#cinematic parallels. I guess

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

marlene dietrich in der blaue engel (1930) + alan cumming in cabaret (2014)

[deadpoetsandlivinglegends]

Something something our lives are echo chambers and we just keep repeating the same motions

[pepperpixel]

- IM A MAGIC MAN -

Betty and magic man art!!!! Cuz!!!! Look me in the eyes and fuckin TELL me these two were not a fucked up / death spiral / make each other worse duo… you CANNOT!!! THEY ARE THE SAME!!! THEY UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER!! IN A WAY NO ONE ELSE POSSIBLY COULD… and! I just rlly wanted to draw them ghghg- cuz! I think there whole thing is interesting! Complicated as hell! Yes! But also interesting! Also made an extra meme thing w em too:

[trashsfanficgarden]

everything come full circle

[apiratefellinlovewithastar]

one of the many, many things I loved about Wano arc is the utter devastation in Kaidou’s face at the end of this scene.

The only two men to return him that feeling of getting his blood pumping, and they were nerfed out of the 100% focus they had on him by third parties. I just know he felt like he didn’t deserve the win despite knowing he ‘could’ve easily won anyways’ because of dirty tricks he didn’t even fucking ask for.

the face of a man who has been robbed of an all-out fight yet again.

[bunnieswithknives]

For Spider David: could you explain his body a little more? Like if he came out of the accident unscathed then why does he have stuff like his stitches, spider legs and an extra set of arms?

Are the legs coming out of his cheeks from actual spiders inside his face? Why does he have stuffing? Basically I just wanna figure out how and why his anatomy is the way it is.

Basically in TMA there is a moment where avatars have to make a choice to leave behind their humanity, they don't have to know that's the choice that they're making, but its still a choice they have to make. If he wanted to reach his 'true potential' to 'become part of something bigger than himself' he had to leave behind his humanity, and in his case that meant scooping out his insides to replace with stuffing, and replacing all of his skin with fabric. The extra arms were just because he could.

For the spider legs in his stuffing... idk if I'd call them 'real spiders'... they're just sorta in there...

[whataboutfractions]

[lyyricreads]

════════════════════ ⋆★⋆ ════════════════════ bills parents were blue and red. but... bill is yellow. blue and red don't make that color! it makes purple. yellow is the parallel of purple. which directly translates to bill being doomed from the beginning. there is no reality that turned out to be fortunate enough for him. in every timeline, his story is the same... but the outcomes were different. when you go to the theater to watch a movie in 3D, they give you glasses. the lenses of those glasses just so happen to be blue and red. [ a/n: if we were to put on the cinematic 3D glasses… would bill still only have one eye? I feel like this would give us the opportunity to finally see the alleged eye behind his eye! ] which means, in the birth of Bill.. the parents' eyes somehow malfunctioned and overlapped. that's why bill was always looking ahead in the cosmos. to his parents, they cannot see three dimensional objects. they probably thought their son was mute and blind until he became reactive and responsive to the world around him. he was always looking out, but they couldn't see what lie beyond flatland. ultimately that was what sealed the deal for him and his parents. they were cursed from the jump.

in flatland, it's pretty self-explanatory. you're flat, and all of your attributes are all seen at once. eyes are on one side of the face, and you aren't as dynamic. you're flat. that's all you know. bill, even with his mutated coloring, was never considered normal. his eye wasn't to the side, no, it was straight. looking up, always. looking forward. despite his oddities, his parents continued to love him dearly; flaws and all. in the actual thisnotawebsitedotcom.com, baby bill screams for his mother. after all, he was just a baby when he was treated like a superior interdimensional being. to experience that sheer amount of loss is devastating. sure, you might've felt like an outcast from the jump, but that was home. you were never terribly picked on, and you had unconditionally loving parents. none of this was ever meant to happen. why was he born this way? why did he, out of all people have to carry such an impacting mutation? he was the *only* one who experienced this. why did something he didn't even ask for cost him everything? it was never his fault; he couldn't control that he was born that way. but then, it was when that grief manifested into something else. he was from an entirely different plane of existence, and the world was at his fingertips. he had already lost everything valuable to him, so what did it matter? was it really wrong for him to harness his power? I mean, they were given to him! he was just making do w/ what he had. he had power. he was robbed because of it. so.. he took advantage of it as a twisted revenge.. i guess.

he just liked looking above. out of everything he observed in the forever changing sky, the little dipper and the shooting stars were his favorite things to stargaze at. being born was the start of this. looking was the start of this. he was the start of this. now, this might be a stretch.. but let's refer to the pines:

now imagine.. before you lost everything, you saw two things. wouldn't you associate those things with negative feelings? I would. ex. if I was in a car crash with a red car, I would be weary and incredibly anxious when driving past them. if before the car crash there were two yellow trucks on either side of the red car preaccident, I will automatically assume off that this identifies if there will be a crash. obviously, this won't be the case again, but that trauma stays. it affects your perception and rationality. so imagine him when he stumbled upon two individuals whom directly symbolize what he had before he lost it all. even though Bill can look up/stargaze at any point in time, he doesn't because it's associated with trauma. or perhaps a better word for it would be a trigger. that's not the reason he wants total control though, not because they triggered him. it's because they meddled in matters that didn't need to be bothered and inserted themselves into a situation long coming. he reacted, is all. he found an opening, and decided to take it.

