#okay now that I think about it it's just the sword fighting scene but...worse XD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

griffintail · 3 years

Note

Okay here’s the request I was thinking of - what if Karl, Mr. Time Travel himself, brings together all the children from all the timelines with all the different parents because his daughter from his own timeline is trapped in the Inbetween as punishment for Karl escaping to the other side, and what’s worse is that in his own timeline, the SMP members are beginning to forget she ever existed. He can’t go get her himself because the Inbetween knows all the tricks he’d pull since he was connected for such a long time. Just an idea, I’d love to see how the different readers with different parents would interact.

THIS WAS INSANE TO WRITE! It's also a lot longer than planned B) Hope you enjoy! Also! Someone tell me how the fuck I tag this XD Do I add all the parent pairings or not. Help??

The Many Faces of (Y/N)

Deals with Lost Ones Canon but this will not be canon and not everything mentioned is canon.

Warnings: Light angst, Minor Fight Scenes, Multiple Realities and Timelines, The Inbetween

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was rather quick, the process. Some fell in, some simply staggered forward, some simply stood. Yet, all confused.

One with an (F/C) bandana was the first to react, leaping onto her feet, having been one to fall, her eyes locking onto the one with a smiley mask on the side of her face, that gave the bandana wearer bad memories. The bandana brandished her sword and the mask wearer reacted with the pull of an axe.

“Who the hell are you!” She demanded to the mask.

“Who am I? Who the hell are you! Put that sword away before you hurt yourself.”

“Oh, fuck off bitch!” She snapped.

One wearing a cape pulled her sword slightly from its sheath as she looked at the two similar faces.

“Why don’t we all calm down?” The cape said.

“Not until she tells me who the fuck she is! Especially with that fucking mask!”

One in a fox jacket took a step back from the rising tension as one in a split black and white dress shifted nervously at the anger, too afraid to speak.

“Hey! Let’s calm ourselves!” A girl in a green hat stepped between the trio.

“Why the hell do you all look like me!” The bandana exclaimed.

“We all look like each other dumbass.” The cape said as she fully brought out her sword. “Now put. Your weapon. Away.”

The girl in the bandana clenched her jaw as she looked at the one in the mask, steeling herself before darting around the one in the hat and went for her.

“Fuck you!”

A girl with a tiara went to stop the girl attacking as one dressed in a pair of overalls yelped in surprise when another one wearing a L’Manberg uniform intercepted the attack. The L’Manberg uniform held a bow and shot the sword out of the bandana wearer's hand.

“Ladies, can we please use our words instead?” She asked, putting the bow on her back as she dusted her uniform off. “No need for such weapons.”

“FUCK OFF! This isn’t your problem!” The bandana wearer protested.

Tense stood between the similar-looking teenagers, all able to tell the difference between each other by only their clothing.

Karl stood, still trying to get a word in when the final girl a blue hoodie came over to him, tugging on his hoodie sleeve. He looked at her and she held a piece of blue to him smiling.

“You looked stressed. Here, have some blue. Calm yourself.”

He took the blue from her, some of his worries melting but not enough.

“Oh dear. You filled the blue. Are you alright?” She asked him.

“No, that’s why I need to talk to everyone,” Karl told her.

“Ok.” She nodded, simply walking in between the tension, everyone mildly shocked by her boldness. “Hi! I’m (Y/N). You guys look a lot like me and that’s pretty cool! But he wants to talk to us. It will make him feel better.”

She pointed at Karl and everyone still stared at her shocked for a moment before finally giving Karl their attention.

“Hello…Uh, sorry about all this. I needed help and I had nowhere else to go.” He said.

“Karl?” The mask wearer questioned, putting her axe away.

“Yes. I’m not…your Karls though.” He said as the bandana wearer picked up her sword, worrying him, but she sheathed it.

With her weapon away, the cape wearer put hers away as well as she spoke. “Our Karls?”

He nodded. “I’m Karl from my universe. This is a place outside all of our universes.”

The girl in the bandana went slightly crossed-eyed as the one in the fox jacket came forward.

“Great, magic and crap. Why are we here?” She asked.

“The thing that makes this all possible, the Inbetween, it took…it took my daughter from me as punishment. It knows all my tricks, so I needed to do something completely unpredictable, even by the Inbetween.”

“And bringing forward a bunch of…us, was your battle plan?” The L’Manberg uniform crossed her arms. “We’re the same person.”

“I mean, we’re not.” The tiara said. “Some of us immediately drew arms as some of us stayed calm or moved away. We’re all even dressed differently.”

“Wait, what’s different about our universes?” The bandana brought back to that subject.

“You all have different fathers. That’s the most defining factor I went for.” Karl said. “I couldn’t bring several of my daughter, that’d be predictable. But several of you…”

“That’s a multitude of different possibilities. We’re all bound to do something different.” Green hat nodded.

“Well, you got to be Phil’s kid, he’d only wear a hat that fucking stupid.” The bandana snorted.

“Hey!” The green hat snapped before crossing her arms. “And you must be Tommy’s, nobody has a mouth that bad.”

“Fuck you! My dad’s amazing.” She held up her nose.

“He’s my brother and he’s an idiot.” She said, the one wearing a cape and L’Manberg uniform snorting.

“You wanna go bitch!” She challenged, putting a hand on her sword handle.

“No more weapons. Let’s introduce ourselves civically.” The L’Manberg uniform said, putting a hand on Tommy’s child's shoulder. “I’m Wilbur’s child.”

“That’s ironic coming from Wilbur’s kid.” Tommy’s daughter muttered.

“What does that mean?” She frowned.

“Nothing.” The other scoffed.

“I’m Tubbo’s.” The girl in overalls stepped forward.

“I’m Fundy’s.” The fox jacket raised her hand, Tommy’s daughter snickering about a furry and getting a glare in return.

“I’m Ranboo’s.” The black and white dress piped up timidly.

“I’m Ghostbur’s!” The blue hoodie grinned, make Wilbur’s child frown.

“I’m Eret’s.” The tiara curtsied.

“I’m Techno’s.” The cape crossed her arms.

“I’m Dream’s.” The mask said last.

“Ew.” Tommy’s daughter scrunched up her nose.

“Fuck off brat.” She scoffed.

“Bitch!” The other went forward but Phil’s child grabbed the back of her shirt to stop her.

“I know all of you have different nicknames from your fathers.” Karl stepped in to stop another fight before it started. “If we used them, it would be easier to talk to each other since you’re all named (Y/N). I…I call my daughter little traveler.”

“My dad calls me little blue!” The blue hoodie smiled widely.

“My father calls me Little Blade or goddess.”

“Little angel.” The bucket hat let go of the pouting girl.

“Big (F/L)!” The girl grinned now, lying about the big part.

“Little star.”

“Little Boo or Enderman.”

“Kit.” The fox jacket answered, not saying her other names.

“Little lamb or bee, whichever you like.”

“Princess.”

The girl with the smiley mask frowned, crossing her arms slightly. She didn’t exactly want these people to call her sweetheart. She thought of nicknames, little flame, little muffin, little color, but none of those were from her dad…except one.

“Little terror.” She looked away.

“Great.” Karl nodded. “Now that you all have different names we can use, we can make a plan…I-I’ve been trying to get out of the Inbetween, stop my traveling as I was forgetting too much. It didn’t like that and took (Y/N). Now it seems everyone in my world is forgetting her…I need to get her back.”

“Where exactly is she being kept?” Star asked.

“What kind of enemies will there be?” Blade questioned.

“Is it possible to just sneak in?” Angel added.

“I don’t know exactly where she’s being kept, I just know she’s deep in the Inbetween. And, with it being a powerful entity, it can conjure any enemies it wants and can see just about anything. That’s where the unpredictable patterns come in.” Karl nodded.

“Right, well, then let’s go fuck some shit up.” (F/L) grinned.

“We can’t just run in.” Star rolled her eyes. “Raise your hands if you can fight.”

Everyone raised their hands besides Blue and Boo gave a halfhearted raise.

“What’s with you?” Star nodded at Boo.

“I just don’t like fighting unless I need to.” Boo shrugged.

“Well, you’ll need to here, and you. Why can’t you fight?” Star asked Blue.

Blue shifted a bit nervously now as (F/L) scoffed, earning Star’s attention.

“She’s fucking Ghostbur’s kid. She won’t even be able to look at a fight.” (F/L) said.

“Who the hell is Ghostbur?” Star crossed her arms now.

(F/L) opened her mouth then closed it, frowning. Star was Wilbur’s kid. Meaning, she knew Alivebur but wouldn’t know…(F/L) looked at Karl with a few others, who shifted nervously himself.

“You’re all from different time periods in the SMP, some with different courses.”

“Hold up! That’s why you’re wearing a L’Manberg uniform?!” (F/L) whipped around to Star.

“I hardly see why—”

“He…Did you see Pogtopia?”

“(F/L).” Blade warned slightly as she stepped over, seeing not only Star stiffen but Kit and Lamb as well.

“I-I did.” Star nodded.

“How’d it end?”

“(F/L),” Angel said as well now.

“No, I need to know.”

“We won. We went home, what about it?” Star crossed her arms and gripped onto them.

“Because L’Manberg is gone. Blown up, by Wilbur. Who’s now.” (F/L) pointed at Blue, who was fiddling with a piece of blue. “Ghostbur.”

“That’s…Dad would never resort to such tactics.” Star clenched her hands. “Now we have different things to discuss rather than your wild accusations.”

“Wild huh? He—” (F/L) went to continue.

She was just scared and upset with old thoughts and memories that felt like they were surrounding her. She just wanted to take her anger out and didn’t see how she upsetting others around her. Angel did though and grabbed the back of her shirt, pulling her back with enough force, making (F/L) fall on her ass.

“You’re upsetting everyone. So shut up.” She told her.

(F/L) gripped her hands but did indeed see a few unsettled and an upset face on Blue as she stared at the piece of blue in her hands.

“Where do we start?” Terror asked this time. “We have to start somewhere to look.”

“I can send all of you into the heart of it all but I can’t come with. All I can offer are notes.” Karl told them, holding out a journal, which Boo stepped forward to take.

“Because it can predict you.” Blade nodded.

“So, we’re going in there half blind?” Kit huffed.

“I don’t want to send any of you in there.” Karl defended. “But I…I have no other options past this. Please, I hate to ask this, but please help me get my little traveler back.”

(F/L) stood up and dusted herself off. “Sure, whatever, as long as I can fuck shit up.”

Blade gave her a sharp whack on the back of her head and she glared at her.

“Alright, well then…everyone willing, raise your hand.” Angel stepped forward.

Star raised her hand and following after was Terror. (F/L) and Blade raised their hands next as Blue followed suit. Kit sighed, before raising her hand as Lamb nodded raising her hand and Princess as well. Boo hesitated before raising her hand. Everyone was willing to help.

“Then we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.” Terror nodded.

“Ok, everyone, please be careful. I hope to see you soon.” Karl said as he closed his eyes before reciting a few words, creating a new portal.

The different versions of the teenager looked at each other before they each jumped in, Blue being the last as she waved a happy bye to Karl. The portal closed and Karl sighed. He hoped everyone would be alright…

All the girls stood in an empty room a few doors at their disposal, several of them resting hands on their weapons.

“Alright, where do we start?” Blade asked.

“Well, there’s no time like the present!” (F/L) said, going to a random door as Boo was looking through Karl’s book.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Lamb warned her, following quickly.

“We’ll be fine.” She opened the door and there was a normal-looking hallway. “See? Nothing to worry about. Now come on, we got shit to wreck. Treasure to possibly find.”

“How are we all the same person?” Star muttered, Lamb looking over at the others in question. “Come on.”

Everyone went to follow until Boo spoke up.

“Be careful. Karl says as soon as the Inbetween knows we’re here, it will try and trick us. Turn us around. We’re going to have to be careful.” She said as she looked at the others.

“Then let’s make as much ground as we can before it figures out.” Blade nodded.

Boo closed the book before everyone started making their way down the hall, (F/L) in front with a hand on her sword. The hallway was purely white with columns holding up the ceiling above them, a few plants held on tables but after that, there was nothing else. No doors leading anywhere.

“How do we know it doesn’t already know we’re here and we’re about to walk down this hallway endlessly?” Kit asked, frowning as she looked to Blue next to her as she just hummed happily.

“I suppose we won’t know unless we keep going.” Terror mumbled.

“Would you guys stop complaining? I have a great sense of direction and I know this is the right way.” (F/L) rolled her eyes.

It was another good five minutes of walking before they finally reached one door at the end of the hallway.

“Thank fuck.” (F/L) huffed before opening the door. “Oh, for the love of--!”

Inside was a square room with different openings. This time though, they could see inside various looking rooms.

“Where the hell do, we go?” (F/L) crossed her arms as everyone gathered into the square room.

“What happened to your great sense of direction?” Blade snorted.

“Fuck off.”

“You got anything back there, Ender?” Star looked at her.

“Not much,” Boo muttered as she flipped the page. “Just that the further we go in, the deeper we get in.”

“And Karl said his kid will be deep in.” Angel put her hands on her hips. “So, we need to go through as many rooms as possible before we’re caught.”

“So, no more five-minute hallways.” Terror smirked.

“We can still go bitch!” (F/L) threatened.

“Well, maybe we should go in the nicer-looking room,” Lamb suggested.

“No, we need one with a door close by,” Star said, looking through the various rooms, ranging from being outdoors to an actual room.

“The courtyard looks safest; we can see nothing’s there and the doors just across it.” Princess pointed out.

“Yeah, it looks like the best way.” Star nodded. “Come on.”

The group walked through the door and with ease, went into a wider hallway, following that once more down till they came to a new doorway. It was much of the same cycle, they’d go through door after door, trying to get deeper into dimensions they didn’t understand and where they had no concept of time. They didn’t do much exploring, wishing to complete the work given, though some like Kit and (F/L) were a little eager to grab anything shiny while Blue grabbed several blue things she spotted.

As they were walking down another hallway that had other corridors, that was currently leading to dead ends, Star quickly hid in one of the corridors as she was in the lead as she hissed;

“Hide!”

Everyone was quick to follow her, some in the corridor across from her and some with her, all except Blue. Terror grabbed her though and pulled her into the one across from Star. The girls all looked to see something they’ve never seen. A human figure made completely of metal, but not like armor. It was pure metal everywhere.

“Boo?” Star whispered to the girl on her side and she was frantically flipping through the book as she tried to figure out what they were looking at.

“I-I don’t know.” She whispered back.

Kit stared at the figure walking from all of them and saw a faint red glow within the metal.

“It’s blocking the next door.” (F/L) hissed to her group on the other side. “Let’s just kill it, it’s obviously a mob of…some sort.”

“And how do you want to do that?” Terror motioned to it. “It’s made of metal.”

“And redstone.” Kit muttered.

(F/L), Terror, Princess, and Blue looked at the girl. Kit took a deep breath.

“It’s running on redstone. See the faint glow? It’s being powered by it.”

“What the hell is that?” (F/L) looked at it with wide eyes as Star frowned over at the others, unable to hear what they were staying.

“You break the circuit,” Fundy told Kit as he brushed the redstone away from the piston he set up with his sword and the piston went down. “You take away the power.”

“We need it out of the way and if we break the circuit, it doesn’t have power. I got it.” Kit said before sneaking out.

