#but I would have liked to see these even as a montage. it's not cringe to have a montage if it's cute

[capricornsicle]

Teen Wolf 6x01 "Memory Lost" — This could be our best date yet.

+ bonus:

I'm taking gifset requests! Send an ask for any characters, ships, themes, etc. and I will do my best to fulfill your request or refer to someone else. I'll take any request except those involving Stiles, Derek, or Peter, since they already have so much content for this fandom.

[pookietsunoda]

The Evolution of Red Bull's YouTube: A Parasocial Deep Dive

To explain this insane media crit essay I accidentally started, I was wondering to myself why Formula One seems to have a lot of personality-driven social media promo content. Some people have commented that the drivers are marketed a lot like Kpop stars (or pop singers or influencers generally), where relatable media content builds up an audience that gets emotionally attached to the celebrity as a person, not just their work. I wanted to trace the roots of this style of content and see how it evolved, using Red Bull as a case study because of their current strong social media presence and my hypothesis that their status as an extreme sports sponsor assisted them in making content focused on individual athletes.

Abstract/ Summary: Red Bull's earliest videos in the early 2010s largely do not focus on the drivers as people and are mostly montage-type content with occasional formal interviews. Then, Daniel Ricciardo begins to treat the camera in a more friendly and casual way, giving himself a greater sense of relatability/ seeming more accessible to fans. Red Bull correspondingly begins to feature more silly and unscripted content, which intensifies once Verstappen joins the team and begins riffing off of Ricciardo. We see a growth in personality-focused and "challenge" type content with banter towards the end of Ricciardo's time at Red Bull, which continues with Gasly, Albon, and Perez and brings us to today. Currently, YouTube provides a seemingly casual and relatable look at the drivers, largely through humorous challenges, and feeds our expectations that drivers are accessible and come off as authentic to us as fans.

I started with Red Bull because they seem to have their social media content game on lock, with high budget and creative video challenges that also do a good job at showcasing the personalities of their drivers. I theorized that the reason they excelled at this social media marketing strategy was because Red Bull (the energy drink brand) sponsors a lot of extreme athletes, who are in solo sports or sports with very small teams-- thus, it would make sense for them to promote their sponsored athletes with personality-focused content. (This turned out to probably not be true, but we will get to that.)

Part (Multi Twenty) One: The Old Men

During this time period (early 2010s), any driver-focused videos are pretty short and often more focused on visually appealing montages. Mark Webber and or Sebastian Vettel will be filmed doing some fun activity and then maybe speaking to a reporter about the outing in a relatively polished, professional manner. The premise of these videos is similar to the content we see today-- ex. Seb shears a sheep, Mark and Seb have a beach filler episode-- but the way they are edited is much different. The drivers' interactions with each other are not included in the video, and there is not much focus on their personalities.

The most popular videos at this time are glossy stunt type content. There are also more quotidian things like simulator runs, news interviews, and track walks. Also some wacky highlights include a random pop music video and cringe parody martial arts short-- of which Vettel is in both, for some reason. But this disproves part of the hypothesis-- Red Bull did not start making personality focused content. Their experience as an extreme sports sponsor likely gave them experience in making stunt videos, but not content focused on driver personalities.

Part 2: 2 Dan, 2 Furious

The style of content doesn't immediately change when Ricciardo joins the team in 2014, beyond him getting roped into doing a bunch of travel vlogs, which are also more on the slick montage side even though he does get to crack some jokes at times. More cool stunts, more media interviews. When Daniil Kvyat arrives, the style of content shifts a little to focus more on the interactions between the two drivers, ex. the 2015 season preview and some shorts. There are also early inklings of the sillier modern content with some challenges and a sketch.

Then comes... the 2015 Christmas video, the first of many Red Bull Christmas videos. This one is unabashedly silly and also seems largely unscripted, representing a pretty clear break in content style. Crucially, we hear and see the drivers talking and interacting with EACH OTHER instead of just talking to a reporter off to the side, which is honestly a huge reason why today's silly driver content is so enjoyable and seems more authentic. Kvyat does a pretty traditional, scripted-sounding holiday greeting (which, fair enough, English isn't his first language and this is in line with most of the previous marketing videos), but Ricciardo is very casual and tells the camera among other things to have a "pimpin' good time"-- like a friend, rather than a formal acquaintance. Much more in line with today's style of content except it's shorter. However, this style is not initially popular, gaining only 34k views-- way less than stunt content from the same time like the F1 Car vs Rugby Team matchup that gets 2 million views.

Part 3: Rise of the Unserious Kings

By 2016, Ricciardo is very comfortable with the camera and being goofy, eventually with a smooth faced, slightly feral baby Verstappen in tow. The channel starts experimenting with silly short-form challenges that include some seemingly genuine reactions. In this travel video, they include clips with audio of Ricciardo joking around to people they meet, and Ricciardo even talks directly into the camera, saying he's not sure if he's supposed to say this, but pokes fun at himself for sweating with nerves over some air turbulence.

DANNY RIC IS POSSIBLY THE NEXUS BEING OF THIS STYLE OF CONTENT. (And the *pairing* of Ricciardo and Verstappen changed Red Bull media marketing, if not that of F1 teams in general.)

Ricciardo has begun not only relating directly to the camera, treating it as proxy for the fan viewer, but consciously trying to give it (and therefore us) an "unfiltered/ authentic" look into his own life and the lives of F1 drivers. He relates to the camera/viewer in a much more personal and friendly manner, acting like we are his friends and building that parasocial connection. Even in more conventional video types like explaining racing kit, Ricciardo is casual and humorous, a style that seems to garner lots of views for these videos (the racing kit one is at 1.5mil).

The previous more formal style of video, whether drivers talk to an offscreen interviewer or into the camera, gives us more distance-- treating viewers as strangers who should be treated with respect but are not owed intimacy. Ex. this short clip of Max in 2016 after his maiden win with Red Bull: he talks to the camera and speaks directly to fans, but in a more formal way. (Not saying this is bad! He's basically a kid and this is what most driver content was like up to this point. Besides, we as strangers do not necessarily deserve to know everything about a celebrity!)

Additionally, the pairing of Ricciardo and Verstappen seems to be a comedy gold mine. (How many clips of these two being chaotic have you seen?) Max may not seem quite as comfortable talking directly to the camera, which makes sense because it's kind of awkward. However, it's a lot less intimidating to be casual and silly to another flesh and blood person, merely in front of the camera-- especially if that person is Danny Ric who is going to give you material to riff off of. (Thus, why interactions between drivers are so generative of authentic-seeming, personality based content).

Max takes to the assignment of matching Ricciardo's energy with enthusiasm. Take, for example, the durian-opening challenge and the biking track tour (featuring Max making a bunch of silly vrooming noises as he speeds ahead of Daniel). The 2017 Christmas video shows how well Max and Daniel riff off each other, letting viewers see that Max has a silly personality as well ("Ki ki ki!!" "Aye aye aye!!" *Max dabs on the camera* *they throw fake food at each other and cackle*). During 2018, Red Bull starts solidifying the style of personality-focused challenge content that makes up much of their channel now, though it's interspersed between travel content without much talking and some more glossy stunt/ travel videos.

Part 4: A.D. (After Daniel)

After Daniel's departure, this challenge style continues with Gasly and then Albon. Red Bull also starts pulling in people from Toro Rosso to do crossover challenge episodes on location where they compete against each other, like much of today's videos on the Red Bull main channel. Ex. Albon and Kvyat face off against Verstappen and Gasly in a set of lumberjacking challenges in Canada, including a good bit of back and forth banter, which turns out to be a pretty popular video (1mil views).

Videos from Max and Alex's driver pairing era are almost entirely focused on their kind of chaotic interactions with each other. The challenges are higher production value but also silly in concept, such as the two designing their own custom box carts, allowing them to show off their artistic skills (or lack thereof) and name them stupid things. The 2019 Christmas video is also a gem. I haven't watched a ton of videos from this time, but it seems almost entirely absent of the the montages to background music or formal interview style from previous years. There is still of course some glossy stunt content, like the famed zero gravity pitstop.

And then covid! After which the content is split between the Oracle Red Bull Racing channel and the Red Bull main channel. The racing specific channel has the same news interviews and sim runs peppered with some more lowkey challenges and videos focusing on individual drivers, whereas the more famous high-effort and locationally themed videos are on the Red Bull main channel. (Ex. this 2021 Austria-themed video of Verstappen and Perez versus Gasly and Tsunoda partaking in many silly activities, including wearing lederhosen and boat racing, overseen by Red Bull's resident Darth Palpatine-esque figure Helmut Marko.)

Conclusion

Today's F1 promo content largely aims to give viewers a more goofy and "unfiltered" idea of what the drivers are like as people, allowing people to get more attached to specific drivers and form parasocial connections with them. Yet it was not always so! We don't start seeing more dialogue-heavy videos that strive to provide a more casual and "authentic" look into the Red Bull drivers until midway through Daniel Ricciardo's career as he starts treating the camera like a friend, seemingly giving us backstage access to what the drivers are "really" like. Through a more casual style of speaking to viewers and a focus on interactions between drivers, Red Bull social media is able to provide an avenue for drivers to show a more casual and relatable side to themselves.

Red Bull's previous focus on highflying stunts, travel montages, and limited or formal instances of driver dialogue portray the drivers as larger-than-life badasses who live big and ultimately unknowable lives to us commoners. This newer, more intimate style of video tries to do the opposite-- yes, the drivers live these crazy lives, but they put their pants (or racing suits) on one leg at a time too! They are unserious and relatable and (seemingly) knowable to us, allowing us normal people to get attached to them. You must first be known in order to be loved, and if fans love your drivers, it's good for business!

This shift largely seems to mirror the decline of celebrity mystique and the rise of celebrity relatability. Ex. Beyonce's been famous since the 90s and is (as is her right) private about her personal life, which in part fuels her idol status but also is frustrating to some of her fans. Meanwhile, younger celebrities like Selena Gomez or Emma Chamberlain built their brand off of being chronically online and (seemingly) unfiltered.

Future directions of study-- comparing other teams' channels. Danny Ric may have been partially to blame for Red Bull's shift in content, but I would like to do a deep dive into other teams as well.

