#for today i have drawn this character that we haven't seen in a while

[teal-fiend]

(combination 8/8/24 celebration and 1k+ follower post)

Thank You To the currently 1,068 people who have decided to follow this account. Here's to another year of Vore

[herotome]

Devlog #125

Hi-ho, Wudge here! Gosh! I missed last week's update.

Happy holidays from Herotome!!

I haven't drawn anything this year-- oh but hmm, I could do a quick edit, here -

Tadah! For anyone who hasn't already seen it, we got those 50 reblogs to make Warden shirtless! A pure version without the christmas lights went up yesterday, just scroll down my blog a bit or check out the #ro: warden hashtag.

I'm pleased with how much mileage I'm already getting from this picture, ha.

Anyway.

Seems like I'm gonna be focused on writing new scenes and drawing expressions for a while. They're some of the more tedious tasks for me, so I'll certainly be looking for every opportunity to do other things on the side - like coding.

Today I've decided that the LI sprites should have their eyebrows on a separate layer from the rest of their face, to offer me the greatest amount of variety in creating new expressions - and I've come up with a naming system for it, too!

I'm looking forward to implementing this. Eyebrow shapes have much, much less variety compared to mouth shapes, so I might even finish drawing every possible eyebrow for every LI sometime soon. I've already gotten a strong start with Warden and Mia's eyebrows.

Speaking of, I did turn in more expressions over on Ko-Fi!

Tadah!! Thank you again to everyone who has donated so far!

I'm realizing that in the set dedicated to Dia, Warden and Mia have the same mouth shape on the upper right side... A fascinating subconscious decision on my part.

Outside of art, I did write... once. Er, it went pretty okay. I'm usually the biggest hater of my first drafts.

I think my goal is gonna be to show off the abilities of all the characters as equally as I can; Warden and Jade have had their time to shine (during the job fair and flying MC home, respectively), and I think MC, Griffin, and Mia are gonna be queued up next.

I'll put the rest under a cut for potential spoilers and further rambling - as always, if you don't see the cut, make sure to check out my blog directly!

I have a good idea of what I wanna do with Griffin (it may or may not involve obliterating your rent debt, and I may or may not have written about that in the first-draft-I-don't-hate).

I've been thinking that this scene would involve a change of clothes btw, and did some fashion concepts for Griffin that I also don't hate;

I'm not super sure what I'm gonna do for Mia's eventual ~special show-off scene~, but I'm sure it will come to me.

For MC, I want to show off her relationship with the city, and showcase how qualified she is for the job in a low-key way. I recently discussed with a friend how Men in Black is a huge source of inspiration for me... Y'all know the scene where Will Smith has his interview and did things differently from all the other candidates?? I kinda wanna capture that vibe...!

And ah... I think that's about it, Herotome-wise.

Wudge-wise, honesty hour - I've had ssssome mild health concerns this year.

I don't want to go into detail; I want to say it's been like... nothing life threatening, thankfully, but a lot of small physical inconveniences that pile up and make it harder to concentrate.

I did rest a lot last week so no worries. <3 It's just that parts of my body have been weird and annoying, and I think it's helpful to acknowledge that the flesh prison can be a weird and annoying place. But I value it! And I'm doing my best to take care of it. Health comes first, etc, etc.

With this new year, I hope you guys take care of yourselves as best as you can, too. The person who's most qualified to take care of you is you!!!

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[torterrachampion]

Because I haven't said anything insane in a while I'm sharing one of my most absurd theories. I've shared it before (just never on tumblr) and I'm not even sure I believe it. Nonetheless we proceed.

The basic gist is this is not Faustina in the tank but Jeanne.

We know that after the original Gévaudan incident Jeanne was placed into an induced slumber by Ruthven and now ~100 years later she's allegedly been reawakened.

When Ruthven put Jeanne into slumber he said he would wake her after the war was over. And the funny thing about that is... the war was already over when he put her to sleep. The war ended in 1702 by Chloé's recount, long before the original Beast incident. Meanwhile Jeanne's slumber started sometime around 1767 if we use the actual historical Beast of Gévaudan incident as a landmark.

By this we can assume when Ruthven mentions war he doesn't mean the one between humans and vampires that he helped end. So either the "war" he's referring to only ended recently or, potentially, it's still being fought. Within the past few years the only major events that I can think of that could have signalled an end to Ruthven's war would be Luna or Faustina's deaths (if what happened to Faustina even counts as a death or was recent to begin with). But for my purposes continuing this post I'm working under the assumption his war isn't over.

At the very least Ruthven isn't acting as though he's content and they're living in peacetimes with all the scheming he's doing behind the scenes. My main point is we have reason to doubt Ruthven's criteria for awakening Jeanne have been met, and because speculating about his motivations is too difficult I will say no more about him.

Moving on, if I may invoke Occam's razor the simplest explanation for who is in the tank would be that it's the only character we know has been tanked. Assuming it's Faustina makes things more confusing not less. We already have two competing explanations of what happened to her body with Loki saying it was smashed contradicting the apparently intact body in the bed.

As for physical evidence of my claims my kind of silly argument is the hair. It looks more similar in texture to Jeanne's than Faustina's in my opinion, and almost identical to how baby Jeanne's was drawn when she started out in her tank. Tank girl's hair just doesn't look as wavy as Faustina's. While it does look longer than Jeanne's I'm willing to argue it could've grown during her sleep. It's certainly not the most insane thing I'm arguing here today.

In the below images I've marked pictures of Jeanne with pink dots, Faustina with red dots and mysterious tank girl with blue dots for ease of comparison.

Additionally, the depiction of Jeanne from memoire 4 when Vanitas talks about her induced slumber shows her hair as incredibly long. Longer than we've ever seen it. During her Hellfire Witch days it came down the length of her back but this single panel shows it reaching down past her knees. Perhaps the inconsistency is because Mochijun had not yet fully settled her character design for that time period but what if we entertain the idea that it's intentional? It looks about the right length to match the girl in the tank.

Looking at hand sizes it's hard to say but I'm willing to concede that tank girl's hands look a little smaller than Jeanne's. It's not so different that I can claim they're 100% not Jeanne's but it's worth pointing out. Ruthven's hand can kind of help scale but it's not super clear how big his hand is compared to Jeanne's in any panels I can find so it's hard to make an accurate comparison.

And I'll admit there is good evidence that tank girl is indeed Faustina. Most notably she reacts when Noé yells at Naenia in Gévaudan. Indeed my own arguments against this are at best wild speculation and grasping at straws. But grasp I will.

We know there is some relationship between Jeanne and Naenia so perhaps it isn't so unusual. Naenia was with Jeanne in Gévaudan just before Ruthven came and subsequently put her to sleep. It's possible she did something to Jeanne/her body in that time and that some connection between them now exists.

It is mentioned that Jeanne is a 'vessel' and one would assume her body has the potential to be both filled and emptied of consciousness if we take it literally.

Although, whatever else I may say, our current Jeanne definitely doesn't have any mental differences from pre-sleep Jeanne. She has all of her memories as far as I can tell, besides a few that have been tampered with. So even if I claim Jeanne's body is in that tank I'm not sure I can say the same of her consciousness. And I don't exactly have an explanation for who/what our Jeanne is if I'm working under the assumption any of my claims are true. Really any belief in this nonsense creates more questions than it answers. Yet it compels me.

Look, my main point is the person in the tank does not look like Faustina to me and I'm suspicious of the gap in time wherein Jeanne was asleep.

I know I wanted to say more but I forgot and I'll probably only remember after I post this so... Thanks for coming to my crack theory. Don't take it too seriously orz

[foodfightnovelization]

Foodfight! Deluxe Sound Storybook Analysis and Discussion

So here it is, here's the book we're going to read together. That's right, I finally got my hands on a copy of the Foodfight! Deluxe Sound Storybook. Now you might be asking what's so interesting about this, since it's clearly a picture book for children even YOUNGER than the novelization's intended target audience, but if you're as fascinated by Foodfight! as I am, it's an absolute treasure. The front cover is made up of various concept art for the film, drawn by Foodfight! character designer Jim George, and the rest of the book consists of absolutely beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by artist Ron Zalme. It's like looking into an alternate timeline where Foodfight! was animated in the style of classic Disney films like Pinocchio or Snow White. Just getting to see versions of these characters and this story that are actually visually appealing is delightful, and it's reminiscent of the early footage of the film before it was retooled into what we know today.

The book inexplicably commands a high price on eBay, which is why I haven't had the chance to talk about it before, but now that I finally have a copy here in front of me (next to the multiple Foodfight! plush toys I own because I'm NORMAL about this movie), it's time to snap, crackle and pop our way into this book and see what lies within.

Now, before I get any further, I'd first like to take a minute to discuss the "sound" element of this book. This is a Deluxe Sound Storybook after all, which means small icons will appear next to words or phrases throughout the story, indicating the reader should press the corresponding button from a soundboard attached to the side. Given these types of books are designed for the very young, I'd imagine the purpose is to help teach word association and auditory learning. Plus, kids just like funny noises! This book in particular contains 16 different sound effects, which the front cover describes as "yummy" seemingly assuming the reader has developed the ability to directly taste sound. Given this is a movie-based storybook, you'd probably assume the sounds are taken, at least in part, from the movie itself right?

