#first robin and him as co death buddies

[mynabirb]

I...have joined the give aventurine roses agenda

does anyone want to join me on the aventurine/argenti train. it's got all the perks of being as funny as any other argenti ship - especially given the random absurdity of their first meeting. what the hell was argenti doing in the depths of the nihility? who even knows anymore man. but like also i think it has the potential to be really sweet?

aventurine hasn't let anyone In since his sister died. he's long since forgotten how to Trust, and Love, and how to BE Loved. and this, combined with enormous amounts of survivor's guilt and trauma and being treated as an object, has really done a number on his self-esteem. he doesn't act like it (because he's learned that it's dangerous to be vulnerable; it's the one gamble he's not willing to take), but 2.1 gave us that glimpse into his inner dialogue and it is Bad in there

between his conversation with acheron, the note veritas left for him, and finding a sense of closure in the apparition of his younger self, he's on track to becoming better. we can see it in the way he pretty much immediately reaches out to the trailblazer to get some things off his chest once he gets his phone working again. and the way he's accepting what is basically a form of therapy from the doctors of chaos. but his self-hatred has been building up for years, and it's going to take a long time to unpack and unlearn all of that

so like, in comes argenti, right? he's a loud show-off, but he is SO earnest. he sees the beauty in everything and everyone. he's kind, and gentle, and so full of love. he also comes off as a bit... lonely to me? he's spent so much of his life chasing after idrila's shadow, and only catching a glimpse of them in his many near-death experiences (and isn't that something to think about...........). he's not like, secretly miserable or faking or anything - i think his exuberance is 1000% genuine. but humans are social creatures; everyone wants and requires at least some form of closeness and intimacy. to have a love to pursue in This realm... someone he can see and hold without needing to have one foot in an early grave . i think that would be good for him. that's all

anyway, it's clear that argenti was pretty enchanted by aventurine

like yeah that's kind of just how he talks normally but !?@,%&#& that's a lot of awfully romantic things to say about one specific person out of the several you apparently rescued (??????? god i love this guy he makes no sense. literally why are you even here bud). it seems that aventurine's more subdued state left an impression on him too, and well wouldn't it be pretty in character for him to start popping in randomly... as he does, because he can apparently just go wherever the fuck he wants. to check on this sad yet oh so beautiful peacock.. to try to bring a true smile to his face... to show him how kind and beautiful the universe can be......

i think aventurine might have a hard time laughing off offers of comfort and company and the beginnings of a courtship if it comes from someone like argenti. this man couldn't be disingenuous if he tried. he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve as much as he rips it out of his chest to show you. it'll be a learning curve regardless - aventurine is too used to needing to constantly prove his worth to keep anyone around and to keep them from hurting him

but do you see it. do you see the vision. do you see how Sweet this could be. aventurine is about to receive more roses than he'll know what to do with

[vechter]

your outsiders era dick + roy fic was so good it made me re-read outsiders 2003 AND batman and the outsiders!! something i love about outsiders dick is the glimpses of who he used to be before donna's death that periodically resurface and how *we* never actually see him consciously suppress his old self yet he comes across as automaton-like anyway because we never actually see his POV until indigo's death... but also how these glimpses come out more and more after his big fight with roy and jade ousts him as leader, because it's like a giant burden has been lifted from his shoulders ;_;

for example, when roy suspects shift was the traitor and blasts him away, dick is the one who immediately chastises him and comforts indigo (comforts her. can you imagine... the same robot that he detested so much at first over donna...)

likewise the moment he's fired as leader he immediately becomes the most efficient leader the group has had LMAO, because during the child trafficking/america's most wanted arc jade was clearly in over her head because these are not the kinds of problems she's used to dealing with as a green lantern, and dick clearly notices and suggests the whole plan of going public, like it doesn't escape me that he's in the center forefront of all the group shots in that arc and grace always reports to him first... like ok "it's not my team anymore, i just work here" sure buddy whatever you say smh.....

idk it's just funny to me how dick does in fact start to mentally recover over the course of outsiders, but it's by doing the exact opposite of the things that roy planned. in fact you could take it a step further and say that, even though roy berated him about becoming too much like batman and thus losing his own humanity, it's actually bruce/batman's team who helped him recover the most??!! he's most comfortable around the og rex/metamorpho (who was on batman's original outsiders team) whenever he drops by to check on shift, and i KNOW it's post-return of donna troy but in the dr. sivana arc he's the most jovial he's ever been with *katana* who knows bruce very well at this point and was, again, one of the co-founders of the original outsiders... but tbh even at the very beginning in the outsiders annual, when dick is reporting back to bruce about the new team roy put together, the fact that he tells him he's naming them the outsiders to honor him and his old team and then they both mutually smile while walking away from each other... WHAT THE FUKC!!!! what is this.... mind you it's like the first time dick had smiled since donna's death and i can count on one hand the number of times he smiled after.....

i guess i'm just noticing these things because when reading 80s batman and the outsiders, bruce is also at his lowest point (...at the time. this was pre-crisis and life was happier so he's still pretty warm and fluffy comparatively) because he just resigned from the justice league after an argument with clark and diana about their methods and stuff, BUT he's most tender when he's reminiscing about robin... like there's this one part where he puts katana and this new young teenage superhero halo together on a mission and black lightning's like, "hey are you sure you wanna let a grim, jaded antihero like katana hang around a bright-eyed kid like halo" and batman says, "no, having a kid around is just what katana needs right now" and the panel (https://files.catbox.moe/gqrlsh.png) shows a flashback of himself and dick as robin laughing and swinging above the rooftops....! AUGHHHHHH!!!!

LIKE it's just. sorry this was supposed to be about dick/roy but somehow it really always comes back to bruce and dick huh. dynamic duo my beloved.... one of the most compelling platonic soulmate pairs in fiction ever...... as telos says in earth-2: convergence, "The bond between [dick grayson] and Bruce Wayne echoes in every reality..."

first of all, thank you so much anon! i'm glad you enjoyed the fic <3

honestly, i agree with everything you've said here... u have my whole heart for this... esp ur mention of how the first time we see dick smile on page is with bruce in #3 bc i think about it all the time:

as for the bit about how dick doesn't consciously suppress who he was before donna's death... yes!!! it's why i love outsiders '03 so much bc so much it can be read with the lens of being a love letter to dick and roy's grief over donna. like you said, there are moments where you can see glimpses of who he can be when he isn't grieving furiously... just look at him playfully retaliating to tussle with roy in #4:

or my fav ever dickroy panels ever in #11... thesis statement fr:

or him being a bitch and enjoying it in #12... just look at that careful poker face:

but like you said, the moments of levity and genuineness from him increase noticeably after jade ousts him in #16. look at roy being on a call with him right after they worked an op together... telling him to take care in #17:

or any of these:

also... the second he stops being leader, he suddenly becomes much more competent and also stops treating the team as an obligation... look at how quickly and easily he takes charge of his team + the teen titans during the brainiac arc:

but immediately after this happens, shift 'kills' indigo and dick's back to his usual bs but the most compelling takeaway from this is how he admits it is personal. every moment where he denied ownership of the team or pretended he's just a guy who works there... dick grayson... you are a liar:

also... no notes on the bruce of it all. feeling so insane about it.

bruce, forever saving dick, in every possible way he can... even when he doesn't know it. something about how identity crisis is happening simultaneously with outsiders '03... and how bruce is back with the outsiders for batman and the outsiders '07 after dick essentially handed the team back to him. how cass and ollie come on as well. this is alr getting too long so i'm not gonna add more panels but op... i love you for this ask like i could talk about outsiders 2003 forever and ever <3

[porcelana-r0ta]

The Curse of Sight, Part 4

[Part 1] [Part 3] [Part 5]

[Ao3 Link] (Available only to Ao3 users)

Summary: When Wes Weston meets Tim Drake-Wayne, the dots start connecting. And those dots form a Bat.

Ever since Wayne Enterprises’s TikTik went live, Wes has been upgraded from go-fer to Rebecca’s unofficial assistant. He mostly helps pin microphones or scribes for her as she dictates scripts. Sometimes he’s a runner to other departments when she’s too impatient to wait for emailed replies. She also gives him “homework” in the form of scrolling through his TikTok FYP and reporting to her on popular trends and audios so she can keep an eye on teenagers’ interests.

The only real thing he’s still doing with his original internship is his morning coffee runs, which Tim Drake will only occasionally join him on. Not always—he is the co-CEO of WE—but enough that Wes starts to relax on his “Red Robin and Batman are going to rip out my spinal cord” anxieties. His two main concerns are now just “What if Jade tries to make me go back to being a go-fer” and “What if Rebecca wants me to be in another TikTok?”

He’s still running interference with the other teenagers from Amity Park over that one. Especially with Tucker, who had only become more insufferable when he got the letter containing Tim’s signature.

“Wes,” he said into the phone when Wes had finally answered the call instead of pressing decline like he’d done six consecutive times beforehand. “Wes, buddy. I—I need to meet with Tim Drake-Wayne. This is a matter of life and death. WayneTech is only releasing one more PDA and then they’re shutting the PDA line down completely in favor of regular tablets. I can’t let that happen. Wes, please!”

“I think it’s too late for that,” Wes had replied. “Like, this is already in motion. Also, Mr. Drake-Wayne and I aren’t really friends.” He conveniently left out the part where they had known each other long enough to probably be considered friends, at least by normal civilian standards. Wes certainly considers Tim one, at least, but he’s not sure how mutual it is. “I’m just an intern who ran into him on a coffee run, and I got his signature. There’s not much more I can do for you.”

Tucker made the sound of a dying lamb, “Wes, please. I’ll do anything.”

Wes paused, tempted to say, Then admit what Danny is.

He bit his tongue and cleared his throat, “Anything?”

“Anything, man. Please!”

“Then perish.” Wes ended the call and ignored Tucker’s resulting onslaught of texts.

But that was a few days ago, and now Tucker only intermittently asks for Wes to convince Tim to save his beloved line of WayneTech PDAs. Wes wants to send a mean text about outdated technology, but he manages to hold back and continue to leave the other on unread.

Maybe it’s still mean to ghost (ha) him like that, but it’s also mean to harass Wes about the PDAs when he’s just a lowly intern. He just gets the fucking coffee.

(Nevermind the whole, you know, the friendship is real thing.)

Soon, getting coffee for the 73rd floor with Tim turns into hanging out with Tim for a few hours after their shifts. It starts slowly, with Wes mentioning off-hand that he’s going to the library, and Tim mentioning that he hasn’t been to the library in a while, so Wes invites him out. And they go to the library, check out some books, and then realize, Oh, hey, it’s a little late. Wanna head to Batburger for some food? And then they go out to eat and take turns reading the first chapter of the books they’ve chosen to each other.

And then Wes is inviting him over to his house, or Tim is inviting him out to eat, or to the movies, or whatever. No invitation to Wayne Manor, not that Wes expects one or even really wants one—a house full of Bats? No, thanks.

And Wes wasn’t kidding about the kidnapping/hostage bait, either: just last week, Dick Grayson had been held hostage in Bludhaven, not as a police officer, but as Brucie Wayne’s beloved first child. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t even Bludhaven’s own hero Nightwing who saved the day, but rather Gotham City’s Batman and Robin.

So, yeah. Not being spotted at the Manor? Tim wearing sunglasses and hoodies whenever they hang out in public? Totally fine by Wes, thank you very much.

Plus, it keeps Tucker from really blowing his phone up.  

“Hey,” starts Tim one day after being invited over to Wes’s house after work. “Do you think you and Rebecca would be willing to work at a Wayne Gala?”

They’re lazing about on the couch in the living room with Criminal Minds playing on the TV before them. They’re both under separate fuzzy throw blankets with a bowl of popcorn taking up residence on the middle cushion between them.

Wes tilts his head, considering, “What gala? And when?” And more importantly, “Will we be getting overtime for it?”

Tim snorts and shoves a fist full of popcorn into his mouth, chews, swallows, then says, “The Pride Gala toward the end of the month. The 26th. And yes, you’ll get time and a half.”

“Ah,” says Wes. He remembers how much more openly supportive of LGBTQ+ rights Bruce Wayne had become when Tim began dating some guy named Bernard Dowd from his school last year. (Not that he hadn't been supportive beforehand.) They’ve been broken up for a while, but he knows the two are still on friendly terms because the tabloids publish photos of them hanging out every once in a while and hypothesize that the flame is rekindling. “I mean, I have literally no other friends in Gotham, so I’m game. I don’t know about Rebecca, though. She probably has a life.”

“Probably?” Tim asks.

He shrugs, “I mean. She makes a lot of memes. I don’t know what your social life is like if you make as many memes as she does.” He shakes his head to himself, then asks, “I’m guessing you want something on TikTok about the Gala?”

“Yeah.” Tim shifts on the couch so he can face Wes more, and Wes turns as well. “Bruce says that some of Gotham’s elite need a reminder that he’s not a fan of their bigotry and that he doesn’t like doing business with idiots.”

Well. That sounds like the Brucie Wayne who loves his children and made a whole public spectacle of babying Dick Grayson after his rescue in Bludhaven last week.

