#(for the record that's in the context of a horror game! it was a character analysis)

[set-wingedwarrior]

I really don't like the way so many people look at the genetic aspect of psychological issues. It sounds way too eugenetic to me.

I am not going too deep so I'll be quick and simplistic for the sake of explaining: hereditary conditions don't always show up. What you actually get isn't even the thing itself, as much as the predisposition.

If you end up getting a personality disorder for example, that's up to a mix of multiple things: childhood experiences, education, direct enviroment (family, friends, etc), the society you live in, and your temper (meant as "personality" sort of, but the correct term is "temper"). Depending of what is going on with all these things, they can either inable or disable the rising of specific problems.

[miyuskye]

HERE I GO with this super interesting event from the All Ships Ship Week event hosted by @ficwip

The ship dossier! And what ship I could've dossiered if not my current hyperfixation, aka Jon/Elias??? Sooo, the thing with loving a podcast is that you don't get a lot of official art, since the physical descriptions are also very scarce by author's choice. BUT! they recently made a TTRPG game based on the podcast, which these semi-canon designs. My personal image of the characters in influenced by the huge amount of fanarts circulating around, but, probably an unpopular opinion, I like these designs too. With reference to the image, the top one (not in the ship sense) is Jon, aka the Archivist, aka the pet project/obsession and the bottom one (again, not in the ship sense) is Elias/spoiler, aka the mentor/obsessed.

It would have been great, if I did actually understand the assignment and not gone off the trail with a full AO3 statistical analysis. Under the cut because probably not a lot of people are interested in my ramblings. The dossier is intended for both people familiar with the series, but also for people who know nothing about it. Warning for sparse spoilers about the whole TMA series (not TMP since I still have to listen to it!) (as I said, Elias is a big spoiler himself lol)

Let's begin this trip with a biiig disclaimer. Sadly for us avid AO3 users, the AO3 fandom does not represent the fandom in whole, so these stats are based only on the number of works in the AO3 context. Looking around at non-fanfic related site, i.e. reddit, I know there are some JE shipper there too, though I can't really be sure in what percentage with respect to the non-shipping community (or the people only shipping the canon couple). Links to the guru of fandom stats! toastystats (tumblr), AO3. There's also a github repository but I personally found it a bit cranky to use and it doesn't use an AO3 updated DB, though for big data statistics is fine due to the central limit theorem but for smaller fandom/tags it might be a bit inaccurate. Also the code is in python 2, which is now a bit difficult to use. I personally made my stats by doing targeted searches using the AO3 search function! Super easy to use, albeit a bit repetitive. Stats were made on Oct, 19-22, 2024. Again, I think the results won't change much through the years, especially regarding the main TMA tag data, but who knows if JonElias will surge in popularity (hehe it's a distant hope, I'm pretty much sure that the population distribution is already well-established).

TMA (The Magnus Archive) is a horror podcast, following the events of Jonathan Sims, aka Jon, aka the first part of my ship, who works at the Magnus Institute. This Institute is a facility researching in supernatural events and records supernatural encounters in the form of statements given by volunteering people. Jon is the Head Archivist, meaning he manages the statements and records some "odd ones", as per request of the Head of the Institute and his direct superior, Elias. Sooo yes, he's also his boss. :) lovely for them.

My lovely idiots are the 3rd most popular ship! Such a big achievement for me, who I usually ship obscure ships. As of today, we have 1434 JE works out of the whole 29751 works in the TMA tag. Way to go, JE community, let's keep this up!

The Jon/Martin ship is actually canon in the podcast, so that big percentage, compared to other fandoms, is largely explained by that (instead of simple popularity like Oikawa/Iwaizumi in the Haikyuu fandom). My other favorite ship is Jon/Tim, and I proudly contributed to that 2.78% (ofc also to the 4.8% of JE but it seemed quite superfluous to write).

Fun fact: speaking of spoilers, Elias' character tag in AO3 is a MASSIVE spoiler. It was what ruined the plot twist for me, because I looked for fanfics around ep 40ish (out of 200) and got that spoiled :( I understand why AO3 did that, because before the reveal the tags referring to Jonah and Elias were separated and I guess they wanted to unite them (since I also read some Jonah/Jon works before the reveal - all of them ended up having Elias being somewhat connected to Jonah OF COURSE, but I believe that before The Reveal there was also the belief that Elias was one of his descendants. I became part of the fandom after that, though, so it's just speculation based on older posts I came across).

This is probably my most favourite slide. JonElias has the highest Mature-to-Gen ratio (based on the AO3 rating system) with respect to the other ships. Jon/Martin, being 40% of the works also leads most of the general fandom stats, so it's more correct to actually cite the ship that makes the stat. I also believe that a lot of the more Gen-oriented fics feature Jon/Martin due to them being canon, that is also one of the possible factors influencing their and the whole tag ratios. Due to this, I believe that the Elias/Peter ratio might actually influenced by that, since they're a non-conflicting couple with the main one and are thus frequently included in their fanfics. The other fave of mine also has a higher Mature-to-Gen ratio than the general one, but not as high as JE.

Jon is the main character, so it's obvious that he is the most cited in all the works. Elias is the villain, so it's not so strange. Also, this refers to the characters tags, and this means that Elias might be included as a character even in other ships-based works. I believe the same happens with Tim, since ships with him have a lower presence in the fandom, but he is the third most included character. It's probably because he gets included into most of the Gen/JMart works.

These are the most used AO3 tags for the JonElias main ship tag. Do I really need to explain? They just do the talking in my place lol

A few words on the Alternate universe tag: AUs are somewhat canon in the show, due to plot-related reasons, and I believe this gives us space to imagine, stories where Jon is as deranged as Elias without denaturing canon. I personally believe Jon has the capacity of being feral as, if not even more than, Elias. Canon showed us a glimpse of what we could have but ended up not getting, again, due to plot-related reasons. Some fanfics are based on those glimpses. Also the Do not Archive will be an interesting topic to talk about later!

These are the most used tags for the individual characters. Some of them are also matching but not in their JE tagged works. For example, the tag Fluff might be present in 12% of Elias' works but more than half of those works are Jon/Martin-based works, so he's included in the work but, in a way, not actively participating in the fluff. Also, Jon is canonically asexual, hence the related tag! A few words on that, this doesn't and rightly won't stop people from producing M and E-rated works with him and characters (not necessarily Elias), contrary to what some people might think. And I assure you, as an asexual person, that no one of the JE fanfics I read (even the ones without the Asexual character tag) erased Jon's asexuality. If anything, the ones where Jon's asexuality was present and acknowledged were also my favorites!

Small digression on the Do not archive tag. I noticed that both JE and Elias' tag had a percentage of works being under that tag. Which is used when an author does not want the series staff to read their works. It's mostly used on M+E works (77% of DNA tagged works are M or E rated on AO3), as one would expect. At first I guessed it was related to the pronounced M-to-T ratio of the JE tag (which is even more pronounced on the DNA tag), buuut it turns out the main cause was just a quirk of the data/bias of the data case. As I said, there are only 1434 (as of end-October 2024) works in the JE tag and this means that this number can be biased by a single external source, which causes the shift in the data. This means that this is not a trend!

By excluding the cause from the analysis, the Do not archive tag percentages for JE are still higher than the other ships, but not by such a large margin (around 7% which makes sense).

Nothing to say here, the series reaching its peak in terms of fandom response and also due to COVID making people consume more media content, the JE rise followed the general raise of fanfics in the TMA tag. Which isn't surprising but not to be taken for granted either! Another sad but probably not a trend fact is that Jon/Elias production was slightly more flourishing during the earlier years of the series (especially 2018-2019), than it is now. This might probably related to a ship actually being made canon or probably fandom disappointment in the TMA finale (which I can understand). I read in a lot of earlier JE fanfics very excited comments about "omg I can't wait to see him and Jon in s4/5" and I was like *sad violin noises*, because they didn't get the amount of (canon-expected) interactions the JE fandom thought they would get. Again, this is just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unexpectedly, M+E JE works have more words that Gen-rated ones (expected on the JE tag due to their M-to-T ratio, but kinda unexpected compared to the whole TMA tag).

JE fanfics are slightly more kudo-ed and bookmarked than the general fandom trend.

A conclusive remark, is that I made this just to see what behaviours could be extrapolated from such a tiny tag in an otherwise medium fandom (as for 2020, median number of fanworks in labelled big fandom was 45k. Havign roughly half of that number means that TMA is, on AO3, a medium fandom to me).

Anyhow, I wish you happy JonElias day which for me is once again every day since twp months ago :)

[thebrokengate]

The Record of Stan Frederick: A Study of Amendments

This is an analysis that is long overdue. If there’s anyone in the world that could tell you how much I love The Record of Stan Frederick, it’s my best friend whose ear I’ve talked off endlessly about it, and they would probably tell you that Amendments is not only my favorite episode of the series, but also that it’s my favorite Slenderverse video of all time. If anyone who hasn’t experienced the Slenderverse asked me to show them one video from it that would paint them a picture of what the spirit of this universe is all about, this is the one I would point them to, because its characters, story, and editing encapsulate everything that I’ve loved about the Slenderverse for years all in one episode. I believe that Amendments is not only just a brilliantly made episode among many others in The Record of Stan Frederick, but it is also crucial to our understanding of the narrative, of what both separates and brings together our primary protagonist and antagonist, how the events of each character’s lives and how they felt about them affected their choices, and how the overall story of this series promotes the cautionary tale of not letting yourself fall into perpetuating the cycle of violence.

This is a case study of Amendments.

In the context of The Record of Stan Frederick, the dictionary meaning of the episode’s title would be defined as “a change made by correction, addition, or deletion” as our protagonist Stan Frederick’s goal in this particular video is to correct his error of putting off stopping his ex-partner in crime, Connor Dwight, from hurting the people around Stan when he had known how to stop Connor for at least a year. Stan put everyone else’s monsters ahead of his own, which only led to further destruction that could have been avoided—yet another huge mistake that cost him greatly. With his metaphorical will to live gone when he lost Willow, a child Stan was trying to help who was being hunted by the monsters known as Seedeaters, who manipulated her sister Dana to give her over to them—an event that Connor had a hand in tricking Stan over after being given Willow’s death prophecy by another monster known as the Rake, in which Connor proceeded to give Stan a warning ahead of time that other characters they knew could be the next to die, but never gave Willow’s name as an option—Stan finally worked up the nerve to take care of him once and for all.

Stan returns to his childhood home years after the loss of his little brother Erik and his parents, the place still as empty as it was then, save for the monster who took them all, standing at the top of the stairs waiting for him like it had never left. The Slenderman, as we know him, a monster who Stan used to fear so much and once gave into survival to appease it, and now Stan needs its help. It’s such a cruel twist of fate when he had taken everything from Stan in the past, and he has to question it: Can the monster feel emotions like pain or fear, and do the things that it does mean anything in relation to what it is? The reality of this question is to wonder if this faceless being who never speaks its mind has any level of consciousness humans can understand. Is it just a monster meant to prey on people like an animal for its own survival? Is it meant to play games with the mind until its victims are broken and nothing more? Is it something so far removed from us? Or is it like us at all, able to understand the horrors it puts humanity through, but does it anyway? Could it ever have felt the pain that Stan felt every time it took someone from him, and could it have ever understood him? But they’re questions that never come with an answer. It does what it does and that’s all we know.

