#There are hints for the main plot of TOM&TOY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

darcyfirth · 7 years ago

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someone holds me safe and warm

read it on ao3.

Happy holidays loves <3

It was several hours before midnight, Eggsy checked after a quick look at their grandfather clock, the one that Harry hated but always forgot to throw out because they were constantly on their business trips around the world.

Outside, their snow-covered garden glowed with the Christmas decorations and fairy lights Eggsy had helped Harry put on the previous week.

From his place on the couch, legs comfortably perched on the armrest and back supported by Eggsy’s entire body, Harry shifted the lavender blanket to cover his lap and said, “Are you bored?”

“From what?” Eggsy idly observed how the fireplace light danced on the curves of his husband’s hair and profile, the faint glow softening Harry’s sharp features immeasurably.

“Sitting here and having to watch Anastasia with your boss-slash-lived-in-housemate,” said Harry as he ate a handful of popcorn from the bowl on his stomach.

In an unforeseen gesture driven entirely by his overwhelming fondness for the man, Eggsy bent his upper body and closed Harry’s mouth with his. He was young, Eggsy thought, he could afford to sit at an awkward angle for a while.

A while turned out to be something like five minutes.

It was partially Harry and his hand’s fault for coming up to rest on his husband’s neck so that he could draw Eggsy in, pressing their sides together, and despite the barrier of clothes, Eggsy could feel Harry’s body heat slowly rose.

Harry smiled that smile of his, and Eggsy’s vision blurred as he gladly accepted his defeat.

Their lips kept meeting and separated, sometimes short and soft, other times lingering and tinged with a sea of longing. Mingled breaths and brushes of skin. The smell of Harry’s cologne and Eggsy’s hot chocolate coalesced.

His hands in Harry’s hair, under his shirt, around his narrow waist, leaving a trace of warmth and unabashed desire.

Galaxies could collide and Eggsy wouldn’t give it a single thought.

Slowly, he licked Harry’s bottom lip and gave it a small bite.

Even when Eggsy was seeking comfort for his now burdened back on the couch, his eyes would not leave Harry’s face. A hard task, it seemed, for everywhere he looked, he found love and affection and adoration. He wanted to look away, he wanted to never close his eyes.

“What was that for?” asked Harry, the man didn’t bother to hide the arousal in his voice.

“Popcorn. I wanted to taste some,” lied Eggsy.

Because they had been married for two years, and because he knew who Eggsy was, Harry played along, “Any good?”

Licking his lips, he faked being deep in thoughts, “A tad sweet. What flavour is it?”

“Cheddar cheese and caramel.” Harry put the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, it didn’t fall on the carpet during or after their snog, a blessing he suspected would not come again.

“I thought you hated cheddar cheese?” Eggsy pulled the discarded blanket back on to cover his legs.

“I do. With a passion,” the corner of his lips quirk, “but you like it.”

Puzzled, Eggsy asked, “But I said I was full after that mug of chocolate, how would you- Oh.” It dawned on him that Harry didn’t work as a spy for twenty and some years for nothing.

“Am I that predictable? Have I failed in being a surprise to you now?” He lamented, his hand theatrically came up to cover his face, there was a crocodile tear coming.

“No. It’s actually the opposite. In fact, I find myself being surprised by you every day,” Harry said as he touched Eggsy’s forehead with his, “I guess I’m just an expert in reading the Unwins.”

Eggsy’s hands dropped for him to stare at Harry’s brown eyes, kissing him on the eyelids and nose and cheeks would be ideal right now, but, “I hope you’re not looking forward to graduating?”

“They say learning is something you spend your entire life doing. And I’ve always been a devoted scholar, I’m afraid.” If it was possible, Eggsy would bind his and Harry’s souls together, so that they would keep meeting each other in every future reincarnation. An alarming thought, he realised, but fighting it would be futile.

“You know, when you told me the stories of soulmates,” he lowered his eyes to look at their entwined fingers, “it came to me that in some universes, what if you didn’t find me? What if you were just a stranger that I would walk past on the streets? I suddenly pity the Gary Unwin that misses his Harry Hart.”

He heard Harry inhale and exhale, twice, before saying, “What if I kept finding you but you didn’t choose me? Because I assure you, Eggsy, that it’d be hopelessly moronic of me to disregard you.”

“Then I’d choose you, Harry. I chose, choose, and will always choose to be with you.”

“Good,” he pressed his lips on the top of Eggsy’s head, “now we can get back to watching this boring movie that I like so much.” He shuffled his legs, rearranging them to a suitable position, and when he was satisfied, looked up to Eggsy and smiled.

“It’s not boring,” huffed Eggsy.

“Are you sure?”

“If it’s something you like, then it must be the most attractive, appealing, and captivating thing in the world.”

“Pride is a deadly sin, didn’t you know?” laughed Harry.

His scrunched up nose, the swaying curls on his forehead, his thin lips, the lines on his face, the dimples that appeared whenever he was happy. Eggsy meticulously memorised each one.

“Yeah,” he nodded. On the screen, the song Once upon a December was playing, Anastasia was remembering her past as a princess.

In their living room, Eggsy smiled sheepishly and touched Harry’s cheeks, “I’m afraid you’ll have to bear with me for the rest of your life.”

Leaning on Eggsy’s palm with close-lidded eyes, Harry promised, “It’d be my privilege.”

#hartwin #harry hart #kingsman #eggsy unwin #hartwin fic #christmas #fluff #so much fluffy #*tara writes #*myhartwinfics #the other me and the other you #There are hints for the main plot of TOM&TOY #its abbreviation is so funny wtf

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alexrideraddict · 5 years ago

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HEY SOCKS: DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ NIGHTSHADE!!!

[This is quite long but I believe this book deserves all this praise. Please read! There are NO SPOILERS!]

It BLEW MY MIND by how much it completely surpassed my expectations. Now I know most of us are most familiar and devoted to the early iconic AR novels, the ones with TONS of explosions and gunfire and witty puns and banter. In my opinion as the series went on some novels were more boring; it felt like the same thing each new book. (Crocodile Tears for example, I thought didn’t add much of substance.) I loved Scorpia but Scorpia Rising felt like scattered, leftover pieces of a storyline. I was super glad when Never Say Die came out, continuing the series chronologically, but the book was kind of a bummer for me because it felt formulaic, the same thing over again. It felt like AH was just dragging the storyline along.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all the action scenes even if some seem repetitive in certain novels, but what I feel truly makes an AR book amazing is seeing Alex as a person, not just a spy. When you can feel Alex’s inner turmoil or sense of betrayal, like in Scorpia or even Snakehead with Ash, that’s what makes a novel great. Alex going over to Yassen at the end of Eagle Strike and accompanying him in his final moments spoke volumes about who he was as a person. The best Alex Rider books involve something personal to Alex where he shows his own character.

Enter Nightshade.

First off, we have a new criminal organization. I must say that Scorpia pales in comparison to Nightshade. (This isn’t a spoiler, it’s made clear from the beginning, even in the end of Never Say Die:) Nightshade uses children, which I think draws a stark comparison between them and MI6 with Alex. A huge tenet of the AR series is children being used in dark situations like spying, killing, etc. I think this new agency rings true to a this central topic of the series, all the more fitting for this agency to take hold in the storyline. Overall it’s like Scorpia but hitting closer to home for Alex because of the similar ages.

This also means some of the main antagonists are Alex’s age. I won’t get too much into it here since many of you may not have read it yet but let’s just say that the dynamic between a teen spy and teen killer(s) is much different than one of a teen spy and power-hungry old guy who wants to take over the world (a.k.a. the main villain of basically every other AR novel lol).

What I love most about this novel is that you see Alex’s character, his compassion even in the most unlikely circumstances, his care for people both close to him and even enemies. I don’t think any other novel illustrates this as much as Nightshade, not even close. And I think there’s a good reason earlier novels didn’t: when Alex first starts going on missions, he’s a little bit cocky and a smart-ass (all those iconic insults!). It’s not until much later in the series, especially Scorpia Rising, where we see the traumatizing toll his work has taken on him. Alex has grown up. Of course, there’s still some golden sassy one-liners in Nightshade, but my impression of Alex in Nightshade was one who was more cautious and careful, aware of repercussions, and thoughtful. There’s a hilarious chapter where he manages to cause a ton of chaos but overall, he wants to minimize who gets hurt. There’s definitely a shift in Alex that’s different from the most early novels, but I think it’s a good change that really shows his increased maturity and experience and takes the storyline to even greater heights.

Second, the plot itself is paced superbly and you don’t want to put the book down. The plot is interesting and this novel really does a great job of putting in foreshadowing that doesn’t hit you until the moment it is used and you just go “wow so THAT’S what it was for!” There’s less explosions/fighting than previous novels, but I didn’t mind because it goes with how Alex wants to minimize chaos. I was literally holding my breath for certain scenes. What really makes this story pop is how in certain scenes, I didn’t really know what Alex was going to do next. Once again, he shows his own character by some of the decisions he makes. Overall, though, I believe the storyline in Nightshade is way more well-constructed than most of the books in the series. The foreshadowing is awesome, when Alex gets out of certain situations it’s never in a cheap, deus-ex-machina way. This novel is quintessentially Alex 100%. That’s what I love about it.

Third, you get to learn so much about MI6. Granted, MI6 is much different in this novel compared to previous ones due to Smithers and Blunt leaving earlier, so it’s basically just Mrs. Jones and Crawley. But you get to see a much more human side of them and their personalities, and MI6′s weakness at times. You learn SO MUCH about Mrs. Jones, and I’m really glad her story is becoming much more prominent in the overall storyline as it really ties the constant key players from the start of the series together now as time has passed. Personally, I’ve always kind of loved Crawley and he really shines in this novel as he has a much more prominent role. Something new I learned this book was that Crawley has ATTITUDE(!!) and is overall, a badass. #stancrawley

Fourth, this book highlights Alex and Tom’s friendship better than any other novel, even Scorpia in my opinion. Tom is also a badass, that’s all I’m gonna say. (Jack is also a badass, but let’s be honest, we knew that already since Stormbreaker.) Nightshade also highlights Jack and Alex’s relationship and overall, the bonds between everyone in this series. (Not rly a spoiler since it doesn’t have anything to do with the plot but there’s not even a mention of Sabina in this book but honestly I breathed a sigh of relief at that. Thank god we’ve escaped from her at last.)

Lastly, the book really does take a new direction for the overarching Alex Rider storyline. There’s the organization of Nightshade and a bunch of new characters introduced, mostly antagonists. BUT THEY’RE ALL HIGHLY INTERESTING GREAT CHARACTERS THAT YOU WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT!! Early AR novels gave us the icons Yassen Gregorovich and Julius Grief, now Nightshade has given us ****** ****. (<-- not trying to give spoilers so once you have finished the book, figure out the name that spells this. Hint: monkey toy) This character has filled the hole in my soul that Yassen and Julius left. If you’re looking for a new baddie to appreciate, look no further than that guy. (I rly do be shipping him with Alex...)

Basically, this Nightshade book has given me newfound hope in the continuation of the series. (Never Say Die took away this hope big time but it’s all back now!) I have been reminded of why I love this series from reading this book. Nightshade has everything you want in an AR novel but with deeper meaning and connections between characters. Anthony Horowitz, I forgive you for the infamous crime of the Fox/Wolf identity mishap; you have proven yourself with this book. I am so excited for the future of this series after seeing how good this book turned out.

IN CONCLUSION, IF YOU LOVE ALEX RIDER PLEASE READ NIGHTSHADE ASAP. IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO WARRANT ME WRITING A WHOLE ESSAY HERE ON WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT!! REBLOG AND SPREAD THE WORD, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, GO READ NIGHTSHADE!!!