“I’m down if Rebecca is down,” Wes says. “I don’t know about going if she can’t make it, though. I don’t think I’d do well around rich people without a poor person by my side. Eat the rich and all that—no offense.”

Tim snorts at that, “None taken. We can be kinda snobby. I hope I don’t come off too snobby?”

“Well, you haven’t asked me about my favorite place to go skiing yet, so you’re doing pretty good.”

“I haven’t even been skiing,” Tim says.

Wes thinks about how during his cyberstalking of Tim, he’d found several pictures of the Drake parents on their own skiing vacations, all suspiciously missing Tim, even though he’d have been old enough to attend according to the time stamp. His heart clenches and his body goes cold.

He wraps the blanket around him tighter, “What, no way! That’s criminal. That’s, like, the basic necessity of proving wealth. You need to have Mr. Wayne take you some time.”

Tim’s nose wrinkles in disgust, “Just call him Bruce. Hearing ‘Mr. Wayne’ from someone who isn’t a journalist or an employee is weird.”

“Tim. I am an employee.”

His friend’s ears go a smidge red, probably embarrassed to have forgotten so easily, if Wes had to guess, “You hardly count. Besides, I don’t wanna go skiing. I’d probably break all my limbs.”

Ah, right. The classic “I’m too clumsy to be a superhero” defense. The only Waynes who couldn’t use that excuse were Dick Grayson (a literal Flying Grayson) and Damian Wayne, who would probably pop a blood vessel if he was anything less than the perfect heir.

Danny was genuinely clumsy, at least. Even before he dropped all those beakers in science, he was always tripping over literal air.

“Well, you can do some other rich person activity. Like, I dunno, having a pet tiger, or something.”

“Damian would love that. He has a pet cow in a barn on the Wayne property.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“I would never lie.”

“What’s its name?”

“Her name is Bat-Cow.”

….You’re fucking kidding me.

“Like… after Batman?” These people aren’t subtle. Why the fuck is Wes the only person capable of figuring anything out? Why was he cursed like this?

Or is it the other way around? Is everyone else just cursed with obliviousness, and Wes has some kind of immunity?

“Yeah, like Batman. It’s because she has a spot on her forehead that looks like a bat.”

“Of course she does.” Because why not? It’s not like anyone but Wes has eyes and brain cells, after all. Hell, the Waynes might as well dress up as their alter egos for Halloween. It’s not like anyone will fucking notice. Gotham society would probably have a grand ol' laugh about the ridiculousness of Brucie Wayne dressing up as the Bat. Ha, impossible!

“She’s the reason Damian is a vegetarian.”

“Okay, that’s adorable.”

“It’s really not. He’s a Demon Spawn.”

“That’s a rude thing to call your little brother.” Never mind that he’s called his cousin, Kyle, much worse.

“Ew, spoken like an only child.”

“Shut it. Do you guys have any other pets?”

Tim nods, “Yeah. They’re all Damian’s, though. He has a cat named Alfred the Cat, who isn’t to be confused with Alfred Pennyworth, the butler who’s honestly more like our grandpa and Bruce’s dad. Then there’s Titus, a dog. And Dick has a dog named Haley who he sometimes brings to the Manor for ‘playdates’ with Titus, but it’s really so Damian can fawn over her without feeling embarrassed over it.”

“Gross, that’s sickeningly sweet.” Wes chews some popcorn consideringly, “You know… that might be a good TikTok, too.”

“What? Meeting the pets?”

“No. Well, yes.” He thinks back to some of his mother’s rants, and then Rebecca’s own rants. “Not to make it sound like my mom just tells me everything, but she says that the public views Damian as kinda snobby. Or at least stiff. Letting him do some kind of ‘introducing the Wayne Family Pets’ TikTok might help with that. People love pets."

“Yeah, well, Damian hates cameras.” Tim’s voice is more than a little tense, and Wes doesn’t need to be told in words that he’s walking into more dangerous territory.

He shrugs, “Just an idea. If Damian is uninterested, he doesn’t have to. I just figure that using the pets—animals he loves enough to go vegetarian over—to humanize him to the press would be easier than, like, traumatizing him on Good Morning, Gotham or something.”

Wes doesn’t mention how a lot of the press and public’s view of Damian stems from racism thanks to his obviously Middle Eastern blood. He doesn’t think he needs to—Tim and the rest of the Waynes are already well aware.

“He’d traumatize them, really. But I see your point.”

Wes snorts, if only to keep up his façade, “He’s a twelve-year-old boy. What can he do?”

Tim gives an amused smile, an inside joke that he doesn’t know Wes is in on, and says, “Yeah, you're right.”

xxXxx

At work the next day, Rebecca squeals with delight when Wes asks her about going to the Pride Gala for work, and immediately starts drawing up script ideas. Halfway through Script #5, she freezes, and says, “Oh my god, I have nothing to wear to the Gala!”

Wes looks at her in confusion, “What do you mean? We’re basically going as the help. Can’t we just wear something professional?”

She sends him a withering glare, “Ugh, you’re such a teenage boy. This is a Wayne Gala! And even better, it’s the Pride Gala! All the donations go to the Trevor Project. We– we can’t just show up in sweats and a hoodie!”

“That’s… that’s not at all what I was suggesting? I said professional? Does professional mean something different in Gotham?”

Rebecca’s brow is pinched, “Listen. This is a Wayne Gala. That’s a big fuckin’ deal, you non-Gothamite. Even the press dresses up for the Galas.”

“Oh, okay.” Uncertain, Wes pulls out his phone and texts Tim about her concerns.

W: Hey Tim Rebecca says that we can’t wear prof clothes to the gala bc we’ll look too homeless. Is there, like, an actual dress code to follow?

The reply is swift for someone who is a CEO of a whole entire Fortune 500 company.

T: Don’t worry about clothes. WE will provide a fitting and the formal wear for you both to keep. I assume this means Rebecca is down?

W: Yeah. And I’ll let her know.

“Tim says that WE is gonna provide the formal wear,” he tells her while she’s in the middle of a panic attack.

“Are you texting him right now?” Rebecca asks. “Ask him when we need to be fitted. And make sure he knows we won’t be fitted outside of work hours unless we’re getting time and a half.”

Wes rolls his eyes but obligingly relays the message.

T: I am going to talk to Damian about your idea today. If he is receptive, I am thinking that you and Rebecca would clock in like normal on Friday but would accompany me to be fitted, and then go to Wayne Manor to film that “introduction to the Wayne Family Pets” TikTok.

W: Let me run that by Rebecca

He explains the idea they’d discussed yesterday about the pets, and then Tim’s proposal for Friday. Instead of verbally saying anything, Rebecca snatches his phone from him and ignores his indignant yelp, and plays an impressive game of keep-away as she types something with one hand and uses her other hand to bat away his angry attempts to reclaim his property. After a few moments of this struggle in her tiny cubicle, Rebecca lets out an “ah-ha” and hands the phone back to Wes.

He quickly takes in the damage:

W: Hi Mr. Drake-Wayne it’s Rebecca!!! I stole Wes’s phone :) I’m totally down with using company time for this and so is Wes 🙂 you’re way better than my old boss at Taco Hell btw. Also does WE buying our formal wear include buying shoes and accessories?

“This feels exploitative,” Wes says with an uncomfortable twist in his stomach.

“That’s why I took your phone instead of asking you to ask,” she says. “I get to be the bad guy, and you get to be friends with your friend without feeling like a gold-digger. Everyone wins.”

“No. I feel like trash.”

“Sorry.” And to her credit, she does look apologetic. “But I have student loans to pay off, rent, and other bills, and no heels that would go with anything WE will provide. I can’t afford this and I won’t feel bad for asking my rich boss to pay for it all as a work expense.”

On the surface, Wes understands that. He knows that he’s not poor-poor in the way that lots of people are. His mom has a job at Wayne Enterprises, for fuck’s sake, and he likely won’t have to worry about college as long as he chooses someplace sensible. But asking for so much from Tim, from his friend, leaves him feeling hollowed out and filled back up with swamp mud.

His phone lights up with a notification.

T: Hi, Rebecca. And of course! You’ll have to do your own hair and makeup, though. And I’m glad to be better than your old boss :)

Wordlessly, he shows the text to Rebecca, who nods, “Acceptable terms.”

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” he says.

He walks away and hides in his mom’s office for the rest of the day.

xxXxx

Tag List:

@theamazingfox @quietlyscared @lumosfeather18581   @blankliferain @amercurio @gin2212 @starscreamlover @hoarder-of-gender @the-ghost-trader @iariinay @ectoplasm024

If you want to be added to the Tag List, just ask in the replies!

[ladydorian05]

Rules: give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Was tagged by @hippolotamus @wikiangela @thewolvesof1998 @wildlife4life, Thank you! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I seriously need to pick up the pace with my wips

Most hits Fic:

-When life tears you asunder, but you're not alone: (stranger things,

Max & Eddie, siblings dynamic) Co-written with @made-ofmemories Billy was a pretty shitty brother, there was no denying it, but Max still finds herself mourning for the sibling relationship they never got to have. With him gone she thinks so are her chances of ever having the big brother figure she’s always wanted. Then in a turn of events that she never saw coming, Eddie Munson waltzes into her life. Or more like, almost runs her over.

Most kudos: (The second one with most Kudos is also When life tears you asunder, so this is the most Kudos one)

-Too busy being yours to fall for someone new: Buddie Co-written with @made-ofmemories (we tend to enthuse each other with fic ideas and end up writing together a lot :3)

Natalia helps Buck pick a couch for his apartment, but when the wrong one gets delivered he starts to think maybe it's some kind of cosmic sign from the universe.

Determined to not let his best friend mope to death, Eddie decides it's time that he helps Buck find a couch so that he can stop associating a piece of furniture with the success or failure of his romantic relationships.

And he does, Buck finds the one.

Third Most comments:

Mornings in bed: (Ronance)

She’s an active person, a busy body, and her interests also demand for her to be constantly on the move, but she loves days like this when she can stay home. It’s cold outside, they’ll probably get the first snow of the season by next week, but she’s warm. She’s oh so warm laying in bed, there’s the weight of an arm around her torso and a leg draped over her hip. How can she feel anything but warmth when she’s in the arms of her Robin.

Fourth most bookmarks:

Kissing his neck: (The mandalorian, gn reader insert)

Kissing his neck and finding out he’s really sensitive there:

You’re both inside the cockpit, the baby peacefully sleeping inside his pram in the cargo hold, he just activated the hyperspace stretching his arms to the front and cracking his neck, when you noticed the strip of skin between his helmet and the high neck of his tunic.

Fifth most words:

A life in retrospection: (Kinsman, Agent Whiskey/Female reader)

He couldn’t believe this was his life now.

He thought as he watched, through a window from the inside of his warm home, as the snowflakes fell outside.

Couldn’t believe he was capable of feeling such happiness again, not after everything he’s had to live through.

A few years ago, he almost committed the biggest mistake of his entire existence, condemning millions of people just because of his trauma. Good thing a pair of gentlemen helped knock some sense into him. Literally. And god bless Champ for giving him a second chance, since then, his life had been filled with second chances.

Fic with the least words:

Eparavur takisit - Apologise: (Pure Angst, no comfort. Din Djarin/gn reader)

“No, no…no, no, please no. Cyare…Cyare please…” Din’s broken voice came through his helmet. “Please don’t leave me, please, I need you.” He knew in his mind you couldn’t hear him, not anymore.

No pressure tags:

@made-ofmemories @your-catfish-friend @diazblunt @loserdiaz @alyxmastershipper @crowleywasagryffindor and anyone who wants to do it!

[papipopsicle]

AFTERTASTE PART SEVEN

Pairing: Archie Andrews X Reader

Summary: In which two best friends since childhood test whether sex and friendship can co-exist without causing conflict. Including OC's Flick and Cherry, a bisexual and lesbian in a sapphic relationship who are best friends of Y/N.

Song: Dream Boy by Waterparks

Warnings: swearing

Words: 2.1K

MASTERLIST

feedback is always appreciated

Y/F and Y/M Robins were far from perfect parents. Y/F had the mental age of a toddler at times, and being an estate agent who always has to go the extra mile- he often wasn't home when his wife needed him the most. Y/M, on the other end of things, had been a stay at home mum until Y/N turned 16 last summer, and now she helped with all the administrative work for Mayor McCoy. She was a maternal creature which, coupled with her brilliant sarcasm, made for some explosive conversations. The two met on the first day of university and got married a week after the last.

When Y/M first found out she was pregnant with little Y/S Robins, the two realised they wanted a quiet bubble of a town to raise their children and grow up with them. But it wasn't until their second daughter was about to turn seven until they found their forever home in the quaint town of Riverdale. Ten years passing before their eyes, and the picturesque place didn't seen all that anymore.

Jason Blossom's death had nothing to do with the short gunshot sounding over the waves of Sweetwater River, the noise which woke Y/N from her sweet unmemorable dreams every few nights. The summer days rolled into early August without anyone caring, Y/N spending most of them at Cheryl's side listening intently to her past adventures with her brother. Betty threw herself into an internship at a publication house; Flick and Cherry had volunteered at a summer camp, and Archie was helping his dad out more and more with constructions job.