Well, you'd be wrong! As you can probably hear from the audio I included of all 16 sound effects (played in the order they are on the soundboard seen above) almost NONE of the characters are voiced by their actual actors, and the rest of the sounds are just miscellaneous foley. While I can't say if this is common for books of this nature, it's interesting to listen and hear just how different the voices are. Mr Clipboard sounds far more menacing and less deranged than Christopher Lloyd's interpretation of the character, Hairy Hold's voice is far more nasally, and Polar Penguin is just portrayed by generic blubbering.

The only character to be voiced by their actor from the movie is Kaptain Krispy, and given that he was voiced by Foodfight! producer George Johnsen in the film, this makes sense as he would've been readily available for recording something like this. Some characters don't even HAVE voice clips- for instance, despite being the main character of the film, Dex is represented only by the sound of a spatula flipping. Overall though, the sounds are remarkably well-done considering they clearly didn't have access to any of the main cast members. You'd easily be forgiven for thinking Lady X and Dan actually WERE voiced by Eva Longoria and Wayne Brady in this, as the impressions are surprisingly convincing. I'd say for what they were trying to do here, they did a great job. Now with that out the way, let's talk about the book itself!

Normally I'd start by discussing the inside cover pages, but there really isn't that much to talk about here. The only noteworthy element I can see is that the copyright date is listed as 2007, whereas the novelization is dated 2008, suggesting this was in the works long before the novelization was. But given that these books take a while to print and publish, and that the Sound Storybook didn't make it to stores until 2008, these dates are fairly non-indicative.

That does bring me to another interesting point of discussion though- unlike the novelization, the Deluxe Sound Storybook was actually published and sold at retail, with various websites and blogs from the time being suitably puzzled as to why tie-in merchandise was being sold for a movie that not only wasn't out yet, but didn't even have a concrete release date. If I had to guess, considering the movie was at one point set to release in 2007, it's possible the Sound Storybook was already printed and shipped out to stores to match that release, only for all the copies to start gathering dust when the movie didn't come out. Retailers, likely not wanting to destroy stock they'd been sitting on for quite some time, sold the books for cheap in the hopes that SOMEBODY would buy them. And thankfully somebody did, which is why we're able to talk about it today! Despite this book being far more expensive than the novelization, it's also far easier to find a copy given it actually made it to shelves, making it easily the most accessible of all the Foodfight! books. So if you ever feel like dropping way too much money on a children's book from over 15 years ago, eBay has you covered.

Just like the movie, the book opens with Mr Leonard closing his store for the night as the last customer of the day leaves, only obviously presented in a way that's far more aesthetically pleasing. Of note is that he appears to be locking the doors from the inside, trapping himself in the building as it transforms into Marketropolis. The man's going to have a heart attack when he sees the what the cereal mascots do after dark... (seriously though, I think it's just for practicality's sake, so we can see both the inside of the store AND him on the same page)

This beautiful illustration is accompanied by some narration from our hero Dex Dogtective, telling us how even though we may think a supermarket is just a place to buy food, we'd actually only be half right. I find it interesting that he mentions you "might recognize him" from the Cinnamon Sleuth cereal box- given at one point there were plans for a real Cinnamon Sleuth breakfast cereal to be released in stores, it seems like they were trying to allude to this while also leaving it somewhat ambiguous in case the food licensing deal didn't come through and no actual cereal ended up being produced. Which is what ended up happening, so it's a good job they just said you "might" recognize him! I also find it funny that Sunshine's raisin packages are the same size as the boxes of Cinnamon Sleuth- who's ever going to need that many raisins? Maybe if you were manufacturing your own Raisin Bran and needed to add two scoops to every delicious bowl, but that's still too many! I always imagined Sunshine Goodness raisins in those tiny snack-packs like Sun-Maid or something, not a giant 17oz cardboard box...

The store transforms into Marketropolis, and I know I've said this already but these illustrations are absolutely FANTASTIC! The character designs look so charming in this artstyle, and it really makes me wish the whole movie could've looked like this. Seeing Marketropolis actually resembling a city at night is fantastic as well, given that it's so horribly lit in the finished film it always looks like it's the middle of the day (despite the basic premise of the film literally being this is what happens when the supermarket closes at NIGHT). Dex and Sunshine look really cute together, and I think it's adorable how he refers to her as "his gal" in the narration. Dex talks about how this is where him and all the other product icons reside, and I can't explain why but I really like the way it's phrased as "At night, this is our world. This where we all live." Dex then goes on to talk about his best friend Daredevil Dan, describing him as "the world's greatest stunt pilot flying squirrel on a chocolate bar wrapper", which is perhaps the most overly narrow superlative I've ever heard. Just how many other stunt pilot flying squirrels are there on the front of chocolate bar wrappers?

Dex goes on to explain that not everyone's as sweet as his Sunshine and that he often has his hands full keeping the aisles safe, as we're treated to another fantastic illustration, this time of him fighting Fat Cat Burglar off with his price-tag gun. I don't have too much to say about these two pages, other than once again mentioning just how much I love the art in this. Part of why I bought the Deluxe Sound Storybook to begin with was so I could share the artwork with everyone, as I simply LOVE how it looks- even Fat Cat Burglar looks great when drawn like this.

Dex attempts to propose to Sunshine, only for Dan to crash his plane while attempting the loop-de-loop, with her disappearing on her way to check on him. What's described here more or less happens the same way in the film, but the artwork depicts it very differently. In the movie, this all happens outside whereas here it's in some sort of restaurant or club. In addition, Dex is wearing his white tux but at this point in the movie he's still in his Indiana Jones gear, and Maximilius is also in a white tuxedo while in the movie it's purple. (However in the case of Maximilius, this is just down to to the white being an earlier look for the character, as on the cover and throughout the rest of the book he's still wearing it)

I have to say, it's crazy how much of this is dedicated to what happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie. We're nearly halfway in, and we've only just gotten to Sunshine's disappearance- not that it's uncommon for storybooks like this to take liberties with the plot, but it does mean the majority of the movie's events are crammed into approximately ten pages and so have far less time to breathe than the first half of the book.

Following Sunshine's disappearance, Mr Clipboard arrives at the supermarket pushing Brand X products, and we're told customers are going crazy for them. While this does happen to some degree in the movie, the art we're seeing here is of a scene that was cut out of the finished film and we've only previously seen in the novelization. In said scene, Mr Clipboard has had a giant Brand X display set up in the store, with a cardboard washing machine that sprays Elixir into the air and attracts customers into buying Brand X products. This scene is important for two reasons- not only does it establish how a washing machine ends up in the store (explaining how Dex and Dan end up trapped in a dryer later on) but it also shows how Brand X's plan is affecting the real world, and the danger it poses to not only the store but to people everywhere as well. On top of that, it's cool to see the way the Brand X display resembles Lady X's tower, as in the movie we don't get to see what it looks like during the day.

Sometime after Brand X's arrival, Dan goes missing and Dex follows the trail right to Lady X. It's here we see yet another scene that was cut from the film and previously only in the novelization- Dex's first encounter with the Xobytes in Lady X's penthouse. (Dex even has two price-tag guns here, something I saw mentioned in the novelization and assumed was a mistake on the author's part as we only ever see him with one in the movie). I really think this scene should've been in the film, as it serves as a proper introduction to the Xobytes, as well as the threat they pose to Dex and the other Ikes.

Dex attempts to fight off the Xobytes with his price tag guns, but he's quickly defeated and wakes up in Lady X's dryer where he finds Dan. The fact that it's a dryer and not a washing machine gives some indication as to which draft of script author Justine Fontes was working from when writing this- the I Can Find It! book (which I covered in a previous post) was based on an earlier draft and had them trapped in a washing machine full of water instead, seemingly changed due to this being too difficult for animators to render. As such, we can hypothesize this book was likely based on the same draft of the script the novelization was, given it's a dryer in both (and later on in the story Brand X are defeated by a lightning storm, whereas in earlier drafts/the I Can Find It! book it's a flood)

Dex and Dan escape the dryer, only to find Brand X is building an entire army of the Xobytes encountered earlier. This scene goes down more or less the same as it does in the movie, but visually looks very different. In the movie Dex and Dan see the army of Xobytes while looking through an air vent, whereas here they spot them from around a corner. In addition, the Brand X War Room looks very different to the way it does in the movie, on top of the Xobytes' poison being green instead of black. However these changes are likely down to Zalme not having any reference images of the room to work with, and so instead coming up with his own version of the design (given even in early footage it looks the same as it does in the final film). In addition to that, some degree of creative liberty is always taken with these kind of books anyway- what looks good on film doesn't necessarily look good on paper, and so you have to come up with something that still looks dynamic and visually appealing as a 2D image.

