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i guess it’s less that they Completely Understood each other and more that . just. they met each other at the perfect time . they had a bond that could never be replaced . they could be their true selves around each other, even if it only lasted for a year or two . but it still meant so much to the both of them !!! those two years alone meant so much more than the ten years they spent apart and that completely fucking Destroys me . they had something that neither one of them would ever find again and if it’s not Total Understanding then i truly believe it was unconditional love . soulmatism. the feeling of finding your other half . they had each other for two little years and it was the single most vibrant blue spring of their lives
#EXPLODES INTO A MILLION LITTLE PIECES#i hate them btw#IT’S JUST . it’s a very delicate balance bc i sincerely believe that they understand each other in ways others don’t#i think suguru understood satoru in a way no one else bothered to do#and i think satoru understood suguru better than anyone in the end#but like . satoru didn’t understand suguru fully when they were kids . suguru couldn’t open up his heart 2 him !!! not completely…..#but then we also have geto who thought gojo hated him for ten years#which shows that /he/ didn’t truly understand gojo either……..#though it could honestly also just be his self-loathing getting in the way#ANYWAY I . i don’t think they understood each fully as children but i think they may have during geto’s final moments#i think that was the sole moment they both bared their hearts to one another entirely#but even putting aside the question of understanding. they had something that no one else would ever replace#yeah sorry i have no idea where this came from i’ve just been crying over that One panel and niku showed me a twt thread ….. that hurt me…#………. sigh#will ari ever stop crying over stsg??… probably not no#ari noises ✩
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#some thoughts incoming idk if i should share but i need to put them somewhere#it's hard being in the yr fandom since the finale when you don't share the same vision and opinion as the rest#and people make future wilmon posts or write post s3 fics (which many exist now) they just don't align with your idea at all#and they're not exciting to me at all and the whole concept just makes me upset#i don't wanna imagine Wille as a 'normal' person (not that that's ever possible anyway which the show loves to ignore)#like I'm sorry but i didn't come to the show to watch an ordinary love story and have them lead an ordinary life#the idea of Wille being a future king and them navigating that royal life together is so much more interesting#i hate that that isn't canon anymore and when ppl make posts about them it's not about that or that would only be seen as a negative thing#i don't wanna imagine a life where they are 'normal' that isn't appealing to me at all and it sucks seeing everyone embrace it#and it's like you're not allowed to want something else or think differently bc that makes you the bad person and you're just wrong#i can't be excited about their future (also bc i don't really see them going strong in the future with how they messed them up in s3)#(i also didn't want to know what could possibly happen in the future i wanted that to stay open and just be in the present)#and seeing everyone else excited and happy about it makes you feel horrible and very alone and disconnected in the fandom#i don't wanna take it away from them but i also would love to see other takes but that's basically impossible now#am i the only person who feels this way or are there any other who can relate? pls let me know#i already feel like ppl are gonna attack me for this but it's been hard especially now with Simon's month and seeing so many interpretation#navigating ao3 has also become difficult now#it's hard finding fics to read where wille stays crown prince and you don't have to be scared for that to change#i just can't read any canon compliant fics anymore and i hate it bc i hate to disagree with canon#i normally don't do that bc canon is important to me and i don't want to reject it and create my own fantasy#and that's what's upsetting#anyway sorry i had to write this#personal
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one of the lesser talked about fun things about intentionally reading more books is finding new stuff to be a bit of a hater about tbh
#and i know sometimes im probably just not properly picking up whatever the writer is putting down but whatever it's still fun#to actually know what you think about stuff like the highly regarded classics and extremely popular hyped up things#here are a few writers im a bit of a hater about w my opinions now btw#neil gaiman: does not do it for me at alllll#have read the graveyard book and american gods and hated almost every minute of both#in american gods i just found the aesthetic ideas and characters completely unappealing and in the graveyard book#i thought it was dreary and not well described enough... kept feeling like it was too bare bones in some way to picture things properly#i was like 'hmm i wish this was one of his graphic novels instead bc i'd like to be able to see what's going on here a bit better...'#also his humour just never lands for me and i do not often get his references either#ray bradbury annoys me in a similar way to neil gaiman but also somewhat oppositely like where#the way they write characters and plots and ideas and the stuff they care about gets on my nerves in an almost identical way#that i don't know how to define except to say i had a bit of a 'same energy' experience reading Something Wicked This Way Comes#and some of neil gaiman's stuff#but unlike neil gaiman i think that ray bradbury attempts to describe things unusually so much and TOO much#to the point that it takes me out of the story in a different yet similar way#to how the lack of description in neil gaiman's stuff does#what else have i become a bit of a hater about or did not get the appeal of lately? hmmm#oh hp lovecraft hahahaha#least scary stories ever god everything he's scared of is so dumb#like even aside from his extremely racist takes and fear of the 'exotic other' his fears about being cosmically insignificant are just like#yeah and? whats so scary about that hahaha i literally just dont get it#also the amount he writes dialogue in heavy accents annoys the shit out of me#p
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Hi! Love your posts !! Suggestion for a fact (if you take those): Eurocat. The 1990 Eurovision featured an animated purple cat in the postcards (?) named Eurocat and I’ve never seen anyone mention anything about his existence. I only learned about him bc I was researching old shows and saw him mentioned on the Wikipedia page. 10/10
Eurovision Fact #477:
Eurocat was the mascot created for the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. He appeared at the beginning of each postcard in an animated short that featured a blue background with the name of the country repeating on a diagonal and some cultural representation of the country being showcased that Eurocat would interact with.
For example, on the postcard for Spain, Eurocat blew bubbles that formed the Olympic rings, calling to the fact that Spain would host the Summer Games in two years.
Eurocat was created by Joško Marušić, who is credited for his as a member of the directors of the per-production materials for the contest for animation.
