0:20: Joe describes a serial killer in Ohio, a postal employee, who killed 43. (I can't identify this person. It sounds like John Wayne Gacy, but his details were different.)
1:20: Peruvian conjoined twins separated in Washington, DC. (I can't find this story. In recent accounts Peruvian physicians separate their conjoined twins.)
2:00: Joe tells of the woman who killed her 2 boys to have a relationship with a man. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith)
2:30: Joe tells of Roman Catholic priests who have molested children protected by the church. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_priests%27_sex_abuse_scandal)
3:20: Joe tells of the 'DC Sniper' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Boyd_Malvo).
3:50: Joe tells of the California congressman who had an affair with an intern; she was discovered murdered; he was suspected. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Levy) (but wasn't guilty.)
4:20: Joe tells of 23 illegal immigrants, bound to work in a Houston factory, are found dead of heat stroke in a cargo container. (I can't find this story; I know of Chinese immigrants in a container in NY harbor who suffocated and immigrants in box cars in Texas who cooked to death.)
4:40: Young Russian women lured to the US with promises of good jobs are forced into prostitution.
5:00: Larry and Joe talk about their favorite lines from Frost poems.
8:50: Joe tells of the nightclub fire that killed 100. (The Station night club fire, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire) says that there were others' in Japan and Argentina and elsewhere around the world'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nightclub_fires) He talks about the callousness of the reporters who cover the stories.
10:10: Joe tells of the toddler entered in beauty contests, her murder. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JonBenet_Ramsey)
10:40: Joe tells of the young woman kidnapped by a cult leader. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smart)
11:00: Joe tells of the murder of a pregnant woman by her husband. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laci_Peterson)
12:10: Joe tells of the woman in a coma, fought over by her husband and parents. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo)
12:50: Larry tells the story of his daughter accompanying her friend, whose mother in Chicago just had a massive stroke, to visit the mother. Larry and Joe compare their ills.
14:30: Joe says his mother told him, when he was being treated for bladder cancer in 1991, that it's worse for her than him.
14:50: Joe tells of the teacher who had an affair with a 12-year-old student (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debra_Lafave) wishes he had had an older lover when he was a boy.
16:00: Joe tells of the fellow who parked his car on the train tracks to impress a lover who jilted him. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manuel_Alvarez)
16:40: Joe tells of the trial of a pop star tried for child molesting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson:_2005_trial)
18:20: Joe tells of the earthquake in 2004 that caused a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake)
18:50: Joe tells of dealing with the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda_genocide)
19:10: Joe tells of the Darfur conflict. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict)
19:40: Joe tells of the westerner beheaded by Arab insurgents. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl)
20:00: Joe tells of suicide bombers in mosques.
20:10: Joe tells of injured veterans at Walter Reed.
20:40: Joe contrasts the $15K bonuses offered for enlistment to the luxury of the wealthy.
22:40: Joe mentions the dangers of avian flu, holes in the ozone layer, global warming, destruction of the Brazilian rainforest, nuclear waste, al Qaeda terrorists.
25:00: Lester Nafzger tells Joe about a game he played in school, 'Smear the queer' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smear_the_queer) . Lester says he's against self-deprecating jokes.
26:30: Joe tells Lester about his 'date' with Ariana Huffington. They go walking. Joe took 2 valium, couldn't keep up. She never called him again.
34:40: 'Each one of us in his or her life has taken small imperceptible steps that added together in the aggregate have changed us profoundly - millions of steps...' Joe talks about the steps we take in life, their significance.
38:30: 'The first chief rabbi of Palestine in the 1920s, before the Holocaust, said that in the face of the suffering in this world, to not contemplate atheism is itself almost sinful.' Joe says we want the transcendent, tells of a rabbi who spoke of 'theological pointillism', that one has to look at the larger picture, not details.
39:40: 'I've had a few experiences which I would consider genuinely religious where I felt the presence of something beyond myself...' Joe talks about why he doesn't participate in organized religion, questions practices of Evangelic Christianity and Islam.
41:40: Joe suggests that if Jerry Falwell had been raised in Qum, Iran, instead, he would have been as passionately Muslim; that Khomeini, raised in an Evangelic Christian family, would have been as passionately Christian.
47:30: Joe tells of having Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs for the first time since he was 16. An old friend from high school calls him, mocks him for his age, says he's probably eating Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs.
50:20: Joe tells of seeing the store 'Tuesday Morning' while driving on Santa Monica Boulevard (901) to St John's hospital (2121 Santa Monica Boulevard) (so Joe's going away from the ocean) to visit his mother just as the DJ on KCRW announces that it's Tuesday morning. He finds the coincidence significant. He stops in on his way back from the hospital, finds it full of kitschy junk.
52:30: Joe wonders if the 2 coincidences are significant, that something is going on, imagines it's his late father, asks Lester what he thinks.
54:00: Lester says he thinks it's because Joe is concerned about death, that, if he looked carefully at other events in his life, he'd find similar coincidences, worries that saying so may harm the comfort Joe gets from feeling that someone is looking after him.
http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Bad_Faith

My dad is not great at stepping outside his comfort zone when it comes to books so I’d like some help to suggest new books for him. He loved Dune and the subsequent series, is a big fan of the Lee Child Jack Reacher series and has also recently read a series by Jack Carr starting with Terminal List. He describes his interest as “sci-fi” but focusing on the science elements, not so much accompanying love stories. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Quinn tapped his impatient thumbs against the steering wheel, muttering under his breath as he stared at the red light. “Call him again,” he ordered, glaring at the light intently. It was as though he believed he could manifest a faster light change, that his willpower could overwhelm the traffic control system. The whole thing’s run by computers, Milo thought as he tried to call Allen again. Unless you can glare in ones and zeroes, staring won’t be doing you any good.
“Straight to voicemail again,” he reported, pocketing his phone. “Might be a good idea to circle back.”
“No!” Quinn snapped, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “She’s here now. We need to find out where she’s going or we’re squandering an opportunity.”
“Fair enough,” Milo relented. Arguing wouldn’t do him any good; from his experience with the man, Quinn hated being questioned above all else. It was like walking on eggshells with him.
Allen had texted that the target was on 12th Avenue before going silent. She was on foot, and they hadn’t seen any busses on the way down the road. They were nearing the southern border of the Pearl District, and had no idea where she was heading from there.
It’s not a hunt, Milo considered. She didn’t sound very dressed up according to Lee’s description, and it doesn’t fit the kill pattern. What is it, then? Does she have other obligations? Does she know she’s being hunted? Is this a trap? These and countless other considerations and theories swirled in his head, but one thought kept surfacing before all others, one idea that wouldn’t stop nagging at him.
“She’s not in a disguise right now,” he muttered, looking down the street. “When she hunts, she’s dolled up, but she’s clearly not trying to be noticed, or possibly trying specifically not to be noticed. This is a different part of her life. The feeding, the pattern, it’s an event. What does she do with the rest of her time?”
“She’s going down 11th," Quinn replied.
The light turned green, and as they continued south, Milo looked towards the intersection to their left. Sure enough, the Black Widow was there, crossing the street, heading in the same direction. “We need eyes on her,” Milo said, “but we need distance. Stop at the curb. I’ll follow her on foot. You can go back and look for Allen.”
Quinn shook his head. “You’re staying with me. We don’t know where Allen is. She could’ve killed him. We need to keep our distance, but there’s strength in numbers in case she sees us coming.”
Milo shot a text off to Justin as well: Can’t find Allen. Phone off. Look between 12th and 11th. If Allen was hurt but not dead, he wasn’t going to let Quinn’s obsession get the man killed.
As he looked back at the intersection at 11th, Milo noticed the tracks through the middle of the street. “Shit, she’s taking a streetcar,” he realized, pulling the Trimet site up on his phone. The car would be there soon.
“Well let’s follow her,” Quinn replied, turning towards the curb.
“She’d spot us if we were in the car,” Milo countered, holding his phone up. “We can track the car, keep an eye on the stops and wait for her to get off.”
* * *
They continued south, past the border of the Pearl District and through downtown Portland. Finally, as the streetcar turned onto Lowell Street and came to a stop, prepared to continue up the track and begin the long trek back north, she appeared. Still with her hood up, still with her hands in her pockets and her head down. Quinn turned into an alley between two weather-beaten buildings that looked nearly as old as the city itself, then stopped the car, lowered his seat and leaned back. “Tell me when she’s out of sight,” he ordered.
“Sure,” Milo agreed, taking out his phone. he watched as she turned right, heading down Moody Avenue. Go ahead and make yourself look as little as possible, he thought. I can still see you. As he prepared to send an update text to Justin, his phone rang. “Yeah?” he answered.
“He’s alive,” Lee said quickly. Milo could hear the smile in her voice, the deep inhales of someone who’d been holding their breath for far too long. It was the sound he chased whenever he went looking into missing persons cases, whenever he got to tell someone’s mother or father that their child was alive. He was far more familiar with wails of grief or the deafening silence of anguish.
“He okay? What happened?” he asked, watching as the Black Widow continued south at the three-way intersection up ahead, down a trail. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he nodded to Quinn and opened the car door.
“Are you on speakerphone?” she asked after a brief silence.
“No,” he replied, lowering the call audio before holding the phone close to his ear.
“That’s the thing: she knew he was there,” Lee warned. “She knew we were following her. It was a trap. Allen said that she destroyed his phone and told him that we were warned not to get involved.”
“Funny, I don’t remember getting anything in the mail about that,” Milo joked. He exited the vehicle, pushing the door shut quietly.
He heard Allen mumbling something unintelligible to Lee, his voice weak and raspy. “Exactly. She told Allen that she warned Quinn to back off, but Quinn told us that she was already gone when he found the body in Bennington.”
“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” Milo assured. “In the meantime, your car is parked by an auto repair place by the corner of Moody and Lowell. We’re heading south from here. There’s one more streetcar heading down here, so we’ll follow her for now and meet back up here.”
“Will do. Stay safe,” Lee said.
Milo looked back at Quinn, then to the path the Black Widow had gone down. “Don’t know if that’s up to me, but I’ll do my best.”
* * *
They continued down the street, then onto the trail. To the right of it were some old train tracks, one end of the old trolley they ran north from Lake Oswego in the summertime. The path was shrouded in darkness, but before long opened onto a street. They were down at the waterfront, approaching a small side road with nothing but large office buildings and larger parking lots.
Milo and Quinn kept their distance, allowing her to nearly exit their site before continuing. It was dark and the street was poorly lit, but all she had to do was take one look back. Really rolling the dice on this one, Milo considered. There was no one else on the sidewalk, or on foot in any direction for that matter.
They passed by an office building, then another, and the road turned to the left. As they rounded the corner, Milo saw that the woman was nowhere to be found. Either she’d quickly turned the street, or she’d circled around the hotel. There seemed to be a path going down that way, a stone walkway deeper into the darkness between these buildings and the shore. “Looks like a trap,” Milo said, retrieving a small crucifix from his jacket pocket. “Shall we?”
Quinn nodded, then gestured for him to go ahead. Coward. “So where do you think she’s heading,” Quinn asked. “Is this just a trap or does she have business here?”
“Business…” Milo considered. There were only office buildings nearby, and they tended to operate mainly during the daytime. Didn’t mean there weren’t reasons for someone to be there after hours. “I think she’s heading to work,” he suggested.
“She’s going to work?” Quinn whispered.
Milo began down the path, the grip on his crucifix tightening. “If you were a vampire all of a sudden, where would you live? Can’t live on the street without being hassled by people, and you need a place to doll yourself up so you can lure unsuspecting men to their demise. You need a home- probably an apartment if you’re in the city. She has to pay rent just like everybody else, right?”
“You’d have to assume she has money, though,” Quinn countered. “Vampires always have money squared away, right?”
“Assuming she actually is a vampire,” Milo pointed, squinting his eyes and hoping to see her up ahead, “what makes you think she’s ancient? Even if she is, why would that mean that she has a lot of money? Not like she can ever go to the bank during business hours.”
“Huh,” Quinn grunted, and as Milo continued down the pitch-black path, a shiver went up his spine as he could feel Quinn’s breath against the back of his neck. “That’s good to know.”
Milo whirled around, holding his crucifix up without knowing for certain what he intended to do with it, and inhaled sharply as a knife entered the side of his chest. Quinn pulled the knife out, then pushed it into Milo’s stomach.
Milo felt the grip on his crucifix loosening, and tried to tightening his grip. His strength was leaving him. “What… the fuck…” he whispered, unable to raise his voice. He tried to breath deeply, but a sharp pain in his chest put a stop to it.
“Don’t try to talk,” Quinn ordered, twisting the knife. Milo’s body tried to let out a shriek of pain, but he could already feel his strength leaving him completely. “I think I punctured a lung. Sorry about that. Or maybe I shouldn’t be.” He pulled the knife out, reversing his grip on it, then plunged it into Milo’s shoulder. “You did trespass, after all. You’re no use to me if I can’t pluck your strings, but the others are good little marionettes. Besides, maybe she’ll start to reconsider when someone finds your body. If you’re right, they’ll go around asking questions, put some pressure on her, and she’ll finally realize that I’m a dangerous enemy to have.”
You want her to turn you, Milo realized. He tried to say as much, but no words would come out. His body was in shock, and he couldn’t get a word out. You really think she’s a vampire, and you want her to turn you.
Quinn rifled through Milo’s pockets, retrieving his phone. “Can’t have you dialing 911,” he said, slamming the phone against the ground once, then again before throwing it into the grass near the path. “If this brings you peace in your final moments,” he added, getting to his feet, “this is as much your fault as it is mine, maybe even moreso. You just shouldn’t have questioned me.” With that, he pulled the knife from Milo’s shoulder, a quiet groan all that accompanied the shooting pain, and got to his feet.
I knew you were a monster, Milo thought, watching helplessly as his vision began to blur. Quinn stepped back into the light, onto the street, and continued back the way they’d come. Streetlights in the distance became vague blobs of light surrounded by an inky blackness that seemed to dance around it. Didn’t peg you for a killer.
As warmth and light began to give way to the cold dark, a soft laugh broke the silence. “At least he’s not boring,” a woman’s voice noted. Was it distant, or was he fading from consciousness for the final time? “You seem a little lost for words, friend, but I know what’ll put a pep in your step.”
He winced as the Black Widow lifted him by the shoulders, sitting him up. She held one of her palms up, then dug into it with a fingernail, drawing blood. “Drink up. You have a long night ahead of you.”
Her bloody palm was pressed up against his mouth, and while Milo resisted as best his could, he couldn’t stop the coppery liquid from reaching his tongue. As soon as it did, something passed through him. It was a chill, but it was electric. It made him feel restless, but he couldn’t move an inch. All he could do, despite his better judgement, was continue to drink.
She held him close as he drank, one hand pressed against his mouth and the other wrapped around him in a cold, comfortable embrace. “I’m gonna tell you something that I wish I was told. When I was turned, I thought that I would rise again as a monster, but I didn’t know how it worked. When you pass- and you will- your soul will leave your body behind. You’ll go wherever souls go, and you might find peace or be reunited with your ancestors, maybe some loved ones who you’ve had the misfortune of outliving, but then something will take your place. It will grow, and it will fester, and it will take your body over. It won’t be you, of course, and you may watch from above as it terrorizes the living world, but it’ll have your memories. It’ll believe that it’s still you, but it won’t be. It’ll be something new.
“It’ll remember how you valued human life, and how you cared enough to try and stop the big bad monster from taking more.” She turned his head, and as he felt himself fading once more, she smiled. “It’ll remember how much you loved your friends and family. It will remember your values, your beliefs, your fears, but it will inherit none of them. It will watch the lives of countless innocents end by their hand, and it will not care. It will take any life I tell it to, and it will not care who.
“Sleep. Sleep for the last time. And keep an eye out for your friends; they’ll join you soon enough.”

