#Benny is more understandable since like she is the action hero

[stillthesunkenstars]

I feel too many people think of brax as a psychopath and Jason as a dumb jerk and Benny as just a girlboss it’s kinda insane because I don’t think these people ever read like. Any brax books or Jason books. orz

[dirtydancingdean]

something about how dean so completely parallels buffy summers from btvs like they are two iterations of the same character. i mean, buffy the vampire slayer is an undeniably a big influence on supernatural, even if the show itself wouldn’t exactly advertise that fact. you have sam’s sacrifice in swan song paralleling buffy’s sacrifice in the gift, the borrowing of a lot of demons and (god help me) lore, the weird amount of buffy actors in the show (sometimes playing vampires, which is hysterical), the campiness and horror. hell, even cas’s moment of pure happiness seems like a nod to angel’s moment of pure happiness. (dean and cas did it better though). but the biggest similarity is the way dean parallels buffy. he’s obviously not meant to. he’s supposed to be a gun-slinging, wise-cracking ladies man, but that’s not what he becomes. honestly that’s not even what he comes across as in the beginning. buffy and dean are both meant to be heroes, but buffy is the main character of her show, while that’s supposed to be sam in dean’s. and buffy and sam do share their similarities, particularly in their desire for normality which backfires on them because of their equally weighed desire to help people. but dean is so much more like buffy in so many ways?? like buffy, dean always feels everything is his responsibility (like he says in 7.05, “There’s always something eating at me. That’s who I am. something happens, I feel responsible, all right?”). this is largely in part thanks to j*hn winchester, while buffy’s sense of responsibility comes from the fact that a whole group of old white men have told her she’s the one girl in all the world who can fight evil. both of them kind of know on some level that this is kind of fucked up and even try attempting to fight back against their imposed duties occasionally. dean says it in 2.20: “Your happiness for all those people's lives, no contest. Right? But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero?” which is buffy to a t! that's what buffy is all about! the loneliness and unfairness of having this burden on your shoulders! buffy says this in prophecy girl: “I don't care! I don't care. Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't wanna die.” but they both always, always go back to do their job. they both always sacrifice their own happiness for others. none of the writers would have intended to have dean make a speech that is entirely parallel to buffy summers’s prophecy girl speech, right down to both sarah michelle gellar and jackles’s tears. because ha ha, buffy is a girl hero, while dean is the embodiment of every male fantasy about what an action hero is.

the thing is, though, when you make dean every male fantasy in the world - attractive, good with women, tough, strong, likes rock music, hates chick flick moments, knows how to shoot a gun, looks good doing it, etc - you make him every male fantasy about women too. which is how we get those slow, full-body shots of dean that you normally only get with women, how we get dean being a caretaker, dean being a pacifier between sam and john, dean watching dirty dancing and liking taylor swift, dean always being the bait, dean’s interactions with villains being framed sexually, dean getting called pretty twice a season. we joke about dean being a hot action girl but he is often objectified in the particular way only women in media are. the way buffy is - in the show i think they actually did a pretty good job of not objectifying buffy. but there are times where they do, and it’s uncomfortable, and it’s subtle, the way it is on spn. and buffy and dean are both used to this kind of treatment; they often weaponize their sexuality, using it when they feel threatened. in the first episode of s2, buffy’s just suffered the enormous trauma of being resurrected after having been bitten by a vampire whose violence has sexual undertones. when she comes back to her friends, they talk about how closed off and mean she’s being, culminating in the scene where she goes to the bronze. if you haven't seen that scene then i dont know how to explain the way she absolutely uses her sexuality against xander and angel, just like dean uses his as a front to protect himself against everyone. when buffy’s traumatized she pushes herself away from those closest to her, represses her emotions, and uses fighting demons as a distraction. sound familiar? buffy and dean both make witty pop culture references that monsters don’t understand and self-deprecating jokes about themselves to deal with when they feel threatened and their low opinions of themselves. buffy has a lot of lines that sound just like dean’s! @lazarusr1sing mentioned buffy saying, “I may be dead, but I’m still pretty, which is more than I can say for you,” as a line that dean literally could have said and it’s true! they’re both a fan of quirky banter during fights but they’re both so messed up when it comes to their opinions of themselves. buffy in 7x07: “I have all this power. I didn't ask for it. I don't deserve it. It's like... I wanted to be punished. I wanted to hurt like I thought I deserved. [...] I feel like I'm worse than anyone. Honestly, I'm beneath them. My friends, my boyfriends. I feel like I'm not worthy of their love. 'Cause even though they love me, it doesn't mean anything cause their opinions don't matter. They don't know. They haven't been through what I've been through. [...] Sometimes I feel...this is awful. I feel like I'm better than them. Superior.” yeah, that’s...dean.

and they absolutely dive into self guilt and hatred if something goes wrong, even if it’s not necessarily their fault. faith in 3x15 says to buffy, “In the balance, nobody's gonna cry over some random bystander who got caught in the crossfire,” and buffy says, “I am.” the amount of trauma buffy and dean both go through kind of desensitizes them to this idea - dean especially, i think, though that’s mainly the fault of the sheer amount of writers and episodes supernatural has - but if they get someone killed, they will do absolutely anything to make up for it.

the idea of sympathetic monsters in buffy and supernatural is met with scorn a lot of the time by buffy and dean. for buffy this is a matter of mental self-preservation. her job is to kill demons, and if she lets herself think all demons can be good, then that means she might have been killing sentient beings that could have done good or weren’t doing harm, since she was a teenager. she can’t let herself think that way so she closes herself off to the possibility of demons being good a lot of the time. we talk about how supernatural majorly drops the ball when it comes to empathizing with the monsters (where’s that post, you know, the, “saving people, hunting things, white men with guns decide which is which,” post), but when it comes to dean, part of that is because, like buffy, he doesn’t want to face the idea that he’s been killing things that aren’t evil since he was a child. he’ll make exceptions (cas, crowley, benny, rowena), like buffy makes exceptions (angel, spike, clem, oz, anya), but it’s easier if it’s all black and white. they’re both strangely attracted to monsters too, though, because part of them feels like they are monsters themselves. like @s4castiel said they have romantic or romantically implied relationships with things they’re meant to fight - dean with benny, cas, and crowley + buffy with angel, spike, and faith. and monsters change themselves for buffy and dean’s sakes – cas, benny, crowley, angel, spike, all become better for the sake of buffy and dean! like that leviathan in 7.06 who says dean doesn’t have relationships he has applications for sainthood!

they hate the idea of being seen as just a killer (dean in 3.10, “Daddy knew what you were. Good soldier and nothing else,” and buffy in 5.22, “Guess that means a Slayer really is just a killer after all.”) dean says, “[A killer] is not who I am,” to chuck in 15.19, just like buffy says, “A slayer is not a killer,” through the later seasons. spike’s speech in 5.07 i think, really says it: “Death is on your heels, baby, and sooner or later, it's gonna catch you. And part of you wants it, not only to stop the fear and uncertainty, but because you're just a little bit in love with it. Death is your art. You make it with your hands day after day, that final gasp, that look of peace.” their worst fear is that all they can do is hurt other people. they’ve been brought up to think violence is all they can do. but they both are first and foremost protectors, especially when it comes to sam and dawn, whose roles in both shows respectively is to be a reminder of dean and buffy’s humanity.

dawn, who first shows up in season 5 as buffy’s younger sister, is, represents buffy’s most beloved parts of herself, buffy’s humanity. sam is a lot like her in the respect that their destiny was to end the world; they’re both book-smart too, while buffy and dean act a lot like dumb blondes despite being incredibly intelligent in ways that aren’t clear to everyone. (not to go on a tangent but they’re both really good battle tacticians who make a lot of references to literature and tv shows and can perceive people and monsters’ weaknesses, etc.) dawn is dangerous to the world like sam is dangerous to the world in s2-s5, but buffy will not kill her like dean will not kill sam. you know how in the end 2009 dean realizes just how much 2014 dean has changed when he talks about killing sam as lucifer? sam is dean’s humanity like dawn is buffy’s humanity. they both put their siblings over everything else in the world. they sacrifice things that sam and dawn can’t begin to understand because dean and buffy shield them from it - dean in 2.22: “I had to take care of you. It’s my job,” and buffy in 6.14: “Dawn, the most important job that I have is looking out for you.” in s5 of buffy, if dawn lives, the world ends, and buffy doesn’t care because she can’t kill dawn. in 5.22 she says, “I don't understand. I don't know how to live in this world if these are the choices. If everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point. I just wish that...I just wish my mom was here. [..] If Dawn dies, I’m done with it. I’m quitting,” paralleling dean quitting hunting after sam dies. they’re both insanely protective over dawn and sam - dean in 2.09: “You make a move on [Sam], you'll be dead before you hit the ground,” and buffy in 5.22: “I’ll kill anyone who comes near Dawn.” when sam dies in 2.22, dean doesn’t hesitate to offer up his soul in exchange for sam’s life; when dawn is about to die to save the world in 5.22, buffy doesn’t hesitate to die to save the world in dawn’s place. this all on top of the fact that sam and dawn are the babies, the ones dean and buffy have to take care of, which means that...no one is taking care of dean and buffy. like, dean in 3.10: “Sam, [John] doted on. Sam he loved,” and buffy’s mom in 5.05 hugging dawn and calling her “little punkin belly” and in response to buffy’s question of, “Did you ever have any names for me?” says, “No, I think you were always just Buffy.” when buffy’s mom gets sick in s5, buffy has to shoulder an incredible amount of responsibility - giving her mom her medicine, taking care of her, taking care of dawn, fighting a hellgod - and can’t break down in front of anyone because she has to be strong for dawn and her mom, the way dean has to be strong for sam and john (john in 2.01: “You took care of Sammy, you took care of me. You did that, and you didn't complain, not once.) they’re both so scared of opening up and being a burden - buffy’s nightmare hallucination of her deadbeat dad in 1.10 says the same kind of stuff about her being a burden and unwanted that zachariah’s projection of mary says in 5.16. it really is about the eldest sister complex in the end!!!

but they didn’t ever really mean to have dean be like buffy! buffy was literally meant to subvert traditional male action heroes. buffy summers is the male action hero, but she gets to have feelings and traditionally feminine traits too. she likes cheese and wearing pink and dressing up and having pretty hair, but she thinks about battle tactics and kills a vampire like every episode. dean? dean is meant to be the male action hero without the part about having feelings and traditionally feminine traits...except that backfires spectacularly. i mean, they give dean traits such as liking nightgowns to be like haha, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, isn’t that HILARIOUS. except it doesn’t come off that way, we know it doesn’t come off that way. so dean’s watched dead poets society and rent and he sings along to air supply and is good with kids and nerds out over cowboys, but he drives a classic muscle car and kills death and carries a gun with him everywhere he goes. dean and buffy both become multifaceted, complicated, human heroes – but it was intentional for buffy. it was unintentional for dean, so the narrative actively punishes him for it. i mean ymmv on how you feel about the ending of buffy, but she does get a satisfying happy ending. dean, on the other hand, is silenced and killed off and gets the worst possible ending for his character, all because they couldn’t control him.

[jamiejohnsontalk]

LGBT Representation in Jamie Johnson as Compared to Other Kids’ Media

Pinned to the top of my blog because I’m quite proud of this post, and I still want newer followers to be able to see it.