But there is one other thing that Stan knows: how to please it. He makes a deal with Slenderman, not a far cry from making a deal with the Devil, that if he would make Connor human again so that he can be killed, Stan would let Slenderman take him in return. Turning the corner up the stairs, Stan finds that Slenderman has disappeared at the request, and at first believes that this was a denial of the offer on the monster’s part, only to look back down the stairs and see him now at the bottom instead. The deal Stan made effectively reversed their roles where Slenderman went from being both literally and metaphorically above him to being below him, showing that Stan now is the one who has control over the monster, it doing his bidding instead of the other way around—a relatively uncommon thing for a protagonist of the Slenderverse to make happen. This is one of the many things that makes The Record of Stan Frederick unique in general, because the story is told from the perspective of someone who has already been through this and knows the monster’s behavioral patterns instead of someone who has never had these experiences before.

With his deal accepted by the monster, Stan enters his old bedroom with only his camera that he sets up on the windowsill, and Connor’s gun. For a moment as he loads the gun, he thinks back on the last conversation he had with his brother Erik the day Slenderman took him, a memory that we as the audience also hear, before putting the gun to his head which lures Connor out. The trigger is pulled and despite the gun being loaded, no bullet comes out, because Stan isn’t allowed to die. The Rake still owes him for having given Connor to him years ago, and Connor can’t kill him because he’s under the Rake’s protection. Similarly, Connor can’t be killed in his current form as what’s known as a corruptelam—an echo of a person much like that of a ghost that can be left behind when a monster consumes a human. So with the two of them now standing face to face, both unable to be killed by the other, they’re finally at a stalemate. This is also reflected in the framing of the scene in which neither character stands above or below the other, showing that they are currently equals, unlike before for example in the episode People where Connor stands over Stan and Serena after fighting them off.

This is when Stan tries to appeal to Connor’s emotions, asking him if he remembers when they first met and saying that he knows Connor forgot a lot of things. It’s unspecified just how much Connor did forget as the type of corruptelams Stan had described the Rake leaving behind being echoes of the body rather than the mind, the type which Connor is, but we do know that day was one of the things he seems to have forgotten. Stan reminds him that they were once just kids in the foster system, both afraid of the same monster and the only ones who seemed to have been followed by it, which is when they clicked. And interestingly enough, for a second, Connor almost seems… sad. He bows his head and stares at the floor, and Stan mirrors the same position. Mirroring someone’s behavior in psychology is often a sign of empathy, giving the other person a non-verbal sign of connection and understanding, and it’s often something subconsciously done in our every day social environments. It shows that both of them are in sync, engaged in the same discussion and nostalgia of the past they endured together.

Stan didn’t know anything about Connor back then, certainly not what he was capable of becoming, but he knew even less about what he himself would become and what they would become together. Fear drove them both to survival, as equally guilty in what they did as they are in their equal inability to die. It’s what they both wanted at one point, to be able to live without that fear. To want to survive is human; when we’re faced with death, most of us will do anything to stop it, just as they did. But sometimes we go about it in a way that brings harm to others. Sometimes we become selfish creatures and throw others to the weeds if it means we’ll get a good night’s sleep. The truth is, the only thing that makes Stan better than Connor here is the fact that he woke up one day and realized he didn’t want to live that way anymore, to hurt others to keep himself safe. They’ve both been victims and they’ve both been perpetrators, but only Stan broke that cycle.

Stan then lifts the gun and points it at Connor, who reminds him that Stan can’t kill him. Stan replies that he knows because Connor is a corruptelam, the phenomena which he had named himself, to which Connor points out that he finds this whole situation embarrassing. This moment and the moment before are so surprisingly human, taking a step back and looking at the portrayal of Connor’s character up until this point as an otherwise threatening and intimidating figure. But, being completely unphased by the gun, Stan wonders if Connor had forgotten that, too—how to be scared, knowing now that he can’t be killed as a corruptelam and feeling that nothing bad would ever happen to him again because he’s something stronger than a human now. This conversation perfectly mirrors Stan’s earlier questions to Slenderman of if he can feel emotions and if the awful things he does have any purpose relative to his being, because Connor has truly become their own monster: perpetuating the cycle of violence, taking what he can from Stan to hurt him, and now unable to die. He’s forgotten the times that he used to lie awake in bed every night, terrified that their monster would come back again and harm him, and that’s something he outright tells Stan. “You move on. You make it better for yourself. You forget!” he argues. “No, you don’t! You don’t forget that,” Stan responds. “I certainly don’t. I forgot a lot… But I would never fucking forget that.” 

To remember our fears, in Stan’s eyes, is what keeps us human. It’s what reminds us that other people in our own personal situations have the same feelings as us, and makes us ask what right we have to make them suffer while we find peace. What makes us our monsters is not the hardships we face, but the hell we choose to make others go through to feel better about ourselves, and we have to be careful not to cross that line. We are all as capable of continuing the cycles of torment we experience as we are capable of breaking them, and Connor unfortunately never did.

It’s at this point that Stan allows Slenderman to complete his request, to turn back the clock and make Connor human again. Connor falls to his knees before his monster and screams as Slenderman does this, remaining on his knees even when it’s over and Stan points his gun at the back of Connor’s head. This scene shows that their stalemate has finally been broken with Stan now being above Connor rather than on equal ground with him. Connor begins to make one final plea for his life, but Stan cuts him off by shooting him, ending his life for real this time. Blood covers the screen, hiding Stan’s face from view as he too falls to his knees, now becoming his monster himself. We can no longer see his expressions beyond the blood, we don’t know his exact thoughts, if he feels better for taking Connor out of the world so he can’t hurt anyone else, or if he feels more grief for having to take his life with his own hands this time around—having also been stated in one of the book excerpts to have hated himself for giving Connor over to the Rake originally—or if he’s feeling some strange mixture of both. We don’t know what his emotions are toward that action in that moment, just as we don’t know what Slenderman’s emotions may be when he hurts people, if he even has any at all. There’s only emptiness left in the silent room that we as the audience feel, until Stan leaves Connor’s body behind for the Rake to find and goes back downstairs to accept his fate in giving himself over to Slenderman, completing their arranged deal.

Except he doesn’t.

As Slenderman tries to take him, Stan talks back, explaining how Slenderman used to be so huge and terrifying to him as a kid, and how he took everything from him. He asks the monster then if he really thought that Stan was going to let him take him too before using the same gun he had just killed Connor with to shoot himself, finally able to die as he was no longer in the Rake’s good graces. A body for a body. And not to get all David Kushner’s Daylight here, but that gun, too, is a metaphor for how Stan and Connor drinking poison from the same vine of survival led them both to their deaths. It was Connor who owned the gun first, the person who also initially suggested the idea of sacrificing other kids to their monster in return for their own peace, which Stan agreed to. The blood from the same deal they made was always on both of their hands, but Connor choosing to share that poison with Stan made Stan his own undoing from the beginning as he would always be the one to stop Connor. The awful truth is, if not for Stan, Connor’s way of surviving may have been proven to always work. It’s a horrible way to go, but no one else ever brought him down. If Connor truly wanted to survive in that way, picking Stan as his survival partner was the wrong move, unbeknownst to him at the start. The gun is a symbolic reflection in this scenario of Stan’s original plans when he had initially accepted Connor’s proposal of harvesting—that he was going to poison his and Connor’s cups of coffee which would kill them both, stopping Connor from going through with perpetuating the cycle of violence and ending his own life because he never stopped feeling guilt and grief from losing his brother to Slenderman.

The narrative actively punishes Stan whenever he chooses to live, and fate seems to scream that he has always been meant to die that day with Connor before they could ever do any of the horrible things they did together. Whether that be the time he handed Connor off to the Rake and got to live again only to be stuck trying to make up for their mistakes, or this time in Amendments when Stan returns as a corruptelam for one last try at making something of his life and he loses the last of the people that he loved, it’s always a punishment that he doesn’t die. He committed unforgivable sins that he could find no redemption for unless it was to choose death, and there was never another option to redeem him. The tragedy of The Record of Stan Frederick is like something out of a Shakespearian play, that there is no atonement and no end to Stan’s suffering unless he dies when all he wanted to do before was get out alive—just as his favorite song said. Amendments perfectly conveys the message of this story like no other, that becoming your own monster can only lead you down two paths: one of a never-ending cycle of hurting others to feel better about yourself, or one of never-ending regret. There’s no hope in that cycle. But there is hope in reaching out to others for help when you need it, and that is part of the message, too. After all, it’s Stan who tells his support group in the episode titled Support Group that they have each other and tells them how important that connection is. The support of those going through the same troubles as us is meant to lift us up, to help us survive together in a positive way, not to abuse and exploit it as Stan and Connor once did. It’s up to all of us to decide which path we’ll choose, and it’s up to us alone to accept the responsibility of those actions—just as Stan finally did.

[frankendykes-monster]

There is a popular quote attributed to both Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek arguing that it is “easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” It is an odd thought to process while watching Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a schlocky horror film that reimagines A. A. Milne’s loveable anthropomorphic teddy bear as a hack-and-slash movie monster. Still, it’s something that bubbles through the film’s very existence. Blood and Honey can be understood in a couple of different contexts. Most obviously, it is a transgressive horror film that uses the iconography of beloved childhood figures in a grotesque and unsettling way as a shortcut to cheap thrills. There has been a recent spate of these movies, including The Banana Splits Movie and The Mean One. Later this year, Five Nights at Freddy’s will adapt the beloved video game, riffing on the same basic idea of cute childish things turned violent. However, Blood and Honey stands apart from these contemporaries. It isn’t a pastiche like Five Nights at Freddy’s, it isn’t a licensed production like The Banana Splits Movie, and it’s not an unauthorized parody like The Mean One. It is an adaptation of A. A. Milne’s beloved children’s classic, made possible by the fact that Winnie the Pooh has entered the public domain. Nobody has to pay to use the character, and no authority has the power to veto what can be done with him. Copyright law is an interesting thing. The Copyright Act of 1790 enshrined legal protection of an author’s right to their work for “the term of fourteen years from the recording the title thereof in the clerk’s office.” However, that period of protection would be expanded over the ensuing centuries. With the Copyright Term Extension Act, arriving in 1998, that protection was extended to the life of the author plus another seven decades. Of course, the reality is that copyright doesn’t always protect the artists. It often exists to enrich corporate entities. Much of the most lucrative intellectual property on the planet is controlled by faceless companies that ruthlessly exploit the artistry of their employees and contractors. Comic book movies are a billion-dollar industry, but key creative figures have to fundraise to pay medical bills, like Bill Mantlo. Creators like Jack Kirby or Bill Finger never got to enjoy the spoils of their labor.

