#if you think about it the series could have make sense with Kevin day as the protagonist too
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fuck it if i can’t have him
Pairing: Sami/Jey
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 1,514
how dare you think it's romantic leaving me safe and stranded? Cause fuck it I was in love...
Part 2 in a series I'm calling "i love you (it's ruining my life)"
Read part 1 here or this part can stand alone!
AO3 Link
Set between Elimination Chamber 2023 and Wrestlemania 2023
tag squad: @jeysbvck @harmshake @southerngirl41 @imabillyami @elementaldoughnut12 and @feelschicken
this fic is still running with inspo from @motherknuckers much appreciated!!
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The sound of weights hitting the floor echos in the empty hotel gym and Jey pants with exertion, sweat dripping down his face.
It’s late, way later than he should be awake- they have a flight early tomorrow morning and his brothers won’t be kind in waking him up in a few hours. But he just couldn’t fall asleep, finally giving up and heading down to the gym. It’s technically not supposed to be open this late, but Paul has a way of working these requests into their hotel reservations, just in case.
The last few weeks have been tense after his disappearing act after the Royal Rumble. He was welcomed back after proving his loyalty by kicking Sami, but things haven’t been the same. Maybe the problem is him, the discomfort he feels within himself projected onto his cousin and brothers, but the vibes have been different.
When he thinks about everything that’s happened since the beginning of the year, looking at everything that’s gone wrong and how it all fell apart.
How close he and Sami had been to… something. Something that scared and excited him in equal measure.
He’d made his choices, sure. That superkick at the end of Raw was as clear a message as he could send. How could he have done anything else? Roman was going to take it out on Jimmy if he didn’t come back, hell he could have taken it out on Solo if he wanted to. The thought of his brothers suffering on his behalf is unbearable to him.
But at the same time, losing Sami has hurt more than he cares to acknowledge most days. He feels like he’s lost a limb, on unequal footing as he goes about his days. It’s too quiet without his constant presence, there are times he sees something funny on his phone and turns to show Sami but he’s just not there.
It reminds him of how he felt as a child when he and Jimmy were separated, the bone deep wrong that they had to learn to get over as they got older and had separate lives.
Jey wipes away the sweat from his face and tries to breathe, slow and steady like he’s been practicing.
It’s not fair. Nothing about his life has been fair since Roman established dominance in his life, you’d think he’d be used to it by now. But something about this last indignity, he just can’t seem to get over it.
Why couldn’t Roman just accept Sami into the fold? Hadn’t he proved himself over and over again over months, he’d beat Kevin for them at Wargames for them, that had been enough for him. Why did Roman have to push it to such extremes?
Sami choosing Kevin over him, over the family, over Roman. It hurt like hell, but Jey could understand that there wasn’t another choice for Sami to make. Sami wouldn’t be Sami if he had chosen to batter a tied up Kevin Owens. That innate goodness that permeated his soul, the light that made him put up with months of abuse from Jey, keeping the faith on whatever it was he saw in him.
Jey’s not sure what that even was anymore. He had no problem beating up Kevin Owens or anyone else Roman pointed at, whether they deserved it or not. Anything resembling a sense of justice had been beaten out of him by the Tribal Chief ages ago.
He couldn’t do it to Sami. Not at the Rumble. Not at Elimination Chamber. Not until it was clear that Roman would force him to make an impossible choice between his brother and Sami. The man he…
He picks up a barbell, starts a set of reps to keep his mind from the obvious ending of that sentence. The feelings that just rub salt into his wounds, adding insult to injury.
Not that it matters now. Even if Sami had thought of him like that, it hadn’t been enough for him to choose to stay, even if Jey had been brave and selfish enough to ask that of him, if there had even been a chance. Roman took that away from them both.
He finishes a set, and the song playing in his earbuds ends, starting another track thats both familiar and new. Jey fishes his phone out of his pocket and checks the screen, confirming his suspicion.
It’s a new song by an artist he and Sami had bonded over, they’d talked about it when it had been teased on twitter, excited about it. He’d completely forgotten in all the turmoil. It feels like a knife in the heart now.
However, he doesn’t stop himself from hitting share and copying the link into a new message to Sami and hitting send before he can even think about it.
It’s late as hell, no way Sami’s going to see that message until the morning. And what’s he supposed to say now? After the way he attacked Sami the last time they saw each other, he can’t exactly just act like nothing happened.
He stares at the screen, hovering his thumbs over the empty message field. Can’t say nothing either. Fuck.
thought you’d wanna see it- sent 2:30am
Somehow that sounds worse. Desperate. Clingy.
Jey swaps back to his spotify feed and changes the song before shoving his phone back in his pocket.
Maybe it’d be better if he never met Sami at all. Or at least if Sami had never attempted to join his family. He’d known Sami for a long time now that he thinks about it, he’d been around backstage for years, and they’d done spots together over the years here and there. Truthfully he hadn’t payed him much mind for most of that time.
It wasn’t until he approached Roman that it all started. The disgust he felt watching someone beg for the opportunity he’d been beaten into. Sure he could see the appeal of trying to get into the most decorated faction in WWE, but could it really be worth it? Even with the belts on his shoulders he wasn’t sure.
At least before then Jey didn’t have this foolish hope, didn’t know how it felt to be safe and secure with his family and have someone to commiserate with, some of that burden off of his shoulders. They’d been so damn happy. Or at least he had been. Maybe Sami had deceived him. Maybe-
The burn in his forearm alerts him that he’s pushed himself too far, setting down the weight and groaning.
Between the aching twinge in his arm and the far deeper ache in his chest, he finds his eyes stinging with tears.
“Fuck- FUCK!” He screams, the sound echoing around him.
How is this the right answer? Feeling miserable, unable to sleep, down bad and crying at the gym over Sami fucking Zayn.
He lays back on the weight bench, stares up at the ceiling and just lets all the shit he’s been pushing down wash over him. Tears flow freely down the sides of his face, anger at Roman, jealousy over Sami picking Kevin fucking Owens, disappointment in himself at letting it get this bad, that bitter feeling wishing he could change the course of the last 3 months so he could just be happy with Sami again.
Fuck.
Fuck it, he was in love with him. He was in love with that ginger idiot. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it now.
He sighs out his breath, letting his eyes close for just a moment. Something about admitting it to himself releases the ball of tension in his chest, and the late hour begins catching up with him, his eyes growing heavy.
He presses his thumbs against his eyes, rubbing them and wiping the lingering tears away.
Jey wipes down the bench efficiently, tossing his stuff back in his gym bag before heading out and back up to his room. He’s in a room by himself tonight, which Paul tried to sell to them as a treat but it feels more like a punishment.
The door shuts behind him, disturbing the quiet of the early morning. He thinks about getting a shower, but honestly he’s too tired for that. He’ll take care of it in the morning before the flight.
He rolls into bed, phone in hand, and against his better judgement opens his messages again. There’s no reply, unsurprisingly, but then he sees it.
A tiny “Seen 2:34am" underneath the bubble.
Sami’s…. awake? Or was anyway. The top of his phone reads just after 3 am now.
Maybe…. just maybe…
Jey worries his bottom lip between his teeth as he feverishly types a message, giving it one quick look over before hitting send. After all, what more does he have to lose?
He lets the phone drop against his chest, trying not to get his hopes up and getting comfortable in the bed.
His eyes shut for the briefest of moments, and he feels his phone vibrate in his hands.
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Couldn't get this out of my head- wanted to leave the ending pretty ambiguous and kayfabe compliant. Got all this angst out of me, here's hoping I get back to fluffier WIPs lol
Hope you enjoyed!!
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No you guys don’t understand. Neil was playing as a way to try to live and how he wants to try actually living instead of surviving. Winning against the ravens doesn’t matter to Neil, winning against his father does. But the books don’t end with Baltimore. It ends with the raven game. But this game means more to Kevin than it can ever to any other characters. All for the game. Neil can survive without exy. He can run away and start a new life. But kevin day does not have anything else. This entire series is for kevin day
#yes yes ofc ik Neil also cant survive without Exy it’s his way to live BUT technically he can still run away (after trk ofc he cant hes in t#too deep but if you think about it this entire series starts and ends because of Kevin day#Neil josten May be the protagonist and Andrew minyard May be the love interest but Kevin day is the whole point the center of this entire se#series#this series wouldn’t have even happened without Kevin day if another team seeks out neil josten he wouldn’t have joined he only joined for k#Kevin and the series ended with neil bargaining for everyone’s lives including Kevin#Kevin is actually the main character#if you think about it the series could have make sense with Kevin day as the protagonist too#I’m so deeplg ingrained in aftg sm I just urgh I just I love them so much#this reread might take longer than I thought because of how much I’m stopping to analyse everything and post about it lmao#aftg#all for the game#tfc#the foxhole court#aftg series#andrew minyard#aftg fandom#neil josten#andrew joseph minyard#aftg incorrect quotes#aftg reread#aftg trilogy#aftg kevin#kevin day#aftg neil#aftg andrew#aftg andreil#tfc incorrect quotes#incorrect aftg#incorrect aftg quotes
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ok so I deeply love and respect your thoughts on supernatural because the majority of them line up with what I've been thinking for years but you said something the other day that I keep turning over in my brain and it was something along the lines of carver liking dean more than sam - I know you're in the middle of rewatching s4 but I would love to hear you expound on that (if you have time) because I remember being in the fandom while carvernatural was airing and it was pretty much when the deangirl exodus started. in fact I think people tore into him worse than dabb even 😭
feel free to hold onto this until later when you start the carver seasons if you wish :)
<3 I'll go ahead and answer this one, because it's more of a "broad strokes" thing for me, and I've been rewatching very slowly (on purpose) so that could be a very long wait.
This is so funny because I can just picture Sam fans reading it and turning red and their blood boiling with the fire of a thousand suns but the TL;DR is that season 8-11 (Carver era) broad strokes to me are:
Sam sucks and is a worse brother and person than Dean.
Sam spends the first two seasons of Carver's run thinking he's a better person than Dean anyway and then the second two knowing he sucks, deciding to embrace his moral flexibility to keep Dean alive no matter the cost, and trying to mend things.
Dean is circled by many potential suitors who also in a sense represent Sam replacements because Sam sucks: Benny, Cas, Crowley, and Amara.
Dean knows that Sam sucks and part of him wants to get tf away from him very badly but another part of him feels guilty for wanting that. Family is suffering. Family is a chain around your neck keeping you tied to them via guilt. (Demon Dean represents the desire for escape, as does Amara).
Everybody wants to be with Dean, be Dean, and/or be loved by Dean. Dean is love. Dean is the world. Dean is the reason for existing. Everybody is lovesick about him. Sam is just there.
Sam needs to stop blaming Dean for so many things and learn to own his own choices.
That was fun to write down.
Longer commentary/explanation below the cut.
Season 8 (Carver's first season) literally begins with a Sam character assassination. It begins with us learning that Sam knowingly left Kevin to spend the rest of his life kidnapped and tortured without even telling a soul what happened to him. Not only did he abandon Dean and Cas as well but he didn't even look for them, and refuses to give a satisfying answer as to why.
Season 8 Sam's abandonment as distinct from previous behavior
I have had people this year who I love and respect tell me they don't view this as a character assassination and say they believe this is in character for Sam. I simply do not agree with that. I talk about this as it relates to Kevin here.
Sam has displayed selfishness and a big ego at many points in the series up to season 8. He's told a lot of lies (sometimes to the point of gaslighting), he's gone behind Dean's back to do things that affect Dean's life, he's taken traumatic experiences Dean opened up to him about and ultimately harmed Dean with them, he's shown resentments and anger, he's displayed jealousy, he's displayed a sense of superiority. He has never abandoned his brother to die without even trying. The Sam of season 3 would eviscerate season 8 Sam for this.
