#i live in hope

[crazyhickofftheirrocker]

A sad day for Marta De La Reina

Today's episode was heavy and it doesn't bode too well for our favourite people after this.

But in the meantime, here's an interesting piece of symbolism by the costume department that snuck into the picture: only the straightest pinstripes for Jaime, yet ironically Marta happens to be wearing the inverted stripe 😏😉 dress that she seems to favour in moments of closure.

Like the pattern here, these two weren't well matched. Not romantically or sexually. But platonically? Marta likely won't ever have a true confidant like him again.

So now she moves from being protected to becoming the protector of Fina. They've both had their moments in both roles. But now Marta has to move to keep her girl out of harm's way. Because ultimately, Fina is the one who will pay the heaviest price.

Whatever chaos is about to unfold in the penultimate episodes of the season, Fina is the lifeline that will keep her going.

(And hopefully the rest of us 😬😰)

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

Chapitre 209 - The Demon King and The Puppet

Get in losers we’re going to Outo!

We’re back in the sequence of revisiting family bonding moments in the previous arcs, and to my surprise and great delight this one isn’t a Syaoran and Sakura one but Syaoran and Kurogane! I thought these were a recap montage of the Syaoran/Sakura relationship over the journey, but maybe it’s a recap of Syaoran himself? Our son the clone Syaoran and all the nice moments he’s had on over the arcs we spent together? 

And why would they do that unless they wanted us to hurt us very badly with it? 

They’re either being very sentimental or someone might die, so time to turn up the Suspicion dial for the survivability of all our characters!

Either way, the splash text reads: In order to avoid losing everything, I wanted to become strong, like that person…

IN WHICH WE HAVE A CLEAR THROUGH-LINE BETWEEN KUROGANE AND SYAORAN? BOTH GAINING STRENGTH FOR THE SAME REASON? AND IT GOING OUT OF CONTROL FOR BOTH OF THEM?

For Kurogane his trauma led him down a path of increasing violence where he didn’t value life as much and just wanted to kill people to get stronger. For Syaoran his soul broke so he was forced to follow his clone programming and killed presumably WAY MORE people than even Kurogane could ever have dreamed of, leaving countless worlds devastated in the name of “protecting Sakura” and retrieving the feathers. 

Dark parallels dark parallels!

But eventual misuse of power besides, the splash text sounds like it’s from Syaoran’s POV as he remembers admiring Kurogane’s strength and how he wanted to protect people like Kurogane does. And it’s the past tense that makes it so interesting - as if his soul is awake after all, and he’s thinking back on his memories with the Tsubasa family through this final confrontation. 

Which is only fanning my hopes that he’s planning a ruse and whispered to Lava Lamp to play along. And even more tragic that to sell the ruse he had to MASSIVELY STAB Lava Lamp, absolutely wreck Fai and Kurogane until they were too injured to stand, and kill countless clones. 

So, like. A convincing ruse to say the least!

And we haven’t even talked about the image! Kurogane and Syaoran back to back in Outo! Kurogane holding his sword and Syaoran mirroring his pose but holding wet clothing instead! The matching white top and black pants of their different outfits! Kurogane smiling as he explains and Syaoran listening attentively!

While they stand under a Sakura tree. 

Which (like in the Hanshin cover) is an accurate detail to the setting they were in! The park this training took place in had a Sakura tree in it, but here a branch of the tree is visibly cutting them off from each other. Which makes me want to scream in how appropriate that is - because even here, in Syaoran’s memory, the presence of ‘Sakura’ (and the clone programming that makes him focus on the feathers) is cutting him off from the connection he remembers forming. Despite their bond the Sakura tree is in his way from actually reaching Kurogane - just like his missing soul would have wrenched any feelings for his family away from him, and here in the final battle his need to follow Evil Wolverine’s orders keeps him from even speaking to his family, even if he DOES remember their bond. 

WHICH IT SEEMS LIKE HE MIGHT. 

