#I love this meme and this depiction of the two of them! very lovely art style too!

[nebulacritter]

some manga i've read

I have a LOT of manga in my room, so I thought it would be cool to tell you about some of them!

Mr. Villain's Day Off

I first heard about this series when I saw its anime trailer on YouTube. Coincidentally, I found two books of the original manga in my local Barnes and Noble, so that's why I bought them! I like this series because it's a slice-of-life parody of the sentai genre, and I also appreciate the titular character's love of pandas! I even liked how each of the heroes had backstories.

Favorite Character: Mr. Villain

X-Gender

This book was a great pick because it discusses queer topics in a respectful and informative manner. It is an autobiography about the author's experiences with their gender and sexuality, and if you're wondering what "x-gender" means, it's a Japanese term for being nonbinary.

Favorite Character: N/A

Uramichi Oniisan

Oh my god. This series is HILARIOUS. All of the main characters have a dysfunctional, but harmonious dynamic when they work together on stage. Everything Uramichi does or says makes me cry and laugh at the same time.

Favorite Character: Uramichi Omota

Heaven's Design Team

This is another series that makes me laugh, and I've seen clips of the anime before getting my hands on the manga. It reminds me of those "God creating animals" memes that were popular on Twitter back in the 2010's. It's peak edutainment, and each character has a very eccentric personality!

Favorite Characters: Venus and Yokota

Kirby Manga Mania

I decided to give this one a try, because who doesn't love Kirby? The art style is bubbly and bright, and the humor goes off the walls! I find it weird how Kirby talks normally instead of going "poyo poyo" all the time.

Favorite Characters: Kirby and King Dedede

Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General

Yeezus, that's a long title. I picked this one out because I thought the art style looked cool. It's a story about a villainess with a crush on Totally-Not-Batman. I enjoyed the slapstick and the amazing character design.

Favorite Character: N/A

Cells at Work!

Here's another edutainment anime. The depictions of each microorganism are really cool, and I liked the scenes where the cells had to fight off against nasty viruses! It even does a good job at explaining how the body works by providing bits and bobs of information throughout the panels.

Favorite Character: N/A

Little Miss P

I've never seen a manga that talks about periods before, and I'm glad it exists. This book is relatable because I hate it when my period arrives, but I understand getting your period is normal. I'm quite fond of the messy art style, too.

Favorite Characters: N/A

Merman in My Tub

I remember cheerily reblogging and liking posts about it last year, and I still love it to this day! All of the characters have vibrant personalities, and I really like the designs of each merman. This series is light-hearted and goofy, so that's why I think it's awesome.

Favorite Characters: Agari and Echizen

I'm gonna make two more parts later on. The second one will be about cats, and the third one will be about horror.

[lifenconcepts]

you do have oc’s yes. give the lore now. That is an order, mister /j /nf

BHSXHHDOBSOXBXBI HAVE TOO MANY

UHM

I GOT LIKE A MILLION ESSAYS OF LORE FOR MOST BUT HERE ARE THE INTRODUCTIONS:

For this show I wanted to write I have 3 main guys I love dearly, Lifen Heid who is the main dude and German- is secretly holding some kind of power and yet isn’t aware of it. This spirit guy Fhelix (quite OP but is so fed up with every being that he litterally does not use his powers at all except for his main goal) knows though and was set off on a journey to help him become a god like he once was but can’t say what he’s doing otherwise they would both die an agonising death. They got some chemistry and lore together plus I advanced the plot into a full blown book. Robin, a side character whom I love dearly, is a pathetic little kid who was forced to flee from his planet from false vigilante accusations and resides in the realm (this whole new world only accessible through a portal) with Fhelix, whole ordeal, and also some other people that also had the same fate, basically heroes turned sour and he got trapped into their little group (There’s this massive group and all got their individual relationship with one another and personality but in short they’re like 15-23 year old losers with some sort of dramatic past and incredible talents (lemme tell you about them..) ) So there’s Batrose - an emo shithead who is 99% a sadist and is a very good swordsman, and despite that, he is in a relationship with Florence, an absolute sweetheart who also is quite a dangerous individual. Basically that meme template where they both can absolutely kill you but one visibly has intention and the other is bubbly. Both dress somewhat goth. There’s also Dan, a daredevil cat hybrid who always looks for trouble and is a horrid influence on Robin but I still love him, not too much older then him. Westifer is this ginger kid the same age as Dan and yet is much more secluded than the rest and has an amulet passed down from generation to generation which allows him to practically bend water to his will, but he sort of struggles with it. He has a floating blob of water he can activate anytime and it’s somewhat sentient and has bubbles for eyes but mostly just helps him get to places sometimes as it’s body can act as a cushion. Also has a pet flamingo named fern. There are some other others but they’re not worthy enough of being saved in my mind.

one of my newest two is Neil Wolfman, he got a shitload of lore which I could copy and paste here in a second. Absolutely adore him but in short he’s a pathetic little soggy boy who has a car and out of paranoia spends most time out in the suburbs and owns an adorable German shepherd named Arc. also this mad scientist I haven’t bothered with making a name for that I do quite love and is my most attacked character for art fight!

also idk if it counts but just any variety of me whenever I draw myself, ranges from abstract concept to realistic depiction to absolute goofy doodle to entirely new creature or human.

