#geek show 2023

[star-anise]

Disclaimer: I like Anita Sarkeesian.

But also, I just saw a writeup of a Youtuber whose content has come a long way from his Gamergate days, and to explain that, the wiki says, "Anita Sarkeesian is a radical feminist who created a webseries about sexist tropes in video games"

AHAHAHAHAHA ANITA SARKEESIAN, RADICAL FEMINIST

HOO HEE EXCUSE ME THAT'S A GOOD ONE

Radical feminist. Feminist extremist. Anita Sarkeesian.

Anita Sarkeesian did her Master's Thesis in Social and Political Thought in 2010 on the trope of the "Strong Woman" in fantasy and science fiction TV shows, and produced Tropes vs Women, a series of online videos breaking down her work in a way that was accessible to a lay audience. She found a ready audience in geek feminist circles, since this was exactly the kind of thing we wanted and needed right then.

Tropes vs Women was extremely bog-standard cultural critique, what you'd find expressed in discussion between scholars of literary theory or media analysis anywhere, and exactly what 99% of feminists were saying at the time. It certainly talked about patriarchy as the complex system of sexism fused into our cultural matrix, so it's not like it wasn't radical feminism from that viewpoint, but it wasn't "radical" by way of being especially militant. Sarkeesian frequently pointed out how individual occurrences of a trope weren't harmful in themselves, but that a media landscape completely saturated with only that trope and nothing but that trope is, in the aggregate, a big feminist issue.

And the internet

HAAAAAAAATED

her for it.

Like, geek feminists got flak a lot anyway, especially when we wanted things like properly enforced policies against sexual harassment at science fiction conventions. And yeah, there totally were toxic keyboard warriors who said stuff about all men being scum - but Sarkeesian wasn't one of them.

It's probably because of her succinct, matter-of-fact, "this is not a debated issue, feminists have decades of theory and research to back this point up, sources abound if you google for thirty seconds so I won't stop to baby you through all the fundamental concepts" approach that she got such a big reach. She was calm, concise, coherent, and rational, everything feminists are told we need to be.

Unfortunately that just made her seem... attackable, I think. A good target, not actually scary or impassioned, unlikely to respond to violence with violence. The perfect kind of person to play five seconds of, and then spend the next five minutes yelling into your mic because IF ANITA IS RIGHT ABOUT VIDEO GAME SEXIST YOU MIGHT AS WELL SAY THAT EVERYTHING IS SEXIST AND SEXISM IS SYSTEMIC AND ENDEMIC TO ALL OF WESTERN CULTURE AND OTHER CULTURES TOO, WHICH IS CLEARLY RIDICULOUS, ANITA LADY BAD.

She literally spent five solid years as Enemy #1 in online geek spaces. It was completely insane. I am so sorry she had to take the brunt of it, and yet grateful that she did. She held the line and took the shit and kept doing good decent feminist work for years after, though she did admit to burnout and closed up shop on her nonprofit org Feminist Frequency in 2023. I hope to hell she's having a good day.

But even now, more than a decade later, dudes talk about her as though she were Geek Feminist Godzilla, the biggest baddest woman in the universe, off to lay waste to downtown Video Games and cut everybody's balls off.

When people (mostly dudes, but not all) talk like this, it's just very funny and unintentionally revealing because of the absolute averageness of her third-wave, trans-inclusive, western-centric, intersectional feminism. It makes them look absolutely pathetic.

Because it just makes it clear that she is probably the first and last self-described feminist the speaker has ever paid attention to.

[clobberbox]

Our obsession with The Bear continues! We can’t wait for Season 3!

Check out our new Original Beef of Chicagoland logo shirts!

Great gifts for fans of the most stressful show on television. 

Buy online now, here.

[absolutebl]

Of My 50+ Favorite BLs these are the 10 I rewatch the most

So you could call these my favorite comfort foods. Everything on this list got a rating of 10/10 or 9/10 from me.

10 Most Comforting BLs

(for me, in order of most recently rewatched at the top)

Our Dating Sim

Korea 2023 Viki (watch the series not the movie)

This is a perfect short form KBL, an office set reunion romance featuring geeks that really suits 8 eps with no fluff and no chaff. Just comforting and yummy. I adored every aspect from the casting to the pristinely simple premise to the quietly smooth execution. Sure it’s low stakes, but that makes it high domesticity and extremely warm and gentle. This is a fuzzy blanket of a story - a cozy BL. It lives in my rewatch pile and you know what’s best about it? Every single episode is in that pile. There’s no skipping with this one, it might be good natured and calmly sweet but it’s tight and the pacing is excellent.

Cosmetic Playlover

Japan 2024 Gaga

The most recent release on this list, it came out this year and I've already rewatched it 5x. I love this little show. It's a classic office BL about the older workaholic who loves his job and the younger upstart who unexpectedly loves his boss. It’s a hyung romance where everybody is extremely earnest and sweet and pretty about everything. Except our seme, who is slightly unhinged and a little obsessed in all the ways one likes best from Japan (if one is me). Plus the kisses are good! Utterly charming unexpected gem of a show. What fun!

Jun and Jun

Korea 2023 Viki

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Other boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy (sometimes even raunchy) script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and decent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. My only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else.

My Personal Weatherman

AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan 2023 Gaga

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but are so repressed they don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that aspect is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan. That said it's also bruisingly romantic. Emphasis on bruise.

Unintentional Love Story

Korea 2023 iQIYI

OMG the plot! Uke forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the PAIN in those gorgeous eyes. Gah. Okay, so: A boy loses his job due to trumped-up corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back, if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya). All that said, when I rewatch this it's usually just the second half, but WHAT a ride.

Semantic Error

Korea 2022 Viki

Sexy older boy discovers pouty younger boy has outed him as a slacker, starts out bullying him, accidentally falls madly in love instead. Korea hits it entirely out of the Parks by doing a university BL with everything we expect from BL just done exactly right. Korea's signature quality executed perfectly with added bonus good story, great pacing, stunning visuals, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. Another one where the rewatch is mostly just the second half.

Old Fashion Cupcake

Japan 2022

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said boss with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s a stunningly filmed late-in-life comg of age/queerness story packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity, love, and loneliness… and it’s beautiful.

Yes yes. But the bit you know you want to rewatch is that long shot with the bite kiss. YOU KNOW you wanna.

Seven Days

Japan 2015

Ha! I faked you out 'cause this wasn't at the top but of course it's on the list! One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). Older boy dares the hot af younger one to date him for a week. Turns out they both like it... A lot. The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses.

Takara & Amagi

Japan 2022

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show, but a rewatch is way less tense. Reserved cool kid must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning.

We Best Love

Taiwan 2021 WeTV

WBL successfully managed to pick up and combine the best features of Korean, Thai, and Japanese BL as it exists right now. Couple that to the insane chemistry from the leads, and we have one of the greatest BLs of all time, cooking to a recipe I doubt anyone else will ever be able to replicate since only Taiwan is this flexible. It's basically every classic BL trope bombarded at us in two parts, rapid fire, one after another. Rewatching this show reminds me of everything I love about this genre. It is the genre in pure concentrated form.

The End!

I think it's no accident that none of these are Thai, part of a rewatch for me is the brevity of the show, longer stuff does get rewatched, but not as frequently.

(source)

[stardewfanficwriters]

Meet Our Writers

This week's spotlighted guild member is one of our moderators: Andrea!

AO3: Andrea_P_Quintell

Tumblr: @shortysus4

Age: 39 and a half

Pronouns: she/her

Guild Member since: October 2024

Fun Fact about yourself? I've been to all 50 US states and all 7 continents.

How long have you been writing fanfiction? Off and on since about 1998 or so-- Star Wars in the early years, SDV since 2023 :)

Favourite SDV character to write? Honestly, there is nobody I love writing more than I love writing about June (not even Ben)-- his softboi/drama queen personality is so similar to my own, and I adore letting him geek out about music, because I have both bachelor's and master's degrees in music theory/composition myself. If I'm limited to vanilla only, I have a soft spot for Sebastian and Sam, I love to let Seb be dark and moody while Sam is the opposite.

Favourite tropes/genre to write? Friends to lovers, with a heaping side of mutual pining! I LOVE to make two idiots realize their feelings for each other. Also, any time I can make boys kiss each other :D

Your most popular SDV fanfic? Forget Me Not, a Sambastian piece I'm pretty proud of :)

Your SDV underdog fic you wish more people would give a chance?��I know it's a longfic, but I wish more people would take a chance on Coffee Beans, Candles, and Keyboards. I don't get many readers because of the whole "main love interest is from Ridgeside" thing, but I really feel like people would fall in love with Ben and June the way I have if they read it (and I constantly write for these boiz so you'll probably never run out of content).

Hear me out: Some hills I will die on: Sambastian is OTP and Leah is a lesbian! Also, for the love of Yoba people need to learn about the modded characters because there are so many good ones! Expanded, Ridgeside, East Scarp, and Adventure Guild Expanded add so many great friends and dynamics, and I wish there were more authors writing for those characters (especially mixing the mods). I never would have met the love of my life if not for taking a chance on installing Ridgeside, for example :)

Lastly, any other fandoms you write for? Star Wars (no sequel BS here, Mara Jade for life), Babysitters Club, and I read a ton of Yuri on Ice but haven't yet written for them... but hopefully someday!

