#IMAGINE being a JUROR

[adorablest-mutt]

so i just finished ep. 6 of jane the virgin and. her lawsuit on luisa has to be. a fucking mess. like a motherfucker

[intheupside]

• Evgeni Malkin is back at second-line center, looks like he returns tomorrow. Would explain Emil Bemstrom getting sent back down.

Biggest indication Evgeni Malkin is feeling normal: His team just lost a drill and had to do pushups and he's arguing and yelling about a call somehow. He's back.

They’re playing seven-on-seven in one end. Slow-paced. But they’re chirping each other and attempting to call penalties. Erik Karlsson just now: “Geno! High stick! F— you! High stick!” Then Malkin’s side scores and he yells “High stick!” as he’s celebrating.

The entire team has been in an argument on that last drill for about 10 minutes in the locker room. Kris Letang at the center of it. It’s been going on for so long because guys keep coming off the ice and joining.

I don’t even know what that was fully about but it devolved into talk of highway laws and who is at fault in car accidents and yelling about car insurance.

OK, imagine this but one of the jurors is just sitting in his stall with a big grin on his face the whole time observing, and he also happens to be from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. And there are two more jurors in their own little enclave off to the side totally oblivious about the trial because they’re deep in discussion about goalie equipment. And instead of a guy being on trial for murder it’s Ryan Shea on trial for bumping into Kris Letang, or something like that. That was this afternoon.

from taylor

and a bonus screenshot from @pimpim90

[matchalovertrait]

Alegría v Caruso: Day 2, Pt. 2

Caruso was called up to the stand.

He closed his eyes, recalling the moments before he learned his house was infiltrated. The blaring music and moving strobe lights made their return, as well as the excitement of the partygoers. With a drink in his hand and his gladiator sandal about to touch the dancefloor, Caruso was ready to forget everything for the night.

...Until the "security guards" found him and alerted him about the impostor upstairs. However, when Caruso got the room unlocked, there was nobody to be found. Oh no. What if Isabela was right? He rushed to the safe in his bedroom and—thank God—the notebook was still there. But wait... was it blank this whole time? No. He was sure he saw words on those pages when he first took it. What the hell?

Welp, party over.

He reluctantly unblocked Isabela's phone number to call her. First, he had to explain that he only blocked her for the night. She was obnoxious, and frankly, kind of a lunatic. He almost regretted finding and hiring her.

Secondly, he had to explain the situation regarding the notebook... let's just say she was not happy. Isabela stopped by to hatch a new plan, but a good portion of their time was spent pondering whether Caruso had only imagined seeing a filled-out notebook.

Well, now on Day 2 of the trial, they had their answer.

"Mr. Caruso, when did you and Ms. Alegría start cooking together in the kitchen?"

"Around the time we made it official between us. We cooked together a lot. We shared ideas, experimented with flavors.." He looked down, shaking his head. "I thought we were building something together." Dulce barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. What ideas? He's not creative at all! He thought he invented agua fresca.

"And did you ever see her write in this notebook?"

"No. It's suspicious that it's only appearing now," he said while making direct eye contact with Dulce. They both knew he was referring to the notebook being gone from the safe. "After all this time, it appears? How convenient."

Antonio took note of this. Interesting move. Personally, he would have had Caruso say—Stop. No. Damn, lawyer brain. He snapped out of it. Still, Isabela's strategy seemed to work. Some jurors glanced at each other, considering Caruso's statement. Although they obviously didn't know about Operation Fox, they wondered about the odd timing. Maybe it was weird! The analyst said herself that "science is never absolute." She conducted several tests, but what if every test happened to be wrong??? Hmm...

Antonio rose for cross-examination. "Mr. Caruso, hablas español?"

Caruso blinked in confusion, caught off guard. "...No?"

"Are you familiar with traditional Mexican cooking methods?"

"I know Italian cuisine."

"But Ms. Alegría was raised in Italy and is part Mexican. Her recipes reflect both cultures. So tell me, how could you have created the recipes in her cookbook when you lack the cultural knowledge behind many of them?"

"I don't have to be Mexican to understand flavors."

"But you're not just claiming to 'understand' them. You're claiming you created the recipes. There is a difference. Ms. Alegria's cookbook tells a story rooted in heritage, her upbringing, and her family. Are you saying she fabricated her entire culinary identity?"

Isabela butted in. "Objection, Your Honor. He is using an emotional appeal to distract from the real question: Were these recipes influenced by Mr. Caruso or not? Ms. Alegría's cultural background doesn't erase the possibility of Mr. Caruso's contributions."

"Overruled. Proceed, Mr. Romero." So many objections in this trial!

Antonio pretended to wait for an answer, but Caruso failed to provide one, of course.

"Mr. Caruso, you claim you helped with these recipes, but where is your proof? Do you have any written notes, drafts, or documentation of your original ideas?"

Still no words from Caruso.

"Because Ms. Alegria does," he gestured toward the notebook.

Isabela cleared her throat. "The conveniently timed notebook? Its origins are questionable. Let's not forget Ms. Alegria has manipulative and impulsive tendencies. She misled my client and broke his heart out of the blue."

Antonio straightened, ready to fight back, but the judge cut them off with the sound of the gavel.

"That's enough. Ms. Campos, bring out your witness."

While he was glad this part was over, Antonio couldn't tell where the judge stood. Did he stop them because he was growing impatient with Isabela, or did he agree with her?

Antonio took a seat, ready for what was next.

Start from the beginning (Gen 2)

Previous | Next

[lordoflucky]

Forever thinking about Evie Vigil's "Or perhaps [a relationship] between the defendant and the handsome prosecutor just there." line because it's even funnier with all the context.

Imagine, for a moment. You have been selected to be a member of the jury for an upcoming trial. It is your first time ever being on a jury, and for a murder no less- just as exciting as it is harrowing. For a day and a half you watch the proceedings, and you and your fellow jurors have come to a conclusion: The defendant is guilty. There is no other possibility that makes sense.

