#I feel like this is the kind of Christmas movies I love solely because of the way they look

[einaudis]

december in movies [3/31]: all i want for christmas (1991) dir. robert lieberman "Merry Christmas! HO HO HO!"

[zweiginator]

genuinely curious to what a throuple would be like with patrick and art

i think at first it's confusing and rocky because everyone is used to monogamous relationships, so having an extra person in there is tricky. and you're kind of the person that is always in a tug-of-war match between patrick and art in the beginning because they are too scared to admit that they want each other just as much as they want you.

and patrick, at first, was adamant about it being solely sexual. he is uncomfortable with romance and commitment as it is, and doing that with two people scares him.

but art is very romantic. a hopeless romantic who likes to buy you flowers and plan dates. he takes you to movies and packs lunch for picnics in the park. and both of you just kind of assume patrick doesn't want to go.

but he gets jealous. feels like he's being betrayed by his girlfriend, his best friend, and his boyfriend all at once and it causes a huge fight. he breaks up with you both for almost six months and you and art feel awful because it wasn't malicious at all--in fact, you really did miss him on those dates.

and patrick is surprised when its christmas time and you and art are still together. a real, monogamous couple. he bought you a gold necklace, and he wears one of his own around his neck with your initial.

but he misses you. misses his best friend. misses you all as a dynamic. cooking breakfast in the mornings and burning the eggs. you all laughing at him because you didn't think it was in the realm of possibility to even burn eggs.

going to ice cream shops and strategically choosing your flavors because you all wanted to try each other's but art refuses to get anything other than coffee and it's infuriating but patrick misses that.

he comes to your doorstep after he sees you and art in public one day. art had seen him, you hadn't. art didn't mention it to you, knowing the wound was still fresh.

and it was weird for art. he's so madly in love with you, but he wants his boy friend and boyfriend back. and he knows you still love him.

and you and art let him back in instantly. he's soaked from the rain but you hug him, hold onto him like you're on monkey bars. and art kisses his forehead.

patrick sees that art has moved in with you. the whole house has art's tennis trophies, photos you and him took while traveling. but in the middle of the hallway, right before the bedroom door, there's a picture of the three of you, patrick in the middle.

the second time around, there's a beautiful equilibrium between the three of you. art and patrick finally let go. finally allow themselves to be fully present and admit that their love for each other extends beyond their platonic friendship, beyond their love for tennis.

[noxhominis]

I have to say this now, because Sherlock Holmes is trending and I am celebrating more than I did this Christmas. I watched Knives Out and Glass Onion and it made me realise something crucial about Holmes. He is fundamentally a good person. Does he sometimes behave a little bit like he doesn't care? Yeah. And does he solve cases because he wants the thrill and the mystery? Yep. But I would argue that he mainly solves cases because he wants to help people. His first case was when he helped his friend. Later we see multiple instances of this happening again and again (him being a genuinely good person). I have said it once and I will say it a million times— Sherlock Holmes is interesting because he is a smart guy who is NOT an asshole. He is (mostly) considerate to people, and their feelings. He takes cases to help people. The prime example that springs to mind is Copper Beeches, where he didn't think Violet Hunter had anything interesting to say about her case. But he still agreed to hear her out. And many times, he has done things for people, solved their mysteries without any money. Now you could say that he is not concerned about money at all, except we have seen him squeeze the king of Bohemia. He takes high profile cases to pay the bills, normal cases to solve puzzles, and the really simple mysteries because he wants to help people. I may have talked about this in another post and used the example of Twisted Lip, and Blue Carbuncle to say how he let criminals (of a sort) go solely based on his moral judgement.

The reason why I bring this up in the same breath as the Knives Out films is because of Benoit Blanc's character. That man is very polite unless he absolutely needs to be rude or has been driven to the ends of his patience. You know, like a normal person? And I loved how it just completely avoided the trope most modern mysteries, crime thrillers, and detective stories fall into. I like to call the trope "The Genius Asshole Syndrome". And it just sort of stigmatises really really smart people for not having social skills by twisting them into something mean and uncaring. And so many modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes fall into that. And yes, BBC is one of them. So do the Ritchie!verse movies. They make Sherlock Holmes act flippant towards other people, because such a genius cannot possibly care for the normal people. He cannot possibly appreciate other different versions of smart, because he is obviously a genius and a genius is always an asshole, and not empathetic at all. So it was really refreshing to see a detective who cared about his clients, and vulnerable people. It was nice to see a detective get angry on behalf of a defenceless person. And it was very nice to see a detective not wanting to fuck a female client who is maybe half his age. (Plus the gay thing worked out great). I really feel like we need more genuinely good, kind, and helpful people in fiction, and now that Sherlock Holmes is completely in public domain, we can hopefully get something that is faithful to his actual character instead of the two dimensional grim dark detective dynamic. And maybe modern media can give us other detectives who are actually human, and have all basic human emotions? Just a thought.

[burninlovebutler]

GAH i didn't wanna do this bc im a gemini & i talk a lot if im unsupervised lol BUT YALL WERE POSTIN SOME SAPPY SHIT SO I WANTED TO JOIN (so sorry this is gonna be so long i apologize in advance)

this wasn't initially the road i was gonna take while talking about this but ofc if u read any of my writing or know me in any capacity, it shouldn't surprise you that we're getting sad lol

as i stood next to my partner watching the midnight fireworks last night, i had a fleeting thought -

16 year old me didn't think i'd still be here at 26 -

i didn't expect to still be on this earth in 2023

when i was around that age my home life was really shitty and abusive and lonely and my only saving grace at the time was the family i found within the one direction/5sos fandom. there were so many times then that my fandom friends saved me, literally.

i wouldn't be here today without them.

i stopped being in fandoms around 2016 and while i still have MANY long term close friends from that time, we all have gone our separate ways interest wise.

I didn't realize just how much i missed being a part of a community until i joined tumblr again. the austin/elvis fandom welcomed me with open arms & filled me with that same youthful joy and connection as i had when i was 16. and even BETTER bc this fandom has blown me away with how kind and gentle and loving it is

point is - i’m grateful that i AM still here, that i’ve been here long enough to meet you and experience this amazing fandom.

it's insane to me to think i would've never met some of the brightest stars of my days without walking into that theater that day. my year would've been so empty, lonely and sad without you all, so thank you all from the bottom of my cold lil heart - you all showed up in my life when i needed u the most

(something weird about this 1D -> Elvis/Aus pipeline is that when i went back to see the day i saw the movie the first time it was on July 23, aka the 1D anniversary 👀 lil weird)

i initially made this blog solely for my fanfic but i'm glad i branched out - though i still wanted to take the time to anyone who's interacted w my writings, even if it was just help with plot or moodboards. my heart skips a beat when my writing is a point of conversation.

thank you to the beauties who grace my dash everyday, even if we don't talk often 💖

@feverkitten @p-oolshark @pearlparty @avengen @presleys @mrsniallhoran505 @missmaywemeetagain @marooosa @eliseinmemphis @elvisabutler @lovininapinkcadillac @aconflagrationofmyown @austinsmutler @heartbrake-hotel @dre6ming @flwrs4aust @rosaminny @presleysdarling @woundmetender @rainydayz101 @ggwritesstuff @golden-kiwis @lattedreamer @weak-aesthetic @bcofl0ve

and of course to my almost daily babes, my days would be so empty without you all and my heart would be so deflated - i never thought i'd end up with a group like this

