#no major spoilers for those who haven't finished the first book
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who wants a deleted scene from ylg2
i’ll also send this out later via email to those who are part of the cool kid club, but also posting it here!
this is a scene that sadly will get scrapped, though it’s a pretty cute scene when isaac and vivienne aren’t sniping at each other. (it’s also written for a way-earlier draft of the first book where sam wasn’t tengu friend, so that’s why there’s confusing distance with mirai!) also, parandrus! those are fun.
“Oh boy,” Vivienne groans, which is the only warning Isaac gets before they’re accosted by a bouncy tengu in the middle of the goblin market.
One that he recognizes, no less: the magpie tengu from Halloween.
“Hello, Mirai,” Vivienne says with a rictus smile. “How have you been?”
“I told these two to deliver a message to you with all haste! That was weeks ago!” the tengu, Mirai, snaps and flutters into the air when they angrily swoop their wings. Their mask may hide their expression, but their glare can be felt. “Little witch, didn’t you give her my message?!”
“Of course he did,” Vivienne blatantly lies.
Isaac rarely feels gratitude, but he supposes he just dodged a bullet. There had been a lot going on during Halloween, so how was he supposed to care that a tengu told them to ask Vivienne to hurry up with whatever egg drama she’s embroiled in? Isaac never thought he’d see the youkai again, anyway. It’s always been a different group manning their stall on the main thoroughfare, and even today, it was supposed to be a quick trip.
“I’m very sorry, Mirai, but there have been a lot of difficult things going on in the human realm that needed my and Mark’s attention,” Vivienne adds with an amount of respect he never would have suspected she were capable of. “I will do my best to convince Mark that we need to hasten our actions to return the First egg to you.”
“Vivienne really was quite busy,” Sam advises with a stage-whisper, complete with hand cupped around his mouth, like the woman standing next to him wouldn’t hear. “I think she almost died—it was dangerous. So she definitely wasn’t lying to you about us telling her your message or being too busy to fetch that egg for you!”
Sam is having too much fun being able to lie to someone else (since the two people he cannot lie to are flanking him). Isaac rolls his eyes.
“Ah, I did smell more death on you than I had before…” Mirai trails off, clawed hand over their mask’s long, beak-like nose.
“I’ve been told it’s very rude to tell women that they smell bad,” Sam adds.
“But then how will they fix it?”
“Okay, you two!” Vivienne breaks back in. “Whatever I smell like to spirits is not the issue here. Sam, please don’t trouble Mirai any further—”
“Oh, he’s no trouble! He’s very easy to speak with!” Mirai chirps.
Why does my demon have a way with tengu, Isaac wonders, exasperated. Aren’t youkai supposed to be infamously hard to deal with? Vivienne’s walking on eggshells around this one. And yet Sam had managed not to get his head ripped off by the barn owl tengu, too, the last time they’d come here.
To Isaac’s annoyance and Vivienne’s visible discomfort, Mirai falls into step beside them when Vivienne tries to beg out of the conversation to continue shopping.
So much for a quick trip.
Sam blatantly leans around Vivienne to continue speaking with Mirai. “So you know the barn owl tengu that normally runs the stall here? I was under the impression that it was their egg that was missing, and they were really upset about it.”
“It is theirs, but it’s my duty to retrieve it!” Mirai replies with their chest puffed up.
“Hatsu doesn’t seem to think so,” Vivienne mutters.
“I need to give it back to them—and I want to! Then Hatsu will see how responsible and decisive and brave I am, not to mention how well I keep my vows to them, and then maybe they’ll finally agree to be courted…” Mirai ends with a dreamy sigh.
Isaac personally cannot believe that tengu, one of the strongest higher spirits around, known for being fierce and violent and exacting, walking vessels of untold magic potential, are also walking examples of romantic period drama tropes. No wonder Vivienne is letting her exasperation show. Has she been dealing with this the entire time?
“Good luck,” Sam earnestly tells them.
Mirai continues mooning beneath their mask, complete with clasped hands and fluttering feathers, even as Vivienne’s expression turns flatter.
Isaac supposes it’s too much to hope that a tengu would be grossed out by having to drag a carcass through the market. He’s not entirely sure what a parandrus is, but apparently they’re big enough that it’ll be an effort to drag a whole one around. Hence the stronger-than-any-human demon Natalie had declared would be perfect for the job. (Vivienne’s there to do the business, Isaac is there as to not stress the contract. Nevermind the fact that he has the sneaking suspicion that he and Sam could be this far apart, and that Vivienne’s presence beside him would likely soothe any discomfort; there are too many loopholes in that damned contract for Isaac to ever understand.)
Graham Yu’s stall is as much of a zoo as Isaac remembers, complete with that blindfolded basilisk he saw last time. It raises its head and flicks out a large tongue, directly at Mirai.
Graham wipes off his gloves on a blood-soaked rag and gives them all a beam. He doesn’t bat an eye at the tengu accompanying them. “Vivienne! You’re here for Natalie’s order, right? It was a pain to maintain the stasis spells, so good luck with that—they’ll probably need refreshing once you get back through the door.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Vivienne replies, offhand but sincere, and ducks behind Graham’s stall with no further invitation. “Strength,” she murmurs and writes down her leg with her finger. She then reaches into that impossible messenger bag of hers to pull out big work gloves to match Graham’s.
Together, they haul a huge, furry body onto the table. It shakes beneath the sudden weight. Isaac can’t see much of the beast, outside of registering long fur and what looks like a horn or antler near the lolling head.
“Is that your dinner? How will you cook it?” Mirai asks brightly.
Graham snorts a laugh. “Charming notion, but no, tengu-san. We’re selling the whole beast for potion bits, but most are best when harvested fresh.”
“The things humans go through for their magic,” Mirai says, head cocked steeply. “Weird!”
“Sam, your turn,” Vivienne wheezes, rolling the parandrus over to the edge of the table. Thick legs and hooves flop over onto that side.
Without so much as a grunt, Sam picks up the parandrus and hauls it over his shoulders. He looks absurd, a skinny white boy beneath an ox-sized creature, but there’s no tremble to his arms as he struggles to balance it. “What is this thing, exactly?” he asks curiously.
“A heraldic beast, isn’t it?” Mirai says, standing on the tips of their talons to peer into its face. Long, rabbit-like ears hang down from its head and antlers knock against Sam’s back. The parandrus’ long fur shimmers as Sam shifts it around. Without meaning to, Isaac reaches out to touch.
Vivienne slaps his hand away. Isaac jolts, surprised, both at himself and her audacity. “Its fur can change color, yeah, it’s not your eyes playing tricks on you. But we need that, and the oils in human skin can damage it—so no touching,” she orders as she strips her gloves off and stuffs them back into her messenger bag.
Sam’s hands fly down away from where he’d been holding it, his face the picture of guilt.
“You’re fine,” Vivienne says with a wildly forced laugh, glancing back at Graham, “because of that spell we did on you earlier! Right, Isaac? Sam, you’re fine to touch it, because you’re our pack mule today!”
“Oh,” Sam says, though if he really catches on, Isaac can’t tell. He gingerly grabs the parandrus again, fingers knotting in long fur, which subtly changes to match his light skin tone.
Isaac watches Mirai’s expressionless mask, but it’s still pointed toward the parandrus’ trailing ears. Considering how obvious their body language is, he thinks it safe to say that they don’t harbor any more suspicion than Graham’s eye roll.
“Tell Natalie that I’m only so generous with keeping whole carcasses for her since she was kind enough to loan you to me with those unicorns!” Graham cheerily informs them, waving goodbye with his large leather gloves. “Oh, but before I forget—how’s that jackalope doing?”
“That was you?!” Vivienne, who had been ready to beat a hasty retreat with Sam in tow, rounds on Graham with eyes narrowed and finger jabbed at his face.
Graham offers her a smug smile. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure out the one you’re keen on is the one who fleeced us at cards at Alice’s Halloween party. Gossip travels fast, you know? So how’s the little critter doing?”
Isaac’s head snaps around, now more interested in this conversation.
“Dana didn’t know it was a jackalope. I got an emergency call the next morning about a rabbit with antlers!”
“She was sloshed after she had the guts to try Ægir ale without any filters. And alright, maybe I was drunk too, since Giselle was nice enough to share her other bottle, but I tried explaining how to take care of the little guy. Or, I can recommend someone who can turn him into a nice pair of gloves. They’re just as soft as rabbits.”
“She named him Pyewacket, and she’s completely enamored,” Vivienne mutters, pinching the furrow in her brow. “Just… don’t go betting cryptids to people who don’t know any better, alright? You could actually get in trouble for that.”
“I’m properly licensed to handle anything and everything in any realm,” Graham retorts, “and how was I supposed to know about your little drama? We were playing cards with a faun and a siren. At Alice Henderson’s party. I didn’t think that was a place for the uninitiated, Vivienne.”
She moved her Halloween stream for a party? Isaac sourly realizes.
“Dana almost got chomped by your unicorns, too,” Vivienne says, maintaining her own sour expression. “Don’t let this become a habit, Yu. I know where you live.”
“No you don’t, and those were Deirdre’s unicorns. She’d already paid for them and their delivery by that point,” Graham corrects.
Vivienne shakes her finger at him one last time, then spins back on her heel and escorts Sam with as much dignity as she can muster. Her cheeks turn red when Mirai giggles.
“Humans are so entertaining with their inconsequential bickering,” Mirai titters, clawed hand to their mask’s mouth. They flick the parandrus’ long ear with their other. “But what an interesting creature! I’ve only heard of them before.”
“There’s a pair at the city zoo, if you wanted to see one still alive,” Vivienne deadpans.
“What are you using the pelt for?” Mirai asks. Sharply.
“…It’s for Natalie, that other psychic friend of mine. This isn’t going anywhere near Mark,” Vivienne replies, looking nervous all of a sudden. Isaac is well aware that there is A Lot of bullshit he’s missing out on—happily—regarding this egg business and Mark Ito. But he doesn’t understand how an animal skin could factor into it in a way that would make Vivienne so jittery.
“Oh, okay!” Mirai chirps, tone bright once more.
“I’ll be sure to text Mark as soon as we get back through the market door, and we’ll figure out our plan of very swift action regarding that First egg,” Vivienne adds.
Mirai cocks their head. Isaac wonders if they’re about to ask what texting is. “I’d hate to have to keep pestering you about this job, so it’s best that you hurry! I’d really appreciate it—and so would Hatsu!” they exclaim instead.
“Of course,” Vivienne replies, sweating. She all but shoves Sam along with a hand on his back.
“We’ll get it sorted out for you, rest assured,” Sam advises like he actually has some part to play in all of this. (Like hell he will, and if Vivienne tries enlisting Sam’s help for further tengu business, Isaac will bite her.)
He turns, walking backward, though still at Vivienne’s pace. Sam waves goodbye to Mirai—then almost gets shoved face-first to the ground when he blindly attempts to go through the goblin market door with a creature the size of an ox on his shoulders.
Vivienne’s smiling, albeit tightly, when she helps him back around, hands hovering over the parandrus’ fur. “You’re a friendly little bean, aren’t you,” she murmurs.
“I’m not a bean,” Sam replies, affronted.
“We’re working on it,” Isaac answers instead. He knows what Vivienne had meant; friendliness has its drawbacks in the realm of the supernatural. “You and Graham seem to know each other well.”
“The magical community is pretty small. Which even you have to know, Isy,” Vivienne replies. “Here, Sam, crouch down and go kinda sideways—yeah, like this. Anyway, yeah, we all know each other, and apparently half the magic community knows about my thing with Dana.”
“Your thing,” Isaac repeats, disgusted, because he does not need to know anything more about Vivienne’s personal life. It’s bad enough he’s sharing part of a demonic contract with her.
“My epic romance with someone else I’ve dragged into the world of magic,” Vivienne says with a hand to her forehead, pretending to swoon. (Sam puts out a hand to help her anyway.)
“What’s a jackalope?” Sam asks.
“Like a rabbit, but with antlers,” Vivienne says, putting her hands up over her head to mimic them. With a flat expression, Isaac points to the very obvious, very real example of the parandrus’ antlers. “Well, yeah, those too. Cute little thing, I can show you pictures once we’re out of sight with this thing. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to meet him, though.”
“Why not? You bring your cat to the shop all the time,” Sam says with a pout.
Vivienne looks up at him, balking, surprised. Isaac doesn’t feel any sympathy for her, though he understands her; she hadn’t expected she’d have to explain why they’re not introducing a demon to everyone ever. Sam’s guileless personality makes it easy to forget he’s a demon, but they shouldn’t forget he’s a demon.
“Maybe later,” Vivienne hedges, which is weird, because Isaac would’ve straight-out told Sam that he can’t meet new people who haven’t been vetted. “Dana’s still new to a lot of things, and I think she’s already getting overwhelmed. Anyway, I’m a little too busy with Mark’s eggy bullshit right now to be arranging pet playdates. Ugh, we have the fucking egg, we need to just figure out a time and what to ask for…”
“You already have it?” Sam asks, astonished, and stops like he may very well run back to the goblin market to tell Mirai right now.
Both Isaac and Vivienne seize him by the arms to keep him walking.
“We have it, but it’s not as easy as giving it back to Mirai in a tupperware tub. It’ll be a pain to transport it, and moreover, we have to arrange payment and a time and I have to talk that idiot psychic into actually doing it!” Vivienne exclaims. “But that’s my ballgame, not yours. You two have the job of laying low and out of coven sight right now, remember? And whatever Nat asks you to do to help her out.”
“You seem very busy,” Sam remarks with a narrow-eyed look down at her.
“Tell me about it,” Vivienne groans.
#how to put the romance back in necromancy#no major spoilers for those who haven't finished the first book#a couple of minor spoilers or spoilers by implication however#i'm sad to scrap this because it was such a good character bit with isaac being less surly and vivienne from an outside pov#but what can you do
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The Trees are part of the Squid's Plan! (major main quest spoilers)
After spending way too long playing through the new quests in SSO, I've come up with a theory. A real long theory. That the Life Wardens are siding with both Dark Riders and Soul Riders in order to repair the Wild Weave and reconnect with one another, inadvertently helping the Dark Riders to free Garnok.
Lemme explain.
This is the map in the Fort Maria portal room. It shows the seven major Life Wardens that we know of, but it also gives us some clues about the story going forwards.
First, the obvious.
Yeah, there's no way that little illustration in the corner is anything but Ol' Squiddy's Tentacles. But we knew he was imprisoned between worlds, in neither Pandoria nor Jorvik - so finding out he's been chilling in the Wild Weave, or a location only accessible by it, makes sense.
Next, when it comes to putting a name to each of these trees I think most are fairly self explanatory. We've known about most of these trees for years, even if they've never been a part of the story, such as with the Ice Tree by the Stonecutter's Vault in Dino Valley, and the Unnamed Tree way up near where you finish the Red String Trail in the Firgrove Mountains.
Where it gets interesting is with the two trees I couldn't place; such as the one between the Sentinel Tree in Mistfall and the Ice Tree in Dino Valley; and the one on the far left, signified by floating islands.
In my mind it makes sense to have a couple of the trees sprouting in Pandoria, since the two worlds are connected by the tree roots - and the only floating rocks I know about are in Pandoria - but who knows.
Overlaying the normal map on top of these locations makes it pretty clear that they're supposed to correspond to real map locations. The only anomaly is the Ice Tree and Sentinel Tree, whose positions are reversed on the portal map.
What's interesting is that Garnok, if I'm following the map's logic correctly, would hold exactly the same positioning as the Dark Core Oil Rig.
(For context, we know the Rig's position from old skybox errors that used to show it when stood in the right spots, some maps from the books (which I know aren't always canon anymore, but hey it's the best we've got) and, most recently, if the player looks South when entering Devil's Gap, thanks to that little black hole we helped Sunshine open up recently.)
Where am I going with all this? Okay!
Firstly, we know that the trees have helped the Dark Riders in the past. The Life Wardens have repeatedly said the only loyalty they have is to each other, and quite frankly after what the Jarl did, who can blame them. (Thanks Jon).
This is going into massive spoiler territory for the most recent quest as of 17/1/24 so if you haven't completed it yet, flee.
The Sentinel Tree in the Wildwoods has been corrupted by Pandorian magic for a while now. But in the newest quest, we saw Sabine using the Runesmasher to break into it and create a portal to free Erissa.
Side tangent about the hammer:
For those who didn't play the Halloween quests, basically one of the Jarl's servants got the ice valley smith to make a hammer that could destroy runestones, broke one open, and a Vala witch gave him immortality. Aka. Sive (or an identical Vala witch), who is deeply connected with the Life Wardens and who probably gave Sabine the hammer when we saw her in Devil's Gap, has no problem with this action.
The Life Wardens, or at the very least Sive, their ally, wanted the portal opened and Erissa freed.
Why?
To re-grow the Wild Weave.
Assuming Garnok's position on my map was correct, the only way the Dark Riders now have to free him is to go directly through the Wild Weave.
And since we're good people who like nature... yeahhh the Soul Riders are totally going to end up healing some trees and inadvertently opening the path to Garnok wide open.
Oh yeah. We're going to mess up royally.
#star stable online#star stable halloween#star stable theory#star stable spoilers#star stable sabine#star stable dark riders#ssoblr
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Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review: That's How It Could've Happened, But How About This?
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN AT LEAST EPISODE ONE, TURN BACK. SERIOUSLY DUDE. DO IT NOW. IF YOUR COOL WITH SPOILING YOURSELF, ROCK ON.
Hello all you happy scottaholics. I"m back in the saddle again. For those just tuning in i'm Jake, I review stuff.. and a few years back I reviewed the entirety of Brian Lee O'Malley's masterpiece, and the movie as a chaser, having been a fan of Scott Pilgrim since my teens but only having just revisited it at the time I started my retrospective. It was a wonderful journey that made me appricate one of my favorite comics even more and gave me a ton of my best running gags. You can find links to each review HERE in one masterpost.
So naturally when the anime was announced last year, I was entirely on board: I loved this story in all three of it's major forms and was excited to see it again, maybe updated a tad. I was also curious if the story would get a setting update, what would change , and what subplots we'd FINALLY see on screen after the film had to trim a lot thanks to half the series not being finished yet and a tight two hour run time. I was cautiously optimistic when the cast was announced as while I was happy to see the massively talented breakout cast of the film return and get another shot at the characters, I was worried it'd just be the movie but animated.. which thankfully turned out not to be remotely true once trailers came out. Instead they'd simply get a shot at playing the characters again but this time with diffrent characterizations. I coudln't be more stoked.
As it turns out though.. O'Malley had zero intention of telling the same story again. In fact, he almost DIDN'T sign on despite getting the juciest of offer, with the anime's studio, Science Saru, wanting their next project after their breakout hit Devilman Crybaby to be Scott Pilgrim and coming to O'Malley Directly.
The problem wasn't the offer: O'Malley, unsuprisingly, was a fan of Science Saru, who in addition to Devilman had also made Space Dandy and the early pilot shorts for OK KO. The problem was O'Malley.. really didn't want to simply retell scott's story a fourth time. It was a story that was personal, deeply loved and made his career.. but after a movie that everyone knew and love and a video game that was so well loved it was many's holy grail for a rerelease for over a decade after it was delisted, he didn't know how to take the story in a new direction and didn't want to do the story again if it was simply going to be a rehash: people could read the book sometime or watch the movie if they wnated Scott fighting the exes.
Thankfully for us, Brian brought up the offer to his good friend BenDavid Grabinski, a tv and film writer. BenDavid was a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim and thus when the idea came up coudln't help spitballing ideas. And one stuck: What if Scott LOST that first fight. It was naturally just a joke.. but like when Superman died.. it's one that had some heft to it. If Scott were gone what would happen to everyone else? How would Ramona react to his loss? Was Scott really gone? how would his friends go on without him... and what would happen to the exes now they weren't guaranteed to die in a fist fight and the entire problem with Gideon's whole plan was laid bare?
These questions and more are answered as Ramona gets to the bottom of what REALLY happned to scott, who unsurprisingly is not dead and even more unsurprisingly the truth is all kinds of bananas. The story of a human tire fire learning to be a better person and not runa way from his problems... becomes the story of a much more composed tire fire learning she can't run away from her problems after she chases after what might have been, forced to get closure with most of her exes as she tries to hunt down the ex that never was. Along the way there's messy bisexual love triangles, movie rental melee's, Tony Hawk style antics done on swarms of paparazzi ninjas, the greatest musical of all time, the rise of Matthew patel, the fall and re-rise of Gordon Goose, explosions, cameos, and more as Ramona Flowers gets it together while Scott Pilgrim takes off, resulting in one of the best animated series of the 2020's and possibly the best of a very stacked 2023. So take off with me as we press start on a fresh new take on one of my favorite franchises under the cut.
Ramona Flowers Gets It Together
This one's going to be a LOT to unpack, and the best place to start is with our new lead: Ramona Flowers. Ramona has never been unimportant to this franchise: after all it's her exes that make up the fight of the week each volume and who give the franchise it's hook, and in the comics she develops alongside scott: As I said in my reviews, Ramona develops alongside him, having to learn to not keep people at arms length and to not run away, nearly running away from everything before coming back, realizing Scott's worth it. Through each other, they grow stronger.
So with Scott gone... Ramona is forced to grow all on her own. If she wants to date Scott, SHE has to fight this time, and she can't run like she tends to. In the comics, she had to scrap with Envy and Roxy, but all the weight to evolve as a person was put on Scott: Ramona had a stable job, was content in her life even if her friend group was basically "Whoever scott happened to be friends with", she was seemingly all together until the last three volumes slowly chip away at that and reveal she's just as bad at staying and improving instead of noping the fuck out of an intense situation as scott. She has to evolve.. but her getting better isn't the point till the climax of the story. It's a lesson in how while a relationship can HELP you grow, ultimately it's on you to: Scott grows because he stops running and embraces his evil self and thus the memories of all his fuckups, embraces that he could sometimes be shitty so he can learn past it. Ramona has to choose to stand and fight gideon and let go of hte hold he has on her, to let go of running and embrace what she has.
Here without Scott and only the vauge mystery of a guy she dated once, Ramona instead has to confront herself: many a character question her doing this. While it starts simple enough with just Julie questioning it, because Julie hates scott as much as I hate the comics version of her, we get harder questions from Kim, whose dated Scott and knows how insesntive he can be, and Lucas who KNOWS Ramona and knows her style is to run. That a happy ending isn't as easy as finding scott again andmaking out intensely. Ramona has to make her own happy ending.
As a result instead of being the sneaky deutratonist or a prop depending on the version (I Love the movie but man do they not do her well), Ramona has to confront her past on her own, and instead of just getting cathartic punchings, she has to actually.. TALK to her exes and resolve things like an adult. And you can imagine how much she likes the prospect of that.
And this flip in how the story works.. is brilliant: It allows us to get to know Ramona: We're seeing things from her perspective instead of Scotts so we see her way more vunerable, genuinely shaken by Scott's "Death", obssesed with solving his kidnapping, and forced to confront her past. Granted like the books we also get to see the lighter side: Ramona is still the straight man to a lot of the cast especially her exes. She and Kim are the sanest one's here and Kim is often out of focus, leaving Ramona one of the few rational people in a sea of gloriously goofy nonsense. Yet we also see her own intrests: she's a columbo fan, turns out to be a natural for stunt work, and has a meticulous routine for her hair dye. We also find out she's a blonde which is only TECHNICALLY cannon to this version.. but fits too well as her hair color to work.
We get to see Ramona not as some ideal to chase slowly turned into a person but just.. a person. Funny, aloof, kind, easily baffled... this is easily my favorite verison of her. Granted it's not exactly ac ontest: The comic's version is great and this simply takes the best of that and fleshes her out, the video game is a 16 bit brawler, and the movie... well look I like the movie, but the film version is a nigh emotionless prop that barely gave Mary Elizabeth Winstead anything to work wtih forgetting ramona HAS emotions who instead of simply having her emotoins amplified is outright brainwashed. I used to think Kim got the shortest end of the stick but doing this review.. no it was Ramona. Ramona got screentime but had any personality stripped. Thankfully both Ramona and Mary Elizabeth get a second shot on the screen here.
