#and the audience goes “OH NO”

[swan2swan]

This tweet has wholly altered the way I view this particular moment.

For me...yeah, the dog lives. Of course the dog lives! He's always lived! Every time I've watched the movie, the dog lives.

But this tweet made it click: audiences didn't know that. It would 100% have been a cinematic move to have this shot turn into Boomer getting swallowed up by the fireball, imprinting the horror of the alien attack...not by killing a kid or Vivica Fox, but just the dog. He's just a dog, after all. He doesn't need to survive. He has no role in the plot from this point on. Of course the dog's going to die! He's a dog! It will be darkly comedic and tragic and put emotional devastation onto the audience.

BUT NO.

THE DOG LIVES.

THE DOG IS A NATIONAL HERO. A SURVIVOR.

SO OF COURSE THE AUDIENCE LOSES THEIR MINDS.

THAT'S THE BEST DOG YOU'VE EVER SEEN.

[fumifooms]

Dad always said I was like him

Meijack and Chilchuck Tims Dungeon Meshi, Ryoko Kui

^ 1: Moony moonless sky, Fatima Aamer Bilal / 2: Bug like an angel, Mitski / 3: Woodtangle, Mary Ruefle / 4: The Third Hour of the Night, Frank Bidart / 5 & 6: FROM THE MAKERS OF "TWO-MOM ENERGY DRINK," IT'S "LET YOUR FATHER DIE ENERGY DRINK,", Daniel Lavery & Cecilia Corrigan / 7: Batman: Year Three (1989) / 8 & 9 : FROM THE MAKERS OF […], Daniel Lavery & Cecilia Corrigan / 10: Wilt, CJ the X / 11: How Do We Forgive Our Fathers, Dick Lourie / 12: Milk and honey, Rupi Kaur / 13: And My Father's Love Was Nothing Next To God's Will, Amatullah Bourdon / 14: Moony moonless sky, Fatima Aamer Bilal / 15: Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong, Ocean Vuong / 16: untitled, Joan Tierney v 17: Drunk, The Living Tombstone / 18: unknown

When your father tried his best to provide for you but he worked all the time and even when he was home he was either tired or stressed and he’s always liked to get drunk to relax and cheer up. When you know he values work ethics and respectability so you grew up to be capable and quiet. And when he says you’re like him you’re sort of puzzled, does he really know you so little, or does he know himself so little? But you like the feeling of your father ruffling your hair so you accept it, and still you stand next to your mother just as silent and just as stoic as her during family gatherings. He leaves again and again and when your mother leaves him nothing changes, really. You wonder if it’s more telling that you know him better than he seems to himself or that you don’t know him as much as you wish you did, or that you don’t think about him all that much these days. Out of sight, out of mind. And he’s never really been there, even when he was there, after all.

[god-of-this-new-blog]

“Sorry that it all went down like it did”

[lunarharp]

post that reads like a mood swing

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

why is my follower count going up. what did i do. u weirdos are freaking me out. buddy whats up

[havockingboo]

You know what? *wrenches your monkey*

[the-lark-ascending69]

Robin pretending to be sooo above all of these lovesick idiots who can only think with their parts, thinking she's just the most unromantic person ever because romance makes her gag, only to later become a hopeless romantic when she realizes she's a lesbian 🥰

[oh-no-its-bird]

Adjusting my glasses to take a peek into the umbrella academy tag like Hmmmm. Maybe I don't want to watch the new season after all.

[transldpdl]

Louis de Pointe Du Lac 'In Throes of Increasing Wonder'

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

Continuing the theme of showing the cast and their tragic losses to show how they can relate to Evil Wolverine’s motivation, we have Mokona thinking of CLOW REED. 

WHICH IS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. 

And yet yes absolutely, Mokona was made by Yuuko and Clow - and they adore Yuuko, so maybe they adored Clow too. And Clow is dead. 

THAT is an insight into a grief I didn’t know Mokona had, and I kind of love that. To frame Clow Reed as someone to be missed in the same way that Yuuko does. And maybe Mokona is also thinking of how much Yuuko misses Clow, and also has that part of her that wishes very badly to bring him back, but Knows she can’t. 

