#i leave it on all my characters because its so much funnier to see ???? than a swear

[sntoot]

compilation of hyth’s shit driving skills, featuring an A rank in elpis (ty @asleepinawell for recording my terrible driving, not pictured is my squeak of terror when i realized the guy was still following us)

we didnt die tho!

[thealogie]

sorry I just have to use this blog as a diary to write down every special "actors breaking/audience reaction" moment from that last Merrily performance to (a) get it out of my system and (b) put it down somewhere in case i forget a single second of it.

during the overture, if you were sitting close enough you could hear the actors cheering backstage and we all started to laugh because they were so rowdy

Every single member of the ensemble got applause during their entrance not just the leads.

jonathan groff entered the stage with tears visibly rolling down his face

as i've said before, franklin shepard inc. got the first and maybe biggest mid-show standing ovation of the night and daniel radcliffe who was already on the verge of tears broke down crying. it was beautiful.

they had so much fun during "old friends." there's a bit where they're all dancing and mary accidentally goes the wrong way (which is scripted) and lindsay went "oh shit" in such a loud, funny, "this is unscripted" way that everyone lost it.

they got a huge standing ovation after "old friends," and just stood on the trunk laughing and bantering through the applause to keep the bit going (half in character, half as themselves). Their mics were cut but this went on for a full 3 minutes and i wish i could lip-read.

In general, lindsay was generally coping by being even funnier than usual. She hissed at gussie so vigorously during the scene where they're in gussie's apartment that everyone in the cast almost lost it.

more on lindsay being so funny: during the bit where gussie and frank are in his apartment and mary and charley are outside and gussie says "can they [meaning mary and charley] see us?" and the last time i saw it charley and mary just pointedly steal a glance inside to indicate that yes they can see inside. this time lindsay waved to them so aggressively to say "yes we can see you" that jonathan groff broke laughing.

I didn't actually hear them perform much of "it's a hit" because it got interrupted by applause every five seconds. There was one long standing ovation during the "tony" bit and another at the end. But also just constant applause interruptions throughout. They went "it's the sound of an audience losing its mind" and we all just lost our fucking minds mid-song. Reg got cheers for “it's funny girl, fiddler and dolly combiiiiine—“ so he literally had to add the "d" in "combined" after the applause, which just caused more cheering and laughing.

During "opening doors," frank types something on Charley's typewriter and Dan has previously said Jonathan writes him a dirty/funny joke every night. Whatever the fuck he wrote that last night made Dan break and laugh and shake his head. And the audience lost it.

Everyone crying during "not a day goes by" and "good thing going." Jonathan openly weeping looking at Dan during "good thing going." Dan looking straight ahead to avoid crying.

When Dan entered for the final rooftop scene, J Groff just lost it when Dan goes "is something wrong" and started crying instead of saying his line (shoulders shaking, back to the audience) and Dan's face was just like "don't do this to me." so everyone in the audience went "awww" and clapped for them until they were ready to jump back in.

all three of them just crying non-stop during "our time." When Frank goes "after this moment that the three of us are sharing, nothing is ever going to be like it was" everyone in my section gasped and people just started crying. and then also Dan and Lindsay both just lingered (with tears in their eyes) and shared a long moment with J Groff before exiting to leave him alone for the blackout.

[s0xmsstuff]

You can't see it, and I constantly wonder why.

{reader} x y!Wally Darling

Warnings: Obsessive behavior, mentions of harassment, bad outlook on love, Threats of isolation, mental torture, gn! {Reader}

– English is not my first language! If you see grammar problems I will happily accept a correction.

You can't see it, right? You cannot see how this heart hidden in the skin of my chest begs for your attention, for your love, for all of you.

I don't understand why, why can't you hear the beating of my poor heart? Why do you deny what is already written? Why don't you accept it?

It would be better that you accept that you are mine, it would be better that you accept to stay with me, it would be better if you were obedient, {reader}.

It would be better for you.

Because the only thing you gain by resisting is a great hole of despair and horror, where both the victim and the perpetrator are yourself.

You just have to agree, my dear. Just accept your fate, accept that we are made for each other.

Just imagine it; Mr and Mrs/Mr/Mx. Darling

You only complicate things with your negativity, with your unnecessary resistance. None of it will stop our love, my dear. Nothing and no one will.

I am always watching you, from up close of course, I have always been a witness to how your eyes carefully observe the shape of the trees. I have witnessed how the skin of your beautiful fingers plays with the fabric of your clothes, and I have witnessed everything.

Why do you run away? Why are you crying? Why do you beg for mercy? Why you do not trust me? Why don't you look back at me?

I, your future husband, promise with my very existence that I will protect you as the knight protects his queen. I will love you as the sun has loved the moon since its creation. And I'll show you that I love you, just like I do.

I have always wanted to feel more than what I have been forbidden to feel. And after so much wishing, praying and asking... You appeared.

You appeared in the neighborhood with your big and beautiful smile, greeting everyone equally, that day I saw you through the window and I said to myself... ”Someone new, new feelings."

And it was true, you made me feel lighter, you made me feel so shocked, everything you did or said was right in my eyes. I didn't care if what you said wasn't relatively accurate, but for me it was.

You were smarter than Frank

Kinder than Eddie .

Funnier than Julie

More interesting than Barnaby

More passionate than Sally

More attentive than Poppy

More agile than Howdy

I even dare to say that you became more incredible and special than Home. That was almost alien to me, I didn't know why I felt that way. But I didn't dislike it, in fact I liked it.

I like the way this feels, it's like being alive again.

But you refused to accept it, you wanted to live too. I don't get it, you and I could live

together.

So I had to do whatever it took to keep you from leaving my side, it was hard at first I didn't like the idea of ​​hurting you. You are special to me, you know that right? But a few sacrifices are necessary to achieve peace, right?

So I locked you in Home, with me. Together

N/Y; This is my first time writing for this character, and I like the obsessive wolf dynamic. Probably something nicer will go up, but that will be decided in another future.

– s0x

[salsaseth]

After hearing my friend, James bring it up in a call, we started watching Lily Orchard's video about Pokemon to see all the bad takes in it.

When she starts playing the DS games, she uses a mod to smooth out the aliasing and uncap the game's framerate to 60. And gah damn does it look fuckin bad. Even worse is during the 3D games where she uses another mod to smooth out the 3D models and it looks like peeled oranges. Unnaturally smooth. But it does get funny when she talks about the game running like garbage when she's fucked with the game's logic. Like no shit, it's running at a framerate it was never meant for.

Something really funny also begins in the DS games. I don't know why, but she replaces one of the starters with Ralts, cuz she's got some favoritism for Gardevoir. All well and good, but you know, Ralts is weak as shit until it learns confusion and it's still frail. So it gets its ass kicked all the way until it evolves into Gardevoir. But because of how much asskicking it receives, and I swear this is true, she suspects the game is artificially raising the strength of the enemy pokemon, as a way to explain for why's she losing.

