#but the fact that there's not so much as a single throwaway line about not being able to contact her or something

[crowtwink]

I don't want to call it a plot hole, since I suspect it might actually be a plot hook for something the writing team has planned down the line, but I do find it incredibly interesting that neither Charles nor Edwin seem to so much as consider just... reaching out to Emma... about Crystal's identity. Based on things Crystal says, they don't seem to have even told her about Emma, or being originally hired by her. Nor does she appear in any of the memories we see Crystal regain. Not to mention the fact that the picture she paints of Crystal is not particularly in line with Crystal's memories of her own personality.

I really hope we see more of her in season 2, because nothing about her adds up and I'm very curious to learn more.

[brujahinaskirt]

Okay, I obviously made the above post as a leetle joke, but since it's getting not insignificant traction, I do want to offer a more serious note.

I love this about Arthur. It's probably my favorite thing about him, but let me use this fresh new RDR2 meta post to clarify exactly what I mean. Despite the aspects of his personality & appearance that are traditionally hypermasculine, and despite how often he is annoyed with people (especially incompetents or people who meddle with his plans), Arthur is decidedly NOT annoyed by the social performance of femininity or by traits that are/were frequently stereotyped as feminine. Ever. Regardless of subject. I might go so far as to say he seems to canonically prefer hanging out with women and with "feminine" men.

Your long-winded, bullet-pointed analysis is below!

The Girls. Most noticeably, Arthur actually sits down to talk with and actively confides in the camp Girls (Tilly, Mary-Beth, Karen) more than anyone else around. These three are the most traditionally "girly" (single, 20s, active, pretty, unattached, highly social, feminine, chatty) members of the gang, though of course they are still criminals and don't perfectly adhere to all period-typical standards of feminine comportment. He doesn't mock the girls** like he sometimes does with other auxiliary members of the gang (like Uncle and Pearson, playful or not). Notably, he doesn't even gently tease Mary-Beth for writing her "silly" romance novels, a highly feminized hobby which she speaks about in a self-depreciating manner, much like Arthur speaks about his own artistic hobbies. Rather, he talks to her about writing like a peer and encourages her to write more by going out of his way to get her a nice pen. Crucially, there is no canon romantic or sexual interest in any of the girls on Arthur's behalf. He just feels the most comfortable in their company and seems to value their advice/opinions on life the most. To me, this is much stronger proof than his forever-burning torch for the cultured & ladylike Mary, which is (or was once) rooted in romantic desire. ** Unless the player persists in Antagonizing them, and these lines (while sometimes shockingly cruel and offhandedly sexual in nature; see Arthur teasing Tilly about pursuing Javier) are largely about goading them for laziness or, in Karen's case, her alcoholism. That said, many of the Antagonize lines strike me as clumsily tacked-on & poorly rooted in canon, which could indicate: (1) an Arthur who is deliberately trying to be disruptive (a generous interpretation), or (2) writers instructed to add throwaway content that will make a certain type of childishly misanthropic gamer (think 13 y.o. boys) squeal in glee with relatively low impact on the overall story.

Campmates. Following the above point... who doesn't Arthur hang out with much? The manly men of the gang; the very people social mores suggest he ought to be hanging out with. Bill, Micah, Joe, Cleet, and even Dutch. (To some extent, this includes John and Sean, but I'd say John sort of lives at the edges of gang life anyway, and Sean is, well, Sean.) Conversely, which male gang members does Arthur hang out with a lot? Sweet little bookish Lenny, a wordy, positive-energy, breezy intellectual who has just barely become an adult. Introspective, soft-voiced, long-haired Charles, who is traditionally masculine by some standards (strong, usually calm, can be standoffish) but decidedly NOT so when his appearance/demeanor is judged by the white Christian American male standards that began to dominate masculinity concepts in the later decades of the 1800s.

Algernon. Oh, my, Algernon. Arthur clearly dislikes Algernon's fancy, loud, outrageous clothing. But weirdly, he seems to like Algernon, not just tolerate him. Arthur in fact goes through significant personal discomfort to avoid hurting Algernon's feelings (the awful hat, the POST.MAN. sobbing), and he immediately says yes to having tea with him without any awareness of a coming business proposition, though half the time Arthur clearly has no fucking clue what Algernon is talking about. I am left to conclude that on some level, he just enjoys hearing Algernon talk, which is word-for-word what he says while listening to the Girls argue about romance novels ("I just like listening to you [all] talk." Hello????). I mean, for God's sake, he meets the man while he's choking to death on a nut at a fancy party, and the second thing Algernon does is tell him he looks like a guy who wears a corset. If anything was going to set off the boiling defensiveness of a dude who worships masculinity, thirty seconds with Algie would have done it.

Margaret, Mistress of Fucking Danger. It's pretty clear Arthur doesn't like Margaret. But that has little to do with Margaret's femininity & cross-dressing (this doesn't faze him at all when Charles Châtenay does it; more on that below) and everything to do with Margaret's deceptiveness and highly selective memory. It's not until the bullshittery unveils itself that Arthur starts getting visibly pissed off at Margaret. Conversely, Arthur does seem more positively disposed toward Sally Nash. (That said, this quest has a lot of problems and poorly aged lines that are depressingly easy for a politically motivated jerkoff to soundbite and miscast as Rockstar being pro-bigot. Cue 800 heterobnoxious gamerbro ARTHUR MORGAN ULTIMATE ANTI SNOWFLAKE SIGMA MALE OF THE WEST YouTube videos.)

Albert, my beloved. Rather than goading him to man up, Arthur tries to persuade Albert (whom he very obviously likes) to pick safer animal photography subjects, e.g. horses, and doesn't insult him for his lack of wilderness knowledge (an aspect of traditional manliness that is highly relevant to Arthur's lifestyle). You'd think he would tear into him for this shortcoming, given that they share so many of the same interests and passions, and IMO his genuine eagerness to serve as Albert's protector and facilitate his art is highly convincing evidence that Arthur does not necessarily view masculinity as a net positive.

Arthur is a basic goddamn boyfriend-hater. He pretty much harshly disapproves of every husband, boyfriend, male partner, etc. in the game and is very, very vocal about it... except one extremely unlikely candidate: Beau Gray. Weak, dandy artist Beau Gray, whom Arthur takes one look at and promptly hands the only gun to Penelope. Arthur is curt and impish to Beau at times, but helps him in his relationship troubles willingly (without collecting repayment), and seemingly for no other reason than the fact he can see that soft, fearful Beau is genuinely head-over-heels in love with Penelope. Is he projecting his own young love for Mary onto them? Maybe/probably, but Beau could not possibly be more different from young Arthur, and Arthur seems to believe this difference will make him a good husband for Penelope. A good husband, in Arthur's view, seems to simply be a man who ardently loves his beloved, regardless of his ability to provide for/protect her, and whose only goal in life is to live that life at her side. This is completely antithetical to mainstream late-1800s views on what constitutes a good husband and what it means to be a man.

Châtenay. Arthur shows us some of the most obvious delight and mirth he experiences in the game when he's hanging out with Charles "Allo Boys" Châtenay, who is straight up in drag a third of that time. This baffles Arthur a little, but doesn't disgust or repel him. I've written about this mission elsewhere at greater length because it is one of my favorite disasters, but it's worth mentioning here too.