You are asked by the defense to explain the reason for your verdict. It is the first chance you've been given to voice your own personal insight on the case. You look at the defendant- the man you presently believe is a murderer. You look at the prosecutor- the man who has spent the past two days arguing and ultimately convincing you that the defendant is indeed a murderer. And you say:

"Are they... you know?"

AND THEN THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY GOES "Hang on you might be onto something there."

[haggishlyhagging]

When I started looking at feminist efforts at the end of the nineteenth century, I knew that women had been involved in work against prostitution because there has been some feminist historical work on the Contagious Diseases Acts. What astonished me about these feminists was that the language they were using was so fiercely feminist. They described men's use of women in prostitution as an abuse of women, as dividing what they called the class of women, and putting aside one half of that class simply for men to use for their own purposes. I was surprised by the strength of the language that was used and the way in which these writers were very directly pointing out men's abuse of women in prostitution, and targeting men directly in everything they said.

I went on to discover something I had no knowledge of and about which there was virtually no information in secondary sources: there was a fifty-year campaign by those women against the sexual abuse of children. This started out of the struggle against prostitution, and it centered at first on raising the age of consent for girls so that young girls could not be used in prostitution. There wasn't a law against men using women in prostitution, but age of consent laws would have removed young girls from men's reach. That campaign culminated in the raising of the age of consent for sexual intercourse in Britain to 16 in 1885, and for indecent assault to 16 in 1922. It took fifty years.

Feminists were not simply trying to raise the age of consent. They were fighting incest, pointing out that incest was a crime of the patriarchal family, of men against women, and that sexual abuse of children was a crime carried out by men of all classes. They were fighting for women jurors, magistrates, women police to look after victims, fighting for all kinds of reforms that I thought had been invented by this wave of feminism. They were involved in setting up shelters for women escaping prostitution, something that is happening again in this wave of feminism.

I was enormously impressed by these feminists. In fact, I sat in the Fawcett Library in London getting terribly excited and wanting to tell everybody what I was finding out. Feminist theorists like Elisabeth Wolstenholme Elmy and Frances Swiney were writing at this time about sexuality. We haven't had access to their work because it hasn't been taken seriously. Where they are written about at all in history books, they are simply called prudes and puritans and their ideas are seen as retrogressive. What these women were arguing was that the sexual subordination of women—men's appropriation of women's bodies for their use—lay at the foundation of the oppression of women.

Interestingly, these two women, Swiney and Elmy, made clear their opposition to the practice of sexual intercourse. This practice has become so sacred that it is almost impossible to imagine any serious challenge being made to it. What we have seen in the last hundred years is the total and compulsory enforcement of that sexual practice upon women so that women are allowed absolutely no outlet or escape from it.

But at the end of the nineteenth century there were feminists who were prepared to challenge intercourse. They were prepared to say, for instance, that it was dangerous for women's health; that it led to unwanted pregnancies or forced women to use forms of technology, contraception, that reduced them simply to objects for men's use; that it humiliated women and made them into things. Feminists pointed out that sexual diseases transmitted through sexual intercourse were dangerous to women's lives. They felt sexual intercourse to be a humiliating practice because it showed men's dominance more obviously than anything else. They believed that this practice should take place only for the purposes of reproduction, maybe every three or four years. I know these are ideas which if you voiced them today would make people think that you had taken leave of your senses. But these were ideas that were absolutely mainstream; they were being put forward by respectably married women, one married to a general.

These women were campaigning fundamentally for a woman's right to control her own body and to control access to her own body. The integrity of a woman's own body was the basic plank of their campaign.

-Sheila Jeffreys, “Sexology and Antifeminism” in The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism

[stellisketches]

i think the fact that Garroth never bothered to change his name lowkey indicates that it’s at least a somewhat common name throughout Ru’aun. I mean sure it could’ve just been a himbo-brained thing to do but the idea of it being a popular name really could’ve been used for peak comedy. 

Like imagine a juror getting sent to a random village thinking they’ve found the right Garroth and it’s just some dude.

Even funnier to imagine none of the jurors have met Garroth personally or really knows what he looks like so they have to drag whatever guy they found all the way back to O’Khasis show him to Zane and be like “is this the right one”

[gumbootillustrations]

decided to fuck around n update garroth's ref sheet

other bits below the cut :3

the armour that garroth is introduced in is stolen from o'khasis. specifically, it's standard issue o'khasian guard's armour, and he passes it off as being a hand-me-down from his father (which isn't entirely untrue, and why he can say it with a relatively straight face). its old and its fucked but hey, beggars can't be choosers so garroth makes do. when they go to pikoro, he chucks a big fuckoff fluffy cloak over the top of it that i couldn't be assed drawing so use ur imagination if u wanna. tbh, this is probably the design i changed the most bc i lowkey hated my first iteration of his intro armour n it looked a bit too much like brian's so uh. yeah.

nothing much changed w his standard armour except that i shuffled around the layers a bit n whacked on a belt for his sword. plus a couple of variants (his 'juror' form n what he wears when the group goes to gal'ruk chasing down a certain carin valkrum, an ex-juror and the best lead they have on finding enki's relic). not much else to say here.

nothing much else changes w his out of armour outfit either except for some detailing on the waistcoat and i tidied up the collar of his shirt. yeah.

