#and he’s played by a disabled guy in the shows we went to see

[puppyvenom]

crutchie being in the refuge during kony is literally just like. peak The Cripple Experience. ur buddies are all out there having fun , doing something important and ur stuck in pain at home and can’t hang with them. it’s as funny as it is devastating to me like Yeah! that’s the life!!! he’s the real crip rep we needed he is perfect to me.

[batboyblog]

Do you think there is any benefit to the idea that Biden should just not bother with these TV debates anymore? With how the media is so strongly stacked against him, that it might be more beneficial to focus on things where he excels at like town halls and meeting people in person?

I think he agreed to do it, so backing out would look worse and be more damaging than any benefits from sticking to events that play to his strengths. Indeed the media attacked him pretty heavily for being over choreographed in events and interviews (sounds like Hillary being "over prepared") I do think Biden should, and if you look at the last few weeks he has, do more events with the people, and if he can wrangle a televised town hall that'd be great.

but on debate, we shouldn't think Biden is some historically bad debater. In 2012 Obama BOMBED his first debate with Romney, people were writing the death notices for his re-election (much closer to E-Day then July!) and it was Biden who swung into action at the Vice-Presidential debate, laughing in Paul Ryan's face and mocking him easily showing Ryan up as unlikeable and trying to destroy social security. Biden is good at being the every man reacting to "Malarkey!"

I think what went wrong in the first debate is two fold. First of all when you're President and you care to do the job, there's never ever gonna be enough time, there will always be one more call, one more meeting, one more thing that needs your attention. Biden mentioned aids adding things to the schedule. If you're a President like Biden who is good at the job and likes it, I can see how it becomes hard to say "no" because we're talking huge things. So Biden had been working too much, too hard, for too long. That week he went to Europe, did the G7 meetings lots of meetings lots of work, flew back to the US to California to do a fundraiser with Obama and George Clooney, flew back to Atlanta to do the debate. Along the way the guy gets a cold, so what we all saw was a guy who was tired from months of working too hard, jet-lagged, and sick. Trump did nothing that week, he golfed and hung out with friends showed up rested and not having a head cold.

The other thing is the prepped for the wrong debate. One team Biden pushed for rules that ultimately helped Trump. The rule of mics being off when the other is speaking, people hate when Trump interrupts, he's at his worse when he does that, you made sure he couldn't do that. Second no crowd, all politicians feed off crowds, read their energy. crowds cause Trump to lean into his worst instincts always reaching for the next big reaction, but also Biden feeds off people's reactions, in a way that is much better for him than it is for Trump.

outside the rules, clearly Biden and his team gamed out the debate assuming the moderators would do the heavy lifting of fact checking Trump and calling him on his lies and Biden's job was to look like the smart normal politician and spit out facts and figures. As a life long stutterer being able to recall and recite exact numbers and data points in just the way they were written down is not and never been a strength of Biden's, he's NOT dumb, but I can say you carry the baggage of people thinking you're an idiot from when you were a disabled kid your whole life, and I've read a lot of stories that some times in a room full of Harvard and Yale people he can get rattled. And I think that happened they pushed him to try to memorize their talking points their data sets and he got in his head. And when the debate turned out to not at all be what he planned for, when the moderators showed no interest in pushing back on Trump, Biden was caught off guard, a not sick, not jet-lagged, not tired Biden would have turned it around more quickly. We saw later in the debate Biden figure out what debate he was in and how to act and start to ditch trying to remember data sets and just throw out quips and lines "morals of an ally cat!", had he been feeling better, he'd have gotten there much faster.

So I think if Biden takes better care of himself, is strict about not adding more to his work load, takes time off to relax and rest before a debate (work on his tan like JFK did before the Nixon Kennedy debate) and also focuses on being himself, he's not Obama or Bill Clinton who are great masters of explaining complex issues with facts and figures that makes you feel like you're in school with a favorite teacher. That's not Joe, he knows the stuff, he does, but his skill his being everyone's favorite uncle telling it like it is, let him do that and he'll be fine.

[supershot73199]

Hey just wanted to post this as its own post as well it's a reaction to chapter5 in my story Dawn's Big Daddy.

Barbara was directing the bat's to the various bomb sights in Jokers latest scheme. She also had the damn clowns livestream playing on one of her monitors. Unfortunately this meant she saw as Danny, her younger sister figures boyfriend, was antagonizing the Joker.

It was only when Danny lunged forward and wrapped his legs around the bastard that she realized it was all a ploy and not him being a self sacrificial idiot. She figured she should update the others on the potential for Joker trying to set the bombs of early out of anger.

"Damn it Cass' boyfriend has the Joker in a headlock with his thighs, he's keeping him contained for now but what's yo-"

Mid-Sentence Barbara froze, as an experienced vigilante and native Gothamite there wasn't a lot that could shock her, but the visceral crack and spray of gore as the Jokers head was crushed between the thighs of one of the kindest people she had ever met was one of the few.

"Forget that just disable the bombs, Jokers not a problem any more."

Damian was the first bat to respond, likely his bomb was already disabled as he was assigned the closest when the split up.

"I knew Fenton was protective of those he loved but I was not expecting him to be capable of knocking the Joker unconscious while dangling from a chain." The soft tone tinged with respect would have been unthinkable from Damian when Barbara first met him, she was proud of how far her honorary little brother has come. But she should probably correct his misconception.

"Sorry Robin, but Danny didn't knock him out, and no Cass didn't either, when I said Jokers not a problem I meant permanently." Barbara said

"How certain are you that it's not some trick of the clown? We all know how crafty that bitch is." Jason interrupted clearly agitated.

"Not even the Joker can fake having his head crushed like a watermelon Hood. Check the group-chat I'm dropping a gif for your enjoyment. Also I'm telling Agent A to prep a feast." Barbara said even as she put action to words while turning down the volume of her com so as not to be deafened by the influx of shouting from the members of the family who were suspicious (overprotective) of Cass boyfriend.

"O we have to get him the world's best gift basket, shit Signal, Spoiler you guys want in on this? Don't even have to ask you demon brat." Jason's words might have been jesting but the way his voice choked up everyone on Com knew it was only his iron clad self control that was keeping him from crying, whether those tears were of joy at the clowns death or frustration that it wasn't B doing him in.

Either way it was best not to bring it up and allow Jason to work through his feelings on his own before she tried to talk to him about it. Suddenly a thought came to mind.

"Huh, I wonder how Harleys taking this.

Harley Quinn knew she has done a lot of bad things in her life, she had made a lot of mistakes and while she would never change where she was now, living with her beautiful wife Pam, she would always regret her time spent infatuated with the Joker.

"Harley, I know you don't like thinking about the clown but you have to see this." Speaking of her wife, Harley went over to the television that Pam had been watching to know if the Joker tried to do anything near the two of them.

"Well gee Pam, you don't usually like me seeing what that piece of work gets up ta. What makes this so different?" Pamela had the footage paused with the newest Wayne member (yeah Harley knew the two weren't married yet but she recognized the look in their eyes, after all she saw it every day in the mirror).

Pam pressed play before walking over to the kitchen while Harley watched. She admired the kid he didn't back down or show fear and his insults were really hitting Joker where it hurt. Then the kid got his legs around the prick.

"Whoo go kid give that piece-a-shit a concussion!" She cheered to her wife's amusement, based on the chuckles she heard.

Harley saw the look on the boys face and she hoped he didn't let Joker go before the Bat got there, that disgrace to clowns would not hesitate to hurt his little girl. Whatever Harley expected it wasn't the sight of one of the subjects of her recurring nightmares being snuffed out.

*Pop* Harley jumped before looking at the source of the sound, only to see Pam pouring out two glasses of the fancy wine that Bruce had given them on their wedding.

"To the end of a pasty faced try hard, may he rot in hell." Pamela said as she handed a glass to Harley before she raised her own glass in a toast.

"And a long healthy, happy life to that crazy Fenton bastard who did what Batman never had the balls to do himself."

"Hear, Hear and may his daughter never be bothered by any Gothamite worth their salt." Harley added before taking a drink. Looking back at the screen Harley couldn't help but giggle.

"We should give Ms Prima Ballerina one of my old mallets, she'll need it to beat all his new fans off of him if the way that girl there is looking at hims any indication."

Pam laughed, causing a soft smile to spread on Harleys face.

"Maybe we should give him a thank you basket, he did the entire city a favor after all, think they make a card for when someone kills your ex? Ah who am I kidding this is Gotham I'm sure we can find one."

Gotham city held its breath when the darling of the Wayne's got kidnapped, and when the Joker was killed it was like time stood still. Not a single word was said until o e voice cut through the silence.

"THATS WHAT IM TALKING 'BOUT BABY!! EAT SHIT YOU PASTY FACED MOTHERFUCKER!"

And suddenly the spell was broken laughter, cheers, crying, and shouting echoed over the city, as for the first time in years it felt like a weight was lifted from the atmosphere, for the first time since he made a name for him self, the Jokers memory no longer darkened people's mind, instead relief, joy, and pure unaltered happiness reigned supreme.

Parties sprang up in the streets, businesses closed early, and all anyone could talk about was the man who brought a smile back to Gotham.

As the days passed by an interesting trend came to social media from Gotham people were buying watermelons and painting the Jokers iconic make-up on it only to crush them between their thighs, recreating the historic video that showed the end of an era of fear.

