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mochifiction · 3 months ago

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I Saw Transformers One Early Last Week. Let’s Talk About It!!! (SPOILER FREE)

EXPECTATIONS

I’m going to be honest, I had very very low expectations for this movie for a multitude of reasons. The first was the cast, particularly choosing celebrity hires instead of professional voice actors for a franchise where dialogue delivery means SO MUCH historically and the present. I like Chris Hemsworth, I do, but I am so attached to Orion Pax that I did NOT see him as someone fit for the role. I was also afraid of it becoming a WFC situation where the VA tries TOO HARD to be Peter Cullen. I am also a huge fan of Elita One, and Scarlett Johansson was not my first choice by any means. The one thing giving me hope was the fact that Scarlett and Chris interact SO WELL in their films together and in press releases and they do give off that Orion and Elita energy sometimes. Regardless, I was skeptical.

Now for the big thing: I was very nervous how they were going to handle the politics and the buildup that leads to Megatronus and Orion’s separation. It is no secret that Pre-War Cybertron in many continuities begins with a very corrupt and fascist Senate. Corrupted Senators, capitalistic manipulation and unethical abuse, dehumanization, corporal punishment, you name it, Cybertron had it. The concepts of functionalism, shadowplay, mnemosurgery, and empurata also come to mind. It is also no secret that the United States is on the brink of total fascism. A lot of Pre-War Cybertron’s themes, particularly the Decepticon cause in its early days as a movement, emphasized the elimination of the oppressive regime and reconstruction with an end to the very infrastructure that caused class division and brutalization of Cybertronian bodies. Not only this, but Megatronus and Orion’s schism often comes because of class, particularly privilege and lack thereof, which is something that often happens in revolution. Those with more privilege often think that reform can happen underneath the system that looms over them, just with a switching of a guard and elimination of a few policies. They are often ones who partook in and benefitted from the system by birth or for the sake of survival. Those who come from the lower classes want to burn the entire system down, understanding in its entirety that its very infrastructure is unstable and is not sustainable, no matter who is in power. Examples of this divide despite deep friendship and similar ideas is Andres Bonifacio and Jose Rizal of the Philippines (as a Filipino). Orion, in most cases coming from a privileged background, saw hope in simple reform after extracting the corrupt portions of the federal structure. Megatronus, who fought his whole life to be deemed as sentient, understood that the entire system was diseased and could not go on. It would just eventually continue its horrid practices. I can go on a tangent about this, as someone who studies and writes on anti-colonialism, but that’s another post for another day. My concern based on the trailers was that it would address NONE of that and there would be some watered down conflict that removed the nuances and political passion behind a lot of other continuities. The trailers, to me, were not giving me enough proof that it would be handled correctly.

Initial Experience

My theater was filled with mostly adults of various ages who were fans of different continuities. Some people were even talking about how they thought the movie was going to suck, including me with my dad, who has been a fan since G1 in the 80s and was going in blind. However, throughout the entire film, the whole theater was laughing, gasping, cheering, clapping, and screaming. Afterwards, there were people who were literally talking about how it was the movie they’d been waiting for after years of disappointment. Someone literally shouted when leaving the theater that he was so excited for September when everyone else could see it. My dad, who has not been a fan of recent Transformers material, talked nonstop about how much he loved it. Me personally, I was BRIMMING with excitement afterwards, which is huge given that I was ready to criticize the movie’s every move. Let me get into why- note this is SPOILER FREE.

Orion Pax

Believe it or not, I really liked TF1’s Orion. He was witty, had the snark of Aligned Orion, and clearly had a goal in mind: to entirely shift the status quo by breaking the class distinction. He was extremely optimistic like most versions, something that is often criticized in the fanbase, and is also criticized in the film. However, the qualities that G1 created and the Bayverse destroyed were THERE. Orion was a DORK. He was KIND. He CARED for people deeply, even if they weren’t necessarily thinking about him. He was a KNOWN PROBLEM-SOLVER. His intelligence is noted MULTIPLE times. He really is authentically Orion. I’ll do a more in-depth analysis in September.

Megatronus/ D-16

Now, THIS MAN WAS AMAZING. I am so used to the source of his anger being solely lower class-based oppression amongst other things relating to that. The film offered another option, which I will not disclose, but I thought it was a wonderful addition. I will keep my mouth shut about D-16’s personality in this film because it’s a secret, but just know this new take on Megatronus was a bit refreshing and gives new material for both fan continuity writers and fanfic writers.

Elita

I was honestly scared to see how they would portray Elita, especially with their track record of solely making her Optimus’s love interest and killing her off. I also was afraid that they would turn her into a white feminism caricature, which I can go into depth about for clarification if anyone needs it. However, the writers take feminism for Elita and take a much more in-depth route. I found her well done. She was giving mother in this film, absolutely brilliant. There will be an analysis on her as well in September, especially since they have so much intended room for her.

Worldbuilding and Additional Characters

I think that with about an hour and a half, it would have been SO HARD to create an entire world of deep political brutality and nuance like the comics directly. So, I think the writers created a framework that was good enough to convey the fascist undertones of Cybertron while also leaving so many avenues to explore and elaborate on for future films, whether they be prequels or sequels. Some characters were added in with a bit of context, but no in-depth explanations. While I would normally say that’s a downside, I think that it was actually really smart on their part. If you tried to add all of these complex stories from the comics in an hour and a half film combined with everything else, it would have likely been underdeveloped and left more questions and holes than answers. By removing that, I think that it was a smart move to expand on in their own time and with good pacing. Besides, the presence of some characters was very enjoyable and kept the audience I was with wanting more from them. Not in a “there wasn’t enough of them” way at all, but instead a “they were so cool in the short time they were here I need more now” way. Everyone in this continuity gets a new and different start. I honestly think it would give fan continuity writers motivation to continue what they’re doing, now that basic and consistent pre-war plot lines have been redone. I think for how long the movie is, they did a great job.

Additional Thoughts

I think that everything was pretty well done. The pacing was especially important, given we were supposed to witness a buildup in such a devastating “divorce”. That isn’t done lightly, and they made sure that they built it up enough to where the final blow was devastating. It was SO DEVASTATING that people in my theater were gasping left and right. The comedy was well done, as someone who hates poorly-written jokes for laughs. It fit into the characters’ personalities well, that’s what made it work well. It didn’t feel forced because that’s just how that particular character is. I also think that, as a fandom, sometimes we get too wrapped up in very specific characterizations of these individuals to the point where we refuse new ideas. I was extremely guilty of this. However, this film was truly made by someone that loved the franchise and knew exactly what the fans wanted. Brian Tyler, who did the score for TFP, also doing the score for this film was proof of that (as someone who absolutely ADORES film scores as a musician) There was a good amount of brutality within the rating of the film, so bayverse fans who are itching for something shockingly horrible are in for a surprise. I also think that it knew its boundaries well and moved not to push them while also being considerate of certain audiences who may be a bit younger. It was a good restart, especially for animated Transformers films, and I think that they can really build it into something great. This was a very sound foundation and I was not disappointed.

ALSO, THERE IS A MID AND POST-CREDIT SCENE SO DON’T LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

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rtfics · 3 months ago

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Winona Ryder Still Ships Beetlejuice & Lydia, "He's Endgame for Me"

Beetlejuice 2 star Winona Ryder explains why she ships Lydia Deetz and Beetlejuice, nearly 40 years after the original film.

Via ComicBook Movies:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is already a major cinematic milestone, just for finally giving fans a sequel to Tim Burton's 1988 cult classic. It's even more of a milestone that just about every major star of the original film went on to have a long-lasting career in film and/or television – to the point that almost every surviving member of the original cast was still around to return for the sequel.

Many things distinguish the original Beetlejuice as a cult film – most of it due to the one-of-a-kind imagination of Tim Burton. That includes a (now-questionable) subplot that saw a psychotic and malevolent ghost (Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice) try and wed an emotionally vulnerable teenage Goth girl Winona Ryder's Lydia Deetz).

However, when ComicBook sat down to interview the cast of Beetlejuice 2, Winona Ryder explained how real-life times and circumstances influenced the story of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. In that same conversation, she also revealed that she still keeps a flame of hope burning for Lydia and Beetlejuice's relationship, nearly 40 years later:

"[Tim] he was sort of doing it with everyone, but it very sort of top secret: I would go over to his house and like we would talk, and he'd always say 'Life happens! And you find yourself and you're older...' [It's] sort of I think a lot of what he's [Tim Burton] gone through in his life... And everyone evolves – except for maybe Beetlejuice maybe [laughs]... He's like endgame for me. I totally want them [Beetlejuice and Lydia] to be truly together! It's [makes a gesture indicating "crazy"] I know, but..."

Only time will tell if Ryder dropped any kind of SPOILER with that statement: The trailers for Beetlejuice 2 have at least hinted that Beetlejuice could be making another play to secure Lydia (or her daughter, Astrid) as his bride. Of course, that won't go over well with Beetlejuice's ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) – but it's not unthinkable that by the end of the film, Lydia may have to finally make the sacrifice she side-stepped in the first film, and actually go through with that ghostly wedding.

*a HEM*

"He's like endgame for me. I totally want them [Beetlejuice and Lydia] to be truly together!"

Hey, antis! Are you going to go after Winona Ryder now? Are you going to threaten her with rape and doxxing and killing her pets?

The ones who say that if you see a Beetlebabe at the movie theater you'll punch her, are you going to find Winona and hit her?

#beetlebabes #beetlejuice beetlejuice #beetlejuice #beetlejuice & lydia #beej x lyds #winona ryder #lydia deetz #beetlejuice 2 #Winona Ryder is a Beetlebabe #michael keaton #beetlejuice lydia

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five-hxrgreeves · 2 years ago

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Not Like Quill

PAIRING: adam warlock & fem! quill’s sister!reader

WC: 2.5k (longer than I intended, oof!)