OKAY JUICY LORE DROP. so when garroth was around three or four, a plague swept through o'khasis and almost wiped out the city (nobody knows what brought it on, but the narrative pushed by the higher ups was that it was biological warfare perpetrated by either tu'la or scaleswind), and the ro'meave house wasn't left untouched by the plague - in fact, it almost killed garte, and both garroth and zane got really sick from it. during a particularly bad episode of fever, garroth went for a wander through the relatively abandoned halls of the lord's manor and wound up in a room full of antiques and heirlooms and a weird looking, glowing rock - which he promptly picked up and sort of absorbed. turns out that the rock was esmund's relic, and it just sorta. hangs out unnoticed by anyone (garroth puts the whole incident down to a fever dream) until zane sucks everyone into irene's cathedral (aka the irene dimension) and the relic possesses him, leading to zane's death at his hand.

but yeah, nothing much changed w this design either except for me updating it to reflect the design as expressed in my post re: the divine warriors of the second war of the magi.

as always, let me know if u have any questions/comments! <3

[monkey-network]

The Beauty of 12 Angry Men

I remembered in 6th grade lit reading Franz Kafka's The Trial, a story about everything judicial being set in stone for someone completely out of the loop. The bureaucracy behind Josef K.'s fate is never given a cause, no method helps him, and after a year he's at the mercy of a situation nobody said would be fair to him. It was a striking story to me, and lead me into recognizing Sidney Lumet and Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men as a similar yet antithetical story. The film keeps everything in the dark except for the titular jurors trying to piece the case together for a boy expected to get the death penalty. The matter though, is that the defendant's fate was clear from the start and the journey is about getting to that thread's end. What follows is one of the most well written, performed, and staged movies I watched in my entire life and I just wanted to finally talk about it. So, let's talk.

Setting the Stage

It takes three minutes almost exactly for the title to appear. You get the mission statement from the judge, a good scan of the main characters, and a single moment of the defendant's face, basically the only time you ever get to see said defendant for the whole movie. After that, we the audience are locked in the deliberation room where the film starts to shine after the credits role.

For the longest time watching movies, I was so used to big colorful settings, the characters going places even if it's just another place to talk, where it's a gamble if you can memorize those places. Oppenheimer last year became the widely regarded movie that consisted of next to nothing but conferencing in rooms. Even in older movies, things were never shot in the same spot for long. This film was the first instance where they stripped everything and worked with bare bones staging. All it is are the men in that one room. No flashbacks, no cuts to anything beyond the group speaking. The only other places you get are the adjacent men's restroom and the courthouse steps at the film's very end, scenes of which add to less than 4 minutes. And you would think it gets boring, but 'focus' is the keyword behind everything. The fact there's next to no music adds to it having an actually engaging script that doesn't manipulate or go to unnecessary places to get the point across.

12 Angry Men is what I'd call a "dynamic stage play" where you could imagine yourself seeing this in a live theater, but it wouldn't have worked as well without the secret main character that is the camera. This film knows how to prevent things from getting too static; the cinematography is... well-paced in laments terms. Again, in that one room, you're engaged in where it's focused, how it moves with the characters, when it cuts especially when it closes in on the jurors at their most serious. From a technical perspective, it's immersive at its simplest. No juror feels left out even when out of frame and nothing distracts you from the brilliant acting everyone brings to the literal table. After seeing this, I felt like this was the kind of movie I'd want to make. One that can work with so little but feel as tightly coordinated as any other similar to this. Then again, I wouldn't have concerned about this movie on technicalities alone. Let's get to the story.

The Stakes of Uncertainty

The trial is a first degree murder charge where if unanimously found guilty, the defendant would be sentenced to the electric chair. Everything surrounding this film hinges on the one person who votes not guilty, juror 8. Number Eight makes it clear that his vote is not about bias, there's never a hint at him or anyone having a relation to the defendant outside the case. His vote is the biggest gamble dependent of everyone retracing their steps of the details surrounding the trial, and what I love most about this is the fairness.

Eight doesn't know if the boy's not guilty, he never forces anybody to side with him, but recognizes that the defendant's life is a serious matter and shouldn't be as open shut as everyone else makes it in the beginning. The film shows within reason that the trial wasn't as clean cut as it seemed. And I know the movie isn't judicially accurate and everything's circumstantial, assumptive, and so on. If there's any real issue the film has for me is that they never indict Eight for sneaking in the switchblade even though that scene is still a goddamn show stealer.

Henry Fonda excellently portrayed a man who knew how to play the cards right

Then again, the increased flimsiness of the trial made with the uncertainty of the outcome is the point. We never get the sentencing after the men leave that room, it's all about Eight showing the others that the boy's life deserved more deliberation than the others were willing to give him. Hell, it discusses that trials like this can and have existed where measures of the outcome are made beyond the defendant's control. Breaking through the easy decision every other juror had was more valuable, and Juror 8 did that responsibly while never trying to be above anyone. That in turn is what makes this ensemble cast nearly flawless.

The Angry Men

Before ever seeing it, I've seen a couple jokes of this movie's premise of how it was nothing but said 12 men who sure were angry. Having now seen it myself, it's amazing how much we get to know about the jurors yet only two are ever given names. You'd think the film would give them simple archetypes and gimmicks, but even if you disregarded the acting chops everyone brings, the writing was able to balance who they each are relative to the case and each other. You can memorize which juror is which yet that never makes them just a number on the table.

To me, the best part about this film is how the group is able to collectively debate about the trial with individual motives and understandings. Jurors Eight and Three are the focal characters, they're the most opposing, but I don't consider them the main characters. A Youtube video I watched explores this better than I ever could, but everyone is in this together, regardless of how present they are in the movie and you notice this in their behavior. The character writing made with the simple staging does so much while explaining so little.

Juror Four, who reveals himself to be a stock broker, is the most clinical about the details. He does his best in retracing the trial as factual as possible, discussing the evidence in a way not even Eight is able to fight. What makes him crack though is when it came to jurors Eight, Five, and Nine bringing up certain conditions of the defendant and witnesses that he didn't care to notice. Juror Nine is the opposite, concerning about the witnesses' conditions and probable influences which helped reveal factual doubts in their testimonies.

