#cinematic highlight of the year

[travelinglikethelight]

Cinematic Highlight of the Year: BLINK TWICE (2024)

[thehmn]

I finally got to watch Viften (Empire) and it’s such a fascinating movie. It was written by Anna Neye who also plays Anna Heegaard, a rich free black woman who’s dating the Danish governor of the island.

It’s sold as an absurdist comedy and I think there’s no other way to describe it. There aren’t any real jokes but you often end up laughing at the absurdity of it all.

It’s extremely honest about the horrors Danes put the black population through but thankfully it only shows it in quick flashes of art as seen in the trailer. I once watched a video where they explained why most women aren’t into slasher movies and why black people generally don’t rewatch movies about racism and slavery. It’s because the the horrors shown are very real fears and a fact of life so the only people who can really enjoy watching a woman get horribly murdered as entertaining are men and only white people can watch a black person getting whipped to death with cinematic lighting and have a fun night out. By showing the horrors in art they get to be clear about exactly what is going on without coming off as exploitative.

But it’s also very honest about the ways a society based on slavery fucks with everyone. Most of the servants at the manor are slaves except the cook who bought her own freedom years ago. She tells the housekeeper Petrine that some day she too will be able to buy her freedom and get her own slave. That’s right, the freed black people aspire to get their own slaves because that’s the sort of values a society like this instills in people. And Anna tries to be as nice as possible to her own slaves but doesn’t take her own success for granted and is more afraid of an uprising than her white lover and ends up doing some really horrible things to her slaves to keep them down.

It also touches on how people viewed being black or white back then. That it wasn’t all about skin colour but also status. That’s why all the white people treat Anna as one of them. She’s a rich, educated lady so of course she’s “white”. Even Anna express contempt at being called black because she doesn’t work in the field. The poor freed black people also call Petrine white because she dress and acts like a Dane. Not as in “you are pretending to be white” but as in you are white.

And hats off to the director Frederikke Aspöck. There’s a scene where a woman buys her freedom and they put on a symbolic slave auction where she gets up on the podium and bids on herself. All the white neighbors have come to witness it because it’s seen as this joyous day and they all clap, she’s offered to drink with them and she’s all smiles. The director managed to make the scene wholesome while highlighting the absurdity of it and all you can do is chuckle because what the fuck? The white people think it’s a good thing that she’s free but continue to keep and mistreat their own slaves, and she no doubt dreams of getting her own down the road. It’s very much depicted as institutionalized racism and not just “a few bad eggs”.

And I didn’t know where to put this but there’s a lot of interesting symbolism going on with Anna’s dresses. She always wears dresses that match the colors of the rooms she’s in, establishing her as fully part of the system, but as she begins to realize that the Danish state will never see her as fully equal her colors start to clash with her surroundings.

I watched it on Netflix and it has English subtitles so it should be somewhere for English speakers to watch if you feel so inclined.

[niceonet]

TRAİLERDB - DEVASA+ (3)

As we eagerly anticipate upcoming releases, the right trailer can set the tone and build our enthusiasm for what’s to come. In this blog post, we will explore the freshest trailers, giving you a sneak peek into the films and TV series that are about to hit screens near you. From highly anticipated films to captivating TV series trailers, we’ve got you covered with all the essentials. 

Latest Trailers

When it comes to keeping up with the ever-evolving world of entertainment, latest trailers play a significant role in generating buzz and excitement among fans. Every week, we are treated to a flurry of new previews that showcase the hottest upcoming films and series. Here’s a look at some of the most anticipated releases that you should keep an eye on.

One of the most talked-about latest trailers features the action-packed return of a beloved franchise. With stunning visuals and gripping storytelling, this trailer leaves us eager for the release date. The combination of stellar performances and a captivating soundtrack promises an exhilarating cinematic experience.

In the realm of animation, the latest offerings are equally impressive. The trailers highlight vibrant animation styles and heartwarming narratives that are sure to attract audiences of all ages. From family-friendly adventures to more mature themes, the latest trailers in animation showcase the diversity and creativity in storytelling.

Furthermore, the world of streaming platforms is overflowing with exciting latest trailers. With platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime constantly releasing fresh content, viewers are treated to an array of genres, from gripping thrillers to heartfelt dramas. These trailers give a sneak peek into the rich storytelling and character development that we can look forward to.

Don’t forget that latest trailers also provide insights into upcoming TV series. Whether it’s a highly-anticipated season continuation or a brand-new concept, these previews are designed to engage fans and keep them coming back for more. Expect to see dramatic cliffhangers and intriguing character arcs that will undoubtedly spark discussions among viewers.

In conclusion, latest trailers serve as a window into the captivating stories that lie ahead. They not only excite fans but also shape our expectations of what’s to come in theaters and on screen. Stay tuned for more updates, as there are always more incredible trailers on the horizon!

Tv Series Trailer

In the world of entertainment, the TV series trailer serves as a pivotal tool for enticing audiences and generating excitement. With the rise of streaming platforms, the competition for viewers' attention has intensified, making trailers more crucial than ever.

One of the primary functions of a TV series trailer is to provide a glimpse into the show's storyline, characters, and overall tone. A well-crafted trailer can evoke emotions, build suspense, and leave viewers eager for more. For instance, trailers for popular series often highlight key moments, thrilling action sequences, and dramatic cliffhangers that captivate audiences.

Moreover, the editing style of a TV series trailer significantly influences its impact. Fast cuts, captivating visuals, and a powerful soundtrack can enhance the excitement and engagement level. As a result, viewers are more likely to share these trailers on social media, amplifying their reach and generating buzz.

In recent years, we've seen a shift in how trailers are released. Many production companies now opt for teaser trailers, followed by full-length versions. This strategy keeps fans engaged over a longer period, as each release builds anticipation for the show's premiere.

As viewers have become more discerning, trailers have evolved to include more diverse storytelling elements. Today’s trailers often reflect the complexity of characters and intertwine various plotlines. This trend allows audiences to connect more deeply with the series before they even watch an episode.

An important aspect to consider is the impact of TV series trailers on the show's marketing strategy. They often serve as a crucial element in the overall promotional mix, alongside posters, interviews, and social media campaigns. A strong trailer can significantly boost a series' visibility and attract a broader audience.

In conclusion, TV series trailers are not just promotional tools; they are artistic creations that encapsulate the essence of a show. As the landscape of television continues to evolve, the role of trailers in shaping viewers' perceptions will undoubtedly remain significant.

Trailer DB

Welcome to the your ultimate source for all things related to movie and TV trailers. In today’s digital age, where visual content reigns supreme, trailers play a crucial role in building excitement and anticipation for upcoming entertainment releases. This is where the Trailer DB comes into play, providing you with a comprehensive database of the latest trailers.

The Trailer DB is designed to cater to the needs of film enthusiasts and TV series fans alike. Here, you can discover latest trailers from various genres, ranging from action-packed blockbusters to heartwarming dramas. Whether you’re on the hunt for the upcoming superhero films or the hottest new TV series, the Trailer DB ensures you stay updated on the most recent releases.

One of the standout features of the Trailer DB is its user-friendly interface, which allows easy navigation to find trailers by categories, release dates, or popularity. With an extensive collection of trailers, you can quickly access both local and international titles, ensuring you never miss out on any cinematic gems or trending shows.

Moreover, the Trailer DB is continuously updated with the latest content, offering sneak peeks of highly anticipated films and series. From thrilling horror releases to delightful romantic comedies, there’s something for everyone. Each trailer is accompanied by essential information including release dates, cast details, and directorial credits, allowing viewers to dive deeper into the projects that catch their eye.

Join the community of film buffs and series aficionados today by exploring the Trailer DB. Embrace the excitement of new releases and share your thoughts on the latest trailers with fellow enthusiasts. With our extensive database at your fingertips, you’ll always be in the know about the best upcoming entertainment!

[allthingskenobi]

This is honestly a beautiful love letter to the prequels AND Revenge of the Sith, and I encourage everyone to read it.

Some of the highlights for us:

In recent years, the slaughter of younglings and the ultimate efficacy of Order 66 may have become dank meme fodder to be filed alongside the droid attack on the Wookies and “Hello There!” But back in ‘05? That montage of Clones massacring Jedi across the galaxy, Anakin igniting his ‘saber at the Jedi temple, was a real watershed moment — a visceral evocation of the horrors of war and the sheer oppressive power of fascism. Thrilling and terrifying in equal measure, “Execute Order 66!” endures as a reminder of a more daring time in franchise filmmaking.

and

Even now, the emotional and technical craftsmanship of the duel is astonishing. Christensen and McGregor’s blistering choreography and the emotional intensity of their performances; thousands of man-hours’ worth of VFX blending large-scale soundstage work and real footage of Mount Etna erupting; Lucas going full Shakespeare with Anakin’s excoriating, “I hate you!”, and Obi-Wan’s anguished, “You were my brother Anakin… I loved you”; John Williams going God-mode once more with his cacophonous score. It’s an epic battle between the forces of good and evil, the culmination of two trilogies and almost thirty years of cinematic storytelling, painted on the largest canvas imaginable. Honestly, what more could you want from a Star War?

[almostfoxglove]

compiled & yapped for @jolapeno's 2024 tootathon

hey! 2024 smacked me upside the head, and I ended up stumbling into this community & writing, frankly, an obscene amount of fanfiction. it's been wild and thrilling and oddly healing, and I'm grateful for all of it (and all of you). who knew writing filth could be so wholesome?

so, in honor of celebrating this year... let's look back at some personal highlights!

