#and i do think there would be beauty and romance in rio killing her.

[warningsine]

Okay, I know AAA is Disney and that 1. it's not that deep, 2. the series is not gonna resolve the fight this way, but:

I love the idea of Rio bringing Agatha to the brink of death.

Agatha regains her powers and is formidable blah blah blah, but at the end of the day, she is no match for Death. At least, not in a physical fight. In a game of wits, she'd get out of it by manipulating and seducing Rio (episode 1, episode 4).

Think about it:

It's all fun and games (slitting Agatha's throat) until Agatha is threatened with a fate worse than death (staying with her mother). Then it's "No way!"

It's all fun and games (being a little shit with "Ugh, [your death] really warms the heart") until Agatha implies that Rio doesn't love her. Yes, Billy is the black heart and a part of Agatha's coven, but Rio is not lying when she says that her own black heart beats for Agatha.

When Agatha's mortal body is forced to stop giving as good as it gets, when she is uncharacteristically unresponsive to Rio's taunting, what fun is it anymore?

At that point, the realization sinks in:

immortality doesn't bring liberation but instead magnifies the existential burden of loneliness, the inability to connect with the mortal world.

Think of one of the questions "Interview With The Vampire" raises:

Is such an existence, devoid of genuine companionship, truly worth the gift of eternity?

Because who else would be unhinged enough, power hungry enough to fall in love with the personification of Death? To make her existence difficult yet meaningful?

Sure, many mortals find her human form appealing, but they also find her unnerving and intimidating. And, sure, Rio loves slipping into that persona: "the scary lady," "the psycho."

But no matter how much Agatha loves life, perhaps embracing death wouldn't be so bad after all. Perhaps, it would give her the opportunity to reunite with her son in the afterlife. (If that's how the Marvel afterlife works, I don't know.)

So who would be the true loser in the case of Agatha's death?

Lestat: Draining Louis after that fight vs. crying, "Did you hurt yourself?" and "She looked at me like a child looking at her father." Rio: Injuring Agatha's throat vs. licking her wound to heal it and "I did something I did not wanna do, even though it was my job."

[thenerdofthegroup]

I fear some of you don’t actually like Agatha and only want lesbians and Rio...

And if you do fine but don’t complain when a show about witches isn’t focusing fully on the romance. Every character needs to be explained and this episode was EXACTLY like WV episode 4. And received the same backlash. It needed to happen and the final dialogue between Agatha and Billy tells us such BEAUTIFUL things about Agatha. How a young child who survived and used their gift should never feel ashamed. She is telling him what she wished to hear and the tears in her eyes of remembering Billy and Wanda in the hex. Just beautiful storytelling and Kathryn’s acting

But ultimately, if there is nothing more than we have been given. I will be livid. Because that IS queerbaiting. To not give us a kiss or showing their backstory etc IS queerbaiting and it would be disgusting. BUT their relationship is the heartfelt whisper behind everything. Every small action, every look, every comment and smile and interaction is beautiful and heartfelt. BUT it is the storyline that will become prominent in the final trio of episodes. It will be and we will get a kiss.

I am personally furious the first kiss of the series about women is between two men. BUT their relationship was not integral to the story. Agatha and Rio’s are. Is that not more important? There will be more. Their relationship is for the latter three because the latter three is pure Agatha. Well Lilia next episode but Agatha is much more there

Anyway welcome back to quick thoughts about Episode 6

The Eastview and Westview flags in Billy’s room were in Agatha’s trial. WHY IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Jac I am calling you a liar and I don't care (I'm kidding Jac you are doing a great job thank you for every Agatha thing)

Lilia putting the sigil on him is SO GOOD. My personal theory is that she saw what would happen if Wanda found him. It would have ruined both of them. It could have been because that amount of power at that age may have hurt him but Agatha has constantly been kind to him. I think it was because she saw a bad future with Wanda finding him. Idk jury is out on this but it’s a fun thing to think about. Why?

RALPH’S EXPLANATION! GOOOOOOD this is the thing I keep trying to say. Ralph described it as absolute torture. People were literally asking Wanda to kill them over that. And that was less than two weeks. Agatha has been under it for THREE YEARS. AND I would point to ep 4 where the other two was screaming in pain to the curse and she was able to withstand it. Not only does it show the sadness that she has probably been through so much pain that she can withstand it even without magic BUT ALSO think about how much torture she has felt! She deserves to murder everyone around her. My bby

The outside perspective of the interrogation scene was wonderful. Absolutely hilarious. I think the director said to Kathryn ‘make him break’ and that was where they went

And it is just… again so sad to me. She was forced to make an utter fool of herself but people went along with it and helped her. Its so sweet but so heartbreaking. I love you Agatha

The running scene. She got a cramp because she hasn’t left the house for so long

Billy sits in a chair covered in moons

THE RESEARCH SCENE I LOVED IT I LOVEEEEEED IT. and also remember this is a secondary source. I love this in media. Agatha isn’t a succubus she is a siphon but because this wiki is most likely written by a creep they turn it sexual. I mean she could be but you always have to think about WHO wrote it. Just like the Jolene article. Kathryn probably didn't fuck Dolly Parton’s boyfriend but she did get slapped by her and they ran with it, just like a tabloid would. And ALL THE PHOTOS!!! AHHHHHH I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE PROPER RUN THROUGH OF HER LIFE

On the Jolene point I think it’s a fun easter egg because it’s like Agatha’s perspective of Wanda if the ‘lover’ was magic. Look at these lyrics:

I think Agatha is the singing perspective, Wanda is Jolene and the magic is their lover. It is favouring ‘the younger more perfect’ witch (Agatha is better than everyone don't even, I'm just saying from a jealousy perspective)

AGATHA SURVIVING THE MUD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHH

GONNA SCREAM SOME MORE AHHHHHH

The fact she is one of two witches who has NOTHING and yet still survives the death sentence (which isn’t a death sentence but shouldn’t be escapable) shows how utterly incredible she is. She is a survivor which brings me to my next love

THE DUALOGUE I FUCKING LOVED IT

Okay, originally I thought that she would be mad and angry. But this made so much more sense. Her unseriousness is her hiding her anger and annoyance. But fundamentally she is connected because she relates. Wanda was too late. She was fighting so hard and Agatha tried but Billy… he is a child. He is just like her. But was given a gift not a curse like Agatha. But still, Agatha prioritised surviving and living over anything else. And that is what Billy did: survived. And she respects that. So she tells him what SHE WANTED TO HEAR as a child!!! Its so beautiful!!! Honestly utterly beautiful and Kathryn acted her ass off. Fucking Goddess

And some people are going ‘uh she knew from the start. But why did-’ she lied. ‘Why did what Rio said hurt’- she lied. She had a suspicion at the start but as it went in she thought it was Nick. That shattered around Rio’s comment because Rio would know and Agatha trusts that. Agatha trusts her in those moments. But she did think he was nick then or at least her suspicion and hope tilted towards there which is what I think. She is already covered in mud and embarrassed. Of course she is going to go ‘yeah I always knew. Never had a doubt’. Media literacy is dead my god

AND THE WAY SHE TOUCHED HER BROOCH. That proves to me she did geneuinly have the hope that he was nick. At least in the moment she truly realised the tragedy that Wanda got her son back but she never will.

Her unseriousness. Sometimes a bby girl is a 350 year old serial killer witch

I love you Agatha

And remember this is Agatha’s show. But these character’s need to be fleshed out. But by their explanations we get a greater image of Agatha. But every relationship Agatha has is equally important. I want more romance but this was not the episode for it. The latter three will

[celestialholz]

Celestial Live-Reacts: STP 2.1, 'The Star Gazer'

(SPOILERS AHEAD, as you might imagine! Read down at your peril)

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- Uhm I'm sorry is this the opening to Ctrl+Alt+Del AND A Good Day to Die at the same time, HAVE YOU READ MY FICS CBS 👁👄👁

- This is a James Bond opening sequence

- He's so proud he knows Romulan, bless him ❤

- Oh, HE is dead! The more you know

- ... Yeahhhh, no. What *is* this romance nonsense? When has there EVER been anything between him and her?

- ... Awkward...

- Baby!card! 😍 All adventure and adorable

- "Why have you chosen to be alone?" "Idk queen not sure where my immortal husband's at rn"

- I love how English his mother is 😂❤ Really sticking with the theme there of being the most English French people ever. Also I love her and she's a girl boss 😍

- Earl grey, cold 🤣

- What *is* Laris talking about, that this has been building for a while? From WHERE exactly, pls explain

- THEY GAVE ELNOR A THING 🖖 Bless up, king ❤

- Hologram Rios! Seven! Beautiful folks everywhere 😍😍

- Is that the AGT phenomena?

- No synth ban; only progression

- Oh hey Agnes, it's once again hugely ambiguous to see you

- Soji's hangout is glorious, my god

- Rios is a captain again???? Like, an official one????? Bless him, he got over his shit 😍

- ... Anyone else forget that these two had sex?

- Sulu reference!

- 'Chancellor of the Academy', much wow

- "You two are so damn self-sufficient, happy to travel the stars..." 🤔🤔🤔

- Elnor has gone from confident young adult to overly tall child lmao

- "Live a little" 😂 I love him so much ❤

- Raffi/Picard friendship is gorgeous.

- Stargazer!

- 'Cigar in the captain's chair' is a VIBE 😍

- "Help us, Picard"????? ... Is that the fucking Continuum?

- BIG MOMMA G 😍 Welcome back Queeeeen ❤

- This bar music is a jam 😍

- "But you'll always be 'captain' to me" - amen ❤❤❤

- "With you pushing a century and me pushing several, I don't really think that at our age we should be reserving anything" 😂😂

- El-Aurians only age 'if they want to'? That's lore, kids

- Another beautiful male/female friendship! They can do it!

- "It's not as if I haven't loved before - I have, sometimes quite deeply." "But always with those that would only be temporary." "That's not entirely true -" "- So you'd never have to fear any of them taking root."

...

"The problem isn't time, it's you."

...

"You've been on your own for nearly a century - why, what's holding you back?"

Okay so a. this is hilariously Qcard and b. a beautiful character piece ❤ Fascinated by whatever this is alluding to, too?

- Oh hello, Admiral Great-Hair 😍

- ... Are you trying to tell me that the Q want in to the Federation, what in god's name

- Picard @ Laris: aight imma head out babe 🖖

- Borg stuff?

- IT'S THE BORG. OHHHH. Never mind my dumbass theories then... they want to join the Federation? Are they sick of getting their arse handed to them by Janeway?

- Nice bit of looping back to the beginning

- "We wish for peace", they say, walking in like the cyber fuckparty from my most vivid vodka nightmares

- Doc Ockto-borg????? That's a new take...

- Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

- "We're out of options" - swear Rios says exactly that in Ctrl+Alt+Del, and Picard definitely blew himself up for Tapestry Day... and I had a bloody countdown... just call me Benjamin mes amis, I'm a prophet out here

- "Noooon, je ne regrette rieeeeen" 😂 Come on slut, get in the damn frame already 😍

- That was quite the flash... bit pissed off, are we mon dieu? Of all the men in the universe to kill, they have to kill yours huh?