#alex rider #alexrider #nightshade #anthony horowitz #alex rider tv #new book #new books #book review #review

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blog-sliverofjade · 4 years ago

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Of Doms & Subs 4: Bribery Will Get You Everywhere

Pairing: Angus Hopper x OFC

Summary: What's a submissive female to do when she fights her nature and goes on the run as a Lone wolf to avoid being assimilated into a pack?

Word count: 2315

Of Doms & Subs Master List

Sleeping in was something I used to enjoy. Nestled in warm sheets while the world outside continued to turn, safe in a cozy cocoon. After the Change, it was no longer so peaceful. Although the house was decently soundproofed for humans, I could hear water running as someone showered. The buzz of an electric razor. Clinking of dishes in the kitchen. After ten minutes of hiding with a pillow over my head, I gave up and burrowed out of the nest of blankets. I was just pulling my shirt on when Mickayla knocked. A thrill of pride ran through me for recognizing her scent. I was getting better at this!

“Mornin’,” I called out and she came in at the tone of invitation in my greeting.

“How was your little adventure last night?” she grinned.

“Mortifying,” I grumped while tugging a brush through my hair.

“So if I tell you that there’s a betting pool on when you’d make a break for it we can see if werewolves die of embarrassment?” Her grin deepened to flash a lot of pretty, white teeth.

“How about you give me a cut and I don’t throw my dirty, wet socks in your face?” I started to reach for the duffel full of dirty clothes. She laughed and handed me a couple of bills, which I stuffed into a pocket without counting. “Next time let me know, I’m not above taking a fall.”

“There’s going to be a next time?” A perfectly plucked eyebrow rose.

“Eugene and Seattle aren’t all that far.” I turned away to wrestle my hair into a ponytail. One look in the mirror confirmed that there was no hiding the marks from Angus’ bite, so might as well own it. “I’m sure I could get a babysitter to come with.” There, that barely had any bitterness to it.

“Don’t think of it that way,” she shook her head so that the blonde waves swayed back and forth. “Think of it more like sexy bodyguards.” I laughed in spite of myself. “Speaking of which.” There was a glint in her sea-blue eyes that suddenly made me very suspicious. “You’ll want to swear off humans for awhile until you get used to your new strength. Don’t want to break your toys.”

I stared at her in confusion until comprehension crashed over me, immediately followed by a furious blush. “That is certainly not an issue. Happily single since the divorce became final last year.”

“Ah,” said Mickayla knowingly, and I belatedly remembered with no small amount of chagrin that she was a therapist. “That’s why you’re so determined to not get involved with a pack. Too much commitment.”

“Ugh, it’s too early for psychoanalysis,” I groaned, rubbing at my face.

“Come on, cranky pants, let’s get you some breakfast. New wolves are kinda like kids. If they’re cranky, do they need food or sleep? Antsy? Then they need to go run off some energy.” She linked her arm and in mine as we set off for the kitchen.

“Gee, thanks for that glowing comparison,” I said snidely.

“And in your case, maybe caffeine.”

“Give me tea and nobody gets hurt,” I pronounced solemnly.

“Threatening bodily harm before nine am, are you sure she’s submissive?” asked a man who had come out of a room behind us, also evidently on the hunt for breakfast.

“Watch this.” Mickayla fixed me with a glare and before I even knew it my neck bent against my will till my throat was bared to her. And she hadn’t even drawn on any power. I glared at her from the corner of my eye and my face grew flaming hot.

“I wanna try,” he said. I met his dark brown eyes with no small amount of anger that he thought he could control me so easily. “How? I’m more dominant than you,” he sputtered at Mickayla in confusion. She laughed and wrapped an arm around each of our shoulders.

“She doesn’t know or respect you, Brian. Neither her or her wolf are gonna roll over for some stranger unless he seriously pulls rank. Do you think Alan would for just any old wolf?” she asked the somewhat forlorn wolf.

“Who’s Alan?” At the stairs, Mickayla released us and led the way down with Brian in back so that I was sandwiched between them. It seemed automatic, like their instincts to protect subtly guided their movements.

“Our submissive and resident quack,” Brian answered. I automatically started to bristle at labeling any healer with such an epithet. That thought was pushed out when it occurred to me that if they had both a submissive and a female, then they probably had no need of another.

“I’d like to see you call him that the next time he has to patch you up,” she said dryly.

The kitchen was sized and equipped to feed a small army. Come to think of it, was there any difference between that and a pack? People moved in vaguely organized chaos, piling plates with bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, and various baked goods before moving to the dining room on the far side. Mickayla reached around someone, who was busy wrestling the Danish that he wanted from the rest of the basket, grabbed two plates and handed one to me. Being small meant I could easily dart around and through people to get in and out quickly, but I had no idea what the protocol was for seating arrangements so I stuck close to Mickayla and Matt, who’d joined us.

I had never seen a dining table so big, at least a dozen people were already sitting and there was room for more. It was obviously custom made. The kitchen also had a table that was pushed up against the main one so that everyone could be seated. I gave Mickayla raised eyebrows in question.

“You get our fearless leader’s right hand side. Normally that’s Tom’s, Angus’ second, but since he’s not here you get it as our honoured guest,” she said with only a hint of teasing. I gave her a grateful look before taking the seat in question. I stifled my surprise when she and Matt sat to my left. Evidently they were high in the hierarchy to sit next to the second, which I thought was a silly term when Beta would have made much more sense.

“Shane and Matt will be ready to hit the road by 10:30,” Angus said casually after I’d made some headway into my meal, trying my best to ignore him. Why he thought I’d be safer with two strange werewolves than on my own, I would never understand. But Matt couldn’t be all bad if Mickayla had married him.

“So soon?” I asked just as casually as I liberally doused my hashbrowns with salt and pepper. “I thought I might stick around and get to know ya’ll better. If I have to give up my job, there’s not much of a reason to go back to Oregon right away. Unless that would be an issue?” Put two or more intelligent beings in a room together and politics could spontaneously erupt in a vacuum. Visiting a pack in another state before even meeting the one back home could potentially cause more than an eruption.

The room went eerily silent as the others waited to see what their Alpha would say. Most of them seemed to be mildly surprised and curious. I was pretty sure they had all noticed the mark on my neck, but no one had said anything nor given it a second glance. Despite the weird fluttery feeling of fear in my chest, I managed to actually look him in the face. Not the eye, of course, but his strong chin, which was one of his few physical aspects that said Alpha. Maybe that was because I always had trouble seeing men with weak chins as dominant.

“The Eugene Pack was hard-pressed to welcome you on such short notice, so no feathers will be ruffled. And despite what that crazy lone wolf might have put in your head, you are free to travel.” He gave a small smile that eased some of the tension that had somehow crept into my shoulders. I was no Helen of Troy, but the apparent rarity of submissive females and the territoriality of werewolves could create a powder keg waiting to go off. As much as I enjoyed yanking his chain, any fallout could affect both packs and they didn’t deserve that.

Mickayla made a “gimme” gesture at Brian, who sat a few seats down from her. He sighed and handed her a twenty-dollar bill. “Haven’t you learned not to bet against my mate yet?” Matt shook his head.

“Hey, didn’t she only go out with you because of a bet?” Brian retorted.

“Yeah, and even though I won, I still ended up losing,” Mickayla said with mock ruefulness. The banter and round of chuckles said that it was an old joke.

“Speaking of sore losers,” I said to her with a pointed look, “I have some wet, dirty socks in dire need of a wash if there’s a washing machine I could use?”

“I’ll show you where we keep our poor beleaguered beast chained up in the basement,” Shane offered as he stood up with his empty plate. I followed suit since I was done as well. Mickayla surreptitiously slipped me a tenner as I passed, which immediately went into my back pocket.

“Don’t scare the poor girl!” someone called out.

“Eh, she’s seen your face and it hasn’t run her off yet.” The teasing faded only slightly as I tagged along behind Shane.

“O captain, my captain,” Mickayla said without a trace of mockery. There never was with her. “If I may beg an audience?” I nodded with a small smile that conveyed exactly what I thought of her false formality.

“Since it’s our duty to woo the new girl, some of us were thinking of showing her around town,” Mickayla said once we were ensconced in my office. I had a suspicion that the others she was thinking of had no inkling of their implication in her plotting yet.

“Considering how she navigated rush hour traffic to evade Tom, I’d say she knows the area pretty well.” Neither the wolf nor I liked the idea of Ellie leaving our sight. I propped one hip on my desk without a care that it put my head slightly lower than if I were standing. Like most of my wolves, she was taller than me anyway and she had never been anything other than proper. Oh sure, she would skirt the bounds of propriety when the situation allowed for it, but never in a manner that would call my authority into question.

“It might be good for her to get out and see that we’re not as draconian as that John made us out to be.” Translation: prove to her she’s not going to lose all of her freedom or she’ll bolt again.

“If you are going to manipulate me, you’re going to have to do a better job than that.” While her point was valid, I was not about to let her think I would cave so easily.

“You can talk at her until you’re blue in the face, but she won’t understand the benefits of a pack until she sees it,” said Mickayla. “She’s only staying because the evil that you know is better and partly to tweak your tail.” I raised an eyebrow at that observation. “Ellie’s a modern woman suddenly thrown into submissive wolf mentality and those instincts scare the daylight out of her. So she’s going to make us all work for it before she settles down.”

“Dominance is dictated by a person’s nature before the Change,” I shook my head. “She’s submissive because she was as a human.”

“I think her ex-husband did a number on her, or maybe John, or both,” she said with a small frown, which I mirrored at the thought of what might have happened to her. “That’s why she’s so prickly with any male who tries to play power games with her, like verbally bitch-slapping the guys last night. If she can relax where there aren’t so many wolves, she might tell me more.”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked after regarding her thoughtfully for several beats. Part of that time was spent contemplating tearing apart Ellie’s ex.

“Hit Pike’s Place until she realizes she’s not ready for so much public. One or two of us should be able to help her keep control.” Mickayla’s smile was far too predatory to belong on the face of a therapist.

“One of the biggest tourist traps on a three-day weekend?” I asked in disbelief and gave her the look that idea deserved.

“She still thinks of herself as human and she’s likely to screw up pretty badly until she sees that. The sooner we get that out of the way, the sooner she might calm down,” she pointed out.

“Take Matt and Shane with you,” I sighed and waved at her to go. Not only were they good muscle, but they were both married, even if Shane’s wife was human.

“Technically this is pack business, especially since she would work well with Alan, both as a medic and a sub.” If she’d said anyone other than Alan, my hackles would’ve gone up. Their temperaments, although both being submissive, weren’t suited for mating. And I got the feeling that Ellie liked her men dominant, despite what she may say. I affected a much put-upon sigh, drew out my wallet, selected a credit card, and passed it to the blonde. She accepted it with both hands, kissed the simple ring on my middle finger, then flashed a smile and a wink before dashing off to find her charge.

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thoseflashinggreeneyes · 5 years ago

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Some of the queerest lyrics on Lover

I’m still in the early stages of listening to the album, but wanted to do a quick compilation of lyrics that stand out to me as particularly queer. Lots of folks have been asking me for this, so here they are, along with explanations geared toward people who don’t spend a ton of time on Kaylor tumblr for easy sharing with your more skeptical friends. ;) Enjoy!

“Cruel Summer”

“Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price, you know that I bought it” -- refers to bearding contracts where men are literally paid to be Taylor’s public boyfriends, whether in money or publicity, songwriting credits, etc. Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris are the most obvious examples of these.

“I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you” -- What about J*e is (or ever has been) secret? She’s been dating him publicly since October of 2016, the month after she supposedly broke up with Tom. He’s a straight white guy. No one has any objection to him except that he’s boring. If this relationship is real, what secrets, exactly, is Swift keeping?

“And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate.” -- Guess whose apartment has a garden gate? Correct. Karlie Kloss.

“The Man”

“What’s it like to brag about raking in dollars and getting bitches and models?” -- The conceit of this song is not what Taylor would do if she were a man, but how she would be treated if she did the exact same things she does now. So…bragging about sleeping with models? Noted.

