#Odile Ryder

[perseus-huntress]

I have awoken the Chaotic Child once more, she is displeased with this turn of events... 

[allegaury]

black swan really messed me up. i dont think ill ever be the same again.

[jaalallineed]

I love Cora Harper

Cora: She seems happy?

Jaal: *Ahem* who?

Cora: Miss Dreamy Smile Ryder over there. Hah. Stay sweet Jaal. She needs someone like you.

[biotic-commando]

Odile Ryder x Jaal Ama Darav

And if you want the story, then remember that a story does not unwind. It weaves. Events that start in different places and different times all bear down on that one tiny point in space-time, which is the perfect moment.       → Terry Pratchett

[For @ruskidoll, the other love of my life.]

[dartheames]

“Nothing will stop us. The road to the stars is steep and dangerous. But we're not afraid . . . Space flights can't be stopped.” - Yuri Gagarin.

Hello @ruskidoll I’ve heard you were a fellow Russian and feeling down so here’s a little cheer up gift from @angaran-ryder and I! I hope it makes you feel better! <3 please let me know if I messed up the skin tone and such and I’ll fix it

[pathfindersemail]

Odile Ryder - “Unorthodox”

The eclecticism that followed Odile’s life brought a certain order in Andromeda. One could hardly call Kaerkyns the galaxy’s version of cats. Neither could one accept the misty downpour in Havarl as a substitute for rain. But they followed her where she went. Leading. Changing. The old made way for the new - however unorthodox.

Odile Ryder belongs to @perseus-huntress

[creativespecialism]

Film Language: Taking  A look At Black Swan

Black Swan is an American Psychological horror film directed by Darren Arronofsky. I is based on an original story by Andres Heinz. he film stars Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Babara Hershey, and Winona Ryder. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by the New York City Ballet company. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities better embodied by the new rival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by a feeling of immense pressure when she finds herself competing for the part, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into madness.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The film opens with a shot of Nina’s feet. she is wearing ballet shoes and the light is white. This establishes her character very early on as it tells us that she is pure, naive and that dancing and ballet is the most important element of her life. I think it’s interesting that this opening scene is also a dream sequence. Nina dreams that she is the Swan Queen so at this point in the film it is but a fantasy and is even interrupted by the nightmarish black swan creature and we are made aware of this through the use of music. It quickens in pace making the situation seem panicked and dire. It could also be said that the fact that the surrounding area is symbolic of Nina’s underlying darkness and her blindness to the reality of the outside world.

When Nina is walking outside it is always a shot from behind and the camera is slightly shaky. This makes us feel like we’re following Nina in a documentary style film and it makes the whole thing very personal. like we’re their on this journey with her.

Early on in the film we get introduced to Nina’s foil, Lily. Lily is a stark contrast to Nina’s innocence and naivety. She’s confident and sexually secure. 

 This is where the wardrobe really comes in. Even before this contrast we have a pretty good idea that the costume design is gonna play a huge role because Nina’s scarf looks particularly like a swans plumage. and could be seen as restricting.

Lily wears black and grey throughout the film and rarely wears white, using it as an accent to the black,  most notably with her delicate white feather earrings. Whilst Nina wears mostly white, pale greys and very pale pink. All very delicate colours that preserve her innocence. This carries over in the makeup choices as Lily’s eyeshadow is dark and bold, heavy and Nina’s is light, more natural with hints of glitter. 

The crux of the film is Tchaikofsky’s Swan Lake. Thomas the director of  the dance company has to choose his swan queen but they have to be able to play both Odette and Odile. The white and black swans. The wardrobe choices eludes us to the fact that Lily is the black swan or at least resembles what the black swan is supposed to be. 

Nina finds out that she isn’t picked to be the swan queen and goes to confront Thomas who assaults her with a kiss. this is what earns her the role because she retaliates with a bite. After this scene Nina calls her mother and calls her “mommy”  this is a reaction of regression to childhood, perhaps a retreat to a time of safety? I say this because it’s already established that Nina refers to her mother as mom and has her saved as this in her phone. This regression is Nina’s way to deal with this unwanted advancement. But later on in the film we get the impression that her mother is narcissistic as their apartment is littered with self portraits and she resents Nina for ruining her ballet dreams by being born.

Whilst we’re on the subject of childhood I find Nina’s bedroom incredibly interesting.

The main colour is this incredibly pale pink, almost off-white and it’s cluttered with lacy furnishings and stuffed toys that scream Sanrio aesthetic. Don’t get me wrong I love stuffed toys and I have many at home but within the context of the film and how they’re used here. It’s clear that they are supposed to be this symbol of childhood and childishness.