SUMMARY: after your half-brother and half-sister leave, you’re left to fill in Peter’s shoes on the Guardian team. Unfortunately, Rocket can only see the faults where you lack the qualities that his best friend has. Luckily, though, a certain golden boy is always there to cheer you up.

WARNINGS: slight gotg three spoilers, fluff, angst if you squint.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: so this is my first official one shot AND first time writing for GOTG (hopefully I did a good job.) I saw GOTG3 in the theaters almost a week ago and WOW, was I surprised by Adam!! (I make it a point to not watch trailers to avoid spoilers.) I liked Will in The Dawn Treader but I haven’t seen any of his other movies since they’re not genres I usually watch, but I have been SLEEPING on this man!! I’m now obsessed with Gally (I’ve never even seen TMR but I’ve now read a ton of FFs) and, of course, Adam. So, here’s a one-shot :)

I know that Peter gave Rocket his Zune but in this scenario he gave it to you, his other half-sister. You do have powers but they’re not really mentioned here; if anyone is interested I can make a sequel/prequel.

Part 0 , Part 2

The repairs to Knowhere were going well— or at least as well as could be expected with leaders who bickered as much as the remaining Guardians. Peter and Mantis had left the planet a few weeks ago, leaving everyone quite sad at their departure. But, there were things to do so those that remained moved on as best they could in order help out. You, however, as Peter’s half-sister, had been hit harder by their departures than the others. Mantis and Peter were the only family you had, especially since the group had killed your father (not that he’d been a good one, of course.) Sure, the other Guardians had become like family to you over the years, but they weren’t blood— but this is also the only reason why you decided to stay instead of going off on your own like your siblings.

To make matters worse, the only physical reminder that you had of your brother was his Zune, which he’d left to you since you’d always stolen it anyway. Almost every day since his departure you could be found with the Zune clipped to your belt with at least one— and often both— earbuds plugged in to drown out the world. You busied yourself with helping the rest of the population repair their homes, enjoying the physical work as it tired you out too much to think about your missing family. When you weren’t working, you were training, which is how you (more officially) met one of the newest members of the Guardians, Adam. It hadn’t been the best first meeting, but that was a story for another time.

You were grateful to him for saving your brother so after he apologized for almost killing you, you forgave him pretty easily. Since you wanted to fill up your free time as much as possible, you offered to help train him because although he had powers, he’d barely been a match for the Guardians during the initial fight. You became close because of this and you found that you enjoyed his myriad of questions. You made sure to always be patient when answering him since you knew that the other Guardians were either too busy or would snap at him.

However, that was about the only good thing that had happened to you since the defeat of the High Evolutionary. The only time you really saw Rocket, Groot, Drax or Nebula was when you helped out around the headquarters or went on a mission, and even that wasn’t the same as it used to be. Rocket was a very different leader than Peter; he was, well, smarter, so that was good, but he had yet to acquire any sort of nurturing or encouraging attitude. When they trained as a team to get used to each other (as they had also added Kraglin and Viola to the group), Rocket would veer towards critical rather than critiquing.

“No, on your left, you idiot! Your other left!”

“You call that aim? Blurp could hit the target better than you!”

And, lastly, “that’s not how Quill would do it!”

Ouch. That one was always aimed at you, for anything Rocket could criticize you for. It didn’t have to just be training; sometimes he took it to ridiculous levels, either for the music you selected or the food you cooked. Anything you did, he compared you to your brother. And of course, you loved Peter; along with the other Guardians, he had saved you and Mantis from Ego and for that alone you would love him, but he had left you terribly big shoes to fill and you weren’t even the leader. You tried to hide how much Rocket’s words affected you— usually by keeping your Zune close at hand to drown him out, but they did get you down.

Even worse was his nickname for you. Although it had once been endearing, “little Quill” now felt like more of an insult— as if he knew you could never measure up to Peter. You never confronted him about this since you knew Rocket had a barbed tongue, but after being abandoned by your siblings, his words seemed to hit you harder than before. So, you kept your distance from him as best you could and tolerated it when you couldn’t.

On this particular day, you had decided to make chocolate chip cookies, which Peter had taught you to make on the first ‘Christmas’ that you’d been with the Guardians. You were really missing your brother so you plugged in your earbuds and started on the familiar recipe. In this instance, the kitchen that you were using was communal, so it was no surprise that someone else walked in on you as you baked. You didn’t notice at first, too lost in the music of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Adam had come into the kitchen after following the sweet scent that had caught his attention. He smiled a little at the sight of you standing at the counter, elbow-deep in. . . something. It was golden in color, although lighter than his skin, and flecked with black. He waved to get your attention but as usual, you were oblivious to your surroundings (and you were a fighter?) so he made his way over to you and tapped you on the shoulder.

Feeling the presence of another person, you turned around to see who it was— if it was anyone worth talking to— and when you saw that it was the (literal) golden boy, you sent him a smile and pulled one earbud out of your ear. “Hey, Adam.”

“Hi,” he replied you, still a little uncertain with less formal greetings. “What are you making? It smells really good.”

“Chocolate chip cookies,” you said. “Peter taught me how to make them. Do you want to try some?”

He looked at what was in the bowl curiously. “What does it taste like?”

“It’s sweet. If you liked the smell I’m sure you’d like the taste. Watch,” you instructed. Then you carefully picked up a small bit that had a chocolate chip in it before you at it. You closed your eyes and hummed at the delicious flavor.

Adam copied your action carefully, even going so far as to close his eyes and make the same sound— and then he repeated it more genuinely as he realized how good it was. You grinned at his reaction. “You like it, huh?” When he nodded, you added, “want to help? I’m almost at the fun part!”

“What’s that?”

“It’s where we make the cookies— this is just the batter,” you explained.

After you both washed your hands, you showed him how to form the batter into matching spheres and line them up on the baking tray. As you worked, you talked about the music you were listening to and even transferred your spare earbud to him so Adam could listen as well. Bohemian Rhapsody had become Starless by the band King Crimson. . . and of their better-known members, Adam Belew. You couldn’t help but find it amusing that Adam had the same name, and that one of the lines was “sundown dazzling day/gold through my eyes.”

As he finished forming one of the last cookies, Adam glanced up to see the hint of laughter in your expression. Although he didn’t know what was funny, he smiled back at you. For some reason that he didn’t understand, he was happy that you were happy; it was an emotion that you didn’t really seem to show that often, so the rare chance that he got to see it only made it more special. Your grin widened at you leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially: “now comes the fun part!”

He frowned with confusion. “I thought making the. . . cookies was the fun part,” he said slowly, trying out the new word.

“Sort of, but everyone knows the fun part is licking the bowl!” you exclaimed happily. “Like this.” You scraped some of the remaining batter together until it was big enough to eat before you popped it into your mouth. Together you made quick work of the remaining batter and then you put the bowl in the sink. You’d started the oven earlier, so it was ready for the tray.

After setting the timer, you made a face. “Now it’s time for the worst part: doing the dishes. Peter hated doing them so much that we usually just put them in the contamination chamber and chucked them out to space,” you explained with a giggle. “If anyone asked why we had to buy so many new dishes we just said that Peter was really clumsy.” You finished the story with a wistful look, remembering all the fun that you and your siblings had had before the Snap had ruined everything.

Adam wasn’t sure if doing the dishes was really that bad, but the happiness that had been present while making the cookies had slipped off your face, so he figured that it must be an arduous task. Wanting to spare you the discomfort, he offered: “I can do them, if you want. You did most of the work anyway.”

His suggestion pulled you back to the present and you shook your head. “You don’t have to. Since this is your first time having cookies you can just enjoy them. Next time you have to help,” you added playfully, covering up your sadness as you always did with humor— you learned that from your brother, after all.

The golden boy allowed a small smile at that, although he’d picked up on your habit. “I can wash and you can dry?”

You agreed, and soon the task was done. While you waited for the cookies to be finished you answered a few more of Adam’s questions. You found his curiosity refreshing after spending so much time with smart-ass, know-it-all teammates that wouldn’t know how to ask question if it slapped them in their face. (And yes, you did love your teammates— that’s why you could call them out on their stubbornness.)

The cookies were done about fifteen minutes later and you took them out to cool for another ten before you took one for yourself and one for Adam. You sat down next to him and bit into the warm dessert, closing your eyes again to enjoy it. As much as you liked the batter, the finished cookie was definitely better. Adam seemed to agree as he made the same sound of enjoyment from before, causing you to open your eyes and grin at him. “Good, huh?”

“Definitely,” he agreed, and he was finished with his cookie before you were done with yours.

You saw him eye the tray greedily, which caused you to laugh. “Go ahead, you can have another one.”

As he did so, the other members of the Guardians entered the room, apparently drawn by the same scent that Adam had smelled. Kraglin took his with a nod of thanks, stuffing one in his mouth as he left the room. Viola took one as curiously as Adam had, seeing as she’d never had a cookie either.

“You can take some to the other kids,” you told her— you’d made a double batch since they were pretty popular, so there was plenty. She thanked you as well and took some extra for her friends.

Then, it was Rocket’s turn. After the rest of his reactions to whatever you did, you found yourself holding your breath as you waited for his opinion. It only took a moment before he pronounced: “not bad, Little Quill.” You perked up at that, eyes wide with hope that you had finally done something right— something that Peter couldn’t do better than you. But Rocket wasn’t done: “not like Quill’s, though.”

