#either way same actor & same character just different fonts

[caffeled]

i Am still reeling from laughter from when i listed my star trek favs as being, in descending order of most (altho theyre all closely tied for the top3), spock, q, & data, & one of my friends said spock n data being two of my most fav st characters was Very autistic of me, & i want the record to show im absolutely Delighted whenever sb points out smth abt me Reeks of tism. anyway they Are just like me fr & i will bbgify them into oblivion

[protect-namine]

I am about to start a neji route (because I feel that I need at least three playthroughs to fully understand neji and his plays, so I can't leave him for last). so my thoughts on this may change, but for the moment, my thesis is that neji and kisa are the same kind of thespian, just in different fonts.

(I am slightly exaggerating kisa'a character here. there are hints and I do think pushing the envelope of what her character could be is part of what makes kisa... kisa. as I'll explain later, for better and worse, kisa is constrained by the conventions of being an otome heroine.)

anyway. in essence. neji turns Other Persons into stories,

and kisa turns Other Persons into performances,

while they both simultaneously run away from, avoid, or sacrifice Becoming Persons themselves, for the sake of theater

or maybe it's the other way around. something something discovery if not recognition of the self through the other... except they're both unreliable narrators so who's to say if the recognition actually takes hold, really. kisa at least is a little bit self aware. neji, on the other hand, deals with realizations of the self through writing, without actually processing them (e.g. ms robin, domina, etc).

I keep thinking about (novel) kisa closing her eyes and feeling like her sense of self would melt away until tsuki centers her and gives her theater as a way to heal from the grief of losing her mother. it happens again during tsuki's univeil performance: kisa curling in on herself and tsuki pulling her back to theater as way to help kisa move forward with her dreams. pretending to be others is more fun than being herself.

and then there is neji (insert spiderman pointing at spiderman meme). but in his case, he would rather play eccentric roles, caricatures, comic relief, than be a Person With Depth on stage. neji is always either a seer of some kind (a fortune teller, a ghost who sees 10 seconds into the future) or a bit character (employee A), or... whatever he initially planned for domina. he is the mechanic behind the stage, but never the lead actor. his vulnerabilities do not need to "stolen" for the story, though others' are fair game.

kisa does not think about gender as it applies to herself in her daily life (mostly) and only sees it through the lens of acting and theater. how does she act mukai vs maiden, charles vs chicchi? the same way that neji does not think about the motifs and characters he writes as a window to himself, but rather as objects to be put on stage. rukiora is based on a younger neji, mary jane is I Am Death: Revisited (mary jane is to takihime as gashadokuro is to jacob), sissia is always meant to be the foil to I Am Death. but neji doeen't really understand that just like how he didn't understand oh rama havenna. sissia (kisa route, jack jeanne ver) is to kisa as domina is to neji.

literally kisa at her most extreme is just theater thoughts 24/7

kisa "I don't like being me; I'd rather be other people" tachibana 🤝 kokuto "I need to experiment and witness visions I can't create or I'll die" neji: this is a totally sane and Normal way to cope with abandonment and grief 👍

(it is not implied in the game, but since kisa turned to theater to cope with grief as a child, I wonder if the reason she never looks too deeply into tsuki's disappearance is because she's once again using theater as an excuse to conveniently Not Think About It. out of sight, out of mind. tsuki must be doing well, wherever he is, whatever it is he's doing.)

there is also the meta perspective of how kisa in-game inhabits a role where the player can (and is expected to) self-insert. otome dictates that protagonist kisa must be malleable to the player (who can choose to focus on a variety of relationships in her stead), and the plot dictates that actor kisa must be malleable to her stage roles (jack or jeanne, maiden or hero, flower or vessel), and novel kisa dictates that kisa must malleable to pretending to be other people because it's more preferable to being herself.

every thought she has about herself must be tied to acting, somehow. kisa's personhood is defined through stagecraft. she is the maiden, and mukai, and charles, and chicchi, and sissia. she can romance anyone in the school, of the player's choosing. she can be jack, and jeanne, and jack jeanne. don't get me wrong; kisa is her own character and has a strongly defined personality, but the story also demands for her to be malleable. a painting and a blank canvass at the same time.

neji externalizes where kisa internalizes. where kisa Must Perform™ to function and to avoid herself, neji Must Create™ to function and to avoid himself. scriptwriter neji dictates that neji must use everything at his disposal — his memories, his classmates, his obscure knowledge — as inspiration for stories. director neji dictates that he must use everything he knows about his actors — their complexes, their relationships, their weaknesses and strengths — as inspiration for stories. from the cook (mitsuki) needing apricots for a recipe and wanting to harvest honey from a beehive, to mary jane (fumi) being good at sewing and wanting an equal in jacob. suzu and sou fighting and developing a rivalry leads to jire and fugio fighting over chicchi. kai limits himself as a vessel in hasekura, and kai learns to embrace his desires as the priest. from the water/ocean/drowning themes, to rukiora being based on neji's younger self, and her family life and relationship with domina.

every thought neji has must be tied to stories, somehow. neji's personhood is scattered through stagecraft. the more you read his plays and lyrics, the more you get a glimpse of who he is. it is to the point that neji himself doesn't... really see how his stories reflect himself. ms robin being a "random" song the jazz lounge singer sings thay hasekura and ando can dance to, oh rama havenna being a so-so throwaway play that neji doesn't understand why it's entertaining. lmao. neji, please.

and this is why when problems arise, neji becomes a demanding director and kisa becomes a chameleon actor with a shaky sense of self (we don't really see this a lot because jack jeanne is not that dark of a story and kisa is still an otome heroine of an uplifting game, but it's a reasonable conclusion if you push hard on the kisa from neji's "good morning" exercise, or kisa going ham on method acting as charles. kinda wish the game explored more of that. I think a very stressed kisa can get lost in method acting, just as a very stressed neji is almost paralyzed by the fear of the death of talent).

idk where I was going with this. just. them. they have the same issues, just in different fonts. and I think that's actually what first attracts neji to kisa. kisa "steals" (to borrow neji's own words) just like him. kisa is a fountain of inspiration, an ever changing muse. and neji provides kisa with an endless amount of prompts and characters for her to inhabit. kisa does like to play pretend a lot. that's why she's in theater!

kisa and neji: Art Imitates Life people stuck in a Life Imitates Art video game

ANYWAY usual disclaimer that I'm jotting down livebloghing thoughts and I know some spoilers to neji's route but I'm only just about to actualy start his playthrough so. yeah. this was drafted all the way back in may lol, opinions may change and all that

[teacup-tyrant]

Shadow & Bone Season 2 Wishlist:

More very subtle blink-and-you'll-miss-it Do Not Touch Kaz moments. Avoiding contact. Edging away from people. With no explanation about any of it, he just does it.

So I wasn't a big fan of the Jesper sex scene. It felt very much like a 'hey look this character is not straight!' moment. And there could have been a better way. I want to see more of that but creatively. I want awkward flirting with Wylan. And I want to see Nina flirting with a girl!

I hope Tamar and Tolya's religious devotion is taken seriously. Especially in regards to how they become protective of Alina.

I want to see Vasily being a dickhead.

I want to see Mal being less of a dickhead. And we've already established that Show Mal is very different from Book Mal and I'm forever grateful.

Nikolai being snarky and quippy and super smart and inventive. He was the only character that made the trilogy (almost) bearable to read so I hope the actor sells me on him.

...I would also love to see almost the same characteristics applied to Kaz, just in a darker font. The show has already established him as mostly just dark and broody, which is a shame. I'd like more layers.

I'm excited to see SOME part of Kaz's backstory but I hope we don't get ALL of it. There's an actor cast as Jordie so we're obviously getting some kind of flashback, and we're getting that scene of Kaz falling back into water which might either be used as a ~metaphor~ or as some kind of narrative arc conclusion. (I like it better as a metaphor or dream and not something that's actually happening tbh. Why's he facing the camera directly on? If someone's pushing him or he's falling, why would he be T-posing backwards???) Anyway, I hope there's more of his backstory left for future seasons.

Last note on Kaz, we all want him more brutal and murdery. Of course.

LASTLY, I want to see some goddamn canals in Ketterdam. Please, I am begging. Ketterdam is one of the best characters in Six of Crows and I feel like we haven't actually met her yet. Maybe it's another issue of saving more for later seasons.

That's it for now. Feel free to add on to this list in tags or whatever. Most of these are SoC related instead of S&B, simply because I am biased.

[littleeyesofpallas]

Wierd I thought I'd done all this before, but I guess I only sorta lightly touched on the royal guard's names but not swords... well in the wake of Shutara's whole thing in the anime I figured it was a good a time as any to revisit stuff...

Hyousube[兵主部] written [兵]: "soldier" and [主部]: "chief division" but probably taken from either Hyouzu temple[兵主神社] which is the name of two different shinto temples in Kishiwada and Tanba cities , or Itatehyouzu[板手兵主神社] in Himeji. None of them seem to bare any direct significance to Hyousube's character, themes, or motifs as best as I can tell. Neither his personal mansion in the royal realm, nor the big temple summon kidou seem directly based on the architecture of any of the temples in question.

Duh there is a yokai just called Hyousube[兵主部] written exactly the same. I have no idea how I let that one slip by me. Makes way more sense than trying to break it down character by character. They are hairy little humanoids that attack people near rivers, they're considered "related" to kappa? I can't tell if that's supposed to be in like a literal taxonomical sense or just a comment on them having similar lore. Ichibee's a little too big, both tall and broad, to really fit the description of the yokai, but he is hairy, so I guess that's the link. They are said to cause or otherwise spread disease, and in some remote regions are considered a kind of minor god of war. They have a distinctive hideous laughter.

Anyway the name Ichibee[一兵衛] is written [一]: "one," and [兵衛]: "imperial guard." It has a neat sort of mirror with Ichigo's name being [一護]: "one protect" and [一...衛]: "one...defense."

But that's stuff I've covered before, but I realize i never touched on his sword stuff. His shikai's name is Ichimonji[一文字] and is literally the whole word for "straight line" but if you want to break it down, it's just [一]: "one" [文]: "literary" [字]: "character" but [文字]: "written character" like a letter of the alphabet, and shaped like a [一]; It's totally selfdescript. In fact, in the actual weekly print the tagline on the page where he first releases it and ends the chapter is a play on words on the fact. I wish I still had the raws but anything I had on that issue of weekly shounen jump are long long gone.