Trelawny. Arthur clearly enjoys Trelawny despite his grumbly claims to the contrary. Most of these "claims" are just Arthur's established way of affectionate teasing (he does much the same with Uncle and Pearson, both of whom he genuinely likes). His authentic gripes about Trelawny are all about a perceived flightiness/lack of loyalty to the gang, not about his flamboyance. And even these gripes are half-assed, in Arthur's usual way.

Bluegills & Daisy Chains. One of the most genuine moments of softness we have with Arthur in RDR2 is when he takes Little Jack out of the camp to go fishing. Arthur's usually a much truer version of himself when he doesn't have to play the Big Bad Gang Lieutenant role, but this moment of escape is especially important, and not just because Arthur reveals his fondness for children and his natural understanding of how to talk to them. I notice this: Arthur tries to gently teach Jack about fishing, and Jack is completely fucking uninterested. Jack prefers to make flower chains for his mommy. Arthur doesn't scold him for his drifting attention or his lack of attraction to masculine past-times; on the contrary, Arthur goes out of his way to encourage and protect Jack's natural sweetness and innocence. That's a wild stance for a murdering outlaw to have re: the "next generation" of his family. Hell, I've encountered far too many 21st century dads in my own family who flip their shit when their tiny sons prefer hanging out with women & partaking in "womanly" hobbies like art, cooking, and flowers rather than hunting and fishing.

"...and be a god damn man." This seems like classic masculine bluster on the surface, but what does this keynote line mean in the context in which Arthur says it? Well, it's complicated. This statement serves as (a) Arthur's goodbye to John, (b) Arthur's final call to action for John, and (c) Arthur's last wish for his brother's life. But it certainly does not mean standing and fighting or being tough; i.e., "dying like a man." In that moment, it means abandoning all masculine bluster and revenge fantasy, and running away: leaving violence and fighting and brotherhood and all that crap behind to simply be there (alive, present) for your wife and son.

The Best Women People. Who are the best people Arthur knows, by his own crystal-clear declaration? Abigail and Sadie. Sadie's a rough-and-tumble, super-violent gunslinger and Abigail's a stubborn thief & a former sex worker (in the time Arthur has known her), but they are also, critically, two wives: the most traditional feminine role for a woman of the time period (and indeed perhaps most of human history once the concept of "wife" subsumed that of "mother"). It's also important to note that Arthur doesn't truly give up on Dutch until Dutch abandons Abigail, which serves as Arthur's point of no return. The other men left in the gang at this point specifically note that she's "just a woman" and not worth going back for. Arthur is straight-up shocked by all of this; he obviously considers her among the most worthwhile and value-having members of the gang, and certainly one of the most core members of the gang. Without any hesitation or doubt, the instant it's clear Dutch is cutting Abigail loose, Arthur declares: "That's that, then."

tl;dr: Arthur unironically prefers hanging out with women and queens and I love that for them.

[unhingedmarvelandclassicwhobuff]

Apparently at some point MCU fans collectively agreed that the Blip takes place on October 17th, 2023. Which is today. So I figured I'd take the time to detail the four biggest reasons why the time jump in Endgame was a universe-shatteringly horrible idea that should never have seen the light of day

the absolute biggest problem, of which there are many, is the fact that countless people died as collateral damage in the initial Snap. Hell, we are shown it in the Infinity War post-credit scene with those multiple car accidents and that helicopter slamming into a building. And that was just the tip of the iceberg; imagine how many planes crashed because the pilots were dusted, or how many babies starved because both their parents were dusted, or people who may have died on the operating table because a surgeon got dusted. All of these people are totally ignored. It's never so much as mentioned when talking about bringing everyone back, and Tony insisting that the last five years remain unchanged is implicitly saying all of those people remained dead when the dusted returned.

the second big problem with this plot point is that it's used as an excuse for every character except Nat to be totally unrecognizable. Bruce becomes Professor Hulk, Thor gets fat, Tony has a family (and I fucking love how the movie inadvertently says he just let the world rot for five years instead of using his billions of help. That is 100% in character for him), Clint went on a mass killing spree, and Steve... I actually have no idea what made him change so radically. None of this is shown to us at all, it's just told to us.

this is less a problem with Endgame and more a problem with Phases 4 and 5, but the other worse thing about this development is that absolutely nothing has been done with it. Far From Home played the time-jump for comedy, WandaVision had that one great scene in the hospital and then did nothing else, Shang-Chi had a singular throwaway line about the Blip, Hawkeye had that one neat visual of getting Snapped from Yelena's POV and then nothing else, Multiverse of Madness had a single conversation where Strange wonders if letting Tony have his way was the only way to save the universe, Quantumania had a single scene addressing the homelessness issue and then nothing else, and I think Secret Invasion tried to do a bit of a look at how Talos reacted to the Blip, but that show was so awful that I'd rather not think about it. The only projects to do anything at all with the Blip as a major plot point are Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Eternals.

the fourth and final massive problem with the Blip is pretty simple yet complicated; it ignores the absolutely insurmountable societal implications both the Snap and the Blip would have. Think about it; half the fucking universe disintegrates into ash. There are SO many things that would do to just human society alone. But even more importantly, five years after all those people were declared dead (meaning wills are executed, spouses remarried, jobs and homes redistributed, etc) those people suddenly reappear, and from their POV it's only been a second. Just to put it in perspective, the Snap happened on April 29th, 2018. Doesn't that feel like forever ago? If the Snap were real, all those people would have been gone until today. That is such a huge mindfuck that I'm shocked no one went insane. And even looking aside from the psychological impact, all those people are pretty fucking screwed. Far From Home had a single scene addressing this, then promptly forgot about it.

My final point is less of a problem and more of an amusing byproduct; since Tony directly forbids Bruce from undoing the last five years, that means the events of WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness, and Secret Invasion are on some level his fault. That’s fucking hysterical.

I suppose I'll be absolutely fair and say that rewinding time isn't a morally perfect solution either, as you would be erasing any maturity the survivors gained during those five years, as well as anyone born in that time. But that's just all the more reason to NOT HAVE A FUCKING TIME-SKIP!!! I still think the only reason it was done was for cheap shock value.

All in all, the five-year time jump is the single worst major plot point in the MCU. Fight me.

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/764510712239407104/httpswwwtumblrcomdearweirdme7644300029095772?source=share

Okay, this is gonna be a long one because I got a HELL of a lot to say on this matter;

It's a shame because nobody who has actually interacted with him has a bad word to say about him. The negative portrayal of him being peddled by 'notajikookers' here is a shipper/anti invention and doesn't line up with what people who actually know him or have met him say.

I know he's not flawless and people close to him will see him at his worst because none of us are perfect but everyone from his close social circle to his peers to random fan reports and encounters not only speak well of him but are VISIBLY and obviously fond of him, proud of him and endeared by him. (The proof is in the pudding even in official content but I guess we're supposed to believe that every single person he surrounds himself with is an Oscar worthy actor giving Oscar worthy performance 24/7 🙄)

And this has been the takeaway from people who met the group before they were even famous. One notorious story is of him meeting a granny before BTS even released their first song and she found him so polite and endearing that she supported the group long afterwards and even tried to get her grandsons into their music.