From what I know, LGBT representation is relatively new in media. Not just kids’ media, but media in general. I don’t even think I knew what gay meant until I was like 11. And I didn’t know that religions didn’t exactly have the greatest opinion of gay people till my GCSEs. In that sense, I was lucky. I knew I was gay before I knew what homophobia was, so I have always been comfortable with who I am. But others didn’t have life that... Well, simple I suppose. I’ve always known who I am, but other people, well, in the worst case scenario, gay people can become homophobic themselves and grow to hate themselves. This might seem like a sidetracky introduction, but I think it shows the importance of LGBT in media. For someone like me, it can help to start to normalise gay people to my family. Even though they’re still homophobic, at least they’re able to watch programmes with LGBT characters in. I met someone who’s dad wouldn’t watch any shows with LGBT characters in it. And for how rare gay people used to be in media in general, they’re even rarer in kids’ media. Why is it that Disney Channel only had their first gay main character in 2017 when homosexuality was legalised in... 2003 in the US. Wow, I can’t lie, I looked up that statistic expecting it to be way earlier. OK, but it was legalised in 1967 in the UK. So why did I never see any gay characters in my childhood? I’ve known I was gay since I was 9, but I must have first seen a gay character in, OK, it was Doctor Who. Captain Jack was pansexual. So I did have some LGBT representation. But there wasn’t much. And again, not in kids’ media. So, let’s look at some of the kids’ media that changed the landscape for LGBT rep in kids’ media. Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens We’ll start with what I think is probably the worst types of LGBT representation. First of all: Wizards vs Aliens. Benny came out. But I can’t remember the show ever talking about it again after he came out. Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, it’s not Russell T Davies’ fault that he never got the chance to let Luke come out in the show, and yes, he got to have Luke come out in the memorial episode for Sarah Jane on YouTube, but even before Liz had... Luke had left the main cast, so his coming out would have still meant less to audience members. Gravity Falls had a coming out at the very end of the show, and I believe so did Adventure Time, so they fit in this category too. Compare that to Dillon from Jamie Johnson. Yes, there’s a reasonable chance we won’t see him again after this season, but if it is, he gets to leave on a high. We get to explore his coming out journey. Steven Universe Steven Universe is great for LGBT representation, and it’s great for normalising LGBT representation. You’ve got a huge variety of LGBT characters, because the Gems are all gay (Except Rose). So you can understand that there are different types of gay people (Love Victor did that too, but I’m not sure how many people would watch it). Steven universe is definitely the gayest kids’ show. High School Musical the Musical the Series fits in this category too. Carlos is out and proud. And we don’t see his coming out, more his love life. Again, great rep. Normalises gay people. Jamie Johnson is nowhere near the level of gay that Steven Universe or High School Musical the Musical the Series is, but I think that it’s less meaningful than other shows I’ll mention and Jamie Johnson. It’s the same reason Victor said “Screw you” to Simon at the beginning of Love Victor. We don’t want to see gay people who have it easy. We want to see gay people who are like us. Who have been through stuff and have come out the other side alive. We want hope, but that doesn’t come from seeing gay people who have it easy. I see people playing football and risking corona and I’m jealous. I want to play football again. I see gay people have it easy: Same. I wish I could have it that easy, and it makes me sad. Steven Universe is a great show, and has great rep, but I think even kids’ media should have something closer to home. Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President I love how they portrayed Cyrus and Bobby. We got to see Cyrus’ story from realising he liked guys to being able to say “I’m gay” to showing his crush he likes him (though homophobes can pretend the bench scene was just a friendship scene). Cyrus’ arc was great, and the bench scene was perfect and the only problem with it was that it deserved a fourth season so we could see Cyrus and TJ in a relationship. Diary of a Future President though. I was heartbroken when Bobby didn’t come out to Liam. But then I found out there was a season 2 and I was OK, because it’s hard to come out. It’s as if all the shows make it so easy to come out to the first person, but it’s not. The first real life person I came out to, I came out at 22. And they had come out to me first. And I had to write it down on my phone. I couldn’t say it out loud. So yeah, seeing Diary of a Future President take it slow is amazing, and I love it, and it’s also what they did with Dillon. Some people think that they only really intended for Dillon to be gay from season 4. But, I think that they’ve known since the beginning. I plan to do a character analysis on Dillon after my rewatch, but I think I found something that shows they must have known since at least season 2. (I expect the analysis will be a lot shorter than this. Sorry for the crazy length. And if it’s a crap read. I don’t essay well). But if they knew from the beginning, that was a brilliant move on their part. The only thing that makes me unsure is how Dillon took 3 years to realise he might be gay, but it’s possible that he denied it to himself until he realised Elliot was gay. Because there’s no way he wasn’t thinking he was gay in season 4 episode 5. He didn’t think he was asexual, his reaction to Ruby’s foster mums suggested that he was interested because they were gay. But regardless, I love that they took it slow. Not everyone can come out as easily as others, and having someone like Bobby, or like Dillon, is so much more meaningful than Cyrus, even though Cyrus is an amazing character. Bobby and Dillon are more relatable because they’re finding it tough to come out. The Dumping Ground I kept trying to decide whether I thought the dumping ground or Andi Mack/Diary of a Future President had better LGBT representation. In the end, I decided that I preferred the Dumping Ground’s representation. Yes, in Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President, we get to see the coming out journey of Bobby and Cyrus, but even though Andi Mack touched on homophobia, a lot of people didn’t even realise Kira was blackmailing TJ, making him afraid of how people would react if they found out he was gay. A number of people just thought TJ was being an idiot. But the Dumping Ground had a gay couple wanting to foster Gus. And IIRC, Johnny thought it was wrong because they were gay. Something like that would foster (see what I did there?) potential discussion between parents and children about gay adoption. Some kids watching the show might have been gay and if they watched it with their parents, they could talk about it with them. Gage their reaction. Maybe even come out to them. The Dumping Ground’s episode was great. And then May-Li came out. And we never got to see her full journey, But we did get to see her journey to being accepted by her grandmother I think. And that’s something. And Now On To Jamie Johnson Just like the Dumping Ground, Jamie Johnson has been able to tackle serious issues. I mean, season 1 dealt with Jamie’s cheating father. You’ve got Zoe being a carer, Dillon getting diabetes. But in terms of LGBT representation, it’s season 4 and season 5. Season 4 episode 5 was incredible. I remember telling all my friends about it, and how amazing it was that CBBC were doing this. To recap: Ruby said her heroes were her foster parents, causing Dillon to ask Ruby about it. She thought he was being an idiot, even though in actual fact, he was excited that someone else was gay and trying not to show it. Dillon told his dad that Ruby had foster mums while he was telling him how Ruby’s biological parents weren’t in her life anymore. Liam, Dillon’s brother, used it to rile up Ruby’s sister Alba until she attacked him. She probably would have gotten expelled from the club, but Sienna filmed the incident so everyone found out what really happened, and it was Liam who got expelled. I think Alba only got excluded. What I find really awesome about the storyline though is not just that they had it. It was that the consequences of Liam’s actions set the course for the rest of the season, aka Dodgy Duncan. Liam’s actions caused the club’s image to go down the drain, and sponsors to leave, and that’s what made Duncan turn to the dark side. And it’s a subtle way to just say “Homophobia is bad”. Because Liam’s homophobia caused all the problems in the rest of the season. The First Time Dillon Let Himself “be Gay” Dillon took a long time to come out. And, like me, I think for a long time, nobody really suspected he was gay, in real life or in the audience. He never really showed it. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I would act super offended and upset if someone jokingly called me gay. So, yeah, it’s a slow burn. And we didn’t get any hints that he was gay, but that happens. Gay people are good at hiding, I think that’s why gay kids are often portrayed as loving theater. They already have to act their whole lives. It’s not easy to be in the closet. But I think that once Dillon was able to leave his father’s shadow, he was able to be more comfortable with himself, leading to him coming out to Elliot in episode 7. I think he had crushes before, specifically Michelle from season 2, but Elliot was the first time he felt like he could be himself. So here we have two massive points from other shows, but they haven’t been done together. The discussion of homophobia in the Dumping Ground, and the Slow Burn from Diary of a Future President. Social Media Presence Andi Mack made a huge deal about Cyrus being gay, like a week before the episode where he came out aired. HSMTMTS had Carlos be a gay stereotype from the trailer, and OK, Steven Universe was always gay. But Jamie Johnson, and the Dumping Ground didn’t make a big deal about it beforehand. They didn’t scream to the world “Look at us! We’re woke!” They showed it. They let people see for themselves, they let people debate for two weeks on Dillon’s sexuality, and they didn’t tell everyone that this was the episode Dillon would come out (though they made sure that everyone knew they should watch this episode). They just let people see for themselves. And after the episode aired, they made their move. They had the Jamie Johnson logo in rainbow colours to celebrate pride, they had a guide on how to react if someone comes out to you, and they had a history of pride, and I expect they’ll do even more on their social media after this week’s episode. @tkstrand​ reckons the Delliot post is Jamie Johnson’s most liked instagram post. I don’t know whether the other shows did this, but it’s a great gesture regardless. Oh, and there’s the fact that they’re doing a Bafta zoom conference on how they tackle issues. Choosing the Right Character and Breaking Ground for CBBC A lot of people on Instagram said that they thought it was Boggy who should be gay, and while I think either storyline would be great, I think that the writers made the right decision. 1) Boggy is an amazing person. He’s not afraid to be himself. I think, if Boggy was gay, then he wouldn’t have as much trouble coming out as Dillon is having. Of course, Boggy is going through stuff right now, but I still think he would have been a lot braver than Dillon and so we wouldn’t get the storyline we’re getting now delving into homophobia 2) If Dillon does have a minor or major role in season 6, we might get to explore homophobia in professional football, which would be super exciting 3) While Boggy is an amazing character, I’d reckon kids tend to gravitate to the coolest character as their favourite. And while Boggy radiates cool. (Seriously, check out the two posts I made on how sarcastic he is. And just look at his hat at the beginning of episode 1!

But Dillon is the more traditionally cool character, so he’s more likely to be a fan favourite (that and the fact that he’s the best developed character in Jamie Johnson). So for those who aren’t necessarily homophobic, but don’t really understand homosexuality, Dillon is the perfect choice to have written as gay. Because after next week, the people who don’t believe Dillon is gay might leave the episode with a new understanding of LGBT people. It’s been done with TJ, who’s also a cool character, but people who want to ignore the gay subtext can because it was never said out loud in the show. And I reckon Dillon is a groundbreaking character for CBBC. Benny left soon after he came out, Luke left before he came out, May-Li is part of an ensemble cast, so in terms of a small number of main characters (the core 4 in JJ being Dillon, Jamie, Zoe and Boggy), so I think Dillon is the first gay main character (not ensemble character) on CBBC who has gotten a major gay storyline. Could be wrong, let me know if I am! Groundbreaking in General From what it looks like, the next episode is gonna focus completely on Dillon’s coming out storyline. Forget kids’ media, I don’t think I’ve seen an adults’ show that has an entire episode solely dedicated to an LGBT storyline. (Even Reunited from Steven Universe wasn’t completely focused on Garnet). Love Victor was jam packed with side stories and I think even Real O’Neals always had side stories to it. If another show has done this, I’d love to hear, but if Jamie Johnson really has the whole episode dedicated solely to Dillon, I think it’s huge. I only hope it doesn’t mean that the storyline will be forgotten about in the last 4 episodes, but since the head writer of Jamie Johnson is LGBT, I have no doubt they’ll do it justice. Does Jamie Johnson Have the Best LGBT Representation in Kids’ Media? No, I don’t think it does. Andi Mack has 2 seasons where we follow Cyrus on his coming out journey and Steven Universe has a lot more LGBT people, including a non-binary character. But in the aspects Jamie Johnson does well, it excels at. The homophobia storyline(s), and Jamie Johnson’s instagram presence. And having the best developed and best defined character be the one to show kids how to treat gay people. Thursday could be a historic moment for Kids’ television if they do this right, and I think they will. So I hope that everyone enjoys the episode! No, I swear this wasn’t a long promo for the next episode. No, I am not sponsored. Yes, this post was extremely long, I’m really sorry about that. I hope it’s worth the read. If not, don’t worry, this will almost definitely be my longest post. No, I don’t know how to have a “continue reading” button. Does anyone happen to know how? Thanks! Edit: Apparently 4 O Clock club had a gay main character first, so I got that wrong, but I still hold that Jamie Johnson is groundbreaking.

[marlahey]

@rochey1010​ going back and forth in long-winded replies seems like unnecessary effort for both of us so I hope you don’t mind another text post as I fully articulate my thoughts. as I’ve said before, you’re obviously entitled to your own opinions, but you’ve now seemed to make a lot of assumptions about me a fan/viewer/general consumer of media that I feel like I should clear up. you’ve also made some further claims about the show I’d like to pick up for discussion. If you want to speak further please feel free to respond but of course don’t feel obligated. This’ll be the last public post/reply I make and we can go back to ignoring each other in the tags!

