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hotvintagepoll · 1 year ago

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Propaganda

Deborah Kerr (Bonjour Tristesse, An Affair to Remember, The King and I)— For several decades she held the record for most Oscar nominations without a win (6 in total), and she was a prolific leading lady throughout the 40s and 50s. She's best known today for the romance An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant, and as the governess in The King and I. Many people have this erroneous perception of her as extremely prim, proper, and virginal, but this could not be further from the truth. When she first came to Hollywood under MGM she was typecast into boring decorative roles, but broke sexual boundaries for herself and Hollywood generally in From Here to Eternity, when she made out (horizontally!) with Burt Lancaster (on top of him!) in the famous Beach Scene. She went on to play many sexually conflicted women, a character type that would define most of her post- Eternity work. She continued to break Hays Code boundaries with Tea and Sympathy, which addresses homosexuality/homophobia head-on, and even did a topless scene in The Gypsy Moths 1969!! One of the only classic stars to do so. She deserves a more nuanced and frankly a hotter legacy than she currently has!!!

Ethel Merman (Anything Goes, Call Me Madam)— Possessed of a bold, brash voice, and an even bolder and brasher presence, Ethel Merman might be more well known for her stage roles, but she made several movies, and was bold and brash in them as well. Also I think if I don't submit her, she's going to come back and haunt me.

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Ethel Merman:

You've gotta love any woman who got typecast as lead-MILF

Deborah Kerr:

I think she was one of my first crushes before I realised I was bi in The King and I when I watched it as a kid honestly. The kissing scene in From Here to Eternity is iconic for a reason. Actually tried to learn the accents for the characters she was playing if they weren't English which is more than pretty much anyone else was doing then. Played very restrained characters who frequently seemed to be desperate not to be so restrained. Did horror movies without venturing into hagsploitation tropes. Gave Marni Nixon the credit she deserved for her share of the singing in The King and I.

Anne Larsen is a peak late 1950s bisexual with big MILF energy. Have you seen the behind the scenes pics of her wearing a suit?? Have you????? Vote Deb as Anne Larsen.

Nominated for an Oscar six (6) times and never won, but besides her having actual talent (hot), and besides her looking Like That (very hot, also beautiful), she was always playing women who are, like, crazy repressed. Which makes it fun and easy for me to read these characters as queer. Icon!!!! You know what's hot? Playing ambiguously gay in vintage Hollywood.

Her face and talent and body, yes, ofc, duh. But also!!! Her HANDS!!!! I may be but a simple lesbian, but she is the best hactor (hand actor) that ever lived and that's HOT! For propriety's sake I feel I must redact a large portion of my commentary on this subject. Anyway. She's hot in her most famous roles (mentioned above), and also some of her sexiest hacting is on display in An Affair to Remember (her hand on the bannister when Cary Grant kisses her off-screen??? HELLO???), Tea and Sympathy (when she's trying to persuade Tom not to go out and she keeps flexing her hands like she wants to reach out to him but can't??? ALLY BEHAVIOR! WE STAN!), and The Innocents (which opens and closes with extended shots of her hands bc director Jack Clayton was also an ally and he did that for ME). Much of her appeal also lies in the fact that she often played deeply repressed characters and you know what's hot? When those uptight characters finally unravel. It's sexy. It's cathartic. It's erotic. Plus, she's beautiful to look at in both black & white and technicolor, and the more of her films you see, the more you can't help but fall in love!

Literally is in thee most famously sexy scene of all time (or maybe just during the hays code era which is what we're talking about HELLO), which is the beach scene with Burt Lancaster in from here to eternity. To quote a tumblr post of a screen capture of a tweet of a video of joy behar on the view: "y'know, there used to be movies where they were kissing on the beach... From Here to Eternity. They're kissing-- Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr are Kissing on the Beach and then the WAVES crash!! You know exactly what they did!"

She might have a reputation of being chaste and virginal or whatever, but we all know it's the quiet ones who are certifiable FREAKS

#ethel merman #deborah kerr #hotvintagepoll #ladies 1 #fuck that old woman

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d0zuki · 11 months ago

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“True Beauty” -"remember to know your own limit"

⋆˚࿔ Comfy pj from Kuro𝜗𝜚˚⋆ :: a pj to watch a movie

― ʚ summary ɞ ― day 13 of fluffprill Movie night

― ʚ words ɞ ― 654

― ʚ warning ɞ ― designer found no danger in her creation

― ʚ author note ɞ ― the designer has nothing to say

Caine decided to have a very simple adventure today and actually take somewhat of a part, the adventure was watching movies many types actually Caine was probably also the one most excited for it truthfully and not just to be the perfect show host, even though he didn't tell anybody what the adventure is he told them to come with their PJS, when everyone arrives Caine tells them the adventure and everyone is well... They think Caine isn't telling them about everything about this adventure that seems too relaxing, especially since Pommi was acting a bit more normal but to put it simply everyone just decided to stay for the movie night which happened in daylig- oh never mind Caine changed the time to night... Well guess you will have a 15 hours night maybe even more

The first movie Caine wanted to play was a comedy, and to put it simply Kinger liked it a lot and officially got called old by Jax(he isn't wrong) but Kinger wasn't the only one Caine also liked it

The second one was Horror, which to put it simply half of the cast didn't like, except Jax honestly nobody was surprised it's Jax he's the horror in their eyes

The third one was romance, which Gangle and Ragatha liked, though Gangle probably liked it the most and Ragatha just found it cute

The fourth one was a documentary, which not everyone liked except Kinger even Caine wasn't a fan

The fift one was Drama, people who liked it were Gangle and Zooble, Gangle liked it because of potential fanfics someone could write and Zooble because their life already is a drama in the digital circus

The sixth one is historical, which once again only Kinger liked and even started saying some random events that never happened, probably

The seventh one and last one is action, which Jax,Pomni,Caine,Zooble enjoyed, Jax liking because a lot of scenes could be turned into pranks, Pomni liked it because it had enough action to her not too much not too little, Caine liked it because Caine and by that I mean why wouldn't he? And Zooble there is a lot of action already so they find it relatable

Oh but don't think I forgot about you dear reader

if you enjoy comedy then Jax will certainly call you old(even if you are really young)

If you like horror then the others-Jax might be concerned about you, I mean horror is scary and you like it?! Though Jax will certainly like you in a friendly way

If you like romance Gangle will enjoy talking to you about it, maybe even watch more with you or some kind of romance anime, as for Ragatha she will also talk to you about the movie if you can continue watching movies and the TV won't go poof she won't mind watching more with you though no more then 2 movies a day or else you get an addiction

If you enjoy documentaries well then welcome to the boring gang with Kinger, though he 100% appreciates you for liking it

Now if you like drama, Gangle will recommend some shows she saw on the TV that suddenly appeared, and some anime too! Just don't tell Caine that the reason the TV disappears suddenly is because Gangle took it, as for Zooble if you talk to them about it they will answer but if you won't then they won't either

If you like historical movies,then once again Kinger appreciates you liking them, and will appreciate you even more if you listen to his out of nowhere rambles about historical events except everyone is bugs

And lastly if you like action then, congratulations half of the digital circus likes you, and Pomni actually has a reason to talk to you either to just do it or get more information about digital circus

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stinkybrowndogs · 30 days ago

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gsps really are the most Dog of all dog breeds

I’m honestly surprised there are not more shorthairs on dogblr. What’s the hold up people. They are basically just a Malinois minus the teeth and brains and there are like 50 of those bopping around on this site! That and gsps are truly a dime a dozen. I could go on Craigslist right now and find a few byb litters. (I won’t. But I could.)

In all seriousness I think it has to do with the fact that the people who enjoy them unfortunately tend to lean conservative 😓 especially once you get into the hunting community. Being obviously gay or trans in hunting spaces is not super comfortable or safe feeling and I can only imagine being non-white in these spaces as well. That and the popular training methods used for gun dogs are… interesting. To say the least.

Some snippets of the books I was given when I was trying to get into hunting :

That isn’t to say that these are completely void of any useful information, there are lot of simple training steps that make perfect sense for the task the dogs are doing. But I think you have to take some of this with a grain of salt; when I was trying to get into hunting I found that I was able to achieve the same results with less adverse methods, plus my mentor was much more versed in modern dog training and conditioning. Brandy’s training is more of a blend of the two- the most adverse tools we used was a woah- harness (phased out pretty quickly) and an e-collar for long distance recall (again, there is a bit of a trade off of comfort for safety- the dogs job in the field necessitates being off leash and pushing out far ahead of the handler, and they can quickly get out of sight or earshot. Having a Vibrate-based recall cue simply makes sense. This should be paired with a gps collar just in case… I was told many a horror story of dogs falling into mine shafts and only being found because of the gps Tag).