Note: I put "authentic," "real," etc in quotes because at the end of the day, we are still strangers seeing a piece of media and do not actually know what public figures are actually like as people! Also disclaimer, I'm not really a fan of Red Bull as an institution given their questionable response to Christian Horner's misconduct allegations-- this investigation is more out of them being a good case study.

[majaloveschris]

it’s interesting, back when all this hoopla began, some blogs were convinced this was all genuine because of two reasons: 1) CE didn’t need to do PR to get more attention because he was already famous. 2) the attention was negative and did not help him and why would he go through all this for negative publicity?

While I agree to an extent that the attention with this relationship brought a lot of negativity to him and his family/friends (and obviously, hers too) - I maintain the belief that it wasn’t about the who he married, it’s about him having a partner and settling down and being married. To lots of people, this shows stability and being able to commit. It finally aligns with his “wants to settle and have a family” narrative. The GP will look at recent posts or movies of his and go oh yeah he got married (if they even bothered to remember that) and move on with their lives. His fans are the only ones currently bothered by all this because they hate the partner he’s with. But to me, they achieved their goal and now no matter what happens, at least he was married once and he’s seen with a ring - check and mate.

I kindly remind people that this is Hollywood. Public image and persona still is extremely important, and celebs always do things for reasons and most often, there is a bigger picture to unveil later on.

That being said, look at Taylor and Travis. She definitely is famous enough and imho, she did not need the publicity of a more public relationship. Some people said she quickly pivoted to Travis after her last guy Matt something was revealed to be problematic (I forgot why) and her PR team was quick to pull her out.

I don’t know if I agree with that. If it was as simple as erasing the controversy of a bad partner, she could be seen with Travis but not to the extent she has been. They got the NFL - aka one of the biggest money empires in the American sports and entertainment industry - involved. If you are not an American you may not understand how big NFL football and the Super Bowl is here in the states. But the levels they went to make Taylor and Travis a thing is interesting,

That’s why I think Chris very much needed the PR. I think it’s the woman choice that caused this ordeal to fall apart at the seams. Because I imagine a different situation:

Let’s say, he got paired with someone like an Ana de Armas or even Dakota Johnson (if either were single) - look at how the public reacted to Dakota and Chris at Central Park. Look at how the fans reacted.

It was mostly positive and people were surprised, including his own fans. Surprised that he looks good with her and physically they fit better together. Now the idea of them playing love interests isn’t so dire as people once thought.

The perception here is totally different. If he did scare videos with someone like Ana, did an IG montage, I don’t think the reaction would have been negative at all.

Him posting a pumpkin pic, or him doing restaurant tours with a different more favorable woman would have been completely different. If he showed up to VF after party with any of his ex gfs - and took a pic in the same red suit - I still think the reaction would have been less negative from his fans.

It could still be cringe to some but I highly doubt it would be at this level of animosity.

if the partner was different, I think you’d be seeing a much different result for both of them today. His partner, if she was also an up and coming actress but received better by his fans and the GP, could have seen herself get further in her career simply due to followers and visibility. If she was a different person with a different attitude towards work and promotion, she may be reaping more benefits today.

I think you have similar thoughts to me, maja, that this situation was unfortunately a failure due to the choice of pairing. If AB had gotten a different man, maybe even if she had stayed with Lucas B, you may be seeing a different result for her too. Her/his fanbases didn’t seem to hate them together as much, and also they did look pretty good together considering.

I wonder, would we still be seeing her post a ridiculous homemade shower video to distract from her friends problematic tweets? Would we still be seeing her pretend she’s never online and hiding away for months at a time? Would we still see her try so desperately to prove a point if she had simply ended up with someone else?

Yeah, I definitely see what you are saying. I don't think she was the first choice, in my opinion, especially because of the age gap. He's always been dating women who are close to his age, so choosing her for this whole "marriage" thing is interesting. Maybe choosing a younger partner was on purpose, and they were looking for someone who isn't that close to his age to attract a new demographic. I mean, a lot of younger women now think they might've a chance with him and thirst even harder, so who knows? I think people outside of the fandom only have problems with the age gap part, but unfortunately people are used to this, especially in HW, and 24 and 40 isn't even that bad, considering people like Leo (who is older) notoriously date younger women, and for him this is the first time. That we know of, of course. 

As you and I said, they should've chosen someone else, someone who hasn't done, said, or posted questionable things. The same goes for her friends. The most problematic part is her and her friends' personalities. I think most people would've moved on from the age gap thing; after all, they both are adults, even if 24 is a bit young for 40 in my opinion. And maybe if they were truly looking happy or in love, that could've made everything a bit better too. However, the fact they both look as if they don't want to be around each other helped at least him a lot. But they look relativly cute together with Lucas; it seemed like at least they liked each other. 

At the same time, I still think he and his team didn't know about the tweets, because I truly believe if they did, they wouldn't choose her.

I think his team failed this test, and this was a huge lesson for him too. 

[onesidedradiostatic]

more pre-divorce cringe montage flooding into my mind

After a meeting/battle, everyone else has left,

Alastor: Well I guess it’s just you and me :)

Vox: hebdnxchhhyEAHHhh

Meeting up between Vox’s busy schedule,

Vox: *stretches after sitting for so long, aborts an attempt to put arm around Alastor’s shoulders* Alastor! Come on down! You got me all to yourself for the next 45 minutes *winkwinkwwinkwunk*

Alastor: Oh that’s plenty! I’ve no need to take up too much of your time,

Vox: You can- I’d give- as much of my time as you- you can have me- all of my time-

Late at night,

Vox: And now what?

Alastor: oh, perhaps a nightcap

Vox: aha and then what?

Alastor: and then I’ll go home

Vox: I’ll walk you there!

Alastor: and then what? (Vox: ?!?!!???) You’d have to walk all the way back, don’t be silly!

Vox having a malfunction/fuzzy signal,

Alastor: *bonk!* There! All you needed was a good hard bang!

Vox: … God yeah I could do with a good bang

Alastor: Well! I’m happy to bang you any time! (Enjoyed the violence)

Vox: PLEASE (wants them to bang so bad it makes him look stupid)

And on the flipside (?) with Vox being more forward-thinking in regards to mastering new technology than Alastor is, Vox would get really into the numbers and specs, and babble on enthusiastically. And Alastor might just block out anything that’s not about RF amplifiers, but still sit and pretend to listen, so he’s not rude. And Vox will finish like “What do you think of that! Way-out, right?” (Petition for more awkward 50s slang for early Vox) and Alastor is like *blinkblink* “I think… You really are a marvel, Vox” but what Vox sees is Alastor gazing fondly (maybe even making eyes) at him the whole time, paying attention to him, and then giving him a huge compliment and he’ll be thinking about it all week for the rest of his LIFE

this is so long it’s like an ancient scroll or something

yeah basically. he is such a cringefail loser

[latteart98]

I keep rewatching scenes from Hidden Love because I simply can’t get over the drama and if I had to pick a favorite scene, it would be the airport scene in episode 7 when her heart gets completely shattered. Listen the drama is packed is so many cute scenes that I’m totally in love with, but the scene that really, really gets to me is that one.

Can you imagine being in SZ’s shoes? Anxious and antsy all night, she showed up in his city despite knowing the huge trouble it will get her in back at home.. all because she needs to ask him in person if he is really dating someone or was it just a lie? But poor girl didn’t even get to voice her questions because his coworker, whom she mistook as the girlfriend, came along with him.

The moment DJX appears at the airport with the lady tagging along with him, SZ’s eyes are on the lady not him. Not her crush whom she hasn’t seen in so many months but the lady. He’s all worried about her safety and mad out of concern for her but all she can think about is “who is she? Is she your girlfriend? You promised me that you would tell me immediately if you got a girlfriend. Why didn’t you keep your promise?”

Notice how she’s not mad at him for dating because she knows deep in her heart that she’s too young for him and he has never seen her as anything more than a friend’s little sister. No, she’s not having any false hopes. Rather, she’s hurt that he didn’t remember the promise he made to her. And as a result, it became apparent that she was no one special to him nor were the times they spent together was of any significance to him. That he was only nice to her because she was in front of him and had it been anyone else, he would’ve behaved the same way. All the while she held on to every memory, every gift like a treasure.

And just because she knew that she never really had a chance with him because of the age difference, doesn’t mean it hurt any less to see him with someone else. She kept hoping against all hopes that she would, eventually, grow up and he would then notice her a woman but she figured he’s already found his “someone better” - someone that’s not her, that will never be her.

And when she gives him one last sad smile and starts walking away, leaving behind the teddy and pieces of her heart with him, it’s a cinematic masterpiece. She’s walking away and with every step, her mind flashes back to a montage of DJX being kind to her and smiling at her and being full of warmth- all the things that made her fall for him to begin with. And she realizes that those memories, those little smiles of his, those gestures are just gonna forever remain as little treasures in her heart. Even before she leaves the airport, when she wishes him happiness and leaves the teddy with him, we know she’s bidding farewell. She’s mentally getting ready to never see him again. Oh, it’s breaking her heart and so is the audience’s hearts. The montage, the walking away first, the one last turn back, the background music, the fact that it’s at an airport… everything was so perfectly put together.

And finally when her brother comes to pick her up, she starts sobbing in his arms. He’s holding her and trying to comfort her through promises of buying her her favorite food or comic books or even beating the guy up.. all silly stuff thinking it was just an online fling. As if her whole teenage years’ worth of hopes didn’t just crash at her feet. As if her innocent little heart didn’t just break into a million pieces.

Listen I know teenagers are dramatic (gosh I would know, I used to be one) and most of the times, the love/crush they have as a teen is cringe and melodramatic… but sometimes, only sometimes they are capable of honest sincere feelings so when it hurts, it fucking hurts. We might say they’re being dramatic because it’s only their first puppy love but God, that’s exactly why it hurts so much. Because it is their first love. Because they didn’t know any better, they put so much of their mental space and time and hopes and fears into this one person and when it doesn’t work out, it fucking sucks. Yes they will move on, yes they will get over it eventually, yes with time they might even look back at their teen self and cringe. But this moment, the moment your heart breaks for the first time whether you are 17 or 30 or 49, it’s not a moment you will ever forget. This moment becomes a landmark in your heart.

