#i needed to recall the plot details & take some references

[suchamiracle-does-exist]

Hi!! Movie asks : 4 and 20

Hi @faisonsunreve and thanks for your asks! 😃

Movie Questions Ask Game:

4. Is there a film that you love except for the ending? What would you change about the ending? I must answer Babylon Berlin season 2 ending since it has been bothering me a lot and I don't get any film on my mind. Spoiler warnings: We know the train is heading back to the Soviets carrying the gold of Sorokina family, which their daughter and heiress, Countess Sorokina a.k.a. drag singer Nikoros, is trying to get back. When Gereon and Charlotte are studying clues from a Sorokina family painting, they realize all the children are male so the Countess must be a fraud and is the daughter of the family chauffeur instead. Camera points out the boys in the painting and the one on the right looks exactly like the Countess, just younger but with the same fair hair and skin. I was certain the boy was the Countess, who was into dressing in boys' clothing in younger age already. That would have explained her male singer persona Nikoros as an adult. This was not the case. It is assumed her father, the family chauffeur, betrayed the Sorokinas to the Bolsheviks and she just wanted to have the fortune for herself. 20. What movies do you have on your current to-watch list? Miss Holson asked about this but the list is easily grown. Stand by Me (1986), upcoming Nosferatu (2024), All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Goldfinch (2019), J'Accuse (2019), Dallas Buyers Club (2013). Napoléon (1927) as we have discussed about it. You know they are releasing new Napoleon (2023) by Ridley Scott this fall? Tom Schilling's comedy Die Goldfische (2019), Corsage (2022) with Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth. And To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995).

[wasyago]

okay um

riptide spoilers for the recent episodes!!!

I dont usually write theories and stuff but i haven't really seen anyone talk about it (maybe i just missed it), and i need to get these thoughts written down because my mind is going a million miles per hour and its driving me crazy.

(Also i guess, disclaimer, im not a patron so the last ep i saw was 108, and i don't know any of the information shared in rolled.)

So. This team of strong pirates, Captain Widow, they're turning the Dread Queen into a lich, right? Like, that's the only logical solution i can think of. They're talking about the Dread Queen obtaining power over life and death, which is like the main lich thing - immortality and the ability to be both dead and alive at the same time. They're performing a long complicated ritual, which is also necessary to become a lich, and that ritual requires a lot of sacrifices and feeding energy and nutrients to the Dread Queen. (And, i apologize, all my knowledge about liches comes from Pointy Hat's videos, but i think they're pretty good to base a theory on).

From what i can recall and what i relistened to: no one knows anything about the Dread Queen, Shadowbeard has never talked about her, in the newspaper about the Lords she was just a silhouette, in the memory Jay got from the Black Sea all they said is that they needed to find her corpse in order to make someone a pirate lord (which clarifies nothing), Drey thought she and all the rest of the Pirate Lords were dead. From what we know about the Lords, Rose dissappeared in the hole in the sea accident. According to Lizzie's words, a couple years ago two more of the Pirate Lords went missing, which are the Dread Queen and our boy Hendrix (which we know is hiding in his pocket dimension). And then Shadowbeard was murdered by Ava in the Shadow Scull Masacre.

As we know from Zamia, the Dread Queen's crew didn't disappear but instead came to the black sea and took over an island. And because there's no contact with the outside world from the black sea, and because Navy freely allows pirates passage there, its fair that the world thought the Dread Queen was dead. And this lack of contact and no Navy activity is probably why the Dread Queen chose the Black Sea as a place for her lich ritual. No one will know about it and no one will interfere, no one will stop them from taking over an entire island and killing it's emperor and doing whatever dark magics they want.

Im not sure why they picked this island specifically. Whether its because of the Great Tree (tm) that is "the way of life and connects every corner of the island and gives it life" and probably has a lot of nutrients for the ritual in it. Or for any other reason, maybe it was just the first island they saw, maybe they just wanted a cool castle, maybe because it's the capital, i don't know but I'm sure there's a smart reason.

Gardeck The Scull Crusher aka the minotaur guy did say that their captain is blessed, and its the reason why death is temporary to them, which is one of the details that confuses me. Because first, who is he referring to, the Dread Queen or Captain Widow, both are technically captains. And second, if he is talking about Widow, then uhhh, how? If he's talking about the Dread Queen and if she is undergoing a lich ritual, (and becoming a lich would grant her the power to freely revive people), then how is she able to cast spells while in a cocoon and probably unconscious and probably not yet a lich?

Uhhh don't know how to end these things but that's all i got for now. Also HUGE respect to Grizzly for coming up with all this and connecting so many things and parallels. Because some of the information comes from as far back as episode 32, and its still relevant and accurate and comes up in the plot now, and oh my god.

[sharktoothjack]

My thoughts on the Deadpool and Wolverine movie (spoilers ahead).

Before I start, I should say that I liked the movie. It was a lot of fun to watch. Whatever criticisms I have for it, I still think it's a good movie. I've also only seen it once, so I'm very likely to misremember some things.

Saying that the fight scene in the van was like a sex scene is kinda like saying, "Huh, Deadpool isn't very nice, is he?". Like, yes, correct, you are interpreting the movie as intended. The fight scene in the van is clearly intentionally using the language of cinema to reference / remind the viewer of sex scenes. This is not an astonishing revelation.

Deadpool has been extremely vocally attracted to Wolverine for two movies now. The promo material was all teasing the idea of the two of them together. They'd already spent a third of the movie quipping about sticking things in each other. I don't know what you expected if it wasn't more of that.

And by more of that I mean intentional teasing.

Considering all the references to sexual acts, an astonishing lack of nudity for an R film. Full-coverage costumes right up until the climax. I don't recall seeing a single boob.

I'm a bit sad that Fire Fist, the kid Deadpool saves in the second movie, isn't in Wade's apartment full of "everyone he's ever cared about" or whatever. After Wade calls their ragtag little group "family" at the end of Deadpool 2. Is the implication that, by using the time machine to bring back Vanessa, Wade is now living in an alternate timeline where he never met the kid? Same for Colossus, Domino, etc.

It undercuts the delivery a bit, to drop characters in the movie whose plot is the revenge of the dropped characters.

Extremely bold move, to take a common criticism of the MCU (that they just forget secondary plot lines, relationships, minor characters, and details of major characters, while trying to maintain that it's all one consistent universe) and turn it into a movie. Like, it's criticism of their own IP, and instead of actually doing something about it, they're just making more money off of lampshading the issue. Somebody's cribbing from the WWE writers.

I bet longtime fans of the characters were picking up on references that flew over my head, and I really hope they're enjoyable references that the fans like.

I could have sworn I had seen Cassandra before, in some old X-Men movie or game or something. My reaction in the theater was holy crap, how did I forget that Charles had a twin sister.

I guess I need to watch Blade now.

It's not a revolutionary movie. Logan and Wade are absolutely not the """first canon gay couple in the MCU""" or whatever the clickbait would have you believe. The plot is formulaic, the ultimate resolution is a hand-waved sure, I guess that's how that works, the characters are literally borrowed off of other works, the humor is low-brow, and the main draw is the action scenes. But it is very good at being a DEADPOOL movie.

[grim-faux]

This definitely helps a lot, I have to try it or adapt it to myself. Thank you so much. I want to take advantage and ask you, as a writer you are, some advice for writing your drafts and dialogues clearly. I mean, I usually write a paragraph describing what happens at each moment, but I think it is a fairly orthodox method.

Shore ting. Rough drafts and the sort are probably the easiest to get done - if you've seen the post that tells you cold turkey.

Just write the damn thing. Tell YOURSELF the story, write out what needs to be said. You want to get the descriptions, story elements, dialogue - all down. Especially when you have a tight schedule and not a lot of work time.

Drafts can benefit from a good, organized outline - or an Outline that stacks out events, scenes, and the rough dialogue content. If you're still working on specifics to your story, or you have the setting and environment firmly fixed in your brain, but you're struggling with the dialogue. Anything. And an outline can be as complex as you want it, maybe you'll write out a very detailed paragraph that you'll implant into the story itself because it was written and hit all the nuances and descriptions you needed. The same goes for dialogue - You might have brief sentences describing the scene at its bare bones, but go ham entirely on this dialogue interaction and get the whole thing scripted out. If you're struggling with a scene leading to that dialogue, or you have a scene rolling but you haven't decided the direction of the dialogue, inserting bare bones basics of your idea can benefit keeping that creative juice rolling.

Another big aspect of a draft is pacing. Which can be the trickiest concept when drafting or getting a story written. What scenes do you want to focus on? Why are they important? How do they progress the plot, the story themes you want to cover? Where are you taking the reader, and why? Because in story pacing can cover a day or an hours worth of time, in a few paragraphs - if it's not integral to the story. Like a movie montage. Or, if certain scenes and events are important, the character might spend an extended amount of time working through the scenes - i.e., paragraphs or chapters. But in your story, you have to incorporate the components that are important and interesting, and fulfil the readers need for rewards for the questions we have. In pacing your readers progress through the story, you're informing them of the events as they transpire, as they are important to your plot; you also need to keep the reader fixed in the environment so they know where they are, in reference to the characters. It might work in some cases to dump a lot of exposition onto the readers lap to get them up to speed, but for some it can be a turn off to have a lot of information to take in all at once. You can trust your process of writing that when you are giving the details at the right time, your reader will be enticed and follow, and will learn about the story at increments that are easy to understand. This can be essential to extensive world building projects, because the invested reader will stay involved with the work and keep absorbing details - then that becomes a process and relationship between the writer and reader, where both are undertaking a journey to learn about a realm that is entirely fabricated. The writer tells a story piece by piece, and the reader returns because there is always something to return to.

A good method for helping with elements like pacing and description details, is try taking the time to evaluate a graphic novel or any other rich story telling comic book media, like mangas and the sort. You can think of each panel incorporated into this visual novel as segments of paragraphs - even the little boxes that say something like WHAMO! because recall, a paragraph can be as long or as short, or a single word - its a tool at your disposal. A paragraph breaks up the flow of thought, it changes the perspective or anticipation of the reader - much like the graphic novel changes the 'camera' to view each scenes. The panels give to readers what is need to know at each moment, where and what a character is experiencing. Panels sometimes overlap, sometimes they are interesting shapes or wedge between two dynamic panels. That is how the visual story is being fed to the reader/observer, and it can be very similar to how we tell story with paragraphs - some brief paragraph inserts go over a characters internal thoughts, or a cluster of paragraphs in a sequence cover an extensive establishing scene where the characters will exist for an extended period of time. It's always important to recall pacing though, and how much in terms of details the reader needs to know.

This is also valuable to how incorporating dialogue works with in the story itself, and how to pace conversations with certain actions - dynamic or passive. Think how the reader should experience this dialogue, and what it will define of the characters. Even a purely dialogue scene can describe to the reader what is happening, or what the character is doing.

"I cannot tell you how irate I am with this situation. Ingrates! All of them! Wait. Why is my door locked?"

"Er, did no one deliver the notice? You've been replaced."

Without any context, this brief can determine a lot of different things. The first speaker is angry, and they are trying to get through a door - a door that they no longer have access to. The second speaker elaborates some news which the speaker was not given, which in itself could imply a lot of different situations - no one cared, there's been a disturbance in hierarchy, or the first speaker is very unpopular. But as I've said, a draft can be as complex or simple as you need it, so long as you can get the details down and get the general mood or theme you want to convey. All of this might shift as you elaborate the broader idea of your story, so it depends on what and where you want it all to go.

Show, don't tell. Give the reader freedom to experience the story, use their emotions and perceptions to internalize a scene. In some situations it is important to elaborate why a character feels a certain way, or why they undertake a certain action. If a character is being swept away in a river, the reader does not need to be told, Gabriel flung his arms from the frothing rapids seeking the bank, a branch, anything or he would drown under the merciless waves. The description feels more visceral and desperate if it's described, Gabriel flung his arms from the frothing rapids and lashed at sharp rocks, his fingernails ripped at wood and mud before he plunged beneath the foam. Both sentences convey the same stakes, are very similar in terms of the situation and what Gabriel needs to achieve, but the latter sentence does not need to elaborate why Gabriel is panicked and flailing - it's in the moment and immersive, wherein Gabriel and the reader are both fighting to find a handhold, but fail and are sent beneath the river's rapids. Rather tell the reader what Gabriel feels, I want to immerse my reader with the sensation and panic the character is enduring. At the same time, the process is a balance of what you need the reader to feel and keeping them adhered to the story as it unfolds. It is always okay to detach the reader from the character and exposition when it is helpful or necessary. Don't become so fixed with telling the perfect story, that the process ostracizes the readers capacity to relate or interpret what is happening, or why we should be invested.

I hope all this is helpful to the drafting process. A lot of this is also finding your style and voice in the narrative, how you choose to choreograph scenes and approach the plot. It factors into how you choose to assemble the general idea of the story, for the eventual scope of the character and readers journey. And all of that comes down to getting it written, not getting overwhelmed or hung up with an instant perfect process.

Again, if there are additional questions or anything I should clarify - coz this is a lot of stuff, feel free to ask. Im far from perfect when it comes to following my own rules, but I do have methods to my madness. And the whole writing process is good for experienced writers to review and share with others, since its a learning process that never ends.

[sang8262]

Random JP Headcanons (SFW, hobbies and lifestyle edition)

Likes doing the laundry and ironing his clothes himself when he can. Cybele likes it too: he loves sleeping on the fresh, warm pile of clothes.

Knows a dedicated tailor through Shadaloo (maybe a team of them), who makes sure to provide JP with the right outfit for the job.

Appearances and fashion are important when deceiving people, so he takes the time to research and wear clothes that will get him the respect or response he needs.

(Such as the Nayshalli-esque suit from the comics, and robes from arcade mode he wears while in the midst of executing his plan for the tournament, but once it's over, he changes into something following his personal tastes a la Alt Costume 2).

Probably knows how to cook, but more often eats at local restaurants and such. Not only does it taste better and saves him the effort of preparing a whole meal, they double as building rapport with business owners, or places to host importat guests for lunch/dinner.

Part of him really does enjoy travelling the world, learning about, and bonding with the people he's plotting to use for his own gain. He just doesn't care quite enough to feel bad for them.

He loves dissecting what makes people tick and finding the exact ways to manipulate or take advantage of their desires, weakness, and habits. It's much like a game for him, to see what he can do and how far he can take it, but still get away without conseauences. Reminds me of a certain attorney one must better call.

Doesn't like sleep because it's a waste of time. That said, makes sure to sleep, but just enough to not be tired, less he make the wrong decision in exhaustion.

Takes short naps with Cybele curled up in his lap. But Cybele, too, doesn't stay still for long, and they both get back to their lives soon enough.

Somewhat of an insomniac. He'd rather stay awake in bed thinking of the next stage of his plans, the logistics of his current one, or whether he made sure to feed Cybele today.

Definitely a workaholic, he's constantly working on some nefarious plan or another, keeping himself busy and his schedule full. I'm sure he spends a lot of time just dedicated to covering his tracks, and making sure his schemes are watertight to prevent any in the first place.

In an interview with devs, they said his theme is inspired to be something JP himself would be listening to as he thinks of his next move. So he definitely enjoys having music playing in the background while he works.

Enjoys various orchestral pieces, or operas, ballet, the works. Based on his win quotes for Manon ("Ballet is truly one of humanitiy's greatest achievements.") and Zangief ("Seeing you, I can't help but recall Mosolov's Iron Foundry, tovarisch."), I'm opting for the easy route and nominating Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev as some of his favorites.

I'd go into more detail about which composers or ballets he'd like, but I don't know enough about music to go too deep. That said, I swear parts of his theme are references to . something. They just sound so familiar...

Likes chess puzzles... but I'm personally not a fan of their decision to make this his canon. It seems so obvious and typical for the "evil puppet master pulling the strings behind the curtains" kinda badguy y'know?

I much rather enjoy his connection with playing cards, as if they wanted to go for a 'safe' hobby for his manipulator/ deceiver type character, poker would make a lot of sense. Chess just seems forced in there, whereas he has visual connections to playing cards with his overall design, font for his name, World Tour moment with the Antique Playing Cards gift, etc.

