#dystopia bella

[porcelainsuit]

Ophelia

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[agentnico]

Poor Things (2023) review

Yorgos Lanthimos may be the new Quentin Tarantino when it comes to feet fetishes in cinema, as there are so many Emma Stone feet shots in this movie… so many. Also, her little toe is oddly square shaped, just saying.

Plot: An incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter's protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

At first I was very much a fan of director Yorgos Lanthimos’ directing style, with him managing to take any event or piece of dialogue and turn it into deadpan awkwardness. As such, his indie films The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer both are great examples of entertaining postmodern cinema with each one featuring a dystopian visual style. That being said, his last film The Favourite, even though it was a hit with the critics and the award ceremonies, for me did not hit the same. It felt much more reserved compared to the director’s previous efforts, and his usual weird style just came off crude and the humour for me personally did not land. Nicholas Hoult was a hoot though, but when isn’t he! Anyway, going into Poor Things I was hoping for more of the original magic which I’ve seen from Lanthimos in his earlier works, and the trailers with their vibrant visuals really sparked my interest, so I went in with high hopes.

So in terms of the visuals, Poor Things may just feature some of the best and most imaginative sets of any movie of 2023. Starting off the first part in black-and-white, very reminiscent of the old Universal monster flicks, but then 30 minutes in transforming into a technicolour dream world with colours popping Wizard of Oz-style, with every shot reminiscent of a vivid painting, with the use of the fisheye lends to create a somewhat watercolour effect to the backgrounds. The movie looks and feels artificial, which connected well with the narrative of this Frankenstein’s monster type woman learning and discovering everything with a brain that’s both her’s and not. Oh, and she happens to also wear rainbow glasses, so I can only imagine how much more stranger the world must look through her eyes.

The film’s biggest asset is its acting. Emma Stone is phenomenal as she has to play a grown woman with the brain of a baby, and then show us that woman growing into her brain (or maybe show us the baby growing into the woman?) over the course of the film. She really does throw herself into the role and it’s the type of role that awards shows will delightfully seek their teeth into. Willem Dafoe as the maker of Bella felt like a character that walked straight off a David Lynch fantasy, from the prosthetic make-up to his performance as the mad scientist that falls for his creation. But the real stand out here is Mark Ruffalo who simply is on another level. Playing the slimy player who only sees women through the male gaze, and attempts to take advantage of Bella’s naive outlook life for his own physical pleasure, it’s the kind of character you are supposed to despise, but gosh did I love everything Ruffalo was doing in this film. He was truly hilarious with every piece of his line delivery successfully painting the pathetic nature of his foolish character. Most critics will be showering Emma Stone with praise and deservingly so, however I believe Mark Ruffalo should not be overlooked and may be the actual MVP of the whole movie.

Narrative wise this is a fun feminist spin on the Frankenstein formula, that is a loud and proud shout to female autonomy for those who may have found Barbie a bit too cheesy and perky, yet I do find the movie to be overly cynical against its own good. It's like Lanthimos approached the film in the same way the mad scientist played by Willem Dafoe in the movie approaches his medical experiments -- with a cool eye and a lot of curiosity, but very little heart. And for the bubbly and big eyed Bella that is full of life and excitement, the film she’s in is the polar opposite. Look, I admired the film for what it was, but the romantic within me wanted a bit more of the, as the French would say, ‘amour’. Also there was just too much sex for my viewing pleasure. Again, I don’t mind a lil’ hanky-panky in my films, but when I’m sat in a dark theatre surrounded by many perverts with 90% of what I’m watching being humans doing the thrusting and the throbbing, it is a tad uncomfortable. You can also imagine what my fiancée thought when I told her afterward about the movie’s heavily erotic side.

Poor Things is very much a film that screams the director’s unique and distinct style and I truly respect it for that, however I personally feel like its not my cup of tea as it was a bit too cold for my liking. There wasn’t really a character I could connect or sympathise with, and even though Mark Ruffalo is funny as hell, his character is a piece of scum and a half. Again, kudos to the whole production team and cast for a great niche slice of art house cinema, but it’s too creepy for my liking.

Overall score: 7/10

[thatbitch151]

I’m re-reading my favorite book series (The Girl Who Dared To Think by Bella Forrest, it’s a sci-fi dystopia set in the future when the world basically dies and becomes toxic and if anyone is curious I can and will go further in depth about it but anyways) and I’ve been blasted with a wonderful idea for a fanfiction.

