The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I finally saw the Japanese version of what Lawton did to Radley.

MY HEART.

I definitely understand why the dub cut it; it was extremely painful to watch, especially when I'm so nuts about him. And it probably would have been upsetting to kids and got parents upset. First you really see Radley hit in the head with Lawton's gun, instead of it being implied in the dub with the impact not actually shown. And that's just for starters. It actually showed Lawton's Gatling Ogre blasting Radley over and over with 40 rounds of effect damage ammo, one for each 100 lifepoints. He was clearly in pain and screaming; there is something weird going on in that town! When it finished, he said, "That was dirty; how could I have stopped that?!" and collapsed unconscious. Not showing the physical assault in the dub made his collapse look cheesy. Also, I loved that Radley called Lawton out on the unfair one-turn kill in the original.

I promptly cuddled the plush, lol.

I know it's weird to be so disturbed by the scene considering all the hurt/comfort scenarios I put characters through, including Radley, but it's worse actually seeing it. Plus, some scenarios can definitely be more upsetting than others. I would definitely be hurting the same way to see my fic scenario of Radley shocked to death by Malcolm's shock collar brought to animated life, though. (Yes, he comes back from that.)

Since Radley is technically part of the problem in Crash Town, I do struggle a bit with liking him/feeling like he isn't as bad as Malcolm and Lawton/etc. But canon clearly presents compelling evidence in favor of him: he and his group are not actively terrorizing the town like Malcolm's Crew is, we never see their part of the mine, so it's possible they don't even abuse their labor, Radley seems friendly and even tried to reach out to Kalin but was brushed off, he treats his gang like equals and doesn't talk to them like their boss, his gang all seems very nice the few times they say anything, they hang out at a diner in the Japanese and I need to change references to a saloon in my fics.... They just seem like nice young kids caught up in a big mess.

I've been working on a lot of oneshots and a multichapter cross with YGO Classic. Things are mostly going well. The plunnie explosion has been an immense help over the past month; real-life has been dealing a series of blows that I long to escape. I've also drawn some stuff and requested more amazing pictures from ElfBean.

I did finally watch more of seasons 3 and 4 of 5Ds and found a lot I liked, especially Bruno/Antinomy. I've also watched some of 5. I don't like the Japanese ending for the series. Everyone going their separate ways and Yusei being left all alone ... that isn't satisfying at all. It felt contrived and unnecessary, just yet another addition to the current line-up of things that want to show people can still be close friends even when apart. It's a good lesson, but I'm sick of encountering it everywhere. Just let the friends stay together in fiction, for Pete's sake. Is that really going to hurt anything? I bring everyone back together in my fics. I think the dub ending is much more satisfying, even though it eliminates the Ark Cradle arc and tries to have the WRGP tournament as the finale. But I acknowledge season 5 in my fics because I wanted to revive Bruno. He's an adorably precious character and his bond with Yusei is probably my favorite Yusei friendship in the series.

I have the DVD set of the dub 3 and 4. Had to get that set first to have the Crash Town episodes, heee. And I often look up scenes on Crunchyroll to see how they went in the original. I'll be getting the other DVD set soon.

I also finally got the Over the Nexus game. I thought I wouldn't have trouble getting a spin-off game, but wow, was there trouble. It's apparently the most sought-after of the 5Ds games, I suppose because a lot of it takes place in Crash Town and that is a fan-favorite arc. I could have tried to find a ROM, but after the trouble I had with the Nightmare Troubadour ROM I really just wanted a physical copy of the game. I kept following auctions and losing out. The price would always go sky-high. I finally accepted that I wasn't going to be able to get it for less than probably $40 something, so after losing both an auction and a Buy It Now listing in the same day, I sought out someone who was selling a copy apparently more expensive than people wanted to buy and made my highest offer on it. I thought it would probably be too low to be accepted considering the Buy It Now price, but it was accepted, squeee. I was able to pay for some of it with eBay gift cards. It's shipped now and should be here this week. I charged my 2DS to be ready for it. If it's anything like Nightmare Troubadour, it will take a while for the plot to really get underway and I'll have to duel OCs and minor characters for a while. But I'll get to see a lot of Crash Town and Nico and West, so that will be fun. I don't think Radley shows up until around chapter 5. There are 7 chapters. After I beat the main game, I can challenge Radley any time I want, like with the Big Five in Nightmare Troubadour. I do wish the game wouldn't have screwed up his personality, but I'll try to ignore that. Nightmare Troubadour did very well with the Big Five; I'm still giggling over Nesbitt's insult of "You look about as threatening as a water pistol." **snerk.** I have got to use that in a fic. Also, Over the Nexus has a much-needed gender function when picking your OC! Nightmare Troubadour did not have that and my character kept getting called "he" in the script. I wonder which YGO game first acknowledged that girls like it too. Most of the YGO fans I've ever known are female, honestly. Although I have met some guy fans too.

Duel Links has been really fun this month, and the topper is that I think we're finally getting Duke! Ohmygoshsqueee! A new character is coming with the catchphrase "Go Dice Roll!" I'm unaware of any spin-off characters who like dice. If it's not Duke, it will be too cruel!

So thankfully, we didn't really need a new modem. Something was wrong outside. A technician came out and fixed it! Things have been fine since then.

I rented Frozen 2 on Amazon, as per Crystal's suggestion, and watched it three times during the rental period. My feelings are ... mixed. I still don't like the ending. I don't think it had to be that way. But ... aside from the ending, I found it a beautiful film and I loved the songs. It was a much higher quality film than the Wreck-It Ralph sequel, as I expected and hoped.

The reasons why I have problems with the ending are as follows.

1, Elsa's powers separated her and Anna for most of their lives. They had only had three years together finally bonding again before the Frozen 2 ending separated them again. At least they're going to visit, but it's not the same.

2, It's Anna's mother and culture too, and she should also get to explore and learn about the past. Of course, somebody has to watch Arendelle, but I think it would have been much more satisfying if Elsa and Anna stayed a bit to learn about their mother and mother's family and Elsa learned more about her powers and then they both went back to Arendelle. Maybe Anna could still be queen so Elsa could be "free," but Elsa would mostly live in Arendelle and travel to the forest when she felt like it or if there was trouble. The four spirits are the guardians of the forest, so it doesn't seem like Elsa has to be there. Elsa does seem to have an adventurous side, understandable when she was cooped up so long, afraid of her powers. But that shouldn't have to equate living apart from Anna.