Star motioned furiously in a panic to know what was going on as Kit silently came up behind the thing. Years of practice helped as she quietly pulled her sword, seeing a redstone connection on the thing’s neck exposed before she swung her sword. She froze when it turned suddenly and caught her sword, staring at her with glowing red eyes.

“Fuck.” Star hissed before coming out, bow drawn. “Kit duck!”

Kit let go of the sword and dropped before Star let an arrow fly and hit its mark where Kit had been aiming earlier. The glowing eyes faded into darkness and Kit took a deep breath but panicked as the thing came falling forward. Lamb came swooping in and pulled Kit out of the way as it crashed down with a loud thud.

“That was close.” Kit muttered.

“What the hell was that?” Blade asked.

“We needed to get past it.” (F/L) motioned as all the girls came out of their hallways. “Kit saw an opportunity and took it to help us.”

“We don’t even know what this thing is!” Star argued.

“Whatever the hell it is, it was powered by redstone.” Kit brushed herself off after Lamb helped her up. “We broke its circuit.”

“Redstone?” Terror tilted her head slightly as she looked at the thing of metal.

“I think everyone forgot.” Everyone looked at Angel. “We were spotted, so let’s go mates before the Inbetween knows where we are.”

“Right.” Star nodded. “Let’s get moving quickly.”

She took lead once again to the door and everyone followed, Kit putting a hand on (F/L)’s shoulder after she gathered her sword.

“Thanks.”

“It was a good plan.” (F/L) shrugged before the pair continued.

They all entered the room to find a wide, empty room with…

“No doors. Great, it knows we’re here.” Blade muttered.

Kit scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

“It was always going to find us.” (F/L) said. “Now, let’s find the damn door. Boo said it would fuck with us, so there’s going to be a door.”

Everyone, but Boo who was continuing to read the little facts they had, split up into the room a few going along the walls and a few checking the floor, even Blue after some convincing. They had all had their fair share of secret rooms and knew different ways to find them.

“Karl calls that thing out there a robot,” Boo told the others as she traced a hand over Karl’s drawing. “Kit was right, it was being powered by a redstone block core. Breaking one part of the circuit shuts it down.”

Kit smiled to herself for being right as she continued to knock along the wall.

“Hey.” Princess call tapping her heel against the ground hard as she heard something hollow under the tile. “I think I found it. The tile is solid though.”

“I got it.” Terror took off her axe. “Everyone, back up.”

Everyone stepped back before Terror held her axe high then slammed it on the tile. A crack appeared and began to spider web. Terror stepped back to the group before the ground broke open into a new room.

“There could be anything down there.” Blade said gripping her sword hilt. “So, everyone be ready.”

With simultaneous nods from everyone but Boo and Blue, all the girls jumped down and landed on the floor below. The good news was they could see the door a bit a ways from their group, the bad news was the several soldiers from different eras in time that stood in front of them, outnumbering them.

“To the door!” Angel yelled before starting the sprint over, nobody arguing as they ran with her.

Now behind them, the soldiers gave a battle cry and charged. Boo put the book in her bag to pull off her shield with (F/L) and Lamb and the trio blocked arrows that came from a few archers. Star retaliated in their retreats with a few arrows of their own but the soldiers would fall to dust when her arrows would hit their marks.

“What the hell is this?!” Star shouted.

“Doesn’t matter! The door!” Blade told her.

Angel flung the door open and held it open to let everyone run in before slipping in herself and slamming it shut…the door disappearing. She took a moment to catch her breath.

“I hate this.” (F/L) muttered and Angel turned to look at a thin bridge to the next door.

“We have to go forward.” Star put her bow away.

“Fuck me.” Terror shook her head as she looked over to see nothing but Void. “Alright. Slow across. Here we go, ladies.”

Nothing happened in the room, everyone just going across the bridge slowly, one by one. There was fear the door behind them would reappear but it never did. From there, it became much of the same.

The Inbetween messed with them through every door. May it be scares of long drops or hordes of enemies they often ran from, they saw a lot, though it never discouraged them. They didn’t fear, they continued to work. They made it room from room, completed puzzle after puzzle, passed enemy after enemy. All of this was honestly nothing more than they’d seen before. Every one of them had seen their fair share of battles and traps. It was nothing more.

They all pulled their weight as well. Blade, Angel, and Terror were doing well with holding enemies off with their fighting skills. Boo was able to call out a few traps with the knowledge of the book she had made through after so many rooms. Star, Kit, Lamb, and Princess were excellent at solving puzzles. Blue was also wonderful moral support.

“We must have made it through hundreds of rooms by now.” (F/L) huffed as they came into a large white room.

“Ender only knows.” Terror muttered.

“Hey, that door is different.” Star pointed out.

It was true. Across the large room from them was a large, heavy-looking metal door.

“We have to be extremely deep in.” (F/L) reasoned. “So that’s where Traveler must be.”

“Yeah, but this is too easy. An empty room with the one door we need? It’s a trap.” Blade muttered.

“What room hasn’t been a trap?” (F/L) threw out. “Let’s go.”

She went forward and everyone shared a look before following after her carefully. Just as Blade suspected, goop moved along the floor as they took several steps in. Everyone froze, having never seen anything like this yet in the hundreds of rooms they had gone through. Weapons were drawn as the girls all lined up side by side, other than Blue and Boo, who were a step behind everyone.

This had to be the last trap before the end and they’d succeed so they could all go home.

They waited for the goop to do anything but the last thing they expected was for it to start to take human-like shapes and all girls were gripped by fear.

In front of Blade stood Quackity holding an axe with a wicked grin.

In front of Star stood Schlatt with a smirk and hands in his pockets.

In front of Angel stood Tubbo with a decree in his hand.

In front of Princess stood Dream with an axe as well.

In front of Kit stood another Dream with a crossbow.

In front of Terror stood a third Dream with his mask fully on and hands in his hoodie.

In front of Lamb stood Sapnap with a flint and steel.

In front of Boo stood Ranboo with two purple eyes.

In front of Blue stood Wilbur holding a stick of dynamite.

In front of (F/L) stood a final Dream smirking with two discs in his hand.

In front of each girl stood their worst fears.

Blade gripped onto her sword tighter as she felt smaller like she had the first time she saw Quackity as Star’s throat closed; no words available. Angel felt like the walls were closing in and she was stuck once more as Princess remembered all the meetings her father had with Dream. Kit remembered her father taking ten paces from Dream as Terror shook slightly staring at her father. Lamb heard the sounds of sparking fire as Boo saw a terrifying man looming over her and Blue heard the whispers of who her father really was.

(F/L)…(F/L) merely stared before she took a step forward and gripped onto her sword. The Dream in front of her frowned before going for a sword on his hip. (F/L) snarled before leaping forward and slashing through the Dream before he pulled his sword. The goop’s image broke as it moved back before turning into another Wilbur holding dynamite. (F/L) simply spun and sliced up. The goop turned into Tubbo in a president’s uniform and she sliced down once more.

The goop backed off a bit as (F/L) let out a breath.

“They’re not real. You’ve faced these fears before!” (F/L) told them. “It’s pulling from your past so you’re stronger now than these fears. So, FUCK ‘EM! KNOCK THEM DOWN!”

The goop in front of her turned into a dirty and beat-up Tommy and she screamed.

“FUCK YOU BASTARD!”

She struck again and it inspired the other girls. Blade rushed the Quackity, spinning out of the way of the axe, cape flying as she cut through him. Star pulled her bow with speed and fired through the Schlatt’s forehead. Angel knocked the decree out of Tubbo’s hand as she rushed him before cutting through him. Princess weaved through attacks by the Dream with elegance before striking him. Kit ducked and nimbly went past the second Dream’s arrows before managing to land a hit.

Terror gripped onto her axe before facing combat with the image of her father. Fires sprung up around Lamb as she sprinted but she managed through them before leading over one and landing her sword on its mark. Boo and Blue, however, were defenseless. Boo was taking steps back from the looming form of the enderwalked hybrid as Blue shook and held her ears as the Wilbur spoke to her as he got close to her.

“This is who I really am (Y/N), and you know it. You know everything! You remember. You can’t keep it all out!” The Wilbur mocked.

Star and Blade noticed and before the goop in front of either of them reformed they sprung into action. Star aimed her bow at the ender hybrid and fired. The hybrid teleported and then appeared in front of her. She startled before pulling another arrow and stabbing the hybrid in the side making it fall to goop. Blade rushed to the Wilbur and slashed him down before he lit the dynamite.

(F/L) just struck down a Technoblade when she heard the clashing of weapons then a scream. She looked back and saw Terror had lost to her fear. (F/L) clenched her jaw before she turned and rushed.

“SUCK THIS GREEN BOI!” (F/L) cried cutting down the Dream as he had raised his axe over Terror.

(F/L) let out heavy breaths before holding a hand out to Terror. Terror stared at her hand before taking it and (F/L) pulled her up.

“I don’t know what he did to you, but fuck him.” (F/L) told her as she looked to see both of their goop piles retreating and a few of the others’ goop as well after they struck down a few more fears.

“Thanks.” Terror muttered as Blade struck down an angry Fundy for Blue before that goop retreated.

“Whatever.” (F/L) mumbled before seeing all the goop was gone. “To the door now!”

She didn’t push though as everyone took deep breaths and regained steady footing. She’d faced the fears before but it still struck her core. Though she wouldn’t let it show. She had to be strong and it was how she helped greatly on this adventure with her determination to strike down her fears.

Blue was now clutching a piece of blue as she handed out a few pieces to the others. Everyone took one at the very least as they gathered themselves.

“Alright.” Star took out a breath. “Let’s go get Traveler.”

They all walked forward as one to the door, (F/L) tall in front. Shouldering the door open, as it was indeed heavy, they found themselves inside indeed a prison block. There were a few other strange creatures and people around in different cells but they had only one person to find. That’s where they spotted the heavily guarded cage where five guards stood armed with different weapons in front of the cage suspended in the air. Inside, on the floor, sat a girl in a multicolored hoodie similar to Karl’s.

“We found her, now what? We can’t exactly show up armed like this. They’ll get reinforcements by the hundreds if they know we made it to the end.” Kit pointed at the armed forces.

“You’re right, we need a distraction.” Star looked around.

“…Or we need someone unarmed.” (F/L) said before looking at Blue and Boo.

“Oh, you’re not serious.” Boo went slack.

“You guys aren’t a threat.” Terror reasoned. “Just enough time for the rest of us to flank them and keep them in one place.”

“I hate this,” Boo muttered. “Come on Blue. Let’s go make friends.”

Blue’s eyes lit up and grinned before rushing out, making Boo startle and race after her. The others split up and went on either side.

From the cage, Traveler looked up hearing all the talking going on below her, and stood as she saw a different version of herself in a blue hoodie and another in a black and white dress.

“Hi! I’m Blue! You want to be friends?” The blue hooded girl beamed as the black and white dress shifted nervously.

“This is all that’s left?” One of the guards laughed as they approached the two girls. “You have no weapons.”

“We-We’re not fighters,” Boo mumbled, taking the back of Blue’s hoodie to pull her back from the guard.

“Run! Get out of here!” Traveler shouted.

“One less problem to worry about then.” The approaching guard stopped and raised their weapon.

Boo stiffened as Traveler shouted shaking the bars of their cage when she went silent as an arrow pierced through the guard’s weapon and sent it crashing to the floor.

“I’ll have you find it’s not very appropriate to point a weapon at a lady.” Star notched a new arrow and pointed the bow at the guard. “Knees, now.”

One guard tried to run to get help only to find Angel in front of them with a shield.

“Hey mate.” She grinned before slamming the shield into them, knocking them out.

Blade rushed another guard and tripped them over and knocked them out with the hilt of her sword. (F/L) and Lamb corned one between them and Lamb knocked them out as well. Kit jumped on the back of the last one startling them and causing them to move forward where Princess simply tripped the guard, making them fall flat on their face, knocking them out cold. The last guard got on their knees as Star came over. She elbowed them in the back of the head and they fell over.

“I thought you were about words.” (F/L) joked.

“Fuck off child.”

“We’re the same age!!” She threw up her arms as Kit went over to the mechanism holding up Traveler’s cage.

“Who are all of you?” Traveler asked.

“You.” Most of the group answered.

“We’re you with different dads,” Boo answered more clearly.

“Really? Wow…” Traveler muttered. “Do you know where my dad is?”

“You’re in luck. He sent us. And he said you might be able to give us some sort of reward—”

Blade smacked (F/L) on the back of the head making her glare at her.

“Ignore her. He did send us to confuse the Inbetween and here we are.” Star said.

Kit let out a noise of victory before managing to lower the cage.

“Back up.” Terror instructed Traveler and she stepped back.

Terror struck the lock on the door with her axe and it shattered. Traveler came out grinning.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”

They all gave various gestures of greeting before an alarm sounded. The group bunched up together, pulling out their weapons.

“We’re going to have to go through all those doors again,” Princess said.

“We might need to fight to the door.” Blade reasoned and Blue whimpered.

“No, we won’t.” Traveler told them. “Everyone, grab on to each other and someone hold onto me.”

Everyone shared a look but they had to trust themself they supposed. Star and (F/L) grabbed onto Traveler’s shoulders as everyone held onto one another. Hundreds of guards rushed to the girls as Traveler took a deep breath then closed her eyes. She mumbled words under her breath, none of the girls understood as she also made several hand gestures. Wind picked up around them, actually pushing guards back before Traveler shouted incoherent words to everyone else before clapping her hands.

A thunderous sound echoed out before everyone stumbled and fell.

“(Y/N)!” Karl shouted with delight as he rushed over and pulled his daughter into his arms. “You’re ok. You’re back!”

He laughed as he hugged her tightly as Traveler gave a tired laugh herself.

“Hey, dad. Yeah…I got us all home.”

“Thank Ender you’re ok my little traveler.” Karl let out a breath of relief before looking at the other versions of his daughter, getting up. “Thank you, all of you.”

“It was nothing.” (F/L) waved her hand. “It was easy.”

There were various eye rolls as Karl smiled at (F/L)’s statement before he stood up.

“It was a lot,” Star admitted. “But we all pulled our own weights and even Traveler saved us in the end, using something to get us right back here rather than going through those doors once more.”

Karl smiled at Traveler, who still sat on the ground, and waved her hand.

“It was nothing.” She mumbled.

“She won’t have energy for a while but I’m glad you all got out safely. I’m very proud of little traveler and all of you. And now, I’ll send you home.”

“Right, home. As weird as it is to see…well myself. I might actually miss you guys.” (F/L) admitted. “You guys are ok.”

Terror gave a snort. “Thanks (F/L). But I’ll miss all of you too. All of your personalities are kind of refreshing…”

“When are we even going to appear at our homes, Karl?” Lamb asked.

“You’ll appear a few moments after you left,” Karl answered.

“So, it will be like nothing ever happened.” Blade said.

“Will we remember?” Boo questioned.

“I…debated not letting anyone remember, even myself.” That made everyone’s eyes go wide. “But I think it would be kinder to let everyone remember that wants to.”

“Hell, yeah I want to.” (F/L) declared.

“You just can’t tell anyone about it, only your Karl’s.” Karl finished.

It weighed on a few of the group as (F/L) nodded.