timelines. in every episode that aired under GRAVITY FALLS, we are in the timeline that gives the best outcome, so we're not shown that. however, one way or another, one of the twins (or both) die. that's why in the book of bill.. it shows us an entire assortment of alternative universes when escape wasn't applicable. when they couldn't change their fate. when something just wasn't quite right. every detail matters, even to the socks that they put on. anything can change the outcome of that episode.

it's just so crazy to think about, because that also applies to reality. as in, our real life. whatever we do, will reflect and change our future. I've experienced that phenomenon before. HYPERVIGILANCE: occurs when you become uncomfortably aware of your own existence. the harsher side of sonder, I suppose. ex. deciding to wear your helmet when riding your bike, and you just so happen to collide with the front part of a van that sends you flying. it's startling and it unsettles you greatly to know that your brains would be seeping into the concrete if not for your helmet. ☄. *. ⋆ gravity falls is so cool. definitely going to rewatch the series (again) and poke/prod around on the website to see if I can find any useful information to gather lore and connect the loose pieces of the puzzle that are lazily floating about in the crevices of my noggin! ════════════════════ ⋆★⋆ ════════════════════

[telomeke]

4 MINUTES – COUNTING DOWN

We're now just shy of the mid-point in 4 Minutes (three eps down with five more to go) and I've been avidly watching, but getting quite confused at the same time by all the twists and turns.

Part of that confusion stems from not being able to watch the "Sultrier" version at first, despite getting Viu Premium. (How do they come up with these euphemisms though? Remembering that KinnPorsche also had a "La Forte" incarnation. 🤣) The sanitized 4 Minutes was annoying, not just because the sexy bits were cut out, but also because we missed important, informative parts of the narrative.

For example, Korn and Ton Kla's Ep.1 sex scene was actually an in-your-face illumination of their relationship dynamics, and also a parallel with Win and Ton Kla's own Ep.3 turn in the sheets later, that revealed so much about their characters in the vein of show-don't-tell.

Ep.2's tryst between Korn and Fasai was also missing, as was (inexplicably) the conversation between Korn and a smoking Great in Ep.1. I can only presume it was Great's cigarettes that caused that scene to be snipped, because other scenes also had alcohol and ciggies all blurred out. Highly annoying, but anyway – I finally found out what was going on with Viu Premium, so if anyone else is having trouble finding Sultrier, I will share some tips in a different post.

And with that out of the way, I finally got to watching the unbutchered 4 Minutes – and I'm finding it smart, sexy and oh-so stylish in the mold that we've come to expect from Be On Cloud. Sumptuous cinematography and visuals are now quite a BoC hallmark, that started with KinnPorsche and continued in Man Suang – and 4 Minutes so far has been a delight to take in, a cinematic and super-twisty supernatural thriller overflowing with signs, symbols and scenes (possibly) pregnant with hidden meaning, so much so that the fandom is all a-flutter, me included.

Directing (and editing) has been taut, and I think Director Ning Bhanbhassa Dhubthien does much better when given free rein (unsaddled by screenwriting duties, and P'Pond maybe! 🤣) My take is colored by Man Suang – its huge potential for intellectual engagement (all that historical drama and political intrigue!) was unfortunately not developed to a satisfying extent; its most potent elements were given insufficient screentime, watering down what could have been a truly juicy experience for the viewer. Perhaps it might have done better as a mini-series with a longer timeframe for the developments to unfold, but that's a remake for another day perhaps.

Anyway, back to 4 Minutes. They've been really stoking the furnace with clues to the truth underlying the narrative, and fan theories abound as to what it all might mean while we breathlessly await revelation.

So I can only guess at some of the stuff, and nod at some of the visuals. But here's some of what I've picked up on.

The title 4 Minutes (especially with so many references in Ep.1 to cardiac arrest) is quite likely a nod at the widespread belief that when the heart stops beating, you only have four minutes to start resuscitation before the process of brain death begins to set in. (I'm seeing a lot of different opinions about this online, with some sources insisting the window of time is much longer. But there are enough mentions of the four-minute deadline in more than a few Thai sources that I think this is probably the intended significance, especially since screenwriter Sammon is also a medical doctor who would know of this notion's currency in popular culture. Here's an example in Thai media: CPR กู้ชีวิต ก่อนสมองตายใน 4 นาที/CPR saves life before brain death in 4 minutes.)

After the four minutes are up, it is too late to save the stricken patient – so there is a sense of urgency underlying the notion. (For another work that plays on this, see Madonna's song 4 Minutes where the urgency being messaged is about saving the planet instead.)

But with cardiac arrest, the premise is that even when corporeal death is signaled (cessation of the heartbeat being the traditional marker of this), a person's life-force still has that small window of time for human intervention to make a difference, a sort of ultimate last chance beyond the final frontier, if you will.

This aligns somewhat with what we're seeing of Great's do-overs, each time he is thrust back four minutes into the past. But I think there's also a bit more to it, based on what we're seeing in Episode 3.

Among all the fan theories online, this one by @myezblog caught my eye: Theory - plot is pretty much revealed.

Now, whenever Great is alone, we see that his clocks reset (and Great is aware of this too, by Ep.3). In Ep.1, his clock showed 11:00am (at timestamp 05:00, after his call with Title). And in Episode 2 we were shown Great's clock turning to 11:01 at timestamp 35:06, and in Episode 3 it went to 11:02 (timestamp 41:37).

But the ominous 11 o'clock actually put in an appearance even before these instances. Looking back, at the start of Episode 1 we were shown that the patient in the Emergency Department Resus bay basically flatlined at 11:00 – that was their time of death.

