#( doc verse → vengeance )

[abandonededen]

❛  are  you  sure  you’re  okay ?  ❜ from wynonna for doc?

𝑺𝑬𝑨𝑳𝑬𝑫 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑨 𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑲𝑰𝑺𝑺 - accepting!

‘ are you sure you're okay ? ’

time seems to slow to a crawl as those words reach him, barely audible over the rush of blood in his ears. oh, he is FAR more than simply ‘ okay, ’ if only he had the words for it. “ i am . . . simply sublime, ” he answers, each word a bit heavier, a bit slower, than the last. he knows what's coming ( and it has been a long time coming ) even if wynonna doesn't yet. and he is at peace with it. after all, doc holliday died a long time ago . . . and this time, well, he can't think of a better cause worth dying for than family, his family.

his breath hitches as he goes to take a step, and stumbles, the ground rushing to meet him as he falls to his knees in the frigid snow. his spirit may remain fierce as ever, but his body is beginning to fail him. “ it'll be -- ” a pause, a breath, “ all right, wynonna. ” his girls are safe. that's all that matters.

[calamity-unlocked]

I’ve been spiraling a bit over Yeet and Killa, and the slightest encouragement from the incredible @taaalia has given me the motivation to get back to the writing table. Thank you dear, this one’s for you <3

This drabble is part of my fic ‘you’d bleed just to know (you’re alive)’, which is a nark rockstar AU. I might put it into one of the later chapters, but for now I wanted to share it here!

~

The sound check had just wrapped, leaving the band with an hour to kill before the real action began. They were hanging out in the green room, trading stories. Nick was talking about how last time they’d been in Boston, Grant had given Yeet, Killa and him a half-assed tour of the city, which ended in them getting thoroughly lost in the streets of the North End. Yeet took over the conversation with a snort, describing how Grant had refused to admit defeat until after a full hour of aimless wandering.

Lark chuckled along, seemingly happy to hear how their mutual friend was doing. Once the story had reached its conclusion, he directed his attention to the siblings. “So, how exactly do you two know Grant? Did Nick introduce you?”

Killa gasped loudly at that question. Even from where he was sitting, Nick could see her eyes widen and light up like fireworks, and he instantly knew what was coming.

So did Yeet, horror dawning on him. “No,” he said quickly, holding out one hand as though he still stood any chance of stopping her. Too late; a big grin had broken out across Killa’s face.

“Have I got the ballad for you!” she said. With a bolt of energy that had been nowhere to be found while she had lazily lounged on Ellory’s lap, she catapulted herself off the couch. She grabbed Nick’s customized red fender from where it was resting against the wall and practically flung it towards him. Nick’s reflexes kicked in just in time, barely managing to prevent the instrument from a headlong collision with the floor.

“NO,” Yeet repeated sternly, but there was a crack of panic in his voice now, to which Killa merely responded with a delighted cackle.

“Nicky-boy, you know what to do,” Killa winked at him as she snatched an empty water bottle and leaped onto the couch. With theatrical flair, she held the plastic vessel in front of her mouth, using it as an imaginary microphone.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Yeet groaned, burying his face in his hands and sinking deeper into the cushions of his armchair. He seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. “Not this again.”

Nick flashed Yeet a sorry-not-sorry type of smirk, fished his lucky pick out of his pocket, and started strumming an intro he had played a thousand times before, the familiar melody filling the room. Ellory let out an amused cheer as the crisp notes rolled out while Lark raised both of his eyebrows in recognition of the song.

Undeterred by the dirt her Doc Martens had tracked onto the couch, Killa danced on the spot, her energy infecting every movement. Once the intro was over, she began to sing. Her voice was a little rough around the edges and her vocal range wasn’t the perfect match for this particular parody, but the confidence and utter joy with which she sang more than made up for it.

Yeet was a boy

Grant was a guy

Can I make it any more obvious?

Yeet was a punk

Grant did Fortnite

All so black-and-white

“This song sucks ass without a drum beat!” Yeet jeered while she was singing, having gotten over the initial stage of mortification. Nick knew from repeated experience that the upcoming stage was murderous vengeance. Killa cheerfully flipped him off while she continued the rest of the verse.

Grant wanted Yeet

Yeet’s straight as hell

Secretly Grant wished he was bi as well

His handsome friends

Thought it was whack

The guy just never cut himself some slack

Nick deftly changed the key for the chorus while Killa’s performance was slightly hindered by the fact that her brother had gotten to his feet and was now actively chasing her through the greenroom. Nevertheless, she persisted, if a little out of breath and too high-pitched from having to hold back a burst of manic giggles.

He was a straighter boy

He said see you later boy

I just do not swing that way

He had a pretty face

But Yeet had a female taste

He needed to come back down to— ahhh!!

She let out a loud cry as her brother had finally caught up to her. Yeet had pounced on her, the force of his momentum sending them sprawling to the ground. He covered her mouth with his hand and then let out a disgusted groan. Nick had been witness to enough of the siblings’ antics to understand that she’d immediately licked his hand in retaliation.

After a short scuffle, Killa managed to push her brother off her and stood up. Dusting off her tartan skirt with swift sweeps of her hands, she turned back to face the rest of the group, her expression radiant with pride while her curls hung wildly in front of her face. “My lyrical masterpiece ‘Str8er Boi’,” she proclaimed, taking a deep bow. She was met with a resounding applause from Nick, Ellory, and Lark.

“Remind me again why she isn’t our main songwriter?” Nick chuckled, setting his guitar aside.

“Because I’d quit,” Yeet grumbled, scrambling up as well. “And just for the record, Lark. That song is absolute slander.”

Killa rolled her eyes. “He came out as bi like a month after I wrote that song, just because he hoped I’d stop singing it.”

“I came out as bi because I got a boyfriend!”

“It’s alright, bro, you don’t have to pretend with me. You know I’d accept and support you exactly the way you are,” Killa said dramatically, draping her arms over her brother’s shoulders and putting all her weight on him. She took a deep breath, kept her face miraculously straight, and with extreme, exaggerated gravitas, she said: “Love is love.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Yeet replied and playfully pushed her away.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP list, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Ok so… this is where we get into just how utterly chaotic my creative process is, but not in a way that results in oodles of files that have creative interesting names - quite the opposite in fact.

You see… I have currently have 16 files and the titles are:

Moonrat Moonrat 2 Moonrat 3 Moonrat 4 … all the way up to the current Moonrat 16

The reason for this is that I don't actually separate different stories into individual files until they end up on Ao3. It's all just one long running thing all squished together with a few spaces between 'chunks' that sometimes, but not always, end up being separate stories and/or chapters. And I'm a packrat (pack-moonrat?) and never throw anything away so if something is cut out it's usually shoved in a free spot at the bottom of everything else to be used in something else later.

When Google docs starts taking too long to load and spazzes on me with lag, that's when I start a new file.

Because my first drafts end up looking more like free-verse poetry than stories, with usually only between 1 and 5 words on a line, either in bits of un-attributed dialogue or point form ideas, it often goes on for a ridiculous number of pages, so these tend to be large documents. I also am really really bad at titles. Except in very rare situations, everything comes out as untitled brain vomit and then is titled very close to the end (sometimes mid Ao3 post when I realize 'oh yes, titles are a thing - oops') long after I've turned it into actual sentences with real grammar and such.

Basic unfinished idea-chunks that are ongoing include, but are not limited to:

30-some pages of the first Dawning story that is still unfinished (I ended up realizing I would not finish the writing challenge in time if I continued the inordinately long Dawning story I had begun so I wrote "Dawning Oasis" instead and will finish this one some other time)

the Drifter on a special secret mission for Eris in the Sepulcher lost sector in the Throne World

Eris finding a renegade Hive chapel dedicated to her on the Moon

the last chapter(s) of "Dance with Vengeance" (this has since been posted)

several false starts based upon lyrics to other Crane Wives songs for that one writing challenge I did (as opposed to the completed one with sad Drifter having nightmares called "Ashes, Ashes")

oodles of random snippets of dialogue

Drifter teaching Eris to cook and/or cooking and/or Eris eating various dishes

various iterations of Eris exhibiting telepathy and/or non-normative vision that I have rejected from current projects for consistency reasons which may end up in other things later

more Immaru bullying like in "Visitation" and "Wind Chimes" (he knows what he did)

lots more nightmares because, when I'm not writing fanfiction, that's one of my narrative specialities

several false starts for the sequel/enactment of the private gambit match discussed in "Hide and Seek"

bits pertaining to and/or including/referencing that one bog slug

Per the rules above, you are invited to ask/message about any/all of these (or, quite frankly, anything else - I do not bite unless we both agree that I wish to bite you and you wish to be bitten).