But there’s literally no point because I have never met someone else who has read this series and I require human validation for any works I make or else I just get disillusioned with them which is really unfortunate.

But damn do I want to write it

[boardchairman-blog]

**Shots of the Episode**

The Last of Us (2023)

Season 1, Episode 1: “When You’re Lost in the Darkness” (2023) Director: Craig Mazin Cinematographer: Ksenia Sereda

[helenofblackthorns]

some of my old(ish) eah are gaining notes again and revisiting them is so interesting because on one hand I made points! and on the other I've come to the realisation that I talk about ever after high the way most people talk about the hunger games lmao

[arinewman7]

Bella, from the Dystopia Series

Tatyana Murray

Led Lights, Glass, Plexiglass, Wood, 2012

[punkbarnes2]

Stevebucky X The last of us crossover, please hear me out, i’m drawing that

[todayontumblr]

Tuesday January 31.

*spoilers* The Last of Us: Bill and Frank. Breaking ground, one tear at a time... 

And now for something a little different. Where HBO's #the last of us has so far introduced and immersed us into the savagery and bleakness of this world, and acquainted us with our tour guides Joel and Ellie through this dystopia (as played respectively by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey), episode three has gone and done something altogether different. And altogether unexpected. The 75 minutes that followed have been almost unanimously accepted as what will surely be, even from here in January, the finest episode of television 2023 has to offer. Catch up with the latest over at #the last of us fandom.

[prince-liest]

9 FANDOM PEEPS TO GET TO KNOW BETTER

I got tagged in this by @grayintogreen! ^_^ Thank you so much!

3 Ships You Like:

3zun (Nie Mingjue/Lan Xichen/Jin Guangyao)

songxuexiao (Song Lan/Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen)

bingliushen (Luo Binghe/Liu Qingge/Shen Qingqiu)

Just taking the chance to highlight my favorite poly ships because 1) they're all hilariously toxic in various ways and 2) POLY AGENDA

3 (Hazbin/Helluva) Ships You Like:

radiostatic, obviously

staticmoth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

platonic radiodust

I have so many ships I like, but these three all hold special, deranged places in my heart.

First Ship Ever:

Lmao. Edward/Bella. The Twilight series is actually what led me to discovering fanfiction.net as a website! It's also the first romance I remember ever reading. My dad bought me the books when I was in like 6th grade because he heard they were popular!

Last Song You Heard

Boombastic by Shaggy. I've been watching Danny Motta's react channel and he mentioned this song at one point which made me curious.

Favourite Childhood Book

Uglies by Scott Westerfield! I'm a huge fucking sucker for messed up dystopias and my recollection of this series is still that it's so delightfully fucked up with genuinely phenomenal worldbuilding.

Currently Reading

I'm halfway through The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick and I also have How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair loaded up onto both my Kindle and the audio version on Libby. That said, while GoodReads tells me I read 12 books in January, the Hazbin Hotel brainrot has seized me so strongly that I haven't read any actual books in about a month and a half.

Currently watching

I also decided to rewatch Helluva Boss! Hah.

Currently Consuming

Water with a bit of cherry-lime flavoring added. But breakfast was rice + fried egg + slice of bacon + tea, which is the same thing I make every single day like clockwork.

Currently Craving

More Tea, Always

Thank you again for tagging me! That said, I'm going to be that jerk that breaks the chain! x)

[volturialice]

Do you have any dark gothic/horror book recs? I’m trying to get out of thrillers at the moment. also looking for some dark classics. any ideas?

I was waiting to answer this until after the Bella's Book Club summer reading reclist went live and now it's live!! and I must say, full of some Choice gothic recs. But I'll list my personal faves here!

Dark™ things from my part of the BBC reclist:

Jamaica Inn (and My Cousin Rachel) by Daphne du Maurier - iirc I described Jamaica Inn as gothic + adventure in my recs, and yep, that's what it is. definitely part of the specific "the book cover shows a woman in a nightgown running from a scary building" gothic heroine tradition. I also gave a brief nod to My Cousin Rachel because it's another of du Maurier's works which I think is underrated (that one's more of a slow-burning gothic mystery featuring a hero of the 'little wet babygirl' variety.)

