#-Ellen Ripley from Alien. i love that movie i love her so much shes a fucking girlboss

[bluejaybytes]

Top 5 female protagonists in any media?

HIIIII thank you :3 fair warning this is gonna be mostly video games

1. JESSE FADEN FROM CONTROL. ough. I love her. She is my blorbo 4ever. She's besties with the alien (?) that lives in her head. She's thrown into the weirdest possible scenario and goes 'well this might as well happen'. She sees a gun laying next to a man who just died and upon being told to pick it up she immediately does. I'm in love with her

2. Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn/Horizon Forbidden West. Okay so I actually like her mom to an insane degree (ELISABETTTTTTT) and she is My Blorbo Of All Time. She's an extremely compelling character and genuinely the scene where she yells at the Nora in All-Mother Mountain for worshipping her after shunning her is so impactful. Also she's queercoded and if you want to listen for the next 5 hours I can go over every potential hint in painstaking detail

3. Squirrelflight from Warriors. I have a love/hate relationship with the awful cat books (mostly hate) but I genuinely love Squilf. I think she has some of the most interesting and compelling character moments in the entire series and I love her <3

4. Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place. Fun fact I share a birthday AND state with her! Wooo Arizona!!!! But also I literally cried at the finale of the show because of how much her story impacted me. She's a genuinely funny and well written character and god. Its so good

5. Diane Nguyen from Bojack Horseman. I make it a rule to not interact with Bojack Horseman content online because of how much that show specifically attracts the worst takes known to man BUT I love Diane. She is hands down the best character on the show. Her entire thing about 'good damage' and writing her memoirs just sticks with me. I love her <3

[femsolid]

Video games recommendation for women part 2

The same criteria as before: has to have a female lead and little to no misogyny

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1. Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The seemingly invincible and endlessly talented Lara Croft goes on yet another adventure, this time exploring the Amazon jungle and South American ruins looking for a magical artifact hoping to prevent her enemies, an evil organisation called Trinity, from using it.

Tomb Raider is a franchise that has changed quite a bit over the years. Ever since the reboot, Lara has become a fully fledge character and she doesn't do rock climbing in a skimpy outfit anymore (which made the boys mad, boohoo).

But sadly she still suffers from her reputation of sexy girly indiana jones which I suspect is why women don't seem that interested in her. Shame!

It's not usually the type of games I like (very over the top "blockbustery") but I got hooked the minute I set foot (or rather crashed) in the Peruvian jungle. The game is visually stunning, I loved exploring all the ancient temples, the crypts, the jungle and seeing all the animals. The puzzles were challenging, the fights were fun, it was entertaining, well made, with lots of female characters and it takes place in Peru which is just the cherry on top for me.

The only thing I didn't like was Jonah but then I never liked him. He's Lara's best friend and is pretty much there to be kidnapped and rescued in every game, which is kind of a nice reversed damsel in distress trope I suppose, but still, you're useless Jonah I kept telling my screen.

2. Alien Isolation

In this game you play as Ellen Ripley's daughter who ends up trapped in a gigantic spaceship with a lethal enemy, of course, the infamous alien: the xenomorph.

This game is perfect if you are currently suffering from constipation. It doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares and gore to scare you no, it's all about the ~ambiance~. If you are found, you are dead, simple as. And you will die... A LOT. I got an achievement for dying 50 times. I was laughing hysterically whenever the alien caught me by that point and I think the alien was too.

They say "in space no one can hear you scream" but this alien can hear your footsteps so this makes for some tense gameplay, especially as the alien's AI is very good and you are extremely vulnerable. To survive you will have to be very mindful of the noises you make and the noises the alien makes. Oh yeah, you both crawl through the same ventilation system by the way. This could make for some awkward encounter... On top of having to deal with the alien you will meet androids and humans who aren't exactly friendly either. The goal is, of course, to escape from the ship alive.

I have to give the developpers props for really making us feel like we are in an Alien movie. The music, the ship's design, the alien itself, are all very faithfull to the movies and this game is rightly considered a classic.

3. Spiritfarer

In Spiritfarer you play as Stella (and her cat) who has become the captain of a boat on which she welcomes the spirits of different people who have died. She will accompany them for a while until it's time to cross the bridge and say farewell.

It's worth mentionning, given how rare it is, that the main character is a black girl. Your job is to manage the boat (make improvements to it) and become self-sustainable: you will grow your own food, build houses for each spirit and decorate it, grow trees, collect wood, fish, feed your guests. You can make a mill, a weaving workshop, a sawmill, a kitchen, a garden, etc and arrange it as you please.

Most importantly, you will travel the sea to meet new spirits, learn about their lives and fullfill their last wishes before they are ready to leave us. And then you will cry and cry and cry as the music rises and you give them one last hug.

It's a cosy game, slow paced, lots of dialogues, cute mini-games within it, and at times really funny interactions because it all looks so cute yet the characters act and talk like normal people (they told me to fuck off quite a lot) and they will often get into unprompted anti-capitalist rants. It reminded me of Spirited Away a lot, very strange and comfy at the same time.

It's a story about death, about how each person handles it, what they look back on, and yet it's a very pleasant game.

---

As usual I will add more to the list as I reblog it and, of course, if you want to recommend a game too, you're more than welcome. I've been focusing on games with female leads lately so I'll have a lot more to add.

[blot-squisher]

do you think marcus would get with any of the non-included dbd characters 👀

any headcanons as to who he would get along with the most? the least?

Time for a rousing game of ~Smash or Pass with Marcus!~

Reasons will be brief to keep this from being ten pages long (✿◡‿◡)

The Killers

The Knight : Tarhos ~Smash <3 (Guards all get a pass tho)

The Skull Merchant : Adriana ✨~Not even over my dead body~✨

The Singularity : Hux ~Pass (Sorry, you just don't have the right... equipment ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

Xenomorph ~ Smash. Hey, after Dredge, what's one more actual monster?

The Good Guy : Chucky ~ Pass. He's a doll.... Just no... (as previously stated, Chucky will be appearing in STG. I had already planned on this before he was added to DBD, therefore in STG he was never taken by the Entity)

The Unknown : Jim ~ Smash... Does this officially earn Marcus the title of Monster Fucker?

The Lich : Vecna ~Nope! He's like Wesker, but older and somehow even more insufferably self inflated

The Dark Lord (seriously? seriously? -_-) : Dracula ~ Smash! Only in human form though... Get your mind of the gutter ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ) (but seriously, the dark lord?)

The Survivors

Vittorio : 🔥🔥🔥Smash🔥🔥🔥 (I wonder if his tattoos glow when he-)

Thalita : Pass. She isn't one to hop into bed with someone she barely knows and he's got a harem of Killers... No.

Renato : Pass. If his sister doesn't like someone, he's going to trust her judgment. Also, same reasons as above.