Well i love Eliott/Lola's friendship and i have an upcoming post on that as i said in other posts. I love lola too but i'm sorry i didn't just start watching this show because lola was invented and there's a w/w love story. I've been here for seasons and carried over from OG. I have investment in eliott for personal reasons (mental health) and elu because duh. Their stories have been long running too as i said. And you don't have to be a main to set up a plot/arc. The things between them have been set up since S3 with minute par minute talk, S4 and Idriss, S5 and the cheating perspective, and now S6 and Lola friendship. That is intentional. Do you think it's a coincidence that Lucas talked about pansexuality and eliott having more choice in S5 and suddenly Eliott has a friendship with a girl. That lucas abandonment issues haven't been resolved and are now coming to the forefront because of this friendship? That max has stated that Eliott feels he can save someone from a darkness he himself went through, that eliott himself was sorta saved from the shadows by Lucas. That neils/david specifically stated that this character can help someone even though he has bipolar disorder. That with Eliott's arc there is a focus on his SKAM. That we now have new info about it serving the season. If you understand writing. These things aren't put there for fun. They are there to imply/hint/foreshadow events actions to come. That there is a character now on the show with Lola basically female eliott. Do you think these are all coincidences. This plot we are seeing has slowly been set up not just since S3 but actually heavily developed starting in S5. And that if you now go back and watch S5 you see our main players being set up for this plot e.g  dasille relationship, daphne's ED, Eliott and his individuality, Elu trust/insecurity issues, Eliott's art and it tying into seasonal themes, Lola herself and her outlier persona etc. I don't know whether you are but there are many fans have migrated over from espana just for this season. But you have to understand there is a long term fanbase here that love Eliott, are invested in him and have been waiting for more of his insight. We are now getting that and we will talk about him. He's a hugely popular character as is Lucas and their love. I love both and i will talk about both. Sometimes i won't talk much About lola and talk more about eliott, sometimes i'll connect them and discuss their relationship, sometimes i'll make a post about just about lola, daphne, tiff, benny, movie references as i have. But this is my blog and i'll post what i want to post. You don't have to read any of this stuff. The tag is a big place, just scroll by. As for the theories- just theories. And in my theories i believe these characters are going to make mistakes, fail and grow e.g. lola self Destructing again but being her own hero by the end, eliott and lola being dragged down like lucas said but showing the strength of their friendship by the end, lucas being proven right but also proven wrong by the end. Like i said specific dialogue now being used is not just there to fill the script e.g. "and i have lucas. I can't lose this" "i think one of you may bring the other down" and eliott is heading for a rock bottom as is lola. Again just my thoughts. ���

While I find it odd that you seem to be gatekeeping the skam france fan community, to be clear I have seen the entirety of three iterations: og, france, and austin. I believe I started OG during s2 or 3, and have seen Fr and Aus from the beginning. I’m not as interested in other versions as I’m very familiar with the plots/characters by now. I’m partial to france as a bilingual canadian as it’s nice to exercise that part of my brain; I’ve also studied/lived there briefly and have some very close friends from france so that amplifies my enjoyment. I’m also bisexual, so I also find this ‘only here for lola + w/w’ when you yourself admit to being emotionally invested in the show’s most dominant queer ship dichotomy very awkward.  to be honest, I think many skam’s fandoms tend to fixate on the esak ship and their season. friends have seen other iterations and confirmed this for me. it happened with elu as expected so I was really unsurprised when maya was introduced and fandom immediately put a lot of their investment into shipping two characters of the same gender. nearly every fandom in general does this: teen wolf, glee, supernatural to name a few – even harry potter. I’m not really a fan of the romantic subplot in lola’s season. she is not elliot 2.0 for so many reasons; she’s her own person and she doesn’t need a romantic partner to be a compelling character with a compelling story. that being said, I liked elu’s season. I particularly love maxence’s elliot; he’s my favourite even. I was thrilled to see him onscreen however briefly after S3 every time he appeared. now he’s finally his own person outside of his relationship with lucas and I couldn’t be more pleased to see that.  I’m not sure how idriss and elliot reconnecting after the attempted kiss falling out plays into lucas’ insecurity or their relationship. it’s perhaps a reminder of his bipolar disorder or the fact that he clearly had friends/relationships before lucas, but I’m not sure how it’s relevant to the season at hand. the biphobia discussion with arthur preceeding lola’s introduction as the new main is not proof that lucas’ supposed abandonment issues are founded in any way, or that he even still has them when we meet her. by insisting on it, you’re perpetuating the harmful idea that any bi or pan person will be tempted to cheat or leave (physically or emotionally) when presented with literally any person whose gender opposes their current partner. this is something that skam fr had literally left unaddressed for so long even with representation in alexia and elliot, and I was so thrilled when it finally came up. it’s very uncomfortable that you’re now using that important conversation as apparent proof that lucas will be abandoned or betrayed, inadvertently or not, by his pansexual boyfriend. I know that daphné was meant to be s6′s main and skam fr wasn’t given the rights by og’s creator. so it makes sense that she/her relationship/struggles feature heavily in her sister’s season. I’m personally thrilled cause I love her and lula is a wonderful actress. that being said, not everything is foreshadowing. not every single interaction or conversation will return to further plot or character. sometimes storylines are just resolved or dropped and awareness raised is just awareness raised. sometimes it’s wonderful and sometimes less so. I understand writing. I’m saying this as a literal former english teacher (ignoring capitalization for aesthetic lol) and assistant in film/tv post-production with an MA in media studies. “Lucas, you have nothing to worry about, it’s not like that between us.” “I know, he explained it to me.”  I’m not sure how much clearer the literal show can be about this issue. spoiler or not, it’s been made abundantly clear that lola and elliot are not romantically involved. even more importantly and I’ve said this on my blog before, you’re allowed to have intimacy with someone without forcing it into a defined familial or romantic relationship. it doesn’t mean that someone’s partner should necessarily feel threatened or abandoned and says a lot more about that person’s insecurity than either individual in the friendship. we’ve also already discussed how much I dislike this turn for lucas’ character as elliot’s apparent MH saviour so it’s not worth repeating again. as for elliot saving lola, well he literally did that already. I’m not sure what you mean by lucas ‘being proven right and proven wrong’ by the end, but you’re obviously adamant that something will happen. I have also seen maxence’s interview a few times. I’ll not argue with the ‘lucas saved elliot from that shadow’ because it literally came from the actor’s mouth, but maxence doesn’t say he can save anyone else from their struggles, but help them and I think that’s a really important distinction. this whole saving idea doesn’t seem healthy at all, especially as lola and elliot grapple with their mental health. it seems like people want to see a ‘rock bottom’ (whatever that means) for them both and it makes me a little uncomfortable. addiction and MH struggles should not have to reach a breaking point in order to be considered resolved or cathartic; they don’t even have to be resolved, because they’re not a plot device. they’re a reality for so many people. the show does a good job of not romanticizing them but some of the things I see in the tag are just... yikes.  as for his ‘dark’ side and the less than happy elu moments, I’d argue that maxence may have meant literally punching out what’s his face to save lola and the subsequent argument(s) with lucas, since that interview came out just before ep 4. but there’s still several eps to go so I could be totally wrong. who knows. it’s your right to theorize on your own blog of course and it’s not my intention to be mean. I’m just trying to further the discourse in a respectful way. I do feel that you may put a little too much stock in what’s literally said/seen and assuming a lot in the unseen gaps, rather than considering a broader context. to wrap up though, lucas is free to have this (however hurtful) fear, just as you’re free to believe it’ll for sure come to pass.  I dread seeing either lola or elliot spiral out, but as 2020 has taught me, I very rarely get what I want lol. thank you @cakepleasee for helping me sort out my thoughts!

[littlehollyleaf]

Name ten favourite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.) 

Then tag ten people

Tagged (ages ago, whoops!) by @castiel-saved-me-from-myself 

(I’m sorry, I got distracted!)

1.Supernatural. Castiel.

Obviously. I may be out of the fandom now, but I’ve never loved a character as much as Cas, and probably never will.

2. Good Omens. Aziraphale.

Thought I’d put both my darling angels at the top :) I suspect that without Zira there to pave the way Castiel may not even have existed, so I love him double - for himself and for Cas as well :p 

While really quite different when it comes to their personalities (just think how Zira would SHUDDER at Cas’ trenchcoat), they share a lot of character traits and tropes (mini-series!Zira anyway, maybe less so in the book, or less obviously anyway), so, no surprise that I should adore them both. I’ve also said before, and I stand by it, that Aziraphale is sort of a combination of my favourite aspects of both Cas and Dean in one, with Cas’ struggle with Heaven/god and trying to be a good angel and finding he loves humanity/earth more, plus Dean’s whole ‘performing Dean’ thing and repression of queer feelings he is scared to admit to (out loud) because he believes they are somehow ‘wrong.’ 

...just to give a little insight into my feelings about these two that was neither needed nor asked for...

4. Hellblazer. NBC Constantine. Legends of Tomorrow. John Constantine. 

Aaaand the other guy I love twice because Cas, and indeed spn in general, kinda owe their existence to him. Though in turn his fabulous live action portrayal by Matt Ryan probably owes its existence to spn and Castiel’s popularity. So... there’s a weird ouroboros situation happening with my favs here that makes my head spin whenever I think about it, but I love it - stories within stories built on stories feeding off stories, which connects to wider themes of story and storytelling being vital and intrinsic to life and stuff.

Anyway, despite his wardrobe, Johnny is NOTHING LIKE CAS. He is, in fact, a lot like Dean. But I like him more. Maybe because he’s British :p He has the whole ‘repressing his feelings’ things, a bit like Zira, but it’s not because he thinks they are wrong, it’s more of a coping mechanism to deal with the constant tragedy/trauma his life/lifestyle/fate causes him to suffer. But whatever the reason, I like my characters facing that struggle :) (actually the British element is probably way more significant to my enjoyment of him than I’ve been fully aware of... that’s probably why I loved Zira so fast as well... obviously they are both a completely different class of British, literally, but the fact they ARE British is INTRINSIC to both their characters, and I guess a little, vaguely patriotic part of me is excited by that... :p)

4. Gotham. Edward Nygma.

Since I’ve started giving explanations - I love Eddie because he’s also got the whole ‘emotionally repressed’ / out of touch with (his) emotions thing going on (as seen in Zira and Cas), but with the addition of various geeky / ‘tech guy’ character traits that I also love.

5. Doctor Who (Classic). Vislor Turlough.

I waxed poetic once about how I liked Gotham’s Edward Nygma because he reminded me a bit of Turlough. That was early on in my Gotham days though and given how Eddie developed I don’t see as many similarities now. Turlough shares some of Eddie’s ‘dark’ traits however - self-centered, often lacking in empathy for others and nonplussed (sometimes even happy) to see them get into trouble or hurt. But ultimately his attempts to be self-serving and cowardly end up thwarted by him developing feelings for specific individuals despite his best efforts, which is what I enjoy about him (and actually that’s a lot like Eddie still, huh... their endgame’s are opposing though ofc - while Eddie goes on to embrace being a villain, Turlough gives up on villainy and even becomes a bit of a hero, now and then). Plus, Turlough is the ONLY Companion (IIRC?) to have joined the Doctor specifically in order to MURDER him and... idk, I just think that’s cool :P

6. Doctor Who (New). Donna Noble.

(I’m trying not to double up on fandoms/shows so I can cover more, but New and Classic Who count as different things, kinda, right...?)

Donna doesn’t really fit any of the character traits I’ve talked about above, though I guess her low self-esteem is something that all my other favs share in various ways (though it’s not such an EXPLICIT aspect of their characters and story arcs as it was for Donna I’d say). What I first loved about her was that after YEARS of New companions (and other randoms) being literally in love with the Doctor, she had a strictly platonic relationship with him. Yeah, I think maybe the show was a bit heavy-handed about it, but even so it came as a huge breath of fresh air and frankly a RELIEF to me. Not that I’m opposed to the Doctor having romantic/sexual  relationships, it was just that... coming from a childhood love of the Classic series where that just... didn’t happen (save a fleeting kiss in the TV Movie - which I actually enjoyed fyi!), it just... idk, was starting to stretch my credulity that EVERYONE seemed to be falling for him maybe? Or at least for me it was growing tiresome. So the fact she didn’t have that element to her character/story was a plus. Then I just adore how loud and brash she is when calling anyone, including the Doctor, out on their shit (I envy her that maybe). Plus I like the way she isn’t... traditional TV pretty, you know? (ie. young and slim, like a lot of other companions).

...or maybe I just like redheads *shrug emoji* 

7. Spartacus. Naevia.

(she has two actresses okay? and they both deserve kudos!)

Truth is I love FUCKING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW. Spartacus is like... my PERFECT SHOW. There isn’t a single moment, a single plotline, a single character that I don’t enjoy. I have never even CONSIDERED looking up or writing fic because the finished product is completely satisfying exactly as it is. God. But I wanted it represented in this list so I had to pick someone!

Considering the time period there couldn’t really BE a ‘geeky, emotionally repressed with low self-esteem’ character :p BUT nearly ALL of the characters have the whole ‘struggle to understand/discover who they are’ thing and the ‘who I am and want to be is counter to who I’ve been told I am / should be’ arc, on account of the main cast being rebelling slaves (though the other characters are equally complex and compelling and I love them too - Lucy Lawless in particular is incredible!). Anyone who’s seen me blog about the show before might have thought I’d pick either Agron or Nasir as my favs, since I do like to squee over their romance. But whenever I think about the show it’s usually Naevia who I remember first, because her character arc/development just BLEW ME AWAY. She went from someone I’d kinda dismissed at first as a typical het love interest to a WARRIOR GODDESS and you SEE all the key moments of that growth, you FEEL it, it makes ALL THE SENSE. And her romance with Crixus, which again I was initially a bit dismissive of as a typical, sudden, weak het romance, grows into, imo, one of the deepest, most developed, most believable love stories in the show. So yeah. Naevia. Amazing.

