#i remember because i watched the original movie and was really fascinated by the changes they made to it

[witchblade]

i remember the will smith fish movie being turned into a homemade printed and stapled book of screenshots and christianfied but i dont remember how

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Guess what I got! The recording scripts for all of the episodes of Spongebob season 13!! Gang gang

I got it from some guy from YouTube. He said this was leaked on internet archive and Nick tried to scrub it clean off the interwebz. He managed to salvage some and he gave me a link. His account was gone before I had an opportunity to say thank you, so now I have it. I'm sharing it here because idgaf if my account gets taken down lol. But also no one checks tumblr anyways.

I made sure to print out the Slappy Daze recording script because idgaf about the other episodes tbh. I only care about my beloved Peter Lorre fish's day in the limelight <3 I put it in this plastic slip and keep it in a nice binder. It's my most prized possession besides Slappy's character sheet. I also have the Squidferatu script as well.

To be honest a lot of these scripts are pretty similar to the final product of the episode. There are some minor differences like Slappy wasn't originally in the script for There Will Be Grease. Instead it was supposed to be some nerdy fish asking if everything juice will make him sound more manly. Bless whoever snuck Slappy in there because you all remember me tweaking for a week when the episode came out because I was so happy Slappy got a part in the song lol.

Also the episode Upturn Girls was originally titled City Cetaceans.

Slappy Daze is pretty near identical to the final product tbh. Nothing really changed besides a few words. I am fascinated by the fact that the first draft is dated as being July 30th 2021. By that point I already fully and completely developed Slappy brain worms and was already considering watching Lorre's movies to get my fix cuz the airings of the Patrick show were frustrating. Ahh the good ol days <3

I also do believe Slippy (Slappy's female counterpart) was made for Slappy Daze originally though. The episode gives a physical description of Slippy which makes me think she just made for the moment. I think she was added to Mid-Season Finale in The Patrick Star Show episode afterwards but Mid-Season Finale aired first. Nickelodeon actually did mess up with this episode and released it on DVD before it officially aired. Now the pieces are coming together. This is only interesting to me lol.

Spongebob fans are such h8rs fr. Where else would you find THE original dreamy haired emo boy Cesare the Somnanbulist working as an assistant for the primary care physician fish Dr. Caligari? I would LOVE for Cesare to rid me of my allergies😤😤

Squidferatu actually has the most differences between the script and the final product. Plus plenty of interesting details. Squidferatu actually has two scripts, part one and part two.

The first and most important detail to me is the fact that Slappy is still named "Laszlo". You've seen Slappy's character sheet where it mentions he was formerly named "Laszlo" (obviously a reference to Peter Lorre's birth name Laszlo Löwenstein).

But in the Squidferatu scripts you can actually find the EXACT moment where his name changes from Laszlo to Slappy. It all has to do with one specific gag.

These both are the same scene. The left side is from Squidferatu part 1 and the right is Squidferatu part 2.

I do think they absolutely fumbled the name Laszlo. There are enough cartoon characters named Slappy. Laszlo is much much cuter and brings the Lorre reference full circle but oh well.

I also keep forgetting to mention but the villager in Squidferatu who begs Spongebob and Squidward not to go to the castle was intended to be the same villager in the 1931 Dracula who warns Renfield, who actually was based on a villager from the 1922 Nosferatu who warns Thomas Hutter. This character respawned in 3 different pieces of media. I think he's the true star of this episode lol.

There is also the fact that carriage driver in Squidferatu is confirmed to be Nosferatu! I feel like this fact is obvious enough if you're familiar with Dracula media (1922 Nosferatu, 1931 Dracula, or even just reading the book) the count is always the carriage driver duh

Also the fact that in this episode he hisses like a vampire, is strangely humanoid, and briefly has the Nosferatu™ eyebrows which fully gives it away. Unfortunately the folks on the SB wiki do not agree >:((

The first time I saw the carriage driver I said "ohh he kinda bad" and you know what? I'm not retracting my statement. He IS a baddie. I'm tired of lying to myself otherwise.

Anyways this caused me to come up with a headcanon that Nosferatu is broke and likely does not pay Slappy. I mean that explains why Nos has taken on shifts at the Krusty Krab, but also explains why Slappy is working 2 jobs in The Patrick Star Show. I imagine property taxes on a castle really drains a vampire's family fortune. I'm getting off topic.

There are some extra gags that didn't make it into the episode.

There's also the fact that we've been robbed of Erik from the Phantom of The Opera giving the audience a cute wink uwu

[pesky--dust]

Ever since I read an interview where Fuller was upset because a movie wasn’t faithful to the original source material I think no wonder he keeps trying to add in stuff from other Hannibal books and sprinkling Clarice everywhere. It’s disappointing because I think the show is at its best when it’s doing something different and letting its characters stand on their own. Some lines he kept in didn’t even make sense like the Red Dragon thinking Will wasn’t handsome because he’s not in the book but he most definitely is in the tv show.

To be honest, I don't feel "objective" enough on this topic, because my first contact with Lecter's universe was Silence of the Lambs when I was a teenager. Then, in the mood for some crime-psychological series, I decided to give NBC's Hannibal a try. I started reading the books at the very end, so I think that watching the movie and series before the source material changes my perception of it, which is quite common when it comes to adaptations.

When it comes to me though, until recently I believed that the best adaptations were films/series that were fully faithful to the source material. It's only recently that I've started to learn what adaptation actually means and that no, not always being fully faithful to the source material is good.

I understand that Clarice's absence may be disappointing, but in case of Hannibal, I usually try to separate the book and TV series canon. And if I'm honest, while reading the books, I enjoyed recognizing parts I already knew from the series and movies. It gave me a new context of all of that.

Learning that Will mixes with Clarice in the series happened quite quickly after I finished watching the series, so I took it as quite natural that the lines about Clarice in the book/films were used for Will and I think it's good, since he took the role of Hannibal "lover". Changing the context of the conversation about "imago"? This is a moment in Mizumono that still gets me every single time.

However, it makes me chuckle a little bit, when I see how often fans of the series think that the producers came with the most beautiful lines about love, when most of the iconic words from the series (like: "If I saw you everyday forever, I would remember this time", "feel stab of hunger and find nourishment at the very sight of...", etc.), actually come from the books.

I got kinda sad though, when I realised how many of Doctor Bloom's lines the show assigned to Hannibal to make him seem even more amazing and "superhuman", because I feel like it strippes Doctor Bloom of their (in books it's a male, in the series it's a woman, so their) inteligence, making Doctor Bloom mainly a love interest for two seasons.

I know the show's creators didn't get the rights to Clarice, but at the same time, they poured a lot of her into the character of Miriam Lass and sometimes you may wonder why they didn't replace Clarice entirely with her. Does this have to do something with rights as well?

The changes introduced by the series with the usage of the source material fascinate me and I guess that I like most of them.

I have to admit though that the third season really neglects Francis Dolarhyde and I only understood what was actually happening in season 3B after reading the book.

But I disagree that Francis' comment about Will's appearance doesn't fit here! It is known that both in the book and in the adaptations Francis has very low self-esteem. If I remember correctly, in the book he aims the knife at Will's eye but hits him in the face instead, the same in the series. He may comment that Will is ugly, but still, he aimed at his face, as if in jealousy that Will "sees" him but hasn't experienced what he has.

[clearwillow]

Happy Halloween! I had a wild thought and decided to see if I could dress up the few households I've made in the Sims this year. I didn't want to mess up the individual households, so I saved them to the gallery and started a new save so I could put them all in one household. Because I thought it'd be easier to control all eight than travel with one set, then invite the others to the amusement park I built.

Don't do that to yourself if you're only used to keeping watch over 1-2 sims, especially if you leave autonomy on. Under the cut are some notes and more pics when I sent them to the amusement park.

In the first 10 minutes of dumping them all in one house, we had MF!Hanyou Inuyasha and Kagome "woohooing (a butt pat at best) in the kitchen, pissing Youkai Inuyasha off because she was "cheating" on him. (Thanks to MCCC I fixed that because that didn't happen before Lovestruck changed stuff) but this also trapped everyone in the dining room cause no one would walk through there.

Other things you might find funny:

Everyone likes to gather in the bathroom for some reason, and it's always when someone needs to pee.

MW!Inuyasha does not give a shit and will walk through the house naked. Does a full house tour then gets embarrassed. SIR -

They were fascinated with the flat screen tv but continued to watch terrible movies...?

