#2009-me is so validated

[corporalsnark]

if Kal Penn hadn't gone to work for the Obama administration I think Kutner and Taub might have had an extremely strange queerbait-y relationship

[reblogs-and-musings]

once again clicking on aromantic fics to cry to

[peepreadscomics]

Thinking about the nightmare 90s!Tim has in YJ01...

Tim's kneeling on the sidewalk, gawking in horror at his hand. His wrist is wrapped with bandages, and his hand has been replaced with a batarang.

His actual hand, glove, and all have fallen off, swarmed by the killer cockroaches of Gotham's streets.

Young Justice 1998 01

Idk, I can't stop thinking about how part of him is replaced with something Batman made, honed, and curated for efficiency and vigilanteism.

A part of Tim is just laying there... swarmed and consumed by the unkillable vermin of Gotham streets.

Here it is again; Tim's fear of slowly becoming someone that he isn't. Becoming a tool and a weapon, less human and more machine.

And then there's Batman in this nightmare. Standing tall, ready to move on... nonchalantly asking Tim to grow a beard so he can make a personal use of his shiny new appendage.

But it's the,

Don't worry, Robin... No one will notice.

that's just smacking me across the face.

A part of Tim is dead and gone, but dont worry, kid! No one's gonna care enough to notice! (This is not a dig towards Tim's parents btw. Ill talk abt the Drakes in a different post.)

Batman brushes off Tim's horror—when lil bro's literally choking with horror—with an assurance that everything that Tim's afraid of will come true and, hey! it isnt a big deal.

Of course, this is Tim's nightmare view of Batman and not a characterization on Bruce, but it's just another example of how Tim sees Batman as a symbol that has consumed Bruce. (So, also not a dig towards Bruce, btw. He gets his own post later, too)

Since Tim's first few appearances, he's been terrified of becoming consumed by justice (?), vengeance, and vigilanteism.

Between his visceral fear at the comfort/hug from Bruce when his mom died, to a different nightmare featuring nightwing, to this nightmare, to rejecting comfort from Bruce at Steph's funeral, to hating Robin and himself after his father's death, and faking an uncle to get away from Batman??

It just shows how terrified he is of becoming someone he isnt...

And this nightmare in particular adds this: he's afraid no one will notice.

Young Justice 1998 01

It makes sense how his attempts to try and prevent the erasure of who he is would slowly escalate with every death. And with so many other heroes just... coming back... and coming back the same or even "close enough"?

It's easy to reach the point of rejecting death entirely. (am i side eyeing people who compare his reactions to certain people's death as a valid measure to who's more important to him? Maybe. Thats a different post tho)

Anyway. Fast forward like 3ish years later...

Red Robin 2009 01

Haha. I love self fulfilling prophecies.

Bart's Nightmare

Kon's Nightmare

[insanitize]

how old is tenna. like actually

okay so 4 hours ago at 2am i saw someone say tenna is from the 70s (likely because he's a game show host) and my gut reaction was There's absolutely no way that's true, he's for sure a late 80s or early 90s tv. but i realized if i were to believe that i should probably have a verifiable reason to, so i went and made sure i did my research to validate my opinion. my opinion has not changed, i still think he's probably supposed to be from the late 80s, but here's why i think that.

so. if i wanted to be anal retentive as fuck about it, i could say that if deltarune is meant to have a similar in-universe technological development timeline to ours irl, and if deltarune is indeed meant to take place in some analogous place to the united states, then tenna is likely no older than 18 (from 2007). because he's a crt receiving over the air signals, but past 2009 irl it would need to be a digital signal, and i assume deltarune takes place after 2009, and tenna crucially does not appear to have a converter box. which would mean he'd need to have that capability built in.

however, i like. really badly do not think that matters. not only am i positive he's meant to be much older than a tv from 2007, but i just don't think a detail that minuscule would be on anybody's list of priorities when designing an old tv in fiction.

so let's imagine none of that factors into how old he could be at all. what else can we go off of. primarily i want to first look at his design. you'll notice that although he verbally references one, tenna does not actually appear to have a dial in any visual we have of him. he doesn't even look like he has a button array of any kind.

this was extremely uncommon for the 1970s, especially for just everyday family households on an average budget. this wasn't, however, as uncommon after the 80s swung around. you'd still see a lot of tvs with dials on the side, but it wasn't so notably rare to see ones lacking in this control scheme.

part of this is likely due to the invention of the infrared remote, which would take television manufacturing by storm in the 80s. to be clear, wireless remotes for tvs did exist before this, but i specifically do think the zappers are infrared due to their attack patterns and sprite movements. if this is true (and especially if the zappers are universal remotes), then the existence of the zappers would support the assumption that tenna is from the 80s at the very earliest.

as an aside on the topic of tenna's appearance, while i do think the photorealistic images are more of a visual gag than anything meant to be like. concrete canon appearance of the guy. i do want to point out that the ridged edges he has were especially typical of 80s zennith tv sets. which makes sense to me, because zenniths were pretty state-of-the-art at the time.

another thing we could look at for clues to his age is the "programming" itsself. there are a few minor details to this i'd like to point out. none of these necessarily materially impact how old tenna could be, but seeing as he's already designed as a symbolic gesture towards nostalgia, understanding the references made with these small details can help us better construct what timeframe he's meant to evoke.

first of all, his reference to a "cooking channel". correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure the first cooking channel broadcast in america was the food network, which is from the 90s. there is also literally a Cooking Channel (proper name) but i think it's from like 2002

secondly, the rhythm minigame. live music performances have been on the air forever and ever, but specifically the channel he's on is one dedicated to music videos. that wasn't hardly a thing at all until mtv. which is from the 80s. (Adding onto this point hours later hi. they're also specifically performing hair metal, which is. 80s.)