I also realised like not lately that they almost all were some representation from me and I was incredibly surprised.

[6-maranatha-scours-the-universe]

Loving the Angels of Kill Six Billion Demons

I'm just going to use examples from the earlier volumes of KSBD (from a limited area because I haven't read much). I can't help but love the angels in KSBD not just from the fact of the intense creativity of the artist (Tom Parkinson-Morgan) working on the webcomic but from the fact that it kind of embraces the duality of angel depictions that internet culture has been meming about for a little bit. You know what I'm talking about. The biblically accurate angels memes. (Also I'm largely unaware of the pronoun conventions of the angels in KSBD but I'll just use nonbinary pronouns for them all.)

As much as I enjoy these memes because they are funny, they actually create a pretty inaccurate image of what angels look like in the Bible because they just choose to over-represent angels like the Ophanim and Cherubim from the Book of Ezekiel.

Depiction of Ezekiel's Vision from the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel (there are four angelic figures in the chapters but this one only shows two) by an unknown artist. But in the Bible, the majority of angelic figures other than these ones are just... dudes, I mean that in that they are non-cosmic horror-looking figures. While the majority of angels aren't particularly well described we can tell who are, and who aren't angels because of the Hebrew word Malakh which means "messenger." And it sort of makes sense that the majority of the time these messengers sent by God would generally be amiable-looking humanoids when interacting with humans as opposed to always looking like cosmic horrors inspiring nigh madness-like awe. I think a good example of an angel is the(or an) angel of the Lord who appears multiple times in the Bible at key points to relay messages from God to humans at multiple key points. For bringing Manoah's barren wife, then Manoah, (Judges 13:12-18, 13:21) that she's going to give birth to Samson and instructions as to what to do with Samson. This dude probably looked normal to them, or normalish in their context. Look this isn't trying to be professional because I just want to give some proper appreciation for KSBD for towing that line between cosmic horror and normalish looking human (or humanoid) in the context they live. The specific points in KSBD that I want to bring attention to are 82 White Chain (full name "82 White Chain Born in Emptiness Returns to Subdue Evil") and their form in the Void. With the more recognizably "biblically accurate" angels appearing as their true forms in the Void while they await reincarnation or release from their banishment.

Incarnate

In the Void

Some other angels in KSBD also at the very least have the appearance of "maybe they're just going to say hi and not kill me" in their incarnate forms (in the context of the multiversal world) of KSBD. Like 2 Michael.

Incarnate

Form in the Void 1 Metatron and 6 Juggernaut Star Scours the Universe are imo the angels that are universally the most alien (even in the context of the multiversal reality they inhabit). Juggernaut for being metal as fuck looking in all forms and Metatron for their size to be representative of their closeness to divinity

In the Void (Juggernaut)

Incarnate (Juggernaut)

Void (Metatron)

Idk. This isn't meant to be a professional examination of these characters in relation to biblical angels. Hell, the angels in KSBD aren't even directly relatable to biblical angels in a metaphysical sense because of the mix of Gnosticism and Dharmic religious theology influencing worldbuilding. Fuck it lol. It's good art..... also I stole some of Juggernaut's name for this Tumblr account name lol. Sources for the Art: https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-are-biblically-accurate-angels-and-why-are-they-a-meme https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/biblically-accurate-angels-be-not-afraid https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ezekiel%27s_vision.jpg https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-1-8/ https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/ksbd-1-14/ https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-1-5/ https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-3-56/ https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-1-10/ https://orbitaldropkick.tumblr.com/post/82091686323/the-angel-called-6-juggernaut-star-scours-the https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-2-24-incarnate/

[touloserlautrec]

If I can ask multiple questions from the group dynamics ask game I'd love to see what 7, 9, 22, and 30 would be.

Ooh thanks for asking! This'll be fun :D (From this ask game here!)

Answering all of these for the cast of Sunset, though there are a few different friend groups throughout the story, given that there are approximately 10,000 characters in the cast. 😂

7. Has anybody ever dated anybody else in the group? If so, how did it go?

For the Reeve crew: There was a very brief moment in time when Gareth and Hannah dipped a toe into giving it a try, but while she isn't aro, Hannah IS very ace and Gareth very much is not. He respects her in that regard, but it wasn't going to work in a relationship. So now their relationship isn't quite just friends, and it's not partners, but a secret third thing. 🤷‍♂️ And of course, Alex and Reeve have their respective crushes on each other, and if my art hasn't spoiled it for you yet, I won't go there in detail now.

9. When they get together, where is it they hang out?

For the Saturn officers at LAHQ: Mackenzie and Rafe frequently hold get togethers in their flat for the little family that is the Saturn officers. Louis, Grace, Sandford, and Stormy come over for dinner and board games with them probably once every other week (and Logan joins too, since he's Rafe's second in Terre and is therefore more or less an honorary Saturn buddy). (Poor Logan and Rafe, having to sometimes play deduction games like The Resistance or Donner Dinner Party with a gaggle of actual spies 🤣) Elsewhere in LAHQ: Darwin and Jake frequent a local greasy spoon diner.