3, One reviewer on YouTube commented that she thought Elsa had to live in the forest so she could unleash her full powers without hurting anyone. That would just be sad if that's the reason. And it goes back to what I said about her learning to control them even better while there, but not having to stay there. Elsa does love the forest and seems more at home there than in the city, but then that's because the writers wanted it that way. Maybe some of the fans would have different images of Elsa or feel like she would be happy in the city getting to be with Anna and not be afraid of harming her. Or maybe everyone decides to move Arendelle closer to the forest so everyone can be more connected to each other. That would have been satisfying too. But basically, Elsa learning the full scope of her powers should really make her feel free, and how would it make her feel free if she has to live apart from the city for fear of harming them with said powers? That is not a happy ending. Of course, it's just that reviewer's opinion that that's why Elsa decides to live in the forest. I don't think that was what Disney intended.

Really, though, the original Frozen had the perfect ending already: Elsa learning how to start controlling her powers and the kingdom realizing she isn't a monster and them all being accepting and happy together.

All that said, the Show Yourself sequence is just incredible and my favorite part of the sequel. And I thought Olaf's sequel song was better and funnier than In Summer. I liked that they toned down Olaf falling apart. Waaay too overdone in the first film. I think I loved all the songs in Frozen 2, whereas in the original I was enthusiastic about maybe three or four. Frozen 2 was also less crude. So ... a mixed bag. But definitely worth seeing. I'll probably want to own it someday. I definitely want the soundtrack.

I've thought a lot lately about how much I can relate to Elsa on some things. I love both girls, but I definitely find Elsa the most relatable, struggling with herself and what she is and worrying about concealing her true self. (And also relating to having a bit of an adventurous side, although at the same time I wouldn't be comfortable doing anything risky, heh.) I know a lot of lesbians gravitate to her and wish that Disney would make her a lesbian, but I wish Disney would make her asexual. :) Oh, one of my favorite lines in Frozen 2 is in the childhood flashback. Anna is obsessed with romance and Elsa's reaction is, "Anna, kissing won't save the forest!" ROTFLOL. I love it. I would love to have a Show Yourself moment and finally feel free to reveal my complete self to everyone.

Gansley did indeed come on the day I was thinking he would! It's pretty awesome to have all five members of the Big 5 in G. I. Joe form now. I wish I could think of stories to act out with them, heh. Mostly I play with them by picking them up and moving them around. There are lots of cute hugs with Lector and Nesbitt.

(Also on that day, which was Dad's birthday, my brother wanted to get him a birthday dinner. He ordered KFC. Yuuum! I'm having a lot of trouble with tomato intolerance, which is really frustrating me lately. Of course, the most upsetting thing is when it affects my pizza intake. I'm considering having fried chicken for my birthday this year.)

The price of the Wreck-It Ralph Elsa and Anna dolls finally came down on Amazon, so I bought them with a gift card. They came on Monday. They're slightly disproportionate, sadly, and hollow plastic instead of solid, but they're very cute and I'm happy to get them at last. It's fun seeing them in modern clothes. LOL, Anna's shirt has a sandwich.

And my three-foot Elsa arrived on Friday! It was an amazing day and really felt like Christmas, heee. I woke up just before the delivery and was able to immediately get her inside. I needed more sleep, so I got her out of the mailing box and brought her into my room. I thought I'd be too excited to sleep, but I finally dozed off, and I had an amazing dream, one of the haunted house dreams I have such fun with. And it plunnied me for a fic at last! I hope I'll be able to develop a whole plot from it. I'm thinking that Noa buys a house because he wants a big one for him and his mother to live in. But weird things start happening and they end up calling the Big Five and Yugi and company for help. Then they have to try to solve the mystery of what happened in the house and why the ghosts are angry. I suppose that unlike Evangeline's house, which will always have some mysteries, I'll need to try to solve this one. My house dreams never do solve the mysteries, though. Lol. There's lots of wandering through all the rooms, and there's bedrooms with all of the past tenants' stuff and the feeling of ghosts lingering and being angry. In the dreams I always want to take some of the neat stuff and use it myself, but I never feel free to because of the eerie feeling. This dream had a huge bathroom with spa and a room with a stage, and rooms filled with stored furniture that felt haunted. And all of this stuff was on the basement level. Usually it's higher levels.

I probably won't try buying much of anything for a while, except a picture here and there by ElfBean. I'm pretty happy right now and want to play with all the lovely things, hee. I feel like I've been having my birthday shopping spree since April.

I finally finished my interview fic and got it all posted. I hope it looks alright. Johnson's was the hardest for me. He's my least favorite member and it's the most difficult to get into his mind.

I also kept being pestered by my original Purple Avenger plunnie, where Lector becomes a vigilante because he feels betrayed and abandoned by his friends. I finally had to pen it, and I wrote it as taking place in another verse. But it's a misunderstanding created by Dartz, who was hoping someone would give into their inner darkness. Everything gets resolved and there is squee.

Frozen 2 also provided plunnies. I love the line in Kristoff's song "You're my True North, because without you I am lost in the woods." I had to adapt the line for a squee scene with Lector and Nesbitt. It may or may not be part of my next mystery fic. It looks fine as a stand-alone, but I know I get a bigger audience for the ensemble fics. I'm not sure it fits the tone of this upcoming house fic, though. So I'm still thinking about placement for that.

Then Anna's heartbreaking song The Next Right Thing, where she thinks Elsa is dead, provided inspiration and I had to draw a heartbreaking picture: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com I'm planning to color it, but haven't yet.

I also want to draw Lector swinging on his grappling hook as the Purple Avenger. I love that concept of Lector as a vigilante way too much.

You know, I think Monk is a very polarizing show. Episodes are either extremely good or extremely bad; there is no in-between.

I forgot I didn't like Mr. Monk Fights City Hall and we ended up watching it last night. The councilwoman's aide really was kind of a dolt, but Mr. Monk was a jerk to her during the reveal of the bad guy scene. What's sad, though, is that he just doesn't have good people skills and honestly didn't even stop to think about what he was saying until it was too late. And of course, she was indignant and decided to change her vote about helping him keep the parking lot where Trudy died instead of voting to tear it down. And all of that was played for laughs, like "Ha Ha, Mr. Monk is such a jerk, now he gets what he deserves," and yet then the epilogue immediately following is serious and sad as he looks at the spot where Trudy died and then leaves the parking lot with Natalie (and at least we see the new playground will be named for Trudy). But seriously, the tone shift doesn't work. First we're supposed to laugh at him and feel like he deserves what he's getting, then in the next instant we're supposed to feel sad for him that he's losing something so dear to him because of a split-second slip-up? Not to mention, first it's supposed to be funny that he loses the parking garage and then it isn't? Make up your minds, people! It doesn't work both ways.

