#hank would have made a great sophie

[famouswolflamppaper]

Howl's moving castle with Hank as Sophie and Connor as Howl.

[faedawayyy]

ALL GENERATIONS OF CARMICHAELS aesthetics here. 

GRANDPARENTS.

hank carmichael (- grandfather of the family, grew up in a wealthy family in london & gained control of his family’s multimillion dollar film company by killing his older brother, who was supposed to take it over.    sylvia carmichael - the daughter of a widowed russian man. she moved to london at 16 to model and was cast in several films from hank’s studio before they met and married.  

PARENTS/AUNTS/UNCLES. 

edwin carmichael - (eldest son) a very successful real estate agent, he came out as gay when he was 14 and was bullied a lot but has refused to not be proud. theatre enthusiast and married jonah when he was 45 & adopted ruby from italy as a baby. 

james carmichael - (second eldest son) an ambitious visionary, a creative and worked with hank from the age of 15 on the film studio. it’s always been his passion but he also got greedy later in life and dabbled in a lot of crime which got out of hand.  jonathan carmichael - (youngest son - written by synn) so how I imagine Jonathan is that he is very strict with Theo, and has held him to the standard of “why can’t you be more like Anastasia and Leo?”  I always imagined he was a bit jealous James was head of the company, and really wanted to be it too. However, I feel like he’s doing what he can to keep a “my life is going exactly how I imagined it” façade, and won’t really voice his frustrations other than with Theo and his wife behind closed doors (important to note this doesn’t mean any form of physical abuse. Only verbal). I feel like he’s kinda excited that Theo is coming around to more acting because it’s closer to what he wanted for him, but he won’t admit to it ofc  hes a bit salty with Theo for not wanting to marry Margaret even though that’s what HE wanted, like with brody and Disney and Kendall and mason. elizabeth carmichael - (oldest daughter) she got married incredibly young to the man hank pushed her towards and it was toxic from the get-go. when she fell pregnant, he left her and she spent all of her twenties as a single parent raising marcus. she’s now the cool rich aunt. 

cynthia billings - (youngest child) also married the man she was pushed towards - an owner of a successful restaurant chain - and it worked out like a fairytale. they live in lilac heights. cynthia is a complete disney adult and proud, basically a big kid. 

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

patricia carmichael - (wife of james) she never wanted to marry james in the beginning but her dad, who was the governor of new hampshire at the time, knew hank and thought it was a brilliant idea. she’s artistic, passive, quiet, idealistic and the calm to james’ bold and abrupt nature. she grew to love him and lived most of her life in his shadow. 

jonah carmichael >> edwin’s husband  agatha carmichael >> jonathan’s husband laurence billings >> cynthia’s huband 

THE GRANDCHILDREN - age order/the characters in the same block are around the same age (oldest/middles/youngest) 

theodore carmichael (?) - (jonathan’s son, played by synn)  denver billings (29) - (oldest son of cynthia) - went through college and trained to be a doctor before deciding against it & travelling the world, a backpacker, owns a camper van, homosexaul, responsible. (sam claflin)  anastasia carmichael (28) - (oldest of james, played by zoë) - driven and intelligent, business-minded and has a great eye for fashion. never wants to disappoint her parent or grandparents but has recently divorced her husband, ryden banks. (elsa hosk) iris billings (27) - (second oldest of cynthia) - worked as a fashion journalist in los angeles for the longest time & was constantly made to feel less than because of her body and size. at 26, she threw in the towel and ditched city life for the east coast. she now lives in her grandparents hamptons holiday home and is starting a fresh. (nicola coughlan)  leonardo carmichael (27) - (second oldest of james, played by katie) - leo’s the oldest son of james and often put on a pedestal because of it. he was raised to be an all-rounder and has the typical mindset of a carmichael man. however, unlike his younger brother, he often fails to meet the extra expectations on his love life and avoids settling with the girl his parents want for him. (chad michael murray)  marcus carmichael (27) - (son of elizabeth) - elizabeth’s child. despite their money, he grew up seeing the heartache and crap his dad put her through and became hardened through that. he also did a lot of underhand and shady jobs for james, landing him in jai once or twice. (bill skarsgaard)  hayley billings (26) - (third oldest of cynthia) - hayley started living with a boyfriend none of her family approved of when she was 16. he was 42. she dropped out of school and worked at his bar in london, cutting of the rest of the family when they objected. her boyfriend - shocker - turned out to be a piece of shit and majorly abusive. 10 years later, she’s escaped him and has plucked up the courage to move back home and is reconnecting with the family. (victoria pendretti)  mason carmichael (26)  - (third oldest of james) - mason’s artistic and on the more introverted side of the family. even though he’s praised in his own way, he’s always felt like he needs to be more like brody and leo. his love life is definitely in the spotlight just as much as his projects. (austin butler)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- brody carmichael (25) - (fourth oldest of james) - the product of being raised on “masculinity”. in high school, he was a sports star, he’s always been a charmer and never learned how to lose. people would call him a mini-leo but it quickly became clear who the real favourite was when he made his relationship with disney official. despite the aggressive drinking problem, it’s been hard for any of his siblings to impress their parents quite as much. (zac efron)  marie billings (24) - (fourth oldest of cynthia) - her mothers daughter, a lover of fantasy, magic and romance and never wants to grow up. she works as a primary school teacher & adores it. yet, she struggles to actually date/branch out like most do. her expectations and daydreams of romance are more fulfilling than the real thing to her. (sophie turner/saorise ronan)  ruby rosini (23) - (edwin’s daughter, played by nadine)   miles carmichael (22) - (second youngest of james) - cynical, sarcastic and the self-proclaimed black sheep of the family. miles is massively introverted and the least enthusiastic about any family gathering. last year he found out he isn’t james’ biological son and has felt disconnected ever since. (hero finneas-tifin) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------betty billings (21) - (fifth oldest of cynthia) - betty simply hates the idea of having to work. she’s dramatic and extroverted and the family’s kim kardashian. she has star quality, for sure and a ton of charisma. she’s a shop-a-holic and people struggle to get her to do anything else. (olivia holt)  bella carmichael (19) - (youngest of james, played by nadine) - bella is the youngest child of james and has burnt out. after being thrown into ballet, sports, tutoring and every other class you can imagine from the age of 4, she’s done with teachers and being an over-achiever. bella hasn’t been herself since her dad’s “death” but is very good at hiding it to the point where everyone thinks she’s doing amazing. (anna bruevla/katherine newton/elle fanning)  hadley billings (18) (twin, youngest of cynthia) - hadley is the oldest of the billings twins by five minutes. he’s vegan and an animal lover and very interested in politics. he is an anti-carmichael man in the sense that he shows more than anger, saddness and horniness in his emotional range. very gentle and arguably the nicest cousin. (ross lynch)  freddy billings (18) (twin, youngest of cynthia) - freddy is the youngest and also the brightest of the bunch by far, to the point where an IQ test dubbed him a genius at just 7. he was put into all sorts of competitions and given all kinds of scholarships. but because teachers and adults love him so much, he’s also a little shit, the definition of a class clown. he doesn’t work hard to achieve, he just does and that’s what annoys people the most. (romeo beckham) 

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: The Unexpected Heist

>The Hub. After taking the heart of Sheriff Johnson and Oracle and Violet starting college, we finally have time to keep our promise to the Scorchers and Battle Force 5 to help them reopen the portal of Highway 35 and bring back the World Race.

>We were all gathered together waiting for Oracle’s fellow hackers to make contact.

Me and Sophia have made the necessary precautions just in case the Silencerz attempt to trace us if we are caught.

Good, Sage. We’ll need it.

I just hope the Silencerz don’t realize that the ones hacking them are the people they had to deal with in the past.

Don’t worry. Something tells me they never had to deal with a hacker like me before.

Really? What makes you any different?

Oracle: Ever heard of Medjed?

The hacktivist group? Yeah. Why do you ask?

Brace yourselves. I was the founder.

Scorchers and Battle Force 5: (in shock) WHAT!!!?

You’re Medjed? I can’t believe it. I actually followed their work. Though, I thought how Medjed was doing these days seemed a bit odd. Now I know why. Other hackers were impersonating you. But now, I’m meeting the real Medjed!

Oracle: I was the real Medjed. That was a long time ago. I’m Alibaba now. But Oracle is good, too.

RING! RING!

Oracle: Speaking of Alibaba...

Incoming call from three unknown callers.

Oracle: Patch them in.

>Three holographic screens pop open.

Oracle: Hey you guys, long time no see!

Hey, Alibaba! Still rockin’ the headphones! I like that!

Still loud as ever, Yu-ichi.

Somethings never change, huh, Six?

Six: Yeah, nice to see you again, too, Lunch.

So you’re Fu- I mean, Alibaba’s fellow hackers.

Lunch: Yeah, nice to meetcha. You can just call me Lunch.

Six: I’m called Six.

Yu-ichi: And I’m Yu-ichi.

Six: Which is not much of a hacker name since it’s your real first name.

Yu-ichi: But it’s clever. No one would ever suspect that my hacker name is my real name.

Oracle: Okay, guys, stay with me.

Yu-ichi: Sorry. Hey, are the others coming, too? Spooky? Hitomi? And... what’s-his-name? (Gee, it’s been a long time, so I forgot his name.)

Lunch: They’ve been through enough already. Best to leave them out of this. So, why did you bring us back together?

Oracle: Nothing much. Just hacking into a secret organization’s databanks.

Yu-ichi: (laughing a bit) That’s all? That’s like the easiest thing there is. Give us a bigger challenge.

Six: (a little anxious) Get serious. We don’t even know anything about this secret organization.

Oracle: I’ll tell you about it.

RING! RING!

Oracle: Soon. Right now, our next hackers are calling in.

>Another screen opens.

Are we fashionably late?

I think that’s suppose to be my line.

Oracle: Nope. You four are right one time.

Alright! Let’s get this party started!

Hold on, comrade. I get there feeling there are more guests coming.

Indeed there are.

RING! RING!

Queen: That should be him.

>Another screen appears.

Here I am. Did I miss anything?

Queen: No, Forge san, you made it right on time.

Hold on! You’re Forge of the X-Men. Peter told me about you.

For real? Harry, Makoto, and Captain America told me about him, too.

Joker: And Adi told me.

Mixer: (in awe) Holy- It’s really Forge! Dude, I’m one of your biggest fans.

Joule: Come sono io.

Forge: Thanks. It good to meet a fan and a colleague. Un piacere di conoscerti. Y tú también.

Makoto, how do you know Forge?

Queen: Do you remember that Inhuman student from the school festival? The one who said her friend is a mutant? I looked into those students. The mutant student was visited by Dr. Hank McCoy. Forge san just happened to have come with him.

Forge: We wanted to talk to her before she and her friends left for Attilan. We wanted to make sure that she’ll be ready to go up us or her parents worrying about her getting M-Pox if she’s exposed to the Terrigen Mist. We also wanted to let her know that she’ll always have place with the X-Men.

Joker: That’s good to hear.

I thought you left the X-Men so you could do your own thing.

Forge: I still help them from time to time. Mostly with mutants who’ve just come into their powers.

Queen: I know what you mean. I had to go through Scott Summers and almost the rest of the X-Men to contact you.

Forge: And I still can’t believe you decided to ask me and had to go through all that just to do it.

It was either you or the other Forge. The one who still maintains his youthful appearance from being stuck in another dimension for many years.

Forge: Yes, I know who you’re talking about. I’ve met my Fellow Forge many times. A little rambunctious, but he’s a good person. I even asked him with help on some projects. Including this one I’ve been working on.

>Forge hold some kind of metallic helmet along with his phone which had an app open with the lets “c” and “p”.

Forge: I call it Cerebro Portable. Me and my Fellow Forge created it to help telepaths find mutants within a hundred mile radius. Especially ones who just got into their powers. But it’s not finished yet.

Yu-ichi: Really? How so?

Forge: We tried to design it based on the original concept for the original Cerebro. There’s just one problem.

Sophie: And what’s that?

Forge: There are only two people I know who know more about Cerebro than any and that would be the original creators. Professor Charles Xavier, but he won’t awaken from his coma for eight more years. The other is... Erik Lehnsherr.

Magneto.

Forge: That’s right. And I’m not about to go all the way to Genosha just to ask him to help me create something that he, himself, could use to find mutant to recruit into the Brotherhood or his mutant army. So it may be a while. Hopefully Professor Xavier will be awake by then. But for now, I’ll just settle with getting help from my Fellow Forges.

RING! RING!

Forge: Speaking of which.

>Another screen opens.

Sorry for the wait. Just finishing up with Kurt and the others.

Forge san! It’s been too long.

Queen: Yes, it has.

Forge: I didn’t want to leave him out of it, so I invited him to help out, too.

Other Forge: I’m willing to do what I can.

Joule: I think we’re going to have some confusion here.

Six: Yeah, how do we address one of you?

Other Forge: Well, my Fellow Forge came here first, so I guess we can call him Forge 1. I’ll be fine with being called Forge 2.

Yeti: If that works, we’ll take it.

How did you two meet Forge 2?

Queen: (unsure) Well...

Noir: (smiling) I can tell you. It all started...

>Flashback.

>The streets of Shibuya in the summer before the pandemic. A fast car was driving up wildly. Queen and Noir were coming back from grocery shopping... and Noir was behind the wheel.

Haru, please be careful! These eggs are for a special meal Sis is making tonight.

It’ll be alright. I think I’ve had a lot of improvement.

>The car was zooming around while people try to back off. Suddenly, someone accidentally fell into the street.

LOOK OUT!!!

>The car was about to hit the young man on the street... But it didn’t. The car suddenly was floating in the air. Queen and Noir looked to see that the young man they nearly hit had some kind of device that was creating some kind of gravity field.

Wow! Good thing I came here to show my new anti-gravity generator for situations like this. Hope you girls have your reentry cushions checked.

>End of flashback.

Mona: (unsurprised) That makes sense.

Noir: We exchanged information and we’ve known each other since.

Forge 2: And your eggs were even safe.

Forge 1: And how did that anti-gravity generator work out?

Forge 2: They said they’ll thank about it.

Translation: You were rejected.

Forge 2: Yeah, I figured.

Noir: Why would they? It’s a great invention. It really helped us.

Forge 2: Good question. Either because their minds are too slow or small to handle how advanced my inventions are, or... Well, you know.

Vert: Because you’re a mutant. Now that’s just unfair.

Forge 2: Sounds like you know the feeling.

Vert: (a small smile) Let’s just say, I have secrets of my own.

>For a moment, a small light formed in Vert’s hand which quickly vanished just as I saw something move on his back behind his uniform... I wonder.

RING! RING!

Oracle: Sounds like another fellow hacker’s here.

>Another screen opens.

I’m here and ready for anything.

Joker: Glad you can join us, Player.

Wayne: Yeah, how are things back up there, eh? I haven’t been back in awhile.

Player: Well, things are still quiet because of the pandemic. Other than that, everything’s great.

Joker: And speaking of of how things are, how’s Red chan doing?

WARNING: Spoilers for Carmen Sandiego ahead.

Yeah, ever since V.I.L.E. went down in flames and Zack and Ivy joined A.C.M.E., she’s been pretty quite.

Player: She’s fine. She finally found her mom, but she hasn’t said anything else. But I’m sure we’ll learn more soon. For now, I’ll see what I can do. Thanks again for inviting me.

Oracle: We’re gonna need all the hackers we can get.

Yu-ichi: I know. Hackers are getting younger and younger these days.

Six: (whisper) And yet you ack like you’re getting younger and younger... Don’t change, man.

Player: (smiling) Hey, the Spookies. Nice to meet you. You’re actually one of the reasons I was inspired to become a hacker.

Lunch: Really. That’s good. Of course, our reason for hacking is probably much different than ours.

Player: Pretty much.

Wolf: (a bit surprised) Hold on! Spookies? I thought you three were familiar. I should have realized that when you said Spooky, real name Masahiro Sakura.

Queen: Now that you mentioned it, I think I remember my father talk about a case from another part of Japan. I didn’t think much of it at the time and completely forgot about it.

Yu-ichi: So you know about that? I wonder what he’s doing now. He disbanded our group after some stuff happened and he left to find himself.

Lunch: I’m sure we’ll see him again soon.

Six: Same here. I sort of miss him and the others.

RING! RING!

Sophie: We have another one.

>Another screen opens.

I just finished my start-of-term homework, now I’m all free.

Joker: So glad you could join us, Adi. I just hope the Future Avengers won’t be called away anytime soon.

Adi: No, things have been relatively slow lately, so I think we’re good. But just in case, Mr. Stark and Cap want us on stand by.

Skull: I’m sure it’s nothing you, Makoto, and the others can’t handle.

Adi: I’m sure, too.

Joker: Thanks for helping us, little-brother-may-become-son.

Adi: You’re welcome, big-brother-may-become-father.

>I can sense I made Adi happy inviting him here.

Rank Up!

Confidant: Codec

Arcana: 3

Ability: Technical Act Type 2

Delivers the same effect as Technical Act but to a much greater extent.

RING! RING!

>Another screen opens.

All set and ready to go!

*Chirp*

Oracle: Welcome to the party, Conor. You, too, Chim-Chim.

Mixer: Is that a robot monkey?

Conor: Yeah, I’m allergic to most furs, so I designed him.

Forge 2: Whoa! Robotic technology sure has changed since 1978.

Conor: What do you mean by that?

Forge 1: It’s a long story.

There are so many hackers here.

Joker: I know, it reminds me of that movie Oracle showed us.

Oracle: Yeah, Angelina san was a treasure in Hackers Jackers.

Yeah. So, is that everyone?

Forge 2: Not quite. I have a feeling... that we have a couple more to go.

RING! RING!

Mona: You bet.

>Another screen opens.

Have you guys been waiting long?

Oracle: Just a little.

Thanks for inviting us. We’ve hadn’t had much to do since what happened on Eternia. I guess now that most of the evil of the universe, particularly Lotor, has been defeated, business for the Voltron Force has been a bit slow.

Really? That’s a shame. I’m sure something will come up soon.

Pidge: Well, it’s not totally slow. We do get the occasional bully or mad conqueror. Though, it’s not really the same.

Forge 2: Don’t give up. You guys will see real action again someday.