Because I used the WW mod to help adjust poses since I'm still not used to dropping the teleporter object in the right place, I didn't think to disable some...features. The shower has been a favored place for them to go. Again, whenever someone has to pee. I even put in a second bathroom but it wasn't good enough.

Turns out the ones that have hats with their costumes like to keep their hat on at this time. Clicking stop action is not nearly as satisfying as it would be to turn a hose on these sims.

MW!Inuyasha's costume is cut so high that I needed to disable another feature that I originally thought was an odd shadow. Nearly choked on my cough drop when I realized the shrubs needed to be ripped out.

MF!Hanyou Inuyasha's costume is exactly what you think it is IYKYK

No one wanted to actually sleep in a bed. Everyone took turns napping on the couch. I'm glad I didn't go heavy on decorating this house. Ungrateful shits.

At the amusement park lot I made in Windenburg, there's 5 functional rides, a haunted house, go cart course, ferris wheel, some carnival games, and food. Enough to keep sims busy and boy did it...

Gotta appreciate how they picked which cart they got in on their own. Don't remember who won though, I was chasing down another sim.

A couple of the rides on the lot:

And these two idiots 🤣 That's the face of a man who's sitting next to a demon dressed as an angel and realized he could be manifesting disaster.

This haunted coaster was in a basement level of the lot. No joke this was Kagome's face the entire time.

They really liked playing the games and emptying the households funds. Lost track of a sim? Probably throwing darts.

But there's also the haunted house, and if the sim wasn't playing games, they were probably going through the haunted house. Youkai Inuyasha wet himself twice but kept going back.

Sims can also get a scared moodlet (quite a few of them did, like MW!Kagome). MW!Inuyasha was just trying to get a piece of pizza when Kagome runs up to him and just screams. He screams back. 5 minutes later they were making out on the ferris wheel, so I guess she got over it.

I had to pose them in groups outside the haunted house entrance in sets because of clipping issues, but still they are some doozies.

Finally, one bonus image that I happened to get when I was posing them for the big group picture. I had all of them go sit on a hay bale, pose them, then used WW to move them around.

This dumbass decided to do his idle animation right as he sat down. If you don't know what I'm talking about, mermaids and mermen in Sulani will randomly make dolphin sounds. It's as funny as you think it is, because you don't expect it when it happens.

Custom content creators and modders deserve all the love for what they can do, hands down. I am also so sorry for the cursed creations, if any of those creators see this lol

[princess-nobody]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Mae Thoughts

(Spoiler Warning)

So I just got home from watching Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and while I can't articulate it very well right now, I will say that I do not like Mae very much... perhaps in the future, when I rewatch the film, I will make a deeper and more detailed post on this, or even change my thoughts entirely, but here's my initial thoughts.

I want to start this off by admitting my obvious bias, I have never been a huge fan of the human characters in the pota reboot franchise, I understand their necessity and there's a few I enjoy (loved Nova in War) but overall they have consistently been the least interesting characters in each movie. This isn't really a pota problem, this is just a problem with xenofiction in general; that is to say, in a world of sentient apes with heightened intelligence as well as their own foreign cultures and lifestyles, the recognizable humans who are alike to the audience in behavior, culture and general lifestyle are going to be the least interesting. Even my favorite franchise Avatar struggles from this, with Spider being not that interesting by virtue of him being surrounded by far more fascinating na'vi characters. Therefore, I admit I'm partially biased because Mae is human, and a lot of humans in this franchise are mind-numbingly boring.

Before I get negative, I will say that I adore how they handled Noa and Mae's conflict – I remember thinking halfway through the film, "aren't they supposed to be bonding by now? Why is there no chemistry?" only for the film to end with them having ended up even more apart than they were when they first met. Fundamentally, Noa and Mae cannot get along because they both represent very different mindsets on the current state of the world. Mae bringing the gun to confrontation only proved that she never gained a respect or new outlook on the apes, and Noa could not pretend to like someone who sees him as an animal undeserving of the life they now have with their newfound intelligence. So yeah, good job Kingdom!

With that being said, I feel Mae as a character wasn't as effective as she could have been because of the fact that she triggers a specific sort of annoyance in the audience, which has everything to do with the fact that (pretty much) everyone who went to see this film had seen the last three films. The victim act is understandable from a personal standpoint – it's been 300 years since War, most humans are feral and only those living in hiding are still in any way like regular humans, so of course Mae sees the apes as her oppressors – but after watching three films that are set over the span of decades following humans absolutely terrorizing the apes and nearly killing them off, despite said apes begging them to just leave them alone, it's hard for you to feel all that bad for the humans in this situation.

It's difficult to be accepting of the narrative that it is now the humans that are the victims in this story, when it was the humans that experimented and abused the original apes, it was the humans that created the simian flu, it was the humans that instigated the original ape human war and it was humans that killed Caesar. The humans started the war, and they also happened to lose it. So, while I can understand Mae and her motivations, it's very hard to see her in a sympathetic light with the knowledge of all of the atrocities humanity has inflicted upon the apes.

It also doesn't help that Mae just didn't get as much development and time to be eased into the audience as she could have, especially since the movie is over 2 hours long (which I find hilarious, considering the pacing issues it has). Whenever she was on screen, she was either nasty to one of the apes or being typically defiant and rude, and if she wasn't doing that, she was having incredibly awkward moments of conversation with them. She barely had a character aside from the human girl that's tagging along, and her motivations ultimately don't do enough to justify most of the decisions she made.

The fact that I cannot tell you anything about her aside from she's a human and wants to make humans smart again, despite spending 2 hours with her, is a sign that she was not a very well thought out character. I respect the nods to the original Nova, but I feel they really dropped the ball with Mae.

Then again, we probably have another 2 or 3 movies to go, so maybe they'll rectify this in coming films lol.

[animereviewsbykyranskye]

My current top 15 Anime and why

Because why the fuck not. I'm doing top 15 so that I have some variety behind it. Otherwise I would just be gushing non stop XD

Apparently numbers go big now - AND THEY GO SMALLER IF YOU TRY TO TYPE IN THE SAME LINE AS THEM???

comparison:

15

15 -

DA HECK????

(Edit: I was going to colour all the numbers because I wanted a rainbow. WHY THE FUCK FOR THEY CHANGE TO SMALL WHEN YOU COLOUR THEM??????)

Guess the titles of the anime get a small heading. Anyways. Onto the actual list!

15

Technoroid OVERMIND

Ayo. Starting out with a really random one. So if anyone were to look at my Anilist then they might be a bit confused. I decided I'd keep movies out of here as well as anything I haven't specifically finished. Also takt op. Destiny needs a re evaluation.

Anyways. This premise is so sick and I feel like they managed it really well. The characters were all really fun and the music was fantastic which is honestly the most important thing about Idol shows. I really like idol shows but often struggle with the stupid drama in them that just leads to seasons upon seasons that didn't need to happen or wouldn't actually happen.

In this they're just androids. The fantasy twist works so well for the genre and I honestly don't know why it isn't done more often. This way they can bullshit the drama and it actually makes sense.

Honestly my favourite character was Kite. He was great and his voice always gave me shivers. Especially his piece in the closing. Damn.

I don't want to go into full reviews with this, rather just gushing about things I like and stuff. I really don't think this got the recognition it deserves - probably because of it's deviation from the norm - but it would be cool to get some sort of sequel.

(Edit: There's a manga releasing apparently. Imma check that out.)

14

UniteUp!

Continuing on with the trend of idol animes apparently. UniteUp! was so good. As I mentioned in my Reviews while I watch of the show, it felt so grounded and real that other idol shows just don't seem to capture. These were all real people with real problems dealing with real life.

I also like how we had such a large cast of characters but it never really felt overwhelming as they focused on group dynamics and specific individuals rather than trying to cram every single person into their own arcs.

Once again the music was fantastic and by god was this show pretty gay. Honestly I don't know what the sentiments of others are, but the Anela duo definitely weren't straight and neither were Akira and Daiki. That bath scene says it all.

Anyways. If you want a fun time with a really solid idol anime, please check it out. I saw earlier that we're getting a season two soon. I am so looking forward to it.

13

Trigun Stampede

Damn! I don't even know what to really say about this one. The visuals are absolutely stunning - there is no doubt about that. The score and the characters are excellent. And how dare they leave us on that cliff hanger.

I have absolutely no history with this story and still need to watch and read the originally but I am really looking forward to seeing how the story adapts between the three.

You can ask my partner. I've already said we're watching everything trigun related as soon as we are done with our current show.