[justoneofthoseghosts]

Back from the dead to scream into the void about Bridgerton because the Polin brain rot is real. I've watched the episodes twice now and have some thoughts nobody asked for:

Colin with all that new found swagger after his hot boy summer just makes me cringe. That whole montage with the ladies - er, no, thanks. Give me back my sensitive Colin please.

Nicola Coughlan is amazing, truly a superstar. She embodies the role so well, in all the bits - comedy, romance, intimate scenes. Ugh. I hope she gets more leading roles!!

Love that Colin drops all pretenses when he senses Penelope's distress at the first ball - sensitive Colin is still there folks!

Also, I think we moved on too quickly from his apology. "There is nothing more I want than to earn back the favor of the one person who has always truly made me feel appreciated." Luke said in an interview that the best version of Colin was the one when he was with Penelope (or something like that) and it does ring true in the first half of the season even if he comes up with this disastrous and misguided plan to help her find a husband. He's always himself when he's with her - there's no postering, no swagger.

I am a huge rom com nerd so I truly appreciated all the rom com elements in this. Nicola just ate that all up. She was amazing in all the awkward moments in the second and third episodes and Luke did a good job too. You could really see their chemistry and how they fed off each other!

They talk about how they first met. Please 🥺 it's the same meeting as in the book and the way they reminisce about it while walking in the market was so cute, straight out of a rom com!

Kinda cringed at Colin's journals because they were about girls 🤡 should have kept them as they were in the book where they were more about his travels.

"We shall gallop along" is this season's "I oiled my way right in" 😂

The first kiss scene was incredible. I think I prefer it to the book because there is much more emotional connection between them - they've been lifelong friends as opposed to acquittances in the book (even if Colin was starting to see Pen in a new light by then). The connection between them is undeniable but they each get something different from it. To Pen, it's the ending. The last thing she would ask from him before she let him go. To Colin, it's the awakening, the shift of his feelings, the beginning of its growth.

Pining, yearning Colin is not as unhinged and chaotic as in the book but I think he might get there in the second half. At least I hope because chaotic, unhinged Colin in the book was pretty great. I mean, interrupting a dance was kind of unhinged of him to do.

But I do like how down bad he becomes after that one kiss 😂 Luke really portrayed it well in the first few minutes of the third episode.

I quite like Francesca and John even though I know how that will end. Curious to see if they'll take front and center in season 4 or if the show is renewed, it'll be in season 5.

I know it is an ensemble show but there seems to be a lot more subplots this season?

lol at Portia trying to get her daughters pregnant when one of them hasn't even done it yet since getting married 💀

Penelope and Eloise ❤️‍🩹 they miss each other ☹️ also, I do not care for Cressida.

I've always liked Violet's talks with her children and how in tuned she is with each of them.

Can't lie, I loved the carriage scene - Colin's confession, the momentary disappointment that he was getting friend zoned, the intimacy but most especially towards the end where they could just laugh together because at the heart of it, they were very, very good friends first.

Also, that look Colin gets when he realizes he's going to marry Penelope? Chef's kiss, 10/10, no notes. Luke really delivered and I think it helps that a lot of the Bridgerton actors are theater actors because they have a distinct way of showcasing little nuisances in their facial expressions.

Needless to say, I enjoyed it. Even if there were some key departures from the book, I think it was a fairly good job. I can't fault them for bringing in an external force (another suitor) to help Colin realize his feelings even more. In the book, a lot of it happens in his head, which can be hard to translate to a show. At least we got rid of the suitor early and it didn't become a legitimate love triangle.

I do need a Lady Danbury and Penelope alliance though. I loved that in the book and I hope they don't drop it!

[thepalmofyourfreezinghand]

I’ve been so intrigued by Maxton Hall and now I’m going to watch it, you’ve influenced me

Please watch it! I think you’ll like it!

Full disclosure, I usually don’t like YA/romance tv series, but I make an exception when the actors are good.

For example, I don’t like the first and the third seasons of Bridgerton (also) because I don’t like Regé-Jean Page acting (he’s good! Just not my style), and although Nicola Coughlan is an amazing actress she and Luke Newton have very little chemistry, imo.

The second season, on the other hand? I love it. I think about that “And it is not far enough!” speech almost daily. And the reason it works is because Jonathan Bailey was able to make it emotional and believable and not cringe.

Maxton Hall uses every single trite trope in existence (enemies to lovers, bad boy, even a freaking pool scene), but it just works. And here’s why (imo) - without spoilers:

1. Harriet Herbig-Matten and Damian Hardung are amazing actors (both waaaay above average when it comes to young actors who star in “chill” tv series) and they have great chemistry. Damian Hardung in particular has incredibly expressive eyes and you can just read him like an open book, which adds so much depth to the story.

2. The story manages to subvert a few tropes along the way.

3. Although the two protagonists reflect two tropes (the shy, poor, academically gifted girl and the rich, asshole boy) they never feel “constrained” by said tropes: they’re not cardboard cutouts.

4. The writing is good! There are very few cliches in the dialogues.

Plus there’s a two-minute long montage of a dance scene, and the actors managed to make it fun, believable, cute, romantic, and not cringe. The scene has gone “viral” on TikTok and for good reasons, because too often dance scenes in these kinds of tv shows are just unbearable to watch for how awkward they are. In this instance, instead, it’s just the way two European teenagers who like each other and are not particularly good dancers but have a lot of chemistry and are enjoying themselves would dance, which is amazing to see. It’s just so natural.

If you do watch it watch it in German with subtitles (if you don’t speak German hahah). The emotion in their voices in some scenes is just too good to miss.

[randomthefox]

"lol it's so cringe and laughable that Sage is having a sad song flashback montage where she reminisces over happy memories of Eggman and there's only like three scenes and they're all of Eggman being a selfish dickhead what overwrought melodrama!"

Like. Yeah.

That's the point.

After the development Sage has had she now views the relationship Sonic has with his friends as desireable. Enviable. "A family born of love and not genetics" which is "everything I want." She is NOT genetically related to Eggman, because she has no genetics she's an AI. She WANTS to have a loving family with Eggman, which obviously means she DOES NOT HAVE THAT. You can't WANT what you already HAVE. She wishes she had with Eggman what Sonic has with Tails and the others. She's ashamed and upset at herself for letting her view of Sonic change so much that now she's wishing she had the love that he has, Love that which she previously dismissed as "an emotional status too vague and varied in its definition."

She could ONLY define love based on her pre-established data that Eggman designed her to have access too. But now she's witnessed what love truly is in person by observing Sonic. And now she wishes she had it, which means she knows she does not possess it.

She even GUARDEDLY asks Sonic for reassurance as to the suggestion that Eggman cares about her. WHY WOULD SHE ASK HIM THAT if she wasn't doubting it being true?

The importance of Roger Craig Smith's delivery cannot be overstated here, btw.

Sonic knows better than anybody that Eggman caring about someone is not a wholesome uwu nuclear family father of the year type deal lol.

So Sage's wistful memories while desiring "a family born of love" are to think back on

Eggman yelling at her for disappointing him and for suggesting something he doesn't approve of.

Him saying that he'll take her back home once they're done on the Starfall Islands and her asking if Orbot and Cubot qualify as her brothers.

And him saying that he's proud of her for keeping him protected from the dangers of cyberspace. (Which SHE trapped him inside of in the first place btw).

The fact these interactions are HILARIOUSLY insufficient to try and construct a foundation of a loving family onto is THE ENTIRE POINT. Sage is crying because she's heartbrokenly jealous. She sees the power and the value of genuine and pure familial love which she lacks with Eggman and she now longs for it. Sonic has corrupted her with his influence.

She's also crying because she thinks they're all gonna die when The End breaks out yes, and now she cares about Sonic and doesn't want him to die and it was easier to accept his inevitable death when he was just The Enemy. She's dealing with a lot of emotions right now lol.

[mikuni14]

Last Twilight - Ep 12

I really gave this series a chance, I honestly sat down for this episode thinking, ok, maybe they will save this dumpster fire that was the finale of the previous ep. I really WANTED to like it.

The series went for my throat literally in the first minute 😀 After that everything was more or less torture. Almost every scene, every word felt like it was written specifically against me 😆

Let's start with a nice scene of a smiling Day saying coachy, positive bullshit suggesting that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and wasn't literally dragged out of the stagnation and depression by Mhok. A montage of scenes of Day thriving. All of this thanks to himself!

And then Mhok arrives, cue the romantic Halmark escalator scene and………… ……………………. ……………….. Mhok and Day slip into their old shoes, acting exactly like they did after their first kiss scene LMAOOOO they literally went back in time to this episode, Mhok flirts, Day is skittish. Everything that happened is pointless. They act like the 3 YEARS (!!!!) apart, or that horrible scene, or even the fact that Day fucking blocked Mhok didn't exist.

This whole episode killed me because it made it seem like Day was the victim of something really bad and Mhok was the bad guy, like it was all because of him, like he had done something terrible to Day. When Day asks his mother if he can give Mhok a chance because he might do "the same thing again", it sounds like Mhok was beating him or cheating on him????? Mhok thanking for the breakup????????? Mhok doing emotional labor again and winning over Day, while Day pushes him away (but not really) and is blushing and skittish and just takes the attention given to him was a literal repeat of the past and actively made me feel upset, for me it was humiliating to see Mhok like that.

And what's interesting - Mhok after his return is exactly the same, he behaves exactly the same, he is "overprotective" again. But now, Day and the plot are ok with it? 🤔

And this wedding, which somehow was about Day anyway. Like everything. (Night and Porjai in the future: remember our wedding? oh yes, that event when we took DAY to the airport and when DAY had his eye surgery? 😆)

Also, please leave the weddings, the profound speeches, the dramatic scenes, the tearjerkers, the airport runs, and the sudden phone calls about available transplants to the professionals. Soap operas do it so much better, so just… leave it. I can cry my eyes out at these scenes during Bollywood movies because they know how to do it. In Last Twilight I don't know where to hide because of embarrassment.

