.

She’s only spent half an hour with him, but Nym can’t figure out Takeshi Kovacs.

#takeshi kovacs #altered carbon #altered carbon netflix #vernon elliot #takeshi kovacs x original female character #her name is nym #she has secrets #kovacs x ofc #takeshi x ofc #lizzie elliot

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