#characters like flash and superman are out of their genre

[jupitermelichios]

Gotham is a pocket dimension, I will die on this hill

Over time the doorway gets bigger, more and more people can get in, but to begin with, only the weird and the magically inclined can enter, and their descendants are the ones who shape the city (ask me how Gotham and Klarion the Witchboy are connected, sometime). But even now, if you're solid and sensible and real enough, it's entirely possible to leave Metropolis on the New Jersey road and find yourself in Bludhaven without even having seen Gotham. You can pass right by the most densely populated city in the USA without even noticing, because leaving reality, stepping through the bleed into a new dimension, takes a special kind of person.

Which is a long winded way of saying I adore this idea, but I would like to suggest; this only happens in their home dimension. When the Robins are with the Titans, they're just people with a lot of training. The things they can do are impressive as all hell, but not superhuman. There are Olympic athletes who are bendier than Dick, thieves who can blend into the shadows better than Tim or Bruce, soldiers and martial artists who can shrug off more damage than Jason. Other non-powered heroes like the Arrows who can do all the things they do. Outside of Gotham.

"They're different in Gotham," is a common talking point on any team with a Bat on it, especially the Titans. And people who've never been think they know what that means. Everyone's different on hom turf. If you're one of the heroes who's primarily solo and only a team member on the side, missions with the Titans or the Outsiders or the JLA are basically field trips. Of course your attitude is going to be different.

Sometimes someone older, someone who's known the Bats longer, will say, "No, you don't get it, they're different," but they never want to elaborate, and most people don't notice.

And then a mission will take them into Gotham (superheroes, being naturally extremely strange, never have any problems passing through the dimensional gateway, although it sometimes takes Barry a couple of tries) and usually they don't notice the difference at first. Yeah the Bats are different, but only in the ways to be expected. They know this city, care about it. Of course they're different here, it's in their blood.

It's in their blood.

Some heroes never notice the difference. Some chalk it up to imagination. And some, the ones who know the Bats best and the ones who know magic and dimensions and weird best, well...

Bruce is very very good at fading into the background anywhere in the world, or finding a shadow to lurk in, good at timing things just right so you're always looking away when he leaves a room. But once you know what he's doing, it's easy enough to spot. Supes and the Flashes watch him leave. The Lanterns make a game out of maintaining eye contact to see how long it takes for him to cave and just walk out in plain sight. But in Gotham, it's like he can teleport. No matter how high up your meeting, he drops from above. Even when there's nothing above you but clouds. No matter how closely you watch, he disappears, like instead of waiting for you to turn away, he vanishes between eyeblinks.

Dick is an incredible gymnast and one of the best aerialists in the world, but every Titan has seen him fuck up and faceplant at least once. Every flying Titan has had to carry him across gaps too wide for every him to jump. They've all helped him ice at least one strain from jumping too far and too fast with only human shoulders to take the weight. They've all wondered how he still doesn't seem to fully know his limits, after twenty years of practise. And then they follow a lead to Gotham, and it all makes sense, because in Gotham, Dick and gravity have an understanding. In Gotham, Dick opperates on cartoon physics, child logic. In Gotham, as long as he shoots his grapnel before he hits the ground, there's no drop too far, no gap too wide. Every child in the city believes Nightwing can fly, and in places like Gotham, belief has power.

Jason once said that being Robin gives him magic, and maybe that's true, because people who've patched up his wounds in the real world, who've seen him bleeding and delirious and in pain out there, have also seen him shrug off injuries that should have laid him out when he's on home turf. Everyone in the Burnley and Robbinsville districts Uptown knows Red Hood can't be killed, and maybe they're right. Maybe the way Roy just shakes his head and refuses to make eye contact when anyone asks him about it means something.

All Tim's friends will tell you his brain works a little faster than other people's, that he's crazy smart and spent his formative years learning to keep up with speedsters and that's maybe fucked him up a little bit. Former YJ members will roll their eyes and tell you how he loves to bitch about how much sleep he needs on missions (he must be so stressed with Batman breathing down his neck, it's no wonder he doesn't get enough rest at home) and how there's only 24 hours in a day. Kid Flash!Bart hears him complaining about how time moves so slowly and thinks foldly that hanging out with Impulse really did a number on Baby!Tim's brain. And Kon never talks about why he doesn't like visiting Gotham, about the way 24 hours with Tim there can feel like it's lasting a week (he shouldn't need to eat that often in just one day, tells himself they're just naps but knows he's slept at least twice and yet somehow it's still Tuesday), doesn't talk about the mission they did together that took three hours, only once he was far enough out of Gotham that he could see NYC, suddenly his phone was blowing up with messages from Ma and Pa wanting to know what the hell he was playing at, skipping two days of school.

Jon likes to tease Damian about the way he expects the world to obey him. The way he'll say things like 'that bad guy should trip and fall' and be amazed when it doesn't happen. But he's met Batman, and his dad has told him a little about Talia, so it's not exactly surprising. His mom is basically royalty, and his dad regularly bosses around entire rooms full of people who could squash him like a bug if they wanted. Obviously that's going to rub off on their son. But then again, maybe it's the way that in Gotham, things always seem to work out in Damian's favour. Nothing huge, nothing life changing. Nothing that isn't deniable. But the vital information is always on the first computer he checks. There's always a convinient pile of boxes at bottom of every drop. His distractions always work, and when he tells the bad guys to listen to him, it's like they can't help but pay attention.

Barbara remembers everything she's ever seen, and she trained herself to pay attention. When she gets back from Belle Reeve, she notices that the Clocktower's computers respond to her in a way Waller's hadn't. Notices that she can always intuit hardware problems that ought to take her months to fix, crack encryption that ought to be impenetrable. And she notices all the other things too. Notices the way Bruce comes and goes, and the fact that he can see in darkness that ought to blind a mere human. Notices that Dick moves like flowing ink not flesh and blood. Notices every time Jason walks off an injury that should have laid him out, every coversation with Tim that lasts a day or no time at all, every time Damian solves a problem with tools that hadn't been there a minute ago.

And because she remembers - because no matter what Gotham does to her that will always be her real superpower - Barbara is the one who takes the train to Uptown, to the street now called Crime Alley, and it's Barbara who knocks on the door of Jason Blood. Barbara who asks the question, and listens carefully to the answer, and goes home with a bag full of borrowed books on dimensional travel and magical radiation and how even the most magical beings are bound by the rules of the dimension they find themselves in.

(The books raise more questions than they answer, but it does at least make sense of the way her dad used to loose all sense of direction any time he went on holiday and take three tries to find the Gotham turn on his way home. And why that doesn't happen nearly as often now as it used to).

And so, when Cass begins talking about working with Batman Inc, about seeing Hong Kong, learning a new city, it's Barbara who sits her down and explains that it will be different there. That she'll always be good, but reading people doesn't work the way she's grown used to, not out there. That she needs to be prepared for the fact that she'll be fighting deaf and blind compared to what's become her normal on home soil (and no matter where she was born, Gotham is Cass's home soil, she and the city were always meant to find one another).

Cass still goes, because learning to fight at a disadvantage is a useful skill to have, but Barbara's right.

There are pieces of her, pieces of all her family, that never make it past the city limits. Pieces of themselves they have to leave at home, waiting for to come back to the place they belong.

Because the Bats are different in Gotham.

I love the headcanon that none of the Bats are supers, but over time? Gotham is slowly messing them up, one by one.

Bruce smiles at Clark one day in the Cave, and his eyes reflect the light back like a wolf's

Jason suddenly has tiny fangs, but nobody has the nerve to mention it

Alfred literally doesn't die

Dick can jump higher and faster than ever before, but barely notices it

Tim is awake for three days straight and doesn't blink

They're all subtly, but noticeably different. Gotham-blessed, or cursed, or something in between.

[buttherainbowhasabeard]

The Boys: Why the Gruesomest Show on TV Is Also One of the Greatest

Brash. Brazen. Bonkers. Brutal. Bloody. Bawdy. Bizarre. On the surface, 'The Boys' is a show I should absolutely loathe, yet I love it. Why? Because it’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen before, and that makes it exhilarating! 

In this day and age of remakes, reboots, sequels, and prequels, 'The Boys' is a revelation. It takes everything we’ve come to know and love about the superhero genre and turns it on its head. Actually, it smashes its head in and flies off, covered in blood, with a big grin on its face. 

This alone is a great antidote to the "superhero fatigue” that so many of us have been suffering from. With the DC Universe currently in a Chapter 1 reset, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the midst of a very busy Phase 5, ditching the genre (and all the films, TV shows, and spin-offs you have to watch to keep up with it) has been beyond tempting.

In showrunner Eric Kripke's cleverly subverted script for 'The Boys' (based on a comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson), each superhero, or "supe,” as they are dubbed in the show, is a satirical spin on a classic DC or Marvel character, even down to their collective name, The Seven (based on the Justice League).

However, unlike the more moral idols it takes its inspiration from, 'The Boys' is an R-rated romp that explores the ramifications of giving ordinary humans superhuman powers. Behind all the muscled supersuits and PR-manufactured wholesomeness, our heroes have become outright antagonists, and the so-called vigilantes have become our (anti)heroes.

Soldier Boy is an angry and arrogant take on Captain America. Homelander is a narcissistic, sadistic, and volatile version of Superman. Queen Maeve is Wonder Woman, if she were reduced to a cynical sidekick. All-American girl Starlight is an amalgamation of Mary Marvel, Stargirl, and Dazzler. Kimiko possesses a feral quality akin to that of Wolverine. Tek Knight is a BDSM-obsessed Batman. Black Noir is a masked mercenary in the same vein as Deadpool (minus the sass). The Deep is a dumb, perverted parody of Aquaman, and A-Train is a reckless Flash or Quicksilver. They even have their own Nick Fury of sorts, in the form of Vought International SEO Stan Edgar.