One time when Nina is walking home she has a visual hallucination.

She sees herself in a darker attire with darker hair and more confidence as if she’s daring herself to defy and question the inevitable existence of her darker side. This can be seen as foreshadowing to the point in the film where Nina begins to embrace the darkness that’s underlining her innocence.

At one point in the film Lily takes Nina to a club. there’s lots of flashing lights, red lighting. It’s quite intense. Lily offers a skimpy black top to Nina so that she can dress more club appropriate. At first Nina refuses but later we see her wearing it over her white top. This not only shows us that Nina hasn’t fully embraced the darkness but it also marks the start of her transition into the black swan. Lilly also offers Nina a white pill of Ecstasy. Which she takes, albeit with reluctance. 

The sex scene is very interesting especially since it was completely fabricated. Lily wore black underwear and Nina wore white underwear. Lily was on top, the more dominating position. Nina was very submissive and and at the end she saw Lily as herself. This tells us that Nina will eventually allow her darker side to take over and dominate what she is now. 

Nina actually oversleeps after this night and because she comes in late Lily is named as her alternate. This makes Nina paranoid and is the true catalyst to the decline of her sanity. She also has a visual hallucination of Thomas getting it off with Lily and Thomas turns into the black swan creature we saw a the start of the film. 

We can say that this is a wake up call of sorts. She rushes home and gets rid of all her stuffed toys. Literally disposing of the symbols of her childhood and by extension her innocence. She does it quite forcefully too.

This is a great scene as It’s so unexpected and intense. Beth is the old and forgotten prima who winds up in hospital after a failed suicide attempt. Nina returns the items she stole from her dressing room, one of them boing a small knife, probably a letter opener. Nina hallucinates Beth stabbing her self with the knife. Since Beth represents a future version of Nina we can say that this is foreshadowing that Nina will be her own undoing.

We also get this scene.

The ballet music is building in the background and is competing with the factitious screams and that her and her mother exchange. She forcefully locks herself away and pulls jagged black feathers out of the self-inflicted scratches on her back. Her eyes are red and intense. and we get a close up shot of them to give us a feeling that she’s looking at us, pleading for help.

This is the night before the show so it’s all getting very intense and we can see that the pressure is getting to Nina. She hallucinates her legs breaking which cause her to fall and bang her head. on her bed. This can be read as her not having a leg to stand on. Or that she’s on her last leg as it were. However you could also say that this is a nod to the idiom “break a leg” which is used to with good luck to someone out of superstition that “ good luck” would be a jinx.

In the final act it’s time for the show. Nina goes on and an is riddled with anxiety which is made worse by the fact that her prince drops her. We get a close up of her knee as it makes contact with the floor to emphasise the importance of this. In a high class ballet production you expect everything to be perfect and run smoothly and Nina knows this so this mistake really plays on her mind. 

After this Nina returns to her dressing room to find Lily there, powdering her nose and wearing Nina’s costume for Odile. This is a fight scene of sorts.

Nina hallucinates Lily as herself but a more dark and confidence version who is determined to take Nina’s place on stage as Odile so, Nina trusts this adversary against the mirror and stabs them with a piece of broken glass. After which they turn back into Lily. Personally I read this as symbolic of Nina killing her anxiety and insecurities and ridding herself of them so she can be free to fullylet go and embrace her darker self.

This is clear in the scene that follows.

Here we can see right away that Nina is much less rigid and controlled as she was at the start of the film. The dance is her advantage rather than a prison her mother put her in. Nina undergoes metamorphosis into a black swan. It starts at the hands, a symbol that blood is on her hands due to the murder of Lily/her darker counter part. this grey colour travels up Nina’s veins and eventually consumes her arms. Feathers begin to form and her foot work sounds like feathers flapping. Her eyes are red and swan like and her makeup looks like a pair of angular wings. eventually her arms turn to actual wings and her dress grows to fit the rest of her body, drowning it in black. We get a striking shot of of Nina in the finishing pose with two large shadows cast on the bare brick wall. It’s wonderful. Also after this Nina forcefully kisses Thomas which is a parallel to when he kissed her earlier on in the film as this time Nina is the one who is in control and passionate. She’s now the seducer. 