We are very lucky to have someone as multitalented as Andrea as one of our number. Not only is she a writer and musician, she's also one of our moderators as well! If you check out her fics, please be sure to kudos and comment to show your support for small artists and writers.

If you write Stardew Valley fanfiction and would like to join our guild, please message this blog for an invite!

Credit to @lily-alphonse & @saradika for the banners

Please see AO3 for additional tags. Reader discretion is advised as always.

[neocordz]

I'd give you a hot take that isn't "Let Streber die" but mine would be "Skid and Pump need more recognition, it's their show" but I think that's mildly common enough not to be a hot take so 🥀

Holding your hand about Streber though. He's such an interesting character and I hate that anything about him is either complete misinterpretation about his character or people being mad that a lot of people liked him in 2022/2023

OH MY GOD YES YES!! AGREED ON BOTH !! Skid and pump are such interesting boys and it sucks how alot of the fan content ive seen isnt about them or only goes over them on a surface level! I love them both sososoos much theyrw the little guys ever... You've just reminded me that i definitely need to draw more skid and pump once i get the energy lol

ALSOSOO i absolutely HATE how strevers characyer is potrayed in majority of fandom. People either make his whole character about vampires, losing an arm or both. I wish more people talked about how the man is a sassy geek who takes things extremely seriously. He is SO fun and its so annoying how many people don't like him SIMPLY because he WAS popular ....

He was a character special to me for a very long time and it just sucks how mischaracterized he is so often :') Streber truthers wya!!!

[josephzadaupdates]

JOSEPH ZADA for Vanity Fair (2025).

“It’s weird. It’s really weird,” Zada says. “As long as I was acting, I was happy and I never really expected to get much attention for it. But I feel like my life kind of changed with [The Hunger Games] announcement. It’s a different world now. I’ve got to be a lot more careful about what I’m doing and saying, which is always a good thing. But it’s a little scary sometimes.”

Zada wasn’t interested in performing until his father, Jeremy Cumpston—a real-life doctor who later played an M.D. on Australian medical drama All Saints—encouraged his son to participate in a local production of Romeo and Juliet. “I’m not acting. Acting’s cringe,” an indignant teenaged Zada, then flunking out of his all-boys’ school in Sydney, thought at the time. But he entered stage left anyway, and was a changed man by curtain call. Though he had the bug, finding an acting agent proved tricky: “No one would take me.”

Biding his time during the height of the pandemic, Zada wrote a short film that he and his then-girlfriend could present to her virtual acting class. A classmate’s mother walked by the Zoom screen, and caught sight of Zada: “Who is that kid?” Zada recalled her wondering. “I want to be his agent.”

Zada booked his first major gig in September 2023: an Australian TV series called Invisible Boys based on a best-selling Holden Sheppard novel. Zada’s hair was still dyed blue for that role when he auditioned for We Were Liars. The Halifax set of that series is where Zada got the script for East of Eden, a gig that begot his Hunger Games tryout. “More or less, I’ve only auditioned for one other project,” since that streak, says Zada. “So it’s been so lucky that all these amazing projects have come up, slotting right in time.” To put it mildly: “I haven’t had a lot of time off work so far.”

Born Joseph Cumpston in 2005, Zada—who uses an older family name professionally—is the second-eldest in a tight-knit family of five siblings. Despite growing up thousands of miles away from Hollywood, he was raised in something of a showbiz brood: his father is a director as well as an actor, and his mother, Jessica Brentnall, is a film producer. But it was Zada’s older brother Hal, who has appeared in hit shows like The Walking Dead and Nine Perfect Strangers, whom he credits with really sparking his interest in acting at age 15.

Staging his older brother’s auditions became something of a family affair. “You’re supposed to film them against a white wall, but we always made a meal out of our auditions,” Zada says. “We’d make them into little movies—get costumes and have other actors. Our auditioning processes were our ways to learn about filmmaking.”

Zada spent hours in front of the TV receiving his own version of a film-school education. “My dad and I geek out so hard when we watch films. We’ll watch a two-hour movie and go for six hours, because we sit down there, rewind the scenes, and go, ‘Did you see that moment? Did you see that choice?’” says Zada. The 1986 coming-of-age classic Stand By Me, which he saw for the first time just as he was entering primary school, left a particularly lasting impression. “That’s my favorite film. River Phoenix is my favorite actor. I watch that movie four, five times a year,” says Zada. “Reminds me of hanging around with my little siblings and my mom.”

Phoenix, older brother of Joaquin and star of My Private Idaho—who died at age 23 of an overdose—is Zada’s personal acting hero. “I try to steal as much as I can from him,” he says, before listing his other inspirations: “Heath Ledger, he’s got a very special energy. [Timothée] Chalamet, I steal from him a little bit. Sam Rockwell, I’m trying to steal from right now—he’s dope. I just watched Seven Psychopaths. That movie is insane. Martin McDonagh—that’s the director I would die to work with. He’s my number one.” Others on his bucket list include Blue Valentine’s Derek Cianfrance, Aftersun’s Charlotte Wells, and Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel.

“I love looking at films, thinking about what was on the page and what the actor is doing and going, ‘How did he find that?’’” says Zada. “I love when I can’t figure it out. That’s my favorite thing. I find that with Meryl Streep—I can never figure out where she’s bringing stuff from.” It was a bit of kismet that Streep’s eldest daughter, Mamie Gummer, played Zada’s onscreen mother in We Were Liars. “And they’re so similar!” he says. “I don’t know if she’d be upset that I said that, but they are. Mamie is such a brilliant actress.”

To play the troubled eldest grandson of the WASPy Sinclair family dynasty—he embodies “salt, swagger, and reckless abandon,” according to the show’s first episode—Zada took inspiration from wealthy childhood friends, as well as The Great Gatsby. But above all, he recognized bits of his own adolescent struggles in his searching character. “I just felt like I knew him,” says Zada. “I had an immediate connection. I’m a little more reserved, but it was really fun to just force myself out of my comfort zone. I already was working on such a big production, being from Australia and not having a crazy amount of projects under my belt like all the rest of the actors.”

That mentality also served Zada on the set of Netflix’s East of Eden, a limited-series from writer-producer Zoe Kazan that is “a lot closer” to Steinbeck’s book than the 1955 film directed by Zoe’s late grandfather, Elia Kazan. In the seven-episode project, expected next year, Zada plays Cal Trask—another edgy protagonist navigating a dysfunctional family dynamic—alongside exciting co-stars like Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, and Christopher Abbott. “As much as acting with someone like Florence or Chris is terrifying, it’s also so easy because they’re so good at what they're doing that you just don’t have to work as hard,” says Zada.

“I can’t even explain it; it was magical,” he says of filming in New Zealand, calling Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, one of the series’ directors, “the most lovely person I’ve ever worked with.”

James Dean’s indelible portrayal of Cal in the film earned him the first of two posthumous Oscar nominations. “Zoe wouldn’t let me watch it,” says Zada. After his first callback audition, “I had an email specifically from Zoe saying, ‘Do not watch the movie.’ I was so tempted throughout the entire shoot, but I felt like it was a bad omen.” Instead, Zada kept the film at arm’s length until the day Zoe Kazan’s East of Eden wrapped. “I worked really, really hard for this character and I had a lot of time and space over the shoot to really perfect what I wanted to do,” he says. “I’m really proud of it.”

[...]

Zada is sworn to secrecy on specifics about the film, even though the book it’s based on was published three months ago. But he admits that the audition process was predictably thorough. “It’s a very big, important character, and they needed to get it right. So obviously they put me through the wringer a bit,” he says. “But I’m glad they di,d because I learned so much in that period of time. Now I’m just so excited to know that I'm going to be in safe hands.”

When Katniss gets to know Haymitch, he’s a grief-stricken alcoholic. Zada hopes“to find who he was before he was Haymitch in the original Hunger Games—and what I can bring of myself to that character.” The character’s descent has something to do with his love interest, Lenore Dove Baird, who will be played in the film by an alum of HBO Max’s ill-fated Gossip Girl reboot. “Whitney Paak, I got to meet her,” Zada says, a glint in his eye. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing a bit more of her.”

Sunrise on the Reaping, directed by Hunger Games vet Francis Lawrence, dramatizes the 50th Hunger Games, in which a young Haymitch triumphed over twice the number of typical tributes. His tale takes place after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, but before the events of J.Law’s Hunger Games. Zada has yet to hear from any previous franchise stars. “I’ve been in Sydney with my family, just soaking up as much time as I can before I go off to film,” he says. “But I did get a nice little message.” Was it from Harrelson? “From Woody’s niece, I think. He doesn’t have a phone. I’m sure I’ll speak to him eventually, but apparently he’s very happy for me.”

[fanhackers]

Fandom/Activism

I interrupt my dive into Abigail DeKosnik’s work to note that as the United States moves deeper into its (apparently endless) election season, we’re seeing a lot of fandom-as-activism starting to emerge, as well as activism-as-fandom. De Kosnik herself was one of the early writers on fandom/activism, writing “Participatory democracy and Hillary Clinton's marginalized fandom” for the very first issue of Transformative Works and Cultures in 2008; more recently, Aja Romano wrote about how Donald Trump’s followers can be seen to be acting like a fandom for Vox: “If you want to understand modern politics, you have to understand modern fandom.” 