Of course things started spiraling when infamous vigilante/crime lord The Red Hood took part in the trend,in full uniform no less, leading to other famous heros to take part of the trend.

This of course led to countless arguments about which hero was the hottest, as the internet does, though it seemed that despite some of the most beautiful heros male and female who took part Gotham city would always argue the original couldn't be beat.

[tangerinecherrygal]

Thoughts on Bridgerton S3 so far.

Under the cut for the sake of my poor moots and for spoilers. And first and foremost, I am a hater, so I will have some complaints but most are positive.

Positives:

Developing Cressida’s character. I’ve wanted this since I started watching with season 2. I love that she isn’t a cardboard cutout mean girl bc she gets shat on (deservedly sometimes) a lot by the main characters. Also I’m not sure which way they want to go with her character but I don’t think she needs any kind of redemption, maybe just a softening of her character.

Disabled visibility. It’s very clunky, but it is a step in the right direction.Period pieces tend to be worse than other types of shows and movies at erasing disabled people. It’s easy to forget that disabled people did exist and were apart of society. I can’t speak much to how they were treated, but this is bridgerton so it is very possible to portray them in ways that are realistic to the more modern experience of, say, being in a wheelchair.

Portia Featherington. Send tweet.

Benedict being a fun little guy.

Sibling dynamics of the bridgertons are really sweet to see and always make me smile.

Penelope serving cunt, intellect and agency.

Thr Mondrich family being on screen more. I’d love a side show on them like Queen Charlotte. Their relationship is so sweet and I am observing 👀 with upmost respect.

I do like Colin’s new look buuut… we will come back to this.

Francesca’s new actress is so talented. The shy girl rep that I need. She looks a lot like Phoebe and fits in perfectly.

The other stuff (and how i would change it)

Penelope’s makeover seemed rushed. I think her transformation should’ve been gradual as she gains confidence. Almost like Kate’s last season. She starts to reflect her confidence e gains throughout the season and i’m thinking that a fanfic may be brewing oh no.

Colin’s makeover is needed bc they had to downplay the actors beauty in earlier seasons. But I don’t see him as a devilishly handsome rake all of a sudden. Luke Newton has a kind and approachable (kind of baby) face and I think that they should play on that. A pretty kind of handsome instead of trying to immitate the more masculine look that they used for anthony. I know it’s because he is putting on a performance but I think they could have gona another way. His look in season 2 is great in my opinion, maybe if his clothing was more relaxed but he kept the same hair then it would be perfect.

They’re trying to convince us that he’s suave and smooth with the ladies but it’s not consistent with his character

The threesome scenes? Not a hundred percent sure who that was for. Sapphics let me know if you appreciated those scenes because I know they weren’t doing that for their famously large straight male audience. I also saw someone say it reduces the sex workers to props but in context that kind of works into the story so idk.

Colin went from being lost at the end of last season to gaining a sense of identity that isn’t implied to be an act.

Lots of side stories make it seem messy and wastes time that can go into understanding Francesca, Penelope, and Colin. Instead of focusing on stories like Lady Bridgerton’s romantic story they really should make a QS 2 where they can explore the older cast of characters.

Paaaaacinnng. Everything is happening so fast and the side stories mean that Polin doesn’t even make much sense to me. I don’t feel any chemistry. I’m not going to count how long they’ve been on screen together this season, but it’s not enough for me to believe that Colin finally sees Pen in a romantic way. The helping Pen find a husband quest lasted for a second and immediately he realises his feelings. I just don’t buy it. I almost want to cut away to horny ass Kanthony to see actual chemistry.

if anybody reads this and has their own takes pls comment. I love talking about the show and hearing what other people thought.

[khaopybara]

Here I'm desperately hoping THK will be a superfun escape from reality 🙏🏻 the way things have gone in my country in the last two days. Who's wishing for it to be dark and serious? 😭 My life is enough dark and serious.

ATTENTION! rant ahead. anon, i'm really sorry i used your ask for this, but when i realized i went on a tangent, it was already too late. i do eventually answer your comment in the last two paragraphs, tho.

i personally use these silly little shows and interact so much with what these actors who live so far from my own reality because i want to use it as an escape route!

i'll be honest and say i don't remember when or how i switched back to asian media after spending a long time only watching western stuff, but i do know i made the switch because queer stories in western media were either a) being cancelled after one season, or b) having tragic/unfulfilling endings for poc/queer characters. I DON'T WANT THAT.

and imagine my surprise in like june of 2023 when i was looking up things to watch and stumbled over a silly little thai show about a loser who can go back in time with his crystal ball, and he tries to win over this girl he has been interested in forever and ends up falling for the guy who he saw as his rival? and ofc be my favorite had a lot of social commentary and personally, i think one of the most beautiful self-discovery journeys to this day in thai bl, but they had a happy ending, and they had an arc, and a story and it was a lot more than any western show could ever dream of giving me (am i saying thai shows, or gmm shows are perfect? no, i know its faults. what i am saying is that as a queer person living in south america, i wish i had these type of things to watch growing up. hayley kiyoko's girls like girls videoclip was the first time i remember seeing two young women kiss and let it be romantic and not fetichization.)

pluto's lastest episode about how non-inclusive the urban environment is for people with disabilities left such an impression they removed the sign that blocked the ada path. THESE STORIES MATTER!

and these stories matter even when they are silly romcoms about assassins brothers falling in love with two dudes, or about an introverted girl who just moved to the big city and hides her identity to flirt with the pretty and popular girl from her class, or about a grumpy veterinarian who suffers an accident and switches bodies with his sister and now he has to go on a country journey to get his body back with his former best friend he's in love with.

so yes, anon, i also hope this will be a fun show you can escape to and have that dose of serotonin even if for just an hour or two of your day. and i hope that even if it makes us cry, you'll be able to cry and allow yourself to let your worries out without feeling guilty about it. that's the magic of storytelling in my opinion, and i have an inkling we'll be up to a very good one that will play with our feelings like a roller-coaster.

(also, i can't understand who says they didn't see the comedy of thk when we literally had bison telling his brother kant wants his body first and his heart second, or when style tells fadel his nipples are sensitive and fadel just pinches it with a padlock (?), or kant telling his best friend "hey if you get together with this scary killer dude, i'll give you my dad's car" and style says yes, like come on.)

[theropoda]

...... i have. PRAWBLEMS. with the ending but honestly i felt very unwell and gross rn so i had difficulty focusing in the first place, maybe if i watch it again when i feel better ill feel different. under read more bc this got long lol

disclaimer before anyone GETS at me: i am not a critic. im literally just some guy watching a tv show, and i am really more confused than anything so if you really enjoyed the finale and feel like it was the perfect way for the show to end im happy for you! i don't have any intent on arguing it Absolutely Wasn't. this isn't a Hatepost. just me airing my thoughts. that are probably really incoherent bc again, i feel unwell ;_; brain is more focused on my stomach than this damn show

i knew how this was gonna end, i did watch the end of this show before, ive always been familiar w house because i watched episodes of it on tv as a kid with my mom and sister and knew major plot points like amber's death and wilson's cancer and house faking his death and everything but. the details were lost on me. now that i know the details something about them just doesn't jive with me and feel right.

probably related to my earlier post about how even in the final season so much of house is the same. he tried to change for the better but he was still back. i mean the entire premise of the show is about "the disabled addict doctor who struggles to be a person" so if any of these magically stopped being there that'd be stupid ESPECIALLY him being a disabled addict which are so central to his character. so im definitely not complaining about that.

initially i thought him faking his death was insanely reckless but what other choice was available. if he went, Hey, im here! im alive he'd absolutely be going to jail. in jail so far away while his best friend, maybe his only friend would be dying alone. of course he did that. his only choice was ttofake his death to be with wilson. throwing away his whole life and legacy and career and reputation to be with him.

hilson endgame real but also, while watching the whole show i kept going from "tumblr didn't lie these guys are gay" to "Tumblr may have oversold it a bit". but that might just be in the nature of its episodic structure. not e everything is abt wilson there's other people in house's lofe but in that final season everything does speed up, suddenly and become about wilson. which brings me to the whole cancer thing. in my memory of the show from watching it as a kid, Wilson's cancer came up as a plot point WAY earlier and there is much more time to discuss it in the show. to ponder and delve into it, what it means for wilson, for house, for the show. but actually watching the show it feels very sudden....! i felt like the entire cancer thing, which plays so damn heavily into the SERIES FINALE, wasn't explored enough...? it felt rushed. but it might feel like it because well there's a difference between watching a show as it comes out on a schedule vs binge watching it on demand.

and another thing that irked me is- but this is more of a "this personally makes me Feel Sad and Weird" as opposed to genuine criticism is how EVERYONE thinks house is dead except Two People. that's crazy. i have a Thing for closure and knowing things, the truth, im a little paranoid about that, but it just feels insane to me that house's own parents, family, former and current colleges, lovers, everyone... they all think he's dead when he's not. i see how that is, in terms of the Narrative, a good thing? house is truly FREE now. and if other people knew they'd probably call the police. but also that's just kinda horrifying.... I don't know. idk. also wtf cuddy wasn't there at the funeral? D: obviously i know how their last meeting went but they were such big part of each other's lives im rlly shocked she wasn't there! or even showed up at ALL in the ending scene where we see where everyone's life has headed, a little scene of her, Rachel, and someone new

and also. ._. how did that fire even start in the first place?..... did i miss something....? uaaaaah. i should watch it again

ugh but despite my peeves. i want to pass this off as Just another show ive watched, time to move on to the next, because a big part of the reason i started house and kept going and even chose to watch it at the times i did was because i have been going through some rough shit mentally for the past. entire year plus. i have relied on it to keep me distracted. i want to just move onto the next distraction but i have become so attached, it's hard to not feel :/ and :( about 1) the fact it's over now 2) it ended in a way that makes me feel funny, and not in a good way. aaaahhhhh.

