#a movie where the three main characters are a white girl a black girl and a latina girl

[yourheartinyourmouth]

husbeast watched To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar with me and he LOVED IT and i could just cry little tears of queer joy. this movie means so much to me as a queer person and as a gender nonconforming and a just generally socially non conformative person.

if you haven’t seen it, you gotta.

[pekejscatbed]

Hearing You So Breathless (a sound i never wanna forget) | Dick Grayson x Wally West

Info/Warnings: Dick is 17 and still Robin, Wally is 19 and still Kid Flash, both are trans masc (t4t birdflash>>>), consensual kissing, making out, groping, and grinding, but No Smut, movie date (mentioned movies: Black Christmas (1974), Red, White & Royal Blue (2023), BASEketball (1998), and Barbie (2023)), both Dick and Wally are suggested to have ADHD

loosely based on me and my bf's date the other night <3

batman masterlist

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It's their fourth date, and the two decide to have another movie date, as they both want nothing more than to curl up next to each other and forget their alternate lifestyles, even if it's just for one night.

Dick, despite popular belief, is actually a good cook, and makes a pot of Cajun Chicken Alfredo from a recipe Alfred taught him, enough to feed all of the Justice League, really, but Dick is just accounting for his boyfriends never-ending appetite; perks of dating a speedster, right? And not only do the two lovers have that to eat, but they have a cake, too, that Wally picks up on his way to Wayne Manor- a 'thank you' for cooking, even though Wally will maybe- probably- definitely- eat most, if not all, of it.

(The Alfredo is gone in ten minutes, and the cake in five.)

After they eat, they go up to Dick's room and put on their first movie, one of six they've chosen to watch tonight, three chosen by Dick and three chosen by Wally. The first movie is one of Dick's, an old horror movie surrounding Christmas that neither of them pay much attention to. Next is a movie Wally picked out, a romance and comedy about gay princes, with a non-descriptive sex scene that has Dick saying, "could be us", just to fluster his boyfriend, because with all the flirting Wally dishes out, he still gets so shy when someone flirts back. The third movie is another one of Dick's, a sports comedy with outdated humor, but it has both Dick and Wally laughing the whole time, and the two main characters, both male, kiss at the end, despite both being straight and pining for the same girl, leaving Dick and Wally to spout headcanon after headcanon about how the characters are "so totally into each other" and how they've "definitely explored each other's bodies".

During the fourth movie, a feminism movie surrounding children's toys that just recently came out with an actress who looks suspiciously similar to Harley Quinn and Wally's second choice, the two young men gets antsy from sitting still for too long despite the fact that neither of them want to stop cuddling. Luckily, they quickly come up with an alternative, one where they can still cling to each other but move enough to not want to rip their skin off; kissing. 

The only problem with kissing, however, is how shy Wally is whenever they start, nerves through the roof and turning him into a giggly mess, which then turns Dick into a giggly mess as well, and now both of the vigilantes are laughing every time one of them tries to initiate and kiss.

Eventually, they both calm down, and the laughing has eased Wally's nervousness, so now they can share a proper a kiss. Except one kiss turn into two, turns into three, turns into five, and on and on, until they're just making out, movie forgotten in the background. But then making out leads to Dick perched in Wally's lap, and then Wally falls back onto the bed with Dick on top of him, and then Dick is rolling his hips against Wally's,, and Wally is so excited he’s beginning to vibrate, and-

"You can touch me, babe." Dick breaks the kiss to look down at his boyfriend, who's face is flushed and Dick wonders if his own face is just as red.

"Are you sure? Like, really sure?"

"Yes, Wally," Dick presses another kiss to the redheads lips, "I'm sure."

And then Wally's hands are cupping Dicks breasts through his shirt- through Wally's shirt- and Dick hums into the other mouth. "You can touch me under the shirt, if you want."

"Do you want me to?" Wally is breathless now, looking up at his boyfriend with wide eyes and flushed cheeks and bruised lips.

"Yes."

So, Wally's hands find their way under Dick's shirt, groping the raven-haired males chest, skin on skin. His hands occasionally move down to Dicks hips, pulling him impossibly closer, and to Dicks ass, giving a light squeeze every now and then.

"You look so pretty under me," Dick mutters against Wally's lips, who bucks his hips up at the compliment with a whine, and he’s trying so hard to stay calm and not vibrate right through Dicks bed. Both of them are soaked through their boxers by now, and Wally asks if he can touch Dick lower, and Dick is guiding the others hand towards his boxers, fingers just slipping past the waistband, and-

Knock, knock, knock!

"Master Richard, please do clean up after yourself when cooking." Alfred's voice is smug from behind the door, like he knows what Dick and Wally are doing.

Dick groans, shouting back, "Yes, Alfred! I'll be right there!"

Wally laughs as Dick rolls off of him, though both boys are disappointed at the interruption.

"Finish this later?" Dick asks, pressing one last kiss to Wally's lips.

"Later." 

The two walk hand-in-hand downstairs, ready to wash these dishes as fast as possible (without powers, of course; Bruce always knows, and he's incredibly strict on his "no superpowers in Gotham” rule) and finish where they left off.

[thedawningofthehour]

Ok so Wizard of Oz

I assume it‘s about a Wizard but most characters seem to be female? There‘s an upright walking lion and a robot man though I think, because there was an old movie in black and white I think, but I never saw that

I‘m assuming they are summoned by the wizard to save the fantasy world

Something about a hurricane taking a house with it. And there is a scene where a girl goes „I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore“ and there’s a witch (I’m assuming the wizard transitioned good for her)

What I know:

- main characters get summoned by wizard via world’s worst fast travel

- furry and robot man yaoi can happen in theory

- the witch has magic shoes at some point and there’s conflict abut it

SOUP I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

This feels so weird, it feels like I'm mansplaining this movie to you because before this year I have literally never met anyone who didn't watch this movie growing up. But I mean, it was literally written to be an 'American fairy tale' and international movie releases weren't really a thing in 1939, so it makes sense that it wasn't big over in Europe. (my sister's boyfriend also hadn't seen it until she made him watch it the night before we saw Wicked, but he's French and lived in SE Asia as a child-which we routinely forget because he has no accent whatsoever)

Pretty much the entire reason The Wizard of Oz is a big deal is the Technicolor process they used. It was not the first color film made-far from that, the first official color film was made in 1903, which is insane to me. These films were usually hand-colored or used color filters to capture natural color. Which was incredible from a technological standpoint, but these early films were still generally black-and-white films with some added tinting.

Add to that, a lot of these early color films have been lost or only exist in black-and-white format.

Technicolor was invented in 1916, first using a two-strip red/green coloring process to great success.

The colors are generally quite muted, but look how vibrant that red is! The richness of the native woman's green dress and the brown on her collar, in contrast to the white woman's grayish dress. These are both from the early 20s.

Still, color film didn't really take off, because 1) it was more expensive to produce, 2) color television didn't exist, most American households didn't have a television at all, and 3) the time period. The first TVs hit the market in 1928. 1929 marked the start of the Great Depression, so people weren't buying the latest technologies. And then by the time that was wrapping up WWII happened so research and production of luxury items were suspended for the war effort, but The Wizard of Oz was produced in that sweet spot when the economy was recovering but the US hadn't entered WWII yet.

Anyway. Three-strip technicolor was invented, corresponding to the three cones in our eyes that make up our entire color spectrum. With this, they could render pretty much any color humans are capable of seeing. But it required a lot of light for the colors to show up, and didn't produce good results outdoors.

1930 and 1935 respectively.