I have never done a thing like this before, nor have I ever tagged anyone else on tumblr before, so here's hoping I did this correctly. I was tagged by: @flowers-of-io and I am tagging: @redbutterflies-blueeyes @synnthamonsugar @bbyfacedx and @annieruok94

I would love to tag more people but I actually have quite the serious disconnect between who people are on Ao3 and who people are on here and I am very easily confused. If you look at this and go "But why did you not tag me? Do you not love me?" The answer is: "No I just have no fucking clue what I'm doing. Please say hello and tell me who you are on Ao3 so I can include you if I ever do a thing like this again."

That is all.

[justlarkin]

This stuff is already mentioned in the exile docs, but I don't care. I GET TO INFODUMP ON THE TIMELINE.

A few random facts

-Eurynome's sacred artifact was responsible for the loops during the Valentine Timeslip event.

-Eurynome is the one responsible for Ophion's missing fang since she broke it during a fight.

-Cthulhu had followers (a cult) who attempted to wake him up while he slept at the bottom of the ocean.

-Tsukuyomi likes to mess with Tetsuya because he reminds him of Susanoo, but the difference is that Susanoo wasn't a tsundere and was honest with his emotions.

-Thunderbird copied his theatrical mannerisms from Heyoka.

-Aizen's beef with MC is partially because he's jealous of them, but also because he considers Kamadeva as his rival. In mythology, Aizen focuses on the consequences of love while Kamadeva mostly glorifies it.

-Lugh and Nuada are related on his paternal side with Nuada being his great-uncle. In mythology, Lugh actually replaces Nuada as king of the Tuatha dé Danann, not Balor as king of the Formorians.

-Veles was cynical and used to make fun of Volos for being a furry.

-Veles is noted to be both protective of Volos and a guardian of farmlands, which goes with him being worshipped by the working class as a protector of farmlands and farmers.

-Quetzalcoatl was reliable, but he had zero chill or braincells and was quick to fly off the handle.

-LWs decided to gloss over it, but Nüwa's reason for starting the war was because a dude vandalized her wall to write a poem about wanting to blow her back out.

-Asura is probably supposed to be Vemacitrin, king of the asuras, since the two well-known stories he's in fits here. 1: Vemacitrin became Buddha's follower after the devas asked Buddha to subdue him for them because he kept kicking their asses. 2: Sakra, Vemacitrin's enemy, marries his daughter (there's versions where this is consensual and non consensual) and this causes Vemacitrin to attack Sakra, trapping himself in the cycle as he's unable to let go of his anger and desire for vengeance.

-Eurynome's sickle can rend bloodlines because it's from the myth where Gaia created an adamantine sickle that Cronus used to castrate his father.

-Asura was described as someone who would lend a hand to anyone, whether they be friend or foe. Smoky God also said he was kind but cruel, hated losing, and was the self sacrificing type.

-Heyokas are known to die by lightning since it's believed that they attract it.

-Xolotl and Quetzalcoatl are twins with Quetzalcoatl being the older one. They're both well versed in worldly matters such as tabletop games.

-Quetzalcoatl is believed to be against human sacrifices because he used his own blood to create humanity, so to sacrifice a human is the equivalent of killing him.

-Yoshitsune had nothing but war and oniichan going on in his head. He had no concept of social norms, didn't understand politics, was similar to a dog, was eager to jump into things. He was a genius when it came to war though.

Can yall tell me some fun facts about the housamo exiles? Idk they're just so interesting that I need to know more about them.

[quietbeauty]

one day i'll write up an actual verse for when bella gets turned by Victoria in new moon post cliff jumping.

[secret-engima]

@a-world-in-grey I can’t for the life of me find some of my HCs about Galahd Colors for braids and I KNOW I screwed up Nyx’s braids in Calling for Rain verse.

Pls, do you happen to remember what combos I said were for mourning and which were for a vengeance braid? I am blanking and Tumblr is playing hooky with my search bar.

Or link me the post that is in so I can copy it onto my docs properly? ^^;

[buffaloborgine]

A research on character building, character symbolism of Genesis Rhapsodos (Part 3)

Note: This part is heavily interpreted by my own perspective through linking many different writings throughout the whole Compilation of FFVII (including some details taken from Remake). Take this as a grain of salt and proceed with a clear mind.

______________________________________________________________

“Soul wrought of terra corrupt, Quelling Impurity, Purging the stream To beckon forth the ultimate fate Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens.”  (Omega Report #1 - FFVII Dirge of Cerberus)

“My soul, corrupted by vengeance Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey In my own salvation And your eternal slumber” (LOVELESS Act IV - FFVII Crisis Core)

“ My fleeting memories will fall into darkness Your last smile comes into my mind, and disappears Leaving behind only warmth Right now, I can't be cured by only gentle words

I'm just going to give my everything To this battle that continues on endlessly Some day, everyone will return to the universe And no one needs to say goodbyes” (Redemption - GACKT)

If you suddenly feel like those three verses of poems/song have something in common, then congrats, you have finally found the key detail that I want to talk in this part of the theory series. 

What if I tell you that, Genesis was, for long, designed to be the rightful bearer, of Chaos, and that by the end of DoC, he has achieved the inheritance that should have been given to him at birth? 

To begin with, let’s look at what we know about Chaos in FFVII:

- Shelke called Chaos as “Herald of Anarchy”. “Anarchy” is a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority, therefore, Chaos is the entity that, once awakened, will signal a disorder, or a “crisis”, that will result in the absence of authority. Assuming so, does this detail fit Vincent? No. He has been injected with the stagnant mako since Circa [ μ ] - εγλ 1984 (according to the Ultimania) which is like, 16 years before the event of Crisis Core happened. So, probably that Vincent has an awakened Chaos in him, and he went to sleep. Veld went to wake him up once in Before Crisis (December [ ν ] - εγλ 0006), then Cloud & Co came to pull him out of the coffin to fight Sephiroth (somewhere between  [ ν ] - εγλ 0007 and  [ ν ] - εγλ 0008), and yet, we see no marking events of “anarchy” caused by Vincent. 

- Chaos is represented by a mixture of red and black, and his essence has the magenta color (as seen falling down from the sky after Vincent’s suicidal dive into Omega). Vincent’s original color theme is black, as he worked as a Turk before Hojo shot him, even so, without being injected with the stagnant mako, Vincent will still not get that red color theme. So far, there are several characters in FFVII that has red-black or magenta color theme, the first one known is Vincent, the second is the Zirconiade, the third one is Nero the Sable (his eyes are magenta) and the last one is Genesis Rhapsodos. 

- Chaos function as the “purger of impurity” by burning the whole planet down so every souls would return to the Lifestream while filtering all the “impurity” from it, therefore triggering the departing of Omega, who takes the pure Lifestream with it, leaving Chaos behind on the lifeless planet. That surely doesn’t fit well into Vincent (no matter how hard you squint) because Vincent has no intention to burn the whole planet down or acting as the signal for Omega’s awakening. Besides, the only character we see going around to absorb “impure souls” is Nero the Sable, although Vincent’s Chaos can collect “impure souls” to increase in power, Vincent doesn’t deliberately do that.

- Chaos is created from the bad emotions and sins that was filtered out of the Lifestream, that’s why the Cetra depicted it as “Soul wrought in terra corrupt”. 

- By the end of DoC, Vincent told Lucrecia that “Chaos and Omega have returned to the planet”. That means Vincent no longer has the power of the Chaos insides him.

With all the details above, we can come to the conclusion that Vincent only bear a part of Chaos’ power insides him, he has never been the true Chaos. After he used Chaos’ power to destroy Omega, all those pieces of Chaos inside him returned to the planet. 

Which will lead us to the main problem of this talking part: if Vincent is not the real Chaos (or at least not the fully powered Chaos) since the beginning, then who is?

We will need to look for a character that has all the traits listed above: triggered events that lead to anarchy + has black/red or magenta color theme (or both) + intended to “purge all impurities” from the Lifestream by burning down the planet + harboring a huge amount of negative emotions/sins. Minus Vincent on the trait of “black/red or magenta color theme”, we would have the Zirconiade, Nero and Genesis as possible candidates.

So let’s move on with the third trait: “intended to “purge all impurities” from the Lifestream by burning down the planet”:

- Nero’s only intention is to be with his brother Weiss and he doesn’t care about the destruction of the planet or whatsoever, as long as he could be with Weiss, he will do anything. However, we do see Nero absorbing the “impure souls” into his darkness, yet, he then fused into Weiss’s body, making Omega’s body tainted with the “impurities”. So Nero obviously is disqualified. 

- The Zirconiade is a summon that can and will burn down the whole planet once fully empowered with the four materias (red, blue, green and yellow materias). Then we can give the Zirconiade a yes for this. 