In the era of corruption, celebrities, and social influence, real-life supes would definitely abuse their powers and gaslight the public into believing every bit of righteous bullshit that came out of their mouths. They only (and begrudgingly) do good deeds to get more follows and likes, and most don’t like each other either, viewing teammates and partners as competitors rather than comrades.

This dark, disturbing, and at times hilarious take on the genre is what makes the show stand out amongst the rest. It easily offends, distresses, traumatises, titilates, and grosses you out. But it’s not just done for headlines and shock value. Every single chaotic, cruel, and unpredictable action is there for a reason. It forms part of a character’s motivations, it propels the plot forward, or it sets up a new and exciting direction.

Casting is another ingenious ingredient in the supe soup that is 'The Boys'. Household names (Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Giancarlo Esposito, Jensen Ackles, Simon Pegg, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, to name a few) are mixed in with relatively new names (Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Tomer Capone, Dominique McElligott, Aya Cash, and Colby Minifie). However, all performances are stellar. There isn’t one specific actor who carries the whole show or steals every scene (although Starr can be the most mesmerising). As an ensemble, they all have a role to play, and they play it scarily and consistently well.

Every episode is an intense mix of gratuitous violence, gore, sex, nudity, language, and drug use. Characters engage in orgies, bodies are mutilated and torn apart, heads are blown clean off, religious views are ridiculed, and political agendas are exploited. There are supes who are sexist, supes who are homophobic, supes who are racist, supes who are ableist, and supes cloaked in woke ideology purely for the purpose of infiltration and manipulation.

That being said, and for a show that always feels one scene away from being banned, 'The Boys' has shown incredible restraint when it comes to its ending. Five seasons was what was planned, and five seasons is what it’ll be. Despite top ratings for each season, a loyal fanbase, rich source material, and the potential to introduce dozens more supes and storylines, 'The Boys' can clearly see the value of quitting while it's ahead, and I salute them for it.

I’m confident that the fifth and final season will be f**king diabolical, and I can’t wait!

[toytle]

Hi! I love your art style it's like. Breathtaking. And your hcs on barry are some of my favourites of all time?

What do you think of "The Ballad of Barry Allen by Jim's Big Ego as an analysis of Barry's character?

are you asking or are you telling me 🤨 lol THANK YOU i put all my headcanon power into him <3

for the ballad, i love their song stress, and this isn’t bad at all as far as fansongs go. but there’s a reason i don’t include it in my barry playlist, and it’s ultimately bc it doesn’t fit my narrative haha

the song was made in 2003 and i haven’t read many comics before then, so idk how well it aligns w barry’s characterization prior to flashpoint, but i’m basing my playlist off post-flashpoint, so that’s where a lot of the differences will lie

for starters, the song only includes one half of barry’s relationship to his superspeed, and it’s important to me that a barry interpretation includes both sides of that coin. instead, it’s playing on the idea of the dark side of the hero fantasy, an inherently optimistic genre. which, fair, being a superhero sounds like a nightmare, but that angle is less novel to me when that’s the extent of the analysis (and i’m a little over the whole “i hate being a superhero” storyline in general, personally). the song is basically abt how much it would suck to have superspeed bc the world slows to a crawl and you’re left behind bc no one else can keep up w you. and it’s true, that is a very real setback! especially for someone like barry who’s already prone to self-isolation and time management issues! but what does the song actually have to say abt him as a character?

the thing is, barry isn’t a “i wish i wasn’t a hero” kind of guy. he’s a “could i be so strong [to give up the flash]? or do i love the thrill of these powers too much?” kind of guy. he’s a “knowing what i know now… if i could go back in time… maybe i would’ve been somewhere else the day lightning struck my lab and electrified those chemicals, ready and willing to forfeit a life of dodging deathtraps and battling villains… who am i kidding? there’s no going back. no do-overs. like everyone else, superheroes can only follow the path destiny has laid out for them, whatever lies ahead.” kind of guy. yes, barry is caged by his superspeed, but it would be misleading to not present it first and foremost as the very thing that frees him. it’s a double-edged sword that gives him purpose, and that freedom in obligation is what motivates him to keep going. as a wise man once said, “all you can do is go forward.” (“thanks.” “superman is pretty smart isn’t he.” “hm.”)

i think the real kicker for me was this lyric: “i’ve got time to think about the past… how my life was so exciting before i got this way.” my sincerest apologies to mr. allen, but he does not feel complete to me without his mother’s death or his father’s false imprisonment. this backstory contextualizes everything for me. his life was NOT exciting before his superspeed, it was lonely and full of escapism, either in his sci-fi/comics or his dedication to finding justice. i am of the belief that barry didn’t truly start living until he got his superspeed, over 2 decades of waiting around before he rly understood freedom and what it meant to live for himself. i get what they’re trying to do here, but this is what i mean when i say it feels like the song characterizes barry around the concept of his speed rather than how barry’s speed defines him as a person

ik i can’t expect a 4min song to include every aspect of a character’s timeline/development/nuance (esp before some of that even existed lol), but my issue isn’t that it doesn’t cover enough ground—it’s not bad that they had a theme and stuck by it, i actually love the lyrics from a speedster perspective. my issue is that i don’t think this is a good framing for barry’s character as a whole. for all his regrets and suffering, barry is optimistic to the point of denial. choosing this to be The theme to represent barry just. doesn’t feel like barry to me. it’s more like barry is the placeholder subject as an excuse to sing abt superspeed

if this was somehow less overtly a “BARRY ALLEN FANSONG” and maybe more metaphorical or even non-fandom, then it would be a dif situation and i might have dif opinions. at the end of the day, this has more to do w my pickiness than the quality of the song, and the fact that it even exists is so exciting for me as a barry allen enjoyer first, human second. but if you’re going to call smth a character study, i Will be getting my hopes up

[disgruntledexplainer]

The Squadron Supreme, or How Man of Action Studios showed how stupid power scaling contests really are

Man of Action Studios, for all their flaws, have a remarkable understanding of the superhero genre and what makes heroes compelling. I could go on and on about their original shows like Ben 10 and Generator Rex, on how they always make sure that their heroes prioritize the safety of civilians over their mission or their own safety, how they use the posture, movements, and behavior of the heroes as a way to show how the hero views himself and his job, and other such things. Indeed, I already have done both of those in brief. But I think one of the best examples of their grasp on the genre actually comes from the Avengers Assemble cartoon, which they worked on during seasons 1 and 2 (the absence in season 3 onwards is actually kind of noticeable in the sudden drop in quality).

In season 2, Avengers Assemble does something that by all accounts shouldn't work, something that under normal circumstances I would ABSOLUTELY HATE. they had an Avengers versus Justice League plot arc for a third of the season. Personally, I hate power-scaling. "Oh this guy can beat that guy! Let's smash our action figures together and see which one breaks!" But despite this, they managed to make it work. How?

Obviously the show couldn't bring in the real justice league for legal reasons, so instead they made obvious parallels. Hyperion, a twisted version of Superman, had already been introduced in season 1. Nighthawk was their version of Batman, Zarda was their version of Wonder Woman, Speed Demon was their version of The Flash (clearly taking inspiration from the Barry Alan iteration), and Nuke was their version of Captain Atom. Interestingly, Professor Prism seems to be a hybrid of Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter in origin and powers respectively.

HOWEVER

these characters are VERY MUCH NOT their actual justice league counterparts. Nor are they "mirror images" of them with opposite traits. But they are those characters with all of their heroic traits carefully, surgically removed.

The Squadron Supreme, as they call themselves, are the justice league without justice, heroes without heroics. They disdain the rule of law, instead favoring the rule of terror, taking justice into their own hands, beating the living daylights out of people who cross them. Hyperion, unlike superman, has no restraint. Speed Demon revels in tormenting his opponents. Nuke uses his powers at will despite knowing the danger they pose to everyone around him. Zarda kulls the weak to demonstrate her power. Professor Prism cowers behind the others, and bends to their will with little resistance despite ultimately being a good person. And nighthawk.

Nighthawk is the most telling of the bunch. He is the "batman could beat anyone given enough prep time" version of batman. He is the "actually batman should be totally fine killing people" version of batman. He is the "batman works alone and beats up goons" version of batman. He is the juvenile version of batman as thought of by power-scalers and, apparently, Hollywood executives. In other words, he is an ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE PERSON, and one of the most dangerous foes ever introduced in the series. He uses his friends as living weapons, deliberately endangers civilians to try to take out the heroes, and beats criminals within an inch of their life to send a message. Trying to fight his plans is like trying to hold back a tsunami with your hands; time consuming and futile.

They say that if you can't imagine your version of batman comforting a scared child, he's not batman, but punnisher in a funny mask. well nighthawk would fire a rocket at a child if it was part of his many unstoppable schemes. He's a monster.

You would expect, since the show is about the Avengers, that the Avengers would wipe the floor with the Squadron. But nope. All other things being equal, the Squadron ABSOLUTELY WIPES THE FLOOD WITH THE AVENGERS. Iron Man gets into a fight with Nighthawk, only for nighthawk to completely dismantle his armor in seconds, and the rest of the Avengers can barely take down Hyperion if they all gang up on him, let alone the other members of the squadron. They are just too powerful; it is essentially an admission that in a straight fight between the two, the Justice League would win.

But it is also a statement that in order for the fight to occur at all, the Justice League would have to cease to actually be the justice league. they would have to be reduced to their powers and strategies, with all that is good about them thrown in the trash.

Ultimately, what allows the avengers to win in the end is this exact fact: that the Squadron AREN'T actually the Justice League. The members of the Justice League care about each other, and have each-others back. They would never willingly sacrifice each-other for the sake of a plan, even if that plan assured victory. But the Squadron ABSOLUTELY would. Ultimately they are able to isolate them, or convince Nighthawk to sacrifice them one-by-one for his schemes until they finally have an opening to finish things, and Iron Man manages to defeat Nighthawk not through fighting or even guile, but through making an act of self-sacrifice that Nighthawk couldn't rap his head around.