Although it hadn't been the start to the relationship Y/N had hoped for- the nervous giggles and hand holding, short and sweet kisses on late night walks followed by poetry worthy cuddling. There was a magnificent silver lining as Archie's muscles gained definition, and he suited the sweaty builder look far too well.

[INSTAGRAM]

♡ 602 likes

y/n Humph!

129 Comments | Tagged: cherylbombshell

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♡ 584 likes

Cheryl busy being my own icon

98 Comments | Tagged: y/i/n

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"Earth to my gorgeous queen? Y/N/N?" Cheryl quizzed her friend, who currently resided at the poolside of Thornehill Manor. Her mind was off on a glorious tangent about her rendezvous in the kitchen at two in the morning. Fixing herself a glass of water, when Archie slips his hand into her pyjama shorts, his other around her mouth muffling her needy moans.

The red headed beauty shoved her y/h/c friend playfully, warm skin sweaty under her pale touch. Y/N blinked innocently and sent her an apologetic smile, "What?"

"I asked if you've thought about dating anyone else since Clayton?" The fiery ginger girl enquired with her usual upbeat tone.

Cheryl knew she had a unique quality about her which made it almost impossible for Y/N to lie to her face. The y/h/c girl scrunched up her nose, hiding the smile the idea of Archie Andrews brought to her face. 'Yes. We started off as fuck buddies but never actually fucked. Then I drunkenly asked him to be my boyfriend, now a month later I think we may genuinely work out.'

"Maybe." Y/N bit her bottom lip, listening to her friend's squeal as she squeezed her sun tanned arm.

"I knew it! You have this euphoric glow you only get when someone else makes you climax." The redhead affirmed confidently, watching the Robins girl's eyes bug out before hitting her arm, "Y/N/N, you know your secret's safe with me."

"Fine." She sighed and took a sip of her fruity cocktail, "It started off as just fooling around, honestly I just needed to let off some steam after everything. I knew he was into the kinds of things I was, I mean he used to tease me about it non stop. And it was good, so good I stopped being a pussy and asked him to be my boyfriend."

"Holy freaking hell!" The Blossom girl grinned with excitement, "Dare I ask, who is it?"

Y/N deadpanned at her friend, "Guess."

"Please don't tell me it's that muscular oaf Reggie, he's pretty but there's not exactly much going on upstairs." Cheryl tapped her temples and rolled her eyes at the thought.

"Nope."

The ginger thought for a moment, consulting her liquid courage and splashing her feet around the waters edge, "It's Archie."

All it took was a side-eyed glance at the y/h/c girl's blooming rosy cheeks to know she definitely wasn't wrong. Y/N severely lacked the ability to lie, even if her tone held conviction, her features were far too expressive and told the truth all on their own. It's not like they were hiding it from anyone, but the past four weeks had gone far too quickly without any moments to spare for the world around them. They slept together each night, the majority of that time not actually spent sleeping, but they hadn't been given the chance yet to explore more romantic avenues.

"It's fucking Archie Andrews- you're fucking Archie Andrews and don't you dare deny it." Cheryl gawked in her gorgeous white and nude bikini, watching as her friend lay back against the hot marble slabs which encased the large pool with the largest grin adorning her plump lips.

"We haven't had sex yet, so technically you aren't completely correct." Y/N winked but carried on before the girl exploded with a hundred questions and could never be turned off, "Trust me, I want to, and I'm sure he does too. But you know, it's his first time, I want it to be perfect for him."

"Y/N/N, you really love him, don't you?" Cheryl gagged to begin with, but she found it sweet in truth. She wanted someone to hold, who would hold her right back just as tight for no other reason than needing to.

Y/N sat back up and paddled her feet, "You have no idea, Cher."

Arch 🧡

That new post should be illegal

Tiger 💛

Ooo

I like this reaction

Maybe I should post more

Like this one

Cheryl pushed me in the pool

And I may have had a drink

Or three

Arch 🧡

Well that's sexy

I swear nobody looks good like that how on earth

You're a goddess

But also

How's she holding up?

Tiger 💛

🥺😇

Broken

But she's strong yk

You coming over for dinner?

Arch 🧡

Yeah Y/D invited my dad too

Need me to pick you up from Cheryl's?

Tiger 💛

Awe cute we love a bromance, and it's all good my mommas coming now anyways :))

Hours had elapsed far too fast and soon the summer heat simmered into cool waves of wind brushing over sun kissed skin. Cheryl's arms were clasped around the blonde's shoulders in a tight embrace.

"Thank you so much, Y/N/N, I don't know what I'd do without you!" The Blossom girl professed with sparkling eyes and a brilliant smile.

Y/N beamed up at her, fingers carding through her damp y/h/c hair as she looked over her shoulder to see her mum pulling into the driveway, "You don't need to thank me, Cher, friends look after each other. Message me if you need me, okay?"

Cheryl promised she would and the two teen girls hugged goodbye, with Y/N soon heading home- listening to her mother gossip about Hal and Alice's screaming match last night, Y/N loved her inability to keep her mouth shut sometimes.

"Mom," The y/h/c stopped her mid sentence and received a side eyed glance in response, "I need to tell you something and you're totally not allowed to freak out while you're driving."

Y/M's eyes widened and her grip tightened around the steering wheel, her daughters very rarely confided in her. While she knew her youngest was safe in her promiscuity, neither of Y/M Robins' girls ever shared their secrets so for the most part she took finding out into her own hands.

"Honey," The forty four year old's calm tone was hardly comforting to the teenager, "if this is about you and Archie fooling around, your father and I figured that out a long time ago, like so long ago. Who do you think does your laundry? When your underwear starting looking like dental floss, we caught on pretty quickly."

Y/N felt like a deer in headlights, "Mum, what the hell?" Her cheeks heated to an inhuman temperature.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, as long as you're being safe and he's-"

"For the second time today, and I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but I am not having sex with Archie Andrews!" Y/N's high pitched voice sounded through the car. It truly was a blessing and a curse to have such open minded parents in situations like this. She thought about telling her mother the truth, but Y/M was a blabber mouth as well as a gossip, so Y/N chose to withhold certain pieces of information.

The Robins matriarch dropped the subject but didn't forget about her daughter's tone, and continued to ramble on about how odd she found Penelope Blossom and the whole Blossom family in general. "Like why on Earth is Rose in a wooden wheelchair? They know it's the twenty first century, right?"

As expected, the Robins household was once again filled with warm laughter and copious amounts of food. The topic of Jason was skimmed over, and Y/S found herself away from the dinner table. The eldest Robins sibling was currently pleading with Alice as she began shoving all of Polly's belongings in the boot of Hal's car. She couldn't comprehend life without her best friend, not after losing Jason. They were meant to be going travelling together for a year- working the worst jobs and staying up all night to watch the sun rise in different countries. But instead, Y/S's eyes were blinded by tears as she screamed down the street at the speeding car, with Polly Cooper taken out of her life indefinitely.

Y/N was oblivious to the dark inner workings of the Cooper clan, Betty's knowledge about her and Archie unbeknownst to the loved up teens. She'd spent every second not occupied by her internship trying to justify the romantic act as a fleeting moment of loneliness fuelled by alcohol. She wrote in her diary ideas on how she could win Archie back over, not knowing it was in fact, too late. Betty found herself hopelessly in love with the boy next door, unfortunately for her, the girl across the road was the only one his mind found.

Archie and Y/N washed up while their parents resided to the living room with three glasses and a bottle of white wine. The short girl turned the tap off after placing the last utensil on the draining board, flicking her sudsy hands at the boy's face. "What the-"

She didn't give him a chance to finish that thought, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his torso- planting a kiss onto his lips, then cheeks, then forehead. The two fell entranced by each other, planting pecks across nape of her neck and top of his head.

"Son," Fred's voice called out from the next room and the two immediately pulled apart, hearts beating in their ears, "we're going in a minute."

"Alright." He replied, placing his girlfriend on the floor once more.

"I wish you'd stay." Y/N pouted childishly, she meant the words entirely but hated feeling overbearing. Her life had been turned upside down this summer, it started off with her unable to fall asleep with another person next to her- now Archie's chest was her most comfortable pillow and is arms were the warmest blanket.

"Tomorrow night instead, Princess? I promised my dad I'd spend more time with him before senior year." The boy reasoned, holding her close and unknowingly feeling the exact same way, he adored holding her by her waist and pulling her close under the duvet.

"Monopoly night at yours?" She grinned and he nodded back in reply, the two sharing a final kiss in the kitchen before walking into the hallway.

Y/N felt at ease as she wished the two a goodnight and headed up to bed. She took off her tea dress and replaced it with Archie's bulldog t-shirt, managing to reach the same length on her thighs as her dress did.

Arch 🧡

I can still smell your perfume on my sheets

Tiger 💛

Marking my territory obviously x

Arch 🧡

I love it

Hope you sleep well baby x

Tiger 💛

Call me that tomorrow and we won't be sleeping so you better rest up tonight x

Arch 🧡

Whatever you say, baby x

Tiger 💛

Goodnight x

Arch 🧡

Night princess x

part eight?

wanna be tagged? just send in an ask x

[drsilverfish]

Where the Girls Go Wild and the Boys Play Hard - The Subtext in Swayze’s Bar - 15x07 Last Call

Well, I guess now we know why Swayze always gets a pass... (a shared crush with an old flame).

And I guess we also know that the silent word in the episode title Last Call is booty... as in Last (Booty) Call - or, the tragic end to an old fling.

Ok, so I’m late to the party (I’m sure there is a party, right?) as I’ve just watched the episode and I’ve been avoiding spoilers! 

No doubt the queer subtext in this episode, regarding the nature of Dean and Lee’s previous relationship, has already been the subject of much discussion, many meta and gifs. So, apologies for any repetitions, but I’m gonna give it my best shot.

Firstly I was struck by the name of this old hunting “brother” of Dean’s - Lee. I know Lee Webb was a country singer. But, in the larger mythos of Supernatural, which Kripke based on Kerouac’s On the Road (Sam = Sal Paradise and Dean = Dean Moriarty) Lee would fit as a reference to Old Bull Lee, another character in On the Road, based on Kerouac’s friend, the writer William Burroughs (who was of course, gay).

There are many elements we’re used to - Sam/ Eileen (now overtly on the edge of something romantic) paired in the narrative whilst Dean/ Lee are paired; sharing drinks as substitutes for erotic intimacy (here, dick-touching):

which SPN has used before, notably back when Dean got infected by Nick the Siren by sharing his hipflask with him in Baby in 4x14 Sex and Violence (a subtextual kiss).

Then there’s the reference Dean and Lee make to a good ol’ time of theirs back when they shared an encounter with triplets (of unspecified gender) whilst hanging out with Lorna, in a situation at Swayze’s which could, potentially, turn into a present-day threesome, given Lorna’s earlier overt sexual interest in Dean, and the subtextual tension between Dean and Lee.

This reference to triplets (of unspecified gender) of course, reminds us of those other triplets (also of unspecified gender) to whom Crowley and Deanmon did “extraordinary things” together back in 10x01 Black during their “summer of love”.

But it was the intimacy of Lee’s line to Dean from the stage: “You can’t just sit around lip-synching to Eye of the Tiger when no-one’s watching,” that punched me in the gut. Dean had allowed himself to really be seen by this guy, i.e. shared his secret dream to be a rock star with him, which we’ve previously seen him reveal to another old love, Robin, in 9x07 Bad Boys. 

So yeah it turns out, as Rowena said, “What’s bi is bi,” - and sometimes bisexual lighting is bisexual lighting:

“Making their way, the only way they know how... that’s just a little bit more than the law will allow...” 

The Duke’s of Hazzard theme song, sure, but also, in this context, of course, an anthem, for Dean and Lee, to “outlaw” (queer, closeted) sexuality. 

Then there’s Lee’s bar, Swayze’s, itself, which sheds new light on Rocky’s Bar, the “happiness-trap” dream mind-bar which AU!Michael created in Dean’s head in 14x10 Nihilism in order to subdue him:

Looks like Dean and Lee shared a dream about owning a bar together, way back when Sammy was off at college and Dean and Lee were “hunting buddies”.

And look, Cosmic Cowboy makes an appearance inboth Swayze’s and Rocky’s: 

Yeah, I know it’s a real Family Business Beer Co beer, but that don’t mean it can’t play a role in the subtext additionally, where it connects these two old lovers’ dream bars:

I’ve written previously about the queer-coding of bars in SPN over the years:

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/50661253249/the-bar-scene-in-8x23-spoilers-detailed

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/115759833784/dean-winchester-bars-and-m-m-encounters 

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182142619479/rockys-bar-a-closer-look-in-deans-mind-14x10

And there’s plenty of queer-coding in Swayze’s. Just look at those two guns crossed on the wall between Dean and Lee:

Sure, they’re about to fight, so that’s one layer, but as with the touching beer bottles above, this is also dick-on-dick symbolism 101.