(Or maybe she’s thinking of something that Clow Reed did? Did he also try to bring someone back, and did he also realise it was impossible? Did he still try anyway? And was it Yuuko, or is her death imagery unrelated to this?)

Meanwhile add Lava Lamp to the grief agenda also - and in a way, Evil Wolverine IS right about Lava Lamp being more similar to him than the rest. He’s the one STILL obsessively trying to save Sakura, even though we’ve seen her die on screen twice in the present. And he’s given up EVERYTHING to save her - he wished away his entire future to have a chance to undo her curse, and from the tone of his voice here he wasn’t successful. 

I am still loving the parallels between them, especially because it hints that there are some… let’s say Hard decisions ahead of Lava Lamp. And he might have the option of going Full Evil Wolverine to save her, or he might have to actually let her go…?

But he has a new family with him now to help him now, who all Get It and loved the same person he does, and they all know how HARD it is to let it go when you’ve spent so long fighting for it. So he has the choice to follow their growth instead of Evil Wolverine’s if it comes down to it, and he would be supported by the best possible people if he did.

[xenon-demon]

I... have no idea what this is. No that's a lie I know exactly what this is, it's 2.6k of a Frozen AU with Steve as Elsa and Robin as Anna that I wrote in a fugue state after seeing a friend's production of Frozen: The Musical tonight. I have several WIPs I'm supposed to be working on and this is exactly none of them. Bone apple teeth. (Also I'm genuinely unsure if my usual crew of beloved enablers would even WANT to be tagged in this so... for now I'm not doing a taglist, and if I write any more of this AU I'll do one next time 😂)

“Steve!”

At the sound of his name, the Prince — now King, and boy is Robin going to take a while to get used to that — turns his head towards her. Seeing it's Robin, Steve gives his apologies to whatever noble he was talking to and steps away from their conversation. He makes his way over to Robin in just a few short strides, but his eyes flick back and forth between Robin and her new... well. She doesn't really want to think about what Eddie now is to her. In any case, she can already see a questioning frown start to brew on Steve's face, meaning this will be a much harder sell than she expected.

“Robin!” Steve exclaims, his gaze almost immediately sliding over to Eddie and giving him a once-over. He sounds markedly more subdued when he continues, “I see you've... made a friend.”

“Well, I wouldn't say a friend exactly!” Robin laughs, shrill and stilted, and gives Eddie's arm a pointed squeeze when he doesn't immediately join in. Getting the hint, Eddie finally starts laughing along. Hopefully Steve didn't notice her hinting, since she's had her arm wrapped around Eddie's since before she even called him over.

Steve raises an eyebrow at her, and shit does she need to keep this moving.

“This,” Robin announces, using the hand that's not around Eddie's arm to do a quick flourish in the direction of his face, “is Prince Edward of the Kingdom of Forest-Upon-Hills. We met at the ball tonight.”

“It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty,” says Eddie, trying his best to show the proper respect and bow as he does so. Robin's death grip on his arm prevents him from getting very far.

“Likewise,” Steve replies, sounding incredibly skeptical of this whole conversation. He then shoots Robin a look, which, rude, but also entirely warranted given what she's about to ask him.

Steeling herself, Robin begins to say, “Prince Edward and I-”

“Just Eddie is fine,” Eddie interrupts her, leaning in a little bit closer to her as he whispers. He's got terrible volume control, however, so she wouldn't know it was meant to be a whisper if she hadn't spent the past two hours talking to him.

“Not one for formalities, Prince Eddie?” Steve asks, the weight of his gaze finally leaving Robin's shoulders for a moment. God, she often wishes her brother was easier to read, but never as strongly as she does right now.

Eddie, meanwhile, straightens up so quickly it's like he's been electrocuted.

“Uh, not particularly, no. They grate on me,” Eddie says. He pauses for a moment, and Robin can see the deliberation on his face before he adds, “Your Majesty.”