@succsessions @lllsaslll @cryingabtab @elvisfatass @loving-elvis @nora-nexus-34 @lavenderelvis @luluthesandgoose @powerofelvis @bisexualwvtson @samfangirls @lindszeppelin @infatuatedharleys @ab4eva @sagesolsticewrites @slowsweetlove @areacodefan @jelliedonut @steph-speaks @star-shard @foreverdolly @purejasmine @oh-my-front-door

and how could i ever forget the two that really roped me in @karamelcoveredolicity @troubleinapinksuit - even though it was through war, violence & lawsuits (lol) that our love was carved from, it is the most magical. i am so honored and so grateful to call you friends

one of my biggest goals for 2022 was to make new friends - ones who are reliable, kind, like-minded, supportive, generous, loving - because i was feeling so lonely & unloved, and to my surprise this goal was met ABUNDANTLY by you all, i really can not stress how much you all mean to me

extra special shout out to @bisexualwvtson for setting up the christmas card exchange, it was probably my favorite part of this holiday season - those cards made my whole christmas and i will cherish them forever

i love you all so much its DISGUSTING how much i love you - i don’t know how i would’ve made it through this year without you all - and it makes me so fucking sad when i think about all the memories that wouldn’t have happened without austin/elvis/you guys - it is because of you all that i have some of the best and happiest memories of this year, thank you ❤️

i hope that we are together for a long long time - i know that i am, i’m here for the long haul 💗 pls be in the nursing home with me breaking hips to Elvis songs

love, mel xx

(I APOLOGIZE IF IVE MISSED ANYONE I TRIED MY BEST TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING MY BRAIN IS TRASH SO IM SO SORRY PLS DONT BE OFFENDED IF I MISSED U I LOVE U)

[valleyfthdolls]

Uhhhh all of this applies to any and all OCs

Also an addition to this which wasn't on the ask game: what is this OC's most controversial opinion (but an opinion on smth rlly rlly dumb that doesn't actually matter)

💯

🩹

🌲

🍎

💔

☕

😊

💯- share three random facts about your oc that others may not know. Tara: He has a thick Russian accent, he sounds like Pomni from TADC, and he can't dance because he's prone to injury. Amaya: She has chronic fatigue syndrome, her style of choice is angura kei, not goth, and her favorite song is Town With No Sun. Virgil: He's a Libra I think, born on the 13th of February, he's not actually fluent in French despite using it in regular conversation, and he never got top surgery, he just has a naturally very small chest. Rina: She's a boss at word puzzles (such as crosswords) and loves to play them, she picked up smoking for the sole purpose of pissing off her mom, and her favorite movie is The Neon Demon. Antonio: He's autistic and might meet the criteria for ASPD, he uses he/she/they/per pronouns but likes all neopronouns, and his favorite animal is snakes. Lori: She has hypoxemia, her temperature tends to run low, and she has a HUGE phobia of scabies mites and botflies. Cody: He knows basically nothing about pop culture, he's dyslexic, and he was raised Christian.

🩹 - does your oc have any physical and/or mental disabilities? Tara: Autism, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and digestive issues from childhood pancreatitis Amaya: Autism, chronic fatigue syndrome Virgil: Autism Rina: No Antonio: Autism Lori: Autism Cody: Autism, dyslexia

🌲 - what is your oc's favorite holiday? (note: the one in the ask game is a christmas tree, this is a normal pine tree. I couldn't find the normal pine tree so I just worked with what I had.) Tara: Samhain Amaya: Halloween Virgil: Halloween Antonio: Valentine's Day Rina: Idk

🍎 - where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

Tara: Saratov, Russia. He lives FARR away from there now. He hates it there and honestly I would too if I was raised the way he was.

Amaya and Rina: Somewhere in Ohio. Amaya loves it, Rina hates it. Rina lives there, Amaya lives in Michigan.

Antonio: Somewhere in Idaho, iirc. Probably lives around there.

Virgil: Boston. Does not live there. Did not live there long enough to form an opinion on it.

Lori: Salem. She likes Salem, but being there is not a good thing.

Cody: Salem. He hates Salem, but the last time he tried to leave, his tires got slashed and it took a month to get them fixed.

The Monster of Salem: I think you know.

💔 - what are three of your oc's negative traits?

Tara: Lack of strong moral compass, paranoia, self-victimizing

Amaya: Possessiveness, emotional behavior, tendency for lashing out

Virgil: Prioritizing being the center of attention over being a good person, manipulative behavior, moral irresponsibility

Rina: Narcissism, stubbornness, distrust

Antonio: Lack of compassion, manipulative behavior, paranoia

Lottie: Mistreatment of others, refusal to acknowledge her issues, distrust

☕ - does your oc prefer coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk, water, or some other drink? how do they like to take this drink (ex. coffee with milk, hot chocolate with whipped cream, a specific kind of tea, etc)?

Tārā: Tea. Specifically herbal tea. It makes its own blends sometimes.

Amaya: Flavored sparkling water, ginger ale, melon soda, stuff that’s not overbearing in flavor.

Virgil: Black tea.

Antonio: Water with flavor packets. An excessive amount, often times.

Chesa: Tea. Usually Tārā’s tea. When he makes it, he pours an extra cup for her.

Rina: During the summer she drinks a lot of water, but along with that and through the rest of the year, she likes coffee and peach Monster.

Cody: Apple juice. Can’t explain it.

Lori: Probably forgets to drink. Buys vitamin water even though she prefers Coke so she doesn’t die.

Lottie: Ice water.

😊 - what are your oc's career/general life desires? what do they want to get the most out of life?

Tārā: A comfortable life where he has the space to pursue spiritual endeavors and go to therapy.

Amaya: To protect those she loves. In terms of career, she’d like to work in a library or history museum, somewhere where her lifelong passion of preserving history can be put to use. It’s the most important thing to her.

Virgil: To be loved by audiences. He’s… working on having self worth outside of that.

Rina: To surpass the people she’s compared to and told to fill the shoes of. She wants to be a singer.

Lori: She doesn’t know. I’d say to tell stories that she feels people need to hear.

Cody: He just needs any amount of stability before he can start thinking about that.

Bonus: what is the OC’s most controversial but mundane opinion?

Tārā: Most holistic medicine only works in tandem with modern medicine.

Amaya: Eroguro is a valuable and important type of art and shouldn’t be brushed off just because of the content matter without a deeper look at the intention behind it. (<- autistic)

Virgil: Being human is overrated.

Antonio: You can’t make up for the things you’ve done in the past. You can only move forward.

Rina: Sex is stupid and that’s why she uses whore as an insult- it insinuates you’re someone who shapes your whole life around something completely trivial and also is an embarrassing thing to be called.

Lottie: The Exorcist is a horrifying movie for a bunch of reasons no one but her sees.

Lori: True crime is not inherently exploitative and can be a way of honoring victims.

Cody: Everything in the world can and will kill you.

Akki: Because she is a product of her environment, she cannot be blamed for her actions; they, too, are a product of her environment.

The Monster of Salem: If you steal something that belongs to it and you end up scattered across a room in thirteen different parts with your spine nowhere to be found, you probably deserved it.

Chesa: Ignoring hitchhikers is an outright cruel thing to do if you have the means to help them. You should never leave someone behind.

[brxkxnhxxrtsclxb]

with the addams family skuklector release getting closer, i’m excited !!

i decided to do my personal ranking (from faves to least faves) of the skullector dolls :3 (this is solely my opinion so it makes sense if others don’t agree)

1. greta

- i think greta is great and so beautiful !! i love what they did with her and she definitely fits the monster high verse !! plus i adore her little three fingered hands >.<

(hoping to one day be able to get her for a reasonable price. i was aware of the skullectors since the first releases but didn’t think they’d be worth it so that’s my fault T_T)

2. bride of chucky (chucky and tiffany)

- the first set of skullectors i got because i adore chucky and tiffany. i think they’re cute and great :3 i also love how they yassified them to look more monster high. my personal favorite of the two is tiffany. i just love her dress and the pattern of blood splattered hearts is too cute to me♡ also love her black nails. i do wish her beauty mark were a tad bigger. chucky is cute too but i won’t lie, would’ve been nice if he was a manster cuz we need more >.< but overall i’m happy with her too

3. nightmare before christmas (jack and sally)

- like many, i love this movie and anything tim burton. its always spoken to me for some odd reason. jack and sally are too cute imo. i love love sally’s face !! i think the monster high look works well with her♡ also love how long her hair is !! jack is amazing. i love the new mold and i feel he also fits right in the monster high world. he’s a skeleton with a round head. he looks odd and i think that’s what helps him fit in :3 love that they incorporated the spiral hill on his heels

4. addams family (morticia and wednesday)

- oh, the addams family. i’ve been obsessed with the addams family since fifth grade. i won’t lie, i was at first a little bummed out we weren’t getting a couple set with gomez and morticia, but after seeing the reveal of wednesday and morticia, i can’t be mad. they’re really cute imo. love love morticia (her shoes are great imo) and wednesday is a cutie (cousin itt and thing on her heels is a cute detail as well) :3

(maybe it was for the best they didn’t include gomez since mansters barely get any love. i’m afraid they wouldn’t have put as much effort into him >.<)

5. annabelle

- i think annabelle came out really cute. also think they did the same as with the bride of chucky set. they yassified her to fit the monster high verse and i think it works :3 i love her dress, especially the blood drip pattern on the bust area

6. bride of frankenstein (the monster and bride)

- i think this set is really cute despite the bride not actually liking the monster. they look great together and although simple, they match the vibe of the original and monster high to me. love the little ballerina in a beaker detail on the bride’s shoes and the monster being our first manster is great !! just would’ve been nice if he were taller and had some actual hair instead of it being molded since he’s a collector doll. i do love his shoes !!