You slumped in your chair as he took a few extra, oblivious to the effect his words had on you— but Adam noticed. “I think hers are better than Peter’s,” he spoke up quietly.

“Sure, blondie. You ain’t never tried Quill’s though, so ya don’t have a comparison.”

“I don’t need to,” he insisted, glancing over at you. “I know they’re better.”

Rocket scoffed with disbelief but didn’t bother arguing the point (he knew he was right, anyway), and left the room without so much as a thank you. Adam glanced over at your defeated posture; you’d been so confident and happy moments before the other Guardians had come in, but now you seemed to shrink into yourself, as if Rocket’s careless words had physically hurt you. Normally your recovery time after such an incident would be fast so no one else could pick up on your feelings, but this was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back— if you couldn’t do cookies right, what hope did you have for anything else?

You suddenly felt a warm hand settle on top yours, which had been resting on the counter. You looked up sharply, surprised by the touch— you hadn’t been so much as hugged since Peter and Mantis had left. Adam’s expression was sympathetic, but there was a hint of anger in his golden eyes. “You’re not like Quill,” he said.

Unfortunately, you mistook his words after being so used to Rocket’s insults and looked away. You’d expected this sort of thing from him, not from Adam, and the blow hit you harder than anything Rocket had ever said. “I know,” you snapped, taking your hand away from his. “Thanks for the reminder.”

He gave you a confused look since he wasn’t sure what chord he’d struck to cause your reaction. It dawned on him quickly how his words could have been interpreted and he gently took your hand again as he repeated more firmly: “you’re not like Quill. You’re. . . there isn’t anything to compare. You’re not your brother— Rocket shouldn’t expect the same things from you that he did for Peter.” He hesitated for only moment before he added, “I can. . . talk to him, if you want.”

As he’d spoken, you realized you’d made a mistake and your initial thoughts had been right: Adam wouldn’t use your brother against you. You felt guilty for jumping to conclusions and gave him an apologetic look. Then, his words really sank in; a statement about how special your uniqueness was from someone whose society was literally carbon copies made your face heat up at the impact of his sentiment. You found that you couldn’t look him in the eyes and lowered your gaze to your still-connected hands. “I— thank you,” you said softly. “I just wish Rocket would see that. You don’t have to talk to him— I should be able to do that myself; I’ve been his teammate for longer, after all. But. . . I really appreciate it.”

His expression softened as he squeezed your hand, which inexplicably made your stomach roll nauseously (but in a good way, like when Peter would do loop-the-loops with Milano’s pod.) “Anytime, Little Quill.”

And just like that, “little Quill” went right back to being an endearing nickname.

#adam warlock #adam warlock x reader #adam warlock x y/n #adam warlock x you #will poulter x reader #will poulter #marvel x reader #will poulter imagine #gotg imagine #gotg v3 #guardians of the galaxy #adam warlock imagine #mcu fic #mcu x reader #adam warlock fluff #adam warlock fanfiction

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pascalcampion · 1 year ago

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Under the Boardwalk.

I was at Lightbox a few weeks ago and I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. ( hey Francis! We need to do lunch) He was laughing because he said that he had just seen a trailer for this thing I did some work on years ago. It took me a minute to realize he was talking about Under the Boardwalk. Movies do take a while to get done.

Anytime I see a movie in a theater that doesn’t come from Pixar, Disney, Illumination or Dreamworks, I clap my hands in my mind. It is SO hard to get to the finish line. Each movie that you see is the result of a series of small miracles.

I did a couple months of work on it. I was think it was in preproduction at the time. It was called Jersey Crabs at the time and there were only three people on it. At least, I only met three.

There was Chris Zibach, Ericka Stewart and David Soren.

I had just come off of two rather long and hard productions and I was a bit burned out about Art direction, production design or just… design in general.

When I first got an email about this, I wasn’t sure. But I went over to Paramount to meet with all three of them.

And you know what? They were fantastic.

Ericka was the producer and she had this no nonsense approach. Tell me your price, I’ll tell you if we can do it, if not we’ll figure something out. Boom. Done. She cut to the chase and any time I had a question she would reply within the hour. Her feedback was always short and precise, and she was always encouraging. After I was gone, she emailed me a couple of times to follow up on this or that. She didn’t leave any loose ends AND, something that is absolutely remarkable in this industry, she would reply to emails. She didn’t simply reply when she needed something, but when I would ask her if I could send recommendations, or if there were any other projects going on, she would send me an email back. I think the longest it took her to reply was TWO days, which is incredible.

Chris Zibach. It wasn’t immediately clear what Chris’s role on this was. I knew he was an artist. I had met him a few years prior while visiting a friend at Dreamworks TV I think. He was quieter than Ericka. Not sure if he was shy or I was simply too aloof for him to talk to me. For whatever reason, when I saw him, I thought of Tim Burton. Maybe the genius in him? Not sure. Later, I learned he was the production designer. I was surprised because that is something I typically learn on the first meeting. I was also unsure of his role because I hadn’t seen any of his work before and he didn’t act like any of the production designers I had met before. He wasn’t bombastic or sure of himself. He wasn’t trying to win me over with his talent or past battlefield experiences. He was humble. Yes, I think that’s probably the right word. Humble. But at the time, I couldn’t figure out if it was humility or something else.

It became clear after the first few designs of his I’d seen and especially after I had done a sketch for a moment that I couldn’t quite picture. I wasn’t understanding what they were looking for and Chris did this thirty second sketch that was SO clear, SO readable and SO easy to work with, and I was. OH! Ok.. he’s the real deal.

I love Artists like him. I wish I had worked with him more actually.

And, David Soren, the director

That was such an interesting meeting.

You know how sometimes you are hesitating on a project and you meet the team and all of a sudden it all flips? That’s how it was for this. I didn’t know what this story was based on, I didn’t find crabs particularly interesting, and the story, as it was pitched, wasn’t what I gravitate toward.

But David, wow. He had this energy in the meeting, this confidence. He was good at talking but he could listen AND hear you. He could also answer questions. Any type of question regarding the art, the story, the schedule, the planning. I didn’t know much about him but I came away very impressed.

I gave it a shot and now, I feel I was lucky to have been asked because, even if I was only on this for a very short while, it was one of those candy like work experiences. All good, nothing bad. Short and sweet and really fun.

There was a moment when I was drawing this big long scene that was supposed to be in the middle of a battle and I stopped, look at it and laughed on the inside because I had just realized I was being paid to do this and THIS was SO much fun.

I don’t know what my job was, what I was supposed to bring to the project. I didn’t understand why they had me do these designs when Chris’s work was so different and so unique already, but all three did a good job at quieting those thoughts.

I was working from home and they were on the lot. If I remember correctly, they would send me emails to broadly tell me “ There is a flood there, there is a battle there, there is club, a hotel, etc etc” and I would just do some images on what I thought it could be.

They already had some character designs, and Chris had done a few images, so I wasn’t totally going from nothing.

Each time I would send a set of images, I would get an email back the same day or the next day from either Ericka or David telling me something nice. Never from Chris though. I always wondered why but now I am realizing it was because he was too busy getting the whole thing off the ground.

I would get notes sometimes but not very often. Chris would do little drawers or notes on my images and, again, they were always minimal except for that one set piece and always clear.

I don’t know what the movie is like. I was still working on this when I started with the Peanuts Special which would occupy my life for the next three and a half years.

But I do know that I remember this as a very fun, loving and carefree work experience, which have not come around very often in my career.

Thank you Ericka, Chris and David.

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#undertheboardwalk paramount pascalcampion

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buffyfan145 · 7 months ago

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About to go on a little rant here but you can tell most WWE fans don't watch AEW as so many last night bashed AEW for not promoting "The Iron Claw" as WWE actually had ads during their broadcast of "Smackdown" for the movie now being on Max. Now, I love that WWE is finally promoting the movie as they didn't at all when it was in theaters. However, AEW actually promoted the movie back in December when it was first released. They even had Kevin and his sons Marshall and Ross on there, and the sons actually have had multiple AEW and ROH matches (the most recent in February in a trios match with Dustin Rhodes). AEW also talked about the movie during the commentary for those matches, they showed the trailer multiple times during the ad breaks, mentioned how MJF and Ryan Nemeth were in the movie, the various wrestlers at AEW posted online when they saw the movie, and even when Will Ospreay fully joined AEW a lot of us fans realized and posted across social media how he and Harris Dickinson could pass for brothers, especially how Harris looked as David but also when they were both young starting out in wrestling & acting. Both companies should be promoting the movie as it was amazing and all wrestling fans should watch it. But to say that AEW didn't isn't true at all. Plus, it get some being baffled that AEW didn't show ads this past Wednesday during "Dynamite" about the movie being on Max, which is owned by WBD just like TNT/TBS is, but I actually expect it tonight during "Collision/Rampage" since the movie just only showed up on Max yesterday. Just seems it's being used as another excuse to bash AEW when again now both companies have promoted the movie now.

#aew #the iron claw #the von erichs #wwe #kevin von erich #marshall von erich #ross von erich #david von erich #kerry von erich #mike von erich #mjf #maxwell jacob friedman #ryan nemeth #harris dickinson #will ospreay #wrestling

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mariacallous · 4 months ago

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Classical music lovers can debate for hours over which Mozart melody has made the biggest impact. Maybe the first movement of the “Jupiter” symphony, perhaps the Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute, or what about the “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” serenade? Those who know the great 18th-century Austrian composer only through the movies have an easier time of it—the sound they’ll remember best may not be music after all but the whinnying, immature, and disobedient laugh heard throughout Milos Forman’s masterpiece Amadeus.

