#Ask the redeemed Bizarros!
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@dasfeministmermaid - apologies, I realise you asked this absolutely ages ago (last year now, even!), but re: my tags on this post, I was mostly just referring to the fact that at the time Disney took over SW, the popularity of GoT was largely responsible for the trend towards dark and 'gritty realism' in fantasy media in general. I don't claim there was necessarily direct influence on the SW sequels, but if we are talking cultural zeitgeists, then aside from perhaps Marvel, GoT was certainly one of the most prominent at the time. And I can't help but see something of that in TFAâs whole 'weâre going to portray the Original Trio as colossal failures and morally grey at best, instead of the unquestionably heroic figures created by George Lucas'. Not to mention the bizarro depiction of the Skywalker family as some kind of 'cursed' dynasty that was doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, despite the fact that such a cynical interpretation flew in the face of every story element, theme, and character arc established in the original saga. The only Skywalker who was under a so-called 'curse' was Anakin (and by that I simply mean his enslavement by Sidious), and he freed himself (and his family, and the whole galaxy) from that once and for all when he destroyed the Sith and saved his son at the end of Return of the Jedi. In this light, the course of events that was supposed to have taken place off-screen in-between RotJ and TFA made no sense within the actual context established by the Lucas saga. The milieu of the characters in the PT and OT is purposefully constructed to be different from one another, hence why the Skywalker twins are raised without any direct Jedi influence, in loving families, are allowed to have childhoods, allowed to love, etc., unlike their parents who were trapped within an increasingly corrupt system that actively prevented them from living together as a couple or family. The very context in which Luke and Leiaâs story takes place is a big part of what allows them to definitively break the cycle.
Of course, it can be argued that simply by continuing the story beyond RotJ at all, the Disney-sequels were always going to destroy the meaning of the Lucas saga. But the character assassination of the Original Trio in TFA was a conscious and completely unnecessary decisionâafter all, a sequel could have potentially been made without destroying Han, Luke, and Leiaâs entire characterisations and relationships. The fact that Disney also (lazily and pointlessly) decided to construct a new 'Dark Times' as the setting is even more telling, since there was absolutely no need to do so, and all it did was add to the impression that these characters were nihilistically doomed to constantly repeat the same past mistakes and tragedies, when nothing could be further from the truth that Lucas' story established. I have gone into great detail about this many times over the years since TFA was released, so I won't dwell on it here, but the Original Trio absolutely DOES 'break the cycle', and suggesting otherwise destroys not only the meaning of the OT, but also that of the Prequels (basically erasing Anakin's entire story). The unequivocally happy ending of RotJ is likewise what 'redeems' the tragedy of the Prequels, and without that, the meaning of the entire Lucas saga is totally undermined and destroyed. I refuse to accept that, hence why I've always rejected the Disney-sequels and will never accept them as legitimate canon.
In brief, Star Wars was never meant to be 'gritty', nor is the outcome of its storyline supposed to be 'realistic'. Lucas' saga begins with a tragedy (the Prequels) that is subsequently redeemed by a fairytale (Original Trilogy), and which, when taken together, forms a created-myth, the outcome of which is meant to be idealistic, positive, uplifting, redemptive, and restorative. It is the eucatastrophe that Tolkien talks about, the defiance in the face of 'universal final defeat'. But the Disney-sequels ignored and/or actively overturned everything positive and meaningful about the original saga (that most lifelong SW fans like myself had valued and cherished since childhood) and all in the service of a decidedly lesser wannabe âadditionâ that was devoid of the inspiring Romanticism and mythopoesis of Lucasâ saga. TFA came at a time when studios had certain assumptions about audience expectations and pandered to those accordingly. So Iâm not saying there was direct influence from GoT, just that there was a cultural trend that a lot of media got swept up in at that time. Imo, it's also just the inevitable pitfall of attempting to make something that vaguely resembles âStar Wars' appeal to contemporary sensibilities. It was never going to work, because Star Wars (the real Star Wars) is mythic, Romantic, and transcendentâa type of story that, sadly, contemporary studios and audiences alike seem unable to appreciate.
**Note: most of the meta I've linked on this subject is from my Star Wars sideblog which is vehemently anti-Sequels, so fair warning to anyone who happens to like those. ;p
#replies#my meta#anti-TFA#anti-sequels#anti-disney SW#pro-Lucas saga#the Skywalker saga#the REAL Skywalker saga#Star Wars is not gritty realism#Skywalkers are not Targaryens#star wars as myth#star wars as fairytale#so sorry for the extremely delayed reply#I had this in my drafts all the way back when my dog died đ#I got a little distracted after that as you can imagine...
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((Itâs been a while since I wrote something for this blog huh?))
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Daemon had just finished helping Azul dump candy into a large bowl, hiding spare bags so Ayden wouldnât snag any, when there was a light knocking at the front door.
He glanced up at the time, smiling. Â
With a quick goodbye to Azul, he grabbed his keys and phone, and headed off to the door where he was greeted by a very excited Safa in a pirateâs costume. An empty pumpkin bag swung from her hands.
She ran forward, hugging him tightly. âDaemon, Daemon! Are you ready to go trick or treating??â
âOf course,â He ruffled her hair with a chuckle, âJust let me grab my coat.â
Safa nodded, setting her bag down by her feet while Daemon grabbed the skeleton-print jacket heâd bought.
âWeâre meeting Cryptor there to, right? He said heâd meet us at the city square.â
âŠâŠ
He paused for a moment, before nodding. âYeah, said he might be a little late though. Think you can wait?â
âYep!â
#Ninjago#ask the bizarros#Ask the redeemed Bizarros!#Written answer ask blog#oc#ninjago oc#ask blog#bizarro ninja#Bizarro Cole#Daemon#Cryptor#General Cryptor#ninjago bizarros#Cryptor Ninjago#Safa#Happy Halloween
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Note- Angst, also here's the prequel of this story
âWHERE IS SHE!?!âÂ
Daemon strained against his vengestone restraints, a harsh glare fixed on the ninja as he roared at them. There had been an attack on the village he and Safa were living in. It was a small, rural area, didnât draw much attention, good for laying low. Of course, Safa thought it was because Daemon liked the âfresh country airâ. With that small lie, they had actually managed to build a good life there. Without his reputation, Daemon had a decent, legal job. He could send Safa to school with the money he made, and his little sister had friends. They were happy, they were safe But then some mob had gotten gutsy, deciding they needed more territory.  Daemon hadnât wasted anytime running home from his job, not bothering to explain to what was happening to Safa has he scooped her up and started running for the outskirts. All he had said was that she needed to stay quiet, and keep her head down. He could tell she was scared. He just wanted to get out of the village, so they could be safe again. Then he had spotted a couple, backed to a wall by a group of cackling gangsters. He tried to stay focused, to only care about Safa and himself.  But there was something about the fear in coupleâs voices, that forced him to stop. Thinking quickly, Daemon had found a corner to tuck Safa away in, instructing the small girl to stay there and remain quiet, promising her that he would return. The ninja hadnât seen him tear the goons away from the whimpering couple. They hadnât seen him fight the goons off, defending the lovers. The only thing they had seen was a terrified couple, running out of the alley while screamingâŠand a roughed up Bizarro following soon after.  He didnât want to fight the ninja; he had tried his best to dodge attacks, to convince them to focus on the gang members, the immediate threat. He barely had time to hope his little sister would stay hidden, when Kai landed a flaming hit. Adrenaline and rage flared, as the Bizarro landed his first punch. The ninja couldâve died, he realized, if it werenât for a familiar, whimpering voice just beyond the fight. The sight of a wide eyed Safa had frozen Daemon, as he realized sheâd seen him slip into his old ways. He could hardly breathe, as he stared at her shocked confused and even terrified expression. The prick in his neck barely registered, as Zane stuck a needle in. His focus was entirely on his young companion. He could barely hear her shouting his name, running to him as he slipped into unconsciousness. He watched through blurred eyes, as Kai scooped up the small girl, holding her back as she struggled and cried out for Daemon. Then everything had gone dark. Now here Daemon was, arms bound tightly behind him, captors glaring at him with suspicion as he struggled and seethed. He didnât know where Safa was, they wouldnât tell him where she was. He hated not knowing if she was ok, if she was being looked after. Kai leaned against a wall, arms crossed. He didnât appear at all phased by the Bizarroâs rage. âLook man, we donât know how that kid knows you. We donât know why you gave her a fake name, or why someone like you was anywhere near her. But we do know this- âThe fire ninja stepped forward, placing his hands on the table that separated him from the Bizarro, leaning in close, âYouâre not going near her, ever again.â For a minute, Daemon didnât move, didnât say anything. He just locked eyes with the brunette as his words processed. Alright, at least he knew Safa was safe. He then proceeded to slam his head into Kaiâs forehead, sending the red ninja stumbling backwards. Kai  gripped his head with a groan, swearing. Daemonâs scowl deepened through the ache in his own head. âDaemon is my name, ya idiot. Jusâ cause I look like your friend, donât mean we share a na-âHis head snapped to the side, as Nya punched him. Daemon wasnât the only one in the room who didnât want their family messed with. Itâd been a while since a punch had hurt Daemon, courtesy of the vengestone. âDONâT TOUCH HIM!â Nya squirmed in Jayâs grip, as he held her back from throwing more punches at the bound Bizarro. âNyaâŠplease calm downâŠâ Jay mumbled, holding his girlfriend around her waist. Kai pushed Zane away after letting the nindroid check for a concussion, stepping back towards Daemon, though he seemed to be more cautious of the space between them this time. âIf you honestly think weâre letting someone with a record of beating up people for kicks near that little girl, youâre dumber than we think, palâ Daemon almost spat out another retort, when it hit him. He fell slack in his chair, giving up on his struggle, staring at Kai without a trace of anger left. The ninja could only watch in cautious confusion at his sudden mood change.