- Genesis after starting to degrade, decided that if he can’t find the Jenova cells to cure the degradation, he will accept his fate, but he will take the world down with him. Before he activates the giant materia in the Banora’s Underground, he said to Zack “We will all join the Lifestream, you are no exception” (sounds so familiar, right?). Then in his boss form, Genesis Avatar, his main target is to destroy the planet’s core by stabbing the giant sword down at it (because there is no reason for Genesis Avatar to do that if he just wants to slice Zack into shreds). Genesis Avatar also can use the ability known as “Purgatorial Wave”, which, I have explained in the last part, is a “wave to purify souls that are still impure”. Therefore, Genesis gets a yes for this trait. 

We then move on to the first trait: “triggered events that lead to anarchy”: 

- No matter how you look at it, Nero can’t be the one that trigger the mess in Dirge of Cerberus. So he got a no. 

- In Before Crisis, the Zirconiade is not the one that created the mess, because it’s a summon, and it was contained in a materia. The materia then was implanted into Elfie’s hand by Hojo and later with this knowledge, Fuhito planned to use Elfie to summon the Zirconiade. Therefore, the Zirconiade itself doesn’t trigger any events that lead to anarchy, so it gets a no for this. 

- Genesis is the reason that everything went on a trainwreck in Crisis Core. And if we agree on my theory that he is also the one that caused another trainwreck in Dirge of Cerberus then well, of course he got a yes for this trait. 

Finally we will work on the last trait “harboring a huge amount of negative emotions/sins”:

- Nero is surely harboring a ton of negative emotion, along with deep hatred towards humanity. He also carries the sin of murdering lots of people, although aside from that he got nothing else. I will give him a yes for this trait. 

- The Zirconiade, being a summon, can’t be seen as harboring negative emotion or carrying sins, because it works upon being summoned and will only exert its power out. I will give it a no. 

- Genesis, well, he was deemed as the traitor by Shinra, he also killed his parents, that’s more than enough sins already. And vengeance is the main source of his negative emotion, so much to the point that he gets blinded trying to avenge himself. So he gets a yes.

With all of the deduction above, we can conclude that Genesis fits very well with being the real embodiment of Chaos that the planet called up. Other details that imply Genesis similarity to Chaos is that Chaos Vincent has yellow eyes, Genesis's eyes during his transformation into Genesis Avatar also glow yellow. The event in FFRK "Ode to a Sundered World" literally implies that Genesis brings about the "Sundering" of the world, which fits with the depiction of Chaos - the entity that fills the gap in the sundering of heaven and earth. Genesis Avatar is a weird name if you think of it, because Avatar is the manifestation of a divine being, and yet that form is already huge and monstrous, which means whatever Genesis really is, must be even greater than Genesis Avatar. The face of Vincent's Chaos has cracks on it, and Genesis Avatar'a face has lots of crack that it needs to wear binding to keep its face together.

But then you will find it weird for him to be the real embodiment of Chaos if well, Zack can just “Costly Punch” him to death, right? 

I will take the timeline into account, we can see that by the time Genesis really gets awakened is after his fateful fight with Sephiroth in the training room, at that point Vincent has taken a part of Chaos into him, and Nero takes another part. So with the power being divided into three parts, even being the true embodiment of Chaos, Genesis cannot reach his ultimate level of power. Taking the degradation caused by the Jenova cells in him, he surely gets weakened to the point that Zack can 2-hit punch him out cold. 

Then at the end of DoC, with Vincent’s Chaos particles returned to the planet and Nero’s darkness appearing below Genesis’s boots while he walks on the water surface, it sure means that Genesis has fully acquired the power of Chaos. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. In the next part I will continue on with the problem laid out by this part. 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Spider-Man Movie Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, he does whatever a spider can. And what do spiders seem really good at? Amassing huge quantities of hatred and animosity! True to the wily arachnids that inspired him, Spider-Man has quite the impressive gallery of foes, one that I might say rivals Batman as the greatest in comic book history with how colorful, crazy, and creative they are. Even villains derivative of one another, like Hobgoblin and Green Goblin or Carnage and Venom, manage to carve out unique niches that help make them fun and memorable.

And thankfully, these qualities usually translated pretty well to film! I’ve talked about how good Mysterio, Vulture, Kingpin, and Prowler are before, so now it’s time to cover the others all in one fell swoop! From the Raimi trilogy, we have Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Harry Osborn, Sandman, and Eddie Brock/Venom; from the Andrew Garfield duology, we have Lizard, Electro, Rhino, and Harry Osborn again; and leftover from Into the Spider-Verse we have Olivia Octavius, Tombstone, Scorpion, and that film’s brief take on Green Goblin! Oh, and why not throw in Riot from Venom while we’re at it, because he sucks way too much to get his own Psycho Analysis.

Motivation/Goals: A lot of villains are motivated by the classic motivation: revenge. All of the Green Goblins manage to have this as a main part of their actions, making them remarkably consistent and very easy to discuss. The Norman of the Raimi films wants to take out his anger at being frozen out of his own company, and his son wants revenge for his death, while the Harry of the Garfield films wants his vengeance because Spider-Man wouldn’t help cure him of his otherwise incurable disaease that would kill him (a fact made worse because Spider-Man is his actual best friend, Peter Parker, who is coldly condemning his pal to death). The only one who doesn’t really fit is the Spider-Verse take on Green Goblin, and that’s more because he has extremely limited screentime and spends all of it fighting Peter and being scary as hell.

Eddie Brock/Venom is a very interesting case as both halves of the character are motivated by different reasons. The symbiote half is, of course, motivated by the fact that Peter has tried to rid himself of it via using a church bell to kill it. Eddie, on the other hand, has the most absolutely hilarious motivation ever: He wants Peter Parker to die because Peter exposed him for submitting fraudulent pictures to J. Jonah Jameson. Eddie literally breached journalistic ethics but apparently Peter’s to blame for exposing his literal, actual crime! And he prays to God for Peter to die! This version of Eddie is cartoonishly hilarious.Finally, we have Max Dillon, AKA Electro, who is lashing out at a world that did nothing but belittle and demean him, giving him a far more sympathetic motive for revenge.

Kurt Connors is an interesting halfway point between the Doc Ocks and the villains above, because he is not really evil and his whole transformation came about for altruistic scientific reasons, as he tested his serum on himself because they were going to test it out on the public without consent. While the serum drives him mad, he initially only goes after those who were going to use his formula with people as guinea pigs.

Interestingly, the two Doc Ocks contrast each other. While both of them are doing evil deeds for scientific reasons, Otto Octavius is being forced by his tentacles and genuinely wishes to make the world a better place otherwise. Olivia, on the other hand, is a gleeful sadist who doesn’t care who she hurts as long as she can get some sort of scientific knowledge from it.

Sandman is interesting case because his motivations are entirely sympathetic and despite being the man who killed Uncle Ben, it was entirely accidental and he always regretted it. He only ever wanted to get money to save his daughter. It’s really hard not to sympathize with a guy who turned to desperate measures because the American health care system sucks even in a universe where a dude dressed in a bright red suit swings around New York.

Then there are all the rest. Aleksei Systevich, AKA Rhino, is just a criminal, and has barely any screentime to establish a motivation beyond that. This is especially hilarious because the ads really hyped this guy up, only for him to get maybe five minutes of screentime, with most of it at the very end of the movie before the credits (we don’t even get to see his final battle). Tombstone and Scorpion are basically just lackeys for Kingpin, with little established beyond that. Scorpion almost shows up entirely out of nowhere, just popping in for the fight at Aunt May’s house and then the final battle. And then there’s Riot, who just wants to start a symbiote apocalypse on Earth.

Performance: Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Thomas Haden Church as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman in the Raimi trilogy are, in a word, iconic. Dafoe brings a gleeful, cackling hamminess to the Goblin that perfectly suits him and manages to steal every single with how delightfully, cartoonishly evil he is combined with some hilariously chummy moments with Spider-Man. Molina as Ock goes in the opposite direction of hamminess, where instead of making Octavius cartoonishly evil, he gives him this air of gravitas to the point where he somehow manages to make this villain with giant metal tentacles that are controlling his mind come off as sophisticated and serious as Hannibal Lecter. Church meanwhile just looks eerily perfect as Sandman, as if he were ripped straight from the comics and put onscreen, and then of course there’s how well he manages to sell the emotional moments of the character.

The Harrys are a rather mixed bag, sad to say. James Franco and Dennis DeHaan aren’t really bad actors, but they unfortunately have the problem of living in the shadow of the actor who played their dad (Franco) or being in a really awful movie with a terrible script (DeHaan). Franco at least makes up for this by being hilariously, cartoonishly evil to the extent of his dad in the third Raimi film, but DeHaan unfortunately falls rather flat. Topher Grace as Venom is a choice that seems baffling until you realize Raimi cast an actor like this on purpose because he hates Venom so much he didn’t want to give him any dignity.