- WELCOME BACK SLUT 😍😍😍😍👁👄👁

- "Oh dear, you're a bit older than I imagined - let me catch up." HAHAHAHA yes! Absolute perfection ❤❤😂 He de-aged just to age, that is phenomenal, and exactly what I wanted - just making a mockery of the whole concept

- "You've been talking a lot about second chances - well, my friend, welcome to very end of the road. Not. Taken." ... Fucking HELL 😍❤👁👄👁

Dear. Sweet. God ABOVE. What a fucking start lads 😍

Celestial rating: 7/10.

Relationships out of nowhere, some great leaps of time more or less waved away though still mostly nice to see, but a deeply fucking compelling narrative, and those last fifteen minutes? Wow.

... I have high hopes, dears...

[insomniac-dot-ink]

Books I’ve Read in 2020

AHello! I’m trying to read as many books as I can during the quarantine, here’s what I’ve finished so far:

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (literary fiction): a son writes a letter about his life to his illiterate mother. Breathtakingly beautiful with it’s way with words this book is lovely and real in the hardest and sweetest ways. The author’s combination of prose and poetry is dazzling and intricate, this book has stuck with me for days afterward. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (fantasy): a money-lender gets in trouble after bragging she can turn silver into gold and is kidnapped and ordered to do so by a fey creature. It may be that I am the perfect audience for this type of book, but it’s my favorite thing I’ve read all year. It’s a book that equally takes on the fantastical and real-world with compelling female characters at the center of the whole thing. A wonderful fantasy journey inspired by eastern-European Jewish folklore. 5 out of 5 stars.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (horror graphic novel): a series of short horror comics. Absolutely bone-chilling! This was a really fun type of scary story, especially the last one which made my skin absolutely crawl. Deliciously eerie, this was treat to read if not a little too short. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (magical realism): a young girl can taste other people’s emotions in their cooking and begins to understand her family in new ways. This was a weird book, but it has everything you’ve got to love about that combination of the surreal and mundane. It’s sense of character was electrifying and I had fun engaging with this type of off-kilter real world. I was a little frustrated in parts bc of some characters choices, but that too was true to life. 4 out of 5 stars.

Crier’s War by Nina Varela (steampunk fantasy wlw): about a Made automaton heir to a throne and her human hand-maiden that is trying to kill her. This was an easy read with a lot of tension between the two main characters that I liked, but the writing itself was very weak. There was waaay too much exposition in parts and the dialogue had some really hockey lines. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the middle of the book, but the beginning and end didn’t have much movement. 2.5 stars out of 5.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn (historical fiction): honestly, I’m a little disappointed. This book just did not hit my sweet spots, it wasn’t fast-paced enough for me to get immersed in the plot, and the characters weren’t real enough to be wholly invested in them. That said I adored Nina Markova and the Night Witches, so that did help. 3 starts out of 5.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White (horror sci-fi retelling): HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND. A retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from the perspective of Victor Frankenstein’s wife and my God! The characters! The plot was well-enough, but the characters took the whole show for being complex and compelling. The main character was breathtakingly layered and I was wholly invested in Elizabeth and her story and the triumph at the end of this story was tangible. 4 out of 5 stars! 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (fantasy): A story of a young woman who lives in a valley where a girl must go live with a wizard for 10 years. She is certain she won’t be chosen, but ends up having to be “uprooted” herself. I enjoyed most of this book! However, I think I liked “Spinning Silver” a lot more just because the ending of this one somehow lost me. The characters were good and plot compelling, but (SPOILERS) the big battle at the end seemed to drag and didn’t interest me somehow. 3.8 out of 5 stars.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (fantasy): excellent read! A story of a young woman in Jazz Age Mexico who goes on an adventure with a Mayan death God who is trying to regain his throne. A romp across the country absolutely brimming with likable characters and fairy tale twists. My only complaint would be that most of it felt a little predictable due to the fact we knew where we were going throughout the whole story, However, it was still greatly enjoyable for the heroine herself, Casiopea. 4 out of 5 stars!

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (literary): a story of two families in a progressive “planned” community, how their lives intertwine, their secrets, and a central question surrounding motherhood. Deeply empathetic to its characters and introspective, this is an every-day story of people in suburbia that reads like a thriller. I could barely put it down and felt deeply for its characters and situations, 5 out of 5 stars!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power (YA sci-fi suspense): a story of a group of girls at a boarding school on an island affected by the “tox” which alters their bodies in strange ways like giving them scales or an extra spine. This was an eerie, interesting read with a wlw romance! Watch out for the body horror in this one, but it was very gripping and held my interest. Some of the pacing was off in places (like the romance), but had a very creepy atmosphere that did it for me. 3.8 out of 5 stars!

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (thriller-mystery): A thriller about a group of Shakespeare actors in their last year of college and one of their classmates who turns up dead. I enjoyed the murder mystery part of this novel more than I expected despite the fact I had guessed who had “done it” pretty early on. I really enjoyed the James-Oliver dynamic with its growing homoeroticism, but I didn’t like how the character of Meredith was handled at all. She felt like a one-note aside. I might have given this book four stars, but the ending was EXTREMELY frustrating for me and I did not like the “open-ended” conclusion. 3 out of 5 stars.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (literary humor): a weird character-driven comedy about an old grumpy man and a new family that moves in next to him. Warning for themes of suicide. Anyway, I don’t normally indulge in cliches like “I laughed, I cried, I loved one Cat Annoyance.” However, that’s exactly what I did. I laughed out loud, I cried my eyes out (THE CAT’S HEAD WAS IN HIS PALM), I loved this book. It was sweet and compelling and thoroughly immersive. 5 out of 5 stars!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (historical fantasy): set in the early 1900s comes a story of a young girl and her experience with “Doors” that lead to different worlds. This book had a lot of great character development and really interesting descriptions, however, I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to. I found it hard to get myself to sit down a read it. There was just something missing with the push to “page-turn,” but it was still a really good book. 3.7 out of 5 stars!

Gideon the 9th by Tamsyn Muir (high fantasy, kinda gay): I AM FILLED WITH EMOTIONS. This was book was definitely a page-turner. I was very confused with it at the beginning, but the characters and their interactions were, forgive the expression, the life blood of the story and kept me wholly invested. The ending has CRUSHED my heart, but damn did I have a good time reading it. 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Harrow the 9th by Tamsyn Muir (sequel to Gideon the 9th): I really enjoyed this book. It was just as strange and twisting as the first book, though I think I enjoyed the first one a bit more since I love Gideon. It was fun ride overall, though the ending was kind of really confusing. So 4 out of 5 stars.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (historical fiction): Overall, I really enjoyed this book! The writing style was personable and grounded in reality. I found myself really liking the main characters and the exploration of the life of a bi main character was really well done I thought. A solid book with drama and glamor to boot. 4.6 out of 5 stars!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (historical fiction): A story of two sisters during WWII and their resistance to Nazi occupation. To be honest, this book wasn’t my cup of tea. It was compelling, but also wholly depressing and I felt like gloried in the pain of the two main characters too much. The history was wonderful and realistic, but it didn’t make me feel anything good afterward. It was just dark. 3 out of 5 stars.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (mlm romance): I finally finished this after the heaviness of The Nightingale. This is a story of the First Son of the USA falling for the prince of England. And it turned out to be a very fun and light hearted read! Some of it was kinda generic and too political, and it coulda been shorter, but I thought the romance itself made up for it. It just made me feel so sweet and lovely inside. 4 out of 5 stars!

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (literary humor): I’m searching out heartfelt books and this one ticked off all the marks on my “sweet” list. A lovely book that made me cry more times than I would like to admit. Compassionate beyond belief, funny and heartfelt. I think I enjoyed A Man Called Ove slightly more, but this book was also dear to me and something I hope to reread in the future. 4.2 out of 5 stars!

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (sci-fi): A post-apocalyptical story about a group of traveling Shakespeare actors and a symphony. Overall, an excellent read that somehow pictures a more realistic or even softer version of the apocalypse. At first, I wasn't happy with the jumping around of the story, but as I progressed I grew fonder and fonder of the interwoven characters and their journey. A very fascinating read about a world that hits a little too close to home. The appreciation of the arts and preserving humanity was somehow very hopeful and I was fully engaged with this story. 5 out of 5 Stars!

Up next: The Hidden Life of Trees by by Peter Wohlleben (nonfiction science), The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (urban fantasy), The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (fantasy)

[ga-yuu]

My opinions on Ikemen Prince Characters...

Leon

He’s okay. Nothing so much special. Just a milder version of Masamune and more energetic Napoleon. Other than that I don’t find him that much special. Also his route is okay. The ending made me scratch my head a little. That’s all I can say about him.

Yves

Yves is cute. I love how he’s always unlucky. He’s the tsundere character and although I have seen a lot of those type, I still can’t get enough. I think I’m the only one who thinks this way but Yves reminds of Barbie dolls. His blue eyes and blonde hair makes him look like a barbie doll not a prince. Also his room is pink and elegant. Also I love how he always changes from a tsundere to a doting brother when he talks about Licht. He has the most beautiful smile according to me.

Licht

Licht for me is like a robot. When heard Licht’s voice, he sounded like a robot. Also his clothes looks like its made of steel. Like the buttons on his jacket looks like screws for some odd reason. So Licht is the depressed guy of this game. I haven’t played his route because for some reason nothing was encouraging me to play his route. But other than that I like Licht little more than Nokto.

Nokto

The fox of this game. But I’ll be honest, I love Mitsuhide and Tamamo more than this guy if I had to compare fox characters. Nokto is the flirt and polar opposite of his brother. I love Nokto’s voice actor though and that’s the only thing I love about this character. I only played halfway through his route and stopped playing for some reason. I have no idea why I leave the routes halfway, maybe because I find it boring or maybe because I’m not interested on going further because I don’t feel any kind of emotions at all.

Jin

Jin Jin Jin....where do I even start with this one. I’m a person who is obsessed with older men so taking that in mind, I should be liking this character. But that’s not the case. I FREAKING HATE Jin very much. I feel like he’s a showoff. Whenever I see him, I always cringe. He’s like ikesen Shingen’s clone for some reason. But Shingen is funny and always compliments Mai-chan which is also funny. When he says those generic pick up lines I kind of chuckle because they don’t work on Mai-chan because she is from the 21st century. Jin is just AAGHH!! This happens when he talks about boobs and stuff. It just kills my mood when I eagerly progress through the story and suddenly out of nowhere this guy shows up. Also, why doesn’t he button up his shirt? I know it is obviously for fanservice and that’s another reason why I don’t like him. I know he is also the big brother and all, but I don’t want a big brother who talks about boobs and walking shirtless around desperately to look like a daddy. Rather I would like to have a brother who is matured and occasionally spoil me. This makes me think, what makes a man ‘daddy’? 