“I Think He Knows”

“His hands around a cold glass make me want to know that body like it’s mine” -- Leaving aside the male pronoun (sigh), the word “mine” has two meanings here: I want to know your body like it belongs to me, and I want to know your body as well as I know my own. The second thing could work for a male body, but boy does the lyric make more sense if she’s dating a woman.

“He got my heartbeat skipping down 16th Avenue” -- This line refers to Music Row in Nashville (she’s writing songs about her lover, so good), but it’s also another street: The main drag (pun intended) of the fictional gay town from Taylor’s “You Need to Calm Down” video. Why would a straight guy make her heart pitter patter down a gay gay street?

(Credit @dixiechicksswift for this one)

“Paper Rings”

Not my fav song tbh, but it undoubtedly hits on several queer themes in Taylor’s work: going from friends to something more, picture frames (a motif from “How You Get the Girl,” a Very Gay Song), and substituting the public jewelry you could wear with a public (straight) partner for the symbolic jewelry you wear with a private (queer) partner, i.e. “picture of your face in an invisible locket,” a lyric from additional Very Gay Song “Dancing With Our Hands Tied.”

“Cornelia Street”

One of Taylor’s three solo writing credits on the album, a gorgeous love song without a hint of no homo. Taylor’s Cornelia Street rental was frequently visited by -- you guessed it -- Karlie Kloss.

“Baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name.” This could be a reference to any city where you have a meaningful relationship, but it’s another level when the city is New York and Karlie is regularly on billboards in Times Square.

“Jacket ‘round my shoulders is yours” -- I absolutely love how this lyric takes a straight trope (a man giving a woman his jacket) and puts a queer twist on it -- girlfriends sharing clothes.

“Barefoot in the kitchen” -- Taylor and Karlie famously love to bake together, and baking has been a big motif of this era, including sweet treats on Taylor’s insta and baking videos in the “Lover” lyric video.

There are 13 seconds of silence at the end of this track -- to my mind, this means that Taylor is telling us there’s something she’s not telling us.

“False God”

This track continues the theme of Taylor’s lover being her religion that she began so skillfully on “Don’t Blame Me.” When you think about relationships that religion frowns upon, what kind of relationships do you think about?

“Religion’s in your lips...the altar is my hips” -- Um, guys. Guys. Hey. Guys.

“You’re the West Village” -- If you’re wondering whether Karlie’s apartment (you know, the one with the garden gate) was in the West Village, do you really have to ask? (It was.)

“Afterglow”

“Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves” -- Karlie and Taylor famously had a (very sexy) boxing match in the “Bad Blood” video.

“It’s Nice to Have a Friend”

This dreamy little track chronicles the progression of a childhood friendship into a mature romance. The song is very feminine, with moments like “Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand” (paralleled in “Gorgeous”), and as Jill Gutowitz pointed out, it literally replays the plot of Carol. Also, this:

“Have my back, yeah every day” (credit @karlies for this one)

“Daylight”

What really got me on this track was the spoken outro, where Taylor says, “I want to be defined by the things I love.” To me, this is so, so powerful. For queer people, being defined by who we love can be scary and dangerous. It can mean being kicked out of our homes, fired from our jobs, or even murdered. But at the end of the day, it’s such a beautiful way to identify ourselves and our community. We are who we are because of who we love. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing. And I absolutely adore Taylor for saying so, even if she’s not ready to say it about herself just yet.

#lover #kaylor #gaylor

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childotkw · 5 years ago

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Can you give us a snippet of what would happened if Hadrian hadn't had a plan and there wasn't a doppelganger when Tom took his mother? Love ya😘💖

(I know exactly what you were looking for, but I was toying with this plot idea for a while before going the doppelganger route, so you can have this instead of a different office scene. It’s very rushed, about twenty minutes of frantic brain strain, but it covers the basic idea I wanted to get across. )

"You look like you’re in a spot of trouble.” A voice said, the barest hints of an accent curling around the words.

Hadrian blinked, looking up at the figure standing before him, hands tucked in his pockets and red eyes somehow entirely sincere. He tensed, and the vampire tipped an amused smile at him. “Hello, Hadrian.” He said, then gestured at the space next to him on the bench, “May I sit?”

Hadrian didn’t reply, still thrown by the other’s presence and his apparent knowledge of Hadrian’s name. Unfortunately, the vampire took his silence as permission. He sighed quietly as he settled, crossing his legs, one ankle resting on the opposite knee. “What a day. I hadn’t expected to actually meet France’s Triwizard champion so soon.”

“Implying we would meet one day at all.” Hadrian said without thought, trying to tear his eyes away from the slope of the vampire’s nose and the dimple that appeared when he smiled.

“Well, you never know.” The vampire laughed, eyes crinkling, and even the colour of them did nothing but provoke a distant kind of wariness in Hadrian. The vampire must have eaten only hours ago, to have eyes that red. “But I have something to discuss with you. You see, I have been following you with some interest since your debut in the tournament, and I couldn’t help but notice when a certain Dark Lord absconded with your sweet mother.”

Hadrian moved to stand, incensed, but the vampire reached out and tugged him back into place with a display of unnatural strength.

“Let me go,” Hadrian spat, his heart pounding. They weren’t on a main street, but there were still people about, and yet none of them were looking.

“No,” the vampire replied, pulling until he could wrap a steel arm around Hadrian and lock him in place beside him. “Settle down. You’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

“Maybe I’d be more likely to if you weren’t staring at my neck.” Hadrian snarled.

“Maybe I wouldn’t stare if your pulse wasn’t running so fast. But you have no need to fear. I’m not particularly hungry right now.” The vampire looked up from Hadrian’s jugular to his eyes, catching him and holding him there.

He wasn’t glamoured, Hadrian would have felt the foreign presence if the vampire tried, but there was something mesmerising either way about those eyes.

“Now then, in my society, when someone takes something that belongs to you, you take it back. I was going to just stand back and watch how you would retaliate, but knowing you, it would have involved something either exceptionally dangerous, or exceptionally stupid.”

Hadrian couldn’t even bring himself to be offended, because he did have a habit of acting rashly when his mother was threatened.

“And since I can’t have you dying, I have decided to offer my assistance in reclaiming your mother.”

“And why would you do that?” Hadrian asked, suspicious and agitated in equal measure.

“The same reason I do anything,” the vampire replied, leaning forward and gently pressing his nose against Hadrian jaw, dropping his voice right into a whisper. “A break from the monotony. History is so boring when you’re a passive spectator. I like being in the action. Influencing the events, the people. It makes life more interesting for me. And you, Hadrian, well - you’re proving to be very interesting.”

“You’ll be going against the Dark Lord,” Hadrian murmured, disturbed at having a predator so close to his throat. This hadn’t been what he expected when he had first seen the man, and his mind was rushing to understand just how this would play out.

Vampires were notoriously wily, but their word was their law. And they were ridiculously strong. If he could secure a deal...

“A Dark Lord,” the vampire said, tone coy, like he held a secret. “The thing about Lords of Magic is that there will always be another one right around the corner.” He pulled back, staring at Hadrian with half-lidded, enticing eyes. “I’ve lived a long time, child, and I’ve survived by always knowing which way the wind was blowing. Voldemort doesn’t interest me. You do. So what do you say?”

#anonymous #consuming shadows #AU of an AU

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bonnieiscool · 5 years ago

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Butterfly Affect AU

Plot

In theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.

Well when the Future Tom and Matt went back to stop Matt from changing everything the may have messed up a bit. They had forgotten to lock Edd’s cell and he escaped again, grabbing the backup’s backup future time machine and a much more simple laser gun. He thought that if young him was smart enough he would have to go back a kill an even younger him.. He didn’t want it to come to this yet it still did.

Once he was back he was immediately face to face with Matt and Tom, who were just as shocked as him. He immediately turned around and ran away from the two, going over to a crosswalk that had enough people to hide him. The others were quick to catch him and were able to tackle him down. This had mad Edd accidentally pushed the lady in front of them onto the crosswalk right as a car past.

The three’s eye widen and they all started to freak out using the time machine that Tom and Matt had to go back to the future. They all knew if the police had gotten to them they would have had to come clean about being from the future and god know the experiments they would have to go through.

That day was the day of the second grade art contest.. The student’s teacher never came in and the so many students where looking up to this. The only teacher the school had available was the kindergarten one, so they then them to the class to judge the students art.

That day Edd was still the one to earn first place, but so was Eduardo. The two boy’s are rivaled for first place. Edd offered first Place to Eduardo but.. He didn’t accept it, he had actually insist Edd be the one to take it for being kind to the other. This repeated several times until the two started to get violent towards each other. In the end the teacher just recommend that the two just share first place, so they did!

This would be the first change in this universe.

Characters-

Main Crew

Edward “Edd” Golden-

Edd is the nicest guy you will meet ever. That is if you don’t actually get to know him. When you first meet Edd he puts on this little nice persona, one that will fool you into thinking he’s that one innocent artist that has never sinned.

Well he has. Edd out of this persona is that troll that’s just trying to test your Patience.

Eduardo “Eddie” Gonzalez-

This guy is actually a small bean that can get angered easily. Like the littlest things get him pissed off or mad, but he takes it all out on his room wall, which they had to replace. But that’s not him all the time, he is can actually be nice of you are nice back. He’ll make you cupcakes man.

Matthew “Matt” Hearthgrave-

Matt is.. Matt is actually married to himself, he has the ring to prove it. Though he may love himself a lot he also loves his friends, that’s why he’s out every night working his ass off to try and help pay off the house. You never see him in the morning, He’s most likely asleep at this moment.

T.M.-

Now this boy is a part of an unstable fusion between Tom and Mark. T.M. is were Tom is in mostly in control. Now T.M. is very, very rude. He will insult you if you give him the tiniest of bad vibes. Let’s not talk about the increase of his sassy.

M.T. -

M.T. is a mom. This is when Mark is in control and oh my god. He got all of the compassion and he tries he goddamn hardest to make sure everyone is okay. He worries about Matt the most, despite T.M. hating him. He’s not as sassy as before but there is still a hint in there somewhere.

ꍟ̴͉̿��̜͉̪̭̻ꋪ̴̡͉͎̭̗̤͎̲ꋪ̴̧͖̱̖̠͋̃̈́́̔̕͘͜͝ꂦ̸̡͙̳̞͕̥͆͒ꋪ̷̼̣̗̯̔̆̎̓̔̅͊̾͂̕-

Do not, and I mean do not get anywhere near him when they are completely fused. They are very unstable and can turn into a beast, they have before when they first fused. So far there is no way to calm him down from this state. When Mark and Tom first fused they were like this but as soon as Tord touched his shoulder he went berserk and changed into a monster that Tord refuses to talk about.

Todd Lowsen-

Todd is- orwell was Mark’s australian boyfriend. He is the sweetest capitalist you will ever meet. No he doesn’t have the brains to be as smart as Tord but he does have, glasses so he looks like he is. He will act like a a father to all of his roommates because he basically is. Also low key has a crush on Eduardo but he doesn’t wanna day anything to mess up their relationship.

Ghosts

Jon Valentine-

Jon is a cold blooded leader who only cares for those who he sees useful. He’s like- if he had a choice to save you he wouldn’t. Instead he would push you off while calling you a useless toy. No one knows his real motives are or if he has any real emotions for that matter.

Tord Larkersen-

Tord is a double crossing no good very bad guy. Which is why he is Jon’s right hand man. He may live with the guys but that’s because he’s there, in charge of keeping an eye on the fusion. He has to give daily reports to Jon if something bad were to happen. Of course he originally did truly care for the others, but ever since he saw beast he knew that it would be dangerous to just let it roam around like it’s nothing.

Paul Vore-

Okay, so imagine Eduardo but not as sweet and a bit taller. He’s an angry normal sized man and is determined to take care of all of the soldiers as if they were his own children, especially Tord. He is the co-pilot to his to his loving husband.

