#Condor Trilogy

[callisto00]

THEY'RE ENDGAME NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE

( credits to: @/odairhee on Twitter❗️)

[stars-n-spice]

Had an epiphany:

Feel free to add on!

[heartsforlanadelrey]

I will never get over this movie. 💌

[dumpshittybrain]

[siaguleria]

💫

[tenaciousarcadeexpert]

list of young actresses of color who deserve to have more recognition and opportunities as actors like Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Kathryn Newton, Millie Bobby Brown etc. It would be refreshing to see more of these talented and underrated actresses of color

*Note, the list consists of actors born within the mid 90s-2000s. This might not be a complete list so whoever sees this is welcome to add more actors that I missed. I might update this post from time to time

This list has gotten so long that I have to make a separate one for male actors of color

Rachel Zegler-(she deserved way better than the hate over snow white)

Lana Condor-(aside from x-men apocalypse and the to all the boys trilogy, she hasn't done much blockbusters compared to Noah, despite her being the lead in the latter films)

Dominique Thorne-(She has her Ironheart and deserves more opportunities, both in the mcu and outside)

Halle Bailey

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Lola Tung-(same example with Lana, pretty jarring how her male co-stars are getting work beyond the summer i turned pretty and yet there's nothing from Lola)

Ashley Liao

Megan Suri-(another cast member from Never Have I Ever who also deserves all the opportunites)

Joy Sunday-(Bianca from Wednesday, deserves as much love as Emma Myers)

Iman Vellani-(Ms Marvel/Kamala Khan herself, deserves to have a thriving career and be as big like Tom Holland)

Ayo Edebiri-(2023 was a big year for her, hopefully it continues and she's not overlooked or overshadowed by her white co-stars in The Bear)

Savannah Smith-(Carried the gossip girl reboot, she deserves to have as much recognition as Leighton and Blake did after the original Gossip Girl series)

Madison Reyes-(Julie and the Phantoms deserved better than to be cancelled after one season and with a cliffhanger. Let her star in a musical and or disney film)

Simone Ashley-(One of the main leads in Bridgerton yet Phoebe and Nicola have more upcoming projects than her in Hollywood)

Charithra Chandran

Arsema Thomas

India Amarteifio

Madeleine Madden-(Carried season 2 of The Wheel of Time and if you watched the whole season, you'll understand why)

Moses Ingram-(Did not deserve the hate over the Obi Wan Kenobi series)

Minnie Mills-(She deserved to appear in season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty)

Amrit Kaur

Alyah Chanelle Scott-(it's frustrating that both the main leading ladies of color are overshadowed by Renee Rapp and Pauline, who's related to Timothy)

Letitia Wright-(Pretty jarring how she's been in plenty of mcu projects yet it's easy to count the number of roles she's been in outside the mcu, and has been acting since 2011, longer than Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor Joy and Millie Bobby Brown. Wright has even acted as long as Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams and they've been in more projects than her)

Yasmin Finney-(She's done both Heartstopper and Doctor Who)

Imani Lewis-(First Kill deserved better than being cancelled after one season. Let her do more horror and supernatural themed

Leah Jeffries-(Deserves all the support especially once the Percy Jackson series comes out)

Auli'i Cravahlo

Erin Kellyman-(After the Han Solo film, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Willow, let her appear in more sci-fi and action blockbusters)

Sadly, tumblr has a 30 limit on adding gifs. I definitely missed so many on the list. Anyone is welcome to add more to the list. All of these talented actresses deserve all the love, appreciation and more opportunities and roles

I might do a part 2 which will include male actors

[tavina-writes]

CQL and Genre Intertextuality

I'm being bashed over the head with the "nhs's fan in CQL is made of xuantie/dark iron" thing again and @poorlittleyaoyao please understand that I am thinking of this constantly since you made that post talking about it because I'm just.

holding my head in my hands bc ye gods the cql show writers were genre savvy in ways that are hilarious but also make me feel like I've been hit upside the head with a waffle iron.