“I’m fine with that.”

“I’m pretty good with secrets, so I want to remember.” Terror agreed.

“It was…an interesting experience. I don’t want to soon forget it.” Star said.

“I learned a few things I’d like to keep.” Blade nodded.

“Ah, why the hell not remember mate?” Angel shrugged.

“It wasn’t something you see every day so I wish to remember it to learn.” Princess put her hands behind her back.

“It was pretty cool at some points, so let’s remember.” Lamb declared.

“I learned a few things I could use at home so I need to remember.” Kit grinned.

“I made friends and I don’t want to forget them!” Blue smiled brightly.

“I guess if everyone else is going to remember, I’d be like my dad and be the only one to forget if I said yes to forgetting. So, I think I’ll pass on forgetting and remember.” Boo decided.

“Then, everyone can go home and they’ll remember everything they saw. You just have to keep it to yourselves and your Karl.”

“And hey, if you ever need us again. You can give us a call and we’ll kick the Inbetween’s ass!” (F/L) smirked.

Karl chuckled before nodding. “I’ll remember that. For now.”

Karl took out a book, reciting words from its pages before ten portals opened, each one leading to where each girl had last been moments before.

“Everyone go home to your families,” Karl told them.

“Well…Peace out bitches!” (F/L) saluted to them before diving into her portal with a scream and it closed.

“Ender, she’s just like Tommy,” Star muttered before giving a bow. “Goodbye.”

And she stepped through her portal and disappeared.

“Good luck.” Blade waved and left.

“Till we meet again.” Terror adjusted her mask as she went in.

“Bye friends!” Blue grinned before falling through her portal.

“To new friendships.” Angel nodded.

“To new friendships.” Kit agreed before they stepped through their separate ones.

“To new adventures.” Princess shrugged as she went through.

“My Karl better be ready for a long talk.” Lamb stepped through as Karl laughed.

“To new memories.” Boo went to step through but stopped. “Ah! Your book. Here, I added a few notes myself so you know about everything in there.”

Karl took the book from the girl in the black and white dress. The girl waved before stepping through her portal. He opened it as he sat next to his (Y/N). Inside was pristine handwriting noting down several pages of things about the Inbetween that Karl didn’t know. Alongside it was notes about the others like (F/L)’s and Blade’s different fighting styles or Princess’ elegance as she moved through enemies.

“I’m pretty cool where ever I’m from.” Traveler smiled tiredly.

Karl chuckled as he hugged her tightly and kissing the top of her head. “Yes, you are my little traveler. Let’s finally get you home…”

Karl had her and herselves to thank from her own safe return. He’d be forever grateful.

#mcyt fanfiction #mcyt reader insert #mcyt imagine #mcyt x reader #dreamsmp x reader

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yue-muffin · 4 years

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The muffin watches Love and Redemption (insert preemptive crying here)

Aright, I finally FINALLY finished live blogging this episode. @mejomonster my thoughts are aplenty! I actually wrote way too much!

Edit: I’m an idiot, I forgot to mention a prediction/observation.

Episode 1:

The CGI is actually very nice in this drama, I’m pleased. I will definitely watch dramas with cringe-worthy CGI, but it’s always nice when they manage to integrate it with the actors and set pieces well, which is even harder to accomplish in Xianxia.

Wait, what did the god of war do to deserve the reincarnation out of the heavenly realm punishment? Didn’t she defeat the Asura/Mosha guy? Was it because she used his weapon or something? And in the first place, why does that half of the Mosha guy’s soul qualify as a celestial that can be reborn? I suppose everyone is subject to reincarnation, but this batch is explicitly for those who have committed crimes in the heavens and wasn’t he on the demon/asura side? Or…maybe he was a celestial who betrayed them? Who knows, I’m just wildly speculating…

The scene definitely suggests there is a lot the narration is not telling us about how these two ended up being reincarnated - yet.

If she lacks the six senses, then why can she see and hear just fine? She apparently can’t feel pain, which would count for the deficiency of touch. Hm.

Xuanji, I relate to just wanting to go back to sleep and not deal with visitors so much lol.

HA, that little look of alarm one of the shixiongs (Liuzi?) has on his face when Linglong tries to convince Xuanji it’ll be fun because they get to check out the handsome guys. So is Linglong supposed to be her twin since they’re both 16 years old?

The dragon wolf thing moves a little funny, but at least it doesn’t look glaringly out of place and the camera doesn’t focus on it for too long, as is typical of CGI monsters. Kudos to them!

Cheng Yi is low-key really good looking in action scenes, just putting that out there. I didn’t think I would adjust to him in period clothing and long hair so quickly, since it usually takes me a while to make the switch (after seeing him in The Lost Tomb 2), but nope! He looks really good!

Ah, so this is the ruthless sect. I love how their first rule, which is literally more important than anything else they may value or encourage in their members, is to not show their entire face when outside the sect…also, what’s the point in hiding only half your face?? Sifeng’s mask only covers one eye, his forehead, and cheek on one side…at least have it cover the entire upper or lower half like everyone else in the sect (I know it’s so we can actually see the actor’s face and not supposed to make sense in-universe)?? I actually do like how they designed it though, it’s far less clunky than the full-face masks we saw in the opening sequence, probably due to the curves.

Sect leader…Sifeng is 16, he IS little pfft. Even adjusting for the times, he is a BABY haha. As I grow older, I realize more and more how young a lot of protags in fantasy stories really are. Also, sect leader is a drama queen, like he’s just lounging on his chair with this dramatic laid-back pose, takes a deep breath, and turns his chin up. So extra.

Aw, yes, I want to see more of Cheng Yi’s easy smiles. He’s so serious in TLT2, except when the warmth seeps into this expression when he’s smiling fondly at Wu Xie…

These devil/asura people have a weird bowing pose. I can’t help but think their hands make them look like…eagle claws or something lol.

Ah, a classic ‘I forgot my invitation’ situation. Well, Xuanji doesn’t have to feel too bad, apparently none of the other Shaoyang disciples know how to fly on a sword either lol. Her sister was tied down by that spell, but could none of the others have attempted to chase after the jerk who grabbed her? (Side note: I really love the color of his sect’s outfits.)

:3 I like Xuanji’s expressions, they’re just cute? So cute. Like her little huff when she’s defending her big sister from the jerkass. Also, I love characters who are like little kittens who puff up and try to protect their friends/family even though the one they’re trying to protect is probably more capable than them.

Jerkass really does take it too far when he just DROPS HER FROM THE SKY. Like, I can accept if youthful teasing goes a little far in that he snatched her and took her for a joy ride, but when it’s apparently that she really can’t summon a sword, it’s 100% not okay to just drop her and laugh it off. If Sifeng didn’t catch her, she could’ve died, and how exactly do you plan on explaining THAT to her father, huh Mr. Jerkass? He had like a dozen witnesses too.

Well, what can you expect from a guy who forgot to bring his invitation and literally was too arrogant and entitled to wait for his teacher to come out and let them in. :p Not the smartest cookie, is he. Even if you got in trouble for forgetting your invitation, you’d get in x10 more trouble for murdering a girl. Good thing she has plot armor and Sifeng was conveniently in the right spot to catch her lol.

Small note, he left her on his sword and she fell off after a bit - so…how exactly is HE flying? Can people fly without the help of their sword? Is he able to make more than one?

Lol Xuanji tugs at him like she does to her sister, it’s cute. But he’s so PANIC every time she touches him haha poor guy. He’s so awkward…why is it so endearing…

It took me a second to realize that he stutters, also that he has a voice actor this time! Idk why, Cheng Yi has a good voice. It would’ve fit this role just fine, unless there were parts they were concerned he couldn’t do. They did a good job matching the VA to his lip movements though, it’s really hard to tell it’s not his voice. It’s been a while since I heard Cheng Yi on video, but listening and comparing, now I can tell that it’s not his in this drama. Anyways, this might be my only complaint lol. Both he and his VA do a good job conveying the stuttering though!

Cheng Yi, you’re playing another character who’s good at disappearing in the blink of an eye lol…

Aah, so normally her sister’s personality type is the annoying sort, which is why she works well as a supporting character. I love how she turns her brattiness up to eleven in order to help Xuanji get out of a scolding by their father. I just really love how these two are so supportive and defensive of each other.

Edit: Alright, but Xuanji did you really just raise a flag for yourself so early in the show. ‘I think tears are the most precious things’. I WILL EAT MY HAT IF THIS DOES NOT BECOME RELEVANT LATER.

And instead of holding onto Sifeng’s name tag for like 50 episodes, she remembers she has it and goes to give it back + some birthday snacks because it’s his birthday too! GAH Xuanji is too cute.

I love how the guy who answered the door just his back only to turn around and smoothly give an explanation for his friend’s disfluency lol (so it’s a language thing!). AND THEN HE GOES ‘carry on!’ AND TURNS AROUND AGAIN. Idk why I find this funny but.

? Why all that effort for dew from a peach blossom tree. Is this one a special peach blossom tree. Why is he making tea with it. OH OK it’s good for cultivation.

He’s so vicious ha, he’s clearly perplexed by her - I mean, he’s the top disciple in his sect, so likely he doesn’t get how she can live so carefree and not have any desire to cultivate or anything. It’s perplexing and kind of total opposite to his worldview, so he reacts harshly.

Ah, I really like Cheng Yi’s acting! He goes from flat/indifferent face to reacting angrily to her picking the snake up, then a subtle worry as his eyes drop down from her to the snake.

I don’t know why I like this snake scene but I dooo. xD Also, it’s interesting how she doesn’t feel any strong emotions (she’s actually rather intensely curious tho!), while he puts on a mask literally/figuratively to seem like he doesn’t and yet gets worked up quite easily.

I’m glad she stops imitating him when he tells her to and is explicitly angry/upset, I get enough of people being assholes and making fun of others for things they can’t help like their speech impairments or mannerisms, it’s just kind of a personal thing that irks me.

AW HE’S SO PROTECTIVE OF HIS LITTLE SNAKE.

Why is it always the peach tree forests?? They’re always weird places that trap people. I can think of two other dramas where this happens haha. I know peaches do have significant symbolism in Chinese culture, so maybe that explains it.

Lol he still flips out a bit when she gets close. Poor girl, getting dropped from the air AGAIN.

Ah, this is the lake! Where they sealed part of that Mosha guy’s soul! This can’t be good.

Aw, look at his face, he’s genuinely worried for his little snake. CHENG YI YOUR RANGE OF EMOTIONS. GAH.

I CAN’T OPEN IT. Oh wait.

WHY DID YOU GO IIIIN YOU JUST SAID YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING AND HE TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT, YOU LITTLE IDIOT. If he’s Little Stutterer, you can be Little Idiot, ok.

Here’s an idea, she finds the snake, you fight the dragon, and then all three of you get out of there.

OH the mask comes off!! Ok, but you have seen like most of his face already…Hahaha the look on his face ‘wait…why do I feel a hand why is she touching me there…OH NO’

Ah, a nice detail I didn’t think they’d think to add in: his stuttering got way worse without the mask on, since he was so upset/shaken.

?? What just happened with her blood lol.

Final Thoughts:

An interesting start, with nice character dynamics revealed and a dangerous situation to move the plot right along. I have been informed the drama really differentiates itself from the typical setup that has been supplied thus far, and I’m excited to see it unfold.

For now, I have a tiiiiny crush on Cheng Yi and I’m interested in where they take Xuanji’s character. Also, what disasters will result from their little excursion into the super lake where a demon lord thing was sort of sealed away a long time ago...

#the muffin's liveblogging adventures #love and redemption

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kuningannasansa · 4 years

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A musketeers rewatch (that nobody asked for) 1x08

In which Richelieu almost gets his husband killed

We start with Labarge (spl?) being escorted through the streets of Paris by musketeers. He is played by that guy who always plays violent brutes with few if any lines of dialogue.

Red guards show up and demand that the prisoner is handed over to them. Then Labarge beats the crap out of them until the musketeers intervene. Not before a red guard is killed thou. By another red guard attempting to strike at Labarge.

The dead man is called Captain Trudeau. And the red guard who killed him blames the musketeers.

Now they’re fighting each other! Male egos...

Treville says Trudeau was given fair warning and it’s his own fault he’s dead. Kind of harsh. Richelieu retorts that Treville had no business arresting a regional intendant without coming to him first. I’m really struggling to see Labarge in the role of regional intendant, but I guess that’s the point. Treville shoots back that he’s a violent criminal who subjected Gascony to a reign of terror. And Richelieu says that the man exceeded his authority and he was in the process of calling him back before the musketeers intervened. I know I’m supposed to take the musketeers side here, but I really see no reason to doubt Richelieu.

Treville is mad and says any of his musketeers could defeat any of the red guards and Louis immediately makes a bet! So there we are, that’s the plot sorted out. I love their bickering thou xD

Richelieu looks so panicked, poor dear! He knows he doesn’t stand a chance but he can’t afford to back down.

Constance and D’artagnan are being cute and domestic!

D’artagnan apologizes for the rent being overdue. Nice reference to the books! But in the books he doesn’t apologize, he is quite insulted that some commoner would even dare to bother him with such trivialities. Much more realistic to a noble of the era, but I guess not something a modern audience would sympathise with.

Here Bonacieux actually tells him off thou and that’s too far in the other direction, kind of takes me out of the story.

Treville is so excited about this contest! Bless!

The entry fee is 30 livres and our boys haven’t got it. It’s time to go womanizing! In the church.

Aramis knows all the women there, of course.

“It’s a requiem mass not a party at Madame Angel’s” - and then they cross themselves lol.

Labarge has destroyed D’artagnan’s farm “as a warning to other local landowners” because Dart’s father was “greatly respected”. But Dart had done nothing to him and his father is long dead? I don’t get this.

Porthos can’t lie for shit and Alice helps him out cause she fancies him! That’s cute!

Alice has put on a colourful dress and her maid is judging her.

Porthos says it must be great for her to have all of her husband’s things to remember him by and I thought he was talking of his own lack of things to remember his mother by but Alice responded by giving him her husband’s solid gold candle snuffer! So was he fishing for that the whole time? It really comes across more like he wasn’t but then took the opportunity.

D’artagnan proclaims he is ready and Athos just smiles. And proceeds to provoke him with tales of Labarge being comfortable in the Bastille with his “every whim attended to”. But we had a scene before of Labarge being fed disgusting prison food and talked down to by a guard, so not true lol.

Doesn’t stop D’art from barging into Richelieu’s office screaming thou.

Richelieu offers him patronage and D’art turns it down. This episode almost feels like the book.

“As a citizen of France I demand my rights” - you are a subject of the King. Shut up.

Milady overheard the whole thing!

“Your fascination with these musketeers seems inexhaustible.” - lol Armand, look who’s talking!

Milady: “I do everything for you.” Richelieu: “Permit me to doubt that.” - but in the last episode you trusted her to manage the Ninon thing even in the event of your death?

“There was a time I found your independence of spirit arousing. I must warn you, Milady, that time is now past.” - this line is gross and unnecessary. But also, what did she do between last episode and this one to change his opinion like that? I guess the writers just needed him to discard her for plot reasons, but it could have been better written.

Red guards arrest a protesting Bonacieux! This really is the book episode!

Bonacieux: “You want me to spy on him [D’art]?” Richelieu: “I can see you are a man of quick intelligence.”