Sometimes Sam says and does things he shouldn't, but his crimes do not include "abandoning Dean to die without even looking for him" up to season 8. Many of his crimes happen at least partly because he really really doesn't want Dean to die or is desperate to save his life. He lets go of his anger at John and returns to make sure Dean is safe in 1.11. He refuses to give up and finds a way to save Dean in 1.12. In 1.22, he's willing to put John's life at risk for revenge, but in 2.01 he gets into an outright screaming match with John in the hospital under the belief that John's prioritizing the demon over Dean. Sam spends all of season 3 raging and angst-ing about not being able to save Dean to the point of considering and doing some shady as hell things/abandoning some of his more stalwart moral stances (3.05, 3.11, 3.15, 3.16). Dean's death and later, the desire to secure his safety/future, is one of the catalysts for Sam's descent into drinking demon blood (3.09, 3.16, 4.04, 4.09, 4.12). When he dies in "Swan Song", he urges Dean to pursue a normal, safe, life because he knows that at that point in time, Dean wants to get out but has always felt trapped (2.09, 2.10, 2.20, 3.01, 4.12, 4.16). Even Soulless Sam (who isn't the same as regular Sam) tried to look for Dean in 6.09 "Clap Your Hands If You Believe"—it was simply that when leads for the night dried up, he hooked up with someone because he had nothing more to go on and in soulless Sam's head that was the reasonable thing to do. But soulless Sam also certainly isn't representative of the real Sam—the fact that he doesn't care as much is supposed to point us to differences between him and regular Sam. Season 8 opens with Sam abandoning Dean in a context that makes him arguably worse than his soulless self.
(I talk about why Sam actually abandons everyone in season 8 in a very long post here).
Season 8 and 9 more broadly
So Carver has Sam abandon Dean to die without even trying. Then he has Sam refuse to give any kind of actually reasonable explanation that makes sense to anyone who was paying attention. Then he has Sam say that he's going to leave the life and Dean needs to get over it and accept that Sam's new life will not include contact with Dean (just like his life at Stanford didn't). While saying he's going to leave, he still wants to exert control over Dean's relationships and leverages the threat of leaving (as if he were going to stay) to get Dean to shut up about Sam abandoning him and then again to try and get Dean to cut ties with Benny. He wants to kill Benny before knowing a single thing about him. He assigns someone (Martin) who he knows is mentally unstable and has a more black and white perception of monsters to track Benny and gets Martin killed. He watches Martin knock Dean unconscious and chain him up in a room and doesn't stop it because he wants Benny dead that bad, but then has the audacity to act as if Dean sending him a fake text is worse than Sam literally chaining him up in a room to prevent Sam from killing an innocent person (someone Sam would normally—btw—defend based on episodes like 2.03 and 4.04 or even a few episodes ago with Kate in "Bitten"). He tells Amelia he wants to fight for their relationship then the moment Dan says they should leave the choice to Amelia, he leaves so that it becomes his choice, and then he returns for one episode just to be a homewrecker. He insists on doing The Trials while promising to survive them and giving a big speech about how he's going to save Dean from his own suicidal ideation and then drops the promise as if it never existed two episodes later. Sam loses confidence in himself to complete The Trials and then acts like Dean is the one who doesn't believe in him because Dean is caring for him and insisting he rest and this is an unforgivable offense. At the end of the season, he basically says he's going to commit suicide because Dean has friends besides him. He acts as if he deserves to be Dean's most trusted confidant after an entire season of him being an absolutely fucking terrible brother and acts like Dean is just a big meanie whose feelings are irrational.
After all of this, he has the audacity, in season 9, to suggest that Dean is a bad person who can't stand the thought of being alone. He tells Dean he's the worst person ever and they can only be work partners from now on because Dean is so so bad and evil for stopping him from committing suicide and then not telling him about Gadreel. At the end of the season he admits this was a lie. He just wanted to punish Dean (9.23).
I can see how—if you were watching live at the time (I started watching when season 11 was airing) you'd lose hope. You'd quit the show over all of this, because it seems to go on forever. It's like torture. I would drop kick season 8 Sam into a pit full of lava without hesitation so I get it. If I believed that Carver was actually saying "Yes so true Dean is The Worst™️ and Sam is morally superior <3" for two seasons straight I'd quit the show too. But that isn't what he's saying. We're supposed to read between the lines and realize how unbelievably full of shit Sam is—how deeply selfish and hypocritical he's being. How yes—Dean has made mistakes—but Sam is NOT a better person than him and has gotten away with some absolutely rancid garbage. And season 10 and 11 go on to beat you over the head with it if you didn't get it the first time.
Season 10 and 11
Season 10 opens with this dialogue from a demon:
I heard the rumors. I said "no, that can't be." A Winchester, one of us? But it's true, isn't it? Whatever soul you had; whatever boy scout code you cuddled up to at night; it's all gone. Leaving what? Look at you!
We're meant to think she's talking about Dean who just woke up with black eyes, but then the camera cuts to Sam torturing her, demanding to know where Dean is.
In 10.03, we learn that Sam talked a man (Lester) into selling his soul so he could use him as bait. Demon Dean ends up being assigned to fulfill Lester's deal (to kill his wife for cheating on him). Dean immediately clocks Lester as having cheated on her first and kills Lester for being an insufferable hypocrite... and while he's doing it, I'm pretty sure he's also thinking of Sam's flaming hypocrisy.
SAM:
I never meant—
DEMON DEAN:
Who cares what you meant?! That line that we thought was so clear between us and the things that we hunted, ain’t so clear is it? Wow. You might actually be worse than me! I mean, you took a guy at his lowest, used him, and it cost him his life and his soul. Nice work.
NOTE: 10.03 also recalls 4.21—an episode Sam fans have always tended to emphasize as a "Dean crime" episode where Dean risks Sam's death to force a detox. Sam does the reverse—pumping Dean full of human blood here in 10.03 and explicitly risking his death.
Sam gets Suzie killed in "The Werther Project" while searching for The Book of the Damned.
SAM
I’m sorry, okay? I’m so sorry.
SUZIE
Lot of good “sorry” does me. Look at me. Look….at….me. [She points to her corpse.] There she is. The first casualty of your misguided mission. But what’s another human life to you? Anything’s worth it, as long as you two make it out alive. And how’s that search going? Any closer to a cure?
SAM
This isn’t real. You’re not real.
SUZIE
You think Dean’s the wild card, the loose cannon. But don’t you see? Making deals with witches, opening Pandora’s box down there? You’re the reckless one. You’ll do anything to keep clinging to that doomed brother of yours. How many more will die, Sammy? You know it. You have to be stopped. And the only one who can stop you is you!
A few episodes later, Sam orders Oskar's death for a spell to remove the Mark of Cain. I've seen hilarious posts before about how he had no choice but to do this because MoC Dean is so scawy and bad but that quite explicitly is not his motivation. They could have done so many other things. Throw him into space. Bury him in a really deep hole. Put him in something like The Cage. But Sam didn't like any of those options, because all of them meant being without his brother, and he's realized he doesn't want to be without him no matter the cost (10.18).
SAM
So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um…close the gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would’ve had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so, he uh…
CHARLIE
He saved you.
SAM
Yeah, he saved me.
CHARLIE
And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn’t want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?
SAM
Yeah, that sounds about right.
[...]
SAM
You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself… one last job, you know? One more job. And then when – when I, um…. When I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There’s always one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and – and to my life.
CHARLIE
You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting.
SAM
Yeah. I guess I really understand now that….this is my life. I love it. But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t….
CHARLIE
I got it. I-I do.
This all culminates in 10.23, where a very mentally unstable MoC Dean attempts to reason with Sam about them both being evil and needing to take themselves out:
DEAN: Remember when we were in that church, making Crowley human, about to close the Gates of Hell? Well, you sure as hell were ready to die for the greater good then.
SAM: Yeah, and, Dean, you pulled me back.
DEAN: And I was wrong. You were right, Sam. You knew that this world would be better without us in it.
SAM: No, no, no, wait a second. You're twisting my words here, Dean.
DEAN: Why? Because we -- we track evil and kill it? The family business? Is that it? Look at the tape, Sam. Evil tracks us. And it nukes everything in our vicinity -- our family, our friends. It's time we put a proper name to what we really are and we deal with it.
SAM: Wait a second. We are not evil. Listen... We're far from perfect, but we are good. That thing on your arm is evil, but not you, not me.
DEAN: I let Rudy die. How was that not evil? I know what I am, Sam. But who were you when you --when you drove that man to sell his soul... Or when you bullied Charlie into getting herself killed? And to what end? A-a good end? A just end? To remove the Mark no matter what the consequences? Sam, how is that not evil? I have this thing on my arm, and you're willing to let the Darkness into the world.
SAM: You were also willing to summon death to make sure you could never do any more harm. You summoned me because you knew I would do anything to protect you. That's not evil, Dean. That's not an evil man. That is a good man crying to be heard, searching for... some other way.
Dean is saying a lot of shady shit here, but some of what he's saying... isn't wrong?
Sam is willing to let The Darkness destroy the world, and he does, and then standing in the aftermath of a town being destroyed by the force he unleashed, Sam says:
SAM: I unleashed a force on this world that could destroy it . . . to save you.
DEAN: And I told you not to.
SAM: And I'd do it again. In a second, I would do it again.
Thousands of people are dying and Sam says he would do it again. This post about Sam's actions versus Dean stopping Sam from closing the gates of hell is highly relevant.
Season 11 continues with Sam taking a little more responsibility for his own decisions, while praying for Dean to live (11.02):
SAM:
So . . . I know it's been a long time, but . . . Dean and I, we've -- we've been through a lot of bad. But this is different. This is my fault, and I don't know how to fix it. And if I have to die, I've made my peace with that, but . . . Please. Dean deserves better. Dean deserves a life. There are people out there, good people, who are going to suffer because of me, and I am not asking you to clean up my mess. Hell, I don't even know if you're out there, but . . . If you are . . . And if you can hear me, I, um . . . We need your help, God. We need to know there's hope. We need a sign.
And then there's the VERY long-awaited apology:
SAM
When I was with Lucifer, he, um... He showed me things. It was like a highlight reel of my biggest failures.
DEAN
Yeah, he was messing with you. That's what he does.
SAM
Give me a sec. I should've looked for you. When you were in Purgatory, I... I should've turned over every stone.
Family (Sam) as chains
While all of this is happening, we also have Benny and Cas and Crowley and Amara.
Benny is contrast—someone whose goodness and selfless loyalty only makes Sam's horrible flaws stand out more sharply in season 8. Under the influence of the specter, Dean says, "Benny has been more of a brother to me this past year than you have ever been" and Sam can't stand it. It haunts him so bad he tries to kill Benny, and can't get over it even after the end of the season when Benny is fucking dead. He is unable to accept that the contrast between himself and Benny is his own fault.
Crowley and Dean's flirtations begin in season 9, as Sam suffocates Dean, and at the end of the season, Crowley has literally convinced Dean to run away with him. In 10.01, there is a delightful phone call where Crowley rubs it in Sam's face that Dean is with HIM:
SAM
I don't know how you did this, what kind of... Black-magic stunt you pulled, but hear me --I will save my brother or die trying.
CROWLEY
You know what tickles me about all this? It's what's really eating you up. You don't care that he's a demon. Heck, you've been a demon. We've all been demons. No, it's that he's with me and he's having the time of his life. You can't stand the fact that he's mine.
SAM
He's not your pet.