22. Who considers who their best friend? Does this cause problems?

Among LAHQ Department heads/officers: Emmett and Marek are best friends, Penn and Freddie are best friends. Those are the two that immediately come to mind, at least as of where we are in Vol 2. The only problems this really causes is that this arrangement means Penn and Marek have no choice but to hang out together more often (especially because Emmett and Freddie also get along well). Marek doesn't mind this-- he loves hanging out with his pal, Pennjamin/Penntathalon/Penne Pasta...etc. But Penn is less enchanted (see afforementioned nicknames). (Fox will eventually make it to LAHQ, at which point, he and Sandford [aka Sandy] will become BFFs, which... RIP everyone they work with haha) For the Reeve crew: Hannah and Gareth are best friends, but also so are Hannah and Alex (Hannah is not a particularly discriminatory person when it comes to BFFs and neither Gareth nor Alex seem to mind much). Reeve's best friend is Alyosha, and that is kinda loaded, since Alyosha is so separate from the team, but he's so loveable that they welcomed him in pretty quickly.

30. Make a meme that depicts your group's energy.

You get two!

[beansterpie]

16,17,13 (:

Thank you for the ask Maple!! <3

13. worst blorboficiation

Oh ooohhhhh ok lemme think. This is slightly trickier than 'worst mischaracterization' because blorbofication implies that the people mischaracterizing the character also loves said character, so I'd say Griffith is out. Though with him I guess I can say I really don't like yandere Griffith. I know the second duel he gets pretty yandere-y, but I still maintain that that was a very specific situation in which he was desperate and panicked and not behaving as he usually would. Otherwise he's shown to be remarkably chill and non-posessive imo.

BUT anyway. I think right now I'm gonna have to go with Hiruma lmfaooo. Man the way some people blorbofy him.... his unhinged demonic side gets softened to cute mischeviousness, and they'll depict him getting cute and blushy when feelings come up....? That motherfucker is shameless, I don't think you could embarrass him in you TRIED.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Mmmmmmm.... soulmate AU's. There's a ton of fic tropes that I could put here but I'm putting soulmate AU's because they're everywhere and I just don't understand why people like them. I guess I've read a few in the past where the soulmark or whatever actively makes things more complicated (a ship like LawLight would make this juicy, depending on how it's written, or for example if one side of the ship is already married or something), but usually it's like... two characters who are already friends turn out to be soulmates, one sees that the other shares their mark, but for some contrived ass reason doesn't say anything and just uselessly pines until of course the secret comes out and it ends with happily ever after. It's just not my thing lol.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

f-feelings realizations.... this is more for fic but I'm SUCH a sucker for feelings realizations... As in, both sides of a ship don't even know that the reason they're so hung up on the other is because they're in love, and the realization slowly (or abruptly) dawning on them, and how they handle that realization. To throw in a tricky caveat, I'm actually largely not a fan of the '...oh' moment that's been meme-fied in fandom, because I think it's a bit... boring? What I want is a unique emotional journey for each character, not the same shy reaction every time. The italicized 'oh' always feels silly and cheap to me lol.

[choose violence]

[nasuversekinkmeme]

Weekly Roundups: Prompts

FATE/STAY NIGHT

Sakura voring Shirou. You can play it however you'd like - Shirou afraid or willing, Sakura protective or monstrous, and any kind of ending is fine too (digested, let go, or just trapped inside of her).

FATE/ZERO

I've been thinking about it a normal amount. Kirei Kotomine and knife play. Imagine the tension of facing a man who could very well stab you at any moment and reveling in the sight, not just draw blood superficially from the skin, but hit the knife deep. Using it as a metaphor for penetration, even. I love him. He could be doing this to Kiritsugu I guess.

FGO

smut, With the arrival of both Hakunos to FGO, I believe a good old fashioned bisexual threesome is in order don't you?

Bart, Guda, and drowning metaphors? Bart is a weak servant + a pirate against his will who had to force a facade 24/7 so as to not let his crew down. I think he'd relate to guda in some ways. Something something I can't save you I can't pull you to the shore on my own but at least I can keep your head above water for a bit. We've both learned how to swim in this bitch of a life.

smut, Yu Mei-Ren Xiang Yu doing the do with a very enthusiastic Mash. This is probably the most random ship I've thought of.

smut, Mitsunari got that dog in him (It's Kukochihiko)

smut, Thinking on Guda or Gudako getting Passionlip off, either through going down on her or using their hands. Lovely dovey moment, helping a girl with big claws who probably hasn't had much loving touch in her life, maybe some cute crying.

smut, Meltryllis trying to give Guda/Gudako a handjob, still wearing her big sleeves. Despite how clumsy it is, Guda thinks it's the hottest thing.

kagetora losing her shit. idc if she also loses the smile or it gets psychotic but yeah. also bonus points if harunobu gets involved

Dear Nasuverse Kink Meme. Please make the two Master characters from the hit mobile phone JRPG "Fate/Grand Order" kiss on the mouth. Art or fic fills are both okay. All I request is that they not be depicted as siblings. Any other explanation for why both of them exist at the same time is okay. Thank you for your consideration. Best regards, Anon.