thirdly is the existence of lanino and elnina, who are (to me at least) a blatant reference to the weather channel. weather is a staple of television, of course, but i do mean the weather channel specifically. which is from the 80s. (also. this is going to seem like a stretch but the line "weather girls are the wave!" reminds me of the work done by 2nd wave feminists to make it so that more women could go into news network jobs. so that's cool)

i do also want to point out an even smaller tidbit. tenna interrupts (or claims to interrupt) his normal programming for breaking news. this was not impossible, per se, before the 80s, but it didn't become a regular occurrence until the 80s as well, after the inception of CNN. again, this doesn't mean tenna wasn't possibly at all manufactured sooner than this, but thinking about this from a fiction writing perspective, what matters here is what tenna is mean to make the player feel. these references are ones to a world post-cnn, post-food network, post-mtv. it's an expression of fondness for a very specific past.

this is also true in how older tech itsself is utilized. the tv time intro being played back with vhs effects is telling to me, because vhs wasn't the dominant household market video format until the 80s and 90s. this is even present in the format of the game show. it's a merging of the game show concept and the prevalent force of 90s video games. television programs based on video games weren't uncommon at the time, as they were essentially literally an attempt to teach an old dog new tricks. nick arcade came to mind right away for me the first time i saw the boards.

so that's why i think he's supposed to be 80s or 90s tech. honestly, this still makes him a ridiculously old crt. most crts on a regular use schedule will last a while, but only a little over a decade.

anyways so that's my stance. i;m so so tired

[olderthannetfic]

Sorry to revive the hp wank on your blog but, yk, it was pissing me off. I’m so sick of “grow up children the lore isn’t even good.” Should I pick up some sci-fi fantasy brick instead? Some TikTok romantasy shit? As if the solid magic system is why I or anyone is into hp fandom, as opposed to the gaping holes authors and artists use as planters. The volume of work and history of fandom, and yes, history as a cultural phenomenon. It sucks that jkr used her wealth and prominence as a springboard to be hateful, but done is done on that. Jkr doesn’t, for me , atp, come into it, not since she published DH, and I know I’m not alone. The majority of book character slash fic enjoyers w fuck terfs in bio are not the same people w hp jansport and herbology t shirt. They are not hitting retweet. Email warner brothers abt their new theme park, or better yet, the media that legitimizes and platforms her, or better yet, actually pivot to activism /for/ trans people.

Like, it’s not my fault that jeffree star made good music in 2009, and all the racism, transphobia, and sex crimes he’s done before and since don’t actually make my eBay copy of beauty killer slay less. it’s not like he’s getting proceeds. Those are perfectly valid reasons to not be able enjoy something you might otherwise, but like. What we like and dislike is more to do with the gut than ppl act like it is, when it comes to stuff they can’t personally see the appeal of.

I don’t like fascism or mark wahlburg, but that doesn’t mean I think those things being bad is an actually compelling reason for someone to deny their extant enjoyment of Attack on Titan or The Italian Job, even though it /is/ the reason I personally can’t stand these things.

On the other hand I still like Home Alone 2 AND Two Weeks Notice, and Friz Frelings non-overtly-racist ouvre.

This is just another case of moralizing a personal squick, an iteration of which a broad chunk of self proclaimed proshippers seem perfectly happy to engage in.

I have a bunch of new and comfort fics queued up for my top surgery recovery. If one more person tells me to just decide to like earthsea instead I will metaphorically kms in front of them. There’s exactly one earthsea fic on ao3 with gay sex. And, yk, my blorbos aren’t there. Joy you can’t personally relate to is not less important or more immature for being unrelatable to you.

And ngl it wasn’t gonna work on me anyways, but telling people to discard something they enjoy and care about bc otherwise they’re bad evil cringe immature babies with shit taste who only read one book is like, not the winning argument people seem to think it will be.

--

[nekropsii]

yo, since people listen to you, can you confirm that the alpha trolls are infact described to be the alpha trolls in the comic and that "dancestor" refers to both alpha and beta trolls? I've seen so many people lately act like you can't call them "alpha trolls" and you must refer to them solely as "dancestors" and it's ridiculous as hell lmao

That's fucking wild, especially considering "Dancestor" is coined by an Alpha Troll specifically to describe the Beta Trolls, lmfao.

Illiteracy strikes again!

Also, denying that the Alpha Trolls are the Alpha Trolls is a ridiculous position that people keep trying to endear to me. It won't ever work. I've seen people try to deny it by saying that, essentially, "Beta and Alpha purely refer to Scratch Iterations", but that logic holds as much water as a sieve. "Pre-Scratch" and "Post-Scratch" are terms independent from "Beta" and "Alpha". The relation that Beta and Alpha has to each other is purely that one comes before the other, specifically that Alpha comes before Beta, because they're referencing Development Versions of specific plot-relevant programs.

LIGHTNING ROUND:

The Beta Kids are the Pre-Scratch Humans playing the Beta version of SBURB.

==> Homestuck, pg. 1 The Beta Trolls are the Post-Scratch Trolls using the Beta version of Trollian.

==> Homestuck, pg. 2009 The Alpha Kids are the Post-Scratch Humans playing the Alpha version of SBURB, and were initially known to the audience as the Guardians of the Beta Kids, meaning they came first.

==> Homestuck, pg. 4115. ... And The Alpha Trolls are the Pre-Scratch Trolls that were presumably using the Alpha version of Trollian, and were initially known to the audience as the Ancestors of the Beta Trolls, meaning they came first.

Logically speaking... Why would they not be called the Alpha Trolls?

This isn't rocket science, and takes way less mental gymnastics than saying, "Actually, everyone's been wrong in calling The Beta Trolls 'The Beta Trolls' this entire time, because 'Beta' and 'Alpha' just has to do with Scratch Iterations", even though the version of Trollian being used by the Beta Trolls is literally referred to as the Beta Client in the text of the comic. Which is a real argument I've been presented with. Several times. And it's a bad one. Every time.

It also takes way less mental gymnastics than saying that The Alpha Trolls are purely "The Dancestors", despite the term applying to almost every main character in the comic and specifically getting coined to describe The Beta Trolls, and saying that The Alpha Trolls isn't a valid term because 'they aren't explicitly called that in the comic' even though they don't need to get explicitly called. Like. Anything. In order for the reader to intuit that this is following the same very consistent train of naming logic that the entire rest of the comic has been following this entire time.

So, yeah, that argument is stupid. It is also bad, dumb, and silly. And a myriad of other terms.