Pidge: Thanks, Forge-Of-My-Dreams. But for now, the only real action we’ve seen is in our dreams. Like how I dream that I’m some kid with heel problem fighting monsters from Greek Mythology or a pirate kid with a very pirate family or some kid with magical slugs.

Joker: That’s all?

Pidge: Pretty much. But I haven’t been having more actiony dreams. There were two others, but they’re gone for some reason. Though, one of them I’m glad is gone. But the other one I really miss.

Forge 2: Yeah, I think I know. But, you still have me... and our last hacker.

Vert: (confused) Our last hacker?

Queen: Vince isn’t the last hacker we’re expecting?

Vince: No, but Pidge says he knows about him.

Then he knows that he’s just as smart as I am.

RING! RING!

That should be him now.

>Another screen opens.

Sherman: About time. We were afraid you weren’t coming at all.

Yeah, I kinda forgot until I took a siesta and these two reminded me. (he nods to Forge 2 and Pidge)

Pidge: You’re welcome.

Vert: (a bit suspicious) You seem familiar... You wouldn’t happen to know a teen alien who sounds like I used to when I was his age and is accompanied by a little alien robot that sound like you, would you?

Hi-Tech Young Man: (smiling) Maybe.

Spinner: Everyone, this is our cousin, Roberto Martinez. We call him Berto for short.

Berto: Hola, nice to meet you.

Six: Great, now we’ve got three headphones.

Hey, respect the headphones, man!

Mixer: Yeah, dude, don’t start dissin’ the phones.

Yu-ichi: Besides, you’re the one whose only mode of transportation is a skateboard... BTW, you still use for that?

Six: (blushing a bit) ... Maybe... Okay, so I’m still a long ways from getting that fancy sports car I’ve wanted. Business at our family’s store is rather slow these days. Even more since the pandemic hit. But I’m not giving up.

Berto: Hey, no shame in still skateboarding at your age. Look at me. I’m close to your age and I still do it.

Six: Easy for you to say, you look like you have a car. Most likely a high tech one at that.

Berto: Ture, I have a couple, but nothing beats a deck. Plus, it’s good for the environment.

Six: I guess that’s good to hear.

Wolf: So, is that everybody here, or are we expecting more?

Skull: Let me check. Yo, is anybody expectin’ anybody!?

Panther: Well, I did thought about asking Tecna for help, but I don’t want to get her or the Winx in trouble with the Silencerz, so she’s out. But I’ll call her if anything happens.

Skull: Then yup, that’s everyone!

Vert: Now that our team’s been assembled, let’s get on it. Now, I bet most of you are wondering why you’re here. Well, for that... I turn things over to my dad. Take it away, pops.

Thanks, Vert. You’re here because we might have a way to bring back one of the greatest inter-dimensional races ever. However, the secrets to that are locked away in the Silencerz’ mainframe. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (I’ve always wanted to say that), is to hack into their mainframe. In the mainframe, you must find a file containing the research data of the late Dr. Peter Tezla. But be warned, the Silencerz will try every hacker defense trick in the book: Firewalls, anti-virus software, encrypted passwords, security algorithms, even their own viruses and malware. If you do managed to get in and find the file, you have exactly 15 minutes to copy it before the failsafe kicks in.

Adi: Failsafe?

Jack: 15 minutes after the file’s been hacked, said file will delete itself permanently to prevent further hacking.

Forge 1: But if the Silencerz try everything to stop us, it’s going to be hard to get past all that. I think this is going to be much different than hacking into MRD tech.

Sophie: Luckily, that’s where I come in.

>The hackers on the screens (except for Adi, Player, Conor, and Chim-Chim) where confused until Sophie vanishes and reappears on the main screen.

Vince: (surprised) Holy!!!

Pidge: (smiling) I had a feeling that was no ordinary girl.

Yu-ichi: Amazing. An AI with it’s own ego... I wonder if I should tell my cousin Tokita about this.

Sophie: I am Sophia, humanity’s companion. I am going to help you all with whatever I can. That includes hacking into the Silencerz’ mainframe.

Mixer: You know, we have an AI of our own.

Sophie: You do?

??-??: A! I! S! H! A! We! Are! AISHA! ... Sorry, I couldn’t help it.

Sophie: So you must be M.A.Y.H.E.M.’s AI.

Call me In-Su.

Oracle: Didn’t I see you as part of an opening act for August Gaunt?

In-Su: With my sisters, yes. But that was a long time ago. I’m with M.A.Y.H.E.M. now. I mainly help Friday, Mixer, Gremlin, Joulie, and Safeword with cybernetic things, but I have done on-the-field missions... If the field is in Cyberspace.

Sophie: That’s good to hear. Nice to meet you. I guess we will be working together. I look forward to our mission together.

In-Su: I so will I, sachon*.

*”Sachon” is Korean for “cousin”.

Conor: Hey, if you’re gonna do something like this, me and Chim-Chim want to go into the virtual world.

Chim-Chim: *chirp chirp*

Lunch: You can do that?

>Conor shows he has some VR equipment.

Lunch: I guess that works.

>Conor connects the VR headset to his computer and Chim-Chim connects to it as well. Within moments, they were jacked in and something appears on the main screen with Sophie and In-Su.

Conor: Alright, all buffed up and ready for action! (begins singing) Here they come. Here comes Conor and his monkey, Chim-Chim.

>We all just stare... Which of us will be the first to ask?

Six: Oh, god. And why do they both of mustaches?

Vince: I’m guessing to match.

Yu-ichi: (smiling) I kinda like it. It’s actually quite clever.

Conor: (satisfied) Ha, I knew it! Take that, Lucy.

Pidge: Go with what works for you.

Jack: True. But remember what I said, the Silencerz will do whatever it takes to protect its secrets. I should know, I used to be the leader.

Vert: I wonder who took after you when you left.

Jack: (looking a bit down) Vert... I think you have pretty good idea.

Vert: I... I see. Well, we’ll still be able pull this off we work together.

We will. We can do this.

Vert: Thanks, Ren.

Jack: Again, I have to warn you, the Silencerz don’t play around. This is your last chance to back out. If you do, I won’t blame you.

>The other hackers were showing some doubt. No doubt they were thinking about what Jack said... However, their doubt quickly fades.

Player: Our friends wouldn’t have called us here if they didn’t we could handle the risk. We trust them.

Safeword: He’s right. They even helped M.A.Y.H.E.M. with a little something. Time to repay the favor.

Conor: Same with me, Chim-Chim, and our friends.

Vince: And us, too.

Lunch: I know this is the first time we’re meeting Alibaba’s friends, but we will help them.

Adi: Me and the other Future Avengers trust Ren, Yusuke, and the others.

Forge 1: We also just met, but we trust you.

Forge 2: Yeah.

Berto: (curious) Espeda, M.A.Y.H.E.M.? Racer Academy? And Arus? Aren’t those the places the Phantom Thieves... You know what? Never mind. I don’t wanna know.

Taro: (smiling a bit) Good. I don’t think you could keep your mouth shut.

Six: Look, what we’re trying to say is that we’re in. We’ll help you.

Jack: (with a look of gratitude) Thank you all.

Taro: Good luck, you guys. The fate of the World Race and Highway 35 is in your hands.

No pressure or anything.

Six: Believe me, we’ve seen through demons in a cybernetic world.

Safeword: Fight an evil organization everyday.

Player: What Safeword said.

Adi: Ditto, with a side of other villains.

Conor: I think we can handle it.

Vert: (smiling) Then let’s get to it!

Oracle: I’ve already got a lock on the mainframe. Ready when you are.

Conor: Ready as we’ll ever be.

>With that, Chim-Chim transforms into a motorcycle and Conor gets on.

In-Su: How are we suppose to keep up with that?

Oracle: Leave that to me.

>Oracle programs something into her laptop and something appears on the main screen.

What in the world!?

Oracle: I hope you don’t mind. I just thought we’d go with something more appropriate. This Johanna pretty much has all the things the original has for extra protection. Sophia, you’re driving. In-Su, I’m adding a side car for you.

>Oracle types something on her computer and a side car appears on Cyber Johanna. Sophie switches to her Phantom Thief attire.

Are you ready, In-Su chan?

In-Su: (now wearing a purple helmet with M.A.Y.H.E.M.’s fleur-de-lis which was blue on it) Ready.

Conor: Then let’s get going!

>With that, Sophie and In-Su get on Cyber Johanna and they, along with Conor and Chim-Chim, ride off.

>A little later, we were at the mainframe of the Silencerz. It was shaped like a giant tower with the Silencerz’ logo on it.

Sophie: This must be it.

Yu-ichi: You can already tell that they’re hiding something here.

Forge 2: And we’ll find out those secrets soon enough. Time to get to work.

Lunch: Let’s see what we’ve got here.

>Lunch begins hacking into the first line of protection.

>Meanwhile in the Silencerz’ Headquarters in an unknown location, an alarm goes off in the computer room.

We have a problem. Call #1.

>Almost immediately, another Silencer comes in.

What is it, #2? What happened?

Silencer #2: Someone is trying to hack into our mainframe.

Silencer #1: So what else is new? Have you got a lock on where the source of the hacking is from?

Silencer #37: (don’t ask, we’re using their numbers) Not yet. We are still trying to find it. But we have got a lock on the hacker’s virus.

Silencer #5: I do not know what to make of this.

Silencer #1: A virus based on a ghost? Then I suggest you try busting it.

>Some of the Silencerz began typing something.

>Back in Cyberspace, the Spookies’ virus was phasing open a way when something appears near them. They looked like four men in jumpsuits curing some kind of large device on their backs that had guns attached to them.

In-Su: (confused) Are those... the Ghostbusters?

Jack: I told you, every trick in the book.

>The Cyber Ghostbusters begin firing at the Sppokies’ virus ghosts.

Conor: Time to go to work, Chim-Chim!

Chim-Chim: *chirp*

>Conor and Chim-Chim begin fighting off the Cyber Ghostbusters. In-Su and Sophie join in as well. In-Su’s dance moves already makes her a capable fighter and Sophie was swinging her yo-yos. After a while, Sophie, In-Su, Conor, and Chim-Chim manages to beat the Cyber Ghostbusters, but they had completely destroyed the Spookies’ virus.

Safeword: Our turn now!

>Safeword, Joule, Mixer, and Yeti, begin typing.

>At Silencerz HQ...

Silencer #20: This does not look right. What do we do?

Silencer #12: Try typing “cookie”, you idiot.

Silencer #1: Hey, be nice. And I do not think that would work. I have seen this movie before. Try regular anti-virus software.

Silencer #20: Yes, sir.

>Back in Cyberspace, the first few defenses have been broken though. Suddenly, a bright light flashes and the virus is deleted.

Forge 1: (smiling) You ready for this?

Forge 2: (also smiling) You know it!

>Forge 1 and Forge 2 upload their viruses.

Forge 2: Scott, this is for you, man.

>The two viruses begin attack the Sliencerz’ other defenses. Vert was looking at Forge 2′s virus.

Joker: Is something wrong, Vert?

Vert: Something about Forge 2′s virus that reminds me of someone... But I’ll think more about it later.

>Back at Silencerz HQ...

Silencer #3: Now we have viruses based on mutants?

Silencer #2: Be nice. One of my relatives was a mutant.

Silencer #1: Either way, we cannot let them through.

Silencer #3: I know.

>Silencer #3 begins programming something.

>Back in Cyberspace, Forge 1′s virus and Forge 2′s virus managed to break through more lines of defenses.

In-Su: It looks like we’re making progress.

Conor: Keep it up, you guys!

>Suddenly, something appears... Something big.

Forge 1: That can’t be good.

Sophie: I can help them with this. Time to show you my own power. Persona!

Pidge: (surprised smile) Whoa! I didn’t think she had one, too.

Vince: But there are robots who do.

Six: I think I read something about that... And dreamed about it.

Berto: Like I said, I don’t wanna know.

>Sophie and Pandora fight the Anti-Virus Sentinels along with the Forges’ viruses.

Player: With them busy, looks like I’m going up to the plate.

>With that, Player begins typing something and a new virus comes up. It looked like Carmen Sandiego, but a little blue.

Player: I hope Red doesn’t get too upset for changing her colors.

>Player’s virus begins using an enlarged version of her laser cuter to cut through the defenses.

>Back at Silencerz HQ.

Silencer #7: They are still coming!

Silencer #1: This is getting out of hand. Have you found the source of the attack yet?

Silencer #37: It is hard to tell. They are coming from multiple sources.

Silencer #1: See if you can find the closest source. We will start there.

Silencer #37: Yes, sir.

Silencer #40: I will deal with the current virus.

>Back in Cyberspace, Player’s virus has cut through more of the mainframe’s defenses and the Anti-Virus Sentinels have been deleted.

Oracle: There’s only a few left. Keep going, we’re almost there!

Adi: I think I have something that’ll move us faster.

>Then, a virus that looks like a queen bee appears with a swarm.

Adi: I got the idea from some children’s show. I’ll tell you more about it later.

>The bee viruses begin helping Player’s virus cut get through more of the defenses along with the Forges’ viruses. Suddenly, something flies up.

Adi: These guys don’t quit, do they?

>The virus swarm fights off against the security algorithms with Sophie, Pandora, and the Forges’ viruses while Conor and Chim-Chim break through the last of the walls.

Conor: Just a little more...

>Finally, the last of the security walls were gone. But no sooner they were, a blast of flames came and nearly blew Conor and Chim-Chim away!

Conor: GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

In-Su: You mean great walls of fire. It’s a firewall. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.

Pidge: Hold on, I have something that could help you.

>Suddenly, some big gun that resembles a lion appears in In-Su’s hands.

Vince: This wind blaster will help blow out the flames. But don’t use it now. Wait until you’re on the other side of the wall to use it, or you might blow the flames at the files and destroy them.

In-Su: Right. Here I go.

>With that, In-Su dances her way through the flames until she finally got to the other side.

In-Su: Stand back!

>Then, with a large blast of wind, the firewall was out. Conor and Chim-Chim go in.

In-Su: Okay, we’re in.

Jack: Well done, kids! Now, the file you’re looking for is labeled “200335″.

Oracle: We’re searching now.

>Outside the mainframe, the security algorithms were still coming.

Sophie: This looks bad, we’re running out of room. If only we had at least one more to help us.

Berto: Leave that to me! I’ve got the perfect thing!

>Berto then uploads his own virus.

>Berto’s virus assists Sophie, Pandora, and the Forges’ viruses as In-Su, Conor, Chim-Chim, and the other hackers search for the file.

>At Silcencerz HQ.

Silencer #20: Damn! They are in the mainframe.

Silencer #1: You still have not found them?

Silencer #3: We might be able trace them if they find they file they are looking for.

Silencer #1: Then do it.

>With that, the Silencerz begin their work.

>Back in Cyberspace, the Silcencerz’ security algorithms were finally defeated.

Sophie: We did it! Thank you all.

>The viruses gestured a “You’re welcome” to Sophie and disappear back to where they came from.

Vince: That virus of your, Forge 2, it makes me wonder.

Forge 2: Wonder what?

Vince: If... If I should have asked my dream brother from New Olympia to help us, too... Oh well, I’ll ask him next time.

Vince: You’ll have to get through his Big Buddy, Hunk’s dream brother. And I don’t think my own DB would be too happy. Especially after everything that’s happened in recent months. But I’m sure I can talk him into it.

Panther: Dream brother?

Queen: You mean...

My gift of connecting people’s minds and hearts with my singing strikes again.

Conor: Hey, I think we found it!

>Conor, Chim-Chim, In-Su, and Sophie who joined them, found a file that looked like a file cabinet. One of the drawers was labeled 200335.

Jack: That’s it!

Sophie: We found the file. Let’s copy it.

>Sophie opens the drawer show many files. No sooner did she open it, it starts flashing and making a siren sound.

Spinner: (covering his ears) Yikes, that loud!

Jack: That’s the alarm for the failsafe. You now have 15 minutes to copy the file before it deletes itself permanently.

Oracle: Leave it to me. I’ll just use the same program I created to copy Makoto’s Sis’s computer.

Queen: Let’s hope it works on the Silencerz’ mainframe than it does Sis’s.

>Oracle enters the program and it begins to copy the file.

>At Silencerz HQ, the computer room was now flashing and alarms were ringing.

Silencer #3: They are copying the file! Now, if I could just... Got it! I got a lock. The source of the copying is coming from... some town nearby.

Silencer #1: You mean... Handler’s Corners.

>Silencer #1 begins to leave.

Silencer #9: Sir, where are you going?

Silencer #1: (turning back) To visit an old amigo.

>With that, Silencer #1 leaves. Suddenly, the alarm gets louder.

Silencer #20: What is happening!?

Silencer #3: This looks bad. Someone else is in the mainframe. They are also copying the file.

>Back in Cyberspace.

Oracle: This doesn’t look good. There’s someone else here. Someone’s also copying this file.

>Sure enough, something comes out of the file cabinet. It was a little blue bad... wearing a pair of glasses and had the most ugliest comb-over ever.

It’s Strega! What the hell do they want?

Vert: Who?

Taro: Some cult.

Oracle: If they’re also copying the file, then us copying it will be difficult.

Lunch: So, we may not be able copy the whole file?

Yu-ichi: Well that sucks.

Player: I’m sure I think I might help with that. I mean, I can’t stop Strega from also copying the file, but I think I have an idea what may happen and how to solve the problem.

Oracle: I hope so.

Jack: Hurry, only 9 minutes left.

>Oracle’s program tries its best to copy the file which is difficult as the program from Strega (most likely made by Jin) is also copying the file.

Jack: Only 6 minutes.

Oracle: We’re almost done.

>Before we knew it, only 4 minutes left. Please copy it.

>3 minutes. Not much time left and the copying is still going.

>2 minutes. There’s still more.

>1 minute. Almost there.

>59 seconds... Come on. Come on! COME ON!

>10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

FILE DELETED. CONNECTION TERMINATED.

>The main screen goes to static. Then, Sophie is re-projected back with us, In-Su returns to M.A.Y.H.E.M.’s computer, and Conor and Chim-Chim are back in their real world forms.

Panther: Conor, Chim-Chim, are you two alright?