The book then skips entirely over the part of the plot where they cross the supermarket during the day, visit the Expiration Station, and meet Vlad Chocool, and we instead go straight to Dex and the other Ikes waging a food fight against the Brand X army. While this is a mostly accurate depiction of the battle as it happens in the film, there are still a few changes. For one, Kaptain Krispy and Twinkleton (the blue elephant) are part of the scene, despite both having been rubbed out by Brand X at this point in the film. Granted, the book skips over this part of the plot as well, and they likely wouldn't have wanted to include characters being killed in something intended for very young children, so it's not surprising this change was made. However, it does mean the Ikes are waging a war against Brand X before they've actually done anything to wrong them. I guess Dex and Dan knew they were building an army though, so it was best to just deal with the threat before it became a more serious problem.

Dex gives the signal for his secret plan, and Cheazel T Weasel starts a an electrical lightning storm, destroying the Brand X buildings while the rest of the Marketropolis is safety protected by lightning rods. It's a shame Cheazel only gets a brief mention here- I would've loved to see how he looked in this artstyle, and given he was voiced by director Larry Kasanoff they could have easily got him to voice a line for the soundboard as well. Seriously, how did Lord Flushington get a button on there over Cheazel? One is a toilet frog who has maybe two scenes in the entire movie, and the other is a classic "lovable rogue" character who plays a key role in taking down Brand X, helps save the day, and was even important enough to get his own plush toy. The Brand X Mashed Potato Man is similarly absent from this version of the story, but despite my preference for the character, he isn't particularly relevant to the plot, so this makes sense.

In the midst of the chaos, Dex finds Sunshine at the top of the Brand X tower, and as I'm sure you already know from either watching the movie or reading my analysis of the novelization, it's revealed Lady X had her kidnapped. (I know this is all incredibly obvious, I just like describing the plot of things, okay?) As the building collapses, Dan finally gets the loop-de-loop right and saves both Dex and Sunshine, daring the day and flying away. And damn, I know I've said this at least three times already, but I still can't get over how fantastic these illustrations are! The characters look so charming in this artstyle and they're drawn so dynamically against the night skies of Marketropolis, it's just a visual delight to look at. The one downside to all this is the book's extremely short length- just two more pages and it's over already! I'd have happily read a version of this that was double the length, so we could see how the rest of the characters and story would've looked drawn this way. (We didn't even get to see the Copabanana in this version of the plot) Still, it has all the major beats of the film covered, so let's press on and see how it ends.

Mr Clipboard comes stomping through the store, threatening to destroy Marketropolis. Dex gets Maximilius to use a piece of dental floss as a tripwire, and as Mr Clipboard's head hits the ground it breaks open, revealing he was one of Lady X's robots the whole time. Once again, the Marketropolis is safe, and Dex and Sunshine can finally be together.

This is more or less how the ending goes across all versions of the story (except the I Can Find It! book which Mr Clipboard is entirely absent from), but it does leave out the Lady X revealing she used to be Priscilla Pussly, the Ike for a failed brand of genetically giant prunes, along with Sunshine beating her up so badly her plastic surgery comes undone and she's transformed back into the hideous prune she once was. I'm glad this was left out- as much as I've warmed up to Foodfight! over time, I always thought repeatedly hitting a woman so badly that it destroys everything she's done to feel good about herself was a pretty horrible way to end things. Like yeah, destroy her sense of image and humiliate her in front of everyone, THEN kill her? That's so cruel, aren't Dex and the other Ikes supposed to be the good guys?

Either way, with that we reach the end of the Deluxe Sound Storybook. Despite consisting of an incredibly trimmed-down version of the movie's plot, the beautiful artwork was worth the price of admission alone, and it was truly fantastic to see characters and environments from Foodfight! rendered so beautifully. I'd say it's up there alongside the novelization, meeting the (incredibly low) bar of versions of Foodfight! far better than the finished film. I'm really glad I got to share this book on my blog too- while the Deluxe Sound Storybook has been talked about across various places over the years, nobody made its contents available in their entirety before now. I hope you all enjoyed taking another dive into the fascinating world of Foodfight! merchandise, and shortly after this post I'll make my scans of the book available on the Internet Archive for anyone who wants to check it out for themselves.

If you can believe it, long before I started this blog, all I ever wanted out of Foodfight! was a copy of this book someday so I could see what the movie would've looked like if it hadn't been spoiled before its time. But then I stumbled onto the novelization and realized I just HAD to write about that, then ended up interviewing a cast member, and ultimately ended up getting involved in a documentary that'll satisfy everyone's curiosities about Foodfight! a million times better than the Deluxe Sound Storybook ever could. However, finally getting to discuss what I was originally so fascinated by makes it feel like my blog has truly come full circle. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I'll see you next time!

[imawreck]

Recruit

Pairing: David "Deacon" Kay x Original Character

Summary: Based in Season 2, S.W.A.T. is bringing in both old and new recruits as they recover from budget cuts. Among those new recruits, is Lily Blake. With her training and experience, she poses potential for the team. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to overlook her spontaneous nature, or untraditional joining to S.W.A.T.

Author's Note: The first few parts to this fic will be incorporating the character into the team, but there is an eventual Deacon x OC pairing. It's a slow burn fic, so be patient!

Warnings: Cursing, violence, angst, fluff, team drama, radio communications and time skips are sometimes italicized

Word Count: 1,218

"20-squad, round up and meet me in the conference room in five." Commander Hicks' voice echoes from down the hall, reaching the ears of the team. They hustle into the room, brows furrowed and voices low and curious.

Hicks looks them over with his brows drawn as he waits for them to quiet down. "I want to inform you all of a transfer happening in this division. The L.A.P.D. is recovering from the budget cuts, and in turn, is increasing personnel again. I have hand selected one of these new recruits for your squad."

Hicks seems to sense their unasked questions, and he closes his eyes as their voices rise.

"Hicks, when did we start taking officers that haven't completed the academy?"

"Yeah," Luca chimes in, "a spot on S.W.A.T. has to be earned like all the rest of us!"

20-squad mumbles their agreement and Hicks raises a hand to silence them. "This officer is highly recommended with great marks, not to mention a skillset that this team would really benefit from. This is not up for debate. New recruits arrive tomorrow, I suggest you make peace with it now."

5:15 A.M. Blake-

I shuffle my feet, throwing my weight into the bag as my fist makes contact with a soft thump. It's early morning, way too early to have as much energy as I do, but I couldn't sleep with all the excitement of today. It isn't every day someone's chosen for S.W.A.T.

A smile crawls onto my face as I take another swing, slamming my elbow into the bag in silent triumph. A door opens behind me, but I pay it no mind as I continue to wail on the bag with my mind occupied with the curiosities of the job to come.

That is, until a smiling face peers around the bag and nearly meets the blunt end of my knuckles. "Woah there, I come in peace!" He laughs, his hands raised in mock surrender.

I huff, out of breath. "Sorry, didn't notice you."

"Pretty active for this time of day, huh?" He adjusts the strap of a navy bag at his side, the silver S.W.A.T. logo catching the overhead lights.

I nod, "Couldn't sleep so I figured I'd burn some energy before the day gets too crazy."

He laughs, nodding, "I know what you mean. Names Jim Street."

He holds out his hand to me, and I'm quick to dry my palm on my towel and give it a shake while I respond with a smile. "I'm Lily Blake, it's nice to meet you."

"I haven't seen you around before. You a new recruit?" He leans against the pillar next to the bag, and I take a moment to collect myself.

"Yeah, not sure which squad I'll be put on though." I take a seat on the bench across from him and take a swig of my water. "Are you new too?"

"Oh, no, I'm a member of 20-squad. I finished my academy last year. I didn't hear they had another one." There's a pensive look in his eyes despite his friendly approach.

I shake my head, "I didn't take the academy." It's not much information, but that's all I can really give him. I'm not sure why I was picked to join S.W.A.T., but I wasn't about to tell him that.

"Well, its refreshing to see a new face around here. Even better knowing I won't be the newbie anymore." He laughs at that, "I look forward to seeing you around. Good luck on your first day!"

With a little salute, he turns on his heel and leaves me alone once again. I smile to myself, pleased that I had at least one acquaintance around here. Jim seemed nice enough.

A few hours later, the station is awake and buzzing with voices. More officers flood in, all muttering about new recruits and how happy they are that the budget cuts have finally let up. I stick to the walls, make myself scarce as the foot traffic picks up around the halls. I change, pulling on my casual blues and double checking my belt before I head out again.

"Lance Corporal Blake," someone calls out, and I'm quick to turn around.

"Sir?" I take him in, grey hair, green eyes, and a face that makes me think he hasn't smiled in thirty years. I relax as I plaster on a smile, offering my hand. "You must be Commander Hicks."

His face moves into something akin to a smile, reaffirming my assumption that he doesn't do much more than frown very often, before he nods and shakes my hand twice. "It's a pleasure to have you."

I nod, "It's an honor, sir."

Hicks places his hands on his hips, "Well, I hope you're ready for today. It'll be tough, but I think I've picked a squad that's just right for you."

My heart does a little summersault, nerves jittering, before I take a breath. "I trust your judgement, Commander."