If it's really Great whose heart stopped on that Resus trolley in Ep.1, what we appear to be seeing is a flashback of events playing in his head, leading up to the time of his cardiac arrest (11:00).

And what his clocks are showing him (and us) whenever he's alone during that flashback is basically a countdown of the four minutes that he has, before he is brought back (hopefully) or is gone forever (I hope not – it wouldn't be much of a series then!).

So in the coming episodes, we should be watching for Great's clocks to tick up to the 11:04 mark – that is likely the time horizon when Great is jolted back to the present, hopefully having learnt some lessons reviewing his past that will be key to solving his conundrums in the present and the future.

[youngerfrankenstein]

Popping in briefly because I finally watched Transformers ONE!

It. Is.

OKAY! It’s pretty fun. Thoughts under the cut.

I was not wrong about a lot of the humour being quite bad. Not that there weren’t also moments that made me laugh but enough made me eye roll to not mention it. B-127 did get the worst of it, with perhaps one joke near the end that had me losing it while mostly wishing he was mute in this movie too.

It also really fell into the trap of what seems to be a lot of modern Transformers media trying to cram in as many iconic catchphrases as possible. It gets exasperating. Make a new one. That said there were a lot of little referential moments that made me smile! Like Wheeljack’s one major contributing factor to the story being accidentally blowing something up.

Story was alright, but felt really rushed to me. Like I get that they had an hour and a half to get everyone at least adjacent to their starting positions, and they did the best they could. But it still felt off. Particularly D-16 given his fall felt less like a descent and more like finding out one awful truth and plummeting off a cliff to become turbo-Hitler. Though I will say they do a decent enough job given the parameters. Things like Orion immediately going “okay how do we help everyone else?” and Dee going “I want personal revenge.” Highlights the main differences between them and why one of them is cut out to be a leader. Also things like Dee being the one to always stick to protocol and will be the leader whose style is very much “do as I say or die.” I will say they did a good job of actually making D-16 and Orion feel like friends with the limited time. Which is good, because I don’t know if the movie could have worked otherwise.

Nothing particularly surprising either. Though it’s kinda to be expected. Guessed Sentinel sold out Cybertron to the Quintessons well before the movie came out. And fortunately they don’t really expect you to care about robot politics besides “Sentinel Sucks”, though looking back I’m not sure why I was worried. Also I think he’s my favourite character. I’m a real sucker for fun villains as is probably very clear by now, and he is very fun. Even if the engineered confession was cliché. Part of this is probably also because I tend to like Jon Hamm. Which I guess brings me to the cast.

If I’m being totally honest the voices for none of the main four really work for me? Brian Tyree Henry is definitely the one who works the most to his credit. Hemsworth is… fine. He’s fine. He could be a lot worse. Though other than them most of the cast works well for me. Though I do still wish there was more respect for voice acting as an actual career by Hollywood. That said Soundwave’s voice was done well and that is all I ask.

As for things I just straight up enjoyed the animation is REALLY good. And I really like a lot of the designs! The bots, the train, THE QUINTESSON SHIP!!! Also kind of like the whole Fisher King thing Cybertron seems to have going on

[Cinematic Parallels]

And the fact it’s constantly transforming. The ACTION! So well done. All I really wanted was a thrilling punch-up between Optimus and Megatron and I GOT IT! There’s also the frequent use of blatant irony which is MY cringy dialogue trope! Favourite of course: “No more false prophets!” <- False prophet seconds before robot Jesus shows back up.

(Perhaps irony is not quite right but it did make me smile.)

And the most minor one, Oppy getting the Castlevania axe subweapon.

All in all I do hope we get a Transformers TWO. I think there’s more story to be told in this universe, it feels somewhat fresh. And I think with a bit more space to flesh things out it could be quite good! Also I just want to see the gang fight the Quintessons. (Big Quintesson fan here. #bringbacktheG1origin)

Was it the best Transformers film? No. That’s still Bumblebee, and by a country mile.

But was it a good time for the kids?

Yeah, I would think so! Mission accomplished.

[centaurianthropology]

Hammer Horror-a-thon: 'Dracula A.D. 1972'

I know I said that I would skip this one, but after I posted, my conscience nagged at me. I had said I wanted to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing face off again. I had said I might enjoy the worse and hornier sequels to 'Horror of Dracula' even more than I enjoyed the original.

And yet I didn't want to watch the terrible, horny sequel? Weak! Did I fall at the first shitty movie hurdle? NO!

Anyway, tonight I inflict upon myself and all of you ... 'Dracula A.D. 1972'.

From the off this movie commits a massive crime in my book: it implies that Dracula was already resurrected and faced off with van Helsing at least one other time, but probably often. Like, a full lifetime of cat-and-mouse between them. AND WE NEVER GOT TO SEE IT! Yes, I know I skipped all the sequels between the original and this one (I am here for this duo, and owe the Hammer cinematic universe nothing), because none of them had both Cushing and Lee in them, but this movie has the gall to imply that there is some other, parallel universe where there were like five other movies where these two tried to homoerotically murder one another?? And we were denied????

Crimes! Unspeakable crimes!

Anyway, we open with what is the final confrontation between the original van Helsing (whose name was apparently Lawrence rather than Abraham? I completely missed that in 'Horror of Dracula'). Both are killed. It's like Romeo and Juliet, but with a broken carriage wheel and blunt force trauma.

Look at them and imagine so many more movies of this. We could have had it alllllllll ...

But Dracula, who always comes back, is once again resurrected! How does this happen?