And those who have met him talk about him the same way she did. The takeaway from most people is that Taehyung is polite, funny and charming but we're supposed to entertain the opinions of people with UNs like jic_oo_k666 because they conveniently have a bad feeling about him while watching a BTS Run episode and these morons expect us to ignore the fact that this also conveniently validates and soothes their own ship insecurity and anxiety? 🙄

This is a guy who, as a kid and while experiencing the overwhelming pressure of global fame, praise, criticism and the stresses of overworking---suffered through a rally of traumatic losses, grief and experiences and the resulting impact on his mental health and STILL turned into a man that is perceived so positively and warmly by those who know him. That speaks volumes about his character.

Because at one point, it felt like every time we clicked a button we were hearing about another loss in Tae's life. Like he was going THROUGH it and still getting up and doing his job only to have certain 'fans' reward him with death threats, insults and taunts about his departed grandmother

Between shitty life circumstances, a shitty company and shitty 'fans'---there's enough there that could have broke him and turned him bitter but it speaks volumes about his personality that when the shit hit the fan, the people closest to him WANTED to gather around him, wanted to support him, wanted to comfort him, wanted to put a smile on his face, wanted to reinforce how much he was loved and how proud of him they were, they wanted to see him come out the other side. Why would they be so damn concerned and so clearly invested in him feeling better and trying to lift him up and build up his confidence if he was such a negative presence in their lives? Answer is; they wouldn't, dumbasses. Like the group litter the ground with context clues and these fools are too dumb, lazy or envious to bend to pick ONE up.

There was one episode (I think it was a Run episode but I might be wrong) where Taehyung really enjoys a rich, flavored meal so much he cant stop eating it and Hobi is inexplicably happy about it and excitedly lets the others know how much Tae likes it and Jin jumps on a promise to recreate it for him whenever he wants and this is just a throwaway part of the episode but it's significant because it was coming off the end of Tae's period of depression (that he has revealed himself so that's the only reason Im talking about it) and if you've ever had or known someone going through that shit, you know that physical and sensory numbness is a symptom of depression that can fuck with your appetite and enjoyment of things and it's usually a good sign of healing when you start enjoying simple stuff like flavors, scents etc again.

(Looking back at that moment after Tae had spoken openly about depression, it made a lot more sense why Hobi and Jin would react that way over something so simple as Taehyung enjoying a meal)

Like I just have no patience with people who question the bond between any of the guys because you can find so many of these 'side' moments, where it's clearly not scripted or intended to be part of the content, that show that these 7 men genuinely care about each other. They were so damn happy and excited to see him enjoying the taste of his meal and people STILL want to question whether the group relationship dynamic is real or not.

Another example is when they're rating themselves and their achievements for the year and Tae rates himself super low and Namjoon makes a point of boosting his confidence and cuddling him (for all you morons who want to talk shit about Joon disliking Tae like Joon hasn't done more than enough over the years to preemptively shut your asses up on that point)

Like you insecure ship heads really think it's cameramen giving Joon a countdown to fucking cuddle in that moment? 🤡 And that he's not just doing it because Tae is someone that he loves and doesn't want to see beating up on himself and thinks he's worthy of feeling better about himself?

People don't respond like that if the person in question is all of the negative things 'fans' accuse Tae of being---or any other member of being.

These haters and antis need to use their damn brain matter for once in a while.

The people who meet Taehyung like him and love him for a reason. The people on the damn street who meet him root for him for a reason. People who are at the top of their own professions and have their own stardom like him and love him for a reason. His group members want to protect him, defend him, care for him, comfort him, heal him etc for a reason and it's not because he's the horrible person that shippers and antis make him out to be.

Taehyung isn't your problem. The fact that you're parasocially invested in a ship that you don't genuinely feel is validated enough for you to believe in wholeheartedly is why you haters need to create a false personality for Taehyung to excuse all the things in your ship that YOU can't make sense of. You need someone to blame because your asses can't ship right ---because if you really believed in your ship you wouldn't have a problem with any of the other members 'getting in the way' by just being there and doing shit the group has done since day one

Learn to ship correctly and leave Taehyung TF alone, losers.

Hi anon!

Now this is the kind of essay I love to find in my asks!

[naranjapetrificada]

Izzy becomes a "real boy"

So obviously I haven't been able to shut up about the way Izzy has been written in season 2 and I stand by my disappointment and criticism, even knowing that the writers were given a herculean task of cramming 10 pounds of season into an 8 pound bag. Even knowing that, his "arc" such as it is has felt very off to a lot of people, present company included. I'm a cogitator at heart (thanks AuDHD!) and that can turn "make it make sense" into a prime directive sometimes. So here I am, trying once again.

I felt a particular way about Izzy after the end of season 1, which I would describe as "not especially strongly" because I primarily saw his character as a storytelling tool/useful foil more than anything else. But his presence and characterization in season 2 have been haunting me this time and not in a good way, because I've spent this season trying and failing to make it make sense. But something just occurred to me that I hope I can explain in a coherent way:

If season 1 Izzy was more a storytelling tool than anything else, maybe season 2 was an attempt to turn the puppet into a Real Boy. And if so, maybe things did not go as planned.

There are so, so many good posts going into the things that don't work about how Izzy has been handled this season, to the point that I'm not gonna try reinventing the wheel. Some of the reasons it hasn't worked for some of us include:

Much of his alleged growth apparently happening offscreen, most likely due to the reduced budget and episode count.

The lack of connective tissue between many of his scenes, some of which can be attributed to the previous point about corporate fuckery but other parts of which are hard to explain beyond "idk I guess the writers felt like it?"

The unfortunate connotations of sidelining nonwhite characters like Jim, who was the only character beyond the central pair to receive a detailed backstory, flashbacks, and a multi-episode character arc

The unchecked racialized comments he gets to drop about Edward (calling him a "wild dog" or seemingly mixing him up with Roach) that in season 1, would have resulted in violent retribution as a sign of the story's disapproval

The lines we get from Izzy that feel like they should have been said by other characters, and maybe that would have been based on the expectations of the show that we left season 1 with

The way it seems like Izzy's suffering is being used as a stand-in for actual moments of reflection or atonement, which is a pretty fucked up dynamic to set up as precursor to redemption

The way Izzy now gets to partake in the very behaviors he denigrated in Ed last season, which would be a cool and moving character beat if there was a single, solitary narrative acknowledgement in the harm caused by his treatment of Ed in s1e10. Ditto for him apparently just being cool with shit that once would have been his worst nightmare.

The fact that so many of these issues could have been addressed in a quick throwaway line or two that showed that the narrative understood what was wrong to reassure us all because by definition if a character is getting a redemption arc, it's because they did something wrong, right?

There's plenty more of course, but that's not why I made this post. I made this post because regardless of why the decision was made to handle Izzy this way this season, the attempt was made to flesh him out in ways that his role last season may not have been initially written for. Con's performance and certain production choices hinted at a depth to his character that may or may not have been on the page, but helped make for a pretty interesting season 1 antagonist.

For season 2 they decided to make Izzy a real boy, but the combination of a reduced budget, a lower episode count, and whatever creative darlings they couldn't seem to kill in order to give us more development of his transformation made sticking the landing impossible because we're lacking certain elements for basic comprehension.