I had so much fun hosting my angst writing challenge this summer - it brought me to so many pals and had me weeping all over the place as entries came in :,) I definitely intend to bring the challenge back someday (and others, let's be so for real) but if you haven't checked out the masterlist, add that angst to your tbr <3

it's been a hot minute since I've made one (making nearly 50 moodboards for my follower milestone celebration did slow down my moodboard mojo but I've been missing 'em) but I've loved making my pedro pascal cinematic universe au moodboards this year! they let me exorcise ideas without getting bogged down by 100 impossible-to-write wips, and some of y'all ANGELS have written amazing fics based on the boards. I'm working on a masterlist of fics inspired by the boards, so keep an eye out :,)

and here are some of my favorites that I wrote (and completed) this year <3

SERIES:

cover me up (96k) - jackson!joel miller x f!oc

i'll carry you (38k) - javier peña x f!reader

ONE SHOTS:

an end to drought - javier peña x f!reader

block party - young!joel miller x f!reader

sit back, baby - frankie morales x f!reader

ty for the tag <3 @guiltyasdave

some super no pressure tags: @luxurychristmaspudding @sp00kymulderr @perotovar @chronically-ghosted

@myownwholewildworld @kedsandtubesocks @djarins-cyare @frannyzooey @for-a-longlongtime

@pedgito @encasedinobsidian @eupheme @whocaresstillthelouvre @burntheedges

[thomas-jefferson-miku-binder]

Queer League of Legends Champions (with explanations) – Part I

Confirmed Lesbians – Neeko, Leona, Diana, Caitlyn, Vi

Starting off with probably the most known LGBTQ+ characters of Riot, we have Neeko, Leona, Diana, Caitlyn, and Vi, all canon lesbians. Neeko's sexuality was a big deal when first announced, not only because she was the first canon queer champion of League but also because her sexuality is explicitly portrayed through her voice lines, as she often flirts with female champions and shows a disinterest in the Shoo'ma of men she shapeshifts into. 

A number of different Rioters have confirmed that Leona and Diana were always meant to be lovers, but someone at Riot Management decided against it, and so they were portrayed as almost sisterly in the old lore. Fast-forward to the present day, they are gay and LOUD about it! The Rise With Me short story officially canonized the couple, and official pride art showed both of them with the lesbian flag. 

Caitlyn and Vi were already a popular ship before their romantic interest in one another became explicit, as shown in Arcane, Legends of Runeterra, and more subtly in the Warriors cinematic. They have also been shown in official pride art holding or wearing the lesbian flag, and they even share a Valentine's Day skin. It's worth adding that Vi also shares another romance-themed skin line with Fiora, and they seem to be very good friends there, but we'll get into that later.

Confirmed Gays – K'Sante, Graves, Aphelios

K'Sante's sexuality, like Neeko's, has been an important part of his character since release. His cinematic and color story both mention Tope, his past male lover, and he was the face of League Pride 2023 alongside Vi.

Graves and Twisted Fate were reportedly, like Diana and Leona, meant to be lovers from day one, but Riot didn't like that (how novel) and scratched that part of their story, simply leaving them as crime partners, nothing else. Burning Tides and Destiny and Fate have been amazing at developing their relationship, but the real confirmation comes with The Boys and Bombolini, which officially confirmed Graves as gay and T.F. as being attracted to him. 

Lastly, we have Aphelios. He and Sett have been a popular ship since the Spirit Blossom release, a skin line that makes them boyfriends, which already confirms him as queer. Throughout this year, Riot has been reposting and sharing Settphel art, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but what really grabs attention is that they also shared fanart of Aphelios with the toothpaste gay flag, leading me to classify him as such.

Confirmed Bisexuals – Nami, Rell, Sett

Nami surprised pretty much everyone when her addition to Legends of Runeterra confirmed her as polyamorous, being in a relationship with Loto and Tama, other Marai of her tribe. One of the people who worked on her character explicitly highlighted the relationship and affirmed that Nami was pansexual. Since then, Riot has promoted her (through official pride art and LoR emotes) as bisexual. It's a bit unclear how she should be labeled, but one thing is sure: she's queer.

Rell is another champion whose queerness was stated on her debut. Rell had flirtatious lines with both men and women in League and was explicitly labeled as bisexual by her creators, also being confirmed through official pride art.

Finally, there's Sett. People have been speculating on his sexuality for a while, but things changed when Spirit Blossom came along, and he was portrayed as Aphelios' boyfriend. Since then, Sett has been seen in reposted League fanart with the bi flag.

Check out Part II

[arcielee]

How House of the Dragon’s Ewan Mitchell became TV’s most chilling villain [interview + pictures]

He played Barry Keoghan’s geeky friend in Saltburn. Now, the 27-year-old from Derby is riding dragons as Matt Smith’s terrifying nephew.

House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series, is coming to the boil for its second-season finale, a cauldron of Targaryen civil war, court skulduggery and dragon-on-dragon dust-ups. For many, the highlight of this season has been the emergence of a beguiling new villain in Ewan Mitchell’s Prince Aemond Targaryen, who has a character arc that’s more like a zigzag. Spoilers follow.

Aemond lost his eye to the knife of his cousin, Lucerys, got airborne revenge when his dragon, Vhagar, swallowed Lucerys whole and is now on the Iron Throne as prince regent after Vhagar barbecued the king, Aemond’s despised brother Aegon, into a walking kebab. What makes the character, though, is the chilling panache with which Mitchell plays him; an impassive psychopath behind his eyepatch.

The showrunner, Ryan Condal, has said that he was at times taken aback by the Derby-born actor’s intensity. “I sometimes forget to blink,” Mitchell, 27, says with a smile. “I need to just chill out a little bit.” Not if it means losing the edge that defines Aemond, the same contained menace that fuelled Michael Corleone. It’s a Dornish-hot day in Covent Garden. Mitchell is softly spoken like Aemond, with striking blue-grey eyes, but considerably more courteous and less terrifying. His hair, which he buzz-cuts for the show to accommodate a wig, has grown to a tousled mop, dyed a Targaryen peroxide for this publicity tour.

To help him to get into character Mitchell listened to Metallica and Slipknot (“Aemond’s straight out of heavy metal”), while cinematic inspirations included Kirk Douglas’s titular swashbuckler (“with his strong chin”) in the 1958 movie The Vikings, the icily evil android played by Michael Fassbender in Prometheus and slow-walking horror villains such as Michael Myers in Halloween. “That’s the message that Aemond wants to give off: that he has you in his sights and you won’t be able to escape him,” Mitchell says. Sometimes he took it too far. In one scene he stalked into the council chamber, “and [the director] Alan Taylor said, ‘Can you speed up the walk, please?’”

His dragon’s knack of pouncing midair (“She comes up out of nowhere like Jaws”) helps Aemond’s aura, as does that eyepatch, even if it took Mitchell a while to get used to when riding horses. He often kept it on between takes, he says, “because over the course of a couple of hours you develop a headache”. That, in his world, is a good thing because it helps to suggest a “volcano that’s boiling underneath the surface”.

We are increasingly invited to compare Aemond with the show’s other compelling bad boy: his uncle Daemon, played by Matt Smith. Both are spares who believed they deserved the crown more than the heir. “Aemond is a prince who stands to inherit nothing,” Mitchell says. “He recognised, similar to Daemon, that everything he wanted to achieve he’d have to go out and get himself. Daemon and Aemond — their names are anagrams of each other and he definitely looked up to Daemon growing up.”

Similarly, Mitchell was a fan of Doctor Who as a child and Smith was his favourite Doctor. “There is a certain resemblance as well. I remember my nan saying that,” he says. Now, though, Aemond and Daemon are on opposite sides, the former fighting with the “Greens”, the latter, nominally, with Queen Rhaenyra’s “Blacks”. Two men with brutal self-confidence, a sense of grievance and prominent chins … the stage is set for a bloody confrontation, as it was in the original Game of Thrones between the brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane. Aemond has already said he would “welcome” a chance to test himself against his uncle.

When it will happen, Mitchell can’t say. In preparation, though, he and Smith have been avoiding each other on set. That was Mitchell’s idea, but Smith and Condal agreed that it would help them to keep their grudge-match powder dry. “In the same way that Aemond keeps Daemon on that podium, I wanted to keep Matt Smith on that podium,” he says. “Our stories are very much contained and we shot in different studio spaces, so we never really brushed shoulders.”

Mitchell has also decided not to watch or read the original Game of Thrones. “I didn’t want it to influence me whether it be subconsciously or consciously,” he says, before asking me, “Which one do you prefer, House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones?” It’s hard to say until this show is over, I say, although both are equally obsessed with incest. He looks puzzled. “There was only one Targaryen in Game of Thrones, right?” Erm, not quite but I don’t want to spoil it. He smiles. “I’ll get around to watching it.”

He has certainly steeped himself in the world of House of the Dragon, which was adapted from the book Fire and Blood by the Thrones creator George RR Martin and is set more than a century before the first saga. Mitchell drew Aemond’s family tree when he got the part and can’t hide his annoyance when he briefly confuses Driftmark and High Tide, respectively an island and its castle in the show. “I’m kicking myself,” Mitchell says, which feels typical of his obsessiveness.

