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valeriianz · 5 months

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10 fandoms / 10 characters / 10 tags

tagged by @virgo-dream and @seiya-starsniper, thank you! this took me a while... the way my hyperfixations work is, i'll completely devote myself to a piece of media for a time... then once i find something else i move on almost entirely lol. i of course still have a very soft spot for the shows/video games listed here (as well as my blorbos, such as they are) but the only fandom im currently active in is, of course, Sandman.

1: Levi Ackerman - Attack on Titan

I am in a love/hate relationship with AoT lmao (and some day i WILL finish the final season) but nothing, not even fandom war, will ever change my love for Levi. I'm obsessed with his backstory, how he came into the Survey Corps, and how it all sheds light on the decisions he makes and the tragedies he suffered through. I was fascinated by him since S1 and after the No Regrets manga came out, I was done for. He has been through so much and despite how cruel and unforgiving he seems, he actually has the biggest heart and-- guh I just love him. He deserves the world ;^;

2: Zuko - Avatar the Last Airbender

Truly was torn between Zuko or Katara... but I have always had mad respect for Zuko's redemption arc and how brilliantly it was written. I love how it takes a full season and a half for him to have this war within himself, that he makes the right decision but then regresses... before literally becoming sick with indecision and change. And then he finally proves his worth and becomes the most loyal friend and a perfect leader to rebuild a broken society. I'm a sucker for good character stories, and Zuko's arc in ATLA is my hands down favorite ever.

3: Roxas - Kingdom Hearts

God I just love tragic male characters, huh? lmao. This one is a no brainer to me. Roxas is the OG blorbo. I fell in love with him at the tender age of 17 and have never looked back. He is kind and loyal but also a feral gremlin. He is so goofy but sad and god dammit, I love his voice and his baby blue eyes. Also this line, "This could have been the other way around." *shakes fist* MY BOY!

4: Faye Valentine - Cowboy Bebop

We love complex characters in this house! Faye has all the traits of a character I usually wouldn't vibe with: she's arrogant (without much to back it up lol), lazy, and is susceptible to addictions. But oooh do I love a character who uses negative traits to hide how emotionally vulnerable they are. Faye appears strong, mean, and confident to a fault, but inside she craves companionship and is incredibly lonely (despite her lone wolf tendencies). Rewatching the show as an adult, I found Faye and I have a lot in common lol. She needs a hug.

5: Hob Gadling - The Sandman

Do I really need to say anything? lol I love that Hob is the fandom's plaything; molding and shaping him and writing him in all sorts of different ways... but I do adore his canon character. He is brash, stubborn, at times cruel and violent... but then immeasurably kind, loyal, and forgiving. He takes on immortality in unexpected ways. he thrives, he suffers, he works, he regresses, he makes mistakes, he learns from them, he changes... he is THE human experience.

6: Daenerys Targaryen - Game of Thrones

Robbed. Robbed. Absolutely robbed. The writers did Daenerys so dirty, I refuse to accept the final 3 seasons of GOT as canon lmao. (and here's another thing: I would totally accept her spiral into "madness" if it had been handled seriously. If the writers didn't just pull this out of their ass and instead thoughtfully worked in justifiable reasoning for her to go crazy). I'm 100% a stan and there's actually nothing you can say that will change my mind :)

7: Cal Kestis - Star Wars, Jedi: Fallen Order

My SON. My BOY! I have the adoption papers ready.

8: Tifa Lockhart - Final Fantasy VII

Another OG blorbo lmao. She's been with me since I was a teenager (also I always shipped her with Cloud, not Aerith. I do however ship Aerith and Zack... the latter whom almost made this list. Anyway-). Tifa is the badass motherfucker with a heart of gold. She is insanely loyal and truly the wisest of the bunch.

9: Mickey Milkovich - Shameless

ANOTHER BROKEN CHARACTER WHO GOES THROUGH EXTREME DEVELOPMENT? Can anyone sense a pattern?? This motherfuckerrrr *shakes Mikey and slaps him in the face and sobs* God I love it when a seemingly irredeemable character goes THROUGH IT and comes out shining a new, yet somehow the same old, sarcastic bitch.

(Also please note that Lip Gallagher almost made this list. Another shining example of the writers doing his character the WORST injustice just to keep him on the show. He should have stayed in college. He almost GOT OUT. He almost broke the chain. What he did was not in line with his character and I will stay mad about it).

10: Cesare Borgia - The Borgias

THIS. GUY! AURGH!! Arrogant, violent, sexy bastard. You piece of shit. Cesare actually did everything wrong, he doesn't want to be redeemed. But he is so fucking charismatic and I love that he uses it to his advantage. He's so fucking smart and quick on his feet. He's SUCH an asset on the battlefield. And he LOVES his family! He will kill a bitch with his bare hands if they dare insult his mother or sister. I love that he grumbles when given advice from literally anyone that isn't his most trusted friend, bodyguard, and assassin, Micheletto. Doesn't even flinch when he discovers Micheletto is gay, actually teases him for being a momma's boy, and genuinely grieves for his loss when he flees. He says out loud how he misses him and actually begins to doubt himself without Micheletto there to counsel him. Cesare is everything to me, actually.

tagging, no pressure!: @rainy-days-and-nights @the-cloudy-dreamer @kemurai6-dominion-of-dust @ferelden-loser @teejaystumbles @tj-dragonblade @hardly-an-escape @sutoribenda @quillingwords @mathomhouse-e

#woo okay #this was kind of difficult because i usually always have multiple blorbos per show lol #choosing only one from each was a struggle haha #thank you guys!#tag game

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awakefor48hours · 6 months

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Stolen Hearts

[Fanfiction.net] || [AO3]

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug & Avatar the Last Airbender Warnings: None Characters: Marinette Dupain Cheng, Azula Relationships: Azula/Marinette (Azulanette) Additional Tags: bisexual marinette, lesbian azula, one shot, Aged up, Marinette and Azula are both 28, slight OOC

Summary: After a successful heist, Paris’s most infamous cat burglar, Ladybug, goes home to her roommate, Azula, who has big news for her.

After scouring the internet for a long while, I have come to the conclusion that I am the only person who ships these two. I checked basically everywhere for a fanfiction, fanart, AMV, or even just an edit of Azula and Marinette, I checked tumblr, reddit, instagram, AO3, fanfiction.net, livejournal, wattpad, quotev, tiktok, youtube, and even the third page of google so welcome to what I will confidently say is the first ever Azula x Marinette (a ship I’m calling Azulanette) fanfiction.

I'm so glad you're here to watch my brainrot of this crack ship I've slowly come to love. Once again, since I can confidently say that this is the first ever Azulanette fanfiction in the world, I'm going to ease myself into writing about Azulanette as I'm planning to write a longer/multi-chapter fic in the future, I want practice writing these two before I take on something like that. The only "plan" I have is to just experiment, see what works and what doesn't work before that fic is published. I also need to rewatch ATLA again as the last time I saw this show was back in 2020.

For nearly five years, Paris had been intimidated by a cat burglar that goes by the name of Ladybug. Ladybug was a criminal mastermind. The only known information the police had on her was that she always wore a ladybug-printed outfit and would always rob places in the morning or dusk, never at night. Wearing a bright red outfit in the middle of the day should make her out to be a very easy target but somehow she would escape before the authorities would even realize that they were robbed.

That begs the question: where does she go after a heist?

Ladybug ran on the rooftops of Paris at dusk. She knew it would only be a matter of time before the bank realized that they'd been robbed but she didn't worry about that because she was almost home. She took a giant leap, jumping over the street below her, to a new rooftop and saw her apartment just a few meters away. A few seconds later, she made it to her bedroom window, opened it, then jumped through. Just as her feet touched the floor, she heard police sirens start to blare outside.

Another successful heist.

She popped her head out of her room to greet her roommate, Azula. They've been roommates since the beginning of Ladybug's crime spree. It was their secret and the reason and they were only people who knew. It was nice to have someone like her.

"Hi, Marinette, how was your heist today?" Azula greeted.

Marinette, the name of the person behind the mask, smiled then pulled out her magic yo-yo and pulled out some of the cash she stole. She was currently holding 6 thousand euro but left the other 2 hundred thousand inside her yo-yo. "Successful, as always." Marinette said proudly.

Marinette moved back into her room and changed out of her Ladybug outfit and into a comfortable red sweatshirt and gray pants. Once she was changed, she talked to the kitchen to start making croissants. Making pastries after a heist was a habit she started a while ago. It helped to calm down and remind her of home. Azula also loved this habit so Marinette always made sure to make enough for both of them.