CROWLEY
My pet? He's my best friend, my partner in crime. They'll write songs about us, graphic novels. “The Misadventures of Growley and Squirrel." Dean Winchester completes me, and that's what makes you lose your chickens.
It's this cruel callback to Sam's jealousy of Benny and Cas in season 8—how Crowley convinced Dean to finally ditch his smothering, controlling brat of little brother who can't stand him having friends, and now Dean is having the time of his life howling at the moon. The problem is, Dean also feels a little bit like maybe Crowley wants to control him too, and that isn't working for him.
Amara in season 11 goes on to further speak on terrible brothers who think they're better than you, who leave you betrayed and diminished, who abandon you. She's raging against the concept of family as chains—she wants revenge... but all the while she's in pain because she still loves her brother. Amara's attraction to Dean is based on that commonality—what she feels is a shared experience and how she wants to cut the last remaining pieces of love she feels for her brother away so she can finally be free of the pain of him—and she doesn't care if she destroys everything—including herself—in the process. (See: Dean slowly losing his identity through the MoC arc). Sam and Dean's relationship is in rehab over this whole season though, and so Dean's role ends up being to convince Amara not to destroy herself—to instead do what Sam and Dean have done and make up and work on improving their relationship.
#writer disk horse#carver#mail#multiseason#season 8#season 9#season 10#season 11#sams moral compass#deans moral compass#amara#crowley#benny#charlie#family chains
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Thor Love and Thunder deleted scenes - 1 & 2
These 2 scenes show that Zeus visits Thor and Jane in the hospital to give Thor the thunderbolt. He advises him on how to use energy for thunderbolt and gives directions for Eternity. Jane makes the choice to go with Thor. Out of other options, they use the goats to travel there.
It's nice to see Thor get some fatherly interaction and behave like his former self: the smile at 'I have many sons', not speaking much but actually listening, being intelligent enough to know what was said in Roman. Little things.
However, these scenes show us an entirely different version of the film. If we go by them, Thor never 'killed' Zeus and left Omnipotent City on possibly good terms with him, given how he casually strolled directly to Jane's hospital bed to talk to Thor and they're all cool with each other.
The Shadow Realm confrontation might have happened as is because Jane is injured and Valkyrie is also out of the picture entirely. Thor is about to go face Gorr alone w no Valkyrie or Jane or Thunderbolt or Stormbreaker or even Mjolnir and not knowing how to reach Eternity perhaps (whatever could go wrong?). But with Zeus giving him the thunderbolt and Jane joining in, the entire climax of the film changes again.
Rant incoming:
Sh*t like this makes me wonder do they shoot 13 different versions of everything and 15 different movies, hoping to find the actual film in editing? That's such a massive waste of the cast and crew's time and effort. These aren't even deleted scenes. These are alternate universes from movies that could have been. Multiverses, if you will.
Deleted scenes are fun additional details the audience could do without. Like Thor returning the mug he broke or Frigga berating/begging Odin to end Thor's exile. Or they're a different/alternate version of existing scenes that may change the context of some things in the story. Like Odin freakin’ letting Frigga die. You could or could not add them but at the end of the day, they don't make a difference to the eventual story.
But in Thor4, if you add Zeus visiting the hospital, you gotta scrap out the entire confrontation at the Omnipotent City. If you add Jane just choosing to ignore Thor's heartfelt request to stay at the hospital and Thor not freaking reacting to it as well (??), you gotta change the entire climax again. I hope to god in the multiverse where this scene of Zeus showing fatherly affection to Thor exists, the scene from the theatrical cut of him ripping Thor’s clothes for fun, looking at him creepily and saying ‘pretty boy’, and inviting him to the o*gy doesn’t. Go to jail, Marvel.
I just-- it doesn't make sense. What even was the original story? Was there a story at all? This is important because Thor is the only character in the MCU to get the elusive 4th film. If you're going to continue a series against the norm, it should be because you really have a story to tell. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, Dexter: New Blood, and John Wick: Chapter 4.
Though I don't think producer Kevin Feige cares much about things like core story and character progression because Thor brings in the $$$. And director Taika Waititi doesn't either because he shot over 4 hours' worth of movie that he can surely cut out a theatrical version from - with every possibility on the cards, whatever the test audience reacts well to.
It's the cast and crew that are the real victims of this methodical merciless studio filmmaking. It's been well-documented that the VFX artists working on Marvel projects have been heavily overworked. A lot of their hard work could have been saved if there was a more definitive story structure so over half the footage they tirelessly worked on wouldn't end up on the cutting room floor. To add insult to injury, Waititi went on to mock them for giving their sweat, blood, and tears to his project. Classy.
Poor Christian Bale shaved his head to play Gorr, only to have most of his scenes cut from the film. Natalie Portman also did physical training for her role.
And Chris did the most extreme training he has ever done for this film. He already did excruciating training for the extreme physique as is. Add to it the dehydration for the shirtless scenes and not eating meat for kissing scenes - just willingly making life difficult for himself. Could have saved him a lot of torturous training by not shooting 13 different versions of every scene out of which 12 won't make it to the final film.
I'm aware that shooting movies works like that - you shoot different versions of scenes that don't make it to the final edit. They signed up for shaving their head and dying training to maintain the impossible physique. All I'm saying is that it's sad that it's all in service of material that just doesn't do them justice. It’s all vapid corporate thinking with no vision.
#thor#thor odinson#jane foster#zeus#gorr the god butcher#thor love and thunder#anti marvel#anti taika waititi#text
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sorry to bother but do you have a plan of when part 4 will come out
ofc it’s perfectly fine if you’re not ready, from the looks of it this is a really big project
Hi anon!!
Oh my goodness, no it's no bother at all! Honestly, I would much rather be talking about fic writing than doing boring things like making a living (which consumed MY LIFE last week).
Ha! And you said it - this fic series has definitely been all-consuming. But I really love this particular AU, so let me tell you I've been working on it non-stop whenever I have time and have the following figured out so far:
My outline currently has the next fic at 12 chapters, though I have a sneaky suspicion that it'll become longer.
I have 53K written so far (but that's before editing😅).
It will have alternating POVs between Jean and Jeremy.
I wish I could give you a better sense of timing, but honestly it all comes down to my work schedule and what free time I have. At this point, I feel like I'm aiming toward April - but don't quote me.
And because I haven't posted something about Once in a Blue Moon on here for a while, here's a new snippet to chew over while I keep hustling as a thank you for your patience! 🥹
OIAB scene under the cut:
The LA airport is hot and muggy. It makes sweat bead down Jean’s neck and uncomfortably gather beneath his collar. Though he wears the lightest long-sleeve shirt he owns, the material still feels constricted and stifling, sticking to his skin. He has the insane urge to tear the garment off him and walk around bare-chested just to feel some relief.
Of course, he would never do so. In fact, the mere thought of it makes him pull his sleeves down farther, covering the backs of scar-ridden hands.
At least his head is cool.
He runs a hand over his buzzed scalp once more, the fuzzy feel of it still odd to him. Abby had suggested it so they could see his stitches better. And since so much of his hair had been pulled out anyway, it seemed to make sense.
Still, he hates how foreign the feeling is. He’s a stranger in his own skin. Has been, for some time he thinks.
He glances up anxiously at the clock on the wall, his knee bouncing as he waits. His flight landed ten minutes ago, and he thought his captain would be waiting here to greet him.
Apparently, he thought wrong.
Laughter erupts from behind him, and Jean jumps. He immediately spins around, only to find a family standing nearby, laughing at the antics of their two-year-old. He watches them for a moment before slowly turning back, clasping his hands in front of him and clutching them tight.
Anxiety slowly begins to creep under his skin. Had he gotten the day wrong? Or the time? Did something happen between Palmetto and here that caused a delay? Should he call someone to ask?
He opens his phone and looks through the few contacts on his list.
Abby Winfield
David Wymack
Jeremy Knox
Kevin Day
Renee Walker
Jean scowls.
His preference would likely be Abby or Renee, though he thinks the latter would have no information useful for this. Wymack, he would tolerate. He skims over the fourth name on the list because he’s never thinking of that fucker again in his entire life, if he can help it. Then he stares at the fifth name, the contact information for him uploaded without his knowledge into this new phone Abby got him.
Jeremy Knox.
Starting Trojans Striker. #11. Played 52 games last season, scored 41 goals, and had 36 assists. Captain of the USC Trojans for three years straight. Fifth-best striker in the NCAA.
(Fourth, now that Riko is gone.)
Weaknesses: favors left side for goals, left knee injury in his sophomore year of high school, and overly attached to wellbeing of teammates.
Jean scowls again.
If Knox is anything like the person who recommended him, he’s bound to be both a waste of Jean’s time and breath. After all, he can certainly strike punctual off the list.
Thanks again for the ask, anon!
#sassy baguette#oh we got a whollleeee arc coming up for this one#just you wait#jean moreau#jeremy knox#once in a blue moon#my works#all for the game#aftg#the foxhole court#fic asks#lovely people#thanks for the ask anon!
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One thing I dislike in season 5 is how the characters are often dumbed down just to fit, for the plot sake. The kids, in particular, seem to reach a point where Eddy can literally come up with any lie or scam (the forever-summer scam, the mole mutants, the booster shot day, the egghead Ed, a new kid Carl) and the kids will immediately buy completely without a question (even Kevin of all people). In earlier seasons, as gullible as the kids could be, they still kept a skepticism degree and were quicker to recognize something as a poorly manufactured scam (at least some of them).
So, of course, all the characters sound so out-of-character in season 5 (except maybe the Kankers)...
yeah i agree to some extent. i'm always hesitant to criticize s5 cuz like, who tf am i? i don't know much about the behind the scenes, etc., etc.. but i agree that it is very different in a lot of ways that stand out. if you view the differences in characterization as intentional, it's kind of interesting.
eddy is absolutely off the rails and is at his most volatile in s5. even his laugh is more villainous lmao. i liked kevin lordi's comment that he seems depressed as hell later on in the series. makes sense to me, i mean we see how he struggles in school, and how he gets treated there. you can't just leave when things get bad, either. i gotta say, i feel like they ramped up the eddy torture p*rn in s5. i might be biased though.
edd is also utterly unhinged. viewing the gradual changes in him as intentional (aka me over analyzing), i see that he's reached PEAK neuroticism. the guy is about to snap and eventually does in bps. frankly, i find him unbearable but it's all character growth in my mind. school is a source of stress for him as well, but for different reasons. also, he and eddy are a lot nastier to each other in this season.
with ed, i'm not really sure what angle to come at it from. if i stick by what i said before, then his over the top oafishness is likely a result of hardcore dissociating. maybe he ALSO really hates school and so his brain just shuts down. literally. you could also theorize that he took one too many bumps on the head (just kidding).
realistically though i think he's the easiest source of comedic relief for what is, after all, a kids' show. perhaps it became a bit of a crutch while they created some really great character driven episodes.
like fistful of ed, too smart for his own ed, cleanliness is next to edness, and, pick an ed. lots of edd focused episodes in s5.
to your specific point, i guess i see what you mean. but i've always wondered why the kids would fall for anything eddy does after like s2 lmao. s5 isn't the first time we learn that the cul-de-sac kids aren't very bright. they do all have moments of skepticism, and yes, especially kevin. in see no ed, he's shown to be borderline paranoid about the eds which is goddamn hilarious to me. but most of the time they'll all be skeptical at first, yet still end up taking the bait and acting shocked.