Indeed, these extensions to the period of copyright were largely driven by companies holding these intellectual property rights. The Copyright Term Extension Act was known in some circles as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” reflecting Disney’s proactive lobbying in favor of the extension. Incidentally, Disney paid $350 million to buy Winnie the Pooh from the A. A. Milne estate in March 2001. It is ruthless capitalism, rooted in these companies’ desires to control the public imagination. The Copyright Term Extension Act ensured that no media entered the public domain between 1998 and 2019. As much as writers like Grant Morrison might argue that superheroes are the modern equivalent to the classic Greek gods, this ignores the fact that mythology is a public resource. The classic myths were not owned by large corporations that could use the threat of legal action to pull Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker from the Toronto International Film Festival after a single screening. This makes Blood and Honey a pointed act of transgression. The film comes from writer and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, best known as a producer of low-rent schlock like Dinosaur Hotel and Dragon Fury. Realizing that A. A. Milne’s beloved childhood fable was entering the public domain, Frake-Waterfield sensed an opportunity. With a budget of under $100,000, he set out to make a quick cash-in slasher movie. Of course, Frake-Waterfield could only draw from elements included in the earliest stories. He had to avoid the iconic material added to the mythos in the years that followed. “Only the 1926 version is in the public domain, so those were the only elements I could incorporate,” Frake-Waterfield admitted. “Other parts like Poohsticks, and Tigger, and Pooh’s red shirt — those aren’t elements I can use at the moment because they’re the copyright of Disney and that would get me in a lot of trouble.” Blood and Honey is a bad movie. It is lazy, uninspired, and boring. It has no sense of character, theme, or basic structure. It’s a lazily reskinned version of Halloween or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from a filmmaker who spent a significant portion of the press tour passive-aggressively complaining about how Halloween Ends took “itself too seriously.” There is nothing of any merit here, nothing to hold the audience’s interest. The film’s 84-minute runtime lasts several lifetimes. That said, there is a germ of an interesting idea in the central concept, which has an adult Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) returning to the childhood fantasy that he abandoned to go to college. He discovers that his childhood did not take well to this abandonment. Winnie the Pooh (Craig David Dowsett), now a feral and mute beast, chains Christopher up and tortures him. He whips the adult with Eeyore’s tail. However, Winnie the Pooh cannot kill Christopher. He must possess him.

It is too much to suggest that this plot is mirrored in the story of the film’s actual protagonist and decoy final girl, Maria (Maria Taylor). Maria is taking a trip into the country with her girlfriends, recovering from a traumatic experience with a male stalker (Chris Cordell). When Maria’s friend Lara (Natasha Tosini) spots Pooh lurking around the Airbnb, she assumes that he must be Maria’s stalker. Pooh’s psychopathic sidekick, Piglet, is also played by Cordell, to underscore this connection. At times, Blood and Honey seems like it might be a clever and subversive commentary on the way in which so much modern pop culture infantilizes its audience. Christopher has tried to grow up and leave his childhood behind, even planning to marry his fiancée Mary (Paula Coiz), but his childhood won’t leave him behind. Pooh needs Christopher, his validation and his love. However, that relationship is not as innocent as it appears framed through childhood memory. Many modern adults would empathize with this idea, as their childhood nostalgia is weaponized against them by streaming services and studios. Even if one lives in a remote cabin in the woods, franchises like Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and X-Men: The Animated Series are inescapable. Entertainment that was once aimed at children is now aimed at the adults those children became. There is no indication that these corporations are ever going to stop. Of course, this gives Blood and Honey too much credit, suggesting that it can be read as a subversive commentary on the role that this sort of intellectual property plays in cultural stagnation. In reality, Blood and Honey is an illustration of just how pervasive this model of capitalism can be. Frake-Waterfield isn’t using Pooh to make a point about the cynical exploitation of these cultural touchstones. He is using it as a cynical exploitation of these cultural touchstones. Blood and Honey grossed nearly $5 million at the global box office, and one suspects that it performed very well on home media and streaming. There is already a sequel in the works with “five times the budget.” More than that, Frake-Waterfield has made a conscious effort to expand the brand into a shared universe built around similar properties. He will direct Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and will produce Bambi: The Reckoning, which was sold to international distributors at Cannes this year. Frake-Waterfield doesn’t just have his eye on these sequels and spin-offs. He dreams of a bigger childhood horror shared universe. “The idea is that we’re going to try and imagine they’re all in the same world, so we can have crossovers,” he boasted. “People have been messaging saying they really want to see Bambi versus Pooh.” It’s incredibly ruthless and cynical. It is a transparent attempt to build a massive multimedia franchise from elements that the production team don’t have to pay for.

In theory, the liberation of these iconic characters from copyright should herald encourage creativity and ingenuity. It should allow for more projects like The People’s Joker or Apocalypse Pooh. There are certainly artists engaged in that sort of work. It also provides the opportunity for commentary and engagement with the modern media landscape. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is already salivating at the satirical potential of Mickey Mouse’s entry into the public domain. Blood and Honey suggests an alternative to these creative uses of works leaving corporate purview. Blood and Honey is just as cynical and ruthless in its exploitation of this intellectual property as Disney had been. Frake-Waterfield is clearly aspiring to exploit these properties in exactly the same way that Disney did, hoping to create a scale model of their production machine. It is a trickle-down shared universe, a reheat of a familiar meal constructed from pre-digested ingredients. For all the moral handwringing about how the movie “ruined people’s childhoods,” this is the real horror of Blood and Honey. It suggests the limits of creative imagination, an inability to conceive of an alternative to the model of intellectual property management that defines so much contemporary pop culture. The roots of this mode of thinking run so deep that it seems impossible to imagine any alternative. The public domain doesn’t free this intellectual property from endless exploitation, it just means somebody else gets to take a turn. If the rights to Winnie the Pooh are entering the public domain, why wouldn’t somebody use the brand recognition to make a quick and easy buck? After all, the business logic behind Blood and Honey is the same logic behind something like The Little Mermaid or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. People recognize the brand, and that will make it easier to sell. Even this seemingly subversive and rebellious act is just a cheaper, more cynical, and less competent iteration of the larger processes that drive modern media. All things considered, the cynicism of Blood and Honey is a small price to pay for the possibility of more work like The People’s Joker. More than that, if it helps to undermine or shatter the brand loyalty that these corporations have cultivated among generations of movie-goers, it may serve some purpose. Still, it’s disheartening to watch Blood and Honey, realizing that these modes of exploitation are so deeply ingrained in pop culture that they perpetuate even in the public domain. Even as the end of copyright becomes a reality, the end of this intellectual property churn remains beyond imagination. Oh bother.

[ramdom-stupid-sketches-of-mine]

My coral island farmer OC, Fazlyn Dirynhai Base on the convo, interaction and behavior , these are her character I came up with all info i have at the time. So Imma gonna put it here for the record for future reference?? since the game have presented main personality through text, context and subtext a lot. I need to keep track of her somehow. [contain SPOILERS about questline/heart scene, convo, interaction] Here I go.

She likes starfruit. (; Luke Convo)

She can eat raw vegetables like eggplants. (; Luke and Raj Convo)

She likes making joke and puns. (; Interact with people's room and shop)

She can be 'respectful', rarely. (; Interact with Mollie's closet)

She talks a lot, even with someone she barely know. (; Leah and Mark convo)

She's yogi (; Ben convo)

She likes romantic homey dinner kind of date. (; Answer Pablo Question)

She likes eating flower than admiring one. (; Answer Scott Question)

She can be unintentionally flirt sometimes, but it just being nice in that case. (; Answer Mark Question)

She usually collapsed at night from exhaustion (; Behavior)

She worked in art field before. (; Answer Zarah Question)

She likes gossip, sometimes, of course *wink* (; Bree convo)

She can drink alcohol in little amount (; Scott's heart scene)

She likes horror movie(; Rafael's heart scene)

Other info about her.

She remembered Alice and Lily when she arrived. (; Alice and Lily favorite shown since we arrived to the town, before the farmer spoke to both of them.)

She didn't remember Nina, but they were childhood friends. (; Nina's questline)

Her name isn't her given name. (; Raj Convo). // I came up with the story that her legal name come from her nickname and her old first name, it started from she had the same name with her classmate. So, she's the one with the nickname for convenience. Then after that she kept found the incident recurring a lot, so she changed her nickname to her legal name for good. Her old first name is Lyn.

Speaker in Luke's shop is easily broken, she used to buy that speaker's brand before and it's broken in 6 months. (; Interact with top right shelf in Luke's shop.)

She also owned a clock like the one Luke sells back in Pokyo. (; Interact with bottom left shelf in Luke's shop.)

She tasted Betty's soup without permission. (; Interact with the pot in Betty's kitchen.) [imo, i want to smack her hand for that.]

Her vow in her wedding with Luke was 'Luke, a lifetime is not long enough for me to wake up every morning next to you.' (; Married day, obviously.)

Anddddd, these are my headcanons for this character. Just base on my random guess and thoughts.

She was closer to Alice than Suki when they were kids.

At some point, I think Nina, Luke, and farmer had played together, but it just 1-2 times, so only Nina can remember that. Since Luke is too young to remember the farmer and haven't been contacted with, and the farmer played with Nina more than Luke and she still didn't remember her, she doesn't good with remembering and such.

Suki, Alice, Nina, Lily and the farmer was a childhood friend group.

She hadn't talked with Tavern siblings or blacksmith brother before, from the first convo they had.

Her hair and her blue eyes come from her mother side, her mother is from San franciskyo

Her grandparents who owned the farm are on her father side, so they should be Indonesian(?).

Her parents met in Pokyo and she grew up there. That's the reason she had Pokyo accent from Leah's convo.

Her first talk with Taco, the dialog is like, '[He smells a lot like Luke]', but she hadn't speak with Luke at that point. So, she kinda buffled a bit. 'Wait, who's Luke??'

Her first rescuer for collapsed after 2 AM is Luke, I remember this because it's happened in 2nd Spring in the Year 1. So, in Year 2, the farmer gave him the locket that day, 2nd Spring.

2nd Spring in Year 3, she changed her hair as celebration of sort?? idk, it's pretty coincidence. I just wanted to change something a bit about the hair and just noticed that it that day. huh.. Wonder what will happend if I continue playing until next year.

[youraveragedeltafan]

Jarod and Lola

A small rant fueled by a dubious take I heard on Jarod and Lola's relationship in both the game and first book, I've never fully read About a Girl so I can't vouch for that one.

((Now that I think about it, the OP was probably from a troll but it's too late I'm in too deep))

That being said. Spoilers.

TW for abuse and a brief talk about implied SA

Did Jarod abuse Lola in some way? It's likely, especially considering he slapped her in the first book. While it only happens if Lou decides not to do anything, it shows that Jarod is willing to hurt his child.

