#also can we talk about this stellar casting??? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

absolutebl · 11 months ago

Note

Hello, hi.

Next week is Cherry Magic's last episode and I'd like a suggestion as to what to watch next. Since last year I've watched some shows that I've enjoyed to different degrees. So far I've vibed more with the Japanese ones and only have watched two Thai shows: step by step and cherry magic.

I definitely like cherry magic more but I'd like to watch some more Thai bl, as I can see they're very popular, but honestly I don't know where to begin. I don't know if mentioning my favorite shows would help?

Old fashion cupcake

Cherry magic (JP)

I cannot reach you

Semantic error

Thank you so much in advance 🙌🏽

This is a perfect question for me!

I think you're vibbing more with Cherry Magic Th because it's following the original yaoi so closely, so it's def more JBL feeling story than it is ThBL.

Okay so your favorites are:

Old Fashion Cupcake

Cherry Magic original

I Cannot Reach You*

Semantic Error*

You've named some of my all time favorites, and 2 of my VERY few top 10s*. (For more of my top 10 JBLs, try here (pre 2023). For my top 10 KBLs, those are here. And my top BLs of all time are here.)

But you want Thai recommendations?

Before I start, off script, seek ye Seven Days. It's my favorite JBL of all time and it's absolutely amazing and very special. It's in two parts and worth every effor to try to find. Here's me talking about it.

First, let me triage some connective tissue.

It seems like you like soft and gentle BL. (Try this cozy list.)

You like JBL so that means higher filming standards and certain aura of authenticity.

Also a lower heat level.

Okay, here are 10 Thai BLs I think you should try, in order...

10 Thai BLs to try if you prefer soft Japanese BL

1 Until We Meet Again (YouTube)

UWMA is, without question, a work of narrative genius with a powerful and cohesive romantic backbone and stellar performances. It is (to date) the only Thai BL that I’ve rated a 10/10 predominantly on the basis of story structure. That said it is also very well cast (and it’s a BIG cast), with solid production values, and enduring pair branding and a softness and complexity that should appeal for a JBL stan. More of my feels on this on here.

trigger warning on the original trigger

2 I Feel You Linger in the Air (iQIYI or grey)

I truly loved this time travel romance. IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework (much like Until We Meet Again). Steeped in history and family drama it edges into lakorn AKA soap opera. This is an elegant and classy BL… from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. Pity about the ending. Oh it wasn’t that sad but it wasn’t great either. However, JBL isn't noted for sticking the landings either. Full review and discussion here.

3 My Ride (Gaga)

Thai BL grew up with this little pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. Full review.

My caveat with this one is, like Step by Step, it is a Thai pulp which mean production values will not be up to Japan's standards. So if you bounce hard off the style of the first few 2 eps, it doesn't get better, so drop it and move on.

4 A Tale of Thousand Stars (YouTube)

With great casting and cinematography this drama nods at BL tropes but manages to elevate them (and itself) with a strong mature story concept about a spoiled rich kid who gets a heart transplant and becomes a rural teacher in order to pay out survivor’s guilt. On the way he falls in love with a local park ranger and contends with his own classism and escapist tendencies. Everyone seemed to perfectly suit their roles and GMMTV made the most out of its stable. Combined with excellent production (and post production) values, 1000 Stars is without question GMMTV’s most mature, charming, and smart BL series. I think it should go down as one of the top BLs of all time. I feel safe recommending this one to friends and non BL watchers.

5 He's Coming to Me (YouTube)

Boy and ghost boy fall in love, must solve ghost’s murder. Peak pining but also pretty tame, features my favorite sweet but important coming out sequence. The third in my precious triumvirate of unbeatable Thai BLs, that are only nominally BL because the story, acting, and production values are so good. (others are UWMA & 1k*)

You don't mention any PNR or high concept, but I still think it's worth giving this one a try.

6 Moonlight Chicken (YouTube)

I enjoyed this complicated little show, even though it’s spectacularly messy gay with lots of shrapnel and authentic pain. I thought the leads (EarthMix from 1k*) turned in their most compelling performance to date. But it was GeminiFourth (My School President) who stole my heart. That said, the most interesting central relationship was that of Jim & Li Ming, their father-son angst mixed with evident affection made me tear up. This was more slice of life than it was BL, but it ended happily so I’m not mad at it. Full review here.

It's not as soft as you like, but you might try it anyway, because it is Very Good.

A note if you watch this and enjoy GeminiFourth, you could try their BL, My School President. I chose not to explicitly rec it to you because it's VERY Thai Bl with lots of comedy and slapstick, and you named prestige JBL and KBL (which are the anthesis of this). Taht said, MSP has no more or less than Japan's Cherry Magic, so you might enjoy it.

7 Make a Wish (grey)

An odd pull but I'm going with it. This PNR (from noted Y-novelist Sammon - Manner of Death & Triage) about a doctor who can see the dead and strikes a bargain with a wish-granting irreverent tree angel - naturally they fall in love. The Thai afterlife is incredibly bureaucratic but I enjoyed the premise and the unfolding of the story (it’s not predictable but still satisfying and with nice little twist). I like that the doctor is just gay af and has a fag hag bestie and everything. The cast is excellent but the comedic stylings could feel too overblown and tonally off. (But again no more than something like Japan's Cherry Magic.) It had sad parts and did make me cry but is ultimately happy with a great sex scene, good smiley kisses, and all the agency.

8 Bed Friend (YouTube -cut version, iQIYI - v high heat)

You didn't name My Personal Weatherman (a great high heat JBL from last year) but if you want to try some Thai-style high heat, this is your best bet. Office frienamies transition a flaming hot one night stand into a f-buddy relationship that is built on a puppy/cat dynamic (and kinks into it at one point). Our puppy is loyal, smitten, and protective with endlessly longing eyes, while our cat is snarky, prickly, and deeply damaged (ALL THE TRIGGERS). NetJames give lovely high-heat with excellent chemistry and tuned-in performances of surprising depth, the story ultimately fails them at little as it waffles and went off the rails. But that's a Thai BL thing. Full review here.

Triggers include: child abuse, attempted rape, family abuse

9 The Eclipse (YouTube)

This is a good show but the cast is excellent and the leads are absolutely flawless, which elevates it beyond just good. We got a nuanced and multifaceted burgeoning relationship: philosophical (and socio-political) conflict contrasted to moments of empathy; flirtation contrasted to moments of genuine affection, plus plenty of angst. This narrative is less about love than it is about courage and tenderness. However, near the end the pacing was off and the plot frustrating. Still, this is an enjoyable watch, with a finale that features verbal consent and a fun blooper reel.

10 Love By Chance (YouTube)

Okay I dithered a lot over this last one and finally chose this. Because in an intro to Thai BL you should have at least one trail by fire and that's bound to be a MAME offering.

AePete’s meet cute is one of the best ever put on screen. They are just so genuine and soft with each other, it’s hard not to love them from the first moment. All the best Thai BL tropes deployed (and there are a lot of them) are earned honestly by the narrative, including the seme/uke dynamic (such as it is). The characters are unique as this is a poor/rich pairing, where Ae is tough & scrappy, caring & protective, and probably demisexual, while Pete is timid, shy, lonely, and out gay (with his peers). The language is also glorious with Pete using formal (even old fashioned) register, while Ae is entirely rude. You can train your ear for Thai high & low registers with this show (in fact, it's why I started learning them). As surrounding characters point out, they shouldn't work together, and yet they're very much wonderful when they are together.

HOWEVER: You watch LBC for the mains, ignore the sides (trigger warnings), and don't bother with any of the follow ups and you'll be fine. AePete will remain in your heart for a really long time. They are still one of my all time favorite couples. Also (still) two of the Thai BL industry's most famous actors.

For those who are wondering, yes the last contender was, indeed, Bad Buddy. But I chose LBC purely on the basis of softness.

There it is.

I hope I have picked some winners for you and please loop back around and let me know how it goes?

I really want to know if any of these worked for you, this was such a fun challenge.

(source)

109 notes · View notes

agentoffangirling · 4 months ago

Text

I feel like we need to discuss how creators' respect for a character influences the project they're doing

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I don't blame you, I had no idea how to word that, but you'll get it in a sec. Let's take a look at both "WandaVision" and "Loki"

See, when Marvel started production on WandaVision and brought in Jac Shaeffer and Matt Shakman and all those people, it was very clear that there was a singular goal among the team: how can we depict Wanda Maximoff well? How can we treat her character with dignity and grace? How can we discuss her psyche in a respectful manner? And everyone delievered

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany gave downright beautiful performances, the supporting cast played their role well. The writers did research on Scarlet Witch's character and her comics, everyone fully understood what type of project this was and they used it to its full potential. I'm no fan of Olsen for numerous reasons, I'm not even a big Wanda Maximoff fan. But I can fully admit that "WandaVision" is a stellar story, and every person on the team poured their heart into it

And hey, let's also look at the promotions for this show. When Schaeffer and others were interviewed, in no moment did they mock Wanda's character or what she goes through in the series. They treated her very similarly to how they treated her on the show, discussing the deeper parts of her character with an obvious interest. They like Wanda. They want the best for her. They want to make a story Wanda would be proud of

But now to "Loki". I've said my pieces on the Loki series too many times to count, so I will keep this brief. From the very beginning we know that Waldron was not interested in developing "Loki", only to develop his original script (which is pretty shitty anyway). He wanted to make a time-travel, sci-fi, romance type story, and Loki was the character he was saddled with

Now, this doesn't mean that he still couldn't develop his script, in fact he did, and I could think of dozens of ways that type of story could work with Loki. There's a lot of potential there. But Waldron never cared. He never cared to develop Loki. He never cared to examine his character past pop culture. He never cared to make Loki fans happy, only himself

Look at the promos he gives! He refers to Loki as a "little shit" multiple times, talks all about how they're taking him in a different direction (aka completely tearing down his character), it is so obvious he just wanted to fulfill his own personal fantasies. At least Kate Herron treats the subject material with some ounce of respect; Waldron proudly proclaims he's never seen it

And to quickly switch gears here, it's very similar to Kevin Feige vs Brad Winderbaum's view on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Where Feige dismisses it, giving it general statements and never hinting at a possible future, Winderbaum speaks of it with a clear love of the series. He's all but admitted that he wants the characters back in the MCU, and if someone like him is heading that, I just might trust him with it. Feige is Waldron. Winderbaum is Schaeffer

In the end, it all just makes me wonder, why didn't Loki fans get their WandaVision? Why did we get the creator who puts down his characters? Why did we get the story that only existed to introduce a multiverse? Why did we get the short stick?