[spc-rambles]

I adore the steelworks gang, like more than I've seen other people express online.

First of all...

My little icon Lexi.

They have been known and initially regarded for their silly voices and jolly nature but I don't often see people looking into why they do it. Like their voices make them more wild than Marion who's generally loved by some fans but they also do it in spite of themselves. They and Theo did an entire upbeat song about how much they are failures to railway engineering with lyrics like:

"We're experiments gone bad

in other words whoever designed us must be mad."

These are not the words of someone with self esteem in how funny they are! They even showed them actually depressed when saying 'We can't do anything.' for the final time in the special.

And anyone who knew how long it took for more in-your-face LGBT+ representation in 2018 She-Ra will know that if this special just came out three or four years later, we might've had proper gender-fluid Lexi representation.

As for Theo...

He is still a pure little bean and I feel the ambiguity of his design makes it all the more reason for him to feel bad about his design. I don't know what about his design warranted gigantic cogs on his sides but we don't know what went on in whatever workshop he was built at. For all we know he could've had the Henry treatment, having been dumped on the doorstep on the first desperate railway executive needed an engine, as a last ditch effort for a dying manufacturer.

As for him being on the spectrum, I can still see it in his behaviour. Lexi was truly not gender fluid but once you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person.

And some characteristics are visible in him.

His unintentional bluntness. "Are you being scrapped?"

His tics and stutters.

His shakes in excitement, if you were to count it as stimming.

And who's to say he's not limited to physical disabilities? He and Lexi, depending on how successful you can view it having designs as unique as them on British rails, are the perfect ones to have given the body language they were adamant on giving all the engines back then.

Him being so gentle and anxious is generally adorable, so yeah, not so much to say about his actual personality.

Speaking of not much to say, not much to say on Merlin either, at least nothing that people haven't said already. We all know how awesome he is.

Beresford is MY MAN!

Beresford just wants a friend guys. He said in his own song that he was always ignored by engines who just want to get a job done. No time to chat with him. Loneliness can drive him mad. It is kinda sad that his appearance in Royal Engine was not only a sign of the further appearances these characters could've had but how it was also kinda a rehash of the scene we got in his last appearance, so maybe an episode of his own where he learnt to make friends properly would've been fun.

Ah well, at least he got some friends in another life.

And what can I say about Hurricane?

Keeping it real, working with steel.

Since 1902

He is such a chill guy, that while his companion might've had a lot of hard labour in mind for Thomas, he seems so genuine in wanting to take Thomas in while still acknowledging his terrible position. He could've done with standing up to Frankie though. But whatever, that's meant to be a part of his character, and he was voiced by the chad Jim Howick no less.

It's so funny when people say he sounded like a member of the royal family when he's played kings before.

And then there's Frankie.

Oh my god I adore her so much. Her manipulation being legitimately intimidating at the best times, especially when she's actually chasing Thomas down in the dead of night, her musical style bribing him into working for her, her VA's performance capturing all of her personality through line delivery perfectly.

Everything about her class, her demeanour, most of her lines makes me so curious about her whole life.

How is she running this steelworks better than the human manager of the works if there even is one? How are the human workmen so ok with her doing this? How did the other engines before Thomas get into doing her work? How did they get out? How did Hurricane stay with her for this long, let alone not encourage some potential friends of his to work with her? Was she indirectly responsible for Hurricane surviving as long as he did to still be a tank engine after she was built? Why didn't the railways surrounding this fictional steelworks not agree with this most likely non-existent human manager not just agree to get a lot of their engines to transport steel from their works? What did Frankie do? What are you hiding from us!?

The whole mystery surrounding her and her apparently feeling put-down and apparently not evil at heart according to her character profile and her role in the book 'Delivery at the Docks' makes her potential crimes such a goldmine for story potential that I really want to delve into very soon.

And yeah, that's what I have to say on them in canon. All beautiful characters that I feel need more recognition on a regular basis.

[sunnysam-my]

Is Benedict Cumberbatch actually ableist/anti-autism?

Every now and then I hear people mentioning it. When I learned for the first time about what he said and done I was shocked. He may not be my favourite famous person or actor, but he's a well respected man who played many roles I'm fond of. I was deeply upset about this, but one question was lingering in my mind. What about the context? Did he actually said that? Did he still hold those negative opinions or was it just the times. On top of that, how much does non-actors understand what's like to be an actor. Oh, and let's not forget that all of those accusations came from written articles and interviews with him which create catchy biased headlines and commentary.

I happened to be an autistic and a disabled actor myself, so I dig deeper and here it is. Allow me to be the devil's advocate.

First I remind you all that in 2013 the terms like "low functioning" or other subtypes of autism were changed, so it's no suprise that the outdated terms were still being used.

Starting off in 2011 when Cumberbatch played Frankenstein's 'Creature' and Frankenstein. I've seen some people confused whether he played Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist, or the 'Creature', Frankenstein's creation who wasn't even given a name. He played both, exchanging it with the other actor, Jonny Lee Miller. This isn't as uncommon as people think, although it's not popular either.

Benedict mentioned that the he went with Jonny to see how autistic people act. He also did his own research into stroke survivors as well in general people who had to re-learn how to use their bodies. That's because that's the research they needed to accurately portray a character freshly born in a body of adult and immediately abounded by his creator, who is trying to learn how he and people work.

The part of this video that's important to this conversation is from 00:00 to 01:20.

I recommend also watching this video for a better inside of the character if you don't know the book. This is important because the Creature being autistic coded is not a bad a thing. He is not a monster. You missed the whole point of the play and book.

The Creature is a child in a adult body. The tragedy of "Frankenstein" is that all he wants is to be loved and cared for, but because of his deformations, scary physical appearance and mental disability everyone fears him and threats him as an 'it', a scary dangerous monster. IF YOU THINK THE CREATURE IS A MONSTER YOU ARE BEING ABLEIST.

Clips of The Creature being born are shown while the actors look mildly embarrassed watching themselves on screen. Madeline: I wanted to talk about the immense physicality of this show – you are both learning to walk as adults and it really comes through in those clips and how did you go about doing that? Jonny: We worked with a movement coach Toby Sedgwick, the incredible Toby Sedgwick. We started work the 3 of us (Danny, Benedict and Jonny) and also with Toby and Nick before the rest of the company joined us and it was sort of like a going back to school process really for me and Benedict. We worked on movement in various ways. Movement techniques of using different materials and different substances and it was quite embarrassing and quite a great way to get to know each other and to sort of drop everything immediately… Benedict: Like our clothes! Straight away. Jonny: Two guys pretending to be oil and glass who don’t really know each other very well at all. There’s a lot of water in there as well. Benedict: We talked a lot about about what we were doing as far as the world that influenced Danny and Nick in terms of wanting to do this project. We went to two extraordinary schools for autistic children and there is an element of the movement that reflects that but also as Jonny was saying it’s an evolution of a man who is fully formed so it’s an evolution with a fully grown body, it’s as if a man is born again as an elephant. Sort of backwards. It’s about not knowing anything about what they’ve got but being capable of doing much more than a child so it was about how to stagger that progression and having certain barriers to being fully evolved with certain autistic movements. Madeline: You do see the development of the Creature as he moves on and gets older and learns. […]

Unfortunately the link to the website this transcript was on no longer works, it was taken over, however you can view it using the Wayback Machine.

So, no, in this situation he absolutely was not ableist. That was just actors doing their job, making no offensive comments. And again The Creature is not a monster! He's practically mentally disabled with a development disorder if you tried to diagnose him like a real person. The entire history is about him fighting for his right to be alive and happy despite of how weirdly he looks or behaves.

Two other similar takes on this (Twiter/X) (Carrd)

In the 2014 interview for the Irish Times about his role in "The Imitation Game" as Alan Turing and other achievements he commented further about the role in Frankenstein.

For his award-winning turn in Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, he studied autism so that he might grasp how a fully formed man, with no infancy or childhood to reference, might behave.

“I went to schools and met people, some of whom are very high functioning on the autistic spectrum. I met a 17-year-old who had the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever. So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually – Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic – it really upsets me.”

He pauses for a nanosecond, then continues to talk: “And it upsets me those 17-year-olds were coming to the end of their care. Because after that they’re supposed to head into employment and earn revenue for their government. Ha. Because from early on you’re empiricised in that Orwellian sense.”

He smiles: “Sorry. I’m getting political.”

A lot of people leave out the last part, which is incredible frustrating considering he talks about a very real problem disabled people experience. As soon as we turn 18 we are suddenly supposed to figure everything out on our own and be useful to society or we'll be thrown out. It's ironic how people who accused him of being ableist here got this negative part so spread out, but not the really important part. The part where he cares for that 17-year-old who society would rather ignore, because they just didn't fit that perfect picture. The part he brings attention to an awful thing that happens every day.