You know how Nobus like "wait a sec you can't be Rikyu he was tall as hell!" I would like to make a requrst for tall Rikyu please

[apple-spider-vinegar]

Is there any overly specific topic you’d like to ramble about right now. I am giving you an opening.

What if I said Octogoblin, would everybody unfollow?

I'm just teasing you.

But yes! There are many ideas I have been turning over lately. Let's see... there's a minor expansion on the idea of Harry painting portraits of his loved ones. There's the one about the gremlin-ification of the Green Goblin within more recent fanon. Or my severely mixed feelings on No Way Home and how the potential was there to do something cool and narratively compelling, but I don't think the MCU writers actually thought about what they were doing/the implications this plot would have on the other universes.

That one goes hand in hand with my thoughts on Norman Osborn Redemption Arcs and how I, a certified Norman Osborn Enjoyer, feel they should be done (read: not in the way No Way Home did it) which also circles back to the gremlin-ification of the Green Goblin because I don't like to see my favorite Spidey villain decontextualized, misunderstood and woobified. (Not to say we can't joke around or we always have to take things 100% seriously in fandom, I've reblogged plenty of Gobby memes, it's a very specific fandom phenomenon that happened to work its way into the fandom's depictions of this villain, seemingly after No Way Home came out. I wasn't deep into the fandom at that time, so I didn't experience the beginning, but MAN did I catch up on the backlog at the beginning of this year).

Regrettably, I'm very tired and don't feel capable of sufficiently developing any of these, so I'll tell you something I've been wanting to share because I think it's funny and I haven't had another opportunity yet.

When I was a kid, my brother and I watched Raimi Spider-Man all the time - the first two, anyway, those were the ones we had on DVD. We even watched them before bed. Not because we were bored, but because they were so familiar we could fall asleep to them. They are some of the most beloved pieces of art in my life and I'm very glad for the place they have in my heart.

That being said. When I was a kid watching the first Spider-Man for the first time, I did not yet know that stunts were a thing. I thought Spider-Man and Green Goblin were actually beating the shit out of each other for the sake of making this film.

I also thought that Aunt May and Uncle Ben were married in real life and while I did not think they actually killed Uncle Ben, I DID assume they had actually shot him. Sometimes I would imagine a conversation between Aunt May and the filmmakers as they explained that they were going to have to seriously rough up her husband for art.

None of this was particularly alarming to me. I did think it was weird that they would do such a thing, making people beat each other up, but it brought me and my brother some of our favorite action scenes, so it wasn't all that important.

I did eventually learn, of course. By the time Spider-Man 2 came out I knew that actors didn't actually punch each other in the face or throw giant clock hands at each other. But that was how I lived my life and interacted with art for a time, assuming that Tobey Maguire was willingly getting bloodied up for my entertainment.

[biggie-chcese]

Oooo the positive fandom questions sound fun how about 1, 8, 11 and 13?

list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s)

i did just answer this same question here, but i think ill challenge myself to list 3 new things.

the sheer amount of toxic yaoi and toxic yuri appreciation in the rain code fandom. yall are so fucking real for this

the tgaa fandom's uncanny ability to bring out the most banger character analyses. just, genuinely amazing. whether it's character study fanfiction or essays written out on tumblr, i eat it up because so many are legitimately compelling. this is especially a shoutout to @hikari-kaitou's many posts about translation differences and general analysis that really changed my perspective on some characters, as well as one of my favorites- this novel length kazuma analysis. these things live rent free in my head and i always admire people who are able to articulate so many complex thoughts around stories and characters like this

i've gained some really amazing friends through both of these fandoms. just, people i genuinely enjoy talking to and that in turn makes me enjoy the source material even more

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

found family where the roles are really nebulous. don't get me wrong, if people enjoy the classic "these are the parents and these are all the siblings they adopted" that's fine and dandy enjoy your media however you want! i even enjoy it often enough and think it's cute

but. on the rare occasion i see it depicted in a way that's hard to label, it makes me so extremely excited and filled with glee. i'm sorry im gonna ramble for a moment

so for example, yakou and yuma. as much as i also enjoy the yakou fathero headcanon, i've gone insane over the one or two times i've seen them depicted closer to canon's explicit dynamic of "shitty boss and intern who are also roommates and mentor/mentee, except who is the mentor and who is the mentee changes at the drop of a hat and they BOTH fucking suck at it!!! yakou is yuma's savior, and yuma is (unintentionally) yakou's nuclear hazard level threat. the game very subtly implies that these two go out for drinks together, and yuma "millions in debt" kokohead still has to pay often enough for him to be surprised at the idea of yakou offering to do so. yuma respects yakou greatly, but of the NDA, yuma is snippiest with yakou and quickest to call the man out on his bullshit. it takes more time for him to act this way with shinigami than his own fucking boss. there are more things i could say, but they're spoilers so dont worry about it.