8. Due South. Ray Vecchio. 

(he’s the guy not the dog - gifs were limited! ...also the dog is actually a wolf, it’s a whole thing... that doesn’t need exploring at this juncture)

Ray was my first TV crush :P He had a bit of a sidekick vibe to him I guess, which I like (lead characters tend not to interest me as much). He wasn’t ‘geeky’ exactly, but he def had the ‘trying to look/act cooler than I am’ thing going on... also an obsessive attachment to his vintage car... meanwhile his partner Benny was the stoic, ‘British, stiff upper lip, keep emotions in check’ one who was always trying to live up to the ideal persona dictated by his people/employers, in this case the Royal Canadian Mounted Police... HUH, so... it’s actually SUPER WEIRD that I ended up loving Cas and Zira over Dean and Crowley when it seems pretty clear suddenly that my first big fictional fav was CLEARLY the Dean-Crowley to Benny’s Cas-Zira......?? Ray was FUNNY in a way Dean and Crowley aren’t though, I think? He def filled a ‘comic relief’ slot on the regular and I liked that a lot (it also made his serious, angsty moments EXTRA serious and angsty, and extra angst is something I always love!)

9. The Librarians. Eve Baird.

Remember this little show? It was... is... sorta ridiculous. Not amazing. Based on some... very cheap, very OBVIOUS Indiana Jones rip-off films, that were also ridiculous and... not... great (the third one is the best, with an awesome performance by Stana Katic aka Kate Beckett as a vampire, but I digress). But... idek, I am EXTREMELY FOND of the series for some reason :p

There are a WHOLE BUNCH of characters that fit my ‘type’ more than Eve tbh... in fact... probably every.single.other.main.cast.member (save perhaps Jenkins?) shares the traits above that typically make a character my fav. But... EVE! I just... think she’s neat! ...maybe it’s BECAUSE all the others are main/lead characters that makes me gravitate towards her? In a cast where ‘geeky, socially awkward, struggles with emotions’ is the norm, Eve being the no-nonsense, socially competent, badass soldier type therefore becomes different and thus more interesting to me? Also, much like with Donna, I appreciate that she’s an older woman who gets to have a full character and plot of her own. There’s also something about her romance with Flynn that... makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Jonathan Levinson.

(tumblr gif search failed me so I had to grab from elsewhere...)

Listen. Look. Okay. Buffy is pretty old school these days so, for anyone not in the know, as a character, originally, Jonathan... he wasn’t even a side character, he wasn’t even REOCCURRING, he was barely a background character. For several episodes he didn’t have a name and it wasn’t until several seasons after he became ‘Jonathan’ that he actually got a surname. Danny Strong was just an actor who happened to be occasionally on-hand when the script called for a random to have a line, until eventually that happened often enough for Joss to think ‘hey, you know what, let’s make this guy an actual part of the show...’ 

He got a couple of episodes focused on him in S03 and S04 respectively, but didn’t become a regular until S06 (and wasn’t in S05 AT ALL). Other than that he had a HANDFUL of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments here and there, not even full scenes for the most part, usually lasting no longer than the above gif.

I tell you all this so that when I say childhood me (well... somewhere between 12 and 14 years anyway) was OBSESSED with this character in the show, and I mean O B S E S S E D (to the point of spending hours painstakingly making VHS recordings purely of the episodes he was in), you understand how UTTERLY BIZARRE that was. Because this obsession pre-dated S06. Was, in fact, in full swing during the airing of his S04 episode - which was, like, a fucking DREAM COME TRUE for freakily obsessed me fyi, because the whole episode was constructed with him as the LEAD CHARACTER, because he’d performed a spell to make him super awesome. They even changed the title sequence to read ‘Jonathan’ instead of Buffy! And while other fans were no doubt just lol-ing at the random I was bouncing about on my sofa all ‘MY TIME HAS COME!’ and fucking SWOONING over seeing MY CHARACTER suddenly in the spotlight and getting to do crazy fun OOC shit like this -

Then when S06 rolled around and HE WAS A LEGIT REGULAR, omg, I was in HEAVEN! First TV boxset I ever bought that - Buffy S06 :P

So... yeah. A bit of a fav. Geeky. Outcast. Slowly grows more morally grey, what with that spell I mentioned and also the fact he was teamed with the ANTAGONISTS in S06. I guess you could say he was the beginning of a lot of my fav fictional character traits/tropes (though looking back - I think his ‘villainous’ teammates in S06, Andrew and Warren, are more my ‘type’ these days, and I did end up loving Andrew especially a whole damn lot, but at the time I’d been a Jonathan fangirl for so.fucking.long. there was just no chance anyone else in the show was ever gonna come close to my heart!)

THE END.

Sorry not sorry for the tmi. I got a bit too into this one.

Actually sorry I have so few women on the list :( Internalised misogyny/sexism is a real thing and I spent a lot of my life being... somewhat unfairly dismissive of female characters or at least prioritising male ones over them. I’m working on it.

Ten people is SO.MANY. to tag. But I might as well do this right this time, since I’ve come so far. But if you’d rather not play, no worries! <3

@enchantersnight @momecat @bold-sartorial-statement @vampirebillionaire @edwardnashtons @miss-olivia-cellophane @knightinpinkunderwear @supes9 @leaper182 @hamburgergod

Honourable mentions (because I CAN):

Gotham. Lucius Fox.

Gotham. Fish Mooney.

Gotham. Tabitha Galavan.

Doctor Who. The Doctor.

Doctor Who. The Master/Missy.

Supernatural. Hannah.

Supernatural. Naomi.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Andrew Wells.

[goldenhour-goldenboy]

hi!! after watching TF i got a Supernatural Dean and Sam vibe from Will and Benny, Will is like Dean and Benny is sam. It mentioned their dad in the movie and icouldn't help imagine him being a military dad, which is how they both got into this job. and Wills line of "I've been supporting him since the day he was born” about benny just reminded me of dean taking care of sam. could u write a fic about Will and bennys childhood and how you think it could have gone with a military dad away a lot! x

Soooo a couple of things 1) i’ve never made it past the third season supernatural and that was years ago so I hope the vibe is still what you wanted :) and 2) I was mainly working from other people’s experience with having a parent or both parents in the army and being in the army in the US is probably a bit different from being in the army in Germany buuuut I still enjoyed this snippet and I hope you do too! :) 

Growing up with their dad in the military (Ben Miller and William Miller, hc)

Both of the Miller boys grow up on strength, physically and emotionally, their parents keen on teaching the boys values and morales that are important to them. 

Their mother, an endless source of love, would always patch up their knees, dry their tears and help them with their homework. She’s the heart of the household, both of the boys inheriting her warmth and care. This is what she taught them, that there is strength in forgiveness and kindness and that every creature on this earth is deserving of love. It is important for her that her sons learn respect and honesty with one another, fairness and to be stronger than what the world might throw at them. 

He’s cracking jokes on Sundays where they are meant to be on their way to church yet they’re late again so they end up at a pancake place because there really is no point in going now. He’s morning runs, the brothers chasing after him until they get tired halfway through and he has to carry them back to the house, getting his own little workout in like that. 

The boys see their parents being in love, dancing around the kitchen, stealing kisses while cooking and even though they are children and that stuff is gross for them the imagine on what a relationship should look like gets imprinted into their minds.

Both of the boys grow up with at least one daily task to fulfill. It is their fathers way of teaching them responsibility and patience and care.

 William and Ben being in charge of the chickens in the backyard seemed like an excellent choice for that. they are in charge of feeding them and taking them out of the gutter and making sure the way to the enclosure is free and available ben learned to take responsibility the hard way, when he forgot to lock the gates one night and the chicken ran away in the cold, never to be seen again. His father, showing little emotions for that other than disappointment just shrugs and tells him to be more careful next time if he wants to avoid that from happening again. 

To the outside world his way of raising the boys may seem a bit extreme, even cold at times but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Their dad is still caring and incredibly invested in the boys, so much that he wants to do everything that they grow up string minded and healthy and independent, thats all that he wants from life and if that’s the way to get them to learn than so be it. most of this comes from his own father, having the family having a long line of history of vets and soldiers. it is a sense of belonging that he walkways felt when talking to his dad and he wants to pass that down to his own sons. and though they are grateful for the many lessons they’ve learned as children, little kids really can’t comprehend the situation as they grow up and are still young, let alone understand the intentions that go with actions.

It gets harder every time their father has to leave again. The boys don’t understand. It’s confusion the first time and some tears, they are trying to be brave and grown up then. The next time there are a lot more tears, more confusion, yelling and clinging until they reach a point where it’s silent tears and not even wanting to hug their dad and say goodbye. This is even worse than the yelling. 

It’s after one too times his father tells him he has to leave the next week, again, that William runs into the office, where his dad stores his belongings and the medals of his dad and pictures taken while he was in service, and pushes everything off the shelves before storming out the house. He doesn’t necessarily smashes anything as much as he just wants it all to be gone, leading to nothing being broken in the end but the gesture defiantly getting across. His dad finds William out on the front porch, the little guy waiting for him to come and confront him about his actions. Part of Will wants to stand tall and take whatever his dad has to say to him with pride and part of him is just utterly scared of the reaction he’s about to receive, anxiously awaiting the yelling his dad must’ve prepared. It leaves him with his chin up but his eyes watering and his lower lip quivering. When his dad just sighs and sits down Will’s nerves start to get the best of him and he breaks down crying because that’s the reaction he had prepared and now that there’s no outburst from his dad he’s completely confused into what he’s supposed to feel. His father can’t even be mad, it is such a clear and big signal from William to act out like that, he has to force down a chuckle. „You’re a brave guy, William Miller.“ His son is still sobbing and while he stops to take in a shaky breath Papa Miller opens one of his arms, not being able to see his son hurt by something he caused. „You need a hug, tough guy?“

William, even though being the older one, has a hard time dealing with the absence of his dad and missing him a lot more than he can handle. There are endless nights spent crying and getting terribly homesick, even though he is home. He grew up knowing what it was like to have a dad around and whenever his dad is gone, he can feel him missing. 

His obsession with numbers started then, counting the days his dad was gone, how many times he has to sleep before he gets to see him. It’s a desperate attempt to make the situation more bearable for him and it barely works.

Benny at the same time grew up seeing his dad from time to time. He’s used to the stories instead of memories and saying goodbye constantly before seeing him again some weeks later. He doesn’t remember his first couple of years as much as Will does, when his dad used to be gone for months at times. His world was much simpler, his questions could be answered with wonders and his mother telling him about how brave his dad is, fighting to come home because he loves his family so much. For Benny, his dad is a hero. Until he is not.

Puberty is hitting him like a ton of bricks and while his brother grew up with a lot of feelings, Benny suddenly gets a lot more input than he can handle. He feels everything, all the time and he truly doesn’t know how to deal with that. His dad being absent only feeds into his confusion, leaving Benny unsatisfied if he is home and missing him when he’s gone. He’s picking fights then, with his mom, his brother and most often his dad when he is actually home. Doors slamming, yelling and heavy footsteps on the stairs are common in those years and Benny loses the connection to his father for quite some time.

With Benny trying to sort himself out, William feels like he’s going through puberty a second time. They’ve moved a couple times by now and while Will comforts himself with books (they wont leave him and he can take them anywhere with him) Ben has gotten in with the wrong kind of people just one too many times. He’s out at night more than he can count, his mother not getting through to him and his brother only finding the wrong words. They’re at each others throats more and more, underestimating their own strength and forgetting that if they hit each other now it can become real dangerous real quick. 

It’s one night where Ben is coming home late. He’s drunk and trying to sneak in, actually bumping into every corner on his way through the house. He doesn’t even make it up the stairs as his brother, woken up by the crashing, comes down to help him. Hushed words lead to snarls lead to yelling, feelings that have been pushed down for too long explode. „What do you think dad would say if he were here? He would beat your ass to next christmas!“ „I don’t care about fucking dad! He can fuck off and die whatever shithole he’s stuck in now!“ They use words that cut deep and it doesn’t take long for them to roll around the hallway, fists hammering and hands closing around each other throats. Neither of them hear their mother shout, desperate for her sons to stop. She screams, she cries, she throws plates to the ground but they don’t hear her so she brings out the gun and fires a warning shot into the ceiling. Now they stop, startled and she sends them to bed before breaking down in the living room, a hole in the ceiling being the literal sign for something terribly going wrong right now. Their father comes home a few weeks later, both boys not interested in seeing him. William, who initially wasn’t even mad, actually understands his brother because he too, feels left behind. The last image their dad has of them is when they were 8 and they have matured a lot by that now. There’s no hug this time, the ceiling being fixed long before the boys learn to deal with their feelings and it takes an even longer time to forgive their dad, because after all it is their dad and they do care for him very much.

It’s a special kind of bond the Miller brothers share between them, their trust grown over years spending together and the thought about one leaving the other actually scaring them. Both of them like to know their loved ones safe and sound, a lot of their caring coming from the time that they didn’t know if their dad was alright. Ben and Will join the military at the same time, both beaming with pride and confidence. This is what they both wanted ever since thinking about their future, side by side and even though William struggles to come to terms with the thought that his baby brother might get hurt, he couldn’t imagine his service without him.

The day they get sworn in is probably the proudest day for the whole family. Their father is beaming with pride looking at his sons and both of them feel like they might explode.

There’s a lot they still haven’t talked about. The past is not an easy thing to untangle and feelings don’t go away like that, Ben and Will slowly understanding their father more and more as they experience violence and war and grief in the same way he did. Now they are the ones who get to see their parents from time to time, the tables being turned in a way they always suspected to happen but not being prepared for the way it actually is. 