Conor: (a little dizzy) We’re fine. We’re used to this sort of thing.

In-Su: I’m fine, too. My source code is a little frizzy, but that can be helped with a quick fix.

Joule: You’ve earned it, In-Su. Enjoy your nap.

>With that, In-Su shots off for now.

Vert: So, did we succeed in copying the file?

Oracle: Let me check.

>Oracle checks the copied file.

Well, I’ve got some bad news, good news, and some stressful news.

Agura: I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be easy.

Oracle: Bad news: We weren’t able to copy all of the research data. Good news: We did manage to copy most of it. Stressful news: Most of it is encrypted. Until we can decipher the code, you guys are going to have to wait a little longer.

Taro: I figured as much.

Berto: But with all of us, we should be able to crack the code.

Mixer: Afraid you’ll have to count us out. We didn’t tell Persephone that we did this and she’s got a strict policy about messing with organizations other than L.E.G.I.O.N. without her permission.

Yeti: (looking down) ...

Mixer: (panicking) YETI, YOU TOLD HER!? SHE’S GONNA PUT ME ON COFFEE DUTY AGAIN!

Safeword: I see. If that’s the case... I’ll take a double shot expresso.

Joulie: I’ll take a mocha.

Mixer: (shocked) Seriously?

>With that, we bid our M.A.Y.H.E.M. friend fair well for now and they leave.

Conor: Chim-Chim and I have to bow out, too. Speed will be back any minute and I don’t want him to know what we did. I wanna keep it a surprise.

Pidge: Me and Vince have to go, too. I have a few castle defenses to upgrade.

Vince: And I’m on standby. I know business is slow, but Keith says peace time is the best time to prepare for anything.

Joker: Right, see you all later.

>With that, Conor, Chim-Chim, Pidge, and Vince sign off.

Adi: The rest of us will stay and help you decipher the code.

Player: With Red on break, I’ve got time.

Oracle: Thanks, you guys.

Berto: Guess I better let Max, Steel, and Ferrus know I’m gonna be busy for awhile.

Sherman: We’ll back you up.

Berto: Gracias.

Spinner: That’s what primos are for.

>With that, Oracle and our hacker friends begin their work to unlock Dr. Tezla’s research to reopen the portal to Highway 35 and bring back the World Race.

Oracle: But I am curious about one thing: What does Strega want with Tezla’s research?

>Meanwhile in an unknown location...

Crap! Of course the Phantom Thieves would be after this file.

Yeah. Talk about rotten luck.

Uh-huh.

Maybe you should have some kind of alert for them.

Jin: I’ll think about that. Right now, thanks to their hacking into the Silencerz’ mainframe for that file, I only copied most of it, but not all of it. Not to mention it’s encrypted.

I wouldn’t say that. I’d say that you copied plenty. And I’m sure with our new allies’ help, we might be able to unlock all of Dr. Tezla’s secrets.

Jin: Why are we even doing this, anyway? Since when are we interested in a long forgotten and completely no longer popular race?

Takaya: You would be surprised by what one can learn from things like this. After all, there are many ways to achieve your goals. Am I correct?

>Someone comes out of the shadows... in a dance-like manner.

That’s right, ghosty boy. I bet even M.A.Y.H.E.M. couldn’t think of something like this.

Jin: (a bit confused) Even though they were just in the mainframe as well.

Gaunt: A minor mishap. Something we’ll fix soon.

Myles: With a voice like that, it’s hard to say he’s wrong.

Evan: Uh-huh.

Gaunt: (with a small bow) Thank you.

Jin: So, can L.E.G.I.O.N. help with deciphering the code?

Gaunt: Maybe. Even we can’t work miracles that quickly. Just look at me. At first, I was only partially restored. I didn’t even have my-

Jin: (quickly with a frown) Okay, okay, we get the picture!

Takaya: Soon, we’ll gain what we’re after... Soon...

>What will happen next?

NOTE: We apologize if this post is a little long. We thought this would be the end of this heist, but like we said, this post was a little long. The last post for this heist will come soon.

[thanatophobia-thoughts]

At the time of my writing this, we have lost DMX, Prince Phillip, Helen McCrory, Joseph Siravo, Barbara Shelley, Paul Ritter, Richard Gililand, Jessical Walter, George Segal, Reggie Warren, Jahmil French, Christopher Plummer, Dustin Diamond, Sophie Xeon, Cicely Tyson, Cloris Leachman, Hal Holbrook, Larry King, Song Yoo Jung, Hank Aaron, Mira Furlan, Randy Parton, Baby CEO, Harry Brant, Phil Spector, Joanne Rogers, Sylvain Sylvain, Siegfried Fischbacher, John Reilly, Michael Apted, Marion Ramsey, Deezer D, Tanya Roberts, Gregory Sierra, and Kerry Vincent – among numerous others, known and unknown around the world.

I knew none of them personally. The vast majority, I do not know their works, but there were a few who’s passing hit me. Regardless of how we know them, if we cared about their work, we become aware of their deaths, often through social media, TV, radio, or other medias – maybe through friends directly.

Like any other death, it’s usually unexpected. It can trigger our fears.

Unlike any other death, it’s hard to block out.

I don’t mean to compare this to something like the death of a parent, a child, or a loved one. I have not experienced that, but I can imagine the way the absence would come to fill each day to overflowing just by how close I am to my own mother. Losing someone you communicate and see almost daily, is a different sort of thing.

What I mean by this, is that the celebrity death permeates everything in a different way. It may play on televisions, be all over social media, it comes up in looking at the works of the deceased, and leaves a mark there.

Perhaps the most notable one for me was Carrie Fisher.

I watch a lot of Star Wars and am invested in the fandom, so of course, it felt like her death was everywhere. It was inescapable. There were tributes to her, she was in all my favorite films, and perhaps I made it worse by starting to read her book Postcards from the Edge as I found out about it through her death. Then followed her mother, and it made me think of my own ties to my mother.

It’s still something that pops up, though of course, it isn’t so severe now.

Chadwick Boseman was another, partially because what he died of, was something I was getting tested for, but also because I was just finding out about him beyond Black Panther, and enjoying him as an actor. Then, he was gone, by something I feared I might be facing myself – thankfully, I wasn’t, but he was still gone, a reminder that even those with access and money can’t escape death. Mortality set in further.

Why do I bring this up?

It’s something those of us with a great fear of death have to deal with, and it’s something that comes up often, likely more than the actual losses we’ll face in our lives, are the impersonal deaths of people we don’t know, and the deaths of people we’ve admired from afar?

We can block this out somewhat, by staying off or limiting our media exposures, but all that does is make sure we don’t know when things happen. It may be better to limit exposure after these things have happened, to let us come to terms with it privately and in a manner that helps us, but I can’t advocate for just turning away from all of these things, to rarely find out about the world we’re in and what goes on.

I don’t feel that these deaths in any way prepare us for death, either of ourselves, or our loved ones.

I do feel that they help us to accept the reality of death – one of those “if his person can die, then so can I” sort of situations. I think that reality check is useful, although it can get overwhelming. I’ve heard from some people in the UK that the death of Prince Philip is everywhere, and so there’s almost no way to get away from it – it that can keep the anxiety high, and the fear present for a long, long time. Longer than it should be around for – longer than a few minutes, but into hours, and days.

I know that I’ve often found solace in escaping to book stores or libraries in these times. Usually, I’ll end up finding a book or something associated with the person who passed, if they were dear. A Funko Figure, a novel, a biography, a movie…something. But those places are quiet, and even if they are showing media related to the deceased more prominently, it usually isn’t loud, and you can usually quickly put it out of sight.

There is also the alternative – to get lost in the movement, if you can. To take in the tributes, to go to a tribute, or to even make a tribute, to the deceased. That may be a bit harder at first, since acknowledging the death, even if someone far from your social circle, can be a triggering and cause issues.

However, it is a way to approach death that may not hurt as much as in the case of someone you love, and it may not be as triggering as those situations. It may also be just as hard, we all have different relationships with creators and celebrities, different hopes, and the fact that someone with access to so much more than the rest of us dies, is triggering for a whole different set of reasons than the death of a loved one.

Dealing with these deaths can be hard, but it can also be a useful way to examine how death hits you, why it hits you, and through your connection with them, it may help you determine more of what you’d like to do before you, yourself, pass on. It’s a death that is real, but it is a death that is at a distance for most of us, and so it is one that we can examine in a state of mind that is less emotional.

Yes, DMX is never going to make anymore music.

Carrie Fisher will never fix anymore scripts.

Through their lives, and their deaths, we can still see what it was about them that caused it to impact our lives, and use that for progress. I think Carrie Fisher, at least, would be okay with that.

Space Mom always wants us to be okay.

[fortheheavenssake]

MM Anon 6

Jan 1, 2020

MM ANON ……… “ I don’t want to go back!!!”…… “ get him a title”………… “ a monthly periodical” ……… “mental health and well-being” ……… A brief synopsis LG……… “ I’ve prepared a small dossier ma’am”…… “One has no choice”……… “I’ll contemplate it”………… “ Somewhere warm Catherine”……… keep a low profile ………… he’ll do what he’s told!!!! ………… perhaps a state visit??………… “springtime with Boris in harmony” ……… “Mmmmmm, god help us”

————-

Jan 2

MM ANON ……… Drip, drip drip……… Drop ,drop drop……… back to school soon 🏫 ……… a successful 🌍 ……… Sophie steps up…… a stable stable ………a tad overconfident ……… “ sooner she falls off the better!!” ……… “ Mmmmm, quite the young man!!”…… “resuming play” ……… it’s the open!! ……… “a bit of an obsession!!” …………”it’s another course Catherine” ……… “be careful!!”…… “ we’ll have to send an envoy ma’am”. ……… “yes, it’s a disaster “.

—————

Jan 3

MM ANON …… “They will return… eventually!!”…… “mummy, it’s school Monday!!”……… cry-sis, 😭😭what cry-sis…… “from our house to Bauhaus”……” there together sir”………… “ one needs the quiet time “……… take the pulse of the populace ……… “ overwhelming support ma’am” ……… “football George,football!!”…… “O god!! He’s on another planet”………… “ A quiet few weeks would be welcomed” ……… I received the memo. ………” poison chalice old boy, poison chalice”

—————-

Jan 3

MM ANON, The Suck-sexses are said to be contemplating a return to the UK, I don’t think so, they have made it quite clear that they have nothing but contempt for the BRF and its citizens. They probably will visit LA and try to get some free PR via OW. Nutmeg will begin to blab more word salad about her “Snoozpaper” and how she’s living this perfect life with archificial and himself. WHO PAID FOR HER SIX WEEK VACATION???? THE BRITISH TAXPAYERS

————-

Jan 3

MM ANON , Mmmmm ,RA has a point, no recipes from Harry except (photoshopped images) ? My own gut instinct is that all the misinformation has muddied the waters of confusion. As you say this site is for “ entertainment purposes” and your unique in that respect. No body posts the amount of information that crosses your blog from anonymous sources to real time situations, even the national press visit “Skippy” to fuel its veracity for copy. As they say “A diabolo,qui semia dei”

A diabolo, qui est simia dei. Where god has a church the devil will have his chapel.

Thank you MM Anon😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

—————-

Jan 4

MM ANON ……… a list of all her discrepancies!! ……… sex, lies and video tapes, my god!!……… metoo Monday …… “actually darling it’s now the safest local”…… “I’d love to play in a tournament” …… “ great backhand!! “ ……… Duty calls…… first things first!! ……… “an environmental tour??” ……” eventually,with the children” ……… no chance to cry racism ……… no protocol left ……… maybe frog cott?? ……… we start building in the spring ………” it won’t last long”.

—————

Jan 5

MM ANON, ……… 🎼I’m ready, ready ready ready,I’m ready🎼…… “No your not”………… vinegar and brown paper ……… activate the broken record ……… same old, same old ………” from my window I can see Frogmore House” ……… A short reflection on residency ……… home delivery …… another Sunday service , beautiful!! ……… she’s got this one in the bag. ………”The children aren’t participating!!”……A REASON, A SEASON A LIFETIME. ………

——————-

Jan 6

MM ANON … RICKY , RICKY ,RICKY!! …… respect!! …… A HANK-kerchief full of platitudes …… 🎼a speech full of sugar helps the Meganson go down🎼……… 🎼Oh happy days 🎼………… “SHE CAME, SHE SAW, SHE CONNED-CURD…… …”………… “ this must end soon !! very soon”…… We have the technology ……… “Ahhh , The elusive tape”……… Timing is everything!! ……… DM loading it’s guns……… print and be dammed!!

—————-

Jan 6

MM ANON, Ok , a sycophantic visit to Canada 🇨🇦 House tomorrow in a packed London, they’ll be met by the Ambassador and no doubt Harry will be the customary three steps behind his 43 year old companion who will smile on queue and fake waves to nobody watching. After the same old same old they’ll disappear into the same car and return to the elusive residence somewhere in England. Don’t expect a rush towards the crowd.

—————

Jan 7

MM ANON, ……… she’s the (arm) pits……… go home Yank…… he’s a stone lighter ……… get off my f#@£%land ……… “ come to my birthday, never!!” ……… A state of emergency …… who dares bins ………… 🎼return to lender🎼……… “ it’s a struggle old thing”……… “ stop swearing at the tourists”…………… “ bloody tourists” …… Sydney!!……… “ I’m looking forward to next series” ……… “new stamps??”

—————

Jan 8

MM ANON ……… 🎼”And she must face the final curtain 🎼 The problem with NOT WEARING your wedding ring opens all conversation towards conjecture ………… 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 the firm always wins. Numerous whores and courtesans have tried to put a dent in the Monarchy over the past 2000 years most were decapitated. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

—————-

Jan 10

MM ANON. .…… GSTQAOBC …… don’t rock the bloat. …… pain-t stripper …… past, present and future ……… hide-a-Weymouth ……… W&K rule……… make a list ……… common- wealth……… nutmegs strange grandiosity ……… feed the handbitten …… king baby ………… love in a cold climate ……… NO MORE MONEY ……… a fall from race ……… Harry has left the building

—————

Jan 10

MM ANON, BP has just denied that M&H were frozen out. And where did she accumulate £500 million. Something really really stinks. All her life she’s grifted and whored. TPTB should take her down before the BRF are involved in her elaborate deception. DM poll on side of RF and PH, want MM to leave Britain and never return.

—————

Jan 11

MM ANON ……… blowing up a GAIL……… “ it’s like de-programming sir” ……” better have them inside the tent pissing out……… “it’s her pattern of behaviour” ………… back in the day ……… W&K step up……… William refuses to play ball……… that’s weak Charles …………” it’s all about money with her”……… “ all I’m saying is,you’re powerful family “ ………” another snifter LG”……… “ hold the calls Sydney”. 

————-

Jan 12

MM ANON ……… 🎼I don’t like Mondays🎼………” turn her bloody ugly face orf”. …… “ your call William!!” ……… bad advice ……… A military absence ……… “ yes,Pontcius Pilate” ……… Charles, The weakest link ……… “ your over generous ma’am”. ……… “ let them go, f**** em” ……… The taxpayers won’t like it ……… Canada caves……… RCMP……… BO offers a net- flick……… 🎼money,money,money 🎼…………… royal dis-appointments. ………… a tabloid tornado looms.

—————

Jan 13

MM ANON …………… take it or , take it!!……… no negotiation ………… Harry walks out ……… threats and lies ……… no comment…… tabloid carnage ……… more talk,talk. ……… commonwealth ambassador??? ……… no loss of financial support ……… MM gives up title ……… Harry keeps HRH. ……… archificial tells all……… W&K hold a huge party 🥳 🧣🤣🥳🥳🥳👀……… PP gives Sydney a knighthood ……… PP& Sydney get drunk. …………George bakes a cake. ……… Lottie has another sleepover. ……… Nanny gets a surprise

—————

jan 14

MM ANON ……… para-sight……… “ O ma’am, cunning very cunning”………… “ William is made of sterner metal”……… ( behind every great man) ……… spring offensive, the children!! …………” Lotties the key”……… the holy trinity ……… “freeze them out”………… “it’s all a smokescreen sir”…… “ yes, full steam ahead, ask Camilla “ ………… �� circle the wagons LG” …………” Burn that f**** olive branch, once bitten”………” a Canadian tour , with the children, OMG! Touché!!……… inde redire eruditionis Habes

--------------

Jan 14

MM ANON … She new well in advance of Markle V Markle, that’s why she ran , doesn’t want the dirty laundry washed in view of a few hundred yards of BP. HARRY, You married trash. Trash whose father is going to testify against her. Goodness sake Harry, didn’t you see this , or weren’t You briefed by the intelligence service about her family and sordid history.

————-

Jan 15

MM ANON …………… OUR BEAUTIFUL DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE …………… ONE DAY OUR GLORIOUS QUEEN ……………WELL DONE KATE , YOU ASTOUNDED THE CRITICS ……… ONLY ONE CLASSY DUCHESS. 👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑

—————

Jan 15

MM ANON, MARKLE V MARKLE, won’t get to court, she will not Dare. She won’t bring the firm into disrepute. Unless she really wishes to harm the royal family and that’s a possibility. Will she permit her resentment for her father to drag her dirty washing through the royal courts of justice in the Stand. Is she that psychotic. Yes , I think she is, will Harry approve, I don’t think so.

—————-

Jan 16

MM ANON,……… sea-plane PR. ……… where’s Harry?………… “ leaves 15million mansion visits poor shelter 🤣🤣🤣………… so broke,(woke)……… Paternal hurricane ……… Royal courts of Justice ……… “ write me a roll”………… “what Megan wants, Megan forgets”:……… Calipornia politics? ………… “she can be the new AOC” ……… she’ll campaign for Dems……… “OW ,tell all coming”. ……… negotiations,negotiations!!! …… W&K kill it !!!

——————

Jan 16

MM ANON,……… laugh and carry on……… isolation desperation ……… W&K leapfrog ……… not jaw jaw …… pseudo Trudeau ……… re-distribution …………” just scrapping by ,sausage” ……… LA NA. ……… gizza job……… ahhhhh’ the ubiquitous tape……… brotherly shove ………… “ the tour will proceed” ………… Diamond Dogs……… 🦂🦂🦂………… twice shy

————-

[astargatelover]

Watching The da Vinci Code for the first time - A documentation

-  About to watch The da Vinci Code for the first time. It’s about 3AM. Back of the DVD says the movie’s almost 2h30 long. Will approximately be going to bed at about 6AM. I gotta be crazy.