Why had it taken him so long to understand? They thought they were protecting Safa, just like he tried to. They thought he was going toâŠhurt her. They thought he was a threat to her safety.  It made sense, like Kai had said; he had a history of beating people for entertainment. His mind drifted back to how scared Safa had been, seeing him rage against the ninja in that village. He thought back to when they first met, how scared sheâd been of the large Bizarro.  He thought about how scared she would be if she had seen him head but Kai. He thought about the lies he had told her. Maybe they were right; maybe he was a danger to her. Daemon lowered his head, releasing a shaky sigh as everything set in. When he finally spoke again, he found that his strong voice had turned shaky.  âI...I would never...hurt Safa.â He looked at them, confusion doubling in their expressions, âI...I just want her safeâŠpleaseâŠplease jusâ let me see herâŠâ He swallowed; confused at the statement that next left his mouth. âThen you can take me tâ Kryptarium. Youâre rightâŠI cause too much pain; Iâve caused too much pain. I-Iâll go willinglyâŠJusâ let me see herâŠlet me say good byeâŠâ He could feel an unusual fear bubbling up in his chest, as the ninja looked at each other, and left. They had no reason to agree to his demand, and every reason to drag him off to Kryptarium without giving a second glance. He was never going to see Safa again; his last memory of her would be her eyes staring in fear and her voice screaming his name. His little sister was going to be dragged off to some orphanage, pushed into some over filled home that couldnât care less, without knowing what happened to her big brother. Sheâd think heâd abandoned her, left to save himself. But he would never do that. He would rather die than let her be alone, to feel abandoned again. He wished his hands werenât bound, so he could wipe away the building tears. His throat felt tight. Why was this so terrifying, so heart breaking? It had nearly been an hour, when he heard the door open. He didnât look up, assuming it was a ninja here to drag him off. He didnât speak when the footsteps stopped beside him. His heart swelled with hope when he felt a small hand gently shake his shoulder. A sad smile appeared when he heard a soft, scared voice call his name. âD-Daemon?â He looked over at Safa, wishing he could hug her, and tell her it would be ok. The best he could do was lean over, letting the small girl wrap her arms around his neck. âH-hey kidâŠthey treating you ok?â He couldnât help the cracks in his voice. âY-yeahâ he could hear the sniffling, god he hated the circumstances. âThe Earth Ninja was watching over meâŠheâs a lot like you Daemonâ Daemon gave a light chuckle at this, âNot that surprised, we definitely got more than one thing in commonâ âWhy...â Safa pulled away from Daemon, reaching out to his cuffs, âW-why did they do this? Y-youâre not a bad personâŠy-you havenât done anything wrong!â He sighed, leaning back to look Safa in the eyes. He hoped she never learned what he really was, what he had done, what he had been designed to do. âListen...kids...IâŠâ His throat was getting tighter, as he bit back tears. This was hard, painful. âIâŠhave...to go-â âW-what?! No, why...I donât want you to go, why do you have to go?!â The pain in her face was breaking his heart. He swallowed again, shaking his head. âI-I canât explain kidâŠthis...this is jusâ where we gotta split, IâŠitâs not my choice...but tâs gotta happen. But...thâ ninja will take care of ya, âtâs their jobâŠ.â Safa hugged Daemon once more, tearing pouring as she buried her face into him. âI donât want the stupid ninja, I want you! Y-youâre familyâŠdonât leave me like my other family did, please!â Hot tears fell onto Safaâs dress, as her words finally broke what remained of Daemonâs dam. His voice got quiet and shaky, as he rested his head on Safaâs. The closest he could get to returning her hug. âThe last thing I want to do is leave you kid. ThisâŠ.this is hurting me so much-â âThen stay!â âI-I canât kidâŠIâŠI canâtâŠI-Iâm sorryâ Before Safa could continue protesting, the door opened again, two people walking in. The siblings looked up, seeing Cole and Zane there, with Jay in the hall. Daemon frowned, but gave a nod of understanding, looking down at Safa. What remained of his heart shattered at how betrayed, lost, and broken she looked. Why was life so cruel to innocent people like her? âListen, Safa...I need you to promise something, ok?â She didnât respond, looking away. Daemon exhaled, closing his eyes. He couldnât continue seeing her like this. âKeep smiling, ok? Stay braveâŠthings will be ok, I promise, they will beâŠâ Safa didnât look back at him until Jay picked her up, starting to walk her out of the room. She fought against the brunetteâs hold, reaching out for her brother, crying out. âDaemon! NO, DAEMON!!â Daemon forced himself to give a comforting smile, tears still pouring out. âBye Kidâ He focused his gaze on the remaining two ninja. âLetâs get this over with.â
#Ninjago#Redeemed Bizarro Ninja#Daemon! Bizarro Cole Au#Daemon! Bizarro Cole#Bizarro Ninja#ninjago oc#angst#ask to tag
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You have done an (excelent) post on how to reinvent Batman as a Pulp Hero. Do you think you could do one to Superman as well? Or do you think it is impossible to do this with the progenitor of the Super Hero genre without transforming him in a totaly diferent character?
Well, you saying it as impossible only makes it seem ever more tempting of a challenge, but yes, it is a bit harder. I'm gonna link my Batman post here as a reference point.
Partially because Batman's a franchise I've thought extensively about for a long time in regards to what I like about it or how I'd like to approach if given the opportunity, which is not something I can really say for Superman until more recently the Big Blue to start orbiting my brain. I don't have years worth of redesigns or fan concepts saved on my galleries and files to comb through to pick and choose here, and my experience with Superman as a character is considerably different, in some aspects more deeply personal, and not really something I'd like to go into in this blog, at least not now.
Part of the reason why it's harder is also because Batman and Superman have very different relationships with their pulp inspirations. Batman was, ostensibly, a pulp character adapted to comics, a dime-a-dozen Shadow knock-off who picked up and played up diverging traits from other characters and gradually ran with them to gradually forge a unique identity. Superman right from the start was rooted in a much stronger conceptual underpinning: the Sci-Fi Superman and Alien Menace who, instead of being a tragic monster or a tyrannical villain, becomes a costumed adventurer and social crusader. Even the name Super-Man was taken from an early story of Siegel and Shuster about a telepathic villain who ends the story lamenting that he should have used his powers for the good of mankind instead of selfishness. I hesitate to call what Siegel and Shuster were doing âsubversiveâ because that term's picked up a real negative connotation, and it's not like Siegel and Shuster were out to upend their influences (they were pulp aficionados themselves), but rather putting a more positive, new spin on them.
Which is why it also becomes a bit harder to do what I did with Batman and align Superman with some of his pulp-esque inspirations, like John Carter, Flash Gordon or Hugo Danner, without just making it "Superman but he's John Carter", "Superman but it's Flash Gordon", and "Iron Munro / Superman but everything sucks" respectively. It's harder to create a character that wouldn't feel reduntant and derivative at best, and actively contradictory to Superman at worst.
I guess if I had to come up with a "Pulp Hero Superman" take I liked, well first of all I'd have to take steps to distance it from the likes of Tom Strong or Al Ewing's Doc Thunder, those two are as good as it gets in regards to Pulp Supermen. I stipulated for Batman a "No Guns, No Murder, No Service" policy partially to distance my takes on Batman from all the "Pulp Batmen" that just add guns and murder and take Batman back to the barest of basics. Likewise, I'm adding a "No Depowered Science Hero" rule here, which means it's a take that's likely going to veer off a lot more into fantasy and probably enough tampering with Clark's character that it does risk becoming a different character.
Frankly I don't think I'm gonna succeed at doing these without just making it a new character entirely, because with Batman you can get away with just upending the character's aesthetic and setting and even origin and still keep it recognizably Bruce Wayne (in fact Batman does that all the time), which isn't really the case with Superman, who needs those to remain recognizably Superman as he goes through internal changes and character shifts. I guess what I'm gonna do here is more taking the building blocks of Superman/Clark Kent and see a couple new ways I can rearrange them to create a Pulp Superman
Perhaps something we can do is to scale back or recontextualize the "superhero" parts without diminishing Superman's role as a superpowered fantasy character.
One way we can start is by picking on that connection between Superman and the sci-fi supermen/alien monsters of pulps I mentioned earlier and play it up further, to create a Superman who's deeply, deeply alien in a way that no mild-mannered disguise or colorful outfit can really disguise, something so dramatically powerful and alien, that instead you could get tales about the kinds of ensuing changes and ripple effects this has on the world upon the The Super-Man's arrival. And for that I'm gonna have to quote @davidmann95's concept for Joshua Viers' absolutely stunning Superman redesign on the left side of the image above
The red, the goldish-orange and white, the alienness, the angelic, sculpted feeling, the halo, that innocently curious expression: itâs genuinely beautiful. Superman as a redeeming science-angel from beyond our understanding, as much past the uncanny valley of limited human comprehension as a Lovecraftian monster but tuned to the opposite key - you could spend an endless procession of human lifetimes trying and failing to understand this being, but all youâll ever know for sure is that it is beyond you, and it knows you, and it loves you.
Superdoomsday from Earth 45, healed and transformed into the savior it was originally envisioned as? Some descendant of his, or a future of the man himself? An alien who picked up on a broadcast of Superman from Earth, and so inspired reshaped itself in his image to spread his âgospelâ to the stars?
Alternatively, to come back to Earth a little, many, many pulp characters and series were built off the antics and personalities of real people, celebrities getting their own magazines or serials or fictionalized takes on them, so perhaps one way to make a "pulp" take on Superman would be to emphasize a bit more of Superman's real-world roots, trends that inspired his creation directly or indirectly at the time. The Jewish strongman Sigmund Breibart and Shuster's interest in fitness culture, Harold Lloyd's comic persona, the rising "strongman" film genre in the early 20th century, actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor that supposedly named his secret identity, Clark Kent being a socially-awkward journalist based of Siegel's own school experiences.
Maybe one start to an authentic Pulp Superman, who would still be Superman, would be to just ask the question "What if Superman was a real person and/or a celebrity, and they started making pulp magazines and serials dedicated to him? What would those look like?". You wouldn't even have to restrict it to just a story set in the 1930s, in fact you could even play around with the rise of new mediums over the decades.
This third one is a little closer to some plans I have for my own take on a Superman character, not necessarily what I would do with Superman proper but one of my ideas for a Superman analogue. Superman's a character I'll always associate strongly with childhood and childhood fantasy, and to tap into that I would emphasize the other end of the fiction that influenced Siegel and Shuster: comic strips, in their case specifically Little Nemo and Popeye.