[ofliterarynature]

Some Lockwood & Co news from Facebook today!!!

[mizgnomer]

David Tennant as Crowley from Good Omens

for Tennant Tuesday (or whatever day this post finds you)

[everythingmaxriemelt]

Kino-Zeit has an article about sequels in art-house cinema yesterday and it mentions Freier Fall (Free Fall), says the complexity of protagonists’ in the 15-year(!!! 😭) gap would make an interesting reunion.

“Die Komplexität der Protagonistin ist es nun auch, die 15 Jahre zu einer interessanten Fortsetzung macht. Vielleicht wird der Film dazu führen, dass weitere Figuren aus dem Arthouse-Bereich ihr Wiedersehen auf der Leinwand feiern – etwa die Polizisten Marc (Hanno Koffler) und Kay (Max Riemelt) aus Stephan Lacants Drama Freier Fall (2013), dessen zweiter Teil seit langer Zeit angeregt diskutiert wird.” - Kino-Zeit

[gydima]

You ever think about how there would probably be 25% fewer Izzy Hands posts if some of the people who dislike him would adjust WHERE they talk about him?

Like, I get why some people hate Izzy. No big deal that people have different opinions than me! The problem lies in beating the same dead horse IN THE IZZY HANDS TAG or in direct response to Izzy enjoyers' posts.

For anyone who hates Izzy and genuinely wants to see less about him, the solution is simple and two-pronged:

If you make a post criticizing him, tag it "Izzy Hands critical." Izzy enjoyers are far less likely to jump to his defense there than in the regular old "Izzy Hands" tag. (We may never even see it if we have that tag filtered!)

Try not to yuck someone's yum in response to Izzy-positive posts. You won't have to expend your energy in a pointless back-and-forth battle if you ignore posts by Izzy enjoyers or block us altogether if our opinions bother you overmuch.

Rest assured, we've heard MANY TIMES why Izzy is crap and people shouldn't like him. Unless you're a galaxy-brained individual with an earth-shattering new analysis, one more post/response isn't going to make us see the anti-Izzy light.

(For the record, when Izzy-critical folks say something negative about him in their OWN blogs and DON'T use the Izzy Hands main tag, I think it would behoove Izzy enjoyers to scroll on past and not engage either. No one's convincing anyone to change their opinions, let's be real.)

[lonely-soul-02]

Another interesting interview from 2015. This was something of a peace year for the brothers. There are other interviews from this year where Noel is being quite reasonable and sometimes even nice about Liam. 16:50 for Noel being played new Belgian music - his reaction is wonderful to see.

7:30 

Int - […] you’ve made up with your brother, you also made up with Damon Albarn, and all those old enemies of yours. Is it true […]

Noel - […] brothers never really fall out. Liam is a very angry man still. And as long as he’s angry we won’t be friends I’m afraid.

Int - […] I always thought Liam can be very angry but you can be very... [makes stabbing gesture] 

Noel - What does that mean?

Int - It means like you are also saying not very nice things but in a subtle way.

Noel - Yeah, well, maybe…I guess. But for my own part, all I ever wanted was to make the band the best that it could be. And I feel, or I felt at the time that Liam…just was in it for himself and yeah, that tends to rile me a little bit. If I’m subtle, that’s a good thing. It’s better than being violent.

The interviewer goes on to talk with surprising bluntness about how Noel is perceived by others; that he’s perceived to be angry (ironic, given Noel had just mentioned that Liam is an angry man). Noel defends himself, insisting that he’s not angry, he just takes his work seriously. 

“People mistake my seriousness for anger. I’m not there to enjoy myself, I’m there to work because people pay their hard earned money to see us play and I wanna get it right.” He goes on to say that it takes a ‘great deal of effort’ for him to make a band work. There were obviously multiple problems that the brothers had to grapple with during Oasis but differences in work ethic or approaches to work - partly stemming from their age gap - must have been right up there, if not the biggest problem, which of course was highlighted as far back as Wibling Rivalry.