My hc though, would be pool/ billiards. It fits the dapper, gentlemanly aesthetic he has going on, and he wields a cane, invoking pool cue energy. He'd like practicing and perfecting those crazy trick shots. Plus, Venom from Guilty Gear: it's the ranged, purple energy, tricky type character vibes.

He says in his World Tour conversations that he doesn't keep up to date with the latest news or gossip too well... which is a blatant lie.

His entire recent plot against Ken and Nayshall hinged on using social media virality, sensationalistic news reports, and manipulating public opinion through conspiracy and entertainment: and there's no way he pulled this off by being ignortant to what the audience craves, or what the internet likes to consume.

Plus he was an accountant/ financial advisor with a keen interest in human psychology, the economy, sociology, morality, and culture. He most definitely keeps a close eye on the latest trends or world wide news, out of genuine curiosity and fascination in people, if not out of necessity to make his schemes work right.

[crimsonseals]

Chapitre Deux

previous chapter: Un.

"May the wind guide you. Or whatever the heck that was supposed to mean." the boy reiterates under his breath Aunt Buer's last words upon dropping him off to his current whereabouts.

Before his feet, a gate of high stoned walls enclosing the premise of what supposedly would bring him another series of probable grimm episodes during his days.

The tarnished metallic arch hanging by the opening spell 'MONDSTADT', the name this place holds, feels foreign to his tongue.

"I'm sure you'd be able to get along in no time." Recalling his guardian's attempt at cheering his early morning glum along the way they came.

"The school for the free-willed, huh?" a whisper to no one but himself. Gaze leaning up the gray sky, unreachable past even the heights of the cemented toll upfront. The thought of just wandering off unbeknownst to anyone supersedes his mind.

“You’re the newcomer, I presume?” a demeanor within reach, the boy was completely heedless until the stranger enunciated the question.

Not even a day without Buer coming to seize him at the solitude of being all by himself, yet another prowls in place of the older woman. At the very least, his newfound intruder of peace does not seem to make the boy twinge in pain at the sound of their voice. He barely registers the string of words that reverberates from the person’s speech, only catching on some trivial details such as their identity being along the lines of someone called Albert Kiefer of some sorts; a background noise it serves as the lad mentally plots his escape from this hellhole of an institution.

“Kunikuzushi.” the person calls out, ultimately breaking the boy out of his trance. The indicative scowl on his face tells a story that such denomination leaves a bitter mark on him.

“Why don’t you just get lost?” he spats completely unimpressed with how this reputed Albert just referred to him by the epithet of someone who has long been dead.

“And it’s Scaramouche. Not that word of an abomination you consider my real name.” irately eyeing the stack of papers in their hand.

As if the other had the boy’s Aunt Buer in spirit except for her scintillating joy, their expression remained stoic.

“Well Scaramouche, allow me to have a do-over for such a mistake. My name’s Aldebert Kreideprinz. And quite similar to you, people of Favonius had established to just call me Albedo instead, out of the amenity for everyone.” the former’s retort befalling venomless at the lack of irk on their face.

“I’m not like you.” Scaramouche huffs crossing his arms defeated.

“Believe what you have to. Though I came here not to vindicate you. The Headmaster personally instructed me to usher you on your first day.” Albedo’s guise remains stolid.

He scoffs belligerently. There it is, another rub on his face on the burden of having other people look after him; a responsibility he personally never gave them to take in the very first place.

“If this is your way of reconciling for your uncharitable introductions, I’d rather you take it elsewhere. I do not need help from you or anyone from this. . . Favulous people, whatever that witless fancy coterie you’ve spoken of.” Scaramouche disaffected Albedo’s courtesy. His temperament getting worse at each passing second he spends near the lanky, pale-skinned boy bedizen in a preppy cream-colored knitted vest worn over a long sleeve button up polo and khaki pants, thin sleek framed round glasses affixing the bridge of their nose.

“I do wish to make amends. But, presently it’s just out of common virtue to offer hospitality for new people such as you are." Albedo justifies, contemplating whether to just let the boy be on his own.

"Our first encounter seems tragically embittered. So to digress, I will just escort you to meet the Headmaster as it is stated to be the first of your agenda. Then, I'll leave you the rest of the day to figure things out all by yourself. Would that be a convenient bargain for you?" the senior student offers.

Scaramouche chews over briefly. They've been at it for what seems like ages. Nothing to go wrong by letting mister role model here do the good deed charity work they adamantly insist on contributing. He could just ignore them for the rest of the time until they deem themself accomplished to finally leech off.

"Keep yourself a few feet distanced while we're walking." so he agrees. Adjusting the strap of his sling bag as he starts to head inside the Academe. Albedo tailing right after him.

It is of the atypical school like you'd expect. But not quite the resemblance to Scaramouche from the previous one he attended. There is a preeminence at the diversity, both of students and personnels. To one's dismay, everyone around him came across too cheery and full of optimism, a momentary hallucination of hearing his Aunt Buer springs. She must have been raised by the same people. The school's indeed bound by morals of freedom.

Albedo who kept at their word, catches up to him and takes the lead down the halls this time. Muttering something about a laboratory errand they need to take care of after this as they ascend a flight of stairs to the upper floor.

The hallways have turned a lot more still in the area. Albedo guides the younger in a maneuver of turns at certain corners. Scaramouche takes some moments to examine the interior. The gothic-esque architecture is adorned by furniture of royal colors. He would have mistaken the place as a sectarian establishment more than a place for education if he was as ignorant. Cathedral windows accentuate the high ceilings with vibrant kaleidoscope colors as the sun's radiant beams reflect on them.

They look almost like morning stars. Glinting so faint like the music that echoes down the hall.

"Music?"

The soft piano tune halts Scaramouche on his tracks, his chauffeur already a few long meters ahead to their destination mindless of the lad's stop-off. He turns about tracing with his hearing where the melody might be coming from. He attempts to call out Albedo but sees nothing but an empty hallway leading to an intersecting corridor ahead. The older student vanished at one point in either direction.

"Forget them. They do not seem to care anymore." 

At odds with his agreement to Albedo, Scaramouche takes on further his investigation regarding the mysterious song, straying out of their original path down to the other end of the hall.

A series of circumnavigating the unfamiliar atriums of Mondstadt, the boy reaches a secluded foyer, a little farther east of where Albedo had last left him. Not a soul seems to be there, the silence makes the sound of his own breathing vivid. The fine tune rings through his eardrums once again. This time, amplifying with each step as he draws closer to the room by the end of the hall.

The music sings like an enchantment, hauntingly luring him to go venture deeper and further until he reaches the entrance to the room.

Alas, the spectacle that reveals to him caused such dumbfoundedness. Scaramouche instantly stops at his movements as if time had petrified him and the surroundings. The only thing carrying on being the scene that unfolds in his fore.

From the confined expanse of the studio, an orchestral composition resonates within its walls. The solemn symphony playing resembles the movements of the damsel waltzing gracefully at the center of the room.

Her gesticulations are almost fluidlike, flowing in such an animatic manner along the musical piece's rhythm. Sharp poise and expression creating a complementary contrast with the gentleness of each step; heavy emotions being brought to such art seemingly light as a feather. Such passion, the dancer brings to her execution. With every sauté and frappé on her footwork never missing a millibeat. The displacement of every toing and froing appears illusionary from its satiny, almost as if she could cloak herself with water.

Scaramouche silently watches by the coulisse in awestruck. Taking in every intricacy of the lady's choreography syncing perfectly with the attunement of her chosen theme.

The way she brings herself to the rhythm. Body afloat like she's one with the music. Such as the stars magnitude glowing into the night coexisting with every other celestial body.

And he dare thinks that maybe even the heavens would be put to shame upon witnessing such a performance.

"You have keen eyes for the arts." Scaramouche jumps to his feet at the advent beside him leaning against the wooden door frame; the dancer's own ministrations being startled at their mutual shock.

"For the love of whichever god there is that exists, you scared the living celestial lights out of me." he voices out his spite.

"Same goes with you. Seeing as you've taken a completely different route at one point on our way to where we are supposedly needed by this time." Albedo, who the younger has completely forgotten for a whole moment, retorts yet still showing off calm and collected.

"I heard the music, I just got curious." the former admittedly whispers, embarrassed at his considered confession more than an excuse.

"And does your curiosity satiate you with a conclusion that appeases it?" they question the boy further. 

Rather than concerned, Scaramouche thinks the latter's just trying to get on his nerves. "Is it your job to always nose up to people's business?" 

"I could be asking you that too. Now I’m really starting to think we’re indeed similar as to further reason our conversation at the gate earlier." Albedo might as well indeed be trying to make him annoyed.

"Whatever you say, chalk boy." the newly transferred student spats; the nickname coming out of his tongue so naturally. His gaze returned back to the studio, finding nothing but an empty rehearsal room. The dancer probably went for her exit mutely as the pair of lads were having a bicker for the second time since they crossed paths.

"Miss Lawrence's class aren't exactly the type of students to be fond of being watched. Especially not her." Albedo speaks up, sensing wonder in Scaramouche's eyes.

"What's her name?" his curiosity arising once more.

"I'm afraid that is something no one is permitted to disclose to you except herself." The senior dismisses earning a scowl from their school ward.

"Now, don't give that sour look again. Besides, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to get acquainted with people once you settle down." to think Scaramouche had deemed his Aunt already intolerable but somehow a scrawny nerd managed to raise a bar.

"I'm not here to be friends with anyone." he divulges. Albedo nonchalantly shrugs as they start to walk away.

"How about we start with Master Jean who I presume is still expecting us in our already late glory." turning to look at the mischievous freshman, motioning to where they were initially headed beforehand.

Scaramouche ponders for a quick second. Eyes trailing in for a third time within the vacant practice room. Memories of the enigmatic ballerina's staging are still lifelike in his mind. The splendorous ache of his heart as the boy bear witness to such arte felt surreal almost like everything was just an event of a lucid dream.

So much as it becomes yet another fleeting moment. One that kindled a spark within the dark hollowness of his soul. A nebula bursting aflame marking the birth of a new star in his tedious sky.

With the growing twinkle in his eyes, along with the inclination to avoid Albedo from seeing the newfound glint on Scaramouche's face so as not to give them a reason to tease, he starts to march up, trailing at the foot of the older on their way to their set back meetings.

⸝⸝⸝

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

hi! I was wondering if you could do a post on how to write flashbacks?

How to Write Flashbacks

According to Literary Terms. Net, a flashback is “a device that moves an audience from the present moment in a chronological narrative to a scene in the past. Often, flashbacks are abrupt interjections that further explain a story or character with background information and memories.”

Flashbacks are a subject of contention among the literary community. There are two distinct sides, lovers and bashers, and I feel that both are wrong: Flashbacks have the capacity to be very good for a story or very bad. It all depends on how you write them. So here, have some tips!

1. Keep Them Short

People don’t want to read a ten-page flashback in the middle of the story. Flashbacks are notorious for being slow, and drive a wedge between the narrative and an invested reader if it’s not done properly. It’s better if you take a huge chunk of information and spread it out than to have a big dump in one place. 

I don’t know your story, and I don’t know the importance of certain flashbacks in your story, but as a reader, I usually start getting tired of flashbacks around the two-page mark, sometimes shorter if they’re not particularly exciting. 

Flashbacks are essentially an interruption, and you want interruptions in your story to be as unobtrusive as possible.

2.  Don’t Put It In The Middle of the Action

Unless your flashbacks are PTSD-related and as a plot point are supposed to get in the way of the character trying to accomplish their goal, I highly suggest to never put flashbacks in the middle of the juicy parts. Your readers have been waiting for this buildup, this climax, this one kiss, and they will not be happy if a random memory sequence suddenly shows up.

If you truly have to put a flashback in there (i.e. PTSD, traumatic experience, sad memory, etc.), make it artistic by going line-by-line or phrase-by-phrase. 

As the character is talking to people or fighting, they remember more and more of the terrible things that happened to them, with certain words in the conversation or certain actions in battle triggering certain memories. The split between regular spoken conversation/action and italicized flashback can be a great prose-shattering way to turn an info-dump into something more!

3. Cut Them When Necessary: Instead, Weave the Information into the Narrative

Flashbacks, although admittedly important and a good way to convey past events, are very intrusive to the narrative because they pluck the reader from one part of the story and dump them into another. That’s why it’s best if you save the flashback for something that is VERY important, something that cannot be portrayed in any other way. 

Do you really need a flashback, or can you incorporate other aspects of storytelling to get the message across?

Here are some ways you can cut your line break flashbacks and weave them into the narrative instead:

Have a very long, very detailed flashback of a specific event that happened before the beginning of the story?

Write a Prologue instead! Prologues are at the very beginning of the story, and therefore are not an interruption to the narrative.

Pros: No interruption, places more importance on that specific event

Cons: People skip prologues, can make the story clunkier

Have no way of segueing into your flashback?

Make it a dream! Nothing like some night terrors to really get your character’s blood pumping.

Pros: Makes it less of an interruption than it would’ve been if split by a break

Cons: Cliché, Cannot be too detailed (must mimic the abnormality of a dream, can’t be just a straight-up memory)

Do you REALLY need a flashback, or can you just put it in prose?

If your character sees a seashell and is reminded of when they went to the beach with their dead mom, you probably don’t need a flashback for that unless something mentioned offhandedly in the flashback is used for foreshadowing a later revelation. 

Don’t be afraid to use the words “recalled” and “remembered”  A paragraph or two of a character revisiting a memory in real time beats a flashback any day!

Pros: No major interruption, more easily woven into the story

Cons: Has to be shorter, can’t be as detailed

Also reference the idea I described before of going line-by-line for your flashback instead of dumping huge paragraphs; quite literally weaving it into your story!

I really hoped this helped, and happy writing!

[sixstepsaway]

i don't even go here but i discovered your ofmd metas earlier today and i've been bingeing. i've got a fun hypothetical! You brought up how izzy's behaviour might change going into season 2 [no longer being comfortable calling Ed on his shit / doing his JOB] and i was wondering if you wanted to spitball ripple effects from that. how do people take that, best and worst case scenario? or even just go into more detail on izzy and trauma responses/triggers. love your stuff! <3

also have you got an a03? i keep finding fragments of work but i can't find a link D:

Oh man, if you love my stuff re: trauma responses and triggers you are going to love my AO3. My longest (unfinished, sadly, though I hope to go back to it soon, now I've found a bit of a groove with my writing) fic is a 86k trauma recovery fic for the Chinese drama The Untamed. My AO3 account is here and the fic with the trauma is 'rites of a widower'. I've received pretty high praise on that fic, actually, for my approach towards trauma, recovery and all of that. It does contain a tw of past sexual assault and violence though!

I'm hoping to post OFMD fic on there soon, I just don't want to commit to more unfinished works, so I'm planning to finish stuff before posting. I have one OFMD fluff on there though! And I'm going to be dumping some Izzy stuff on there soon.

Do you mean by "I don't even go here" that you don't even OFMD? Holy shit if so; high praise, thank you. Or did you mean Tumblr? Either way, thank you for the praise.

Okay, so, in response to your question: ripple effects.

Firstly, Izzy is now disabled. It might not be as bad as a peg leg or a hook for a hand, but it's still going to be a disability and as long as it's a recovering injury he's going to be a) in pain, b) having to tend it regularly, and c) relearning balance and walking and running with a missing toe. I said in response to a different anon that I don't see them going down the "it got infected" path, but that not being a plot doesn't mean it isn't a concern for Izzy-the-Person! It absolutely is! That toe (or, ehm, lack thereof) has to be kept clean, wrapped and protected from the dirt and grime of pirate life. It probably had to be cauterized, as they lack much in the way of medical treatment and idk what else they'd do, so that means there's also a burn to contend with. I might be off base there, though. As I've said before, I'm not a doctor, and I'll google some things but I'm a tad too anxiously nauseous tonight to google how bad a foot bleeds if you chop off the pinkie. (That said, if anyone has any information, please drop it in my ask or a reply or tag me in a post!)

I did google other things though, and google says that you can do just fine without your pinkie toe, but google is also referring to modern day people who have any shoes they need on hand, who have cars and the internet and hospitals. We're talking about a dude who is out on the ocean, cut off from anyone who could be a support system, stranded with the guy who did it to begin with, and having to tend his own wounds. He doesn't even have Roach on board. Ed made him strand the ship's surgeon right after he maimed him.