TWC hosted an entire guest issue on Transformative Works and Fan Activism, edited by Henry Jenkins and Sangita Shresthova; Jenkins and Shresthova also collaborated on By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism (NYU, 2016) which collects essays on fan activism. Other essays on fandom/activism have been published by TWC with Alex Xanthoudakis’s Mobilizing minions: Fan activism efficacy of Misha Collins fans in "Supernatural" fandom (2020) and  Hannah Carilyn Gunderman’s Fan geographies and engagement between geopolitics of Brexit, Donald Trump, and Doctor Who on social media (2020) being recent examples. Meanwhile, Tanya Cook and Kayle Joseph are the authors of Fandom Acts of Kindness: A Heroic Guide to Activism, Advocacy, and Doing Chaotic Good (Penguin Randomhouse 2023), a guide on how to use fandom and fannish strategies to make a difference. 

Some examples of fandom/activism emerging this U.S. election season include Heroes 4 Harris: Kamala-Con  which is scheduled to happen online today, Sunday September 8, 2024, 1pm PT / 4pm ET: this is billed as “a Comic-Con for Kamala” and “the largest fandom led gathering in support of a presidential candidate in American history.” It will feature: “actors, writers, directors, and super fans of Hollywood's most inspiring heroic fandoms” and promises not just inspiration from some of our favorite stars (Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin, Rosario Dawson and others - not to mention Henry Jenkins himself) but also breakout groups and training in “fan mobilization.”  

Meanwhile, Lynda Carter (always a Wonder Woman!) is also trying to get out the fan vote for Harris with her group Geeks & Nerds for Harris Walz (@GeekOutTheVote); this is also billed as “a fan activist campaign” and they are planning special online events, the first of which will be an online call on September 24, 2024.  As they describe on their website: “Fandom has never just been about media consumption. Fans are artists, creators, and digital ambassadors. When we share what we love, it radiates around the world. And to paraphrase the Vice President, it’s how we show them who we are. By connecting battle-tested campaign canvassing strategies to the heritage and practices of fan communities, we can encourage fans to get out the vote in key battleground states.”

Donald Trump, aside from being his own fandom with himself as fan in chief, also seems to have had some self-identified fandoms collectively organizing for him over the years - these include Fans of Kanye West, Fans of Race Car Driving, and, strange but true, Fans of the 1980s, who apparently believe that Donald Trump would also be a fan of 80s horror movies, Scritti Politti, and  the soundtrack to Pretty in Pink. (I’m not making that up; it’s on their Twitter.) That said, Mel Stanfill’s newest book Fandom is Ugly (2024) argues that, despite its popular reputation, media fandom is not essentially progressive; that in fact, “reactionary politics and media fandoms go hand in hand.” Stanfill’s book looks at the ways in which fans have organized in conservative, reactionary, or even hateful ways, from Gamergate to the collective abuse and harassment of actors in the latest Star Wars franchise. 

The discipline of fandom studies is now being used to study all different kinds of affiliations and advocacy movements, not just those based around film, tv, sports, or music. Fan studies is now applied to political and social movements. Jenkins is still a powerful voice on the relationship between fan studies and participatory democracy (whether progressive or reactionary): read this 2024 interview with him published in Communication and the Public: “The path from participatory culture to participatory politics: A critical investigation—An interview with Henry Jenkins.”  As Jenkins notes:

Part of the ethos of fandom is to ask questions—from nitpicking to imagining other outcomes, different trajectories for character arcs, and other worlds where the story might occur, all of which is expressed through fan works. I would say that fans are often more critical than the general audience in asking these questions, which makes them somewhat different from many partisans and activists I might know who rarely question their beliefs and ideological commitments. And fans are more tolerant—as an aggregate—of different interpretations than partisans are of different ideological stances. So, you could do worse in grounding a democracy than engaging with fans.

[viharmons]

₊˚🕯️ my blog introduction. 🕯️ ‧₊˚

a little bit about me:

welcome to my blog, just call me vi. i’m a teenager, and i won’t state my age, so don’t ask. i go by she/her, and i love all things spooky.

about my blog:

my blog is all about violet harmon. i post her outfits, as i have been collecting exacts for a while now. i mainly blog about things i love or even find funny. this is like my personal diary, i jot things down on here and post them with no exact target audience.

my interests:

horror elements, such as films, tv shows, and books.

antiques and old knickknacks.

archive fashion.

writing.

reading.

music.

photography.

film.

books and comics.

eclectic style.

painting and drawing.

scrapbooking.

guitar. (acoustic and electric.)

piano.

my favorite artists/bands:

cocteau twins

the psychedelic furs

the clash

hole

strange boutique

christian death

bauhaus

talking heads

ramones

lush

throwing muses

widowspeak

red house painters

mazzy star

the beach boys

lights on

air

elliot smith

the doors

angelfish

morrissey

the smiths

jeff buckley

nirvana

the kinks

fiona apple

siouxsie and the banshees

my favorite films:

zero day (2003)

the virgin suicides (1999)

elephant (2003)

a clockwork orange (1971)

lost in translation (2003)

may (2002)

lilya 4-ever (2002)

carrie (1976)

twin peaks: fire walk with me (1992)

wristcutters: a love story (2006)

submarine (2010)

the vanishing (1988)

juno (2008)

palo alto (2013)

ghost world (2001)

my favorite tv shows:

twin peaks (1990)

six feet under (2001)

american horror story (2011)

school spirits (2023)

bates motel (2013)

skins (2007)

freaks and geeks (1999)

daria (1997)

supernatural (2005)

my socials:

• tiktok for violet harmon’s style: hauntinglangdon

• personal tiktok: @langdonized

• personal blog: @letter2cal

• pinterest: @hauntinglangdon

• discord: @langdonized

other usernames to find me by:

• @taissawissa

• @t4tesgirl

• @langdongf

blog tags:

violet’s outfits modeled on me, go to: #violet’s outfits

answered asks, go to: #answered

my bedroom, go to: #violet’s bedroom

misc. go to: #miscellaneous and #misc

tate langdon media, go to: #tate langdon

zero day media, go to: #zero day 2003

film media, go to: #film

music media, go to: #music

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tabs give me superpowers

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

"Lifehacking" is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reason: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of productivity porn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.

But I was there when lifehacking was born, and I'm here to tell you, it wasn't always thus. Lifehacking attained liftoff exactly 19 years and 348 days ago, on Feb 11, 2004, when Danny O'Brien presented "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks" at the 0'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (aka ETCON). I was there, and I took notes:

https://craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt

O'Brien's inspiration was his social circle, in which people he knew to be no smarter or better or motivated than anyone else in that group were somehow able to do much more than their peers, in some specific domain. O'Brien delved deeply into these peoples' lives and discovered that each of them had merely ("merely!") gotten very good at using one or two tools to automate things that would otherwise take up a lot of their time.

These "hacks" freed up their practitioners to focus on things that mattered more to them. They accomplished the goal set out in David Allen's Getting Things Done: to make a conscious choice about which things you are going to fail to do today, rather than defaulting to doing the things that are easy and trivial, at the expense of the things that matter, but are more complicated:

https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/

One trait all those lifehacks shared: everyone who created a little hack was faintly embarrassed by it, and assumed that others who learned about their tricks would find them trivial or foolish. O'Brien changed the world by showing that other people were, in fact, delighted and excited to learn about their peers' cool little tricks.

(Unfortunately, this eventually opened the floodgates of overheated posts about some miraculous hack that turned out to indeed be silly and trivial or even actively bad, but that wasn't O'Brien's fault!)

I'm one of those people whom others perceive as very "productive." There are some objective metrics on which this is true: I wrote nine books during lockdown, for example. Like the lifehackers O'Brien documented in 2004, I have lots of little hacks that aren't merely a way of getting more done – they're a way to make sure that I get the stuff that matters to me (taking care of my family and my health, and writing books) done.

A lot of these lifehacks boil down to making your life easier. There's a spot on our kitchen counter where I put e-waste. Whenever I go out to the car, I carry any e-waste out and put it in a bag in the trunk. Any time I'm near our city dump, I stop and throw the bag into their e-waste bin. This is now a habit, and habits are things you get for free: I spend zero time thinking about e-waste, which means I have more time to think about things that matter (and our e-waste still ends up in the right place).

There's other ways I use habits to make my life easier: after many years, I learned how to write every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

For longer-form works like novels, I "leave myself a rough edge," finishing the day's work in the middle of a sentence. That way I get a few words for free the next day, meaning I never start the day's work wondering which words I'll type:

https://locusmag.com/2014/01/cory-doctorow-cheap-writing-tricks/

One of the most powerful habits I've cultivated is to have a group of daily tabs that I open in a new browser every morning. The meat of this tab group is websites I want to check in with every day, either because they don't have RSS feeds, or because I want to make sure I never miss an update.

This tab-group habit started before RSS was widespread, when most of the websites I wanted to check in on every day didn't have feeds yet, and for many years, this group was just a set of daily reads. But over the years, I started throwing things in the tab-group that I needed to stay on top of.