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and if you weren't in any of the big crowds for Blink 182, Paramore, Taylor Swift/Phoebe Bridgers, or the musical festivals happening on along the east coast, you might itching for some live music this week. June means beach season is here and that means beach shows, with Rippers opening this weekend. Plus, Paramore is still in town, playing a pair of shows with Bloc Party, not to mention tour stops by AJJ, Thrice, Panchiko and Young the Giant, and yet another sellout for Bill Joel, who returns to make up December's cancelled show.
If you're new to this sub or just passing through, each week I try to highlight the "best" upcoming rock, punk, indie and alternative shows. I scour the web and social media for concert announcement, booking, rescheduling, etc., and then pick which shows are vying for my time and money (or which would've been if they weren't sold out). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are other non-reddit resources that cast a wider net on live shows, including pop, hip hop and comedy shows, but feel free to add any missing shows using the comments (especially for other genres).
As usual, listed times are approximate start times (not door); prices are estimates for door tickets, and do not include online fees and taxes.

TUESDAY MAY 30

Brutus + Trixie Whitley @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($20)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Voice of Gowanus Fundraiser @ Public Records, 7pm ($50+) feat. Yo La Tengo + Marc Ribot + The Martin Bisi Collective
Peppermint + Sheer Curtains + Scout Gillett @ Purgatory, 8pm ($15)

WEDNESDAY MAY 31

Mega Bog + Mary Jane Dunphe + Shallowhalo @ Baby's All Right, 7pm ($15)
Cinema Stare + Leisure Hour + Good Looking Friends + Fear Not Ourselves Alone @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($15)
Leor Miller's Fear of Her Own Desire + Mt. Worry + Fat Trout Trailer Park + Bedridden @ The Broadway, 8:30pm ($15)
Unwed Sailor + Caravela + Spa @ The Kingsland, 8pm ($15)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Heart Attack Man + Super American + Arm's Length + Photocopy @ Racket, 7pm ($20)
Bridge City Sinners + Crazy and the Brains @ Saint Vitus, 8pm ($20)
Michael Ian Cummings^{EP release show} + Alex Orange Drink + CUTTTERS + SUO @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($17)
Pons + Dolly Spartans + Consumables + Bosco Mujo @ Union Pool, 8pm ($15)
AJJ + Oceanator + Gladie @ Webster Hall, 8pm ($25)

THURSDAY JUNE 1

Jelly Kelly^{album release show} + Skorts + Le Big Zero + Brodeo @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($12)
Pride Month Kickoff Party @ Brooklyn Made, 8pm ($20) feat. partygirl + Laura Danae + Monarch + Tula Vera + LEONE
Big Wreck + Mick's Jaguar @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($30)
Atlas Engine + Diary + Lukka + Endearments @ Rubulad, 8:30 ($12)
Tristen + Colatura + BenBen @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($15)
Thrice ^{The Artist in the Ambulance 20th Anniversary tour} + Holy Fawn @ Terminal 5, 8pm (SOLD OUT)

FRIDAY JUNE 2

Massa Nera + Trophy Hunt + Common Sage @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Onesie ^{"What You Kill" single + music video release show} + Nite Music + The Roulettes @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
Dreamers + Robert DeLong @ Elsewhere - The Hall, 7pm ($25)
Billy Joel @ Madison Square Garden, 8pm (SOLD OUT) ^{Rescheduled from Dec. 19, 2022}
Fenne Lily & Christian Lee Hutson + Why Bonnie @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8pm ($25)
Climates + No Kill + North by North + AK & the Hallucinations @ Our Wicked Lady, 8pm ($15)
Wince + Bleary Eyed + Screenager @ Trans-Pecos, 8pm ($12)
Jeromes Dream + Elizabeth Colour Wheel + Venus Twins @ TV EYE, 8pm ($15)
Gorgeous + Gold Dime + Fred Cracklin + Free Casino @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SATURDAY JUNE 3

The New Colossus Festival presents Summer Saturdays @ 18th Ward Brewing, 1pm (FREE) feat. The Big Easy + Abby Jeanne + Sara Devoe + Telescope Club
New Pope + Tiers La Familia + parlor walls @ Mama Tried, 4pm (FREE)
Bueno ^{single release show} + Zero Point Energy + Rebecca Ryskalczyk + Scarlet @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($15)
Monarch + The Poster Child + North By North + Amalia Juliane @ Berlin, 7:30pm ($12)
L.O.T.I.O.N. + Multinational Corporation + Abuso de Poder + Abism @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Miracle Sweepstakes + Phantom Handshakes + Harper Love @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
^{LPR15 - IN THE ROUND} Pissing Jeans + Carnivorous Bells + Shop Talk @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm ($20)
Wunderhorse + Glom @ Mercury Lounge, 9:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
Blue Note Jazz Festival Presents Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers + John Scofield + Kenny Garrett + Christian McBride @ Town Hall, 8pm ($60+)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 1@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Baby Shakes + Natalie Sweet + Josephine Network + The Out-Sect + The High Kinks + Civil Rats + Sweat + The Dracu-Las + The Wanderers
Semaphore + Velvet + Percocet @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SUNDAY JUNE 4

Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 2@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Mel Machete + Killer Kin + Vixen 77 + Soraia + Revelatours + Loretta + Tits Dick Ass + WifeKnife + Not All Heroes

Hey everyone. So I've mentioned I wanted to do a review of the older arcs some time now. For now, I think I want to just go back to one in particular (cuz it's the one I just binge watched), and I want to kinda go over why I think it works so very well. I kinda wanna keep this in the realm of positive, but comparisons to mod-ern SMG4 are going to end up being inevitable obviously. Afterall, the whole point of this was to go back and review this era of the show to contrast it with today, but I'm going to try and keep it constructive.
To make organizing this easier, I wanna keep this within four categories I've touched on before: Ideas, Story, Characters, and Tone. Some of these will be longer than others, but that's sort of par for the course. Just like before, I'll try to condense it into a tl;dr in the comments. So without further ado, let's begin.
Ideas: Here's where I think the Waluigi arc does something really well - it meshes very neatly into the show's core idea of being a skit comedy show about MEMES. Waluigi is one of the most memetically potent of the Nintendo cast, and this was at the height of the Smash Bros Ultimate memes where he got left out. So right off the bat, centering him as an arc gels perfectly with the show - it just feels like a very natural progression.
Story: I think the core idea of the story here is pretty strong - Waluigi is upset about his rejection and 'odd man out' status. It's one of those stories about feeling like you don't belong, like you're an outcast, and like nothing you do can get you acceptance. It's also about a struggle for identity, feeling like one has to stand out and be unique to matter. These are all things that are quite relatable, honestly, and it works for the arcs' benefit. You can relate to his pain and understand his escalation, while at the same time realizing he's become consumed by his anger. There's not a deeper lore or complex mechanics of reality, it's at its core a story about a sad, lonely person's desperation and anger metastasizing until it corrupts them, but it's also a story about friendship, brotherhood, and ultimately forgiveness and healing.
Something else I want to really touch on here is how the stories for each episodes largely revolve around either EXTERNAL threats or problems the gang has to resolve together, OR, the story is driven by competition and rivalry over simple things - not direct and persistent animosity and disagreement. This isn't just with Waluigi either: 'Stupid Mario Tennis Aces' involves Boopkins trying to join a tennis tournament, 'The Mario Hustle' gives the whole gang some time to shine while trying to sell rocks to people, 'Stupid Mario Paint' involves Mario ruining Toadsworth's painting and trying to replace it, 'The Mario Cafe' is the gang helping Bowser make his restaurant successful and them needing to work together as a team... I really think every single one of these, Arc related or not, are a big hit for that reason.
Characters: Get ready cuz this is the longest one. Of course it's the characters we all know and presumably love, but I think what really stands out is just... Everyone is nicer to one another? There is less inter-group conflict and animosity. In fact, very few of the episodes in this series have direct and real anger and conflict between the SMG4 crew and they instead spend the episodes HELPING each other. The most you have is limited to COMPETITION - Mario and SMG4 playing Smash Bros, or competing for tickets at the carnival, and then Tari and Meggy trying to one up each other at the shooting gallery. Even Bob is nice and gives Tari a duck from his prize counter even after she cleared him out - he didn't have to point out he had it and make her happy.
This is especially starkly represented with Mario and Luigi. Something that was mentioned lately is how mean Mario is to Luigi lately, and the difference between now and then is striking. Luigi actually used to stand up for himself, not immediately caving to Mario's demands. Mario also didn't ruthlessly bully him, steal his shit, and ignore his wants and needs. In fact, it's show multiple times that he deeply, deeply cares for his brother and is in absolute emotional despair and turmoil every time Luigi is in danger and he thinks he's lost him. Mario even directly helps Boopkins in the first episode of the arc, show real grief seeing his friends get t-posed, and never once acts like a manchild; a jerk sometimes, sure, but not a child.
I also got to give props to how they characterized Tari and her introduction in this arc. I really think they knocked it out of the park with her, and it's also why I was so peeved with how they presented her recently. Tari in the Waluigi arc is very introverted - she's shy, and doesn't have a whole lot of spoons for social interaction. However, she is also able to overcome that when it relates to her core interests - games. She is able to game in front of a crowd and stay focused in the face of Bob's trash talk, when Mario tries to grab her attention she's able to hang out with him despite her timidness especially since it relates to her core interest, she is also able to overcome it to help SMG4 feel better after Mario beats him at Smash Brothers. I honestly think that Tari in this arc is INCREDIBLY brave, actually, as she is both able to overcome her own social anxiety for the sake of others and even confidently risks her life twice to try and save Meggy, and then directly stands up to Waluigi at the height of his power! The fact she is such an over sensitive and cowardly wimp in the recent episodes is painful.
Something else too is that the cast feels way more utilized - both main characters and side characters. There is a society that these characters live in, whether they're interacting with the public (like in 'The Mario Hustle' or 'Mario the Scam Artist), watching a news broadcast (Like in 'Waluigi Apocalypse), or interacting with recurring background characters, it really feel like the world they're in actually matters besides a stage that centers them specifically. The simple inclusion of little side characters like Frankie, Wheelchair Koopa, Kamek, Jeeves, Toadsworth all add to the world, make it feel more rich, make it feel like things exist outside of the main cast's lives, and can provide outside motivation and assistance to drive stories. Jeeves does this in the first episode in the arc, Tennis Aces, and Toadsworth provides this in Mario Paint, and then Peach even is vastly different in that she actually saves the day during the T-Pose virus and shows herself to be a competent and intelligent ruler who takes her job as Princess seriously.
Tone: Finally, the last point. I really think the tone here is good. It's serious, but it's still goofy and fun. It's an escalation for the show, to be sure, but it also isn't so edgy and serious you cuz yourself on it. Melancholic moments are mixed very well with humor and levity, so the emotional beats are a part of the show not apart from the show, if that makes sense. There's actual stakes shown, and faced down, but also it ends happily with no one actually dying, while their victory and celebration afterwards feeling entirely well earned.
Phew... Okay, sorry, this was way longer than I originally intended for it to be, but I am chronically inclined to be comprehensive. Again, just like before, I'll get it trimmed into a tl;dr in the comments. So what are the take aways here? Well, again, I think the show could benefit tremendously from a show bible, but more directly I have a couple points:
-Arcs revolving around big memes fit with the core idea of the show. Building upon existing characters as antagonists can be better than bringing in whole new ones. -External threats and problems the cast has to solve together are far better than threats and problems caused directly by members of the cast and stoke animosity and bad blood. -Interpersonal drama either needs to find resolutions or it needs to be in rivalry and competition. -Giving everyone time to shine, either in small cameos or skits in an episode, or giving them more focus in their own personal ones, helps to keep the show fresh. -Dwelling on the greater world and society helps to give context to the character's lives. -Recurring minor background characters add spice and make the world feel more alive.
Don't know how to sign these things off. Go ahead and add your own thoughts and ideas about this, offer constructive ideas, and try to keep it a little positive or at least frame critiques within the context of other examples.