Loki fans deserve a WandaVision. After a literal decade of waiting for a solo project, we should've gotten the respectful, genuine creator. Pretty much every other character got it-- why not us?

#wandavision #loki #anti loki series #michael waldron #anti michael waldron #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #the vision #jac schaeffer #agatha harkness #agatha all along #marvel #mcu #anti sylvie #anti sylki #loki deserves better

25 notes · View notes

femmmie · 1 year ago

Text

Review of Smosh's Funeral Roast

I am harsh at times, but know it all comes from a place of love!

Spoilers under the cut

I live in Europe. This is relevant because of timezones: the funeral roast of Anthony Padilla was live at 6pm for them, meaning 3am for me. I am not the youthful insomniac I once was so I had to train my sleep schedule the entire week - otherwise I would miss it because I fell asleep. But I wanted to witness this live. I love smosh.

The trailer for this roast deserves an award: Ian and the cast have a movie night as suddenly the light turns blue and everyone but Ian freezes. He seems to know what's going on and discovers a zombie or ghost like Anthony levitating. The cast of the roast are all introduced and all play a gothic, churchy kind of character. See the full trailer here (it's currently at 666k views, how fun):

youtube

Around 1am I got impatient and decided not to wait for my alarm clock but to install myself on the couch, with a blanket and a scarf, and a hot cup of tea, god knows I would need it. I watched episodes of the Scott Pilgrim Netflix series to kill the time. The character Todd Ingram reminded me a lot of Anthony and I wonder whether Anthony has 'vegan superpowers' as well. Probably so.

Finally, the pre-show begins. This is pretty uneventful as they play a game and succesfully convince thousands of viewers to buy their tickets to the main show. I look at them. Everyone is gorgeous. But I can't look away from Ian and Anthony. And here is where I stray from actually reviewing the show to let my inner fangirl out: holy fuck they are hot. Me and my friends on tumblr have been making 'forgive me Father, for I have SINNED' jokes because his character, 'the pastor', just brings that out in people. We're not used to Ian in black, or in a robe, and he looks phenomenal. And then there is Anthony, clothed in a ridiculous Harry Styles-esque lace top with lace gloves, resting his head on Ian's shoulder. It's such a cute moment, Ian pushes him upright. He can be alive for a second before his funeral. My heart melts. Honerable mention: Courtney's bikini girl cleavage right behind Ian. The girls were ready to rock. Okay, okay, back to the review.

The room feels kind of small and a bit claustrophobic. The Smosh art dept. always steps up, so the stained glass "friendship never dies" high-five looks incredible, and the megachad-Anthony portrait hilarious. The casket is huge. But the props make the set look even smaller. I think the problem is the cameras. I realize how difficult camerawork is when you have multiple focus points to switch between, but next time they should do a lot of practice with this to streamline, to get everyone in the shot and better capture people's reactions to the roasts.

Ian walks in. He starts off with a bit about who Anthony is: a hot, hardworking guy with a big dick. Those are the main takeaways of his roasts.

Amanda is next. She looks beautiful but very wacky. Her deliverance and accent are stellar, though. She truly is top talent at Smosh. Her roasts are also some of the most scorching of the night. She doesn't shy away from calling out Anthony's past problematic behavior and less than stellar performance in the bedroom ("look it up!") She gets a round of applause and deservedly so.

Tommy follows with a kind of angry roast, and proceeds to read the will, from which nobody comes away unscathed. I feels like his words about Anthony supposedly hating the cast are a necessary evil. Just the same day Anthony posted his interview with Shayne on his personal channel. There we learned that Shayne didn't know before if Ian and Anthony actually had wanted to hire them. Anthony said they were very much involved, something I don't know whether to believe. As apparently, Ian never talked about it with Shayne either, for all those years. Shayne had also been very apprehensive when Anthony came back, not knowing what would happen and the first change was to boot the entire cast off the main channel. I feel like Tommy's roast puts the topic on the table and hopefully they will talk about it more until nobody has any doubt left.

Now I have to insert that one of my main critiques of the night is that lots of people both did a lot of obvious jokes (tattoos, leaving smosh, general appearance) and did not go hard enough. Anthony kind of has an awkward CEO vibe (he's not the ceo but still) about him that seems to make even the cast a bit wary of him. I had hoped for jokes about that.

Brandon Rogers is next and rightfully points out the lack of celebrities in the line-up. Doesn't Anthony have more friends who want to roast him? Either he doesn't or the rest of Smosh don't have access to them. Which is both fine, because it is a Smosh party after all.

Arasha comes in swinging with all kinds of Zoomer slang that I frankly don't understand but her deadpan delivery is like a breath of fresh air. She ends with a very nice message. That kind of undercuts her roasts though, I wish she would have been meaner.

Now it is time for the musical half-time show, which actually deserves its own review. Performed by Angela and Chanse, this is incredible. By far, the most professional part of the evening. These are no theater kids, as they still call themselves. These are Broadway acTORS! I was really taken away by their talent. Not only do they act, but they also sing amazingly? Did you hear Angela do screamo?! And Chanse's riffs? They pointedly mention the sexual tension between Ian and Anthony, both on- and off screen. This has been occupying my mind ever since. Wow, sorry I went fangirl-mode again. But the halftime show simply is that good. Keith makes an appearance at the end and brings the show back down to earth with his humor.

The biggest surprise guests are next in what I can only describe as Dan telling the horny tale of his years long obsession with Anthony, and the many, many times he unloaded on the 'sexy Anthony' calender (which is a real calender, I was there when it came out but was broke at the time, darnit). Dan and Phil have been shedding their PG personas on their own channels for a while now, but for those who don't watch them daily this December - they're doing gamingmas and it's chaos - it is shocking what X-rated stuff comes out of their mouths. Anthony is visibly taken aback. Good!

As the show progresses, Ian keeps moderating as the pastor. It is great to see him so in control and enjoying the roast of his best friend. The joke of Ian not being able to show his emotions comes up a lot, but today I see him mainly just having fun.

Of course, then there is Bikini Girl, whom I had high hopes for, maybe too high. She is hilarious, but nothing really stings. Courtney does also direct the whole show, so super kudos to her. I just don't think she has the best roasts. She is followed by Rhett and Link, who just do their regular thing. It is funny but not very original. You can only hear so many tattoo jokes before it gets old. We do see Link's bare torso, so a win for fangirls (gender neutral).

Then Shayne, or should I say the Chosen has his turn. He is absolutely in character and does great. I just don't know if the Chosen is the best person to deliver roasts. It feels more like a Shayne party than a roast of Anthony. Which enough people love all the same, I'm sure.

Angela is 'the vessel', a possessed girl, reading the roasts from the audience. These roasts are very mid (they should have included mine! /j), but her delivery is again stellar. Smosh is really lucky to have her.

And last but not least, Ian goes on a second roasting spree. Only, it isn't a roast? He just makes fun of Anthony’s baby picture and then proceeds to tell Anthony how grateful he is for him, how he's so glad they are friends again and that he loves him? Anthony is crying by this time, which makes the moment even more tender.

Of course, Anthony has to do a counter-roast. It is apparent that he is still affected by all the roasting or 'love-bombing' as Amanda calls it. And he's not as good at live comedy yet. Still, his jokes are funny and really in Anthony's own style. He concludes with Ian's quote of being happy to burn Smosh to the ground with him. I knew that quote would be ingrained in Anthony's mind. It was one of the sweetest things Ian had ever said to him, after all. Until Ian has now told him he loves him, of course.

And then it was 5 am. I got a healthy two hours of sleep in! I came away from this roast with a content smile and a full heart. This was well worth the ticket, the staying up late. I am happy to be a member and support them monthly, I've loved their humor even before they started their youtube channel. I love Smosh. I'm so happy that Anthony is back. Smosh is whole again. And it brings out that light in Ian's eyes. He is funny in an unhinged way again. I truly love Anthony and Ian and their dumb videos. I want them to continue to make them forever. These kinds of live shows are fun. But Ian and Anthony truly shine in their off the walls absurdist sketches.

Special shout-out to my bestie @only-frann who I could scream at this whole day.

#smosh #Anthony’s funeral roast #Youtube

75 notes · View notes

seoul-bros · 6 months ago

Text

ARMY Day - The Devil's Deal with Suga

I think it's so funny that BTS members who have no problem standing on a stage in front of 50,000 people still get super shy when they appear at a film premiere. Remember Jin at Emergency Declaration and Taehyung and JK at Dream

This ARMY Day we get to see the story behind this photo of Suga with Lee Sung Min and Cho Jin Woong at The Devil's Deal premiere.

It all came about because of Lee Sung Min's interview on Suchwita.

I'm so used to seeing cocky confident Suga with his members (especially Jimin) but look how adorable he is here getting all shy talking to the cast.

youtube

He still made a stellar entry at the photo wall though....

...and he also decided he'd be inviting some international guests to the shown when he hopefully resumes Suchwita after the military.

I can see long time BTS fan John Cena accepting the invitation.

Post Date: 09/07/2024

#suga #suchwita #lee sungmin #cho jin woong #the devil's deal #min yoongi #ARMY Day

22 notes · View notes

utilitycaster · 1 year ago

Note

What would you say are the CR cast's individual weaknesses? I'm always trying to improve for my own games and also curious to see if I can spot them in the episodes.