What is it about the Midlands that produces actors with such bristling presence? Mitchell, like Paddy Considine, who played Aemond’s father, Viserys, in the show, is a working-class son of Derbyshire and studied at the Television Workshop, an affordable, inclusive drama school in Nottingham whose other alumni include Samantha Morton, Jack O’Connell, Bella Ramsey and Vicky McClure.

“It’s just an amazing platform that champions raw talent,” Mitchell says. “I didn’t necessarily possess the means or the finances to go to drama school — no one in my family has ever done it.” His father’s side is “very much military”, he says, his grandfather having served in the SAS in Malaya and Oman after the Second World War. “He was very stoic; didn’t show much at all.” So that’s where Mitchell gets it from — his friends in Derby, where he still lives, call him “the Iceberg”. “I keep my cards quite close to my chest,” he says and he certainly does when it comes to saying if he has a partner.

After graduating he got his break in The Last Kingdom, the medieval drama series, playing Osferth, a kinsman of King Alfred. Good practice for the sword swinging, horse riding and dagger tossing to come. There was also a small role in High Life, the sci-fi-horror film starring Robert Pattinson, and a bigger one in Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s remix of Brideshead Revisited, as Barry Keoghan’s geeky mathematician friend — one of the few non-plummy characters. “Emerald would give me something new every single take: ‘Play this one like Travis Bickle, play this one like a serial killer,’” Mitchell says.

• Before Game of Thrones — the story behind House of the Dragon

Like Robert De Niro as Bickle, Mitchell is brilliant at showing vulnerability beneath the menace. He loved shooting the scene in House of the Dragon where a smirking, pre-barbecue Aegon finds a naked Aemond in bed with the brothel worker who has become a mother figure. Aemond’s real mother is Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), whom he, as regent, has just ruthlessly stood down from the Small Council. “He doesn’t want anyone else to notice that he actually really loves his mum,” he says. “Once the war ends he wants to be sat on a Dornish beach with her sipping piña coladas.”

“Horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.”

They may not get that far, although you sometimes feel that Aemond knows how things will pan out — he accepted the regency with a cool sense of inevitability. Condal has stressed the parallels of his story with the Greek myth of the Cyclops, Mitchell says. “He traded one of his eyes to Hades so he could see the day he would die.” Recent events have tested Aemond’s prescience, though, notably Rhaenyra’s recruitment of low-born Targaryen bastards to ride dragons. In the finale “you’ll see Aemond lose that composure”, Mitchell says. “He’s gonna get desperate, and you don’t want Aemond desperate because that’s when he starts to overextend.”

What next? Mitchell won’t say how many seasons of House of the Dragon he has signed up for and we know by now that anyone can be killed off with zero fanfare. He clearly loves movies, peppering his chat with references to Inglourious Basterds, The Untouchables and the M Night Shyamalan film Split, and says he would love to work with Jodie Comer, the Safdie brothers, who made Uncut Gems, and Rose Glass, who directed Love Lies Bleeding. Oh, and “horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.” He would be a natural.

tagging my beloved @assortedseaglass fuck the paywall

copy pasta from The Times

[whiskeylover75]

Sophia Loren, born Sofia Villani Scicolone on September 20, 1934, in Rome, Italy, rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most celebrated actresses of her era. Growing up in poverty during World War II, Loren’s beauty and ambition propelled her into the world of modeling and beauty pageants. Her big break came when she caught the eye of producer Carlo Ponti, who became her mentor and later her husband. Under his guidance, Loren transitioned to film, gaining recognition in Italian cinema before achieving international stardom with films like "The Pride and the Passion" (1957) and "Houseboat" (1958).

Loren’s talent for blending sensuality with emotional depth was showcased in "Two Women" (1960), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first performer to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film. Her subsequent collaborations with directors such as Vittorio De Sica and co-stars like Marcello Mastroianni solidified her reputation as a cinematic icon. Loren’s performances in films such as "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" (1963) and "Marriage Italian Style" (1964) highlighted her versatility and enduring appeal.

Throughout her career, Sophia Loren maintained a balance between Hollywood success and her roots in Italian cinema. She received numerous accolades, including an honorary Academy Award in 1991. Even in her later years, Loren continued to captivate audiences, embodying grace and resilience. Her life story serves as an inspiring testament to overcoming adversity and achieving greatness.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

How House of the Dragon’s Ewan Mitchell became TV’s most chilling villain

He played Barry Keoghan’s geeky friend in Saltburn. Now, the 27-year-old from Derby is riding dragons as Matt Smith’s terrifying nephew

House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series, is coming to the boil for its second-season finale, a cauldron of Targaryen civil war, court skulduggery and dragon-on-dragon dust-ups. For many, the highlight of this season has been the emergence of a beguiling new villain in Ewan Mitchell’s Prince Aemond Targaryen, who has a character arc that’s more like a zigzag. Spoilers follow.

Aemond lost his eye to the knife of his cousin, Lucerys, got airborne revenge when his dragon, Vhagar, swallowed Lucerys whole and is now on the Iron Throne as prince regent after Vhagar barbecued the king, Aemond’s despised brother Aegon, into a walking kebab. What makes the character, though, is the chilling panache with which Mitchell plays him; an impassive psychopath behind his eyepatch.

The showrunner, Ryan Condal, has said that he was at times taken aback by the Derby-born actor’s intensity. “I sometimes forget to blink,” Mitchell, 27, says with a smile. “I need to just chill out a little bit.” Not if it means losing the edge that defines Aemond, the same contained menace that fuelled Michael Corleone. It’s a Dornish-hot day in Covent Garden. Mitchell is softly spoken like Aemond, with striking blue-grey eyes, but considerably more courteous and less terrifying. His hair, which he buzz-cuts for the show to accommodate a wig, has grown to a tousled mop, dyed a Targaryen peroxide for this publicity tour.

To help him to get into character Mitchell listened to Metallica and Slipknot (“Aemond’s straight out of heavy metal”), while cinematic inspirations included Kirk Douglas’s titular swashbuckler (“with his strong chin”) in the 1958 movie The Vikings, the icily evil android played by Michael Fassbender in Prometheus and slow-walking horror villains such as Michael Myers in Halloween. “That’s the message that Aemond wants to give off: that he has you in his sights and you won’t be able to escape him,” Mitchell says. Sometimes he took it too far. In one scene he stalked into the council chamber, “and [the director] Alan Taylor said, ‘Can you speed up the walk, please?’”

His dragon’s knack of pouncing midair (“She comes up out of nowhere like Jaws”) helps Aemond’s aura, as does that eyepatch, even if it took Mitchell a while to get used to when riding horses. He often kept it on between takes, he says, “because over the course of a couple of hours you develop a headache”. That, in his world, is a good thing because it helps to suggest a “volcano that’s boiling underneath the surface”.

We are increasingly invited to compare Aemond with the show’s other compelling bad boy: his uncle Daemon, played by Matt Smith. Both are spares who believed they deserved the crown more than the heir. “Aemond is a prince who stands to inherit nothing,” Mitchell says. “He recognised, similar to Daemon, that everything he wanted to achieve he’d have to go out and get himself. Daemon and Aemond — their names are anagrams of each other and he definitely looked up to Daemon growing up.”

Similarly, Mitchell was a fan of Doctor Who as a child and Smith was his favourite Doctor. “There is a certain resemblance as well. I remember my nan saying that,” he says. Now, though, Aemond and Daemon are on opposite sides, the former fighting with the “Greens”, the latter, nominally, with Queen Rhaenyra’s “Blacks”. Two men with brutal self-confidence, a sense of grievance and prominent chins … the stage is set for a bloody confrontation, as it was in the original Game of Thrones between the brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane. Aemond has already said he would “welcome” a chance to test himself against his uncle.

When it will happen, Mitchell can’t say. In preparation, though, he and Smith have been avoiding each other on set. That was Mitchell’s idea, but Smith and Condal agreed that it would help them to keep their grudge-match powder dry. “In the same way that Aemond keeps Daemon on that podium, I wanted to keep Matt Smith on that podium,” he says. “Our stories are very much contained and we shot in different studio spaces, so we never really brushed shoulders.”

Mitchell has also decided not to watch or read the original Game of Thrones. “I didn’t want it to influence me whether it be subconsciously or consciously,” he says, before asking me, “Which one do you prefer, House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones?” It’s hard to say until this show is over, I say, although both are equally obsessed with incest. He looks puzzled. “There was only one Targaryen in Game of Thrones, right?” Erm, not quite but I don’t want to spoil it. He smiles. “I’ll get around to watching it.”

He has certainly steeped himself in the world of House of the Dragon, which was adapted from the book Fire and Blood by the Thrones creator George RR Martin and is set more than a century before the first saga. Mitchell drew Aemond’s family tree when he got the part and can’t hide his annoyance when he briefly confuses Driftmark and High Tide, respectively an island and its castle in the show. “I’m kicking myself,” Mitchell says, which feels typical of his obsessiveness.

What is it about the Midlands that produces actors with such bristling presence? Mitchell, like Paddy Considine, who played Aemond’s father, Viserys, in the show, is a working-class son of Derbyshire and studied at the Television Workshop, an affordable, inclusive drama school in Nottingham whose other alumni include Samantha Morton, Jack O’Connell, Bella Ramsey and Vicky McClure.