“I'm not one for formalities either, Prince Eddie,” Steve says. His mouth twitches into a very small smile. “I prefer Steve.”

There's a pause, then, where Steve and Eddie are locked into some strange stare-down, while Robin looks on in vague exasperation. She's pretty sure she could strip naked and swing from the chandelier in the center of the ballroom and neither of them would take any notice of her. She's about to intervene, actually, because they really do not have time for whatever this is, when Eddie miraculously breaks the spell himself. He blinks a bit, looking away from Steve and back to Robin, face significantly more flushed than it was a minute ago.

“I believe you were saying something to K- to Steve, Princess?” Eddie asks, just about tripping over Steve's new title on instinct before catching himself.

Robin just barely restrains herself from rolling her eyes. She really is the bravest, most long-suffering warrior in all of Hawkins.

Putting her brave face back on, Robin turns to her brother and says, “Yes I was, thank you Eddie, I was saying that Prince Eddie and I-” and here she falters, because Steve looks back at her and meets her gaze. She swallows, trying to be subtle, and looks very pointedly at Steve's forehead instead of his eyes. She can't do this if she's looking him in the eye.

She takes another half second to compose herself, then rips the band-aid off.

“Prince Eddie and I seek your blessing for our marriage.”

“Excuse me?” Steve says, more like demands, almost choking on nothing. Robin's never seen her brother this off-kilter in her life. He doesn't even try to compose himself at  all before he says, “Robin, can I speak to you for a moment? Alone?”

Robin swallows guiltily, knowing he'll see straight through her if she agrees.

“No. Anything you want to say to me, you can say to both of us,” Robin says, and how her voice stays steady, she doesn't even know. It probably helps that she's still not looking Steve in the eye.

“Robin- I don't-” Steve interrupts himself to run his gloved hands down his face. He pauses for a moment, face completely covered by his hands, and takes a deep sigh. When he removes his hands and starts speaking again, his voice is measured. Calm. Deadly.

“Rob, you can't marry a man you just met,” Steve states. The word man falls heavy off his tongue, and Robin knew she would regret coming out as a lesbian, she just didn't think it would be like this. Squaring herself up for the best performance of her life, Robin begins her improvised speech full of bullshit to convince her brother to let her do this.

Before she can, however, Eddie chimes in with, "You can if it's true love." Steve doesn't even spare Eddie a glance, but his frown does deepen significantly. Shit.

“Steve,” Robin begins, trying very hard to stay calm, “Eddie and I have a connection unlike any I've ever felt before. I lo-love him”—shit, she could feel the bile rising in the back of her throat saying that, and judging by the almost-imperceptible twitch in Steve's eye, he knows too—“and I think it's time I start giving back to the Kingdom of Hawkins.”

“Giving back?” Steve asks, and fuck he's folding his arms across his chest now. “How exactly is this giving back to the kingdom? What you're doing is running headfirst into the first bad decision you can find.”

”I'm a bad decision?” Eddie asks. Both Robin and Steve ignore him.

“No, Steve, I'm giving back by giving the kingdom a new celebration to look forward to after your coronation,” Robin hisses. “A royal wedding is another opportunity to open the castle gates and bring the kingdom together-”

“Absolutely not,” Steve snaps, interrupting her. “We are not opening up the castle gates again for a long time.”

“Why not, Steve?” Robin snaps back. “Tonight's been great for the kingdom's morale, it's been great for you to see people and actually socialize-”

“You have no idea what's good for me, Robin,” Steve says, making her stop dead. It hurts, hearing Steve say that like it's obvious and she's stupid for not knowing it already. What hurts more is that it’s true.

Once it's clear Robin won't keep talking, Steve continues, “You asked for my blessing, and I do not give it. I don't approve of this, and if you're doing this in some misguided attempt to make me happy- quite frankly you've gone insane if you think this would make me happy.”

With that, he turns to walk away.

Okay, sure, she has no idea what Steve's whole deal is or why he's always shutting her out, but Robin is sure she knows what will help.