After this performance it is revealed that Lily is still alive and Nina actually stabbed herself. In the final part of the play Odette returns and commits suicide by jumping off a cliff but safely onto a mattress. This means Nina has to become Odette again so the film shows her taking the shard of glass out of her wound. she is effectively removing this part of her so she can resume her innocence but as she dances for the last time we learn that this isn’t possible. The wound begins to bleed and stain the white dress representing the underlying issues Nina has and how they are bleeding through into her life. She jumps and we discover that this wound was one of the only things that actually happened to Nina and her final words “I was perfect” fade to white.

I think fading to white is interesting. It represents peace but also vulnerability. Naked and in your face about it. I always get quite tense when I see a character wearing white. most of the time one of three things happen; there’s gonna be blood because it shows up nicely, they’re gonna get married because wedding dresses are normally white and it’s subtle foreshadowing, or they’re going to die, especially if it’s a bloody murder but more importantly because angels and heaven are often associated with white. So having Nina be a white swan in her final costume is very fitting.

Black Swan is an amazing film that probably needs a few watches to really catch everything. it has amazing performances and direction and the costume design and lighting and shot work are just amazing. There are still somethings I didn’t talk about and I know I’ve kind of already spoiled the majority of the film but I really recommend watching it for yourselves. 

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

Confession: After Ryder and Reyes were together if Ryder didn't side with him over sloane, I want them to meet up in the future and be forced to work together, and somewhere along the way both of them finally break and have rough, incredibly hot, half hate half love all pent-up-hurt sex against a wall.

ps: Odile Ryder belongs to @perseus-huntress and is used with permission.

[oscopelabs]

Split Diopter: Looking at Women’s Identities Through a Male and Female Lens by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

It’s a common stereotype that men are known to be the more aggressive and competitive of the sexes, and that women are far coyer and subtler at the game. Studies have shown that women enjoy cooperation as much as competition, that they find symbiosis in their struggle for dominance. And it’s this complicated, nuanced relationship among women that has often been mined for great psychological cinema. Male friendships inspire buddy comedies and male competitiveness often manifests on the screen in a more literal way, such as through a sporting event, but with women, their bonding is often explored like a fever dream—as a merging of two identities, or one identity diverging into two. It makes for far more fascinating storytelling, but the end result is more often than not skewed towards the tragic.

The examples are plenty. One of the earliest standouts is Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), in which Kim Novak’s tragic heroine personas Madeleine and Judy send Jimmy Stewart’s Scottie Ferguson into a hypnotic spiral. In Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), roommates and coworkers Millie (Shelley Duvall) and Pinky (Sissy Spacek) swap dynamics, and thus dominance, after a climactic incident until they arrive at a new, strange means of co-existence. In Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966), the merging of identities between the inexplicably mute actress Elisabet (Liv Ullmann) and her nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) is illustrated quite literally, with two halves of their faces joined together to form one. It’s nearly impossible to tell whose face is whose at this point, and what scenes are to be taken literally. Then the film burns. These movies can’t help but offer dual realities, too. In Persona and 3 Women, especially, dream sequences blur with real life, and they don’t exactly ask to be distinguished. (For Altman, the idea for the film came to him through a dream.) These movies almost seem to depict dark magic but they aren’t necessarily fantasy films.

The Guardian’s Steve Rose referred to these as “frenemyship movies” while critic Miriam Bale coined the term “persona swap films.” Bale writes in Joan’s Digest:

“These films […] are about the friendship between two people, usually women (often a brunette and blonde, and frequently one eccentric/dominant and the other more conventional) who swap personas. It is usually a story about two women, yet is differentiated in tone and logic from something like Thelma and Louise. That film is deliberately a buddy action flick starring two women; there is no swap of supple personality types and there is no magical merge. The films that belong in this subgenre have a recognizable, nonrealist tone, a dream logic. They’re psychological, supernatural and, at their best, illuminate very specific aspects of relationships between women.”

This theme of female identities—and the swapping, merging, and diverging of them—has been a prevailing theme in women-centric thrillers and dramas alike. Barbet Schroeder’s 1992 erotic thriller Single White Female used a makeover plot point for the identity swap moment, with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character Hedy getting the same bob and dye job as her aspirational roommate Allie (Bridget Fonda). The film’s title has even become part of our vernacular—when you hear that so-and-so is “single white female-ing” someone, you know exactly what that means. Brian De Palma has dedicated a chunk of his filmography to this subject (see: 1973’s Sisters, 1976’s Obsession, 1984’s Body Double, 2002’s Femme Fatale) as did David Lynch (see: 1997’s Lost Highway, 2001’s Mulholland Dr., 2006’s Inland Empire, and both runs of Twin Peaks). Darren Aronofsky brought the theme to the already cutthroat world of ballet with 2010’s Black Swan—a dynamic that not only emerges between the two leads, Nina (Natalie Portman) and Odile (Mila Kunis), but also between Nina and the principal dancer past her prime, Beth (Winona Ryder), who is being replaced. (Beth is also credited as “The Dying Swan.”) More recently, there’s been Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth (2015), about a diverging friendship that funnels its pent-up frustrations into Repulsion-esque mania, and Olivier Assayas’ The Clouds of Sils Maria (2015), with a subtler version of the Black Swan theme of an older woman being replaced by a younger protégée, both in life and the performance within the performance.