Jamie Foxx as Electro seems odd at first, but I feel it’s actually a great casting choice, and despite how unbelievably stupid the script is, he’s actually able to do a fairly good job. If his character was in a better movie, he’d probably get a lot less flak (and he’ll be getting his chance soon enough, apparently). Overall, he’s the best part of the Garfield films. Rhys Ifans and Paul Giamatti as Lizard and Rhino are serviceable, but neither film they’re in really gives them much to work with. Giamatti at least gets to steal the show with his brief scenes by being an absolute ham, but Ifans is sadly a bit forgettable in his role (though not for lack of trying on his part).

Now onto the Spider-Verse ensemble! Considering how I gushed over her delightful performance as the Wicked Witch of Westview in WandaVision as well as the fact she is solely responsible for me resurrecting this series from its long hiatus, it should come as no shock at all that Kathryn Hahn as Olivia Octavius is just perfect. Controversial opinion, I know, might get some flak for this hot take. Jorma Taccone as Green Goblin, Joaquin Cosio as Scorpion, and Marvin Jones III as Tombstone all do well for what they’re given, but it’s clear most of the love among Kingpin’s henchmen was given to her (and Prowler, but he got his own review where I talked about how great he is).

Oh, right, Riot. I forgot about him. Riz Ahmed, who plays the human villain Carlton Drake I forgot to mention because he’s incredibly boring, is a really good (and sexy) actor. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to be quite as good and sexy as an actor like him should be in his dual role. In an interesting subversion of how things usually go, he ends up being rather bland compared to the hammy, bonkers hero. This was Tom Hardy’s show, and no one was stealing it from him.

Final Fate: The Raimi films were all made during a time when, if your name wasn’t Magneto and you were a superhero movie villain, you were dying, a trend I’m certainly glad is finally starting to die off. Thankfully, Green Goblin manages to stick around and posthumously influence Harry, so in his case it’s not so bad. Harry and Doc Ock both manage to overcome the darkness in their hearts at the end and sacrifice their lives to help save the day, while Eddie dies after becoming such a simp for the symbiote he leaps into it while Peter is blowing it up. With Sandman, Peter actually has a touching reconciliation with Sandman at the end, forgiving him for the death of Uncle Ben before Sandman dissolves into dust and floats away on the breeze. And no, this is his power, not Thanos’ snap reaching across time, space, and dimensions; Sandman actually gets out of these films alive.

The other villains actually get off easier, as most of them go to jail. From the Amazing Spider-Man films, DeHaan’s Goblin and Rhys Ifan’s Lizard both end up in prison, and it’s safe to assume that the villains of Spider-Verse are going to jail alongside Kingpin. Octavius was hit by a bus, sure, but considering how popular she ended up being it would be really dumb to have that actually kill her. With Electro and Rhino though, it’s really ambiguous, the former because he’s made of electricity and the way he was defeated means it is possible he survived, and the latter because we never actually see the outcome of his battle with Spider-Man. If the film they were in was actually good and warranted sequels, we may have found out what their true fates were, but at the very least Electro is moving over to the MCU alongside Molina’s Doc Ock.

Oh, right, forgot Riot again. He dies.

Best Scene/Best Quote: I’m combining these this time just to make it easier on me, because in at least in a couple cases the two are the same.

Green Goblin has a lot to choose from, to the point where it’s easy to cop out and just say every scene he’s in is amazing. I’ve always been fond of his chummy chat with Spider-Man on the rooftop, or the scene where he terrifies Aunt May, or the scene where he attacks the parade and vaporizes the board of directors with pumpkin bombs.

Dock Ock is easy: the train battle. This might be one of the best action scenes in any superhero movie ever, and since he’s the villain in it, it almost goes without saying..There’s a reason this scene is singled out so often.

Eddie Brock and DeHaan Goblin actually have their best scenes also be their best lines. Eddie praying for God to kill Peter Parker and DeHaan!Harry screaming “YOU’RE A FRAUD, SPIDER-MAN!” after Spidey refuses to give him a life-saving blood transfusion are just so absolutely hilarious and memorable that you can’t hate them.

Aside from the powerful forgiveness moment at the film’s end, I think it’s really indisputable that the best scene from Sandman, and perhaps the Raimi trilogy as a whole, is the scene of Sandman’s creation. Words really can’t do it justice, so just watch:

Electro’s best moment isn’t even actually part of the movie, unless you want to count his rendition of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” No, his is from a Tumblr post, proving definitively that Electro’s power can not be contained.

For Olivia, I’d say either of the reveals for her are great. You can go with the twist that she’s the Doc Ock of Miles’ universe, or the twist that she might have fucked Aunt May. Either way, you can’t really go wrong.

The rest of the villains… yeah, I’ve got nothing. At least with Rhino you can say his entire time on screen was fun, but the rest? Nope. They’re kind of just there.

Final Thoughts & Score:

Green Goblin

Where to begin with this guy? He is everything I look for in a great villain: he’s hammy and cartoonish, he can be terrifying and threatening when he wants to be, he has a ridiculous yet memorable costume, every word out of his mouth is hilarious and memorable, and he’s played by an amazing actor. It’s hard to dispute that Doc Ock is the best villain in Raimi’s trilogy, but Goblin is definitely the most fun. If you thought he’d get less than a 10/10, you thought wrong.

Doctor Octopus

Aside from Green Goblin, Doc Ock is Spidey’s most iconic and memorable foe, nd this adaptation of him does not disappoint. By making him a more tragic and somewhat anti-villainous figure and putting him in the hands of someone as awesome and talented as Alfred Molina, they managed to make such a cartoonish villain retain that comic book silliness while still being a legitimately imposing antagonist. I suppose it helps that a director who knows how to balance silly and serous like Raimi helps. It’s absolutely not a shock that the MCU wants to bring Molina back, because really, I can’t see anyone making the dubious doctor nearly as cool as the 10/10 performance Molina gave.

Harry Osborn

Franco’s Harry has an interesting arc, but one that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense under scrutiny. Frankly, his descent into villain is handled well but when he actually gets to be a villain in the third film, things fall apart.. But at any rate, he gets to be cartoonishly hilarious while he pettily ruins Peter’s life, so I think a 3/10 is warranted just for how goofy he is.

Eddie Brock/Venom

For the longest time, I hated Eddie Brock, but loved the Venom symbiote for its fantastic design… A design hampered by the fact Topher Grace keeps sticking his face through the symbiote and talking in his normal voice. But then one day I remembered Eddie literally prays to God for Peter Parker to die, and I realize that as crappy as this version of Venom is, he’s undoubtedly hilarious. A 3/10 mainly because of how hilariously bad he is, though the design of the symbiote is unironically great. Shame Grace kept sticking his face through and that Raimi hates the character.

Sandman

Sandman is a villain who deserved a better movie. Sure, Spider-Man 3 is fun and funny, but a character with this much depth and emotional weight deserved a film of the caliber of Spider-Man 2. At any rate, he adds a bit of class and dignity to the proceedings, and Thomas Haden Church really nails it. He’s a 9/10 for sure.

Lizard

Lizard is just a very boring villain, which is a shame because Lizard is not a boring villain in the comics and other media like the cartoons. I don’t really know if he was the best choice for Spider-Man’s first outing; I’ll at least give him that he’s a more inspired choice than doing the Green Goblin again, but that doesn’t score him higher than a 4/10. As boring as he ends up being, that library fight was pretty cool and had a great Stan Lee cameo, so I can’t say he’s the bottom of the barrel.

Electro

Electro is a villain who desperately deserved a better movie. While his backstory as a nerdy fanboy who got kicked around by the world is nothing new, or fresh, or original, Jamie Foxx manages to make the character work fairly well even though almost everything around him is unbelievably stupid. The fact he managed to make “Don’t you know? I’m Electro” sound cool and badass is a testament to his skill, and thankfully he’s coming back in the MCU in some way, so I guess Electro’s power can not be contained to a single movie. Still, this iteration only manages to get to a 6/10, because while all the elements of greatness are there, he’s hampered by the abysmal writing.

Rhino

Paul Giamatti certainly looks like he’s having a blast here. His attitude is almost infectious, but alas, his time is too brief to bring any great joy, and his jarring appearance out of nowhere at the end of the film certainly do him no favors. Still, Giamatti keeps Rhino from sinking any lower than a 5/10.

Harry Osborn

This Harry is just a joke. His arc makes no sense, his actions are unbelievable, and he ends up looking like a really poor Warwick Davis Leprechaun cosplayer. The only thing of note about him is that he’s a Harry who becomes the Green Goblin before his father, something that doesn’t happen very often, and that’s not enough to score this loser higher than a 2/10. Not even killing Gwen Stacy makes him any more impressive, and that’s a real shame.

Olivia Octavius

Olivia Octavius is widely beloved by just about everyone who sees the film.. myself included. This is just a really fun, clever twist on Doctor Octopus, and it’s the sort of character you really hope gets a Harley Quinn-level break into becoming an iconic character across multiple forms of media. Kathryn Hahn’s fun performance and the wonderful design and fight sequences really make Olivia a 9/10.