Marinette walked around the kitchen, grabbing the ingredients she needed. But before she started, she noticed Azula standing at the threshold. "Marinette, can I tell you something before you start?"

"Yeah go ahead." Marinette then put down the flour she was holding and walked towards Azula.

When she walked over, Azula took Marinette's hands and looked at her. "Marinette these past five years have been some of the most amazing years of my life. You're so imaginative, smart, funny, and make the best pastries I've ever tasted."

"You're homemade tea is definitely the best I've had."

She chuckled lightly. "You should try my uncle's tea. His tea is much better than mine."

"Then you should try my father's pastries too. He and my grandfather make some of the best pastries ever made."

"I look forward to it. But I really want to tell you something." Azula looked down, sighed heavily, then looked back up. "You are truly amazing. Especially the way you've managed to steal anything that you put your mind to, it's always impressed me and recently you've stolen something from me."

Suddenly a slight feeling of panic set in. What did she steal this time? She's had problems with accidentally stealing from Azula's stuff in the past, usually her phone, but she always gives her stuff back in the end. She doesn't even know what she stole this time so she didn't know where she may have put it this time. She has nearly 2 hundred thousand dollars in her room right now so she could at least pay it back.

"Marinette, you stole my heart."

In that moment, Marinette felt her worry melt away. Her face started to heat up and the air left her lungs. She could barely believe this was happening. They've been roommates for a while and Marinette had definitely started to develop feelings for Azula too. She just never thought they would be reciprocated.

“Well, you should know you stole my heart too.”

They looked at each other for a moment then leaned in for a kiss. It was like heaven, an eternity of happiness, despite the fact it only lasted for a short moment. Once they separated, Marinette said, “I guess we can get our families together when we tell them the news.”

And with that, the first ever Azulanette fanfiction is done. I cannot express to you how hard this was for me. I’ve written and rewritten so many things about this fic should go, this is actually the third attempt/fanfiction I wrote. After a while, I had to realize that I just needed to sit down and write this. In fact, the rough draft for this fic was handwritten because I had some extra time before one of my classes.

Also, and I’m sure this might be a bit obvious, this fic was inspired by Batcat. An anon mentioned that Azulanette reminded them of Damienette and I realized I should integrate myself in the DC x ML side of the fandom so I’ve been binging DC content because it’s been a while since I’ve really sat down and enjoyed DC content outside of Harley Quinn (character and show). Anon, if you’re reading this, you played a big part in this fic and thank you for pointing that out.

With that being said, I’m proud of this. It took about a month and an embarrassing amount of times falling asleep at the keyboard to write this fic but I couldn’t be happier that it’s finally out in the world. Once again, I do plan to write more (especially the other two fics I started to write) but right now I’m mainly just focusing on how Azula and Marinette’s relationship would function.

#my fanfiction #crossover fanfiction #miraculous ladybug #avatar #atla #avatar the last airbender #azulanette #marinette x azula #azula x marinette #marinette dupain cheng #azula #atla azula #crack ship #one shot

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iamreadytoforgiveyou · 2 days

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💚 from the ask game

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

I'll start with my fav from my 2021 rewatch sokka/ and that is simply that he is gay./gay for zuko . I don't get it I'll never really get it sokka was the staightest boy in the show to me as he.. gets suki/yue/even seems interested in ty lee for 3 seconds/tries to get into good graces with a girls poetry club. He was def not coded gay esp for a 2000s nicktoon. and when i came to tumblr i had hoped to find convos involving how smart /developed he was and it was nothing but zukka everywhere no mention of sokka development it was very discourging . and maybe people think im homphobic but i lean towards jetko/zukaang. zukka i barealy understand.

now lets go with Zuko and I warn people this is gonna be snarky cause i've see so many bad takes since 2020 to well the nows.

this is the BIG ONE people get wrong. because fandom is.. Afraid to acutally Like the real Zuko because the real zuko fits all the problematic scales. from Kidnapping katara/sokka/ /Extortion/Stalking the gaang to capture aang/kidnapping aang/ /sending a man to murder Aang who almost blows up Katara/Toph/ theres a reason zuko is angry at himself eh sent a man to murder Aang.. and he knows it wrong he's not stupid. he's in denial through half of s3 and living in terrible guilt from how he treated iroh/sending combustion man after aang. also Mai never abused zuko....

theres a reason people think im not a zutara shipper its bec i disagree with 99 percent of their takes. including that he was in love wiht katara the whole time Katara was never on his mind Zuko mind was: I must capture the Avatar so I can get back home and have dads love for 90 percent of the show up until the eclipse where his new goal was: Stop Ozai from killing the earth kingdom people /help Avatar he has a very one track mind when it comes to his goals.

fandom gets everything wrong with him.

Awkard turtletuck/maturedad/ maturer than Aang/ the one to save CinderKatara from abusive aang/an uncaring friend group/really loved his time in uncles tea shop/ never did anything wrong / never colonized anything/

I mean the earth kingdom didnt fall just because of azula Zuko made his choice to help her. . They colonized the both of em Ba Sin Sa. Azula gets woofied too she is def responsible for conquering the city but Zuko did help hes not innocent here but fans will def say everything he did is excused cause and azula fans have done this too. and its so .. tiresom

the idea zuko never meant to harm anyone to achieve his endgame/ He almost burnt suki and sokka had to save her. h was not above kidnapping katara to get what he wants. or knocking her out twice. The idea zuko never had any attention to harm anyone to get to Aang to get home is ludrucious. /this boy wanted to go home for 90 percent of the show.

Zuko is an impulsive teenager with a bit of an ego who looked down on the common folk for a good while thats why he robbed from earth kingdom people he felt they owed him stuff. because he was the prince of the FN. having to live among em is what helped him gain sympathy for their plight to leave the firenation so they wouldn't die.

Zuko arc is learning the fire nation is a cruel ruthless nation and his way of thinking that he's better than people is wrong. I dont think some people can reconsile low self esteem doesnt mean you can't look down on others.. Cause he did from calling katara a pesant in s1 and saying how the people in the earth kingdom should respect them to iroh in s2/ He has to learn sympathy/empathy for people outside the fire nation. . Zuko journey is to learn to be a better man. its like .. a man in his teens/early 20s learning their biggoted beliefs are nothing but bs and having to grown and improve.

. he is not without flaws in the end when he joins avatar he's still grumpy. he's awkward because he trying to befriend the people he us to hunt down so its gonna be awkward. Zuko isn't team dad. He's been adopted into the gaang.

I also disgree with haters saying Zuko should have changed 100percent into mr. calm/collected otherwise his arc is a bust. Zuko is a lot like Iago to me in turns of character changing sides with villian to the good guys. I'd rather they stay themselfs in terms of snark than became a perfect /happy sunshine attitudie character.

i just think fandom is afraid to enjoy Assholes. there i said it. I love jerks so i dont understand it. Think of Spongebob going from a square to a perfect smooth circle and that's how fandom treats Zuko in teh shipping side of things. there's a reason i never felt happy in teh zutara fandom. most people dont talk about him how i see him . but as a teenager i related to zukos anger a lot and i had to work on that anger. how zuko is treated to me feels very.... ableist to me when you try to ignore his flaws. it reads off as he's unlovable if he has any uncomfortable personality traits.

#atla #zuko

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iminaworldofpureimagination · 1 month

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some zutaras think im a big phony but what made me ship em when iwas younger was their moment in the crystal catcombs cause i am a sap for women comforts sad man and maiko felt that it came out of nowhere. though i held no will will towards mai.

coming to tumblr after leaving atla in 2011 only enjoying it with amvs/my sibling. in the 2020s rewatching avatar i just saw zuko is BABY... obv im to old for self inserts of teenagebaby

to see zutara boiled down to conspiracies of being robbed or aang is a predator takes baffeling and to this day is still baffeling to me. i still can wrap my head around one user going its just fun to hate aang.. this fandom.. its very weird to me

#zutara fandom problems #I am a zutara fan but some make me feel like a fake #atla fandom problems

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mttbrandgender · 3 months

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ATLA Netflix thoughts

Okay, I am going to break down my very strong feelings about what little information we have on the ATLA live adaptation because I cannot physically keep this to myself. I am throwing this together pretty last minuet so it is less structured than I would like but this is what I’ve got time for right now.

A few things that I feel are important to know about me before we start. Firstly, I do not believe that any visual media should be adapted to another visual media, especially animated media into live actions. There has never been anything animated that has been made better in a live action adaptation. Animation is a sacred media to me, specifically 2D animation. Secondly, I adore Avatar: The Last Airbender. I watched it as it aired when I was super young and have rewatched it countless times since then. It is legitimately my favorite show. Thirdly, I am a hater, I love to tear into things and dissect them so this will be a lot of that. There will also probably be a lot more when the show also comes out. Alright, anyway!