Gabriel : Smash. He's still making new memories since finding out the truth of his creation, he wants to take a few risks! Live an adventure of his own making! (I know his lore says he doesn't know he's a clone, but I love the idea of him figuring it out at some point and deciding he wants to make real memories and friends for himself)

Nicholas Cage : (This section could not be completed due to the mod laughing too hysterically to write out her thoughts properly)

Ellen Ripley : Pass for her, Smash for him. Marcus has seen the Alien movies too many times to count (not just for the xeno). Actually getting to meet Ripley in person would be like meeting a celebrity. He'd respect her wishes to stay away from her though. He reeks of bad decisions and danger, and the last time that happened, her entire crew died...

Alan Wake : (I know nothing about this character or franchise so this is based purely off of ✨vibes✨) Smash! He looks very haunted. Very smashable. Mhmm.

Sable : Pass. She's already got a girlfriend, thank you very much.

Aestri Yazar : Smash! Bard. Duh. ✪ ω ✪

Baermar Uraz : Smash. But only after much outrage that Marcus had hooked up with the woman he views as his mother...

Lara Croft : Smash. She finds his pathetic charm endearing. And he's surprisingly good in bed for someone who cries at the end of Old Yeller.

Trevor Belmont : Smash. He's moody and broody and needs to fucking kill or fuck someone.

[jjneedssleep]

anya (mouthwashing) and ellen ripley (alien 1979)

tw spoilers, sexual assault/rape, suicide

i dont post anywhere i hate making posts on social media but i need my thoughts to be heard and translated by someone out there.

mouthwashing is an incredible game and i love its references and inspiration from alien 1979, but the one thing i want to talk about as a connection between them in this post is the core theme of sexual violence horror. the entire alien movie is built off the concept of sexual violence horror and mouthwashing as a game is very similar and shares that theming.

if you did not know, anya from mouthwashing was assaulted and became pregnant because of it. when her rapist finds out about it, he crashes the ship in an attempt to get everyone on-board killed so he does not have to face the consequences of his actions. her trauma and grief are explored through psychedelic guilt episodes of her abuser but he never takes accountability for it. she ends up killing herself. im not going to analyze her because i think there are other people with much more in-depth commentaries on her than me, and this post is mainly to connect the two.

in alien 1979, every aspect of the movie is linked in some way to its core theme, that being the horror of sexual violence and unwanted pregnancies. the main cast is "born" (awoken) from cryosleep, naked in a dark "womb", taken care of by an ai named 'mother'. they go to a planet and find many eggs of an unknown species. one of them hatches and the creature inside attaches itself to a crewmate named kane. this is the rape of kane, the creature becomes stuck to his face with a long phallic tube stuck down his throat and it cannot be removed. the tube keeps him healthy but it also impregnates him. after the creature is eventually removed, he returns to 'normal', although very clearly traumatized and easily sickened, only for him to give birth in a violent and painful way that ends his life. then the creature born hunts down the remaining crewmembers, and in a cut scene we're shown that its keeping each human it captures alive so as to use them for reproduction. kidnapping and rape. ellen ripley is betrayed by a coworker named ash, who is an android controlled by 'mother', revealing that every human on board was planned to die from the very start to harbor the beast and bring it back to earth. he then attacks her, no, assaults her, attempting to kill her by forcing a rolled tube of pornography down her throat. this is another rape. later, when the other two surviving crewmembers are attacked by the alien, there is heavy implication that the alien does sexually assault the other female character, lambert. it sensually wraps its tail around her leg and up her thigh, and we're just shown her horrified expression before she's killed off-screen with a horrible scream. ripley manages to escape alone onto an escape pod, only for the alien to have followed her onto it. she is in her underwear for the final confrontation, naked in every sense; vulnerable and alone and reduced to her body. she backs into a closet space and slips into a space-suit, and manages to eject it from the pod. she ends her journey by going back into cryosleep, naked, alone. to be rebirthed somewhere else.

theres a lot that can be said about both ellen ripley and anya, and i really want to see someone else more capable of in-depth thought write something between these two. in my opinion, anya is a different ellen ripley. shes an ellen ripley who was not hurt by an otherworldly alien that tears apart her friends. she was hurt by someone she was supposed to trust, and nobody defended her. there was no flamethrower to fight him off, no button to slam to eject him from the ship. he was a monster and he killed them all, but not in the same way. i think anya could've ended up like ellen ripley, and i think ellen ripley could've ended up like anya. both were survivors just as much as they were victims. both deserved better. both were doomed to die by a company that didnt care about them, by a captain that was too 'big-pictured' to save them, by a 'new captain' that forced himself onto them violently and with nothing but hate.

[tremendouskoalachild]

10 Fandoms, 10 Characters, 10 Tags

Thanks for the tag @bluntblade! We're pretending star wars isn't a thing because it would get really monothematic otherwise lol

1. The Last of Us - Ellie Williams

(thanks so much for this gif! the trailer it's from still gives me chills)

l love Ellie so much. She's my daughter and she's literally me. She has hella PTSD and survivor's guilt and she will get more of both! Witty, talented and so good. She loves so much. She's so fucked up. She's even gay 🌈

2. His Dark Materials - Lyra Silvertongue

Pretty sure Lyra's character development rewired my brain as a kid! She's a lovable child with many flaws and grows into a wonderful girl striving to make herself and the world better. She loves so much.

3. A Song of Ice and Fire - Daenerys Targaryen

(I mean her book character but I wanted to keep the gifs on theme a bit lol)

Dany beloved... She's a child she's a mother she's a conqueror. She inherited such a weighty legacy but all she herself wants to do is protect other girls. She loves so much. Her last chapter was 🔥🔥🔥 and she's gonna be so fucked up if we ever get the next installment.

4. Dune - Lady Jessica

She has so much interiority and agency for the story she's in! So much intelligence, control and POWER! She loves so much!

5. Blade Runner - Luv

Love my fucked up replicant murder daughter. She wants recognition! She wants love!! She's the best angel of all!!!

6. Red vs Blue - Agent Texas

She's so fucking tragic y'all. Saving the universe and having existential crises entangled with extremely fucked up family drama. And still finds the time to kick Grif in the balls. Most badass character in her show by far. SHE LOVES SO MUCH

7. Alien - Ellen Ripley

Do i even need to say anything. She's Ellen Ripley.

8. Harley Quinn - Poison Ivy

Social anxiety queen!! Protects the environment! Very fucked up but considering the cast of this show she's well-adjusted actually. Supportive friend to Harley. Then supportive girlfriend to Harley. Love my girl.

9. Spiderverse movies - Miles Morales

We've all been crazy about him for half a year now. I love him and so do you.