Almost as if the game is designed to use a stronger than average pokemon to get you through the early game. ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) Still, I don't fully understand why she refuses to use the regular starters. Especially when you can catch Ralts and Kirlia for most of the games. save for black and white. Speaking of.

One takeaway I've had from listening to it is what she says is more revealing about herself than what is intentional. The most telling thing is when she's going off about the Black and White characters for speaking about their ideals and opinions. I mean, she mashes through that with the A button (VISUAL NOVEL HATER SPOTTED), so it's when she's paying attention. I don't know if she just doesn't know what the game is supposed to be going for, or if she's just purposefully ignorant for the sake of contrarianism, but the game's themes are about truth and ideals. The truth is out there, but the ideals we have shape our perspective of the truth. Even Cheren, who represents the truth, is still shaped his ideal. It's a little more deeper than, 'Characters excited that they all have opinions,' but what do i know?

She rails against these characters, N in particular for having opinions and speaking them out. Meanwhile in X&Y, which its cast and characters are there to mostly stroke the character's dick, she vastly praises and prefers these characters to the ones in B&W. Hmmm. Characters that have opinions and speak them out are hated, while those that don't and heap praise on her are loved. I wonder if this says anything about her?

The video gets pretty boring the longer it goes on. The hot take well starts drying up and it quickly becomes a bad screenshot let's play. "Then I did this, and then I did that!"

That's all I got to report. Besides the shoehorning in of lefty takes. I don't know if it's because she's not funny or if she wields everything with as much subtlety as anvil-nunchuks, but when there's an opportunity to make a joke with a leftist-slant, it's as heavy handed as a Titan's ballsack and as funny as stale bread. I'm a leftist bastard myself, but every time the jokes were shoehorned in, I'm like, "The funny? Where is it?!" Especially when it was about Looker and Nanu. I get not liking the police, but this isn't the time or place for it. Leave the jokes to the professionals. Like my friend Plate. Several unemployment jokes were made at Lily's expense, and each one was funnier than the last.

I'll report back if there's anything worth commenting on. Me and the friends got to the end of Sun and Moon, so we have SwSh and SV left.

And if you had time to read this 'post', Lily, I think you had time to 'post' your resume to get a job ;D ;D ;D

[verdemoun]

one of my few complaints about red dead 2 was that the 4 endings were all the same. I felt like if R* wanted to have multiple endings, they could have at least made them different, maybe with different characters involved changing the course of events.

What I thought would be interesting is a chain-of-events system, where doing one drastic action would lead to something different, and the missions that would change events being unlocked by having high or low honour. For example, high honour would unlock a mission to save Kieran after Jack’s party, and low honour would unlock a mission to save Strauss from Pinkertons around the same time.

i know exactly what you mean it would be so fun if rdr came out with a more interactive drama format and secret endings like until dawn but i also think it would lose some of its charm? so much of the narrative of rdr as a whole is built on the inevitability of the characters' fates. arthur says multiple times in chapter one he is going to die an outlaw, there's no escape for him, dutch warning john the agency will only be looking for another monster after he's dead, ultimately true when he meets his end, jack making the choice to seek revenge and becoming an outlaw despite everyone trying to give him the chance for a life better than that ect.

and of course part of the challenge of rdr2 is that it has to at least sort of match rdr1. bill, javier and dutch have to live and become evil. john, abigail, uncle and jack have to live and end up at beecher's hope together. i personally love the idea of if you save one character, another dies eg if you tackle sean quicktime event style having seen the sniper aiming at him, bill gets killed, but of course that wouldn't work.

it would be really fun though to have a chain of events system that changed some outcomes. the biggest gripe for me is that yes arthur has to die it's such a major part of the game and part of john's motivation to change but i really just want an ending where he doesn't die alone because that hurt me.

let me choose to send micah to the downes ranch. moss spends too much time on hypotheticals under the cut

1. saving sean in rhodes, resulting in sean coming to guarma and javier escaping during the chase through saint denis. sean gets into a fistfight with either micah or arthur depending on honor, resulting in the person he is fighting being the one captured in place of javier. the gang who stayed behind are obviously wary of javier, with a mission explaining how much abusive and power hungry he was while they were gone. some members of the gang leaving even before beaver hollow. 2. if you had high honor AND arthur didn't drink during jack's party, you'd get the option to be on guard duty. this would allow you to kill some o'driscolls attempting to sneak into camp, but also funnier options like not letting swanson wander off while drunk (if you don't, he gets attacked by alligators and dies), catching micah stealing extra rations from the food cart, and bill very very badly trying to flirt with arthur. 3. kieran living would result in kieran ratting to the pinkertons in an effort to get dutch captured or killed. when caught he'd give a very desperate speech about how dutch was worse than colm because at least colm didn't pretend to care, revealing what a creep dutch was to most of the women in camp (that one dutch interation with mary-beth brother ew), and arguing none of them would be safe if they kept following dutch because dutch was obviously losing whatever it was they used to see in his 'teachings'. high honor, kieran is allowed to leave with mary-beth quickly deciding to go with him, or low honor he is killed in camp for being a traitor. 4. arthur can choose to start shooting and save hosea during saint denis. this directly leads to lenny being shot in the shootout, with the choice to carry him or leave him behind. carrying him results in him dying of infection on the boat, but chapter 5 starts on the ship with the option to sit beside lenny and have a honor-changing conversation where lenny asks why arthur started shooting when of course dutch would have found a way to save hosea OR hosea reprimanding arthur for rescuing him at the cost of lenny's life, warning him that no life was worth more than another. low honor arthur would counter they decided which lives were worth more than others everytime they went robbing 5. if you save hosea, arthur tells john to go ahead during the attack on beaver hollow because hosea is struggling to keep up during the climb OR hosea tells john to go because arthur is struggling if arthur has tb. 6. if micah went to the downes ranch instead, it's possible for arthur to successfully beat and kill micah in their last fight since he has an obvious advantage. only to get shot by pinkertons (high honor) or dutch (low honor). 7. the secret ending would be if micah has tb, hosea lives AND arthur has low honor, dutch and hosea get into a stand off after dutch shoots arthur. dutch may have been willing to shoot arthur, but not hosea. he walks away and hosea gets to hold arthur and comfort him as he bleeds out. the first newspaper available for purchase in the epilogue would confirm the pinkertons caught up to hosea and arthur, killing both. the real devastation would be that going to where arthur's grave usually ends results in a surprise cutscene with charles already being there, saying it's where he would have liked arthur to be buried instead, and that he was a confusing, complicated man but he did love him (charthur confirmed ending). 8. there would be an achievement for sneaking onto the grounds of sisika, and finding two unmarked graves for hosea and arthur respectively.