7. pennywise

- i think she looks good. definitely captured the character well in terms of look, but i do wish she had a more crazed look on her face but overall she’s great for what we got :3 i love her little red ballon and paper boat accessories♡

8. elvira

- she’s cool as a doll, but i have no attachment to the character sadly since she’s such an icon and heard she’s also hilarious (show’s on my watch list). overall. i think she’s really pretty to look at and i think she looks so good in the monster high style. her face just suits it so well !! also love her little dagger belt and think they did her hair so well :3

9. dracula

- love the vibe and black and white with pops of red aspect she has going on, but she’s definitely lower on the list because she’s kind of boring to me. i know the bride of frankenstein set are also more on the plain side, but for some reason dracula wasn’t able to get me T_T her shoes are cool though !! i adore the little detail of opening the coffin heels to reveal a mini bela lugosi inside♡

10. the shining (grady twins)

- not my fave. they’re twins so it’s technically two of the same doll and much like the source material… they’re just there. they’re cute but do not captivate me. i do like that one looks more serious than the other and their shoes are also cute

11. beetlejuice (beetlejuice and lydia)

- not a fan. never liked the way they did beetlejuice. it just doesn’t look right imo and my least favorite of the set is lydia. i don’t like her face, much less her bangs. the shoes on both dolls are cool though. just didn’t like how this set turned out T_T

12. creature from the black lagoon

- the gill-man definitely removed dracula from my least favorites list and bumped up the beetlejuice set in terms of liking them better. wasn’t a fan of the gill-man as soon as i saw her. just doesn’t go well with the rest of the universal monsters skullector line up. while the other three have the distinct black and white with a pop of color aspect to them, the creature is way too saturated (makes less sense since the movie is black and white so it was cool they kept the black and white elements in the previous dolls). head sculpt is cool and i do think it’s creative she got the arm accessories and boots to look like the gill-man’s traits but overall, i do not vibe with her, making her my least favorite

that’s it for me regarding the skullectors !! can’t wait to see the sanderson sisters coming out in september :3 i’m not attached to the characters, they’re cool and funny but i will be skipping the three pack !!

i can’t wait to hear the next rumors of what next year’s skullectors will be >:3

[late-to-the-fandom]

💀 🍪 🌳

Thank you, I love these questions! I did all three for both Uni!AU Maw Walker and Renathal

💀 - How do they feel about horror movies?

The Maw Walker doesn’t enjoy movies period. She does not have a long attention span for them and will stop watching in 10 minutes if she’s bored or if she thinks it’s going to make her emotional in any way. She will watch a horror movie as long as it’s not the torture-y kind or sad. So, B list monster movies are a good choice. Renathal has an extremely high tolerance for horror movies (it takes a LOT to scare or disgust him) and doesn’t enjoy most modern horror. He likes classic Hollywood horror though and knows a million facts about old movies (he’s more than a little bit of a pretentious film snob) so the two of them can comfortably have a classic monster movie marathon where Renahahl rattles off behind the scenes trivia the whole time that helps hold the Maw Walker’s interest.

🍪 - How well can they bake?

The Maw Walker is not good at anything to do with food, but baking is particularly foreign since she did not grow up with an oven. Renathal, a very decent chef if he says so himself, institutes cooking/baking themed date nights the point of which is to help her learn to make a few basic things. She plays along with this solely because Renahahl with his shirt sleeves rolled up and an apron on over his suit trousers makes her knees weak.

🌳 - What’s their extended family like?

Neither of them have any extended family. Renathal was an only child to older parents who died when he was an undergrad, and he doesn’t know or isn’t close to any other family. The Maw Walker also lost her mother and sister and isn’t close to her father. She has a few aunts and uncles and cousins but none she’s close enough to for more than a yearly Christmas card.

[runawayballista]

re: fantasy/sci-fi/expy judaism, what would be some of your favorite aspects of jewishness to see in a story like that? like, holidays, rituals, objects/items, etc? i have a tiny little concept rattling around my head rn and i already know i want to include that they have special doorway amulets like a mezuzah and say a lot of blessings specific to different food and events and stuff.

oh i love this question, thank you for asking it! i think it’s always fun to see what artifacts of judaism other jews feel compelled or interested to put into their worlds.

for me, it’s often less that i want Jewishness to take the forefront so much as i want it to exist ambiently in what i write. (speaking particularly about spy x psycho in this case since im guessing those posts about expy chanukah were what sparked this ask, and in general for settings that aren’t the Real World.) i grew up a reform jew on the US east coast; i was bat mitzvahed, i went to sunday school and hebrew school for much of my childhood education, but we didn’t keep kosher at home, and we mostly went to synagogue on the high holy days. (i did go to a jewish summer camp for 8 years where we kept kosher though. this was before you could get good fake cheese so taco night was always kind of boring but i LOVED kugel & tuna fish night) i grew up in an area with a sizable jewish population (but still just one synagogue to our small town’s dozen churches), so it was for me, fortunately, never a thing that existed solely in my own house.

cultural jewishness exists around me ambiently, as im sure it does for you - the special blessings we say for just about everything (i have a bracha saved on my phone somewhere for not getting into stupid fights on the internet), or the particular kinds of jokes we make about ourselves, or just sometimes our attachment to the physical objects we deem significant. i have a bronze menorah in a stylized sculpt of the maccabees that i treasure deeply because my mother gave it to me. i also have in my possession from my mother a gilded gold fake fingernail from her younger years that i also treasure deeply, not because it is a family heirloom but because to this day she insists it is not and never was a coke nail. (it’s definitely a coke nail. we do other drugs together so im not sure why she feels the need to lie about it? it’s really funny.) these things are both equally jewish impulses to me, personally

i say jewishness exists around me ambiently because it does, but its also easily drowned out by other cultural noise that makes it harder to hear or appreciate. i grew up in an area with a sizable jewish population, yes, but i’m also sephardi and the majority of the jews in my community were ashkenazim, so sometimes even my personal ambient jewishness was a little drowned out by the other somewhat louder ambient jewishness of my community. i guess all of this is a very roundabout way to say that what i want to see in my stories is room for that ambient jewishness, and specifically my sephardi jewishness, to be louder. be audibly jewish, even in the case of expy holidays. much the way every expy christmas manages to feel just like christmas regardless of how it’s repackaged, i want expy chanukah to Feel Like Chanukah. so i do the things that make it feel like chanukah to me: make it about the power of the enduring spirit and closeness and family, make it a holiday about lighting candles instead of decorating trees or even about winter. there is such special intimacy in the act of lighting the chanukiah together that, were i to see this replicated in fiction more often, it would probably do emotionally for me what i imagine cozy movie scenes about christmas morning do for lots of gentile ppl. the attachment to physical objects is also important to me (because when so much of your cultural history is about having things taken away from you, even the intangible things like your faith and your identity, the physical objects you manage to hang onto become incredibly significant), whether it’s in the form of ritual (the aforementioned chanukiah) or superstition (the gold chai my mother gave me that only comes off for medical procedures). for characters to have something like that is also very jewish, to me

i don’t think any of this was quite a straightforward answer because the answer is mainly “it depends”. i LOVE stories about straight up Jews In Space (have you read “on venus, have we got a rabbi”? you absolutely should. better yet, you should listen to the author read it if you can.) but when it comes to other world settings, i just like to see where it can fill in nice cracks in the setting to make it more cozy, or supplant christian cultural hegemony for the sake of shaking things up and playing to my personal tastes (see again expy chanukah, though i think we have so many other fun and interesting holidays that could be ported into fantasy worlds too). to take my lengthy AU crossover fanfiction as the example, i don't need to go so far as having the forgers saying hamotzi before every meal (though i would respect this choice immensely and it would suit the vibe of this series more than most), but yuri and yor having special childhood holiday memories about lighting candles together? loid's inevitable feelings of distance towards the holiday both because spies can't get attached, and because he feels severed from the part of his life when he had a family with happy memories? anya only ever knowing about how you celebrate this special holiday secondhand through TV shows and comic books, because she's never had a real family, but knowing it MEANS family, and getting to experience it for the first time? these are to me!! such jewish experiences!!!