It’s just an amazing platform that champions raw talent,” Mitchell says. “I didn’t necessarily possess the means or the finances to go to drama school — no one in my family has ever done it.” His father’s side is “very much military”, he says, his grandfather having served in the SAS in Malaya and Oman after the Second World War. “He was very stoic; didn’t show much at all.” So that’s where Mitchell gets it from — his friends in Derby, where he still lives, call him “the Iceberg”. “I keep my cards quite close to my chest,” he says and he certainly does when it comes to saying if he has a partner.

After graduating he got his break in The Last Kingdom, the medieval drama series, playing Osferth, a kinsman of King Alfred. Good practice for the sword swinging, horse riding and dagger tossing to come. There was also a small role in High Life, the sci-fi-horror film starring Robert Pattinson, and a bigger one in Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s remix of Brideshead Revisited, as Barry Keoghan’s geeky mathematician friend — one of the few non-plummy characters. “Emerald would give me something new every single take: ‘Play this one like Travis Bickle, play this one like a serial killer,’” Mitchell says.

Like Robert De Niro as Bickle, Mitchell is brilliant at showing vulnerability beneath the menace. He loved shooting the scene in House of the Dragon where a smirking, pre-barbecue Aegon finds a naked Aemond in bed with the brothel worker who has become a mother figure. Aemond’s real mother is Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), whom he, as regent, has just ruthlessly stood down from the Small Council. “He doesn’t want anyone else to notice that he actually really loves his mum,” he says. “Once the war ends he wants to be sat on a Dornish beach with her sipping piña coladas.”

They may not get that far, although you sometimes feel that Aemond knows how things will pan out — he accepted the regency with a cool sense of inevitability. Condal has stressed the parallels of his story with the Greek myth of the Cyclops, Mitchell says. “He traded one of his eyes to Hades so he could see the day he would die.” Recent events have tested Aemond’s prescience, though, notably Rhaenyra’s recruitment of low-born Targaryen bastards to ride dragons. In the finale “you’ll see Aemond lose that composure”, Mitchell says. “He’s gonna get desperate, and you don’t want Aemond desperate because that’s when he starts to overextend.”

What next? Mitchell won’t say how many seasons of House of the Dragon he has signed up for and we know by now that anyone can be killed off with zero fanfare. He clearly loves movies, peppering his chat with references to Inglourious Basterds, The Untouchables and the M Night Shyamalan film Split, and says he would love to work with Jodie Comer, the Safdie brothers, who made Uncut Gems, and Rose Glass, who directed Love Lies Bleeding. Oh, and “horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.” He would be a natural.

[kyriefae]

Be it a hot-take or not, Demons of the Punjab, belongs in the Top 5 all time best stories in Doctor Who.

Instead of being about silly sci-fi monsters or the checkered inner-workings of the Doctor (two things I deeply enjoy btw), we spend the length of a very cinematic and beautiful episode witnessing a tragedy on a deeply human scale. Tragedy and hope intertwined; how else could one possibly cope...

Love to all the episodes everyone would likely place into contention to hypothetically keep this story at a lower rank...but I'm going to make space at the table for the spirit of 13's era.

The monsters of the week being humble servitors of the dead is such a sweet plot twist that deepens the extent of the narrative. The Doctor is powerful but she can't stop this event; or events like this. The tension that comes to a head in this episode represents a struggle far greater than any one battle or war. No sonic warbling can stop the tide of human pride; of our systems built to create 'order' that leave ruin and heartbreak.

Attempting to put it to words, even in summation, highlights the gravity of the subject matter this episode invokes. Instead of navigating those waters by diving in as I am inclined to do, the cast and crew highlight a beautiful and vibrant world for us to see and by story's end we watch that world be torn apart by an ultimatum unseen. A hatred that festers in people's hearts through fear of uncertainty and the corrosion that imperialism left in its wake.

But we witness love. However fleeting it may have been. We witnessed it and by seeing it, we're given the hope we so desperately need.

Death comes for us all but before it does we can make that choice to open our hearts to others. They may not be receptive to it...they may even fight us on it.

Even if our circumstances fail to afford us any other opportunity, love will always be a choice.

Yasmin succeeded at meeting her grandmother when she was young and learned why the story Nani Umbreen refused to tell her was being kept secret all these years. She witnessed the pain of that moment in a way words would never quite illustrate. Even the events Umbreen knew were not the complete story; even that which Yaz was able to see.

The Doctor couldn't stop those events from happening but helped to guide a path forward through the darkness in a way only she could.

Stories like this remind me of how powerful the medium of Doctor Who is...and how flexible it will always be.

It's not all mops of curly hair, long scarves, and Allons-y! Occasionally it's a clever way of reminding ourselves of the pain we cause, the pain we keep, the love we had, and the love we still have to give.

[kdramaspace]

KDRAMASPACE 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

We can't believe it's already almost 2025! As our long-term followers know, that means it's also time for our annual year in review event to highlight everyone's favorite drama moments of 2024. Sticking to tradition, we will be continuing to allow content from all forms of Asian media (not limited to just korean). Below are our suggested prompts. We've brought back some staples, as well as sprinkled in some new ones for you all! Please feel free to post your creations at any point within the given period, no specific order or posting dates required. And of course, you’re encouraged to interpret all of the prompts in your own way. Don’t feel pressured to do all of the prompts, and simply do the ones that speak to you!

Happy creating and we wish you a safe & healthy end to your year! — your kdramaspace admins

※ Guidelines: - Tag @kdramaspace in your posts - Tag your posts with #kds2024 - All forms of Asian media from all regions will be accepted for the event this year - Network membership is not required, everyone is welcome to join. We encourage new members always, if interested please see kdramaspace - All general guidelines from kdramaspace apply - Please caption your posts as follows: @kdramaspace 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW | <prompt here> 

※ Posting Period: December 1st - December 31st, 2024 (may choose from any of the prompts below)

Best Picture | best or favorite drama/film(s) of 2024

Masterclass in Acting | best actor(s), favorite character(s) of 2024 (may choose to do twice for male and female)

Cinematic Excellence | best cinematography or directing/director of 2024

Under the Mistletoe | best kiss scene(s), best chemistry, best couple(s) of 2024

From the Heart | favorite quote(s), writer(s), or OST(s) of 2024

Year End Gala | most fashionable character(s) or celeb(s) of 2024

Fresh on the Scene | new or new-to-you actor(s) whose project(s) you enjoyed in 2024

Blast from the Past | dramas that aired prior to 2024 that you revisited this year

Opposing Forces | favorite antagonist/villain(s) of 2024

On Location | favorite set(s), setting(s) or location(s) of (2024)

Stocking Stuffers | tag a friend or someone you’re thankful for/admire and create a gift of some of their favorite shows/characters/ships/etc of 2024

Snow Day | free space, theme/prompt of your choice

If you have any questions, feel free to drop by our inbox.

[stardustvanfleet]

Backstage Baby (Jake Kiszka x Groupie!Reader)

SMUT. 18+ ONLY! MDNI!!!!!

PAIRING: Jake Kiszka x F!Reader

WORDS: 4k

WARNINGS: Dom!Jake. BASICALLY PWP. rough unprotected sex, edging, daddy kink, light choking (blink and you’ll miss it), mix of praise and degradation, nicknames (baby, princess, good girl, slut), my obsession with jake’s silver medallion, ending with flirtatious fluffy aftercare.

A/N: i’ve been writing band rpf for years, but this is my first gvf fic! ever since seeing them in boston on 9/15, i have literally been walking around in a daze, daydreaming about going backstage with jake……. and this is the result lmfao. title inspired by B-Side Baby by Adam Ant. i’m always looking for more gvf friends to discuss ideas with….. and also just cry and lose my mind with LMAO. anyway— i hope you enjoy! XO, li

••••••••••••••••••••

No matter how many times you saw Jake up there, he still made you breathless.

That furrowed concentration on his brow as his expert fingers flew across the strings… his hair falling across his shoulders… the way he would rock and grind against his guitar, glowing under the lights as sweat dripped down his forehead, his chest bare and slick from perspiration…

You didn’t really ever plan on becoming a groupie. The effect that Jake had on you had been intense enough long before you started following Greta Van Fleet around the country, before you’d even once thought you’d ever be in a room with him smaller than a stadium. But you hadn’t expected anything like the way things had actually gone. They had always said real life was stranger than fiction, but you had never thought its twists and turns could be this earth-shattering.

It had started with the eye contact. The first few times it happened, you couldn’t be sure if you were imagining things, your head perhaps fuzzy from the thrill of numerous front-row nights in a row… but when Jake crouched down and leaned towards you mid-solo, his eyes meeting yours with a jolt of electricity, a wicked smirk on his face, you realized with a heart-stopping shudder that no, you hadn’t been imagining his eyes on you.

Those looks would intensify as the tour continued. He’d always somehow find you in the front row, letting his cool and confident gaze rest on you as he played, just long enough to leave you squeezing your thighs together involuntarily. One night, you had been approached by a stagehand, who simply passed you a note with directions to an afterparty, and even though the note had no signature, something deep down told you exactly who it had been from.

That was your first night with Jake, and you had left the next morning with aching legs that felt like jelly. Since then, every night had been fucking cinematic.

Tonight was no exception. It had been damn near impossible to take your eyes off of Jake before you’d even had any opportunity to speak to him, but now, knowing exactly what he was able to do to your body, how fucking incredible he could make you feel… seeing him like that onstage made you positively throb throughout the show, taking all of your energy just to keep your composure.