The same year he said, as written in Metro:

Many are drawing parallels between Turing and Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, suggesting he’s specializing in characters who exist somewhere on the autism spectrum. But Cumberbatch wants them to cut out that nonsense. “Though Sherlock is an immediate comparison, they’re so different. Sherlock is a sociopathic show-off, and Alan was anything but that,” Cumberbatch tells Metro. “I don’t think he was on the spectrum. I think a lot of people are very lazy with that.” It’s a suggestion Cumberbatch has heard raised again and again, and he’s frankly had enough of it. “I think it’s a really dangerous thing to toy with that,” he says. “People talk about me doing that quite a lot and that being a good thing for people who are on the spectrum, which is great. But I don’t go into a job going, ‘Is this autism? Is this Asperger’s? Is this some other form of slight learning difficulty or disability?’ I’m very wary of that, because I’ve met people with those conditions. It’s a real struggle all the time. Then these people pop up in my work and they’re sort of brilliant, and they on some levels almost offer false hope for the people who are going through the reality of it.”

What Cumberbatch is actually saying in both of those is that he is sick of people seeing a genius played by him and immediately stereotype him as autistic, ignoring the fact that it's a very broad disability. Because that's what autism is, a disability. Fun fact, you can have autistic or ADHD traits/symptoms, but you won't get diagnosed if they aren't disabling you on daily basis. The lowest level of autism is "requiring support". There is nothing wrong with admitting your autism is making you disabled. There's nothing wrong with being disabled.

He isn't trying to play a autistic character, he just plays what he thinks is right. People see the geniuses he plays and immediately go "😮🫵 Autistic!" and compare them despite how different they are.

However, the way he says it stinks of that "You can't headcanon everyone autistic, that's a serious condition!" mindset that's oh so present in neurotypicals. I can only assume that what he was trying to say is that it's not good to portray disabilities as superpower, without mentioning the struggles they come with, but even if that was the intention it was poorly phrased. It did come out as disrespectful and in my personal opinion we can be truly mad at that, because we're not something to pity or describe so… oddly?, like that comment about the 17 year old.

I disagree with Turing not being autistic irl, more specifically with thinking people's reasons to say that are lazy, unless he was talking about Sherlock or the movie version of Turing there, in which case, eh 50/50. For example, here's a great article about exactly that, it compares the real life Alan and the movie version and if it is even good to 'diagnose' historical figures. However the movie version makes him more socially awkward, so this could be just being upset as people took another fictonal white, awkward genius and slapped "autistic" on that. It's funny how when characters like this are canonically autistic then it's a stereotype, but when it's a headcanons then suddenly it's okay and you shouldn't disagree with it. Sheldon from Big Bang theory is a great example of that.

To quote another article about how Turing in the move was changed:

The Imitation Game isn’t a plea for greater tolerance of homosexuals, but of people on the autistic spectrum. Its cause is neurodiversity, not sexual diversity. That’s why Turing is portrayed as someone who struggles with ordinary human interaction. He’s literal-minded to a fault and is incapable of understanding jokes. He’s nothing like the real Alan Turing, who was warm, charming and funny; instead, he’s exactly like the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. To make a point, the filmmakers have invented a largely fictional character — a mathematical genius with Asperger’s syndrome. It’s as if they decided that presenting Turing as a victim of the persecution of homosexuals is old hat. So instead, he’s portrayed as a martyr to another, more fashionable cause. His crime isn’t being gay, but failing to be neurotypical.

Now, I’m all for giving more respect to people on the autistic spectrum — my half-brother Christopher is on the autistic spectrum — but not because they’re ‘special’. The Imitation Game commits a similar error to Rain Man, which seems to argue that Dustin Hoffman’s character should be valued and cherished not because he’s a human being with the same needs as the rest of us but because he’s exceptional with numbers. It’s patronising nonsense, and as an argument for neuro-diversity doesn’t bear scrutiny. It won’t surprise you to learn that Christopher isn’t any good at maths.

You can say that I'm being too biased towards the Benedict here, but I think it's only right to give the man a benefit of a doubt, especially how people jumped him after Frankenstein, and say "Hey, was that a horribly phrased thought? Hell yeah, but the meaning could not be so simple as people think." You're assuming the worse here, and I do understand why, considering how we're usually treated, but maybe let's try to assume positively too. At least let's try to be neutral.

I'm not going to dictate if he's ableist or not, that's up to you to decide how you feel, I just hope you can make an educated opinion and that this helped clear anyone's mind, because it did for me.

Oh, and also, this doesn't mean he's a good person now, because he's been a dick to so many people and had horrible opinions on so many topics. This is purely about the ableist accusations.

[trifoliate-undergrowth]

Thrift store Westerns I've never heard of part 2!

SHOOT FIRST AND PRAY YOU LIVE (Because Luck Has Nothing to Do With It) is an indie film from 2009 and winner of the independent spirit award at Santa Fe Film Festival, apparently. Wikipedia says it was based on the novel Luck by Max Brand. It's got everything! It's got maybe in fact too much going on! It's got split screen, it's got a brief animated sequence, it's got so many fucking flashbacks.

Opens with this, which I find very funny for some reason:

While we're on disclaimers, my quotations are summarized and not exact bc I am not going over ever few seconds of this movie. Also this movie is rated R so assume Yes for most common western content warnings.

Very GBU intro with about 10 seconds of empty street, a surprise close-up and then a tense shootout that we'll only have context for later. I hope.

The first real scene introducing our main character (Red Pierre) is a very gory shootout in a saloon. The shots themselves are fast and then we get a blow-by-blow of exactly where each of the 3 shots fired went. Lots of squirting blood from exploded arteries. I respect it but also was deliberately not looking at the screen too hard for like a solid 30 seconds or so lol. Red's first shot was shooting his opponent's thumb off, so he pulled a Silence a la The Great Silence. However in this case it was not simply a disabling move bc he did just keep shooting and murder those 2 guys. also. so. not sure what the point of that was.

Then he turns around and makes awkward eye contact with the only other guy who hasn't left the saloon, an old man who makes a high-pitched sound and goes 'I didn't see anything! Actually, no, I saw everything and you were totally in the right hahaha don't even worry about it....' Red asks if he has a horse and he stammers that he's got a burro and Red is welcome to take it. "My horse died, or I wouldn't ask," Red clarifies awkwardly, before escaping with the old man's burro. It's now night, Red frees a Mexican man whom some nasty gang members were hanging from a tree as a form of torture. Red waits at the tree, presumably waiting for these guys to show up so he can kill them? idk. He falls asleep immediately and wakes up being guarded by the daughter of the aforementioned gang leader.

fuckin womp womp sound effect plays as he realizes what happened. My guy what did you expect? Why did you go to sleep at the Local Asshole Gang's Designated Torture Tree?

STOP LOOKING SURPRISED YOU HAD TO KNOW THEY WERE COMING BACK.

Anyways the gang leader's son just got killed and then he saw Red and was like, oh yeah I hear he's killed people. Good enough! New son figure and new gang member to fill the empty seat at the table! (Everyone thinks this is a terrible idea, especially gun girl. Red is like 'you're right, what a terrible idea, I'll just... leave.... *gun pointed at him threateningly* ok or not or I'll just sit here I guess')

There's a bit where the camera zooms in on individual gang members and names them. There is no way I am remembering all 5 of these guys at once. The girl's name is Jack though. Cool. Her dad is a creep and does not seem to like her much He does, he just gets really weird dialogue. idk, I have mixed but not very coherent feelings about how Jack is handled in this movie like, generally. Anyways gang leader Jim Payne comments that Red is 'older than I thought, but young enough for what I want to make of you.' He then goes on a rant about how when he was Red's age he had a mentor who shaped him into the man he is now and he's going to be that person for Red.

Red is....

Deeply confused by all this?? but willing to roll with it for his own agenda. If the gang helps him out with some Mysterious Tasks he needs to accomplish, he'll join them willingly. Payne is delighted to hear it. The first task is burying Red's dead father. Everyone chews on some loco weed and gets high as shit before setting off on this long journey (except for Knife Guy, who I guess is loco enough without the weed and thus declines it.)

TWENTY YEARS AGO (we are getting an extended flashback)

Pierre's dad, who is now dead and needs to be buried, was having an affair with Red Pierre's mom. Bob McGurk and the other guys Red wants to revenge kill show up at his mom's house and shoot some guy and assault her. (I thought the guy they shot was her dad but eventually, in a later flashback, we find out it was just like. some other dude she happened to know, and that the killers thought it was Red's dad). She swears to kill them all and eventually manages to kill the sheriff, leaving 2 others for someone else to please take care of.