In my case I would bring additional influences from some of the comic strips I personally grew up reading like Monica's Gang and Calvin and Hobbes, and I already talked a bit about Captain Fray in terms of how heâs a Superman character despite being a villain. I guess you could call this one "What if Superman was a public domain comic strip character, stripped of the importance of being the founding figure of a super popular genre or extended universe, and also was kind of ugly?".
He's not "Sloth from the Goonies" ugly, I swear I didn't actually have Sloth in mind when typing out this idea, I've never watched that film nor did I know until now that he actually spends the film in a Superman shirt. That's not really what I'm going for. Visually I was thinking of modeling my take on Superman heavily after Hugo from Street Fighter and his inspiration Andre the Giant, to really emphasize the âcircus strongman / freak wrestlerâ aspect of Supermanâs inspiration, particularly in regards to how Hugoâs SFIII version strikes a really great balance in making Hugo ugly and both comedic and fearsome in battle, as well as lovable and even a little dopey (without being outright stupid, like his IV self) in his victory animations and endings.
He's still Superman, he still goes on fantastical adventures to help people, he's still a deeply loving and compassionate soul whose face beams with joy and affection and who's got wonderful eyes and a great smile. It's just that this smile has a couple of mismatched stick-out teeth or some missing ones, and he's got a crooked smile some people take as smug or malicious, heâs got a strongmanâs gut instead of a bodybuilderâs abs, his nose is a little busted (maybe heâs had too many crash landings), and his hair is a little wild or greasy, and he doesn't exactly have very good people skills because of how others usually react to him and, y'know, he doesn't get the kind of publicity Superman would get despite doing ostensibly the same things. Heâs not deformed, heâs incredibly intelligent and capable, but in comparison to how superheroes are usually allowed to look, he might as well be Bizarro in the public eye.
It becomes a running gag that people tend to assume some nearby fireman or cop was the one who rescued the hundred orphans out of a burning building single-handedly, meanwhile he's getting accosted off-panel by police officers who think he set the building on fire, or think they can bully this weird man dressed funny. He goes to rescue old people in peril and occasionally they yell at him that they don't have any money. He doesn't get asked to lead superhero meetings or teams even though many in the community advocate for just how much he does for the world, he gets censored out of tv broadcasts or group shots (even his face is sometimes pixelated when they do show him), people invite him on talk shows and don't really let him talk or assume they got the wrong guy. He goes to rescue a woman dangling off a building, and then he gets attacked by like three different superhero teams who assume he must have kidnapped the poor damsel. He was the first superhero, he is the strongest of them all still, but he never really gets credit for it, it nor does he even want to. None of this at all stops him or deters him, except for some occasionally funny reactions.
This never really changes for him, he doesn't really earn people's approval nor does he have to, instead the stories, outside of the gags and adventures youâd expect from a comic strip, veer more towards others learning to be less judgmental and him learning ways to better approach people. He isn't any lesser than Superman just because he doesn't look like most people would want him to look and he doesn't have to look like Superman. Really I think we could use more superheroes that donât look all so uniformly pretty.
Again, probably not a take that would work for Clark proper, but itâs one way I would take a shot at doing Superman with my own
I have other stuff in the works for this character but I'd like to keep them to better work on them for now, but yeah, these are three of my shots at developing a Pulp Superman.
Alternatively here's a fourth idea that's more pulp than all of these: Join up Nicholas Cage with Panos Cosmatos again, or whatever weird indie director he decides to pair up with next, and let them do whatever the hell they want with Superman. Give us Mandy Superman. Superman vs The Color Out of Space. Superman vs Five Nights at Freddy's. Supermanâs quest to find THE LAST PIG OF KRYPTON. Anything goes.
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Photo: Emily Denniston/Vulture and photos courtesy of the studiosÂ
Keanu Reeves has been a movie star for more than 30 years, but it seems like only recently that journalists and critics have come to acknowledge the significance of his onscreen achievements. Heâs had hits throughout his career, ranging from teen comedies (Bill & Tedâs) to action franchises (The Matrix, John Wick), yet a large part of the press has always treated these successes as bizarre anomalies. And thatâs because we as a society have never  been able to understand fully what Reeves does that makes his films so special.
In part, this disconnect is the lingering cultural memory of Reeves as Theodore Logan. No matter if heâs in Speed or Bram Stokerâs Dracula or Somethingâs Gotta Give, he still possesses the fresh-faced openness that was forever personified by Tedâs favorite expression: âWhoa!â That wide-eyed exclamation has been Reevesâs official trademark ever since, and its eternal adolescent naĂŻvetĂ© has kept him from being properly judged on the merits of his work.
Some of that critical reassessment has been provided, quite eloquently, by Vultureâs own Angelica Jade BastiĂ©n, who has argued for Reevesâs greatness as an action star and his importance to The Matrix (and 21st-century blockbusters in general). Two of her observations are worth quoting in full, and they both have to do with how he has reshaped big-screen machismo. In 2017, she wrote, âWhat makes Reeves different from other action stars is this vulnerable, open relationship with the camera â it adds a through-line of loneliness that shapes all his greatest action-movie characters, from naĂŻve hotshots like Johnny Utah to exuberant âchosen onesâ like Neo to weathered professionals like John Wick.â In the same piece, BastiĂ©n noted: âBy and large, Hollywood action heroes revere a troubling brand of American masculinity that leaves no room for displays of authentic emotion. Throughout Reevesâs career, he has shied away from this. His characters are often led into new worlds by women of far greater skill and experience ⊠There is a sincerity he brings to his characters that make them human, even when their prowess makes them seem nearly supernatural.â
In other words, the femininity of his beauty â not to mention his slightly odd cadence when delivering dialogue, as if heâs an alien still learning how Earthlings speak â has made him seem bizarre to audiences who have come to expect their leading men to act and carry themselves in a particular way. Critics have had a difficult time taking him seriously because it was never quite clear if what he was doing â or what was seemingly âmissingâ from his acting approach â was intentional or a failing.
This is not to say that Reeves hasnât made mistakes. While putting together this ranking of his every film role, we noticed that there was an alarmingly copious number of duds â either because he chose bad material or the filmmakers didnât quite know what to do with him. But as we prepare for the release of the third John Wick installment, itâs clear that his many memorable performances werenât all just flukes. From Dangerous Liaisons to Man of Tai Chi â or Riverâs Edge to Knock Knock â heâs been on a journey to grow as an actor while not losing that elemental intimacy he has with the viewer. Below, we revisit those performances, from worst to best.
  45. Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
The nadir of the â90s cyberpunk genre, and a movie so bad, with Reeves so stranded, that itâs actually a bit of a surprise the Wachowskis were able to forget about it and still cast him as Neo. Dumber than a box of rocks, itâs a movie about technology and the internet â based on a William Gibson story! â that seems to have been made by people who had never turned on a computer before. Seriously, watch this shit:
44. The Watcher (2000) This movie exists in many ways because of its stunt casting: James Spader as a dogged detective and Keanu as the serial killer obsessed with him. Wait, shouldnât those roles be switched? Get it? There would come a time in his career when Keanu could have maybe handled this character, but here, still with his floppy Ted Logan hair, he just looks ridiculous. The hackneyed screenplay does him no favors, either. Disturbingly, Reeves claims that he was forced to do this movie because his assistant forged his signature on a contract. He received the fifth of his seven Razzie nominations for this film. (He has yet to win and hasnât been nominated in 17 years. In fact, itâs another sign of how lame the Razzies are that he got a âRedeemerâ award in 2015, as if he needed to âredeemâ anything to those people.)
43. Sweet November (2001) Itâs a testament to how cloying and clunky Sweet November is that its two leads (Reeves and Charlize Theron) are, today, the pinnacle of action-movie cool â thanks to the same filmmaker, Atomic Blonde and John Wickâs David Leitch â yet so inert and waxen here. This is a career low point for both actors, preying on their weak spots. Watching it now, you can see thereâs an undeniable discomfort on their faces: If being a movie star means doing junk like this, whatâs the point? Theyâd eventually figure it all out.
42. Chain Reaction (1996) As far as premises for thrillers go, this isnât the worst idea: A team of scientists are wiped out â with their murder pinned on poor Keanu â because theyâve figured out how to transform water into fuel. (Hey, Science, it has been 23 years. Why havenât you solved this yet?) Sadly, this turns into a by-the-numbers chase flick with Reeves as Richard Kimble, trying to prove his innocence while on the run. He hadnât quite figured out how to give a project like this much oomph yet, so it just mostly lies around, making you wish you were watching The Fugitive instead.
41. 47 Ronin (2013) In 2013, Reeves made his directorial debut with a Hong Kongâstyle action film. Weâll get into that one later, because itâs a ton better than this jumbled mess, a mishmash of fantasy and swordplay that mostly just gives viewers a headache. Also: This has to be the worst wig of Keanuâs career, yes?
40. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)
Gus Van Santâs famously terrible adaptation of Tom Robbinsâs novel never gets the tone even close to right, and all sorts of amazing actors are stranded and flailing around. Reeves gets some of the worst of it: Why cast one of the most famously chill actors on the planet and have him keep hyperventilating?
39. Replicas (2019) In the wake of John Wickâs success, Keanu has had the opportunity to sleepwalk through some lesser sci-fi actioners, and this one is particularly sleepy. The idea of a neuroscientist (Reeves) who tries to clone his family after they die in an accident could have been a Pet Sematary update, but the movie insists on an Evil Corporation plot that weâve seen a million times before. John Wick has allowed Reeves to cash more random checks than he might have ten years ago. Hereâs one of them.
38. Feeling Minnesota (1996) As far as we know, the only movie taken directly from a Soundgarden lyric â unless weâre missing a superhero named âSpoonmanâ â is this pseudo-romantic comedy that attempts to be cut from the Tarantino cloth but ends up making you think everyone onscreen desperately needs a haircut and a shave. Reeves can tap into that slacker vibe if asked to, but he requires much better material than this.