10. The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Baru Cormorant

Cheating a bit since I haven't finished the book let alone the series but she's so!!!!!!!

no-pressure tags: @gaymothperson, @kaleidoscope1967eyes, @system-of-cells-interlinked, @my-last-brain-cell-is-socrates, @laz-laz-ace-pilot, @voidcat-senket, @ireallyamabear, @the-force-awakens, @drpepperfucker, @ct-hardcase

[alliluyevas]

not to devote extensive worldbuilding analysis to the scintillating film Alien versus Predator but here goes:

I was actually thinking a bit about gender in the two franchises wrt the human characters already, because even the original Alien features the iconic Ellen Ripley, who is very much a different type of action lead than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I haven't seen all the Alien films, but of the ones I've seen even the non-Ripley-centric films have a female human protagonist. The Predator franchise, with the exception of most recent entry Prey, is generally much more male-centered.

One thing I'd found interesting wrt gender in the Alien movies is that there are several prominent characters who are androids but they are all male, at least in the films I've seen, which is a bit of a bummer for me because I love the Alien androids and I like female characters. This is interesting and in some ways a little surprising because Ridley Scott also made Blade Runner, whose replicants deal with a lot of the same themes around synthetic humanity as the androids in Alien, and 2/3 of the prominent replicants in Blade Runner are female. (Unless you interpret Deckard as a replicant as well, but that's a matter of debate and personally I think the movie is more interesting if he's not.)

So I'd already thought a bit about the treatment of gender for both human and human-adjacent characters in both franchises, and then Alien versus Predator raised further questions. AVP, which I guess we consider both an Alien movie and a Predator movie, also features a female human protagonist, which is typical for Alien movies but I believe was the first entry in the Predator franchise to do so. It also really leans into something else that I had already thought about when comparing the titular monster from both franchises: the comparative anthropomorphism of the Predator species as opposed to the insectoid and much more animalistic Alien species.

And this made me consider for the first time: do the Predators have a concept of gender? As in, within their own species?

The Alien species is pretty clearly modeled off of hive-based insect species like ants and bees, with a "queen" Alien that is much physically larger and produces all the eggs, and a much larger number of smaller drone or soldier aliens that perform most of the colony tasks.

The Predators, on the other hand, appear to be more mammalian, and even humanoid, in their appearance and their traits/abilities. Which begs the question: are the Predators, like most earth mammals, also sexually dimorphic? Most of the Predators we see in the films appear relatively similar, and certainly more "masculine" by human standards in terms of their build (male-presenting Predators, lol). I don't want to project human body standards onto an alien species, but are all the Predators supposed to be male? Are the female Predators all back on Predator Homeworld and don't go on hunting trips? Or are the Predators we see in the films a mixed-gender group and that's just not visible to a human audience? They could definitely also be a species that produces both "male" and "female" gametes and reproduces in a way that is foreign to earth mammals.

In terms of how Predators interact with male and female humans, they definitely seem to repeatedly underestimate female humans or perceive them as unthreatening. In the original Predator movie, the Predator essentially ignores Anna because he does not see her as a threat. (From a Watsonian perspective, this could be just because she's unarmed, because she's physically smaller than the men in the film, or because he perceives her as female, or some of all three. From a Doylist perspective, it's a male-centric action movie made in the 1980s). The Predator in Prey also underestimates Naru and initially judges her as unthreatening. (Again, because she is female or because she is young and small?) In Predator 2, a Predator spares the life of a pregnant woman, which indicates that Predators possibly have an understanding of pregnancy. They could have this because their own species experiences it, or alternately because they've observed it in other species. They clearly see pregnant women as weaker and more vulnerable (ie, not honorable prey), but that doesn't necessarily indicate that they see this difference between them and male humans as a gendered marker.

(Of course, this is an alien species and I don't want to assume that even if they are sexually dimorphic that they have a system of gender roles that is at all comparable to humans, even if they are obviously humanoid in many ways. After all, most earth mammal species have sexual dimorphism but they certainly do not have a human concept of patriarchy in any sense.)

My final thought on the matter: in Predators, there are three main Predators hunting the human characters. They discover a smaller Predator tied up in the other Predators' camp. At the end of the film, the humans free the captive Predator and it helps them defeat the larger Predators. It seems like most interpretation of this is that the two "types" of Predators are members of different tribes or subspecies. On the other hand--is it possible that the smaller Predator which is being held captive is actually just a female?

[thebestpersonherelovesbucky]

The Alien Franchise is currently streaming on Hulu. Super exciting for me because I love Alien/s and it’s never streaming anywhere, and I don’t own it, which I should probably remedy. Since it’s available now, I’ve watched Alien and Aliens several times. Great movies, imho. I honestly think, for its genre, Alien is a near perfect movie. 

Alien, written by Dan O’Bannon and directed by Ridley Scott, in 1979, has seven characters in it, two of which are female, both of which are treated respectfully, are competent characters, and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is probably one of the most badass female characters in movie history. She has zero combat training whatsoever, is simply a flight officer for a commercial mission for “The Company”, and no one listens to her until it’s too late, and she’s the only one to survive (and the cat). 

Aliens, written and directed by James Cameron, in 1986, has a much larger cast which, in addition to the return of Ellen Ripley, includes a group of hardcore Marines. There are three female Marines. All three of them are smart, capable, and treated as equals to their male counterparts. There’s also a little girl, Newt, who is in the 3rd grade, which puts her at approximately eight or nine years old, who has survived hiding from the Xenomorphs (the aliens) on her own for weeks. Mostly everyone dies again, of course, but those who survive do so because of Ripley and Newt. 

Can’t bring up Aliens 3 because I’ve only seen it once and that was years ago, and it completely ruins the end of Aliens and just wasn’t a good movie, so I have zero reason to rewatch it.

Alien Resurrection isn’t a good movie either, but I did put it on just to show my kid Winona Ryder in it. I had the movie on for approximately eighteen minutes. In those eighteen minutes, we see Ellen Ripley naked in a test tube, Ripley being treated like an object/incompetent child, Winona Ryder’s character being treated like shit, the other random chick being objectified and exposed to disgusting misogynistic attitudes, and several rape jokes are made. 

And who was Alien Resurrection, made in 1997, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by?

If you guessed Joss Whedon, you’d be 100% correct. 

[bloodcoveredgf]

(i hope its okay if i send a lot of these im so curious lol)

💀= what horror movie scared you to death?

💅= who is the greatest horror movie badass bitch?

🦇= favourite horror movie?

🐺= favourite type of horror movie monster?

🧨= most shocking ending to a horror film?

⚰️= favourite horror trope/cliche?