So while you can see that they're in full color, and the colors are pretty faithful to what they look like in real life, it's still fairly muted.

So I can absolutely see why people lost their shit when they sat in the movie theater and saw this:

Fun fact: the level of lighting required to get these vibrant colors on screen were so hot and intense that it heated the set to over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, (38C for you soup) and cost the modern equivalent of five million dollars just to power.

The entire movie was basically them showing off their awesome colors. I'm honestly convinced that's why they decided to adapt The Wizard of Oz in the first place-other film adaptions of it did pretty poorly. But with the color symbolism in the story and the fantasy setting giving them cover to go absolutely bananas with the color-yeah, this entire movie was a giant flex.

The colors of Munchkinland.

The contrast of pink poppies, the Emerald City, and the Yellow Brick Road.

The green skin on the Wicked Witch of the West was invented for the movie, which forms the initial conflict of the Wicked novels and play.

Dorothy's dress went through a bazillion renditions before they eventually settled on the simple blue gingham described in the novel, made of cheap fabric and hand-sewn to look authentically homemade, as a girl living on a Kansas farm would have worn in the 30s. The dress was actually blue and light pink, to give the film the desired shade and contrast.

In the original Wizard of Oz, the magical shoes Dorothy wears are silver, which was potentially commentary on the demonetization of silver in the 1890s. The Yellow Brick Road representing the gold standard, with Dorothy using the road on her way to the Emerald City, which represented green paper money. The reveal of the titular Wizard being a charlatan and completely powerless in his Emerald City palace was Baum insulting the concept of fiat money.

The shoes were changed to the ruby slippers we see here to show off the rich colors made possible with the Technicolor process, and to provide contrast with the Yellow Brick Road and Dorothy's blue dress. In Wicked, the shoes start off as silver slippers given to Nessarose by her father and later enchanted by Elphaba to allow her to walk-the power of the enchantment causing the shoes to turn ruby-red with heat. Which I thought was a cool nod to how the shoe color was changed.

I'm not sure why Dorothy's pictured with them still silver though. They're supposed to be red by the time she puts them on.

You were talking about plot stuff and I just basically screamed a summary of the history of color television at you loooool

The point is, The Wizard of Oz is a national classic mostly because of its revolutionary use of color, and also I think people were watching it over and over during WWII because new movies weren't being produced and it provided escapism. The music is still catchy and it still looks very pretty-but it's not a particularly deep story. Also the horrific conditions the actors and crew were subject to. I think it would be kind of underwhelming to watch for the first time as an adult. The main draw for us is nostalgia.

But I don't think you necessarily have to see the 1939 movie to enjoy Wicked. There's a lot of references and jokes to stuff that happens in it, (the heel of Nessa's shoes referencing the tornado that eventually kills her and brings Dorothy to Oz, Elphaba's "so happy I could melt" line when the audience knows that's how she dies) but in general all you need to know is that Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West and then both she and the Wizard go back to America. I think everything else is pretty well contained in the Wicked storyline.

But it is incredible to see the progression.

[readingforaneternity]

One of my favorite complaints that *those* white readers, movie, and tv watchers have is that there is too much represnetation in media now. That they don’t see themselves in media anymore, and therefore cannot relate.

(Which is such a load bc white ppl have literally created a system where it’s just them, them, them. You can find a full white casted movie, tv show, and book much easier than you can with marginalized group rep. At least rep that is truthful to our lives and not romanticized and dramatized to spare white feelings.)

And this complaint is so funny to me as if I, a black girl in america, didn’t grow up watching and reading white stories over and over again. Stories I didn’t relate to or see myself in.

Now that’s not to say there wasn’t any representation. Of course there were the token poc characters that got three lines if they were lucky. And those token poc characters were written only to help the main white characters realize that the world isn’t as it seems. And “yes Jennifer, my skin color does in fact affect the way people perceive and treat me. Even you!”

The point isn’t about relatability. It is about the lesson. That’s what stories are. But with actually casting, hiring writers, directors, and producers who are from marginalized groups the lessons become life and it makes it real.

[shitpostingperidot]

Kamala Khan’s bookshelves

Kamala’s room in The Marvels is an absolute treasure trove of little details to zoom in on, and I’ve identified so many books on her shelves!

Shelf 1, top to bottom:

1. Landmark Experiments in Twentieth Century Physics by George L. Trigg

College-level book about experiments that helped us learn about x-rays, lasers, isotopes, superconductors, and all kinds of other things I don’t understand. Meant to be more practical than theoretical since it talks about the actual methodologies of these experiments. Could be for school, or for Kamala and Bruno to run their own tests of Kamala’s powers. The first of many books in the Khan house that come from Dover Publications.

2. Space Time Matter by Hermann Weyl

“An esoteric initiation into space time physics” -Amazon reviewer. I’m gonna be real, I don’t understand half the words in this book description, but apparently it’s famous for introducing gauge theory, which was later reborn as phase transformations in quantum theory. I can see this being something Kamala reads to try and understand the bangle transporting her to the Partition. Also from Dover.

3. A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

A graphic novel about a high school girl’s basketball team learning to work together despite their many differences and conflicts. Also it has a gorgeous color palette. Seems fairly self explanatory why it’s in this movie. I’ll definitely be borrowing this from my library! Like my friend Kamala recommended a book to me herself.

4. The Good Immigrant anthology edited by Nikesh Shukla

21 essays from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in the UK about their experiences. It was crowdfunded initially, extremely critically acclaimed, and has gotten spinoffs and sequels. Riz Ahmed, who is British Pakistani, is one contributor, and a fun fact is that Rish Shah (Kamran from Ms. Marvel) worked with Riz Ahmed in an Oscar winning short called The Long Goodbye. Also, the editor, Nikesh Shukla, is currently writing the Spider-Man India comics series!

5. Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam

A coming-of-age story about 3 young adults with complicated family, friend, and romantic relationships between them. They have to travel from Brooklyn to Bangladesh together one summer and thereby discover a lot about themselves. I haven’t read it, but there seems to be a ton of complex representation of LGBTQ, POC, immigrant, and Muslim characters. I wonder how much the three main characters can be compared with our three characters with complex relationships in The Marvels, and I wonder which character Kamala most relates to!

6. I can’t tell! The font is bugging the hell out of me because theoretically, with that amount of contrast, I should be able to read a word when I get two inches from the TV and mess with the settings. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

7. I also can’t tell, but I’m being easier on myself because the title is written in white on a yellow background. It’s not the only book I know off the top of my head with this color scheme (Yellowface by RF Kuang) because the title is definitely multiple words. Help!

Shelf 2, right to left:

1. One Night that Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt

A YA romance where, through a convoluted series of events, a teenager must face all of her insecurities in one night. I can see Kamala devouring this as brain candy after wrestling with those advanced science books, or using it as fic inspiration!

2. Can’t tell, but love the color scheme!

This next one is a weird one, because I am 100% sure of what book it is, but I cannot find a picture of a matching edition.

3. Wizard at Large by Terry Brooks

It’s definitely, without a doubt, this book (where a character and a magical medallion are accidentally transported to Earth from another realm and switches places with an evil genie). Like those are the words on the spine and the plot of the book is an obvious choice for this movie. The fonts match on the audiobook, the ebook, and the next two books in the series. But try as I might, I cannot find any proof on the internet that the physical book that appears in Kamala’s room, that uses those two fonts and that spine formatting, exists. This is haunting me…

4. (On the other side of the box) It’s not The Twilight Saga Eclipse, but I definitely thought it was before I could watch in high definition. I think it’s a journal or sketchbook of Kamala’s; there are a bunch scattered throughout the room.