As soon as I heard there would be a live action remake, safe to say I was not excited. I heard the original creators of the show were involved and I still did not feel good about it. ATLA really was perfect in my eyes. It was done in a perfect medium and was a perfect story with characters that felt REAL. How would remaking it in live action add to this nearly untouchable show add value? My partner has urged me to keep an open mind and not hate it entirely before we could watch it. So, I put it in the back of my mind and didn’t think about it too much for a while.

Until, suddenly, articles started to come out about what liberties the new showrunners decided to take with the show. I knew I should probably not have read them, usually I don’t even watch trailers for things I want to watch but I decided I had to know what was being said, I was painfully curious.

The first thing that I saw was that Sokka’s sexism was ‘iffy’ and ‘didn’t hold up’ so they decided to take it out of their version. I was completely shocked. Sokka’s sexism in the series WAS iffy but it was called out as such WITHIN THE NARRATIVE. That’s how they found Aang in the first place, Sokka was being sexist and Katara got angry about it. We are introduced to Sokka as a flawed character who holds these misguided beliefs about women because of the circumstances he was raised in. It is not a glorified concept within the show. Throughout the three seasons, we as an audience not only get to watch him unlearn these concepts but we also get to watch strong female characters speak out against sexism without being brushed off. It is essential to the plot and instills in its audience that it is okay to have to unlearn these ignorant beliefs, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Sokka is not a bad person or a bad character because he holds these beliefs. We get to explore why he feels that way while also watching him learn to be better. Why would you want to take that out? Because sexism is problematic, and we don’t want our show to be problematic! Look how progressive it is! You are robbing this character of the ability to change and grow because from the jump they are not flawed.

This leads to the next issue. They are writing Aang to be more responsible and ‘driven’ leaving less time for fun side quests. What? I’m sorry I must have misread that; you want the 12-year-old boy who froze himself in the ice originally because he did not want to do Avatar stuff to come out of it and immediately want to get straight to business?? That just rubs me the wrong way. In the original show, we get to see Aang slowly come to terms with his responsibilities while also acting in a way that is realistic for someone who is 12. I also saw someone say that nearly every shot of Aang in the trailer was him with a serious face. The charm of the show and Aang as our main character is that he’s a kid! He acts like a 12-year-old kid and matures as he goes through more experiences with his friends. Where is the integrity of these characters? It seems like these showrunners are so afraid to showcase any of the characters as flawed and how can you have perfectly responsible unproblematic characters that are also children?

At this point, it feels like what they need is a character integrity team to help them make these decisions because they are striking out so far. Why are we robbing these characters of their arcs? By taking away any issue or flaw, you’re taking away so much potential. This takes me back to my original thought which is why the hell would you want to take something that is so highly acclaimed and beloved and remake it? You are setting yourself up to fail no matter what. This is not a story that needs retelling in my opinion. I would much rather they take all this creative energy and resources and use them to write something else in this world. Why retell the story when you could write a new one with new characters that people haven’t spent nearly 20 years watching and loving?

The most recent thing I read was that they wanted to ‘solve’ some of the ‘gender issues’ Katara faced in the original show. Like the earlier bit with Sokka’s sexism, I take huge issue with this. These two things play into each other. Katara is not nurturing and motherly because she’s a girl. She and Sokka lost their mom when they were very young and almost immediately after, their father left for the war. Sokka and Katara were made to take on these roles at a super young age because of this conflict. Sokka is attempting to be the man of the house, trying to imitate his dad as best he can in order to fulfill that role. We know from The Waterbending Master that the water tribes hold some sexist beliefs, as Master Pakku will not instruct Katara because she’s a girl. From that, it’s not a crazy notion that Sokka might hold some of those beliefs from his upbringing. It is also critical to Katara’s character because she was fulfilling that motherly role after her mother passed. She doesn’t do it perfectly; she has a lot of control issues and can have a bit of a temper. Neither of them are bad nor outdated character because of these things. It’s a realistic reaction to the situation they found themselves in. Through their experiences in the show, they learn and grow into better and better versions of themselves. Why would the showrunners want to take that all away?

There are also so many bigger pictures issues I have thought about as well that we don’t have an answer to yet. The pacing, what they plan on fitting into the first season, how long are the episodes, etc. I am still attempting to stay open, but it is really getting hard the more I hear about it. Thank you for reading my rant and I’ll see y’all in 20 days for the premiere, I will be taking notes. :)

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #avatar netflix #atla #atla netflix #mine #personal

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kevinsreviewcatalogue · 4 months

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Review: Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield (2008)

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images

Score: 4 out of 5

Sixteen years after it premiered, to the month and almost to the day, I decided to rewatch Cloverfield in a very different context to that in which I first saw it. When it premiered, it did so at the climax of a hype campaign in which the spectacular and chaotic first trailer, attached to the 2007 Transformers movie, didn't even reveal the film's title, just a release date and the fact that J. J. Abrams was producing it. Six months of speculation, fueled by a complex alternate reality game filled with Easter eggs, clues, and a backstory involving a Japanese corporation's deep-sea drilling activities, left audiences buzzing as to what it might be about. People speculated that it was a new American Godzilla remake, a Voltron adaptation, a spinoff of Abrams' hit sci-fi show Lost, or even an H. P. Lovecraft adaptation. The first one turned out to be the closest to the truth, in that, while it didn't feature the Big G himself, it was still a kaiju movie cut from a very similar cloth, one that used the idea of a giant monster attacking a city to comment on a recent tragedy in a manner I've always found fascinating long after I saw it. It was a hit, big enough to spawn two spinoffs (one of which was a good movie in its own right, the other... not so much), and people still talk about doing a proper sequel to this day.

All of that, of course, was peripheral to the film itself. Watching it again in 2024, I had only vague memories of its viral marketing campaign, most of which was hosted on long-forgotten websites (some of which are now defunct) and very little of which is actually referenced in the movie unless you know what you're looking for. The question of whether or not the movie actually held up on its own merits as a movie was the important one this time, not whether it answered questions about the Tagruato corporation or what's really in the Slusho! beverages they sell. And honestly, if it wasn't a good movie all along, even without Abrams' "mystery box" marketing, I don't think we'd still be talking about it today. Make no mistake, there are elements that don't hold up today, especially the slow first twenty minutes and anything involving T. J. Miller's character, and not just because of his real-life scandals. But those are mostly fluff on an otherwise very well-made film, one that takes a monster movie and puts viewers in the shoes of the people on the ground running like hell from the monster. Much as the original 1954 Godzilla movie was the kind of movie that could only have been made by Japanese filmmakers after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is the kind of movie that could only have been made by American filmmakers after 9/11, one that lifts a lot of its visual shorthand from the attacks to depict a kaiju rampage as 9/11 on steroids. It's a movie that starts slow but immediately starts ratcheting up the tension once the mayhem starts and only rarely lets up, one whose special effects and thrills are still spectacular years later despite a fairly low budget. In the pantheon of kaiju movies, Cloverfield still holds up as not only one of the best made outside Japan, but one that matches and rivals some of its inspirations.

The initial hook of this movie is that it's a found-footage take on Godzilla, one where a giant monster attack is shown from street-level through the eyes, and specifically the video camera, of somebody running for his life. Here, that person is Hud Platt, a guy whose first name (as in, "heads-up display") says it all: he's less a character than he is the viewer's avatar filming the real main characters. Those guys are the brothers Rob and Jason Hawkins who Hud is friends with, Jason's fiancé Lily Ford, Rob's estranged girlfriend Beth McIntyre, and Marlena Diamond, an actress who Hud has a crush on. The film starts with all of them at a going-away party at Rob's apartment in Manhattan to celebrate Rob getting a promotion that will see him move to Japan, one where Rob and Beth's relationship drama threatens to ruin it before something far bigger comes along to do that: a sudden earthquake, followed by an explosion in Lower Manhattan caused by something that's come ashore from the ocean and is big enough to throw the head of the Statue of Liberty roughly a mile. As the city plunges into chaos, Rob, his life shattered, vows to do the one thing he possibly can for himself: find Beth.