Why is his office so huge and empty thou, with one little desk in it?

D’artagnan... steals a red guard uniform. And breaks into the Bastille. Wow, okay, totally forgot about that bit.

And he does the whole “my name is D’artagnan of Lupiac in Gascony” thing again. And tries to force a confession out of Labarge.

And Labarge would have killed him if Athos had not shown up.

Athos: “What did I tell you about thinking before you act!” D’artagnan: “I can’t help it, I’m not like you!” Athos: “You are, more than you know.” - oh, you mean you also didn’t think before you strung up your wife from a tree? Yeah, i see that.

A milathos scene! Athos says he won’t attack a defenceless woman and Milady laughs as though at the idea that she is defenceless, but it breaks my heart cause dude, you very much did do just that.

“I have to make a living somehow, what better patron could I have?” Milady says of Richelieu and she is right!

“I’m a soldier, just like you.” - YES! SHE IS!

She tries to come on to him for casual sex and he rejects her. With difficulty, but still :((

She gives him “fair warning” to stay away from her.

Papa Treville looks so proud looking at Athos and D’art training!

Richelieu tells Labarge that he “overstepped his limits” and “ruled Gascony like a petty tyrant”. Lebarge says he just gave people the needed encouragement to pay their taxes and Richelieu replies: “Perhaps if more of the taxes you collected had reached the treasury, I’d be inclined to overlook your excesses.” LOL!

Constance sells her stuff to get D’art the money. And then Milady gives it to him before she can. And D’art doesn’t decline even thou all he knows of her is that she left him to take the the blame for her murder and lied about Ninon. He literally doesn’t give a fuck as long as he can enter this fight!

Milady looks so pretty in this scene thou!

Porthos and Alice are getting on very well!

So Milady gave D’art some pendant with a flower on it together with the money as a “token of friendship” and now Bonacieux has nicked it.

D’art: “I found a patron of my own.” Aramis: “Wealthy widow?” D’art: “Not as far as I know.” - so like, with Milady telling her that her lover tried to kill her and Athos’s dead wife coming back from the dead to kill him and Athos clearly recognising the woman at Ninon’s trial, D’art still hasn’t had the penny drop? Or he has and just doesn’t want to tell Athos that he’s taking his wife’s money?

Aramis is the best shot, Porthos is the best at hand to hand combat and D’art does pretty well with the sword, but we don’t see Athos try that.

And Richelieu has commissioned Labarge! xD

Who beats the crap out of his other men. That can’t be good for morale! Like for real, what must the red guards be thinking? Richelieu has made a criminal who killed their captain the new captain! And mocks them publicly for not being as good as him in a fight!

The pendant is also now in Richelieu’s hands.

Treville was spying on Richelieu!

Bonacieux bought Constance a bracelet to celebrate his good luck of getting a contract. See, I love when the antagonists are not complete monsters and get human moments like this!

“Becoming a musketeer was the best thing that ever happened to me... until I met you.” - Oh Porthos! That was smooth!

And Alice offers to support him if he leaves the musketeers.

D’art is looking for his pendant and doesn’t tell Constance about it when she asks if he’s lost something. He knows he’s doing wrong but the glory is beckoning so he can’t help it.

Constance runs after him to give him a goodbye kiss and Bonacieux sees them. That’s what you get for flaunting your affair in the open street. I mean, even if he hadn’t been there, these other people are all her neighbours, who would gossip.

Treville nominates himself and the musketeers are like “this is bullshit”. I don’t blame them. But Papa is just trying to protect them and he knows he’ll get their resentment as a reward! So sad!

“Was your life so bad, Constance? Was I ever cruel to you, did I beat you?” - this is good writing. It would have been so boring if they had made him into a physically abusive brute.

Threatening her with killing D’art isn’t cool thou!

Athos accuses Treville of having a midlife crisis and wanting “one last moment of glory”. And when he leaves, Treville just rubs his face and he looks so tired!

And Constance breaks up with D’art! Meaning he loses the fight and her on the same day, I do feel bad for him.

Constance is right to point out that she has a lot more to lose here thou!

Treville’s plain brown tunic looks really bad without the cape over it. But the tunic he’s looking at in preparation for the fight looks better at least.

There are only two little stands of courtiers, but it could be worse.

“You only needed 30 livre, not a wife” - Aramis, you gentleman.

Treville’s fighting outfit looks good, I was right. But he is getting his ass kicked. What must Richelieu be thinking! I don’t think he knew Treville would be the one to face Labarge.

I went back to check and we don’t get his reaction to Treville’s name. But when Labarge is announced he doesn’t look particularly happy.

He also looks very distracted when the King addresses him during the fight.

Treville stops to grin at the King while Labarge is getting his breath back and Labarge attacks when his guard is down. He’s done for!

D’art steps in and in 30 seconds flat it becomes an all out brawl between the musketeers and red guards.

Louis says that Labarge broke the rules and Treville may nominate a champion. So D’art gets his turn to shine. But what rules? Attacking when Treville was not looking? Stepping on Treville’s shoulder with his foot? I guess Louis can make up the rules as he goes along lol xD

I feel sorry for poor Treville, being utterly humiliated!

And Labarge shouts that he did burn D’art’s farm down right in the middle of the fight. A confession in front of the King. He’d be dead even if he won!

D’art kills him and Louis declares the musketeers the winners. And takes the prize money for himself because “rules were broken and we do need to collect our taxes somehow.”

“I admire loyalty, more than any other virtue” - that’s true I think? I think it holds up during the show, but I’m not a Louis expert lol.

At least he makes D’art a musketeer finally! And D’arts teary face and all the hugging is quite moving.

Milady in her pretty red dress gets told off by the cardinal. I love how he says “comtesse de la fere”, but he does ask an important question. Why did she give D’art money to compete? Because Richelieu threatened her at the beginning of the episode and she was looking for a new prospect? She tells him she wants to bring him over to “their side” but that doesn’t square with giving him money to win his musketeer commission lol. Well, Armand, that’s what you get for threatening your employees I guess.

And Alice and Porthos break up because she can’t handle that much excitement and he can’t give up soldiering.

Porthos and Aramis share a cute moment.

D’art moves out with some poisonous words for Constance. I can’t really blame him in the heath of the moment, but if memory serves he never really apologised while she did.

And Constance sees him with Milady! And closes the curtain before she can see him tuning her down! Poor Constance!

And poor Milady! Her position with the Cardinal depends on this and he doesn’t give a fuck now he’s a musketeer.

Overall this was a very good episode. Such a relief after last time. Next up, the stupid assassination attempt on the Queen. Oh joy!

Red guards killed: Captain Trudeau

Women killed: none! yay!

Best dressed: Milady and Richelieu! Look, they match!

#i wish i could get a clearer picture but this scene is moving all the time ughh #the musketeers #milady de winter #cardinal richelieu #trevilieu #captain treville #porthos #musketeers rewatch

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murfeelee · 4 years

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Alright, I’ve been talking about The Witcher TV show for months and months, and now I’ve FINALLY seen it.

I've skimmed through the books here and there, but really I’m a diehard fan of the video games, particularly The Witcher 3 (I’ve played TW1 and TW2 as well). Because of all the hype, attention and love the TW3 got over the years, with even Henry Cavill being a major fan of the video games, Netflix went and made this tv show, with Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher.

MY THOUGHTS

It was GOOD! \(^0^)/ I really liked it!

Alright, don’t get excited, I think this show had some serious problems. But we’ll start with the good before getting to the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD

THE ACTING

Everyone was top notch, and did a fantastic job. I freaking LOVE Grandma Calanthe, omg. I wanted more of her, and Mama Tissaia, and the different sorceresses (when Sodden started I was like hooo boy, I know how this goes; the finale is WORTH the price of admission, folks).

I even liked Eclipse-Princess (her name escapes me, my bad; I was calling her Arya 2.0 in my head). Don’t think I effing missed how they threw in a nod to the Eclipse Princess from Blood & Wine; that was awesome, featuring the Black Sun “curse” again.

I already knew I was gonna HAVE to tune in to see Yennefer’s story, and it was every bit as superb as I suspected it would be. Dare I say it was THE most interesting story arc of the three? Caught me tearing up a few times. I still don’t see book/game/Polish Yennefer with her, but she did a GREAT job, nonetheless--her emotions and delivery and everything was excellent.

She sounds so dang young though, which throws me off with the timeline, cuz when exactly does Yenn’s story take place in all of this? It’s hard to match her with the more...well....matronly/mature persona we’re more familiar with in the games. But I guess she develops that over time, after getting to raise Ciri. Though this does put in better perspective why she was so mean to Ciri at first, calling her ugly and everything. She wanted a child so badly, and Geralt just...gets one by surprise, and she was feeling bitter, I see it now.

THE ACTION

And I gotta give it to Cavill. Boy can MOVE. My favorite moments with Cavill were when he was sword fighting; whoever choreographed all that needs a frikkin award. I imagined the Butcher of Blaviken just tearing up mofos, and that’s exactly what we got. And he was WERKING them pants! XD

Except we never really saw my favorite sign, Igni. Oh well. And I hate that he doesn’t have cat eyes. And the Toxicity ISTG makes him look like a vampire and makes no effing sense, but whatevs.

And sometimes he was sounding WAY too Batman or demonic with this really deep and gravelly voice -- I appreciate that he was trying to give us that gruff and sandpaper dry video game Geralt, but when they’d make him yell or be mad I was like JFC NOT TODAY SATAN. But an attempt was made, and I appreciate it. ^_^ He was fine for the most part. More than fine, even. As I said, the acting & action was great, and they played to Cavill’s strengths.

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS

I also thought the CGI was fine--not the best, no, but I’ve seen way worse in shows with bigger budgets. The dragons...eh.... And that kikimore.... Well, I’m just remembering the Polish tv show, the Hexer--BIG improvement. Trust me. O_O The practical effects were excellent. Even though they messed around A LOT with the Striga plot from TW1, and what it looked like, I did like that they stayed pretty faithful to the fight.

THE STORIES & CHARACTERS

IMO, the best episode was E04, with Pavetta & Duny. It was just REALLY well done, and the one I was LEAST expecting. My favorite episode was E06, with the dragon, because of course. Reminded me of Hercules the Legendary Journeys, IDKY. The finale was really good, too; I love the sorceresses and all the magic. And E07 when all the plots and flashbacks come together was great.

And now for MY COMPLAINTS

THE BAD

#1) OMG WTF WAS UP WITH THE TIMELINE?

I feel BAD for anyone who’s watching this show fresh, who’s never played the games, read the books, seen the Polish Hexer tv show, played Gwent, or anything related to the Witcher world.

I was thrown off several times, as they shot from Ciri running for her life or Geralt fighting a Striga in the present time; to Yennefer learning magic in the past. Geralt & Dandelion go on adventures Shrek & Donkey style--I ASSUMED in the present, with the Sylvan, Djinn & Dragon, until an episode or two later they’re in Cintra together in the PAST, and Ciri’s not even born yet, and we’re seeing a drunk Ermion/Mousesack and young Crach an Craite (I squeed, my dad~!! His accent was on point!), and Ciri’s mom and grandma. (And WOW, the lady they got to play the mom looks just like the actress playing Ciri--are they related?)

And they do this over and over again over the episodes--present day with Ciri, eff knows when with Geralt or Yennefer. Especially since you know from the books/games that they’re both almost 100 years old. Yenn keeps throwing out “it’s been decades“ this and “years” that. But W H E N though!?!

I mean, I could follow along, sure, but they REALLY needed to make it clearer SOONER for people who have NO idea who TF these people or which kingdoms are which, that some things are happening YEARS apart from each other. Pay attention to how many times GoT shoved those maps of Westeros and Essos in our faces. Or how different shows use color filters for flashbacks or something. Properly situate the audience in time AND space--we’re not Cirilla, who can travel willy nilly between both. They bounced back and forward between past and present with the toss of a frikkin coin.

And speaking of coins...

#2) THE MUSIC WAS...Well.

youtube

Oh, Dandelion. XD

Anyone who knows me knows I fangirl HARD over the Witcher video game OSTs. And unfortunately, the music on the tv show was just...alright. :\ And for a franchise so closely connected to iconic music like the band Percival, it’s a crime against nature that the tv show never had a single track that made me go YES. Give it up for POLAND. The end credits song is okay, but I only started getting into it at like Episode 6, soooo... :\

And no, I didn’t like Toss A Coin to Your Witcher in this show. It didn’t sound like part of this medievalesque universe AT ALL, but something kinda pop/country, aimed at I don’t even know who. Sure, the dude playing Dandelion can sing. But so can Ed Sheeran, and when GoT got him to sing on the show, he sure AF didn’t bust out with the next Billboard Top 40 on us in the middle of nowhere.

#3) THE CHARACTER BONDING?

The acting was top notch...it was the plot/writing I didn’t like. Or rather, the relationships between the characters. I felt more for Yennefer & Istredd, and Geralt & Roach, and Ciri & the Elf boy (and her grandma), and even Pavetta & effing Duny/Emhyr (that royal piece of sh!te) than I did for any other characters on this whole show. And that’s a bit of a problem.

First off, I HATED how they made it seem that TEENAGED Ciri had no idea who TF Geralt was. TV Ciri’s gotta be what? 15? Geralt said something about it having been 12 years since Pavetta & Duny, but even that’s too old. Book!Ciri met Geralt IN the Brokilon or whatever forest with all the water drinking and the dryad queen and mess.

They were already obsessed with each other before the fall of Cintra even happened! Ciri was like 10 already when Geralt took Ciri to Kaer Morhen to start her Witcher training, but this girl on the show’s way older, and effing clueless. They don’t even meet til the final few SECONDS, wtf!! It’s just Destiny~! Destiny~! Child of Surprise, but we never even have a scene together~! Destiny~!

Speaking of children, we have Yennefer and Geralt, which was better, but again, WOAH with the pacing. I felt effing BAD for Istredd! :( I don’t really GET why Geralt & Yenn fell so hard for each other; I don’t really feel that connection. Geralt had just as much bonding time with that eclipse-princess! They only had the Djinn episode, really, and by the end of the Dragon episode it was already over!

I mean, yeah, in the books/game they have A LOT of ups and downs, but come on; we’ve already wasted so much time on Geralt & Triss (that homewrecking wench, I’m glad her airtime was minimal), and I just want more BAMF battle couple parents Geralt & Yenn raising Ciri already! >_<

Same with Geralt & Dandelion. Geralt’s kinda mean to him, which is fair; Geralt hates everyone. But I don’t feel where they’re friends at all, and they part at the end of the season on NOT great terms. I kinda feel Geralt doesn’t really like Dandelion at all. :( Even with the whole comedic relief Shrek schtick,

THE UGLY

#4) THE LENGTH

I dunno what’s up with all the 8 episode miniseries lately (GoT, Mandalorian, Witcher, etc), but it REALLY isn’t enough to really flesh out a story. Especially not one as convoluted as The Witcher, AKA the GoT of Poland.

Again, I REALLY feel for the casuals watching, who probably don’t know what the Conjunction of Spheres Istredd keeps referring to is, or what exactly a Witcher is, or why Ciri’s so dang special -- was Lara Dorren or the Elder Blood ever even MENTIONED???