Force fetching was never on the table. I saw one handler with a rubber bumper covered in toothpicks so his dog would not bite down too hard on it… never had to do that either. I’ve never had to strap an e-collar to my dogs belly. I don’t have to force my dog into a down to teach her. I don’t step on her toes (on purpose).

Her WOAH command maybe took longer than I would have liked, but it’s solid with lots of practice. Her recall is great and regularly practiced, and I don’t need an e-collar to reinforce it. She has a wonderful natural fetch, though we never formalized it. She’s beautiful when she’s on point, and it’s amazing to just see her do exactly what she was meant to do with little input from me. Truly no greater feeling than watching her cross back and forth across a field in front of me and freeze into a perfect point. It’s like she wants to chase the bird/rabbit/whatever SO BAD she’s shaking but her genetics won’t let her.

If I had the money to get back into hunting and falconry I would do it in a heartbeat. It’s a hobby that’s been sidelined since losing my job for obvious reasons, and it’s the first thing I want to pick up when I have a more stable income. If and when that will happen, I am unsure

What the fuck were we talking about. Oh yeah.

Dogs of all time for sure. But very much a dog that is good at the one thing they are good at, and if you DON’T do that thing, they can be…. A bit much. Being so environmentally focused can be difficult for people I think. It’s just not what many people are looking for (even though they give world class cuddles). That and the energy level; I don’t think it’s too bad, especially now that they are older (we go out for runs like 2-3 times a week) but also I simply would not leave the house if there were no consequences, so having a creature that will dismantle my furniture if I do not go get some vitamin D is a great motivator. The dichotomy of being a Velcro dog and being nearly oblivious to their handler when they are off leash is interesting, and probably why you don’t really see them in many sporting dog circles, or working outside of hunting. You gotta cement that recall before you let them off leash, ESPECIALLY being able to recall off of wildlife, and you gotta work really hard to reinforce handler engagement. I joke that Brandy is an idiot, but everything she needs to be able to do seems to be hardwired into her, and the things I had to teach her (recall, leave it, drop it, WOAH ect) she picked up quickly and hardly ever has issues with. (Dont talk to me about loose leash walking though)

Regardless, I love their personalities, their niche behaviors, their energy level, their ability to be the goofiest silliest idiots, their soft soft floppy ears, I love how they talk back to me when I talk to them, I love their big booming barks and club feet. I love that we are ultimately exploring the world together, and the joy we share when running through the woods or on the beach. I love watching them leap into the river with reckless abandon. And then at the end of the day, all they want to do is get under the covers with me and fall asleep. They are perfect monsters and I can’t see myself without them.

#sorry wtf is this #idk why the tangent I am sorry #no one else is talking about them so I will #disclaimer every dog is an individual ect ect #and I’m not trying to shit on people who use adversives in training #your journey with your dog is your own and ultimately you will have to make an informed choice of what is best for your dog #as I am writing this Brandy is curledupon my lap and snoring #also I’m not a dog trainer so don’t like. come for me.#asks #they r popular jorring dogs though #it’s the running so so fast and the crazy endurance I think #energizer bunny ass dogs

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askthedarknessandhewillanswer · 3 months ago

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The Raven, and his Lenore.

Tonight's honorable mention goes to @blair-vvitch

Thank you so much, you helped me figure out how to write for Tokoyami decently well. ❤️❤️

Tokoyami Fumikage x reader Angst, like....super bad guys. In which Tokoyami falls in love, and realizes the pain that comes with war. MAJOR TW!!! !!!GORE, DEATH, LOTS OF BLOOD!!! ALSO! MAJOR SPOILER WARNING!

(In this Tokoyami was not knocked out during the battle against All For One)

You knew nothing, nothing but heat and light and numbness. You heard no screaming of the man you held in an iron grip, as he clawed and fought against you, like his life depended on it, and it did.

You did not smell the burning of flesh as the man, and you, both burned. Your skin and hair catching in the flames and burning, burning, burning, burning.

As the man realized his life-ending mistake in using his own quirk to amplify and draw out a malfunction of yours, he screamed, as his hair melted to his scalp and his eyes went white. As his arm moved on pure survival instinct to shove the last of Eri's stolen power into your neck, making you gag and choke on the blood that found way into your throat and seeped into your lungs. It only took seconds for the blinding light to fade, leaving anyone within a four mile radius wondering where the sun had gone.

As you and the man fell to the ground he seemed to crumble to dust, his charred body ruined and dead long ago. How the unoccupied husk was capable of stopping your horrific display? Nobody would ever know.

So you layed there in a pool of your own blood, covered in singed clothes, still smoking from the fire that came of the heat. The man now in ashes all around you as you attempted to breath, to take air into your lungs and live. But it was no good, you only choked, your skin still numb to the bloody, raw blisters and burns decorating your once beautiful skin.

You didn't register the footsteps, nor the familiarity of them. Despite the fatigue plagueing poor Tokoyami's body he stayed upright, looking in horror upon his love, or rather, what remained of you.

How long had you lain here alone? Four minutes? Or an hour? Could you even have survived that long?

"Ffff.....umi" He heard, oh so softly from the mass of burns in his arms. Tears already began welling in his red eyes, he tried not to think about how weak your voice was compared to normal, how fragile you were, how close to death you were.

"Yes? My dear?" He whispered back, bringing a hand to your face to turn your head toward him, his teary red eyes searched your own dull irises for anything, any hint of recognition or hope.

All he found was numbness and acceptance.

"Do you....still....know my favorite..." You trailed off, unable to find the strength to keep talking, to finish the simple question. However, Tokoyami knew what you were asking.

It only made his tears fall, only made him realize that you wanted to hear his voice reciting your favorite poem one last time before you couldn't be his anymore.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary" he began, choking only a little. However he forced his voice solid, for you.

"Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore" Another sob, he had to pause. His hold on you tightening slightly as he shifted to hold you against him like a babe, his tears mingling with your blood in a horribly beautiful shade of pale red.

He felt as if his heart would go with you. Surely it would claw it's way through bone and flesh to die by your side, to hold your cold hand as you walked across that bridge to your next life.

In your next life, you'd be the sun. He had no doubt, you would be the sun above them. The same one to warm their springs and gift them light, to create his shadows, to create him.

Surely the gods would not he so cruel as to take away his sun! His love! His! Not theirs. His. And only his. No matter whatever may happen. With this thought, he managed to continue.

"While I nodded, nearly napping,

suddenly there came a tapping,

As if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."

He looked at you once more, opened his eyes to see you, to see if you were still here, to make sure you were still here. He saw you exhale, inhale, exhale, shallow breaths and yet still breaths nonetheless.

"Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door.

Only this, and nothing more."

He couldn't do this.....

He stopped once more, breaking and sobbing again. He rested his chin on your head and wept, wept loudly, wept like a man without shame as he rocked you and grappled at his sanity.

Unable to grasp it tight and keep it as close as you were, his mind ran rampant with his own thoughts.

He couldn't do this without you. He had to keep going for you. Living without you would be hell on earth.

Living with what had happened today, would be hell on earth.

The horror, the bloody messes left in the wakes of both heroes and villains. He didn't want to think about his friends now, not after finding you in such a state. He couldn't bear the thoughts of losing his friends aswell.

"Ah distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each seperate dying ember wrought it's ghost upon the floor

Eagerly I wished the morrow,

Vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books sercease of sorrow-

Sorrow for the lost...."

He couldn't finish the line. Not when it rang true in his mind and body, not when he felt he'd succumb to his madness if he uttered the word.

He only looked at you, wide eyed with damp cheek feathers. And as he notted the lack of rise and fall, the dulling of your eyes and the way you seemed to just be...gone. He knew, he knew and he couldn't stop the scream that tore his throat to shreds.

So desperate and pained anyone who heard it stopped to let dread and tears creep into their eyes. As his beak gave way for the cry over his love, his beautiful Lenore.

His Lenore.

And quietly, he sank back in on himself. Ears rining and chest heaving as he sobbed harder, burying his beak into your neck and chest, clutching your dead body to him as if he could bring you back by just crying to you and begging in pitiful pleads to come back, begging Amaterasu to give him his sun back, to give him back his love.

"Lenore"

He said only this, and nothing more.

#bnha #fumikage tokoyami #tokoyami x reader #angst #mha #The raven

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c-m-stuff · 1 year ago

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Trick Or Treat

Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

-Description: You and Spencer are married. You two have a beautiful son, who you are trick or treating with.

-Warnings: Fluffiness, having a child

-Word count: 825

-Note: (Repost from Wattpad) Hey guys, I'm finally back. A lot has happened at the time I was gone, and I couldn't find the motivation to write. But, I'm happily back. This story is in honor of the most spooky season. Enjoy this Halloween story!