 Chevalier

Chevalier, according to me is somewhat of the normal and much more relatable character. I love him because of how intelligent and practical he is. He doesn’t care about how people see him and always works for his country to make it a better place. Cheva’s route was the first one I’ve played till the end, and it was not that bad because he and Clavis was the only thing best about the route. I love how he calls everyone nicknames and also his obsession with romantic novels. I sometimes wonder if I give him novels like Twilight and 50 shades of grey, will he read them too? Also if he is present in this era, will he be watching romantic k-dramas? Who knows? Maybe he will.

Cheva also has the best chemistry with Clavis than any other characters (including Emma), where Clavis is always teasing him and Cheva is like “......”. Cheva is much more better daddy than Jin.

Clavis

I FREAKING LOVE HIM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!! According to me, he’s the best thing about this entire game. I’m just waiting for this guy to come home so can slowly take my time and enjoy his story to the fullest. If someone asks me the reason for my liking this guy, I would say ‘IDK.’ Seriously, I have no idea why I like this guy so much and I have also seen other players liking him so much. I only re-installed this game for playing this guy’s route. So cybird, I won’t be telling you to release his route quickly. I want the writers to take their time and come up with a better storyline for him. Don’t ruin him please!!! Because the recent routes were not that great for me. So take your time, and write a good story. I’ll wait as much as you want only for this guy.

Luke

Luke is my 3rd favorite character after Clavis and Cheva, because I think he’s a very good person. He’s the right person to talk to when you’re feeling down. Also his obsession with honey. Hehe....I love that about him. He’s quite unique. I don’t know much about him about he’s the kind of character that I won’t hate no matter what. Such a calming personality.

Sariel

Okay. So is it just me or almost all the male character with glasses in otome games are portrayed as a sadistic devil who likes to punish MC by whipping her ass. Because of how much otome games I have seen and played, these type of characters always has a whip in their hands. Well there are exceptions like Sasuke in ikesen. So since its so common, when I saw Sariel for the first time, I expected him to be the same and I was not wrong. So, I just don’t find anything interesting about him. Just another glasses character to fill the sadistic slot in the game.

Rio

This man is soooooooooooo annoying sometimes. Other times he’s okay. I know he’s Emma friend and always follows her like a little puppy wanting for affection but he’s just so annoying when he starts to talk good things about Emma. He just never shuts up. No matter how many times he is friend-zoned by Emma he never gives up. I feel bad, at the same time annoyed. Whenever he starts praising Emma, I’ll be having the same expression as Sariel and tells him to shut up. That’s all.

Bonus:

Emma (MC)

This list is not complete without Emma of course. Emma is like a boring version of MC from ikevamp. She is portrayed as this kind and innocent young lady with the most purest heart in the entire town. But for me, she is this dumb woman who lives in her own fairytale world and once she started learning the reality, she’s all scared. Sometime she’s bearable but other time she’s just boring. I love brave MCs who fights her fears and stands up on her own, rather than a dull one, who is just there for the sake of romance and fanservice. Seriously she makes some of the routes even more boring to play. Good things about her is just that she’s kind person and that’s all. I wish I could say she is fierce but sadly she’s not. If I get to play very badass MC or MCs who have much more than being kind like a tsundere MC, won’t mind the story even if it’s too blunt. Playing like that would make me happy than being called dumb or stupid by male characters.

[breanime]

Bre’s Prompt List for the Follow-Up Follower Event

For my Follow-Up Follower event!

So I made another milestone with my follower count--thank you all so much! I’m still not ready to open up full on requests, BUT I wanted to do a little event for you all. Please read all the way if you’re going to be sending in requests.

For this event, I’ll be taking doing drabble prequels or sequels to other oneshots and drabbles I’ve written in the past for the following characters ONLY (click each name for the link to that character’s masterlist):

Rio

Angel Reyes

EZ Reyes

Miguel Galindo

Coco Cruz

Tommy Shelby

Jax Teller

Please don’t send in more than 3 requests total, so that I don’t get overwhelmed :)

Fluff/Romance

“I love you, you know that?”

“That’s my girl/man!”

“I’d do anything for you.”

“I’m with you, no matter what”

“I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you.”

“You’re mine.”

“He can look, but if he tries to touch I’ll break his fingers.”

“You changed my life.”

“I want this forever.”

“Why are you staring at me like that?” “Because you’re beautiful.”

“I’m gonna make you this happy everyday for the rest of my life.”

“I’m gonna marry you some day.”

“When I look at you, I feel calm.”

“You think I would do this for just anybody?”

“If I don’t kiss you, I might die.”

“I’ve always loved you.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love, and then I met you.”

“Hell yeah, I’d kill for you.”

“You know I can’t say no to you when you make that face…”

“I love waking up next to you.”

Angst

“I hate you!”

“Who did this?”

“I never should have kissed you.”

“Don’t look at me like that!”

“I don’t even know you anymore.”

“You, by far, are the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“He’s/she’s dying.”

“I never loved you.”

“It was just one time–it didn’t mean anything!”

“So this is it? We’re over?”

“If you see him/her again, we’re done.”

“Please don’t leave me.”

“I told you not to fall in love with me.”

“Please don’t cry.”

Smut

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Fuck, you feel so good.”

“I need to be inside you. Right now.”

“Missed you so bad, baby.”

“Take your clothes off.”

“Let’s see how much I can make you cum.”

“Aw, baby, are you crying?”

“Please, don’t stop.”

“I fucking love fucking you.”

“Why are you wearing clothes?”

“I wanna feel you cum.”

“Does he fuck you like this? Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

“I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”

“This ass is mine.”

“Uh uh, don’t run. Take it, baby. There you go.”

Bonus

“I’m pregnant.”

“We should move in together.”

“Why did you punch him/her?!” “Why does anyone do anything?”

“I’m never too busy for you.”

“Let’s get married. Today. Now.”

“I saw you with him/her.”

“How much did that cost?”

“Who else have you said that to?”

“I want another one.”

“You drive me insane.”

[sou-ver-2-0]

Maybe I'm thinking too much about the Persona games today, but are there any characters that you would pair any tarot arcana with?

What a fun question! I think that tarot cards have like, the coolest aesthetic ever. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about tarot arcana, so I went on a deep dive into Wikipedia to try to understand it. I’ll apologize in advance that A. E. Waith’s definitions for these cards feel very heteronormative. I’m working with the traditional definitions, but I try to make them work for a modern story.

Here are the character-card combinations I came up with:

0 – The Fool: Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. [If the card is] Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

Joe Tazuna

Joe Tazuna is our gaudy, “extravagant” fool! The fool represents the “everyman,” and is often the “protagonist of the story” in Major Arcana. Joe, who is good-natured and clumsy, has the type of personality you’d expect to see in a story’s protagonist. Ironically, he is one of the first to die. His “absence” is deeply felt by our real protagonist, Sara, who must go on the “Fool’s Journey” “through the great mysteries of life and the main human archetypes” without him.

1 – The Magician: Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; [it signifies] the Querent, if male. Reversed: Physician, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.

Reko Yabusame

Reko is our “skilled,” “confident,” strong-willed musician magician! (And she often uses masculine pronouns, so why not give her a masculine card?) Reko has also suffered through “pain, loss, and disaster,” which has shaped her current mature, kind personality. And in the past, she was a “disgraced” rebellious rock star who burned through bands.

2 – The High Priestess: Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.

Tia Safalin and Maple

This card made me think of both villainous ladies. Tia Safalin has knowledge of science, while Maple seems to also have mysterious wisdom about human nature and the future.

3 – The Empress: Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unraveling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

Sara Chidouin

The Empress can only be our Sara! The girl who takes “initiative” and becomes the group’s leader! She seeks to bring “light” and “truth” to discussions, and she “unravels mysteries.” And yet, she also suffers from “doubt” in herself, and “ignorance” of her surroundings.

4 – The Emperor: Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction also authority and will. Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

Mr. Chidouin

We don’t know much about Mr. Chidouin, and I do not trust him one bit. However, he seemed to be a suitable companion to his “Empress” daughter. Kai Satou certainly thought he was “a great” and “benevolent” person, though he has an “immature” way of speaking.

5 – The Hierophant: Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy, and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over kindness, weakness.

Kai Satou

The words “servitude” and “captivity” suit our homemaker Kai, who always lived in service to others—either Asu-Naro or the Chidouins. Kai is a “good” man, but he is also shown to be one of the “weakest” participants since he dies early on.

6 – The Lovers: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds.

Nao Egokoro

I know that Nao’s story doesn’t have much romance in it, but I liked the duality of “trials overcome” combined with “failure” and “foolish designs” for our poor, brave Nao. She is a girl who grew a lot, and her heart was overflowing with love for her new friends, but in the end she was doomed to failure with the Sacrifice Card.

7 – The Chariot: Succour, providence; also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble. Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.

Alice Yabusame

So many aggressive words in that description made me think of our “Murderer,” Alice! Alice was “triumphant” in his last fight with Original Sou, but he can be “defeated” by Rio Ranger.

8 or 11 – Justice: Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law. Reversed: Law in all its departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

Keiji

Of course I had to give “Justice” to everyone’s favorite self-proclaimed policeman, Keiji! Keiji lays down the law in our group, and don’t we all hope he’ll favor the “deserving side” instead of showing “excessive severity.”

9 – The Hermit: Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy fear, unreasoned caution.

Rio Ranger

“The Hermit” feels like a strange card to give to our childish doll villain, but I liked the descriptive words associated with “corruption” and “policy fear.” Rio Ranger commits “treason” by directly killing a participant, and he also “conceals and disguises” himself with masks and other people’s clothes.

10 – Wheel of Fortune: Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

Sue Miley

Sue Miley is the villain who introduces us to our destiny with the Practice Vote and the First Main Game. She sadistically wishes everyone “luck.”

8 or 11 – Strength: Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours. Reversed: Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.

Q-Taro

Q-Taro suits “strength” perfectly! His character arc is all about learning what true strength is. He begins the game from a place of cowardice and selfishness, but he becomes courageous and honorable.

12 – The Hanged Man: Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.

Shin Tsukimi

How could my favorite doomed antagonist have any other card but “The Hanged Man”? Shin is cursed from the beginning of the game with a “prophecy” that he will die. He relies on “intuition” more often than logic and he can be very “selfish,” but he is also “wise” enough to want to protect the most vulnerable among them, leading to his “sacrifice.”

13 – Death: End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.

Ranmaru Kageyama

I liked the card “death” for our main dummy Ranmaru, who has died and transformed. The words associated with “sleep” and “lethargy” also reminded me of his final moments, where he commented that death felt like going to sleep.

14 – Temperance: Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.

Kazumi Mishima

“Temperance” sounded like a good card for a wise character who lives in “moderation.” Mishima was cursed with an “unfortunate combination” of votes in the Practice Vote.

15 – The Devil: Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil. Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.

Original Sou Hiyori

“The Devil” is the most perfect card for my favorite villain! He is “violent” and goes to “extraordinary efforts” to manipulate the participants, but he has also suffered a “fatality.” I thought the phrase “predestined but is not for this reason evil” was especially intriguing for Original Sou, since I often wonder how much free will he could exercise within Asu-Naro.