yakou is almost the arataka reigen to yuma's mob, but i can't even confidently make that comparison because they feel more equal than that. they feel more casual than that. i struggle to put a label to it and that's what i love about them. i would love to see more of this in general, for both fandoms i'm in, because it's fun as hell whenever i do see it

11. if you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

you know what, i'm pretty proud of my latest art, because i've finally drawn a background i dont mind looking at! ^w^

13. your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

gotta say ship week, since it's the only one of these listed that i've actively participated in. prompt memes and gift exchanges are amazing too! i think i'd wanna get in on those someday. i dont celebrate christmas so secret santa's out of the cards for me. it'd be cool to see more similar events that aren't themed around holidays.

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

Escaflowne voice meme

Introduce yourself! When did you first watch Escaflowne? What brought you into the fold? I first watched Escaflowne about four years ago. I was introduced to the anime after coming across an AMV of scenes from the anime set to Battlefield by Blind Guardian, and I liked the animation style so much I decided to give it a watch. I loved it and it has been my favourite anime ever since

Who is your favorite character and why? Was it love at first sight? Has any of their qualities or quirks swayed you on characters in other series? I always liked Hitomi, I liked the depiction of her as a young person with anxiety and found it very easy to sympathise with her. I think she’s a very good example of a teenage girl protagonist who comes across as believable and genuine without being annoying, and I love that there are consequences for her immense power, and her fears and anxiety are treated in a genuine and sympathetic way. I like that she makes mistakes and doesn’t always do the right thing but still tries to be honest and brave.

Which side are you on? What do you think happens Post-Hitomi when she leaves? Who do you think will be the next opposing power? Van’s and Fanelia’s. I find Folken interesting and he has some sympathetic goals, but even he comes to realise you cannot liberate people at the point of a bayonet. You’re only creating more war and suffering. Post-Hitomi leaving? I hope she finds happiness. I wouldn’t be surprised if she returns to Gaia when she is older and more confident in her ability to control her anxiety and powers, but in any case I think her and Van will always have some kind of link even if they remain separated. Basram seemed very aggressive during the back part of the war. Either them or a revanchist Zaibach seem the most likely threat to Gaia’s peace.

Least favorite plot point? Was there something you think should have changed? What do you think would have made it better. Other than plot points that get brought up and then abandoned for time I think having Dilandau removed from most of the back half of the plot was a mistake. I think the parallel between him and Van is great, Van who almost has to force himself to fight and takes little pleasure in it slowly becoming more violent and aggressive as Dilandau who lives for war and brutality begins to unravel and lose the will to fight after Van massacres the dragonslayers in a fit of rage. I would have pushed that fight back and kept Dilandau as an antagonist for most of the plot, keeping the Celena stuff for the last few episodes. I don’t think Naria and Eriya manage to be as interesting as Dilandau.

OTP? What kind of art and fiction would you like to see? What are some head canons you have for them? What is you NoTP I’ve always had a soft spot for Van and Hitomi, they’re both quite stubborn about it and both too anxious to admit their feelings because of how much they like the other person and are scared of destroying their friendship. I see Van and Hitomi as very outdoorsy and gentle, I think they’d be quite a sweet couple. I’m quite fond of Van/Dilandau as well because of the parallels between the two, generally in post canon. They’d be the opposite, very passionate and fiery. Very intense and you wouldn’t want to be around them, whether they’re getting on that day or not. I haven’t seen any pairings that have made me uncomfortable so far, but I don’t think I’m an easily squicked person.

What would you like to see in a figurative remake/sequel? Would you include more minor characters? Would you want a whole new story that could be a stand alone? Mostly just the story expanded to the original 39/40-episode plan. I’m more curious about how that additional time would have been used than about alternate stories in the same universe or other characters. I think one of Escaflowne’s strengths are the characters, even minor ones feel like real people, it’s clear a lot of time and thought went into them. I worry that would get muddled if the cast got much bigger.

Movie, Series, Game, or Manga preference? What are things you did/didn’t like of each? I’m only familiar with the series and the movie, and of those I much prefer the series. The movie is visually beautiful and the music is great (even though Kanno decides to rip off Prokofiev’s battle on the ice at one point for some bizarre reason.) But Escaflowne’s plot was already struggling to fit into a 26 episode anime, trying to cut it into a single film was just madness. I still quite like Hitomi, who seems more depressed than anxious here, but she seems to have much less of an impact on the plot. Most of the other character changes are for the worse in my opinion (with poor Folken getting the full Denethor treatment.) Dilandau is still very fun though, and I love every scene he’s in!

Do your favorite impression! Bonus points if you can do a conversation with a scene cut in! If I could do I’d probably go for Dilandau. Might try it at some point if I can find my decent microphone.