Hicks gives a chuckle, "You ready to meet them?"

"Born ready, sir."

I follow Commander Hicks down a hallway and into a debriefing room, taking in the computer screens and tablets littering nearly every available space. Several individuals stand on the other side of the room talking amongst themselves with their arms crossed and voices low. All of them wear their casual blues, the silver S.W.A.T. emblem gracing each shirt over their left side.

These were my squad members.

"20-squad, this is your new addition. Lance Corporal Lily Blake, this is 20-squad." Hicks nods his head in their direction, and suddenly all eyes are on me.

Five men, and one woman. All various ages, and all sporting mixed expressions. None of which seem too pleased, but not entirely hostile either.

I do my best to keep up a pleasant smile, "It's a pleasure to work with you."

One of them steps forward, charming smile and caramel skin. "I'm Sergeant Harrelson, but you can call me Hondo. Great to have you on the team."

I take his hand, "I go by Blake."

"Lance Corporal, a Marine?" His smile turns upwards a little more and a bit of pride graces his face when I nod.

He steps back as another member of the team comes forward, a much more familiar face. Jim shoots me a wink, "Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon, Newbie! You didn't tell me you'd rank above me either."

I shrug, "I didn't think it was important to say."

He shakes his head with a laugh, and steps back so the others can take their turn introducing themselves to me. Luca, who reminds me an awful lot of the stereotypical surfer type, seems displeased with my arrival. Probably due to the impromptu recruitment and the fact that I didn't take their traditional route through the academy.

The last man forward was older. Chocolate brown eyes, built in stature, with salt and pepper hair. His smile was pleasant and practiced, but his eyes swam with emotions. "Sergeant David Kay. These guys call me Deacon."

He offered his hand, and I took it. "A pleasure, Deacon."

For some reason, his introduction stuck with me. The weight of his eyes, that practiced pleasantry, the roughness of his palm.

And the silver band on his ring finger.

[practically-an-x-man]

I haven't even seen the prompt, but do Francesca next?

On it, boss! 🫡

Just kidding, I'm actually super excited to talk about this one, so be prepared for a long ramble ahead lol

Link to the ask game here, and to the original fic here

____

“Good afternoon, ladies, you’re both looking lovely today.” he said, greeting them each with a kiss on the cheek.  “Oh, like you’d know.” one of them chirped, smiling back at him. Jimmy scoffed, pressing his fingers to his chest as if wounded.  “Please, doll, I do still know a beautiful woman when I see one. And I seem to find myself in front of two of New York’s finest.”

I really, genuinely enjoyed writing this opening scene. Jimmy spends most of Heart in Your Hands somewhat isolated from the others around him - he's friendly, yes, he tries to connect, but there's a physical barrier in the form of the enclosure he's in and a metaphorical barrier in the form of a hundred years of culture-shift that he has to work around. Here, we get a glimpse at him interacting with people who are his friends and who genuinely understand him. In a way, it's the purest glimpse at his personality I've written so far, before there were those barriers affecting his interactions with the world.

On another note, there was a part of me that worried about depicting Jimmy this way. There's a stereotype about gay men being theatrical and dramatic, and even as a very theatrical transmasculine person myself, I didn't want Jimmy to feel like a cheap character or a stereotype. I don't really think I'm in danger of this - he's a well-rounded character, and even if he is theatrical and flirty, it's definitely not the only side of him that we see - but I did worry a little about how the old "no reading comprehension" website would take it.

“The Tunnel of Love,” he said, “Six minutes of beautiful romantic solitude, free from any prying eyes or expectations. It’s simple, really. You’ll go in first with the lovely Dorothy, and then I will follow you with my dear Marie. There’s a concrete lip around the central channel, and once we’re past the lights I’ll simply hop ahead and join you, and Dorothy will step aside. Then we merely have to remember to switch back before the ride is through.”

There's a bit of historical accuracy in Jimmy's plan here. First of all, the two women are obviously acting as beards for Jimmy and Robert's relationship, and one of the women being named Dorothy is an allusion to the slang term "friend of Dorothy" meaning a gay man.

I don't have any sources saying this little switcheroo was common for queer couples to get together, but the Tunnel of Love has a long history of being... well, a way for couples to get a quickie in while on Coney Island. After it became common, they even started positioning guards along the ride to deter couples from getting too frisky with each other. If anything, Jimmy's plan is tame compared to what the ride was normally used for.

“I don’t know, James… I don’t trust this.”

You already noticed this in the fic, but I'm going to mention it here as well: Robert has the same little habit that Lars eventually also will, calling Jimmy by his full name rather than his nickname. There are intentionally meant to be some parallels between Jimmy and Robert's relationship here and how he behaves with Lars later, and this is partially meant to imply that Lars is a reincarnation of Robert's soul. Jimmy being drawn to Lars at the end of the fic, and feeling that stronger desire to be known rather than disappear, is another allusion to this.

“Thank you, dear,” Jimmy whispered, and kissed her on the cheek. It was about the only place he’d ever kissed a woman, a simple peck on the cheek in greeting or in thank-you. Little did he know, it would be the last kiss James Luciano would have in his life.

I'm always hit-or-miss on these little omniscient moments in fics, like mentioning that this kiss will technically be Jimmy's last. On the one hand, I usually try to maintain the character's perspective on fics and avoid a particularly omniscient narrator - Jimmy doesn't know this will be his last kiss, of course, and I feel that maintaining his limited perspective keeps things grounded.

I wouldn't have kept this one in if the audience didn't already know Jimmy was going to die. If his death was a surprise, mentioning this here would break the shock of the scene, and it might outweigh the emotional impact of his last kiss being this little thank-you peck on the cheek. However, since Jimmy's story is already known by the audience, I felt that keeping this line brought the emotional gut-punch without pulling away the tension of the scene.

“I have wanted this…” Jimmy sighed, now closer to his partner than he’d ever been before, or would ever be again, “For a very long time.”

Keep an eye on this line here... you might see it again someday.

Then it came again, like thunder and lightning, and this time he was thrown to the bottom of the raft. The pain came late, but it came all at once, alongside a fountaining spray of liquid. He took a breath and found himself choking, spitting salty copper onto his own clothing.

Here's the thing about writing death scenes for a character that becomes a ghost... you have to get the details right. This scene took a lot of planning. Jimmy can't fall out of the raft, because his clothes aren't wet as a ghost. He can't even step into the water, because his socks and shoes aren't wet. He has to be shot only once, since his only visible wound is the one in his chest, his clothes have to remain intact except for the bullet wound, and he can't die in a way that will mess up his hair too badly since it's not that badly mussed as a ghost. Positioning is everything, because it all has to be preserved the way we see him as a ghost.

Two more flashes, perhaps more, lit up the tunnel. Jimmy’s thoughts crept along, slowing in time with his heartbeat. He was suddenly certain, dreadfully certain, that he would not see the sun again.

Those two flashes are Robert getting shot. In HIYH, Ray reads out a newspaper article about the event, which includes Robert having been shot twice but recovering. Again, everything has to be consistent in this scene, or it won't work. It was tricky trying to get the right level of detail - it has to align with what I've already established, but Jimmy is also literally dying here and obviously won't be lucid enough to notice everything as it happens.

At first, he wasn't so much as a whisper. He was merely intent, a concentrated bubble of energy like a star from the cosmos. Help me.

This moment, with him slowly coalescing into form, I came up at a really strange moment. I was literally laying in bed, about to fall asleep, and this line sprung into my head exactly as it's written down here. I got the whole "intent" passage and most of the "voice" passage verbatim, and an outline for the rest, and I decided that I had to get it written down immediately because I wouldn't get the wording write if I saved it for the morning. It was almost 2 AM and I was typing it out on my phone in the dark because I didn't want to lose track of the idea XD

And it ended up being a very impactful part of the piece, so I think it's worth it!

Through his questioning, and a great deal of trial and error, he learned that it was now the year of 1941. If he’d lived, he would be nearing sixty. Somehow he’d lost nearly thirty years, in all the time it took to pull himself back together again. It hadn’t felt that long. But then again, time had a habit of falling away from him, these days.

I'm not sure what the canon is for how ghosts become ghosts in the Ghostbusters universe. I know that Ronan becomes a ghost immediately after he dies in the 2016 reboot, and obviously Egon's ghost doesn't take too long to form since he begins nudging objects shortly after the younger Spenglers move in in Afterlife, but I'm not sure what the "norm" is.

Obviously I'd decided in HIYH that Jimmy's lifelike and corporeal form is thanks to decades of effort on his part, but I went a step farther with it here as you can see. Yes, he does get his visual form after about thirty years of effort, and his corporeal form an uncertain level of time after that, but this fic shows the sheer level of want and drive it took to even get there. He starts from zero, the barest level of paranormal energy to even be considered a ghost, and fights to build himself up from there. You'll also notice repeated lines about Jimmy loving humanity, both before and after his death - he wants to be a part of it, he's not ready to leave so soon. He's driven by love, and not necessarily romantic love.