It certainly helps to have a father who’ve experienced this kind of mental strain before and who knows what its like to go to war and then come back home. A lot of the adjusting with life back home they actually turned to their father to, family dinners often revolving around their stories and experiences and sometimes just quiet pats on the shoulders, as no words are needed to understand the struggle each one is going through. Not every action can be excused but they are older now and old scars are sometimes just that, old scars.

[desertbroad]

kaj + (inverted) tropes: part two! * * i don’t know all the actual Official TM names for these tropes, so most are made up. also, you might notice the regular trope list (part 1 of this headcanon) is significantly longer. this is because kaj has a few main inverted tropes but tons more regular ones, since tropes are like atoms: they make up everything. i just wanted to focus on the few inversions that created her character and let the rest come naturally! under a read more for length. ** also as of 7/6/19 part one isn’t done yet. yes i know please don’t shame me ok IM GETTING TO IT

fridged woman (aka back from the dead)—

for this one i took inspiration from laura moon from american gods, with a few tweaks (love neil gaiman, but some of the things about her character are...a bit squicky). unlike a good number of women in media, kaj isn’t shoved over gently and pronounced dead so that a man can grow from her pain. in fact, she’s shot in the head twice, pronounced dead, & buried. while her “death” means more pain and character development for the characters surrounding her, it means pain and character development for her, too. truth be told, she survives a hell of a lot more than any average person should, especially one with her low luck stat. half of this is the fun and wacky way new vegas’ world works (obviously, no real person could survive all this), but also because of her good ol’ courier determination. things that should’ve fridged kaj but haven’t include: two shots to the head, numerous combat scrapes, being stabbed, having her brain/heart/spine removed, having a bomb collar attached to her neck, killing an entire fortification of trained legionnaires, stepping on landmines, etc etc. the courier is pretty much the bruce willis of fallout.

world ending vengeance—

specifically applies to certain characters. while most others who piss kaj off get the full brunt of her wrath (see: caesar, mr. house, elijah, general oliver, ulysses), benny, along with dr. mobius & the think tank & mcnamara*, get a pass. in fact, she lets him go not once or twice, but on three separate occasions, even knowing he’s likely to betray her again. the reason why? not even kaj knows. some people speculate it’s because she likes him / slept with him (incorrect; she liked house to a degree, and slept with caesar); others speculate it’s because they’re so similar (also incorrect; she shared an alarming number of similarities with ulysses & elijah). the theory that comes closest to the truth is that she pities him. it fits in line her past behavior with mobius & the think tank, who were physically unable to see the effects of their actions and thus were spared a horrible fate. likewise, kaj seems to have judged benny to be innocent in her own personal court, and though he continues to be a thorn in her side again and again, she refuses to “sentence” him for anything. it helps his cause that his plan helped her take over vegas, and he created yes man, one of the only living beings she’s ever fully trusted. also a slight inversion of kaj’s maneater / black widow trope; the one person she truly should seduce and kill, she doesn’t.

that said, benny doesn’t get away from their encounters without any punishment—after narrowly escaping being crucified, both kaj and benny have matching rope burns around their wrists. it’s her morbid idea of a joke.

*mcnamara doesn’t fit within this trope, but kaj spares the bos for veronica & christine’s sake, despite yes man’s warnings. also for the off chance that they might convert to being her allies (they don’t, and this choice helps lend itself to more BOS trouble all over the wasteland).

white man cowboy—

kind of a simple inversion that’s been done before, but an important one and one that i like a lot. for starters, the “john wayne” cowboy is a bastardization of a history that was made up of ethnic minorities and whitewashed for hollywood aesthetic (also fuck you john wayne). while none of my research has come up with anything about women of color or nonbinary people in the western scene, only moc (whether this is intentional or not, i’m not sure), i still wanted to write kaj as non-male. frankly, this is because i wanted her to be an inversion of tired tropes, and that included being a debonair, byronic woman / non gender conforming hero (think gentleman jack) instead of a debonair, byronic white dude. we’ve got 20 of those for every fleshed out woman/enby on screen, lbr. kaj is also a femme fatale, but only by coincidence; she’s more of a wandering heart breaker than a necessarily dangerous woman, much like many of the heroes on screen.

i also find that non-men of color are one of the most underrepresented minorities in fiction—even media that celebrates diversity simplifies them down (hamilton), or centers their narrative and entire purpose around a man (hamilton, again). nevermind nonbinary people / trans folk. for that reason, i wanted kaj’s story to be about a woman of color / someone who doesn’t conform to expectations and doesn’t allow herself to be put in the sidelines for a white person or a male to lead her life. and regardless of whether a woman filling this swaggering, womanizing cowboy role is accurate to history or not, fallout’s setting lends itself an air of exaggeration, so i felt it was appropriate to include her here, instead of arguing with people over whether someone like her existed in actual history (my suspicions say yes, and that these people have simply been erased from the narrative for the convenience of certain people’s feelings, but still).

smarter than you look / deadly doctor (this one actually has a tvtropes page! look it up!)—

from the deadly doctor page : ‘ surely the ultimate example of the morally ambiguous doctorate. one reason for this is due to all his/her training : while having advanced knowledge on the human body can be used to save people, it also gives all the knowledge on how to injure and kill people with minimal effort by knowing all the body's weak points. some more sympathetic examples equate to the medical version of a well-intentioned extremist, who may certainly have good (or at least sympathetic/understandable) intentions but ruthless medical ethics. ’

one of the most important things kaj took from her thorough education is medical training—unable to depend on anyone after being traumatized, trusting any doctor who happened along to treat her illnesses was out of the question. she was also smart enough to know the original kaj wouldn’t be around to heal her up forever. thus, she began her training as a self preservation instinct; but over time, as she grew and relearned how to be compassionate and empathetic, she decided to use healing for good, too. trained as a young girl by the original kaj, and then later trained officially as a combat medic by the ncr, kaj has spent a countless amount of hours inside army tents, healing wounds and assisting doctors with tough cases. she even keeps a medical bag on her person for exactly that sort of situation (especially since supplies in the mojave aren’t exactly easy to dig up). though she’s a big scientist in general (the big mt saw to that), medicine is her specialty. she’s even stitched up her own wounds, though it’s not something she particularly enjoys (it takes a lot of whiskey and something for her to bite down on).

for reference, consider this scene of anton from no country for old men (TW: he’s performing self surgery, so it’s pretty gruesome). though both anton and kaj’s lifestyles are rough and even sadistic at times, they both still have medical training—if not to protect others, then to at least protect themselves. and like anton, it shows kaj’s inability to trust anyone with her most important commodity: herself. this makes her surgery in the big empty doubly as horrifying, given she took specific pains for something like this to not happen. it’s why she refuses to leave without all of her organs (also, stubbornness). all of this is just one of the ways kaj is way more ... well, everything than she looks. which leads into...

underestimate me if you dare, aka femme fatale (sort of?)—

though fallout prides itself on being a soft reset on the world, people’s perceptions of minorities are still ... iffy, due to real world influences by the creators. thus, the people around kaj often jump to assumptions about her based on her identity—mostly, that she’s weak. once, it offended her, but now it’s a perception that she encourages. after all, she’s not flat out strong like your usual hero, but is more of a hamlet-type; smart, perceptive, fast, and willing to strike from the shadows. it’s hard to do any of that if you’re putting on a big performance about your power (though admittedly, she’s been known to go big or go home if she’s planning on killing everyone; if she’s not faking nice and telling you what you wanna hear, trouble’s ahead).

of course, the reality is that kaj is a powerhouse. but these perceptions about her supposed weakness are why posing as a legion member is so easy—those who think she’s weak underestimate her or keep their distance, which gives her leave to do what she wants. she’s viewed more like a pet than a person by most, and though it frustrates her at times to pretend, it also gives her leave to do more, than if she were to simply pose as a man.

all that said, kaj doesn’t exactly qualify as a femme fatale. most of her lovers are just information givers, and they escape from their interaction unharmed. kaj killing her bed mates is actually less likely than her just sparing them and letting them go, none the wiser. of course, you kill one tyrant (maybe two or three) and suddenly you’re a black widow—

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Re: your tags on that jack/amara post. Now the show totally got me to like Jack rather instantly as well but I cant help but feel like it was too easy, his actions during s12 werent realy adressed imo, he didnt really earn the "family" TFW status to the degree the show is framing it for me and there wasnt the dubious moral complexity early in s13 like s12 was setting up. Idk does that make sense?

Yep, it makes total sense and I agree. When the first few episodes aired and Jack was obviously framed as a lovable innocent, I expected them to pull the rug under our feet at some point- not necessarily to make Jack ‘evil’ (that was clearly not going to happen) but to question assumptions and, well, make both the viewers, the characters, Jack himself question his actions and his goals and everything. It’s sort of like season 12 was like ‘is this thing evil....?’ and the twist was ‘lol no!’ but the twist came in like 2 minutes into the premiere or so. In Kaia’s episode, the twist was again that he did not kill Derek the dreamwalker...

Jack’s ‘darkness’ were mistakes. He accidentally killed the security guard when trying to stop a robber. He accidentally got soldiers killed when he made the wrong tactical choice in the war against Michael (it was revealed as wrong because of the Kevin trap, and a trap by definition... is hard to spot before you fall in it). Other things were naivety, which is not exactly darkness (naivety/innocence are potential for darkness, but the show didn’t really go ultra deep in that).

Every other main character has been through actual ‘darkness’. The Carver era in a nutshell was that - Dean’s, Sam’s and Cas’ darkness explored. Cas’ self-loathing and depression stemmed from his inability to belong, Sam’s unhealthy attitudes towards himself (the trials) and his brother (*waves around*), Dean’s lack of self-worth that turn him into a tool-weapon/the lock to the literal Darkness (insert billions of words of meta here).

The Carver era was about them messing things up royally to the point that we were supposed to think, are these people righteous? are they right? At times we were supposed to be horrified by their choices. Some people grew actually uncomfortable with the show because the main characters were... unlikeable. Not heroes.

But that was supposed to be the foundation for a new journey upwards - the release of the Darkness (I’m not going into the topic of when exactly they decided to make the MoC the lock-and-key for the Darkness) was supposed to symbolize the externalization of their own darknesses to deal with them.

I think Carver’s mistake was primarily one: making the Darkness solely about Dean. Sam remained in a weird limbo for most of the season, and for Cas they had to bring Lucifer into the picture as the narrative tool to represent Cas’ issues (corollary mistake: Lucifer). I think they should have managed to make the Darkness about all of them, in a way or another (they almost did so by having Dean carry the Mark and Sam and Cas undo it, but that second part got dropped). Of course, I understand why they’d do that - having the Darkness as the dark, irrational, feminine, destructive principle of the cosmos inevitably means she is aligned to Dean. But then they should have developed things so that Dean-Darkness and Sam-God, but God was finally introduced when the season was almost over and things needed to happen and it was late.

Oh jeez, talk about digressing...

I think I never let go of my post-season 10 finale expectations, because boy, I was excited. The season only partly met my expectations. *screams into the showrunners’ direction* I’m still waiting for my big witchcraft storyline, guys!

So, Carver era, inner darkness, outer Darkness. Main characters who SCREW UP BIG TIME. I mean... it was a bad decision for extra-diegetical reasons, and executed poorly, but Charlie’s death did make sense in that perspective. What’s more rock bottom than getting Charlie killed? It was supposed to be the horrifying, ‘oh shit’ version of Benny’s sacrifice. Benny had reasons to die, they got a beautiful goodbye, all made sense. But it was a slippery slope- and now Charlie dies, and it’s bad, it’s ugly, it makes no sense.

If Dante had written me into the Divine Comedy he would’ve put me in the circle of hell for digressers.

Anyway. Carver era, darkness.

And then seasons 12 and 13. They’re growing, so their mistakes are not as big and destructive as before. In fact, other people mess up more. Sam goes along with the BMoL because Mary made the mistake, and he just wants to connect with his Mom. Cas is trying to make up for letting Lucifer free and fails, because Crowley makes the mistake of keeping Lucifer around. Dean is there doing his best and getting slaps in the face, because his life sucks. His prayer to God in 13x01 is GOOD STUFF. Anyway. They still struggle with themselves and their traumas that prevent them from having healthy relationships (I’m not saying the Dabb era is bad, I am really enjoying things). Insert more meta here.

Now enters Jack, who is supposed to be a mirror of Dean, Sam and Cas. Where’s the darkness? WHERE’S THE FUNDAMENTAL POINT OF HORROR ABOUT HIS EXISTENCE aka his ambiguous and scary relationship with free will? Dean, Sam and Cas’ struggle is with FREE WILL. Always has been. Genuine choice against the determination caused by their traumas even before by external forces. Dean telling Amara and Chuck to reconcile represented that - refusing to go along with the determinism of their essences (creation and destruction) and choose their own path.