As the concert winded down, you slipped out of the pit up front, making your way to the backstage entrance. The security guards, who recognized you by now— still an odd feeling — let you in. You headed towards where you now knew the band would be coming down once they left the stage, your heart already pounding with anticipation, heat already beginning to pool between your thighs. You took a deep breath, tugging on the hem of your top, which you had intentionally chosen due to its short length: you loved the way it highlighted the curves of your waist and hips, and hoped Jake would too.

And, as always, once they emerged, it seemed as though everything was happening at once– pulling out earpieces, handing off instruments and passing equipment along – but your eyes were only on Jake, and, you realized with a shudder that wracked your entire body, his were on you.

Once his guitar had been handed off, Jake wasted no time in heading right towards you, grabbing your wrist, and leading you down the hall. He didn’t need to say anything; you knew exactly where he was taking you, and you instantly felt a wave of overwhelming desire wash over your every inch. It was truly absurd how little he had to do to turn you on.

//

He pulled you into his dressing room, and immediately pushed your back up against the closing door. Jake’s large hands pinned your shoulders against it, a soft clicking sound occurring as the door locked automatically. His lips collided sloppily with yours, kissing you with a hunger that sent your head spinning, sparks of heat igniting deep within your core.

When he finally pulled back, grazing your bottom lip with his teeth as he did so, a shiver went down your spine, and it took you far longer than intended to regain composure and open your eyes. When you did, his heavy-lidded dark eyes were on you, pupils blown wide with desire. The dominance behind his expression was enough to cause an involuntary whimper to escape you, the sound of which brought out a smirk that tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“So needy today… What a dirty girl,” he said, his tone dripping with authority, making your knees immediately weaken. His eyes never left yours as he continued teasing, knowing by now what it did to you. He leaned in, making sure you got his next few words right in your ear. “You wanna get fucked tonight? Hm?” His voice was low and seductive, leaving one hand on your shoulder to keep you pinned to the wall, while his other one stroked first down your arm, then back up, your skin lighting up under his touch. As his body pressed up against yours, you could feel him, rock-hard and throbbing against your thigh, the sensation almost overwhelming as you found yourself nodding your head as hard as you could, already difficult to find the words.

That wasn’t enough, though, not for Jake. The hand that had been stroking up and down your bare arms moved abruptly to your jaw, holding it firmly in place so his gaze was locked on yours. “I asked you a question, princess.” Your lower lip trembled desperately as Jake tilted his head ever so slightly, his expression and tone just the right amount of patronizing as his hips began to roll at a slow but steady pace against you, breathing out, “You want this cock?”

“Yes, fuck,” you managed, already feeling lightheaded at just his words and close proximity.

“There you go,” he chuckled condescendingly at the sound of you using your words for the first time. He continued to rock up against your thigh, letting the hand on your jaw slide to your throat, but not lingering there too long, not giving you yet what he knew you wanted— just staying long enough to drag his long fingers down the sensitive skin of your neck, as if examining every inch of you. What a fucking tease.

“Jake, please,” you found yourself begging, taking your free hand and gripping the lapel of his black jacket— all he was wearing over his tanned, sweaty torso, which had been making your head spin all night— “I’m so fucking hot for you. So fucking wet for you. I want you so bad, please…”

The sound of your desperation made a low sound somewhere between a chuckle and a growl rumble in Jake’s throat, and if your panties weren’t soaked through already, that alone would have been enough to get you there.

Your begging had satisfied him, for now. Jake finally released his grip, freeing you from your position pinned up against the door, only to lead you over to the white leather couch in the corner of the room. Before having you sit, however, there were two things that needed to be done. First of all, he shrugged his black jacket off from his shoulders, throwing it to the floor behind him, leaving him standing before you in nothing but those sinfully tight pants and that silver necklace that drove you wild. Through your lightheadedness, you could tell how horny he was, too— his pants left almost nothing to the imagination, and the sight of the achingly large bulge straining against the tight black fabric was making your head swim, to say nothing of the heat between your thighs.

That was when he lowered himself just enough that his lips were in line with the top button of your jeans, and you felt all breath leave your body as he looked wickedly up at you. Going slowly enough to make you squirm, but not so slowly that you’d protest, Jake unzipped your bell bottoms. His gaze never left yours as he pulled them down your legs, revealing inch after inch of your skin to him, his tongue flicking out across his own bottom lip hungrily as he watched himself undress you— this gorgeous present, all his to unwrap.

As you had anticipated, your light pink panties were so soaked they had been rendered essentially useless as a means of covering you up, and the feeling of Jake’s eyes devouring the sight of your pussy through them were only making you wetter.

“Oh, fuck,” he breathed out, his eyes glancing up to meet yours for a moment before looking right back down at the burning heat between your legs. After a second or two of him just looking intently— as if committing the sight to memory— he spoke, saying, “Drives me fucking crazy…” as one of his hands found its way to the inside of your calf, stroking slowly up, further and further, “...how fucking wet you get for me, before I’ve even touched you. Goddamn.”

“Jake, please,” you begged again, your voice cracking a bit as you spread your legs to give him easier access to your inner thigh, his long fingers stroking and massaging you only centimeters from where you needed his touch the most. “I need your fingers… I need them… please.”

Your final “please” had such an undertone of neediness, desperation, it must’ve been exactly what Jake had been looking for-– and immediately, your eyes rolled back into your head as his long middle finger began to stroke deliciously up and down your clothed slit. He started at your entrance to gather your wetness through your panties, then slid upwards and flattened his fingertip out, letting the pad of the digit trace tight circles over your throbbing clit. Immediately upon the contact with your sensitive bundle of nerves, you cried out, clapping a hand over your own mouth as you, in a cloud of arousal, watched Jake play with your pussy from his position between your legs, his eyes never leaving yours as he kept up his steady, rhythmic circular motions.

Time seemed to stop for what could have been seconds or minutes as Jake massaged your clit and teased your entrance through your dripping panties, and it was only when your eyes were watering and whimpers were falling from your lips that he pulled his hand back, the loss of contact making you let out an involuntary whine.

But once his fingers hooked around the waistband of your panties, you realized he wasn’t teasing any longer— he was escalating. The thought made you shudder as he tugged the soaked scrap of fabric down your legs, Jake’s face flushed with heat, that gorgeous hair of his falling across his shoulders and sticking to his forehead.

Once your panties were off, he tossed them to the side, standing up and leaving you trembling on the leather couch as his hands moved down to his own waistband, his eyes meeting yours and his tongue once again swiping across his bottom lip hungrily. You couldn’t take your eyes off of him as he moved to pull his pants down— which, at this point, were pornographically tight— and, Jesus Christ, he looked angelic as they came off. His skin was glowing with sweat, and warm light from the dressing room’s lamps was glinting off the silver medallion around his neck. When he took his cock out, you let out yet another involuntary whimper.

Hard and thick, the tip already glistening with his arousal, just the sight of it made your mouth water. He wrapped his hand around his length, beginning to pump it up and down just slightly as he lowered himself onto the couch next to you, watching with blown-out pupils as you pulled your crop top over your head, revealing to Jake that you hadn’t worn a bra underneath it, your tits bouncing free. The realization made him growl under his breath between strokes of his cock, groaning, “Fuck… you do that for me?” Your nod made him groan all over again, rasping out, “Mmmm… you’re such a dirty girl… C’mere.”

The simple command was all you needed, giving into your desire and practically pushing yourself against his slick, toned body. The feeling of his hot skin against yours alone made you moan out loud as Jake’s hands found your hips, pulling you into his lap. Once you were straddling him, you were so close to his cock that you felt entirely lightheaded, knowing that if you rocked forward, your clit would get the most incredible friction rubbing up against his length…

But you didn’t have to do anything yourself. Before you could organize your thoughts, Jake was kissing you again, messy and filthy, his tongue and teeth everywhere, his mouth moving sloppily from your lips to your neck and back again, and suddenly you hadn’t any thoughts left at all beyond Jake, his hands, his body, and the feeling of his cold silver medallion pressing up against the skin of your breasts— grazing your nipple, making you gasp into his mouth, eliciting a dark chuckle form the man beneath you.

One of his hands took yours and guided it to his cock, and when your fingers wrapped around the velvety skin of his length the both of you shuddered in unison. Jake’s mouth immediately dropped open from the pleasure, murmuring another, “Fuck, princess,” his other hand slipping between your legs to start toying with your clit again. It didn’t take long for your legs to start to tremble. You were aching for him to fill you up.

You both worked each other like this for a minute or two, eyes growing more half-lidded and cheeks flushing ever pinker as you built up to the main event. Finally, after what seemed an achingly long time, Jake finally spoke, words coming in between his heavy panting that was making your whole body tremble.

“You want it, baby? You want this cock right now? You want Daddy to fuck you like the cute little slut you are?”

You moaned so desperately you hardly recognized your own voice. He always knew exactly when to bring things up a notch, and how. You were nodding your head before you could even speak, finally finding the words to beg, “Please, Daddy. I need it, I need your cock,” staring at him with lust-blown doe eyes.

Jake let out a true growl this time, and sat back further, spreading his legs wide, his cock thick and hard and waiting, your wetness all over his thigh from where you had been straddling him. When he spoke again, his voice was low and authoritative. “Then sit on this fucking dick.”