Mary Elizabeth's performanc ecan't be overstated: she nicely ballances Ramona's stocisim, something key to her charcter as her main problem is distance, that she puts up and that she creates by running away, with the emotoin peeking up just underneath to say hello. IT's a truly great performance and I hope she'll consider doing more voice acting, she's an natural.
And this is great as Ramona's quest eventually leads her back to scott.. and to an ending that's both profound.. and pokes some holes in the series itself.
The Adventures of Scott and Scott
So turns out Scott was kindapped by of ALL characters, Robot 01, the Katanagi Twin's robot minion who shows up for one fight in the comics and video game and then explodes real good. Here he's their little robot son.. and how Scott got kidnapped.
But thankfully the culrprit isn't the Twins. I would've liked for them to get more to do, more on that later. THeir involved, having leant their robot boy to a friend since , as a robot who can't eat, Robot 01 has never had meat and has no human limits and thus is the strongest robot vegan who ever existed.
God I love this stupid reveal. Anyways, turns out Scott's kidnapper.. is SCOTT. Specifically a version of him who did the usual story, won, had a happy ten years with Ramona, then it fell apart after an argument which he assumed ended in divorce.
This is another twist that was brilliant.. I thought Scott's kidnapper was another scott, but I assumed a clone situation. I never thought FUTURE Scott but it's such a brilliant move. We see a Scott who won.. but who simply didn't let the lessons he learned stick. It's easy to learn something about you sucks, I have many a time.. it's harder to make the changes stick. I can't tell you how many ephnaiinies i've had only to end up back where I started. Some change has stuck with effort, but it's not easy. You have to constantly work at it, to grow. And it's easy enough to backslide.. and thus sadly easy to buy that this verison of Scott , when hit with his relationship not working, spiralied instead of working at it , not helped by Old Ramona, their words not mine, ghosting him.
He's a ghost of Scott future, every bad thing about the guy amplified: he's oblivious, thinking his newest band is going anywhere with his gloriously crappy music video, and refusing to accept it was his fault, throwing a tantrum when Young Scott states the obvious solution: just tell his younger self some of his fuckups and hopefully that'll right the relationship. Instead Future Scott goes for the solution that's easiest and laziest: use time travel to undo his relationship. And naturally this being Scott he got this stupid idea from taking a joke Wallace told him seriously. I love Wallace's "Buddy I was kidding".
I also love the performance here. Rather than use Michael Cera , Future Scott is voiced by voice acting, comedy and beard legend Will Forte. Forte's goofy nature, penchant for playing man children blind to their own flaws, and deadpan deliveries make Future Scott work. He's deeplys ad, but also deeply hilarious, sharing some of Scott's weird intricates like assuming because Future Wallace's husband works for nintendo he gets all the video games for free and making a virtual boy scrapbook of his relationship.
He's still throughly Scott.. just one who can't get past himself, requiring Scott and Future Wallace to go to Future Ramona for help. Shockingly.. she's more than willing too: While she still has Ramona's own problem of running away at the first sign of trouble, she does still LOVE this idiot, she just dosen't know how to fix it and knows she can't talk him out of this, so she sends scott back to be with his ramona... well rides him back leading to some awkward selfies.
But naturally for this tale, Scott coming back.. dosen't fix things. And not just because his older self put anti kissing nanites in him.
Scott has grown some from seeing what he could be: He apologizes to Knives, in a scene that I truly love.. mostly for this line "Apparently a 23 year old dating a high schooler is frowned upon by society".
And I have to stop for a minute to give ALL the props to Michael Cera. He already had done plenty awesome this year as the boy of the year
He didn't need to go for two but he did. Cera wasn't at all bad as Scott the first go round: the character was different, a bit less goofy but still awkward as hell and oblivious to his own flaws: the core was there. Here .. Cera is playing the character as on page, if slightly amped up: Goofy, excitable, trying to ignore his painful past and flaws, charming.. all the good and bad of scott is bubbling around this guy. And the line deliveries my god: we have instant classics like "I'm using the world wide web" "The place where they make the video games", the instantly memetic sonic scene (Which would be me trying to flirt with a girl, ngl), and the above frowned upon line. Cera just bubbles in this roll, sliding into who scott is: Loveable but a total mess who needs to get his shit together and has made some grave mistakes.
Granted they also take steps to make sure Scott's relationship with Knives as judging from interviews, O'Malley is kinda tried of the take that scott pilgrim is a bastard man. I mean he is, but it's less that Scott has some shit to work out and need to be better and more that everyone acts like this is a new discovery. As the author himself said it's there on the first page and a good chunk of chapter one is the people who know him best asking what the hell is wrong with him.
Granted this is mixed with Stephen hooting and hollering as much as he can with his stoic personality, Neil being in awe and asking if they'd "done it yet" and Wallace being tempted with the idea of a high schooler himself, though I get the impression he never seriously considered it. So it is muddled slightly.. but not NEARLY enough.
I do get it with the movie: the movie.. outright portrays Knives as a legit love interest, and while it ages Scott down, it's not enough to make that not blehhhh and the game has Knives end up with Kim, which younger me didn't get was still pedophilia. So I do get it as while the comics make it clear this is messed up, it got muddled.. but it's also still a pretty weak gotcha when the source material has always said "This is wrong" They even bring up trainspotting for fucks sake, which I haven't seen but is a pretty good indication O'Malley knew what he was doing.
So here they make it clearer that while Scott's still stringing this poor baby girl angel baby along, he dosen't really consider it a relationship, or just dosen't want to and after seeing what he easily could be even with Ramona, apologizes way sooner. So they did make strides to make things a bit clearer here if only so another version didn't miss the point.
So one rant later while Scott and Ramona think things are wrapped up.. it's just not that easy. You can get closure, we'll get into the exes more shortly, but it dosen't mean your done or done growing... or that the past is done with you. Or future in this case. Like I said, Old Scott/Future Scott put nanintes in scott and after figuring out the exes aren't involved, the two get kidnapped along with the exes , knives, pretty much anyone who can throw a punch.
The kidnapper is naturally Old Scott.. EVEN OLDER SCOTT.
I love his look: he still has his old jacket, his iconic x-men one, but laso looks like Ryu from Street Fighter 5, just with a giant beard and crazy eyes, being a mix of that ryu and devil ryu.. and nega scott. Old Scott wasn't a great person but still had the potetial to turn it around if he got his finger out of his ass. Even Older Scott is every horrible thing Scott Could've been.. and this is something the comics foreshadowed was possible.
And the thing is while Ramona was being dickish in her own right there, not getting that while Scott cheated on Knives with Ramona he had changed since then, she's not WRONG. Scott was VERY close to giving up on change entirely if Kim hadn't turned him away. Hell had Ramona not come along Scott might've become Old Scott sooner just by dating a teenager. The potential to, like the exes, sink into his resintment and worst self was always there... this is just a Scott that did. A Scott who when faced with the fact change is hard would rather hull up, get buff and plan to kill everyone he cares about just to avoid changing. This is the Scott he almost became.. and sadly at least one scott did become.
He's also horrifying for more than just the implications of seeing this guy who while a dickhead, CAN be better if he puts in the effort and does change and grow in both main versions as his worst self. It's sad to see that.. but we also quickly see just how dangerous an evil ex scott would be: After all Scott beats all the evil exes... I mean original timeline scott beat Lucas and Todd via Indigo League style technicalities, but still. While Scott was still beatable, it took multiple rounds, a feint, and ramona's help to put down the last four exes, he was still fairly strong.. so give him 24 years more of experince with ten of those spent JUST training and specifically preparing to counter the exes , ramona and his past self.. and you have an unstoppable monster that NOTHING can stop and everyone else is very lucky they get sent back. They all put in a good offense.. but the league is out of their league.
Even Older Scott is a brick wall.. and one that smacks straight into Scott and Ramona trying to run from their problems. Scott is forced to face the fact that even getting better might not last even if he dosen't become this guy and Ramona's forced to face the hide this guy is right. Our heroes are up against the wall, their relationship almost over...
Enter Even Older Ramona. Turns out Even Older Scott just.. ghosted her. But her presence finally gives present Ramona the wakeup call she needs as finding our her older self just.. ran away each time her and scott had issues.. gives her a needed ephinay the same way Older Scott being a dumpster fire on cocaine gave this Scott one and Scott in the comics got one from seeing a dark mirror in gideon: Ramona Flowers.. always run. Lucas outright said as much and with the series fleshing out the exes more, almost there just give me a minute, we find out she just.. bounced on each relationship. Matt isn't a suprise, his backstory is the same as it ever was, and in some cases she was ENTIRELY justified in her assholery: Todd was an obnoxious prick she left another, far better guy for, the Twins were recontexculazed as serial predators who preyed on new freshman with Ramona dating them both being a way to get even on both of them, so while she still did a bad it was on legitly bad people, and Gideon.. is still Gideon. He may get more development here and have his own backstory.. but the series makes it VERY clear he was every bit as shitty to ramona as previous versions, he just hadn't got to using the glow or mind control chips levels of creep yet.
But as i'll get into more in a bit... she legitly hurt everyone else: While Matt didn't get into supervilanny till high school, it's hard not to think that being used as a weapon to keep other boys away didn't lead him down the tryhard path he now walks, Lucas was left devistated and became a xerox of a xerox of the kind of guy Ramona left him for, and Roxy was left genuinely devistated thinking she was nothing. All Ramona has done is run and deny people closure and the series reckons with that.. and like the comics forces Ramona to stand and fight, recognizing that her relationship with Scott could end badly.. but it's worth having.
It's a neat metaphor: our heroes see exactly how badly things could end... and that's how relationships can be. You worry about how badly things are going to go or how you'll fuck up. But the only way it can go forward.. is if you try. Risk the hurt for the good. present/past/whatever Scott made a valid point when trying to talk to his Older Self before seeing that was a lost cause: There had to be good times too? While Old Scott and even Older Scott bury them in self pity, a relationship, even if it fails.. has something to add. Something to help you grow. And given Brian himself had been through a divorce after a ten year marriage it's hard not to see the subtext, to see that idea of "would you talk yourself out of a relationship if you knew it'd end". And the answer he and Ramona have.. is no. It's worth the risk, worth the pain, and worth the possiblity that someone else can do it better.
Granted this being scott pilgrim doing it better involves the ramona's fusing and Even Older Ramona, while done with Scott (He ate up his second chance a LONG TIME AGO) gives both Scott's another chance. As she puts it "This one's just an idiot kid... and this one's a real mess" (When told to kick his ass) "It's never too late to clean up a mess.. " Despite it all.. part of her loves him.. and gives him another chance. Not with her, Oh lord no, but to be better. That .. we can always be better, no matter if your 23 or 47, you can become better. As Super Ramona says "What you've done in the past dosen't define you, hell me keep remembering that". It's a beautiful message: you can screw up, there is no happily ever after.. but you can always be better even if you stumble. And as our heroes face a new future together once again.. it feels a bit brighter this time, like these two kids will make it you know?
Not That Evil
One big pull of doing the story this way for Brian and BenDavid was the exes. Brian admitted in interviews he wrote the books by the seat of his pants and as a naive 20 something who didn't know how skaters or musicians worked except via magazines. Moving to LA among other stuff gave him more perspective, and he wanted to add that to the story, flesh the Exes out as people and use the bits he didn't have time for in the original.
As such 5/7 go from sometimes one dimension, sometimes wholly evil bastards for Scott to punch.. and Lucas, to 5 very flawed , very intresting people we get to see way more of and who all get something resembling a happy ending. Also Kyle and Ken are there. Getting them out of the way once again the adaptation barely uses them, as their more a plot device/backup so we can hear Will Forte sing the theme to Bubblegum Crisis. You know when Brian hinted at that scene in interviews pre show I expected to here Kirean Culkin, Bree Larson, maybe even Micheal Cera. I didn't expect Will Freakin Forte and god bless Brian for that.
So yeah the Twins are.. fine here and I love the anti climax: they don't get closure with ramona.. but are cool with Scott since they'll be buddies eventually. I also like that out of ALL the exes for Scott to befriend after they respawned it's these two guys.
Thankfully everyone else gets way more and no where is that more apparent than with MATTHEW PATEL, the first evil ex.. and the one who naturally gets the most to work with, going from the biggest jobber who ever jobbed, to the guy who killed scott pilgrim
Satya Bhabha gets to have a fucking feast here and I hope this leads to more rolls, voice acting or otherwise. While he was already one of the highlights of the film, easily, taking what was implied to be a music number and making it into this glorious thing.
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The series takes it to new heights.. mostly by giving Matt his best life. Granted.. this life naturally dosen't include Ramona who walks out pissed off and Matt is befuddled "Wait we DON'T get her automatically if we win?"
So he does what you'd expect from an egocentric theater kid who realizes he was just played and this whole evil exes setup is a sham... call a meeting in GIDEON"S OWN LAIR to dramatically reveal it all. And punch the head off a good soft robot boy because he's a prick and a half. A loveable prick and a half but still.
It's something I just.. never thought about with the league. I assumed it was simply a "If I can't have you" situation as that was GIdeon's whole goal.. and to put her in his girlfriend freezer which i'm sure Matt released. Gideon and Roxy seemed like the only ones who wanted her back. But given the weird logic of this unvierse even if some of them DIDN'T want her, I like the idea they'd still like to keep that option open by unaliving someone. It's fucked up as it is sensical for a group that all gathered to keep their ex from moving the fuck on.
It makes equal sense that this was all a ponzi scheme, Gideon , being an entiled dick, just.. assumed he got her if anyone won. That the exes wouldn't object or, more likely, they simply woudln't make it far enough. They were just patsies so he could swoop in and score her on the rebound, also not getting that would never work and sh'ed just hammer his nuts so far in they'd be impacted.
What threw me after this.. was Matt's Challenge to gideon. Not him challenging Gideon, I expected that easily: Matt gets all of Gideon's empire if he wins, Matt dies if he looses. I figured Gideon would kill Matt, again, and would do some sort of cordinated strike. But as before Scott Pilgrim Takes off Decides
Instead we get an absolutely gorgeous, awesome fight scenes. one of the best i've seen in animation and one of the best of the year, which given Invincible came back, is saying something. Gideon, while not having his pixel or glow powers, fights well with swords, a harness and pure skill while Matt is consistently forced to push his powers in new and creative ways. While we get the ones he got to show off against scott, fireballs and demon hipster chicks, we also get to see a lot of cool new shit as he manifests arms ala the Hindu god shiva, with all his powers seeming to tie into Hindu mythology instead of "magic stuff I guess" like the originals. It's a tense fight I assumed would end one way.. but instead... Matthew Patel FUCKING WINS and wins Gideon's emppire, only leaving him alive as a brag
Yeah I assumed from this when first watching that this was some sort of Buffy "Superstar" situation, that Matt had altereted reality to make it better for him. Instead.. nope. This just happened organically. Turns out Matt is badass as fuck, Scott simply had the power of friendship and punches. No power scaling here bitches.
As a result... the League falls apart. Matt is TECHNICALLY leader.. but in practice the exes all go off to do whatever, with Ramona instead encountering them organically. Matt spends the season as a highly paid CEO, mostly showing up once in a while to shut down a whole movie production because it makes him look bad, pathetically hit on ramona.. then get scared when he finds out Scott is alive. My faviorite bit of that is his very timid "Is he mad at me?" like he's a second grader and Ramona's understandably irritated "I dont' know dude" as a response.
Granted this dosen't stop his dreams as Knives and Stephen are able to pitch him a Scott Pilgrim Musical, one of the most gloriously batshit subplots in the history of this franchise. Which really can be said for.. most of this fucking show, but I digress. Despite seemingly hvaing no talent, the prospect of finally getting his broadway dreams back after his dad crushed them is enough for him to level up again, do a performance everyone loves and become a broadway icon. I assume the last part. Hamilton move over, your new compettiion's in town.
(Sidebar to that refrence, I think Hidgens and Matt would be besties. THeir both weirdly violent and obessed with musical theater).
Hell Matt.. dosen't even get upstaged by Gideon. When Gideon tries a looney tunes plan to bomb the theater, the Demon Hipster Chicks just.. disarm it and Matt.. gives Gideon his company back. Turns out being a CEO is hard yo. He's already lost billions. So Matt has his career, his musical, the only thing he didn't want to give up and Gideon could care less about anyway, and a new evil bestie. Life is good.
And naturally it sucks to be Gideon Graves as a result, or rather Gordon Goose. I liked giving Gideon a backstory, aging him down to be julie's old peer who used to wear no fear shirts every day and got shot down hard. Huh I never knew the guy I knew in high school who gave every girl he knew an invitation asking them out in high school became a super villian.
So Gideon spends most of the series in a depressed daze secretly plotting revenge and watching anime. Why is every guy I knew in high school compressed into one sad canadian?
Where he's crashing though was a nice twist: Julie. For those who read my reviews of the comics, you'll recall I didn't exactly like Julie very much. And for good reason: she's the worst. Here she still is.. but Brian found the secret to having a character whose human garbage around without making the audience pull their hair out. You have to make them entertaing.
Julie is still a high school alpha bitch all grown up here, but instead of just constantly talking about how Scott sucks, she gets to be funny. She swears constantly, taking a great gag from the film and escalating it, slacks off at her job, and snarks to Ramona about her taste in men.
She also.. gets redeeming qualities. Something I never thought any verison of Julie could possibly have, but here we are. Instead of just seeming to know Ramona and only claming to be her friend because Julie Powers is a starfucker, she's GENUINELY a good friend to Ramona, giving her the info she needs and being contrite when Ramona catches her with Gideon. Julie here feels more like a person and less like a blob of all the worlds sins congealed into that bitch.
And yes she ends up with Gideon, a ship I never thought of in my darkest day but somehow works perfectly. Their both awful in a way that's made for each other and Julie taking in Gordon at his lowest is genuinely sweet.
We get to see Gideon not as G-Man.. but as a nerd whose lost everything.. and gets the greatest and most wholesome montage ever with Lucas Lee. Seriously Lucas and Gideon fucking around Julie's house like two teenage boys is one of the greatest thigns ever put to film, even greater knowing it was somehow only 90 fucking minutes. It's fucking adorable.
What helps though is that while Gideon is a touch more sympathetic and pathetic... he's still not let off the hook for how he treated Ramona. He's not putting the glow in her and stuff, but he was still the same controlling manipulative asshat. I mean he still made the league just to win her back. It's just without the league or the trappings of power... he's a less charming scott, something the books largely hinted at. Ramona DOES get him to be a better partner to Julie, calling him out for leaning on her hard and taking advantage of her, and as a result instead of leeching off her they become equal partners in villianny with vauge never to be elaborated on plans at the end. And it's honestly.. sweet. It's nice their evil together. Sure they'll probably be meancing our heroes with a super mario bros 3 airship eventually, i'm sure, but at least their better. And matt freed his frozen kidnapped wives so we're good.
So moving right along fun and fancy free we have Gordon's best bro, Lucas. Lucas Lee takes more after the film, something Brian admitted was unavoidable for some things: after the movie made some versions of the characters more iconic he really coudlnt' go back. It's why getting the movie cast was so important: While this was going to be it's own thing, having them added a layer and frankly he didn't think anyone else could do it as well. I do think someone could've, there's tones of great voice actors, but i'm still glad he got the all star cast back as their just.. giving it their fucking best. God bless Michael Cera for reviving that email chains.
And you can feel the enthusiasm in most performances, but especially Chris Evans, who responded back within 20 minutes of being asked and hams it up. This Lucas is a bro whose on the verge of being cancelled and who is delightfully try hard, saying let's party as every other line in his films, throwing parties, and generally being axe bodyspray made into a person. He also tony hawks a lot, and you can tell BenDavid loves skater culture.
Lucas is fun to watch, being arrogant and an asshole, but one whose hilarious epsecially squeezed into Scott's t-shirt playing him in young neil's movie. It's a great visual. And his downfall being dating a 30 year old who happens to LOOK like a high schooler is both a brilliant meta joke on ellen wong, and just.. fucking great.
The show also, like all the exes, fleshes him out: It takes what we knew ,that Ramona cheated on him in high school, and fleshes it out: Ramona was his everything, helping a skinny skater kid get by, fixing his boards and generally being sweet.. then aburbtly left him for a fuck boy, with Lucas deciding to become the KING of all fuck boys in revenge.
Lucas isn't super deep, but I love that he's not just the dudebro party massacre we see on the surface: he does actually read the script, has genuine insight into ramona pointing out how unlikely the regular ending of the story is .. simply because she always runs. He also willingly skates into a cloud of ninja paparazzi to cover for her.
And the skating scene.. is one of my favorites in the show. Granted I like me some tony hawk even if I suck eggs at it, so that helps, but the animation is gorgeous. Granted this whole damn cartoon is gorgeous: Science Saru put their heart and soul into every frame and everything looks stunning, having a very early 2000's look with it's frayed edges on the characters, and capturing Brian's style perfectly.
The Skating Segment shows this off, with fluid motion, some great set pieces and some impressive jokes like the alien. It's fucking great.
So Lucas ends up not even able to afford a first class ticket back home.. but finds happiness as a barita. and Stacey finds happiness starring at his ass. Everyone wins. I kinda low key ship those two.. I mean Stacey's a bit younger, yes, but it's not knives level of age gap, and Lucas could use someone with their head mostly on their shoulders. They do try teasing him and kim.. but she'd eat him alive. It'd be fun but she would.
So speaking of Kim and the evil exes, let's roll on to my faviorite, Roxie. Roxie is a fucking delight this time, with Mae Whitman, unsuprisingly, bringing her best. It's fun to get to see her cut loose and just play a horny lesbian ninja gremlin like she deserves, with Roxy hamming it up. She spends the evil Ex meeting dunking on everyone else ("Act like you've been here todd!"), and already being the best. She comes off as a combo of her two versions: she has the manic gremlin energy of her film counterpart, being as bi-furious as ever, but has the snarky energy of her book counterpart, being willing to take shots at people and question them... it's just spread to all of the exes since Scott isn't around to be the sole obstacle in her way of ramona.
She's then the first ex Ramona has to deal with herself on her investigation, and it perfectly fits her character: In the film she tried to jump the line, but got a cup of accidental boob punch instead, and while she did wait for Todd to get headbutted out of existence in the books, she also started her attack with some ninja poster clones of Canadian hillary duff in the excellent Free Scott Pilgrim one shot (The very comic that got me into the series), and tried the same sneak attack that ended up in boob punch city. No matter the version Roxy is an impatient little cave goblin and of course the second she realized Ramona was free and the others had stopped giving a shit she'd be the one to show up at her door.
She's also the only one Ramona has to fight instead of just having an adult conversation. And while Takes Off changes a lot by design.. it dosen't deny giving us another excellent Roxie vs Ramona fight, something that I didn't realize was a tradition till this one. Still they saved the best for possibly last as the two's video store dustup is one of the best fights of the series, only topped by the final battle with Even Older Scott and even THEN it's a very close call.
Starting with a furious one on one in No Account Video, one of my faviorite settings from the books i'm glad to see get fully fleshed out and used here, even if it gets wrecked and then shut down as a result, with sprinkler's going off, discount tapes being bodied and Hollie deciding fuck this i'm clocking out, we then get a fun take on an old trope as a stack of tapes fall on them, leading to the two getting stuck in video land. We get westerns, film noir, samurai flicks, Hollie griping about them ruining her faviorite movie but watching anyway, it's a gorgeous fight and the video tape grain just adds to it.
We also get at least one fun bit using the medium as when Ramona gets sucker punched, Kim simply rewinds to help her new bestie out.. and Roxie takes it like a champ and... exits the tape JUST to stomp the remote. Fucking amazing.