🎥= can you recommend me a horror film?

omg its totally okay tysm this is so fun :) gonna leave the answers under here because i rambled so much hgdkjf

what horror movie scared you to death?

the most recent time was back in 2018 when i watched hereditary for the first and only time... so hereditary but it was mainly for emotional reasons that movie just cuts deep for me and makes me deeply sad and uncomfortable and it genuinely horrified me back then

who is the greatest horror movie badass bitch?

queen akasha from queen of the damned like i dont care.... its always been her for me i know theres many more and they popped into my head but shes soooo iconic and badass! another that came to mind was erin from youre next and ellen ripley from alien and laurie strode from halloween.. but id have to shoutout like 80 more badass horror women to feel satisfied right now so im gonna leave it at that <3

favorite horror movie?

i am constantly fighting myself on this one but i think its officially the lost boys :) im comfortable saying that no matter what because of the sheer amount of love i have for it and how many times ive seen it and the fact i own 3 copies of it on physical media now

favorite type of horror movie monster?

ohhh you know.... vampire forever and always <333

most shocking ending to a horror film?

okay im going to mention many again because i cant control myself everrr... so saw (2004) still hits... the others (2001).. a tale of two sisters (2003) and lake mungo (2008) < all kind of plot twist movies but theres also inside (2007), excision (2012), and audition (1999) which are endings you can mostly see coming or somewhat expect but arent any less shocking or upsetting!

favorite horror tropes/cliches?

oooh soo many honestly. gotta love tropes and cliches of a genre that is most beloved to you! im definitely going to leave some out because theres so many effective and great ones like an easy one could be the final girl or weird girl and another could be creepy music swelling to signify that something is about to go wrong or tricking you into being wary of that or the scare that you wait for but it never comes/the fake-out, fear of the unknown like things shrouded in darkness or things that arent visible to the naked eye or something, the "one last scare" trope where the killer or whoever comes back for one last scare, or the twist of "it was actually this other thing/situation all along!"which isnt always effective or interesting but great when it is and is original... but a few lesser known or used fun ones im thinking of are weird/creepy/fucked up twins, losing a limb and replacing it with some kind of weapon, also technology is the mind killer and will actually kill you!

can you recommend me a horror film?

bliss (2019) or the pit and the pendulum (1961) or black sunday (1960) or phantom of the paradise (1974) ^_^ hopefully theres one in there you havent seen hehe

[arvandus]

Top 5 best movie characters EVER? If 5 is too few then top 10 is also good. An honourable mention would be interesting too!

OH MAN. Top 5 EVER??? Ugh, this is tough... most of the stuff I've watched in the past 5-10 years has been all marvel movies or disney, so this might be a bit biased. Overall I'm a big fan of fantasy/sci-fi/animation and don't tend to venture outside of those genres much.

Loki (an obvious choice) - Dark World Loki was the best Loki, and I'll die on this hill.

The Goblin King from The Labyrinth - ohhh man, little me had a BIG crush on him.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast

Jane from Disney's Tarzan (she is literally my spirit character, I feel like I'm a mix between her and Belle so I identify with both very much they are very personal to me).

Nick Wilde from Zootopia (I clearly have a thing for snarky, cocky male characters... I should probably look into that...)

Natasha/Black Widow (They did her dirty in Infinity War, I'm still salty AF about it)

Aragorn from LOTR (I MEAN LOOK AT HIIIMMM)

Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon (another character I strongly identify with lol)

Ellen Ripley from Aliens ("Get away from her you bitch!" was absolutely iconic)

Truman from the Truman Show - I grew up on Jim Carrey movies, and this one has a special place in my heart. He's just such a positive yet strong character throughout his entire ordeal and I love that.

Honorable mention: Darth Vader - not because he's necessarily a good or very fleshed out character, but he's just incredibly iconic...? This was a fun one to answer, because I kept thinking of really great movies, but the characters themselves don't necessarily count as the best for me. So it was a good lil' mental exercise.

[freuleinanna]

I've never watched the Alien franchise but smh at the people teasing you for liking it >:(

okay okay OKAY I am so so sorry but I'm going to ramble for a bit here (in fact, I'm going to ramble for a LOT)

but before that, thank you for the support :') always thinking good thoughts your way whenever I see you on my dash, just please know that <3

but getting back to the franchise, here's the thing. alien 4 is majorly considered to be a very shitty follow-up to 3 original films. I know you mentioned you haven't watched them so here's the deal, we have 3 films telling the story of ellen ripley basically always fighting space monsters and saving everyone. it's a great story from start to finish but (spoiler alert!) in the end, she dies. the 4th film features a clone of her character (with addition of an alien dna which makes it very hot unstable and drastically different from the original character).

BUT

BUT

original films are 1979, 1986 and 1992, which is cool and I honestly love them and will go on for ages about why they are amazing, but they have a few flaws when it comes to story/action pacing, strange plot-driving choices, and the unchanging characterization of the main protagonist. whereas the 4th installment is just full-on 90s in the best way possible!

the pacing wins! 90s films have figured out a formula or something. the plot is much the same but is structured way better than in the previous movies.

the humor! the best 90s humor bits at the right time, the irony, the timing, ughh. in 70-80s there wasn't much attention put to the delivery of the punchlines if there even were any

the character! unlike previous movies, the clone-ripley isn't the humanity-saving brave girl. it's an organism of its own, and its decision-making is questionable at best. it's a creature, and they never let you forget that for a moment. a great change in comparison with the previous movies

the cloning philosophy in general! what is that character, how much human and alien is there in her, what are her emotions and does she have any at all (not to mention the general ethics of the cloning process that are of course brought into the light)

the themes of human experiment ethics, greedy corporations, human arrogance dooming all existence etc, always a win and is greatly delivered

monster-fucking paradise for anyone interested the creature design and an avalanche of really uncomfortable scenes that feel very wrong but very right at the same time. they were not afraid of pushing the boundaries, I tell ya

the film round-kicking you in the face with the delivery of blood family vs found family trope in the way you least expect

also, the fact that sigourney weaver was badass enough to say you know what? you're gonna pay me a shit ton of money if i'm doing it and i'm rewriting half the script to make my character as unhinged as i can AND GIRL DID SHE DELIVER (every fucking interviewer at a time was asking her a question along the lines of 'woman who the fuck do you think you are to be paid so much' it's insanely hilarious to watch), she also co-produced the film and ugh i love her she's a queen

and that was me rambling about alien 4: resurrection, please everyone watch it because it's brilliant

[obi-wansorrow]

A list of my favorite female characters because this post is right. I let these influential women live within me without ever giving them the credit they so clearly deserve. These women shaped me. They influenced every outspoken, confident, and strong part of me. They taught me to be brave in the face of so much trauma. They taught me the opinions of men will never define me. Here are those characters:

Evelyn Carnahan, The Mummy, played by Rachel Weisz*

Cattie-Brie, The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider - all depictions

Mina Harker, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, played by Peta Wilson

Mulan, Mulan

Ellen Ripley, Alien, played by Sigourney Weaver

Gwen DiMarco, Galaxy Quest, played by Sigourney Weaver

Hedda Gabler, Hedda Gabler written by Henrik Ibsen**

Mrs. Helene Alving, Ghosts written by Henrik Ibsen

Nora Helmer, A Doll's House written by Henrik Ibsen

Rhonda LeBeck, Tremors, played by Finn Carter

Medea, Medea written by Euripides

Arwen, The Lord of the Rings, played by Liv Tyler

Éowyn, The Lord of the Rings, played by Miranda Otto

Nightsister Merrin, Jedi Survivor Series, voiced by Tina Ivlev

Ahsoka Tano, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (animated), voiced by Ashley Eckstein