I'm really looking forward to season two. And especially seeing how this all pans out. Apparently there will be tears according to the fandom. Concern.

12

Re-main

Damn this show came out of nowhere for me. I watched it quite awhile ago and have been meaning to rewatch it again.

The premise is definitely a sports anime but honestly so different. All because of one thing. The fact that he is an amnesiac is such a fascinating concept to work with - especially with how he was before (trying not to spoil - can't remember when this comes up in the anime)

And then the ending?? Damn. They seriously set up that cliff hanger and I really hope this show gets a sequel.

I really can't say too much about it without giving away some spoilers but damn does it change up the formula and do it so fucking well.

11

Given

Given is great. Such a pure but heartbreaking portrayal of love on one side with such conflicting but also nurturing views on the other. Having the different realtionships throughout this is really well done how they all bounce off of each other. Especially when they entertwine it with the music.

As it is said. That is how they communicate - through the music.

I'm busy catching up with the manga and really hope the anime continues with it.

Also the fucking is just fucking gorgeous. It has no write to hit you that hard.

Also - something else that shouldn't be allowed to hit you that hard. Damn Mafuyu has had a difficult past. We love how he learns to heal and grow with Uenoyama at his side.

Anyways, moving on.

10

Bakuten!!

Okay. Who said a sports anime could be this pretty.

I love the art style and the music throughout all of this. I love the portayal and the evolution of these character - seriously all their arcs are great. The interactions of the team is so tangible and real.

I watch a lot of sports anime and I often struggle with some of the drama used within the sports - it feels like the only thing that ever fuels the story is the matches. Whereas in Bakuten - the character seriously fuel the story. You can understand their motivations much more than just - I want to play this sport and be the best!

I also feel like they really captured everything really well in the movie. The whole concept of wanting to sore is great and really well executed.

I also love the interactions they have with the other team. It's not just a once off competition or practice match that they face each other. We actually get tangible characters for the whole team and see how much they two teams are similar to one another. It's a very healthy rivalry that isn't normally this expanded on in sports anime.

9

Sasaki and Miyano

Yesssssss. These two are just absolutely amazing. Their whole story arc and relationship is just tooth rottingly sweet. They bounce off of each other so well.

And I love the fact of how slow the actual story is. They meet at the start of Miyanos first year (from what I know - I still need to read the novels) and sasaki's second and they only end up confessing just before graduation happens. It really plays out well and is so healthy.

There is no problematic elements like in so many BL stories which is such a breath of fresh air. And the fact that sasaki is very specific about making sure to maintain boundaries to ensure that miyano is comfortable is also excellent.

On a slightly different note - I still need to see the Hirano and Kagiura movie. Been dying to watch it. I've been keeping up to date with both manga and both of these stories are amazing. I love the dichotomy of the two stories and how they are coming to their own realisations of their feelings in honestly very different ways.

I also recently watched the dub of the anime due to some videos on tiktok. Fucking hell it is absolutely hilarious. Kellen Goff as Sasaki has no reason for being that good. Seriously. Damn.

8

Link Click

On a completely different note. Damn this one makes you questions your own morals and reality as you know it.

I really don't want to get into this one much as I do believe watching it blind is the best way to go.

The art style is fantastic and that opening hits like a truck it is so good. The characters just click (pun not intended) and you just understand their motivations and don't know which side to side with most of the time. It brings about such high moral dilemmas that will seriously mess with your brain sometimes and there is one episode that will likely make you cry.

Anyways. Season 2 has just started airing and I am so ready for it.

7

Buddy Daddies

Why did a show about two queer platonic dudes who adopt a child while beings assassins hit so damn hard.

The show jumps between episodes with backstory and episodes with them just being good dads and it is balanced so well. This anime won't end up getting a sequel most likely with how it ended but damn I wouldn't say no to one.

Rei is my favourite character and I relate to him far too much. His interactions with the world are so fascinating and his whole arc with Miri is honestly some of the best media I've seen.

I absolutely loved watching this show weekly and it always brightened up my day when I realised a new episode would be up.

If you would like further thoughts on this one then check the Reviews while I watch on it for more chaos.

6

No Game No Life

So. This was the first ever anime that I ever watched. It was a random recomendation from a friend. Look at where we are today.

This show is honestly just so fun. The characters are silly and the whole plot is just absolute chaos. I really enjoy the games aspect and how it was all incorporated into the world.

I can't even really say much about it. It is just a guilty pleasure of mine and will always hold a special place in my heart.

Also. Please can it just get a second season already.

5

Assassination Classroom

So. Unlike everything else on the list - this one I only finished really recently. My partner and I were watching it together. And to put it out there straight away. I cried. That ending was far too emotional.

I really enjoyed the humour throughout the whole thing as well as the constant underlying dread of the whole situation.

They also really played out Koro-senseis backstory really well. The teasing to it was excellent. I must say though that one of the twists seriously came out of left field. Like damn.

I've just recently bought the boxset and am reading through the manga. Once again. It's absolutely amazing.

Also the openings of them all jumping are absolutely fucking hilarious and you can't tell me otherwise.

If you want to know what officially sold me on the show was just in the first episode. (Note we watched in dub)

Don't ask me why but I found this to be the most hilarious thing ever. The absurdity and the line delivery was magnificent. I annoy my partner by quoting it atleast once a day.

4

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Speaking of comedies. This show has no right to be this good. The absudist dead pan comedy in the middle of whats meant to be a TV show is such a random premise but just works so well.

Due to the nature of the show, the characters are extremely relateable. I especially love Kumatani and Kikaku.

If your on the same side of anime tiktok that I am then you have definitely seen/heard snippets of the dub.

I think this was the first anime that I originally watched in sub and then tried it in dub and actually enjoyed it. (I often find that whatever I originally watched it in is the only one I can watch it in - it's very difficult for me to change it)

The voice acting on both sides just works perfectly for the show. And that final episode and how they did it was the best thing ever.

Please just give it a try.

3

Angel Beats

Okay. Time for a hard hitter. This comedy like assassintaion classroom is fucking excellent but will make you cry, like damn.

In complete and utter contrast to No game no life, this was the second anime I had ever watched. I had found a video that gave some suggestions and thought I would give this one a try. When I say it destoryed me, I mean it literally. I constantly think about the end of this and I absolutely love revisiting it.

The twist and turns along the way are fascinating and I love how each one alters the characters and the narrative. Each of the characters feel unique - even the lesser developed side characters - with fascinating and complex backstories.

The whole thing just makes you question your own place in life.

2

Moriarty the Patriot

Another one I just randomly tried because I saw a video on tiktok. The first episode immediately pulled me in. I thought it was just going to be some simple detective story (At the time I didn't know much about Sherlock Holmes and who Moriaty was so I didn't have any of that to guide me into this story.) But nope.

I keep saying this but in this one I really mean it. The characters are built so well. The dichotomy between William and Sherlock - as the fandom would probably agree - is just amazing. How they bounce off of each other - i don't even know how to really descirbe it.

Honestly just go watch it.

And if you enjoyed the anime - please go check out the manga too. If the anime was done well - then the manga is done to lamost perfection.

This show was what got me into reading and then eventually buying manga. I now have every single one that is out.

1

Yuri!!! on ICE

Did I make the title gay? Yes.

Okayyyyy. This is just going to be me going on about how much I love this show. Bare with me.

So I was in an anime watching slump just before I picked up this show. I had been seeing some videos popping up talking about it and decided to give it a try (this was in 2020)

I immediately fell in love with this show. Literally everything about it. I ended up rewatching it three times over the course of a week. It got to a point where I was so upset that there wasn't more content for it that I just cried for half a day. (Ask my partner - it was chaos)

This show is the reason I now read fanfiction - all because I found a way to technically have more content for it.

This show holds such an important place in my heart that I sincerely cannot express it properly.

If you've never watched it - go give it a try. It would mean a lot - and hopefully one day we might get a season two.

----

Thanks for reading, if you managed to get to this point. I find it interesting how my explanations managed to slowly get shorter throughout the list as I just started becoming more emotional than factual.

I hope you enjoyed it and maybe grabbed a recommendation or two. If you'd like to know more or hear me ramble on more about anything in particular then please let me know.

[artistic-izzy-multifandom]

Izzy's Heavily Improvised Essay on Bambi 2

(to folks who follow me for other stuff, I apologize right ahead of time, just doing my "multifandom" name justice XD)

Okay y’all, bear with me, this was written in the heat of the moment and therefore I might go around in tangents. I’ve been dying to write this essay thingy for months actually, but I kept chickening out when I went to try and just do it. And it was also inspired by Wreckham’s own Bambi post that I saw a while ago, so uh... Yeah.