The Squadron Supreme shows what traits actually make up the Justice League and make them who they are by contrast; showing us what the characters would be like without those traits. Without compassion, restraint, empathy, friendship, the Justice League simply isn't itself.

To think this insight came from an Avengers cartoon instead of a DC property.

Anyways, that is why I think Man of Action Studios deserves a bit more credit for their writing.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I'm looking at the forecast for JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX, and I also saw how low the attendance was at my cinema job yesterday, and... It got me thinking again about where big comic book/superhero movies are at in the post-COVID outbreak world...

And how JOKER 2 - along with films like QUANTUMANIA, SHAZAM 2, THE MARVELS, and THE FLASH - sorta fit a weird group of pictures that probably would've made boffo bucks in 2019 but not now. Backwash, you could say, from a bygone era that's only like five years ago...

Meanwhile, we saw the recent successes of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, superhero movies that were more than just your usual garden variety superhero movie. They had some kind of vision or passion or spunk behind them. DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is, I feel, the anomaly to this, as I felt it to be a fairly vision-less movie. Just a big budget parade of your favorite characters and action bits and lots of cameos, but done well enough with a sense of fun that kept audiences coming back after it made over $211m on its domestic opening weekend. I certainly had a fun time with it, but I wouldn't say it's anything other than "here's some fan favorites and some bloody action."

And then smack-dab in the middle of all this is MADAME WEB, which by all accounts was hacked to pieces in post-production much like how MORBIUS was. A film that could've stood out amongst the superhero pack as a period piece (2003 as a period piece, that's frightening to me lol), but ended up being molded into your usual schlop with lots of noticeable ADR.

Then you have two other Sony Spider-Man-adjacent movies this year, out within two months of one another. VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, out in a few weeks from now, should do good business because of the campy buddy comedy appeal of these particular movies. KRAVEN THE HUNTER, which was delayed multiple times, I have no idea. That might get a little lost in the Christmas season feeding frenzy. I have no idea how much further these Sony movies will go, outside of the VENOM movies. Remember how they wanted to do an EL MUERTO movie and then it got canned?

It seems like it's all a slow, prolonged sea change in comic book movies. I think they'll still get made, but something will have to change... as even a sequel to JOKER - which prided itself on resembling a '70s/'80s New Hollywood Scorsese-esque project - isn't cutting it. The idea of the new one being like a classic musical and a courtroom drama sounds really cool on paper, but in 2024, it's just not enough. The first one seems to be of a specific time, and belongs only to that time, it could be argued. A Trump-era slog about a "misunderstood" lonely guy who eventually ends up killing people, that devolves into a cacophony of violence... Its most controversial aspects were outside of the movie itself. I remember all the pre-release worry about the film possibly being a rallying cry to shooters... It came out and nothing happened, but it got tons of people to flock to the movie. It just hit at the right time, the noise around it created an appeal of sorts. It being this R-rated gritty street level movie and not your usual comic book movie.

But in 2024, now it's just "Eh, a new JOKER movie?" Add in the extreme genre shift, and a chunk of the audience was alienated.

Next year... CAPTAIN AMERICA 4... Looks - to me - like the most anticipated movie of 2015, honestly. THUNDERBOLTS* also looks too little, too late and also kinda just... There... James Gunn's SUPERMAN could really go either way, it could pull a MAN OF STEEL, or it could really break out. Maybe a BATMAN BEGINS-esque performance is in the cards here, where it opens kinda okayish because of a general fatigue w/ constant superhero movies (not to mention Henry Cavill's Kal-El not being that far behind) but has great legs. FANTASTIC FOUR Again, maybe this new take does the same? Maybe it's just more MCU fluff that gets a handful of fans on opening weekend and just fades away afterwards. There's an untitled Sony Spider-Man adjacent movie set for summer 2025 as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gets nerfed from the schedule. By now I think we'd know what it is, unless it's some kind of surprise project. Still, you'd know about it because it'd be filming or wrapped up by now. Speaking of which, BLADE is definitely not out next year, I'm surprised Disney and Marvel haven't changed its release or removed it from the calendar. We'll have to see where it all goes...

Ya know what comic book movie sticks out among all these 2025 entries?

DOG MAN!

Which I expect to be a respectable success for DreamWorks, come this winter. Its animation and visuals were outsourced to Jellyfish, much in the same way CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS was to Mikros. Jellyfish got SPIRIT UNTAMED out for $30m, I'd imagine this didn't cost anything more than that. Plus it's well after SPIRIT's timeframe, which was when vaccines were still rolling out, and this new movie is based on the Dav Pilkey CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS universe so it should do pretty okay. But to me, this is probably the most distinct CBM of next year, in a sea of big budget spectacle. A little cartoon movie about half man/half dog from a comic book written by fictional children that plays out in the way a comic drawn up by a kid would.

Leave it to animation to save the day here, lol. We need something to hold us over in comic book movies until BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE, whenever they decide to release that.

2026 is home to what looks like the usual array of late 2010s CBM backwash... AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY with Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU, possibly a fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, two other untitled MCU movies (BLADE will likely take one of those slots)

There's also Gunn/Safran-verse DC's SUPERGIRL, but we gotta see what SUPERMAN looks like, first, before I can say whether their new DC shared universe feels like it belongs in the past decade or not...

You also have another animated entry with the MUTANT MAYHEM sequel, the first one - from last year - being a great and fresh new spin on the TMNT property. And THE BATMAN - PART II, the first one got a very strong response back in 2022. I would say THE BATMAN and MUTANT MAYHEM are of this new post-ENDGAME superhero movie era, the first SPIDER-VERSE arguably kicked that off in late 2018 before ENDGAME was released.

Again, it's a real "we'll have to see". Tracking this stuff can be fascinating for me.

[fancyfade]

OK kingdom come review

it as enjoyable to read. Not terrible. But I have no clue how it got so much hype as like THE best thing ever.

General premise is that in the future, clark is cynical and separated from humanity due to various people including lois dying, magog killing the joker (who committed the aciton) and being acquitted. you have the whole 'idealistic past vs cynical and violent present' conflict between superman and the old league and the new superheroes, in addition to that the old league (especially diana) is tempted by new violent methods and Clark gets tempted to go more towards a fascist controlling people thing with his approach to the other supers who are showing complete disregard for human life, he overcomes it, etc.

the good: while i found some of the world-building eye-rolling, it made sense for the genre and was conveyed effectively. Superman's arc was done well showing his conflict, McCoy has a chance to talk him down (and the man vs superman who is in charge of humanity's destiny is a very key conflict) which was incredibly important for the theme. IMO.

the art was also very pretty.

the bad:

there was only 1 female character who had any significant # of lines and she was involved in an unnecessary love interest plot. Mark Waid stay mid I asked when reading flash "are there any female characters he cares for developing away from men (whether love interest or as a supportive family member or scorned lover)?" and the answer is still no.

it also really did have like. older generation fearful of the younger corrupt generation. the old ways are good the new ways are scary and bad. old man yells at cloud energy. you may be like 'the new ways involve civilians getting injured in superhero battles and the old ways involve them always being protected' but. that's an authorial choice. we could have seen some in the new generation who are not in line with magog before being straightened out by superman, but they were not there. they just needed an old guy to show them the way.

so overall it's very 'good old days of the past, men are important and women are love interests if they show up at all'.

I generally think the romance plot between Diana and Clark was stupid. It definitely felt like Waid did not understand the amazons (bruce lecturing Diana about Amazon way being forcing your way through war) and it can't help but read as 'oh she's in a heterosexual relationship now raising a child thank god'. IDK Waid imagine a female character outside of men challenge forever. The fact that she was presumably not doing anything before talking superman out of retirement does not help -- we saw plenty of male characters acting even after superman retired - flash protecting his city, bruce doing police state lite in gotham, hawkman doing… whatever. But Diana was not allowed the same independence except to motivate a man at first.

i think while ross does beautiful faces, his action scenes are also incredibly lacking

[jawabear]

Hi 👋🏻 how are you?

I was wondering if I could drop in a cheeky request please with soap if that's OK?

Soap meeting reader for the first time on a mission (maybe new member of the team? ) and being completely blown away by how bad ass they are. He starts declaring to all the other boys that he's gonna marry the reader and ghost just being like 'you dont stand a chance' 😂 😊

I'm loving all your COD works, looking forward to future fics!

Hope you have a lovely day 😊💛

Not my GIF

One day

Johnny “Soap” Mctavish x Reader

A/N: this is my first time writing for Johnny and i hope i got his character right? i rewrote this like four times because i couldn't get a good story going. But i hope you like this? for anyone who isnt from England, Spoons is the place to be.

Genre: fluff

Warnings: drinking, drunk soap, mention of injury, hint of past bad relationships, bit of angst i guess

Summary: Soap is set. He's ready. But he's drunk.

“You haven’t got a hope in hell” Gaz laughed obnoxiously loudly at Soap’s confession. 

“I’m going to marry her one day” Soap had said. Perhaps it was the buzz of his countless beers that made him say it, but even in that drunk state, he knew his words rang true. He was utterly enthralled by you. He had been since the first time he saw you out on the field. 

He was completely captured by the way you moved so flawlessly through the filed, never missing a shot, never missing a hit, never stepping a foot out of place. You were relatively new to the military. He and the rest of 141 had been briefed on new comers that would be joining them as a back up squad on one of their missions. Johnny wasn’t expecting much from them being new and all. But he was pleasantly surprised but the majority of them. They all handled themselves with such precision and perfection. None caught his eye quite the same as you did though. 

He had been so distracted by the way you practically danced on the battle field, dodging bullets and rubble as if it had all been choreographed for years, that he failed to notice the  bullet hurtling towards him. 

“Get down Sergeant!” You screamed as you tackled him to the ground. The bullet whistling over head and embedding itself into a nearby tree. “Are you alright, sir?” You panted as you pushed yourself off him, hovering over him, looking into those beautifully bright blue eyes. 