My daily tabs are in a folder called "unfucked rota" (they were originally in a folder called "rota," which got corrupted and had to be reconstructed in a folder I called "fucked rota," until I finally took a couple hours off and got it in good running order, hence "unfucked rota"). As I type this, "unfucked rota" contains more than a hundred websites I visit every morning, but it also contains:

The edit-history pages for four Wikipedia entries I'm watching;

Chronological feeds of my books on Amazon and Audible, to catch counterfeits as they are posted;

The parent notification portal for my kid's school;

The mileage history for the airline I flew on yesterday (I'll delete this once the flight is posted);

The credit card history for a card I reported a fraudulent charge on (I'll delete this once the refund is posted);

The sell-pages for three products that are out of stock (I'll delete these once the products are in stock and ordered);

A bookmarked newest-first Ebay search for a shirt I like that has been discontinued by the manufacturer;

The new-survey-completed pages for my last two Kickstarters;

The courier tracking page for an item being shipped sea-freight to me from Asia.

The tail end of this unfucked rota changes all the time, but as you can tell, it's got a lot of stuff that would be time-consuming to build a whole new system to track, but which has a web-page that can be easily added to a daily, habitual check-in and then removed when it's not relevant anymore.

Some of these things have email notifiers or RSS feeds, but those are too easy to lose in the noise. I generally delete email from ecommerce sites unread, since 99.99% of the messages they send me are unsolicited marketing nonsense, not the "notify me when this is back in stock" message I do want to see (same goes for my kid's school, which sends me fifty unimportant messages for every message that I must reply to).

Most of the internet is still on the web, which means it can be bookmarked, which means that it takes me one second to add it to the group of things I'm staying on top of, and one second to remove from that group. I get up in the morning, middle-click the "unfucked rota" item in my bookmarks pane, make a cup of coffee, and then sit down and race through those tabs, close-close-close.

It takes less than a second to scan a tab to see if it's changed (and if I close a tab too quickly, the ctrl-shift-T "unclose" shortcut is there in muscle-memory, another habit). The whole process takes between one and 15 minutes (depending on whether there's anything useful and new in one of those tabs).

Tabs, like lifehacks, are also in bad odor. Everyone stresses about how many tabs they have open. It's even inspired Rusty Foster's excellent newsletter, Today In Tabs:

https://www.todayintabs.com/

But this is a very different way to think about tabs. Rather than opening a window full of tabs that need your detailed, once-off attention later, this method is about using groups of tabs so that you can pay cursory, frequent attention to them.

In a world full of administrative burdens, where firms and institutions play the "sure, we'll do that, but you're going to have to track our progress" game to get out of living up to their obligations, this method is a powerful countermeasure:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

My little tab habit is so incredibly useful, such a powerful way to seize back time and power from powerful actors who impose burdens on me, that I sometimes forget how, for other people, tabs are a symptom of a life that's spiraling out of control. For me, a couple hundred tabs are a symbol of a couple hundred tasks that I'm totally on top of, a symbol of control wrestled back from others who are hostile to my interests.

This isn't how tabs were "meant" to be used, of course. It's an example of the kind of "innovation" that comes from users repurposing things in ways their designers didn't necessarily anticipate or intend.

This is what Jonathan Zittrain meant by "generative" technology back in 2008, when he published his incredibly prescient The Future of the Internet: And How To Stop It:

https://memex.craphound.com/2008/07/22/zittrains-the-future-of-the-internet-how-to-save-the-internet-from-the-internet/

For Zittrain, "generativity" was the property of some technologies that let its users generate new, useful tools and solutions for themselves (this is very different from "generative AI!")

Zittrain described how "curated" computing systems, like mobile devices that relied on apps that couldn't be adapted by their users, were dead ends for generativity. 15 years later, the dismal world of apps has proven him right:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

To the extent that "lifehacking" is about doing more, rather than being more deliberate about what you accomplish, it can be harmful. I am not immune to the failure modes of lifehacking:

https://locusmag.com/2017/11/cory-doctorow-how-to-do-everything-lifehacking-considered-harmful/

But overall, using tabs as something I close, rather than something I open, is a source of comfort and calm for me. For one thing, ripping through a group of tabs every morning means that I don't have to worry about missing something if I go too fast. I'll get another chance tomorrow:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/27/probably/

Decades ago, Dori Smith dubbed her pioneering blog her "#Backup Brain":

https://web.archive.org/web/20020120231027/http://www.backupbrain.com/

At their best, our systems – be they physical, like a spot on the counter where the e-waste goes, or digital, like a tab-group – are "congitive prostheses." They allow us to move important things from the highly contested, busy and precious space between our ears and out there into the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

Like those lifehackers that O'Brien studied for his presentation in 2004, I confess to feeling a little silly about telling you all about this. For me, this habit of decades is so ingrained that it feels trivial and obvious. And yet, when I look at people in my life struggling to stay on top of a million nagging administrative tasks that could be easily watched through a morning's flick through a tab-group, I can't help but think that maybe some of you will find a useful idea or two in my unfucked rota.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/#unfucked-rota

[plus-size-reader]

Sweetheart

Horrorfest 2023

Charlie Walker x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 2658 words

Warnings: none really. Just a little horror talk.

At the request of @armyangxls Hope you enjoy it love!

Summary: Inviting Charlie over when the murders start so you don't have to be alone.

—————————————————————————————————

You had always loved a night in.

Whether it was a cozy night spent snuggled up with a blanket and a good book, or a new release of a gory slasher you’d been anxiously waiting to get your hands on, it felt like there was nothing better in the world than being home. 

…but you had to admit that there was one thing that topped even your favorite at-home activity. 

Cinema Club. 

Which, while admittedly only being adjacent to what you’d be doing anyway, did offer the occasional change of scenery that you grew to greatly appreciate. ‘

The Woodsboro High School Cinema Club was the one place in the world where the film geeks and creatives at your school could come together to co-exist, which had been more than enough to draw you in. 

You had always loved movies as a means of expression and any opportunity to talk about them with people who enjoyed them just as much was too good to pass up. 

That wasn’t what really sealed the deal for you though. 

What kept you coming back to that mismatched group of nerds was the underbelly of Cinema Club, comprised of all the horror fanatics and true crime junkies of Woodsboro, who came to get together and discuss some of their favorite aspects of the genre. 

In a town so famous for its own serial killer, there was little open discussion about any aspect, which had never sat right with you.

After all, everyone on planet Earth had seen at least one of the “Stab” films, and still, most of Woodsboro’s residents actively chose to live in a delusion. 

That was what made Cinema Club so compelling, and its president along with it. 

Charlie Walker, or the King of the Freaks as you’d taken to calling him in the comfort of your own mind, was a huge film buff and one of the only people whose love of horror seemed to rival your own. 

He was clever and had a lot of interesting theories about a lot of different things, the Stab franchise and the events that inspired it chief among them. In fact, in the years you’d been attending his club, you’d 

spent several evenings heatedly debating over which slasher was the best or which classic horror trope you’d choose given the option. 

In a lot of ways, he was one of the only people you felt seen by in that way, and eventually, you formed quite an attachment to the man, even if you’d never acted on it. 

Maybe that was why you’d called him. 

It had really come out of left field, and you had never reached out to him before in your life outside of occasionally asking him about a point of contention within the horror community or to get his opinion on something.

You couldn’t even say that you were friends, but that didn’t change the fact that when you got the news that someone wearing a Ghostface mask was running around cutting people up, your first thought had been of Charlie.

It was only natural. 

You were going to be home all night long by yourself, and while that was normally your idea of a fantastic night, it seemed foolish to be alone like a sitting duck all night, hoping you wouldn’t run into a killer. 

After all, Ghostface was a legend around this town and you weren’t about to underestimate what someone could be capable of once they put on that mask.

It seemed right to be afraid, at first. 

Though, now that you were sitting in the dark waiting for Charlie to show up, you were starting to doubt yourself. Would he think you were a huge loser for bothering him over something so arbitrary? Was he doing something when you called? 

If he were, you figured he would have turned you down instead of telling you he’d be at your house in fifteen, but that didn’t mean he didn’t think you were lame. 

God, you were lame, weren’t you? 

You started to sigh, debating whether or not you should just call Charlie and tell him not to bother, but you didn’t get the chance before a loud banging on your front door nearly sent you flying out of your seat. 

Your first instinct was to grab a kitchen knife and take it with you, sort of like how Casey’s character had in the opening scene of the first stab, but you quickly abandoned that idea. 

It hadn’t helped her, and you were sure it wouldn’t prove any more useful for you now. 

“Charlie? Is that you?” you called out, letting your careful footsteps carry you toward the door, without bothering to turn on a light. If it wasn’t him, you didn’t need whoever was out there knowing exactly where you were. 

Briefly, you felt a flash of heat wash over you at how embarrassing this would be if it was Charlie at the door, only to once again have that ice prick at your spine at the even worse possibility that he hadn’t left his house yet. 

What would you do if this was the killer at your door? If you opened it and found that haunting face staring back at you in the pitch dark?

You weren’t sure. 

“You alive in there, sweetheart? I brought popcorn”

All at once, relief flooded you as you took in the voice through the door. It was muffled, sure, but even if you weren’t entirely sure it was Charlie waiting for you, you were confident Ghostface didn’t use pet names like that on his victims. 