It's amazing how well M*A*S*H and other old shows worked as comedy-dramas. Sometimes I really don't think Monk grasps how to do it properly. But then we see a great episode like Mr. Monk is Underwater and it becomes clear that the writers do know how to do it (although I do question them deciding to use Monk's coping mechanism of pretending Dr. Bell is there as something humorous, but at least there it was a more gentle humor and not played nasty). Perhaps some writers get it and some don't. Or sometimes a good writer has an off-day. In any case, ugh, I detest episodes like the city hall one.

Then I ponder on the psychiatrist question. I loved Dr. Bell from the moment I saw him years ago, but the more I re-watch his episodes, the more I wonder if I actually like him more than Dr. Kroger. It really seems like Dr. Bell is more personable and friendly and maybe actually likes Monk better than Dr. Kroger did. But I suppose it's just different personalities and different methods; Dr. Kroger had some really poignant scenes, like the one where he tells Monk that he would never write in a file that a patient is beyond hope; he always believes there's hope. I do really like that they write the characters differently so Dr. Bell isn't just a carbon copy of Dr. Kroger.

And I'd forgotten how nasty Natalie was in her very first episodes, especially that crack about Monk being the Prince of Darkness because murder always finds him. I don't even think Sharona would have said something like that in her worst moments. I'm really glad they decided not to make Natalie nastier than Sharona and instead decided to make her less abrasive.

On Thursday I finally got to go see about a gift certificate I had for Build a Bear. It expires next week, but I wanted to go this week because there was a sale I wanted to use with my certificate. I got this gorgeous blue bear for $10 on the sale, and that was the exact amount of my certificate, so I didn't have to pay anything. LOL. It's the bear they designed based on Thomas the Tank Engine; I've wanted it since I first got the announcement about its release. I just adore all shades of blue! Then I found that Target had finally got in the new wave of the retro My Little Pony re-releases and I brought home the pink Twilight (who was a partial inspiration for Twilight Sparkle, and as it is, Twilight Sparkle's mother is designed similar to Twilight). I have been so happy to have Twilight, more than I even thought I would be, and I think I figured out why. She looks very similar to a Pony called Milky Way, only in person Milky Way isn't the color she is in the pictures, and as a kid all I had were the pictures and I dreamed desperately of owning that Pony. I think she was my second biggest grail after Sugarberry. When I finally got Milky Way, I loved her dearly, but was a little sad she didn't look exactly like the pictures in shade of pink. Twilight does, and I think that woke up the little kid in me who wanted the Pony who looked like that. I am just squeeing all over to have her. I set her on the desktop monitor that's behind the laptop, so I can look at her constantly while at the computer. I'm so glad I didn't buy that original Twilight years ago with the loose washer rolling around inside her. I never wanted to buy a Pony in that condition, but I waffled on that because it was a good price and since I'd already expressed interest in her, but I was relieved to not have to go through with the sale when I learned about the loose washer. It is sooo much better to be able to buy the 1980s Ponies new! I hope the releases will keep coming.

(LOL, I still haven't switched back to the desktop once since getting my external DVD-ROM for the laptop. I've meant to, and I need to in order to watch movies since the laptop doesn't have enough power for the external to run on for anything that takes a lot of memory like a movie, but I just far prefer using the laptop and I haven't been able to make myself switch since the external runs good enough for TV show episodes, which is what I usually want to watch.)

So I found that season 4 of Monk is way better than season 6, although of course there were missteps there too. (Ugh, I'd totally forgotten how much I hate Mr. Monk Goes to the Office.) I think now that season 5 is probably where things really went wrong. Mr. Monk and the Actor was awful. I'd only remembered the hilarity of the movie casting a girl to play Randy, and how the real Randy and the Captain were just staring in slack-jawed disbelief over the movie Randi and Captain being romantically involved. ROTFLOL. And the nutty actor who got way too much into his parts. I'd forgotten that he went so completely nuts that he thought he was Monk and had to catch Trudy's killer, and stopping him caused Monk to have a horrible setback (which of course wasn't mentioned in any other episode). That wasn't funny in the least, but it felt like they were trying to play it as funny because he felt he had to see Dr. Kroger every day. That was heartbreaking, especially since at the beginning he actually felt ready to take a weekend vacation and by the end that was all shot! Ugh, that was just so cruel of the writers. I think it was also in season 5 where Harold and Monk had some dumb argument about who loved Dr. Kroger most, and then at the end Harold takes a bullet for Dr. Kroger and it's coming in at cheesy slow-motion and it was all so ridiculous. **rolls eyes.** Pretty much any time the show does slow-motion, I cringe.

We seem to have exhausted all Netflix discs that Dad and Mom would like to see, so since I don't like ordering discs if I'm the only one who wants to watch, we switched back to Streaming. Unfortunately, it's different than before; there's barely any classic TV anymore. We probably won't be keeping it for very long, so I'll have to soak up what I can of the wonderful kids' shows I want to see. With Streaming, I can definitely watch things that only I want to see.

First I watched a bunch of My Little Pony season 8, which I'd had trouble finding. I still have a little more of it to watch. Then I remembered they have The Real Ghostbusters, and I've been having a ball watching a lot of those. I've also watched some of the Miraculous Ladybug episodes I hadn't seen yet.

It didn't take long to remember about the Carmen Sandiego series, so I gave that a go. I was pretty lukewarm at the idea of reinventing her as a Saint-type character who only steals from the bad guys, but when I actually watched the show, I fell in love with said show. Now it's hard to think of going back to verses where Carmen is a cold-hearted criminal. (She is pretty one-dimensionally bad in World, honestly.) I still have three episodes to go on their very short season, but I love the show, the reinvention, and I want more. My only complaint is that the theme song is boring as heck.

Somehow I wandered into an anime Netflix dubbed called Glitter Force (or Smile PreCure in Japan) and decided to try it. I spotted so many things that were references to Sailor Moon (I assume in a love-letter way), but it was cute and sweet and fun and I've found myself watching quite a lot of it. I also might try to look up the eight episodes they cut for silly reasons (mostly that they couldn't figure out how to localize them, it seems). Honestly, I kind of love that it's localized, though, even with dumb episode removals. It makes me nostalgic, thinking of Saturday morning anime on broadcast channels. I miss those days so very much. Heh, even back then, I would far rather watch a cute magical girls show than something darker and depressing.