While introducing Belgium, commentator Terry Wogan spoke a bit about the mascot saying, "Eurocat! A tomcat who's slightly neurotic, not too silly, and eminently lovable." He also later said while introducing Luxembourg that he was "trying to ignore this cat," adding "I don't think he's gonna go away though," under his breath.
[Sources]
Yugoslavia, Eurovision.tv.
Eurovision Song Contest 1990 (No commentary), 2:47:06, YouTube.com.
Eurovision mascot 1990 EuroCat compilation, YouTube.com.
Barcelona 1992, Olympics.com.
"I would love to share with you..." @rice-crackerz on Tumblr -- See reblogs and comments (esp by @mirai-desu, @elliemadeit, and @unibrowzz) for their knowledgeable comments :)
#esc facts oc#eurovision#eurovision facts oc#eurovision song contest#esc#anon ask#esc 1990#eurocat#Joško Marušić#mascots#I actually remember learning about him for the first time as I was doing research for another fact. I asked ppl on my main account what#the FUCK he was bc I was so confused why they had a pic of a weird cat dog thing on the Yugoslavia page instead of just some trees (bc#putting a landmark for something that doesn't exist anymore would be awk) and someone replied and gave me the lowdown lol!#I've linked the post that I made where many lovely people taught me who he was! Send those lovely ppl some love!#Also thank *you* for your kind words anon#and if you or anyone else has any other ideas like this about facts they'd like to see I'd love to write them!
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A sphere, flatlanders, and 2d babies
#headcanons for flatbabies: they start out as lines with flagella or whatever u call the tails idk im mexican#flatland#also weird flatlander carrier thing attached to Sphere's arm#bc had no idea where else to put it? also i been dealin with bad arm/wrist/joint pain so i projected it on him somehow#idk its 12 am im a mess#art#funky device.. good for pain and carrying your 2d friends..#fun fact did u know im officially marrying this dumb ball
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I'm just about finished with My Little Inferno, and the ML (the LI) is so pathetic omfg. I feel like I'm reading Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudsai due to the main leads both being fucking losers (the FL in Dame na is in a dead end relationship and is practically a sugar mommy who ends up in debt to support her BF which almost leads her to being sold into prostitution. Her attitude isn't great either). Like if I could get a hot guy to fall head over heels in love with me even after he witnesses me puking, pissing, and crying myself out of fear and getting hassled by old bullies (if only I were a BL protag bc he'd think I'm cute), I would think something is wrong with him and that I probably made it in life. The ML isn't particularly... useful. The only thing he has going for him is being cute and short, and being needy towards the LI. The LI makes for a good house husband.
Based on the cover art for the manga, I would've thought it was really dark (like Killing Stalking or Blind play) but its mostly just about cyber crime and embezzlement and sorta the yakuza (mostly mentioned, briefly seen). To an extent, this series sorta reminded me of Semantic Error, but only because of the computer stuff though. Otherwise, I sorta like the slice of life aspects. I think the crime stuff is sorta underbaked. I wish there was more risk or something to make things tense bc the only thing was ML's mom getting get info stolen and getting $300k in debt.
#desiree talks#desiree reads#speaking of which i havent really read BL since i decided on trying to actually clear my manga tabs#like i decided on lowering priority to the following genres: BL#action; manhwa; isekai#main reasons there is too many BL manga and after a while the tropes got repetitive and i needed a break#action to me is boring i need good character moments and dynamics in between fights#(me with demon slayer [and technically yowamushi pedal] all the flashbacks during the fights/races bc there's no where else to put it#i wish demon slayer had more group moments apart from recovering since a lot of characters didnt have any moments until the final battle#especially when fights can end up lasting like a year of updates (lookism gave me ptsd)#and action scenes can get confusing if the artist isn't good at drawing/planning them out#it can also get hard to tell whats going on#isekai- too many and there are a lot of bad ones and i am the type to get fomo and try them all#i technically prefer otome isekai#but only really like regression wherre theyre able to get revenge or make s#a better outcome like I'll Be The Matriarch In This Life#i dont like the idea of actual isekai bc what happens to the original soul of the body that the MC takes over#i'm also not a fan of serie where the MC is automatically doted over by everyone#its annoying#and for manhwa its more of a format thing#and i think with webtoon format there is a lot more being published than mn#manga so its even more to try and read#it doesn't help that a lot of series end up with like 100+ chapters#like a decent shoujo is usually over in like 50 chapters#though thats like 4 years of publication#its less overwhelming when the series is over
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i dont know how to word this in a way that isn't mean but we NEED more "cringe" minecraft parodies. sometimes things don't need to be good, i think things that are "bad" are actually better. i have such a deep love for them even if sometimes i laugh at them or think they're kinda silly, they're the ones i go back to the most
captainsparklez i love you and your top-notch music videos but what happened to the guys with crappy mics singing over screen recordings of gameplay. or literally just a png or mspaint art. where are they. come back i am begging you
#NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE GREAT PLEASE HAVE FUN AAAAAAAAAAUGH#none of you will ever be blitz to me. zero cycle is up there i will give them that#dragonhanx is close to what i mean except his videos arent 'bad' to me in any way. just silly#man i love the feel of older vids where like. we did not even know what shaders were kfjdhgkj#BRING IT BACK IT JUST FEELS MORE FUN#also no this does not include bad-on-purpose screaming into the mic kind of stuff#i just mean like. dudes who had an idea and were goofing off during a recording kind of vibes. it needs to feel genuine#i love all the comments on dylqn and fulham's video they're so fun to read through#WE'RE MAKING IT OUT OF THE BASTION WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥#idk what to call them other than cringe/bad bc that's what everyone else says. like I Dont Think They're Bad im literally saying i love the#but just. not a movie production ya know? the ones ppl poke fun at and make memes about. they are unironically my favorite ones#just using blitz as my example again. it's not a masterpiece like it's not ''good.'' but it is a masterpiece#i would not be who i am without that song kjdfhkg it puts such a big smile on my face lmao#chat
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that post I promised about villain visuals
So I’m working my way (slowly) through Stranger Things season 4, and one of the things that came up as an issue, for me, early on, was the...aesthetically kitchen-sink nature of the season’s main Upside Down-related baddie. The further I get into the season (currently I’m between episodes 4 and 5), the more it’s looking like all of the disparate visual elements that the show is relating to the villain they’ve nicknamed Vecna are supposed to be connected because of Lore(TM) which is being dribbled out throughout the season. On the one hand, I can respect that as a storytelling move. But on the other hand, aesthetically, it’s still not working for me in this specific case, and I’ve devoted entirely too much brain power to trying to figure out why that might be.