A groupie. Dracula got his ass a groupie, who calls himself 'Jonny Alucard', because Hammer Horror has never been about subtlety.

Wait, did 'Castlevania' steal Alucard from 'Dracula A.D. 1972'?? Because that's hilarious if true.

So groupie Alucard buries Dracula's ashes with van Helsing, which is fucking romantic in a creepy way, I guess, and then we flash forward to the swinging tunes of 1972. And I have to say, the cinematography in this film is coming on strong. It's dynamic, colorful, looks interesting, there's cool shots ... the director of photography, Dick Bush (yes, that is his actual name) is doing a lot with his little budget.

We arrive at a party in full swing. If there was ever a stereotypical counterculture party of 1972, it is this one. We have a band. We have sex. We have dancing. We have probable drug use. We have definite alcohol use. We are free of the Hayes Code, baby, and we are making the most of it. And in the middle of the color and the music and the abundance of varying-degrees-removed-from-hippie, we have Alucard (Christopher Neame in one of his very first roles!). The pretentious goth boy at the party, in his ruffles and black velvet and fedora. Before there ever were fedora-tippers, there was this lad.

You can practically hear the 'milady'

And I have to say, with our first real taste of it, the script is sort of solid? There's a fun patter to the dialogue, the characters come across as lively and snappy, and the whole thing feels way more fresh and fun than I was expecting after the fairly sedate writing in 'The Horror of Dracula'. The acting is also bouncier, with all the actors seeming to have quite a bit of fun in the scene. It's goofy, but it's in on the joke.

Turns out, he's a part of a group of counter-culture kids. You've got Alucard (same one? Descendent? Who knows, since grandkids have a tendency to have the same actor as the original, more on that later.), The Monk (I forget his name, but he spends the entire movie in a monk robe making wisecracks, so we're calling him The Monk), a few random cannon-fodder kids, and ... Jess (Stephanie Beacham).

She's got 'final girl' written all over her!

Alucard, to stave off the boredom of endless parties, suggests demonic rites, as one does. Everyone initially laughs, but they're young, dumb, bored, and, most importantly, the teenagers in a proto-slasher flick. So you know they're going to go along with it after they've given him some rightful shit for his continued pretentions. And again, the writing is a bit schlocky, but does genuinely capture the vibe of a friend group, ranging from people eager to give it a try to some who think it's silly to Jess, the most reluctant of the bunch. She thinks there might be some danger involved in trying to do demonic rituals in a soon-to-be-demolished church. And while in real life that's called being a killjoy, in this universe she has reasons to be concerned.

Reasons like her anthropology professor grandfather, Lorrimer van Helsing. Yep! We have another descendent-played-by-the-same-actor, and Peter Cushing is back as a new van Helsing for a modern era. Jessica is well aware of her family history, but both of them seem convinced it's a little more research-based, and she thinks it's fairly similar to any other new-age trip.

I have to say, I love what Stephanie Beacham does with this role. Jessica is young and hip, but also friendly and relatable. She's got a sense of humor, and with her delivering her lines in an easy, naturalistic manner as Cushing is a bit more old-school, you get a great sense of the generational gap between grandfather and graddaughter (no mention of her parents, but she seems to be living with her graddad).

I'm sort of blown away by how fun this movie is so far?

So the group of kids all show up to the soon-to-be-demolished church, which also happens to be where Lawrence van Helsing was buried. Jessica's more than a bit pissed, realizing they were arriving on the date of her great-grandfather's death (which makes Lorrimer Lawrence's child?? I don't think those dates work, but okay). But she ends up deciding that it's a coincidence, and is convinced to stick around by a fast-talking Monk.

The Black Mass scene is pure schlock, and it's hilarious. Christopher Neame really leans into the scenery chewing, and we finally kick off the horror part of this horror movie with gouts of magically conjured fake blood. It's a deeply stupid scene, and exactly the sort of thing I wanted from this movie.

It's so fucking dumb!

The kids scatter, leaving one of their friends behind (RIP Laura, you were great at screaming and getting covered in blood), and Alucard gets his groupie on as Dracula rises from the grave once more. Not that Dracula seems to give much of a damn about him. Poor Alucard, you go to all that work, are that dramatic, bleed all over a lady, and he doesn't even want to bite you. He goes for Laura instead.

So with Laura 'dead' (probably a vampire), Alucard goes about trying to convince his friends that it was all just a hoax, that Laura's fine, and they should definitely stick around to get picked off one by one.

Meanwhile, because we're now in the 1970s, Laura's death prompts an actual police investigation, and since Jess was one of her friends, the police want to talk to both her and her grandfather, who had apparently helped them before with blackmailing witches (can we see the white collar crime witchcraft movie, please??).

While the police are investigating, cannon-fodder teen #2 gets lured to Alucard's flat with the promise of jazz (RIP Gaynor, all we know about you is that you have good musical taste). Once again, she gets bit. Once again, Alucard gets nothing but a telling-off that he still hasn't managed to lure in Jessica (because Dracula is already fixated on the van Helsings). You'd think Alucard's going to start getting pissy about the lack of bisexual vampirism.

When will senpai notice him?

Van Helsing, much like his ancestor, can at least put the pieces together quickly enough (although one wonders why he hadn't already realized that 'Alucard' is 'Dracula' spelled backward, but he's on the trail. Was he trained to hunt vampires, or is he literally just a professor of anthropology in his 60s who's going to have to learn on the fly? We're about to find out!