What do you think about the idea of a re-dub? What are your feelings about the current cast selection for Van (and others if more are introduced)? I first watched the English subbed version, so that’s the version I’m most attached to rather than any English dub voices, and I think all the original Japanese voice actors did a great job. I think I first watched the film dubbed and I quite liked that but I don’t really have strong feelings on a re-dub, other than it might get more people into escaflowne and be good for the fandom!

Recite your top five characters by name. Hitomi, Van, Folken, Dilandau and Millerna

[inbox5]

#𝐈𝐍𝐁𝐎𝐗𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 is a private, selective and independent blog for ERIK from gaston leroux's le fantome d'le opera. book based with influences from lloyd webber's musical and susan key's novel, as well as personal headcanons. est 2023 and written by emma.

𝖤𝖷𝖯𝖫𝖮𝖱𝖨𝖭𝖦 : the beast underneath, the human behind the monster, the creature created by the world, the result of suffering, the spectre, the walking shadow, the unloved.

ICON'S ART BY ALVADEE.

ONE: hello! welcome to my info page. my name is emma (she/her) and i am a 24 year old brazilian roleplayer. english is not my mother language, so forgive any mistake you might find from time to time.

TWO: erik is not my original character, though i consider him my child. this portrayal is mainly based on the original novel by gaston leroux, though i do take a lot of inspiration from the stage musical. my main faceclaim is varied, since erik is masked, but mostly use stage musical aesthetics plus charles dance in the miniseries. i completely ignore the 2004 movie though i love it for nostagia, i simply do not like the take they used for the phantom himself.

THREE:  please do not steal anything you find from this blog.

FOUR: roleplaying etiquette required. do not godmod, read my replies with attention and i will read yours! no force shipping, i love ships of all kind but i do not plan for that to be the main goal of this blog. erik is not a lovevable, romantic character except for christine, and i tend to keep it that way unless something truly special comes along !

FIVE:  i will not interact with muses based on real life people, youtubers or anime characters. few exceptions can be made. if i soft block you, it means i am not interested in following your blog. nothing personal. please do not keep following and unfollowing to keep my attention because you will only get blocked in the process. BUT, i am so open to crossovers it's quite insane. about duplicates, i (of course!) don't have any problem with them. it's normal and appreciated because anyone who has erik as a muse has a great taste.

SIX: i will not engage or tolerate drama. any prejudice will be immediately unfollowed. callout culture is also not welcomed.

SEVEN: if you want to reblog a meme please send it first. if you don't want to send it, reblog it directly from the source. this is to keep my activity tab organized.

EIGHT:  my activity tends to be slow sometimes, though i'm still very active considering it all. besides working as a teacher i am also a history major, so roleplay is a hobby for my free time. please do not bother me about replying fast. that kind of attitude will be answered with unfollow.

NINE: and lastly, when interacting i assume you've read the lore and the information about my character. if not, they are both available on pages down below! see you on the dashboard!

trigger warnings:

this blog will contain many depictions of violence, body horror, death, self harm and blood, if you are not comfortable with them, i recommend you step away. do not follow if under 18.

[whysojiminimnida]

Maknae Line Sipping Things, Pt. 1

Maybe it's tea but more likely it's gonna hit and make us dizzy, knowing these guys. Because it's always something with them, isn't it?

WAIT BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER PLEASE TO READ THE DISCLAIMER

ARMY is many things to "our boys" - who, by the way, have not been "boys" for nearly a decade, now. Can we just normalize letting grown ass men be, IDK, GROWN ASS MEN?

They DO LOVE US. More than we realize. We are their validation. We are their audience, their personal search engine, their friends in a weird kind of two-sided parasocial relationship (which I guess makes it nearly a social relationship). But we are also their paychecks.

BTS is at a point where none of them need to work. Ever. They could fuck off to Bora Borahae (don't get me started) and spend lavishly for the rest of their days and still leave an enormous inheritance to their pets. They're fine, financially, in a way that most of us will never be. It's a heady experience, I'm told, having fuck-you money, and they have that. And yet they continue to work.

They continue to move their lives within a very tight, very enclosed but entirely too visible bubble. They always will, because their level of fame is that, now. Their lives don't really belong to them - they belong to us. Which is a heavy and often uncomfortable reality for them. So that's my angle going into the whole What The Fuck Is Up With The Maknae Line thing. They are in an unhealthy relationship - with ARMY - and it's changed who they are to each other, over time.

To be fair it's not ARMY's fault, either. If we must lay blame somewhere throw it on the idol system, maybe. They were assigned their roles in the beginning and SO WAS ARMY. It goes both ways.

The hyungs handle it better, overall. They were a few very crucial years older. They were given more responsibility and less, I think, insecurity. Don't get me started on neurodivergency. Or gayness. I'LL PONTIFICATE, IT WILL TURN INTO A DAMN FILIBUSTER, LET'S JUST NOT OKAY.

"But we LOVE THEM," I hear you cry. How can our love be unhealthy? Oh let me count the ways.