(by the way: kevin deserved sooooo much worse than what happened in this won't hurt an ed - which was ultimately nothing. eddy ended up being the one getting hurt at the end of the episode.
kevin is ruthless and flat out cruel to eddy. he's the definition of a bully. he's shown to be pretty normal toward everyone else in the neighborhood, including ed and edd when they interact one on one. with eddy, he has this abnormal and unhealthy hatred for the kid. it's really funny.)
in pick an ed, edd says its obvious that 'carl' is just eddy in disguise. eddy looks worried until ed falls for it. to me that implies that eddy thinks the kids are dumb as a bag of hammers. and he was right!
my thing with eddy is, don't hate the player, hate the game. it's hard for me to feel bad for someone who gets "scammed" or pranked over and over. if kevin wanted to, he could be the hero of the cul-de-sac and put an end to the scams by simply sharing his over-abundance of jawbreakers with the eds. but he's a dick, so he doesn't. the kids are also to blame not just for being such easy marks, but for never leaving jawbreakers for the eds when kevin shares with them. eddy's biggest mistake was waiting around long enough after getting paid for them to catch on.
summary: i used to also view s5 as a "dip in quality" until i saw a post where someone argued that the changes could and should be viewed as character growth/development over flanderization. both things can be true! and there are plenty of REALLY good, fun episodes and moments in the season.
#this derailed but i did eventually address your point#also eddy is so tiny in s5 which is very amusing to me#you really could trip over him like ed said#and just to be clear i actually like kevin i think he's hilarious#text
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What your favourite Xeno series game says about you
Xenogears: The elder statespeople of the fandom, you’ve been around since the franchise’s inception. You first played Xenogears as an impressionable teen in the 90′s and thought it was the greatest story you’d ever experienced despite not knowing what in god’s name was going on for most of the runtime (I’ll bet Evangelion is favourite anime too, huh?). Now that you’re an adult with the frame of reference and critical analysis skills to find the substance behind all the weirdness, you love it even more. Disc Two was really not that bad, guys. Part of you wants a remake, but you’re also terrified of how it could get screwed up. You have a visceral hatred of modern day Square-Enix.
Xenosaga Episode One: As far as you’re concerned, the writing took a step down since Soraya Saga stopped being involved in the series. You’ve dug deep into the behind the scenes history of the franchise and so you know that this was the entry in the trilogy that Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga had the most input on. As such, this game represents to you more than anything what Xenosaga could have been. You have likely read Perfect Works cover to cover multiple times and have written novel length fanfics in your head about what sort of things would have happened in the full six-part story. You’re always very meticulous about checking your email.
Xenosaga Episode Two: You tend to avoid internet discourse because you’re so tired of people in the fandom dunking on your fave. You like the battle system more than Episode One because at least the attack animations aren’t thirty seconds long this time. You never fail to remind Xenoblade players that this game did the break system first. THE SECOND MILTIA THEME SLAPS, YOU TROGLODYTES! Jr. is probably your favourite party member and you loved watching him take centre stage and digging into his backstory. You maintain that Albedo is the greatest villain in this entire franchise and you’re probably right.
Xenosaga Episode Three: You know this trilogy was cut short, but you were still super impressed with how well this game wrapped it up. You maintain that Yuki Kajiura deserves to be brought up more when discussing the franchise’s music. Godsibb is straight up a better version of Zanza the Divine and you will die on that hill. You either love Shion or absolutely despise her, there’s no middle ground here. But those of you split on Shion can put your differences aside to give a much deserved ‘screw you’ to Kevin Winnicott. You will probably keel over in joy if KOS-MOS gets into Smash, so you make do with sobbbing into your copy of Project X Zone.
Xenoblade Chronicles: The zoomer equivalent to the Xenogears fans. Whether you were around for Operation Rainfall, or hopped on later, this was your first Xeno game, and while you certainly like or even love the rest of the series, none of them quite hit for you like this does. The sense of scope never fails to impress you, even on replays and you can’t help but spin the camera all around as you play. You appreciate the ways the sequels have built on this game, but think this entry’s gameplay is still a blast. You still find using the vision system to turn the tables on a tough fight super satisfying. You love the world and story of this game and frequently watch streams or reactions because you can’t get enough of people losing their minds over the plot twists. People assume that you think Melia is best girl but you laugh because you know the greatness of the Heropon transcends all petty waifu or husbando wars. You’re also probably the most meme-y sector on the fandom and have binge watched Theaggyu’s videos god knows how many times.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: switchportswitchportswitchportswitchport....
You are one of the poor saps who still owns a Wii U in 2022, and given how the Switch has pretty much lifted its library whole sale, this game is probably the sole reason why at this point. Well that and the eShop. It kills you that this game so rarely comes up alongside the likes of Breath of the Wild or Witcher 3 in discussions of the best open worlds in video games. You’re something of a power gamer and you love to push the class system to its absolute limit to decimate bosses. You watch 1 minute solo videos of Telethia the Endbringer and have to resist the urge to drool. Truthfully, you don’t really try to defend the story from its criticism by the rest of the fans, because the writing in the side quests is where it’s at! You have an instant violent reaction to potatoes. You feel for the Xenosaga fans but you also kind of resent them because at least they got two sequels to their unfinished story.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The Xeno series has ALWAYS BEEN ANIME so SHUT UP! Unlike the X fans who have just been kind of doing their thing in the corner, you’ve been caught in the crossfire of the 1 vs 2 wars for a while now and you’re frankly sick of it. This is your favourite combat of the series by far, and you have put a shedload of time into the DLC challenges. You adore the characters and wish people didn’t get so hung up on some of the goofier designs. When one of your friends tries the game for the first tile, you always send them Chuggaaconroy’s guide video. Still, for all the fandom debacle, one thing you share with the Xenoblade 1 fans is your love of memes. You might even say you...don’t forget them. When Pyra and Mythra came to Smash, you were there in the battlegrounds of Twitter to maintain that they were a great addition. You can never watch the ending without crying. The most likely fans to read/write fanfiction.
Torna the Golden Country: You may not have entirely loved Xenoblade 2, or at least had some major gripes with it. But this prequel fixed pretty much any issue you have with that game while retaining what you liked. You’ve always felt the past Xeno games were kind of bloated and love that this can give you a substantial experience in 20 hours, instead of having to wait 20 hours for the game to fully open up for you. When people say X or 2 have the best combat, you laugh in Vanguard Switching. Lora is a treasure and did nothing wrong in her whole life. Jin and Mythra are some of the best characters in the series and so help you, you will call down Siren on whoever says otherwise. Whenever you hear the word ‘community’, you freeze up on the spot. I said that 2 fans always cry at the ending, but honestly this ending reduces you fits of sobbing that put them to shame.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: You need to let me into your house and use your time machine RIGHT NOW.
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And Another One - Casualty Hiatus Thoughts - 2/?
I'm still ill but I went into uni anyway like the brave little soldier that I am! (Every night, I decide that all the work that I need to do can be done “tomorrow” but we’re rapidly running out of those until the deadlines. I have lost my train pass and student ID. All I’ve listened to all day is the demo version of Geyser by Mitski. Vague sense of doom.) I got myself some Tesco Finest cookies on the way home. I’m just complaining here.
I'm back for more already, seems like I've opened the floodgates but this one won't be as lengthy as the other one was. Genuinely sorry I can’t shut up. I thought I was done for a while but I put an episode from series 36 on in the background thinking that I'd be able to do stuff while it played but got distracted by my opinions.
Potentially all over the place again, though this one does manage to be mostly about the series 36 mother-hell storylines. So there's a theme. Warning - I started going off about Dark Room which has a lot of transphobia in it and that’s part of what I talked about.
I really don’t know how I feel about the resolutions of Sah and Teddy’s storylines with their mums. Okay, we already know I'm about to be going on about Sah and Teddy's mother problems storylines but I'm sure there are other characters who this is/isn't applicable to - feel free to let me know about it. As a recap: it’s kind of hard for me to figure out how to describe exactly what happens at the end of Friends Like These, but if anyone has ever seen that quote that’s like “I tried to ask my parents to leave the room, but not my life”, Teddy asks Gaynor to leave the room and she leaves his life. A couple months later a patient situation causes Teddy to call his mum (and that is not brought up again when he gets trapped in a mine in the next episode) and also we are left to assume that all is fine now. Pretty simplistically, in Enough, Sah and Jools talk it out after Kevin has another stroke and then they are also just portrayed as being okay forever by the end of that episode.
I can absolutely believe that these characters, sad and work-stressed and not always the most emotionally mature, would forgive their mothers. I don’t even disagree with it happening on a story level because I think it could make for a really good development in those stories, or even just a less-than-happy ending. What I don’t enjoy is how these endings are presented as being happily-ever-afters and that everything is supposed to be fine now because they’ve forgiven/reconciled with their mothers who haven’t really done anything to deserve it. Jools is objectively neglectful, and telling Sah they were always enough does not make up for that. I think Gaynor’s behaviour is emotionally abusive; she’s controlling his life, emotionally manipulating him, she’s trying to even limit his contact with people other than her (and she has been doing this, he “wasn’t allowed friends”). Unless I'm wrong, we don’t see or hear from Gaynor at all between Friends Like These and We Need To Talk About Ollie. I don’t doubt they love their kids but that doesn’t make them good parents, and it’s not on their kids to be doing the work to improve the relationships. If we’re getting these forgiveness endings then Jools and Gaynor need to put more effort into proving they’ve changed. Or (and I'd probably find this more interesting cause I'm mean). Forgiveness needs to be presented as something that isn’t this simple happy ending because it doesn't feel like that in these circumstances. I respect the potential misery of the undeserved forgiveness, I love misery for them, especially when they’re both in mother-hell together, I am mean. But if you want to give them a happily-ever-after, keep them away from their mothers or make their mothers do the work.
They make Sah be the bigger person way too much, actually. In Dark Room, why does Sah have to be nice to Scott when Scott deserves to get re-beaten to a pulp? I don’t care that his mum is also terrible. Not only did he bully them when they were teenagers, he tried to ruin their whole life as a fully grown adult. Their mum is terrible as well and you don’t see them acting like that. They don’t need to be the bigger person and try to help Scott and his also terrible mother, they need a weapon of mass destruction. Also, why is Sah’s deadname used so excessively in series 36? Or at all? Ever? I’m sure there were ways around the audience ever needing to actually know what it was, even if they felt like the story required the implication of characters using it. Another potential Casualty hot take, maybe? I don't think Sah's dad is all that great of a parent either. Obviously it is entirely Jools' fault that Sah has to be his carer at such a young age, he had no control over that and Jools is definitely the worse parent, but getting back with Jools without telling Sah, cancelling plans with Sah to go on dates with Jools, excusing Jools’ pretty transphobic remarks and acting like Sah has to forgive Jools because he has really isn’t great. They were right when they said “it’s not just you she left”. IT’S! NOT! JUST! KEVIN! SHE! LEFT! It annoys me that Casualty is like ‘this action will have consequences’ about that scene because Sah is right. The only person I truly like from Sah’s pre-joining-Casualty life is Bill Phillipsen (and his dead wife) and he died. I knew you very briefly/not at all but I miss you Bill and Jean <\3
This post is absolutely the post for me to start getting into the connections between the mother-hell storylines but I won’t in full. They are kind of this pair of opposites, not just on this wider level of overinvolved mother vs uninvolved mother, there are a lot of patterns I’ve noticed in the episodes and the dialogue. I’d find them all now but it's 2am and I need to be awake at 8am at the latest so I’m putting off compiling that list for another day. Some faves that I can remember off the top of my head: opposite Jan advice scenes, Gaynor really struggling to say she’s proud of Teddy even though he really wants her to while one of the first things Jools tries to say to Sah is that she’s proud of them and they tell her not to, “you won’t see me back if I go” vs “I’m back now if it’s not too late”. I really like these connections, that's why I'm so passionate about what I don't agree with in these storylines.