Day getting his sight back? I'm for it! It wasn't a miracle, just a medical procedure. Why would they deny him that? Especially since medicine could help in his case. But again, it's not about what happened, it's about HOW it happened, it's about the execution (which is also my main complaint about the scene from the previous episode). It was just melodramatic and crammed into the moment to force an emotional response from the audience. And did you notice how flat the scene when Day sees fell? "I can see!" haha, Porjai is pretty, end of the scene. Like???? The series told a certain story and from a narrative point of view, Day's regaining his sight at that moment and in such a way was artificial, so it does not give any satisfaction or joy in the fact that a blind person can see again - I was embarrassed by how cringe and saccharine this scene is. Not to mention the beginning of the episode contradicted the ending of the episode! The story must hold together, it must be coherent, the series should have a central, main idea. Last Twilight doesn't have that, it lost it 2 episodes ago, and the saccharine ending of this show was just a soap opera nail in the coffin.

tl;dr Mhok and Day are back in the past. Despite the loud speeches about development, growing and having a beautiful life despite adversities, the series made sure that the characters end it pretty much the same, in perfect circumstances, without the slightest cloud in their perfect sky 😀

The best things about this series are:

Mhok, my golden boy

Night without hesitation or making a big deal out of it, calling Porjai's baby his. I am a sucker for men who don't care whether their child is his blood. Night and Ha Do Young from The Glory, unconditionally loving their children regardless of whether they are their biological parents -> 💯💯💯

Right now, I'm not even angry, I don't even have any particular negative feelings. I just… I watched the whole episode like that:

[alittlebitofrainbyyourside]

PhayuRain and the 'Cringe' of Loving

Gif credit to @/notbadluv on Twitter.

The choice to have a full length song in the uncut version of this episode, sung without accompaniment, is an unusual one in film. Normally we instead see a scene like this ending partway through or it switching from an unaccompanied version to a studio recording. It's a somewhat shocking moment and maybe even to some people watching an overwhelming or cringe-inducing moment.

But to me, I think their performances, the wonderful singing and the choice to do a montage for some portions of the song, all help make this scene work without endless secondhand embarrassment the way it would in others. And a critical part of why the scene works within the larger story is that it's a little cringe.

This is one of those moments that is a pure distillation of their relationship: Phayu is presented as the ultimate cool guy initially in the show but in reality he isn't very cool while Rain is presented as passionate and emotionally clumsy so in this moment, it should be easy for Rain to hurt Phayu. But that's not what happens.

Rain worries about talking too much and being annoying at the start of the show but in scenes like their movie date, we see how Phayu enjoys listening to Rain's rambles and how well Rain responds to sincere and straightforward expressions of love and care from Phayu like when Phayu whispers that he likes Rain in Ep 5 and Rain spends the next day still thinking about it. This is why Rain is the kind of person who really enjoys having a love song sang to him while at the same time getting very overwhelmed as the song continues and he's not allowed to look away without losing.

This all goes to show that Rain isn't after 'cool senior Phayu' or 'hot and powerful mechanic Phayu', even if he finds those personas fun and hot. Cool guy Phayu is the one that Rain raises his chin at in challenge to while sweet and loving to the point of cringe Phayu is the one who overwhelms and supports Rain and makes him feel so confident in himself and his work.

The singing scene is in Phayu's home, just between the two of them, and it's Phayu letting all his nerdy, loser, cringeness out. Instead of Rain making fun of Phayu's cringe or not getting the message of love that Phayu is using this song to convey, the moment instead overwhelms Rain to the point of needing to cover his eyes.

It's a moment that confirms their match.

Within the cool guy showoff between Phayu and Rain, Phayu had a pattern in which he would tease Rain while Rain offered his many reactions. Over the course of the show, this also gives birth to a dynamic where Phayu flusters Rain with his sincere interest.

Both of these strands come together in this moment: Phayu is being sincerely affectionate and instead of being worried about cringe, he's actually using it to tease Rain and it works, Rain gets flustered, so flustered in fact that he has to run away, while Phayu laughs on. He's laid out his entire cringe self, all the cringe of loving another person and it's gone wonderfully. And that is such an important moment in his character arc because it's really the moment that Phayu's needs and goals for a relationship have been realized.

The fact is that when we love someone, we often do things that are more than a bit cringe but the experience of them is anything but specifically because we love them and they love us.

My original meta thread on Twitter.

-The Wife

[kendrixtermina]

Giving Doctor Who a New Chance, Part 3: The Giggle

It's nice that they're bringing back some classic villain, but I really wish they had the Toymaker butcher some other language. The gag is just not funny at all when you actually speak German

Ok, that's an illustrative montage of a mightyfine chaos

IDK what I think of this - set it up in a way that it can be reset again.

oooh, Mel is back! As a 6th Doctor fan, I appreciate this. Did not expect that. She still got that perky way of talking.

Having seen the eps he was in, slipping over a bottle of Vodka is exactly like Sabalon Glitz would die, but hey, at least he lived to a ripe old age.

Donna just landed herself a new job. I guess there's that duality in human's fluctuating confidence levels again cause she glibly asks for double but looks ecstatic that it worked

so, Donna doesn't remember in detail, but she got a rough glimpse

the guy playing the Toymaker IS pulling off the creepy clown act pretty well tho

I really liked that scene between Donna & the Doctor in the infinite cabinet with the Doctor re-evaluating his life choices.

That's another thing that's been missing, that fucking Chibnall didn't get - that the point of him, at the end of the day, is that he's just some guy. Somewhat wiser & tougher than a human, maybe, but still fundamentally just dude with wits & confidence. A trickster, a flawed person trying to do the right thing that through trickery ended up with this fearsome reputation. I used to think of RTD not getting it as much as Moffat did cause he did like overly savior-archetype-like plots sometimes whereas moffat emphasized the 'just a madman with a box' angle, but RTD gets it in this scene where we see the Doctor cringing at his past self for things he couldn't have foreseen & now he doesn't know what to do in a world that doesn't follow predictable rules

Because that's what they don't tell you about getting smarter, wiser or even just older - the price you pay for knowing better today is cringing at the awareness you used to lack. thats very real. you end up thinking you should somehow have known or done better even if you couldnt have.

there's certainly some thematic rhyming with the 'narrowmindedness-plague' afflicting the earth

Donna's dad is actually right. Good for him to be wary of the Hot Hand fallacy and its ilk. Missed a chance for an epic nerd reference

I dunno what to think about the concept of 'shift to fantasy', i wouldnt have done that & really turned more to harder & concept fanfiction, but i suppose it keeps thinks fresh without being repetitive (they cant keep destroying and un-destroying gallifrey all the time...) & the show has always been the very softest of sci-fi anyway - at leasts its set up in a way that it can be reset again or let future writers pick whatever they want. though i suppose it depends on how its done like, if possible without wholly throwing out humanist values. You can absolutely be a trickster in a fantasy story or fight crazy things with logic; Infinity train did it to great effect. I mean, the classics had far wonkier stuff like actual Vampires & whatnot.

i appreciate Donna rhyming while defeating the puppet

"jingsaw out of your history" thing imply that the timeless child thing was an in-universe retcon of sorts? Oh please. I mean I could kinda sorta accept 13 is she literally wasn't really the same character.

between this & the last episode it's pretty close anyway to the "every single backstory is true because of timey wimey ball" thing from the expanded universe fixed, on-screen canon. That I could live with. It's potentially deeply interesting that by virtue of getting tangled up in all the timelines the Doctor has in some ways been to many possible futures & possible versions of reality.

Former companions werent affected by the giggle thing cause it was a retroactive change made by the toymaker upon getting free

It's kinda sad that we'll never get to see the battle between the Master and the Toymaker because that must really have been something. Like two Jokers or Phantoms of the Opera fighting.

this is like when Q showed up on the bridge of the enterprise. Only much deadlier. I appreciate that the scene never stops feeling actually menacing.

I like how Mel also comes in to hold his hand, too, she's for realsies. (I guess this is how she makes up for making him drink all that carrot juice)

The "Alons-y" is a niftly little contrast/ bookend with 10s exit

My headcanon is that bi-generation absolutely WAS a myth, but that this is an extension of the whole breach in the logic/edge of reality storyarc being set up here, or really just the Toymaker thinking it would be fun to double them infinitely

I like how the Doctor mocks the Toymaker's fake accent with 'the ball' thing

The advantage with the ball game is, of course, that Fifteen has already seen it. He's fabulous alright.

I appreciate how they climb on each other at some point

I don't envy Kate, watching this absurd thing... humanity already got somewhat good at taking Sci-Fi threats on their own, but this they don't have context for. Maybe UNIT is gonna need a vault of magical artifacts now. I suppose you can play with that for a few seasons. Like how a contrast of fantasy & sci-fi elements worked in Madoka.

I like how Donna is casually putting her arm around 15

I guess 15 has reached that point where rather than cringe at your younger self you're able to have compassion. That's a good arc, actually.

aaand of course there's the obligatory sequel hook for the Master's return, to the surprise of no one

I like how the years with the lost memory weren't completely lost but Donna still learned something from them that allows her to send this message now

Soo Fifteen is basically taking advantage of the cartoon logic still being in effect until the end of the episode to duplicate the TARDIS. I bet it only worked because he picked the silliest possible hammer.

I appreciate how 15 makes sure to get one last Donna hug.

I do like that it kinda came down to self-love, self-compassion & knowing when to take a restorative break & all that. That's an important message these days.

So, the Nobles just deadass adopted the Doctor & Mel. Makes all the sense.

I always thought of Mel & the Doctor's dynamic as sibling-like (as opposed to Peri & the Doctor having a 'tsundere couple' energy & Ace who of course had a teacher/student thing), so I feel vindicated.

Also I appreciate how an older woman who didn't have kids but spent her life traveling & adventuring & doing what she wanted, & then ended up feeling a bit lonely because of it here simply ends up not lonely by finding friends / found family. Cause that's the fucking annoying gotcha they always hurl at you "Oh if you don't have kids & live the life you want you'll be lonely!" As if you can't have friends. Also, plenty of ppl who do have kids wind up lonely because the kids end up hating them.

I'm all for the Doctor catching a break. Very touching, honestly. & he's like actually a point where he wouldn't just run off & get side-tracked or brood on the inevitability of its end. (like he would have when spent those years with River)

Also sets an interesting background for 15 of course, as he'll be coming out of it 'fully rested', in a sense.

So, yeah, I do think I'm looking forward to what 15 will get up to. It was sort of a great way to introduce him in such a way that ppl will instantly like him for how he comforts his past self here.