We know Yenn’s got elf blood, but it’s waaaay more than that with Ciri -- though I don’t think they mentioned her elf blood, either, just that Calanthe’s grandmother or someone had their Banshee powers before Pavetta & Ciri.

BTW, wtf with Ermion/Mousesack? That’s gotta be a red herring or something. Cuz we know this dude’s old AF and thriving in Skellige, sooo....? TF. Why the Doppler? Why?

TBH this felt like Season 1A, if anything. I don’t feel the plot really progressed much at all, other than us getting Yennefer’s story. Ciri & Geralt finally meet (cliffhanger supreme right there), but jfc this felt like a prequel -- so much of the season was dedicated to backtracking us in a roundabout way up to the fall of Cintra, then skipping ahead to the Battle at Sodden Hill.

And why the heck did they wait so long to get to get to Vigelfortz!? That’s what I was sitting here WAITING for! You mean I gotta wait for Season TWO to see my Hanse in full force!? :( URGH. Reeeeeeeegiiiiiiiis~! :(

Maybe cut out some of the unnecessary nudity every frikkin where and tell the full frikkin story, hmm? (Yenn’s boobs look great, we got it the first 5 times. Meanwhile these cowards won’t even have a dude’s left testicle be shown on screen, but whatever.)

So yeah, those are my 4 biggest complaints.

Well, and that wig’s hard AF hair line, jfc.(I was DYING during the Pavetta & Duny scene, when Cavill was holding on to that wig for dear life. XD XD)

Otherwise, I really liked the show! B+!

#nonsims #non-sims #the witcher #the witcher 3

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one-piece-dumpster-fire · 5 years

Note

OMG I love your Yandere headcannons. There soooooo gooooood. Can I request a Yandere Sanji and Zoro? There a bit unlikely but Im addicted to your cannons.

Uuuuhhhsorry for the late reply^^ this is quite an interesting request though,let’s see if I came up with something good for it haha xD

Obviously warningfor very disturbing themes ahead, yeah I’m talking implied non-con, mentioned abuse, overall creepiness- this is yandere so super dark and please don’t read it if you feeluncomfortable with stuff like this!!!

Yandere!Sanji headcanon

hisinfatuation with you pretty much began like every other- he would getheart eyes, swoon whenever you were nearby, and proclaim his loveloud and for everyone to hear, but… soon enough, something insideof him changed. Drastically.

perhapsit was simply the way you would smile at him, or how your eyes seemedto beam whenever he was near (even though he’s the only one seeingthat…) but at some odd point Sanji is convinced that you actuallywant him just as much as he wants you

so…in his mind, you and him are basically a couple already. Even thoughyou never said you loved him. However, if you accidentally did makethe mistake (and even once is enough!) to joke around and playfullyflirt back… it is over.

youwon’t even notice his changed behaviour at first- sure, Sanji is moretouchy and needy for your attention than usual, but other than that?He still seems pretty normal… right…?

ohif you only knew what was happening in his mind and behind thescenes- inside of his locker the walls are covered in pictures ofyou, and some are even perverted drawings he made himself since henever got to see you in your full, naked glory… and honey you don’t wannaknow what he’s doing with those pictures sometimes…

onepicture stands out from the rest as especially disturbing though- itis a cut-out from a wedding magazine, where he glued a picture of yourface over the one of the bride and a shot of his own head over theone of the groom… and to him, that picture is an accurate depiction of the immediate future

funny enough, throughout the entire ordeal he still views his love as true andpure, completely unaware of how sickening and unhealthy it actuallyis and never realizes that this isn’t love, but an unhealthyobsession

youprobably wouldn’t believe it, but in his most desperate times (mainlywhen you’re talking to the Marimo), Sanji did think about poisoninghis rival’s food. God, do you see what’s happening??? What you’redoing to him??? You’re driving him to the point where he would evenstart to consider breaking one of his iron rules, just to keep you safe and by his side!!!

oh lord, he simply needs to have you… with every passing day his needto feel you simply increases, but clearly you aren’t ready… ah, butyou want him too, right…? So it’s okay for him to help you, right?! … and that night, you were invited to a ‘midnight snack’ with Sanji… however, what you don’t know is- that he put strong aphrodisiacs into yourfood…

andthat night will go down in his books as your wedding night with him,whether you like it or not- he finally got to feel your ‘love’ and show his ‘love’ to you, so you are now his.

Yandere!Zoroheadcanon

it’sa slow progress with him- his feelings, his infatuation, hisdesire to be with you- it all takes some time to grow. It’s not easyfor Zoro to decipher his feelings and often he pushes them aside, butat some point he has to admit to himself that it’s simply notpossible to ignore everything anymore…

allof a sudden he starts with getting very protective, especially when someone hedoesn’t like is around (aka Snooj), and he will start a fight withabout anyone who looks at you funny. But in the end Zoro always managesto somehow talk himself out of it or find some sort of half-assedexcuse for you to believe

uffff jealousy is a really big thing with this guy. Not only will he fighteveryone, he will even go as far as being purposefully and outwardlythreatening whenever he is with you- it’s almost as if he’s silentlytelling everyone to back up, because you’re his….

deepwithin himself, Zoro is convinced that you don’t need anyone else around.Heck, if anything they make it way more difficult for him to be closeto you or worse might even try to take you as their own… so even thoughhe is very clumsy about the whole thing at first, Zoro tries to isolate you asgood as possible. Mainly by using violence. Or threats. Or straightup murder

maybethings wouldn’t have escalated if he had someone to talk to about hisfeelings… if he was willing to open up… but he can’t even do that, not evenwith you!!! Zoro simply expects you to catch onto all of his triesto flirt and be romantic, and if you don’t he’ll get really irritatedand pissed. Seriously pissed. It’s honestly quite scary.

literallythe only thing that seems to get him happy again aside from alcoholis when you are not only around, but actually happy as well. Your smile islike a charger that gets his battery going again, and even thoughthat weird fuzzy feeling makes him a bit uncomfortable at first, itsoon turns into somewhat of a drug which he can’t live withoutanymore.

youwill be forced into both this relationship as well as countless situations you’re not going to like, and more than once will you find himholding one of his swords to your throat and threatening to killyou if you ever dare to leave him. It’s simple, really. Be his ordie. All of his tries to win you over by being romantic didn’t seemto work anyway, so now it’s time for the hard way.

ironicallyhe will treat you… really got for most of the relationship. Sure,there is always his jealousy shining through every now and then butother than that… he is loving and caring, wants you to be happy(completely ignoring that you didn’t even want this relationship inthe first place) and does whatever he can to keep you safe…

butat night, before you and him go to sleep, Zoro will always unsheath asword and put it right between you and him on the bed- so you canfeel the cold steel against your soft skin and are permanentlyreminded that he could end your life within a single moment.

but despiteall of his threats, Zoro never actually gets physical with you- no, he loves you way too much for it. Even if you wouldreally leave him, he’d probably just catch and lock you awaysomewhere because the thought of losing and having to live withoutyou is haunting him way too much. No, he’ll simply love you and makessure you’re safe, even if it means that he has to turn into amonster.

#one piece #black leg sanji #snooj #roronoa zoro #tw yandere #op headcanon #one piece headcanon

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venus-says · 5 years

Text

Symphogear XV Episode 09

Listen to the sound of this bird's wings flapping.

The time has come for Symphogear. AND BOOOOOI, this is probably the heaviest episode this show has ever had.

I mean, coming from last week I was expecting we would see something heavy, but I could never imagine they would go THIS heavy.

And the worst of all is that they fake you out completely by having the episode start with Hibiki in her father's house. Like, I got to this episode with all the tension from last week, then the cold opening is very morbid, like a eulogy, so I thought "shit is about to go down". Then we come back from the opening in a whole different mood that, at first, I thought it was very odd, but soon I started thinking "okay we gonna have a flashback later, this episode will be more chill to regroup before the big events for the final 3 episodes". Then the flashback begins right after, and at that point, I stopped trying to keep myself together because I knew this was going to be a wild ride.

Before getting to the heavy topics, first I wanna point out that I'm very glad this episode answered almost all of my question I had last time, what Miku's wearing is a Faust Robe made out of the Shénshòujìng (probably made by Vanessa/Noble Red), there's indeed a mind control device on Miku's body, and from what it seems Miku isn't completely gone yet. It was like if someone had read my post last week and said let's lay everything down so that this dumb fuck can finally understand things, and that being or not being the case I appreciate that they've done that.

The second thing I wanna point out is about Hibiki's father, I used to hate him because he was a really shitty human being, but it seems that he learned his lesson and he is trying to get better and be better and that's another thing I appreciate quite a lot, it's good to show everyone is growing and evolving not just the characters we follow. Also, her scenes with Hibiki here were quite funny, and thank go we had them to balance out all the fucked up shit that happens.

Now *breath* I guess it's time to talk about the main event of the episode. *deep breath*

Some episodes back, I believe it was on Episode 5, I mentioned that I was VERY scared of what the "seal" could do to Tsubasa. And my worries were wrong all this time because what broke Tsubasa wasn't the seal itself, it was something even worse.

Gosh, I don't even know where to start.

SO, Maria vs Tsubasa. I always like when these two confront each other because every time they argue they bring something new to the table, it's a way of development that benefits both of them. And I love that Maria is the one who frees Tsubasa from the seal's influence, we all know Tsubasa is the one to give Maria reality checks, and Maria is definitely the best person to bring sense back to Tsubasa's head. They're always saving each other and they continue to do this over and over and I think this is why their bond has grown so much and it's one of the reasons why I love them the way I do.

Gen vs Fudou was a very exciting fight, funny enough I thought I was watching a shounen. XD I was at the edge of my seat, beating up my desk saying "FINISH HIM OFF GEN, YOU CAN DO IT" all the time, and when Fudou decided to go all Charizard and seismic tossed Genjuuro out of that roof I went "FUCK, we're screwed", sadly I was right.

You know, I thought they couldn't break Tsubasa more than what they already did, they already put her through SO. MUCH. I didn't think they would go at her even harder, I didn't want to believe they would put her through more suffering. But they went there and did it.

The moment Tsubasa's father jumped to get that bullet to protect Tsubasa... I broke. I broke together with Tsubasa. I broke like I never done before for a fictional character. That was so hard to watch. And I gotta say again, props to Nana, she did an amazing in conveying all those emotions. I was feeling Tsubasa's pain like if it was my own and god how much that hurt. It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but that's exactly how I felt.

I was devasted when Tsubasa's fight against Fudou started, this was a moment I always wanted to see, but I wasn't excited at all. What I was feeling was just anger, I've written “kill this bastard” three times in my notes while I was watching the fight. And thank god for Genjuuro to jump out in front of that sword because he's right. I never thought I would say this but, Tsubasa can't kill Fudou. If she does she won't be any better than him. And yes, this is a discourse we see in many other works of fiction and we're all tired of seeing it, but this was SO necessary here, I can't even complain about it.

Before I sign off, of course, there's a question this episode has left open. Are Elza and Milaarc dead? Because it looks like Miku disintegrated them with that beam. I don't think Vanessa is dead because we see that scene from her point of view and it seems like just her legs were cut off, so she might be 'fine" while the other two seem to be gone for good. I'm curious about it.

Next week it seems that the moon ruins will be activated, and if shit already went down today, shit will be going to the center of the earth in the next episodes. Now let me get back to some idols so that I can let this sad dark energy leave my body. See you guys in a few hours.

#Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV #Symphogear XV #symphogear

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ick25 · 5 years

Text

Rockman.Exe Episode 54 Review.

Let’s play “What is Mahajarama holding?”

A stuffed big foot/chimp plush?

The episode opens with an advertisement for some noodle restaurant with a Navi name Sanukiman.

For the ad he makes a simple dance that Netto, Meiru and Tohru copy for fun.

Netto asks Meiru about Dekao who wasn’t in school and she tells him that Dekao’s younger brother Chisao has come to visit him from Ameroupe. Netto is curious about what he would look like since he has a poorly drawn image of a mini Dekao in his head, but after the tittle card, everyone is suspicious that Chisao looks nothing like him.

WOW, Meiru.... Dekao is standing right there! o_o

Tohru asks Chisao why he doesn’t live with his brother in Akihara. Chisao tells them that he lives with his dad who works in Ameroupe where he attends a special kinder garden for “Genius” kids, according to Yaito.

Again? We are being very mean today, not just against Dekao, because Chisao tells them how his brother told him in his e-mails that they are his worthless and stupid pupils.

This angers everyone secretly because they remember that Dekao begged them to pretend that he is the best Net battler in the city and that they were all ex-gangsters in fourth grade that he reformed, just so Chisao could respect him.

In the next scene we see a long line in front of a restaurant, then the same ad with Sanukiman’s dance with everyone imitating him again.

This silly dance is gonna be important later on.

Looks like Chisao’s welcome party is gonna be in a new Udon restaurant called Heineken that just opened, conveniently, next to the Ex-WWW’s curry shop, which looks completely deserted. Netto and friends mention that they have reservations at the restaurant but the WWW suddenly appear to scold Netto for betraying them or something.

“And besides, you guys have tried to kill me in multiple occasions, I don’t owe you anything!”

The Ex-WWW proceed to insult the Udon shop and this infuriates the owner named Kotaro Saburou who starts to argue with Mahajarama.

He has a point.

To spite him even further, Mahajarama steals Netto and his friends by offering them free curry, something he later regrets when they leave various stacks of empty plates.

Hey, Gulping Netto is back!

In another scene, we see Saburou contemplating a bowl of Udon noodles and then spying on the curry restaurant through two peep holes on the wall located in a menu along with a new code!

Which is the code for shrinking the “Collect” program, that is also the most expensive item in the menu.

After eating almost all of the curry in the shop, Chisao tells Dekao that he wants to see him and Gutsman in a Net Battle, so Dekao asks for permission to use the net (I’m guessing free Wi-fi was not a thing here yet) and everyone plugs in their Navis.

Just like Dekao, Gutsman is pretending to be a super powerful Navi and tells the others to attack, unfortunately for him, Rockman forgets about their arrangement for a second and shoots at him leading to probably my favorite scene from this episode.

I just love how Gutsman is scared to death of Rockman’s buster shots. XD

Anyway, Roll reminds Rockman what he was suppose to do and Dekao orders Gutsman to attack.

That dramatic pain shot followed by Rockman softly landing on his back is so funny.

Then he proceeds to attack the rest of the Navis, including Rush.

I don’t know about that, Rush seems to be enjoying himself.

After seeing Gutsman in action, Chisao gets excited and asks to operate him, and just out of nowhere, makes a perfect PROGRAM ADVANCE!

Yeap, apparently the whole “Navi and operator must be in perfect sync” is just something Miyuki made up, because if a preschooler can make Gutsman summon a Beta Sword while he is in shock, then episode 15 was just a huge waste of time... Or Netto was just really dumb.

And not only does Gutsman copy the steps like Rockman, but when Chisao sends the Sword he does the same reaction Rockman did in the Planetman episode.

You can’t fool me anime!

Legendary technique my butt.

Everyone is amazed after seeing Chisao use a program Advance that almost hits Rockman, but after he says how he wants to be as strong as his brother, Dekao feels guilty and takes the PET away from him.

If anyone should be pissed here it should be Netto, that kid just did what he took many episodes to perfect in only two minutes!