To be clear: hitting your kid is never okay. Even when he's trying to get her out of a dangerous situation, it's clear that smacking her did nothing, and that it wasn't an accident. It was retaliation for pushing off his hat. The direct quote is:

"The man’s long and thin fingers are clutching Lola’s bright red arm. The kid continues to flail, knocking back the man who loses his hat in the process. His response is immediate, a slap hard enough to knock her head off her shoulders." (31)

Lola's response directly after doesn't help

"The man sits at the wheel of the cab, and leers at Lola who flips him off. Once the car is gone, she stands up and dusts herself off." (251)

No reaction. We don't know what Lola was like before the Brigades, but I think anyone would be at least somewhat shocked after their parent hit them if it wasn't normal. Even if it was the first time, it's still entirely unnecessary. This was put there for a reason--to depict what kind of a person Jarod was before the attack. It shows that Jarod is not an innocent man who was pushed over the edge, and wasn't exactly a shining beacon of good or even halfway decent parenting before Lola's death.

Even without this, we already know Jarod is an objectively bad person. If we take away the nuance, he's still at his core a scary fictional bad guy who has it in him to hurt his daughter and kill people if they annoy him too much. So yeah, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he abused Lola even before the Brigades, and might have contributed to why she left. This is reprehensible on its own.

HOWEVER

It's okay to like Jarod and find him interesting, he's meant to be the archetypal stranger you shouldn't talk to in horror movies (the hitcher), and plays that part well. It doesn't make you a bad person to like Jarod. Look at it this way: just because you like the Joker doesn't mean you're gonna get a clown mask, rob a bank, then burn the money.

Back to Jarod though. I think if he did anything else, it would've been implied. If they wanted to go that way with his character (SA), I feel like it would be kind of irresponsible of the writers to leave it at small 'hints' (that for the record aren't really there). Making a shrine for your dead daughter isn't weird; the 'shrine' was in front of what was basically her bedroom--something parents of dead children tend to keep untouched. Being obsessed with your dead daughter, while probably unhealthy, isn't weird.

Just because Jarod has a short fuse and likes to threaten and kill people when his cold anger meter breaks doesn't automatically mean he gets some creepy sexual pleasure from doing so. It isn't implied like, at all. The closest things I can think of that's even remotely iffy without context is Better Be Good To Me, but even then it isn't about the crosser, it's about the cop.

TL; DR: Jarod, from what we know in canon, probably physically abused Lola before and after she joined the Brigades, however, there isn't enough evidence to say the writers (both book and game) wanted Jarod to be read as a sexual predator. To be clear: It's fine if that's *your* personal interpretation, as at the end of the day its art, but trying to stand on a moral high ground about a fictional character for something that was never remotely implied in game is really...yeah.

[rallamajoop]

The RE4 Remake and Luis Serra Navarro

I have a gazillion thoughts about the new RE4 remake, and a dozen different aspects I kind of want to talk about. But you’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s talk Luis.

I doubt it’d be controversial to call Luis “easily the most interesting new character introduced in this game.” We’ve got complex and questionable motivations, a bunch of plot-relevant backstory, and a bonus-serve of extra random details about his childhood – much of which is very easy to miss, and rewards you for paying attention. By the end of this game, I’m pretty sure I know more about Luis than I do about Leon, and I still have questions. He’s not just one of my favourite parts of this new game, he’s a perfectly little microcosm of all the ways the remake has reworked awkward aspects of the original – mostly for the better, but not without creating new problems in the process.

But to get into all that, let’s start back with the original Luis from 2004.

So, for context, I haven’t actually played the original RE4. Since getting into the franchise, I’ve been consuming past canon instalments mostly by the lazy strategy of watching cutscene compilations on youtube. I am fully aware of the important place RE4 has in gaming history, the way it defined 3rd-person-shooter over-the-shoulder-gaming (or, to use my preferred term, lookit-the-booty-shooty). I have watched Jacob Geller wax rhapsodic about multiple different versions of this game.

But for all that people remember about the original RE4, the plot rarely seems to be more than a footnote. And for my own money, all I can tell you is that either this is just not a gaming experience well-served being experienced through the youtube-only medium (hardly the stuff of serious critique), or me and the original RE4 just aren’t clicking somewhere. I’m all for campy horror (see everything I’ve ever written about the Hammer films just to begin with), but RE4’s sense of humour largely leaves me cold. And Luis is – again – a pretty good demonstration of the kind of record-scratch moments that made it so hard to get into.

You can find a compilation of all Luis' cutscenes here, for reference. Like the remake, Leon first finds Luis tied up and gagged in a village house – apparently the only un-infected person in the vicinity. His first act on being un-gagged is to ask for a cigarette – a decent little character-moment. Luis claims to be a former cop from Madrid, who quit because he felt his work went unappreciated. Given Luis’ general demeanour, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn he was actually let go for taking bribes or something, but that’s more of a vibe. When Leon admits he was a cop back in Raccoon City, Luis claims he ‘might have seen a sample of the virus in a lab at the department’, and… hang on, Madrid PD has T-Virus samples lying around? The hell? Where’s this going?

But we don’t find out, because the conversation is interrupted, and Luis makes a break for it.

As in the remake, Luis’ next scene is to show up for the cabin siege scene, where he backs up Leon with a handgun. Cool, that tracks with the whole ‘former cop’ backstory.

Luis gets two further appearances, though the first mostly consists of him running up to say “I’ve got something for you guys! What… oh, shit, I must have dropped it,” and going away again, and it’s exactly as awkward as it sounds. But he does at least establish that the ‘something’ is a plagas-suppressant, as he knows Leon and Ashley are infected, and wants to help.

His final scene has him return with the suppressant, only to be stabbed in the back and killed by Saddler. As he lies dying, he admits he was really a researcher working for the Los Illuminados all along, only lately turned traitor – and we’ve officially hit our record-scratch moment.

So what was all that stuff about being a cop? Luis has good reason to lie about being a researcher, but ‘unemployed former cop’ is a heckuva cover story for a scientist, and what was that about Madrid PD having T-Virus samples? Luis-the-researcher might well have seen the virus somewhere, but why bring it up at all?

More than anything, these feel like leftover artifacts of a character who’s been substantially reworked somewhere in development, just without actually rewriting the start of the script to match. Luis’ story, like so much of this game, feels badly in need of a second draft.

Luis goes on to get something of an afterlife in collectable documents, and another scene in Ada’s DLC campaign. He’s still trying to get a plaga sample to her in this version, and he’s still responsible for the lab that cures Leon and Ashley of their infections. Ada's commentary on his character is interesting, and documents suggest he had a grandfather who used to hunt in the region, but he doesn’t get much more backstory.

Regardless, nearly 20 years later, Luis has finally got his second draft, and there’s a lot here that’s improved. (Have a new cutscene compilation link for reference.)

To begin with, any talk about being a cop is gone (an easy win). We find out he’s a researcher much earlier too – Leon is a lot less trusting of Luis this time, and calls in for a background check. He’s informed Luis used to work for Umbrella, and reacts as you’d expect. The cabin siege scene still goes off in similar fashion (though this time, Luis doesn’t feel it necessary to comment on Ashley’s tits the moment he meets her – another definite improvement).

This time though, Ashley starts coughing up blood immediately after they escape, and Luis’ offer to help remove the parasites happens right after the cabin siege, rather than being left for some awkward whoops-I-dropped-it moment later. The new scene actually finishes with the very same exchange (“Why are you helping us?”/ “It just makes me feel better”) – but this version, similarly, feels so much better. A+ revision work so far.

The remake also spells out Luis’ deal with Ada sooner too – her first proper scene in this version is her first contact with Luis. Again, Luis’ story ends in the castle with a stab in the back, and the stolen sample he was carrying being reclaimed by one of the villains (Krauser, this time, since Saddler apparently likes to delegate more in this version). But in between, things get a little odd.

Having already offered to help them, Luis contacts Leon by radio a couple of times during the castle chapters – firstly to say he’s waiting for Leon and Ashley in the courtyard. But Luis isn’t in the courtyard. His next message claims that he ran into trouble, and he’s had to retreat to the ballroom. But he’s not in the ballroom either. No further calls happen, nor does Leon react to his absence in either location.

Leon finally runs into him, apparently by chance, after being thrown down a hole and wandering for some time through tunnels deep under the castle. How did Luis end up down there too? No idea.

I’m glad he does though, because the following chapter you spend with Luis as your cabin-siege-style partner is a very good time. Though Leon is still distrustful and Luis still evasive, they exchange some great banter and generally make a good team. We encounter Luis’ love for Don Quixote, he admits he was working for Los Illuminados… and then Krauser stabs him, and Leon lights one last cigarette for him before he dies. It’s touching and very well done (not to mention dense with slashy subtext, if you want to take it that way).

Exploring Luis’ lab during the game’s final chapter adds some nice details too – equipment pilfered from Umbrella, an old photo with his colleagues, and naturally, text documents everywhere. But it’s his email logs with “A.W.” (Ada, obviously) that will most reward anyone paying attention – particularly the line you still remember the code phrase?

In this version, ‘got a smoke?’ is still almost the first thing Luis says to Leon. But you might notice it’s also the first thing he says to Ada. And this time, we’ve got a whole new explanation as to why.

Admittedly, the execution is still a bit lacking. Luis calls Ada by her first name just a few lines after using his ‘code phrase’, and seems to know her well enough not to need a code phrase, so what's going on here? If Luis knew Ada herself was going to meet him, why try his code phrase out on Leon? Alternately, if he suspected Ada might have sent someone like Leon instead of coming in person, how did he know it was her when they met? Maybe we could still have used another draft. But it’s a otherwise a fun little easter egg to recontextualise something from the original in a creative way.

Much more has been added to Luis’ backstory hidden in documents from the village. You can find photos of 'a boy with his grandfather', an old diary left behind by said grandfather – and if you’re paying really close attention, a label on another copy of that photo naming the pair ‘Navarro’ – Luis’ last name. You might also notice that the boy in the story has Luis’ fixation on Don Quixote (another character trait added by the remake).

But young Luis’ story ends in tragedy, the conclusion picked up elsewhere in the village elder’s records: the grandfather is bitten by a wolf, begins experiencing what seem to be known symptoms, and tells the village elder "you know what to do." The old man is killed, and his cabin and everything in it burned to the ground so the infection can’t spread.

Now, the idea the village has been quietly dealing with plaga-infected wolves for generations despite the fact that the plaga were supposedly sealed under the castle until recently has problems of its own, but that’s a bit beyond scope. The more relevant problem is the idea that Luis comes from the same village where all the action takes place – why? What does this add to the story? With Luis’ new Umbrella-Europe-backstory, making the village his birthplace seems like little more than meaningless coincidence, thrown in without anyone thinking it through.

But there is one intriguing possibility buried in the subtext of Luis’ story, and it’s an angle I’d love to see explored.

The village records end with the scene of a young Luis watching in silence as his childhood home burns to the ground, his only family still inside, then walking away, never to be seen again. Now, suppose that’s the very moment that inspired him to go into medical research, driven to understand infectious agents like the one that took his grandfather’s life, that the people he grew up with only knew to treat with medieval superstition. Suppose that’s what made him seek out shady employers like Umbrella, the only outfits with the interest and funding to delve into that area. The drive to find cures, to find proof that what happened to his grandfather didn’t have to be treated like a ritual witch-burning could’ve fuelled a lot of denial in Luis about where the funding was coming from. And after Umbrella’s collapse, you can only imagine how he might jump at the chance to work on the same parasites that had infected that wolf from so long ago.