Patryck Vore-

Three words, “Mother Bean Stick.” Patryck is a natural worried guy, the thing is he doesn’t really worry about himself. The people who he cares about are number one to him. Now when you first meet him he will often be cold to you and won’t allow you to even let you talk to anyone until you pass his test.

Neighbors

Laurel Jameson-

This is the sweetest jealous hoe you will ever meet. She was Eduardo’s ex-girlfriend for two years and never really got over him. So she moved in next door and is constantly trying to steal him back from Edd, who she hates more than anything in the world.

Diwi Jackson-

[c]Diwi is a chill laid back guy who only lives there because the rent was cheap. He often goes over to Edd’s house to hang out with his best buddy Todd and maybe the others. Laurel hates him too.

Larry Bong-

[c]Okay so if you take depressed and tired of Bing’s shit and smash it together this is who you get. Larry is stress because s the one who does all of the cooking, cleaning, and worrying. He’s like, normally he’s tired but when he sees Bing he gets extra tired. The only reason he puts up with him because they are cousins.

Bing Bong-

[c]This fucker right here is the craziest little shit you will ever meet. Like he has a secret lab under the house that only Larry and him knows about. He has cloned his neighbors and his roommates on more than one occasion. Laurel keeps him around because she gets to be featured in any crazy ass movie he makes.

#eddsworld #eddsworld au #ew todd #ew jon #ew eduardo #ew mark #ew tom #ew matt #ew edd #ew tord #ew laurel #ew diwi #ew bing #butterfly affect au

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valarhalla · 6 years ago

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Every Del Toro Film Explained

(I’m not going to try to actually rank these because that would require me to pit the Fun Del Toro’s against the Sad Del Toro’s. Anyway.)

Cronos:

The “sad old man becomes a vampire and licks a bathroom floor” movie.This film definitely makes a lot of WEIRD adaptational choices, but there’s hints of future brilliance- the last scene in particular far outshines the rest of the film. Warnings for gratuitous sink licking (what is it with del torro and goddamn bathroom sinks. Anyway). Worth seeking out if you’re a big fan interested in del Toro’s early work, otherwise probably give it a miss.

Mimic

The giant cockroach movie. AHAHAHAHAHA seriously don’t watch the self-professed “best giant cockroach movie ever made” unless you’re a total del Toro die-hard. If you are, use alccohol to get through it and console yourself afterwards with all the hilariously entertaining anecdotes about why this film was such a flying trainwreck.

The Devil’s Backbone

The “pickled baby juice in the spanish civil war” movie. Oh god, this film. It’s one of his very best, but dear god look up the warnings first, because the entire thing is about people being trying to murder an orphanage full of genuinely sweet defenseless children and the villain makes the captain from Pan’s Labyrinth seem like Mr Rogers by comparison. But if you can stomach it, it’s fantastic. Basically I WANT to watch it again, but I’m not sure I can ever bring myself to. Goddamn pickled baby juice speech.

Blade II

The movie with Blade in it. This is the most forgettable del Toro film, but it does include Ryan Reynolds shouting “YOU COCK-JUGGLING THUNDERCUNTS”” at one point.

Pan’s Labyrinth

I’m not even going to try and come up with a goofy tagline, it’s Pan’s goddamn Labyrinth, you’ve either seen it or you need to. Urgently.

Hellboy

The one with the mecha-villains. It’s not nearly as fun as the second one, but Hellboy has a lengthy fight scene purely to rescue a box of kittens and the main villain is resurrected Rasputin with a gun for an arm. How can you say no to a movie that has mecha-Rasputin in it?

Hellboy II

The one with the most terrifying tooth fairies of all time and also hot elves and Barry Manilow. This film is the directorial equivalent of dumping out the entire toybox onto the rug and gleefully making every toy fight every other at the same time. This is my favourite fun movie ever and probably the single movie I’ve seen the most times- there’s a sexy elf prince who fight shirtless, a lengthy homage to studio ghibli, a romance between a princess and and an alien, some genuine horror, twincest, steampunk elements, jawdroppingly gorgeous set pieces, and a scene where Hellboy and Abe Sapien get drunk and sing Barry Manilow together… Sure the plot has holes so big you can drive a truck through them, but when it’s this fun and this pretty, who the hell cares?

Pacific Rim

The “flying giant mecha robot kills a kaiju with a fucknig retractable sword” movie. If you don’t like this movie there’s something deeply wrong with you, sorry, that’s just the facts. It’s Pacific Rim, it’s probably the most unabashedly, gleefully fun film ever made.

Crimson Peak

The “you married this weird creepy goth played by tom hiddlestone who lives in a decrepit mansion full of creepy dolls who’s clearly fucking his crazy sister and the earth looks like it’s bleeding? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT”movie. This has to be one of the most aesthetically goddamn beautiful films ever; seriously, the visuals and setpieces and costumes have to be seen to be believed. The story is nothing special, but it’s interesting enough to keep you guessing until the very end and a solid popcorn monster movie. Highly recommended, especially for goths. Beware the bathroom sink scene.

The Shape of Water

The Fish Banging movie. Don’t know what I can say about this one that hasn’t already been said, it’s incredible and deserves far better than being known as “the fish banging movie” and I feel bad for calling it that.

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itspeterparkermanthings-blog · 6 years ago

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‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is the most anticipated summer blockbuster

It seems like it’s going to be another Marvel-ous summer time on the field office, based on the consequences of Fandango’s most current survey of fanatics about what they’re maximum excited to peer at the large display among now and Labor Day.

The Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: Far From Home – the primary addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the launch of the era-defining Avengers: Endgame that’s coming on July 2 – turned into voted by using Fandango enthusiasts because the blockbuster they’re maximum looking ahead to.

Spider Man Far From Home Full Movie Online

That’s probably to be predicted, given the nature of the famous person-packed Endgame that marked a seminal moment in famous lifestyle and tied together nearly dozen previously released, interconnected movies. “Spider-Man: Far from Home is the most expected movie of the summer time, due to the resurgence of Spider-Man as a fan favourite on the large screen and its storyline following the events of certainly one of the most important films of all time, Avengers: Endgame,” said Fandango dealing with editor Erik Davis in a declaration about the survey results.

Coming in close behind Spider-Man in phrases of predicted summer season fare, meanwhile, were (so as):

1. Rocketman

2. Godzilla King of the Monsters

3. Dark Phoenix

4. The Lion King

5. Toy Story 4

6. Men in Black: International

7. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

8. Aladdin

9. The Secret Life of Pets 2

“With so many stellar picks every weekend, like the track-fueled Rocketman, and Yesterday, plus circle of relatives-pleasant titles like The Lion King, Aladdin, and The Secret Life of Pets 2, we count on to see summer moviegoers spending more time on the theaters than ever before,” Davis continued.

In phrases of some of the alternative fare that moviegoers are specially enthusiastic about this summer time, here are also Fandango’s findings of the top five most-expected summer season circle of relatives films, in addition to the most expected live-action comedies:

Most Anticipated Summer Family Film:

1. The Lion King

2. Toy Story 4

3. Aladdin

4. The Secret Life of Pets 2

5. Dora and the Lost City of Gold

New Far From Home Posters Highlight Spider-Man, Mysterio & Nick Fury

New Spider-Man: Far From Home posters had been launched, highlighting Spider-Man, Nick Fury, and Mysterio. The upcoming MCU movie is seeing plenty of hype. It's the maximum anticipated summer time blockbuster of 2019, according to a latest Fandango survey.

There's an atmosphere of thriller surrounding Spider-Man: Far From Home. Ever considering the fact that the second trailer premiered, enthusiasts have been discussing the multiverse. According to Nick Fury, Mysterio hails from every other Earth. Taken actually, this opens the door to big new stories. However, seeing that his first look inside the comics, Mysterio has been deceiving others with lies and tricks. Marketing for Marvel movies is aware of the way to conceal sure plot twists, together with the Skrulls now not being the actual antagonists in Captain Marvel, and the Mandarin plot twist in Iron Man 3. We possibly won't pay attention any extra information about the multiverse until launch day, so dialogue will hold.

New Spider-Man: Far From Home posters have been released, highlighting Spider-Man, Nick Fury, and Mysterio. The upcoming MCU movie is seeing a whole lot of hype. It's the most expected summer time blockbuster of 2019, in line with a recent Fandango survey.

There's an ecosystem of thriller surrounding Spider-Man: Far From Home. Ever because the second trailer premiered, fans were discussing the multiverse. According to Nick Fury, Mysterio hails from another Earth. Taken actually, this opens the door to huge new testimonies. However, given that his first look inside the comics, Mysterio has been deceiving others with lies and hints. Marketing for Marvel movies knows how to hide positive plot twists, inclusive of the Skrulls no longer being the authentic antagonists in Captain Marvel, and the Mandarin plot twist in Iron Man three. We probably may not pay attention any more information about the multiverse till release day, so discussion will preserve.

Sony has launched a few new posters for Spider-Man: Far From Home. First, we've got a poster displaying the 3 main characters - Spider-Man, Nick Fury, and Mysterio. There are variations of this poster. The first capabilities Spider-Man's logo in the heritage, and a brighter Europe. The 2nd replaces the Spider-Man emblem with Mysterio's, and a dimmer history. In addition to those, Sony has additionally launched four individual posters providing Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Mysterio, and MJ. Check them all out below.

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scifihorroradventure · 6 years ago

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HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)

When a man (Al Berry) clutching a Halloween mask is admitted to Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins)'s hospital, the man is soon killed by a mysterious stranger, who also kills himself shortly after. Meeting up with the victim's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), Challis decides to look into her father's death and find those responsible. Their search takes them to the headquarters of Silver Shamrock, a company currently selling a line of extremely popular Halloween masks. Challis and Ellie encounter a few other people, toy store owners who sell the masks in their stores, who have come to discuss their next shipments with Shamrock's president - Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy). Ellie is soon kidnapped by Cochran's followers, which turn out to be robots. Capturing Challis as well, Cochran explains that he is a follower of the ancient ways of witchcraft and Halloween's original, darker origins, and is using ancient magicks to pull the ultimate prank - Sacrificing the children who have bought his masks, a sacrifice he demonstrates on the Kupfer family. Escaping his imprisonment, Challis rescues Ellie and the two use Cochran's own technology against him, killing him and burning Silver Shamrock to the ground. Unfortunately, the masks are still being worn by thousands of children and the commercial that activates their magic begins to play...

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is known by a lot of people as that Halloween movie. The unrelated one, the separate one, the one that has nothing to do with the saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Supposedly, the plan was to use Halloween III as a starting point to make the Halloween films a series of unrelated, anthology stories centered around the holiday. Unfortunately, with the original Halloween being an enormous hit and Halloween II only cementing the fact that the series was centered around the white-masked killer, Halloween III was doomed to failure no matter how good the film may or may not have been on its own. And how does it stand as its own film, a story of a believer in ancient magic using Halloween masks to slaughter children? Honestly, it has potential, but it's not perfect. It has a good premise and some genuinely creepy moments, but a lot of scenes are dedicated to Challis and Ellie simply sitting around and talking about how weird everything is. There are times where it almost doesn't even feel like a horror movie and comes across as more of a mystery/thriller type film.

The movie's most chilling sequence is easily when Cochran kills the Kupfer family, with Buddy Jr.'s mask apparently eating his head and releasing a torrent of snakes and insects to kill his parents. Unfortunately, while there are a few other gruesome kills throughout the movie (in fact, all the deaths in this film are surprisingly brutal, even for a horror movie), most of them don't really have the same unsettling supernatural feel as the Kupfer family's death, leaving the film without a lot of stand out horror sequences. Then there is the fact that Cochran's business suit minions are robots and his entire operation is so technology-heavy, with the masks even utilizing computer chips to activate their powers. Considering his plan is about dark magic and witchcraft and the ancient mystic power of Stonehenge, such a heavy emphasis on technology seems odd and out of place. Sure, a robot army can be creepy and all (the concept works perfectly in The Stepford Wives, among others), but why couldn't the henchmen simply be loyal followers of Cochran, or perhaps brainwashed by his power? Why do the masks need computer chips? Scrapings from Stonehenge (which has dark, supernatural properties) are already mixed into the latex, so why can't their death-dealing abilities simply be innate powers of the masks themselves? This doesn't ruin the film by any means, but it does succeed in making Cochran's scheme far more complicated than it needs to be.