After making a case study of two of the Big Name Iconic Horror Movie Villains that the season namedropped, and a number of other Visually Iconic Horror Villains I have loved, I’ve come up with a handful of theories of why, say, Freddy Krueger feels instantly recognisable and memorable and aesthetically distinct, while Stranger Things’ take on ‘Vecna’, despite drawing heavily on Freddy Krueger for inspiration, doesn’t.
First off, I don’t think having a large number of visual/symbolic elements linked to your villain is necessarily always a problem. Or even that using various apparently unrelated visual elements to create a visual shorthand for your villain is a problem! But if you’re going to have a bunch of different, apparently unrelated symbolic visual elements associated with/representing your villain, you’re gonna want them to a) immediately and unmistakably cause the audience to draw an association with your villain, which means you’re probably going to want to b) use relatively few of them, so that that impact isn’t diluted.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to make sure you don’t end up with all your visuals confusing your audience and failing to convey that immediate association is to establish a hierarchy of symbols/motifs/visual elements linked to your villain. So you have one or two elements that draw up a strong association with your villain from your audience, and then in concentric circles radiating outwards, you have more and more tangentially-associated symbols/motifs/visual elements.
And a good way to establish a primary visual element, and link it strongly and directly to your villain in your audience’s mind, is to make it either a part of or directly connected to the villain’s physical presence/distinctive silhouette. If your primary visual element is something that, especially in a visual medium like television or film, can be repeatedly seen onscreen with the villain, it’s much, much easier for it to become linked to the villain in your audience’s imagination.
Like. Let’s take a closer look at the Big Names the Duffers are dropping in season four. What’s the most immediately recognisable element of Michael Myers’ iconography? It’s the inside-out Bill Shatner mask. The most recent Halloween trilogy even used the image of it on its own as marketing material, since it’s such an immediate, obvious symbol of Michael, and pulls up the association at a glance. You see the mask, you know that’s a Michael Myers.
Then you go down a level in the visual hierarchy, and there’s the coveralls and the big bloody knife. If you take away the mask, this is less immediately obviously a Michael, but it’s still recognisable once you link it to the mask again. The mask is the primary visual element to which some of these secondary visual elements are linked. The mask is the single element at the top of the hierarchy.
Go down one more level, and you get into stuff that’s less related to that primary visual element of the mask, less related to the villain’s physicality and distinctive silhouette, and more related to the Lore(TM). I’m talking like the clown suit from the murder of Judith Myers (which they did use again for visual association with Michael, at least in Halloween 4), the jack-o’-lantern, the abandoned Myers house, even Judith’s tombstone. These elements, that orbit Michael’s hashtag aesthetic deal at a slightly greater distance, can be used to conjure up a sense of unease or building dread. But if you want instant recognisability and that sudden sharp jolt of fear, you go directly to the mask. If you ask somebody on the street to picture Michael Myers, they’re gonna think about the mask.
I’m not as familiar with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise as I am with Halloween, but it seems to me that Freddy Krueger, the more obvious aesthetic influence on Imitation Vecna Flavour, has a similar deal to Michael Myers going on. Freddy gets two primary visual elements - the knife-glove and the burn scars. Then you go down a level and get into costuming stuff like the terrible sweater and the jaunty little hat, and then down another level for stuff like the nursery-rhyme-singing creepy children and the horrible boiler-room nightmare realm (which, again, connect back to him less through immediate visual identification/actually seeing them onscreen with him, and more through Lore(TM)).
Because Freddy has those few main visual elements established as his aesthetic calling card, he can pull whatever nightmare bullshit he wants, and we the audience can see and understand that we’re not meant to be remembering and associating every Bed That Eats or whatever with him as a Distinct Visual Element Of His Whole Deal. If you as a creator throw the entire kitchen sink of ‘nightmares’ at him, and every visual element that gets associated with him (or a pale imitation of him trying to do the same shtick) is introduced on the same ‘level’ or at the same time, the audience isn’t going to form a strong mental link between him and any of those visual elements. And then he won’t have any memorable signature visuals at all. And that makes a villain more forgettable.
This is, actually, probably one of the main reasons why the slasher genre fell into a pattern of ‘distinctive mask + signature weapon’. It’s an easy formula for creating a visual shorthand for your villain, and relates those visual elements that you want to be primary directly to the villain’s physicality. To bring up the third Big Name of slasher horror, there’s nothing inherent to, say, a hockey mask that links it to Jason Voorhees. Except for the fact that we almost never see him without it. The why of it being a hockey mask is not as important as the fact that it’s a fundamental aspect of his whole Look(TM).
“But Mary,” I hear you say, “you’re talking about slashers. Stranger Things’ ‘Vecna’ isn’t technically a slasher. And what about villains who are more inhuman than slashers? Villains whose physical presence isn’t fixed or doesn’t even exist? Villains who are outright monstrous?” Well, you have a point, rhetorical strawman! I was specifically talking about slashers since the show was so obvious about drawing on Freddy, but I think these theories can also be more broadly applied.