Hi anon,

This is super subjective, heavily biased towards my own personal likes and dislikes, etc, so I don't think you should per se use this as your own metric, and also a lot of these are not mechanical but more broadly about structure or acting.

Travis: bias immediately begins here; I think he's one of the strongest actors and one of the strongest people mechanically at the table. He also really knows what he wants and likes to do, which, spoilers, is essentially my biggest criticism of almost anyone else; and I think as part of that he addressed what would have been my biggest criticism in the past (namely, a hesitancy towards emotional roleplay which was present in C1 and was very much part of what he proceeded to push his boundaries on with Fjord and in some ways even more so with Chetney). Anyway I think my current main critique is that I would like to see him play a character who really isn't good with melee/is a full caster and I think he's been more hesitant on that, but also, it's valid to have a strong preference for one type of build so like. he can keep doing what he's doing and I will not be mad.

Marisha: I've talked about this before but I think she really needs to do more involved backstory planning that dives into motivations more, or, failing that, simply have very goal-oriented characters. I think that even when there's been vagueness in the backstories of her other characters (basically everyone but Keyleth) their motivations were enough to carry them through, but this has been a campaign-long struggle for Laudna. I will also admit that I find her acting choices as Laudna specifically to be rather overwrought in a way that doesn't particularly, work for me but I have a really strong personal bias towards naturalistic styles. She's also capable of much subtler work, and both Bee and Patia I think showed that off.

Sam: Kind of a weird in-between situation in comparison to the above. I think Sam knows his sweet spot and capacity for humor and so he rarely goes as dark as say, Oscar Grimm, but he is absolutely killing it already over there. In general I think Sam needs to be more willing to leave his comfort zone and push himself more because he can play it a bit safe. I think he does have a sharp learning curve re: complex mechanics (this is why early FCG was rough) exacerbated by the fact that I think he really tends to assume what he can do is way more limited than it is, and I suspect the much simpler Candela system is working to his favor, but like, he does eventually get there and, should we get a campaign 4, I'm going to tape "BE PATIENT WITH SAM, HE ALWAYS GETS THERE" on my laptop to remind me.

Ashley: Bit like Sam actually! I think she can and should go harder on mechanics (and for the most part has been; I think she underestimates herself a lot), and I also think she needs to make wilder choices. Fearne has been a delight in this regard but I want to echo the cast at one of the recent convention Q&As: please push the red button more, please go absolute as hard as you want. Will say her acting is maybe my favorite in the cast.

Laura: ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO PUSH MORE BIG RED BUTTONS. Like...man. I feel this mindset; I don't really play video games other than stupid phone games but I'm That Person who's like "I only have 100 erasers in Two Dots, I must ration them". But I think she's doing a fantastic job with Imogen and my one criticism would truly be Go Bigger And Weirder And Harder. This is why I mentioned her; she was willing to take such massive risks as Arlo, and I think part of that was because it was a short campaign and she didn't feel that need to hold back but like, please, press buttons and take more risks. Her RP is always stellar though. Like, truly, I think Laura, Ashley, and Travis often appeal to my personal taste in acting choices and themes the most, and I just want Laura and Ashley to make similarly wild choices to Travis sometimes.

Liam: This is 100% purely a very me thing; I find he acts like a stage actor (which he is!) when there is a camera like 10 feet from his face and it can at times be a bit much for me, a person who is annoying re: subtlety. When he hits, he fucking hits though. Vax sometimes got a little overwrought for me but when he went quieter it was top notch; Caleb was fantastic because I think he counteracted this tendency; and there's been a couple moments with Orym I haven't loved but so many that I have. Mechanically he is great and while I'm a noted Rogue Disliker, Wizard/Fighter/Cleric are all flawless and much as I'd like to see him play other classes he is valid for his core four choice.

Taliesin: Here is the thing. I think whereas Laura takes a somewhat hesitant, afraid to let her character die stance, Taliesin does in fact have sort of a parallel issue of taking huge risks and then being very pikachu face when his character does die. Big swing of the pendulum in the other direction. However, Taliesin tends to hit on themes I find fascinating, consistently, and has a truly impressive breadth of mechanical skill. Even when I don't like his characters (only happened once) I absolutely respect what he's doing, and perhaps most importantly, he truly does not care what I or others in the fandom think, which makes me respect him more. Like, you know what? Molly isn't for me, and that's valid! Anyway. I hesitate to suggest more caution bc episodes 3x77-78 were so good and I loved all the wild shit Percy got up to (I also loved Caduceus but he was a much more laid-back character by design) but I do think that lack of caution is his weakness.

Matt: Judging more on the basis of being a DM than a player here just for sheer quantity but I think that his two greatest weaknesses are first, communicating highly specific risks (the main ones being the Iron Shepherds and the Otohan fight; you can't do that in pitched combat my man); and for lack of a better way to put it, I do still think he needed more firmness in the character creation stage of c3 and then looser reins during the campaign itself. I've been thinking about this a lot because I think that when I have frustrations with Aabria's style it's weirdly sort of...needs slightly looser reins but in a totally different way, and like, when Matt needs to loosen up, RP moments fall by the wayside and plot is fine, whereas when Aabria needs to loosen up, RP is still stellar but plot suffers.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #cr spoilers #candela spoilers

59 notes · View notes

entering--hyperspace · 9 months ago

Text

Was talking to a friend about this but like. The fallout show is weird in a way that like, objectively its good. The cast is great, the production value and attention to visual detail is stellar, but it doesnt feel like Fallout. Well, It feels like Bethesda Fallout which is a negative, bc that Also doesnt feel very Fallout to me, But I digress. I was wondering what else it was missing outside the obvious weird lore tie ins.

Its the Hope. Its the silly satire. I think the show leans too heavily into the grim direction of the wasteland, theres never any payoff, theres never any hopeful seeds planted, and they blew up Shady Sands for no good reason other than to hammer in how much the world sucks which, isnt a good enough reason, narratively. Theres not really any moments that make me appreciate the uniqueness of the setting way Fallouts 1/2/New vegas did.

Im not saying fallout cant be serious, it absolutely can be, but its being steered into a weird tunnel vision of everything sucks direction for no reason other than to continuously loop a "war never changes" without the nuance of civilizations trying to rebuild and look towards the future in their own way, of learning from the past and stepping into this weird, struggling but endearing.

Take the Kings of F:NV, for example, theyre an independent group trying to help freeside without an outside faction, theyre objectively one of the more morally upstanding groups in Fallout...And theyre a bunch of Elvis impersonators without even knowing what that means. Its silly, and the part that fallout excells in is taking that silliness, seriously. And even to continue. This not really train of thought.

The "comedy" of The Fallout show is so weird, its just thrown into the script which, personally, is 1. mostly not even funny to me and 2. Just takes you out of the moment in general. I always felt like Fallout's dark humor and comedy was moreso built into the world itself and the people you meet more than it is just a haha funny joke.

Its just. Weird, this whole show is Weird. I think it wouldve been so much better if they kept it an independent story rather than trying ot give us answers that, honestly, the world didn't need. We did not need to know who was responsible for it all directly, thats not the fucking point. Is it an objectively good show? Yes. Is it a good fallout show? No. It had so much potential to be, but it really just wasnt there.

#fallout #fallout show #god dont get me started on the entire thing with vault tec #like its just unfortunate bc i thought the setup was good #i REALLY liked what they were trying to do with Maximus #and i love Lucy as a conceptual character #but its just ohhh my god its so fucking bethesda fallout and the worst parts of it too #fallout show spoilers

34 notes · View notes

befuddledcinnamonroll · 1 month ago

Text

Ok, I am awake, have eaten breakfast, drunk my coffee, and now am sitting down to catch up on GMMTV 2025! From the excited chat I've seen in various places, I'm thinking this is gonna be good, but we'll see!

I'm just randomly clicking on the trailers, so no real order here.

Ticket to Heaven - Ooof, wow. What a start. Ok, I am super excited for GeminiFourth to be working on something more dramatic and adult, because I think they're going to do an incredible job. P'Aof did amazing work with them in Moonlight Chicken, so I think he's a great director to take them through such big lead roles. And this looks like a really powerful story. At the same time, I am someone who has experienced direct harm to my family from the Catholic church (abuse leading to someone taking their life), so even the trailer was very emotional and triggering for me. I will likely try to watch, but will have to be careful for my mental health.

Girls Rule - a lesbian Only Friends! Fabulous, I'm in. OF wasn't my favorite, but it was hella entertaining, and I am here for letting lesbians be messy too.

Do we need to start a counter for "uggggh branded pairs are going to ruin this" posts? Cuz I know they're coming. 😂

Only Friends: Dream On - Lolol, love that this is the one I come across next.

Holy shit! This cast!!! I am just reeling. Also, can we talk about Gawin & Joss being paired again? I love that Gawin has always been more random with his pairings, but at the same time this has to mean that they are totally fire together in My Golden Blood, right? If they're already getting paired for a new project?

Oh, the whiners are going to be so mad. But I love it. P'Aof being a senior director of content production is having a clear impact.

Me and Thee - More PondPhuwin, yay! And more PerthSanta, excellent! And they're not students!

Omg, a pseudo-dark Pond who is actually a huge dork. The plot of this isn't super amazing for me, it's a premise that's been done a lot, but as always, that PondPhuwin chemistry is always so damn good.

Whale Store - more GL, yay! MilkLove are having a busy 2025. The plot isn't super compelling for me, but I like that they are offering such different GLs next year, so we can have more options for what different people resonate with.

Cat for Cash - My babies. Something very different from Heart Killers, for sure. Lol, and of course they made Khaotung cry in the trailer. And Satang getting to do something a little different for him!

Um. Look I love FirstKhaotung. Of course I'm gonna watch it. Do I love the talking cats? Not really. Just not quite my jam. Hoping that's a minimally used part of the series. But the acting should be stellar.

MU-TE-LUV - Ok, I have to admit I was feeling incredibly confused until I realized it was an anthology. I can be slow sometimes. I do love a ton of the people appearing in this, so it could be fun.