The first twenty minutes at times were largely an exercise in watching a group of rich twentysomethings talk and argue about their frivolous issues. In the context of the broader film, especially with its many, many 9/11 allusions and how it developed these characters later on, it worked to set the mood, that these were not heroes but a group of ordinary people whose lives are suddenly upended by tragedy and horror. As I was watching those first twenty minutes, however, I came to find the characters grating, not least of all Hud. He's your stock 2000s bro-comedy goofball and the film's main source of comic relief, and I quickly grew to despise him. A lot of the first act is built around his awkward attempts to hit on Marlena and his spreading stories to the rest of the party about Rob and Beth's sex life, the latter of which causes no shortage of problems. The other characters all get room to grow as the film goes on, but Hud remains the same obnoxious dick that he was in the beginning, such that some of my favorite moments in the film were when the other characters told him to cool it after his jokes got too much even for them. T. J. Miller may have been playing exactly the character he was told to, and he may have done it well, but the film as a whole didn't need an annoying asshole as the cameraman constantly interjecting. Hud should've been somebody who gets killed off to raise the stakes, let us know that things are serious, and give us a bit of catharsis after all the problems he caused for Rob at the beginning of the film, while the camera is instead carried by either a flat non-entity who doesn't act so annoying or one of the other characters.

(If I may indulge in fanfic for a bit here, there's a version of this movie in my head where Marlena, the outsider to the main friend group, serves as the camerawoman and basically swaps roles with Hud. What's more, she would have had her own secrets that would've tied into the ARG viral marketing, creating an aura of mystery around her and the sense that she can't be trusted -- and since she's the one with the camera, the question of whether or not we're dealing with an unreliable narrator would've come up. Even without that subplot, though, I still think she would've made a better cameraperson than Hud, if only because she was less annoying.)

Once the monster attack begins, however, everything not involving Hud is gold. The actual monster is a beast, and while the film loves to keep it in the dark for long stretches, its presence is never not felt once it shows up. The 2014 American Godzilla remake tried to do something similar in showing us its monsters only sparingly, but there's a difference between having their presence felt even when they're not actually on screen and having them appear so little that you start to forget you're watching a Godzilla movie. Here, while most scenes, especially early on, give us only brief glimpses of "Clover" (as the production team called the monster) as it hides amidst New York's skyscrapers, the viewers, by way of the characters and their video camera, are never not in a situation where they can't notice its presence, whether they're escaping from plumes of smoke and debris when it topples the Woolworth Building, scrambling to get off the Brooklyn Bridge before it tears it in half, hiding in the subways and encountering its nasty offspring, crawling through a skyscraper that it's partly toppled over onto another one, or wandering through trashed city streets and hastily-constructed emergency service tents in scenes lifted straight out of post-9/11 news reports from Lower Manhattan. Reeves shot the action incredibly well, in a way that constantly had me on the edge of my seat afraid for the main characters' lives and, because the found-footage perspective put me right in there with them, even my own life for a bit. (The recent Japanese Godzilla movies definitely feel influenced by this film in how they approach showing the monster from a street-level perspective.) The shaky cam may have become a meme after the movie came out, but it's actually not nearly as bad as its reputation suggests, used in exactly the right ways with the film knowing when to have the camera held steady to give us a good look and when to use it to convey the panic that the main characters are facing. The look for the monster that Reeves and the film's effects team came up with is also a unique and creative one, especially once we finally see it in full view, in all its glory, towards the end. When we see the military fight Clover, it feels like a struggle that they're losing, and I completely bought that this thing was able to stomp them the way it did. This is a disaster movie played not as an action flick, but as a horror movie, and it's an approach I'm surprised more disaster movies haven't taken.

The cast was comprised largely of unknowns and TV actors, quite a few of whom have gone on to bigger and better things since, and I'm not surprised given how good they were. Michael Stahl-David was the centerpiece as Rob, a man whose seemingly stupid decision to go back into the city starts to make a surprising amount of sense once you see the grief that's come over him over everything he's lost by the end of the first act of the movie. He's a man whose old concerns with work and moving now seem like nothing in the face of an eldritch abomination like Clover that took almost everything from him, and who now only cares about making things right with Beth, the love of his life, the one thing he has left. He's almost a Lovecraftian protagonist, somebody who loses it in the face of unspeakable horrors from beyond, albeit one whose spiral into madness is less overt than you normally see in explicitly Lovecraftian works. Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, and Odette Annable (credited here by her maiden name Odette Yustman) all made for good sidekicks to Rob as Lily, Jason, Marlena, and Beth, all of them scared out of their minds as they're trapped on an island with a monster and nowhere to run, even if I thought that Caplan unfortunately got short shrift in the film despite having a bit more depth to her character than she let on. (See: my proposed story idea above.) This was the kind of monster movie that needed interesting, well-rounded, and well-acted human characters to anchor it, and it had them in spades.

The Bottom Line

Cloverfield wasn't just a fluke of viral marketing, but a legitimately outstanding monster movie even on its own merits, one that knows when to cultivate a veil of mystery and when to drop that veil and let loose with an all-American take on classic kaiju mayhem. Even sixteen years, two excellent Japanese Godzilla movies, and one MonsterVerse later, it still holds up.

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arcadia-trash · 1 year

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Can you send a list of your hyperfixation blogs? I'd like to see which fandoms we share.

And possibly see if I can drag you into more >:3

YESSSSS OF COURSE

@dovahkiss-uwu — Skyrim/general Elder Scrolls

@cark-drystal — The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (I plan to rewatch at some point…we were robbed of season 2…)

@avatar-trash-ayyy — Cameron’s Avatar movies! I plan to read the comics sometime this year

@monsters-uni-n-chill — the Monsters Inc universe, started this after I watched the show. I am a Johnny Worthington III Stan sorry

I have a couple other ones but they relate to language and ocean mythology so I can stop there for now 😂

#not toa #my blogs

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proofofburden · 1 year

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Because of my social media hiatus, you were all spared my "Avatar: It's Good, Actually" campaign. (Also, true to form, Cameron delivered an even better sequel; fight me H8ers!) And thinking about the technical challenges in making a motion capture movie got me thinking: Andy Serkis should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2003.

So, the link there is that people often say the original Avatar is badly acted. Frankly, I have no idea what people are talking about. Not that I disagree, mind you, but that I don't know what people think was poorly acted in Avatar. They are not performances that greatly compliment or enrich the material; Sam Worthington was not robbed or anything. Still, it doesn't even have the Star Wars problem where the direction is so stylized nailing the performance is controversial. At the very least, Avatar's cast turned in performances that made sense and gave the movie a coherent feel---the minimum to clear "bad". And many of the characters are juggling surprisingly complex motivations and this comes through in the way Weaver hesitates or Ribisi waffles. It's a James Cameron Sci-Fi epic; if you want a super nuanced character study, I don't know, stan Ad Astra or something. I also don't think it should count for nothing that the performances do not get worse under motion capture. Indeed, Worthington probably benefited from the attention paid to getting his Avatar performance (compared to his human one), but I recognize this goes to my point Worthington was not robbed.

But you know who pioneered motion capture acting, turned in a definitive performance, and elevated what could have been extremely corny lines into a phenomenal character study? Andy fucking Serkis. Serkis brings to life two characters in a single body and makes Tolkien's frankly over-the-top study on temptation feel urgent and present. And shoutout to the whole creative team here, and especially Peter Jackson's direction. The fact that this was all done under incredible creative constraints, where Serkis had to act against a greenscreen with novel technology they were all figuring out as they went along, should not count against. If anything it should count for, and if the Academy embraced the film's ability to completely throw off realism, it would have!

Admittedly I'd have to rewatch the 2003 slate of Best Supporting Actor performances to go all in on this; I don't even remember, for instance, Walken being in Catch Me if You Can. I wouldn't heat up this two decade old Oscar discourse if not for the fact that we are living in a period of enormous technical demands on actors and performing without those demands is seen as inherently better. I'd like Meryl Streep have to explain why acting without a ton of makeup and---oh, she played a male Rabbi convincingly in Angels in America. Okay, well, everyone else has to explain why acting without those challenges is inherently better.

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harmonicabisexuals · 1 year

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gonna start doing my season eval posts separately cause my url change fucked up the read more links lol. Season 3 overall was good, and feels like the show is becoming more consistent in finding its footing. Rob Bowman and Kim Manners are both incredible and complementary directors. I mentioned this before but weirdly there is a lot less sexual tension in this season than 1 and 2, and it makes me wonder if CC was pushing back on the fan reaction to it lol. There’s also a lot of episodes where M/S (as main characters) take a backseat to the plot, which is okay when the plot is good, but makes boring episodes even worse to sit through when it’s not. BUT this season has some of my all time favorite episodes in it- Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Pusher, Quagmire, and Wetwired, so I gotta give it high marks for that alone. Also scores higher than season 1 and season 2, with 75% of episode worth rewatching imo

The Blessing Way- a little corny, a little racist, but necessary continuation of Anasazi

Paper Clip- REALLY good, satisfying conclusion to three part arc while still leaving lots of questions to solve later

D.P.O- okay, has young Jack Black and Phoebe’s brother from Friends in it!

Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose- AMAZING, so funny but also dark and sad, a fan fav for a good reason

The List- interesting mystery, but probably would get boring on rewatch

2Shy- kinda sexist? and no good conclusion. Pass.

The Walk- boring! pass.

Oubliette- dark and sad, but pretty good. true crime vibes

Nisei- good, find about more about Scully’s abduction

731- also good, kind of a thriller, but ending feels a bit rushed

Revelations- interesting M/S role reversal, very Catholic

War of the Coprophages- so silly but really fun

Syzygy- baby Ryan Reynolds! M/S very OOC, a bit funny but Darin Morgan is funnier

Grotesque- a lil weird but stick with it! creepy, good cinematography

Piper Maru-decent, but not as good as other mythology episodes

Apocrypha- same as prev, good scully stuff tho

Pusher- AMAZINGGGG ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THE SERIES, VINCE GILLIGAN IS THAT BITCH

Teso Dos Bichos- murderous house cats?? the fact that this episode is right after pusher…JAIL. Pass.

Hell Money- baby Lucy Liu!! okay, but no supernatural element lol

Jose Chung’s from Outer Space- really good! very meta and kind of a parody episode

Avatar- pretty good! Skinner backstory

Quagmire- ahhh love this one so much, one of my favorites!! character focused, funny, and amazing vibes

Wetwired- really really good! suspenseful with good acting from M/S

Talitha Cumi- really good mythology episode!

#txf rewatch #this is a bit late cause i'm already 6 episodes into season 4 but oh well #CC gotta stop writing cliffhangers on season finales lol

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robstetrician · 1 month

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my day be so fine and then I leaves from the vine. falling so slow. like fragile, tiny shells. drifting in the foam. little soldier boy. come marching home. brave soldier boy. come marching home.

#throw me in a vat of acid already #robs avatar rewatch #leaves from the vine #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #the tales of ba sing se #atla iroh #uncle iroh #iroh #atla lu ten #lu ten atla

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cyclone-rachel · 2 years

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2022 Omniverse Rewatch + Episode Ranking

Part 1: Intro and Arc 1

What I’m doing: rewatching each episode of Omniverse, in honor of the 10th anniversary of the show, giving my thoughts/reactions, and re-evaluating/ranking them accordingly as I watch them. Basically going to be rewatching each episode and ranking them higher or lower than the last one, both per-season and in comparison to the rest of the show, as opposed to what I did the first time I liveblogged and ranked all the episodes, where I ranked each season best to worst, then put all the episodes with the same number in order from favorite to least favorite. I’ll also be comparing my original rankings from when I did this in 2016.

Who is inspiring me to do this: A combination of people!

Loreweaver Universe, who has done the same ranking system especially with Steven Universe.

Matt @yo-its-matt and Rob/Kuro the Artist, probably the biggest Ben 10 fans I know of, I appreciate all of their content, they make great stuff

The From the Spirit World podcast and their multiple episodes on ranking the Avatar the Last Airbender/Legend of Korra episodes.

Why I’m doing this: again, 10th anniversary of the show, I know I’ve liveblogged it all but I wanted to give each episode a re-evaluation, and I just like watching it. Also I’ve watched some episodes more than others, but I wanted to see some of the ones I’ve only watched once or twice in addition to my faves.

When I’m doing all of this: because there are exactly 8 weeks between August 1st, the premiere of The More Things Change part 1, and September 22, the official premiere of the show, and there are 8 story arcs in the show, I will be covering exactly 1 arc a week between today and September 22nd so as to encompass both premieres.

Other stuff: will also be watching these in production order, and also watching them on Hulu, where they are unfortunately in airing order. Will be ignoring that. Also this is just me having fun and my own opinions/biases, so take that as you will.

assorted thoughts/observations (not completely in episode order, just as I thought of them), part 1:

so why is Gravattack’s name spelled “Gravitonn” at first

“Incursean” and “Milleous” are spelled wrong in the captions

Ben mentions “dunk tanks”, which come up later

Episode 3, which includes Rook mentioning Alien X, flows much better into episode 4, where he uses him

Contemelia ship looks the same as in the final episode, but darker

I do really like that Ben is trying to figure out the Nemetrix aliens thing

1x05 is the first time in this series that someone says “curse you, Ben Tennyson”

1x05 also has a Nemetrix time-out noise reminiscent of the OS Omnitrix time-out noise I think

Rene’s Azmuth voice is a bit higher-pitched than I remember. Maybe it gets lower later on?

maaaan. I wonder what Malware could have done with Corrodium if he found it/what effect it would have on him

Corey’s Malware voice in Trouble Helix is kind of a blend of his Megatron and his Ratchet

Trouble Helix: Helix turns red because Albedo was messing with it, Malware connects to it

Showdown part 2: Malware connects to it again and the Helix turns red as he I guess sends himself into the planet and blows it up

I still remember every word of Malware’s speech (off the top of my head: “Evil? No… VISIONARY! I feel power building inside me. I see a world that only I can create! It was Azmuth who thought me flawed. He gave me the name Malware. But I am not the flawed one. It is all the rest that are inferior! They bend and stretch, mimic and manipulate only what others have created. I do not upgrade others’ creations, they upgrade me! And I will upgrade myself with Azmuth’s greatest creation.”)

still wish Malware being “visionary” had been elaborated on, although that may be related to the “him wanting to become a living planet/wipe out all life on Galvan Prime and Galvan B and start over” thing

like did he want to create Galvanic Mechamorphs from himself, absorbing the power of the Helix? Would that be the only way he could create Mechamorphs?

Albedo: “destroy the moon with us on it”, *Malware voice* “Excellent suggestion.”

Coriolanus Labs, huh? it doesn’t go anywhere obviously but I like the name

this is def. Corey Burton as this police chief, his Seebik voice is very similar to this

I forgot Ester was only half-Kraaho

also forgot Ben mentions Computron, is that a real thing or a fictional thing in this universe

Rad Dudesman can be seen in the beginning of Have I Got a Deal for You

amazing how Hokestar’s name resembles both “huckster” and “hoax-ster”

Screegit episode is Omniverse’s Fool’s Gold but only better because there’s no alien poop involved

this music sounds like what happens when you use the weed SCP in that Containment Breach game

can’t believe there’s a sumo slammers Mario Kart equivalent

wait so is Psychobos an actual doctor. does he write actual textbooks?

okay, so the fight was staged from when they were in Max’s shop onwards, although it does feel very real

yeah you can definitely see it’s a soda can

love that transition from the nemetrix to malware’s hand

so how the hell did malware get from earth back to psychobos’s planet

Malware clearly isn’t there to make friends, also his voice does sound different

you know what, “Crude, corrupted, incomplete” does pretty much describe Malware himself exactly in addition to describing the partial Omnitrix blueprint he got.

it’s interesting that he calls Ben “Azmuth’s pet”

so Psychobos was waiting for 5 years for Khyber to take Ben down?

also why did there just happen to be an error in the omnitrix in this episode

and you’re not gonna mention where you got the sword, Khyber?

interesting that it’s “Revonnan” here, and not “Revonnahgander”

weird that we see Malware in his third form there, unless that’s supposed to be while Khyber is collecting that DNA and thus after Malefactor

so is Phil running from the Rooters there, or about to join them?

what does Khyber mean, “bargaining power with my associates”?

also interesting that Khyber calls them his partners

I think the real problem is that Ben just never looks at the omnitrix dial anymore to see what he’s actually transforming into

so it implies that Khyber wanted to turn Zed into Gray Matter’s natural predator? except he didn’t have it yet? although I guess really any predator could take him down

Khyber has a halberd, I love it

Also in general, I love that Gwen and/or Kevin appear at least once a season (whether it’s in a season premiere, like in Arcs 1 and 2, a season finale, like also 2, 3, 4, AU Gwens in both halves of 5, 6 obviously, and I think the first half of 8, or some other episode in between, like every arc after 2)

Also I still kind of wish we would’ve gotten like, how Psychobos and Malware met, or how Psychobos knew Khyber well enough to hire him to get the DNA samples for the Nemetrix, especially the former because we know that Psychobos has something against Azmuth, and Malware is a creation of Azmuth, and how would that have affected their teaming up for the first time? Although it was probably an ego-booster for Psychobos, to have someone who was made by someone you perceive as your nemesis agree with you on how much said nemesis sucks. And it must have been validating for Malware too, to see someone agree with him.