(also this mainly features my opinions, don't take them as facts >_<)

So, starting things off with this:

It shall be no secret that I’m an avid fan of the Bambi movies (more the second than the first, but we’ll get to that in a bit). 

It’s no surprise that visually speaking, Bambi is a spectacle from beginning to end, on top of having a beautiful soundtrack and a fascinating way of being the closest thing to an animated documentary with its environments.

However, it comes with the price of... Well, lacking a concrete plot. And by that I mean outside of just showcasing Bambi’s life from birth to adulthood. Not to say there’s no value in that, but I reckon it’s not the kind of movie lots of people nowadays would just want to watch multiple times in a row.

(plus considering how much of the novel’s plot they cut out when adapting it to the screens… That’s a can of worms for another day)

Yes, even I, the avid fan, will admit this flaw in the storytelling. And it’s a big reason why I maintain my statement on loving the second movie more than the first.

And oh where do I begin?

Namely how its plot is basically about the time that happened between Bambi’s Mother’s death and the scene with all those cheery singing birds — in other words, the period in which Bambi was raised by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest.

While animation’s changed significantly (given that, y’know, 64 years apart) and also different voice actors were hired for the characters (again, 64 years), I will come here and say that visually the movie did the original justice, and did it in spades!

Plot-wise? On one hand, there’s more dialogue and the humor is a bit more targeted for younger audiences, which in fairness will put off some who are more inclined towards the original.

On the other hand, the movie is also not afraid to explore some darker subjects, some indirectly (like the whole aspect of grief both for Bambi and his father and their respective ways of dealing with it), and some directly (such as the entire Deer Call scene).

And the fact that unlike the first movie, the characters here are more fleshed out, the main highlight of that is none other than the Great Prince himself; in the first movie he... Didn’t have nearly enough screentime or lines to justify his status as protector of the Forest, at best he was a minor character given too much importance, and at worst he was a living prop.

In the second? He’s the second main focus of the story, with a whole character development arc on how to be a father to Bambi despite his belief in tradition (aka the whole “the does care for the young” thing). In fact, I think I should dedicate this part of the essay on his character, shall we? Because years of rewatching the movie made me think a lot of things regarding him (which I don’t see many or even anyone talk enough about):

If we’re gonna think about it, we never really get to know the Great Prince too deeply prior to his mate’s death. Everything we do know about him personality-wise came afterwards, at a time when he had to look after Bambi while also looking after the Forest as a whole.

It’s incredibly easy to label him as a jerk and a deadbeat father when one fails to consider a few things:

1- His mate died, and given the timeframe, the Prince was unable to reach both her and Bambi in time before Man shot her; made worse when you remember that in the first movie he was able to save them both from Man. Literally, at the beginning of the second movie, one of the first expressions we see from him is sadness. Wouldn’t you think he was feeling not just grief, but guilt too?

2- He was left to raise his son alone, at one of the harshest points of wintertime, and only asked Friend Owl to find a doe because the owl offered some help in the first place; recalling the tradition thing, the Prince had no experience with children whatsoever, can you blame him for being baffled at the idea of him raising his son at first?

3- He’s the protector of a whole forest. That’s like, hundreds and hundreds of lives he’s dedicated to keep safe from Man at all times every single day, hundreds and hundreds of animals depending on him to not get shot. Even if he’s experienced at what he does, that’s still a huge pressure onto a single individual, and the fact that he can’t always save everyone every time Man is in the woods.

And a bonus: forget his status as the Great Prince of the Forest for a moment, and what do you have? A stag who lost his mate (whom he genuinely loved) and is left to raise their son entirely on his own.

If I were to guess, I’d say the Great Prince was far more serene prior to the tragedy; still a recluse, what with being the protector of the woods and then some, but less stern in general.

Everything we see of him before the completion of his character development, is him trying to make do with something that was out of his control and dealing with its consequences. (there’s a reason why ‘Parents as People’ is a trope, y’know)

Hell, it was all but stated that even before he became more open towards Bambi and embraced his role as a parent, he already cared about his son in his own way. I’m under the belief that he’s always been capable of raising him, all he needed was some time (and a bit of a nudge from Bambi himself at points).

Plus he was already regretting the whole “new mother to Bambi” plan and intending on calling it off by the time Friend Owl brought Mena, he only went through with it anyway because he thought he screwed things up with Bambi for good - btw I do not blame Bambi for being mad, poor guy’s spent most of the movie trying to impress his dad and taking every lesson to heart, only to find out about the arrangement at the worst time possible.

On another tangent, I feel like one aspect that’s often overlooked is how both Bambi and his father reacted to going through with the arrangement:

By the time Bambi was going to leave with Mena, he wasn’t even mad anymore, just downtrodden and upset that he wouldn’t get to see his friends as often, but otherwise resigned and accepting that it’s what he should be doing. Putting up a brave facade all the while, much like the Great Prince himself.

Same for the latter, he was trying to keep his regal facade up as well and insisting that “a Prince does sacrifices” - he was mostly talking about himself, having to give his son up so he’s raised by someone better than the Prince.

And let’s get one fact clear before heading to a main point in this essay: although Bambi did get mad at his father (down to even wishing his mother was there instead of him), he was far more upset at being separated from him and not getting to see him as often, and it’s made obvious he regretted yelling those words at his father.

Otherwise, Bambi wouldn’t have rushed back to nuzzle him goodbye, wouldn’t have thought of retaliating against Ronno when the latter taunted him about being “given away” due to his father “being ashamed of him”. And he certainly wouldn’t have run to another cliff to meet his dad after defeating the last of Man’s dogs.

In fact I more than believe that they would’ve reconciled on the spot as soon as they saw each other again, which was what likely gonna happen after Bambi saved Mena and got rid of all the dogs.

But then the cliff scene happened.

(aka one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie, and yes I will defend it right now)

Now, I can see why a good bunch of people hate that scene (namely the whole Disney Death thing), but allow me to say that it’s in the movie for a reason, and it’s not to trick the audience into thinking Bambi did die from the fall.

It’s to showcase the Great Prince’s character arc coming to fruition.

Remember when I said that the Prince did love Bambi in his own way despite not knowing anything about raising children? This is the scene where he finally realized just how much he did care all along, shedding away his “prince does/does not” mentality for good. Realizing that Bambi needed him as a father

There's so much that goes unsaid in the scene.

How the Prince’s voice nearly breaks when urging Bambi to get up, him saying “A Prince does not...” but never finishing it. What was he going to say? We don’t know, and that’s the point. Maybe even he didn’t know, maybe it was said out of reflex.

How he gets down and looks at his (seemingly) dead son before nuzzling him, keeping him as close as he could, and crying.

This all makes it more meaningful when Bambi does wake up and calls him Dad for the first time, showcasing how far their bond has gone and developed.

I believe, among other things, that the scene (and perhaps counting the dog chase as well) was also meant to be a mirror/parallel to the dream sequence from earlier in the movie. But that’s perhaps an essay for another day!

So, in conclusion… I swear I’m 100% normal about this movie, I totally did not spend days on end trying to make this improv essay as cohesive as possible-

[essay ends here, roll credits]

[cyanide-latte]

TURNABOUTS FAIR PLAY what are your top five horror movies??

Aaahhh, I've been uno reversed~. Touché, darling!

The last three are in no particular order and they're all trilogies I'm counting as a set. Second place is usually subject to change at any given point in time, it just fluctuates depending on my mood.

1: Candyman (1992) - Not just my favorite horror movie, but my favorite movie of all time, period. Taking the mythology from "The Forbidden" and turning it into the story that they did? The shots, the symbolism, the casting, the sheer power of how seductive the relationship is between Helen and Candyman, the tragedy. Truly a movie for all disaster bi's out there. Helen's story and the way it's handled! This movie gave me such a triumph out of tragedy, and it's so beautiful. It holds up brilliantly, it's high art, it's everything. The 2021 sequel was also excellent.

2: Malignant (2021) - Absolutely bonkers in the fucking yonkers. This movie was made for fun and that one specific fight sequence in the police station. It's wild, it's not taking itself seriously, and yet it's fascinating to analyze and comb through. Periodically I just get hit with the need to reassess and think about elements of this movie. Maybe one day I'll get back to that fic trilogy I had planned for it. An excuse to pour my analysis into a written narrative? Perhaps...