37. Little Buddha (1994)
To state the obvious, it would not fly today for Keanu Reeves to play Prince Siddhartha, a monk who would become the Buddha. But questions of cultural appropriation aside, you can understand what drew The Last Emperor director Bernardo Bertolucci to cast this supremely placid man as an iconic noble figure. Unfortunately, Little Buddha never rises above a well-meaning, simplistic depiction of the roots of a worldwide religion, and the effects have aged even more poorly. Nonetheless, Reeves is quite accomplished at being very still.
36. Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Quick anecdote: We saw this Kenneth Branagh adaptation of the Bard during its original theatrical run, and when Reevesâs villainous Don John came onscreen and declared, âI am not of many words,â the audience clapped sarcastically. That memory stuck because it encapsulates viewersâ inability in the early â90s to see him as anything other than a dim SoCal kid. Unfortunately, his performance in Much Ado About Nothing doesnât do much to prove his haters wrong. As an actor, he simply didnât have the gravitas yet to pull off this fiendish role, and so this version is more radiant and alive when heâs not onscreen. It is probably just as well his character doesnât have many words.
35. Bram Stokerâs Dracula (1992) GIFs are a cheap way to critique a performance. After all, acting is a complicated, arduous discipline that shouldnât be reduced to easy laughs drawn from a few seconds of film played on a loop. Then again âŠ
This really does sum up Reevesâs unsubstantial performance as Jonathan Harker, whose new client is definitely up to no good. Bram Stokerâs Dracula is a wonder of old-school special effects and operatic passion â and it is also a movie in which Reeves seems wholly ill at ease, never quite latching onto the storyâs macabre period vibe. We suspect if he could revisit this role now, heâd be far more commanding and engaged. But in 1992, he was still too much Ted and not enough anything else. And Reeves knew it: A couple years later, when asked to name his most difficult role to that point, he said, âMy failure in Dracula. Totally. Completely. The accent wasnât that bad, though.â Well âŠ
34. The Neon Demon (2016)
One of the perks of being a superstar is that you can sometimes just phone in an amusing cameo in some bizarro art-house offering. How else to explain Reevesâs appearance in this stylish, empty, increasingly surreal psychological thriller from Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn? He plays Hank, a scumbag motel manager whose main job is to add some local color to this portrait of the cutthroat L.A. fashion scene. If youâve been waiting to hear Keanu deliver skeezy lines like âWhy, did she send you out for tampons, too?!â and âReal Lolita shit ⊠real Lolita shit,â The Neon Demon is the film for you. Heâs barely in it, and we wouldnât blame him if he doesnât even remember it.
33. The Lake House (2006) Reeves reunites with his Speed co-star for a movie that features a lot fewer out-of-control buses. In The Lake House, Sandra Bullock plays a doctor who owns a lake house with the strangest magical power: She can send and receive letters from the houseâs owner from two years prior, a dashing architect (Reeves). This American remake of the South Korean drama Il Mare is romantic goo thatâs relatively easy to resist, and its ruminations on fate, love, destiny, and luck are all pretty standard for the genre. As for those hoping to enjoy the actorsâ rekindled chemistry, spoiler alert: Theyâre not onscreen that much together.
32. Henryâs Crime (2011) You have to be careful not to cast Reeves as too passive a character; heâs so naturally calm that if he just sits and reacts to everything, and never steps up, your movie never really gets going. Thatâs the case in this heist movie about an innocent man (Reeves) who goes to jail for a crime he didnât commit and then plans a scam with an inmate he meets there (James Caan). The movie wants to be a little quirkier than it is, and Reeves never quite snaps to. The film just idles on the runway.
31. The Bad Batch (2017) Following her acclaimed A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour plops us in the middle of a desert hellscape in which a young woman (Suki Waterhouse) must battle to stay alive. The Bad Batch is less accomplished than A Girl, in large part because style outpaces substance â itâs a movie in which clever flourishes and indulgent choices rule all. Look no further than Reevesâs performance as the Dream, a cult leader who oversees the only semblance of civilization in this post-apocalyptic world. Itâs less a character than an attitude, and Reeves struggles to make the shtick fly. Heâs too goofy a villain for us to really feel the full measure of his monstrousness.
ï»ż30. Hardball (2001)
Reeves isnât the first guy youâd think of to head up a Bad News Bearsâstyle inspirational sports movie, and he doesnât pull it off, playing a gambler who becomes the coach of an inner-city baseball team and learns to love, or something. Itâs as straightforward and predictable an underdog sports movie as youâll find, and it serves as a reminder that Reevesâs specific set of skills canât be applied to just any old generic leading-man role. The best part about the film? A 14-year-old Michael B. Jordan.
29. Street Kings (2008) Filmmaker David Ayer has made smart, tough L.A. thrillers like Training Day (which he wrote) and End of Watch (which he wrote and directed). Unfortunately, this effort with Reeves never stops being a mĂ©lange of cop-drama clichĂ©s, casting the actor as Ludlow, an LAPD detective whoâs starting to lose his moral compass. This requires Reeves to be a hard-ass, which never feels particularly convincing. Street Kings is bland, forgettable pulp â Reeves doesnât enliven it, getting buried along with the rest of a fine ensemble that includes Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, and a pre-Captain America Chris Evans.
28. Constantine (2005) In post-Matrix mode, Reeves tries to launch another franchise in a DC Comics adaptation about a man who can see spirits on Earth and is doomed to atone for a suicide attempt by straddling the divide twixt Heaven and Hell. Thatâs not the worst idea, and at times Constantine looks terrific, but the movie doesnât have enough wit or charm to play with Reevesâs persona the way the Wachowskis did.
27. The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) Reevesâs alienlike beauty and off-kilter line readings made him an obvious choice to play Klaatu, an extraterrestrial who assumes human form when he arrives on our planet. This remake of the 1950s sci-fi classic doesnât have a particularly urgent reason to exist â its pro-environment message is timely but awkwardly fashioned atop an action-blockbuster template â and the actor alone canât make this Day particularly memorable. Still, there are signs of the confident post-Matrix star he had become, which would be rewarded in a few years with John Wick.
26. Knock Knock (2015) Reeves flirts with Michael Douglas territory in this Eli Roth erotic thriller thatâs not especially good but is interesting as an acting exercise. He plays Evan, a contented family man with the house to himself while his wife and kids are out of town. Conveniently, two beautiful young strangers (Ana de Armas, Lorenza Izzo) come by late one stormy night, inviting themselves in and quickly seducing him. Is this his wildest sexual fantasy come to life? Or something far more ominous? Itâs fun to watch Reeves be a basic married suburban dude who slowly realizes that heâs entered Hell, but Knock Knockâs knowing trashiness only takes this cautionary tale so far.
25. The Devilâs Advocate (1997)
Very few people bought tickets in 1997 for The Devilâs Advocate to see Keanu Reeves: Hotshot Attorney. Obviously, this horror thrillerâs chief appeal was witnessing Al Pacino go over the top as Satan himself, who just so happens to be a New York lawyer. Nonetheless, itâs Reevesâs Kevin Lomax whoâs actually the filmâs main character; recently moved to Manhattan with his wife (Reevesâs future Sweet November co-star, Charlize Theron), heâs the new hire at a prestigious law firm who only later learns what nefarious motives have brought him there. Reeves is forced to play the wunderkind who gets in over his head, and itâs not entirely convincing â and that goes double for his southern accent.
24. The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988) âYou are like some stray dog I never should have fed.â Thatâs how Rupertâs older hippie pal, Carla (Amy Madigan), affectionately refers to him, and because this teen dropout is played by Keanu Reeves, you understand what she means. In this forgotten early chapter in Reevesâs career, Rupert and Carla decide to ditch their going-nowhere Rust Belt existence by taking his dad (Fred Ward) hostage and collecting a handsome ransom. The Prince of Pennsylvania is a thoroughly contrived and mediocre comedy, featuring Reeves with an incredibly unfortunate haircut. (Squint and he looks like the front man for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.) Still, you can see signs of the soulfulness and vulnerability heâd later harness in better projects. Heâs very much a big puppy looking for a home.
23. The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997) Every hip young â90s actor had to get his Jack Kerouac on at some point, so it would seem churlish to deny Reeves his opportunity. He plays the best pal/drinking buddy of Thomas Janeâs Neal Cassady, and he looks like heâs enjoying doing the Kerouac pose. Other actors have done so more indulgently. And even though heâs heavier than heâs ever been in a movie, he looks great.
22. A Walk in the Clouds (1995) Keanu isnât quite as bad in this as it seemed at the time. Heâs miscast as a tortured war veteran who finds love by posing as the husband of a pregnant woman, but he doesnât overdo it either: If someoneâs not right for a part, youâd rather them not push it, and Keanu doesnât. Plus, come on, this movie looks fantastic: Who doesnât want to hang around these vineyards? Not necessarily worth a rewatch, but not the disaster many consider it.
21. The Replacements (2000) The other movie where Keanu Reeves plays a former quarterback, The Replacements is an adequate Sunday-afternoon-on-cable sports comedy. He plays Shane, the stereotypical next-big-thing whose career capsized after a disastrous bowl game â but fear not, because heâs going to get a second chance at gridiron glory once the pros go on strike and the greedy owners decide to hire scabs to replace them. Reeves has never been particularly great at playing regular guys â his talent is that he seems different, more special, than you or me â but he ably portrays a good man whoâs had to live with disappointment. The Replacements pushes all the predictable buttons, but Reeves makes it a little more enjoyable than it would be otherwise.
20. Tune in Tomorrow (1990) A very minor but sporadically charming bauble about a radio soap-opera scriptwriter (Peter Falk) who begins chronicling an affair between a woman (Barbara Hershey) and her not-related-by-blood nephew on his show â and ultimately begins manipulating it. Tune in Tomorrow is light and silly and harmless, and Reeves shows up on time to set and looks extremely eager to impress. He blends into the background quietly, which is probably enough.
19. I Love You to Death (1990)
This Lawrence Kasdan comedy â the first film after an incredible four-picture run of Body Heat, The Big Chill, Silverado, and The Accidental Tourist â is mostly forgotten today, and for good reason: Itâs a farce that mostly features actors screaming at each other and calling it âcomedy.â But Reeves hits the right notes as a stoned hit man, and itâs amusing just to watch him share the screen with partner William Hurt. This could have been the worldâs strangest comedy team!