He looked…well, it was hard to say how he looked with the chaos around you both. Perhaps it was shock of nearly getting shot, or maybe surprise that you had tackled him to save him. “Sir?” You questioned again. He wasn’t sir. Not to anyone, so not to you even if you were basically a recruit. 

“Call me Johnny” he flashed you a smile. It brought you a strange sense of comfort in a literal war zone. You smiled back at him and nodded. 

“Then call me (Y/N)” you said. The two of you remained side by side for the rest of the mission. He knew then what he knows now. 

“I am going to marry her” he slurred as he set his now empty beer bottle on the sticky pub table. He sounded like a pouting child. His cheek flushed from alcohol making him look even more like a sulking child who was told he can’t be superman for halloween. 

“I can’t say I’m convinced by this” Price said setting down his half drunk glass of scotch. Price didn’t really get drunk, it never aided him and often lead to him making terrible decisions. He and Ghost were mostly sober while Gaz and Soap drunk their body weight combined in beer, whiskey and whatever else they could get their hands on. Good thing they weren’t going back in the field for a while. It would probably take a week for their hangovers to pass. 

Soap let out a burp and spotted you at the bar. You were telling to Laswell, a smile on your face as Kate laughed at something you undoubtedly said. Johnny loved your humour, it was dark and almost dry, similar to Ghost but you knew your audience. Unlike Ghost. 

“Gonna ask her now” he declared as he pushed himself off his seat. He wobbled on his feet and Gaz laughed. He was the laughing kind of drunk. 

“That’s not a good idea Johnny” Ghost warned, shaking his head to his friend. Johnny just shrugged and stumbled his way over to the bar, over to you.

He basically fell in between you and Kate, interrupting whatever you were talking about. “You look terrible” Kate chuckled as she pushed him to stand straight. 

“(Y/N)” he almost whined as he fell on you. You laughed and grabbed his shoulders to push him upright again. 

“Johnny, are you alright?”

“‘M fine” he gave you a lazy smile. 

“You’re clearly drunk”

“On you” he said “marry me” 

Kate choked on her drink, spitting it over the back of Johnny’s jacket. “What?!” You yell a little loudly. A few people turning to face you, but luckily, it was rugby night, most of the pub goers were cheering at the tv in the far corner of the pub. 

“Marry me” he said again. A little more firmly. 

You let out a nervous laugh and patted his shoulders. “I’m flattered, really. But no, Johnny”

“Why?” He definitely whined this time. And pouted.  

“Because, we’re not even dating. And you’re drunk. Very drunk. You don’t know what you’re saying”

“Then date me. I want to marry you” he pleaded. If it weren’t for you holding him up by his shoulders, you bet he would’ve been begging on his knees for you to marry him. A ridiculous idea. But it was endearing to say the least. 

You couldn’t deny your feelings for the Scot. You feel for his humour, his kind nature, those beautiful blue eyes, just everything. It was an unexpected crush, but it was the best feeling. 

You gave him a gentle and reassuring smile “ask me again when your sober and know what you’re saying” 

Before he could response with something most likely ridiculous, an arm wrapped under his shoulders and pulled him away from you. You looked to see Ghost. Price was next to him, carting Gaz in his arms. Gaz was laughing like a mad man while pointing at Soap. 

“He’s a whiny drunk” Ghost muttered. You let out a soft laugh. 

“Make sure to look after them, don’t let them drink any more” you told them. Ghost nodded and the four soldiers left the bar. 

You struggled to draw your eyes away from the doorway that they left through. You replayed the moment in your head. Thinking of his words and wondering if he did mean them or if it was just the alcohol talking. But even if it was, why would he come to you in a bar full of beautiful women? Unless it was a dare? It would explain why Gaz was laughing so much. But they all knew about your feelings for Soap. Even drunk, you knew Gaz wouldn’t betray you like that. 

“That was something” Kate muttered returning from what you guessed was the bathroom after cleaning her face from her spat out drink. 

You turned to look at her, straightening your posture. Kate also knew how you felt about Johnny, but you didn’t like to talk about it. You had ben burned too many times in the past by boyfriends. You didn’t want to go through anything like that again, especially not in this profession. Especially not with someone as amazing as Johnny. 

“Yes” was all you muttered as you circled the rim of your glass. 

“You should’ve said yes” 

“We’re not even dating” you argued weakly.

“Exactly. So you should’ve said yes. He asked you to date him after, right?”

You didn’t respond at first, replaying that exact moment in your head. “Then date me. I want to marry you”

“He was drunk” you responded eventually. Kate shrugged and took a sip of her newly refiled drink. 

“Even if he wasn’t, would you say yes?” 

That was the question. 

-

Hangover didn’t even come close to describing what Johnny was going through. Being shot hurt less than this. His head pounded as he weakly held his hand out to cover the window. The curtains had been opened and the morning sun was pouring in. Damn these east facing rooms. He knew Simon had drawn the curtains back to spite him for getting so drunk and probably keeping him up most of the night. He was sure that Simon would now want to swap rooms with Gaz. Leave the two drunkards to sort themselves out. 

Soap dropped his hand after his failed attempt to block out the sun and knocked something on the bedside table. He squinted to see what it was. A glass of water, two painkillers and a note that read in capitals: SORT YOURSELF OUT. SPOONS AT 12. He looked to the clock beside the note and saw it was 11:32. Johnny groaned and flopped his head back to the pillow. “Fuckin’ christ” he swore to himself. 

He had to get up. Sooner rather than later. As much as he would’ve loved to lay in the comfort of the hotel bed all day, he still had to be a member of society unfortunately. Yes, it was a holiday week for 141 and others but they still needed to represent their force. Johnny wasn’t doing a good job at that in bed. 

At exactly 12:14, he was ready to head to the whetherspoons downstairs, mentally prepared for the bollocking for being late to lunch, and for getting in such a state last night. 

As he was walking to the lift, a memory hit him like a brick to the face. “Marry me” he heard his voice in his head. 

“I’m flattered, really. But no Johnny”

“Oh fuck” he groaned to himself as he buried his face in his hands. “You’re a fuckin’ idiot Johnny” 

-

The members of 141 were hesitant on letting Soap go to the bar alone. After the previous night, they didn’t want him to get into trouble or say something else he would regret. But he insisted he would only have one drink. He didn’t eat to recreate what he had already done. 

He sat the the bar nursing his first and only beer, half drunk. He was taking it slow. He hadn’t see you so far and was hoping he’d be able to dodge you until the whole thing blew over and you forgot about it. He didn’t know what he would say to you if he did see you. He would probably blurt out a pathetic apology and welcome the slap from you and the fact you never wanted him to speak to you again. He would accept that. Anything to save him from awkward confrontation. 

But there was something else that rung in his mind. 

“Ask me when you’re sober” you had said to him, a sweet and sincere smile on your face. Had you meant that? Did you want him to ask you out, or were you just humouring him?

“Don’t drink to much tonight, who knows what could happen” came a teasing voice behind him. He didn’t need to turn to see who it was, and he didn’t want to turn. He didn’t want to face you. But he couldn’t just leave. 

“Just having one” he muttered to you as you sat on the stool next to him and ordered your drink. 

“A wise choice” you nodded “how are you feeling?” 

Johnny picked at the label of the bottle. He couldn’t look at you. He was too embarrassed. To scared that he would say something stupid (again) and push you away from him forever. He didn’t want to loose you but he didn’t know how to fix his problem. “Alright” he muttered. 

“That’s good” you said. It was awkward for you both. The rowdiness of the bar only making the silence between you louder. “About last night-“

“I’m sorry” he buttered out. Just like he knew he would “it was stupid. So stupid. I didn’t mean to say any of that. I was drunk and things happen when people are drunk. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable and I understand if you hate me now”

You laughed. Laughed. The laugh caused him to lift his gaze to you. Why were you laughing? 

“I don’t hate you, Johnny” you said when your laughter subsided. “It would take more than a marriage proposal for me to hate you. It’s okay”

“Wh-“ he was stunned, “seriously? But I…it was wrong”

“Yes. But it’s fine. Like you said you were drunk” your face fell. He noticed that. But he didn’t know why “you didn’t mean any of what you said” 

“Ask me again when your sober” 

Oh. Was that why? Did you feel the same?

“Did…did you want me…to mean it?” He said slowly. He was being cautious now. He didn’t want to read the situation wrong and make things worse. But, how could it get any worse?

There was a silence again between you both. A silence that went on and on as you both fiddled with your drinks. 

“Yes” you almost whispered. He didn’t know how he heard you with your quiet voice and the loud club around you. Maybe it was because he was hanging on to anything you had to offer him. Anything to help him climb out of this hole he had dug himself. 

He looked to you. You looked at your drink as if it were the secrets of the universe. Your eyes looked glassy. Were you about to cry? Why? Was he not meant to hear you?

“Which part?” He but in quickly. You looked at him in shock. This lead him to believe that he wasn’t meant to hear you. You blinked at him a few times and swallowed. “You wanted me to ask you again. Ask you to…date me. Did you want me to mean that?” You slowly nodded. It was a shallow nod, but it was enough for him. “I did. I did mean what I said. I just didn’t mean to say it then”

He turned on the stool and reached to take your hand in his. “Will you date me? Do you want to be with me?”

You nodded again. The nod deeper this time. Your eyes getting wetter but a smile rising on your lips. “yes. I want to be with you” 

He smiled to and squeezed your hand, “good. Because all I want is you. Forever. One day, I will ask you to marry me” 

“And that day, I will say yes” 

12/2/23

[darkrpfinders]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) ORIGINALS

This is not going to be like the Fandoms section because... well, it's been such a long time since I had done an original plot! For an original plot, I would love to do a modern slice of life! I would also enjoy a medieval setting as well! Particularly with a Knight and a Princess. When it comes to tropes, I don't have specific ones that I'm dying to do. I enjoy most of them but I do enjoy a slow-medium burn. As for genres, as I mentioned before I would love a slice of life but I also like fantasy, action, even horror! There isn't much I'm not open to when it comes to originals!