For those of us who are no longer damaged by the post or hadn't seen it (I don't actually know where it's gone bc the search feature doesn't work on this webbed site):

Xuantie/Dark Iron is a Jin Yong created metal that famously was used for the blade of the Dragon Slaying Sabre in the third novel of the Condor Trilogy, 倚天屠龍記/The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber.

The Heaven Reliant Sword 倚天劍 was created from Yang Guo and Xiao Longnv's Gentleman and Lady swords, whilst the Dragon Slaying Saber 屠龍刀 was created from Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-a-Loss's Dark Iron Sword.

Can we please all take a moment to appreciate how NHS's fan not his saber, NHS, from The Family With The Sabers, gets to shout about how his fan is made of xuantie. The most famous for being the metal that made up The Dragon Slaying Saber. His fan. Not his saber. his fan. dark iron. Dragon Slaying Saber. This is so funny I'm about to mcfucking lose it yet again while typing this.

Going back to Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-A-Loss (who appears in both Return of the Condor Heroes and Xiao Ao Jianghu) and his giant pet condor (sadly, only a ROCH feature) who might've been his one true soulmate for a second, this situation from episode 7, when the Yunmeng Siblings are leaving the Cloud Recesses:

Now, the subtitles here really DO NOT do this line justice because when I first saw it it took me FLAT THE FUCK OUT and I had to lie on the floor laughing for like, 80 seconds before I got my breath back.

Okay, what this line ACTUALLY says is "I am Dugu Qiubai (Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-A-Loss), what's wrong with seeking a match?"

Now, to understand this, we come to this backstory on Dugu Qiubai in XAJH:

“Senior master Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, who created this set of sword techniques, had a name ‘Seeking-A-Loss.’ He had been seeking a loss all his life and still couldn’t get one. Once the sword techniques were executed, he would become unmatched anywhere in the world. Why would he have to defend? If anyone could have forced him to draw his sword back and defend himself, the respectful master would have burst with joy and be delighted beyond measure.” Feng Qingyang said. “Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, Dugu Seeking-A-Loss,” Linghu Chong muttered as he imagined how the senior master had wandered about the Martial World, unmatched anywhere, with only his sword, and couldn’t even find a single one who was capable of forcing him into a defending stance. That was truly admirable.

from Chapter Ten of XAJH: Sword Training.

"If anyone could force him to draw his sword back to defend himself, the grandmaster would have burst with joy and be delighted beyond measure" DO YOU SEE WHY JC STARTED CALLING WWX SHAMELESS NOW. they're JUNIORS. WWX is calling himself "the greatest man of all, who'd sought the feeling of losing just ONCE being forced to defend himself just ONCE in a LIFETIME" and saying "LWJ might be my equal. my soulmate. the loss I was seeking my whole life."

All 15 years of it I'm sure, WWX.

I'm not going to get into finding martial arts manuals or a respected grandmaster who taught you incredible things in a cave bc 1) LHC and Feng Qingyang up there are sitting together, in a cave and LHC is being taught incredible things and 2) Duan Yu from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils once found the magic finger lasers of ultra laser in a cave. In front of the statue of a goddess. (don't talk about the dancing goddess statue now, Tav. We don't have time for that in this post.)

Not kidding the intertextuality of CQL and how much it plays with and against the tropes of its genre, especially other wuxia tv adaptations as well as wuxia novels is insane. There's other ones I'm missing for certain and these were just the most funny to me, personally, but! just! oh my god! insane! insane! SO funny, so clever in so many ways

[cbbyzac]

Lara Jean Song Covey, played by Lana Condor, is the leading lady of Netflix's trilogy To All the Boys I've Loved Before. It’s been 6 years since LJ stole our hearts (Thanks, Jenny Han), and what better way to honor the ultimate lover girl than by showing some of our favorite outfits. From her classic, preppy looks to the more casual, laid-back styles, Lara Jean's wardrobe has inspired countless fans. Which outfit is your favorite?