The best part though, like a lot of SPTO, isn't the punching, though it's glorious but the payoff. With both exhausted, Roxie lashs out in a brutally painful way, blood down her cheek. It wasn't just that Ramona left, it's that she left.. without saying anything: we get an actual sense of their relationship this time and rather than be the "phase" Ramona cruelly brushed it off as the last two times, we see the two slowly fall in love, a really cute shot of ramona throwing a blanket over the two of them.. and then Ramona moving out, almost saying something but not wanting to, leaving Roxie devistated. It's easy to see WHY she has this bubbling anger at Ramona: every time they've fought, she's made her feel like nothing, something she vocalizes here. It takes what was an extremley dated bit that made Ramona come off like a giant asshole in the previous versions, it's fine if she realized she's not bisexual (which any scene with her and kim in both the comic and this very anime proves is just.. factually false), but it's a face punching way to put it, and puts it in the context of really hurting someone. Ramona realizes she done fucked up, genuinely apologizes and the two.. just collapse. Their friends now.
I also love Roxie hitting on Kim. I could honestly see those two working out.. I mean yes there were no sparks but Kim was kinda put on the spot there and Roxie was on the rebound. Give em some time. Plus I think Kim would work well with a feral gremlin she has to reign in. She's done it before. Roxie also asking about hollie right after before cheerfully leaving.. it's the best. Mae Whitman's the best and I could see her headlining a spinoff easily. Give me more of my feral cave gremlin daughter comma you cowards.
Finally we have Todd. Unlike the others, Todd.. isn't really fleshed out more and is given an entreily new personality from the comics swaggering egotistical rockstar jackass (Since Lucas very much had that niche filled), and the film's errrr...
Brandon Routh done good with the cleaning lady bit, but he wasn't given much to work with. Here... he makes Todd into a gloriously dumb and horny slab of moron. The guy can't go ONE SCENE without nearly fucking envy, which is one of the funniest bits in the show, capped off with the glorious wolf whistling, then fucks Wallace about ten diffrent times that we see over three days, then gets an adorable wallace sailor tatoo.
Todd.. really isn't changed. He was a fucklord in high school and he's a horny cheating mess now. He's an excus efor an already rediculous show to take it up to 11.
So let's unpack the show's sense of humor since I hadn't got to yet: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off takes an already ridiculous franchise with psychic vegans, bollywood hindu sorcerers and literal one ups, and decides to take it to the next level with film fights, lucas lee pro paparazi ninja skater 3, future renditions of Konya Wa No Hurricane by will forte, the montage from stepbrothers: Canadian edition, stunt double fights, and Matthew Patel: The Main Character. This is a series that takes it's emotinal consequences seriously and not much else. And I love it: I love weird shit, I Love balls to the wall humor, and the humor still feels very much scott pilgrim just taken up a notch.
And episode 5 is where it hits it's what the fuck is this peak as Ramona infiltrates the set of the Scott Pilgrim movie. The episode feels like one long shit post and i'm entirely in favor of it. We have Wallace fucking todd and casually dumping him, Envy and Wallace siccing their stunt doubles on each other, an Edgar Wright stand in voiced by Kevin Mcdonald for some reason and Young Neil, who in this series is entirely shit post and i'm here for it. IT's glorious chaos and only the ending is really at all emotional on some level. I mean I feel for Todd, even if he was a cheating bastard, but it's hard to take his grief or envy's seriously when Envy is a carcature of herself in this series and Todd's depression is eating a KFC bucket of poutine and sadly recounting every place he and Wallace made out. Todd isn't given extra depth.. but even as a villian he never really had depth to begin with. He had a disapproving dad and a massive ego. It's fine if he's a giant goofy blushy man who's soul wallace destroys. Brendon Routh does a phenomenal job with that.
Overall the expansion of the exes is part of what makes this adaptation so fantastic. With the exception of the twins they all get to live their best lives, and we get to see more of them. It's fun to see them implicitly join scot'ts friend group, and i've already written little chats about that, as it's fun as hell now their full characters in the world instead of respawning back probably not having learned much except not to punch scott in the face.
And the Rest
So with everything upside down, how do the rest of the people in Scott's Precious Little Life fare when the main character their built to support is gone? It's another hook of this series: if scott's gone, even just temporarily, what happens to everyone else.
Sex Bomb-Omb naturally gets impacted the most, and the versions here are superb.
The standout of course is Knives who deals with Scott's death by discovering a new love: playing music. While Knives had always been a huge fangirl in past versions, it was in the way more teens find music: by glomming on to the first band or two that makes them feel something and guarding that new faviorite thing like a cat with a ski chalet
See? Despite letting these characters live rent free in my head for the past decade, I never once thought of this idea, letting Neil join shatterband, sex bomb omb's followup as it crumbles to dust in the comics, instead.
In hindsight this idea is the most obvious thing: Knives loves music, it's an easy excuse for her parents that eases them into the fact her friends are all 20 year olds, so she can stay with the group easier, and as for why Stephen and Kim would let it happen... both have always liked her. Kim's annoyance is more worrying about Scott scarring her for life, and Stephen an dher get really close towards the end of the series, with him becoming a big brother towards her. The two becoming big siblings to her and letting her join makes sense.
It's especially nice to see with Kim. Kim interacted with Knives a BIT in the books, being the only one on Team Sex Bomb-Omb (The band plus knives and young neil), to take scott to task for the Knives thing to his face, at worst getting annoyed Knives is copying her. Granted like most of the Team, Kim still fucks up with her, most notably.. this
Which at the time I, and apparently the devleopers of the game, saw as a shippable moment but nowadays I see as NOPE PLEASE STOP, PLEASE STOP.. PLEASE NEVER AGAIN. AGE GAP'S STILL AS WEIRD AS WITH SCOTT. PLEASE DONT' TRAUMTIZE THIS CHILD MORE. Kim gets more of a pass than her band mates and neil because she was drunk at the time and clearly regrets it, but it's still something entirely fucked up I wish hadn't happened and feel bad for all involved. This is not how you should find out your bisexual.
The series wisely avoids this as they've realized "This is also statutory". and instead nicely has Kim take up the big sis roll to Knives, being the only one to really look after her after her boyfriend allgedly exploded and was found to have been cheating on her.
Hence we get one of the the best scenes in the series, the drum session. Which I know some did interpret romantically but first off...
And secondly.. really dosen't given the context: Kim sees the band needs a bassist.. but more importantly sees Knives is trying really hard to learn and is clearly spiraling after Scott's death. So she invites her to play since Neil is busy with his screenplay and Stephen, as usual is handeling this sudden loss with all the grace and dignity he's known for
IT's a beautiful scene as two people simply bond as they jam, and both heal a bit from what they've lost. And we find out Knives is a musical progidy who mastered the Bass in only four hours, and masters a keyboard later in less.
This gives Knives her first real plot in the series that isn't tethered to Scott in some way, something that was jarring to realize, but easy to see why: the books are centered around Scott's life, his friends, his love intrest, etc. Their there as needed for his story. Knives has one of the most detailed and intresting character arcs of the main cast.. but it's still thorughly tethered to Scott: his dumping her sends her on a journey of spiraling depression and growth, eventually going from someone who puts scott on such a pedestal that she attacks his new girlfriend instead of seeing the obvious, to accepting Scott wasn't perfect, he cheated and that while he opend her world up, they were really bad together and it was never an equal paring. Even the fun subplot with her dad as the mystery swordsman in book 4.. is because he thought she was still dating Scott and thus attacked him for dating his daugther. The movie makes this worse by trying to make the relationhsip seem legit missing the point entirely. While Knives has a friend in Tamara an da passle of high school drama she gleefully tells scott about, neither are important to the narrative. We only meet her parents because her mom was there when Knives met Scott and her dad tries to run him through.
Here while Scott certainly is part of her story, why she met sex bomb-omb and why she wears his jacket for most of the series, and his death certainly had an impact, she moves on quickly here not because she forgot Scott like it seems a chunk of the cast do or she's TRYING to avoid thinking about him like Kim and Wallace seem to be, she just found a healthy creative outlet, something to put her pain into in a healthy way instead of getting highlights and trying to murder Ramona or dating a guy who looks close enough to Scott. Knives moves on faster here, taking what's implied to be maybe a month at most to move on versus a year.. because she's not isolated in her pain. Scott's friends dont' dump her because it's awkward now and then awkwardly let her stay around post neil because they feel bad. Kim invites her in and after hearing she can wail, Stephen warmly welcomes her into the band, and the two become besties.
So we have to talk about Stephen really quick as his plot dovetails into Knives, with the two being a duo for half the series. Stephen is based more on his movie self.
Yeahhh while I love the books on re-read, Book Stephen sucks. He just.. sucks. If your wondering some of the lowlights i'm glad you asked, here's an expertly crafted montage.
And that's just what I could fit into a montage: he also cheats on Julie for most of volume 4, focuses on his affair with joseph to the point he refuses gigs when it's clear playing live is something Kim LIKES doing and helps her relax, and never even informs Scott the band's broken up. The last one's .. iffy because Scott was in a waking depression coma after loosing Ramona, so he coudl've told him and forgot, but out of Scott's friend group he's the most consistently dickish, with Kim's grumpy nature mostly being a wall. It's partly the writing as , again given this is scott centric, we dont' peel back the layers on him the way we do with say Ramona, Knives or Kim. We don't see why he thought it was easier to cheat like we do with Scott and Knives, which wouldnt' make it okay but would make him less punchable. we don't know WHY he stays with Julie. Stephen is just an enigma and as such comes off immesnely annoying when most of his major endevors screw up everyone elses life in some way. And as one final coda to this rant, i'm not saying telling knives about Scott's two timing is bad... i'm saying he's the wrong person to tell her as not only did HE cheat on his partner, and as the last panel shows, KNOWS it's wrong Ramona clearly dosen't know half a year into the relationship, but won't tell her anyway for a friendship he REALLY dosen't seem to remotely care about.
So yeah a hammy constantly anxious relatable stephen was better, and Mark Webber was a delight by contrast. We didn't get to know movie Stephen.. but I didn't want to punch him either. So having Anime Stephen be more like the one who isn't punchable was smart: He's still panicky, crying more over the fact Scott leaves them baseless than over the fact his friend's dead (Which is mildly douchey but as we learned with Julie, if it's for a joke it's fine), and still obessed with making music his career while his band mates are like "Yeah fine whatever", so he's not really changed hard from the core of the character, but he is a delight and him and Knives becoming best friends in a far less hypocritical sense is adorable.
I also REALLY love their pet project: After Young Neil's movie falls through, more on him shortly, they make Scott Pilgrim, the original timeline, into a MUSICAL, complete with a bread makes you fat music number. I do like the ocasional nod here and there: O'Malley and Grabinski conciously didn't want to just.. repeat a gag because it was expected, but threw a few of the more iconic bits in as long as they could remix the joke. It's why the pee bar and the shoe tying making cameos, as their in new contexts, while there just wasn't room for the l-word or scott going out a window.
This whole subplot is gold from Stephens aying "as a creative to another creative" a hundred times, something I relate to since i say as a critic way more than I probably should, to it paying off.
And this is where Knives asceneds. By the end she not only gets closure with scott, admitting she's glad he's back but is glad he died, as the relationship wasn't healthy and she could grow into a hit songwriter, but she has a huge career with an award winning (Probably) musical, a new best friend and mentor, and writing songs for her fav envy.
And most nicely for me.. .I get a reality where Sex Bomb Omb dosen't fall to pieces in some way or form. Yeah without Stephen's drama or callousness depending on the version and with Knives creative vision the band not only stays together, but has a real shot at being something, giving everyone in it a bright future. Knives Chau really got to take off.
Kim is as usual the meaning in my life and the inspriation, with Allison Pill getting to do more with the character since she's not shunted to the background to say one or two lines. I mean she's still IN the background sadly: She gets a major roll in episode 3 and then just shows up when Sex Bomb Omb's together, not even getting that involved in the musical. I really wished after the film Kim got a big beefy roll. She could've been Ramona's sidekick or something like that, the two been clue buddies together. But I suppose the raw sexual tension would've left Scott out. Still she plays of Ramona well and it woudl've been nice ot have Kim around to response to the madness of episodess 4 and 5 with ramona. Still she gets a better shake than the movie: Episode 3 highlights how this version is actually over him, but encourages Ramona's attraction to him, simply warning her of what he's like, is a good friend to Rammy, and gets that moment with Roxie. I love how sh'es just like "I'm not... oh alright". And I think given another chance there would be sparks. Kim is sadly not given MUCH but it's still more kim pine, and i'm always in favor of that.
Finally we have my newly adopted son Young Neil. Unlike with Stephen, they didn't really take from the previous neil, whose super excited, and goofy and better than the graphic novel version whose alright. They go back to the Graphic Novel's glass eyed, barely emotive werido.. yet STILL make him something new rather than just adapt that version.
The result is a neil whose spacey, barely emotive.. but also REALLY dumb and really weird. Naturally I love him and relate immensely. Neil is somehow CRITICAL to the plot this time and entirely unaware of what is going on. He's season 1 todd chavez and it's wonderful.
This Neil gets most of the best bits, with Johnny Simmons having perfect timing. A good chunk of this series weird shit comes form Neil, who takes Scott's death as as sign he should persue his passion for screenwriting and get's his big break when in a half assed wel lmeaning plan, ramona adapts his book into a screenplay and sends it to him. Neil sees a mysteriously cloaked future ramona writing the script.. then assumes it's his sleep paralysis demon and he's a scripting genius.
We then get two glorious episodes of Neil at a movie set not remotely qulaified to be there as he assumes Americans and then the japanese call golf carts mario karts, gets a perscription but somehow winds up with sunglasses, and barely registers Matthew shutting his expesnive nightmare of a film down becuase he can't drive golf carts anymore. It even takes a lengthy and fucking glorious scene with sex bomb omb for him to realize "oh maybe my sleep paralysis demon didn't write this". Just the casual way he says it while everyone else is baffled, and how Kim and Knives have to slowly explain reality to him is great. Neil is comic relief incarnate and I love him, easily the best version. I'm also happy that like most of the cast, he gets a happy ending, as he apparently got a job at the studio after Gideon reopened it driving his cart around. Nick Frost is right, Young Neil really is off the chain.
So onto the one charcter who over FOUR DIFFRENT MEDIUMS has never really talked to anyone I just talked about but knives, we have Wallace. First off: yes i'm still disapointed he never really talked to Sex Bomb Omb. I got it vibe wise: everyone has friends who just.. don't know each other, but the intro got my hopes up they'd actually.. hang out at some point. But just like everything else, the intro isn't remotely indicative of what happened in the anime. The comics sure. And it's a true banger.
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Seriously the colors are vibrant, the song is vibrant and fits scott perfectly, with Necry Talkie really nailing him down, and it's a perfect intro. Even if it ends up being nothing like the series , I still love it. One of my faviorite anime intros of all time. Love that cute falling shot of scott and ramona and the bit showcasing the exes. So good.
What was I on about? Oh yeah Wallace. Wallace here is a mixed bag. As with the film Kirean Culkin is perfect as Wallace: he gets the dry tone down, his drunken antics down and the whole sarcastic vibes perfectly. He was the best performance of the film, and while the compettition's too steep here for him to win again, he's still amazing.
That said Wallace.. is a bit more of a dick here. He comes off more.. tolerating scott instead of having a genuine friendship with him, and the only hint we get of him mourning his best friend is just how plastered he is.. and even then he threatens to change the locks. If Ramona reminded him to. I get the two weren't going to be as focused on, but it's still sad.
I also wish his friendship with Ramona stayed. While it makes sense they don't bond, Scott isn't around to link them, it was one of the funnest parts of the books.
Really this Wallace shows why he needs Scott and what he might be like when his bestie isn't around: Just because Wallace is more put together.. dosen't make him not an asshole. While I admi the's more dickish here with reflection.. I have to say it's not out of character. He's still giving us killer bits from wanting to see a notriously straight actor play him, to his smug acceptance of becoming an actor, to his deadpan acceptance that todd's in love with him, he's still the wallace we love... it's just we're seeing the side of him that dosent look better with a dumpster fire constantly ned tot him.
The biggest douchery is of course stealing Todd from Envy.. but besides it taking two to cheat, Wallace stealing someone's boyfriend.. isn't new behavoir. I laughed at how out of left field the PARING was.. but Wallace is Jimmy's bi or gay or pan, whatever he is, awkaneing in the book and film, and Stacey's reaction in both makes it clear he steals her boyfriends CONSTANTLY. So him stealing Todd and then explaining it was just a fling to him.. is entirely in the realm of Wallac'es douchebagery. He's not a terrible person.. but like everyone else in the cast he's a mess. HIs abuse of his stunt doubles was a bit over the line, but is so over the top it works. And this wallace also sings us complicated. So while I wish we got to see more of the Wallace we don't in the books... what we do get is still great.
Envy.. gets the shortest end of the stick here next to the twins, as she at least had a fairly comepelling arc in the book, being the focus of volume 3 and a major part of volume 6. Here while Brie Larson is once again great there really.. isn't much for Envy here. Even the film, which basically squoozer her in at the last second, still gave us an awesome version of the phone call she gives scott and the iconic black sheep sequence. Here while Envy gets another all timer scene in her funeral concert, the second most obnoxiously awesome crashing of a funeral behind flintheart glomgold
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Envy DID at least get to dance on his casket. Or a stage above his casket. still counts.
Envy.. is left at the face value we meet her at the start of volume 3: queen biatch, queen of all the chaos, queen of all you love and adore. She's still a lot of fun from the above horny antics with todd to her yanking Ramona out of a talking head interview to fight her battles for her, but there's .. nothing really to her and it stand sout in a series that gives everyone else but the twins something new.
Okay ALMOST everyone as Stacey is once again out of focus like the comics. The movie gave her a bit more, but here she's scott's sister who calls people. That's it. It makes sense, Ramona has no real reason to talk to her, but it's a waste of your Anna Kendrick to not find more antics for her, especially since they found wallace and Neil great subplots. That said she does live her best life at the end starring at lucas' butt.
I also want to note the presence of Hollie, kim's roomate, best friend and co-worker. She does little, Shannon Woodward does a fine job, but I like that she's in here at all: Hollie was a character I liked in the comics.. who went on to steal kim's boyfriend for plot convience. So having a verison of her that dosen't do that shit and is just Kim's snarky foil and friend again works for me.
Finally we have a bunch of cameos, the bulk of them legendary. We get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as security guards, Weird Al as the intro narator for the doc on the failed Scott Pilgrim film, comedy and voice acting legend MIcheal Mcdonald as Edgar Wrong, Bowen Yang as a tv gossip, kal Pen as matt's lawyers and Kirby HOwell Baptiste as Lucas Lee's agent. All fun one or two off bits, all fantastic.
Finishing off the character stuff we have a missed opportunity too: Joseph and Lisa get to cameo.. but are once again left out, to my annoyance. I get not being able to fit them in and Lisa has less of a point without Scott around.. but it'd still be nice to get a scene or something, especially since I was far from the only person asking for Lisa Miller to get a proper apperance.
So with that we close the book on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. and it was phenominal. While I would've loved a new adaptation, this.. is even better: a spirtual sequel that expands the characters, is not afraid to go full nonsense, let's a lot of the cast from the film fully shine, and has a bitching soundtrack once again. Not a ton of original songs sadly, but I Feel Fine and Orange Shirt are bangers, and we get Will Forte singing an anime theme song. If the last part dosen't appeal to you, I don't know how you got this far in the review. Takes Off is one of the best entries in this franchise and leaves me hopeful we'll return to this world again. Maybe not on screen but hey, even with the mountain of work it took to get this cast together again, tthis adaptatoin has proven anything is posisble.
Thanks for reading.
#scott pilgrim takes off#scott pilgrim#ramona flowers#netflix#lucas lee#roxie richter#kim pine#wallace wells#knives chau#stacey pilgrim#gordon goose#julie powers#todd ingram#matthew patel#the twins#robot 01#lbgtq+#kieran culkin#michael cera#mary elizabeth winstead#brie larson#satya bhabha#jason schwartzman#chris evans
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Finished Reading Felix Salten's "Bambi"
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK, IF YOU ARE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ONLY SEEN DISNEY'S ADAPTATION AND NOT HAVE READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL, THIS POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS SO PLEASE BE WARNED.
So I have recently finished reading the Original Book of Bambi after being in such a Cervine mood when re-watching the Disney films for the Past Two Months.
I felt like that when reading a Non-Fairytale Book for the very first time felt like something that I wanted to try on something new to rely on reading some books. Even after taking a brief look at The Russian version of the Source Material, it seems like something from what I knew when watching the Two-Part Movie live action adaptations that Human Ballet Animal version felt a more accurate approach than Disney's version when visiting the book.
For starters, I am not really a big fan of the Upcoming Soulless Disney Remake nor the Upcoming Garbage Horror B Movie (nor would I even want to see it) as I have been in the Bambi Fandom Two Years ago as I've seen that "Half" of the Fandom cares more about Fetishization or Crossovers in General for that Matter (*cough*, *cough*, Stephen King's Carrie, *cough*) while the Side of the Fandom are the ones who have read the Source Material and even done their own interpretations of the Other Characters (most likely the Deer characters) that never been fully adapted and were left out in the Disney universe (with the exception of Geno, Gurri, Boso, and Lana in the Comic Adaptation of "Bambi's Children").
But I really wanna talk about the Original Book version since a lot of People don't really know much about it since whenever we tend to think about "Bambi", most people would only think of the Popular Disney Version (yes, there are others that have seen Other Adaptations as I am aware that there are possibly more Bambi movies out there than both the Soviet and Disney ones).
Without any further, here are some personal plot points in the OG Book that were completely left out or missing (again, major spoilers to anyone who has never read it before);
So the Book actually has a lot more Story Plots than the Movie itself to make it more easier, simpler, and even shorter than how the book handles the story (presumably I believe that's the reason as to why that the Midquel exists for a reason as a suggestion to a "Part 2" of the story). In the meantime, both the Book and the Movie take a huge approach through a Deer's POV of Wildlife (that being Bambi himself) since both versions do teach Kids the Lessons and the Values of Life (how it can be Beautiful in both of a Dark and in a Light way) since Life can take you through many strange places around the world as you go to blend within the feels of reality.
Aside from the fact that the Disney movies has its Supporting Animal Characters, the Book has a lot more Animal Characters that haven't been fully adapted or were just left out (in terms on how that some of them might've been replaced). There's a Hare called "Friend Hare", in the Movie, it's Thumper. There is an Owl in the Book but he's just known as "Screech Owl", yet, in the film, it's "Friend Owl".
The Other Characters from the Book that we've never seen are the Magpie, The Two Jays, The Pheasant Couple, A Squirrel, ect. Did I also mention for a fact that there are actual other Deer characters that were also completely left out with the exception of a few?
The Book however explains that the Stags that we see are actually known as "The Young Princes" with Bambi's Father (which we all know him as "The Great Prince of the Forest")'s actual title is "The Old Stag" (which is more different than what Disney changes his title in the adaptations). On the other hand of the differences of being Titular Ruler of your own Animal Kingdom, while the Movie explains that being a Prince means you'd have to watch over and protect your own People, the Book however does it quite differently that being a Prince of the Forest doesn't mean that you have to be a Watcher but rather, it's something more different as the book explains to gain more wisdom as you grow.
Also, I wanted to say on how funny it is when people tend to ship Bambi/Ronno as crack, when in the book, Ronno was actually a lot older than Bambi as he was actually a Good Guy and hold no hated guts nor was a bully like how you once thought he always was (Aka, in akin on how the film portrays). However, as Bambi and Faline grew, he did challenge Bambi to see on which Buck would be the perfect mate for Faline (similar in nature on how Deer mate in RL) (but I'll get to that point later on). Ronno also had a Partner named "Karus", in which that both Ronno & Karus were actually the Young Princes in the Stag group, being very respectful towards the Animals in the Forest (including Bambi) until when Bambi grew older (again, gonna get to that part very soon).