16 – The Tower: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

Gashu Satou

Gashu brings a terrible “unforeseen catastrophe” in the Second Main Game, when he would rather kill himself then give our characters a chance to escape! He is undoubtedly the best character for “The Tower.”

17 – The Star: Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says--hope bright prospects, Reversed: Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.

Kanna Kizuchi

Kanna has suffered “loss” and she may be “abandoned” by the people she loves. However, her survival also brings “hope” and “bright prospects” in spite of the Death Game’s cruelty.

18 – The Moon: Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

The Dummies

The words related to “hidden enemies” in the “darkness” reminded me of our dummies, who are tasked with killing the human participants.

19 – The Sun: This card is generally considered positive. It is said to reflect happiness and contentment, vitality, self-confidence and success. Sometimes referred to as the best card in Tarot, it represents good things and positive outcomes to current struggles.

Gin Ibushi

Gin Ibushi is a light in our lives who brings Sara emotional comfort! In spite of having no tokens to defend himself in trades, nobody sent him the Sacrifice Card, which is a wonderful thing.

20 – Judgment: Judgement, Rebirth, Inner-calling, Absolution, Karma, Causality, Second chance

The Man from the Memorandum

The Man from the Memorandum, the winner of the Previous Death Game, seems to be the Mastermind of a new Death Game and is calling for a “second chance” for the High School Girl to survive. He pronounces judgment on every victim.

(It’s entirely possible that the Man from the Memorandum is Mr. Chidouin himself, which would make my distinguishing between them silly in hindsight! For now, I’ll assume they’re different people.)

21 – The World: Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The 17-Year-Old School Girl

Is 15.5% enough to “assure the success” of the High School Girl? Is that enough to “change her place” from dying in the First Death Game? Or will she be “permanently” dead? The entire “world” of the Death Game seems to hinge on this critical role!

[trek-tracks]

Thoughts on Picard S1

I’m glad to have been able to watch Picard. Stewart’s great. I’m happy the show exists. The Troi-Rikers, Hugh, and Seven were wonderful to see. As a caveat, a) my expectations were sky-high, and b) I wound up watching it online with people who liked to snark, and two or three of them were serious haters, so this perhaps coloured my watching experience.

I just...I wanted to care more.

I like the new characters enough, and Elnor in particular is very sweet, but I still don't know enough about them because the show had no room to breathe.  We needed more silly/serious, in-between episodes to develop the characters, when it's not just trying to serve an overarching giant plot. A lot of the character development (Jurati and Maddox, Rios and his captain) felt like it existed mainly because it could move the plot along, which leads to a tighter season, but a somewhat emptier one. We did get “filler,” but it was filler where characters repeated things we already knew to other characters, so the filler was mostly plot-based, not character-based.

The problem with doing that, especially when we have a small number of characters that are known quantities, is that we SO disproportionately care about the TNG/VOY characters that the others seem like...not filler, but distractions from those we really care about. I’ve talked about this before in my review of a TOS book, which had a one-off romance character attached to one of the Triumvirate. We tend not to care about those romances much, focusing on the friendships that have been built up over years. This isn’t because the new character is bad, but because of the Character Fondness Power Differential (a term I made up).

(serious spoilers below the cut)

That’s why the scene with Picard agreeing to shut Data off hits right in the gut, because we care about these characters equally, and we care about their pain equally.

It’s not that we don’t care about Raffi, Rios, Agnes…it’s that we care SO much about Picard, that when he dies (and we pretty much know that, with Picard Season 2 greenlit, we can’t fully give over to grief because something’s going to happen to cause him to be able to participate) we’re focusing on our own grief, not the grief of these characters who are still pretty new in our hearts. (Okay, Babey Elnor crying was pretty sad.) Why do they get to have the grief, we wonder, since we feel we’ve known him longer than they have? It’s like having the UberEats guy give your aunt’s eulogy because she ordered in a lot in her last month.

I did feel those big feelings I was looking for in the episode with the Troi-Rikers, and when Picard and "Data" were interacting (I really enjoyed Nepenthe, and Kestra, and I’ve made my peace with all that added semi-necessary angst). Seeing Riker in the Captain’s chair was awesome, though we really could have used a “Riker sit” of him getting into it. 

Despite the beauty of Picard and Data’s final conversation, though, I really don't think we needed to experience Data's death again, "but for real this time." It's like, it already hurts! He was already dead! It was emotional, and sweet, and fine, but ouch. I know Spiner doesn't want to play him anymore, which I absolutely get and appreciate, but it sort of felt like stomping on the fans so nobody would ask him to do it again. I still love Data forever. I kind of wish he’d gotten to talk to Hugh or Elnor. There was no scene of Elnor getting to meet Spot II. I wanted to riot.

I’m glad they didn’t fridge her, but it was less than impressive that nobody even mentions Bev, Picard's best friend and confidante on the Enterprise - not even Troi, Bev’s other best friend. Yes, that could have easily changed over decades, but I’d like to know why - I can’t tell if they’re saving her for next season, or if they just really don’t care about her, and I’m scared it’s the latter. I did, for a moment, think that if they really were going to kill Picard, technically in at least one future there’s a Captain Beverly Picard…so she could have taken over and the title would still work.

I do like what they did with Seven, and I’m thankful they gave her a complex role and are letting her be happy enough. Her grief over Icheb felt real; it hurt less for me, due to his actor’s phenomenal crappiness, but man, did it have to be so graphic? The brief second of a budding Seven and Raffi romance was cool - wlw Seven! To build up to that, they could really have showed them together grieving first, rather than splitting them up for those scenes. That way, they could have at least one more interaction that would support a flirtation. (It still makes more fucking sense than Seven and Chakotay.) It’s great that we got such a range of female characters, and (almost) none of them died to create manpain. (Sorry, Dahj. Alas.) 

However, killing Hugh, the show’s ray of hope, was a really cheap shot for shock value; I spent at least two episodes hoping that he would be brought back, somehow. They seem to have developed something potentially meaningful between him and Elnor, both patron saints of lost causes, but it seems like 90% of those scenes hit the cutting room floor, so it was unclear what was going on in the finished product, and how and why they bonded. Hugh was the hope of rebuilding, and I feel like he was meaninglessly sacrificed for evil when he could have been used symbolically for good. Even if his story in relation to Picard ends in Season 1 - let him continue his work. Because that’s what Star Trek is all about, right? Continuing the Great Work. Seven, Hugh and Elnor could have been the most adorable family. Raffi could come too. 

The Romulans seemed to backslide into more cartoonish villains, when the show could have been used for development and depth. The Romulannister incest overtones were unpleasant. What the hell happened to Narek at the end of the last episode? The writers just seemed to forget about him. Is he still on Coppelius (I still can’t get over that symbolic name, and “A.I” Soong)? Did they let him go on a ship? Is he in jail? Did they let him wander off, because they forgot he existed? Did he start a new career as a Disco Spock impersonator? We also didn’t see Narissa’s body, so who knows if she’ll be back again. If she comes back instead of Hugh…sigh.

It will be interesting to see how they deal with Picard as a synth. I hope that they don’t just totally let it fade into the background, treating it as a “first season problem” solution, and actually give it practical or philosophical implications. (Someone in my chat, seeing Picard and Data in the “quantum simulation,” said that it looked like we were about to get a Trek version of The Good Place, and I was so into that idea I almost gasped.) 

In short, I had a bunch of issues with the season, I’m still feeling warm overall, and looking forward to boldly going into season two - but maybe at a slower pace. Warp 2 instead of Warp 9?

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEEKEND MARCH 8, 2019 – CAPTAIN MARVEL!!!

 This is a big weekend for Marvel Studios, as they release their first superhero movie with a female protagonist -- not counting Elektra (thanks for the laugh, Max Evry!) -- and the question is not whether it will make $100 million this weekend but how much MORE than $100 million it will be making this weekend. But that’s a question to be answered over at my gig at The Beat and it will be answered in about an hour...

CAPTAIN MARVEL (Marvel Studios/Disney)

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar, Mississippi Grind) Written by Boden, Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Annette Bening, Gemma Chan, McKenna Grace, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg MPAA Rating: PG-13

I’m not sure how much more I have to say about the latest Marvel movie after writing about it extensively for The Beat. (You are reading my Box Office Preview there for all the stuff you used to read in this column about the wide releases, right?)

I am greatly looking forward to seeing this on Thursday night for a number of reasons and none of them are due to “old white man hater” Brie Larson, who I used to have respect for until she decided to attack me and my livelihood and ability to get work.

That said, I’ve been waiting for directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to break out and do a big studio movie for many years, as I’ve been a fan of theirs since Half Nelson and have spoken to them a number of times including one of my favorites of theirs, the road trip movie Mississippi Grind, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn, who played a much nicer and more sympathetic role in that then he has portraying the villain in many studio movies since then.

I’m also looking forward to Captain Marvel since it introduces to the MCU the idea of the alien races, the Kree and the Skrulls, who have played such a large part in some of my favorite Marvel Comics storylines, including the “Kree-Skrull War” from The Avengers, which certainly could be something being set up in the MCU. I also loved the Skrulls as Fantastic Four villains, and here’s hoping that with the new Disney-Fox merger, we might actually see a GOOD Fantastic Four movie one of these days (or a crossover with Avengers even!)

Anyway, we’ll see whether I feel like writing a review for this on Friday after seeing it on Thursday night, but it’s really tough to be fair and impartial when the star of a movie has already gone out of her way to write you off, due to your gender, race and age.

More importantly, let’s get to some…

LIMITED RELEASES

One of the best movie out this weekend is Oscar-winning Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio’s new movie GLORIA BELL (A24), starring Julianne Moore. A remake of his 2013 Spanish language film Gloria, the filmmaker behind A Fantastic Woman makes his English language debut with Moore playing the title character, a lonely older woman dealing with family issues who goes out dancing on Friday nights in hoping of meeting men. On one such night she meets John Turturro’s Arnold, and the two of them fall into a romance that runs into issues when he finally meets her kids and ex-husband (Brad Garrett).  Although I never did see Gloria, I was pretty blown away by how Lelio told this story, and Moore gives one of the best performances of her career – YES, MUCH better than her Oscar-winning turn in Still Alice. I know that A24 brought the movie to TIFF last year, but for whatever reason, they decided to hold it until March… just like Brie Larson’s Free Fire, ironically enough. Personally, I think Moore has a real chance at another Oscar nomination, but having a movie released so early in the year will make it tough, sadly. I was really able to relate to this movie more than I thought I would but mainly to Turturro’s character.

Another film worth seeking out is Vincent D’Onofrio’s second film as a director, the Western THE KID (Lionsgate), as in “Billy the Kid,” played by Dane DeHaan. The “kid” in the title is also teenager Rio, played by Jake Schur, who is on the run with his sister (Leila George) trying to get away from their abusive uncle (played by Chris Pratt!) Along the way, they meet Billy the Kid, as well as Sheriff Pat Garrett, who has been sent to capture and try Billy.  It’s opening in 250 theaters on Friday, so it won’t be too hard to find, and I’d love to say more wonderful things about it, but I’ve been embargoed. I hope to have an interview with D’Onofrio soon over on The Beat!

