#“back in the 80’s and 90’s people in film looked like real people’

[rowanthestrange]

You ever see someone have what looks like a good point, but then they write a 5000 word article on it, and you realise that while the point could be valid, their flat, basic, singular line of reason that got them there is not.

Nothing worse than a good point made by someone who hasn’t actually thought their position through and got there by accident.

I’d genuinely rather you just be wrong and save me the reading time.

[bisonaari]

So I've mentionned wanting to do a list of weird music recs a while ago, and the idea hasn't left me so here it is!

If you enjoy weird music, come with me in the read more ohohoho I've got beautiful things to show ya

First I'd like to mention that my specialty is asian pop, especially japanese pop (I've been hosting a panel about weird jmusic at my local con for more than 10 years). So there's gonna be a lot of that stuff here hahaha

Golden Bomber

They're my absolute favourites they're incredible. First of all… THEY'RE NOT A REAL BAND. ONLY THE SINGER SINGS, THE OTHER MEMBERS DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY. Their music videos are always a delight because nothing makes sense

Other songs from them:

dance my generation

Yokubou no uta

Odoru na yo -do not dance-

Norazo

Norazo is this weird korean duo that I've been following for the last 15 years. Their videos are always the result of like if you could film someone's fever dream and it's DELIGHTFUL

Some other songs from them:

Your fortune

Wild Horse

Cider

P'tit Belliveau

I need to show off my country a little bit! P'tit Belliveau is an artist from Canada, singing in chiac. What is chiac? It's actually a variant form of canadian french, spoken in the east of the country. It's honestly pretty cool sounding, and sadly not valued enough. Anyway, his videos are very 80's/90's graphics inspired (with a lot of weird ass CGI lately hahaha) and he just seems really friendly I love him

Some other songs:

J'feel comme un alien

Cool When Yer Old

Téo Lavabo

I love this guy SO MUCH HAHAHA. So Téo Lavabo is from France. He's proudly lgbt and that's a recurring theme in his songs. His style can be described as… yodel/electro/pop??? I SWEAR I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP LOOK FOR YOURSELF

Other songs:

Vernini Vernana

Caresse ma salopette

TATI TATTOO

Little Big

Of course a lot of people here will know them, as they were selected for eurovision 2020 (I have been following them since like 2014 and I was HEARTBROKEN when esc 2020 was cancelled I wanted them to win so bad haha). They've started as a band that made music a lot heavier (still weird though), but they've mellowed down in the latest years. After the war, Ilya and Sonya moved to the USA.

Other songs:

Faradanza

Skibidi

MOUSTACHE (feat. Netta !!)

DJ OZMA

I have to speak about him because he's the person who started me on this weird music journey all the way back in 2009 (my mom HATES him for that HAHAHA I haven't been normal since). DJ Ozma was the pop side project of rock band Kishidan's lead singer, Ayanocozey Show. It lasted only for 3 years but oh boy what incredible 3 years they were. He was mostly doing japanese covers of kpop songs, with some original ones from time to time.

Other songs:

Spiderman

drinkin' boys

I RAVE U

Momoiro Clover Z

Momoiro Clover started as a fairly standard jpop idol group back in 2008 (I've been following them since then, it has been a while lol). In the following years, one of their members decided to leave to pursue an acting career instead. They switched the group name to Momoiro Clover Z and all the videos took such a turn, it was quite the whiplash. And it was for the BEST, they're aliens in the idol world, including the fact that some members are pushing 30 now! Their style is mostly back to normal nowadays, but they've still produced gems

Other songs:

Neo Stargate

PUSH

I think that's enough for today hahaha. If you want more or if you want to share some interesting artists, please don't hesitate!! I'm always in for new weird music hahaha. After ESC 2023 someone suggested Hooja and I absolutely LOVED it, and katinkulta has sent me some KAJ it was a delight. So please send all the weird stuff my way I need it like I need water

[7deadlycinderellas]

Lost pilot 1x01-1x02

So TV in the early 00's was in transition. It had all started in the 80's. With the advent of VCRs and hence recording, as well as the growing numbers of stations and cable TV, some creators were beginning to experiment. This began with nighttime soaps and series like Hill Street Blues, leading into the cultural phenomenon that was Twin Peaks. Slowly, but surely changing were the days when all stories had to be finished in an episode and episodes had to be watchable in any order. It became a genuine possibility that TV writers might begin to trust that viewers could follow a complex story throughout a season, or even (gasp!) multiple seasons. And with these new experimental TV show, grew the earliest internet fandoms, that followed with great obsession these stories and mysteries.

But also in the 90's, came the advent of inexpensive "trash" TV- talk shows like Jerry Springer, and also the early reality TV successes like the Real World and Survivor.

These powers would seem to be at odds, and those in the TV business didn't seem to quite know how to proceed. Sure, a series with a long running mystery or mythology like Twin Peaks or the X-Files could develop a very loyal fanbase, but how long could they REALLY stay loyal (Twin Peaks could be taken as a cautionary tale- it's season 2 ratings drop was legendary), and why should they invest in this when reality TV could be made so much cheaper?

So when Lost began in 2004, it was a gamble really. The cancellation rumors beginning even before the show did. Even the fans knew it was a risk, and a very expensive risk:

But a very well publicized one. Before the pilot even aired, there was buzz afoot. JJ Abrams had had a modest success with Alias, but he was not yet a household name. This was in the era when pilots often leaked in the summer before the fall premiere season, which, while technically considered TV piracy, did its work to spread buzz about new shows. Early things discussed before airing included the cinematic style of the series, it's enormous cast (an early article claimed it tried to "appeal to every possible demographic"- as I will note later, especially as we look back there is one very glaring omission), and especially the mysteries it set up.

Summary and discussion of early pre-series buzz begins in the TWOP Media Mentions thread Here

The pilot aired on ABC on September 22 2004, to an audience of more than 18 million viewers. Read TWoP's early reactions in the episode thread here

Even though the pilot actually aired over two weeks I'm actually going to cover both episodes this week for simplicity's sake. Please note that while these writeups are going to be episode to episode, they are NOT going to be spoiler-free.

Stray obversations:

*The first scene of the episode sets up a great number of things: the style (the eye opening!), the cinematic filming style and a number of character beats (Jack's chronic hero thing, Boone's ineffectual hero thing, Hurley's squeamishness, Claire's tendency to be a damsel). It works great as a hook.

*We all made fun of Shannon for standing still screaming, but lets be real, that would be most of us after being in a plane crash.

*The pilot also features the first appearance of what we would come to call the Smoke Monster, and theories began immediately. One of my favorites was that it was a dinosaur, since Lost was filmed in the same part of Hawaii that Jurassic Park was, but many people insisted that there had to be something rational and non-supernatural to explain things. This will turn into a recurring thread discussed here: people's lingering and occasionally stubborn refusal to acknowledge that Lost was science fiction in any way.

*a note and a small aside. The pilot introduces the technique that made Lost unique, and the real reason, aside from any discussions on merit, that the whole series would remain a television classic. It revolutionized the use of flashbacks (and later flashforwards) to tell the story and flesh out the characters. Here the early flashbacks just show how the plane crash happened and helps set up the plot and plant seeds of later stories, but their function would vary very soon.

*Fun note: when the pilot aired, a number of familiar faces in the cast were unknowns, with few exceptions. Matthew Fox had been on Party of Five and Terry O'Quinn was recognizable to moviegoers, but arguable the cast member with the most fangirls at the time was Dom Monighan, playing Charlie, who had in the past few years, gained fame as a Hobbit. To this day I can only tell Merry and Pippin apart by shutting my eyes and listening for which one sounds like he's going to burst into "you all everybody!"

*Finding the dying pilot and learning the flight was heavily off course splits the pilot, nearly separating the episodes.

*Here I point to a what if that will be controversial: one of the early plans for the show that fell through was that Jack was to be introduced as a hero, played by Michael Keaton (and advertised as his return to the small screen), and then die at the midpoint of the pilot. I honestly think that might have made for a better show. The series insistence on making Jack the plot's focal point dragged even when it was airing, and now is the bit that makes it scream "2000's" most strongly. The end show would have been very difference, especially without the dynamic between Jack and Locke, but I really think Kate, Locke and Sayid could have split up most of his role between them and both the show, and Kate's character, would have been so much better without that S****F*** love triangle.

*a small character observation: the pilot sets up Shannon's surface schtick of shallow, lazy and manipulative, but her discussion with Claire about her pregnancy made me note a character beat I never really noticed: Shannon has infinitely less manipulative and adversarial relationships with other women than with men, which given what we later learn about her relationship with her father and stepmother I finish very interesting.

*The second half of the pilot splits neatly into two separate goais: introducing the main parts of the large and international cast (Sawyer mainly didn't really have an introduction in the first hald of the episode), and introducing other bits of the ongoing mystery- Kate's past, the polar bear, and the French woman's broadcast.

*Even today, I find the end of episode 1x02 one of the series strongest. Rosseau's broadcast going on, the countdown, Sayid's calculation of how long it had been running for and Charlie's classic "Guys, where are we?", is chilling.

And now, onto the fandom. Lost became a media phenomenon and watercooler TV with a strong online fandom almost immediately. And unlike many others, its primary focus was not on the characters or shipping (at least not yet), but on theorizing, and that hasn't REALLY been duplicated since. Here is the early "speculation without spoilers" thread from TWoP, beginning before the pilot. Highlight from the pre pilot posting:

"Would cancelation speculation go here?

If it does get canceled, I'm guessing 6-8 episodes. I hope it stays, or at least gets a season...seems interesting."

[pigeoncorpse]

Help I'm getting vague, hazy memories of Weird Movies

I can't think of their titles and am beginning to question whether or not they ever even existed

One involved a video game where the playable characters were real people

Like players were somehow controlling actual, real, living people

I don't think they knew though?

And like I think one dude who was playing figured it out and so the whole thing was him and the guy he was controlling trying to figure out how to like free everybody or something

I feel like it came out somewhere around the 2000's or 2010's

The other one was about mpreg

Yep

Maybe an 80's or 90's film? Sometime back when they were still recording stuff on actual film I'm pretty sure

Because I'm fairly certain it had that grainy looking quality that you only get with film

There was some sort of experiment and I can't remember if it was the mpreg or a separate thing

Probably the mpreg, I feel like

And the mpreg was done by transferring the fetus from a pregnant woman into a man somehow? I think??

And it was an action film?