His release call is Kuromeyo[黒めよ]: "blacken" literally just the verb "to make black." Viz took some liberties with "paint it black," but I kind of like how it plays into the paintbrush.

Oh but most translations i've seen really screwed up the whole proto-bankai thing. The term Shinuchi[真打] that I've seen taken literally as "True Strike" ignores a few things, not the least of which being that [打] does not mean "strike" when pronounced "uchi." But more importantly the whole word shinuchi[真打] is a specific word referring to a star performer or headliner, but also a high rank of rakugo performer. Rakugo being a type of storytelling in yose theater, a smaller stage with minimal dressing, and a more intimate small crowd. It has, a specific type of theater/stage and even a specific style of font all tied to the subculture and aesthetic around it.

The new-ish and ongoing shounen jump manga, Akane-banashi is about a highschool girl getting into Rakugo and is probably the best crashcourse both for westerners and just a younger generation of Japanese who are less familiar with the art form, to come out in years. Totally worth checking out.

More specifically, Rakugo is a form of storytelling characterized by comedy, wordplay, and long often confusing or at least complicated plots. The lone actor plays all roles, doing voices, faces, and hand gestures. More to the point, part of the history of Rakugo traces back to Buddhist monks called otogishu[御伽衆]: lit. "honorable entertainer (of) the masses" who were often appointed specifically to be a kind of personal conversational partner to samurai lords, and thus well versed in telling entertaining stories as well as reciting Buddhist sutras, myths, and teachings.

And the bankai/shinuchi name itself, Shirafude Ichimonji[しら筆一文字] just tacks on shira[白]: "white" and fude[筆]: "brush."

Anyway, all that to say that the reason Ichibee is a monk, has a thing about word play, and calls his sword a main attraction is because of the rakugo theme holding it all together. It also accounts in part for his boisterous and comedic personality, his extreme facial expressions, and his techniques being set up like rakugo jokes with a kind of twist/punchline to them.

The monk theme is also where Ichibee's paintbrush gimmick comes from, as zen buddhism specifically gave rise to Hitsuzen-dou[��禅道] the "Brush Zen-way," which emphasized calligraphy as a medium for deep meditation on the subjects of the writing. It's why Ichibee has command over true names and this deep abstracted meaning of concepts. The most basic and iconic aspect of Zen buddhism is the contemplation of the ensou[円相]. And in fact the use of giant brushes is a common spectacle with its own aesthetic sensibilities in the calligraphy, so other than having a blade, Ichibee's zanpakutou is actually not an exaugurated design at all. That's legit just a size those brushes come in.

[seokwoosmole]

Jung So Min and Go Youn Jung are literally the same person in different fonts. Usually I get really upset when a character gets an actor replacement, but I literally didn't even mind once I started the 2nd season. Visually speaking, they're very similar - similar complexion and features (full lips, bold eyes, distinct cute nose). The voice is also shockingly similar - sometimes I would wonder if Jung Somin was dubbing in the second season cause they were THAT similar. Not to mention the behavior and expressions - that's likely because I'm sure Go Youn Jung had to take some notes from Jung So Min's acting just so she could mimic the character's behavior but either way, it was amazing acting and casting for both of them to be able to portray the same character differently yet similarly enough to suit the plot.

ROUND OF APPLAUSE

[pancake-breakfast]

For some reason i think WW would appreciate the pittie analogy.

Ahahahahahaha, yeah! I love seeing other people's reactions to finding out the cross is a big-ass gun!

Ericks is great! We love Ericks Vash.

I'm wondering if maybe you have facial blindness/prosopagnosia? I have it and I have the same problem with live action anything. Like, they need to at LEAST have distinctive and unique outfits that don't change too much for me to figure out who anyone is. I'll still figure it out eventually (probably), but it will take me FOREVER as I get used to the different actors' body languages and voices. Fun Fact: People with facial blindness tend to gravitate toward cartoons/anime precisely because the characters tend to change their looks a lot less. Anyway, might be worth looking into if you haven't considered it before. Knowing about it made life a lot easier for me because I was able to introduce myself as having it at work, and that made people much more forgiving when I'd run into them later and not recognize them at all.

The two chapters with Lina are beautiful. I'm glad you enjoyed them, too!

Overhaul's translation is spelling it "Keele." I'm pretending it's a play on how some English-speakers pronounce the word "kill." I may or may not be right....

"Damn this series is gonna force me to memorize the kanji for naruhodo huh." This made me laugh. I'm studying Japanese and I definitely feel this way sometimes.

Knives is sooooo fucked up.

So, as part of my studying Japanese, I've been translating Jujutsu Kaisen 0.5 for a friend of mine. It, unfortunately, has some of the author's handwriting in it. I'm doing my best, but there are places where I just have to apologize to my friend for not being able to read it at all. It makes me very grateful for translators, and that I read these things in translation with nice pre-selected fonts and not the author's chicken scratch. I'm sorry you're having to deal with Nightow's.

Ok, I had to look up this "Ruraudo" fellow because I couldn't think of a name that sounded like that, either. Overhaul has translated it as "Luraude" (English (and I think French?) pronunciation: Loo-rod). It sounds like a French surname (and the kind of name you might find in a Western), but best I can tell, it's not actually a name at all and Nightow just made it up. Kinda like he just made up "Vash."

I love your comparison of Vash to restless, overexcited horses.

"I feel like my brain is broken right now but the talk of having your family murdered being placed over Wolfwood seems significant." I think you're right and now I'm upset. Thank you for pointing this out. (Seriously. I would have missed it otherwise.)

I hope you continue with the manga and the book club, but not all stories are for everyone, so if it's giving you too much trouble, that's just how it is. :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights!

Trigun Book Club update Trimax volume one!

It’s Trimax time! Who’s pumped? I microdosed on manga without furigana yesterday by reading a volume of Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau. Anyways, my manga shelves are probably upwards of 80% seinen and josei so I’m expecting Trimax to be a little bit more my style when it comes to overall tone. 頑張るぞ！

A much later written introduction: I am so sorry. I’m (at least) a week late, I have had such a struggle with this volume, and to no fault of the volume itself! My brain just randomly shut down when it came to action series. In the week that I should’ve been reading this, I dnf’d a scifi that I had been avoiding for way too long (boring), finally finished the last chapter of The Case Files of Jeweler Richard that I had abandoned last month (!!!!), and started volume three of March Comes in Like a Lion. I’m all over the place right now, but I can’t focus on reading anything else now because Trigun is constantly in the back of my mind, judging me for abandoning the reading responsibilities that no one has placed on me but myself. Thank you all for always showing support for these Trigun newbie reading updates, it truly does brighten my day to see how many people enjoy reading my thoughts on this series, regardless of if you reblogged with comments or tags, or just left a like! <3 <3

Keep reading

[maadorii]

JJK + different art majors

max.notes: so, i’m a art major (surprise surprise) so y’all should’ve expected this at some point. plus, art majors need more appreciation !! also, i will be using a lot of uhhh art terms? but i’ll try my best to explain them. also! i had to physically stop myself from writing too much for the explanations cause i can literally go on and on about this. so yes, this is long.

characters included: y. itadori, f. megumi, k. nobara, s. gojou & k. nanami

warnings/tags: nada

ITADORI; Painting

i was gonna give him gaming, BUT he gives me painter vibes and i’m about to explain why. painting is so widely diverse that itadori would be so immersed with its different painting styles and medias. he’s a color theory(study of colors + how they work with each other) prodigy okay? critics praise him for his usage of colors. i believe his favorite style of painting would be objective abstract art. which has a subject but it’s un-uniformed, hence the name abstract. he’s the type of painter that lets their feelings and emotions control his brush strokes + choices of colors. the overall tone. if he’s feeling angry or has pent up energy, it’s mostly dark but vivid colors and erratic movement (think of scarlet reds with orange undertones with everdeen greens.) but if it’s a calmer mood, it more flowy and smooth, using more cooler tones (think of indigo blues, purples and maybe a splash of gold.) he hates oil painting, it’s too much work and preparation. watercolor is cool but it can be tedious sometimes. so acrylic is his go to media. he always has paint underneath his nails.

MEGUMI; Animation

animation is a whole spectrum of its own. there’s so many different parts that goes into making one, whether it’s television, a film or even 5 minute short. megumi likes the tediousness, patience + dedication it takes to make an animation. there’s different concentrations that one can focus on, but i think megumi either concentrates on technical animation (which that name states, the more technical part of animation. think of it like the joints between your bones.) examples would be elsa’s hair in frozen. she has over 400,000 strands of hair and disney had to create a new software to bring her hair to life. or, he would go into story animation (which focuses on story boarding and character design) megumi would have the most fun creating fun and emersive characters for audiences to enjoy. whether it be the main character with a complex personality and tragic backstory or a simple side character that’s meant for comic relief, megumi will love and cherish every character he creates like it’s his child T^T

NOBARA; Cermanics

cermanics or pottery, is no joke. like seriously, it’s another field of precision that i, unfortunately can not do. you would think because nobara is loud and bubbly that she wouldn’t be able to do it, or have the least amount of patience for it. but she actually really enjoys it. clay is soft + mendable. controllable. and nobara likes that, cause she can make it into whatever she desires. her favorite type of clay to work with is porcelain. who doesnt like making a pretty plate or pot? after that would be earthenware, which from there can fire it in the kiln (a special “oven” for baking clay) and put pretty glazes on them uwu. and what’s even greater about this, she even makes her own clay. she’s bojuee like that ;)

GOJOU; Film + Television

you would think he’d live for the spotlight, like being an actor, but he definitely gives me director vibes. he wants his name on the damn thing. not a featuring or just a size 7 font on the rolling credits at the end. no, size 24 “directed by: satoru gojou” but of course, he starts his way from the bottom up. feels more rewarding that way. gojou will not, for the life of him, put out basic movies. he creates the most compelling, imaginative worlds and characters. they’re engaging, thought provoking even. gojou believes that every aspect of film making, from color grading to the overall cinematography is important to tell the story. dark, depressive movies with twist and turns are desaturated and mystical with up close camera shots on the actors face during pivotal moments. jumpy soundtracks and explosive cgi makes for a great action/adventure film. delves into every genere because being well-rounded is better than being a one trick pony.