- Back of the DVD also says (translated from German): In the middle of the night the (…) is (…) Langdon (TOM HANKS) in the (…) director was murdered. His (?) (…) that of the Vitruvian Man (…) is the first horrible clue (…) and symbols. At the risk of his life (something something) Langdon – and from then on it’s a normal description, it’s just that that part is obscured by the library stamp. So I can confidently say I totally know what’s going on in this movie! *serious nod*

- Third highlight of the back of the DVD: Ian McKellen, grumpy-looking monk dude and a guy looking like Palpatine. And the Louvre.

- Also in the movie: Some German I don’t know (but yay!) and Paul Bettany. He’s cool; I really liked him in A Knight’s Tale.

- Let’s get this show on the road!

- …gotta update my media player. One sec!

- There we go. …where’s the always-on-top button? Ah, found it! Light’s off in my room; cinema time.

- Music’s already nice in the menu.

- Audio: English. (More nice music.) Subtitles: (Hey, they have Turkish on offer!) Off.

- (They even have subtitles for the trailers. But no extras. Am miffed. What kind of bare-bones DVD is this?!)

- 20 minutes after the first “about” up there: Play movie.

- Fancy title cards.

- Dude running. He’s gonna die; I know that much.

- Paul!

- *sigh*

- Oooooh, it’s Robert. That’s a lot of applause.

- (Btw, in case you didn’t know: I have watched Angels & Demons because I love Ernesto Olivetti a crazy amount.)

- I like Robert. Awesome presentation.

- Also like Tom Hanks. He’s great.

- Accents, y’all.

- Latin? Latin. Italian? No, definitely Latin.

- Ouch. Self-flagellation. Ooooooouch. Some religious people are crazy.

- Dude, you can barely stand. I’m a sadist and I don’t want you doing that to you.

- We’re only 10 minutes in, my goodness.

- Claustrophobia! I relate to that.

- Just let the dude take the stairs.

- Wow.

- Priests.

- Have I mentioned I’m not a big fan of catholics? Nothing personal.

- Also: Autistic Langdon, symbology special interest.

- French.

- Sophie! Heard of her.

- Strange happenings.

- Oooooooooh.

- French lady. I don’t speak French.

- *window jump scare*

- We don’t trust the police guy.

- Conspiracies!

- Fuck.

- “Once he starts, he doesn’t stop.” He’s like Javert.

- Climb out the window?

- More French.

- Oooooooh! They’re so tricking them, aren’t they? They’re not dumb.

- Bye bye!

- I’m sorry for Sophie.

- (I saw that part where her grandfather got shot years ago.)

- Here we go with the anagrams.

- Eidetic memory (pretty much) - firms up my autism headcanon.

- Can you even get that close to the Mona Lisa irl?

- Tom Hanks has a really nice nose. xD

- Langdon’s so good with anagrams.

- It’s like a scavenger hunt.

- Ooh, Musketeer symbol.

- Chase music!

- Flashback with crazy meetings.

- A smart! I get to bop someone now.

- Ooh, Les Mis.

- Backwards! That’s impressive.

- She’s so gonna make it.

- She made it!

- Bye bye, mirror.

- Paul’s looking angry.

- Someone got stabbed. I sense guilt.

- More dead people.

- Holy water.

- A nun.

- A rose line.

- Is he gonna kill her? She seems nervous.

- MORE FRENCH.

- Red light zone.

- (It’s raining outside. Kinda sets the mood.)

- You stay away from that dude, nun.

- Saving a junkie?

- (Sophie’s a really nice name, btw.)

- He rambles when he gets the chance so much. Really reminds me of special interests. (And in case anyone takes issue with that, I should know. I’m autistic. I have them.)

- My parents just watched Knightfall. Now I know some about the templars’ fall.

- Sophie didn’t know they were supposed to protect the Holy Grail? Really? Huh.

- Moooooore French.

- Please don’t die, nun.

- That’s some scar under his eye.

- Those look like some anger issues.

- It’s the grumpy-looking monk dude.

- Seriously, I understand more Latin than French.

-  “Blood is being spilled” as he’s spilling wine, that’s great.

- Freeeeeeeeeench.

- “I don’t think he liked me very much. He once made a joke at my expense.” I relate to this guy so hard on the autism level.

- It’s the German dude.

- That’s some system they’ve got at that bank.

- You call that a rose?

- I’m with Langdon here. Safe passage?

- Aww, poor guy. I’ve got claustrophobia, too, and I haven’t even got a traumatizing event behind me. (I read that somewhere.)

- I like the driver.

- A lot. Nice one with the watch.

- Langdon, you look sick. Please don’t die, y’all.

- JESUS CHRIST.

- Poor Sophie. </3 Woah.

- How tf did that truck get there?

- That bullet. Smaaart move. *thumbs up*

- Ouch.

- Bye bye again.

- Do I like the police captain? I don’t know.

- The tea convo. xD

- Is Langdon like this in the books? I hope he is.

- How old is Sophie? *googles Audrey Tatou* (Ooh, Amélie!) *checks when movie was made* ‘bout 30.

- Yaaaaaas, Ian.

- Also please don’t die.

- (Both my faves in Angels & Demons die. I’m vorbelastet and can’t find a good English word for that.)

- Jesus was cool.

- Those helmets. Feathers!

- “Not even his nephew twice removed.” xDDD

- Is that paisley? *googles* It is. Nice!

- Just in case you’re wondering, I am typing this as I watch the movie. I’m not saying I’m not missing anything, but I like multitasking.

- *googles The last Supper* Wow, no cup.

- Genital symbols.

- Wombs open towards the ground, though. People with them aren’t constantly doing handstands.

- Have I mentioned one of my favorite movies is Dogma, which postulates that Jesus had siblings? I’m liking this conversation.

- “Companion meant spouse.” My gay ass likes this.

- If that is Mary Magdalene, though, which apostle is missing? Been wondering this for years.

- Scions. I like this.

- I’m all for sex positivity.

- Your time’s kinda running out, guys.

- Almost halfway through, now.

- Do you seriously believe they’re murderers?

- Why do you wear your police thingies like a blind man’s band?

- Was overall expecting a bit more running in this movie, I guess.

- Poor Sophie. This is a lot to take in.

- Beating someone up with crutches! Yas!

- Like, ouch.

- Do you happen to have a secret passage under your house? Would come in real handy.

- Oh, Zürich! Man, accents. Barely understood that.

- Frehehench.

- In my personal experience claustrophobic people aren’t generally fans of planes. That might just be me, though.

- Still don’t know Paul’s character’s name.

- We are leaving the country.

- That haircut. On the dude with the grumpy-looking monk.

- Does Jesus having a family beside his parents somehow make him less holy? *shrug*

- FRENCH.

- Police brutality?

- “Please”? Seriously? I understood that much and you’re a dick.

- This is, like, some Order of the White Lotus stuff.

- You need a mirror? You can’t read it otherwise? Huh. Well, I guess it’s just easier.

- I really like Lee.

- How many more ways can I angrily write French? (I don’t have anything against the language per se. I just don’t understand what they’re saying and that irks me. There aren’t even subtitles for that. I feel like there are supposed to be subtitles.)

- (It is nice, however, that they’re sticking to the languages they’d actually be speaking. I wonder if it’s all German in German.)

- Yo, police. Be more subtle. You could have laid a trap.

- “You can start with him.” Hm! xD

- “I could run them over.” !! Man, this is great.

- This is like a fucking magic trick.

- You know what, I wanna watch that again.

- The DVD did not like that, so now I get to look at the “pick scene” menu. At least there’s more nice music.

- Just out of curiosity… *checks* There are 24 chapters and I’m at the 16th.

- I can understand more French when I concentrate on it, but I’ve been too annoyed about it so far.

- Never had French at school, btw. But have a bit of a talent for languages. When it comes to those I can sometimes cobble meaning together from context and existing knowledge.

- “The French cannot be trusted”, sounds so ominous.

- As a fan of Angels & Demons, I am very interested in what the Vatican has to say about all this.

- Told ya we don’t like planes.

- Naww, Sophie. Arm pat, yas.

- How do you accidentally fall into a well feet first? Hmm…

- Saved by pigeons, wow.

- Paul’s eyes are super blue.

- Is he gonna get killed?

- What an old-ass phone.

- I’m worried about that newspaper.

- How they’re keeping the identity of the teacher secret is A+, shooting-wise.

- “Your identity shall go with me to the grave.” Did he know he was gonna die?

- Nice one!

- Is the second movie this long? *checks* Not quite.

- Seriously. Unnaturally blue eyes.

- Shoot-out.

- I can kinda see where Lee’s coming from. Don’t agree with the method, but…

- Did a shoulder-shot really kill him?

- See? Nope.

- I think I do kinda like the police captain.

- Have I mentioned my attraction to side characters?

- Oh, that tiny wound on her neck. I like the attention to detail.

- And those stained glass windows! Pretty.

- His mind! Wow.

- I wanna see this scene without music and special effects, though, to see what Sophie and Lee see. Must be pretty weird. xD

- Dramatic musiiiiic.

- Police captain coming through! Yas.

- Robert’s like “What is happening?”

- Man, those poor policemen with the screaming dude in the back of the car.

- Can’t resist a challenge, can you?

- It’s hecking dark behind that doorway.

- Can they get away with getting rid of all the villains half an hour before the movie’s over?

- Now she’s all Ghost Whisperer-like.

- I like the way it sounds when she calls him Robert.

- (Doing some more googling. Ah, it’s Leigh. I see.)

- Who are these guys? Something bad’s happening.

- Flashbacks and MORE FRENCH.

- Wonder if Robert and Sophie use the formal you in German. It wouldn’t fit.

- Sophie’s world is kinda falling apart.

- (She’s like Bethany in Dogma. Don’t know if anyone here even knows Dogma, but I love it.)

- Family reunion! Who put those onions here?

- See? Robert and I agree. Why should a family make Jesus less holy?

- I really like this friendship. I hope they’ll meet again.

- Checking if she can walk on water. xD

- Hey, it’s the Eiffel tower! And it’s playing light house.

- Blood.

- What? What is it?

- Wow.

- This music is real nice.

- 7 minutes of credits.

- Again, though: The music is nice.

[wolfpawn]

I Hate You, I Love You, Chapter 8

Chapter Summary -  Tom overhears half a conversation, but does not think to look further into it, and Benedict realises there may be something for Danielle to be concerned about.

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long.  This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously.

If you wish to be tagged, please let me know.

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog  @jessibelle-nerdy-mum @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer

Tom sighed, the meeting with the directors and producers of Bond seemed like a distant memory now, and he still heard nothing; he was beginning to get worried. Luke had informed him that public sway had a lot to do with the role, and his increasing public profile was not helping. The producers had told him a lesser-known actor was always their target, Loki had shot him onto the radar on many aspects, but as he was not an Avenger, but the antagonist, they seemed to look past that and his role in the Night Manager very much was something they were happy with, his relationship with Taylor however, had made him front page of every sort of magazine cover, and not all of it good. As Danielle had spat at him, being on the front of the National Enquirer did not help him in any manner. Frustrated, he threw the script in his hand onto the table in front of him. Nothing seemed to be coming to him as they had before, nothing inspired any excitement in him, as though begging him to embrace a character as Adam, Loki and Captain Nichols had, or even challenge him as Thomas Sharpe and Hank Williams had instead, he had only had offered ‘chick flick’ trash that would undoubtedly grace the ‘Razzie’ lists of years to come, not an award he coveted.

He swore to himself and decided to get himself a coffee, knowing that Taylor was in her writing room, no doubt coming up with another song for her album that would collect her several more awards. ‘How many could be at your expense?’ a small voice in his head kept asking, but he shook it out. Taylor had not let him hear any of her songs, but she had said she would when they were ready, he respected that; songwriting, like many other arts, was something that took from the writer's very soul, to force its exposure too early would not be recommended and could hamper her artistic talent.

Sighing to himself, he made his way quietly to the kitchen area, not paying any real attention to his surrounds. In the months he had been dating her, things with Taylor had been very fast and hectic, but they were celebrities, that was to be expected, but as he looked at LA outside of Taylor’s home, the Hollywood sign in the distance, he found himself missing London and indeed, the comforts of its temperate, cooler climate. He had not really spoken to his mother since he was last there, Christmas was just around the corner, and Taylor had made it clear, she had expected him to spend it with her and her family. In his thirty-five years, he always spent his Christmas’s with his family, even Sarah, who was married, and was living in India for some time had made point of coming home for them, he knew that his family would assume that he would be going home to them, and in truth, he wanted to go there, he wanted everything to be as it always had been with them. They were so close; he yearned for that once more. Taking the coffee, he headed back to his scripts, perhaps somewhere in that trash, there was a good one, he had to hope after all.

As he passed the room he knew Taylor to be in, he heard her on the phone, the door slightly ajar. “Do you know what that bitch said to me? That I can’t sing for shit. I know she is something else. I know; I am totally going to deal with it. I don’t care, I’ll sue her. I can’t remember; nothing important, driving an ambulance or something. I have to do something, though, the way she spoke to me; like she was actually someone. No, he doesn’t know, he would totally try to talk to her about it. Yeah, I have an idea. Bye Sweetie. Kisses.”

Tom frowned, it was clear that Taylor was talking about Danielle, but he was not aware they even had spoken with one another, what interaction was she talking about? Startled, he walked off back to his scripts, his mind spinning over her words.

“Hey, Johnny, it’s your favourite celeb. How are you? I am great thanks. Listen, I have something good for you. How about all of Tom’s school photos and a few silly stories, interested? I thought you might be. Catch? Oh, Johnny, you know me so well. Your source is a neighbour of his mum, by the way, no specifics, great. No there is no way this can go like the Kanye thing, there is no trail. You’re the best, thanks. Just look for an email from Hughes D, your great.” She sang as she said goodbye. “Kisses.” She hung up the phone. “I’ll teach that bitch not to try and dance with me.” She grinned snidely, turning and realising she had left the door slightly ajar. Opening it slightly, she looked out, and noticed no one in the hallway, before closing the door and setting up the email address under Danielle’s name.

*

“Well, look at you.” Danielle turned and smiled. “What brings you here?”

“The company’s fear that you will screw up and get injured.” She smiled.

“I am running down a street,” Benedict argued indignantly.

“And you are a big star, so if you fall, I need to be here to tend to your ass. Well, the stunt double they have for you anyway. Please tell me they are not shooting from the front, he looks nearly as much like me as he does you.”

“Will is a good stunt double, but no, he is not really like me in looks.” Benedict agreed, looking at the other man across the street. “So, you are on duty this evening?”

“Yeah, I work the night shift all the time.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t have to worry about silly things like family and kids, speaking of whom, how is the little man?”

“Christopher is the hardest role I have ever had in my life.” He sighed dramatically.

“Wouldn’t change it for the world, though, would you?”

“No, I am badgering poor Sophie about it of late.”

“Well, she has to do the work.”

“I have some role in it.” The actor argued.

“Getting your jollies is not working, sorry to tell you.”

“It’s an integral part.”

“That’s true.” Danielle conceded. “Speaking of pricks, have you heard from Tom recently?”

Benedict laughed slightly. “No, I haven’t, you?”

“No. I did have the pop princess on my doorstep not too long ago telling me to back off from Tom and his family.”

“Fuck me.” Benedict’s face was one of genuine shock.

“Yeah, so naturally, I told her to beat it, and I was told ‘I’ll be hearing about this’.”

“Jesus, does Tom know?” Danielle shrugged. “That’s mad.”

“Yeah, well, what can you do? He’s a big boy, he has to get himself sorted.”

“You’ll have a song about you soon.”

“‘The Bitch Next Door’; I’d get a t-shirt made.”

“As long as it isn’t ‘I Heart TS’.”

“I’d get caught for copyright then I assume.” She laughed. “I better go, this Will guy has to do something stupid to make you seem awesome, meaning I might be needed.”

“Take care, Danielle.”

“You too.”

Benedict watched as she walked over to the crew, thinking over what she said, worried, he looked through his phone until he found the number he needed. When he found it, he pressed the call button and waited. “Hey, it’s Benedict, when you get this message, could you call me back, it is sort of important, thanks, bye.”

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: Dark Phoenix (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the weekend after the movie is released worldwide, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie do not read on until you have or check out my non-spoiler review for a general overview.

Retelling Mistakes:

Alright so this is a Simon Kinberg movie first and an X-Men movie second, by which I mean I don’t think it should be judged as an X-Men movie before being judged as the brainchild of Simon Kinberg who is writer, producer and director of the movie.

Kinberg famously also wrote the script for X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006 which was the first cinematic attempt for him to tell the Dark Phoenix story. I want oit also to be noteworthy that The Last Stand is definitely a poorer movie in terms of story flow by trying to combine the Phoenix story with the Mutant Cure story and also for practically zero character development and an ending that felt as if the original trilogy fizzled.

However, despite Dark Phoenix being a slightly better movie overall than The Last Stand, it is almost as if Kinberg simply rehashed the same script but modified it to fit with the current group of characters who are somewhat different to those from the original trilogy.

Much like Mary Poppins Returns, Dark Phoenix has almost exactly the same scenes just told in a different way.

Starting with Jean in the mansion’s medical lab, just as she was after being found by Wolverine and Storm in X3. The only differences are Jean is there of her own accord after returning from seemingly absorbing a solar flare, Xavier and Logan aren’t examining her instead Hank is and the scene doesn’t end with a steamy romp on the table and instead Jean says she feels great and is dismissed.

Then there’s Jean’s home battle death in the first act. During X3 this is the scene almost immediately after the medical lab scene where Jean returns to her old home in a very fragile state. Xavier, Storm and Wolverine arrive to help Jean while Magneto and his new Brotherhood arrive to acquire her. It results in a couple of separate fights ending in Phoenix destroying Xavier.

In this movie though, Jean returns home and is hit with a bombshell about her past, leading the Phoenix to take over and be the sole combatant against the X-Men who arrive to help her. However, Mystique is the one who dies at the telekinetic hands of Phoenix via impalement rather than disintegration.

