#eternal disappointment

[nitrateglow]

Thoughts on Napoleon (2023)

Saw the Napoleon movie last night and was pretty disappointed. It was my most anticipated film this year and wow... maybe the 4-hour cut is better? Because this movie just felt psychologically shallow and overly compressed. 2 1/2 hours just isn't enough time to cover three decades of history.

Not that this film is good history. I cringed at Ridley Scott's pathetic defense of his historical inaccuracies: "You weren't there, I wasn't there, stfu, I can do whatever I want." Did anyone tell Ridley about this thing called primary sources? Or historical records? Or biographies and history books? Like, THAT'S HOW WE KNOW ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Like, I was prepared for basic inaccuracies when I saw how they depicted Marie Antoinette's execution in the trailer (no shorn hair, not in white). But man... they really oversimplify the French Revolution and never go into why Napoleon is such a fascinating historical figure, both revered and despised, with an incredibly complicated legacy.

Agnes Poirer's review has a great passage which sums up my frustration with the film as a Napoleon biopic:

"[Ridley Scott] even seems ignorant of the fact that there are two men in Napoleon: there is Bonaparte, a hero of the French Revolution who gave France and Europe institutions of the Enlightenment era that still exist today, and who liberated Jewish communities from their European ghettos; and there is Napoleon, the hero turned weary authoritarian ruler, whose military campaigns drained a whole nation of its youth and wealth. Beyond facts, Scott’s great historical deficiency is to ignore the politics; instead giving us Napoleon’s tactics on the battlefield as a mirror to his sex life. It’s inept, crass and boring."

There's often the sentiment that historically inaccurate movies can be forgiven somewhat if they make for compelling drama. The problem with Napoleon is that the real history IS compelling drama and Scott's film is just shallow spectacle with the occasional goofy gag masquerading as satire. The filmmakers seem to be going for dark comedy, but the approach only sporadically works because much of the humor falls flat (I saw this in an almost full theater and the comedy scenes mostly played to dead silence-- I felt secondhand embarrassment for the actors at times). The humor just consists of Napoleon being awkward or shouting meme-able things ("DESTINY HAS BROUGHT ME THIS LAMB CHOP!" *tries to start food fight*). Yeah, The Death of Stalin it is not.

Joaquin Phoenix's performance is also one-note and static-- his Napoleon never seems to age, visually or inwardly, and he never captures the man's famous charisma, so I never bought that any army would possess an ounce of loyalty to him. Vanessa Kirby fares better as the alluring and tragic Josephine, but even her performance felt compromised and choppy-- probably due to this being whittled down from the 4-hour cut.

Aside from Phoenix's Grumpy Cat face Napoleon and Kirby's Josephine, none of the other characters leave much of an impression, good or bad. Historical figures flit in and out of the story, barely making more than uninteresting cameos. I felt like I was watching a clipshow for a miniseries, not a self-contained movie. If you don't know the basic outline of the history being depicted, I can only imagine how confusing this movie must be.

Ugh, this was just so disappointing! I was never bored while watching it, but I just left the theater empty. The more I think about it, the less I like it.

[hope-to-hell]

This is the second time I’ve gotten a comment very similar to this on my ao3. Getting me all excited with a comment notification only to get this generic ass spam? Knock it the fuck off.

[chattematsu]

[4.0 archon quest spoilers]

[shanastoryteller]

The day his deal comes due, Sam goes missing.

Dean tells himself it’s nothing, that he’s gotten caught up in some research, some last ditch, hail mary nonsense and that he’s just turned his phone off and everything’s fine, that he wouldn’t do something stupid, that he wouldn’t break his promise.

He tells himself that for the first two minutes after he cracks his eyes open and sees the empty bed across from him, and the first time his call goes straight to voicemail, and not much after that. Sam’s broken his promises over things significantly less important to him than his brother’s life.