Shelf 3:

I’ve only identified the bottom book, which is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by Max Born (Dover Publications). The third one up is HAUNTING me, it looks SO identifiable and yet!

Living Room Side Table:

1. Amateur Astronomer’s Handbook by JB Sidgwick (from Dover Publications)

2. Cosmology by Hermann Bondi (also Dover)

Both of these seem less difficult than the science books in Kamala’s room, but reviewers note that it helps to know calculus when reading Cosmology. Idk which member of the Khan family is reading these, but I love their family’s connection to the stars 💫

Tbh I’m having so much fun doing this! And I really wish we got to see Monica’s living space so I can analyze her books 😭

[take-it-on-the-run]

Echoes

Lucy Gray Baird x Coriolanus Snow

How could Snow know that a song written for him would come back to haunt him, all these years later?

Word Count: 1.5k

Tags: ANGST, no happy ending here folks, big spoilers for TBOSAS and The Hunger Games, time skips (back and forth), Lucy Gray gets the last laugh

Characters: Lucy Gray Baird, Coriolanus Snow, Katniss Everdeen

Read it on AO3!

A/N: This is a mish-mash of the book and the movie, and also my first attempt at fan fiction ever. I wrote a large chunk of this in the bathroom at Thanksgiving because I saw TBOSAS the night before and couldn't get it out of my head. I hope you enjoy, and any constructive criticism is always welcome! Also, I hate editing on my phone :)

Coriolanus Snow Masterlist | The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Masterlist | Main Page Masterlist

The first time he’d ever heard the song, he was in a meadow, far from the prying eyes of the Capitol. Away from the television screens that broadcast his lover being thrust into the Games in a vain attempt at entertainment. The Games his life was bound to, forever.

The Games that, in a twist of fate, his lover had won purely through her charm and wit. The only weapon she wielded was his mother’s compact he’d given her in secret, filled with rat poison, which was returned when it was found on her person after the game. He was sure that if he hadn’t given her that compact and told her to hide under the arena, she’d have been dead before nightfall. She was a performer, after all.

She was there, Lucy Gray, sitting alone, idly strumming at her guitar. Once the Capitol released her back to District 12, she reunited with the Covey, her family, her one true reason that she needed to win in the arena.

At the time, he wanted to let himself think he was the reason she wanted to win, but deep down he knew her heart always laid with her misshapen family.

He slowly approached her, taking in the lyrics to the soft song she was singing. She sang so softly that if she sang any quieter, her words would be lost to the wind.

Are you

Are you

Coming to the tree?

He strolled further towards her, eyes scanning the empty landscape until they landed on the tree she was sitting under. Its branches were dry and could barely be called brown, and Lucy Gray was using a large chunk of it as a makeshift chair.

Where they strung up a man

They say murdered three

The lyrics to the song made him stop for a moment. Of all the things she chose to sing about, why would such a beautiful girl sing such a dark story?

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight

In the hanging tree

The second time he’d heard the song, he was in a forest, reeling at the pain from a trap his lover had set for him. Rain forced them to pause their journey of running from Panem, seeking shelter in a cabin among the trees. He didn’t know if his lover knew about the weapons stored beneath the floorboards, but as soon as he laid his hands on them, she must’ve thought his choice was already made.

She all but ran from the cabin, making an excuse to get food that she earlier deemed wasn’t ripe enough to eat. He knew that she was running from him, from the silver-tongued Capitol-raised son who was almost killed by her charms.

Almost.

He ran after her, gun in hand, looking to see where she’d run to. A rough trail turned into forest floor, trees suddenly the only thing he could see. He cautiously took more steps before his mother’s orange shawl he’d given her, crumpled in a small pile, came into view. Another piece of his mother given to her, being returned.

He bent down to pick up the shawl, snatching it off the ground when he felt a sudden pain shoot from his forearm. Stifling a scream from his lips, he frantically looked down, the source of his pain hanging from him.

An orange, black, and white banded snake was sunk into his skin. He ripped its fangs out from his arm with a grunt, the culprit slithering away into the grass before he could crush it with his boot.

He called out and asked the trees whether or not the snake was poisonous.

If she was trying to kill him, after everything he’d done for her.

There was a flash of bright color among the dark trees he was sure was Lucy Gray, and he fired. Without a thought, without remorse, and without a trace of the man he promised her he’d be.

He paused when he heard a grunt, a small part of him hoping he’d missed.

A larger part of him hoping he hadn’t.

He stalked through the trees, expecting to see her bleeding into the earth, but was met with her gold hoop earring, dangling with long pearls. He tucked it in his pocket, next to his compass and his mother’s compact.

He spoke again to the empty wood, saying this was enough, for her to stop.

The reply taunted him in his lover’s voice, dripping from the beaks of the dozens of jabberjays that started to circle above him.

Are you

Are you

Coming to the tree?

He craned his neck up to see his tormentors, ricocheting the voice of the girl he was running away with.

Where the dead man called out

For his love to flee

The voice of the girl that was now running from him.

He raised the gun that was slack in his arms, pressing the trigger and firing at the birds. He spun on his heel, desperate to stop hearing her voice colliding off the walls in his mind.

He fired frantically, screaming at the birds to shut up, but none of them seemed to hear his pleas or fall from the sky.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight

In the hanging tree

The third time he’d heard the song, his heart stopped, only for a moment. He was a decrepit old man now, his chin sporting a white beard that matched his hair, sitting at the head of the Capitol.

He faced a television screen that was broadcasting a large band of rebels, walking to the District 5 dam with explosives.

The attack was an act of treason against the Capitol, plain and simple. Giving the rebels a small glimmer of hope at rising against Panem’s government, all led by a seventeen-year-old girl.

The victor, the girl on fire, the Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen; she went by many names, all of which made him want to crush her like the pest she was.

Even more when he learned she twisted a song written for him by a lover he wished he could forget.

Are you

Are you

Coming to the tree?

He diverted his eyes from the screen, lightly pounding his fist to his chest as he covered his surprise with a cough.

Where I told you to run

So we’d both be free

He blinked, and suddenly he was back in the meadow, watching Lucy Gray play from afar. Her soft voice floating through the gentle silence of the wind blowing against an open field.

Back in the forest, hunting her down and being taunted by jabberjays as the song cut through the dense forest that still visited him in his dreams.

He dug his blunt nails into his palm, standing up and walking over to a window that overlooked a courtyard. Other people in the room were glued to the television, gunfire mixing with the voices of the rebels.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight

In the hanging tree

The final time he heard the song, he was standing at a post, center attention to every eye that had invaded the Capitol. Alma Coin stood on a platform behind him, and the dearest Mockingjay stood with an arrow trained at his head.

His eyes met hers, cold and void of the emotion they held when they met. Her lips were held in a thin line, the drawstring of her bow taut against her nose.

Are you

Are you

Coming to the tree?

He raked his eyes across the crowd, and he swore for a moment he saw her. Lucy Gray, young and bright as the day he’d met her. He knew his mind was tricking itself, some rendition of his life flashing before his eyes, but he still sucked in his bloody breath at the hope of seeing her again.

He’d always been honest to the girl on fire, and for that, he hoped she’d give him a swift death; but instead, she moved her aim above him, letting the arrow fly and killing Alma Coin.

He jaw went slack, the metallic taste of his blood sliding over his tongue. She lowered her weapon as the crowd behind engulfed her form, surging at him as he closed his eyes tight.

A peaceful death wasn’t in the cards for him after all.