In terms of visually distinct, recognisable, memorable monsters, what comes to my mind first and foremost is the lineup of Universal movie monsters. And I’d say they’re actually incredible examples of the theories above in action. They tend not to have such a kitchen-sink assortment of visual elements associated to them, but rather, to stick to one or two primary visual elements, directly related to their physicality and silhouette. I’m thinking the flat-topped head and huge feet of Frankenstein, the hunched hairy figure of the Wolfman, Dracula’s widow’s peak and high cape collar, the Bride’s beehive, the Creature from the Black Lagoon’s armoured fish-face, the Mummy’s wrap...
These images became so famous, so memorable and recognisable, that they have visually defined entire genres of monsters. They get echoed and parodied across pop culture (Grandpa and Hermann Munster! Lurch! Abe Sapien and the Shape of Water fishman! Dave Vanian and Gerard Way in the Bela Lugosi evening dress and facepaint! etc etc etc!) to the point where people don’t even know where the originals come from (vampires in cartoons from the 70s-90s frequently had blue skin, because actors playing vampires in black and white films from the 30s-50s would be painted with pale blue facepaint to make them appear more deathly pale onscreen, because blue read pale and red read dark. This is the same principle behind the set of the 60s Addams Family sitcom being mostly pink!).
(As an aside, the whole ‘one or two primary visual elements related to the villain/monster’s physical presence’ thing might have contributed to why I feel like the Invisible Man doesn’t get nearly as much play in lineups of classic monsters. Gonna have to percolate on that thought.)
In terms of a villain or monster without a set physical form, I believe it’s even more important to establish a primary visual element associated with them. For something like a shapeshifter or a nebulous eldritch idea, they’re by necessity going to have a broader range of visual elements associated to them/involved in the storytelling around them. Having a primary visual element as a visual shorthand for that villain/monster means it can carry through the various scenes of that villain/monster exerting their influence on the world/the story, so that the audience can then identify it as that villain/monster’s calling card - and it can be used to create dread and terror easily and effectively without having to invoke the villain/monster by name or in person every time and breach the Law of Conservation of Shark (which is also the major storytelling problem I’m having with Stranger Things’ ‘Vecna’, but that’s a related but separate post).
In terms of examples, I’m thinking of Mirrors, or Oculus, both of which had some nebulous, unembodied concept of evil reflections as their villain. Mirrors specifically linked its villain to any reflective surface. Oculus kept returning to the image of the ornate mirror where the evil made its home. I’m also thinking of Grave Encounters, which had a similar setup - the villain is an entire haunted mental hospital - and which did an okay job up until it abruptly fell into a trap at the end that I’ve seen at least one other villain fall into. (But I’ll get to that later.)
“But Mary,” you cry, “these examples you’re examining are all on film! Surely you cannot apply these theories of yours to a villain or monster with no set appearance, such as those featured in such media as books or podcasts? Surely it must be different when the eye of the audience’s imagination is responsible for all the visuals?”
To which I say: you make another point, rhetorical strawman! There’s a reason I believe Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House to be (rightfully) unfilmable. Her haunting is so deeply psychological, so wrapped up in what is unseen, unspoken, indescribable, that to try to put it to film - or even put it into images - is to do it a massive disservice. The idea of boiling it down to a couple of pieces of iconography is downright laughable.
But not every literary villain or monster is a Hill House. And I believe that there are a great number of cases in which these theories still apply. Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is A Chainsaw - which, you may be unsurprised to learn, I loved - came up with two possible slashers right out the gate and immediately gave them each a set of primary visual elements. Stacey Graves and her Sadako hair and broken jaw, Ezekiel with his huge hands (and, a level lower, his creepy church). You don’t even see the slasher until the very end of the book, but you already know what you’re looking for, so the reveal Works. There’s Coraline’s Beldam, with her button eyes, spider hands, black keys, and world of putty. There’s Long John Silver and his peg leg. I keep seeing people say that, no matter what she looks like, they always know fanart of Ianthe Tridentarius on their dashboards by her golden skeleton arm.
Hell, even returning to Frankenstein’s monster: in Mary Shelley’s text, he’s immediately distinctive. He’s Huge, and looks like someone who should have been beautiful based on his disparate parts but, as a whole, is instead corpse-like and repulsive. And this imagery is so thematically linked to his whole deal, so the imagery feeds the story and the story feeds the imagery, and the resulting creation is so visually distinct that even Frankenstein’s monster designs based on the book rather than the Universal movie are instantly recognisable to me when they cross my dash (which happens not infrequently). Frankenstein’s monster is so immediately visually recognisable and so memorable that he’s lasted more than two hundred years in popular culture. I think that’s a point in favour of primary identifying visual elements, even in text.
And here, now that I’ve talked about these principles in relation to non-embodied villains and villains in text, is where I’m going to take a brief detour and talk about book!Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
In a lot of ways (a lot of ways), Stephen King did this right. Pennywise is a shapeshifter, without a set physical form (so no distinctive silhouette) and takes the forms of people’s worst fears. There is a whole kitchen sink of visual elements connected to this - literally a kitchen sink, since in one scene King has Pennywise taunt parents with the voice of their dead child from their kitchen sink drain.
But King did a very clever thing in establishing two primary visual elements related to Pennywise from the outset. He gave Pennywise a favourite form - Clown - and a favourite haunt - sewers - and, from there, tied every other nightmare thing in some way back to those two elements. All of Pennywise’s monster forms have some kind of aesthetic element from his clown costume included - orange puffballs are the ones I remember most strongly. Almost all of the big setpieces that directly involve Pennywise and not someone under his influence, the fights and the near-misses and escapes, happen in or around plumbing. Which isn’t incidental, it’s very deliberately brought to the foreground. And these threads carry through the whole book - right up until the end.