So i just finished NT1 through 4 and so far the stories were great, NT1 and 3 could have been better and i do have some slight grievances regarding those two but not enough to say they were complete garbage, they were actually quite decent.
Okay so let's begin, in regards to NT 1 and if i were to rank it i would put it in around b tier, it wasn't entirely bad but it wasn't entirely good either, to me it was kinda meh, i mean yeah its the first book of the sequel and it is right after WWIII, so i understand it needs to start somehow slow in order to get the ball rolling for the inevitable ensuing chaos, i will say though seeing accelerator finally be tamed by the inevitable storm that is the kamijou is pretty wholesome, he no longer yearns to kill, but he will brutally incapacitate you, which i guess it's a start in the right direction, in regards to hamazura, well I'll put in the same way my girl kinuhata puts it, he's just a hamazura, enough said, when it came to the actual plot it was kinda alright, i wouldn't say it was the best action packed scenario of the series, but it was decent enough, muginos redemption was meh as well, granted i was kinda sad Touma wasnt in until the very end, another grievances i have is the dragon rider, it looks cool yeah and having hamazura use it was fine, i mean what other choice did he have in order to save nya nya child fremea, but and hear me out, i didn't really appreciate him using something with the word dragon in it, i mean wasn't the whole dragon motif Toumas thing, i mean accelerator is kinda of an angel, hamazura uses one use only technology and Touma is basically a dragon in human Skin, so in retrospect Touma should be the only one of the three who uses dragons right?
Anyway NT 1 was decent, the plot was somewhat slow, the action was kinda scattered around and the ending was anticlimactic
Now for NT2, you know for being 200+ pages it actually felt kinda short, need to get this out first Soo (YAY TOUMAS BACK), Touma coming back to save the day just in the nick of time at the end of NT 1 was perfect which contradicts on what i said earlier i know, but anyway even though the story was just birdway giving us a long ass lecture on magic the story was great, honestly seeing Touma meeting hamazura for the second time after he laid his ass out before sparky could get to him, was nice, hamazura remember Touma was actually kinda funny when you consider that he sounded quite intimidated by him on their second meeting, Touma seeing accelerator for the third time was awkward to say the least, especially when accel tried to kill him a second time, but here he felt quite tame and happy that his HERO LOL made it back okay.
Alright who else groped their balls when birdway hit Touma in his DO NOT PASS ZONE i feel like that needs to be addressed, seeing Touma drunk is hilarious, reminds me of rock lee's drunken lotus technique, did i want muginos to socialize with Touma? OF COURSE I DID, I WANTED TOUMA TO ADD THE LAST REMAINING FEMALE LVL 5 TO HIS HAREM DAMMIT, IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK, i love how accelarator just nodded silently when he wanted to help Touma stop radiosonde castle from falling, it was adorable
NT 3: now that one could have been better honestly, aside from seeing the three heroes together for a mission, i felt like NT3 lacking quite a bit, in all honesty it felt like the only ones who actually did do anything were Touma, accelarator, worst, kuroyoru and birdway, during the entirety of the novel hamazura was nothing more than a chauffeur(poor him for real)and Misaka didn't really do much aside from acting as accelarators back up not that he needed it, all she was useful for was acting like an interpreter for Touma and being annoyingly clingy, for the majority she acted like she was on vacation, the good points about the novel were Touma and accelarators team work to save the children and Touma and kuroyorus team work to defeat gremlins magician(i forgot her name), the epilogue was also something, i felt Toumas anger after learning that he and the rest were manipulated into having academy city affiliated institutions cut ties
Now NT4 that was awesome, the entirety of the novel was the kiharas and Marian afraid of Toumas presence even though he wasn't shown as much until the last chapter, not gonna lie the death of kagun/bersi was sad, especially for maria, seeing Touma completely demolish Marian made me feel all kind of ways, again if misaka were to join Touma in baggage city, she was not gonna last especially Against Marian
I wanna hear your thoughts if you would be so kind to share

I still think about Glenn Danzig as wolverine. It would have been weird, but still.
There's also Christopher Lee almost being Gandalf if it weren't for Peter Jackson. Even though Christopher Lee knew Tolkien and was told he would love to see Christopher Lee as Gandalf.
Then there's Bob Odenkirk almost becoming Michael Scott in The Office. Even though Steve Carell got the part, Odenkirk still got a cameo as a similar character in the final season.

Sorry I've been gone for a bit, I had a storyline to finish up and a few bad bouts of writer's block, but I managed to get to this finished up! Here's Season 4, eps 1-13! Be sure to leave some feedback!
Season 4 (March-April):

1. Truth: First change (shared with Lies): Lukanette/Adrigami are clearly established to have been a thing over multiple weeks/a month, with the NY special being the second(?) time they’re truly established. I doubt it’s truly satisfactory, but stuff still has to work within this specific season/the larger narrative, so… eh. Second change: Andrew Hendrol is present for the concert on the Liberty (“I might have to challenge you guys to a battle of the bands one day.”) and slips off to transform into Dragonus just before Luka arrives akumatized. He absorbs Truth/Eyebeam’s (renamed Light Eye) powers then buggers off to appear later in Lies. Third change: Shadow Moth’s design. While I personally like it, it wasn’t terribly popular. So here's a slight redesign: the main body can stay the same with its purple overcoat and black lapels but make the purple a bit darker and the lapel is the same as it was on Hawk Moth. His cowl is now a chromed blue with a peacock feather “eye” right on the forehead instead of his Zuko monocle. His skin turns indigo like Mayura’s and his eyes are like Duusu’s, but more malevolent. The biggest change to his costume is the function of the tailcoat itself: its tail is like a male peacock’s train, long and vibrant blue with pinkish feather eyes in the back, and it opens and spreads in reaction to his emotions. For example, if he’s pleased or angry, it opens up and spreads out behind him, and if he’s exasperated/neutral, it folds back down. Fourth change: Marinette’s transformation into Ladybug is fixed this time around.
   
2. Lies: First change: Marinette isn’t as fan-girly over the Adrien life showing, instead wondering if he’s doing alright with his schedule. Tikki and the others assure her that he’s probably used to it, and she doesn’t have to be so worried about it. Of course, this doesn’t dissuade her nerves, especially not when the modeling session the show films has Lila in it. Second change: The art room scene gets a couple added lines of dialogue (“Adrien. Our parents raised us for perfection, but we don’t need that. We’re already perfect. We’re perfect. Just show me your truth.” “But… I’m not sure what that truth is.” “Let me show you.”) before their class starts. Third change: the Hendrols are present for Prince Ali’s birthday party – it’s why Dragonus skedaddled from the fight – and Andrew manages to hide and transform without anyone noticing, avoiding Lies’ sphere. Even Dragonus can’t risk touching the sphere, even if his cravings for power – much like a vampire – don’t go away.
   
3. Gang of Secrets: First change: Tikki attempts to console Marinette after she talks about worrying about Shadow Moth and Dragonus (“Well, Duusu had always been a bit chaotic. I could imagine that he might be causing Shadow Moth a problem or two. As for Dragonus… he can’t have it much better than you right now, right?”), which cuts to Andrew Hendrol and the Dark kwamis all having a dance party to unknown song that sounds suspiciously similar to “Hips Don’t Lie”. Second change: Instead of the girls just barging up, Tom and Sabine give them permission to go up and check on Marinette. “She hasn’t been answering for us, maybe she will for you.” And the dollhouse doesn’t break from Rose taking off the roof. Rather, Rose trips on something – maybe a roll of thread or a screwdriver or loose paper – and knocks into it. Same result, though, but Alya rightfully calls Mari out: “Okay, Marinette, something is really wrong with you. I’m sorry we can in uninvited, but your parents said we needed to check up on you, and I’m sorry Rose broke the house, but it was a complete accident and you’re blowing up over it. There’s more going on here than just boy trouble, isn’t there? We’re your friends, girl, we want to help.” To which Mari replies: “Maybe I don’t want your help, or your friendship anymore. Get out!” Third change: Dragonus swoops in during the fight and knocks around the Gang of Secrets himself after LB catches Lady Wifi, which inadvertently gives LB time to talk LW into rejecting her powers. Fourth change: Rena Rouge doesn’t look as off in this episode, where her skin was a few tones too light. Dunno if it was intentional, but that still could be fixed. The episode ends as normal.
   
4. Mr. Pigeon 72: First change: a biggie. Alya acknowledges Lila’s number of akumatizations and says, “You know, even if you couldn’t tell me about Lila’s lying about being BFFs with Ladybug, you still could’ve told me – or anyone, for that matter – about how she threatened you in the bathroom. No one threatens my BFF with impunity.” I know a lot of people were upset with Alya’s passiveness over the whole Lila situation, but this line will have impact throughout the rest of the rework. Second change: I found this out on a whim, but it turns out city pigeons are a kind of dove, so Bob Roth wasn’t entirely wrong. Fun. Third change: Andrew Hendrol is watching the evil pigeons transform people outside and figures out he can’t go out, transformed or not, without getting touched. Vorrath: “When has that stopped you before?” Andrew: “I’ve got it.” Cut to later, he invades the fight between the illusions and Mr. Pigeon in a giant mech made out of a sentimonster that he teleported into so he could fight. Overkill doesn’t begin to cover this guy. Fourth change: I’m tempted to change Ladybug’s Lucky Charm suit to her permanent one, but if I did, certain episodes wouldn’t have as much oomph later… hmmm. For now, her suit can stay the same.
   
5. Psycomedian: Honestly don’t know what to do with this one, it’s a fairly solid little episode; funny, love square-y, gives Gabriel some background and Cat Noir some spotlight. I guess I can really just add Dragonus to the mix: Psycomedian tries his emotion-gimmick on him and he no-sells it (there is a lot, and I mean a lot of lore behind Dragonus/Andrew Hendrol, so I think it would be easier to link my original fics with him up to the point I’m at for posting and you can explore his background there, as well as his powers) then proceeds to quickly skirmish with Angrybug: “There’s the fire I sensed when I absorbed your powers! Why don’t you let loose like this a little more? Finish the job!” (Again, lore makes sense if you read my main fics, I’m sorry, but he’s such a big character in my works that I don’t know how to condense it down. I’ll try but expect that later.)
   
6. Furious Fu: First change: I’m really, really confused as to why Fu and Marianne are not referred to as husband/wife or at least married. They would’ve gotten married, right? It’s not a thing that I or the fandom seem to be upset about, I’m just super confused, and if anyone is willing to enlighten me, I’d be thankful. For now, Fu and Marianne are a couple, husband and wife, like they should’ve been since Backwarder or before. Second change: During the fight between LB/CN and Su-Han, guess who shows up but Dragonus. Su-Han freezes for a moment, which gives LB/CN time to snatch the Miracle Box, but Su-Han tries to pull it back. SH: “Ladybug! You did not tell me the Dark Dragon Miraculous was in Paris!” CN: “Sounds like you never asked!” Dragonus: sarcastically “Aw, now you’ve hurt my feelings.” Draws sword and points it at SH. “So you’re the Celestial Guardian I heard about. Head honcho, I’m guessing.” SH turns his aggression towards Dragonus. SH: “You and your kind are a blighted spot amongst the history of the Miraculous, demon!” Lunges. “Heavenly Retribution! The Righteous Will of the Justiciar Breaks the World’s Evil!” Dragonus dodges most of the attacks and matches a few of them, but Su-Han lands one good punch to the stomach. Dragonus: “growls Alright, then. You aren’t as much of a pushover as they are… or the Guardians at the Temple were. If we’re going to talk in metaphors, here's mine.” Flies away from SH and presses center of sword, opening a compartment and pulls out a purple pendant on a chain, emblazoned with a stylized T-rex face. “The grand unity of dinosaurs and dragons humbles the arrogant monk. Rexx, Vorrath, Unify!” (See here for appearance: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42733506/chapters/114090748 use ctrl-F and search "Thero"). “Thero Dragon flies as the Dark Guardian!” This reveals to everyone present that Dragonus has more of the Dark Miraculouses at his disposal and subsequent “oh crap” from Su-Han reveals how serious it is. By this point, LB/CN ran off, Thero Dragon taunts Su-Han and flies off, then doesn’t return until the battle with Furious Fu in the stadium, where he absorbs FF’s powers and briefly fights LB/CN before flying off again, proclaiming that “You haven’t seen the last of Thero Dragon!”. Episode ends as normal, but Su-Han will appear again this rewrite before Ephemeral.
   