Amadeus, commonly accepted to mean “beloved by God,” was not technically part of Mozart’s name. (He was baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, with Theophilus having a similar translation.) After his death, however, the moniker stuck as a way to venerate him. It’s perfect for the title of this movie, in which rival composer Antonio Salieri allows his jealousy over Mozart’s genius to build into a personal war against God. But expanding on some fudged truth is also in keeping with the spirit of the entire project, as the movie’s central conflict is almost entirely made up. (Even better, then, that the original trailer featured the tagline “Everything you’ve heard is true.”)

Based on a Tony-winning play by Peter Shaffer (inspired by a short 1830 play written by Alexander Pushkin, itself inspired by gossip that Salieri was somehow to blame for Mozart’s early death), Amadeus is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. As such, a new 4K restoration is screening in specialty theaters across North America in advance of a new Blu-ray release. This, plus an eventual availability on streaming, is the first time the version that people originally saw back in 1984 will be available in years. (More on that in a bit.) An upcoming British television miniseries based on Shaffer’s play is in production currently, but we’re skeptical it will have the same magic.

The film’s story is told in flashback, with an old, institutionalized Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham) “confessing” how he murdered Mozart (Tom Hulce). We are then witness to how Salieri, court composer to Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), has his world turned upside down when Mozart bursts onto the scene. His musical instincts are on a level no mortal can comprehend and clearly, Salieri feels, handed down directly from above. But while Mozart’s work is divine, his demeanor is coarse and bratty, which turns Salieri’s understandable envy into an existential rage.

As the winner of eight Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, and best actor for Abraham’s Salieri, Amadeus’s legacy is secure, but any excuse to get more people to see this perfect film is a good one. I can personally report that not one, not two, but three millennial friends of mine came to this movie kind of dragging their feet, watching it only out of an obligation to check every Oscar winner off their list. Each one of them was blown away with just how funny and poignant and entertaining it was.

“I thought this would be boring, not bitchy!” one pal beamed after a recent screening I hosted with Paul Zaentz at New York’s Paris Theater. That energetic spark is evident in the script but catches fire in the movie thanks to its director. Forman’s resumé is one of the best from the 20th century, but Amadeus is something special, not just because it is about a maverick artist who has to do things his way (a recurring theme in both Forman’s life and work) but because the expatriate who fled communist-era Czechoslovakia to follow his calling was able to shoot the movie in Prague and Kromeriz. As Mozart cackled in the face of propriety, so Forman was able to poke his thumb in the eyes of those who had previously censored him.

Forman was born in the town of Caslav in 1932. Both of his parents died in Nazi concentration camps. He attended a school for war orphans where he befriended future filmmaker Ivan Passer and playwright-turned-politician Vaclav Havel. He began working on documentary crews and eventually made short films of his own that blended fact and fiction, getting better material from non-actors than trained professionals. His first feature, Black Peter (1964), focused on a timid teenager, and its follow-up, Loves of a Blonde (1965), was a similarly naturalistic look at awkward romance. Its deadpan, somewhat bleak style ran counter to the splashy films coming out of Italy and France at the time. Both films are early entries to what became known as the Czech New Wave, leading to Forman’s first bona fide masterpiece, The Firemen’s Ball (1967).

While The Firemen’s Ball—Forman’s first film in color—was understood to be a grand metaphor for the inefficiency of the political system at the time, one doesn’t have to know a damn thing about Eastern Bloc history to respect it as an iconoclastic farce not dissimilar from something like South Park. It was immediately banned in Czechoslovakia, but it and Loves of a Blonde were both nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars.

Forman was in France raising funds for his next project during the Soviet invasion of Prague in August 1968. He was fired from his Czech production company and ended up emigrating to the United States. His first Hollywood film was the 1971 counterculture farce Taking Off (in which square, bourgeois parents try to get groovy with their kids, to embarrassing effect), which led to one of the most influential movies of the 1970s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

After the anti-authoritarian Cuckoo’s Nest—which won five Oscars, including best picture, best director, best actor for Jack Nicholson, and best actress for Louise Fletcher—came his adaptations of the musical Hair (1979) and E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime (1981). With that all under his belt and his hands on the rights to Schaffer’s hot play Amadeus, Forman went back to Prague in triumph.

Amadeus is set mostly in Vienna; still, Prague, which was generally left intact after World War II, certainly looks good on camera. And Prague was also an important city for Mozart. He made two lengthy visits there and found a very welcoming audience. Indeed, he wrote Don Giovanni with the intention of premiering the opera in Prague, which he did at the Estates Theatre in 1787. And it was at the Estates Theatre where Forman filmed many of the movie’s best scenes—ones of Mozart conducting opera, filmed with the alacrity and exuberance normally reserved for an action-adventure sequence. (The use of pyrotechnics in the Don Giovanni scenes caused a lot of worry on set, what with the old theater’s interior being mostly wood.)

Shooting a Hollywood movie behind the Iron Curtain naturally had some hardships. (Fruit and fresh vegetables, rarities at the time, needed to be trucked in from West Germany.) Given Forman’s background, the eyes of the state were on them. During that recent New York screening, Zaentz, who worked as a production coordinator on the project and is also the nephew of film producer Saul Zaentz, said secret police were essentially hands-off, except for one time. During off-hours, some members of the crew would hang out and watch VHS tapes of Hollywood movies and were unaware that some of those titles had been banned. The company was soon requested to keep to only approved films.

Perhaps more poignant was when they were shooting on the Fourth of July during one of the opera scenes. The Czech crew surprised Forman and the actors during one take. Expecting to hear the music of Mozart play back from a PA system, some well-wishers instead cued up “The Star-Spangled Banner” while others unfurled an enormous American flag. Everyone stood up and sang along, except, according to Forman, the 30 or so secret police who had been dispersed among the extras.

One can easily read the moment as a victory for Forman. Alas, Mozart’s fate was a little different. Though no one knows for sure why he died at the young age of 35—other than the fact that every case of the sniffles had graver implications back in 1791—the movie shows how Mozart’s queasiness with authority shaped him as a hand-to-mouth freelancer and how his lack of a permanent position and persistent money woes were bad for his health. After Amadeus, Forman continued to make movies about troubled-yet-visionary mavericks: Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999), Francisco Goya in Goya’s Ghosts (2006), and, um, Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).

As for the Salieri yarn? There’s no historical evidence to suggest that the two composers weren’t just colleagues. (It’s true that Mozart did have a paranoid streak and maybe did think that “the Italians” at court had it in for him.) Salieri certainly did not live in chastity out of some pledge to God in exchange for musical inspiration. Indeed, he had eight children. He was also plenty famous at the time of his death and, later in life, was a tutor to Mozart’s youngest son. Nevertheless, no one should let reality get in the way of watching this incredible movie.

This 40th anniversary rerelease is especially exciting for old-school Amadeus-heads as it restores the 160-minute theatrical cut. All one can find out there now is the “director’s cut,” which is 20 minutes longer. As Zaentz explained to me, that version came out in 2002 during the first DVD wave, when home-video distributors were loading up packages with deleted scenes. Rather than have isolated bonus chapters, Forman decided to just release the longer version instead, though never really considered it the definitive cut. However, over time it became the only version in circulation.

While the longer version has a few splendid moments (some backstage zings with Christine Ebersole as Caterina Cavalieri), it also contains one scene that I am happy to see once again excised. In it, Salieri goes a wee bit too far and humiliates Mozart’s wife, Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge). It’s important for Salieri to be a scheming twerp but also someone who still holds your sympathy. The controversial scene only found in the director’s cut pushes him too far into the role of villain.

So sometimes edits are important! It is said that Mozart never revised, that he took dictation from God. As with so much else about the man, the truth is a little different.

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paintbrushnebula · 6 months ago

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I think now that Tangled the Series has been over for the better part of four years now, what makes me sad the most is that there were enough pieces left behind by the film to construct a compelling narrative for a strong continuation of Rapunzel and Eugene's story that wouldn't have required all this "bigger and more epic" stuff that the series made up in order to be interesting.

And you can have big epic magical stuff, that's fine! I LOVE epic large-scale stories! But there's a difference between expanding your world by further developing its elements and themes, and just scaling up the adventure tenfold to be “bigger and better”—which is what I feel that the series did in the end.

It’s funny, because I was already a fan of Tangled when I was little. I still remember being 7 years old sitting in that theater with my sister, actually breathless and in shock when Eugene drew his last breath. I had never seen a kids movie where a lead character dies.

(and I know that sounds absurd because there were Disney films before where a lead character dies and comes back XD look I was 7 and my parents weren’t people who knew many pop culture American movies at the time so I didn’t watch much that wasn’t Disney Channel or VHS films that my Grandma owned. To this day I’m still kind of trying to catch up on film culture XD)

Sorry to get off track but what I’m trying to say is, I was there when the series was announced and they revealed that promo art back in 2016, I saw the 30 second promo trailer, I watched “Wind in my Hair” when it was released on Youtube in February 2017 the morning before school and I was hyped for the rest of the day, and I remember watching Before Ever After’s premiere with my sister and was FLOORED that it was good??!! Like actually was gonna have a serialized overarching story and everything! God I’ll never forget Eugene’s verse where he pulls out that ring. I’ll never forget Rapunzel’s face when he gives her his proposal speech (before it went downhill that is), and I’ll always forget the last 25 minutes that take place after Rapunzel’s hair grows back because its low-key pretty heckin boring!