Lorrimar van Helsing, Scrabble champion

Alucard throws a proper fit about once again being passed over, demanding to be turned. Dracula is not best pleased, but also clearly sort of into the begging. So in the end do we get bisexual vampirism? We do! We cut before it happens (boo), but Alucard finally has his vampire groupie dreams fulfilled.

Good for him

Van Helsing starts his investigation in earnest, grabbing a crucifix, a silver knife (does he know how to knife-fight??), and a bottle of holy water. And it turns out that the cops just believe him. No need to try to convince them about vampires, they're on-board, because we're int he Hammer universe, baby! At some level, everyone in this universe seems to already know that vampires and whatever else are real. He infodumps to the police inspector, who remains totally chill with this information and letting van Helsing run the investigation from here on out so long as they keep it on the DL.

Meanwhile, while he's playing detective, Jess is lured into a trap, since her boyfriend Bob has been turned into Bob the vampire by a newly-vamped Alucard. And unfortunately, she was not trained to be Buffy, so the best she can do is burn the shit out of Alucard with a crucifix before fainting. I'm not judging Lorrimar's parenting skills, but if he thought that that one obsessive vampire constantly trying to bite him and his entire family over multiple resurrections could, you know, get resurrected again, it might have been a good idea to teach her to at least carry a silver knife and a bottle of holy water around with her.

This is 100% an L for van Helsing parenting

Van Helsing realizes that Jessica's gone missing and starts trying his hand at vampire hunting in earnest as the baby vamps drag poor Jess off to Dracula. Luckily, one of the other cannon-fodder teens, Anna, reveals that she got high at Alucard's place once! Hooray for convenient info!

Van Helsing gets to cut his teeth at vampire hunting with a really fun fight-sequence against Alucard. And I have to say, I feel like horniness for the van Helsings runs in Dracula's bloodline, because Jonny really wants a bite of that old man. Luckily, goofy vampire deaths remain a mainstay of this series, as van Helsing takes him down with a mirror reflecting sunlight and a fucking shower of running water. It's so dumb. It's SO. DUMB, and Christopher Neame absolutely crushes it at the hammiest of vampire deaths. Positively gnawing on every inch of that scenery. I love him.

We get multiple vampire fights, and we start off with this? We are truly spoiled.

Tragically, we don't also have time for a fight with Bob, and we've sort of lost track of the other girls, because we're once more pelting madly toward that point of the movie we've all been waiting for: watching those old men fling each other around a room for a bit!

We kick off with some truly unhinged scene setup, as Van Helsing gets his whittling badge by digging a massive pit, carving a ton of stakes, and setting up and honest-to-God pit trap. Meanwhile, he also plants a crucifix on Jessica, who he finds in some sort of magical sleep, so at least Dracula won't be able to bite her before they can have their confrontation. Dracula manages to rip off the necklace, but van Helsing turns up, and its time for a good old lover's tiff.

Van Helsing demands Dracula remember him, and from that point on, Dracula only has (bloodshot) eyes for one man.

The disheveled nemesis ex bitch is back!

The expression of a man seeing his ex for the first time in a century, and the ex is still hot.

The ex is still hot!

And they get an actual verbal confrontation this time (at least Christopher Lee gets some really hammy lines!)! It's over-the-top! It's hammy! The fight choreography is deeply iffy. It's exactly what I wanted! Rough one another up some more!

Luckily for us, a hypnotized Jessica keeps this fight from ending too soon, and that ridiculous spike trap actually gets used, continuing the tradition of very silly vampire deaths. Seriously, does Dracula ever get a dignified badass death? Or does every movie end like a Loony Toons cartoon?

Alas, it's only a five-minute confrontation (I could have done with a lot more), and we end with the spell broken, Jessica fine, and perhaps a massive training montage in store for both the van Helsings.

So you know what? I am so pleased I watched this movie I almost avoided. Yes, it was ridiculous cheese. Yes, it was really silly, and you know what? I really fucking enjoyed it. I could still do with more Dracula/van Helsing fights (only five minutes??), but damn that was fun. Solid B-movie acting, an honestly fun musical score, and Dick Bush (did you forget about him?) really set up some great shots and got a really solid atmosphere going on a tight budget.

I really, unironically, enjoyed this movie!

And next time, we finish out the Dracula movies with 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula', this movie's direct sequel!

[hobie-doh]

Strikers is for the girls, gays and theys and I am positive of this.

Every time I talk to a straight guy about Strikers they just start going off about how they hate it and how awful it is and that's its soulless but like... no?

Comparative to the dancing games, I'd say Strikers is built with this... love I guess? Sure everyones been flanderized but in the same way the fandom does, turned up to 11 and it's great, Yusuke loves his lobsters, Ryujis aggressiveness a bro, Futaba's grown a bunch but also is still just a delightful and gamery as ever, Makoto's straight laced but willing to cut back, they GAVE Haru a personality.

Plus I'd even say that outside of Demiurge 3.0 (that was bad, kinda killed it for me) the things that repeat expand on everyone in a really nice way.

Alice parallels Ann a lot, and one of my favorite aspects of the villains in Strikers is that for the most part, they could have been our heroes.

With the exception of like, Futaba, Makoto, and Akira (Kurusu, not Konoe) ig but they got their times to shine.

Thinking about Natsume and Yusuke keeps me awake at night in the good way, Yusuke going off on him over the Sayuri had such an impact I straight up misremembered it as a cinematic cutscene.

Welp thats it for my Strikers rant for the moment, a friend of mine was talking smack about it and I had to rant a little.