[antiendovents]

every time i open tumblr or think about endos i get this horrible feeling where my stomach is (like actually is, not my gut) and i think part of it is coming from a place of feeling threatened by them?? not threatened-threatened but just. ugh idk theyre just so annoying and its all so annoying

like whyyyy do you want this thing ive struggled with for my whole life. this shit is NOT fun and no amount of playing pretend can change that /nay

and why are you roleplaying being a system and then saying “noo its differenttt” /nay

and why are they dissing medical research constantly, why are they making up research, misinterpreting research, not looking at research that proves their point with a critical eye

but anyway i get sooo fucking angry and bothered and annoyed when they try explaining it to me over and over and over again and its always the same bullshit talking points that arent backed by anything except a tumblr post from fucking 2009 and a blog from 1986 or a research paper that has a very clear conflict of interest or a research paper that makes baseless claims that are either completely unrelated to the study or are related but dont have a source other than the researcher just. said it. or a research paper where the study participants were never interviewed IRL and everything was online and its limited to 13 people or like. research papers that are generally not valid or reliable!!!

and ive tried so hard to not be bothered by it but it is so. so difficult.

anyway thank you for making this account its a really great place for venting and i really appreciate its existence

i think we can sort of relate to that feeling, anon. It sucks, and it's terrible that we can't just be safe from this shit. It's so annoying that endos just constantly trying and shove their ways into our spaces, screaming about how oppressed they are and how we should all cater to them. We get like, this sinking feeling anytime we're in a spot where we have to interact with or even look at them. They're so,, anger-inducing. Like they're blatantly ableist but at least half of the community is too stupid to see it, that's what it feels like anyways. None of their research tends to be valid, and I'll be honest 90% of the time when they send "sources" I'm not gonna click on it because I already know it's gonna be bullshit or I'm paranoid it'll be some kind of virus or like a gore-site. I don't trust endos to give reliable information nor do I trust them to even be able to share safe links

Uh, anyways, sorry I kind of ranted there, I just meant to say I relate to you, and thank you anon, I'm very glad you appreciate this blog 🫂 it helps to know that this place helps people, If that makes sense

[lucygraysmockingjays]

Don’t understand why people are so weird about Lenore Dove. If y’all have nothing nice to say, talk about it with y’all’s friends. Don’t go posting about it IN THE LENORE DOVE TAG!!!! Or post in an anti tag, that also works.

I dislike Effie (have since I read the books in 2009 so don’t make it a ship thing) but you don’t see me whining about it.

Come at me with a valid criticism that’s not rooted in “my hc has been destroyed and I don’t like it” and we can talk. The excuse about how she’s a dead wife trope and how she’s not a flushed out character because Haymitch’s pov falls flat because that’s LITERALLY KATNISS AND PEETA! It’s called an unreliable narrator. You have to read between the lines. It’s just like with Lucy Gray coming from Coriolanus’ perspective.

[astradyke]

hey so I've been a casual Dan & Phil fan for years but never really a part of the fandom. Recently started scrolling thru the tag and like...did I miss something? Have they actually said for real for real that they dated? Like I'm queer and tbh 2 gay guys living together for that long have to at least done *something* but I'm not an rpf person (no shade) but I do wanna be up to date on the Dan and Phil facts (phacts?) Obviously they're some kinda soulmates but tbh I know some queerplatonic soulmates who aren't *together* so idk if that's them or not. Am I missing receipts or is their relationship presumed given their whole situationship? Genuinely asking and no shade to your shipping intended.

hiya! i'll try to be succinct here but i might totally miss some things as a heads up :P

In Basically I'm Gay on the Daniel Howell channel, the same monologue that led to the description of them as soulmates also included the statement: "And that was when, through the magic of the Internet, I met Phil. And obviously we were more than friends, but it was more than just romantic [...] The relationship we formed, at that point, was something that I needed in my life." Despite "relationship" being a neutral, versatile term, the preceding sentence confirms they've been in an explicitly romantic relationship. along with that explicit confirmation, we also know from several other relics from 2009-2011 in particular that the two were at the very least actively flirting (I can retrieve a few formsprings for you that point to this if u want just lmk!). Additionally, in 2010, Phil made a privated video addressed to Dan that explicitly confirms a romantic relationship; this video was unprivated via a YouTube glitch in September 2011 and circulated heavily in late 2012. it was a serious incident that outed them and thus people don't talk much about it. I've never seen it in full-- it's pretty much off the Internet entirely due to copyright strikes-- and I really solely bring it up for context that they were dating at that period in time.

Basically I'm Gay only indicates a past romantic relationship, leaving their current one ambiguous, and both Dan and Phil's respective coming out videos state that they want to keep their personal dating lives private (both of these videos were released in 2019). Since then, though, there's one other explicit confirmation of their relationship-- I had a difficult time hunting down this exact interview in entirety, but my lovely mutual freckliedan helped me find the relevant screenshot:

[ID: In bold, the interviewer's text says: "So, just like a normal gay couple then?" Below, Dan's response is not in bold, and says, "Basically, yeah."]

I was able to find another screenshot at this post as well, which has the actual context confirming that they were discussing Phil previous to this. Now, obviously, this interviewer was a little forward in their questions, so I understand any reluctance in considering Dan's response-- however, Dan is a professional, and if he was sincerely uncomfortable with this line of questioning, I have faith in his ability to avoid answering it altogether. I therefore assume he knew what he was doing, and that this can be taken as a valid statement. This was from 2023 iirc.

Both of these excerpts-- from Basically I'm Gay and from this interview-- do suggest that Dan and Phil have a romantic relationship. On top of both of these more concrete confirmations, there's a lot more information/statements they've made public that corresponds with a romantic relationship, even if none of them are technically exclusive to romantic relationships.