He never learned her name, and she never even knew he was there with her. She grew older, her stutter much better, her visits less frequent, but he still grew to treasure them either way. She was his one source of stories, at least until his own fingers could find the page again.

This story didn't really need the inclusion of this moment. It still would stand on its own without it, and this was another scene I came up while falling asleep. But I think it shows a lot about Jimmy and what he loves, so I left it in. He loves humanity and strives to be connected with it even in these little ways, and he retains his love of reading.

Originally, I also had the idea to include Jimmy reciting novels to himself, line by line, as a way to pass the time as a ghost. It would be a nod towards his great memory for what he reads, and it would be another way to show how long and dull the time is when he isn't able to interact with the others around him, but in the end I just couldn't fit it cleanly into the rest of the scene.

Jimmy found himself approaching. There was something interesting about this one, something that drew him in like even the others had not. He wasn’t sure what precisely it was, or if it was simply a projection of his ongoing loneliness.

Like I said earlier, this magnetism towards Lars is a little nod towards him having Robert's reincarnated soul. I never intended that to be part of this fic when I first began writing it, but you'd suggested it for that headcanon ask game and it just... fit. It became part of canon.

Normally I'm not a big fan of soulmate AUs or things of that nature, I feel like they've got a lot of flaws and holes, but this works for me because it isn't quite a soulmate AU. I mean... just because Robert's soul is reincarnated doesn't mean anything is destined to become of it, it just means he's familiar to Jimmy and they're somewhat drawn to each other, and Jimmy and Lars will still have to build their relationship from scratch like anyone else. My other big qualm with soulmate AUs is the idea of the characters being "stuck" to their soulmate, even if they turn out to be abusive or just don't align with each other, but this version of it avoids that too. I just... I really like this idea, thank you for suggesting it.

So he’d heard the stories, then. But James Luciano had no desire to vanish. Not now. This time he wanted to be seen. This time he wanted to be known.  “These little guys are cute, don’t you think?”

It was important to me that Jimmy knows Lars is onto him, at least a little bit. He notices the way Lars avoids looking at him directly, and realizes through that that he knows Jimmy is a ghost.

In HIYH, we see Lars make several decisions regarding this interaction: he wins Jimmy a prize as he asks, then decides to face him directly even though there's the risk of Jimmy disappearing. With Jimmy's perspective, I wanted him to have the same choices: he knows that this could be a setup for some sort of ghost hunt, and still chooses to interact.

Obviously Jimmy doesn't choose to be captured and brought to the PRC, that still surprises him, but he does choose to engage with Lars when he could have walked away. It was important to me that this interaction was motivated on both ends, that both Jimmy and Lars are curious about each other and that it wasn't one-sided.

[rimouskis]

in the last three-ish days I've seen three movies, two were very very good and one was underwhelming:

the element of magical realism truly elevated the film and I thought it was fabulously rendered... it occurred to me earlier today that they literally open with showing Lou being willing to get her hands dirty. like oh my gosh that is just good writing. ugh. love. Ed Harris was so damn good in this role and I thought kstew knocked it out of the park. she was still very much herself in this role (as I think she often is, lol) but it played to her strengths and she pulled out some GREAT humor in a dark script. that being said it's such a dark story that I don't know how rewatchable it is? Like I really appreciated it as an art piece about cycles of violence and if we can escape them, but it's definitely a viscerally upsetting film lol. alas I am a little baby about some things and that does include gore and violence, which this movie wielded well as a narrative tool. Also Katy O'Brien...... what a casting. Again, they chose the right people for this movie.

I think my favorite is ultimately love lies bleeding because I was so impressed by the story and the cinematography. (That shot they kept showing of the gym with the town in the background at night... it was like a painting. There was SUCH an excellent sense of Place kn this film, and i love a good sense of Place).

a VERY VERY close second (and I think the more rewatachable film, honestly) was monkey man. I just got out of the theater so I haven't gotten all my thoughts straight yet but whaaaaat a strong directorial debut from dev... he was wonderful in his role and I was stunned by all the gorgeous visuals. I would love to know more about how this is a commentary on the current politics in India (I've read a post or tweet here and there) so I'm going to go find some articles when I get home, but I definitely will be watching this again. I thought it could have used tighter and more directed editing or writing around the middle - as soon as kid got to the temple I think the plot became a little muddled as we got his full backstory, and I do think we could have gotten a tighter or more... explicit(?) recovery journey/Finding His Purpose moment. But I think the hijra of the temple were so charming and the cinematography so beautiful that I'm willing to forgive some clunky plotting and exposition, you know? no movie needs to be perfect to be VERY good.

also my GOD the fight scenes were so visceral. once again I am a huge baby and was flinching so many times during the movie lol but I was totally sucked into the action. I was slapping my hand over my mouth several times lol.

one more mention of the sheer beauty of this film... the hijras' skirts spinning in that second to last fight were sooooo lovely and just spoke to great art direction. Will definitely watch again, and can't wait to do so with more information about the inspiration/parallels being drawn here.

My loser of the movie marathon was challengers:/ which toooo be fair it was the movie I watched LEAST closely (I was watching it at home on my computer, mostly because I wanted to see the scene with the knee injury since I saw the animatronic/fake Zendaya body they made to shoot the scene).

anyways, I wasn't in love with the cinematography nor the plot. It just wasn't my speed, and while I think Zendaya can play a haughty mean woman very well, I was... not very captured by the twisted tale of these three characters. Wasn't for me, alas.

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

SHORT PEOPLE GOT NOBODY

Opening in theaters today:

Saltburn--The title refers to the enormous, somewhat faded English country mansion in which most of the movie unfolds. But it may also suggest the proverbial pain of salt poured into a wound, as might be caused by the very sight of such a residence and the class system it represents.

Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a slight, nebbishy scholarship student to Oxford, is befriended by a classmate, the blueblood Adonis Felix (Jacob Elordi), who invites him home for the summer to the title pile of bricks in 2007. Felix's family is a fairly gothic bunch--abstracted Dad Sir James (Richard E. Grant), blithe, cordial Mom Lady Elsbeth (Rosamund Pike) and addled wreck of a sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), along with the sneering biracial American cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe). Carey Mulligan is also around as Elsbeth's nutty parasitical friend Pamela, as is Paul Rhys as the imperious butler Duncan.

Rather quickly, Oliver finds himself enmeshed with each of the family members, and drawn into the intrigues and occasional casual decadence of their isolated and mysterious lifestyle. While Oliver initially seems like an honest but in-over-his-head parvenu, like Balzac's Rastingnac or Faulkner's Ben Quick, we gradually see that he has his own wormy, calculating, opportunistic side.

This is the second feature written and directed by Emerald Fennell of 2020's Promising Young Woman. If it's a sophomore slump, that probably says more about the incisive brilliance and focus of Promising Young Woman than it does about any shortfalls of its own. The fury that charged Fennell's first film was direct and uncomplicated. Seemingly wanting to get across something more subtle and nuanced about class, Saltburn flails around a bit and sometimes feels confused, overwrought, overlong, even borderline campy.

But stick with it. It ultimately adds up to a potent piece of moviemaking, and of storytelling. Shot with hallucinatory garishness by the marvelous Linus Sandgren, the movie brings its setting vibrantly to life; there's none of the comforting stodginess of, say, Downton Abbey to it. And Fennell's narrative is involving. Even as we sense the influence of everything from The Shining to Risky Business, we're also pulled into investment in a yarn we haven't seen before. And she doesn't let us down; despite the movie's gratuitous thrashing about, in the end the plot snaps together to a satisfying and fairly devastating point.

Fennell also gets uniformly superb performances from her cast. Probably the wittiest and most endearing is Rosamund Pike, but Barry Keoghan, maybe the single best thing about The Banshees of Inisherin, is spectacular here, giving a tour de force turn in a role that is not only wildly mercurial on an emotional and psychological level, but also required physical fearlessness. Saltburn may end up being most remembered for literalizing a common expression for finding somebody extremely attractive, but Keoghan's draining performance makes a splash.

Napoleon--Returning to France, uninvited, from exile in Elba, the title character is confronted with a regiment of soldiers he used to command. "I missed you," he tells them, seemingly sincerely. Soon he's back in charge.

Apparently there is some historical basis for this scene; Napoleon is said to have had a fond and comradely relationship with his troops, despite his willingness to get them slaughtered. But to the casual viewer of this Ridley Scott epic, the moment may come as a surprise. Nothing in the movie prepares us for it. Played by Joaquin Phoenix, this Napoleon shows little affection or even interest toward anyone or anything apart from himself, and a certain almost adolescent erotic fixation on Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). In between campaigns, he makes rather unromantic attempts to impregnate her, and reacts with sullen outrage when they don't succeed.

Scott's movie, based on a script by David Scarpa, is largely a pageant of carnage. It begins with a graphic depiction of Marie Antoinette's meeting with Madame Guillotine, then shows us Napoleon navigating the deadly mayhem of the Revolution and the First Republic. It then traces him from battle to battle: Toulon, Austerlitz, Moscow and some of his other greatest hits, culminating, of course, against Wellington (Rupert Everett) at You-Know-Where.