Red Pierre's dad simply can't, because he is wearing a sweater. He can't shoot no one! Not in a sweater! Despite his extended musings about what a terrible man he was and how he's going to hell, he's apparently just not a shooting man, thus letting his girlfriend be tortured by the local gang for months (yes this went on for Months before she managed to stab the sheriff.) He's also not a "raising my illegitimate son" type apparently, so he drops the kid off at a random Mexican mission to be raised by the friars.

the subtitles helpfully provide pronunciation. Also, THIS PLACE IS LIKE 900 MILES FROM THE BORDER? IS THIS WHOLE MOVIE TAKING PLACE FULLY INSIDE MEXICO (IF SO WHY IS ALMOST EVERYONE WHITE AND SPEAKING AMERICAN ACCENTED ENGLISH) AND IF NOT, DID THIS GUY RIDE 900 MILES TO DROP OFF THE KID HE DIDN'T WANT TO RAISE SOMEWHERE HE WOULD NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER FIND HIS WAY BACK???? WHAT'S HAPPENING. WHY ISN'T RED SPEAKING SPANISH IF HE WAS RAISED DEEP IN CENTRAL MEXICO. HOW DID WE GET HERE. HOW DID WE GET ANYWHERE. WHY ARE YOU SO INSISTENT ABOUT THIS SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. LIke don't get me wrong it's a very cool geographical location but what is happening.

Anyways, Red's dying mother whispered something (I thought it was her murderous plans but it will later be revealed that I was wrong about this) into his baby ears as he lay in her dying arms and now he's gotta go murder the bad guys that terrorized his mom but first must bury his illegitimate dad who was nice to his mom but did not protect her from the other guys and also did not claim or raise him bc the dad was married to some other unseen unnamed woman who is presumably also dead now I guess bc she's just not ever going to come up. Simple! I'm so confused. The priest who raised Red after he got yeeted 900 miles south into Mexico has a monologue about raising his beloved child and WAIT HOLY SHIT IT'S ANIMATED NOW. WE'RE HAVING AN ANIMATED SEQUENCE???

I swear to God I am not making this movie up. delightful. what is happening ever. anyways no wonder Red just goes "this might as well happen" about acquiring a new father figure in Payne, he has so many fuckingn dads already...

The priest is like 'yeah I didn't even try to raise him to be a good Christian I knew he was destined to be a total badass adn beat people the fuck up so I taught him to fight bobcats and grizzly bears and climb trees and catch fish with his teeth and shit. bc I'm cool'

The priest then coyly mentions that Pierre is too much of a badass in the boxing ring and nobody wants to fight him, so he uses him as a form of penance on sinners by making them box this violent child and get beat up.

THIS IS NOT THE SAME MAN? THIS IS NOT OUR GUY? DID HE LOSE ALL HIS PIGMENTATION AS HE MATURED. DID A GRIZZLY BEAR BITE ALL THE BROWN OUT OF HIS HAIR AND NOW IT'S RED? WHAT HAPPENED. THIS IS NOT A RED HAIRED BLUE EYED KID. IS OUR CURRENT GUY NOT RED PIERRE? IS HE ACTUALLY SOME OTHER DUDE? IS RED PIERRE (THE REAL ONE) GOING TO SHOW UP LATER??? WHAT'S HAPPENING. (This kid is a very good actor and a good fighter by the way, but he is not a good double for the guy he is allegedly the child version of.)

His opponent mumbles "que diablo" as he's getting knocked out with the most American pronunciation I've ever heard. I don't even know Spanish that well adn I can tell that's some extremely American Spanish. also

thank God we're free of the flashback. We've been here so long. No specific time given bc that would require me going back through this and I don't want to reexperience it.

...My theory about this flashback is it's showing us in realtime how Red's story becomes a legend (part of the intro featured a guy telling us and a bunch of children a story about The Legend Of Red Pierre so Storytelling is like, a Theme.) I guess? It would explain why current Red is kind of a sweet awkward quiet kid and flashback Red is Paul Bunyan if he was a ginger (but only sometimes.)

aww novice Red is so cute.

YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SHOW ME A MAP MONTAGE? DO YOU REALLY WANT TO REMIND ME OF THE 900 MILE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOUR STATED CURRENT SETTING AND WHERE THE REST OF THIS MOVIE SUPPOSEDLY TAKES PLACE? YOU WANT ME TO THINK ABOUT DISTANCE IN THIS MOVIE?? ARE YOU SURE

oh my god we get another different flashback about Red's mom Irene now and. His dad fully was there the day that the gang killed that other guy and assaulted her. he had a gun. he had the drop on them. he... ran awayyy! It haunted him. Finally, years later, he took his gun and went to shoot McGurk, who shot him instead. that's how we ended up here, Red still has 2 guys left to kill for his parents. I've now heard this story like 19 times and it gets slightly more complicated and yet somehow less interesting every time.

Red's batshit crazy rogue priest daddy is ok with the revenge and gives him a???? Cursed crucifix??? that will bring blessings to him and evil to others?????? What's happening. I was raised Catholic I did not get any magical amulets like this

ok so we're caught up. Red killed one of the 2 guys in the first big shootout of the movie, his dad was the guy getting shot in the intro. Jack joins the men officially as part of the gang. We are now getting backstory for some random gang member whom I do not care about.

Blessedly this was a short flashback. he used to be a blacksmith before he went axe crazy, or more accurately hammer crazy, with a hammer. I think he had some reason but I couldn't understand the dialogue in that bit so who knows.

OH NO ANOTHER GANG MEMBER IS GOING TO TELL HIS LIFE STORY NOW... IS THIS GOING TO BE THE WHOLE MIDDLE OF THE MOVIE? PEOPLE TAKING TURNS TALKING ABOUT THE VIOLENCE THEY'VE DONE? wait a minute. false alarm. the next guy starts his story but is INTERRUPTED! By McGurk dramatically showing up. Ok fine that was funny. you got me.

anyways McGurk wants Red dead. what a shock. oh god another flashback PLEASE DO NOT ZOOM IN ON MCGURK PULLING HIS WIENER OUT PLEASE GOD

I do like the period accurate costuming in this movie. buttons yes. can I be done here? can the movie be over here? we're not even halfway in how can I endure this.

anyways. Red and McGurk have a showdown and fire simultaneously, each wounding the other. The other gang is delighted by this as the previously untouchable McGurk being wounded means his charm is broken. He can be killed! Eventually. (?)

The storyteller from the beginning of the movie comes back and tells us that McGurk disappeared for 2 years and that Red did lots of exciting stuff during that time but we're not going to get into all that right now. He also mentions that Red has the gang working with him while McGurk has 'always been a lone wolf'. This is straight up incorrect, as we had to see at least 3 painfully long flashbacks of McGurk and his 2-3 (I forgot) cronies shooting Red's mom Irene's friend full of holes and assaulting her. As a group! He did in fact have help before, if maybe not now. anyways. I shouldn't try to logic this movie.

The kids go to a masquerade. It's cute. Jack is enjoying the dress but worries it'll compromise her tough butch persona if the boys find out. Red promises not to tell anyone. There's a trippy extended rewind sequence that shows, everything playing in reverse, that McGurk, now wearing an eyepatch, has been stalking them all day, and then a completely unnecessary but in parts very funny sequence where McGurk gets a shave and the barber gossips to him about his backstory , providing a couple details we hadn't known but that I don't think matter much. 'now I never even seen a picture of McGurk, but they say he was an unnatural looking man, with a face you'd never forget,' says the barber, dabbing shaving cream onto McGurk's face. lol. It gets to be too much when the barber implies that McGurk dragged himself off into the wilderness and died somewhere, never to be heard of again. McGurk, very alive, pulls out his gun and asks if Red is still alive, and where to find him, thus bringing us back to before the masquerade, though first we must get ANOTHER flashback showing that McGurk did indeed drag himself off into the wilderness and ALMOST die, and he spent the whole time thinking about how much he hated Red.

Then there's a bit from I guess before the masquerade in which one of the gang members gets jittery over one of the others not showing up on time and tells Red he's bad luck, despite Jim Payne's argument that he's brought them nothing but good luck for these past 2 years. Red and the complainer square up for a duel and the other gang members go wait outside. We get some split screen of inside and outside the building:

It's fun but I'm not sure why it needed to happen. The complainer decides to just Not today and slinks off, but Jim mumbles that the other gang members will have to pick sides and a breakup is coming. We exit split screen. Then for no discernible reason we re-enter split screen.

Split screen gives us 2 slightly different shots of the same porch scene for a very funny and confusing moment, then McGurk steps into view in one shot while the gang doesn't notice him in the other. He shoots Jim Payne, Rodrigo and I think that's hammer guy? I think he killed the other non-complainer gang member earlier but the 2 guys sitting outside were shooting at a wasp and therefore didn't hear his shots, which happened at the same time? That section was confusing.

Ok NOW we're back up to the masquerade, and we have to watch a bunch of the same shots again. No wonder this movie is nearly 2 hours, it's mostly repetition, a lot of it of the same couple of flashbacks. Anyways, McGurk shows up at the masquerade, threatens Red, dances with Jack. Red gets knocked unconscious by someone and wakes up tied to a post in the middle of nowhere.

Oh look, Chollas! That places this movie as taking place in the Sonoran Desert, so somewhere in Arizona, southern American California, parts of Nevada or New Mexico, Baja California (unlikely) or northwestern Mexico. Filming apparently took place in New Mexico. You will notice that zero of these places are ANYWHERE near the one SPECIFICALLY NAMED location with title card and everything, TzinTzunTzan Mexico. No I'm not done being annoying about this I'm never done. Does anyone know how distances work?