It's also probably the ideal ending for Donna, cause, much like Rose & Clara she wanted to stay forever, & maybe now that she has a daughter & other responsibilities she won't want the big danger all the time, but the Unit Job & living with the Doctor in a house? That's prolly what she would have wanted.

(I wonder if they'll end up running into Martha & Mickey at her job, since Donna & Martha were buds that time they met. )

[bodybeyondstories]

Rapid Expansion Mechanism - 1

Amir signs up for an experimental sleep study to make some extra cash, then starts having strange dreams about people around him growing wildly out of control. He's not all that concerned.

maleTF // growth // butt growth // dick growth // nsfw

4340 words

Note: I was really interested in dreams and dreaming, the impacts of the immaterial on material worlds, etc etc. Also thinking about playing around more intentionally with body horror as a theme. This is a little heavy on the exposition, I was having fun with a l'il bit of worldbuilding. We'll all have to see where it goes I guess.

---

[lol I think you were in my dream last night]

Amir stared at his phone for ten minutes, waiting for a reply. Stared at the ceiling for another ten waiting for the telltale double vibration of a text notification. The sunrise dusk began to shift into a muddled overcast morning. He lay in bed waiting for some outside force to begin the day for him as the world progressed on its own.

He’s probably still asleep, he thought. He probably woke up to the notification from me, reluctantly opened it, cringed and went back to bed. Telling someone you dreamt about them after a first date is insane. He began to berate himself with clarity as his sleep-addled thoughts cleared. This guy’s barely been rid of you for twelve hours and you’re sending good morning texts as if he’ll actually respond. You’re supposed to be playing it cool. That’s what people do, right? They play it cool.

He needed coffee. He needed coffee and he needed to stop beating himself up. I’m a perfectly fine focus of someone’s attention. A catch even, sort of, sometimes. I would love to hear about my weird REM sleep adventures. None of this felt reassuring.

The dream! I’m supposed to be recording my dreams, he remembered, one hand flailing around the side table until it landed on a small spiral notebook. He eased deeper under the covers to try and convince his body that it was not actually waking up yet and should let him hold on to the opaque montage of sounds and images slowly flushing out of his brain. He squinted in the gray dawn light, putting pen to paper and letting memories flow without interpretation or context, as instructed.

The date with Dex last night. He’s sitting across the table from me and he’s talking about something, I can’t make out what he’s saying, the sound is garbled and woozy but he’s talking about something and there’s something creeping up under his shirt, bulging and pulsing higher and higher but he’s still just talking and eventually it reaches the top and his brown cockhead pokes out, it’s leaking precum, continues expanding upward and he’s still just talking as it gets girthier and rips his collar and he’s just ignoring it and everyone else seems to be ignoring but I feel more and more anxious, no, terrified, I can see it stretching and lurching higher and bigger and he moves his head to the right to maintain eye contact with me and it’s gushing all over the table and he’s still just talking like having a liter bottle thick schlong arcing past your head is the most normal thing on a date and eventually the rest of his clothes rip and his dick slams onto the table and everything goes flying and I’m staring right into it getting ready to blow and it erupts and…

Amir paused in thought, pen in hand. The memories had slipped out so easily onto the pad in his lap and were now completely gone from his head. All he had was the scribbled description of the strange scene and the still image of Dex and that…thing erupting from his body and the phantom sensation that something was very wrong. His heart was beating fast in anxiety or anticipation, he couldn’t tell. I’m already having sex dreams about this guy? This dry spell is ridiculous, he thought, seeking to convince himself that that’s all it was. Pent up sexual frustration and anxiety leading to one too many drinks.

He looked at the notepad laying in his lap with trepidation. I guess it is good to have a space to think through whatever weird bullshit is bouncing around your unconscious, he thought, sure that somewhere he’d read that it’s good for your mental health to make a practice of writing your dreams. He hoped that that was the only reason they had him doing it.

He’d had an appointment the day before with a sleep study research trial. He'd been referred to a specialist for his insomnia, but lacked the coverage for it until he started a new job. So he ended up signing up as a subject with some place called Phantasy Labs that he had never heard of but apparently had a huge research campus nestled in the woods just outside of town. Some kind of experimental startup with more money than God and not a huge public presence. Not that he thought much of it beyond the pay was decent and he needed the cash. He figured whatever it is, he’d probably get the placebo anyway.

I need to get out more, Amir mused as he cruised through the heavily wooded grounds of Phantasy Lab’s campus, marveling at the fact that he’d apparently never seen this landscape before. He craned his neck back and forth at impossibly tall oaks with great beards of Spanish moss, their tops forming a crown shy cathedral far above that let in just enough dappled light to see the road. The pavement was well manicured, resembling a reddish brown clay, winding its way through the forest with meandering curves, making for a delightful cruise through nature but preventing him from seeing too far ahead or too far behind. Visibility quickly became poor as he gazed into the gloom of the densely wooded landscape, tricks of the light occasionally producing brief glimpses of what looked like figures moving furtively among the trees, too big to be anything he recognized. 

But it was just him ambling in his beat up Civic with mismatched hood, no other hints of this supposed facility beyond the occasional sign inviting him to continue along this path, as if there were anywhere else to go. Eventually, and somewhat reluctantly, the trees parted to release him, revealing the squat structure that he took to be the research facility. The road gentled him to the right and he cruised along, looking for a parking lot but seeing only the great wall of trees on the right and the seamless, continuous curve of the building to his left. He continued on for what felt like ages, convinced he had to have circled the building at least twice if not for the occasional break in the scene of what looked like experimental farm plots with unusually large crops. He’d heard of giant pumpkins but had never seen eggplants that could eclipse his entire leg or peaches the size of his head weighing down the branches of a tree. This was all being tended to by the only human presence he had seen so far, gardeners who looked fit to bursting out of their work coveralls, some of them going so far as to rip the sleeves off or crop the pant legs to free up surprisingly juicy quads. He wondered if they were hiring.

Eventually he saw a car symbol on the smooth wall of the building. As he pulled up to it, an invisible seam unzipped from top to bottom, revealing an interior space just large enough for his car, with no discernible light source yet softly lit nonetheless. He idled in, pulling to a stop as lavender text appeared on the solid wall in front of him: “Welcome to Phantasy Labs. Please put your car in park, turn it completely off, and proceed to the door on your left.” A series of dots of soft light began to appear along the wall, running to the left from the text around to an outline of a doorway. As he approached, the wall unzipped itself, and more lavender text appeared above: “Remember to gather your things. We’re so happy you’re here.” 

He turned around just in time to see his car being soundlessly lowered into the floor, towards what he hoped was some sort of underground garage. He made a mental note to ask someone about that, then stepped through the entryway into a massive foyer. The space was expansive, significantly taller than the building appeared from the outside, the curvature of the walls dominated by rounded hexagonal windows that ran from floor to ceiling, providing a view of the monumental trees outside, and far in the distance, the tops of the city skyline.

A smattering of people who seemed well trained in looking busy were milling about, heading from one unzippering portal to another, none bothering to acknowledge his existence. The only direction was given by the familiar lavender dots of light, now appearing along the floor, and progressing as he followed them along to the wide, swooping reception desk.

“Hi,” he said, walking up to a welcome desk that seemed the manifestation of minimalist efficiency. “I’m–”

“Amir,” the receptionist said, without pausing in their tapping against a keyboard of lavender light embedded in the surface. “Welcome.”

“I’m here for the–”

“4 o clock REM study. Sapp is in the lab now, looks like he’s just about ready for you. Please double check the liability waiver and the NDA,” they said, as two streams of text appeared side by side on the wall behind them, scrolling just fast enough for Amir to keep up before a signature pad appeared directly in front of him on the surface of the desk. He scribbled his name in his usual seal of lukewarm approval and it disappeared into the ether. “Please proceed directly to the lab and nowhere else.” At this, the receptionist finally looked up, locking eyes with Amir just long enough for him to see what looked like circuitry running through their lavender irises. “Just use your fingerprint for security.”

“Oh, do you need my fingerprint?”

“We have it,” they answered, with a practiced smile.

—

Amir followed the dots through the facility, which somehow managed to be both claustrophobic and expansive, like an open air maze. He was convinced he would be meandering through those passageways and elevators for the rest of his life if he lost track of the pattern of light along the floor leading him forward. He couldn’t tell if it was matching his pace or setting it. Finally, he stopped at a door with soft light around the frame glowing in approval before letting him through with the press of his thumb against a small pad on the side.

“Hi, you’re Doctor Sapp?” Amir asked in the general direction of the lab-coated figure puttering around the space, checking monitors, gathering equipment, opening what looked like a highly sophisticated code-locked cooler to pull out a bag of peanut butter cups. He paused, spinning on one heel toward the sound of Amir’s voice.

“I’m a technician,” he corrected, scanning Amir up and down, seeming to look through him. “All the PIs are, uh, indisposed elsewhere, you could say. But hopefully they’ll find their way back soon enough,” he added with that same practiced smile. “Oh you’re interesting,” he said, as if finally noticing Amir’s existence as an actual human being, looking not quite at him but at the air immediately around him.

“I’m…here for the–”

“Study! Yes, we are thrilled to have you. Please take a seat,” he gestured to a stool placed in the center of a ring of what looked like sigils imprinted in a circle on the floor, softly glowing and fading to a rhythm Amir couldn’t quite catch. From the ceiling hung a white cap covered in glowing sensors, a handful of small white circles dangling from the edges. As Technician Sapp walked him over, Amir’s eyes were drawn to his sneakers, which looked disproportionately big for an otherwise average sized man. They seemed large enough to affect his motion around the lab, his peculiar walk drawing Amir’s attention as he explained the procedure.

“There’s still so much we still don’t know about the human brain, it’s like a portal to radical new worlds.” His eyes brightened as he gave the elevator pitch to Amir, who began going in and out of focus as Sapp shifted into granular detail about the neurological ins and outs of the procedure as he finished setting up the apparatus, carefully placing the cap on his skull and sticking the little white sensors to his forehead and temples. It was more than a little out of his wheelhouse to be honest, but once the helmet was on he became fully distracted by the fireflies. Or at least that was the closest approximation. Little bursts of warm light in the space around him, progressing in lazy, chaotic spirals and loops, or flashing across his vision like shooting stars, but never venturing past the circle of sigils on the floor. He had the brief thought that maybe he should mention this.