Of course, the irony is I am writing dark and depressing things sometimes. Did I mention the twisted abduction fic with Lector being taken by some nut who wants to get back at Gansley for firing him, and the nut then proceeds to send Gansley severed limbs claiming they're Lector's? Of course, they're not. Lector is physically alright, but he's being drugged and probably psychologically tormented. The Big Four, meanwhile, are going out of their minds. Eventually they find Lector safe, naturally. I wrote several scenes weeks ago when the bizarre urge first struck me, and in spite of worrying I'll traumatize whatever fanbase I have left, I have finally written a bare bones first draft of the whole story (minus epilogue stuff). I also want to insert scenes of the Big Four struggling to deal with this and maybe some flashbacks to when they each met Lector. If I really post this fic, I'm wondering if it should be rated M for thematic elements. I also wonder if I should have rated Taming the Darkness M.

Then there's me actually getting interested in an AU scenario that doesn't involve bringing back dead characters, which is a pretty rare thing, honestly. AU normally doesn't interest me in the least. But I started thinking of how Crump and Tea were both being frozen in their duel, and hence, it seemed like when Crump lost, he should have been frozen. Of course, that would have complicated things too much, and it might have seemed too dark for the good guys to leave him like that, but I started wondering what would happen if Noa insisted on enforcing it after Yugi and Tea left. He would probably make Crump freeze while in human form too, so he'd really suffer. Then the others would try to rescue him upon realizing he was missing, and Noa would tell them that if they won the Merger duel, he would free Crump and let them take the kids' bodies. But they lost, and Noa refused, and they tried to free Crump anyway, so he froze all of them as punishment. Then he went to duel Seto, and the duel with Yami Yugi happened too, and while Noa was trying to possess him, Yami Yugi saw the Big Fives' fates in Noa's mind, and why it had happened, and he wanted them free. Noa initially refuses, but when Gozaburo likes what Noa did and then promptly abandons Noa again to go blow up the world, Noa snaps and frees them to spite Gozaburo. And I'll be rewriting some of the last three Noa's Arc episodes. I want Lector to help Mokuba somehow, but I'm not sure how, because of course I still want Noa to possess Mokuba and Mokuba to resist and for that to be what gets Noa to try to save everyone instead of blowing them up. And I want someone to rewrite the program so Tristan will realize he still has his human form, instead of continuing to be tricked into thinking he's a robot monkey. I always hated that twist, and for some time I didn't want to re-watch the arc beyond Nesbitt's duel because of it. I've mellowed enough that I can tolerate it due to wanting to see other things that are going on, but I still don't like it. I had thought Noa or Nesbitt should give Tristan his body back, but maybe it should be Lector, or Lector and Nesbitt together, considering how Lector refused to give back the body after losing the Merger duel. That was probably his lowest moment.

I also got intrigued by the thought of What if Lector had found out that Gozaburo was abusing Seto, and Lector adopted both Seto and Mokuba to keep them safe? I probably wouldn't write that AU, as I kind of have my usual idea of "What's the point? Why should I work with AU when I could work with canon?" But on the other hand, it's so adorable to me that I might have to tinker with it a little bit. It makes me squee all over just thinking about it.

Back in my main timeline, I think I'm going ahead with my idea of Manga Yami Bakura falling into anime verse and putting some of the characters in a life-size Mario game. I'll probably do it as the next big fic after I finish posting the New Orleans one. Just one more full chapter and the epilogue left.

We have awesome movie gift cards given by my aunt and we decided to try seeing Mary Poppins Returns last month. There wasn't anything else in the theatres that sounded safe/like something we could all enjoy. I was lukewarm, since I rarely like musicals and wasn't particularly crazy about the first Mary Poppins film, but I ended up loving it. I keep playing the soundtrack over and over on my Amazon Music trial, and I'll want to buy it once the trial runs out.

I got two more plushies on that outing so I could make Crump and Johnson. I also got the Sabrina doll from Charlie's Angels and a Chachi doll from Happy Days. Squeee! I'm not big on Happy Days, but I love Scott Baio, so Scott Baio merchandise must be mine!

I have the Big Four plushies semi-made by now; I have everything done but their shirts (and suitcoats and ties, if I feel like going all the way making suits). I used the black velvety material I used for Duke's scalp on both Crump and Johnson, and a scrap of leftover black fake fur for Crump's mustache. I gave them clothing scrap ponchos so they can be around, especially since I'm really dragging my feet on the shirts. I really hate sewing anything with sleeves. I have Gansley's shirt largely done, though, so I need to finish it and move on to the next one.

I also finally found a giant ladybug plushie at Walmart again! They only come out for Valentine's, and I haven't seen them in years. We tried so hard to get one the last time they did it, but they sold out within days. This time around, there have always been some there since they first showed up. But I didn't think there'd be money for that, and I didn't have money to spare to buy it, only I woke up Tuesday morning thinking, "What am I thinking? I don't want to pass that up when they finally have them again!" So I went to Walmart to try to get one ... only the only two I could find left were both torn, WTH. I was about to give up when I remembered that I'd seen some getting randomly put where they didn't belong, in some big basket bins and boxes of animals. I started looking through those and finally saw a flash of red in one. To my delight, it was another ladybug, and one that wasn't torn anywhere! I bought it. Then to my further surprise, Dad noticed and suggested that he buy it from me and give it to me on Valentine's Day. LOL. That was great with me, since I really couldn't afford to spend the money.

Even though I've had the climax of my current fic ready for a while, it just hasn't felt right. Sunday morning I finally realized what was wrong and how to fix it. The climax went from being seriously ludicrous to seriously beautiful. I just adore it now! I did cringe a bit that I felt I couldn't split it up and had to post its 17-page self (eeek!) all in one gulp. Hopefully it will be so entertaining that people won't notice the length. I also decided that the next chapter, where they have to solve the other of the two mysteries, needed more stuff, which I'm putting into it now.

One thing I really want to do in the New Orleans fic is a scene based on this awesomely creepy scene in a Hardy Boys two-parter called Voodoo Doll. The boys end up at this voodoo ceremony and are tricked into believing that voodoo is killing them, gah. (They're really just being chloroformed.) They wake up laying in open coffins in a cemetery while a band plays When the Saints Go Marching In. The coffins even have their names on them! It's probably my favorite scene in the episode. I'm thinking something similar happens to some of the YGO characters, probably Joey, Tristan, and Bakura. And I must keep the creepy lady calling, "Where are the children?" at the ceremony. For the fic, I think I'll either leave it up in the air as to whether it's really voodoo or I'll say it is, rather than chloroform. But it's still just a knockout tactic meant to seriously scare them. Everyone else is panicking looking for them all night, including the Big Five. Events in the current fic seem to indicate that they will be considered part of the group by the end.