I didn't mention this in my last post but I got my hands on a bootleg of The Play That Goes Wrong with Milo Clarke as Max and it's very enjoyable. I've been meaning to watch TPTGW at least since I watched both series of the show, probably longer, and I succumbed to the Casualty brainrot and and had to see his version. All I'll say: He really knows how to play aunt based nepotism and situations that could be solved with polyamory.
Based on when one of the episodes is set to air, I don’t think we’ll see Casualty back until about December 30th, unless we are gonna have another break between episodes once it comes back. I don’t really care that much and also, Christmas/New Years episode? The most recent Christmas episode was that one where they were like “what if it was last year?” back in 2021 and that’s always been a weird choice to me. I just want a silly little festive one, normal Casualty episode featuring carol singing and tinsel and the implication of a really intense staff party (we will never get the Sah/Teddy Christmas party of my dreams, not this year cause they’re in the current situation, not last year cause no Christmas episode and also the stuff with Jan was happening then, not the year before…). The only thing that bothers me about the hiatus is the inevitable time skip, so much time will have elapsed in universe by the time it comes back so I feel like we will have missed a lot of the immediate aftermath of stuff that happened at the end of Driving Force.
#mitski may not know it but her music is about the questionable relationships in the pretend hospital#you're my number one. you're the one i want. and i've turned down every hand that has beckoned me to come. so true mitski#geyser is such a good song. I WILL BE THE ONE YOU NEED THE WAY I CAN'T BE WITHOUT YOU.#shilling for mitski cause my love mine all mine got popular and i want people to listen to her other songs thanks for noticing#bbc casualty#casualty#shoelace fandom#teddy gowan#sah brockner
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The thing, with Gwen's actions in Cooper's premiere- I can't remember the title right now and I'm not looking it up- is that she is choosing to be as rough with Kevin as she is. The show makes it clear that she doesn't have to be hitting him as hard as she is, but she's doing it anyway because Kevin's been a teasing little shit all episode and Gwen believes that that is good enough reason to be use physical violence against him, repeatedly. The show could have used Kevin's role in the plan as a narrative punishment for his behavior and it would have been annoying but fine, but they had to make it clear that this was an interpersonal matter. They could have had her serious, they could have had her apologizing, but instead they have her smiling and happy and blatantly taking this opportunity to punish Kevin for displeasing her. The first episode these two have together as a couple and it entails Kevin being his normal self and Gwen responding with violence. And this isn't supposed to be a red flag.
And I'm thinking about it now and you can see Gwen getting bolder with this shit? Like, she pulls this once each series (off the top of my head) and each time she's more obvious with it? Like, here she's behind the boys, they can't see her expression, it's serious when they can see it, she lies about how hard she has to hit Kevin. In the Pandor episode she's upfront with dropping Kevin out of the air, and doesn't try to pretend she's sorry, but she does lie and say it was an accident, as unconvincing and without any real attempt to be convincing as it is. Then you get to Showdown, where she just straight shoves Kevin and Ben into freefall in front of witnesses without a single word.
Which makes sense, of course, in character, she would get bolder with that shit when she never gets consequences for it. The closest there are to any for her behavior is in the Pandor episode, where Kevin gets kidnapped and tricked into releasing Pandor who attacks her and threatens the area. But even then, the fact that this whole chunk of plot was prompted by her being using violence against Kevin again doesn't come up, and even the lesser issue she apologizes for is brushed aside with Kevin pointing out that she never holds shit against him- which is just canonically untrue. The point being, Gwen never actually has any consequences to her actions hit her. Shit is always brushed off, or in the cases where she's accidentally doing harm the blame is pushed elsewhere (looking at you In Charms Way and fuckers stating that Kevin should have read Gwen's mind apparently and known what she was up to). Even when it's people who aren't Kevin, like her threatening Nocturne- which surely didn't contribute to her developing Stockholm Syndrome, no way would one of the heroes threatening to, quote, "peel [her] like a grape" immediately after a traumatic experience have led to issues- things are just brushed aside.
So yeah, of course she gets more bold with this shit. Any sense that maybe there's something wrong with her actions and she should obscure or hide them (but not not engage in them, apparently) would have been repeatedly undercut by the lack of consequences, and by her being absolved of any guilt in shit with a quickness. The people in she and Kevin's life enable this shit by seemingly just rolling with it all and taking her side. Gwen of AF probably wouldn't have shoved Ben and Kevin into freefall, and definitely not with Rook watching, but by OV she's learned there's no consequences. And from what we're shown that remains the case.
Worse, given what we're shown and that we're shown it consistently, it's more than likely that she pulls similar, if likely smaller scale, shit in their day-to-day life. I've said before, somebody who'll shove their loved ones into freefall in front of witnesses like it's normal is not somebody who engages in healthy relationship patterns behind closed doors.
Personally I like to think that we've seen the limit of what she's willing to pull, because despite what people think I do like Gwen I wouldn't be so pissy about this shit if I didn't, but you could very much use this as an argument that she's going to get worse before she gets better. And I do believe that she could move off this path, but first she would have to get hit with consequences, proper consequences that hit her and aren't just shooed aside by those around her. Because she is a good person- in fact I think in-character the idea that what a Good Person does can't possible be That Bad plays a role in a lot of things from her behavior here and how people react to it to Ben getting away with a some of the shit he does, and that out-of-character it's why you get some fans who'll bend over backwards to explain how nothing they've done wrong was actually them doing wrong- but I think it's likely she's got herself convinced she's not doing anything wrong, with enabling forces on all sides, and would need a solid kick in the pants to realize that she's being an asshole.
She doesn't need to be like this, she didn't need to be like this. But the writers decided this was the person they wanted her to be, and that they didn't want us thinking twice about it or judging her based on her own actions. Same thing happened with Ben. It's poor characterwork in conjunction to story, a tale as old as longform stories.
Just had to go fuck up a perfectly good female lead with their own bullshit and bad humor.
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Rant about tonights Raw
I'm gonna need Sami, Kevin, Cody, Jey, and LA Knight to walk into Survivor Series, commit collective atrocities upon The Judgement Day and The Bloodline, and then walk out completely unbothered.
I don't even care about what happens between then and now. This new crime family alliance can all go suck rancid dick professionally for a living, I'd be fine with it. I'm so done with all of them.
Back when The Bloodline was cheating to win matches worked because they were all strong enough to win on their own most days they just chose not to.
The Judgment Day are physically incapable of winning a match on their own and it's getting pathetic. You're booking them like The Bloodline 2.0 and making them look hella weak in the process.
Every member of The Judgement Day, outside of Dom, could be a dominant singles star if given a chance, or, in the case of Rhea and Finn, already HAS BEEN. Dominik is the only one who has truly been elevated by this arrangement. Together they hold all those belts but all the WWE is doing time and again is proving they don't deserve them. You aren't only making the four of them look weak as wrestlers you're making the belts look bad.
And bringing the remains of the Bloodline into this is just silly. And INSANE because like Kevin said, the whole thing with the renewed brand split was that. BRAND SPLIT. But Dominik was on Smackdown for no reason whatsoever and now Jimmy is on Raw?
And yet we're supposed to genuinely think that Sami and Kevin aren't going to see each other after this?
SAMI WAS LITERALLY ON SMACKDOWN IN A DARK MATCH
And Jey and Cody. You're telling me the entire point of them holding the belts was as a two week plot point of giving Sami a reason to have beef with Jey? And then, you immediately squash that beef BEFORE JEY AND CODY EVEN LOSE THE BELTS?!?!!
WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT?!?!??!?!?
There are so many better ways to have done that without making the tag belts into a game of hot potato.
None of this writing makes sense.
Kevin spent how many months being preoccupied with keeping Sami away from Jey and acting super jealous. He gets traded to Smackdown, leaving Sami back on Raw with Jey, wow, he's pretty ok with this suddenly all things considered!
Sami spent the entire first month's worth of his tag run with Kevin obsessing over getting Jey to love him again, at the expense of Kevin getting his ass kicked repeatedly. Well, Sami, you got your wish, feeling salty? Grass not looking so greener after all, it turns ou--- WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WERE JUST "FRUSTRATED"???
What the fuck WWE.
No really.
What. The Fuck.
Make it make sense.
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How NOT To Adult: Itsuka Kendou
I swear I didn't forget about this series, I've started college back up again and I think it's about time I update. Give some sense of normalcy as life gets more chaotic again.
Check out the rest of this mini series here
Two words: wine mom
She was a hard working responsible class rep, and now she’s a hard working responsible hero. She deserves a break.
When she takes a “mental health day off” she stays at home to relax and make fun of shitty soap operas while daydrinking alone
Texts the (still active) former class B group chat to let them know what’s up
“It’s wine o clock!”
“Mom it’s nine thirty am on a Tuesday”
A few seconds later a selfie appears of her lounging back on some decorative pillows with a fluffy blanket
She’s holding up a glass of fancy wine filled to the brim smiling like that Leonardo DiCaprio meme. You know the one
If there’s a party or event somewhere and they’re serving booze she usually gets to all the fancy/expensive shit before anyone else
Will 100% share with Kodai though if she’s around
Steals bottles from every PTA meeting to gift Shishida whenever he has to bail early
Drinks coffee black, but still has a flask of vodka somewhere on her person “just in case”. Girl in case of what? Prohibition?!
It’s usually in a garter with pockets and she’s not above keeping it close by even when patrolling
The garter also holds a small pocket knife, lighter, and a pack of smokes
Says “vaping is for pussies” like acoustic lung cancer is any better than electric
Unironically has decor somewhere that says Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss
Offers to babysit your kids, takes them for motorcycle rides around town
If they’re slightly older (like at least twelve or so) she offers to teach them how to drive it
Not technically legal, but she’s responsible enough that nothing bad has happened yet, knock on wood
Might have left your child in a locked car by accident oops
Puts up a sign that says “the AC is on, he’s listening to Kidz Bop and has his favorite snack”
Your kid could be eating cigarette butts off the ground and she’ll just shrug it off like “he needs the protein”
Child leashes have saved her ass so many times it’s actually alarming- but “if it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid”
Shit talks her boss on her break, but looks out for newer rookies that feel like they’re walking on eggshells
“Yeah no you’ll be fine, but if she vents about her divorce, just smile and nod- yes Kevin I know it’s uncomfortable, but you’ve only been here 3 weeks you can’t afford to make enemies”
The former 1B girls get together every year for a girls trip, and when it was her turn to organize, they all went to Vegas
Orchestrated a Vegas wedding between Setsuna and a male stripper
After arriving home and unpacking, found an inflatable doll in her luggage. Has no idea how it got there, has never even seen it before
Regifted it anonymously in a white elephant exchange at work just to finally be rid of it
The coworker never took it home, they just dressed it up and had it sit in the cubicle, directly across from Kendo's desk
It gets redecorated throughout the year depending on the season, haunting everyone at their computers with it's cold dead eyes like the ghost of girls' trip past
The most memorable was during June one year, when someone had taken the liberty of decking it out in booty shorts, a cheesy tourist shirt, sunglasses, and a disposable camera
Her friends think it's hilarious when they visit her at work, but they can't say anything to her coworkers bc they all took a vow to secrecy. "What happens in Vegas" and all that jazz
Let me know if you want to be on the tag list!