“...there’s really incredible advancements being made in the research sector out of CSS,” continued Sapp. “Some artifact they’ve been working with that’s pushed transdimensional energetics decades ahead and if our theories are true about quantum tunneling via dream states, and the conditions are just right, we might be able to give you the right nudge–combination of nudges I guess–to activate REM.”

“Oh, like REM sleep!” exclaimed Amir, brought back to Sapp’s words by a term he thankfully recognized. “That’s good, right?”

That middle space stare again, not quite at him or through him, but analyzing something about him that Amir couldn’t quite see.

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go with that.” The technician paused in contemplation. “I know this all probably sounds very…woo woo,” he said, as if making that specific sound for the first time, his hands splayed out and rotating left and right with each respective woo, the fireflies dancing in tandem. They locked eyes in prolonged silence until Amir realized his statement was more of an open question.

“I think it’s fine, sounds cool,” Amir responded with a crooked, encouraging smile.

“Good!” the technician clapped. “Then we’re all set.”

Amir looked nervously at the clock, composed of lavender numerals on the far wall, which displayed 16:16.

“Spooling up now,” said Technician Sapp. “Just relax, you shouldn’t feel a thing. You shouldn't not feel anything either.”

The fireflies began to take on a range of multicolored pulses of light, their meandering paths turning into a counterclockwise rotation around the inside of the circle. Am I supposed to close my eyes? thought Amir. Should I have asked? But he was captivated, finding it impossible to look away as they picked up speed and intensity, blending into a vortex of light that stretched the length of his vision, tightening closer and closer until–

They were gone. Amir was sitting perfectly still in the middle of the ring of sigils, still softly glowing and fading.

“All done,” said Sapp, who had positioned himself with a wide stance at one of the monitors. “Really interesting readings on this one. That session lasted 33 minutes and 28 seconds.”

The clock displayed 16:17.

“How do you feel?” asked Sapp. “Any spacetime folds? Prophetic visions? Partial phase shifts?”

“Um, no?” said Amir, who didn’t know what any of that meant but wasn’t sure if maybe he should. 

“Good!” Technician Sapp’s hands clapped in relief, as he began carefully removing the white sensors from Amir’s forehead and lifting the apparatus off his skull. “Please remember to keep a detailed journal of any dreams or dream-like phenomena and let us know about any side effects, real or imagined. Not that you should notice any serious changes whatsoever.”

“Other than my insomnia being cured, right?” asked Amir, with a hopeful smile.

Technician Sapp stared at him blankly, his head tilted at a slight angle, as if analyzing the cartography of pores on his face.

“Right,” he finally said. “Because that is what it does,” bopping his head slightly with the playful cadence, his smile ratcheting in intensity with each word, as if he plucked them at random from the ether and was pleasantly surprised to see them form a coherent thought.

Amir followed the dots of light through the facility, hoping his car was back above ground.

—

“But the clock said 16:17!”

Amir had been a little rattled by his experience as a test subject that afternoon, but had hoped it’d at least make for a cool story on his date with Dex. He managed to get through this tale of seamless walls and fireflies and weird technicians without leaning too hard into the fact that he needed the research study cash because the between in ‘I’m between jobs’ was doing a more than generous amount of work.

Dex was making a valiant effort to look some semblance of interested, hoping something else might emerge to guide the conversation. Eventually, they were chatting about more normal things, like Amir’s newfound interest in neo-futurist architecture, and Dex getting fitted soon for the premier of his musical the next weekend. It was a community theater production of an original sci-fi musical based off of an experimental Progressive House album. He was playing one of the leads, an interstellar vagabond who falls in love with a sentient stellar gas cloud under threat of being harvested to extinction by an expanding intergalactic empire.

“And the whole time I’m wearing like, tights and a glorified jock strap,” he laughed, cheeks blushing. “The stellar gas cloud couldn’t bring the sex appeal, so it had to be me.”

It was neither of their best work, as far as first dates go, but they had both experienced worse. Amir walked Dex home and they exchanged an awkward pseudo kiss-hug goodbye, which ended up with Amir planting his lips on his date’s forehead in a way that was very close to being a headbutt.

He thought it went well. After all, he dreamt about it, right?

—

The next morning, getting over the residual aftershocks of the aforementioned dream, Amir went about his day, bumbling around the kitchen until he produced a single mug of coffee, hoping the caffeine might help him make sense of the strange sequence of events since yesterday afternoon. That day in funemployment he was venturing one floor down in his apartment building to look after his neighbor Kenneth’s cat, Mr. Pibb, recovering from whatever sort of medical procedure is required to keep a nineteen year old feline on this mortal plane. Kenneth called Mr. Pibb distinguished, gently cooing to him as he reposed in his window perch, but Amir preferred ancient, imagining him reminiscing about the Great Depression as he gazed into the overcast morning.

Kenneth’s interior design was intentional, if nothing else, just like his personal aesthetic. Amir liked to think he had just stepped out of a stock photo or had been a menswear mannequin that started speaking and paying taxes. Everything about him was always coiffed, trimmed, tailored, and set just so, from the stately shoulders in his designer v-neck pullover to the cute butt in his light blue tweed slacks. Amir had for years wanted to figure out where he was always heading off to for work, but enjoyed sitting with the mystique.

“Okay so everything’s very carefully arranged in here, and the cleaners just came in yesterday, so don’t go, you know, touching things too much,” said Kenneth. He had a few inches on Amir’s 5’9” form, but had a knack for speaking down to people regardless of height. “Also, there’s a tray on the counter and a drawer in the fridge labeled with your name, those are some snacks for you. Please don’t ruffle around through everything else, I’m on a very particular diet and I’ve already begun prepping for next week.”

Amir gave a lazy salute as he leaned his butt against the counter, taking a sip of his coffee. “I will sit on this couch and stare at this cat.”

“Thank you,” said Kenneth, his face relaxing slightly. “And don’t be offended if Mr. Pibb doesn’t take to you immediately, he gets skittish around strangers.”

Skittish was the furthest thing from the ball of mangy fur sitting in the window like an avant garde art piece. Amir smiled anyway, watching Kenneth stride into the hallway and off to whatever it is he does.

Amir fell into the couch, settling into his usual activity of firing off job applications into the void, letting in just enough existential dread to keep him on his toes, and getting up periodically to make sure Mr. Pibb got his medicine or was still breathing. Maybe Dex’s coffee shop is training new baristas, he thought, picking up his phone and opening the still unanswered text thread. No, no, that’s awkward, you just want an excuse to talk to him. You want to hear from the cute boy who popped up in your dreams. Amir had a flashback to the ghostly image of Dex crammed into the booth across from him, his monstrous member about to unleash a pyroclastic flow of splooge right at his face. Chills went down his spine. 

As afternoon rolled around, he tried a different tack, remembering that Dex had a costume fitting today after his shift. It’s been a busy day, of course he hasn’t texted back, he assured himself.

[Amir: You have the fitting today, right? How are you feeling about opening night?]

Sent into the ether, a bubble of text hanging below the last unanswered attempt.

This can’t be the most interesting thing I have going on, Amir thought, glancing between the dozens of tabs of job ads, the tray of high fiber, high protein snack bars on the counter, and the dozing cat in the window. It was, in fact, the most interesting thing he had going on. Accordingly, he fell asleep in the mid afternoon sun.

Kenneth. Standing in the doorway in his crisp slacks and expensive sweater, petting Mr. Pibb with one hand and gesturing purposefully with the other, the furniture in the room rearranging instantaneously with every swish of his finger, giving a continuous stream of verbal directions that sounded carefully crafted, though I couldn’t decipher what he was saying. The doorframe began to shrink around him, but no it was the same size, his body was growing, expanding to fill the space, his butt inflating cartoonishly behind him until his cheeks pressed against the frame, his hips too wide to fit through, his shoulders approaching the top corners of the doorway as his head surpassed it, cracks forming around the frame and plaster starting to rain down, continuing to gesture casually as the furniture flew and pet Mr. Pibb, who, levitating at elbow height, turned to me with a sentient look in his eyes, a very human concern creasing the edges, saying “You have to remember this. You have to–” his speech became garbled, mixing in with Kenneth’s gibberish, covered by Kenneth’s massive, growing hand–

Amir jolted awake, confused panic releasing adrenaline into his bloodstream until he remembered I’m in Kenneth’s apartment, I’m here to take care of–he turned frantically to see the cat still dozing in the window perch, not levitating and speaking with a human voice, just opening his eyes briefly to give him a look of mild annoyance.

What the fuck was that? he thought. Should I write that down? His notepad was still upstairs, maybe he could do it later, Kenneth should be home soon. He really hoped this dream journal wasn’t some sort of homework assignment. He dreaded the idea of Technician Sapp reading through multiple weird, horny nightmares in a row to try and decode whatever was happening in his brain.

His phone vibrated from where it had become nestled between the couch cushions and his butt. His heart skipped a beat to see the upside down notification from Dex as it hung loosely in his sleep-dulled hand.

[Dex: Hey, sorry, dealing with kind of a weird health issue. Didn’t make it to the fitting.]

[Amir: Oh no! Feel better?]

Why was that a question, Amir scolded himself, making a mental note of the 👍🏽 reaction that was quickly attached to his text. 

“One date and he’s driven to illness. Just me and you, Mr. Pibb.”

Mr. Pibb gave a mrow of negation, his ears turning toward the front door. A few seconds later, Amir heard the sound of key entering lock and deadbolt turning, followed by Kenneth and shoulder bag peaking in.

“Amir?” ventured Kenneth as he opened the door.

“Hey, Ken,” said Amir.

“Kenneth.”

“Hey, Kenneth,” his smile matching the ease of late afternoon and a cat sitting job well done. “Mr. Pibb is definitely still alive.”

“You’re my hero,” Kenneth smirked, taking a moment to lean back against the doorframe and catch his breath. “Sorry, I took the stairs getting up here, I needed the workout.”

“Ok stairmaster. I’ve been rotting on this couch and ya look great,” Amir offered.