Wear a necklace of rope

Side by side with me

Regret didn’t surge through his veins for the countless lives he’d taken, the people he’d enslaved, or the Games; it was for the man he chose to be. Taking the guns from the floorboards of that cabin, hunting her like she was a bird with its wings broken, and swallowing her memory like a snake in the grass.

He didn’t deserve regret. He deserved a fiery endless hell that would barely serve his actions justice.

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met up at midnight

In the hanging tree

As brutal hands clawed at his skin, tearing his soul from his body, he brought his mind back to the memories he didn’t deserve to have. With her, his lover, Lucy Gray. The girl that was lost to the trees, erased from history in a hope that the all-powerful President Snow would always land on top.

[salarta]

I Saw The TV Glow Thoughts

So I saw the movie, and I wanna talk about several things within it. I'm gonna put it under a cut because spoilers are involved.

I thought it was a great movie, though I don't think it'll have the same impact on streaming.

The whole scene of Mr Melancholy speaking to Owen is a prime example. It feels very encompassing when it's on a huge screen taking up your attention, vs on a smaller screen when you can easily just look at your phone or get distracted. I LOVED the effect on his face. But yeah, "you won't even know you're dying" hits hard.

By the end, it very much feels like one of those popular 90s episodes where the main characters are tormented by a monster of the week that tries to convince them their actual reality is pure fiction and they're just "crazy." Except, in this case the movie all takes place from the perspective of the characters inside the fake reality.

I've seen mostly comparisons between Pink Opaque and BtVS. I can see that, both due to the director's comments and certain elements. But honestly, I feel Charmed is a better comparison point. The Pink Opaque focuses on two young girls who use the astral plane to communicate, and involves fighting demons, both of which do apply to both shows. But it's the implied sisterhood aspect, paired with the astral plane, that feels very Charmed in nature. The power of the pink opaque feels very much like it fits power of three.

More importantly, Owen's dad refers to Pink Opaque as a "show for girls." That attitude more closely mirrors Charmed because of its protagonists all being female, and very strong girl power emphasis of the show.

Then there's the fact Pink Opaque comes on during a "young adult" block even though it's talked about as being "for kids," yet the show comes on too late for kids to actually watch. And somehow lasts 5 seasons like that. That was the first indication to me something wasn't quite right.

I think just how different Pink Opaque is on streaming makes very clear that Owen's in the midnight realm. Aside from simply how cheesy it is by that point, if it was really that cheesy originally, why would it be on at 10:30 PM instead of during the day like with Power Rangers. The Mr Melancholy game at the arcade goes further into this matter by suddenly making it more "childish."

Now, within this whole framework, with Pink Opaque being the real world and Owen being one of its characters, Owen's midnight realm circumstances work perfectly both to keep the character trapped in the realm and to show division with Maddy. Maddy's two years older and a white lesbian, while Owen's trapped in the realm presenting as a black man. You get the effect of this on their relationship when Maddy starts out calling him a "baby" for being two years younger than her, and later with Maddy feeling she needed to make clear she's a lesbian.

Along with this, it helps get across to the audience how difficult it can be to "escape" the pressures of masculinity. How Owen feels the need to sneak around with "girly" interests and connections. Never considers asking to stay over at Maddy's. Also Owen cleaning off the pink ghost drawn on his neck. We know he loves the show, so that decision must come from fear of public stigma if people saw it on him. It's very much a "I'm wiping away this power of mine, this thing that gives me life, from public view so I can fit in" case.

Fred Durst is also someone I would not have expected starring in this. Yet he was a perfect choice for the character he played. He's one of several people who had a pop culture masculine image out there in the 90s, so it fits for Owen to have that affecting him.

Oh, and I very much saw the AYAOTD reference for what it was.

Wrapping up, I can understand the point of the ending after seeing commentary by the director. It's a very valuable ending and I certainly wouldn't say it should "change" in any way from the director's vision. However, I will say that I didn't get the impression the director intended while viewing. "This is gonna be a process Owen needs to go through, it's gonna take time" is something that makes sense once explained. Taken as-is, it ended up feeling like Owen saw the truth but then decided to run away from it again, like Owen has no hope of breaking free of the midnight realm. It felt like a very "if that's not enough for Owen to change, nothing will make it happen" situation.

That's all I have at the moment. Again, good movie!

[hesawifebeaterdanusethegun]

Untitled Charles Condomine Fic - I still can't think of a name for this thing but I'm sure something will come to me when I see where the characters take the story in my head. Until then, hopefully somebody enjoys this :)

Part One:

Charles had been dead for 87 years this Wednesday. He didn’t know why he bothered keeping track of time anymore, nothing ever happened. He wandered around aimlessly as he had for decades, no one able to see him, no one able to hear him. He had no one but himself to blame for his untimely demise, but that didn’t stop him feeling sorry for himself. He walked down the street, deciding to take a left into a small park he’d frequented lately. Just because he was dead didn’t mean he couldn’t at least enjoy the sights and sounds around him on occasion, and he rather enjoyed this place, it was quiet and a great place to think, and all he had was time to do so.

It was a cold early December day, not quite cold enough for snow, but threatening rain. Down the main streets of the city he found himself in were lined with small trees decorated with white Christmas lights planted between the light poles, still lit from the night before, and red velvet ribbons.

He strolled on a concrete path that circled a small pond with clear water down to the bottom. It shone in the white morning light beautifully. He sat on a nearby bench and watched the wind play over the water.

“Do you mind if I sit?” someone nearby asked. He looked up, expecting you to be speaking to someone else. Surely you weren’t speaking to him. After all this time, he’d given up on ever being noticed by anyone again. But you were speaking to him, you were looking directly at him, the question you just asked reflected in your expression. He coughed and cleared his throat loudly, nervously.

“Oh no, of course not, be my guest,” he said, not used to the sound of his own voice. He couldn’t wipe the look of surprise off his face as he watched you set down your bag on the sidewalk and sit down next to him. He couldn’t help the smile that spread over his face at just being noticed by someone, anyone.

He looked over at you briefly, trying not to stare. You were about six inches shorter than him if he had to guess, and wore jeans and a baggy black zip up hoodie, and you carried a black canvas messenger bag, presumably in place of a purse, which didn’t seem like it would be your style if his impressions were correct. You wore a dirty pair of black Converse high tops on your feet. He wore a grey plaid three piece suit with black leather shoes, along with a white and blue striped shirt and maroon tie. Not for the first time in his life (or afterlife, he reminded himself glumly) he felt overdressed and underprepared for what he was facing. He couldn’t mess this up, he had to figure out who you were and why you could see and hear him when no one else living could.

You looked like any other girl on the street, he couldn’t see what was so special about you, but he knew there had to be something. You could see him. He took off the trilby on his head, grey plaid to match his suit, and smoothed his hair before speaking again.

“I’m Charles,” he said a bit weakly, rolling his eyes at his lack of creativity in the face of his nerves, “Charles Condomine.” He kept his hands balled in his jacket pockets as he spoke. You jumped a bit at his voice, not expecting it, but turned and smiled at him. You introduced yourself, noticing that he hadn’t held out his hand to shake, a little odd but not so much so that you gave it more than a passing thought. You took in his appearance as you spoke, noting his very old-fashioned style. You wouldn’t have been surprised to find he’d walked straight out of a screen playing an old movie from the ‘30s or ‘40s. Nothing in his wardrobe looked as if it had come off the rack either, these were tailored clothes. He even had an old-fashioned British accent and a little pencil-thin mustache. What did a guy like this want talking to someone like you, you wondered.

“Lovely to meet you,” he said through a charming smile he couldn’t seem to control that spread across his face. His hands stayed in his jacket pockets, though he’d unclenched his fists and relaxed a bit now that he’d managed to say something to you.