Anyways. Red is tied up, concussed and dehydrated. The complainer from the gang shows up and mocks him. It was he who kidnapped Red! And now he's going to kill him. But fairly, of course. He'll give Red a weapon--he places it in his left hand and leaves him tied up, of course. And I am going to turn on captions for these because I need you to see that I'm not making this dialogue up oh my God.

"Because I face my challenges head-on! Like a train going down the tracks! I love trains. ...Robbing... trains."

Red shoots the complainer, whose name I will never not mishear as Gandalf (it's Gandall or something?) and then Some Guy happens along to find Red. I'm pretty sure this is the same guy he freed from being tied to a tree at the start of the movie but I'm not sure. The guy comments 'it's only fair' as he releases Red, so maybe I'm right? It's not super obvious if they recognize each other or not. He does threaten Red a bit first before freeing him. idk.

Anyways I think this man is hot and watching him playfully mess with Red a bit before releasing him was the closest I've come to sexualizing anyone in this movie. Mostly I have been too confused and haven't cared about anyone enough.

Red, now freed, finds McGurk McLurking over his mother's grave and yells at him to get away from it, furious. They have a showdown. Red shoots McGurk's gun hand, then drops his own gun and dares McGurk to try to pick his up faster. McGurk doesn't move. Red mocks him, then finally tells him that there would be no satisfaction in killing him like this, even though Red could, and to get out. McGurk leaves his gun, throws his belt of ammunition in Red's general direction and skedaddles. A flashback reveals that Irene told Red's presumed father whom he buried in the beginning of the movie that McGurk was the young Red's father (I did wonder about that. But also how did she know? Red was redhaired like his father. Well I guess his non-father was more blond but like. He definitely doesn't look like McGurk. And all those creeps had their way with her so like. how do we... know... that it's him.... in particular. None of these guys had red hair also. except maybe his dad who wasn't his dad.) but anyways... in Red's non-dad's one moment of bravery, he picked up baby Red, saw McGurk McLurking outside, and shouted 'the boy's mine. Get out!' at him. And McGurk actually McLeft. In the present, once again, he runs away from Red. an interesting ending, though I'm not sure I'd call it a satisfying one--maybe if it was more "Red is sticking to his moral principles of not killing where avoidable" was more of a Thing up to this point, but like, Red has killed a bunch of people and not seemed to mind joining the outlaw gang and presumably doing a bunch of crime with them for 2 years. So. idk??

It's then revealed via, surprise, ANOTHER FLASHBACK that Red had given the magical cross amulet thing to Jack before their dance and so has been winning these last fights with his own skill and no luck, which is a fun reveal I guess. It then cuts to Jack who has been caught and tied up by bandits though, so like, I guess the cross does not work at all bc that is just some real bad luck for her. So. What was the point of any of this?

The movie ends there. No explanation of what's going on with Jack. We do not see her get rescued. I don't even know who those guys that tied her up are. We've never seen them before. What the fuck is happening. ROLL CREDITS!

Ok thoughts: idk interesting movie. I didn't feel strongly about it. I think it's clear the people making it were having a lot of fun so that's cool. Red was kind of a fun character, especially when he's awkward and dorky. Very lovable. However his motivations and general morality are an enigma to me. For a guy who has that much exposition about him I'm really very confused about what's going on with him, which does not seem like it should be possible at this point.

Jack was potentially a fun character but I feel her dad was so weird about her gender while I didn't have a solid grip on how she felt about it herself. It's implied that she has to be a man to join the gang and her dad allows it as long as she dresses masc and shoots guns but views her as neither man nor woman. Potentially fun concept.. I really wish we didn't end the movie with a casual non sequitur of her getting attacked by some random dudes. Do we not have enough women experiencing violence in this movie already. It's in every fuckign western I watch and I am just so tired of it.

idk. I think Red should've shot McGurk. It's not like he was Not shooting anyone else. Why would he shoot all those other guys and NOT McGurk. Maybe he thinks it's crueller to make him live knowing that he had to run away from Red. idk. Also why did we have those two (and a half? there's a brief moment where he talks to someone in a saloon?) sequences of the storyteller talking about the legend of Red Pierre? What did that add?

I did like some of the humor in this movie. Generally I think it was rather incoherent but had some fun along the way. Maybe too much, to a confusing degree. I also liked the costuming and how dusty and greasy everyone looks.

I feel like maybe the characterization was clearer in the book but falls flat or just seems confusing in a movie... this is just a theory though.

Anyways. Unexpected parallels between this movie and the other western I'd never heard about before finding it at a thrift store and making a tumblr post about, Gallowwalkers:

-Some kind of secret society of magical wizards which is vaguely Catholicism-flavored and described as a religious order despite having absolutely nothing to do with real world Catholicism

-Older, morally questionable gunfighter notices a conventionally attractive younger white boy and immediately goes "that's my new boy. I'm adopting him. Boy, hello, I am your new mentor, whether you want one or not. Come shoot people with me." In both cases it's so weird and flat and confusing that I don't even ship it, despite being a known freak and Wanting to...

-generally confusing movie. Too much going on that is never fully explained and yet the stuff that is explained gets too wordy.

Anyways I skipped through the credits to the end looking for some explanation of the ending and did get this:

To be continued?? you thought you were going to make another one of these? well that explains the ending I guess. oh well.

There actually WAS also a brief funny stinger of the shopkeeper whom Red and Jack held up and told to lie on the floor and count to 5000 reaching 4998 and going "To hell with this" and getting up. lol.

[jazzythursday]

8, 19, 43, anddd 58 for the SOC asks ❤️

I don’t know how this got so long but be prepared for very waffle-y answers (hehe)

8. What crow do you think you are the most like?

Ahhh, I have never felt so decisive in my life as I do about this question. I think I took one look at Wylan Van Eck and immediately started projecting. (That usually happens with most awkward/anxious/nerdy/artist characters, but especially Wylan.

First things that come to mind: he’s both worryingly chill about some things and simultaneously an anxious mess, he can be sassy but also very reserved most of the time… Thinking about it now I really relate to how contradictory a lot of his traits/thoughts/actions can be.

Also low key the way he went his whole life with no name or explanations for his disabilities and grew up without anyone to tell him that it wasn’t because he wasn’t trying hard enough hits maybe a lil too close to home 😅😅😅

19. Who was the most compelling antagonistic character to you?

Hmm 🤔… this is hard because Leigh’s antagonists are all really interesting!

That being said, there’s SOOOO much about Dunyasha that gets me! Especially about her being Inej’s “shadow”. Since Inej is the Wraith and a lot of her skills already lie in being unseen/quiet/blending into the shadows…then what does her shadow look like? Like if the the question is what is the shadow of a shadow, then the answer we get is apparently this crazy, blond, self-righteous mercenary dressed in all shining white clothing calling herself the white blade and talking about being on a mission from god basically. All the ways she’s written to be Inej’s opposite are just… *screams incoherently*

Just… ahhh. It’s the symmetry, ya know?

(I’m forgetting details but I think also her background is super interesting. Very cult-y and ominous. 100/10. I don’t know if they ever get brought up again but I’d love for whatever group she came from to get used in a later plot as a Big Bad)

43. Do you have a favorite minor/background character?

I haven’t read the books where David and Genya feature as more prominent characters, but I love them. They’re…so in love? In the sweetest and most heartbreaking way?

Outside of the Crows they’re definitely my favourite ship and I’m still so sad we’ll never get to see David meet Wylan and Jesper because they would have SO much to talk about! I need Wylan and David nerding out about chemistry and blueprints and talking to Jesper about Durast stuff.

Side note: I love the way Luke plays David and all the mannerisms and quirks he used (him waving at Alina while handcuffed in a plank of wood makes me giggle every time) and I don’t know what it is but “Keiragan cut off Baghra’s finger!!!” — “We need to leave!!!” Makes me laugh so hard. Maybe because their freak out is the most realistic reaction to the Darkling lmao. No messing around just “this guy is crazy! I think we should run away! Yes?!”

58. Share your thoughts on (insert character/ship/plot point/etc)

Oh do I pick? Oh god, my ultimate nemesis: making decisions…

So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ll probably always gravitate more towards the show characters, but that the books do a great job of showing us the different cultures and nuances of the Barrel and (while I hope they’d get more into that in the crows spinoff 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻) I think it’s one of the things that I miss the most watching the show vs reading. The Komedie Brute, the crow and cup tattoo, the Barrel flash vs Mercher clothing, the Dregs, Ghezen and trade being sacred in Kerch… there’s just a lot of symbolism there that I wish we could have seen. The canals also aren’t mentioned at all? And maybe that’s me being nit-picky but they seem like a really big part of Ketterdam in the books and I think it would have been cool to see how it impacts traveling in the city and how they plan around it.