Juror Seven from the getgo is made the most detached of the group. By the way he's dressed, constantly checking the time, while capable of paying attention Seven is the most dismissive of the case for the simple reason of just wanting to leave for baseball. This is where he comes into conflict with jurors Two and Eleven especially. Eleven is expressively respectful toward the judicial due process, mentioning himself being an immigrant, which makes him eventually fed up with Seven's disinterest. He's not somebody who changed his vote easily nor adds a lot to the debate himself, but recognizes Eight's efforts of a fair discussion and naturally confronts Seven about his constant snide attitude towards the case.

One of the film's strongest moments, where the build up was genuine even if you felt it was unexpected

Everyone makes sense with is established about them in the beginning and I could go on about the little things. Juror Nine, being the first to switch his vote, is the only one who meets with Eight outside in the film's end. You can tell by Juror Twelve fiddling with his glasses and concerned of having the info laid out sequentially is the most flippant about his vote. Juror Five being more likely to change his vote out of sympathy, having grown up and is more knowledgeable of the slums given that's the defendant's home. Nothing about this movie or ensemble is complicated, but the through-line behind everyone's choices in this gets to be more complex than realized. Everything about this is encapsulated in my favorite scene of the whole movie.

Pulling It All Back

Juror Ten is the most openly bigoted of the ensemble. From the start he is racially motivated in his vote, but that's not expressed until a little later. Of that point, he's certain of himself like juror Three about the vote being clear while scoffing at Eight's opposition. When the cracks of the case start to show, Ten's arrogance starts to show and his words become charged. He becomes the most hostile toward everyone and especially gets a rise out of Juror Five when talking about "these people". Everything comes to ahead when the vote is 9 to 3 for not guilty. Ten finally has his outburst, his racial rant unspecified but striking all the checkmarks of a man that stuck in his ways. Then it happens.

Everyone put up with his remarks up to that point, but here they finally step away and we get the most striking moment of a man finally alone with his thoughts. After Juror Four tells him off, Ten goes to the corner desk and basically shuts down for the remainder of the movie. This was the film's strongest payoff in every sense. It wouldn't have worked without the buildup just as much as the civility that came with everyone involved. Nobody had to throw a punch or challenge his beliefs, you never know if this changed Ten as a person, all that matters was that Ten knew he exasperated any goodwill from the jury and finally checked out the conversation. 12 Angry Men knew how to make the characters see their errors naturally, never feeling like they played up the drama for everyone to get their moment.

Conclusion

To me, I'm reminded of when in 6th grade, my literature teacher would have these Socratic seminars discussing the books we'd read. You could say it was the most involved I was in that class. This film knew how to capture that feeling, how towrite a roundtable where the stakes are high from the start but doesn't make it sanctimonious. Again, Juror Eight doesn't force or manipulate the others to see things his way. They try to convince him initially, adding up to a tangled but mutual engagement and it always feels like you're with them in the moment. You feel Eight's uncertainty is as sincere as his conviction, the same going for everyone else involved. The fact they're all sitting in sequential, helping you naturally follow who is who, is the cherry on top.

Before watching this, I didn't presume much beyond a simple courtroom drama which I enjoy ever since Ace Attorney. What followed after was just being more than impressed by how concise and thoughtful this was made. No second felt wasted, no detail felt trivial, ALL THIS and not even mentioning it being like a "bottle episode". Believe me, this post is long enough fanboying about a film from the 50s. It earned being the most ergonomic and engaging movies I've ever seen. If this essay wasn't enough, I recommend it at least once in your life as it's free to watch. What else is there to say?

It's the Best

[milgramocthrowawayacc]

What yall thinkin about this Milgram OC i thought of today….

Nameless 28 year old Milgram prosecutor OC with a few years of experience but not much, who becomes disillusioned with justice after corrupt jurors and government officials thwart the prosecution of known reprehensible criminals, then deciding to take matters into her own hands by killing them herself.

T1- *Libra* - theme: “Justice needs to be served”

The T1 verdict has a decisive impact as to

how she views both herself and her crime as well as us/Es. Because she wants justice to always be served and she’s disillusioned by the rampant corruption and she knows she’s WRONG for committing murder, she WANTS to be guilty but will only tangentially tell us that by repeating what will only come off as an excuse for her own crimes- justice needs to be served. I imagine her T1 song would be called “Deliberations” and sound like Miniskirt by AoA and the video is vague enough that we could reasonably believe she didn’t kill anyone directly, but that upon losing a case, a victim killed themselves over it.

T2: If guilty T1-*Burden of Proof*

If innocent T1- *Obstruction of Justice*

If she’s voted innocent T1, her T2 uniform looks like a judge’s robe because we affirm her belief that it is HER judgment that is the law. She’s substantially more condescending because we proved ourselves similar to any other corrupt jury allowing an obvious murderer under black letter law to circumvent justice. her mv cover looks like she’s entering a judge’s chambers with a gavel that looks a lot more like a hammer than they usually do, and I imagine the T2 song sounding similar in instrumental and stuff (not lyrics) to Abracadabra by Brown Eyed Girls. She’s substantially more explicit about the depravity of her crimes and simultaneously pretends to downplay it by mocking our justification to vote innocent, while failing to appreciate that if we are guilty for voting her innocent, then she too is guilty, and therefore it is equally corrupt to give her the final say on lawfulness. “Obstruction of justice” bc she feels like the verdict is corrupt.

If voted guilty T1 her restraints resemble handcuffs. She’s simultaneously freaking out about being guilty and likely got whooped by Kotoko which affirms her belief that her own actions were wrong, but still makes subtle digs about bias among the verdicts of other prisoners- primarily Kotoko given the similarities between their cases at their core. “Burden of Proof” bc she’d emphasize the fact that the T1 video did not prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and there’d be some comparison to the people she killed who were clear-cut guilty

Theres no right answer because she is herself inherently biased and a lawyer will make arguments to defend or shift blame from their client no matter what.