[leathr-blr]

i really wish i understood the appeal of milo murphys law but i just can't get into it :-( I've tried watching it but it's just so painfully mid

(i’m very critical about mml here but i end it positively don’t worry. essay under the cut)

i watched milo murphy’s law with my best friend and roommate ( @herbi-cide ) which gave me a more positive experience with the show as a whole but there were so many times were it just felt like a slog. i hesitate to call it “filler” because it’s a pretty episodic show (though theres much more of a plot than pnf) but i don’t particularly find the laid back contained story episodes very engaging or funny most of the time. i’ve seen people (KEYAN *shakes fist*) say this roots from a lack luster premise, but i think that a premise is always as good as it’s execution. and a lot of mml executes like ass. it is straight up disastrous. like milo murphy himself walked through the writers room one day leaving the writers to salvage whatever scraps were left among the wreckage

im really not confident in dwampy’s ability to write a plot-driven show, i think it’s obvious that they’re comfort zone lies in episodic comedies. which is awesome, we all have our skills and comfort zones, phineas and ferb is so great at what it does for a reason. but i think this is very much to mml’s detriment. there is so much set up for great storylines and likable characters, and so many good ideas, but like, either they didn’t have time to do anything with them or just straight up didn’t know how. it is genuinely impressive how boring mml can get given its cast and world

i think people blame pnf too much for the decline of mml in season 2, doofenshmirtz is insufferable throughout most of it and all, but i think the pnf shoehoring hints to a larger problem that mml always had. it feels as if it’s uncomfortable with its own characters and world, like it’s afraid to commit, and i think that is very much dwampy’s sitcom-oriented writing style shining through in an ugly way

i see people praise mml for its story, but because of dwampy’s aversion to writing linear storytelling, it definitely ranges on the plot-light side of television. it’s not quite a sitcom, but there’s really not much story progression happening aside from a few world building episodes and big arcs like the aliens or the pistachions (which phineas and ferb also does better in the meap saga let’s be real, at least for the alien arc)

i don’t like comparing mml to phineas and ferb, but one fails so hard at the things the other achieves in spades that it’s kind of impossible not to compare them. i wouldn’t mind mml’s shitty storytelling as much if the plot-light episodes (which is most of them) were compelling. phineas and ferb has just as good as a premise as murphy’s law, if not less interesting, and does the character-driven sitcom filler infinitely better in every single way. it is rare i’ll ever be bored watching phineas and ferb, and ik comedy is subjective, but i think a lot of us can agree that phineas and ferb is overall just wittier and funnier in general than mml. mml is kind of forgettable! i’ll be real! i love it but it’s forgettable

i want mml to be its own unique thing sooo bad but especially in the second half it feels like there’s no reason i shouldn’t just turn it off and go watch phineas and ferb. it’s also frustrating because i know mml has the capability to be good, because the pistachion arc is gripping and well structured and generally super entertaining (one of the best experiences i’ve had watching a show with a friend), and there’s a lot of fantastic episodes and moments in there. which is why i’m so harsh on it, it’s disappointing!!

there’s dozens and dozens of ultra talented people who worked on milo murphy’s law (i’ve gone through so many storyboards and portfolios to look for more details about the artists who worked on it so can confirm these people are awesome) so i can only wonder if studio conditions / time crunches / other factors (disney bullshitery) had anything to do with how spectacularly mml fails in a lot of regards, but there’s an upside, and this is the biggest appeal of murphy’s law for me:

the milo murphy’s law fandom and by extent the dakavendish fandom is one of the best fandoms i’ve ever seen hands down, some of the most dedicated and passionate writers, artists and general fans continue to be active in the community and create awesome shit that is leagues better than anything in the source material. because mml presents so many good concepts but doesn’t deliver, it leaves a lot of room for fans to expand on them and make their own amazing stuff. and because they’re such a small community, and milo murphy’s law is widely remembered as “that show that came after phineas and ferb” or “that show keyan carlile didn’t like” they are very close knit and very very friendly. nicest ppl you’ll ever meet

if it weren’t for the fandom i would not give a single shit about milo murphy’s law, but the fans make the show and it’s characters so much more than they are in the source material. so no wonder i had such a good time watching it when i had my roommate to talk about it with! community adds context to art in a way that can change it entirely, especially in the age of the internet

so i will always recommend murphy’s law with that in mind. also, think of it this way: at least it’s not hamster and gretel. i’ll stand by my opinion that show sucks LMAO

[queer-whatchamacallit]

I’ just finished CBS Ghosts, and I wanted to give my two cents on the CBS vs BBC ghosts

CBS

I feel like it explores the rules of ghosts a lot more. It introduced the concept of possession and how things like burning sage have no effect on ghosts (even if I would have found it really funny if Hetty or Trevor (certified evil businessmen) found the sage disgusting). I feel like the longer seasons shorter episodes works better to explore these little plots for an episode.

It also feels like they’re making more progress on the house and that there’s more triumph to even just getting the chance to host stuff. And it feels more realistic that even with the ghosts, they’d hire someone to help run an entire b&b. While I don’t really know how their incomes are covering so many repairs, I like seeing that they’re doing well. You generally get to see a lot more of Sam and Jay’s lives in it too. I don’t think they ever even said what Alison was doing before she started dedicating her time to the house.

The more present possibility of the house ghosts getting sucked off is introduced really early, and I find that super interesting. The ghosts have pretty clear things that they feel like if they can just fix that then they’ll be gone, so it feels like the ghosts really have a chance of leaving at anytime.

Because of Sam being more extroverted and her feeling like an even greater focus than Alison in BBC, we get to see how she interacts with ghosts in different places. The world feels fuller than BBC. This also means we get to see a wider variety of ghost powers, so it’s fun to see all the creative powers they came up with

Something that I don’t really like is how because of its comedy status, it feels afraid to go dark and sad. Any time they explore ideas like Hetty desperate for more life while possessing Jay or Trevor online dating Bela, it might be that they tell more than they show or maybe it’s the score but I’m really not sure what makes it not hit as hard as the BBC.

Like seemingly all the big American comedies, it takes a little while to get a handle on its sense of humor. I think a lot of the earlier episodes will leave it feeling dated pretty fast, but it grows out of that more and more as time goes on. There’s even some moments that made me laugh plenty harder than the BBC ever did (I am American, and I do indeed laugh at show with ‘funnier to Americans’ slapped on the label)

I’ve already seen this talked about a lot, but I very much don’t like the plague ghosts’ ugly=bad person message even if I did really like Nancy.

I haven’t gotten how their time as ghosts have affected them. I haven’t gotten Fanny’s passion for math, Robin’s love for the moon, or the fact that Mary was starting to learn how to read. I guess it makes sense because neither of these characters really share their struggles a lot, but I want living for hundreds of years to have noticeable effects on them instead of it just them having a mix of their original time and the modern one and calling it a day. I didn’t like the way this plot was done at all, but it was interesting to see Sass become annoyed by Pete’s unwavering love of life

Sure, we get Thorfinn’s LANDSHIP and Hetty’s encouraging Sam to try some cocaine, but they feel like they aren’t very stuck in their own time. They change and adapt to modern day surprisingly easily, even if sometimes the stuff they get interested in doesn’t really make sense to me. (This is fully stolen from another post) but Thorfinn and Sassapis’ dating show vs Fanny’s Murder She Wrote or Mary’s Loose Women

We get some of the ghosts being around for younger ones’ lives, and I love it immensely. Thorfinn being Hetty’s imaginary friend and singing her to sleep is one of my favorite parts of the show. For BBC, we kinda only see the ghosts gathering around for the possibility of a new ghost

I loved seeing how Pete’s direction brought some much needed stability to the other ghosts. Without him, they’re all too self-serving, and they need him to tell them what they’re supposed to act like. He is the leader of a bunch of children!!