Sure, part of this crazy scheme is the vague idea that if Robin has a picture-perfect capable-of-bearing-children partnership, then Steve will be under less pressure himself to marry someone who can produce an heir. Maybe, with less scrutiny on his personal choices, he'll learn to relax and open up more over time. That idea falls apart pretty quickly, however, as the thought of producing an heir with a man - even one as fun to talk to as Eddie - makes her want to gouge her own eyes out. No, the real reasoning behind Robin's (admittedly insane) plan to marry someone she met two hours ago at her brother's coronation is so she has an ironclad reason for Steve to open the gates again. Sure, ideally it would've been a woman who caught her eye tonight, but she can't be picky. Robin doesn't meet anyone, especially with the castle locked up like it always is, and she has yet to think of something other than a wedding that would convince Steve to open the gates. Then Eddie came along, laughing and flirting (she thinks, at least; Robin's tried to black that part out) and professing his undying true love to her, and this was the best opportunity she was ever going to get.

And she has to convince her brother to open the gates again. Steve's been thriving tonight. He clearly loves the thrum of people, all of them dancing and laughing and enjoying themselves, and he's slowly coming out of his shell with every conversation he has with their subjects. Robin's spent more time talking to her brother tonight than she has in a long, long time. Too long for her to try to quantify it without crying.

Watching her brother turn away from her, the promise of a relationship with him going forward about to slip through her fingers, she knows she has to do something.

“Steve, wait-” Robin says, reaching out for Steve. She grabs him by the hand, feeling the soft cotton of the white gloves he always, always wears.

“Enough, Robin,” Steve says, not even looking back as he yanks his hand out of her grip. She's trying to hold on, though, so she's left holding his glove as Steve pulls his now-bare hand away from her. God, how upsetting is it that it's been years since she saw the back of her own brother's hands?

Steve swears, then, under his breath. Robin almost doesn't hear it; almost.

“Robin, give me my glove.” Steve's not asking; he's demanding. Robin can work with this.

“Not unless you talk to me about why you won't open the gates. Look at how tonight went, it's been so good for you-”

“This isn't up for debate, Robin, give me my glove,” and Steve reaches for it then, but Robin quickly holds the glove up high above her head before he can grab it.

“Why isn't it up for debate? Why do you isolate yourself all the time?” Robin's almost dancing now, twisting and turning as she tries to keep the glove away from Steve's grabbing hands. It doesn't help that he's taller than her, but she's more agile than people think, especially since Steve's in full coronation regalia right now. The material's stiff as a board at the best of times.

“You wouldn't understand, just give me the- ugh!” Steve's stopped trying to grab the glove, instead trying to restrain her and make it easier to grab.

“Maybe I would understand if you'd talk to me instead of shutting me out all the time-” Steve's almost got her in a headlock, but Robin ducks out from underneath it and quickly steps away and out of Steve's reach.

“Robin, that's enough!” Steve shouts, and then several things happen consecutively.

Steve reaches out towards Robin with his right hand, the one missing the glove.

Robin thinks she's going crazy, but- what look like snowflakes shoot out from Steve's hand where he's reached for her.

The crowd, most of whom had turned to look at Steve's shout, gasp, almost in unison.

“I- Steve-” Robin says, not quite sure where to start with the -- actually quite sizable -- pile of snow now on the ballroom floor.

“No,” Steve gasps, and Robin's never heard her brother so distraught. It makes something keen inside her, the sheer anguish in his voice. “No, no no no, this can't be happening, this can't-” Steve reaches up to pull at this hair, but more snow and ice shoots out from his hand as soon as it's pointing towards the ceiling. He flinches away from his own hand, sheer terror on his face, but with every movement Steve makes more and more snow and ice surrounds him. Within a few seconds, there's a wind picking up as well, and it's like a snowstorm is starting to form right there in the castle dining room.

The crowd, originally shocked into silence, starts to move again. Robin hears screaming, people running, shouting from the guards about an evacuation plan, but it's all faint and distorted like she's underwater. All she can focus on right now is Steve, the way his terror is only worsening by the moment.