Aside from the fact that we all know who Bambi's BFFs are in what terms that Disney tries to suggest us of a Bunny and a Skunk, Thumper and Flower were sadly never a thing in the Book as Bambi's friends were mostly Fawns around his age. However, while Friend Hare was turn into Thumper for a reason with Flower being an Original Character for the Film, Faline and Another Deer (who was her Brother), "Gobo" were actually long childhood friends of Bambi as their own Mothers actually have known in each other for a very long time. That's right, you heard Me, in the Original story, Faline had a Brother and that Brother was indeed a Very Friendful Deer (much to his sister's dismay of being more "childlike"). Gobo was actually the only Deer who was captured by the Hunter as a Fawn, but was brought and carefully raised by the Hunter as he grew up living with the Human (believing in the fact that not all Humans are bad since Half of the World that we all live in is filled and invested by Half of the Good/Bad of Humanity as our Neutrality is still running even to this day).
Now, for the Part about their own Mothers, needless to say is that Faline and Gobo's Mother is called "Aunt Ena" (suggesting that somewhere down the line that perhaps Bambi's Mother and Ena are Sisters, making both Bambi, Faline, and Gobo equally as Cousins). Granted, I'm not too sure about the "cousin" part as I am deeply aware of the fact if Salten was trying to do the whole "Blood Relation in Nature of Animals is not Illegal because Animals have No Laws unlike How We Humans have" thing, but I am assuming that Bambi's Mother and Ena are perhaps long-time friends, therefore, it wouldn't specifically make Bambi and Faline cousins if you're one of the few that's gonna think it's too much of nature with incest, but I believe that the relation between the Two Mothers is left completely unexplained in the Book (so I don't think that Bambi and Faline are truly cousins are not as some would suggest that).
On the topic of Bambi and Faline's romance, I will say in the least that like Simba/Nala from "The Lion King", it's sad that we don't get to see enough of Bambi's romance with his love interest (Faline) in the Disney films when technically the book version expands more on their relationship.
They started off as childhood friends (like in the film) but only when do the Two Fawns are in a Trio with Gobo, playing with other Fawns and even having some playful time in the woods. There were also Other Deer such as Old Nettla and even Marena were also part in their lives as they did play an important role in the story (Old Nettla is an elderly figure who doesn't deserve to have fawns of her own while Marena ended up becoming Gobo's Mate until his Death by the Hunter).
Eventually (like in the film), Bambi and Faline do see each other again when they're both Adults when Bambi starts to recognize his childhood friend while instantly being in love with her but unlike in the film, Faline was unaware of Bambi's blossomed crush on her. If Disney wants you to believe that Ronno is the Secondary Antagonist, you might want to re-think again because during Mating Season, Ronno and Karus were also in love with Faline as well as they even challenged Bambi for a duel for Faline's love just in the movie until Bambi eventually wins. Aside from what I believe was cut down from the original story is that (if I do remember correctly) was that Bambi and Faline were on their Mating Night during their Honeymoon.
So to speak on their behalf of their Romance, it was actually a lot more generically more "Lovely" rather than "Cute". Considering that Faline has been described as Playful and Childlike, there always has been a potential for Bambi and Faline to become Lovers given on how that their Chemistry was really sweet and innocent when Faline was like the special one to be friends with a Prince like Bambi as when they met again as adults, Bambi did grew fond of her as the Book clearly states that He loves Her "with all of his Heart". So you can say that in the least that their Dynamic does heavenly work as the "Childhood Friends to Lovers" trope like Christine and Raoul from Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of The Opera".
Anyways, back on Track; I think that we seriously need to take about the Most Important Character of what Most of the Animals fear and see him as "The Devil" would none other be "Man" himself.
Given through the concept of the idea based on what Nature tends to portray Humanity through an Animal's POV, An Animaltaker is a Caring Angel Guardian. A Hunter is a Huge Threat. But what is that Man has in common with both in the Book and in the Film?
While we never get to see on what Man is truly like as a Character, he is only referred by Two Options;
A Regular Hunter whose just doing his own Hunting Job.
The Audience, in which this is what we are aware if our own Kind is the Main Villain of the Story.
The reason as to why I'd bring Man up is because the same thing cannot be said towards this Hunter from the Book (or at least, what he was originally referred to similar in the film).
In the book, Man was actually only referred to as "He" is what most of the Many Animals referred to him in the book. Only then, do "Man" and "He" whom most of the Animals call to is quite similar in how Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" when the Animals simply refer to "Fire" as "The Red Flower".
While Man was probably one of the few Disney Villains that scared a lot of our childhoods, the He in the book was actually describe pretty neutral. Just a regular human hunter just doing his own hunting job.
What's interesting though is that while a Hunter is still the biggest threat to all of the Wildlife, he was actually the one who raised Gobo after when he found him straitened during the Winter time (yeah, compare to the One who burnt down all of the Forest by stupidity, this one on the other hand takes up a caring approach towards an Animal after he tried to shot it), as it turns out, Gobo was actually taken care of through his new life with Man. So there's like this "Conflict" between One whose raised by Humans and the Others who are shocked but are still feared/hated by Men. There's also a part where one of He's hunting Dogs is scolded by the Animals for being one of the domesticated ones to obey their own Human Master, while catching a Fox.
I think we can all agree that this would possibly be the most accurate depiction of Reality of what Half of Nature's Animals could see the Neutral Complex in Humanity whenever we Humans hunt or care for a creature. And how life is up to you to make your own decisions.
As for the plot of the Original Story itself, it's almost the same as the Disney movie, but the Source Material does take its own Nature story in an Individual way while still exploring the Harsh Reality of Nature within how an Animal's Life deals within the Animals themselves. With its many characters and more plot points, the Story is more of a re-telling of a Child's life from both Childhood and Adulthood as half of the Book tends to explore both Bambi's Childhood and Adulthood alike as well as his relationship with his own Parents (something that Disney gave his own Childhood more screen time as we only see Bambi's Adulthood half through the movie, which cuts down the Whole Last Part of his Adulthood). As both endings due have Bambi becoming a Father with the birth of his Children from Faline (Geno & Gurri).
However, the only man difference is how on what Disney is telling you what their own version of how a Great Prince of the Forest is vs. How Salten tells you truly on how being a Ruler of the Forest is like to gain Wisdom in order to gain Power while being Protector of the Forest.
In conclusion, while so far that the Many Changes within Disney's classical film compare to the Other Bunch of Disney Movies (that most of them are drawn from the Old Century Stories that Disney popularize to this day), I would say that Disney's take on Salten's Bambi is the largest of the pop culture today with Most People not knowing the Original Story (in fact, it's sad to say in the least on how that the Popular Adaptation overshadows the Source Material. With the Disney version still taking a Dark approach with a Cutsey Animal feel to it inside of a Mashup, the Book's approach on Nature is much more Accurate and More Realistic without any Adorable "Feel" behind to it.
However, aside from the fact that both Books are Good, does that mean I'll prefer the Book over the Famous Adaptation that is more familiar with? Well...Not really, tbh, in fact, while both can be flawed in their own way, they can actually be both unique in their own way.
So for the Book's Rating, I'd give it a 8/10, because it's still a Good Story compare to the Movie (which is still a Cinematic Masterpiece) IMO.
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Before I dive into this review proper I want to give a heads-up that I am about to get into book spoilers and will be approaching this review with the assumption you've read the source material, which the show also expects.
Likewise, I cannot talk about the show without getting into spoilers, due to the very nature of it. If you want my one piece of spoiler-free advice; think of it as a spin-off. Cause it kinda is. You'll have a much better time in that "What If?/Elseworlds" mindset.
If spoilers are cool with you, let's jump into it.
So, I was pretty much obsessed with the series in 2010. I was about 17/18 when I first got into the series. The 6th book wasn't out yet, and I can't even remember how I got into the series to begin with. But I believe I ordered volume 1 followed by 2-5 as soon as I finished, or maybe I went all in. I know for a fact I preordered vol. 6 when I finished vol 5. Still have the receipt for it; July 18th, 2010. 10.58 total.
I followed the various video updates on the movie, fan art, fell in love with the game, bought a Smashing Pumkins shirt, and the Anamanaguchi soundtrack was even the first digital album I bought for myself. I was basically just at the right age and state of mind for the series to grab me and have a profound effect with its themes. I think it's something I needed at the time.
But as much as the series meant to me, it's something I mostly moved on from. After all, the book ended in 2010, and until recently I probably hadn't reread it since 2013 or so. My books are in remarkable condition, actually. I mostly kept up with O'Malley's other works, and preordered Seconds when that was announced. Sadly haven't been keeping up with Snotgirl as much as I'd like, but I digress.
So when the show got announced… well, honestly my first reaction was "That thing they should've done after the Adult Swim short" Because, yeah, animation is a better medium for it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the 2010 movie- one of the best theater experiences because the like 5 other people in the audience were massive fan girls loving all the bits. And there is a lot to love about the movie: its visual gags; the performances; the music selection; the overall direction- seriously, Edgar Wright doesn't get enough credit for how good he is at keying in on visuals. Dude knows how to translate comic panels and mimic the vibe of the source.
But it lacked the depth of the books. There's no major character arc for Scott and Ramona addressing their flaws. Hell, the books weren't even finished yet. There are a ton of great translations from comic to screen, but mostly the superficial. Moments like Scott's meeting with Knives in the alley showing that he's becoming more empathetic and confronting his mistakes are either absent or glossed over. Likewise, Knives' own journey of maturity isn't there.
This isn't a complaint mind you, it's not like those cuts are unreasonable. I can hardly blame them for not cramming 6 (and incomplete) books into a two hour film. That just ain't gonna happen.
The biggest advantage in a series as opposed to a movie is the opportunity to properly explore the characters beyond a surface level.
I'm not saying anything particularly revolutionary by stating the most universally agreed-upon element from the books is that Scott is a bit of a shit.
However, I think that statement is overly simplifying the situation and the character, one far too often invoked by hack frauds who don't truly engage with the work, because clickbait engagement is more valued than a nuanced analytical one.
I won't sit here unpacking the full 6 volumes, you can check out someone like Popculturebuffet for that. But part of what works so well with Scott is that we don't initially know the extent of his baggage- and rightfully so.
His worst aspect early on is ignorantly getting involved with Knives in the first place, stringing her along even after becoming enamored with Ramona, and being a bit of a slacker. This is something which is pointed out by literally everyone (sans Stephen) as being shitty. But otherwise, he seems fairly average and even endearing in a way. Scott's an affable character that's easy to like in spite of his very major flaws, and that's a statement that remains true throughout.
The reader doesn't even get to simmer much on the scenario with Knives until later- and to some degree, this even applies to Scott himself. He's slightly oblivious to his actions, past and present. A prime example would be that we're initially under the impression that Scott doesn't like to drink, which is mostly true. Mostly.
It's not until volume 6 that it becomes clear he got into a drunken fight with Envy on New Year's, suddenly re-contextualizing that and other events. It doesn't negate how Envy was very much a bitch who treated Scott like complete garbage, cheated on him, and screwed his head up something fierce. She is unequivocally the worse person there. But it adds nuance that wasn't present before.
I focus on the event with Envy because it's sort of a perfect microcosm of Scott as a character. Scott "doesn't" drink because of what happened, except on the 3-4 social occasions over the course of the 6 volumes, showing how he has a habit of just flat-out lying in various ways, including to himself.
He's aware on some level, but simultaneously suppresses that awareness from memory and even re-imagines scenarios outright (Sometimes with a little help, unbeknownst to him) acting like everything was always fine on his end. This is even more true in his prior relationship with Kim.
Scott's solutions are half measures where he can pretend that he was always the victim in a breakup, or at least innocent and free of blame, thus never growing in a meaningful manner. Hell, that's the reason he ended up with Knives in the first place; he was trying to get over Envy, but not in a healthy manner. Change is seen as scary to Scott, and yet it's inevitable. That is, at least due in part to Envy changing into a hateful person.
As such, Scott wants something simple where he doesn't have to put in effort. Knives is naive and doesn't see Scott for the dick that he is, she doesn't ask him to be better because he's already perfect to her naive mind. It's shallow, and a tad messed up, and everyone knows it, including Scott- hence his continued dreams about being alone. He knows it's not, cannot, and never will be serious. He's stupid, but not a monster- but stupidity can be a form of malice if one doesn't change their heart.
It's not exactly like the story is even subtle about this. The entire existence of Nega Scott is that you can't fight the past, you can't run from it even if you hate that part of you. You have to confront it and accept it to move on, hopefully changing for the better. To say nothing of how Gideon is what Scott could become if he never owned up to it.
That angle is why I felt Scott and Ramona worked. Quite frankly, Ramona is just as flawed of an individual running from her past. She's constantly trying to change herself, but always on a surface level. She's afraid of normalcy, of being stuck in a routine, of being happy.
She makes out (Not that much) with her ex, Roxie, in anger because she sees Scott hanging with Lisa Miller and suspects the worst. She (rightfully) gets enraged at how Scott was still with Knives when he and her first went out, thus cheating- yet she did the same with the Katayanagi twins, and possibly Lucas. And, ya know, she never formally handed off the breakup letter to Gideon, so she's kinda doing the same thing Scott did with Knives and her.
Ramona's past is just as checkered as Scott's. She's just as jealous, hypocritical, and nuanced. It just takes longer to realize that because she puts up emotional barriers and isn't the titular character/main focus.
Neither one is evil, but they've wronged people. Often they've been wronged, and sometimes it's not a clean-cut scenario of easily blaming anyone.
For all the great supporting cast, gags, fun references, and so forth, our two main protagonists being flawed yet likable is what makes the series compelling.
The heart is two people gradually learning to get over their selves and their mistakes. To stop running away, and accept their faults and one another. Over the 6 books, we see them (albeit mainly Scott) put in the effort to be better, to build and maintain something special, and not just go with what's simple and easy. It's not about fighting the exes, it's about fighting for each other.
That type of character arc requires time for development.
So, when it comes to this Netflix series, my biggest hope was simply that they would capture that element found within the books.
In the lead-up to the show, there were some rumors about the exes having more to do, and I can see that working. As much as I do think the book does a fine job, Todd and Roxie are the only ones with a decent amount of depth. Matthew works perfectly because his simple backstory is a gag in itself. Lee is a fun character with a tiny bit of backstory, but it's barely there. Gideon I can forgive due to his mysterious final boss nature and his schtick is being the extreme opposite of Scott.
But the Twins? They're shafted pretty hard. They're there to fill out a roster.
Honestly, though, even Roxie would've benefited greatly from the smallest of backstories ala Lucas Lee. She's perhaps the most interesting because she and Ramona are on good enough terms to have coffee together. Hell, Rox genuinely cares for Ramona, and unlike Lucas Lee, she's prominent enough in the story that a simple flashback could have been the cherry on top of all that.
The other part is streamlining story elements. No surprise there. From the get-go, O'Malley said it was not a 1-1 adaptation, and honestly, it shouldn't be. Some parts should be changed for the sake of convenience, and frankly, the book has some superfluous parts. Does anyone even remember Jason Kim? He shows up like twice as "dude with car" and apparently dating Kim Pine until dorking her housemate. That gives the impression of each character having their own life and drama that we're not privy to, which is nice. But it's also not important to include outside the books. Kim (Pine) becoming self-conscious when Envy is brought up, smiling when Scott stays over, or her dead-eyed expression as she lies during the fight with the Twins. All of that says far more about her, her feelings, her love life etc.
Then there's Knives' dad. Fun in the book, wouldn't take him out. But completely unneeded for emotional and narrative development.
Sometimes you gotta look at the source material and realize that even if you like something, tacking on an extra hour for the most obvious whodunit would kill the pacing in an adaptation. (That was a LOTR reference for those playing at home)
However, the above scenarios are a trepidatious path. How does one decide what needs reworking, cutting, or expanding? They're necessary for an adaption, but they're not always obvious. If you're not careful, you can completely undermine or mishandle key elements that made the original so beloved. You risk removing seemingly innocuous moments that add a lot to a character's growth. Above, I mentioned that the Twins got shafted in the book, but there isn't really a good place to expand upon them in the original story. They're not as important as Ramona's growing discontent. It's why Scott's fight with robot 01 is relegated to background gags while we focus on Ramona and Kim. You could put a flashback during the final confrontation with the Twins, but that would muck up the pacing and take away from Kim's far more important character moment in lying to Scott to bolster him. The Twins are just narrative scaffolding holding a spotlight on what we should be focusing on. That's what all the exes are to some extent. Shallow, sure, but only so the other characters get depth.
It's not an easy line to walk. If you push too hard on telling a more original story or focus too much on "correcting" various details, you can negate what were otherwise successful plot points. Do too little and the pacing falls apart because the medium is completely different. Would the changes made still contain a similar level of depth and satisfying character arcs, or would it merely be a shallow reworking of the broadest of strokes? The only way to not lose is not to play.
These are the concerns I had in the lead up to the show, which is fairly routine.
We also weren't getting a lot of information storywise, aside from that it would be mostly doing its own thing (This is something that should have been emphasized more in marketing) The trailers showed familiar set pieces; that Ramona delivers DVDs for Netflix now, which is a great and absurd change; You saw some of the streamlining by having Scott rent Lucas Lee films, thus inadvertently getting a head start on that and cutting out the No Account Video segment; there's a brief original bit where Ramona talks to Julie about how well the date with Scott went. Most of the setting also looked like it was from the first and sixth volumes, which was a tad odd.
But other than that, they were tight lipped about the narrative. Most of the promotional focus was on music, the returning cast, and the animation. All great things unique to this medium that we will get into in due time.
Speaking of, let's finally discuss
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
So you know how Final Fantasy 7 Remake emphasized the "Remake" part? Well, we kinda have that here with the "Take Off" part.
I'll just cut right to the chase. Scott seemingly dies in the fight with Patel in the first episode.
Episode two is his absolutely absurd funeral. Almost the rest of the episode is centered around Patel wanting to take over the league for himself, and succeeding in doing so, gaining all of Gideon's assets, while the league dissolves once they realize Patel didn't even get Ramona back after winning.
This is uh, certainly a direction to go.
Let's put aside not following the source material and this being an original story. Why should I care about this story? I'll concede that he and Gideon have a great fight. The animation from Science Saru is great, and the voice performances are great: Shoutouts to Satya Bhabha, his delivery is impeccable, hilarious, and a major highlight of the show.
But why should I care about these events, this retake? What's the hook?
Thus far, the primary purpose of the show feels like a fake out, gags, and fights. I spent the opening of this review going over the emotional weight of the books, that's the anchor. So far, I'm getting moments without substance. Am I supposed to care because I have a prior connection to these characters? This is something I wouldn't figure out a proper description and answer for until the finale.
My issues also felt exacerbated by both the advertisements not making the original story angle clear, and also how good the first episode starts off. Because Cera as Scott is truly perfect. Cera was a voice actor before transitioning to the screen, and his performance is top-notch in addition to being a great vocal fit to begin with. So it's kinda disappointing to not have him around for quite a bit.
Anyway, the second episode ends with Ramona dreaming and hearing Scott's voice, meaning that Scott isn't dead, he's in Subspace or somewhere.
Episode 3: Ramona Rents a Video.
As if answering one of my questions immediately, the third episode finally gives a hook as Ramona starts playing detective, like Pikachu Columbo. That's the selling point, that this is primarily Ramona's story.
She checks out footage of the Patel fight, showing that someone pulled Scott through a portal (Hence the title of the show, wink-wink.)
Ramona then heads to First Cup to get a person of interest list from Julie- which is a pretty damn funny sequence, actually. I'm starting to enjoy the show at this point, and it's kinda wild how much more enjoyable Julie is in both the movie and show compared to the comics. Sure, she's a bitch, but she's a fun bitch due in no small part to Aubrey Plaza's wonderfully riled vocals.
After getting the necessary info, Ramona is led to Kim since she knew Scott the longest. We even get a cute story about the poorly drawn Sheep Scott did, which looks hilariously WAY worse in the show.
There's also a key comment from Kim that I think is to make a point for dorks like me. Kim mentions that she was once kidnapped by a guy named Simon and rescued by Scott. That was a false memory of Scott's in the books. In vol. 6, Kim pointed out to Scott that Simon was just a dude she went out with like twice, probably hugged, and Scott beat up. This is one of a number of clues that seem to be here to firmly establish this isn't the same continuity as the books being messed with, and should not be thought of as a sequel if that was a concern.
Anyways, their conversation is cut short when Roxie arrives in the hope of rekindling her former flame. But things go south pretty quickly and Roxie's hotheadedness takes over.
What follows is one of the best fights in the show, equal parts funny and clever. Hell, it starts with Rox drawing her sword and accidentally cutting the sprinkler line. It adds a dramatic pseudo rain that's completely negated by Kim's wonderfully deadpan expression as all the damn tapes in the store become soaked.
During the scuffle with Ramona, a shelf of movies falls on the two which… somehow transports them into various movies? I dunno, we're working off video game logic, I guess Gex counts.
It's a sequence that I'm sure was done purely for looking interesting. To its credit, the visual styling is on point. From Japanese historical drama to a post-Matrix early 2000s green filter era, to a scratchy film-grain-heavy WW2 film. The backing track also flows into each film genre. I also love a quick gag where Kim watches the fight on a CRT and fucks around with the rewind and pause feature, allowing Ramona to counter an earlier attack. Roxie gets knocked back into the store, smashes the remote, and gets dragged back into the movies by Ramona. That's great.
As the fight continues, Ramona and Rox begin arguing about their relationship, and we get that flashback sequence! It's a small thing, but they show that Ramona left without a word and how that tore Roxie up. Good lord, someone hug that poor girl, she looks like a sad puppy. In a legit great moment, Ramona has to confront how she treated Roxie, sincerely apologizing for it, which Roxie tearfully accepts it. I gotta say, Mae Whitman really gets to shine in the role more than ever. She's one of those I point to when talking about just how perfect everyone sounds exactly how I'd expect.
After the fight, she hangs out with Ramona and Kim for a bit, being very flirty with both. Kim even smooches her for the hell of it, although both admit there wasn't anything there. But hey, they managed to still get a Bi-curious Kim in here, and in a way that was better than in the books.
Elsewhere, a beat-to-hell Gideon arrives in town, meeting with Julie, an old schoolmate.
I legitimately liked this, there's actual emotional weight going on, there's interesting shit being done, and I'm settling into the show's intent. I like the idea of giving Ramona her own story with a slight focus on how she feels about her past. I think her going out of the way as much as she does for Scott, a dude she just met, is a little flimsy. Again, it's really expecting the audience to care because we, in theory, care about them getting together.
Ep. 4: Whatever.
Things get really fucking meta in this one.
Ruling Roxie out as the kidnapper, who didn't even know Scott was alive, Ramona turns her attention to Lucas Lee, who is starting a new picture in Toronto.
Turns out the movie is from Young Neil's screenplay, which "he" wrote back in ep 3, or rather a mysterious "sleep paralysis demon" he saw did. The movie is about Scott's life if he won the fight with Patel.
This toying with the universe thing is getting a little unsettling.
Most of this episode is one big meta gag about making a Scott Pilgrim movie with Director Edgar Wrong.
I'm not even mad at this, I'm just completely flabbergasted at what the hell I'm seeing. And this will become a reoccurring bit throughout.
Also hope you like gags about Knives' age cause holy shit they reference this a lot throughout the show.
It's at this point in my viewing process I have developed a headache.
To give some credit, Lucas is fun in this episode. He's more in line with the film version, and Evans actually sounds better than ever, likely thanks to age and simply having more to say. And like with Roxie, Lee has a Flashback. There isn't much more than what was in the book, but I think the presentation is better. Seeing Ramona patch him up after a bad fall, and Lucas arranging his Locker (which is filled with photos of Ramona) as she and Todd walk behind him. Man, that stings.