Right at the end of IT is where Stephen King makes the same mistake that Grave Encounters makes right at its end, a mistake that sits at the opposite end of the spectrum of You Fucked Up A Perfectly Good Aesthetically Coherent And Memorable Villain Is What You Did from what the Duffers are doing with Imitation Vecna Flavour. King tries to bait-and-switch the audience from the primary visual elements we’ve come to associate, strongly and immediately, with Pennywise, for some hitherto completely unrelated visual element that has nothing whatsoever to do with the extremely aesthetically compelling villain he’d built up until that point. There are a whole host of reasons the climactic fight of IT felt flat and anticlimactic to me, but the aesthetic betrayal is definitely a contributing factor.
Anyway. Up until the end of the book, I’d say Pennywise is a beautiful example of how you can have a whole sideshow of creepy bullshit associated with your villain, and still make them visually distinct, memorable, and compelling. You just need to make sure you understand what you want the primary visual elements to be for your villain, establish them well, and thread them through the constellation of images and motifs you collect around that villain.
And the problem I have with the Duffers’ ‘Vecna’ is that they simply haven’t done that. They haven’t identified any primary visual elements, they haven’t established a hierarchy of visual elements underneath those one or two primary ones, and they haven’t established a clear aesthetic link between any of the visual elements they’ve tried to associate with their villain.
Part of the problem, I think, is that they tried to show too much, too soon. They really threw everything but the kitchen sink at the guy right in episode one. Is his main motif supposed to be spiders, or clocks, or the vines, or the rotting corpse thing, or the eye thing, or the flying demo-creatures, or the haunted house, or or or? I don’t know, and so I haven’t formed a strong association between him and any of them. And that’s before you even pull in the nightmare murder sequences, which I know now are tailored to the victim experiencing them and not meant to be recurring motifs, but I didn’t know that in episode one, when they should have been establishing their hierarchy of imagery! So I was trying to throw all of that spaghetti, mentally, at their Big Bad, and none of it stuck.
It’s actually even worse for Imitation Vecna Flavour, too, because of the comparison that’s invited by his nickname. I’ve never played D&D and my familiarity with it comes primarily from The Adventure Zone, but the Duffers very kindly went out of their way to have their characters establish in dialogue that D&D’s Vecna does have an immediately recognisable primary visual element! Vecna’s missing (iirc) his left arm and his left eye! The characters all know immediately by that description that that’s a Vecna! The show itself told me this! So, by inviting the comparison, the Duffers just made their own shit look worse. (Which is exactly the problem they’re having with all of their previous-season callbacks, also, but that, again, is a separate post.)
“But Mary,” the voice of the rhetorical strawman whispers, in the back of my mind, with vicious satisfaction, “you love Dracula, which is an enduring classic and the source of a major recognisable, memorable pop culture monster. And isn’t this exactly like what Dracula would have been like for Victorian audiences? Bram Stoker basically invented the modern vampire mythos singlehandedly. And the Bela Lugosi evening dress, widow’s peak, high-collared-cape image didn’t exist until at least thirty years after it was published. Wouldn’t Victorian audiences, who would only maybe have heard of vampires through Slavic folklore, also have seen it as like throwing too much spaghetti at a villain and seeing what stuck?”
Unfortunately, as usual, the rhetorical strawman has a point. Dracula does have a whole lot of Apparently Unrelated Creepy Bullshit associated with him, aesthetically and visually. You could argue that the blood-drinking becomes his primary visual element, but in the whole novel, I think we only actually see him do it once, and it doesn’t exactly tie in to all the other bullshit he’s got going on. And he doesn’t even have the flimsy excuse of Tragic Backstory(TM) to tie it all together. He’s old and gets younger? St. George’s Eve? Lack of reflection? Wolves? Decaying castles? Coffins and grave-dirt? Lizard Fashion? Blood-drinking? Renfield? The brides? Burning eyes? Shapeshifting? The straw hat that suit neither him nor the time? Holy symbols? Garlic?? Victorians would absolutely have been justified in being like ‘hey Bram you’re sorta throwing the kitchen sink at this one’. And yet, for whatever reason, Dracula has endured long enough to get a visual shorthand so iconic it’s become a meme and a joke.
The only theories I have to offer are:
1) The ways in which the various visual elements related to Dracula were introduced was gradual and mysterious enough that they weren’t all introduced at the same time and with the same level of apparent importance, and the mystery made them memorable.
2) The construction of Dracula as a villain was unfamiliar enough to Victorian audiences that they didn’t have an existing frame of reference to compare him against and find him a pale imitation of, and instead, they had to create an entirely new ‘kind of (horror) guy’ box to put him in, mentally.
and/or 3) I just like Dracula better. Sue me.
Anyway. This post has gotten more than long enough, and has wandered somewhat from its initial purpose, so I will simply say that even with the red thread of Lore(TM) starting to string together the visual elements of Stranger Things’ ‘Vecna’, I still find him unmemorable, not at all visually interesting or compelling or coherent, and basically the aesthetic equivalent of CRT TV snow. Visual white noise.
(Also, to cap this rant off, since I mentioned the Law of Conservation of Shark a few times - is there any more iconic, recognisable, or memorable villain image than that great white shark fin, slicing silently up out of the water?)
#gonna stick this one in my#writing#tag for future reference bc I have absolutely no idea where else to put it#and also because I'm using allllll of this to try to make the big bad in circus luna effective#anyway. is it obvious why i loved my heart is a chainsaw / jade daniels lmao#want a masterclass on what makes a memorable aesthetically compelling villain/monster? ask a goth#i had something to say about inhuman monsters and like. the alien + the eggs + the chestburster + giger's set design#and also about silhouettes and the classic demogorgon mouth#but they never cohered into intelligent thoughts so I'm dropping them in the tags here in case somebody else can make sense of them.