@thatgirlgames
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I saw your tag about asking about Air Bud, I vaguely know the plot but have never seen it so here's an ask for you to info dump about it
Did you know that there are 14 movies in the Air Bud Cinematic Universe? I've watched them all and I'm gonna spout off a bunch of random stuff about the series. If you want more info on any of this you have to DM me 🤪
So the first five movies are the "Air Bud" series, which follows Buddy playing various sports
Air Bud 🏀
Air Bud: Golden Receiver 🏈
Air Bud: World Pup ⚽
Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch ⚾
Air Bud: Spikes Back 🏐
Interestingly, Buddy was an actual trained dog who could "play" a few sports. In fact, the first two films don't use any sort of sneaky camera tricks for the sports scenes. The dogs on camera are actually just doing that. Although the original Buddy only appears in the first film (He passed away from cancer shortly afterwards)
The production company also kinda screwed over Buddy's owner Kevin DiCicco, who wasn't involved in any of the sequels aside from being credited as the creator of the character Air Bud.
One thing I will say about the original series is that personally I think the justification for Buddy playing on the team in the first movie makes more sense than we give it credit for. He's a registered member of the team because he's the mascot. So they sub him in. You could almost be fooled into thinking that's reasonable.
If you ever have a "bad movie" day with friends I highly recommend the 4th movie where he plays baseball. Because it has the best villain plot of any of them, where the villain is trying to extract Buddy's genome to isolate the gene that makes him good at sports so he can sell it to athletes as a super steroid. Also the actor who plays the villain is the same actor who plays the referee in the previous three movies which adds a fun sinister undertone to their re-use of an actor.
After the "Air Bud" series they started making the "Air Buddies" movies
Air Buddies
Snow Buddies
Space Buddies
Santa Buddies¹
Spooky Buddies
Treasure Buddies
Super Buddies
This is where we get into the weirder aspects of the universe. First of all we are now following Buddy's children instead of Buddy himself. Buddy the character is seen for the last time in Snow Buddies. Also we're now doing talking animals. (Although the animals can't talk to humans (except with the use of christmas magic))
Things that are made canon in these films include (but are not limited to):
Hell 🔥 - Although they call it a dimension filled with ghosts. From which a warlock summons the "Halloween Hound", a pretty obvious stand in for a hell hound. (Also for some reason the warlock can't touch consecrated ground and also is hurt by a bible, so I guess becoming a warlock means you have to follow vampire rules now)
Magic 🧙♂️ - As mentioned above, there's a warlock doing dark magic. But there's also two additional magic systems. Christmas magic, which requires joy stored in the magical christmas icicle. And what I can only describe as "Egyptian magic". Cleopatra's pet cat (Cleo-cat-ra) had a magic necklace, although the only notable power we see it have is to make cats "man's best friend" instead of dogs
Aliens 👽 - An alien crashed down on earth and the first creature he met was a dog so he tried to disguise himself as an earthling by turning into a dog and then he had to be a dog now. But he's a dog with super powers because of course he is. Also a second eviler species of alien that does body snatching instead.
Honestly these movies are pretty standard straight to video schlock. I think Super Buddies is the most fun out of them all, just for being kind of stupid. Space Buddies is pretty good for the same reason. Treasure Buddies was the most boring movie in my entire adventure through all of these.
Simultaneous to the latter Buddies movies, Santa Buddies also managed to spin off into two additional "Santa Paws" movies
The Search for Santa Paws
Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups
I honestly think these are some of the more watchable of the later movies. You know what you're getting with a cheesy christmas movie. (I've never actually celebrated christmas but I have a slight soft spot for the aesthetics of a cheesy christmas movie)
Notable in this series we get shown more about what "Christmas Magic" can do. Including creating sentient life? Like Santa just straight up brings a toy dog to life? And because we're in a talking animals universe that's just a full on sapient intelligence. I'm pretty sure that makes Santa some form of god.
¹ Santa Buddies also raises a possible extended extended universe. Among the characters in Santa Buddies is a Scottish Terrier named "Tiny" voiced by Kaitlyn Maher. Another film series by the production company "Pup Stars" also features a Scottish Terrier named "Tiny" voiced by Kaitlyn Maher.
#This is an extremely cut down version of what I've come to call#The Air Bud Rant#I've been meaning to make like...#A full on video essay talking about the series#Because this was my choice of weird covid binge watch#But idk I've been trying to figure out some sort of thesis or throughline for talking about them#Because I don't wanna just make a 7 hour video where I summarise the plots of each movie
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Pairing: the boyz x fem!reader (platonic)
Genre: fluff, minor angst (tbh it’s not even that angsty)
Rating: G
Summary: When you signed up to join this company, you had no idea what was in store for you.
Warnings: use of Korean honorifics, awkward tension, some of the boys are a little mean at first, language
Word Count: 4,382
Series Masterlist || prev: y/n’s profile ପ next: move-in day
You knew you were meant to enter this practice room, but still, you couldn’t help but feel an anxiety bubble in your stomach. You’d just arrived in Korea a few weeks ago and hardly speak the language still. You took slow steps toward the room they told you to go to. Practice Room 5 wasn’t far down the hall, but the more you feel the anticipation build, the further away this room feels. You freeze in your place when you stand outside the frosted glass door. You were ready for this; you had to be. If the company decides you were prepared to practice in a fixed group of girls, you must prepare for a debut, even if you haven’t been here very long. Taking a deep breath, you push the door open; to say you were shocked is an understatement. This was the right room, correct? Looking up at the door, you were in the right room. A bunch of boys around your age are scattered around the room, and there was no explanation as to why the company would send you here unless it were a mix-up.
One of the boys notices you frozen in the doorway and approaches you. You tense up, unsure how to communicate with him, especially if he doesn’t speak English. He seems close enough to your age, but you don’t want to make any assumptions. Finally, he stops a respectful distance from you and says something. You can’t understand what he said, but it was definitely something about a room. You open your mouth to speak, but you can’t find any Korean vocabulary in your mind to make sense out loud. Finally, he sighs at the realization that you don’t speak Korean at a high enough level to respond.
“You lost? I haven’t seen you around here before.” he says in English.
“Oh, thank god you speak English.” you sigh, “They told me to come here. I’m pretty sure this is a mix-up, though.”
Out of the corner of your eye, you see a few others looking at you, confusion written across their faces. You don’t blame them. You’re just as confused as they are.
“Oh well, I’m Kevin. Jacob, Eric, and I are around if you ever need a fellow English speaker to hang out with.”
“Right, um, I’m y/n, it was really nice to meet you…” you pause for a moment, “I should probably get back and figure out-” you were cut off.
A man speaking Korean was speaking loud over everyone. Just that alone you could tell he was addressing the entire room. You have no idea what he’s talking about, but when he stops, one of the others in the room speaks up. Again you have no idea what he’s saying, but you can tell he’s confused and slightly upset about it.
“Kevin,” you whisper, “what did that guy say?”
“Sangyeon or our trainer?”
“Trainer.”
“He said you’re not in the wrong place. You’re supposed to be in here with us. Cre.Ker is trying something out… You’re going to be in this group with us.” he explains.
“And what is Saengyong saying.”
“Sangyeon,” he chuckles, “he’s very confused about why they’re putting a girl in our group… he doesn’t seem exactly keen on the idea either.”
“I’m just as confused as him.” you admit, “What are they thinking doing this? Is this even going to work?”
Kevin shrugs and nods towards where the trainer is trying to talk to you. You panic, hearing him not only address you directly but sputter. You look around the room to see one of the boys glare at you. You can tell clearly that he’s younger than you. You decide to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s trying to size you up and figure out everything for himself. You’re only picking up a few words here in there from the trainer’s rambling. You assume that Kevin felt the anxiety radiating off you because he starts talking to the trainer in Korean for a moment. The trainer hums and turns away, saying something you can assume to be a direction since all the boys get up and start getting ready for dance training.
“You’re taking lessons in Korean, right?” Kevin asks quietly.
“Yeah,” you respond, “I’m trying my best.”
“If you ever need help, I’m here.”
“Thanks, for the time being, though if you don’t mind helping me translate-”
“I got you. I know it’s hard to make friends here at first when you don’t speak the language. I watched a bunch of other trainees struggle. So think of me as a friend more than a translator.” he smiles, “We’re working on basics for dance right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked you what you’re able to do, though. Just a warning.”
“Thank you, Kevin. I can’t express how grateful I am for that.”
He acknowledges your gratitude and nods his head toward the others. You weren’t expecting to know much of what was going on, but you were way more lost than you could’ve expected. The entire rehearsal block felt almost torturous with how lost you felt. They all knew the choreo and what to do. You looked like a fool in front of them. Not the best impression. Once in a while, you would glance over at Kevin through the mirror, and he would give you a reassuring smile. Though it wasn’t much, knowing you had him to fall back on in rough rehearsal moments was nice.
It felt like hours before you heard the trainer call for a break; that was one of the few things you understood. You didn’t clearly understand if it was a break or an end to the practice, so instead, you watched the others to see what they were doing. One of them, a rather tall boy with puppy-like features, starts packing up his bag to walk out of the room. So naturally, you do the same. Sitting on the floor next to your bag and cooling down felt so good after such an exhausting day. Until you hear the trainer’s voice again, your name pops out to you. You knew you were staying later tonight. It made sense with how far behind you are to the others, it wasn’t your fault, but you knew you needed to learn it quickly. You hear him address one of the boys, and when you take a moment to examine his appearance, you can’t help but notice how handsome he is. Sharp features, a gentle smile, and rather tall too. He nods at whatever the instructor told him, and then you see him walk towards you.
“We, um,” he attempts to tell you in English, “practice, um, learn?”
You find it sweet that he’s at least attempting to communicate with you in your own language.
“Thank you.” you say back, then decide now would probably be a good time to practice a little Korean, “practice… good?” you hope you say the right words.
“Juyeon.” he states, pointing at himself.
“Y/n,” you smile, pointing towards yourself, “How old are you?” you try hoping he would understand the English question.
“Uh… year, 1998.”
“Same age!” you manage to enthuse in Korean.
He giggles lightly and offers a hand to help you stand up from your place. At least you know you have two allies in the room. You don’t bother asking Kevin to stay back and translate. You know he’s just as exhausted as you, and he should rest if he can. You’ll manage to communicate and work on your language skills while Juyeon teaches you the choreography you need to know by tomorrow morning. Standing in front of the mirror with Juyeon, you already feel more relaxed learning from him than the grumpy older male drilling the moves earlier. You have no proper verbal communication, but you feel much more comfortable by Juyeon’s side. You were much more comfortable than you had been next to one of the others who glared at you for the better part of the rehearsal. What you thought was, at most, fifteen minutes was actually three hours. You sit down on the floor with a sigh, and Juyeon giggles at your action before returning to the soundboard. You look over at his tall form, and he holds up one finger and makes a circular motion. You groan and flop onto your back, staring at the ceiling.
“One time!” he promises.
“Actually?” you ask, turning your head to the side to look at him again.
He nods, walking over to you and helping you up. You get to your starting position as Juyeon runs back to the board to start the music. He bolts back to your side, doing the choreography with you. You didn’t think you could learn a whole routine in a few hours, but you did, not missing a single thing. It all feels like a blur, but you know it’s a good thing. When you can’t remember much, that adrenaline rush makes it feel much better. You hardly process when the music stops. It’s not until you see Juyeon jump up and down, cheering. He’s rambling on and on in Korean. You can’t catch a single word of his raving, but you know it’s positive. You’re reveling in the room’s energy with him until you hear someone clear their throat. You and Juyeon look over; it’s one of the other boys glaring earlier.
“Jaehyun,” you hear Juyeon smile next to you. Unfortunately, you don’t understand the second part of his statement again. You can only assume he’s asking what he’s doing back.
The boy you just learned to be, Jaehyun, holds up his bag showing what he was grabbing from the room. You can feel his icy glare at you. It immediately makes you uncomfortable. You shift side to side and then glance at your phone. Shit. You have to get to your Korean lesson now.