I wanna say the main character (who I believe is the one who got mpregged) was being chased down by some spies or whatever who wanted secrets related to the experiment

There was a scene of him giving birth

I remember at the end Main Guy + Main Guy's Ladyfriend + their baby + Main Guy's Dude Friend + Main Dude Friend's Ladyfriend were hanging out having a picnic

And Dude Friend's Ladyfriend mentioned being pregnant

And her + Main Guy + MG's Ladyfriend all turned to Dude Friend and started trying to talk him into getting mpregged

Also I'm like 63% sure Arnold Schwarzenegger was the main character?????

??????????????????????????

I'm losing my mind cuz it sounds fake and ridiculous but I'm pretty sure it exists and if it does I want confirmation but I'm not about to add "Arnold Schwarzenegger Mpreg Movie" to my search history

[fashionthroughtimewithlucy]

Blue Jeans.

Since the late-19th century, jeans have gone from rugged workwear to fashion apparel that we couldn't live without. During the 1970’s, demand grew for flared and bell bottom styles, the trend spread from the US to Europe and was no longer associated with the niche hippie movement. Denim jeans became the go-to style for youths in all areas of life. Decorated denim also rose in popularity as people chose to customise their jeans with sequin, embroidery, paint or beads.

Designer jeans were seen statues symbol and more expensive and more desirable. Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt were the first American designer jeans to hit the market in the mid-1970s. They both focused on the mass women’s market and found inspiration in existing designs. It’s important to make clear that in those days, designers didn’t have all the treatment technologies that we have today at their disposal. The jeans were raw, rinsed or stonewashed.

Calvin Klein meteoric rise in the 70s, to the aesthetic that defined the 80s and 90s, to today’s still chic. During the 70’s Calvin Klein is said to have investigated revolution in advertising when he launched his jeans range. Calvin Klein sold 200,000 pairs of denim jeans during its first week of sale in 1978 – a venture that arose after a stranger approached Klein on the dance floor at New York City’s most infamous party spot, Studio 54.

Gloria Vanderbilt.

Gloria Vanderbilt became famous early in life, she was an American artist, author, actress, heiress and socialite but most noted as an early developer of the blue jean. And thats when her fame came, venturing into theater, film and fashion, with her jeans becoming a staple of the 1970s designer scene.

Glitter Glam rock.

The Great Britain of the 70s could be a drab, monochrome place. The buzz of the Summer Of Love had long faded and in its place, it seemed, came the escalating tensions in Northern Ireland, economic and political crisis, and a sense that the nation’s moment had passed. Glam rock (or “glitter rock,” as it was better known in the US) added a rare splash of color and sparked a very different kind of cultural evolution, bringing a sense of flamboyance in lux fabrics such as satins, velvets, and lurex decorated with sequins and worn with super high stacked platforms.

It was Marc Bolan who was the real deal and glam rock’s first true star. He was the lead singer of T.Rex, which cemented his place as king of a new genre – glam rock. His pioneering style was underlined by his equally flamboyant TV appearances, he wore metallics and glitter make-up, a look that confirmed a new decade’s pop star had arrived.

Back in the 1970s, David Bowie envisioned key parts of our culture today. During the most crucial decade in Bowie’s career, his forward-thinking approach to sexual identity, celebrity image and musical presentation tipped off many. He made innovations in art pop, glam rock, German industrial music and more, along the way minting a dense discography of classics. While Bowie’s lithe figure and pretty face gave him an androgynous aura from the start, he didn’t use that role in so focused, and shocking, a way until the U.K. cover of his 1970 album The Man Who Sold the World. It found him draped over a chaise longue wearing a dress and sporting long tresses that seemed less like the hippie casual norm of the day than like something out of old Hollywood.

Suzie Quatro redefined the role of women in rock ‘n roll,, creating a style of leather suits inspired by Elvis 1968 leather suits. There were female singers and musicians before Suzi, but she was the first to break through as lead vocalist who was also just part of the band.

[apoptoses]

“Angle of Incidence was so extreme, I thought if people enjoyed that then nothing I wrote could put them off” oh for sure. I felt legit uncomfortable/in physical distress (in the best of ways) while reading it, and it’s a feeling I still haven’t quite shaken off, whereas with Fate as it Flows it was just an extremely enjoyable experience from beginning to end.

“I have two completed things on deck and the idea of posting them is now excruciating lol But I deeply appreciate your encouragement” fingers and toes crossed we get to see those soon! Saw your other comment about *ahem* my prompt, and you have no idea how over the moon I am about that one! Pride month going out with a bang I see, phew 🥵

“if you blur your vision a little and ignore her boobs she even LOOKS Armand-y at times” that’s the plan (not that I don’t do that already with uh... plenty of media but yt there will be real intent here lol). will be back with more comments once I get around to watching all those you listed but ugh yes Madchen/Spader feel so them, aesthetically. What I’m liking about Spader in partic is that he not only looks like a beautiful weirdo but also like a grown ass man which Daniel is supposed to be, mf was in his early 30′s ffs, and I have a hard time associating the whole twink vibe with him (as much as I love River’s... well, everything, that's the category he falls into most of the time). Spader is pretty and lean and tall but also strong and manly and alll of those are essential ingredients of the Molloy cocktail imo. 

“Please respond asap with which Succession character is your favorite, I need to know” obviously Tom lmfao, that’s MY princess Diana right there. I attribute 50% of my undying love to the character itself and the other 50% to how perfectly MattMac nailed every single line of dialogue for 4 seasons in a row. Succession’s MVP if I say so myself (which is insane considering how pretty much everyone was the MVP at one point or another). 

Pandora sends her love! xoxo DA 🐱

Saw your other comment about *ahem* my prompt, and you have no idea how over the moon I am about that one! Pride month going out with a bang I see, phew 🥵 <- Yes! I have it all done, it needs a final glance for typos but it'll get published this week! And it features Armand with his hair cut short, stealing Daniel's glasses and pretending to be him. I hope you're happy with it when I post it!

What I’m liking about Spader in partic is that he not only looks like a beautiful weirdo but also like a grown ass man which Daniel is supposed to be, mf was in his early 30′s ffs, and I have a hard time associating the whole twink vibe with him <- Exactly! If you watch his 80s films you get the whole young!Daniel from early in the chase but once the early 90s films hit it's the Full Molloy with bags under his eyes and laugh lines. He's an adult! A hot man with chest hair and a perpetually tired disposition who's always dtf but also looks like he needs a nap.

And like given his film choices, I swear. Had someone called him up and said 'hey, we've got a role for you playing a guy who's fatally obsessed and head over heels for a vampire who stalks him, has weird threesomes with him, and eventually kills him and turns him' Spader would have said sign me the fuck UP. God the missed chances, if only QotD had been picked up by someone who'd keep the characters the same.

YES as always you have taste! You know Anne Rice wanted him to play Marius and he did a reading of Prince Lestat right? haha MattMac just made Tom such a weirdo that even at his worst he's a sympathetic character. All I ever wanted for Tom was for him to succeed (and like, maybe to bone someone who actually likes him, lord).

Estimating I'll post your fic Wednesday, but bear with me if life happens ♥

[henrys-backroom-brouhaha]

Attempting to organize my thoughts on the Mario Movie [SPOILER WARNING]

So I saw the movie on the 7th, and have now seen it two more times since, and I want to attempt to organize my thoughts, both good and bad. I'm going to be talking about everything in the film here because I want this post to be a space where I can hold nothing back and just let all my thoughts out, so Spoiler warning for the whole movie.

Spoiler free TL;DR: I absolutely loved this movie and if you're a Super Mario fan you owe it to yourself to see it. Ever since I was a kid I've imagined of a Mario movie that plays out largely like this and watching this film healed my inner child a lot. That being said, I feel that this movie runs into some pacing issues and if the movie had 15-20 more minutes of runtime to address those, this could've been even better

Right off the bat, This film Completely nails What it needed to. It's a Mario movie that looks, feels and sounds exactly like what a Mario movie would be like when you picture one in your head. On top of that it feels no need to be ashamed of it's source material and it doesn't try to be smarter than it actually is. It's just unapologetically Mario, and that's the best thing this movie could've been.

All the locales visited throughout the movie are pure eye candy, and they cram a lot into the film while also fitting in a modern Brooklyn that fits into Mario's aesthetic. not too much to say here except it all looks very pretty. Some people may have been expecting as much but I was a little surprised at the quality given Illumination's previous work.

The music is also fantastic! It's absolutely loaded with musical motifs lifted from the games coupled with some great original compositions that are anchored around a strong and memorable original motif. What particularly surprised me about the score was the comprehensiveness of the musical references. A good amount of songs referenced are from the 8 and 16 bit era but there's also a lot of Mario tunes from the 90's, 00's, and later. There was even a song lifted from Bowser's Fury at one point which caught me off guard.

What I didn't like about the music though were the random pieces of licensed music used throughout. When I first watched the film these inclusions were a "oh that's neat" thing for me. The songs that were used weren't offensive at all and I appreciated that it was all 80's music, but they never felt appropriate and there was never any context or payoff to their inclusion.

What's come to irk me about the licensed music however was learning of the pieces of original score that were cut short or just absent altogether from the film. It feels like tampering with the composer's intended listening experience just to flex the ability to throw in some licensed music for the sake of it. In particular the track "drivin' be bananas" is completely absent in the fanal cut and I can't help but feel robbed in that sense. I hope there's an edit out there one day that adds back the original score, but for now i can just let it pass.

Moving on I want to talk about characters, which is one of my favorite parts about the film. Starting with the voices, almost nobody sounded out of place. I stopped thinking about the voices about halfway into the film cause they all felt natural, With Luigi, Bowser and Toad being particular standouts to me. DK was the only case in the movie where the character warped to fit the actors voice but Seth Rogen fit his cocky and bodacious personality perfectly. the only stand out bad voice was cranky kong. The direction chosen for his voice just didn't fit at all.

Their portrayals as characters are great on the whole as well. Mario and Luigi's relationship as well as Bowser in general are real highlights here. The film spends a lot of it's opening moments to establish the inseparable bond that Mario and Luigi share and that was enough to keep me invested in what was going on. Toad and Luigi are highlights for me as well. I love how innocent and dopey Luigi can be, and Toad is a solid comic relief character who I wish had more screen time. Bowser is also great. He's as every bit as threatening, ruthless, self absorbed, and singular in his goals as he is in the games, and they also establish that he loves peach but it's more of an unrequited and selfish love which fits his character well.

Last up on characters is peach. I've seen people say she doesn't act like peach and I kinda get it. She's more headstrong in this film and I think she falls into the female protagonist trap of just being good at everything, but she's still a very likeable character due to her compassion and she never steals earned victories or character moments from Mario. I'm personally fine with her personality shift in the movie as it fits her role in the plot better.