The ending scenes of the movie begin with shots of the X-Mansion before going on to Magneto playing chess. Here the shots are of the newly named Jean Grey School which go on to Xavier and Magneto playing chess in France while in X3 the shots of the mansion are of Storm welcoming new students and Magneto is later shown playing chess in the park.

It’s annoying when movies rehash the same scenes from popular movies but X3 is critically hated and mostly mocked by fans as potentially the worst X-Men movie aside from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Also these scenes did not contribute to the original Dark Phoenix story and even to die-hard X-Men fans who remember these scenes from the animated series, you can’t help but compare to X3.

Characters:

Alright so now my big grumble with the movie is over, I am going to be talking about these characters in order of importance for the movie and in part my favourites the franchise as a whole.

Jean Grey:

Sophie Turner does a brilliant job here and is definitely the star of the movie, it could be argued Jean Grey has become the first X-Men character aside from Wolverine to get her own solo movie as “Dark Phoenix” is centric to her character.

But it is a fact that Sophie Turner did a fantastic job at brilliantly portraying the inner struggle that Jean had in this movie both physically and mentally. My favourite scene from her is probably when she is sat in the rain trying to scrub Mystique’s blood off while questioning her inner demon otherwise known as Phoenix as to why it made her do it. It was a short scene and if yo have seen it in the trailers you’ve pretty much seen it, but something about it in context works really well in the movie.

Also Jean as a child was also rather well portrayed, again we have a scene with Jean as a child opening X3 but while that scene is rather played down and strictly about Jean demonstrating the extent of her powers at that age, this one shows that her powers were in fact instrumental in her childhood trauma as she supposedly was responsible for killing her parents while her powers protected her from the debris.

This was of course proven later to only be partly true as her father somehow survived the accident while her mother didn’t, but then her father effectively disowned her and gave her to Xavier.

Either way Summer Fontana does an okay job at portraying young Jean as an almost three-dimensional child dealing with what she has dealt with and feeling she is broken despite Xavier claiming she isn’t.

I really enjoyed seeing a better, more diverse, use of the Phoenix powers. Not only in the explanation that Jessica Chastain’s Vuk gave to the extent of the Phoenix power which felt very Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Ego’s demonstration of his powers, but also in the way that Jean took control of Xavier’s body and made him walk up the stairs.

It wasn’t just simply a case of Phoenix being able to make things disintegrate and float as opposed to how it was in X3. I also really loved the pink energy that Jean had when using the Phoenix powers. I know in the comics this is Jean’s standard colour for using her powers like Scarlet Witch is red and Polaris is green but they never established Jean’s powers using pink energy before and the almost pink fire that accompanied the Phoenix powers made for a rather nice effect.

Jean’s relationship with Scott never felt as forced as I thought it would. It was pretty much the same set up as the Bruce/Natasha relationship in the MCU. I didn’t hate it there and I didn’t hate it here, I simply didn’t focus too much on it.

Although I will agree that in those early scenes at the mansion and that party that the way Jean was acting when with Scott was very Bella Swan from the hair to the almost socially awkward posture and movement.

However, I did love that the first official intimate moment between the two was after Jean was enhanced by the Phoenix which heightened all of her emotions, so you could say it was a three-way relationship at that point.

I did think the added development of her father being alive and Jean discovering that he had effectively disowned her added to her further decline to succumb to the Phoenix power.

Also seeing a fully-powered Jean explored here was fun to watch. From seeing her fly to using her telekinesis to operate a helicopter and even when she was Phoenix and dismantled Magneto’s Helmet, all of it was an impressive display of power.

We all know the timeline is slightly screwed in this universe but we are supposed to believe that in 1975 Jean Grey is 8 years old and with the present day events here being set in 1992 that would make the character 25 years old...there is little to no age difference between Jean here and in Apocalypse maybe aside from hair and fashion and that was set in the 80s.

I thought Jean’s sacrifice at the end was both obvious and poignant. Obvious because Jean is meant to die at the end of the Dark Phoenix story but poignant because it was quite an emotional sacrifice more so than in The Last Stand.

I loved the inferno of pink fire that surrounded Phoenix and later Vuk as Jean kills them both essentially, it made for a more interesting climax than just Jean standing there disintegrating everything.

Overall Sophie Turner was definitely the best thing about the movie, I do think she maybe could have been a little bit more diverse in her acting as mostly she delivered lines on the same monotonic level but other than that I have no complaints...except maybe wanting to see her in the Dark Phoenix costume.

Beast:

I will continue to say this, people do not give Nicholas Hoult enough credit as Hank McCoy/Beast.

Considering how he, McAvoy, Fassbender and J-Law are the only ones left from First Class, I think Hoult has played an under the radar performance but still one of notoriety.

I will say my only negative for this version of the character is I feel the way the fan-favourite character is portrayed is affected in the same way as Mystique has been portrayed in that the actors (Hoult and Lawrence) do not want to be in the blue make-up all the time and want to be able to be themselves for parts of the movie.

Now whereas Mystique can easily shapeshift and that is how they get away with that, to my knowledge once Beast’s mutation accelerated and turned McCoy into Beast, it was not irreversible in the comics but because of Hank’s serum he was able to shift between the two during Days of Future Past and Apocalypse.

Here though there didn’t really seem to be any explanation as to why he was able to shift so easily and rather than it being a case of a serum injection, it seemed to be more Hulk-like. I’m not complaining at seeing Nicholas Hoult in all his glory, but Beast being my favourite X-Man I want him to be treated with the respect he deserves.

In the positives, I really liked seeing a darker side of Beast. But it wasn’t a straightforward Dark Beast as everyone believed it would be and simply Hank deciding that Xavier was not the answer in this situation and that Magneto was. I was fully on Beast’s side in this movie because not only did Jean accidentally murder his lover, but Xavier had such an incompetent attitude to the whole thing for fear of ruining their recent claim to fame that he had set aside the original morals he intended for the X-Men.

It is a testament to Hank’s morals though that after Xavier made his half-arsed apology that Beast decided to protect Jean because that is what Mystique would have done.

I am unsure how I feel about Beast now being the headmaster of the school, now called the Jean Grey School. I am all for the fact that Xavier decided to retire after the complete hash he made of “protecting his students” and I get that Hank is now the longest-serving member of the X-Men...but I do wish we had another movie to see him as a teacher/headteacher for me to decide fully.

I would like to see Beast in the MCU at some point either as Nicholas Hoult or Kelsey Grammar, but overall I just want Beast to return at some point as he is my favourite and I feel he needs more of a chance to shine.

Professor X:

I am thrilled with this movie for showing the darker side of Xavier, the only problem is rather than hinting at his darker side as they did in The Last Stand, they went down a hubris egotistical route before even starting to hint at his darker side which made what he did to Jean seem more like it was feeding into his hubris than actually doing the wrong thing for what he believed to be the right reason.

Also, as I said with Beast, Xavier simply came across as incompetent a lot in this movie and most of it seemed to be because he thought he was above reproach. When he agreed to send the X-Men into space to save those astronauts he was called out on his reason why by Mystique and yet played it off as him keeping the peace between humans and mutants so that they don’t go back to being hated.

When the team try and detain Jean, he is fine letting everyone put their lives at risk to try and stop her but when Beast has a taser ready to shoot, Xavier stops him and the cops in order for Mystique to talk her down which leads to her death...why not just let Beast taser her and then let Mystique talk to her back at the mansion?

Then when Hank and Xavier are having that talk, Xavier simply talks about how Mystique was in First Class rather than taking responsibility or apologising for not letting Beast take the shot, and even tries to turn it around on him for making him feel bad after burying his foster sister...bullshit!

I don’t know why or how the X-Men are suddenly public superheroes because Xavier was the one during First Class who stated that anonymity was their first line of defence and now the President has an X-Phone, it just seems like something the Avengers or Justice League would be but not the X-Men.

Also I loved it when he got talked down by Storm and Nightcrawler, it was simply the last straw that he had lost the respect of his students and team.

Don’t get me wrong, James McAvoy did a great job in the role as always, he like Hoult is one of those actors I will watch a film for regardless, but there was just something that didn’t feel as organic as the Xavier he had built up for the past 8 years.

I know McAvoy was filming Glass around the same time as this and you can tell because of the weight that he put on for the Beast role in that, but while McAvoy got the look of Xavier down with his fashion it was just something about the character’s motives that seemed really off.

Mystique:

This was a straightforward character assassination for a great X-Men villain, particularly with what Rebecca Romijn did with the character in the original trilogy to have it being so desecrated in the 30-45 minutes that she is in here is such a shame.

For one thing, she is never called Mystique once in this movie. Secondly, the make-up has gone from lizard-like to fancy dress. Third, as much as I liked Jennifer Lawrence’s delivery in this movie I detest the fact she died a hero, and that she was eulogised as “doing what she did best, dying trying to protect her friends”...

Mystique is a villain, she has moments of anti-heroism and her soft spots are often shown for her kids, but other than that she is manipulating, cold and calculated. She would definitely not die and be eulogised as “being the spirit of the X-Men”.

Also I say in the comics she has a soft-spot for her children, that’s great but in seven movies they have not established any familial connections between her, Rogue or Nightcrawler...despite many opportunities.

I do have positives though, as I said I did like Jennifer Lawrence’s delivery. I thought her line about how it usually being the women saving the men and changing the team name to X-Women was a good line, even though Mystique, Storm and Jean are really the only female members of the team they’ve shown in the First Class trilogy but they are still the more interesting ones, aside from Quicksilver and Beast.

I also liked it when she suggested to Hank that they leave the X-Men and run away together. I understand why Hank said no but I do agree that if they had done so it would have saved both of them.

Her duration in this movie simply felt like J-Law waiting to be released from her contract, you could tell that from her opening delivery to Nightcrawler as she exasperatingly says “Yes Kurt, we’re going into space” and the scene when the other rocket explodes and Mystique looks like she’s waiting for the inferno to take her.

Overall I am saddened that this is how Mystique ends in the movie universe, but at least there is still some good takeaway from her in the movie.

Magneto:

Could Magneto just pick a side and stick with it?! For one thing Genosha just seemed like a wilderness estate rather than a Mutant safe-haven. But while he was trying to be the peacekeeper here as soon as he hears of Mystique’s death he is right back into being a bad guy, but then a pep talk from Xavier and he is back being a good guy again.

I wouldn’t mind but he berates Xavier by saying “you’re always sorry and there’s always a speech but it never matters”, yet after Xavier gives a speech in the train he is somehow won over.

I really enjoyed the display of his powers in the movie, as always. The fact he and Jean battled to control a helicopter and both actors didn’t oversell it or make it look memeable is a testament to them both.

But I loved it in that street battle when he pulled up that underground train from the subway and managed to use it as a barricade between the building and the outside. Then later he equipped the SWAT agents’ guns in a full-on firing brigade against Vuk...yes it didn’t work but it was awesome.

I’m not too happy with where his story ended in this movie, the fact that he is now being Xavier’s saving grace seems a little bit against type for the character and also the fact he would either abandon Genosha or welcome his ethical enemy to Genosha just doesn’t sit right.

Cyclops:

I still enjoyed this version of Scott Summers than James Marsden’s performance, but I do agree that Cyclops’ visor really prohibits the actor wearing it from getting across much emotion in the scenes.

To be fair, Tye Sheridan does try and succeeds a lot here, but I still didn’t feel bad or empathetic for him most of the way through this movie.

I think his optic blast power is one of the best the X-Men has both visually and from a power stand point, and I loved how the Blackbird has apparently become equipped with a blaster pod for Cyclops’ optic blast. I did want to see more of that but really Cyclops is the only member with that kind of power. Storm can easily carry out her powers regardless and the rest need to be within a certain distance.

Nightcrawler:

I felt myself very confused by Nightcrawler towards the end of this movie. When he tried saving that one SWAT agent whose son was a fan of his but was too late and so got angry, it just seemed very out of character to me.

Yes Nightcrawler has been involved in conflict in the comics but in the original trilogy he was very much the religious pacifist type of character. Going full demon could have been an interesting pathway for the character considering his father is Azazel, but literally slotting it in for five minutes of the final film does seem a bit like a throwaway plot point.

Also, despite it still being Kodi Smit-McPhee, I felt a lot of the freshness he brought to the character in Apocalypse was gone here, maybe because they didn’t show him as much but a lot of the humour from the last movie he had was gone here.

Vuk:

Everyone is simply calling her Jessica Chastain and to be fair it makes no difference what you call her because she’s barely developed as is.

Firstly this massive mystery role of hers is revealed to be the leader of a D’Bari army who seek the Phoenix power that destroyed their homeworld to help them remake Earth into their new homeworld. That’s great, and the D’Bari were in the original Dark Phoenix saga story, but nothing else is done to make Vuk menacing or threatening or even interesting.

I don’t understand the stomach twisting power they seemed to have, because it seemed like the biggest threat these aliens offer is to give their victims the worst stomach cramps imaginable, but the most laughable trait of theirs was literally charging at Jean as the Phoenix during the end of the film...even Vuk did.

I’m not saying they were bad as villains, they certainly filled that role, but they didn’t offer anything new or threatening and they certainly didn’t exceed what Apocalypse did.

Quicksilver:

Quicksilver was shelved in this movie. Not only was he in the movie all together for probably 3 minutes less than Mystique, but also they cut everything about him that made him such a likeable character in the previous two movies.

The humour was barely there, there was no brilliant slow motion speed scene, they still didn’t establish the relationship between him and Magneto despite Apocalypse seemingly teasing it would be explored. I know he got injured during the confrontation between the X-Men and Jean but to not even be mentioned for the rest of the movie except for a 5 second appearance right at the end?

Storm:

I will give Storm credit for being the only character in this movie to be called by their moniker, but Storm is only called by her moniker. Mystique calls Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Quicksilver Scott, Kurt and Peter on mission but also calls Storm Storm. Why not Ororo?

Also her powerset, particularly with Alexandra Shipp, seem very limited. The younger version of Storm only really seems to produce lightning and electrical attacks with the occasional heavy breeze. Here though she seems to also produce ice cubes for parties...because that’s a good use for one of the strongest X-Men?

Future:

I am unsure about the future of the X-Men now, while I cannot wait to see what the MCU does with them, Feige has stated that it won’t happen for a while at least.

I am hoping they start drip-feeding them in soon, say with Storm in Black Panther II and maybe Professor X in Doctor Strange II if they introduce the Illuminati.

I have loved these past 19 years of X-Men movies, yes there have been bumps in the road but it is a great comfort to watch and I don’t ever feel like they’re a guilty pleasure.

Overall I rate this movie a 7/10, it’s not an offensive movie like X-Men Origins or The Last Stand but it isn’t as strong as X2, First Class or Days of Future Past. I would still love to see a faithful Dark Phoenix saga movie maybe over the course of a couple of movies rather than just rammed into the one but I cannot really mark it down too much because it gave me the nostalgia I have whenever I watch an X-Men movie.

So that’s my review of Dark Phoenix, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Marvel Movie Reviews as well as other movie reviews and posts.

[abookishcreative]

Platinum: Cadence Dorian’s Pictagram Part 2 - Edit Notes

This is Part 2 of my Pictagram edits for Platinum’s MC.

And here I am again just chatting away to elaborate my decisions and credit celebrities for their photos. Haha!

This isn’t a linear timeline because it’s just snapshots of MC’s life. So the moments from the book skip around with other headcanon posts.

Go here if you’re curious about Part 1!

DISCLAIMER: None of these public figures are faceclaims, I used them for the photos, not for the person herself/himself.

This is a long post so just click here to keep reading! 👇👇

1. Back home after the Vinyls scandal post:

The photo is Elle Fanning cuddling with her dog.

It was perfect photo because she had her glasses on.

I would think that after the scandal MC would’ve turned off her Pictagram comments, that’s why the bottom part is empty.

It does look a little sad, which is great for the headcanon. Haha!

2. Flying private post:

The photo is Sophie Turner on a private plane.

Also a perfect photo for this post because it doesn’t show her face but you can still see the blonde hair.

This post isn’t anything connected to the story, it’s just those little bits and pieces in between that we can imagine.

I thought it would be cute if she was with Raleigh and he posted a sleeping photo of her on his Pictagram story, and maybe she woke up because of the flash.

3. Hanging out with friends at the lake post:

This is Margot Robbie swimming.

First of all, that’s not a lake, I know. But it was a cute photo. Haha!

Since the group is trying to bring her out back into the light after wallowing in her hiatus, I think she’d finally open back her comments again in Pictagram.

Micah will definitely be protesting because he couldn’t join the fun.

I thought it would be cute to have Hank comment as well, this was inspired by Ed Sheeran’s bodyguard IG: securitykev

4. Raleigh Carrera’s concert post:

This is Shawn Mendes performing at his concert.

Raleigh probably has a similar fashion, although the hair is totally different. It’s hard to find concert photos where the celebrity is not facing the camera. Haha! Cut me some slack.

This is also headcanon! I’m sure Raleigh would invite MC and friends (or just MC) to his concert. Or maybe MC wanted to support him. She’ll definitely get a VIP pass.

5. Indio Concert redemption post:

This is Zara Larsson performing at a festival.

Although it’s hard to find the exact same red coat. I thought this ensemble is passable enough despite the large difference. It’s still a coat and thigh high boots. Haha!

I made sure the “Like” count on this one is really high because it reflected how insane everyone went for her performance, whether it was a duet or not.

Of course Raleigh and Avery are on her comments!

6. Cafe in LA with Zadie:

The girl is influencer Francis Lola (flamcis).

This is a screencap of a video on her Instagram, pixelated just the way I want to convey that it’s a video.

Carrera Café in Melrose Ave. LA is real, I googled the Ciao Bella neon sign and since the influencer is from LA, I figured the cafe is in LA.

I thought it’s nice that they’ll have a little girl time, and even after the success of Indio and MC’s rising fame, Zadie would still make clothes for her to wear to concerts and the likes.

That’s all I got! If you read this, get some cookies and reward yourself. HAHA!