Imagine you know almost nothing of the story of Pinocchio and someone starts up the Disney movie version of it for you but it's a weirdly edited version of it. There's no narration from Jiminy Cricket, mostly because there's no Jiminy Cricket at all. We see Geppetto crafting a wooden puppet, but not the part where he wishes for him to be a real boy, which makes it kinda weird to then see the part where the fairy brings him to life and says he can become a real boy but okay, let's go with it.

Now let's say the one thing you've always heard about the story is that Pinocchio's nose grows when he lies. So we get to the scene where he lies to the fairy but for whatever reason, his nose doesn't grow. No one comments on the inconsistency, and when you mention the nose thing all anyone wants to talk about is how great Pinocchio's nose looks.

Then Pinocchio goes to Pleasure Island and while the animation and acting seem great as usual, and the language of cinema appears to be setting up something dark on the horizon. Then Pinocchio's new friend Lampwick starts transforming into a donkey, this random well-dressed cricket shows up to admonish Pinocchio, and our puppet friend is randomly immune to the thing turning other kids into donkeys. No one comments on that either. Maybe Pinocchio even gloats about it a little, which seems like a weird storytelling decision that merits a follow up discussion later.

And I guess this is the part of this over-extended metaphor where you remember you have somewhere to be but you'll finish the film later, because as an audience we won't know how things shake out for season 2 Izzy until the finale. Presumably we'll still get the scene where he magically turns into a real boy, but there isn't exactly time for anything else like all that stuff with the whale. Maybe the real boy scene will happen, but for whatever reason the animator kept drawing him like the wooden puppet and every time you point it out no one will take you seriously.

Wouldn't that be a weird thing to experience?

[directdogman]

RANT ABOUT ALF THE PUBLIC DEMANDS IT

So, in the earliest seasons of ALF, there was a cat named Lucky and ALF constantly tried to eat it. Running gag. After a few seasons, they phased the character out. They just... forgot about the cat, I guess. At least a whole SEASON passed without mention. Then in the final season, they filmed an episode that started with the announcement that the CAT was DEAD and the episode featured ALF ending up with a ton of kittens, which he tried to eat, and in the end, they decide to keep one of the kittens, which they name Lucky II.

...The kitten NEVER appears for a single other episode. It's essentially retconned from the show the MOMENT the episode ends, which is really odd, since other plotlines/characters are consistently depicted between episodes, with the side characters having arcs and some degree of continuity.

REALLY hacky writing, to be frank.

The show also ends on a depressing fucking cliffhanger and ALF gets captured by government forces because the show got canned right as they wrapped up filming and they never got to finish the breakout arc. they did make a movie to try to capstone the series (which was NOT well received) but they couldn't get any of the human cast back for it because they all hated working on the show so much and refused to come back... so they just added a throwaway line to explain they were sent to iceland against their will and that's the end of it.

the guy who played the straight-man nerdy dad actually walked out on the last day silently without saying bye to anyone because he hated the show so much. just took his coat and skedaddled. fun fact, the same actor later had his career take a nosedive when pics emerged in a gossip rag of him smoking crack and making out with a man. anyway, he's dead now. weird times.

[boreal-sea]

If I were going to rewrite Midsommar...

I would want the audience to be horrified that this cult intentionally invited in a bunch of outsiders to murder them, and that they specifically manipulated and involved Dani in the murder of her friends.

Basically I would want everyone watching the movie to have a very bad time and not walk away thinking it was about #girlpower.

I would have Dani's family member (whoever, doesn't matter) commit suicide by falling off a bridge or something.

Christian wouldn't be thinking about breaking up with her; she might still be thinking he wants to, but it would entirely be trauma on her part.

Christian's friends shouldn't hate Dani either. We need to like these people.

Pelle should directly invite Dani on the trip, making her presence there intentional.

It should be more obvious this is a rare version of the festival that only happens every 90 years, I only know because I read the wiki afterwards.

Mark is pointless and simply shouldn't exist. We don't need the asshole friend trope, it's boring and annoying.

The fact that Christian is struggling with his thesis should be established more strongly than just a single throwaway line. He should mention it to Dani.

Christian and Josh should be, above all else, likeable.

The movie shouldn't overuse generic creepy music. It also shouldn't overuse dialogue. Let the scenes breathe. Silence is ok.

We need to get to know Simon and Connie better (the two guests brought by Ingemar).

Using the midnight sun as a way to immerse the characters in a "disordered world" is great, but the movie should really lean into the ways light changes throughout the day, even during the solstice; strong yellows and deep blues, a lot could be done.

On that note, make the movie weirder.

Cut the use of a disabled person as body horror. I don't know what you replace their seer with, but not a physically disabled person being put on screen just for shock value.

Because Dani's relative died by falling off a bridge or building, the attestupa is now much more traumatizing. Maybe Josh even tries to convince her not to go ahead of time because he knows someone will die.

The movie is already man vs man with the guests vs the cult, we do not need the guests to also be fighting each other over a thesis. Drop that plot line, or change it so that Christian deciding to study the Hårga doesn't compete with Josh's plan. This gives Christian an excuse to stay even though he just saw two people die. Again, this plays into keeping these guys likeable.

The disappearance of Simon was good; Connie being left alone could be extremely scary, if it's given time to develop and we get to see her fear grow before she also disappears.

On that note, Josh should not try to secretly photograph the book. He still totally dies, it's just in secret. The cult was already gonna kill him. They don't need a secondary reason to do it.

And on that note: the fact that the guests are disappearing should be the creepy part. First Simon - the villagers say he was driven back, but Connie swears he wouldn't have left her alone. Then Connie also disappears. Then Josh. I think we need more hints around the village that these people are still around, and haven't actually left. Subtle hints.

The wedge driven between Dani and Christian should be entirely caused by manipulation, not because the script suddenly turns Christian into a jerk.

Christian should in fact see that Pelle and cult are doing weird shit to Dani and try to convince her they're manipulating her, but fails. THAT can be the wedge, as the cultists comfort her. In fact, I'd like to see the cult do more to win Dani over. Maybe even more of Pelle talking about how Dani's relative killed themself, trying to link it back to the cult's traditions. Just trying to win her over even more than they did in the original film, and to turn her away from Christian. Maja wanting to sleep with Christian is also another way the movie could drive that wedge, even while making sure Christian is completely against it the whole time. Dani wouldn't see it that way because the cult won't let her.

The rest of the movie plays out roughly the same, we just care more about these people and it is now suspenseful to see them disappearing one by one.

Christian is still drugged and raped, just make it way more obvious he's really not doing it of his own free will. Put him on the bottom, or have them tie him up or something.

Dani still spies and thinks Christian is cheating on her.

Christian escapes from the women as usual, but in his fear he does not wander into a hen house with random, unexplained gore. Just cut that scene.

Dani is still the May Queen, and she still makes the same choice at the end of the film. Everything else can happen just the same.

We are now horrified that this cult intentionally invited in a bunch of outsiders to murder them, and that they specifically involved Dani in the murder of her friends.

[hello-nichya-here]

Do you think Light had any deep regrets, seeing what happened to his sister after the hostage situation?

Let's take a look at his actions.

He spends considerable time mentally debating killing his sister himself to avoid letting Mello get ahold of a Death Note. He doesn't go through with it, but after it he never talks about her, doesn't help their mother take care of her, and even after Mello dies there's never so much as a single throwaway line of him thinking "Serves him right for what he did to her!"