“Nice to meet you, too,” you gave him a half smile before looking back out at the water, still a little confused about where this conversation was going. You both looked over the small pond for a few moments before Charles broke the silence again. He had to say something, had to keep you talking, and he knew what a hurry people were always in these days, he didn’t know how long you’d stay before you rushed off, late for something or other.

It would have taken a lot of the pressure off if he’d known that you had nowhere to be today, and that’s why you’d decided to take a walk to the park. And now you were intrigued by this very strange man who seemed bound and determined to hold a conversation with you. He cleared his throat again and you looked over to him.

“Would you… that is, do you… Would you like to take a walk with me, perhaps?” he asked politely, his voice growing stronger and more confident with each word he spoke.

“Uh, sure, I guess?” you answered, figuring you could take this guy if you needed to, but you had a feeling he was completely harmless.

“Excellent,” he said with a crooked grin, one that was much more genuine than the one he’d given you when he introduced himself. He stood. “Shall we?” he asked, gesturing down the concrete path that wound around the pond. You stood up from the bench, draping you bag over one shoulder so that it hung at your hip.

“Sure,” you answered. You strolled around the pond in the chilly air, a few leaves scattering ahead of you on the path in the winter breeze, shaking the empty tree branches above you. You fell into an easy conversation, though it was mostly Charles asking you questions and you answering them. He spoke very little about himself. You mirrored Charles’ stance as he walked, keeping your hands in your hoodie pockets for warmth. Your cheeks grew red as you walked in the cold wind, but you were kind of enjoying the conversation (you didn’t often have anyone to talk to) and didn’t really want it to end.

On your second lap around the pond you slowed your walk near the bench where you’d started your acquaintance.

“Listen, Charles, this was great, talking to you, but I have to get home and feed my cat,” you told him, a little regret tinging your voice (or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part, he thought). He looked at you sadly.

“Will I get the pleasure of seeing you again?” he asked hopefully, trying to keep the desperation from his voice. “Talking to you today has been… absolutely lovely,” he told you. You didn’t really know what to say to him. He seemed very nice but you’d just met this guy randomly on a park bench. Truthfully, you liked him too, and talking to him had been “lovely” as he put it. It was nice to talk to someone who could talk back, your cat Churchill not being the best conversationalist.

“I… yeah, sure,” you answered. Why not? You didn’t have any friends in the area, you’d just moved here from the suburbs of the city and hadn’t even started your new job yet. You’d recently found a gig at a real estate firm handling phone calls and taking messages, basic secretarial work, and it paid better than your old position so you’d taken it in a heartbeat. You had to admit it was scary, but you had needed a change in your life. You’d felt stuck for years if you were honest, not having anything to work towards or look forward to. Maybe this move would change that.

“Splendid!” he said excitedly. “When will you be free?” he asked.

“Well how’s tomorrow at noon? There’s a coffee shop about three blocks that w-

“I know it,” he interrupted happily. He was nearly unable to hide his relief at being able to speak with you again. His enthusiasm took you a bit by surprise, but you didn’t think much of it. This guy was weird. You liked weird.

The next day couldn’t come fast enough for Charles. He wandered the streets restlessly for a while before setting himself on the bench in the park he’d met you on, settling in to wait, and thinking about all that had happened that day.

You went home after making your plan for the following day, you really had needed to feed Churchill, you hadn’t lied about that. Luckily you lived just around the corner from the coffee shop you’d be meeting Charles in tomorrow, so it was a short walk from the park. You let yourself into your apartment, climbing the stairs directly inside the door to the second floor of the building where you lived.

Church met you at the top of the stairs, meowing for his lunch.

“Oh, I know buddy, you’re hungry. I’m sorry I’m late, pal,” you said to the cat. “I might have made a new friend today.” You told Church about your meeting in the park. He ate quietly, flicking an ear in your direction whenever you spoke, purring.

Though it was about 1:00 P.M., you weren’t really hungry so you went to your bedroom to change into something more comfortable, then stationed yourself on the couch for a movie marathon, ignoring the boxes yet to be unpacked scattered around the place. You watched a few movies before feeding Church his dinner, promptly falling asleep on the couch around 6:00 P.M. Church eventually joined you there, settling himself on your stomach and purring gently as he fell asleep as well.

Part 2

[supergoodfilmanalysis]

Multiracial Companionship: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Saddled with potentially one of the most verbose and ridiculous titles in cinema history, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is the campy romp of three New York City drag queens, played by Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo who find themselves stranded in a midwestern town after their car breaks down on their way to Hollywood to compete in the Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant. The girls take the town by storm, form wholesome friendships with the classy ladies of Snydersville, Illinois (makeover alert!), navigate tensions with the town’s law enforcement, and chaos and glitz abound.

To Wong Foo represents an imagining of the multiracial buddy movie interested largely in the compartmentalization of identity categories with a concerted interest in gender and sexuality and a resistance to intersectional understandings of identity categories. The main characters being White, Black, and Latino is a fact the film acknowledges with the cinematic ideal of a post-racial U.S.--most importantly, To Wong Foo reminds us, the girls are drag queens, and their racial positionality comes second. The hierarchical ordering of their internal differential social orders that imbue their embodiment firstly with sexuality and gender rather than race comments on the film’s attempt to make a film by and for queer people in response to the growing conservative fear of a departure from traditional values and attempts to largely overwrite race.

My inspiration for the script came from watching the religious right videotape The Gay Agenda. There’s a scene where they show drag queens going through a town, and the narrator is warning viewers that these people will take over your town, and I thought, ‘Well, that would be fun.’

-Douglas Carter Beane, Screenwriter, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

In, “The Black Image in Protective Custody: Hollywood's Biracial Buddy Films of the Eighties,” Guerrero explains that black people “appear on the screen in the 1980s predominantly in the biracial ‘buddy formula,’ which reveals all the strategies by which the industry contains and controls the black filmic image and conforms it to white expectations.” Noxeema, the film’s main Black character played by Wesley Snipes quips about Blackness and her status in this small town is effectively placed in the protective custody of whiteness, severed from the Black community surrounded entirely by non-Black people and at an increased risk of violence in this small town. She at one point jokes that "the last Black person to stay [in this town] was Sam Cooke," a prolific Black soul artist who was famously murdered in a motel.

The racial tensions in the movie are tonally consistent with the film's self-aware insistence on its own levity, poking fun at itself and acknowledging racial and gender regimes, but ultimately suggesting they can be overcome.

Noxeema: You and your causes! Look, that child is Latin. You don’t want to get mixed up in all that Latin mess. She might turn out to be a Sandinista or something.

Vida: Noxeema Jackson! I have to admit that I am shocked and just a little bit saddened by you. I mean you of all people. Hon, I remember the first time I laid eyes on a certain ebony enchantress in the rough, and how through styling and the occasional makeup tip I helped her look a little bit less like Moms Mabley. And who would think that ebony enchantress would one day share a title with moi.

In an atmosphere where whiteness is presented as the absolute authority, the exchange fails to fully present itself as an examination as racism among people of color and ultimately portrays Vida, who is white, as the gatekeeper of Noxeema's successful identity as a drag queen.

To Wong Foo, ultimately, is optimistic about the possibilities for a multiracial, post-gender regime world--it imagines a world where drag queens take over the town and racial tensions can be assuaged with the power of friendship. It mostly neutralizes race as a factor in the marginalization of the girls, and its depiction of state violence at the hands of an idiotic, bumbling sheriff who is scared of change holds a mirror to conservatism and distorts it like a fun house in return.