After this, we see Chisao sitting all alone somewhere in town when a disguised stranger, who is totally not Saburou, gives him a PET with a Navi to help him fight some alien spice monsters he just made up. That night, while Dekao is sleeping, Chisao sees his new Navi, at first he is disappointed when he sees it, but turns out the Navi can shape shift into anything he wants.

Right after this, Netto gets a called from a worried Gutsman telling him that Chisao has gone missing.

Then we go to the Curry shop where we see Mahajarama in his pajamas and his stuffed monkey discovering that everything in the shop is out of control. The other WWW operators believed it was the work of the Udon shop and sent their Navis to deal with them, but Heatman and the others were captured by a Navi that looks just like Gutsman named Nuggetsman AKA Kutzman.

After commercials, Netto and the others split up to look for Chisao while he stays with a very worried Dekao. And I like this shot because it looks like Netto just hit Dekao.

“That’s what you get for calling me your stupid pupil!”

Back in the curry computer, Mahajarama sends Magicman to save the other WWW Navis, but Kutzman uses them as a shield to block his Magic Fire attack.

What’s worse is that Kutzman’s noodle like tentacles prevents the WWW operators to plug out their Navis.

Chisao attacks Magicman by sending a made up chip that doesn’t exist in the game called “Hi-Guts Beam”, and it looks like something Masa-san would have.

ITS A TUNA THAT FIRES A LASER!

This defeats Magicman and creates more damage to the curry shop. Dekao and Netto see smoke coming out of the store and go in to investigate, where a very angry WWW is telling Dekao to stop Chisao.

After hearing this, Netto and Dekao send their Navis into the computer where Rockman frees the WWW Navis by shooting at the tentacles and allowing them to log-out.

They are surprised to see that the Navi looks like Gutsman and that Chisao is the operator. Not-Saburo tells Chisao that Dekao and Netto are fakes, and Chisao believes him because he tells Dekao that he is weak after Gutsman and Rockman receive a hit from two more laser tuna chips.

Ouch.

Netto tells Dekao that he is being fooled by someone and they both fight back to destroy the tunas.

Now I have shots of Rockman and Gutsman killing tunas.

They proceed to attack Kutzman as well but he repels them with his noodle tentacles. Rockman tries to fire his buster, but Gutsman stops him and says that it is Dekao who should save his brother. After this, Kutzman uses a titus gun that looks like a Vulcan chip and shoots... Fried dough, I think?

I guess the dub doesn’t need to cut this shot because it is not firing anything potentially dangerous.

The WWW searches for Chisao inside the store with no luck, and all seems lost until Kutzman suddenly does something stupid that gives away his identity.

Yeap! That stupid dance from the noodle ad revealed to everyone that Kutzman is actually Sanukiman, the mascot for the Heineken Udon shop.

So immediately after, Dekao kicks down the door of the Udon shop and tells Chisao that he’s been fooled. Chisao doesn’t believe him until Dekao does something that forced the dub to skip it, pull down his pants and show him his birthmark.

I am not gonna take a screenshot of that, so trust me when I say that we don’t actually see the birthmark, I even had to open my eyes just to make sure. And now I will never get that image of Dekao’s butt crack out of my head T T.

Gutsman reveals Sanukiman’s true form with his Guts Hammer while Dekao and Netto scold Saburo for what he did.

Saburo orders Sanukiman to attack Gutsman but Rockman protects him with his Buster. Then we get this unusual scene that I like for some reason.

I needed this so bad after what I saw, DON’T JUDGE ME!

Dekao sends Gutsman a Gold Fist Battle chip (which sounds familiar), he defeats Sanukiman, Chisao and Dekao celebrate and Saburo surrenders.

Now I remember! Nobody returned the Battle Chips Yaito stole from Higure’s counter in episode 33?! Then Netto did kept that meteor chip! O0O

The next morning, Hinouken threatens Saburo, Netto asks why so much hate and the WWW say that Udon and Curry can’t go together (Like they are suddenly so obsessed with curry). Netto reminds them that there is a dish called Curry Udon and Mahajarama gets an epiphany, with the same code for shrinking Collect in the background.

In case you didn’t see the code in the menu.

With tears in their eyes, both parties make peace and look forward to a brilliant new future for their stores. Even Chisao finds Netto’s argument inspiring, Netto tries to give credit to Dekao but he grabs him to talk in private.

And he does...

Okay, I think the writers wanted this to be just a joke for this episode, but in the later seasons they needed an excuse for Dekao to leave Japan for some reason.

I’m saying this because the next scene morning, we see the Udon stor closed and Dekao feeding Netto a noodle from a udon curry he did and then eates the rest in front of him.

And the episode ends with Netto yelling at Dekao for only feeding him one noodle and eating the rest, with a heart closing in on chisao.

My thoughts?

First of all, Udon is a type of noodle that is commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and Sanuki is a special type of udon. I had no idea there were different types of noodles.

I’m not a fish expert like Masa, but I did some research and it looks like the fish in the High Guts beam chip is a Skipjack tuna, a tuna that is used very often in Japanese cuisine which is known as Katsu or Katsubushi, so I think there was a pun in here somewhere.

Dekao and Chisao’s names are puns, with Dekao meaning “Big Guy” and Chisao meaning “Little Guy”.

You might have noticed that Chisao says “-chu” all the time. I think that’s a way of saying that he is so little that he sounds like a mouse, since Chu is the sound a mouse makes.

So, this episode introduces Chisao who will, for some reason, appear unnecessarily often in future seasons, and in that regard, the episode also gives a tiny hint of what will happen to Dekao too. As I mentioned before, I think that it was originally just a joke for the end of this episode since it is not brought up again until the next season. I don’t know if they were already planning Axess, but let’s not think about that for now.

Who knows what happened after Saburou and the WWW make peace because we don’t see him or Sanukiman ever again.

#Rockman.exe #MegaMan NT Warrior #megaman battle network #anime #dub vs sub #My Reviews #ick25 #anime review

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

Text

OUAT 3X09 - Save Henry

It’s time to save Henry...or everyone, save Henry!

See what I did there? Stealthy pun. I can do those on occasion.

Anyway, under the cut you go for the semi-smart stuff, unless you want to save yourself!

Press Release

While Henry’s life hangs in the balance, the race is on to stop Pan from gaining full magical powers from the heart of the truest believer. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke of the past, Regina decides to fill a void in her life and, with Mr. Gold’s help, sets out to adopt a baby.

Main Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness

Past

Wow, Loving Lana’s acting in this first scene with Archie. She’s so muted and given how Regina’s usually up there in the extra squad, it’s so noticable. She looks while not unhealthy, still sickly in a way because of how miserable and lonely she is. It’s a fantastic way of showing just how badly her life needed love and how much of a change for the better Henry was for it. (Not to beat a dead horse, but THIS is the kind of acting a lack of a heart should grant one, Graham!)

Pre-redemption post-childhood Regina flashbacks tend to fight an uphill battle of making Regina sympathetic while also not turning their backs on the fact that she was a legit villain, and this one, like the best of them, handles that concept well! Regina does some bad and illegal things. She casts a curse, chews out basically every Storybrooke character she interacts with, and has Sidney steal Emma’s medical records. But this flashback isn’t about those things. It’s a story about how love started the trajectory of Regina’s redemption.

That’s where the focus is on and appropriately so.

Watching that story is adorable. It’s the first time we see Regina soften to someone immediately and in such a loving way. We see the struggle Regina went through to acclimate herself to motherhood. Look, I’m the daughter of a single mother and I was a bit of a problem child myself: This shit hit home.

The ending story of the segment even shows post-early early signs of her redemption by just showing how Henry’s happiness takes precedence over an ensurement of the safety of her vengeance.

“Sometimes, being a good parent can mean having the strength to give him up.” This line is so important. I like how someone in the real world gives this extra level of validation to the “your best chance” mantra of the series. OUAT has some questionable morals and questionable redemptions. I feel comfortable saying that while I do really enjoy the redemptions we see throughout the series, that statement applies to pretty much everyone in the main cast. Someone (I think @justmilah) put it best at the convention: They’re a bunch of people who probably don’t deserve happy endings but are given them anyways.

Now where am I going with this?

The one message that was always spot on was “your best chance” (Or rather, the giving up line). Parents should put their children first. To give it that real world validation, even if it doesn’t happen in the scene in question, was such a good idea. It’s not that I care about legality in this series.

Present

”You have everything and yet you claim to know what I feel?” I was really torn about how I felt about that line. On one hand, I’ve talked a fair amount about how I dislike Regina’s “woe is me” thing, Emma having a lot of people in her life does nothing to move Henry from being her number one priority, and I don’t think comparing pain is conducive to anything. However, the scene with the Lost Boys where Emma brings up this conversation is a fantastic point for her character and her reaching the Lost Boys with that idea of unexpected love and family is incredibly effective.

Regret vs. Remorse. I think the difference between these two camps is so important, both for this scene and Regina’s legacy. Even as far into the future as Regina’s Good Queen coronation, those vines never would’ve stood a chance against Regina. Regina grew to feel remorse for her actions. That was quintessential to her redemption. If she didn’t, Regina may not have garnered the fandom that she has today nor deserved the happiness she found. BUT, Regina’s path, for as evil as it was, did lead her to Henry, and that is something she’d never go back on. He was the encounter she needed to happen in order to redeem herself and more to that, she loves him. Meeting and getting to know her son was worth it all to her and I get frustrated seeing this line get occasionally misconstrued to saying that Regina regrets nothing because she got something she wanted, like Henry was just a salt shaker on a shelf when the actual situation is nothing like that.

And it makes for a truly badass moment that simultaneously doesn’t take away from her redemption. That was really hard to do, and without going too heavy handed with it, the scene by the tree worked out flawlessly!

Insights - Stream of Consciousness

-Those establishing shots set the perfect mood of panic and urgency just before the curse hits.

-”He would’ve understood.” He was begging you not to kill him! XD

-Rumple is such a little shit and I love it. Like, if Regina’s gonna come and gloat, he’s gonna make sure she doesn’t get to celebrate her victory and push every button he can while he still has the chance. And all without leaving his cell!

-I just had a thought. So, as soon as Regina says she’s going to kill baby Emma, Rumple starts talking about the hole in her heart. And Regina and her guards just BARELY miss Emma. Was Rumple stalling to ensure that Emma got away?

- @ussjellyfish, I finally get what you were talking about with Regina’s love of paperwork! Her desk more loaded with paperwork than Smash Bros is loaded with characters and death!

-”What are you feeling?” “Nothing.” The subtle honesty of that line hits me HARD!

-”A child. That can provide so much meaning.” Archie, one shouldn’t have or adopt a child in order to solely give their lives meaning.

-”I need a child, Gold and I need your help.” “Well I’m flattered, but uninterested.” “Not like THAT.” One of my FAVORITE exchanges in the series! XD

-”Well, a mother of some sort.” Even cursed, Rumple is out for fucking BLOOD! -”When you become a parent, you must put your child first.” So Rumple is cursed during this scene, but one has to wonder what exactly, if anything, is his relationship to Bae under the curse. Are they estranged or is he straight-up dead? I use the dead angle in my Golden Hook fanfic, but I’m curious to hear other thoughts.

-Fun fact: If Emma yields a sword, that sword can hurt the unhurtable in exactly the way she wants to! (See also: Season 6)

-Rumple went to fucking bank for you, Regina! Like, not a single flaw!

-Damn! Amazing acting on Lana’s part again! Like, the SECOND she sees baby Henry, she falls in love with him. The gasp, the way her eyes bulge, the softness of her form! It’s amazing!

-Gotta HAND it to Killian! His hook is really doing a good job of keeping Felix in place!

-Awww! Beverly Elliott!!! She just makes me smile!!! <3

-I love how Regina just knows that Mary Margaret is the best person to stick her baby with! <3

-”Well, as long as your plan holds together, she will.” FUCK MACHISMO ISLAND.

-Baby Henry’s reaction to Gold’s shop is EVERYONE’S initial reaction to this little shop of horrors!

-”My memory’s not what it used to be.” *Sighs* Fucking Rumple. I love you.

-”Oh you really know nothing of what I’m talking about.” I love how even when Rumple actually is cursed, even with Regina’s confidence in the opening, she doesn’t buy that it actually happened for a second.

-”Look at what motherhood has done to you.” I love how Rumple’s line (This one and the ones that preceded it) is basically praising the makeup department and Lana’s acting! That’s actually so adorable and deserved on the writer’s parts! <3

-Okay, everyone’s wash of relief upon seeing Henry wake up genuinely had me choked up. The smiles on everyone’s faces and the deep breaths and the music...I think I need a minute *Sobs into eternity*

-”Young sir.” And letting him stay in the captain’s quarters?! Killian, you fucking adorable softie!

-Okay, now THAT’S the Archie who doles out great advice!

-”A glorious curse.” Regina, I love you! XD

-”Too much pizza.” I love the implication of this line that Henry DID have pizza before his trip to New York, but it wasn’t REAL pizza. XD

-Damn, the Jolly Roger’s captain’s quarters are so fucking fancy!

-”I’m sorry it had to come to this, Henry.” No you’re not, you little bitch!

-*Neal and Rumple hug* Sorry, I think I’ve got something in my eye...TEARS! Like, that entire resolution got me choked up.

-*Pan fails at taking Henry’s heart* Yeah! Suck on that, you little bitch!

-”You raised him well.” Awww! Golden Queen contrast!

-Stupid thing to point out, but after all of that hullabaloo in “Dark Hollow,” why were we using the fucking lighter?

-”A hero, a villain, a pirate.” I love how David doesn’t classify Killian as a villain despite being fairly justified in it! Captain Charming FTW!

-”You have a dad now. Now and for forever.” I’M NOT CRYING! YOU’RE CRYING! “I’ll never leave you. Okay, buddy?” THAT JUST MADE IT WORSE!!!!! AND IT’S NOT EVEN BEING SAID TO HENRY!

Arcs - How Are These Storylines Progressing?

The Mission to Save Henry - There’s such a good feeling of payoff here! Everyone’s working together, communicating, and making risks for each other. David and Emma’s conversation towards the end of the episode about how they all accomplished this is just a testament to how far they’ve come.

Regina’s Redemption - What else is there to say? Regina’s redemption was such a big part of this episode and I already talked in length about why! Well, I guess I want to say that this arc is where Regina really takes her form. She knows she’s done bad and she’s still pretty selfish in a lot of respects, but love pushes her to new emotional heights that neither she nor the audience ever expected!

Emma Accepting Her Parents - Just look at the relief on Emma’s face when she hugs her parents who can both go home with her! <3

Rumple Finding Bae - We finally get to see a big reconciliation between Rumple and Neal! I really liked it, but that having been said, I wish there was more to it than simply “You saved Henry, now I forgive you.” Call me angsty, but that slow rebuilding of their relationship was really great. The fact that they have so far to go is part of what made “Nasty Habits” the fantastic experience that it was. To see it all over so soon after that makes me wish for more. That said, one can make a case that they haven’t fully reconciled AND that at the time they wrote this, Neal was on the chopping block and that resolution with Rumple was best off happening here for that reason.