If that was the intent, though (and damn do I want it to be), I honestly think it’s a little too buried in layers of subtext to carry. I can only hope maybe we’ll be seeing more of Luis in DLC to come – in Ada’s Separate Ways, if not his own – that might expand on those parts of his history a little more explicitly. Or at least cover what he was actually up to all that time he keeps messaging Leon from different parts of the castle (did he genuinely run into trouble? Was Ada pushing him to keep Leon moving for her own purposes? How did he wind up down in the mines?)

The notion of Luis as a village native still has its problems though. The house you find him in seems to be the same one he grew up in – it’s a cabin by the lake, his grandfather’s diary and photo is there, etc. Only those old village records spell out very clearly that that cabin burned to the ground as part of a major character moment. Which is it, game? You can’t have it both ways.

Even if we ignore that awkward ‘burned to the ground’ detail, are we to take it the ganados caught Luis in his old house and left him tied him up in his own cellar? Wouldn’t they move a prisoner like him? Speaking of which, was that one guy banging on the floor supposed to be hammering the hatch shut? Why? Was Luis being left down there to die? Don’t they still need to question him about that sample he stole? This stuff does not stand up to scrutiny.

And the idea of Luis as a native still doesn’t completely work for me, because shouldn’t there have been some clue in the way he talks about the place? Chief Mendez is a man Luis knew from his childhood – when Luis sees him coming in a cutscene, his reaction betrays no more familiarity than ‘not this guy’. In that cabin siege scene, surely there must be faces in that crowd he’s firing on that he recognises. And fuck, how do you come back to the place you grew up, find its residents reduced to zombie slaves, and think, “sure, I could work for these people…”?

I do realise expecting this level of humanity out of characters in a Resident Evil game might be a little much, but this stuff throws me. It builds the impression the Luis who grew up in the village is a character that exists only in text files, largely independent from the cutscene-Luis of the rest of the game. When you expect your audience to notice minor details like a surname on a photo in order to put together a main character’s backstory, you’re demanding they pay close attention. And once you’ve demanded that much investment, it’s worth keeping track of whether the cabin by the lake was supposed to be burned down or not, why Luis should be able to call Ada by name but treat Mendez like a stranger, and other such confusing detail. And Luis’ story is still positively logical and consistent compared to that of Chief Mendez himself, or anything much else in the game’s lore.

Luis is genuinely one of my favourite parts of the remake – he’s complicated, interesting, and fun. But trying to make sense of him could be a more rewarding experience. Many things are improved from the original, but for my money, they could still have stood to go for a third draft.

[strangestcase]

Not sure if you've ever made a post like this/someone has already asked this and you've answered but I was wondering if you had a list of J&H adaptions (of any kind and as well as other fans making things that are just online stuff rather than big professional things) that you really like and think people should get into if they haven't really explored or even know of just yet? I'm curious because I've only branched out a little bit and got some stuff that was fairly. Meh.

I have made a few posts about the matter but! I’ll gladly repeat myself.

the trick with finding good J&H adaptations is to forget about 1:1 plot accuracy and instead focus on theme accuracy. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover a lot of adaptations (including crossovers and pastiches) understand the book and what it’s getting at.

Here’s my personal list of recommendations:

-MazM Jekyll and Hyde: a Korean visual novel that adapts the book to a T. The main timeline (chapters 1-8) are free to play, but chapters 9-10 and a few other tidbits are very cheap. Since it’s styled like an RPG, you can talk to NPCs that will give you some insight in the historical and cultural context of the novella. It has a spin-off game called Hyde and Seek in which Hyde is one of the antagonists, if you’re interested.

-Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier aka The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment: originally released as a TV movie in 1959 but later released in cinemas, this Jean Renoir production tightly follows the book plot with very small changes. The biggest change is that the story is set in 1950s Paris rather than 1880s England, with all the characters having different names. It has a budget of five dollars and a shoestring but it’s very well written and well acted, with a professional mime playing Jekyll and Hyde. My friend @nemeyuko has a copy with English subtitles. WARNING: there is a rape scene near the end.

-I, Monster: a 1971 Amicus production (basically a knockoff Hammer movie) with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as the leads. Some character’s names and events are changed, but the plot is very much recognizable as a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation. The setting is also changed to the Edwardian period. This adaptation focuses on the psychological element of the story, including overt references to Freud and modern psychoanalysis, and putting the spotlight on Jekyll’s addiction to the serum.

-The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 2003 Norrington movie that has almost nothing to do with the comics it was adapting from, but it’s considered more enjoyable by most people since it isn’t as dark and gritty. I specially recommend the movie for its take on Jekyll/Hyde, since it doesn’t shy away from the addiction angle. Hyde is entirely done with practical effects. The movie novelization is available in the Internet Archive, and it has a bit more focus on Hyde.

-Jekyll and Hyde at the Old Vic: a dance adaptation that reimagines Jekyll as a dorky botanist in 1950s England. It doesn’t have any dialogue and it’s mostly about an angsty love story but I really liked it (basically imagine Jekyll and Hyde meets Little Shop Of Horrors, and I’m not exaggerating!). It was available for free on YouTube a while ago but it’s been taken down- if anybody has any recordings let me know!

I have a rather lengthy list of adaptations I’m watching on YouTube, a lot of which I haven’t even started yet (and a lot of which aren’t particularly worthwhile) but here’s a little documentary and a couple of funny sketches.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Runaway Max Review (1/3)

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Synopsis: Witness the events of season 2 from Max's perspective as she recounts her past in San Diego, her relationships with Neil, Billy, and Susan, her subsequent move to Hawkins, and her meeting with the Party as Lucas invites her on an adventure that will change her life forever.

Observations:

For a book that's short and easy to read (only 231 pages), this was rough to get through. Not because it's badly written (if anything, it's arguably one of the BEST Tie-In novels for Stranger Things), but because this book delves into hard topics like abuse, depression, and isolation, and does not sugarcoat any of it. While Max never had a perfect life in California, the moment Neil and Billy came into the picture is the moment things went sideways for her. There were parts of this book that were distressing, and the way Max's story plays out in season 4 makes a lot of what happens here look harsher in hindsight.

I've said before in previous reviews that the supplementary material works better when it helps enhance the story and mythology of the show. To the book's credit, it manages to do that effectively. While it does retell parts of season 2 from Max's perspective, it gives the audience more context about her past, the circumstances behind Billy and Neil coming into her life, how she views each of the characters she encounters, and it allows the audience the opportunity to get to know Max better.

Part 1: Max And Her Monsters:

In my Creature Feature review, I mentioned Max had a love for horror movies similar to Will, and that Halloween was her favorite holiday:

She even goes on record stating Michael Myers is the horror movie monster that scares her the most, and therefore fascinates her:

There's a dark irony in how Max's fear of Michael parallels her later fear of Vecna: Both of them are serial killers, both of them are mentally disturbed, both of them are strong and will do everything to hunt their targets down, both of them cause collateral damage in their rampages, both of them take heavy injuries and still manage to keep pushing forward, and both of them act as an unstoppable force of terror. The big difference is while Michael is portrayed as a physical threat, Vecna acts more as a supernatural AND psychological threat who can bring your worst insecurities and memories to the surface in order to drive you to despair before he consumes you.

Max had an interest in horror/slasher movies, and then her life became one. Poor girl can't catch a break. 😞

Her love of horror movies predates Vecna and Billy, but there is something to be said about her fixation on monsters, and how she talks about them in context of her situation: In order for her to deal with monsters, she either needs to understand them and their mindset, or she needs to find some way to keep the monsters close to her so that she'll never be caught off-guard by them. There are several instances where she refers to Billy and Neil in this manner because of the abuse they inflict on her, and she desperately tries to understand their behavior as a means of coping with them:

Anyone who's ever been in an abusive situation can relate to what Max is going through. She's forced to live with Billy and Neil despite not wanting to, she feels like no one (including her mom) is stepping in to make things better, and she initially thinks the only option is to weather the storm. She wants to "understand" how her monsters operate and keep them focused on her as a means of protecting others from getting caught in the crosshairs.

In a way, it's similar to her situation with Vecna in season 4. Despite Lucas's suggestion that they go back to Ms. Kelly's office to see if Vecna's targeted other kids, Max refuses because she believes she understands how Vecna works, and would have a better chance of dealing with him compared to a unprepared stranger going up against Vecna:

Max (to Lucas): We don't have time for any of that, okay? And even if we did, even if your plan did work, we'd be putting a total stranger at risk. A stranger who has no idea what they're up against. I do. He uses my memories against me. But… only my darkest memories. Same with Chrissy and Fred, right? It's like he only sees the darkness in us. So, I'll just run in the opposite direction. Run to the light. And maybe he won't be able to find me there.

Lucas: Now, how exactly do you plan on doing this?

Max: I'm not sure. But it's my mind. Not his, right? So I should be able to control where I am. I just need to… push him away. Find a happy memory and hide there. Hide in the light.

Max's arc has not only been about dealing with her "monsters," but also allowing others to help her and realizing she doesn't have to fight them alone. It's a new concept for her because most of her life has been her believing things would only get worse, and that no one would step in on her behalf. Given how her mom was complicit in letting Neil and Billy railroad their lives, it's understandable why she's hardened herself and adopted a cynical outlook. After Billy drives away Max's friends in San Diego and breaks the arm of her best friend Nate to create a wedge between them, Max loses hope that her living situation will improve, and decides she'd rather have Billy's rage directed at her instead of seeing others close to her continue to get hurt. The result is she becomes isolated, just like Billy wanted.

However, in spite of appearing closed off on the surface, people continue to reach out to her once she moves to Hawkins. Dustin and Lucas invite her to go Trick-or-Treating with them, and despite Billy later trying to run them off the road with his car, they still want her to be a part of their group. There's even a brief scene in the book (which should have been on the show) where Max gets injured while skateboarding outside of the store Joyce works at, and Joyce comes to see if she's okay. Max is surprised by this because it's one of the few times she's seen someone express any genuine concern for her:

Later on, Lucas is ultimately the one who opens up to her about everything related to El and the Upside Down, takes her to the junkyard to show her proof of their story, listens to what she's been going through while reassuring her that she's still a good person, and takes the time to get to know her. And as Max sees from everyone else in the Party, despite their arguments and differences, they do care about each other and will fight for one another when the going gets tough. Lucas himself shows he's willing to fight for Max despite how scary and awful Billy is, and despite how standoffish Max initially presented herself. She's never truly had someone do that for her before, and witnessing that is what finally allows her to stand up to Billy at the end of the book and save Steve's life in the process:

And come season 4, they show up for her: The moment everyone realized Max was next on Vecna's kill list is the moment they sprang into action to protect her to the best of their ability while attempting to take Vecna down.