3: Hellraiser original trilogy (1987-1992) - Is that the religious trauma talking? Maybe a little. These movies grabbed me by the throat. The first was a near-perfect adaptation of "The Hellbound Heart" and an interesting look at Clive Barker doing directorial work. I actually adore the second one to pieces. It dives beautifully into its own mythology, into revenge, into the horror of medical malpractice as well as the body horror and sexuality. Kirsty Cotton is, imo, perhaps the Final Girl of all time. I also appreciate Tiffany, she's a very good example of a positive neurodivergent deuteragonist in that movie. The third one is...WOOF~. In all seriousness though, I'd always been curious about the films since childhood (the posters and box art of the Hell Priest and the other Cenobites used to grab my attention whenever we went to the video store, Mom used to have to come find me and pull me away from "my staredowns with Pinhead") but I'd been anxious for so long to try them because I hadn't had much exposure to body horror in films. Finally gave them a shot, went "oh, huh, this isn't that bad," and then got sucked in by the movies' approach to the topics they tackle.

4: Scream original trilogy (1996-2000) - My gateway to horror, as I saw the first one when I was seven. My uncles were babysitting me and they never really worried about whatever I saw them watching. They've stuck with me my entire life and honestly they're just so damn fun. The writing is solid and while 2 and 3 have their flaws, I'll defend them to the death, they're still fun and they still work well. Sidney Prescott was my first Final Girl and she'll always hold a special place in my heart.

5: The Shining 3-part TV film (1997) - it's the superior adaptation. Full stop. Kubrick's adaptation has some gorgeous camera work, a few memorable tracks in its score and some iconic lines but it's so lacking. It misses the true heart and strength and point of the story because Kubrick went and did his own thing. The 90s made-for-tv adaptation is brilliant. It has its weak points and there's a few things that visually aged in a clunky way, but the heart is there. The catharsis and the hope is there. It moved me to tears and it gave me everything I could have asked for and more.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Fear Street trilogy (2021) - They were fun, a lot of fun, and for someone who's never been a fan of R.L. Stine, these were still easy to enjoy. I heard about the trilogy being released and it felt like the kind of thing I remembered from childhood as far as gimmicky releases went, so each weekend, I dove onto the couch and watched them drop on Netflix one by one. I still have a lot of issues and complaints with them, dgmw, but they're a solid summer watch, they really played around with popular subgenres and I think Janiak and her cast and crew did well. One day I'll get back to my fics for this trilogy too. Justice for my girl Ruby Lane.

Us (2019) - ngl this one sat in my brain for weeks afterwards. I need to rewatch it, it's such a good psychological horror.

Urban Legend (1998) - I have a fuckoff weird relationship with this movie. Like, that deserves its own post, probably. But because I have such a weird relationship with it, I felt the need to give it an honorable mention.

Halloween (2018) - I'm here for senior citizen final girl Grandma Laurie Strode kicking ass, I love seeing a survivor reach that age and still be willing to do what it takes to survive and protect those she loves.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - this is a weird one because I wouldn't say I enjoy watching it like most other movies. But it's a really interesting study piece, especially the more I read nonfiction books that go into depth and detail about the film and the time period it's contemporary to. I don't watch this movie for fun, I watch it to study, to analyze, to self-inform and to then improve my ability to apply those skills to other horror movies I watch.

[corvidcall]

Fascinated by your sarah z hate- would love to hear more about this if you’d like to share. My experience of her is just that mediocre Homestuck vid or something she made.

lmao yeah sure i guess i can expound on it

i should preface this by saying that i dont think shes like. a bad person. and i dont have some secret knowledge of problematique things shes done that we should all Cancel her for.

tl;dr i just think her videos are really bad. she keeps making videos about stuff that i was there for and then being wrong about them, and it drives me crazy. on top of that, it just rubs me the wrong way to make your whole brand "the lady who talks about tumblr"

like, i think her homestuck video sucks (and i think its very funny that she admitted that she only spent a week making it, but ALSO got really defensive when people said she was wrong about stuff. like, i think the way whatpumpkin and andrew hussie responded to her video was Bad but also that doesnt retroactively defend the original video from being poorly researched and, in my opinion, in bad taste. it was weird to make a video where you talk about all the controversy about hs^2 not that long after the whole project got cancelled because too many of the trans women working on it were receiving daily death threats)

and i think the mcelroys video sucks (that was the last one i watched before i gave up entirely. its really long and very boring, and basically is just her listing a bunch of stuff they did that people had problems with, which essentially puts "travis was annoying on twitch" on the same level of seriousness as "taz: graduation used a lot of harmful native american stereotypes". i genuinely am not sure what the point of this video was supposed to be, because it feels like its her reading a tumblr callout post. also she was wrong about taz: amnesty. the ending WAS foreshadowed, it did NOT come out of nowhere, she just wasnt paying attention.)

but the onceler fandom video is honestly the absolute pits. i am still friends with a lot of the people that i was in the onceler fandom with, and i genuinely havent met a single former onceslut who thought her video was good, or the least bit accurate. her thesis basically boils down to that the onceler fandom was just a bunch of young teen girls projecting fantasies onto a nonthreating decently attractive fictional guy, which isnt that weird and people are only making a big thing about it because they hate teenage girls. and her conclusions arent WRONG, per say, since people DO hate teen girls and this is a thing theyre known to do... its just. thats literally not what the onceler fandom was at all?? first off, when i got into it i was 17 and i was the youngest person i knew by far. almost everyone i saw in the fandom were in their 20s, and a lot of them were not girls at all. and as far as any of US remember, the thing sustained the fandom wasnt 13 year old girls exploring their nascent sexualities, it was people using the barest pretense to make OCs, and then craft stories with and about their friends OCs. it was a really cool unique experience because it was a fandom for the things the fandom built. a lot of the people i knew had never watched the movie The Lorax at all, or didnt really care about it one way or another, but DID get really invested in the dynamic between Swag and One, or got really invested in the two big AUs the fandom had. By the time i got there, most people had kinda moved away from the canon onceler anyway, and were focused almost exclusively on the AUs (there was a high school AU and a zombie apocalypse AU, and then during the summer the high school AU blogs would do a child summer camp AU. i liked the zombie one best because i love melodrama, but the high school one was most popular). i know she was IN the onceler fandom (allegedly...) but as far as i can tell, she was just there at the very start, because it changed WILDLY even just a few months after its inception. and there's no way anyone who saw the fandom that I was actually in would make the sweeping statements about it that she did.

broadly, her videos are too unfocused and not really well-written. her one on Oppa Homeless Style was a genuinely good video!! I know she CAN do good videos!! But so many of her more fandom-focused videos dont really seem to have a thesis beyond "this happened" or maybe even "this was kinda weird right?". like what is the viewer supposed to take away from the video about the mcleroys? that they made a podcast that was really popular and then got less popular? why did that take you TWO HOURS to say? and even when she does have a strong thesis, its always muddied by the fact that she feels compelled to add in really long, boring digressions. I think the video about All or Nothing was good, and made an interesting point about how pan and ace people are really starved for meaningful rep, but i dont understand why she felt compelled to recount the entire plot of the webseries someone made? what did that contribute to the thesis? its like shes reading a wikipedia page, and not like. an actual ESSAY. that someone structured to convey a POINT.

but overall i just take umbrage with her whole "tumblr historian" shtick. i think its kind of gross to put really niche (generally woman-dominated) subcultures on display so people can come gawk at the freaks. ive heard the defense that "she IS a fandom person!! these videos are FOR fandom people!!" but 1. if its supposedly supposed to be for me and NOT an audience of people unfamiliar with the thing shes talking about, then there would be no need to spend so long explaining what everything is, and 2. i can at least say, in my own subjective experience, that i said basically all this to my sister, who told me that thats why she likes sarah z at all, because the videos let her come gawk at all the fandom freaks on tumblr. so its cool that sarah z is giving the person who bullied me my whole life (specifically because the way i engaged with media was too cringe) more reasons to bully me for being cringe. big preesh sarah. glad youre making money off of the free content all of us put out, and even more glad that youre profiting by taking all that free content and presenting it to a largely hostile and judgemental audience who already thinks im a fucking idiot. why dont you make a video about my popular hamlet post next, since you seem to make videos exclusively about things i did.

anyway if i want to watch video essays about fandom, i'll watch princess weekes, whose videos are substantive and not... idk very juvenile. not that i think there cant be more than one youtuber talking about fandom!!! its just that sarah z's videos are mid at best and actively bad at worst, so im not gonna bother.