Dean is dressed and in the Impala five minutes later, heart thudding wildly in his chest. He calls Bobby, Ellen, everyone he can think of, but none of them have heard from Sam, none of them have eyes on him. Sam was with him last night, even if he boosted a car, there’s only so far he can get.

He keeps calling, keep searching, desperate to stop whatever he’s trying to do, to find him, to see his brother one last time before he’s dragged to hell. To make sure Sam is going to be okay after he’s dragged to hell. But the hours tick down, the sun sets, and he can’t find a trace of him. He’s so exhausted and heart sick that when he goes to call Sam again it takes him a long time to read the number on his phone, eyes swimming, the time not making any sense.

1:03

That’s not possible.

That’s not –

His phone rings, blocking out the time with Bobby’s name across the screen, and he answers it but his throat is too thick to say anything.

“Dean?” Bobby says tentatively. “Are you – I got an email from Sam. It just said, I mean, did–“

“What did it say, Bobby?” he asks, even though he’s sure he knows.

Bobby sucks in a breath at his voice, because he knows just as well as Dean that he should be screaming in hell right now, not answering his phone. “To take care of you.”

Dean drops the phone, hears Bobby still talking as he grips the wheel and presses his forehead against the back of his hands. This is what he’d been afraid of. This is why he hadn’t wanted to mess with the deal in first place. This is the one thing he’d begged Sam not to do.

It's easy to find a crossroad.

The demon is laughing at him when it shows up, wicked grin in a pretty face. “That didn’t take you long, boy.”

It’s a different demon than the one he delt with, obviously, but Dean figures they all know the same shit, since demons are a bunch of gossips. “This wasn’t the deal. My brother lives and I die.”

“You traded your soul for your brother’s life,” she corrects, so amused by all this that all he wants to do is kill her, to exorcise her, to make her scream. “Just like your father traded his for yours. There’s no reason Sammy can’t make his own trade. Man, but is your family fucked up. Maybe if you’d just settled down like little Sammy wanted, you wouldn’t all be bargaining for each other’s lives like haggling at a flea market.”

“Untrade it,” he snaps. “My soul for him alive, come on, no year, no waiting, you bring him back and take me to hell right now.”

She laughs in his face. “You don’t have anything to bargain with, boy.”

“My soul,” he repeats, “That’s what this is about, isn’t?”

“Oh, it’s what it’s all about,” she says. “But Sammy’s a clever boy. You know that, don’t you? He didn’t trade his soul for your life, he didn’t have to. You didn’t die. No, he traded it for your soul. Sorry, honey, but your credits been declined.”

At first he doesn’t understand. Sam traded his soul for Dean’s, exactly, so there’s no reason he can’t trade it right back. Then he gets it.

She sees the exact moment it clicks, the moment despair and horror sweep across his face too quickly for him to stop them. “That’s right. Little brother owns your soul now. For some reason he didn’t think you’d take proper care of it. You have it because that’s where he wants it, but no one will be making any deals with you, Dean Winchester. You can’t sell a soul you don’t own.”

“You can’t,” he has to clear his throat, “you can’t just come in and change things at the eleventh hour-”

“Eleventh hour?” she interrupts. “Sammy made his deal eleven months ago.”

His mouth is so dry he can’t speak.

“Isn’t it funny?” she asks, head cocked to the side. “All this time, the deal he’s been trying to get out of wasn’t yours, but his own. Maybe the two of you might have even managed it, except you just wouldn’t help, would you? Insisting that he not research, that he not look for a way out, and he spent so much time trying to convince you, coaxing you to talk about your feelings when he knew you were safe, all he because he thought it would make you feel better when he was gone, because he couldn’t tell you the truth and talk about how scared he was, so talking about your fear was as close as he could get.”