Tom Atkins plays the heroic if not slightly sleazy Dr. Challis. A divorced man, he tries to be a good father for his kids but does not succeed, cancelling on them at the drop of a hat anytime something comes up. Though perhaps that isn't fair, as the film doesn't really give us a chance to become familiar with Challis and his family before we get thrust into the main plot. It's almost funny that he gets involved in Ellie's search for the truth so quickly and so heartily considering the police are still investigating her father's death and at the time he has no real reason to believe they won't solve it. Then, of course, there's his penchant for sleeping with a girl so young looking he actually has to ask her how old she is... After he's already had sex with her. This may have been an attempt by the movie to lampshade the age gap between Atkins and Stacey Nelkin, but it's not placed very well and either way it makes the hero a little more 'ew' than was no doubt intended. The aforementioned Nelkin plays Ellie - a pretty young woman looking for her father's killer - well enough, but sadly Ellie's fairly bland as a heroine. Being sad over her father's death is all we really get from her and she disappears for a good chunk of the movie once the final act begins. Once she's seemingly reunited with Challis, the twist that she's actually a robot is a good one, but it raises so many questions - Was she outright replaced by a robot duplicate? Was she turned into a robot? Was she a robot from the beginning (which could arguably be hinted at with "Aren't you just the least bit tired?" "No.")? If she was one of Cochran's robots, why did she help destroy Silver Shamrock, and why didn't she shut down once the control panel was destroyed like all the others? Such a huge twist might've worked better had it happened earlier in the film and was a little more clear as to exactly what the twist was. Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy brings us Conal Cochran, a good and very different villain from Michael Myers. Quiet and intense, he clearly finds joy in the idea of slaughtering untold numbers of innocent children. The scene where he monologues to Challis about the ancient ways of Halloween is captivating and one of the more memorable scenes. His death is a satisfying one, but the close up of his face turning into what looks like aluminum foil probably should've been cut and kept as simple as dying from the laser.

Thankfully, time has been kind to Halloween III. While it was panned upon initial release due to its lack of Michael Myers and overall connection to the first two films (aside from occasionally showing the original Halloween playing on TV...), people have since come to enjoy the film on its own merits. While not the most amazing horror movie, it does deserve this newfound love. The scares, while not plentiful, are effective; the special effects are done well and quite unsettling, and the Silver Shamrock commercial jingle is a tune that will never leave your head after you hear it. While Michael Myers has come back plenty of times, Conal Cochran and his malicious masks have yet to enjoy a revival of their own.

Rating: ★★★ ½

Cast: Tom Atkins ... Dr. Daniel Challis Stacey Nelkin ... Ellie Grimbridge Dan O'Herlihy ... Conal Cochran Ralph Strait ... Buddy Kupfer Jadeen Barbor ... Betty Kupfer Brad Schacter ... Little Buddy Garn Stephens ... Marge Guttman Michael Currie ... Mr. Rafferty Wendy Wessberg ... Teddy Al Berry ... Harry Grimbridge Essex Smith ... Walter Jones Nancy Kyes ... Linda Challis

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace. Prodicer: Barry Bernardi (associate producer), John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Joseph Wolf (executive producer), Irwin Yablans (executive producer), Moustapha Akkad (executive producer, uncredited), and Dino De Laurentiis (executive producer, uncredited). Writer: Tommy Lee Wallace, John Carpenter (uncredited), and Nigel Kneale (uncredited). Music: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth. Special Effects: William Aldridge (assistant), Jon G. Belyeu, Thomas R. Burman (special makeup), John Logan (special makeup effects artist, uncredited), and Don Post (Halloween mask creator).

#halloween iii season of the witch #silver shamrock #halloween #john carpenter #horror #tom atkins #conspiracies #holidays #robots #1980s

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frogbutane57-blog · 6 years ago

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CBR

With ten years of history and nearly two dozen movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has held the attention of its fans steadfastly. Few other cinematic series have lasted as long or had as immediate of an impact on culture and filmmaking. Some of today’s most popular characters, like the Guardians of the Galaxy, were B-list characters at best, with little or no major fan following until their movies were released. Watching the massive increase in popularity for these characters was nothing short of amazing. Suddenly, our favorite characters had the spotlight in a way we’d never imagined!

In the age of the internet, such a major cultural milestone as the MCU is bound to stir up conversation of all kinds, including theories as to the direction of the MCU itself. After every new MCU release, it seems there are unanswered questions, new characters, and limitless possibilities for the future. It doesn’t take long to find lists of theories about what might happen in Avengers 4 and beyond, and what’s fascinating is the possibility that any of those theories may be spot on. Seriously, it’s not that far-fetched. Just take a look at some of the things that have happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. Some of the biggest events started as nothing more than unfounded fan theories. From the roots of some of our favorite heroes to the fates of some of Marvel’s most classic villains, here are just 20 of the fan theories out there that turned out to be exactly right.

RED SKULL SURVIVED

One of the earliest movies in the MCU, Captain America: The First Avenger introduced his infamous nemesis, the Red Skull, to the MCU. As the leader of Hydra, the Red Skull was said to be even more evil than anything we’ve seen before, and was planning the complete takeover of the free world and the regime he represented. At the end of the film, he held the Cosmic Cube, and was seemingly destroyed.

However, many fans theorized that the Cosmic Cube was more than meets the eye — it was the Space Stone. As such, it had likely teleported the Red Skull somewhere else in the universe. Viewers of Avengers: Infinity War would find this theory to become reality when the character returned as an immortal guardian of the Soul Stone.

SPIDER-MAN JOINING THE MCU

One of the other theories that Captain America: Civil War’s announcement caused was that Spider-Man would also be pulled into the MCU somehow. This seemed incredibly unlikely as Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, and had recently suffered losses from the massive flop that Amazing Spider-Man 2 ended up being. But still, Spider-Man played a fairly large role in the Civil War comic event, so fans expected to see him show up.

And show up, he did. Marvel and Sony struck a deal to share the character, and allow Marvel some creative input on Spider-Man’s solo movies. In return, Marvel got to use Spider-Man in any Avengers movies they wanted. He made his first MCU appearance in Captain America: Civil War and continued on in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and will appear again in Avengers 4 and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

STAN LEE IS A WATCHER

For a while, Stan Lee’s cameos were nothing more than fun little jokes within each of the Marvel movies. He’d pop up in any movie, no matter which studio was making it. He’s the only thing that unites all of the various Marvel franchises over the years. Fans came to theorize that his omnipresence across the different films meant that there may be more to the character than meets the eye — he could be a Watcher, one of the aliens who is charged with witnessing the important events that occur throughout history.

This theory came true in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, where we see Stan Lee filling in the Watchers on several of the events that he’s seen. Whether he’s a Watcher, a friend of the Watchers, or something else entirely is still up for debate, but nonetheless, fans were a lot closer than they might have expected.

THE EYE OF AGAMOTTO IS AN INFINITY STONE

It’s hard to believe that something that is addressed so directly was originally just a fan theory, but by the time Doctor Strange had been announced, fans were searching for Infinity Stones harder than Thanos. Several had already been confirmed — the Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World, the Space Stone (or Tesseract) in The Avengers, the Mind Stone in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the Power Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Fans felt certain another Infinity Stone was coming in the first film featuring the Sorcerer Supreme. With the evidence of a few hints of the time-based powers of the Eye of Aggamotto, fans assumed that the stone would be the Time Stone. They were totally right, as the fact that it was the fabled Time Stone was openly stated in the movie.

THOR BECOMES KING

It had been teased since Thor first hit theaters that Thor was destined to become the king of Asgard. Throughout the first movie, he struggled to prove himself worthy, during The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World, he learned that he didn’t really want to be a king. So, when time came for the third movie, fans assumed that somehow Odin would pass away and Thor would be forced to take the throne he never wanted.

The events of Thor: Ragnarok, while being Thor’s most fun movie, were also some of the darkest and most troubling for the God of Thunder. He lost an eye, his hair, his father, and his home. Somehow, he was expected to still go on and lead his people forward. Fans were proven right, and then some.

PETER PARKER IN IRON MAN 2

In Iron Man 2, there is a kid in an Iron Man mask who stands up to one of Whiplash’s drones with a toy Iron Man hand blaster and Iron Man lands behind him, blasts the drone and says, “Good job, kid!” Once it was announced that Spider-Man would be joining the MCU, fans liked the idea that this kid was a young Peter Parker.

Tom Holland likes the idea, and Kevin Feige has more of less agreed that it’s a nice notion, so it’s generally accepted that this may as well be the case. It adds a little more history between Peter and Tony — imagine Peter seeing Tony in his living room as a 16-year old after having been rescued by him years earlier. It makes that moment, and their relationship, a heck of a lot more meaningful.

SKYE IS QUAKE

Skye is the main protagonist of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. As the audience’s point-of-view character, she learns about the MCU and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s role as we do, and so, as we learned more about her, fans started to piece together just who she might be. Certain character details — that she was an Agent and that she was an orphan — alongside certain plot elements, like the introduction of Mr. Hyde and the Inhumans, all pointed to the idea that Skye would ultimately be revealed as Quake, an Inhuman from the comics.

As those who watch the show know, this is exactly how events played out. Though the Inhumans haven’t played a very large role in the greater MCU as a whole, they’ve had their best representation in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

VISION’S FATE

Considering Vision had an Infinity Stone implanted in his forehead, this one was kind of a no-brainer. Fans assumed that, for Thanos to succeed in his quest to gain the Infinity Stones and destroy half of all life in the universe, he’d need to take it from Vision, and he’d presumably do so by force.

Yes, fans missed some of the finer plot details, like that the Avengers would try to remove it without destroying Vision, or that Wanda would destroy the Mind Stone and end Vision, only for Thanos to turn back time and get the Mind Stone anyway. But still, at the end of the day, fans were absolutely right, and Thanos decimated Vision to take the Mind Stone, the last of the six he needed.

VALKYRIE’S HISTORY

In the comics, Valkyrie is your standard pale, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Norse woman. When Thor: Ragnarok introduced the MCU’s Valkyrie, she was portrayed by Tessa Thompson, who didn’t match the look at all. Fans theorized that perhaps this wasn’t the Valkyrie from the comics, whose name was Brunhilde, but another Valkyrie entirely. Furthermore, they theorized that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman who lays down her life for Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie may have not only been her lover, but she may have also been Brunhilde.

At least some of this has been confirmed by Tessa Thompson herself, who stated definitively that her character was bisexual. The rest may be coincidental, but it would be a cool homage to the comic version of the character if it were also true.

THE QUANTUM REALM

After Scott Lang had his first brush with the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man, fans knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be back in it. Given that the Quantum Realm exists beyond time and space, it only makes sense that you could travel great distances in both in a seemingly short period. Fans theorized that Ant-Man would get Janet out of the Quantum Realm, but that some characters would become stranded, and this would be how they would survive the infamous “snap.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp proved these theories true, with Janet also confirming that time travel was possible in the Quantum Realm. Now fans theorize that the Quantum Realm’s time travel capabilities will be a major factor in the upcoming Avengers 4 movie.

GAMORA’S END

In the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos stops at nothing to get and keep the Infinity Gems, including disposing Gamora, whose soul is absorbed into the Soul Gem by Adam Warlock. Thus, fans figured that Gamora would meet the same fate in Avengers: Infinity War. While they didn’t know the exact details, fans figured that Thanos would somehow end his adopted daughter.