Gonna wrap this up with the plot, which I feel suffers from being paced too fast. The opening 20 minutes are fine in this regard. The film does a good job at establishing Mario and Luigi as real people with their pluming job and their extended family. The film gives them moments to breathe and be flashed out as strong baseline protagonists. As soon as you get to the mushroom kingdom though it becomes location after location for most of the runtime.

The negative effect this has on the film is that the characters never have time to breathe or ruminate on what their doing and leaves arcs for many characters established, but never progressed or finished and so where characters end up doesn't feel as earned as they could've been.

Just as an example. During the third act Mario and DK are inside a giant eel and they both reflect on how their dads think they're a joke. This could've been a moment for both characters to find some common ground, but the moment is played for laughs and the conflict that rises from the moment is resolved almost as soon as it starts. There's a couple other moments like this as well: Peach's talk with Mario in the fire flower fields, The entire time Luigi spends locked in a cage. There were opportunities for characters to ruminate on things and I feel having those kind of moments would've bolstered the characters a lot which would've complimented the simple plot (which i think having a simple plot is a good thing here).

The fast pacing also creates some continuity errors at times. There are scenes Involving one of Bowser's minions reporting to him on what the main cast is doing but on repeat watches I started thinking "how would they know what they're doing?" We never see any minions spying on our main cast and it leads me to believe the movie operates on that idea that if the audience knows what the main cast is doing then all the antagonists know as well.

I want to stress though that this is minor stuff to me. All in all I still absolutely loved the movie and that still holds true after repeat watches. The flaws just make this movie a little harder to recommend to people who aren't already invested in Mario. I'm still glad I got to see it and it's an easy recommend from me if you're a fan of mario

[neutralgray]

Plane's Plucky 90's Vibes and Platitudes

So I like to sometimes overwork my nerdy little brain analyzing movies I watch. I am by no means a "movie critic" or even in the movie critic scene, but it's fun to think about sometimes. The reason I say this is because I have some thoughts on "Plane" I wanted to share, but there's a chance for people reading in the media critical crowd, my thoughts likely won't be anything new. As a heads up, these thoughts are largely U.S.-centric.

Anyway. I saw "Plane" today with a couple friends. And I enjoyed it! It was a fun simplistic action movie that had enough tension to keep you watching. It's not a movie I feel I'll ever "need" to watch again, but while I was there, I did enjoy the experience of watching it.

I knew little about the movie going in, other than the trailer synopsis, but in multiple reviews, I saw one repeating praise of the film: it felt like a throwback to late 80's/90's action films. I thought that was interesting, as it makes you wonder what "defines" that period of movies.

As I watched "Plane" I found myself agreeing with that sentiment, that it felt like a movie from the 90's. And as I watched, I tried to dissect why it felt that way. Then it clicked for me.

"Plane," like a lot of decades old action flicks, has this optimistic and earnest trust of the "systems" in place. The pilot is the good guy, the ex-military man is the good guy, the soldiers for hire are good guys, and even the corporate airline executives are good guys as they try to help the situation from their air conditioned office. This movie, and the movies that it was modeled after, portrays morality as intrinsic to these authority figures--everyone wants what is best except the practically faceless and vague brown skinned bad guys. Note, race as an aspect of a movie's invisible moral dynamics is not what this post is about, as that is a much larger discussion and not what I wanted to talk about, though it may be worth noting for consideration.

I just thought that it was interesting that looking back at movies of the decade: Air Force One, Independence Day, G.I. Jane, etc.; the figures lined up with authority are always these vaguely patriotic good guys that you want to trust. If any of the government or whatever "authority" is presented to you end up being "bad," it's usually only splinter factions or individual rogue agents that don't represent the system at large. The message is that the system works, and it works because the system of authority has capable men and women defending the rights and comforts of the people entrusted under them. The people you're told are on your side are genuinely on your side. It's an optimism that's so naive it makes you wonder if it's supposed to border on propaganda when you look back at them all.

Now don't get me wrong. As I said, I enjoyed watching the movie as a piece of media meant to entertain as it WAS entertaining. You're not good or bad for liking or disliking it. I just think it's an interesting thing to note, especially when compared to the general cynicism that's held by the U.S. public towards the government and our authority figures now-a-days.

We have: shady politicians coasting off money that's been "donated" to them as they generate rage bait to push themselves into the cultural zeitgeist, police and the statistical evidence of racial bias on practically all aspects of criminal law, hospitals and insurance driven so deeply by profit that people with debilitating health conditions fear getting check-ups meant to ensure their well being because they can't afford to be put in debt.

There are genuine reasons to be angry at the systems at play in the real world. There's a reason people are cynical, and bitter, and tired. We constantly see that when the system works passively, it allows violence to come into contact with every facet of our lives. We can taste the blood in our mouths as we work to fund our continued existence every day, because "the cost of living" is a real thing and not some dystopian fictional concept. But in a movie like "Plane" the system is shown being active-- working towards a good end for people in an unfortunate circumstance.

It makes me wish that old school 90's action movie optimism really was tried-and-true, because it seems like a such a nice escapist fantasy to be able to feel like the country and the people over you really do care about your life.

Wouldn't that be nice?

[the-tigr0u]

【𝑨𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆】

♔〘IƊƐƝƬIƬƳ   RҼƇƠRƊ〙♔

F U L L  N A M E

-Adrien John Walberice-

N I C K N A M E S

-Cigar Boy, Officer, Ad'-

N A T I O N A L I T Y

-American-

G E N D E R

-Man-

A G E

-30 y.o.-

B I R T H D A Y

-1st of November-

A S T R O L O G I C A L  S I G N

-♏︎ Scorpio ♏︎-

F A M I L Y

-Marc Walberice (Father ♱)-

-Holly Walberice (Mother ♱)-

R E L A T I O N S H I P  S T A T U T

-Single-

-Impossible to access, his heart is already taken-

-Klaro’s ex from 19 to 21 y.o.-

-Still in love with him nowadays-

P R O F E S S I O N A L  S T A T U T

-Formerly performing arts student-

-Stopped and joined the FIB-

-Warrior-

-Gatekeeper-

-Chief of Asylum’s Security-

-Pillar of the Asylum Community-

" -  D o n ' t  y o u  k n o w  I ' m  s t i l l  s t a n d i n g  b e t t e r  t h a n  I  e v e r  d i d  -

-  L o o k i n g  l i k e  a  t r u e  s u r v i v o r ,  f e e l i n g  l i k e  a  l i t t l e  k i d  -

-  I ' m  s t i l l  s t a n d i n g  a f t e r  a l l  t h i s  t i m e  -

-  P i c k i n g  u p  t h e  p i e c e s  o f  m y  l i f e  w i t h o u t  y o u  o n  m y  m i n d  -

♔〘  lƠƠƘՏ 〙♔

H A I R

-Brown-

-Short and brushed-

-Three Day Beard-

E Y E S

-Brown-

-Deep, clear and piercing gaze -

S K I N

-Matte slightly bronzed-

H E I G H T

-1m80 (5,9 ft.)-

W E I G H T

-83 kg (183 lbs.)-

C O R P U L E N C E

-Muscular-

-Well built-

S C A R S / M A R K S

-A few scars here and there, relatively discreet-

T A T O O S

-Moth on lower back-

-Clock with geometric decorations on the right shoulder-

P I E R C I N G S

-None-

C L O T H I N G  S T Y L E

-Classic and casual, shirts and jeans-

-Clothes allowing him to make movements without difficulty-

-A fan of leather jackets and scottish shirts-

-More picky about shoes, choose comfortable pairs that last long-

-Fanatic of Rangers and military boots-

" -  I  w i s h  y o u  d i d n ' t  h a v e  t o  p o s t  i t  a l l  -

-  I  w i s h  y o u ' d  s a v e  a  l i t t l e  b i t  j u s t  f o r  m e  -

-  P r o t e c t i v e  o r  p o s s e s s i v e ,  y e a h  -

-  C a l l  i t  p a s s i v e  o r  a g g r e s s i v e  - "

♔〘ƤՏƳƇӇƠlƠƓƳ〙♔

S E X U A L I T Y

-Homosexual-

P E R S O N A L I T Y

-Straight and orderly-

-Does not accept injustice, discrimination and disrespect-

-Caring for others, always ready to help-

-Looks tough and strong-

-Secretly anxious, always very wary of the world around him-

-Wear a smiling mask to reassure others and not cause panic or fear-

-Care a lot about his Community and his loved ones, he is ready to do anything for them-

-Reacts strongly under pressure, sometimes without thinking-

-Kind, caring, gentle, creative and generous-

-Very sensitive and understanding-

-Highly determined, even stubborn, but brave-

-If he doesn't really like you, he will be rather silent, cold, keeping his distance with piercing and rather mean looks-

-If he hates you, he can become a real b-word-

-May spread gossip people he hates-

-Possessive, with tendencies leaning towards jealousy, slightly sickly and obsessive-

F E A R S

-Necrophobia (Fear of death)-

-Autophobia (Fear of being alone)-

-Fear of horses and being trampled by them-

-Fear that the Community will collapse-

P A S S I O N S

-Music-

-To play bass-

-To play drums-

-History-

-Crime novels-

-Cigars-

L I K E S

- Music - Dogs, especially shepherds - Sunny days - Coffee - Mindgames, such as chess or checkers - Playing bass or drums - Smoking cigars - Rock and funk - Music from the 80s and 90s -

D I S L I K E

- Horses - Romantic novels and films - Judicial blunders - Violations of rules or protocols - Lack of order and discipline - Milk -

C I G A R E T T E

-More of a cigar guy-

D R U G S

-No-

A L C O H O L

-Yes-

-Can’t handle it much-

" -  A n d  I  t r i e d  m y  b e s t  -

-  C r o s s  m y  f i n g e r s  f o r  t h e  r e s t  -

-  A n d  I  w i l l  f i n d  a  w a y  s o m e h o w  -

-  T o  b e  m o r e  t h a n  p h o t o s  t o  y o u  n o w  - "

♔〘ƠƬӇҼRՏ〙♔

E X T R A S

-Fan of ACDC, Green Day, Earth Wind And Fire and Marvin Gaye-

-Does a lot of bodybuilding in his garage transformed into a personal gym-

-Obviously talented in hand-to-hand combat and shooting, due to his training at the FIB-

-Has insomniac tendencies-

-His weapon is a M4A1 assault rifle-

-He also uses a lot hand-to-hand combat hatchets-

-As stated earlier, he is secretly still in love with Klaro, but doesn't dare admit it-

-His avatar : Scott Eastwood-

P O S S I B L E  S C E N A R I O S

-He’s an Asylum community member, finds and welcomes you there-

-If you play Klaro's crush (OC or Canon) and you want some drama... Adrien will be perfect for that-

O T H E R  P O S S I B L E  R E L A T I O N S H I P S

-Negan Smith-

-Deep hatred, clearly wishes for his death-

-Rick Grimes-

-Lack of trust on first encounter, mutual respect but don’t know each others much-

-Daryl Dixon-

-Bonnes connaissances, respect mutuel-

-Michonne-

-Good friends, fellow fighters-

-Klaro Sliver-

-Ex-boyfriend, still in love, close friend-

-Joster McLie and Robinson Smithy-

-Best friends, fellow fighters -

-Gripentuc Campbell-

-Close friend, confident, mentor-

-Marta Colins-

-Friend, mentor-

P L A Y L I S T

F U L L  P L A Y L I S T  H E R E

[rawiswhore]

Various WWF Wrestlers x Fem Reader- "She's Faking It"

I need to say this...I've been talking with some people I'm friends with online about how I'm upset over seeing people online seemingly nostalgic over trashy 90's and early 2000's talk shows like Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake.