Maya, Zero Dark Thirty, played by Jessica Chastain

Commander Shepard, Mass Effect Series, voiced by Jennifer Hale

Elizabeth Swan, Pirates of the Caribbean, played by Keira Knightley

Selene, Underworld Series, played by Kate Beckinsale

Kira Navarez, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars written by Christopher Paolini

Kristin Ortega, Altered Carbon (books by Richard Morgan, show adapted by Laeta Kalogridis), TV show character played by Martha Higareda

Reileen Kawahara, Altered Carbon, TV show character played by Dichen Lachman

Quellcrest Falconer, Altered Carbon, TV show character played by Renée Elise Goldsberry

Lizzie Elliott, Altered Carbon, TV show character played by Hayley Law

Miriam Bancroft, Altered Carbon, TV show character played by Kristin Lehman

There are so many more that have left their mark on me. These are the ones I can remember now.

I watched a lot of the movies listed here when I was a kid. I didn't see the way women were being belittled or treated like token pieces when I was young. I only took away the best parts of those characters.

Rhonda from Tremors? A young female scientist working on her own!

Gwen DiMarco? Funny, tough, scared out of her mind but still there!

*There is a scene in The Mummy when the two groups reach Hamunaptra. A man says, "They are led by a woman. What does a woman know?" It was not until I was well into my adulthood that I realized this was meant to be a dig at her. Growing up, I always thought it was a genuine question. A question uttered with reverence and awe. What does a woman know? We know so many things! Women are able to do so much without ever having to look it up or ask. I took this as a sign of "Yes! Women are mysterious. We hold so much knowledge. We are powerful!"

**Hedda Gabler is a play that stole my breath away. I love every bit of this work. A woman trapped in a marriage she had no desire for. Not because there was another man, but she truly did not want to be married! The self-sabotage, the destructive and toxic qualities that she takes on throughout the play is heart wrenchingly beautiful. I love Hedda's flaws.

If you want to chat about these women, I will talk for days.

i dont really know how to articulate this but its crazy just how many people dont even realize they dont care about female characters. all their faves are men. they never talk about girls without being led into it. and when you try to point this out to them they try to defend themselves that their faves are just the archetypes they like, despite clearly not caring when that same archetype is a woman. like i feel like at a certain point it is your problem with the common denominator if you cant find a single female character to enjoy

[disdaidal]

something you're excited about AND top 5 characters currently ❤️

Oh heya! 👋💖 I already answered here what I'm most excited about, so. :3

My top 5 characters?

Cahir (The Witcher). He's my newest conquer so duh. This knight bitch already (kind of) caught my interest on the last previous seasons of TW because I mean - a cunty, ambitious, antagonistic guy on a holy mission, any means necessary? Yeah. But I was still like, hmm, he's kinda, you know, but I don't know. But s3, this season? He was just really kind of pathetic (like a sad, wet little kitten compared to the murderous little twink that he was in s1), but still cool and complex, and I decided that's it. I'm putting him in a box and taking him home with me. Like, villain/antagonistic dudes with potential redemption arcs? Sign me the fuck up.

Billy Hargrove (Stranger Things). I may not have been really active in this fandom lately because... well, you know. But he's still mine and you can pry this bitch from my cold, dead hands. I originally didn't care much for him in s2 (I didn't hate him by any means but I just couldn't take him and his macho-ism seriously lol), but then s3 came and his character arc just... fucked me up. Broke my heart. Like he had wronged and sinned, yes; he was a massive bitch and a bully, sure. But he was also never really given a chance to properly redeem himself, at any point in the show imo. And that fucked me up and broke my heart and so he's mine.

Ellen Ripley (Alien). My first (bi) awakening and also the first female protagonist that I felt like I could really look up to. She may not be big and muscular, or a man-hating girlboss who doesn't cry or show emotion when she feels bad, but she kicks ass. She kicks alien butt. She's a woman but she has big balls. She fucks. And she loves cats, too. And that I can appreciate. A lot.

Cara Mason (Legend of the Seeker). I feel like this is a recurring theme with me but a character who starts off as an antagonist/villain and then gets a redemption arc? Yeah. Like, she's also gone through so much shit in her life - she's been forced to go through hell and back and raised to believe emotions mean weakness - and then she allies with the protagonist and slowly finds home with him and his 'merry band', and starts to *feel* things and even show *emotion* and like. A simple girl like me, with simple tastes - how could I watch a character unfold like that and not feel *anything*? Anything at all? Impossible. Yeah, so she's also mine.

Fili (The Hobbit). I feel like he's a bit of wild card in this group because he isn't an antagonist with a complex story line, or some big ass protagonist ready to save the world. But I had such a huge crush on him when the Hobbit movies came out about 10 years ago, and having recently rewatched/revisited the LotR & Hobbit trilogies, I realized just how much I loved him back then and how much I love him even now. He didn't get a lot of screen time, not even that many lines. But his bravery, stubbornness and will to defy his 'destiny' and go to the edge of the earth, hell and back, to protect his baby brother touched me. Through his character, I also found his actor, Dean O'Gorman, and his numerous other acting projects and man, he's great. The Deano fandom has also been kind, chill and just a great place to hang out at every now and then, so. It's all thanks to this "golden lion prince" dwarf here.

[trash-gobby]

Aliens Characters - How They Would Play Sims 2 & 4

A/N: Here are some Headcanons inspired by the wonderful jammesbarnnes Avengers Preferences HC's. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out their original work because it is the most adorable thing ever!!! If you want me to make more Alien character sims HC's please let me know!!

Pairings: None

Characters: Lance Bishop, Dwayne Hicks, William Hudson, Newt Jorden, Ellen Ripley, Jenette Vasquez

Inspiration: AVENGERS PREFERENCE: HOW THEY PLAY ANIMAL CROSSING by @jammesbarnnes

PLEASE check out their original work!!! It's so good.

RATING: PG

⚠️Warnings!: Hudson being Hudson again 🙄

______________________________________________________________

Lance Bishop

✨Enjoys just using the game to build houses and lots.

✨Has way to many build and buy mods to kit out the houses in the best decour.

✨Creates his own build and buy CC which he posts online for people to download (actually has a pretty sizable following for his work).

✨Likes to create replica houses of places he's either read about in books, seen in movies or visited in person.

✨Also likes the collectibles you can find in the Sims 4 world, and has a sizable collection of stuff in the one household he actually plays from time to time when he's not building.

✨Doesn't really play much with the actual sims, but has been known to love the seasons expansion in both Sims 2 and 4 most because of how beautiful the snowfall looks on his lots.