NANAMI; Art History + Restoration

i love this for him. out of all the majors on this list, i think this is the most unappreciated. nanami thinks the same, so honestly, if he wasn’t a sorcerer he would be an art historian. after saving up the money, he’s opened up his own little gallery in town, collecting all sorts of ancient and wild paintings + sculptures he can find. nanami has a deep love for art history, and he wants to share that with the younger generation. he does regular tours of the gallery for elementary childern. i think he’s secretly good with childern alright? nanami is so... smooth and thorough with his descriptions when he’s talking about a painting from the edo period, he has the kids captivated and engaged. he even invites high school and university students to do restoration presentations. showing them how to properly do so from cleaning the canvas, color correcting and even stretching it out on a new frame.

copyright © 2021 maadorii. all rights reserved. 

[prue84]

The glimmering gold of the Pendragon Queen

Fandom: BBC's Merlin (modern) AU AU: Modern times Series: Fashion in the Time of Dragons Full-size version available: [Links under the cut]

Gwen Smith, fashion (golden) queen.

To be paired with Morgana's The armour of the Pendragon Witch.

———————————————————————————————

For the moment one random modern-AU, but I'm currently busy developing a structured idea. Alternatively, if Gwen Smith was cast as the face for Dior's J'Adore?

Actually, just an excuse to put Gwen/Angel in this fabulous dress.

———————————————————————————————

As soon as I happened upon this image I thought about Gwen. I don't know why but, when I picture her character, I think of gold, and golden dresses is the best I can picture her wearing, especially in a modern period. Well, either gold dresses or ethereal ones made of flowers and tulle.

Tec stuffs (aka Behind The Manip) Technically this manip was meant to be easy: what should go wrong when you just have to place a "front" face on a body? Ah. Ah. Ah. The bloody hair almost made me go insane. I needed three different pictures from the same photoshoot in order to place Angel's hair: the background for that shoot was as simple as they can be, but her curly hair made it almost impossible to remove it. When the manip was complete, I had the bad idea to make a Google Reverse to see if I could credit the base... and found out that actually the pic, which is actually a stock photo, was meant to be a full body photo. I did find an unmarked full body photo, but it was smaller than the one I worked with (the "bust" is a monstrous 5000px width). Anyway, obviously I went to turn the bust manip into the full body one, and that's how you get the first manip under the cut. But then... well, I liked both version of the credits and I didn't feel like choosing one and delete the other. My favorite was actually the second (the one used in the "bust" version), but for some reasons, that didn't work on the full body version, IDK why. So I had the idea to pick another Angel from the same photoshoot I used so to make two different "takes" from this "gold dress" shot for Gwen; this way I could keep both credits versions. Make sense. Right? Did I already say that I love to find ways to incorporate/blend in my name/signature in the actual manip instead of pasting an horizontal half-transparency credit in some standard font? Not to say I blame those who do it: it takes a huge amount of time to blend in the signature in creative and decent ways, and this manip was kept in stasis for a couple of weeks because I couldn't find a way to place my signature (if "Previous versions" is to be believed, the credit-less manip was ready one hour after I even created the pds file).

Credits Angel Coulby's pictures from Merlin's Keep - specifically, the photoshoot with the red armchair, jpgs numbered 84, 85 and 87 ( farfarawaysite.com/merlin/actors/angel/shoots2/gallery.htm ).

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Crossposted Livejournal: prue84.livejournal.com/84019.html Dreamwidth: prue84.dreamwidth.org/76479.html Deviantart: full body (deviantart.com/prue84/art/The-glimmering-gold-of-the-Pendragon-Queen-904074684) and outtake (deviantart.com/prue84/art/The-glimmering-gold-of-the-Pendragon-Queen-outtake-904074653)

[sineala]

The Old Guard

This post comes to you courtesy of the generous support of one of my Patreon patrons, who wanted to know what I thought of The Old Guard. This post contains some spoilers for both the movie and the comics.

So, a few days after it came out, my wife and I watched The Old Guard on Netflix. Tumblr had said a bunch of good things about it, and both of us basically cut our fannish teeth on Highlander fandom so we already had an automatic buy-in for a story about immortals. I knew it was based on a comic by Greg Rucka, but I had not, at the time, read the comic, although I am now reading it in order to write this post.

The premise of the film is as follows: a four-person team of immortals (Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Booker) makes a living hiring themselves out as mercenaries, fighting for causes that they believe are right. They are successful at this basically because their grasp of tactics appears to be (1) die, followed by (2) come back to life and (3) murder your attackers who are no longer paying attention to you because they think you're dead. Honestly, at this point, you wouldn't really need to be very good at the actual fighting part, I would think, but the film establishes that all of them are -- especially Charlize Theron as Andy -- because presumably it wants you to watch action sequences of everyone being badass, which they are. So, yeah. They take all the good-guy mercenary jobs that no one else can do because it would kill them, which is not a problem for them!

Anyway! The group's routine is interrupted by two major events: the discovery of Nile Freeman, a new immortal, who is a Marine serving in Afghanistan who survives getting murdered; and also the fact that one of their employers, Copley (played by Chiwetel Eijofor, whom you may remember as Mordo in Doctor Strange) has sold them out to the movie's Actual Villain, a Big Pharma CEO named Merrick (played by the guy who played Dudley in the Harry Potter series), who has (as far as I can tell) been given instructions to play this role just like he's Martin Shkreli, who is interested in finding the secret of their immortality, and whom you can tell is evil because he has his name in giant letters on the side of his building.

ME: Look, it's the villain! I've found the villain! MY WIFE: Other than Tony Stark, who actually puts their names on buildings like that except villains? It's just villains, right? ME: Uh. The president? The president definitely does that. (We make horrified faces at each other.)

Because we are Extremely Pedantic, we also spent a lot of time picking at how the characters' names and language abilities match up to their stated background. They all know a lot of languages, as you might expect, and the movie was determined to get through them without subtitles, which is an interesting choice but also kind of left some linguistic plot holes.

For example, Joe and Nicky claim to have met each other in the Crusades, with Nicky as (presumably) a Crusader and Joe as (presumably) a Muslim occupant of the area, although the movie doesn't specify this; Wikipedia gives Joe's name as Yusuf Al-Kaysani, which would at least fit that. Nicky is clearly Italian (as is Luca Marinelli, the actor who portrays him) and when he speaks Italian to the rest of the group we see that he definitely speaks modern Italian as spoken in Rome... which is absolutely, definitely not the language he grew up speaking, given that, among other things, Wiki lists the character's full name as Nicolò di Genova. I don't know if the writer of the screenplay (who I see now is also Greg Rucka) didn't know how much Italian dialects had changed in the last thousand years, if he thought that was good enough to be a nod to the character, or if there's some kind of backstory that didn't make it in where every so often Nicky decides to learn a modern dialect and keep his hand in, and also decides that that's the language he wants to use among his friends who would presumably understand several different dialects.

Also, the reveal that Andy's real name was in fact "Andromache of Scythia" was indeed badass but was slightly undercut by my wife yelling BUT THE SCYTHIANS DIDN'T SPEAK GREEK at the television.

Additionally, I feel like the movie could perhaps have been aware of the ways it chose to label on-screen locations, in which the countries were spelled out in large fonts with the cities above them. Places like LONDON, ENGLAND got their entire names spelled out, as did small French villages whose names I can no longer remember, but I guess AFGHANISTAN and MOROCCO and SOUTH SUDAN have zero cities, huh? However, the end of the movie did take place in PARIS which I guess unlike London is its own country now.

So the actual plot features the group of immortals trying to explain this whole immortality thing to Nile while being on the run from the people who are trying to turn them into Big Pharma, who wants to capture them and exploit the secret of their immortality. This is where it falls down a little for me, because the worldbuilding... gets a little shaky. They dream about each other when they're apart. Okay. Why? Sometimes they just stop being immortal and lose the capacity to heal and are dead in their next battle. Why? Why do they even exist? I just... wanted more answers than the movie gave me, and the pacing where I kept expecting there to be explanations wasn't there. There were a couple of scenes where Nile sat there in silence contemplating the fact that she would outlive her loved ones and my brain kept trying to insert Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever?" Granted, the Highlander canon explanation for immortality is deeply, deeply weird, but at least it tried. No, I can't believe I'm defending Highlander II either.

The characters, too, could have been more fleshed out. The bulk of the character development is given to Andy and Nile, and I'm not complaining about that -- they were great -- but Joe and Nicky and Booker only got maybe a few lines each. They would have felt so much more real if they'd just had a little bit more to them. Also I didn't understand Copley's arc at all, but saying more about that would be spoilery. I do like that they have definitely set themselves up for a sequel.

But even with what we got, there's a lot to love about the characters. If you're here for canonically queer characters, you will enjoy Nicky and Joe, who have been in a relationship for probably about a thousand years. They are minor characters as far as the overall plot goes, but what they do have is lovely, and there is a romantic declaration between them at one point that is absolutely beautiful and possibly the most fervent love declaration I can remember seeing in a movie since maybe... ever. If you also like your queerness more subtextual, though Andy is never portrayed as explicitly queer, her past friendship with a fellow immortal Quynh was shown as very intense, as is the role she takes here mentoring Nile into the world of immortality. Also she has a double-bladed axe (yes, we kept yelling BRING ME MY MAN-KILLING AXE at the television) and as we all know, the double-bladed labrys has in modern times become a symbol for lesbians. So there's that.

In addition to the characters of color who play important roles here -- Nile was my personal favorite, but there's also Joe and Copley and (in flashback) Quynh -- there's a lot of diversity behind the cameras as well, or so the internet informs me. The director (Gina Prince-Bythewood) is the first Black woman to direct a superhero movie, and the same is true of her editor (Terilyn Shropshire). And, furthermore, apparently 85% of the post-production crew were women. They didn't have to do that, and yet they did. It was nice.

I don't watch a whole lot of action movies these days because I usually find R-rated violence too... violent, but I found myself really liking almost all of the action sequences here. None of them felt gratuitous, and a lot of them really focused on the physicality of the immortals fighting in a way I liked, because I feel like people are probably going to fight differently if they know they can survive every single hit, and I think the movie portrayed that in a way that a lot of superhero comics and movies don't. My favorite fight scene is definitely the one between Nile and Andy at the beginning, when Andy has trapped her on a plane and it's extremely close-quarters fighting and also extremely brutal. They don't stop basically until Nile breaks enough bones that she can't get up anymore, because until then she's going to keep trying, which is both kind of horrifying and a great character note. And they didn't film it like it was a Sexy Catfight! It was so good.