The fact that they have hell is so funny to me. They get hell privileges. And it’s Hetty that gave it to them by sending her shitty husband straight down, and I’m starting to like Hetty more by the day

There’s something about the little plots of the episodes that can feel kinda uncreative compared to BBC. Of course I think that it can go into really interesting territory, specifically in exploring ghosts rules, but the way things play out can feel predictable at times. Like, in the BBC, the plot of ‘a ghost wanted to give a mysterious letter to someone he was obviously in love with but backed out, and oh no! He‘ll never get to share what was in the letter with the person because they’re both dead!’ Isn’t the most creative plot in the world, but bring in the fact that he hid it in a bomb in the backyard, and it’s a lot less clear how that’s going to play out.

I think my feeling that the episodes were a little more predictable helped contribute to my not being as invested. BBC’s fun, creative plots make them feel like people whereas CBS’s plots make them feel like good sitcom characters. So when I do get interesting details that flesh them out, it’s harder to notice because I already don’t care about their character as much

CBS leaned into the shipping angle hard, and it can be really fun. Just to get it out of the way, some of it feels like it includes canned sitcom plots like Sass being scared that the Car Ghost is cheating or Pete/Alberta and Isaac/Nigel having the exact same plot for a good second. But Thor/Flower is so adorable and I would do unimaginable things for them and every single scene with Hetty/Trevor is pure comedy gold to me like oh my god (also I do want them to fuck, I think they deserve it)

BBC

The spectrum of emotion it gets is a lot better. I personally like the humor a lot more, but I think the more noticeable bit is how devastatingly beautiful some storylines are. From Thomas’ or Humphrey’s death to Cap’s love to Fanny’s life, it’s all done so well. These stories are told in fascinating ways that have loads of hilarious bits to lighten them up, but by the end of it, their lives were perfectly written tragedies.

Alison and Mike feel more real. Alison realistically gets frustrated with the ghosts, but you can see how they’re starting to grow as people and how they rub off on her. It’s really interesting to see how the ghosts have affected their lives with Alison not really finding work outside of the house and Mike desperately trying to connect to this part of Alison’s life.

While they definitely haven’t explored it a lot, I think I like how they deal with Gone Gone more than how CBS does sucking off. It feels more true to the nature of death in real life. No one got to say what they needed to say to Mary like Sam did with her mom, she just went, and it wasn’t right after she had the big revelatory fight with Alison. Sure, there were signs pointing to Mary being finally satisfied in death, but you’re not going to jump right to that conclusion. It was unexpected and there wasn’t simple closure, and I love that.

Having longer episodes lets every ghost get their turn. For every episode there’s like four different plots, so it never feels like any ghosts just spectates for an episode like I sometimes feel the CBS does. You never have to wonder what everyone was doing and thinking while the main plot’s going on

I love Pat’s role in the group and how the dynamic is a little different from CBS.’ They still have his clubs because it’s Pat’s whole reason for not getting sucked off that he will cling to routine no matter what, even if their whole way of life now includes much easier access to the internet’s worth of entertainment. Also, while Pete is the nice, normal one of the group, Pat is normal enough compared to everyone else to be passed off as that, but he also asked Alison to kill his wife and the whole ‘dip it again’ bit

There’s a near perpetual silliness about the show that makes it so fun to watch. Everything in this show from the plots to character’s movements to their decisions down to the facial expressions are just silly and goofy at the exact right times, and they know when to get serious too. The goofiness is one of the main reasons I love the show so much.

I’m sure you can tell I’m definitely biased toward BBC, but I will say that the bit with Elias going down on them had me laughing harder than BBC ever did

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Black Roses (Fasano, 1988)

Decided to watch this for National Canadian Film Day, in part because my first pick, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, turned out to be a bit of a dud, but mostly because it was directed by John Fasano director of CanCon classic Rock’n’Roll Nightmare. That one is one of my favourite bad movies, and I remember seeing this on a list years ago when digging further into heavy metal horror movies. (That list also had Shock ‘Em Dead in the top spot, so perhaps its recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.) This obviously offers some of the same pleasures as Nightmare, like wall to wall heavy metal music and cheesy monster effects. The most frequently played song here is “Me Against the World” by Lizzie Borden, a song I was first introduced to thanks to the sampler CD included with an ‘80s metal guide written by Martin Popoff that I once borrowed from the library. None of this will mean anything to anyone else, but I am painting a nostalgic portrait of my relationship with this music and this genre of horror.

But I didn’t find this as fun as Nightmare, in large part because it feels more like a real movie, so the goofiness doesn’t pop to the same extent. Nightmare is simultaneously a bit of a hangout piece and a vanity project, qualities that mix with the cheesy horror elements to give the movie its own distinct wavelength. Shower scenes that go on for hours, full throated speeches talking up the Toronto music industry, one-eyed monster puppets, and at the centre of it all, Jon Mikl Thor, the muscular hair metal god whose music we should be in awe of, but who is also a generous enough presence that he lets the whole cast of characters shine, including his bandmates and their spouses. He’s a very genial presence, and it’s a very genial movie.

This one is sort of genial as well, beginning initially as a gentle satire of the moral majority types afraid of the heavy metal band who has descended upon their town. These characters are adamant that heavy metal will prove a corrupting influence on the youth in their town, but after some common sense speeches by the mayor and a schoolteacher, and witnessing the opening of the act where the music and getups seem more new wave or pop rock than heavy metal, they decide their fears were unfounded. But the moment the adults leave the concert, the band instantly transforms into their hair metal leather getups and start blasting the Lizzie Borden and whatever else they have in their repertoire. Soon they have the children in their thrall and carrying out their evil bidding in black outfits and a lot more product in their hair. Despite the original feint in the opposite direction, the movie disappointingly ends up siding with the moral majority conservatism of the era.

That being said, there is something a little endearing about how much it commits to the nobility of the teaching profession as a motivation. The teacher ends up as the hero and seems genuinely concerned about his students, which adds to the afterschool special vibe of the whole thing. Even funnier is that all the students look to be at least thirty, and one of the students comes off like a Michael J. Fox impersonator but with terrible energy. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll get it when you watch him for even a few minutes. There’s also enough of the goofiness you’d want in things like this, especially in the climax where the hero very conspicuously attempts to set the stage on fire and then gets in a fist fight with a monster that seems to be shot to look an unimposing as possible.