“Yeah, I’m good” you assured, pulling open the door to find none other than Charlie Walker standing there, that brown mop of hair falling in his face as he turned to meet your face. 

You weren’t entirely sure what he’d been watching out by the street, but in all honesty, you didn’t even question it. You were so glad to not be alone, especially after that scare, you weren’t even sure you’d processed it, even if he told you.

Proven further when he grinned at you like you’d missed something important. 

“I said, can I come in? I don’t think it’s safe to spend all night in the open doorway” Charlie hummed, making it clear that he was teasing you, which you nearly bristled at. Perhaps, if he’d been anyone else, you would have. 

That was the thing about Charlie though, even when he was poking fun at you, it never felt mean-spirited or cruel, and you appreciated that. 

You had always been a little hard to get to know, and even harder to get along with, but he didn’t even bat an eye at your slightly more reserved nature or casual obsession with grisly crimes and imagery. 

He never made you feel bad, or less than you were. 

“Sure. Come on in,” you suggested finally, taking a brief beat to collect yourself from the very hectic last 2 minutes. 

“Sorry, I feel like this is super weird. I just didn’t want to be alone tonight” you tried, hoping that sounded less pathetic out loud than it did when it reached your ears. 

It would be a lie to say that you’d never thought about having Charlie over, but never had it been under these circumstances, and never had it been this awkward. 

He must have thought you were a freak. 

“No worries. I was just going to spend it with Robbie and trust me, you’re much better company” he assured, watching casually as you closed and latched your front door and turned back to him, visibly relieved. 

He was telling you the truth. 

Given the choice, he would most certainly like to spend time with a pretty girl over the same guy he’d been attached to since grade school. After all, you’d made it clear when you called that you didn’t want to be alone. 

,,,and that you needed someone to look after you. 

Charlie was more than happy to be that someone, and he could protect you if he had to, especially from Ghostface.

“I don’t know about that. Robbie seems like a pretty good time” you countered, trying to joke back with him without it being weird, though he didn’t bother to respond to that. Instead, he followed you into your living room and helped himself to your couch. 

When you’d invited him over, you hadn’t really considered what you’d do to pass the time, but given the pretense for how you knew one another, and the Jiffy pop Charlie had brought, it didn’t seem too far off to put in a movie. 

“I was thinking about watching Stab 2 before I called you,” you prompted, assuming that Charlie would either agree or disagree rather quickly after the suggestion. 

You knew the President of Cinema Club to be a lot of things, but soft-spoken had never been one of them. 

“Sounds good to me”  

This room was one you’d set foot in at least once every day for most of your life, but it wasn’t the warm, inviting space it normally was, at least not with Charlie present. Under his watchful eye, you almost felt as if the air itself was popping with energy.

However, when you once again peeked at him and took in his composure, you realized that nervous energy was actually just buzzing under your skin. 

“The kill in the opening scene of this one is one of my favorite of the franchise. I think the practical effects are so well done,” you hummed, relaxing only slightly as the welcoming score to Stab 2 filled your ears.

The title screen flashed in black and green, a few choppy chase scenes from the middle of the movie playing on repeat while the music blared, and you ate it up just like you did every time. 

It was probably one of your favorite movies of all time, and without even thinking, you sat down next to Charlie, though you kept distance both between your bodies and between you and the back of the couch. 

“The gore in the first movie was more experimental, but I think by this one, they were more confident and knew just how far they could take all the body horror” 

Charlie hummed again, listening to you as you talked with more enthusiasm than he’d ever seen from you during club meetings. 

You participated in discussions, of course, but it was always  more muted and careful. Like, you were constantly worried someone would think you took it too far or crossed some line you weren’t sure existed. 

It was nice to watch you drop all the pretence for once and just enjoy something that clearly meant a lot to the both of you. 

“But, did you know that guy actually burst an eardrum getting stabbed like that, even with a prop knife?” he spoke up, pointing out one of his own fun facts. 

You didn’t, but you could believe it. 

The force that had to go behind something like that, even when it wasn’t real, had to be super intense and you couldn’t imagine being on the receiving end of it, something you apparently said out loud, given Charlie’s face. 

“I don’t know. It might not be that bad, it would take forever though” he allowed, further shocking you as you processed both what he’d said and the fact that you’d accidentally just been way weirder than you’d meant to. 

You stopped, abandoning the movie fully now and turning to face where he’d been sitting, watching your reactions more than the movie itself. 

“What would take forever? Getting stabbed?” you questioned, only partially aware of what you may have asked him in your adrenaline-fueled haze. You couldn’t imagine it took too long from start to finish if you were being honest. 

Charlie scoffed, though it was more of a laugh than anything concrete or mocking, “No, bleeding out from a wound like that. It would take way longer than you’d think” he explained, with a casual shrug. 

You believed him. 

This wouldn’t be the first time he’d shared a strange or unexpected fact with you about something like that, and you certainly didn’t want to question him. Though, you did find yourself glancing toward the door and windows absently. 

When you two had discussed this before, it was always in a well-lit room full of people, but this was much more intimate…and ominous. 

After all, someone had just been stabbed to death yesterday in their home, and you didn’t like the idea of just how long it had taken them to bleed out. 

“Sorry. That’s in bad taste, huh?” Charlie tried, finding the joy he’d gotten from watching you excited coldly replaced with your discomfort, or fear, more likely. “Don’t worry, I got you” he assured, his gaze shifting from the side of your face to your hand.

You were holding the couch cushion lightly in your fist, almost as if it would keep you safe, and that just wouldn’t do. 

Not while he was right here, waiting to comfort you. 

“Nobody’s gonna get you” His words were soft, near a whisper as he focused on gathering his courage and finally made his move, reaching out to take your hand in his own. 

The action made you shift, and rather than falling off the edge of the couch onto the floor, you leaned back, closer to where Charlie was already situated. 

“I just can’t imagine what that’s like” you allowed, steeling your own nerves and meeting his eyes, which subsequently sent a kaleidoscope of butterflies into your gut. 

The topic was grim, and you both knew that, but for such a nasty conversation, you were feeling anything but disturbed. It would have been hard to be, with him looking at you like that, his thumb stroking your wrist gently. 

“You are never going to find out. I can promise you that” Charlie spoke again, more earnest now than you ever could have predicted.

It wasn’t something he could promise, you knew that, but that didn’t make it any less reassuring. 

“Charlie?” 

He hummed, never breaking eye contact with you, not even shifting even as you blinked away, your gaze flicking momentarily to the third death scene playing out on screen.

“This seems like a pretty good time to mention that I have a little bit of a crush on you” you mentally cursed yourself for how small you sounded, but not for long before you had to confront the feeling of Charlie’s mouth against your own in a bruising kiss. 

He had been waiting with bated breath to see which one of you would get the chance to confess first, and while he didn’t think it would be you, he couldn’t be happier regardless. 

The kiss lasted for quite some time, with Charlie only pulling away just long enough to fully close the gap you’d been keeping between your bodies this entire time.

“I’m so glad you called me” he whispered, one of his hands coming to rest on your jaw to keep you close while the other played gently at your fingers. 

You heard yourself let out a dreamy sort of sigh in reply, but you were far too caught up in what you were feeling to really process it. So, rather than dwell on it, you just nodded softly, “I’m so glad you came” 

“I’ll always be here when you need me, sweetheart. Don’t worry about a thing” he cooed, saying each word with the depth and sincerity as a vow, and the intensity that only Charlie Walker could pooling in those blue eyes. 

..and the thing was, you believed every word.

Even on this couch, in the dead of night, in the heart of Woodsboro, you felt completely at ease because who could really get to you when someone looked at you like that? 

Nobody hiding behind a mask, that was for sure. 

[cosmicstarlatte]

Pumpkin Carving (Obey Me!)

The guys want to try out pumpkin carving. How does it go?🎃

»Characters: Demon Bros+Dia, brief side characters as judges »Tags: Humor/Fluff, Bulleted Fic »Notes: Part of OM! Flufftober 2023 // reblogs are always loved & appreciated :3 // halloween divider by saradika!

Lucifer: The Show Off™️

Decided to go for an intricate design for his pumpkin

He worked carefully & put his entire lucifussy in it

It was beautiful watching him work his magic he looked like he was creating a symphony

However his pumpkin looked like mush in the end

Everyone laughed. Everyone. Satan & Belphie the hardest.

Solomon: "...it looks great Lucifer. I can see the hard work you-"

"Don't patronize me."

Mammon: Macaroni Art Vibes™️

Complained saying the whole thing was lame but he got really into it

"Heh, look at the little guy!"

It actually looked really cute for his first pumpkin, it had a simple silly face!

Took photos with it only because "it's the type of thing you're suppose to do!"

The judges liked his very much & he came in 3rd place🙂

"...Ya so where's my reward!?"

Levi: Limited Edition Collector's Item 2023: Akuzon Fall Exclusive™️

Geeked out because he always wanted to carve a pumpkin! JUST LIKE ANIMES!

Of course he had a ruri chan stencil already made, he was waiting for this day

His pumpkin actually looked really good & made with love! He even added glowsticks to it!