Also, the soundtrack is really good, and I've found myself streaming it on Spotify all week. I didn't know any of the songs in the movie, but there's a lot of hip-hop and -- okay, I don't even know if this is a genre? -- specifically a lot of hip-hop with an electronic/industrial sort of beat, which I thought was really great and livened up the fight scenes even more; "Going Down Fighting" did a really good job getting me in the mood for the final confrontation with the villain, and... yeah, it's all good. Someone made a playlist on Spotify that will come up if you search for it.

So, yeah. It's on Netflix. It's not without flaws (mostly, explaining how the hell immortality works, and a couple of pacing issues), but it's a really satisfying superhero movie.

That's the movie. Onto the comic, which I am just now starting to read as I write these words. Whee!

So The Old Guard: Opening Fire is a 2017 five-issue Image Comics series written by Greg Rucka, with art by Leandro Fernández, and there's also a 2019 sequel, The Old Guard: Force Multiplied, by the same creative team, also with five issues. I have not actually read any of Rucka's work before now because he is mostly famous for his DC work, but I have heard good things about it, especially his Wonder Woman run.

Anyway. The art is very stylized, with a minimal color palette, and it's very pretty but I honestly found it hard to parse sometimes. Many of the characters have very weird noses. Yes, noses. It's basically mostly in Andy's and Nile's POVs, like the movie, and as far I can tell Andy is explicitly queer, because unless I am entirely misreading this panel in issue #1, here she is in bed with a woman in one panel. Whee. Also there are some nice epigraphs at the beginning of each issue.

Okay, so, the plot here is basically the plot of the movie. There is still no explanation of why immortality exists. But even so, there are some fun character moments that didn't make it into the movie -- for example, Andy saying smartphones are too hard to use and she liked the old ones better, only for the rest of her team to say that she couldn't use those either. I think you get a better sense of Andy's world-weariness in the comic. There are also other, now-dead Immortals mentioned, like Noriko, who "went overboard off the Horn." Quynh is not one of them; Quynh basically is Noriko, which is because they cast a Vietnamese actress who asked if her character could be Vietnamese too, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. But anyway, in the comics, she's Noriko. Weirdly, Andy's full name, as she tells Nile when they meet, is Andronika ("man-victory") rather than Andromache ("man-battle," in case you were wondering); I think the movie made a better choice because Ἀνδρονίκα has exactly two attestations in the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, whereas Ἀνδρομάχη has all that shiny name recognition of being shared by the wife of Hector and also the queen of the Amazons and will ping viewers as a Greek name, and therefore ancient, even if it can't be the name she was born with. (There are five for "Andronike" and four more for "Andromacha" so they actually have about the same number of total attestations, as far as I can tell, when you consider the alpha/eta alternation in how various Greek dialects mark feminine nouns.)

(Yes, you totally wanted a review by someone who looks up character names in the LGPN. Don't lie.)

Plotwise, Andy gets all of the initial exposition in for Nile before they get to the safehouse, which Copley has already gotten to before they get back, so Booker is bleeding on the floor and Nile doesn't get to meet Joe or Nicky at this time, and I am also glad they changed that for the movie. But, don't worry, Joe and Nicky's romantic declaration is still in here. We also get Andy pondering the last time she was in love, with a human who grew old.

Oh, and we get Andy's age: 6,732. And by issue #5 her name has changed to Andromache, because what even is continuity? I guess Andromache is her name now.

So Nile finally meets Joe and Nicky when she rescues them and also, uh, that plot point where Andy might die? Totally not a thing here. Nope. And no "surprise! even more immortals!" end-credits moments either.

Basically, I feel like every change they made to the script for the movie really strengthened the story, and even though I thought the movie could have used more character moments, it's way better than how the characters are separated for even longer in the comic. Nile rescuing the team means a lot more when she has met them before, you know?

So Force Multiplied starts us off with Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Nile, because Booker is still on time-out. They are in the middle of a car chase, and Booker's off getting himself kidnapped by someone who wants to know where the others are. The villain of the piece turns out to be Noriko, who is still alive, whom Booker had never had a chance to meet and apparently had never heard of. So, basically, a lot like the Quynh plot that the movie is teasing.

Overall it's a little less action-filled than the first one, which had multiple splash pages of nothing but violence; this one is a little more character-driven and explores the relationship, such as it is, between Andy and Noriko, as well as Nile coming to terms with her immortality, as well as with what everyone else has done over the years. It does have a bunch of violence at the end, though.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but I definitely wasn't expecting where that was heading. There's apparently going to be a third volume, and I am looking forward to it, whenever it exists.

(Although, now that I think about it, the ending is a lot like a fan-favorite moment of Highlander: The Series, but I think if I said which episode you would know exactly what the ending was.)

So, yeah! The Old Guard! I can't say as I feel particularly fannish about it -- there's nothing that makes me yearn to fill in the gaps in canon -- but the movie was really good and you should see it. And you should read the comics if you're into that.

[mkobooks]

Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu

I guess my biggest regret upon reading this book is that I considered going into Singapore’s Chinatown Complex Hawker Centre for a snack and decided I didn’t feel like it. I deprived myself of that excellent “Reading Interior Chinatown while literally inside Chinatown” pic! 

If I recall correctly, this book landed on my “to-read” after I saw it on a NPR Books “Best of 2020.” That said, what I expected this book to be about was entirely different from what it actually was. And what was it precisely? That’s sort of hard to answer and I feel is what makes this book either terrific and original or gimmicky and preachy.

Roughly, this is the story of Willis Wu, a wannabe movie star who’s stuck as a background player in the role “Generic Asian Man.” He really wants to be a “Kung Fu Guy” or to be recognized as more than Asian in the same way that “Black” and “White” are able to play nuanced characters that transcend their races. Throughout his struggle, he’s stuck in Chinatown where he grew up, living in near-poverty and taking care of his aging parents (also former actors). At some point he starts to break through a little, he meets a woman and gets married, and has a reckoning about what it means to be an Asian American:

“This is it. The root of it all. The real history of yellow people in America. Two hundred years of being perpetual foreigners.” 

“What is about an Asian man that makes him so hard to assimilate?... Who gets to be an American? What does an American look like?” 

At the same time, this isn’t a straightforward novel: the entire book is printed in “Courier” and large parts of it are designed to look like a screenplay. At times, it was difficult for me to distinguish which parts were what was really happening to Willis and which parts were his fantasy or dreams. Perhaps all of it was--the book was very post-modern in its satirical take on the Asian-American experience, the immigrant story, Asian portrayal in pop-culture, and the entertainment industry as a whole.

It was a very quick read (part of why I decided not to stop in Chinatown that day was that I thought I’d have another opportunity to do so!) and I finished it in little over a day. It was easily readable, and parts--in particular the story of how his parents moved to the US, established their own careers, and fell in love--were quite compelling. I just couldn’t get behind Willis. He was insufferable and became worse once he married a “white-passing” part-Asian woman. And, though the quotes above are moving, the entire sequence in which he comes to terms with his identity--written like the script of a very melodramatic court-room drama--didn’t quite land with me. They were a little too soap-boxy. 

What is kind of wild is that this book was released in January 2020. I wonder what the reception would have been like if it had been released only a few months later. Reading now, in the wake of the “Stop Asian Hate” movement, it is a bit surreal in how on the nose the idea of Asians as a perpetual foreigner is. 

On the other hand, I have a unique relationship with Asia and Asian culture. Not that I am complaining, but try being white in Asia! I could lay down roots here, become a PR, have kids who serve NS, 说中文 and bercakap Bahasa Melayu, and still always be a foreigner. It’s one thing to say that about Hong Kong which is ~90% Chinese, but Singapore prides itself on its diversity and racial harmony (despite also having a ~70% Chinese majority). It’s not the same of course; local people don’t treat me like a disease vector because I’m from a country that’s recorded 33mil+++ COVID cases, there is some well-deserved baggage from being a British colony, and being “Ang Mo” in Asia (or a laowai, gweilo, take your pick...)  is still somewhat desirable in a way. Willis also addresses this: 

“I’m guilty of it as anyone... romanticizing white women. Wishing I were a white man. Putting myself into this category... by putting ourselves below everyone, we’re building in a self-defense mechanism.” 

And I feel that if you look at the Singapore subreddit, it’s not hard to find some of this “AMDK” sentiment . 

But I’ve gone a bit off track. In the end, I thought this book was just OK. I don’t think I’d recommend it. Yet, I’d still be interested in more of what Charles Yu writes. There were some thought-provoking ideas, but it fell flat for me--which may just be because I live in Asia + I am not Asian American, so although I’ve heard similar sentiment from friends and from voices online, it’s not my story and not as poignant to me. Plus, I also hate reading Courier font. 

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[poppythewitcher]

SPN hell binge Episode 1

Yippe kayay Mother Fuckers, Let’s do this! (edited in the morning or grammar)

Should I watch the recap?

Is that cheating?

I mean It’ll set up the season?

But it it cheating?

Like I’m supposed to get context like when you start a comic half way through

I’m gonna watch the recap just cause I know I won’t even understand that

Aw the cw logo, lets you know you’re getting into some shit

oooo decapitations

what how many of them are there

their voices don’t sound like I imagined

Fuck i kinda forgot Jeffery Dean Morgan was in this

You expect me to take these fuckers seriously where their father, the root of their daddy issues, is Denny fucking Duquette

I’m still confused who the fuck is Jack

I think he’s the antichrist

Listen the practical FXs tho

why is half the recap just a zombie fight

is this the beginning of the this episode or like the end of the last?

oh wait it was the last

listen I get continuity but the fucking font the credits are in makes me want to die

Gay angel can commune with the dead that’s nice

Why did they think that flimsy ass thing will hold the door

“He said welcome to the end what does that mean” the network is finally pulling the plug on this shit show

i love the casual discussion of smiting

I relate to dean in that I too have daddy issues and hate sky-daddy

Is Sam the only function one on this show?