[potterandpromises]

OMITB 3x10 (THE FINALE) liveblog:

Okay, before we begin I just want to say my fear is that they won’t do anything with Tobert and there won’t be any pay off with him being framed as suspicious.

This actually seems like a pretty good explanation of what a producer does.

They actually managed to make the scene with Donna and baby Cliff feel sweet despite all the… you know.

“I have a hard enough time calling him Tobert.” lmao (and her smile after Loretta fist bumps her seems off to me, like the camera lingers too long.)

Good on Loretta for figuring out Donna’s sick.

I’m so sad that we’re gonna get so little of Mabel and Loretta together.

Idk if the hankies had names on them or anything, but I’m thinking they know the hankie wasn’t Donna’s?

I like Donna more and more as time goes on. ‘Yeah, I poisoned Ben, what of it?’ (and Mabel’s line: ‘why’d I write all these queue cards’ iconic.)

Would you rather fight one Ben Glenroy sized rat or 80 rat sized Ben Glenroys?

The cue cards on Charles’ back ojvfgiopk

It was Cliff’s hankie. He wiped his mom’s lipstick off after she kissed him on the lips again.

Tobert quit saying cute.

Oh Jesus Tobert.

I mean, that’s not going to happen.

Dickie 🥹

That was such a sweat moment between Loretta and Dickie.

Mabel, have you considered not confronting the killer alone in a high up place?

This is so close to how Zoe died cinematic parallels make brain go burr

This is so stressful

Okay, I found that to be more predictable then the other two seasons, but it was so well executed that I’m not sure if I care.

Also, WHAT’s the deal with Tobert?!

And who’s about to die? (and is it Tobert?)

Sazz Pataki?! Please don’t die.

Nooooo Sazzzz

I guess she was right about someone being out to get Charles.

That’s actually kinda fucking poetic, with her wanting to protect Charles.

And yes I’m disappointed they didn’t give us any pay off with Tobert. If you make a character suspicious, it’s typically best to have them be hiding something

[ai-the-broccoli]

(so I was reminded of this by @kiyomitakada's post about Sayu potentially liking girls, but it's off-topic and I didn't want to derail it entirely so)

if I had a nickel every time there was one scene in a piece of media I love where:

a teenage character (who I'll call T) is shown coming home very late to their family, and -- because they were actually doing something very unusual which they cannot reveal to their family --

either claims that the reason for the late return is that they are actually in a heterosexual relationship with someone (a lie),

or is asked by a family member as to whether the reason for their late return is that they are actually in a heterosexual relationship with someone (a wrong guess),

when actually, the real reason is that T has been engaged in unusual secret activities with a group of people... but also most especially specifically with a certain person with the same gender as T, with whom T has a legendary, intense, obsessive homoerotic rivalry (I'll call this rival R).

R -- a manipulative schemer with noticeably eyebags and a characteristic fondness for sweet food (including or especially ice cream) -- has a relationship (general meaning of "relationship"; not as in they're canonically dating) with T that is not known to these family members in question.

and later in this scene, T also makes a remark (in relation to the "girlfriend/boyfriend" matter that is brought up) at one of their family member, which was definitely not at all meant to imply that said family member is queer, but could be taken that way if you wished to

...I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice considering how specific this description is

for context:

Juri’s Father: …By the way, you ain’t staying out late ‘cause of some man, right…? Juri: Why would I bother with men when my old man ain’t finding women? -- Juri Ooba MSS (video / script), from Magia Record

(note for DN fans:

Juri is very gay and has like... a basically canon relationship with Yuna, with whom she has a very homoerotic rivalry going on. Like... remember the Japanese version of Playing His Game? Imagine that, but with heated physical duels between two magical girl gang leaders, instead of two supergenius' tennis match. Yuna and Juri basically do that like every time they fight each other. A lot of other stuff too, though.

No matter how gay you think they are, it's probably even gayer. The extremely suggestive dialogue aside, they have stuff like y'know. canon neckbiting and "you're going to be mine", and by now they have canonically lived as a married couple raising a child together for 14 years. No, really.)

as for the scene in Death Note, I'm referring to the post linked prior about Sayu here, in which the below panel is shown:

(note for MR fans: ...well I mean. DN is rather well-known so chances are that you probably already are familiar with Light Yagami's alloheterosexuality or rather the lack thereof, and you probably also have heard about his rivalry with L and/or the fact that it is an extremely popular M/M ship, so. I don't think I need to explain much lol)

but anyway yeah. now same as with Light's comment towards Sayu, I'm pretty sure that Juri's words were not intended to suggest that she's calling his dad gay, but rather more of a "no bitches" thing, but I mean. this whole scene and by extension this entire character side story is about how Like Father, Like Daughter they are -- AND this extends to Juri's father also having a rival (<- a guy) that he has had a grudge on for a long time (<- you know what they say; "it is a truth universally acknowledged that someone entangled in a passionate and obsessive rivalry must be gay". I can confirm there's truth to this statement because it happened to me) and is going to fight against at the same time Juri is fighting Yuna (<- cinematic parallels), etc. and we know for sure that Juri is very gay as far as rivalry is concerned, so well, honestly, who's to say that her dad is definitely straight?