A brief list: They've lived together for approximately 13-15 years, and bought a house together with a mortgage (for brevity's sake, I'll exclude other things that kind of pair with this). They make frequent sex jokes on their channel, several of which stating things about the other's sexual preferences. They recently went on holiday together, just the two of them, and given the tourism biz and how they discussed the holiday it seems like they were in a place intended for couples. Phil's sister in law, Cornelia, refers to Dan as an uncle to her child. They use pet names for each other. They frequently joke with the phandom, riffing off of jokes about their relationship (reacting to posts saying they are in a situationship, making a joke about having a joint toilet, etc.) This is most arguable, but it's highly likely that they share a bed as well (again, going off of the images/videos they've shown us of 'Dan's bedroom'). Lastly, other interviews with Dan include him being highly verbose about his relationship with Phil, but he's referred to him briefly as his "husband" in a long list of other words like "soulmates" and "just mates", ending with "who the fuck knows?", in one past interview (I have a picture of this but I can't attach it rn I can find it if you'd like though!)

It's not impossible that Dan and Phil's relationship isn't currently romantic, and even operating off of the assumption that it is, there's information we don't know about that (whether they're monogamous or polyamorous, for example, or whether or not they share a bed). It honestly just seems unlikely that their relationship is queerplatonic, given the past statements indicating that it has been romantic historically and the interview (+ supplemental evidence) suggesting that it currently is (I am very aware of the variation in QPRs, though, so I'm sympathetic to that interpretation from folks. However, I also understand that many explicitly romantic partnerships are considered to be QPRs-- in media or with real people-- in a way that contributes to gay erasure. It's nuanced and I am not the person best equipped to eloquently discuss it). Obviously, just to underscore here, we are not owed any information about their personal lives and the vast majority (if not the entirety) of the phandom just riffs off of the information they tell us, all of which happen to point to a romantic relationship. They clearly don't have any discomfort in us assuming this, and I personally don't believe they'll ever give us any more conclusive statement about their relationship any time soon, given that they've told us enough that the implication of a romantic partnership is pretty solidly there.

TLDR: Dan and Phil have "hard launched" (AKA released information that portrays their relationship as irrefutably romantic) 2-3 times. There is also other more indirect information that seems to confirm a romantic relationship, though if one wanted to, it could be read as non-romantic-- however, given those conclusive statements, and the current way they treat phandom commentary about their relationship (AKA not giving a shit), it is the effective conclusion that they are in a romantic relationship. Other conclusions, such as them being queerplatonic or them having broken up, seem to rely on a lot of critical assumptions, while the idea that they are in a romantic relationship is in line with their own statements as well as what we generally see out of them.

Thank you for your patience and your very kind ask! PS calling it "phacts" is funny as fuck, I did not utilize that verbiage here through my reply but you were a visionary for this. have a lovely one :D

PS. If any folks want to add, or if I missed something when glancing back over this and corrections are needed, please please please share! I am so deeply not a phandom history i am simply a little guy! much love

[skitskatdacat63]

Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards

I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?

I. Magic Tricks

You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)

But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."

In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.

II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets

This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?

From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.

Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)

2008.

Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible

2009.

Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?

2010.

This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!

2011.

Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards

2012.

This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??

2013.

Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form

2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):

For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one

2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):

The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"

III. Why Does This Matter?

*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs

This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!

There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.

But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(

[lefruitdesanges]

my friend recently got me SUUUPER into punch out and showed me some cool videos sooo a good deal of my posts will probably be related to it!!!

contrary to popular belief, i dont think soda popinski would be a bad father and husband who beats his family and yells at the top of his lungs all the time

i mean, his contender and td sequences don't necessarily show aggression at like, any point in my opinion. just extreme dedication, unlike other characters who actively show that kind of thing in their photo sequences.

and i like to think that the first panel of his title defense sequence is a rare time of his sobriety. he looks pretty chill there,, more concerned than anything. then they hook him to the machine or whatever and he got his little power boost.

bald bull definitely would beat his kids, i think -- he doesn't handle anger well, and even though his anger is valid, charging head on isn't the way for him to go about it.

plus, the small bits of aggression that we do get from characters in or outside of their photo sequences doesn't really determine their whole personality (maybe excluding bald bull). i mean we barely get anything about the characters since they're just hunks of stereotypes and everything is built on that. with the plot of the game, deep looks into who each person is, is not something that we necessarily needed. so we received shallow overlooks since the main point of the game is just beating their asses.

you could argue that since they're built on stereotypes like i said, the way they act in game is all that there is to them. but i like to think that that's only for the sake of the game and the lack of focus on them like i said earlier.

take sandman for example. he's one of the most aggressive characters in the 2009 game and it shows pretty much all the time,, but there's GOTTA be more, right? his aggression is a huge part no doubt, but it cant be all if you want to look at them from just a regular perspective!!

[littlepolyps]

little!armin arlert headcanons 🐚

warnings: spoilers for aot ofc, armin being a very insecure lil guy, slight emetophobia mention

if you don’t like age regression, kindly block me and just move on ☺️

🦀he is SUCH an environmentally sensitive little. argue with the WALLLLL

🐳armin the type of little to cover his ears when in a loud area (especially if there’s like fireworks going off or something loud like that)

“armin, are you okay?”

covering his ears with tears in his eyes: “‘oo loud…”

🪼get him sensory gear of some kind (i.e., earplugs) and he will actually cry

🐡lowk thinks he doesn’t deserve all the pampering (pls validate him :c)

🐚LOOOOVES any sea themed storybooks for children

🦀when you get to the beach expect him to be nothing but smiling and giggling and picking up shells to give you

“i gots dis for ‘ou! :)” holding out a conch he found for you

gasp “for me? oh why thank you, armin! aren’t you just the sweetest boy!”

🐳take this boy to some tide pools PLEASE the lil dude is so so curious

🪼i think he’d do well w any gender cg, he just needs someone to put his trust in when he does slip into that tiny headspace :(

🐡i think he regresses anywhere between 2-6 years old, definitely some time before the wall was destroyed by the colossal titan

🐚a rather quiet little, probably looks at his cg like o.o at all times

🦀favorite nicknames to be called: minnie baby, tiny (for once he likes this nickname. considering he was picked on and undoubtedly called tiny or runt or similar nicknames in a derogatory way :c), little conch (don’t tell armin i said this but that’s absolutely his fav!!)

🐳calls his cg either mama/dada/bubba i think

🪼sea themed bath toys!!