What hyped me was the relationship stuff, Rapunzel’s PTSD, the parent drama, everything that those first 30 minutes had that made me THINK we were in for an emotional story about Rapunzel’s life after the tower, I thought we’d get to see in detail how she’s gonna to grapple with her trauma, her new life, her new responsibilities, her new relationships, all that. And some of the series was that, a very small “some.” Not enough by any means for me lol

Because like, wouldn’t that have been a more interesting story to tell than the one we got? Ultimately Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure doesn’t feel like a continuation of Rapunzel’s story, it’s more like a Brand New Adventure that happens star Rapunzel and Eugene Fitzherbert. I know that sounds weird and I might not be making much sense here but, did the story of a girl who stops a plague of darkness and fights a transdimensional demon blueberry ghost girl and has to reconcile with her “step-sister” HAVE to be about Rapunzel? Also like, just. NOTICE how that summation of the story of the series DOESNT involve Eugene in some way. You know. The hecking CO-LEAD of the film this series is based on.

And like, there was so much story to be told with Rapunzel and Eugene WITHOUT the blueberry Disney Junior-giving ghost girl, the poorly written heavily contrived step-sister conflict, AND the big plague of darkness nonsense. Rapunzel and Eugene are two VERY tragic individuals. DO SOMETHING WITH THEM, IOUHWO4Y2IBBU3FN3FI

I’ll admit that I was more attached to the series than I was to the movie while it was airing, and even for like 2 years after it was over. I was younger and more immature and the big stakes and fresh new characters and magical adventures captivated me more than the focused drama of the movie. But now that I’m older, I realize that I resonate more with Rapunzel in the movie. NOT in any concerning “do you need help?” Kind of ways, just that I find myself thinking the way she thought, since I’m now around the age she was in the movie. The way I think about my future, my self esteem etc. I relate to how she feels inexperienced and fresh in the world despite being a young adult, because she hasn’t done any of those “big things” yet. And you wonder “how am I gonna do those big things? When do they happen? Will I know what to do when they happen?” I get it, Rapunzel, I really do.

The series is kinda an afterthought to me now I guess. I still appreciate that it exists and I’m so happy it happened. In the beginning, it didn’t feel real when it was happening. Like a dream honestly. And like, Tangled the Series is literally 80% the reason I wanted to write fiction, so I’ll always be grateful for it.

But holy kriff is the movie so much better heeheeeeeeeeee

#brushneb says stuff #tangled #tangled the series #tangled rapunzel #rapunzel #eugene fitzherbert #tangled eugene #rapunzels tangled adventure #disney

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wholoveseggs · 9 months ago

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Hi this request will probably be a bit different but I’m hoping you’re ok with it

I’m a trans guy and I was wondering if you could do a Elijah smut with a he/him pronoun y/n? If you don’t want to do mlm smut then maybe just change pronouns?

For the actual fic

You’re first time and Elijah is like really sweet with u but also dominant lots of good boy and praise n stuff

Tyyy

Perfect

18+ ---- {Masterlist} {Tag-List}

After a date with Elijah, you want to take things to the next level and he makes you feel like the only boy in the world.

♡♡ Thanks for the request @elijahmikaelsonsboy ! this was a fun challenge and I hope it's what you wanted (I truly believe that Elijah is a pansexual king... he had chemistry with Damon~) ♡♡

2.8k words - Warnings: pure smut no plot, transmale!reader, virgin!reader, sprinkle of dom!elijah, blowjob, lots of praise...

You adjusted your shirt and tie in the mirror, smoothing out your hair for the fourth time. There was this piece that just wouldn't stay down no matter what you did. You wondered how Elijah managed to never have a hair out of place, you made a mental note to ask him.

It was finally here, the night you were going to tell him. The night you would confess that you loved him. The plan was to tell him after your date... Or maybe during. You weren't sure. He had said it was just a casual date, nothing fancy. But you wanted to impress him, so you made sure there wasn't a single wrinkle found on the dress shirt and pants you were wearing. Your tie was a perfect knot, the shoes you wore had not a scuff on them.

He arrived at your door looking amazing as always. His hair was perfectly styled, his suit a perfect fit, and the way his dark eyes pierced through yours... It made you weak in the knees. He smiled and offered you his arm, kissing your cheek. "You look very handsome tonight."

You smiled back, kissing him. "Thank you. You look very handsome yourself."

You spent most of the ride there making idle chit chat, just talking about each other's days and such. You were so happy to have him in your life, sometimes you couldn't believe how lucky you were.

When you met him you had made the assumption that he was only interested in women. You had no idea that he was pansexual until he kissed you. You were surprised, of course, but pleasantly so. After that, he had been taking you on dates every other week, and you fell more and more in love with him as time went on.

You were ready to take things to the next level, but you were nervous about it. You had never gone all the way with anyone before, and the last thing you wanted was for it to be disappointing for him.

It didn't help that he was so much more experienced than you. You had discussed it one night while cuddling, and he said it wasn't a big deal. You felt better after that, but you still worried.

Tonight he took you to go see a movie, it was one of those big blockbuster films that was a long awaited sequel. You had seen the trailer and were excited, and when you saw the posters and the crowd at the theater you got even more excited.

It was the perfect date. You couldn't focus on the movie, however, because your mind was racing with the possibility of having sex for the first time. You were nervous about a number of things, him seeing your body, what it would feel like and how you would react, not being any good at it. The list went on and on.

After the movie, you drove to his place and ordered some takeout. You tried to keep a conversation going, but you kept spacing out. He noticed your lack of interest in the conversation and placed a hand over yours, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Are you okay?"

You smiled at him and squeezed his hand back. "I'm fine. Sorry I'm being quiet. Just thinking."

He leaned over and kissed your forehead. "That's alright. What is on your mind?"

You leaned in and kissed him, gently. He responded in kind, moving his lips against yours. He pulled away, brushing his fingers along your cheek.

"I've just been thinking a lot lately. About us." You whispered, looking into his eyes.

"Thinking about us, huh? Well, I'm all ears." He gave you another quick kiss, casually playing with your tie.

You swallowed hard, "you know how I've never..?"

He nodded. "I do."

"I want to."

He gave you a gentle smile, rubbing his hand up and down your arm. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

He kissed your neck. "Well, I am always up for the task." He chuckled

You nodded, blushing a bit as he stood and took your hand, leading you upstairs. He opened his bedroom door and pulled you inside, kissing you softly. He knew how nervous you were, and he didn't want to rush you.

He sat on the bed and pulled you onto his lap, his hands on your hips. You draped your arms over his shoulders and pressed your lips to his, closing your eyes.

Elijah began to undo your tie, then the top two buttons of your shirt. He trailed kisses from your mouth to your jaw and then down to your neck, pausing at the juncture of your shoulder. He gently scraped his teeth across your skin and you gasped, clutching his shoulders.

"You smell nice, is that my cologne?" he asked, pressing his lips to your throat.

"It is," you breathed, running a hand through his hair. "I may have borrowed some."

"Mmhm." He kissed you again, his tongue slipping past your lips.

You let him control the kiss, melting into him as his tongue explored your mouth. Your tongues slid together, fighting for dominance. He pulled back, panting.

He kissed your cheek, moving his hands up your sides and onto your chest. He slipped his hands inside your shirt, his thumbs grazing over your nipples.

"Is this okay?"

You nodded, biting your lip.

"Use your words, handsome,”

"Y-yes." You managed to get out.

He pinched one of your nipples and you gasped, gripping his shirt.

"That's my good boy." He purred.

He took your shirt off and tossed it onto the floor. He ran his fingers down your sides, tracing the outline of your ribs.

He pressed his mouth to one of your nipples, swirling his tongue around the hardening nub. You gripped his hair, arching your back.

"So sensitive," he murmured.

He moved to the other nipple, sucking on it until you were squirming in his lap. You could feel him growing hard beneath you, and you blushed.

He lifted his head and smirked. "Feels good, huh?"

"Yeah." You whispered, blushing more.

"You're so cute when you blush." He grinned, pressing his lips to yours again.

He undid your belt, and unbuttoned and unzipped your pants. Reaching inside, he touched you through your underwear.

"Oh, someone's already so wet." He chuckled, rubbing his thumb over the damp fabric.

You bit your lip, grinding into his hand. His hands felt so good on you, his thumb sliding across your clit with just the right amount of pressure.

He pulled your pants and underwear down for better access. You moaned at the feeling of his fingers stroking you, teasing your entrance.

"Look at you, all worked up and we've barely even started." He whispered.

He pulled his hand away, and you groaned in frustration. You tugged on his tie, pulling him in for a kiss. He chuckled and bit down gently on your lip.

"Patience, mister."

You ignored him and began to unbutton his shirt, running your fingers over his bare chest. Your fingers moving through his soft chest hair.

"Can I touch you a little bit?" You asked shyly, running your fingers down his abs.

"Of course."

You unbuttoned his pants and tugged them down, freeing his erection. It was big, and the thought of it filling you up was exciting and scary at the same time. You stroked him, wrapping your fingers around the shaft and pumping slowly.

"Mmm." He groaned, leaning his head back.

You continued stroking him, rubbing your thumb across the tip. He moaned, thrusting his hips up.

You moved off his lap and onto your knees in front of him, you never had done this before, but you wanted to make him feel good. You looked up at him, and he smiled down at you.

"You don't have to." He whispered, running a hand through your hair, messing it up a bit.

You smiled, kissing the head of his cock. You took the tip into your mouth, swirling your tongue around it.

"Show me how?" You asked, blushing a bit.

He guided you, placing his hand on the back of your head. "Suck on the tip. Lick the underside. Use your tongue. You can use your hands, too."

You did as he instructed, taking him in as far as you could without gagging. Your cheeks felt hot, and you could feel yourself getting wetter.

"That's it, baby. You're doing so good." He whispered.

You closed your eyes and bobbed your head, taking him deeper with every movement. He groaned, tugging on your hair.

The sounds he was making were turning you on, and you felt yourself clench.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to cum."

You pulled back, releasing his cock with a pop. "Will you to cum in my mouth?"