i don't need the holiday to be a 1:1 example; i thought it would be fun, for instance, to tie expy chanukah into the new year and mix a little bit of rosh hashanah tradition into it, making it a time of reflection in addition to togetherness and spirit. maybe they will even eat apple slices dipped in honey. it is my crossover AU and i can do what i want

i know this sort of veered off from your question anon but i guess its a big nebulous answer!! i like to sneak in sephardi cooking when it comes to expy cultural stuff. i really think jewish concepts of the new year would be fun to port to a fantasy setting. when was the last time you saw a fictional harvest holiday based on sukkot. the fact that we add an entire fucking month for the leap year? i also think the history of destruction of the two temples makes for a refreshing framework for SFF worldbuilding! (we are drowning in jesus narratives. let's shake it up a little). and like you said! the little rituals we have (mezuzot and hyper-specific blessings are such good examples, anon) are a big part of that ambient jewishness to me too. whatever concept you have rattling around sounds like a lot of fun! and you have given me lots to think about so thank you :)

[deuterosapiens]

Woah, two Hellraiser films in one night! It's like Christmas, but like, if Christmas was Hellraiser: Revelations and your parents hated you. So what make this, the ninth film, so remarkably special isn't just that it's bad, no. No no no. Bad, bad is something we can deal with.

This is a special kind of bad.

You see, Revelations includes a significant number of elements from the original film that I've found sorely lacking in the sequels. This one actually recreates a fair number of story elements that are unique to film one (and by extension, the original novella).

A pleasure seeker meets a mysterious figure who gifts him the Lemarchand Box. After being ripped apart by the Cenobites, he is revived through the spilling of blood which escalates into a series of murders at the hands of an accomplice to give life back to the pleasure seeker. The pleasure seeker ends up wearing another's skin as a ruse.

I think the best description I have for this one is unnecessarily exploitative. These films don't shy away from sex and violence, but in a very weird way, I don't think any of it actually adds anything to the movie. What exactly did that thing with the prostitute in the restroom actually add to this movie?

So there are two narratives happening. The first, which as I've outlined above, is basically the original Hellraiser's Julia/Frank plot and is background information which is periodically revealed to us as the second plot plays out. In the present, we have what feels like a standard home invasion, but where there's no invasion and everyone just sort of screams at everyone.

There's an interesting element in which our lead ends up stealing his friend's skin, who opens the Box and becomes a Cenobite. What I liked about this was that it actually shows us a brief moment where the Cenobites are doing Cenobitical things: we see a brief moment in Hell in which nothing is a plot to manipulate the damned, or punish a victim. It shows a brief glimpse of what is an actual Cenobite being taught and learning. This is actually kind of cool and flashes the world out ever so slightly more and would have been an excellent thing to expand on. The identity of this Cenobite is supposed to be a secret, but you've guessed the Reveal long before it's honestly worth setting up a Reveal.

There's an uncomfortable incest scene which is the exact moment you should have pieced together the Act Three Reveal, that Nico is wearing Stephen's skin.

This reveal, actually, this whole plot annoys me because I cannot for the like of me figure out what the point of the scene where he exposits in a trance is for, from a character perspective. Why would this character, if they are in a fugue state, speak as though he is not in fact, Nico in disguise? This feels like the writers had completely different intentions for these characters, then changed their minds as they continued, but did not go back and edit the script to accommodate.

I think I've keyed in on the biggest issue. This entire movie feels like a Rough Draft script written solely to get a script out. It feels like zero revisions were made and not a single person stepped in to polish it.

There's a return to basics that I did appreciate: The Cenobites are never actually given an Infernal explanation in this one. Hell, our live action Harry DuBois only uses the word "angel" to describe them. I love this interpretation of their purposes, which I guess makes sense since it is literally ripped directly from the first film.

I'm serious, this guy reminds me of Harry DuBois:

He's the vagrant who gives our leads the Box, which I guess technically would make him the Engineer, but, once again, that role seems to be had by the nail-headed Hell Priest.

We don't see much in the way of Cenobite design (truth be told, we don't see much of anything: this entire film's lighting feels like David Yates' most depraved fantasy; filters other than blue exist, you know!), but none of them are particularly new. Just rehashed versions of the nail-headed Cenobite, the Chattering Cenobite, oh look! There's a second nail-headed Cenobite!

So, why is this one so bad?

The best moment of the film is like thirty seconds long. The original parts of the story are boring, loud, and generally poorly written. The not-so-original parts are exactly the same as the first film, but they have chosen the exact worst ways to implement them.

I will admit, I saw exactly one turn on the Box that made me squee happily, if only because it was a corner turn and not the exact same two-move opening that has so royally pissed me off seeing. That's right guys, I got more joy out of a character making a move on the Box that was different than the opening sequence used in basically every other movie (any points this would have awarded us are lost because this turn exists in one scene, and the three other instances of the Box being opened return back to the standard two moves). It's a Puzzle Box, dammit! Is it really that fucking difficult to show this thing being opened like an actually fucking Puzzle Box??

I do not want to watch Judgement after this complete waste of time reboot. Officially it's a sequel, but this has reboot written all over it. Actually, this has "I'm about to lose franchise rights" written all over it.

[sabu-rina]

Ice skating \\ Shouto/OC

tags\\ fluff

Shouto has a surprise for Eun.

The streets were busy for such a cold, cloudless evening. Perhaps it was because Christmas was around the corner and most couples loved a good wander down a street lit up with all kinds of string lights and displays. This was the first year she could relate.

Eun cupped her frozen hands over her mouth and huffed, cursing herself for forgetting gloves. She leaned against the wall of the cafe while looking up and down the sidewalk for any sign of red and white hair. Shouto Todoroki was usually on time, leaving her to wonder what made him 20 minutes late.

“Maybe…cold feet?” she muttered into her palms, half-smiling at her own stupid joke. They were far too many dates deep for him to back out now, and getting kicked out of a restaurant on the first should have been enough to give him second thoughts on associating with her.

Soon enough, as she watched a particularly cute old couple walk by, familiar footsteps stopped beside her, and a hand touched her arm. Shouto looked like he’d run a mile in under a minute, cheeks flushed from both the exertion and the cold, and maybe a little guilt for making her wait. Eun smiled and lowered her hands from her face.

“‘Bout time,” she teased, “I was starting to think you’d changed your mind.”

Confusion crossed his features as he went to state the obvious, then instead, he smiled back at her, the corners of his lips just barely quirked upward. He moved his hand from her arm and took both of her numb, pale hands in his own. He’d forgotten his gloves as well, assuming he needed them at all.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, “Fuyumi needed help and I lost track of time…” As he apologized, she felt his skin warm up on hers, held just on the edge of lighting. As the feeling returned in her fingers, a small fluttering feeling grew in her gut. Thankfully, he was looking down to focus and couldn’t see her blush creeping from ear to ear.

“So, uh…where are we going, exactly?” she asked. He let her go, although somewhat hesitantly, and finally met her eyes. If he noticed the color in her cheeks, he didn’t mention it.