🐡always worrying about being a bother :(

“don’ wanna make mama/dada/bubba upset :c”

“minnie baby, you can never make me upset. you’re doing just fine!”

“‘ou mean it? 🥹”

🐚but with time and grace that you can show him, he’ll get better

🦀the wettest, SADDEST eyes you’ve ever seen not even kidding. even something like a bad texture would set him off

“hey tiny, what’s goin’ on? why are we upset?”

armin, pouting about a sherpa blanket he brushed against in a store, with tears in his eyes already: “nu’ nice feel…”

“ohhhh, it was the sherpa huh?”

“yeah <:c”

🐳not opposed to cuddles with his cg at all. in fact, he loves it sm (all that time in the scout regiment probably meant little to no hugs so i highly encourage them)

🪼if he slips into a younger headspace, he’ll be wayyyy more sleepy and emotional and so so clingy. and he WILL start crying if you leave him for even a second. where you go, armin goes

🐡toddler headspace armin NEEDS his paci. or he’ll start chewing his lip or his fingers (cos nothing can tell me that armin doesn’t stim by chewing either his fingertips or his lip)

🐚sometimes gets a lil sick if he eats a food with a bad texture

“little conch, why aren’t you eating your sandwich?”

“bread ‘s soggy :c” gagging

“oh- oh, honey. let’s get you something else to eat then.” already whisking away the sandwich

written by @littlepolyps

characters belong to attack on titan: 進撃の巨人 © 2009

[manchestereyes]

I had kinda dipped out of the phandom during the was era (sorry) so I would to hear how that era led to them being so connected in this one

oh that is so valid, friend! 🧡 i kinda did too since it was announced right when i got my first full time job and suddenly i didn't have time to engage with phandom stuff anymore 😭 but things are a lot chiller now, so let's dive in! (under the cut because this is gonna be loooong--dnp please do not read if you happen to stumble across this!)

i think to get a full perspective on this journey, we really need to look at the full history of dan and phil. how they forged such a deep connection in 2009 and did whatever they could to be together. how they were blowing up more and more in the early 2010s and seeing more opportunities come from this youtube business. and how one youtube glitch could've ruined those opportunities forever.

i'm sure we all know by now how big of a deal the vday video was but if you don't... it was a huge deal. suddenly this very private piece of their lives was out in the open, long before either of them were ready to publicly address it. and it changed everything. yes, their love story was basically documented already, but they never expected those posts would be seen by millions of people one day, potentially even by people who could give them jobs. so they shut down. they insisted they were separate people and made completely different videos while also showing us the family sized box of shreddies they'd bought for the two of them.

and this is where wad comes in. yes i know i'm jumping really far into the future here, but hear me out--in a way, i believe wad is directly connected to everything that went down in 2012. see, phil's told us that he's always been happy doing amazingphil and dan and phil things. but dan's different.

SPECULATION TIME -- IF YOU ARE DAN AND PHIL, PLEASE CLICK AWAY NOW. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.

dan grew up desperate for validation from parents who never had time for him and from peers who constantly bullied him. he's always had a voice in the back of his head telling him he's not good enough, and even when phil tells him his videos are great, he still wants them to appeal to all the people who dismissed him growing up. he wants to be his full self, yet he's also terrified of acknowledging that he could be the very thing he was tormented for. meanwhile, phil (as far as i can tell) had that validation growing up. his parents were older and had more money and therefore, more energy to devote to phil and martyn. phil's always been super close with his whole family, whereas dan (from what we know) has only ever been close with his nana and popsie, and now with his mum too. phil had a whole group of friends growing up, whereas dan flitted from group to group, never quite fitting in, and even had no friends for a while. this is why he developed the cynical, sarcastic persona he's worn for so long. it was his battle armor. every time he'd shown his real self growing up, he'd been rejected. but once he saw how lovely we all are, that battle armor was quickly becoming restricting. but he'd spent so long wearing it that now dan didn't know who he was now.

so we got the hiatus, while dan worked out who he was and how he wanted to present himself and threw himself into different projects that did and didn't see the light (rip dinok our strongest soldier 💔)--one of those projects being wad. suddenly dan, theatre kid extraordinaire, who'd spent two tours working with his favorite person onstage, was now facing the prospect of carrying an entire stage show on his own. on one hand, that was terrifying as fuck, but on the other, it was a culmination of all the work dan had done on himself. and he did it. he spent months physically apart from phil only to find that we loved him for who he is. and that was deeply healing for him.

however, being apart for several months was SO hard on him and phil. phil said he was having a lot of trouble with his migraines around that time and i have to wonder if that could have partly been from the stress of not having dan around for long periods of time. and we know dan had plenty of crises on the road that he frantically texted phil about--enough to have him credited as "remote crisis manager" in the wad recording. and that's the thing, isn't it? i think dan especially needed that time apart to realize that he and phil are truly magical together. and with all the pressure he puts on himself for solo content, he knew it would take a herculean effort to put anything out on his main channel. but phil's been working with a really cool editor for his main channel. and the gaming channel has never had that content threshold.

so they finally both dropped the masks (for the most part) and dove into this new version of dan and phil that emphasizes their connection. because it's okay for them to be this close now. they've already worked with some hugely powerful people (and been accepted by their families) and now all they need is us. and we've not only accepted them for it, we've celebrated it--all the way to the finals of the rpf tourney. and i think that acceptance means more to dnp than we will ever know.

tl;dr: dan and phil had to be apart for a while to see just how much they needed each other. and now that they've experienced that, they know they can never let each other go--and that their connection is just as special to us as it is to them, so there's no harm in showing it off every chance they get.

[rmbunnie]

Another little inconsequential red hood thing and I'll admit that I'm decently biased but it irks me to see the whole "Jason can't shut up about his death/he makes his death everyone else's problem" take really frequently because he simply does not do that enough for it to be a thing in like any actual Red Hood story.