[fictional-library-tournament]

Prelims round 1, poll 8:

Propaganda

The Library, The Medoran Chronicles by Lynette Noni:

Sentient building! Is literally a place of learning, both through read knowledge and real life experiences; has various doors to different locations and worlds, as well as specific areas inside the library for physical learning. The Library can manipulate space-time within itself, and paintings can easily become doorways to pocket dimensions.

Badalom, The Mysterious Cities of Gold:

Badalom is the second City of Gold of the series. It has an archive of blueprints of different machines made by the ancient Kingdom of Mu/Hiva. It also has a factory that builds flying golden condors.

The Library of the Unwritten, Hell's Library series by AJ Hackwith:

None

The Palanaeum, The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson:

None

The Stormlight Archive, The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson:

Super cool archive! The information is stored in carved crystals that vibrate in specific patterns when infused with magic to reveal messages. It was meant to preserve information stored for thousands of years after books in the main archive has turned to dust. (The art is by @lamaery on Tumblr who gave permission for me to upload this as long as they get credit.)

Sazed's Copperminds, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson:

Copper bracers called copperminds that contain many, many forbidden books. They are accessible only to Sazed, a scholar specialising in religion and also a member of the Skaa rebellion.

‼️MAJOR SPOILERS‼️

At the end of the trilogy, the world is literally about the end, and Sazed becomes a god and uses the knowledge in his copperminds to fix/remake the world.

[shadeops21]

Hello! I love your Cosplay Guides for COD! It’s very detailed and well done! But I can’t seem to find the character I’d like to cosplay beside Soap! I even found and looked on your DeviantArt, but he wasn’t there. Would it be possible to consider adding Gary ‘Roach’ Sanderson? Thank you in advance! :)

Ah, here’s where it gets difficult as there isn’t a “canon” reboot appearance of Roach that is able to be properly broken down. A lot of the “remaster” Roach images out there are actually just using modified or “kitbashed” versions of AI NPC skins or generic MP “milsim” skins, which share a lot of the same core assets as the campaign characters in terms of clothing, plate carriers, and pouches, albiet in different configurations and colourations.

The OG trilogy doesn’t give us much to work on either as we didn’t really see more than his arms from the first person mode, and what glimpses of his body we do get, he’s wearing the same kit as the other TF141 characters as their appearance was a lot more uniform than the reboot is. The other issue with the OG trilogy is that the equipment, even in the remaster, is too low-poly and generic to really make any kind of identification of specific equipment nearly impossible.

(Post-note: This is turning into a longer response than I expected so I’ll throw this under the cut)

Personally, if I were building a cosplay for Roach that was in line with the reboot’s aesthetics, then I would start with what “theme” I want to capture based on existing trends. Looking at what the other boys have there are about three, maybe four distinct themes:

- Night Raider: the “nightwar” gear where they’re all in black and navy blue, night vision goggles, all that “going dark” angle

- Field Work: what the boys wear a lot during MW19 and MWIII, your more conventional SF look with the green, brown, and camouflage printed clothing and gear, maybe helmets or hats, etc.

- Urban Ops: essentially streetwear or civilian attire with their combat loads just thrown over the top, maybe a thinned out load for mobility or “short duration” actions. Think Soap’s tee & jeans load or what is worn during the tunnel fight in the end of MWIII.

Once you have a theme in mind, draw inspiration from the others for what Roach might have, and don’t be afraid to incorporate headcanons if you so choose.

Here’s what I would do if I were building a Roach costume, using what is known from the canon trilogy and commonly adopted fanon.

Theme: Urban Operations

Clothing:

- Ranger Green Crye G3 combat shirt, rolled up sleeves to below the elbow. UK IR flag patch on right shoulder pocket flap.

- Faded blue and torn denim jeans, single kneepad on the right knee.

- Mechanix Original gloves in Coyote Brown, cutoff the trigger finger halfway on the right glove.