However dun dun dun, tragedy struck!

He dropped it before he could show the judges

Poor baby cried his eyes out & you guys had to buy him his favorite milk tea

Satan: The Smashing Pumpkins™️ (please don't sue me, thanks!!!)

A little too good with a knife

Made the best intricate design out of everyone, it wowed the judges (& pissed off Lucifer)

Then he started punching & smashing it, completely obliterating it

Beel tried to eat the flying pieces that flew into the air

Delicately placed a pretty candle on top of the mush as the finishing touch

Solomon: "...You know what I like it."

He came in 2nd place!

Asmo: Bedazzled & Bright™️

"It screams 'I AM the now' you know!?"

I mean, he added jewels & even a mini light up disco ball inside

He carved his face into it & it projected his face onto a wall

some say they saw it reflect on the night sky like a hero signal

Was Luke's favorite because it looked fun & bright!

Note: his pumpkin got stolen off the HOL porch during the night.

Beel: Frankenstein Era™️

I know what you're thinking & no he didn't eat it 😐

(Everyone made sure he was well fed before doing the group activity)

His pumpkin looked the silliest, he added mini pumpkins to it & stacked them

Solomon: "What do you think would happen if we brought that thing to life?"

Barb: "Don't."

He did snack on the few pumpkin pieces that got carved out

...OK yeah he ate it all in the end but that was later!!! Leave him alone! He tried so hard!!!

Belphie: BANKSY™️

Didn't really want to participate but whatever brother Lucifer says, goes.

While everyone carved & decorated their pumpkin, he just napped on his like a pillow

Lucifer scolded him for doing nothing to his pumpkin

Belphie challenged him saying it was a work of art & up to interpretation

The judges 'ooo & ahh'd'

His pumpkin came in 1st place

LuciferGrindingHisTeeth.jpg

It's possible Lucifer chucked the pumpkin into oblivion when no one was looking

Diavolo: THE Pumpkin Face™️

"You can't beat the classics!"

Wanted to do a classic pumpkin face to keep human tradition! He appreciates human culture!

He took his time, stenciling was fun & cutting was a little rough

It got a little messy but he enjoyed it

The pumpkin ended up being a thing of nightmares but no one had the heart to tell him

(Barbatos cringing in the background)

Luke fainted at the sight. Dia naively took it as a sweet compliment

⬦You might also like: Costume Shopping Coconut︱Waffle House︱

[dbh-bb]

2024 Team Highlight 48

Our forty eighth team in the Reverse Big Bang was @maddsmallow working with @sevdrag

@maddsmallow had an idea for an 80's style heist AU, featuring Connor as the nerdy, overworked computer whizz kid, and Hank as the lowly janitor who has just the access Connor needs to pull of a huge heist that will change their lives, and drag Kamski down a few pegs. They created one artwork for this concept, the cover piece for the fic, showing Hank and Connor in their 80's fabulousness

@sevdrag turned this idea into Opportunities (Seven Steps For A Successful Heist), a Mature rated Hankcon fic featuring lots of 1980's nostalgia in its setting and technology. Connor is a nerdy, somewhat isolated tech geek working for Elijah Kamski when he catches a discrepancy in Kamski's accounts. Kamski, being a tremendous douchebag, dismisses the information, paving the way for Connor to partner up with Hank, another victim of Kamski's bullshit, so they can work together to steal enough money to change both their lives.

Sign ups for the 2025 Big Bang and RK50K Mega Bang have now closed, but you can still join the community and help support and hype up the writers and artists by joining us on discord!

[virginiaisforvampires]

Heey , How are u ? I love ur blog ....I'm newbie in this fandom and I am in love with IWTV , and everyone is talking about Sam's quote ''memory is a monster'', what could it mean for us in season two?

Hello! Thanks! Xx

Let’s allow Mr. Rolin Jones to answer, shall we?

And these tidbits from TCA….

That’s just the tip of the iceberg wrt everything the cast, writers, and showrunners have said is coming in Season 2….

Jacob Anderson and Rolin Jones at FYC Emmy Panel in March 2023: “Season 2 will change the way you see everything in Season 1.”

Rolin Jones on the AMC Podcast in November 2022: “Stick with Lestat.”

Rolin Jones in the 1x07 Episode Insider: “I think there has been a story that has been told to Louis that Louis told to himself that maybe Armand has told to him, too. This is a major player out there, folks! This is the leader of a coven of vampires.”

Rolin Jones at SDCC Panel in July 2022: “Louis is an unreliable narrator.”

Jacob Anderson at SDCC Press Conference in July 2022: “Not everything Louis says is a lie.”

“All of it will be revisited,” says Hannah Moscovitch, adding that includes the horrific assault of Episode Five and Louis’ role in Lestat’s attempted murder in Episode Seven. “But I want to be careful to say that Louis will never be not believable as a victim,” she says.

“There might be things that cause Louis to re-evaluate his own memories. And then there might also be some opportunities for some perspectives of other characters,” says Adam O’Byrne.

Sam Reid to Entertainment Weekly in July 2023: “The way that they have made the changes to the book really stays true to the soul of the book and expands certain moments. There are enough to keep fans of the book series interested and excited about what is happening, and enough teasers to the expanded universe that exists within Anne Rice's books. What I think is going to be exciting for people to see is that this season really breaks open. It was sort of like a little domestic drama between three vampires in the first season, and we're now meeting a lot more vampires and the world begins to expand. It is a lot bigger than just that drawing room in New Orleans. They have found a way to weave in lots of little Easter eggs about where we're going in the future, and that's exciting. Anne Rice wasn't afraid to break rules, to push boundaries, and make people unhappy with some of the choices that she made. She's not always out to give everyone what they want, and it is confronting as a fan of a book to sort of read some of those things. And we honor that in the show. We're not always making choices that are going to make everyone happy. We're honoring that kind of anarchic element that Anne Rice had in her writing.”

Assad Zaman to Den of Geek in November 2022: “With this version, we have put Armand in the context of the first interview, whereas originally, he’s not there. Louis is free to tell his own story start to finish with just him and Daniel there. We can speculate and think maybe Armand has been tinkering here and there.”

Jacob Anderson to Inside Hook in November 2022: “But that was part of the fun of doing the interview was that sometimes Louis is — how do I say this without giving too much away, and I mean giving things away beyond the first season — I think that Louis really believes that a lot of this is the truth. There are other things that he knows deep down are not true, but he has to tell himself a version of it in order to cope.”

Jacob Anderson to Big Issue in October 2023: “They are in a romantic relationship in the books. They’re married by the end. Maybe Anne Rice didn’t fully know what their relationship was at first – the style is very different in the first book. Lestat is this kind of goblin monster torturing Louis. But when you look back with the context from further books, you see this man was just very repressed and so hurt by what happened between him and Lestat that he couldn’t acknowledge him as his lover, as his partner, as his great love. But by the second book, they’re absolutely a couple. And because we’re adapting the whole of The Vampire Chronicles and taking things from later books and repurposing them, the idea of telling this story and them not being a couple… well, there’s no show! Their love story, as messed up as it is, is the heart of it.”

Jacob Anderson to Attitude UK in October 2023: “But when you revisit the original story, it’s clear that Louis is somebody hugely angry with a man he loved deeply and now presents them as a monster…”

Jacob Anderson to Entertainment Weekly in December 2023: "The theme of season 2 is this idea of memory is a monster, and how memory and guilt can follow you around. When we meet Claudia and Louis in season 2, they're dealing with the psychological and literal repercussions of what they did together. With Louis, you definitely get a sense there was some hesitance on his part — he didn't really go through with it, he pulled back from the decision at the last minute, because he is very in love with this fellow monster. That creates tension between the two of them, Louis and Claudia, that they weren't exactly on the same page, so for those two to be together now in an unfamiliar territory creates a lot of drama."

ETA: TV Guide in April 2024

Rolin Jones to TV Guide: “What we really embraced on reading the book was that [Louis] was hyper detailed about certain things, and then some other things, he was not. [Molloy] disappears from the book for 200 pages. He doesn’t even go, ‘What happened next?’ Everyone needs to be there for a reason. Once you come up with the conceit of, ‘Oh, it’s the second interview,’ you better have some real good answers about why it’s the second interview. One self-delusion knits itself to the rest of your life. [Louis’ memory might be] 80-90 percent correct, [though it only takes one mistaken detail to muddle a timeline and cancel someone out entirely.] To unwind that, you call into question all this stuff. It doesn’t mean that all this stuff isn’t right. It’s just this thing has altered it a little bit.”

Assad Zaman to TV Guide: “The pursuit of memory and truth is the driving force this season. It motivates Louis to get to where we’re going to get by the end of it. Season 1 proved that his memory’s completely shot in lots of ways, but who or what did that — that’s the question I think we’re going to have to answer.”

Jacob Anderson to TV Guide: “It’s not necessarily that that Louis is a quote-unquote unreliable narrator. He is, because what he’s saying is completely subjective, but I think it has just as much to do with how something felt, the feeling of a person or the feeling of an experience, than it is him actively trying to deceive anybody. He’s really, genuinely trying to find the closest thing to an objective recalling of events that he possibly can.”