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

✨

.

[prpfz]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) ORIGINALS

This is not going to be like the Fandoms section because... well, it's been such a long time since I had done an original plot! For an original plot, I would love to do a modern slice of life! I would also enjoy a medieval setting as well! Particularly with a Knight and a Princess. When it comes to tropes, I don't have specific ones that I'm dying to do. I enjoy most of them but I do enjoy a slow-medium burn. As for genres, as I mentioned before I would love a slice of life but I also like fantasy, action, even horror! There isn't much I'm not open to when it comes to originals!

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

✨

Leave a like, and anon will get back to you!

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2024 - Day 6 - Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)

If you die in the game, you die in real life...

If this wasn't at all obvious with movies 6 and 7, we're definitely into the 'sunk cost' stage of this franchise. The first four all had their charms despite tapering off and I'm on record as a fan of Inferno but Hellseeker and Deader felt like a bit of a chore. But, as much as my lack of keeping to a schedule might dispute this, I am a creature of habit and the end is in sight. And, if anything, we're really due to go off a cliff next year so all the more reason to stick it out and see what depths we can plumb with this series. Hellworld was filmed back to back with Deader all the way back in 2002 but sat largely unused, saved for a few showings over the years, until the pair were released direct to DVD in 2005. It's always stood out on the horizon for me as I've worked my way through the franchise given the plot ties into the world of online gaming. A strange turn for the franchise, sure, but given we're 8 movies in now I think any subject matter is fair game in order to freshen things up. Plus, this would have been right around the time of a boom in online gaming and, given the film pitches Hellraiser as an MMO, you would have had things like Ultima Online, Everquest, Runescape and even Final Fantasy XI (World of Warcraft wouldn't have existed at the time of filming but would have been out by the time the films actually released) so I can sort of see the potential in touching upon the dangers of addiction, both as an analogue to the pleasure seeking that is so prevalent in Hellraiser but also to tie in to the hot topic parent scaremongering of the day.

Nevermind all those other games though, who remembers Graal?!

The video game stuff though is largely glossed over. A friend of our main characters is said to have killed himself following his addiction to the game but it's all very vague and skimmed over during an exposition dump during his funeral.

Even the game itself is shown only briefly and I was going to compare it to a Flash game from the time but I'm pretty sure I was playing Flash games on the school computers at the time that had more gameplay than this. The Lament Configuration doesn't exactly feel like the kind of thing you would adapt into a video game either, it strips away that tactile feeling of handiling the cube, twisting and prodding to try and open it up.

What little we do see of the game is little more than a means to shuttle our main characters off to the meat and potatoes of the movie, an exclusive Hellraiser themed party taking place at Leviathan house. This is something that irked me early on with the movie, it's often said that these later movies are just a case of slapping the Cenobites onto someone else's screenplay and that they barely even show up but these fet a bit tryhard in trying to shoehorn a bunch of references in early as if to say 'See, we're a REAL Hellraiser movie'. Very quickly you get mentions of Hellraiser, Hellworld, Pinhead, Leviathan, LeMarchand, the Engineer…it's like the other extreme of not showing them at all but just trying to cram mentions in within the first few minutes.

Among our crew of party goers is none other than Superman himself (well, one of them at least) Henry Cavill.

Plus Lance Henriksen as the party host, a man with a storied past in the horror genre and notable for me at least for his role in Pumpkinhead, though I think that may have gone undocumented on this here blog.

Our friends are shown around the house but all start to experience strange visions, usually very brief and sometimes involving Pinhead making thinly veiled threats.

Spoiler alert, the twist of the movie is that Lance Henriksen's Host character is actually the father of the friend that commited suicide and he's out for revenge for what he percieves as their actions in enabling his addiction that resulted in his death. It's revealed that upon their arrival to the party, the Host drugged them with a very strong psychodelic drug and buried them in shallow graves outside with an airtube to keep them alive and prolong their suffering. The events of the movie have been playing out in their heads with cell phones left in their coffins through which the Host has been using suggestion to influence their visions. Now, this actually does bring some degree of interest to the film which had been largely boring up to this point and I did appreciate the idea of how this could play into the overarching story of addiction. If these kids are so immersed in this game then these monsters from within it could be making their way into their visions in a very violent way. The problem is that because they made pretty much zero attempt to re-contextualize this film's world and to potray the Cenobites as characters within this game, plus the fact that this movie does the exact same drive by Pinhead scenes (to borrow my own phrase from last year), these interactions just feel like more shoehorned references to justify the film bearing the Hellraiser name. If they had actually taken the time to show these kids playing the game and some digital versions of the Cenobites from which they would have formed these assocations, the whole idea might have worked better.

It would have been all moot anyway though as it's revealed at the end that the Cenobites are in fact actually real when they show up and tear the Host to shreds. Thanks for ruining my shades of grey for me, lads. Whilst I can appreciate the efforts to make the series a little more contemporary by taking this video game angle, it does also strip away a small aspect I've always liked in that all of these movies felt like they took place in the same universe. It's always come across as an anthology piece to me, the Lament Configuration managing to find it's way into someone elses hands who have these delusions of how this is going to lead them to pleasure undivisible whilst we get to sit back and watch as several hooks and chains promptly tear those delusions asunder. Ultimately, it's one of those films where I can see the genesis of a decent idea that goes unfufilled. And whilst I'm all for taking wild departures this deep into a franchise, it does feel like too big of a disconnect from the series to have ever been successful.

And so, given that this is the last appreance of Doug Bradley in this famous role, it's a run that ends in a whimper rather than a bang. Somehow I doubt his successors have much chance of living up to his mantle, especially when our next stop, Revelations, is the film that drew Clive Barker's ire and led to that very infamous tweet I have been mentioning all these years…

[thekillingvote]

A Death in the Family, or: How DC Comics Let a Phone Vote Kill Robin

[reposted from r/HobbyDrama on Reddit]

DC Comics has published literally thousands of Batman comics in the character's eighty-odd years of existence, but few are more infamous than A Death in the Family, when DC let fans decide whether Jason Todd, the second character to use the identity of Robin, lived or died.

An apology in advance: many primary sources for this drama have been lost to the annals of history: this was the 1980s, the Internet wasn't really a thing yet, so fan discussion around comics mostly took place in Usenet newsgroups and comic book letter columns, both of which are very difficult to find archives of today. I've reconstructed the story as best as I can, but I wish I could find more quotes from fans at the time.

Also, SPOILER WARNING. There are unmarked spoilers for Batman comics from the 1980s below. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Who was Jason Todd?

Jason Todd was a character introduced in 1983's Batman #357 by writer Gerry Conway and artist Don Newton and under the auspices of editor Len Wein, as a replacement for Dick Grayson as Robin. Grayson had outgrown the pixie boots and scaly shorts of the Robin identity, and graduated to his own identity as Nightwing, over in The New Teen Titans. But Conway felt that Batman still needed a Robin, so Todd was born:

Gerry Conway (writer, Batman and Detective Comics, 1981-1983): I always felt that Batman worked really well with a sidekick like Robin. My interest in the character was the version of Batman as a detective, the version of Batman as a guardian of Gotham. This was prior, I believe, to the deep-dive into the “dark knight” kind of concept of Batman, so, for that end, the idea of a younger sidekick who could bring out a little more levity in the character seemed useful. But Dick Grayson as a character had grown into a young adult and was integral to the Teen Titans series, and had his own life and his own storylines that were developing separately from Batman, and [he] couldn’t really play that secondary role that I was interested in exploring. [1]

Todd was introduced as the son of two acrobats who had been murdered by Batman's enemy Killer Croc, in a striking similarity to Dick Grayson's origin written forty years prior. Todd would officially become the new Robin in Batman #368, published February 1984, and would continue to go on adventures (written by Conway and then by Doug Moench) with Batman until 1986's Batman #400. During this period, he's probably best remembered for a. being involved in a custody battle between Batman and a vampire, and b. getting the drop on Mongul in the classic Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything" by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons.

But then the Crisis happened, and everything changed for Jason.

The Crisis

You don't have a comic book company for almost fifty years without running into some hurdles along the way, especially where characters and continuity are concerned. In 1954, psychologist Frederick Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a book asserting that comic books were harming the children of the day, causing them to turn into delinquents. As a result, the bustling superhero genre of comics at the time slowed to a crawl, with most of DC's (then known as National Periodical Publications) characters, such as the Green Lantern and the Flash, ceasing publication and being replaced with comics about talking animals, romance stories, and giant alien monsters.

Just a few short years later, in October 1956, creators Robert Kangher and Carmine Infantino would introduce a new version of the Flash in Showcase #4, and the Silver Age of comics had begun. Eventually, the Golden Age Flash was reintroduced, and it was established that the Silver Age characters resided on Earth-One, while the Golden Age characters were from Earth-Two. Everything was fine and dandy, until DC decided things had become too confusing and that they needed to kill their multiverse.

In 1986, DC published one of the very first comic crossover events - Crisis on Infinite Earths, an earth-shattering story that pitted almost every hero in company history against the threat of the Anti-Monitor. The outcome was that all the characters and stories from Earth-One, Earth-Two, and several other alternate Earths that had appeared over the years were consolidated into a single, streamlined universe, and with that came changes for several other characters, Jason Todd among them.

The New Jason Todd

After Crisis, new blood was in the Batman editorial offices. Former Batman writer Denny O'Neil had taken over as editor of the Batman family of titles, and he had a different opinion on Robin than that of Wein and Conway before him.