One thing I have to be sure of is to have good voodoo and bad voodoo people, and to emphasize that only corrupt people are going to use it for evil purposes. And I need to restudy the differences between vodun and hoodoo; I suppose most of what I want to do is more hoodoo. I haven't looked that up since I was writing for Mignon Germaine, so probably about seven years or so.

I've also been preparing with atmospheric media. I have a wonderful Nancy Drew game set in New Orleans that I've been enjoying. And I was given $5 in Kindle credit and got several books with it since I have the Kindle app on my Fire Tablet. One was a Nancy Drew parody set in New Orleans.

I am so frustrated with that book. It started out kind of adorable, with the characters really the Nancy Drew characters in everything but names, and even then, the main character is still Nancy (with a surname of Keane, ha ha). And Bess is still Elizabeth, but called Beth. George is called Hannah. I guess that was just a way to keep Hannah Gruen remembered, since she doesn't have a counterpart in the story. Otherwise, it would have made more sense to call George Georgia or something. So anyway, it starts out cute, and definitely is like a Nancy Drew book, just with Nancy's abilities being stretched more to slightly WTH levels. There was some nice New Orleans atmospheric goings-on. And I was slightly amused by turning some tropes on their heads, like instead of the girls meeting strange boys who are really nice, they meet some who aren't and have to flee.

But what I didn't like was that the more I got into the book, the more it seemed to emphasize the naughty side of the city and the characters and often seemed to have passages and adventures that were clearly there for no other reason than to be adult. What's more, even though the book is called The Ghost in the Plantation, they've barely visited the plantation or the ghost. A real Nancy Drew book totally would have that plantation as a main setting! There's really not much voodoo content even though it looked like there might be some, and I'm getting sick of Nancy and other characters taking the Lord's name in vain. Plus, it's mostly devolved into chasing down corporate creeps who are after oil and getting very technical and it feels like it could be set anywhere. It is so aggravating. I only got the thing for the New Orleans setting, and honestly, the only thing I can really take away from it to help my fic is for Lector to warn the kids not to go to Bourbon Street.

It says in the summary that it's written for Baby Boomers who fondly remember the Nancy Drew books. Honestly, if they love the Nancy Drew books so much, chances are that they would like to see a book that's like the Nancy Drew books instead of having all of this unnecessary adult junk thrown in. The great thing about Nancy Drew books is that they're clean!

By contrast, the real Nancy Drew in my game brings everything I wanted for the New Orleans atmosphere: a creepy house, a huge cemetery, a voodoo shop, weird stuff going on.... I am so in love with this game. And also stumped; I'll probably have to get out a walkthrough. I generally have to at some point with these games. I always go as far as I can on my own at first, which may or may not be far depending on the difficulty of the game. (And I'm playing at the easier level, oy.) I'm not very good at puzzle games, but I love them.

Then tonight I watched a really intense Mod Squad episode about a kidnapping and I decided I am still going to do that story about Gansley, but I will probably have it known as a kidnapping outright instead of Portman trying to make the others think Gansley is dead. They'll have to try to get the ransom together and be agonizing over whether the crooks will kill Gansley anyway. And I'll still keep Gansley giving his captors Hell, because of course you know he would. **snerk.** I love him. Although naturally I don't love him being so sadistic with Atem and Yugi in canon; that was disgusting. But it will help with characterization for this fic; he can put that sadistic streak to good use.

I started wondering what would happen if Gansley ever snapped. Considering he's the level-headed one and is almost always calm, it would probably be very bad. I wrote a blurb where he snaps and starts beating Yami Marik with his cane (and I swear it's darker than that description seems to make it sound, lol. I mean, a cane can be a dangerous weapon). Yami Marik is taunting him and brings up all the things the others have endured in these fics and says that maybe he'll hurt them some more. That's when Gansley snaps. Crump finally stops him, worried about him and not Yami Marik, and he and the others try to comfort him.

And I was also thinking, oddly enough, canon redeemed the Big Five years before I ever had the thought of trying. Okay, game canon, not anime canon, but still an official canon. Reshef of Destruction does feature them having apparently crawled back to Seto and he has them working as an acting troupe, putting on shows for kids as their Duel Monster Deckmaster characters. I had thought those people were just random actors, but considering that Crump is specifically identified in the script bothering Tea at one point, it's definitely them. (He's not named and he's still in costume, but from what he says, it's absolutely him. He wants to build Penguin Land and goes on about penguins and numbers.) Even though the animators were too lazy to give them proper human form sprites. It's kind of adorable at the end; Crystal showed me this scene where the kids are all scared about the worldwide danger and Roland is insisting that the Big Five help him calm them down and inspire them, and they get fired up and agree, lol. Aww. So apparently whoever made that game felt that they weren't beyond redemption. I had thought only Lector was really deserving of it, but I like the idea that they all are. One thing that is certainly true is that they haven't committed worse sins than some of the characters who did get redeemed, like Marik and Mai and the bikers and Dartz. I love how one of YGO's main themes is clearly redemption and another is forgiveness. It fits in perfectly with the kinds of stories I love to write.

Of course, one problem I ran into is that I made some of them do things arguably worse than in canon during Static Code Analysis, and had I known I was going to end up falling in love with them and wanting to redeem them, I might not have done some of those things, especially since they didn't go that far in canon. (One could technically argue that Gansley wasn't trying to kill Mokuba, since it was virtual reality and not real; he knew Mokuba would still exist. It was still horrible, though. And we don't know what Nesbitt was going to do with Mokuba in season 3. He definitely went after Seto with kendo, but what with virtual reality it's hard to say what he was going to do.) But Mokuba comments on Marik being able to find redemption even after the abominable things he was trying to do to innocent people, so I'm trying to work with that concept and figure that they, even Nesbitt, can still be redeemed in my verse.

Other interesting things of note: Pegasus came to the Big Five on his own in the original and made them feel like aligning with him was the only way to save KaibaCorp. They planned to dismiss Seto from his position, not to hurt or kill him. Of course, then we have the sticky problem of the game. In the original, they make it, and seemingly without anyone's knowledge, so they were planning it for some time and perhaps intended on trapping Seto in it before Duelist Kingdom happened. In the dub, Seto made it, and it is possible that they panicked and rewrote the ending only after Duelist Kingdom, once they knew Pegasus had lost to Yugi. Since I combine dub and sub and kind of like Seto making the game, I might go with the latter.