Jack... we’re technically told that he refuses to go along the determinism of his Satanic heritage, but that’s... not really true. He is much more framed as a blank slate than a creature with an evil essence in him. That’s what he fears, others fear (or hope in Lucifer’s case), but he’s never tempted by his own inner darkness. Lucifer almost tricks him eventually for a moment, but it’s a trick, something he achieves with lies and manipulation, not really reaching to Jack’s inner evil potential.

There was potential to make his story a horror story without making him evil or bad. Look at season 12 and the way he ambiguously uses people for, well, good purposes - saving Kelly, saving Cas. There was potential there! He has good intentions, and does things with good outcomes, but at the cost of messing up with people’s free will in an ambiguous, eerie way.

That’s it, he could have been EERIE. Sinister and terrifying because he’s lovable and has the best intentions... but also does disturbing things. Technically it sort of happened, but wasn’t really explored properly - see the analyses we made after 13x09 but that were never proved right or wrong. In fact, there was an element that rang bells at the end of the season - when he forces the truth about Maggie’s murder out of Lucifer. That was the final proof that Jack is perfectly able to annul someone’s free will completely. But what about the entire season prior, and even the time as a fetus? It just stays something in the mouth of a Dean whose grief is used to make him unreliable.

I guess the mistake here is not making Jack a new Amara, instead. As @awed-frog eloquently said, the two had a lot in common in their narratives, but then a lot completely divergent. Jack should have been about free will like Amara was, and how season 12 almost hinted at - like Amara made Dean’s free will compass go haywire, it seemed that proximity to Jack made Cas’ free will compass go haywire. But then Cas was dead and even when he came back, Jack’s story had been written in a complete different direction. They could have structured season 13 so that Jack was Sam’s Amara instead (it would have made sense to have Sam not deal with sexually-coded manipulation from a woman, since he already has that with Ruby in the past, and instead be something new and fresh for his character), if they wanted to make Jack and Sam’s narratives close, but at some point they’ve just made the decision to have Sam be the Real Dad in contrast to Lucifer’s biological fatherhood.

Basically, I think, they realized that they had to give Sam a strong narrative that placed him as the antagonist of Lucifer, so they kind of shoved Cas out of Jack’s narrative (with awkward results - um we’re supposed to be son and father but err what) and made the fatherhood narrative about Sam. With awkward results. Narratively, Sam And Cas Are A Kid’s Dads is... not really a brilliant idea.

Maybe Michael Dean is the result of the showrunners realizing that on paper giving narratives to Sam and Cas and not only to Dean (like Carver tended to do at times) is good, but in reality the show works best when things are about Dean, so now Let’s Have A Dean Centric Arc. I guess?

I haven’t really talked about the extradiegetic aspect of the strong pushing of Jack/Alex Calvert, but I don’t think there’s much to say about it. Fan reception was immediately super positive, and 28 year old Misha Collins clone is sort of a safe bet, you know? The network seems to believe that fans want young pretty white boys, and it’s not reaaaally like they got that idea out of their hat, you know?

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #391: The Shape of Water (2017) - dir. Guillermo del Toro

(Warning: some spoilers ahead!)

The Shape of Water is a film that pulls me in several directions. It contains themes and storytelling choices that I love immensely, but there are also aspects of the narrative that I believe could have been improved. From the reviews I have read so far, reactions are extremely polarized; moviegoers either worship Shape as a masterpiece beyond reproach or, on the other end of the spectrum, they throw around “D” words like disappointed and disgusted. I want to point out again that I enjoyed Del Toro’s production a lot - I would put it at #9 or 10 in my top ten for 2017, out of the thirty features I have seen so far - so I hope that my criticisms are tempered by my admiration for all that the film gets right, whether technically or ideologically.

All things considered, I’m probably the ideal viewer for The Shape of Water. In the Venn diagram of intersecting genres that the film explores, I’m right in the middle as a lover of romance, science fiction and fantasy, horror, thrillers, period pieces, studies of “the grotesque” and portraits of outsiders who challenge societal expectations of normalcy. I have a ton of respect for Guillermo del Toro’s ambitions as a filmmaker (I definitely dug Hellboy back in the day and I remember getting a kick out of Pacific Rim too) and I applaud his commitment to telling a socially conscious story in which historically marginalized people are our heroes and the clean-cut, stereotypical authority figures are the villains. I also adore Del Toro’s irrepressible cinephilia, which is evident throughout Shape via constant references to the films, actors and genres that have inspired him. In that regard, The Shape of Water is successful just as a celebration of the power that the silver screen has to change our lives.

The story is almost painfully simple: in Baltimore circa 1962, mute janitor Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) discovers a fantastical new world of love when an Amazonian fish-god (Doug Jones), referred to in the film’s credits as “Amphibian Man,” is brought to the government facility that she cleans at night. Elisa and her best friend at work, Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer), are assigned to take care of the Amphibian Man’s private room by high-ranking security official Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), who brought to the creature to America and, in his words, they “didn’t get to like each other much” during the trip. This much is obvious at the beginning of the film, when we see the aftermath of an attack on Strickland by the captured fish-god, who has bitten off two of Strickland’s fingers.

Elisa quickly forms an attachment to the Amphibian Man, with whom she learns to communicate by teaching him sign language, feeding him hard boiled eggs and playing him Benny Goodman records on a portable hi-fi. (I’m amazed that more critics haven’t noted the connection to Annie Hall’s famous ending monologue about how human beings continue to look for love after failed relationships because we “need the eggs.”) It soon becomes apparent to Elisa that Strickland and his boss, General Hoyt (Nick Searcy), plan on killing the imprisoned creature, so Elisa devises a plan to steal the Amphibian Man from the facility with help from her neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins), an older gay man who has worked as an advertising artist but was fired from his job, in part because of his alcoholism but presumably also because of his sexual orientation. Giles and Zelda stand since they are the only two people in Elisa’s life who have bothered to learn ASL. They understand that she is disabled, but she is not “lesser than” in their eyes because they have adapted themselves to the language she uses.

It’s wonderful that Guillermo del Toro gave space to main characters who are a non-speaking woman, a black woman and a gay man, all of whom are over forty years old. Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins do beautiful work in the film, particularly Hawkins, who has finally broken through in American cinema thanks to this film. I have been a tremendous fan of Hawkins ever since she starred in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky nine years ago, so it has been glorious to see her shine in Maudie and The Shape of Water this year. She radiates tenderness, humor, curiosity and compassion as Elisa, a performance that absolutely deserves the Best Actress Oscar nomination it will certainly receive next month. Jenkins also gives a remarkable performance as Giles, making his friendship with Elisa plausible and heartwarming. Spencer has less to work with as Zelda since the character often comes across as a collection of cinematic stereotypes (both as a black woman and as a best friend/sidekick), but Spencer elevates the role to something special, occasionally with a mere glance or a roll of her eyes.

More complex and difficult to pin down is the film’s antagonist, Richard Strickland. I almost snorted at the ominous horn sounds that accompanied the character’s entrance in the film, which I suppose many viewers accept as de rigueur since Michael Shannon is synonymous with malefaction on the big and small screens. Some viewers see Strickland as a textbook villain, evil for evil’s sake (is that the inverse of Ars gratia artis?), but I would argue that the character's motivations are explained to a greater extent than those of anyone else in the film. Strickland is the definition of toxic masculinity, a white man who abuses his position of power by mocking, harassing and sadistically torturing the people (and fish-god) he identifies as inferior to him. Strickland strives for the American Dream - the suburban home, the wife and two kids, a brand new Cadillac - but underneath the exterior of perfection is a man who doubts himself. (For my money, one of the funniest moments in the film is the shot of Strickland sitting in his office, solemnly poring over a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking.) It’s not by accident that one of the digits that the Amphibian Man tore off of Strickland was his ring finger, or that this racist man can’t handle the fact that his body rejects fingers whose skin has turned black.

There is also significance in Del Toro’s disparate approaches to sexuality involving Strickland and his wife versus Elisa and the Amphibian Man (or Elisa by herself). Elisa’s desire is never ignored because of her inability to speak; she is a sexual being and her strong connection to that aspect of her life is viewed with delicacy and respect. The film incorporates two brief scenes showing her masturbating as part of a daily routine, but they don’t feel exploitative; Del Toro went out of his way to create intimacy that wasn’t designed for the male gaze. This is why I’m glad that he didn’t go all the way and show Elisa and the Amphibian Man having sex, contrary to the grumblings of many frustrated viewers who feel cheated out of hot fish-on-human action. What little we see of Elisa and her beau’s encounters glows with eroticism because the characters’ most private moments are withheld from us.

In response to other complaints voiced by moviegoers, the sex scene with Strickland and his wife Elaine (Lauren Lee Smith) was disturbing yet necessary. It’s mechanical, heartless and, as it progresses, turns into marital rape. It was one of the moments that seemed to freak out the audience I was in the most, leading the woman sitting directly behind me to loudly say “blecch” when Strickland placed his hand over his wife’s mouth. (Isn’t it interesting how obsessed Strickland is silent women, whether it’s Elaine or Elisa?) Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to make an interspecial romance inviting and arousing, while sex between two humans is the true act of monstrosity.

All this happens, and politics too. Yes, The Shape of Water covers the topics of human/fish-god courtship, sexism, racism, homophobia and American exceptionalism, but the Cold War also plays a big part in the story. The one expert working at the Baltimore facility who cares about the Amphibian Man’s well-being is Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), who aids in the creature’s escape. I won’t go into detail about Hoffstetler’s various complicated allegiances, but suffice it to say he comes through as a dedicated scientist and a decent person who recognizes the supreme value of love over country. Del Toro infuses Hoffstetler with a number of fascinating characteristics, even when they’re as seemingly minor as him baking a butter cake in his apartment.

There are a lot of cooks in Shape’s kitchen. With so many compelling characters, plot lines and images, the film is an aesthetic feast for the senses. On the other hand, Del Toro never satisfactorily answers the question of whether the Amphibian Man is an entity of high intelligence. Elisa is smart, funny, creative and resourceful; is her water-bound lover capable of those same feelings and abilities? He is more than the “wild animal” that Giles sees him as - the Amphibian Man’s first face-to-face experience with Giles’ cats ends bloodily, but we later see the fish-god petting the remaining felines sweetly - but I’m not convinced that the Amphibian Man is on Elisa’s level emotionally. Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that the love song featured in the film’s gorgeous, black-and-white dream sequence, was “You’ll Never Know”? Wasn’t Elisa implying that her lover either didn’t or couldn’t comprehend the depths of her affection?

(Incidentally, that dream sequence, which is modeled on Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” scene from the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, is reminiscent of another musical that copied the same number, 1981′s Pennies from Heaven. There, Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters dance and lipsync to Astaire and Rogers; the entire film is a cinephile’s dream, paying homage to old Hollywood while simultaneously maintaining a dark, tragic tone amidst the colorful song-and-dance confections.)

The Shape of Water hurtles towards its finale with intense speed, perhaps too much. The conclusion involves a number of coincidences and a lot of good fortune on Strickland’s part. He’s able to do a bunch of dastardly deeds due to characters who tell him what he needs to know or because he’s lucky enough to have information fall in his lap. The exact nature of the ending is also telegraphed from the beginning (at least that’s what I thought), so if you’re expecting a brilliant revelation regarding one or more characters, your hopes will be dashed. I was touched by the final scene, but I also longed for more of a resolution to the story at large, especially for Giles and Zelda.

Del Toro’s film succeeds thanks to the astonishing acting done by Hawkins, Shannon, Jenkins, Spencer and Stuhlbarg. Doug Jones’s performance can’t be gauged in terms of conventional acting, but his commitment to the role and the way that he physically brought the Amphibian Man to life (along with the services of the film’s makeup/special effects artists) is indeed worthy of praise. Visually, the cinematography, sets and costumes are stunning, while the score by Alexandre Desplat and the song selections (including a Madeleine Peyroux cover of one of my favorite Serge Gainsbourg tunes, “La Javanaise”) are charming. Despite the weaknesses, The Shape of Water is a beautiful film that encourages love, diversity and the importance of taking risks. In today’s political climate, we could all benefit from more of those attributes.