And would you look at that freaking TV screen with the man on the end of a pier at sunset? Yup that also appeared in Rocky’s:

As I’ve often discussed before, pier symbolism has come, in SPN’s visual subtext, to stand for the intimate connection between Dean and Cas, from that pivotal scene in 4x20 The Rapture in which Cas entered Dean’s fishing dream, rebelling against Heaven to do so, and tried to warn him about Heaven’s plans.

Notice The Rapture is also referenced in 15x07 because the case Dean is investigating was reported in the news as a girl being “raptured” (taken up to Heaven). And that pier scene from The Rapture was referenced last week too, as Cas mused about Dean’s love for fishing’s “meditative qualities” during his Jenny Lake case in 15x06 Golden Time. The profound bond may presently be under strain, but oh boy, is the subtext singing from its hymn sheet.

Cas’ absence (and Dean’s longing for him) is layered into the subtext of both Rocky’s and Swayze’s bars. In 15x07 Dean has left the bunker because (we may infer) he’s finding Sam’s burgeoning happiness with Eileen hard to deal with, given his own break-up with Cas, and yet, the poor sod goes and runs, tragically, into another lost love. 

And then this dialogue hits us, and Dean, with break-up feels:

Dean: “Best friends don’t just up and leave without saying goodbye...”

Lee: “Unless they deserve it...”

You have to wonder if the similarities between Rocky’s (which was a fiction, an illusion) and Swayze’s, contains an ominous hint of Chuck’s handiwork. Perhaps he set up this painful scenario (by association, also a fiction) for Dean, to cruelly toy with his emotions. 

The reference to 4x06 Yellow Fever really made my subtext-dar go off, in terms of the multiple layers Jeremy Adams managed to deftly work into Last Call. Dean laughingly tells Lee about catching “ghost sickness” that one time (and of course, Lee’s Eye of the Tiger reference also recalls Yellow Fever for us). 

Yellow Fever, Dabb’s first episode for the show, is, in subtext, a study in queer-panic, which the “ghost sickness” (which infects Dean, not Sam) stands in for. See my queer reading of that episode, here:

https://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182874642184/old-timey-spn-a-fresh-queer-look-at-4x06

“Ghost-sickness”, aka queer closeted anxiety, becomes deeply poignant here, hanging between Dean and Lee, like the ghost of their old intimacy, which they never vocalise, but which may (if we choose) be read in the way they touch each other.

Overall, this was a beautifully written episode by Jeremy Adams, and the final, tragic (sublimated) penetration of Lee by Dean with the pool cue - a real death echoing, in subtext, with all the “little deaths” (yes, sex) they’ve shared before, was acted to perfection.

Lee’s noises and grunts are the noises of a fight, yes, but close your eyes and listen to that scene. “Wait, wait,” Lee says breathlessly, and Dean pauses, before Lee tells him it’s ok to pull out. And Dean can’t freaking look Lee in the eye because this terrible new intimacy is layered ontop of older intimacies:

So is Dean’s bisexuality still subtext, after this episode?

Yes, given that out there in the fly-by-night froth of mainstream entertainment journalism, it remains (as far as I can see, in my admittedly brief trawl) unremarked upon in 15x07 episode reviews and recaps:

https://tvmoviefix.com/supernatural-season-15-episode-7-last-call-review-recap-spoilers/

https://ew.com/recap/supernatural-season-15-episode-7/

But, Dean does slay the monster in the closet that gives you fake happiness if you feed it the blood of innocents. And in that, we might read a metaphor - for Dean slaying his own closetedness (as much, anyway, as the CW will permit): 

My usual disclaimer applies: reading SPN’s queer subtext does not imply or promise textual confirmation is on the way. 

[marypsue]

So, I finished Stranger Things season 3. The show canonically involves a shadowy government agency abducting and experimenting on children, so, when the shadowy Russian government agent who had captured Steve and Robin started talking about getting Steve a doctor, my mind did not go to conventional means of torture. And that, combined with the credits scene, gave me an idea for a post-canon fic.

Diverges slightly from canon at the point where Steve and Robin are being interrogated. Dustin and Erica take a little longer to rescue them, and when they do get there, something is Wrong with both Steve and Robin. It seems to wear off, and they all chalk it up to the drugs - but that doesn't explain why, when the Gate closes, both Steve and Robin drop like stones. They wake up fine a few minutes later, but...

Fast forward. The Byers and El have moved. August isn't quite over yet, but school and further partings are looming. Somewhere in the background, there's a news report about a nuclear power plant meltdown in the vicinity of the secret Russian lab from the credits scene, the one where they'd been keeping a captive demogorgon. 

And, around Hawkins, people's pets have started to go missing, mangled animal corpses have started to turn up, and Steve's started to catch glimpses of something tall and pale lurking in the woods behind his house and following him in the dark. Something that looks almost human, but doesn't seem to have a face.

The demogorgon seems to be back, and stalking Steve - and, according to how nervous she's been and how she won't walk to her bike alone after dark anymore and how she keeps asking if the Russians could've come back for them, Robin. 

Steve decides that he needs to do something about this before it starts eating people - eating him, and his friends, specifically - and, selfishly, that it'd be nice to be the big damn hero for once, maybe even without getting the snot beaten out of him this time. Using himself as bait to draw the monster out and then hitting it with a bat with nails in until it stops moving may not be the smartest plan anyone's ever come up with, but nobody ever claimed that Steve Harrington was smart.

Surprisingly enough, this stupid plan actually works. Up until the part where Steve actually starts hitting, and very quickly discovers that he hits a lot harder than he ever did before. And can take a lot harder hits than he ever did before. And holy shit what the fuck is going on what is happening to his body what the fuck is happening to his TEETH - 

The fight doesn’t last long. Steve has to take a quick minute to have a mental breakdown, and when he pulls himself together (figuratively and, horribly, literally), the demogorgon has basically rolled over and shown him its belly. 

Turns out, it’ll listen to him. And it’s hungry, but willing to stick to cattle and deer and the occasional unfortunate cat. And actually kind of cute and pathetic, in a horrible-monster-that-tried-to-eat-my-face kind of way. And perfectly happy to just chill around Steve, and he’s training it to not eat people and it’s working, okay?

It’s hard to keep a secret monster pet from an alternate dimension a secret for long. Robin and Dustin both very quickly figure out that Steve’s hiding something (well, a couple of somethings), and, after extracting solemn promises that they will not freak out, he takes them to meet his new...project.

Robin freaks out.

Just a little bit. Just for a second. Just because the demogorgon sees her and goes rocketing straight at her, ignoring all of Steve’s commands. Just because she doesn’t feel like getting eaten - or nearly eaten - by monsters from another dimension. Again. 

Why she freaks out is not as important, though, as what happens when she freaks out. Because the demogorgon goes flying like it got hit by a truck. Only nobody’d touched it. 

So, maybe Steve and Robin didn’t get out of the Russian base with no lasting damage the way everybody’d thought. 

After a few false starts (and a lot of Dustin attempting to explain things through comic book references that Steve insists he doesn’t get), they figure out that Robin can share ‘impressions’ with the demogorgon in a similar way to when El ‘found’ it and it saw her in the first place. It’s lost, and hungry, and lonely, and homesick, and happy to think it’s found two other, stronger, if a little funny-looking demogorgons. 

Oh, and it’s dying.

They immediately tell the others, because if three seasons’ worth of Upside Down-related shenanigans have taught them nothing else, it’s to share information up front. 

(This involves talking to Nancy, which Steve seems to be more scared of than walking into the woods with a bat with nails in to confront a monster he thinks has been stalking him with every intention to eat him. Robin will never let him live this down.)

Nancy remembers that when she and Jonathan went hunting the first demogorgon, it came out of a portal in the woods that closed up after it, not the Gate in the facility. Mike remembers it coming out of the wall at the school, which corroborates Nancy’s idea that it can open its own portals. Will (via walkie) remembers that Brenner&co. had sent Hopper and his mom in after him in hazmat suits, because apparently the atmosphere of the Upside Down is toxic to humans. And they all remember how the Russians’ Gate blew. 

They come to the conclusion that maybe their atmosphere is toxic to the demogorgon the same way the Upside Down’s is to humans, and that it can’t find its own way home because, by closing the Gate, they severed all connections to the Upside Down.

(It seems like somebody on the Russian side of things was smart enough to not put all their eggs in a giant Key-shaped basket, and was looking into ways to open a Gate that would take less power and be less prone to exploding. Since the demogorgon is naturally able to open its own portals, and to tolerate the Upside Down’s atmosphere without needing specialty gear, it’d make sense to try to give a human those attributes.)

(And the two American teenagers in stupid outfits were probably telling the truth about not being highly trained covert operatives, but they still couldn’t be allowed to escape to tell the world what was going on. And their deaths would be no great loss to anyone if the tests went...badly.)

So now they’re faced with a dilemma. If they find a way to open a Gate to let the demogorgon go home, however small and however briefly, they risk letting the Mindflayer back into their world. But if they don’t, their new buddy will die - and, it’s starting to look like, so might Steve and Robin. 

Also, El’s powers still haven’t returned, and she’s half a country away now. But, maybe...maybe Robin can open a Gate.

Some additional thoughts:

Somehow, the solution has to involve Kali or one (or more) of the other nine experiments.

There are now no responsible adults over the age of eighteen who know what’s going on within a reasonable driving distance - except, perhaps, for Murray. This is going to go about as well as could possibly be expected.

Tommy and Carol appear as secondary antagonists, who find out what’s going on, try to take it to the papers, and end up scooped up by the government and interrogated.

This leads to the demogorgon and Steve and Robin all being shuffled off to some top-secret facility that they then need to be broken out of in the climactic episodes. Maybe this is where Kali comes in - she’s been hunting Brenner’s men for years, she’s familiar with the locations of their bases and bolt-holes and with how they operate. Whether Owens is involved or not, I haven’t decided. 

There’s a scene where Steve and Nancy finally fucking talk to each other, and while they don’t get back together, they do clear the air and leave off on a better footing so they might actually be able to be friends.

Also, Nancy and Robin start to become friends, and then Nancy finds out Robin likes girls and is weird about it at first, and has to get her head straight and her act together.

El as the wise old mentor training Robin on psychic abilities. Robin has to try to ‘find’ El, because El still doesn’t have her powers, but El’s practiced enough that she can tell when someone else is trying to get into her head and to let her in. Long-distance communication is a lot easier with psychics. And a supercharged walkie-talkie. 

The B-plot/emotional arc is about growing up and apart while trying to maintain relationships that are important to you, and grieving for the person you were with certain people at a certain time and have now irrevocably lost, while learning to look forward to the versions of yourself and the people you care about that are yet to come and may be better than you could possibly imagine. And also about maintaining long-distance relationships.

Dustin names the demogorgon Gizmo.

And there are many, many E.T. references. 

[brokehorrorfan]

Event Report: NorthEast Comic Con (Spring 2019)

Back in November, I spent my Thanksgiving weekend attending my first NorthEast Comic Con & Collectibles Extravaganza. Having had a blast, I was excited to return for the next semi-annual event. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait very long, as its Spring 2019 edition occurred over Saint Patrick's Day weekend. I returned to the Regency Hotel in Boxboro, Massachusetts on March 16 to experience all the celebrities, panels, comedy, concerts, vendors, and other fun it had to offer.

The afternoon kicked off with a panel featuring iconic comedian/actor Gilbert Gottfried (Aladdin). He was funny, as he naturally is, but this was not a standup set; it was an honest conversation. He discussed everything from the recent fake outrage over his not being in the new Aladin film and the controversial jokes that resulted in his being fired as the voice of the Aflac Duck, to being raised on the Universal monster movies (and questioning why the Wolf Man dressed so well if he knew he was going to transform into a werewolf) and comedy in the modern age. ("The internet makes me feel sentimental for old-time lynch mobs," he quipped.)

Prompted by audience questions, Gottfried also talked about his ad-libbing on Aladdin (during which he would occasionally have to be stopped and reminded that it was family film), working with John Ritter on Problem Child (which no one thought was going to be a hit), Howard Stern, Hollywood Squares, Wife Swap, his Amazing Colossal Podcast, and more. Never one to miss an opportunity for an off-color joke, Gottfried responded to a comment about a failed TV pilot by stating, "Buddy Holly has better luck with pilots than I do." The session was recorded for the The Boston Comedy Podcast, so you'll be able to hear it in its entirety soon.

Later in the day, I caught another panel with Nicholas Brendon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Criminal Minds fame. With no need for a host, the animated and entertaining Brendon began by riffing on the likes of tuna casserole to cannibalism for a few minutes before launching into the entire story of how he was cast on Buffy (in which he went from production assistant on Dave's World to reluctant actor, then booked Buffy a mere two months later). He was open and honest about his past struggles, but he has turned over a new leaf and is now giving back by using his celebrity to raise awareness for mental health.