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based on 90% vibes and 10% facts about the characters. i do not take constructive criticism. buck ruffler never read warrior cats but he'd act like a cat and bite others and invade warrior cat larps as a rogue
#i didnt know where to put erclaim but like#hes a bit less memey than erfit#and has his rhymes and is fancier i feel like he wouldnt care or know it#erfit on the other hand seems like internet memer to me he would fucking know.#dave is a memer in general i dont take constructive criticism he probably posts deep fried memes on twitter#pacesetter emo kid is true in my heart forever. everyone was reading this so he had to be cool#holly would know what it is bc someone spoke about it and shed prolly go like WHAT IS THIS FOUL LITERATURE YOU CALL THIS READING YOU CALL#THIS ENTERTAINMENT THIS IS NO REAL BOOK OF VALUE#BRIAN Is brian .#chip also emo kid i dont take constructive criticism. projecting on mary and liking the same general things and being a wildlife enjoyer#person just leads you to warrior cats ONE DAY. redd has the vibes. you cant tell me misty didnt larp. misty defo stanned bluestar at first#cathal knows it from internet use but doesnt really care. flint knows from graham and the internet also#everyone else just wouldnt care . like one main way ppl learn abt warriors is online and if theyd see them#in person theyd like. wouldnt care. not literature for me. what is this. glances away#anyways heres my joke list taken too seriously#HEHHEAHHAHA#ITS SUCHA S TUPID IDEA I HAD IT FOR DAYS I HAD TO#shitpost#tier list#managers#redd wasnt almost included OOPS but like he has the vibes i had to put him in#i wanted litigation team here too but i know jackshit about them :skull:#listen i fought diana once. ever. one clo fight. im nowhere near oclo and a lot of stuff i still dont know et bc i dont like spoiling mysel#I SWEAR IF I FORGOT SOMEONE ELSE IM SO SORRY
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Me when I want to be wanted more than anything else
#I think I’d be more normal if I had more friends but every friend I lose makes me isolate more and more and now it’s like I can only trust#people I’ve interacted with for years already#and then every time I try to make friends I either don’t respond (anxiety. not feeling a vibe. whatever) or they stop responding when I#actually like them (someone who talked to me for like four days in an row and then randomly blocked me no explanation)#I think if I made more friends or even talked to more people I’d understand how to do it successfully but I don’t have enough experience and#no one wants to be friends with me (and it’s scary when they do!!!) wahhhhhhhhhh#I need to move somewhere new and talk to strangers I’m good at that#I made more friends a a concert age 14 than I have from me the ages of 16-19 and i think that’s ridiculous#how do I explain to everyone ever that nothing bad happened to me I’m just mentally ill bc my hormones are fucked and it’s let me to spiral#and ruin my own life and then slowly painfully build my life back up and then crush it all again over and over again for years and years#to the point where I’m afraid I’ll never amount to anything so the idea of ever truly having people who find any value for me in their lives#feels like it’s fake and then when I do finally trust people I end up loving too hard and fucking it up and then I isolate for even longer#it’s takes me twice as long to find a new friend and trust them again and then it happens all over again#it feels like I’m destined to be alone bc I can’t tell the difference between platonic shit and flirting so I have a wall between me and#everyone else bc I’m afraid to like someone too much and confuse my brain bc I don’t ever want to like someone who doesn’t like me even if#it’s as friends bc I’ve put more effort in than other ppl always but it’s bc I put too much effort in and expect too much and no one else#is as weirdly obsessive and clingy and dedicated as I am bc I’m not normal and that’s why no one likes me bc I try too hard or not at all#and it makes everyone in my life family friends crushes whatever hate me bc I’m all or nothing forever I can’t just be normal#I think a lifetime of living with my mother has permanently damaged the way I see myself#who are all these normal ideal people in my brain why did my mother put them there and why will I always be worse than a hypothetical person#designed to shame me for struggling which gets louder the more I struggle#spirals cycles etc etc etc#ugh. I want my brain to turn off I’m gonna go take a dab and maybe delete this later
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I really really wish dreams were easier to understand/interpret
#thoughts#oni talks#oni vents#I keep having dreams/nightmares about repressed memories &/or memories in general or like investigations or smth#like my dreams will be point blank referencing something going so far as to literally tell me that in dream but either I don’t know what or#I don’t fully understand why? like some stuff is obvious and easy & usually I figure it out in dream or right after#but other times it’s just like ???? or it’s like I have some of the pieces but not all of them and I have no idea what picture I’m supposed#to be trying to put together for the puzzle either? sometimes dreams are just cool adventures with like messaging or processing#other times it’s memories and I can tell I’m in a memory but I either can’t tell which one or why or it’s like a hazy remix of several ? or#sometimes it’s like there’s someone else there with me guiding me through it? sometimes it’s like another me or a demon or a ghost or a god#I’ve also noticed a huge uptick in dreams/nightmares where it’s like I can tell the time period they come from and it’s been getting#like progressively younger? like I had some post grad then high school then middle#and then last sleeps one was elementary or younger maybe bits & pieces where I was slightly older?#I remember going through different places i lived in order to figure out my ideal living area but there was a memory block on one area#& I remember exploring like my childhood home & I know I was a kid because I was short and everything looked like it did when I was little#everything was bigger & I remember there was I think parties? & AU versions of my family some supernatural#ik there was an investigation w/ me & an Alt ver of my sis bc smth happened to both of us & it was like a whodunnit while a cooking comp was#sort of in the back ground? think iron chef but supernatural it went between that and parties where I was the only kid there so if I go#based on that there’s at least 2 maybe 3 hazy memories of parties my siblings had? 1 was in upstairs bathroom which was hazy but I remember#I was alone with this one girl in the bathroom at some point who I think later died if it’s the same girl & then the other one there’s hazy#memories of I think me showing one of my sisters friends around the basement? around the same area as the dream too#I also keep having dreams/nightmares of the same house ik I had one before where it was abt how me+siblings have ties there that will keep#leading us back & I think my dad was trying to sever it or fix it from the afterlife? I’ve had a lot of dreams about him & the house#he’s usually either dealing w/ smth there or stuck or needs my help or it’s just memories/easier there but occasionally he gets really creep#like I had a nightmare a while ago where he was this scary shadow man at the end of the basement hall I didn’t actually know if it was him#but bc dream logic I wanted it to be him so I ran towards him & it turned into an older version that wouldn’t have been there normally#also weird coz it’s normal to have nightmares abt certain members of my family but the recent one was very different than they normally are#I’m not usually as young like I’m often younger (sometimes older) but not usually that same feeling and time period#I think the last time I rmemeber having nightmares like that was when I WAS that age back when I used to have nightmares every night#+ ofc occasional sleep paralysis (thanks tonsils) it’s like my brain is trying to remember all the stuff I’ve blocked out over the years
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Your recent post about post-PH AU stuff got me curious: why would Linebeck not like Tetra? Is it something specific to the continuity with hum!Bellum or more of a common thread present across several/all your takes on Linebeck? It's an interesting idea that somehow never crossed my mind as a possibility, and iirc you haven't talked about it before, too.