I was pondering the other day on who did what with the game in the original. Nesbitt animated it, no doubt. Maybe Crump did character designs. I wonder which one of them mocked Mokuba by making Adina look like him.

Can't recall if I mentioned it, but I think the plushie bases I have are going to be used for other purposes yet again, lol. Of course, I would end up feeling like I wanted Lector to have his friends. The smaller-framed plushie can be Nesbitt and the stockier one can be Gansley. I'll have to go back for more plushies to make Crump and Johnson. I'll need another material for Crump's hair too. Right now I have materials at home to make Gansley and Nesbitt, especially after picking up some fabric last week. Haven't had a chance to work on them yet. I'll probably make them concurrently, like I did with Ginger and Lou.

I did get a picture finished: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com

I watched the YGO movie over the weekend, hoping for enough inspiration to start the fic. It worked.

It was interesting contrasting the YGO movie with the second Pokemon movie, which I followed it up with. The YGO movie is dark and creepy, but with awesome friendship squee. The Pokemon movie, despite the dire situation of the whole world in jeopardy, managed to be lighter and cheerier in tone. And of course, it also has friendship squee. The different tones were kind of a shock; it's been years since I watched Pokemon and YGO practically back-to-back.

Now I'm listening to a lot of the unreleased YGO score music and thinking that the dub musicians were geniuses. Some of the music is so beautiful, like the friendship and duel triumph leitmotifs, and some of the themes, like the Orichalcos and God Card themes, I still like way better than their Japanese counterparts. I also love Duke's and Marik's themes. I wonder how the composers came up with such awesome music.

I think I'll watch a few favorite YGO episodes tonight. I only have a few on DVD. I haven't been very quick on getting the DVDs since I have VHS copies of all episodes. Those can only be watched in the living room, though, which is always awkward since I hate getting interrupted and that can often happen there. I'd kind of like to watch the Noa's Arc duel with Tristan, Duke, and Serenity, though. Maybe I'll have to try watching the original Japanese version on CrunchyRoll. I'll always prefer the dub names and voices, though, despite my dislike of the dub cutting things out. I doubt much, if anything, was cut from those episodes, however. And I always find it interesting to see Duke's and Tristan's different duel strategies and how they're each trying to save everyone, but it looks like Duke is only thinking of himself and Tristan just doesn't trust him, and since they can't discuss things, Duke can't make his motives clear. But I always think that if Tristan had just trusted him, he wouldn't have lost the duel and ended up kicked out of his body.

I never have understood the fans' tendency to pair them up, especially given that they're both obviously straight and nuts about Serenity. And also the fact that hey, Tristan really doesn't seem to like or trust Duke. It's true that he gets distraught if anything happens to Duke, but hey, of course he would, because he's a good guy. He doesn't want to see an ally get hurt. Maybe he likes Duke a bit in spite of himself, but the fact that he doesn't trust Duke and thinks the worst of him speaks volumes to me. Duke's feelings in turn are unknown, especially since the dub made him more of a jerk on some occasions than he really was. (Episode #85, anyone?) But I think it's safe to say he doesn't feel particularly close to Tristan, or any of them, really. The manga makes that pretty clear, but the anime is more up in the air. Of course, shippers often take things like Tristan's feelings as their cue to pair characters up, because of course, if they don't like or trust each other, it really means they want to bang each other! **rolls eyes.**

I've always liked touching on the tension between Duke and Tristan in fics, and sometimes Joey and Duke too. I don't think the mystery fics did it so much, since I mostly tried to have the group as a happy family in those, but the old oneshots and blurbs did stuff with the tension, and when I finally got a better handle on Duke and ended up with plunnies for him, the later fics like Lead Me Through the Fire and Close Your Eyes, Clear Your Heart did a lot with it. Of course, in spite of the tension, Joey or Tristan would certainly go out of their way to help Duke if he needed it, and vice versa. And there does seem to be some level of friendship there, possibly deeper than it might seem on the surface. I touch on that in some of the fics too.

The fic is moving along very nicely so far, but up to now it's been the set-up and some character interaction stuff. Now I'm going in to Mokuba's fantasy worlds, and I am wondering if I'll be able to dig into his mind well enough to come up with stuff he'd dream up. The first scene is floating through a sky zone with Blue Eyes White Dragons flying around. I may have to cheat a little and have some areas designed more by the Unown, especially since these are supposed to be renegade Unown.

Team Rocket has indeed entered the fic and they've largely been interacting with Marik. That's been a blast, LOL. And I decided that instead of the crack of the YGO characters being completely baffled by the Pokemon characters and culture, they are aware of them to some extent. I realized Marik would no doubt know of Team Rocket because of his time in the criminal underworld leading the Rare Hunters, so that gets brought up. And the Ishtars and Solomon know of the Unown, and Pokemon in general. They're just not very prevalent in Domino City, but they definitely exist.

When I first started the fic, Seto and Mokuba flowed easily but I worried whether I was writing Marik alright. It's been years since I tried, and of course, we only have bits and pieces of what he's like in a normal frame of mind. After I let the fic sit a bit and came back to it later, everything seemed alright, so hopefully it is. I know I used to write Marik a little more like his fake Namu personality, albeit with a bit more snap to it. Later I switched to more snap, and that's what I've got here. Although with Mokuba he has a friendship not unlike Baxter and Michelangelo's, and I do hope he doesn't sound too much like Baxter. Favorite characters of mine do sometimes have speech pattern similarities to some extent, although overall they're different.

It's also fun writing for Duke and David again. I do bring up the issue of Duke not really feeling included in the group, as I like touching on that and it's been a while, so people might not remember. So far Bakura hasn't appeared and maybe he won't, because things are awfully crowded right now. But he's mentioned, and The Pendulum Swings verse is referenced.

So I finally started writing that story I talked of where Jessie is hurt and James is initially blamed. I wrote the entire first draft before I started posting it, because I was stumped at one point and I didn't want to risk stalling on it after it was already going up. I've been adding scenes to some chapters after some of them turned out way shorter than others and I still need to flesh them out more.

It's interesting, because Team Rocket is ending up going through the same sort of thing that happened with the fictional Rockapella in their stories. There are like three different ways to have one's true self taken away: possession, mind-control, and corruption (a la One Ring style), and the different members each went through one of those (with the fourth also undergoing possession). It wasn't even part of the original story plan for this Team Rocket story to involve mind-control, especially since canon already used that one, but everything just started falling into place like that while I was writing it. Which means that each Team Rocket member is also going to have to deal with one of those ways of losing their true self in the fics.