Masterlist

Y/N POV:

It was spooky season. The season with beautiful, orange leaves, falling from the trees, the season when pumpkins are indispensable and horror movies are more popular than ever. Yes, it was autumn. It also happened to be my husband's favorite season and holiday.

We all got our Halloween costumes. Spencer went as Doctor Who, while (Y/S/N) was going as Spiderman. This year, I went for a simple, but stunning, black cat. My whole outfit was black, as the fabric was hugging my figure. I got cat ears and wore black

make-up with high heels.

I was just finishing my hair, as I felt a person staring at me. Turning around, I saw the genius watching in awe.

'You look stunning.' a smile appeared on my face, while he was walking closer.

His lips were quick in finding mine, moving sincerely as two puzzle pieces fitting perfectly. His hands found their home on my waist, gently brushing over the fabric. Before things got too headed, I pulled away.

'As much as I love this, we need to go trick or treating.' I reminded him, as his brain finally caught up with my words.

'Alright, but we're going to finish this later.' he teased, and I pressed a quick kiss on his lips.

'If you say so.' smirking, I turned around, making my way towards our son's room. Spencer following behind me.

Carefully, I pushed the door further open, seeing (Y/S/N) playing with his Lego. He looked up once he noticed our presence, as a smile was painted on his little face.

'Are you ready for trick or treating?' I asked, excitedly, as he got up and ran towards us.

'Yesss!'

'Alright, let's go.'

__________________________

Only moments later, we arrived at the first house. The front yard was decorated amazing with all kind of Halloween stuff. We saw (Y/S/N) struggling to reach the bell, his little body too small. Spencer happily lifted him up, so he was now able to ring the doorbell.

'Ready?' my husband asked our son, while placing him gently back on the ground. He nodded, and waited patiently for the door to open.

'Trick or treat!' we all exclaimed, making our neighbor laugh.

'That is definitely a scary costume, (Y/S/N). I think, I better give candy real quick.' she played along, making Spencer and I both smile at the excitement of our son.

She placed a few candies into the little Halloween bucket, (Y/S/N) was holding. He jumped, enthusiastic, a spark in his eyes. It was the most sweetest thing ever.

We thanked our neighbor, before walking further. This went on for a while. Going from door to door, everytime receiving candy. Eventually, the sun began to disappear behind the clouds, slowly getting more darker. All the excitement and activities took a toll on (Y/S/N). He was walking more slowly, tiredness visibly on his face.

I picked him up, as he let his head rest on my shoulder. I gave a kiss on it, watching him in awe. Spencer was doing the same thing, his eyes fixated on our beautiful son. We locked eyes for a moment, telling in our own way to get back home.

__________________________

Satisfied, we unlocked the front door, happily by the turn of the evening. I placed our already asleep son in his bed, giving him a goodnight kiss, while tugging him in. I let a tiny lamp shine, as I quietly made my way back towards the living room.

'I think, he has enough candy for a whole year.' Spencer joked, pointing at the full bucket.

'Yeah, it was definitely a great evening. The joy on his face, I'll never forget it.'

'It really was amazing to witness.'

I walked closer to him, pressing my chest against his. He wrapped his arms protectively around my waist, placing a kiss on my head.

'I love you.' he whispered, while he pressed me even further into the embrace.

'I love you, handsome.'

After a few more moments of comfortable silence, he slightly pulled away. A spark appeared in his eyes, as he got visibly excited.

'What do you think of a Halloween movie night, with lots of cuddles and food?'

'I would love to.' I told him, mirroring his smile.

Soon enough, we were lying on the couch, our bodies as close as possible, cuddling and eating, all that while watching one of Spencer's favorite Halloween movies.

Yes, this was the perfect Halloween.

_________________________

#criminal minds #cm #fanfic #spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x yn #spencer reid x fem!reader #fluff imagine #having children #halloween

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mixmangosmangoverse · 20 days ago

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Flow is The Best Movie of 2024

Ok, maybe that's not true. I haven't seen every film from 2024, and my focus is largely on animation. I'm sure other films, particularly Memoirs of A Snail and Look Back, might be better. But truthfully, there is no other film I have seen in 2024 that was as beautiful as Flow

Maybe we can go back a bit. What did I watch last year? Not much. 2024 was a dull year for me, a year full of fear where I couldn't feel happy much. I found myself much more engrossed in music and books than film or tv. I had become addicted to Miracle Musical's beautiful—and only—album, Hawaii Part ii. I had finally started my journey to read more horror by looking online, finding a relatively accessible horror novel that I was interested in. It was an impactful novel, one that I may write a review for one day. But after that, I went back in time. I re-read the books of my childhood. I started with my favorite childhood book, The Giver. It's a book I still cherish to this day. The sequel, Gathering Blue, is as strong as I remember. The other two, however, I have mixed feelings on. Feelings I'll likely express one day, as these books truly made me who I am

But, did I watch any movies in 2024, besides Flow? Well, yes, but not much. The highlight for many this year would undoubtedly be The Wild Robot. It's a beautiful film, no doubt, but I couldn't help but feel it was held back by the requirements of a typical animated film. The heartfelt story it told didn't require some of the more extreme action scenes it had, and ultimately I feel like my tastes have evolved past most Hollywood animated films, even with as good as The Wild Robot was

In terms of my highlight of the year, it would have to go to I Saw The TV Glow. A fantastic, horrifying film that uses the newfound wave of lost media to create a truly unique story about the fears of not being your true self. I have no doubt in my mind that this film will become a classic for the LGBT+ community, especially trans folks, and that more than that this film will be held up as the crowning jewel of analog horror on the big screen.

Other films I saw in 2024 didn't give me as much to talk about.

Deadpool and Wolverine was a fun novelty, but also a reminder of why I have issues with many superhero films, especially now

Inside Out 2, for as much as it earned, to me paled in comparison to the original. While I could go on forever, the biggest mark against it is that I did not cry once, even as someone currently dealing with anxiety. I still cry from the first

Transformers One is a fun introduction to the franchise, with great, inventive visuals and a very solid cast. It won't be a movie I return to much, but I had fun watching it with my brother

Speaking of films I won't rewatch, but I had fun watching with family, The Garfield Movie is a fun time that doesn't require you to think. If you turn your brain off and simply let yourself have fun, you'll have a good time

The movie aside from Flow that gave me the most to think about was Orion and The Dark. A seemingly harmless kid's film, yet nonetheless one that I couldn't stop thinking about. Once you realize the writer and director, the direction the movie takes makes more sense, but I can't help but feel like it should've stuck to the simple premise it introduced. I will always appreciate kids movies that do something unique, but sometimes, the formulas are there for a reason.

That's certainly enough preamble. I have set the scene for what I watched last year, so let's finally get into what exactly Flow is

Flow is a movie you may have heard of if you pay attention to film festivals and awards. A Latvian and French/Belgian co-production from director Gints Zilbalodis, this film gained acclaim for its unique presentation. A film completely devoid of dialogue, populated only by animal noises and a fantastic soundtrack, the movie tells the story of a cat who gets lost when the forest it resides in begins flooding

But that synopsis is very reductive. I'll explain the plot more in detail in just a moment, but that synopsis doesn't do service to the experience of the film. Watching this film, in a small local indie theater, surrounded by people of all ages, was one of the best theater going experiences I've had in years. This film has a truly remarkable grasp on tension. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The animation, apparently made almost entirely in Blender, puts even many of Disney's recent pictures to shame. The care, effort and detail that went into portraying the animals and their emotions is something I haven't seen in years. This is a film that forces you to think. Not only about the characters —their inner worlds, as there is no dialogue, no subtitles, nothing to clue us in besides their body language and noises— but about the meaning of everything

The first meaning that jumped out to me when watching the film was a biblical allegory. The world is flooded, completely overtaken by the sea, all the while a variety of animals escape on a boat. It's easy to see an inspiration from the tale of Noah's Ark, although I won't claim it's intentional. According to director Gints Zilbalodis, this film is an allegory of his rise in the animation and film scene. It starts with a lone character who survives on their own, mimicking how he made his first film Away by himself, and slowly builds up a team that they must learn to work with. In that way, this film is a parable about friendship. In the same interview he says that that is the meaning he has given, that the film is about an introverted individual learning to make friends and about a group learning to set aside their differences to work together.

But it would be reductive to say the film is only about friendship. The film is absolutely ripe with symbolism. The aforementioned parallels to the biblical story of Noah's Ark is only the tip of the iceberg. From the first moments of the film, we are shown a world without humans. The cat lives in an abandoned home, full of unfinished cat memorabilia. Giant cat statues are in the forest. The house's window is broken, showing the disrepair of it. No humans appear in the film, not even a glimpse of them. The only thing approximating a human is a statue, one that looks to be of a Buddhist figure, half sunken in the water with its hand reaching above. The animals travel through canals and cities, all abandoned, all designed in such a way that they could be anywhere from Italy to Indonesia. Giant, unknowable spikes stand tall in the distance.