Memoir of Rati - More GreatInn! I did expect this. Love that we're going historical. Ahhhhh, AouBoom!!!!

Oh, this one is going to hurt, and I am going to have to watch it.

That Summer - A lead for WinnySatang! Oh, yay, I'm happy for them. Ah, the good ole amnesia trope. But it's actually working for me here. And we get a proper love story with Mond! On paper this is one that shouldn't necessarily excite me, but the trailer sold me, I'm here for it.

A Dog and a Plane - TayNew era continues! I am already loving this. Lolol, New's boyfriend cheating with Poon, oh this is fabulous. Oh, are we getting MarcPoon enemies to lovers?!

100% immediately sold, give it to me now.

Boys in Love - Of course, gotta get at least one school series. Pretty standard fare, but a very cute and charismatic cast. And PoddPapang sides for us older fans! Though I am guessing it will be like the teacher romance in 23.5, so mostly crumbs sadly.

Love You Teacher - PerthSanta! Woot woot! And they're in adult jobs, yay. Oh, interesting that we're getting an established couple, that's so rare! Hmm, our teachers are a little bit kinky and I approve. Wait, we're getting two amnesia plots next year? I mean, I think Satang's character is faking it a bit? But still, this is funny to me.

Hmm, you know what? The plot is a little odd, but I feel like there could be a really sweet core here of what it really means to love someone and take care of them when they're having hard times. And honestly if anyone was going to be a believable child in an adult's body, Santa was a brilliant pick.

Dare You to Death - Ok, I literally just gasped. Am I getting a JoongDunk mystery/thriller!?!?! Lol, "so we can work better together, come live with me", very smooth Captain, very smooth. Wait... are we getting cheeky Joong back? I haven't seen him since 2 Moons 2!

I. am. so. fucking. in. Gimme gimme gimme.

Burnout Syndrome - Ooh, OffGun in a more mature series again! And P'Nuchy!!! I had her on my bingo card for last year, I've wanted her to come back to direct for so looooong! Oh, this makes me so happy. And Dew coming in to dip his toe into the BL waters. I am very intrigued by this one.

Wu - Hmmm, fortune teller and string of fate...interesting. I'm not familiar with SkyNani, but they seem cool. This might be a bromance? Which is fine with me. Just not a lot to go on quite yet.

My Magic Prophecy - JimmySea! Woot! Ok, this looks interesting. Having to go on the run together is always a good formula for romance. And I just really like these two.

Head 2 Head - Another SeaKeen series, good for them! I have to admit I didn't finish Only Boo, I was really enjoying them as leads but I just kinda lost interest in the story. Definitely a different dynamic here! And they're getting to be a bit more mature already. I'm mildly intrigued for this one.

Melody of Secrets - another thriller!!!! And it's a trippy one! ForceBook being adults!!! Oh my heart, I am so happy!

My Romance Scammer - there's Ohm! I knew GMMTV didn't bring him in just to bench him. Paired with another Fluke too, lol. The trailer was a bit all over the place, but I think I'll be into this one. And more JuniorMark is never a bad thing.

I Love "a Lot of" You - I do love Nanon, but it's het, and historically multiple personalities haven't been super well handled in media. So just meh.

The Love of Siam - just a tease for this, so not sure what the end product will look like. But I do love musicals, and would love to see a Thai one.

Holy shit, there was so much stuff here! It's definitely ambitious of GMMTV to try and do all this for 2025, but I'm not stressed about it, I'm just happy to get what I get. And it's so incredibly queer overall! Which makes sense based on what we can see of the viewing metrics.

I do hope the people who were dismissing P'Aof in their fears around bromance taking dominance are able to acknowledge that he's doing some really good and important work here, however you feel about the individual story choices.

I love that this feels like it might be the year GMMTV grows up a bit. Their actors are getting older, and the audience who first came in 4 or 5 years ago are older now too.

No proper old man yaoi yet, but it's a step in the right direction!

And I love that we are doing so much more than plain romance. Give me all the BL thrillers!

Didn't get a ton on my bingo wish list, but I am still grateful and happy to be living in the era of this kind of content.

#gmmtv 2025 #bl series #gl series

8 notes · View notes

9leaguesofmirrors · 1 year ago

Text

My Favourite Reece Shearsmith Characters

So it's Reece Shearsmith's birthday today, so I decided to celebrate this by sharing some of my favourite characters played by this fantastically talented actor

These are in no particular order

Gregory Brewster - Him Indoors

Him Indoors is a short film about a serial killer with agoraphobia. Not only is the premise very interesting, Reece delivers a chilling yet very entertaining performance as the main character. It's on YouTube if you want to watch it, which I highly reccomend you do!

Tommy - Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room

This HAD to be on the list! Reece's performance as Tommy is heartbreaking, we watch a man seems to put-together and serious slowly fall apart and lose control of his calm façade - impeccable work

Sean Stone - Chasing Shadows

Admittedly, I don't know where the watch the full show, but I have seen clips and I knew I had to put it on this list because of Reece's portrayal of an autistic person. You can tell he put a lot of thought and research into it in order to give a realistic performance, which is a testament to his dedication and how much he truly cares about the roles he plays and who he's representing

Tyler - Riddle Of The Sphinx SPOILERS BELOW

If there's one thing Reece is good at, it's how to play a chilling villain. Everything about Tyler is unnerving and he manages to be terrifying without being loud or angry all the time. It's measured and the emotion builds and builds - fantastic work!

Joseph Lisgoe - The League Of Gentlemen

I've mentioned before that the debt collectors were underused, and I simply had to talk about how extraordinary Reece's performance as Lisgoe was. He completely dives into the roles he plays and this one was no exception, not even a light smashing on his closest friend stops him from carrying on a scene (just check out the outtakes!), he simply embodies the part and delivers a performance that terrifies the cast, crew and the audience

Laurence - Merrily Merrily SPOILERS BELOW

Merrily Merrily is an Inside No. 9 episode that I can never rewatched because of how empty it made me feel - and I mean that in the best way possible! Laurence is wracked with pain over the loss of his late partner, and Reece delivers such a subtle yet haunting performance that I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about it

Ross Gaines - The League of Gentlemen

Ross is such a fun character because of how manipulative, calculating and cold he is. Not only does it set him apart from the other inhabitants of Royston Vasey, it makes his scenes with Pauline all the more tense and entertaining - and Reece really does deliver in the role. I'm glad they decided to go with this casting choice

Aiden - Thinking Out Loud

Like with Laurence, Reece delivers a hauntingly stellar performance. What makes this one really special is that it's a monologue. There's nobody for him to bounce off of or react to, he has to reach those emotions himself. And, as always, he nails it

Ollie Plimsolls - The League Of Gentlemen

I've said before that I think Ollie is one of the most cleverly written League characters and I stand by that. As a representation of the Saviour Complex and self-righteousness of people in theatre, Ollie is a character that should be easy to hate... but because of Reece's expert comedic timing and delivery, he ends up being so funny that you can't help but laugh every time he's onscreen

SPECIAL MENTION: Gilbert - Betty Blue Eyes

Reece Shearsmith said in an interview that he wasn't a great singer. Reece Shearsmith is a liar. Don't believe me? Listen to The Kind Of Man I Am from Betty Blue Eyes and thank me later

Also, if you can find it, there's a short bootleg of him in The Producers which is good too!

Of course, this are just a few of his performances and he's never delivered a bad one - whether he's playing a comedic character like Archie in The Bill or a more serious one like in Borley Rectory. And we haven't even touched on his writing skills, I can't wait to see what he does next!

134 notes · View notes

technicallysublimechild · 2 months ago

Text

“My family…” Splinter says, his back turned to his four sons as they jump up onto the rooftop he currently occupies. The sun has just set but the noise and bustle of the City below is carried to them on the cool night breeze. The dark night filled with light and life and everything else they have fought so hard to preserve.

“I am proud of each and every one of you.” Splinter continues as the boys line up behind him. The neon glow of the sign in front of them casting them all in a vibrant green hue. “You are no longer children, you are true heroes. It wouldn't surprise me if someday someone made a movie about you.”

Leo smirks confidently, sheathing his swords and crossing his arms as he soaks in the praise he and his brothers have always craved. It should feel more strange, he thinks, coming from their previously absent father, but Leo knows they've earned this. They saved their father, defeated the shredder, reunited Karai with the soul of her long corrupted father, and saved the City of New York. Not bad for a day’s work. A couple of days? A month? Leo's lost track of the time. It's been a whirlwind of events, from being beaten so decisively by the Shredder to unlocking their Ninpo. But they've done it and they somehow made it out the other end together and alive. Leo's never been so proud of his family. His father is right: a movie about them would be Oscar worthy.

Leo takes a moment to imagine his own heroic action scenes; valiantly taking on the Shredder in an epic one-on-one battle, his long golden locks flowing in the wind. Maybe it's not how it actually went down, but Leo's not above taking some creative liberties.

He's so lost in thought for a moment, he almost misses what his father says next.

"Oh, and Blue, you are the leader now.”

“Wait, what?” Leo exclaims, his daydreams grinding to a sudden halt while his brain resets, frantically replaying his father's words. It makes no sense. It must be a joke. And judging by the startled noises his brothers make beside him, they must be just as confused as he is. But when his father turns around he locks his eyes directly on the slider and Leo can see nothing but a fierce and sincere confidence.

“Leonardo.” He says, gaze unwavering. “You asked me once why nobody trusted you. I am sorry that I have made you feel this way.”

Leo's eyes widen at the unexpected apology. Where was this coming from suddenly? That talk had been ages ago while he and his father had fought in the Battle Nexus for the mystic collar they needed to stop the Shredder. While his father's skepticism and open frustration with him had been hurtful, Leo had proven to his father that he knew what he was doing. Leo assumed it was all water under the bridge. Apparently not.

“Maybe it is because you are loud, and impulsive, and never take anything seriously!” Splinter continues in an increasingly loud tone, clearly forgetting himself as he's reminded of some of Leo's less than stellar traits.