Needless to say, Lee isn't responsible for Scott's disappearance and with the whole "controversy" regarding him dating a 31 year old actress playing a highschooler, he's hounded off the lot and has to be replaced by Todd, which seems to be a reoccurring thing for him.
Ep. 5: Lights. Camera. Sparks?!
I'm now starting to believe this entire show may have been an elaborate troll towards people obsessed with adaptation accuracy to a fault. I almost want to applaud the sheer audacity of it. Suffice it to say, 95% of this episode is done in a documentary style, and there are a lotta hijinks on set. Ramona is working as Envy's stunt double just so she can have easier access to the set and hopefully get a lead from Todd. Wallace also bones Todd. A LOT.
Oh yes, Wallace shacks up with Todd, and Todd is really into it. Wallace, on the other hand, just wanted to hook up with a hot dude, leading to a whole excursion and depressive vegan breaking episode for Todd. Brandon Routh really gets to go full ham here, and it's wonderful.
Some damn funny parts aside, Todd wasn't behind the portal, but it was certainly vegan in nature.
Ramona is otherwise back to Square one until Patel, by happenstance, arrives on the lot to fire everyone.
Afterward, Patel has a brief confluence with Stephen Stills and Knives, who manage to get an in with him. Since Scott's apparent death, Knives has taken his place in Sex-Bob-omb on Bass (and keyboard) making decent music with Stephen Stills. The importance of that will come into play next episode.
Patel then turns his attention to Ramona. Obviously, Patel wouldn't have any reason to keep Scott around, but it's entirely plausible Gideon, or rather his real identity, Gordon Goose, would as part of a revenge scheme.
Ep. 6: WHODIDIT.
This episode starts with probably the best opening gag that I kinda don't wanna ruin despite spoiling everything else. I'm probably gonna be adding "I was gone for 90 %#&! minutes" to my quotes, though.
In any case, this is a fairly straightforward episode. Ramona interviews Julie once again, but it becomes clear that Gideon, Goose, has neither the mental state nor resources to pull something like that off. As an aside, we get a flashback with him as well, showing that he was the school nerd. He supposedly had no fear (No pain) until he aimed well above his status in asking a girl out, leading to him being laughed out of school, which Julie remembers all too well.
It seems like another dead-end, but when Ramona accompanies Julie back to her house, they both see a familiar Robot, the Twins' 01 Robot, which has been making very unsubtle appearances in every episode up to this point; Lee's place; outside the video store; the studio lot, etc.
We also have a B-plot with Stephen Stills and Knives making music for a stage adaption of Neil's Screenplay so it doesn't go to waste.
Cute.
It's here where it becomes known that Neil didn't write the script, and upon checking the original file, realize something is off and that Ramona should be informed.
All parties gather in Ramona's apartment as she goes over the pertinent information in whodidit (dunit?) fashion, including treating us to another flashback, this time with the twins. It's probably the least engaging of the flashbacks, honestly. Even in this, they get shafted. Regardless, the who and how are solved. But Not the why or where. Where Scott is remains a mystery, but it's likely the Twins know, which is where Ramona intends to check out.
Oh, and the information the gang has about Neil's Script? The metadata says it was written 14 years from now.
But just as more questions are raised, another winds up on Ramona's doorstep; Scott, safe and mostly sound.
The Twins were in fact behind it, and the robot, and… himself.
Ep. 7: 2 Scott 2 Pilgrim.
Yes, the one who pulled Scott out of Time was himself, from the future; a 37 year old Scott. The how is rather simple and already answered; the Katayanagi twins. Older Scott and them became friends in the future, even starting a band; Pop'n TwinBee (RIP Shatterband.)
By the way, if you ever wanted to hear Will Forte sing a hilariously bad cover of Konya Wa Hurricane from Bubblegum Crisis as an older Scott Pilgrim, this is the show for you. I was laughing my ass off at this.
Anyway, the robot was disconnected from a fixed time stream, and being a vegan cause, ya know, robot, is able to create portals. Therefore Time portals.
As to the why, Scott showed his past self using a virtual reality machine on the Virtual Guuy[sic], complete with red and black pixel art mimicking the style of the game. Past Scott sees memories on the not Virtual Boy; Defeating the Evil Exes, future marriage to Ramona, their honey moon at Universal… and divorce. Well, technically they're just separated after 13 odd years of marriage. Older Scott has since been living with Wallace and his husband.
Exactly what happened is never stated, just that the pain was so much Scott decided to follow through on a sarcastic comment from Wallace and prevent falling for Ramona in the first place.
Old Wallace sums up the mental state of Old Scott to regular Scott, describing it as "Like after Envy, times ten." Which uh, yeah, no wonder Older Scott's a tad kooky.
It's at this point I have to bring up personal stuff, and it's something that I thought I might have to. So, when Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour dropped in 2010, I distinctly remember reading an interview with O'Malley about the ending. In the lead-up to the final book there was a lot of speculation from fans that maybe Scott and Ramona wouldn't end up together (there was a strong case to be made for Kim) maybe it would end badly since both Scott and Ramona have their struggles. Some people even thought he would end up with Knives, which is missing the entire point of her character arc, and also fuck no.
Ultimately we got the ending we did because, at the time, O'Malley was happy, so he thought Scott should be happy. But O'Malley divorced in 2014.
I dislike bringing that up, but that was leading me to speculate (and brace myself) if that would have an impact here. I mean, how could it not? And look, there is a good argument that Scott and Ramona needn't stay together for their journey together to be satisfying. It would fit right in line with the theme that things don't always stay the same. People can grow apart, even the important ones that change your life. I don't like that outcome, but it's not as if it's wrong to consider. Particularly for a story like this.
But I also think there's an element of overt cynicism to that. What's interesting is that the show doesn't go in that direction. In fact, it's actually insistent that Ramona and Scott can't help but be drawn to one another, there's a spark there.
We even get a scene of Scott hooking up the 01 robot to the VR, and since 01 is connected across time, he can see into the past versions. The robot seen throughout the show was Scott seeing that Ramona was constantly looking for him, and that's genuinely sweet.
Still, the situation is bad, as Scott is trapped in the future and can't use the Robot to travel for reason.
On Young Scott's insistence, he and Older Wallace meet up with Older Ramona, discovering she was the one who went back in time and wrote Young Neil's Screenplay in a failed attempt to preserve their story and hopefully thwart Older Scott. (Let's not go crossed-eyed thinking too hard about paradoxes)
He's a misguided idiot, but Ramona still loves the moron, even if she has her doubts after her failed plan. But Scott's words of encouragement about his Ramona never giving up on him gives her hope.
Importantly, she can time travel with her DeLorean roller blades, which is how Scott can and did get back to the past.
But even after Scott's return and reunion, their problems aren't over, as a force field prevents Ramona and Scott from kissing. Someone is still interfering, and the list of who might as well just be the entire list of exes.
Thankfully, Stephen Stills and Knives have a convenient plan: The stage musical is going to have all the exes in attendance, so they've got one big gathering spot to get to the bottom of this.
This is one of my favorite episodes of the show. It's cool seeing older versions of the characters, and frankly, the presentation is just great. I do think that too much of that emotional weight is relying on events from the books for your investment. I know, I know. Can't enjoy a good thing without a critique.
Still, this is a great episode, one of my favorites along with ep. 3, and our next and final episode.
Oh, and the end credits has a proper rendition of Konya Wa Hurricane, so that's fucking cool.
Ep. 8: The World Vs Scott Pilgrim.
So here we are at the big finale at the premiere of the Scott Pilgrim Musical.
The thing is, none of the exes seem to be suspect. Gideon is the only one with ulterior motives, but they're not towards Scott and Ramona, he just wants to blow up the stage and Matthew Patel.
But not long after everyone is seated something goes awry. A portal appears and transports all the exes and Scott's friend group (And also Julie and the robot) to a barren land.
The one behind this, and the force field, was an Even Older and very buff Scott (47) He slipped past Scott nano machines as a backup to prevent him from ever getting close to Ramona, but even that wasn't enough. So for 10 years he trained to take everyone out, as it's the only way to be sure.
And so our final battle begins: The World vs. Scott Pilgrim.
If you listen closely to the track during this scene "Big Bad" incorporates elements of "The Dark One" Nega Scott's theme from the game. That's a nice touch.
Even Older Scott is no pushover, he breaks Ramona's Hammer, and despite a fairly good comeback from regular Scott, he beats him pretty bad. The others come to his aid, Knives attacking with daggers, but Even Older Scott punches Knives so hard he knocks the highlights our of her hair.
Ramona begins handing out items from her bag, cyber broccoli for Todd, a cyber skateboard for Lucas, and a cyber sword for Roxie, just as the sub boss music from the game kicks in. Along with Matthew's mystic arts, they mange to actually lay into Even Older Scott, but that only causes him… to go… even further beyond, and One hit KO the four.
The Twins Robot is ineffectual and even Gideon's not quite the glow-douken has no effect. Even Older Scott just grabs it and turns it against Stephen, Knives, Kim, and Neil.
This. This is actually fucking awesome. It's going full Shonen ham.
We're down to just Ramona and Scott, who team up and hit him together, followed by Scott and Even Older Scott literally butting heads. We get our obligatory speech between a younger Scott just wanting to live his life, and Even Older Scott saying he'll just end up where he's at if he does.
And it finally clicked into place what the hell Scott Pilgrim Takes Off actually is. This is like a Shonen spin off story. Your Broly Trilogy, Hunter X Hunter The Last Mission, Naruto Blood Mission. But with an X-men time travel plot slapped on.
It's an excuse to play around and do different (mostly cool) shit with a set of familiar characters.
Like a movie or OVA, the characterization isn't as deep as the main source material. It banks on you giving a damn because of the familiarity so they can mostly get right to the cool bits and not try as hard or waste time on the re-interpretative parts. Don't think too hard about the misgivings, think about Akuma Scott beating the shit out of everyone while the familiar music you're nostalgic for plays.
And goddamn that's frustrating because that's what they should've led with. All the damn trailers were dancing around the new material and making it seem like an adaptation. To keep on the Anime brand, if people are expecting a "Brotherhood" or "Ultimate" version with a Cast they like, and then they don't get that… well yeah that's not gonna go over well. I can't fault anyone for being mad about that. That's having the rug pulled out from under you.
But once you realize what this is, and what it's doing, it's a lot easier to enjoy and be its own thing. It branches off a similar story to the books, but it's not like this is a canonical revision or sequel to them.
That said, just because it's "less developed" doesn't mean this is without heartfelt moments I enjoy. When it seems like Even Older Scott has the upper hand, an even older Ramona shows up to chew old Scott out for not even texting in 10 years, fighting people in the past rather than fighting for them, all because of one rough patch.
It's funny, but it also confirms the biggest divergence. This is a world where Scott was never kicked out during the Roxie chapter, a world without Gideon's "Glow" mental manipulation, and presumably Scott never faced his inner demons because of it. This also means Ramona didn't run off after the twins' defeat because the glow wasn't affecting her mentality, and thus she faced her own. That one line snowballs into a lot of stuff not happening for their character growth.
That- that is an interesting concept.
This all leads to a poignant scene where Ramona questions her older self if she should even bother. What's the point if it ends up like this? Maybe it's best to just keep moving.
But, that's also Ramona's thing, isn't it? Running away from what she loves, which is presumably (along with his own stupidity) what set Older Scott down a spiral in the first place. In a scene that parallels Scott's own understanding within the books, Ramona comes to realize she's ran all her life.
In the end, Ramona chooses to stop running and embrace herself, quite literally.
Both Ramona's combining into, as Scott puts it "Super Ramona" Able to see the situation for what it is, one Scott still in many ways a dumb kid, the other Scott just a sad mess. She simply sends Older Scott back to his time with the hope he'll straighten out. Meanwhile, the nano machines are still a problem with current Scott. But that's nothing a super form can't overload with a determined kiss. Daww.
Before things go back to normal and because she'll have trouble saying it later, she tells Scott she loves him, and that she tends to run away from what she loves. But who she was in the past isn't who she is now. She just needs help remembering that.
Everyone returns to the theater to enjoy the rest of the musical, and Patel's demon girls subvert Gideon's plans. After the show, he and Julie are apprehended, but Matthew instead begs Gideon to take all his crap back. He has no idea how to run a company, is stressed out, and has lost billions. All Matthew wants is to continue the stage show.
We then get an epilogue. Lucas Lee takes up a job at Second First Cup; Todd has returned to being a Vegan with coaching from Roxie; The rental store Kim worked at closes down; Wallace takes a vacation to Paris where he meets Mobile; Knives continues performing with Sex-Bob-Omb as their keyboardist; Ramona gives up delivery work and instead returns to being a stunt double.
We end on Ramona coloring her hair once again, before heading out and meeting with Scott and the others, as Plumtree's Scott Pilgrim plays us off.
Only for a mid-credits scene to show Gideon and Julie plotting revenge. Oooo.
And that is Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
s'allright, innit? Okay, joking aside- I think I'm gonna have a hard time conveying my feelings on this one. But I still have three more things to talk about before we get to my final thoughts.
First off, the voice acting is great, shockingly great. I'm a person who is very much of the mindset that you should hire voice actors for voice roles BUT, in this instance, I can understand why. It's incredible they got everyone back and how well they work. I've already given my praise to Cera, Bhabha, Plaza, Whitman, Routh, and Evans in the story portion of this review. But I'm drastically overdue to talk about Winstead's performance. I think this was the one people were most curious about because in the movie there was this aura of Ramona feeling more "cold" in her personality. This was due to the original direction they wanted to take that version, and sadly it meant we didn't quite get a more angles. Here? Yeah, this is pretty great. We hear Ramona full of regret, angry, annoyed, sentimental. It's a much more well-rounded version. My one nitpick is Winstead needs to work on her battle cries, it really stands out in the Roxie fight opposite a veteran VA like Whitman. But otherwise, this is how I imagine Ramona sounding.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up how anytime Ramona has a vulnerable moment talking about Scott, she genuinely sounds smitten. The Future Ramona (the first one) in particular stands out to me. That's a version of the character that's older, clearly hurt, and weary, but still very much in love.
I can't help imagining that being applied to scenes from the book. In Vol. 5 the part after The Twins are defeated and Scott returns. That scene always tears me apart when I read it. I'm fairly certain if I heard Cera and Winstead's performance of that it would rip my soul out. So maybe it's best we only have this original story.
So yeah, I'm happy to see that she fits right into the role better than ever.
Another performance I've yet to mention is Ellen Wong, who is just as perfectly energetic as she was in the film. It's a shame we don't get to hear her do a somber Knives in this setting, but it's hard to complain with how pleasant it is hearing her chipper over the top excitement.
Alison Pill's Kim Pine is as sardonic as always, and much like Routh and Evans, I think she's even better now.
Johnny Simmon sounds exactly the same, no complaints, 10/10.
Jason Schwartzman is an experienced VA, so no surprise he sounds fine. He doesn't get to stretch out much since Gideon isn't super prominent here. Although episode 6 did show a lot of range and potential for what you could do with him. Maybe next season?
Similarly Brie Larson's Envy doesn't have a whole lot of screen time, but she's equal parts charming and manipulative. Honestly, for a small as the role is, it made me realize just how much Larson is good at the role and how that level of emotion is often subdued in roles elsewhere.
Honestly, I hate to say it, but Mark Webber's Stephen Stills is probably one of the weaker performances on the show. It's not even that it's bad, it's fine and works- except for the animation. That's the one caveat. There are a couple of moments where Stephen Stills is pantomiming, and the voice doesn't match that energy. Truth be told, I even sorta have a similar issue with Kieran Culkin's Wallace, which I swear looks like the syncing was off in the earlier episodes. The saving grace is that Wallace has more scenes than Stephen Stills and therefore Culkin got more opportunities. This is sorta the area I mean when I think it's best to get trained VA. It's a completely different medium and hard to jump into immediately.
I don't wanna end this segment on a downer, so I'll once again mention Will Forte sings Like a Hurricane. OH, Segue.
Soundtrack
So I did not know what to expect going into this. I mean, I was a fan of Anamanaguchi, but I hadn't kept up since Endless Fantasy, sans the Miku single- which is really good by the way. And Joseph Trapanese I was most familiar with from his collaboration with Daft Punk on Tron Legacy, so no worries there.
But I did wonder how well a chiptune heavy sound would work. As much as I dig it, it's a very upbeat vibe. Even some of Anamanaguchi's more dramatic tracks have a charming bubbliness to them. How would that work within a series? Well, the short answer is they don't have as much chiptune going on as you would assume. There are a few that incorporate chiptunes to a limited degree, others a bit more, but most not at all.
The vast majority of the OST is more traditional fair and Synthwave, and in a way, it sorta mimics my own evolving tastes. I still listen to Chiptune stuff, but I'm also really big into synth music nowadays. It feels like a proper bookend to my late-teens early twenties listening to Anamanaguchi, and later Dance with the Dead and Midnight Danger, and now Anamanaguchi's synth offerings.
One of the tracks, Yet Another Winter Again (Calling back to the first stage in The Game) has a Redbook audio sound with a hint of Chiptune, but not the NES/GB Anamanaguchi is known for. It sounds like a SNES. In fact, I would compare the track to something you'd hear in VA-11 Hall-A. So even when there are chiptunes, we're branching out quite a bit in both sound fonts and style.
Of course, there are a couple of vocal tracks as well. Like the movie, there are universe songs for Sex-Bob-Omb. They have a unrefined roughness to them, which is perfect for a small unprofessional indie band.
As for some of my favorite tracks, the aforementioned Yet Another Winter Again; He's You; And They were Roommates; Blame it on the Goose; Big Bad; Bad Guys; Knives & Kim; and God Only Knows.
I'm sure that'll change as time goes on. I'm really digging Lucas' flashback music, and Fond Memories, nice parallel between those two. In fact there's quite a few pieces that, in tandem with the animation, do a lot to sell those heartwarming (or wrenching) moments.
Animation.
Oh right, the animation. So, if you read my Castlevania Nocturne review, you know I went on a slight tangent about how I think it's silly that they labeled it an anime despite it being produced and partly animated in goddamn Texas. It was just a label because they're embarrassed to call their super serious animation what it is because they think anime sounds more mature. I swear some people still think it's 1985 and Vampire Hunter D is the wildest shit cause blood.
Funny thing about Scott Pilgrim though, it's just straight-up animated by Science Saru. I'm not here to get into semantics, because then we'll be asking if Batman TAS counts because Sunrise. I just find it funny. At the very least Takes Off certainly fits the bill more than Nocturne does.
But back on topic, it's fucking good. I mean, I don't think that comes as any surprise. Science Saru has made a name for doing really impressive work from Devilman Crybaby, to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and the shorts Akakiri and T0-B1 for Star Wars Visions. Not to mention supplemental work for the Garo anime, OK-KO, and Adventure Time.
So Scott Pilgrim is perfectly in their wheelhouse, and they do an incredible job capturing O'Malley's illustrations while adding their own unique flare to the styling.
Sadly Tumblr's gif size limit means I can't easily showcase some of the fights as much as I'd like, but suffice it to say the level of fluidity and cinematography is astonishing. Again, episode 3 is an amazing showcase in itself.
To say nothing of how expressive everyone is in the show.
Also this is a weird one, but I think with the exception to episodes 5 & 7, each episode has Ramona going through a bleaching and dye routine. It is bizarrely satisfying to watch, like the tea making in Samurai Jack.
Final Thoughts.
Takes Off was both a confusing shock and a pleasant surprise upon first viewing. It's impressive in its existence, and has moments that I fucking love. Like the Shonen it emulates, it does also come off as a tad superfluous or melodramatic in many respects. But it is fun to bust out old toys and play with them again. The fact that in 2023 I'm seeing a new work related to Scott Pilgrim is fucking incredible. I'm happy that this exists, I'm happy to hear the cast together again, and happy to hear some great music tracks.
And I do love the characters of Scott Pilgrim, I love the performances in this show, I love numerous parts of this show. But, I also think it's fair to say what I love most aren't these characters. And that's okay. Those characters should remain in the series that ended in 2010, while these are easily malleable versions for an animated series to have fun with. Maybe you could never capture or replicate the exact magic of the books again, so it's better to just do your own thing. Takes Off was, in the end, a fun time that I think works best when you know what you're getting into. Once you're armed with that knowledge, I think you'll find a show much easier to appreciate.
All that said, as backhanded as this is going to seem, I still think the nicest thing that Takes Off did was get me to re-read the book series for this review. I got to re-examine a profound series from the perspective of a 31 year old, but still find all that I originally loved as a 17 year old. When it comes to adaptive works, no matter what, the nice thing is you'll always have the originals to go back to. You change, maybe your tastes change, and certain things hit differently or don't hold up when you go back. But it's nice to revisit. I think nostalgia can be a poison. Too many people get caught up in wanting to relive the exact moment, to be trapped. But I think it's more fun to see something you love still remain a love even after so much time has passed. I'm happy with how I felt as a teenager reading a story about emotional growth. Some personally, some apart, and others closer. In my 30s, I still appreciate that, and it still affects me and resonates.
But just because I cherish that above all else doesn't mean I wouldn't be interested in more Scott Pilgrim. And if O'Malley and Grabinski wanna make more people sing 80s anime songs badly, I'll be on board for that alone.
Or Roxie flirting with every woman. Seriously, she's so much fun.
As always, thanks for reading. Reblogs are appreciated and you can find me elsewhere on the worldwideweb at:
Bsky
Ko-Fi
So does Gideon still have his exes frozen somewhere, or is that another difference?
Oh, and now that we have a Netflix Series, can we get a Nendoroid Ramona? There's been like no high end merch since Mondo in 2017.
#scott pilgrim#scott pilgrim takes off#netflix#bryan lee o'malley#edgar wright#bendavid grabinski#science saru#anime#animated
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Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 17: Watchers and Hunters
People who haven't finished reading The Wheel of Time yet: See how that guy in the picture doesn't have eyes? That's how he's protecting himself from the spoilers in this post. How are you protecting yourself? Is it by leaving now while you still have the chance? Is it by blocking the tags so you can't even see this post? Whatever it is, don't blame me if it doesn't work. I gave you every chance to escape, which is more than the guy in the picture can say!
This chapter begins with another icon of the Dragon's Fang. Since Rand doesn't channel or do much particularly this chapter (he's POV as usual but that's just book 1 for you), it's probably about the Fade's trying to claim him for being the DR and the Whitecloaks' general atmosphere of suspicion, because - and I cannot emphasize this enough - they are not good people; the exact sort to mark doors with Dragon's Fangs if they thought it would hurt those they wanted hurt.
. . . To the eight corners of the world, the Hunters ride, to the eight pillars of heaven, where the winds of time blow and fate seizes the mighty and the small alike by the forelock.
Another reference to eight corners of the world, which I don't think come up much if ever after this, let alone in later books. Now we've got pillars of heaven, which imply that the western people of this day envision a flat world with a vaulted sky held up by immense supports at the boundary. This is rather intriguing, especially when you consider that virtually no other major cultural group at this point could have the same confusion: the Seanchan would know that the constellations are not constant over their empire, the Sea Folk would know that islands rise up out of the horizon as they sail, the Aiel have time differences figured out because of T'A'R, and the Sharans have the stability to have figured it out the Eratosthenes fashion. I also wonder when exactly they did lose the knowledge and how absolute it is - do the Aes Sedai and others with access to ancient libraries know the truth and just don't bother to correct the commonfolk?
The three young men from Emond’s Field began clapping their hands with the first note of “The Wind That Shakes the Willow,” and they were not the only ones.
You too can hear this song, as it's been defictionalized! Check it out maybe?