Platform (vest):

- Crye CPC in coyote brown

— Condor Tactical Annex Admin pouch on the top velcro section of the vest

— 2x HSGI Twin AR Taco rifle mag pouches on the front MOLLE panel, occupying wearer’s left and centre row pairs

— Flashbang pouch occupying right row pair of the front molle panel

— Left cummerbund, running front to back: HSGI Single AR Taco rifle mag pouch, Spritus Systems GP pouch, Tactical Tailor PRC-152 radio pouch - all coyote brown

— Right cummerbund, front to back: flashbang pouch, Spritus Systems GP pouch

— Rear platebag just remains empty to accommodate a backpack when needed

— Patches: Green IR UK flag patch attached to the admin pouch

- Ronin Tactics TF Belt, coyote brown

— Left hip: ESSTAC twin pistol magazine pouch, with single HSGI AR Taco behind it

— Small of back: Blue Force Gear Micro Trauma NOW IFAK

— Right Hip: holster of some kind on a low-ride platform, suitable for a sidearm of your choosing. Recommend Safariland brand.

Headwear:

Beanie/watch cap with Opscore AMP headset over the top, half-face neckwrap in black or grey, with tinted wrap sunglasses.

Haven’t covered footwear as I have a few boots I wear personally, can’t go wrong with either Underarmour or Oakley tactical boots, or cross reference my guides and see what the others wear.

I hope this serves as a helpful guide or something to help you out with your own Roach cosplay. And believe me, if we do get a Roach character in the reboot verse you can bet that I’ll have their loadout breakdown done!

Thanks for the ask!

[catgirl-kaiju]

pics of kaiju in order listed above with names, appearances, and image alt text:

Giant Condor/Giant Eagle

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)

All Monsters Attack (1969) [stock footage]

Gappa Family (Baby Gappa, Osu Gappa, & Mesu Gappa)

Gappa (1967)

Gorgo

Gorgo (1961)

Guilala

The X from Outer Space (1967)

Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (2008)

Yonggary (Showa & Heisei Designs)

Yonggary, Monster From the Deep (1967)

Reptilian (1999)

Giant Octopus

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [alternate ending]

The War of the Gargantuas (1966)

Maguma

Gorath (1962)

Godziban Special Episode: Bring Them to Life! Let's Play with the Three Godzilla Brothers (2020)

Gojirin

Get Going! Godzilland! (1996)

Bagan

Resurrection of Godzilla (1980; scrapped)

Resurrection of Godzilla (1983; scrapped)

Mothra vs. Bagan / Mothra vs. Godzilla (1990; scrapped)

Godzilla 3/ Godzilla vs. Bagan (1991; scrapped)

Super Godzilla (1993) [video game]

Godzilla vs. Bagan (1995; scrapped)

Rebirth of Mothra trilogy (1996-1998; considered)

Yamato Takeru II (1997; scrapped)

Godzilla Movie Studio Tour (1998) [video game]

Godziban (2019-) [episode 54; special episodes 10 and 12]

Information sourced from wikizilla.org

[stars-n-spice]

I need to lock these gay ass motherfuckers all in a room.

For science.

[nemainofthewater]

This is a series of polls looking at the best Jin Yong adaptation, separated by novel. The masterlist of Jin Yong Adaptation Polls can be found here.

*Legend of the Condor Heroes: The dragon Tamer AND Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Cadaverous Claw

**Rage and Passion (1992)/The Mystery of the Condor Hero (1993)/the Legend of the Condor Heroes (1994)/The Condor Heroes Return (1994)

[grahamkennedy]