T3: If voted inno in T1, and inno again in T2, her uniform resembles a king’s robe because we have fully convinced her of her own superiority. There is no going back now. She thinks of us as a despotic leader would think of their peasant class. Pathetic, lamebrained.

If voted guilty T3, title it “Potassium Chloride” (the chemical used in lethal injection), her restraints escalate to full straightjacket/suicide watch/death row attire. No shoelaces, no sleeves. And maybe a rubber band tied in a knot around her bicep to represent the preparations for a shot (lethal injection)

Thats all ive got rn for her.

yall smashing or passing on this one

[refs-r-ences]

(Major spoilers for all Ace Attorney Games as well as Ghost Trick) I already posted something similar to this, but I’ve now played the Investigations collection and the Layton crossover, so I figured I might as well update it. Imagine a trial where “Calisto Yew" is the defence, with Kristoph Gavin as Co-council, facing off against Manfred von Karma as prosecutor, with the Phantom disguised as Daryan Crescend as the detective, Courtney Sithe as the coroner and Mael Stronghart as the judge. The defendant is Matt Engarde, accused of the attempted murder of William Shamspeare, who survived due to plot armor, with Cammy Meele, Luke Atmey, Ashley Graydon and Fifi Laguarde as witnesses. If it’s done TGAA style, then the Jurors would be Enoch Drebber, Nikolina Pavlova, Darklaw, Shelly de Killer via the radio, Roger Retinz, and Yomiel from Ghost Trick because why not. Now the culprit would turn out to actually be von Karma because of course it is, and since he got annoyed by Shamspeare, being well, Shamspeare.

[thegeneralreturns]

So how did 2024 go movie-wise?

Of the eighty-or-so movies that came to streaming, home video, or Iowa theaters that I could see before the first Saturday of 2025...

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR: 1. Strange Darling (Directed by JT Mollner) 2. I Saw the TV Glow (Directed by Jane Schoenbrun) 3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Directed by George Miller) 4. Nosferatu (Directed by Robert Eggers)/Oddity (Directed by Damian McCarthy) (tie) 5. Conclave (Directed by Edward Berger) 6. A Real Pain (Directed by Jesse Eisenberg) 7. The Outrun (Directed by Nora Fingscheidt) 8. Challengers (Directed by Luca Guadagnino) 9. The Substance (Directed by Coralie Fargeat) 10. The Beekeeper (Directed by David Ayer)

THE FIVE WORST FILMS OF THE YEAR: 1. AfrAId (Directed by Chris Weitz) 2. We Live in Time (Directed by John Crowley) 3. Borderlands (Directed by Eli Roth) 4. Red One (Directed by Jake Kasdan) 5. Tarot (Directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg)

BEST DIRECTION: Jane Schoenbrun - I Saw the TV Glow Runner-up: George Miller - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

BEST SCREENPLAY: Megan Park - My Old Ass Runner-up: JT Mollner - Strange Darling

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE: Nicholas Hoult - Juror #2 Runner-up: Willa Fitzgerald - Strange Darling

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE: Ariana Grande - Wicked Runner-up: John Earl Jelks - Exhibiting Forgiveness

BEST STUNT ENSEMBLE AND COORDINATION: The Shadow Strays Runner-up: Monkey Man

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jarin Blaschke - Nosferatu Runner-up: Galo Olivares - Alien: Romulus

BEST EDITING: Jesse Goldsmith - Here Runner-up: Stephan Bechinger - The Outrun

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Colin Gibson - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Runner-up: Nathan Crowley - Wicked

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Linda Muir, David Schwed - Nosferatu Runner-up: David Crossman, Janty Yates - Gladiator II

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Runner-up: Twisters

BEST MAKEUP: The Substance Runner-up: Terrifier 3

MOST UNDERRATED FILM (in which I cannot imagine anyone not liking them): Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One (Directed by Kevin Costner) Runner-up: Trap (Directed by M. Night Shyamalan)

MOST OVERRATED FILM (in which I have a hard time fathoming why anyone recommends them as highly as they do): The Wild Robot (Directed by Chris Sanders) Runner up: Emilia Perez (Directed by Jacques Audiard)

MOST OVERHATED FILM (in which I get why people don't like them, but come on, now, you're just being childish): Madame Web (Directed by SJ Clarkson) Runner-up: The Crow (Directed by Rupert Sanders)

[tsuchinokoroyale]

Are you in RI often?

I think I went to Providence once when I was like 9 years old on what ended up being a hilariously homophobic family trip. So the Royale family decided to go to famously gay city Providence in June, and there were definitely some pride activities going on. My parents were very frantically trying to cover our eyes from the leather clad bears, but there were three of us and two of them so I saw them and I was like “what is the problem here.”

This imprinting of morality is pretty funny in retrospect. If my parents didn’t try so hard to cover my eyes, I would never have glanced over to see what the fuss was about. And then it wasn’t like “egads those hunks are wearing fetish gear!” It’s like “oh there’s some people over there? Crossing the street without looking first, I guess? Idk.” I couldn’t have told you what was “wrong” about the picture. It’s not even like it was hardcore dicks out fetish gear, there were men in less clothing down by the beach. The only thing it did was make me nervous that my parents might be homophobic when I put all the pieces together later in life. Like these hunky leather bears weren’t even a major factor in me realizing I was gay.

But that honor would go to Season 3 Episode 19/21 of Fox/ScyFy television series Sliders, hilariously called “The Breeder” in which Kari Wührer (( who I only knew from the lyrics of the iconic Rural Juror song from 30 rock )) becomes host to a parasite that loves breeding hot men. This process is not as sexy as it sounds.

Imagine this: you’re a pre-pubescent preteen home sick with a fever and you put on the TV just to have something on while you sippy on some soupy. You’re like oh dangggg, hot babe in a towel, yeah boys my age are into that. And then That Happens™ and your feverish brain is like Women Are Scary Actually. Less of a coming out and more of a staying in, really.