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Also as I said in my recs, it's very like Jamaica Inn in structure and genre, though of course the writing, the specific characters, and the central mysteries are different. But MG is (of course) Mexican and has more fun Get Out/Ready or Not vibes with its themes of class and ethnicity.

Girls Running from Houses by tanaudel on redbubble

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - Villain protagonist villain protagonist! This one I love mostly for its flowery prose and sheer aesthetic commitment. You're telling me this 18th-century French serial killer turns his victims into perfume?? Say more

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Seriously the most underrated YA series of all time. Also so gory and terrifying I sometimes cannot believe it's YA. To this day some of the scariest written horror my eyes have beheld, not to mention it's got banger prose. Most people know Rick Yancey from The 5th Wave which is such bland cookiecutter 2010s YA dystopia love triangle nonsense that I just want to shake everyone and go NO, READ THIS BRILLIANCE INSTEAD! ngl the last book in the series is Not Good (you can 100% tell he had switched all his energies to 5th Wave, which is a shame) but the first 3 are absolutely good enough to make up for it.

Other people's reclist recs that I too have read and enjoyed: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

More classics: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (short and easy read!), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (a must-read for aesthete gays everywhere. I mean cmon it's Oscar)

Extremely melodramatic "classics:' I loved reading Louisa May Alcott's little known "flops" A Long Fatal Love Chase and Behind a Mask (short story collection.) I might make Book Club read Love Chase at some point because I think we'd have way too much fun with it. We'll see.

My personal favorite that I think everyone should read: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (short story collection of gothic fairytale retellings!)

Not exactly what you think of when you hear 'gothic' per se but definitely Dark and it's my OTHER favorite: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (I never shut up about this book and it's for a reason. Very different from the movie, which I also love!)

My favorite gothic/horror authors:

Shirley Jackson - I've definitely talked about her before but both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are straight bangers (and short, easy reads to boot!) Do NOT think you can watch the Mike Fl*nagan Hill House show of the same name and call it a day—they're completely different stories. (also let the record show I'm censoring his name out of personal dislike he hasn't done anything 'problematic' afaik calm down)

Stephen Graham Jones - Insanely good writing oh my god. I have so far only read the My Heart is a Chainsaw books but his entire oeuvre is on my TBR because he cannot lose. Also he lives in my town and I'm starstruck just knowing this fact. Indigenous (Blackfoot) author who writes about indigenous characters!

Kelly Link - Writer of banger short fiction. I particularly enjoy Pretty Monsters because it's 100% written for the Twilight girlies and clearly made with love and silliness

Grady Hendrix - I didn't loooove Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I adored Hörrorstör and especially My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is a total masterpiece IMO. Another writer whose entire oeuvre is on my TBR.

[porcelainsuit]

Dystopia Bella

~Elliot Lee Hazel

[therealvinelle]

Is Twilight the Modern Highschool AU of a much better vampire dystopia fantasy novel? If yes is Edward the antagonist of that novel a la Prince Hans in Frozen? Are Aro and Carlisle our gay dads? Seems likely Bella is still the somewhat problematic protagonist though given YA tropes… really wish I lived in the timeline where that novel was written

(Gif credit to the incredible, talented, and charming @franzias-cave)

[thundergrace]

If the wardrobe demands of The Last of Us were minimal, the psychological intensity of the shoot would have tested actors several times Ramsey’s age. The penultimate episode, in particular, is brutally violent. “It was… exhausting,” she reflects, “but those were some of my favourite days on set. That sounds really masochistic, but it’s the scenes that break me that I love the most, in a way.” As for what she thinks people will make of the series finale in March? “It’s going to divide people massively – massively.” Let the Twitter games begin.

Oh god.... they're going to do the whole David plot. The whole thing....

[lilolilyr]

Heyyyy! 2, 11 and 15 for the unfinished business ;)

Thanks for the questions! It's always fun to talk about my wips :D

I feel like maybe I should've posted a list with the ask meme with my many many unwritten or unpublished fics for you to choose from xD so for future askers, here goes, my main current and future projects at the moment:

- Bering and Wells days 12, 16 and 18 of the Advent Calendar

- Star Trek college AU continuation

- chaos scifi dystopia idea

Plus some ideas I might or might not ever write:

- twilight SIOC

- Berena continuation to the matchmaker fic

- St Clare's (for example something introspective about wlw Alison... or reader x headmistress Theobald smut because reasons xDxD or some character studies!)