The only unsmiling face he saw was on a man huddled by one of the fireplaces, and that fellow had a scar that crossed his whole face from one temple to the opposite jaw, giving his nose a slant and drawing the corner of his mouth down. The man met his gaze and grimaced, and Rand looked away in embarrassment. Maybe with that scar the fellow could not smile.
Rand's efforts to be kind to the disfigured are a wee bit undercut by the fact that the disfigured dude is evil. (See the upcoming stuff on Shadar Logoth if you are a Wheel of Time fan who has missed out on the understanding that present day Whitecloaks are universally evil.)
He had only a moment to gather himself before they changed again, and he found himself dancing with Moiraine. If he had thought he was stumble-footed with the Wisdom, it was nothing to how he felt with the Aes Sedai. She glided across the floor smoothly, her gown swirling about her; he almost fell twice. She gave him a sympathetic smile, which made it worse rather than helping. It was a relief to go to his next partner in the pattern, even if it was Egwene.
Note that unlike Mat and Perrin, Rand dances with all three women in the party here: the maiden who disapproves of him, the mother figure struggling with her political power, and the crone who knows his fate. Deliberate foreshadowing, or proof of the human mind's ability to match patterns in anything presented to it?
“I wonder,” Rand said thoughtfully, “what the Women’s Circle would say about the Wisdom dancing? Maybe that’s why.”
Also note that Rand is again understanding politics at a far greater level than his peers. Good thing it's not Perrin who... ends up... oh. Oh dear.
He danced with Egwene again, too; she stared at him, dark-eyed and always seeming on the point of speaking, but never saying a word. He was just as silent as she, but he was sure he did not scowl at her, no matter what Mat said when he returned to the bench.
The problem is that Rand is displacing his frustrations incredibly hard. He wants all of this nonsense to be over, to go to Tar Valon, have the Amyrlin pull a solution to their problems out of her stole, and be sent back home, same as it ever was. Egwene hoping to leave shatters this delusion and forces him to consider that things wouldn't be the same back home after everything that's happened even if he did get to go back. Since he can't vent his frustrations at the Trollocs and he's smart enough not to try to vent at Moiraine, Egwene is the next best thing for him, so he's glaring at her like she personally stabbed his dad and burned down Mat's house.
Meanwhile, I don't think Egwene is really internalizing the whole "the Shadow is specifically after three random country boys from the assend of nowhere" (frankly I don't think she really believes it at all but Moiraine said it to her so it would be hard to fully deny). To her, it's an exciting adventure and Rand's problem must clearly be that he thought she'd be the dutiful girlfriend waiting for him back home and he's just upset about their relationship that never really was being over. This is why I think she would be ready to try and be the one to patch things up during these dances - she's completely misunderstood what's going on with Rand's pettiness and hopes that he can at least be persuaded to not leave things on so shitty a note - and why she's just stunned into silence because she's expecting mournful ex-boyfriend and getting way more intensity than she's able to deal with. It's probably for the best; if she did start up along the lines I think she'd be going for the two would probably end up fighting even more.
“There’s a fellow been staring at me,” Mat said. “A man with a scar across his face. You don’t think he could be a . . . one of the friends you warned us about?”
Honestly it's a little impressive the Whitecloaks even realized that Mat specifically did it when he made such a clean-seeming getaway. Not like the dude glared at Perrin.
“She has a bed,” Thom said dryly, “in with Mistress Alys and the girl.” Perrin whistled between his teeth, and Mat muttered, “Blood and ashes! I wouldn’t be in Egwene’s shoes for all the gold in Caemlyn!”
Not for the first time, Rand wished Mat could think seriously about something for more than two minutes. Their own shoes were not very comfortable right then.
It's a bit to Rand's credit that he doesn't think Egwene's deserving what she's getting for running away from home, since he wouldn't even be wrong to think so. Incredibly petty, and not fully right, but not entirely wrong.
A man’s face, but pasty white, like a slug under a rock, and eyeless. From oily black hair to puffy cheeks was as smooth as an eggshell. Rand choked, spraying milk.
So Rand's first chapter Fade sense isn't entirely online here, while Lan at least thinks that something is wrong before they part. I wonder if he could only notice the Fade from before because it was watching him specifically, while now since it's not focused on him until they cross paths and he's only just sparking he doesn't have a clue.
Lan leaped down the last stairs, landing with a crash, sword in hand.
Lan's a horrible life coach, but he's one hell of a bodyguard.
“You must take this seriously,” Moiraine was telling the innkeeper. “You will certainly have trouble here by morning. Darkfriends, perhaps; perhaps worse. When it comes, quickly make it clear that we are gone. Offer no resistance. Just let whoever it is know that we left in the night, and they should bother you no further. It is us they are after.”
Poor Moiraine, even when she tries to look out for the people caught in their wake, her advice comes to naught. She's really trying here, and if she was as political and calculating as she's been trained to be she'd be totally fine with Fitch covering for them and possibly dying for it. Certainly the inn is no more of a loss in those terms than the ferry.
“You think Trollocs might come here hunting for us?” Mat asked.
“Trollocs!” Moiraine snapped. “Of course not! There are other things to fear, not the least of which is how we were found.”
Moiraine: Officially Sick of Mat's Shit
And he hasn't even stolen any daggers yet.
Nynaeve shrugged her cloak against the wind as they left the inn. “Perhaps there is something after you. But I came to see you safely back in Emond’s Field, all of you, and I will not leave till that is done. I won’t leave you alone with her sort.” Lights moved in the stables where the ostlers were saddling the horses.
She won't see any of them safely back in Emond's Field, let alone all of them. Perrin goes back on his own, the rest don't. True to her word though, she doesn't leave - and she doesn't leave Rand alone with her sort, even when she becomes an Aes Sedai herself.
“Egwene,” he said, “I’m sorry. I can’t seem to think straight anymore.”
She leaned down to grip his hand hard. In the light from the stable he could see her face clearly. She did not look as frightened as she had.
This is one definitely useful thing that Min's visions did. The thing that finally gets Rand to stop being stubborn is her saying that Egwene's part of the team, so he accepts it and the two of them come to terms just in time: the party's about to be separated soon and there won't be time to make amends until the end of the book after that!
“No one to come in, but nothing about leaving,” Moiraine said as if that settled the matter. “You see? We are not asking you to disobey the Governor.”
And look at that, absolutely no lawbreaking happening here.
“The Children of the Light,” the white-cloaked man who had first spoken said softly, “hold sway wherever men walk in the Light. Only where the Shadow of the Dark One reigns are the Children denied, yes?” He swung his hood from the Watchman to Lan, then suddenly gave the Warder a second, more wary, look.
And this of course, is complete bullshit. Who died and put the Whitecloaks in charge? It sure as fuck wasn't Lews, he didn't put anything in charge except lava. Let's see the Whitecloaks overpower some lava, and then maybe we can talk about who should succeed their extraordinarily short reigns and what kind of desserts we'd like at the memorial service.
The only thing I can say in their favor is that they're afraid of Lan, which they should be, because if he extra-judicially killed their asses right now it would be a crime but not a tragedy.
“Clearly, Watchman, I have saved you from a great disaster. These are Darkfriends you were about to help escape from the Light. You should be reported to your Governor for discipline, or perhaps given to the Questioners to discover your true intent this night.” He paused, eyeing the Watchman’s fear; it seemed to have no effect on him. “You would not wish that, no? Instead, I will take these ruffians to our camp, that they may be questioned in the Light—instead of you, yes?”
It's also hilarious that any so-called Wheel of Time fan would argue that Moiraine and Lan are wrong for trying to leave town at night but that the Whitecloaks are justified in leaving town at night to torture them, but I have seen it happen with my own eyes and it's disturbing. Even more disturbing is that this supposedly literate person thinks that the Questioners aren't horrific torturers when it's an actual threat the Whitecloaks employ against those who get in their way.
Moiraine’s shadowed shape towered high over the log palisade, head and shoulders a deeper darkness against the night sky, surrounded by a silver nimbus from the hidden moon. As he watched, mouth hanging open, the Aes Sedai stepped over the wall. The gates began swinging shut frantically.
A lot of people think this is hella early book weirdness with Moiraine actually making herself big and then small again, but to be very clear she just made it look like she was big and then stepped through the open gate. At the scale she was projecting, it seemed like she'd stepped over the wall. Note that when Egwene talks about it, Moiraine cannot explicitly confirm it.
“If they have attacked the inn,” Moiraine said, “perhaps our exit from the town and my . . . display went unnoticed.”
“Unless that’s what the Myrddraal wants us to think,” Lan added.
Moiraine nodded in the darkness. “Perhaps. In any case, we must press on. There will be little rest for anyone tonight.”
I never find this kind of worrying very productive. The Fades might well have noticed you leaving and burned down the inn in a hissy fit that they'd wasted their time being there at all. The Whitecloaks could have burned it down while the Fades have no clue of anything (for some reason this is what the wiki thinks). Best to only assume that Fitch is paying the price for his helping and to not try to guess a narrative that you will probably never understand.
“I would do something,” Nynaeve muttered unwillingly.
“And in all probability hand the Dark One his victory,” Moiraine replied.
I do so love a good debate between deontology and utilitarianism. Moiraine, not being a protagonist, naturally takes the utilitarian argument, while Nynaeve holds the traditional ground of heroes but is powerless to do anything because we're much too early in her arc for that. Her refusal to accept that she can't win them all will lead her to a lot of victories.
“I thought we were safe, you know, Rand. Not a sign of anything since we crossed the Taren, and there we were in a city, with walls around us. I thought we were safe. And then that dream. And a Fade. Are we ever going to be safe again?”
Sorry Mat, but Rand is going to keep leaving reviews on Yelp for every inn you stay at, so you are never going to be safe again. That's literally the only reason you weren't safe. Shitty dreams suck but aren't a real danger, shitty secret keepers who tell Fain your address will ruin everything.
Perrin spoke quietly. “She should have done something.”
Maybe she could have sold two hundred people into slavery!
Unlike Nynaeve, Perrin will come to love utilitarianism when it comes to achieving his goals, and his goals will all be shit. But we'll get there, right now he's doing what he's told and that's a perfectly good goal.
All except Lan, that is. He ate, but he was not bleary-eyed, and he did not huddle. He had changed back into his shifting cloak, and it whipped around him, fluttering through grays and greens, and the only mind he paid it was to keep it clear of his sword-arm. His face remained without expression, but his eyes searched constantly, as if he expected an ambush any moment.
Bluntly speaking, he does expect an ambush at any moment and he's right to be worried. Rand is silly for thinking in terms of "as if".
Still though, compared to the Blight, this shitty winter day is way easier to deal with. Also, the Warders' tactical camo capes will never not make me laugh. It's really a good thing they didn't put it in the show.
But that's another chapter, and unlike Lan, I'm dealing with a shitty summer night, filled with heat and smoke. Thanks for reading, see you next time as the party takes the Caemlyn Road and gets to... not Caemlyn, that's for damn sure! What book series did you think you were reading where heroes just get somewhere without spending fifteen chapters on the way?
#let's read#wheel of time#wot#robert jordan#wheel of time spoilers#wot spoilers#rand al'thor#thom merrilin#perrin aybara#mat cauthon#nynaeve al'meara#moiraine damodred#egwene al'vere#lan mandragoran#dain bornhald
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Make it Right 2
I have so many thoughts and feelings about this show that I'm struggling to decide where to start. I guess the best place is my overall impressions, which haven't changed since I finished the first series: I LOVE THIS SHOW AND I WILL DEFEND THESE CHARACTERS TO ANYONE. Fight me!
Now real talk, does this show have high production quality, smart writing and plotting, sharp editing, scene construction, and overall narrative consistency and coherence? No, it does not. It has none of those things, and a lot of them have gotten markedly worse from the first season. But all that barely phased me because the characters just hooked themselves right into my heart and wouldn't let go. This show is very very messy, but in the most lovable way ("LIKE GAY PEOPLE" - @bengiyo).
There were three main storylines that I was invested in for this second season. I will talk about them in order of least to most emotional investment. @waitmyturtles @wen-kexing-apologist @manogirl tagging you to come back to this later after you finish your watches because I want to talk about ALL OF THIS. For anyone reading - major spoilers from here on out!!
Yok & Lukmo
Boy, I did not expect this romance, and I really liked it. Which came as a surprise, because I did not care much about Mo in the first series. I was more invested in Yok, but in season 1 he felt kind of removed from everyone else, which was of course by design. He felt apart from the other boys because he is different. And it was just really really lovely to see a femme gay character get to embrace who he is and be loved for it. I like that he was wary of Mo and tested him for awhile before he let him in, and that Mo did waver a bit when he was first challenged on whether he really was okay being in a gay relationship. That felt authentic to me, and only made it feel more solid when they came back together with Mo more confident in what he wanted. I also liked that in the end Yok's mom stepped up to take her kid's side and express her acceptance of who he is and his relationship - it was very sweet.
I do have to deduct some points here for that very tonally bizarre sex scene that got tacked on to the end of their story. The way that scene was directed, shot, and edited just didn't feel in line with their dynamic at all, and I spent most of it thinking we were in some kind of weird dream sequence. I did find it amusing though that these two were better with physical intimacy in their one scene than the leads ever managed across two full seasons.
Frame & Book
My beloveds!! They were my favorite part of season 1, and I still loved them here, though I think the show faltered a lot on their storyline in season 2. The ideas behind their arc - Book working through some past relationship trauma, dealing with the fallout of Book's public violation, Frame struggling to hang in as Book pushed him away - were all good. But the execution was pretty spotty. The entire arc needed some clearer storyboarding and a pacing and sequencing revamp. The choppy editing this season felt most evident to me in this storyline, where I often felt like scenes came abruptly out of nowhere or felt out of sequence, and emotional swings happened too fast to be believable. And I didn't love where the show ultimately took some of the resolutions with the ex-boyfriend (and the teacher who was apparently inviting his students for group sex parties??) but I can't say they aren't in line with this show's overall forgiving attitude toward whatever these boys get up to.
All that said, at the core of this storyline was Frame and Book struggling to endure a traumatic event together, figuring out how they need to show up for each other in those moments, and learning from their mistakes to become better communicators. All of that worked and fit the characters really well. I believed that Book would totally shut down and push Frame out in the face of public humiliation and deep shame. I believed Frame would try and try and try to get through to him but also experience moments of weakness where he would be tempted to just say fuck it and go back to the easier path of casual hookups. And though a lot of the journey to get there was sloppily executed, I believed that they would ultimately come out of that mess more committed and in love than before (I could have done without all the wedding talk though, they are 16 people!).
Fuse & Tee
And here we come to the arc that frustrated and thrilled me in equal measure. FUSE YOU ABSOLUTE WANKER I WANT TO YEET YOU OFF A CLIFF AND ALSO GIVE YOU A GIANT HUG. I was deep in my feelings about this story all season. Fuse made me so mad, Tee made me so sad, and they both made me so happy in the end when they finally figured out their shit.
As we discussed in the clown server, Fuse's storyline feels very familiar to a lot of early Thai bl. His inability to let go of his shitty girlfriend and his constant wavering between Jean and Tee was reminiscent of Phun in Love Sick (and would also be a dynamic repeated in other shows like Together with Me). The key difference for me, and what made it comparably more upsetting than in Love Sick, is that unlike Noh, Tee did not have his own other relationship to deal with or any ambivalence about whether he wanted to actually be together. Tee only wanted Fuse, and wanted commitment and fidelity from him, and watching Tee get increasingly depressed as he tried to be happy just getting what he could from Fuse, caught in a cycle of getting hope and then being rejected again, was so painful. And while he might not have been fully aware of how selfish and cruel he was being at first, eventually Fuse definitely saw how this was affecting Tee and came to understand he was the cause, and he still didn't stop fucking with him! I was so angry with him around the midpoint of the season, I just wanted Tee to dump him and start dating his little friend.
What made it all so much harder to swallow is that Jean and Fuse's relationship was so mild. THEY DON'T EVEN LIKE EACH OTHER. Fuse does not want to touch or kiss her - that was established way back at the beginning of season 1. They go long stretches where they don't even talk to each other until one of them remembers the other exists. Jean has a whole other boyfriend that she seems to have a much deeper relationship with. And this is where the show kind of pissed me off, because the way they turned Jean into an evil manipulative woman stereotype with her pulling this elaborate scheme to pretend her boyfriend was her brother so she could parade around town with him (and even brazenly bring him in front of Fuse!) just felt so false and over the top to me. Why would she bother to do any of that just for the sake of stringing along this boy who isn't even interested in being her boyfriend in any real way? @bengiyo mentioned that his reading of it was she is insecure in her relationship with the older boy and so wants Fuse as a back up, which I could buy to a certain extent, but they really lost me with the lengths she went to. Jean is a very pretty girl who will no doubt have another boyfriend in a week; all this just to hang on to Fuse? I didn't buy it.
And that's a problem because it made it harder to understand why the hell Fuse was having such a hard time letting go of her, and why he was willing to hurt Tee so much in the process. I think if he genuinely liked Jean and had a deeper relationship with her, that would have worked better for me. As it was, he just seemed like a coward, and the way he kept rejecting Tee and then still trying to have his way with him after was infuriating. When he told Tee he was breaking up with him and staying with Jean, and then still tried to get him to sleep with him after, that's when I was ready to strangle this kid. And some of this I can rationalize as him not being ready to firmly commit to being out in a gay relationship and needing Jean as a kind of shield and safety blanket, but if that was the intent I think the show muddied the message a bit by having literally everyone already know about Tee and Fuse. That horse was long out of the barn before Fuse finally did something about Jean.
To the show's credit, it knows exactly how awful Fuse was throughout this entire debacle, and the last segment of their arc is all about Fuse recognizing it himself and atoning for his behavior with Tee. I love that we saw him apologize to Tee with increasing sincerity. I love that we saw him finally be the one to pursue Tee and make his feelings clear, and that Tee actually made him work for it. I loved that we had multiple episodes of Fuse trying to work up the courage to ask Tee to be his faen, and that Tee knew what was happening and enjoyed watching Fuse flounder. My absolute favorite scene was Fuse finally breaking down and confessing to Tee at the beach (with a little help from best bro Lukmo) - that he knows he was wrong, that he knows he was selfish, that he understands what Tee means to him now, that he loves him and wants to be with him and he's ready to commit to that. And Tee, because he is a kind and generous person who has been patiently waiting for this all along, immediately forgave him and responded in kind. It was so emotionally cathartic and satisfying, and felt very much earned after that loooooong journey through the mess. More than anything else I felt so proud of Fuse, and so happy for Tee, and I believed they would be solid from that point on. I didn't even need the sweet little epilogue to feel that way, but I was delighted to get it (and a direct homage to Love Sick with Fuse putting his hand over the camera lens as he leaned over to kiss his boyfriend).
Final thoughts
As I wrapped up my watch I have been reflecting on why this show is not as beloved in fandom as something like Love Sick. Why does it not seem to have the same nostalgic pull? Why don't people (other than @absolutebl and @bengiyo) talk about it as much as other classic Thai bls? And the only thing I can think of is that it's too raw for most of the bl audience. And I mean raw in every sense - the production, the acting, the emotions, the inexperience and naivete and even the physicality of the characters. Nothing particularly sophisticated is happening here, and nothing is smoothed over. If you want to love these characters, you have to love them through all the bad decisions and fucked up choices and flaws run wild. You have to love them when they're ugly as much as when they're beautiful. And I think that's hard for a lot of the audience that just wants to see sweet love stories. But I am here for it and so glad I finally got to watch this.
#make it right#make it right 2#thai bl#i wish more people would watch this#hit me up if you need help finding the right links i am here for you#shan shouts into the void
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Spoilers for Sha Po Lang! I just finished the main story, haven’t read the extras yet. Just my rambles on the ending and Changgu.
Oh man. Just finishing up Sha Po Lang here. The ending was just, unexpectedly soft? Chang Geng just sobbing on Gu Yuns bed, finally able to release all the negative emotions he was forced to restrain from the Bone of Impurity. Chang Geng has become so good at putting on a face, being Yan Wang and putting all his being into shaping the country for Gu Yun, you really forget sometimes that he is constantly suppressing his emotions. Every time he and Gu Yun separated, from months to years at a time; every time he found out Gu Yun lied about how things were going on his end and his injuries from battle so that Chang Geng wouldn't worry and have an attack of the Bone of Impurity. Chang Geng had to hold back (barely sometimes) everything he felt and wanted to say.
All of those emotions poured out at once after they finally reunited after a year. And Gu Yun was just calm and loving as Chang Geng cried and vented, kissed his tears, with no misunderstandings needing to be cleared up. Throughout the book they argue and cry over each other, but nothing major ever happens to cause a rift because they're both secure in their feelings for each other. They know it’s ok if the other gets mad or scolds them, they make mistakes but it’s almost always out of worry for the others well being. I just.. I love Changgu.
I love how all of Changgu’s fights after they become a couple are all just, normal couples fights. You can tell by their words and gestures that this isn’t leading to some sort of temporary break up or huge misunderstanding. It’s just one of them doing or saying something stupid, and then facing the consequences by being yelled at and scolded by the other like “come on, you KNOW better. Please Don’t Do That Thing Again.” It just shows their understanding for each other. Each time they’re not even surprised, just disappointed. The fights aren’t done for the drama of a possible breakup, just showing them being people, being human. I love that about Priests writing. I expect something overly dramatic and am pleasantly surprise when it’s just people being people.
For Gu Yun's part, since I haven't said much on him yet, definitely one of my favorite danmei characters. He seems simple enough at first, until the layers are peeled back. A blind/deaf general who is more formidable than just about anyone else in the whole novel. Yet he has a gentle and romantic heart. He hides his feelings behind jokes and flirting. He only seems to let down that very strong wall in rare, private moments with Chang Geng. You don't want to be his enemy, but you're so lucky if you're on his side. I felt like Gu Yun and Chang Geng balance each other out very well. Chang Geng needed someone with that strong mental fortitude like Gu Yun to keep his unpredictable side in check.
Overall, plot wise too, my favorite Priest novel so far! She’s so good at world-building and fleshing out her characters. And I like that the pov alternates between the leads so you get to see the inner thoughts and feelings of both sides. The novel spans about ten years, and she does a good job of pacing between the war and politics and the placement of character moments. Her stories are plot heavy and I never find myself bored. I really love what I've read from Priest so far, I think I'll start Guardian next.
10/10 recommend for Sha Po Lang!
(artworks posted are official)
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'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' --A Review
The Missus joined a book club a few months back and this was one of the first books they read. She loved it and thought that I would love it, so after she was done with it, I snuck it into my reading queue until I had finished a few other things and then I picked it up and began to read it, not having any idea what to expect.
I don't want to get too granular with the plot, otherwise it will spoil very cool things for you, dear reader, should read this book (and you should, if you haven't already)- so, I'll put it this way:
This is the story of Sadie Green and Sam Masur, two childhood friends who met in a hospital in California as kids, Sadie was trying to occupy her time while her sister Alice fought cancer and Sam was recovering from a car accident (that we find out later mangled his foot to the point where it need an amputation and killed his mother.) The two bond over a shared love of video games and sparks a friendship between them that doesn't seem to last, as they fall out with one another, but they reconnect years later when both are in college when Sam is at Harvard and Sadie is at MIT.
Their rekindled friendship catches fire as they make and release their first game together, called Ichigo, and take the gaming world by storm, founding a gaming company in the process. Over the years, their friendship waxes and wanes. Professional and personal arguments grow and shrink the distance between them. Tragedy intervenes and seemingly makes the rupture between the two of them permanent, but in the end, they always find their way back to each other. Making games of all varieties. Living lives that are both separate and inextricably intertwined and ultimately playing their way through the levels of the game that is life- together.