i think it mostly boils down to him not taking kindly to having to interact with another captain, especially not one who used to have link on her crew and might encroach on his authority when the two crews work together. it's really just the most relevent to post-ph with bellum present, and bellum doesn't actually have too much of an influence on the way linebeck feels about her (bellum is the one who really hates her, he's a liiiiittle pissy that he never got to take all of her life force, and he never really spends the time with her to... not hate her at least a little).
i think there is a slightly through line between my aus of linebeck and tetra not being on good terms??? tetra isn't present in a ton of aus (usually not included if there's a big focus on just zelda), but i think in the ones where she does, their paths don't cross often. i know she's in the space au and the crimson king au, and i think linebeck has more or less the same feelings abt her (being that she's a little annoying but ultimately no someone he really pays attention to until she's actively causing problems or something) tetra tends to be more important with whatever link's got going on in aus. most of the time i just think linebeck and tetra generally aren't on good terms.
otherwise they just dont get along in my mind as captains who probably step on each other's feet a lot and maybe dont like each others crew much (i dont really think linebeck would be toooo fond of her crew either, and tetra is def going to feel some kind of animosity towards bellum even if he doesnt come clean abt his identity to her) and operate too differently
#goopi-e#asks#salty talks#i had to pull up my au list bc i do not know off the top of my head what aus tetra is in asides from space and crimson king#she might only be properly relevant in those and only those so. the two aus where linebeck def isnt going to interacting with her much#uhhh tags#linebeck#tetra#sure???#similarly??? i think linebeck wouldnt like her bc she reminds him of ciela a little but chiefly of jolene n he is NOT putting up with that#i think hed teasingly call her 'princess' specifically to piss her off#HOWEVER they do have to kinda get along later when tetra figures out she likes girls too and hes like the only person she can ask abt it#shes like FUCK hes the only gay person i know goddammit i have to talk to him#damien is ignored for. some reason. hes probably the better candidate bc he also likes women and is nice#but i think it should be linebeck just so they can like. talk. probably linebeck be hes easier to get away from everyone else#and she can lie and say she has captain stuff to talk abt be shes kinda embarrassed abt it#i need to take a longer look at stuff abt tetra i feel like im missing a lot abt her??? idk im not the most interested in her tbh#but i think linebeck doesnt like her much and the feeling is mutual for a while#linebeck likes only like two of tetras crewmates. he acts like a predatory animal that spotted weak prey around niko specifically#across aus character relationships tend to be different. i think link and linebecks tends to be similar? the idea of being a good team#across my aus theyre more like soulmates than link and zelda. they do have good chemistry to work off of imo#based on their canon personalities n shit. a lot of the time in fanworks they (tetra n linebeck) seem to be on bad/shaky terms
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idk if this is just bc the internet has drastically changed the way we interact w each other and i just haven't adapted or if i'm socially awkward or ? but i feel like i was raised to have very old fashioned manners. and honestly i do get a little bit offended or bothered when other people are like. Publicly impolite
#my parents genuinely said the phrase children should be seen not heard to me. like betty draper#and maybe its bc my grandparents were VERY involved in my childhood but also my mom spent much of her youth living with HER grandparents#so its just like. older ideas about manners getting put forward. but as much as my parents both grew up very poor. i didnt?#so maybe its the same as like. i wasnt allowed to say things like aint. or drink mountain dew. bc my parents wanted us to be better than our#peers lol. also my dad did go to cambridge where they had CRAZY etiquette requirements back in the day. so maybe thats it#but my parents always did. girls should cross their legs when they sit no elbows on the table always ask for things to be passed dont reach#over someone else no hats at the dinner table for men. always be polite call people by their proper titles etc. and this adherence#to these rules makes me feel weirdly trad or conservative but i feel like its important to come across as very polite and respectful etc
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one of my new coworkers' pets are all starwars/marvel name themed. another new coworker said she could see me being a "ren faire wedding kind of person". a third started quoting Charlie the Unicorn today
i dont even remember WHAT it was that my boss said, but she made some kinda reference that was so Words My Mother Would Say that it totally blindsided me
#it makes sense re: my boss bc i am the exact same age as her son. she's only a year younger than my mom#very weird to be working for Almost My Mother#even weirder when its in a building full of people who apparently Are My Kind of People#which isnt a phrase i love but i have no idea how else to put it#im used to like. having a couple of coworkers who vibe with me and frequent the same media circles but like. its EVERYONE here???#I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO#anyway ive had this job for a week and im in the part where ive learned just enough things to know i know Nothing and it scares me#this is the worst part of every new job. It Will Pass.#there's no shortcut to the part where you just Know Things. gotta travel through the valley of Suck first.#it only feels harder than the shitty warehouse job bc its New and the warehouse was Routine.