A flash of something dark and dangerous crossed his face, he gave you a crooked smile and his voice dropped lower, "aren't you a dirty boy,"

You blushed, looking down at his cock. It was shiny with your saliva, and was leaking precum. You leaned forward and licked it, lapping up his release.

He groaned, and pulled you back onto his lap, kissing you hungrily. His hands tore away your pants and underwear, leaving you naked and vulnerable. He gripped your hips and licked along your chest, biting on your nipples and then soothing the sting with his tongue.

You began to tremble a bit, knowing what the next step was. Elijah noticed and stopped, stroking your cheek.

"You okay?" He asked.

You nodded.

"Just nervous, that's all."

"I'll be gentle, I promise."

You kissed him again, grinding your hips down into his. He reached down and rubbed your clit in slow circles, making you moan.

"You don't have to be that gentle," you breathed, feeling lusty and wild.

He let out a soft hum, slipping a finger into you, watching your eyebrows arch up. He chuckled, the sound reverberating deep within his chest.

"You're so sensitive," he mused.

He began to pump his finger in and out, watching as your mouth fell open and your eyes closed.

"I bet I could make you cum like this, just with my fingers," he mused, slipping another finger inside.

"Mmm." You moaned, rolling your hips.

"Or maybe with my tongue," he murmured, leaning in to press his lips to your neck.

"Elijah," you breathed, "stop teasing me."

He chuckled. "But it's so much fun," he said, punctuating his words with a particularly hard thrust of his fingers.

You groaned, bucking your hips. He smirked, pressing his lips to yours. He suddenly flipped you over, pinning you down with his body, and then his hand was between your legs, his fingers pumping in and out of you, his thumb rubbing slow circles against your sensitive nub.

He let out a low growl, leaning in to nip at your ear. "Naughty boy, making a mess, all flushed and sweaty." He whispered.

He pulled his fingers out and positioned himself at your entrance. You tensed, looking up at him.

"Do you want me to stop?" He asked, stroking your cheek.

You shook your head. "No."

He kissed you, pushing inside of you. You gasped, biting down on his lip. You felt so full, so stretched, it was a little painful and yet... It felt so right with him.

He stilled, giving you time to adjust. You took a few deep breaths, trying to relax.

"Eyes on me," he whispered, cupping your cheek.

You looked up at him, and the love and lust shining in his eyes took your breath away.

He began to move, slowly, rolling his hips against yours. You moaned, arching your back, trying to match his rhythm.

He nipped at your neck then moved down to your chest, biting at your nipples, before sucking on them, making you whimper and squirm.

"Do you like that? When I suck on your cute, little nipples?" He whispered.

"Y-yes."

He hummed, his teeth scraping against the sensitive flesh. Your hands tugged on his hair, urging him on.

He chuckled, sucking on the bud. He released it with a wet pop, moving to the other one. You moaned, your hips bucking.

He groaned, picking up the pace. He took your hands and pinned them to the bed, intertwining his fingers with yours. He watched your expressions, your eyes shut tight, your mouth slightly parted, a flush on your cheeks.

He was honored that you trusted him enough to be your first. You were a beautiful soul, and he was grateful for the privilege.

"You are such a good boy, all nice and wet for me. So good, my beautiful, precious boy," he murmured.

"Elijah," you gasped.

He grunted, kissing your lips. He rolled his hips, thrusting deep and hard. He felt you tighten around him at his praise, and he smiled, he enjoyed learning what turns you on..

He nuzzled your neck, sucking on the skin, leaving little bites and hickeys. You arched your back, wrapping your legs around his waist, meeting his thrusts.

"You like when I bite you, baby?"

"Yes." You whimpered.

He nibbled on your earlobe, his warm breath fanning over your skin.

"What about when I do this?" His thrusts became harder, slamming you with such a force you moved a bit on the bed.

You nodded, too blissed out for words.

"Or when I do this?" He let go of one of your hands and trailed his fingers down your chest and stomach, pressing down on your lower abdomen.

Your eyes widened and you moaned loudly, the sudden pressure almost too much.

He smirked, nuzzling your neck, licking and biting, his tongue and teeth tracing along the tendons of your neck.

His grip was strong, his fingers digging into your flesh. His thrusts became faster, deeper, and harder, pounding you into the mattress.

"Do you want to cum, mister y/n?"

"Y-yes."

He kissed your lips. "Beg me," he growled.

You were surprised, but the roughness was thrilling. "Please, please let me cum."

"Mmm, not yet," he purred.

You groaned, your legs beginning to shake.

"Elijah," you pleaded, your voice cracking.

He chuckled, "such a good boy, begging so well."

You clenched around him, panting and whimpering. You could feel Elijah losing control, his pace becoming erratic. His breath was coming in harsh gasps.

He kissed you, his tongue delving deep into your mouth. His thrusts were wild and desperate, the sound of flesh slapping together loud in the quiet room.

"Cum for me, my boy," he commanded, his voice a deep growl.

You obeyed, clenching around him. You cried out, your eyes rolling back in your head, stars exploding behind your eyelids.

"So perfect," he murmured, pressing his lips to your throat.

You collapsed, panting, sweat trickling down your back. He released your hand, his fingers ghosting along your skin.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his tone tender.

"Yeah." You whispered, looking up at him.

He kissed your forehead. "It wasn't too much?" He asked, cupping your cheek.

"No." You said breathlessly, your mind still spinning from the intensity of it all.

"Good." He pulled out of you, and you grimaced. He noticed, and his eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Just a bit sore, but I'll be fine." You assured him, reaching up and brushing your thumb across his cheek.

He pressed a kiss to your palm, then got out of the bed, scooping you up.

"I know just the thing," he said, carrying you to the bathroom.

He set you down on the edge of the tub, and started the bath. Once the water was warm, he helped you in, and then climbed in behind you.

"Lean back," he said softly.

You did, resting against his chest. He gently washed your body, being careful to avoid the more sensitive areas.

"Thank you 'lijah," you whispered.

"Of course," he said, his voice quiet and soft.

He kissed your neck, wrapping his arms around you. You closed your eyes, feeling warm and safe.

He ran his fingers through your hair, making it stick up in weird places. He chuckled, his chest rumbling against your back.

"I learned so much about you today," he said, a teasing lilt to his tone.

"Did you now?" You asked, your cheeks heating.

"Indeed, I did." He chuckled.

"Like what?"

He leaned down, pressing his lips to your ear. "Like how sensitive you are," he whispered. "How much you like being praised." He nuzzled the crook of your neck, inhaling your scent.

"Mmm." You sighed, relaxing.

"And," he added, "how good you are at begging."

You giggled, covering your face.

"But I didn't get to explore all the ways to make you beg," he teased.

"We have time," you said, smiling.

He hummed, kissing the side of your head. "I love you," he murmured.

"I love you too," you said, turning to look up at him.

You would never forget this night and how special Elijah had made it. How he made you feel. How loved you were.

It was perfect and you couldn't wait for more.

♡♡ Tag-List ♡♡

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♡ @meeom ♡ @damienmorton ♡ @wickedmuse ♡ @sunkissedebony97 ♡ @idk00sblog ♡ @savannaounana ♡ @cs-please ♡ complicatedandconfusing-25 @hamiltimes ♡ @akala6670229 ♡ @yeaiamme2 ♡

#elijah mikaelson #the originals #the vampire diaries #vampire diaries #tvdu #elijah mikaelson smut #transgender #trans man #elijah mikaelson imagine #elijah mikealson imagine #elijah mikealson #elijah mikaelson x reader #elijah mikealson x reader #tvd #the vampire diaries x you #the vampire diaries x reader #the vampire diares imagine #the vampire diaries imagine #the originals imagine

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ilovescaredysquirrel2 · 7 months ago

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What I'm excited for coming soon (TADC episode 2, SpongeBob, and Wallace & Gromit and more)

Okay, I'm going to start with The Amazing Digital Circus episode 2 since it's all my friends and I are thinking about. Just when I didn't think it was going to be better than the first one, I really trust Glitch and Gooseworx with this! I saw the trailer and I'm way more excited, in fact, maybe a little too much. I just know it's going to be fun and hilarious! Although I'm worried that Pomni might get abstracted, I don't want her to abstract. She's one of my favorites but I don't want anyone to abstract really. I'm too attached to these characters! Also, I saw those moments with Ragatha and Princess Loolilalu meeting each other and I love to see girls supporting girls in anything. I find it very healing to my inner child, and also I just like the girl power, it's so refreshing to see! Also, I heard that this will focus more on Jax, who's kind of a jerk sometimes and maybe they'll give him a softer side here, or something to make people feel bad for him, and I like that idea to show that not everyone is all bad or all good. Also, Jax has been stuck in the digital world since he was a teen so you can't help but to feel bad for him. Another thing, that candy elephant thing looks cool and I really hope Gumigoo is voiced by Tustin Macafee. If he's not, it's fine, but I can't think of anyone better for the voice role than Tustin!

As for the new SpongeBob movie, it's gonna be released in theaters and the OG team is going to come back (except for the creator, who sadly passed away a while ago). I heard something that one of the directors said that there will be nudity in the new SpongeBob movie, but I hope he was joking.

Also, I love that they're making fun of AI with this new Wallace & Gromit movie. As an artist, I think people overdo it with AI and that I think we should stop using it for art purposes unless it's only to mess around with and not actually use. I hope they make fun of Disney too. Imagine making fun of both AI and Disney, in an Aardman movie! That'd be awesome! Also, I heard Nick Park wasn't going to work on it at first but he decided to come back (I think he changed his mind after the new Chicken Run 2) and I really hope Wallace & Gromit makes more money than Chicken Run 2.