[hetbigbang]

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traycer_ or

red_b_rackham a PM.) How many can I claim? For the first round of claims, please only choose ONE story to do. We will shortly open it up to a second round, where you may claim a second and third fic if you so wish. If you’re ambitious and want to do more than three, that’s doable BUT you must complete what you claim. Trying to find back-up artists is a nightmare - please don’t make us do it. ;) And a reminder that no extensions will be granted. Artists, if you have the time, please consider also signing up to be a pinch hit artist in the event someone has to drop out last minute, and please spread the word so we can have all our hard working authors claimed by hard working artists!! Want to get in on this art action but forgot to sign up? No problem!! The Artist Interest sign-ups are here and will be open until every fic has been claimed. Schedule: Arist Preview - August 20th to 22nd Artist Claiming of Big Bang Stories Begins - August 22nd Art and Fics Due - September 26th, 11:59 PM (Midnight) EST (here is a timezone converter) Debut Date (DD) - October 1st SUMMARIES FOR THE CLAIMING ARE UNDER THE CUT!! The following are all listed alphabetically by first fandom (i.e. in an Supernatural/Avengers crossover, it will only be listed under Supernatural). #1 Fandom: Baseball RPF Pairing: fem!José Iglesias/James McCann Story Name: Undecided Summary: James McCann has everything-- a beautiful fiance and a starting catching job on a major league ball club; but old feelings and flames come to light when he meets the new defensive coach of the Detroit Tigers. Josefina Iglesias is a former Olympic softball gold medalist and an old flame of James's, where the past meets the present. #2 Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pairing: Angelus/Buffy Summers Story Name: In This Lifetime Summary: Over a thousand years ago Angelus was cursed to a hell dimension. Once every hundred years he comes to find a mate, he always chooses the slayer. In Buffy he finds his soulmate. She’s the one who can save them both from hell. But that's only part of the story. #3 Fandom: Call the Midwife Pairing: Sister Bernadette (Shelagh)/Patrick Turner Story Name: For Your Precious Love (this is tentative!!!) Summary: Suffering a crisis of faith and confidence, Sister Bernadette makes a decision that has permanent consequences for not just her, but Patrick. #4 Fandom: Eureka Pairing: Jo Lupo/Zane Donovan Story Name: How Time Has Changed the Cracks in Our Skin Summary: Zane finds himself wondering what Jo's relationship with him had been like in an alternate timeline. They decide to use a memory device to share memories from their respective timelines. #5 Fandom: Fire Emblem Fates Pairing: Charlotte/Saizo. Background Kagero/Orochi Story Name: Apply Some Pressure (tentative) Summary: A superhero AU/My Hero Academia fusion (no knowledge of MHA required, no characters from MHA appear). Charlotte is a professional Hero who runs an agency with her best friend Benny. When he's seriously injured in an explosion during a joint investigation with another agency, Charlotte teams up with the annoying Saizo to go undercover into the group behind the attack, trying to discover who is selling this powerful new explosive on the back market. Along the way, Charlotte and Saizo discover more about each other and develop feelings for each other. Then they have to stop one final attack on the royal family itself. #6 Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing: Luna Lovegood/George Weasley, most canon ships Story Name: (Tentative) in the dirt designing stars Summary: When a pack of magical creatures takes residence in Diagon Alley, it throws the street into chaos. When the shopkeepers learn this sudden migration might have something to do with Magical Dead Zones that are popping up all over the world, they decide to take matters into their own hands. #7 Fandom: NCIS Pairing: Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres Story Name: undecided Summary: For the last seven years, Ellie's been raising her daughter alone and getting by just fine. For the last seven years, Nick's been raising his daughter alone and getting by just fine. When the two girls become best friends, just fine suddenly threatens to get even better. #8 Fandom: Original Fic Pairing: OFC/OMC (Mackenzie/Nick) Story Name: Savin' Me Summary: A newly sired vampire barely escapes death when an elder vampire vouches for her. She never wanted to be a vampire. It's not fair to kill her. He is given one month to make her a useful part of the coven. If he fails, Mackenzie will be killed as planned. #9 Fandom: Star Wars Pairing: Padme Amidala/In-Suit Darth Vader Story Name: Leave My Body Summary: Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Sometimes, when things seem the darkest, when all hope seems lost, the Force intervenes. Such is the case with the death and “rebirth” of Padme Amidala. #10 Fandom: Supergirl(CW)/Arrow(CW) Pairing: Oliver Queen/Kara Danvers Story Name: undecided Summary: AU. When Kara Danvers rescues her sister’s plane, her actions cause a rift to open between two worlds. Lost and alone, she tries to understand the new, different Earth in which she now finds herself. By random chance, she finds herself working for one Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Industries. As a relationship develops, they find themselves fighting an unknown and technologically superior foe. #11 Fandom: Torchwood/MCU Pairing: Toshiko Sato/James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, with minor Donna Noble/Nick Fury, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Ianto Jones/Bucky Barnes Story Name: My Sakura Summary: Torchwood falls; Ianto and Tosh finds a new life working for Tony Stark. Tosh never meant to fall in love with James Rhodes and Rhodey will do everything to prove himself worthy of her even deal with an overprotective brother figure. from Het Big Bang https://ift.tt/2OVS2Wm via IFTTT

[twodeadchicks]

#TWDFamily Part 4

“It’s not just fandom. It’s family.” If you are at all familiar with Walker Stalker Convention or Heroes and Villains Fan Fest, you’ve probably seen this tag line before. Though I’d seen it, I had never put much thought into what it meant until I experienced this family for myself. From attending the conventions as a fan to beginning this podcast with Kia, I have witnessed a fandom that supports each other with their whole hearts. I have seen people come together for each other in a way that can only be described as magical. Their one common thread? They love The Walking Dead and attending the conventions that celebrate their favorite show.

In this four part series, I will be chatting with many of the people that make up this family. In this final installment, we take a look at some of the amazing vendors you may see this weekend or at Walker Stalker Conventions in the future!

Meet our vendors!

Drawing of King Ezekiel by Aislinn Draws

MDG Art and Customs: mdgartandcustoms.etsy.com Illustrations and customized vinyl figures

**Benny from Benny Miller Art: **www.bennymillerart.com Artist

**Aislinn from Aislinn Draws: **aislinndraws.co.uk Prints, t-shirts, and pins of her hand-drawn fan art.

**Piper from CreepynCuteShop: **www.etsy.com/shop/CreepynCuteShop The metro Detroit-based, original, authentic, CreepynCuteShop zombie doll designers and gifters.

Ginger from Creation 13 SPFX: www.facebook.com/creation13spfx SPFX artist and creator of Monster Junkie Magazine.

Have you been a vendor at Walker Stalker Con?

Aislinn Draws: I have been a vendor twice before, at the two London Walker Stalkers. I decided to become a vendor after hearing about WSC London too late and discovering all the general admission tickets were gone. For a while, people had been suggesting I ‘do something’ with my artwork, which was just a hobby until then. So I bit the bullet, reserved a vendor table, ordered some prints and hoped for the best! It was, at the time, the best thing I had ever done. So of course I returned the next year!

The ladies of CreepynCute Shop with Danai Gurira with her custom Michonne doll

CreepynCuteShop: Yes. 3 WSC Atlanta (plus 2017, will make 4), 1 WSC London, 1 WSC NY/New Jersey, 2 WSC Chicago, and 1 WSC Orlando.

Creation 13 SPFX: Have been a vendor 2 times for Tennessee and Georgia.

Which upcoming Walker Stalker Con can we find you at? Please list your booth number (if applicable, plus any other identifying factors to help people find you.

Aislinn Draws: I’ll be at Walker Stalker Atlanta this weekend. My booth number is 119 and I’m along the row of booths facing the big entrance doors to the main convention hall. It’s a hella big place but I’m hoping that makes me a little easier to find! If you’re still stuck trying to find me, I’d recommend listening out for an excitable British accent!

MDG Art and Customs: I’ll be at booth 344.

Benny Miller Art: I attended my first Walker Stalker last year but not as a vendor. My first one will be in April at the Walker Stalker Con 2018 Chicago. I am way excited for it. It’s happening simultaneously with FanFest Heroes and Villains, but I’ll be on the Walker Stalker side. I don’t have a booth number yet, but my booth will be the one with the sweet art and the handsome, long-haired dude working it (haha).

CreepynCuteShop: WSC Atlanta 2017 and WSC Nashville 2018. For WSC Atlanta, we shall be at Booth #331. WSC Nashville booth numbers have not yet been assigned and/or released yet by WSC.

Creation 13 SPFX: My booth is 372, Creation 13 SPFX. Look for my husband standing on his soap box wearing a top hat, selling a freak show like setting zombie experience for $10.

What made you decide to become a vendor at WSC?

Custom RIchonne print by MDG Art and Customs

MDG Art and Customs: It was a moment of madness. I tend to create art that I wanna see and though I love the gore and guts and action or the lovely character portraits, I was frustrated at not finding the type of art I wanted at conventions; very specifically Richonne art. I went to 3 conventions last year and only the awesome Kirk Manley had artwork that included Michonne and Rick as a couple (that I could find, anyway) and since I’m basically obsessed with drawing the softer side of Richonne. I decided to go for it. I know there are others out there who do too, and I just wanted to share in on that.

CreepynCuteShop: We are vendors at WSC as a result of fans’ requests. We are also vendors because of our passion for all things 'The Walking Dead’ related. We love the fans and feel we are now a part of WSC Family and WSC Fandom. We are also vendors because we love to design & gift celebrities their character and/or portrait dolls in appreciation for the best entertainment they provide for the fans!!!

Custom Carl drawing by Benny Miller Art

Benny Miller Art: As for what made me become a vendor, I’ve been struggling for a while to find a niche for my art. I was kind of all over the place, but started doing portraits a few years back and found that I was decent at it. I started doing them mostly with oil paint on a large scale. They were very time consuming and labor intensive. I then stumbled upon the wonders of Copic markers, and decided to give them a whirl. I began doing smaller, gray-scale portraits with them on toned paper and just REALLY liked the effect. Plus, they took a fraction of the time. I began doing a lot of them, and before I knew it, had a collection. I had been thinking that maybe I could start selling them at cons, but my wife was the one that was really vocal about the idea and the driving force behind all of this. I have my first booth in Chicago only because of her support.

Creation 13 SPFX: I do it for the laughs, scares and experience. Hearing someone scream, “That’s Winslow,” answering questions on how to do make up to old and young. Talking with the teenagers who aspire to be makeup artists. It’s about the experience the customers walk away with.

How has the Walker Stalker Community helped to expand your business?

Aislinn Draws: Walker Stalker has helped me expand my business in that I literally did not HAVE a business before WSC came along. It has helped me to not only find a very focused audience for my work, but also to make friends who support my work both financially and through moral support. One friend in particular, Heather, is someone who I quite honestly would not have been able to do this without.

Benny Miller Art: Through Walker Stalker, my wife has met a number of incredibly generous and supportive people who helped us figure out the vendor process, giving us ideas for sales, how to advertise, quantity of product, how to display, and just about everything else involved with this. My first customers were also people from Walker Stalker, and the whole community has just been so supportive and wonderful. There are just some really incredibly generous people involved in this whole thing.

**CreepynCuteShop: **

The WSC community, family, and fandom have helped expand our very 'organic’ business by welcoming us and our “Share the Love” mission & motto. They have also helped by sharing our business name on their website, sharing social media posts, and sharing some of our doll gifting experiences where we have gifted character and/or portrait dolls to various celebrities.

Creation 13 SPFX

Creation 13 SPFX: Walker Stalker Con has helped expand my business by letting the public see me and my magazine. I have also been introduced to new artists causing new issues for the magazine. I am able to advertise for other booths. I do it for free. Art is to be shared, not hidden. I suffer from anxiety disorder. Walker Stalker has helped me interact and somewhat helped me deal with understanding my limits and how to fight it off and enjoy the beautiful souls around me.

What do you love most about Walker Stalker Con?

Aislinn Draws: The people! Not even the celebrities - as great as they are - but the other attendees, vendors and staff. If I scroll back through my inbox, about 90% of my recent messages are from people I’ve met through Walker Stalker. I went to Atlanta last year as an attendee knowing not a single person, and I return this year with over thirty different friends to reunite with!

MDG Art and Customs: I love everything. There’s art, there’s cosplay, there’s Andrew Lincoln spending his precious Sunday taking photos with us and it’s all about The Walking Dead. If you’re lucky, you might get to tell your favorite actor how much the work they do means to you. You get to meet up with friends you might not see all year round otherwise; you make new ones. It’s like one big family reunion….with family you actually want to spend time with!

Benny Miller Art: It’s got to be the people. My wife and I have met so many supportive, creative, and just all around incredible people. I think my wife talks to her Walker Stalker family more than she talks to her real family. I know she’s made some life long friends and they’ve all extended such wonderful acts of kindness to us and our family. I remember before our first Walker Stalker, we were really unsure of what to do and needed some general guidance on the workings of it. A complete stranger, Heather, messaged my wife on a message board and told her “you can call me, I promise I’m not a weirdo.” It’s a year later and they talk on the phone daily, along with a number of other friends my wife made there. I feel really fortunate to have such a huge number of supportive and generous people in our lives. Who would have thought that such a family could be created from a mutual love of zombies!!!

CreepynCuteShop: The fans, the celebrities, the overall convention experience, and especially the hugs, smiles and out pouring of love!!!

Creation 13 SPFX: James and Robin get all these amazing actresses and actors under one roof for so many to express love to, take pictures with, and share the positive energy experience. And of course, the Walker Stalker Con fans. Watching children cry in love, not horror, when they see a hero character. The respect and love the actors and actresses give to strangers, thanking them for enjoying the work they do is great to see.