Nope he let the zombies into the crypt

oooops the antichrist is awake

oh its a demon not the antichrist

demon with fashion sense

a demon talking about being a demon the way I talk about working at Starbucks

I like how Sam’s like yeah Cas, give your blood to the minimum wage demon who just met that is currently inhabiting the body of some kid we all really cared about

Nothing could go wrong with that

wait what that fucking worked

how did the minimum wage demon fix God’s mess

okay random teens because horror tropes of violence against young “stupid” women who are just enjoying their lives because it’s easier to enjoy the thing when the male gaze and patriarchal culture not only fetishizes violence against women but it makes the horror easier to watch because it’s not as scary when the victim is a vapid and brainless teenage girl, thus making the male viewer feel secure because his ego tells him that he is stronger and smarter than these weak female and therefore would not fall victim to the monster even though that makes no sense in this context when their main demographic is gen-z girls,gay and theys.

also who gave the camera to the guy with hand tremor what was that shaking

When you have to kill a character but the actor still needs to pay the bills

are they literally just gonna spend the whole season tracking down runaway ghosts this is gonna be worse than I thought

Like is that really Jensen Ackles’s voice is doesn’t sound real

ooo spooky car crash

Wait woman in white wasn’t that the fucking pilot i watched that

oh god really all the fucking monsters of the week are back fuck me what have I gotten myself into

Why is this show trying to be a fucking 80s horror movie now we have a poor housewife and her daughter being haunted by ghosts really

and its not just that its the cinematography and the lighting like the whole fucking mise en scen

its a fun aesthteic but goddamn did they really milk 15 season out of this shit? did anyone actually watch after season 12?

motherfucker a killer clown wow

Like I feel like they’re making they’re voices deeper on purpose

I’m sorry what in the living fuck is this dumb ass FBI shirt that Sam is wearing that does not look real you are not fooling anyone honey has this really been your shtick for 15 fucking years and you look like THAT holy fucking hell it genuinely looks like the costume department is barely trying

Mr. Trench coat honestly looks more believable

wait is minimum wage demon a neanderthal

And he;s hitting on one half or the queer baiting wonder twins great

Minimum wage demon: “who was he”

me: “wouldn’t we all like to know”

I mean me. I would like to know thank you minimum wage demon for getting me this info

So he’s they’re kid that’s nice

Wait

So the queer baiting wonder twins had a FUCKING CHILD TOGETHER

holy fuck they weren’t kidding this really is hell

the blood stains are really good like a little bright for being old dried blood but still the practical FX slaps and I’m already starting to think that’s the show’s one redeeming quality

That child is defffffff possessed

This thing is giving me flashbacks to early quarantine when my ex made me watch killer klowns for outer space on Netflix party would not reccomend

I mean I wouldn’t reccomend this either but

Who’s Rowena

Why is the angle that low and harsh on the minimum wage demon being a fan boy like really why

Why is it a dutch too

I just want to talk to the cinematographer and see if he’s okay

Like It went to a stand eye level over the shoulder and then nack to the super harsh low dutch what’s going on

Also Who’s Micheal

Like Micheal the angel?

Is Micheal an angel? idk

why does Cas readily hand out the info that he’s an angel

Sam shot god and honestly fucking mood

is it just Sam or does every one get fucked up if they try to hurt sky-daddy cause that’s kind of a dick move

I feel like I’m supposed to recognize the MILF in white but I haven’t seen the show so IDK

What’s with the whole human sacrifice heart thing like is that standard here

I thought they were going door to door they literally only went to the one house

the killer klown from outer space is back and he has friends

I love how Cas is just like offend and exasperated over being shot

and then just fucking La Llorona makes an appearance

are the spell in fucking Latin on this show

this is why I’m a Witcher stan like at least Sapkowski’s creative an used a different dying language

why does Sam have to stay be hind like in theory they could just sprint

and he picked up the kid he’s like the one functional one here

Sam just told the killer klown from outer space to shut up and honestly same

I have 5 minutes left and it feel like it’s been an eternity

how many times have they been uncomfortably thanked by a little girl on this show cause I feel like the answer is too many

Why is the pie man such a bitch to his husband like way to press against the whole queer baiting wonder twins thing we get it you’re uncomfortable with your character’s repressed bisexuality please maybe chill you made the gay angel sad

even the minimum wage demon gets it

that looks infected

oh yeah dean’s oldest daughter syndrome is back that’s nice

I feel like I see the appeal of this show and how it could be good but then it went to hell

Wait are they actually god now what the fuck

like is this whole season just some Nietzsche bullshit okay

why does dean say just you and me? You also have a gay angel and a minimum wage demon

Final thoughts: I’m going to bed. I’ll do more tomorrow. This really is a dumpster fire. What have I gotten myself into

[nico-di-angelato]

here are all the amazing easter eggs and references in the new movie Halloween (2018) !! it does contain spoilers and WHEW this list is long bc im the biggest nerd ever have fun 

i also tried to do it in order lmao 

The opening credits are eerily similar to the original credits back in 1978 and also the same font the original movie used unlike what some of the sequels did. 

In the credits, instead of actor Nick Castle being credited as Michael Myers, “The Shape” is. This further alludes to the fact that Myers is not human and really is The Boogieman. Castle performed a majority of the masked Myers' scenes, so he's not necessarily playing "Michael Myers" in that sense.

In the beginning scenes, we hear recordings of Dr. Samuel Loomis, Myers’s original doctor/psychiatrist, diagnosing him as a demon saying “it needs to die!” Although it sets up the atmosphere of the scene as even more chilling, it pays respects to Donald Pleasence (Dr. Loomis) with his dedication to the franchise who died in 1995. Although it is not Pleasence’s voice, actor Colin Mahan did an excellent job bringing back Dr. Loomis’s iconic voice full of fear and paranoia to the viewers. 

Michael escapes from him being transported like in Halloween and in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers where a prisoner transport goes wrong. However, his escape almost exactly parallels the first movie. In both movies, patients are seen roaming around the field with the crashed bus but no Michael in sight. The soon-to-be victim goes outside their car to check out the damage and then goes back into the car without checking the backseat. Big mistake since Michael strangles his victim to death and steals their car to head back home. 

After Michael is found out to be the last missing patient, he is referenced as with “babysitter murders”. To the average viewer, this could mean nothing more than a simple refresher to the first movie but to a Halloween fan, it’s more than that. The original movie title was going to be “The Babysitter Murders” but was later changed to its iconic title. 

When Dr. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield to find Michael, his first stop is to visit Judith Myers’s grave, the deceased sister of Michael Myers. In this film, it’s the podcasters who visit the grave. 

Laurie Strode’s house, or sanctuary, in this case, gives a very similar vibe to the original Myers’ house from the first movie which first shows the viewers how similar Laurie and Michael have become. 

When Michael arrives at the gas station, there is a pickup truck that has “Resurrection Church” which could be a homage to Halloween: Resurrection (even though it was one of the worst movies in the franchise). 

Meanwhile, at the gas station, the entire scene plays out very closely related to Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers where after he escapes he also visits a gas station and kills all the workers there. 

Michael murders a garage mechanic and steals his utilitarian jumpsuit, which is exactly how he changes from a hospital gown to a pair of grease-stained overalls in Halloween 4.

However, he doesn’t just stop at killing the workers this time. His main targets were the two podcast reporters from the beginning of the movie who he kills in the bathroom of the gas station. In many of the sequels, characters have met Myers in public restrooms whether it be the first time or the last time which serves as an ongoing theme in the films. 

After Michael Myers escapes in the original movie, the scene cuts to Laurie and her friends walking down the sidewalk in Haddonfield discussing their Halloween plans, unaware of the horror that was let loose. This is very similar to the scene with Allyson and her friends but with a more modern conversation and sprinkling in Allyson’s grandmother’s paranoia. 

In school, we see Allyson sitting in the back of a classroom looking out the window while her teacher is talking about “fate”. This alludes heavily to the first film with almost identical movements. However, in the first film, Laurie’s teacher explains that fate is a natural, nonreligious element of our lives, so we’re destined for whatever fate has in store for us -- aka Laurie encountering Michael who will ultimately change her life. Allyson’s teacher, on the other hand, says the quote, “He said fate took a different course.” With some research, we learn the quote comes from a Holocaust Survivor named Viktor Frankl and said “The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life… Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.” This alludes to Laure’s trauma and how she overcomes it by the end of the movie. 

The biggest and most obvious reference in the classroom scene is when Allyson looks out the window and sees her grandmother across the street staring at her, exactly the same to Laurie’s first encounter with Myers. 

When the Strodes are having dinner, Allyson invited her boyfriend, Cameron Elam. Allyson’s father tells stories to them about how him and Cameron’s father, Lonnie Elam, would “trip balls out in the woods.” This was the same Lonnie Elam who bullied Tommy Doyle in the original, and whose friends dare him to approach the door of the haunted Myers house. 

During dinner, Laurie arrives late and in a state of panic. She jugs down a glass of wine to calm her nerves which she does similarly during lunch in Halloween H20.

Going back to number 2 in this list, “The Shape” is credited to play Michael Myers. Although Myers is commonly called that by many fans, this name was never actually spoken until this film, At dinner, Laurie tells her family that “I saw him. The shape.” So FINALLY, fans can hear the secret name spoken aloud. 

okay this list is really long uhhh tell me if u want more lmao bc i am literally only like 15 min into the movie

[darkspellmaster]

Update and Edit and Master Post to the Fokker Conspiracy: A Guide to this whole mess.

Firstly a special thanks to several people that have helped me with this. I couldn’t have done this without more than my eyes.

Secondly: To those that are determined to believe these leaks, I’m going to say this right now. I am not going to judge you, I’m not here to be spiteful and say you’re wrong, I have no horse in this race. So if you want to believe in the leaks, then do so, I’m not going to harass or bug you about it or tell you you’re wrong.

Third: This post is designed to be informative as possible, and if anyone needs to correct something, please shoot it in the notes below so that I can go in and correct them. I want people to have enough info to make their own call on this, and all I’m doing is laying out the facts.

So without further ado, all details and information is below the cut here.

Adding in updates and edits as I go...Edit: 2.0.2

Edit: (I’m going to be polite as I got a note from tumblr in regard to BTI Studio, which makes me think that it’s the name and they are doing blanket purges as their name is being used by this. I am trying to find a way to contact the person that copyrighted me, a Mr. Rachel, who works as part of the IT Manger at BTI Studios. Which makes me think that this is more on the use of the name than the pictures themselves. 