7. Sole Crusher: Okay, major change time again. I know a lot – almost utterly ridiculously so – of people do/did not like Zoe in the slightest. But, since I’m trying to stay fairly… fair to the source material (while adding new and interesting concepts), we are including Zoe, only her introduction is going to be quite different. Zoe has come to Paris because her time at her boarding school was cut short due to complete and total bullying, and her own father, a man we know as Robert Lee from Audrey, is too distant to think of another arrangement within NY and sends her to Paris to be with her mother. So, Zoe is going to be quite sullen/angry with her situation, and this becomes apparent when Marinette runs into her. Marinette apologizes profusely, but Zoe gives her a glare and basically tells her to bugger off. Marinette, though, recognizes something is wrong and pries just a little more (and it’s framed as Marinette trying to keep Zoe from attracting Shadow Moth’s attention while simultaneously trying to help), and Zoe reveals a bit of what’s happened – including the one friend – but not the full story nor which family she’s living with. Marinette, being the all-but-Lila-loving hero she is, preps a bag for the new girl. “Even if life has been bitter, it helps to have something sweet!” Marinette says. Zoe gives her a strange look. “What’s your angle? Everyone has one. Why’re you helping me?” Zoe asks, confused and suspicious. Marinette blinks in surprise and shrugs. “It’s the right thing to do, especially when you’re in a new place. I gave you my number if you’d like to chat.” Zoe blinks twice, clearly surprised by the generosity and seeming genuine nature of the girl in front of her. “Okay, then. I guess I should give you mine so… you know.” Marinette holds out her hand. “So I don’t lose it.” The first step to breaking Zoe’s rough exterior has been taken, but said rough exterior still persists when Zoe arrives at the hotel. Another major change: Audrey, while trying to be more supportive of Chloe, still has her preferred child, and that preferred child is Zoe, because, and this will cause drama later, “Zoe is one of only four people in my life who don’t grovel at my feet.” Chloe walks into the lounge/dining hall and hears this and immediately goes nuclear, but her rant is cut short by Zoe snapping at her to “Shut your mouth, you little brat.” Chloe is, of course, horrifically offended, but Audrey breaks it up before it escalates and sends them to get to know each other better… which, given this Zoe, goes about as well as expected. She snaps at all of Chloe’s rules, throws the diamond heels, and when Chloe calls her a “horrible half-of-a-sister”, Zoe throws it right back at her. This back-and-forth continues to school, where Zoe doesn’t bend to Chloe’s whims, but instead blows up at her again – which inadvertently does two things: it proves that Zoe isn’t like Chloe, but she’s quote-unquote “bad” in other ways. Of course, someone – Andrew Hendrol – sees this whole debacle and comments, “Such a powerful response to Chloe’s bratty self, such a temper. Oh, yesss, I like her.” There’s still “scaring Damocles” and “Marinette/girls talk about Zoe and Chloe”, but it’s less of Chloe’s influence and more “wow she’s scary but I bet Chloe had something to do with it.” Marinette and Zoe’s text still goes through, and Chloe still snaps at her for texting Marinette, but Zoe just snaps at her. “It’s none of your business, Chloe.” Chloe, on the other hand, makes it her business and goes back to her notebook, eventually landing on cockroaches in the locker (reused material, really?) to punish Marinette, and Zoe actually stumbles, a haunted look in her eyes. She staggers out of the room (taking the heels with her) and out to the roof, prepping to throw the shoes away in anger (perhaps a metaphor for something more disturbing) before losing the will to and she just breaks, resting her head against the bar and starts to cry. Andre comes up to her, they talk, and Zoe reveals her original dream of acting. “I’m good at it, but then everyone expected a different Zoe and they pressured me and I broke and now I can’t think of acting or anything without getting angry… I don’t like being angry. Not with the people who don’t deserve it, not with Chloe, not with anyone… I just want to be me, but I’m scared that the angry one is me…” Andre sighs. “You know, it might be good for you to… put a little bit of time between your past and now. Choose what you want to put in the Dream Cellar, and once you’ve… adjusted, you can come get it. Or you can leave it. The choice is yours.” Zoe’s akumatization stays the same, the general akuma battle remains the same, except for Thero Dragon Siphoning off Sole Crusher’s powers and stomping a few civilians for big kaiju battle time while taunting Chloe (“You can run, but I know I’m in your nightmares!”), which provides LB/CN enough time to find the akumatized sneakers and break them. The barge scene is a little different: Zoe explains what happened, and while her backstory with the crowds and roaches hasn’t changed too much, she adds, “I had one friend, but even she wasn’t around very much… not enough to help me when I needed it. I don’t blame her, she had a rough childhood, too, but I still pent that up. I’m sorry you had to see my outbursts. I get it if you don’t want to be my friend.” Of course, huggy happiness still ensues, the Bourgeois confrontation still happens, though Chloe’s basis for her demands is “If she stays here, she’ll make me stress out and ruin my perfect me!” and her threat is to crush you like your NY classmates did, while Audrey just rolls her eyes. “Chloe, quit being melodramatic. I understand Zoe’s not been the best sister – which is a discussion we will have later – but she’s not going back to New York now. I’m certainly not going to be responsible for her return fares.” The episode ends with Andre asking Zoe to “Call me Dad. I know your father is… distant, and I don’t know if I can replace him, but-” Zoe hugs him. “Thanks, Dad. Promise me you’ll make the choice to take your past out of the cellar, too.” The episode ends the same, with a much happier Zoe thanking Marinette for everything as a photo album (with dates so we can at least see it was a week or two between this and Queen Banana!) plays across the screen.
   
8. Queen Banana: First change: Chloe’s “half-of-a-sister” bit when she bursts into the art room is now “Giving the lead role to my half-of-a-sister who just came out of nowhere a week ago?!”, and all of the talk of going back to New York is replaced with snappy but ultimately toothless posturing about ruining her life. Zoe, of course, is having none of that and snaps back at her with “The only way you’re ruining this movie is if you pry it from our hands!” The art room scene ends the same way as in the original, but the scene in Bob Roth’s office is changed a little bit: Not as much mention of going back to New York and more mention of Chloe’s pride as she says “You said our hands, which apparently includes the producer’s hands, too. Oh, I love a good loophole!” Zoe is oddly okay with this and confidently whispers to the others “We just need to outlast her, trust me.” Second change: Andrew Hendrol is part of the filming crew – “Live soundtrack design” he calls it, while Chloe calls it useless – and escapes the ‘enchanted sleep’ part of the filming, and is shown to get increasingly more annoyed with Chloe, to the point of risking his secret identity as Thero Dragon by offering to play the fire-breathing dragon suggested by Alya (“Lemme do it, I’ll knock that role out of the park, just let me actually blast her with fire.”). Third change: After Marinette’s rousing soapbox speech, Zoe pats her on the shoulder. “See what I meant about outlasting her?” Fourth change: Not to be outdone, Everett Hendrol, Andrew’s father (who is also present in the theater unlike Gabriel, showcasing the closer relationship Everett has with his son than Gabriel does with his), has also chipped in some pocket change (an amount of several thousand euros in Europe money I guess), so the film is entirely cut off from the city’s funding and Chloe’s interference, and when Chloe runs off, Everett darkly chuckles once as Andrew calls out “Cry me a river, Queen Banana!” (Everett is aware of Chloe’s antics and the Hendrols as a family have no sympathy for those, especially the rich, who act like fools). Fifth change: Again, Chloe’s revenge plan isn’t to get Zoe sent back to NY, she’s going to crush Zoe in a way only she can come up with… which is banana. Sixth change: There’s less of a “my fault” moment from Zoe and that weird “promise” bit is gone, now it’s just Zoe deciding to face down her sister and give her a reality check. “You want to know why we waited until you were gone to shoot the movie? Why we talked Gabriel Agreste into funding it? It’s because no one could stand your bratty behavior! Not because we hate you, not because anyone turned against you, but because you couldn’t swallow your pride and work as part of the team. If this is how you acted as part of Ladybug’s team when you were Queen Bee, it’s no wonder you were kicked off!” Queen Banana gets infuriated, Ladybug saves Zoe, they scooter off into the subway, where Ladybug commends Zoe’s bravery, but definitely winces a little bit regarding Queen Bee. “Chloe, for all her faults, wasn’t terrible as Queen Bee, but she really had attachment issues to the Miraculous, even after I tried… and failed to explain to her that her secret identity was compromised. But I doubt I’ll have that issue with you. Zoe Lee, (insert Miraculous speech here).” Seventh change: Once Queen Banana’s banana gun is glued up and she realizes she’s about to lose and runs, guess what, Thero Dragon drops in front of her, triggering Chloe’s trauma from the Miracle Queen incident. Thero Dragon Siphons off Queen Banana’s banana powers for the fun of it, then activates the power of the Dark T-rex Miraculous, Silver Tongue, which manifests as a purple blast of energy that, if it hits a human target, allows the T-rex holder to manipulate the minds of their target… which Thero Dragon uses to break down all of Chloe’s confidence and restraints, all the while tormenting her with things like “Your mother hates you,” “Your so-called friends despise you,” and “You’re utterly ridiculous.” Ladybug and Cat Noir start driving him back, but he managed to do enough damage as he needed. “I don’t know why you bother defending a traitor,” he says. “She wouldn’t do the same for you.” Queen Banana by now has fallen back, crying, and freeing her from Shadow Moth is an act of mercy, but Chloe still refuses the Magical Charm based on her own (self-nurtured) hatred for Ladybug and Vesperia, both for replacing her and failing to save her from Thero Dragon. Eighth change: Chloe, in her anger, swings at Zoe when she declares her hate, only for Zoe to catch it way too fast and lower Chloe’s fist while she gives her speech, and once Chloe takes the Charm and the akuma is repelled, Andre steps in and reprimands her for trying to hit Zoe, even going so far as to… “Chloe Bourgeois, your behavior is becoming completely unacceptable. You are embarrassing yourself and your family. Give me your phone. You are hereby grounded for a week.” Chloe looks shocked. “WHAT?!?” Andre is stern. “I’ve failed as a father. I should’ve tried to keep your behavior in check when you acted out, and I see I’ve failed terribly. There are so many people we will have to apologize to, especially your classmates for everything you’ve done to them.” The episode ends with Marinette and Tikki wondering if this new approach to Chloe’s behavior will do anything good.
   
9. Gabriel Agreste: First change: Shadow Moth’s monologue is merged with Gabriel’s scene in the mausoleum under the mansion, first with Gabriel with his back to Emilie’s coffin before he turns to face it. Second change: When Nathalie offers Gabriel half of her sandwich, he initially refuses (“You need your strength.”) and she insists, then he crumbles (“You’ll need your strength, too.” “…Alright. Thank you.”). Third change: Andrew Hendrol is not present at the art-room fairy-tale-comparison blah thing, but Zoe’s response to Marinette’s question changes to “My mother has been attempting to treat her kids equally. Unfortunately, that means when Chloe got grounded for a week, I had to miss out on the dinner party. Had I known this was gonna happen, I would’ve put up more of a fight.” Also because of this, Zoe is NOT in Marinette’s room, but she is patched into the whole conversation thanks to Max and Markov. Fourth change: Audrey Bourgeois is throwing glares at Andre (apparently over punishing Chloe) and takes note of the solitary gold-trimmed black mask shaped like a lion’s head. “Don’t tell me he’s coming. You invited Hendrol?” “I had to. Otherwise he’d invite himself and ruin everything unexpectedly. At least now we can expect it.” Continuing the trend, after the Tsurugis arrive at the party, a shiny silver sedan rolls into the front gate, and Everett and Andrew Hendrol step out. Everett is in a pure white suit, in complete contrast to the rest of the party, and the hostility in the air is palpable as the car mogul and his son enter the foyer. “Gabriel.” “Everett. I would… like to welcome you to the party. Though the dress code specified darker clothes for all attendees.” “Really? I didn’t notice that, but even if I had, my black suits are all being cleaned. This is all I had.” “Indeed. Your mask, as requested.” Everett weighs the black lion mask in his hand. “Well, it’s not quite the cut obsidian I had hoped, but given your work, I shouldn’t be surprised.” Gabriel is imperceptibly seething. “I must ask you to stow your device-” “Neither of us will do that, and your little scrambler isn’t going to work on it, either. Your tricks, Gabriel, have been done by men greater than you a thousand times. And I’m the only one still standing.” Of course, when Chloe and Marinette sneak into the ballroom, everyone is giving Everett Hendrol a wide berth as he’s drinking something. Sixth change: The transformation into Shadow Moth from civilian form is still “Nooroo, Duusu, Unify!” I always hated that Dual Metamorphosis nonsense. Seventh change: Andrew Hendrol is fiddling on his phone – the only one that works, but Chloe can’t take it bc he already slapped her hand – when people start to leave Adrien’s room. Eighth change: Gabriel’s threat to Felix is more explicitly “I just need to snap my fingers, and you will be thrown out of here and I will tell everyone the truth about what you did and what you are. Think of your mother, Felix. She’d be devastated to see her only son hauled off for stealing from me… or the Hendrols. Everett is easy enough to provoke, and all I’d have to do is blame whatever I do on you. He’d personally see your life become pure torment.” Ninth change: Thero Dragon pounces on the Collector and Siphons from him, chuckling darkly as he does. “Clever plan, Shadow Moth, clever plan, indeed. But you aren’t fooling anyone.” Tenth change: We get a second epilogue: after Gabriel’s scene, we cut to a scene in the Hendrol mansion. Everett Hendrol is sitting at his desk, watching a chess board on the surface. The white pieces are miniature statues of him and other people, including Andrew, the black pieces are mini statues of Paris’s elite and relations: Gabriel as the king, Emilie queen, Tomoe and Amelie as bishops, Audrey and Andre as knights, Bob Roth and one unknown person as castles, and the pawns are their kids (Adrien/Chloe/Kagami/Felix/XY and three blank ones). The pieces are all at rest like the beginning of a game, but the queen (Emilie) and one castle (as yet unknown) are lying down. Everett just smirks, moves one of the white pieces a space forward, then a black piece. Everett Hendrol declared war.
   
10. Mega Leech: First change: Polymouse or Manimouse for Mylene’s super-name? I want public opinion on this. Second change: Andrew Hendrol is present at the “Stop Project Oxygen” rally and reveals a bit more depth to his character (and potentially a motivation for Thero Dragon): he is very conscientious about the environment, and he becomes increasingly annoyed with the ad and brutally picks it apart. “Two of my best friends’ parents work for the Hendrol Motors Advertising Division and this is exactly what they said a bad ad looks like. Also, Paris’s investors are brainless idiots who barely know how to stand up for themselves, let alone save the planet.” And he snaps at Chloe. “Wasting water? You mean like you do by existing? And don’t get your dad in this, my dad would destroy him.” All in all, he sides with Mylene first. “I’m getting my dad to counter-fund this scheme, he’s already gone to war.” Andrew then leaves right before the Minidiktators show up to transform into Thero Dragon. “After all, they can’t get me if my ears are covered.” Thero Dragon is just brutally attacking Mega Leech by himself… revealing a scary level of contempt for sentimonsters. Third change: The Minidiktator possessing Cat Noir is expelled through his real ear, not the cat one. Fourth change: Ladybug’s suit doesn’t weirdly swap between Lucky Charm suit and normal near the end, it just stays normal. The rest of the episode… ends as normal. Even that scene at the end.
    