(Also, speaking of Roach, there is a line in 1x06 when Lucius has his infected finger, where they take Lucius to him for aid, and someone (Fang? Ivan? I don't recall and it isn't the focus here) says, "You're the ship's surgeon too? I thought you were the cook!"

To which Roach shrugs and responds, "Meat is meat."

And that. that right there. is what I call fucking amazing foreshadowing. Roach looking down at a soon-to-be amputated limb and saying, "Meat is meat," in relation to surgery and food. Fuck me.)

So whether it's fine and you'd be fine with a missing pinky or not, Izzy is going to have a lot of changes to adapt to, and he's absolutely not going to have time to be laid up with his foot elevated, or allowed to keep his feet away from the muck on the deck, or anything like that. Nope, he's expected to clean himself up and go find Edward, which is a cruelty in and of itself and implies this behavior will continue: it isn't just over because Ed cut off his toe, Izzy has to deal with it fast and quick, not lay there and cry with pain, and get on with it. There's a real lack of empathy there, like Ed switch-flipped any care for Izzy off (and yet, if that were truly the case, I don't think he would've reacted so strongly, and also I don't think he would've kept Izzy around at all. The point is almost that he cares too much for Izzy, which makes the whole thing even more toxic: "I love you so much I have to hurt you now").

All that to say that first off his behavior will have to change from the confidence he has in his fighting ability until this point. If he needs a cane to walk, then he no longer has both hands free to counterbalance his fencing, his fancy footwork will have to change (there's a lovely video of Con O'Neill practicing his fencing for the duel scene and so much of it is poised footwork). It means he'll be less willing to go into a fight, less willing to duel. He'll be more vulnerable to Jim and/or Frenchie if either of them decide to take him on to deal with what Ed did in basically kidnapping them and also trying to kill the rest of the group.

Then, when it comes to, like, the trauma of it all, I imagine he'll probably have nightmares? Ed broke into a place that was meant to be safe, bringing with him an absolute nightmarish scenario where Izzy woke up to agony and having a piece of himself removed and fed to him. I find it hard to believe he wouldn't have nightmares, and that's even if he sleeps at all after this? The phrase "Sleeping with one eye open" is something Izzy wasn't doing before, because no matter how he feels about the Muppet Comedy Land of the Revenge, he felt safe on that ship. He didn't expect anyone (let alone Ed) to break into his room and assault him.

I don't see him willingly sleeping for a while, and then that means sleep deprivation and that means slower reflexes, yet more vulnerability and less capacity to physically (and mentally) heal.

Another lovely anon suggested the idea of Izzy locking/barricading his door at night, which is a possibility, but as I said to that anon, I don't know if I think Izzy would feel that's an option? What would Ed have done instead if he hadn't managed to get into Izzy's cabin? How much worse could it be, if Ed decided to punish him again and couldn't get the door open? What would the fallout of trying to keep Ed out be?

I don't see Izzy eating or sleeping much for quite a while. Meat would be supremely off-putting, especially any meat with blood still in it. I imagine anything that goes crunch in his mouth would surely cause a trauma response as well, which leaves him with basically soggy porridge or whatever pirates might have. Bread, but crusts can be crunchy, especially if it's stale or older bread.

Which means we're left with food and sleep and his long-time companion all being a trigger. Since he's still in the trauma, he might not even register it until far later, so the triggers might creep up on him out of nowhere after a good chunk of time, maybe even years. If the show doesn't let him be traumatized and genuinely damaged by this, I will assume that's the angle they're going with: delayed response, once he's out of the situation (so, post-canon most likely), and so, probably, C-PTSD. There's no way that he and Ed can heal unless he's allowed to be fucking traumatized by what Ed did and Ed is made to face the god damn music about it and atone for his behavior.

This goes for stranding the crew on an island too, by the way, and killing Lucius (even if he survives the attempt). Ed needs to know he fucked it up and make amends for that. The crew should fear him. Lucius should no longer want to be alone in a room with him, let alone be on the same ship. The people he was praising a day earlier should no longer look at him with stars in their eyes. He should have to earn every last scrap of that back.

Scenarios! I imagine you mean in-world best/worst case scenarios (eg. worst case being "x dies" and best being "x is happy") rather than best/worst case scenarios for plots in the show, but I'm going to answer both.

In-World Best Case Scenario for Izzy:

This is as far as this kind of treatment goes. Ed sees it as "finished" because the punishment was meted out and Izzy has the time and space he needs to heal physically. Ed, at some point, is made to realize what he did, and is forced to atone and re-earn Izzy's trust once he knows he lost it. He manages, because he ends up being deserving of that trust.

Izzy isn't too traumatized because it's just the life of a pirate, isn't it? It's just A Bit Much and he handles it with grace and only minimal bitching.

In-World Worst Case Scenario for Izzy (and the one I prefer because I like watching characters heal, and they can't heal if they aren't hurt to begin with, and it would be a great plot and frankly I might write it):

Izzy is fucked up beyond all reason. He doesn't sleep, he doesn't eat. Fang comments on the fact his clothes look baggy (did he get new ones?) and Izzy flinches with one of Con O'Neill's excellent micro-expressions and then changes the subject.

Jim picks up on the fact Izzy got injured and Ed has gone off the rails. They're the one that also notices they haven't seen Izzy eat in a really long time. They bring him food. Izzy yells. Jim recognizes an angry shell protecting something very damaged and brings more food.

Eventually Jim gets Izzy to admit what happened and Izzy says that he deserved it for what he did. Jim is like, "The fuck did you do?" and Izzy, with complete seriousness, tells Jim exactly what he did to deserve the maiming.

And Jim is just like, "The fuck?" because someone murdered their entire family and left them an orphan and they gave that person a quick death at the end of a knife. Jim is not sadistic, and absolutely tells Izzy that yeah he said some stupid shit, but holy fuck Ed went on a killing and maiming spree because Izzy called him a namby-pamby pining after his boyfriend? What the fuck Edward?

Jim offers Izzy some more food and this time they offer him like, mushroom soup or something, something that's so bafflingly different to a toe that Izzy just starts wolfing it down and Jim produces some like, soggied bread or something, and Izzy eats that too.

Izzy still isn't sleeping though. He opens his door one morning and finds Jim asleep outside his door, leaning against it, on guard.

Izzy sleeps a little.

Ed meanwhile is still full Kraken and everyone is fucking terrified of him, except for Jim who thinks, at this point, that he's a git. Jim floats an idea one day while Izzy is eating another bowl of something non-meaty that maybe they should mutiny against Ed.

Izzy actually gives it a moment of thought before saying no. He's somewhat horrified at himself that he even considered it.

They argue back and forth and finally Jim is like, "For fuck's sake, he maimed you! Look at you! You're a fucking mess, how much do you even sleep? Fuck. We can't keep living like this."

Lingering loyalty and fear of "if you ever threaten me again, I'll feed you the rest" (and no, he doesn't know which voice is louder) means Izzy is absolutely not going to try and overthrow Ed and he's somewhat terrified they're even talking about it, but they hatch a plan to bring the ship somewhere they can leave or at least be on more even keel. Jim is thinking Stede but doesn't say that to Izzy.

Stede is brought in and he has the crew with him and probably Lucius, and when Ed sees Lucius alive he's like "holy fuck" and just shatters because he didn't want Lucius to die, it was just something that happened. He tells Stede all the horrible things he's being doing, including, "I cut off Izzy's toe!" and Stede is like, "Did he deserve it?" and Ed has to realize that no, nope, he did not, and when he tries to go talk to Izzy, Jim is bold and wonderful enough that they block his path, proving their dedication to protecting Izzy: Ed is not getting in that room.

Jim takes the place of Lucius in telling Ed exactly what he's done, though they don't get too into revealing Izzy's trauma. Ed spends a good chunk of time trying to figure out how to re-earn Izzy's trust and make amends for what he did.

Izzy remains traumatized, but once he's in a safer environment he starts to heal from it and be triggered less and less, and maybe manages to forgive and trust Ed again, one day. He never eats meat again and he's no longer really jealous of Stede; he doesn't want Ed in his bedroom anymore, after all.

Show Best Case Scenario:

What Ed did to Izzy (and everyone else) is treated with nothing less than the depth it deserves. Much like the toe scene is not played for laughs, and nor are any more of the Revenge scenes in 1x10 after Lucius is yeeted, what Ed does is treated with sobriety and respect. Izzy is allowed to have feelings about what was done to him, the show acknowledges and addresses that what Ed did is fucked up and Ed is forced by the narrative to see what he did and make amends. No one laughs at Izzy for what was done to him. They do not call him Izzy Limpy or mock him. They do not think he deserved it.

Show Worst Case Scenario:

Everyone thinks Izzy deserved it because he's a dick. It's played off as him getting his just desserts and isn't it funny that Izzy got maimed? Look, he's limping! Izzy Limpy now, instead of Izzy the Spewer haha!! The show focuses entirely (rather than partially, along with the crew and Izzy) on Lucius's murder, whether he survives it or not, and that's the amends that Ed has to make. Izzy stagnates by his side as though nothing ever happened. Sometimes Ed hurts him, but it's framed as something Izzy deserves.

I don't think that's the scenario we're going to get. In 1x06, Ed and Stede were both run through in two separate scenes, in fact Stede even gets skewered to the mast for hours and it's literally fine. No one ever mentions their stabbings again, it doesn't matter, it wasn't a big deal.

If they were going to do that with Izzy's toe, I think they wouldn't have had him limping with a cane, he would've just been fine immediately afterwards. Instead, he immediately has the marks of what Ed did to him:

This first scene is Izzy telling Ivan (who's just like "it's a lotta books, Izzy O.e chiiiiill") with a tang of panic to his voice to work faster because he thinks if they don't, he's going to get punished again. He also has a cane and he does this pained smile when he says "Blackbeard is himself again" and then screams, "QUICKER!!!!!!" in what I can only describe as terror and then limps out, having to use a cane to walk.

When he maroons them, he's still using the cane, and instead of having his foot out of sight below the wood of the rowboat, his injury is on full display. It isn't being immediately brushed aside.

And when he tells Ivan, "Rowwww," there's. something in his voice, I don't know. He's nervous. Who can blame him?

The last time we see him, he doesn't have the cane, I don't think, but he's also on steady footing and his legs are spread to aid his balance.

I do not think his injury will be shrugged off. I hope it won't be. But that's my 'worst case scenario'.

Finally, if they give it enough attention and dedication, Izzy being traumatized and afraid of Ed (his number one supporter, the guy always in his corner, his right hand) will absolutely have an affect on everyone. Even if the crew and Lucius are like, "Meh! We survived!" seeing Izzy flinch or be less confident around Ed will change how they relate to Ed as well.

In 1x04 when Ed is like, "It's a full moon!" and Izzy is the one that chimes in to say he's wrong, Lucius backs Izzy up. Lucius didn't have the guts to speak first and say it wasn't September 1st (who would want to tell Blackbeard he's wrong?!), but he did have the guts to support Izzy. Izzy opened that door by showing that he could inform Ed of his mistake.

Izzy not being able to correct Ed in that scene, for example, would mean they died. End of story. Show ends. They go right into the Spanish vessel because Ed got his dates wrong and no one corrected him, so he and Stede didn't go off to mope about death and Stede didn't mope about his wife and how he was meant to be a lighthouse for his family, and they didn't get the lighthouse idea. Because if they were fine, they didn't need the lighthouse idea.

Izzy saved their lives by telling Edward he was wrong and giving them the time they needed to come up with another plan. Izzy did that.

The ripple effect is that Ed will miss the minutiae and he will not have Izzy there to fix those things. You can, in fact, even see the beginnings of that in that episode via the way Ed doesn't talk to Izzy. He snags Stede, messes around, flirts with the crew, comments on the Bird Guy, tells Lucius to count because he knows the ship is coming, and doesn't tell Izzy the plan.

Izzy has to chase him around the ship, calling his name and trying to get him to come out of the (literal) closet he's in with Stede so they can do actual sailing and pirating things like getting out of dodge real fast, and then after their clothes swap he points out to Edward that Blackbeard needs to do something and Ed is just like "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that's Blackbeard" and points at Stede

which is hilarious because it all works out, but oh my god, Edward?!

so Izzy is like, "Fucking FINE I'll see if this other bloody captain has a lick of sense!" and drags Stede off to go hey. what about you. do YOU have a fucking plan to SAVE OUR LIVES?

Which, Stede does not lol

and Stede is so busy going OMG ED THIS GUY IS SUCH A DICK! he doesn't realize Izzy is god damn right

and then after all of this, Ed flounces around and shows off like "look how smart I am, I saved our lives by seeing the clouds look like sausages, aren't i amazing" except had he told Izzy why the clouds mattered and his plan, Izzy would have said then and there that it wasn't a full moon and he would have said then and there that they needed a new plan, and they might actually have had time to come up with another plan without having to become a lighthouse (which was great, but a last ditch effort).

Ed doesn't tell Izzy shit and it's his always his god damn downfall.

His downfall is and has continued to be the entire show through: taking Izzy for granted and treating him poorly.

I hope this continues into seasons 2 and beyond.

Thanks for giving me questions to chew on for what feels like 6000 words. I'll do a word count in a second because I think I typed for two hours.

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

~ Hello,

This is a friendly reminder that referring to a black woman as strong, especially if she is dark or black-skinned, is not a compliment.

For too long, black women have been constantly referred to a strong as a way to ignore the fact that our feelings, our body, and our thoughts matter, as well as our mental health, and shit like Hollywood (aka, The Pedo Paradise ™) continues to churn out bullshit movies depicting brown or dark-skinned black women, especially if they’re older, to be women who are not in need of any help, or of any support whatsoever.

Tell me. When was the last time you’ve seen a black woman on television, or on any popular media, being depicted as someone who is soft-hearted, delicate, kind, fragile and in need of support or of saving? Hm…?

When was the last time you’ve seen a black woman being shown in the same light as those white women in those Victorian/Edwardian paintings, and illustrations, being depicted as the epitome of innocence? Hmmmmmm?

Exactly.

I remember one of my non-black friends talking about how she admired Amanda Waller from Suicide Squad for her hardened exterior, because she was attempting to find some sort of good within a very damaging trope that I brought up about the character, and I had to remind her of how many times that type of black woman was constantly shown in the media, and how it was damaging, and not at all a compliment to be constantly shown in such a light.

In tv shows, movies, etc, the dark skinned black woman who is hardened and cold, and ruthless… I’ve seen that type of black woman so many damn times it’s ridiculous. But this type of character for black women is very, very common.

People sure do love throwing a black woman into a villain role, or a role that deems them to be intimidating, or almost scary, even.

We always take the place of someone who is feared, and is looked at as someone who would instantly kill you, or punish you with an evil eye, or a simple glance. We are looked at as someone who is almost not-human… Someone who sends a chill down every single white person’s spine because we’re just SO SCARY…

So no, I don’t care for Amanda Waller’s character. And I damn sure don’t care at all for any other Amanda Wallers that rid the everyday media. Especially since they end up getting treated like throwaway villains and antagonists, while white villains get treated like actual characters who matter to the story.

And as the villain or the antagonist, the black woman’s backstory, which explains who she is, doesn’t matter at all, nor does their complexities as a human being. The characters simply see what the black woman shows them, and refuse to look into anything beyond that. Because why should we care about a black woman being a complex human being, when we can simply use her as a way to scare people? Even though this is a story, and we have a chance to go deep into her backstory, in order to fully understand everything that built her into who she is… why should we? We’ll just toss her to the side like the rest of them. Who cares? She’s just bait.

…

But let’s go into deep, deep detail about this white villain instead!

I’d rather much see someone who is like me being represented for once.

A black woman who is soft, and who isn’t also light-skinned, racially ambiguous, or mixed. Cause last time I checked, I don’t recall being light-skinned, racially ambiguous, or mixed. I wear glasses, I know how I look. I’m brown, I’m unambiguously black, and proud of it.

Someone who is allowed to be soft, delicate, and fragile without the story suddenly becoming some sort of black trauma plot to punish them for being anything other than guarded and cold.