“It’s a surprise,” he said simply, causing her to pout slightly. She had no interest in pestering for more information, knowing well that Shouto could be a brick wall, so she huffed and moved to his side to hold his arm. She rested a puffed cheek on his shoulder.

“Alright, then, lead the way,” she said, “The suspense is killing me.”

The big surprise was the park, which only made her more curious. The ground was crunchy from frost, although no snow had fallen yet, and as they walked under a clear sky in the scarcely populated park, she let out a shiver despite wearing a thick coat. They followed the main path for a few minutes, occasionally passing other couples, but then he turned them onto a smaller one that led into the trees.

“I’ve seen movies like this,” she said, glancing back at the lamplights disappearing behind trees. She wasn’t nervous, considering present company, but there was still an unease from simply not knowing.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Oh, you know… Teenagers going into the woods and getting murdered. I guess we’re okay if we don’t—” She cut herself off, unable to bring herself to finish the joke as he gave her the most innocent, confused look ever. Of course, he’d never seen a horror movie, even she only had access when her current guardian was passed out drunk. Thankfully, he didn’t push.

They continued the walk for a while, settling into their usual comfortable silence, until they slowed to a stop at the edge of a clearing. Moonlight was now their sole source of light, giving the icy grass and trees a sort of glow, and it was because of it that she realized the clearing wasn’t a clearing—it was a lake.

“This is it,” he said, looking over at her. She still hadn’t caught on yet remained impressed by the beautiful sight. It was too late for a picnic, and too cold for a dip, so she gave him a questioning look.

“You said you’d never gone ice skating, right?” he asked. She blinked.

“Did I?”

In truth, she knew she had. She distinctly remembered standing next to him and watching the people on the outdoor rink, couples holding hands and giggling, kids going too fast and falling, only to get back up as their parents laughed, and the occasional solo skater in their own world. Unfortunately, she also remembered the look a couple middle-aged women had given her, whispering behind their hands and glaring at her. When Shouto asked if she had tried before, then offered the opportunity, she made up an excuse to get home early and dragged him away.

Shouto could be a little naive, but he always had a killer eye for details. Now, as they stood alone by a lake, it clicked that he’d seen those women too, and knew by her reaction that she could never step on a rink with strangers. Not after…

That fluttery feeling in her stomach bloomed and spread to her chest.

“I thought you’d like to try,” he said, stepping away from her as bits of frost formed on his fingers.

She watched him kneel by the edge of the already partly frozen water and reach out, then gasped as his ice rapidly overtook the surface of the lake. The world around them lit up like daytime thanks to the moon, the air filled with glittering diamond dust like tiny fireflies. She stared out in wonder, barely noticing Shouto return to her side until he took her hand.

The boy was pretty, with his fine features and cool demeanor, and even the scar over his left eye did little to lessen the attraction. Eun found herself gazing at him when he wasn’t looking. And when he was. But it wasn’t until now that she realized just how beautiful his Quirk was too. She hoped, prayed, that one day she’d have the guts to tell him so, that he glowed like the moonlit ice before them, and like the embers he used to warm her fingers.

“I-I…don’t have skates,” she said dumbly, drawing a chuckle from him.

“Me neither. We’ll have to make do.”

He stepped out and took her other hand as well, watching her expression as he led her toward the ice. Her first step onto the slippery surface was nearly a disaster, but Shouto was ready. He held her hands up so she could gain her footing without falling, smiling but not laughing as she flailed a bit. After a moment, she stilled and the two of them slowly slid along the ice.

“Better with skates,” she said, breathing somewhat heavily from nerves. He nodded.

“You’ll get the hang of it. Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall.”

It wasn’t long until the two of them were sliding around like children. Well, Eun was like a child, and Shouto was ever vigilant in case she was about to wipe out. Not that he wasn’t laughing and having a fantastic time as well. He helped her spin, she helped him spin, and they tried to make shapes, but only managed some kind of squiggle. They raced across the lake, and Eun won despite refusing to cheat with her Quirk. Granted, he let her so he could see her grin and hear her laugh, with the added treat of cartoonish confidence with which she told him to “suck it.”

The fun lasted an eternity, until they fell into the grass on the bank. Both of their faces were red and blotchy, Eun’s pert nose especially red. His high came down first, although the smile never left his face as he watched her continue to giggle, her shoulder sometimes bumping into his. As her laughter subsided and she grew tired, she put her full weight against him and let out a content sigh. He slipped his arm around her waist and rested his head on hers as she rested on his shoulder.

“Thank you, Shouto,” she said softly, “That was really fun.”

He wasn’t sure what to say, so he gave her a squeeze and kissed the top of her head.

Thank you for reading! Sorry if anything is confusing. I reference a main story, but it isn’t written.

[mostlygibberish]

"This is the first Christmas I ever spent underwater."

I liked the part with the propaganda.

Unconcealed war propaganda, with a healthy dose of racism. They literally state that Japanese people are trained from birth to be killing machines and have no word in their language for love. Meanwhile every mention of killing the Japanese is unquestioningly celebrated.

Aside from a few strategically sombre moments, like them listening to a recording of a dead guy's wife saying how much she loves him, the war is depicted as a grand old time. That guy is actually the only American to die in the movie, and he was killed by a sneak attack while trying to save an enemy pilot. 

Everything else that happened was just kind of dull and procedural. Even a brief interlude to conduct emergency appendix surgery with improvised equipment managed to be pretty boring. Worse still, the atheist pharmacist who carries it out somehow finds god in the process, because of course he fucking does.

For the positives: Cary Grant gave a pretty good performance as the captain, and I liked the seeing them load torpedoes at the beginning, which I feel is not something usually shown. That's about it. Maybe I shouldn't have watched this solely because its wikipedia page mentioned Christmas...

An offensive movie that didn't even have the courtesy to be particularly entertaining. Not good.

[castrotophic]

thanks for tagging me this is cute 🥺

do you make your bed?

lmao no 😭 if someone is coming over or im feeling cleany i guess i will but thats lowkey rare

what's your favorite number?

i am emotionally attached to 16 idk why, i also like 12

what is your job?

i am unemployed 😍😍 i volunteer as a receptionist at a hospital though

if you could go back to school would you?

also currently in school, premed for the win 💪💪

can you parallel park?

i mean technically i probably COULD? i would probably die of stress before i got halfway done though (i hate driving with a burning passion)

do you think aliens are real?

yes but i don't think we'll ever meet any. the universe is literally vast and expanding lol the chance of us meeting an alien civilization are literally 0, i believe they're out there though

can you drive a manual car?

lmao nooooo i can barely drive automatic

what's your guilty pleasure?

okay first blue i LOVE BRIDGET JONES grgrhrhrgg honestly best p&p adaptation i have ever seen and one of the best romcoms hands down (although nothing will EVER surpass return to me)... anyway my guilty pleasure is ummmm reading rpf 😭😭 i love it so much

tattoos?

no and i probably won't get any any time soon. idl the idea of getting stabbed with a needle so much scares me and i also just feel like i might regret getting smth that doesnt have like a really deep meaning to me... im not like completely opposed but it would have to be smth REALLY special

favorite color?

mmmm green i do love green... the grass and the trees 😍😍😍

favorite type of music?

ummm i mean i guess i would say indie folk or stomp and holler, but i really listen to almost every kind of music... the sole exception is probs hip hop/r&b im not really into that

do you like puzzles?

yes but i am not allowed to have them in my room because i WILL get addicted and do nothing but puzzle for 7+ hours (me finishing the cains jawbone book puzzle in like 3 days)

any phobias?

ummm i guess im fairly scared of spiders? im really brave though so most of the time i can kill them before they get away...

favorite childhood sport?

k i KNOW this is gonna sound crazy but. i LOVE dodgeball, both as a kid and now... like they really just throw balls at you and you either get hit or don't and its so much fun... also it doesn't require ME to throw any balls (i am bad at this) as i usually get out pretty fast and just have to duck the balls

do you talk to yourself?

yeahhhh i like to talk my way through instructions and arguments in my head lol

what movies do you adore?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION ok the princess bride, the sound of music, a muppet Christmas carol, the swan princess, megamind, asteroid city

coffee or tea?

tea ❤️❤️ herbal tea is my BABY anything with ginger or cinnamon just gets me

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

a child psychologist (??) do not remember my reasoning for this only that i was very firm in my decision for about a month and then switched to being a divorce lawyer (again, why i could not tell you bc that lowkey sounds like the worst thing ever)

i will tag ppl later bc i need to go to SLEEP but thank you for tagging me i love you good night 🥹🥹

I was tagged by @hollyspn

I'll tag @beanmom @babyblue-mind @torturedpoetdean

Do you make your bed?

nopeee (living that Disabled Life TM where i'm in it more than out, so no need to bother lol)

What’s your favourite number?