11. Guiltrip: I don’t really have too many problems with this episode, nor do I really remember any complaints about (though I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments), the most I can really think of is adjusting it to fit my current ideas. So… First change: Juleka speaks clearly and no one’s parroting her words. Second change: While the first half of the episode plays out the same, Andrew Hendrol is noticeably absent, but once the second half starts, he shows up and he’s very unhappy/unpleasant to be around. It’s explained that he had to take a day off for stomach flu (and, little lore bit, he’s always very temperamental after a bout of sickness). As such, he doesn’t have much in the way of patience for the second half’s antics, but unlike Chloe, he’s quietly stewing and not drawing too much attention to himself. This extends to the later fight within Guiltrip (after he leaves the science lab when he realizes the only ones left are him, Chloe, Sabrina and Lila), as his negative emotions as Thero Dragon end up being so bad that Guiltrip gets hurt by them… and he flies off the handle once a bubble pops against him. He cools off eventually, but yeah. Third change: No animation errors. God, this episode was a doozy.
    
12. Crocoduel: First change: Luka acknowledges that Marinette hasn’t been around since Zoe first joined the group instead of not seeing her since their breakup. Gotta love the writers forgetting characters being in places at times ugh. Second change: Fix the animation errors. Third change: About half the partygoers (Mylene/Ivan/Rose/Nino/Alya) know that Jagged Stone is the twins’ father. Fourth change: The sky doesn’t immediately become overcast the moment Jagged and Anarka are akumatized. That was just weird. Fifth change: When Cat Noir complains that he and Ladybug don’t have wings, Thero Dragon flies over them and taunts “But I do!”, he flies up, Siphons from Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock, then pits them further against each other for giggles. Then he reappears to Siphon off Purple Tigress’s power. Sixth change: The Tiger Miraculous transformation phrase is “Paint my Stripes!” not “Stripes On!”. The episode ends otherwise normally.
    
13. Optigami: First change: As an extra precaution to keep potential suspicion from Ladybug away, Gabriel makes sure Audrey invites Adrien’s entire class plus two extra invitations that go to Luka and Kagami. Second change: The first elevator bit with the entire class is stupid, so it’s getting changed to “Andrew Hendrol (who is in the elevator) rolls his eyes and punches the close button while Marinette tries to avoid Alya”. Third change: Andrew Hendrol slips out just before Audrey gets akumatized and discreetly transforms into Thero Dragon, and he immediately picks up on the smell of Shadow Moth in the building. He starts prowling around the building, waiting for the right moment to strike. This moment comes when Style Queen is about to hit the elevator Marinette/Adrien are trapped in, just before Shadow Moth calls her off. He blindsides her with his clamp weapon, then disarms her (literally) with his sword before Voyaging to the floor below, cackling the whole time. Fifth change: When Ladybug realizes that “Nino” is actually a sentimonster and calls out Shadow Moth, “Nino” starts laughing as his eyes glow gold and his body starts to deform into a monstrous shape. Thero Dragon’s voice starts echoing out of it. “And to think you almost got revealed because of an ally’s actions, Ladybug,” he said. “First the Turtle brought out without your explicit orders, then what? Someone betrays you for the Miracle Box? The only way to protect what you hold dear is this: ally yourself with me, and I can grant you access to powers you could only dream of. Consider my offer, because if the trend continues, you might lose more than just your privacy because of a fake butterfly.” Ladybug runs off to get the Turtle Miraculous Cataclysmed. Sixth change: Marinette is a little shaken by the end of the episode and some of her words are a little more barbed than intended, to which she apologizes and offers a solution to the problem faced that day, giving Alya the Fox Miraculous full-time, but gives her a few rules to follow. “If I find out you broke one, I’m taking the Miraculous back. Understand?” The episode ends pretty much the same. Oh, and that phone in the Miracle Box container? It’s (a little clunkily) mentioned that Marinette created the one during a “random creation attempt” session with Alya.
    

So, yeah. Now that I've finished working on my main Dragonus storyline and summer's on the way, I might be able to get the second half (plus the halves of Season 5!) out relatively quickly. As I promised, here is the link to the main Dragonus storyline, I'm almost finished posting it all. It's a divergence from Season 3 with some concepts pulled from the NY special and Season 4/5, but all in all it's a pretty good read (I don't exactly redeem Chloe as much as punch her until she understands that she's been horrible but she definitely becomes better): https://archiveofourown.org/series/2798386
Give me feedback, please! Your feedback helps me make this better!

1. AJ Lee/A-C Lee
2. AJ Styles/A.J. Stoles
3. AR Fox/A.R. Fixx
4. Abyss/Crevasse
5. Adam Cole/Adam Cool
6. Adam Pearce/Alex Pierce
7. Adam Rose/Allyn Rolls
8. Adrian Neville/Neville Dunham
9. Alberto Del Rio/Alberto Del Sol
10. Alex Shelley/Alex Tenafly
11. Alicia Fox/Alicia Vixen
12. Angelina Love/Angelia Crush
13. Arrick Andrews/Aron Andrews
14. Austin Aries/Austin Marts
15. Bad News Barrett/Bad News Barrie
16. Barbi Hayden/Barni Bunting
17. Baron Corbin/Barry Corwin
18. Batista/Baptiste
19. Biff Busick/Biff Barona
20. Big E/Big T
21. Bo Dallas/Dallas Beauregard
22. Bobby Roode/Bobby Rule
23. Brandt/Bram
24. Bray Watts/Bray Wyatt
25. Brie Bella Bree Bonnie
26. Brittany Beritt/Ceritt
27. Brock LesnaBick Leshour
28. Brooke TessmacheBrooke Fessmeyer
29. Bull Dempsey/Bull Driscoll
30. Bully Ray/Beulah Roy
31. Byron Wilcott/Bryon Wescott
32. Cameron/Chelsea
33. Cesaro/Cabesse
34. Cheerleader Melissa/Cheerleader Marie
35. Christopher Daniels/Christopher Dennis
36. Chris Hero/Chris Icon
37. Chris Jericho/Chris Babylon
38. Chris Melendez/Chris Gutierrez
39. Chris Richards/Chris Robbins
40. Chris Sabin/Chris Lewellyn
41. Christian/Criswell
42. C.J. ParkeC. R. Maloney
43. Colt Cabana/Curt Corona
44. Corey Graves/Corey Gore
45. Crazzy Steve/Crazy Ray
46. Curtis Axel/Chris Exner
47. Damien Mizdow/Damien Topper
48. Daniel Bryan/Daniel Berent
49. Darren Young/Darren Yost
50. Davey Richards/Daly Richards
51. Dean Ambrose/Deke Ambra
52. Devon/Deron
53. DJ Z/DJ X
54. Dolph ZiggleDolf Signall
55. Drew Gulak/Dru Gulag
56. Eddie Edwards/Eddie Ellis
57. Emma/Emmelyn
58. Enzo Amore/Enzo Ferenzi
59. Eric Young/Eric Shelton
60. Erick Rowan/Ear Ache Ryan
61. Ethan Carter III/Enos Carver IV
62. Eva Marie/Eve Marella
63. Fandango/Fernando
64. Frankie Kazarian/Franky Fournier
65. Gail Kim/Girl Kym
66. Goldust/Gold Sprinkle
67. GunneGunn Grabner
68. Havok/Hella Goode
69. Heath SlateHeath Treater
70. Hideo Itami/Hanaki Otami
71. Homicide/Henson Murder
72. Jack SwaggeJack Bluster
73. James Storm/Jay Thunder
74. Jax Dane/Jack Dillon
75. Jay Briscoe/Jimmy J Pyle
76. Jay Lethal/Jon Deadly
77. Jeff Hardy/Jeff Pardee
78. Jeremiah Plenkett/Jeremiah Bodine
79. Jessie Godderz/Jimi Venturi
80. Jey Uso/Jet Usa
81. Jimmy Jacobs/Jerry Jacoby
82. Jimmy Uso/Jonny Usa
83. John Cena/John Kentt
84. Johnny Gargano/Joey cuozzo
85. Justin Gabriel/Jasen Gruver
86. Kalisto/Kuracho
87. Kane/Koyle
88. Kellie SkateKerrie Kkyler
89. Kenny King/Kevyn King
90. Kevin Steen/Kenny Guerre
91. King Mo/King Ned
92. Knux/Knox
93. Kofi Kingston/Keffi Montego
94. KonnoKenner
95. Kurt Angle/Kurt Engel
96. Kyle O'Reilly/Keogh Riley
97. Lashley/Lash Lockley
98. Layla/Lola
99. Lou Marconi/Lou Costello
100. Low Ki/Lemon Lee
101. Lufisto/Lucy Fisteaux
102. Luke HarpeLuke Harder
103. Madison Rayne/Madison Roone
104. Magnus/Magna Garth
105. Manik/Manis Humanis
106. Mark Briscoe/Mark Pyle
107. Mark Henry/Mark Hercules
108. Masato Tanaka/Mikodo Tanaki
109. Matt Cross/Matt Crux
110. Matt Hardy/Matt Pardee
111. Matt Jackson/Match Jetson
112. Matt Taven/Matt Tavish
113. Michael Bennett/Michael Burke
114. Michael Elgin/Michael Glennie
115. MVP/Me The VP
116. Mr. Anderson/Mr. Henderson
117. Naomi/Nanci
118. Natalya/Nestorenka
119. Nick Jackson/Nick Jetson
120. Nicole Matthews/Nikki Maynor
121. Nikki Bella/Nikki Nonnie
122. Paige/Peggy
123. Portia Perez/Precioso Perez
124. Finn BaloPerkus McFee
125. R-Truth/R Teller
126. Randy Orton/Randy Orwell
127. Rebel/Renegade
128. Rey Mysterio/Ramon Paso
129. Rhyno/Ryno Rossi
130. Rob Conway/Rod Connor
131. Rob Van Dam/Rob Van Zander
132. Robbie E/Robby G
133. Rockstar Spud/Rocko Mini
134. Rocky Romero/Ricky Romeo
135. Roderick Strong/Roger Boulware
136. Roman Reigns/Roland Rayne
137. Rosa Mendes/Rita Melendez
138. Rusev/Ruslan
139. Ryback/Rhodaback
140. Sami Zayn/Sean Zahn
141. Samoa Joe/Samoa Noah
142. Samuel Shaw/Shawn Samuels
143. Seth Rollins/Seth Rolendo
144. Shark Boy/Shark Lo Parca
145. Sheamus/Shanigan
146. Sin Cara/Sin Cara
147. Stardust/Silver Sprinkle
148. Summer Rae/Solstice Mae
149. Taryn Terrell/Trina Tyrrell
150. Big Show/The Big Time
151. The Freak/The Reject
152. The Great Khali/The Great Ganesh
153. The Great Sanada/The Great Yamada
154. The Miz/The Biz
155. The Rock/The Legend
156. The UndertakeThe Mortician
157. Titus O'Neil/Tiberius O’Neal
158. Tomoka Nakagawa/Maeko Matsumura
159. Triple H/Triple G
160. Tyler Breeze/Taylor Wynn
161. Tyson Kidd/Tyson Childs
162. Velvet Sky/Velvet Wind
163. ViktoVladimir
164. William Regal/William Royal
165. Xavier Woods/Xavier Ocean
166. Zack RydeZack Roper

Bold wrestlers are still active in the 2023 WAF roster. As soon as the 2015 roster was fictionalized to the WAF they took a life of their own. It is very interesting to see these artifacts in new sets.

Researchers from The University of Queensland are seeking parents who currently reside in Australia to participate in an online study that aims to better understand the experiences and perspectives of parents of autistic children. We are developing a new questionnaire to measure parents’ acceptance and understanding of their autistic child and we need your help to develop this measure!
Participants will complete an online survey (20-30 minutes) followed by a brief (approximately 10-minutes) follow-up online survey two weeks later. For more information, or to complete the survey, please visit: https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/autism
For further information, contact Sarah Lee on [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

Researchers from The University of Queensland are seeking parents who currently reside in Australia to participate in an online study that aims to better understand the experiences and perspectives of parents of autistic children. We are developing a new questionnaire to measure parents’ acceptance and understanding of their autistic child and we need your help to develop this measure!
Participants will complete an online survey (20-30 minutes) followed by a brief (approximately 10-minutes) follow-up online survey two weeks later. For more information, or to complete the survey, please visit: https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/autism
For further information, contact Sarah Lee on [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