Thanks for the questions! 💖

[pianostarinwonderland]

fuck

i need to stop reading fanfics, i'm going to go insane at this rate.

anyway my knees are going weak at Ineffable Bloom by yomogi_mogi_mochi (I'm just gonna call them yomogi) cause like FUCK ok first of all, if you are interested in reading my ramble and then the fic, there's talks of like, hanahaki, emotional abuse, so careful about that.

next, i will say this fic has a lot left to be desired in terms of the technical side of writing (a few grammatical errors, for example (they misspelled Mostro but not even like Monstro, it gets farther from that to the point it's kinda funny)). but like. that ain't important because THIS FIC HAS SO MANY GOOD POINTS

I absolutely love how they depict MC as a childhood friend to the Octa trio and not only that but how they affect the Octa trio. They are notably much softer than their canon selves, but in a way that makes sense and it's not just serving to the readers?? A lot of fics that play around with the childhood friend trope tend to write them like their canon selves, like the presence of another friend didn't change them. It's not inherently a bad thing but often the MC is written to be kinder and such, so Octa being the same as the canon doesn't super match up ?? Like the MC's presence didn't matter. and on the other side of that, they're sooo soft that they start detaching from their personalities so then you don't see Jade, Floyd, and Azul, you just see three mushy guys that look and dress exactly like them.

but here, it's like yeah. this MC is defs on the kind and sensitive side. and you can see that their kindness changes the trio. yeAH tweels would be nicer and not just threatening. yES Azul wouldn't be just drafting up contracts and such to lure people into deals. They're more than their meanness, and especially you see this with Azul, who's being so accommodating and kind to MC. but like, the core part about each individual, the things that they learned, the things that make them unique and themselves, it's still retained. Floyd and Jade are still teasing and mean. Azul is still hardworking, and he definitely still does contracts.

in terms of childhood friend MC Octa fics, this one is really good.

ANOTHER POG THING ABOUT THIS FIC is that it really took an interesting take on hanahaki. like. like man. MAN. MC got flowers on their lungs because of a love for their mother that was not reciprocated?????? bro, yomogi could have taken the flower disease to the romance direction (like Azul initially didn't like them back) but holy shit, they went with FAMILY. and that's so SO SEXY???/ LIKE I NEVER CONSIDERED THAT AND THAT'S HONESTLY SOOOOO BIG BRAINED i . i love it. yeah :) also love that they actually did surgery for it and that they showed said EFFECTS of it, both physical and mental.

there were also moments that really broke me man. like. for example.

:-) cue intense sobs in the distance

no no because. fuck. you KNOW their throat is so badly damaged from all the surgeries and the flowers that grew in their lungs, you KNOW that as a result, they can't speak. and yet they'd almost speak just to say Azul's name. it's just. it's so. like. almost forgetting your disabilities or wounds cause you saw someone you love. like. what the fuck. actually, what the fuck.

then also this moment

I THINK ANY DISABLED PERSON WOULD BE INCREDIBLY TOUCHED THAT SOMEONE WOULD ACCOMMODATE TO THEM !!!

deadass read that and nearly choked like what the fuck. i'm not even mute or anything but like FUCK. and you Know Azul damn well studied the language just for MC!!!!!

and then we have this paragraph

new paragraph to make me feel oguhoghuhuouosdhosguohg

if i can sum up yomogi's writing in one paragraph, it's that paragraph. it's very poetic and freeflowing, it's very beautiful, it's soooo oughhhhhhhhh like, i'm kinda particular about the grammar, spelling esp, and spacing format in fics and this fic kinda hit my peeves for some of them admittedly but the writing makes me forgive it. cause it's that pretty like ohsguohdogdg the metaphors used it's soooooo good

man idk I just love the way they describe that giddiness and the sharp memory that you have for someone you love like DAMN DAMN THAT'S SO PERFECT, and i just love especially "the way his mole stretches across his chin, the world in his eyes" like. like GODDDDDDDDDD IT'S SO FUCKING PERFECT IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN WHY IT'S PERFEFCT IT JUST IS IT REALLY JUST. IS. PERFECT...

AND THEN WE HAVE THESE TWO

i'm gonna get diabetes at this rate MAN WHAT TEH FUCK

THE WAY THEY MIRROR EACH OTHER.........

"Spoil them, I don't care."

"Stain them, I don't care."

and it's in response to each other's tears.

lord i'm not your strongest soldier

[croctus]

how would you improve each datable NPC in Stardew Valley?

i was bewildered for a moment before i remembered i was talking shit about them on this blog previously haha! let me see. i think most of them i have issues with just act 10 years younger than they are- so there are a few ways this can be changed?

also keep in mind i adore stardew and really do like these characters even just as they are, im just a hater lol

judging hard-

Alex

i honestly think this guy could be GREATLY improved if he were actively taking care of his grandparents. maybe we see him out walking with them, on the roof doing repairs before a rainy day, running errands for them or cooking for them, etc. boy spends half his time staring at his dog in a household of two elderly disabled folks who could use him. even a teenager could take notice and offer to help.

Abigail

shes one of the most childish unfortunately lmao. i think one of the most glaring is she goes extremely hard in an easter egg hunt against two preschoolers- maybe if she instead tried to help one of them win but got a little competitive about it, thatd be cute? idk. additionally she could work part time at the store, or at the guild, or clint's, it'd fit her character.

Sam

i get the player interactivity elements but what kind of goober goes through all the work to put a band together but doesnt know what genre they wanna play, unless theyre just a teen interested in the aesthetic of a band. it comes across sorta inauthentic. boy rolls his eyes and grumbles when his mom asks him to help clean a fish, too. cmon man, youre grown.

Sebastian

both sam and seb suffer from the same 'gawwd stay out of my room MOOOM' sort of vibes- maybe if they had an apartment together but still regularly visited their parents for dinner theyd come across as a little more grown (not to say that like, living with parents is inherently childish but how they interact with their folks comes across that way). he also really shouldn't be taking his angst out on his opinion of his half sister, and maybe if he had a little more of a solid adult go-plan than 'im gonna run away to the city' hed seem more mature.

could b better-

Shane

i dont want to be harsh on this guy but he sort of backslides after marriage hardcore. depression isnt a singular uphill climb but at least he could show hes still working on it- the occasional mention of a talk with a therapist, or cleaning up a little after himself, etc. maybe trying to eat a little better when living on a farm lol.

Penny

shes fine, other than the scene w/ george: pushing his wheelchair without asking and then HE apologizes/the scene fames this action as a good thing and you lose points with her if you point out it's rude. sometimes in trying to help people, you dont always do the right thing for them - that would be a little more nuanced for her.

im just picky-

Elliott + Harvey

theyre fine? maybe itd be fun if elliott went on some book tours or somesuch in the winter regularly after marriage, and harvey joined a plane hobbyist group or smth. they have a lot of personality but an issue a lot of these characters have is they just sort of putter out after marriage

Leah + Haley

this game has a lot of redheads lol. leah is fine though, and haley is cute. like other npcs id just want them to find their own independent success with their artistic skills- maybe letters come in the mail occasionally to them congratulating them on photos/sculptures making it into magazines, etc, to show they still have their own things going on

Emily + Maru

they're fine, i just like older/fanmade versions of their sprites more lol

[vesicapiscean]

long dream post

another really strange and way too lucid dream when I took a nap just now. EARLY in the dream, mom had used my yeast to make some bread but she did it soooo wrong but she was like made a million loaves of bread but with a lot of dough left over? and she was like dont touch anything in there!!! I was upset becasue I was planning on making a special loaf with it for the celebration this weekend. so i was like. then my sisters showed up and they were like “dude i’m pissed. its only 2 and all the adults are already drunk and i want to go home” so i was like talking to them and comforting them. One of them started popping a bottle of champagne and I was like are you crazy, thats what made you so upset the first time and no im not going to drink that. but then I felt bad for shooting her down so I had a glass.

Throughout the dream I had the feeling like I was in class and I had an assignment due (I fell asleep in the middle of doing homework). but I was in some highly collegiate professors house and I felt like i was being tested or a part of some sort of trial. the thing that made me think it was a test being put on by someone was because there was a guy who was older and i felt like he was one of my teachers, and he was asking me so many nonsensical and irrelevant questions it felt SO WEIRD like an interview for a job with some kind of strange backstory I didnt know about and he had this girl like a young sharp professional girl following him around and being one step ahead of him on everything. then something weird happened where he opened up this staircase that came down from the ceiling and was a lot like a climbing thing at a kids park like made of ropes. the girl followed him up there and then fell through it and landed on her face on the floor. so then i went to her and was like “are you okay? that was inappropriate and dangerous im sorry you had to go through that” and she left. then another girl came in with her family and they spoke another language or at least were from a foreign country and she seemed to replace the first girl and she was upset over something going on with her family so i was talking to her and comforting her.

then when she left a group of like 4 kids from a nonverbal tribal foreign place were there amongst a bunch of other kids. and they were confusing me and trying to ask me things and i was trying to be gentle with them but they were kinda crazy. and all the kids were fighting and blaming each other for stuff and i was trying to calm everyone down. while this was happening I got a text from a guy i used to know saying "hey when can we squeeze in a time to play one last game together" and before I got a chance to text back he was like "oh nevermind. I can see that youre going through something" or something along those lines.

back to the kids, I couldnt figure out how to comfort all of them at the same time, i ended up spraying everyone with a hose and being like OKAY. NOW EVERYONES WET. WHAT SHOULD WE DO. so i made sure that everyone had a towel and then i was like ok everyone. take your towel and dry up you face and hair really fast and crazy! and now stand up and dry off your body! great job!

this is the crazy part i just remembered. there were two adult disabled dudes living next door across a fence, cause all this was taking place in the professors back yard. and i was like do you guys know what's going on? and they were like yeah, hes always doing stuff like this. and i was like asking them more about it and one of them who had a really messed up face was like “do you want the embarrassing truth or what he usually tells people” AND THEN I WOKE UP