And of course, he did, sacrificing her so he could gain the Soul Stone. However, this was perhaps his only moment where he showed he was capable of some kind of love. Though some fans may have guessed that it was coming, no one wanted to have guessed right. Still, if her soul is trapped in the Soul Stone, it gives us hope for her and our other favorite heroes.

RAGNAROK

If you know anything about Norse mythology (or Marvel comics), you know that Ragnarok is the end of Asgard and the ultimate destruction of the realm. So, when Thor: Ragnarok was announced, fans assumed that meant ultimate destruction in many ways. It was fair to assume that Asgard would be destroyed in some way, and fans were excited to see it.

Maybe no one quite expected what we got: an ultimate showdown between Surtur and Hela that could only end in the utter annihilation of the home world of Thor and his people. It was tragic, it was astonishing, and it was an epic way to end a rollercoaster ride of a movie. It truly raised the stakes for Marvel in a way that few movies had before, and that was just a taste before Infinity War.

A PLANET HULK MOVIE (SORT OF)

When Hulk decided to fly away at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, some fans noted that he seemed to be staring at the sky as he looked out of the Quinjet’s cockpit. Not long after, it was revealed that he was going to head to space. Fans put two and two together and hoped this meant they could expect to see some kind of adaptation of the famous “Planet Hulk” storyline. This was seemingly impossible, though, considering that the movie distribution rights for a Hulk-based movie belong to Universal Studios, not Marvel.

Still, fans were right and parts of “Planet Hulk” served as inspiration for Thor: Ragnarok. The gladiator scenes were pulled almost directly out of the comic, for example, and the elements of overthrowing a dictatorship are present as well. It’s not a perfect adaptation, but it’s the best we’re going to get for now.

CIVIL WAR

From the get-go, the Avengers were always an uneasy alliance. They argued more than they worked together in the first movie, almost destroying a helicarrier in the act. By the time the second movie came around, the team was already at odds, particularly after they discovered that Tony was the reason their new foe had been created. Fans saw the writing on the wall and figured it was only a matter of time before some kind of superhuman registration act and superhero civil war akin to that of the comics.

When Captain America: Civil War was announced, fans’ assumptions were confirmed. For some fans, this was a dream come true; others felt that the movie version of events didn’t live up to its comic counterpart.

BANNER, THE HULKBUSTER

Sometimes fan theories come from the strangest of places and in this case, Lego toys spoiled some things. There was a Lego set for Avengers: Infinity Warwhich showed Bruce Banner piloting the Hulkbuster gear, so fans assumed he’d be inside it — and hoped for a scene in which the Hulk busted out of the Hulkbuster. It made some sense: the Hulkbuster gear was a lot of fun, but it made fans question why Bruce might not be hulking out at the time- would he and the Hulk be separated somehow?

While we did get Bruce inside the Hulkbuster, we didin’t get the Hulk busting out of it — maybe that will have to wait for Avengers 4. This isn’t the first time that Legos have spoiled Marvel movies, either, as a Lego set showed fans that Ant-Man would turn into Giant-Man in Captain America: Civil War.

LOKI TRIES TO TRICK THANOS

Loki is the MCU’s iconic trickster. He’s constantly double-crossing everyone, from his parents to his brother to his allies — he is on no one’s side but his own. So, when fans saw his eye on the Tesseract in Thor: Ragnarok, they assumed that he’d grab it, and that Thanos would force him to hand it over. Of course, Loki being Loki, fans assumed he’d have a trick or two up his sleeve and try to end Thanos before giving over the Infinity Stone.

The opening scenes of Avengers: Infinity War proved this theory correct rather rapidly. Loki attempted to stab Thanos with a blade he’d had hidden, and his neck was easily broken by the Mad Titan. While we’re supposed to believe this demise is permanent, fans believe that resurrecting Loki will be a part of Avengers 4.

KILGRAVE’S “RETURN”

Jessica Jones on Netflix was a major hit; here was a superhero with her own solo TV show dealing head on with many mature themes. JJ is a complicated character whose morality and sense of heroism is questionable; she’s doing the right thing, but is she doing it for the right reasons? Part of what made her story work so well was how despicable the villain was.

Kilgrave was a character whose depth was performed perfectly by David Tennant, and so fans were eager to see him make some kind of return, and assumed that he would, since his performance was so well-received. He did return in season two of the show, but not as a living character, just as a flashback in Jessica’s own mind. Still, it’s more of a return than many Marvel villains have gotten.

RETURN OF GENERAL ROSS

When Captain America: Civil Warwas announced, all kinds of theories were shared. Some thought the Thunderbolts would be introduced, with General Thunderbolt Ross at the helm and Abomination as the group’s Hulk. Some thought that the Netflix characters would get pulled into the mix. While not all of the theories were true, the idea that Ross would return was a theory that held more weight than the others.

He did, in fact, return, as someone who was pushing for regulating superhumans. He has since reappeared in Avengers: Infinity War, as well. There’s still been no sign of the Thunderbolts, though, or of Ross becoming Red Hulk, as he does in the comics. There’s still plenty of time, though. Who knows what could happen in Phase Four and beyond?

DOCTOR STRANGE ARRIVES

This started as a small tease in what could have been a throwaway line in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In it, it’s offhandedly mentioned that Hydra has been tracking anyone that it deems a threat, including Stephen Strange, Tony Stark, and others. At the time, there had been no previous mention of Stephen Strange, and there would be no talks of a movie for some time, yet, so the idea that he did exist in the universe was new. Fans immediately began talking about an upcoming movie featuring Doctor Strange.

Ultimately, Doctor Strange did get his own movie, and went on to play a small role in Thor: Ragnarok, and a much larger role in Avengers: Infinity War. He should be returning for Avengers 4, and it’s believed that there will be a second Doctor Strange movie, as well.

SOMEONE ELSE PICKS UP THOR’S HAMMER

Thor’s hammer is one of those artifacts that presents an impossible challenge, which makes it impossible to resist. If you are “worthy” of the power, you can lift the hammer. What exactly qualifies one as “worthy” in the hammer’s judgment is anyone’s guess, but up to a certain point, only Thor had proven himself worthy, and so only Thor could lift the hammer. Fans figured it was only a matter of time before someone else would pick it up. Theories abounded as to who, as many characters have lifted the hammer before in the comics. Captain America seemed the most likely candidate.

However, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cap could only wiggle the hammer. It ended up being the Vision who, unaware of the stipulation, lifted the hammer to hand it to Thor. So, fans had the wrong character, but they were right about someone lifting it.

The post Be Our Guess: 20 Wild MCU Fan Theories That Actually Came True appeared first on CBR.

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aion-rsa · 6 years ago

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Star Wars: How Shadows of the Empire Became a Gritty '90s Epic

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In the 1990s, Lucasfilm decided to take Star Wars in a much darker direction with Shadows of the Empire.

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Feature

Games

Stephen Harber

Star Wars

Mar 4, 2019

Star Wars Games

LucasFilm

This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Star Wars in the '90s

The ‘90s were the dark ages of Star Wars. George Lucas’ happy cinematic accident was still a beloved pop culture tentpole, and the entertainment industry was still busy learning from its business model. But it was also a time of relative quiet for the franchise. Another film with the main cast was implausible, and the excuses for new merchandising were slim to none. So Lucasfilm started brainstorming new ways to capitalize on the Star Wars brand and ensure all of its media channels were fully functional before the arrival of the Prequel Trilogy.

Enter Shadows of the Empire—a mad scientist’s experiment in cross-promotion that would make editors at Marvel weep at the complexity of its moving parts. This multimedia initiative was designed to tell one large narrative across various mediums, with each platform contributing an important piece of the story. To get the full Shadows experience, fans would have to read the novel and the comic books, play the video game, listen to the soundtrack score, buy the toys, collect the trading cards, etc.

When Shadows was conceived by Lucasfilm heads Howard Roffman and Lucy Wilson in 1994, it was intended to be set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. This era has always been a “safe zone” for expanded universe material to play around in. In fact, it’s still mined by Marvel and Disney for tie-in material to this day. Shadows would join the ranks of the classic Marvel comics with the giant talking rabbit (who was never considered canon, sadly enough) as an expanded universe story set during the actual trilogy itself.

After the pitch was tossed around the Lucas subsidiaries, a memo from LucasArts designer Jon Knoles changed their minds. He suggested setting the Shadows project after The Empire Strikes Back instead of before it, as this was a.) fertile ground for storytelling. and b.) way more intriguing. And he wasn’t wrong. This new setting made the task of telling a huge movie-like story a way to test the boundaries of the franchise before its inevitable rebirth for Episode I.

Post-Empire was a sweet spot for Star Wars to hit at the time. If you couldn’t already tell by its name, there was a push to make Shadows “dark”—which basically translated to “’90s as fuck.” This slick new edginess would keep Star Wars relevant in a time of geek culture dominated by the over-muscled caricatures of Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane and the low-tech barbarism of Mortal Kombat. Instead of behaving like it was still the early 1980s, it was time Star Wars hit puberty and toughened up some.

Even in today’s climate saturated with spin-offs, webisodes, and other ancillary materials, telling one big cohesive story across different media formats is still a highly experimental undertaking. There had to be a center to all the tales that would be told under this umbrella, an axis on which all peripheral events spun around. This anchor point was the bestselling Shadows novel published by Bantam in 1996.

Writing the Book

For all intents and purposes, Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire was to be considered “the movie.” It had what everyone was craving—a new adventure with the core characters the audience loved and the promise of mature themes and content.

Steve Perry was hand-selected to be in the Shadows talent pool by Bantam editor Tom Dupree as payback for writing a quick and dirty novelization of The Mask for free. Perry’s background writing for Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Spiral Zone made him a shoo-in for the job. Designing the core narrative of an intricate brand opera would be a collaborative process best suited for a writer with a background in television. (That he’d written novelizations for Dark Horse’s Alien graphic novels might have also helped.)

Before long, Perry found himself writing down page after page of notes during a lengthy creative meeting with all creative stakeholders at Skywalker Ranch in the fall of 1994 to keep track of the many different needs every licensee had for the story. Each medium demanded their own set pieces, action scenes, and settings to be interesting. Perry would think up ways to sew these into the pockets of his overarching story.

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Armed with his reams of notes, the author banged out a 25-page outline detailing all major action beats for the primary story arc with suggestions on how they could cross over. The outline was well-received, even if it came back with a ton of notes. But the cooks in the kitchen found it agreeable, and that was all that was needed to move the crazy Shadows train forward. Perry got to work at tackling the manuscript at the beginning of 1995, making his own version of a missing Star Wars movie from his home office in Oregon.

The storyline of Perry’s Shadows book follows the adventures of Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca in their efforts to locate their carbonite encased buddy Han Solo. Their quest takes them through the galaxy’s criminal underworld, where they meet gritty new ‘90s characters that either try to kill them or help them out. In the process, Luke becomes a badass, Darth Vader gets a new nemesis, Chewie gets a haircut, the droids get to drive the Millennium Falcon, and Princess Leia gets to be sexually objectified like crazy. Okay, that may be an oversimplification, but basically, Shadows is a story about Star Wars that’s not quite told like a Star Wars story—but it is an entertaining page-turner. Yet the risks Shadows takes are really just recycled moments from the Original Trilogy, a classic symptom of being a media tie-in novel.

However, the book did intrigue readers everywhere with certain storylines it juggled, like the attempted assassinations of Luke Skywalker, the details behind the “many Bothans” tragedy hinted at in Return of the Jedi, and the Empire’s dealings with the Black Sun crime syndicate. Reading about the hijinks of the Skywalker twins and friends during a mysterious era is always intriguing, and Perry did as much justice as he could to the voice of the characters.