Kenneth rolled his eyes in reluctant thanks, dropping his bag by the entryway and wiggling his shoulders in apparent discomfort. “It’s warm, are you warm?” He adjusted his pants unconsciously as he strolled over to his cat. “Maybe I’m a little overheated, huh, Mr. Pibb?” The cat was ambivalent.

“Same time tomorrow?” he asked, before turning back to Amir. “Also, please remember, you have to–”

Amir flashed back to the image of Kenneth filling the doorway, frame cracking, plaster falling, pants and sweater ripped to tatters around him as he grew–

“Amir?”

“Kenneth,” said Amir, snapping back to reality.

“Just…remember Mr. Pibb needs his fifteen minutes of stimulation while I’m gone. He can be very energetic.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that.”

“Also, you need to check the package table more often. This has been sitting downstairs for you.” He thrust an iridescent envelope towards Amir. “It’s from Phantasy Labs.”

“Oh, you know them? Super bougie lab in that weird forest?”

“If you mean this municipality’s primary employer and the ecologically delicate nature preserve, then yes.”

“Thanks dude,” Amir gingerly lifted the envelope out of Kenneth’s hand, gathering it up with his laptop and mug as he turned to leave. “Keep hittin’ those squats, bro. See ya tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see ya,” answered Kenneth, a look of mild confusion on his face as his hands settled self-consciously on his hips.

[tomlinfonda]

There are some inconsistencies that bug me a lot.

At the beginning of the episode, Beard reveals that Jane shredded his passport to keep him trapped with her. That's blatant abuse. I truly expected the show to leave Beard in a better place than this. Bringing this up at this point seemed like a way to acknowledge her abusive behavior for real.

And yet, this is the last shot of Beard. In the entire show.

This cringe, ugly shot of him tying himself to Jane. Til death do them apart. Regardless of this probably being Ted's dream, it is an awful, awful place to leave him. It's a nightmare scenario, for this to be the last shot we ever see of him.

And they didn't even give us any hints that Jane might have become a better person (not that this would have excused it). No. Up until the last mention of her name before the wedding, the show never wavers in showing her to be toxic and abusive, even if the characters themselves brush it off.

With other characters like Jamie's father, the writers gave us hints that he was working on himself (which, for the record, doesn't mean that he should have a right to even be in the same room as his son, after what he did). My point with this is that if they wanted us, for some reason, to take this wedding as Beard's "happily ever after", the show about people changing and becoming better could have shown Jane change and get better. But they didn't.

The second inconsistency I wanna talk about has to do with Trent.

"You're part of the squad now". That's awesome, and he has actually been shown growing closer to the group and becoming a member of the team throughout the season. From being shunned in Episode 2, to being part of the squad now.

And yet in his last two scenes, he is alone? No one from the squad with him?

He isn't at the Higgins' party, he isn't at the wedding. There's no indication that he stays at Richmond. EDIT: Actually, his desk is empty in that shot of him in the office. So yeah. He doesn't stay at Richmond.

The show leaves him, once again, alone and disconnected from the team, from the community he's found.

What gives, showrunners? Why do these parts of the montage directly contradict things that have been shown and pointed out in this very episode?

Is this a case of sloppiness? Was the ending suddenly changed for some reason, maybe to make room for season 4? Was it supposed to be a different ending, consistent with what the show has been telling us for 11 episodes? Did things suddenly change behind the scenes? Or is this a case of bad editing? Or is it intentional? For some reason, it doesn't feel like it's intentional. It seems really weird that they would have written the passport scene and "You're part of the squad now" AND the wedding and Trent being alone in the same draft of the script. It's weird, and it feels harsh and forced and out of left field.

[papil0nglegs]

My hazbin hotel review

(Chronically online girl complains about demon show, enjoy)

I’m gonna be Frank guys, I don’t have so many problems w this show. Yes I write fics abt it but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have flaws, like SO many flaws. When I first finished watching it I was OBSESSED. I loved the characters the animation the music etc. that was until I rewatched it and realized how much I didn’t really like it. I was mostly bias because I remember loving the pilot back in 2019 (also I’m gonna go a bit hard on the show but Viziepop is a poopy person so I’m not rlly gonna be overwhelmed with sympathy)

Also I don’t plan on being easy on this show because it’s ‘indie’ cuz it’s not it’s on Amazon prime now. And secondly Viziepop herself is just eugh, not even including the stuff she did back then but she’s just not a good person by a longshot considering her tweets that she makes even today

The pacing:

Pretty much everyone has said this, the pacing is not good. I can understand that the network def didn’t give them much to work with 8 eps and 25 mins for each but even then there are something’s that didn’t felt like they could’ve been fixed

Something that I thought felt like the best example is sir pentious, we see him move into the hotel, get revealed for being a spy, exposed, then forgiven in the spam of like 5 minutes. I found this the best because I literally left to use the bathroom and I came back to them singing the ‘it starts with sorry’ song and I was like, “wait what.”

I feel like the pacing definitely could’ve been fixed by either removing or moving some elements to upcoming seasons. The meeting in heaven felt like we were in the 3rd season of the show and most of the stuff we learned such as the ‘winners’ not knowing anything about the exterminations, and Vaggie being an angel. And unlike Vaggie being an angel thing, the ‘winners’ not knowing anything about the extermination just gets revealed and the leave it at that? No one in the court protests it other than Emily, and I feel like someone else would too + I find it kinda weird that Lute first cares about the secret not being shared but when it does she’s just like ‘oops kill demon lol’.

A huge thing that I didn’t like was that we don’t see the people at the hotel bonding, we do see husk and angel dust bond but the rest characters just come back after the fight training thing and are just like ‘haha that’s such a funny thing that just happened to us off screen just now!’ I would’ve loved to see Nifty being fr for like, 2 seconds. Like pls

Characters:

This cast is filled to the BRIM. I’m sorry I love these characters but some of them feel just too useless? The vees are such a non threat considering the real threat we see in heaven such as Adam. We legit see vox get his ass handed to him in an epic rap battle of history and in the final song they still try to paint them as a threat? Maybe Valentino makes sense but so far Vox and Velvette look so weak. (Also why hasn’t Charlie or even Husk ask Lucifer to kill Valentino? 😭 I know that Charlie isn’t a fan of killing but like, in this case it’s out of self defense so like.. )

Ep 4 is nearly everyone’s favorite understandably because the show actually feels like it’s taking its time with its characters. We actually see two characters begin to bond finally not off screen. But like, I know people are gonna be mad at me for this, I hate Angel dust. I didn’t like him mostly because of his jokes just making me cringe but in ep 4 I began to like him, until the Poison song. I’m sorry, but who told them it was a good idea to make a pop song montage of a character getting s3xually abused? 😟 I won’t get into it because everything I have to say is in Dumbsville review on hazbin hotel where he actually spoke to survivors of s3xual abuse and gave their opinions on Angel dusts character.

Why is there a r4pe joke on sir pentious? Hey guys remember when s3xual abuse was treated like a terrible thing just a few episodes ago? Well now it’s funny, pls laugh.

This is the part where I get mad that Alex Brightmans character wasnt written well cuz it’s Alex Brightman.

Adam, is def something. I was interested to see how Adam would be interpreted since in the prologue he demanded power and it made me wonder how that would be played in the story. And then, they just made him a sex joke machine 😀 I have a theory that they didn’t know what to do with Adam so they just made him apart of the extermination plot, and he’s voiced by the same guy who does sir pentious so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

It’s really strange how they make the villain so 2d considering the message of the show being that people can change’ and that ‘everyone deserves a second chance’. However they truly missed the mark here when it came to the main villain of the season because they kill him off as if he didn’t do the same thing to the sinners. It would’ve made sm more sense if they had the villain also be forgiven. Like once Adam is defeated, Charlie does a ‘it starts with sorry’ reprise, to show that people in heaven could also work on themselves.

This was my hazbin hotel review you can tell I had no idea what I was doing and if you think and wrong then shut up

[lemonhemlock]

finally sitting down to write my barbieheimer review and coming out as an oppenheimer hater so DO NOT PROCEED if you are annoyed by criticism of it or do not want to hear it or whatever. seriously. if you liked the movie, good for you. i did not. this is going to be a long rant. i am so not joking right now.

disclaimer that i went to the cinema with the very best of intentions, wanting and fully expecting to like oppenheimer. while that didn't happen, i loved the double feature experience and do not regret it. i spent the entire day at the mall with my boyfriend and we just had a fun, carefree day. i've wanted to see both and had planned to for a long time and it was great. v interesting as a cultural zeitgeist moment.

that being said, the reason oppenheimer leaves me cold is because it is a fundamentally incoherent movie that doesn't know what it's about, tries to do everything all at once and succeeds in nothing. each hour of running time could have easily been a separate movie: one about oppenheimer's life leading to los alamos, another one about the actual creation of the atomic bomb and another one with the robert downey jr plot.

there are huge disadvantages to trying to cram so many different story beats into one singular movie and, if you ask me, i wouldn't advise anyone to do it. but nolan strikes me as the kind of overrated ~artiste that rarely hears no for an answer. this movie was in DIRE need of a streamlining. you can hire the greatest editor in history, but if you give him that script, they're not going to be able to salvage it.

i thought the editing was consistently bad throughout the movie, but especially atrocious in the first part about oppenheimer's early life. the result of this lack of plot focus is that the movie basically consists in a string of tiny scenes that last for seconds sometimes, all meshed together like a freaking montage. now, to each their own, but i cannot emphasize how much i hate this storytelling choice. no, but i genuinely despise it. whenever i see it, in movies or television, it just drives me up the wall. you can say it's a specific pet peeve of mine or whatever, maybe it doesn't bother others as much, but i honestly do not respect it. i think it's categorically lazy, something we've seen in a hundred different movies already and the most simplistic way of doing an exposition dump. i abhor the feeling of watching a mashup passing itself off as some kind of creative experiment in storytelling.

now, had this overused, lackadaisical introduction lasted a reasonable amount of time (maybe 20 min?), perhaps my stance would not have been so riled up. but it went on for AGES. i think the whole exposition part lasted for about an hour and coupled with the hurried procession of unconnected scenes and the asinine marvel movie semi-upbeat background music, the result was just cringe. and i specifically choose this term because this movie is touted as being a milestone moment in cinema or whatever. genuinely insane to me.