The sound that left your lips in response to his words was something beyond desperation. With trembling thighs, you positioned yourself over Jake as he gave his cock another couple strokes, lining himself up at your entrance, and saying lowly, hotly, “Look at me.”

You obliged without even having to think, and with your eyes on each other, taking in every little change in expression, you started lowering yourself onto him. Slowly but surely, you felt every single inch of his hard cock stretching you out, and as you took all of him as deep as possible, you made sure to keep your eyes right on his as your mouth fell open. He loved to see what he was doing to you.

He only waited a moment, giving you enough time to grab onto his shoulders for leverage, but not enough time to catch your breath, before his hands found your hips. His fingernails dug into your skin, something sexy, dangerous, and dark in his eyes that you instantly recognized. Oh. There would be no working slowly into things tonight. Tonight, Jake was entirely in control.

Roughly, quickly, he lifted you by the hips, before pushing you right back down onto his cock, making you cry out in ecstasy. It was only a moment before he lifted you right back up again, then shoving you back down onto him, giving you no rest from the sudden and overwhelming pleasure. His sense of timing, perfected from years of playing guitar, was more obvious than ever as he started to build up a rhythm that was dizzying in its relentless repetition. The way he was filling you up felt so fucking good, and it only intensified when Jake began to fuck up into you while pressing you down onto him, getting deeper and deeper with every thrust. You couldn’t hold back anymore, starting to moan out his name as he fucked you.

“Fuck, that’s good,” Jake groaned out, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead onto his chest, “Such a good girl… taking my cock so fucking well. Goddamn. So fuckin’ filthy.”

“Fuck, fuck, thank you, Daddy,” you were moaning, broken sounds falling nonstop from your lips as Jake slammed his cock into you, but when your eyes threatened to roll back into your head, he once again took your jaw in his large hand, forcing your gaze to stay on his.

“I told you to keep your fucking eyes on me when I fuck you.”

You whimpered, biting your lip, Jake’s relentless pounding hitting you right where it felt the best, the angle at which he was fucking you giving him perfect access to your sweet spot.

“I’m sorry, Daddy, fuck, fuck, don’t stop!” you begged, the combination of his cock filling you up and that low, sexy voice of his right in your ear completely emptying your mind of any other thoughts besides how fucking good he was making you feel.

Jake was speeding up now, and it was getting harder and harder for you to keep your eyes on him with the pleasure building so intensely within you. You knew you were close, and his labored gasps and breathless growls made it clear that he wasn’t far behind.

“Fuck, baby… that perfect pussy… she’s gripping me so fuckin’ tight,” he was groaning against you, and you were nodding desperately and moaning out obscenities, tears forming in your eyes from the unyielding ecstasy. One of your arms was still around his shoulders, while the other had a white-knuckled grip on his silver necklace as you rolled your hips in time with his thrusts.

He must’ve been able to tell you were close by the way your thighs began to shake, the way your moans turned into desperate, tiny whimpers, because you didn’t even have to say a word before Jake sucked his pointer and middle fingers into his mouth, getting them nice and slick before lowering them to trace tight circles onto your clit.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It was all so much; so deliciously overstimulating— Jake’s cock deep in your pussy, his fingers working your clit just right, his dark eyes looking at you so intently that even the act of him simply watching you as you fell apart felt so fantastically filthy and sinful.

“Does my little slut wanna cum?” Jake growled through gritted teeth, still thrusting up into you as he managed one of those patronizing smirks that drove you wild, “Not yet. Not until I say so.”

You let out a desperate whine, whimpering weakly, “Jake— fuck, please, Daddy.” Every word took all of your focus and energy to stammer out, with Jake surrounding what felt like every inch of your body, from his cock pumping in and out of you, to his fingers on your clit, and the heat of his skin against yours.

“Be a good girl now,” he continued between grunts, fucking you deep and hard, his lust-blown eyes never once leaving yours, “I’m gonna count down. Then… and only then… you cum on my fucking cock.”

You managed to make the only sound you could— a whimper that sounded so pathetic and slutty you hardly recognized your own voice. Trying to find words now would be hopeless. It was all so much. It felt so fucking good. Tears began to spill from your eyes as Jake’s thick cock slammed against your g-spot over and over again, in perfect time with his calloused fingers relentlessly circling your clit.

He chuckled condescendingly. You could tell— he knew you were too fucked out to answer him.

“Here we go, princess… five…”

You were trembling, moments away from the edge, utilizing every bit of energy you had left to hold off the orgasm that threatened to overtake you any second.

“Four… three…”

You could barely breathe. Every sensation, every feeling, was layered on top of one other. The pressure on your clit. Jake’s eyes, watching you unravel. The feeling of his cock swelling inside of you as he pounded into your cunt. His other hand still gripping your hip for leverage, surely leaving bruises in the shape of his fingerprints.

“Two…”

He leaned right in, giving you a look so fucking intense and hungry that you felt yourself go lightheaded, that heat building, building… so close, so fucking close… he just had to say…

“One. Cum for me. Fucking cum.”

The moment the command left his lips, it was all over. The white-hot coil within you snapped, and your body was overtaken with bliss, shaking uncontrollably as you clenched down onto him, the feeling of your release all around him making Jake groan out a pornographic, “Oh, fuck.”

He kept up his pace as he fucked you and worked your clit through your orgasm, repeatedly biting his lower lip in concentration as he groaned out, “That’s it, baby, give it to me, soak my fucking cock.” The pleasure was dizzying, damn near overwhelming, and through your haze it was impossible to tell for just how long he helped prolong your climax while chasing his own.

With a delicious moan and a string of obscenities, Jake pulled out of your cunt just in time, thrusting into his hand and covering your stomach in his cum. Even through your post-orgasmic haze, the sight of him cumming all over you was so incredibly filthy you found yourself whimpering all over again, watching him through glazed-over eyes as he rode out his high.

When you both finally collapsed onto each other, panting, covered in sweat and cum, Jake groaned out a breathless, “Holy fuck,” before taking his hand and running it through your hair. There was a tenderness in his gaze and a softness in his tone as he asked, “Are you okay, baby?”

You nodded, slowly but surely coming back down to Earth. When you managed a dazed grin, he chuckled a little, smirking affectionately. He leaned in to press a kiss to your lips— this one far more gentle, but no less passionate. When Jake pulled back, he breathed out, “That was so fucking hot, baby… goddamn. You’re something else.”

You felt a blush creep up in your cheeks as he stroked your hair, then your back, his tender touches grounding you as you caught your breath against his chest. It was only after a good long while, once the stickiness on your stomachs became too much to bear, that he helped you to your feet, your thighs already feeling a familiar ache, knees still wobbling a bit. By now, you had found your words, and you thanked him, giggling shyly despite yourself.

He wrapped a plush towel around you, cleaning you up as best as he could, grabbing another towel for himself. It was after this, though, that he spoke.

“Come back to the hotel with me tonight.”

His words took you by surprise. Yes, you’d been to his hotel rooms before— but generally, you’d head there in order to fuck, not after it already had taken place. He must’ve been able to read your expression, because he continued, “I wanna take care of you, baby. It’s the least I can do… there’s a jacuzzi, we can get a nice bath going for you… and there’s a king-sized bed…”

And… you were blushing again. Of course.

You chewed on your bottom lip with nervous excitement, your heart already starting to beat faster. “Jake… that sounds perfect.” He smiled at you, looking utterly radiant, and you felt butterflies in your stomach all over again as he put his arm around you. “C’mon, gorgeous… let’s get you some of my clothes to put on. I’ve got a sweatshirt in here somewhere…”

As you melted into his touch, you couldn’t help but smile to yourself. The night was only just beginning.

••••••••••••••••••••

A/N: thank you so so much for reading!! i would absolutely love to hear your thoughts either in the notes or through tumblr DMs. my ask box is always open for filthy thoughts, and i’m always looking for more gvf friends to discuss with 🥰 i’m also starting a taglist for any new fics i post, so be sure to let me know if you want to be added! XO, li

[welcome-to-green-hills]

The Cinematic World of Sonic the Hedgehog!

Recently, Paste hosted an interview with Knuckles producer Toby Ascher about the mini series premiering in April and Sonic 3. Down below are some of the highlights from the interview with the online magazine:

The Knuckles series will focus on our favorite echidna warrior finding a new purpose in the world. He embarks on a personal self-growth journey with “hot mess” Wade Whipple to teach him some discipline/Echidna warrior training.

The mini-series is treated more as a character study. It focuses more on the growth of the characters and who they are.

Toby Ascher explains that there are some “bigger things” that the crew wants to do with SCU.

The “fish-out-of-water comedy” that came from Knuckles at the end of Sonic 2 is what inspired the series.

The series is meant to follow the same tone and direction of the movies in order to tie in with events for Sonic 3.

Character models have been refined and tweaked along the way in order to match the pace of storytelling. As time passes through the films (whether it’s months or years), we see the models of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and more “grow up.”

Extensive character references have been made of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in determining how each one emotes depending on situations. Character study is key here.

There are roughly 1,600 model shots compared to Sonic 1, which had a little over 300.

Toby Ascher explains that if the Knuckles series is successful, then there is potential for more stories/mini-series with other characters. He also explains that the story will be carefully crafted with a purpose to serve the character(s) rather than to make something for the sake of making something.