Anyone know if he’s on Twitter? I got this on the 24th, it is now the 29th and I did not receive any further notices. As I’m not on linked in and don’t have access to email him directly.  This makes me think it’s the name as if it was all of NBC Universal all other forms of these images including VSI would be asked to be taken down. As was the Pidge and Lance image that was made to be a fake to show how easy it is to make one. This doesn’t mean that the leaks are real, only that the name, like all company names, should not be used without the consent of the copyright holder.) 

Edit: According to Anon, the Plance photo which was a fake used to show how anyone can make this sort of thing was also copyright struck. Meaning that regardless of just fan art, or not, real or fake, you could be hit by a notice to remove the work. This is what is considered a kind of blanket purge meant to just clean everything up, even if it’s not even a leak. As long as there’s some bit of what is considered Intellectual property connected to the peice (character, name of studio, logo, even something as simple as “Property of X” it can be copyright struck.) 

So let’s start with the Real Leaks that happened from both France and the US and Mir.

So let’s go with Kimiko’s leaks. For those that don’t know, these are real leaks from the Voice actress of Ezor, who was working in New York at the time for Broadway and was dubbing over lines that they either changed or didn’t get a strong enough take for her.

This photo was taken way back on April 18th 2017, since the date on the image dates the day of the photo taken.

So Several things you need to note about these picture.

1.       The photo has the timer on the top and the side showing the take, we have a transparent property of DreamWorks, and the full locked and updated note with date and time on the bottom to denote that voice recording was locked in and updated at that point in time. There are also codes that give editors information.

2.       The name of the studio is real, and they have their water mark in a way that doesn’t distract from the actors recording as well as it being transparent enough for them to do the recording as the water mark is put over as another layer on the screen for various legal reasons. Hyperbolic Audio is a dub studio in New York that works with several clients.

3.       This photo was taken down within a few hours of it being put up by DreamWorks and basically the studio put out an announcement that requested the leak be taken down, as did the actors and other people working for the company. Word got out really fast and this image was removed and did later show up in the show.

Then there was the leak from Stuido Mir. This one I don’t have pictures of since most were taken down or deleted.

1.       Confirmation of the photos were made by Mir itself.

2.       The original poster of the pictures took them down and then requested that others take down the leaked images.

3.       Someone tried to blackmail the studio holding the artwork, which lead to them being basically forced to take down the images.

4.       This all within a few hours and days of the leaks coming to light.

Now this one is important because this one plays a role in everything that we’re going to discuss below.

So from my understanding the French actor of Keith Lionel (hope I’m spelling that right) took a photo of himself and others in the recording studio during the earlier seasons.

(This was removed more recently by him because people found it.)

So several important things to note here.

1.       The photo again was taken by someone directly connected to the show and within hours of it coming out it came down. As dated by the discord server, this was done way back in 2017.

2.       As you can see the program is very unique and that’s because it is a one of a kind program that was built for the dubbing studio.

3.       As you can see here, the picture spreads over the screen and stops short of where the table is on the left.

4.       You can see the text on screen is far smaller and transparent so you can see the words.

4 a. According to Anon, this may be the work of DreamWorks themselves. As the water marks would have to be done by them directly. Again I have never seen this sort of water marking on anything before, and no other studio has done this, and they have never done this to any of their other shows as far as I’ve seen. We’ll have to wait and see if they do this with She-ra as it’s another 2D show vs. 3D which is harder to do a lot of edits for. 

5.       The setup shows the words below, etc.

6.       The words do not go over into the dark area of the screen and never cross over the table on the right side of the screen.

7.       The photo was taken down within a few hours of it being put up and the studios were fast to take it down and tell the actors to tell their fans to make sure it’s not distribute the image. Same as with Kimiko’s leak.

With all this in mind. Let’s take a look at the latest leaks and try to clear this all up.

Recent leak with the French Dub team.

So let’s go over this piece by piece.

1.       The fact is that this is a real photo of the cast of Voltron from France, that is not the issue. The issue is the screen behind them.

2.       The bottom screen where the words are…

Okay so I did some digging on this studio. You can find information regarding them in the links below.

So Chinkel S.A. has a very unique program for dubbing created by Cappella systems. This was built just for them and there is no other studio that owns this sort of set up. This is really important to note because all of the leaks have had an altered version of their watermarks.

The important things here…

1.       The words would not stretch across the whole screen like this. As the cut of the projected image would be set directly before the text boxes as you see in the studio image.

2.       The words are too big, and are not opaque, and are too few. As the original real leak shows the “Do not copy” has 8 lines, the fake one here only has 5.

3.       Yellow words are wrong and should be a way lighter color. As the color is yellow in the fake leaks and the real ones are transparent and name Chinkel S.A. not VSI which is wrong.

4.       The image that is being used is that of a cropped shot of the previous leak as they cut off the other mouse, which you would not do as we see in the original real leak shows that the image stretches across the screen.

4a. Edit: Thank you anon for pointing out the mouse. My mistake here as the image I saw on my home computer makes the image look far more blurred then on the bigger one at work. You are right that it does have the mouse there, and the non studio shot that I have with the BTIStudio logo on it doesn’t have Pidges shoulder in it. I mixed those two up.  I do personally though find it odd that the mouse is in the same position as the first shot. 

5.       The bottom line of the text doesn’t bend properly.

As shown by @huntypastellance post, the bending of the light of the projector is way off on the bottom of the shot.

Normally a projector would be bending and curving around the actors’ body and in this case they are not fully being wrapped around. Which is, as @aquaburst07 and @ladynoctern told me, as both are graphic designers, not at all how this is supposed to work in a legit picture.

Also something of importance that I must call to mind. The words on the bottom of the screen. They are not on the bodies of the actors. If this is a real projection then the light and worlds should be bending and shaping around the actors and this is not behaving in the way that it should. Also the word would not be cut off like that, even if you pause the scene, and you would never pause in a scene like this to take a photo.

Ask any VA, they would tell you that you would not waste time in this way. You’re costing time that you need to record. So if you take photos like this, it’s done before or after the recording session starts.

Additionally the light is off in regard to how a dubbing room would be used.

There is also the very blunt issue of the table on the right being way wrong, as you would not have a scene in there and have it read carton. As you see with the studio image it would have a list of the different recording aspects in there.

In the photo that was leaked there is none of that. And also there is no red lines near the end to be used to mark for audio recording purposes.

In another photo from the Chinkel S.A. website through the VSI website when translated they show their font on screen. It’s not very hard using Adobe products to create fonts and part of Graphic design is learning to do that.  There is no words over the actors like there should be since this “scene” comes before the “wedding scene”.

Another small factor that’s been bugging me about the order of these scenes, the art story makes no sense. As a narration due to the time it reads like this. 

First you have the older picture scene of them as a group, since the timer reads 22:09, then you have Keith’s scene at 22:30, and then you have the wedding, at 22:42. Here’s the reason this is bothering me. In normal structure you would have the picture of the younger group, then the moment of Keith, then the older group, and then end it on the wedding. 

So if you notice that the show is doing the Final Fantasy XV way of making a character look older by giving them scruff on their chin. If Shiro’s wedding happens before the picture, where is his husband? If the wedding is taking place after the second group photo where is the scruff on their chins. 

Also if you’re doing a sort of nostalgic moment you end on the group shot, you don’t star on it, that’s doing things in a backwards style and no storyboard writers group would do that. You want your story to flow. 

Example: A- First shot with the statue in the back. 

B -Keith shot

C -Wedding

D- Time skip shot with the group in color. 

As I said in my large anon asks, the point of sepia is to make the tone of the scene feel nostalgic or memory like. 

(I’m simplifying a lot of this because there’s so much here from a graphic design angle that a lot of people will be confused here)

6.       The water mark on the screen is off, and the wrong type. Chinkel uses it’s name as the water mark and not the studios owner VSI.

7.       Also the fact that the picture is too clean and sharp vs all the other aspects of the photo which are pixelated and blurred.

So onto the others. Let’s start with the Wedding and move our way down…

(Using Cinderella III because the stance is similar to the leaked image) 

(For those wondering why I keep calling the character Roy, it makes it easier for me than calling him “That one dude that looks like a famous character from Macross that is supposed to be a homage to him, and clearly isn’t him.” ) 

8.       This image was cropped at the top.

8 a.  As Anon pointed out to me in inbox, the characters in the back are static and not moving. This would not be normal and, as I said in my post that got deleted, the characters were probably redrawn from either a posed picture, or some sort of promotional art and then traced over. Newtype magazine does a lot of illustrations that have moments that are not in the shows and weddings are sometimes used for their articles when they want to push a couple. 

9.       It’s been layered. The fact is that only Chinkel has the software to do this, so this was created by duplicating the layers and then taking and cutting and stamping and a lot of things in photo shop.

10.   As per the Chinkel real leak, the property of DreamWorks on the bottom is not in stroke.

11.   We have the fact that this guy looks way to much like Roy Fokker to be legally allowed. If this is supposed to be Adam then there’s something way off with him.

12.   As I detailed before you can’t use images or look a likes of Roy Fokker due to Studio Nue and Harmony gold and Tatsunoko’s huge legal fight, and he wouldn’t be accessible until after 2021. So no…no Roy would be allowed even if he is Adam or just meant to be a look alike.

12 a. As @rsasai points out in this post using Roy would cause massive issues in Japan alone. http://rsasai.tumblr.com/post/179513598638/reminder

13.   Also pidge’s eyebrows are off slightly and in the kiss scene you can see that Roy’s hand and arm vanishes

13a. Cleaner image shows that the arm is there, it’s just very hard to see, which again is why normally you don’t use the sepia tones there. 

Link to image here

Since the Image has the BTIstudios name on it, and seems to be the reasons for the take downs, I’m linking it. 

The interesting thing though is, again, I’m talking here from the perspective of framing a scene. 

Closest one that I could find with the same or similar arm movements. 

As you can see the more natural grip would be on the upper arm, it might be that Shiro’s arm can’t do that anymore? It seems like an odd place to put his arm. 

Similarly here’s a shot that is a lot like the leaked one. Again the arms placement would naturally fall on the chest or arm of the other person as they are being pulled into the kiss, so you’d rest your arm where it feels natural. 

13 b. Anon also pointed out that Shiro’s hand is resting on a location that would be more suited for a shorter character in place of Roy. Also his line of sight in the other pictures doesn’t match up, as he is looking down possibly at someone shorter than him, and also the art could allow for rotation on the head, as it’s easier to do that in profile than in person. 