[sasoxichomoshi]

are the pathless and abzu related? yes, and this connection is way more important than people give credit for (i will be rambling now)

visual cues are everywhere; the beheaded shark statue right at the start of the game, the purification process and the spirit realm architecture all nods to the previous game as the shells and the locked door at cerno's domain are literal imports from abzu, which are all sweet references present in the pathless

everything that concerns the spiritual realm has a touch of abzu (pantone abzu blue when)

i'd also add that i have autistic urges to just write about how the pathless feels like this result from accumulated knowledge/experience from past Nava games - the pathless has both the 'myth of creation' and the journey of the hero combined in order to tell this lil story with these silly characters (i see it all as if giant squid team woke up one day and said "what if we made like a fancy fanfic yknow" really best decision ever), however knowing myself it''d just feel like nonsense rambling (even worse than this) and a bit off topic, but i had to mention or my skin wouldn't stop itching

anyway back to the two games -

i have this recurring impression that abzu allegories and symbolism are woven in the fabric of reality in the pathless - it's not about them directly, but are foundational for whatever is being told here and now

you cannot, in full consciousness, tell me that these are just easter eggs in the pathless that giant squid introduced because it's a past title from the studio; not when there was giant effort in blending the two games sensibly - abzu is brought up in the symbolism, the color palette (red/blue), in the environment, and it's even present in the soundtrack

in short, tying the universe of the two games together was intentional

but despite visually tied, it still made no sense to me; ok we share the color palette, we wander around with the help of a tall one, we defeat the bad one, what else there's to it? is it just the start of the giant squid MCU? giant squid cinematic universe? or gaming universe? (i feel stupid)

regardless, as i answered the question to how, i wanted to understand why - and to make sense out of it all, i resorted to a feature unique to the pathless: written text

what is so important to tell the player that you need written text, something you were avoiding in all your past games but that suddenly you bring back out of nowhere to tell a story in a way you havent done before? i can just assume some topics were too necessary to just left it implied (at best), or never explained (at worst)

one of the reasons i have written this blog post until this point (the main reason, actually) is that i feel there's a bit of an overlook of an essential part in the established the pathless n abzu crossover (can i call it that?), something that permeates everything, but it's not really visible in a literal way

--

as i played the game, godslayer perspective and motives stood out - they are the focus of a good part of all the tablets and dead people's memories - and as i dived deeper into the abzu connections (pun not intended) certain lines got too remarkable:

so,,, godslayer deems this world broken because it's made out of pure chaos, ok i guess it makes sense uhhh wait wait im having flashbacks i have seen this befo-

uhh oooooohhh ok ok get it i can see some parallels ughhh woooow just wow omg

the underlying factor here is that chaos is origin, foundation for both games universes (tho we can all see that at this point it's the same universe)

in abzu, by ordaining chaos the diver brings back life; in the pathless the ordained chaos, the one that constitutes all life, is at risk because someone decided that having everything made out of (essentially) chaos wasnt really suitable for the second industrial revolution i guess

note: if you know nothing about abzu i recommend reading this post cause it explains a bit about what chaos means in abzu, hence it's relevant to the pathless too

and understanding the chaos that impregnates existence as a whole is central in the pathless, which brings us to another focal point the game brings up: religion

you see religion a big deal in the pathless in the sense that it defines factions; you pick a side, and it's what drives the line of action of almost everyone in the island - the pathfinder quest against the tall ones, the godslayer followers vs the tall ones followers, entire communities dedicated to their local gods, and so on

superficially, it's easier to go to the "bad vs good" route where godslayer must be defeated to keep the order and the light and tall ones good guys whatever, the problem of this line of thought is: too much black and white and no gray to be seen

the pathless final message speaks about decision making: you are free to trace your own path (and this message is reinforced through game design and the title and at the final boss fight, you can name it) however, here lies the detail: similar to the chaos surrounding us, it goes unnoticed that the will to take a determined path comes from within

that's why religion is a hot topic in the pathless, it's what allows people to trace a path in a chaotic world, literally

the myth of creation - the eagle mother, the branch, her children - in itself is a form of understanding reality, religion - prayers, sacrifices, lines of conduct, contemplation - is also a form of grasping the real, and from this understanding, this particular view of the world, you are invited to take action; you cultivate the land and you build temples dedicated to your god

you take action based in what you believe, and you can see it better in the dead followers you can commune with through the island, they are fierce in their beliefs, which leads them to make a stand or fight back

it also stands out how the tall ones are imbued with negative traits; nimue shifts moods like summer rain, kumo is terribly jealous and childish, sauro despite everything will resort to violence, cernos is too shy, heck even eagle mother as gentle as she is let atrocities took place before any meaningful action was considered

all the tall ones have their virtues and imperfections because in the end they are also made out of chaos, essentially they are not that different from any tree on the plateaus; but, as the tablets about the masks state, they see things beyond this realm, and with this knowledge they try to guide those that dont see it - it's like this for their followers, and hunter is also guided by them

godslayer is no different, he took a path lead by his beliefs, beliefs those that reject the idea of having life from chaos, which lead to his obsession of fixing what he deemed broken; from his perspective, he suffered in the hands of the tall ones and their followers which made him believe that anything of their nature was treacherous - he failed tho, failed to understand that a single path would lead to perpetual suffering (as some memories states, "i was not meant to bloodshed"), which was a fate his followers had bittersweetly tasted

in this scenario, hunter is special: she's an outsider, she doesn't comprehend her mission just yet neither knows those lands; she's facing chaos in its pure form and in order to make sense of her new reality, she takes the eagle mothers advices; upon taking on the trials of the island she witnessed chaos in its many forms, and she assimilates it, not good nor bad but a 'in between' - that's why (from my understanding), on purifying the godslayer final form, her eyes glow in bright blue not because she's some 'declared since birth' allied of the tall ones, but because it signals purpose, she understands the chaos, the one that causes life and death, and she embraces that view from within and translates it into strength to fight back and endure