Even beyond the absence of humans and the bizarre world they inhabit, there is symbolism to be found in every moment of the film. The lemur, who is obsessed with hoarding objects and a mirror in particular, a mirror that gives it admiration by the other lemurs, yet abandons it by the end to help the cat. The fish that the cat struggles to catch at first, stolen by birds after being given one, only to catch some successfully in a moment of exhilaration, only to lose them again as the dogs they hesitantly invite eats them all. And of course, there are the lights that the Secretary Bird follows, the lights that they disappear into by the end, almost as if they ascended to heaven, and the water stopping shortly after. There is the whale, a foreboding, horrifying creature that is peaceful the whole time, and yet ends up suffering once the waters go down. The entire climax, where the world grows anew; mountains and forests rising from the depths, trees growing in seconds, chasms of the water left below as this world is remade. The cat's disturbing dream of the same deer that warned it of the flood roaming in circles.

The film has layers upon layers, full of meanings one can extract from it. Whether religious or simply about the depths of friendship, this is a level of detail and thought behind a film that you would never find in a Hollywood picture, let alone an animated one for families.

It is for that reason that I lied when I said I'd give a summary— this is a film that can't be summarized. Oh, sure, there is a plot, a series of events. But the film is not that. It is the experience. The wonders. To simply explain the film would be to remove the experience of it. I think it's rare, in this day of overly complex plots, of spectacle, of stories that can be easily explained in a single clickbaity YouTube video, to have a movie which forces you to simple view a world, without explaining anything. Nothing in Flow is every explained, instead it is up to you to interpret everything you see. There is no spectacle in this movie. There is a climax, but it is not an action scene. It is a quiet moment of the bird lifted up to the sky, gone in a moment. It is the ground lifting up again, a moment grand in scale yet intimate and terrifying in its focus on the cat. The only thing approximating an action climax is the animals rescuing those stuck on the boat, but even then, the primary emotion is tension, not excitement. Flow is not a movie you can easily describe in a summary, and yet it's all the stronger for it

Hand in hand with that is the lack of dialogue. Mentioned a handful of times already, Flow is a movie devoid of any dialogue, completely and utterly. There are no subtitles. There aren't even words on a sign somewhere. The film is not silent; populated by animal noises and a score that sells every emotion, but the lack of dialogue may make it seem inaccessible to people. To me, however, the opposite is true. The lack of dialogue is what kept me invested. It is easy in many films, especially for a family audience, to tune out as the dialogue can be very heavy handed. This isn't an issue, movies for kids need dialogue to be clearer, but even movies for older audiences can fall into the trap of too much useless dialogue. Dialogue and words that take you out of the moment, instead of pulling you in. It's in that way that Flow succeeds completely. Ironically, by lacking dialogue, it makes every sound matter more. Every noise an animal makes becomes important, because that's the only sound made. Every new piece of the score feels more important, more noticable. And, of course, the animation and visual storytelling shines with this lack of dialogue. We are forced to pay attention to every movement. To every change of scene, to every new beat. I'm finding lately that a lack of dialogue, or even sound, actually helps me focus a lot more on a piece of visual media, and nowhere is that more apparent with Flow.

But there is another reason I declared Flow the best film of 2024. And it is because of how it personally impacted me. Flow came at just the right moment, because this film made me realize things I didn't even know I felt.

The story of Flow is about friendship. It's about companionship and working together. About putting aside differences to achieve a common goal. It's about the bonds of animals, people, through even the most impossible of situations. Sitting with this film in my mind made me realize the companionship I'm seeking, the kind I'm lacking.

It is something I'll get to at the end, but in a way, this film represents a fantasy of friendship. We want to hang out with others, to make truly meaningful memories with them. We want to believe we can meet others who will truly stick by us to the end. In that way, each animal in the journey represents a different type of friendship

The cat is an introvert, a loner, learning to cooperate for the first time. It begins afraid of others, running away from them, yelling and hissing at them. But as the film goes on, it opens up to others. It becomes a true companion, and becomes the uniting heart of the group

The capybara is a person who goes with the flow. It rarely does anything in the film, besides steering the boat in a line. But it is there to help the others calm down. It sleeps most of the trip, and yet its calmness helps the others

The lemur wants validation. It collects trinkets, remnants of humanity, almost in a show of vanity. It protects its treasures from others, instigating fights. It holds the mirror up as its best treasure, and even shows it off to other lemurs. When the world regrows, it is off with a group of lemurs who all stand behind it as it looks in the mirror. And yet, it also sees the cat. And so the lemur leaves, to join the cat. Because the lemur realized that the validation it wanted wasn't a material item or superficial validation, but true companionship

The Labrador retriever is the extrovert. Happy, excitable, full of energy, constantly wanting to play. It pushes the others out of their comfort zones. It is the friend who forces you to do new things. But it is also a friend who stays loyal. At one point, the animals come across the other dogs that chased the cat in the beginning, and the Labrador retriever invites them over. The dogs proceed to eat the fish that the cat had just caught, but seem to play along. That is, until the ending, the climax with the boat. As everyone rushes to pull the boat back to save the animals stuck there, the other dogs get distracted by a rabbit. And they leave. The other dogs run away in a moment of peril. But the Labrador retriever doesn't. It stays behind, because it is a true friend. The other dogs, however, are the false friends. Friends out of convenience. Those who stick around only when you give them something, and then leave when they find something better.

It was watching that moment, in the climax, where something clicked. I had been a victim to those dogs. Many times in my life, I had friends who only wanted something from me. I had friends who would abandon me the second I became "difficult". The moment my disability or way of behaving was inconvenient. It is a harsh lesson that there are always those that take you for granted, but also a reminder that there are those who will stay by through thick and thin. Those that are truly loyal, that truly care. But there is another, darker reason why Flow resonated with me.

2024 has been a horrible year for the Jewish community. After the attacks on October 7, we felt as the rest of the world shunned us. The rest of the world are those dogs— those who only stood by when it was convenient. Online friends who I thought cared about me turned on a dime when I said where I'm from. People who looked to me, for my perspective as a Jewish writer, immediately left. They went to me to talk about representation, as that is a topic I care about. These people said they cared too. And then they abandoned real, living Jews when the time mattered.

I have been lonely since the pandemic, but 2023 and 2024 where the years I felt the loneliest. But, they were also the years I found the other animals. I found those who, despite everything, did care about me. Who despite everything they were told, stood by me. They were few and far between, but they certainly made a difference. 2023, despite everything, was a year I did find new friends in my own community. Even with as bad as everything got, I did find a community.

The real beauty of Flow is a theme I've loved for years. I think it was Adventure Time that introduced the idea to me, and it's a simple one. It's the idea that... The world can get better. No matter what

The world could end. But it could get better.

You could lose someone you love. But it could get better.

Society could turn on you. But it could get better. No matter what. It could get better. That's an idea I've had to hold onto for years. As my life got worse, I told myself it'd get better. This attitude has helped me, more times than I could count. And it did, in small ways. After telling myself all of 2020 that it would get better, 2021 ended up the best year of this decade so far. But that didn't last long. Ever since 2023, it's been difficult to imagine things getting better. Not just for me, but for everyone. I surely wasn't the only one who wished for a scenario similar to one seen in the movie. Wishing for an end of the world. A moment where we could forget the troubles of society and simply meet others.

There is a reason people dream of going out for adventure, and a reason stories about adventure always form parties. In a way, I believe it's similar to the desire to live through an apocalypse. We want an opportunity to forget all our current worries, to go out to new places with new people. There is something so captivating, almost... Thrilling, enticing, about the idea of the entire world ending, yet finding comfort despite that.

For many in my community, October 7 may as well have been that end of the world. And as we continue into 2025, that "end of the world" will surely affect more people. But as this movie affirmed to me, it could always get better. The world of Flow may be devoid of humans, but life is still brimming. The bird may have died, but in its departure it brought back the land.

And with that...Well.

There's one more scene we have to talk about. You see, Flow doesn't end with the boat rescue. That's the climax, but the true ending is much less upbeat. The cat ventures deep in the forest, the others following it. And they find the whale. Washed ashore. Left without water. Many messages can be deciphered from this ending. The safety of one may bring harm to others, is an obvious lesson. It could be a lesson on caring for the friends who stayed behind, who didn't talk much but who helped you. It could be an allegory of disability, and how the whale finally had a place to freely roam, that was soon taken away from it. It could be about balance, how for one good thing to happen, something must be sacrificed.