cillian murphy meets florence pugh for the first time and within seconds she starts berating him for not joining the communist party. who speaks like that? no natural progression to the conversation at all, we have to get from point A to point B and that's surely more important. you blink again and they're having sex. she stops mid-act because she has the sudden, irrepressible urge to check out his library (??). she makes him recite his famous aphorism from sanskrit while shoving the Bhagavad Gita in his face. the man is craning his neck in the most uncomfortable sex position ever. there is nothing natural about this, just stilted dialogue and an edgy highschooler's interpretation of a cool flirtation. i struggle to even call it that because they don't even get to flirt. too many conversations in this film sound genuinely inorganic.

everything is so rushed. a three-hour long movie should NOT feel rushed. but this is the natural consequence of trying to cram so many things into it: the scenes are too short and, because of that, lack build-up and, because of that, the atmosphere suffers greatly, the actors don't have time to act, the relationships between them feel forced and the overall movie feels like it intentionally won't allow you to linger or catch your breath because then you'll figure out it has nothing to say. there is hardly any physics in it. there is hardly any social or philosophical commentary. the last third of the movie turns into this random whodunit / who-framed-oppenheimer type of scooby doo plot. that scene with rdj unraveling his evil plot to that young man feels lifted out of an agatha christie novel. why would rdj even care about what that green boy thinks of him? well, it's because that lad is the audience stand-in, of course. another stereotypical storytelling trick we've seen a million times before that nolan resorts to in his quest to create a "masterpiece".

there are some VERY talented people in this cast. a genuine tour-de-force when it comes to acting skills, even in cameo roles. yet no chance of showing any of that. they're just reciting lines because there is no time for anything else. there is no time to let their talent and performance shine. yes, not even cillian murphy, the titular character. i know that man can act because i've seen him for over a decade in various productions. not in oppenheimer though. there's no time. it feels like they're trying to read out to me the entire encyclopaedia britannica in 10 minutes.

i struggle to identify the theme or point of the movie. i heard nolan say it's about the consequences of one's actions. bitch, where? i'm not joking right now, there's like maybe 5 minutes of exploring that in a 3h-movie. i need everyone to stop being so unserious for real. i admit that i haven't been actively searching, but i haven't encountered any criticism either. is everyone just pretending to like this movie because they're afraid of being labelled a philistine? is this an emperor's new clothes type of situation? this whole previous discourse about how people will get bored or need to pay attention to what's happening on screen... there is nothing difficult or philosophical about oppenheimer. it's a very straightforward movie.

to me, it feels like nolan took a very interesting topic in and of itself, namely the creation of the atomic bomb, and did nothing interesting with it. he's just serving me facts about oppenheimer* with little to no commentary attached and a tiny amount of artistic interpretation. i say that because it has, like, that one scene when oppenheimer is imagining the flesh melting off of his audience while giving a war propaganda speech, meant to symbolize his conflicting views. the stream-of-consciousness element could have been an interesting lens through which to tell this story, but it was way under-utilized. this project could have slapped actually had it been filmed exclusively through oppenheimer's POV like an A24 horror movie.

*i say facts but in reality i need to actually fact-check to weed out the fictional elements bc i know next to nothing about this man, other than him spearheading the manhattan project

anyway, it's true that i am being harsh with this movie also because of the (undeserved) hype surrounding it and the inevitable ovations attached to any nolan production. but, imo, it is disappointing for a filmmaker of his calibre, with his experience and resources and the goodwill surrounding him to put out such fundamentally lazy nonsense

onto barbie now. first of all, yes, they're like apples and oranges, but one point of comparison is that this is a a very self-aware movie that never loses sight of what it's about and doesn't meander or diverge pointlessly from its main themes and message. after dismantling oppenheimer, i can't claim that barbie is going to revolutionize cinema or destroy the patriarchy or strengthen womanly bonds worldwide, but it's very on point. it's visually stunning, has a lot of easter eggs and cute details, catchy tunes and just general preciousness. everyone playing a doll was actively adorable. the re-watch quality feels promising, it has a very good chance of becoming a cult classic. it was heartwarming and endearing without being too overly sugary & funny without insulting jokes.

the choice to depict men as reductive and an afterthought as counter-point to how women are often portrayed on screen as accessories was indeed interesting. so was the idea of boys and girls diverging once they "discover" patriarchy. now, don't get me wrong, barbie is not a complicated movie either. its feminism is pretty simplistic, no doubt about it, but it doesn't take itself too seriously either. i do wish that america ferrera's mid-movie speech about women's position in society was a little more refined because those ideas were indeed very basic and kind of eye-roll worthy, like a feminism 101 class. i could have done without helen mirren's voice over (it didn't really add a lot, imo, although the joke about margot robbie was funny). the intro spoofing 2001 space odyssey was a little too on-the-nose as well, so i can't say it's not without a couple of hiccups and cringe moments.

nonetheless, barbie is, by no means, a short movie either. clocking in at 114 min, the pendulum swings towards the "long" side of running times. but, as opposed to oppenheimer, it feels neither rushed, nor drawn out. the pacing is just right. the actors in barbie have the space to shine, even those in small roles. the plot has room to breathe. relationships have room to grow. disregarding the subject matter (in an attempt at objectivity, as one might prefer one topic over the other), strictly from the perspective of storytelling techniques, editing, cinematography & character development, barbie is plainly the superior movie.

[blazehedgehog]

Okay so you've apologized for choosing the wrong words over the SAGE 2024 showcase trailer, but doesn't that mean that somewhere inside you still think parts of what you said are true? You still came to those conclusions one way or another.

Yes and no.

I would like to open this saying I used to be known as a pretty harsh critic when I started writing about SAGE for TSSZ News. I hurt a lot of feelings but I always had a logic behind what I was saying. Ultimately I figured I was judging people by standards they didn't deserve, and I kind of softened my view.

By that I mean I was judging fangames against more professional standards, and then I realized these were just hobbyists having fun and didn't deserve to be raked over the coals like that. After all, a game you pay for and a game you download for free create two very different expectations.

So I'm going to single someone out here and I'm sorry in advance for doing this, but I saw Sonic Test Labs in the SAGE 2024 showcase video. They've removed Sonic and replaced it with an original character -- a furry wolf wearing jeans, I believe. (It's a rat)

Now, I'm not out here to insult somebody's OC or even their fursona. Something I've been trying to remind people in slamming on the brakes of all of this SAGE hot water over on Twitter is that I think anybody should make anything and be proud of that. I literally just put out a Shadow Generations video 2-3 months ago where I have a long montage of fanart I drew of my Sonic OC, as I talk at length about not running from your past and embracing who you used to be, even if it was cringe. I am not here to tell anyone to stop making things.

But, like, the 90's were full of "mascots with attitude" and really only one or two stuck around, and the most prominent example is Sonic the Hedgehog. Most of these furries were lucky to get a single sequel and then they disappeared off the face of the planet, some only resurfacing ironically.

Sonic the Hedgehog, just as a character design, is kind of a one-in-a-million shot. To be so simple and so iconic and so appealing to so many people... the epitome of lightning in a bottle.

And the indie game space is a very different place than it was when a lot of people were pitching Sabrina to ditch "Lilac the Hedgehog" and make Freedom Planet into an original game she could sell, you know?

So when I see Sonic Test Labs and it's got a new name, it's dropping the Sonic connection and it's starring a fursona it's like, good for you, all the power in the world to you, I hope you succeed, but also, at this point... is this going to be worth the change? I guess I'm not the developer of what is now "Wick3r: Tricks, Keys & Speed", so I can't answer that. They have a lot of talent, though, and Sonic Test Labs was a standout game for me last year, so we'll see.

I am coming at this from my own perspective as a game developer, and I've hit a pretty big streak of bad luck as of late, I feel. I have no more time for the sort of game development I really want to do and I haven't released anything meaningful in years. The last few things I did release, I'm not really proud of anymore.

Let's take OverBite. I genuinely wanted to make OverBite into a real game. I was making steps towards that. Then my whole life got turned upside down, I lost my motivation, and I got caught up in the Youtube game.

The further I get from OverBite, the more I see its flaws. It was a Game Jam game. Most of its levels were constructed in about five hours. I have a fat design document full of too many ideas for the final game that need to be re-thought, paired down and streamlined.

I can't do any of that. I have absolutely no faith that a current version of OverBite would sell anything even remotely meaningfully for me to be worth the time I'd put into expanding (or even outright rewriting) its code, polishing up its visuals, implementing new mechanics, new levels, bosses, etc. That means spending years effectively wasting time I could be spending on my Youtube channel, where my hard work is more directly rewarded.

And it kills me. It makes me want to cry. But there's a cold part of me that says, "Get over it. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't do everything. Pick a lane and build that up, you can't be so scattershot anymore."

But I have so many game ideas, and more keep piling up. And even if I tell myself I can't be so scattershot anymore, I still end up working on some of them anyway. Because my heart wants to make video games and my brain says it's not worth it anymore. The market is too crowded, the investment is too large, the gains are too small.

If I put my full weight behind my Youtube channel, I make thousands of dollars a year. Not even five figure numbers, but a non-trivial amount. For Overbite, I made just over a hundred bucks, and most of that was begging for people to help cover the Steam Greenlight fee.

Or, let's say, "Better Bubsy." That Bubsy joke game that stopped being ironic and started being earnest. I work on it for a few weeks every April for the last four or five years. It got to the point where some respected people I know were saying I should pitch it to whoever owned the Bubsy IP. Which at the time was UFO Entertainment. Eventually that changes hands when Atari buys the Bubsy IP from UFO, and the CEO of Atari is out there making an open call for indie devs to submit a Bubsy pitch. This is my chance. Better Bubsy could be a real thing!

I even speak to someone who works directly at Atari! I don't even have to drop it in their pitch inbox! It's getting personally sent up the chain!!!

...

Atari and Limited Run announce a Bubsy remaster pack where they are making their own "select improvements" to the old games. That is effectively confirmation that they did not care about what I was selling. More time wasted.

Forgive me if I'm not very warm to certain ideas right now and I have a cynical, bitter heart towards certain aspects of game development. I am personally in a very conflicted place right now, and it came out in the wrong ways towards people who did not deserve it.

(For those of you who don't know what this is about, this, this, and this twitter thread should clear things up.)