Another film worth seeking out is 3 FACES (Kino Lorber), the new film from Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Offside), who has been banned from making films in his home country but continues to find a way to make films anyway. This one received an award for Best Screenplay at Cannes last year and has played Toronto and New York Film Festivals before opening at the IFC Centeron Friday. Panahi also stars in this drama along with Iranian actor Behnaz Jafari, as they go on a road trip to help a girl whose family has forbidden her from attending a drama school in Tehran, encountering various people along the way. The film continues Panahi’s exploration of combining his personal life with dramatic storytelling in the real world, which I haven’t really enjoyed as much as his straight dramas.

Opening at Metrograph is Black Mother (Grasshopper Films), the new cinema verité doc from filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah (Field Niggas), which combines portraits of denizens of Jamaica shot on 16mm and HD with audio recordings of them talking about life in Jamaica. It’s a really beautiful film, and this is from someone who generally doesn’t care for cinema verité docs, but this really is a compelling film that’s worth seeing.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons stars in his wife Michelle Schumacher’s second film I’m Not Here (Gravitas Ventures) playing Steve, as a lonely man who is haunted by memories of his past locked into the objects and sounds around his house. The film also stars Sebastian Stan, Mandy Moore, Max Greenfield, David Koechner and Harold Perrineau, and it opens at New York’s Village East, Los Angele’s Laemmle Monica and in other select cities this Friday. (Simmons and Schumacher will be at the Laemmle for a QnA on Sunday evening.)

Opening at New York’s Quad Cinema Friday is Giacomo Durzi’s doc Ferrante Fever (Greenwich) about novelist Elena Ferrante, who has made waves both in Italy and in America, thanks to a few independent publishers.

Gabrielle Brady’s directorial debut Island of the Hungry Ghosts, winner of Best Documentary at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, will open at Astoria’s Museum of the Moving Image. It focuses on the residents of Christmas Island off the coast of Indonesia where asylum seekers are held in a high-security detention center and counseled by trauma therapist Poh Lin Lee.

Since I haven’t had a chance to see JC (All Is Lost, Margin Call) Chandor’s new movie Triple Frontier, starring Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal (Narcos) as Special Forces operatives planning a South American heist, I don’t have much to say about it, although I’m sold based on the premise alone. It’s opening In New York and L.A. on Wednesday in single theaters in both places (Sorry, Steven Spielberg!) but it will stream on Netflix a week later on March 13. Maybe I’ll write more about it next week. Maybe not.

Opening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center is the late Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still (KimStim) which played at New Directors/New Films in 2018.  It involves a teenager who accidentally injures a bully and interacts with various people who are dealing with their own burdens. Actor Zhang Yu will be making appearances before and after screenings including a reception before the 6:30pm screening on Friday.

This week’s Bollywood offering is Sujoy Ghosh’s BADLA (Reliance Entertainment), starring Taapsee Pannu as a young entrepreneur who is locked in a hotel room with the body of her deadl lover, so she calls upon a prestigious lawyer (Bollywood vet Amitabh Bachchan) to figure out how she ended up in that predicament.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Ringo Lam X3 continues through the weekend, while Raul Peck X2continues with a screening of Murder in Pacot  (2014) on Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  is Fassbinder’s Love is Cooler than Death (1969), and the weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is 1982’s The Last Unicorn, an animated film from Rankin and Bass that was co-created by the Japanese anime studio Topcraft, who went on to form Studio Ghibli – you’ve probably heard of them. The voice cast includes Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury and Christopher Lee, and it’s probably a bit of a lost classic.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday is the Billy Dee Williams cop double feature The Take  (1974) and Nighthawks (1981), and then on Friday and Saturday, the Bev double features One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  (1975) and Arthur Hiller’s The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) (a movie I’ve never even heard of!). Sunday and Monday’s double feature is two Paul Wendkos films, The Case Against Brooklyn and Tarawa Beachhead, both from 1958. On Saturday and Sunday, the Kiddee Matinee is the Australian horse movie Phar Lap  (1983) while the midnight offerings this weekend are Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Friday and The Groove Tubeon Saturday. Grindhouse Tuesday is back with the “Bruce Li” double feature of Soul Brothers of Kung Fu  (1977) and The Image of Bruce Lee  (1978), movies made after Bruce Lee’s death.  (If I lived in L.A., this is where I would be on Tuesday night.) The high school comedy classic Clueless (1995) will screen on Tuesday, as well.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Starting this weekend, the Greenwich Village theater presents a new 4k restoration of Jack Clayton’s 1959 film Room at the Top, which won Oscars for screenplay and actress Simone Signoret and was nominated for Picture, Director, Actor and Supporting Actress (for Hermione Baddeley’s 2.5 minute appearance in the film). It’s about a working-class guy who sets his sights on the daughter of the boss.The weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is Joe Dante’s 1993 film Matinee, starring John Goodman. Also, author David Thomson will present a screening of Joseph Losey’s 1963 film The Servant on Sunday.

MOMA (NYC):

New month, new Modern Matinees series and for the next two months, it’s a doozy with Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall, showcasing the fabulous filmography of Oscar-nominated actor Laure Bacall. This week, they’re screening the 1954 film Woman’s Worldon Wednesday, Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946) on Thursday and 1947’s Dark Passages on Friday. (Note that most of these movies will be rescreened later in the series in case you miss them this week.) Also this week is the series William Fox Presents More Restorations and Rediscoveries from the Fox Film Corporation, which features lots of movie from the ‘20s and ‘30s, many of them accompanied with live piano. Wednesday is Hangman’s House from 1928 and 1920’s Just Palsand Friday is 1929’s The Cock-Eyed World and Me and My Gal (1932), and there’s more on Saturday, Sunday and next week.  This is a busy time for MOMA as they’re also presenting Carte Blanche: Mariette Rissenbeek on German Women Cinematographers, which mostly features films from the last 15 years but many which never have received U.S. theatrical releases.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA)

Big weekend for Albert Finney fans as Albert Finney Remembered presents a few fantastic double features including Two for the Road  (1967) and Alan Parker’s Shoot the Moon (1982) on Thursday, the Coens’ Miller’s Crossing  (1990) and John Huston’s Under the Volcano  (1984) on Friday and Tom Jones (1963) and Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003) on Sunday. The Egyptian’s big event for the weekend is the 7-movie day-long Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi Movie Marathonon Saturday, which will include Frankenstein, Dracula but some lesser-seen classics like The Raven (1935) and more. If I lived in L.A., this is where I would be on Saturday.

AERO  (LA):

The AERO continues its Hitchcock, Truffaut and Jones series with double features Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much  (1956) and Truffaut’s 1968 film The Bride Wore Black (which I’ve actually seen fairly recently!) on Friday, and Rear Window  (1954)and Mississippi Mermaid (1969) on Saturday. The theater will also have an all-day screening of Sergey Bondarchuk’s 7-hour epic adaptation of War and Peace  (1967) in four parts with two brief intermissions.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad’s still a month away from its 2-year restoration anniversary, but they’re reshowing Bertrand Blier’s Going Places and Luis Bunuel’s Tristana this coming weekend. The former is also part of Amour or Less: A Blier Buffet, a retrospective of the French filmmaker who I’m not even remotely familiar with. (Sorry!) They’re showing eight of Blier’s films before the new 40thanniversary restoration of his 1978 film Get Out Your Hankerchiefs opens on Friday, March 15.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

While Weekend Classics: Early Godard  seems to be taking a weekend off, Waverly Midnights: The Feds  is screening the Wayan Brothers’ White Girls (2004) in a 35mm print! Late Night Favorites takes a break from showing Ridley Scott’s Alien (which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month!) to show David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977).

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Premiering at BAM on Friday (as well as the Laemmle Glendale in L.A.) is the U.S. premiere of a restoration of Franco Rocco’s 1980 film Babylon, which was banned from the New York Film Festival and never released in the United States. Written by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia), it stars Brinsley Forde from reggae group Aswad as a dancehall DJ who fights again racism and xenophobia in Thatcher-era London.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

See It Big! Costumes by Edith Head concludes this weekend with screenings of Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964).

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

The Nuart’s Friday midnight screening is George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition (2015).

STREAMING AND CABLE

Season 1 of Ricky Gervais’ new series After Life will debut on  Netflix starting Friday, but there are also a few new movies including Clark Johnson’s Juanita, starring Alfre Woodard as the mother of three who goes on a trip to Montana, plus there’s Conor Allyn’s Walk. Ride. Rodeo., an inspirational drama that tells the true story of Amberley Snyder, played by Spencer Locke from the Resident Evil series, a 19-year-old rodeo rider who barely survives a car crash that leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. So yeah, Netflix is even trying to sidetrack Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel rerelease with other female-led films just like they’re going to try to derail Warners’ Shazam! with Brie Larson’s directorial debut Unicorn Store next month. The struggle continues.

Now available for digital download is Joe Eddy’s Steve McQueen biopic Chasing Bullitt (Vertical), starring Andre Brooks as the legendary actor who in 1971 makes a deal with his agent to let him choose his next acting gig if he finds his Ford Mustang GT 390 from Bullitt. Also available digitally is Dallas King’s action-thriller Kiss Kiss (Cleopatra Entertainment) that follows four strippers who go to a wine tasting that turns into a female fight night. I didn’t make this movie up, but apparently, it’s counter-programming to Captain Marvel.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

On Thursday, the Museum of the Moving Image is presenting the 6thannual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival with two programs of short films. Also on Thursday, the IFC Center will kick off Canada Now 2019 with Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky’s new doc Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, another globe-crossing from the duo behind Manufactured Landscapes. There will also be other Canadian films that have played in various film festivals north of the border.

Oh, yeah, also South by Southwest is happening in Austin, but I’m not going, so…

That’s it for this week. Next week, Captain Marvel will probably be #1 again, but there are a few other movies hoping at least for second place.

[thran-duils]

May 2017 Reads

I AM GOING TO DO THIS EVERY MONTH TO SHARE WHAT BOOKS I HAVE READ (OR ABANDONED) IN MY 50 BOOK CHALLENGE FOR THE YEAR. AND I’LL ADD BOOKS I’M STILL READING THAT I’M SURE I’LL FINISH BY THE END OF THE CURRENT MONTH.

MY READ COUNT THIS MONTH: 13 ABANDONED THIS MONTH: 4 IN PROGRESS: 2 2017 COUNT: 41

JANUARY 2017 || FEBRUARY 2017 || MARCH 2017 || APRIL 2017 || MAY 2017 || June 2017

In progress from last month...

The Paper Magician

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal.Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined.  Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic. An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure.

Author: Charlie N. Holmberg

Genre: Teen, Sci-Fi

Rating: ★  ★  ★  ☆  ☆

NEW

I Don’t Like Koala

What’s not to love about a cute, cuddly...creepy toy koala? This is the story of a boy and the stuffed animal he just can’t seem to shake. Adam does not like Koala. Koala is a little creepy. Adam tries explaining this to his parents. He tries putting Koala away—far away. He tries taking Koala on a long, long walk. Nothing works. Will Adam ever be rid of Koala? Author: Sean Ferrell Genre: Picture book (more adult humor) Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

Finding Home

A remarkable story of survival. The creators of A MOTHER'S JOURNEY and LITTLE LOST BAT, Sandra Markle and Alan Marks team up again to chronicle the challenges faced by a mother koala: protecting herself and her joey from a raging bushfire, and finding food and a new home after their home range is destroyed. Based on a true story.