I turned out gay for more normal reasons later in life but I do attribute this show as being the turning point in my life and I’m so grateful for that ❤️

But no I’m not in RI often

[princesssarisa]

Autism (and possible ADHD) headcanon: Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass)

This analysis is based on the books, but most of it applies to Disney's Alice too.

Now of course she wasn't written with either autism or ADHD in mind: no concept of either existed when the books were written. Some people might argue that all the "evidence" below is just her being a seven-year-old child. But all these qualities make her relatable to neurodivergent people, and whose to say that she wouldn't be diagnosed as neurodivergent if she were a real person and lived today?

Autism evidence

*Alice is a very inward little girl. Not only do both books literally take place mostly in her mind, but even within her dreams she's constantly thinking, daydreaming, analyzing, and imagining things. She sometimes gets so lost in her thoughts and fantasies that she forgets all about what's currently happening, or about the other characters, and they sometimes notice this (e.g. "You're thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk.").

*She constantly talks to herself and pretends to be two people.

*In what little we see of her life in the real world, she's never shown playing with children her own age. She's content to play by herself, talking to her kittens, creating elaborate fantasies, or even playing a game of croquet against herself.

*She's precocious and smart, with a good (though imperfect) memory for facts she's learned in school, and she likes to show off her knowledge, both to others and to herself. She knows many "grand words" that other children her age don't know (e.g. "latitude," "longitude," "jurors"), and she enjoys saying them out loud, even when she doesn't know what they mean. In Wonderland, when she tries to recite the lessons and poems she's memorized and finds herself comically mangling them, her core sense of self is shaken.

*Despite being sane and sensible compared to the fantasy characters she meets, Alice is more than a little eccentric herself. She constantly daydreams and talks to herself, as mentioned. She comes up with outlandish fantasies, like mailing Christmas presents to her own feet, or that different foods change people's temperaments, or that people in New Zealand and Australia walk upside-down. Her confusing experiences in Wonderland make her wonder if she's still Alice or if she's become a different person. The fact that her adventures in Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land are dreams make her seem all the more eccentric in hindsight: those two fantasy worlds and all the strange things in them are creations of Alice's own mind.

*Even though she tries to always be proper and polite, she sometimes makes offensive remarks without meaning to. For example, when she praises her cat Dinah's skill at catching mice and birds in front of a mouse and group of birds, or when she calls three inches "a wretched height" while talking to a three-inch caterpillar. She also throws manners aside and talks back to adults whenever she thinks they're being especially rude or unreasonable.

*She often seems to imitate the adults in her life. When she remembers to check the "Drink Me" bottle and make sure it's not marked "poison," or when she scolds herself for crying or for lolling on the grass, she's clearly parroting what she's heard from adults. Likewise, when she scolds the pig-baby for grunting, or her kitten for all its mischief and "bad manners," she's obviously affecting a tone that adults have taken with her. All the scolding and correcting she does, especially to herself, might also imply that she's a child who's been scolded and corrected especially often.

*She's often described as speaking "shyly" or "timidly" – though as mentioned, she can be bold to the point of impertinence when she's pushed far enough.

*She dislikes books without pictures, and she can make no sense of the poem Jabberwocky – even though its plot is easy for most real-world readers to follow – because there are too many made-up words in it. Now, these don't necessarily imply that she has trouble with reading comprehension, but they might.

*One throw-away line in Through the Looking-Glass implies that she's a picky eater. When she brings up the subject of having to go without meals as punishment, she says she would rather go without them than eat them anyway.

*She's particularly annoyed by certain small noises and sensations – like Bill the Lizard's pencil squeaking at the trial in the first book, or the Gnat's tiny sigh that tickles her ear in the second.

*Both stories consist of her wandering through nonsense worlds, being baffled by their strange rules and customs, and being ordered around, corrected, and judged negatively by the strange creatures she meets, just because her logic is different from theirs. For those of us on the autism spectrum, this is a relatable experience.

ADHD evidence

*She tends to be impulsive, particularly in the first book. For example, she goes down the rabbit hole without thinking of how she'll ever get out again, and later drinks the potion in the White Rabbit's house without knowing if it will make her grow or shrink just because she's anxious for some change in her size. This isn't a matter of not knowing better – she sometimes tells herself what she should do, only to act on her impulses anyway. Or, in other words, she gives herself very good advice, but she very seldom follows it.

*She can be verbally impulsive too: for example, her careless remarks about Dinah catching mice and birds.

*She's prone to daydreaming, as mentioned above.

*She sometimes has trouble controlling her emotions, most memorably when she cries a big pool of tears after growing to the size of a giant. She tells herself she should be ashamed for crying so much, but she can't stop.

*She can be easily distracted, especially by her own imagination, and in the first chapter of Through the Looking-Glass, she flits from subject to subject while talking to her kitten.

*She's easily bored and always in search (literally or figuratively) of some new adventure or amusement. One of the things she most dislikes is "having nothing to do."

[allthesmutl0vers]

The Fate Of Us- Chapter Five

MDNI, 18+

Pairing: Sam/Reader, Dean/Reader, Castiel/Reader, Dean/Castiel and Coming Soon: Dean/Sam, Castiel/Sam

Chapter Five

Dean

Maybe y/n isn’t so bad. I’m not saying that because she made me breakfast, either. She actually knows her stuff, even after I drilled her on the different ways to kill monsters. She answered them all correctly, even when I tried to trick her.

I can’t lie and say she isn’t attractive either. The way her long brown hair flows down her back and goddamn that smile. It’s a smile that can make a man do bad things. And I’ve done some of the worst. The only complaint I have is that she’s wearing Sam’s jacket. And even that isn’t really a complaint because of how good she looks in it. But a part of me wishes it was mine she was wearing instead.