There was an interview where the Duffer Brothers admitted they originally planned to kill off Max at the end of season 4 before changing their minds. I know there are people in this fandom who complain about certain characters having plot-armor (and I could do an entire separate post about how that term gets thrown around willy-nilly these days), but in Max's case, I'm glad they didn't go through with it. For a character who's an abuse survivor and has endured repeated trauma in the hopes that thing would eventually get better, killing Max off like that would have been a mean-spirited way to end her story. It also would have made her entire arc pointless and nihilistic. At least here, there's the possibility of Max returning from the brink.

In both my reviews of The Other Side and Erica The Great, I've talked about how it's likely Max's consciousness has been assimilated into Vecna following the battle at the Creel House, which is why her mind is blank when El tries to communicate with her at the end of season 4. Based on that, Max's arc may be about maintaining her individuality from within Vecna as a means of continuing to resist him, and eventually finding a way to break free from his control and regain her sense of self. Thematically, it would also serve as a satisfying conclusion where she's no longer defined by her trauma or the monsters in her life who have repeatedly dragged her down (Billy, Neil, Vecna). She can finally have an identity and life outside of that.

Of course, there's also the fact that even if her consciousness escapes Vecna's control, she'll still be returning to a broken body, with the very real possibility of being blind and crippled for the rest of her life. I'd actually be interested in seeing that as opposed to the Duffer Brothers coming up with some Deus Ex Machina to magically fix Max's body and make her whole again. Scars and injuries of that extent don't fully heal in real life, and even though Stranger Things isn't a show grounded in reality, it would be nice if they could show a character that's become disabled who's still able to find a way to adjust to her situation, live fully, and gain some semblance of peace within herself.

Part 2: Max And Her Friends

Part of the brilliance of the book is we get a lot more insight into Max's thought regarding certain characters and what she thinks of them, which helps shed more light on how she relates to them on the show.

Take her relationship with Mike for instance: She is (rightfully) not impressed by how he keeps trying to exclude her from the group and shows her nothing but hostility. I know Mike's gotten flak for this from fans, and while his behavior isn't entirely excusable, there is at least context for how he acts here: To him, Max is a stranger who has no idea about El or the Upside Down, and he's not entirely sure he can trust her with that information. On top of that, he worries about Max becoming a replacement for El after her disappearance. It's not a rational way to think, but there is an emotional component to this that Max understands:

Couple of things to note here:

1.) Max is consciously making a choice to be better than Billy. She sees Mike in a rare moment of vulnerability, and even though it would be easy for her to be snide and mean towards him, she instead chooses to be empathetic. That may not seem like a big deal, but I can say from personal experience that I've encountered people (both online and off it) who act like sharks the moment they smell blood in the water. Show any kind of vulnerability or weakness, and they become the most condescending, belittling, self-righteous person you can imagine. For whatever reason, they get some kind of smug superiority in tearing others down to elevate themselves. I've been on the receiving end of that one too many times, and I have nothing but contempt for people who act like that. They are devoid of empathy, and are unkind to others when it is convenient for them. I will always have more respect for those who show compassion towards the vulnerable over those who tear them down.

2.) For as much as Mike and Max are at odds with one another on the show, they have many similarities: They're both headstrong, with a take-charge attitude. They both have issues conveying their emotions in a way that doesn't make them appear moody or hostile to others. And they both care deeply for those they love.

For as much as Max acts emotionally distant on the surface, she wants to have friends and belong somewhere. She wants to be Mike's friend despite how he initially treats her. It's why she continues reaching out to Mike, and even suggests becoming the Zoomer of their Party while roller-skating around him to make him laugh.

It's also why she jumps at the opportunity to get to know El better in season 3 when she takes her shopping and introduces her to other aspects she hasn't experienced yet, like the mall and Wonder Woman comics and sleepovers and so on.

Side Note: In recent years, I've gained a new appreciation for the El/Max scenes in season 3, especially with how important they were in briefly helping Max break free of Vecna in season 4. It's also the first time Max has ever had a friend who's a girl, and she intended to make the most of that during her time with El.

We don't really get much interactions between Will and Max in the book, but I love how she called out the stupidity of Will's nickname "Zombie Boy," and notes that someone who allegedly came back from the dead is not the kind of person you'd want to bully:

She also notes the difference between Lucas and Dustin in how they talk to her, which gives more context for why she ultimately ends up with Lucas by the end of the book:

I like Dustin, but I'm in the crowd that believes Lucas and Max make a better couple, and that Dustin and Max work better as friends. Lucas is the one who listens to her and allows her to be vulnerable in a way where she feels safe and not judged.

He's also the person who (aside from Steve) Max felt protected by. She can be around Lucas without worrying about whether or not he'll abandon her:

Speaking of Steve, I know it's a common perception in the fandom that he's the "big brother figure" Max wishes Billy had been, and this book leans heavily on that interpretation. Unlike other adults, Steve isn't condescending to Max, goes out of his way to treat her as one of the group despite only knowing her for a few hours, and later protects her from the demodogs when she's in danger:

That's probably the first time someone's really stepped up for her like that, and she repays him later by saving Steve from Billy.

Finally, there's this little bit regarding Max's thoughts about Nancy:

It's refreshing to see the breaking down of stereotypes here, and the idea that women have to channel male qualities in order to be "badass" or taken seriously. Nancy is able to be her own person, in her fear, bravery, and determination, without having to emulate Hopper or Steve or any of the other male characters in the room, and Max realizes she can be as well. I would even argue Max channels Nancy when she's later holding Steve's spiked bat over Billy:

She managed to emulate both Steve in his protectiveness towards others, and Nancy in her fierceness, and it's an empowering moment for her.

To be continued in Part 2.........

[markerofthemidnight]

Sense you mentioned it, what's the name and general plot of the DND campaign you were worried would go on infant hiatus? Only if it's a public/streamed/recorded campaign.

-An Observatory 🌙

Well, then. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this.

The campaign was a sort of slightly (emphasis on slightly) comedic, yet still very much horror-focused, version of the infamous Curse of Strahd.

The channel, if you’re interested, is called SpiffyNeedleGeeks. They’re a very small channel, being most famous for Smash trailer reactions back when Ultimate was just coming out a few years ago. Besides the DND, it’s mostly big AAA games they do, but they also cover horror every now and again each October!

Only about, like, 5% of their 2.5k subscribers pay any attention to their DND stuff. Besides that, they’re running two other (not cancelled) campaigns: Ravnica: Trail of Dragons (which I will admit I haven’t watched), and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (which I have watched).

Anyways, back to Curse of Strahd… I’m pretty sure everyone knows how that campaign goes, but this one has a lot of unique twists and turns to add a sense of spice to it. If I were to sum it up in a very out-of-context way:

Basically, a dragon-worshipping Disney princess, a magical macaroni velociraptor soldier, Interdimensional Shitlord Pinocchio, a green Simon Belmont ripoff, a sword-wielding shiny Charizard with a fairy waifu, Big Bird, and the least scary demon you will ever meet try to fight a vampire and then get deeply traumatised.

Go… check it out, if you’d like! They’re not technically listed as podcasts on YouTube, but it still makes for a pretty fun thing to listen to as, like, background noise!

BUT: I will warn you first, try to avoid looking at the thumbnails of any future sessions at ALL COSTS. The thumbnail art updates as the PC’s designs change in-universe, and thumbnail art updates tend to happen pretty commonly over the course of the campaign. Each contains MASSIVE spoilers, so try and avoid them by any means necessary, as difficult as it may be.

And, if you see a playlist marked “SNG Streams: Dungeons and Dragons”, don’t open that either. That playlist is meant to hold oneshots and silly character creation streams, but for some reason a good 2/3rds of it is filled with Curse of Strahd sessions. JUST CoS, for some reason. And it begins with Session 20, a long way into the 30-session campaign. So don’t click it. Just click Curse of Strahd, and don’t scroll too far.

Anyways, if you do intent on listening to Curse of Strahd- or, heck, any of their campaigns- try and update me! I have been stuck waiting to be able to talk to someone about this after two and a half years of it being a hyperfixation of mine, so I’m… kinda going bonkers at this opportunity?

Anyway, have fun, Observatory! And whoever else is reading this, you can all check this out if you like!

[saturnalorbit]

how vivid/stasis, a free rhythm game on steam, is fucking with my brain chemistry and making me desperate to get better at a genre i usually wouldn't care about that much (spoiler alert: it's girls): spoilers up to the end of chapter 1 below the cut as this will be a story summary as well as my personal experience with it

for context, vivid/stasis is a free lane-based rhythm game (if you don't know what i mean it's a similar gameplay style to guitar hero) that i found on steam (suspiciously close to the launch of fortnite festival, also a lane-based rhythm game) with a mystery-genre story. (if you're interested at all already stop reading and play it before i spoil the whole story up to the point im at.)

you progress through the story by unlocking nodes in the node flowchart using battery power, which you gain from playing songs that you unlock from either the flowchart or shop. pretty simple. ordinarily you can't fail out of a song, but if you're good enough at the game, you can use a different "decryption style" which gives you a life bar but also offers much larger rewards in either shop coins, battery power, or both. now i'm sure this isn't too bad for someone who has rhythm game experience, but i'm pretty new to the genre and can only do level 2 songs with the life bar, maybe some level 3 at a stretch, but mostly i just stick to the basic decryption style without a life bar.

moving onto the story, you play as saturday (pictured at the top), who has perhaps the best name in all of fiction, so much so that i almost considered stealing her name for a minute or so. her sister tsuki has gone missing from her workplace, and while the incident is under investigation by the police, saturday can't sit still and decides to launch her own investigation along with her friends kotomi and allison. simple enough so far.

so we end up investigating tsuki's workplace, a geology lab. we meet the detective there whom saturday is pretty pissed off with for seeming so complacent in the investigation, but she calms down once she learns that the detective, eri, is allison's sister. saturday is pretty hostile with her up to this point, but it's fairly realistic considering the state of mind she's in, and establishing a more personal connection with eri helps bring her down to earth a bit.

the group search her workplace and find a site in her browser history, shrinereport.xyz. as you can probably guess this is a site both on the real web and in the game, and it links to a video with cryptic clues. you can try to solve it yourself, but you don't really need to because in the next scene the characters analyse the video and extract the clues: one of the spoken sequences of numbers spells out UNIX and the other is a unix timestamp. the two sequences of dots when converted to numbers become coordinates.

quick clarification, the rhythm game and the story at least up to this point are disconnected. it's not like the game is supposed to be saturday putting the pieces of the case together, the game is just how you unlock more of the story.

so the gang puts the pieces together and figures out that whatever the deal was, tsuki must have gone to the shrine that is at those co-ordinates at the time indicated by the unix timestamp. her route would take a few hours of ferries, so they next go to the ferry terminal to see if there's a record of her taking a ferry around the time they expect. sure enough, tsuki left on a ferry pretty much right when they expected. saturday briefly tries to book a ferry to go and find her, until...

this is the point where i'm gonna say if you're interested so far, and you like rhythm games or would be okay picking them up, stop reading and play it. we're getting into the insane shit now so if this interests you at all, give it a shot yourself.