Questions:

How does the film's casting of three mainstream straight, male actors as drag queens contribute to the racial and gender politics of To Wong Foo?

What might the levity of the film regarding racial and gendered violence contribute to it?

How does drag as a performance art relate to racial embodiment in general? How might it play into the film specifically?

[zalrb]

the summer i turned pretty 1x03 review -- "you mean conrad?"

Oh god, the infinity symbol. Why would you pour that on her pancakes tho. Why is that the moment for the Moment.

"Looking like a vision in floral." She looks NORMAL. You guys are making it seem like she's Arwen coming to Frodo in an ethereal light and bringing him back from the brink of death.

Why would you get your daughter a present because it includes your best friend's favourite poem? That doesn't make any sense. That should be a gift for Susannah. This isn't how you show how close all of you are.

"You excited to see Taylor?" How long has it been since you last saw her? Like a week?

"You're the main character, not Taylor." Is she though?

"I do not want to be cancelled by the sailing community" that's not what being cancelled IS.

stop. saying. extra.

"I just really want to look good next to you" you know, you wouldn't have to try this hard with Jere, Steven.

BOYFRIENDS.

Yeah, Steven, play with your boyfriend

I don't understand why this volleyball scene is so long.

"I know, I just ... care." Do you though?

So if Nicole is the girl this season then who the fuck is Aubrey?

Nicole, honey, you can do SO MUCH BETTER than Conrad.

"Suddenly you care about clothes, you have new friends, you have a boyfriend." OK a) they're making it seem like Belly was dressing as a slob and she her wearing a baggy shirt and shorts isn't the same vibe, it's like when Teen Wolf was trying to say that Kira looked so un-put-together and messy and my girl was looking like this

please be serious. 2. Nicole literally sat by the pool with Conrad and watched you and Belly play water volleyball together. It's not like you and Belly went to get a banana split and then Nicole dropped by and she was like I invited Nicole too, that's OK right? and then you watched as they had all these inside jokes and Belly's trying to include you. You are still very prominent Taylor. 3. Same thing. Jere picked you two up it's not like she came to pick you up from the bus station with Cam Cameron and you walk to the car and see them making out and you have to be like "erm erm". *cries in frustration* DETAILS. And if these things happen later, they shouldn't they should happen BEFORE this conversation.

Where are Steven and Jere they are my only source of marginal entertainment this season because of pure head canon.

"Just promise me one thing, we'll always be best friends?" She comes her for three months out of the entire year, Taylor.

Right, Aubrey was his girlfriend from before and Nicole is a new disposable chick.

"You think you could talk to him?" see, if they were as close as they were meant to be, Laurel wouldn't need direction to speak to Connor about opening up. She'd just do it.

Why would you have a Midsommar theme? White people realize it's a movie about white supremacy right?

See Jere's being an ass here with the whole her lips touch a dead animal's lips but calling him Cam Cameron is just a dumb way to be a dick.

And Cam showed you the fuck up with that quick peck, Jere, so shut up you child.

BOYFRIENDS

Taylor is a good friend though, I just find her supremely annoying but that's a best friend.

OK so if you're going to play Best Friend by Saweetie, this is not the scene you play it at

for thirty seconds until they walk into the party. Especially when you're rolling up looking like this

If anything, what should happen is Taylor should do her up, look proud at her work and when they roll up to the party, she's NOTICED by people and Taylor should look her proudly and the song should be playing. JUST GIVE ME A SHOW.

Oh Jere and a disposable Black guy to make out with.

What kind of likkle stiff kiss is this?

*staring at Conrad* for WHY. I love how we're three episodes deep and I have NO IDEA why she likes him.

Yeaaah Lola tries too hard to act like she's having a good time.

So does Jeremiah.

Hahah I like how they skipped over the super rape-y part of Summer Lovin'.

Yeah, see again, this makeout is very just staged. If it's a stupid, drunken mistake, it should be a little sloppier.

"Oh my God I am so sick of hearing about this fucking deb ball." Did Belly ever mention it?

It's literally been one day, Taylor. And aren't you supposed to know that Belly has her Cousins life anyway?

It has been. a day. And Belly has been acting EXACTLY the same. She just finally wears the clothes you want her to.

So, she is but she hasn't done anything to you, Taylor, for you to say that.

We literally never see this, though! She just looks at him from time to time in a way that's supposed to be wistful but she can't access the nuance for that.

I remember I was obsessed with this guy in high school and I took a picture of him and his friends when we all went on a class trip to the States, I really just wanted a picture of him but I wasn't going to ask him to JUST take a picture alone so I took the picture and then I was looking at the picture on the bus but like zooming in so I could only see him and my friend was like WHAT'RE YOU DOING? and looked over and saw what I was doing and then we both decided that she never saw that and THAT was super embarrassing. I should be seeing THAT type of "omg I feel like I'm in high school again" shit from Belly.

Give me a gen z version of this shit

"I can't deal with this right now. I gotta go." I mean why? What are you doing, Belly?

See I know the whole thing is Jeremiah is supposed to be friending Cam Cameron up to deflect but it's not giving him the layers they think it is.

And he's not good at playing drunk.

OH MY GOD, the way I BURST OUT LAUGHING AT THIS

she is TERRIBLE.

"Can I ask you something..." "Is that it?" "Yeah, that's it." Why are they acting like the moment to ask him has passed when he still has to drive her home?

Like is that car ride silent?

"They should be in his desk" where she will find the infinity necklace.

"He's been acting weird for months. Just forget him." Lol, do you two like each other?

"And today you can't stop obsessing over Conrad" and like I know that we use that word liberally and this is partly because the acting is terrible but the scene needs more room to breathe. Like I feel like what should happen is she sees the bracelet and she mulls about it quietly and Jeremiah keeps asking her about Cam Cameron and she gives monosyllabic responses and then he's like Bells, where are you? Like you're barely speaking and then she should talk about Conrad in a rush where she just can't stop talking and it's like verbal diarrhea and then she takes a deep breath and Jere's just like wowwwwwwww

Honestly, Belly.

Brat.

Oh my god Belly, you should be yelling at him for making out with Taylor when he's dating someone else.

For your best friend dying, this is a very cold conversation. Like they're trying to be Beaches but they're not being Beaches.

My mom was OBSESSED with that movie omg.

[strawbrygashez]

film recommendations? :))

SURE :D I’ll put a little info about them too just incase anyone thinks they’d be interested in one of them 💃

•Queen of the damned- Vampire movie. HEAVY on the 2000s mallgoth inspiration. Jonathan Davis from Korn has a lot of songs/covers in it. It’s part of the Anne rice stuff (interview with a vampire)

•The crow (the original first one)- Hot goth guy comes back to life to get revenge for his wife (they were both killed)

•Ginger Snaps 1 & 2- Two sisters who are close & love g0re. One becomes too girl bossy for the other to handle when she becomes a werewolf!!!

•My bloody Valentine- abt a killer who kills on Valentine’s Day. It was very hot bc he was very intimidating 😍😍 there’s a scene where he steps on someone and-

•Killer klowns from outerspace- Alien clowns. Very goofy & cheesy. The three main characters need to kiss.

•Black Christmas- Killer who makes weird phone calls. He lives in a attic with a white fluffy cat.

•Children of the corn- Kids in a cult kill people.

•Prom Night (1980)- This one is great because the killer wears a mask that has glitter in it. I don’t wanna spoil it too much but if u like the Halloween movies it’s funny when you find out who the killer is.