3!

What is your job?

I'm an online essay writing tutor! (hit me up if you need help with anything writing related!)

If you could go back to school, would you?

I would LOVE to get like an MFA in creative writing, or just take art classes at a community college (but can't be 1. disabled & 2. broke af)

Can you parallel park?

technically? I did in the past (not well, but did it) but that was like...10 years ago lol and I am Not Able To Drive now due, again, to the fkn disabilities

A job you had that would surprise people?

not really a job, and idk if it is surprising? but I helped take care of my granny for a long while after her brain surgery

Do you think aliens are real?

yes!

Can you drive a manual car?

nopee

What's your guilty pleasure?

...destiel :D

Tattoos?

none :( but I want soooo many

Favourite colour?

yellow!

Favourite type of music?

folk punk, and whatever florence and the machine is classified as

Do you like puzzles?

sometimes

Any phobias?

SPIDERS (and really any bugs), heights, the ocean, snakes

Favourite childhood sport?

i do not like sports ball

Do you talk to yourself?

allllllll the time

What movies do you adore?

but i'm a cheerleader (it was my lesbian awakening lol), four weddings and a funeral, steel magnolias

Coffee or tea?

suuuper sweet tea (i'm from texas what do you expect)

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

I think the first thing was an artist? but I'm not sure. I had a lot of things I thought of doing, including but not limited to: baker, photographer, author (doing it!), teacher (also doing it!), and garbage man (???) (this was because I thought how they got to ride hanging off the back of the truck looked fun lol)

[shihalyfie]

Regarding Konaka’s influence on Tamers (or how much he actually didn’t have)

(Rest assured that if you’ve had a conversation with me recently about this issue, I’m not vaguing you; this conversation has come up a lot in the last few weeks, especially in my private chats, so this is just me deciding that I should write something about this for once since it’s been weighing on my head lately.)

I think, right now, with what happened regarding the DigiFes debacle, a lot of people are having complicated feelings about how to feel about Tamers, and this is completely understandable. I think there are also some things that may be inevitably unavoidable, such as starting to second-guess certain nuances in the series and what they might lead to. All of that is perfectly reasonable, and in the end, it’s going to be up to everyone to decide how they feel.

In light of this, a lot of people have been bringing up the fact that, while Konaka was the head writer, he was by no means the only person working on it. This is very much true, but I’d like to add something else to the equation: this is an issue that goes much deeper than the usual claiming death of the author for the sake of sanity. The full picture is that Konaka has always had much less influence on the series than the fanbase tends to attribute to him. Official statements have been very clear as to not attribute the entire series to him, and, among all the other controversial statements he’s made, Konaka himself has at least been very active about crediting the other staff members as far as their influence on the series! The idea that he was the only person who ever did anything substantial for Tamers is something I’ve been warning against since long before any of this happened (if you want proof, I have a post from April with this sentiment in it), and right now we just happen to be seeing what’s basically the worst possible outcome of the fanbase constantly worshipping him like the only real creative heart behind the series to borderline cult-like levels...when that’s never been true, and has resulted in unfairly taking credit away from people who deserved it.

I’ll go into detail below, and I hope this can help people understand the situation better and sort out how they feel about it.

Note that I make references to his infamous blog in this post, which I’m deliberately refraining from directly linking for obvious reasons, but all of the information is still there, so it should be verifiable if you decide to look for it yourself.

Personally, I’ve always found it really bizarre how there’s been this obsession with portraying Konaka as some kind of auteur whom the entirety of Tamers depended on. I’m not saying this out of spite towards him, because, again, even he himself was very insistent on disclaiming credit for things he wasn’t actually responsible for (he was quite humble in this respect, actually). Not to mention that I think it’s a mistake in general to constantly pin a single person in a multi-person production as the sole heart behind it, and the Digimon fanbase has historically had this strange double standard behind it when it comes to uplifting him as the only heart behind Tamers when nobody says that about any of the head writers for...anything else. (How many times has Nishizono’s name ever popped up when talking about Adventure? People are usually more obsessed with talking about Kakudou or Seki.) Konaka’s work is certainly distinctive, but Tamers had a lot more going on besides just that.

In fact, based on his own statements on the matter and all of the other official information we’ve gotten about Tamers production, while you can’t really quantify such things, it’s generally been estimated that Konaka was responsible for something like only a fourth of the series. Which is an incredibly low amount compared to what the fanbase would have told you before all of this happened, because of this fixation that he must be the genius mastermind behind the whole series. Not only that, this “brilliant auteur” image of him was so inflated that people were attributing way more of 02 to him than he deserved; 02 episode 13 was the only thing he contributed to the series and he was specifically brought on as a “guest writer”, and the overall plot of the episode was determined by the rest of the production staff and not him -- but ask the fanbase and they’ll tell you stories about how he invented some grand planned arc for 02 that got cancelled, or even that Tamers exists because of a “writer revolt” from him and other writers not being allowed to do what they wanted. (You know, as much as I understand 02′s a controversial series, it would be really nice if people didn’t make up completely baseless stories like this just to scapegoat it...)

I honestly cannot emphasize enough how much of the problem we’re in right now has been horribly enabled by the weird pedestal the fanbase has been putting him on. This is to the point where there’s even been a double standard where some of the more unpopular/criticized elements of Tamers must not have been the fault of a brilliant writer like him, and in fact was forced on him by the executives (this excuse had always been brought up anytime someone doesn’t like something about Tamers, just to make sure the image of him as a perfect writer was maintained). Turns out, as per his own admission on the infamous blog, while he wasn’t the one who initially had the idea of putting Ryou in, the part that rubbed the fanbase the wrong way -- that he came in as an accomplished senior who was better than everyone and played up by everyone in the cast -- was unabashedly his idea (he apparently was enamored with the idea of having someone like Tuttle from the movie Brazil). Again, this is a weird scenario where even Konaka himself has been more humble about this issue than the fanbase’s perception of him; he fully admitted whenever he had trouble writing certain parts. For instance, he doesn’t actually like writing about alternate worlds, felt they were out of his comfort zone, and only wrote in the Digital World because the franchise needs one; he’d stated that if he’d had his way, the Digital World arc wouldn’t have come in as early as it did, which might be a pretty shocking statement for a Digimon fan to hear.

If you want even more specifics, here are some extremely major parts of the series that Konaka was not actually the one behind:

The character backgrounds. Konaka stated on his blog that he wasn’t interested in going too much into character backstories because he felt it was too plot-limiting to say that a character is the way they are thanks to something in their past or background (basically, he cares more about plot than character for the most part), and that he’s also not into worldbuilding. Certain things like Ruki going to a girls’ school were supplied by Seki, who infamously loves worldbuilding, family backgrounds, and character settings.

Certain nuances of Ruki’s character, especially the part where she’s pigeonholed into uncomfortable places due to being a girl, were informed by Yoshimura Genki, writer from Adventure and one of the head writers of 02 (who eventually would go on to create an entire career out of feminist cinema).

According to the posts on his blog, Impmon’s character arc didn’t have much input from Konaka himself and was largely written in by Maekawa Atsushi (also a writer from Adventure and one of the head writers of 02).

The whole concept of Yamaki being redeemable in the first place was something Konaka didn’t originally plan for; he’d initially intended to make him a straightforward antagonist, but, of all things, his Christmas song, combined with the input of the other writers (especially Maekawa) humanizing him, led to the development where Yamaki eventually changed sides and became sympathetic. (This makes Konaka’s recent stunt revolving around Yamaki a bit painfully ironic.)