“Um,” you interrupt, poking Juyeon’s arm, “I need to go to Korean lessons.” you say in a mixture of English and Korean.
Juyeon nods back, “Tomorrow?”
You know he’s asking if you’ll be at the rehearsal tomorrow. You nod with a slight smile. Then, grabbing your bag, you avoid eye contact with Jaehyun. You can feel him still glaring daggers into your back. Quickly rushing past him and out the door, you faintly hear one of them. You quickly assume it’s Jaehyun yelling at the other.
You’ve been training with the boys for a few weeks now, and now luckily, you’re at the bare minimum conversational in Korean. Your teacher had heavily encouraged you to use the practice room as a space to work on the language more. In the current moment, you’re sitting with Kevin and Jacob on the floor while you wait for the instructor to show up. You have your head resting on Jacob’s shoulder. It was far too early in the morning to be functional yet. Your first interaction with Jacob was somewhat unorthodox, not in the sense of the situation but more actions. You managed to not only get praised by the instructor that day but also recognized for the amount of effort you put in. There were only a few people, and you were on an energy high (mixed with a bit of caffeine). You couldn’t contain your excitement and hugged the nearest person. That person just so happened to be Jacob. You’re lucky he wasn’t one of the boys who still refuses to talk to you. He was just unsure of how to approach you. After a few hours, Haknyeon approached you. He quickly warmed up to you and understood that you had no say in what was happening. If anything, he was excited; you sat together and theorized why Cre.Ker would be doing this and if they had a plan in place.
“Hey,” Kevin nudges you, “do you still live at the trainee dorms?”
You smile, seeing Haknyeon coming over to join you, “Yeah,” you respond, “do you guys not?”
Haknyeon shakes his head, plopping down across from you, “They moved us into a ‘group dorm’ like it’s just us twelve boys living there.”
Jacob hums, “What do you think they’ll do once we debut?”
“Who knows,” you sigh, “I hate living with those girls, though.”
Kevin laughs, “That bad?”
“One of the girls, I don’t even know if she’s fifteen yet, tries to steal my beauty products and clothes. It doesn’t make sense! She’s still growing and naturally smaller than me because of that.”
You see the others making their own small conversations around the room. You’re still intrigued by Changmin. He hasn’t gone out of his way to say hello to you officially, but he isn’t mean to you either. Sangyeon was still rather rude to you after the first day you met. Jaehyun, too; he seems to want nothing to do with you. It’s still such an odd surreal feeling knowing you’re meant to debut with a bunch of boys. There won’t be a single girl besides yourself in this group.
“Noona,” Haknyeon chuckles, “did you hear what I said?”
“Sorry,” you respond, lifting your head off Jacob’s shoulder, “what did you say?”
“What if they want to move you in with us?” he laughs as if it was the funniest joke ever, “Wouldn’t it be so much fun to share a room with Chanhee.”
You groan, “I’m ninety-nine percent sure Chanhee hates me.”
“Who do I hate?” you hear a melodic voice fill the space.
When you look up, you see Chanhee right there. His face isn’t filled with malice or hatred. Instead, he seems gentle and soft, unlike how you’ve seen him. More often than not, he’s laughing with Younghoon or giving you a sarcastic, bitter expression. Not long later, his partner in crime, Younghoon, comes over. You aren’t surprised to see them side by side. It would have been odd if they weren’t right next to each other, if anything. You chuckle awkwardly and look up at the two boys.
“Me,” you admit, “I swear you have some weird hatred of me.”
Younghoon sputters out a laugh. Chanhee lightly smacks him, “I don’t.”
It’s a very straightforward response. You can’t tell if he’s being honest or not. For now, though, it’s enough. Kevin moves over slightly to allow the two others to join your conversation pod. It’s nice. Slowly, each of the ones here warmed up to you. Eric has, too, but he’s nowhere to be seen yet. More likely than not, he was doing individual rehearsals or lessons. It’s crazy how warm everyone truly is, except for a few. For the first time, you have an odd feeling that this might actually work.
Your instructor never actually shows face. Sangyeon instead takes it upon himself to start running the rehearsal block. He was ruthless, and you swear Juyeon looked like he could collapse at any moment. You can tell everyone is more worn out being drilled by Sangyeon than they are with your usual instructor. You knew you had to speak up about it. You’ve gone at least two hours without even as much as a quick water break. Finally, you meet Eric’s eyes (who had arrived about an hour into the pseudo-rehearsal). He shakes his head at you, but you’ve already decided.
“S-Sangyeon Oppa,” you sheepishly call, suddenly all eyes are on you, “you’re being a little uptight. Could we just get a quick five to rest and drink?”
The older male stands up straight and walks toward you. You’d be lying if you said he wasn’t intimidating. He was larger than you, and he was clearly upset. Not to mention he’s also older than you.
“If you can’t handle how I run practice, you can leave.” he says, hardly 30 centimeters from your face.
“No.” you deadpan, you feel a heated confidence bubble go through you, “You’re being ridiculous with how you’re running this rehearsal. If you can’t see how exhausted you’re making us, then that’s your issue.”
He expects you to break eye contact when he lets a dissatisfied grunt out. You don’t; you hold eye contact. You weren’t backing down from what you said. He backs up and scoffs.
“You got a fire to you. I like it. I guess a five-minute rest couldn’t hurt.”
You hear several of the others let out a sigh of relief. Younghoon nearly melts into the floor when he hears the elder’s words. You let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding when Sangyeon finally stepped away from you. Not even a second later, one of the younger boys you hadn’t yet interacted with approached you. He’s cute, fox-like.
“Thank you, noona,” he mutters, “I thought I would collapse if he didn’t give us a break soon,”
“Oh, Hyunjoon, it’s nothing.” you smile brightly at him, “I’m just as exhausted as you guys are.”
You hear another giggle from nearby, “Noona, it wasn’t nothing!” it’s Sunwoo, “Not many people are willing to stand up to Sangyeon Hyung. He can get terrifying if he’s mad.”
You laugh at the younger affectionately, “I know, Sunwoo, I was just on the receiving end of that anger.”
You step away finally to get a drink and sit for a few moments. Somehow you found your way over to Juyeon again and sigh as you plop yourself down beside him against the mirror wall. He’s busy gulping down his own water, but the moment he comes up for air, he gives an airy laugh in your direction. You hear it and retaliate by flicking your hair in the direction of his face as you redo your ponytail. Juyeon lets out a noise of fake annoyance.
“You have guts.” he states, “More than most of the others here.”
“Do I? Maybe I just wanted to rest for a few minutes and used you guys as a… what’s that word? I-” you pause and decide to just say it in English, “Scapegoat, that’s the word I want.”
“Ahh, yeah, I’m sure that was the case.” he responds, voice dripping in sarcasm, “Y/n, you’re too compassionate just to do things for your own interest.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” you respond noncommittally, “You guys are lucky I’m a… what’s that word?” you groan, “A decent person.” you say in English, “What would you have done if you got a bitchy girl that was joining this group?”
He laughs at you. Glancing around the room, you see the other’s doing their own things, mostly lying on the floor, trying to cool off quickly. Eric is belly-up with his head resting on Jacob’s thigh, you can’t hear exactly what he’s saying, but you’re sure he’s ranting about something completely random and irrelevant. Jacob is only half listening. He’s simultaneously talking to Kevin while also listening to the younger. You didn’t even notice that your head was falling in Juyeon’s direction until you felt his cheek rest against the top of your head.
“Good to know you’re comfortable with me.” he teases; you tsk at him but don’t make any move to sit up straight, “I’m just as exhausted as you are, believe me.”
“Maybe if you didn’t stay here until three-am practicing, you wouldn’t be so exhausted.”
“You’re just as bad as me!” he argues, “You stay with me at least four out of the days I stay really late.”
“That wasn’t the topic, Ju.”
You notice someone walking in your direction, but you can’t be bothered to look up from their shoes. You’re much more enjoying teasing Juyeon than you’re interested in who’s coming towards the pair of you. Juyeon shifts and you feel his head move the slightest bit. He hums, possibly to get your attention on whoever it is. You glance at him through your eyelashes and then forward to see Changmin in front of you. You give the other a gentle smile. He takes that as an invitation to squat down in front of you.
“I just wanted to congratulate you.” he starts, “It can’t be easy to learn a new language while also doing this crazy training. You’re doing amazing, though. I’d probably call you competition if we weren’t in the same group.”
You hum contently, sitting up fully now, “Thank you, Changmin, it’s not easy like you said, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Good,” a giggle intruding his tone, “hopefully, after we debut, we can write some choreo together.”
You go to respond to him, and you think it’s a phenomenal idea, but a staff member bursts into the room suddenly. She makes a b-line for you; you can’t help but feel slightly intimidated by how urgently she approaches you. It only seems right to stand up and talk to her properly, and it would just be weird if you stay seated like this. You’re more than aware of the others’ eyes on her and how they occasionally shift over to you. Something in the room’s atmosphere has definitely shifted, not in a positive way either. She huffs, catching her breath for a moment before addressing you.
“Could I speak to you privately?” she near whispers.
“Um, sure, Unnie,” you offer a tight-lipped smile, “just out in the hall?”
She nods and walks out ahead of you.
“So,” she starts when the door clicks shut, “I just got out of a meeting with some other staff. The ones who will likely be your group managers. They want you to move in with the guys.”
“Sorry?” you understand, but it does shock you still.
“I know it seems odd. It makes the most sense, though, for after your debut. It wouldn’t be the most efficient thing to have the boys be picked up and then travel elsewhere to get you.” she explains further.
You nod, “Am I sharing a room with one of them? Do I have a say in that?”
“Unfortunately, no. They decided that for you when we were there. The dorm they’re staying in now doesn’t have the space for you to have your own room. You will share the only room with space as of right now with both Changmin and Jaehyun. I hope you understand, I tried to voice concerns, but they wouldn’t hear them and-”
“Unnie, it’s okay. I’ll manage to share a room with them.” you smile slightly, “Should I go inform the two boys about what’s happening?”
She shakes her head, “It’s my responsibility. I wanted to tell you beforehand so it wasn’t as shocking.”
“I appreciate that. Shall we go tell them?”
She nods, pushing the door nob down and opening the door for you to walk in first. All eyes fall on you again, and you do nothing but smile brightly at them. You know they’re confused, some more than others, but soon that confusion will be replaced. You just can’t say what will replace it. You simply decide to go back to your original place next to Juyeon. The staff member clears her throat, quickly gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
“I and some other staff members, with some higher-ups, have decided that y/n should move into your dorm.”
There were mixed reactions murmured throughout the room. First, you notice how Kevin tries to control his response, but it’s clear he’s excited about the decision. Then your eyes fall on your future roommates. Changmin seems to have almost no reaction, more neutral to the news than anything. Jaehyun, though, seems somewhat perturbed by the announcement. Seeing how displeased he was, a knot of discomfort grows in your belly, seeing how displeased he was. You hardly have time to overthink his expression, though.
“I know space is tight at the dorm. So we concluded that she’ll be moving into Changmin and Jaehyun’s room. I understand this isn’t ideal for some of you, but please understand. She is your groupmate at the end of the day.”
She doesn’t hang around much longer. She promptly turns on her heel and leaves. Then you realize how deadly silent the room is. It doesn’t stay that way long, though. It never does with these boys. Kevin bounces his way over to you and, without a second thought, scoops you up in his arms in a bone-crushing hug.
“I hope you’re ready for bestie movie marathons!” he laughs, “Also, we’re watching a few tv series together. It’s the law.”