This Napoleon isn't boring. It's entirely watchable and well-staged. Scott deploys his forces with the care of a child playing with toy soldiers on his bedroom floor. But it doesn't really hit hard emotionally; something is missing from it. Early on, we see a cannonball splat into the chest of a horse, and the resulting explosion of gore is so obviously computer-generated that, for me at least, it carried little shock (it has this in common with the splatter effects in Thanksgiving, which, exhaustingly enough, I saw the same day). This sort of detached unreality hangs over the movie's horrors, and the same detachment extends to the central character. 

While Phoenix holds our attention with his movie star charisma, it's as if he's working in a vacuum. Except here and there in his scenes with Kirby's drolly unflappable Josephine, Phoenix seems to be anomic, walled off from the other characters by his own narcissistic self-regard. Maybe that's deliberate; maybe Scott is trying to dramatize the Napoleon of Walter de la Mare's unforgettable poem:

What is the world, O soldiers?

It is I.

I, this incessant snow,

This northern sky.

Soldiers, this solitude

Through which we go

Is I.

In any case, the movie has a point to make about the appetite for an autocratic "strongman" leader that seems to inevitably arise in reaction to the messiness of democratic movements. It's a theme which would, admittedly, seem to have a slight smidge of relevance to our current times. It should be noted that, warmongering megalomaniac though he was, Napoleon was also a tremendously intelligent and curious person, which puts him in a very different category than our most notable current would-be Emperor.

[funarisjournal]

The Beginning (Comic Edition, Pt 2)

Saved the rest of this revisit for today's slow periods at work. I liveblogged on Twitter, but this is where I really get to write my thoughts out. No tiny character limits!

Anyway, if you haven't seen the first part, I suggest you check it out first because I'm going in all "Now, where was I?" Style.

[Again, my essays are more for those that have already read the story over once or twice and are looking for some deeper analyzations. Spoilers may be mentioned, so you are warned!]

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Kasuga just opened the door and there was her neighbor, the one she had awkwardly talked to the previous evening.

Repeat photos, yay!

Anyway, there are two things going on here.

Kasuga opening the door to see who it is. She sees it's her neighbor and they had that convo, so she's steeling herself. She knows she can just close the door if it gets uncomfortable, but she is willing to listen because food, you say? She's (warily) listening...

Nomoto, meanwhile, is a nervous wreck because, well, how do you word this?? She is more nervous about the food proposal than Kasuga! Even on the next page, the nervousness stems from the weird-to-Nomoto request for someone to help finish off the meal she made tonight. Like, this is how she's truly introducing herself to her neighbor with little to no prior interaction. "Hi, how you doing? Wanna eat my food?"

She is well aware it sounds weird and maybe even creepy but...but what else is she gonna do with all that food when she's got no social circles or community knowledge under her belt?

We know how she acts when others (especially men) frame her passion as great wife material, but when she has to talk about it? Anxiety through the roof. She's judging herself and being self-conscious. In a way, I like how this isn't "Kasuga is a big, cold, scary woman" and more "Nomoto is super self-conscious and doesn't know how to be social in-person anymore (because she hasn't had friends since her school days and that's almost 15-ish years now, based on what I've inferred from other pages re: her current age and knowing the comic is basically Present Day)

Poor Nomoto has a lot of baggage herself. It's not as obvious in these first chapters, but she was clearly molded by folks who definitely harped on the traditional values and other expectations of adulthood around her too much....NOMOTO'S MOM.

But...I digress. So, there's something interesting to note here. I don't think I've seen people point out this specific panel. Namely, that last one, Kasuga's eye.

Kasuga loves to eat. We know this, even new readers get that impression pretty quick (and the cover, of course). She wants to enjoy all the food in the world, probably even the mediocre stuff (to which she can make future purchasing/eating-out options when she can afford it)

As you get to know her, and you come back to these early pages, you realize this food stunned her.

While we know Nomoto's food is delicious and others have voiced their satisfaction with it, Kasuga was able to taste an extra special ingredient that night. Yes, I'm being a little cheesy here. This special, "invisible" ingredient that has been missing in her life resonated within, and she responded with the most emphatic eating that, in turn, stunned Nomoto in feelings she hasn't felt before.

Fun thing to note with Nomoto in the center of the page here: based on the way it's drawn, this woman is having multiple things firing up inside her at full blast; not just the sight of someone enjoying her massive portion of food, but seeing HOW MUCH they're enjoying it and just never experiencing this before. It's new, it's stunning (multiple definitions)...she is just this side of BSOD-ing.

They have been cooking and eating with something missing all this time. Put them together and it's like something opens up within both. They had what the other was missing and they were LITERALLY NEIGHBORS...but it took a chance encounter in an elevator to start the connection

The next parts are basically Nomoto's raisom d'etre waking up from its slumber. She remembers why she took up cooking in the first place...

And while we can attribute these panels as a little lighthearted, comedic moment as the chapter comes to a close, consider this: the birds, bunnies, and deer never came...and neither did any people as she grew up and began her cooking journey. She found a "workaround" via sharing online, but it's not like her old dream. She said at the beginning how her food is missing an audience that will fully enjoy it (not just as posts). She has never had anyone around to enjoy her food until Kasuga agreed to finish off this plate.

And this is where I realized something.

....Did Nomoto even cook when she lived with her folks? Did she cook back then and they didn't enjoy it? Did she only cook for herself and that's how she learned? Or maybe her mom was like "leave all the cooking to me" so she never had a chance to show off?

Like this raises a lot of questions that I wasn't expecting to have as I reread this chapter. The future nightmare scene in Vol 2 doesn't help matters, though it gives us further insight about her friendships and her being pushed into heteronormative adulthood even at a young age. Sure, it's a nightmare, with some fantastical, nightmareish transitions, but a lot of those scenes appear to be based on past experiences she had, including the orientation quiz BUT I digress. Again! That can be for another essay!

Anyway! Whoo! What a ride, eh? And I still plan to do an essay over how Episode 1 of the drama covered their beginnings, so look forward to that!

[semi-imaginary-place]

I discovered Ao no Flag about the time the 5th chapter came out and sort of intermittently checked up on it now again over up until Touma's injury because it seemed promising but a lot of works seem promising only to not handle the subject matter well. So I was worried the series wouldn't be able to do justice to its queer cast or wouldn't be able to carry the delicate feelings of adolescence. I came back to it today and read the last 4 chapters and now I'm frothing at the mouth like am I reading the implications right? stone cold lesbian Masumi marries a dude and Taichi and Touma are married?????? Guess I'll have to actually read it now. wait. if the last chapter was from touma's perspective then he signed his family name as ichinose. aaaaaaaaaaa

Someone else brought it up but its interesting how artsyle is used here to convey character relationships. Most of the manga is from Taichi's perspective and he has a low opinion of himself which is reflected in him being drawn cartoonishly. But once in a while the audience sees him how the other characters see him. This applies to the other characters too like Touma, I haven't counted but he might be the character with the most close up shots on his face and remember that this is mostly from Taichi's perspective. ch 22:

When I first read the last 2 chapters earlier today I was surprised and happy that the manga focused on how important friendships were because its true that romantic relationships are not always the most important or intimate relationship in someone's life or the people that stay with you and then I read the last chapter and realized KAITO made it gay which was honestly also very good. Here at ch 31-32 the manga is very good at pointing out the double standard and how the same friendship can be seen differently just because of the genders of the people involved. Ah the emotional immaturity, we the audience is suppose to at times look at the characters and think "wow they're being stupid", its very highschool, oh teenagers and their insecurities.

ch39: she's right if you come out to someone and they're homophobic that's their problem not yours.

Touma's my favorite character in this series not going to lie. I admire his courage in ch 41, rumors are spreading that he's gay, and he calls out Taichi and confesses to him so that Taichi hears it from him and not some second hand gossip. Like he just got in a fight and suspended and that's on his record now and might have just lost his friends and even if it were just a rumor that sort of gossip about the gay kid will ruin your highschool career, and he still manages to be proactive and do what's important.

ch44: intolerance towards the intolerant is a pretty good plan. no all ideologies or opinions are equal and they are not due equal consideration.

Holding hands is a recurring thing for them, the used to hold hands all the time before Touma realized it was a "girl thing" and in the flash back chapter we see Taichi reaching out for Touma when they run away together. Chapter 48 which is from Touma's perspective is foreshadowing that he's also the pov character for the final chapter. In both chapters we literally see the world from Touma's eyes and never hear what he says only what other people are saying.

I really like this page, the paneling with Taichi reaching across the panel to Touma, with his hand displaying his wedding ring. I'd like what they have.