The director, Kaizawa Yukio, was deliberately picked because he didn’t have experience on the prior series, for the sake of changing things up, and he spent Tamers as a period of studying what Digimon should be like. Based on what he’s hinted, it seems Konaka's writing style and choices were able to have as much influence as they did because Kaizawa approved of them -- that is to say, Konaka’s detailed imagery and descriptions were extensive enough that Kaizawa could go “sure, let’s go with that.” But in the end, nothing Konaka did would have gone through unless Kaizawa and Seki (among many others) didn’t also approve of it or provide input. Moreover, Kakudou Hiroyuki (director of Adventure and 02) has also been stated many times to have been a valuable consultant on invoking Digimon so that the new staff could understand what to aim for and how to get the right feel (and also assisted with providing stuff for the mythos, such as the Devas). Nevertheless, Kaizawa also seems to have had his own strong opinions and input on the story; he especially seems to get passionate when it comes to the topic of making the story something the kids watching it could relate to and imagine. (He would eventually go on to direct Frontier and Hunters, along with several episodes of the Adventure: reboot.)

So in other words, looking at this, a lot of these things that people emotionally connected to and loved about Tamers are things that literally were not his personal creation, and were largely contributed by the other writers! Of course, Konaka’s “creator thumbprint” is very obvious -- he was the head writer, after all -- and all of this had to go through his own vetting to make sure he personally liked it as well -- but nevertheless, you can see that this very much was a collaborative effort from head to toe, with him being very open about this fact himself. Insisting on making sure that this fact is well-known isn’t just a coping mechanism to try and remove his presence in the series, but rather a desire to get people to seriously stop giving him credit that really should be going to others (especially since, again, even he himself was very diligent about assigning that credit).

In the end, I’ll leave you with another thing to keep in mind: Konaka doesn’t get paid anymore for Tamers work (unless they make something new like the DigiFes thing), so continuing to buy Tamers merch and supporting the series through fanart and such will probably end up going more towards the Digimon IP as a whole. Basically, if we’re just talking about Tamers specifically, what degree this is going to matter is only really relevant to the content in the original series, which is now twenty years old and remains unchanged. By Konaka’s own admission, he wasn’t into all of these conspiracy theories until 2010 at the earliest, so while it’s understandable to be a bit wary about the themes in Tamers having traces of the base sentiment, the original series itself does not seem to be an outlet for alt-right propaganda, and it’s probably forcing it a bit much to read into it that way. Konaka’s also repeatedly insisted that all of his attempts at a Tamers sequel have been rejected and that he’s been doing increasingly strange swerves to get around members of the original cast not entirely being available, and the Japanese audience has turned out to not be very fond of the contents of the 2018 drama CD and the stage reading for reasons entirely separate from the politics, so it’s also unlikely we’ll be getting a Tamers sequel from him or something in the near future.

So -- at least for the time being -- what’s done with him is done, and the remaining question is how all of us feel about Tamers. I think everyone will have differing feelings on it, and that’s perfectly understandable. Personally, given everything I just said above, I’m going to continue treating it as a series very important to me, and one that many people (including, as it seems, a very different Konaka from twenty years ago) worked on with a lot of effort and love, although you may see me getting a bit more willing to be critical about the series and its themes thanks to my concerns about some of the sentiments in it and what they imply. I also completely understand that there are probably people whose associations are going to be much more hurt and who will have a much harder time seeing the series the same way ever again, and I think that’s reasonable as well. But at the very least, going forward, I hope all of us can understand the depth of this situation, give credit where it’s due, and not force credit where it’s not due.

[turnstileskyline]

Muppet asks (answer whatever you feel like, I just wrote a bunch because I love the Muppets and I get to don’t talk about them enough lol)

Top 5 favorite Fraggle Rock episodes?

What classic would you adapt into a Muppet version and why?

Top 5 original Muppet Show guests?

Favorite Muppet costume/outfit?

What is your Watsonian explanation for why Gonzo loves chickens?

Favorite non-speaking background creature? (ex: the little guys from Fraggle Rock that look kinda like if flies were mammals)

Which Muppet movie do you think has the best original songs/works best as a musical?

And this last one isn’t even a question, just remember when Miss Piggy crashes through a plate glass window on her motorcycle in The Great Muppet Caper?

OO HOO i can always count on you to come thru with muppet asks!! these are really good ones too thank you

top 5 fraggle rock episodes (in no order)

wembley and the gorgs. always a classic.

sidebottom blues

scared silly

mokeys funeral is incredible for the sole reason of mokey accidentally faking her own death

sprokets big adventure

what classic would you adapt into a muppet version and why?

hear me out. the muppet of dorian gray. lord henry and basil are both humans. as is dorian . until he wishes his soul into the portrait . upon doing so there is a comedically obvious bolt of lightning (its not storming) and where human dorian was is now a muppet. the portrait remains of a human. neither basil nor lord henry addresses this. dorian seems unaware. none of the muppets really have the vibe to play dorian except miss piggy for some reason. as for why? well i love making things that are confusing

top five original muppet show guests (also in no order)

joel grey

harry belafonte

alice cooper

lena horne

liza minelli

favorite muppet costume/outfit

so piggy and gonzo always have LOOKS but a favorite of mine is always gonna be janice in muppet christmas carol its so cute and good

your explanation for gonzo loving chickens

if you want the actual answer dave goelz improvised a line in the muppet show where gonzo tells a chicken (not muppet chicken, an actual chicken) that they have nice legs and it just kind of stuck as a character quirk!

which muppet movie do you think has the best original songs/works best as a musical?

so i personally think that any muppet musical would have to be an original one with original songs, however i think that the best muppet soundtracks are emmett otters jugband christmas, the muppet movie, and muppet christmas carol :)

and miss piggy and her motorcycle are glorious

[neoheros]

haikyuu boys as domestic boyfriend things feat. akaashi + kuroo + iwaizumi + tsukishima

akaashi keiji

i’ve said it once and i’ll say it as much as i can !!! he is the only boyfriend !! Ever !!!!

as we all know akaashi is pretty observant on a lot of things seeing that he’s their team’s vice captain and setter, he gotta be

he’s used to being keen on the people around him especially when it comes to his best friend, bokuto so it’s kinda a given that he’s used to it

when you and him started dating, he was almost always pretty nervous when it came to you cause you always used to intimidate him

and now that you’re someone he’s in a romantic relationship with, he figured it’s his job to make sure he knows what you want

basically he’s an over attentive babie

he never really saw anything in your habits worth noting other than the fact that you had a knack for taking home his hoodies and not returning them

you, showing up to school with his hoodie on: hey akaashi let’s exchange hoodies i like the one you have on right now

akaashi: but it looks exactly the same..?

you: yea but this doesn’t smell like you anymore 🥺👉👈

he’s so !!! soft !!!!!

he really lets you take home every hoodie you borrow from him for that sole reason and he insisted that he just sprays your clothes with his cologne but you’re like “nah i like it when the smell comes from you”

i 1000% guarantee that this guy smells like fresh cologne but not the strong ones like axe cause he knows what’s up

one time he came over to your place and there’s just a whole ass drawer labeled ‘akaashi’s’ and it has about 3 or 4 of his sweatshirts

you do it so often that it escalates to when you’re coming over you purposefully don’t bring any spare clothes just so you can wear his

akaashi: hey are you ready for bed?

you, in his oversized shirt and jersey shorts:

akaashi, on the verge of tears: 🥺

tsukishima kei

some would argue that he’s a bad boyfriend cause of his sharp tongue and stingy attitude

and you know what !!! if you think that, i will fight you !!!! on sight !!!!

he’s a precious boy and he may come off as a bit harsh and too much sometimes but when it comes to people that means a lot to him he’s just the absolute best !!

like akaashi, he’s pretty observant to his friends and teammates so it’s only a given that he’s that keen when it comes to you too

especially when it involves food

you do this thing where whenever the two of you go out to eat, no matter what he orders, you take a bite out of it

at first he was kinda thrown off guard but it didn’t really bother him that much since it was literally just food

he thinks it’s cute at how eager you can be when it comes to what to order moreso when you guys come to a place you haven’t eaten at before

you: maybe i should order their cinnamon coated churros

tsukki: no you don’t like cinnamon

but he’s not trying to dictate you on what to eat, he just knows !!!