Arc 1 rankings:

Of Predators and Prey part 1

Trouble Helix

Of Predators and Prey part 2

So Long and Thanks for All the Smoothies

It Was Them

The More Things Change part 2

The More Things Change part 1

Hot Stretch

A Jolt from the Past

Have I Got a Deal for You

Basic thoughts: I think this season is pretty good! I was surprised by how much I liked So Long and Thanks for All the Smoothies and It Was Them, I thought both of those episodes were very good and featured Ben being smart, and in the latter episode he’s proactive about searching for Khyber and figuring out that mystery. The former is just a really fun episode, a lot of recurring villains show up for the first time in Omniverse, and of course you get that ending, which sets up several episodes to come. I was also surprised by my ultimately ranking the series premiere’s part 2 above part 1, I think that was because it did feature more of a plot than part 1 and lacked the first episode’s kind of “beginning-of-a-series awkwardness”. Also Psyphon was actually a good villain here. The main plot is still my favorite, even if I chose part 1 of the season finale over Trouble Helix because I didn’t particularly care for the Ben and Gwen bickering in Trouble Helix and the season finale works really well when you watch it for the first time and rewatch to pick up what you may have missed in hindsight after seeing part 2. Bottom 3 are still the same as the original time I did this, I just didn’t vibe with them.

Original rankings:

Trouble Helix

Of Predators and Prey, part 1

Of Predators and Prey, part 2

The More Things Change part 1

So Long and Thanks for All the Smoothies

The More Things Change part 2

It Was Them

Hot Stretch

A Jolt From the Past

Have I Got a Deal For You

#rachel talks about stuff #ben 10 #ben 10 omniverse

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writingforfun0714 · 2 years

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So I thought I’d try something different with an Arcane fic. This is my first Arcane fic. I’ve watched the series 3 times (working on a 4th) and can’t get over how amazing this series is. This is probably the best show I’ve seen since Avatar the Last Airbender. Every time I rewatch Arcane, I find a new little detail about a character, setting or the show itself and it baffles me by how minuscule the details are and how much it changes the tone of whatever scene I’m watching.

While I can honestly say I enjoyed the show, there were some moments that I, personally, would have done differently. Please note that the changes I make do not line up with the end goal of League of Legends. I’ve never played the game and know little to nothing about it aside from the fact that Arcane is like a prequel for some of the playable characters. So I assume that Arcane Jinx is supposed to, at some point, end up like League of Legends Jinx in the show. For me, that’s not the path I want Powder/Jinx to take and quite like how she’s a bit different in the show (a little like Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker) compared to the ‘Harley Quinn’-esque Jinx of LoL.

The first scene I think that I would do different would be in the 1st episode where the kids rob Jayce’s place. In the show, Powder clumsily grabs all of the hextech stones from a small chest, not realizing that she dropped one, accidentally causing an explosion enveloping herself, Mylo, Claggor and Vi. While the former 3 seem to barely make it out, the scene appears to show Vi getting caught in the explosion. The next shot is of Claggor, Mylo and Powder on the balcony with Vi hurrying out, seemingly unharmed and ready to race back to the Undercity.

I believe the way they showed the explosion, that Vi would’ve been at least knocked unconscious like Jayce was, since he was also closest (he was trying to open the door while all this was happening). So this alternate universe is my take on if Vi had gotten hurt and the kids had met in Act 1 (when they’re all young and cute). Takes place through episode 1.

Warnings—depictions of mental illness/fear of abandonment, headcanon ages, AU-Alternate Universe, lemme know if I need to add more

*written in 3rd POV

New Friend

“Just get to the balcony and we’ll be fine,” was all the boys heard Vi tell them before an explosion shook the building.

“AH!” The kids exclaim. Claggor pulls Powder back away from the balcony door, while Mylo shields himself. Vi, however is caught in the middle of the explosion and gets blasted back into the crumbling wall. She groans as her limp body hits the floor with a thump.

“Vi!” Powder exclaims as the smoke clears. She scurries past her older adopted brothers and hurries back into the wrecked penthouse, despite their protesting.

“Powder! Get back here!” Claggor and Mylo yell simultaneously.

The 10yr old girl races in to find her sister’s wounded body laying in the rubble of building and various broken items.

“Vi!” Powder cries out as tears form in her eyes. She scrambles over rubble and gets to her older sister. Tears are pouring out of her large, dark blue eyes and her nose is starting to run.

“Vi! Vi wake up! Please wake up!” Powder cries, shaking her unconscious, injured older sister. The young girl is overwhelmed with emotion as she can’t bear the thought of losing Vi, her only blood family she has left. She’s the only thing Powder has as a connection to her old life. Life with her parents. With them gone, she can’t lose Vi. She’d be all alone. Even the thought of being alone makes her cry harder.

“Vi! Please!! I need you!!” The small, scrawny, blue-haired girl wails. That’s when she hears footsteps approaching. She turns and sees a man with tan skin, a small scar on his right eyebrow, clean cut, swooshed-back dark brownish-black hair, and light honey brown eyes. He’s wearing a formal-looking suit with a red tie and white vest with a dark long sleeve shirt under it and matching pants. Behind him a girl around 15, close to Mylo’s age, who’s ‘almost 16’ according to the wild-haired boy, appears with straight, dark blue hair, angular facial features and clear blue eyes. She has a small gap in her 2 front teeth like Powder that makes her appear younger than she is, though she is about Vi’s height.

“What the hell?” The young man standing in front of Powder and Vi asks, astonished. In all honesty he was expecting a group of thugs, not 2 girls. The young girl behind him, holding a box, notices Powder and immediately drops the box with a rustle.

“Hey-easy-“ the young man tells her.

“Jayce-she could be hurt-“ the young girl tells the man named Jayce. He nods as she looks over Powder, who’s shaking and trying her best not to break down crying, though unable to help the tears flowing down her cheeks and her nose streaming down her lips and chin.

“Are you ok?” the young girl asks Powder gently. Powder looks at the girl and then back down at Vi.

“M-My sister-“ Powder stutters. The young man, Jayce, hurries over to her unconscious body and examines her.

“She has a concussion. She needs a doctor-“ Jayce warns, worrying and scaring Powder, causing more tears and whimpering.

“It’s ok-it’s ok-your sister will be fine. We’ll call the ambulance and she’ll get better at the hospital,” the girl tells Powder, “do you have parents we can contact?” The girl asks. Powder glances at Vi, still shaking and clearly terrified, but she manages a small shake of her head, making her messy braid and metal clips pinned in her hair swish back and forth a bit.

“W-W-We…aren’t…from here,” Powder whimpers.

“It’s ok, the hospital treats anyone who needs it,” the girl says before looking to Jayce.

“Cait, you stay with them while I go get help-“ Jayce says to the girl he called ‘Cait’. The dark blue-haired girl nods as he runs out of his destroyed home to find help, leaving the girls alone.

“What’s your name?” Cait asks. At first, Powder doesn’t answer, instead glancing at her injured sister. Vi always told her never to tell strangers anything about them, including names. But Vi needs help. And Vander always told her that if someone helps you, the least you can do is be honest with them.

“Powder…my name’s Powder,” the young girl tells the young teen, who smiles at her.

“My name is Caitlyn. Caitlyn Kiramman,” the older teen girl with straight dark blue hair introduces as Powder sniffles, still looking at Vi.

“What’s your sister’s name?” Caitlyn asks. Powder looks up at her and sees the older girl smiling down at her, much like Vi does, almost encouraging to tell her.

“Vi..her name’s Vi,” Powder admits and Caitlyn nods.

“Ok Powder. Vi will be just fine-“ Caitlyn says and glances around in the rubble to find a small box with a red ‘+’ sign on it. Caitlyn opens it and grabs a few things that Powder recognizes as medical supplies. Cait moves towards Vi and Powder instinctively moves closer to her sister’s unconscious body.

“It’s alright,” Caitlyn assures the younger girl who can’t be older than 10 as Caitlyn looks her over. After giving Powder an assuring nod, the younger girl in pink and dark blue clothes moves so she can properly address Vi’s injuries.

“Will she be alright?” Powder asks almost immediately.

“She’ll be ok,” Caitlyn reassures the bright, blue-haired girl immediately, as an instinctual response. Caitlyn’s bright, clear blue eyes scan the various minor injuries Vi sustained in the explosion, but the dark red liquid seeping into her shaggy pink hair catches Caitlyn’s attention. Of course Caitlyn wants Vi to be alright, but actually looking at how much blood is on her head, Caitlyn’s pretty sure it’s a severe concussion.