Someone who is simply a human being doing human being things without having to endure The Struggle™ due to racist pieces of shits who can’t stand the idea of a black woman NOT suffering, or causing fear as some sort of ominous, shadowy Other™ lurking over their every move.

That is all. ~

~ Pinkie.

[delimeful]

taking the fall (4)

warnings: pain, injury, mentions of captivity

-

Roman woke to throbbing pain in his leg and an uncannily soft surface below him.

He resisted the urge to groan theatrically as he was unwillingly dragged back to consciousness, and then resisted the urge to groan harder as he recalled just what had happened before he passed out.

He’d been seen. After all his careful planning, his little one-in-a-lifetime excursion had still landed him in the hands of a human. He wasn’t fool enough to believe that Logan had left him alone just because he’d fallen out of sight for a moment and then passed out like a wimp who couldn’t even handle a little bone-breaking.

Humans often lived in blissful ignorance, but not ‘lack of object permanence’ levels of it. Logan had definitely seen him fall, and odds were that he was now in the human’s clutches. Which was bad.

Tiny furniture hobbies aside, the guy was a textbook nerd, which was only barely a step down from an actual scientist. Roman wouldn’t be surprised at all if he woke up in one of those clear glass vials that scientists were always using on TV. Would that be better or worse than a jar? Probably worse, but if he could tip it over…

He dragged his thoughts away from the hypotheticals, well aware that he was stalling. Whatever he was laying on now, it certainly wasn’t glass.

Hesitantly, he peeked one eye open a tiny bit.

A pillow. It looked absolutely bizarre from this angle, his body just barely heavy enough to sink in and cause a few wrinkles in the fabric, but it was still recognizable as one of the huge fluffy pillows that normally rested on the human’s bed.

He turned his head a little further, and found that the pillow was on the desk that he’d previously taken a dive off of. The miniature set was still present to one side, surprisingly enough. Perhaps less time than he thought had passed, if it hadn’t been sent off to wherever Logan had promised to take it yesterday?

Or perhaps Logan had decided to forgo that responsibility in favor of his exciting new discovery. Roman shuddered.

“Hello? Are you awake?”

The voice nearly made Roman jump out of his skin, and he couldn’t help but freeze guiltily, totally giving away his awakeness. He craned his head up and saw that Logan was sitting on the desk chair, pushed back a few feet from the desk, a tiny dresser in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.

That was… considerably less menacing than he’d been expecting. “What are you doing?”

Logan blinked at him, nonplussed. “Wood detailing?”

Roman squinted at him suspiciously, trying to figure out what nefarious plans one could enact with the details of a tiny dresser. Perhaps it was supposed to be a part of some sick enclosure that the human was designing for him? He had wanted Roman to talk about the chair, of all things, so maybe he needed a tiny victim to test out his furniture.

That wasn’t exactly torture, but he still needed to escape. His presence here risked every other borrower in the building and out of it. Growing more somber, he testingly shifted his leg, trying to figure just how effective the human-applied splint actually was.

… Ouch.

“Is it sufficient?” Logan asked, unknowingly echoing his thoughts as he leaned over slightly to peer down at him. Roman pulled on his fiercest scowl, and was gratified to see the human retreat slightly. “I have pain medicine, but I was uncertain about the proper dosage, so I decided to wait until you woke up to see what you wanted to do.”

“Oh, I just bet you want me to take pain medicine,” Roman shot back sharply, ignoring the fairly nonsensical nature of what he’d just said. Like he was helping a human figure out the best ways to drug a borrower!

“... I do?” Logan replied, sounding downright confused by his hostility. “Normally, I would encourage anyone with injuries as significant as yours to seek out professional medical attention, but after witnessing your fear of me, I assumed that you would prefer to not be exposed to more humans.”

“I wasn’t afraid!” Roman snapped indignantly, and then paused as the rest of that spiel caught up with him. He was unspeakably glad that the human hadn’t been dumb enough to waltz into a human sickbay with him, but-- “I would prefer to not be exposed to you, either, BFG!”

“BFG?”

“Big Frustrating Giant!”

Logan looked dubious, but carefully averted his gaze. It wasn’t what Roman had meant, but those huge eyes being off of him were admittedly a relief. He shuffled his body to the side slightly, trying to ignore the sharp pains from jostling his leg.

“I will remind you, you are the one who came into my apartment, not the other way around,” Logan said, frowning slightly but keeping his eyes locked on the furniture in his hand. “Why were you there?”

“I’m afraid it’s none of your business,” Roman sniffed haughtily, ignoring the way his heart had sped up in his chest at the idea of making the human angry.

“Apologies, I don’t mean my apartment. I’ve already discerned that you likely find sustenance and other helpful items in human living spaces, going by the ease with which you traverse large terrain and the repurposed human items that make up your belongings,” Logan clarified, casual as anything. “I was asking why you were in my stage miniature. There is no food in it, and you must know that I would notice if anything went missing.”

Roman stared at him, feeling the blood drain from his face at the offhand way that the human had correctly guessed a lot about how borrowerkind survived, all from Roman’s unconscious presence.

It was beans like this that the rules had been designed for, so of course he would be the one to catch Roman. He set his jaw, resolving not to say anything else that might give anything away to this wannabe Sherlock.

-

Logan glanced up from the layer of drying varnish that he’d been staring at for the past thirty seconds, wondering if maybe the tiny person had fallen back into unconsciousness.

But no, despite their silence they were still awake and glaring at him, brow furrowed and arms crossed firmly. He tilted his head curiously, trying to indicate that he was listening, but it seemed they didn’t plan to answer at all.

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine,” he said, hurriedly looking back to the miniature he was fiddling with in an effort to not stress the tiny person out any further. “I simply wanted to see if there was anything you needed that I could provide you, since I’m partially responsible for your injury.”

“Partially?” they echoed, incredulous.

Logan nodded. “I startled you, and your attempt to flee led to injury. I should have known better than to move so quickly, particularly with the disparity in our sizes.”

“That was a strategic retreat,” they emphasized, “and you never would have caught me if you’d moved slowly. I’ll have you know I’m no slouch.”

Caught them…?

“My intention wasn’t to grab you,” he said. “I was reaching for one of the chairs to try and compare the scale. If it was incorrect, it would have been obvious when put side by side with you.”

“Yes, yes, I already guessed that you have nefarious furniture-related plots for your poor captive, you don’t have to explain it.” They were rolling their eyes when Logan glanced at them, and seemed to be an inch or two away from where he’d originally placed them on the pillow.

It felt to Logan as though they were talking cross-ways, even more so than his usual pop culture reference confusion(and didn’t it just figure that a tiny person that lived in the walls was more familiar with human colloquialisms than him?) during conversation. Perhaps it was due to their less than fortuitous first meeting?

“It seems like there might be some misconceptions here,” he tried. “I’m not keeping you captive.”

The stranger lifted a skeptical eyebrow, spreading their arms to gesture at the surrounding area. “Aren’t you, though?”

Logan followed the gesture, eyebrows drawn in. As far as he knew, a pillow on top of his desk hadn’t turned into an impenetrable prison within the last few moments. “No. I’m not.”

“So if I were to, say, walk out right now, you’d just be all peachy-keen with it?” they asked, almost condescending in their doubt. “You wouldn’t try to stop me from leaving?”

Logan paused, a firm denial on the tip of his tongue. “Are there others like you nearby?”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, going by the way their tiny hands went white-knuckled for a moment.

“No,” they answered mulishly, “I’m the only one of my kind. And I’ll have you know, if there were others-- which there’s not-- I would never sell out my hypothetical fellows for my own freedom!”

“That’s…,” Logan sighed, deciding not to mention how incredibly dubious he was of the likelihood that there was only one of a species. “That’s not what I meant. You clearly pursue an active lifestyle, I just wanted to ensure that there would be someone to support you and help you recover from your injuries. You won’t be able to even walk on that limb for a fair bit of time without permanently damaging it.”

Logan thought for a moment that he’d gotten through to them, witnessing the way trepidation lingered in their expression when they looked down at their leg, but then they shook their head firmly.

“That’s just an excuse! I know that you’re planning on keeping me, humans always do. I’d rather deal with a permanent limp than be a pet in one of your little dollhouses,” they spat, vitriol in every word. “So either let me go or admit your foul plans!”

The words were sharp, designed to incite, but Logan was used to scanning for the tiniest of flaws in his work, and he could spot the subtle signs of fear that his tiny visitor was just barely concealing. Clenched fists to hide shaking hands, the curl to their shoulders that suggested they wanted to curl up defensively, even their expression wobbled slightly when Logan spent a moment too long looking at them.

He took a deep breath, trying to ease the tension in his own frame and put them a little more at ease. An impossible task, considering they expected him to-- to know that they were a talking, feeling person and try to ‘keep them’ anyhow, but it helped clear his head.

“What will it take?” he asked, keeping his voice even.

“Um, what?” they asked, thrown off.

“To get you to stay here, just until you heal. I’m asking this of you, so it’s only reasonable that you ask for something in exchange,” Logan said. “If we can’t come to an agreement, I’ll leave you to your own devices, but there has to be something you want badly enough to remain here for a few weeks.”

“And what, you’ll just give it to me and let me leave after I’m all healed up?” they asked, continuing their trend of acting like a future in which he acted with normal human decency was an impossibility.

“Yes,” Logan answered, as earnest as he could manage. “That’s part of the arrangement. I would also like to know your name and pronouns, though that is secondary to being allowed to treat you.”

“What if I said you weren’t allowed to grab me? Or touch me at all?” they asked.

“That would be acceptable,” Logan replied without hesitation, mentally trying to figure out how non contact would alter a treatment plan.

“And you… you aren’t allowed to take notes on me! Or pictures!” they continued, watching him intently. He kept his expression agreeable, only nodding. “And you have to give me food, you can’t withhold it or make it part of another deal.”

“Medical treatment for someone on bedrest also includes things like meals and mental enrichment,” Logan replied, concealing the displeasure he felt at the idea that someone else would have tried that in his position. He really did hope these were all hypotheticals.

“And… and…,” they cast about, looking for something else to add to their ‘ridiculous’ demands, “I also want a sword!”

Logan paused, admittedly caught off guard. “A functional one?”

“Yeah-- yes, that's right! I want a sword perfectly sized to me, entirely functional, or the deal is off!” they replied, smug as though they thought they’d finally found something he’d refuse.

Unfortunately for him, Logan wasn’t the type to be deterred by a challenge. “I’ll have to go through some prototypes, but it can’t be too different from some metal decor I’ve worked on in the past.”

“Sorry, what now?” they asked.

Logan was already reaching for a post-it to jot down ideas for the base source of metal-- A nail? Or perhaps a piece of old silverware?-- eyes bright with anticipation. “I’m saying that you have a deal. You’ll stay here, and I’ll make you a sword.”

Caught up in schematics as he was, he completely missed his guest’s exasperated groan.

[twopoppies]

I was looking for fics that have a modern setting? deal with the city life and intimacy struggles and well also that feeling when ur an adult and kind of hate the way ur life has become? mid/early twenties life crisis? with nice, beautiful prose if possible? is this a very specific request? I will take anything honestly, just as long as the writing is something that makes u want to read a sentence for the second time to absorb the meaning of it

Hi darling. I’m sorry this has taken so long. I’ve just been swamped. Your request is a bit too specific to really pick out many fics, but I think these will give you what you’re looking for.

Mine Would Be You by @crinkle-eyed-boo (E, 115K) Beautifully written, flawed characters and an emotionally engraging and ANGSTY plot. Super hot smut that made me cry like a fool. Banter, OT5 friendship, and the grittiness of New York as a backdrop. Loved this one.

Sing When You're Winning by hazmesentir (NR, 91K) another one I read ages ago, but I always like this author’s writing and the premise of newly out footballer Louis and journalist intern Harry who somehow snags the interview, is such a fun one. And I don’t know why it has an NR rating, there’s plenty of smut.

Singing To Tiny Dancer by BriaMaria / @briannamarguerite (E, 23K) I feel like I keep saying the same things but this author always gets my heart. Famous Louis this time, escaping his super star life and returning to the (home town, not famous) boy he used to know. *clutches heart and swoons*

Emperor's New Clothes by sunsetmog (E, 92K) I read this one years ago and while I always enjoy this author’s writing, I don’t recall a ton of details except that the deterioration of Louis’ health and mental state felt realy realistic and made me cry. But don’t worry, there is a happy ending!

an island without waves by tofiveohfive / @sunflowrsix (NR, 5K) This is one of my favorite authors for exes to lovers fics. They really do a terrific job of getting right in there with the painful self-realizations and struggle. This one is no exception. Plus, it references one of my favorite films and has one of my favorite tropes: a love confession in a rain storm.

gathered on wings by Brooklyn_Babylon / @twopoppies (E, 33K) This is mine, but I think Harry’s character fits what you’re looking for. Here’s the summary:

What Harry Styles wanted was to be taken seriously as an artist. What he needed was a new sugar daddy to pave the way. Louis Tomlinson is an artist who isn’t what Harry is looking for. Somehow he still manages to turn Harry's world upside down.

Tired Tired Sea by mediawhore / @mediawhorefics (M, 113K) Always a favorite author, this one is beautifully descriptive and moody and charming. I was anxiously waiting for this one from the first drabbles I saw on Tumblr. I loved the way Harry’s character unfolded and let Louis in, the way Louis made space for him in his life (and heart), and the way Harry’s character struggled with and eventually found a way to live and be happy with his fame.

taking tips and getting stoned  by alison (M, 24K) Slightly OOC, but I really enjoyed the realistic approach to the storyline and having a fic about life not turning out the way you thought it might, and the opportunity for second chances.

deleted your number (so i can't call you)  by tofiveohfive / @sunflowrsix I think this author does such a great job with writing realistically about breakups and the emotions that are involved. Things aren’t just suddenly solved -- there’s still anger and hurt and a realization that better communication is needed. It’s just very refreshing to read. And of course, I cried.

all my love was down on a frozen ground by navigator (E, 16K) This is an old one that I didn’t have bookmarked for some reason. But it’s a favorite and I love everything this author wrote. This is one of those quiet, soft fics with a bit of angst and a lot of internal monologue and gentle conversations. I don’t know, there’s something so touching about it.

Stranger Stars by shaylea / @sunshineandhisrainbows (E, 212K) It’s a really unique fic that takes place on a 6-week safari through Africa. It’s incredibly detailed and the author does a lovely job with the character arcs and with setting the scene.

Sometimes Fires Don‘t Go Out by abrighteryellow / @a-brighter-yellow (E, 17K) I love this fic. The quirky friendships, the banter, the secret crush, the banter…it’s such a fun read with a really satisfying conclusion.

Speaking of Marvels by navigator, quitter (E, 101K) This was one of the first fics I read in this fandom, but I read it again recently and had forgotten how really wonderful it is. The writing is so lovely and the characters feel so well developed. I especially loved how the authors explored how differently the two of them would respond to their relationship given the different stages of life they were in. It made the romance and the attraction and the angst feel really real.

[xoruffitup]

Annette: The AD Devotee Review

So I saw Annette on its premiere night in Cannes and I’m still trying to process and make sense of those 2.5 hours of utter insanity. I have no idea where to begin and this is likely going to become an unholy length by the time I’m finished, so I apologize in advance. But BOY I’ve got a lot to parse through!!

Let’s start here: Adam’s made plenty of weird movies. The Dead Don’t Die? The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? There are definitely Terry Gilliam-esque elements of the unapologetically absurd and fantastical in Annette, but NOTHING comes close to this film. To put it bluntly, nothing I write in this post can prepare you for the eccentric phantasmagoria you’re about to sit through.

While the melodies conveying the story – at times lovely and haunting, at times whimsical, occasionally blunt and simple – add a unique sense of the surreal, the fact that it’s all presented in song somehow supplies the medium for this bizarre concoction of disparate elements and outlandish storytelling to all coalesce into a single genre-defying, disbelief-suspending whole. That’s certainly not to say there weren’t a few times when I quietly chortled to myself and mouthed “what the fuck” from behind my mask when things took an exceeding turn to the outrageous. This movie needs to be permitted a bit of leeway in terms of quality judgments, and traditional indicators certainly won’t apply. I would say part of its appeal (and ultimately its success) stems from its lack of interest in appealing to traditional arbiters of film structure and viewing experience. The movie lingers in studies of discomfiture (I’ll return to this theme); it presents all its absurdities with brazen pride rather than temperance; and its end is abrupt and utterly jarring. Yet somehow, at the end of it, I realized I’d been white-knuckling that rollercoaster ride the whole way through and loved every last twist and turn.