[tamayokny]

thoughts on dark phoenix. spoilers below.

if you don’t want to read all of this, skip to the bottom where it’s all summarized?

first, i came in knowing that i would be disappointed in the film in some way but still, i was excited! the x-men are my life; my family.

anyway...

the first hour...idk lowkey the editing threw me off. it was lowkey...uh...bad. at least some parts were. i really enjoyed the last hour.

liked the x-men in space scene...and when miss jean grey absorbed the phoenix force? RIIIIIIIISE!

before i continue let me just say: i love you sophie belinda turner jonas. stay iconic; a legend and you did great with what you were given! fuck everyone who said you “ruined [x-men and game of thrones] in the same year” (yeah, i saw that in a facebook comment! lmao i HAVE to laugh at that.)

i’m glad the movie covered charles’s flaws as a teacher, if only a little bit. from experience, i know that you should not repress trauma like that because it will rise and be...a mess. so they covered that well.

i've also seen a lot of arguments over charles xavier’s character in dark phoenix and honestly? i thought it was fine. it reflected his comic counterpart more in recent years. (y’all should be happy that scott didn’t kill him in this movie! lol)

rip to mrs. smith and the rest of her dinner party (the husband was kind of a dick, though).

as much as i love jessica chastain, i really didn’t like the antagonists in this film. they provided a GREAT fight scene and conflict in the peak moments of the film, but i wish they focused on the bond between jean grey and the phoenix more, as well as how it affected the team.

AND BEFORE I FORGET: DAZZLER CAMEO DAZZLER CAMEO!! I loved it.

the confrontation between jean and her teammates outside of her father’s house was great. i liked when kurt tried to stop her and they went through the walls. OUCH when quicksilver got hurt though...i felt that.

also: remember when we all thought quicksilver was going to be one of the deaths? lmao

speaking of deaths...mystique really is dead and honestly? thank god. i hated how they’ve written her character in the past two movies. it also doesn’t help that i dislike the actress...her best movies were first class and days of future past but once they started to put her on the hero route? no thanks

i’m sad that they never explored or outright stated that mystique is kurt’s biological mother. (for the non-comic fans: kurt is the son of azazel and mystique.)

hank’s grieving and his lashing out on charles...and then he went to magneto so they could kill jean...good job nicholas 

i must ask: what was the relationship between beast/mystique? like where they romantically involved or still kind of tip toe-ing around? some scenes implied they had feelings for sure but....idk

GENOSHA, BABY! GEN-O-SHA!

jean entering this mutant haven was beautiful but magneto’s entrance? omg i lowkey wanted to laugh. magneto remains to be dramatic and i love it

i also liked the helicopter scene

okay so back with the team:

peter got hurt so you don’t see him until the very end of the film

kurt was used pretty well

ororo was underused when it came to the dialogue department. my girl barely said anything BUT: her action scenes were amazing and i’ll get to that in a minute

to the surprise of no one, while kurt remained hopeful but wary and ororo believed jean to be dangerous (which, she is and was), scott was on charles’s side and firmly believed that they could bring jean back. 

i wish the dark phoenix was able to cement the scott/jean relationship more because while i knew they were a couple, it would probably be difficult to know how serious they were. (yes, some scenes showed it but idk how impactful they were?)

okay so fast forward a bit: jean and vuk (jessica chastain) are in new york so magneto, hank, and two other mutants on their side are there to kill jean, and then the x-men show up to save/stop that from happening.

this fight scene was pretty cool...especially when magneto brought that subway car above ground and used it to enter the building jean and vuk were in...magneto, ever the dramatic king who i love

the charles/jean moment...heartfelt. like i mentioned, this covered one important aspect of the dark phoenix saga: xavier's faults. he believed he was doing the right thing and when jean saw how her (biological) father reacted to her...she understood. while i believe what charles did was fucked up and i still would have been pissed, i would have forgiven him like jean did, because he gave her hope and a chance. it was hope to help her manage her abilities, and a chance to life as a mutant because let’s face it, if she would have gone in the child services system she would have been fucked.

and then like any other x-men movie: the government got involved, subdued all the mutants (scott blasted vuk out the building, so she wasn’t captured), and they were locked and loaded on the train. jean got isolated from the rest of them.

BEFORE I CONTINUE: when scott said “i’ll fucking kill you!”...i almost started laughing. i’m sorry, but it’s the truth.

anyway on the train: vuk and the rest of the alien shapeshifters come to wreck shit up and the killed most of the guard (which caused kurt to go on a killing rampage after one of them died in front of him....okay. i was kinda impressed tbh, despite most depictions of kurt would probably not do that.)

the mutants fucked shit up! i think the 2 mutants that helped magneto were both killed though, which made me :// like really? k.

which reminds me: i wish psylocke and jubilee were in dark phoenix but the actresses had other film commitments, so i understand and forgive. also...still said about angel and his fate in apocalypse :( angel is always the most mistreated out of the original 5 lmao.

anyway that train fight scene was really good...despite barely having dialogue (:/) SHE KICKED ASS. and when erik destroyed part of the train? KIIIIIIIING!!!!!

BUT THEN JEAN UNLEASHED PHOENIX AGAIN!!! AND SHE FUCKING TOOK THAT TRAIN, PROTECTED HER FAMILY, AND DESTROYED THE REMAINING ALIENS. FUCKING QUEEN! MCU CAPTAIN MARVEL WHO???? MCU WANDA??? MCU THOR???? NO. JUST JEAN GREY BITCHES.

jean sacrificed herself...i remember reading something that said “2 confirmed x-men deaths” and i knew it was going to be mystique and jean

but honestly i was thinking “three deaths” because fuck, i thought jean was going to kill scott! like i’m disappointed how they didn’t focus on jean’s destruction on everyone and being like...evil. lmao i was really hoping but simon you played me, huh. (great marketing i guess?)

jean died but didn’t die, knowing how jean grey is lmao

they renamed the school after jean and i’ve seen people being salty about it LMAO....they renamed the school for jean in the comics (it changed back eventually...?) so stay mad

people are also mad that charles retired and fucked off to paris adfcrvhfbg

while i don’t think charles would have retired (well...that could be debatable?), i think for the end of FOX x-men, it was okay

also erik offering charles a place to stay in paris???? fucking PARIS??? THE CITY OF LOVE??????????? I’M FUCKING LOSING IT!!!!

AND THAT GAME OF CHESS BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!

the very last shot was of the sky, where you could see the phoenix in the air......yoooooooOOOOOOOOO

okay so before i tell you all my summary, let’s talk about why dark phoenix may not have done so well, or at least part of it:

the mutants are now owned by disney, since the disney/fox merge became official (fuck). so, because of this, dark phoenix had to go through reshoots (which brought us that glorious train fight). apparently, the dark phoenix saga was going to be in three parts but because of the merge...that’s not happening. so, dark phoenix is officially the last x-men movie (unless you count new mutants that will be released on disney+, last i've heard). so, because of this, i think this last movie left a lot of fans unsatisfied because we all know that there should have been more to the story, and they had it planned out! unfortunately...disney has to fucking buy everything.

another reason: the x-men/fox superheros are not as hyped as the MCU/disney superheroes. you know this. i know this. and after a few releases from the MCU this year? the x-men didn’t stand a chance. let me also add: fuck the critics, there’s been such a disconnect between them and the audience for years. i’m not saying dark phoenix was perfect, but it’s not as horrific as people (critic and audience) have been saying.

now, the final thoughts and summary: 

i went into the theatres knowing it wasn’t going to be the best thing ever. it was average; that’s the best i can describe it. it had good moments and it had bad moments. jean grey as dark phoenix was not as antagonistic as i hoped and while i enjoy jessica chastain, I really didn’t like the villains of the film. i wish chastain was the “physical embodiment” or whatever it was of the phoenix like many speculated. dark phoenix should have focused on jean (which it did but...), her relationships with her teammates, scott, xavier (it did brush on it), and other core values of the dark phoenix saga. it would have been great to see this all play out but unfortunately, things change.

thank you, fox, for twenty years of the x-men. just like how they changed the comic book industry (they made marvel comics), the very first x-men movie is the reason why we have our many superhero films today. remember that. good luck with them MCU, and don’t you fucking dare mess them up!

let me also add a thank you to the x-men cast. with dark phoenix, they all certainly gave their best. sophie did it, and i will miss tye sheridan as cyclops. most of all, i think i will miss michael fassbender as magneto. while he may not be jewish, he certainly gave his all. he really studied magneto and i respect and admire him for that. also rip to rose byrne as moira mactaggert. where the fuck was she when the events of dark phoenix went down??

[sidekickhq]

can you please suggest mw parents?

i’m going to include wanted connections we have for specific parents underneath the cut, but others that i think are REALLY wanted by all are : bruce wayne, sigyn, anna marie, daken akihiro, clark kent, steve trevor, remy lebeau, donna troy, scott lang, wanda maximoff, matthew murdock, warren worthington ii, raven darkholme, hank mccoy, stephen strange, leonard snart, mary jane watson, pietro maximoff, wanda maximoff, cecelia reyes, kitty pryde, natasha romanoff, melinda may, cindy moon, namor, jean paul beaubier, peter quill, phil coulson, mick rory, maria hill !

ALYSSA BEAUBIER, our HAYLEY WILLIAMS fc is looking for a MOM/JEANNE-MARIE BEAUBIER connection who looks like UTP, who is 46. you DON’T have to contact (they’d have a lot to talk about as Alyssa ran off with no contact at age 17 so 9 years ago. Alyssa has a share of mom problems mostly stemming from feeling like she fucked up being the one normal thing in his mom’s life by being a mutant. )

DANIEL FOSTER-THORSON, our TARJEI SANDVIK MOE fc is looking for a MOTHER (JANE FOSTER) connection who looks like NATALIE PORTMAN, KEIRA KNIGHTLY, UTP, who is 40+ you DON’T have to contact prior to applying at danielthorson. ( so i don’t want to get too carried away with details but you’re more than welcome to contact me with any questions you might have! Essentially jane raised daniel (and any siblings he might’ve had) by herself, and initially she tried to keep him sheltered from his father and everything that could come with being a part of his world. But when Daniel was five, this changed- and Thor and everyone else became a part of his life. Apart from this Daniel absolutely adores his mother, she’s his favorite person in the world. Not to mention Thor would love to see her around! )

HUGO STARK, our JOSHUA CASTILLE fc is looking for a MOTHER / PEPPER POTTS connection who looks like UTP who is 50+ YEARS OLD. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( give the stark kids their mum !! 

NAOMI DANE-SUMMERS, our NAOMI SCOTT fc is looking for a MARCOS DÍAZ / FATHER / “STEPFATHER” connection who looks like ANY RELEVANT FC who is 45+ you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( Good Dad™ Marcos Díaz, naomi thinks the world of him !!! 

QUINTEN ISLEY-QUINZEL, our MATTHEW DADDARIO fc is looking for a MOTHER / PAMELA ISLEY connection who looks like BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD, JESSICA CHASTAIN, CHRISTINA HENDRICKS / UTP who is 40′s-50′s+ you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( tw for death: pam was a big part in quin’s resurrection – her & necromancer brought quin back to life after he died during the attack on the school last year. due to pam’s heavy influence, he ended up with very similar powers to pam and they share a deep connection now because of it. he’s always been really close to her but this only brought them closer. )

QUINTEN ISLEY-QUINZEL, our MATTHEW DADDARIO fc is looking for a MOTHER / HARLEY QUINN connection who looks like MICHELLE PFEIFFER, JAMIE CLAYTON, CHARLIZE THERON, KRISTEN BELL / UTP who is 40′s/50′s+ you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( quin is… such a mamma’s boy, honestly. he loves both of his moms SO MUCH and while he’s always been more similar to pam, he’s still super close to harley. give quin his moms! ) 

TRIXIE ESPINOZA, our CHRISTIAN SERRATOS fc is looking for her FATHERS / DAN ESPINOZA & LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR who look like JAY HERNANDEZ, ALFONSO HERRERA, GABRIEL LUNA, ANY MEXICAN FC ( DAN ) / DIEGO LUNA, RICKY WHITTLE, TOM ELLIS, ANY FC ( LUCIFER ) who are 40+ ( DAN ) & 1000+ ( LUCIFER ) YEARS OLD. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( healthy coparents, unite !! chloe and dan are two of lapd’s best and brightest, and trix loves her parents so much - but she ALSO loves her stepfather, lucifer, and he’s 100% on the same level in her mind as her birth parents. )

TRIXIE ESPINOZA, our CHRISTIAN SERRATOS fc is looking for her MOTHER / CHLOE DECKER who looks like LAUREN GERMAN, VERA FARMIGA, WINONA RYDER, SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR, AMY ACKER, PLAYERS CHOICE who is  40+ YEARS OLD. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( if u have seen lucifer, then u already have a pretty good idea of trixie’s dynamic with her mom! her dad is great and all, but… chloe was the one who was REALLY there for her, ya know? i kinda had it hced that chloe is now with lucifer cause that’s how the show was heading to and i didn’t imagine anyone snagging anymore lucifer chars, but i’m! definitely open to changing that! just gimme her mom pls! )

WILLIAM WADE WILSON, our BRANDON FLYNN fc is looking for a FATHER (WADE WILSON)  connection who looks like RYAN REYNOLDS, UTP+ who is AGE you ( DON’T ) have to contact prior to applying at ( willicmwilson ). ( look, i just want a wade. I’m also willing to make you gif icons of Ryan as Wade if you’d like, just shoot me a message!)

WILLIAM WADE WILSON, our BRANDON FLYNN fc is looking for a MOTHER (VANESSA CARLYSLE )  connection who looks like JENNIFER GARNER, HILARY SWANK, UTP+ who is AGE  you ( DON’T ) have to contact prior to applying at ( WILLICMWILSON). (honestly i’m just looking for will’s family- i’m not going to dictate what you have to do. But feel free to contact me if you have any questions before applying! )

WINIFRED BANNER-ROSS, our SOPHIE TURNER fc is looking for a FATHER / BRUCE BANNER connection who looks like MARK RUFFALO, UTP who is 45+ YEARS OLD. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( winnie and bruce spent a fair chunk of her childhood – ages 8 to 14 – in laga, east timor, to move away from general ross and help give timorese people access healthcare, farming, and education )

DEVYN XAVIER-LEHNSHERR, our COURTNEY EATON fc is looking for a BIRTH MOTHER connection who looks like PLAYER’S CHOICE who is 45+YEARS OLD. you CAN contact prior to applying at queenofillusionsx. (Devyn’s birth mom is a closeted mutant who was scared of having a child in case they grew to be one. When Dev was born with lilac eyes, there was no mistaking what she was, so her parents gave her up. Now she is at Paragon to make amends, but it is the one topic she gets angry at so she won’t be happy.)

NADIA KYLE, our ANA DE ARMAS fc is looking for her MOTHER / SELINA KYLE who looks like MELISSA FUMERO, JOANNA GARCIA / ANY CUBAN FC who is OLD ENOUGH. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( it may be a little cliche, all considered - but there’s a reason that nadia has become the person that she is today, and that reason… is selina. the love she has for her mother, and the idolization that she’s always felt towards her, is unmatched. nadia’s upbringing was unique in that it wasn’t just isolated to selina & ted. rather, it was a combined effort of selina, ted, holly, eiko - and everyone had a huge role, but no one really ever outshone her mother. she’s always wanted to emulate her, because in nadia’s eyes, there’s no one better - and while she’s made mistakes in coming down this road, and while she’s done things that even selina probably can’t be proud of… it’s all been in hopes of both… being half the woman that her mother is, and being someone that selina is proud of. )

NADIA KYLE, our ANA DE ARMAS fc is looking for her FATHER / TED GRANT who looks like NESTOR CARBONELL, ALBERTO GUERRA, JORDI VILASUSO / ANY CUBAN FC who is OLD ENOUGH. you DON’T have to contact prior to applying. ( nadia has… a complicated relationship with her father, so to speak - and she always sort of has. he never really approved of the antics she got up to, when she was younger - and i don’t think it would be outlandish to imagine him at one point trying to have her diagnosed with the kleptomania she obviously exhibited, thinking that it might help her. he trained her, he loved her, and she learned from him and loved him too - but they argued a lot, and went very long stretches of time without communicating whatsoever. in fact, they went years without talking in her early twenties - ted not approving of how far she had fallen, and nadia unwilling to change. having a stellar relationship with her stand up father fits with the image she’s cultivated for herself and as so, nadia has spent time in more recent years trying to make amends and whatnot, but while she and her mother will always work on a similar wavelength and understand each other, as so ; ted sees her in a different light, and wants… better for her, really, than what she’s making of herself. )

[citrinesunset]

Dark Phoenix thoughts

I saw Dark Phoenix! I wasn’t sure if/when I was going to get a chance, but I managed it. And have some spoiler-y thoughts.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good. There were some things that I think could have been done better, but it came together better than I feared it would considering the reshoots and the fact that I question how invested Fox was in the franchise at this point.

I will say I’m sad to see the franchise ending. I only got into this fandom a couple years ago, and am sad that I missed a lot of its heyday. So I’m definitely not ready for the possibility of activity dying down, and I hope that doesn’t happen for a while yet. I’ve also really enjoyed this series, and am not sure whether I’ll be as into a rebooted series or not.

Anyway, my thoughts are a little jumbled and I probably haven’t processed the movie much, but....

Things I enjoyed/mostly enjoyed

- Charles’ 1975 hair. Yes, this is shallow, but I have tried to imagine what his hair looked like after DoFP, when he presumably still had it long but hopefully washed it more, and now I have an answer.

- I really liked the musical score.

- I really liked a lot of Charles’ scenes with young Jean. Charles as a teacher/mentor to young people has always been one of my favorite parts of him.

- I’ve enjoyed how Sophie Turner plays Jean. I thought her interpretation was interesting back in Apocalypse, and I think she did a good job here. I like this version of Jean a lot.

- Raven in the alternate timeline movies has been kind of hit or miss for me, but I thought her connection to Jean in this movie worked great. She was the perfect character to express concerns about how Charles had treated Jean, and I feel like the framework of setting her up as a mentor figure and hero in Apocalypse helps a lot in Dark Phoenix.