Prince Xizor

If Shadows of the Empire has a main character, it’s probably Xizor himself. After all, this villainous character was being fleshed out long before any official creative meetings had been held. The Dark Prince was the mascot for the grim darkness of Shadows and the underworld it would explore.

Based on the plot outline he turned in, Steve Perry received notes with very specific instructions from Bantam on how they wanted Xizor to behave, citing the Godfather films as a tonal guideline. Bantam wanted an evil clone of Aristotle Onassis, the infamous Greek tycoon that married Jackie Kennedy. They wanted a villain who was corrupt, crafty, and had enough hubris to take on the franchise’s most beloved big bad: Darth Vader himself.

When creating this major expanded universe villain from scratch, the creative team at Lucasfilm approached the task just like they would for any creature you’d see in a Star Wars film. Xizor’s design process fell somewhere in the middle of thoughtfully crafted and painstakingly conceived. Xizor was meant to have an “exotic” flavor to his appearance, which designers translated as looking vaguely Asian. Yet Prince Xizor was more than just a vehicle for bizarre cultural appropriation. He was the powerful leader of Black Sun, a criminal syndicate functioning on the Outer Rim.

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His reptilian style inspired a new race of beings for the Star Wars universe: the Falleen, who lived on a planet called, ironically enough, Falleen. As a Falleen, Xizor could breathe underwater and secrete pheromones to manipulate the opposite sex, which were so strong that even our favorite tough cookie with the hair buns fell under his thrall. His olive skin tone also changed according to whatever mood he happened to be in. And that iconic claw pose of his? That was inspired by the unused concept art of Bib Fortuna.

Meanwhile, Xizor’s seduction of Princess Leia—or, rather, the quasi-Asian lizard dude’s date rape of Star Wars’ headlining female character—was awkward. In this sequence, Xizor uses his pheromone powers to roofie Leia into submission after forcing her to wear a revealing outfit. Shadows went beyond the humiliation of tricking Alderaanian royalty into wearing a kinky slave outfit for a giant slug. This was technically assault. When Perry received feedback on his story outline asking for Xizor and Leia to go all the way, he refused. He didn’t want to deal with the backlash from the fans, as such an event would incite the same emotional reaction as killing off a main character. So instead, Leia gets out of the situation by kneeing the Falleen studmuffin right in his iguana dick, then dashes off (pun intended).

Perry handled Prince Xizor’s character incredibly well considering all of the creative suggestions he received. He knew the Dark Prince wasn’t just a character, he was a test for each member of the Skywalker family. Xizor spent literally all of his time and energy obsessing over Luke, Anakin, and Leia, discovering their weak points and pressing their buttons. In this respect, Xizor is an embodiment of the novel’s central theme: vulnerability. The vulnerability of each member of the Skywalker family.

Dash Rendar

A new protagonist was also introduced—Dash Rendar, aka ‘90s Han Solo. Although Dash was conceived by Perry himself, that didn’t mean he had any more creative control over his character than he did with Xizor’s. Lucasfilm and Bantam both made it clear they didn’t want an exact carbon-copy of Kylo Ren’s dad to fill the void he left behind. They did, however, want a substitute space pirate to act as a guide through the wrong side of the interplanetary tracks.

Dash was the macho middle ground between Kevin Costner and Tom Cruise—a smuggling mercenary that traveled around the galaxy in his Outrider (aka ‘90s Millennium Falcon) with a droid named Leebo riding shotgun. He held a lifelong vendetta against the Emperor for ruining his family after his brother crashed his freighter ship into Palpatine's private spaceport museum. Rendar helped Rogue Squadron fend off the Empire’s forces during the Battle of Hoth. He even helped the “many Bothans” that died steal the new Death Star plans! Despite all of this, Luke still thought he was kind of an asshole. Hmm. Maybe that’s because the Force told him Dash was secretly made out of cardboard, old issues of Youngblood, and testosterone.

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If Dash Rendar were to be described by one word only, it would be “functional.” He doesn’t serve a function for the Shadows narrative per se, but boy does he ever for the multimedia campaign. After all, Dash was the star of the video game component of Shadows of the Empire, which featured his participation in the Battle of Hoth. I wouldn’t say that Dash is a person, but more of a Frankenstein’s monster of pastiches culled from Star Wars and its imitators, stitched together with Harrison Ford’s casual cockiness. Basically, he was an endless library of “shit Han Solo says.”

Guri

The real fan favorite of Shadows turned out to be a character that still doesn’t have a decently sized action figure to this day: Guri, Prince Xizor’s deadly fembot bodyguard. She was the only replica droid trained to be an assassin—a hybrid of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and Sean Young in Blade Runner. Compared to Princess Leia, Guri was a lightning rod for pent-up sexual tension in the Star Wars universe. In fact, Xizor took advantage of her more built-in “intimate” functions whenever he could, which only amplified the rapey nature of the crime lord.

Much like Han Solo’s sugar-free counterpart, Dash Rendar, Guri the sex assassin was a Steve Perry original. The femme fatale was conceived as a character who would be loyal to the paranoid Falleen leader, someone he could trust. Since Xizor could never trust another living being with his life, he bought a synthetic humanoid for nine million credits to be his lieutenant, enforcer, and information gatherer. Basically, she was like having a ninja as your personal assistant, which further reinforced the vaguely Asian motif surrounding the Dark Prince. But it was strongly suggested that he used her to run everything, and probably couldn’t handle the weight of his responsibilities on his own.

Luke & Leia

Core characters were subject to redesign as well, specifically their wardrobe. Lucasfilm wanted to visually convey to the audience that their heroes were in between two very distinct eras (Empire and Jedi.) While Chewie and Leia got “extreme” disguises to play dress-up in, Luke Skywalker’s wardrobe was meticulously reconceptualized.

Lucasfilm’s Lucy Wilson would send notes to Dark Horse’s cover artist Drew Fleming on the Jedi knight’s garb, asking him to “please dress [Luke] in the same black outfit he shows up in RotJ…the same black long-sleeved top, pants, and boots…but make his tunic a khaki color and give him a utility belt with various tools/etc. hanging off of it…”

But playing with Luke’s fashion choices wasn’t the only way that Shadows of the Empire illustrated that Luke was in a transitionary phase. Jon Knoles wanted the overarching narrative of the project to tie up a loose end that had been bugging him since the early ‘80s—where did Luke get his new green lightsaber?

Thus another plotline to juggle was born, one of Shadows’ most interesting: Luke’s quest to build his fancy new weapon. Watching young Skywalker learn how to build his own based on Obi-Wan’s instructions was fascinating for aspiring Jedi everywhere to read, but there isn’t as much symbolic weight behind this act as there could have been in a film made by Lucas. At least it was treated as a pivotal step on the protagonist’s figurative journey to becoming a Jedi Knight and not just another MacGuffin to scratch off the list. (Or was it?)

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What’s frustrating about this sidequest is that it takes the place of a solid character arc for Luke, which is a shame. Dealing with the fallout from Vader’s reveal at the end of Empire would make Anakin Jr. the most captivating character in the dramatis personae. But no, learning his father’s secret doesn’t seem to affect Luke’s inner world much at all. Why wouldn’t we want to know what our hero’s state of mind was during this mysterious stretch of time?

If Shadows didn’t give us insight into its most pivotal character, it did give us a glimpse at Leia’s emotional landscape following the loss of Han. The first loss of Han, rather. If anyone was at their “most vulnerable” here, it would be the Princess—someone who fears showing weakness. SotE’s journey into the seedy Star Wars underworld caused all of her issues to rise to the surface, making Leia the heart of Perry’s book.

Despite the third-person take on her inner-monologue, Leia was treated as a character best handled from a distance. When she’s not being objectified, harassed, or protected from objectification and harassment by Chewie and Lando, she’s busy pulling up her sleeves and getting to the nitty-gritty of propelling the novel’s major plotlines. As such, Princess Leia comes across as the Skywalker that’s the real hero here.

The only real worthy piece of continuity from her storyline was how she got the Boushh disguise she wears in Jedi, a detail that most fans probably never wondered or cared about.

The Story

The attempted Han Solo rescue, which is the driving force early on in the story, obviously turns out to be the MacGuffin that leads the Skywalkers and their friends on other adventures. The video game tackles the earliest part of this mission, when Dash tracks down the bounty hunters who were originally tasked with capturing Han. Fighting his way through the planets Ord Mantell and Gall, Dash finally locates Fett and his prized slab of carbonite. Leia, Lando, Luke, and the Rebellion launch a rescue mission that sparks the Battle of Gall. It fails and Fett gets away again.

Fett’s struggle to get the frozen Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine is the major subject of the Shadows comic. On his way to the desert planet he is attacked both by the Rebels and rival bounty hunters Bossk and Zuckuss. Ironically, he even has to hide out in an asteroid field at one point to fight off his assailants. Ultimately, Fett proves why he’s the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy, outsmarting his pursuers and getting the payday.

Things get more intricate from here. Prince Xizor, who vows to avenge his family after they’re killed by Darth Vader before the events of the book, plans to destroy Vader by killing his son and replacing him as the Emperor’s right hand. Xizor tries to have Luke assassinated several times in Shadows, only to be thwarted at the last minute every time by Rebels or Vader’s own bounty hunters. Vader, on the other hand, is still trying to find Luke and turn him to the Dark Side, which brings him in direct contact with the leader of Black Sun. The only reason Vader can’t Force choke Xizor out of an exhaust port is because the Emperor needs the crime lord to finish the construction of the second Death Star.

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Which brings us to the mission to steal the Death Star plans. Dash and Luke are informed by Bothan spies that the plans are being transported in a fertilizer freighter called the Suprosa. The Rebels launch an intercept mission. You can actually play through this mission as Dash in the Shadows video game.

After some maneuvering, Xizor has Luke captured on the planet Kothlis, where the plans are being decoded by the Bothans. Luke manages to escape Kothlis with a little help from the Force, Lando, and Dash. Vader, who arrives on Kothlis too late to pick up Luke, is informed by his bounty hunters that there’s a rival group of bounty hunters trying to kill young Skywalker.

Meanwhile, Leia is kidnapped by Xizor, who tries to seduce the Princess in his palace on Coruscant. Shadows of the Empire is in fact bookended by rescue missions, as Luke and his friends infiltrate the Imperial capital to save Leia from the evil crime lord. The story climaxes in spectacular fashion in a space battle above the city planet between the Rebels and the Empire, as Xizor attempts to escape but is stopped by Vader, who shows absolutely no mercy.

Shadows of the Empire ends right before Return of the Jedi begins: Luke, Leia, and friends prepare to go on a daring rescue mission to save Han Solo from the clutches of the dastardly Jabba the Hutt, their latest adventure ultimately only a detour.

The Sequel

Dark Horse gave Steve Perry a shot at telling a follow-up story in 1998 with the Shadows of the Empire: Evolution miniseries. Without so many requirements and stipulations from different Lucasfilm branches, Perry was given the freedom to tell a snappy, focused, personal story about Guri. The underappreciated badass got her time to shine in the Star Wars limelight, and although there may be too many panels (and pages) devoted to her posing around suggestively, the story did give her character a sense of resolution. As far as Perry was concerned, Guri was the only loose end from Shadows that needed to be dealt with (or the only one he felt the most inspired to tackle, anyway.)

What’s interesting about Evolution is that much like Shadows itself, it’s built around the absence of a pivotal character. It’s Prince Xizor, this time. His spirit still permeates throughout Ron Randall’s gorgeous panel art, much like Han Solo’s did in the Shadows adaptation. In fact, Evolution is loaded with so many references to Xizor that you expect him to show up during its final moments. But no, in the true spirit of Shadows of the Empire, this turns out to be one big tease.

Further Reading: 25 Best Star Wars Spaceships

Instead, we get a highly convenient Dash Rendar cameo at the very end. Guri runs into him at a bar after she gets reprogrammed and loses her memories. Diet-Han looks alive and well to me, so the end of the N64 game was definitely canon (Rendar fakes his death during the space battle above Coruscant). But the romantic overtones of their chance encounter suggest that the two run off into the sunset together, which is a patronizing fate to give a character whose independence you just spent five issues celebrating, is it not?