“Steve, let me help you,” Robin calls over the roar of the crowd and the storm, taking a few steps towards him. She needs to get his attention before getting closer, the last thing she wants to do right now is startle him.

“Stay away from me!” Steve yells, holding up his hands in an instinctive 'stay back' gesture. Yet more ice shoots out towards Robin as he does so. “I’m not safe!”

“I don't care! You're my brother!” Robin shouts back, but Steve doesn't seem to hear her. He's looking down at his hands in horror, then at the waist-high line of ice between the two of them.

Robin somehow knows what he's going to do the moment before he does it.

“Steve!” Robin screams, breaking into a run. Steve's faster than her, always has been, so he makes it to the doors of the ballroom well before she can catch him. It also helps that people, even the guards posted at the doors, part to make room for him whenever he draws near. Seeing Steve push open the ballroom doors just enough to slip through them, Robin yells again, “Steve! Stop!”

“Princess Robin!” Someone crashes into Robin then, nearly sending the two of them flying. (Robin mentally thanks whatever God there may be that she wore pants and not a dress.) After regaining her footing, Robin looks at her assailant to find- oh, it's that guy. The Duke of one of their main trading partners, Tommy something. Haggard? Halfwit? Yeah, something like that.

“Princess Robin,” Tommy Hapless says, bending over with one hand on his knees and the other holding Robin's elbow as he catches his breath. God, Robin does not have time for this. “Princess, you can't- we need guidance. We need someone to... to lead us while the King is... indisposed.”

“I really don't have time for this,” Robin snaps, brushing his hand off her elbow. “Steve's my brother, I have to find him before he gets hurt!”

“I don't think... he's the one who'll be getting hurt,” Tommy Hanger-On says between gasps, quietly, but not so quiet Robin doesn't hear. She makes a point to stomp on his toes as she stalks off towards Eddie, who is doing his best to help people follow the evacuation advice. He looks faintly queasy, and very much like he would rather be literally anywhere else, but he's actually doing a pretty good job of guiding people where the guards want them.

Eddie doesn't notice her coming, so he jumps when Robin grabs him by the shoulder. She turns him around to face her, then grabs him by the other shoulder as well so she's looking him right in the eyes.

“I need to find Steve,” Robin says, not waiting for Eddie to finish whatever question he's opened his mouth to ask before continuing, “Can you take care of the kingdom until we get back?”

Eddie goes pale instantly. “What? I can't-”

“You're a prince, right? I know Forest-Upon-Hills is a pretty small kingdom, but how different can Hawkins really be?” Eddie doesn't look reassured, but Robin cares very little about that right now. She claps him on both shoulders in what she hopes is an encouraging gesture.

She grabs Eddie's hand and thrusts it up into the air, shouting, “Prince Eddie is in charge until I return!”

She then drops his hand before turning and running out into the night, ignoring the chaos behind her and the faint sounds of Eddie's confused protests.

Nothing matters to her now except for finding Steve.

[shsl-box-worshipper]

So, I was rewatching the first How To Train Your Dragon movie and my mind immediately drifted to Code Lyoko (cuz of course it does), which led me to think of an interesting AU.

Code Lyoko, but set in a modern day How To Train Your Dragon setting. (Click the read more for more information about the AU cuz ohhhh boi, I infodumped hard)

Dragons are a world-wide species of animals that have learned to mostly (keyword: mostly) co-exist with humans thanks to the efforts of various cultures around the world thousands of years ago and modern preservation efforts.

Nowadays, they are viewed the same way as hawks, horses, and other useful pets: Popular and useful, but can be hard to train and can even be deadly.

Various characters in Code Lyoko actually have dragons as pets, most notably Odd since Kiwi is a Terrible Terror in this AU (And yes, it is even more of a pain for Ulrich to deal with).

Dragons, similarly to dogs and cats, aren't allowed at Kadic, but Kadic does have some dragon-related classes, a specific area on campus for them (since its kind of hard to separate tamed dragons from their owners), and some dragon lessons are integrated into otherwise normal classes.