[secretmachines-blog]

The Fate Of The Furious: Review and Recap

I attended the screening of the latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise with the same question in mind as the rest of the attendees over the age of 15: ‘Where can they possibly take this. What is the fate of the furious?’

The answer? Flaccid. Family Fun.

It’s baffling as to how removed from the original movie the franchise has become. Understandably, as popularity increases, the audience broadens. Production value increases and star cast members are added. Plotlines are thin(ner than usual) and consistency is at an all time low.

What once was a movie about an undercover cop infiltrating a street racing gang of criminals has turned into the wacky adventures of the Furious Crew. What will our heroes get up to in this installment? Will they go on another heist to steal DVD players to fund their street racing cars? Will they beat Ja Rule in a street race?

No.

This week our heroes will be preventing World War III by preventing the theft of a nuclear weapon. The Fate of the Furious is inoffensive fodder for the masses. It’s taken a direction wherein the franchise has inexplicably yet unintentionally followed the model of ‘The Expendables’ franchise which is mega action paired deliberately thin plot lines in an homage to the blockbuster action films of the 80’s and 90’s. Instead of Sylvester Stallone as the fearless wise leader of the group we have Vin Diesel. Instead of Terry Crews as the token brawn man who refuses to wear anything but singlets and cut off sleeves we have Dwayne Johnson. Instead of Jason Statham as the generic english gangster proficient in martial arts we have... Jason Statham. However, unlike The Expendables, the fate of the furious plot was not intentionally bad.

Does anyone remember what the earlier movies were even like? They went something like this:

Vince: Why don't you try Fat Burger from now on? You can get yourself a cheese and fries  for 2.95, faggot!

Brian: I like the tuna here.

Vince: Bullshit, asshole, no one likes the tuna here!

Brian: Yeah, well I do.

*Vince and Brian proceed to beat the shit out of each other to the tune of Benny Cassettes seminal/lyrical ‘Watch Your Back.’

Solid. Gold.

Fast forward sixteen years and our heros are running black ops carte blanche which is basically lazy scripting to let the heroes of a movie blow up as much as they want and cause as much unaccountable collateral damage as they please.

Spoilers to follow.

The pre-title scene opens in Havana, Cuba where our hero Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel) is enjoying his stress free life with his sassy other half Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) when suddenly he finds his cousin is in inexplicable trouble with the local extortionist who is towing his car bomb for not paying his debts (which were never explained.) The scenes that follow are unmistakably a nod to the street racing origins of the film which was played on the  warming nostalgia, however the nostalgic parade was soon to be rained upon. Uncle Dom steps up to the plate and offers to pink slip race his car to settle the debt of his cousin however is faced with the unfortunate race conditions that he use his cousin's bomb car and it turns out his opponent conveniently owns the fastest car in Havana. When told his opponent was packing some power under his hood, Vin Diesel versed the lines ‘It’s not what’s under your hood, it’s who’s behind the wheel’ in clear tribute to the line from the first movie wherein Ja Rule aka RuleYork stipulates ‘It’s not how you stand by your car, it’s how you race your car.’ It put a smile on my face which was quickly replaced with incredulity. The scene followed with Letty pulling a can of ‘Columbian NOS’ out of seemingly nowhere, clearly insinuating Columbian Nitrous Oxide was superior the nitrous oxide of other countries. I’m aware some things are better from Cuba, like cubano sandwiches, rum and cocaine. Nitrous oxide i’m a little more skeptical about. Dominic then attaches the aforementioned NOS to the rolling death machine and Macgyvers an intake regulator out of a coke can tab. You can pretty easily guess how the rest of the scene pans out. Dom wins by an inch, with his car on fire, with no brakes, in reverse. He dives out of the car, it buckets over the esplanade barrier and into the sea and no one bats an eyelid at this act of illegal dumping. Instead he swamped by fans celebrating his victory and in the celebrations he lifts a small child into his arms in a heartwarming moment of cliche, with the exception that it isn’t his child it’s just some random fucking kid and it makes no sense. You’d expect the closing credits to roll. Dominics unnamed competitor doses the audience with more nostalgia when he states ‘You won my car, and you won my respect’ another nod to Paul Walker's first street race in the first movie.

For the franchise to continue, an antagonist and leverage is required to pull Dom and the crew out of retirement for the millionth time. Enter Cipher, a computer hacker played by Charlize Therone who looks like her hair and makeup was done by the exact same person that did Angelina Jolie’s in ‘Gone In Sixty Seconds.’ Google it. She mysteriously shows him leverage to get him to work for her and he obliges. What could this leverage be? Remember Elena? Doms love interest when he thought Letty was dead? It is later revealed that gave birth to Doms baby and they are both being held hostage. At this point anyone with an ounce of common sense and general knowledge of movie direction will be questioning how this is going to pan out. Movies don’t end with the hero having two love interests and a newborn. It doesn’t work unless at the end of the movie Dominic moves to Utah and becomes Morman. Someone's gotta fucking die. The loose end needs to be tied up. So predictably you already know someone’s gotta die out of Elena,The Kid or Letty. Seeing as it’s not kosher to have a child die onscreen or off, it rules out the baby. Letty already was killed of for a few installments so they’re not going to do that again and so that leaves us with Elena who is later conveniently and predictably killed off screen. As predictable as the death was, having her execution with the camera panned away was infuriating. It’s key indicator that the latest installment is aimed to be inoffensive blockbuster family fun. It’s all cushdy when unnamed assailants (who are more often than not just doing their fucking job as a security guard) are beaten up and blown up, but when a character has a name, a face and is vaguely established as one of the ‘Good Guys’ they can’t be killed on screen lest we upset anyone these days. Remember Vince? Died from a gunshot wound in Fast V. Remember Han? Was deliberately killed in a car crash. Both on screen. Jessie? The lovable idiot, gunned down by asian gangsters. All on screen, all evoking emotion.

Moving along, the sultry Cipher blackmails Dom into going rogue which is no surprise since the literally all of the pre release marketing material gave this away. At this point the floodgates of hypocrisy and contradictions are well and truly open. Dwayne Johnson once again starring as Luke Hobbs and the rest of the furious gang travel to Berlin on a covert mission to steal a device capable of generating a gigantic electromagnetic pulse which posed a threat to someone. Who exactly? I don’t know. The mission directive came from Kurt Russel portraying a government agent. The government agency is never stipulated but who are we to ask questions. If he’s in covert ops, its secret. You can’t ask anyway. A nice graceful segway into being able to send known criminals to steal an EMP weapon in Berlin without having any regard for reality. It’s quite interesting how the gang was sent there so Berlin couldn’t posses such a dangerous weapon and yet Kurt Russel and his team are allowed to use the ‘God’s Eye’ which appeared in previous installments. If you don’t remember, it was software which could hack any satellite or camera and pinpoint a target's location anywhere on the planet. Highly invasive and dangerous for anyone to possess but it’s perfectly fine for America to possess it and when a foreign threat possessing an EMP bomb arises, the gang are sent in to steal it and save the world. The contextual world being America. I think there should be a Slavic nation franchise where a team of eastern european counterparts to the Furious gang infiltrates America to stop them having the ‘God’s Eye’ just to keep the powers balanced. I dub this spin off franchise ‘The Lada and the Ludicrous.’ If you don’t know what Lada is, look up Lada Life on Facebook. Great page.

Obviously Dom goes rogue on his crew on this mission and steals the EMP to deliver to Cipher. In doing so, he sabotages Hobbs’ car and leaves him to get arrested and thrown into a maximum security prison (which stocks prison uniforms with cutoff sleeves especially for Hobbs) holding none other than Jason Statham reprising his role Deckard Shaw/The Transporter/ Monk (From mean machine) whereupon they engage in cheesey insults which by comparison to Vince’s quotes above, could be construed as pleasantries. Hobbs adhering to his semi astute law abiding officer conscience maintains he will get out of jail through the appropriate channels. Cue Kurt Russel’s orchestrated prison riot where all inmates start to maim up as well as the prison guards. Hobbs initially stays in his cell, refusing to partake in the festivities which highlights his moral compass, but this lasted for a whole 3 seconds. The scene that followed depicted Hobbs tearing through both guards and inmates and yes, he even shived a guy. Straight up prison shiv to the chest. What a hero. Hobbs and Deckard are the only two that manage to escape while the rest of the inmates are left to murder the security guards who were only doing their jobs. A small price to pay to break two guys out of prison for the sake of another covert mission to stop Cipher.

The team is once again reassembled but now Deckard is in the mix much to the chagrin of Hobbs, myself and literally anyone who has watched previous installments. The fact that Deckard was assimilated into the team and eventually accepted was the biggest plot hole in the movie. Even when the trailer was released indicating that Deckard was joining the team half of the loyal fanbase resonated the same thought.

‘Umm does anyone remember how he killed Han Seoul Oh?’ Remember the Han? The nicest guy ever with the best girlfriend ever (who was killed by Deckard's brother Owen.)

The fallacy wasn’t even swept under the rug. It was just ignored. Like most.

Speaking of which. Dom and Cipher subsequently take refuge on what I have affectionately named ‘Air Force None.’ A plane that can’t be tracked by the government by skirting through radar gaps and is fully equipped with hacker spec glass screens and touch panels. How Cipher afforded to pay for all of this or commission the construction of such an aircraft is a question worth asking. Also where does a fugitive land for petrol?

From this infinitely mobile Death Star, Cipher effortly executes stage 2 of her plan. Steal nuclear missile launch codes from a Russian motorcade in New York by using a combination of hacking skills paired with the physical expertise of trusty Dominic Toretto. The problem with hacking scenes as opposed to fighting scenes or calculated physical heists is that hacking scenes are always limited and uninspired. With an effortless press of a button accompanied with justifying dialogue Cipher somehow remotely accesses half of New York’s cars which were manufactured post 2007 and causes them to smash into the Russian motorcade consisting of a bullet proof limousine and escalades equipped with a sunroof and pop up machine gun turret. The other hacking scenes that follow in the movie are equally uninspired, when the time for Cipher to go head to head with another computer expert, the face off is limited to who can bash at a keyboard faster and aggressively. Cipher wins said hack-off with and her opponent explains the loss by saying ‘She locked me out.’ Pretty technical stuff. I would have been more impressed if the accompanying dialogue was ‘She logged into my computer and pressed Alt + F4.’  

The rest of the movie takes our hero to Russia where they go head to head to stop Cipher and rogue dom from stealing a submarine with nukes. Through the powers of remote access technology and poor continuity between scenes, Cipher steals a submarine which is clearly docked on land and in a 2 second frame transition manages to get it submerged into water. Equipped with a tank, Lamborghini, Subaru WRX and other cars poorly equipped for snow missions, the heroes have a high speed chase on ice where they attempt to halt the submarine. The most memorable moment from this scene in particular is when Hobbs who lets not forget is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, leans out of his car and diverts submarine missile skidding along the ground and diverts it with his bare hands towards some unsuspecting Russians.

Of course whilst this all happens Dom the rogue reveals that he was never rogue. He had a plan in action to get his son back and stop Cipher. Surprise. Dom arranged for Deckard and his brother who got out of jail due to a flimsy line of dialogue (both still on my shit list) to infiltrate the previously undetectable Air Force None and secure the precious cargo that is Dominic's mocha son whilst Cipher parachutes away into oblivion. Once again, a pretty unrealistic scene where Deckard dispatches a plane full of security whilst holding a baby in a cradle. Also this still does not account for redemption for causing the death of Han and his lovely girlfriend. I did enjoy the fact that he ran out of bullets and this was acknowledged with dialogue.

Back on ground Dom manages to divert a heat seeking missile into the submarine by jumping over it in a fashion similar to how a car narrowly dodges an oncoming train (which has already been done in the franchise.)

Cut scene to a family barbeque ending scene. Dom has his baby back, Deckard is a good guy, everyone has been granted amnesty again and ties together a scene about family. Something Dom has always stood by throughout the franchise. Family is everything. To be more precise. Doms family is everything. Other families not so much. Although it didn't show it, in the scene where Cipher remotely accessed cars and caused a 100 car pileup in the middle of New York, I’m pretty sure somebody died. I’m pretty sure a couple of families were broken for the sake of baby toretto.

Mild negativity aside. The movie delivers what it promises: Explosions; Fast keyboard typing hacker duels; Cars being launched into the air in slow motion to a cliche sub bass whomp; A character who does literally nothing except provide comic relief (Roman); cheesy one liners and lastly the best kiss scene of 2017. If you haven't picked up this review contains a couple of spoilers, here’s another for good measure. Charlize Theron kisses Vin Diesel and it is unbelievably sexy and quite unsettling to get a hard on in a room full of children. If it doesn’t win the best kiss at the teen MTV awards I’ll be very surprised.

The movie also delivered on good product placement. As expected in a car centric movie, you’d expect to see a bit of product placement. I spotted a can of Coca Cola, a Razer laptop and an Epson printer. There were also cars. 

I give the movie a firm 2 schmeckles.