the girls are interrupted by a booming sound, and to their horror they find that the geology lab has gone up in flames. they rush there to find out what happened, only to learn that eri is still in the building. kotomi rushes in to try to save her sister, followed shortly by saturday.

they don't have much luck. surrounded by flames, saturday calls out for kotomi, only to hear her anguished yell coming from somewhere. she looks in room after room, but she can't find kotomi. she calls her name again, but there's no response this time.

saturday falls to the floor, the flames engulfing her. her adrenaline failing her, she finally sees what her reality has become. she failed to save both tsuki and kotomi, and with the fire closing in around her, now she's going to die before she can do anything to help them. she weakly calls for someone to help her, and admits that she's scared. she shouldn't have gotten tied up in all of this, but now she's going to pay the price. everything that "saturday" is fades away.

god fucking damn. if you care enough to have gotten this far, go and watch the cutscene on youtube or play the game. i had to write all this to provide context but i didn't really do it justice here, saturday is just written in such a realistic and compelling way here.

actually, i'm going to take this chance to talk about saturday, and myself. when i hyperfixate on a character, oftentimes it can be really hard for me to even get them off my mind. i don't really tend to anymore but i absolutely used to kin characters i was obsessed with, and while i don't do that anymore, hyperfixating on characters still does things to my brain.

i really like saturday. (and need to be her. big surprise.)

honestly i'm not great at putting together my reasons why what i will say is her design is amazing and the way she's written is very relatable to me personally in a really interesting way. her thoughts contain a lot of subtle observations about the people and environment around her, almost seeming like a little too much, in a way that felt sort of unnatural to read at first but really ended up gelling with me personally. like, i don't know. i just feel like if i were to write a character, this is how i might end up writing their thoughts.

there are also the 'funny' relatable moments, which are also adorable in their own rights but for the most part i just find her really intriguing. i love how she can be kind of an asshole sometimes because yes, she is in a vulnerable position and is lashing out at people sometimes when she doesn't mean to. that's just a fairly understandable way to act in her situation. there's also some stuff about her later on that i spoiled myself on that i won't spoil here because i'm sticking to just chapter 1 for the moment, but just to say it only made me like her even more as a character.

so, what happens next? the story isn't over, obviously, you're told as much. you're separated from saturday and brought to a screen with three locks, which each turn out to be some kind of cryptic puzzle, with the middle one requiring both of the side puzzles to be finished before you can find the correct string.

now, i kind of suck at cryptic puzzles. i'll usually look at them for a few minutes, not figure anything out and then maybe ask for help or look up a guide.

so why did i put in all this fucking effort this time?

okay, i know they're not the hardest puzzles in the world and i did get a little bit of assistance near the end but this is really unusual for me to put this much time into trying. now i'm really getting to the crux of what i'm trying to say, why vivid/stasis is making me put so much effort into these things that i never really bothered with before.

pretty much, it's saturday.

i considered trying to figure out the arg-style hints earlier, but i elected to go forward with the story anyhow, and the girls ended up solving it. now, i'm being presented with a puzzle i have to do myself. and my first thought is, "if saturday was able to figure out her puzzle, and i want to be her, i have to do my best on this too." and i did, and i actually figured out a large amount of it myself. i didn't fully figure it out, but i got close enough to where i felt like being nudged in the right direction was okay. i mean, saturday got help from her friends too. i understand this is a really weird and roundabout way to get motivation to do something, but vivid/stasis made it work for me.

so after solving the puzzles, getting a web link out of it and then getting a code from the web page to enter back into the game, what happens? a cutscene plays, introducing me to...

PYROMANIA...

a level 8 opening with a forced life bar.

so we're coming full circle now. remember what i said at the start? that i struggle with even level 3 openings with a life bar? and now i have to do a level 8 to progress. look, i know a level 8 isn't that bad for experienced players. i'm not an experienced player. i'm new and i suck.

and now i can't find out what happens to saturday until i get much better at the game.

saturday who extremely quickly, over maybe 30 minutes or so of cutscenes, managed to become one of my favourite characters. they fucking set her on fire and told me to get good before i can find out what happens next for her. i have been losing my mind over this. i'm desperate to know what happens next but i can't for a decent while until i improve. i cannot stop thinking about saturday's unknowable fate.

now, this would be the part in another game where i'd just give up and watch the rest of it on youtube, or turn on autoplay to just play PYROMANIA for me. the problem is they fucking got me. hook line and sinker. because this is the first time a song has been directly connected to the narrative. PYROMANIA in this context i believe symbolizes the fear and adrenaline in saturday as she realises she's going to die in this fire. what this means for me is that just skipping the song isn't a satisfying conclusion here. it seems insurmountable for me at the moment, but saturday is facing something insurmountable too. i have to push through it for her. god fucking damnit.

anyways that's as far as i've gotten for the moment i'm honestly just rambling about how weird my brain is and how it's motivated i'll keep trying and i'll poast an update when i improve enough to beat pyromania sorry this was so long winded happy saturday wednesday bye.

[moon-goggles]

Generation Loss: The Founders Cut Thoughts

I adore genloss and was there to watch the premiere of the founders cut but one thing I do have a problem with is some of the pacing, and I’ve thought about it a fuck ton believe me but I gotta say some things; I think the cut isn’t perfect but IT IS interesting, it adds a lot to the project as a whole actually despite the cuts and it’s great to introduce to others who are intimidated by the vods who aren’t actively interested in the people playing as these characters BUT, it loses a lot of context for why and how it’s so horrifying as a concept unlike the og material.

I appreciated the pacing of the first episode but it lost some key contexts like GL!Charlie’s grandma and GL!Ranboo generally fucking up his place and other details that really built more onto how they were being controlled which thematically connect to the horrors you experience in episode two.

Episode two was already, quite long in the og vod and frankly not my favourite (hot take I know),,, but it was missing the horror of Charlie? Like what makes that surgery so jarring is how it was presented and it left me sitting there a little disappointed as it’s my favorite part. The episode felt very filler and it once again, takes over a majority of the three episodes due to its content and nothing wrong with that but the pacing felt slow and drawn out after the Candy Room. The pacing and editing could’ve been done differently for the rest of that episode in my op. Especially after the fast pacing and clean editing in the first episode. I don’t think it necessarily should’ve gone fast like the cabin in the woods, because the theming of that episode was about puzzles and such, but I don’t feel the time they used was necessary for the story or idea of everything being a game for the show YKNOW?

Episode three of course, my favorite beloved, not much had to be changed or cut as the pacing was already mostly planned well and efficiently from it being pre-recorded toward the end for cinematic feels, I don’t really have any complaints toward it except for the fact that it’s prior episodes lost the impact or context needed to bring you to the conclusion as an ultimate horror realization. GL!Ranboo saying thank you was such an added moment and HETCH actually being colder and directive toward them was good chilling touches but once again I feel that thank you isn’t as holy shit without some of the context you get from the og material cuz it was cut.

The ending was DEFINITELY worth the wait it left me intrigued and excited because it connected and set off the premise of smth beyond generation 1 and I’m pretty excited for what’s to come—

But overall the whole project, I knew it would be cut and edited as seen fit as states “THE FOUNDERS CUT” and that there was possibility for tidbits of lore that added on. I got exactly what was expected and was told we were going to get I just feel it leaves a bit lacking for the reasons stated earlier. This honestly could be somewhat of an intention because it is the FOUNDER’s cut, and what the FOUNDER wants shown despite the screen card for episode three about it not being something you’re supposed to see.

The whole premise of generation loss’ title losing some of its media and context for the cut and the way its perceived as a whole is honestly really smart and cool if you know the og material and I’m still stuck on if that was intentional by any means or not besides the obvious decisions for the audience to see where GL!Ranboo repeats himself over and over, the surgery’s horror being skewed, and HETCH acting as somebody being worth trusted as he did in the og, and etc. Because clearly, it was intentional but I’m not sure it was presented in the best way possible.

The additions tho once again I quite appreciated, getting to see that the food in episode one was horrific for a split second and GL!Ranboo’s past for those split seconds as well, very nice. Also the Showfall Media Mascot, Squiggles, having his very own animation was neat too tho his chat box almost never going up because of the cuts made it feel strange when it did show up in my op. And of course the new voiceover additions and tape at the end added so much tonal wise and made me rethink and evaluate what I assume as the consumer of this world’s lore, which I quite enjoy and appreciate!

[thesumlax]

On Deviantart I titled this Dream Sketches page "A New Record" because 21 is the largest number of entries yet, and also because I spent the longest time procrastinating on posting them...

Also, I decided that the grid format with six drawings to a page makes them way too small for my liking. On the other hand, I tried a new method of cleaning them up, by meticulously painting the sketches with a selection brush so I can leave all of the dirt behind when I move them... and it does produce great result, but the time waste is crazy.

Anyway:

1) Something like a living cavern monster, with a rock shell and jelly-like flesh. It`s basically hollow inside, and its organs are semi-autonomous entities crawling among those giant papillae on the floor. The bubble-backed thing crawling out is a reproductive one, it produces some strange reproductive bodies that look like either fried eggs or sausages crossed with some unicellular organisms (2). They`re not sex cells, hovewer, but still multicellular structures more like gametophytes.

3) Giant sand-swimming dragon with a bunny face and some fucked-up sand-ship glued to its back.

4) Just a trio of little guys! May have been video game characters who have to escape some sort of bad place by using their abilities (umbrella, spinning hand, and a fucking gun) in combinations. They`re colored red, blue and green.

5) Some sort of sea creature calles something like "trychnotus" or "trychaetus".

6) Another sea monster that kinda looks like a rubber toy.

7) Ghostly transparent axolotl-creature.

8) An erect-limbed toad. For some reason it`s important to note that it is exactly 12 cm tall.

9) A gliding, stinger-tailed draconic creature.

10) A bear-like omnivorous therizinosaurid survivng to the modern day. Started as spec evo but suddenly tranformed into horror movie monster for some reason.

11) Tiny-headed deer-o-saurus.

12-13) Two weird pitch-black horses from two unrelated dreams. Number 13 had its eyes and those weird cracks glowing bright neon green.

14) Bizarre elephantoids. The pitcher-trunk is especially fun.

15) Allegedly some sort of early pterosaur.

16) Don`t really know what that is... Seems to be made of brown rock?

17) Now this was a dream about some superhero who could shrink down do bug size and interact with sapient bugs (of the freakishly human-faced cartoon variety). These bugs had cars, which were also bugs (pictured). Bizarrely, the bug civilization existed in the same exact spaces as human civilization despite the size difference, with human roads having lanes for bug-cars.

18) A giraffe-dragon of some kind?

19) Another thing I don`t even know the context of. The humanoid head does not have a mouth despite the teeth.

20) Something like a gorgon.

21) Pelican dragon. Apparently can spray toxic mist like a crop duster, presumably through pores in its pouch.