Take this with a grain of "I'm not Latin American" but the LatAm flicks I studied in film school are: -The Hour of the Furnaces (Argentina); MAJOR film in the third cinema movement -Black God, White Devil + Entranced Earth + Antonio das Mortes (Brazil); major Cinema Novo trilogy (in a loose sense) and major third cinema works more broadly -Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba); third cinema again (most of these are third cinema) -Blood of the Condor (Bolivia); third cinema -The Battle of Chile (Chile); 3 part documentary, highly rec this one before you watch any other Chilean movies bc it gives a lot of great context for Allende + Pinochet -Black Orpheus (Brazil); major pre-Cinema Novo work, allegedly a lot of mixed feelings about this one in LatAm as it's directed by a Frenchman + exoticizes Carnival -I Am Cuba (Cuba); same deal as Black Orpheus where it's got a foreign director (Russian this time) and is criticized for being stereotypical, though Che Guevara apparently loved this one -Limite (Brazil); avant-garde classic -City of God (Brazil); widely acclaimed work of the so-called LatAm New Wave -A Fantastic Woman (Chile); personally I don't like this one, in film circles it's touted as like THE trans movie but I don't think it's very good trans rep

Other LatAm movies I've seen and/or heard a lot of buzz about are: -Nostalgia for the Light (Chile); HIGHLY recommend this one, easily one of my top five docs (and I'm REALLY picky about docs) -20 Years Later (Brazil); widely acclaimed doc -Bus 174 (Brazil); another widely acclaimed doc -La Antena (Argentina); big in avant-garde circles -No (Chile); really interesting fictionalization of a true story -Neruda (Chile); haven't seen this one as I LOVE Pablo Neruda and it will upset me if they do him dirty lol, good reviews + same director as No though

Again please take this with a grain of "I'm not Latin American," these are really just the LatAm movies that have broken containment/that caught my attention on Mubi

DJDKSJFKKDDK sorry I took so long to answer this. These are all going on my watchlist

[bristolianbackpacker]

Day 20 - Machu Picchu & Huayna Picchu

The alarm goes off, we snap into action - shower and get ready. The hotel breakfast starts at 4:30am - they know their customers well haha.

We grab some eggs on toast and coffee to keep us going for a few hours of hiking. Our hotel store our bags after we check out. Today we climb Huayna Picchu. It’s not particularly long hike but it’s a huge elevation gain over a short distance. I’m a little worried about the climb as I’m scared of heights but we’ll see how it goes.

We take the bus up to the site and as I had feared it’s quite misty this early in the morning. However it’s kinda nice and mysterious with the clouds.

Firstly we are on Circuit 4 today so we can enter the Inka House that we looked down on yesterday.

Then we meander our way towards the Sacred Rock which is the start of the trek up Huayna Picchu. We are allowed to start a little earlier than our scheduled 7:00am start time so after signing in we begin the climb. It’s almost immediately lots of stairs but nothing too crazy. The first 3/4 of the hike we are surrounded by bush and enjoying the flowers. At some steep staircases they have metal chains to help you get up.

After this we get to the terraces where it’s cleared and you are able to better see how high up you are. Quickly followed by the “Stairs of Death”. We did need to climb up on our hands and knees but I think they are a little overhyped. Once we get up the stairs we get amazing views down into the valley so we stop for some photos.

It’s still cloudy so we stop to once side for half an hour and eat some snacks. My only struggle is when Jack stands really close to a sheer cliff edge whilst taking photos and it makes me feel a bit queezy!

After this, the clouds start to clear and we head up a short staircase to another terrace where there is spectacular views down over Machu Picchu. We stop again for a while to enjoy.

It’s the last little climb to the very summit, the space at the top is very limited so we don’t stay too long - just enough to snap some photos.

It’s all downhill from here!! The downhill is a little harder as my knee is playing up, but we take it slow. There are so many people climbing by this point (10am) and we keep needing to stop to let them last. Also they are all struggling in the heat so I’m super happy we chose the early slot.

WE MADE IT - I’m so proud of myself. The heights were barely a problem for me at all.

We make our way towards the exit and we stop off at the Temple of the Condor. The Condor (part of three of the Trilogy of the Andes world). The rock has been carved into the shape of a condor.

Ok it’s time to head back down to Aguas Calientes. I’ve been geeking out on Incan stuff for days now so it’s time for Jack to get to do something fun. We head straight for a message next to our hotel. We opt for the Incan massage with hot stones. It’s an hour of pure bliss - one of the best massages we’ve both had. Next we grab some lunch at a nearby restaurant. We both order the beef burritos (plus a pisco sour to celebrate) which look very much like tacos but they do the job.