O’Neil: There was a time right before I took over as Batman editor when he seemed to be much closer to a family man, much closer to a nice guy. He seemed to have a love life and he seemed to be very paternal towards Robin. My version is a lot nastier than that. He has a lot more edge to him. [1]

In keeping with the desire for a darker, edgier Dark Knight (it was the 1980s, after all), this version of Batman debuted without a Robin by his side. Dick Grayson was still Nightwing, but Jason Todd was nowhere to be seen. This darker interpretation of Batman was only solidified once Frank Miller put his touch on the franchise with "Batman: Year One" in Batman #404-407, and the standalone graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, the impact of which cannot be understated.

The Dark Knight Returns was a pivotal moment in the formation of what we would consider a recognizably “modern” incarnation of Batman, someone who is brooding and dark, a loner who isolates himself from society to obsessively carry out his one man crusade by any brutally violent means necessary. It was also an important milestone for comics a medium when it landed on top of the Young Adult Hardcover New York Times bestsellers list—a feat it only qualified for thanks to its release as a trade paperback in bookstores. For the first time, mainstream audiences were zeroing in on Batman, and not because of a popular TV show or serialized movies, but because of a comic book. 2

Immediately following "Year One," O'Neil asked writer Max Allan Collins to reintroduce Jason Todd as Robin into the continuity, in a storyline titled "Batman: The New Adventures" starting in Batman #408. The new Todd was a delinquent orphan, caught by Batman when he tried to steal the tires from the Batmobile and taken in and trained to be the new Robin.

At first, the change was controversial among the fandom, especially given the wildly contrasting takes between Mike W. Barr's softer portrayal of the Dynamic Duo in Detective Comics and the harsher portrayal from creators such as Collins, Jim Aparo, and Jim Starlin (best known now as the creator of Thanos) in Batman. But nobody was clamoring for his death yet, and the intensity of debates around the new Jason Todd, fought out through comic book letter columns, were milder in comparison to those around whether there should be a yellow oval on the Batsuit or not. [3]

Over the next few years, fan hatred for Jason began to grow, as the new incarnation of the character was not only a replacement for a highly beloved character, but also had a lot of anger issues to sort through. But then came the boiling point - Batman #424, written by Starlin and pencilled by Mark Bright, released October 1988. In that story, Todd confronts Felipe, son of a South American diplomat who was heavily involved in the cocaine trade. Batman reasons that, because Felipe has diplomatic immunity, there's nothing he can do to stop him, but Todd thinks otherwise. Felipe falls from a skyscraper to his death, leaving Batman to wonder: "did Felipe fall... Or was he pushed?"

(Starlin, for what it was worth, hated Todd from the get-go, and specifically wrote this story to play to the controversy:

Starlin: In the one Batman issue I wrote with Robin featured, I had him do something underhanded, as I recall. Denny had told me that the character was very unpopular with fans, so I decided to play on that dislike. [1]

He had also tried to have Todd killed beforehand, of AIDS:

Well, I always thought that the whole idea of a kid side-kick was sheer insanity. So when I started writing Batman, I immediately started lobbying to kill off Robin. At one point DC had this AIDS book they wanted to do. They sent around memos to everybody saying “What character do you think we should, you know, have him get AIDS and do this dramatic thing” and they never ended up doing this project. I kept sending them things saying “Oh, do Robin! Do Robin!” <laughs> And Denny O’Neill said “We can’t kill Robin off”. [4]

A Death in the Family

By 1988, though, O'Neil had changed his tune. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke had left longtime supporting character Batgirl brutally paralyzed, to major praise from fans and critics alike, and there was blood in the water. Sales for Batman were at levels not seen for over a decade thanks to the works of Miller and Moore, Tim Burton's Batman feature film was on the horizon, far removed from the camp aesthetic of Adam West and Burt Ward and entirely Robin-free, and fan hatred for Todd was at an all-time high.

Jenette Kahn (publisher, DC Comics, 1976-1989; president, 1981-2003; editor-in-chief, 1989-2003) : Many of our readers were unhappy with Jason Todd. We weren’t certain why or how widespread the discontent was, but we wanted to address it. Rather than autocratically write Jason out of the comics and bring in a new Robin, we thought we’d let our readers weigh in. [1]

O'Neil and his team of editors brainstormed how they could remove Jason from the story, and the answer was clear: kill him, just as Starlin had suggested time and time again. Recalling the success of a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which Eddie Murphy let viewers vote via phone on whether he would cook or spare a live lobester, O'Neil proposed a similar system to Kahn, who loved the idea.

So, A Death in the Family began in Batman #426, written by Starlin and illustrated by Jim Aparo. When Jason receives word that his missing mother is alive, he follows a set of leads across the world to find her, only to discover that she was being blackmailed by the Joker. Jason's mother hands him over to the Clown Prince of Crime, and that's how Batman #427 ends. On the back cover of that issue, DC ran a full-page ad, proclaiming: "Robin Will Die Because the Joker Wants Revenge, But You Can Prevent It With a Telephone Call" and giving two 1-900 numbers: one to call to save Jason, and one to kill him.

Two versions of issue #428 were written and drawn. One where Jason lived, and another, where he died. Both went into a drawer in O'Neil's desk, and the fans would choose which one would ever see the light of day.

The fans went rabid. One letter, published in Batman #428, read as follows:

"Dear Denny, I heard some of what you are planning for "A Death In the Family" story line, including the phone-in number wrinkle, and I don't want to take any chances whatsoever. Kill him. Your pal, Rich Kreiner."

From 9:00 in the morning on Thursday, September 15, 1988 until 8:00 in the evening on Friday, September 16, fans could call in to either of the two numbers for fifty cents a call and cast their vote. In the end, the votes were tallied: 5,271 voted for Todd to survive, and 5,343 voted for him to die. By a margin of 72 votes, Robin died in the pages of Batman #428, beaten to death with a crowbar by the Joker. The image of Batman cradling Robin's dead body became immediately iconic.

The Reaction

Fan reaction to the story was mixed, despite the seeming fervor for Todd's death and the blood that was on their hands. The letters pages for Batman #430 (1, 2) show a mixture of celebration over Jason's death, remorse over individuals' decisions to vote for death, and hope that Robin's absence would lead to more mature Batman stories in the future. However, every issue of A Death in the Family was a best-seller, and a collected edition was rushed out in early December of 1988, only a week after the final issue in the arc was released to stores.

But now that the fan feeding frenzy was (mostly) over, the media feeding frenzy had begun. You don't just kill Robin and get away with it without media attention. USA Today and Reuters ran articles on the story, and DC was besieged with interview requests from radio and TV stations.

O’Neil: I spent three days doing nothing but talking on the radio. I thought it would get us some ink here and there and maybe a couple of radio interviews. I had no idea—nor did anyone else—it would have the effect it did. Peggy [May], our publicity person, finally just said, “Stop, no more, we can’t do anymore,” or I would probably still be talking. She also nixed any television appearances. At the time, I wondered about that but now I am very glad she did, because there was a nasty backlash and I came to be very grateful that people could not associate my face with the guy who killed Robin. [1]

Internally at DC, there were suspicions that the vote had been rigged in some fashion.

O'Neil: "I heard it was one guy, who programmed his computer to dial the thumbs down number every ninety seconds for eight hours, who made the difference." [5]

But regardless of whether it was or not, Jason Todd was dead, and he would remain dead for as long as O'Neil stayed at DC - long enough for the phrase to be coined: "nobody in comics stays dead except for Uncle Ben, Bucky, and Jason Todd." But he wouldn't remain dead forever.

Legacy

Jason would be succeeded by a new Robin, less than a year after his death. In a crossover storyline between Batman and New Titans written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Perez and Jim Aparo, entitled "A Lonely Place of Dying", the character of Tim Drake would be introduced. Unlike Todd and Grayson before him, Drake would challenge the assumptions made about the character of Robin - he figured out Batman's secret identity on his own, and deduced that Batman needed a Robin by his side, to ensure he wouldn't take unneeded risks.

Gone were the short pants of yesteryear - Drake wore a full-body suit with an armored cape, and was more of a detective than a fighter. He debuted to mixed reactions, although fans soon grew to love him under the pen of Chuck Dixon, who would be one of the major architects of Batman in the 1990s.

Todd would get a second chance at life seventeen years later. In 2005, writer Judd Winick wrote the storyline "Under the Hood," published in Batman #635-641, 645-650, and Annual #25. There, it's revealed that Todd returned to life thanks to an alternate version of Superboy punching reality (it's comics, don't ask) and the aid of R'as al Ghul's Lazarus Pits, and donned the identity of the crime lord the Red Hood in his quest for revenge against the Joker.

Todd, as the Red Hood, persists as a popular character today, a lasting symbol of Batman's failure, as he operates as a pragmatic vigilante, willing to take risks Batman isn't.

[twenty-words-or-less]

Top 5 Worst Films of 2023

Yep, it's that time of year again where you're all subjected to wordier opinions of the films I either disliked or were indifferent to! I'll post the best list later on, but for now, here are the worst...

5. Mercy Falls

I appreciate British films being shown in cinemas. I appreciate this cost about £20 and a speck of dust to make. However, it’s incredibly dull and predictable. There isn’t much else to say about it.

4. The Flash

Only this low because I expected it to be this bad. The literal ‘worlds collide’ montage at the end was a great idea, but the waxy CGI reconstructions of Superman actors, living or dead, left a bad taste in my mouth. Ezra Miller’s laugh was annoying, and Sasha Calle and Michael Shannon were absolutely wasted.

3. Five Nights At Freddy's

How the fuck did Scott Cawthon fuck his own premise up? It should have been a simple bottle film that cost $10m at most. One guy. One room. Dodgy animatronics. Instead, we’ve got a protagonist who I wanted the animatronics to kill, sudden genre switches, subplots galore, and weird character decisions. The worst thing about it is that it didn’t even include the famous Toreador March. That would have improved the film somewhat.