Favorite Dynamic

Regal Believer. Who else could it be? Just...I love these two! Now, part of me feels bad because Henry plays a much more passive role in this episode than he does in other cases where Regal Believer’s won. In the past, he’s just a baby and in the present, he only has one or two scenes where he talks to anyone. But Henry’s effect on Regina just by the sheer fact that he exists is so much in and of itself. Just by being Henry, he inspires Regina to be her best self.

Writer

Christine Boylan and Daniel Thomsen come off of “Good Form” to write today’s episode! And you know that I loved it. “Solid” is the word of the day here. There’s so much that has to be resolved here and it’s paced so well that one would be surprised by all that was accomplished! Like, Henry is “saved,” Emma recruits the Lost Boys, Rumple is recovered and reconciles with Bae, we see Regina and Henry’s origins, and we see the plan to escape Neverland enacted. That’s a lot for forty four minutes! But the writing and pacing make it feel so natural and while fast-paced, never rushed.

Rating

Golden Apple. What a fantastic episode! It’s beautiful, emotional, tightly written, and has some solid character work! It’s just enjoyable as hell!

-----

I’m all caught up...with last week’s entries! Still three left to go, but I’ve got this!

Thank you all for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales!

Next time, we relocate from Neverland...to The New Neverland. See you guys then!

Season 3 Total (86/220)

Writer’s Scores: Adam and Eddy (19/60) Kalinda Vazquez (17/40) Andrew Chambliss (17/50) Jane Espenson (10/30) David Goodman (20/40) Robert Hull (20/40) Christine Boylan (20/20)* Daniel Thomsen (20/30)

* Indicates that their work for the season is complete

Operation Rewatch Archives

#ouat #once upon a time #watching fairytales #ouat 3x09 #jenna watches ouat

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justhereforthefanartbean-blog · 7 years

Note

For the commentary tag: “”I can only offer myself,” Yuri replies” to about “The shout is too late.” from chapter 5 of The Thirst for Adventure. Also AGHH choosing a specific short section was so hard, just. The whole thing. One of the most memorable scenes I’ve ever read in a fic.

Bruh. That’s 800 words XD

AlsoEXCUSE YOU HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH NICE THINGS ABOUT MY WRITING (because theinternet does not allow hugging and I want to give you all of the hugs rn likedude, I cannot emphasise enough how much your opinion means to me, you’re afantastic writer and Heart is literally one of my fave YOI fanfics of all time,I’m so fucking stoned that you like my shit, holy crap)

Warning:I’m gonna post it all below because I wrote that so long ago I barely rememberit and I want to be able to reference it as I respond :P

“Ican only offer myself,” Yuri replies.

Heis not shaking. The woman sneers at him anyway, her lip curling back to exposea mouth only half-full of teeth. Then, right before his eyes, her head opensup. A wound; the scar left by a sword. Stretching from the top of her headalmost to her eye, it splits her face and exposes her brain, but does notbleed. The skin is ripped, raw white and bloodless, and what he can only guessis the remaining mess of brain tissue is grey, like a carcass left to hang.

“Doesthis,” she hisses, moving closer, “deserve a half-blood’s revenge?”

IfYuri is shivering now, it is because she has chilled him to the bone. Standingthis close to her is like being immersed in the winter lake. It knocks all thebreath out of him.

“Ican only offer myself,” he repeats, choking it out as best he can, through whatfeels like lungs full of water.

“Notenough,” the woman spits, and steps back, sheathing her sword. “I will wait forsomeone better.”

Yuritries not to breathe a sigh of relief as the sensation dissipates. He coughs alittle, trying to clear his lungs of something that was never really there. Thechill, however, does not fade. The second widow steps forward.

“Whatwas your mother’s name?” She asks, hair whipping in the wind that wasn’t therethe moment before. It drags at the edge of his cloak, snatching it away fromhis fingers and throwing his hair in his face. It stings, cold, like tiny barbsof nettles.

“LarisaNikolayevna Plisetsky.” Yuri has to shout it above the churning and roilingair, and only hope that she can hear. To his great surprise, the woman stepsback immediately, and the wind drops to a breeze. “I know her name. She was agood woman. Your debt with me is balanced. I will not challenge you.” And thesecond sword is sheathed.

Liliahad told him that he might be in a better position than either of his brothers,upon meeting the widows, but he hadn’t anticipated by quite how much.

Unfortunately,his good luck cannot last.

Themoment the third woman steps forward, she introduces herself by name, and Yuriknows that he will have to fight.

“Iwas Véra Savvichna Ivanova. I fought and died for your ancestors over a hundredyears ago, only for my body to be tossed into the water as if I were nothing tothem. We will fight for my honour.”

“Iaccept your challenge.” Yuri does not take his sword. The nature of thechallenge is always the choice of the challenger.

Vérasteps forward and picks his sword from the ground, passing it to him.

“Sheatheit.” He does so, silently. “My body lies at the bottom of this river. You willswim down and retrieve it. If the river claims you, my debt is repaid. If yousurvive,” her eyes, dark and bloodshot, bore into him, “bury me properly.”

Yurilooks at the water. The river has been by their side since they left thecastle. It is fed by the mountain, from glacial streams, and this is not theseason for melt. The level of the water is well below the bridge and the bank,settled into the rocky hollow it has carved for itself. All the same, it isdeep, cold, and blue. He cannot see the bottom. Backing out now, however, is assure a death as drowning.

Hehas no choice.

Thethree women move back as he takes off his sword, and boots, then most of hislayers of clothing. As unwilling as he is to get his undershirt wet, and asmuch as it may hold him back in the water, he decides to keep it on. Divingnaked into a mountain river in autumn is only barely worse than diving inhalf-dressed, but he’ll take it. They move aside, allowing him to walk acrossto the halfway point of the bridge. Chancing a glance over his shoulder, Yurinotices that Otabek and Roza have edged closer. With a sharp shake of his head,he warns them as best he can. The fact that they’ve held off this long alreadyis surprising. He can’t say he would do the same if it looked like Otabek wasabout to jump into freezing water of his own volition.

Especiallyas neither of them will have any idea what is going on.

Hetakes a deep breath.

“Ready.”The two women who did not name themselves nod, and with matching smiles, jump,vanishing back into the water. The river does not splash.

Hefaces the river. Takes a deep breath.

“Goodluck,” Véra says, and pushes.

“YURI!”

Theshout is too late.

Holyfucking shit. Okay so MAJOR SPOILER ALERT.

This chapter was the culmination of so much research intoRussian mythology. I’ve already talked about everything that went into itfolklore-wise, but character-wise, I knew what I wanted to do to Yuri. He’sjust left home for the first time, essentially, and although he’s been warnedabout this kinda stuff his whole life, the first thing he’s faced with issomething that completely isolates him.

Hedoesn’t have the reassurance of his family or even his friends helping him. Buthe knows what he has to do. He faces up to the injustices that his ancestorscommitted, and for the first time in the story (I think) we see him be courageous withoutbeing angry.

As anillegitimate prince, his station offers him both protection and danger. This isa direct reversal of that; in court, revealing that he isn’t Lilia’s son is thedangerous part. He’s been forced to hide it, and even though he hates that andisn’t at all embarrassed by his mother or Nikolai, there’s always going to besome residual effects from being forced to hide part of yourself. Here, hisreal mother essentially saves his life twice just by existing. Basically, Iwanted to give Yuri proof that while his blood has absolutely dictated his lifeso far, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. (Although theWidows do basically insult him for it the whole time, because, you know, social indoctrination).

Ithink it’s also important to understand how entrenched Yuri is in his rolehere. He’s wanted to be a knight his whole life, he’s been training for itsince before he can remember, and then he had that taken away from him. Notonly has he got it back, his first ever encounter literally requires him torisk his own life. But he does it. Because he is a knight now, and that’s whatknights do. They do whatever it takes. And Yuri has always, always donewhatever it takes. It’s something that he struggles with a little later, especially when he actually leaves the group, so I wanted to establish it early so that when that happened it almost felt like he was betraying himself as well as them by letting go of some of his values and key goals. And also it then shows how fucked up that big key bond thing makes him, because he doesn’t deal with it calmly or sensibly even though we know that he can.

There’salso a lot of traditional trial themes going on here. You know, he has to facethree tasks, the last of which is the worst, to prove himself kind of thing.All very ‘symbolic’ (idk it doesn’t feel like that when I write it). Taster of things to come! It’s definitely the simplestchallenge he’s faced so far, I think. For a start, there’s a very specific wayof dealing with it that he knows about, but also it doesn’t call his emotional state into question. Sure, it nearly kills him, but it’s a lot less gruelling than some of the stuff they go through later.

It’salso kind of a test for Beka too. We get to see how much he trusts Yuri, eventhough Yuri hasn’t always given him reason to, and it’s obvious that he’s in a verydangerous situation. Otabek is the first person to actually trust Yuri tohandle it on his own.

Butyeah, the folklore side of things was so much fun. I wanted to play withsomething that made it clear that Yuri isn’t the only supernatural being inthis world, but also that there’s a blur between the actual supernatural, simplesuperstition, and magic. Also, empathy. You know, they’re talking about theirdeaths and sort of forcing Yuri to experience them too. Like the sensation ofhis lungs filling with water, and the cold, and making him jump in the river –it sort of brings to life the brutality of what they faced. And we already knowthat, especially because of his influence, Yuri is a very humane person. It’sanother sort of inkling that he’s going to have issues helping Beka actuallyfight a war and kill people, even to protect more people in the long run. The ‘greatergood’ is much less of a clear concept for him.

Sothere you have it. Everything I was thinking when I was writing that scene! I’mnot sure a lot of it was very coherent but I hope it was interesting :P

#iguanastevens #answered asks #the widows #reference #update #ask #asks #research #commentary

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chromemuffin · 7 years

Text

(Captive Prince Trilogy) Prince’s Gambit Liveblogging (Chapter 3)

I suddenly got quite busy, thus the delay. Whoops. Turns out I wrote quite a lot for chapter 3, so I decided to just post this one alone.

Chapter 3

The morning began well enough.

Uh-oh.

I like Aimeric. Even though the image of him hero worshipping Laurent is sort of hilarious given the way just about everyone in these books seems to portray him.

Damen is, like, lowkey freaking out thinking this will turn into a disaster and it’s sort of amusing. Have some faith in Laurent. He might not have much experience with the military stuff, but he’s survived weird ass court politics for this long, I’m sure his plan isn’t as flimsy as Damen thinks.

And he probably has something planned, knowing him.

This part really highlights the differences between them. Damen would probably come straight out and confront Govart about the situation, and dole out a necessary punishment, but things were more straightforward for him back in Akielos than they are for Laurent now.

Guess I’ll find out what exactly that plan is in the next few pages.

So. Objectively, ‘what happens next’ is not actually that funny. I mean, Govart accuses Laurent of having incestuous feelings for his very dead brother, aaand immediately after is, like, Damen’s worst case scenario playing out. because Laurent has said his swordplay is not as good as Damen’s, which he probably takes to mean ‘Laurent’s going to lose this sword fight and it’ll blow up in our collective faces’.

On the other hand, I am howling. Like, you did not just say that about the two princes of your land. This book makes me weird.

But oh man, Damen, when did you become such a pessimist. How many times have you reiterated ‘oh no this is going to end badly’ in the last three pages alone?

He’s going to be killed, thought Damen, seeing the future in that moment with perfect clarity.

Please, Damen, chill. Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay. The next book in the series and the 300-something pages left in this one tell me so.

Ah, yes, I think I can see where the romance part of this book can possibly blossom. Compared to before, when I was just ??? wondering how these guys would ever get together. Damen likes men who can fight. He likes to sleep with the winners.

And we get a whole paragraph of Damen scrutinizing Laurent’s fighting skills, which mirror his personality closely. I wouldn’t say he’s fanboying...yet.

Before this, he didn’t have much confidence in Laurent’s fighting or military skills, he only knew that he was good at court politics and Damen hates those so. But this is a small ah-ha moment...

Yay! Finally! Govart finally got put in his place. It’s a small relief in light of the fact that I have over 300 pages to go and much, much worse can happen in that amount of time. But it’s a nice victory, achieved in a quite bloody manner.

The author did her research for these fight scenes, and they are written very well. Fight scenes in particular are a hard thing to conquer.

lol “Lazar...didn’t look as though he was going to be mouthing off about Laurent again. In fact, the new way he was looking at Laurent reminded Damen unmistakably of Torveld.”

Considering Damen, too, likes men who win at duels...

This whole ordeal was quite realistic, though. Of course Laurent, who avoided border duty for ages up until he was practically forced into it, wouldn’t have most of the soldiers’ respect and loyalty. Even if Govart wasn’t around to muck things up.

Oh, great, looks like we might not have heard the last of that guy after all...Damen stop being pessimistic.

“...the Prince, in his infinite goodness and fairness....”

lol

“...make their wiggly way south...”

??? xD

Damen’s warrior mindset is quite interesting. Particularly in how he repeatedly states how he respects Auguste as a warrior, though he ended up killing him. It’s something that this author really seems to get, which I really appreciate.

lol see? Laurent did have a plan all along. But Damen’s not very happy with the dishonesty and manipulating behind the scenes, as always. It’s almost painfully ironic how much Damen hates hates hates deception. It’s what got him ousted from his palace, birthright, and country. In fact, it’s probably necessary to run a country no matter how you might not want that to be true.

But I’m also surprised that Laurent is willing to listen to Damen on these military/leading an army things. Even after Damen just blurted out (yet again) an insult comparing him to his uncle, who he clearly despises.

“Then speak your mind,” said Laurent. “Not that you have ever done anything else.”

So true, Laurent. So true.

oh my god. these two are seriously cooperating.

watch out troops. you’re in for it now.

#captive prince #prince's gambit #pg liveblogging

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comicteaparty · 5 years

Text

January 24th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on January 24th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on Pike’s Reach by Mabs.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing Pike’s Reach by Mabs~! (https://tapas.io/series/pikesreach)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Superjustinbros

Hello!!

RebelVampire

hey super~!

my favorite scene is probably the fight with ezo and nefayn. largely because of https://tapas.io/episode/1179545 this page. i really just like the first few panels illustration wise cause even though theyre simplistic, i kind of feel like they convey this ominous sense of defeaning silence that is appropriate for conveying tension right after something climatic happens

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1234181

RebelVampire

yes there is also that scene. XD which was some good comic relief considering the comic was being very dramatic at the time.

also a good lesson about making sure someone gives permission

instead of just knocking and opening the door

Superjustinbros

yes

Because naked people

RebelVampire

another comical scene i enjoyed was the where they were showing off their drawings of pella's uncle. https://tapas.io/episode/962506 because man are those some not great drawings. especially that left one scares me

Superjustinbros

Oh my god

RebelVampire

another moment i liked, which isnt a scene but more a scene transition you could say, is when the comic switches from adelaide goofing around and then suddenly the warning bell rings.

https://tapas.io/episode/604008

in particular that page

i really love the shots and especially the ominous overtone the first panel has

cause it really helps visually convey the serious has come

Superjustinbros

I love the art style and general color scheme, lots of pinks and purples

mathtans

Made it, though I may not be mentally all here, today's been crazy.

Superjustinbros

hey Math

mathtans

One of my faves was actually to start Chapter 3, when we looked at the "villains" and the main guy was talking about how he didn't want them dead, more turned to his side. I liked the humanizing aspect of the antagonists.