- I liked the interpretation of Genosha, and am curious about how and when it got started. I like to imagine it was a compromise reached after Apocalypse, and that the government was like, “Well, we can’t ignore that this guy is a terrorist who threatened to assassinate the president on live television, even if it was Nixon. But he apparently helped defeat this Apocalypse guy, and if we arrest him now it might look bad. Maybe if we give him some land, he’ll go away.” That said, Genosha did look very small. How many mutants could really live there?

- I really liked Jean going to Erik for help. I also found Erik ultimately defending and protecting the human military guys from her attack interesting. That’s not something Erik would have cared much about in the past, I don’t think, and it speaks to him becoming more moderate over time or perhaps valuing the peace that he’s been able to create on Genosha.

- I love the hints of concern that Erik shows about Charles and his team. First asking Jean whose blood is on her shirt, and then the anticipatory look on his face when he sees the jet. I think he was expecting Charles when he saw the plane.

- The first appearance of the Magneto helmet made me happy, because of course. Though, I’m kind of amused by all the different versions of that helmet Erik has had. Does he make them himself? Does he decorate and customize them?

- So...I don’t think Erik pulling up the subway train and pulling it behind him made much sense, but I am 100% here for Erik making needlessly grandiose gestures because it looks cool, because that is very on-brand.

- I liked the parallel between Jean assisting Charles telepathically when he was unconscious at the end of Apocalypse and Charles connecting with her and encouraging her when she was unconscious.

- The phoenix effects were great.

- I liked the conclusion Jean got, and that while she still sacrificed herself, it felt like an active, strategic choice on her part. And I liked that it ended on an ambiguously hopeful note for her. I also like that this movie, while it did address things like Charles lying to her, did have the Phoenix Force be an external entity as well (as opposed to just a part of her own personality like Last Stand did).

- I love it when Erik offers chess as an ice breaker (it was a nice callback to DofP), and I absolutely loved his final scene with Charles.

Things I didn’t care for

- I wish the relationships between some of the characters had been fleshed out a little more. I felt this movie did a great job overall of centering things on Jean, but so much of Jean’s conflict depended on her relationships to other characters, and I would have liked to see the stakes raised more by seeing more of her relationship with Scott and her friendships with the other team members. Also, were Hank and Raven supposed to have been in a relationship at this point, or were they teammates with a side of pining? Because I feel like it could have been read either way, and I think that context is important.

- I didn’t buy that Raven’s death would be enough to motivate Erik to kill Jean, especially after telling Jean about how killing and vengeance had never brought him peace. I can fully believe that Erik liked and respected Raven a lot, but most of the interaction we’ve seen between them in the alternate timeline films involved things like him turning down her advances and trying to kill her for the greater good. It’s not like they had a great love story or even seemed to spend much time together. 

- The Mystique makeup looks really bad compared to what it used to look like. The first time I saw Raven in one of the trailers, I thought it looked like good but not professional-level cosplay, or like she was Mystique’s cousin from some  direct-to-DVD spin-off movie. I can understand why Jennifer Lawrence may have disliked the time and work that went into the more detailed makeup from earlier movies, and if there were health/safety/comfort considerations, I respect that. But it was a really noticeable difference that made it seem like they didn’t make much effort.

- Quicksilver being awkwardly sidelined was annoying and obvious, and dammit, I wanted Erik to find out he has a son. Also, we didn’t get to find out what music Peter likes these days!

- I didn’t like what I saw as an implication at the end that Charles had retired because he failed. But more on that below...

Things that can’t be easily classified one way or another

- I was really on-board with the idea of this movie exploring Charles’ flaws and hubris, but I’m not sure how I feel about the way this was approached. I found the idea that mutants were cautiously accepted but on very conditional terms interesting, as well as Charles’ awareness that he was being strategic in order to hold onto that public support. And I thought that him lying to Jean because he felt it was best, but ultimately realizing that he was wrong and accepting responsibility for that, felt in-character. But I also didn’t feel like the movie really explored the link between Charles lying and Jean going Dark Phoenix, and on the surface, those two things didn’t feel very related. You could argue that without the emotional shock of learning that her father was alive, Jean might have remained on a more even keel while they figured out what was going on, but I think it would have made more sense if Charles had messed with Jean’s powers in a way that affected her ability to keep control after becoming Phoenix (and if he had, that wasn’t clear to me). But I feel like that would have conflicted with his encouragement of Jean unleashing her power in Apocalypse. I think Charles was right to accept some responsibility, but I would have liked to have seen more reconciliation between him and the other characters and would have liked to see more of his reasoning for retiring.

- I didn’t find the aliens all that interesting, but I didn’t really mind that. I felt they served a purpose by providing some external conflict and helping explain what the Phoenix Force was, but they didn’t distract from the meat of the story about Jean too much. I felt it was a better approach than Last Stand, where they tried to use too many storylines that did deserve to be fleshed out more.

- I found it interesting that Hank can apparently switch to Beast form on command now at a second’s notice. I wonder if he can change back on command, too.

Shippy thoughts

My top X-Men ships are Charles/Hank, Charles/Erik, Erik/Hank, and Jean/Erik, roughly in that order.

- I was hoping for more Charles/Hank fodder than there was. I loved the early scene of them watching the news together, but they get very little screentime otherwise, and their fight didn’t give me as many C/H feelings as I was hoping it would. I also don’t like knowing if they ended things on good terms or not.

- The last scene between Charles and Erik is shippy and glorious. Chess as a flirtation device! Smiles! A kind of proposal! 10/10

- I am always on-board with an angsty, unlikely team-up between Hank and Erik, but the movie didn’t deliver on this front as much as I was hoping.

- Jean going to Erik was certainly satisfying, and I can’t be disappointed even if she didn’t stay long. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with fic scenarios based on it all the same.

[secretlymagneto]

Simon’s Dark Phoenix Review (Not the director, another Simon) (NOT SPOILER FREE)

Yeah, I’m a Simon too, what of it? That’s another thing, actually. Watching DP was like reading my own writing. NOT A GOOD THING. I could see exactly what the director was going for and what the flaws in the script were because we have the same style, and my god was it bad. Like the pitfalls in my writing style but worse. A lot of the choices (setting and characterwise) are similar ones to what I would have made, which is why I’m trying to clear my head and make this. (Because while some of it is similar SOME OF THE DECISIONS ARE HORRIBLE WHY) It’s like looking at my evil twin yikes.

I have regathered my thoughts from last night after seeing Dark Phoenix. I’ve been mulling it over. I’ve been reading other reviews and looking through the lens of a fan, a moviegoer, and a critic.

What I have to say before I start:

Nostalgia. I have been watching x-men movies since 2014? 2012? My first X-Men movie was DOFP, so you can tell the precedent that set for me. There are two good X-Men Movies in the “new” timeline. DOFP, and First Class. You can tell (based on writing, character development, etc). This movie is not one of them.

Cons:

I’ll start with the cons first, to get them out of the way.

There are three women on the x-men team and they kill two of them. Storm is barely involved in anything, and only has a few moments of character/screentime. Also, they never call her Ororo despite that being her name. (Everyone else is referred to by name)

Some of the acting is lackluster. I was a bit surprised too. I don’t know, I was hoping for better. Especially in the mourning scenes.

Why hasn’t anyone talked about the PACING? It was weird, stilted, and way too quiet in some scenes. Sometimes the script was so vague and repetitive it sounded like a movie trailer rather than a movie. Raven’s death was anticlimactic merely due to the way it was written. Like, come on.

GOD THE SCRIPT IS AWFUL. Some of the character development is good (more on that later) BUT WOW. Sophie Turner isn’t a bad actress, so I wouldn’t fault her for her choices in this movie really. Like, most of the time she’s fine, but once in a while, she becomes unnecessarily repetitive. The character dialogue doesn’t flow. Sometimes the sentences are too short too often, which makes the film seem choppy. Show don’t tell is really important, but sometimes WHAT the characters say is telling in itself and they really could have used that to their advantage.

The villain was a bit underdeveloped. They were just kind of...there? Sometimes they were well and truly evil, and I really liked some of the scenes with the power transference and stuff. Other times, they were just a vague yet menacing “force” that sort of comes from nowhere and will soon go nowhere too.

Raven’s makeup isn’t good. Sometimes Hank’s isn’t either? But it’s not nearly as bad.

The score wavered between good and bad, sometimes drawing out scenes with a sort of Interstellar vibe (aka, very cool, very vast, very beautiful) but other times falling flat or making scenes too quiet.

Dude where the hell is Quicksilver? Peter is so important. His character development kind of relies on him revealing that Magneto is his dad (which Erik doesn’t know, and probably should have at this point). Also, Peter could have been a key player in convincing Erik that he wasn’t doing the right thing, but he wasn’t even there AT ALL. I know he’s not the main character, but I really expected some Dadneto moments in this one.

Kurt what. Just. What? Nightcrawler is like one of my favorite characters but there’s something about the way he’s written in this movie that’s sloppy. He’s still his sweet self around the beginning, but as the movie draws to a close his few moments of dialogue kind of (maybe) hint at development? Then he learns how to stop being a pacifist because some guy died, but like the way the actor conveys this looks like the way my friends used to pretend to do “violent rages” when they were younger. You know, the whole “AAAAAA” *stabs someone*. It looked cheesy.

There were some unintentionally hilarious moments. When Erik walks in with the subway car and looks up at Jean like “You think you can come into MY HOUSE and wreck MY SHIT for free??” that was PRICELESS. He doesn’t even say anything he just walks in there with his stupid train and stares at her. The evil lady is like talking to her when he just kind of bursts through the wall like the Kool-aid man.

Pros:

The first twenty minutes or so were the best twenty minutes. The work the team did together, the mission, and the atmosphere of the entire segment, was beautiful. Seeing the X-Men again on screen made me so giddy I was shaking.

The telekinesis was very good. I mean, the special effects weren’t always there but my god was the USE of telekinesis good. Like the creativity with it. They really manipulated it, making cool hand gestures and bringing power and finesse into play in order to make full use of the capabilities.

Erik has some of the most beautiful character development in this movie. He learns how to move when needed, while not taking drastic measures as he used to. He learns how to listen when necessary, and act when necessary. God, I’m such a Magneto stan.

Charles learns that he’s a flawed idiot. I’m so glad. (Quoted me, and also probably Magneto) Throughout all the movies he’s the good guy despite the fact that from his perspective and from the world’s perspective what he’s doing isn’t just the “optimistic” thing to do, but also the most dangerous. He’s sending teens (young adults?) to die for his cause because he believes so much in hope. It started in Cuba, and it’s still happening. He was the one who didn’t want to leave an astronaut behind. BASICALLY, HE SAYS THAT SOMETHING IS HIS FAULT AND THAT HE FAILED AND IT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENE.

Scott and Jean’s relationship was actually nice! I liked it! (Personal opinion obviously) but I didn’t think it seemed too forced or uh unlikeable like in X3. Scott is drastic but he’s not nearly as “edgy” as he was. The ending wasn’t heartbreaking, but it was great character development for Jean. It was a sweet relationship, but not one I’d label as moving. (at least it was nice! And I liked it! Sometimes relationships just seem forced and awful)

Listen, I know people say that Erik was unnecessary for this movie but seeing as he and Charles work as two perfect halves to Jean’s full power and potential is actually a really good story element. Like when Charles tries to coddle her, Erik gives her the truth. That’s good duality.

Erik working with the X-Men is the best thing that’s it it’s the best thing.

THE ENDING!!! SO GOOD!! It left me satisfied and it felt like a good sendoff. Charles and Erik are finally friends again, and they’ve finally developed enough to know their own flaws. It was also super cute aaa

Moira Mactaggart isn’t in this movie. I don’t hate her character, but god the way her relationship is written with Charles is awful and I’ve had to deal with it for two movies. I’ve had enough and I’m so glad the writers realized this.

SOME OF THE SETTINGS AND SHOTS ARE GOOD. I don’t know how to explain it, but as a writer/artist, I’m a big fan of atmosphere and setting/color means EVERYTHING. The suburban neighborhood is pale and desolate, set during a hazed summer and conveying a sense of warped nostalgia. The mission in space was beautifully lit and composed.

As a fan I was happy with it. It may have not been the best movie, but by god was it as good as it was going to get. It far surpassed my expectations with Jean’s story arc (finally not making her “suddenly evil” or whatever, and not making her sexy) and it rounded out Charles and Erik in a very nice and healthy way.

THE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE. This is the one X-Men movie I’ve seen where I didn’t want to punch anyone in the fact for not just saying something or apologizing. CHARLES ACTUALLY SEES HIS FAULTS. He actually apologizes and steps down from his position. Erik actually listens and carefully reviews the circumstances in order to make an educated decision. Charles stops making his stupid self-righteous speeches (he’s really bad at that). Raven actually tries talking to Jean first before fighting, and the things she says weren’t problematic. Unlike when Charles keeps trying to talk to Erik (and botches it because they don’t have the same background and they’re too different, blah blah blah), Raven’s speech wasn’t assuming anything about Jean. It was about supporting her and helping her out. Jean was overwhelmed, but the grounding methods Raven used weren’t incorrect.

Conclusion:

6.5/10. I would say Apocolypse is only slightly better because it is more structurally sound, but it’s on thin ice. DOFP is still an all time favorite, and First class is up there, but Dark Phoenix isn’t the best. It was quiet, overdramatic, and while doing better on the emotional side felt overwhelmingly anticlimactic. If you’re a fan of the characters and you just want to see them again? See it. I liked this movie a lot for that, and I really enjoyed the moments in the movie. If you want to see a GOOD x-men movie? Don’t bother. It’s not GOOD GOOD. It’s not BAD. It’s Okay. It’s okay and I enjoyed it. I was actually pleasantly surprised by it based on my expectations! And I really liked certain aspects. So give it a shot, okay? Don’t let the mean reviewers get you down, this movie is better than they let on even if it’s not good as a “movie”.

[metalandmagi]

October Media Madness!

It’s the last day of the month, so you know what that means! What-no not Halloween! It’s time to see how one person wasted their time this month by keeping track of all the media they consumed! And if you thought October would mean a lot of horror movies and books and TV shows...you are going to be very disappointed because I’m a fucking wimp who hates horror.

September media

Movies!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Scott Pilgrim, aka the most intentionally unlikable protagonist ever, has to defeat the seven evil ex-boy...uh I mean exes of the cool girl he’s dating. Yeah, I’m super late to the Edgar Wright party, but since this movie was finally available on Netflix I figured it was time. And it’s pretty good aside from the fact that Scott is the worst. But at least he owns up to it in the end. It’s crazy over the top ridiculous, has tons of little details that film theorists love to salivate over, and Scott’s roommate Wallace is hilarious. I just wish I could hear what Michael Cera says half the time. Oh well, there’s nothing good or bad I can say about this movie that hasn’t been said before. 8/10

Coraline: Coraline Jones, an imaginative young girl with inattentive parents who has just moved into a new apartment, discovers a secret door that leads to a world where everything is better, and everyone has buttons for eyes. However, under the perfect exterior, things are more sinister than they seem. I got the urge to re-watch this because it’s freaking October, and although I don’t watch horror movies, I felt obligated to watch something at least kind of Halloween-ish. And I stand by my long held opinion that this is the all time creepiest movie marketed for children ever made. Literally everything about this movie is creepy. There’s creepy music, creepy dolls being made and following people around, creepy cats, creepy people with buttons for eyes, creepy ghosts of children, creepy children with their mouths shown shut...the list is endless. And Laika never fails to make beautifully animated stop motion. 9/10

Sierra Burgess is a Loser: The latest film in Netflix’s attempt to dominate the rom-com genre, in which an unpopular high school girl ends up texting a handsome jock while leading him to believe he is texting a gorgeous cheerleader named Veronica who also goes to her school.

Okay, this isn’t a bad movie, so let me start with the good. I appreciate the message of how you need to make yourself stand out to colleges and how high school in general is becoming a toxic competitive environment. There’s a lot of good material about living up to expectations and stereotypes, both from Sierra’s side and her partner in crime Veronica’s. And speaking of Veronica, I was completely blindsided by how much of a great character she was and how much she grew throughout the film. I also liked Sierra’s best friend and the love interest, even if they were a little generic.