he’s seen you react to all kinds of food and by now he’s kinda better than you at knowing what you like

also !! when he’s ordering food, he completely takes you into account as well !!

he wants pizza with full stuffed crusts but he remembers that eating too much bread makes you feel insecure ? nuh uh honey !! he’s not getting that !!

you: hey i think i’m gonna get their new dairy queen flavor, it looks good !!! 🥺

tsukki, knowing fully well that you won’t like it: yeah? i think i’m gonna get your usual, i wanna see why you like it so much

kuroo tetsuro

oh boy

one thing to know about kuroo when he’s in a relationship is that he’s a real fricken !!! SIMP !!!!!

simp in the sense that he’s so whipped and just borderline adores you bro i’m not even kidding

he’s a simp but only for you !!!

that includes walking you home everyday even if that meant you have to wait up until his practices end and carrying your books for you even when you insist that they’re not heavy at all

he also likes the way you smell a lot !!!

that’s why he loves giving you hugs especially when they’re from behind and he buries his head on the crook of your neck and just takes a whiff

like it’s super weird, but to him you just smell so fresh and good that for christmas you gave him a bottle of the perfume you wear to school everyday as a joke and he liked it

the first time you invited him over to chill at your house was on a thursday evening to study together and that’s when he met your mom

he loved your mom !!!

she was so cool with having him around that before you knew it your small study date turned into watching movies with him and your mother in the living room

he kept making jokes in between that you were sure your mom wouldn’t allow that that was the last time he came over

so short afternoons turned into spending the day together at your house or sneaking in through the window to hang out

he got so used to always being there every thursday for movie night that it wasn’t even a surprise to anyone that your mom trusted him enough to be alone with you

kuroo, at your house: hey! is it okay if i hang out here for a while? we don’t have practice haha

your mom: oh but y/n won’t be getting home for another hour..?

kuroo, already taking off his shoes: oh that’s totally fine

your mom joked about getting him his own key since he’s practically there all the time

you were so soft with that idea but it was a bit too far so all three of you just settled on getting kuroo his own separate drawer in your cabinet 🥺

kuroo: you just want more of my clothes to wear

you: that’s not true

kuroo: are you lying?

you: through my teeth ❤️

oh and also if you suddenly see kuroo arrive without warning, there’s absolutely no use in being shocked since he does that a lot these days

he’s also really chill with waiting out on your porch when neither you and your mom are at home and one time you were greeted with an asleep kuroo leaning against one of your pillars in the cold

your mom: aight we’re getting him a key

iwaizumi hajime

here are tips on how to get your boyfriend to stop looking at you like he’s ruthlessly shading you on his twitter account on a daily ❤️

alright now that all iwa stans are here !!!

i’m joking so anyways

i have this headcanon that iwa is just really punctual to everything because he got used to oikawa always being late so he started showing up as early as he can so he could stand as a proxy

it’s all really soft and his intentions are really kind but it starts being a bother when he’s TOO on time, yk?

ever since the two of you started dating he’s insisted on driving you to school everyday

at the time you were really 🥺 cause bro imagine iwa knocking at your door first thing in the morning with a hoodie on and an extra sweatshirt for you to wear cause it’s super cold

but then you realize that when he said he’ll pick you up at 7 in the morning he was actually being serious and not just making a joke because holy crap dude did you say 7 ???

you, asleep:

iwa, texting you: if you’re still in bed, i’m gonna go in there and drag you to school in your pajamas ❤️

but that’s ok because your mom insists that he comes inside for breakfast while he waits for you to get ready

that’s when you learn that since he got so used to arriving early to open up the gym he rarely eats in the morning

you were like HUH ?????

it threw you off that this man didn’t eat breakfast because homeboy had the body of a greek god let’s be honest and he was just there walking around not getting proper nutrition ??????

so when you get in his car, you hand him a protein bar and a bottle of yakult before he drove off

iwa: oh no thank you

you: it’s cute that you think i was offering

so he reluctantly eats the bar and he’s still off about drinking the yakult cause he’s never had it before but when he did !!!

he finished it in one drink, and you swear it looked like he had stars in his eyes

frankly, you took all the credit for that and starting from that day on you made sure to always stock up on your protein bars and yakult so you could ensure that your boyfriend stayed healthy

iwa: oh there are chocolate chips on this one 🥺

you, fastening your seatbelt: yeah, i’m not an idiot. i know how to trick my boyfriend into eating his protein !!!

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Soft hc that Wally can’t go home once he comes out. So he had nowhere to spend holidays until dick invited him over to the manor. But wallys super hesitant cuz he thinks Bruce wouldn’t let him. Cuz. Meta. But Bruce is surprisingly welcoming.

awwwwww babe that’s adorable.

i mean realistically if this happened barry and iris would take him in in a heartbeat. but let’s imagine, for a second, that wally either came out or got outed very near the holidays. and he knows barry and iris love him, he knows that they would love for him to spend the holidays. but he can’t help that irrational voice in his head whispering your parents tossed you out. your own parents don’t want you, what makes you think your aunt and uncle will?

he’s panicking and scared to go to his aunt and uncle, so he does the next instinctual thing: he calls dick. dick tells him, with no room for interpretation or hesitation, to get to the manor right. now. and you don’t argue with robin when he uses that tone of voice, so wally goes to the manor.

but the thing is, dick’s treating this like another fun sleepover for the two of them. another night where the fly across the rooftops in masks, or play around on the training equipment while dick teaches him things, or they watch a movie inside a blanket fort and wally tries so hard to keep his eyes on the screen and not on dick. and it feels like another one of those nights, but it’s not. 

wally’s parents kicked him out. he’s still not sure if he can go back. his aunt iris and uncle barry don’t know. and now he’s intruding on the wayne family holidays. the holidays aren’t just a night or a weekend, dick’s making plans for wally to stay for two weeks at least. dick wants wally to stay in batman’s city, at batman’s house, for two weeks. bruce didn’t agree to this, bruce didn’t want him. wally already knows batman’s views on metas, and wally is one of the most powerful kind. wally also doesn’t know bruce’s stance on,,,,on people like him (christ, he can’t even bring himself to say it, his father’s harsh, spitted words ringing in his ears) but bruce is old money and high class, and wally knows people like that tend to be traditional. wally’s just waiting for the moment bruce tosses him out on the snow like his parents.

except that never happens. bruce doesn’t actually smile at him, but his face is gentle during dinner when dick chatters on and wally works up the courage to say a couple words. he doesn’t belittle wally at all when wally stays quiet while bruce, dick, and alfred sing maoz tzur, and even lets wally help decorate the christmas tree, a blown up one decorated solely with gold ornaments just like yiye the firebreather at the circus did with her mini tree. alfred doesn’t seem to mind when wally chimes in singing the christmas carols alfred is humming. 

wally dashes back to central, sneaking into his house to get his present for dick, and leaves his presents for his aunt and uncle under their tree. (he left his parents’ presents in his closet. but they know where he hides them every year, so maybe they’ll see them and open them.) he didn’t expect to wake up to anything on christmas morning, but a couple of his favourites are on the feast alfred laid out for breakfast, and there’s a present under the tree with his name on it. he sees batman smile, sees batman laugh at the gifts dick gave him, and he knows bruce is a good father, but it’s another thing entirely to see bruce wrap dick up in a hug.

and near the end, when he’s made up his mind to go to uncle barry and aunt iris and tell them what happened, wally works up the courage to go up to bruce and thank him for having wally over for the holidays. because wally knows how he’s a meta, and how having a speedster to feed must have inconvenienced them, and how he’s sorry if he interrupted any important batman stuff. bruce just fixes him with a piercing gaze and says “i don’t like metas in my city. you know this, and flash and kid flash must adhere to that rule. but wally west is always welcome at wayne manor.”

,,,,,,,,,,hmmmm. wally’s kinda out of character in this. i kinda got carried away and this isn’t very realistic. 

oh well. this is cute and i like it.