And there we go, Leo thinks, deflating. Wasn't this supposed to be some sort of motivational speech or something?

Splinter catches himself, taking a deep breath before settling back down into a serious tone. “But I have also seen your bravery, resilience and strategic mind. I know that you care for this family and would put their safety above anything else.”

Splinter puts a hand to his chest as Leo reels at the shift in tone. Talk about emotional whiplash.

“I wish to extend to you a show of trust by giving you the opportunity to lead this team.” Splinter continues, extending his hand out towards Leo, palm raised. It's as if he is holding his heart out to Leonardo, all his faith and trust in his son on full display for all to see. The weight of the gesture feels too heavy, and Leo whips his eyes back up towards his father's warm gaze.

“I see great potential in you Leonardo. I believe in you and your ability to be a great leader like many Hamato before you. I entrust this task to you and I know you will make your family proud.” He finishes.

Leo stares, his mouth flapping open in anticipation of the witty remark his mind is sure to supply. He's good at ruining an earnest moment, the best even. But right now his brain has left his mouth on read, and all he can think to do is snap it back shut again.

The thing is; Splinter's offer is everything Leo's ever wanted. A vote of confidence that his family (or at least his father) trusts in him and recognizes his abilities. And maybe he's never truly thought about being the leader before today - it's never even been on the table. But now that it suddenly is, laid out before him in all its alluring glory with promises of honor and acclaim, all he can feel is a sense of rightness. He knows he can do this, knows that he has more potential than just being the face man, and suddenly he wants it with a fierceness he can barely contain.

Leo smiles, an awkward chuckle bubbling up to his mouth from the unexpected excitement rippling through his chest. He wants to laugh, he wants to cry, he wants to sweep his dad up in a crushing hug and make him proud! But before he can do any of it he looks over at his brothers, as he always does, and sees Raph.

Raph, who Leo and his other brothers have followed around since before they could talk. Who has always taken care of them. Who has led them through all their battles, won and lost. Who is the most responsible, hard-working and caring person Leo knows.

Raph is standing next to him with an unreadable expression. Is he happy or sad? Hurt or confused? Maybe it's everything, tumbling around behind his eyes in the same way Leo's emotions are. But when Raph notices Leo's glance he gives him a tentative smile, as ever the supportive big brother.

To Leo in this moment, the gesture is like water to flame. The sudden guilt sweeping across Leo’s mind extinguishing the building fire that was his newfound burning desire. How could he want this when it would mean taking it from Raph? How could Leo ever think to do that to his oldest brother?

Leo turns away from Raph with a frown. Any response he may have had to his father’s words dying in his throat.

Splinter looks between the two of them and sighs, before stepping up in front of Raph.

“Raphael. You have led this family with great strength and love.” He begins, taking one of Raph’s large green hands gently between his own.

“But leadership is a heavy mantle, a mantle you have bravely carried since far too young an age.” Raph watches his father silently as he speaks, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes as he takes in his father’s words.

“I thank you, for being there when I was not. For filling the void I left in your lives for so long. While I know you will always watch over them, you deserve the chance to be cared for as you have always cared for us, and to take time to understand who you are outside of this role.”

Everyone stands transfixed in stunned silence. It's a lot to take in, all these heartfelt words and uncomfortable truths being voiced. They love their dad, always have, but it's true that he hasn't always been there for them. That they've had to learn the hard way how to do things on their own. They don't really like to talk about it; it's awkward and uncomfortable. What's the point of bringing up all that hurt? They've done fine up to now on their own. They have each other to rely on, and Raph to fix their mistakes, and…

Well maybe their dad has a point.

Raph looks like he's about to cry, and Mikey probably too based on how his bottom lip has started wobbling at the emotional display. Leo's still buffeting between excitement and guilt, with a healthy dose of discomfort at all the second hand emotions flitting through the air.

That's it then? He thinks to himself when no one says anything. He's the leader now? Shouldn't there be a ceremony or something? Maybe a pin? A sash? Do leaders wear sashes? Or is that Mayor's? He could be Mayor instead. Mayor of the sewers and his constituents will be rats and he'll deal with the leaky sewer pipes while Raph stays the leader and oh ho ho boy, is it getting hot in here or is it just -

“But Papa!” Donnie suddenly pipes in, his exaggeratedly prim voice cutting through the tense atmosphere with all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face.

“If we're going to have our own movie, you can't make Leo the leader! There's no way he could carry the film as the main protagonist!”

Leo's eyes bug out in offense, emotional turmoil forgotten in the face of such a brazen affront upon his movie potential.

“Excuuuuse me?” Comes Leo's outraged response as he points at his handsome and most-definitely-leading-man-material face.

“I have enough charisma and good looks to carry a whole franchise on my shell. The final showdown where I beat the bad guys and save the day will go down in cinematic history as the most epic fight scene ever put to screen!” He proclaims, wrapping his arm around Donnie’s neck and panning his other arm out in front of them as if to show Donnie the epic scene laid out before them.

“Just because he's the leader doesn't mean he's the main character.” Mikey chimes in, waggling his finger in disapproval as Donnie escapes Leo's chokehold. “It could easily be a coming of age story!” He suggests excitedly, then dramatically drapes himself over Raph's arm. “The youngest brother, often overlooked and underestimated, goes on an epic journey of self discovery to prove himself to his friends and family!”

“Laaaaame!” Leo interjects, amplifying the word with his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone. He ignores the glower Mikey gives him in response and continues on in a chant, arm pumping in time to his words. “Beat the Baddie! Epic final fight! Leo saves the - euf!” He exclaims with a sudden exhale of breath as Donnie pushes him to the ground before he's able to finish.

“Oh please, how uninspired.” Donnie says dismissively as Leo sits back up and tries to recalibrate his brain after the sudden interruption.

“If anything our movie should be a science fiction adventure!” Donnie continues brightly. “An epic space opera where we explore the mysteries of the universe with only our wits and my awesome tech to protect us in the harsh cold void of space.” He finishes dramatically before jumping up, hands shaking happily in front of him as he adds “Also alien spaceships!”

Everyone can’t help but laugh along at Donnie's excited outburst as Mikey steps up beside Leo to help him back up onto his feet. The bubble of tension that had previously surrounded them has burst and the mood is suddenly so much lighter than it had been just moments ago. Leo would almost think the conversation had been a purposeful distraction if he didn't think that was giving Donnie way too much credit. That would be Leo levels of diversion, and he's the reigning champion. Regardless, he's happy for the distraction.

Leo nods at Mikey in thanks for the hand, receiving a bright grin in return before Mikey turns to Raph.

“What do you want our movie to be about Raphie?” He asks their oldest brother, who's smiling fondly down at their sudden antics.

“Oh! Ummm…” Raph responds, furrowing his brow as he takes a moment to think. “Raph doesn't really care what it's about,” He says shrugging, “as long as it has a happy ending.”

It's such a Raph thing to say and Leo’s first instinct is to tease his older brother mercilessly for such a sentimental remark, but it’s been a hell of a day - Leo doesn't want to ruin the moment.

“Absolutely, happy endings are a must!” He declares, throwing his hands casually behind his head as he instinctively starts to move in the direction of the lair. The serious discussions for the day have been successfully diverted and he is exhausted. Time to go home for some well earned rest and relaxation.

His other brothers all voice their agreement, Mikey patting Raph on the back of his shell as they begin to trail behind him.

They're quickly stopped by Splinter.

“My sons…we cannot go back to the lair.” He reminds them. “We will need to find somewhere else to stay for the night.”

Right. The lair was destroyed. They no longer have a home to return to. Leo feels everyone deflate at the reminder. So much for avoiding any more serious discussions…

“Well we can’t leave the lair as it is.” Donnie remarks. “Now that the inhabitants of New York have been returned, we don’t have long before the damage is discovered. We need to get as much of our things out of there as possible and destroy the rest before anyone finds something that could compromise our safety.”

“Do you think there's even anything left?” Leo asks. “In case you don't remember, the whole place kind of caved in on itself after being engulfed in demonic fire.” He means for it to come across light-heartedly, but judging by Mikey's suddenly slumping shoulders, it didn't quite hit the mark.

Donnie huffs, ignoring Leo's failed attempt at humour. “I don't know, but we need to check. All of my tech at the very least needs to be destroyed so that no one can get their hands on it.”

Splinter steps forward, putting a supportive hand on Mikey's arm. “It has been a long day, you all should rest before attempting such an endeavor.” He suggests softly.

“But we may not have another opportunity.” Donnie argues in return. “By the time we're all rested, the lair could be crawling with clean up crews.”

Realizing that they are at an impasse, Leo, Mikey and Donnie all look up at Raph for his input. Unless Splinter puts his foot down, they'll leave it up to Raph to decide. But instead of answering like he usually does, Raph looks over at Leo, raising his brow expectantly. Everyone else’s gaze follows, and suddenly all eyes are on Leo. That's right - he's the leader now, and Raph is reminding all of them of that fact by deferring to Leo on this one.

The sudden attention catches Leo by surprise. It's not exactly unwelcome, it's just so different from how he usually has to vie for attention from his brothers. It throws him off to receive it so freely without having to bully them all into listening to him.

Huh. He could get used to this.

Leo closes his eyes, taking a deep breath before making his decision. “We need to make sure the lair is clear before we do anything else. Let’s deal with it while we can and then find somewhere to crash.”

Leo lets his answer hang in the air for a moment before peeking an eye open to see how his decision has been received. Donnie seems happy enough, already walking past Leo to start making his way towards the lair. Mikey looks over at their father, giving his hand a quick squeeze and a small smile before following after Donnie. Raph looks over at Leo with a little smile and a quick thumbs up.

Oh god, he appreciates the reassurance but does Raph have to be so embarassing? Leo blocks Raph from his view with his hand, shoulders hunched, and shuffles after his other brothers to avoid any more humiliatingly supportive gestures.