Plot-wise, Franz, Anthea, and Aelita all had dragons. Anthea's was taken when she was kidnapped, and Aelita's got virtualized onto Lyoko along with her and Franz (there's a specific chamber in the scanner room specifically for dragons because Franz knew Aelita wouldn't leave her dragon behind no matter how hard he tried to convince her otherwise).

Franz's dragon, a battered-looking Night Fury whom he rescued from Project Carthage and who he named Odin, was instructed to stand guard of the Supercomputer and by extension, the factory as a whole.

One of the main difficulties Jeremie had to face while getting into the Factory to look for scrap initially was trying to avoid and hide from this lumbering, giant Night Fury that is the sole reason behind the Factory's ghost stories and that he had NO IDEA ABOUT.

When Jeremie finally turns on the supercomputer, he is greeted not only by an amnesiac pink-haired elf lady but is also met with a much younger and more spotted Night Fury, that wears armor that looks like if a cross between a viking and a knight, and is ALSO an amnesiac (I imagine that Lyoko will create virtual forms of any kind of creature that has some sort of consciousness, not just humans. Since dragons in the How To Train Your Dragon franchise are shown to be somewhat intelligent, I imagine that they could have more thorough and cohesive Lyoko forms than those of like, a fly).

Jeremie initially calls the Night Fury 'Spot' (Because it's covered in white patches compared to Franz's Night Fury, which just has a white patch on it's belly), but Aelita gets both her name and the name of the Night Fury back during the end of XANA Awakens, where it's revealed to be Tannlos (The Norwegian translation of Toothless, since the story of Hiccup and Toothless is considered a Nordic legend in the modern day and, like in canon, Franz liked reading Norse myths and legends to Aelita when she was a kid).

Tannlos, similarly to Aelita, lacks some of the necessary components needed to devirtualize or have any attacks (Yes, his breath weapon is gone on Lyoko and he can't even use it in the real world).

He's also really small, just large enough to have Aelita on his back and run with her, but too small to properly fly with her (he can still fly just fine tho without the extra weight).

As such, he mainly just acts as a method of ground transportation for Aelita and as a scout on Lyoko.

On that note, I guess I should talk about the other characters.

I've already talked about Odd having a Terrible Terror as a pet. He similarly tries to keep hidden from Jim, though it fails much more since a Terrible Terror is higher maintenance than a dog.

Ulrich's dad works as an executive at a company that researches dragons to develop various kinds of tech and his mom used to be a trainer in her youth. Since his family has to work with them frequently, Ulrich knows some basic techniques on dealing with dragons, despite his (initial) dislike of them.

Jeremie, conversely, has no skills regarding them, and his family doesn't own any, in fact. His survival against the Factory Night Fury is based on his own ingenuity, intelligence, and the basic tips he haggled out of Ulrich. He eventually manages to bond with the Factory Night Fury during XANA Awakens and it helps defend the factory against XANA attacks.

Yumi's family doesn't have any dragons and the Ishiyamas have a strict no pets rule along with that. However, Yumi is friends with a Monstrous Nightmare that lives in the woods, who she named Ryoji so that Yumi can talk about her openly in front of her parents. Yumi even lets Hiroki play with her since she effectively has tamed the dragon, despite not owning it legally.

A lot more of this AU has to deal with worldbuilding and how a modern society with actual dragons would work, as well as how dragons could both work with and against XANA's attacks. But I don't know if anyone is interested in this kind of stuff.

[cemetery-irises]

will wood in case i die.... save me...... save me in case i die will wood.....

[hanzajesthanza]

combining (one of my) favorite short story with (some of my) favorite characters ❤️

[ishouldbedoingalright]

peter pan goes wrong. amazing, brilliant, show-stopping.

[oldshittydog]

dont you just love when creators on tumblr are like "actually, you, dear viewer, have a MORAL OBLIGATION to reblog my stuff if you like it!" like girl can i have a break