Finally, Jayce returns with medical response personnel.

“Finally!” Caitlyn exclaims and moves out of the way so the trained professionals can work on Vi. Caitlyn pulls Powder back, despite her protesting.

“We have to let them work, ok Powder?” Caitlyn tells Powder. The young girl nods, sniffling lightly before turning back to watch.

That’s when she remembers what happened before the explosion. Claggor had pulled her back onto the balcony so she wouldn’t get caught in the explosion! Mylo and Claggor! What happened to them?! Powder glances over where there’s a gaping hole that goes out to the crumbling balcony. She doesn’t see any sign of the boys. She remembers after the explosion, scrambling away from them to get to Vi. They were definitely ok after the explosion, so they probably took off to not get caught. How could they not wait for us? Powder thinks to herself. She rationalizes that they had to. Vi often tells them to split up and meet back at their hangout if they run into Enforcers.

Then, heavy footsteps approach and Powder turns around to see 3 Enforcers! She gasps and hides behind Caitlyn.

“Huh?” Caitlyn asks, glancing down at the young, frightened girl. 2 of the Enforcers still have their helmets on while the one in the middle, a female officer, walks in, leading the other 2. She has dark tan skin, dark brown eyes and short black hair.

“Caitlyn Kiramman,” the woman Enforcer says. Her voice is deep and raspy. Very distinctive.

“Sheriff,” Caitlyn greets. She and Sheriff Greyson have known each other since Caitlyn was born, since Greyson is friends with Caitlyn’s parents, who are also high ranking citizens in Piltover.

“This is our 2nd meeting this month. Do I need to talk to your parents?” Sheriff Greyson asks the girl.

“No ma’am. Jayce and I were just coming back from lunch when-“ Caitlyn suddenly stops. Greyson raises an eyebrow at her.

“Yes?” She asks. Jayce is going to continue for Caitlyn, when she suddenly sends the young man a sharp look, just like her mother, who is Jayce’s sponsor. Both of Caitlyn’s parents sponsor Jayce, but Mrs. Kiramman is a council member, and has more influence/pull at the university. Seeing Cait’s face, Jayce decides to just clear his throat awkwardly.

“There was an explosion and my friends were caught in it,” Caitlyn tells Sheriff Greyson. The Sheriff tilts her head slightly as she stares at Caitlyn. Her stare is intimidating, but Caitlyn doesn’t waver.

“Your…friends?” Greyson asks before spotting Powder poking her head out from behind Caitlyn. The Kiramman girl nods.

“This is Powder and her older sister Vi. I asked them to come by and they got here before we did,” Caitlyn lies smoothly. Powder looks up at Caitlyn, earning a slight elbow to her upper arm.

“They got caught in the explosion and Vi needs help,” Caitlyn says, glancing over to see the medical personnel gently load Vi onto a stretcher. As they begin to wheel her out, Powder starts to get worked up again.

“W-Wait-where..Where are they taking her? I wanna go too! I have to go with her!” Powder starts but Caitlyn gently shushes the girl.

“Don’t worry, they’re not gonna leave without us,” Caitlyn assures the younger girl before turning back to the Sheriff.

“Marcus..escort these girls to Piltover General,” Sheriff Greyson says and one of the masked Enforcers walks up intimidatingly. Powder can’t help the anxiety that floods through her as he approaches.

“Yes ma’am,” the Enforcer, Marcus, replies, his voice a bit warped from the helmet. He turns to Caitlyn after glancing at Powder.

“C’mon, the ambulance is out front,” Marcus tells the girls. Powder rushes out with Caitlyn hastily following behind her, leaving Jayce to answer Sheriff Greyson’s questions.

Powder climbs in first and sits next to Vi. She still appears unconscious, but her head is wrapped in thick white bandages and her left hand is bandaged.

“She’ll be ok,” the man keeping an eye on Vi tells the girls. Powder grabs hold of her sister’s tough, calloused hand that isn’t injured and squeezes gently as tears form again in her eyes. Caitlyn, unsure of what to say, silently moves to sit on Powder’s left and offer a gentle hand of support on her shoulder.

“She looks tough. She’ll pull through,” Caitlyn says, finally able to look over the older girl. Caitlyn sees the small scars that litter her body from various fights and sees how toned her muscles actually are.

“Strong,” Caitlyn whispers.

“She is,” Powder answers. Caitlyn looks at Powder and see the young girl doesn’t break eye contact with Vi.

“She’s the strongest, toughest person I know,” Powder tells her as the vehicle drives to the hospital. Meanwhile…

“C’mon! Keep up!” Mylo shouts at Claggor.

“I’m coming!” The larger boy says, just a few feet behind. Having to flee the building with Vi and Powder still inside, the boys decided to go tell Vander. The 2 boys race through the dirt streets of the Undercity until Claggor slows down, spotting a moving figure. Mylo slows as well and sees 2 other figures move into the light. A blond boy with pale skin going by the name Deckard leads the trio. The other is a boy with brown hair, fair skin and dark eyes and the other boy is bald.

“Word topside is your little band of misfits caused quite a stir,” Deckard says.

“Yeah well..they had it comin’,” Mylo says and is going to turn and walk away, but the other 2 approach them.

“Look-we don’t want any trouble,” Claggor says.

“Hear that boys? They don’t want any trouble,” Deckard snickers.

“What’d you steal?” The bald guy asks.

“Nothin’!” Mylo snaps, “what’s it to you?!”

“I don’t want to see trash in my streets,” Deckard says, making his cronies laugh. Mylo throws the first punch and ends up hitting the boy with brown hair, but he ends up taking a gut punch as well.

“Oomphf!” Mylo groans before the 2 fall to the ground. Claggor prepares himself as both Decker and the bald guy with him go for Claggor at the same time. Claggor has to punch and kick just to keep himself up.

“HEY!” A young boy cries out. Everyone turns and sees a giant wheel riding towards them with a small, dark-skinned boy with white hair speeding towards them. He appears to be around Powder’s age, perhaps a year or so older.

“Ah!” The bald boy and one with brown hair yelp. The white-haired boy in the wheel skids to a stop and waves at the two boys.

“C’mon! C’mon!” He exclaims. Claggor kicks Deckard and manages to toss the boy he was holding to the ground before racing over to the boy. Mylo hits the brown-haired boy hard enough to wriggle free from his grip and join his brother and their young friend/neighbor.

“Little Man?! What’re you doing here?!” Claggor asks as they speed away from Deckard and his gang.

“Just came from the junkyard and saw Deckard and the others weren’t out at their usual hangout. Figured he’d be up to no good,” the boy, nicknamed ‘Little Man’, responds.

“Where’s Powder and Vi?” Little Man asks.

“They’re in trouble-“ Claggor says without going into the whole thing, though despite Little Man’s age, he’s quite smart and intuitive and knows there’s more to it than just the regular ‘trouble’ the group was used to. But having no time to talk about it, Little Man just nods and continues speeding back towards The Last Drop, Vander’s bar and the home of Mylo, Claggor, Vi and Powder, and a 2nd home to Little Man.

The 3 arrive back at the bar and hurry in through the front. Mylo walks in, unaware, but Claggor catches Vander’s eye and even through the tint of his goggles, Vander can see the oldest boy’s eyes widen.

“Welcome to The Lanes,” Vander tells the 2 he’s ‘negotiating’ with before motioning for Huck, the squirrelly-looking man with a ponytail and glasses to finish the deal.

The boys make it to the basement and shut the door behind them. Mylo flops onto the couch while Claggor takes the armchair and Little Man jumps onto Mylo’s legs, forcing the older boy to move his feet so the younger can sit.

“We have to tell Vander,” Claggor says.

“No way-he’d kill us,” Mylo argues.

“But Vi and Powder are still up in Piltover,” Little Man says. That’s when the basement door opens. Everyone goes quiet as heavy footsteps thump down the slightly squeaky stairs.

The large, muscular man with long silvery brown locks and a thick beard and mustache walks in.

“An explosion topside and 2 boys fleeing the scene. Where are the girls?” Vander asks worriedly. Mylo glances away.

“We don’t know..we got separated,” Claggor admits. Vander’s eyes widen.

“They’re still in Piltover?!” Vander demands, causing all 3 boys to flinch, “I told you all time and time again that Piltover’s off-limits!” Vander says, sighing.

“Stay here until I get back,” Vander says.

“But-“ Mylo tries, but Vander glares at the wild-haired boy, causing the rest of his words to die in his throat. With that, Vander hurries out to contact Sheriff Greyson.

Vi wakes up in a room so white she squints. She groans a bit as her head throbs painfully.

“Vi!” Her sister’s voice pierces her skull like a knife. She groans again and even lets out a small grunt when Powder leaps onto her, clinging to her waist in a tight hug.

“Ugh..Powder?” Vi groans slightly before letting her eyes fully focus on the mop of shaggy, bright blue hair right below her chin.

“You’re ok!” Powder sniffles happily. Vi gently strokes Powder’s cheek lovingly with her uninjured hand.

“Are you hurt?” Vi asks. Powder shakes her head, hugging Vi again.

“Uh-uh,” Powder assures Vi, who lets a sigh of relief past her lips. That’s when she suddenly gasps.

“Claggor! And Mylo!” Vi realizes. They were on the balcony. Powder shakes her head.

“They had to split up from us, after I went back for you,” Powder explains. Vi groans and her uninjured hand flies up to her head, rubbing her temple gently.

“Ugh-my head-“ Vi groans, shutting her eyes, hoping to dim the brightness.

“Where…are we?” Vi asks, still with her eyes shut.

“At a doctors,” Powder tells her. Vi’s pale ice blue eyes snap open.

“W-What? What’re we doing here!?” Vi starts to panic.

“I-It’s ok! It’s ok-really! Caitlyn said-“ Powder tries to calm her older sister down.

“Caitlyn? Who’s Caitlyn?” Vi asks and Powder blushes slightly.

“She..she helped us. Her and her friend Jayce,” Powder explains.

“Jayce?” Vi asks and Powder nods.

“The owner of the penthouse we robbed,” Powder explains.

“Wait-lemme see if I understand—after I was injured in the explosion, you met the people we were robbing?” Vi asks. Powder nods. That’s when the door opens and the 2 sisters look and see a girl, about a year or so younger than Vi walk in. She’s in a fancy looking uniform and her straight, dark blue hair barely goes past her shoulder.

“Oh, you’re awake. You must be Vi,” the girl says to Vi, who blinks at her. Powder nudges Vi gently to get her to stop staring. Vi blushes and glances away.

“Uh-y-yeah. I’m Vi,” she says, trying to sit up and properly greet the other girl.

“Caitlyn Kiramman. Call me Cait,” the girl, Cait, introduces, offering a hand. Vi nods and shakes with her good hand.

“Nice to meet you…that was really sweet of you…to help my sister, I mean,” Vi explains. Caitlyn giggles and nods.

“She and I were getting to know each other and after talking with her, it’s like I know you,” Caitlyn tells Vi, causing the pink-haired teenager to blush, making Powder giggle.

“Do we still have to talk to that sheriff lady?” Powder asks, causing Vi to stiffen.

“Sheriff?” Vi asks, paling slightly. Cait nods.

“I was able to outsmart her deputy but Sheriff Greyson knows me. Don’t worry, you just have to tell her that you were waiting for me and Jayce to come back and you got caught in the explosion, got it?” Caitlyn asks. Vi blinks.

“I got it,” Powder assures Caitlyn, who smiles at the young girl and nods.

“Good. At least someone does,” she says, making the young girl giggle as Vi blushes again slightly.

The door opens again to reveal Sheriff Greyson. Her appearance is intimidating.

“Sheriff. Here to get a statement?” Caitlyn asks and she nods.

“Please take the girl out while I talk with..Vi..isn’t it?” Sheriff Greyson asks, glancing at Vi, who nods, though winces and regrets the action.

“I’d take it easy if I were you kid. Got a nasty concussion there,” she says, motioning for Caitlyn to leave, who grabs Powder’s hand and leads her out. Powder and Caitlyn wait outside while Sheriff Greyson questions Vi about what she remembers. Following Caitlyn’s orders, Vi tells the sheriff that she and her younger sister were visiting and waiting for Cait and Jayce to return when they got caught in the explosion.

After finishing her questioning, Sheriff Greyson has the doctors come in and check on Vi, who inform her that she’ll be able to return home tomorrow. The doctors want to keep an eye on her and make sure nothing bad happens, especially with how bad Vi’s concussion was.

“So you’ll let us go? We’re not in trouble?” Vi asks once Greyson puts her notepad away.

“Let’s just say strings were pulled and you are definitely still in trouble,” Greyson tells Vi before walking out, leaving Vi confused. If she wasn’t in trouble with the Enforcers…that only leaves Vander. Did Powder tell them about Vander? Vi sighs.

“You can go back in now,” Greyson tells Powder, who races back in, leaving Caitlyn with the Sheriff.

“Are you going to tell my parents?” Caitlyn asks.

“No, I won’t..strings were pulled and your parents don’t need to be involved,” Sheriff Greyson says. Caitlyn holds in her sigh of relief.

“You’re playing a dangerous game Miss Kiramman,” Sheriff Greyson says, walking off, leaving Caitlyn just outside the room door before she decides to join the 2 sisters inside. Meanwhile…

Deckard makes his way through the streets until he’s suddenly ambushed. He blacks out and wakes up when he’s thrown into a chair. He groans as the chair skids back a bit from the force. His breathing quickens as a large pale man sneers at him. The muscular man wraps his huge hand around Deckard’s thin neck and squeezes.

“Gah!” Deckard gasp and starts squirming.

“You were supposed to follow them and not interfere,” a smooth, slightly raspy male voice says followed by a small sound of metal clicking. Deckard struggles against the hand choking him.

“I’m sorry! They split up! It was just the boys and that caught us by surprise!” Deckard gasps.

“Now his accomplice is asking questions about you,” the man replies. Deckard looks and in the dim lighting, he can make out a thin man with slicked back dark hair. His clothes look nice but Deckard can’t make out the details. The man is holding some sort of metallic device. Deckard watches as the man tilts his head back and the man uses the metal device to pierce his eye! Deckard’s eyes widen in shock.

“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” the man says and the huge muscular hand around Deckard’s neck suddenly tightens.

“Agh-“ the young man gasps.

“The kids! It was their fault! The explosion! In the upper city!” Deckard pleads, and that gets the mystery man’s attention.

“That was them?” He asks.

“Yeah. That’s why they had to split up. The topsides are up in arms looking for ‘em,” Deckard explains.

“Vander’s in trouble,” the mysterious man says, referring to the Last Drop’s owner. The man turns to look Deckard face on and Deckard chuckles nervously when he sees the mystery man’s left eye is glowing in the darkness.

“Smartest thing you ever said, boy,” the man says, standing. The man practically saunters over.

“Get him a meal,” the mystery man tells the other two that presumably work for him. The muscular man lets go of Deckard’s throat and he gasps for air.

“Keep him off the streets,” the man instructs as the two men practically drag Deckard away.

The mystery man walks up to the glass wall that looks out at the vast ocean that’s home to many of the sea creatures/monsters the man enjoys watching.

“Our timeline has moved up,” the mystery man says, at first appearing to talk to himself, until a quiet scientist makes his presence known behind the man.

“It’s almost ready,” the scientist says, looking at a vile of glowing purple liquid.

“Show me,” the man says. The scientist motions for the man to follow to a small enclosed space that contains a mouse.

“Feeding time,” the scientist says, picking up the hairless cat looking inside the area. The cat meows as he’s placed inside. The scientist locks it closed before the man turns to him.

“And the side effects?” The man asks. The scientist mixes in the glowing liquid to the mouse’s water supply.

“Stabilizing,” the scientist replies, tapping the glass to get the mouse’s attention. It squeaks before going over to the slightly purple water. It drinks some of the water while the cat stalks up to it curiously.

The mouse suddenly squeaks as if in pain and backs away from the water, twitching. That’s when purple veins start appearing all over the mouse and it grows in size by about 3 times, gaining unnatural muscle. And it’s regular, black eyes are now a glowing purple. It’s squeaks are now a mash of snarls and noises of pain. The monster mouse turns on the cat, causing the cat to freeze. The mouse leaps at the cat. The feline lets out a dying meow as the rat instantly kills the cat.

The glass cracks and blood splatters, causing the 2 men to make faces of slight disgust.

“Do you have a subject in mind?” The scientist asks.

“Someone just volunteered,” the mysterious man says, referring to Deckard.

End (credits roll in show)

#fanfic #arcane #arcane fanfic #episode 1 AU #no way Vi would be unhurt from that explosion #alternate universe #arcane powder #arcane vi #arcane Caitlyn #arcane Jayce #arcane Greyson #arcane Vander #fanfiction

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