(all that being said, i occasionally look at her blog and reblog stuff. while shes working down in the tumblr mines looking for content to steal, she does frequently find some decent posts to reblog)

[theroundbartable]

Hello again, Rai...Do you mind if I ask your top 5 (or top 10) favorite moments from any media that you love (books, anime/manga, tv series, movies, games, etc)? Thanks if you want to answer. Sorry if I ask too much and if I accidentally send this ask twice....

Hey there :)

I don't mind at all, thank you so much for leaving a message ^^ You did send this twice but that's alright, I didn't immediately answer it anyway. There is a lot more going on right now than I thought it would. And you don't need to feel like you're bothering me. ^^ This is what the ask box is for. I would disable it if I didn't want messages ^^

As to your question... I have some that left an impact on me and that even after 10+ years my cheese brain hasn't let slip through the cracks. But I don't really have favorites. They were simply favorites in the moment, so I'm listing them randomly. But they all did inspire me to write in one way or another. They are the reason why I'm here.

Harry Potter, the prisoner of Askaban. (disclaimer: I do not support JKR's views. I stand with the fandom.) In the scene when Sirius just invaded the Gryffindor tower and the students sleep in the Great Hall, Dumbledore says something that made me invested with fantasy and therefore writing and art. (I whatched it in German, so the translation is probably off.) "When we sleep, we venture into a world that belongs to us and only us. Maybe he's swimming in the deepest of oceans right now, or foating over the highest cloud."

How to train your dragon: The entire scene when Hiccs tries to befriend Toothless and he dances around that self drawn picture. I watched an entire youtube analysis on how the music was chosen. It's phenomenally fascinating and it's perhaps my favorite comfort movie. I can always watch the first movie (I don't care as much about the rest).

Elfenlied There is a scene in Elfenlied, the very first anime I watched consciously, when she breaks out of the facility. She's full of blood, she's still wearing the mask... This was the first time a scene inspired me to write a story. At the time I was 12 and wanted to make an original, but basically, this is the first media that truly made me write a whole novel. It sucked, but it's where I started.

BBC Merlin I want to say the entire fucking show, why else would I be here? I love everything in it but there is two scenes I adore to bits. A) "I think you're mad. I think you're all mad, people should marry for love, not convenience. And if Uther thinks an unhappy King makes for a better Kingdom, then he is wrong. Because you have a choice, as to how you do it." B) "How did you know this place was sacred?" M: It's obvious. A: Pretend it isn't. M: It's like... everything, the leafs, the ants, are vibrating. Full of life. Like everything is more than it seems."

Voltron legendary defender Yes, I am a Klancer. And I am of course referring to the Bonding moment. It changed my brain chemistry. :)

Fairy Tail You may not remember me from that long ago, but I used to write Gajevy fanfiction. And my favorite scene was the one when they were on that island for the S-Rank test and Gajeel ended up saving Levy. I loved how this ship grew from awkward to inevitable and I was there from the very beginning. Anyways, here the quote, again, from the top of my head because like I hell I look any of these up XD "It's hard to find someone small like you, so don't leave my side." This is all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to ask me more questions if you like ^^

[scuffle-with-spirals]

I remember when I borrowed Battle Royale from the library. It was one of the original translations I believe (with Shuya and Noriko on the front) and like, amidst all the absolute tomfuckery happening all around in that book, one thing young me found unironically funny was just. The way the book would bring Kazuo into a scene.

Spoilers for Battle Royale aiosdfmmiodfmiosdfmiosdfio

Big infodump under cut!!

OKAY SO

Sparing most of the details about the Program and all that, each of the 42 students who get released onto the abandoned island to fight to the death are each assigned a random weapon in their backpack, alongside some other necessities. It’s an insane coin toss on what you get here. You could get a little lucky and get something long-ranged — a gun, an automatic crossbow, etc... Maybe something on the blunter side like a bat or hammer. Or, you could be unlucky like one of the boys did and get something like a fork. It’s incredibly hit or miss.

So, for those not playing “the game” and have a good weapon, they’re at least somewhat reassured that if push comes to shove, as much as some really don’t want to, they’ll have something to defend themselves with.

But the thing is: for those who are playing, who are “with the Program”, so to speak, if the odds are in their favor, the others are uh. Kinda FUCKED

SO.

There are many, many aggressors in the novel who want to play the game. There are two big, famous ones as well, that many people who‘ve either read the book or watched the movie know: Mitsuko Souma, and Kazuo Kiriyama.

So my memory is fuzzy on the events of the book. I’m trying to finally give it a second read with the Remastered version; it’s been a few years and I’m still on it LMAO, and I’m sorry to say I’ve unfortunately not watched the movie yet. Currently, I’m only now finally finishing the manga, so it seems that, based on my fresh knowledge from that specific adaptation (which changes some things from the original novel), Mitsuko, while her assigned weapon is a sickle, does change her formula by snatching others weapons. There are many panels of her capping someone’s skull in and it’s infuriating to read for like, all of it, lmao.

But Kazuo? Nonono. No. He doesn’t get any farming tools as his weapon. Y’all, this dude is playing. And he was assigned a FUCKING MACHINE GUN

AND LISTEN

KAZUO DOESN’T FUCKING WAIT. IT IS ON SIGHT WITH HIM

sOooOoOo many characters die because Kazuo just happens to walk in through stage left and start blastin’. He’s a fascinating character to me because, while you have some people trying to convince others they’re not playing or to put their weapons down, while others go “ayo that’s stupid as shit kill or be killed dumb dumb” or Mitsuko pulling her expert gaslight gatekeep girlboss tricks, Kazuo’s just silent, blunt, and lethal. And once anyone who doesn’t get their ass obliterated before they can notice realizes this, they’re visibly terrified whenever he shows up again, letting anyone else nearby know that this dude’s out for blood even if that other person was also playing the game themselves.

So uh! About the novel!

In some, but not all cases probably, for some reason, the translator decides to announce Kazuo’s sudden entrance into a confrontation with the phrase:

“It was Kazuo Kiriyama.”

And like, at first, this made my heart stop. Especially when a character I liked was in the scene, I was like, “Ah shit, here we go, oh fuck.”

But then it just kept happening

This is literally just an example and probably matches nothing of what happens in any adaptation but just to show you how it looked, here’s a mockup of how this shit would play out:

Hiroki’s eyes darted to the nearby treetops, tensed by the rustling trees. In the glint of the moon, he assumed the worst, and tried to pinpoint any figures stationed in the branches. His eyes squinted. Please, let it be anything else. The wind, or perhaps fleeting birds, unfamiliar with the cruelty of bloodshed.

But it was Kazuo Kiriyama, and with a fucking ka-klinK he made sure his airpods were blastin that doom music as he ratatatatatata-

THIS SAME EXACT WORDING GOT USED SO MANY TIMES TO THE POINT WHERE I JUST GAVE A SLIGHT CHUCKLE WHEN I SAW IT LIKE

MAYBE IT’S JUST MY HUMOR

MAYBE I’M REMEMBERING IT WRONG?!?!?? HLEL

In the remastered versions there’s NOT ANY “it was kazuo kiriyama” moments yet, which on one end, is kinda upsetting because this is probably the easiest way to access the novel and I just want to know this wasn’t another terrible case of my memory so I can show it to people and laugh or something, but also, I mean, I get why they chose to change it up lmao. It’s. yeah.

I tried to make this an inside joke with some friends a few years ago but nobody else had read Battle Royale so i kinda gave up instantly lmao. But one friend DID suddenly hit me with a fast one referencing it one time and I just immediately lost it on SPOT she was so cool for that lmsfiofmsdfiomiosdffmiod you know who you are

PLEASE if anyone also remembers or even possibly owns the version of the novel I’m referring to, can you please let me know if this was actually a thing that happened? Like, a lot, or even at all? :0c I’m really curious, ;v;

Thank you so so much for reading this long ass post SDFIOMFSDFMIO!! And if anyone else wants me to talk about BR for any reason — whether it be because they just want to here my thoughts on things, on certain adaptations, or would just want to hear my retelling of events without actually reading the source material (SO VALID), PLEASEE LET me know. I’ll probably do this anyway but I mean!! Finding like-minded people who’re interested in anything is neat!!

[mikerickson]

Mid-Year Book Freak Out 2023

Best book you've read so far: Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer I’d seen the movie back when it came out in 2018 and expected more or less the same story beats, but the book really did it’s own thing. Extremely atmospheric, lonely, and strange in a way I’d never read before, but it absolutely worked for me.