In addition to Gottfried and Brendon, the guest list included Chris Rankin (Harry Potter franchise), Gigi Edgley (Farscape), Ann Robinson (The War of the Worlds), Mark Goddard (Lost in Space), Clayton Prince (Hairspray), animation producer Jeff Kline (Transformers Prime), Emmy Award-winning puppeteer Bill Diamond (Little Shop of Horrors), author and Squirrel Girl co-creator Will Murray, Disney comics writer Joe Caramagna (Duck Tales, Frozen), cartoonist Guy Gilchrist (The Muppets), and paranormal investigator Kadrolsha Ona Carole, among others.

NorthEast Comic Con's standup battle royal proved to be a fun way to spend any down time. Local and budding comedians had the opportunity to sign up and perform seven minutes of material for a chance to win $100 a day and compete for the $500 weekend prize. The competition was judged entirely by audience applause, and Phil Anthony ultimately took home the grand prize. It was apparent that some of the competitors didn't have much stage experience, with bits that weren't fully realized or comedic timing that needed work, but the audience was receptive and ready to laugh.

Comedian Roger Kabler has been impersonating Robin Williams for many years, which earned him a finalist spot on the ABC celebrity impersonator reality competition The Next Best Thing in 2007. Following Williams' death, Kabler decided to utilize his talents and pay tribute to Williams with a film called Being Robin. A brief portion of the movie was shot at the convention, and attendees were allowed to participate as audience members as Kabler performed a portion of his Williams act. Not only does he have the voice and look down, but Kabler also nails Williams' idiosyncratic mannerisms. The film is currently seeking funding; I’m looking forward to seeing the final product after witnessing a small portion in the making.

An unexpected highlight of the previous NorthEast Comic Con was seeing Gwell-o, a Gwar-inspired metal band featuring members of the comedy rock act Green Jelly dressed as intergalactic monsters in homemade, cardboard and duct tape costumes. They performed as part of the Saturday night after party this time around, and I couldn't miss it. A new layout to the stage allowed all nine members of the band to fit up there. The lineup features four people who sing backups and perform combat theatrics during the show, while the other five musicians perform a mix of originals and covers, including Gwar's "I Hate Love Song" and "Sick of You," Green Jelly's "Three Little Pigs," Judas Priest’s “Night Crawler," and “I Need Mo’ Allowance” from the cartoon Doug.

Proudly hailing for Ipswich, Massachusetts, The Fools headlined the after party. At first glance, they seem like a rock act in the vein of The Rolling Stones or Van Halen. Upon a closer listen to vocalist Mike Girard's lyrics, however, it becomes apparent that they are satirizing the classic rock acts of yesteryear as much as they are paying tribute to them. That's not to say they don't take themselves seriously; the quintet makes their tight live show appear effortless.

Along with the celebrities, panels, standup comedy, and live concerts, NorthEast Comic Con offered cosplay contests, gaming, kids activities, and more, not to mention dozens of exhibitors and vendors. Many attendees came in costume, ranging from pop culture giants to comic book characters to original creations. For my money, two people dressed in large, elaborate Kang and Kodos costumes from The Simpsons were the most impressive.

A NorthEast Comic Con employee mentioned to me that this was the convention's biggest turnout at the Boxboro location yet. While it's wonderful to see the event grow with bustling crowds of enthusiastic fans, I revel in the fact that NorthEast Comic Con & Collectibles Extravaganza remains an intimate experience in comparison to the massive pop culture expos, which can be overwhelming and impresonal. On top of that, the show continues to keep its prices low and value high.

Click here to see all of my NorthEast Comic Con Spring 2019 photos.

[mirrorfalls]

Lego Liveblogs ST: TOS, part 4 (of who-the-hell-knows-how-many?)

And here I’d thought I’d have to wait ‘til Season 2 to get an evil Kirk. Let’s go, The Enemy Within.

* Objectively: this has got to be the show’s most un-special effect yet. Subjectively: that critter is adorable and I want twelve. * I don’t know how he’s doing it but Shatner’s somehow outhamming the last three episodes combined without saying a word. * So... Evil Kirk! He drinks! He creeps! If he’s really feeling his oats he might even use God’s name in vain! * Aww, two cheapo space doggies for the price of one! Say, can you guys run ‘im through the Transporter a couple more times, just to, uh, confirm? * ... I gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting the heroes to learn the game before the first act was even over. On the one hand, it’s surprisingly respectful of the viewers’ intelligence. On the other... I sense massive padding in our future. * ... well, there ain’t nothin’ funny to say about this. R.I.P. to Grace Lee Whitney, and may the spectre never rise again. * So here’s the secondary conflict: if they don’t get this duplicating ore mess sorted out by nightfall, Sulu (and some other guys) will wind up freezing to death. It’s kinda weak (can’t you just have a bunch of armed guards in the room to stave off the evil ones?), but it’ll do. * Oh, that’s right, there’s also that thing about good!Kirk slowly turning into a pacifistic, indecisive wimp because all the evil’s been ripped out of him. ** Dude, couldn’t you have at least added “My impostor is prone to be highly aggressive” in your announcement? That part he can’t hide with a little foundation. * “I’M CAPTAIN KIRK!” Just wait ‘til the reboot, buddy. Just wait ‘til the reboot. * Okay, I’m legitimately impressed by this. A lot of shows doing this plot today would’ve stretched out the cat-and-mouse another two acts, saved the Big Kirk-on-Kirk Showdown for the last five minutes, and wrapped it up at “You need me”. Here, evil!Kirk gets captured at the halfway point and the plot turns toward what to do with him. ** (I’m not the only one who notices, by the way, how good!Kirk is legitimately more intimidating throughout the whole showdown?) ** Anyway, let’s give it up for the Nerve Pinch! Yeeeaaahhh! * Oh, right, Sulu and co. are still freezing their asses off on the planet down there. Listen, guys, can’t you just beam ‘em up and risk- ** Oops. * So basically, you could construe this as good!Kirk’s fault, for taking such convoluted means that the evil one managed to get off a shot, but there’s still enough degrees of separation to give him the benefit of the doubt. That’s some good, nuanced writing. ** Also good: this is the first issue Spock and Bones have a Big Argument over. The morality of their captain, literally split in two. * Ah, good to remember there’s still Phasers to keep the temperatures up. You go, Sulu. * Is this Shatner’s Waah Nichelle Nichols said Mean Things To Me face * Holy hell, “Courage=/=Strength” feels like a groundbreaking lesson today, never mind in 1966! * Technobabble technobabble techno-Wait, you guys got the transporter fixed? Already? What’ll you do for the last 15- ** Unicorn doggy! Noooooooo! ** (So was “he’s dead, Jim” a catchphrase coined by this show...?) * ... I see we’re already forgetting that the damn transporter is fixed. Why not just bring Sulu’s party back and hinge this last act solely on “can Kirk be put back together alive?” * Aaaaand Bones suddenly grabs the Conflict Ball just so we can have an argument. Aw, episode, you were doing so well. * I can see what the script is trying to do here, portraying good!Kirk as just as dangerous in his own way as evil!Kirk, but it doesn’t really land as hard as it could have, mostly because at this point Spock is pretty solidified as the guy who makes tough decisions if the Captain can’t, and has no problems backtalking even a normal Kirk. * Aw, I shoulda guessed. evil!Kirk gets one last grab for glory... ** ... and takes about thirty seconds to fumble it. Why the fuck did you just leave him out in the open, guy?! * Okay, evil!Kirk ain’t no Nico Robin, but what the hell, this is the second-best “I WANT TO LIVE!” I’ve ever heard. * All told, a pretty straightforward resolution, but isn’t that what all Trek should strive fo- ** Jesus, Spock! There’s blunt and then there’s just being an asshole. Way to trip at the finish line, guys.

I’ll admit - probably anything would’ve felt Emmy-worthy after Mudd’s Women, but I think this one is genuinely strong on its own merits. True, the two-Kirks plot and the Sulu-on-ice plot never quite converge satisfactorily, and the... everything with Yeoman Rand is hard to stomach, but it’s damn amazing the episode only makes a few token nods at the spot-the-impostor plot so many other shows would’ve gladly embraced for the entire runtime. Almost everyone can instantly tell which Kirk is the “good” one, but that’s not the point; what is is exploring how expelling your dark side never really solves anything. Even in the most shining mind, it deserves to be acknowledged, accounted for... and sometimes even loved, if you want to be anything more than half a man.

Oh, and that nothing can beat a slice of sweet, organically-raised Shatnerham. That’s pretty vital, too.

Next time: We take a look at the actual Trek premiere, allegedly the best of a half-dozen prospectives! Buuut considering some of the competition, who knows what that’ll amount to!

[its-just-like-the-movies]

Rampart (11, B+)

Why this film?: Natural Born Killers and The Edge of Seventeen were tempting choices, but everything I’d heard about Rampart’s politically rich storyline and ambitious execution made this an easy choice right off the bat. Plus, a character actor like Woody Harrelson in a lead role feels like the kind of treat more films should offer, especially when they’re as chameleonic as him.

The Film: What’s the right way to describe the impactful but imperfectly stitched way that Rampart holds itself together? “Raggedy” seems like a good option, given how the film bounces from character to character and plot strand to plot strand with little to suggest which direction it’s going to take from one scene to the next. “Rabid” might be a better descriptor of how comes across, its risky stylization and mangy narrative informed by an odious protagonist doing his damndest to hold onto a way of life he’s taken advantage of for his entire life and keeps relentlessly sabotaging, and one it frequently seems would be happy to get rid of him. The seams always appear to be showing, and not always in productive ways, though its unpredictable trajectory, ferocious acting and direction, and fascinating decisions about its lensing, editing, and sound mixing are so bracing and frequently impressive that it’s impossible not to notice them. A-list actors orbit Woody Harrelson’s central role as a deranged cop playing the kinds of bit roles that would be just as well served by far less recognizable names, the fact of their celebrity compared to the size of their roles and their whack-a-mole reappearances in the story as disorienting as the in-monologue editing and whiplash narrative turns. Rampart’s ability to disorient its audience is nicely synchronized with the downfall of a character who refusal to accept his defeat is frequently upending, his paranoid inability to grasp the consequences of his violent and prejudiced behavior too ensconced in decades of social acceptability for him to even compute the speed at which he’s being thrown in the trash.

As much as Rampart’s experimental design and pronounced assets are on display at all times, the film is even more confrontational with its politics. In this case, those politics are the tearing open of Dave Brown’s psychology of entitlement and bigotry, and the process by which a man of an era that seemed so alive a second ago is suddenly forced to reckon with his latest crimes, which somehow aren’t the worst things he’s ever done, and must reckon even more so with how changing tides have made what was once durigur behavior now completely unacceptable. His virulent bigotry and the safety he feels wielding it as a members of the LAPD’s Rampart division - even in the middle of a scandal that implicated over seventy officers in everything from bribery to murder - is realized in his very first dialogue scene, as regales tales of former glories with another cop while menacing a female trainee into finishing all of her fries at a lunch stop, asking her invasive questions as he and writer/director Oren Moverman boldly assert that this is the man who emblematizes what the police looked like in late-90’s LA. This is only further emphasized as he joy-rides his police cruiser through a group of Mexican mechanics in the parking lot of their cop and beats a suspect through the cheap, plastic windows of a drug store office to get information out of him, not just certain that he will suffer no consequences for this but even telling this trainee so as if it was an unspoken regulation. The grounded performances, observant shaky-cam and spry editing keep these sequences from becoming cartoonishly over-the-top, depicting Brown’s violent behavior as wholly mundane and completely corrosive at the same time. His teaching that his behavior is the norm of the LAPD to this woman points to a Training Day setup but wholly avoids it by refusing the idea that Brown is in any way a “bad apple” corrupting an otherwise decent system the way that Alonzo Harris was depicted as in his film. Everyone is like this, and there’s no indication a different cop would’ve shown her the ropes any differently.

This sense of entitlement bleeds into his home life, a precarious situation where Dave seems to co-habitat with his two ex-wives - who’re sisters - and the daughter apiece he had with each of them. The women don’t live in the same house, and Dave seems to find out whether he’ll spend the night with either of them or go bar-hopping to find some woman to share a hotel room with when he asks them if they want to have sex. Again, it’s a tribute to the actors for putting over such an unconventional scenario that could’ve died on arrival, but Cynthia Nixon and Anne Heche make the scenario completely credible as the make warm conversation and perry around his advances. Oldest daughter Helen, her hair messy dyed with blue streaks while wearing a 90’s art punk getup, is the only person in Dave’s life who’s openly antagonistic towards him, and the youngest is intuitive and happy to see her dad even if she’s clearly not too keyed in to the tensions around her family.