If the series and the third film are successful in general, then expansion will continue in SCU.

To quote Toby Ascher, “We knew that, with Shadow coming into Sonic 3 and some of the bigger things that we want to do, the Sonic franchise on the movie side is going to be these Avengers-level events. They’re going to be these big, exciting stories that have a lot of different characters. And so what television did for us is it gave us time to go into some of the more supporting characters in depth and really build them out in cool ways.”

[crooked-wasteland]

The rapresentation of abusers in helluva boss is something that particularly frustrates me, Stella in particular, it seems to be done just to victimaze certain characters not to show the complex dynamics of those relationships. It seems to me the writers aren't mature enough to handle these topics properly.

Abuse and Vivienne Medrano

Christmas 1962, a man renowned the western world over for his revolutionary approach to animation sat in a withering melancholy as he watched what could only be called a cinematic masterpiece based on a novel classic. Walt Disney, now in the twilight years of his life, saw the walls closing in and his legacy coming to a close. This man, who pioneered the animated feature film, saw his greatest accomplishment as his greatest obstacle. The man responsible for the tales brought to life of Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Dumbo felt trapped in his achievement. “I wish,” Walt lamented, “I could make a picture like that.”

To Kill a Mockingbird was a piece that challenged its audience. The discussion of a white man defending a black man in southern America, years before the civil rights movement. The movement that, at the time the movie hit cinemas, was in its infancy. Released during the height of the historically revisionist counter movement taking place to combat the rising push of African Americans towards their human rights. The last film Walt Disney ever saw the production of before his death in 1966 was The Jungle Book, a movie that was the epitome of “Safe” and a message that upheld the status quo of segregation.

It wasn’t until 1972 that the media of animation became raucously adult with those political and challenging concepts Disney felt were unattainable. Fritz the Cat was an X-rated animated film composed of vignettes that were unapologetically perverse, violent, and aggressively political. Critical of politicians and the police with a sympathetic if exploitative lens towards the LGBT and racial minority communities Brooklyn-based director Ralph Bakshi grew up around. Bakshi proved that animation was not strictly a child-friendly media and that adult animation could be financially and critically successful.

(For more on Ralph Bakshi's career and animation history)

If one has ever had the opportunity to listen to a Brad Bird (director of Ratatouille and The Incredibles) interview, it is clear to see that the success of Bakshi was generally quite limited. That animation is considered a genre and not a medium of art has resulted in animated films being knee-capped in the box office. There is far more potential to animation, highlighted by Howard Ashton in his collaboration with Disney studios during the Renaissance. Responsible for resurrecting the feature-length animated movie through The Little Mermaid and credited for the monumental success of Best Picture Award winner Beauty and the Beast, Ashton once said that the potential animation was ideal for musical theatre. The limitless possibilities given the medium gave the possibility of introducing Broadway to the common folk who didn’t live in New York and otherwise couldn’t afford the theater. He was quoted saying that live action musical films were “an exercise in stupidity,” highlighting the freedom that comes with a blank page.

However, the success of animation, and media in general, comes down to the message the media wishes to send. The reason the Disney Renaissance films have enjoyed their position as cornerstones of pop culture and creativity was because it did introduce the artform of musical theater into homes and made them readily accessible to everyone with an even heightened sense of fantasy that revitalized Walt’s ethos of making films for the child in everyone.

With Bakshi, it was the loud and violently political message of a revolution taking place. This continues in adult animation with the Simpsons, a series critical of hyper-capitalist America and the fallout of Reagan’s economic disaster that the effects of which are still being felt today and a satire of toxic masculinity and abusive family dynamics.

So, ultimately, the value of a piece of media is a cross between its social artistic influence and the message the creators are intending to make. While Medrano’s influence on the field of indie animation is often mischaracterized as a “pioneer”, the fact is that indie animation and pilots have existed and been funded before Spindlehorse existed. It is simply that Medrano has had the spotlight handed to her for the myth surrounding the production and subsequent success of his indie projects. Artistically, her influence can be summarized as a double-edged sword. For some, she is the motivation for inspiring artists to connect with the community to one day, hopefully, create their own work. On the other hand, she is the cautionary tale of why investing in an indie project is a financial risk for an audience member and a risk to the community as a whole that poses a real danger of making the indie sphere financially cannibalistic, as her public persona is off-putting to “normies” and her show is simply not good.

Much like Disney, the man in 1962, and Disney the company circa 2023, the revolution of animating "because you can" loses its luster very quickly. Without something profound to say, an entire company, regardless of its social influence, can fade into irrelevance despite still being "successful". The story of Disney is a cautionary tale for Indie animation as a whole and Spindlehorse in specific.

And that is the other axis on this chart. Her narrative lacks a message worth telling, and that’s very much due to her not having anything worthwhile to say.

“I really liked when things and shows and stories allow the characters to be flawed, and allow them to grow and to change. And I think that’s something that’s, you know, the world is not black and white. And I like things that explore the gray and that and the complexity, of life and mistakes and of things like that.” - Vivienne Medrano

It is not for want of mockery that I carefully transcribe Medrano’s words in her interview. To read the words aloud tells the story just as clearly as I have set out to do here. This is someone who is highly inspired by better media, who has ideas and a belief that she has something to say. But that is where the belief ends. There is no conclusion to that thought any more than there is one in the unfocused and run-on sentences she rambles along throughout the interview. She talks of “Things” without clarity, because she herself is a fundamentally incurious individual who has never once spent the time critically analyzing herself, let alone the work of others to better grasp what about it resonated with her. She merely consumes art insatiably and without any substance. Like a diet of fruit, it has a superficial veneer of positive value. Fruit would be considered healthy as it is “natural”. However, it is the nutritional equivalent of candy, lacking vital components that are necessary to sustain basic life, it is pure sugar. Her work, similarly, lacks any value of depth that would qualify as meaning.

Which comes back to what the message is in her work.

When it comes to others in the field of indie animation, Medrano does not have many friends. In response to the Lackadaisy situation, creator Tracy explained why she returned Medrano’s donation. For one, the donation was not Medrano’s money, but money she crowd sourced from her employees. While the $5k for the producer spot of the fundraiser would have not been a dent in her personal wallet, Medrano is so uninterested in supporting fellow creators while presenting an impression of camaraderie that she instead took money from the people she is in charge of the paychecks for to get her name in the credits of another creator’s work. In regards to why Medrano was declined her support, it was due to numerous individuals who had such an awful experience working for Medrano that they did not want her involvement associated with the project to any extent. When the money was returned, she made the situation extremely public and encouraged harassment by liking tweets attacking Tracy and the Iron Circus team.

A well-known member of Medrano’s crew, Hunter B, was leaked speaking crassly of other animation projects that were still in the process of production, met with support from other members in the discord. One of these creators being Ashley Nicoles from Far-Fetched. A former friend and creative partner on the Hazbin Pilot whose podcast streams featuring Edward Bosco and Michael Kovach single-handedly maintained interest in the show until the winter of 2021, free of charge. Ashley once spoke of how Medrano would speak disparagingly of an employee to her, saying that this individual was “Too unstable to work with”. Which, regardless of whether or not that is Medrano’s honest opinion, counts as defamation by an employer. It is the exact reason why most previous employers will not give a negative, detailed review of a former employee, maintaining instead to verify facts of the employment. If Erin Frost was more experienced and less involved in social media exposed culture, they could have easily sued Medrano and Spindlehorse for damaging their reputation in their field of employment.

Which circles back to Medrano’s self-assigned message of her show:

“Abusers rely on your silence. They rely on knowing you can’t retaliate without consequence. That they can tell any lies and vague around without getting called out. But we see you, and you don’t have the power you think you do anymore. A message I put into my work. “Fuck you!” - Vivienne Medrano

Medrano, who has vague and sub tweeted individuals like Lackadaisy Tracy, The Diregentlemen, Michael Kovach, and Ashley Nicoles. Medrano who has instigated and incited harassment campaigns knowing that no one can call her out without severe and relentless backlash from her cultish fanbase that she personally encourages through positive reinforcement of liking the tweets of fans. Medrano who relies on the silence of other creators in the field due to the fear of her ire collapsing their projects before they even have a chance to begin.

Vivienne Medrano with an extensive abusive history that continues to this day, has something to say about abuse.

What Medrano has to say about abuse comes from someone who has the position of superiority in all of her relationships, but feels like she’s the outcast and bullied loser. Her self insert that is repeatedly expressed in every character at one point or another is how easily they abuse those around them just because they can, but that the narrative justifies their “acting out” because they are sad. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “An abuser externalizes the causes of their behavior. They blame their violence on circumstances.”

Indeed, the lists of abusive characteristics and traits, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, overwhelmingly encompasses the characteristics shown by characters like Loona, Blitz and Stolas that Medrano repeatedly has attempted to rationalize, justify and minimize. Which, “An abuser often denies the existence or minimizes the seriousness of the violence [including emotional and mental abuse] and its effect on the victim and other family members.”

It is not surprising, then, that the conversation of abuse in Helluva Boss is often infuriating. The narrative underplays the harm done by characters we are supposed to see as “good”. Not allowing for them to grow or change, but ignoring and minimizing the behavior, justifying it through circumstances and perpetuating the false belief that victims are not, themselves, abusers.