there's not a single creature in this world that doesnt feel lost and be it whatever creature - human, tall ones, demons, animals, everyone is trying to make sense of this confusing world we live in, be it through any path at hand - and religion is just one of the possible ways in the sea of infinite available paths

as hunter explores deeper into the island, she bonds with the tall ones but make no mistake, she's not really a faithful follower - and she doesn't need to be - cause she has the understanding that the tall ones represent this organized chaos necessary to the flux of life, she respects them

pathfinder, unfairly treated, will look at the tall ones and see just lies, refusing their guidance, he will strive for a new path not taken before and ignore any previous knowledge about the world, he will build up a single vision for a brand new reality absent of chaos because that's how he was conditioned to see and absorb the world around him

(and that makes godslayer feels even more tragic, having the possibility of seeing the world through new lenses by wearing the mask of the ancients yet he persisted in his views and ignored the reality as it was - chaos neatly woven - perhaps out of hate and sorrow for all past injustices; even in the end he resisted to accept the world that nurtured him, as he too was made out of chaos - and for that he's forgiven)

you and i can both worship sauro, but in the end we will look at the surrounding chaos from different perspectives and i will decide that pottery is the way to go while you see the sword as the suitable option; as the truth stands, this is a pathless land - there's no defined answer

the pathless, beyond the 'pathless land' lesson, has something more to tell - that perhaps the path is already established and to you is given the choice of going forward that path or re-evaluate and change directions;

if i had to define the pathless i'd say it's about what touches the eye and where you rest you hand (which can also explains why the eye is an ever present image throughout the game); through perception you grasp the world around you, you create your views and based on it you take action - will you release the bow string? will you strike with your sword? will you cultivate the land? or will you shed blood? what have you seen that made you act like this?

what a chaotic world

anyway, i have too much to say and no one to listen so my only options are write Big Blog Post or bang my head against the wall if you read until here (complete madness) thanks for enduring until the end

(cant wait to see the pathless references in sword of the sea i have faith)

[chicago-pd-is-weird]

12x01 spoilers

Also are we going to gloss over that Dante got hit by a car and just kept running? I mean, I know it wasn’t hard but damn that shit looked like it hurt. Like my reaction was “oh shit Voight’s gonna feel so guilty” and then Dante kept running and I was like “DAMN DANTE” like man is a beast.

And all that and he still didn’t catch the guy 😭

Then we had to have that entire scene with Ruzek and the lady (idk her name but I guess it doesn’t particularly matter now). And it was a good scene but Adam just standing there with a gun to his head was so stressful.

Like this episode was just… so stressful.

I don’t think I’ve been stressed and anxious like that since literally middle/high school when my anxiety was at its worst. Like that… that was something else, man.

And then the ending. Emojis cannot describe the state of my face when that happened. I mean, my jaw hit the ground so hard it got bruised. I had to crank it closed after a solid 45 seconds of catching flies. I couldn’t move. I was so shocked that she just… died on the spot. I had flashbacks to Jules. I liked both of them and now they’re just dead. First episode they appear. And I loved them both.

I don’t think Adam was actually there for Jules being shot (that’s why they brought him in?) but I’m sure he heard about it at some point from someone in the unit. (Especially when Toni was fighting over who gets to be at Jules’s desk.) But I’m sure he’s like “damn this is how it felt” in his head, because he seemed to be relatively close with this girl and now she’s just… gone. In an instant. A whole era of his life gone. That’s what happens when we lose people. We lose that era of our lives.

Suffice to say, that sucked. I mean, let me be the first to say, it was cinematically excellent. Gripping and intense. Made me feel things. Not boring (I found Med and Fire to be relatively boring last night). Had some very cool camerawork, lighting work, and other scenes. Showing Hank’s PTSD is excellent. Everything was really great cinematically.

Plot wise?

1. Why are we confiding in Nina Chapman??

2. Why did we kill the new detective, I liked her?? 😭 Why did she pull a Jules??

3. It makes me wonder if everything is somehow coming full circle. They used parallels they haven’t used since the early seasons (like Jules being shot and this lady being shot, but also the cinematic rear-view mirror shot, even though it wasn’t exactly the same because Hank was in front, it made me think of Hank beating guys up).

4. Either it’s coming full circle for Hank and we will “start over” with a new Sergeant (please be Adam) , or it feels like it’s ending altogether. Both make me nervous for Hank’s fate, because only way he stops work is if he’s dead frfr.

5. Where was Trudy? Like she was there but why was her only line “I don’t have any new cases for you, enjoy the quiet,” like why was Hank confiding in Chapman? I hate that. Trudy and him have been friends 30 something years. Maybe he’s trying to protect himself and/or her by keeping her at arms length, idk, but it’s BS that he confided in Nina and not Trudy or Adam (who has become the new Al). I just can’t understand it and I don’t like Nina at all. She comes off very mouthy when Hank is trying to tell her about his trauma. She thinks she knows everything about him and she knows next to nothing. She hasn’t been here that long. Trudy knows Hank 100x more, which is why I’m wondering why Trudy didn’t do anything to reach out to Hank during this time instead. :/

6. The last thing I’ll say on plot is it moved so quick. And I am wondering if this entire season will feel like a rush. I wonder what is in store and what will happen to our beloved officers and sergeants (we need more Trudy screen time!!).

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts later, but just thinking about it this morning is like… ugh. I’ll re-watch it later.