However...some of the fanfiction I've posted would be considered trashy and "too hot for TV".

______________________________________________________________

For decades, professional wrestling has been infamous for being "fake", so much so it's arguably the biggest reason professional wrestling has always been looked down upon for generations.

But one thing that's fake even though some people might not know isn't real is pornography.

What I mean by porn being fake is that women and men in porn's orgasms are fake.

The sex in porn might be real, but the orgasms are all fake.

And speaking of porn and wrestling, in the late 1990's, the World Wrestling Federation became increasingly more for adults rather than for kids like it was during the 80's and even the early to mid 1990's.

And the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1990's was reduced to pornography many times.

Because professional wrestling and porn are both fake, on a "Monday Night Raw" episode in November of 1998, there was one of those "coming up next" vignettes where the guitar riff to Slam Jam's "We're All Together Now" plays.

During that vignette, you were sitting on Val Venis' lap, where your back was in front of his torso.

You and Val were both topless in this segment, and you were pretending to ride up and down his penis.

However, you and Val were both filmed from above the waists.

Triple H, Christian and Jeff Hardy were all standing in front of you, where your hands were placed at Christian and Jeff's crotches and your hands looked like you were masturbating their penises.

However, you really weren't masturbating their dicks, their cocks weren't even hanging out of their tights.

Not to mention, you also looked like you were sucking on Triple H's dick while you pretended to jack off Christian and Jeff's dicks and ride on Val's lap, but again, Triple H's penis wasn't exposed in front of you.

Although, Trips' jeans were undone to make it really look like you're giving him a blowjob.

Christian and Triple H both had their long hair hanging down, although Christian in general usually always has his long hair hanging down.

Shawn Michaels and this jobber wrestler named Steve Dunn were squatting and crouching in front of your chest, where their heads were blocking and censoring your nipples and areolas being shown on television.

Shawn and Steve both looked like they were sucking your nipples, which was implied.

If you don't know who Steve Dunn is, he was a professional wrestler in the 1980's and 1990's who never really went anywhere, however, he did do a few jobber matches in the WWF during the late 1990's, including one tagteam match with the Hardy Boyz on "Shotgun Saturday Night" in 1998.

During this vignette, Shawn had his long hair hanging down and not tied back in a ponytail, and the same goes for Steve.

Triple H, Christian, and Jeff were being filmed from behind their backs while you sat on Val's lap pretending to ride him, whereas the backs of Shawn's and Steve's heads as well as their backs were filmed.

Shawn and Steve were going a very good job of blocking and censoring your nipples and areolas being shown on television by using the backs of their heads, although the fans are probably pissed they won't see some breasts.  

You also had some fake precum on your face, the precum on your face was really just drips of baby oil on your face to make it look realistic.

Because porn is fake and so is the sex in this segment, you were moaning manically and faking your orgasm while your eyes were closed and your head sometimes arched back.

Not only that, Triple H's hands formed an "x" shape above his genitals, as his hands made that "x" shape above his crotch, he shoved and pushed his crotch forward closer to your face, where he exclaimed "suck it!" while his wrists crossed an "x" shape and he thrust his pelvis in front of you.

And suck it you literally did, where you leaned your face closer to his crotch and your face pretended to look like you were sucking on his penis.

The camera filmed Triple H behind his back so it would look like you were giving Triple H head and his penis wouldn't be exposed on television.

You moaned loudly with your mouth open before you implied to suck on Triple H's penis because when people say porn is fake, they mean people in porn are faking their orgasms.

And you can't really moan while having a dick in your mouth, it wouldn't be heard, especially when you have the guitar riff to Slam Jam's "We're All Together Now" blaring and nearly drowning your moans.

There have been many moments in the World Wrestling Federation---even the WWE---and other wrestling companies where the sex you have with other pro wrestlers is fake.

Like when you did a WWF commercial for a pay-per-view in the summer of 1998, where you pretended to ride on Triple H's dick and suck on Val Venis' cock, as well as when you've done moments where you're filmed behind your back and you're sitting on your knees with the back of your head covering Triple H's crotch and looking like you're giving him a blowjob, which is what was implied.

There are Chris Jericho-like lists of the fake sex you've had in professional wrestling, you've even had fake sex in movies and television shows.

[elpercotreviews]

My Anime 9/10′s

With probably no spoilers cuz I don’t wanna talk too long about them zzz.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist

YALL ALREADY KNOW THIS A 9/10. The only real reason this show is not a 10/10 is because it’s just a story that I’d never rewatch. There’s like 70 episodes, which is way too long for my short attention span, especially since I’ve seen it already. But yeah, by all accounts, this story is a masterpiece and is one of the only “shounen” anime’s that I genuinely enjoyed. No random sexualization. No dumb filler. All the characters have an actual purpose and role in the plot and everyone has their own morals and ideals that interact to make the story interesting. I couldn’t bring myself to really hate anyone, even the villains, because everyone was pretty well written. Also super satisfying ending that ties up everything properly without leaving me confused or upset. If you only watch a few anime in your life, Fullmetal Alchemist is pretty much a MUST WATCH to see a beautiful example of a modern classic anime as an artform. Also I should say that I really don’t like Hunter x Hunter (AN EXTREMELY CONTROVERSIAL OPINION BTW) but I love Fullmetal Alchemist so take from that what you will.

2. Parasyte: The Maxim

Same kinda shit where you already know this a 9/10 for me. It’s just a very satisfying anime that doesn’t have random sexualization or random filler or anything like that. Ending is also very good and ties up the story in a way that doesn’t leave more questions but also allows the characters to have a “life” outside of the scope of the story. I think Parasyte, because of its more horror and psychological-esque vibes, counts as a seinen and not a shounen, so for more mature audiences. I also really liked how the story was successfully adapted to modern times since the manga is from the 80′s. I have actually rewatched this anime, but what stops me from giving it a 10/10 is a few things that I found kinda “stereotypical” that I don’t wanna discuss further too much cuz it’s spoilers. I still obviously really like this anime and highly recommend it.

3. Zankyou no Terror

TBH, this anime is pretty hard for me to properly describe in a lot of words as to why I like it. The art was really pretty as well as the music, which was just straight up amazing. The cinematography of this anime is excellent as well, and a lot of scenes have that sense of being acted out by real people, as opposed to feeling completely drawn/animated. I was a teenager when this anime came out and I think a lot of the themes presented in the show really related to me. The show does kinda have some leftover questions when it ends that prevents me from rating it a 10/10, but I have such a soft spot for this anime. It’s from the same creator as Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop, and although those two animes are also very good, they did not impact me as much as this anime did. Recommended for people looking for idk something that gives off Inception vibes?? In the sense that it’s much more about its themes and its message more so than the believability of the events that occur.

4. Magic Kaito 1412

THIS IS JUST A PERSONAL PREFERENCE BTW LOLOL I DON’T KNOW ANYBODY WHO’D PUT THIS AS A 9/10 ANIME. I JUST REALLY LIKED IT OKAY. It’s made by the same person who does Detective Conan but I like this a lot more because it’s a much shorter series and slightly more mature (more for teens than just straight up kids). I really liked the main guy, I think he’s funny and charismatic. He’s a pervert at times but Imma forgive that cuz of the 90′s. Idk it’s just a really fun anime that I don’t have to take seriously and can just watch and enjoy.

5. Mob Psycho 100 (season 1 AND 2)

Imma put season two as slightly better than season one. So season one would be like a 9 and season two is like a 9.25 for me. Super super funny anime and I like it SO much more than One Punch Man. I liked that there was a good balance of serious moments, but you can definitely still count this anime as a comedy. I’m typically not the type to watch “comedy” but this anime genuinely had me laughing out loud, while also crying and freaking out right alongside the main character. The main guy is super great because he’s just this shy and sweet middle schooler, and it’s really interesting watching him balance trynna have a normal life while also using his powers for good and such. Apparently the anime was decently faithful to the manga and there’s apparently enough material for a third season so I’d be pretty stoked for a season 3, but season 2 ended on a pretty good spot and was satisfying. TBH, if I had the time, I’d probably rewatch both seasons and bump it up to a 10/10.

6. Vinland Saga

This anime is just the first season of what I hopes to be a whole series that will be stay beautifully and faithfully adapted from the manga. As someone who read very far into the manga (but quit like years ago simply because I hate slow updates lol), I actually didn’t enjoy watching the anime at first. I was impatient and kept waiting for when like the “major” events would happen. So I watched like three episodes and quit. But when I had some free time, I decided to get stuck in and commit to watching the whole series and I was so pleasantly surprised with just how good it was. I was impatient but I needed to realize that there is no “filler” or like “wasted time” in the entire anime. I hadn’t read the manga in years, so so many things were only vaguely familiar but I think this helped me stay surprised and excited throughout the anime. I’m looking forward to the rest of the manga being adapted because it’s just a good Viking saga lolol. Major themes of stuff like growing up, violence vs. peace, what it means to be a good person, etc. Lots of blood and LOTS of violence like a LOT they are VIKINGS CMON but tbh not really any gore which I liked cuz gore makes me ughhhh. A very good watch and only a taste of an excellent story.

7. Demon Slayer

It’s just Demon Slayer duhhh. Of course this a 9/10 for me. I don’t wanna write much just cuz the show is so popular. Just read a REAL review of this anime somewhere else lmaoooo. Also yes I did watch the movie in theaters and yes I liked it a lot as well mmkay. I’m mad hype for season two. My S/O doesn’t like Demon Slayer as much as me, but also has Hunter x Hunter as their all time favorite anime. Do with that information what you will lolol.

8. Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

Same shit as Demon Slayer. Just go read someone else’s review about why it’s so good lol. Also, unlike Mob Psycho 100, I can’t include all of the seasons in this, because I have very various opinions about how good/bad the other seasons were. But this season 3 part 2, was just plain and simply amazing. While I might not like each season equally, as a whole Attack on Titan is also a modern masterpiece of storytelling. Read the manga if you can.

9. Great Pretender

I love this anime so much. Such a good and fun wild ride. The whole show is ridiculous but in a fun way. I’m a HUGE fan of heist films, so of course I absolutely enjoyed a heist anime. I’ve watched this show in sub AND dub, due to the fact that everyone is “technically” speaking English the entire time. If you’re a purist, just watch in sub OR dub cuz I did get confused here and there, especially when I would go back to compare language discrepancies.  Because basically I did this super high maintenance thing where I switched back to Japanese whenever the main character had flashbacks, since he’s ya know, Japanese. The dub also has this confusing thing where the first five minutes or so are still in Japanese, but switches to English when a little cue card on the screen goes “For the Viewers sake, everything from now on will be translated to Japanese.” It’s cuz in the sub, the inverse obviously happens where the characters are initially speaking broken English to each other, but for convenience sake, everything from that point on will be in Japanese. It’s confusing at first but I liked it cuz it just proved the whole international vibe of the show. It’s funny either sub or dub when they joke about how bad the main guy speaks English, cuz in the dub he’s speaking perfect English, while the sub has him not speaking English at all. But anyway, great anime that WOULD have gotten a 10/10 if not for the last episode. Like without spoiling ... WTF WAS THAT LMAOOOO. The anime as a whole is super wacky and zany but at least I could try to think it’s real life, but that last episode was just so unbelievable and bizarre and pulled my suspension of disbelief into the STRATOSPHERE that I just had to convince myself that this show takes place in some improbable alternate reality where something like what happened in the last episode is at least 5 percent possible CUZ HOW DID ANY OF THAT WORK LMAOOO??? Once again, great show, one of my absolute favorites, BUT THAT ENDING THOUGH WTF.

10. BNA

Good super underrated anime that I don’t hear people talk about at all. If Beastars is anime Zootopia, then BNA is Disney Beastars lmaooo does that make sense? It’s a lot more fun and zany than Beastars and I liked it way more. Made by the same people who made Kill la Kill. I really like that more classic, animated “cheap” art style that the anime has, and I also really liked the plot of the story. Not a 10/10 cuz the show does leave a few unanswered questions at the end of it, but this show was such a fun and interesting ride. When I finished the last episode, I was left with a big smile on my face because I just genuinely enjoyed this anime. Recommended if you wanna watch something a little unique and more on the silly and wack side. Talks about some serious stuff, but luckily the show never takes itself TOO seriously, and remains overall lighthearted for a fun action/sci-fi show.

[itcamefromthetoybox]

You Look A Bit Flushed

Halloween is this weekend, and I freaking love Halloween! That’s also why I was so livid to not get to spend last Halloween partying. That was the Halloween on a Saturday that was also a full moon. It would have been the greatest Halloween ever, and the last Halloween I could have gone nuts over, since it was less than a year later that I developed a chronic illness that limits what I can really do. So of course a global pandemic happened, and of course people were too selfish and stupid to wear masks, socially distance, and do whatever was necessary to not spread the virus. And so, between a virus and the selfishness of the average American, I lost out on what would have been my greatest Halloween ever. I am a tiny bit livid. What cheers me up, though, is the fact that there’s going to be a new Ghostbusters movie, like I mentioned in my review of Fright Feature Slimer a while back. To celebrate the new film, and to cash in on people who grew up with the original and can now feel the cold hands of time clutching at their throats, Hasbro is rereleasing some of the toys from the hit 80’s cartoon, “The Real Ghostbusters!” And as someone who loves Ghostbusters, Halloween, and weird toys, I couldn’t pass up the chance to grab today’s figure, “Kenner Classics The Real Ghostbusters Fearsome Flush Retro Figure!” Though I could pass on that long-ass name.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s if a movie came out that had the potential to appeal to kids, it got a toyline and a Saturday morning cartoon, no matter how inappropriate for kids it actually was. That’s how kids got toys of Rambo, Robocop, the Xenomorph from “Alien,” and, of course, the Ghostbusters. The studio saw a ton of potential to make some bank off it, so they put together a decent cartoon that kids adored. The name was a bit weird, but there was a good reason for that. There was an earlier show by Filmation called “Ghost Busters,” which was about two dudes and a gorilla that fought ghosts, which got its own cartoon in the 80’s called “Ghostbusters” (note the new spelling), around the same time as this one. Columbia and DIC Entertainment wanted the show based off the movie to be the one kids thought about and didn’t want to deal with the copyright issues of also calling their cartoon “Ghostbusters,” so, in a clever move that also served as a nice middle finger to Filmation, they called the movie tie-in cartoon “The Real Ghostbusters.”

Kids ate it up, to the point it got an actually decent 90’s sequel, “Extreme Ghostbusters,” which gave me nightmares in my own, long-lost youth. Between that and the movie, this franchise was a gold mine! Kenner, the company that brought us the original Star Wars toys, was tapped to put out a toyline, which, shockingly, was also a hit. The main appeal of it, though, wasn’t the toys of the Ghostbusters themselves. Kenner decided to make figures of ghosts and monsters for our heroes to fight that looked like normal people and things, but could change into horrifying creatures. And let me tell you, there were some weird ones, like a lumberjack, a cop, someone’s grandma, and, of course, a toilet.

There are so many crappy jokes I could make here, but I’d like to think I’m above that sort of toilet humor.

The Fearsome Flush looks like a toilet. It looks like a really convincing toilet. There really isn’t too much to say there. It’s a toilet with the seat down that looks really convincing, which is what you want for a monster that’s supposed to be disguised as the porcelain throne. The lid does have the Ghostbuster logo engraved on it, which is a bit weird. It’s like the monster has a tattoo of its greatest enemy on it, like if the CEO of Coke had a tattoo of a Pepsi bottle on his ass or I had a tattoo of responsible financial behavior across my chest.

The thing that makes this toy fun, though, is the gimmick. On the bottom of the toilet are two wheels and a little nub for balance. If you roll the toilet forward, the tank flips open to reveal a pair of demonic, angry eyes. The lid flips open to reveal a purple symbol on the bottom and a set of teeth around the seat, while a large red tongue flips out. It looks positively ghoulish, and I love it! Roll the toilet forward to watch the monster parts flip in and out, over and over!

Considering where his mouth and giant tongue are, this ghost must have done something pretty terrible in life to come back like this.

Fearsome Flush is a really simple toy. Other than the gimmick, there’s no articulation, which makes sense because it’s a toilet with no limbs. It’s a fun, simple toy from the 80’s that was meant to entertain kids. It looks exactly like the style of the cartoon, the toilet mode looks like a toilet, and it’s just a fun, simple toy.

Fearsome Flush and the other Kenner Classics figures are Walmart exclusive figures, with Fearsome Flush going for about $15. Honestly, that feels like a it much to me, though I do understand it’s because of inflation and other economic factors. The figure is aimed at collectors, specifically people who grew up with the cartoon, but the toy would be great for kids, especially those who like weird, gross, and strange things. It’s a demonic toilet with a simple, fun gimmick. Kids would love that. This is JL signing off now and wishing you Happy Toy Hunting!

[thefilmsimps]

A Grab Bag of Shushy Reviews

Hey Shushy here! As some know I'm taking some time off from the podcasts to focus on enjoying my free time (and watching whatever the fuck I want every week) but now I've watched a bunch of stuff and I have nowhere to talk about it so get ready for a 12 paragraph grab bag of movie reviews! (This thing is a real novel and I don’t care how you feel about that.)

I'll be reviewing them in descending order of how I felt about them:

TITANE - 9/10

Goddamn this movie fucks. The first act of this movie is crazier than the third act of any superhero or action property that's come out in the last thirty years, this movie starts at 120 MPH. The second act slows down the plot a bit and the rest of the movie is a surreal slow-burn but that's also what makes it truly great even if it does feel a bit slow in the last half hour. (The final scene does match the insanity of the beginning though and the ending is great.)

Check this shit out! A lady fucks a car.

PERFECT BLUE - 8.5/10

A great anime from the late 90's with social commentary that still really resonates today. The animation and voice acting are incredible and it's only like 80 minutes long and has a quick-moving plot that hits you hard and often. It's a mostly fantastic movie with a last minute twist that I wasn't super crazy about but works as part of the story it's telling, maybe if I was watching this before the Me Too movement happened I'd give it a higher score. It's also got a genuinely disturbing scene of simulated sexual assault so just know that going in.

There's a scene early on where the main character uses Netscape Navigator to get onto the internet and I had not thought about that app since the last time I used it probably in like the year 2000 and I instantly felt like I was a thousand years old, it was awesome.

LAMB 7.5/10

I was really excited for this movie after I saw the trailer and while it's a good movie it's definitely not as much of a blast as the trailer implied. I saw this less than 48 hours after seeing Titane (which weirdly has similar story elements except Titane starts on meth and then switches to heroin while Lamb is like experiencing a full mushroom trip including the slow build-up.)

The first act of Lamb definitely feels like you're watching someone just do their Animal Crossing chores, in my opinion it could have been trimmed down to Perfect Blue length and been a tighter movie. Once the movie introduces the child it gets way more interesting (especially once you get a decent look at her) and then it's a pleasant slow burn until the final scene which randomly is insane and then the movie ends. I was really upset that they didn't keep going because if the plot had an additional 20 minutes of story that went on past the events of the final scene man that could have been a 9 or a 10, like I was so ready for whatever was about to happen and then it ended. This could have been Midsommar or The Lighthouse-level great but they stopped far too short.

Better than Saint Maud though.

FREE GUY - 5.5/10

I watched this illegally on my buddy's PLEX account and I'm so glad I didn't pay for it. I know a lot of people in here were raving about it but I really think you all were just so excited to be back inside a movie theater again that you didn't care if the movie you were watching was generic as fuck. Because goddamn this movie is a pandering mess, it really wants to remind you that Fortnite exists, and I usually will forgive a movie quite a lot if it gives me Ryan Reynolds being funny but outside of a couple lines (none of which I can even recall right now but I do remember laughing) it wasn't really that funny. The action was also too CGI-y to be exciting and you can tell that this was filmed before Disney bought Fox and that after the deal went through they went back and did some re-shoots because there's a scene with literally only Ryan Reynolds in it that goes through multiple shameless Disney-owned IP references (Marvel, Star Wars, etc) that was so fucking obnoxious it took me out of the movie and made me yell "FUCK YOU!" at my screen.