18. Youngblood (1986)
This Rob Lowe hockey comedy is ⊠well, a Rob Lowe hockey comedy, but we had to include it because a 21-year-old Reeves plays a dim-bulb, good-hearted hockey player with a French Canadian accent thatâs so incredible that you really just have to see it. Imagine if this were the only role Keanu Reeves ever had? Itâs sort of amazing. âAH-NEE-MAL!â
17. Destination Wedding (2018) An oddly curdled comedy about two wedding guests (Reeves and Winona Ryder) who have terrible attitudes about everything but end up bonding over their universal disdain for the planet and everyone on it. That sounds like a chore to watch, and at times it is, but the pairing of Reeves and Ryder has enough nostalgic Gen-X spark to it that you go along with them anyway. With almost any other actors you might run screaming away, but somehow, in spite of everything, you find them both likable.
16. Thumbsucker (2005)
The first film from 20th Century Women and Beginnersâ Mike Mills, this mild but clever coming-of-age comedy adaptation of a Walter Kirn novel has Millsâs trademark good cheer and emotional honesty. Reeves plays the eponymous thumbsuckerâs dentist â itâs funny to see Keanu play someone named âDr. Perry Lymanâ â who has the exact right attitude about both orthodontics and life. Itâs a lived-in, funny performance, and a sign that Keanu, with the right director, could be a more than capable supporting character actor.
15. Somethingâs Gotta Give (2003) This Nancy Meyers romantic comedy was well timed in Reevesâs career. A month after the final Matrix film hit theaters, Somethingâs Gotta Give arrived, offering us a very different Keanu â not the intense, sci-fi action hero but rather a charming, low-key love interest whoâs just the supporting player. He plays Julian Mercer, a doctor administering to shameless womanizer Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), whoâs dating a much younger woman (Amanda Peet), who just so happens to be the daughter of a celebrated playwright, Erica (Diane Keaton). We know who will eventually end up with whom in Somethingâs Gotta Give, but Reeves proves to be a great romantic foil, wooing Erica with a grown-up sexiness the actor didnât possess in his younger years. Weâre still not sure Meyers got the ending right: Erica should have stuck with him instead of Harry.
14. Man of Tai Chi (2013) This is the only movie that Reeves has directed, and what does it tell us about him? Well, it tells us he has watched a ton of Hong Kong action movies and always wanted to make one himself. And itâs pretty good! Itâs technically proficient, it has a straightforward narrative, it has some excellent long-take action sequences (as we see in John Wick, Keanu isnât a quick-cut guy; he likes to show his work), and it has a perfectly decent Keanu performance. We wouldnât call him a visionary director by any stretch of the imagination. But weâd watch another one of these, definitely.
13. Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny is merely a pawn in a cruel game being played by Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont, and so it makes some sense that the young man who played him, Keanu Reeves, is himself a little outclassed by the actors around him. This Oscar-winning drama is led by Glenn Close and John Malkovich, who have the wit and bite to give this 18th-century tale of thwarted love and bruised pride some real zest. By comparison, Danceny is practically a boy, unschooled in the art of manipulation, and Reeves provides the character with the appropriate youthful naĂŻvetĂ©. Heâs not a standout in Dangerous Liaisons, but he acquits himself well â especially near the end, when his blade fells Valmont, leaving him as one of the unlikely survivors in the filmâs ruthless battle.
12. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) In this incredible showcase for Robin Wright, who plays a woman navigating a constrictive, difficult life with more grace and intelligence than anyone realizes, Reeves shows up late in a role that heâs played before: the younger guy whoâs the perfect fit for an older woman figuring herself out. He hits the right notes and never overstays his welcome. As a romantic lead, less is more for Reeves.
11. Parenthood (1989) If you were an uptight suburban dad, like Steve Martin is in Ron Howardâs ensemble comedy, your nightmare would be that your beloved daughter gets involved with a doofus like Tod. Nicely played by Keanu Reeves, the character is the embodiment of every slacker screwup whoâs going to just stumble through life, knocking over everything and everyone in his path. But as it turns out, heâs a lot kinder and mature than at first glance. Released six months after Bill & Tedâs Excellent Adventure, Parenthood showed mainstream audiences a more grown-up Reeves, and heâs enormously appealing â never more so than when advising a young kid that itâs okay to masturbate: âI told him thatâs what little dudes do.â
10. Permanent Record (1988) A very lovely and sad movie thatâs nearly forgotten today, Permanent Record, directed by novelist Marisa Silver, features Reeves as the best friend of a teenager who commits suicide and, along with the rest of their friends, has to pick up the pieces. For all of Reevesâs trademark reserve, there is very little restraint here: His character is devastated, and Reeves, impressively, hits every note of that grief convincingly. You see this guy and you understand why everyone wanted to make him a star. This is a very different Reeves from now, but itâs not necessarily a worse one.
9. Point Break (1991)
Just as Reevesâs reputation has grown over time, so too has the reputation of this loopy, philosophical crime thriller. Do people love Point Break ironically now, enjoying its over-the-top depiction of men seeking a spiritual connection with the world around them? Or do they genuinely appreciate the seriousness that director Kathryn Bigelow brought to her study of lonely souls looking for that next big rush â whether through surfing or robbing banks? The power of Reevesâs performance is that it works both ways. If you want to snicker at his melodramatic turn, fine â but if you want to marvel at the rapport his Johnny Utah forms with Patrick Swayze (Bodhi), who only feels alive when heâs living life to the extreme, then Point Break has room for you on the bandwagon.
8. Bill and Tedâs Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill and Tedâs Bogus Journey (1991) Before there was Beavis and Butt-Head, before there was Wayne and Garth, there were these guys: two Valley bozos who loved to shred and goof off. As Theodore Logan, Keanu Reeves found the perfect vessel for his serene silliness, playing well off Alex Winterâs equally clueless Bill. But note that Bill and Ted arenât jerks â watch Excellent Adventure now and youâll be struck by how incredibly sunny its humor is. Later in his career, Reeves would show off a darker, more brooding side, but here in Excellent Adventure (and its less-great sequel Bogus Journey) he makes blissful stupidity endearing.
7. The Gift (2000) This Sam Raimi film, with a Billy Bob Thornton script inspired by his mother, fizzled at the box office, despite a top-shelf cast: Itâs probably not even the first film called The Gift you think of when we bring it up. But, gotta say, Reeves is outstanding in it, playing an abusive husband and all-around sonuvabitch who, nevertheless, might be unfairly accused of murder, a fact only a psychic (Cate Blanchett) understands. Reeves is full-on trailer trash here, but he brings something new and unexpected to it: a sort of bewildered malevolence, as if heâs moved by forces outside of his control. More of this, please.
6. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Gus Van Santâs landmark drama is chiefly remembered for River Phoenixâs nakedly anguished performance as Mike, a spiritually adrift gay hustler. (Phoenixâs death two years after My Own Private Idahoâs release only makes the portrayal more heartbreaking.) But his performance doesnât work without a doubles partner, which is where Reeves comes in. Playing Scott, a fellow hustler and Mikeâs best friend, Reeves adeptly encapsulates the mind-set of a young man content to just float through life. Unlike Mike, he knows he has a fat inheritance in his future â and also unlike Mike, heâs not gay, unable to share his buddyâs romantic feelings. Phoenix deservedly earned most of the accolades, but Reeves is terrific as an unobtainable object of affection â inviting, enticing, but also unknowable.
5. Speed (1994)
Years later, we still contend that Speed is a stupid idea for a movie that, despite all logic (or maybe because of the utter insanity of its premise), ended up being a total hoot. Whatâs clear is that the film simply couldnât have worked if Reeves hadnât approached the story with straight-faced sincerity: His L.A. cop Jack Traven is a ramrod-serious lawman who is going to do whatever it takes to save those bus passengers. Part of the pleasure of Speed is how it constantly juxtaposes the life-or-death stakes with the high-concept inanity â Stay above 50 mph or the bus will explode! â and that internal tension is expressed wonderfully by Reeves, who invests so intently in the ludicrousness that the movie is equally thrilling and knowingly goofy. And it goes without saying that he has dynamite chemistry with Sandra Bullock. Strictly speaking, you probably shouldnât flirt this much when youâre sitting on top of a bomb â but itâs awfully appealing when they get their happy ending.
4. Riverâs Edge (1987) This filmâs casting director said she cast Reeves as one of the dead-end kids who learn about a murder and do nothing âbecause of the way he held his body ⊠his shoes were untied, and what he was wearing looked like a young person growing into being a man.â This was very much who the early Reeves was, and Riverâs Edge might be his darkest film. His vacancy here is not Zen cool ⊠itâs just vacant, intellectually, ethically, morally, emotionally. Only in that void could Reeves be this terrifying. This is definitely a performance, but it never feels like acting. His magnetism was almost mystical.
3. John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter Two (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 3 â Parabellum (2019)
If they hadnât killed his dog, none of this would have happened. Firmly part of the âmiddle-aged movie stars playing mournful badassesâ subgenre thatâs sprung up since Taken, the John Wick saga provides Reeves with an opportunity to be stripped-down but not serene. Heâs a lethal assassin who swore to his dead wife that heâd put down his arms â but, lucky for us, he reneges on that promise after heâs pushed too far. Whereas in his previous hits there was something detached about Reeves, hereâs he locked in in such a way that itâs both delightful and a little unnerving. The 2014 original was gleefully over-the-top already, and the sequels have only amped up the spectacle, but his genuine fury and weariness felt new, exciting, a revelation. Turns out Keanu Reeves is frighteningly convincing as a guy who can kill many, many people.
2. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
In hindsight, it seems odd that Keanu Reeves and Richard Linklater have only worked together once â their laid-back vibes would seemingly make them well suited for one another. But it makes sense that the one film theyâve made together is this Philip K. Dick adaptation, which utilizes interpolated rotoscoping to tell the story of a drug cop (Reeves) whoâs hiding his own addiction while living in a nightmarish police state. That wavy, floating style of animation nicely complements A Scanner Darklyâs sense of jittery paranoia, but it also deftly mimics Reevesâs performance, which seems to be drifting along on its own wavelength. If in the Matrix films, he manages to defeat the dark forces, in this film theyâre too powerful, leading to a pretty mournful finale.