James: Possession
Meowth: Mind-control
Jessie: Corruption

But then there's the sticky problem of both James and Meowth aware to varying extents what's happening to them and struggling to fight it, while Jessie is not aware of what's happening to her. I'm thinking of showing scenes from her POV, with the mask talking to her and other creepy things, to try to explain better why she is unable to fight against this. Or maybe I'll show that at the beginning she does object and fight, but the mask manages to silence her every time. Because I can see her arguing with the mask in her mind, at least at first, and then it gets a stronger hold, silences her will, and its will creeps over her. Very disturbing. There's a fine line between possession by an evil spirit and corruption by a sentient object, and I think this situation will probably blur the line at times.

After doing a role-play version of the storyline, I'm also planning to move the setting to New York City instead of keeping it in the abandoned village. I really liked the idea of Jessie running loose in a big city corrupted by the mask and taking control of Pokemon left and right. So intense! I'll have it, probably, that the staff was dug up in what was New Amsterdam or an even older settlement in New York and that thus, New York City is the boundaries of its power. I'm also considering that Meowth wakes up in time to see the final outcome of the confrontation between Jessie and James, because in the role-play he saw it and it was very chilling and heartbreaking. I don't think it will be one of the Turtles crossover fics, though. I think this one will work better just as a Pokemon fic.

Then I'm also role-playing the human catboy Meowth situation and realized there could be another reason why he stays human for a while: since this mutation is different from any other the characters have seen, Baxter might worry that the retro-mutagen ray gun won't change him back completely. So he wants to run some tests to try to figure out if it will even work right if they use it. So I've edited that into the story and also written some more scenes. If I can figure out how to start dividing it up, maybe I can start posting it. I'm worried about people getting confused over it being a Turtles crossover, though, especially since this will be the first of those posted in the Pokemon category. I already had one reader get flummoxed by a throwaway line in a fic referencing an earlier Pokemon fic, even though it wasn't relevant to the overall plot. What will a sudden crossover do to those readers? I really didn't want to post it in the Crossover category, since less people will see it then. And since Pokemon is really the dominant fandom, with the Turtles characters as guests, instead of both having equal screentime.

Back to the one I'm doing with Jessie hurt, Bonnie and Clyde are back as the antagonists. After I'm able to draw a giftpic for someone for Christmas, I think I might try drawing them, just as a reference to myself. Bonnie has shoulder-length blonde curls and wears a beret instead of the usual newsboy hat. Clyde has brown hair, but I'm having trouble picturing him as more than a recolor of Butch. The truth is that they're both stand-ins for Butch and Cassidy, really, as part of me had wanted to use them in Dead and Alive Redux, but I didn't think they'd spend a whole story trying to kill Jessie, James, and Meowth any more than Giovanni would, so I figured creating OCs was the safest way to go.

I also feel slightly guilty regarding the real Bonnie and Clyde that their fictional namesakes are such screw-ups, LOL. Not that I particularly care for the real people. I never understood how bank robbers and murderers could become folk heroes in the 1930s. Okay, maybe the people were happy that the greedy banks were being shown up, but wasn't their money some of what was being stolen from the banks? Why would they want greedy crooks to have it any more than the greedy banks? And when bodies started dropping, that's a whole other ballgame. Why, why did they still admire the crooks after that?! I guess it's similar in some ways to how people find fictional antagonists fascinating (me included, depending on the character), but it seems so much different when it's real-life.

Also, I am ecstatic that I finally found one of my favorite Christmas songs ever, a rare one that I think is by a local artist that played on a wonderfully eclectic Christmas station we used to have. I miss that station so much. They played many religious songs and some cute secular ones too. Some were more common, but many were rare, both oldies and more recent ones. I also found several other songs by that artist that used to play on that station. I turned them up over a week ago on YouTube, where they were posted by the website CD Baby, apparently, and have been playing the heck out of them.

I wrote an entire oneshot in several hours and posted it. I forgot about an idea I'd had, remembered it in the morning, wrote some of it in the afternoon and then wrote the rest at night. It's dialogue-heavy rather than having a lot of introspection, but still. It's in the neighborhood of 5,800+ words. It's been a while since that happened.

Basically, the idea was "... What if some jerk who wanted Meowth kidnapped him and put another Meowth in his place, a badly hurt Meowth, and Jessie and James think that it's their Meowth and he's been hurt so badly he doesn't remember how to talk?" Then that combined with me wanting to write something involving the instructor from The Ultimate Test episode. I did not like that guy for several reasons. I thought parts of the test were unfair. I didn't like that he was determined to have Meowth, even though he knew Meowth was with Jessie and James and he must have surely thought one of them was Meowth's Trainer. When he's hailed as a good guy, I rather expect better behavior from him than from the antagonists! Then I really didn't like that when he knew his Meowth got blasted off, he wasn't even worried about the poor thing and was only focused on having a chance to get the talking Meowth. So he got set up as the antagonist in the fic. I hope it's not OOC. I definitely based it on those things in canon, but I don't know what the general fanbase opinion of the guy is (if the fanbase has an opinion on him at all).

On ... Sunday, I think it was, I had a very weird and bizarre and unsettling dream that ... seemed to involve Team Rocket discovering that their final fate was being sealed in wax, as statues, and they could not escape it. Jessie even tried a decoy of herself, hoping that would get zapped instead of her and then she could escape and try to save the others, but it didn't work. (There was also some really weird thing about her being older than she looks/never aging, which I of course don't plan to do anything with.) It was one of those dreams that sticks with you and continues to be unsettling when you're awake, and I decided the only thing to do was to blurbize it and write a solution to the problem, because it being their final fate is unacceptable. Haven't written the solution yet, but I did have Ash and Pikachu find them and determine to save them and everyone else the Pokemon has coated in wax in the chamber. It feels very movie-like, so I may or may not try to make a full fic out of it. I'm planning that Ash either tames the Pokemon who hurt everyone or else he finds another one that's willing to reverse the damage (since movies seem to have at least two Legendary Pokemon in them). I'm picturing that the Pokemon releases everyone else first, then comes to Team Rocket and asks Ash if he really wants them released too. Of course, Ash says yes, that even though they cause him so much trouble, he doesn't think they deserve such a horrible fate. And at times they've been helpful, so they have good in them.