[mirrorthoughts]

I started watching TW season one again (the only one I actually watched so far 😂) and once again I'm just amused by the plotholes and discrepancies and things they show or say once and never refer to or use again, as well as the technical side of camera shots and cgi - and I'm only in episode 5 so that's a record if you ask me. (Nevermind that me picking at threads already started with eposiode 1 😂)

Disclaimer: As I said I've never watched that much of the actual series even if I steal the characters to write! Also I'm definitely biased due to the fandom, wiki entries I read and so on. So take all this with a grain of salt! It's mostly stuff I was amused by so if I have it wrong - well. I have it wrong, I guess.

Anyway. On to my observations: (this got long, so I hid them under the readmore)

Sorry to all the people who like scott, but... he's so boring <.< WHY is that guy the main character? EVERYONE else would be more interesting just from a storytelling point of view! Give me Finnstock, Danny, the Sherrif, or any of the other main cast and just get rid of Scott as main POV <.< please.

It's so funny that they tried to make it some kind of horror tv show. I actually recognize classical horror movie scenes, camera shots that should invoke a certain fear or surprise but they somehow manage to put it in such a context that I laugh because I recognize what they want to do and it just doesn't work. Might be a me-problem because I like watching horror films, but... it's still very sad.

Stiles says he once had a boa. I asked the internet and it told me boas in zoos can get about 28 years old... Stiles is 16. Stiles... Stiles, what did you do with your boa?... STILES....

The scene where Stiles and Scott talk through video chat (and is that AOL? Those were AOL-icons... was AOL still alive in 2011? <.<) and Derek stands behind Scott... it's just... why did Scott stare at the screen instead of turning around? Nevermind that he read what Stiles was writing out loud and that Stiles's message was written in such large letters that probably anybody standing 5 miles away could have read it - nevermind the guy Stiles thought was standing behind Scott. Also: why did Derek just... stand there. Especially once he was sure he'd been seen...? I know that's also one of the Horror-esque scenes I mentioned but the timing of it all was so bad! (also also: Scott is just stupid <.<)

They use this weird alternative 'sight' for werewolves in the beginning (the scenes colored in red) and it feels like they use that in the first few episodes and never again after that <.<

Another weird scene: The game where Scott wolfs out and Jackson stays back and finds Scott's glove with holes where Scotts claws came out. I just... have so many questions... 1) Why did Jackson stay back after not only his own WINNING team but also the audience, the enemy team, coach finnstock and ANYONE ELSE who was probably assigned to clean up the field? He even was still in his own lacrosse gear so he stood back to take up a glove a person who'd cleaned up the field should have taken with them?... 2) Why the fuck was Derek staring at him? <.<... or rather, why was he staring at him for so long so Jackson even looked at him? Did Derek even see the whole game? Why did he let Jackson see him? It's not like he tried to scare him into staying silent, for that his staring wasn't nearly scary enough <.<... it's just... another weird composition. Especially since Jackson and Derek have nothing to do with each other <.<...

Scotts dream where he killed Allison in the bus that mimicked how Peter/the Alpha killed the bus driver. Even though later it comes out that he was there and tried to keep the Alpha from killing the guy, this dream is just one instance where they try to 'show' Scott's 'connection' with the Alpha. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the connection he has with Peter is the one and only time we see such a connection between an Alpha and a Beta, I think. I mean the whole "I dream of things the Alpha did" and the whole not remembering/blacking out due to instincts and Alpha?

Also, Scott was apparently was hurt/slashed by the Alpha's claws. How come that wound was healed the next morning? I thought wounds caused by an Alpha heal slower? <.< or is that a fandom thing? <.<

I want to hug Derek. Hard. Poor boy drives to a town he got traumatized in to help his sister/Alpha where she ALSO gets killed and all those stupid teenies do is blame him for her death, for their problems and for anything else the new Alpha did - especially the other killings - so he gets locked up by the Sherrif and when he gets out that stupid pup has the gall to search him out just to - again - blame him for all of his problems and even for the death of his sister and the bus driver <.<...

On that note: I think Derek said he came to find his sister/meet his sister. To me it sounded in that moment as if he hadn't known she was dead when he arrived and that confuses me...

Also: shouldn't he also have a connection/pack bond with the Alpha if he wants to or not? Or does a pack just fall apart when the old Alpha dies until they've submitted to the new one? <.< And doesn't that mean that Derek's currently a packless Omega? <.<...

Aaand there's another horror film track shot classic that sends the camera from Derek and Scott to the outside of the Hale house where the Alpha is waiting/his eyes are glowing in the dark. ... So why didn't the Alpha go to them? Or did he just... sit there and stare at the house until Scott leaves? If the Alpha runs on instinct why didn't he try to get to Scott or Derek - especially after Scott left - when he is trying to get Scott and Derek to accept being part of his pack? <.<...

Kate drives into town without stopping and the Alpha attacks here somewhere in town. Close enough to Scotts home that he sees her shortly after she shoots her shotgun twice when the shots were what woke him up. 1) did the Alpha smell her through her car and the fumes? <.< 2) did he just stumble over her car while running through the town?? <.<... 3) if not, did he follow her from the outside into town? why didn't he attack her there instead of somewhere quieter? <.<...

I'm still confused by the whole Derek clawed Jackson in the neck and it did something to Jackson-stuff. Especially because Derek's not an Alpha yet <.<...

And finally just a quote from Derek that amused me for potential fanfic reasons when Scott asks why Derek can't just track the Alpha as a human: "Beause his human scent could be entirely different" <.<

[sloshed-cinema]

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)

‘Chronically online’ is often tossed about with people who feel the compulsion to constantly share every thought that passes through their often vacant mind on Twitter.  But in some cases, this takes on a deeper, more damaging implication.  Internet forums can be safety nets for people in need of support, and there can be release in exploring problems in abstract through fantasy or storytelling.  It’s when something stops being a tool or even coping mechanism and turns into an obsession which can be dangerous.  I was never a creepypasta kid growing up, and things like SCP files didn’t appeal to me personally.  We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is far more interested in the minutiae of that culture, and does a fairly good job of capturing the spectrum of videos in that corner of the internet, at least to my journeyman’s understanding of it.  Far more fascinating is the implication of the interaction between loner high schooler Casey and JLB, the creator of the World’s Fair mythos.  When JLB reaches out to Casey, it’s disturbing, an older, anonymous man speaking to this young girl, telling her to make more videos, watching her sleep, drawing her deeper into this labyrinth.  He’s a obsessed with this fantasy world too, either unaware of the impacts of what he is doing or too far gone to care.  When Casey’s videos become darker and darker, he has the clarity to pull back, trying to start a dialogue about suicidal ideation and loneliness during a really tough part of life.  She reacts predictably and withdraws, making accusations which floated in my mind from the start but became more conflicted as time progressed and his motives became more vague.  His desire for her not to commit suicide seem genuine, but he also never pulls the E-brake and stops the game entirely.  The final video confessional has to be taken at his word.  Is this the truth, or are these the fantasies of a man feeling guilty over his earlier actions and trying to paint himself the hero?  By the same coin, Casey’s videos have a performative aspect to them which feel artificial even to the girl herself.  Is she trying to create something for herself which she thinks others are genuinely experiencing, or is this artificial, a way to continue to attract attention from JLB?  It’s people reaching out for one another but lacking the emotional bandwidth to fully carry the burden the other one needs, or at least JLB recognizing something of himself in Casey and failing to help her while passively perpetuating her spiral.  Horror can be an effective conduit for processing emotion, but only when you know it’s a vessel rather than something to bring inward.

I will confess the opening scene made me nervous as to how the film would be executed.  But when the film pulls away to bleak shots of desolate midwinter parking lots and abandoned big box retailers accompanied by strains of a song with strong Sufjan-core vibes, I knew there would be something more going on than that bland nightmare.  Namely, anything.  Montage sequences like that capture the essential isolation of the film’s emotional core, a girl who has to use an ASMR video as a comforting parent figure and who seeks solace through the camaraderie of an online game community.  Aside from her choice of created videos, writer-directer Jane Schoenbrun shows an assured hand in shot selection.  At several points we are placed in a frame where we can see both Casey recording herself and how Casey moves about her physical space, blending Casey’s recorded or created reality with how we perceive the greater context.  It’s this combination, paired off against the anonymity of JLB.  We see both characters in similar poses, immobilized on a bed and gazing longingly at videos.  I’m curious to see what Schoenbrun will do next.

THE RULES

SIP

Casey says her own name.

Casey starts recording herself.

An internet video starts to play.

BIG DRINK

The World’s Fair Challenge is named.

Paranormal Activity gets name-dropped.

Someone starts a video call.

[asurrogateblog]

Sweet! :D Are there any other characters important to the story, aside from the band, you'd like to talk about?

ooh okay!

as usual I am wholly incapable of providing a short answer.

The most interesting side characters to talk about are from Cal's part of the story (basically the epilogue, see the last slide it does require that context)*

*sidenote: I do have side-characters for the "real story" obviously, but one of the points I want to make in the story is how the main cast is so myopically self-obsessed that they don't fully process the consequences of their actions outside of the circle of the three of them until it's way too late. so as a result everyone else is a little less developed (it's on the to-do list

ANYWAY. so as mentioned in the powerpoint, Cal in the present-day owns a little record/instrument shop. And speaking meta-textually, she REFUSES to get involved in an actual plot. I have a few ideas I'm playing around with for where to take her character but usually it's like "yah I'm not doing that." given this stand-off I've resorted to a more slice-of-life style of things. I guess she deserves that. arguably. a lot of philosophical questions there about whether you're responsible for the actions of the people you used to be.

so when I was thinking of her shop, I started thinking about the neighborhood around it. and I asked myself "who would be the funniest person/people to move in next door?"

Meet Arti and Ray! They're lesbian married, they're re-opening the old bar next door, and they just happen to be Clarion Call super fans. They even have matching tattoos and their bar is called Puzzlemaster after the Clarion album. In the CC universe they're definitely on tumblr making "rpf is fine" memes with photos of Roy and Nelson.

Facts about Arti:

Mellow (read: quietly chaotic), observant, creative

Trying to finish her degree in film studies on the side. Dreams of making really unsettling avant-garde horror movies.

Introduced to CC by her mom. She doesn't really talk to her family anymore (....it's complicated), but she kept the love of the music. Nelsongirl.

genuinely really enjoys bartending; mixology master

Facts about Ray:

Energetic, competitive, loud

Works part-time at a daycare to supplement their income; loves kids, should honestly be a gym teacher

Born in the Phillpines; moved to California (bay area) as a kid

Introduced to CC by their cousins. godsend for "teenager struggling to fit in who doesn't realize they're queer yet". Roy stan.

The premise for them is analogous to this: imagine, anon, that one day you're chatting with the old woman who lives next door and it strikes you that she looks a lot like John Lennon. Now consider exactly what would it take for you to go from "haha weird" to "oh my god, I think John Lennon is still alive and an old woman and also my neighbor". And beyond that, what would it take for you to actually accuse her of this.

As they get to know each other, this is the game of psychological chess going on between Cal and Arti & Ray (of course, they'd probably think that she's secretly Izzy Riles.... which she is, but that's only a third of the story).

So that's a little introduction to them! They're a lighter and sillier part of the story and I like them a lot

(I have to stop here. I have to make myself)