Also, I'm not much of a Disney fan so I don't care much about the Inside Out sequel or Moana sequel. I think they're really unnecessary, however, I have more hope for the Inside Out sequel than the Moana one, even though I do like Moana better. I feel like Disney should just stick to Kiff and that Molly Magee show or whatever its called, because those are the only two good things that Disney still has left. (Obviously, I'm religious and don't watch shows with ghosts, so I'm just more interested in Kiff but both shows are better than Disney's movies rn).

Finally, the last Bluey episode... I haven't watched it yet and I hear it's really emotional. I don't think I'm prepared for that so I'll stick to watching my favorites, like the beach one. I just hope they don't end Bluey yet, it's the only good kid shows that's still running. Plus, it's from Australia and they deserve to make a lot of money off this show, even though greedy Disney is involved in airing it in my country. I support the foreign shows all the way!

Tell me your thoughts! PLEASE CHAT WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS, ESPECIALLY YOU TADC FANS! DON'T HIDE!

#tadc pomni #the amazing digital circus #tadc episode 2 #tadc #spongebob #bluey #wallace & gromit #my thoughts

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 11 months ago

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Kaiju Week in Review (December 10-16, 2023)

Suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma, who originated the roles of Gigan and Hedorah and played Godzilla in all of the Heisei films, passed away on Saturday at the age of 76. A serious performer paired with a serious Godzilla, he approached the role with near-religious reverence. Asked to give advice to Godzilla's next actor following the completion of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, he said, "Be Godzilla. Don't do anything else. Write books about playing Godzilla, talk to reporters about playing Godzilla, but don't do anything else. Just be Godzilla." His second stint as the character, Godzilla vs. Biollante, is my favorite movie of all time, and it's pretty staggering how many of its key people are gone now. Rest in peace.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters finally brought Godzilla into the present-day storyline—and finally let him enter Japanese waters in the flashbacks to 1955. (The only other time he's done this in the Monsterverse is in the debatably-canon Godzilla: Awakening.) I enjoyed the flashbacks a lot more than the main story this time, as the latter is just piling on the Ominous Pronouncements while withholding details to a degree that seems unrealistic from a Watsonian perspective. Give me a well-acted, doomed love triangle any day.

Comic book sales data is nigh-impossible to find these days, but 2022's Godzilla vs. the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers must have made bank, since it's getting a sequel! Writer Cullen Bunn and colorist Andrew Dalhouse are back, with Baldemar Rivas now handling the art. First issue's coming in April. The logline:

Worlds collide a second time as everyone’s favorite kaiju meets up with Earth’s mightiest warriors once again to take on the most fearsome monsters from both sides of the multiverse, with Rita Repulsa egging them on! This one has it all: SpaceGodzilla! Clawhammer! Tentacreep! But what exactly does Rita intend to do with their collective might, and how have her mysterious new allies, Astronema and the Alliance of Evil, given her added reach across worlds? The Power Rangers are on a mission to find out, but first…all roads lead back to Godzilla!

I recognize some of the proper nouns in there, at least!

Godzilla Minus One added even more North American theaters (from 2,540 to 2,622), but with stiffer competition in the form of Wonka, it fell to fourth with $5 million. That gets it over $30 million here; we'll see how much of a boost it gets from the holidays. The film is piling up accolades from regional critic groups, as well as a nomination at the Critics Choice Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

I'm also making my way through all the videos Toho put on YouTube when I was desperately dodging spoilers, so look forward to more Minus One gifs and screenshots.

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One more trailer for the Kaiju No. 8 anime, which is, for whatever reason, going to stream worldwide via X/Twitter. (Maybe they saw that users there already upload entire movies and decided to get ahead of the curve?) Don't worry, it'll be on Crunchyroll too.

#kaiju week in review #kenpachiro satsuma #power rangers #kaiju no. 8 #godzilla #godzilla minus one #kaiju #monarch legacy of monsters

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lokisasylum · 4 months ago

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Fun details in some of the songs

#1. In 'Interlude: SHOWTIME' when the second part of the drumline/band begins if you pay very close attention you can hear Jimin humming along to the beat and near the end before the "Ladies and gentlemen.." you can also hear Jimin laughing.

#02. In "Be Mine", during the pre-chorus when Jimin is singing "Lovers come and go, in and out of my heart--" the music changes to a mixture between traditional Korean music and Latin.

#03. In the "Who" MV, there is a total of 3-4 TV monitors depicting what seems to be an npc character in-front of a heart that keeps changing as the song progresses and Jimin's feelings become more chaotic while expressing the longing and despair of wanting to find "the ONE".

♥ On the first monitor the character is just walking normally while the heart changes into different shapes and pulsates slowly.

♥ On the second monitor (the one in the burning grocery cart) when the second chorus begins and the choreo gets faster, the character is running, while the heart pulsates and changes FASTER.

♥ On the 3rd monitor (this one is trickier to notice because its located next to a pile of debris that's also catching fire next to the theater before Jimin dances with the female dancer, first it FALLS from the sky on to a burning car and then it appears NEXT to it) on this one there's NO character/avatar walking or running, there's only a heart pulsating and glitching erratically.

♥ And then there's the final monitor which is the larger one that crashes down, there's no avatar or heart, only a pair of eyes and the words "Keep going>>>" and "WHO". (the smaller monitor also disappears from next to the burning car)

#04. On the same mv, there's an interesting contrast between Like Crazy and Who in the way Jimin does "the mirror" dance with the girls. In 'Like Crazy' they faced and mirrored EACH OTHER to express both partners feeling, struggling, suffering the same heartache and loneliness (like how in the actual 'Like Crazy' movie shows the main couple suffering over a long distance relationship). While in 'Who' Jimin and the female dancers don't face each other while "mirroring" their movements (even with the one female dancer who seems to "hug" him).

And I'm gonna quote RG Reacts here:

"Jimin dancing with all these different partners is like trying to find someone in a place that maybe you're not gonna find it. Like in the Like Crazy music video; going to a bar to find that someone, and then as he goes out into the streets and dances with each of the individual women, but he doesn't find that special someone. And despite the dancing and the acting being so beautiful, it actually shows there's no spark, there's no connection. So I'm still looking and searching for that someone." (which is the part where Jimin and the dancers walk away from each other).

I also liked how he pointed out that the "Closer" sign that we saw from the trailer get wrecked in the destruction that occurs as a result from the tornado and how symbolic it was. How sometimes that which we are looking for isn't a close as we think and therefore the tornado, storm or hurricane represents conflicting feelings and frustration at not finding what we're looking for.

But at the end of the video when Jimin walks off down the street again like nothing happened the sign is GONE

Which also connects to how "Be mine" is right before "Who", where we have the line that we mentioned at the beginning of "Lovers come and go in and out of my heart, the more I fall into it, the deeper it gets--"

#MUSE by Jimin #Who #Be Mine #Interlude: SHOWTIME #song meanings #jimin #park jimin #bts #bts jimin #pjm #jiminie #pjms

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saunne · 11 months ago

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HSR THEORIES - PENACONY ANALYSIS

I guess I'm late to the game, but I'm normally a lore gremlin for Xianzhou lore, not Penacony lore. Anyways, don't expect something very elaborate, but you'll be able to find :

Reflection on the period based on history (Penal Colony)

Reflection on the period based on fashion (NPC in trailers)

Reflection on the period based on architecture (Art Deco)

Reflection on the period based on cultural shift (Railway Mania, Department Stores)

Reflection on lore based on Literature (Jules Vernes, Herman Melville)

Reflection on lore based on Philosophy (Idealism, Utilitarianism, Transcendental Idealism)

Everything under the cut as always since I tend to babble.

The name "Penacony" possibly comes from the phrase "penal colony".

I'm certainly not the first to make the connection, but "Penal Colony" inevitably brings to mind Australia. This idea of "Space Australia" is also reinforced by the names for the characters we know at the moment, with a very clear English etymology : Sunday, Robin, Gallagher, Firefly.

The use of Australia as a "penal colony" by England took place after the American War of Independence, so we start with a period around 1780 to ~1870.

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We didn't get to see a lot of NPC outfits in this very short clip, but what little there is could actually correspond to a period like this. However, we had a little more hints in Honkai Star Rail - Penacony Trailer | Game Awards 2023, where we see Acheron at the reception of the Reverie hotel :

This NPC in particular is interesting, because of her gloves. It's called "evening gloves" or "opera gloves". They were popular during the Napoleonic period (1800-1825) but were also very fashionable in the last two decades of the 19th century, i.e. 1880-1900 and before WWI, i.e up to 1910.

In terms of temporality, it is also important to note what concerns the architecture of Penacony.

It was noted on Reddit that the style of architecture could be reminiscent of the French Art Deco style, an architectural movement predominant in the 1910s to 1920s. Art Deco is said to have represented "luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress", so quite fitting for Penacony. Key features were : geometric/sleek designs, bold colors, luxurious materials, things that we find in the previews.

We'll have to wait to see more from Penacony, but it might be interesting to see if there is also any inspiration from the previous movement, Art Nouveau 🤔

Another architectural thing :

Look up and see the metal tracks crisscrossing the skyscrapers and the Spheroids rapidly rolling along them. They are the most visible means of transportation in this dreamscape metropolis and guide guests to each and every place around the city. [x]

This part about the Spheroids is interesting, because during this period (starting from 1825, with a peak in the 1840s), there was in France and England what we called the Railway Mania.

This is a point of interest because the Railway Mania saw the the arrival of the railroads in Paris. When it happened, this caused another major cultural shift : the rise of Department Stores. There is even a well-known french novel on the subject, called Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight) by Emile Zola.