2. Fast X

I saw it for a charity drive and I wish I’d doubled the target. This was physically painful to sit through. This hasn’t lodged from the no. 2 spot since I saw it back in May. I fully believe Daniela Melchior was tricked into doing this – she probably thought she was auditioning for a legitimate film. Jason Momoa apparently chose this film to actually act, and carried it the whole way through. Good thing he’s built as all get-out.

Honourable Mentions

Love Again: The best bits were Nick Jonas’s cameo and the sweet and funny montage over the end credits. Everything else is naff.

Assassin Club: This not having a Wiki page was probably the best way to insult it – arguably the best way to insult any film. Daniela Melchior had a terrible year. Hope 2024 is better for her.

Unwelcome: Completely forgot this existed, to be honest. Should tell you all you need to know.

And finally, the worst thing I saw this year...

1. A Good Person

This earned the great dishonour of not just being the worst thing I saw this year, but the worst thing I’ve seen in a long time. Old was bad, but it had the cave scene. Burning was terrible, but it had gorgeous cinematography. Shit, even the 365 Days films were bad, but they were at least easy to laugh at. Zach “Can’t Accept That Scrubs Ended Thirteen Years Ago” Braff’s latest effort A Good Person does not have a single redeeming thing about it. Not even the usually-reliable Florence Pugh could save it. Much like Fast X, this has not lodged from this spot since I saw it. It’s the first film to reach the “coveted” 0.25/5 rating on here, too. In East Asian languages such as Cantonese, the number four is closely associated with death. This is Braff’s fourth go at directing, and it bombed. I pray that it kills his career.

Thanks for reading! Best post coming soon.

~Mikey

[comicweek]

Just to get this out of the way at the top, this isn’t really the space for me to critique the promotional and commercial system that justifies the sale of Ezra Miller’s image in relation to this movie, given all they stand accused of. Nor is it my place to judge Miller for the numerous legal issues swirling around them. While I don’t believe in separating art from the artist, film is a collaborative medium that hundreds of other people worked on to bring a movie to light. Miller’s off-screen episodes are the least of this film’s problems unless you want to get into a discussion about the film’s marketing. If you don’t want to see this movie because of Miller’s involvement in it, go right ahead. The Flash is, ultimately at best, a middling film that offers nothing new and perpetuates the reflexive hollow nostalgia that has propped up Hollywood blockbusters since Batman (1989). If this is one of the best superhero films DC Studios co-head James Gunn has ever seen, either he hasn’t seen very many of them or has a low opinion of the genre. Now if you want to find out why I think of the film in this way, read on.

Honestly, the fact that this film isn’t a Suicide Squad (2016)-style garbage fire – because of the sheer amount of developmental hell, corporate changes in direction, and everything in between – is commendable. It isn’t technically broken in the way that film was butchered, most likely because reshooting major chunks of the film would’ve been cost-prohibitive. This movie had three endings shot! So much has changed about this film that I am certainly forgetting something. The swirl of intrigue around the meta-narrative of this film is more interesting because the film itself is honestly kind of boring. To screenwriter Christina Hodson, director Andy Muschietti, and his producing partner Barbara Muschietti’s credit, this isn’t a bad movie. It just never offers viewers anything new.

Timing is everything, something the lead character Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), abundantly lacks. He’s always late to work at the CCPD crime lab, which makes it fitting that The Flash is ultimately so late to the comic book movie party, any novelty over the promise of the multiverse in storytelling or the nostalgic extended cameos of heroes from previous eras feels like old hat. Now some of this lateness isn’t entirely the film’s fault, the COVID pandemic did set off a chain of events that pushed the film from July 1, 2022 to June 2023. But that is after the films original release date of March 23, 2018, where it would’ve beaten Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to the punch and introduced the multiverse to cinemas. (Which still would’ve been well after the The Flash TV show as part of the Arrowverse had already done that years prior.) Instead of being one of the first films, The Flash is one of the last with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Across the Spider-verse all coming out and laying the groundwork for how audiences understand these multiverse movies. To say nothing of Everything Everywhere All At Once coming out last year and really showing everyone how it is done.

The “Flashpoint” story-event from 2011 inspires the core of this film, wherein Barry goes back in time to stop the murder of his mother and the imprisonment of his father, something the show also already did, better in their own way. In the process, he creates a nightmarish alternate earth where there is no Justice League, or in the case of the film, Superman, to stop General Zod during the events of Man of Steel. To try and fix this Barry must go on a search with an alternate version of himself, also played by Miller and Ed Wade, and find Batman. Only this Batman isn’t Ben Affleck; it’s Michael Keaton reprising the role, and the Superman is Supergirl, Kara Zor-el played by Sasha Calle.

The film’s core themes of accepting the bad things in our past and learning to move forward are essentially what Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wanted to be about. This film is perhaps more structurally competent than Multiverse of Madness but lacks any sequence on par with the Rami-esque energy of Wanda’s horrifying destruction of the Illuminati. There is nothing about this film that is emotionally or thematically new or interesting. The fact that this movie comes out a couple of weeks after Across the Spider-verse is perhaps the worst timing imaginable. The animated Spider-man sequel is a plainly better movie on every level. Go see that or watch Everything Everywhere All at Once.

[findroleplay]

Hello there!

(I) About Me

Hello! Thank you for clicking on my post and giving this a read! I am a college student but that doesn't really hurt my availability too much. I am on everyday, even if it is for just an hour or so. I could even send posts multiple posts daily or at minimum, a post every other day. I am someone who loves OOC chatter! I love to make character boards, send music that reminds me of the roleplay, and just gush about what is going on in our story! With that little introduction out of the way, let's move on!

(II) Rules

1. Please only contact me if you are 18+.

2. Characters used must also be at least 18. If not, they must be aged up.

3. Please be engaged in the discussing process. If you don't show much interest before the roleplay begins, I will believe that you don't have much interest to the roleplay itself.

4. Please write with proper grammar and pronunciation in your posts. I don't mind if that is not shown in regular messages but please come with it for the thread.

5. No one-liners. I personally don't like to write less than 3 full paragraphs and one-liners do not provide me much to work with. However, I do give the option for mini roleplays to go along with our main roleplay to help expand the world. For that, I am perfectly fine with shorter responses like one-liners. I love writing and I figured this would be a fun way to do that and further along the story!

6. Please post consistently. If replies are inconsistent, sadly my interest in the roleplay wavers. I prefer more frequent posts but if you let me know that you only post once a week, or even once a month, that is perfectly fine with me!

7. I prefer to write on discord servers as that allows everything to be more organized BUT if you prefer to write somewhere else, I do not mind writing threads there. However, I do request a place where we could have things be organized.

(I promise I'm not going to be stern when we talk! I'm very easygoing!)

(III) Fandoms

If a character is below the age of 18, they WILL be aged up to at least 18.

Dragonball Z/Super

Who I'm looking for: Android 18, Android 21

Who I can play: OC. Krillin, Vegeta, Goku, Gohan

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Android 18, OC x Android 21, Krillin x Android 18, Vegeta x Android 18

Metroid

Who I'm looking for: Samus

Who I can play: OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Samus

Naruto

Who I'm looking for: Sakura, Ino, Temari

Who I can play: OC, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, Neji

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Sakura, OC x Ino, Naruto x Sakura, Shikamaru x Temari

Pokemon

Who I'm looking for: Cynthia, Protagonist CC/OC

Who I can play: OC, Protagonist CC/OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Cynthia, Protagonist CC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist CC, Protagonist OC x Protagonist OC

Stranger Things

Who I'm looking for: Eleven

Who I can play: OC, Hopper, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Jonathan, Steve, Billy, Nancy, Robin

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Eleven, Hopper & Eleven(STRICTLY PLATONIC)

Teen Titans

Who I'm looking for: Starfire(DCAMU)

Who I can play: Nightwing(DCAMU), Batman, Superman, Flash. OC

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Nightwing x Starfire

The Legend of Zelda (Please have a knowledge of most of the games/story)

Who I'm looking for: Zelda

Who I can play: Link

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: Link x Zelda

Yu-Gi-Oh

Who I'm looking for: Akiza, Alexis

Who I can play: OC, Jaden, Chazz, Zane, Yusei

Pairing(s) I'm hoping to write: OC x Akiza, OC x Alexis, Jaden x Alexis, Chazz x Alexis

(IV) ORIGINALS

This is not going to be like the Fandoms section because... well, it's been such a long time since I had done an original plot! For an original plot, I would love to do a modern slice of life! I would also enjoy a medieval setting as well! Particularly with a Knight and a Princess. When it comes to tropes, I don't have specific ones that I'm dying to do. I enjoy most of them but I do enjoy a slow-medium burn. As for genres, as I mentioned before I would love a slice of life but I also like fantasy, action, even horror! There isn't much I'm not open to when it comes to originals!

(V) Goodbye

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read through this! I'm excited to hear from any and all potential partners! If any part of this had interested you, please go ahead and interact with this post! I hope you all have a wonderful day! Happy Writing!