But all these movies have another thing in common: They were all directed by men. Perhaps it’s the notion that women use indirect aggression for romantic attention, that have caused curious frenzy in the minds of male filmmakers, but they continue to create and portray female characters who fall under this umbrella of twisted fate (one woman usually dominates or kills or attempts to kill the other, or they both get in trouble). It must be a frightening concept to men—this idea of women having a special bond, of women containing multitudes—and perhaps that’s why many of these movies carry a tragic tone. In a way, these films could be love letters to women, too. Men, spellbound by the secrets shared between women, can’t help but let their minds wander to the mysteries of their link—and while trying to chip away at it, they end up destroying it in their art.

Only very few women directors have depicted that kind of relationship between two women in such a tragic manner (see Josephine Decker’s 2013 film Butter on the Latch and Sophia Takal’s 2016 film Always Shine, which was an Oscilloscope release). Also rare are male persona swap movies; in Joan’s Digest, Bale gives Nicolas Roeg’s Performance (1970) as an example of such, but adds that “for men to enact the motions of this Persona Swap, they must first be feminized.” In Roeg’s film, they don make-up and a wig.

With the exception of Decker and Takal, women are usually less lethal in their portrayal of female friendships that deal with this persona swap. In research for this piece, I collected a large list of films about women and identity and noticed that as opposed to men, women directors were more inclined to make feel-good films about the joys of friendship, or some sort of comedy of misunderstandings. Examples include Vera Chytilova’s Daisies (1966), Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Nancy Meyers’ The Parent Trap (1998), and Melanie Mayron’s TV movie version of Freaky Friday (1995). Two women who start acting like and becoming each other doesn’t have to be something tragic; it’s reminiscent of the dynamic between best friends. Daisies came out the same year as Persona and while it also plays out like a fever dream, too, with two women who seemingly become one, Bergman’s film is a frightening devouring of each other’s autonomies while Chytilova’s is a delightful us-against-the-world type romp. Women aren’t afraid of these close relationships between themselves; they feel stronger in union, life is more fun when together.

There’s truth to both ends of the spectrum, though. (Women, they sure contain multitudes). I’m not here to discredit the films made by men—some even have creative input from its leading actresses. Sure, there’s an inimitable euphoria of watching Daisies with your best girl friend, but ask any woman and they’ll likely find the motif of Persona or 3 Women or Single White Female familiar, too. Bale notes that “one or several of these films is on the list of the favorite films of virtually every woman director or film critic I know,” and that’s certainly true for myself. Takal’s and Decker’s films are especially fascinating because the female perspective is, to some degree, lived (even if Takal’s husband Lawrence Michael Levine wrote the screenplay for Always Shine). Good news is, this subgenre is endlessly fascinating and isn’t going away anytime soon—what I hope to see is more portrayal of women’s relationships on all ends of the spectrum, especially from more female creators.

[perseus-huntress]

Power Squad

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Every Galaxy has its protectors, Vetra, Cora, and Odile are Andromeda’s. 

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

[perseus-huntress]

Pathfinder 

Odile Ryder  

[perseus-huntress]

Say what you god damn want about Andromeda.

But consider this... 

JETPACKS AND ZAP 

[perseus-huntress]

OCs Associations

I was tagged by the fantastic @ladyinthebluebox <3 

I tried DA and failed MISERABLY so here are my ME angels. 

Tagging: @theravenofwynter @puppypopcornpizza @joz-stankovich @fiftyshadesofdes @blacksheep33512 and anyone else who wants to do it <3 

Clara Shepard -  The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity ~  Amelia Earhart

ANIMAL: Doe 

COLOR(S): Gold 

MONTH: September

SONG(S): Breath of Life - Florence + The Machine, You and I - Johnny Swim 

DAY OR NIGHT: Dawn 

PLANT: Elderflower - Compassion

SMELL(S): Citrus and Passion Fruit 

GEMSTONE: Citrine -  Light of the rising sun

SEASON: Spring

PLACE(S): Citadel 

FOOD: Patisserie

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

ELEMENT(S): Metal -  sincere, fixed values and opinions, is strong of will, and has the eloquence of speech

DRINK: Champagne 

Lola Shepard -  The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me -  Ayn Rand

ANIMAL: Black Kitten 

COLOR(S): Black, so much black... 