But the movie has an end credits scene. It's not anything to go crazy for... Well, that is, if you care about what end credits scenes are typically for. But to me, it means everything. This scene depicts the whale swimming. Is this depicting the time of the flood? Or, as I interpret it, is it showing that the whale found more water after all? Perhaps, realizing how the whale was suffering now, the cat stood up for it and helped it find water. Maybe, this is the whale in heaven. Whatever this scene truly depicts, it reinforces the theme; Things will get better. Even the whale got better.

Keep your head high, because things could always get better

#mango rambles #Review #flow movie #flow 2024 #Jumblr #October 7 mention #Please watch this movie. It's so good

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fantasyonfilm · 18 days ago

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I found another rabbit hole, shocker.

I started looking into the oldest scary clown movie. Admittedly I am either a true horror fan or a masochist as I have a pretty longstanding hatred of the scary clowns trope. So much, that I find some non scary clowns terrifying depending on their stance or face makeup. And yet, I have found myself in many a scenario almost in tears watching something clown related. Both IT interpretations, American Horror Story ( actually don’t know if Dandy or Twisty is worse), the Terrifier (only the first, as it’s name truly served its purpose), Killer Clowns from outer space etc.

My search led to a discussion on the oldest clown movie being somewhere between Lon chaney’s character in Laugh, Clown, Laugh or the Man Who Laughs. I’ve always seen pictures and been interested in the latter anyway, the movie cover chosen is pretty striking and has always made me curious.

So, here I am, watching the Man Who Laughs.

It’s described as a horror and listed as such but right at the beginning there is such an air of tragedy. The way the story allows us to see the layers of cruelty and sadness Gwynplaine experienced feels so ahead of its time. The images of a tortured boy being left behind by a ship to die as an outcast. The image of the boy itself is so hard to see. To be asked to imagine a child who’s survived having his face carved so heinously is in itself only one of the emotional hurdles of the movie. A quick fast forward we see the effects of the world’s beatings on Gwynplaine. He is shy, a seemingly unworthy contender in this human race who’s accepted the crumbs of a life as a freak. His value is even briefly compared to a 5 legged cow and like so many other with physical differences in the past. His only path led to the circus where his face laughs for money but his heart breaks for more than simple change and the fleeting acceptance of a crowd seeking out entertainment and not empathy for the man they see before them.

So many cinema themes are rampant, the most obvious being “Sock and Buskin”. The masks symbolize both the joy and sadness experienced in the theater as well as in life. Gwynplain has no choice but to wear the face of joy and laughter while his life has been a series of unspeakable tragedies. There’s a moving but quick moment where he’s staring at himself in the mirror, he’s hoping to see something different perhaps but as usual, nothing changes. He closes the mirror doors and there on the knobs, sit the two masks in question. Another instance comes later when Ursus claims the show must go on! We have this shot of the words “The Man Who Laughs” on the stage, as the performance is being introduced by a man who can’t help but to sob as he introduces the Dea’s stage appearance to a crowd of eager and unaware onlookers.

The theme of beauty being in the eye of the beholder is also something I think is important to in this movie. Dea is the only blind character and yet is gifted with the most sight and perspective. In her own words, she beautifully tells Gwynplaine that god has made her who she is so that she could be with, and see him for who he truly is. Nonetheless, he loves from afar as he feels anything closer is a union she doesn’t deserve. He doesn’t see the man she sees, just the clown. It’s unfortunate as she doesn’t appear to be the only one that loves him. Ursus clearly loves him the way he would his own son. He allows him to not only live with him but he roots for Gwynplaine and Dea’s happiness, as well as grieves at the loss of him, and the possibility of Gwynplaine’s fulfilling his need as heir in the form of husband for the beautiful but cruel Josiana. Finally, but certainly not least he is loved by Homo. The canine companion and protector of their little family. Homo feels like a commentary on the unconditional love that overflows in animals, and stops short in humans. Despite each members lowly place in this wretched society, Homo’s love for them is ever present. He goes through remarkable hurdles to bring his family back together, his most triumphant being his attack so that Gwynplaine could escape, and finally his swim to the ship so that he could go back to the life he so desperately fought to have back.

A lot of the film has Gwynplaine covering his mouth when it is not needed for performance or when he is around those judging eyes.He uses his hands and a cloth mask to cover his ever present gruesome expression. Despite this we lose no depth of emotion from this character. The weight of the entire performance mouth covered or not is on Conrad’s emotive eyebrows, the wrinkles tattooed on his forehead from years of torment, and his eyes that are always just brimming with sadness and tears. There’s this brief moment when before he finds his courage to address the court where he uses the cloth that normally covers his smile to cover his eyes. Like the way a boy closes his eyes to jump into the deep end. It summarizes in once glance that this although he physically grew up, a scared little boy has always been standing behind a mutilated mask. It’s so quick, but so poetic and only made more grand by the image of him standing there. His face voluntarily uncovered by himself being the only smile in a room full of frowning.

Maybe my own perceptions of government have leeched into this last thought but here we go. I think my favorite concept in this movie is the image of a clown. What is it? A person in hair and makeup, entertaining the masses? Is that then not the role of monarchs and their peanut gallery courts? Are they not painted, powdered and wigged figures that put on a show for the people around them? A show of power to those that fear them, and a show of their divine right to those that wish to be like them. Not only do they put on things like these carnivals and freak shows in the first place to keep the poor complacent and distracted; but on a more contrived note, is the pomp and circumstance of monarch’s and not just all show anyway? The stale image of a stuffy gallery full of people with nothing better to do than to sit in yards of frill and lace draped across their historically unhygienic bodies while a bored quartet plays as their background theme. I haven’t even begun to describe the performances of the women.

Or is a clown a strategic use of body language and facial expressions to earn a positive reaction out of people? One could argue that Duchess Josiana is then one of the best. I love seeing liberality in women, especially in something so far back as a German expressionist film. However the brazen display of her feminine wiles is very “put on” in front of men. She performs when they enter her space albeit clown, courtesan, or the peasants and drunkards at the fair. She darkens her light features with eye paint and lines her painfully sharp cupids bow with red lip paint to complete her character as a classless calibre of woman. A performance the queen has seen more than once and refuses to applaud. She couldn’t be more delighted to cage her restless bird in a marriage she would deem a punishment. Jokes on her, you’d be hard pressed to find a man for a husband like Gwynplaine.

A round of applause for Olga Baclanova whose deliberate take on malicious femme fatales never cease to make me loathe her. I’m always floored by the likeness between her and Madonna in her heyday. In you need to see more of her you’ll find an equally impressive and loathsome performance of hers in the movie Freaks, another movie ahead of its years.

This movie feels like a gateway to joker origin stories, call backs to the displays of love of the Hunchback of Notredame, Cicero, and maybe even Pinocchio. I was left with commentary on casting stones at glass houses dripping in cleverly disguised writing. I’m always surprised by how German expressionism or I guess just a good movie in general whips me into a verbal frenzy. Despite a beautiful display of acting on each actors part, the obvious star was always Conrad Veidt. His portrayal of an innocent man tortured by his permanent grin draws out the real clowns of society. Making Gwynplaine a clown that can’t be feared, but a man that is deserving of all the love in the world.

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balalaijka · 2 months ago

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books read in 2024, with notes

Problém tří těles (The Three Body Problem), Liou Cch'-sin

loved it, beautiful suspense, the video game aspect was very cool, felt that the last section where we see the trisolarans’ perspective makes it better thematically but weakens the dread that was so prevalent otherwise

Arabian Nights, transl. Haddawy

delightful, had some extremely raunchy parts that i wasn’t expecting, honestly it’s fascinating to see the convergence of so many literary impulses side by side

Červotoč (Carcoma), Layla Martínez

a shorter weird horror about cycles of trauma in three generations of women in a house with skeletons both metaphorical and literal within its walls

Kluci ze hřbitova (Cemetery Boys), Aiden Thomas

the plot was a bit predictable but the romance was sweet and yes, i did cry at the end a bit

Děti duny (Children of Dune), Frank Herbert

honestly i think herbert really struck gold with his writing of sibling relationships, the contrast of alia and paul’s dooms and leto ii and ghanima’s adventures were the highlight here

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

for a “problematic novel” i felt that nabokov does an excellent job of reminding us of hh’s monstrosity even if it is told directly through his pov, loved the literary references from edgar allan poe to carmen—always elegant but with the edge of almost satirizing intellectualism itself

The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson

honestly a perfect book to read even when you’re feeling burnt out—the nonlinear and rambling style makes it very interesting to read without taxing you too much, and the discussions of queerness and sexuality and art were throughly enjoyable

Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake

love this chaotic mess of a man, who’ll tell you about the chemical structures and scientific methods on one page and then describe taking lsd and brazenly admitting to apple theft on the next

The Wounded Sky, Diane Duane

as a fan of duane’s young wizards series, this is a fascinating window into the transition from her star trek novels to original writing, the banter is infectious, the alien characters delightful and the scifi jargon jargoning

EDIT: the lovely Ms. Duane herself clarified that the original fiction came first, my bad!

Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor

as a fan of the first book who felt that more time was needed to explore binti’s trauma, this book gives that narrative its space, and also delivers an honestly heartbreaking story about returning home but it’s not home not really because you changed but you love it but did it love you or did it only tolerate you when you fit its ideas of who you should be? the line “you used to be such a beautiful girl” made me bawl

The Devourers, Indra Das

the simple version of the summary is “iwtv but werewolves in mughal (?) era india,” it does fall into the trap of trying to make things edgy by indulging in game of thrones-style “grit”, but at the same time its a dream-like exploration of legacy and queerness

Wild Seed, Octavia Butler

a reread technically, but still holds up, butler does not hold back when it comes to fucked up power dynamics and the implications of having powers tied to genetics, anyanwu and doro remain some of the most fascinating depictions of immortals

Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler

a shorter and more transitional work, i feel there could have been more detailing of the patternist society but on the other hand we see doro get his just desserts and it is amazing after all the shit he pulled in wild seed

Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

butler’s attempt at writing a horror slasher?

Bluets, Maggie Nelson

dreamy and indulgent, i generally just really love how nelson mixes up intellectualism and horniness like a cocktail and makes it amazing

Vicious, V.E. Schwab

amazingly paced with wonderful asshole characters, featuring a found family that probably shouldn’t have found each other and unapologetic vengeful sentiments

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

if you can ignore the voice in your head chanting “i would have done a better job hiding the books than montag,” this is an honestly life-changing examination of the importance of literacy??? the montag and beatty argument made me start annotating like i was in ap lit again

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

stories so bright and vivid you’ll be mad that movies purporting to be “realistic depictions of medieval times” are always gray and misery-filled

When We Cease to Understand the World (Un Verdor Terrible), Benjamín Labatut

while the “prussian blue” chapter remains my favorite, the whole thing is a really good examination of the tangle of scientific progress and human atrocities, though the titular chapter did drag on and verge more on “melodramatic biopic” territory rather than the dry menippean satire that the rest of the book is

#reading #literature

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crehador · 5 months ago

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BROTHER CRAB'S SUMMER 2024 TOP THREE

i can't believe this is happening i really can't believe it but i think i'm gonna have to go with

THIRD PLACE: NIGE JOUZU NO WAKAGIMI

for much of the season, nigewaka seemed like it was easily going to be my anime of the season. it had a banging first episode and never at any point got less enjoyable to me

the animation was consistently beautiful (yeah sure with the occasional jarring bit of cgi but in all honesty it never bothered me much) and the characters are all delightful to me

i think the mix of humor and the horrors of war depicted here, understandably, might not appeal to everyone. but it really worked for me. the fact that these characters are so lively and alive, as opposed to doomed and hopeless, in these times of strife makes the stakes feel all the higher to me

so despite it taking third place on my list, this is still solidly one of the best shows of the season (of the year, even)

a few things just happened to blow me away a tad bit more

SECOND PLACE: DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION

honestly this is so close for me that demons and nigewaka may as well be a tie, but maybe demons gets a slight edge just for being something so fresh to me

god i loved this. it's been a hot minute since i've seen something that felt so real and human. aliens are invading, the world is ending, but girls will be girls

i guess, like nigewaka, demons also mixes some good ol' humor with The Horrors, and it really works here too. the theme of "hey there's this giant alien mothership hanging over the city but life goes on" is executed so well in the early episodes of this series, and the plottier plot comes together in such a satisfying way in the later episodes

and seriously just huge props to ano and lilas ikuta for their performances in the leading roles here, they smashed it. if i didn't know, never in my life would i have guessed they weren't voice actors with years and years of experience each

ANIME OF THE SEASON: TSUE TO TSURUGI NO WISTORIA

first things first, i would not say this is objectively the best show of the season

but holy shit this is the most fun i've had all year

i'm probably more surprised than anyone that wistoria is ending up as my anime of the season, because even after a whole season, the story is just so... it's basically nothing (stay with me)

there are so many things you could call the plot of wistoria. typical, tropey, contrived, textbook, tired, etc etc etc. anyone who finds the plot boring isn't wrong. it's a fantasy magic school series like any other fantasy magic school series, with so many tropes that you'll recognize if you've watched basically any amount of fantasy at all

but for some reason i didn't dislike it. maybe wistoria doesn't do anything new, but it hits on all these familiar plot beats in such fun and entertaining ways

at some point i realized what word i really wanted to use to describe it:

quintessential

sure, it wouldn't be unfair to call it contrived or derivative or what have you. but to me, this is a quintessential fantasy action/adventure series. yes it hits on all the story beats we're familiar with, from countless series before it, but it hits each beat perfectly

the characters are ridiculous, all easily recognizable archetypes, but they're so unrepentant in who they are that i find myself enjoying them too

and then there's the animation

guys this show is fucking gorgeous. like if it weren't this pretty, i doubt i would be raving this much about it. if it had been just decently animation, i'm pretty sure i would've just enjoyed it a normal amount

but the animation is so so so good that this quickly became the number one show i was hoping for a season two of (and we are getting one!)

like the production quality just did not waver. i found myself baffled that this is the series, the story, that got this level of masterful work put into it. but then i started thinking maybe that's unfair, because really, the story is not bad. fairly simple and straightforward sure, but again: quintessential fantasy

not to end on an absurdly cheesy note, but just like how it's wistoria wand and sword, i think it's the stellar animation and entertaining story/cast that makes this series work so well. without the animation being this good, the story wouldn't have been enough to stand out. but without a truly entertaining story, the animation, however pretty, would have felt pretty empty too

very eagerly awaiting season two

#crab watches #summer 2024 #parting thoughts #long post #i seriously can't. can't. believe. this is how the list came out lmao #LIKE. WISTORIA?? REALLY??? I'M GOING WITH WISTORIA??? THE ONE I WASN'T EVEN WATCHING UNTIL HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON #but yeah. yep. like #fun factor isn't the only thing i consider in choosing an aots #sometimes fun factor isn't even the MAIN thing #but the fun factor here was so OFF THE CHARTS BONKERS GOOD that like #nothing else mattered. it was just Too much fun to take anything less than first

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imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese · 7 months ago

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Hello moon I love your fanfictions in Destiny 2. Here's some qna...

1. What made you love the Destiny franchise?

2. Why do you love the the Drifteris ship so much?

3. Do you think their(Drifter and Eris) story would still be explored especially now that the franchise is in a bad shape.

4. Any future stories that you would write in Ao3 for the following years.

I am delighted you like my stories and happy to answer your qna any time you like although some answers take longer than others (especially if they end up being stories) and there are some that are still waiting for me finish their replies. (I have not forgotten! They just require more attention.)

This I can answer right away, though. So I shall.

Eris. Eris made me love Destiny. After her, the Drifter. After him, the stories of several other characters. But Eris has forever transformed how I write my non-fanfiction writing. I'd never found hopeful endings of recovery done in a way that was actually inspiring before. That sort of thing always seemed either false, tacky and trite or exploitative trauma-gore with a pretty bow on the end.

Eris is different. Full balls-to-the-walls horror but with a genuine ending that makes sense and isn't either cherry-lipstick on a corpose or abyssmal nihilism is extremely hard to pull off. I have been studying Eris, how she is written, how her narrative functions.

As a child, the house I grew up in was toxic and awful but it was also full of books, most of which were the golden-age SF&Fantasy that Destiny is based on. Child-me found them an escape but adult-me couldn't connect with those stories any more when I grew older. Those endings were too easy and simple, the villains too beatable, the misogyny and homophobia too pervasive, the imperialism gross and unaware. Those stories no longer provided me with escape or comfort. They just made me sad. Eric John Stark, Outlaw of Mars and the Stainless Steel Rat were traded in for Cthulhu and Molly Millions and I found solace in the gothic, the cyberpunk and the weird because at least they weren't filled with abusive lies.

Destiny has changed that. Destiny has shown me I can have my Stainless Steel Rat and my Molly Millions and they can have strong narrative arcs with good endings that ring true and, sometimes, even love each other.

I've gone into detail regarding Eris and the Drifter in other posts but, at its core, the relationship is very well summarized (by someone else) as "He gives her trust. She gives him hope." I find their helping each other to heal to be very beautiful.

But my love of their relationship goes beyond that. It reaches back to my love of the X-Files. It reaches back to badass female characters like Ripley from Alien and Trinity from the Matrix. It reaches back to badass male characters (there is absolutely more than a little bit of Conan the Barbarian in Eris). And I cannot overstate my delight when I discovered my childhood beloved intergalactic thief and conman, the Stainless Steel Rat, reincarnated without the misogyny and trite shallowness, as gritty, always-hungry, deeply-hurt-but-learning-how-to-heal Drifter.