Tombstone

Tombstone is a villain you might actually forget is in the movie, which is a damn shame. He’s an albino black man, a badass bodyguard, and has a striking design, but he gets a single line of dialogue and is tasked with bodyguarding a man who not only has cyborgs under his employ, but who murdered Spider-Man with his bare hands. Tombstone ultimately feels really superfluous, which is a shame because around the same time Into the Spider-Verse came out he had a very memorable and well-liked appearance in the Spider-Man video game. It’s a real shame but I gotta give this version of Tombstone a 2/10.

Scorpion

Scorpion has a lot of problems of Tombstone above, but he makes up for a lot of his flaws by having a really cool and striking design. Does it really make him a great villain? No. He’s not particularly well-characterized and he’s really just there to look cool and give Olivia backup. He’s a 4/10 at best, saved from being lower only by his awesome look. Looking cool really can get you far in some cases.

Green Goblin

Out of all the really minor villains in Spider-Verse, this version of Norman might be the best. His role is tiny, only appearing during the scene where the Peter Parker of Miles’ universe gets killed, but his battle with Spider-Man is what sets the entire plot in motion. His cool and terrifying design definitely help make him stand out enough to earn at least a 6/10.

Riot & Carlton Drake

Look, there’s a reason I kept forgetting these guys. They’re not memorable in the slightest. Venom may be a fantastic work of art, but that’s because Tom Hardy kills it in his dual role as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. Drake is just a boring corporate villain, the kind I hate talking about and the kind I’d only ever even bother mentioning in a review like this. And Riot is just a generic Big Gray CGI Monster for the hero to have a final battle with. Neither of these two are particularly interesting, and neither deserves more than a 2/10.

That’s it, right? There can’t be any more villains, I must have covered them all. Well, not quite. There’s one more character who is most certainly an antagonist and who I really, really want to talk about. And you’re absolutely not going to believe who it is.

You ready?

Psycho Analysis: Emo Peter

“Now wait,” you may be asking, “Emo Peter? Really? How does he count as a villain?” Well, as Schafrillas pointed out in his video on Spider-Man 3, Emo Peter is actually the antagonist for much of the second act. Peter, influenced by the symbiote, becomes a raging jackass and hurts and alienates everyone around him by being a colossal douchebag, not to mention how violent he gets as Spider-Man. This is very much an extreme case of the hero’s greatest enemy being themselves, because literally, Peter’s enemy in the chunk of the movie with Emo Peter is his own overinflated ego

Motivation/Goals: I mean, at the end of the day, it’s still Peter. He still wants to do the typical Peter Parker stuff, he’s just a jackass while he does it.

Performance: It’s Tobey Maguire busting loose and getting to act like an absolute doofus. There is literally nothing about this that isn’t amazing and I’m sorry if you can’t see it.

Final Fate: Peter eventually comes to realize that maybe the symbiote making him act like an egomaniacal tool is not a good thing, and so rebels against it, ultimately leading him to the roof of a church where Eddie Brock is praying for him to die and, well, the rest is history.

Best Scene:

Best Dance Move:

Final Thoughts & Score: Emo Peter has gotten a bad reputation over the years, but Schafrillas’ video really made me rethink why. As he puts it, Emo Peter comes off not as someone cool, but as what a loser thinks a cool person would be (which makes him still a loser). It seems fairly likely that the audience isn’t supposed to be rooting for Emo Peter or finding him cool, but instead finding him insufferable, ridiculous, and funny. We’re supposed to be laughing at Peter’s egomania, at his absurd and hammy showboating, not cheering him on and desiring to emulate him.

And that ultimately makes it more satisfying when Peter overcomes his ego and decides to rid himself of the symbiote. It might seem like I’m giving Spider-Man 3 a lot of credit here, but even Sam Raimi half-assing a movie wouldn’t leave things completely devoid of underlying brilliance. Emo Peter isn’t a villain in the sense that he’s some superpowered antagonist, he’s a physical representation of the negative impacts of fame and ego on Peter. This is Peter letting go of what makes him a hero and just reveling in being an absolute jerkwad to everyone around him.

I love the memes as much as everyone else of course, but Emo Peter is also a pretty clever symbolic foe. But even though I’m giving him an 8/10, we all know the real reason why he’s scoring so high:

Ok, but that’s it now, right? No more Spider-Man villains? Well, maybe for now. But don’t forget:

There’s gonna be Carnage.

[rose-of-pollux]

Fanfic quiz thing

Tagged by @belphegor1982--

How many works do you have on AO3? On AO3, 408.  On FFN, 198, and, believe it or not, there isn’t as much overlap as you’d expect.

What’s your total AO3 word count? 1,390,063 words.  ....I’m just as stunned.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Around 35, give or take.  We’ll be here all day if I listed them all, but the main ones that I’m currently writing for/would be in the mood to currently write for are: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV show), The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Back to the Future, Hogan’s Heroes, Pokémon (either pokeani or game ‘verse), Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, Hades, and Super Smash Bros.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“Heroic Resolve” (Man from U.N.C.L.E., light slash)

“A Devil Put Aside for Me” (Super Smash Bros, gen)

“If Wishes Were Cats” (MFU, light slash)

“Just Desserts” (MFU, light slash)

“Desperate Times” (MFU, light slash)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Oh, always; I’m always grateful for people who take a moment to tell me what they thought of my fics!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Definitely “All Dead, All Dead” (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Super Smash Bros)--it’s about BOTW Link realizing that the events of World of Light in Smash Ultimate makes this the second time that he failed to prevent a disaster, that he’s lost more this time than last time during the Calamity, and is now carrying even more survivor’s guilt as a result.  I normally don’t write such angsty fics with no resolution, but as this is World of Light, and everyone’s restoration is a foregone conclusion if you’ve played the game, I felt it was fine as is.

Rest under a cut...

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Oh, yes!  The craziest one I’ve written is probably a Man from U.N.C.L.E./Pokémon crossover, “The Three Spheres of Stonehenge Affair,” (Gen) which makes use of the fact that Galar in the Pokémon world is a parallel of the UK, and results in a cult using a portal device to bring Galarian Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres over to England for Napoleon, Illya, Waverly, and Marton to deal with. Another one you wouldn’t expect to work was a rather angsty crossover between 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, “What’s Past is Prologue” (Gen), where Calamity Ganon strands the Scooby gang in the Hyrule Ridgelands about 5 years after the Champions are killed and Link has been sealed in the Shrine of Resurrection.  The fam have to contend with Yiga, Guardians, the Blood Moon, and Ganon’s vengeance (because Vincent defeated Ganondorf in a duel ages ago, which he never forgave) to make it back to their world before it’s too late.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Surprisingly, no; I was, admittedly, bracing myself for it when I started writing my 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo fics, as I feature the entire fam, including Scrappy and Flim-Flam, who are, shall we say... not exactly endeared to the fandom?  (I never had a problem with either of them, honestly--if anything, I appreciated Flim-Flam for being the first South Asian rep in the Scoobyverse) The closest thing I ever received to hate was someone who read a middle chapter of one of my multichapter Hogan’s Heroes fics, ADMITTED IN THE REVIEW they hadn’t read anything other than that one middle chapter, and then complained that it made no sense.  ...Congratulations, you just played yourself.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but I have had one transcribed as a Podfic by someone else--“You Can’t Judge a Book” (Hogan’s Heroes, Gen).

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, once, on LiveJournal; it was a Hogan’s Heroes fic with an otherworldly spin; I’m not entirely sure if it still exists.

What’s your all time favorite ship? Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin, no contest!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? All of them Most of all, the Monkeesfic I left hanging, because it was the literal final installment of the arc I was writing.

What are your writing strengths? Characterizations, or so I’ve been told--I can jump from fandom to fandom, and have everyone remain perfectly in-character. Also, dialogues.  My writing has always been dialogue-driven.

What are your writing weaknesses? Descriptions.  As improved as I am when compared to 2008 when I started posting stories online, I yearn for the ability to pull off the whole “Show, don’t Tell” as good as certain people I could mention.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? It can be tricky depending on the language, but rewarding if it all works out.  In Hogan’s Heroes, LeBeau switching between French and English happens nearly once per episode, so I endeavor to do that (with plenty of help from Bel, I will admit). For Illya speaking Russian or Ukrainian in MFU, I throw it into Google Translate and pray it comes out coherent.  His dialogues are the most challenging by far since I’m on my own. For Flim-Flam speaking Nepali in 13 Ghosts, I have a much easier time since Nepali is similar enough to Hindi (which I am decently fluent in).

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Pokémon, way back in 1999 (though those fics will never see the light of the internet, ever).

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Ooh, I have to do this for my main three fandoms--

Man from U.N.C.L.E.-- “The Jack o’ the Lantern Affair” (Gen version on FFN, slash version on AO3).  The spirit of a legendary trickster is running amok in New York City, and Napoleon and Illya have to contend with an otherworldly threat that they are not prepared to handle.