She’s fucking funny too. When she made breakfast, she did this whole bit where she put whipped cream on her hand, hit her wrist with the other, and tried to catch it in her mouth. Something about it being a TikTok trend? I don’t know what that means, but what I do know is that it shouldn’t have made my dick as hard as it did.

I briefly look at her as she sits between me and Sam on the couch, watching a horror movie she picked out. How she got Sam to watch one? I’ll never know. Her hands are sitting on her lap as her eyes are glued to the screen where a father is trying to rescue his son from ‘the other side’ as the old woman in the movie called it.

“Do you really believe in this stuff?” I ask her quietly.

She turns to me, looking up at me with those big brown eyes. “I don’t know. I mean, I’ve heard of astral projection before, but it’s never worked for me,” she shrugs her shoulders.

“Where did you try to go?” Sam asks from her other side, pressing pause on the movie.

She looks at him before facing forward again, trying to hide the blush that’s appearing on her cheeks. “It’s stupid,” she says softly.

“Oh, come on, tell us,” I tease her lightly, nudging her with my elbow.

She smiles and rolls her eyes, looking up to the ceiling. “Here, actually,” she says to the ceiling. “I always imagined what it would be like here, and a part of me still thinks I’m dreaming sometimes.” She says looking back down to her hands in her lap.

I can’t help but chuckle softly. “You mean you tried to come here in a dream to a world full of monsters when you were perfectly safe in yours?” I ask her, trying to wrap my head around the concept. I’ve dreamed of living in a world with no monsters, but she actually wants to risk facing them.

“We have monsters too, maybe not the kind you guys have here. But we have them, the only difference is in this world, you can make your own justice. In mine, you have to rely on crooked judges, disbelieving jurors, and overworked, entry-level prosecutors,” she explains with a certain degree of pain and a tinge of anger in her voice. She clenches her hands in her lap for a moment before she takes a deep breath and releases them. “Or family members who don’t believe you.” She whispers.

I look over her at Sam, whose brows are furrowed in confusion like mine.

What do I even say to that? And what is she talking about? What happened to her?

Sam puts a hand on the top of her back, instantly making me want to take it off. It’s a weird feeling because I never get jealous, but is that what this knot of anger in my stomach is? Or is it about whatever this girl has gone through that makes her believe she’s safer in a world where she could be ripped to shreds, over a world where the worst of the worst are only humans?

“I’m sorry for whatever you went through, y/n. And you’re right. The justice system does suck—”

“Says the one who wanted to be a lawyer,” I scoff.

Sam throws me an annoyed glare. “Yeah, to advocate for victims, not victimize them all over again on the stand,” Sam fires back at me.

My eyes go back to y/n, who’s quickly wiping away tears. “Listen, I don’t want to be the weepy girl with a sad story. What happened to me happened, and there’s nothing I can do to change it,” she says, looking between me and Sam, she takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to dump my trauma on you guys. I mean, we barely know each other. We just met yesterday. I just want to try to forget about it, okay?” She says, looking between us again.

Sam and I both nod our heads in understanding. Her business is her business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m curious. But a person’s past is something that belongs to them, and they shouldn’t feel obligated to share it if they don’t want too. She silently accepts our nods with one of her own, and we finish watching ‘Insidious’ and end up watching the second one while Bobby heads out for pizza.

Sam

“Hey man, grab me another while you’re up, will ya?” Dean asks with a smirk from the table, waving his empty bottle of beer.

I roll my eyes and look over at y/n. “You need another one, too?” I ask her, not bothered at all.

She smiles and shakes her head. “I’m good, Sam, thanks though.”

I nod once and smile back before looking at Bobby. “Bobby? You need another while I’m up?”

Bobby shakes his head, finishing off his bottle. “I’m good. I’m fixing to head to bed here soon,” he turns to y/n as I hand Dean his beer and sit back down across from y/n. “You gonna be alright with these two idjits?” He asks her, only half joking.

“Hey! We’re not that bad,” Dean quips, swallowing his bite of pizza.

I laugh and shake my head. Bobby raises his scruffy eyebrows at Dean while y/n covers her mouth, trying not to laugh. “Oh really? Who damn near set my whole property on fire trying to get rid of a vamp body?” Bobby shoots back.

I lean back in my chair, sipping my beer, thoroughly enjoying their back and forth.

“Got rid of the body, though, didn’t I?” Dean quips back.

I lock eyes with y/n, who’s trying so hard to hide the fact she’s laughing behind her hand.

Bobby stands up from the table. “Yeah, yeah. Just try not to burn anything down tonight, will ya?” He says as he places his plate in the sink.

“Scouts honor,” Dean raises his hands with a smile that he directs to y/n, even throwing in a wink.

Damn. Really laying it on thick, huh, Dean?

I can’t help but feel irritated that he’s flirting with her. But really, how can I when I was doing the same thing just this morning? Man, when she called me her hero… I felt my heart beat faster for the first time since Eileen died.

I swore I’d never fall for anyone again, given the fact they always die. But she told us that she couldn’t die earlier. At least she can’t die by anything in this world. But crazy shit happens to us damn near every day.

I’m not proud to admit that I’ve adopted Dean’s ‘hit it and quit it’ attitude when we have cases. But not nearly as much as he does, just enough to blow off steam once in a while.

I don’t want to do that with y/n. I feel like I have a real potential to be good friends with her.

And maybe more.

No. No, I can’t think like that. She’s technically Bobby’s daughter. Another bombshell dropped on us earlier. But how can I just be friends with her when, deep down, I know I might want something more?

“Sam?” Her sweet voice brings me back from my spiraling thoughts.

I look up and smile at her. “Yeah? Sorry,” I try to brush it off, running my hands through my hair.

She laughs and shakes her head. “I said goodnight,” she says with a tired smile. My jacket practically swallows her, and one side hangs off her shoulder. She looks damn good in it, too. I can’t help but wonder what she looks like wearing nothing at all.