By the time we pick up our bags it’s time to walk to the train station. This time it’s even more chaotic than yesterday, after a while with utter confusion we realise that the previous train is late to depart so the small station is packed with two trains worth of people. The staff don’t seem to know what is going on and keep telling us different things - the usual South American stuff.

We end up leaving about 40mins late which isn’t too bad but the train goes really slowly the whole way back to Ollantaytambo. We have a taxi prearranged to take us back to Cusco which then gets stuck in heaps of traffic so it’s quite late by the time we get in. Not ideal after our 4am wake up. We head straight out to grab some hot chips for dinner and some more water. The new hostel is pretty bad - black mould everywhere, it smells badly of drains, the walls are paper thin and a dog is barking all night!

One final thought before I sign off - I’ve realised upon returning to Cusco is that the altitude really messes with everything - for example Jack’s moisturiser exploded on him and it reminded me that the same thing happened to me with sunscreen when we first arrived here. The altitude pushed all of his snot out as soon as we arrived back (sorry TMI). Also we’ve noticed that the beer has way too much head and is a bit flat tasting. When the car was stuck in traffic earlier I started feeling sick - it’s difficult to differentiate between side effects from the tablets and actual altitude sickness but I think the summary is that my body just feels a bit fragile at 3400m but glad we took the tablets because everything we’ve experienced has been very very mild.

[gigakoops]

Immediate Thoughts On Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (as someone who's never played the original FFVII)

I've never played the original Final Fantasy VII, and only have a vague idea of certain story beats (in fact most of what I knew prior to Remake was about a certain pivotal scene I'm sure everyone knows about by now). When I played through Remake, though I was surprised how goofy a lot of the side stuff was, and honestly I was all for it. And the actual story and characters were highly engrossing, and I ended up truly invested by the time the end credits came around. So obviously, I had to play Part 2 when it came out!

And wowie, was it worth it! Honestly it's been a long time since I've enjoyed a game this much (in fact, I think this is up there with Silent Hills 1-3 and Undertale in terms of favorite games, at least at the moment of writing). I've been doing my best to avoid spoilers of the original game, so a lot of the story beats probably hit a lot harder for me as someone witnessing them for the first time, in the format of a middle entry in a trilogy that takes its time to truly establish its central characters, and probably adds a bit to their backstories.

What really did it for me, though, was the side content. When I first started the game I honestly didn't feel it at first, but then I tried some Queens Blood, and was like "Alright, I at least like this minigame!" I was a little less enthralled with the towers you need to climb, but the fact that they then lead to more interesting points of interest around the world makes them worth it. (Also honestly even the towers grew on me once they started adding more to getting to them, despite some frustrations in certain parts of the game surrounding them).

But the protorelic side-quests, side-missions and minigames are where it truly shines. I've seen some mixed reception of certain minigames (especially Fort Condor and the psuedo-Rocket League one), but I ended up enjoying those as well. And to be honest, the cutscenes that go along with these minigames are totally worth it. I got really invested in the aforementioned Queens Blood, as well as Chocobo Racing, ending up 100% both of these.

In fact, the overall very silly tone for a lot of this game was a breath of fresh air, and exactly what I needed during times of high anxiety in my personal life. And to be honest, after the grimdark tone of FFXVI I'm glad to see this entry was willing to just be as zany as possible. And it also helped me care more about the characters and world more. I want to protect this goofy little world, and I want this loveable cast to succeed.

It also made the more serious moments hit harder. I won't go into specifics here, but there are definitely heavier parts, as well as parts that moved me to tears. When this game hits hard, it hits hard. Especially most of the endgame had me highly emotional. And while I won't go into detail, I personally think the way they went about things works really well. Again, never played the original.

Overall, I'm very glad I've played through this, and I look forward to Part 3, in a few years from now likely after Kingdom Hearts 4.

P.S.: The moogles are good actually, and Cait Sith is the best character.