MONTH: August 

SONG(S): Unstoppable - Pretty isn’t Perfect Remix - Sia, Bright Lights - Gary Clark Jr. 

DAY OR NIGHT: Night 

PLANT: Amaryllis - Pride 

SMELL(S):  Petrichor

GEMSTONE: Aquamarine - Overcoming Fear

SEASON: Winter

PLACE(S): Omega

FOOD: Pistachios 

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

ELEMENT(S): Fire -  leadership qualities, dynamic passion, and is decisive, self-confident, positive and assertive

DRINK: Red Wine

Odile Ryder - I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better ~ Frida Kahlo

ANIMAL: Ferret 

COLOR(S): Rose Gold 

MONTH: April 

SONG(S): Unorthodox - Wretch 32 ft. Example,  Waking up Slow - Gabrielle Aplin

DAY OR NIGHT: Night 

PLANT: Foxglove - Insecurity 

SMELL(S): Cinnamon 

GEMSTONE: Rose Quartz - Unconditional Love

SEASON: Summer 

PLACE(S): Nexus, Meridian, Cities 

FOOD: Watermelon 

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries 

ELEMENT(S): Water -  persuasive, intuitive, and empathetic.   

DRINK: Energy Drinks

[perseus-huntress]

Here be dragons... 

I have the next 6 days off with no plans what so ever, so I am going to medicate with my little ferret Ryder.  

Expect much Odile on the horizon. 

[perseus-huntress]

Omniblade, medigel, omigel for all of the ladies ^^

Your wish is my command! Thank you

Omniblade - How temperamental are they? Do they show their anger or keep it hidden? What’s the fastest way to provoke them?  

Clara -  Behold! The field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren. You have to really fuck up for her to get angry. Mindoir has left her scared, she used to be incredibly quick to anger but hated what the batarian attack made her, so over the years she has learnt to control herself, to drown out the caustic rage and replace it with diplomacy. Injustice does make her blood boil, belligerence at the cost of innocent life makes me snap. 

Lola - Does not shy away from exploding in the face of someone who deserves it, but more than anything she gets mad at herself for not being good enough, fast enough, skilled enough. Tends to get very angry when she is scared, sees it as a weakness, and will lash out as self-defense. The fastest way to piss her off is to miss treat people she loves, she will not stop until you are a smear on the wall. 

Odile - Relatively calm? Tends to show her anger in passive-aggressive ways, barbed words or stomping around. Cannot stand illogical decision, she is an opportunist and realist, so red tape and ideals for ideals sake really mess with her temper. She does not get on with Tann… :) 

Medigel - How does the character react when someone asks them for help? How do they feel about asking other people for help?

Clara - Will bend over backward to help, sometimes to her own disadvantage. Will go above and beyond what is asked for, she is a real people pleaser. Will only ask for help from people she can trust but has issues with being a burden. Will put off asking for help until the last second believes that she can solve all problems on her own without bothering anyone else. 

Lola - Depends who is asking. If its people close to her will bring down the skies for them. If random strangers will quietly evaluate her options and calculate the best outcomes. Does not ask for help. Ever. Sees it as a weakness, and refuses to admit she needs support. 

Odile - Very similar to Lola, but is even more calculating, she plays the long game, knows what she wants and will get to it with favours. This strategy also applies to friends, but the returns are less serious. Might ask for coffee in return for storming the nearest Khett stronghold. Will ask for help when she knows she needs it, has no qualms, fully aware of her own limitations. 

Omnigel - What strategies do they prefer to use when trying to solve problems?

Clara - Diplomacy all the way, only resorts to real violence when its absolutely unavoidable, or if someone really fucks her off. Has bitten her tongue more times than necessary to keep the peace.

Lola - Shoot first, ask questions later, will attempt to beat everything into submission, physically or through sheer willpower. 

Odile - Fake it until you make it! Agile and adaptive as hell, holds an entire arsenal of charm and humor, will collaborate when needed, will go it alone if that’s the optimal path. 

[perseus-huntress]

The Paragon, The Chaos,  The Fluff and The Renegade. 

And they say your first love never last. They are wrong.