The Legacy

Because Episodes I-III tainted Star Wars for a good long while, Shadows of the Empire became an instant obscurity. After all, it was an outdated snapshot of a dormant brand waking up after a long nap to get back to work. Maybe bored gamers may have dusted off their N64 cartridges on lonely Saturday afternoons to play through the Battle of Hoth again in the early 2000s. But that was the only way anyone interacted with this brand experiment again.

Filling a movie-sized hole in the public’s imagination without a movie was a great opportunity to begin the process of redefining Star Wars. Yet even after taking in all Shadows related materials (not including the Sourcebook, sorry folks), I don’t feel as satisfied as I do when I actually see a Star Wars film—even when it’s a bad one. There’s an aura of incompleteness that haunts Shadows, that attitude of “hey kids, you need to read x to understand y” that I found so distracting. Even Perry’s novel, the supposed focal point, suffers from the inclusion of characters like Dash who are obviously shoehorned in for other purposes that are counterproductive to telling an already crowded story.

For a book that was advertised as being so dark, Perry’s Shadows shied away from going too deep into Luke’s psychological scars from the events at the end of Empire. That’s it’s biggest problem: for a “personal” story, Shadows is impersonal, prioritizing shallow action over emotional complexity. In fact, there’s more “darkness” in Empire’s surreal Dagobah cave scene than there is in 300 pages of Shadow’s novel and ten hours of its video game combined.

Further Reading: The Star Wars Droids Animated Series Time Forgot

What Shadows most prepared fans for in terms of Star Wars’ future was the business side of the galaxy far, far away, introduced through Black Sun’s shady dealings with the Empire. While I was reading these scenes, I couldn’t help but flashback to countless scenes of council meetings to discuss tariffs or something. Granted, Shadows’ meetings between Xizor, Vader, and the Emperor were far more engaging, but the signs were there.

The Shadows initiative garnered enough success that it later served as real time inspiration for the Clone Wars marketing campaign in the early aughts. The concept of telling a movie-sized story in the negative space between film installments was ahead of its time, and couldn’t be pulled off in a pre-gaming era. Which is why the mid-90s (a literal negative space for Star Wars) was the perfect time to pull off a crazy stunt like this.

As a whole, the Shadows experiment may have added an extra slimy texture to Star Wars that hadn’t been there before. Exploring the darker corners of its universe through various media formats defined its nebulous gray area in ways the older films couldn’t. This was the most important lesson Lucasfilm learned from Shadows of the Empire, as it helped change Star Wars from a lost movie franchise into the rich multimedia brand experience it is today.

SOURCES:

Secrets of Shadows of the Empire by Mark Cotta Vaz

StarWarz.com

Star Wars Interviews

Bombad Radio

Believe it or not, Stephen Harber is actually Supreme Leader Snoke. Follow him on Twitter at @onlywriterever or visit his website for updates on more Ewoks movies that will never happen.

from Books https://ift.tt/2GZpQ5i

#aion-rsa #Books

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cbilluminati · 8 years ago

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The last con I went to was nearly twenty years ago at the New Orleans Sci Fi and Fantasy Festival. This year I went to the Wizardworld Comic Convention in New Orleans and discovered many things have changed, but a few have stayed the same.

This year’s Wizardworld was held at the Earnest N. Morial Convention Center at the old site of the 1984 World’s Fair and spitting distance from the mighty Mississippi River. It was an unseasonably brisk 34 degrees Fahrenheit outside which made me feel sorry for some of the cosplayers I saw in very few clothes rushing to get into the building. (See some of the accompanying pictures and you will understand.) For those that hadn’t purchased tickets online the ticket booths were plentiful and quick. There were also plenty of convention workers available to point you where you needed to go. Entry was fast and pleasant with little or no hassle for those with backpacks or cosplay accessories. Of course, those that had too realistic weapons had to leave them at a designated area set up for that, but it was also well manned and effectively prepared to make sure that everyone’s property was secured and well identified so it went home with you and the end of the day. The convention floor was divided into 6 main sections: The front performance stage as you entered the convention hall, the celebrity booths and photo areas directly behind the front stage, the Artist Alley behind the celeb booths, the gaming zone behind them. On the left and right of the celeb booths were vendors and cosplay group booths and all the way to the left of the entrance past the vendors was the main stage that was used for the celebrity panels and costume contest. Also, Saturday night after the convention floor was closed on the main stage there was a special screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show hosted by Barry Bostwick (Brad from the movie.)

Cosplay: As you entered the convention floor the electronic dance music was bumping and several thousand people were milling about. I would estimate that at least 30 percent of the convention goers were in costume, which is a huge increase from my past experiences with cons. I expected more because cosplay has become a staple of Sci Fi / Fantasy and comic conventions in the last decade. Throughout my two days at Wizardworld NOLA I took many pictures of the cosplayers, of course asking for permission first, and all were happy to pose for a photo.

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The quality of costumes was very high and well thought out. There were even booths for the cosplay groups like the Spidey Team, the Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club, the 501st Legion, and the Krewe Du Who. There were several genres represented including gaming and movies, but the most popular was from comic books. Harley Quinn was an obvious favorite for the ladies and Negan was everywhere you looked. Stand outs were the red and black Harlequin Batman and the duo of Enchantress and the Black and Gold Harley Quinn (a twist of the character and the local NFL team colors.)

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Celebrities: There were many top celebrities present and almost all were representatives of the main focus of the convention: Comics. Lou Ferrigno of the 80s Hulk TV series, Sam Jones of the Flash Gordon movie, Michael Rooker (Yondu of GotG/ Mearl of TWD ,) Tom Payne (Jesus of TWD,) Steven Yeun (Glen of TWD,) Michael Cudlitz (Abraham of TWD,) Theo Rossi (Juice of Sons of Anarchy and Shades of Luke Cage,) Jason David Frank (Bloodshot of Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe,) Sean Gunn (Kraglin and Rocket Raccoon of GotG,) Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen / Green Arrow of Arrow / Flash/ Legends of Tomorrow,) and Dave Bautista (Batista of WWE and Drax of GotG.) Other notable celebs were Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek TOS, Robert Englund of The Nightmare on Elm Street, Christopher Lloyd and Tom Wilson of the Back to the Future movies, David Duchovney of the X – Files, Jewel Staite of Firefly, Joonas Suotamo (the new actor in the Chewbacca costume,) and Peter Mayhew – Chewbacca of Star Wars. Meeting the celebs is a separate fee from what you pay to get in to the convention and some have different pricing from others. This includes different pricing for pictures with them and signatures on different items have their own separate prices too. Carrie Fisher was scheduled but unfortunately passed away two weeks before, but there was a large tribute picture of her as Princess Leia at the entrance for fans to sign. Oddly enough Chumlee of Pawn Stars had his own celeb signing booth with the rest. To my surprise I discovered my favorite old school wrestler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, in the vendor booths. He is still larger than life and a genuinely nice guy to meet.

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Artist Alley: My main focus of this con was Artist Alley because of my love of comics since the seventies. All of the artists and writers were easily approachable and eager to chat. I had brought along my sketch variant of Conan and Red Sonja #1 for Joan Chin to draw on and an advance copy of Ivar, Timewalker for Fred Van Lente to sign, which they happily did. I also had some Marvel Zombies for Arthur Suydam and a couple Crow: Dead Time for James O’ Barr to sign, but they weren’t able to appear. Notable artists and writers were: Neal Adams of Batman and Superman, Art Adams of X-Men, Hulk, and Generation X, Steven Geiger of The Punisher and Spiderman, Howard Chaykin of Star Wars, Punisher War Journal, Conan the Barbarian, and Blade, Joe Quinones of Batman, Howard the Duck, and Mad Magazine, Billy Martin of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and guitarist for Good Charlotte, Fred Van Lente of Marvel Zombies, Ivar, Time Walker, and Archer & Armstrong, Joyce Chin of Red Sonja, Vampirella / Witchblade, Spawn, and Wynona Earp, Jason Metcalf of Eternal Descent, The Darkness, and Grimm Fairy Tales and Bill McKay of Zombie Tramp and Hack / Slash. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Metcalf. Jason gave a few hints of some new projects in the works, the interview is below and please excuse my whiny voice. I was getting over a sinus cold.

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http://www.outrightgeekery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Intervview-Final-Metcalf.mp4

Vendors: As with any comic convention comes the vendors of everything you can think of that has to do with comics, cosplay, gaming, fantasy, movies, leather gear, pop art, sci fi, television shows, toys, and on and on. One stand out was Wild Bill’s Soda. They had two booths on opposite sides of the convention and were mainly selling three different stainless steel mugs: a 22 ounce, a 32 ounce, and a 32 ounce double walled insulated. With these you received unlimited refills for that day of any of their eight flavors of fountain sodas ranging from vanilla, cherry, birch beer, sasparilla, orange, grape or their most popular root beer and diet root beer. It seems the biggest seller this year are Funko Pop! vinyl bobble heads, because they were everywhere and everyone was buying them. Some of the things that caught me by surprise were the Lasik surgery booths, the rain gutters reps, sci fi speed dating, What is You Super Power? from a drop of your blood, and tattoos. One huge section was nothing but tattoo artists; about a dozen of them. Several were from the TV show Ink Masters and other shows. One notable artist was Rick Meggison of Marked 4 Life tattoos in PA that I watched create a classic Luke Cage cover inside of a Wu Tang clan logo.

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Panels and Events: There were discussion panels, demonstrations, gaming tournaments, advanced screenings, learning opportunities, artist and writer spotlights, musical performances, and even exotic dancers. There was a lot going on on the side stages, main stages, and convention rooms. The ones that caught my interest were: Doctor Who psychology: A Madman with a Box, Star Wars Psychology: Jedi Mind Tricks, Welcome to this Nightmare: A Conversation with Robert Englund, From Juice to Shades: A Conversation with Theo Rossi, The Wizardworld Concert performed by World of Warcraft composer Jason Hayes, Guardians vs. the Audience with Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn, Ain’t That a Bat to the Head: A Conversation with Michael Cudlitz and Steven Yeun, Get Published: Professional Writers Reveal Plot and Publishing Secrets, Great Scott!: Revisiting Back to the Future with Tom Wilson and Christopher Lloyd, and of course the Rocky Horror Picture Show Extravaganza hosted by Barry Bostwick. The Rocky event was a screening of the original RHPS including the audience participation and some VERY over the top cosplayers.

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Overall: As my re-introduction to the comic con scene this was a very pleasant experience. I expected a lot after researching what is typical of today’s cons and got an all out audio and visual overload of sights, sounds, and pleasant conversations with a lot of complete strangers that had a lot of common interests. The Wizardworld staff kept the venue well organized and the events were well timed so there was never much of a lull and the Morial Convention Center staff made it comfortable and clean. I have read some remarks that Wizardworld events have gotten dull and don’t attract the talent that they used to. I say that it would be hard to outdo what I experienced and I didn’t even get half the experience as those that made the meet and greets and all of the panels. This is well worth the price of admission and I am definitely coming back.

Wizardworld New Orleans 2017 con coverage

The last con I went to was nearly twenty years ago at the New Orleans Sci Fi and Fantasy Festival.

Wizardworld New Orleans 2017 con coverage The last con I went to was nearly twenty years ago at the New Orleans Sci Fi and Fantasy Festival.

#Artists #Celebrities #New Orleans #Wizard World #Writers

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outright-geekery · 8 years ago

Text

http://www.outrightgeekery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Intervview-Final-Metcalf.mp4

Wizardworld New Orleans 2017 con coverage The last con I went to was nearly twenty years ago at the New Orleans Sci Fi and Fantasy Festival.

#Artists #Celebrities #New Orleans #Wizard World #Writers

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