14.   As per Malaysian posters, the wording on this is wrong and would not read that.

15.   NBCU would not have it’s name on this period. You don’t have a stroke around a water mark.

16.   BTI studios doesn’t have this program and would not just go by BTI studios.

17.   Water marks do not work like that. You wouldn’t have a pause thing either.

18.   And there is a lot of issues of where the words are being put because you can’t and shouldn’t have it hard for the voice actors to see the lip flaps.

19.   Pause would not look like this and not be placing like this at all. Also the image of the kiss may be modeled on artwork from Macross do you remember love. 

So with the second set of leaks we see changes.

20.   Lance and Allura are possibly a redraw of Allura and Lotor.

21.   Again BTISudios do not have the same type of equipment as Chinkel so this text over the screen should not be in there.

22.   Allura’s crying is in the wrong spot. As I showed with the superman reign shot

23.   One thing that I need to point out is the extra strand of hair for Allura, which she should not have.

24.   Again this has been cropped and you wouldn’t have it in this tone as Voltron for past memories has shown it uses a white filter.

See with how Romelle and Bandor’s memory scene is framed in a light white edge to it, so show that it’s in the past. If the scene with these two are happening in the past then both should be in a white light not a sepia tone.

Jumping ahead to Keith’s leak.

25.   Again wrong colors, we know that BTI Studios do not have this type of software.

26.   Keith would still be with Voltron, and why is Zethrid wearing a BOM uniform while Ezor has a patch over her eyes. This is all very wrong.

27.   Keith’s scar is not quiet right either.

The last one has a lot wrong with the group shot and more to the point the one on the top is far worse.

28.   Pidge’s eyebrows are cut wrong, her hair is based more on Lotor’s bangs then her own.

29.   Pidge’s nose was half cut off by the altered glasses placed on her.

30.   Keith’s fingers look weird and his hand is off, and if it’s lance’s it still a bit weird. 

31.   You wouldn’t have the image cut like that, and have the “Do not copy” would not flow off the screen in the way it does.

32.   Coran hasn’t changed at all, and his ears are off.

33.   Shiro looks more like an older version of Yu Narukami than himself.

33 a. Edit: As per @leavesandroses “Studio Mir also does statues in 3D, not drawn animation” And they are right.  If you look at artwork from Legend of Korra and at Aang’s statue because that’s some of the best shots, you can see how it’s done via CG rather than via traditional hand drawn.

Even Lotor’s statue is similar in design and uses the same type of rendering only with a filter over it as it’s a memory. 

Allura’s statue doesn’t have this same affect where you can tell it’s CG as you should in the shot. 

Thanks to  @rsasai , who did some testing, you can see the art work doesn’t over lap right.

As you can see if these are all the same product they should line up…they don’t. No matter what way you try to overlap the screens will not match up.

Then there’s the added fact of the weird words that would not be on screen in this way.

34.   Screens are all fucked up, you wouldn’t have the water marks cutting into the Property of DreamWorks

34 a. You would also not have the “One year later” on top like that. 

35.   Also no studio would do it in this way. No one would be this dumb. This is way too close to how they would do some weird stuff in the 1990s, which would never be done here in the states now.

36.   There’s also the bad translation which would not be allowed.

On top of all of this and several other things that others have pointed out over and over again, you would not have three leaks of this magnitude and not have this pulled fast off the net. As I said with the original real leaks both were removed very fast by DreamWorks.

All three studios would have been pulled from the Netflix list and most definitely in the case of VSI and Chinkel SA they would have their preferred vendor award taken away. "Netflix Preferred Vendor of the Year - Timed Text (High Volume) for 2018.”

Not only would the actors from the shows be blacklisted for their willingness to participate in what would be seen as a very big Legal copyright issue, but also Netflix, WEP, DreamWorks and NBCUniversal would probably, along with other companies, never want to work with them again.

Then there’s the fact that romelle-against-the-antis got a confession from the first leaker saying that they faked the leaks.

With all this being said…and I’m sure others can add onto this with their own information, you can make your own call if this is fake or real. I’m not going to tell anyone what to believe, but for me there’s enough proof that make me believe that this whole thing is an elaborate hoax set up to drive the fans into extreme case of worry.

So please guys…. Forget about this, just wait till the season comes out and let the chips fall where they may. Go outside, find another show to watch for the time, enjoy the fact that Halloween is only a few days away, get ready to go shopping for the holidays, make something! I just hope the Voltron Fandom will relax.

Links here to all the stuff:

https://huntypastellance.tumblr.com/post/179486029100/leaks-discourse-update

https://www.vsi-paris.tv/nos-services/voice-over

https://www.vsi-paris.tv/en/dubbing

https://www.vsi.tv/news/netflix-preferred-vendor-year

https://www.vsi.tv/facilities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSI_Group

http://romelle-against-antis.tumblr.com/day/2018/10/23/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Gold_USA#Legal_issues_regarding_Macross_copyright

 Thank you’s go here.

@aquaburst07

@rsasai

@springofviolets

@ladynoctern

@romelle-against-antis against antis

@huntypastellance

And a whole lot of Anons. With this being said, this will be my last update until something major comes out. 

Side note So this..

is a actual photo from the screening of the actual end of the show with JDM and LM. It’s from JDS’s twitter account. Actors and crew and whoever came to see it signed an NDA and I expect that anyone claming to be leaking from this would be taken down and probably fired or fined for leaking anything from that screening. 

Honestly with the clues here I”m betting that Matt and his girlfriend will be the ones having the wedding, or someone there previous screening that they already decorated and left that stuff up there from that event.  Either way, everyone take a deep breath and relax until December...then you can freak out. 

[go-diane-winchester]

How incorrect tagging contributes to SPN ship wars

@radioabsurd left this very impassioned rant about the behavior of SPN fandom in the main tags.  Let me point out that there are things here, that I would say are correct.  There are things however, that I am not happy with.  I am not certain about this person's sincerely.  Let me put it that way.  I edited bits that contained blasphemy because I don't want that nonsense in my post.  I also added bold font to the bits that made me smirk.  Other than that, everything is as it appears.  My commentary is in italics and brackets.  Thank to doll face for forwarding this to me. 

Supernatural Fandom

If you hate the actual angel Jensen Ackles, don’t talk to me, like my shit or any of that.

[A polite suggestion for people to ignore her]

If you hate the actual angel Misha Collins, fuck off and don’t talk to me or like my shit.

[Disrespecting Misha warrant the use of profanity.]

If you hate on the actual angel Jared Padalecki, please block me or you will get blocked.

[A please is thrown in, so the politeness is back.  Also, note the order in which these actors are mentioned.  Any other person would mention Misha last.  But no, Jared gets last place, like an afterthought.]

I’m so tired of this hate people give each other in the fandom with the ship wars and shit.

[Honey, I would like to point out that all the hate, especially the violent ones directed to the actors, comes solely from the destiel shippers.  Everyone else retaliates.]

I FUCKING ship #destiel and #cockles, but in no way do I think J2 are not important to each other. They are the bestest of friends. In no way do I hate on Daneel, Vicki, or Gen(They are all actually queens).

[Well, at least you agree that the Js friendship is hated on by the Misha shippers.  The wife hate is a landmine.  Do people hate the wives because they ship the boys or because they genuinely found nothing to like in the wives?  I don't really care much for an actor's relatives.  But if the boys are happy, whatever rocks their boats.  Besides, who they marry is not my business.  Out of sight.  Out of mind.  If I like them, I would have no reason to go overboard and call them 'queens'.  But that is just my opinion on the subject.  Julia Roberts was never called a queen, despite her success.  Just pointing that out.  Do I think they deserve any hate?  I don't know them well enough to answer that one.  But if you put yourself out there, you are going to get the bad attention with the good.  As long as the hate doesn't extend to death threats, I say freedom of speech.  Just tag it appropriately.] 

Even If I don’t ship #wincest I’m not going to FUCKING hate on somebody for their ship because guess what! I FUCKING ship #thorki and #t'cherik and wow I must be such a disgusting human being but these are freaking fictional characters and aren’t real! (Not talking about real people ships)

[This seems friendly enough until you get to the second mention of this topic.]

If you don’t agree with something please FUCKING get over it and block it or ignore it.

[You should see the replies I get, from hellers I call out of tagging incorrectly.  They don't block or ignore.] 

Jeez, and all the ships hate on the wives and the other people on the show, not just one ship. XXXX, why am I even in this fandom.

[I concur.  There are haters of ships and people.  But unless you go into their appropriate tags, you will never find them.  Guess who tags all their hateful filth, including calling Jensen a homophobe, in the main tags? Yep, the destihellers.]

Also, if I get freaking hate on shipping #thorki (they’re not even real brothers okay, get over it) or #t'cherik (in the comics theyre not cousins thank you very much) and your in the supernatural fandom then your actually the problem.

[I don't know how to tell you this, but Sam and Dean are not real brothers either.  They are fictional.  So basically, in an offhanded manner, you have kind of insulted the people, you are telling others not to insult.  Just thought I would point that out.] 

haters get on my nerves 👌🏽

[You are absolutely right.  I cant stand them either.  Especially the ones who tell Jared to kill himself and threaten to kill Jensen.  All destihellers.  I don't deal with haters as much.  Because I believe it is your prerogative to hate whoever you want.  As long as you tag it properly.  But I draw the line at death threats, because the hate has moved into malevolent territory.  That is why I don't go onto the anti tags.  Let them hate.  But when possible felony becomes an issue, I speak up.]

(there might be spelling errors but that’s life so what eves)

 [True!  My typing is atrocious.]

My issue with this rant: 

I appreciate the effort.  Don't get me wrong.  But there are issues presenting themselves here.  This rant is addressed to the entire fandom.  The problem is that is doesn't differentiate between the instigators and the retaliators.  There is an assumption, within the rant, that everyone should like the same things in the same manner without personal opinion or prejudice.  And to be honest, that kind of uniformity in human psychology, is unheard of in human societies.  We are all different.  We cannot be expected to enthusiastically love anyone or anything unless we have been given viable reason to.  The other baffling thing on this post is the anti Vicki tag.  Interestingly, there is no other post with this tag.  As far as I can see, nobody hates Victoria.  People are generally quite indifferent towards her. 