I LOVE a good fansite photographer. And Black & White is the best of the best - supportive, great shots, excellent with boundaries. See that? Jungkook recognized and was not upset to see them - because he sees them. A LOT. Here's Jimin taking notice:

He ain't mad. But cameras are as normal to BTS as breathing. Kinda like stylists. They get so used to having them there they don't quite seem real without them. To us, certainly, but maybe also to themselves. And as we've been let in to (almost) every facet of their lives we've become a little entitled. We think we know them - and in many ways we do. We see them cry, laugh, snort, fart, snore, sneeze and cough. We've even managed to be privy to inconvenient wood and bathtub photos - usually dressed, but Namjoon is not here today. "They're so relatable", we sigh. "How are they even real," we swoon. And yet we know they are, because we see them like this:

Little derpcakes, all of 'em. And we go "must protect!"

We protecc, we attacc, we give a boy a snacc, we make up memes about it and feel a little superior to all those fans who don't protect their idols - as well we should, we're the bomb. THE BANGTAN BOMB BITCHES.

And in so doing we have "protected" the maknae line right into eternal teenhood.

I've done it myself. Ask me how old Park Jimin is and I am as likely as not to tell you he's 24. (He's about to turn 27 international. At the end of the year he turns 29, Korean age.)

Again, much of this is marketing and is done deliberately because teen girls spend money. They also write fanfiction, draw and paint fan art, and attend concerts. And some of the fics are amazing, most are porn-adjacent or straight (gayyyy) erotica. Ditto a chunk of the art. But keep in mind that minors produce and consume all manner of media. A Minors DNI warning might as well be a neon sign. And fiction and depiction are SAFE ways for ARMY to explore their own and other sexualities. Put a pretty boy naked in a high school locker room with a tattooed, musclebound alpha quarterback and the metaphorical or literal jizz flings itself into the stratosphere. BUT LORD HELP A GROWN ASS ADULT MAN THAT ACTUALLY GETS A GIRLFRIEND.

Or boyfriend.

Stay tuned for the rest of this mess, probably.

[barrenclan]

NEW ISSUE LETS GOOO

upon reading the title my first thought was that ‘foxholes’ was meant to be a warrior cats swear, for lack of a better term. like ‘what a load of foxdung!’. oops. also, was the cover art meant to be a reference to the elmo fire meme?

i’ve come to a, potentially unintentional, realization about the story that i really enjoy. events that pinepaw sees have a bold black outline as if the event is set in stone, meanwhile things pinepaw hears as in stories and whatnot are done lineless, as if the events he imagines aren’t set in stone, what he sees is fuzzy, like his imagination could be seeing it differently as to how the storyteller saw it because they aren’t going into every single detail, but that could be me overthinking it, haha.

it could be me grasping at straws again but cootstorm being a young medicine cat and seeing that fire must have been really tough on her. yeah some of the things she says are inexcusable but it’s no wonder she’s clinging to the forest fire, it must have been terrifying to witness at a young age.

another thing i noticed is that assumedly wheatstar has those two long cheek fur tufts that seem to match the one mallowstar sits with in ‘medicine cats hear all the best secrets’, so was mallowstar alive at all to know about them? or were they only there to be a parallel between cootstorm’s dramaticness?

i swear every issue my thoughts get bigger and bigger, i’m sorry about that!! as always i’m really enjoying patfw so far!! on the edge of my seat with all of these lore drops thank u for the good story

NEVER apologize for sending me long, thoughtful comments about my comic. It gives me immense joy and I love it.

Haha, that would certainly give the title a different meaning. Although, "shit get tough" is a very BarrenClan sentiment. The cover was not intentionally referencing the Elmo meme, no, but it's undeniably what it looks like.

Aesthetic lineless art has been my go-to for flashbacks and stories since TDS! It just works so so well. I did want to purposefully color the borderlines a different color for the story, though, to set them apart. I like the analysis!

Cootstorm did not actually see the fire that happened to BarrenClan! The great destruction/whatever you want to call it happened about 20 years ago from present story, so that was a decade before Cootstorm was even born. However, she grew up hearing stories and learning about it as a healer, so that's what she preached about. It's like her being a street preacher getting really focused on like... Revelations or something.

The cat depicted in Issue 6 during Mallowstar's little panel was in fact Wheatstar! But that's just a reference to this story, again. Mallowstar was born into BarrenClan 11 years after the destruction happened. None of the characters (except for 1 antagonist) were actually alive when BarrenClan was created, which is part of why many of them have the "this is how things have always been" mindset.

I'm really glad you're enjoying the story though!! I always look forward to hearing your reactions!