- Malory towers Clarissa x Bill or Billx Miss Peters or Miss Peters x Self insert… so many options xD

- St Clare’s or Mallory Towers SIOC (like the stories where readers end up in the world of Twilight as Bella or in middle earth or the galaxy far far away? Except you end up a boarding school girl in the 40s. both fun and very very unfun I’d say)

- Emily Lake Trauma

~

but as this ask is still open to interpretation I'll go with my most recent dumb idea, it'll probably be a Milippa fic but more to why I'm not entirely sure on that point in the actual answers!

2. How did you get the idea to write this?

It came to me in a dream!

No, seriously.

I don't usually remember much from my dreams, or when I do it's just a jumbled mess of scenes that don't make any sense or don't fit together or both, but yesterday (day before? idk) I woke up and had a fully fledged dystopia novel in my head. Well, not really, it still was dream-like and chaotic, for example I wasn't entirely sure whether it was aliens taking over the world or some kind of robot and that seems like a major plot point doesn't it xD plus

11. Is there any scene you can't wait for people to react to when reading? Why?

Already answered something for that particular fic here, so how about I'll talk about a Bering and Wells WIP, that's probably more what you're here for anyway! :D

I haven't written this one at all yet, but I'm really excited to get to Myka noticing how it isn't just a crush, she's falling in love with Helena, and her panicking and all the feels! And I'm also excited to see what people will think of whatever I'll come up with for that one!

15. Do you have any unwritten scene that you think about a lot?

At the moment it's the reunion of the main characters of the (maybe)Milippa fic! But that's just right now really. I have tons of scenes I keep thinking about - but most of the ones that I think about again and again have a tendancy to be very removed from canon, after juggling them in my brain for years and years xD and that way it gets even less likely for me to write the fic, because it would have a target audience of 1 person namely me!

unfinished fic ask meme

[kuwdora]

Top 5 Most Underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch and why

Top five most underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch, and why :) --from destina

Okay a million years ago (more like 2 and a half months) destina asked me about my top 5 most underrated SF shows/movies I think everyone should watch. I have three shows and two films that I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years and I'll try to break down why I'm loving them.

This gets kind of long so I'll put it under a cut. The shows/films include: Moonhaven (AMC), Avenue 5 (HBO), Humans (AMC/BBC), Life (2017) and Prospect (2018).

Moonhaven is a new AMC show (1 season, 6 episodes) that is rather high concept on the sociological side of the scifi spectrum. They’ve built a utopia on the moon, guided by an AI that has spent a century learning from the human colony there in order to learn how to build better technology and solve the environmental/social ills on earth. This colony of humans have been cut off from the Earth and they’re about to send their first batch of humans and tech back to the planet when there’s a Murder that happens.

The main character is Bella Sway who is a cargo pilot/smuggler and who is also a war vet of sorts who gets accused of committing a crime while she’s on the moon and there’s a lot of mystery/intrigue to unravel.

Now this is very very serious and interesting set-up but what the trailers for this show did not highlight is how strange and wacky the character dynamics are. Because you’ve had a socially isolated human colony (Mooners) now interacting with a bunch of Earthers and— it’s hilarious and strange and eerie. Most of the time the Earther characters are baffled as fuck by the mooners who sound like they’re in a group therapy session that’s performing on stage. The mooners have high emotional IQs and love art and culture and are so touchy feely that the contrast with the hardened Earthers is amazing.

The show also is filmed in Ireland so you get to see some new filming locations that you don’t ordinarily catch in genre shows. AND of course has Dominic Monaghan who looks like he’s having the time of his life.

Emma McDonald plays Bella Sway and she brings such an incredible amount of nuance and depth to her character that 6 episodes just haven’t been enough for me and I’m really excited to see more. I try not to get my hopes up with new scifi shows these days because it’s too easy to get my heart broken but I have REALLY enjoyed this show. It’s doing a lot of interesting thematic exploration about nature vs nurture and the role of technology in people’s lives and how different groups of people see the purpose of technology differently.

It has SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING - including polyamory and partner dynamics within a family, fascinating birth/death rituals that have evolved on the moon, and some rather questionable ways mooners have altered child-rearing responsibilities to circumvent tribalism and prevent violence in their society.

What the trailer and reviews for this show mostly fail to capture is also just how fucking funny and strange the cultural differences are between the Mooners/Earthers. The Mooners LOVE to dance out their feelings.