✨

-

[the-firebird69]

Mad Max 2 Road Warrior 1982 - Kill Count

You can see directly for before impact there's nobody on the road and both idiots are still heading towards their death plus the two tied to the front and if you look you're pretty much think you can see who they are and it is a bit odd they're going to be gone and this is where where I said and daughter say it's really not surprising in any way if they in fact two guys there and you see a few plumes of blood and there's completely disintegrated what looks like Tommy f it's on the front of the truck and there's somewhere to stand and it just sits there standing there instead of jumping off to the side and had time it looks like Trump with the mask committed suicide more or less I don't know how many times he can do it he can do it but boy he seems to continuously do it. And he doesn't come back and someone did a spoof of it showing him walking on the road so they could have jumped I don't think so that's what we're trying to look at what could be Tommy F was on there for the last second so we're watching them do it I want to see that they can move somewhere fast but we also see that they have super powers because possessing them but you don't see them jump off the thing and don't seem up in the air and people wondering what happens and then something she knows and people trying to execute them to shut them up they're not in character to be going fast or be Superman or general zods guy. But but those genre they are sometimes crossover cuz it says I owe you saw one plume of blood. And we think it was from the guy on the left where the body was tied up better and they grabbed the torso and the guy in the right was ripped off and the other two were pulled off too right before and they're going so fast now it was before the connection you see the driver of the car when they're hitting we don't see his body flying or anything and you think that it's just how they made the movie we're going to send things something flew in and grabbed him and the g-force would be incredible but only for an instant but it wouldn't destroy him so we think that happens and it's The preserve life and the committing suicide but the max don't want it to be on their dime. You can see the little kid trying to attack him and he gets them to drive off the road and he goes what was that for is this trying to kill my friends and failing. It looks over since okay I get it where they go he says I don't know heaven. Our son says get the hell off me he says no and tell us a little kid you can deal with it then go pick him up and he has no free rides here so the kids are kind of rolling around laughing it was hard to do that cuz he has to run real fast he goes no way so more to be revealed, a lot of troops don't like the idea and his mouth and says I like to know which ones who wrote The flash and Superman so he says okay and you guys can just be mutants come or it's in some of the comments and he's looking into and it's looking for this episode I can't find it but there's a point where Superman is talking about some of the genomics down South the derelicts and how they are not nice to them even though they helped and they went through it in the comic book. So it is helping reading comics is English and then putting together code the exercises with your brain a little and it's not really that hard it's kind of traumatic because of the stuff's real and it's really graphic. This is an incident is not famous because it hasn't happened it will be because you don't see them plucking them out so tell me if so thank you very much but do it without the music and he smiles and says okay and that's right a whole bunch of people and also this is I've had at least he said he's had it with this s*** it gets it gets back on his horse says to do stuff then he realizes we're fighting them too and since it's fighting each other it's giving us exposed to them and then and it's true

This is an amazing find and he's wondering which superhero would be it has to be a set that's in Australia he was thinking maybe the Green lantern and it's not far off

Thor Freya

Olympus

[signalwatch]

Holiday Watch: Santa Claus - The Movie (1985)

Watched:  12/8/2023

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director: Jeannot Szward  

Even as a kid, when I saw the trailer for this movie and it looked a little suspicious to me. I don't know what it says that a kid pretty game for whatever looked at this and was like "nah", but I think that gut instinct was dead on.   I would have been 10 when this hit, so I wasn't really the audience, anyway - just old enough to not want to see "a kiddie movie", but it looked like schlock to me at that age, and I just had no interest.  

Apparently neither did Planet Earth, because the movie made about $23 million against an estimated budget between $30 and 50 million.

Flash forward to 2023, and we put this one on and a whole bunch of things became clear immediately.

Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) was produced by the Salkinds, the same shady guys who put together the first three Superman films and Supergirl.  They have their name up there first and foremost, so you know this is an Alexander Salkind joint.  And if you know anything about the Salkinds you know that if you're ethically a little shaky, these are your guys.  

They know how to capture star power, get amazing effects done and make a big, splashy movie.  They also have no concept of what makes a movie actually work, in favor of just hiring big name talent and hoping for the best.  After all, as far as they were concerned, this is what made Superman I and II work.  Not Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz pulling everything together, rewriting the script and making it a coherent movie after drafts from Mario Puzo and the David and Leslie Newman creative dream team.  And they know how to do it while lining their pockets and screwing everyone else.

Well, we have the Newman's back and writing, and boy howdy, is it ever the Newmans.  Unfunny jokes that they go back to over and over (and over), incredibly broad characters and a certain hokey "we're putting on a show" writing style.*  But they came by it honestly - David Newman was partially responsible for Broadway shows like It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman.  Which, if you've ever seen it (and I have) is a meandering mess of a show where they pursued every wrong instinct polite society had about how to deal with genre media.

The Salkinds also brought in director Jeannot Szward, who directed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which makes sense on paper!  He managed to make a classic out of a weird movie about a guy and his factory producing fun stuff for kids.  And they have a score by no less than Henry Mancini and a "hit" single at the end performed by Sheena Easton.**  And, of course, Dudley Moore is our star casting, alongside a blowing up John Lithgow, just off Footloose and a string of hits (I wrongly thought Blow Out was 1984, it's 1981).  Santa is played by The Big Lebowksi's David Huddleston, and Mrs. Claus by Judy Cornwell that only anglophiles will recognize.  Burgess Meredith pops up for no reason.  

So, you can see the thinking.  We have all the elements: can't fail.  Worked for Superman.  

And then they proceed to put forth a clearly wildly expensive, absolutely boring movie that takes a good hour to really get going.  

Basically, we start with Mr. and Mrs. Claus as mere mortals who freeze to death on Christmas Eve, and are resurrected to go live with a cult.  They are treated well, but told "now you will deliver all of these toys we make" which Santa is kind of game for, I guess.  But he has little to no agency - he is literally pressed into service.

The factory, by the way, is an amazing set that makes the Fortress of Solitude look like a hack job.  It's a multi-tiered, all-wood environment with moving parts and covered in toys, elves and colorful detail.  In addition to the expansive environs of the film, the impeccable costuming, all of the effects are fairly top-tier for 1985.�� Clearly the Salkinds knew to borrow the flying effects from Superman, perhaps made easier when you can put Santa in a sleigh instead of a harness, but it seems to be a pretty similar set-up.  There are also muppet reindeer that have personality and are part of the story.  And, plenty of optical effects.

Plotwise - it's unclear WHY the elves were already making toys or have this factory.  They say it feels good to give toys away, but they've never done it as far as I can tell.  After all, they have a warehouse full of them.  But they do have reindeer, magical flying powder (more on that later), and an agenda.  So, much as Superman has a lengthy opening sequence, including Krypton and Smallville sequences, as well as the Fortress stuff, this movie thinks Santa needs all that.

He does not.

We're a good hour into this movie before anything like a plot kicks in.  Which is not really how Superman works, but I can see how the mistake was made.  In Superman, you don't see Clark turn into Superman til way, way into the movie, but... plenty occurs with comedy and tragedy and plot tension in that first hour, but not here.  Santa just kind of bumblefucks his way into becoming the Santa we know, including spending *centuries* as the jolly gift-giver before looking at naughty children and  thinking "fuck them kids", taking away their gifts.  With no forewarning, by the way.  

Our plot that eventually surfaces is when Santa (a) promotes his tinkerer pal, Patch (Moore) to be his assistant to help out as the world population explodes.  (b) Patch innovates with an assemblyline, which obviously makes worse toys than by-hand toys.  (c) Those toys suck and break.  (d) People decide the man giving them free toys is a loser after centuries of success.  (e)  John Lithgow plays Dan Aykroyd's character from SNL who sells very dangerous and defective toys.  (f)  Patch goes to work for him after getting demoted and thus leaving the North Pole. (g)  Patch puts cocaine

 magic flying powder into lollipops and hooks kids on the "first one's free" scheme.  (h) Santa immediately wants to quit.

I haven't mentioned the two kids in the film, the very post 1970-streetsmart homeless kid with a bit of a NY accent and then the cherubic girl who lives in a mansion in Manhattan and feeds the homeless kid (successfully, and daily, because no one is paying attention to what this girl is doing).  

Santa meets "Joe" on Christmas Eve and flies him around, but does nothing else for him.  I mean, Santa seems like he could have done *something* to help out this kid, but he just peaces out and is like "see you next year".  Santa, that kid is going to have moved on or be dead.  Meanwhile, turns out Cornelia's uncle is John Lithgow.  

There are incredibly long scenes between Lithgow and Moore that feel like extended cuts of stuff the Salkinds thought worked between Luthor and Otis, but they forgot how Miss Tessmacher provided daffy balance.  Or didn't know.  But, my god, all of it just drags.

And that's the weird thing.  This movie is a full two hours because Act 1 takes an hour.  But when we get to Act 2, no one puts their foot on the gas.  The pacing is murder.  

For all the sets (which are also weirdly and uniformly dark) and costuming and money thrown at this thing, and what feels like thought put into creating a lore for Santa, no one seems to have a feel for what kind of movie this is.  It's not funny despite featuring Dudley Moore, who often seems kind of sad.  It's not upbeat or quirky.  It kind of just keeps happening with sort of joke-shaped moments occurring.  

And, most bizarre, the movie ends not on a December 24th, but in late March, on the recently deployed "Christmas 2", come up with by Lithgow's character to sell more cocaine

 lollipops that allow kids to fly and which, it turns out, will explode violently if placed near a heat source.  

The movie ends with Santa saving Dudley Moore and Joe, there's a pointless bit about missing two reindeer, and the last moment of the movie is Lithgow disappearing into space to die after ingesting too many lollipops as he runs from the cops.  

Christmas.

Look, I've watched some real shit bombs this Christmas, and this one is not the worst, but it sure was trying.  And, most offensively, it was so expensive.  It's a testament to the two most essential things in a film really being a script you can work with and that goes somewhere, and an editor who can try to craft something coherent from whatever wobbling pile they're handed.

The casting of Dudley Moore, famous at this point for playing everyone's favorite raging alcoholic, was weird.  He was oriented to movies for grown-ups, and as a ten-year-old, I remember thinking "that's odd casting" even if I couldn't put my finger on why.  And he's not bad, but he just seems kind of depressed through the whole movie, which was a choice, I guess.  And aside from "Joe", the performances are mostly fine.  And Joe is fine.  He's just... doing the bit in the movie that folks decided had to be in movies for kids until Goonies.  

If there's one note about the visuals, it's weird how old this looks and how much like a modern movie Scrooged looks, coming just a few years later.

For decades I'd been told "not worth it", and, by gum, those friends were just trying to help me.

Anyway, here's Sheena Easton's song.  Try to remember that Sheena Easton is very, very good looking before judging her too harshly.

*there's probably a fascinating career retrospective one could do about the Newmans, because they kind of Forrest Gumped their way through Hollywood as near as I can tell.

**rawr