The end of the 19th century is also the period of birth of modern advertising and given the number of things that we see plastered all over Penacony, I think I can say that we are on the right track/period.

So, in terms of rough "era", we can go from 1780 to ~1920, so mostly the 19th century (1800-1900).

Speaking of period culture and Penacony in general, we currently have a Relic Set which I will use for the rest of the post: Penacony's Dream-Seeking Tracks

Opening a window no longer show a view of the stars in the deep sky, but of the city's shifting streams of light and shadows, holding up the constant echoes of giant clocks and theaters.

Okay, let's start with some details that I only noticed because I come from a literary studies background. I'm not going to lie to you, it's far-fetched, but stay with me, I promise it's interesting.

Giant clocks and theaters made me think "steampunk" works, whose setting are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era (~1837 to 1900, so right in our period). One of the pioneering writers of the genre, “proto-steampunk” so to speak, is Jules Vernes, considered one of the "father of science fiction".

Remember Spheroids ? : "Spheroids are regarded as both vehicles and as toys in the land of dreams. However, few remember that the Spheroids are actually imprisonment cages — the vehicle towards dreams are tools originally used for locking up prisoners."

One of Jules Vernes' best-known novels is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, a science-fiction aventure novel the majority of which takes place aboard the Nautilus, a submarine belonging to Captain Nemo. And interesting thing, "he also tells his new passengers that his secret existence means he cannot let them leave — they must remain on board permanently" ; They are prisoners in the Nautilus.

On another point, Jules Vernes is also considered as having had a strong influence on the surrealist movement "in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or surreality"." Quite fitting for our dream planet.

For the next one... Well. I have no excuse for this one, it's even more far-fetched. But so, we remain in the literary universe.

The water from the spring turn into a giant whale and swim through the halls.

Giant whale made me think of one thing almost immediately : Moby Dick, by Herman Mellville, published in 1851 (once again in our era of interest). Moby Dick is a "sea novel" centered around the figure of the hunt of a whale. It's main themes are the limits of knowledge, fate and free will, nature and man, race, fellowship, and enslavement, madness and religion [x].

I wont copy and paste the whole shtick but I send you check again The Family description from the Data Bank.

With that, we're done with literature... so it's time to move on to something else wonderful and terrible, the greatest enemy of my high school years (when you have to do it for 8 hours a week, it quickly becomes tiring), I named: PHILOSOPHY.

For a transcendent experience, for an inspirational excitement, for the soothing of worries and wounds — guests of the highest caliber come to surrender their pain in exchange for peace and tranquility

I'm not going to dwell on that for too long, quite honestly. I'll just... put that here for you to do whatever the fuck you want with it.

Idealism : "Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical idealism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, spirit, or consciousness; that reality is entirely a mental construct; or that ideas are the highest form of reality or have the greatest claim to being considered "real"

At some unknown point in time, the small cells cut off access to reality, but people's consciousnesses became linked in dreams. In the midnight bell, that shared dream seemed so real, reflecting the sheer hypocrisy of reality.

Utilitarianism : "a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that ensure the greatest good for the greatest number."

Those who follow the "Harmony" Path admire understanding, support, and cooperative behavior.

In addition to all previously "said", one of the greatest thinkers of the time, who is also the one at the origin of the definition of transcendent, is Immanuel Kant. His best known work is Critique of Pure Reason (1781), with which "he aims to reach a decision about "the possibility or impossibility of metaphysics".

Metaphysics "is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. This includes the first principles of: being or existence, identity, change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, actuality, and possibility."

This work was the founding work of a philosophical doctrine known under the name of Transcendental Idealism. I'll spare you the convoluted explanations but look at that :

The scenery gradually becomes more and more incredulous, and the senses feel as if one has been lifted by silk. [...] The guests finally realize that they were never awake, but are instead witnessing Penacony's true nature in a dream — a place where time stops in a neverending dreamscape.

"Kant means that his philosophical approach to knowledge transcends mere consideration of sensory evidence and requires an understanding of the mind's innate modes of processing that sensory evidence".

"Kant outlines how space and time are pure forms of human intuition contributed by our own faculty of sensibility. Space and time do not have an existence "outside" of us, but are the "subjective" forms of our sensibility".

#hsr #honkai star rail #penacony #hsr penacony #honkai star rail theory #hsr 2.0

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samasmith23 · 4 months ago

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Why Revenge of the Sith remains my personal favorite Star Wars movie

I think one of the main reasons I have such a fondness for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in particular amongst the entire saga (controversial opinion I know, but ROTS is my personal favorite Star Wars film period...) is because of the experience I had with this movie as a kid growing up!

This film came out in 2005 when I still would have been in the 3rd Grade, and I had already grown up loving the Star Wars franchise, watching the unaltered VHS copies of the Original Trilogy, as well as Episodes I & II on DVD constantly as a child. So when I started seeing tons of trailers and promotions for Episode III popping up, you'd better believe that I was incredibly huped about this film! I still remember seeing the initial teaser trailer for Revenge of the Sith when I first saw Pixar's The Incredibles back in 2004, and you'd better believe that little kid me was excited as all heck!

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I personally remember the build-up and anticipation for Episode III being wild back in the day, since not only was this being promoted as the "final entry in the Star Wars saga" since George Lucas stated his intentions to not make an Episode VII at the time (hindsight can be funny sometimes... lol!), but this would be the film that finally answered the question of how exactly Anakin Skywalker turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader! Episode III was also promoted as the darkest film in the entire franchise since it was the first to ever receive a PG-13 rating (all the previous movies were rated PG here in the US…). Heck, I remember the PG-13 rating causing a lot of caution and concern among both parents and teachers, since not only did one of my teachers state that my 3rd Grade class was "too young to watch Star Wars Episode III," but when my Dad and I finally saw in cinemas, he calmed my Mom down by telling her he would cover my eyes if any scene got overly violent. Fortunately, my Dad did not end up not having to shield my eyes... although funnily enough he almost did so during the scene when Anakin ignited his lightsaber in front of the younglings before it immediately cut away (so their deaths occurred offscreen...). It wasn't until I was much older that I later learned that the primary reason Episode III was given the PG-13 rating was that in addition to Lucas’ personal recommendation due to the film’s darker tone, the rating was specifically aimed at the immolation scene on Mustafar when Anakin is burned alive by the lava after losing his duel with Obi-Wan.

When I finally saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters in May of 2005, to say that I was completely blown away by the film would be a massive understatement! Not only was I completely immersed in the sheer epic scale of the space and lightsaber duels, but the aesthetics of the planets like Utapau & Mustafar, as well as creatures & droids like General Grievous, captured my imagination to entirely new levels that surpassed even the previous Star Wars films. Heck, General Grievous in particular was a character that I became completely obsessed with as a kid in a similar manner to how countless other Star Wars fans are completely enamored by Boba Fett (both for his badass character design, as well as his status as a Jedi-killing cyborg who wields 4 lightsabers simultaneously while also foreshadowing Anakin's similar future transformation into a being "more machine than man")!

However, the elements of Revenge of the Sith that especially captivated my young mind in the theater were the portrayal of Anakin Skywalker's turn to the Dark Side, as well as Chancellor Palpatine's rise to power as the Emperor. Before the movie's release, I would constantly speculate about what exactly would cause Anakin to become Darth Vader (little kid me came up with wild theories such as him being mind-controlled into being evil via Sith lightning or some such bullcrap... lol!) and the revelation that Anakin turned to the Dark Side primarily out of fear of his wife Padmé dying at childbirth was certainly not what I was expecting back then. At the same time though, this plot point made perfect sense to me and I couldn't help but be engrossed in the whole Greek/Shakespearean tragedy portrayal of Anakin's descent into darkness being motivated primarily out of love. Additionally, as I continued to rewatch Revenge of the Sith on DVD and Blu-Ray as I grew older, I began noticing more of Anakin's growing frustration and distrust with the Jedi council, and how it heavily correlated with the political themes about the corruption of democracy and the rise of fascism (which makes both the Order 66 montage and Padmé’s line, “So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause,” hit even harder)! Furthermore, Palpatine himself made for such a phenomenal main antagonist & master manipulator, with scenes such as him telling Anakin the legend of Darth Plagueis story at the Coruscant opera house as well as his reveal as Darth Sidious being particularly chilling standouts for me!

While some of those more complex themes went over my head as a 3rd grader, Revenge of the Sith was probably one of my earliest exposures to darker forms of storytelling dealing with flawed characters & complex themes. Elements that I now actively search for in my consumption of media, ranging to films, comics, TV, and video games. Additionally, as a child these aforementioned elements made me rewatch Episodes I & II with an even greater appreciation and attention to Anakin’s gradual downfall and Palpatine’s manipulations which all culminated in Episode III. As a kid, I used to primarily focus on the action scenes in Star Wars films above all else, but as an adult elements such as the corruption of bureaucracy with the Jedi Order, the downfall of democracy & the rise of fascism with the Old Republic's devolving into the Galactic Empire, and the Shakespearean tragedy of Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader are the elements of the Prequels that continue with stick with me!

It's for this reason that despite whatever flaws Revenge of the Sith might have along with the rest of the Prequel Trilogy, it honestly still remains my personal favorite Star Wars film in the entire saga, followed closely by both Return of the Jedi and The Last Jedi (which means that my Top 3 Star Wars films include one from each trilogy! Lol!)! And for the longest time I thought that Episode III would have been the ONLY Star Wars movie I'd ever get the chance to see in theaters... thank goodness I was wrong with the release of the Sequel Trilogy a decade later! Still though... I will forever cherish that initial hype of Revenge of the Sith as my first-ever theatrical Star Wars experience!

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