#bc it’s uncomfortable to eat

[peggykicks-ass]

Who invented the bread bowl and have they been tried for their crimes?

[terrys-min-catl]

(while im survivng my burnout&artblock i managed to draw at least smth)

i need Cecil's and Kevin's interaction as bad as Carlos' and Kevin's one. bc it has so much unseen potential. If with Carlos its obvious, then with Cecil there is just a huge scope for fantasy, given how they relate to each other

[shima-draws]

Anyway speaking of poly trios. Have any of you considered Lawlusan because MANNNN.

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[weirdmageddon]

sorry for liking davejade in 2023 btw its in a cool way though

[kakusboyfriend]

Had to make smth today <3 drawing Kaku's pic made me so flustered i was sweating with the ac on and I am not kidding. Also hi, Champagne reveal!

[boarwinds]

so from what i can tell in your h.c's lucy gray, very understandably, starts off cold to coriolanus when they go to the capitol (shocker, girls don't like getting shot) is there ever a specific turning point where they sorta have a new normal (by their standards) and if so do you have a hc of that moment

I think that would only happen once LG sees the twins actually somewhat enjoy/get used to living in the capitol? Maybe its like a lightbulb moment for LG, her kids aren’t fighting over food anymore when they think she can’t see them, (tangent but,, I definitely don’t want the kids to come across as selfish(?) but they’re kids, they’re hungry n underfed, and its natural to fight over stuff w ur sibling. They know their mom does her absolute best so they try not to fight in front of her, but it must’ve absolutely broken LG’s heart when she first saw them fight esp over food. Prob also the first time she cracks n thinks maybe reaching out to CS wouldn’t be so bad, ofc she immediately dismisses those thoughts) they’re warm, and safe n under the protection of the most powerful person in panem. LG realizes she can’t keep believing that the capitol is the worst thing that could happen to her kids when she sees them so happy. Maybe it’s after they come back from their first day of school, it’s a 180 from when she sent them off, both kids were terrified and clinging to her skirt. If it weren’t for CS, she might’ve taken them right back into her arms and gone home with them, but when the twins come back after school all excited and animatedly talking over each other to tell CS n LG abt their day, LG feels relief and grief at the same time. Her twins were fine but now she knows their happiness means she can never escape CS or the capitol.

I think CS clocks this n finds it so amusing. Maybe he picks up the kids in his arms (for visual ref look at my fan art of CS carrying Maude ivory lawl) all while keeping eye contact w LG, only breaking eye contact to face each twin n tells them “slow down, one at a time so ur mother can hear you, right LG?” Or do u think he’d call her a nickname 👁️👄👁️

[buddiesmutslut]

The more we hear about bt bones, the less I’m convinced they’re going to bring up Tommy’s past. They literally could not put him in an emergency that his character was perfectly set up for, in what world would they turn around & give him his own storyline?

If they do go into his bigoted past, I don’t think they’re going to be able to just leave it as is, they’re going to have to resolve it in some way, which means Buck’s going to pull Hen & Chim in along with Tommy, and I really don’t see them giving Tommy an arc that has him interacting with other mains outside of Buck & his storyline (which always seems to involve Eddie. Which could mean nothing.)

I truly do feel that whatever “uncomfortable truths” is going to be about Buck, & I’m PRAYING that it’s him finally acknowledging the shit he’s been through & the way it’s made him into the man he is today & what he ACTUALLY wants.

Someone in the Discord said it best, uncomfortable truths aren’t always something bad. It could be about how big a part of Eddie & Chris’ life he is. It could be that Tommy doesn’t really fit in with the 118, & that could be a dealbreaker. It could be any number of things but I’m CONVINCED that whatever it is, it’s going to be about Buck.

Buck’s the main character, it’s HIS story we’re telling. Tommy’s already had his time in the Begins episodes, and they “wrapped that up” (even if it was an ending worthy of an antagonist side character & not a love interest, but they never planned on bringing him back in that capacity, so it is what it is, unfortunately).

I really do think the “mask” in Masks & the uncomfortable truths they're facing is something about Buck, a mask he’s wearing. As much as I’d love for them to acknowledge how shitty Tommy was in the beginning, I’m not convinced that’s going to be The Thing that breaks them up, & honestly?

I’m okay with that. Obviously, racism & sexism & bigotry in general should be called out, not swept under the rug for the story, but Gerrard isn’t even an out & out racist anymore, he’s just an asshole, and given how they've had Tommy attribute everything to the way that the 118 was "an oppressive place" under Gerrard's leadership, I don't think they're going to bring that back up now.

If they start leaning more into that part of Gerrard now that’s he’s taken Buck under his wing, I could see them reckoning with Tommy’s past actions, but with the storyline they have right now, I think it’s going to be about Buck, & his issues & his “baggage” (which I’m hoping to GOD is Eddie & Chris, but that might be the Buddie girl in me 😭) & what HE wants in life.

If Buck’s going to get off the hamster wheel, he’s going to have to make the choice to do it all by himself, & I hope that’s what Masks is about 🙏

[honey-dont]

do y’all think cesare gets super pissed off about all the new world foods he never got to try

[angelmush]

your post (july 9th) abt being happy and content with your life made me so fucking happy wow

oh that's incredibly sweet!! i meant every word, i'm in a very happy place in my life at the moment. i still get horribly anxious about things sometimes but my baseline is consistently in the range of neutral to good, which is a foreign but welcome feeling :))

[sometimesraven]

so I'm not the only one deeply concerned that the xmas special appears to revolve entirely around a mythos that has been historically and recently linked to antisemitism right?

[mikkaeus]

second date with this dude from tinder and he chooses a dinner place where the cheapest option is a 2 course meal for $70 ?????? wtf do I do me and my food anxiety can’t take this

[bbael]

Been eating nothing the last week and every time I move too quickly I'm about to pass out lmaoo (help)

[desperatepleasures]

just tried to go to sleep and failed bc I realized something devastatingly funny about my wip

if kantarou is hustling free meals out of hasumi and is partially motivated by saving money so that haruka doesn't starve. then I've. well lads I've invented trickle down feedism 😔

[kimetsu-chan]

Bro please leave the kictehn, I am begging you 😭🙏

[torchickentacos]