Okay, don’t be scared that it’s about video games. I think if you are of a certain age, then this book will resonate with you in a major way, and while I was never a big SNES guy- not having one, I’ve played my share of Oregon Trail back in the day and I understood the romance and the challenge of playing games of that generation. I would imagine if I had an SNES I would have understood the thrill of finally getting Mario to the top of the flagpole at the end of the level- the sort of entry-level moment where Sam and Sadie bonded over it when they meet when Sam is in the hospital recovering from a car accident which damaged his foot and although we don’t know it right away, killed his mother.
I loved the video game aspect of this– but it’s also written in such a way that you can absolutely connect with this book even if you have never played a video game in your life, which is a testament to the power and skill of Zevin’s writing. As a reader, even though I didn’t have a gaming system of my own, I grew up with Number Munchers, Oregon Trail, Myst, and classic Mac Games– Zevin captures the romance and the feel of those early to mid-90s gaming experiences perfectly.
I also loved the relationship between Sam and Sadie. Part of you wants them to end up together, but both of the characters are self-aware enough to realize that they would be terrible as romantic partners but work very effectively as friends and collaborators. I think that is kind of an understated thing about this book- so often, in writing, you want characters to end up together and it’s not necessary. Sometimes the most valuable relationships in your life don’t involve love or physical intimacy at all and that doesn’t mean they’re not as powerful or can’t change your life in just the same way. The relationship between the two- the way it waxes and wanes over the years feels so incredibly real.
At the risk of being spoiler-y, there’s a chapter towards the end that drops into the second-person POV that is some of the most beautiful and powerful writing that I’ve read in a very, very long time. (NK Jemisin used second person POV to great effect in her Broken Earth Trilogy– Zevin here breaks it out for one, devastatingly perfect chapter and it works. It worked for Jemisin, and it works for Zevin.)
Overall: This book is out there in the zeitgeist and on the TikToks and the Tumblrs and all over the place and there's a reason for that: this book more than lives up to the hype. It is a beautiful piece of writing and honestly, after I reached a certain point in it, I just could not put it down. My Grade: (and I don't think I've ever done this before, so bear witness, dear reader): ***** out of ****
(Also, just tangentially as a Star Trek fan-- holy shit there are so many Shakespeare references in that show-- the book's title is taken from Macbeth and specifically, this scene.)
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📢 Spoilers if you haven't read it 📢
I read 📚 (full disclosure, I listened to this one and it took 44 hours) "It" recently and I'm still reeling. I finished it sometime last week, and there are still scenes that truly haunt me. My mind was also blown with the big finale, but that'll come.
It started off with a bang, the man getting bit 👌🏻 very scurry. But then there were a handful of things that don't get repeated today, and people know about that, so not to beat a dead horse, that's all I'll say. That there were so many slurs I actually learned one I've never heard before. 😅
Anywho, he's apologized and it's the last I will say of it. Soooo, getting back into it, the first chapter really sets you up for what's coming. Now, the next few chapters, I'm not sure if everything I'm gonna say is in exact order but I'm gonna try my best!
Everyone gets their call from Mike to come back to Derry, and suddenly, they remember. Bill had even remembered his brother who he hadn't thought about in years. Derry is a special place where you forget everything as soon as you leave it. ✨️ it is explained better in the book 📖 We catch a glimpse into everyone's lives and how different they all are after they grow up and leave.
Stanley kills himself because he couldn't deal with everything again. It's sad but also the worst because it weakens the gang 😕 everyone meets at the restaurant and they have the famous scene on the food becoming gross stuff and they have to pretend they don't see it. But that happens after they tell a majority of their childhood story, flipping between everyone's memories that are returning to them slowly.
We see some of the traumas the kids endure without It involved. These kids were soo tough. Some of the things they got through... 😔 but here we learn about all the other times that It had popped up too, some of the stories were crazy! And we don't see them in the movies.
The werewolf that the boys encounter is 👌🏻. 🐺 It's so scary and so... almost unexpected. It was probably one of my favorite memories discussed. They laughed and had a decent time then decided to head their separate ways for the evening, and regroup the next day to take It on.
They each run into their own monsters on the way to their shared destination, and each of those monsters is really cool in the way they appeared and who they appeared to. Personal favorite, Beverly and the witch in the candy house 🍬 🍫 🏠 (gotta read it to find out 😉). Soooooo fucking sick. I wish it was in the movies.
They all end up back at the townhouse they're staying at and Beverly and Bill go heels to Jesus in the most awkward way. Like, I was super uncomfortable with how Mr. King described the whole scenario, and it made me roll my eyes so hard people could hear it. He's not a romance writer, that's for sure. I also want to say that the scene after the kids all beat It for the first time, where they all have sex sith Beverly, super unnecessary and super inappropriate in my opinion and we didn't need it to push any part of the story forward. The worst part of the book in my opinion.
When Henry comes back is super eerie. It really made me tense and I really love the crazy of it all, but things didn't go how I had known them from the films and it was really dynamic in that evening leading up to the final fight.
Mike is barely hanging on at this point and the gang decides to get going. I believe it was early morning, I'm not sure the exact time so sorry about that. But the gang goes with Eddys arm broke again and they're down two members. But they make it to the lair of It.
It was difficult and gruesome and Bill's wife is missing, but they make it through all the obstacles. They perform the ritual of Chud and we meet the turtle. I get it and don't at the same time. I'm still thinking about it's significance days later.
Oh, also, I find out that It is female, and pregnant, and it blew my mind. So much so that I had to stop it and call my brother just to talk to him about it because it just blind sided me. Like, I don't know, it just shook me 🤷🏼♀️
There was a lot of the story that doesn't get very touched on in the movies. There's steampunk birds, talking moons, gay bars, and a lot of violence and hatred (It was involved in gang murders! Yikes!) And there's so many extra story parts that are sooo good to read about and I would live to see in the movies, but I'm not sure 6 hour movies are everyone (I mean, I could do it, cue lord of the rings) but some of the scenes would be super difficult.
King truly is a a beautiful story teller. He's famous for good reason and deserves all the credit he gets in creating these terrifying and amazing stories. I would never think about half the things he had, he's truly a creator of terror. All in all, I think I'd give It 7/10.
There was so much good 👍🏻 honestly and truly and I wish that more of the book was recognized, but there was a lot I thought could have been taken out. Not including the aforementioned things, there's a ton that I personally don't think moves the story forward in any good way.
Would I re read this? Probably not in its entirety, but I will go back and read read certain scenes
Would I recommend it? Yes, I really do. Take the time to read it or listen to it once in your life. It really is worth it.
What did you think?
#horror#horror review#horror reads#books#scary stories#stephen king#book review#book recommendations
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24, 27, 46 for the writer's ask game if you haven't answered those already!
Heya, how are you?
"24. Favourite genre to write and read"
I'm sure this is going to be a huge surprise for anyone who's been following me for a while... but it's horror. It's always been horror and always will be horror - that genre is my home, and everything I write has elements of horror if nothing else. Specifically psychological horror, body horror and gothic stuff is my VIBE.
"27. Favourite line/scene"
How on earth can i narrow down everything I've written to this one thing, gods that's a hard question-
Looking at my finished work (something from Serpents will take the place of my answer when its done for sure), I think my favorite scene might be the end of Miasma. Hard to say much without going into major spoilers, but I essentially cap off my first nuanced romance with the most brutal of tragedies, and it made me cry like a baby for an hour writing it.
"46. Do you reread your own stories?"
Accidentally, yes - occasionally I'll go back to make a small edit or look something up for context in a conversation, and then I'll get absorbed reading it and sit there for an hour going through the book again. It's not the worst thing in the world - it's nice to know that the stories are engrossing even to me, the one who knows them inside and out.
I never really do it on purpose though.
Thanks for the ask!
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I finished Fairy Tale by Stephen King yesterday. I was delighted about similarities I noticed between this book and The Talisman that he wrote with Peter Straub. But, overall, I loved this entire book. I don't have any major complaints, only silly gripes that don't actually detract from the story or characters in any way. I love the entire adventure from start to finish. I will say, though, that this is one of King's thicker books. And I know a lot of people, even some King fans, don't like how long some of his books are. They think they could often benefit from an editor who cuts out a lot of "unnecessary" stuff. I'm not here to say they're wrong or they're right, but I am going to say that people who feel that way about some of his other thicker books will likely feel that way about this book.
However, that's a big reason that I love King's writing and I love his chunkier books. I love the way he digs into the characters, even the ones we don't see much of, the ones that are just there to die, the ones that we don't even get to meet but whom the main character is reminded of for some reason. I eat that stuff up. I think, for me, it makes the book more immersive and the characters more real and so the things a lot of people complain about regarding King's writing are things I adore and major reasons he is my favorite author. So when you see me gushing about one of his books please keep that in mind.
Under the cut I'm going to go into what I noticed as far as similarities between The Talisman and the things I wish we had gotten in Fairy Tale but didn't. Spoilers for both books will be below so if you haven't read either of them and major spoilers will ruin things for you, don't go any further. Don't say I didn't warn you.
So, I'm going with The Talisman first. I want to preface this by saying that I have never finished that book. I loved, absolutely adored, what I did read of it but I had gotten an ebook file from my library for it and I didn't get too far before I was confronted with the fact that part of the file was corrupted and I couldn't read any further. So, if you have read both of these books and noticed things I didn't that are similar this could be a reason for that. I kind of forgot about the book after that but reading Fairy Tale made me think of it and I now have a physical copy I'm going to read next.
So, the first thing is that both of these books are portal books where the main character, a young man in Fairy Tale and a young boy in The Talisman, must go through on a quest to save someone they love and get entangled in far more than they bargained for.
In Fairy Tale 17 year old high school senior Charlie wants to save his dog from dying of old age. In The Talisman 12 year old Jack wants to save his mother from dying.
Another thing the characters have in common is an older adult character who tells them about this portal to another world and sets them on their quest.
The books diverge wildly, in that the world that Jack visits seems to be grittier and there's more violence right away. Charlie's other world is full of mostly good people who aren't interested in cruelty and violence. Most people Charlie meets are nice, and those that aren't are kind of neutral or just bitter.
Something that didn't get explored too much in Fairy Tale but was a major point in The Talisman is the idea that the people of these worlds are counterparts of each other. Charlie notes this concept a couple of times, most notably with Christopher Polley from our world and Peterkin from Empis. He states multiple times that he thinks they're Rumpelstiltskin characters and that, while he can't prove it, he is convinced himself that when Peterkin died in Empis it was the moment that Christopher Polley was killed in our world.
So, not only is the idea of counterparts existing for people in our world to people in Empis present, but so is the idea of intertwined fates.
In The Talisman Jack is told that people in this world all have a version of themselves in the other world and whatever happens to them happens to us and that to save his mother in our world he must save her counterpart in the otherworld.
In Fairy Tale it's mostly just alluded to.
I really enjoyed these similarities and parallels and I'm so glad that I had some knowledge of The Talisman in order to pick up on them.
Now, onto the things about Fairy Tale I wished were different.
It's widely known that King puts references in his books to the books he wrote before the current publication and this book is no different even if you take away all of the similarities with The Talisman.
There was a reference to Cujo that I was a little bummed about, irrationally, for an example. In this book Cujo isn't an event that actually happened bit rather a movie instead. I suppose it could be a movie based on true events but if so it wasn't so much as hinted at. This is a me thing, though. I just prefer the idea that all of these books take place within the same universe, in the sense that it is acknowledged that these things really happened and aren't just fictional books and movies within the books themselves. Most people probably don't care.
I wish that Mr. Bowditch could have watched Charlie play at least one game. I don't care which sport. I thought it was very touching that he wanted to and I thought he seemed disappointed that he wouldn't get to. I wish he could have gone to just one. I understand why Charlie didn't want that but I sure wanted it.
I wish Hamey had lived. I really got attached to his character and as someone who had bowel problems myself I identified with him in that way. I also just really felt sorry for the character and it was so sad to see him start out caring for Charlie in that dungeon and asking if Charlie would protect him only to watch his mental and emotional resignation to his fate and tell Charlie he didn't have to protect him after all. I wish he had lived and been able to he treated properly for his ailment. Maybe the doctor or Claudia could have helped him out a bit.
Barring that, I wish that Hamey would have been one of the ghosts that came to visit Charlie on his sick bed after the defeat of the big bad. It was left up to the reader to decide if these were real ghosts or figment of Charlie's imagination while he was trying to fight off poison, but either way I wish Hamey had made a visit.
I would have liked to get some more stories from Mr. Bowditch about his adventures in Empis that he didn't talk about in those tapes because they weren't pertinent and he knew he didn't have a lot of time left to tell Charlie what he needed to know. He said there were many more and I'm very curious. I wonder if King will write a short story or two about one at some point and put it in a short story collection, line he did with 'Salem's Lot. I would love that.
It was suggested by Mr. Bowditch that other people in our world might have visited Empis and mentioned a couple of authors whose books he thought may have had basis in things found in Empis. Could there be other portals to Empis outside of the one in Sentry, IL? I would love to know.
I knew Charlie would make it impossible for anyone to get to Empis through the portal in Mr. Bowditch's shed, but I still wish he hadn't. Mostly because it means Radar won't get another turn on the sundial and will die and I prefer to think of Radar living forever either with Charlie who decides to eventually take a turn himself or with Charlie's descendants. Who doesn't want dogs to live forever, right?
Anyway, I think that's it for now. There was an excerpt from his next book at the back of Fairy Tale and I'm looking forward to that one!
#Fairy Tale by Stephen King#books and reading#fantasy books#books#Stephen King#The Talisman#spoilers#review#sort of#i just loves this book#I want more!#even if it was already long
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thoughts about verity
Hey. Welcome to another session of talking to myself via this application. Do people still use this app? Well, I hope they do because this is the only app that I use where I am free to talk about stuff my friends don't usually care about.
For a second there, I thought I have lost this one because It has been awhile since I opened this app, and the main reason why I remembered that I have one was after I went back to reading.
First of all, I would like to thank the booktok community for always rummaging my tiktok feed and encouraging me to buy books I know I will never read--unless there's a storm and electricity's out and I have nothing else to do but read. But, that is of course a joke because as you all know (you don't), I am a literature major and it is part of my daily life to read (but not my preferred novels anyway!)
NOW, Verity is a book by my favorite author, Ms. Colleen Hoover whom I personally love and adore ever since I started reading her works, she literally was the one who save me from my years of reading slump jeez. The first book that I read from her was All Your Perfects which became my ultimate favorite, no one touch me I'm still crying whenever someone mentions me that book.
However, Verity pulled me from the dead and called me to read her so I did. If you haven't read the book and you're still here reading my random rants please get out because the next parts may contain spoilers!
SPOILERS AHEAD
The book began with Laura (i am not sure anymore?? I am so bad at remembering names) her mother just died from cancer, and she's off to continue her life after nursing her for how many months. Everything feels surreal after her first steps back from the outside world, but, she was offered a job, a proposal, in which she decided to attend to. Upon her way, she met this dashing man who swept her by her feet. (Well, he's handsome and he gave you his shirt) only to find out that the man will be his boss.
She was assigned/ chosen to continue the book of his wife, Verity which is a best-selling author because apparently she mastered the art of story-telling through the lens of the antagonists. Verity was in a car accident in which resulted to becoming her being brain dead, she could no longer finish her book so they had to hire a 'ghost-writer' or co-writer to finish the book. Well, our main character here was convinced upon a few kicks and push as the offer was huge and can help her continue her life.
So, Laura proceeded. She was invited to Verity's house so that she could do her research, read Verity's previous series, and look for footnotes, journals, everything that can help her continue the stories, but upon investigating, a very special manuscript landed her eyes--it was Verity's autobiography.
At first, Low felt that it was too personal to read, but she later on convinced herself that it might help her write, to read what's on Verity's mind, so she did. The manuscript contained everything that she need to completely freak out and question her position in that house. "WHO THE FUCK IS THIS BITCH AND WHY DOES SHE THINK LIKE THIS?" that kind of level.
Bitch when I was reading the book, YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THE NUMBER OF TIMES I YELLED AT HER TO FUCKING QUIT, because If I was her, the moment that Verity stared at me from a far, from her room through the window, I would have packed my bags immediately and run. I swear.
The manuscript contained how Verity met her husband Jeremy, how their relationship revolved around sex, and how they can't get their hands off each other. She was obsessed. Until she got pregnant and how she did everything to kill those kids because she never wanted them in the first place, she was obsessed to the fact that she was too afraid that her husband's attention will focused on their children (which is the obvious thing to do, duh). But like I've said, the bitch was crazy. She never loved anyone else except her husband.
I think the scene that traumatized me the most was when she tried to kill Harper, one of the twins, how she fucking shoved her fingers inside that baby's mouth--that I'm still fucking picturing up to this day because it literally broke my heart, poor Harper and Chastin.
But, I think I have lost my mind when she finally confessed in her manuscript that she purposely planned to kill Harper at the lake. The way she fucking whispered to Crew to hold his breath as she knew the canoe will turn backward. She left Harper there to die.
You guys have no idea how my mind cried when both of her twins died and all she could fucking think was why her husband's not fucking her anymore, like bitch. You need therapy.
Well, eventually, Jeremy finally found out about the truth and killed her for killing Harper. (I'm not going to lie but I was opposed to that idea, but okay..) anyway, moving on because I am already tired from typing this and I'm doing my best to shortcut the story since it is only I that will be reading this anyway and I'm just looking for excuses to rant my thoughts.
A few months after Verity died, Low found out that she was pregnant with Jeremy, but they had to go back to Verity's house first as Jeremy finally decided to sell the property, and now they are just there to gather up a few more of his remaining things to finally start their new life.
Crew have said something to Low that made her look. Low fiugured that there is a hidden cabinet on the floor where Verity used to hide her knife, and it was a letter-- addressed to Jeremy. In that letter she said that the manuscript is not true, and it was just a exercise that was given to her by her publisher so that she could continue writing her stories on the same perspectives. When Low read that, guilt swallowed her completely as she knew that they killed her. But still, she decided to throw that shit up because she knew it will destroy her growing family.
ALRIGHT ALRIGHT HERE IS MY FINAL RANT.
At first, I don't know which side I should take because that motherfucking manuscript was detailed and shocking. The details the she put in was extraordinary, Verity is really good at painting characters in a bad light, which is perfect for her as like I've said, she writes book in the perspective.
I am mindblown with the idea of how obsessed she is to her husband, how she fucking hated being pregnant, how she tried killing her babies when they were still inside her, and how she tried to kill Harper after having a nightmare.
I am so heartbroken for her twins, when she decided to favor only Chastin and ignored Harper all her life, I am devastated of how she only cares about sex, and to please Jeremy when in fact that wasn't even Jeremy wanted-- her husband wanted to build a connection, a life, a communication, a language in which both of them can only understand, but instead, she was just focused on the idea of giving pleasure-- that's all she knows.
Now, that letter. I know for a fact that she only wrote that letter because first of all, she was not brain dead, she did that because she thought her husband can take care of her after finally losing the twins, she did that because she watched how her husband fell in love with a new woman inside her house, how he fucked her knowing she was upstairs-- she did the letter because it was her only way out.
She knew that Low will be the one to find the letter, because she knew how anxious Low was in the first place, how Low discovered Crew holding that knife in her bed, how she fucking searched that knife but it suddenly disappeared. She knew that Low knows that she's alive and okay.
That was her way of revenge, tormenting, manipulating and guilt-tripping Low even if she's already dead. Because how will that fucking letter defend the fact that Crew was so scared to talk bout Verity in front of Low that he fucking bit the knife which caused for his mouth to bleed, because Crew was too afraid that he'll get punished. And don't get me started to the bruise on Chastin's cheek.
In the end, I am no longer neutral, I am proud that I am team manuscript, good night.
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On the Blue Side of the Mountain- Chapter 1
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summary: After a narrow escape from the downfall of the Van Der Linde gang, you and Arthur have lived comfortably on your mountainside homestead for years. Away from any Pinkertons, Cornwalls, and O’Driscolls, you’re finally safe. All you can do now is try to find peace and hope that the shadows of your past don’t catch up with you.
pairing: Arthur Morgan x f!Reader
a/n: I levelled up as an author and started a series! Heavily inspired by screenshots himboarthurmorgan posted of a glitch that made Arthur look like an old man. I immediately knew I needed a "who tf is TB" AU where Arthur and his wife grow old and grey together tucked far away into the mountains. This has some pretty major spoilers for the end of the game, so come back later if you haven't finished it yet.
Masterlist
AO3
You closed your eyes and let the warmth of a summer breeze kiss your skin, teasing the stray hairs at the nape of your neck. You smiled to yourself softly, savouring a moment of peace in the stillness of your home.
You blinked your eyes open and gripped the broom tightly to bring yourself to reality. Getting back to work, you swept a dust pile out the front door and onto the porch. With the warmer weather, you could take your time and leave the door propped open, letting a soothing breeze flow freely through the cabin.
Broom still in hand, you looked up and let your gaze pan across your homestead. The modest mountainside home was everything that you had hoped and dreamed for, and you truly did not want to take it for granted. Little moments like this helped make sure you appreciated it.
Catching sight of your husband and two of your children by the barn, you noticed something strange about the way they hovered around a working paddock. Arthur was leaning against the fence beside your oldest son, who leered at a Kentucky Saddler in the ring. Your five year old daughter sat diligently at Arthur’s feet, ripping up grass to keep herself entertained.
You shook your head, chuckling at the sight as you leaned your broom against the railing. You made your way towards the barn, catching bits of their conversation.
“Andrew, it ain’t nothing to be worried about.” Arthur assured your oldest, “People have been riding them for thousands of years, and they ain’t killed us all yet.”
Unconvinced, your son glared at the wild horse inside the paddock, stomping its hooves in the dirt and snarling.
Your daughter took notice as you approached, jumping up to greet you. “Mama!” She cried as she ran towards you, colliding with your legs and making you laugh. “Look what I made!” She excitedly thrust a strand of braided grass into your hands.
“It’s lovely, Alice.” You cooed, resting your hand on her head as she followed you to where her father and brother were still leaning on the fence. Their arms were folded as they studied the horse in the paddock. “So what are we doing today, cowboys?” You teased.
“Andrew is gonna learn how to work this horse.” Arthur replied, turning his head to smile at you.
“No I’m not,” Andrew said, worry bleeding through. “I’m gonna get killed while Papa tries to show me how to run him in a circle.”
You stifled a laugh at his dramatics. “We’re going to have to take those books away if you keep up with all that drama.” You joked, placing a reassuring hand on his arm and giving it a squeeze. “You’re going to be fine, honey. Your father has been doing this for years, and you know he wouldn’t let you get hurt.”
Your son huffed, his worry still evident. “I know.” he said, “I’m just scared.”
“Nothing wrong with being scared,” Arthur assured, pushing himself off the fence and motioning for your son to do the same. “Keeps us alive.”
You watched Arthur head into the paddock, your son trailing behind. He closed the gate with your son on the outside, holding up his hand to stop him from trying to come through.
“Watch me first. Listen to what I do.” He ordered. Your son agreed and hopped onto the gate, angling for a better view.
Your daughter shrugged and plopped herself down onto the grass, back to work on her braids. Clearly she was bored with the boys already.
You smiled to yourself and turned your attention back to where Arthur was getting started. He twirled the rope in his hand and whipped it in the dirt by the horse’s feet. He shouted, startling the beast into a trot around the paddock.
“Don’t take your eyes off him once he starts moving.” He told your son, gripping the rope and following the movement of the horse as it circled the pen. “You give him a chance to run, and he’s gonna take it.”
You glanced briefly at your son, catching him swallow hard and not his head nervously.
Arthur cracked his rope in the dirt when the horse slowed, forcing the stallion to speed up. “Gotta keep him running too, not too fast that he gets worked up. But not too slow that he won’t burn his energy.” Arthur explained. “We need to tire him out a bit so he doesn’t have as much fight.”