These establishing scenes of domestic and workplace tension, ones that will evolve and mutate as the story progresses, are just as impactful to watch as the moments where Brown enacts physical violence against an undeserving party or use his power as a cop to threaten some unfortunate employee into giving him a hotel room or pills. Jay Rabinowitz’s editing is so lean yet so spiky that we’re able to feel every shift of mood in Dave’s conversations or confrontations, sometimes cutting scenes as though leaving out bits of a conversation or monologue but more often than not finding unexpected angles to spy on sequences that appear to be playing out in real time. These choices dislodge a scene from any predictable beats as much as the performances do, and the vantage points that show us these sequences alternate between intimately close to the characters or at such a distance that it feeds into the overall mood of paranoia. Even if Dave’s eventual theory that he’s being used as a putz by such an unfathomable web of players from the LAPD higher-ups to family members, hookups, and ostensible allies, feels like nothing more than a right-wing conspiracy theory, the editing expertly plays into these delusions without santifying them. The plot-starting scene of him beating a Hispanic motorist to the brink of death for T-boning his police cruiser and trying to flee the scene is executed with brutal economy, by Dave and the storytellers, and it’s perfectly in tandem with their presentation of non-violent scenes and control of mood throughout the film.

From here Rampart bunny-hops between different plotlines and characters seemingly at random. It’s hard to pinpoint a coherent logic to how these scenes connect to one another - either they do or they don’t, and this disorganization might be Rampart’s most significant hurdle to overcome for viewers to get into the film. Individual plotlines are picked up in bursts and dropped for extended periods of time, creating evocative moods that leave the actors to fill in the gaps between individual characters while the plot moves ever onwards. Even as the methodology behind how these stories scrape against each other is never quite clear on a scene-by-scene level, the cumulative portrait of a man going off the deep end in order to keep his dying way of life intact still hits. The film is merciless in picking apart how Dave is propped up by the status given to him as a white male police officer, his bigotry and paranoia so acidic that the background context of the Rampart scandal almost doesn’t matter in informing who this man is. He’s an endemic source of misogyny and racism, propagating his ideologies with the assurance of systemic cooperation that calling them delusions of grandeur gives them too little credit. His biggest calling card as a police officer, the one that earned him the moniker “Date-Rape” Dave, comes from the fact that he’s all but admitted to having executed an accused serial date-rapist rather than taking the man into custody, fabricating a story that he feared for his life trying to arrest him. An older white cop suggests that Dave facing any consequences is so out of the norm that the whole thing must’ve been a set-up, from the driver he beat to the person who filmed the incident to the government officials seeking to see him punished for his actions. Feeding in to Dave’s already-existing paranoia and neuroses about women and people of color, of any non-cop in any job who disrespects his authority, this conspiracy web soon encompasses his ex-wives, his current fuck buddy, the old man himself, as Dave turns to blackmail and criminal actions to keep himself afloat. Rampart balances a tricky line between objectivity and subjectivity, many of its choices seemingly influenced by the paranoia of its protagonist even as the film is able to stand apart from his rancor and hold it up to a microscope, dissecting his bullshit for all it’s worth.

It helps tremendously that these characters are written and directed so sharply, and that their interpreters make so many specific and charismatic decisions in bringing them to life while avoiding cliche or cartooning. Woody Harrelson, sporting a skinhead-lite haircut and a wiry, muscular physicality, emanates the size and danger of his character’s bigotry while keeping him scaled to uncomfortably human size. Brie Larson’s righteously pissed-off daughter and Robin Wright’s sad, carnal, and increasingly suspect friend with benefits may very well be the most startling performances after Harrelson’s, though Nixon, Heche, Sigourney Weaver, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Ice Cube, Steve Buscemi, and Audra McDonald are just as inspiring for evoking such sharp personalities with minimal screen time and unexpected entrances and exits. Everyone is able to keep a firm grip on their characters while connecting threads over gaps in appearance and in information, their relationships to Dave changing dramatically over the course of the film without ever seeming forced. Whatever can be said about Moverman and James Ellroy’s script in terms of its scene-by-scene structure, the trajectory of their story is so powerful and unpredictable that its secrets are worth keeping.

If the preceding paragraphs have repeatedly illustrated how essential Moverman’s direction is in making the script’s shifts of attention in to something potent and coherent and how commendable his negotiation of ensemble is, his dissection of Dave Brown and everything he represents is still feels like the film’s crowning glory. Rampart is not a message film that reduces its characters and scenarios to pandering stereotype or secretly condones the horrific behavior and bigoted mindset it’s supposed to be critiquing. Moverman and Harrelson make Dave Brown a fascinating and rancid character to be attached to for almost two hours, and Rampart proves itself to be a riveting character study that’s able to rip apart everything its lead man represents without dismissing him out of hand. It’s an invaluable study of white male toxicity as enabled by a police uniform, one that surely would have gotten more traction if it had a bigger distribution in 2011, but perhaps even more so if it had come out a few years later. It’s crucial to mention that the beating of the driver is not, ultimately, the crime that brings down Dave Brown, nor is the crime he confesses near the film’s climax to the FBI in the hopes of going out on his own terms what does him in. Rampart’s study of the cops who would almost kill a motorist and bully a fellow officer into eating something she didn’t want to doesn’t say that these are the actions that will cause their betters to kick them out, instead positing that these men will implode from so much internal and external pressure to keep from sinking. The actual ending plays like a leading up to a horror film, as Brown and Helen lock eyes before he slinks off into the unknown with the knowledge he could be arrested at any moment. It’s open-ended to the point of becoming an ellipses, unresolved while suggesting a whole film of possibilities lies on the other side of this scene. So, Rampart ends as it began, messy and unclean and dangerous, its ideologies unimpeachable, its execution so ambitious that what leaves something to be desired can even be construed into a productive part. Technically, Dave Brown ends the film still out in the world. But his clock is ticking faster.

[fiftyshitsofgay]

whoaa slow your roll there buddy boo

i most only watch clips of the show.

i stopped seriously following it when s5a hit. the only episodes of that season i willingly subjected myself to had next to nothing to do with the main plot.

i don’t care about anon hate. i simply can’t be bothered lol. just bc you took the time to come into my inbox and make your argument doesn’t mean you’re going to change my opinion and especially not by insulting my intelligence. i’m actually kind of flattered you feel threatened enough to send me a message so congrats buddy you failed in not only making me feel dumb but hurting any feelings i have left lmao

i am not the right person to come to on this. as much as i love analysis i’m not even moderately good at it. i can’t provide pages upon pages of proof to debate with you because what you want me to address is not my area of expertise. i really like regina, and i really despise hook, but i simply cannot be as thorough in my response as others can. so while i can’t shut you down, nor do i really want to tbh, you still picked a losing battle.

while you’re here tho… i’ll do my best?

yes, regina basically raped graham repeatedly. it was absolutely horrible and he did not deserve any of what happened to him from how he was treated to how he died. but the fact after all this time emma and co. are still unaware of truth concerning his death? that’s just shit writing.

yes, regina razed many a village in her ultimate quest to kill snow white. but the narrative has devoted so much into showing the side effects of what happened after she got her revenge. she won, but it’s a hollow victory. once she left ftl and entered the real world, even under the shield of a magical town, real world consequences followed–she’s no longer queen, after all. the second season was all about that, e.g. her addiction to magic cost her henry, even if only temporarily. this is when she actively made a choice to be a better person for his sake, even going to therapy. there’s probably more but like i said, i’m not the best person to argue with you on this.

as for hook, i can’t even begin to pinpoint where his “redemption” began. when i first binged the show back in 2014, my least favorite arc was the latest one at the time: the neverland arc. all i could remember from then was hook’s “when i win your heart, and i will win it…” bc it made me super uncomfortable. was it then? was it when he showed david the magic cure-all water after deciding not to kill him? was it when he all but demanded a kiss from emma for saving her dad’s life, something she clearly had no intention of doing until he verbally elbowed her? was it when he admitted his deep dark secret was the fact he was falling for her? was it when he tried to blame his shitty behavior on his hand? was it when he said he wouldn’t leave emma but did so anyway?

when exactly did his redemption arc start? i’ve been wracking my brain for a while trying to figure it out. i even asked my very observant girlfriend, who watched this shit show because of me, where she thought it began. you know what she said? my sweet girl wasn’t aware he even had one. this tells us two things: either the writing is just that bad, or he never had one. or hell, both.

just because he married emma does not mean he is redeemed. her flashbacks to it on the roof looked more like a horror movie than a good time.

just because henry used the the words “captain hook” and “true love” in the same proximity does not mean he is redeemed. i can’t seem to recall a kiss that conquered anything.

just because he has the badge now definitely does not mean he is fucking redeemed. if anything he’d be more inclined to be a corrupt cop.

regina, on the other hand, found true love again despite it being temporary (rip robin hood), had her tlk with henry just like emma, repaired her relationship with snow, gained an ally in the form of her older half-sister, saw both her parents go to the good place, got light magic, and the dwarves even modified the door to her office to show their respect for her.

she hasn’t come a long way? she’s come a helluva longer way than hook!

i will tell you this, sweetheart: my hatred of your precious pirate stems from an easily forgotten plot point in s2–while aurora was unconscious, hook used the opportunity to insert his horror hand into her body, take her heart, and, give it to cora. i believe the words he used was “it was a gift.” later on, when he tries to cancel his action by catching the satchel before it falls into the void, he has this to say:

“I may be a pirate, but I bristle at the thought of a woman losing her heart – unless it’s over me.”

funny.

it’s unfortunate graham is dead, because who knows how he’d react to who regina is now? she’s come so far. aurora, meanwhile, will never get an apology from hook, if he even remembers. i, however, do. and my view of him has been tainted ever since.

anyway, hope you have a nice day. i truly mean it. you must need it more than i do considering you feel the need to send messages like these to an unknown side-blog like me.

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 1 April 2019

Quick Bits:

Amazing Spider-Man #18.HU is Gibbon’s tale from Nick Spencer, Ken Lashley, Erick Arciniega, and Joe Caramagna. It’s a gut punch, a kick in the teeth, a few tosses against a tree, and then an attempt to turn you into a porcupine via arrows. While it does do a good job of telling Gibbon’s tale and attempting to make you care about him, it’s not a pleasant comic. It’s kicking the crap out of a z-list character to make you feel “the stakes” and this is really starting to feel cheap. Maiming and killing characters to up the gravity of a story, especially ones we’ve not see for some time, it’s not fun. It’s not shocking. And I’m tired of it. Which is somewhat sad, because this is some of the best art I’ve seen from Ken Lashley for a while. He seems to be channelling bits of Jack Kirby and Keith Giffen into his normal style and it looks really damn good.

| Published by Marvel

Amber Blake #1 is another partnership with Glénat in France, this one a fairly moody crime story from Jade Lagardère, Butch Guice, Christa Miesner, and Robbie Robbins. It’s a fairly dark beginning, delving into sexual assault and human trafficking, but interesting. The art from Guice is incredible.

| Published by IDW

Avengers: No Road Home #8 breaks out some art from Carlo Barberi as we head towards the home stretch of this series. Very nice character moments for Hawkeye, Hercules, and Conan this issue, though the build up of seemingly insurmountable odds from Nyx is adding some incredible tension.

| Published by Marvel

Bronze Age Boogie #1 launches Ahoy’s second wave of series and it’s awesome. The lead story is a bizarre mix of Doom Patrol-esque superheroes, Planet of the Apes alternate realities, and a teenager from nearly 4000 years ago fighting in a world of wizards and zombies. It’s glorious madness from Stuart Moore, Alberto Ponticelli, Giulia Brusco, and Rob Steen with so many ideas you can barely keep up. Rounding out this issue is the usual prose pieces and a wonderful back-up comic of Major Ursa, an astronaut bear, from Tyrone Finch, Mauricet, Lee Loughridge, and Steen that elevates the entire package even further.

| Published by Ahoy

Champions #4 unleashes Kaldera on the team looking to get revenge on Sam, while Miles and Kamala have a confrontation about what happened in Dubai. Lots of wonderful emotion in this one, beautifully depicted by Steven Cummings and Marcio Menyz. Also, Kaldera wanting to eat everyone is just weird.

| Published by Marvel

Conan the Barbarian #5 is another great issue from Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson, and Travis Lanham. This one taps into Conan’s life as a thief and a pirate while unleashing eldritch horrors from stealing the wrong idol. Great tentacle beasts and a wonderful feeling of dread throughout the story as Conan fights to survive adrift at sea.

| Published by Marvel

Dead Kings #4 gives us some more dark humour as Maria and Sasha get closer to launching the rescue attempt on the prison, while Gena plans a little revolt of his own. Great artwork from Matthew Dow Smith and Lauren Affe.

| Published by AfterShock

Deathstroke #42 continues the “Terminus Agenda” crossover with Teen Titans as Slade looses the bonds of his prison in Robin’s underground supervillain jail, then hangs about and seemingly attempts to needle Damian as their attempt to take down another villain goes awry. This story is odd, but entertaining. Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz, Norm Rapmund, Jeromy Cox, and Willie Schubert are doing something interesting here.

| Published by DC Comics

Die #5 gives us the conclusion to the first arc and it’s pretty dark. Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Clayton Cowles make us question here whether or not our heroes actually are “good” as they systematically start to take apart some of Sol’s toys in order to try to get home. Also, there are some horrifying hints at worse things waiting.

| Published by Image

Giant Days #49 sees Esther go back home for Easter break to try to write her dissertation. And fight a vampire with the 11-year old sister of one of her friends. Wonderful bit of how time changes you from John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Girl in the Bay #3 chronicles a bit of Hugh’s side of the story to his monstrous clay-like hallucination buddy, as Kathy continues to try to make sense of her double existence and the older version of her’s death. There’s definitely something else at play here as JM DeMatteis, Corin Howell, James Devlin, and Clem Robins keep building this mystery.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