There’s a conspiracy plotline that I’m not sure how it’s going to shake out but I’m really gnashing my teeth happily on these characters, the worldbuilding, and the technology.

Avenue 5 is an HBO scifi/comedy (2 seasons, somewhat cancelled but maybe not cancelled according to some sources, seems to be a bit of a Schrödinger Cancellation) I am not sure I really recommend for most people because it is hilarious in that dark satire kind of way that not everyone wants to stomach (for good reasons). It’s by the same fellow who wrote/produced Veep so the humor is dark. I described Ave 5 as looking at our current dystopia through an un-funhouse mirror and laughing in horror.

The premise of the show is a space cruise gets thrown off course and it’s going to take years to get back to earth and the ship is full of tourists and incompetent people running the ship. It also features Ethan Phillips playing an obnoxious Martian astronaut character in a GIANT NOD to the hilarity of Star Trek Voyager.

The biggest (and most delightful) surprise of the show is Hugh Laurie’s character is queer and poly (he had two partners back on Earth). The show veers into shenanigans throuple territory (that I 100% need to write some fic for because the show is reasonably cancelled and I need MORE).

This show has some of the most hilarious and obscene dialogue that I’ve heard in years. I love it and have watched every episode several times because humanity is terrible and I kind of like laughing at their pain and awfulness rather than the real world. It’s extremely self-aware and has Lenora Crichlow (of Being Human UK!!!!) and Hugh Laurie being ABSOLUTE TOP OF THEIR FUCKING GAME.

Humans (UK) is the AMC/BBC take on the Swedish show with the same name. On the surface this is a “we’ve created robots to do all of our work for us” premise (they’re called Synths here) and features a Colin Morgan as a scruffy fellow on-the-run with his fellow Synths that he was raised with as a child because his dad programmed the Synths with intelligence. This also has GEMMA CHAN!!!!!! As one of the main leads and she is EXQUISITE as Mia.

I watched and loved the original Swedish version but the British version did a fantastic job of building the family dynamics. It follows the Hawkins family who purchases a new Synth (Mia) and Mia has had her memory temporarily wiped to be in hiding so she doesn’t know who she is yet. The mystery in the beginning season is great but in the later seasons it really builds out the Hawkins mother/daughter relationship as well as letting Laura use her legal background to explore what kind of autonomy and protection she could advocate for Mia and her Synth family.

Mattie is a teenager who has an interest in programming and she’s adrift like many others her age who are facing a future with little job prospects and just getting yanked around by the world- and I just loved her arc in the show so much, especially as she gets involved with helping Mia and her family.

Colin Morgan is really great, too but I really fell in love with Gemma Chan’s depiction of Mia who slowly learns who she is and then is trying to find and keep her family safe while also protecting the Hawkins who are trying to help her.

I found this to be a very solid show — and one that I wish I had vidded already — with great character arcs and was very mindful in the way it was exploring these age-old questions about personhood and outsourcing work to machines and how you treat these machines.

Life (2017) is a horror/thriller film inside a sci-fi setting. Scientists on the International Space station find a new life form that they picked up from Mars to study and Things Go Bad. Pretty great cast- Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare along with — for some reason — Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds.

The life-and-death tension and anxiety of being trapped with something scary in the vacuum of space is spectacular. Really enjoyable film.

Prospect (2018) is hands down one of my favorite indie scifi films. Low-budget, INCREDIBLE ACTING, masterful storytelling. The stakes are emotionally and physically high for our characters and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The premise is a girl and her dad (Jay Duplass) go to a remote alien moon to try to mine some minerals to make it rich and start a new life. They get a contract that goes tits up in a bad way and end up face to face with the locals and scoundrels. INCLUDING PEDRO PASCAL. Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher are the fucking stars of this and absolutely captivating. And yes this is part of the Pedro Pascal Multiverse Dad Canon so put it on your list to watch if you need more Dad Pascal.

This movie is INTENSE and raw and absolutely 10000% highest recommendation from me. The writing, the characters- the acting. The set/wardrobe design. A+++++

Everything about this movie is so detailed and internally consistent in a way that makes me wriggle with so much fucking joy.

I even trawled through YouTube to try and find out more about it and fell in love with a behind the scenes featurette. They filmed dust motes in a basement and transposed the dust over the outdoor scenes of the alien planet rather than doing CGI for it. And the work they spent designing the space suits is so great, too.