That being said...I didn’t like Sierra. When main characters intentionally lead people on for no good reason (and thinking some guy you’ve just met isn’t going to text you back because you’re not “conventionally attractive” is not a good reason) it annoys the hell out of me. Not only does she lie through texting him, but she and Veronica lie to his face multiple times. She also does something really horrible to Veronica because of a misunderstanding that could have been avoided if she taken five seconds to use some common sense. She also thinks she’s above doing a simple homework assignment for her poetry class because she wants to be different. I realize she needs to stand out in order to get recommendations for college, but come on. And finally, when she’s upset about how she looks, she blames her parents because her mom is attractive??? Yes it is frustrating to have these brilliant “conventionally attractive” parents, but they always try to build her up, as opposed to Veronica’s mother who only tears her down. I DID NOT HATE HER CHARACTER, but I think she could have been portrayed better. The other major thing that bothered me is that there is the complete lack of proper conflict resolution. All the problems and hurt feelings just magically go away in order to have a happy ending. Overall, the movie’s just okay. 7/10

Howl’s Moving Castle: Sophie, an ordinary girl who gets cursed by a witch, turns into an old woman and ends up working for a wizard who steals hearts. It feels like Studio Ghibli’s version of beauty and the beast, except Howl is the beauty with a questionable personality, and Sophie is the “beast” who whips him into shape...until the second half of the movie anyway. I’d prefer to watch an entire movie of old woman Sophie interacting with the other characters rather than deal with the war aspect of the plot. Anyway, the animation is awesome, and I appreciate the English voice cast...except for the fact that no one had the good sense to use Crispin Freeman as Howl instead of just having him as Turnip-Head! I know lots of people have talked about the differences between the book and the movie, but I like how the movie portrays that even though being old is physically painful, it can also be emotionally freeing. Either way I think Sophie is a great character with a fun sense of humor! 8/10

First Man: The story of Neil Armstrong and the years leading up to the moon landing...which apparently a lot of people didn’t like? Some people are butthurt about there not being a shot of planting the flag (which if they actually saw the movie they would know the focus of the scenes on the moon were to show Armstrong dealing with wonder and grief, NOT rallying together as Americans). Some people are unhappy that an American hero can be portrayed so negatively, and some people just thought it was boring and dragged a lot…

Okay, yes, the movie is a drama that does not portray Armstrong in a glowing light, and yes there are certain scenes that go on too long. BUT I really liked this movie...and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like Ryan Gosling. It is a family drama that captures how different people respond to grief and stress set in the backdrop of the space race. I also liked learning about this period in history and the controversy around the space program in general. It was beautifully shot and had very creative music choices, which was the main reason I saw it in theaters. I came away from it awed and terrified that we basically sent these people to the moon in freaking tin cans, and that in the sixties men shunned their emotions so much that they wouldn’t hug their children before going to space! Overall, it was good in a solid way, but it did drag a bit. 7.5/10

Mama Mia: Another protagonist named Sophie is getting married and invites the three men who could each possibly be her father to the wedding. But who cares about the plot, the main purpose of the film is to show women having fun with their friends! This movie...isn’t exactly good, but it 100% knows what it wants to be and accomplishes that. It’s a wacky, ridiculous, musical romp that people only watch with their friends when they’re plastered because they want to hear ABBA songs. It’s the very definition of a guilty pleasure movie, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I will say that it’s harder for me to relate to because I don’t have friends that I act this ridiculous with, and sometimes it gets to be a bit much. Although, I have seen the Broadway musical and remember absolutely loving every minute of it...so maybe it’s just the movie overplaying it. Oh well, it’s just something fun to have on in the background or watch when you need cheering up! It’s a 9/10 for being accomplishing what it wants and a 6/10 as an actual movie.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: In this Marvel filler episode between Infinity War and Captain Marvel, Scott is under house arrest and Hope tries to get her mother out of the quantum realm. Okay, this was a fun movie with some great moments, but it definitely had its issues. For a movie called Ant-Man and the Wasp, the two did not do much fighting together...or at all until the end. It felt more like an origin to their partnership than a team up movie (and I’d rather have a Wasp and Black Widow team up movie...or all the Marvel women team up movie). It also couldn’t figure out who the villain should be. It’s like they realized half way through writing it that Ghost was way too sympathetic and cool and had to come up with a bunch of more forgettable villains. And because this was more of a hot potato rather than a heist, I didn’t think it was as fun as the first movie overall. HOWEVER I still really enjoyed the inventive action and the characters. I will always watch 2 hours of Evangeline Lilly kicking ass, and Paul Rudd being himself. And I am convinced that Marvel is using The Adventure Zone route of needing competent women to solve everyone’s problems. But the heart of the movie is really family. Hank and Hope, Scott and his daughter, and even Ghost all had very compelling stories that drew me in every time. And that post credits scene...I knew it was coming, but come on! Marvel is the only current studio who can basically do a horror movie “The End…?” in their credits now. 7.5/10

The Chronicles of Narnia-The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Disney version of the classic C.S. Lewis book; come on we all know the story. Okay, I watched this for the first time in several years because I also read the book this month. And holy cow, when you see what material the movie had to work with, this is a freaking masterpiece. It takes a very simple children’s book and turns it into an epic fantasy! The score, the little details, and the setting are all perfect. All the characters are so real and fleshed out AND ACCURATELY PORTRAYED FOR THEIR AGES! All four siblings are struggling with something, and the actors do a great job considering they were actual children while making this! I am so angry that Disney let this property’s potential slip through their fingers because I truly believe that if they kept making movies like this, it could have been their Harry Potter by now. Prince Caspian was also excellent, though I don’t remember much of Dawn Treader, but I think if they put the money and effort into continuing this franchise it could have been great.

One thing I don’t appreciate about the movie is how they reduce Edmund’s mental journey. I have always especially loved Edmund as a character, and something the movie fails to mention is the fact that APPARENTLY in the book the Turkish Delight is enchanted to make whoever eats it think only of eating more and more until THEY EAT SO MUCH THAT THEY DIE?! He’s not just a greedy kid. And there’s a lot more to his time with the Witch that makes his actions easier to understand. Anyway it definitely goes down as one of the best book to movie adaptations I’ve ever seen, and it is on my very short list of movies that are better than the books. 10/10

Books!

The Chronicles of Narnia- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis: It’s the first Narnia book; we all know the plot. I am one of the many people who had this series read to them as a kid, but it’s been like...eleven years since I actually read these books for myself. Even then I only got to The Horse and His Boy before stopping because it was boring as hell. I’ve been wanting to re-read the series all year, and with only the Disney movies in recent memory, imagine my surprise when I found out that Lewis’s writing style is absolutely bananas! I think he’s acting as some omniscient narrator, but his style is so stream of consciousness it’s hilarious! He constantly addresses the audience in these 2007 fanfiction author-esque asides. The Pevensies are the most posh, old-timey sounding British kids ever, and it’s amazing to visualize children that actually speak like this. Everything happens so quickly because it is 100% meant to be a children’s story, not this epic adventure we all associate with the movies. So...if you’ve never read it before definitely check it out just to discover how utterly wild everything is. My only real complaint is that it’s kinda sexist, and no one except for Edmund gets a character arc. Even though Susan gets a bow and Lucy gets a dagger, they’re treated like they shouldn’t be fighting because they’re girls and not...oh I don’t know...because they’re children! 7/10

The Ladies Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee: The second installment of...idk...the “Guide” series? I talked about the first book, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in my May Media Madness, and this book is just as good! This series takes place in the 1700s, and while the first book follows arrogant bisexual disaster Monty, his (boy)friend Percy, and his sister Felicity through a romp across Europe, this book follows Felicity and her friends on a...let’s just say “scientific expedition” involving pirates. The less you know about the plot going in the better. And did I mention her friends include a badass Muslim pirate princess and an Elle Woods-esque dog loving naturalist? And also did I mention Felicity is CANONICALLY revealed as ARO/ACE?! It’s strongly hinted at in the first book, and in this book Mackenzi Lee basically shoves any doubt about it out the window. It’s fun, hilarious, and also heartbreaking at the same because of all the challenges each character faces because they’re ambitious women in this time period. Sometimes it feels a little heavy handed in its feminist messages, but you can’t deny it’s not accurate. I’m really only saying that because I am a woman, and the struggles are nothing I haven’t seen or read before.  Anyway, this is a fantastic series that I highly recommend to anyone looking for a fun read, and it gets bonus points for including Monty and Percy being disgustingly in love together! 1000/10

Dear Evan Hansen the Novel by Val Emmich (and also Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul):

Buckle up.

I really love the Dear Evan Hansen musical (which I talked about in my August Media Madness.) The novel is almost a word for word adaptation of the musical, in which Evan, a teenager with anxiety, writes a letter to himself that is stolen by a boy who commits suicide, leading everyone to believe Evan and the boy, Connor, were best friends because they assume Connor wrote the letter to Evan. There is a lot I could say about this adaptation, but the number one thing is: I really don’t know if people who haven’t seen the musical or heard the soundtrack will like it as much. The strength of Dear Evan Hansen is mainly in its performances and its music, and while they tried to work the music in as best they could, I enjoyed the story more because I can link it back to the actors’ performances. Yes, the story is interesting and the message is important, but I honestly don’t know how much people going in blind will like the writing and how the characters are portrayed. Overall, it seemed like a well written fanfic- in a good way, not a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child way. That being said, I did really enjoy a lot of things about this book. They expanded on a lot about Evan’s relationship with his absent father and the aftermath of the big lie. They also expanded on a lot about Connor…

I honestly don’t know how I feel about Ghost Connor. Yes, I’m glad Connor shows up as a ghost in the book. What he doesn’t do is ACTUALLY INTERACT WITH EVAN...LIKE AT ALL! The best parts of the show are when Connor, as a figment of Evan’s imagination acts as a comedic buffer and his “moral center.” However, here ghost Connor exists to give snippets of Connor’s life. He barely comments on what Evan is doing at all even though he sees everything. All of Connor’s sections made me feel like the author was going through the DEH tag on AO3 and picking things to throw in. I liked his sections, but the writers really missed the more entertaining story of having Connor actually commenting about the shit Evan is doing.

So overall, I’d say watch the musical if you can find a bootleg, or at least listen to the soundtrack and then read the book. It was very enjoyable, although I think the ending dragged a bit in its quest to give more closure than the musical. 8.5/10

Bonus Manga

Shimanami Tasogare: Tasuku Kaname, a closeted boy starting his first year of high school meets a mysterious woman named Anonymous who helps him finds solace in a lounge run by other members of the LGBT+ community. This is the kind of manga that really hits and misses for me. It does a great job at portraying the struggles of a community with different sexualities and gender identities, and it has some really great characters and beautiful moments that I really think would be even better animated. But there are some character arcs that I feel are really...incomplete. It feels like the author was rushed into finishing the manga and did the best they could, but certain characters come off as major hypocrites or suddenly act like their arcs never happened. I also appreciate having an asexual character play such a big role, but the chapter where she talks about her identity as a person is just kind of...bizarre. Not to mention I barely understood what was happening for the first couple chapters because everything Anonymous says is so vague. There’s a lot I could say about this manga, but really I think it’s something everyone should read for themselves (and you’ll definitely need your tissue boxes). 8/10

TV Shows!

Arrested Development: “The story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.” Aka Ron Howard narrates the shenanigans of the worst people you’ll ever see. Yes, I finally got around to watching this, and yes the first three seasons are hilarious. It’s got the same beats as a soap opera (twins, adoption, losing limbs in seal attacks), but in a sitcom format it’s genius. The fourth and fifth (or at least what there is of the fifth) are just nothing special in my opinion. I thought the fourth season was structured terribly, and once the family starts getting into politics the show tries to be a form of satire that just doesn’t work for it. Plus I live with a family of Trump supporters; so it’s not as funny when you have to live with the racist people the show is making fun of who take all the “wall” stuff seriously. 8/10

Documental: A Japanese...social experiment/documentary/game show type thing on Amazon Prime wherein 10 comedians all get locked in a room together and attempt to make each other laugh without laughing themselves. The twist is each of them contribute 1 million yen to play, and the winner gets the pot of 10 million yen. In the first season, the show is more interesting as a social experiment than it is funny. You’ll like it if you like Japanese comedy. But the thing about Japanese comedy is...well, just picture an episode of Osomatsu-san, with all the disgusting and bizarre shit they do, and then picture real people. Though I do love seeing the faces everyone makes when they’re trying not to laugh! HOWEVER, the second season is so much better. I was laughing so much every episode that it hardly felt like the same show. They also changed the format a little so there would definitely be a winner at the end of the time. There’s still gross weird shit, but it’s a much better season. I give season 1 a 6/10 and season 2 an 8.5/10

Over the Garden Wall: In case you’ve been skipping the entire season of autumn since 2014, OTGW is a 10 episode miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network detailing the journey of two brothers Wirt and Greg who are lost in a mysterious wood called “The Unknown.” But really the whole thing is like a stuck in Purgatory story. It’s one of those shows that goes from adorable and funny to dark as fuck real quick. I think it’s impossible to go through the fall season without watching this at least once. This is another one of those things where there’s nothing I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. The atmosphere is perfect for Halloween, the characters are great (Elijah Wood voices Wirt, and it’s the best), and there are so many hidden clues that after it aired we all demanded a Gravity Falls crossover…

I could go on. This show is perfect except for the unnecessarily silly school teacher episode...and fact that it goes by too fast...and also the fact that now I know Elijah Wood has an adorable singing voice, and I’m salty that he didn’t really sing in Lord of the Rings. This is the atmospheric “watch it once a year” type of show that we desperately need more of...it doesn’t have to be the same characters or even have the same messages, but dang it Cartoon Network you can’t just give us this masterpiece and walk away!!! 10/10

Yuri On Ice: Yes, the figure skating anime. This is Tumblr so I doubt I need to post the summary of the show, but I do talk about it in my Hufflepuff Anime recommendations post. Since I couldn’t watch the Yuri On Ice marathon (which was coincidentally held on my birthday!) I decided to have my own dang marathon. There’s just so much to love about this anime: the music, the animation, the characters, the diversity, the humor, and the accuracy to the sport. But I think the main reason I love this show so much is because, as someone who watches a lot of sports anime, I really appreciate this show doing something different and focusing on ADULTS WHO ACTUALLY RELY ON THE SPORT AS A CAREER and using drama that way instead of the main source of angst being “we have to win the match for our senpai!” This is one of those shows you can watch a million times and still find new things to love! 10/10

Podcasts!

I don’t know why I made a separate section for this, since I only listened to one.

Hey Riddle Riddle: A podcast with three hosts that go talk about riddles and puzzles (aka puzzies and riddies) and role play various ridiculous answers to them. I started listening to it because Justin McElroy was on an episode, and it was pretty funny. The podcast is interesting and entertaining, except for the fact that sometimes their role playing and improve can go on for too long, and they don’t know when to let a joke die. Also one of the co-hosts is really annoying, but the other two make up for it. 8/10

Honorable Mentions

Camp Camp released a Halloween episode called Arrival of the Torso Takers and I watched it...probably four times...I don’t have a problem.

Some shows I watch on actual television came back this fall! Bob’s Burgers, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Fresh Off the Boat, Speechless, Modern Family (yes I still watch that), and The Good Place!

I don’t know if this was a leak or what, but there’s a new My Little Pony christmas Hearthswarming special, and guys...I thought it was pretty great. Say what you want about this show, but it knows how to do holiday episodes. Anyone who has been a fan for a long time or even fans who have fallen off the show will probably love it. It’s very sweet and never went in the direction I thought it would.

And last but not least, shout out to all the anime coming out this fall...there’s just...so much to watch...please help...

[dom8888]

Jim Carrey Turns 60: From ‘Eternal Sunshine’ to ‘Ace Ventura,’ His 10 Best Film Performances

Actor and comedian Jim Carrey has accumulated a wide range of memorable performances that have made him one of the most revered movie stars in history. The Canadian-born actor started alongside great stand-up comedians like Rodney Dangerfield before getting his big break on television with the classic variety series “In Living Color.”

Variety is ranking his 10 best film performances to celebrate the actor’s 60th birthday.

Carrey’s run in the 1990’s is among the most dominant for any actor in film history. In 1994, he opened three worldwide moneymaking juggernauts – “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” ($107 million), “Dumb and Dumber” ($270 million) and “The Mask” ($351 million). From that point forward, there was no stopping him.

He moved into the villainous Riddler in Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” (1995) opposite Val Kilmer before reprising his role in the undervalued “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” which introduced the world to a young Sophie Okonedo before she would get her Oscar nom for “Hotel Rwanda” (2004).

He made history as the first actor to be paid $20 million for Ben Stiller’s black comedy “The Cable Guy” (1996), playing a mad cable TV installer who becomes obsessed with one of his customers, played by Matthew Broderick.

It was the year of “Titanic,” and Carrey still stayed in the conversation with his take on a lawyer who is unable to lie for 24 hours in the hilarious “Liar Liar” (1997). He received a Golden Globe nod for his work, an awards competition which spawned one of Carrey’s best jokes: “It’s insane… I mean Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Kline – I don’t see how I can lose.”

Looking to change it up, he teamed up with Peter Weir for the dramedy “The Truman Show” (1998), winning his first Golden Globe for lead actor drama, over top-tier actors like Ian McKellen (“Gods and Monsters”) and Tom Hanks (“Saving Private Ryan”). However, he was famously snubbed by the Academy in favor of Roberto Benigni (“Life is Beautiful”) and Edward Norton (“American History X”), which he referenced hilariously when he won the MTV Movie Award for best male performance.

Carrey’s determination to venture further into the dramatic realm remained firm. He took on the life of Andy Kaufman in Milos Forman’s “Man on the Moon” (1999), which led him to his first and only SAG nod. He also played the heartbroken Joel Barish in Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004), landing him his only BAFTA nom.

Since then, he’s been a shell of his former self in terms of box office clout, but there are still hints of his greatness, such as his con-man Steven Russell in “I Love You Phillip Morris” (2009) and even his Dr. Robotnik in “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020).

Read Variety’s rankings of Jim Carrey’s best performances in film down below:

Honorable mentions: “Batman Forever” (1995), “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” (2004), “Me, Myself & Irene” (2000)

[gemini-venus-ships]

Prelude to a Kiss

Rita: So,why were you in Europe for ten years?

Peter:How did you know I was in Europe?

Rita: Word gets around.

Peter: You asked Taylor about me?You were asking around about me? Let's get married.

Rita: Okay.

Peter: Okay.- This is the story, and I'm not making it up.

Rita: Okay.

Peter: And it's not as sad as it sounds.

Rita: Shoot.

Peter:My parents separated when I was four. I went to live with my grand parents- who are unfortunately deceased now- I'm gonna make this as brief as possible.

Rita: Take your time. - And- - We can go up to my place when you're done.

Peter:And everything worked out great for everybody. It was amazing.

Rita: No. Go on.

Peter: I'm four years old. I go to live with my grand parents, who both wound up having to go into nursing homes when I was 12. They were both sick. So I go to live with my mother, who by this time is remarried to Hank,

Rita: Uh-huh.

Peter: A very unhappy person. Ridicules me in front of the other two children they have created...from their unsavory loins. So I go to live with my father, who has also remarried with three other children. Sophie, the new wife, hates me even more than Hank.

Rita: This is like Dickens.

Peter:The only nice thing Sophie ever did for me was make the same food twice… when I made the mistake of saying that l liked it. Usually she would stop cooking whatever it was I said l liked.

Rita: What was it?

Peter:What l liked? Spaetzles.

Rita: Oh, God.

Peter:You've had spaetzles?

Rita: Oh, sure.

Peter: You like them?

Rita: I love them.

Peter: You love spaetzles.- Anyway, everyone is unhappy now.

Rita: Uh-huh.

Peter:My father doesn't seem too fond of me. I'm not sure if he ever was, but- So one night I say I'm going to the movies,and instead,I go to Europe.

Rita: What movie?

Peter: The Wild Bunch, I think. Why?

Rita: Did you call them?

Peter: Not until I got there. And I called collect.

Rita: Europe?

Peter: That is - Yeah.

Rita: Good for you.

Peter: Yeah. Why did you ask me which movie?

Rita: That is fabulous.

Peter:That's the story.

Rita: Oh, wow.

Peter: Then I came back when my dad died.