Author: Sandra Markle

Genre: Picture book

Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

Deadpool: Annihilation

Deadpool has now become fixated on achieving the one thing that's always been beyond his reach-death. Not an easy thing for an unkillable man to achieve, but that's not gonna stop him from trying. But first, he must figure out the all-important question: How? What in the world can kill Deadpool? It has to be big. It has to be powerful beyond description. It has to be...green?

Author: Daniel Way

Genre: Graphic Novel

Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

One Punch Man

One blow heresy! A hero "Saitama" which is too strong, knocks down any evil monster with one punch. Legend opening of the strongest heroes in the world!

Author: ONE

Genre: Manga, Humorous Manga

Rating:  ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

The Incredible Journey

Instinct told them that the way home lay to the west. And so the doughty young Labrador retriever, the roguish bull terrier and the indomitable Siamese set out through the Canadian wilderness. Separately, they would soon have died. But, together, the three house pets faced starvation, exposure, and wild forest animals to make their way home to the family they love.

Author: Sheila Burnford

Genre: Young Reader, Fiction

Rating:  ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

Batman: Arkham City

Video game tie-in reveals real motivation behind Mayor Sharp's plans for the new criminal walled-in city -- insane psychiatrist Hugo Strange with drugs and hypnotism angers good soldiers into rabid anti-Bat Tyger private force. Emaciated Joker, obese Penguin, scrawny Riddler, bulky Bane, and mostly Two-Face with exposed side of blood sinew and bone.

Author: Paul Dini

Genre: Graphic Novel

Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

If We Were Villains

Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no further than the books in front of our faces.On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. 

Author: M.L. Rio

Genre: Fiction, Suspense

Rating: ★  ★  ★  ★  ★  

Assassination Classroom (#1)

A gunshot meeting the classroom with the command! Yuigaoka Junior High School E group is an assassination school where all the students aim for their non-human teacher's life. Life of target and assassin begin...

Author: Yusei Matsui

Genre: Manga, Humor Manga

Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

Girl In Pieces

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At 17, she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.

Author: Kathryn Glasgow

Genre: Teen, Fiction

Rating: ★  ★  ★  ★  ★  

Smoke

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Author: Ellen Hopkins 

Genre: Teen, Fiction

Rating: ★  ★  ★  ☆  ☆

Assassination Classroom (#2)

A beautiful foreign language teacher is newly assigned to E group. Her true identity is a fierce killer who approached the target with her good looks and skillful talking! Preparation for  assassination of Koro-Sensei steadily progresses...

Author: Yusei Matsui

Genre: Manga, Humor Manga

Rating: ★  ★  ★   ★  ☆

Everneath

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Author: Brodi Ashton

Genre: Teen, Romance, Fantasy

Rating:  ★  ☆  ☆  ☆  ☆

The Girls of Atomic City

The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.

Author: Denise Kiernan

Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Rating: IN PROGRESS

Sweetbitter

"Let's say I was born when I came over the George Washington Bridge..." This is how we meet unforgettable Tess, the 22 year old at the heart of this novel. Shot from a mundane, provincial past, she's come to NYC to look for a life she can't define, except as a burning drive to become someone. After she stumbles into a coveted job at a renowned Union Square restaurant, we spend the year with her as she learns the chaotic, punishing, privileged life of a "backwaiter," on duty and off.

Author: Stephanie Danler

Genre: Fiction

Rating: IN PROGRESS

Prudence

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances - names it the Spotted Custard and floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea. But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves.

Author: Gail Carriger

Genre: Sci-Fi, Steampunk

Reason abandoned: The writing was just... awful.

Given to the Sea

Khosa was born to be fed to the sea, to prevent the kind of wave that once destroyed the Kingdom of Stille. She can’t be sacrificed until she produces an heir, but human touch repulses her…except for the touch of the Indiri. Dara and Donil are the last of the Indiri, a native race with magic that’s seductive—a force of nature—but dwindling since the Pietra slaughtered their people. Witt leads the Pietra, the fierce warriors who are now marching on the Kingdom of Stille. The stone shores of Witt’s kingdom harbor a secret threat, and to ensure the survival of his people, he’s prepared to conquer every speck of Stille’s soil.

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Genre: Teen, Fantasy

Reason abandoned: This story was going N O W H E R E fast. And the plot was so disorganized, I couldn’t handle it.

A Study in Charlotte

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

Author: Brittany Cavallaro

Genre: Teen, Fiction

Reason abandoned: Again, bad writing.

Geekerella

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.