A note on the structure of this post before I dive in: I’ve written out a synopsis of the whole film (for those spoiler-hungry people) and stashed it down at the bottom of this post, so no one trying to avoid spoilers has to scroll through. If you want to read, go ahead and skip down to that before reading the discussion/analysis. If I have to reference a specific plot point, I’ll label it “Spoiler #___” and those who don’t mind being spoiled can check the correlating numbers in my synopsis to see which part I’m referencing. Otherwise, my discussion will be spoiler-free! I do detail certain individual scenes, but hid anything that would give away key developments and/or the ending.

To start, I’ll cut to what I’m sure many of you are here for: THE MUSICAL SEX SCENES. You want detailed descriptions? Well let’s fucking go because these scenes have been living in my head rent-free!!

The first (yes, there are two. Idk whether to thank Mr. Carax or suggest he get his sanity checked??) happens towards the end of “We Love Each Other So Much.” Henry carries Ann to the bed with her feet dangling several inches off the floor while she has her arms wrapped around his shoulders. (I maybe whimpered a tiny bit.) As they continue to sing, you first see Ann spread on her back on the bed, panting a little BUT STILL SINGING while Henry’s head is down between her thighs. The camera angle is from above Ann’s head, so you can clearly see down her body and exactly what’s going on. He lifts his head to croon a line, then puts his mouth right back to work. 

And THEN they fuck – still fucking singing! They’re on their sides with Henry behind her, and yes there is visible thrusting. Yes, the thrusting definitely picks up speed and force as the song reaches its crescendo. Yes, it was indeed EXTREMELY sensual once you got over the initial shock of what you’re watching. Ann kept her breasts covered with her own hands while Henry went down on her, but now his hands are covering them and kneading while they’re fucking and just….. It’s a hard, blazing hot R rating. I also remember his giant hand coming up to turn her head so he can kiss her and ladkjfaskfjlskfj. Bring your smelling salts. I don’t recommend sitting between two older ladies while you’re watching – KINDA RUINED THE BLATANT, SMOKING HOT ADAM PORN FOR ME. Good god, choose your viewing buddy wisely!

The second scene comes sort of out of nowhere – I can’t actually recall which song it was during, but it pops up while Ann is pregnant. Henry is again eating her out and there’s not as much overt singing this time, but he has his giant hands splayed over her pregnant belly while he’s going to town and whew, WHEW TURN ON THE AIR CONDITIONING PLEASE. DID THE THEATER INCREASE IN TEMPERATURE BY 10 DEGREES, YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT DID.

Whew. I think you’ll be better primed to ~enjoy~ those scenes when you know they’re coming, otherwise it’s just so shocking that by the time you’ve processed “Look at Adam eating pussy with reckless abandon” it’s halfway over already. God speed, my fellow rats, it’s truly something to witness!!

Okay. Right. Ahem. Moving right on along….

I’ll kick off this discussion with the formal structure of the film. It’s honestly impossible to classify. I have the questionable fortune of having been taken to many a strange avant-garde operas and art exhibitions by my parents when I was younger, and the strongest parallel I found to this movie was melodramatic opera stagings full of flamboyant flourishes, austere set pieces, and prolonged numbers where the characters wallow at length in their respective miseries. This movie has all the elevated drama, spectacle, and self-aggrandizement belonging to any self-professed rock opera. Think psychedelic rock opera films a la The Who’s Tommy, Hair, Phantom of the Paradise, and hell, even Rocky Horror. Yes, this film really is THAT weird.

But Annette is also in large part a vibrant, absurdist performance piece. The film is intriguingly book-ended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character; and your own role blurs between passive viewer and interactive audience. The first scene has the cast walking through the streets of LA (I think?), singing “So May We Start?” directly to the camera in a self-aware prologue, smashing the fourth wall from the beginning and setting up the audience to play a direct role in the viewing experience. Though the cast then disburse and take up their respective roles, the sense of being directly performed to is reinforced throughout the film. This continues most concretely through Henry’s multiple stand-up comedy performances.

Though he performs to an audience in the film rather than directly to live viewers, these scenes are so lengthy, vulgar, and excessive that his solo performance act becomes an integral part of defining his character and conveying his arc as the film progresses. These scenes start to make the film itself feel like a one-man show. The whole shtick of Henry McHenry’s “Ape of God” show is its perverse irreverence and swaggering machismo. Over the span of what must be a five minute plus scene, Henry hacks up phlegm, pretends to choke himself with his microphone cord, prances across the stage with his bathrobe flapping about, simulates being shot, sprinkles many a misanthropic, charmless monologues in between, and ends by throwing off his robe and mooning the audience before he leaves the stage. (Yes, you see Adam’s ass within the film’s first twenty minutes, and we’re just warming up from there.) His one-man performances demonstrate his egocentrism, penchant for lowbrow and often offensive humor, and the fact that this character has thus far profited from indulging in and acting out his base vulgarities.

While never demonstrating any abundance of good taste, his shows teeter firmly towards the grotesque and unsanctionable as his marriage and mental health deteriorate. This is what I’m referring to when I described the film as a study in discomfiture. As he deteriorates, the later iterations of his stand-up show become utterly unsettling and at times revolting. The film could show mercy and stop at one to two minutes of his more deranged antics, but instead subjects you to a protracted display of just how insane this man might possibly be. In Adam’s hands, these excessive, indulgent performance scenes take on disturbing but intriguing ambiguity, as you again wonder where the performance ends and the real man begins. When Henry confesses to a crime during his show and launces into an elaborate, passionate reenactment on stage, you shift uncomfortably in your seat wondering how much of it might just be true. Wondering just how much of an animal this man truly is.

Watching this film as an Adam fan, these scenes are unparalleled displays of his range and prowess. He’s in turns amusing and revolting; intolerable and pathetic; but always, always riveting. I couldn’t help thinking to myself that for the casual, non Adam-obsessed viewer, the effect of these scenes might stop at crass and unappealing. But in terms of the sheer range and power of acting on display? These scenes are a damn marvel. Through these scenes alone, his performance largely imbues the film with its wild, primal, and vaguely menacing atmosphere.

His stand-up scenes were, to me, some of the most intense of the film – sometimes downright difficult to endure. But they’re only a microcosm of the R A N G E he exhibits throughout the film’s entirety. Let’s talk about how he’s animalistic, menacing, and genuinely unsettling to watch (Leos Carax described him as “feline” at some point, and I 100% see it); and then with a mere subtle twitch of his expression, sheen of his eyes, or slump of his shoulders, he’s suddenly a lost, broken thing.  

Henry McHenry is truly to be reviled. Twitter might as well spare their breath and announce he’s already cancelled. He towers above the rest of the cast with intimidating, predatory physicality; he is prone to indulgence in his vices; and he constantly seems at risk of releasing some wild, uncontrollable madness lingering just beneath his surface. But as we all well know, Adam has an unerring talent for lending pathos to even the most objectively condemnable characters.

In a repeated refrain during his first comedy show, the audience keeps asking him, “Why did you become a comedian?” He dodges the question or gives sarcastic answers, until finally circling back to the true answer later in the film. It was something to the effect of: “To disarm people. It’s the only way I can tell the truth without it killing me.” Even for all their sick spectacle, there are also moments in his stand-up shows of disarming vulnerability and (seeming) honesty. In a similar moment of personal exposition, he confesses his temptation and “sympathy for the abyss.” (This phrase is hands down my favorite of the film.) He repeatedly refers to his struggle against “the abyss” and, at the same time, his perceived helplessness against it. “There’s so little I can do, there’s so little I can do,” he sings repeatedly throughout the film - usually just after doing something horrific.

Had he been played by anyone else, the first full look of him warming up before his show - hopping in place and punching the air like some wannabe boxer, interspersing puffs of his cigarette with chowing down on a banana – would have been enough for me to swear him off. His archetype is something of a cliché at this point – a brusque, boorish man who can’t stomach or preserve the love of others due to his own self-loathing. There were multiple points when it was only Adam’s face beneath the character that kept my heart cracked open to him. But sure enough, he wedged his fingers into that tiny crack and pried it wide open. The film’s final few scenes show him at his chin-wobbling best as he crumbles apart in small, mournful subtleties.

(General, semi-spoiler ahead as to the tone of the film’s ending – skip this paragraph if you’d rather avoid.) For a film that professes not to take itself very seriously (how else am I supposed to interpret the freaky puppet baby?), it delivers a harsh, unforgiving ending to its main character. And sure enough, despite how much I might have wanted to distance myself and believe it was only what he deserved, I found myself right there with him, sharing his pain. It is solely testament to Adam’s tireless dedication to breathing both gritty realism and stubborn beauty into his characters that Henry sank a hook into some piece of my sympathy.

Not only does Adam have to be the only actor capable of imbuing Henry with humanity despite his manifold wrongs, he also has to be the only actor capable of the wide-ranging transformations demanded of the role. He starts the movie with long hair and his full refrigerator brick house physique. His physicality and size are actively leveraged to engender a sense of disquiet and unpredictability through his presence. He appears in turns tormented and tormentor. There were moments when I found myself thinking of Conan the Barbarian, simply because his physical presence radiates such wild, primal energy (especially next to tiny, dainty Marion and especially with that long hair). Cannot emphasize enough: The raw sex appeal is off the goddamn charts and had me – a veteran fangirl of 3+ years - shook to my damn core.

The film’s progression then ages him – his hair cut shorter and his face and physique gradually becoming more gaunt. By the film’s end, he has facial prosthetics to make him seem even more stark and borderline sickly – a mirror of his growing internal torment. From a muscular, swaggering powerhouse, he pales and shrinks to a shell of a man, unraveling as his face becomes nearly deformed by time and guilt. He is in turns beautiful and grotesque; sensual and repulsive. I know of no other actor whose face (and its accompanying capacity for expressiveness) could lend itself to such stunning versatility.

Quick note here that he was given a reddish-brown birthmark on the right side of his face for this film?? It becomes more prominent once his hair is shorter in the film’s second half. I’m guessing it was Leos’ idea to make his face even more distinctive and riveting? If so, joke’s on you, Mr. Carax, because we’re always riveted. ☺

I mentioned way up at the beginning that the film is bookended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character, and between reality and performance. This comes full circle at the film’s end, with Henry’s final spoken words (this doesn’t give any plot away but skip to the next paragraph if you would rather avoid!) being “Stop watching me.” That’s it. The show is over. He has told his last joke, played out his final act, and now he’s done living his life as a source of cheap, unprincipled laughs and thrills for spectators. The curtain closes with a resounding silence.

Now, I definitely won’t have a section where I talk (of course) about the Ben Solo parallels. He’s haunted by an “abyss” aka darkness inside of him? Bad things happened when he finally gave in and stared into that darkness he knew lived within him? As a result of those tragedies, (SPOILER – Skip to next paragraph to avoid) he then finds himself alone and with no one to love or be loved by? NO I’M DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT AT ALL, I’M JUST FINE HERE UNDER MY MOUNTAINS OF TISSUES.

Let’s talk about the music! The film definitely clocks in closer to a rock opera than musical, because almost the entire thing is conveyed through ongoing song, rather than self-contained musical numbers appearing here and there. This actually helps the film’s continuity and pacing, by keeping the characters perpetually in this suspended state of absurdity, always propelled along by some beat or melody. Whenever the film seems on the precipice of tipping all the way into the bleak and dark, the next whimsical tune kicks in to reel us all blessedly back. For example, after (SPOILER #1) happens, there’s a hard cut to the bright police station where several officers gather around Henry, bopping about and chattering on the beat “Questions! We have a few questions!”

Adam integrates his singing into his performance in such a way that it seems organic. I realized after the film that I never consciously considered the quality of his singing along the way. For all that I talked about the film maintaining the atmosphere of a fourth wall-defying performance piece, Adam’s singing is so fully immersed in the embodiment of his character that you almost forget he’s singing. Rather, this is simply how Henry McHenry exists. His stand-up scenes are the only ones in the film that do frequently transition back and forth between speaking and singing, but it’s seamlessly par for the course in Henry’s bizarre, dour show. He breaks into his standard “Now laugh!” number with uninterrupted sarcasm and contempt. There were certainly a few soft, poignant moments when his voice warbled in a tender vibrato you couldn’t help noticing – but otherwise, the singing was simply an extension of that full-body persona he manages to convey with such apparent ease and naturalism.

On the music itself: I’ll admit that the brief clip of “We Love Each Other So Much” we got a few weeks ago made me a tad nervous. It seemed so cheesy and ridiculous? But okay, you really can’t take anything from this movie out of context. Otherwise it is, indeed, utterly ridiculous. Not that none of it is ever ridiculous in context either, but I’m giving you assurances right now that it WORKS. Once you’re in the flow of constant singing and weirdness abound, the songs sweep you right along. Some of the songs lack a distinctive hook or melody and are moreso rhythmic vehicles for storytelling, but it’s now a day later and I still have three of the songs circulating pleasantly in my head. “We Love Each Other So Much” was actually the stand out for me and is now my favorite of the soundtrack. It’s reprised a few times later in the film, growing increasingly melancholy each time it is echoed, and it hits your heart a bit harder each time. The final song sung during (SPOILER #2), though without a distinctive melody to lodge in my head, undoubtedly left me far more moved than a spoken version of this scene would have. Adam’s singing is so painfully desperate and earnest here, and he takes the medium fully under his command.

Finally, it does have to be said that parts of this film veer fully towards the ridiculous and laughable. The initial baby version of the Annette puppet-doll was nothing short of horrifying to me. Annette gets more center-stage screen time in the film’s second half, which gives itself over to a few special effects sequences which look to be flying out at you straight from 2000 Windows Movie Maker. The scariest part is that it all seems intentional. The quality special effects appear when necessary (along with some unusual and captivating time lapse shots), which means the film’s most outrageous moments are fully in line with its guiding spirit. Its extravagant self-indulgence nearly borders on camp.

...And with that, I’ve covered the majority of the frantic notes I took for further reflection immediately after viewing. It’s now been a few days, and I’m looking forward to rewatching this movie when I can hopefully take it in a bit more fully. This time, I won’t just be struggling to keep up with the madness on screen. My concluding thoughts at this point: Is it my favorite Adam movie? Certainly not. Is it the most unforgettable? Aside from my holy text, The Last Jedi, likely yes. It really is the sort of thing you have to see twice to even believe it. And all in all, I say again that Adam truly carried this movie, and he fully inhabits even its highest, most ludicrous aspirations. He’s downright abhorrent in this film, and that’s exactly what makes him such a fucking legend.

I plan to make a separate post in the coming days about my experience at Cannes and the Annette red carpet, since a few people have asked! I can’t even express how damn good it feels to be globetrotting for Adam-related experiences again. <3

Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to ask me any further questions at all here or on Twitter! :)

*SYNOPSIS INCLUDED BELOW. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF AVOIDING SPOILERS!*

Synopsis: Comedian Henry McHenry and opera singer Ann Defrasnoux are both at the pinnacle of their respective success when they fall in love and marry. The marriage is happy and passionate for a time, leading to the birth of their (puppet) daughter, Annette. But tabloids and much of the world believe the crude, brutish Henry is a poor match for refined, idolized Ann. Ann and Henry themselves both begin to feel that something is amiss – Henry gradually losing his touch for his comedy craft, claiming that being in love is making him ill. He repeatedly and sardonically references how Ann’s opera career involves her “singing and dying” every night, to the point that he sees visions of her “dead” body on the stage. Meanwhile, Ann has a nightmare of multiple women accusing Henry of abusive and violent behavior towards them, and she begins growing wary in his presence. (He never acts abusively towards her, unless you count that scene when he tickles her feet and licks her toes while she’s telling him to stop??? Yeah I know, WILD.)