The Green Lantern #6 is relatively muted compared to previous issues, but still has an incredible impact as Hal goes through seemingly the last of the Blackstars’ tests and is granted an audience with Mu, from Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, Steve Oliff, and Steve Wands. Mu here definitely seems to be insane, which is chilling for someone trying to control everything. There are some very interesting twists throughout, including another form of sacrifice from Hal, leading him to a strange place and a very old character who should give a hint as to where they are now.

| Published by DC Comics

Immortal Hulk #16 is another incredible issue from Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit. This team really seems to be able to do no wrong and each subsequent issue is another masterpiece in horror, weaving together an impressive amount of Hulk history in a compelling and enticing way. Along with a very interesting development for Betty.

| Published by Marvel

Impossible Incorporated #5 concludes what has been an excellent all-ages series from JM DeMatteis, Max Cavallaro, and Gabrielle Gomez. This final issue leans heavy into quantum reality and divinity experiencing itself through permutation and self-reflection.

| Published by IDW

Justice League #21 is another interesting chapter in “The Sixth Dimension” from Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sánchez, and Tom Napolitano. This issue it become explicitly clear as to how it progresses the broader arc started in Metal as the stakes seem to be raised again. Stunning art from Jimenez and Sánchez.

| Published by DC Comics

Lodger #4 gets a little messy as the Laphams deliver the penultimate chapter of this series, inching closer to Ricky’s final confrontation with Dante. The disparate threads of the past, present, and Dante’s travelogues converge to a very strange perfect storm.

| Published by IDW / Black Crown

Marvel Team-Up #1 is an entertaining debut from Eve L. Ewing, Joey Vasquez, Felipe Sobreiro, and Clayton Cowles. This first issue teams up Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel presenting both sides to their day as they attend a speech from a noted ESU alumnus who has created a mind transfer device. Those things always go well. There’s some interesting contrast between wanting to be young again and wanting to be older faster.

| Published by Marvel

Oberon #3 continues to twist the tale as Oberon is confounded a bit by what Bonnie isn’t, from Ryan Parrott, Miloš Slavković, and Charles Pritchett. It seems as though nothing is as it seems in this story which leads to some intriguing surprises.

| Published by AfterShock

The Punisher #10 has some great incidental humour as Frank continues to cut a swath across a country of villains in “War in Bagalia”. Very entertaining work again from Matthew Rosenberg, Szymon Kudranski, Antonio Fabela, and Cory Petit.

| Published by Marvel

Red Sonja #3 is another excellent part of the story from Mark Russell, Mirko Colak, Bob Q, Dearbhla Kelly, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. This one hits hard on the value of mercenaries and what actually breeds loyalty.

| Published by Dynamite

Self/Made #5 takes off in yet another direction as Amala tracks down a scientist who has been searching for proof that ours is not the top level reality and is actually another simulation. It’s truly amazing as to how Mathew Groom, Eduardo Ferigato, Marcelo Costa, Mariana Calil, and Troy Peteri keep turning this story on a dime, with new revelations and new changes each issue without any of it feeling like a trick and delivering an engrossing narrative each time.

| Published by Image

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #7 focuses on some of the odd jobs that Gwen is getting through her website, pushes forward the problems she’s having with her headaches, and complicates her personal life a bit more. Seanan McGuire is very nicely developing Gwen’s character and relationships, all with some beautiful artwork from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring.

| Published by Marvel

Summit #14 concludes this arc with Val and co. attempting to rescue Fiona and JB from Agent Wald’s clutches. The team-up with Noble and further development of Jamila helps re-emphasize the broader shared universe of Catalyst Prime. Also, how far all of the astronauts involved in the Event have come. Gorgeous artwork from Marika Cresta and Bryan Valenza.

| Published by Lion Forge / Catalyst

War of the Realms #1 begins the culmination of almost seven years worth of storytelling as Malekith’s forces finally invade Earth. This is epic. Jason Aaron, Russel Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino deliver on the massive promise of this story with a brilliant, beautiful, and surprising opening chapter that levels a huge threat at the world.

| Published by Marvel

Young Justice #4 goes into some of the politics and problems that Amethyst was having on Gemworld prior to the disparate youth of Young Justice arriving to the realm. Some nice character moments here from Brian Michael Bendis and really wonderful art from Patrick Gleason, John Timms, Alejandro Sánchez, and Alex Sinclair.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Betty & Veronica #4, Black Hammer ‘45 #2, Captain America #9, Curse Words: Spring Has Sprung Special, The Dreaming #8, Eclipse #14, Female Furies #3, Gasolina #17, Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary Special, GI Joe: A Real American Hero #260, Giantkillers, Hack/Slash vs. Chaos #4, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Sirens #1, Lightstep #5, Magic: The Gathering - Chandra #2, Marvel Action: Black Panther #1, Mirror #10, Now #6, Night Moves #4, Paper Girls #27, Redlands #12, Section Zero #1, Six Million Dollar Man #2, Solo: A Star Wars Story #7, Star Wars #64, Vindication #3, The Witcher: Of Flesh & Flame #4, Ye

Recommended Collections: Animosity - Volume 4: Walled City, Paper Girls Deluxe Edition Hardcover - Volume 2, Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses - Volume 4, Transformers: Unicron, Unstoppable Wasp: GIRL Power, Witchblade - Volume 2

d. emerson eddy is one crow short a murder.

[avanneman]

Magnum PI, not failing Racism 101, but not passing either.

Is it a sad commentary on my life that I have watched all five of this season’s episodes of the new Magnum, PI?1 Well, yes, it is, but that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is the new series’ attempts to come to grips with racism, which as you may be aware is kind of a thing these days, particularly in Hollywood. And, sure, there’s such a thing as too woke, but there’s also such a thing as sound asleep.

In the premiere episode of the new Magnum, the diversity quota was filled almost entirely by mainland spade “TC” (Stephen Hill), whose massive physical presence and resonance could easily dominate the show if the screenwriters let him, along with what was clearly a last-minute add-on to the original show’s format, Japanese police detective Gordon Katsumoto (Tim Kang), who barely makes an appearance in the proceedings.

A police “buddy” is a very standard plot device for any PI show (the original didn’t have one because dimples), but having a “Katsumoto” on hand does acknowledge the 15% percent of the Hawaiian population that has Japanese ancestry, even though Tim Kang is actually of Korean ancestry (maybe 2% on Hawaii). Koreans are typically not fond of Japanese,2 but a job’s a job, right?

After the first show, someone noticed there were no Hawaiians on a show set in you know, Hawaii, so “Kumu” (Amy Hill)3 was quickly installed on the estate where Magnum lives, the property of legendary and never seen author Robin Masters,4 as “cultural curator” of some as yet unseen collection of artefacts. Hill is actually half Japanese and half European and seems to be recapitulating her “breakout role” as Margaret Cho’s wise-cracking (I’m guessing, because I never saw the show) grandma (“Yung-Hee Kim”) on the 1994 sitcom All American Girl, in which Cho, who is of Korean ancestry, actually played a Korean American, albeit one with a Japanese-European grandmother.

The population of Hawaii who actually are of Hawaiian ancestry is pretty small (Wikipedia says around 80,000), but I bet a few of them are actors. I also don’t know why Hawaiians get only one name. Still, the show’s making an effort, isn’t it? Of sorts?

Well, yeah, but then on the fifth episode, “Sudden Death”, Magnum and TC are helping out a Hawaiian(!)5 kid whose father has been arrested for murder, whom they naturally hide from “Family Services” (damn bureaucrats!) on the estate, entrusting him to the care of the “new Higgins”, classy Brit babe Perdita Weeks while they track down the real murderer. In the course of the kid’s stay he and Higgins play chess, and the kid is feeling pretty despondent, so to cheer him up, Perdita/Higgins explains to him the powers of the “White Knight” (aka Magnum, of course).

Yo, scriptwriter and Hollywood big shot David Fury!6 What about the, you know, fucking Black Knight!

Afterwords In my review of the original Magnum for the Bright Lights Film Journal I decried, well, lots of things, but among them the rampant odor of colonialism—Hawaiian “society” seemed to be comprised entirely of “old money" whites. The new show's a step up, but it's time to get past "white knights,"

In my defense, I will claim that, since the scripts get sloppier and sloppier as they approach the finish line, I have skipped the last ten minutes or so of every episode but the first. ↩︎

Neither Japan nor China are very popular with their neighbors. It’s almost as if power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ↩︎

Hill was all of 43 when she played Cho’s granny. I wonder what Koreans thought of a Japanese-European’s “Korean accent.” ↩︎

In the early episodes of the original series, Robin, a clearly Hemingwayesque figure, was voiced by Orson Welles. When Orson died, the bit died too. ↩︎

Actually, I’m guessing here. The character is named “Makoa Iona” and is played by Zion Junk. ↩︎

Dunno if Fury is an actual “legend”, but he has been a writer/co-executive producer for such “seminal” shows as Buffy and Lost. ↩︎

[movietweets]

Thor

Okie dokie, here we go one more time (obviously we’ll be doing it more times than one more) for another MCU film. This time I’ve got a jar of delicious greasy olives to hand and I’ll be watching Thor (2011). 

The only difference between this and other tweet-alongs is that I’m actually not going to tweet it! Yeah... I know that’s not really allowed but screw you! I make the rules and I prefer this format with the pictures and everything all at once.

Also since starting this I’ve lost 5 followers. It means almost nothing to me but I don’t want to be an annoying pest and I can see how filling up your timelines with endless tweets about a film you’re not even watching could get irritating. So suck it up, this is how it’s going to be from now on.

Anyway, on with the show.

What’s this? A rag-tag band of misfits in a van! If only they had a dog it could have been Scooby and the gang! They even have a Velma.

Daphney’s on point but looks like something awful happened to Fred. So sign of shaggy or scoob yet, no doubt they’re off somewhere making unrealistically tall sandwiches.

Oh, but maybe they’re baddies... they do appear to have a bomb,

Whoops, things aren’t going so well for them now. I’m having twister flashbacks!

Damn! Did they just hit someone? Maybe they are baddies...at least they got out to try and help. This has a sort of teen horror movie intro vibe to it. I’m sensing that they all might die soon. 

Oh now we’ve jumped back in time and now its a history documentary, That was unexpected! 

Oh not these guys from Game of Thrones! Is this set in Westeros then? Even the music is a bit like the GoT intro music.

Okay, this is a wackiest one yet, two alien races (that nonetheless look roughly humanoid) are having a war together on earth (of all places). It’s a little bit lord of the rings too. I’m having all kinds of feelings here. 

Asgard: also known as Organ pipe city.

So what? Fight to the death? My money is on the blond kid, the other one looks like the jealous villain type. 

I guess he did win then...Look at that cheeky wink. Although, I think it was aimed at his mother? Maybe that’s normal here. 

Healthy Asgardian flirting with mum

Alternate cast of The Lord of the Rings

And that guy dressed in jealous green must be his brother from before. Man he looks bitter. I bet he turns out to be the main baddy. These films have a track record of introducing the baddy within the first 10 minutes and I get the feeling it isn’t going to be Velma or any of the Mystery Machine bunch.

Oh Heck! Its an icy man! They’re baddies too!

Ooo, don’t piss off King daddy!

He’s such a sneaky snake. If only Thor didn’t have such an ego. He’s like Norse Tony Stark

Typical Gimli, in the room for 5 seconds and already grabbed a massive plate of food. 

Roadtrip! 

Why are they riding horses though, isn’t this world super high tech? Come to think of it, why are they wearing armor and fighting with swords? Don’t they have laser guns? Even that bloke from Ironman, living in a hovel in Russia, managed to cobble together a laser weapon. What gives!?

Idris Elba! Oh I hope he’s a main character! Looks like he needs a rest though... his eyes are pretty bloodshot.

Is this where rainbow road from mariocart is set? Or is that some kind of future techno-path?

Ideally I’d like to make some clever comment about this transportation sphere thing but its just too bizarre... Who know’s maybe this is what alien technology is like?

Hold your breath guys!

Could have said something earlier Asian Aragron! No use piping up now with your doubts!

Yep, I’m sure he’s going to back down now. He seems like the backing down type to be honest. Not a hot head, just easy going Thor, trying not to upset anyone.

Nobody calls me a woman! Even though there’s nothing wrong with being a woman. I’m not a sexist demi-god, really I promise! I know literally every other religion has a pretty bad track record but I’m different... It wasn’t what he said, it was the way he said it! 

Daaaaammnnnn! You got burned son! How you gonna let him front like that?

Oww! You got me right in the hand! No fair! And down he goes like a premiership football player. 

Cool hammer trick, I wonder how he does it? Magnets? It’ll definitely be magnets. I’ll bet it’s magnets.

Oh no! Frostbite! I’m sure there won’t be any long term consequences though.

Why is he only pulling out that attack now? Also, great wrist action, that must come in useful... Some friends he’s got though leaving him there to fight alone.