So this does not live up to Rock’n’Roll Nightmare, one of the greatest Canadian movies ever made, but it has its charms.

[yuukei-yikes]

What kind of relationship do you think Ayano and Kano have? Especially considering this shitshow going on with them and Shintaro

answer is here but... >:3

both are very messed up and filled with guilt/feelings of failure over their whole thing from back then. kano is so ashamed he ended up doing the things he did even if under the threat of saeru and ayano is ashamed she even dragged him into it in the first place, only to end up leaving him & seto and kido alone... she feels like such a failure :((

i think ayano would rly try to talk about it, but disregards all of kano's own remorse and just like kido and seto she's like yeah u shouldve said something but its ok we're family and ayano is even more like this bc she feels so RESPONSIBLE for kano's mistakes she's like oh my GOOOOD especially for shit like having to pretend to be her corpse, ayano rly feels like she's singlehandedly put kano through hell. so she's all over him like a worried mom lol

and he IS all messed up but he's like id rather get stabbed again than be honest abt all these feelings of dread bc what am i supposed to say?? that i feel empty and clueless and lost and sad and undeserving even though everything is ok and my sister is back?? in what world do i have the right to feel the way i do after all the mistakes ive made. like who cares i feel undeserving, its not about me. if anything its about kido&seto getting ayano back. its about ayano getting her life back!!

but ayano keeps acting so apologetic and remorseful and it makes kano so sick. bc how can she feel so responsible, it wasn't her. it was clearing eyes. kano is so angry that ayano and also even shintaro&mary keep blaming themselves for things that weren't their fucking fault it was CLEARING and kano's like IM the only one who knew for so long and didnt say anything. if anyone's a fucking asshole its me!!!!

so... i think both kano and ayano are going to each other like i know ur hurting talk to me💖 no im fine. YOURE doing badly. talk to me. NO YOU NO YOU NO YOU and its stupid

and for the whole shintaro stuff. well kano IS SO MAD at him because 1. hes dating his sister and is overprotective over her 2. he is FUCKING UP with his sister making it WORSE 3. HE LIKES HIM *HOLDS HEAD* DESPITE IT ALL HE LIKES HIM SO MUCH💔💔💔

erm. after ayano's breakthrough/kano starting to see shintaro etc etc i think... both kano and shintaro are so terrified of their relationship so ofc they wouldnt tell anyone. which is why itd be 10000 times funnier if theyre caught. idk how that would go but i just know itd be funny. i havent given it much thought yet but i just want it to be a sitcom moment i love secret relationships and characters finding out one by one

erm abt how ayano would react i think shed be surprisingly chill about it?? like she's not mad or not even weirded out she's probably just like hehe THERE IS something to like isnt there shuuya :3 and kano wants to die. maybe she'd be iffy if its very fresh after breakup with shintaro she's like girl ur not ready for a relationship LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE‼️‼️‼️ but it all depends in what mental context she is at. also if she was like this, kano and shintaro freak out like RELATIONSHIP⁉️ WHO SAID ANYTHING ABT A RELATIONSHIP WERE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP and its so ridiculous and insane. lol.

[all-timepanic]

I watched shazam fury of the gods yesterday and I have thoughts. It has bothered me all day so I need to leave this somewhere. So I guess here is my sort of review. But it is kinda rambly. Or something. Idk I just need to get it out. It also got a lot longer than I planned it to, sorry in advance.

Of course it wouldn't be as good as the first one. Sequels, especially from superhero movies, rarely are. (but maybe I'm just too much of an origin story fan for this as well) This sounds kinda negative, I know, but believe me, I liked this film. A lot, actually. But I'll probably leave out quite a few of the things I actually liked. The main focus is the "bad" stuff. Maybe someone agrees with some of these things. Maybe I'm just overthinking a fun, hero movie. Who knows.

It felt kind of... generic? I liked the first one for its humor. The characters were great, the villain seemed fun and they had fun with some superhero tropes. (+ i loved a lot of the way it was made, from the different shots, to the sets etc.,).

This one fell a little flat for me. Of course, it might be funnier once I get to watch it in english (I can only watch it in my native language here, sadly) but a lot of the jokes just felt like they are forcefully trying to reach the first one in levels of fun. (And don't get me wrong, I was laughing quite a bit as well, there were some HILARIOUS bits in there, but they didn't stick with me as much as some of the firsts ones, y'know?)

The plot kind of felt a bit more boring as well. Yeah, the entire "figuring out the new superpowers" isn't something you can repeat in a second movie, obviously. Instead it went with the kinda family/trust/fear of rejection angle which is nice. It is obviously something that effects Billy. I was excited to see this storyline followed through. But it kind of felt like the movie was just going through the motions? The movie obviously needed to go from point A to B to C but Billy's progression just felt very quick and forced. The speech from the wizard before the showdown didn't feel earned enough for me.

Like, plot angle they were going for was great. Of course everything Billy went through would change him and his behaviour. There is quite a lot of trauma there. And I know with the tone this movie has that is not something that will be unpacked completely. I just wish it was handled slightly differently? (I would have to think more about what bothered me about this, but it isn't handled the way I wish it would be considering it was the very first thing we heard about Billy in this film)

I also disliked how little we actually saw Billy as a teenager? I enjoy Zachary Levi's acting as much as the next person but let Asher Angel get at least some screentime? I don't know if it was because of scheduling or whatever but there were a lot of scenes where the characters didn't need to be in superhero form but they just sort of hung out in adult form.

And it is just a small moment but I still wanted to call it out, because stuff like this annoys me. When Pedro came out everyone answered that they already knew. I hate that. Yes, it was supposed to be a funny moment so of course it wasn't going to be a big, emotional thing and it doesn't need to be. But it always irks me when people "knew" beforehand. bc it always feels like they are saying "people always know before" or "don't feel proud of yourself for opening up, it's old news" (am I explaining this okay? It just diminishes it and if everyone already knows, why add this moment? Especially in this scene where no one would realistically bring the topic up?). Maybe it's not a big deal but imo it was not a good moment.

The biggest thing I hate though is the big, emotional death of a main character with a long scene of the character accepting their fate, grieving friends and family and a funeral (!) just for them to be revived without consequence? Not saying that this is the movie that needs to pull off such a dark twist but... why? It was a very nice emotional part of the movie but it ended up feeling cheap? Especially bc it felt like an excuse to push in a cameo last minute. (It was a nice callback to the fist ww scene, a sort of gotcha we actually have the actress here, but at what cost).