Dean’s going to be sick. “Don’t – please, please, I’ll give you anything-”

“You don’t have anything,” she says, gleeful. “You want to know why I agreed? The thing that made it just too delicious to refuse? Sammy’s down there, just starting in on an eternity of torture, and all he has to do get out of it is give up your soul. It’s his, after all, and he can put the original deal back in place any time he chooses. Just one moment of weakness on his end and his beloved big brother will be on the rack instead.” She sighs happily. “It’s almost as good as anything we’re doing to him down there, the knowledge that if he slips up for even a moment then it would all be for nothing. I couldn’t have found a way to twist the knife deeper if I tried.”

There’s vomit crawling its way up his throat and he has to swallow it down before he can speak. “I can’t – I’ll do whatever you want, please, there has to be something.”

She leans forward, cruelty and delight shining in her eyes. “The only thing you can do is what you’ve been telling your precious baby brother to do for the past year. Accept it. Move on. Live a good life so his sacrifice isn’t in vain.”

God. How can she – how can Sammy expect him to –

He’s doubling over, finally upchucking what little he’s ate today, and he’s dry heaving on the dirt when he hears the fading sound of her laughter.

This can’t be real. This has to be Hell, he has to be in it right now. He has to be.

[herewegobebe]

TAEMIN | The 5th Mini Album 'ETERNAL' Album Preview [x]

[trashyshrew]

[eternal-everblaze]

If there isnt mention of stabbing in unraveled I will be disappointed since Keefe is supposed to be in london at some point and I think it would be funny if he kept getting into fights with british people

[sansculottides]

playing disco elysium for the first time felt so familiar because it was made by communists. i kept getting the feeling of - i see you! i know you! every time i came across encyclopedia worldbuilding checks and recognized the tools of historical materialism brilliantly used. i wince when i see people describe DE as just being ironic about communism or whatever - no! this is the most communist game ive ever played!

sometimes i see people point to the deserter's character as evidence that DE isn't truly a communist work, but i don't think the deserter is meant to be a paragon of communism in the game. he's a revolutionary stuck in the past and that is his grave error. "The material base for an uprising has ended," "The historical condition for a revolutionary opportunity has passed. It will not come back anymore. However hard I try, whatever I do." but everything you've seen the game proves his statement wrong. DE's world still has the objective conditions for revolution because the working masses are sick of all the ruling order's shit, and there are plentiful opportunities to develop the subjective forces as we see in the communist quest that young people are willing to continue the communist struggle. but the deserter cant see that from his position and his trauma - ultimately this is what makes him fail as a communist because he has let go of the basic principles: that world is always changing; that change is made by people, through class struggle; that a communist must always be grounded and alert of their own material context.

the scene in the communist quest where you get through to steban and it tells you that "you're witnessing his ironic armor melt before you" - i think that was the devs taking their ironic mask off, too. i believe that because steban's reasons for his communism are the same as mine. we have to struggle even if it's hard and even if they kill us because this is what keeps us human. to struggle for freedom is the next best thing to actually being free. to fight for communism is to fight for the future. it is not about being imprisoned by failures of the past. in fact it IS about failure - because the movement is the working class's school in the struggle for power and we need to learn from each failure and move forward.

i just know that if my comrades and i were somehow in a room with the devs and we had to sing the internationale, we would all know the words. in different languages, but we'll sing the same melody and when we get to the part, the word "international" will be sung in unison. do you get me? i think disco elysium is to some young game-savvy communists of the world today as "what is to be done" was to lenin's generation. something something international communist solidarity...