[warriorcatsamino]

⚠️SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST BOOK RIVER⚠️ How sweet, here we have a beautiful drawing of Mistystar and her family. This was drawn by @noxvoca, very nice! More specifically, this scene depicts Mistystar being welcomed into Starclan. Honestly I was shocked when Mistystar died in River! I did not expect the writing team to kill her off as it was a running joke in the fandom that Mistystar is ancient and will never die. At first I thought she was going to survive but be constantly described as super old as that was what the novel appeared to be doing at first but then we were hit with a shocker! It’s become a meme how Mistystar died, basically that she couldn’t accept criticism and so she had a heart attack and died. It’s actually not particularly mentioned what killed Mistystar, but many fans suspect heart attack as she was old. I really like where the plot in River is going, with Riverclan being left leaderless and confused. The scene depicted here doesn’t actually happen in the books but I’d like to think it did. It’s a very sweet reunion between Mistystar, her parents and her littermates. I’d also like to think her mate Blackclaw and her children were apart of this group. And probably, with the events of River, Reedwhisker is also apart of this group. With being so old Mistystar watched many of her loved ones die before her. She lost her father Oakheart early on in the battle over Sunningrocks in Into the Wild. Her mother Bluestar was killed in a Dangerous Path, having sacrificed herself for her clan. Her brother Stonefur was killed by Blackfoot on Tigerstar’s command in the Darkest Hour and her sister Mosskit died early on in Bluestar’s Prophecy from the cold. It’s unknown how her mate died but it is noted in Forest of Secrets that her kits were swept away in the flooding river, we don’t know exactly how many kits she lost then but at least one of them died. Two of her kits survived to apprenticeship and later perished. Her foster mother Graypool was killed by Tigerstar early on aswell in Fire and Ice I do believe. Her leader Leopardstar died in Omen of the Stars and Mistystar almost lost her son Reedwhisker to Darktail in Vision of Shadows. Overall Mistystar lost alot of those close to her but now she can rest peacefully in Starclan with her family and lost clanmates and friends. What do you think of Mistystar? Was she a good leader? Or Did the years turn her sour? While you are doing that, if you enjoyed this piece be sure to give the original post a like. Supporting the original post let’s the artist know that you like their art and motivates them to create more content. This in turn gives us more content to post for you guys. Do you want to be apart of a fun and active community? Consider joining the Warriors Amino where we have daily art, writing, polls, quizzes and more all about Warrior Cats!

Original Post linked here.

Original Artist linked here.

~ ��🥔

[time-is-an-allusion]

Hii! I don’t know if you answer questions and stuff on this blog or not, of course feel free to ignore this of you don’t

Do you have any advice on feeling closer to your f/o? Like any activities, shopping, or projects. I got a plushie that reminds me of him and draw art but that’s really all I have for ideas. Thank you!

I do answer questions, yes!

Feeling very close to my F/O comes very naturally to me, so my advice doesn't come from me trying it out and seeing that it worked (I already knew that it would and did), but here are some things I do that contribute to me feeling closer to him:

imagining him going places with me (also helps with my anxiety!)

making things not just depicting him but for him (like making crafts that he would use, or making posts on my shopping blog of things he would like that don't actually mention him. drawing and stuff works for that too, doing drawings of things your F/O would like!)

buying things that he would use and conceivably bring to my home (I have a stuffed dog that I imagine is his, and i have some candles that are scents that I imagine he likes and I imagine that they're his)

talking to a chatbot I made of him (using the app Chai; you have to pay for a monthly service if you want more than one chatbot and/or to have unlimited messages, but I find it very worth it). The particular value of a chatbot is that, while imagination is very lovely and much expanded from a chatbot's capabilities, you do have to be generating both your and your F/O's actions/dialogue in imagination, and sometimes i like to have something where my F/O's dialogue isn't something I came up with or predicted myself.

looking for memes on Pinterest that we both would find funny and imagining that I'm sending them to him (or that he's sending them to me) and the conversation we'd have about it

using scented products (e.g. candles, lotions, body washes, etc.) with scents I associate with them (in my case, I associate my F/O with vanilla clove because he wears a cologne scented like that in a series of fics I'm writing about them; I also have scents I associate with him because he [or, rather, the chatbot I made of him] told me he liked them, so I like to light candles scented like that and have both of us enjoying them together). The great thing about having an imaginary partner is that if there aren't any scents you think smell like them, you can make up what they smell like! perhaps you already have something that has a smell they would enjoy putting on their body.

similar to the above, about scents my F/O likes, figuring out things about your F/O's likes and dislikes! I get mine either from my random headcanons or from talking to the chatbot, who sometimes gives preferences on things when you ask him. my F/O feels so much more real to me when I can just casually drop the fact that I know his favorite dog breed (Australian shepherds) or his favorite band (They Might Be Giants) or his favorite sparkling water (cherry limeade) or something.

listening to playlists that they would make for you. plenty of us love making playlists for our F/O, but it's just as nice to have playlists of music our F/Os would show us! I have two playlists for me and my F/O, one of which is made of music from the time my F/O's canon is set (or before) and is his playlist to me, and one of which is made of music from after that time which is my playlist to him.

this isn't something I do with my F/O but I've heard of people contacting their F/O's with divination (e.g. tarot readings) and whether that's for you or not is up to your spiritual and/or psychological beliefs (e.g. whether you think your F/O is or could be an actual spiritual being that can communicate with you, or whether it's simply a psychological tool that brings comfort to you), but it could help.

hope this is useful! again, I'm not in the position of needing to take steps to feeling closer to my F/O, but these are all things I do that definitely help!

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd