#cg morpheus

[littledollll]

Sweetest of dreams

Morpheus x reader

A/n: just rly short and fluffy, can be read as little reader, sleepy r looking for cuddles and warmth

No warnings

Letting out a dramatic sigh you fell into bed- well onto him. Morpheus chuckled, wrapping his arms around you as you nuzzled into his chest. “Are you alright, my darling?”

You let out a hum, pulling your self up to meet him face to face. You pouted your lips and he looked at you amused, “Kiss?" He complied, giving you a quick kiss on the very tip of your nose, making you giggle and hide into his neck.

“My shy little love, hm?”

Hugging around him tightly, you nodded. “My sweet dream.” He looked down at you, a smile grazing his face at your sweet remark.

He could feel your smile against his neck then how you wiggled around trying to find the perfect position for a nap, immediately stopping with a sigh when you deemed it perfect.

He gave you a little squeeze and you could feel every worry and all the tension in your body slipping away.

His hand came up to play with your hair, with that your eyes fluttered shut as you calmly slipped away into your very own dream land.

"Goodnight٫ my little star."

[lockandkeyhyena]

Do you know of any cozy glow redemption fics? Tbh I don't know much about the show (only watched it when I was younger) but cg just kind of intrigues me

ok so i don’t know if these count as traditional redemption fics, but these two (and a bonus third with a secondary focus on a cozy glow redemption) have always held a special place in my heart! these definitely lean more towards my personal taste in stories but i think they’re really good.

The End Of All Things (Sort of Cozy redemption? Moreso Cozy empathy) Once did a pony who conquered the world look out at her dying kingdom and sigh. Amongst the ashes of her failure, she seeks the companionship of the only one who could have saved her.

And I Would Live In Stone (Chrysalis-focused with Cozy redemption as a side-story) The battle is over. Chrysalis and her co-conspirators have lost, against all odds, defeated once again by the power of friendship (and overwhelming numbers). For their crimes they find themselves imprisoned in stone, petrified and locked away, and it seems as though their punishment will last forever. But the new Princess of Equestria isn’t finished with them just yet.

The Price of Salt (My all time favourite Cozy fic) Cozy Glow dreams within the stone—a dream so deep, so long, and so faint nopony knows about it. Except for Discord. Diving in secret past Morpheus’ jaws, Cozy is Discord’s stone to roll uphill.

[chellesdump]

Rosie Begins - ChaeNnie

"While being overseas Jennie and Rosé discover different facets of their person"

word count ─ 3k

tags ─ little!rosie, cg!jennie, tw! crying, fluff

notes ─ Second work in the series, we'll see what Jennie and Rosé found out while being overseas. Here is the link to the story on AO3 if you prefer to read it over there. Hope you enjoy it :3

Rosé woke up early in the morning due to the excitement of traveling back to LA after the last time she went there for Coachella as a member of Blackpink, but this time she was going as Roseanne Park maybe for work but also for enjoyment. Her excitement couldn’t be contained inside her, she was oozing energy, this showed in her step as she was skipping throughout the halls towards the bathroom while humming, filling the dorm with her energy while all the other members were still in Morpheus arms.

After having a shower and getting dressed, she made her way back to her room once again humming, on the way she passed Jennie’s room (her travel mate) and saw that the cat-eyed girl was still sleeping instead of getting ready for their flight. She ventured inside Jennie’s room with an objective in mind waking her up without getting hurt which wasn't an easy task.

She tiptoed thru the room towards the bed, once she reached her destination Rosé proceeded to try and ease Jennie out of her slumber by gently shaking her body, but this proved futile as Jen just turned her body to the other side to avoid the disturbance.

Seeing that being gentle wasn’t the answer Rosé took out the big guns and started poking Jennie all over her body and repeating over and over “Jen wake up. Jen it’s time to rise”, increasing the volume of her voice with each repetition.

After a couple of minutes of being poked, tickled, and having her ears bleeding by the volume, Jennie decided to wake up to stop the harassment being imparted to her being. “Ugh” moaned Jen “Stop the harassment Rosie, I’m already awake” mumbled while stretching to get rid of the sleep on her extremities.

By the time the clock marked 9 o’clock both girls were ready and just waiting for their manager to come and pick them up to take them to the airport, their other members were still presumed asleep oblivious to the ruckus caused by Rosé’s last-minute preparations for the trip.

The sound of steps kept getting louder coming from the direction of the rooms, soon after two sleepy bodies emerged from the hallway and took a seat beside them on the sofa immediately snuggling against their bodies before breaking the silence that had made its way into the room.

“Hey Jendeukie, Chaeng…” a yawn interrupted Jisoo’s sentence “when are you going to leave?”, but the question made Jennie to shake her off her arm and put a pout on her face, “Are you telling me to leave already” shot back Jen with hurt clear on her words.

Jisoo was quick to reassure her that wasn’t the case and cuddle the cat-eyed girl, “It isn’t like that Jen, I just want to know how much time left I have to snuggle with the cutest girl before you have to go” she finishes her statement with a kiss on her forehead, action which bought a gummy smile on Jennie’s face.

“You’re such a sap Chu, but they’re picking us up around 9:45, so we have a bit more than half an hour worth of cuddles left” replied Jennie snuggling closer to Jisoo’s body letting go a little hum of content but their moment of relaxation was interrupted by a gagging sound coming from their younger friends.

“Oh gosh, guys, there’s innocent eyes present and you are being so X-rated” retorted Lisa and covered Chae’s eyes, the latter reacted by doing the same action to Lisa’s eyes, after a couple of seconds of silence they erupted in laughter making Jennie irritated by their antics, but soon the four were laughing enjoying one of their last moments together for the foreseeable future.

The next 30 minutes flew by so quickly and the four had watery expressions, caused by the departure of half of their team. The younger ones were the most affected, not wanting to let the other go, they had to be pried from each other’s arms by Jensoo one pulling Lisa into the house and the other pulling Rosé towards the elevator.

The ride towards the airport was filled with quiet sobs coming from Rosé’s being, Jennie ended up cuddling the aussie in an attempt to calm her down before arriving at the airport so as to not rise gossip from the fans or paparazzi that they would encounter. Fortunately, Rosé was able to calm down as they arrived at the airport, but as an extra measure for their security, the girls were escorted privately thru the facilities to avoid all the commotion.

After being checked in they were guided to a private waiting room to rest while the plane was ready for boarding, they decided to spend this time drinking some cold beverages from Starbucks and some light snacks for Chaeng since all the crying drained her energy.

Posterior to having boarded and the plane taking off, both girls proceeded to go back to Morpheus' arms due to the longevity of the flight they had just got into.

Three hours into the flight Jennie woke up thanks to the sound of crying coming from somewhere within the walls of the plane, she adjudicates it to the toddler she saw boarding after them prior because she couldn’t do anything she tried to fall back asleep, but her brain registered the cries more thoroughly, recognizing them as coming from the seat beside her more specifically Chaeyoung’s seat.

This realization made her get rid of all the slumber from her body and analyze the situation, getting concerned as her brain finally woke up fully, turning to assess the situation and stop Chaeyoung’s cries. “Chae, are you okay? What happened? Why the tears?” utter the Korean girl trying to see if Rosé had any visible injuries but the search was null, but this got the Aussie’s attention who still had crocodile tears pouring from her eyes.

Chaeyoung kept sobbing but tried to express the reason for her tears, “U-unnie ‘am sca-scared” said while rubbing at her eyes and plastering a frown on her face, this swamped Jennie’s heart with worry, so she questions as to the why of the fear, “P-panes sca-scady ‘nnie, no wanna be he-hewe”.

This information was new to the Korean since Rosé hadn't mentioned it before on their other flights, the only thing left to do was to comfort her due to her inability to get them off the plane at the moment, so she hugged the Aussie and started rocking both of their bodies side to side while muttering words of comfort “Everything’s going to be okay Chaeng, nothing bad is going to happen to you while I’m here”.

The only response coming from Chaeyoung was a muffled “Pwomise unnie?” followed by more force being put into their embrace as the plane hit some turbulence, “I promise Rosie” was muttered before a kiss was placed on Chaeyoung’s forehead, melting most of the worry that was suffocating her.

Jennie kept rocking both of them, but a thought kept plaguing her mind, why was Chaeng acting like this all of the sudden, she was quite childlike as much as Lisa but at the moment she resembled more a toddler than a carefree young adult.

Posterior to 40 minutes of reassurance Chaeyoung let go of Jennie and resituated on her seat once again but never letting go of her hold on her unnie’s hand, afraid she was going to disappear magically and leave her all alone on the scary plane where all the mean adults go throw mad expressions her way.

The only reason for Chaeyoung being seated on her own seat was that over the intercoms the crew had announced that it was mealtime, and of course, she can’t miss that important time of the trip, which also happened to be the only enjoyable moment of the whole flight so far as she could think of.

The food that was served by the crew appeared so yummy in Chaeyoung’s eyes, they were given bulgogi with rice, dongchimi noodles, and bibimbap, with their choice of drink that could range from imported wine, champagne, cola, water (plain and sparkling) to even some juice. When the kind stewardess came to give them their drinks, she was quick to make her doubts present, “Do you haf’ beew by ‘ny chance?” said Chaeng tilting her head.

“Yes Miss, we have different brands, such as: Hite, Terra, Cass, Kloud. Which one would you like?”

Hearing this made Jennie turn her head quickly towards the stewardess and order the drinks for both of them, “Miss can we have some cola for me and a juice for her, please and thank you” told her Jen with a smile as to not appear even ruder, but of course Chaeng made her discontent know to Jen, “But unnie I want beew fo’ da kimchi” whined the Aussie while crossing her arms. Trying to reason with Chaeng prove to be harder than imagined, “Roseanne Park, you’ve got two choices either juice or cola. Choose one or you’ll be drinking water and not having dessert” she told her, but Chaeyoung wasn’t having it and whined again “Beew, I wan’ beew” wailed while kicking her legs and flailing her arms.

“Park Chaeyoung that’s enough! This is your last chance, choose either the juice or cola. And apologize to the kind lady for your attitude” finished Jennie while providing a look that meant there wasn’t any room left for discussion. Sensing that Jennie was serious, she turned to the stewardess and asked for her drink “Can I haf’ a stawbedy juice pwease Miss, and sowwy fo’ making a ruckus” she finished with a small bow to better express her apology.

“It’s all forgiven yeobo, just listen to your Unnie next time, ok?” said sweetly the stewardess while giving them their respective drinks.

“Now behave Chaeng, I don’t want to have to scold you again,” told her Jennie while starting to eat the food in front of her, from the corner of her eye she noticed that Chaeng wasn’t touching her food but decided to ignore it for the moment in order to eat. When she finished her food, she took notice that Rosé’s food was still intact and asked for the reason, “’am not hungwy unnie” answered with a wavering voice the younger girl. Knowing she was surely lying due to her never saying no to food Jen proceeded to scoop some food from Chaeng’s plate and offer it to the girl with a silly voice “The food train is coming! Next stop Chaengie’s mouth! Choo-choo”, that made the Aussie’s spirit to lift, so she allowed Jennie to continue feeding her between giggles on account of her unnie’s silliness.

With their food finished and their tummies filled both girls laid back into their seats to relax and digest their food better, the relaxing moment didn’t last for long as Chaeyoung’s long-forgotten fear resurfaced due to not having a distraction anymore, luckily her unnie was beside her to keep her grounded and prevent the bad thoughts away. But even if Jennie was beside her the fear was still present and they were barely entering the second third of their flight, many things could happen on the remaining 7 or so hours of the flight and those thoughts would just not leave her alone, fogging everything else.

Jennie sensing that Rosé would surely have another crying fit if she didn’t do something quick proceeded to grab her and move her into her own seat to have a better grip for a hug in order to calm down the already shaking girl who was just seconds away from letting the waterworks free, in the time that took for Rosé to calm down enough to have her full attention Jennie kept thinking in what could they do so she wouldn’t have her head on the plane and the scariness this carried with it. The solution she was able to come with was for both of them to watch a movie together. They'd do this while cuddling on her seat so Chaeyoung could have her mind on the movie but at the same time be able to have contact with her body to reduce the stress and anxiety.

“Hey Chaeng” called Jennie in a soft voice, “would you like to watch a movie with unnie? You can choose it and we’ll even cuddle while watching it, how does that sound?” she asked while keeping rubbing circles on Rosé’s back, whose face and whole body was buried against Jennie’s chest trying to get all the possible contact and warm out of her unnie’s body. Her response came a few seconds later in the form of a tiny nod against her chest and a pair of curious eyes looking at her, she went ahead and reposition both of their bodies with Rosé between her legs and her back pressed against her chest. All this so they would be in a comfier position to start their movie watching, once both of them were comfy enough Jennie put play to Chaeng’s selection, “Beauty and the Beast”.

At the last few minutes of the movie Chaeyoung finally lost her battle against sleep, Jennie noticed about halfway that the Aussie was nodding off but kept fighting against it in order to keep watching the movie, once she was sure Chaeng wouldn’t wake up if she moved her, she laid her down on the seat and situated herself next to the sleeping girl's body and cuddle her before she too joining her off to dreamland.

They slept throughout the rest of the flight only waking up to have their next meal before the landing of the plane. Once they had arrived at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) and gather all their things they were taken to their hotel where they proceeded to get cleaned up after the 12+ hour flight they had just experienced. With Rosé still acting ’toddlerish’ the ordeal proved to be quite hard for Jennie, who had to get Chaeyoung showered and with clean clothes, before she was able to do it for herself, once it was Jennie’s turn to take a shower Chaeng started acting out again.

“NO ‘NNIE, NO GO. ‘TAY WIF ROSIE” exclaimed the younger girl while tugging at Jennie’s arm towards the bed making her sit down, if it were any other instance she would’ve indulged Rosé, but she felt grimy, tired and really needed the shower to help relieve the stress from the trip so she made a deal with Rosé “Hey Rosie, how about you choose a movie to watch while I take a shower?”, but the response wasn’t the one expected, “NO, no wanna see ‘nother movie. Wanna be wif unnie” whined the blonde while making puppy eyes and pouting.

“The pouty face won’t work this time, Rosie. But how about this, you choose a place to go or activity to do together while I take a shower and the rest of the day, I’m all yours” after getting an exciting positive answer she went to finally take her shower.

When she got out, she found a Rosie jumping from excitement, literally jumping on the bed, who had the amazingest coolest funniest plan for the day, her words not Jennie’s. Apparently, her plan included going to Disneyland to meet all the princesses and eat so much ice cream; she persuaded her to drop the visit to Disneyland under the premise of Lisa and Jisoo, being sad and feeling left out, this amazingly make her agree right away, so they settle for going out for ice cream and a visit to the Disney store instead, as their plan for the day.

The rest of their trip overseas turned out amazing, doing so many different things and meeting lots of amazing people, with Rosie regressing (as Jennie later found out was the right word to describe it) when they were together and had a bit more privacy.

Soon it was already time to get back to Korea, this time with a fully adult Rosé due to the anxiety of going back home to Lisa and Jisoo with a new facet of her discovered. Jennie was feeling just like Rosé, anxious after what Lisoo could think about this new phase of her and Chaeyoung’s relationship.

The flight back home was both uneventful and smooth, the time seemed to be on double speed because after they knew they were back in Korea waiting to be picked up and taken back to the dorm. The ride back home was the most nerve-wracking of their lives as they were anxious to see their friends once again, once they arrived and got their respective luggage they went to their apartment at a snail pace, trying to postergate their arrival as long as they could.

As soon as Jennie and Rosé put a foot on the threshold the anxiety melted away for the moment, being replaced by excitement at seeing their friends once again after 3 weeks of them being overseas.

“Mandu! Pasta! Welcome back to Korea” said Jisoo hugging them, but Rosé got out from the hug quickly as she felt Lego rub against her leg just as Lisa came forward too, “Welcome back Jen” said the Thai while giving her a quick hug.

Hearing Lisa speak Rosé turned her head quickly in the direction of the voice before yelling “LALISA!” and running towards Lisa, seeing this, Lisa yelled back “CHAEYOUNG!”, getting herself ready for the oncoming hug and posterior jumping from both parties emanating joy at getting their best friend back.

“It seems they both missed each other a lot don’t you think so Jendeuk?” said Jisoo throwing her arm around Jennie’s shoulders, “Yeah, there were times where I thought Rosie would die without her buddy. But she seemed to enjoy herself back in LA” answered Jennie snuggling herself further in Jisoo’s embrace.

“Now that you mention it, how was your time there? Did you have lots of fun? And more importantly, did you miss me lots?” smirked Jisoo at the last question, but the response made the anxiety resurface in Jennie’s body, “It was awesome and well spent our time there, we sure had lots of fun, and of course I missed you lots, who wouldn’t miss your cute snores… But I need to talk to you about something that happened at the time that we were there. We realized something about one of our younger members” expressed Jennie with worry in her voice.

[canidkid]

Some (agere) headcanons

Castlevania

cg -> Sypha Belnades

flip -> Trevor Belmont (regressor lean)

regressor -> Alucard

Sweet Tooth

regressor -> Johnny Abbot

GhostsCBS

flip -> Trevor Lefkowitz

cg -> Sam

flip -> Thorfinn

(Honestly the ghost thing gets so weird they technically all fall under the broad definition of regression)

The Arcana

flip -> Muriel (tiny lean)

flip -> Asra (cg lean)

flip -> Portia (no real lean but prefers big sister)

flip -> Nadia (cg lean - involuntarily regresses)

regressor -> Lucio

Inside Job

Brett & Reagan are flip4flip fight me

The Sandman

regressor -> "Dream" Morpheus

regressor -> The Corinthian (he's only capable of babysitting LOL)

cg -> HOB. ROBERT GADLING. Everybody's dad.

The point of this post is literally to get people to talk to me...talk 2 me about my blorbos...exchange thoughts...pls...

My dms and inbox are open I don't bite I promise!!

[iwishthereweremoreof]

I wish there was some/more Morpheus/Sandman cg agere as i think he would do a great job caring for a little. And just imagine all the magical things him and the reader could get up to in the dreaming!!

💖

[babbiekou]

Hiya I am that Sandman agere anon from IWishThereWasMoreOf. I wasn't to sure who you where saying you where writing for from Sandman. But if it was Morpheus perhaps they could do some drawing together or make dreams together? Maybe the reader could be messy(as i am very messy even when not little) and he could help them clean up. Honestly I'm so starved for Sandman agere I'll take anything though!! Thank you I hope you have a lovely day :D(I would also kill for some Hob if your open to that lmk)

Heya nonnie! Your ideas are freaking awsome!!

I did mean dream yeah! I'm a big fan of cg dream so this is excellent soup in these trying times of only four agere sandman fics. There really should be more, for hob too

I hope I can put it into my fic! I'm imagining like fingerpaint and stuff which brings me great joy. I'm busy w other things atm but I'm gonna keep thinking abt these scenarios anyway lol and see what comes out. Sorry in advance if I never end up writing it :/

You have a wonderful day too 💜

[littledellprince]

Dream as a caregiver <3

• you give him inspiration to create, "what do you make of this nightmare, my sweetheart? What shall we name them?"

• He lets you wander however you like, his raven is usually supervising. His only rule is that if he calls for you, you must answer/return to him.

• Dream is very understanding and never leaves your side during negative regression.

• "Little dreamer/one/love, my little darling." Just little🥺

• Morpheus can be firm and most times impatient. He invented being overprotective too.

• Bedtime stories consist of true stories that he's actually experienced.

• Dream allows Hob to babysit you whenever. you’re always excited for playdates with ‘Hobby’; he feeds you well, and its fun to watch him drama-tically play out his experiences just to see you giggle.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ☆ﾟ. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

[manga-and-stuff]

Matrix 4 fucking suuuuuuuuuucks....

Half of it is "Hey, hey, remember that part from the original trilogy??" and the other half feels like a soulless Netflix remake with cartoon villains and a bunch of B-List actors, writing and directing.

And there isn't a single iconic scene in there, it arguably even made the iconic scenes from the originals worse by making shitty imitations of them. They even used crappy off brand Dr. Manhattan from the HBO Watchmen series as crappy off brand Morpheus in this one.

Even the Special effects only got worse, which is pretty impressive given how much CG and stunt tech evolved in the past 2 decades.

And worst of all, it feels utterly empty, no message, no soul, no meaning... just nothing. It's just another cash grab remake action movie without any substance and about as much depth as a puddle...

[synthient]

Thinking about interior/exterior shots. Matrix 1 spends a fair amount of time outside, shooting on the actual streets of Sydney--or at least using the actual non-cg cityscape as a backdrop, like during the Smith-Morpheus interrogation.

Meanwhile, iirc, Reloaded and Resurrections were shot almost entirely in soundstages on the Warner Bros lot. The vast majority of the plot takes place either underground in Zion, or in indoor locations in the Matrix. And the few "outdoor" locations are pretty obviously sets: from the burly brawl courtyard, to the final city set with the rain rig. It gives movies 2 & 3 an almost claustrophobic feel.

And then there's Resurrections, which feels more open--or at least, gives more of an impression that the outdoors Exist. There are all these airy, window-filled spaces, with natural light and views of San Francisco. But the actual outdoor scenes are still sparing, and carefully deployed.

During the Alice montage, Neo is hopping back and forth between all these different locations: work, his apartment, the Simulatte, the noodle place, the gym. But we never actually see him in transit between them. It adds to the sense of unreality and blurred time, and also, I think, lack of agency. He's never traveling anywhere under his own power. He's always just already there--most literally when the Analyst teleports him and tries to gaslight him into thinking he walked.

In fact, in the whole bluepill section, we only see Neo outdoors twice: the two times he tries to jump off a roof.

We spend a good chunk of the second act underground. Our next outdoor shot is Trinity riding her motorcycle across the Golden Gate Bridge. Again, we get that association of transit with agency and the hope that she can still be freed.

Which comes to a head with that Big Trailer Shot of Neo walking to the Simulatte. He's finally traveling somewhere by his own choice, on his own two feet. Then we lead into the extended outdoor bot chase/rooftop sequence (which was all shot on the streets of San Francisco). And in that final scene, they smash a hole through the Analyst's wall--so we're breaking that interior/exterior binary?

[canmom]

‘Toku’ Tuesday 30 - you know what? let’s do the Matrix!

it’It’s Tuesday! And I hear there’s a new Matrix film out dir. Lana ‘please be less racist I’m begging you’ Wachowski - which seems a rather unnecessary affair all round and is apparently not especially novel or interesting. But whatever - it seems to be something of a 2000score week so let’s go down this particular memory lane to the land of green-tinted, half-cg wire fu.

The Matrix probably doesn’t need a lot of introductions in these circles - alongside LotR and Shrek, it was one of the first movies to ride the wave of the nascent internet meme ecosystem - but I think it would be interesting to approach it with 30-year-old eyes rather than primary school ones and dig up a few production anecdotes. (Here is a Bryn anecdote: I once printed out various stills from the movie on printer paper and taped them to the inside of my locker at school.)

The Matrix is essentially a big tribute to the tradition of Hong Kong martial arts movies, by way of a scifi spin on Baudrillard. Such martial arts movies are something I definitely treat in depth at some point, but definitely too big a subject to tackle tonight; suffice to say that the movie industry in Hong Kong built a highly refined cinematographic language to tell stories about people beating each other up, performed by many charismatic martial artist stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Donnie Yen. . And indeed, The Matrix features the work of Yuen Woo-Ping as a choreographer - but more on that in a little bit.

At the outset of their careers, the Wachowskis - already doing basically everything together - were comics writers who decided to try their hand at selling a script to the movies. Their first script featured cannibals eating rich people, but this was, while good, apparently a little too on the nose for studio executives; instead, they managed to sell the script to a movie called Assassins (1994) to Warner Bros, only to see it almost completely rewritten, an experience that led them to decide to become directors (apparently you can just do that) working on the scripts they sold in the Assassins deal.

Their first project as directors was an explicit, noir-y heist movie called Bound (1996) about a lesbian couple conspiring to steal money from the mafia. This was fairly successful, so The Matrix was greenlit, although the high budget (for the time) and ‘philosophical themes’ gave the studio pause. This changed after the Wachowskis pulled in some comicfriends for a detailed storyboard:

The Wachowskis therefore hired underground comic book artists Geof Darrow and Steve Skroce to draw a 600-page, shot-by-shot storyboard for the entire film.[35] The storyboard eventually earned the studio's approval, and it was decided to film in Australia to make the most of the budget.[33] 

And at the same time, they approached Will Smith to play the main character Neo; he elected to instead go for Wild Wild West. Instead, they recruited the now familiar group of...

Keanu Reeves took Smith’s place as hacker turned anti-robot revolutionary [and also trans allegory] Neo. Very well known guy now; at the time he was best known at the time for being one of the time-travelling stoners Bill and Ted, but also had recently started appearing in sci-fi action movies like Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996)

Laurence Fishburne became the mentor-figure and spaceship pilot Morpheus. At this point he’d recently come off of sci-fi horror film Event Horizon (1997), and was in the 90s starring in a pretty wide range of films - dramas like Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Higher Learning (1995), noir movies like King of New York (1990), biopics like What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993) and indeed doing a shakespeare with Othello (1995)

Carrie-Anne Moss got to be Trinity, one of Morpheus’s main operatives and Neo’s love interest; at the time she was pretty much only appearing in B-movies, of which The Secret Life of Algernon (1997) is one of the only to merit a wiki article.

Hugo Weaving had not yet been Elrond, and at the time would have been perhaps known for playing one of the two main characters in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) about two drag queens, one of them a trans woman, going on a road trip across Australia. His most recent role was then The Interview (1998) in which he played a suspected serial killer in police custody. He got to take his very severe persona to be ‘Agent Smith’, an AI program tasked with maintaining the Matrix who manifests as a suited human.

The Wachowskis at this point were still reasonably crazy in an interesting way rather than a rich person way, so they put these actors through an intense training regime to try and both school them on the philosophical themes allegedly underlying the films, and also train them for Hong Kong style wire-fu stunts at Yuen’s standard...

The cast were required to be able to understand and explain The Matrix.[33] French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation was required reading for most of the principal cast and crew.[38] In early 1997, the Wachowskis had Reeves read Simulacra and Simulation, Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, and [former Lacanian psychoanalyst] Dylan Evans's ideas on evolutionary psychology even before they opened up the script,[16] and eventually he was able to explain all the philosophical nuances involved.[33] Moss commented that she had difficulty with this process.[16]

The directors had long been admirers of Hong Kong action cinema, so they decided to hire the Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director Yuen Woo-ping to work on fight scenes. To prepare for the wire fu, the actors had to train hard for several months.[33] The Wachowskis first scheduled four months for training, beginning in October 1997.[39] Yuen was optimistic but then began to worry when he realized how unfit the actors were.[25]

Baudrillard, for his part, was not impressed by the film’s interpretation of his body of theory.

Which other figure to mention? Of course it would be John Gaeta, who did the visual effects (c.f. when we watched Speed Racer). He’s the one who figured out how to achieve the vague description of a slow motion scene with a moving camera:

When John Gaeta read the script, he pleaded with an effects producer at Mass.Illusion to let him work on the project, and created a prototype that led to him becoming the film's visual effects supervisor.[73]

This became known as ‘bullet time’, created at the time by firing precisely timed still cameras to create the appearance of fast camera motion in slow motion. (Nowadays, high speed cameras are more common, so such elaborate rigs are less likely to be necessary).

Gaeta’s success here would propel him to even more elaborate production techniques like we discussed on Speed Racer, ambitiously reinventing the whole visual language of film to draw on ‘animetism’... which mostly just led the path to the Marvel movie. Road to hell etc. etc. [The Matrix, also, took heavy inspiration from anime, especially Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (Animation Night 39).]

The enormous success of the Matrix - a pretty tight action film, for all that some of its fundamental premise (humans as batteries) is kind of ridiculous - led to two the immediate filming of more sequels in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Resurrections, and no doubt inspired a whole generation’s obsession with leather trenchcoats. These movies were a lot more convulted narratively and more CGI driven, and generally regarded much less well, but they have some striking images. Juno Reactor were brought on to provide the music, and there’s a whole extended rave scene, which is probably suggestive of what the Wachowskis might have been getting up to.

Meanwhile, they were flush with money to send over to Japan, recruiting a large group of anime directors and studios to create a group of side stories for The Matrix in the form of The Animatrix. This features some of my absolute favourite short animated films, such as Shinya Ohira’s astonishing work in Kid’s Story. It also includes the second and last outing of Square Pictures, whose Final Fantasy: Spirits Within we watched last week (Animation Night 85), who created a striptease sword fight in Final Flight of the Osiris; the legendary Takeshi Koike, later to create Redline, rose to a high profile with the short film World Record; Mahiro Maeda fleshed out the backstory with the beautifully ridiculous Second Renaissance pair; Koji Morimoto deployed his usual stylistic flair on a story about kids encountering an anomaly in a ruined house; they even managed to track down Peter Chung to basically do a Matrixed-up episode of Aeon Flux (see Animation Night 52). To me, the Animatrix is definitely the highlight of the whole franchise and I’m looking forward to seeing that again!

Alongside this came a variety of other side projects, including an MMO which is apparently still considered part of the main story because the Wachowskis are the Wachowskis. Morpheus dies in it? Fucked up, I don’t know much about it.

Anyway, OK, that’s the rundown of anecdotes, and we’re running of time. What to say about the Wachowskis? They’re... tricky figures; subculturally a lot closer to Us Lot than most people in the movies (they’re trans, they go to bdsm clubs, they read scifi comics and they’re huge weebs) but also heavily insulated by their wealth and severely afflicted by rich-personitis. They like a lot of the things that I like, but they tend to fumble it when they follow that inspiration. So... I guess we tend to be obliged to pay attention to what they do, and yet it’s hard not to be a little ‘oh, not again’ when they put their foot in it once more, usually with racism (it’s just vital, and not utterly deranged, to film Cloud Atlas with yellowface. No other way they could adapt that book.) I tend to receive a lot of what they do as fascinatingly misguided, sometimes endearingly chuunibyou, but I would understand if your feeling is instead mostly frustration that such people get to be the trans girls who make it, or with the lack of inspiration in some of their later works.

And now, years later, after a variety of distinctive - usually terribly flawed, often still interesting - projects, we have The Matrix Resurrections, which brings Neo and Trinity back, now much older. I’ve avoided learning too much about this film, though from my friends I’ve heard it’s dropped the ball on being novel and interesting and weird, which seems the worst betrayal of what made The Matrix worthwhile - far better to make a janky bad film that does something fucked up and new than make it just another franchise, but I guess the nostalgia window has stepped into the 2000s. Instead, the biggest tech flex seems to be the real-time photorealistic VR tech demo The Matrix Awakens, which - for all that it really does look pretty convincingly photoreal - could be called a desperate attempt to justify the ongoing production of new games consoles and graphics cards. (Like pay attention to the actual gameplay. It’s QTEs and shooting.)

Well, whatever, the demon fascination of movie-making lives yet in my head - and it has been a very, very long time since I saw any of The Matrix. So tonight we’re staying up late to watch all five filmic parts of the series back to back (I will try to mix in the Animatrix between movies as appropriate). Will it hold up? Will I appreciate whatever the hell the sequels were doing a bit more this time around? Will it just feel painfully orientalist? Will the action sequences still feel impressive after so many more years of CGI dev? Let’s find out; They-Wish-It-Was-Toku Tuesday 30 will be starting shortly at https://twitch.tv/canmom

[jeniidrawsshit]

Had to do something about my sudden Sandman obsession after binging the whole season this weekend. Now maybe my brain will let me get back to commissions. . . . . #thesandman #morpheus #sandman #fanart #copicmarkers #mixedmedia (at Rogers Park, Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg-5BMBMroC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[littledollll]

Hello! I hope you are doing well. If you are alright writing it, maybe you could write something Agere for Morpheus x Reader? It'd be so great! For the plot, maybe something about the Sandman legends - you know, how he is told to put sand into children's eyes when they fall asleep so they can have beautiful dreams... And maybe the Reader is stubborn about not wanting to go to sleep, first. Throwing a tantrum, ect. Thank you in advance! ^.^

Mr. Sandman

Morpheus x little!reader

A/n: Idk why I put this off for so long i took like a day to write it😭

No warnings

☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾☾

“I think it’s way past your bedtime, little dreamer.” An unknown voice spoke. You were confused at how calm you felt at having a strange presence in your home, in your room. You felt no need to mask or hide your things, you just continued on as if he wasn’t here, not until he spoke again. “Am I interrupting?”

You sat on your bed surrounded by your toys and stuffies, eyes watery from how often you were yawning yet you refused to sleep, you had for a while, that is why he was here. Your eyes darted to the source of the voice, it looked like more of a shadow than a man, you gave him a questioning look. “who..?”

“Do you know of The sandman, little dreamer?” He spoke while stepping out of the shadows, though he made it seem like the shadows moved away from him. You shook your head. Nothing about him alarmed you oddly enough. You wished he would join you, tell you all about him and his shadows.

Carefully, he made his way closer to you, you only met him with a sweet smile. “Would you like me to explain it?” With a nod you immediately sprung up to move everything off your bed, seemingly to make space for him, then you jumped back to sit on the bed. “Shall I start then?”

You looked at him expectantly and he met you with a soft smile. “The sandman has many names, this one was given by people like you. It is said that when it’s time for bed the sandman comes, and sprinkles little grains of sand in the eyes of children and adults alike. The sand with the help of the sandman, makes the most beautiful dreams for each dreamer, specially for the little ones, those with the most creativity, imagination and hope.”

“mm sand no hurt?” You briefly interrupted with genuine curiosity. “No, little star. The sand isn’t like the normal sand you find at the beach, it is specially made just for this purpose, it’s quite calming, and can help one find sleep very easily.” You found yourself more and more sleepy as he talked, rubbing your eyes you looked back at him squinting. “you’re the sandman!” He huffed out a laugh, and nodded.

“You’re a very smart little dreamer. Now you should be able to sleep without fear, you will have the greatest dreams, do all the things you’ve hoped for. Would you be willing to try?” He was soft spoken, and moved to tuck you in when you nodded. “See mr. Sandman agains?”

“We can meet again, if you wish. Simply call for me, little star, and I will find you in your dreams.” You settled comfortably and soundly at the reassurance, the feeling was odd, the sand falling on your eyes bringing you an easy and calm passage to the dreaming.

The sandman was true to his word. You were met with views beyond your imagination, vibrant and beautiful colors all around you. You slept soundly through night, and when you woke a book sat next to your bed, titled with your name and ready to be read.

[minoukatze]

What happens when I watch The Sandman. #paintingoftheday #potd #minipainting #watercolor #gouache #sandman #dream #morpheus #fanart #gothic #eerie #face #abstract (at Bucks County, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg-0XxeLEsi/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[spockvarietyhour]

I liked Matrix Resurrections. Won’t beat the original, but certainly wasa “hmmmm, I can do better than the last two, what if I had a happier-ish ending. at least for some”

some spoilers

There is a post credit scene.

I do feel Morpheus Dos kinda just....fizzled out, which is a shame, but he was good while he was on screen.

Its a shame the phone booths were removed, it makes sense its it made to mirror our 2021 but still a 2021 ....with phonebooths.

I miss the agents, and the swarming felt a bit, uh, I don’t have a word for it. But think 2009′s I am legend or 2013′s World War Z, it’s a bit like that. a bit too cg generated.

I think one more editiorial pass would have been needed. 

STILL, I liked it.

[thenightling]

In defense of Tom Sturridge (Already!?)

Apparently Tom Sturridge needs defending from our own meager fandom... already...

Disclaimer:  Though it is looking more and more likely that Tom Sturridge has the role of Morpheus in Netflix’s Adaptation of The Sandman this has still NOT been confirmed.   We are still riding on pure speculation.  However, I will defend the man.

Though it is not officially confirmed that Tom Sturridge will be playing Morpheus in The Sandman there are already people in the fandom complaining about the casting. (See the Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Facebook group.  The one with over three-thousand-members that I left.)  

In this post I will be addressing each and every complaint that I have seen thus far.   

And you wonder why they’re keeping the cast a secret from us for so long?  This.  This behavior would actually be worse if you knew for certain who was in the cast.  

When these negative reactions are in regard to who “might” be playing Morpheus, without any actual footage, or even images of him in character, they were wise to keep it a secret from us.

Now, let us begin.

1.   “He looks too much like Robert Pattinson.”  The hatred of Robert Pattinson is bizarre and irrational.  It is as if a great deal of the population cannot separate him from a character they despise.  The irony is Robert Pattinson never liked playing Edward Cullen anyway.  He did it strictly for the money.  And as far as vampire fiction goes, there is far, far, worse out there than Twilight.  Twilight is not good but there is worse out there.  It seems the hatred of Twilight is almost a knee-jerk reaction- a compulsive raw contempt against anything that appeals to teenage girls.  I do not like Twilight but I do not irrationally hate an actor just because he was in the films.  So what if Tom Sturridge resembles Robert Pattinson a bit?  You’ll condemn an actor because of his bone structure?  Because he “Kind of” reminds you of a man who played a character you don’t like?  Really?  I thought most of this fandom were grown ups.

2. “He’s too young to play Morpheus.”    The casting call was for men between the ages of twenty six and thirty six.  Tom Sturridge turns thirty-six this year.   It’s true that a man in his forties or even a youthful fifties could probably play Morpheus perfectly well and Morpheus did have crows-feet wrinkles in the first issue but to condemn an actor based on his age is merely ageism.  In this day and age a man can look any age with the right makeup.  Look at the lead in the silent film of Faust, directed by F. W. Murnau (Director of Nosferatu).   It’s impressive to know a thirty-six-year-old played elderly and youthful Faust in that film, and that was back in 1926.

3.   “He’s too old to play Morpheus.”  ...Seriously?   What did you want?  A CW teenager or early twenty-something college kid as the ten-billion-year-old dream lord?  Yet again, I know a man can pretty much play any age with the right makeup.  All else is ageism, even my cynical statement about the CW, that’s ageism.  

When Lestat the musical was on Broadway the actor who played Lestat was forty, the woman playing his mother was only about two years older than him.  