13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo-- “The Pleasant Valley Poltergeist” (Gen).  Vincent and the fam are undercover in a no-nonsense gated community near Tuscon, trying to attempt a ghostbreaking--only things are complicated by an unexpected additional mystery, plus interference from the Homeowner’s Association.

Back to the Future-- “‘Cause I Might Not Make It Back” (Gen).  Marty is pursued by a renegade scientist to be used as leverage against Doc, resulting in him getting stranded in 1932, stricken with amnesia.  As 1986 Doc searches for Marty, the ripple effect fails to kick in as his 1932 counterpart finds him, and is tasked with trying to figure out how to get Marty’s memory back, as well as keep him out of the clutches of his renegade pursuer.

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2020

We’ll start with movies. The number in parentheses is the year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. Here’s 2019’s list. 

01 Little Women (19)

02 The Post (17) 

03 Molly’s Game (17)

04 * Doctor No (62)

05 Groundhog Day (93)

06 *Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (86)

07 Knives Out (19) My last theatre experience (sob)

08 Professor Marston and his Wonder Women (17)

09 Les Miserables (98)

10 Midsommar (19) I’m not sure how *good* it is, but it does stick in the ol’ brain

11 *Manhattan Murder Mystery (93)

12 Marriage Story (19)

13 Kramer vs Kramer (79)

14 Jojo Rabbit (19)

15 J’ai perdu mon corps (19) a cute animated film about a hand detached from its body!

16 1917 (19)

17 Married to the Mob (88)

18 Klaus (19)

19 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (19) If Little Women made me want to wear a scarf criss-crossed around my torso, this one made me want to wear a cloak

20 The Last Black Man in San Francisco (19)

21 *Lawrence of Arabia (62)

22 Gone With the Wind (39)

23 Kiss Me Deadly (55)

24 Dredd (12)

25 Heartburn (86) heard a bunch about this one in the Blank Check series on Nora Ephron, sadly after I’d watched it

26 The Long Shot (19)

27 Out of Africa (85)

28 King Kong (46)

29 *Johnny Mnemonic (95)

30 Knocked Up (07)

31 Collateral (04)

32 Bird on a Wire (90)

33 The Black Dahlia (05)

34 Long Time Running (17)

35 *Magic Mike (12)

36 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (07)

37 Cold War (18)

38 *Kramer Vs Kramer (79) yes I watched this a few months before! This was a pandemic friend group co-watch.

39 *Burn After Reading (08)

40 Last Holiday (50)

41 Fly Away Home (96)

42 *Moneyball (11) I’m sure I watch this every two years, at most??

43 Last Holiday (06) the Queen Latifah version of the 1950 movie above, lacking, of course, the brutal “poor people don’t deserve anything good” ending

44 *Safe (95)

45 Gimme Shelter (70)

46 The Daytrippers (96)

47 Experiment in Terror (62)

48 Tucker: The Man and His Dream (88)

49 My Brilliant Career (79) one of the salvations of 2020 was watching movies “with” friends. Our usual method was to video chat before the movie, sync our streaming services, and text-chat while the movie was on. 

50 Divorce Italian Style (61)

51 *Gosford Park (01) another classic comfort watch, fuck I love a G. Park

52 Hopscotch (80)

53 Brief Encounter (45)

54 Hud (63)

55 Ocean’s 8 (18)

56 *Beverly Hills Cop (84)

57 Blow the Man Down (19)

58 Constantine (05)

59 The Report (19) maddening!! How are people so consistently terrible to one another!

60 Everyday People (04)

61 Anatomy of a Murder (58)

62 Spiderman: Homecoming (17)

63 *To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (95) Of the 90s drag road movies, Priscilla is more visually striking, but this has its moments.

64 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (92)

65 *The Truman Show (98)

66 Mona Lisa (86)

67 The Blob (58)

68 The Guard (11)

69 *Waiting for Guffman (96) RIP Fred Willard

70 Rocketman (19)

71 Outside In (18)

72 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (08) how strange to see a movie that you have known the premise for, but no details of, for over a decade

73 *Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (91)

74 The Reader (08)

75 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (19) This was fine until it VERY MUCH WAS NOT FINE

76 The End of the Affair (99) you try to watch a fun little romp about infidelity during the Blitz, and Graham Greene can’t help but shoehorn in a friggin crisis of religious faith

77 Must Love Dogs (05) barely any dog content, where are the dogs at

78 The Rainmaker (97)

79 *Batman & Robin (97)

80 National Lampoon’s Vacation (83) Never seen any of the non-xmas Vacations, didn’t realize the children are totally different, not just actors but ages! Also, this one is blatantly racist!

81 *Mystic Pizza (88)

82 Funny Girl (68)

83 The Sons of Katie Elder (65)

84 *Knives Out (19) another re-watch within the same year!! How does this keep happening??

85 *Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (10) a real I-just-moved-away-from-Toronto nostalgia watch

86 Canadian Bacon (92) vividly recall this VHS at the video store, but I never saw it til 2020

87 *Blood Simple (85)

88 Brittany Runs a Marathon (19)

89 The Accidental Tourist (88)

90 August Osage County (13) MELO-DRAMA!!

91 Appaloosa (08)

92 The Firm (93) Feeling good about how many iconic 80s/90s video store stalwarts I watched in 2020

93 *Almost Famous (00)

94 Whisper of the Heart (95)

95 Da 5 Bloods (20)

96 Rain Man (88)

97 True Stories (86)

98 *Risky Business (83) It’s not about what you think it’s about! It never was!

99 *The Big Chill (83)

100 The Way We Were (73)

101 Safety Last (23) It’s getting so that I might have to add the first two digits to my dates...not that I watch THAT many movies from the 1920s...

102 Phantasm (79)

103 The Burrowers (08)

104 New Jack City (91)

105 The Vanishing (88)

106 Sisters (72)

107 Puberty Blues (81) Little Aussie cinema theme, here

108 Elevator to the Gallows (58)

109 Les Diaboliques (55)

110 House (77) haha WHAT no really W H A T

111 Death Line (72)

112 Cranes are Flying (57)

113 Holes (03)

114 *Lady Vengeance (05)

115 Long Weekend (78)

116 Body Double (84)

117 The Crazies (73) I love that Romero shows the utter confusion that would no doubt reign in the case of any kind of disaster. Things fall apart.

118 Waterlilies (07)

119 *You’re Next (11)

120 Event Horizon (97)

121 Venom (18) I liked it, guys, way more than most superhero fare. Has a real sense of place and the place ISN’T New York!

122 Under the Silver Lake (18) RIP Night Call

123 *Blade Runner (82)

124 *The Birds (62) interesting to see now that I’ve read the story it came from

125 *28 Days Later (02) hits REAL FUCKIN’ DIFFERENT in a pandemic

126 Life is Sweet (90)

127 *So I Married an Axe Murderer (93) find me a more 90s movie, I dare you (it’s not possible)

128 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (67)

129 The Pelican Brief (93) 90s thrillers continue!

130 Dick Johnston is Dead (20)

131 The Bridges of Madison County (95)

132 Earth Girls are Easy (88) Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum are so hot in this movie, no wonder they got married 

133 Better Watch Out (16)

134 Drowning Mona (00) trying for something like the Coen bros and not getting there

135 Au Revoir Les Enfants (87)

136 *Chasing Amy (97) Affleck is the least alluring movie lead...ever? I also think I gave Joey Lauren Adams’ character short shrift in my memory of the movie. It’s not good, but she’s more complicated than I recalled. 

137 Blackkklansman (18)

138 Being Frank (19)

139 Kiki’s Delivery Service (89)

140 Uncle Frank (20) why so many FRANKS

141 *National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89) watching with pals (virtually) made it so much more fun than the usual yearly watch!

142 Half Baked (98) another, more secret Toronto nostalgia pic - RC Harris water filtration plant as a prison!

143 We’re the Millers (13)

144 All is Bright (13)

145 Defending Your Life (91)

146 Christmas Chronicles (18) I maintain that most new xmas movies are terrible, particularly now that Netflix churns them out like eggnog every year. 

147 Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse (18)

148 Reindeer Games (00) what did I say about Affleck??!? WHAT DID I SAY

149 Palm Springs (20)

150 Happiest Season (20)

151 *Metropolitan (90) it’s definitely a Christmas movie

152 Black Christmas (74)

THEATRE:HOME - 2:150 (thanks pandemic)

I usually separate out docs and fiction, but I watched almost no documentaries this year (with the exception of Dick Johnston). Reality is real enough. 

TV Series

01 - BoJack Horseman (final season) - Pretty damned poignant finish to the show, replete with actual consequences for our reformed bad boy protagonist (which is more than you can say for most antiheroes of Peak TV).

02 - *Hello Ladies - I enjoy the pure awkwardness of seeing Stephen Merchant try to perform being a Regular Person, but ultimately this show tips him too far towards a nasty, Ricky Gervais-lite sort of persona. Perhaps he was always best as a cameo appearance, or lip synching with wild eyes while Chrissy Teigen giggles?