Dwayne Hicks

✨Very much invested in building the perfect household.

✨He likes the idea of having all his main family accomplish their lifetime wishes and basically fulfilling all their needs.

✨Gets genuinely sad whenever a sim dies by accident and will restart the game without saving if they die by accident in a fire or due to other circumstances.

✨Likes adding mods which increase the realism of his gameplay.

✨Really enjoys taking his time to do the legacy challenge and has proudly bragged about one playthrough where he's done ten generations (Ripley def makes fun of him for it).

✨Favourite expansion for Sims 2 is University for its additional features which add majors and jobs to the game, and Sims 4 is Get Together because of the clubs system, using it to make homework groups for his kids.

William Hudson

✨Likes to make his sim super jacked and the town hoe

✨His sim sleeps with literally every townie and has more than one child.

✨Uses money cheats super liberally and has his sim live in a giant McMansion.

✨Can't build a house to save his life. They all look like ugly coloured boxes with way to many windows.

✨Favourite expansion is definitely nightlife for Sims 2 because of the addition of clubs and public woohoo (because of course he would be excited about that 🙄). Fav in Sims 4 is City Living because of its urban setting.

✨Definitely has the wickedwhims mod installed on his computer for Sims 4

Newt Jorden

✨Immediately creates herself, Ripley, Hicks, and Bishop in the sims along with other people from her real life.

✨Loves this household and makes them a little cottage house with the help and guidance of Bishop.

✨Ripley finds her little virtual version of them a little creepy, but mostly adorable.

✨Likes to spend hours playing and messing with the universe.

✨Don Lothario has definitely met a horrible fiery death at the hands of Newt more than once.

✨Also will create real people who she is angry with in the sims and stick them in a pool removing the ladder.

✨Has a murder house in her game where there are like over 100 graves of people who've pissed her off or who she killed in the game for no other reason but for her own enjoyment.

Ellen Ripley

✨Would find Sims a bit to slow of a game for her, but likes on occasion to do a little playthrough.

✨Spends more time in create a sim then playing the actual game because she's a perfectionist.

✨Loves all the downloadable clothing CC and has a lot of mods for hair and other create a sim CC as well.

✨Has had Bishop show her how to create CC so she can start making her own custom content, and they've bonded over their mutual interest in creating stuff together.

✨Favourite Sims 2 expansion is Apartment Life because she grew up around apartments, and finds their addition closer to what she's used to. Fav Sims 4 pack is Cats and Dogs because of the addition of animals and the amount of customization that gives her.

Jenette Vasquez

✨Vasquez likes a challenge and progression, so she'll most likely find typical Sims gameplay pretty boring.

✨She likes action and things to be more fast-paced.

✨Her favourite thing about sims are the challenges you can do with the game. Vasquez's favorites being the Breed Out The Ugly, 100 Baby, Apocalypse, and Starving Artist challenges.

✨Has roped Hudson into a competition to see who can complete the 100 Baby Challenge first.

✨Doesn't really have a favourite expansion, because she only really cares about what challenges she can do in the game.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Jagermeister

Prey was f*cking exceptional. Seriously, this movie was so much better than it had any right to be. I’ve been trying to write this review since Friday but it always devolves into saccharine overture so that’s what this is going to be; Fanboy gushing. I’m on record as to being a massive fan of the Alien franchise. I’ve written at length about my love for those Xeno-boys and the Preddy-boys are including in that. Canonically. That old Aliens versus Predator comic from the late Eighties made them a single universe and no has looked back. I mean, how could you? That book was excellent and it gave us Machiko Noguchi, the second best protagonist in the entire goddamn franchise after Ellen Ripley. Well, Naru can give those chicks a run for their money and she is the absolute best thing about this film.

Little Knife will always hold a special place in me heart but Naru, brought deftly to life by Amber Midthunder of Legion fame, is just amazing. She has all of the energy necessary to be a true character and, more to the point, a strong female character. Naru is everything Woke Hollywood wants in their cinema but done in a way that isn’t offensive or disrespectful to the character or the audience intelligence. There are no Mary Sues here. Naru earns everything. She commands her victories through wits, intelligence, and leverage, taking her physical shortcomings into account when she executes her plans. Ma is smart as f*ck, using even less than what was available to Dutch in ways even he didn’t think to do. It wasn’t forced or contrived. Sh*t felt natural as Naru is a Comanche Tracker who yearns to be a Hunter. Of course she would know how to use the land. Naru is the engine that makes this film go, as she should be, and Amber Midthunder is definitely the gas with that performance!

I can gush about Midthunder all day but, as dope and integral to the success of this narrative i believe her to be, this sh*t starts with Daniel Trachtenberg. Dude delivers an intimate, emotion laden, coming-of-age tale, that happens to have a violent alien antagonist who skins people and keeps their decapitated heads as trophies. That sentence is absurd and should not work in execution but it does. That’s all Trachtenberg. Prey is everything a Predator movie should be. It’s small, contained, and just a snippet of a much grander universe f stories that can be told. The original Predator worked because it was basically a little indie film with dope characters. After that success, the franchise moved away from that. They embraced the gore and the spectacle, not the work necessary to make the characters within the conflict, compelling. You need that in these types of films or all you have is mayhem. That’s how you get cats into the door but they stay because they end up caring about your protagonist. What's the point if they’re all unlikable or forgettable? Trachtenberg understood that and helped to create one of the best in the entire franchise.

Obviously, there are issues with this thing. The writing can be a little contrived and some events kind of leave me scratching my head. The whole fur trader thing seemed a little forced but i get why it would be in there. These are all just nitpicks because, and  i cannot stress this enough, everything else is f*cking amazing! From costumes to cinematography. From casting to framing. Direction to sound design. This movie, as a movie, is good. It’s not as tight as 10 Cloverfield Lane but it’s damn close. Prey is literally Trachtenberg’s second film and dude is proving to be a force. He has a style and an eye for detail that a lot of more established, more successful, directors lack. He understand the fundamentals of visual storytelling and really feels like the second coming of Neill Blomkamp. It f*cking breaks my heart that we never got to see his Alien 5 but Trachtenberg’s Predator 5 is a solid consolation. Prey is f*cking great. It’s not winning any Oscars but, without ego or bias, this thing is definitely the best film in the Predator franchise and arguably the third best Alien film released to date. Obviously, the OG Predator is always going to be number one in my heart but Naru’s Kühtaamia is a very strong number two.

[s-zephyr]

I love this and agree– a lot of this is why I struggle to just blindly support female characters in popular media, because it is so rare to get women who truly feel like real human beings and who also have true agency in the story.