The actor playing Barnabas in the original Dark Shadows was in his forties.  The character was (According to Dan Curtis) only twenty-five when he became a vampire.  The woman playing his mother was only five-years-older than him.  

Tom Welling was still in Smallville as pre-Superman Clark Kent and he was older than the actor who played Superman in Superman Returns.  With good acting and makeup age doesn’t really matter.        

4.   “He’s a terrible actor.”    The man has about ten acting credits in total according to IMDB.  Most are bit parts and two are from when he was ten and eleven-years-old respectively.  

Are you judging him on roles he had before he hit puberty!? 

I have my doubts you ever saw him act in anything yet.  You’re probably leaping to conclusions because the pictures you found of him are a stoic pretty boy with beard stubble.

5.  “If he’s playing Morpheus that’s automatically a deal breaker.  I’m not watching.”   Okay.  Okay, fine. Don’t watch it.   You don’t have to.  No one is making you watch it.  However, you should be aware that Neil Gaiman watched the auditions.  He had a say in the casting.  If Tom Sturridge is playing him than this is the man HE chose. If Neil Gaiman doesn’t know who should play Morpheus, than no one does.  I thought James McAvoy did an excellent job in The Sandman audio drama and I will not automatically assume Tom Sturridge is a bad actor just because there are people pre-determined to hate this.

6.  “He shouldn’t be played by a white man.  It indicates that The Endless are all white and white people rule the universe.”   Morpheus likely will still have his bone-white (not human-white) skin from the comics (and I hope, the black void eyes with star pupils).  This was pulled off successfully with the Frankenstein monster in Penny Dreadful, with his own inhuman skin and yellow eyes.   

Morpheus’ bone-white skin, improbably thin build, and black void eyes are supposed to be without distinct race.  He’s not a human being. He’s not Caucasian.   He might be played by a white man, yes, but the actor was chosen based on talent, not racial background.  

I saw the casting description. Race was not a factor.  Since actual non-human / humanoid entities devoid of distinct racial background were unavailable, the show simply had to make do with a human being, instead.  The real Endless were unavailable or refuse to act.  You know how temperamental anthropomorphic personifications can be.    

7.   “He’s not thin enough.”   Okay, look. A lot can be done with CG.   I don’t want an actor killing himself for this role. 

Back in 1976 David Bowie was close to ninety-pounds when playing Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man who fell to Earth.  He was so under-weight that the wardrobe department had to buy his clothes in the children’s department of a store.  Yes, the character was really that thin in the Walter Tevis novel that the movie was based on.  But in the book Newton had hollow bones, like a bird, David Bowie, however, is a human being, not an alien.  And Tom Sturridge is a human being, not an anthropomorphic personification.  

When David Bowie played Newton he was on a diet mostly consisting of cocaine...  He could have easily died.  Thankfully Bowie cleaned up later, but he was not in a healthy state when he was in The man who fell to Earth.  We do not need a return of The Thin White Duke.  Not like that.

For a human to reach Morpheus’ comic book weight- that might require very unhealthy behavior, it would potentially be dangerous.  This is something they can adjust with camera tricks and computer effects.  He does not need to look like he’s dying. 

8.   “They should find an actor whose cheekbones stand out.”   See above...

9.    “He doesn’t look anything like Morpheus.”   I am certain you have not seen him in costume yet.  Neil Gaiman has (hypothetically speaking).   Let us trust the author and believe that his character looks the way he intended.    Remember how Henry Cavill went from Superman to The Witcher.

 10.   “I wanted Henry Cavill to play him.”   ... What?   

Have you... have you read Sandman?   Henry Cavill is under contract to do The Witcher.   He needs to stay buff for that role, and you want him to play “rake thin” Morpheus?  Yeah, a lot can be done with CG but Henry is an action hero actor.  He can act.  He’s a good actor.   But this is probably not the right role for Henry Cavill.

11.   “He looks like an American Youtuber.” He’s not either of those things.  Stop judging by appearances.   

12.  “He’s too pretty to play Morpheus.”   Stop judging by appearances.

13.  “He’s not attractive enough to play Morpheus.”  See above... 

14.  “He’s too short to play Morpheus.”  / “I heard he’s only five foot three.” / “I read that he’s just five foot eight.”    According to Google and IMDB he’s 5′10.  That’s the same height David Bowie was.  That’s average adult male height.  If they want him to look taller that’s easily done. Remember, Tom Cruise was The Vampire Lestat.  

It’s just lather, rinse, repeat, when it comes to fans.  Every adaptation the same thing.   “Tom Cruise can’t play Lestat.” (Anne Rice apologized for leading that charge, when she saw him in action).   Or “Michael Keaton is too wholesome to play Batman.”  or even “Ryan Reynolds should never play Deadpool after what he did in Wolverine.”  

People never learn.

Just give Tom Sturridge a chance. The casting isn’t even official yet.   And if he is Morpheus- try and wait to actually see how he plays the role before you decide he’s the worst thing to happen to The Sandman.  A few publicity photos don’t tell you what he is capable of as an actor.   You might be pleasantly surprised. 

[denofgeek]

No two Matrix movies are alike. We remember the original as a revolutionary cyberpunk action film that introduced audiences to “bullet time” and the “wire fu” action sequences of the East. But The Matrix sequels weren’t just more of the same: The Matrix Reloaded is in many ways a superhero fantasy with the kind of CG spectacle we take for granted in the Marvel age. Meanwhile, The Matrix Revolutions could best be described as a manga and anime-inspired mecha horror movie, an absolutely twisted conclusion to the story that feels like the Wachowskis’ answer to the equally controversial The End of Evangelion.

[Read more at Den of Geek]