It's a thing you see sometimes in modern annuals/comics with large casts, particularly if a writer doesn't seem super confident with writing all of the characters that they're working with or if he's just a background character in this one, because with comics it's quicker to reduce a character to recognizable landmarks than to try and work out a whole new complex voice if you don't really need to, so it's tire iron, Jane Austen, Joker, and death, and it's all written out in dialogue because every character in a group event can't have their own internal monologue, but like. That's pretty much it. UTRH is the establishing event for Jason Todd post death so of course a lot of it is about his death, although it's arguably about the lack of response to his death more than his death itself, and he certainly makes it Bruce's issue but one beef doesn't make a trend. Plus if his death is anyone's issue beyond his own Bruce and Joker are like the number one guys whose issue it is. He THINKS about his death a ton in Lost Days, but it doesn't really reflect externally on any of his interactions besides with Joker, which again, that's justified and relevant beef. Teen Titans 29 is more about his place in the hero community/feeling like he was an outsider even before the bomb/Tim being the new robin than about his death, and side note, that being counted as an attempt on Tim's life also bugs me. He beat him up and then left of his own volition. That's not an assassination attempt its called a fight, albeit a sneaky and unfair one. But anyways. I can't speak on Battle for the Cowl because i haven't read it, both that and Batman and Robin 2009 don't really compel me, but it's entirely possible that's an outlier to my point seeing as I kinda sorta haven't read it and don't care to lmao. Even New 52 (although HIGHLY unpopular) and Rebirth/Dawn of DC/Whatever we're doing now Red Hood content don't really have him talking to people about it besides the occasional little quips. He might make stances that were developed because of his death other people's problem, like in the Mia Dearden Green Arrow situation with the "getting involved in other people's business" issue, but acting like he makes specifically his death everyone else's problem is ignoring all of the perfectly valid actually canon things he makes other people's problem. Most of the unpleasant traits he brings to the table are a result of his death and the sense of abandonment and betrayal that came with it, but that doesn't mean he's bringing his death into it when he acts unpleasantly any more than he's bringing his birth into it when he shows up in the first place. The consequences do not equal the event. All this to say it's irritating when people say the character is grating because he doesn't stop whining about his death when that kinda just indicates to me that they're working off fanon based on fanon based on kinda mid batman annual.

[emilydorp]

I got some questions about GTOP dmed and thought, "Hey, these are pretty good, Imma make a post to make up for the fact that I don't post as much as I wish to! :)) Alllllll of this is me making educated guesses btw. And is looooong and full of me rambling (all my posts are me rambling tbh). And also, full of my sass, none of which is directed at the absolute SWEETIE that asked me these questions (I'm sorry).

a) So basically, I'd like to know about them from the start, before their debut? Were they dating at the time? Or did they start dating in 2010-11?

-> Since I'm planning to make this post as complete as possible, I'll try and attach almost everything that I can find for now and everything that's CREDIBLE. There's many things I have no receipt for (cuz like I said in my first post ever, I started after watching the Secret Garden Parody, so very un-seriously), I apologize. An anecdotal piece of advice; read Ruinwyn's fics, she spent a while researching GTOP to write her canon fics realistically and also has future telling abilities.

www.tumblr.com/couleursdautomne/37333885043/toptopia-for-062518-host-top-first-top

(omg I lowkey wanna play that agree/disagree game she did here but don't dare to ask y'all.. so I'm asking here XP Do you wanna play this game? Pretty please say yes :"")))))).

Btw Tabi later confirms that he first met GD in 2000.

GD confirmed anecdote 6 himself via an Insta like (but a version where Ji held his hand and walked off instead of him holding his waist.. which just shows that these things can be true but are also over exaggerate a lot, like how 20 is possible because it can be that the fan account is over exaggerating this interaction) and confirmed other anecdotes from a few of the sources within this anecdote list + many of them are from reliable sources BUT! The disclaimer in the beginning is true, there are a few that aren't real yet get spread around (for example, 4... seriously, they'd never (imho).. and also they don't fight like cats and dogs, they themselves made it clear that their friendship was NEVER like that).

Also: YB posting this for the translator (not in relation to this post).. tears in my EYES so sweet (Honestly, if GD wasn't such a fabulous relatable honey bun, YB would've been my bias; the man he is).

But really, pre debut is mysterious for me as well, since I started in 2014~2015 and have been on-and-off since. I do know things since I've tried digging up this stuff even tho a lot of it was deleted (I went to LiveJournal of all places.. I'm too young for that!! TTOTT No legit idk how that site's supposed to work Fam) and I am friends with old VIPs that have been around since 2008-2010-2012 but they very casually and/or didn't shipped GTOP, and were iVIPs, so I can only ask them to confirm receipts, like the fact that GD really DID post the words "Take Me (I'm Yours)" to his Instagram in 2014 and that was a REAL thing he did and therefore a valid receipt that this song is for Seunghyun. So yeah.

I don't think they were dating pre-debut and honestly do believe that 2010 was the year they actually started dating each other. I think so for a few reasons, here's the ones I remember: GD&TOP volume one was written in 2010; GTOP fan service shifted dramatically in 2009 and in that year Ji even (allegedly from the fan accounts and discussion I was able to recover) got pissed at shippers, especially Topnyong, EVEN THO he started Nyongtory (yes, he started it... unfortunately... gosh Ri you f-cking RAT).. honestly GD's fan service is unmatched. He later changed his mind and liked shippers again (obviously) but his sudden and brief shift in opinion is interesting.. especially since GTOP had very nice fan service and real moments (but like.. since Ji had a crush on Tabi.. it was more like GD service lmfao.. check out pre dating GTOP it's GLORIOUS) which changed and later reduced dramatically; Tabi dated a different woman per-debut, he 100% was with her and even spoke about her (while Ji looked like he wanted to jump off a cliff)(honestly she looked like Hyori Lee, Tabi's celebrity crush (he has a GIANT crush on this woman, y'all Tabi is y/n he got to kiss his celeb crush on stage TTOTT)) AND he most likely also dated Shin Min-Ah from 2008~late 2008/2009, so he was taken before 2010. There's other stuff but honestly, Tabi being taken is a big indication that this was all Ji being in love (and maybe Tabi subconsciously).