Author: Ashley Poston

Genre: Teen, Fiction

Reason abandoned: I CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW MUCH I DISLIKED ELLE. SHE IS SERIOUSLY THE PERSON OR TYPE OF PERSON I AVOID IN A FANDOM. So pretentious and annoying, oh my god. Insufferable is a good word to describe her.

~~~

Tags: @jamiemelyn 

[kaedekayano]

001; Kanzaki and Kayano. 002: Gakushuu Asano

oh boy i’m abt to get so excited and emotional fuck adkaldjahdhdjsd

kanzaki/kayano

when I started shipping it if I did: i don’t remember tbh. i always lowkey shipped it haha, but i don’t think i really realised it until @wassailtofivehundred was like !! yukikae !! and also i saw cute fanart and i rewatched a couple episodes (kyoto trip ehh) and i was like, fuck i really ship this. also a lot of it was b/c around december (the time i published be your own hero) i started liking kayano a lot more and then that made me salty bc nagisa/kayano was so poorly written and an injustice to her character. she deserved a person who she had actual chemistry with, and i think kanzaki is definitely that person (or one of them).

my thoughts: pure!! good!! beautiful and amazing!! i love it!! so much!! i’m working on a v v long yukikae kayano-POV fic right now and i’m excited to show it to y’all b/c i have trouble expressing how much/why i love characters/ships until i have a fic to support it, haha. but anyway i think kanzaki is really good for kayano b/c she’s so understanding and caring, and kayano is good for kanzaki because — look they just care so much abt each other okay they’re so Good.

What makes me happy about them: so good. so pure. so beautiful. they’re just healthy for each other and i love the idea of kayano’s best friend supporting her through all the shit she’s gone through because fuck, man, kayano’s mom and sister are dead, the only “friends” she had, she built her friendship on a lie, the teacher she tried to kill and then turned out not to be guilty is dead anyway (bye bye, purpose that kept her going for a year despite all her issues), the person she was for a year was a lie but — not all of it, okay, deep down kaede kayano/akari yukimura is still a good caring person and kanzaki knows it even if she did lie and the two of them supporting each other and I just — yeah

What makes me sad about them: i’m always full of salt about kayano so :/ i don’t like it when people don’t acknowledge the kayano arc happened/kayano’s real personality is very different from the one she pretended to be/she lied to the class for a year? yeah matsui just decided to forget about it and sideline her because he’s a shit writer and what the fuck is continuity, but that doesn’t mean you should follow his example. so it’d be great to see those issues acknowledged!! give me kanzaki understanding kayano did fucked-up things and is a messy person who was not the kind, cheerful, sweet girl she pretended to be and loving her anyway!! (acknowledge and justify the kayano arc for why it happened without throwing logic out the window, and i’ll personally send you a thank-you card)

things done in fanfic that annoys me: there are two fics on ao3 for yukikae, lol (i’m planning to remedy this because inexcusable!!). one is kayano third wheeling karmagisa w/ like 5 lines of actual yukikae (no offense to the author, the fic is fine, it’s just Not Yukikae). the other is green’s fic and admittedly there isn’t a lot of overtly romantic yukikae but it’s a really good fic and there’s good worldbuilding and concepts and y’all should read it

things I look for in fanfic: having it exist. that’s what i’m looking for. that being said, see above rant, because while there aren’t many fics about kanzaki (beautiful daughter pls love her more), there is plenty of fic about kayano and it is almost never accurate. it makes me sad. accurate, well-done characterization is what i Live for

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: both of them, okuda. as previously mentioned, kanzaki, maybe yada? for kaede, rio, also yada, maybe kataoka (it’s mentioned kayano admires her and i don’t think that was a lie, akari seems like the type of girl who recognises and respects strength and competence in people). um. the 3-E girls are all good in general haha, the only person i can think of off the top of my head i’d say no to is okano with kanzaki because okano dislikes her and kanzaki is uncomfortable with that, so. :/ although seeing them work past it (and okano getting past her own insecurities regarding her femininity) would be cool, so even then, i can’t say Absolutely Never. just not nagisa/kayano pls

My happily ever after for them: sometime in their mid/late-20s, they move into an apartment together and own lots of books and cute stationery and various trinkets. also a cat. maybe other pets, like a hamster or a dog. kayano is a successful actress all over again but keeps her relationship with kanzaki not secret but lowkey. kanzaki is away from her parents and likes her job and reads a lot of books. their friends come visit them pretty frequently and the neighbors think they’re adorable. they’re happy.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: omg fuck i suck at this kind of thing. i think kayano would be the big spoon and kanzaki the little spoon but i don’t think they’d mind switching

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: um theyre fond of reading and decorating things (apartment they move into together) and baking and taking walks together. probably taking walks with the dog tbh. that was like 4 i dont know sorry im still in the developing stages of headcanons for these two ive only been highkey invested in this ship for like a month and a half okay

gakushuu asano

How I feel about this character: today i started thinking about him completely out of the blue, with no prompting, and then i sat down and wrote 4 pages in my notebook about an AU where ikeda doesn’t die and gakuhou remains a good dad. last sentence is “in another world, gakushuu asano is healthy and happy and okay.” this is pretty much how i am all day every day i love this child so much he’s just. i see a lot of myself in him (hes relatable okay) and he’s so amazing and brilliant and full of curiosity and potential and i!!! love!!! him!!!! i want him to be happy so much!!! i love him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

All the people I ship romantically with this character: karma (obviously haha), um. fuck. im really fond of renshuu (like really fond) but i usually ship it as ren having a one-sided crush on gakushuu that eventually concludes in ren realising shuu’s crushing unattainability (also i hc gakushuu as ace arospec and he’s kinda ehhh abt romance in general. projecting? me? yeah) and dealing with it and they become really really good best friends even tho it makes ren’s heart hurt a lil bit but mostly its okay. fuck i had a fic abt this i started months ago that i never finished i gotta do that but yeah i envision the virtuosos’ dynamic as being very very complicated in general. oh yeah i cant believe i said i ship karma/gakushuu only once in this post so far so anyway i ship karushuu i love karushuu karushuu is love karushuu is life

My non-romantic OTP for this character: the virtuosos of course its not like i wrote like 1k+ of meta on this hahahaha also gakushuu/isogai, gakushuu/kataoka (why cant we see his respect for her acknowledged as well i know isogai gets his own ep and all but kataoka is still important and is also a class rep :/), gakushuu/nagisa a little bit (i used to be super into it and i still kinda like it), i actually really like the idea of platonic!karushuu because those two are cute boyfriends but working their way from enemies to rivals with grudging respect for each other to best friends?? it’s good

My unpopular opinion about this character: he and karma are not the same person or quite frankly anywhere close to it. there’s lots of parallels they’re good narrative foils but seeing people act like gakushuu is just a recoloured karma makes me sad. pls no my son is so complex and wonderful and different pls pls understand this he’s not just karma akabane with orange hair he’s his own character and such a good one

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: he goes to MIT and is separated from his father’s awful awful toxic influence and lives a happy brilliant successful life and is emotionally okay. i mean it’s not non-canon hahaha but seeing it onscreen would’ve been cool. we can assume that happens anyway tho b/c it’s gakushuu. uhh seeing him interact with his mom onscreen (or like, seeing his mom at all) would’ve been really cool!!! for who i imagine his mom as, i pretty much just think of @cosmicyue‘s hideko asano headcanon :)

my OTP: karushuu obviously. ohh man i love these two nerds so fucking much okay. they hate each other so so much but they also have this respect for each other alright if i start talking about why i ship karushuu (something ive actually never done on this blog bc i dont want people to think im trying to push karushuu on everyone ajdkakdkajsh; theres hardly a shortage of karushuu shippers around) then im gonna b here all day and this is already really long. ill shut up

my cross over ship: none i dont rlly think about AC in relation to other fandoms tbh

a headcanon fact: i have so many. fuck. um one of my favorites (ive mentioned it before but) is that the asanos are both fluent in 3+ languages and they talk shit about people they look down on in those languages when they’re around those people, just to make people uncomfortable.

send me a ship, a character, or five characters

[onesandzcros]

new romantics

Blaise had never been a big believer in romance. He was wired in ways from a young age that made him think that romance itself was a waste of time, just a way to tie a heart painfully in knots. It meant that he did really well at keeping his distance emotionally, and perhaps in a number of ways, that was very predictable. Walden certainly thought so, based on the patterns that he followed ever since Walden got out of jail. “Why don’t you find a nice girl, Blaise?” had at first been the tentative question. Blaise had merely quirked an eyebrow in return. “What nice girl would look twice at me, Wal? Besides, we don’t stay in one city long enough to form any attachments. It’s just you, me, and the road. Don’t make something of it that it ain’t. I do just fine on my own.” He’d drawled out the words with the kind of insolence that usually annoyed his stepfather considerably, but this time, Walden had simply frowned again. “It’s not healthy to go through life without getting attached sometimes,” the older man had continued doggedly.

A smile had reached Blaise’s lips then, sharp as a knife. “Good thing I’m not looking for healthy then, isn’t it?” He’d wandered out of the door that night to find trouble or let it find him the way he always did, annoyed by the way that the words had lodged in his brain. He knew that Walden cared, but that was the point, wasn’t it? Of course the other man thought Blaise deserved things he probably didn’t. Of course he thought that love was worthwhile, when the absence of his mother taught him the exact reverse. Walden’s heart was bigger than his was ever going to be. His was a steel trap by contrast, not easy for anyone to get to any more.

He’d operated under that illusion for a very long time: that the only thing that mattered was them. Then he became Havana, and suddenly, it wasn’t just them any more. It was a group of renegades with skills so finely tuned to the job that they were doing that it became an obsession over the five months that they spent together. There could have been casual glances in the direction of the others, speculative, wondering if any of them was the type of person to get attached to. But from the outset, Blaise had established that even sex tended to complicate that sort of thing. He wasn’t going to go there. There was a heist ahead of him, and then the rest of his life to do whatever the hell he wanted with all of the money he could possibly want. That was the perk of breaking into the Royal Mint of Spain, after all.

He never expected to have his world turned upside down while he was on the job. Never expected to suddenly notice a pair of pretty brown eyes and soft brown hair, but more than that, how they were illuminated by the kind of raw intelligence and bravery that people would kill for. The frightening part was that it was also the kind of bravery that people got killed for.

Theodore Nott. That was the man’s name. The Mint director’s assistant. Funny how four short syllables suddenly sounded like magic. And they couldn’t, because he would never see Theo again after the heist was over. They would go their separate ways, Theo to continue on with his life and probably with whatever he had going with someone else, and Blaise to carve a new life in some other country, hidden from the eyes that would be looking for every single member of the heist.

Then why did something in the man’s eyes beseech him, persuade him into keeping him alive and ignoring the orders that Blaise had been given before entering the Mint? In the span of minutes, Blaise broke multiple rules, and still felt like the lesser person for it. A better person would have lied outright for Theodore and returned him to the other hostages without a word said. A better person would have answered the challenge in those eyes and stood up to it. Instead, he’d faltered, because no one had ever expected him to be the better man and he wasn’t able to start now.

As the hours and days of the heist moved along, one thing in those days was consistent for Blaise: that the most contentment he could find was when it was time for his steps to go towards the vaults. He’d told the others it was to get some sleep, and sometimes he did that. Most of the time, though, it was to take food and water to Theo, to watch how the cold light inside the vault (cold light, chilling metal, thin blankets and weary eyes) framed his face. It was when he first that thought that Blaise started to realise he was in trouble. Pretty had never been enough to do it for him; maybe enough to draw his attention, but not enough to keep it. What made him want to stay, dangerously so, was the way that Theodore talked; the expression of his interests, the way he never seemed to look at Blaise like he was a monster, and the urge to take down the man who had treated him like garbage. God, but Blaise couldn’t stand Amos Diggory, when he’d had something this precious and treated it so carelessly, so badly. But then again, Blaise had been no better. He might be keeping Theodore alive, but that was the bare minimum. He was no better than Amos.

For the first time, Blaise had the direct proof that anything that resembled love was the weakness he’d always thought it was, because he refused to let anything to happen to Theodore Nott. He wasn’t a big believer in romance, and that was a good thing, because nothing about their situation was romantic. He kept lying. He kept shielding him, right up until the moment that Walden found out and everything went to hell from the moment that they were trying to figure out proof of life.

Berlin’s expression had been completely blank at first, unimpressed and empty. That had been the precise second that Blaise had known he was in deep shit, because when Berlin looked like that, she was running the kind of calculations that usually ended badly for the person on the receiving end. He wanted to be wrong, but there was a resignation that had set into his bones from the moment that Walden and Rio had gone to retrieve Theodore from the vault. He’d remained silent in that moment, knowing that drawing more attention would be fatal. He could almost see Berlin measuring all of it in her head: if she had Blaise shot, Walden wouldn’t cooperate. If she didn’t do something, she’d be rewarding disobedience of the rules that had been set to keep them all alive and ensure the success of the heist.

In a sense, what Berlin was going to do next was predictable. And it was going to hurt.

Helsinki and Oslo did the honours. Not enough to break anything, because they couldn’t afford to do that, but enough that he would take days to heal, enough that Blaise’s darker skin still showed patches of purple and red, flowering out in bruises, a split lip that stung. He hadn’t been in a condition to walk unassisted once they were done, and they hadn’t been gentle: they’d thrown him in a room on Berlin’s instructions and left him there.

What’s going to happen to him? had been Blaise’s last conscious thought before his mind tried to protect him from the pain and give him some relief. It was a blank, formless drifting for a while after that, nothing to hold onto.

He wanted to set the entire place on fire when he realised they’d sent Theodore to see the results. It was a humiliating spectacle, and this, this was Berlin’s real lesson. The beating had just been what she saw as necessity to retain respect in the eyes of the team. What she was reminding him of was far more personal. Don’t get attached, because it isn’t going to last. Eyes on the prize. Romance is dead anyway.