Like I said, I never expected Billy to die, he is THE title character after all and DC would never have the balls to do that. Especially in the 2. film. + they did push Freddy into a more active role, which I love, but especially Adam Brody wasn't built up in a way to take over the franchise, so I knew this would't happen. I was still disappointed. It always cheats the audience out of their emotions. We just wasted 10 minutes of emotional stakes just to be cheated out of the satisfying conclusion?

anyway, I also wanna mention a few things I liked before I leave:

Like I said, the humor was still nice. It felt familiar in a way. And the immaturity was what I expected and hoped for. It makes sense in this film + for the characters. I love the design of the lair. Of course they would bring a bunch of stupid stuff in there. It fit their personalities. (And making the wall in the back a climbing wall was fun, idk why but it was)

I loved Freddy. I liked his character in the first movie as well but I liked him even more here. He got a lot more stuff to do on his own, more screentime and more own struggles to deal with (there are a few things that aren't great but they aren't that big a problem for me)

The monster design was great. I am a sucker for greek mythology and for twists on well known creatures so this one kind of hit a soft spot for me. I liked the way the monsters looked, from the minotaurs to the harpies, and the unicorns were great. I like that they were the fearsome predator type animal in the bunch. and the dragon. I loved it so much. Yes, being made of wood IS sort of a design flaw but you cannot tell me that it didn't look epic. And the way the fear was incorporated into its abilities? Amazing (wish we could have seen more uses of it)

On a similar note the fight scenes were really fun. they played with a few nice ideas and incorporated the superpowers well. ( I especially thought Ana's power were nice to watch, although they weren't often used in direct conflict)

....so I guess that's it? Like I said in the beginning, I really enjoyed this movie but there were quite a few things that felt off, in a way? Maybe I'll feel differently after a rewatch but it just doesn't feel as comfortable as the first one, if that makes sense. It doesn't feel as tightly knit or as satisfying. It is still a fun movie to watch but idk. If anyone wants to discuss this feel free to reblog it and add on or whatever.

[vazelbeak]

Thoughts on Unhappy campers

This will be a longer one

World building: So first things first lets start with world building! On a first run being in the human world there's not much worldbuilding for hell but it is odd Barbie needs a human costume, prior Moxxie and Millie didnt need one in seeing stars and now we're here where kids think their legs and skin are weird, until Millie ends up being seen as attractive (we'll get to that, i promise). But also we have a scene where Moxxie jumps into and stands in a fire but somehow isnt burned. Then when they go to have sex on stage and take clothes off, nobody recognizes them as demons. So...why did they need outfits? They still didnt answer this.

Plot: Personally I feel like we should've had more to connect western energy with this episode because it feels weird to leave off Stolas upset Blitzo might not love him and then Blitzo's breaking into a hospital to look for his sister. Like, a lot of people were under the impression he was going to visit Stolas until it was mentioned. They imply this to be a multiple time thing, but the way they deliver it feels like we should've have some prior build up like of Blitzo saying while theyre in sloth he has some other business to take care of besides Loona's hellbies shot. Viv said these episodes should all be watched together but this doesn't read that way. I think Moxxie deciding Blitzo put him in charge is funny, but Blitzo being so freaked out should've been played up more as at the moment it ends up looking like he's just acting weird. I think they should present the reason hes so worried about Barbie a lot sooner. She's clean, she doesn't want to talk to him, and despite that we get much on why he's worried until he finds out she's just on heroin. It may have worked if we had that implied earlier the full extent why hes worried. With the flip back to Moxxie and Millie my question is why are they deciding to be siblings? Why not just be a couple? I was dreading incest jokes the moment I heard this because now its coming off excessive especially to have it across three episodes two technically speaking being back to back. With Moxxie finding the suspicious behavior circumstantial it feels intended to drag out the plot because we get nothing to indicate him changing his mind from "this is coincidence" to "theyre the culprits". When if he went "holy shit its them!" when Millie pointed out everything it would make sense. I also don't follow why Moxxie is going to the kids for info and not counselors? They would know more about who would've had the means to drill into the boat. Or are kids better because Moxxie is trying to integrate himself into the camp and make sure counselors aren't wondering where an extra kid came from? think it would help to have a line of dialogue to indicate this. Moxxie trying to talk about who he is feels like it could've been a good set up for either 1. lying about being from another country and having a skin condition like how plenty kids go to summer camp and lie to seem cool in which all the other kids fall for because he makes increasingly elaborate lies to cover for himself 2. Making an original OC type joke with the "I like boys, makeup, and hot pink. I dislike people who think theyre better than me, bad make up, and the color green. My catchphrse is-" to imply Moxxie getting into character is him basically making a human oc. Also it feels a bit conflicting to go from "Millie leave out the fucking bitches part because these kids are too young" to "All the boys want me <3" like maybe just leave it at a "Boys fight over me all the time" Yeah kids can be cruel, but I'll just say i presume this is funnier when you weren't the one being bullied in that way. It comes off as just "okay...so is there gonna be a clever joke with this?" Kids being atttacted to Millie and seeing both about a bunch of girls crushing on her and being sent nudes is weird and uncomfortable. I feel like maybe they should've kept it to kids looking up to her and her almost becoming the cool kid/leader of them. I dont really follow the whole "i cant elimante any suspects because theyre too busy swooning over you" wouldn't this be good by giving Moxxie time to investigate while everyone else is distracted like what they had by the end of the episode? I dont really follow the whole "i cant elimante any suspects because theyre too busy swooning over you" wouldn't this be good by giving Moxxie time to investigate while everyone else is distracted like what they had by the end of the episode? ill have to reblog with the rest

[thekyterion]

M3GAN and the History of January Horror

January, for the longest time, has seemingly become a month for film devoted to three things: films seeking awards attention, films still playing from the holidays, and horror movies.

As long as I can remember, January has been a dumping ground for less-than-stellar horror flicks that studios unfortunately leave to die in cinemas. The vast majority of them being disliked by critics and audiences alike. Despite this, they often end up still making enough to break even due to their low price tags and advertising costs.

However, when the trailer for “M3GAN” first dropped a few months ago and people saw that January release date, the sense of worry surrounding January released horror was immediately overshadowed by incredibly high levels of hype. From a M3GAN Twitter account to gifs of the android doing kicks and flips to even a surprise remixed Taylor Swift deep cut, the film already had audience members in love and optimistic for the film.

Now, it seems our new murderous android bestie is officially dancing her way past the January horror curse after being released in theaters with stellar reception. With a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and close to $3 million in revenue from previews. “M3GAN” is projected to gross up to $20 million in its opening weekend alone, exceeding its $12 million budget breaking even in its first weekend alone.

If it opens higher than expected, it could even challenge “Avatar: The Way of Water” for the number one spot. However, my new favorite killer robot will face other horror competition almost every weekend of this month, so it will be very interesting to see how, and if, she is able to fend off the competition.

As for the film itself, “M3GAN” is as much fun as it looks to be. It was much funnier than expected, and even moments that were scary couldn’t helped but to be laughed with. Allison Williams once again shows that she is phenomenal in horror performances, and child actor Violet McGraw holds her own incredibly well in every scene, seemingly knowing how to perfectly balance the sadness and humor her character possesses.

The standout, of course, is the titular android, played with perfect terror and comedy by Amie Donald and voiced to terrifying comedic brilliance by Jenna Davis. M3GAN is going to become an iconic horror staple incredibly quickly because of their joint work to create such a scary and hilarious antagonist.