The growing sense of unease, that they’re both teetering on the brink of disaster, culminates in the most deranged of Henry’s stand-up comedy performances, when he gives a vivid reenactment of killing his wife by “tickling her to death.” The performance is so maudlin and unsettling that you wonder whether he’s not making it up at all, and the audience strongly rebukes him. (This is the “What is your problem?!” scene with tiddies out. The full version includes Adam storming across the stage, furiously singing/yelling, “What the FUCK is your problem?!”) But when Henry arrives home that night, drunk and raucous, Ann and Annette are both unharmed.

The couple take a trip on their boat, bringing Annette with them. The boat gets caught in a storm, and Henry drunkenly insists that he and Ann waltz in the storm. She protests that it’s too dangerous and begs him to see sense. (SPOILER #1) The boat lurches when Henry spins her, and Ann falls overboard to her death. Henry rescues Annette from the sinking boat and rows them both to shore. He promptly falls unconscious, and a ghost of Ann appears, proclaiming her intention to haunt Henry through Annette. Annette (still a toddler at this point and yes, still a wooden puppet) then develops a miraculous gift for singing, and Henry decides to take her on tour with performances around the world. He enlists the help of his “conductor friend,” who had been Ann’s accompanist and secretly had an affair with her before she met Henry.

Henry slides further into drunken debauchery as the tour progresses, while the Conductor looks after Annette and the two grow close. Once the tour concludes, the Conductor suggests to Henry that Annette might be his own daughter – revealing his prior affair with Ann. Terrified by the idea of anyone finding out and the possibility of losing his daughter, Henry drowns the Conductor in the pool behind his and Ann’s house. Annette sees the whole thing happen from her bedroom window.

Henry plans one last show for Annette, to be held in a massive stadium at the equivalent of the Super Bowl. But when Annette takes the stage, she refuses to sing. Instead, she speaks and accuses Henry of murder. (“Daddy kills people,” are the actual words – not that that was creepy to hear as this puppet’s first spoken words or anything.)

Henry stands trial, during which he sees an apparition of Ann from when they first met. They sing their regret that they can’t return to the happiness they once shared, until the apparition is replaced by Ann’s vengeful spirit, who promises to haunt Henry in prison. After his sentencing (it’s not clear what the sentence was, but Henry definitely isn’t going free), Annette is brought to see him once in prison. Speaking fully for the first time, she declares she can’t forgive her parents for using her: Henry for exploiting her voice for profit and Ann for presumably using her to take vengeance on Henry. (Yes, this is why she was an inanimate doll moving on strings up to this point – there was some meaning in that strange, strange artistic choice. She was the puppet of her parents’ respective egotisms.) The puppet of Annette is abruptly replaced by a real girl in this scene, finally enabling two-sided interaction and a long-missed genuine connection between her and Henry, which made this quite the emotional catharsis. (SPOILER #2) It concludes with Annette still unwilling to forgive or forget what her parents have done, and swearing never to sing again. She says Henry now has “no one to love.” He appeals, “Can’t I love you, Annette?” She replies, “No, not really.” Henry embraces her one last time before a guard takes her away and Henry is left alone.

…..Yes, that is the end. It left me with major emotional whiplash, after the whole film up to this point kept pulling itself back from the total bleak and dark by starting up a new toe-tapping, mildly silly tune every few minutes. But this last scene instead ends on a brutal note of harsh, unforgiving silence.

BUT! Make sure you stick around through the credits, when you see the cast walking through a forest together. (This is counterpart to the film’s opening, when you see the cast walking through LA singing “So May We Start?” directly to the audience) Definitely pay attention to catch Adam chasing/playing with the little girl actress who plays Annette! That imparts a much nicer feeling to leave the theater with. :’)

[teawaffles]

The Fugitives from the Fire: Chapter 1

T/N: Takes place before Chapter 39 of the manga (“The Dark Night of London”). Also, in order to appreciate a certain plot point to the fullest, I would recommend reading Book 2 Story 4 (“It Happened One Night”) before starting this one.

TW for this story // All the elements you would expect from a murder mystery: injury, blood, mention of suicide, violence, death

——The moment Miss Hudson opened the door to his room, Sherlock let out a long, long sigh.

It sounded as if he was squeezing every inch of air out of his lungs.

“What is it, Miss Hudson.”

Sherlock was sunk deep into his armchair, newspaper in hand. As if she could feel a headache coming on, Miss Hudson pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Every single time — what’s going on in this room, Sherlock?”

Frowning, she looked around the flat this great detective shared with his assistant. As always, it was thoroughly in a mess. But as always, Sherlock gave his typical response.

“There isn’t anything to get that upset about, is there? Besides, I’m not doing any scientific experiments right now.”

“I can never understand your concept of hygiene: how do you manage to live among all this without batting an eye……? Anyway, at the very least, make sure it’s clean enough that you’re not embarrassed to let people in. In a sense, we are in the service industry, you know.”

Standing tall and firm in the doorway, she began to lecture Sherlock, when an enigmatic grin broke across his face.

“If a client turns away just upon seeing this, then doesn’t it reflect the triviality of their request? In other words, I’m trying to screen my clients as soon as they enter this room.”

“If you quibble on like that, you’re the one who’s going to get screened out by your clients and lose your income. I certainly detest the idea of allowing someone with no earnings to live here.”

She launched into a scathing rebuke of those lazy words, and Sherlock raised both hands in a gesture of temporary surrender.

“Alright. When John comes back, we’ll tidy up together,” he said, looking out the window.

At that perfunctory remark, Miss Hudson placed both hands on her hips.

“John-kun, John-kun — you never stop talking about him. At least, when it comes to cleaning, I’d like you to do it yourself even without anyone else telling you to. My heart truly goes out to your future wife.”

“No need to worry: I consider myself married to my work.” [1]

“……So that means, I’m going to have a bachelor living here for the rest of my life?”

She thought of herself in her old age, briskly caring for an elderly detective; at that unpleasantly vivid image, a chill ran down her spine. [2]

And so they went on and on like this, as they normally did — when all of a sudden, a knock came from the ground floor entrance. From Sherlock’s experience, a visit at this time was usually linked to a “riddle”.

“Yes yes, please hold on just a moment.”

Breaking off their conversation, Miss Hudson pattered down to the ground floor. Sherlock put his newspaper on the table, and listened as she answered the door.

Then, as he’d intuited, after they exchanged a few words at the entrance, someone promptly came up the stairs — he could hear it creaking — and a familiar face appeared at the open door.

Sherlock flashed him a bold grin.

“——Hey, Lestrade. Tough case?”

It was Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard. Sherlock had brought up a “tough” case as a matter of course, and to that, Lestrade gave a solemn nod.

“Exactly, Holmes. It’s a bit of a tricky one — I need your help.”

“Details?”

Skipping the pleasantries, Sherlock lit a cigarette, as he was wont to do. But Lestrade’s expression turned grave.

“Sorry, but it’s urgent: I don’t have time to fill you in right now. Can we talk in the carriage?”

“Wha? Hmm……”

Looking out the window at the street below, Sherlock began to sway restlessly.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

The detective didn’t have an immediate response, and as Lestrade questioned him, Sherlock began mumbling to no one in particular.

“Look, can’t you see John’s not here? ……Goddammit, seriously — where did he go?”

“…………”

Lestrade kept his expression sombre, but for a split second, even he nearly broke into laughter at that line. This eccentric man, who lacked scruples about troubling the people around him, had just admitted to feeling an ordinary emotion like loneliness — and it did feel a little odd.

Standing to the side, Miss Hudson also broke into a smile. For the man known as Sherlock Holmes, it seemed John H Watson had already become an inseparable part of his life.

Seeing their reactions, Sherlock narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“Oi, why’re you two smiling away? Did I say something weird?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing,” Lestrade replied. “It’s just, that was an unexpected line coming from you, so I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t making fun of you. It’s good that you have such an irreplaceable friend.”

“That’s none of your concern…… Though, is there really no time to wait for John?”

In a flash, Lestrade’s expression reverted to its grim state.

“Sorry, but yes: I want to get going as soon as we can. However, if you need Dr Watson, we could wait a while longer……”

But Sherlock quickly waved his hand, interrupting Lestrade’s compromise.

“No, it’s fine. Anyway, I don’t know when he’s coming back. There’re times like this too.”

Saying that, he stubbed his barely-smoked cigarette in an ashtray, dressed himself and got ready to leave. Uttering a quick word of apology, together with the detective, Lestrade headed to the Brougham four-wheeled carriage waiting outside.

Placing one foot into the vehicle, Sherlock waved to Miss Hudson as she stood at the entrance.

“So, Miss Hudson: I’ll attend your marriage counselling session when I get back.”

“I don’t recall having ever mentioned such a thing?”

She smiled at Sherlock’s joke, concealing within it a quiet rage. As if fleeing from her terrifying presence, the two men set off in haste.

Footnotes:

[1] Oh yes I saw my chance and took it — this is a BBC Sherlock reference |ω･)ﾉ But to be super-precise, I’ve dug into the exact translation in the notes below.

Aside: There was another small reference back in Book 2 Story 1, when Sherlock told William that he was “flattered” :3

[2] This is actually hinted at in the original stories: when Sherlock retired in Sussex, he said he was living with his old housekeeper (Wikipedia)

Translator’s notes

That line about marriage

I took some liberty with that translation, so here’s a more pedantic version of it. The reference comes from Season 1 Episode 1 of BBC Sherlock (“A Study in Pink”), when Sherlock and John were having dinner in an Italian restaurant while on a case.

The line as written in the book: “俺にとっては仕事が嫁さんみたいなもんだからな”

(Because) to me, my work is like my wife.

The line from BBC Sherlock’s Japanese dub: “ジョン、僕は仕事と結婚したつもりだ。” (source)

(It’s a literal translation of the original line below)

The original line from BBC Sherlock: “John, I consider myself married to my work.”

Aside: The “flattered” reference comes from the line immediately after this one — “…and while I am flattered by your interest…”

[vavuska]

CRUELLA, THE STORY OF A PUPPY SLAUGHTER (Part 2)

Here for part 1:

Part 1 - Summary:

In the previous part we saw how was originally described Cruella de Vil in Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmatians: a rich heiress, bossy, cruel toward animals, obsessed with fancy jewls, luxury and also fur coats. Cruella met Anita at school, they were in friendly terms, even if Anita described Cruella as a menacing student, expelled from school for drinking ink. Dodie Smith wrote that Cruella comes from a troublesome family: her ancestor was a serial killer, with the supernatural ability to summon storms and a tail (reference to Bram Stoker's Dracula and the devil). Cruella has strange eating habits (uses a lot of pepper, the Devil's spice) and is usually cold (as a corpse or a vampire). Cruella was so obsessed with fur to marry a furrier not for love but only for his job. Cruella's husband is weak and she is the dominant element in the couple, she also forced him to take her surname after their marriage.

We saw also the rapresentation of Cruella in 1961 cartoon version of 101 Dalmatians. Cruella is still a old friend of Anita. Her main colors are red (her loudy red car is the fist thing we see of Cruella) — expressing blood, anger, determination and passion — and green (she is always surrounded by nasty green smoke that comes from her cigarette) that rapresents envy, sickness and greed.

Her appearance is very particular, because she looks like a skeleton and her skin is very white - pale, very different from the healthy pink one of the other characters. She looks like a corpse, she looks sick in this 1961 version of 101 Dalmatians.

Her entrance is accompanied by a song, written by Roger, in which he anticipates the evil intention of Cruella and underlight the disturbing connotations of her surname (Count de Ville is one of Dracula's alias; Cruella de Vil is a pun name on “cruel devil”).

3 - Cruella in 1996

The 1996 live action of 101 Dalmatians the entrance of Cruella is anticipated by a sequence in which we heard a news London Zoo discovered the excoriated carcass of its prized 3-year-old female Siberian tiger, then the news reporter says that according to animal protection groups that monitor the international trade that a white Siberian tiger's fur is so rare that the offer of a pelt would surely draw the attention in contraband. And then the journalist ask “Who cold do something so horrible?”

Then enters Cruella. She wears veiled garment complete with Balenciaga-inspired extreme shoulders and floor-length black and white fur cape.

We saw this mysterious woman with veiled face and a long fur coat - we doesn't know she is Cruella yet - , exiting from her black and white 1974 Panther Deville, license plate “De Vil”. This version of the car is more closed to the book's one.

In Dodie Smith's book, Cruella's chauffeur-driven car is black-and-white striped, which Mr. Dearly describes as “a moving zebra crossing”, and Cruella boasts that it has the loudest horn in London, which she insists on sounding for the Dearly couple.

We saw Cruella shaking the ashes of her cigarette on the shiny and impeccable shoes of her vallet Alzonzo, while he tries to not look bothered by this lack of respect, and then we saw Cruella entering in a luxurious place called “House of De Vil”. Her red cigarette holder — switching from the turquoise the 1966 animated version favored — matched with her brilliant red lipstick, makes a great contrast to her black and white attire and also underlight the psychology of color typical of Disney villains: red is associated with malice, evil (hell and the devil), blood, danger, strength, power, determination and passion.

Now we have a sight of this long railway-like white hallway surrounded by exotic fur-clothes. Now we know she is a stylist and that she is maybe the one who cold be interested in the fur of the dead Siberian tiger.

A crowd of terrified / adoring employees hurry to greet the woman: “Good morning, Miss De Vil”.

Finally Cruella enters in her office and takes off her hat with veil, reveling her double-colored hair. She is Cruella De Vil in all her glory.

This sequence recalls openly the Devil Wears Prada.

This version of Cruella played by Glenn Close is much more human that the 1961 version. She is more charismatic too and also more fashionable. Her entrance is not as scary as the 1961 version, but shows her obsession for fur, her violation of the law and abuse on animals (also at those at risk of extinction) and her high level stylist house of fashion.

She isn't Anita's friend anymore, she is Anita's boss.

While walking to her office, Cruella meets Anita, played by Joely Richardson. She spots that Anita is working on a new model (no more white tiger stripes, but dalmatian's spots). Anita's design catches her eyes and interest, as well as Anita's dog, Perdi: they had a strange chat about Perdi's fur. That, knowing already the plot of the movie and the news details Roger and Pongo were hearing in the previous scene, well, this conversation sounds a lot disturbing.

Cruella: “Anita, darling.”

Anita: “Good morning, Cruella.”

Cruella: “What a charming dog.”

Anita: “Thank you.”

Cruella: “Spots?”

Anita: “Yes, she’s dalmatian.”

Cruella: “lnspiration?”

Anita: “Yes.”

Cruella: “Long hair or short?”

Anita: “Short.”

Cruella: “Coarse or fine?”

Anita: “l’m afraid it is a little coarse.”

Cruella: “Pity!”

Anita: “But it was very fine when she was a puppy.”

Cruella: “Redemption! We need to have a little girl talk. Come to my office. Bring the drawing.”

Ok. The next scene contains a very popular quote from this movie.

We are in Cruella's office: she has just invited Anita to talk about her design. Cruella wants a new coat and would love to wear the one that has just see at Anita's desk. Let's remeber she doesn't want to wear Anita's puppies already, for now is just an abstract idea about someone else's puppies, but they are still talking about Dalmatians' spots, compared with leopard ones and Anita seems to be perfectly fine. I don't think she knows already of Cruella's criminal way to obtain fur from animals at risk of extinction that her henchmen steal from Zoos, but Anita works for a woman who loves to wear REAL fur. I just can't imagine Cruella wearing any faux fur coat. This is not a crime, because it's legal wear fur coats made of mink, sable and ermine and such, but I found very weird that Anita is not having any suspect about Cruella's intention, because she is working on a model of striped tiger fur and Cruella lives for fur, worship fur. She just could not accept to wear faux fur.

However, Anita doesn't seem bothered at all by this strange talk about her dog's fur (yes, dog are not coats), but as a woman who works for fashion/fur industry and loves dogs she should know that in some parts of the world it is legal using cat and dogs to make clothes. I simply can't understand why she is not having any reaction at Cruella's strage interest about Perdi's fur.

Cruella and Anita talk about their work and Cruella makes lovely appreciation for Anita's drawings: she says she is talented and she doesn't want to risk to lose her pen.