1. The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
âThey had written something that I had never seen, but in a way, something that Iâd always hoped for â as an actor, as a fan of science fiction.â Thatâs how Reeves described the sensation of reading the screenplay for The Matrix, which had been dreamed up by two up-and-coming filmmakers, Lana and Lilly Wachowski. Five years after Speed, he found his next great project, which would become the defining role of his career. Neo is the missing link between Tedâs Zen-like stillness and John Wickâs lethal efficiency, giving us a heroâs journey for the 21st century that took from Luke Skywalker and anime with equal aplomb. Never before had the actor been such a formidable onscreen presence â deadly serious but still loose and limber. Even when the sequels succumbed to philosophical ramblings and overblown CGI, Reeves commanded the frame. We always knew that he seemed like a cool, left-of-center guy. The Matrix films gave him an opportunity to flex those muscles in a true blockbuster.
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There are three big reasons I have not and donât want to see Endgame ....
For one, I wrote a lengthy article about that will run in June at Sequential Tart (I'll update this post with the link when it goes live *EDIT* Here it is: The Subject of Character Death, Revisited - http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=3362 ). The other two, I'll talk about here; they involve Steve and Bucky.
I know what youâre thinking: Wolfie, how can you form an opinion on a movie you haven't seen? Well, I do have mental health issues (undiagnosed and untreated because I have no insurance or job, yay), so when the film was released in China, I found someone to spoil me so that I might make an informed decision as to whether or not I could *handle* seeing it, given some worries I had (and especially since 3 hours without a bathroom break was not going to work for me or my companion). I determined from that convo that it would be a Very Bad Idea for me to see the film.
Even seeing the constant posts about it -- especially ones that called it a âbeautifulâ or âperfectâ end, etc. -- was triggering anxiety and mental anguish / circular thoughts (admittedly in part because there were similarly âbadâ things happening in other fandoms of mine -- it was too much at once). And I'm STILL having massive issues with circular thoughts about it.
This essay isn't meant to tell anyone theyâre wrong about how they perceive / feel about the film, BUT, while I know I shouldn't care what other people think, the sitch still makes me feel how I feel: frankly, a bit disturbed that people are loving things that are making me so awful. I feel like I've stepped into some sort of Bizarro world -- like I'm somehow in the wrong universe. Itâs very distressing. (I mean ... they call it mental *illness* for as reason, right?)
In this franchise where I once found such great joy, I now find little more than anguish. Itâs actually been making me physically ill to see the posts -- or to look on my massive Marvel collection; I've had to box much of it away for now. Hopefully some day I can enjoy it again. (I can't exactly stop using my $60 Captain America backpack I begged for, for my birthday, though. :/)
I find that when my thoughts get like this (like I'm on a runaway train that keeps revisiting the same stations), the only thing that helps even a little is to sort out my thoughts on the page -- even if Iâve done it before, as I have with this in the comments section of friends posts. (You may have seen other people express similar thoughts, too.)Â And really, I don't want to rain on my friendâs parades, so I figure Iâll post it in my own space, and then if people ask me my thoughts, I can just point them here. And hopefully this post will help others who are similarly struggling (I know there are at least a few).
As for the old chestnut âItâs just a story/ a fictional characterâ, well, for one thing, let me repeat: mentally ill here. If I could control how I feel, I wouldnât BE mentally ill. But also, I'm a writer who feels writing is a sacred calling, so when I feel a story is badly told, I tend to take it personally. Yes, I know my opinion is not the be-all, end all -- if you think itâs a good story, yay for you. Me, I feel betrayed by this story in a way I have rarely felt before (the other biggest instance having happened the week before the film's release, so double-whammy, yay).
Warning: if you read any further, I assume you either saw Endgame or donât care about Spoilers.
(*edited to add* If you need some solace too, check out @antiendgame to find other people who are upset.)
The first upsetting points for me were the Noble Deaths (and, in Lokiâs case, lack of resurrection) -- I hate that trope with the fire of a thousand suns. But thatâs what I wrote the article on (including how 2012 Lokiâs escape doesn't make me feel any better), so no more on that here.
Now, let me preface the rest of this by saying no, I wasnât expecting a romantic presentation of Stucky. And as hard as I ship them fanon-wise, I donât actually hate Steggy -- I adore Peggy in her own right (and like the idea of them being a threesome with Bucky).
What I DO hate is that Steve abandoned Bucky for her.
Aside from Steveâs moral compass, Bucky was the impetus behind pretty much *everything* Steve did in his trilogy. He found the missing soldiers because Bucky was amongst them. Buckyâs death broke him -- and finding him again in Winter Soldier seemed to give Steve, who was clearly depressed, new life. Despite Sam insisting Bucky was Gone, Steve wouldn't kill Bucky to save the world. And in Civil War, Steve fought other dear friends, and was willing to throw away his own freedom, to protect his best friend. So how the FUCK is them being *separated pretty much forevermore* a satisfactory end to that story???????
TL;DR, the Captain America movies were about the repeated separation and reunion of Steve and Bucky ⊠and yet we barely got to SEE them together before Steve said sayonara to the man heâd been best friends with for over a for over a decade, to go be with a woman heâd known for about a year.Â
A woman whoâd already had a family without him.
Yeah, we can say her family still exists in the original timeline -- but I have seen soooo many different explanations of how the time sitch works out, itâs not even funny.
Really, thatâs the third reason I don't want to see the movie: I HATE time paradox, and this movie sounds riddled with it. Also, as I understand it, the writers and the Russos are saying different things, with the Russos saying itâs a different timeline (which apparently Steve would be going *back* to after the shield pass, for some reason, and yeah, that bothered me, that he didnl't even give his best friend that momento, and sent their last onscreen moments together talking to SAM), and the writers saying no, the alternate timelines were only a thing when the Stones were in play. So yeah, Steve could spend the rest of his life with Bucky then ... but that means he also would have erased Peggyâs family (and maybe her work). Unless he was the man she married all along.
Either way, it would mean that Steve let Bucky suffer, and let HYDRA infiltrate SHIELD, neither being things I could see him doing.
And if it IS a branched-off timeline, I LOATHE that time theory, because it means NOTHING WE DO MATTERS. Thereâs always a version of us thatâs our worst selves, and people who suffer because of it. Thatâs hella depressing. (Even if it would explain why I feel like I'm in the wrong world.)
At any rate, the ONLY end I really wanted was to see Steve and Bucky get to be together, no matter how -- âjust friendsâ would have been fine. It was literally the thing I wanted most in the whole damn MCU franchise (aside from seeing Loki be redeemed and then fight alongside the Avengers. *sigh* At least I didn't have high hopes there ...). I would rather Steve had taken Bucky back in time WITH him, even if Steve still married Peggy; time paradox issues aside, I could have lived with that -- yes, even if it meant we didnât get The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. (And honestly, how much am I supposed to look forward to that anyway, when Sam has been such an *inexplicably* uncompassionate asshole to Bucky in WS and CW? A guy who runs meetings for people with PTSD holds a grudge against a guy who was brutally mind-raped? It's like they made him OOC for the lolz!)
As for âOh, but Bucky knew and he was okay with it!â
Uh, if he was okay with it, it's just because the writers *wrote* him that way for their own convenience, so they could do this ending. I have been besties with someone most of our lives. We broke up a few times, but we managed to keep finding our way back to each other. We don't live in the same state, so we rarely see each other, but at least we DO sometimes, and we write each other. If this person said they were going to go live somewhere with no way to communicate with me ever again, so they could be with someone they loved, of course I wouldn't want to say don't leave, because I'd want them to be happy, and wouldn't want to stand in the way ⊠but that doesn't mean I'd be âokayâ. in the slightest. And I wouldn't WANT other people I care about to go through such pain, much less think it beautiful to watch.
Plus, as I always say, this is fiction -- I don't need *that much* ârealityâ in my escapism. Temporary angst is my bread-and-butter -- itâs cathartic -- but I need a happy ending to be the payoff. To me, A TRULY happy ending for Steve -- and the one that would have been the best payoff for the narrative weâve spent a decade watching -- would have been for him to not have to choose between the two people he loved most.
Edited 5/11/19 to add: For all those who are all âOh, theyâre just friends, they aren't gayâ, I am more or less fine with sexual Stucky staying fanon; they still love each other platonically, are SOULMATES, ACCORDING TO THE SCREENWRITERS THEMSELVES (Christopher Markus and Steve McFeely), who wrote this as part of the intro to the graphic novel Captain America: White - ââŠOf course, this is still a rollicking adventure tale, and no adventure is complete without a love story. And yes, these books have one â the longest, most tortured one in Marvel history, in fact. Weâre talking about Steve and Bucky, without smirking or innuendo or raised eyebrows. Platonic though the relationship may be, from the meet cute to the tragic separation, their bond has all the elements of a classic romance.  These two men love each other â as any pair of friends who faced exclusion, combat, inhumanity, and death would. Their bond stretches across half the twentieth century. The loss of it gnaws at Steve throughout the modern day, and it slices his heart in half when the Winter Soldier rears his tormented, homicidal head. Just as Jeph and Timâs earlier Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, and Hulk: Gray all dealt with the major love interests in the heroesâ lives, so too does Captain America: White. Steve and Bucky are each othersâ soulmate, if you will, because no one on Earth understands what either of them has been through as well as the other does. The book deals deftly with the strengths and weaknesses that relationship engenders. As the Red Skull himself says to Bucky, âThe captain has a ⊠âsoft spotâ for you. A spot I intend to put a bullet through this very evening.â Soldiers fight for their country. They fight for themselves. They fight for each other. And sometimes they die for these things, too.  The ones who donât carry the memory of the ones who did for the rest of their days. Steve Rogers is no different.â
So he's gonna leave his soulmate (no matter the nature of their love) behind forever? FUCK THAT NOISE. I am completely baffled ow two writers who see Steve and Bucky that way would go on to give them that ending.