•Perfect Blue- anime movie. Ex singer deals with a lot of shit & sees another version of herself. Uh I dunno how to explain it well

•Airheads- 3 losers in a band hold up a radio station place so they can get their song on the air. The main dude is sooooooo hot.

•slumber party massacre- I’ll be real the movie isn’t that good but the killer is so funny. He breaks out into a song at some point & his guitar has a drill on the end of it.

•The lost boys- gay vampire stuff. Main leader of a vampire group is down bad for a guy who likes a vampire girl.

Uhmmmmmm that’s all I can think of at the moment :,) Other stuff I’m thinking of are movies that are probably more well known and not worth listing lol

Edit: Girl interrupted is very good too

[breserker]

mystery horror theater bre-thousand 1

because if i go on another movie binge without filling this out first i'll have defeated my own purpose

THE OTHER DAY i watched three filmmmsssssss if you can call it that -- Smile (2022), Day of the Reaper (1984), and Savage Weekend (1978). this is my first time doing this under a name and i guess i should give them number ratings but what i may rank very high might get me slaughtered on sight, you'll see what i mean

SMILE (2022) (TW: Suicide, self-harm, THE CAT DOES NOT MAKE IT)

At the behest of a friend, I jumped in to watch this movie -- I enjoy doing that, very little fucks me up and I like keeping an eye out for people horror-wise. Overall? It was incredibly good. It had the tense anxiety of Invisible Man (2020), where there's a lot of focus on the mental deterioration of a woman in a world that doesn't believe her, surrounded in a blanket of the first scene of Midsommar (2019) where it shows a pretty ugly side of certain traits of mental illnesses such as mania and psychosis. And it should, the main character works in a psychiatric emergency hospital, and does so to the point of detriment that I would call self-harm. I've been there, working so hard you wreck yourself, y'know?

By about halfway through it became obvious that was also a monster movie, and while I can see some people turning their nose at that, I think I really needed that aspect to follow through with the movie without feeling beaten down with misery and anxiety. The monster in question operates similarly to It Follows (2014) but instead of being passed on by sex it's passed on through sharing the trauma of witnessing a suicide. The monster itself reminded me a lot of BOB from Twin Peaks, there is a beautiful scene recreating BOB scaling the couch while smiling. It's then that I realized that the first person to die was named Laura. Yeah I see you...I see you...!!!

The theme in the movie is the chain of trauma passed from person to person and viscerally affecting those already with past traumas. I deeply enjoyed its execution and how this was a monster movie...I do wish, however, it ended a little bit differently. While the message that trauma never truly leaves you is there, I was hoping for a different, bittersweet ending instead of the bad end the movie provided. It felt tacked on or changed at the last minute. 4.5/5

~~

DAY OF THE REAPER (1984)

buddy oh man oh MAN BUDDY IF YOU LOVE REALLY SHITTY INDIE HOME FILMS SHOT ON A SHODDY SUPER 8 CAMERA WITH THE WORST ADR DUBBING YOU'VE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, with every treat a bad movie has to offer, THIS IS YOUR FILM and you can watch it FOR FREE on YouTube RIGHT NOW and then come back and punch me in the face. I was HOWLING with laughter. I got a friend also enthusiastic about bad movies to watch it and HE loved it TOO. i have to gather more people to watch this gem, and if you stick with it and think it's boring keep going because the conclusion is so wildly out of this world and so strangely done that it'll hopefully bring glee and joy to you too. CLEAR AND AWAY 5/5

~~

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1978)

I was running out of steam by this point because laughing at Day of the Reaper put my lungs in a state, but this is a slasher from the years in between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. I've seen many many slashers that follow the tropes of horny teens boning it in woods (but strangely a white girl usually dies first! I donno where the Black guy trope comes from--but then they're rarely in these films ANYWAY so whatever). But here, it's a bunch of really messy adults with crossed desires, separation/divorcees not knowing what they want out of love at this point, horny adult looking for any tail they can get, et cetera. It honestly was a refreshing break from all of the giggly teen stuff--I'd be far and away more interested to see more like this in the future.

The editing was cut really quick in a lot of areas and the film's pacing at times makes it feel like a rushed project, it needed a finer tooth comb on both fronts. The quality wasn't great but I was pleased to see a flamboyantly charming Christopher Allport give the nasty queer bitch role his all. The twist was pretty meh, I wish there was more fallout action between Mac and the divorcee (just get nasty with it! it's the 70's let's go!) I might be interested to see this again but probably not, it gets this score just for the novelty of horny adults with horny adult problems in a slasher film: 3/5

[aloeverified]

I love tasm Gwen stacy too but I hate it when she's compared to Raimi and mcu mj's because a lot of those arguments are quite misogynistic. She's arguably the best written love interest out of all the three but people put her on a pedestal as this absolute perfect angel gf. I also sympathise with Mary Jane and her character was way deeper than people give credit for. Also Michelle because girl deals with so much misogynoir and there's ppl still bitching about the fact that she's black. Michelle didn't 'stalk' Peter or act creepy she was literally just being Hinata.

i personally think mary jane is a better love interests for peter, but i like gwen more — she's one of my favorite marvel characters.

mary jane had a really bad home life and was never really able to be herself, and when peter found out about her dreams in life, he was the first person to tell her she could accomplish them. i think they have a very sweet relationship.

this isn't to say i don't like gwen and peter, i really do. i like how she's witty and makes him blush, how they're both equally smart and have shared interests, and their overall dynamic is just very cute and fun to read about/watch. the problem is that a lot of fans only care about their relationship when they can kill gwen off for more trauma for peter — which, yes, it was very upsetting for peter and changed him a lot as a person as grife does, but they're viewing her as a plot device and not a person; puts a bad taste in my mouth.

michelle is also very cute, and very different from previous love interests. she's smart, but she's not necessarily a scientist; she's not bullied, but she isn't a popular girl. i feel like she was a bit cringey at times, but that's just because the mcu writers are all old white men who were trying to write a woke black girl. i haven't watched all the tom holland spiderman movies yet (i promise i'm trying) so i mostly see them as besties right now due to their dynamic in homecoming, but i can see how she and peter are cute. love couples where the girl is taller so i automatically care for them. also it's tom holland and zendaya so how could anyone hate them.

anyways, i love all of peter's main three love interests — it's just that they're not always written the best at times.

[theshampyon]

Finally getting around to watching Psych, which friends told me to watch when it first came out. Mostly fun, although there'd definitely a bit of... uncomfortably dated material in there. I'm going through season one, and so far we have:

A character that is both DID and trans, but only trans in one personality, and one personality is a murderer, and also the main characters are visibly disgusted by the trans personality being attracted to them, and the character is just able to queue up bottom surgery after a single therapy appointment without the alters ever being discovered or made aware, and the main characters freak out at the idea of "having bits cut off", and...

Ep set in a comic con with a level of dismissive "lol, nerds! comics and sci fi are for losers!" attitude that you almost never see today.

Ep where a character is disturbed by the idea that a manly man would have a skin care routine or watch Queer Eye,

Female cop introduced in the opening episode who's transferred because she had a relationship with her technically married detective partner. She's never mentioned again, and the male detective suffers no consequences.

Detective who openly uses police brutality (smacking a suspect's head against the door frame while getting them in the patrol car) (he's one of the heroes, folks!)

Pregnant police captain who goes to work the day after giving birth and shrugs off the suggestion that she'd need time to heal and recuperate (women who belong in the workplace don't need to recover or care for their new-born, they just Do The Job!).

Also every (mostly blonde) white girl in existence seems to want to jump the smarmy douchebag main character's bones within three seconds of meeting him?