He hears Raph chuckle and follow after him, a solid presence at his back.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanfic #and in the interval #saverottmnt #rise of tmnt #save rise of the tmnt #rise leo #ao3 fanfic #rottmnt leo #rottmnt leonardo

7 notes · View notes

tarisilmarwen · 1 year ago

Text

Rebels Rewatch: "Legends of the Lasat"

Kevin Kiner please take all my money forever.

Right, attempt two at this. Seriously Tumblr what is the point of having an auto-save feature for posts if it doesn't actually save a decent previous version of the post?

Also WHY THE HELL DID CNTRL+Z DELETE BASICALLY THE WHOLE DAMN POST?!

Anyway.

I'm glad we got to visit this moon space base location again, I think it's such an interesting design.

Another tightly-written opening dialogue exposition scene here, in a few short sentences we learn what they Spectres are here for and why, and that the mission is urgent.

Lol Ezra being evasive about Hondo being his contact. I do wonder how exactly Hondo got that transmitter to Ezra. Did they reconnect sometime offscreen? Did Ezra swipe it during "Brothers of the Broken Horn"? Did Hondo surreptitiously leave it in Ezra's pocket?

However it happened, it's adorable that this once-ruthless bloodthirsty greedy pirate basically decided, "I MUST BEFRIEND THE BABY JEDI, HE'S MY FRIEND NOW I CLAIM HIM."

The camerawork in this scene is phenomenal. This first shot that tracks the Spectres and then dollies just around the corner, as if we are also peeking around it with the characters? This fast almost 270 rotating pan across the Spectres as they make short work of the troopers? Stellar.

(You can also tell they had budget to spare for this episode because the Imperial officer has a face. Lol.)

Love it when they let Ezra be casually awesome.

Hera sounds so aggrieved that Hondo is Ezra's contact lol.

And here we get the reveal, Zeb was captain of the High Honor Guard of Lasan. A bit later in the episode we learn this consists of being a bodyguard protector of the royal family specifically and all citizens of Lasan in general. Sooooo yeah, quite a bit of heavy personal guilt for Zeb here, feeling like he, specifically, personally, failed his entire world. Ouch.

"Hondo could use a little help." <3

Zeb's expressions this scene are painful. :(

Hondo being so dang fond of Ezra aww.

Though not so fond that he doesn't immediately screw everyone over, greedy bastard.

I saw Zeb rolling his eyes there, animators.

So Zeb's interactions with Chava and Grond are very much a Spiritualist vs Skeptic plot, with the expected tragic personal reason for the skeptic's doubt and disbelief. It's also heavily implied that the loss of Lasan, that trauma, made Zeb regress in maturity, made him snippier and more petulant and churlish. As Ezra says later Zeb does act "like a child", so perhaps his being cast as the Child archetype in the Prophecy of the Three was not so off base lol.

Ezra has such cute smiles this episode. <3

LOL Hondo's chipper little "Hello!" at the Stormtroopers.

"Well. This must look... incriminating." This man is a delight in every scene.

I mentioned the camerawork right? This is another nice shot here, this pan down from the cockpit to the nose gun turret to meet Zeb.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The smoke coming from the chimney top of the station.

...Is this Stormtrooper also voiced by David Oyelowo?

Ezra immediately noticing Zeb's scoffing like the empath he is. <3

Love love love seeing the unique cultural way that Lasat interact with the Force, the "Ashla" as they call it, mixed ritual and magitek, prophecies that revolve around certain narrative archetypes and symbolic figures. It's just so cool.

I haven't been talking much about the music yet (oh but believe me we will have much to say on that) but this cue here starts easing just slightly into the mysticism of the Lasat ritual. It's almost Stravinsky-esque in nature, carefully stepping flutes and clarinets, discordant strings. We incorporate just a very soft snippet of the Force theme.

Zeb auto-assuming Ezra is the child.

Lol Hondo putting his arm around that one Stormtrooper's shoulder.

He's so cute asjkhfkajsh. Look at him. He's all like, "Please Dad, can I chant with the weird purple people too?"

HE LOOKS SO FOND AND PROUD AWW.

The score takes a bit of an exotic turn, a mellow arabic flute and possibly a sitar adding to the texture of the melody.

The lighting in this scene egads.

I love this scene I love it so much. Ezra acting as counselor, with his mere presence and curiosity getting Zeb to open up about his past and fears and insecurities. There's so much hurt in Zeb's slumped posture, guilt and grief compete for space in his voice, and I don't think we see him this distraught again until after Kanan's death.

But with Ezra's encouragement, he pulls himself together.

Once again showing off the cool magitek with Chava's staff and Zeb's bo-rifle here and I just love the concept, I love the whole aesthetic of hearing whispers of destiny through the Ashla and then channeling the energy of the universe through arcane, almost magical technology to navigate the stars, like some kind of arcane mariners. And we all thought the bo-rifle was just some kind of standard ordinary weapon, SURPRISE, it's also an ancient Force-magic navicomputer.

And oh wow the parallels with the purrgil next episode and the Chiss sky-walkers in the Thrawn novels.

This is soooooo pretty. The animation here is gorgeous.

After the commercial cut we're in hyperspace and the Ghost is making an almost blind jump out into Wild Space. Hera doesn't seem terribly worried. (Behind the scenes material says she apparently does this all the time.) But the ship's safety protocols flip out when they sense the imploded star cluster and Hera quickly drops them into realspace and one of the most gorgeous moments of the series.

HNNNNNNGHGHHHHH.

This whole sequence is stunning. Some of the best animation of the show, accompanied by one of the best tracks in the score, the star cluster looking like a watercolor spectacle.

And the Stravinsky influenced instrumentation brings the strings front and center; a haunting choir whispers in the background.

Kanan putting one hand on the back of Hera's chair and the other on her shoulder, aww.

Just tell me you wouldn't want this as a wall painting. <3

Chava gives some inspiring words about not pidegonholing oneself into a single role in their prophecy and this motivates Zeb to find a well of inner courage and open himself up to the will of the Ashla.

What I wouldn't give for more on ancient Lasan tech, how their ships must have been designed to integrate with the bo-rifle staffs. It functions as pilot and navigator and also apparently encases the Ghost with a protective shield that keeps it from being crushed by the gravity.

Let that sink in a moment, the staff, when channeling the Force, can literally bend gravity around the ship.

AND AS "JOURNEY INTO THE STAR CLUSTER" WRAPS US IN A VIOLIN SOLO THAT EVOKES MYSTERY AND MYSTICISM KANAN AND EZRA SENSE THEIR HELP IS NEEDED AND CALMLY PLACE HANDS ON ZEB, LIKE THE LAYING OF HANDS DURING CORPORATE PRAYER, AND CHANNEL THE FORCE THROUGH THEM INTO ZEB, WHO LETS IT FLOW THROUGH HIM THROUGH THE RIFLE TO GIVE HIM THE CLARITY OF VISION TO SEE THE WAY THROUGH.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The sparks that pop from a wall panel on the cruiser as Kallus attempts to have it follow the Ghost.

THE CHOIR COMES IN FULL BLAST.

AND ZEB CLOSES HIS EYES IN FAITH AS THE LIGHT TURNS BLINDING.

Whew! And what a rush! The absolute quiet in the score right afterwards gives us a moment to inhale and catch our breath.

Chopper of course chooses to be a pest, releasing the tension.

Lira San being the ancient lost homeworld of the Lasat fits right in with the whole arcane vibe of their culture, like they were connected to a place and people that time forgot.

And tada, we leave with a character arc complete, a new hyperspace route plotted and everything bathed in an aura of serenity.

This episode is one of the best of Season Two, if not the whole series. Everything comes together beautifully in the third act and the story has a feel of both spiritual transformation and wonder. I've already gushed about how interesting and unique the Lasat culture is, how it's presented as a mix of mysticism and technology, with prophecies and wise women, royal families and warriors, and navigators that explored the stars, guided by the Ashla.

Zeb gets more character growth in one episode than some characters get in a season, and he's largely "finished" after this, his issues with his past resolved. (Which isn't to say I wouldn't have loved more character focus on him, just that this is so phenomenal.) His heart-to-heart with Ezra is touching and illustrates just how close they've grown.

And did I mention this episode was pretty? This episode is super pretty and the music is straight fire.

10/10 no complaints. Would give Kiner my money again.

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels rewatch #liveblog #i was exhausted all day and did not have the spoons to complete this one until later sorry #music #soundtracks #meta rambling

103 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 months ago

Text

Ghostbusters 40th Anniversary Review: We Got the First One! (Comission for WeirdKev27)

We got one all you happy people! Are you troubled by strange noises in the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family actually seen a spook, specter or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. Read this review!

Yes it's time to talk about ghostbusters for my good friend weird kev... whose in the middle of a Hurricane warning so please, give him your good thoughts, prayers if your religious and just.. hope for him.

For now let's focus on Ghostbusters. It's one of the biggest comedies ever made in both scope and pop culture relivance, launching 4 sequels (Which we'll get to over various halloweens) , 2 tv series with a third on the way at the time of this reading, a ton of video games including the excellent liscneed game we'll cover next year, and comics most notably idw's stellar run with the concept including a tmnt crossover which i'll undoubtly cover at this point that's one of the few of idw's many neat TMNT crossovers that's canon to the main books. For real, Ghostbusters/TMNT is plot relevant.

It's a big thing and a big thing to talk about, but it all started with an idea in comedy legend and at the time mostly famous for being an SNL alum and a blues brother Dan Akroyd's Head: Dan came from a family with an intrest in ghosts: his grandpa was a spiratulist, his mother had claimed to see them and Dan had picked up that love of ghosts and the supernatural. The man fully beleives in the beyond and I respect him for it. A chunk of his interview in the old ghostbusters dvd is just him making it clear he does believe and honestly.. I like that. Wether you think ghosts are real or not, I do but do also have the caveat a lot of ghost hunters and mediums are just confidence men, women and nb's. But Dan isn't one, he belives. He's also a bit off and I love him for that, see nothing but trouble for evidence. I haven't yet but you can inflict that on yourself at your leisure.