[chaoticdazefire-new]

Give us Eternal Floette in Legends Z-A

[djkibrit]

One of my favorite moments in eternal punishment <3

[glassrunner]

while isha was very much a cutesy character that helped soften some of the harsh moments of season 2, i ultimately feel that her existence was unnecessary.

the moment she appeared onscreen and immediately tagged along with jinx, i got the sense that she was incredibly hamfisted into the plot for the purpose of eventually making jinx Suffer More. the progression of their relationship (which i understand happened over a timeskip, but seriously that timeskip is doing too much heavy lifting -- a problem in its own) from "annoying kid following me around" to "new little sister" isn't elegantly alluded to, it's constantly made extremely obvious. and just to make sure we get the point, riot puts the final nail into that narrative coffin by having jinx literally say aloud that isha is a basically a younger version of powder and paints her hair blue. and then two episodes later, she's gone. just to give jinx yet another reason to go insane, which she doesn't really need.

isha has literally no dialogue. she serves to remind the audience of jinx's past, minus the trauma. it's easy and expected to project a young powder onto every scene she's in, which is just a waste of a new character. but even before the direct isha/powder comparison, jinx declares that she's discarded that persona, that "jinx" is no more. somehow, isha's mere presence even calms down jinx's psychosis to the point that she has a mild break for presumably the first time in a while only after isha is taken away, which just feels extremely lazy and gratuitous -- like the big bad Insanity is just a convenient lever to pull when the plot needs more tension and drama, rather than something that jinx has suffered from her whole life, and which silco's death amplified to the max.

all of the interesting plotlines i was looking forward to, like caitlyn's spiral into vengeance and fascism, jinx's rage and grief and psychosis causing chaos, vi and caitlyn either reconciling or being unable to in the end... it all just feels like it was brushed aside. jinx, after firing a rocket that killed half the piltover council, decides she just won't fight piltover anymore; caitlyn, who's grateful for ambessa's support and guidance in her crackdown on zaun, suddenly turns on her to aid vi; vi, forgetting her life-threatening feud with jinx, abruptly remembers they indeed are sisters who shared a life. so many conflicts conveniently resolved in seconds, when they should've taken at least a few minutes to untangle -- all because we needed so much time devoted to isha and jinx's relationship.

don't get me wrong, i LOVE the emotional moments that have been present so far. i think they do still hit, but their beauty is definitely muted because the pacing is a complete disaster. it was really difficult to enjoy isha having a bug battle with jinx when 1. i didn't even really recognize that jinx and 2. i was constantly thinking about what the other characters were doing. with how many plotlines need to be wrapped up before the finale (zaun's independence, the black rose vs. the medarda clan, mel's supposed magehood, etc.), i'm really not confident that we'll get a satisfying ending, and honestly i wouldn't have minded not having isha in the plot at all if it meant we could get a more coherent and less rushed overarching storyline.

[fanfoolishness]

I know there are plenty of people who didn’t like Veilguard

I know there are many legitimate reasons to do so

I know there could have been XYZ paths we could have taken instead

But over here? I’m just having too much fun and I love every character balls to the wall and I’m just so happy to be back in Thedas 🥰

[sumamitt]

this hits incredibly different

1) after having read nona the ninth

2) after having read the magician's apprentice

[ct7567scyarika]

Visions in the Dark/SWtOR spoilers

Outlander:

[draw-you-coward]

i want to thank the pillars of eternity fandom for such a positive response to my last portrait! it genuinely gave me so much motivation to make a better one 😅

[monikamonik]

・꙳𓂂•.♡・❥・♡꙳𓂂•.

When a woman stops being jealous, stops asking, doesn't text first, seems uninterested in your actions, stops asking about other women in your life and responds to everything with "it's okay" or "I'm not mad", know that the last tear has fallen. She no longer cares what happens. A woman doesn't make noise when she leaves. She made noise when she wanted to stay but you didn't listen. When her silence speaks louder than words, understand that it's not because she's calm, but because she's done, tired of fighting for someone who made her feel like she wasn't worth the effort. She gave it her all, but when her peace became more valuable than her pain, she chose herself. That's when you realize the quiet departure of a woman who once loved you unconditionally. The brutal truth is that you didn't lose her when she left, you lost her the moment you started treating her like an option, not someone worth fighting for.

** ˚ ✦𓂃☆𝔀𝓮𝓫･࿐*

・꙳𓂂•.♡・❥・♡꙳𓂂•.