Best sequel of 2023 so far: Authority - Jeff Vandermeer I told myself I’d read at least one trilogy this year (I typically stay away from series), and I went with the Southern Reach Trilogy. This book was such a narrative whiplash from Annihilation that at parts it didn’t even feel like it was the same author.

New release you haven't read yet, but want to: Vampires of El Norte - Isabel Cañas I really enjoyed her first novel, The Hacienda, and this one seems vaguely similar, which is exactly what I’d be looking for anyway.

Most anticipated release of the second half of 2023: I’m not super in-tune with book releases, and I still have a massive backlog to work through anyway.

Biggest disappointment of 2023: The Croning - Laird Barron I really enjoyed a short story collection by this same author and a lot of other reviewers I typically trust recommended this one, but this one-off novel was so bad that I was actually confused as to what I missed after finishing it.

Biggest surprise: The Holdout - Graham Moore A courtroom thriller is pretty far from my normal fare, and I don’t remember why I originally bought this book, but it had some good twists and turns that had me saying, “holy shit” out loud.

Favorite new author (debut or new to you): Christopher Bollen Pretty much every paragraph of A Beautiful Crime was edited and stylized in a way that felt like it was tailored to me specifically. There’s nothing about neither the prose nor the dialogue I would change.

Newest fictional crush: The burly oil rig worker in Jeff Vandermeer’s Acceptance that was secretly banging the town’s lighthouse keeper.

Newest favorite character: Listen, I know it’s coming up a lot on this list, but The Biologist from Annihilation was a fascinating protagonist to follow because she was simply too autistic to notice how terrifying her surroundings were.

Book that made you cry: Lone Stars - Justin Deabler A multi-generational drama that missed the mark for me personally, but the way society/the other characters treated the central matriarch made me really feel for her.

Book that made you happy: The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie I picked this up immediately after watching Glass Onion, and it was exactly what I was looking for.

Favorite book to movie adaptation of 2023 you've seen: N/A

Favorite post/review you've written this year: I went in on Peter Straub’s Ghost Story

Most beautiful book you bought or received this year: Like aesthetically? I really liked the cover of Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk

Books you need to read by the end of this year: I told myself I’d finally get around to reading The Terror by Dan Simmons, but I haven’t bought a copy yet.

[pool-floatie]

I feel the need to share my g/t experience with erryone since its been on my mind for a while and I find it interesting how early on It showed up.

Ever since I was a little kid, probably 5-7 years old, I had little daydreams occasionally about giants taking me to their houses or a park or wherever and they would tease me and have fun with me, I was always scared of course because apparently ive always liked this fearplay bullshit, but i still found it exhillirating and fun. Of course it wasnt romantic or anything until I got older, just,,, like a really tall roller coaster, scary but exciting.

When I started reading, i found one of the borrowers books, i think my mom actually got it for me (maybe i had mentioned the daydreams??) ! I think it was The littles and The Biggs families, but yeah. I loved it and i tried to find more but they werent at my school library 😭 so Iworked with what I had, a book and a dream. (lol cringe-)

While i was in 4th- 6th grade I had kind of repressed it, I still thought about it on occasion but i started to realise that nobody else had that interest and it was just a wierd thing with me... Until I watched the BFG (cliche right 🙄) it was when the movie came out and people were talking about it! For a while it held the title of my favorite movie just so I could talk about it when people asked that particular icebreaker.

One night in like... 7th grade I had a dream that i was at church (lol cringefail imagine being religious...) and I picked up a piece of paper inviting people to come test out an experiment... Then i saw a flash And somewhere from the depths of my memories, my brain pulled out one of my old daydream scenarios.

I was in a laboratory with several other humans and we were all in a big glass box. Surrounding us were giants who took us out of the container and gave us baths, undressing us and scrubbing us down with toothbrushes so we would be clean for the examination.

I was taken away to a desk and meticulously examined from head to toe, the giant tried to probe me with questions but I was too shocked to speak.

Thats all I can remember but I was so fascinated by the dream that I started telling my family about it, now of course nobody wanted to hear me talk about my dream for 20 minutes, so my mom encouraged me to write it down.

And oh hell did I write.

My first long form writing stemmed from a dream I had, i wrote for months, of course, I was 13 do it was flaming garbage but I was so happy about it and thought it was a masterpiece.

So naturally as anyone would, I emailed it to my english teacher.

She never responded.

I wonder why.

To this day I pray that she never opened it, her emails being too cluttered with important school things that it got lost and never crossed her eyes.

But still, it was through this little writing that I began to realise my potential (lol cringe origin story-)

I still have the draft of the story, its plot and characters were a good foundation, and perhaps one day i will look it over, change a few things, get cancer and die.

During quarantine I discovered Sanders Sides, which led me down a fanfiction rabbit hole, which led me to tumblr, which led me to a creator called delimeful , not sure if they want to be tagged in this so I wont... They wrote some marvelous G/t Sanders sides fanfic and i soon realised... This is a community, it wasnt just them.. There was, so /much/ so many artists and writers that shared this niche interest, a community of people who g e t i t .

It started slow, I continued interacting with the tumblr community ( hell, the husk of my old blog might still roam this site (|||O⌓O;) )

Only ever looking for safe, wholesome g/t.

But where was the stomach-dropping exhilliration I had felt before, that rollercoaster feeling? What was missing??

I needed the fearplay, and in looking for it i stumbled into vore and that dynamic, playing with pred/prey and even more teasing. I was hesitant at first.

But lo and behold that was the gawd damn ticket. I started to write again, finding new stories and creators and tropes galore! I learned about the community, the terms and the subgenres!

Finally I gained confidence in my writing ability through a class that helped me grow my skills and practice.

And I eventually decided i could share all my hard work. All this time I had spent worrying if i should just keep it to myself, but i reminded myself of all the non beta read and unfinished work i had seen, and looking back at my own I was less afraid, people still liked it even then... So what could they say about mine ?

There ya go, thats my,, I guess life story told through the g/t Timeline.

Hopefully I was vague enough to not give away any behind the scenes, yall will never know who I am 😈😈😈

Also im not trying to bash any creators, I appreciate everyone who contributes to the community with anything they have.

[doom-dreaming]

🌌⭐💞🍺🖥️

🌌 what made you interested in Halo? I'm gonna be completely honest, I do not remember the exact details of how I got sucked into this rabbit hole. I know a work friend of mine was responsible for it, many years ago (2016 - 2017 ish?). I had general cultural awareness of it prior to that, but I hadn't played any of the games or looked into it any deeper than "the green guy's armor looks cool." But. Something in my conversations with my friend flipped that horrible switch in my brain and then he was giving me his Audible login info so I could listen to the Fall of Reach audiobook and then I was playing the original trilogy and then I was watching YouTube cutscene movies of the games I didn't have and then I was writing A LOT of fanfic...you know how it goes.

⭐ share your favorite piece of Halo lore The unidentified vessel that crashed on Installation 04 is so fascinating to me. Even if it was never intended to be a part of deeper lore (and maybe because of that?) it's mysterious and eerie in a way I really enjoy. And nothing came out, so Spark built a sarcophagus around it! So now nothing can come out even if it wanted to! The strange horror of it all...

💞 favorite moment in a game? There are obviously a lot of good moments, but the one that always stands out for me is the section in CE where the Flood is revealed. The buildup throughout the whole level, culminating in the experience of watching Jenkins' helmet cam footage and then being attacked immediately after and seeing the entire tone of the game change is just...chef's kiss. I love a slow build to a horrific reveal and it still feels ominous and creepy even when you know what's coming. The way it's presented is impeccable.

🍺 who would you have a drink with? I got this one twice so I'll give half of an answer - I think Blue Team as a unit would be fun to drink with, especially together and allowed to play off of each others' energy. But the answer I'll give here is Kelly; she seems fun in a very feral way and I think she'd tell great stories if her inhibitions were lowered a little (or a lot).

🖥️ favorite AI? I think. this one is fairly obvious if you know me even a little bit, but Cortana. She's my girl and I love her and I think Halo 5 did her so wrong (but I have paper and pens and an extremely strong force of will and I can take a hammer and fix the canon), but! I do love a good chunk of the AIs that Halo offers. They always seem to have interesting origins and/or storylines.