I have, in fact, always loved badass punks who keep a core sense of self and love through the horrors, standing up for what matters when no one else can, refusing to die because they have a job to do dammit and they will not lie down. I have always loved shifty lying untrustworthy-yet-ultimately-reliable stray-cat-meretricious-charisma-rogues who, after so much betrayal and pain, finally find something worth fighting for. I love them when they appear in any gender or orientation, separate or together, but especially, especially together.

Eris and the Drifter have existed in the past and will in future, in various forms of literature and media. I love them wherever I find them. I always have. I always will.

As for what will happen to them within D2, both Eris and the Drifter have a history of existing in shadows, in the spaces inbetween. I am heartbroken at the loss of writers who clearly cared about giving them attention, but the groundwork for them to be close to each other, to find comfort and understanding together, has been laid.

Short of one or both of them being killed off in the main narrative, that relationship has room to continue its quiet gentle growth on its own, out of the spotlight.

It is far more important to me that they be written well and true to who they are than that we get any large focus on them. And if that means their relationship (whatever form it takes) ends up only existing in tiny obscure scraps on item descriptions or small sections of lore books I will not be ungrateful.

Those tiny spaces, after all, are where the writers are given the most creative freedom, where so much of the good writing is able to flourish, becase it is not a major narrative and therefore is given less meddling from external forces like marketing or game mechanics or seasonal/episode content requirements.

It is so easy to ruin something as beautiful as Eris and the Drifter. I feel as though the writing team up until now has treated the relationship between these two broken and healing people with reverence, gentleness, and care.

The writers who remain are from that same team.

As long as the writers continue to treat these characters with that same care, no matter how small the tidbits we might get about them may be, I will be happy and it will be enough.

Regarding future stories: I uh... write a lot.

Road Trip is an ongoing series I keep adding sections to which has several potential endings and many story beats which are sketched out in point form (or less) but not yet fully written. That one is being written nanowrimo-style, straight from the hip, and I only post a new section once the next one is completed (so there is one completed chapter right now, waiting to be published until I finish writing the next one).

Mottephobia has an ending, but I am at war with @redbutterflies-blueeyes and chapters of Mottephobia are being held for ransom until they update their fantastic Drifteris story, Inspiral.

I have two fic exchange stories that will be completed (I hope) soon, and a handful of nearly-ready-to-be-posted stories which will go up once I've done more edits and rewriting. One involves the bog slug. One is a post TFS celebration story inspired by this specific piece art by @haykebyr . One is a request which came in through my ask box for something on Europa that has gone completely off the rails and will likely be long and far more involved than what was requested.

I've also completed and submitted things to a soon-to-be released D2 fanzine and I am hoping they will be accepted. I look forward to sharing more about that once the zine goes live (either from within the zine or on their own if they end up not fitting with everything else) but I'm not allowed to talk about that in any detail until after the zine is published. I will say that one of them is sad but sweet, and another one is just sweet and involves rain.

Thank you again for reading my things. It means the world to me when people tell me they liked something I wrote.

#ask #writing #destiny 2 #the drifter #eris morn #drifteris #the drifter/eris morn #drifter/eris #ask me more things!#i love getting asks #fanfiction #ao3 #ao3 fanfiction

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angstmongertina · 4 months ago

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7KPP Week: Day 2

Once again, I'm late (this time a full day already!), and my fic is tangentially related at best, so I'll add some rambling underneath about what some actual dates might be!

Anyway, day 2 is date night, here featuring a little fic of Temperance and @teaandinanity's Nisha and some discussion of NPC!Tempy and Lia!

As before, more 7KPP nonsense under the cut!

The musicale was a rousing success. That was apparent enough from the applause after the performance and the smiles of the guests as they bid Lady Nisha and herself—though, admittedly, far more towards Nisha, the official hostess of the event—farewell. And yet, Temperance hardly noticed, entranced as she still was by the melodies still dancing in her mind, the images of the violinist drawing his bow across the strings, clear and confident and with passion in every single note.

If she were to be perfectly honest with herself, she hardly cared for the social sense, but at least in the artistic sense, the musicale certainly was a success as well.

It wasn't until Nisha had bounced up to her, with far more speed and enthusiasm than her typical languorous movements would suggest, that she noticed the emptiness of the room. Their guests had all swiftly made themselves scarce, no doubt preparing for the introductions later in the day, while the performers packed up their instruments, murmuring in voices too low to be heard, even despite the acoustics of the room.

And judging by the glint in Nisha's eyes, it was a relative solitude that she intended to take full advantage of.

"I see your sister's descriptions of your musical talent were no exaggeration, Princess."

In spite of herself, she stiffened, the denial falling off her tongue with practiced ease. "You are too kind, Lady Nisha, and Princess Constance far too generous with her compliments."

"I, too kind?" A hidden smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I fear Lord Blain - who has a far longer-standing acquaintance with me - would vociferously disagree with that assessment. Though, I suppose your sister's compliments carried less weight after a closer acquaintance with her… expertise.”

On instinct, she smothered her laugh, a hand clapped over her mouth before the sound, harsh and inelegant, could escape. Given the still brighter grin she received in response, however, she only partially succeeded.

And oddly, she did not really care.

She did, however, pause, looking at her new friend more carefully. "She demonstrated her musical talents?" That, even more so than the letter Lady Nisha had cheerfully delivered to her, was an indication of her sister's trust; Temperance could count on one hand the number of times her sister had voluntarily performed—if her off-tune warbling could be called that—in front of her, let alone to others of their acquaintance.

“In a matter of speaking. She happened upon my serenading of a not quite empty courtyard, you see, and gave my performance a most impressive encore."

Judging from Nisha's satisfied expression, it was hardly so simple, but before she could formulate a proper response and despite her best efforts to avoid it, she found herself tugged forward to sit at the piano, and looked back up at her friend.

"She also revealed your aptitude for music," Nisha offered, nodding towards the instrument.

Barely restraining a start, she looked down, to where her hands had instinctively settled into position for a simple minuet, and let them drop, fingers slipping from the polished ivory keys into her lap as she shook her head. "You exaggerate. It was only a few brief lessons, several months' duration at most, and many years ago now." She twisted her fingers in her lap. "Certainly hardly worthy of a beautiful instrument such as this."

"The instrument would much rather be played, I think, and if you won't, then I will."

Lady Nisha's words were a threat and one she intended to follow through, she discovered, torn between amusement and horror as her friend leaned over, fingers twisting into some facsimile of her previous position and coaxing out notes more discordant than she thought would have been possible. Even the musicians paused their conversation to glance over, and she flushed, barely resisting the un-princess-like urge to knock Nisha's hands aside.

The lady in question straightened up and winked. "Last chance?"

"Fine." She sighed, though surely even the swiftly retreating observers could see her faint smile as she settled her fingers back into position and began to play.

-----

Tempy is quite the musician, and if coaxed into it, will play music for a friend who might ask it of her. In particular, should you be interested in practicing any dancing, she is a very willing musician, though not a participant--she is rather nearsighted and lack of corrective lenses (because princesses do not need glasses) has made her rather clumsy. Because of this, she has memorized much of her repertoire and can perform without sheet music, if properly encouraged.

And as a bonus for Tea, Lia is similarly musically inclined, though as a mom friend through and through, her date will vary a bit more depending on what she senses you might need. For some, this might be a calming walk by the lake, while for others, this may be a meal and some light conversation, or even time spent in companionable silence in the library. If she likes you and suspects you are harboring feelings for someone, she may even try to matchmake, giving you opportunities to interact with your beloved, in whatever form would be most helpful. Even if she may be harboring feelings for the same person.

#7KPP Week 2024 #7KPP #Tina writes stuff.#Tina plays 7KPP.#Lady Camellia of Jiyel #Princess Temperance of Arland

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hotvintagepoll · 11 months ago

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This is a three-way poll. Only one of these women will continue to the next round of the bracket.

Propaganda

Keiko Awaji (Stray Dog, A Japanese Tragedy, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs)— Her role as Harumi— a dancer who lives with her mom and will go to incredible lengths for one nice dress— is so fucking killer. she more than holds her own against Toshiro Mifune, the incredible sense of dread and foreboding in their scenes has really stuck with me

Hazel Scott (Broadway Rhythm, Rhapsody in Blue)—ok ok let me tell you about Hazel Scott. She was a Trinidadian piano genius. By the age of 3 she could play the piano by ear. She would play jazzed-up versions of classics in nightclubs and could sing too! She appeared in five movies, and used her influence as a piano prodigy to improve Black representation in film—she turned down offensive parts, demanded equal pay, and always wore her own costumes to ensure she was portrayed as glamorous and beautiful. She was the first African-American woman to host her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show. She stood up for civil rights and was an overall icon! If you want to watch her being a genius, here she is playing two pianos at once. And here's this one that shows off her consummate glamor! [videos beneath the cut]

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Deborah Kerr:

Anne Larsen is a peak late 1950s bisexual with big MILF energy. Have you seen the behind the scenes pics of her wearing a suit?? Have you????? Vote Deb as Anne Larsen.