And retouching the whole for Bucky âknows and is okayâ thing, the Russos also said that Bucky is too damaged still to be Captain America. Uh, THAT DOESNâT SOUND LIKE THEY REALLY THINK HEâS OKAY.
#anti-endgame#endgame spoilers#avengers engame spoilers#avengers endgame#STUCKY IS MY OTP#stucky#steve/bucky#mine#my thoughts#2019#marvel cinematic universe#marvel#rant#Character Study#steve rogers/bucky barnes#Steve Rogers#Bucky Barnes#james bucky barnes#sorry for the rant#stucky support group
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aprillikesthings replied to your post: re: salty fandom asks: 14 for 1d and 23 about...
I definitely like your version of Mary!!
isn't it great that she is canon? and that there was never some kind of weirdly manufactured heterosexual relationship for john watson so that we'd know he wasn't gay? and that they didn't basically set her up as a villain and then neither deliver her as one nor properly redeem her? AREN'T YOU GLAD that we didn't get a bizarro death scene and instead got a healthy triad co-parenting a baby and fighting crime using their own unique skills? isn't that the most, to say the least?
#aprillikesthings#replies#johnlockary#mary morstan#i have feelings#they are not popular ones#and i don't talk about them a lot#but there they are
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Lady Dynamites brilliant second season is openly hostile toward Netflix
Lady Dynamiteâs brilliant second season is openly hostile toward Netflix, its platform
Maria Bamfordâs surrealist comedy parodies the streaming service as âMuskVisionâ
by Nov 15, 2017, 8:30am EST
Beth Dubber / Netflix
Maria Bamfordâs Lady Dynamite, created in collaboration with Arrested Developmentâs Pam Brady and Mitch Hurwitz, was the most interesting addition to Netflixâs original content catalog in 2016. Itâs a bizarro-world show-biz sitcom with three timelines, a smattering of animation, Candy Land production design, talking pugs, and a heroine who explains that, physically, she can only speak in âbaby voiceâ or ârich lady at a cocktail partyâ voice. Itâs a more immediately lovable iteration on 30 Rockâs entertainment-industry satire. Lady Dynamite has the same ability to pull apart popular culture and command impressive guest turns. (Season 1 has Ana Gasteyer, Jenny Slate, and Judd Apatow; season 2 adds Andy Samberg, Judy Greer, and Weird Al Yankovic.) But its lead is far less interested in posturing as Pinterestâs idea of a mess, and far more interested in struggling to keep her shit together for real. Season 1 has about a thousand plot lines, but to put it simply: it follows a character named Maria Bamford, played by Maria Bamford, as she tries to move forward with her comedy career and take care of her mental health at the same time. This involves turning down a Judd Apatow movie over and over, offending him deeply. Season 2 is both stranger than the first and more aggressively meta. Between all the usual antics (the first episodeâs A-plot is about a raccoon named Randall), itâs a dissection of how a TV show gets green-lit in the streaming age â through consideration of how it fits into a catalog, a recommendation algorithm, a brand, etc. Lady Dynamite directly addresses how a struggle with bipolar disorder is worthy of series-length exploration, even while implying that Netflix is taking advantage of it to win brownie points with subscribers and critics. The second seasonâs structure is just as odd as the first, with frequent time jumps back to Bamfordâs 1987 adolescence in Duluth, Minnesota, and forward to a jarring, dystopian future in which sheâs turning her life into a TV show (called Maria Bamford is Nuts!) for a content farm called âMuskVision.â MuskVision is an Elon Musk property, but it has the Netflix branding and color scheme. (There are also several side plots that involve a malevolent autonomous Tesla.) Maria Bamford is Nuts! â a science fiction reimagining of her life, in which she, again, plays herself â is green-lit after a small robot named Don Jr. (Iâm still struggling to figure out that part of the joke) scans her face and feeds her through an algorithm. MuskVision needs more mental illness content, Don Jr. declares! Ana Gasteyer, playing a Hollywood agent whose flame-adorned office building looks like the gates of Hell, explains why: âI want to tell the story of your fucking life in bingeable fucking installments! It will be so inventive and groundbreaking in its comedy that alt-comedy Twitter will choke on its own jizz! And here is the cherry on the streaming sundae: we will focus on mental illness, and we will destigmatize it, forever!â In a recent interview with the AV Club, Bamford explains that the second season of Lady Dynamite gave her the unexpected opportunity to critique the first. In a brain-busting twist, some of the examples she uses in this interview double as lines her character says on Lady Dynamite, in a handful of direct addresses to the camera. Bamford â as either the real Bamford or the show-within-a-show Bamford; itâs hard to tell which fourth wall sheâs breaking at any given moment â takes a sidebar to say that her first season (of Lady Dynamite or of Maria Bamford is Nuts!, it isnât clear) had too many blowjobs, and that it âwasnât coolâ to have an entirely white writersâ room collaborate on an episode about race. She isnât just critiquing her streaming platform, sheâs critiquing the show it let her produce.
Photo by Beth Dubber / Netflix
The new season of Lady Dynamite also has a lot of strange 30 Rock-esque plotlines that initially seem like distractions. Bamfordâs character finds out that her manager Bruce Ben-Bacharach (Fred Melamed) tricked her into a production deal involving half a dozen reality competition TV shows starring children in the Philippines. They have sinister titles like Kids Have to Dance, Can You Beat Up a Fifth Grader? and Shark Tank. Hoping to atone for her involvement, Bamford tries to ingratiate herself at a Filipino community center in Los Angeles, and ends up accidentally letting a bunch of strangers plan her wedding. What they come up with involves a stranger in red glitter walking her down the aisle, six-foot wings with portraits of every Catholic saint glued onto them, and an atmosphere that her mother declares âlike a Mad Max movie without the dust.â This season also introduces the âHollywood Ladies Club,â a Skull and Bones-like organization led by Transparent creator Jill Soloway. Its goal is to lean into and exploit Hollywood sexism, keeping men distracted by keeping them âjacking itâ all the time. This involves sending Maria on a quest to unleash a âhive-queenâ named Ranlith. âHave you seen the Matrix trilogy?â Maria is asked, two or three times, as part of her introduction to this bonkers conspiracy. âNo I havenât, and I really donât want to,â she keeps muttering, âIt just looks so boring.â Later, en route to the core of the Earth, she has to use her boobs and tongue to jump-start a magical elevator. This probably sounds like incoherent, over-the-top storytelling. Itâs true that Bamford doesnât actually arrive at a digestible critique of Hollywood sexism, or the whiteness of writersâ rooms. But eventually, both of these plotlines are revealed as spinoffs from the showâs central conflict, like Bamfordâs tendency to take on more and more responsibility and emotional obligation until it threatens to destroy her. She presents that as the result of a pathological fear of hurting or disappointing anyone for even a second, and she pushes both plots to absurd lengths to show just how irrational the fear is.
Photo by Beth Dubber / Netflix
In the same AV Club interview, Bamford speaks diplomatically but disconcertingly about how the 17-hour production days on her Netflix series were almost unmanageable for her. She was told that doing 10-hour âchild actor daysâ would be too expensive. Of course, that production schedule isnât unique to Netflix, but you donât have to guess at how it threatened Bamfordâs mental health; this risk is literally the plot of the second season of her Netflix show. Lady Dynamiteâs frank hostility toward Netflix may be less satisfying for the average viewer than it is for me, a culture writer trying to keep up with a dozen original series releases each month. But anyone navigating the age of peak TV has likely felt a twinge of the feeling Bamford expresses here: that all life experiences exist to be pushed through an algorithm and come out the other side as money and laudatory headlines. Itâs a sharp twist on Nora Ephronâs famous âeverything is copyâ philosophy â everything is content. And the books Ephron created out of her life experiences were her books, but Bamfordâs show belongs to Netflix. Bamford has spoken plainly about her bipolar disorder outside of the series, often in her standup, and recently in a column for The New York Times, in which she detailed how she met and fell in love with her husband, the artist Scott Marvel Cassidy. (At age 43, this was her first long-term relationship.) The character of Mariaâs husband on Lady Dynamite is based on and named after him, and the unassuming ease of their banter is the showâs emotional core: it can slip between silly and serious, but never comes off as anything but 100 percent attentive and affectionate. Their relationship is what eventually gets her out of her Hollywood dystopia, and itâs the only plotline that abstains from all the surrealist elements that swirl around everything else. The love story Bamford wrote in the Times is short, told with matter-of-fact prose, and organized around a plainly stated but harrowing story. Itâs a great supplement to the show, which ultimately sneaks something human into a confusing collage of societal critiques. Not that anyone should care about this part, but the love story even somewhat redeems Netflix: Bamford clearly resents the algorithmic approach to content â or at least, she thinks itâs worth challenging and mocking, but she contorted around it to tell a deeply personal story. Describing a show with as many bizarre moving pieces as Lady Dynamite makes it sound like a joke, and watching it in âbingeable fucking installmentsâ is sort of tiring. But itâs the gradual piling and eventual shucking of absurdities that makes the end of the second season so rewarding and, strangely, elegant. The second season of Lady Dynamite is currently available on Netflix.
Tags: November 15, 2017 at 01:34PM
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A silence had long since settled in the Bounty meeting room, as the ninja mulled over the weekend's events.Â
Unlike the last few times they'd been in the room, Kai didn't attack the training dummy with fire fueled by frustrations, instead continuing his pacing from the hospital.Â
The others were scattered about, munching on snacks or looking at the ground with folded arms, not wanting to address the topic on hand.Â
......
"Alright, that's it." Kai snapped, his steps finally coming an end, "Let's all just admit it, Cole was right."Â
.....
The fire ninja ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he was met by ashamed silence. "The bizarros...they just wanna be left alone."Â
......
......
"So, what'd'we do now..?" Lloyd kicked at the floorboards, wincing slightly at the ache in his leg, "We can't just...up and leave like Cole did. That'd leave Ninjago defenseless"
"Do we even know this is permanent?" The others turned to look at Jay, who raised his hands in surrender, "Look...I'm grateful they saved Lloyd, and I can't deny the obvious desperation to just...be free."Â
"But...I mean, we can't deny that they were created with evil intentions, right? What if..this is temporary?"