03 - Olive Kittredge - a rough watch by times. I read the book as well, later in the year. Frances Mcdormand was the best, possibly the only, casting option for the flinty lead. One episode tips into thriller territory, which is a shock. 

04 - *The Wire S3, S4, S5 - lockdown culture! It was interesting to rewatch this, then a few months later go through an enormous, culture-level reappraisal of cop-centred narratives. 

05 - Forever - a Maya Rudolph/Fred Armisen joint that coasts on the charm of its leads. The premise is OK, but I wasn’t left wanting any more at the end. 

06 - *Catastrophe - a rewatch when my partner decided he wanted to see it, too!

07 - Red Oak - resolutely “OK” steaming dramedy, relied heavily on some pretty obvious cues to get across its 1980s setting. 

08 - Little Fires Everywhere - gulped this one down while in 14-day isolation, delicious! Every 90s suburban mom had that SUV, but not all of them had the requisite **secrets**

09 - The Great - fun historical comedy/drama! Costumes: lush. Actors: amusing. Race-blind casting: refreshing!

10 - The Crown S4 - this is the season everyone lost their everloving shit for, since it’s finally recent enough history that a fair chunk of the viewing audience is liable to recall it happening. 

11 - Ted Lasso - we resisted this one for a while (thought I did enjoy the ad campaign for NBC sports (!!) that it was based on). My view is that its best point was the comfort that the men on the show have (or develop, throughout the season) with the acknowledgement and sharing of their own feelings. Masculinity redux. 

12 - Moonbase 8 - Goodnatured in a way that makes you certain they will be crushed. 

13 - The Good Lord Bird - Ethan Hawke is really aging into the character actor we always hoped he would be! 

14 - Hollywood - frothy wish-fulfillment alternate history. I think the show would have been improved immeasurably by skipping the final episode.

[bewareofchris]

NC-17 (E) | Bobo Del Rey|Robert Svane/John Henry “Doc” Holliday (main) Doc Holliday/Wynonna (mentioned) | Wynonna Earp | Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, Dubious Consent, Attempted Non-Con, Graphic Violence, Blood and Injury, Slightest Bit of Gore (maybe), Tiny Limp Dick Wyatt Earp

Bobo had only ever meant to have a little fun getting long overdue vengeance.  Doc had only ever been interested in finding the witch.  They had only ever ended up working together because it brought them closer to a mutual goal.  But things escalated from there...

[i-am-gek]

So, I like watching the little small docs about the community. And the ones about Trans kids are always adorable. And they make me think about myself because the parents always say: well they gravitated towards masculine/feminine things (non-conforming to assigned gender at birth).

Well so did I. And I even refused to be called a girl as a kid sometimes. I was a tomboy. I was never comfortable in dresses or skirts. I hated dolls and the color pink.

But I also didn't like most sports. I didn't like violence or video games or soldier.

I liked stuffed animals and hot wheels. I liked playing house. I liked coloring and drawing and playgrounds and singing. I liked running around with all kids, not just boys or girls.

I started wearing snapbacks in middle school. My backwards hat hasn't left my style since. I came out as bi at 15 as a sophomore in high school.

But something still felt off.

I started disliking my name in high school. As a little kid, Iiked it, cause I wasn't just another Emily or Ashley. No one else had my name. But it felt so feminine, it didn't feel like my name.

I got over it for awhile, but it came back with a vengeance my second year of college. And I was well-versed in the spectrum and flexibility of gender, and how its fluid, just like sexuality. I saw that there weren't only two choices.

Its not my pronouns, its not my gender identity or my biological/physical/assigned gender. Its my gender expression. And part of gender expression is your name, at least in my eyes.

So Grey. It's androgynous like the rest of my gender expression. I don't fall perfectly anywhere on the spectrum of labels. I'm not really non-binary, but I'm not really a girl either.

I'm just Grey.

It took a long time for me to realize that it was okay to just be me. And that, even though I love being called Grey, I'm okay being Gretchen to my family.

It won't ever make total sense. But I've settled that, sometimes, it's all about the context and the person on the other side of the conversation.

I am Grey. AND I am Gretchen. And thats okay.

[caelestimortema]

I think Azrael’s main verse 2.0 will be her being one of the 66 seals that needed to be broken in order to let Lucifer out of his cage. 

Gonna go with sometime after his fall, she became one. Bending death’s rules and balance ( lmfao she was being a little shit tbh lbr ) and taking lives before their time was up. Then death put her in a sort of “time out” not entire chained up but trapped somewhere? I gotta work out some of the kinks but her seal breaking was one of the last ones which she came out with a vengeance and during the apocalypse, she helped in causing a lot of shit to happen. 

I’m gonna word this better, longer and work out the stuff in docs. 

[brightephemera]

Knights of the Dawning Alliance OCs

8. Romances. A companion? An NPC? One of your OCs? Someone else’s? Nobody? Explain!

All KotDA links are to digest chapters. ctrl+F the character name to get to their section.

Haha. Hahahaha. I include extended Bright!verse here...

Ruth (across all Ruth AUs):

Quinn. The first, the longest, the worst, the hardest. That resounds through every Ruth timeline. She existed because Quinn gloated at a Jedi and I picked up my jaw and howled “MUST REROLL FEMALE NOW.” That’s right, the extended Ruth!verse can be traced to “I hate to burst your bubble, Jedi...that’s a lie. I’m reveling in it.”

Wynston. Their fling was a product of the new Legacy system. I thought that of all my characters, Ruth and Wynston were the likeliest to be on the same side of any given conflict, even if Wynston was more by the book (haha). They had sex because Wynston has no shame. They had a novel-length romance AU because I got carried away.

Theron. The reluctant third. I didn’t feel strongly about him but he was good for her at a time when she badly needed a friend and an outlet. I was really warming up to him, too...

Jorgan. Total crack. But he’s the long cozy retirement guy. The others never could be. Jorgan could love her fighting and love her coming home to rest. It was a dumb long shot, but I really liked Jorgan.

Jaesa. I never wrote that one but I had it in mind post-Quinncident. It would be like Lodestone but sapphic.

Larr Gith. Only on a vaguely sticky datapad in Pierce Junior’s quarters. I guess I also did write a short version post-KotDA.

Wynston:

Nyss. Selina. Ryessa Thaye. The dictator. Liira Vodd. Juda. Lord Zavrasha. Baroness Cortess. Yana-Ton. Fixer Nineteen. Pacha Gann.

Ruth. As mentioned, Legacy link.  The Force keeps shoving them together. They used protection but spawned a lot of stories.

Kaliyo Djannis. The longest romantic relationship of his life, and an unmitigated disaster.

Lana Beniko. I resisted this, I really did, but Wynston’s not big with the self-control and Lana would want to know whether she can get away with it. They’re unreasonably happy about it. In fact, the only thing that can tear them apart...well, there’s a chapter about that.

Scythia:

Tries to use Andronikos. It doesn’t go well. Andronikos is obliged to spend several years on the run after escaping her, but he’s been wanted by dangerous people before and he’ll be wanted by dangerous people again. He’ll do fine.

Calline:

Ace aro and happy.

Larr Gith:

Doc. Creepy as hell but they made each other feel good, and they saved a lot of lives. When she spiraled into the dregs of the party circuit eventually even he couldn’t follow her, but the fights fade with memory.

Sana-Rae, the Voss envoy to the Alliance. Larr thinks she’s hot and Sana-Rae has Voss ideals and, well, it wasn’t meant to be, but they got a kiss and a strong alliance out of it.

Indo Zal. That was just fun. She deserves a publicist.

Tebbith:

Felix Iresso. This was never consummated. Tebbith fled after an incident where his feelings nearly cost lives. (I can’t find the link, sorry.) But how can you live with Felix Iresso and not adore him?

Koth. This was probably my most difficult KotDA pairing, and I compensated by making their actual relationship dreamily drama-free. Tebbith is a man of theory and decency, and Koth is a man of action and decency, and I think they grounded each other.

Fade:

Elara Dorne. Fade worships her. What I don’t know is whether Dorne reciprocated. It is Dorne, after all, who brings Fade home after Fade’s abortive attempt on Ruth’s life. It is Dorne who thinks that maybe she can still be reached from the midst of her vengeance frenzy.

In other continuities...

Vierce:

Illyris. Yeah, there’s a girlfriend who tragically dies for angst. There are a lot of people on Kegled II who tragically die for angst, Illyris just got a name. And a sunny, mischievous personality.

Elara Dorne. Forever.

[effectivedetectivc-blog]

Something I’ve had in my head for awhile but just realized I’d never done a headcanon on: Nick’s professional boundaries. Namely, what types of jobs he’ll take, and which ones he won’t on principle. 