That's now that Anita says she would not left Cruella's House for another job, she would left only if she decided to be a stay-at-home mother and wife. Well, no, she talks more genericly of "plans" with a hypothetical, for now, husband/boyfriend, and this could means everything, for example moving to another city, the assumption about marriage is an association made by Cruella that told us a lot of things about how producers would she looks, compared with the family-oriented Disney business plan. This is a very relevant issue we was also in her 1961 version: the losing comparison between Anita's family's oriented live choice and Cruella's — who is sigle, rich and indipendent — one. Cruella loves only her fur coats, while Anita have an husband, a simple house and also a lot of dogs. Cruella is alone, evil, ugly, wears a lot of make up, and not happy, while Anita is married, preatty but in a natural way and happy of her simple lifestyle with her husband and their dogs.

Cruella: “Now, darling, tell me more about these spots. l did leopard spots in the ‘80s. Well, dalmatian spots are a little different, aren’t they? Cozy. Classic.”

Anita: “Cuddly. Less trashy.”

Cruella: “Exactly! Do you like spots, Frederick?”

Frederick: “Oh, l don’t believe so, Madame. l thought we liked stripes this year.”

Cruella: “What kind of sycophant are you?”

Frederick: “Um, what kind of sycophant would you like me to be?”

Cruella: “Frederick… l’m beginning to see spots. What would it cost us to start again on next year’s line?”

Frederick: “Millions.”

Cruella: “Can we afford it?”

Frederick: “Well, yes--”

Cruella: “Pay it, darling. Now go away. l have to talk to Anita.”

(...)

Cruella: “Sit down, please. How long have you been working for me?”

Anita: “Uh, two years last August.”

Cruella: “And you’ve done wonderful work in that time.”

Anita: “Thank you.”

Cruella: “l don’t see you socially, do l?”

Anita: No.

Cruella: “And you’re not very well-known, despite your obvious talent.”

Anita: “Well, notoriety doesn’t mean very much to me.”

Cruella: “Your work is fresh and clean, unfettered, unpretentious. lt sells. And one of these days… my competitors are going to suss out who you are… and they’re going to try to steal you away.”

Anita: “Oh, no. lf l left, it wouldn’t be for another job.”

Cruella: “Oh, really?bWhat would it be for?”

Anita: “Well, l don’t know. Um, if l met someone, if working here didn’t fit in with our plans.”

Cruella: “Marriage.”

Anita: “Perhaps.”

Cruella: “More good women have been lost to marriage… than to war, famine, disease and disaster. You have talent, darling. Don’t squander it.”

Anita: “Well, l don’t think that it’s something we have to worry about. l don’t have any prospects.”

Cruella: “Thank God.”

Cruella makes a very cynical — but historically appropriate and also very sharable — critic about marriage. She was right, expecially because of what we saw about her 1960s version and how she is rooted in anti-feminism and in an open condamn of women's growing emancipation from the “traditional family role” imposed by media in the 1950s and 1960s, rapresented by 1961's Anita. However, Cruella is a cruel, evil villaness, so what she says to Anita is just a condamn made by Disney on women who choose career over family and love.

But, here, Cruella is not a friend of Anita who gives her a kind and appreciable life advice (if we ignore that Cruella is evil), Cruella is Anita's boss and doesn't want to lose a valuable and talented employee, so from this point of view her statement sounds a lot more controversial: women in the 50s lost their job if they got married, they were fired because most of the time bosses made them sign a contract with a marriage bar that allow employers to withdraw from the contract, so their contract would terminate on marriage, or said in a simple way: employers used to fire the soon-to-be wife, because it was clear for them that a wife should focus more on family and house care than on a career (that's because the soon-to-be wife is going to have an husband, the bread-giver of the family).

Nowdays, it's a bitter different, but women that want to have also a family are discriminated in workplaces: employers ask constantly in job interviews of they plan to have a family, if they have some relationships or if they are single. That's because employers would lose money paying for maternity leaves to their female employees that cannot work for some month. A young woman in fertile age with a stable relationship is a risk for a employer more than a young man in fertile age with a stable relationship. A newly mom is more closed to chose a lesser paid job or a part time one compatible to her family then a newly dad.

And also this quote, remember we are talking about the 90s, gives a clear flashback on women's unstable careers back then, but also puts in highlines some stereotypes about women who menage to balance both work and family: their quility of work is lower than before (this is said by Cruella to the new-mom Anita, we will see it below), they are not productive enough, they makes employers lose money, ecc. Nowadays, unlike in the 90s there is a constant svalutation of women who chose to put family first: they have no free time, they have no a social life (well, some shy single woman like Anita doesn't have a frizzy social life too), some kind of lifes are better than others (luxury and exotics vacation are better than reading books, dancing and going to bars with friends is better than playing sports or painting, ecc.) and if they dare to go out with their friends or take time for themselves and their hobbies, society is still ready to shame them for “not being good mothers”. That's not right: everyone should be able to live their life as they want, to have a frizzy social life or just enjoying a little time for themselves, without receiving criticism of any sort.

In the US the marriage bar, the practice of restricting the employment of married women was never explicitly eliminated by federal laws. Marriage bars were widely relaxed in wartime, during World War I and World War II due to an increase in the demand for labor in the assistance of war efforts (mostly because men were at the front).

Since the 1960s, the practice has widely been regarded as employment inequality and sexual discrimination, and has been either discontinued or outlawed by anti-discrimination laws. For example, in Italy marriage bar is declared illegal with law nr. 7 of 1963, that establishes the prohibition of dismissal of female workers for reasons of marriage (later extended also to male workers), and law nr. 1204 of 1971 prohibited dismissal of the working mother within the first year of the child's age (maternity bar).

The main reason of the bar is that married women were supported by their husbands, therefore they did not need jobs. However, marriage bars provided more opportunity for those whom proponents viewed as "actually" needing employment, such as single women or married men (needed to support the family).

Discrimination against married female teachers in the US was not terminated until 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act.

Marriage bars generally affected educated, middle-class married women, particularly native-born white women. Their occupations were that of teaching and clerical work. Lower class women and women of color who took jobs in manufacturing, waitressing, and domestic servants were often unaffected by marriage bars.

However, some State law provides protection for people discriminated for their marital status. For example, in California, discrimination in employment based on marital status is against the law. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), it is illegal for an employer to discriminate based on an applicant’s marital status or perceived marital status.

Under the FEHA, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to treat an applicant or employee differently based on the employee’s marital status. This includes: Refusing to hire or employ, Refusing to select a person for a training program, Firing, bearing, or discharging an employee, Discriminating against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.

Marital status could refer to whether an individual is married or not, has been married, or plans to get married. This includes: Currently married, Divorced, Married to a same-sex partner or opposite-sex partner, Engaged to be married, Married but separated, Married but seeking a divorce, Widowed, Annulled marriage, Plans to get married someday, Plans to never get married, Other marital states.

Forty years ago, on October 31, 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) was signed into law to prohibit discrimination in the workplace on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Since its passage, more women have been able to continue working while pregnant; they have also been able to work further into their pregnancies without being forced to leave their jobs.

Pregnancy discrimination involves treating a woman (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of pregnancy, childbirth or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance and any other term or condition of employment. Pregnancy discrimination also includes perceived bias when expectant employees experience subtly hostile behaviors such as social isolation, negative stereotyping and negative or rude interpersonal treatment such as lower performance expectations, transferring the pregnant employee to less-desirable shifts or assignments or inappropriate jokes and intrusive comments.

Claims of pregnancy discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) increased sharply in the 1990s and 2000s, and pregnancy discrimination remains a widespread problem across all industries and regions of the United States. Yet statistics show that in the last 10 years, more than 50,000 pregnancy discrimination claims were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Fair Employment Practices Agencies in the United States.

So, yes. Disney here touched a lot of points in about two levels:

Family is more important than a career (successful, unmarried stylist Cruella is the evil one) and if you, a working woman, put career over family you are wrong. Nowday, we know that there isn't anything wrong about putting career first, but also we know that there isn't anything wrong also on putting family first or find a balance between the two. The important thing we should remember is that if we have not equality in working places, we should have not real free choices about our dream life;

It's perfectly fine excluding women in stable relationships or women with children from workplaces, because their work would not be at the level of a single woman, that can sacrifice her free time working late (employers exploitation logic deny free time);

Only child-free single women should be allowed to work, but only until they meet a soul mate (reminiscent of the old Disney penchant for old traditional gender roles).

However, returning at the plot, after that Anita reassures Cruella that she has no marriage prospects on the horizon, Cruella asked to Alonzo to bring Anita's drawings to her and the two women start to discuss about Anita's work, because Cruella want to add a long fur stole to Anita's original model: “I look wonderful in spots”, says Cruella,“we could do this in linen. It would be stunning in fur”. Then Anita remarks that would not be appropriate wearing fur in April, so Cruella give her famous lines: “But it’s my only true love, darling. l live for fur. l worship fur. After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn’t?” and then makes a joke that anticipates what she will plan to Anita's puppies more over in the movie: “lt is rather amusing, isn’t it? (...) If we make this coat... it would be as if l were wearing your dog.”

Then Anita and Perdi meet Roger (Jeff Daniels) and his dog Pongo, they fall in love and get married. Cruella doesn't like this. Obviously. We see a very enraged Cruella, wearing a black cellophane velvet with black and white coque feather trim, screaming against Anita's “betrayal”, when she read Anita and Roger's wedding publication on a newspaper.

Her anger toward Roger for stealing her best employee, maybe envy for Anita's love (well, it’s Disney), are promptly consoled, when her two henchmen bring her a little present from Mr. Skinner (Nomen omen, this surname fits perfectly creepy scared guy that work as furrier): it's the Siberian tiger found dead and excoriated in the London Zoo at the beginning of the movie. It was Cruella that wanted her fur and at the end she obtained it.

This Mr. Skinner (John Shrapnel) is a sadic taxidermist that enjoys killing and skinning animals alive, just like he did to the female white tiger at the London Zoo. He doesn't speak beacause when he was young, a dog attacked him by tearing open his throat and ripping out his vocal cords in the process, leaving him with a bad scar on his neck and is a little based on Mr. de Vil, Cruella's husband in Dodie Smith's book, but with the difference that Mr. Skinner has a more strong and menacing personality, while Mr. de Vil was weak and totally dependent by Cruella's desires.

Near the end of the movie, we will see in a crescendo of more explicit references to animal abuse, this charming version of Cruella de Vill ordering Cruella De Vil to Mr. Skinner to kill the dogs, because she fells that the police's suspicion are mounting against her: “poison them,” says Cruella “drown them, bash them on the head. Got any chloroform? I don't care how you kill the little beasts, just do it, and do it now!”

(See here for references: X and X)

In second relevant scene, Roger and Anita are out, walking the dogs, when Anita spots Cruella's car. In fact, as happen at the beginning the black and white 1974 Panther Deville is the first element we see in this scene and anticipate the entrance of Cruella. Recognizing the car, Anita runs to home and there she found Cruella. She welcomes in a very lovely way Anita in her own home, but she is very rude with Roger, who tries his best to be polite during the whole scene. Cruella then mocks Roger about his job (he is a videogame designer, a well paid job nowadays, but that in the 90s can just make snobbish people like Cruella turn up their noses, it's not the classical respectable professions “to make money”). Anita and Roger are just returned from their honeymoon and Creulla acts very nicely toward Anita, she says she missed her and their exchange of ideas, but she isn't happy when Roger announce they are going to have a baby, but Cruella remarks that “she has no use for children”, but she is very interested in Pongo and Perdi's puppies.

Unlike her cartoon version Cruella during the movie shows a lot of different, hiconic and fashionable outfits: at her visit at Anita and Roger's house, she wears a zebra coat dress with mink sleeves with matching Russian-inspired hat, red PVC boots that match with gloves in the same color and material (long fake red nails on each finger) and her red cigarette holder. Her dress also features a practical detail: a cigarette case paired with ammo cartridges as if they are military medals. The zebra stripes also give off the impression of bones or a rib cage for that extra goth vibe. Her lips are permanently stained the color of crimson, while her winged eyeliner adds to her high drama aesthetic.

Despite being set in contemporary London, everything about Cruella's closet defies a specific time period. It is as if she stepped in from the '60s of the original story combined with a century's worth of high fashion references. This is very logic: people have a lot of clothes and is natural for a very fashionable stylist to have and wear a lot of haute couture outfits.

Cruella: “And you must be Rufus.”

Roger: “No, it’s-- it’s Roger. And it’s a pleasure, Miss De Vil.”

Cruella: “What’s a pleasure?”

Roger: “Uh, making your acquaintance.”

Cruella: “Such a sweet thought. l wish l could reciprocate. Tell me, darling, you married him for his dog. Oh, darling, l’ve missed you so. l hate that you’ve taken leave.”

Anita: “But l’m still working. Um, you’ve been getting my sketches?”

Cruella: “Well, it’s not the same thing. l miss the interaction-- And what is it that you do… that allows you to support Anita in such… splendor?”

Roger: “l design video games.”

Cruella: “Video games? ls he having me on?”

Anita: “Oh, no, he’s very good at it. Um, and it’s a growing business.”

Cruella: “Those horrible noisy things that children play with on their televisions?Someone designs them? What a senseless thing to do with your life.”

Roger: “Oh, did Anita tell you the news? She’s going to have a baby.”

Cruella: “ls this true?”

Anita: “Yes.”

Cruella: “Oh, you poor thing! l’m so sorry.”

Anita: “We’re very excited about it, Cruella.”

Cruella: “You can’t be serious.”

Roger: “She is!”

Cruella: “Well, what can l say? Accidents will happen.”

Anita: “We’re having puppies, too!”

Cruella: “Puppies! You have been a busy boy. Well, l must say, that’s somewhat better news. l adore puppies! l’ll expect a decline in your work product.”

Anita: “Oh, l shouldn’t think so.”

Cruella: “Be sure to let me know when the blessed event occurs.”

Anita: “Oh, well, it won’t be for another eight months.”

Cruella: “The puppies, darling. l’ve no use for babies.”

Again here we have a remark of how horrible is Cruella as boss (she says to Anita she expect a decline in her work, and this would make her useless and less precious for Cruella's House) and as person: according to Disney people who doesn't like children are horrible and cruel, but there is a double meaning in Cruella's word: “Iʼve no use for babies” could mean both that she is not interested in maternity (that's perfectly legit, not all like children, are comfortable with them or just dream to have children someday) but also that she couldn't find any material use of babies, while for puppies we know she knows well how to use them: as material for a new fur coat.

The next scene is a classical recall to the original Disney cartoon of 1961: it's a stormy night and during the lightning flash for a few frames only, we see Cruella as a complete silhouette while few second after she opens the door and enters in Anita and Roger's house, with a big menacing smile on her face.

Pattern clashing will not only stand, but it is also encouraged, as the tiger cape with a leopard lining reveals. Paired with a leather skirt and tiger bodice featuring claw clasps

Again there is the recurring joke about Cruella misnaming Roger (Rufus, Rupert, Roland), if it's intentional (and this version of Cruella doesn't seem to left anything casual) it's a clear remark about how she dislikes Roger, the guy that stole her best designer, if it's not intentional, shows how Cruella find him irrelevant for her purpose at the point she doesn't even bother to rember his name to flatter him. Cruella is not polite or kind to Roger as she is with Anita. She doesn't need Roger, she need Anita and hates Roger for turning down Anita's value for her interests.

In this scene Cruella uses the same words she uses in the 1961 version (“How marvelous. How marvelous! How perfect... Oh, the devil take it! They’re mongrels! No spots! No spots at all! What horrible little white rats!”), but with something new that shows her uncaring nature (“All right, put them in a bag. l’ll take them with me now.”) and again mocks Roger for his “strange” and not prestigious job, when he firstly deny her offer for the puppies (“Oh? You’ve come into some money, have you? Did you design some silly game… that will drive the delinquent kiddies into frenzies of video delight?”).

However, compared to her 1961 alter ego, this Anita is more assertive and talks for herself, saying a determinated “no” to Cruella. Anita also starts to be a bit suspicious about Cruella's intentions (“But, Cruella, what would you do with 15 puppies?”). Roger and Anita this time seems to be equally determinated to refuse Cruella's business proposals.