So Dan dreamed up a wild film set in a futuristic new york where ghostbusters were common as exterminators. He showed it to his friend director Ivan Reitman, who at the time was famous for Bill Murray vehicles Meatballs and Stripes and would go on to have... an objectively weird yet succesful carrier with Twins, Dave , My Super Ex Girlfriend, No Strings Attached and ending with Draft Day of all things a film i'm still not entirely convinced exists. I mean I saw the trailer a lot but i'm still not 100% convinced someone didn't just shoot b roll of Kevin Costner and claim they made a movie and slapped ivan reitman's name on it.

Conspiracy theories aside he was both a talented guy and a friend of Akroyds and despite being reluctant to read it, loved he. He did spot the problem though: it was way too expensive to make. So he suggested moving it to modern day earth and grounding it, having the guys start as college professors who get canned and go into work. Blue collar guys.

To help Reitman brought in another friend of his Harold Ramis. Like Reitman and Akroyd, having written Meatballs , Directed Caddyshack and soon after writing in stripes. The man is a comedy legend and I miss him terribly. Ramis and Akroyd got along well, with Ramis knowing supernatural stuff well even if unlike Dan he didn't belivie.

Dan originally planned for two other comedy legends to be in the movie after adding ramis in the scripting process: John Belushi and Eddie Murphy, both former snl cast members and friends of his. The former didn't work out for tragic reasons you already likely know, with Dan working on the the script just as he got a call saying John was dead. Eddie.. I have no idea. The interviews on the dvd and blu ray said nothing and the oral history I found mentions this but not why it didn't work out. Maybe he was busy, maybe the studio couldn't afford his sallary, we don't know.

So in Jim's place Dan brought in ANOTHER SNL Alumn, one that could help sell the project: Bill Murray. You know him, you love him as a performer, you might want to punch him as a person, and he was a big deal at the time and having worked with Reitman on two previous hits, was an easy get.

Replacing Murphy was Ernie Hudson, an actor who hadn't done much at that point and has had steady gigs as a character actor showing up on Oz, and in a nice roll on Grace and Frankie as Frankie's boyfriend jacob. He was also Agent Fowler in transformers prime, something I didn't know but is neat.

Rounding out the cast was Desinging Women's one and only Mary Jo, Annie Pots as the Busters sassy secretary Janine. Sigourney Weaver auditioned and while reitman was skeptical her barking like a dog and proving she had comedic chops and was willing to do slapstick convinced him. William Atherton was brought on as Dickless antagonist Walter Peck, and canadian comedy legend and the man I wish was my dad Rick Moranis as happless neighbor Louis. The roll was meant for John Candy but Reitman got the sense Candy didn't want to do another wacky supporting role and gave it to Moranis instead.

The cast was set shortly after Reitman made a gamble: he pitched the film to the head of columbia, who agreed despite execs urging him "please for the love of god cancel this expensive comedy", provided they got it done by early next year.

Despite the scramble production seemed to go well. At worst people grumbled about the stoppages to get new york, including sci fi legend Isaac Asamov, but it seemed shooting went well and I don't have much to perform on that. The cast got along and thanks to Bill Murray being a big deal and him an ddan being legends in new york they got into any restraunt early or late as they needed to.

The film was a success, such one that even a test screening with no effects went damn well and well.. here we are. So join me under the cut as I unpack one of the finest horror comedies ever made.

Ghostbusters begins fittingly with a haunting.. and one that scared me as a kid a common story and the reason I didn't glom onto it as much as a kid as i'm sure many of you did. The context probably didn't help: I loved libraries, still do, and the slow buildup as a librarian goes about her day and the reveal of that ghost.. it's a lot.

It's a good thing for our heroes though and I got to hand it to Reitman, Ramis and Akryoyd, the ghostbusters are some of the best protaganists in comedy, three, later four, very fleshed out believable guys acted to perfection. You know em you love em but since i'ts my job they are: Ray Stanz, an excitable beliver in all things spooky who is passionate, gets excited over weird shit when others would say don't, and is basically me if I went into academia: cyncial but also a big ole kid. Egon Spengler is his taciturn best friend, a fellow researcher at the local university who is terse to the extreme to the point it's hard to tell when he's actually joking and Ramis' finest performance.

And finally we have the least of them, despite being often the face of the band, Peter Venkman. The other two are loveable weirdos, ray being an excitable kid at this stuff at his best and goofy and hapless when he ain't at his best and egon terse and professional but both at least studied hard and belive in what their doing. Peter like 95% of Bill Murray characters is coasting along in life best he can on charm. He enters the film shocking a hapless volunteer for funzies while hitting on the other one whose defintely too young for him. And is also a student. Peter.. is a bit of a creep, something that happens to a lot of Bill Murray characters with the passage of time as what passes for "zany trickster who sticks it to the man" in 1984 can be "sleazy at best assault at worst". I mean it's not the worst i've seen, there's a scene in Meatballs where Murray's character tripper half jokingly assaults his love interest and her crying for him to get off and his blaming her after jokingly is played for laughs

But it's still not good. We'll get into this more in a bit once we get to Dana but for now our heroes actually have found something after years of searching and go to the library. We get a lot of great gags out of this, from Peter dryly listing off things like "does your family have a history of schizorphenia" or "have you been drining" to the poor startled old woman, which is so fucked up it works, to one of my faviorite jokes of the film , Peter pointing out the time Egon tried to drill a hole in his head "And it would've worked if you hadn't stopped me. " I forgot till rewatched how joke DENSE this thing is, just enough to never not be entertaining but not enough to smother the plot which is well constructed, loose enough for improved jokes, but tight enough to not waste a second.

So our heroes find the ghost and use the time honored strategy of RUSH HER. This... goes poorly but does mean their real. Unfortunately this happens right around the same time our heroes get sacked. The university is tired of their shit and flim flammery and the dean looks oh so smug as he fires them.. granted I think he's mostly just pissed off with Venkman as he directs most of his rant at him

Egon and Ray getting fired.. is sad as they are genuinely trying. I mean ray's a touch cynical but he still clearly belivies. But while Venkman's key to the team.. it's not as a scientest. He's not stupid or anything, but he's clearly not actually been studying the work and mostly been trying to bang anyone he can with wacky schemes.

He does prove WHY he's part of the team after. As ray bemoans the private sector in a great line "You haven't been outside academia I have. They expect results" that shows he's a tad cynical himself, knowing this shit could take a while or forever, Venkman.. sees the profit and rallies them. They have access to the pest removal system of the decade, a service only THEY can provide, and cutting edge test... why not start their own buienss, rake in the dough and eventually franchise, something I love that the game and later IDW comics actually explored.

The others are convinced and put down a triple mortgage on ray's parents house to get the money for equipment and a place to set up shop. That place is the now iconic firehouse and I love each characters reaction: Peter likes it for being cheap if a wreck, Egon points out every single thing wrong with it, and Ray slides down the fire pole and wonders if they can go ahead and stay the night. God I love ray. I love Egon too but Dan Akroyd has so much fun in this part while still feeling like a fleshed out person.

To assit in this endeavor they hire the wonderful and hilarious Janine Melnetz. As I mentioned Janine is played by Annie Potts of Desgining Women Fame, and i'm sure some of you reading this

Have only vaugely heard of it at best. And since I have an audience allow me to educate ya'll as it's on Hulu and it is fantastic. Desining Women is a classic late 80's early 90's sitcom following Sugarbaker's Design Firm, set up in the house of Julia Sugarbaker, a non nonsense libreal who will tear you to shreds with words on a moments notice, and is run by her and her friends/coworkers: Her fashionable former pagent queen rich as hell pig owning tiara wearing sister Suzanne, the off kilter but kinda nd empathetic charlene, annie's character Mary Jo, a put upon mother of two recently divorced from a cheating Scott Bakula, and Anthony, a sometimes voice of reason and ex con who has worked hard as hell to get his degree and often gets the funniest stuff. There's also Bernice played by the legendary Alice Ghostly who isnt' a main character for most of the show but is close enough and is both out of it and hilarous. There's more I could gush about but it's in all an extremly well written, well acted and hilarous sticom that also wasn't afraid to touch on hard topics, having a fantastic episode about AIDS and I emplore you all to watch it.

Annie Potts is just as on her a game there as here, with Janine's dry sarcasm being a great foil for Peter's, and her crush on Egon being a hilarous runner. In hindsight i'm.. not upset they didn't end up together. I used to be but it's clear he isn't intrested and i'ts hard to tale if his spoors and fungus line is him being genuine or him trying to scare her off. My take?

Our heros soon get their first client in Dana Barret, a cellist who finds an unsettling vistor from the beyond in her fridge

So she calls the Ghostbusters and naturally Peter is there to swoop in and... hit on her. Yeah this is where the bulk of peter being creepy comes from. It dosen't wreck the film but it does make me revaluate my old opinon of them being endgame as in hindsight most of their relationship is Peter going

Just constantly hitting on her. LIke she is kinda into it, but it's still someone called in to do a service not doing that and instead hitting on the client because he finds nothing. And later getting jealous because *gasp* she's hanging out with another guy and not him and he thinks their DAAAATTTTING. Even though he and her aren't DATTTTTING yet. What i'm saying is I don't buy it at all and they don't spend enough time on this romance to make me actually care. Maybe next time.

So with their money pretty much gone before Peter can embezzle it to ask dana out, our heroes finally catch a break: A ghost has been found in a local ritzy hotel and they need to go catch em. That ghost of course is SLIMER!

Slimer is the series mascot. You know him, you love him, some of you may of wanted to strangle him by the end of the cartoon. He's been in 4/5 movies, and in afterlife, his only absence.. was still present via his non union blue guy equilvent muncher. Slimer was their tribute to Jim Belushi, a blob who eats a ton, gets guck on people and likes to party. The kind of role Jim was good at. It's a wonderful tribute and I do like this part of him as stuck even in places where the old cast is absent or barely there.