I like Ash way more than I used to. I would really get bent out of shape 15 years ago, frustrated with the constant blasting off since he could really, seriously hurt Team Rocket. I still don't like that, but I'm frustrated with Team Rocket for a lot of things too, so overall I've decided the whole cast is flawed, the whole series has cartoon physics and logic on both sides, and hey, let's love the characters and the show for the good in them and try to bring out those sides in the stories instead of having up and down characterization for both good and bad guys. I love having Ash interact with Team Rocket in my fics these days. It's a lot of fun.

On one of my many rewatches of Mewtwo Returns (which got watched, I think, about nine times in two weeks ... I renewed it, but had to send it back for real yesterday and I am very sad about that), I then watched a very early season 1 episode right after. The contrast was quite striking. It was neat realizing how much Ash matured and grew by the time of Mewtwo Returns!

(I also wonder why I never really heard much about it 15 years ago. I was on the lookout for anything that was good to Team Rocket and I would have been all over it. Instead, I really didn't understand what it was. All the different Mewtwo names were really confusing to me. Like, the first movie seemed to be called both Mewtwo Strikes Back and Mewtwo vs. Mew, so that really confused me, and then there was this other thing called Mewtwo Returns. I just wasn't even sure what was what. And then now I've found out there's a female Mewtwo in Best Wishes and I just don't even know what to think. It didn't sound like they did much, if anything, with the Team Rocket organization wanting her back, like they did the first Mewtwo, unless that was only in the prequel episode, and the movie with her sounds like a complicated mess and just a way to try to bring back a popular character without necessarily having a good storyline or reason why. Why not check in with the original Mewtwo instead of creating another one?! From what I read, it just felt so very badly done. Team Rocket would be frantic to get her back after losing the first one. WTH. Of course, they do have the trio trying to catch her, but there's not the intensity of the entire organization after her and such. And I'm glad, at least, that with the trio trying to catch her, it's not the same Mewtwo as before, because in light of Mewtwo Returns I would really get bent out of shape if the writers did that and had Team Rocket turn against the original Mewtwo after their adventures.)

My Jessie and James figures are here! Right on time too. They look exactly as pictured! It's always nice to get exactly what you think you paid for. They're a lot heavier and sturdier than I was thinking, though, which is awesome. I was picturing them being about like my YGO figures. These are way heavier, even though they're around the same size. I love it! With Jessie I did the same thing I did with my Marik figure and wrapped a piece of white cloth around the bare midriff, LOL. One never knows when Dad might wander in and see the figures. Of course, he wouldn't like the short skirt either (nor do I), but the boots come up so high that I usually don't think as much about the skirt. Meowth has shipped and will hopefully come soon!

So now LJ is apparently making up tags for me? It stuck the number fifty in as a tag and claims there's one usage of it. Naturally, when I click, it goes nowhere since there is no such tag. I deleted it from the list. It had better not come back. Or be replaced by another. I really do not appreciate my journal being tinkered with in any way. I also hate how if you write a number in an entry, it will automatically get linked to a search for it. Maybe that's only if there's a hashtag with it, but ugh, this isn't Twitter! People I know use LJ because it isn't Twitter. Or Facebook, etc. And we liked it better before the changes that started to make it more like them.

But seriously, making up tags? That is inexcusable. Unless it's some kind of a glitch. And if it is, it had better be fixed quickly, unlike how they claimed the extra ads were a glitch yet they did nothing about them until apparently the last mass migration from the site in April.

So I think I've resolved my problem about the apartment versus the house and Baxter will live both places, as he's currently doing, more or less. He'll probably always sleep at Barney's. ThickerThanLove and I figured out where Barney probably lives (I wanted it to be in Manhattan, so probably the Upper East Side, back a ways, maybe closer to the river ... although probably not where the river is actually in sight) and that Baxter, April, and Irma possibly live not too far away in Murray Hill and Channel 6 is probably close as well, so commuting won't be a problem.

Also pondering the idea that Baxter may have studied a lot about biology, as he seemed to have some interest in it judging from his comment in The Killer Pizzas about wanting to study Dimension X wildlife, and then there's the scene where he's examining the fragment of the Eye of Sarnoth and the plant spores in It Came From Beneath the Sewers. Also, he looked so disgusted/repulsed by the green mud stuff he had to wipe off the fragment. LOL. Can't blame him there. Maybe I'll make biology his secondary field.

I adore Baxter so much, but sometimes I feel like Barney is more "my" character than Baxter is, since Barney was only used in one episode and he hence has had to be fleshed out way more than Baxter. Of course, neither of them are really mine, but I often come to feel that the oneshot or recurring characters I deal with are half-mine because of everything I've done with them.

Trying Amazon Prime again, as they offered another free trial and I needed to purchase a digital converter box (AGAIN), so I did the trial to get it here. Then I got Mom's Mother Day present from there. Now I'd like to get something for myself before the trial expires at the beginning of June. Debating whether to get season 2 of The Virginian, which is finally low enough that I feel it's a real possibility, or if I'd rather get a couple of cheaper things (like the non-double-sided disc re-release of season 1 of The Rockford Files that I just discovered exists for $7!). I like The Virginian, but unlike something like Knight Rider where I'm just all into it and adore the show enough on its own that there's no question of whether to purchase, with The Virginian I buy seasons to get certain episodes. I love the show a lot, but I have so little money that I feel I must be very careful what I purchase to make sure I get what I really want the very most. And sometimes The Virginian episodes can be so depressing that I kind of get frustrated. I think there's more that end good than ones that end bad, though.

I just looked at the episode guide for season 2 of The Virginian. I got excited at first, seeing some of the neat episodes in there, and then I saw a couple of the depressing ones and wasn't sure again what I wanted to do. I am so mad that they killed off Molly. I liked that they didn't have her fade into nothingness, but she could have moved away or something. What makes it worse is that The Virginian was just going to propose to her and she was shot dead. UGH. I hate that type of plotline! You don't want the character to be married, okay. I totally get that and usually agree with it. But why make things so freakin' saaad? I know, tragedy, drama, sympathize with the character, yadda yadda. But it's so unnecessary.

Still, though, there's two Joseph episodes and a Darren episode that season, although the only one I was really after was one of the Joseph ones where his character turns out to be a nice guy after all. The other two episodes, the darlings play flat-out bad guys. Then there's an episode where Trampas is reported dead and everyone's grieving and Steve comes, I guess to get the body, and then finds Trampas is alive and needs help. Even though I like Trampas better in the later seasons, that sounds so promising.

I won't decide anything at this point, but I'm going to be thinking about it and weighing the pros and cons. And when I've made a decision, hopefully by later today, I bet the prices will have changed again and not for the better. Ugh.