The horse huffed in disagreement, whinnying as if telling him off. It continued at the pace Arthur had set, still circling the paddock steadily. Andrew watched as his father cracked the rope again, dirt spraying as the horse took off. “You don’t want to hit him neither, or you’ll break his trust.” Arthur said, his gaze still firmly locked on the horse. “And once you break his trust, it’s hard to get it back.”
“Like people.” Your son supplied, understanding settling into his face in place of worry.
“Exactly like people.” You said. “They’re just like us, with feelings and needs.”
“If you take care of him, he’ll take care of you.” Arthur added.
Arthur allowed the horse to slow as it panted, snorting but no longer stamping its feet. He eased his posture and dipped his voice low as he moved towards the beast. “Easy there,” he drawled, taking a gentle step forward. The horse stepped back, trying to keep its distance. “Easy.” He repeated.
The horse allowed him to approach, still cautious as Arthur closed the gap between. He held out his hand and reached towards its neck, startling the Saddler into a trot once more.
Arthur quickly cracked the rope, jumping right back into the exercise. He let the horse circle the paddock, keeping a steady pace.
“It won’t always work right away,” Arthur told your son, still circling the pen. “You need to be patient with them, let them come to you in your own time.”
“Your father was the same way.” You joked, leaning in so only your son could hear. He chuckled, much more at ease now. After a few more laps, Arthur allowed the horse to stop again, taking an even slower approach with his hand extended this time.
He spoke lowly to the horse, calming it when it began to startle. This time it let him approach and rest his hand on its neck, still jumpy but easing slightly. Arthur stepped back to give it some space, backing towards the gate with his eyes locked on the beast. When he had gotten about halfway across the paddock, he turned his back to the horse. As he stepped towards the gate, he kept his voice low. “You have to show him some trust too. Can’t expect him to put all his in you if you won’t give it back.”
Your son nodded in understanding, stepping down from the gate to let Arthur through.
“See, that wasn’t so bad!” Arthur beamed, clapping his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “Go grab him some hay and put it through the fence. Stay nice and slow now, and don’t drop it right at his feet. Give him some space to get used to you”
The two of you watched as Andrew bolted towards the barn, heading through the open doors.
“Have you seen James?” You asked, curious of the whereabouts of your middle son.
“He was finishing his chores when we got started, I’m sure he’s still cleaning that pony’s stall. He’ll be fine.” Arthur moved to stand next to you, pressing a kiss to your temple and draping his arm around your shoulders.
Your face scrunched up in disgust as the stench of his sweat hit you. “Arthur!” You scolded, pushing him away as he laughed at your reaction. “You smell like sweaty horse!”
Arthur forced his arms around you, laughing and peppering kisses down your cheek and neck as you tried to escape. You couldn’t help yourself when you started to laugh too, squealing like a schoolgirl as you desperately tried to get away.
You calmed your foolishness when your son ran back out of the barn, taking off towards the paddock until he remembered Arthur’s instructions. He skidded to a stop, a trail of hay flitting to the ground behind him. Slowly, he neared the fence and steadied himself, slipping the hay through the gap as he lowered the pile to the ground. His eyes locked on the horse a few feet away, and he carefully backed up until the horse dug in to the pile of hay. He turned towards you both, his face lit up with pride. He walked back to where you stood across the paddock, his smile growing wider with every step.
“Did you see that, Papa?” He asked.
“That was great, son!” Arthur said, patting Andrew’s back. His arm rested on your waist, despite your complaints about his smell. “How about we give him some time to eat and then you give it a shot?”
Andrew’s smile dropped. “I-I don’t think-” He stuttered, tripping over his tongue at the thought of being alone in the paddock with that thing.
Arthur chuckled, ruffling his son’s hair. “Not the whole ordeal with the rope, you fool.” He teased lovingly. “I reckon he’s got most of it out of his system for now. Likely ready for a bit of a bribe.”
Arthur reached into his pocket and produced a handful of sugar cubes. Your daughter popped up from where she was still braiding, her interest peaked.
“Is it time for treats, Daddy?” She asked, her excitement growing as she saw the sugar cubes in Arthur’s hand.
“Sure is, sweet pea!” Arthur drawled, reaching down to hoist her up into his arms. He shifted her onto his hip as she squealed in delight. “Just let me go in first and make sure he’s ready, okay?”
“Okay!” She said, running towards the fence as Arthur put her down. Her brother followed nervously behind her, much less excited to be coming face to face with the Saddler.
“Now Andrew,” He paused at the gate. “Don’t be scared of him. They pick up on your fear. Think you’re scared of something bigger out there, then you’ll spook them worse. Just stay calm, and follow my lead.” He instructed, opening the gate and heading into the paddock.
You all watched as Arthur moved towards the horse at the edge of the paddock, still eating its hay. It looked up as Arthur neared, halting mid-chew and eyeing him warily. Arthur hushed soothingly, calming the beast before he could startle it. He inched his hand into his pocket and offered the sugar cube to the horse, carefully holding out the flat of his palm.
The horse eyed him, then the sugar cube in its hand. It sniffed the air, hay forgotten beneath it. Slowly, it moved towards Arthur, who stood still but confident as it crept closer still. After a tentative moment, the horse took the treat from Arthur’s palm, its teeth scraping against his skin, but not biting. Still pushing its luck.
Arthur reached up to pet the beast while it slobbered his hand in search of any remaining sugar. He moved his fingers down its neck, gentle strokes assuring that no harm would come from him. The horse eased finally, relaxing into Arthur’s touch as he moved his hands further down to his side, gauging the horse’s reaction if he was no longer in sight.
The horse stayed calm, and Arthur realized he wasn’t dealing with a wild horse. This horse had been handled before, its owner likely dead somewhere down the mountain. How its saddle was removed beat him, but this horse was definitely used to people. It just took a little coaxing to get close at first. Arthur supposed that was fair, he had imprisoned the thing for the lowly crime of grazing on their property that morning.
Arthur stepped away from the horse and crossed the paddock, returning to where his family waited with anticipation. “Alright.” He said as he opened the gate. “He seems fine.”
Alice’s face lit up and she hopped to the ground, clambering towards the open gate.
“Ah,” Arthur held up his hand, stopping your daughter. “You gotta stay calm, sweet pea, or you’re going to scare him.”
Alice nodded excitedly, trying to calm herself so she would be allowed in. Andrew followed much slower, still nervous despite Arthur’s reassurances.
“Come on now.” Arthur led them through the gate, setting the pace as they followed him across the paddock. Arthur moved closer to the horse, gesturing for the children to wait for him. He reached up to pet the horse again, waiting to see if it was startled by the two new faces.
The horse seemed unbothered now that it realized there was no threat, and pawed at the ground as Arthur turned back to your children.
“Alright.” He drawled, keeping a hand on the horse and motioning for the two to come forward. Alice smiled brightly, striding confidently over to Arthur and taking one of the sugar cubes from his pocket.
She held her hand flat and raised her arm as high as she could reach, giggling when the horse lowered its nose and lapped up the sugar cube with its wet tongue. “That tickles!” She said, reaching to touch the horse’s nose. It snorted and shook its head, making the little girl giggle in delight.
“Come on, Andrew!” She encouraged, reaching her other hand out to her brother.
Andrew moved tentatively, stepping slowly and being sure not to make any jerky movements.
“You’re alright, Andrew.” Arthur soothed. “Stay calm now.”
“How come she’s so good with the horses?” He asked, frustrated at his hesitation.
Arthur shrugged, watching as his little girl happily pet the horse’s face. “Some people just have a way with ‘em. Now focus, come on.”
Andrew nodded and steeled himself, trying to gather his courage. He stepped towards the horse, holding his head high and puffing his chest out. Arthur held up a sugar cube for him to take, stifling a chuckle at his son’s bravado. Andrew took the sugar cube in his hand, reaching out to offer the treat to the horse.
He tensed at the feeling of the horse’s tongue, then relaxed as he realized no teeth followed. He sighed and reached out to pet the horse, reassured that he wouldn’t be kicked for his efforts.
You smiled from your place at the fence, still watching over your family as they showered the horse in affection. Even though it had been fourteen years since the gang dissolved, you still couldn’t believe that you two had been given a second chance. At how lucky you had been to go back and find Arthur at Beaver’s Hollow, moments away from a knife plunging through his throat. Pregnant, and terrified that you would have to bury the father of your unborn child along with the gang you had called family, you had just managed to get both of you out before the Pinkertons swarmed the place.
You shook the memories from your head, stopping yourself before you headed down that path. You were here, now, raising your children alongside your husband. He was set to turn fifty next year, tucked far away into the mountains where the Pinkertons and the Cornwalls couldn’t find you. As much as you teased him for the grey starting to pepper his beard, you were eternally grateful that he had lived long enough to show signs of age.
You blinked back the tears and smiled more, bringing yourself back to the moment. Your eyes met Arthur’s from across the way, his smile matching your own. You knew he felt the same gratefulness when he looked at your family; knew that he couldn’t forget either.
You felt a bump against your thigh, your gaze casting downwards to see your middle son, James, wrapped around you and smiling up.
“Hi, Mama!” He chimed, eyes shining brightly.
“There you are!” You smiled, reaching down to place your hand on his back. “I’ve been wondering what you were up to.”
James frowned, looking over to see his siblings doting on the horse in the paddock. “Did I miss everything ‘cause I was stuck doing chores!?” He exclaimed, disbelief heavy in his words.
“Well why were you stuck doing chores?” You asked, sure that Arthur wouldn’t just leave him out of it.
“Papa made me clean out the stall, but I left the door open and Magic ran into the pasture. I hate that stupid pony.” James grumbled, missing the hand he had in his own suffering. You supposed that particular wisdom came with time, and eleven was awful young to figure it out.
“Well you’re here now,” You declared, and guided your son towards the gate, opening the latch and drawing it back for him. “Let’s see if your father has any more of those sugar cubes.”
#red dead redemption 2#rdr2#rdr2 fanfiction#rdr2 fanfic#fanfiction#fanfic#arthur morgan#arthur morgan fanfic#arthur morgan fanfiction#arthur morgan x reader#alternate ending#my fic#on the blue side of the mountain
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I decided to reread the MHA LN Chapter 4, you know, the canon bkdk angsty slow-burn fanfic 😌😌 Spreading the BKDK LN agenda because WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS MORE !!
Anyway, I FOUND ANOTHER TRANSLATION but sadly OP haven't finished it yet 😢
And since I need an emotional outlet so I can scream at how they're so canon, Im'ma do it here ahwjdhfjsh 👀✨
Warning: Long post; potential manga spoilers
– I forgot that this chapter literally started with the angst 😭 Deku saying that he can't imagine having lunch with Kacchan is like a pain in the gut. He just wanna be friends with his Kacchan again 😢
– One word, ✨SOULMATES ✨ afshshahah PLS, even the universe can't help but ship them together 😩✋ they're fruityness is on whole a new level I CAN'T 💚🧡
– I see what you're doing Bakugou 👀 You really can't leave your sweet broccoli behind huh?? Also, crybaby Macchan and aggressive Takkun?? 🤔 Do I need to say more? 🧐
– If that's not flirting then idk what is 🤷 also, "In front of my soba? Really?" (Todoroki, probably)
– There's no ss but I just wanna give a special mention to jealous!Bakugou. No cos srsly, implying you're not friends with Deku as if you're not dying to hold his hand then getting irritated over Todoroki claiming the "friend" card 😩 Just, Bakugou, don't @ me ☺️💢
– The angst had reached full force it seems ಥ‿ಥ The line was cut but it actually says "Not friends, just childhood friends" 😭😭 and I am telling you Im'ma throw my brand new book when Bakugou explicitly acknowledges Midoriya as his boyfriend. Because before they were rivals, Bakugou and Midoriya were first friends. And I'm not saying that they aren't one now because we as readers, can definitely see they care for each other. But the question is, do they already see the other as a friend and not just a mere rival? They don't cos they're boyfriends your honor
– Tbh, It still haven't sinked in that this is kind of canon 🤧 This is such a cliched romantic scene like wtf?? So what's next? The full moon is illuminating half of Bakugou's face, red eyes glowing and face soft from the natural white luminescence or something sappy like that?? 😩😩 I love it
– Izuku in this LN chapter whenever he talks about Bkg: ✨ THEIR RELATIONSHIP ✨
– I know, I get it. You don't have to shove it my face every single time Deku 😌 and pls, why are you still flirting at the middle of the night?? Or was it pining that I see 🤔 i mean comparing each other to their kid parallels 😕 hmm a severe case of mutual pining indeed
– Yes yes, of course you're only looking for food stalls Mr. Bakugou "Tsundere" Katsuki, I completely don't believe that you're worried about the kids. No! of course not! Who says you want the kids to reconcile so they wouldn't experience the pain that you and a certain green had gone through?? Hahaha I mean It's not like they're your parallel what??hmmm no no, go on, look for takoyaki or smthn ☺️☺️
– Wait, did the last part say '"Bakugou grabbed Izuku's face and pushed it away..." Aksfksjdhdisjs what in the actual gay fanfic is this??!! Or wait, is this what Bkg usually do to Deku in the official art he's like, I love agressively gripping your head as I entangle my fingers on your soft curls but no homo💀
Since OP's translation isn't complete, I'm going to use Lau Ren's translation and yes I'm continuing this shit even though Tumblr mobile only lets me post 10 pics per post
– Bkdk domesticity with children pt. 95736 💚🧡 They love kids so much 😩 Yk I'd donate my kidney just to see this ANIMATED ✨ like this has so much fluff potential 🤧 Or at the very least a drama CD. I'd ascend 😭
– WHAT THE FUDGE ?!! I'M SCREAMING 😭 I SAY IT AGAIN 💞 SOULMATES✨ and pls, it has my favorite fic trope, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings. Anyway, I need a minute to collect myself cos I can't move past the "With the said person himself nearby, Kacchan thought his fate had gone crazy" ( ≧Д≦) dammit Katsuki, why r u so gay. Izuku loves you, you emotionally constipated gremlin
I have reached my 10 picture limit so I'm just gonna copy paste some of the twts 💀 I hope I don't get in trouble lmao Xd
- Kacchan fixed his gaze to Deku who looked relieved. "He..."
- Somehow, Kacchan remembered the fight they had after All Might's retirement. It was the first time they were able to let out their conflicts sincerely. Although his fear towards Deku had decreased since then, there was still a feeling of disgust about Deku being a hero who save others residing in Kacchan.
- He couldn't understand it. But he knew, there will always a being whom he cannot understand
– Bkg rlly said 👀 on Deku while having angsty thoughts ಥ╭╮ಥ Looking back on this tho, I just can't help but be proud when I remember 285. Bakugou is loud but he is very rational in battles. He thinks of a plan on the spot meaning he's mind is on work 24/7.
– When he had his "My body just moved on its own" moment, Katsuki had understood Deku and his nature to "Save to Win." It'ss that Katsuki must not analyze it with his brain, but instead feel it with his heart 💚🧡 And this is the reason why I badly want to see him on the manga 😭 that was some MAJOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'm ahwjdhfjsh
– Takkun and Maachan's pinky swear deserves their own mention. They're so pure 😩✋
- He said he still hasn't done hatsumoude so Kacchan can go first, but Kacchan refused and wouldn't let Deku do hatsumoude before him.
- Kacchan tried to take a head start, but in the end, they ended up visiting and praying together.
– AND WE'RE BACK with the gays 😌 hsjdjajs they compete with every single thing it's honestly cute. Also YES THEY PRAYED TOGETHER and shoujo scenes with the main couple praying on the shrine but make it BKDK flashed before my eyes 😖✨
- After finishing their prayers, Deku looked at Kacchan, "What did you wish for?" "Shut up."
- Even with Kacchan's sulking expression seen from the side, Deku felt that they had wished for the same thing.
– DEKU YOU'RE BEING TOO LOUD!! I just can't with these two 😩✋ Both of them are down so bad for each other and you can't tell me otherwise 💚✨🧡
- With those serious eyes, Deku knew they were aiming for the same thing. Win to save, save to win. To be the best heroes.
- Deku knew well that he and Kacchan are polar opposites. But even so, Deku couldn't imagine a world in which Kacchan doesn't exist.
– Deku just went 😍 on Kacchan and thought "I CAN'T IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT YOU 🧡💚" (insert Imagine by Ben Platt)
– I can't even stress how much I love this line, y'all this is so misleading I-- this is too much 😭 Anyway, I believe this go both ways. Bakugou can't also see a world without Deku in it, and since Deku decided to be the self-sacrificing person he is, I'll just SCREAM IN CH. 304 ( ≧Д≦)
- Seeing the two praying side by side, he commented, "so you've become good friends now, huh."
- Both of them immediately opposed, and Kacchan threatened to explode Shoto's mouth for saying such a disgusting thing.
– Let's go Todoroki, best wingman 🤣 And flustered Bakugou makes a reappearance hdjsja Dammit half n' half I ain't flirting with Deku fvck you
And this is where it ends afshshaha anyway bkdk canon 💚🧡
#bakudeku#dekubaku#bkdk#dkbk#mha light novel#bnha light novel#decchan#bakudeku canon#no edit#typo be damned#austere posts
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A Heartstopper Rant!
This contains minor to major spoilers by the way, so if you haven't watched or read it yet, then its best to keep scrolling and minding your own buzz. This is a lengthy one too so brace yourselves!
So... I just watched Heartstopper and finished reading the book, now while waiting for the updates of Volume 7 in webtoon, I decided to post a rant about Heartstopper because honestly, there is so much that I just want to say about the series.
First of all, I just want to say that Heartstopper is like being wrapped up in a warm blanket, having a hot chocolate, and being cozy and comfortable while the weather is cold or stormy. You know, those kind of days where you just want to feel comfortable? That's what Heartstopper is. I realized this while I was in the middle of episode 6, the scene where they're looking for Darcy and Tara and the gang barges into the door where they were locked in and then they ran cause they were late to the concert. All throughout the series, both the comics and the tv series was so warm and comforting and the reason for this is probably because it is really relatable. Come to think of it, a lot of what the characters did, we have done it too. Like when Nick was questioning his sexuality, so he ended up searching "am I gay?" on Google and I bet, if not all of us then at least a lot of us did it too. His confusion and frustrations was so relatable that I started tearing up too right as his tears fell down.
In my case, I really feel the struggle of Nick because I, too is feeling really confused about my sexuality. At the age of 15, I knew I wasn't straight. It felt weird to be labelled as "straight" or "heterosexual" because that didn't feel like me. I'm still confused to whether I am bisexual or pansexual, all I know is that I am not straight and me kissing girls and having been on a relationship with them and finding them hella attractive seals the deal. I still like boys but girls too. Which is why I hate that some people are mocking and laughing at that scene because that was such a heavy feeling. To be so confused and have no one to tell them what you are feeling so you resorted to the internet (which kinda helps tbh). Anyway, another relatable aspect is how Nick tends to "people please" like he can't say no and he cares too much about what other people thinks, a valid case is when he couldn't say no to Imogen's date because he didn't want her to feel bad and just as he was about to set things straight, her dog dies. I have a hard time saying no to people and wouldn't want to upset them so I really feel for Nick at this scene and others.
He really just radiates Golden Retriever vibes and I love how Kit Connor portrays Nick. At this point, Nick Nelson and Kit Connor are one and the same because you honestly just can't find the difference between the two. I am convinced he was born to play Nick and I am so happy and proud that he embodied the role. There could never be a Nick Nelson if it weren't for Kit Connor. I will literally fight you if you disagree.
Moving on, another person who is relatable is Charlie Spring. Honestly, I feel like I kin him. No joke, I feel connected to him more than anyone in the series and I think it has something to do with his mental health and how he carries himself. I'm not going to tackle his mental problems too much because I don't want this to end up sad and depressing, but I would like to touch up just how some particular scenes made me feel. An example is in the comics, wherein he overthinks why Nick is greeting him every time they passed by each other or when they are inside their form room. I feel for Charlie cause I would literally start overthinking why this popular rugby guy who's friends with some bullies is being nice to me, like is this some type of ploy? A joke? A prank? like isn't that something you would most likely do too? I swear, the minute I saw Charlie overthinking, I was like "oh crap! it's like another variant of myself!" and then I just watched and read as he continues to spiral into negativity especially in the other volumes and all I wanted to do was cry. I also felt for Charlie when he made out this scenario in his head about Nick confessing his feelings and I posted an Instagram story about it with the caption "same Charlie, same" cause I also create scenarios in my head like 24/7. It's quite comical and entertaining. So yeah, I kin Charlie Spring and I will protect and defend him until the end of times making sure that no one will hate on him. I'm trying to keep my Charlie rant brief so I might just make another blog post solely for him. He deserves it.
Let's not forget about the actor who brought Charlie Spring to life though. Joe Locke, if you ever end up reading this, you are an amazing person and no words could describe how much of an inspiration you have become. Like Joe's portrayal of Charlie Spring is just really amazing and great and show stopping and everything good basically. Just like Kit, I will fight you if you ever disrespect Joe. Literally, I would. I will smack you the way Tao smacked Harry with his beanie.
Speaking of Tao, I also relate to him. Not a surprise really, at this point I feel like I relate to all the characters (minus Ben and Harry cause fuck them). I don't relate to Tao a lot, but I do relate to his fear of being alone. I also have abandonment issues. I also relate to Elle because as we have seen it, she had a hard time making friends adjusting when she moved to Higgs. I also struggle to make friends when I'm at a new place, hence why I still have no friends at the place where I am currently living at :)
Although, I do have a bone to pick with the Netflix adaptation. It is obvious that they will change some parts of the story and add more stuff to it like them adding Imogen. What I don't understand though is them changing how Tao figures out that Nick and Charlie are dating. I really didn't like how he figures it out already since they only managed to say it during the Paris trip and for all of you who has read the comics, its kinda a long while till he figures it out. But I guess I can deal with that. What I am having a hard time dealing with is the fact that Elle practically snitched, telling Tao about Nick and Charlie. Like my girl Elle from the comics would never do that. Elle knows how to keep her promises and her mouth shut and considering what happened to Charlie with how he was outed, it really boggles my mind that Elle tells Tao about it without Charlie's knowledge or permission. Charlie already struggles from lack of control ever since the trauma that he got when he came out as gay without his consent. He didn't need that and it was out of character for Elle.
Despite those issues, I still enjoyed the Netflix adaptation and I really look forward to season 2. Call me dramatic but I instantly went to Google to ask "will there be season 2 of Heartstopper?" Yup, that series has officially taken over my life. Thank you Alice Oseman. If you haven't figured out, Alice Oseman is the person behind the great series, Heartstopper and she is brilliant, talented, and really amazing. I love her and I love all of the cast. Even the dog who played Nellie.
I really love Heartstopper. It has now been one of my comfort series ever since it came out and it's just refreshing to see a show about the LGBT+ community that isn't all sad and depressing, because not being straight isn't something bad. Just because you're gay, lesbian, pansexual, bisexual, or etc., doesn't mean it's the end of the world. In fact, it's really great to accept and to have finally figured out who we actually are because not a lot of us has the luxury of figuring out ourselves. Some of us, like me, is still a little lost and confused and that is the most frustrating thing ever. It really is. And of course, there would be the causes and the effects of coming out and it can be quite horrible and terrifying since there are a lot of judgmental and homophobic people, but I think the series made it a point to always mention either in words or just in actions that as long as you have those who supports you, they can be many or just one person, it's gonna be okay. We don't owe this people anything. To hell with what they say, we're living our lives and we are happy, they can shrivel up and turn to ashes. We are important, not them. They're just jealous cause we get to be happier and free with loving whoever the hell we want. At the end of the day, we all have someone to support us and that realization came from me watching and reading Heartstopper repeatedly.
It's comforting because it's relatable.
With that all said, thank you for reading my rant and I'll end one of my Heartstopper rants with the word:
"Hi!"
#heartstopper#kit connor#joe locke#nick and charlie#nick nelson#charlie spring#tao xu#elle argent#darcy olsson#tara jones#alice oseman
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