But something that’s coming to mind for me is something I learned in my high school AP Lang class (with one of the coolest teachers I’ve had). He talked about how, actually, a lot of older media had a wider breadth of complicated female characters, as surprising as that may seem, because a lot of early TV and movies regarded those women as still people who had something to contribute to the plot, unlike a lot of more recent media. Now, there are certainly things that don’t age well, and things that have gotten better, but our society is extremely conservative (with many not really realizing it). As time has gone on, in many cases, media HAS gotten less feminist. There have been some recent (performative) attempts, and absolutely some recent successes (for another Wachowski project with a LOT more female agency, PLEASE watch Sense8!! It’s amazing, underrated, and managed to eke out a happy ending through the support of a dedicated fanbase despite the show being dropped/almost dropped 1-2 times), but on the whole many “feminist” movies have been a disappointment to me. The amount of people fawning over the nothing-burger that the Barbie movie was was insane to me– it’s like, BARELY feminist, and honestly I’m hesitating to even give it *that* much credit, because it also managed to belittle the real dangers of fascism and Barbie’s very real past upholding extremely narrow and unrealistic beauty standards… but I digress.

I’m wondering (and by ‘wondering’ I mean I feel that this is likely true) if this is another piece of the conservative backlash that started all the way back with Nixon and Reagan’s “silent majority” that has shaped the rest of our lives in so many ways. I’m thinking about Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). While Ellen Ripley continues to be cool in Aliens, her character is also flattened considerably in that movie, with a big focus on turning her into a mother figure. In Alien, she was allowed to be her own person, to be an amazing human being who survived through her wits and all of that wonderful stuff previously mentioned. Watching Aliens, it felt to me that her story was controlled more by men, and that the whole motherhood arc took away so much of what made her special by putting her into the only role the men writing her could conceive of her in.

Where Alien is a beautiful commentary on the horrors of birth and pregnancy and the fight for bodily autonomy (even nearly to the death), Aliens takes this outstanding and complex character and puts her neatly into a mothering box. A box with a really cool forklift mech! But still a role that feels limiting, from what she had stood for before– to me, at least. I know a LOT of people love Aliens (me included) and critique of it may be considered sacrilege, but I stand by it.

The difference between those two movies, aside from the switch in directors/crew members/etc, is a matter of a few years, 1979 to 1986, with the script for Aliens being written sometime in/after 1983. Reagan was first elected in 1980.

It is important to me to remember that Ellen Ripley’s role was originally written as a man– and thus she was treated with equal respect and dignity (or rather, disrespect and indignity) as every other member of the crew. It is also important to me to remember that in the wake of the progressive successes in the 60s and 70s, many of the few good things in America were made a lot, lot worse by conservative backlash.

I watched a movie from 1982: The Last Unicorn. In it, the titular unicorn sets out on an adventure of her own making essentially to breathe life into the dying embers of the world she knows. I watched as she met every challenge she faced with poise and dignity. I watched as her drive and inner spirit moved the plot forward. I watched as the power, influence, and selfish desires of bumbling men complicated her journey, reshaped her body, and stamped trauma onto her mind that she would carry forever. I watched as she was bested in every contest of might until the final act, and as the movie laid out in its text that such things were not in her lane. That was what heroes do, it said, and in my head all I could hear was “men’s work.” I watched as the unicorn’s love for a man changed her until she could fight in the way parceled out for men and become something more than she had started, transcending an immortal stagnancy to evolve into something singular and lonely. I saw that her ability to contribute to the narrative hinged on her love and her capacity to persevere, but more fundamentally to suffer. I understood that this was what the movie saw to be women’s power, and that sat ill with me, but the unicorn’s journey remained so inspiring that she and the movie stuck with me for good. The rest rolled off my shoulders, cause… I mean it was an 80s movie based on a book from the late 60s. I applied the phrase “for its time” like a lotion, took what resonated, and moved on…

I watched a movie from 1999: The Matrix. In it, a man (though I would later see the trans allegory) walks through the steps of waking up to the cultural bindings that trap him and in the end transcends them. I watched as every step of his journey was enabled by the support of the character who was, by several orders of magnitude, the coolest woman I’d ever seen: Trinity. I went starry-eyed, not realizing my appreciation extended to wanting to be her. She was everything: cool, witty, strong, tough, determined, stylish, and gorgeous to boot. On first watch I marveled uncritically. By my half dozenth watch it hit me that everything she did amounted to getting the leading man where he needed to be. I realized that as a narrative device she existed not to change a world in need of changing but to back Neo’s play so that he could swan in and finish the fight she’d been fighting all her life. Her love, her strength, her labor: all a great big alley-oop. I cringed, but I told myself that at least she had power and agency. That mattered. So I rewatched it about another thousand times, took what resonated, and moved on.

I watched a movie from 2003: Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl. In it, though this isn’t the point by half, a woman as obsessed with pirates as I’ve always been gets to live out her swashbuckling fantasies. I watched as she lived by her wits, eyes rolling at every dunce of a man to get in her way. I watched as she scrapped her way through with resourcefulness and hijinks, but only actually accomplished her goals when leveraging a privileged station based solely on her value to men. All her efforts fell flat: she’d flee swiftly and still get kidnapped, deal shrewdly but right into the bad guy’s hands, recapture the Black Pearl so sneakily and deftly only for her allies to immediately sail away with it. I watched all the men around her win on their own merits: Jack Sparrow through his canny and luck, Will Turner through his swordsmanship, Barbossa through ruthless overwhelming power. The message read all too clear to me: Elizabeth Swann was meant to be fun, I was not only allowed but encouraged to like her, but I could only experience her in a narrative written by men where the world was stacked against her. A world written by men couldn’t let her win outside of borrowing their power. The force of it hit me like a brick across the eyes. I wanted to love the daring and suave Miss Swann even as what she meant left me seething. I watched the sequels and in some ways it appeared to get better, but only on the surface. She got in sword fights and won, but that was never really who she was, was it? She became a pirate queen… but only through the aid of Jack Sparrow and only to suit his plans. She could not win and remain herself, and for everything that she could have accomplished what the narrative chose to focus on was her as Will Turner’s consolation prize for being stuck at the helm of the Dutchman. I gritted my teeth, got called a misogynist every time I wasn’t sufficiently enthusiastic about Elizabeth Swann, resolved to take what resonated from fanfic, and moved on.

I watched a movie from 2015: Mad Max - Fury Road. In it, and this is almost entirely the point, a tough-as-nails road warrior leads a fierce battle for the freedom of women from the clutches of a powerful man. I watched as Mad Max also participated, because it was not his story, and the movie only kind of pretended it was. I watched Furiosa be everything I wanted to see in a strong woman. I watched the story happen on her terms, through her plans, moving forward under her power and through her agency. I watched her be celebrated as the hero of the narrative, both in-world and by the fans. I watched the women she worked to save take an active role, take the movie by storm, and be vindicated time and again. I sat thinking about that movie for days after I watched it, went to see it twice in theaters, got the blu ray as soon as I could find it. The one thing I could never quite shake was why it had to be Mad Max’s name on the title card. But of course it did, right? That’s the industry, for you. An established IP name puts butts in seats. Appealing to men with the plausible deniability that maybe it was Max’s story sidesteps a boycott from the patriarchy. There are pragmatic reasons, ones that make sense. Though I still wished it could have been a story advertised and told without the intrusion of Max, there was still so much good and seeing a blockbuster movie of that magnitude with a narrative driven so completely by women felt like progress. So I took what resonated, and so much did, and moved on.