Sam Reid to TV Guide: “Who is Louis remembering, and how is Louis remembering [Lestat] is always on my mind. I’m always thinking about it, and I’m always talking about it, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone. Louis is speaking to himself, so he speaks like Louis, but he’s also speaking to Lestat, and he’s choosing to speak to Lestat when he’s speaking to himself. It’s clear that Louis is putting the words into his mouth. Who’s the guy that he’s forced to see looking back at him, saying the words that he thinks he should be saying? I know this is not how this [Louis’ version of events] happened, which allowed me to kind of lean into the more sow’s ear version of Lestat in specific moments, because I knew that we might be revisiting them.”

ETA: The show is centered on Loustat

[yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere]

so, alright, here are the movies/MEDIA that make me go *oh shit I'm so bi, omg bisexual panic*

so, alright, here are the MOVIES that make me go *oh shit I'm so bi, omg bisexual panic*

(it can be very bi-vibes movies or simply movies that make me feel how very deeply i love being bi, or the ones i just enjoy rewatching-not necessarily with bi/queer representation!) : Red, White & Royal Blue 2023 , Wicked (Part 1) 2024 , The Mummy 1999, The Little Mermaid 2023, The Little Mermaid 1989, Anne Of Green Gables 1985, Anne Of Green Gables:The Sequel 1987, Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story 2000, The Road to El Dorado 2000 (the iconic Both. Both is good), Mulan 1998, RENT 2005, The Cutting Edge 1992, Ten Inch Hero 2007, Rebel Without A Cause 1955, The Fallout 2021, Better Off Dead 1985, According To Greta 2009, Anastasia 1997, Serendipity 2001, Running for Grace 2018, The Christmas Secret 2014, Cinderella 2021, The Idea of You 2024, Rise Of The Guardians 2012, 10 Things I Hate About You 1999, Do Revenge 2022, Charlie’s Angels 2019, Bottoms 2023, Cadet Kelly 2002, Lemonade Mouth 2011, The Perfect Man 2005, The Lizzie McGuire Movie 2003, A Cinderella Story 2004, Agent Cody Banks 2003, Roman Holiday 1953, My Babysitter's a Vampire 2010(MBAV), Purple Hearts 2022, Carry-On 2024, The Little Vampire 2017, John Tucker Must Die 2006, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 2016, The Princess and The Frog 2009, The Addams Family 1991, Addams Family Values 1993, Treasure Planet 2002, Atlantis: The Lost Empire 2001, The Favourite 2018, Challengers 2024, The Runaways 2010, Upgraded 2024, Fallen 2016, The Half Of It 2020, A Biltmore Christmas 2023, Feel The Beat 2020, My Old Ass 2024, Time Cut 2024, Ice Princess 2005, Zootopia 2016, La Dolce Villa 2025, Heart Eyes 2025, Picture This 2025, Starstruck 2010, To All the Boys I've Loved Before 2018 + To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You 2020 + To All the Boys: Always and Forever 2021, The Princess and the Pea 2002, The Life List 2025, Love, Simon2018, Coraline 2009, The Greatest Showman 2017, The Game Plan 2007, The Craft: Legacy 2020, Descendants (2015) & Descendants 2 (2017) & Descendants 3 (2019), Tom and Jerry: The Movie 1992, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior 2006, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School 1988, (but also like SD anything, tv & movies 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s and more!!), The Hating Game 2021, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief 2010, The Perks of Being a Wallflower 2012, The Duff 2015, Beauty & the Briefcase 2010, Raise Your Voice 2004, Winter Spring Summer or Fall 2024, Death of a Unicorn 2025, How to Train Your Dragon 2010 & How to Train Your Dragon 2 2014 & How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 2019, How to Train Your Dragon 2025, Snow White 2025, The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream 2008 & The Cutting Edge: Fire and Ice 2010,Wild Child 2008, Beastly 2011, Jurassic World: Rebirth 2025(+ will probably keep adding to this soon-ish)

+TV SHOWS that my bi heart loves:

One Tree Hill(OTH), Shadow and Bone, Roswell 90s(OG), White Collar, Reign, Mary & George, Heartstopper, XO, Kitty, Wild Cards, Living for the Dead, Warrior Nun, Wednesday, Maxton Hall : The World Between Us (2024), Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous(JWCC) & Jurassic World Chaos Theory (JWCT) , Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Dawson's Creek, Anne Shirley 2025 (Anime) + AWAE/ Anne with an E 2017-2019, Vampire Academy 2022, Fallen 2024, Willow, Dickinson, Heartbreak High, Bridgerton (S2!), Teen Titans, Legacies, TheAddamsFamily(1964-1966), Love Victor, My Babysitter's a Vampire(MBAV)(2011-2012), Finding Carter, Lab Rats, Star-Crossed, Lockwood&Co, Queer As Folk, The L Word, Sabrina The Teenage Witch 90s, Shadowhunters, Lizzie McGuire, Ginny & Georgia, Get Even (2020), Geek Girl (2024), Agatha All Along, Sabrina: The Animated Series 1999 , Never Have I Ever, Lucifer, DC' Titans, The Royals, Cruel Intentions 2024, Adventures of The Gummi Bears, The Duck Tales, Tom and Jerry, Fantaghiro 1999, The Scooby Doo Show (70s), Scooby Doo Where Are You? (60s-70s), What's New Scooby Doo?(2002), The Trouble with Miss Switch+ Miss Switch To The Rescue, Pulse 2025, Motorheads 2025, We Were Liars, My Lady Jane, Smoke 2025, Atypical,

-also bi4bi stories: Fiyero Tigelaar & Elphaba Thropp(FIYERABA)(Wicked (Part 1) 2024), Morticia & Gomez Addams(The Addams Family), Li Shang & Mulan(Mulan1998), Peyton Sawyer/ Rachel Gatina & Brooke Davis (BREYTON/BRACHEL)(OTH-One Tree Hill, canon to me idk), Ariel & Eric (ERIEL)(The Little Mermaid-TLM, also canon for me), Alina Starkov & Mal Oretsev(MALINA)(SAB-Shadow And Bone, also canon f me), Kate Sharma & Anthony Bridgerton(KATHONY/KANTHONY),(Bridgerton since S2, yup, this is how i see them), Kitty Song Covey & Min Ho Moon (MOONCOVEY/KINHO)(XO, Kitty), Kenji Kon & Brooklynn(KENLYNN/BROOKJI?)(JWCC-JWCT-Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous-Jurassic World Chaos Theory), Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase(PERCABETH)(Percy Jackson and The Olympians), (ANYHOW let’s stop assuming any f&f or m&m couples are lesbian/gay and f&m straight because BISEXUAL PEOPLE EXIST!)

+MUSICALS on Broadway/ West End that my bi heart adores just beyond:

Wicked, Anastasia , Hadestown, RENT , Tick Tick BOOM, Redwood, The Little Mermaid, Next To Normal, The Phantom Of The Opera, Moulin Rouge! , The Lightning Thief (The Percy Jackson Musical), The Addams Family, Gay Card, Dear Evan Hansen, EPIC The Musical, Maybe Happy Ending, SUNSET BLVD. 2024.,THE JONATHAN LARSON PROJECT, Evita, The Great Gatsby, Little Shop Of Horrors, West Side Story, Beetlejuice, Aladdin, The Color Purple, Les Misérables, American Idiot Musical, Jekyll & Hyde Musical, The Outsiders, Spring Awakening, The Secret Garden musical, Some Like It Hot Musical, The Greatest Showman musical,

+BOOKS/ BOOK SERIES that my bi heart absolutely LOVES:

Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer, Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi, The Folk Of The Air Series by Holly Black, The Diviners Series by Libba Bray, The Devouring Gray Duology by C.L. Herman, GRISHAVERSE books (Six of Crows!!, Shadow and Bone, King of Scars-3 mini series) by Leigh Bardugo , This Woven Kingdom Series by Tahereh Mafi , Fallen Series by Lauren Kate, Elixir Series by Hilary Duff, The Cemetery Of Forgotten Books Series by C. R. Zafón, The Keys To The Kingdom Series by Garth Nix, Infinity Cycle Series by Adam Silvera, Anne Of Green Gables Series by L. M. Montgomery, Bloodlines Series & Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead, An Ember In The Ashes Series by Sabaa Tahir, The Selection Series by Kiera Cass + STANDALONES Lauren Kate-Unforgiven (standalone book in my opinion), Eoin Colfer- Airman, David Nicholls- One Day, Gayle Forman-Just One- Day & Year & Night (mini series), Vanessa Len-Only a Monster (mini series here too), Adam Silvera- History Is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera- They Both Die At The End , Adam Silvera- The First To Die At The End, Becky Albertalli-Imogen,Obviously, Mason Deaver- I Wish You All The Best(+short novella here!), Casey McQuiston-Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston- The Pairing, Casey McQuiston-I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston-One Last Stop, Aaron H Aceves-This Is Why They Hate Us, Page Powars-The Borrow a Boyfriend Club, M. K. Lobb-To Steal from Thieves, Wen-yi Lee- The Dark We Know, Mason Deaver-The Feeling Of Falling In Love, Sophie Gonzales-The Law Of Inertia, H.E.Edgmon-The Witch King & The Fae Keeper (duology!) , H.E.Edgmon-Godly Heathens & Merciless Saviors (mini series here!) , Carlos Ruiz Zafón- The Midnight Palace, Isabel Abedi- Whisper Haunted House, Francis Scott Fitzgerald- The Love Of Last Tycoon, Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina, S. E. Hinton- The Outsiders, Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera-Here's to Us & What If It's Us (duology), Amanda Woody- Exes & Foes + They Hate Each Other,

+ATM Magazine(Anything That Moves Magazine)(1990-2001) : .https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/ &https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/#scans &https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/#about

(will keep adding here probably!)