She might have a reputation of being chaste and virginal or whatever, but we all know it's the quiet ones who are certifiable FREAKS

Keiko Awaji:

Hazel Scott:

youtube

#hazel scott #keiko awaji #deborah kerr #hotvintagepoll #fuck that old woman #ladies 4

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peppermakesart · 2 months ago

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With the new year starting and the 2 year anniversary of me beginning to draw approaching, I wanted to take some time to reflect on where I was when I first started, and reaffirm the core principles that have been guiding my progress.

Going into 2023, I was dealing with a lot of stress and received an official diagnosis for an anxiety disorder, so I was looking to find ways to reduce stress in my life.

One of the first changes I made was to quit playing Dead by Daylight. A friend had introduced it to me about a year before that, and I really enjoyed it for the first 3 months or so. At first it felt incredibly immersive, especially for someone who isn’t good with horror movies, but as I got the hang of the nuances it became too much about memorizing optimal play and picking efficient options, and the gameplay can be horribly toxic. I never played MMOs and only played FPS games poorly without a headset, so this was my first experience with real internet toxicity.

After cutting that out of my life, I needed to find something else to fill that time, and I didn’t want to just get into another video game. I had also managed to completely avoid Twitter until 2022 (I kinda live under a rock) joining because of a friend of mine who was a professional artist. So around that time I was finding other artists that appealed to me, and the person who inspired me to start drawing is Stinky Katie.

Seeing that art didn’t necessarily need to be technical to be beautiful art made the barrier to entry feel a lot lower, and you can see a lot of her influence in my early work. To be clear, I’m not saying her art doesn’t require tremendous skill just because it looks simple. It takes a lot of knowledge to be able to simplify something down to its base elements while retaining your own art style, and 2 years later I think she’s even more of a genius than I did before.

My second major influence was the artist who I was friends with, we were only close for a short time, but I got to get a behind the scenes look at someone who earns most of their income off commissions. I gained an appreciation for the effort that goes into gaining those skills, and enjoyed encouraging them and seeing how much the validation spurred them on when they were struggling with deadlines. They had once mentioned wanting to create a discord art server where criticism is banned, and it’s just a circlejerk of people complimenting each other’s art, and I like the energy behind that. I decided to take that energy with me when I started drawing myself, and I try to go out of my way to show support for as many artists as I can. There is benefit in receiving constructive criticism and applying that feedback, but you can get that from someone else, I’d rather just try to spread a bit of positivity. If your one compliment is the difference that convinces someone not to quit, that’s worth more that any amount of technical improvement.

Around this time when I first decided to draw, I read an article that left a big impression on me. It was written by a woman who was a schoolteacher specializing in young children, and she spoke about how her favorite type of art was from a prompt she would have the children make, where they drew their interpretation of “safety”. I remember reading her describe how she would bawl her eyes out looking through what all the children made, and it further emphasized that the most important quality in a piece of art is how it makes you feel, and everything else is secondary. I feel like I can generally divide the art I make into two categories, pieces that I seek to capture a certain feeling or idea, and the pieces where I’m mostly focused on the art itself, either emphasizing the quality of detail in the current work or experimenting with various ideas in hopes of expanding my artistic toolkit.

It’s why I consider the first picture my favorite early piece of mine and not the second. I had just found out a coworker of mine had died, and I was able to capture a snapshot of how I felt at the time, to help process it and separate myself from it a bit. Sometimes it’s easier for me to control my emotions if I put them to paper, once I’ve placed them somewhere it’s easier to feel like I’ll be able to pick them back up later. I’m really proud of the second piece too, I locked in for 4.5 hours for something really clean, and the artist who created the original sprite found it and complimented me on it, but it just isn’t personal in the same way.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Here’s the first Smoliv I ever drew, it’s been my profile pic ever since everywhere publicly. It has symbolic meaning for me, it’s what ties together all the feelings I just described, and I want to stay grounded to where I was when I began.

#pepper rambles #my art #my artwork #pokémon fanart #dead by daylight fanart #Smoliv

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witchcraftandburialdirt · 3 months ago

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👫 robibi~ <3

✧ ━━ 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐃 "👫" 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝚁𝙾𝙱𝙸𝙽 𝙰. 𝙱𝙰𝚄𝙳𝙴𝙻𝙰𝙸𝚁𝙴 ; 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝙳 𝙱𝚈 𝙳𝙰𝚈𝙻𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴

DON'T GO WHERE I CAN'T FOLLOW ━ Ugh Vicious these two make me sick and unwell on levels I can't explain, we've discussed this before briefly ( can I just say how hilariously organic our threads have been bc we're like "here's this meme that made me cry" "ok ty" LOL ｡：ﾟﾟ(´∀｀)･｡ ) but I seriously cannot see a future for either of them where they aren't together. Whether that mean that they escape the Fog and live, or if they end up buried in a grave together ━ they're stuck with one another now. Danny and Ghostface have such a fierce determination, and we can see the shift happening actively in Robin to show that he doesn't want to be alone either. Trauma bonding at the max between them frankly, somehow it makes them better. In a funnier, more literal way, this also means that Robin will follow Grace Walker even if he doubts his actual directional and then will bitch and moan the entire time about it.

SO ... NOW WHAT DO WE DO? ━ That being said, if they do manage to get out of the Fog alive ━ which is a guilty desire I know we both want wah ━ I think they're going to have an incredibly difficult time adjusting to the world after. I imagine it would bleed straight into your tertiary verse of Danny becoming a horror novelist ( which I will be unashamed and say is so fun to imagine Robin reading his copies and finished novels since he adores reading so much ) and traveling to take photography ( which is also like nnnn the digital camera mfer I'm sick ). I think Robin's going to have an exceptionally hard time adjusting to just being around people again. Look I know they don't deserve any sort of happy ending, I'm aware of it, they deserve to be miserable but I just ━ (ಥ﹏ಥ) man I don't know sue me I want them to live out in a cabin in the woods where they can heal in peace before trying to figure out the world and accepting the changes that have occured. Maybe they can be happy, finally. Kind of crazy thinking about Danny taking Robin to see the ocean, which is the place he always wanted to see but was never able to. Don't look at me

OH THE THINGS YOU'RE SOON TO KNOW ━ Something I really adore about their relationship, regardless of how it is read, is that they're both very intelligent and thirsty for more knowledge ━ and they actively encourage it within the other whether or not they mean to. As Robin slowly regains what it means to be a human, its really sweet to think of them trading what they know with eachother. Robin feeling powerful as he leads Danny in a proper waltz only to be flustered when Danny grabs his waist or Danny teaching Robin how to play Dragon's Lair and Mario Kart. Domestic, simple day to day actions and how characters behave through them has got to be one of my favorite things to muse and mull over; it says so much in so little, y'know? Granted some things can only be learned outside of the Fog, but its just nice to think about with all of the active insanity that goes on in that place. I need them sitting side by side while Ghostface shares shitty headphones and shows Robin the beauty of divorced dad rock, or how Robin melts when he listens to string music through them etc. Danny showing Robin how to cook meals that he had growing up and exploring the different holidays they both celebrated in their lives - this is so long I need to move onto the last one before I lose my mind haha

WHY DO YOU SHOW ME SUCH MERCY? ━ Holy moly these two have such a complicated relationship, one in which "poetry could not describe" ━ there is affection, wariness, hatred, and so much want. I often think about how they are so vividly alike, and maybe that is why they're both so merciful and so brutal with the other ━ they see themselves. I've always found it so curious about how they both obsess over sin, retribution, what is means to be a person ( because they don't know themselves ). It's horrible too because they see themselves so heavily within the other and know that there is no betrayal more cruel than when a man enslaves himself to the past, and loses what he might have had to the familiarity of grief: and they are so desperately trying to save the other from their own self destructive behavior. Two monsters trying to remind the other that they're human while denying themselves that gift, and they are both too far in their delusions ( Robin much more than Danny shockingly ) to realize the reason why they're being so ... gentle, with the other.

#── 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐍’𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐒𝐄 … 【 ᴀꜱᴋ ᴍᴇᴍᴇ 】#✧ ── 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍 𝐀. 𝐁𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 ... 【 ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴏɴ-ᴇʏᴇᴅ ᴍᴀɢᴇ 】#── 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐔𝐒𝐓 #mxlevolence #im unwell

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