I watched a movie called Alien. In it, a space trucker struggles to survive an encounter with a horrible monster in space. I watched as men in authority and corporate interests screw her over at every turn. I watched as she made all the right moves against an implacable foe and survived against incalculable odds because she was strong, smart, and capable. I noted that the advertising didn’t even make a big deal out of her, they just told the story they wanted to tell. I read deeper, finding interview material confirming that gender commentary was at the forefront of the creative team’s minds. I looked up the date of release for this post… and found that it was 1979. The earliest of all the movies I wanted to reference, and by my measure the most progressive. A knot forms in my throat as I wonder what that means about progress, and I hopefully chalk it up to a fluke. A movie far ahead of its time. Cinema’s ability and willingness to tell women’s stories mist still be moving forward, I tell myself, and I move on.

(From here on, there be relevant spoilers.)

I watch a movie from 2024: War of the Rohirrim. In it, a princess of Rohan survives an attempted coup and saves the kingdom. I watch the trailer so many times over, and as it centers itself on the lost shieldmaidens of Rohan in all its iterations—even casting Miranda Otto to narrate as Eowyn—my optimism and nervousness increase in equal measure. I watch as the princess is introduced as an adventure-loving free spirit, and hope we will see her shine. Then I watch her barely impact the narrative for nearly half the movie’s runtime. There are good moments. She takes down a rabid oliphaunt by being a fast rider unafraid to put herself in danger. She rescues the common folk of Edoras by going rogue and choosing the right moment to evacuate them. Towards the end of the movie when she’s finally put in charge her ingenuity and prowess lead to her ending the conflict barely losing a single soul under her protection. But for every one of these, I watch the movie cut what inherent feminism there might be off at the knees. I watch it open on an argument over arranged marriage and on the king ignoring the princess’ every word because… of course it does. I watch the princess sob before or after nearly every major plot point. I watch all of her strength and savvy melt into paralyzed uselessness any time a man attacks her in a way reminiscent of sexual assault. I watch her endanger her subjects by showing mercy multiple times over to a man who has spent the movie oathbreaking and betraying. I watch the narrative unravel into near nonsense around her until the hand of the author is so apparent that it’s tough to tell what can be credited to her actions and what just… happens. It reminds me of every flaw that’s ever bothered me in movies featuring strong women throughout my life. I struggle to find anything that resonates because it feels like an echo, like the kind of movie we should be well past by now, and I’m tired of waiting and hoping for this caliber of gender ideology to become dinosaur thinking.

War of the Rohirrim isn’t a bad movie. It’s thoroughly middling by way of a mixed experience: some epic moments, some eye rollers, and a lot of dial tone in between. I could tolerate that more if it didn’t still carry the misogynist baggage of movies 40 years its senior. Part of why I’m upset with it is likely that I dared to hope it would be something more than it was. If you go in with no expectations other than to see pretty anime you might like it. But the audience it advertises to are those who would see a movie centering on a strong woman and those who enjoy Lord of the Rings fiction, and I feel it falls short for both target audiences. Which leaves the question… who is it even for?

Going forward I’m going to hold Amalthea, Trinity, Furiosa, some fanfic version of what Elizabeth Swann might have been, and the incomparable Ellen Ripley close to my heart and in my pantheon of fictional feminine all timers. I’ll treasure every addition that list, and do my best to put out my own media where women can shine like a wish into the world. But more than anything I long for a future where young women can carry around not a list of shining exceptions in a world of mens’ media, but standouts in a world where fiction that really values women is the norm.

[kaaras-adaar]

Comfort Character Challenge ; .

tagged by: @ellana-lavellan-rp tagging: @ravusnightblossom @sunlilted @aylenlavellan @dragonagedmage @theharellan​ @not-born-heroes​ and anyone else! Tag me so I can see!

I guess the gist of this is you have to do three gifs of your comfort characters. Here are mine :D

1. Ellen Ripley (Aliens franchise)

I guess this might seem a weird ‘comfort’ character, but the Alien series is the reason I drew so much as a child. I was OBSESSED with space and aliens, any chance I could draw aliens or write up projects inspired by aliens, I would. I may not draw or write much Alien stuff now, but I have consumed as much Aliens content as possible over the years. Books, games, movies, comics. I have a signed book from H.R Giger (altho it’s a print I think?). I just love the world, the series, and Ripley is a hero to me. I ADORE Sigourney Weaver to absolute pieces. If I could ever meet her in RL, I think I would just stand there gawking like an idiot. I just love her, also her voice is amazing (which is why, ofc, she’s Kaaras’ mother’s VC >.>). 

2. Simba (The Lion King)

The Lion King is my all time favourite Disney movie. I... wouldn’t consider Simba my favourite LK character, I actually love Mufasa, Scar, Shenzi and Zira more... but as a kid, that Nintendo game... I legit just got it for Switch and completed the whole game for the FIRST time in my life because it was SO HARD as a kid (because there was no save feature on the SNES). This is the first movie I remember seeing in theatres, and I would have been near 4 years old, and I remember my dad took us (which he didn’t do a lot), and my sister crying when Mufasa died. It’s one of those childhood memories I’ll always have, and I LOVE The Lion King 1 and 2. Also, I’m 100% convinced I’m a furry because of Kovu, so... there’s that LOL. 

3. Megatron (Transformers) 

I mean, of course Magatron is making the list. I’ve always been split between Megatron and Shockwave because they’re my all time fave TF characters ,but the WORLD I had built around this mech... Most of my late teen/early 20′s was writing and world building Megatron. Transformers got me back into writing, and BOY did I write. My TF series (which sadly went unfinished) was over... probably more than 200 chapters over the course of... 4-5? series or something? I don’t know, all I know is that it’s the longest series I’ve ever written, with multiple parts, and I was SO consumed by it that it became my whole life for a solid 4-5 years lol. And I loved it. I met so many amazing people in that fandom, it’s just a shame that the place became so damn toxic, because writing Megatron was an absolute PASSION of mine, not to mention all the art and smut I did. 

This series made me discover a lot about myself as a person but also as an artist as well. I really, really miss Transformers. I have... so many comics, so many figurines, I have so much art and so many fics, not to mention ficlets. God, I would love to find the passion and drive to continue my story, but most of the friends I made there left (for the same reasons as I did), and I’m afraid it just wouldn’t be the same. You can pretty much thank this fandom for the writer I am today, though. I learned so much.