“Oh, you’re heading to bed already?” I ask her, unable to help but feel disappointed.

She shrugs her shoulders. “Well, I’m going to write a bit more before I actually go to bed. But yeah, I am heading to my room for the night.”

I nod my head twice. “Working on your same story from this morning?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation going for another minute or two.

A cute blush tints her cheeks. She blushes so easily, and I love it. “Um, yeah, maybe. I have a few other stories I’m working on, too, so I’ll just see where my brain takes me.”

I smile and nod my head. “Well, if you ever want to bounce ideas off someone, I’m here,” I say back to her.

Her body stiffens slightly. “Yeah, maybe. The other ones are usually just for me, kind of a creative outlet when I have writer’s block from my novels,” she looks down at her feet.

I feel like she’s hiding something. Or holding something back, and I want to know what it is. I want to know everything about her. But I’ll let it go for now.

“I understand completely,” I smile at her. “Coffee in the morning?” I ask hopefully.

Y/n smiles and nods her head. “I’m Looking forward to it. Goodnight, Sammy,” she catches herself. “I’m sorry. I forgot. Only Dean can call you that,” she apologizes.

I wave my hand. “It’s okay, you can call me Sammy,” I smile at her, and she relaxes. “Maybe we can come up with a nickname for you in the morning,” I smirk.

She sucks her lips into her mouth, trying to stifle a smile as she nods. “Goodnight, Sammy.”

“Goodnight, y/n,” I say as she gives me one last smile before exiting the kitchen and walking up the stairs.

When I get into the living room, Dean is already passed out on the couch. I thank God that he wasn’t awake for that conversation I had with her. I don’t need him waking up and interfering with my time with her in the morning. Those belong to us now.

Woah, a bit possessive there, huh?

I brush the thought off as I kick my boots off and lay down, pulling the blanket over my body. As I drift off to sleep, I think about nicknames for the girl upstairs that don’t come off too strong but also let her know I’m interested. Because fuck it, I am. It’s a fine line to walk, but as I think of nicknames, I also find myself wishing I was lying down next to her as she writes, holding her close to me as we both fall asleep.

It’s been too long since I’ve had that, and hopefully, it won’t be much longer before I have it again.

Chapter Six

[v0dk4-cr4nb3rry]

imagine being a juror in a trial about a mass shooting. The shooting was done by a fourteen year old. You are probably having an awful day because most people do not like jury duty, and your entire day now consists of sitting in a court room listening to people talking about dead tweens and a mentally ill teenage murderer is sat in front of you. All of this is going on, and a lawyer stands up, and asks for everyone to watch a video. What's the video? It's a Pearl Jam music video. You have to watch a Pearl Jam music video. They are trying to convince you that he is not guilty by reason of insanity because of a Pearl Jam music video.

[kurithedweeb]

Katelyn the Fire Fist used to be Katelyn Anchorage III, the only daughter of a working class family with five sons, named for her mother Katelyn II (hereon referred to as Mama Katelyn).

Her father died before the birth of her youngest brother, and ever since then she had wanted to be a guard to help protect and provide for her family. Her mother and older brothers always encouraged her and worked hard to help pay for the gear she'd need for the academy. They were all very close-knit until Katelyn was selected for the Jury.

Her older brothers Keiran and Killian are identical twins about eight years older than her, so identical that the only way to the only way to tell them apart for the longest time was a scar from when Keiran broke his collarbone at seven. Kacey, a shy boy who liked to sit with their mother while she worked, is two years younger than Katelyn. Pretty boy Kenneth is five years younger, and Kyler the baby of the family is about eight years younger. There's a whole sixteen years between the oldest and the youngest of the brothers, so Kyler ended up mostly being raised by the twins while Mama Katelyn recovered and went back to work. Katelyn once called the twins dad and they shut it down real quick. The majority of their stories about dad comes from them since Mama Katelyn doesn't talk about him all that much.

Mama Katelyn collects stories. Her work is fairly repetitive, so she and her fellows often tell stories and share gossip to fend off the boredom. She's so opposed to Katelyn joining the Jury because she's heard such terrible things about them, and sure some of them are bound to be rumors, but how can she not be wary after hearing about Janus terrorizing the Tu'lan countryside or Ivan cursing a village with winter year-round? But she doesn't want to discourage Katelyn into quitting because, well, isn't joining the Jury of Nine every guard's dream? Instead, she quietly confides her worries in Keiran.

Keiran, now terrified his baby sister is going to be made into a monster at the behest of the church and Lord, starts a massive argument to try to convince Katelyn she's making a mistake by not passing on the invitation. Katelyn blows up instead of listening to what he's trying to say and it gets really out of hand. She ends up completely cutting ties with her family and completely devoting herself to her duties as a Juror.

They parted on such bad terms that after she's left the Jury she fears she ruined her chances of speaking to them again for no good reason since she didn't even stay with the whole reason she left in the first place. She's incredibly hesitant to reconnect in case they hate her, or worse fear her, and never reaches out. She talks about her family so rarely that the only reason anyone even knows she has one is because one time she got a little too tipsy around the campfire and started going on about how proud she is of them.

Imagine her surprise when she runs into one of her brothers completely on accident someday post-Irene Dimension and learns that Kenneth is now all scarred up and missing a leg, little Kyler is running the O'khasian citizens' resistance under Tu'la rule, shy Kacey has gone off and become a mercenary, Mama Katelyn is running a shelter named after her daughter, Killian's running a pirate crew, and Keiran's been searching all of Ru'aun for her for years. She's been just missing three of them for years! Killian's even been weighing anchor in Phoenix Drop and Meteli for ages!

Does she ever really reconnect with her family? Does she recognize her brothers? Do the younger ones recognize her? Does she ever see her mother face to face again?