Researchers from The University of Queensland are seeking parents who currently reside in Australia to participate in an online study that aims to better understand the experiences and perspectives of parents of autistic children. We are developing a new questionnaire to measure parents’ acceptance and understanding of their autistic child and we need your help to develop this measure!
Participants will complete an online survey (20-30 minutes) followed by a brief (approximately 10-minutes) follow-up online survey two weeks later. For more information, or to complete the survey, please visit: https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/autism
For further information, contact Sarah Lee on [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Inspiration can be a fickle thing. The muses may guide our hearts towards a particular passion, but they don’t always stick around to see us through it. As a child, Kousei Arima felt a natural attraction to the piano. He could play music by ear, was a gifted mimic, and had boat loads of potential to one day dominate the instrument. With the help and encouragement of a family friend, Kousei’s mom set him on his desired path, but life as a pianist was harder than he thought. Rather than playing for fun and expressing himself through music, she wanted him to be able to make a living through his music, so she went as hard on her little pianist as possible, going as far as to beat and abuse him if he underperformed or tried to play a piece in his own way. By the time the terminal illness she’d hid from him took it’s toll on her, his passion was gone, replaced with the cold, robotic delivery of one who could deliver a piece perfectly, but found no more joy in doing so. He lost his mother, along with his ability to hear the notes he was playing.
Two years later and about three feet taller(I’ll GET to that), Kousei still tinkers around with the piano, but hasn’t played it seriously, to the chagrin of all who enjoyed his work, or just hate to see him so incomplete. It’s at this point, like all down-trodden men who’ve lost their luster for life, that along comes that one girl to bring color back into his world. Her name is Kaori Miyazono, and she’s a violinist who cares nothing for rules or convention, finding childish but somehow wise joy in every aspect of life, and with this one chance meeting, Kousei finds a new muse… A capricious, cheerful beauty whose revisionist musical performances instantly connect with the crowds she plays for, and whom seems singularly obsessed with performing alongside Kousei, and helping him to relaunch the career that he’d so recently abandoned. But her dedication to helping him to overcome his tragedy hides a secret tragedy of her own, and one simple lie she told back in April will live on to define their relationship as they change each others lives through mutual inspiration.
I haven’t seen everything that’s been produced by A-1 pictures, but I honestly can’t remember seeing anything they’ve done that looked outright bad. Sure, Sword Art Online and From the New world looked a little sloppy at times, resorting to broken character models to show fluid motion at reduced costs, but if that’s the worst they can do, then they could do a lot worse. They seem to take a lot of care with their work, putting an admirable amount of effort into quality control, like letting a low budget get the better of them would be an insult to their pride or something, and if that observation is correct, then I like the way they think. I’ve noticed that they generally have a penchant for putting a lot of energy into special effects, and then using just enough budget saving tricks to compensate without going overboard or letting it become noticeable. Key frames are well drawn and pleasing to the eye, and they feature a little more than just flapping mouths, with occasional shifts in posture to keep the characters expressive.
Of course, there don’t need to be special effects in a show about musicians, right? Wrong. Not only are special textures like water given special treatment, but we often get visual representations of the emotions brought out by a piece of music, which use environmental and 3D effects to keep our attention during the sequence, especially towards the end when Kousei and Kaori are playing together in a fantasy sequence, and the camera liberally revolves around a beautifully 3D animated piano. The characters also have a lot of inner monologuing that’s shown to us in artistic fashion, reminiscent of His and Hers Circumstances, but what I found the most impressive was the actual animation of the characters playing their instruments on stage. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard from a few people that A-1 pictures used a technique similar to rotoscoping, and I feel no justification for doubting this rumor, as every movement of the performing musicians, from fingers on the keys to the way the bow’s movements perfectly matches the music of the violin.
It would be so easy to get away with having a still image on screen while only the performers arms moved, and more intense note being played offscreen while only the audience’s frozen faces of adoration are showcased, but as I said, that would be an insult to A-1. Kousei, Kaori and several others put their entire bodies into their performances, losing themselves in it, and you feel every drop of their adrenaline. Character designs are beautifully polished and easy on the eyes, with it’s only major departure from reality being that the musician characters look a little more distinctive and exuberant than non-musicians, like Kousei’s friends. Well, okay, there is one other unrealistic detail that bothered me a bit… The difference in height between 14 year old characters and themselves at 12 is fucking insane. My jaw dropped when they said that Kousei quit the piano at 12, because he was so short that when he sat on the bench his feet didn’t even touch the ground. I could have sworn he was, like, 6 or something. It’s my only real issue with the visuals, but it’s still a pretty jarring one.
The music of the series… Do I even have to say it? It’s a series about musicians, and you can’t do something like that if you don’t have the knowledge or resources to pull it off, and they seriously pulled it off. Not only is it full of classical music, you can tell the difference in the way these pieces are being played, and the music that is meant to inspire and astound people does exactly that to the audience as well as the characters. From what I gather, Yuna Shinohara, a decorated Japanese violinist who was only 21 at the time, played the music for Kaori, and her wealth of training and experience did not go to waste. I can’t find as much information on Eriko Kawachi, who played all of the piano pieces, which is unfortunate. The show’s actual soundtrack was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and while it isn’t as memorable or powerful as the character-based performances, it’s still solid and well-orchestrated, so it’s a shame it gets overlooked in favor of the insert tunes.
The English dub was produced by Aniplex, and features a lot of newer actors from this decade, alongside a few industry veterans. I’d like to say these newcomers step up and use this show as a platform to make a name for themselves, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit, mostly on account of the many loops that Your Lie’s text throws them for. Their performances were not consistent, which is a direct result of their material not being consistent, and I don’t really think it was fair for them to be thrown into something this eclectic. For the most part, they do a fine job voicing the characters while nothing’s really happening. It’s just characters talking to each other, sounding like natural teenagers going about their lives. Where they really shine is during dramatic scenes, and ho boy are there a lot of dramatic scenes in this anime. There’s a lot of pain, insecurities, confusion, all of that fun adolescent stuff, but with a much harsher but still believable edge to it once you realize the kind of real life circumstances that they’re dealing with.
While some of these issues may be worthy of an eyeroll from the viewer… Most of the characters who are in love with Kousei fall into this category… They’re going through issues that you probably had to deal with as well, and you can scoff at it from your seat as a grown up, or laugh at how silly it is for this obvious harem to try and be something more, they’re feeling something you’ve felt at some point, whether you remember it or not, and they damn well make you feel it. The exception, where several otherwise amazing actors begin to falter… Is with the gag humor, when the characters go SD Chibi for exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they were ready to transition the specific roles they were playing into it. Max Mittelman, for example, is one of the best voice actors to come out of the 2010’s, and even though he hasn’t been acting long, his voice control and dramatic chops have landed him plenty of leading roles. He can do comedy under the right circumstances… You’d know what these circumstances are if you’ve seen One Punch Man… But he sounds horrible during the gag jokes.
It’s even worse for Erica Lindbeck, who had a tough job playing such a nuanced character as Kaori, whose happy-go-lucky persona hides a darker interior, and she does a great job of it, but the gag scenes just make her sound like a despicable asshole. Smaller characters face the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale, but the few veterans are able to navigate the minefield a lot more skillfully, like Wendee Lee(Who, in all fairness, never has to do a gag scene), Stephanie Sheh and Carrie Keranen. They have the experience to stretch their roles beyond the appropriate tones, which comes in handy here. The adaptive script is loose, but still accurate enough, and changes the vernacular so everyone sounds more like contemporary English, without ever sacrificing the intent of the text. They make a handful of charming and character-appropriate references, like occasional nods to Charlie Brown and The Phantom of the Opera, although they also use the phrase ‘as you know’ a few too many times. They probably should have changes some of the text, as a lot of it, when translated, sounds weird coming from 14 year olds.
Okay, so, here we are again. It wasn’t too long ago that I was calling out modern anime fans for letting their emotions cloud their judgement, saying that they often give perfect scores to any anime that makes them cry. Seriously, you could give a critic a massage, a home cooked meal and the best sex of their life and you’d still be working harder for a 10/10 than most anime do. Back in 2016, I’d just uploaded my reviews of Clannad and Clannad Afterstory, and I asked social media to recommend an anime that had genuine feels… nothing manipulative, nothing manufactured, nothing too formulaic, just an anime that would touch me emotionally and make me cry with sincerity. The overwhelming answer was Your Lie in April, a show I’d been avoiding due to all of the hype. I finally gave it a watch, and did it stand up as a heartfelt masterpiece, or did it offer the same old same old? Well, to be honest,it’s a little of both. My feelings on this show were mixed the first time around, and the second viewing hasn’t changed that.
Unfortunately, Your Lie doesn’t get off to a great start. The first thing we see is a foul ball hitting our man character in the head, lying on the floor and bleeding with what has to be a serious concussion, but not only does he heal immediately, but he shares the blame for the broken window the ball flew through. That’s not just bad, that’s disturbingly bad. It sets an early precedent for him being a sad sack with no will of his own, which I guess is kind of accurate, but it also makes his closest friend look like a monster for taking advantage of it(Trust me, this feeling is only gonna get worse.) I try to move past this, but almost immediately, it becomes apparent that all three of Kousei’s friends are some of my least favorite cliches in anime history. His two primary friends are Tsubaki and Watari, and they are… Respectively… A childhood friend who’s hopelessly in love with the main character, and a girl crazy guy who exists to make the main character feel desirable in comparison. I am so sick and tired of these two archetypes being stuck in orbit around at least half of the main characters in the medium.
And Kaori’s worse, because she’s a trope that I usually don’t see in anime, and I’m not complaining about that. She’s happy-go-lucky, she’s childish, she’s an enlightened soul who’s able to see all of the simple joy in life, and she comes out of nowhere to dedicate her life to dragging the main male character out of the slumps. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is to sexism what the Magical Negro trope is to racism. Granted, she deconstructs the trope a little bit, as she actually has a backstory and a reason to help Kousei, but she makes up for that small silver lining by taking the “Life begins at man” trope to a new extreme, as “Life begins AND ENDS at man.” I’ll give her this, she IS the reason I kept watching the series, as I was entranced by her violin performance in episode 2, and she made me want to keep watching so I could hear more of her work, which sounded even better when she played with Kousei. On top of that, she plays an important… Dare I say instrumental… Role in Your Lie’s deeper themes.
Your Lie in April is a story about inspiration, and it attacks this concept from every possible angle. As annoying and cliched as his friends may be, Kousei is a good character who has a great arc that deals with this theme. He begins as a child, having fun doing something that he’s gifted at, until he stops doing it for fun and starts doing it as a future career, being forced to perfect it and take it seriously by his mother, who pushes him to the point of abuse. She controls his life, making everything he does revolve around the piano, even taking away his cat and abandoning it somewhere so it can’t scratch his hands. He loses the ability to hear the notes he’s playing, and quits altogether to avoid his mother’s tyranny along with the intense pressure she put on him for not being good enough. On the surface, this is a very mature look at child abuse and the way it can have long term psychological effects on the developing mind, such as Kousei’s performance anxiety, and especially the fact that cats pose a trigger for him(And I mean the actual definition of trigger, not the bullshit internet definition), and the abuse in question is realistic, rather than cartoony or melodramatic.
Below the surface, this is a story for anyone who’s ever lost their passion for something they once loved. The idea that expressive and interpretive music is frowned upon, and only literal performances are acceptable in competition, which is enforced by both the competition committee and Kousei’s mother, gives an understandable reason for his loss of inspiration. His music was becoming routine, and pointless. I don’t think his inability to hear the notes he’s playing is realistic at all, but it’s symbolic for that loss of passion. When your work becomes routine, it becomes repetitive, and it finally becomes robotic. When your hobby becomes work, you fall out of love with it, which is why Kaori coming into his life was such a major turning point for him. She showed him that there was another way to play. She inspires him, breathing new life into his abilities, and helps him to separate his passion from the pain and sadness that he’d come to associate it with, and it changes his life in so many ways… He starts playing again, he comes out of his shell, and he even begins teaching a younger pianist… That he winds up inspiring her in return.
They also make an argument that you play even better when you’re playing for other people, and while I’ve never personally agreed with that, they make a compelling case. Your own music, your own performances, are not your only legacy. The music you inspire others with is just as important, as your work also lives on through their work. They make a great point when they say that it’s hard to play the piano when you compare yourself to Beethoven, but it’s not nearly as hard when you remember that Beethoven was once just like you, a rookie trying his best to measure up to the greats who inspired HIM. It’s a shame they had to resort to a manic pixie dream girl in order to pull this off, but it’s largely forgivable, especially considering certain reveals that happen in the final episode. So yeah, this is not a shallow series. There is meat to the story, and something meaningful that you can get out of watching it. I’d be happy to say that the series was also executed well, but sadly, this is where things start to break down.
The text of the series, for example, is severely lacking. The idea of inspiration and Kousei’s character arc are well written and exactly as subtle as it needs to be, but the other subplots… The romantic ones in particular… Are annoyingly obvious, and frankly, kind of arbitrary. I mentioned Tsubaki as a ‘childhood friend’ earlier, and while this should instantly telegraph that she’ll never get her guy… They never fucking do… She does absolutely nothing else to justify her presence. Everything about her revolves around her love for Kousei and why he won’t respond to it. Every aspect of her life ties in somehow to her love for him, and since it amounts to nothing, she could have been written out in the first half of the series. I won’t go into too much detail about the other romantic subplot, or how it offers Watari his only relevance to the plot(although he does have a few moments relating to the theme), but they commit one other huge mistake… They use constant, and I mean constant, voice over narration from the characters as they explain their feelings to the audience. It’s lame, it’s tedious, and it seems to be trying it’s best to keep YOU from thinking too hard about what you’re watching, because it doesn’t want the pointless teenage melodrama to lose it’s effect.
Another huge problem is the gag humor, which feels viscerally inappropriate and out of place. It makes the heavier themes of the show harder to swallow, and not just on an aesthetic level. For example: We see Kousei sustain head injuries during two of these gags, that result in him lying on the floor and bleeding out. We also see Kaori hit him right in the crown of the head with an axe kick, driving her heel down into his skull. Now, if these instances didn’t cause any lasting damage, and the people doing it are supposed to be seen as likable, how am I supposed to feel when his mother beats him in the head with her cane? I’ve seen him shrug off shit like that before, so I don’t care. Am I supposed to feel different because of the tone of the scenes? This isn’t the fucking Looney Toons. Hell, even the Looney Toons had consistency. I can’t be expected to believe that a portion of the material shown to me doesn’t count just because the writer was making a joke. That’s disgusting. I’ve complained about Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood making this mistake, but Your Lie is just as bad.
And then you have the plot, which did not work for me at all. Like, I said the themes were strong in this series, but they suffered one major setback. Kousei’s mother physically abused him and forced him to play music the way she wanted him to, all because she thought it was in his best interest. His friends, however, do exactly the same thing. Sure, they might not take away his beloved pet, but they still harass him, assault him, chase him, break into his room and generally act like complete assholes in order to get their way. He warns that his performance might not be good, he falters due to a psychological breakdown, Kaori has Tsubaki and Watari start roundhouse kicking him, and HE apologizes. How are they any different than his mother? Because it’s supposed to be comedic? I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the interactions he has with his friends make me cringe, with their only justifications being ‘comedy,’ and the fact that they just happened to wind up being right. So the ends justify the means.
And then you have Kaori’s entire plot, which… Okay, I’m going to try not to go into spoilers, but if you’ve seen the show, you know damn well what I’m talking about. And this is the big one, the one that makes everybody praise the show out the wazoo, so I’ll try to be gentle. At the end of episode 4, Kaori faints on stage. At that moment, even though I was trying to enjoy the series despite it’s flaws, I couldn’t help it. I knew where this was going. I said, “Oh fuck, she’s gonna (censored), isn’t she?” I am dead serious about that. The beginning of the fifth episode featured her in the hospital, and folks, I predicted everything. I knew what was going to happen to her, i knew she was keeping it secret, I knew that it was going to be kept deliberately vague all the way to the end, I knew I’d never hear her play again(outside of maybe a dream or fantasy sequence), I knew what her backstory and connection to Kousei was going to be.
Knowing this stuff in advance took a huge damper off of the emotional impact of literally any point of the show. Granted, I did make one prediction that wasn’t true. I predicted we’d never meet her parents, which I wish had turned out true, because her parents are… Brace yourself for this… They’re Nagisa’s parents from Clannad. They are literally that. They own a pastry shop, they’re wacky and over-the-top, they live in said shop, and… Well, there’s one other spoiler connection, but that, along with a painful firefly sequence, made your Lie feel TERRIBLE at foreshadowing. I found myself, in both moments, shouting at my TV screen, “Okay, I get it, she’s gonna (censored), shut the fuck up about it!” So did the big bad tragedy work on me? No, of course it didn’t. The only part I got choked up at was a late scene when a cat died at a vet’s office, because it brought up painful memories for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something here, and it does make the experience a rewarding one, but it just couldn’t stick the landing.
Your Lie in April is available as a Rightstuf Exclusive, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price is offensively high. Even on sale as part of the site’s holiday deals, it’ll still costed 130 dollars for each HALF of the series, down from 160 dollars regular price. Used copies on ebay go for as low as 60 dollars for each HALF, and I can not recommend you pay that much for an overrated series. You can watch it for free on Netflix, but if you absolutely need a physical copy, I’d actually go against my better judgement and recommend the Malaysian bootlegs on Ebay, which do come with a dub for a fraction of the official price. The manga is available from Kodansha comics, and volume 1 even comes with a sweet exclusive cover if you get it from Loot Crate. The live action movie is probably available stateside, but from what I’ve heard about it, I don’t care enough to check.
Your Lie in April isn’t a great anime, but it’s also not a terrible one. So, overall, is it good or bad? Well, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy the vast majority of it. I found the gag humor annoying and in bad taste, I found the comedic violence way too similar to some of the tragic material, there are too many cliches, and I caught on to some of the more important plot points way too early to fall for them. Having said that, I can’t say the experience was a bad one. The themes of Kousei’s character arc resonated very strongly with me, as someone who’s currently falling out of love with a long time hobby, and while I found his friends to be wholly unlikeable, his piano rivals were much more interesting, and I actually want to see more of him interacting with them. The final tragedy would have been a lot stronger if it hadn’t been so obvious, or if it at least had a proper explanation, and you can’t possibly deny that the audio and visual production went beyond top notch. It had a lot of problems, but honestly, it’s an okay show. It doesn’t live up to the hype, but it’s worth checking out. I’m being generous here, but I’ll give Your Lie in April a 6/10.

I (35f) live with my parents(80) and my son Lee in their house. I have been having problems with my nephew Sam (10m) when he comes over and spends the night. He is very rude and disrespectful, one night I was telling Lee no electronics during dinner my basic rule. Sam told me it was a dumb rule and I’m stupid for having it. I told him he is a child and I’m an adult and Lee’s parent while I was saying this Sam was laughing and smiling at me. I continued to explain why this was a rule and he still called it dumb and I’m stupid. I have had many situations like this including when he was told no food or drinks in Lee’s room because he leaves half empty soda cans and food and won't clean up.
He also walks into my room or Lee’s room multiple times in the middle of the night without knocking. I have woken up to him digging through my room looking for a cord. I started locking the door to the stairs but wake up to him trying to openit with a butter knife and either getting in or giving up. I tried to talk to Sam’s mom but she told me she was ignoring me and didn’t want to deal with it. I talked to my mom and dad and they seemed receptive but brushed it under the rug.
I have even planning my sons birthday party and my bf and his family are nice enough to host it at their house. (my parents won’t allow me to have it at the house.)They run a church and are very strict, I worry about how Sam would respond and then it could possibly ruin the party for everyone else. They are big on respecting adults and your parents. So Lee mentioned to Sam while playing that he was having a party, Sam asked if he was invited and Lee said no because of your behavior and disrespect. Sam went running to my mom and my mom told me I’m being cruel, he is 10 and his dad died. I reminded her that no one has been addressing his behavior and that his dad died a year ago and that actions have consequences. My mom told me I have 30 days to move out and if I don’t she will get a restraining order against me. Then she went and told Lee that this is the consequences of being cruel. Am I wrong, should his dads death be an excuse to treat people badly?

I asked this question on another subreddit but no one said anything so I’ll ask here: (all of them are Jack reacher books(by Lee Child))PICK ONE FROM THIS LIST: Tripwire, bad luck and trouble, the midnight line or past tense. Pick one because I’m already bringing a couple of books as I’m going to wales tomorrow. Oh yeah top comment is the one I read:)

Shipping is included for orders over $75, all prices are OBO. All books listed come double-boarded in a Mylite or Mylar. Bundle deals are encouraged!
The following are some books on my want list that I'd be willing to trade for, and some I'm willing to buy outright.
***Red Hood Lost Days 1:25 Mattina Variant (Raw or Slabbed) - High Priority
** High-Grade Batman Beyond Return of the Joker Newsstand
*High-Grade Batman Beyond & Batman Adventures Newsstands
**Batman 131-134 1:50 Artgerm Foil Variants (2023)
Batman 125 1:500 (2022)
Batman 50 Louw Variant Set (2018)
Batgirl 12 Artgerm (2010)
Amazing Spider-Man 1 Artgerm Limited Variant Set
​
HAVE
$800 OBO - Johnny The Homicidal Maniac #1 1st Print, VHTF (NM/NM+, unpressed)
$275 - Battle Chasers #1 Another Universe Variant (NSFW) (NM++, unpressed) (9.8 candidate) Series Returning June
$225 - TMNT Adventures #1 Limited Series (NM+, unpressed) (9.8 candidate w/ a press)
$145 - TMNT #1 4th Print Variant (NM-)
$90 - TMNT #1 5th Print Variant (VF+)
$90 - Raphael #1 2nd Print Variant, 1st Casey Jones (NM-)
$90 - TMNT Adventures #1 Ongoing Series (VF+/NM-)
https://imgur.com/a/q8a2041
​
$45 - Absolute Carnage #5 1:200 Virgin Variant (VF/NM) would greatly improve with a press
$15 - Absolute Carnage Separation Anxiety #1 1:25 Variant (NM/NM+)
$25 - Amazing Fantasy 15 Unknown Comics Edition (NM/NM+)
$90 - Amazing Spiderman #606 Long Beach Variant Signed by J. Scott Campbell and Mike McKone (No C.O.A) (VF/NM, would greatly improve with a press)
$90 - Amazing Spiderman #607 (NM-/NM)
$40 - ASM #801 Dress + ASM #801 Virgin Philip Tan Variant (NM+)
$15 - Amazing Spiderman #30 (#831) Maer Virgin Variant (NM-)
$20 - Amazing Spiderman #48 (#849) Dell'Otto Virgin Variant (NM/NM+)
$30 - Astonishing X-Men #3 1st Cameo Abigail Brand (NM+)
$20 - Astonishing X-Men #9 1st Full App. Abigail Brand (NM)
$80 - Batman The Killing Joke First Print (NM/NM+)
$20 - Black Panther #1 (2009) Variant Edition, 1st Shuri as Black Panther (NM-)
$50 - Captain America #354 First U.S. Agent (NM)
$60 - Captain America #6 1st App. Winter Soldier (NM-/NM)
$35 - Captain America #16 1st App. Sin (NM/NM+)
$15 -Captain America #25 1st Sam Wilson as Captain America (VF)
$20 - Champions #1 (NM/NM+)
$15 - Dark Nights Death Metal Last Stories 1:25 Variant
$20 each - Death The Time of Your Life #1 Signed Chris Bachalo (VF/NM) two ink colors w/COA
$15 - Hellions #4 1:25 B&W (NM)
$20 - Immortal Hulk Great Power #1 Kirkham Variant (NM+)
$15 - Iron Man #4 Peach Momoko Variant (NM-/NM)
$15 - Harley Quinn #11 1:25 Acky Bright Variant (NM+)
$15 - The Joker #2 1:25 Sketch Variant (NM+)
$15 each - Marvel 75th Anniversary Final Stan Lee Story (NM, 2 copies)
$20 - Sandman #4 1st App Lucius (VF/VF+)
$20 - Secret Wars #3 1:25 Coker Variant (NM+)
$30 - Spider-Man #1 Silver McFarlane Cover (NM/NM+)
$50 - Symbiote Spider-Man #1 1:100 McFarlane Variant (VF/NM)
$75 - Strange Academy #1 CVR B Adams (VF/NM)
$35 - Unbelievable Gwenpool #25 Bartel Variant, Final Issue (NM+)
$15 - Venom #5 Virgin Variant Signed by Cates w/ C.O.A. (NM+)
$25 - Venom #26 Kirkham Virgin Variant (NM+)
​
$15 - Amazing Spider-Man #1 Hip Hop Variant (FN-) minor tearing by top staple
$40 - Avengers Standoff #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM+)
$15 - Black Knight 1 Hip Hop (VF)
$40 - Daredevil #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM+)
$75 - Hulk #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM/NM+)
$50 - Power Man and Iron Fist #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM+)
$40 - Squadron Supreme #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM+)
$30 - The Ultimates #1 Hip Hop Variant (NM-/NM)
​
$25 - Star Wars Episode I Queen Amidala Foil Variant (NM/NM+)
$20 - Star Wars Episode I Qui-Gon Jinn Foil Variant (NM-/NM)
$65 - Star Wars Jedi Mace Windu #1 - 1st Asajj Ventress & Sian Jeisel (VF)
$60 - Star Wars Tales #7 (2001) 1st App Daughter of Boba Fett (NM-/NM)
​
$30 - Angel #3 Purple Foil Variant (VF) Connects w/ Buffy #17, w/ COA
$15 - Black White Ashcan Signed 373/5000 w/ COA
$15 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 Chromium (NM+) w/ COA
$15 - Cavewoman The Movie Renaud Variant 1/750 (VF/NM) w/ COA
$70 - Critters #1 (NM/NM+)
$65 - Macross #1 (VF-)
$15 each - Painkiller Jane vs Darkness Triple Signed (3 copies, all NM-) w/ COA
$25 - Spawn #1 1st App. Spawn (NM+)
$25 - Spawn #9 1st App. Angela (NM/NM+)
$15 - The Boys #1 ComicTom Virgin Variant (NM)
$95 - The Tenth #1 No Bikini Variant (NSFW, w/ C.O.A.) (NM+)
$15 - TMNT Urban Legends #1 (2018) Gomez Virgin Variant (NM-/NM)
$20 - Undertaker Preview Book Red Foil (VF-) w/ COA
$35 - Undertaker #1 Chromium (VF/VF+) w/ COA

I asked this question on another subreddit but no one said anything so I’ll ask here: (all of them are Jack reacher books(by Lee Child))PICK ONE FROM THIS LIST: Tripwire, bad luck and trouble, the midnight line or past tense. Pick one because I’m already bringing a couple of books as I’m going to wales tomorrow. Oh yeah top comment is the one I read:)