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#venting here in tags bc i have no idea where else to put this#who else to talk to#getting laid off right before the holidays has been an absolute nightmare for me#i had so many plans and ive just spent these last few weeks grieving them#i finally had a job where i could afford basic things#i was gonna have a really nice fifth anniversary with my bf#im so upset im at a loss for what to do#i just want my job back#i want to work so i can fix my car and buy my boyfriend a nice bday gift#its all in ruins now#god help me
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The Love And DeepSpace Men- Boyfriend Headcanons + Scenarios/ Imagines Pt. 2
parings in order: Xavier x Reader, Zayne x Reader, Rafayel x Reader, Sylus x Reader requested: myself bc i craved writing something sweet genre: perhaps tooth rotting fluff fluff warnings: none unless you want cavities a/n: every day i wish they were real and every day i have a lads brain rot and i would gatekeep these ideas but i would never so here ya go ! lmk if i should write more of these ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა enjoy reading ! first part is here if you haven't read it! Pt.1 any likes and reblogs are always appreciated! enjoy!
⋆。‧˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧。⋆
Xavier:
The type of boyfriend who will finish your food whenever you can't finish it. He'll let you eat his food even when you say you're not hungry or you don't want anything. If the food he gets isn't something you would want, he'll make sure to buy something for you even if you say you don't want it.
You can expect his hand to always sneak into your lap when you lay in bed together after a long day. Gently embracing your lower stomach and whispering sweet nothings into your ear before you both fall asleep.
If you can't sleep, he'll try to join you for midnight snacks and watch whatever's on TV. He's trying his best to stay awake but you can already see him dozing off, clutching the stuffed plushie you won at the arcade.
Scenario:
You two sat on the soft grass, surrounded by a blanket of stars that painted the dark canvas of the night sky, eagerly waiting for the shooting stars to streak by.
"Xavier do you have anything in mind for what you're going to wish for?"
He turns to you, his gaze softening and a gentle smile spreads across his face. "I don't need to wish for anything else if my wish has already come true- I'm looking right at her."
Zayne:
He keeps all the little trinkets you've given him by his nightstand at home and his desk at work. That way when he wakes up you're the first thing on his mind, not that you left his mind in the first place. Each time he glances at them, he's flooded with happy memories and filled with anticipation to return to your embrace.
The type of boyfriend who puts a blanket over you if you fall asleep on the couch and eventually carries you to your shared bed.
Puts a ridiculous amount of sugar in his coffee that kind of leaves you concerned for your lover's sweet tooth.
Scenario 1:
You two lay in bed together, enjoying the lazy morning, not wanting to get up as if doing so would mean the day truly had to begin. You trace the outlines of his bare chest, your fingers dancing over the area where his heart beats.
“What are you doing?” he asks curiously as he watches you glide your fingers gently around his chest.
“Finding your heart and seeing who lives there,”
He lets out a breathy chuckle, a smile curling on his lips. “No one is there right now.”
You frown at his response, a playful pout forming on your lips. He cups your cheek, finding your reaction to be amusing and adorable. “That’s because the owner of my heart is currently right in front of me.”
Scenario 2:
As Zayne rushes to get ready for an emergency call from the hospital, his glasses are perched on top of your head.
“Zayne, aren’t you forgetting something?” you hinted, leaning in for a goodbye kiss.
“Ah yes, thank you.” He retrieves his glasses and you mock a pout. But he leans down, brushing your lips with his with a sweet kiss, amusement sparkling in his eyes. “I love you. Please don’t stay up waiting for me again.”
Rafayel:
Sometimes he can be your boyfriend but sometimes he's also like your child from how much you baby him
He needs to be close to you at all times. The type of boyfriend who is all over you all the time. He needs to be close and touching you at all times. If you got hot from cuddling, he'll have either his hands or legs over your body because if you were apart for more than a second he thinks he might explode.
The boyfriend who stays up making something special for days and stays up overnight just to make it perfect just for you.
The type of boyfriend who adjusts your do not disturb on your phone so only his notification pops up whenever you're on do not disturb.
Imagine swimming in the ocean, you're enveloped in his embrace as you both gaze at the moonlight and stars above. He holds you close, resting his chin gently on the top of your head while you nestle your hand and head against his chest. It’s perfect like this. Just two of you near his homeland, the sea. Just him and you in your own world where you both find peace with the gentle sounds of the waves surrounding you both.
Sylus:
At the beginning of your relationship he redecorates his entire home so that you'll like it more and feel more inclined to stay over and stay the night at his place.
He only has a soft spot for you and only you. You see a side of him no one else does and not just that but his super silly side.
Sometimes he'll lift you onto the counter or lift you up to get what you need on a high shelf just because he wants to hold you.
The type of boyfriend who gets on his knees or sits down to be on the same level as you when you don't want to look up at him anymore. If he was sitting, he's definitely pulling you to his lap because you're not going to be the only one standing!
The type to hold all of your shopping bags and pure for you when you’re out shopping together. He does not complain about holding your purse at all, not that it would ever bother him in the first place. Also does not complain about holding all of your shopping bags, it’s literally light work for him and he would encourage you to buy more things of whatever you wanted.
Imagine after a long night at an auction, you two stumble back into your shared home not breaking the kiss. Your hands rest on Sylus’s neck, slowly sliding down as he murmurs sweet phrases against your lips. His strong arms wrap around your waist as he carries you bridal style, guiding you both toward your shared bedroom.
#xavier x reader#xavier x you#xavier x y/n#zayne x reader#zayne x you#zayne x y/n#rafayel x reader#rafayel x you#rafayel x y/n#sylus x reader#sylus x you#sylus x y/n#xavier love and deepspace#zayne love and deepspace#rafayel love and deepspace#sylus love and deepspace#xavier lads#zayne lads#rafayel lads#sylus lads#love and deepspace#love and deepspace x reader#love and deepspace fic#love and deepspace scenarios#lads x you#lads x reader
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