[juncojuncojunco]

lapvona semi-quick thoughts

I picked this up at a bookstore 2 weeks ago having barely scanned the summary and reading the first page and a half, drawn in by the pure savagery of the revenge a village reaped on a bandit. thankfully i did not look into any reviews of the book beforehand because i just did now after finishing the book today and ?? i guess people are mad?

tw: sexual violence, general violence, incest, abuse, pretty much all of the stuff

it's pretty uninteresting to call this book gross, and any complaint against it being gross is just...? But one of the repeating charges I've watched/read about this book is that its violence and disgust leads to nothing, is pointless, and generally doesn't seem to send any message. Which is somewhat more of a worthwhile point, but why is it that we demand a message at all? I guess the TLDR of this is that I was fairly entertained by this book, and the tone and style of the writing was so emotionally detached that I never felt the pressure to sympathize with a character, to blink an eye with disaster hit or a major character dies, or be surprised by the book's ending. does this make it a bad book? it depends on what you're reading for. This wasn't the best book I've read by a long shot, but it was a bold, compelling one.

Not interested in talking about religion or feminism or socialism--those themes in the book are extremely on the nose and simplistic, and I think serve more matter-of-factly than to say anything (which is the exact complaint that people have that's fair) illuminating. I haven't dug into any author's notes or interviews but i have heard that Ottessa Moshfegh considers this an apolitical novel, which both makes no sense and a lot of sense at the same time, and might propel me to read more of her commentary on the work. I usually don't like hearing author's notes on their work but this does leave me scratching my head.

What grabbed me the most through this book was the disintegration of the human-animal divide. Ina as a character most obviously embodies this, as someone abandoned by her own kind and survived while blind with the help of birds; her fluency in birdsong, the way she's described as emitting a chirping sound when she sleeps. In the famine she has cannibalized both humans and birds in an attempt to save herself, and at the last leg of the book she manages to regain sight by replacing her own eyeballs with that of a horse's, rendering her part-animal in the flesh.

Marek and Jude both read as the ram described in the beginning--a wretched creature isolated in a pen on its own, unloved and uncared for, who nevertheless does not escape their dreadful life despite the shabby fence that prevents its freedom. Jude also naturally leads to Judas, and then for me to the Judas goat--an animal trained to lead its herd into slaughterhouses. Considering the way Jude and the book at large calls lambs "babes" even more often that it does for human babies, the lambs can be seen as children, or Jude as a sheep, sending his flock off to be eaten every season in tears. And while Lapvona starves and begins to cannibalize each other in the village, up on the hill, Marek cannibalizes his pseudo-siblings by consuming mutton for the first time.

Agata is the character most treated like livestock--chased, bound, and assaulted, mute and named by her captor; I don't even like saying or thinking about her name, knowing that this was a name forced upon her after Jude's mother. In the beginning she was quietly dead, then quietly wedded to Villiam, then quietly dies--there's no struggle there, and she is, along with Lispeth and maybe Dibra, the only characters to empathize with.

Lapvona's villagers all being vegetarians in the onset also mirrors nicely with Jacob being the only named hunter. I don't have much to add with this train of thought except that it's cool!

Anyway. Maybe this is just a personal brain worm. But I think the book cover being a bound lamb really emphasizes the role of the animal in this book to at least rival all of its political, social and class undertones. Taken in that light, this was an interesting read that honestly is not as grotesque as some reviewers say it is, and the grotesque does not need a reason to exist let's just be gross!! 8/10 for this one it was fun. The writing was snappy and kept me turning the pages, the characters' psyches so foreign it felt like I was a tourist in their world, the intertwining and payoff of every character (this was a dense, useful cast) was rewarding, and the ending cruel enough that it feels like its own brand of satisfaction. throw that baby down the mountain!

[legion1227]

Prince of Egypt: Movie Review

Dreamworks pinnacle, thus saith the lord.

In December 1998, Dreamworks Pictures and Dreamworks Animation, the same company known for the Shrek movie series, the Madagascar series, and multiple mixed-acclaimed animated films, peaked with their second movie release. While Dreamworks embraced CG animation throughout the 2000s, 2010s, and today, their magnum opus came from the hand-drawn animated classic Prince of Egypt. Adapted from the Book of Exodus, the film follows Moses' time as a prince of Egypt to his time as a prophet chosen by God who must free the Hebrews from their slavery. Upon watching it for the first time last month, I was shocked by how competent the film proved.

With very little knowledge of most of the stories detailed throughout the Bible, I found this telling of Moses' story fascinating. The plight of the Hebrew people in Egypt made for a devastating watch. After Pharoah Seti orders a mass infanticide of all newborn Hebrew boys in fear of rebellion due to massively growing numbers, Yocheved rushes her newborn son down a river in a basket in the hopes he will be safe from the slaughter. Yocheved's daughter, Miriam, follows the basket to see her brother end up before Pharoah Seti's palace, who becomes adopted by Seti's wife, Queen Tuya. There, the baby is given the name of Moses.

Years later, we witness Moses and his adoptive brother Rameses older and assuming roles of royalty as Rameses is named prince regent and appoints Moses as his Royal Chief Architect. Later that night, Moses discovers his Hebrew heritage, eventually leading him to flee his home in exile despite Rameses insisting he remain. After God tells Moses to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews, Moses returns years later to confront Rameses, who is now Pharoah, with a wife and son.

From their early formative years to now, as grown men on opposing sides, the character dynamic of Moses and Rameses is engaging. It's also heartwrenching to witness the dichotomy of their goals after establishing early the powerful bond they shared in their youth. Amongst the cast of characters shown in the film, Moses and Rameses are easily the driving force as their differing values are put against one another. Other characters have their moments, but none quite catch the attention, like Rameses and Moses.

Have I mentioned that the film is also a musical? The overall soundtrack has some decent songs that encapsulate the suffering of the Hebrew people rather well. However, there are two clear standouts. The first song, "Deliver Us," which we hear in the first ten minutes, is the background for the injustices the slaves endure as they are whipped, bullied, and helpless to watch their children die before them. Powerful imagery accompanies wonderous vocals as the people hope for something better to come while also witnessing Yocheved deliver their future savior, Moses, safely away from the jaws of certain death. After "Deliver Us," are songs that are decent in vocals, lyrics, and instrumentals but don't capture much of the urgency as "Deliver Us" does. That is until "The Plagues…"

"The Plagues," in my opinion, is the best song in the film. It's been on repeat since I watched the movie. Ralph Fiennes and Amick Byram deliver strong vocal performances with lyrically calamitous storytelling as Moses pleads for his brother to release his people, and yet Rameses' stubbornness leads to needless more suffering and death. And the chorus of voices acting as God casting down plague after plague upon everyone?

It's a masterful song to accompany a masterful film. If you haven't seen the movie before, I recommend watching it immediately. And if you have, watch it again. Great performances, animation, and story execution. Not perfect with some songs or characters failing to be as compelling as others, but still easily the best movie I've watched so far in 2024. 4/5.

[gins-potter]

Are you all caught up on the OC finales? What did you think?

I caught up today! I thought they were fine to really good!!

Med was really solid. Surprising no one I'm absolutely heartbroken that Will is leaving but I'm glad he went out in typical Will fashion, had a really nice scene with Sharon at the end, and we got Manstead endgame. Liliana and Dr Charles are back together! They're so flipping cute, I love that for them. Dasher are doing Dasher things, I had to LOL when Hannah was like HARD NO about dating Archer and he was so offended. I think Med's gonna return to somewhat normal next season, probs the first half will be dealing with whoever buys the hospital and convincing them to turn it not-for-profit again. The only question marks for me are whether Maggie and Dr Song stay. I think if they continue to do O.R 2.0 things, Dr Song will, and I think they've left it a bit open for Maggie depending on Marlynne's health and what she decides. I was a little surprised they didn't address it more in the finale about the possibility of her leaving since the episode before made it feel like much more of a sure thing. A solid episode!

Fire was... kinda meh if I'm being honest. Like it's not unusual for me to multi-task while I'm watching tv, but I still pay attention to what's happening with the plot, but I was dicking around on my phone while watching Fire and kept realising that I was fully not paying attention to what was going on and kept having to go back and rewatch. Like, it just felt like lots of talking ha ha. I think where we go from here is super dependent on whether Taylor comes back next season or not. Feels like they're setting up Carver and Violet, which I'm not against, but haven't fully let go of Carver in his feels over Stella either, so if T.K doesn't come back and Stellaride break up (BIG IF NO ONE THROW TOMATOES) they might continue to pursue that as well. I'm more and more on the Stella/Carver train (NO ONE HATE ME) so I'm super fine with those angsty looks he's sending her lmao. Super here for the little friendship between Kylie and Ritter and very keen for Kylie to become the new candidate (that has to be where this is going). Sylvie's adopting the baby, yay for her I guess, I mean, like I said in another ask, I'm pretty sure I know this is heading for a Kara exit, which I'm not opposed to, so I'm just very.... okay? about this storyline. It feels rushed, but it's fine, and I get a Brettsey endgame (probably) so fine. And Mouch... maybe I'm stupidly optimistic but I don't think he's dying. I think Christian is leaving the show, but I don't think Mouch is dying. Idek why tbh. It's a bit anticlimatic if he does die tbh. Like he didn't even get shot, it was a random piece of shrapnel. Idk, I think he'll probs survive and then retire. Maybe I don't think they'll kill him because it would mean that PD also has to change Trudy's characterisation over on that show. Like imagine her husband dies and they never even mention it on PD 💀💀💀