The slimer effect is excellent and the chase for him, including the natural sliming that happens to Peter is great. Our power trio only has the vaugest idea of what the hell their doing at this point and i'ts fun to see. They still win in the end and I love them blackmailing the snooty hotel man who hired them whose pissed they trashed the ballroom. While they really DIDN'T pay any mind to it, I get focusing more on "get rid of the ghost that's coming in at night and wrecking up the place" over "PLEASE PRESVERE THE RICH PEOPLE SHIT".

It's part of the ghostbusters charm: while once fully assembled their two academics, a conman and a hard working working class guy who also has a degree, their ultimately working class heroes on the whole. THey started thier own buisness, bump up against beuracrats and their first client is a guy working for a snooty rich hotel whose also snooty as hell they succesffully get one over on, planning to release slimer then and there. Or rather back in the empty room where he's away from civlians but still gonna wreck up the place. This is protection wrackety, sure.. but the guy HIRED THEM to do a job and was going to stiff them for.. causing some damage doing it when it's a dangerous job. I have little sympathy for him trying ot stiff them on the bill because he thought they'd be cheap and didn't bother to actually.. ask for a price point before they went in. I also love the detail that slimer had ALWAYS been at the hotel, but the spike in ghost activity thanks to gozer clearly razzed him up.

Such a big bust and big payday puts our heroes on top: Magazine covers, invertviews, and some b roll from the test footage they shot of them running down the street. The ghostbusters astetic is an awesome one: the jumpsuits fitting their working class hero astetic, the big bulky proton packs clearly cobbled together and the ecto one, an old hearse reconfigured into one of the coolest cars in fiction from the siren to the tech on board to the all white paint job.

The montage is fun, allowing us to speed from "we can barely eat" to "Modest success" to the awesome theme song, which came in at the last minute and had to be used. My faviorite bits are the late great Casey Casem reporting on the ghostbusters on america's top 40, and how they apparrently spared a nightclub from a ghost then danced the night away. We were robbed of dan Akroyd's dance moves. The other is that a friendly ghost.. does some sex to ray. We can't see exactly what but we do see Dan Akroyd orgasm and that's really all you need.

WIth this success our heroes hire on a fourth man, Winston Zedmore. Winston is ready to belivie anything for a paycheck which as lot more harmless stance back then and is quickly hired... because he applied I guess. Ernie Hudson, while proud of the legacy of being a prominent black character in sci fi that many a kid looked up to, felt Winston was just kinda there.. he's introduced halfway into the film, dosen't get to do much and is just sorta the guy. Later sequels and adapatations do give winston way more to do, and my guess is Akroyd intended for Eddie Murphy to just improv a character and didn't bother to write in more of one. Winston does serve as a good straight man though, being the calm resonable one in the storm of stocisim, enthuasim and snark that the other three bring.

However while our heroes are now succesful, even having the now iconic no ghost logo which akroyd had sketched into the first script up top, that also brings enemy and they meet their arch enemy: A man who while absent from the sequel would plauge them in the video game/idw continuity and most recently in frozen empire. A man who may or may have no dick but certainly has no ethics. Mr. Walter Peck. Atherton perfectly plays him as a slimy asshole.

What makes peck intresting is he does have some legit concerns: the ghostbusters COULD be conmen and Peter WAS one at the unversity and the montage makes it clear from a cut in by Larry King that some people think they are up to shit. They are also carrying unathorized Nuclear Accelators on their back. The EPA does have a right to check in on them and frankly the ghostbusters are only able to get away with half of what they do because there's no real regulation for catching ghosts. Our heroes are loveable.. but they are reckless jackasesses. It's something that bleeds into the other movies , games and comics starring these guys to the point that the video game has a tally for how much shit you blow up. Winston only stops letting a 13 year old be on the team in frozen empire because Peck tells them to bench Phoebe. Granted said 13 year old is a pro at this and Peck is an asshole, but it's still on brand for the ghost busters to just kinda wing it and hope new york dosen't blow up.

We only root against Peck because again, he's an asshole. THe ghostbusters are likeable hot messes. Peck is that kind of entitled prick given too much power we run into every day. Peck's reaction to being refused entry by Peter, who while a dick to him is within his rights since Peck has no papers nor no identification saying he's actually with the EPA, is to go get a court order.. and then a short while later have a guy with the city he forced into helping him shut them down without having any idea what he's doing. Peck hates the busters on such a fundemental level, assumes their dicks from day one that instead of getting them shut down legally with proper procedure... which he easily could've done as our heroes are not careful nor cautious he barges in and nearly destroys the city.

But before that of course the rest of the plot needs to catch up. So they call in the diamond dogs, specifically gozer's two hell hounds. They grab dana with...demonic hands from her couch they can make manifest to drag her into the gozer dimension. Instead of just.. sending the big dog after her?

Because that's what they do with Dana's neightbor louis. Louis has shown up on occasin and is entertaining, a nerd who is having a party the same night Dana finally agreed to go out with peter and gets grabbed my demonic hands. Louis is a loveable asshole: he clearly does need to learn no as dana isn't intrested and he's disapointed when she can't go to his party, but does invite her to bring peter and it's very clear he isn't pressing harder than just.. asking her to be at his parties. Which isn't a lot but given Peter's tactic was showing up around where she worked to beg her to go out with him, restraint is appreciated. It's the bare minimum but it's also 1984 in thie movie. I also admit part of it is just Moranis charm, he's just such a dweeb in the best way and something I only noticedo n this watch is he's using the most Canadian accent he can, the same one he used for The Great White North sketches on SCTV.

So Louis gets chased by a giant demonic dog having been chosen to be the other possesion target and the sequence is hilarous and ends with the poor guy being possed and wandering the streets. So both halves of the orginzation end up dealing with gozers dogs: Peter finds Dana and after claming to be the keymaster gets inside.. but also restrains her as he realizes she's not herself and was in fact dealing with a possesion, while the rest of the team end up getting louis who wonders around possesed and gets that hilarous helmet clonked on his head once the police drop him off, having no idea what the hell to do with the guy.

SO our heroes figure out what the hell's going on: Gozer is an ancient sumerian god, and one of her worshippers, Ivo Shandor built Dana and Louis' apartment building as a conduit, hence them being chosen. To get into this world Gozer needs their keykeepr and keemaster to

Now why does Gozer need this? I assume they like to watch and that's the best I got.

So they need to keep them apart.. which becomes a problem as a certain dick comes in at just the wrong time to screw them all over: Peck charges back in with that electrican I mentioned, who TELLS Peck "I have no idea what the fuck i'm doing" has him swtich it off.. and ALLL the ghosts the busters have are released, Dana escapes while Venkman goes to meet the others, and Louis escapes in the confusion, with our heroes being drug to the mayors office at the worst possible time. So Gozer no has a possible army, new york is in chaos and getting worse, and the keymaster and keykeeper get it on doggy style in Dana and Louis' bodies, which is gross and uncomfortable if inteitonal.

So as new york buckles under the pressure the mayor asks the pope of.. new york I guess for advice but has nothing. Peck INTENDS for this to be a public hanging for the ghostbusters... and underestiamtes how bad he fucked up. Not only do Ray and Peter mock him with the classic "It's true this man has no dick line", but the ghostbusters are able to convince the mayor that yes this threat is VERY real, they need help and Winston gets his one real moment in the film, pointing out in just a week with the ghostbusters he's seen shit that would turn you white. Venkman as usual deliveris the verbal killing stroke and as much of a dick as he is.. the team does need him as he's the mouthpiece: their the ones who can fix it and if nothing happens well then throw them in jail.

And with a pillar of light errupting as Gozer enters this plain, the boys get what they need, a police escort as they enter to Alesi's truly orgasmic saving the day. An attack from Gozer dosen't knock them down as they get up again. and up.. and up and up and okay they may want to bring it down as they have to deal with so many fucking stairs before they get to the roof, with Dana and Louis now encased in giant dogs as they approach gozer. I love gozer's design, the spangly suit dead eyes and voice performance.

She asks if they be gods, no they be but men. And Peter has some wisdom for ray.

I also like how this comes from his initial plan being "Go get her ray", a nice bit of revenge for Ray's plan with the library ghost being GET HER.

So our heroes do their best but can't really fight a god so Gozer decdies to cut to the chase: CHOOSE THE FORM OF YOUR DESTROYER. This sequence I adore for it's creatvity: It gives gozer some personality beyond evil god as their a sadist, letting our heroes pick their doom and I like how Peter's instant response is clear your head... and how as usual Peter gets way too cocky as ray lets something slip in.. the most innocent thing he could think of..

This... was brilliant. Taking something innocent, a design Dan Akroyd got from his buddy thor because of course Dan Akroyd has a buddy named thor, and making it into a fucking kaiju. The only way our heroes can beat it, say it with me

CROSS THE STREAMS

A chekovs gun from earlier as crossing them could destroy reality.. but so could this little.. er big ole guy. It's honestly kind of insane how easily they beat gozer... just crossing the streams. I mean it causes a big ass explosion and gets them all covered in marshmallow, but it's still pretty simple. But it's a great sequence. our heroes win, dana is seeminglyd ead for a second but she and louis are just in dogs she and peter kiss for some reason and we get one of the best endings in film. From the build up with gozer, to the final desperation movie as easy as it was, to that triumphant walk out, even getting another great rick moranis bit as he's carted off seperately, i'ts fucking genius

And the film as a whole.. holds up well. A bit or two haven't, being an 80's comedy will do that to you 9/10, but the hwole of the film is an inventive romp with tons of iconic gags, designs, and performances. It's a true classic for a reason and still the gold stnadard five movies later. But check back later this halloween as we tackle the less than well recieved sequel and thanks for reading.

#ghostbusters #ivan reitman #harold ramis #dan aykroyd #bill murray #sigourney weaver #annie potts #wiliam atherton #egon spengler #ray stantz #peter venkman #winston zeddmore #sony #columbia pictures #halloween

8 notes · View notes