And while the plot is serviceable and most of the cast is fine let me tell you that this movie kind of ruined Taika Waititi for me, he's the villain that's trying to be super funny in every single scene he's in and miserably fails. He's painfully bad in this and as someone who's loved pretty much every movie I've watched him direct (including Jojo Rabbit which blew me away) I really can't believe how horrible he was in this. His character in this is the exact opposite of Korg. He was more charming and likeable when he was playing Hitler. He's not funny whenever he's trying to be and then when the plot calls on him to be scary and evil he's not good at that either, they should have cast Matt Berry instead.

(Also why was Channing Tatum in two scenes? Was that a cameo or has he become less famous over the years?)

Oh I remember one of the jokes I liked. It was about gun violence in America. It was pretty spot-on. Ryan Reynolds didn't even say it, Jodie Comer did. She deserved so much better than this movie.

MUPPETS HAUNTED MANSION - 4/10

Let me start by saying I generally watch all Muppets stuff for the most part. I’m not a completionist by any means but I loved Jason Segel’s The Muppets and was really let down by Muppets Most Wanted. I’m probably one of like five people in the country however that actually really enjoyed their sitcom from a few years back that ripped off The Office (I thought it was pretty interesting that Kermit broke up with Piggy and I liked his new pig girlfriend and honestly like I totally got why he did it, she was hot. I’m not ashamed to admit this.) I don’t think it was an amazing show by any means but I loved The Muppets being in a property more aimed at adults again because my least favorite Muppets is Muppets directly aimed at children, these characters are at their best when it’s aiming at both simultaneously (The Muppet Movie is a 10/10 masterpiece and The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppet Christmas Carol are both all-time classics.)

Which brings us to this thing. It reeks of being whipped together on the fly during COVID (90% of the guest stars were clearly filmed against green screens) and while there are a couple good jokes and like one single good song (and it’s NOT the abysmal Dancing In The Moonlight cover everyone awkwardly dances to at the very end) this is a massive letdown. This has the same energy of those lazy Simpsons Disney Plus shorts, like I know that Disney wants originals for its streaming service but the stuff they shit out for it feels extra shat out. This thing is only like 54 minutes long and yet it drags. You can tell whether or not a Muppets thing is being made by someone who deeply loves The Muppets (like Jason Segel’s movie) but this felt really haphazardly assembled. Not even Will Arnett being the most prominent human character could save it (and Taraji P. Henson was legitimately painful.) Bad plot, very few good jokes or songs and really bad editing especially in the last 20 minutes. Do better, Muppets.

And that’s it! If you saw any of these movies and disagree with my opinion you’re wrong.

[amphii-writes]

Random Haikyuu Head Canons I Have

these are all taken from my discord server cause i remember to write them there, if you want to request fanfics, my requests are W I D E open! there is also nO order! these are just all the headcanons i could find tbh

warnings: mentions of blood, and just overall wild times, swearing

Asahi loves knitting sweaters because his shoulders are broad and he also loves seeing the reactions from his teammates when they get a sweater from him! He says he buys them but he doesn’t

Aone likes knitting socks because he has big feet and he loves fluffy knee high socks but his team will never know

Asahi and Aone regularly hang out and knit together! (after asahi wasnt scared of him anyways)

Nishinoya gives you shiny rocks he finds because “your eyes shine like them!”

Yamaguchi likes to have your head rest on his chest while cuddling!

Aone likes to bake

Aone dressed like a polar bear because koganegawa told him to- halloween was amazing

daICHI HAS A KISS THE COOK APRON

Daichi secretly can make some kick ass steak and is amazing at grilling sorry

Okay but real talk, Kenma and Yaku swear like sailors and it scares everyone because they always whisper the most foul, insulting things under their breath. Hearing it is like seeing a cryptid

Speaking of cryptids, Fukunaga and Shibayama are THE most true crime, mythology, and mystery obsessed fanatics on the team and often fanboy about it together 

Fukunaga’s obsession with moth man has gotten to an unhealthy stage

Kenma absolutely had a vampire phase and has read twilight. Only Kuroo knows and has sworn to secrecy via blood pact

Kuroo’s a musical nerd. Knows all of the lyrics to Hamilton, BMC, DEH, Heathers, Rent, Beetlejuice, Etc. Kenma considered dropping him because of it

Iwaizumi tells the worst dad jokes and Kyotani, wanting to beat him, started doing it too and it drives everyone insane

Yahaba and Matsukawa get along surprisingly well. Both are true crime freaks and bond over their forensic files obsessions

Matsukawa didn’t really like his thick eyebrows so he got one of his female friends to pluck it for him, but almost cried and gave up after the first hair. Oikawa called him a pussy for the next year

Hanamaki jokingly flirts with everyone on the team so most of them just got used to it, but it still confuses Kindaichi to the point of mental breakdown

Makki called Kyotani ‘puppy’ as a joke once and now mad dog is truly terrified of him

Kyotani’s dog absolutely ADORES Oikawa and it’s the funniest shit to the rest of the team

Mattsun and Makki play DnD and once convinced Yahaba and Kyotani to join. Kyotani kept rolling to fight everyone and Yahaba was a bard that kept rolling to seduce everyone. They kept yelling across the board so they had to kick them out

Outside of his school uniform, Goshiki specifically wears only plaid

Tendou makes little chocolates for the whole team every once in a while so they don’t think he’s scary

Semi and Shirabu once had a fistfight in an abandoned McDonald’s parking lot while Tendou filmed and Goshiki cheered them on

Everybody makes fun of Shirabu’s haircut but nobody dares to say it to his face. its gotten to the point where they say he got it done by a blind old lady

There’s a running joke about Shirabu also getting his haircut from prison but Goshiki is starting to suspect that it may not be a joke

Yamagata and Tendou are good friends with the mutual goal of collecting as much blackmail on their team as possible

Tendou loves animals generally considered to be ‘ugly’ like rats, crows, reptiles, etc.

80% of Goshiki’s playlist is shit overplayed on the radio. Him, Shirabu, Tendou, Kawanishi and Ushijima have a permanent ban from the aux cord

Nobody watches YouTube with Ushijima because he never skips the damn ads (other than tendou)

Suna once said y’all’dn’t’ve unironically and made a first year cry

Akagi once said UwU unironically and had an identity crisis.

Osamu has one of those rainbow gaming keyboards and is constantly on a discord call. Atsumu always yells weird shit in the background to embarrass him and once pretended to be him

During Seijoh group chat arguments. Hanamaki and Mattsukawa like to drop facebook minion memes in just to piss everyone off even more

mattsun and maki both have separate photo albums in their phones labelled ‘minion memes to piss everyone off’

Hinata carries a pocket knife and no one has no fucking idea why

mattsun and maki both have matching rat fursuits that look like they actually where in a sewer- they chased oikawa around

For all his talk of plant analogies and metaphors, Ushijima cant grow shit

Goshiki’s Bangs are the way they are because his favorite character was Rock Lee from Naruto

Oikawa has watched Ouran High School Host Club front to back so many times and he can quote all of Tamaki’s lines by heart -He keeps bothering Iwaizumi to “be his Haruhi, since you’re shorter than me”

Koganegawa has definitely gone as an Angry Bird for Halloween

Fukunaga has those reflective cat eyes, and he has terrified Yamamoto on several occasion

Hanamaki and Matsukawa have a teddy bear that they pretend is their child and they share custody

Suga always sprays whipped cream straight into his mouth whenever he sees a can

Nishinoya definitely bit people as a kid

Nishinoya would be the guy to wear shorts all year round and even if it's snowing, he'll insist he's not cold

Tendou is still stuck in his emo phase and would fangirl over Creepypasta with me and I appreciate that (me too buddy, me fuckin too)

Kyoutani LOOKS like he’d listen to viking death metal, but in reality he listens to Mother Mother and knows all the words to Ghosting

Sugawara would definitely encourage me to dumb shit and not stop me, and you’re all dumb for thinking he wouldn’t 

KENMA IS NOT ‘uwu owo’ SHY, HE IS ‘your fucking gross’ SHY SO LITERALLY STFU

Bokuto listens to Nicki Manaj. And knows all the words. To every. Single. Song.

Ushijima for some reason knows an odd amount of 90′s-2000′s R&B and he will hum along to the songs if they come on the radio (he also loves Dolly Parton) ((he says he relates to her music))

Bokuto once ate instant ramen for an entire month

TERUSHIMA DID TRY TO FUCK A PLANT WHILE SHITFACED AND GOD I STAND BY WHAT I SAID

atsumu let’s you put makeup on him and pretends to eat the brushes (do yk what im talking about- like n o m)

tendou ran for school president as a joke but actually won

i 100% believe that all of karasuno’s third years apologize when they bump into inanimate objects, but when suga is really tired or stressed out, he’ll yell at them instead.

Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Taketora have a group chat called "Bros who want sum hoes" and they send each other hypebeast memes and shit

Sugawara knows how to do a bunch of flexible shit because he sometimes goes to yoga with daichi and asahi's moms, its fucking hilarious

tanaka and noya both breakdance- they work as a team and sometimes go to tokyo for underground competitions- saeko drives them

Daichi knows a little ballet- nobody other than Kiyoko knows because they saw each other at the ballet class and had to work together- dont tell tanaka and noya that he lifted her though

Osamu once put glitter on Atsumu's pillow- he still finds hot pink glitter on shit

kita knits and crochets with his grandma

Kita's grandma knows everyone's names because kita talks shit bout them, her favorite is Aran

Kuroo has burnt his eyebrows off doing an experiment. His goggles didn't cover all his brows,,, so he just showed up to practice like that. No eyebrows and a chemical burn

kenma has played all kinds of games, but he was dared to play corpse party by kuroo. He wasn't scared because of the gore, he was thinking about the trauma the characters went through. Punched kuroo the next day because that game was fucked up

Lev isn't a strong swimmer, so he often grabs people by the head to keep himself up. happened with kenma and lev couldn't walk due to the force of kenmas suprised water kicks

akaashi has those fancy pens that you have to dip in ink and they're so nice

Bokuto has and will eat pencil erasers again

Daichi once almost lost his shit at his team but instead he lost his shit at the door that decided to stub his toe on the way out of the gym. not the best thing to be found yelling to.