((Work was so slow today I wrote this all on my phone. Will be adding the chapter change buttons later as a result. Hope you all enjoy this! Also: credit, as always and as deserved, goes to u/SpacePaladin15 for the good universe of "Nature of Predators" and community! Also shoutout to "Nature of Giants" creator u/Acceptable_Egg5560 for giving me a good example to use as a cameo!))
FIRST//PREVIOUS//NEXT
Memory transcript subject: Krakotl exterminator team leader Taita
Date [standardized human time]: October 20, 2136
I am an exterminator.
I am told I am one of the best.
My office has plenty of awards that were given to me.
I have done jobs many thought impossible.
But above all I am professional.
I must look at every case with as little emotion as possible to ensure that I can protect the most people possible. Heat should come from my flamer, not my heart or head. I must not let mindless beliefs and superstition rule me unlike those brAHKING IDIOTS IN DAWN CREEK WHO JUMP AT ANYT-
Breathe in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
I am an exterminator.
I must be professional.
The attempted purge of the human world was, to me, all wrong. The humans have shown very few predatory behaviors and are far more advanced than the Yotul were. Some records indicate that a significant portion of their population was even becoming plant only by choice pre-contact. Not only that but the exterminator fleet carried out their duties with a zeal that was unfitting for exterminators. They abandoned those in need to pursue a kill. That is predatory and is against what we swore to purge.
I should be angry at the humans. They led the Arxur to attack us, but at the same time I must acknowledge if a parent leaves their child alone near predators then the parent would be detained for such a horrible act. How was the fleet's behavior any different?
I stared at the chat program in front of me.
Venlil male. Skip
Yotul female. Skip
Krakotl male. Skip
I needed to learn more about humans. I had to. I always tried my hardest to learn and study the predators I purged to make sure I could be as efficient as possible. It was my research that discovered the Bahrulet were just prey that had a spike in predator disease in males every cycle rather than them being predators. It was me that figured out it was a koloshian tsking apart yotul rather than a predator with a taste for the species.
And here it was. A chance i could find a predator I could talk to. A predator I could ask questions about. As an exterminator team lead I managed to pull some strings and get my copy of the chat program decensored a good bit so I could ask questions.
Professional ones.
No stupid ones like "Are you going to eat me?" Or anything of the sort. I didn't believe the theories that humans were mind controlling the Venlil or that they were faking. On such a scale it would be impossible! Besides, as skittish as the Venlil were I doubt one of their brains could stay conscious long enough to be brainwashed if a human tried it. Besides. I watched the videos from the cradle. I would trade all my feathers for just ONE exterminator as tough and devoted as those humans were. You can't fake that kind of passion when protecting something from a predator.
I wanted to know how their kind hunted in the past. Why? Why was I going to ask such a predatory question? If I knew then perhaps our purges could go smoother. Identify where a predator could strike, what they looked for, how to better kill to make sure none got away.
Professional. Questions.
But… I also just felt wrong about what happened on Earth. I wanted to find out for myself if such an extreme purge was really justified. I mean, I know it probably wasn't, but I needed to learn more before I made up my mind.
Venlil female. Skip
Krokotl male. Looking for female. Skip and block
Koloshian. Skip
Venlil male. Skip
Dossur female. Skip
I breathed out. I was told there would be humans on this app now! Sure, most humans would probably not be too interested after… that. And most were probably skipping me because I was a krakotl female. My kind did just purge a large number of theirs. B-
Human male.
Oh. He didn't skip me? "54rhuman?" Rather basic username, but their names are probably highly restricted. My talon hovered over "accept." Did I really want to do this? Yes. I had to.
Click.
Firebird: Are you really a human?
54rhuman: yup! Was rejected from the first batch of exchange due to my interests and diet. Picked up this app since I HAD to meet some aliens.
Firebird: What is your job?
54rhuman: I work IT. Can't say much beyond that. Fairly boring. U?
I froze. My username was a hint, but maybe the human just thought I was being "cool." Should I lie? No. Professionalism. If I wanted him to tell me the truth I had to tell the truth.
Firebird: dont leave please. Exterminator team lead.
There was a long pause, but he didn't leave.
Firebird: still there?
54rhuman: yup! Just has to sneak a few pictures of my guest. He is sleeping hard next to me. Cool! Always wanted to talk to an exterminator.
What?
Firebird:what? Even after what we did?
54rhuman: hey. It was one group of exterminators, and a krakotl, but fuck it. Not everyone in a group is the same. Besides! You are the feds version of the police! Cant all be bad.
I read the reply. Then again. Then again.
What we did was wrong.
54rhuman: besides. I feel horrible for your kind about the arxur. I know it saved us, but it still feels wrong.
There was the empathy that the reports I read outlined.
The fleet was wrong.
Firebird: I… ok. Do you mind if I ask questions? They might be a bit sensitive, but I always wanted to ask a predator questions.
54rhuman: not all humans are really predators, so be careful with that name, but gotta admit it fits me some. Ask away!
What to ask first? Speh. Lets just go for the simple one.
Firebird: do humans have something like exterminators?
54r human: yup! Multiple different groups actually with one actually called the same thing. We have a bunch of animals on earth. Some just cause lots of problems like eating our food or spreading disease while some kill us.
Oh what the BRAHKT would hunt a human!? A predator predator was a thought I did not want to think about. Professionalism be damned!
54rhuman: I am actually in one of the groups as a side job and hobby. It is what got me rejected from the first exchange batch. We don't use fire though. We find that cruel.
Cruel? I tilted my head as my feathers ruffled out. I had to know why this human thought our methods were cruel!
Firebird: How is it cruel? It kills the predator and ensures there is nothing left to cause issues. No decaying body, no spread of predator, no drawing in other predators, and more.
54rhuman: Humans find it to be far too long and painful of a death. While some humans do believe in destroying truly horrific things with fire, its often seen as the most extreme method. Huh. Thought this would get censored.
Firebird: I am an exterminator team leader. Chatting with me has reduced censorship due to what I know.
54rhuman: Fair. We just try to use things like guns and other devices to make sure the death is quick and painless and as clean as possible. We dont like being cruel by causing lots of pain.
If that was true some exterminators had more predator disease than this human!
54rhuman: ah shit my guest is waking up! Bet they are hungry so need to get them something to eat. They look so cute asleep as well, wanna hug em'! Friending so we can talk later! Bye!
Chat partner disconnected.
54rhuman wants to be friends! Accept? Yes! Ignore.
I just… sat there staring at the screen. The human was nice and every bit lined up with what I heard. He replied quicker than I did so it wasn't like he had time to come up with a lie either. My claw tapped "accept." My eyes looked up to the poster of "The Exterminators" hanging on my wall. It was signed by the whole cast as a thank you for some of my cases inspiring a couple of their episodes.
The purge order was wrong. It had to be! Fully based on nothing but fear, superstition, and probably even predator disease!
Unprofessional.
​
FIRST//PREVIOUS//NEXT

Bio from The Festival Voice

Artist Biography by Daniel Karasek
KoRn is a nu-metal band from the 1990s that has become one of the most popular and provocative of the genre. The band started in Bakersfield, California with the name LAPD and released their debut LP in 1993. Then they crossed paths with Jonathan Davis, a mortuary science student who also was the vocalist for Sexart. LAPD asked Jonathan to join the band, and the band rebranded as KoRn. They recorded their demo Neidermayer’s Mind in 1993 with producer Ross Robinson, who would become one of the most sought-after producers of the late 90s and early 2000s. In 1994, KoRn released their self-titled debut and toured on the album with stints opening for Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, Marilyn Manson, and 311. The dark lyrics discussing child abuse, discrimination, and drug addiction mixed with hip-hop and downturned guitar sludge put KoRn at the forefront of the nu-metal movement. The band’s 1996 album Life Is Peachy earned a Grammy nomination and made it to number three on the pop album charts. Their next album came in 1998 titled Follow the Leader which debuted on the Billboard 200 and won a Grammy for the “Freak on a Leash” video. Following this release was the band’s Family Values Tour and the infamous Woodstock ’99, the same one you saw a documentary about. KoRn’s next album Issues dominated MTV and debuted at number one on Billboard charts. This was all before 2001. Since these early days of success, KoRn has stayed at the top of nu-metal, keeping a loyal fanbase over the decades. More recently they have shifted their sound with various experimentation, including work with Skrillex and Amy Lee of Evanescence. They fell out of mainstream popularity when nu-metal moved from the spotlight, but KoRn has still been a staple in the metal world.

 
Genre: Hard Rock, Nu-Metal
Scheduled: Saturday
Songs & Sets:
Korn Live Woodstock 99 Remaster Quality 2021
Korn - Full Concert - 10/18/98 - UNO Lakefront Arena (OFFICIAL)
Korn - Freak On a Leash (Official HD Video)
Korn - Falling Away from Me (Official HD Video)
Korn - Coming Undone
Korn - Did My Time (Official Video)
Have you seen KoRn before? Please share your experience and favorite songs.
 

Days Until Bonnaroo: 17

Remember to drink water and warm up those high fives!
 
Link to previous AotD post

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ALPHA21 - Pasikudah (Ramin Helvet Remix) / Key Dbm, BPM 118, 9:05, MP3 21.84 Mb, AIFF 96.18 Mb
Agustin Basulto & Eli Luv - Lapiz / Key Ebm, BPM 122, 6:37, MP3 15.93 Mb, AIFF 70.13 Mb
Alberto Sainz & Idan Gerber - Yalla Balagan (Stan Seba Remix) / Key Dm, BPM 121, 8:32, MP3 20.50 Mb, AIFF 90.30 Mb
Andrés Moris - Inner Strength / Key Gm, BPM 118, 7:11, MP3 17.26 Mb, AIFF 76.02 Mb
Audioglider - Even a Stopped Clock (Ge Bruny Remix) / Key Am, BPM 122, 7:46, MP3 18.68 Mb, AIFF 82.28 Mb
Belms - Stay (Echo Babylon Remix) / Key Am, BPM 121, 8:12, MP3 19.72 Mb, AIFF 86.82 Mb
Bynomic - Forbidden Fruits (Owersound Remix) / Key Gm, BPM 122, 8:32, MP3 20.49 Mb, AIFF 90.26 Mb
Bynomic - Frozen Dreams (Hacobb Remix) / Key Em, BPM 122, 7:11, MP3 17.27 Mb, AIFF 76.03 Mb
Christopher FaFa - 05.20 Am (Robert R. Hardy Remix) / Key Cm, BPM 120, 7:36, MP3 18.27 Mb, AIFF 80.47 Mb
Clark Wohlert - Mondfeuchte / Key Bm, BPM 122, 7:32, MP3 18.12 Mb, AIFF 79.77 Mb
Cristian R & Kasall - Solar Eclipse / Key Cm, BPM 124, 8:00, MP3 19.23 Mb, AIFF 84.70 Mb
Daraspa - Patterns / Key Em, BPM 123, 7:25, MP3 17.83 Mb, AIFF 78.51 Mb
Daraspa - Rendro / Key Gm, BPM 120, 7:28, MP3 17.95 Mb, AIFF 79.06 Mb
Denny Loco & Tues - Ibla / Key Dm, BPM 126, 6:25, MP3 15.43 Mb, AIFF 67.93 Mb
Gavin Rochford - Zinc (Dabeat Remix) / Key Em, BPM 122, 7:25, MP3 17.82 Mb, AIFF 78.46 Mb
Han Haak - Slaves in Transit (Matt Cahil Remix) / Key Fm, BPM 123, 11:09, MP3 26.81 Mb, AIFF 118.10 Mb
Janik Kamerling - Lost / Key Dbm, BPM 126, 8:02, MP3 19.31 Mb, AIFF 85.04 Mb
Juan Sapia - Stolen Innocence / Key Am, BPM 121, 8:36, MP3 20.66 Mb, AIFF 91.00 Mb
K Nass - Paradigm / Key Gm, BPM 124, 8:19, MP3 20.01 Mb, AIFF 88.11 Mb
Kenshi Kamaro - Gjallarhorn / Key Ebm, BPM 120, 8:52, MP3 21.32 Mb, AIFF 93.88 Mb
Kenshi Kamaro - Nebula (Christian Monique Remix) / Key Em, BPM 120, 7:22, MP3 17.72 Mb, AIFF 78.00 Mb
La Vue - Hampi (Nishan Lee Remix) / Key Am, BPM 122, 6:54, MP3 16.58 Mb, AIFF 72.99 Mb
Leandro Murua - Endless / Key Am, BPM 123, 7:05, MP3 17.05 Mb, AIFF 75.07 Mb
Leo Delgado - Boreal Sunrise (Monojoke Remix) / Key Dm, BPM 122, 7:05, MP3 17.03 Mb, AIFF 74.99 Mb
Madloch & Antti Rasi - Salty Roads / Key Fm, BPM 122, 10:10, MP3 24.43 Mb, AIFF 107.61 Mb
Madloch - Fiction (Digital Mix) / Key Fm, BPM 120, 8:40, MP3 20.83 Mb, AIFF 91.76 Mb
Madloch - Walls / Key Cm, BPM 123, 8:04, MP3 19.39 Mb, AIFF 85.39 Mb
Matias Carafa - Malimba / Key Gm, BPM 120, 8:36, MP3 20.68 Mb, AIFF 91.09 Mb
Mister Howington - Nebula (Tristan Case Remix) / Key Am, BPM 119, 7:57, MP3 19.10 Mb, AIFF 84.13 Mb
Murat Üstün - Recall / Key Dm, BPM 123, 7:17, MP3 17.52 Mb, AIFF 77.13 Mb
Nico Beren - Sagarmatha (Jadeck Remix) / Key Dm, BPM 121, 7:28, MP3 17.96 Mb, AIFF 79.11 Mb
Nico Bruno - Prisma (Christian Monique Remix) / Key Gm, BPM 121, 7:52, MP3 18.92 Mb, AIFF 83.31 Mb
Paul (AR) - Sadly / Key C, BPM 120, 10:08, MP3 24.35 Mb, AIFF 107.28 Mb
Ricardo Piedra - Perdide (Christopher FaFa Remix) / Key Am, BPM 122, 8:31, MP3 20.46 Mb, AIFF 90.11 Mb
Ruh - From the Hills (Figueras Remix) / Key Bm, BPM 121, 6:37, MP3 15.90 Mb, AIFF 70.01 Mb
SALAZAR - Karma (Pad One Remix) / Key D, BPM 122, 8:32, MP3 20.49 Mb, AIFF 90.26 Mb
Sapienta - Unlock (Blue Cell Remix) / Key Abm, BPM 120, 8:48, MP3 21.16 Mb, AIFF 93.17 Mb
Seven Wells - Somewhere in the East (Luman Remix) / Key G, BPM 120, 9:00, MP3 21.64 Mb, AIFF 95.31 Mb
Sinan Arsan - Circle (Cedren & Manu-L Remix) / Key Em, BPM 123, 7:33, MP3 18.14 Mb, AIFF 79.89 Mb
Some Little Things - Vlad Draculea (Matias Chilano Remix) / Key Abm, BPM 120, 8:48, MP3 21.16 Mb, AIFF 93.17 Mb
Stan Seba - Incredible Times / Key Dm, BPM 120, 8:50, MP3 21.24 Mb, AIFF 93.53 Mb
Stan Seba - They Are Coming Tonight (Jayden Klight Remix) / Key F#m, BPM 118, 4:26, MP3 10.69 Mb, AIFF 47.03 Mb
Subnode - Lost Connection / Key Fm, BPM 118, 7:50, MP3 18.83 Mb, AIFF 82.91 Mb
TD - Heart Disposal (Hot TuneiK Remix) / Key Dm, BPM 120, 9:24, MP3 22.60 Mb, AIFF 99.52 Mb
Tenerfuse & Frømme - Feel / Key Dm, BPM 120, 8:20, MP3 20.04 Mb, AIFF 88.23 Mb
Tenerfuse - Irradiance / Key Gm, BPM 124, 7:54, MP3 19.00 Mb, AIFF 83.68 Mb
Tommy Orellano - Blossom (Agustin Pietrocola Remix) / Key Fm, BPM 121, 8:36, MP3 20.66 Mb, AIFF 91.00 Mb
Uvo - Until the End (Navid Mehr Remix) / Key Am, BPM 121, 7:08, MP3 17.17 Mb, AIFF 75.61 Mb
VA O.N.E. - Fog (Montw Remix) / Key Gm, BPM 121, 9:02, MP3 21.69 Mb, AIFF 95.55 Mb
Weird Sounding Dude - Star Child (Nopi Remix) / Key E, BPM 120, 7:36, MP3 18.27 Mb, AIFF 80.47 Mb
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