(I've read fan accounts from iVIPs since they share, and unfortunately most iVIPs I've been able to encounter (more like encounter their posts lol) started after 2010. Omfg I read one talking about how she spent a week stalking BB alongside kVIPs and was "shocked" at how close GTOP were and kVIPs just shrugged and said "They have a special relationship".. and another one from a Dutchie (who threw her morals out the window real quickly when she got the chance) where she exclaimed that they were "CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE" in all caps and that Tabi spent all his time around men and avoided the women completely XP These are fan accounts so mind you, you never know with them.. but goddammit there were so many GTOP fan accounts of them being close, these are the ones that got stuck in my head, it's a lot, and many of them didn't really ship GTOP either.. also bragging about being low key crazy and then lying about what you saw is a low I pray nobody has reached). Anyways, here's video evidence of his crush:

b) I saw some tiktoks that said they had a very on and off relationship, cheated on each other and were abusive? I didn't believe that tt but I think I can trust you and based on your Tumblr posts I can see that you've been here much longer and know a lot.

-> Hun, don't turn into a naive FaceBook grandma that believes everything she sees on the internet. If your ears are hearing one thing but your eyes see another, believe your eyes (I don't mean this literally in the sense of eyes and ears ofc). This is all very false information (and written by SHyuk cuz he wants Ji to himself / big joke). What are they even alleging? Goodness me *rolls eyes*. Send it if you want, always down for rambling :))

c) Do you have blogs translated from older kvips, you said in your post that they withheld a lot of information.

-> I don'ttttt, I don'ttt have old blogs I wish I did anon I really do :"(( Even tho my Korean is good for nothing and if I was dropped of in Seoul I'd do nothing except yell "AIRPORT" in Korean at the top of my lungs and understand what is written on signboards.. and maybe some accent and dialect free Korean (dialects are horrible, they make learning languages so much harder), I'd try to translate for y'all. I translated the entire video of that palm reader that predicted Ji's 2017 crashing and burning (and gave some nice indirect GTOP) for @deliciouskamepi at 3 A.M. lmfao. Weibo is/was also very good, but I'm not going to attempt that. Lmao this part is just a lot of me going all "I don't wannna TTOTT" hihihi am I a bad shipper?

A LOT of GTOP content is gone, it isn't even funny. The last time I went to Kmedia sites and "Korean Reddit", as I (and MissMangoButt) like to call it, I fled the scene and haven't had the guts to return (I just don't like toxicity, I'm sorry, I've been in the kpop fandom for too long to even pretend like I can bear this BS for longer than 10 minutes). Maybe if GTOP have legit rumours of a sighting in S.Korea I'll go back. But right NOW they don't have more information than us since they've stepped away from their toxic ways (there's a LOT of rumours tho, and I don't wanna read them, cuz they're malicious and destroy Ji and Tabi's characters and like I said, I only want to write credible/plausible things in this post). Remember, these are the people that wanted Ji to kill himself over "pLaGiArIsM". But in the same breath, I must say that these are the people that went as far as stalking Ji's elder sister for tea on him, so they 100% know a lot about the past and Ji's life. And guess who kept denying Jiko like their lives depended on it? These very. same. knets. Which brings me to:

d) "In fact the Jiko relationship is FAR from this long term important relationship in GD's life (for which I could write a second speech)." You talked about this as well, I believe the long term relationship you are referring to must be TOP and GD's. Anyways there is enough proof that GD did date Kiko. I'd love to hear your speech about that haha.

-> Jiyong Christ dear! TOT Okay, so Jiko is frustrating ngl. I didn't have a blog or social media account back in 2014 but it was frustrating. Here's stuff you gotta read + I'll add things I haven't seen mentioned.. I was GONNA write a speech but Jiko is tiring, tiring, tiring, I'll just repost this absolute QUEEN's posts instead.

-Doing a second ALS ice bucket challenge is so so extra, especially when the point is to do it publicly.. this dude. Also, why is his friend being STUPID and replying to like TWO snarky comments about how GD didn't nominate her lmfao.

--kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/110425166539/gds-2nd-als-video-that-mentioned-my-dear

--https://kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/114187861904/do-u-know-kiko-can-speak-korean-or-not-people#notes

--www.tumblr.com/sabrinete/71955816415/you-know-everytime-jiko-rumours-emerge-i-always?source=share

--kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/120278220119/mina-isnt-it-logical-that-jiyong-allows-dispatch(read it via copy-pasting cuz Tumblr hates me and wouldn't allow more links :"(()

- If he didn't want to be caught, he can be discrete. We'd only seen YB's current wife after YB decided to reveal it and never saw any of Dae or Ri's girls (unless it became a scandal, like Ri's).

- Both Kiko and GD kept denying their relationship, before the ALS challenge leak and after, even tho the hate was unbelievable. Anyone in such a situation would've just revealed their relationship, especially if even half of the tabloid rumours are true. Also I'm pretty sure Kiko and Ji looked straight at the camera a few times during their photoshoots lmfao.

-These tagssss:

-GD, in the year of our lord 2024 (or 2025 lmfao) liked reels about this second ALS ice bucket challenge, just laughing about how silly he was being, yet hasn't liked post about the legitimate leaks of his PeaceMinusOne account. Idk tbh, maybe it's all about the past being in the past? But he hasn't liked a single post that was a legitimate breach of his privacy to this day (for as far as I can see). So either Ji has made complete peace with the past and he doesn't care about the ALS leak OR the ALS leak was BS anyways (love the Tabi pfp, what a coincidence).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 내가 보려고 올리는 빅뱅 (@everbang_vip)

BUT he liked this post that used this image in passing for a split second (there was another one that I THINK (using my memory here) used a clip of Tabi in this situation for like 2 seconds (towards the ending (?) so his alleged ADHD brain could've scrolled) but I can't find it.. so maybe I made that up outta trauma since people really liked making "edits" of Tabi's trauma (yuck, this isn't a kdrama, both GD&TOP are active netizens so they'll SEE these things, you absolute bitches).. but trust me, if you had a folder of Ji's likes (of 2025 ALONE) you'd never find shit again either).. so umm tbh maybe he is going all "that's the past y'all"? (Really idk what to make of this like but since that entire incident is a "breach of privacy" I needed to mention it since I alleged he didn't like any posts that exhibited such behaviour... but it is a split second...).