Yamaguchi for sure has been dragged to one of terushimas parties because he didnt wanna say no. oh and terushima has like frat boy level parties too. Yams has for sure had some wild nights and doubts anyone other than Tsukishima and the party-goers will ever know

Akaashi can actually flirt very well! He reads romance novels sometimes and has analyzed any and every book in his possession! so he's actually quite charming

Daihsou unironically posted on twitter after mika broke up with him "I still see her shadows in my room"

Mattsun and Maki run a fake oikawa account; its been going ever since twitter even started getting popular and they even started sending messages in spanish. The posts would range from "I love all my fans!" to flirting with them :) Oikawa is pissed cause the account got verified before he did and most of his fans also follow the fake oikawa. Tooru has no idea who runs it JUST IMAGINE OIKAWA JUST LIKE RANTING TO THE SEIJOH 3RD YEAR ALUMNI AND JUST "no Iwa-chan, you dont understand! they run a fake account and pretend to be me!" while makki and mattsun laugh their asses off

Oh, kenma for sure has pretended to be a girl on discord and has gotten someone to buy him stuff. after they do he says in his normal voice "fucking simp" and then hangs up and blocks the other persons discord

Yamamoto, despite his rough appearance, loves kids and has and will be a human jungle gym

suna in middle school had a game with his friends about who could make kids cry the fastest

The twins switched places back in middle school and nobody could tell because of how great they are at acting like eachother

Daichi once arrested coach ukai for public intoxication after a game :|

Daichi has arrested many people from his old volleyball team but the most memorable case was when he arrested tanaka and noya for reckless driving. poor idiots got so scared when they saw their old captains face in their mirror and started to pray

tanaka, while trying to intimidate someone, once said "You dont gotta tell me twice, i may be straight but these hands are bisexual" and he often cringes at night thinking about it

Kageyama, as a comeback to Tsukishima, said "one thing about us royalty is that we love to feast" and he also fuckin hates what he said

the third years made a cult for Kiyoko. they chant every wednesday "i'll do anything for kiyoko, she makes me go loco"

oikawas fangirls are known to be fucking rabid

yAMAMOTO AND KENMA AFTER THEIR FIGHT WERE FORCED BY KUROO TO MAKE IT UP: so they dyed their hair together

Makki and mattsun sang two trucks in front of the entire team. everyone was so confused. Makki: "twO TRUCKS HAVIN SEX!!" Mattsun: "oH yEs!"THEY'D SWITCH OFF AND HAVE LIKE CHOREOGRAPHY TOO LIKE THEY'D DO A TANGO WHILE THE SONG IS LIKE "two beer trucks, making love"

tendou once called Oikawa "mr. no-nationals" and got kicked in the shins before iwaizumi could save him

Tsukishima had a my little pony phase

you work with matsukawa at a morgue and he makes dead people jokes while you fix some dead guys face with wax and makeup he'd be like "so didnt he like,,, stick his head out of the sunroof of a moving fuckin car??" he'd be singing dumb ways to die the entire day

i feel like Kuroo has one crazy accident a year. like it might not be deadly but its fucking crazy like for example: Kuroo for sure has ridden in a shopping cart at past midnight with kenma (who pushed him down a hill) causing Kuroo to get scratched up hella well. he lied and said he spent the night with a girl and kenma fucking hated himself cause he would be the girl if that was true

Mattsun has flirted with the 4th years moms before (AS A JOKE), and because of this: he is known as “fuckin milf hunter” sometimes by the team

Warning, this next headcanon is talking about cannabis, weed, mary jane, the zoink root. so if your uncomfortable, please dont read below :)

dude i wanna get high as SHIT with Asahi 

i think Asahi would be one of those mfkers who takes one hit and is gone 

ASAHI ACCIDENTALLY GOING TO PRACTICE ZOINKED 

IMAGINE HIM SEEING TSUKISHIMA AND JUST "he looks so judgemental,,, im scared" 

OR LIKE A MAD DAICHI AND JUST "i'm gonna,,, im gonna go jump out the window now" 

Noya and Tanaka would know tho, i feel like they'd have a 6th sense when it comes to weed. they probably get some from Saeko cause she'd rather they do it in the house. they'd smell asahi like fucking dogs and just so,,, big guy had fun without us huh? 

DAICHI WOULD KNOW ABOUT ASAHI BEING ZOINKED, SMASH HIS FACE INTO THE WALL, TURN AROUND WITH A RED MARK ON HIS FOREHEAD AND WITH A BEAMING SMILE AND FEUX ENTHUSIASM SAY: "YOSH, LETS WARM UP!"

[the-lost-media-blog]

Saki Sanobashi/Go for a Punch (Warning: Mentions of violence and suicide)

Alright, the first post for my new blog. Teach, if you’re reading this than hi :). Okay, lets get started!

Go For A Punch (also known as Saki Sanobashi) is a supposed lost anime that is speculated to have been made in either the 80′s or early 90′s that only have a sub available.

The first mention of Saki is on a 4-Chan comment on a post in 2015 asking about what was the most messed up thing found on the Deep Web. The comment in question said that they (the one who told the internet about this and will be called OP) they found the Deep Web. OP went on to describe how, in 2011 they found a subbed anime OVA called, at least on the site, ‘Go For A Punch’. In it, they described what it was about, so here’s the brief description:

Nine girls are trapped inside of a bathroom with no way out, they have debates over whether or not they’re going to get out. After days of starving, and being naked for some reason (honestly idk either), all of them commit suicide by either bashing their heads in against the floor/clawing at their throats, with one girl with a bright -almost white- hime cut being drowned by another girl in the sink because she couldn’t do it herself. ( below is a reference image of the hair cut.)

The OP mentions that it was 80′s-ish in quality, most girls had short bushy brown hair (there was also the hime cut girl who might have white hair, there’s a red-head and apparently a blonde?), the eyes were small and far apart, strange camera angels, a scream that sounded like the scream Dies Irae from Stanly Kubrick’s The Shinning, the player on the site is similar to the modern Bing Player, and that there really wasn’t any music. People questioned OP as the whole thing sounded interesting, and defiantly stood out from the troll and basic ‘I saw real gore’ posts. One of these comments is where the name Saki Sanobashi came from.

The search went on for 5 years as of when I’m writing this, blowing up after YouTuber Whang posted a video on November 21, 2019 as apart of his ‘Tales From The Internet’ series, which brought more attention to it as part one has 779k views at the current time of writing.

One thing I would like to note is that many people have claimed to have seen Saki, some going into details that OP didn’t list, but sadly the majority of those posts have been proven false, with one admitting that their lie was only made to show how gullible people are, and will believe that anything’s Saki. 

Many people were hoping to find this lost anime, one person made a series where they go over manga/anime to see if it’s Saki (the series is on YouTube with a least 50 parts). There has been many false leads, one of which includes the profile pic I’m using claiming the girl was from Saki, but it’s not. Another reason for why the search got crazy was because of all the gore filled anime from back then. Like seriously, there’s a lot there some are more known than others. Also, side note, Saki Sanobashi/Go For A Punch has it’s own TV Tropes page, which is how you know it got big. 

But on December 22, 2019 someone claiming to be OP made a post on one of the many sub-reddits. 

They said that they made it all up for laughs since they thought the creator of the original 4-Chan thread was an idiot for expecting a serious answer, and OP’s coming forward since they feel bad for how crazy this all had gotten. Their proof was screen shots of the hime girl (which is above and why I chose it) and a book spine which was OP’s pic for the very first post on 4-chan, both screenshots dated for 2015, as well as the Bing player, and the Dies Irae scream.

Now, many people, like myself, are assuming that this OP might not be the real OP. One of the main reasons being why would they still hold onto those specific images, for nearly 4 years at that point, if it was for a troll post. This OP said it’s because they don’t delete downloaded pics, which sound off to me. I will delete pics on my phone if I don’t see a reason to keep it (example: I’ll keep a pic of the Halloween Timeline so I can keep track of which films are on which timeline, but delete a screenshot from a BuzzFeed quiz). But, never the less, some people gave up on the search, leading one of the sub-reddits to become nothing but memes, and the other ones had to pick up the slack. 

One group on the sub-reddit is claiming to be making the OVA themselves under the title Team Saki, the trailer’s on YouTube so I suggest that you look it up yourself. I’ve also heard of a possible Visual Novel being made of Saki on one of the sub-reddits. Also, there’s tons of fanart of Saki out there, so if you wanna see how some see it then go ahead search if you want to, there’s a whole sub-reddit dedicated just to artwork. On TikTok, there’s plenty of lovely cosplays as well.

Another thing I feel like mentioning is that there’s a music video made by a J-Pop (Japanese Pop) group, that some people claim is inspired by Saki. I kind of see that, I mean, the art shown at the start looks 80′s-ish, and there are some basic similarities. But, that being said, I’m betting it’s all a coincidence, and we have no clue what the Lost Media scene is like in Japan as Lost Media is different in every country (as the Lost Media ice-burg, made in Spanish, has shown). I’ve Googled if it was, and I’ve seen some sites claim that, but I’m sticking with it’s a coincidence until there’s an official claim from the band themselves to confirm the inspiration so I’m not going by word of mouth. 

Here’s the music video if you wanna check it out and there’s also (fake) blood as well as a suicide scene in it, so just to let you know so you’re not caught off guard when it happens. They stay dressed though, with only the pantyhose getting cut. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBK33DvIoM

So as of when I’m writing, all we have is the mentioned teaser, concept art on the sub-reddit for both the animation and visual novel, an odd half live-action half drawn recreation clip made October 30, 2019. As well as just loads of dead ends. Some people hope that if we find it, or at the very least Team Saki turns out good or it leads to the real deal comes out because of something like a copyright claim or something.

I personally believe that it could exist some where out there, but maybe under a different name and somewhat buried on the internet. I meant if something that was banned such as Shoujo Tsukubki can find it’s way onto YouTube (aka the Surface Web/ Clear net) then it’s honestly possible it’s out there.

Either that or I just wasted your time with reading about something that might not even exist, so here have a kitty!

GO FOR A PUNCH/SAKI’S CURRENT STATUS:  Existence unconfirmed, but fan projects are being made.

[ellsey]

Agents of Shield Rewatch 7x09 As I Have Always Been

First of all, we’re not going to discuss how many times I’ve seen this episode because...welll...the number is pretty high. But this is legit my #1 favorite episode of all time. This episode is an example of this show firing on all cylinders and just at it’s absolute best. And it’s really one of the last times we get to see our family all working together, and that’s where I think this show gets its strength. 

Anyway, this may get super long idk I just have a lot of feelings about this ep.

The number of times Chloe must have had to film waking up in this thing is probably pretty high

Ok first things first, my very favorite thing is Sousa using that box of gloves as a pillow because having spent a good portion of my lower to mid-20s in labs I will not pretend like I haven’t considered doing that

“I was so much happier asleep” MY MOOD EVERY SINGLE DAY

94 km away...I’m going to try and keep track of these numbers

Sousa’s face at the smell of Deke’s 80′s cologne hahahaha

And now we’re in our loop #2 (but who knows the real number)

Ok, since I used to be a med tech (aka I worked in a hospital lab), I have questions about why they have so many green and blue tubes there. I mean...green tops are heparin tubes so I guess you can use those for basic chemistry tests, so that might be usable for multiple things. But those blue tops? That’s sodium citrate and the only thing I know of we used those for were coagulation tests. Which require some specific equipment. Does Jemma plan to run that many PT/PTTs?? And on what???