Another neat trick...This guy is a demon with the hammer.

Okay, now this is just hammer porn.

How many legs does that horse have? Is that part of the mythology?

Uh oh! Somebody is going to be grounded when they get home!

Isn’t Thor the god of lighting? If Final Fantasy has taught me anything about elemental damage its that he should have gained HP from that taser.

He’s going to end up in an institution! Hasn’t he worked it out that he’s on earth yet? They all knew about earth earlier.

Here’s Johnny!

I guess you’re not going to be crowned King Arthur.

Told you! That’s it buddy, you’re in the system now. Your only hope is a Native American smashing a window with a water fountain. 

Wow, Portman really has a knack for running this guy over.

HMB I’m going to get me a kingdom. 

Okay party’s over. Agent killjoy is here.

Yeah, real subtle Portman! I know he’s got a pretty ripped body though so I don’t blame you for acting like a school girl.

Oh surprise, surprise! Sneaky snake bro is a sneaky snake.

I’m blue dabba dee dabba doo. He actually might be that guy from X-men though. 

Stolen avatar baby. Again this seems familiar. Right George R.R. Martin? 

NO! DADDY!

HAHAHA! This guy is worse than Hulk for smashing.

How much did Zuckerburg pay for that totally unnecessarily distraction from the scene.

Oh she’s totally smitten. He’s everything a girl could want: brutish, zero social awareness, no money but really confident and with a killer bod. It literally makes no sense though, she’s a total babe but has to wait for a mental patient to literally fall from the sky to find a man. Has she even tried Tinder?

America! Land of freedom! They’ll steal your stuff and there’s nothing you can do about it...

Apple? you too? Aren’t you setting enough Ipods already? It’s 2011 for christs sake. I swear Velma is only in this for the product placement. 

The king is dead, long live the king. He’s like one of those co-workers who suddenly becomes a dick when they get a promotion so supervisor.

Good thing she turned up, that guy looked like he was about to show him to the back-room bestiality ring he runs on weeknights.

She’s doing some pretty impressive mental gymnastics there to even consider that he might not be completely bonkers. 

Is this a theme starting to emerge, ignoring daddies instructions?

Why does he need to go in there at all, that’s my question. we’ve already seen that he can use his magnet hands to summon it from a distance. He could have done that from up on the hill and then flown them both the hell out of there before anybody knew what was going on.

Gun or bow and arrow? 

Hmmm... I’m feeling cocky today.

I knew it was magnets! 

He just said it! Right there!

Oh, what a let down. He’s fucked now.

No use crying over impossible to pick up hammer. As they say.

Who’s this Robin Hood guy anyway, obviously not just a random grunt or he’d have gone with the gun and would probably be dead by now.

What is snakeboy doing here? It’s all your fault but don’t blame yourself. This guy is a sociopath.

I think my eyes just nearly rolled out of their sockets. Absolutely shameless.

Okay MUM!

Earth Daddy is a rebel after all. CHUG THE BEER, GET IT DOWN, DOWN IN ONE, DRINK IT ALL!

Of course it was all him all along. Sneaky snake.

MY VOICE IS RIDICULOUSLY DEEP AND RESONANT!

Just having a chilled night in with a good book and some ‘Go Lean’ Cereal! 

Oh! Heaven forbid that he see your cereal!

Greedy ginger Hagrid is always stuffing his bloody face!

“Don’t you DARE fat shame me!” 

Everything in Asgard is so serious and stern. Don’t they ever just chill?

So that’s where crop circles come from! It’s just the Norse gods popping in for a visit. Technically it is aliens then I guess.

Final boss? It does look like something from Dark Souls. 

Oh cool! Cosplayers! 

Just act natural guys...

Not dinosaurs? I it could happen right? Wouldn’t be the craziest thing to have happened in this film so far.

Oh no its just Norse Ironman. Eat shit Tony.

Just like in the wild west... but seriously, why hasn’t Norse Ironman used his face cannon to finish the job yet? He’s wide open!

Wow, that worked?

Psyche!

Oooofff!

He’s not going to have died though is he... lets get real here. Something is going to save him.

There we go space daddy’s tears made a massive hammer fly out of the sky and electrocute him back to health. 

Saw that coming a mile off, its straight out of the superhero user manual.

Can you really hit fire with a hammer?

It’s not exactly what you’d call comfortable though is it.

What a melt.

Really, all that tension and you’re only going to kiss her hand?

Finally.

WHAT? Double, double cross!? Such a sneaky snake but it won’t help you once Thor gets here.

What’s the big deal about frost giant genocide? They’re obviously evil! Just look at what they’ve done north of the wall already! They’ll eat Danarys! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

How come it doesn’t just crush straight through him if its so heavy?

That was lucky. These superheros always get lucky.

Nice shot. This film has been surprisingly good quality, I think its the first one that I’ve really enjoyed the whole way through. Even despite its ridiculousness!

No surprises at who’s tucking in at the feast!

Awhh Daddy is finally proud of you. What a tear jerker.

Alright, lets see what happens in the after credits scene...

Oh its earth daddy and nicky the patch! Take a look at my energy cube? Oh no! who’s that in the background?! Not snakey snake bro!

The End.

Well I didn’t hate that one. I didn’t hate it at all. Tune in next time for Captain America. It’s one that I’m particularly looking forward to hating every second of. Bloody America man! 

[nntodayblog]

New Robin Williams Doc Gives Fans A Glimpse Of Comedian’s Offstage Life

Rick Diamond via Getty Images

Comedian Robin Williams performs in Atlanta on May 10, 1986.

710

PARK CITY, Utah ― Robin Williams grew up as an only child to a fun-loving mother and businessman father far outside the Hollywood machine. But the moment he witnessed his stern dad laugh out loud at Jonathan Winters’ stick routine on “The Jack Paar Show,” Williams knew he wanted to be a performer.

Nearly four years after Williams’ death, HBO is set to release a new documentary on the beloved comedian’s life and one-of-a-kind career. “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” directed by Marina Zenovich and produced by Alex Gibney and Shirel Kozak, made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night to a sold-out crowd. Audience members diligently followed the story of the award-winning actor from his childhood experiences at home and in school to his tragic suicide at age 63.

Featuring new interviews with Williams’ first wife, Valerie Velardi, “Mork & Mindy” co-star Pam Dawber, friends David Letterman and Billy Crystal, and his son Zak Williams, the film highlights the actor’s creative genius through some of his most beloved stage and screen performances, including “A Night at the Met,” “Happy Days,” Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Aladdin,” his USO tour, “Good Will Hunting” and “Dead Poets Society.”

It also shines a light on Williams’ personal life ― namely, his three marriages, his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and his friendships with the likes of John Belushi, Bobcat Goldthwait and Crystal.

The best bit of the film involves voicemails that Williams left for Crystal, which play over a montage of photos of the close duo. Williams would try out various character impressions, like “Sam from the Syphilis Society,” to get a rise out of his buddy. Crystal returned the favor when Williams underwent an aortic valve replacement in 2009, leaving him voicemails from “Vinny the Valve Guy” to help ease his recovery post-surgery.

Crystal reiterates that he wanted to be friends with Williams since the day he met the eccentric comedian in the 1980s. “I had no agenda,” Crystal says in the film, “I just liked him.”

Stephen Lovekin via Getty Images

Actors Billy Crystal and Robin Williams used to send each other goofy voicemails.

One of the most profound moments revolves around Belushi’s overdose ― Williams was with the “SNL” star at his bungalow the night before he died. On the “Mork & Mindy” set the next day, Dawber informed Williams that Belushi had died, making a point to tell a cocaine-using Williams that she didn’t want him to end up like Belushi. And he promised he never would.

“It sobered the shit out of me,” Williams admitted in a soundbite from one of the many interviews Zenovich and her team dug up for the documentary.

Throughout his life, Williams used humor and performance as another way to get the “high” he craved in his day-to-day, according to many of the interviewees in the film. Zak Williams reveals that his father’s calling ― his desire to get from Hollywood what he needed ― took him away from Zak and his half-siblings, Zelda and Cody.

Although Williams was a standout entertainer, behind closed doors he was a mild-mannered introvert, as both behind-the-scenes archival footage and personal videos reveal. Performer Williams was electric, while Real-Life Williams was vulnerable and quiet.

“He was really comfortable onstage and less comfortable off,” his “Waiting for Godot” co-star Steve Martin said in the doc.

Yet for most, it was hard not to fall for Williams. Every person interviewed for “Come Inside My Mind” seemed eager to share heartfelt memories and stories about the actor’s craft, humor and personality.

“He could levitate,” Letterman said.

“The urge to be funny was so innate to him,” “One Hour Photo” filmmaker Mark Romanek added.

In 2006, Williams fell back into alcohol use to numb some of the pain he endured. Though he did get clean and continued to treat his addiction until the end of his life in 2014, the effort did not protect him from a misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. In truth, he suffered from Lewy body dementia, which was almost surely a factor in his suicide, Goldthwait said.

Perhaps comedian Lewis Black described Williams best in the film, stating, “[He was] the light that never knew how to turn itself off.”

“Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind” will air on HBO this fall and is now screening at Sundance.

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Origin soruce : New Robin Williams Doc Gives Fans A Glimpse Of Comedian’s Offstage Life

[fashiontrendin-blog]

'Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind' Gives Fans A Glimpse Of Comedian's Offstage Life

http://fashion-trendin.com/robin-williams-come-inside-my-mind-gives-fans-a-glimpse-of-comedians-offstage-life/

'Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind' Gives Fans A Glimpse Of Comedian's Offstage Life

PARK CITY, Utah ― Robin Williams grew up as an only child to a fun-loving mother and businessman father far outside the Hollywood machine. But the moment he witnessed his stern dad laugh out loud at Jonathan Winters’ stick routine on “The Jack Paar Show,” Williams knew he wanted to be a performer.

Nearly four years after Williams’ death, HBO is set to release a new documentary on the beloved comedian’s life and one-of-a-kind career. “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” directed by Marina Zenovich and produced by Alex Gibney and Shirel Kozak, made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night to a sold-out crowd. Audience members diligently followed the story of the award-winning actor from his childhood experiences at home and in school to his tragic suicide at age 63. 

Featuring new interviews with Williams’ first wife, Valerie Velardi, “Mork & Mindy” co-star Pam Dawber, friends David Letterman and Billy Crystal, and his son Zak Williams, the film highlights the actor’s creative genius through some of his most beloved stage and screen performances, including “A Night at the Met,” “Happy Days,” Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Aladdin,” his USO tour, “Good Will Hunting” and “Dead Poets Society.” 

It also shines a light on Williams’ personal life ― namely, his three marriages, his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and his friendships with the likes of John Belushi, Bobcat Goldthwait and Crystal.

The best bit of the film involves voicemails that Williams left for Crystal, which play over a montage of photos of the close duo. Williams would try out various character impressions, like “Sam from the Syphilis Society,” to get a rise out of his buddy. Crystal returned the favor when Williams underwent an aortic valve replacement in 2009, leaving him voicemails from “Vinny the Valve Guy” to help ease his recovery post-surgery. 

Crystal reiterates that he wanted to be friends with Williams since the day he met the eccentric comedian in the 1980s. “I had no agenda,” Crystal says in the film, “I just liked him.” 

One of the most profound moments revolves around Belushi’s overdose ― Williams was with the “SNL” star at his bungalow the night before he died. On the “Mork & Mindy” set the next day, Dawber informed Williams that Belushi had died, making a point to tell a cocaine-using Williams that she didn’t want him to end up like Belushi. And he promised he never would.

“It sobered the shit out of me,” Williams admitted in a soundbite from one of the many interviews Zenovich and her team dug up for the documentary. 

Throughout his life, Williams used humor and performance as another way to get the “high” he craved in his day-to-day, according to many of the interviewees in the film. Zak Williams reveals that his father’s calling ― his desire to get from Hollywood what he needed ― took him away from Zak and his half-siblings, Zelda and Cody.

Although Williams was a standout entertainer, behind closed doors he was a mild-mannered introvert, as both behind-the-scenes archival footage and personal videos reveal. Performer Williams was electric, while Real-Life Williams was vulnerable and quiet.

“He was really comfortable onstage and less comfortable off,” his “Waiting for Godot” co-star Steve Martin said in the doc.

Yet for most, it was hard not to fall for Williams. Every person interviewed for “Come Inside My Mind” seemed eager to share heartfelt memories and stories about the actor’s craft, humor and personality. 

“He could levitate,” Letterman said.

“The urge to be funny was so innate to him,” “One Hour Photo” filmmaker Mark Romanek added.

In 2006, Williams fell back into alcohol use to numb some of the pain he endured. Though he did get clean and continued to treat his addiction until the end of his life in 2014, the effort did not protect him from a misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. In truth, he suffered from Lewy body dementia, which was almost surely a factor in his suicide, Goldthwait said.

Perhaps comedian Lewis Black described Williams best in the film, stating, “[He was] the light that never knew how to turn itself off.” 

“Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind” will air on HBO this fall and is now screening at Sundance.