[salvadorbonaparte]

April 2025 in Films

Uzumaki (2000) - A town becomes obsessed with spirals and tbh spirals are pretty cool!

The Swordsman (2020) - This film is like a mix of Taken and Zatoichi, with a Korean twist to it.

Oldboy (2003) - Even more twisted and hopeless than "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance". A film about a man who was held captive for 15 years for unknown reasons and by unknown people. He goes on a beautiful, violent revenge trip, eats a live octopus, and learns that he has just about as much control over his decisions as a doomed hero in a Greek tragedy. A specific Greek tragedy in fact. Awesome film!

Son of Saul (2015) - the most upsetting, brutal and bleak film I had to watch for my horror film class and this is not even a horror film. A Holocaust drama about a Sonderkommando prisoner trying to bury a boy who might or might not be his son.

Maja Ma (2022) - A Bollywood drama about a mother who is forcibly outed as a lesbian, just as her son wants to marry into a rich, conservative family. Madhuri Dixit is such a talented dancer and, honestly, kind of a milf.

Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003) - April was my month for revenge films. A beautiful film, and I always hate to admit to liking Tarantino films. Second best use of the song "don't let me be misunderstood" in cinematic history.

Lady Vengeance (2005) - The last film in the vengeance trilogy, with interesting references and overlaps to "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" and "Oldboy" - Park Chan-wook really knows how to play with the same themes without making it boring. The third act has a little bit of "12 Angry Men" or "M" and I loved every minute of that part, but it took me a while to get into this film.

Chanthaly (2012) - The first horror film produced in Laos and certainly very low-budget. At first this is a very classic ghost story meets Rapunzel meets Gaslight. There is a very surprising plot twist that confused me so much at first. I would like to write a paper on this film.

The Color Out Of Space (2010) - a very straightforward Lovecraft adaptation, but changing the setting to WW2 Germany. I loved the use of color.

The Sadness (2021) - One of the most violent and depraved films I have ever seen. Imagine a zombie outbreak narrative but the zombies are fully conscious, alive and driven to act on their most vile instincts. The violence is gratuitous and feels self-indulgent, very edgelord-esque, but it is entirely coherent with the logic of the film. The effects are genguinely great but so over the top that it is ridiculous at times. I understand that this film wasn't for everyone and the criticisms are valid, I myself had a hard time despite being chill with extreme gore usually, but I still think it's a good film.

Season of Good Rain (2009) - this was my palate cleanser after "The Sadness". A cute romance about a guy on a business trip to China surprisingly reuniting with his college crush. I have the sneaking suspicion the actors learned their lines phonetically and didn't understand what they were saying. I love a cute accent though!

12.12: The Day (2023) - No I did not plan for this to be my 12th film in this list. A film about the 1979 coup in South Korea. Sometimes the bad guys win, because that's how it works in real life. The film really captured the desperation, disorientation and uncertainty of the coup in progress. While I watched this for a certain other actor (iykyk) I must highlight the absolutely stellar performance of Hwang Jung-min. His ruthless hunger for power gave me goosebumps. Like "Son of Saul", this is a horror film without being a horror film.

The Face Reader (2013) - this is really good for a film about something that was already a pseudoscience in the middle ages. Do not let the phrenology tiktok girlies find this.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) - kind of tasteless considering this is based on a real story of a girl who died during an exorcism. Half possession horror, half courtroom drama. You'd think those do not mix well, but both genres are about uncertain truths. Was Emily Rose possessed? Spoiler: No, she was mentally ill and had epilepsy and the priest would have definitely deserved jail.

The Damned (2018) - An Israeli horror film about three soldiers getting lost in the desert something something Bedouins haunting them because of past crimes.

Shanghai Grand (1996) - stylish 1930s gangsters in Shanghai, doomed love stories, a fight scene including a snake, and three actors I like.

A Single Rider (2017) - The saddest ghost story I have ever seen.

Ashes of Time (1994) - watching this felt like reading an ancient epic poem from a culture I'm not very familiar with - fulfilling but a little confusing.

The Investigation (1966) - After reading the play for a class I watched the film version. This is a theatre adaptation of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials and it is absolutely horrifying.

My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres (2019) - I feel strangely seen by this comedy special and I do not know what that says about me.

Preman (2021) - a deaf gangster tries to save his child from other gangsters. I'm not sure if the gay French speaking hairdresser assassin is iconic or offensive but he kills a homophobe for having an ugly haircut so maybe both. I'm also not sure if this is a camp masterpiece or a trainwreck. Essentially, this is a film about how when your childhood gay best friend kills himself and you become a gangster and then your mentor is killed by your new boss you can kill several dozen people while hallucinating human-sized foxes bleeding out in a rainbow of neon colors.

Hana-bi (1997) - both violent and tender, with a current of dark humor flowing through it. the best use of pointillism in film since Ferris Bueller's Day Off. My experience watching this was slightly overshadowed by finding out Takeshi Kitano is the same Takeshi from the game show.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) - As children, my brother and I exclusively watched episodes III to VI for unclear reasons so everything I knew about this film was through pop culture osmosis. Nothing prepared me for how unnecessarily long it is. Or the child slavery space nascar subplot. Or just how annoying Jar Jar Binks actually is. Something positive I want to point out is the costume design.

Deliver Us from Evil (2020) - A really solid thriller about a hitman trying to retire but first having to save his kid from an organ harvesting ring while being hunted by the sibling of the last gangster he killed. I loved some of the flamboyant outfits and was excited to find out the hitman hunting the protagonist is supposed to be non-binary in a way. I support enby rights and enby wrongs!

The Legend of Tomiris (2019) - I love women! And this is a really important story to tell! And it's a well-made film. HOWEVER it did not need to be 2.5h long. It did not even need to be 2h long. I'm sure you could have edited it down to a comfortable 90 minutes. Also, The entire film is entirely grey and brown (with a liiittle bit of an earthy red). The length and extremely low-contrast coloring made it impossible for me to stay concentrated although I really wanted to like it. It would have just taken a little editing to turn this into a really good movie instead of boring and eye-straining.