Superjustinbros

Same

mathtans

Too often we just see things kind of one sided. This didn't go that way.

Superjustinbros

Villains that do more than just want the main character(s) dead are always good

mathtans

As far as comedy goes, I liked the brief scene where Adelaide "winked"... maybe... because she could have been blinking and her hair was in the way.

Though I also liked the "cold feet" bit where Nefayn was laughing and Nassar didn't know. In particular it was sort of called back later when he was thrilled that she liked his jokes.

RebelVampire

yeah i really enjoyed that moment with the antagonists. also partially cause i like it being explained why they dont just crush the army cause adelaide is already being silly meeting them on an open field and not using the fort's defenses as was intended

mathtans

Little one's fussing.(edited)

Superjustinbros

Rebel gets it

RebelVampire

but yeah i liked this humanizing affect too of course. because conflicts of territory are rarely straight forward evil guy wants to rule over all the things

Superjustinbros

RebelVampire

that and selfishly i really wanted to like pella and that scene proved to me that it was okay to like him cause hes just a goofy sparkly dude just trying to unite the lands.

Superjustinbros

heehee~

Mabs

Hi there! I'm Mabs and the creator of Pike's Reach! I can't stay for too long because sudden school stuff came up, but I wanted to say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for reading PR! Your comments are making me really happy ;w;

Superjustinbros

Hi!!!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. Unfortunately for Nefayn, she is cursed twice over both in body and magic. Who do you think cursed her with the first seal and for what reason? Could the culprit be Ezo considering she and Pella seemed to know Nefayn? Why was said culprit pursuing her? In other words, what are their long-term goals in using her? How powerful do you think Nefayn was before the first seal came to be? Now that Nefayn is sealed twice over to be all but human, how will this affect her helpfulness in a battle? Do you believe that Nefayn will be able to undo the seals eventually and return herself to her original form and power? If so, how might this affect her growing relationship with Adelaide?

glad you could stop by, mabs~!

im torn on the culprit issue. on the one hand ezo seems likely cause from her characterization that seems like something shed do. but on the other hand their army is kind of near the end of their campaign since pike's reach is the last one standing and they dont want to murder hobo them. so idk why theyd need nefayn. i kind of like to think theres something bigger gonna show up and pella and adelaide are gonna join forces to defeat it. and that whatever the it is is what's after nefayn. but that could be wishful thinking cause i always cheer for antagonist protagonist team ups when both are basically good dudes with different goals

mathtans

(I swear, my life after 8pm is running back and forth to my little daughter's room.)

RebelVampire

as for goals, maybe using her as a magic conduit. cause thats the only thing i can think of.

mathtans

I get what you were saying about the climactic magic fight scene earlier btw. Just I've never been huge on drama, you know me. ^.^

Superjustinbros

perhaps

also lol math

mathtans

Oh, hi Mabs! I ship everyone!

Superjustinbros

lol

Mabs

Hi there! Yes good, please ship all the characters.

Superjustinbros

Will do~

especially this page https://tapas.io/episode/1221349

mathtans

I wonder if Nefayn was originally that uncle that the General was talking about. Except that would destroy the best ship, so I'm not sure I like that possiblity.

RebelVampire

if were shipping all the ships i now accept https://tapas.io/episode/1077847 this page as canon

mathtans

Yeah, I don't know that it's Ezo. There was also that scene where Nefayn said she thought the big Pike's room seemed familiar, so I feel like she was a citizen of the place somehow.

A teamup would be pretty cool between the two groups. Maybe the West has been getting more organized than they realize, there was some mention of the latest attack being more of a ruse.

Hah. That was a funny one.

Part of me actually ships Ezo and Nefayn, in that sort of 'mortal enemies become friends' kind of deal. So I guess Adelaide ends up with the General's second in command? This was probably heresy to propose.

RebelVampire

idk. shooting someone in the chest seems like a romance deal breaker there XD

Superjustinbros

all ships set sail here

mathtans

It was an arrow of love and respect. Deep down. After all, it didn't kill her.

RebelVampire

but yeah the west could certainly become a threat. or even just one person in the west. like maybe one nation got themselves some guns and are bringing their guns to all the sword fights

mathtans

("It was worse than death, I was made human.")

RebelVampire

LOL

mathtans

As long as they don't bring the gunpowder, it's fine.

RebelVampire

Ezo wanted to make Nefayn human cause she too supports the adelaide/nefayn ship

it was the plan all along

mathtans

Actually, it's not a bad plan. Good way to make the enemy commander very distracted.

RebelVampire

and tbf it does probably take nefayn out of the battle a bit. cause being human has its mortal perils.

mathtans

Here's a possibly related question, who keeps sending the evil things to attack Adelaide? Which makes her sleep with a sword? I don't think it's the general, he seems honourable enough to keep his distance after losing, at least for a while. Maybe it's the same person who did the thing to Nefayn.

Flying is more of a problem for humans.

RebelVampire

i just assumed the magic things showed up of their own accord.

although

pella and ezo dont seem to be plagued by birds

so maybe someone is sending them

or adelaide is special and theyre super attracted to her

mathtans

Right.

Everyone's super attracted to the heroine.

RebelVampire

this is an interesting line of thought

cause i definitey doubt it's pella

cause the impression i got is that this has plagued adelaide for much longer than pike's reach has been under siege

since the sword thing is usually the sign of a long term habit

mathtans

I wonder if maybe the charm that was mentioned as something to keep her safe is actually attracting all the problems. Though it'd need to be something fairies can't pick up on.

Superjustinbros

@mathtans must be one really sexy heroine

RebelVampire

these are some good catches math. i really didnt pay much mind to any of these mentions. that could be though. and tbf nefayn's powers were already partly sealed from the get go so i wouldnt be surprised if shes missing out on some magic things

mathtans

Thanks. ^^ I guess it just struck me as interesting that she's got the sleep issues, and no one else seemed to.

I was wondering if one of Nefayn's powers was to grow big.

RebelVampire

maybe. although i keep thinking its gonna wind up shes a goddess or something O_O

not a fairy sized goddess mind you cause she does mention that fairy form is not her original size

although to the stuff b4 that brings up an interesting point about how much can the magic world interact with the non-magic. cause obviously adelaide being able to see magic and stuff makes her able to interact with it. but how aware does a non magic person have to be before magic stuff can affect them

mathtans

Goddess of sparkles.

RebelVampire

like obviously the others cant see nefayn

but can nefayn like punch them

and theyll be like "oww what a random pain"

mathtans

Well, since magic mines could influence people, I imagine if you make the effect large enough, it'd register.

What if Nefayn caresses?

(I mean, kinda moot now, but still.)

RebelVampire

yeah the magic mines worked. cause if the magic can affect the non magic regardless of their ability to see it, it adds evidence to the idea those birds are super out to get adelaide specifically

QUESTION 3. Magic seems to be at the center of several other mysteries that are presented in the comic. What is Pike’s Reach’s past with magic regarding the mention of a catastrophe involving it? Is Pella onto something about everyone being Adelaide’s age? What might this have to do with the previous lord of Pike’s Reach and Adelaide becoming its lord? How might any of this relate to the fact that Nefayn appears to recall being at Pike’s Reach for a brief moment? There is also the issue of Pella’s missing uncle. What do you think happened to his uncle? How might Pella’s uncle be related to past or present events that occurred in Pike’s Reach? Lastly, will Pella ever discover the truth about his uncle?(edited)

Superjustinbros

That's a cool skill imo

mathtans

Oh yeah, my memory had kind of glossed over that whole catastrophe thing. And the age thing too. Hm, really good points. Maybe they don't physically age in Pike's? Like, they're actually 60, but have the bodies of people much younger?

Again, suspected the uncle might be Nefayn, but that sinks the ship.

Superjustinbros

lol

RebelVampire

if the uncle isnt adelaide's father i will be so surprised

mathtans

Oh! Maybe the uncle is the one who cursed Nefayn.

I wondered about that. If the seeing magic lineage was a direct ancestry. But it might make sense for the uncle to be the one attacking Adelaide too.

RebelVampire

https://tapas.io/episode/970094

like legit look at that family resemblence

https://tapas.io/episode/822837 and pella and adelaide have the same eye color too

and theres no reason it cant be both

adelaide's father and the real antagonist

mathtans

Valid arguments. Maybe it's a red herring though. (Or a red pike! Hah!)

RebelVampire

id even peg him for the causer of this supposed catastrophe. not on purpose. but he vanished and hes after nefayn to try and fix his mistakes.

mathtans

Or maybe he's dead, and he left behind the ultimate weapon to use in case of dire magic circumstances, down in the catacombs.

Or maybe he's undead. He's a necromancer.

Superjustinbros

Could be that now that you mention it

mathtans

As Nassar would say, a very grave matter.

RebelVampire

the charm is the key and thats why the birds are after adelaide. they want that ultimate weapon

birds love ultimate weapons

alternatively he couldve been the one to stop the catastrophe from becoming worse too

mathtans

Adelaide's love is the ultimate weapon.

RebelVampire

cause the fact the catastrophe only took out the elderly or so is implied makes that a very targetted attack. and him being the savior makes sense for why everyone made adelaide the lord.

mathtans

Ah, right, I guess I was still on the "elderly look young" track not the "elderly died" track.

Maybe they were all turned into fairies instead.

Maybe the uncle was turned into a pike.

RebelVampire

or everyone was

theyre all pikes

in the nearby lake

the place was previously called nefayn's love nest, but they renamed it to pike's reach cause theyre always trying to reach those pike

mathtans

spit-take

Lovely vacation spot it is either way.

Mabs

You all are absolutely hilarious and I have really been enjoying reading this. Thank you so much for reading so thoroughly gosh. I have to go to a school thing but I'll be sure to check back later and read the logs! Thanks again

RebelVampire

np and good luck with school~!

Superjustinbros

Cya, Mabs!

And good luck from me as well~

mathtans

Thank you for the creation! Hope school goes well.

Mabs

Thanks again! Bye all~ Good luck with the rest of your discussion

Superjustinbros

Bye!

RebelVampire

ya know, since nefayn doesnt quite remember pike's reach outside of haziness, i wonder if theres some magical third seal that was meant to hide her own memories. a third seal set up by certain uncles.

mathtans

Speaking of school, if there's no older adults, who runs public institutions?

Maybe she set the third seal herself. Nefayn was the cause of the magical catastrophe, doesn't want to remember it.

Everyone fighting about the love nest.

RebelVampire

idk. hard to say without an exact timeline. also without exact knowledge of their system of governance. like for example, education could just be an at home by parents thing. so no actual public institution for it. but i also dont know the cut off date. and maybe no all the old ppl are dead. more its just heavily skewed to one age group

mathtans

"We're in favour of same sex marriage." "Oh, well, we're leaving then." "You realize the founder of this place was gay?" "We're definitely leaving."

I liked Nassar's story, incidentally.

Some good zingers too. "Reel", heh.

RebelVampire

i really hope we get to see more of adelaide's group. cause i feel there isnt enough nassar yet. we need more puns

mathtans

Yis. Looked like we were getting some focus on Berlin towards the end.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Despite the romance and good feels in Pike’s Reach, they are the last fortress standing against the Eastern hordes. Do you believe Pella is genuine about his desire to unite the east to make the country a better place? Why do you think Pike’s Reach is so ardent about not uniting with the rest of the eastern lands? As time drags on, do you think Pella will give into his advisors and stop going so soft on Pike’s Reach? Will Ezo being injured drive them to it potentially? Alternatively, do you think Pike’s Reach and the Eastern hordes might join forces and put their differences aside for some reason? All in all, who do you think will emerge victorious?

mathtans

Ezo's injury could do that (escalate things), since Pella seems to have that thing for her. Honestly, I don't quite see why he's so keen on the uniting to this extent... is it all ego? I mean, why not just be glad you've got 95% of the continent?

It might be interesting if they join forces though.

I hope love emerges victorious.

RebelVampire

i do think ezo's injury is gonna make pella made. at least enough to challenge adelaide to another duel. but then he might also be mad at ezo and be like wtf ezo we were retreating

i dont think its all ego

just more its kind of awkward to not have pike's reach not united with the rest

cause according to that map pike's reach is basically surrounded on all sides

by pella's united country

mathtans

They'll have to redraw all the maps if Pike's given in though.

What the PUC?

Superjustinbros

mathtans

I feel like Ezo needs a friend even more than Adelaide. One who won't keep patting her on the head.

Maybe the injury will mellow her out, but I doubt it.

RebelVampire

i feel like ezo first needs to take a chill pill and stop going all life or death on everything

https://tapas.io/episode/850159 by this map id also assume pike's reach is a strategic advantage cause its closer to the west so if the west tries something its a good outpost to use to stave off an attack traveling in further eastward toward the capital

but all in all i think pella is genuine and really does want to make the country a better place.

mathtans

I can see that. It's a cool map too.

Superjustinbros

Yeah

Feels a lot like Europe/Russia/Asia merged into one

mathtans

"I will bring you love even if I have to smack you around."

RebelVampire

i actually dont know why pike's reach wouldnt want to unite with them to be honest. XD cause trade would be a nightmare at this point cause youd always have to try to skirt and sneak through the eastern horde lands. if the eastern hordes go to war with someone, land troops would be moved through pike's reach anyway. and to me it just seems pike's reach is more holding out for pride

but i guess tbf we dont know much about pella's country. maybe they eat babies and pike's reach has a strict no baby eating policy

mathtans

That's a fair point. Maybe there's something to the whole magic catastrophe, like they used to be a united continent and it went badly for them.

Jelly babies.

Incidentally, they seem to have all the major seasons, so don't live near an equator.

RebelVampire

i mean i guess it could just be an issue they dont want to be governed except by their own ppl or something. idk. i do feel the magic catastrophe has left some scares and suspicions. and ezo is proof pella isnt opposed to magic.

mathtans

Maybe, heritage and traditions or something. Ooh, maybe aliens will come and attack. That would unite everyone.

RebelVampire

this might be the wrong genre for that

maybe nefayn gets kidnapped

and they unite to save nefayn

cause love is the only thing that matters

mathtans

Could be. Oh, that's a thought, since she's vulnerable now and Adelaine owes her one or two.

Oh, and one nice bit I wanted to mention, the gag about her height.

RebelVampire

youll have to be more specific cause my mind is blanking on which specific gag youre referring to XD

although speaking of gags i liked the one where adelaide and nefayn were having the eating contest. except no one could see nefayn. XD

Superjustinbros

Alright, I'm gonna take my leave for now, thanks for the CTP and best of luck to Mabs on the story~

mathtans

(Sorry, little one again.)

The gag with Nefryn still being short... but being at an okay height. (Like, who isn't thinking that... )

That was amusing too. I wonder if you can get away with stuff when you see magic. "Uh, I wasn't talking to myself, no. Sure."

Have a good one, SJB!

RebelVampire

ah okay i know which gag you mean. that one was funny. XD

mathtans

Final closing thought, slow burn romance can be fun for when things come to a peak. Or a pike. ^.^

RebelVampire

i feel in general theres been a lot more jokes like that since nefayn became human

mathtans

It's been good for alleviating some of the tension.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Mabs, as well, for making Pike’s Reach. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Mabs’ efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/pikesreach

Mabs’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mabsart

Mabs’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mabs_art

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