Even in the anime scene of him thinking back on what life was like before the Death Note, he only sees himself, the super smart student with a briliant future ahead. When he's seconds away from dying, he imagines L before him. His sister, and his entire family really, not being a factor in his mind at all.

Light is not completely devoid of human emotions (compassion and love very much included) and he does have some understanding of typical, current social morals - but to him, they only go so far.

He stopped himself for a second before first using the Death Note, before even knowing it truly worked, because "does that make me a murderer?" and in the manga he spends sometime without eating or sleeping because of the guilt. But he still uses it again and again, not just for his warped idea of "justice", but to do tests on inmates that, by definition, do NOT fit his his criteria of "people that evaded justice", and even just to prove, on live TV, that he could. He also made sure to hide the Death Note well because he knew that, if someone else found it, he might have to kill his own family.

He loved his father and had a genuine emotional breakdown when he died. He still tried to use his death to mask the fact that he was Kira, and even tried to get him to kill Mello. And in the finale he reveals that he is going to kill the entire task force - all of which worked with his father, were close to him for years, and watched his children grow up.

He loved L, or at least their strange mix of friendship and intelectual death match, was visibly shaken when L called him his first friend, notes with bitterness and downright sadness that L was right, things were boring and lonely now that they had split up, and is OFFENDED when Near, someone he sees as inferior, is wearing a mask of him. Didn't stop him from constantly trying to murder the guy, cruely smirking down at him during the moment of his death just to twist the knife further, gloating after it, stealing his "identity" as a final disrespect, and then trying to kill his heirs.

And yes, he loved his sister and couldn't bring himself to kill her - but that's the most she'll get out of this relationship. Not dying. Not by his hand, at least. No visits at the hospital, no comfort after a traumatic experience, not even a quiet moment of Light thinking to himself "None of this would have happened to her if I had never used the Death Note or gave it back to Ryuk."

Light has moments in which he cares about others. But the one person he consistently cares about is himself. The "glimpses of humanity" matters and give his character depth, but they don't chance the very consistent pattern that remained the same until his last breath.

[aemiron-main]

Hi! Since you've seen the play a few times, would you mind answering a quick question? Does the Hawkins Library make any kind of appearance or otherwise get mentioned in the play?

Between its clock tower which chimes like Vecna's grandfather clock as the four gates converge at its location, and the fact it's where Will was taken to get slugged, the library is clearly a place of significance for Vecna -- but as far as I've been able to gather, the play doesn't seem to offer any explanation as to why.

Does The Hawkins Library Appear In TFS?

HELLO!! <3 Great question- sadly, the play does NOT touch on the library at all. It’s honestly a little weird that it’s literally never brought up whatsoever!

Which, I think it’s extra weird that the library never got brought up considering how the ST library clock tower parallels the clock tower in Back To The Future. Especially since in TFS, Henry is always running late, much like Marty McFly, and his code name was George during the auditions (much like George McFly), and then there’s also the changing newspapers about George McFly that change based on changes to the timeline, versus a.) the Henry vs Edward papers about the Creel murders in-show and b.) the weird TFS newspapers about the Creel murders that are completely different from the in-show newspapers about the Creel murders.

There’s also the whole thing re: “you have to be your dad” in TFS vs Marty McFly almost accidentally becoming his own father/erasing himself from existence.

Which, the newspaper thing is especially interesting re: the missing library considering that the newspapers were down in the library basement in s4 (well, specifically, the weekly watcher was/thats where we get the scene of robin grabbing the weekly watcher to look at) vs will being in the UD library’s basement in S1.

It also struck me as weird that there’s so many other things/parts of Hawkins that are mentioned on the posters in the theatre and that are relevant in-show (such as the first Snow Ball), but don’t even get a single throwaway line in the play. Even though there’s other locations (such as Henderson Liquors) that have the entire building on stage, both interior and exterior/Henry walks into it- not to mention the giant USS Eldridhe ship on stage. Point is, if they wanted to show us a location, whether interior or exterior, they would, so it’s a pointed choice for them Not to.

Which, this whole location weirdness is extra weird when we consider what I talked about in this post re: almost every location in TFS also being Hawkins High for some reason.

However, Will’s scenes underneath the library in S1 definitely have cave vibes IMO, and I think that’s definitely going to tie into some Henry parallels re: the cave that Henry was in when he was in Nevada/when he contracted the shadow.

And like I’ve talked about on here before, the clock also never shows up in TFS, even though we hear it, we never see it, despite the fact that there’s a whole scene in the Creel foyer, it’s a.) conveniently dark and b.) the clock just. Isn’t there, so there’s smthn rattling about that vs the library clock also not showing up in TFS and the parallels between the Creel clock and the library clock in S4.

I also wonder if the library’s significance to Vecna is going to tie into the whole Brenner-As-Vecna/Beenner having merged himself with Henry or Edward thing, and if the library was significant to Brenner because a.) we do get him tied to the library in S1 when Hopper reads those articles about him in the library and b.) TFS straight up had Vecna’s shadow pop up behind Brenner, and IMO, the Brenner-Vecna connection just gets stronger every day.

Anyway! I hope this answers your question/helps! :DD Thanks for the ask! <333

[kaydeefalls]

65 for Carthaginians, 66 for fic of your choice, 67, and 69 (always be fishing for recs)

Here we go!

65. If you wrote a sequel to [Carthaginians], what would happen in it?

LYKON MY BELOVED. Not the obvious answer, which I guess would be the followup of Yusuf and Nicolò searching for the lost Carthaginian children, but I honestly don't know how much of a story I have to tell there. However, the later ramifications of this particular canon divergence are fascinating to me, and having essentially swapped origin eras for Joe&Nicky vs. Lykon, I would love to dive into his alternate origin story. I spent way too long trying to pinpoint where in the early medieval period Lykon could have become immortal instead (for a single throwaway line in the one flashforward to present day scene), and it would be fun to explore that further. Or how the events of the movie play out differently with Lykon still part of the team - would he be the one to lose his immortality instead of Andy, since canonically he IS the first to die (and at only around 1000 years old, which is right around movie era in this AU)?

66. What’s a fun fact about [insert fic]?

I guess I'll go with what dreams may come (TOG fusion!AU with Inception), since that's the most recent fic I've posted. IDK how we define "fun fact" here, so here's something that pleased me when it finally came together. The fic alternates between past and present day scenes, and every single one of Nicky's dreams we see in a flashback shows up again in the nightmare Quynh traps him in. I did not plan that going in. I did not have the faintest idea how the final showdown was going to play out until just before I wrote it, and then had the absolute delight of patchworking all the prior dreams together into some kind of Frankenstein's monster of a dream. I'd struggled with writing most of that fic, but that section came together SO easily in the end. Love it when I subconsciously lay my own breadcrumbs trail.

67. If a fic was titled [insert made up title], what would this story be about/how would you write it?

...I'm not sure how to answer this one without the made up title of choice! But titles rarely come first for me. When I'm very, very lucky, they come relatively early on in the writing process, and not in a desperate scramble at the last possible minute. Though I do sometimes have titles sitting in the back of my head for years, waiting for the right fandom/fic to show up for them. Always satisfying when one of those finds a home. (I do currently have one of those on the backburner - a line from my wife's favorite poem - but the WIP in question hasn't coalesced properly yet.)