PD was the best episode imo. The pacing and writing was great, even though I'd seen bits and pieces of it already online I still felt drawn in by it and I really felt the tension. I felt like Adam, Kim, and Kevin all got to shine. Hailey and Voight not so much, sad for Hailey, get fucked Voight. Absolute snaps for Kevin getting to shoot that racist mother fucker, and I know he's just a kid but lmao fuck Callum. Fuck his mum too and I hope she goes down for some of this shit. One of my only question marks is why Torres wasn't in the ep? I can't tell if it's a weird writing choice to keep leaving him out of episodes or if the actor has some sort of other commitment keeping him from being in every episode, but I feel like they either need to commit to his character being part of the team, or drop him and bring someone who will be around all the time. Burzek slayed as always, inject that moment of Kim on the phone and absolutely sprinting to get to Adam into his veins. Kim in the ambulance, and at the hospital, "Are you his partner", "You're with Adam" "I'm with Adam" yeah girl you tell that bitch. You ARE with Adam. I mean, as with every other Burzek shipper I'm annoyed that they clearly filmed a Burzek scene at the hospital and then cut it. I hope they release it as a deleted scene at some point bc I need it. I've seen the theory that they cut it because it shows Adam's alright and Paddy might leave the show.... I mean.... maybe? I doubt it. It's more likely they cut it bc the show has a hard on for Hank Voight and wanted to end on him. I think it would have been a better ending to end with Burzek because it would have been a really full circle, cyclical ending from where they started the season, and the episode, but, what can you do? I'm sure someone will write the fic. Still, despite all that, a really great episode and end to this arc.

Sorry, this got long but yeah, those are my thoughts. Med 6/10, Fire 4/10, PD 8/10.

[juukeboxx]

Mutant Mayhem Hype!

Hi everyone!

So today is a big day: The first official teaser trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was released! The trailer will be linked in case you haven’t seen it or want to watch it again. But I wanted to just share my thoughts on the trailer and share my hopes and dreams for this movie, which will all be under the cut.

Here’s the trailer:

First and foremost: I am so excited for this movie. Everyine has been waiting so long for this first teaser trailer and I'm not gonna lie, I was sort of in disbelief when it dropped. There's a lot to cover so I'm going to break it down into sections, and the last section being what my hopes are going into this movie.

The Turtles

I know that people have talked about the designs of the turtles themselves since they were leaked a while back, but I adore how these turtles look. This is something I'll mention throughout this post, but it's very clear that Seth Rogen has taken a lot of inspiration from the original 80's cartoon when designing these characters. What's nice about it is that he's given their desings their own little twist that makes them unique and fresh i.e. Mikey's braces.

I absolutely adore the voices they chose for these turtles because they are actual teenagers. Nicolas Cantu as Leo, Brady Noon as Raph, Micah Abbey as Donnie, and Shamon Brown JR as Mikey. I don't know of any instances where the turtles have been voiced by actual teenagers because as far as I'm aware they've all been voiced/played by adults. This also just feels like another breath of fresh air for the series.

What they've shown of the turtles so far seems pretty promising.

Teenagers Acting Like Teenagers

One of the first things they show in the teaser trailer is the turtles goofing off the way teenagers do, and this absolutely made my heart soar. I feel like in other versions of the turtles we always see them so caught up in conflict that we never really get to see them hang out, goof around, and get to act their age. Rise was one version that I think showed this the most so I'm really glad to see more of it in this movie.

This Movie Looks Stunning

I'm sure other people have made this comparison but this movie really does give off the same vibes as Into the Spiderverse. It wouldn't surprise me if Seth Rogen and the people who have been working on Mutant Mayhem took inspiration from that movie. The imagery in the movie is absolutely gorgeous, and I love that it has this "hand-drawn" style. Like Into the Spiderverse, I have a feeling they wanted to achieve this look as sort of a call back or an homage to how the turtles got their start: As a comic book.

I personally really like that the colors aren't super overwhelming. In some shots from the teaser trailer there are nice bright pops of color that really stand out and liven it up. I'm not an expert, but I think it's a really nice design choice.

Secondary Characters and Cast

This cast is absolutely stacked y'all. If you haven't seen it on Twitter I'll list the rest of the cast here:

Jackie Chan as Splinter

Ayo Edibiri as April O'Neil

Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman

Seth Rogen as Bebop

John Cena as Rocksteady

Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom

Rose Byrne as Leatherhead

Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut

Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko

Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog

Post Malone as Ray Fillet

Ice Cube as Superfly

I don't think it comes as too big of a surprise that a lot of the other characters featured in this movie are going to be voiced by well known actors, but I'm honestly really pleased with this lineup. And based on this lineup I think we're going to see some really interesting takes on some of these characters like Leatherhead and Wingnut.

As a sidenote, I am so excitied to see Leatherhead in this movie. In general Leatherhead is just one of my favorite secondary characters.

The designs, like I said before, have taken a lot of inspiration from the 80's cartoon. Splinter's, what I can assume is a kimono (though I might be wrong), has the same pattern as Splinter's kimono from the 80's cartoon. April of course has her signature yellow jacket and I love that he outfit looks so casual but it's perfect for running around trying to get the best scoop. Bebop and Rocksteady's clothes are pretty much right from the 80's cartoon and I absolutely love it, and personally I think that Bebop and Rocksteady look great in this art style (honestly this applies to all of the characters).

I have a feeling, and at the same time I'm hoping, that the first official trailer or the next teaser trailer (whichever one comes first) shows off some more of these designs or even shows the designs of some of the other mutants that are going to be featured.

Hopes for Mutant Mayhem

I know that this is only the first trailer of many between now and when the movie releases, but I genuinely have high hopes for this movie. This is going to be the first TMNT movie getting a theatrical release (clairfying with theatrical because the Rise of the TMNT movie was a Netlfix original) in 7 years since Out of the Shadows released back in 2016.

Even with this trailer being just under two minutes I think that they are taking these characters in the right direction and I'm genuinely excited to see their personalities shine. When Seth Rogen posted descriptions of the turtles on his (I believe) Instagram I knew that they were going to do these characters justice.

When Mutant Mayhem is released in August and I go to the theater to see it, I wanna walk out and say “That was amazing, I want to see it again”. From the developments over the months and with the release of this official teaser trailer I hope that I can say with confidence that not only did I like it, but also that it was a Ninja Turtles movie made by Ninja Turtles fans, for Ninja Turtles fans.

[nines82]

Gamera: Rebirth Isn't Much (And That's Okay)

To be quite frank, I personally didn't have much of a belief that Gamera would ever really return after Little Braves. To me, Gamera had done all he could have done in terms of what I viewed as "possible" for the character and IP. So to hear of Gamera returning in anime form, I naturally was quite intrigued yet also not particularly interested in the idea considering that I wasn't sure how they could possibly return him in a way that was fresh or inventive. Flashforward to September of 2023, and I have watched all six episodes of Gamera Rebirth and come out thinking this show is okay. Now, this is not to say that I was expecting a high art series that truly showed how Gamera could be refreshed into 2023 without tugging hard on the Heisei films or the remaking the Showa films but in a today's setting. What I got isn't quite the most remarkable return you'd expect but I feel that to bring interest to your character again even the most middling of an entry can service it well enough so that the potentially new ideas that even fans haven't thought of COULD be done. Many say that this show seems to combine the elements of both distinct eras of Gamera's filmography and, in many ways, I agree. It takes a lot of elements of both incarnations and sort of finds a middle ground with them to produce a mixture to please both. While I much prefer if we tried less of this, if this is the route they wanna go for with this particular approach then as long as its done right: go for it. The animation is a common criticism with this show, I personally didn't mind it as I've seen even higher budget anime look way worse by comparison from the hand drawn, digital, and 3DCG departments. What I do feel like holds the show back is the runtime: which seems to more so cause them to try and fish for ways to justify it rather than making a show that can just do "two-part" 24 min episodes. 45 mins would be good for if, say, it was airing on television as many dramas can usually run at this perfectly fine. But maybe this is because of time and budget, who knows? Overall, it's just this unremarkable but harmless little return for Gamera and that is enough for me.

[a-hell-of-a-time]

Greatly enjoy your Andre! And Octavia! Learning about Caim still :>

I haven't been following your non-verse threads at all closely since all this started, but the threads with Octavia I've seen (today I think? and in the past) do feel accurate for a teenager growing up in a dysfunctional family

1-800-how’s my portrayal? : Accepting!

((Thank you so much!

Funfact: A lot of my Octavia portrayal with regard to her family dynamics/dysfunction is drawn from my own experience as a child of divorce and who has grown up surrounded by many a screaming match/fight/other related dysfunction. While my situation does diff from Via's in a few respects (not gonna divulge it all here), I'd like to think I share some things in common with her, which makes this aspect of her character easier for me to flesh out.

I still have a long way to go with Via as a character though, and want to branch out from her familial dysfunction/her character being so interwoven with Stolas to the point that we don't really know her as an individual, if that makes sense?

One day I hope to fully flesh out my Via like I did with my Andre ;u;))