The film also beautifully comments on grief and the ways we act and things we do in those moments to help or hide our emotions. Williams and McGraw are the emotional core of the film, and both are able to perfectly keep that in tact while all of the murderous and hilarious shenanigans go on around them.

This is one movie worthy of the theater experience. My entire theater was perfectly in tune with the film. The film ended in applause, something I hadn’t seen at an AMC in a very long time. It’s clear people love M3GAN, and I really hope M3GAN loves us back.

[animationstoriestochill]

The Pink Phink (1964)

From a cameo to a star

I don’t know if this is just me but when growing up my father had a lot and I do mean a lot of DVDs and Cassettes so that meant he had anything and everything from the titanic to Dora the explorer. And one thing common during the DVDs era was to release DvDs that was just a compilation of cartoons and I can’t lie I thought through most of my childhood that those films were of my era not older (I’m looking at you Santa’s workshop and Lonesome Ghosts) why is that important? Because that brings me to this diva.

I LOVED Pink Panther as a kid, I would watch this cartoons a lot, way too much in fact to the point that the theme song is stuck in my head and me remembering how I would watch the Christmas special every single year.

So everyone sit down and be quiet cause today we’re talking about him.

This is the story of The Pink Phink, the beginning of a cultural icon.

The origin

Okey so if I asked someone “Have you watched The Pink Panthern” most of them would immediately think of the cartoon, not the movie

Wait there’s a movie?

That’s right, your favorite diva from the golden age of animation was not a character but quite literally the opening of a movie.

In 1963, the movie “The Pink Panther” was released to the public. This was a comedic mystery film where a Princess has the infamous gem called “The Pink Panther” and there’s a lot of people who want this gem. The government of her country of birth (yes I know that’s weird but I ain’t explaining the whole story) and a thief called “The phantom” also wants to steal it. Jeez why is everything starting with the, might as well bring out The Phantom Thieves at least they could’ve gotten the gem.

Anyways what’s important is that the movie had a unique intro and that intro was the origin of the Pink Panther. Confused? Good cause things will get even more confusing down the line.

For the sake of simplicity I will say Pink Panther when referring to the character and Pink gem for the movie

So after the movie was released it became a success but not for the reasons you think. You see many people would go back and buy tickets just to see Pink Panther aka the intro and then just leave, people loved the pink panther, they loved the intro, they loved the charisma and sass the pink panther had. What a shame that it isn’t a carto-

The Pink Phink

“Ask and you shall receive” said Friz Frleng the director of the short when starting its production(probably)

And so on December 6, 1963 the short film was released in the United States alongside the movie “Kiss me, Stupid”. So let’s see what kind of shenanigans goes down on this film.

This 6 minute film can be summarised in one sentence: this is basically you're average Splatoon match

but for those you do not play Splatoon, first of all how dare you, but secondly in this short film a guy names "Little Man" is trying to paint a house with the color blue while Pink Panthern is trying to paint it pink obviously.

From a story standpoint it's very funny but in terms of technical standpoint it's even funnier just how much the team got away with things.

Remember our good pals UPA? Well because UPA made it posible to shorts to focus more on the animation than background, The Pink Phink quite literally said f**k the background, no really there was only one artist that worked on the background (Tom O'Loughlin). Look at the entire film again and you will see that most of it is just a white/blue/pink background and the house at then end of the scene? It's simple in terms of design and it only shows up fora couple of seconds not even a minute.

Speaking of the colors that is also a funny cheap way to save money, having a limited pallet makes it not only easier to paint (remember how technicolor works and how artists had to paint frame by frame?) but also you can just save time because you don't worry to have the same shade of green you used for 3 seconds, it's actually genius.

The cherry on top? The music of course. It's just a loop of the theme Henry Mancini composed for the intro for the movie which ironically became known as the theme song for the Pink Panthern.

and so the rest is history as many would say. The Pink Phink became a massive success and it won an Academy Award for best animated film and Pink Panthern became a cultural icon both for the animation community and the queer community.

And that is the story of our diva the Pink panthern

Until Next time

and Remember Another day another slayyyyyy

[bphm]

Chapter 3: The Beach

I had two objectives in this segment: 1) Acquire my one and only ally, and 2) Fight my way into the grove.

Prioritizing your quarry over the literal parasite in your head is such a 24-year-old man thing to do, so i had to choose that option. lore-accurate wyll.

I knew that waking up shadowheart on the beach would be useless, as you don't gain XP from interacting with her unless you recruit her. So I just left her there, pretending wyll just didn't see her. He did, however, take the time to deliberately search through the pockets of all the dead fishermen for their gold and camp supplies. I also had him equip the shield he took from shadowheart on the nautiloid.

talking to shart would have gotten me to level 2, and I knew trying to take on these intellect devourers as a single level 1 warlock was a stupid idea. I'd come back for them when wyll was allied and a little harder to kill, but for the time being, I just snuck past them. This, of course, led me to my single origin companion for the run. and boy was i disappointed when i passed that perception check!

genuinely, it would've been so much funnier to get tackled.

this more than made up for the lack of humor in the situation. i love that wyll can just...introduce himself this way. he's so corny, i adore him.

recruiting astarion got us to level 2. I swapped out his shortbow for the crossbow i took from lae'zel, and put another dagger i looted off of a body on the beach in his off-hand. his level-up was straightforward, as it just gave him cunning actions.

wyll's was only slightly more complex. agonizing blast is a must for eldritch invocations, as this would take EB's damage output from 1-10 to 4-13, due to our +3 CHA modifier. The other invocation i chose was mask of many faces, which would allow us to cast disguise self. This will be a temporary choice corrected upon our first respec, and only for the use of some of the non-combat interactions you can unlock in the early game. i also chose command as his new spell, which probably would've come in handy on the nautiloid.

Before we made our way back to the intellect devourers wyll snuck past three minutes ago, we hunted down a boar for its meat, and not at all for its 3 XP

fun fact, if you have speak with animals enabled, you'd realize this boar and wyll share a voice actor.

I also didn't bother talking to this dying mind flayer, and just elected to kill him where he lay.

so the extra companion and level really does make a difference, this fight was a joke. also wild how astarion says the intellect devourers could down you in one strike, when that's literally what he did to the first one. it really is kill or be killed out here.

I decided I was going to try my best to not have a Won't Moment (TM), otherwise known as an incident of wyll origin fail RP. But I knew that if i wanted to be able to use the roadside cliffs waypoint, I had to get gale out of the way. but remember, i can't recruit him. realistically, I can't see either wyll or astarion pulling gale out of the stone and then deciding not to take him with them. i also can't see wyll leaving gale in the stone. what i CAN see is astarion slapping gale's hand and then walking away. RP crisis averted.