69. What are your favorite fics at the moment?

Okay, so I'm currently doing a deep dive into Heartstopper fandom, which uh I'm not sure anyone else here would care about, and I'm kinda casting the net pretty wide at the moment in that sort of new(ish) fandom haze, where I'm not as picky as I normally would be, but also everything I've read is kind of starting to blur together? I wish I thought to bookmark fics more - I use author subscriptions instead of bookmarks for my own personal reference, but that's uh less helpful in a new fandom where I don't actually remember any author's username out of context. The most recent fics I've bookmarked (in ANY fandom) are:

like in the dramas by shoutowo (Heartstopper) - canon divergence where Charlie and Tao start fake dating after Charlie gets outed, and the ensuing complications once he meets Nick; it's just super charming and a fun subversion of the fake dating trope, and Charlie's repeated attempts to fake-break-up with Tao amuse me greatly.

That Was the River, This Is the Sea by @what-alchemy (TOG) - modern AU for Joe/Nicky, I fucking love the way this fic depicts them both, and how REAL they feel. I can't speak from a cis gay male experience, being a queer woman, but the depiction of Joe and Nicky's desire for each other in this fic is the closest I've ever read to the way my many queer male friends talk about sex and relationships, it just rings so unbelievably true to me. And also it's just lovely.

...apparently I've only bookmarked two new fics in 2024? Ugh. I really need to use bookmarks more often. But genuinely I'm just in a weird Heartstopper reading haze at the moment and I don't know what to rec because I'd have to track them back down again first, and my brain is not capable of that at 1am, whoops. 🤦‍♀️

[adamprrishcycle]

Do you ever just got about your day, minding your business, and then you remember that we learn that Ronan—often—sleeps on the floor next to Adam at St. Agnes.

In a throwaway line that literally went over my head on my first read—SO MUCH SIGNIFICANCE to the development of this relationship in a handful of words, irrelevant to what’s currently happen in that chapter. And we never hear of it again, nor get to see it on page. This line that inspired the pynch fic with the most kudos on ao3.

Stief is simultaneously evil and genius, because I think about it all the damn time

WAIT how did I miss this ask??? I’m sorry anon you sent this 19th sept and I’m just now seeing it!

The idea that ronan sleeps on adam’s floor is just insane on its own….but then the fact that we only know about it from one single sentence that is so casual and dismissive like oh yeah that happens, anyway. I have spent a lot of time obsessing over it. a lot of time…I’ve been writing fic about it since 2015 (I’m tired) and I won’t stop ever (I don’t know how)

[felinemotif]

ik i could just ask this on discord but it’s not urgent so i didn’t wanna like. @ you or anything

i just had a couple of steph questions!! first: i swear i remember reading that steph was a vegetarian or had attempted being vegetarian at some point? but i can’t find anything about it & am starting to think i imagined it shsjjdkdjd

& then my second question: is she mentioned to like. enjoy any particular shows/movies or genre of shows/TV??

(these are for fics but like… minor, single sentence details so. def not urgent <333)

also feel free to throw any other interesting steph facts at me!! esp things you feel ppl forget / leave out 💞

ahhh you know i am always happy to talk about my girl <333 it’s after midnight for me so i am sorry that this isn’t the most eloquent answer and i am sure i am forgetting some things (i’ll add to this later/dm you if anything hits me) but to the best of my knowledge:

yes, stephanie is/was(?) a vegetarian. not sure off the top of my head if it was stated anywhere else but i dug up this screenshot from batgirls #13.

(for clarification this was when steph and cass body-swapped)

so no, you didn’t imagine it! though i can’t recall if she is still a vegetarian now, sorry.

now, your other question was much harder lol. i actually went and skimmed through all of the comics i have marked down as my favorite reads for her (+ a few non faves that i thought might have smth relevant) and most of the time when stephanie is shown watching tv or in front of a computer, all that’s ‘on’ is the news.

but! for you, livvy, i didn’t give up.

in nightwing #106, stephanie, cass and dick are all sitting down for their movie night. it’s cass’ pick that week but since steph did stay to watch, i think we can go on a limb and say that she at the very least doesn’t mind horror/sci-fi.

i know that she’s also referenced harry potter throughout her comics— usually just a throwaway line like ‘accio’ so from there we can infer that she does like fantasy/adventure as well.

(took some digging but i found an example in batgirl #18)

she’s referenced star trek as well, and at least in one conversation has been shown to know enough about game of thrones and star wars to joke about it with cass in batman: urban legends #5

i know that’s toeing the line of pulling at straws but given her more delved into interests in the action and fantasy genre i feel like it’s okay to assume that she does like those shows :) and if not who is going to tell me i’m wrong :) stephanie brown would love arya stark

all of this to say that stephanie has been shown to enjoy and understand pop-culture. a good portion of her civilian friends are alt as well, and i’d go so far as to say that given that, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that she would enjoy independent films.

she’s a self-confessed music snob with an interest in art. i could easily see that playing into a joy for film festivals.

(didn’t include because this is already so long but after this panel — i already had it screenshot but i believe it comes from batgirls #1 — was her saying that they were looking for models and steph did consider it so i’d argue that she would enjoy fashion shows as well, though probably ones that are entirely student-run or by small designers)

(she hung that poster up on her bedroom wall next to her bed later on)

i know this isn’t covering everything, but i hope it’s enough to help!!! so excited to read your upcoming fics 🫶🏻 and as always if you have more steph questions or need a panel dug up, i am your gal

[church-of-lilith]

Honestly what does give me a little comfort in kind of a messed up way is the fact that us sapphics aren't exactly alone-they pretty much screwed over EVERY minority lmao: Nate's storyline wasn't really explored and mostly centered around his relationship with Jade, Keeley could have had a whole fish out of water storyline like Ted about winning over her coworkers but instead the focused on her relationship drama, completely wasted Edwin and Shandy's potential for cheap laughs, gave a half assed attempt at writing Sam's storyline only to call him literally getting hate crimed a "big whoop" and never address it again, never actually giving Dani a storyline, like the list goes on and on XD its honestly kind of impressive how they managed to lowkey tear down their entire legacy Omg if you can edit your reddit post you should also mention how the only other sapphic character on the entire show is that creepy dog breeder..

This is so true. It feels like they dropped the ball for every single minority character and the longer you think about it the worse it gets.

Let’s talk Nate for a second because his whole storyline really baffles me. They had him coaching at Westham, and then they had him quit (or was he fired?) from Westham OFF SCREEN? And then suddenly an episode later he’s back as the assistant kitman for Richmond? I’ll never understand why these writers were so dead set on him coming back to Richmond, all so he could just fade into the background. And while I do believe the whole kit man decision was a temporary one, and that going forward they made him a coach again, I don’t like the implication that he worked through his issues this whole season to just end up back where he was. There’s no reason Nate couldn’t have gone off and gotten another coaching job at another team! He’s still the Wonder Kid, clearly has mad skills and credibility, you can’t tell me there isn’t a team who would have wanted him! I understand he had to return to Richmond briefly to have closure and make his apologies, but then he could’ve gone off to coach elsewhere and continued to spread the Lasso Way and change the lives of other people! We didn’t need him at Richmond when basically all the work has already been done. I wish they would’ve given me any indication that he’d really been impacted by this whole arc he went through & then gone off to be the change he wanted to see in the world.