"Not to mention... Cryptor straight up...y'know, murdered Ronin. And he's one of their allies, what if this is all some...elaborate act!"
.....
The room went silent once more, as the ninja continued to ponder. Jay shot an apologetic look to Nya after mentioning Ronin, noting the boiling anger in the water ninja's eyes.Â
#Ninjago#Written answer ask blog#Oh...it's the ninja#Ask the redeemed Bizarros!#Redeemed Bizarro Ninja Au#Murder mention tw
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Alright. In a few days I'll be writing a thing where Safa, Daemon, and Blizzard meet up with Azul. This'll conclude the short "Ninja are after them" arc I made.
This means, it's time for audience input.
Now this blog hasn't received a whole lot of attention, but I still wanna know-
Are there specific storylines y'all would like to see in the future? Specific interactions you'd be interested in? Maybe you'd like to interview a specific bizarro for a while instead of the whole team?
Whatever comes to mine, send it in! I wanna know!!
- Aries
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Oooooo,, daemonâs finally realized his emotions hueueeuue
"...I..guess that's what's going on..huh..?" Daemon sighed, running a hand over the back of his neck. His eyes never left the cracked phone screen before him.
'It's a date then?'
......
He typed his response. Letting his thumb hover over the send button as he read it over, and over again.
He didn't know if he wanted to know Cryptor's response, if he was being honest.
.....
Swallowing, he quickly pressed 'send', before setting the phone beside him once more. He took a deep breath, trying to settle his nerves and still quickly beating heart.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cryptor stopped pacing, face still glowing red when he heard his phone go off.
Hesitantly, he reached over, and picked the device up.
"Do..you want it to be a date..?"
......
He pressed the "call" button next to Daemon's contact. He anxiously tapped his finger on his arm, listening to the soft metallic "ting!" that sounded through the room as he did so.
#Whooo! FInally answering questions again let's go-#Ask answered#Ninjago#Cryptor#ninjago cryptor#daemon blackfyre#Daemon Ninjago#Bizarro Ninja#Daemon! Bizarro Cole#ninjago au#ask blog#written answer ask blog#redeemed bizarros au#redeemed Cryptor au#Sayijo#Dark voidshipping#Darkvoidshipping#Dark Void#Dark Void plot#Dark Voidshipping plot
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LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It was later in the evening when they finally started walking back to Cryptor's apartment, having spent most of their time together walking around town after they finished their coffee.
They'd ended up talking a lot, and laughing. Wide grins spread across their faces, hands barely touching as they walked side by side.
Needless to say the date had gone well.
.....
They slowed to a stop in front of the apartment building. Cryptor's grin fell to a soft smile.
"I suppose..this is where the date ends?"
"Yeah..guess so.." Daemon sighed, turning to look at Cry with a smile. "I'm glad we decided t'do this. Today was...nice."
"It really was.." Cryptor chucked, running a hand through his hair, "Can't believe I was panicking about as much as I did.."
......
Daemon shook his head, his grin returning. "At least I wasn't the only one..I was a flustered mess the whole time we were talking on the phone.."
"Hm.."
#Decided to skip the actual date part since that felt like it'd be weirdly drawn out?#Though viewers can ask them for some details obvs sldkf#Anyways#Ninjago#Daemon#Daemon! Bizarro Cole#Bizarro Cole#Ninjago bizarro cole#Ninjago bizarro ninja#bizarro ninjago#Cryptor#Cryptor Ninjago#General Cryptor#Ask the bizarros#written answer ask blog#redeemed bizarros au#ninjago au#ninjago ask blog#ask blog#Sayijo#Abyss shipping#Abyssshipping#Abyss plot#abyss shipping plot#Abyssshipping Ninjago
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Dress to impress and donât be late
Daemon found himself leaning against the outside wall of the coffee shop, absently scrolling through his phone while he waited. Every few seconds his eyes flicked from to screen to check for Cryptor.
He wasn't used to being the early one.
.....
A few minutes passed before he spotted the retired soldier approaching from a distance, greeting him with a grin and slipping his phone into his pocket.
"Hey.."
A small smile found it's way onto Cryptor's face, as he came to a stop beside Daemon.
"Hey.."
.....
"So uh..." Daemon cleared his throat, nodding to the shop behind them, "Coffee?"
#((Sorry I didn't add a description of what they were wearing. decided to leave it up to whatever y'all picture))#Ninjago#Ask answered#Sayijo#Written answer ask blog#Redeemed bizarro au#Cryptor#Cryptor Ninjago#Bizarro#Bizarros ninjago#Bizarro Cole#Daemon! Bizarro Cole#Daemon#Ninjago au#Abyssshipping#Abyss shipping#Abyss plot
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It was near impossible to focus on anything but the situation at hand, or more accurately, the anxieties it brought about.
Daemon stared at the cobblestone floor below him, tugging slightly at the cold vengestone cuffs that were locked tightly on his wrists. He and the others had been thrown into a holding cell soon after arriving at the police station with the ninja.
To their credit, the ninja had tried to tell the commissioner and his officers that the bizarros had come peacefully and werenât to be arrested. And were currently trying to negotiate the âcompromisesâ heâd heard so much about.
âŠâŠ..
The cold of the cuffs bit into his skin, spreading through his arms and to his chest. He dug his nails into the palm of his hands as memories flashed past his eyes.
Placed into a cell much too small, forced to wear vengestone for long periods of time. All the questions they asked, questions he didnât have answers to.
The pacing, the sleepless nights.
Believing it was better that he was cooped up instead of walking free. Believing the people he cared for were better offâŠ
âŠâŠ
He shook his head, trying to clear his stirring mind.
..He really hated prisonsâŠ
âŠâŠâŠ.
Something metal nudged him in the arm. He glanced up, meeting a pair of worried mechanical eyes.
He couldnât give Cryptor even the slightest smile.
The nindroidâs frown deepened, and he leaned on Daemonâs shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. âDaeâŠone way or another, itâll be fine. You know that right?â
âYou arenât alone.â
âŠâŠ..
âI knowâ
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the ninja stood in the commissionerâs office, trying to explain the situation.
âSir, you need to understand-â
The police commissioner raised a hand to his mustache, cutting them off âI heard it all from Cole, when we arrested the first two- which ones were they, the Jay and Zane look alikes??â
âSpeaking of-âHis eyes fell on Cole, who glanced at the wall instead, âYou shouldnât even be standing here, free, Mr. Brookstone.â
âŠâŠ
âWeâll get to that later. Weâre not asking you to let them go free, just to give them a chance.â Kai stepped forward, placing a hand on Coleâs shoulder.
âWe all know you have the resources and technology to keep track of them.â Lloyd added, âIt shouldnât be hard to give them a few months to prove themselves, at least.â
âŠâŠ.
âŠâŠ..
A beat of silence, and the commissioner sat down with a sigh.
âWhy are you giving them a chance, ninja? Last I checked, most of you were pretty firm in your standing that the Bizarros werenât to be trusted.â
âŠâŠ..
âŠâŠâŠ
âItâsâŠa bit of a storyâŠsir.â
âJust a chance, thatâs all we ask. All theyâve been asking for.â
#Ninjago#Cryptor#Cole#Kai#Lloyd#Zane#Daemon#Ask Blog#Written answer ask blog#Redeemed Bizarros#Oh...it's the ninja
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Silence had settled in Daemon's hospital room, as everyone pondered over a prior conversation.Â
They were all still in disagreement over whether it was a good idea to follow the ninja. But the fact of the matter was, it was to good of an offer to pass up.
Not to mention, if the ninja were lying, the bizarros had no way of leaving unnoticed. Nor did they have a place to go.Â
.......
It was Blizzard who spoke first, much like Zane with the ninja.Â
"So...are we sure we're going through with this..?"
......
"I still don't like it"Â
"We know Daemon, but-"Â
Daemon continued over Blizzard, his tone somewhat anxious despite his best attempts to hide it. "But- if you're all in...I'll give it a try."Â
"We've broken out of jail twice so far." Blizzard assured, folding his hands in his lap. "We can do it again, should it come to that."Â
.......
Daemon sighed, remaining silent as he looked at his hands.
"I'll get us out if it seems to be going that way, Dae" Cryptor placed a hand on Daemon's shoulder, "Don't worry."Â
.......
Blizzard looked to Azul and Ayden. "What about you two..?"
"Like I said, I don't wan' stay in a house with any of you, let alone a jail cell." Ayden leaned back with a shrug, nonchalant. "But whatever."Â
"I..I'm willing to give it a go." Azul smiled, "I mean I'm not eager to go back to that place but...if there's a possibility of a pardon or house arrest or something... I'll give it a go."
.......
Blizzard nodded, "Alright then...guess we'll head out tomorrow."
----------------------------------------------
Ayyy we're back to having a plot (outside of that little avocado storyline XD). The bizarros (and Cryptor) have officially made a decision, even if they don't all feel right about it.Â
Wonder how the rest of the story will go?
- Aries
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Daemon winced, as he groggily opened his eyes, only to close them swiftly when blurred ceiling lights sent a swift ache straight to his head.
Inhaling deeply, he decided to just..take in what surroundings he could with his eyes closed. The sound of beeping machines filled his ears, and though he could barely twitch his fingers, he could feel a thin, slightly scratchy fabric covering his body.
Where was he?
..........
More importantly, he realized with a start, where were the others? Were they safe? Were they in prison?
Was he..the only one who...
His eyes snapped open this time. He ignored the pain it brought, his heart rate picking up along with his breathing as he tried to force his body to move, to sit up, to leave this.. this bed, this room.
......
In the end, he only managed to turn his head, the rest his body refusing to follow his orders.
But it turned out, that was all he needed to do.
His eyes landed on a sleeping Cryptor, who's jacket had been placed over Safa, who was sleeping in the chair next to him.
A smile drifted lazily across Daemon's face, relief flooding through him as he turned his gaze back to the ceiling.
They were safe, and free. And..that meant this must be a hospital of some kind.
........
They were safe.
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