[elibean]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

no need to apologize! this is a great question, thank you for asking! i think i'll go with anime just 'cause it's easiest (i have a MAL and rank every series i watch from 1-10). i originally had movies in here but i think i'm gonna cut them out and just keep it to series and ovas. and "why do you love them" is an AWESOME question I never get! i don't know if i'll be able to explain myself well, but I'll try!

fullmetal alchemist ('03). why? this was pretty much my gateway anime. it's been over 10 years I believe since I've last seen any of it, so it's entirely possible that my opinion has since changed. but i definitely have nostalgia goggles on for it, and i know it is actually good, too haha

2. natsume yuujinchou (specifically seasons 6, 5, 4, and 3). why? some seasons of natsume i have rated higher than others, apparently. natsume is a special show. due to the nature of how long it is, there is the drawback that sometimes it feels like it repeats itself and tells similar stories. but even then it is just such a good story of found family and finding love after a life of strife, and it's just. very good. (i do think it should end soon though before it feels like it's just recycling old stories)

3. made in abyss. why? season 1 still stands out to me above the movie and 2. it was such a special experience. the art, the animation, the background art, the music, it all comes together to create such a fascinating world. the weak point would definitely be its characters, but even then everything else comes together so well that it doesn't really matter. it has one of the best first episodes of any anime (when the sun came up over orth and the music cued in I knew I was hooked) and I also adore season 1's ending; if the show never got a continuation, it could have ended right there and I would have been content (not a lot of other anime can say the same about their endings!).

4. steins; gate. why? it's also been a very long time since i've seen this one, so possible my opinion has changed. still, I remember being super interested after the first episode, and the following 12 that people tend to critique as being "slow" or a "slog" never really felt that way for me. there was always something fun and interesting going on. i compare this one with link click a lot, just because people tend to go the magica route and i firmly believe steins;gate is the better time travel show (though lc isn't over yet so maybe an unfair comparison. still it'd take a LOT for lc to reach anywhere near the heights of steins;gate to me). when okabe goes back over and over to try and save mayuri, i just remember being absolutely floored. really good stuff.

5. vinald saga. why? it's just such a well constructed story. and the author's comments about not wanting a world with war is so interesting, given how violent the first season is. it's really interesting to watch thorfinn grow and change (and i never understood the hate that he was too violent or annoying or a brat? he's just a kid who's lost everything, cut him some slack jeez). i love the last shot of season 1, corny as it is-- all the memories reflected on the dropping knife was great. and askeladd was one of the best villains i've ever seen. he's not even ~morally grey~ or anything; he's pretty strongly in the wrong, but his thinking and motivations and everything are so interesting and compelling. i don't think it's perfect; there are flaws for sure (i wasn't the biggest fan of how in s2 canute just. decides to turn his ships back after a small conversation with thorfinn lol) but it is very good.

6. this boy cuaght a merman. why? ok this one objectively does not deserve a 10. it's a 30minute ova about a boy falling in love with a merman. that's it. it's not incredible or amazing or ground breaking. buuuuuut it's my favorite soubi yamamoto ova and i adore soubi yamamoto and so she's getting a place on this list. she is responsible for animating, storyboarding, backgrounds, directing, etc etc everything in here, it's incredible (and she was only like 25, or something when she did it. fucking bananas). i love her please go check out her works (besides crystallization)

7. noragami. why? ok again probably not objectively THAT good, but this is one of the first anime that got me to read the manga, and here I am some 10 years later (ok a little less than 10 years because I didn't start reading the manga the year it started publishing, I think). noragami's MANGA is incredible and amazing and wonderful. but I do believe (much against the popular opinion amongst noragami manga readers) that the anime is also amazing, and YES that includes season 1. the crew behind it really loved the manga I feel (at least the director did, and there's proof for that) and adapted it faithfully and well. noragami is a story of found family and of turning your life and fate around, and it's very good.

8. she and her cat: everything flows. why? this one is only 4 episodes, 8 minutes each. it tells a story of a 20-something (actually she's still in college iirc) who lives on her own with her cat, and is trying to be an adult. but it's told from the cat's perspective. it's so sweet; the cat comments on how she "grooms herself" (brushes her hair, puts on her interview clothes) and "looks pretty" and things and it is just so great. i love the line (not a direct quote) "she opens that heavy door again today and heads out. on the other side of that door is a somewhat unforgiving, somewhat cruel world. but she's doing her best to learn to love that world. and i love her for that." just....so good (also the show made me cry)

9. yuru camp. why? second iyashikei on this list! SOL/iyashikei is actually my favorite genre of anime, generally speaking, but it can be hard to do it well. yuru camp ABSOLUTELY does it well. i read a commentary once ages ago, about how one of the great things about yuru camp is that the girls are allowed to just... be girls, and it always stuck with me. there's no fanservice, and these girls really feel like real characters who exist. there was another commentary (maybe same one?) about how rin is this introverted, more lonesome character, but she enjoys the solitude. but what's cool about yuru camp is she is never forced to change or become more extroverted; her friends accept her for who she is, nadeshiko will invite her out but not push her, and then sometimes she does go out! and she changes and becomes a bit more social, but never gives up solo camping. AND the more extroverted, outgoing character INSTEAD comes to embrace solo camping! what a cool idea, executed amazingly! so the characters are a strong point here, but the banter and camping is a lot of fun too. i still haven't watched the movie, but i'll get there eventually!

10. odd taxi. why? this one is 100% on the writing. it is so clever and quick-witted, it's a ton of fun to watch. i've never watched any other anime like it. the mystery/thriller aspects are a lot of fun too, and i remember reading reddit threads and theories on this one as it was airing. what was so cool is that they plant subtle hints that you can ABSOLUTELY catch if you have sharp eyes (i likely wouldn't have if it weren't for reading others' theories) and you can know things before characters do. lot of fun.

--

wow this was so much fun to write up! thank you so much for the question!

[macgyvertape]

Movies from this week are Dracula (1936) and the 2 sequels Dracula’s Daughter, and Son of Dracula; as well as the Karnstein Trilogy of Hammer Studios (The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil). The 1930s Dracula collection also included House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein (which I didn't watch). I unintentionally seemed to have picked notable entries in the genre of lesbian vampire films (Daughter of Dracula & Karnstein movies).

Some thoughts and questions:

The 1930s films were affected by the Hays code, despite a lot of unsourced statements otherwise. The Karnstein movies were also affected by the British Board of Film Classification, which I didn't know was a UK censorship board.

I’m interested in the difference between Hays code and recently post Hays code movies (also fuck the Hayes code). My impression of Hammer studios was based on their pre Hayes code films, and that is rapidly changing due to their 70s sexploitation films with a lot of topless scenes.

My October 2022 vampire movie month has now extended to reading non fiction filmography books; Celluloid Vampires; Life after Death in the Modern World and The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films.

Sad I don’t know enough about the 1930s to recognize any distinctive fashion markers, or even how much suits like that were worn daily. How hot and awful would it be to wear a 1930s suit all day outside like in the movie, nowadays?

I had a moment of mentally re-framing things when I remembered the 30s movies were made and some were set during the Great Depression. It’s a period of time I only really know from AP US History class briefly touching on it; and in pop culture reading Grapes of Wrath, and the American Girl Kit series. I’d be fascinated to read reviews from when these movies came out, just because I have such a pop culture influenced mental image of daily life during that time.

Son of Dracula was done “Filming began on January 7, 1943 and concluded on February 2”, was that short production schedule typical to the time, since this would have been during WW2?

I didn't realize 1930s Universal had a monster cinematic universe, with not just Dracula but other monsters as well. Makes their failure to launch the "Dark Cinematic Universe" in the late 2010s even more embarrassing. Watching House of Dracula the movie definitely expected my to be familiar with the Frankenstein movies.

A lot of ableism to unpack about how the poster advertises “hunchback” alongside the other villains like it’s a genre trope. I’ve seen some of the post genre parody with Terry Pratchett Igor, and I didn't realize this trope originated from the Universal 1930s movies.

My favorite movie was: The Vampire Lovers (1970) - in good horror the vampire isn't just a vampire, in this film it's also about a 70s view of predatory lesbianism and female sexuality. I support women’s wrongs: there should be more female vampire/human monster romance. The extremely homoerotic topless scenes were a lot of fun to watch, especially with how much of an ingenue Emma was. The costuming seemed like it was going for an early 1800s fashion and I found it interesting in how much variety there was in the dresses.

My least favorite movie was Son of Dracula (1943) - this is the only 1930s Dracula film that has multiple black characters but only in minor roles, and they are all extremely dated servant stereotypes. I would be cheering on Alucard preying on the main characters especially because they live on a damn plantation but to be really petty he didn't even bother not to have an American accent. The script has other problems, but why change the setting to the Deep South then do nothing with that setting?