Keeley’s whole storyline being about Jack & the business was such a waste of Juno Temple’s amazing acting, and an underutilization of the fan favorite character we know and love. Most everything about her seemed so off this season? And as you pointed out, she really didn’t even become Miss Independent until the very end when Rebecca took over financing and she was able to make decisions about her own business finally. I would’ve much rather they had Rebecca funding it from the start (or at least earlier in the season) so we could have seen her adventures and misadventures through running her own company that didn’t have anything to do with her messy, exploitative relationship with Jack.

The way I feel about them trying to tackle racism with Sam’s storyline is the same way I feel about them trying to tackle homophobia with Colin’s. If you’re gonna half ass it, don’t do it at all. And they certainly didn’t put half the amount of time and effort they needed to into thinking up how to properly handle Sam’s storyline. We went through the whole hate crime that was never addressed again. And then we had this big problem with Edwin in the final episodes where he was like “I’m going to destroy your entire life and you’ll never make money with the restaurant and you’ll never play for the National team.” And then that was just NEVER addressed again?? Not even a throwaway line about Rebecca taking care of it or something?? He was suddenly playing on the Team and the only explanation we were given from Brendan during the AMA was that it was due to ‘national outcry’ like give me a break. Not to mention we never saw Simi again and so we never got to see if she and Sam ended up together. We were sort of just left to infer that everything worked out for Sam, and that just doesn’t work for me.

Poor Dani Rojas was doomed to be nothing more than a joke from the very start. He deserved more, but at the same time I’m almost glad they didn’t give him more because the storylines this season were awful.

So yeah, feels like all of the minorities on the show lost. I don’t know how the writers managed to do this in so little time, but you’re right it is really impressive.

[winstonhenderson]

𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟑.

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻… 𝓒𝓱𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓻𝔂?

𝙎𝘼𝘾𝙍𝙄𝙁𝘼𝙈𝙀 𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙎

Mick Jagger’s Notebook

Writer’s block. Fuck me! Just as we were beginning to write nice bops, shit, we don’t click for several days and write absolute bullcrap while we're at it. Fuck this problem. And then, I fucking look over there at Parlophone and The goddamn Beatles are doing just swell! Lennon and McCartney lounging away their greedy and prissy asses, writing some new schlop the audience will like. They look like they always click!

“Fuck them.”

“Mick, don’t beat yourself up. They suck, but we could steal a trick or two from ‘em? Whatcha say?”

“Huh, not bad Richards.”

At least we function as friends. Maybe those two aren’t that friendly with each other outside the studio. 

Whenever we visit, they are welcoming. Of course. They always act like they are bigger than us. Currently, yes, but in the future, I hope not.

Paul McCartney was fake one hundred percent of the time. He had that unnatural kindness that didn’t sit right with me. It looked like we were foremost rivals and enemies. Still, he was polite enough. I respect him. Though, he would get irritated by me, which I am extremely proud of, but never seemed to make a fuss about it. Wonder why?

Meanwhile, his more sincere and head in the clouds best friend, John Lennon, always told us where we stand. Sometimes he’d feel like helping us, sometimes he would tell us to “bugger off”, but Keith and I knew he meant it. He was patient with us and had a fascination with our attempts to get information from him. 

The most important fact about them was that they really respected each other and did so many things together. And I need that with Keith, I need that thing that they do!

So I explained the situation to Lennon, because he was easier to talk to. With McCartney, it was much more work. 

“Oh, so you and Keith cucked out-”

And I regretted it immediately.

“Because you are too afraid.”

He winked.

“Me and Paul aren’t afraid of the press that much.”

“Lennon, I don’t know if you’re messing with me! The Beatles are going with the “good boy” aesthetic. We are the “bad boys” here. Of course we have it harder. The press ain’t pretty.”

He chuckled some more.

“Are we really that good?”, he blurted out, “Or…”

“Give me throwaway advice at least. Not this shit.”

“Okay, Jagger, if ya want to!”, he joked.

“Tell me what you and McCartney do when you’re out of sync.”

“We take some time off and do something fun? Drink. Fun with our birds? Then get back to the studio and write. Simple as that. Take a break, Mick.”

I don’t want to take a break, he is saying that because he wants us to fail and for them to have the monopoly.

“Do you have a quicker fix?”

Lennon rolled his eyes and chuckled.

“Dunno.”

Then he got extremely serious, checking for something. He got close to my ear.

“Then sleep with each other, what can I say?”

“What the fuck, John?”

“You need that intimacy and truthfulness to yourselves? Then explore.”

He was on the brink of bursting from laughter.

I was dumbfounded.

“You know, only lovers can be in sync most of the time. If you really think Macca and I are trying to undermine you and are in sync all the time, then it could only mean that we’re queer.”

“You git!”,  fuckin’ stupid joke making me laugh.

“And you know Macca, even though you know what rumor goes around for taller people’s peckers, he is packing-”, he said it disproportionately loud.

God, hahhahahaahhaah!

“You. You, Lennon, are getting on me nerves.”

“Oh, boohoo, the princess can’t take one single joke.”, he cracked a smile.

“Oh, I can take one, but can you take my pack?”

OH, FUUUUCK!

“No, Paul didn’t say what I think he did!”, I exploded into giggles. Wish the boys were here to hear this line of dialogue.

Lennon did not take that well. He was full of rage and defeat but… like always Lennon had a trick up his sleeve. 

“Only with frosting and cherry on top.”

Now they were both angry, so in sync.

“Really, I thought you liked it raw?”, McCartney is in a good mood for a joke today. Fun. Their conversation had a clear story. Maybe Keith and I should try something similar.

“No, not really, Paulie, I like it safe and sound.”, he winked, “Whatever, I am not coming in anytime soon.”

Paul chuckled.

“They called you for tuning. Tried to find you, saw you hanging out with our fierce competition.”, and welcome back, McCart, glad to see you are once again barely acknowledging my existence.

“Not even a hello for the rival?”, I joked.

He rolled his eyes.

“Hello, Mick Jagger. Johnny, go.”

He chuckled.

“Go, Johnny, go!”, what an awful pun. Don’t know if Lennon’s or his are worse.

“Alright, princess.”, he disappeared into the studio.

As McCartney was about to tinker with some tech I interrupted him,

“McCartney, do you have some advice for getting in sync? Lennon told me some bull, so I am asking the straightman here.”

Paul laughed.

“The straightman, alright.”, is he willing to share with me some advice? Unusual.

“What did John tell you?”

“To fuck? That is what you two do!”

“Oh, that man is surely getting beaten up today.”, Paul was fuming, “Did he tell you something else or just fucked with you? I know very well how and when he likes to do- I’m setting up myself aren’t I?”

That was worth a chuckle. 

“He told me to take a break.”

“And what great advice he gave you. We always do that.”, Paul looked proud for a second, “And he should’ve stopped fucking there!”

Can’t hear the word normally now.

“GOD! Get that picture out of your head, Jagger!”

“The princess doesn’t want to be stripped further.”, Lennon walks back in and continues the game.

“And you don’t want to be punished further.”, McCartney wasn't letting go. They were stubborn as hell.