And lord is he smarmy. He constantly makes a mockery of anything he isn't personally into. His whole vibe is Ave Ventura From Wish.com. And he loves shitting on his friend's interests, and setting him up for humiliation. And so far it seems like he was a bully as a kid, but it's because his dad was a bully, and also his dad was right to bully him because it made him the man he is today, and...

Potential love interests for the characters are very clearly racially segregated. White girls for the white guy, black girls for the black guy. Never may they mix. This is for Middle America, after all.

Lots of portrayals of women as flighty and irrationally emotional (e.g. woman who instantly decides to cheat on her boyfriend because she didn't realise he was about to propose, woman who breaks into a snotty blubbering mess because a guy didn't want to make out with her in a field, etc)

Overall it's a fun show, I'm gonna keep watching. I was already an adult when this aired, these shitty aspects were a constant white noise back then , so it's pretty easy for me to look past it and find the bits that still work (kinda like living with tinnitus). Might be different for someone who grew up in a time when writers started to learn not to trot out these tropes. It'll be fun to see if or how this stuff changes over 8 seasons and three movies. So far it's fun seeing Gus become more of an active participant instead of just Smarmy White Man-Child's foil. But man oh man, are there ever some elements in these early episodes that have aged poorly.

[thestuffmybraincomesupwith]

Concept- hero/ villain movies fail somewhere because while they explore complex emotions regarding villainy and the build up to that point, they fail to validate those emotions but explain why the corresponding actions are moral failings. It's seen more and more often not only in idolization of relatable villains (Loki, Killmonger, etc.), but also in the increase of "justifiably anger- motivated actions" in real life people ("kill them all" sentiments,  "round them up and shoot them", "they're all a threat", etc.).

It's more often now a days juxtaposed against a hero with similar losses or pain, but chose a higher moral road than the villain. Unfortunately, most movies leave "the villain chose the wrong path" at that without exploring the "why is that the wrong path?" It's almost as if it should be obvious. But while most people would say "of course it's obvious why hurting people is wrong!", those who share in the justifiable hurt of three- dimensional villains go "mmm, but is it really?" Because when someone's been through that much pain and ostracization and ridicule and whatever else, like a bullied middle schooler fantasizing about punching every bully in the face, they too would like to see retribution for the wrongs committed against them. Movies fail in this aspect, generally. Killmonger is a fabulous example, having grown up in poverty, surrounded by loved ones fighting against the white man who systematically oppressed him and his people, watching his loved ones die in that generations-long fight, eventually being himself up as a token in wars that white men either started or stuck their hands into. The movie starts with him stealing a mask from a museum, telling the white female curator he's stealing it. "How do you think your ancestors got this?" His motives seemingly justify all of his actions. He has a righteous fury, his anger is justified. His actions, however, are not. In the aftermath of Black Panther's release, the failure to address why Killmonger's actions were not justified was apparent, if no where else, on social media. Many not only completely sympathized with him, but they also sided with him and made calls to arms to truly represent that mission in real life.

I think the closest I've ever heard a movie or show address this out loud was in Supernatural. There is an episode with the ghost of a vengeful girl trying to murder some boys who bullied her in life. When this fact comes to light, there's the traditional sympathy for the vengeful spirit, but Dean (a main character) breaks the romanticization of this notion by saying "yeah, these guys are complete jerks, but that doesn't mean they should die!" And suddenly the reality clicks into place. The romanticization of the just-desserts is addressed and the disconnect between the negative emotions and the extreme actions is lit up for all to see. It's a proverbial calling out of an abusive behavior.

Highlighting a jump from feeling rage and hurt to causing intentional harm is very literally at the core of identifying abusive relationships. Which, when media fails to properly explore, leaves the opportunity open for abusive relationships to be seen in a rosy-tinted light. Almost like 50 shades of grey- critics online, both professional and at-home commentors were quick to point out that the relationship was incredibly abusive, controlling, and in no way should have been made to look glamorous. However, since the series itself never condemned the acts committed in the name of jealousy, control, fear, and possession, they quickly became "relationship goals" for many out there who related or empathized with said emotions.

Those who can easily take a step back and see the troubling cross over from hurt to harm are either appalled or skeptical at the thought of falling into this pattern. This can be equally problematic. These two reactions tend to cause people to dissociate from those who do make these mistakes. It's almost like they put them in a completely different mental category. Those people become criminals. Those people are thugs. THOSE people are animals. And now, there's a dehumanizing effect, with a polarization between "people who are bad and do bad things" and "people who are good and don't do bad things". Or, seen from the other side, "people who did everything the way it was supposed to be done according to all the messages they've ever received in life, just like a fairy tale movie" and "heartless bullies who deserve to be punished for their life-ruining judgments". Or, seen from a step back from it all, "human beings with human flaws" and "human beings with human flaws".

No idea where this was going, i'm falling back asleep now.

[bbcstdb]

What's funny is that yesterday, I was brainstorming a parody movie to the planet of the apes. The movie was about reverse racism and sexism. Where pure straight white people were the slave race. Only the empathetic and non bigoted, intelligent, white people were a part of the majority and got to experiment on their own. The way it worked was the rapture was real, and only the most bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic were raised up in a beam of light by God. Who picked them specifically for their superior idiocy and lack of humanity. Once his whole speech about how they came from dirt and will learn what it feels like to treat others like dirt they were dropped on their heads, asses, and faces just in time to be arrested by a humanity police force for their crimes against nature. For generations, they had done the worst to their fellow man and woman, making them feel like they weren't welcome in their own home, so God was punishing them by doing the same. In the first generation, there were a few token colored people and even a gay man who was also bigoted. So their strange holocaust began with mostly white rich people and their colored or gay pick me's. The one running the experiments was a native American lesbian with peculiar sexual interests that one of the main racist men sees her in while trying to escape on his own. He had the choice of bringing others, but because his team was a pick-me black guy and gay guy, he chose to go on his own, knowing there was strength in numbers because God told him so. He was caught obviously. The experimentation varied from tickling them and forcing others to watch them be "tortured" to measure empathy or feelings, holding them with forced open eyelids, forcing them to watch boon docks and other media for minorities. Some were simple school exams of the suffering of minorities, their biggest worst nightmare, to which the toughest looking Jewish nazi screamed like a little girl. Questions about zionism were his breaking point. He gets a heart attack from the panic attack (ty bojack) and is left in a coma. Where in his Dreams he is in the hell of sharing the land he bought with lesbian Muslim women, who only speak Arabic and push him around in his wheel chair to nice parks for picnics and to drink tea. He is never heard from again after his visit to the prison medic. The rich people got good at saving up their bathroom passes for the experiment (they gamble them because they are allowed to give them away and collect them as an entire block of accumulated break time) which they got three 5 minute breaks day where the main nazi escapee uses everyone one to further his new escape plan. He's been caught a few times, and their punishment is forced to eat ethnic food and various strange ways to shove minority culture down their throats, literally. Music is used as torture as well, and everytime he eats anything or brushes his teeth the music plays in his head because of small chips they were injected. No one escapes. They all die and are allowed to procreate in the prison to have their racist kids taken from them for their own child group experiment. Working that genetic malformity of superiority complexes out of the white race. More and more joining the advanced peaceful majority with each generation their offspring always look exactly like them a little mixed depending which are the parents. The main characters' offspring are forced to meet the never dying native lesbian director each time with the same reaction. Always looking exactly like him. They are born they get their bottom smacked without crying. As soon as the director greets them, they start crying at being held by her. She always holds them kindly and gives them encouraging words about how they are the most resilient of God's mistake and how she hopes maybe this baby will be the last of its kind. She calls them "my little snowflake."