So you are basically giving fandom and onlookers the impression that this woman gets hated when, in reality, she doesn't even force a blimp in the radar.  The only time I saw her being discussed, was when I watched in bemused amazement , as J2 tinhats were comparing her to one of the Js wives and talking about how much more nicer she was and how they respected her more.  So those particular J fans don't hate Victoria.  Do Misha's fans hate her?  If so, how are they tagging their hate.  I haven't seen anything. 

You post makes no mention of actor harassment, cast and crew harassment, threats of arson and vandalism and actual attacks on fans by other fans.  There is a different between someone saying ''I cant stand Vicky'' and ''I am going to burn Vicky's home down, while she is still in it''.  A similar arson threat was sent to Jensen by a Misha fan.  Receipts for this, and other threats, are on my blog.  To my logic, death threats are a more pressing issue than hate.  All of the aforementioned are by destiel shipping and Misha stanning perpetrators.  To people who are not aware of this reality, if they read this post, they will assume that everyone in the fandom is hateful.  They won't know about the truth.  So no, all the shippers do not have an equal hand in trouble making.  There are some that are worse than others. 

Finally, your tagging is contradictory and troublesome.  Tumblr recognizes 30 tags only, but the most effective are the first five.  For a post of this nature, you shouldn't have tagged Danneel twice.  Danneel has fans from her other endeavors. like One Tree Hill, who are not SPN fans.  They don't need to see this drama, which has nothing to do with them.  So that tag is a general/main tag and you should stay out of it.  The last two tags are for ships outside our fandom, and basically what you have done, by including those tags, is exposed outsiders to the dirty laundry that this fandom is known for.  This is where SPN's faulty reputation comes from.  ''Mentions'' is also a very widely used external tag.  It has not an SPN related tag, neither is it related to this post.  Tagging this post under that tag, also brings this fandom into disrepute.  The tags on this post, does this fandom no favors.   

The post is not a hate post, [you are reprimanding all and sundry over putrid behavior] and therefore does not belong in the anti tags.  If you are trying to right the wrongs of this fandom, do it in the main ship tags, for the whole shipping section of fandom to see.  You cant tell people how to feel about someone.  And posting this particular rant in the anti tags, is essentially you telling those people not to hate whoever they genuinely cant stand.  If you are talking about a ship, tag the ship.  If you tag your post #anti Jensen, you are telling people, this post is about why I hate Jensen.  That is the point of that tag.  That is not exactly what your post is about, is it?  Now I tag in the main tags, and not in the anti tags because I tackle any subject that is going to cause a death threat to reach Jensen.  That is the policy behind my tagging system.  Your tagging system doesn't seem to make sense.  You cant tag Jensen and anti Jensen.  These two tags contradict each other. 

Don't tag the characters on a TV show, because that is not what your post is about.  People who are non-shipping fans of Dean Winchester, don't want to be bombarded with this shipping-related rant.  This is not courteous to them.  Also, if you misspell a tag, the tag has consequently been rendered useless.  So there is essentially no point in having that tag.  Just replace or remove it.  Its not that hard.  Also, I don't think you know what a bibro is.  There are non-shippers amongst them.  So why are they a part of this ship-war rant?  You can't tag SPN or Supernatural, because the entire fandom doesn't need to see this.  The entire fandom are not shippers.  You were not addressing the entire fandom, so leave them out of it.  In fact, your title is incorrect too. 

Judging by the crux of your post, the tags should have been:

Destiel, Wincest, Cockles, J2 Tinhats, Wincestiel  

All the ship names are present.  So anyone who is involved with these ships will read them and understand.  If you want to add more tags [which I don't recommend] then add the following:

Sabriel, sastiel

I would tag these two ships because they are ships that three actors are a part of.  I don't recommend tagging the actor's names, because the post is not about them, but about shipper behavior.  They are merely mentioned as the motivation behind the hate, by your logic.  Their names are still general tags, and people searching Jared Padalecki might hate shipping and this post will give credulity to their hatred because it is invasive and makes shippers looks bad....well, worse would be the apt word to use.

I am conflicted about the motive of the rant.  No, I don't believe any of the actors are ''actual angels''.  They are human and flawed, some more than others.  I don't think their wives of sovereign control of anything.  But I appreciate the effort in bridge-building.  The doll face that sent me this, found the wincest remark offensive, but I am willing to give your the benefit of the doubt on that one, because I assume it was an honest mistake.  I am not a wincest fan though, which I why I am reacting a little differently.  Perhaps, because I am not emotionally invested. 

P.S.:  Speaking of wincest, someone told me that even wincest ship posts are being tagged with the actor's and character's names.  I don't care what you ship, but by using general tags, you are not driving on your lane.  Stop mistagging.  Unless Jared Padalecki is really pregnant with someone's lovechild, don't tag him in an mpreg post.  I don't think he wants people knowing about his baby bump.  Tag politely.  Tags like Top!Sam and Bottom!Cas are NOT general tags, so that is ok.  But Sam Winchester and Jared Padalecki, for example, are general tags, so keep your shippy stuff away from it.  Wincest fans, its your job to clean house. 

The reason why I am lenient with the wincest ship and J2 tinhatters, is because they are not repeat and frequent offenders, and they don't send death threats to actors.  In fact, if you search the wincest tag, you find a small handful of offenders, and a destiel offender who tagged her post weecest and wincest even though it was about destiel.  Now, why do that? 

Respect the tags.  Respect the actors.  Stop behaving like SPN owes you something, and keep your fantasy on your side of the fandom.

Please excuse the typos.

[moviestorian]

Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

[scarcesplendor-blog]

overall;;

This blog is a selective roleplay blog coming to you all the way from Germany. What I’m trying to point out here is, that I interact with my mutuals only. You can become a mutual by following me and waiting for me to follow back. If I don’t follow back within 14 days, then I most likely won’t at all. Reasons for that can differ but the main reason is probably that I don’t see our muses interact. Don’t take this personal, we all have different tastes and that is completely fine. Once we are mutuals, please feel invited to send me memes, starters and appear in my IMs at any times. In return, once we are mutuals, you can expect that I will try to reach you through your IMs to ask about our first interaction. This is a simple preference of mine as it makes me nervous to just send a meme as an icebreaker or set up a random starter with the hope that you’ll reply. I am more likely to roleplay with you if you reply to that message. If you don’t and don’t show any other sign of trying to roleplay with me, it will simply result in an unfollow.

Also, I am not my muse. Because of that I am sure that my portrayal of her may not be 100% accurate however, I try to stay as close to the things we know about her as possible.

Next, I am a multi-shipper. This means that I don’t believe in exclusive ships and that there is no limit to how many different blogs of the same muse I will interact with. Therefore, should you see that I already interact with 5 different Chuck Bass’, feel free to ask me for interaction with your Chuck muse too. I love shipping but please, read the rules about that before trying to ship with my muses. I also love having multiple threads if our muses get along well.

godmodding;;

Do N O T, under any circumstances, try to tell my muse what to do. If you are interested in a thread with any of my muses, I take it that you are interested in what I write as well. So, should I notice that you start pushing situations and force my muse to do things I will drop the thread on the spot. As a writer, I feel like it is my right to decide what and what not my muse does. This can also be a reason for me to unfollow you.

I understand that small things happen when our muses interact. For instance, when they enter a café together and you decide that my muse enters before yours, that is fine. But don’t decide for me whether my muse kisses yours or says yes to something without me saying so.

shipping/nsfw;;

If there is one thing I care about when it comes to shipping, then it’s chemistry. Regardless of whether I like your muse or not, I will only allow a ship if there is something between our muses. Don’t force a ship, if there is chemistry the two of us will notice and can elaborate on it. Also, all my muses do not care about gender at all. Again, chemistry is more important than that.

Concerning the naughty, I don’t mind writing it out but if you are more comfortable with the fade-to-black-method then please let me know in time. I do not want you to feel uncomfortable with the thread we are writing. Generally though, I don’t do porn without a plot and it’s also not the main theme of my blog. It’s fun to write it out at times but believe me, I will be far more excited about building up a proper relationship than just getting it on with your muse. I M P O R T A N T: If you are under 18 I will not do anything nsfw related with you. That is simply for my own security.

formatting;;

When it comes to formatting I really don’t care how you edit your posts. As long as your writing is nice, it is completely fine by me if you don’t edit your posts at all.

For me, though, I use sub font and symbols. All icons are either, given to me by friends or created by me. Please, do not steal them. If you ask kindly I don’t mind sharing them with you. PSDs are not mine.

original characters and other universes;;

I am critical of them. If you: use a porn actress/actor as your face claim, I am not interested. For me, it is easier to understand your character should you have a description/bio of it on your blog. It increases the chance of me being interested in and following you. If you don’t have this, I won’t be able to know what your character is all about which is just a reason for me to stay away. I will have to assume that you didn’t really plan anything for your character. Please note, I know this sounds extremely critical but it is solely a rule so I stay motivated to reply to our thread. If I don’t get the character you created, then I am less likely to reply frequently and I would not want to do that to you. I’m highly interested in meeting OC’s however if I don’t see our muses interact, that’s just that.

When it comes to characters from other shows, movies or books, I am open to interacting. In fact, I love putting Blair in other universes too to explore her character from other perspectives. If none of my verses fit your universe, don’t worry about it. I’m sure we can establish a verse together that pleases the both of us. Should I not know your muse it, of course, would be helpful to read something about them but I am really easy going about that. Probably, I will contact you or google the name of your muse and decide based on that. 

the mun;;

I’m Ay, 22 and born in Germany, living in Katar now. I’m a huge wrestling nerd and when I don’t busy myself with something related to that, I go to university, abuse my netflix account or roleplay. My other rp blog is wickedwyrms and I bring 7 years of roleplay experience with me. Because of that please note, I will not be online each and every day. Please understand that there will be times when I need longer to reply than on other days. Concerning where I am from, as you can see, I am not from a country in which English is the first language. Please be kind and understanding should I make any sort of spelling or grammar mistakes.

For me, it is really important to talk to you when our muses interact just so I can feel out whether you’re comfortable around me or not. I am really awkward and a little bit shy when it comes to meeting people online. Simply because I can’t read into your facial expressions and tone of voice so please understand when I am insecure. But I do try to send a message to all of my mutuals in order to trigger some sort of interaction.

And with that, thank you for coming to my small presentation and I hope to meet you soon!