The bottom line for Nick is this: he’s a detective, not a bounty hunter, and certainly not a hitman. His job may at times include tracking down people who have done wrong, and at times he may need to kill them, but in order for him to consent to this it can’t be the primary aim of the job. A good example would be his New Vegas verse: he’s eligible to become a companion in tracking down Benny, but he won’t do it if the Courier’s only goal is to kill him - Couriers who already have good karma won’t have this requirement, but neutral Couriers will probably have to pass a low-level speech check to convince him that it’s the Platinum Chip they want back, not just vengeance. When it becomes clear that a hit is going to be carried out on Benny, Nick is most likely to stay if he’s already seen how deeply this could change Vegas politics, and if the Courier has been helping people and changing things for the better.

Generally, Nick is willing to take the following kinds of jobs:

Kidnappings and runaways, obviously. 

Deadbeats and debt collection. He isn’t a hired thug, and won’t strong-arm anybody for money, but if a spouse abandons their family and takes their shared savings with them, or if someone defaults on a large debt, he’ll at least track down the culprit and bring back the location, and if he can verbally persuade the offender to cough up the cash, he will. He will only allow this to come to violence if the offender is a complete monster - say, in the case of the deadbeat spouse, if they were an abuser. 

Stolen property. There’s a reason he’s very aware that anything that isn’t nailed down blows through Goodneighbor eventually. 

Homicide investigation. This is one of the few job types that Nick goes into prepared to potentially have to shoot someone. An important distinction is that he’s trying to solve the crime and bring closure to the loved ones of the deceased, not specifically going out of his way to murder the murderer. He would, for example, have preferred that Doc Crocker go in Diamond City’s prison, despite what he did to Earl Sterling and likely others. He will make exceptions for people like Pickman, who are obviously completely without empathy and ready and willing to kill again. 

Miscellaneous “finding” jobs: this is rarer, but he’s willing to track down Pre-War relics and similar when asked. He even finds these jobs appealing, because there’s a challenge in putting together the pieces of a mystery that’s over 200 years old. People will almost always pay full price for these jobs, though, since the client is usually a wealthy collector.

But the most important part is the kind of jobs Nick won’t do, which comes down to a pretty simple principle: if he’s going after someone with the possibility of doing them harm, there has to be a higher and more righteous motive than simple revenge. Obviously this makes him a tad hypocritical, given his fixation on Eddie Winter, but the practical motivation behind the principle is that he can’t afford to become known as the synth you hire to assassinate people. He’s on thin ice already, and being the synth who finds people rather than making them disappear is a big part of what keeps his head above water at any given time. 

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision: Behind the Scenes Of Marvel’s First Sitcom With Kathryn Hahn

https://ift.tt/3oSsfkE

After a year away due to the pandemic, Marvel Studios is finally kicking off Phase 4 of its ongoing, expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe with…a sitcom.

WandaVision, which premieres Friday (Jan. 15) on Disney+, stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as the supernaturally powerful Wanda Maximoff and the equally enhanced synthezoid Vision, with the newly married couple navigating life in suburban Westview, a black and white setting right out of classic half-hour comedies like The Dick van Dyke Show or Bewitched, complete with live audience.

But since Vision was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Wanda was not just traumatized by his death but dusted herself by Thanos (only to return, thirsting for vengeance, at the climax of Avengers: Endgame), we have to wonder: how is Vision alive, why are they here, and what is behind this clearly unreal scenario?

While WandaVision will feature returning Marvel characters like Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) from Ant-Man and the Wasp and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) from the first two Thor films, in addition to its two super-powered stars, the nine-episode show will also feature new personnel, such as archetypal nosy neighbor Agnes, played by Kathryn Hahn with a perpetually cheerful smile and air of smug contentment — with something else lurking under the surface.

While we have no doubt that more will come to light about Agnes — and the rest of the strange goings-on in the town of Westview — in the weeks ahead, Den of Geek had a chance to speak via Zoom with Hahn (also known for voicing Doc Ock in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) about recreating the sitcom vibe, filming the premiere in front of a live audience, what the future holds for the show and more.

Den of Geek: What was the pitch to you about what the show would be and what Agnes would be?

Kathryn Hahn: They brought me into a conference room with Matt Shakman, the amazing director, and Jac Schaeffer, the writer, and Mary Livanos, our amazing producer, and then they walked me through the arc of the series. Being a little bit of an MCU newbie, they had to go through it a couple of times. But I was just so excited by the ambition baked into it. I couldn’t believe that it could be pulled off at that level.

They told me that I would be playing, basically, the sitcom nosy neighbor trope, that would also be following alongside this couple as they hurdle through these different decades of sitcom history. So I knew that I’d be able to play with different kinds of comedy, just culturally, how we would look at comedy, all of it. So I was very, very excited.

Did you have favorite sitcoms when you were growing up?

There’s so many when I was growing up. They’re just baked in there. Golden Girls was a huge one for me, Family Ties was a really big one for me, just that family. What else? Three’s Company. Loved it, for sure. So many. And then before that, Laverne and Shirley. I loved that show.

Did it sink into everybody how pervasive these things were to all of us? Plus profesionally, Matt actually starred in one as a child (Just the Ten of Us), Elizabeth’s sisters starred in Full House…sitcoms are part of everyone’s lives in some ways.

I think they’ve touched all of us, the sitcoms, in some way or another. It’s just something that’s baked into our collective consciousness. Just our first viewing experiences have been through the lens of those sitcoms and hearing that laugh track and the comfort of knowing that it’s going to be resolved in the end. I think that there is something, and all of us had some sort of connection to it, in some way or another. I certainly have had failed multi-camera pilots in my past that I could draw from. But at least I had the experience. It’s baked into all of our consciousnesses, I think.

The first episode was done in front of a live audience. What was it like getting into that headspace?

Well, not only was it shot in front of a live studio audience, but I think the cameras were actual period cameras, the lights were period lights. I think (everyone) had period clothing on. So the whole thing felt very much — we just were able to play pretend for a couple days that we were actually in that era. We rehearsed it like a play. That kind of comedy, to look as relaxed as it appears, takes a great deal of rehearsal ahead of time for a lot of those bits and the timing of the doors and yada yada.

I think comedy wise, we’re a little bit more cynical now. We want to have a wink on everything. I love a little bit of anarchic comedy myself. I love to improvise. And there was something about the earnestness of just having to really step inside a world that wasn’t cynical. It was a very hard tone to find, because it’s so antithetical to how we are comedy wise. That was a real challenge and so fun.

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As comedy has become a bit darker and more cynical over the decades, does that also happen as you go through the eras of the sitcoms in the show? Does it also get reflected in the costuming?

Yeah, for sure. It all evolves.

At the same time, how does the character of Agnes evolve? We’re obviously going to learn some more about her. Is it possible that she may have a counterpart in the Marvel Comics canon that may be revealed to us at some point?

I think that there is definitely more to be revealed for everybody that’s involved, and everything that you’ve seen so far in these first couple of episodes. I can only say that it’s going to be constantly evolving and constantly shifting what you think is around the corner. And it will hopefully continue to surprise you. I know I was surprised when I read it for the first time. But yeah, it constantly shifts whatever you’re thinking is around the corner.

You said you were relatively an MCU newbie. Have you gotten more into it since joining the show?

My kids had to be like, “It’s an Infinity Stone.” So I was pretty new. I’ve been able to be introduced to it through them. But I will say, through even watching the movies, the little domestic heartbeat between Vision and Wanda was always so interesting to me because for a world that is so loud and big and expansive, and the stakes are so high, to have this little domesticity in the middle of it was really, really interesting to me. And then to know that this show is going to be able to burrow down into the two of them and be able to really have the luxury of time to get to know them better was very exciting.

Also, to answer your question, I did do a little bit of Scarlet Witch and Wanda Maximoff comic book reading, and boy, is that a dark story. Holy moly, there’s some darkness there.

Do you think that there could be a future for Agnes in the larger MCU?

Who knows? But I would say that clearly in this world anything is possible. What I’m learning is that the rules are that there really are no rules. So who knows?

How was it working day to day in this universe that Marvel has created?

As a newbie again, I think what I was so surprised by and so excited by was how intimate it really felt for something that was so big. I’m telling you, putting on that show in front of the live studio audience, it felt like it was just this little band of actors with this little group — knowing, of course, that there were hundreds of incredible artisans working so hard on it.

But Matt Shakman, Kevin (Feige, Marvel Studios president) and Mary really created this bubble to make it seem very, very intimate. My hat’s off to Matt for doing that. It’s a real trick that he pulled off, that within this enormous world, he was going to make it feel so personal and so human and so between the people. So for me, it felt very similar to other work that I had done, which I was surprised by. I thought it was going to feel really different.

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WandaVision premieres Friday, Jan. 15, on Disney+.

The post WandaVision: Behind the Scenes Of Marvel’s First Sitcom With Kathryn Hahn appeared first on Den of Geek.

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