Having survived a tough time in his life and seeing how hard Debbie works for him, I don't doubt Liam now realises that to be successful it can’t just be all fun and games and getting hammered.

I wonder if he now understands what Noel was trying to achieve back then? And if so, could they work better together now? If Noel has mellowed somewhat and Liam has matured?

[uhhhhmanda]

Every time I'm trying to send an image via bluetooth from my laptop to my phone and my neighbor's TV comes up in the available connections I ALWAYS try to send my ridiculous image over there. It hasn't worked yet but I hope one day something goes wrong and it does work and their TV shows them something absolutely inexplicable, like a Chinese meme or an alignment chart for characters from a TV show went off the air in 1973.

[laura-de-milf]

Sometimes I'm just minding my business and then I remember that there is actual real footage of Laura kissing Rita IN PHYSICAL EXISTENCE and there is maybe the smallest iota of a chance that we might get to see it one day if the stars of homosexuality align

[crazyhickofftheirrocker]

⚠️Fic Alert⚠️

The conversation that I thought should've happened wayyy back between our favourite suegro and nuera but STILL hasn't happened and Marta I stg if you make this whole space thing last so long that you don't talk to Isidro about her, I'll hunt you down with a rifle myself.

Here. Take it. Have the scene that's been rotting my brain since Fina's "I WANT YOU TO BE MY WIFE".

It's unfinished for now but I have a plan and this time, like Fina, I will be seeing it through

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

WOOPS there it goes! Now featuring: side explanation that Evil Wolverine has frozen Fai and Kurogane in place. Which is honestly just rude of him at this point.

OOPS that was the last one he needed?

I suppose this last one must have been a BIG boost to cross the finish line, since it has the experience of hundreds and/or thousands of years behind it. The way Evil Wolverine describes it makes it sound like this may have ended up being the strongest feather of all. Which I'll just let him have, since the feathers can do what they like, really.

But also! Syaoran must have known something, because he said to let this happen too, didn't he? There must still be an opening to turn this around after this.

[generalmelchett]

tom hooper please give a public statement on the drink with me issue TOM HOOPER PLEASE GIVE A PUBLIC STATEMENT ON THE DRINK WITH ME ISSUE

[hotwaterandmilk]

Finally, Asamiya Kia's 18th full-colour, 16-page illustration doujinshi, NICE FLIGHT, is available for online purchase. Lebia Maverick from Silent Möbius is the star of this one and she's rocking a flight attendant outfit (because why not).

This book, plus his new ones from Comiket are available to order through Melonbooks. (None of these recent releases seem to have made it to the Lab-Garnier Asmart store, not sure what the go is with that.)

[patcaps]

Would you prefer a Ghosts film or a Ghosts animated project?

another film would be lovely! my dream though is for them to do a film with aardman, because i am a huge fan of both <3

[thevictorianpirate]

I'm pretty sure my town has more pride flags than it did last year!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[period-dramallama]

I've been on a bit of a Korean period drama/sageuk bender and I think the English period drama scene would benefit from straight up inventing new royals and general fuckery with the royals.

Like, my fave Bloody Heart is set in a vague Joseon era with an OC king but it manages to capture the vibes and power dynamics of the time so authentically.

Also, I've seen queer themes done better in sageuks. For example: trans woman prominent side character in Under the Queen's Umbrella and the general gender fuckery of Mr. Queen.

TL:DR: English period dramas should fuck around with history more but tastefully

Ah, I see. I think some historical inaccuracy can work (Anne of a Thousand Days and A Man For All Seasons are powerful and moving films) and I love comedies like Life of Brian that come from a deep understanding of what they're making fun of. I'd like anachronisms in period drama to just.... be more creative. The best creators understand the thing they're using artistic licence to change. So if Tudor showrunners understand what they're doing and why, they can successfully 'fuck around with history'.