LOOK I HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT OK

And yes I remember those anticoagulants by heart still

The repeating title card is :chef’s kiss:

Daisy very quickly realizes she’s looping

91 km now

I’m wondering if there was something cut here by the way Sousa says, “See?” to Simmons as if we are missing some part of a conversation they had

My guess would be Jemma was all “You can go rest in your bunk you know Agent Sousa” and he’s like “Nope, gotta make sure Daisy rests” and Jemma’s like “...do you though?” and Sousa’s all “Yep. She will not do it on her own. Trust me.”

Maybe there’s enough for a fic plot in there

Ok, we’re now on loop #3

Daisy also very quickly realizes that she’s waking Sousa up with her boots and is very quiet so he can get some sleep

Awwww

I kind of wish I knew what May was sensing from Daisy right about now

I love love that Robo Coulson is so over this

The way he says “This guy” KILLS ME

So Coulson knows of 87 loops, but we know in this case Daisy didn’t wake him for 2 loops this time...we’re going to be doing some mathing soon lads

Also we just covered loops #4 and #5 since the ep started

Coulson says this is loop #90 which matches up still

And loop #6 for us now

Daisy was kind of loud there but didn’t wake up Sousa sooo...idk

79 km now

I love that Daisy realizes that to solve faster she needs the entire team

This must be loop #7 because Deke now says they are 65 km from the vortex

“It’s kind of hard to access” YOU DON’T SAY

And now people know about Jemma’s implant which...FINALLY

Phlebotinum is an amazing word bless

Making yourself cough like that seems like a rough day of filming 

And directing

Deke’s face when Nana is dead though :(

Loop #8

It was sabotage!!!

But also Daisy died so we’re starting over memory-wise

Loop #9

48 km

Daisy legit forgot about her boots waking Sousa up too ha

Loop #10

And this time we wake up Coulson again

41 km

Enoch, Deke, and Jemma standing there is so freaking hilarious

Jemma is so done even though she doesn’t remember any of this hahaha

Loop #11

This is the one where we try to get Elena out and helping

Loop #12

Phlebotinum!

Sousa finally woke up on his own I guess

That smile when he says, “Reminds me of my SSR days” like

He lives for this chaos he just doesn’t want to admit it

Also look at him being a smart agent here

And let’s talk about the trust Sousa has in Daisy for a sec

He not just immediately believes her about the time loops, but he immediately understands what she is saying about what is happening. Thus he knows this isn’t really a sacrifice play because he’ll come back AND he’ll have saved her the trouble of forgetting. But also, he trusts her so implicitly that he’s willing to risk his life for her. 

It’s beautiful y’all

And poor Daisy has to add watching Sousa die to her list of traumas cool cool cool

Although that does give me writing ideas...

Loop #13

Daisy immediately pops up to ensure herself that Sousa is still there napping away and like

I legit thought this was going to be the peak Dousy moment in this episode when she stops and just watches him breathing for a bit hahaha

She does not want to leave him there either and then the way she says, “We’re making progress” then adds a kind of soft “thanks to Sousa” like

Daisy is going through some stuff here

Coulson is going through some stuff too

Clark Gregg is killllllling this

And Coulson realizes that Enoch is the problem

“Oh dear” ENOCH HAHAHAHA

Loop #14

“Why do you care?” “Because you don’t”

Ummmmm MY HEART

But Daisy is not just accepting that he’s willing to die for her, she wants to know why now

Which obviously we will circle back to in a few loops or so

See, Jemma says she has to be awake to remove them implant...I guess the difference before was that Enoch wasn’t removing it?

Idk that makes no sense

Loop #15

Send in Sousa to distract Enoch

That “Hello!!” omg Sousa no

Sousa is surprisingly bad at this

Sousa’s muffled “Sorry” KILLS ME

As does Daisy’s face

Loop #16

Appeal to Enoch’s sense of irony

Loop #17

Have Jemma countermand her previous order

Loop #18

Bring in the whole gang

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS KILLS ME

“Where’d he get all those weapons?”

Poor dead Deke

Them realizing it doesn’t matter because they’ll all come back

The way May looks like she’s relaxing

Sousa’s feet framing Daisy’s face

Legit this is amazing and I love it

Loop #19

“Actually, I can take a loop” 

WE LOVE TO SEE IT

“It all phases me, just maybe not my face”

Ummmmm sir

Your face

While lovely it definitely gives you away

The saddest thing to me about this is that Daisy can’t seem to understand why he’s always willing to help and wants to watch over her. It’s like she still doesn’t think she’s worthy of being treated like this.

“Some of my favorite people are people like you” I CRY

Whew there’s a lot to parse here. 

First of all, I think Daisy actually really likes that Sousa is seemingly not phased by anything (or at least, not super bothered by it) because her life is always going to be chaotic that’s just facts

Second, in this very short time of knowing her, Sousa definitely has her pegged. He knows that she craves other people, but is also probably a bit scared to want to be around other people. He knows she’s hopelessly stubborn, but that’s because she cares so much. And he knows that she needs someone to have her back no matter what, because she won’t have her own.

Of course, there’s also a personal element here as indicated by the next part of their conversation. 

Also of note, when Daisy is pressing with the questions, wanting to know why he’s always there for her, she’s leaning forward while he sits back. 

Now though, when the question is a bit more personal, she sits back in a very protective stance. I think she’s a little scared of what he’ll say to her question. Because she realizes that she likes him. A lot. And what if he’s just like a generally good guy and this has nothing to do with her?

But of course, it has everything to do with her as indicated by what Sousa says next. “Not for everyone. It helps if they’re fun to be around, and if they say what they mean, and if they have that super power where they can rock things around which is very impressive.”

And Daisy’s immediate response?? SHE SMILES. Like...this is what she needs and what she wants but what she’s been too afraid to go after. And here it is just falling in her lap.

Now that everything is out in the open, they are both leaning towards each other...

Also I love that she says, “That’s awfully specific” and he doesn’t shy away from her. He just agrees with her. They both know what that really means.

And they both like it

Legit here I was chanting KISS KISS KISS but I thought it was a missed moment

I am so happy I was wrong

So the new plan is to misdirect Enoch by having Sousa go in to take the implant out, but really Sousa is leading Enoch into a fight with him, Mack, May, and Elena and like what a squad

But also this was a super plan, and I wonder if Coulson was involved or if this was Daisy/Sousa original

Either option seems likely

“Next time, same thing but faster” 

Daisy is really good at following instructions y’all

Loop #20

Daisy asks for help and Sousa immediately agrees to help and THAT IS WHAT DID IT FOR DAISY JOHNSON FRIENDS

Like...I know she’s feeling under the gun for time because Coulson said same thing but faster

But also, peak romance is someone just wanting to help her no questions asked which, given her history makes complete sense

She needs a constant, someone who will be there for her no matter what

I feel like this started in some ways with Lincoln. He was just so sweet and helpful to her. And granted he had his own demons to deal with, but in the end he was willing to give up everything to save the world and Daisy herself.

But he also showed Daisy that she could expect love and support and she was worthy of that (even if she doubted it later)

So here’s this guy, who’s just smart and kind and good and clearly into her

So, knowing that this could be one of her lasts chance to do this and realizing that at any rate he’ll totally forget about it anyway, she makes a move

And like this kiss?? It’s hot y’all

You can tell Daisy just like lol Imma kiss him, but then they are both caught in this moment and go back for me

But also he definitely led for that second kiss 

“That was nice” like hahahaha amazing undersell Daisy

And then she traces his collarbone like whoa I need to fan myself for a bit

“Now we need to drop a space robot”

I can’t tell what Sousa is more confused by- that statement or the kiss itself

Imagine being Sousa though. You just got woken up by this beautiful woman who asks for you help then kisses you when you say “Sure thing.”

He’s truly living the dream

Oh also we’re 11 km from the vortex now

It turns out Enoch is the answer to all our problems

But also we have to kill him in the process :(

And then poor Simmons has a breakdown over leaving Alya presumably, but also she’s a better mom than me because after 3 years in space with one of my little super geniuses I’d be more than ready for a vacay idk

I love my kids but they are...a lot

And finally, Loop #21

I guess Daisy left Sousa to sleep for this loop

<1 km from the vortex too eek

Enoch immediately understands what is happening :(

I love that Enoch has reached the point where he feels like this entire crew is his family and would sacrifice themselves for him

Enoch didn’t feel lonely until he had friends :((

This whole thing is breaking my heart...not just Enoch in the process of dying, but Coulson actually talking about his deaths and Daisy having to try and process all this

“Yet, this is the nature of families. I have seen it countless times on countless worlds. People arrive so we celebrate, and people leave us, so we grieve. We do what we can with the time in between, but the cycle is always there. No one escapes it. Not even me.”

This really got to me. My family has changed a lot through the years. People have come and gone. Babies have been born. People have died. And nothing I do can change this cycle. Sometimes it makes me happy; sometimes it hurts. But nothing I do can change that process, and that’s not always easy for me to accept.

I think Daisy and Coulson are having a moment here too, where Daisy is telling both Coulson and Enoch that even though they are not human, that doesn’t make them any less alive to the people who love them

RIP Enoch, you were the bestest Chronicom to ever robot

And of course we get one last buzzkill with Nathaniel and Kora

Queen Kora you deserve better

Ok first some timeloop math. We saw 21 loops on screen, but loop #5 was loop #90 for Coulson. So if we figure Daisy died say...every 10-15 ish time loops and it took her 2 or 3 to wake Coulson up, we can probably add an additional 25 time loops or so. So we’re probably looking at around 130 loops roughly.

Of course this begs the question, did Daisy decide to kiss Sousa more than once? It’s possible. I kind of like to think she did. 

First of all, mad props to Joel for nailing that death scene. He was absolutely incredible. And clearly this episode rates 1000000000/10 on the Dousy scale because like...everything. The talk, the kiss, the sacrifice...amazing. I was 95% sure I was getting ending Dousy after this. This episode also gets 50000/10 on the Teamwork! scale because our team did so well and were strongest when they worked together. And of course Enoch gets a 10000000000000000/10 on the Good Chronicom scale because he legit was the bestest Chronicom that could ever not-live.

Since we’re in a timeloop and not in a particular time period, I’m going with the Dousy-est of songs, “peace” by Taylor Swift.