None of that mattered when Blaise saw Theo, unharmed, and his thoughts then were absurd, right out of shitty romance novels. Run away with me when I leave here. I’ll give you anything you want. Forget Amos, forget this mundane life. I want the world with you. That made him wonder just how hard Helsinki and Oslo had actually punched him in the face. When he was met with the same contrast of softness and steel in Theo’s face that had drawn him from the first moment, the gentle efficiency of fingers smoothing healing salve into his skin, it had drawn a confession from him that he’d never thought himself capable of giving.

Blaise had figured out by now that falling in love hurt just as much as his body could when it was injured. It was like a wound, a constant ache there in his chest from how he watched Theo. It was like hunger in the pit of his stomach, like a cold night sleeping in Walden’s car on the road, unforgiving and without compromise. It was looking at someone beautiful who didn’t know their worth, knowing that he would carry this with him for good, no matter whether the heist succeeded or not.

The first time that they kissed didn’t hurt that way at all. It was everything that every kiss he’d ever had before it wasn’t. Even with the remnants of bruises, Blaise felt like he could breathe for the first time in years.

Maybe romance wasn’t completely useless.

[drink-n-watch]

Genre : Supernatural, drama, thriller, horror, psychological, romance 

Length:  2h 1 minute

Studio: ufotable

  This is the story of a girl with a dream that was unbearably beautiful. A dream so bright that it blinded her and so pretty that it hurt. A dream that made her so happy that she was frightened and tried to kill it. And when she found that she couldn’t, she was lost. This is also the story of two boys with the same impossible dreams. One boy is calm and strong. He holds his impossible dream close to his heart, refusing to give up, and walks a world bathed in light with quiet dignity. He knows the sacrifices he will have to make for his dream. One boy is tense and feeble. He sees no other option but to lash out at a dream beyond his reach and crumbles under the weight of disappointment. He walks in shadows letting his fragility destroy everything in his path. He’s too scared of sacrifice so he turns to slaughter. This is a story of how dreams can be ruthless and tender at the same time.

You know what, for contrast, let’s see how MAL describes this movie: In February 1999, a string of murders has Shiki Ryougi and Mikiya Kokutou on edge. These crimes share a disturbing resemblance to a similar set of homicides from 1995, when Shiki and Mikiya first met, and awaken a dark, murderous desire that has laid dormant within Shiki’s soul ever since then.

With Shiki under suspicion due to her involvement in the past killings and supposed resemblance to the killer, she and Mikiya set out to find the true perpetrator. In the midst of their separate investigations, Mikiya grows increasingly concerned with Shiki’s well-being and hurries to find the one responsible in order to protect Shiki from her own impulses. With the lead he receives from his cousin, police investigator Daisuke Akimi, Mikiya is led into the underbelly of Mifune City, as the salvation of Shiki’s soul lies in his determination to prove her innocence once and for all. My Anime List

I’m going to say, MAL’s description is better. Certainly, more helpful. Call me crazy though, but I think mine is more accurate. Let me explain:

when you forget to take your contacts out before bed

I was certainly looking forward to this movie. Of the 7 the Garden of Sinners movies I have seen so far, Chapter 2 (the first half of the present story), and the two movies leading up to this one, have been my favourites. The bar was set fairly high.

If you’ve read my previous reviews, you know that I am enamoured with the production of these movies. Not so much the technical mastery, although the studio is quite proficient, but the way that the production elements are weaved into the narrative to enhance and even add to the story in nontraditional ways.

Even though the story itself is often a stark and brutal story filled with pain and angst, it is delivered to us in creative and even playful ways that remain interesting even when they don’t work out quite as planned. What’s more, every movie innovates on this and tries out new things. This aspect of the production has earned my respect for the studio and I will be on the lookout for their future projects. (Yes, I am watching Demon Slayer).

god job U F O table

In the Garden of Sinners Chapter 7 ……not nothing heart. (Murder Speculation Part B) (this title is gonna pad out, my word count!) the director started playing with camera angles, rather than framing or colours to set the mood, especially on Mikiya. As a fairly impassive and calm character, his emotions can’t be properly conveyed through dialogue alone so the camera pans out above making him seem small and showing us how scared or helpless he may feel in a situation or shifts slightly below to emphasize his resolve. It goes left and right visually communicating his uncertainty. The effect is subtler than in past movies but works well on a visceral level.

To go with the figurative themes of light and darkness that play out through the story, there is also very literal use of shadows. Not only is the movie just plain dark for a lot of the runtime, but character movement is also frequently shown through their shadows or throw the shadows that pass over them.

I also realized for the first time that Shiki may be colour coded. Throughout the movies, Shiki wears a blue kimono which she very occasionally accessorizes with a red moto jacket, except for events that happen before the murders of 1995. We know that when she was younger, she used to wear both her traditional blue kimono as well as a striking red one. She even had a yellow one which she wore on a single particular occasion. I could be wrong, but I think Shiki wears a blue kimono while SHIKI wears the red one. The jacket is a way for Shiki to remember her “lost brother” and she wears it on occasions when she needs to channel that part of herself. As for the yellow, it’s in the one scene when SHIKI and Mikiya connect on a friendly basis with Shiki in the background.

This last paragraph got really confusing, didn’t it? That’s ok, it’s on par with the rest of the movie.

this is going to get complicated

If you were to strip all the artifice away from the movie and simply explain it as a string of events, you would realize that it’s a little shallow. Technically, it’s more or less a crime thriller with a drug subplot that simply not developed enough to be interesting. The motivations of the antagonist are flimsy, and the mystery is not set up well enough to be intriguing and solved too easily to be satisfying. On a text level, it’s kind of subpar. And this is more or less true for a lot of the Garden of Sinners movies.

That’s because the real story is all in subtext. The big topics that go through the franchise were always identity, r the search and acceptance for one’s true nature and how you can reconcile with yourself in order to live with others. And this is essentially the culmination of Shiki’s great existential quest. In Rio, she’s finally forced to face herself (in more ways than one, this is not what I meant when I said the best enemy for Shiki is herself…) and decide who she wants to be. I have to admit, this movie didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Not that I really knew what those expectations were but somehow I wanted it to be something else.

For one, it was too long. When my mind starts to seriously wander during the bloody climax, that’s just not a good sign. All and all, a good half hour could have been trimmed off this movie. Second, this may just be my personal bias, but the strong romantic b plot was fairly uninteresting. Although both characters are pleasant and it’s easy to root for their relationship, it was presented in such a repetitive way that I got over it by the midpoint. In a way, it felt like the sprawling tale of deep existential angst that took seven movies to unfold, was trying so hard to become a gritty modern epic that it lost track of itself a bit and simply couldn’t find a way to properly wrap up.

shush you, it’s mostly your fault

SPOILERS – SPOILERS  BIG SPOILERS AHEAD

I’m not sure if this was as intended (it felt like a reshoot to me), but the Garden of Sinners Chapter 7 ……not nothing heart. (Murder Speculation Part B) couldn’t stick the bummer ending. Instead, we got a borderline Deus ex machina everyone we like is ok ending with an abrupt tonal shift towards Disney level happily ever after and the end of the credits. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but somehow failed to properly med with the lead-up and ended up feeling like a bit of a cop-out to me.

END OF THE SPOILERS _ EVERYTHING IS OK NOW

This said there was still a lot to enjoy but it was by no means my favourite movie and had I seen it first, I may not have watched the rest. There were a couple of fantastic lines of dialogue though. At one point Touko has a speech about the Dignity of Murder as opposed to the Debasement of Slaughter which I enjoyed a lot. Also, Mikiya says this to Shiki over the phone: (I’m roughly paraphrasing here) “People like different things, you just happen to like murder…” Great conversation starter!

no the Garden of Sinners pst is complete without Touko

Favorite character: Still Touko. We see her young in a picture again. Rrrrawwwrrr

What this anime taught me: Shiki is still in school???!!!??? How????

It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.

Suggested drink: Happy Ending

Every time we see a newscast – take a sip

Every time anything is falling from the sky – take a sip

Every time we see an answering machine… wait, you guys probably don’t know what that is. OK, so before voicemail there were these machines with tapes….ok so tapes were….

Every time a megane is not wearing their glasses – take a sip

Every time we see drugs – get some munchies

Every time we see a blood splatter – get some water

Every time anyone gets stabby staby – take a sip

 I’m doing an informal survey, I’m going to ask in a few posts, do you enjoy a large number of screencaps? If so, do you prefer them on the post or on another site and is Pinterest better than Imgur? This time I’m going to do as usual an put a few here and the rest on the other two sites.

  The Garden of Sinners Chapter 7 ……not nothing heart. (Murder Speculation Part B) Genre : Supernatural, drama, thriller, horror, psychological, romance  Length:  2h 1 minute Studio: ufotable   This is the story of a girl with a dream that was unbearably beautiful.

[breanime]

Bre’s Prompts List

I made a prompt list! Please only send a max of 3 prompts in your requests, and include the prompt, character, and any little details you’d like to be included in the drabble to my ask box. Please don’t send in more than 3 requests total, so that I don’t get overwhelmed :)

Fluff/Romance

“I love you, you know that?”

“That’s my girl/man!”

“I’d do anything for you.”

“I’m with you, no matter what”

“I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you.”

“You’re mine.”

“He can look, but if he tries to touch I’ll break his fingers.”

“You changed my life.”

“I want this forever.”

“Why are you staring at me like that?” “Because you’re beautiful.”

“I’m gonna make you this happy everyday for the rest of my life.”

“I’m gonna marry you some day.”

“When I look at you, I feel calm.”

“You think I would do this for just anybody?”

“If I don’t kiss you, I might die.”

“I’ve always loved you.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love, and then I met you.”

“Hell yeah, I’d kill for you.”

“You know I can’t say no to you when you make that face...”

“I love waking up next to you.”

Angst

“I hate you!”

“Who did this?”

“I never should have kissed you.”

“Don’t look at me like that!” 

“I don’t even know you anymore.”

“You, by far, are the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“He’s/she’s dying.”

“I never loved you.”

“It was just one time--it didn’t mean anything!”

“So this is it? We’re over?”

“If you see him/her again, we’re done.”

“Please don’t leave me.”

“I told you not to fall in love with me.”

“Please don’t cry.”

Smut

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Fuck, you feel so good.”

“I need to be inside you. Right now.”

“Missed you so bad, baby.”

“Take your clothes off.”

“Let’s see how much I can make you cum.”

“Aw, baby, are you crying?”

“Please, don’t stop.”

“I fucking love fucking you.”

“Why are you wearing clothes?”

“I wanna feel you cum.”

“Does he fuck you like this? Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

“I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”

“This ass is mine.”

“Uh uh, don’t run. Take it, baby. There you go.”

Bonus

“I’m pregnant.”

“We should move in together.”

“Why did you punch him/her?!” “Why does anyone do anything?”

“I’m never too busy for you.”

“Let’s get married. Today. Now.”

“I saw you with him/her.”

“How much did that cost?”

“Who else have you said that to?”

“I want another one.”

“You drive me insane.”

I’ll be writing for these characters ONLY:

Billy Russo

Logan Delos

Caspian X

Sirius Black/OT3 (Sirius x reader x James)

Jax Teller

Angel Reyes

EZ Reyes 

Coco Cruz

Miguel Galindo

Nick Amaro

Rio

Johnny Tuturro

I’ll cap requests (meaning I’ll stop writing for these characters) for Caspian, Logan, OT3, and maybe EZ once I hit a certain amount of prompts for them, but I’ll let you guys know when that happens before I do. 

I’ll close requests Saturday morning, so you have a few days to send yours in!

[kaedekayano]

#2 with Kaede please!

ayy thanks :D

How I feel about this character: my wife who i would let murder me, a Good, an Amazing and Beautiful and Perfect, i love her and i’m constantly angry about her (hello 1.5k kayano meta post that has been sitting around for over a month). this fandom treats her so awfully smh. and the canon. the canon too. matsui the mess you made of kayano is a good 40% of the reason i dont like you tbh. anyway shes good and flawless and she deserved better so so much better aaaaaaaaaaaaa

All the people I ship romantically with this character: okuda, kanzaki (!!!!!), rio kinda, any of the girls? my wife kayano kaede is a lesbian (im married to her so im authorized to confirm this. joking. mostly. i have Opinions on how nagisa/kayano was the ugliness that is compulsory heterosexuality and kayano is a lesbian like all her friends except nagisa were girls p much, except like, karma??)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: i rlly like karukae omg blueberryne’s art got me into it (only as a brotp tho). rio/kaede again is good, i think rio would like kayano but she’d respect the fuck out of akari. idk kayano’s good at getting along with people. oh yeah i forgot to mention i really really love the rgb trio — kayano/nagisa/karma — as a brotp but mostly i just love the interpretation i have of them in my head (which i think is pretty justified but still an interpretation) bc i acknowledge in the canon they dont really have much chemistry lmao

My unpopular opinion about this character: *angry snarling noises because i have a lot of opinions* it would take me ages to explain just one of my opinions so im just going to list off all the ones i can remember without explaining them: kayano is a lesbian and nagisa/kayano is compulsory heterosexuality (as mentioned); kayano isn’t a villain for your fanfic, or a third wheel; kayano is her own independent character and she exists way way way outside nagisa; i would rather have kayano as the protagonist than nagisa (even tho nagisa is my son and #1 fave); kayano kaede and yukimura akari are two very different people and the person she became post-kayano arc was an amalgamation/combination of the two, not a spontaneous “oh haha yeah but the personality i pretended to have for a year is suddenly 100% real”

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish she was actually written well matsui why are you like this why do you need to disappoint me why why why why why what the fuck was the shit that happened at the end of the kayano arc/afterwards why. 

my OTP: yukiko kanzaki/kaede kayano obviously

my cross over ship: eh, none.

a headcanon fact: mentioned in fic but something i really love the idea of is that kayano and itona manage to become friends because they both know the pain of having tentacles and how much it’ll fuck you up and how in the end, it’s not worth it, because oh boy did trying to kill korosensei with those fuck them up.

on a side note, i usually dont advertise my fic because well it’s self-advertising and that’s annoying but be your own hero is essentially all my salt and thoughts on kayano converted to fic form. plus it’s only 3.6k, no romance or ships at all, so if y’all ever want to know how i interpret her then that’s a pretty good insight into my opinions?

send me a ship, a character, or five characters