“We are going in circles with this thing.”, Lennon noticed, “Mick, the two of us are very grateful for your fun with this topic, and now listen; you don’t need a Lennon or a McCartney to tell you what’s best. You have to, y’know-”

John grabbed me strongly by the shoulders.

“Feel it.”

“And think it through.”, Paul added.

“Concluding stuff in that way.”, John ended.

That’s a nice tip.

“That’s gear, thanks.”

“We’ll be going to the studio now. Got to get some shit recorded. Let’s go Paul, and bye rivaaaal!”, Lennon waved and went.

“Bye.”, McCartney followed him.

“Goodbye, Beat less.”

I heard a small whisper from McCartney, “We just helped our competition.”

“Let ‘em at it. They need to learn and grow. Then we wouldn’t have fun-”, and I got too far away.

They really look at us in that way, huh.

Keith and I took their advice to heart and it helped us a lot. We did our own thing. Took breaks sometimes. When we felt something we wrote it down. It really was that easy. And of course we “had to” thank the snide buggers for helping us. But, we wanted to add a little twist to it; mostly because of Lennon’s love for a good joke.

We two went into EMI to check on them. Harrison and Starr were in the studio as per usual. Harrison gave us some biscuits. He had three tins. Three tins.

“One is never enough when John or Ringo are near. Especially Johnny.”

“Still three fucking tins?”

“When you mention fucking, my dear Richards, I remember we had a session last night?”

“Who practices at-”, Starr questioned, “Oh, oh!”

Starr chuckled.

“You gits are lying!”, Lennon walked in.

“Why would sugarplum and I lie?”, Keith my brother.

“OH MY GOD, you madmen!”, Lennon giggled.

“Why would you do that?”, Harrison put away his biscuits.

“Him and McCartney do it? We wanted to thank you because of that. Worked like a charm.”

“John is a big goofball, you are fools for trusting his advice.”, Harrison ate a biscuit, “Want one, John?”

“Yeah.”, he bit the biscuit and talked with his mouth full, “Glad that worked out for you.”

“What happened?”, McCartney entered in a hurry, “We need to start recording.”

“Oh, they did it.”

“Richards and Jagger did what?”

“They explored each other.”

“OH MY LORD.”, Paul gasped, “Good for you.”

Thumbs up.

“Are you stupid? We wouldn’t do queer stuff. And you never denied doing that yourself didn’t you Lennon?”

“I don’t know Jagger, why would you want that to be true?”

Ooh, this is a new kind of self centered I haven’t encountered.

“Nice joke.”, McCartney clapped.

“Now, can you please get out and let us practice?”, Lennon panicked?

“Nervous?”, Keith asked.

McCart and Lennon were embarrassed. Starr and Harrison were begging us with their faces to end this mockery. We won!

“Stop that blasphemy, sugar plums and darlings, and tell us why you are here?”, Paul joked with us in a pleasant way.

“It really worked, the advice you gave us. Taking breaks and such. Thanks, Lennon. Had to give you something extra in return.”

“Oh, you nasty cunts!”, Lennon roared at us with glee, “That was fun.”

“Oh, for Lennon to say it was fun, must’ve been something.”, Keith commented.

I agree.

“That fool is quite easily entertained.”, McCartney scoffed.

“Of course, that’s why you are my songwriting partner.”

McCartney chuckled, “Yeah, to take care of your little messes, like this one.”

“No mess here.”, Keith simply said.

“Yeah, we aren’t a mess.”, I added.

“God… Why do I have to deal with you and Decca.”, McCart sighed.

And that was our cue to go. Not really fun when our rivals want to beat us, but literally. I would like to do that someday, but currently for our image, not anytime soon.

“Bye then The Schmeatles.”, I said.

“See you later, The Rooling Bones.”, Lennon greeted us.

Those two really are special in some way. Lenin and McCart. Funny. Two outlandish Liverpudlians writing good sounding pieces in five minutes. Well, we’ll get there faster for sure.

For now we should celebrate that we bested them in something for the time being. Maybe we are in sync but in a different way than them… 

Rest of Sacrifame

[grayintogreen]

The most interesting character choice with the High Evolutionary is that he seems to have some kind of illness or disability himself (we hear his staff mention something about treatments and he can barely stand up during his confrontation with Rocket when he reveals the filtration system problem he suggested fixed the machines), so that COULD explain his obsession with eugenics even if it obviously not meant to make him sympathetic, but it’s glossed over on purpose. A lesser movie would go out of its way to show the HE undergoing treatments to show that he’s got some Freudian excuse for this, but Gunn refuses to indulge that madness. It’s a throwaway line. It’s revealed during one of his most monstrous moments. It’s literally meant to be forgotten about because SURPRISE being disabled/chronically I’ll doesn’t mean you get a free pass to be a monster.

Honestly, I’ve noticed all of the villains in the GotG trilogy follow this pattern- space racist ethnic cleansing Ronan? Family killed by Xandarians (probably in wars the Kree started). Ego? Lonely. And these traits are mentioned ONCE maybe twice, and usually those facts are presented when the character is being particularly nasty. They’re not sympathetic. They’re not meant to be treated as sympathetic. You can make villains who are irredeemable and unlikeable and give them human flaws without sitting in pathos about it. (Looking at you, Thanos.) You can say “your Freudian excuse doesn’t justify this” without stopping the narrative to prove it. Each villain gets a single moment to explain the reason why they might behave this way, and the narrative moves on without pausing on it. You don’t get the dignity of your pain having ANY focus when you’re this much of a monster.

And the HE doesn’t even get an explanation for his modus operandi. He gets a period of desperate flailing around to suggest SOMETHING isn’t right with him and no explanation. Because it doesn’t matter. He’s a monster. Details of his Space Lupus is not going to make him more relatable.

Also the fact that it happens so quickly and is NOT the focus on the scene means Gunn skirts over the issue of lingering too long on a disability in a bad guy that could be seen as villainizing disabled people. (Especially given that’s the OPPOSITE of the take we’re meant to get from the HE since he’s the one doing that. Constantly.)

[coolgoodandfine]

little bit of a vent, but just annoyed by how ace/aro characters are treated by most fandoms. like, if a character is gay/lesbian then to ship outside that is at most, uncommon, but often times actively discouraged and looked down on. with aspec characters though, it feels like its treated as "currently single" more than anything.

like, despite the fact that i know multiple people who would consider themselves attracted to a single gender but have past and active exceptions (as in currently married to in the case of one, and still considers some exes as people they loved in the case of a couple others), if a character is attracted to a specific gender, then to ship outside that is just not a thing. even if it were, its often actively discouraged

with asexual (not even getting into aromantic!) characters, the response is "well it's just fiction" "let people have their fun!" "puritanical much?" etc, but if a character were canonically gay, then their sexuality is actually respected and ships outside that sexuality don't really happen (and in case of an m/f ship its explored without ignoring their canon sexuality)

sometimes yes, it is someone who is aromantic/asexual exploring their sexuality, and thats great, but someone who is aspec writing an aspec character and someone who is not aspec (and ignoring their identity) writing on the same character often come across completely differently because one will actually take care to respect the characters identity, and the other will have a throwaway line about how "theyve never felt like this about anyone else" that they added so people wouldnt complain.

ive heard people describe it as shippers not liking to be told "no you cant play with your toys that way" but it's only relevant when the character is aro/ace. gee, i wonder why