[llitchilitchi]

IT WAS THE ROMANCE IS DEAD VIDEO its so good!! i get you, id only heard vaguely of the comic "romanticising murder" before (which seemed like people generally finding reasons to hate on a comic that i thought was more lighthearted) but omg it is so much more graphic then i imagined. i read a couple random chapters after finishing the video its. way too much for me pspsksj

theres like some similarities (as soon as he was saying about the murder guy breaking the other guys legs to stop him escaping and showing panels of him crawling on the ground i thought of the copacetic au) but killing stalking seems way more graphic and dark in ways that i (personally) find uncomfottable that the au doesnt, i just thought some of the general themes were similar which was interesting

anyway sorry for rambling in your ask box psksjjs, i was just curious!

no need to be sorry at all anonnie, it's cool to see people talking about this stuff!!

when I first heard of killing stalking it was because people were shamelessly shipping the two main characters and I went into it with the full intent of 'okay, this is just a weird yaoi manhwa with some fucked up elements' so when I actually got thru the first few chapters I got whiplash of just how much the story was Not That. a lot of it stuck with me for all the wrong reasons.

it's a really heavy read and the fact that the artist shows us A Lot of it was one of the reasons I had to stop reading myself. I've noticed it since I first started posting comics online myself (back in October 2021) but describing these things verbally is a lot easier to stomach than actually seeing it depicted, especially if it's shown directly. I think it really hit me when I drew a comic where c!dream died during torture. makes it more real to see it, I suppose?

ironically enough I think that the leg thing is the one part of the story that I'm almost entirely sure was Not inspired by KS, though now that you mentioned it, it probably was to an extent. I may have mentioned it before but a lot of the stuff around copacetic!Dream's legs was inspired by a Slovak novel Ťapákovci that we had to read in high school and I've seen a theatre play of with some really fucked up takes on the disability of one of the main characters

[mew-cake]

I had to make this before I slept

explanations under the cut

Literally the most compelling character in anything ever: all three of these windy boys have open ended stories and so many possibilities and it's like!! I want to see their story!! I want to see more!! Let me know!!

their character arc is p much been complete: Nahida's archon quest is legit one of the few times where after I played it, I felt I had a full understanding of her as a character and deity. Through the media we were given about her, we understand her story, her sorrow, and her determination to watch over Sumeru and be the archon they deserve.

Kazuha is just. So chill and cool. He was already really good as a character with the right amount of edge and enchantment but then the second golden apple archipelago?? how he was anxious about his family's decline? A look back at Kazuha at a different moment in his life?? we saw how he came to be the person he is today and that was dope as hell.

I love you deeply and you need more focus: Collei's full backstory hasn't been touched on much in the actual game. We don't need a whole recap of the webtoon but like. More than just a single conversation, ya know? Explore more about how she struggles with certain things due to her trauma. I also like to imagine that while her eleazar is cured, it still left her with some physical disabilities. Like, generally low stamina or a weaker immune system.

Albedo will just show up once a year and be like "yeah I'm a homunculus and also have an evil twin now and if I ever lose myself to the darkness can you kill me thanks buddy" LIKE!! I'M SORRY CAN YOU EXPAND A BIT MORE???? The connection with Durin pls??? ANYTHING??? WHERE'S SUBJECT 2???? AAAA?????

GIVE ME LORE GDI: Kaeya.............being from Khaenri'ah......will it ever be relevant in the main game......?? please I want to know ALSO can we see Diluc and Kaeya together more because even though in the letters from that one event it seems there's no bad blood between them it's still like?? come on let's see them as brothers. Diluc getting kaeya to stay for Adaline to cook for him tho. that was good. come on. resolve your trauma boys.

Same with Diluc like. Dude went on a one man man-hunt against the entire fatui. he is literally batman. i want to know more. can we see more plz??? with Lisa she is literally one of the strongest people alive and she's seen how the pursuit of knowledge drives people mad which is why she's just a librarian now. i want to know more about her because the KNOWLEDGE she probably has. heck man.

Tartaglia fell into the abyss when he was a child??? and that fucked him up completely and utterly??? he's also the only character with no light in his eyes which is??? PRETTY DAMN UNSUBTLE LIKE WOW

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE TRAVELER I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE

the potential....she is there...: Cyno literally has an actual spirit within him??? he just casually mentions that like excuse me you have a what now??? this man a walking yugioh reference jfc. Faruzen is legit from 100 years ago after having been locked in stasis and trapped in a tomb where she basically lost her mind. that's fucking harrowing.

Ganyu being half adeptus and having fought in the archon war like damn. I wanna know more. Yanfei is neat and I wanna know more about her adeptus dad. Zhongli has layers certainly but I would like his own personal emotions to be focused instead of just implied.

Qiqi is literally a zombie after dying thousands of years ago and I would like the story to awknowledge that. Razor is just tarzan with wolves and Bennett was abandoned on a mountain as a baby these are so interesting stories and we should??? learn more plz???

you don't need tragic backstory to be my beloved: my favs :3

just a guy: they're people alright

cool story but not personally into it: Shenhe's story is really beautiful and her struggle to adapt living with people is neat but I feel like it just sorta. came and went. like. her fighting against osial's wife was supposed to be her moment but it was just sorta. eh.

I Do Not Care About Eula Or Miko.

Ei!! I love her!! But wow the main archon quest didn't do her justice!! Her two personal quests were cool, and I liked seeing Ei open up and such but like. It was not very well handled also I still don't get why she made a whole ass puppet with a mind of it's own but whatever I guess.

Rosaria has cool bandit background. But also. eh. Jean's legacy is cool but I don't personally connect with it. Noelle is neat but she's just sorta there. Heizou is fun and I do like him but I'm not quite gripped with his dead friend story as I am with the other anemo pretty boys.

[agoraphobiclapine]

⚠️THIS BLOG WILL CONTAIN WEIGHT GAIN AND FEEDISM KINK/FETISH CONTENT. IF THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. UNFOLLOW. If you see your content reblogged here and want it removed, I will remove it⚠️

Skip to the next set of ⚠️ if you are purely interested in kink stuff

Sprinkled in will also be plenty of Peaky Blinders, Watership Down, and other things that bring me immense joy.

25 || He/Him || gay || trans || ace || Taken by the very handsome and amazing piggy @girthleng

My name is Xander, you can use it, my username, or Xan to refer to me. I am autistic and have other disabilities as well that I prefer not to disclose. This as well as my transness are NOT to be sexualized or fetishized please.

FAVORITE

• Shows: Peaky Blinders, Bob's Burgers, Money Heist, Stranger Things, Queens Gambit, Vikings, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Watership down.

• Movies: Watership down, anything Ghibli (fav is Nausicaa)

• Music: variety of stuff but right now IDLES, The White Stripes, Grandson, Black Pistol Fire. Big fan of Corpse Husband, Doja Cat, and Eminem. Also been listening to a lot of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee.

• Books: Watership Down (if you have not caught on Watership Down is my biggest autistic special interest)

• Videogames: Divinity: Original Sin 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, Slime Rancher, Rusty Lake/Cube Escape Games, Final Fantasy XIII, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

• Food: Sushi/Sashimi, especially if it is Salmon/Ikura/hotatekai, most seafood, Udon, Miso, Brussels sprouts, and anything involving fish paste. Ice cream is great, and so are vegan mini marshmallows (im not vegan, but I am allergic to gelatin)

• Animals: Otters, Rabbits, Frogs, Capybaras, Horses, Seahorses, and Poodles.

IF YOU ARE UNDER 20 I WILL NOT SPEAK TO YOU

⚠️kink stuff⚠️

- I am currently taken and not interested in teasing/talking to people about kink anymore UNLESS it is in the form of interacting with my art/writing. I will gladly talk to you about my characters. I am still interested in friends that may want to talk about kink in general (i.e. hear me gush about how cute it is that a certain guy stuffed himself silly at the buffet but then wanted ice cream himself after when I went through McDonald's to get an ice cream for the dog as a treat) but I will not be teasing/encouraging anyone but my very VERY amazing boyfriend

- I am autistic and often abrasive because of it. I require boundaries to be placed by both parties and to be respected. Communication should be clear and intentional. If it seems like something is flying over my head, it is. Be direct, please, because I will do the same.

- Not into being a feedee/gaining/mutual gaining. This is final. No joking about it, no negotiations. I love contrast. Let's keep it that way. If you disrespect this boundary, you will be blocked.

- I have a BS in animal science and wanted to be a farmer before my physical health declined. This being said, I have two decades of farm experience and love to bring that into kink talk. Let's just say I'm great at helping you grow.

- I want to get to know the people I talk to about kink. I'm not gonna just jump right into it. That doesn't appeal to me. I'm looking for friends and that is it. It won't break my heart if that isn't for you, but don't let it break yours when I don't reciprocate.

- open to role-playing as OCs or existing characters. I will only role-play MxM as I'm strictly attracted to other men. I'm more into the sensual side of things as an asexual person, and thus, extremely explicit content isn't something I will typically engage in. Talk to me about what we both expect and we will see. No mpreg. No death feedism. No long-term immobility. Not currently open to RP

- my transness is not to be the main topic of discussion in any way shape or form. I'm a dude. Treat me as such.