One of the first blog post rants I ever made about mental health and abuse was the affirmation that not all victims of abuse are survivors. I wholly stand by that. Victims of abuse perpetuate abuse. A victim and an abuser are one in the same, whereas a survivor is someone who has actually done the difficult work of being self-critical. And the one thing we all are very aware of is how much Vivienne Medrano rejects criticism.

[gunsandspaceships]

Review of Official MCU Timelines: Marvel Cinematic Universe Guidebook

My (unofficial) but logical (the right one) detailed timeline of the Phase One

Review of The Old Official Timeline

This is the review of Phase One dates from Marvel Cinematic Universe Guidebook: The Avengers Initiative.

Note: Fury's Big Week events and dates will be covered in a separate post.

Correct dates are highlighted in blue, and incorrect ones - in red.

Iron Man:

Pages: 7, 18, 24.

✔️ The guidebook starts with contradicting the time periods from the old timeline: the first timeline of the MCU told us that 6 months passed between Tony escaping the cave and "I am Iron Man". The guidebook confirms my conclusion that these events took place within less than a month (May 2 - May 25, 2008), and that "days" rather than weeks or months passed between the Charity Ball and the day Tony fought Stane.

Pages: 10, 22, 27, 66.

❌ We know that Tony was born on May 29, 1970. When his parents died, he was already 21 years old. And until May 29, 1992, he was still 21. The movie doesn't say he became CEO of SI when he turned 21. It says "at 21," so unlike the book, it's not a mistake. Tony had a few months between his parents' death and his 22nd birthday to earn two PhDs. During those months, Stane served as the company's interim CEO. Funnily enough, this stupid mistake will haunt the new official timeline book.

Page 12.

❌ That's not entirely wrong, since it says "nearly", but I did it better. They couldn't work on the armor for three months simply because Tony wasn't able to do it for most of that time. He had to spend two months recovering from his injuries and surgeries, one week creating the reactor and the plans for the armor, and only about three weeks actually building the armor.

Page 19.

✔️ This confirms my conclusion that the reactor change did not occur on Tony's first day home, or even the next day. Tony came home on May 2 and Pepper changed the reactor on May 4.

The Incredible Hulk:

Page 38.

❌ As I determined in The Incredible Hulk timeline, Hulk couldn't have run from Rio to Guatemala in one day. It would take him 3-4 days to get there. Add those days as Hulk to the 17 "without incident" days. So it can't be the same 17 days, but rather 21.

Iron Man 2:

Page 53.

❌ This is what "not thinking" looks like. No, Marvel, there are more than 6 months between May 2008 and May 2010.

Page 57.

❌ It couldn't have been "the next day" because the day after Tony's birthday party was spent with Fury and Howard's treasure chest. That was May 31st (2 days after the party).

P.S. Someday I will look at the other statements (non-date related) in this book, because some of them are truly ridiculous.

Page 58.

✔️ This confirms my timeline, which states that the events of IM2 take place over several weeks, not just one.

Captain America: The First Avenger:

Page 101.

❌ "A year later", Marvel?! From June 14 to November 3, 1943 – only 4.5 months!

Page 108.

✔️ ❌ It's a tough question how long it's been since Rogers went behind the lines to rescue the 107th prisoners. Two options: one day (at least 12 hours of marching) or two days. Clues from the movie fit each of these.

Page 115.

❌ MCU movies are inconsistent on what year this train mission took place. The same movie, CA:TWS, says it was both 1944 and 1945. Tie-in comics Fury's Big Week, say it was no later than 1943 (another reason for me not to take it seriously). This book says March 1945. What we get is that all sources contradict each other. Given the original CA:TFA movie, and both 1944/1945, I can fix this error by saying it was December 31, 1944 - January 1, 1945. Everybody's happy.

Pages 124-125.

❌ A simple typo or the writer forgot the year of the Exposition, which is written on the previous page. It was 1943.

Page 127.

❌ Seriously, Mr. Writer? The guy looks like he's been a drill sergeant for 17 years? It's not even possible to be one that long. Plus he still wears Grade 4 Sergeant insignia, which means he's never been promoted in his "17 years" as a drill sergeant. He is either very bad at his job, which raises another question - why is he still there, or the statement makes no sense. Mr O'Sullivan, or whoever wrote this, Sergeant Duffy's phrase only means that "Nobody's got that flag in 17 years" in general, and does not mean that he was a drill sergeant there all that time!

Why I point this out: This is a good example of contractors taking something from the source material (movie) without using logic. Always use logic, please.

Thor - Thor: The Dark World:

Page 181.

✔️Further confirmation that it's only been two years since the events of the first Thor movie, not three as Fury's Big Week tells us: Thor (November 2011), The Avengers (May 2012), Thor: The Dark World (Fall 2013).

[novlr]

I'm currently writing a story where, in the beginning, I want to show something almost like a montage of my character doing the same thing day after day, longing for change.

I know in a cinematic format, I'd show that as a montage (as previously stated) where he's actively shown getting more tired and drained.

Do you have any advice on how to put that into a writing format?

Montages shine brightest during periods of character transformation, whether that’s showing a protagonist developing a new skill, learning hard lessons, or growing into a different person entirely. Other uses that aren’t character related might be showing world-changing events in your story’s world, or simply showing that time has passed between scenes. They are, however, particularly effective when establishing the growth of relationships, showing long journeys or transitions, or highlighting parallel events and themes that echo throughout your story.

Essential elements for an effective montage

Thematic consistency

Maintain a clear through-line that connects all scenes

Focus on a single character trait or story element

Use recurring symbols or motifs

Ensure each scene builds upon the previous one

Keep the emotional tone consistent

Choose scenes that reflect your story’s broader themes

Link scenes with transitional phrases or imagery

Structural Components

Have a strong opening scene that establishes the montage’s purpose

Give clear transitions between scenes

Create a natural progression from start to finish

Have varied scene lengths for rhythm and pacing

End on a powerful closing scene that shows clear progression

Sensory details

Include vivid imagery that engages multiple senses

Use specific details that anchor each scene

Create emotional connection through carefully chosen descriptions

Balance showing versus telling

Descriptively show the passage of time alongside changes in character and setting

Techniques for writing montages

Identify the primary purpose of your montage

Choose scenes that show significant change or progress

Include contrasting moments for dramatic effect

Focus on key emotional beats

Eliminate redundant or unnecessary scenes

Use active verbs to maintain momentum

Keep descriptions concise but impactful

Vary sentence structure for rhythm

Incorporate time markers naturally

Use time-based phrases to connect scenes

Create thematic links between sections

Tips for writing the passage of time

Time is a crucial element in writing a montage. From linear progression to flashbacks and foreshadowing, it gives you complete control of how it will unfold.

Here are some tips to write the passage of time:

Use the natural world

Describe the changing seasons

Show plant growth and death

Visualise the ebb and flow of tides

Describe the decomposition of flora and fauna

Describe how landscapes change on long journeys

Use the weather to illustrate time jumps

Illustrate the effect that shifting shadows have on a location

Use heavenly bodies like stars, the rise and set of the sun, and phases of the moon

Describe physical activities

Show family gatherings and how they change over the years

Describe the process of finishing a creative pursuit

Create repetitive activities and routines

Have a character engage in an activity, like gardening, that visually changes the landscape

Have your characters learn a new skill

Write a change in location that requires a journey to get from point A to point B

Use your setting’s seasonal celebrations to illustrate a time shift for individual characters and their world

Use sound

Describe the ticking of clocks

Have your characters’ voice change with their age

Illustrate changing musical styles

Have your characters improve an audible skill like singing, swordplay, or learning a musical instrument

Show a character’s conversational style changing as they grow

Use the sounds of nature, like leaves becoming brittle as they crunch underfoot, or rain turning into storms

Use silence to illustrate it getting late

Describe objects

Have food left out go mouldy

Illustrate buildings and settings being overtaken by nature

Show the lifecycle of a family heirloom

Describe textiles fading and degrading over time

Describe the freshness of paint; is it wet and glistening, or cracked and dry?

Illustrate technological change and advancement

Describe the repairs in a beloved object

Show a common object like a pencil to describe how it changes with use

Common pitfalls to avoid when writing a montage

Don’t make scenes too detailed or long

Don’t include unnecessary dialogue — most montages won’t include any dialogue at all, so if you do include it, make sure it serves a very clear purpose

Don’t lose focus on the main theme that your montage is serving

Avoid choppy or jarring transitions

Don’t include irrelevant scenes. It’s far too easy to over-describe, so with a montage, you need to do a lot of self-editing to keep it from being overlong

Always show progression. Whatever purpose your montage serves, there should be a clear difference from how it begins to how it ends

Don’t over-explain changes. Trust your readers to put things together on their own

Experimental approaches

Not all montages need to be written out as narrative scenes. There are lots of different techniques you can try to write an effective montage. Here are some that can work really well:

Diary or journal entries

Letters or emails

Social media posts

News headlines or articles

The passage of time seen from multiple points of view

Reversing the chronology

Parallel character developments

Some writing exercises

Write a short piece showing a character learning a new skill over time

Write a brief sequence showing seasonal changes

Develop a relationship from start to finish showing its most important moments

Try your hand a writing a montage using unconventional time markers. This is also a good exercise for non-linear storytelling!

The key to a successful montage lies in its ability to efficiently show change while keeping readers engaged. The best montages feel natural and seamless while effectively moving your story forward. All it takes is practice and attention to detail!