I decided to have my boys free lae'zel--not because I could, but because I wanted the xp from killing the tieflings keeping her captive. I figured the quicker I could make the fight 3 against 2, the easier, so I had astarion cast firebolt on the base of lae'zel's cage. This immediately freed her, which instantly started combat.

The battle wasn't terrible, but i did make the mistake of wasting hellish rebuke on an enemy with fire resistance. what was i thinking, those warlock spell slots are precious!

this was an unavoidable Won't Moment, as lae'zel automatically talks to the player character after this battle, and, like I said, we can't recruit her.

once we found the emerald grove environs waypoint, i eased their way up this cliff so we'd have the high ground during the grove gate battle. for all the good it actually did.

did you know this is where the cutscene ends on a wyll origin? at first i thought "wait a minute, where's 'provoke the blade, and suffer its sting'?" and then i remembered I WAS THE BLADE.

god, i never realized how much wyll actually contributed to this battle as an unrecruited NPC, either as cannon fodder or someone to throw potions at allies. it certainly isn't as someone who will waste a casting of arms of hadar on a single target...anyway, this fight was a shit sandwich.

aradin, barth, and remira all died, zevlor got half his health taken out from a single casting of ray of sickness, and once all the other humans were gone, the remainder of the goblin squad had their sights set on my duo, and were heading toward the cliff. they were now actually so far away, zevlor couldn't hit them and was stuck doing nothing but dashing. the ONLY reason za'krug is as damaged as he is in this screenshot is because astarion landed an incredibly lucky crit on him. after that, the only luck we had was eventual victory at the cost of half my health potion supply. HM is brutal.

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[stephaniedola]

FUCK im late anyway also for file my beloved: alone bound ;) hate skin

I LOVE U i knew youd give me the good good

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

oooh this is a good one.... SHAPEFILE grew up in a lab surrounded by scientists constantly observing him, and although he doesnt remember much about it, he definitely has an ingrained sense of feeling weird on his own. i think he probably finds being alone and undistracted very perturbing. if hes alone, hes probably doing GIS stuff and/or homework.

otherwise i feel like they fill their life with various odd characters to amuse them and keep them from feeling lonely. not that they'd admit that, and not that it would show based on how they treat people

really, when FILEs alone i feel like FILE just goes full autism mode. stim city. maybe those untapped traumas memories from FILEs childhood start to seep in... who knows

bound: Has your OC ever been imprisoned or captured? What happened? How did they get out? Did the experience leave any scars?

FILE was pretty much kept imprisoned for the first 13 years of his life, which, again, he does not remember but still has lingering emotional scars from. as for what happened, he has no way of knowing, but hes fairly certain it was bad. part of why he doesn't think too deeply about his issues and hates being alone with his thoughts is because of the weird triggers and fetishes he has that he can't place the origin of. its just NULL data. he does have scars, all over his body, but he was told they were all part of the process of creating him. frankenstein lookin ass.

they only got out by waking up age 13 (so they're told) with no memories, being told who they were (supposed to be?) and being assigned an adoptive family.

hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred?

the funnier and less twisted answer to this question is open source software. they fight constantly with Quin, the local naturalist dyke, who insists that Esri software (again, FILE believes they were literally created to shill this stuff) sucks and that proprietary software shouldnt exist. also, they hatefuck

as for the real answer, it's FILEs second thesis advisor (dont worry about what happened to the first one) Dr. Tan, who has taken an unfortunate liking to FILE, with whom FILE has a deeply questionable relationship FILE has very weird feelings about. FILE knows their dynamic is abusive but FILE feels like FILE brings it upon FILEself by being, on some level, into it.

when Tan's around in public, FILE gets very closed off and defensive, trying to put distance between them. in private, the facade fades quickly and FILE finds themself feeling painfully reliant on the affection and affirmation from the person they hate the most

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

ahhhh yes, the kicker to everything above. SHAPEFILE is so uncomfortable in their own skin it hurts. as has been the theme of these answers, they are in no way prepared to face the reality inside themself. what might that reality be? i think FILE's nightmare scenario would be to find out there was another path for him all along. that he doesnt need to be a machine to be a man, that he doesnt need to be a man to be a machine

thats part of why FILE hates Tan so much. tan acknowledges this potential, but also takes advantage of it. this all contributes to FILEs weird feelings about the already weird situation

accepting that they can be someone other than the person [ERROR: Data type 'person' not specified] ??? they were prescribed to be is the one thing they need the most to self-actualize, but SHAPEFILE is so far removed from the self. SHAPEFILE is just points, lines, and polygons. SHAPEFILE is just space.

but if he acknowledges it, he acknowledges that there's nothing special about him.

Geoffrey Isaiah Shapiro is just taking up space.

[adobe-outdesign]

I wish people would stop calling Giratina "Satan." They're not equivalents and it's a really Christian-centric way to view a piece of Non-Christian media. They may have a few similarities, only one being the whole being banished by the highest power thing, but that's it. Giratina gets forgiveness and is allowed to return to our realm after its banishment, and turns into a last resort failsafe for keeping Palkia and Dialga safe from human harm. That doesn't sound like Satan to me. Satan is never allowed forgiveness by God, and will never be allowed back to Heaven due to his sin.

And then there's Volo. I hate how dirty he was done in game because, religiously, I see a lot of my atheistic beliefs and struggles in him and how he wants to recreate the world without suffering, and it hurts to see the fans make him some heartless monster that'll gleefully rip someone's heart out. Does he still need a punishment? Probably, he did try to end the world as everyone knew it, but he also needs some freaking therapy first and foremost. And honestly? I think if he were to get a punishment, it'd probably just hammer into him that the world is cruel and unfair and so full of suffering that it needs reborn. Volo's whole motivation is that- suffering. A lot of atheists ask why an all loving, all powerful god would allow such suffering in the world. Volo is privileged in the fact that he lives in a world where the creation god undeniably exists, so he uses his privilege to try to get Arceus' attention to at least ask why. But, frustratingly, he just gets ignored in favor of someone he views as a random nobody. Volo isn't justified in his actions, he really isn't. But good golly gee willickers does he need a little more sympathy from the fanbase.

I'm sorry for my rant, but it's really frustrating to see these sorts of ideas shuffled along.

First, just to clarify, I don't think Giratina is Literally Satan (it's closer to Hades, just ruling over the distortion world instead of the underworld). I just call it that because it sounds much funnier to say "Volo summons Satan" than "Volo summons a Pokemon that was banished to the distortion world", you feel

But secondly, yeah, I do actually agree with the second point. The issue with Volo walking off, aside from it being weird in-universe because he's clearly a threat, is that he does have some point. Wanting to remake the entire universe is obviously whack, but the guy seems to have legit criticisms and questions that are just kind of brushed aside by the narrative.

I think a better ending would've been if after being defeated, the MC does actually drag Volo with them to meet Arceus, just without his Pokemon. Maybe by the end, he doesn't forgive Arceus, but he's at least willing to stop trying to redo the entire universe, you know? Something to give closure to his character to some degree instead of him just leaving and no one doing anything about it.