You laugh as well, happy that at least Kevin is excited about you moving in. A few others voiced their excitement, too, notably Eric and Haknyeon. The two younger boys announce they are in the room across the hall from where you’ll be moving in. Jaehyun avoids the cluster around you. Instead, he leans on a wall on the opposite side of the room. It takes a few minutes, but you see your escape route. You sneak out of the conversations and walk over to Jaehyun. Your heart pounds out of your chest, but you know you need to talk to him. It’ll be utterly unavoidable once you’re moved in any way.
“J-jaehyun Oppa,” you stutter, “do you have a minute?”
“No.” he clips.
“I just wanted to assure you that I won’t take up your space or Changmin’s when I move in.”
He scoffs, pushing himself off the wall, “I could not care less about where you are or what you’re doing. So just stay out of my way.”
“May I ask why you don’t like me?”
“Why would the company ever think putting you in our group was a good idea.” he chuckles humorlessly, “It’s a joke, really. But, honestly, kid, you should quit while you’re seemingly ahead.”
You don’t know what to make of his words. You can’t pry any further, though. He left the room before you could even fully process his rather aggressive comment. Juyeon wanders back over to you. In the past few weeks, he’s become highly in tune with your emotions. He squeezes your shoulder to alert you of his presence.
“He’ll come around. He’s just slow to warm up to people.” he reassures you.
You nod silently. You sure hope Jaehyun’s taking his time to warm up to you. Otherwise, your career would quickly become a living hell.
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I saw the Mario movie yesterday and honestly it was really good! I give it like an 8/10.
Unfortunately I missed the first couple minutes or so of the movie because the theater was lined up with people, so it took a bit to actually get in haha. My friends and I all went dressed as Mario/Luigi too, which was awesome.
(spoilers under the cut)
tl;dr the Mario is very good and I want to see more
I was kind of expecting Chris Pratt's Mario to be not great, but surprisingly Fred Armisen's Cranky Kong was even worse. The only voice in the movie where I was like "wow this really doesn't fit." Now that I've seen the full movie rather than just the trailers I can tell that Chris Pratt at least tried. I still think that someone else probably would have fit better, but he wasn't horrible. Like even Charlie Day as Luigi and Seth Rogen as DK were pretty much just their regular voices, they still kinda fit somehow. Keagan-Michael Key's Toad and Kevin Michael Richardson's Kamek were spot on. Anya Taylor-Joy's Peach was serviceable—she sounds like a girl. And Jack Black's Bowser was freaking amazing. If I could tweak it a little bit to be pitched down slightly and maybe more growly then I think it would've been absolutely perfect, but as is I think he did a fantastic job. Charles Martinet as Giuseppe (basically Mario's design as Jump Man from the original Donkey Kong arcade game) was so great, and casting him as the Mario Bros' dad was a great choice.
The score was brilliantly done, the direction of having Koji Kondo as a composing consultant was an excellent choice, wouldn't have had it any other way. While I figured at least one pop song to show up, I think five has more than I was more than I was expecting. I'm not exactly bothered by it, but it was very noticeable haha. Also I wasn't expecting (yet not surprised) by the full on musical number that Bowser did performed by Jack Black. It was great lol, well done and got me to laugh. Also the DK rap was a welcome surprise, although Grant Kirkhope went uncredited which kinda sucks. Plus all the sound effects were great too.
The story wasn't intricate, and I keep hearing this as a complaint, but it's a Super Mario Bros. movie so idk what people were expecting on that front. It was a really fun ride from start to finish and I actually already want to watch it again. It's a great kid's movie and all the details, references, and easter eggs they put in for the fans of the series are greatly appreciated too. I wasn't expecting them to show so much of the Mario Bros' family or Peach's origins (which is to say not much, but I wasn't expecting any at all. And I also wasn't expecting them to show where the blue shells come from, so that's neat. I'm mildly disappointed at how large a chunk of the movie Luigi was captured. I understand they wanted someone to get captured because that's kind of Bowser's thing and they probably wanted Peach to shine on her own and do girl boss things, but I'm just disappointed that he was in a cage for like most of the movie.
The animation was also really well done if you were worried about that. I've seen some critics complain about that, but it almost feels like they watched a different movie as far as that point goes. The lighting was spectacular, the screen was almost always packed with detail, and the characters were expressive.
One last tiny gripe: Hearing the koopas being referred to as turtles more than once felt off to me. I know this complaint is such a nerdy one, but Nintendo has always gone out of their way to specifically call them koopas and not turtles. I usually only ever hear people call them turtles when it's someone who only vaguely knows about Mario. Having Mario call them turtles kinda makes sense since he's from Brooklyn transported to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Peach and even Bowser himself referred to them as turtles which was weird to me.
#blue cat blogging#mario#mario movie#mario movie spoilers#super mario bros#super mario bros movie#review#movie review
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i had too much coffee this morning, enjoy my rambling and uneducated bullshit
I feel like video games are a uniquely bad medium for telling the kinds of stories they overwhelmingly try to tell. I'm gonna talk using the language of JRPGs, but honestly, almost every game these days works the same way.
I like the story of Trails in the Sky (+SC +3rd), I think it's good. But it would also have been better told, better paced, better executed in any other medium. It's an anime story that could have been a TV show, a series of movies, a novel, a comic, a radio drama, etc. You, the player, you are not Joshua, you are not Estelle, you are not Kevin. These are their own separate characters who have their own personalities, their own stories, who make their own choices without your input. And they're really compelling, too!
But instead of letting it play out naturally and flow, it reads it to you dialogue piece by dialogue piece in large tedious bursts that would be better served with more tools than a text box and one of like seven sprite animations, only interrupted by extended periods of gameplay.
But, like, does the gameplay help the narrative? Not really. Whether it's exploration or combat or resource management, it's like getting to the end of a chapter and your book going : "Ho-ho! If you'd like to continue to the next chapter, solve these riddles three!!!" And they're not even interesting riddles--by the mechanics of the system, the only solution for every game riddle ever created is "press these buttons in this order with a certain degree of randomness thrown in for good measure".
That sucks. It's bad and it's a shame that it's the flashiest, easiest, and most profitable way to craft a game narrative.
I give Guilty Gear a lot of credit for its storytelling, not because it's particularly coherent or Earth-shattering (ilu Happy Chaos, marry me), but because they realized that what they were actually making was a movie, so they just made a movie and packaged it in with the game as a separate thing.
That said, video games are not, like, impossible to create stories with.
Take old arcade games, for example. The story of old arcade games is that you watched someone who had put a lot of time in, mastered the game, and that sparked a sense of competition and rivalry within you. Whether you won or lost, it was a meaningful moment in your story and narrative growth. You either climbed to the top or quit before you did. There's really only two ways that could go. A nearly set-in-stone narrative around your game.
Look at old MMOs, too. Final Fantasy 11 has an incredible novel-style narrative story that goes underappreciated, absolutely. But the real story was that you were plopped down in this hostile environment, made friends, learned from them, worked with them, and overcame a shared struggle. Forged bonds that hopefully never faded.
But arcade games and early MMOs were social. That's a firm advantage. But look at Pseudoregalia, the game that got me thinking about this stuff. It's a single player 3D platformer metroidvania kind of game. The narrative, uh, is bad. I don't care about it, no one cares about it, something about the sun, a princess, keys, whatever. The real story is the one where you explore this mysterious, atmospheric castle to the point where you have a perfect mental map in your mind. You overcome obstacles creatively, with several possible solutions, and figure out what you're doing as you go. Hell, the first (only?) boss is a major roadblock because the game just doesn't tell you that you have a heal button. You have to try and retry and figure it out, making your own story that's the same as everyone else's.
The game, uh, has some issues as well, mechanically. I'm at a later point in the game where it looks like the only possible solution (according to redditors and youtube clips) seems to be this jank-ass glitchy, exploit-looking parkour trick that really breaks the experience for me.
A game's story should do three things :
create a sense of wonder
provide the player with tools to interact with the world that makes them feel that way
leave the player a trail of bread crumbs from the shadows, serving as motivation (yummy breadcrumbs) while letting the player experience their own experience
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Donald Trump Ignoring Judge's Ruling, E. Jean Carroll's Lawyer Says
They said that he defamed her and it's not what was said in court what in court was said was that he accosted her and there's two different things and these people in the news are being arrested for putting stuff up like that. But the case is proceeding on Monday and it is for defamation and since the attack was real actually or not it doesn't matter it's a separate case and the treaty is the same and going to shoot themselves in the foot again. This guy's a wreck and a piece of junk and it's just a threat sitting there we're working on getting them out and today that's supposed to be I am titanium the video it doesn't look like it's going to occur and it's going to be a school day we think it's not necessarily true but it has to do with the TV series which hasn't been done yet but we think the start of it's in westborough and it's about all these watches and really our son said it's about taking over the watch for George on the Max and they are saying they're doing it and they're not and they say they need the watches and it helps they actually start to think about it they know what time it is. And they are going forwards with it and it's a mess I fight over the watches it is very clear though it does make sense but it does start with that video which is coming up but the bike that they're going to build is one that they all have the prototype for and I wonder why they should go up there and if they go up there we'll see why there's a platform out back and it has parts and a few of them and women who have children understand that it's a dream and to see your child do well and it's a dream for Kevin to have a business with our son and it was stopped and halted by a whole bunch of people they're nasty losers I think everything is free it's not true at all anywhere especially here and boy do they get their asses kicked a lot of them even the max are now getting them kicks for this asinine attitudes. Moreover some people are working for a living and these people don't and it's doomed to failure. People are finding the video in the tapes but really they're up there in westborough and then they're in safe keeping in some places some people put them in the bank and the local banks which is rare there's a couple clips some people but 90% of them are up there even though they're looking at them and some people see people watching it is a disastrously important for some reason and ridiculous how they feel about it is they have to go do it so he can't and they're selling us all these businesses I guess they don't know who we are and we think we're Max and they say either way a million times it's going to be an ugly scene but it is picking up
Thor Freya
I find a couple things of interest open that platform are things that he and Kevin youman talked about and there's a witness I'm here at them once and he talked to him about it it was brief and he said he wanted if he could help and he asked him to help and they talked about it a few times too and he's right there and people are calling him the Big Chief. And it's going on now that he is witness to the project and was going to be part of it and it feels bad cuz it didn't work at all and people are calling him names and harassing him it made it worse but my husband and Kevin put parts up there my husband found a few things and he was gathering them tried to order some online I went to a parts store and he had a dirt bike he had some old parts I brought them out there and left them there and they covered them with a tarp and they're in tanks and people think they can make it out of that good luck on that one but it's a disaster. And people don't want to do that big they want to reconfigure it one of those you can probably do it pretty easy but it won't hold enough weight and there's no way to really reinforce it they're kind of wimpy benches and he says maybe they should use the bench not the tube one but the and really you could use the tube for the larger international harvester roll cage and you say it because you can put it back together but really you can't use it and it made him strong when he was younger and it helped him and it was a great deal if he gets it again bus driver question is going to use it for a light workout. Odds are it would be coming back this is a good idea too he's got three benches two of them were smaller metal one was round and one was tube steel and they want the tube steel one and they're fighting over it now he didn't really have that much else that was tube steel you can actually use both I think you need both to make one and he says I think so I think the piping might work for something this thing is too big it is pretty big use it for a muffler cover and the laughing because it would look cool. Really there's there's a few other things that he had but not many he really did not have that much stuff in one of those inclined Kung Fu by rooster Bruce Lee's enemy Chuck Norris and that would work too and so there might be a couple ideas and he's handled the metal but the steel in the house is too big and the aluminum is still good
I've got an idea to know what I'm talking about he's not really witness he was part of the original project
Hera
We're going to have problems but we do already and they need a heads up
Olympus
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