+https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/139102124?shelf=bi-bisexual-characters-done-well

-also bi4bi stories: Violet Saunders & Isaac Sullivan (The Devouring Gray + The Deck Of Omens (duology), Kit Fairfield & Theo Flowerday(The Pairing), Noah Byrd & Asher Price (The Borrow A Boyfriend Club),Jonah Collins & Dylan Ramirez (They Hate Each Other), Nathan Allan & Ben Benjamin De Backer (I Wish You All The Best +I’ll Be Home For Christmas),

https://www.instagram.com/the_bi_library/ & @ the-bi-library here on tumblr!!

BOOKS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BISEXUAL HISTORY & ACTIVISM:https://www.tumblr.com/ruimtetijd/686000390089621504/list-of-books-about-bi-history-and-activism-from

+ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q--nIkJu0OS0BgiyZmdKVwOVg1G90SFzWijNDWFTt58/edit#heading=h.wqkaxpi7o5je

+about THE MUSIC:

love you all, we need MORE bisexuality in media!!

+some links:

The Bisexual Flag, its meaning and history!:https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/762664140472008704?source=share + Lani Kaʻahumanu talking about how bisexuals have ALWAYS been around!:https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/762663819491328000?source=share

.https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/ &https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/#scans &https://anythingthatmovesarchive.carrd.co/#about

also i recommend this podcast ‘A Little Queer Podcast’ by two incredible bisexual people Capri Campeau and Ashley Whitfield. episode linked here, ‘Debunking Bisexual Myths and Stereotypes’ :https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wcP8HBIY0IyVxROjpZPNg?si=TIHDv-eFQi-mdsCS6zKzNA (all covered here for real!) +also check ‘A Bit Fruity Podcast’ by Matt Bernstein (very educating one!!) + Bisexual Brunch Podcast (UK) by 3 bisexual people, 2 men and 1 woman! here:https://open.spotify.com/show/3tH2DAjYrk2cXdYRSqt5nS?si=2ae6bb60b1534366

let’s talk about biphobia/Kit Connor (Max Hovey TikTok) important video:https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/770851818143186944?source=share +Bisexuality has never excluded trans and non-binary people. Please stop spreading this lie. It actively harms trans/n-b bi people and bi people with trans/n-b partners. STOP BI ERASURE :https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/770848612526735360?source=share + WHAT IS BISEXUAL ERASURE:https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/770848534830399488?source=share + ‘ANYTHING THAT MOVES’ ATM 90s Bisexual Magazine is Shockingly Relevant Today--- Despite the joy of reading this bi-centric work, however, it's telling how little has changed since 1991--The first several stanzas of "This Poem Can Be Put Off No Longer" by Susan Carlton, featured in the first issue of 'Anything That Moves.' Credit: Anything That Moves / The poem continues, but the point is clear from the start: Bisexual people aren't believed for who they are. They're belittled and told to "choose a side," that they're bisexual for attention. It's difficult to think that this poem is over 30 years old. The poem "truly could've been written yesterday... or 50 years ago," said Marshall. "How long do we have to keep screaming the same things to the world over and over until people stop pretending we're speaking another galaxy's language?" --- The solace of Anything That Moves, however, is that even though progress has been slow, fellow bisexual people can relate to the shared experience detailed in its pages.:https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/770848263124500480?source=share

THIS song (bi bi bi THIS IS OUR SONG!!) by Sub-Radio (the lead vocalist Adam Bradley is bisexual♥) :https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/765512527066087424?source=share &https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/765512891127480320?source=share + THIS BAND SINGING THE BLACK PARADE but make it ever more queer pride parade♥ :https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/765565710891155456?source=share &https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/765565917201612800?source=share (you’re scaring Ron you’re scaring Rooonn) + an awakening with HSM(?) :https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/765565797378719744/mndvx-subradioband-happy-pride-yal-anyone?source=share

(+IMPORTANT) (Nov,2023)-A Bit Fruity Podcast (created by Matt Bernstein (gay American Jewish man) Ep with Moe Dabbagh, a gay Palestinian American with family currently in Gaza. ‘Queers for Palestine & The Power of Pinkwashing’. Palestine has been occupied for more than 76 years now, since 1948 year. This ep gives you a LOT of information, especially if you are one of the people who can’t see right through the propaganda; or the ones who go ‘well if you’re gay then go to Gaza and see how that goes for you’. Queer Liberation is a liberation of Palestinian people. We can’t have one without the other. Free Palestine. Free all the people that are not yet free. This is where we start!! Ep on youtube :https://youtu.be/Xsgdk-DDSXc on spotify :https://open.spotify.com/episode/62WOjKJYih6lhuisP8tmZH?si=soRArGs1QeWqEzEaiSVlUg on iheartcom:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-a-bit-fruity-with-matt-ber-117844074/episode/queer-palestinians-the-power-of-129612460/(keep learning & keep showing up!)

!!.http://alqaws.org/siteEn/index & https://queersinpalestine.noblogs.org/ + https://www.instagram.com/queersinpalestine/

[amaliazeichnerin]

Over the MCU

I was over the MCU at the end of the Loki series. I liked parts of the series, not the ending. That was in November 2023 and since then, despite having been an MCU fan for several years, I haven't watched any of the new films or shows and I don't think I'll ever do. I learned a term for it, "Franchise Fatigue." I was wondering sometimes what exactly is it why I do not like the MCU anymore. In this video, I found some answers.

"I think I'm over the MCU" by Council of Geeks

Today, I have looked at the cast of "Avengers: Doomsday" which is set to be released next year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Doomsday#Cast

There are 26 (!) main role cast members and one antagonist, as far as I can see. And several more supporting roles, for instance Spiderman and Dr. Strange. I think they are doing themselves a huge disservice to have such a large ensemble, because how on Earth will all of the actors get a decent amount of screen time? Even if the film was 3 hours long or so, that would be hard to pull off.

[dysfunctional-doodle]

Just watched Mutant Mayhem, here are my thoughts!

Overall: Yes, very good I suggest everyone watch it when they can or I will break your knees :)

I’m going to end up rambling far too much unless I split this properly, so I’m going to break it down into sections starting from what I believe is most important in a movie.

This post is still going to be a mess ngl

Story: 8/10

The story is actually very good! It was paced very well and ended in a very touching way. No character interactions or plot beats felt forced or cliché, and no forced identity politics which is always a plus.

The action scenes - of course they were amazing. Paired with the stellar animation, each action scene was brilliantly directed and choreographed. The start shows the turtles’ origin story is similar to most of the iterations with its own unique factors - in this case the ooze was created by Baxter Stockman.

The conflict of the plot was well written, the final act was great and ends with a hopeful and satisfying ending (there is a mid credit scene that teases something big for the series though!).

If it’s any consolation, it’s also very friendly to new fans of TMNT - I went with someone who has not seen any TMNT media before and they really liked it and understood it easily.

Characters: 9/10

Needless to say, all the characters were very well done. Despite its run time and large cast, each one feels grounded with their own unique personality.

For starters: the four main boys! They were done brilliantly - Mikey being hopeful and optimistic whilst naturally being empathetic, Raph channeling chaotic good energy with his iconic rage personality not being over the top, Donnie being a geek in the best way possible, and Leo trying to be a good leader and anxious, always looking out for his brothers but not a complete teachers pet. All very likeable, and I can’t wait to see them in the series!

Splinter: probably the best since 2003! Openly caring of his sons and worries a great deal about how humans will perceive them. Has his own trauma from his experience with humans so he tries to protect his sons by isolating them completely, but eventually realises that his own view of humans should not affect his son’s happiness and lets them fulfil their dream of trying to be accepted by humans even if he will never like humanity himself. Peak character development, 10/10.

Villain/s: all of them felt fleshed out and I look forward to seeing them in the series! Posed their own genuine threats with varying levels of morals. Again, all were fleshed out quite well and played a role in the story.

April: honestly, she didn’t have too much in it compared to the others but does play a key role in the final act and the ending itself. An interesting iteration of April, curious to see more of her.

Animation: 10000000/10

It was brilliant. What else can I say? Though inspired by Spider-verse it is its own style which is amazing to look at. It thrives in action scenes and landscapes. Another groundbreaking style that I hope to see influence others.

Music: 8/10

It slaps. Almost all of them I will be playing for the next week or so. The soundtracks really set the mood beautifully, especially the sombre track. Paired with the animation - ugh - chefs kiss

Overall Rating: 8/10

I am usually very very harsh with films, so for me to rate anything above a seven is basically unheard of. Probably my favourite movie of 2023, and my favourite TMNT movie. 2003 only just beats it overall but that’s mostly because I’ve known it for longer - who knows, a few more rewatches and it might overtake.