Cruella crescent rage is underlight by the sounds effects of thunderclaps and it is Anita who says the final “no”.

“All right, keep the little beasts. Do what you like with them. Drown them, for all l care! You’re a fool, Anita! l’ve no use for fools. You’re fired! You’re finished! You’ll never work in fashion again! l’m through with all of you! l’ll get even! Just wait! You’ll be sorry, you fools! You idiots!”

When Roger and Anita refused to sell the puppies, Cruella's rage exploded as happened in the cartoon version (she screams and insults Roger and Anita, she tears the check into a thousand pieces and throws them in Roger's face), but let's remeber she is Anita's boss now: she uses her power and fired Anita's too, now that Anita and Roger refused to Cruella what she want, Anita become immediately useless. In fact Cruella has yet the design for her new outfit, from Anita needed only the puppies and if she cannot obtain them with good manner, well, as happened in the cartoon version, she will steal them.

In the previous part we saw how in the 101 Dalmatians of 1961, the car was the alter ego of Cruella, well, in this 1996 live action, her personality and her obsession is channeled into her outfits. Before it all goes to hell for the fashion maven, her rotation of zebra, leopard, and tiger print reveal she wasn't bluffing when she exclaimed of her fur obsession.

The costumes as designed by three-time Oscar winner Anthony Powell (co-designed with Rosemary Burrows) take Cruella's love of all things animal print to the extreme, delivering jaw-dropping results.

Cruella's entire life is a performance supported by her wardrobe, makeup, and hair. Cruella increases the level of red (it's the outburst of her bloody determination to obtain what se want, it's her mad passion for furs that determinated her end) during the climax with her fur coat of choice, which will soon be ruined by some farm animals. That smell is going to be hard to get rid of, and there aren’t any dry cleaners in prison.

As we saw in the previous part, Cruella's change of luck is well rapresented by her ruined clothes: she is going to jail, her life and career are over, her clothes aren't perfect and fancy anymore.

This happens also in the 102 Dalmatians live action of 2000: red clothing anticipates Cruella's criminal climax, while her ruined clothes are the sign of her defeat.

Nearly at the end of the movie, when her plans are finally reveled, Cruella wears a very unique red “flames” dress: the bodice is organza and silk satin beaded, sequined with a beaded net collar. The skirt is silk satin and nylon net beaded and sequined, lines in ostrich feathers. The headdress is tiered flames made of mirror, metal and painted glass. While her attire during her final metch with the Dalmatian is a black dress with large shoulders that recall Balenciaga, a black lather waist belt and a Gothic necklace with rubies, pearls and diamonds. The fur coat is floor-length black and red, while her headdress is a little hat with black and red feathers.

(See here for references: X and X)

4 - Cruella in Once Upon A Time

More recent version of Cruella can be founded in the ABC TV show Once Upon A Time. I will not make a summary of the themes of the TV because it has a very complex plot and that is not relevant for our comparison. So, let's say only that is a show who feature the adventure of Emma Swan, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas)'s daughter, and her biological son Henry (who was adopted by Regina Mills, the Evil Queen, now mayor of Story Brook) to break the magic curse that turned Enchanted Forest to a modern day Maine town called Storybrook, in which live all the characters from the popular fairy tales we know from Disney adaptations, unaware of their true identities.

Cruella is introduced in Season 4. The evil Rumpelstinskin (Robert Carlyle) recruited her and some other evil lady to regain his Dark Lord magic powers and take his revenge on the people of Storybrook as well as his happy ending.

The first we saw Cruella is at her ungodly hour: she is divorcing from a guy called Mr. Feinberg, strongly in debt and FBI is repossessing her husband's belongings, including her fancy fur coats, her big mansion in Long Island, New York, and her other goods. (See here for references: X)

Cruella plays little importance in the plot, until the Author is released from the book; unable to kill him herself, she pretends to threaten Henry Mills's (Jared S. Gilmore) life to force Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina/Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) to do so. However, Emma confronts her, not knowing the restriction the Author placed on Cruella, and magically blasts her off a cliff to her death.

The actress chosed to play Cruella de Vil is Victoria Smurfit and her appearance recalls more the 1961 version than Glenn Close. She wears a black night gown with paillettes or little pearls, long red PVC gloves and a white fur coat, but drives her black and white 1974 Panther Deville. However, during the show she is seen also wearing leather black pants, red boots matching with her gloves and several different types of fur coats. Cruella's phone case has dalmatian spot patterns.

Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold snarkily remarks that he recognized Cruella's scent as “desperation and gin”, somewhat suggesting or implying that Cruella is an alcoholic of sorts. Cruella later confirms this, having blamed her misfortunes on “bad judgment and gin”.

Unlike her other version, this Cruella has some a very limited magic powers, and has only been known to accomplish a few specific spells. Her most remarkable power is the ability to control any animal, whether it be a Dalmatian or a Dragon. The green smoke that comes out of Cruella's mouth when she uses persuasion magic on animals is designed to reflect Cruella's green and yellow cigarette smoke in Disney's 101 Dalmatians.

Her other main power is a very limited telekinesis: Cruella is able to enchant her car to drive itself around.

In the 5 Season, after her death, Cruella ends up in the Underworld, a purgatory run by the deity Hades (Gregory Germann). She makes a deal with Hades, who offer her to rule Underworld in his absence and help trap the heroes there. Delighted with the idea of getting to torment souls for eternity, Cruella agrees to the deal. This makes even more evident the similarities with the goddess Hela from Norse Mythology, as both ruled the underworld and have half-black half-white hair.

However, the most important episode about Cruella is “Sympathy for the Devil”, in which we learn about her true story.

"Sympathy for the De Vil" Season 04, Episode 18

In 1920s England, a young and blonde Cruella De Vil (played by Milli Wilkinson as child and Victoria Smurfit as adult) is being mistreated by her mother Madeline (Anna Galvin) as she instructs her Dalmatians to chase her daughter, and is locked in the attic in the same setting that resembles the 1979 Gothic novel Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews. The room where Cruella is locked up is filled with her mother's dog statuettes and dog show trophies. Fast forward to several years later, and that a reporter, who is revealed to be the Author (Patrick Fischler) but is using an alias by the name of Isaac Heller, is paying a visit to the home pretending to seek out a story after having seen Cruella from the attic, only to have Madeline warning him to stay away. Isaac returns and helps Cruella escape from the attic. He then takes Cruella out for a date that includes dinner and dancing. Cruella reveals to Isaac that the reason she was kept in the attic was that she witnessed her mother kill her father and her succeeding husbands; Isaac then reveals to Cruella that he was more than just a reporter and has the ability to use his pen and ink to create magical stories. Isaac proposes that they run away together, and uses his quill and ink to give Cruella her persuasion powers to control animals.

(See here for references: X, X, X and X)

However, for Isaac, his future with Cruella would later take a unique twist that will put his future in danger. When Madeline pays a visit to see him, she tells him that Cruella had lied to him about what actually happened to her husbands: as child Cruella killed her own father, Madeline's first husband, by putting a poisonous flower in his tea. Cruella was a troubled child and her parents had hoped she would grow out of her disturbing behavior. But after Cruella murders her father, her mother fears that Cruella's murderous tendencies will get worse and will become a full fledged serial killer. Not wanting anyone else to get hurt or killed by Cruella and not wanting her daughter to go to prison, Madeline had no choice but to lock her Cruella away from the outside world and keep her close to try to snap Cruella out of her disturbed mind. However Madeline's intentions were in vain as Cruella ended up poisoning her next two husbands. Terrified that Isaac will set her daughter free and start killing more people, Madeline warns Issac to stay away from her, because she is dangerous and can not be saved, while Isaac doesn't believe her, Madeline tells Isaac that Cruella takes everything someone loves and destroys it and tells him to stay away from her or he will suffer the same fate as her two husbands and lose all he holds dear.

(See here for references: X)

When Madeline returns home, Cruella was ready for her, and eventually kills her mother by controlling her Dalmatians and commanding them to attack her.

Afterwards, Isaac discovers that Cruella has stolen his pen, and goes back to her house to find out that Cruella used her ability to control animals to make her mother's pet Dalmatians turn against her and rip her to shreds, before Cruella herself slaughtered the Dalmatians and made a fur coat out of them.

«Some people struggle not to be drawn into the darkness. But ever since I was a little girl, I've said... "Why not splash in and have fun?"», says Cruella to an astonished Isaac.

Horrified, Isaac makes a dash for the pen to stop her, but during a struggle the magic ink is spilled onto Cruella. She accidentally ingests some and the ink shows her true colors. As Cruella is about to kill him, Issac uses his powers as the Author to make it so that Cruella can never kill anyone ever again by writing it down on a piece of paper "Cruella De Vil can no longer take away the life of another." As he leaves, Cruella tells him she's not done.

Cruella kept this secret, as intimidation would still work for her needs.

This episode have a lot of Disney reference to the old 1961 version of 101 Dalmatians:

Madeline's car is similar in design and color to Cruella's car from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

The song that Cruella hears on the radio is a jazz instrumental version of the song "Cruella De Vil", from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Ink spills on Cruella, just like Cruella spilled ink on Roger Radcliffe and Pongo in the movie. (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961)

When Cruella uses persuasion magic, the magic comes out of her mouth in the form of green smoke, which is designed to reflect the green and yellow cigarette smoke that Cruella puffs in the movie. (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961)

This 1920s version of Cruella de Vil we see in Once Upon a Time is inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Interestingly, in "Sympathy for the De Vil", Isaac can be seen reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. While he is captive in Mr. Gold's cabin, Isaac reads F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. And largely recall what we already saw of Cruella's original version in the book by Dodie Smith: Cruella is a cruel serial killer. She is smart and manipulative, shows no empathy and emotions and uses people for her own needs. She uses Dalmatians as her own weapons to take her revenge on her mother: she turned her own dogs against her and finally removes the last obstacle to her own freedom. Is important to notice that Cruella slaughters and skins the Dalmatians to create a new dalmatian fur coat for her own, that wears victoriously under Isaac horrified eyes. The Dalmatian fur coat is her trophy. Killers like to take trophies and souvenirs from their victims. Keeping some memento — a lock of hair, jewelry, piece of clothing, newspaper clips of the crime — helps prolong, even nourish, their fantasy of the crime or to relive the crime over and over in their minds. Cruella at the end fully reveals herself as the serial killer she is.

When Cruella drinks accidentally Author's ink that transforms her hair black and white, is another reference to the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, in which is said that Cruella used to drink ink as a child. The dress Cruella is wearing at the jazz club is the dress Bérénice Bajo wears in the the famous 2011 comedy-drama film The Artist. Also the dancing scene between Cruella and Isaac recalls the one between Bérénice Bajo and Jean Dujardin, when play the role of actors Peppy Miller and George Valentin filming a ball scene for a mute movie.

Conclusion

As we saw, all the version of Cruella that were developed time by time, still share the characteristics of a sadic, cruel villaness.

Glenn Close version of Cruella doesn't care about animals' lifes, doesn't care about workers rights or other person's life projects. She uses creepy hanchmen to obtain what she wants, she steals and plot the death of even rare animals for their fur. She uses and manipulates people.

Victoria Smurfit's Cruella is a real serial killer. She is selfish, cunning, manipulative and the violence against animals is just a moment on her murderous revenge on her mother: she used Madeline's pretious dogs to kill her and then kept their skins as souvenir, as serial killers do.

There's no doubt that all those versions of Cruella are evil and Disney simply can not create any positive emotional connection with a woman who murders dogs. It's simply impossible to explain why Cruella hates dog in a way that can justify abuse toward animals. That is why this Cruella movie with Emma Stone is a huge mistake.

As conclusion, I will borrow again the words of composer Bill Lee from the 60s animated version of 101 Dalmatians to say what I think of trailer with Emma Stone as Cruella:

This vampire bat, this inhuman beast

The world was such a wholesome place until

She ought to be locked up and never released

Cruella, Cruella de Vil

[lunapwrites]

oooh so many i’d like to ask!

Z: specifically for writing (rather than reading) & wolfstar! esp as you write such delicious lost years & post azkaban angst, but i feel like mcd is a different beast entirely

P: curious how much of LTL you planned out from the very start and how much you’re figuring out as you’re going

V: especially curious if any modern AUs appeal!

hi hi! sorry i'm just now getting to this. <3

Z: I have ZERO qualms with MCD, and I can, do, and would absolutely write it. Remus is probably my least favorite character to kill off on a personal level, but even he isn't immune. I also recall at one point I had a little doodle (ie: one-shot that only existed in my head) where Harry had actually died for real in the final battle and Remus (now alone in the world) teamed up with Ron and Hermione to finish the fight, but in a very "well, scruples are dead now" sort of way. MCD is an effective catalyst for the feral bastard energy I crave. Though it is not the only one. ;)

V: Ooooh this is so tough to answer bc I worry sometimes that I don't have the chops to write as well as some of the authors I admire?? But one of the fics that I can think of here would be wild geese by howlatthemoony. I just. Have so many feelings about this. (And I do like modern AUs but I find that I don't tend to care as much about what happens before or after the fic itself? Usually there's enough filled in within the body of the work to contextualize the story so it doesn't much matter.)

P: Oh gosh, this is kinda tough to answer, and I'm going to drop the rest of this under a break because I'm going to talk some LTL specifics that may be spoilers for those who aren't fully caught up. (Short version: I'm a gardener trying to get their shit together, but I did — and do — have some things planned.)

I'm probably best described as a gardener who designed how their garden was supposed to look ahead of time and is adjusting for small details as we go along. Which is to say that I had an overarching vision for this series, and there's definitely a solid endpoint that I have in mind. I just didn't do any kind of specific outline until after I had started writing. I went into this with the major plot points all thought out, and I adjust the timing and specifics of each as I go. I also, occasionally, have epiphanies about how to avoid plot holes/corners I can see I'm writing myself into.

For reference, everything that happened since "the date night" was not originally supposed to be included. That little mental breakdown scene at the end of chapter 16? It was going to be an entire chapter unto itself and was supposed to originally take place around Christmas. But I needed to fill in more, and pushing it up/reducing its screen time turned out to be a good fit. Not to mention it worked better overall with some other (outlined-but-unwritten) changes I had to make.

But overall, the process has been like taking a road trip with no schedule, just a list of spots you want to go see. And if you find something cool on the way? Hell yeah, stop and take a look... within reason, because you DO only have so long, and you do want to actually see some of these other places. But like. A slight detour here and there can't hurt, you know?

Anyway, that was a very long and convoluted answer haha. But thank you for the ask!!

[butchsophiewalten]

I would like to point out: Sophie's repression is to the point that she hears Jack's name in Bunnyfarm, but she doesn't remember it when recounting the events to Jenny. I think it's pretty clear that she has amnesia, in relation to trauma (which.. Yeah-), but I find it especially interesting that the possibility is whatever she's repressing is in relation to her family, more centering around Jack. It also makes me wonder: Do you think she actually retained what happened to Edd and Molly?

I've been sitting on this ask for kind of a while sorry. I wanna start by saying that Sophie really isn't meaningfully told Jack's name in BunnyFarm, iirc. When Susan refers to him it's "Mister Walten", omitting his first name. Felix does use his first name later, during the first phonecall, "I don't know Jack, today has been, uh-" but it's subtle here, it draws very little attention to itself. You don't even need poor memory to not retain something like that. We also don't know much time has passed between TWF4 and findjackwalten/sophiewalten, but I'm assuming it's at least a day or two. I think it makes sense for her to have forgotten some of the finer details of what she was shown in BunnyFarm in that time.

So all that said, i think BunnyFarm was extremely useful for helping Sophie recall parts of her memory. I think the function of BunnyFarm as an episode is to largely get Sophie 'up to speed' with the events of the story we, the audience, were already familiar with. Sophie's memory loss is a plot device, it's to allow her take the role of audience surrogate while remaining firmly intertwined with the narrative. I definitely think she knows who Edd and Molly are, her stunned "Thats- That's Edd and Molly. That's Edd and Molly" from BunnyFarm is evidence enough of that to me. It also definitely seems like she has/had some latent memory of Edd and Molly disappearing, but that she didn't remember exactly what happened. Her going "I remember this conversation" in response to the first phonecall seems evidence of this.