#i really think this could play with some horror and thriller themes

[let-me-iiiiiiiin]

I feel like he'd be like "what?? Bingge is looking for me? Bingge is tracking me down?" But his brain cells turn back on and he'd instead think, "oh, it's not bingge obviously— Luo Binghe isn't real. That must mean that airplane is tracking me down? Is he telling me that he can easily doxx me? There are way easier methods to do that than write an entire saga of an arc about my favourite protagonist hunting me down!!"

I don't think he would take action against "airplane" tbh— if he does, proud immortal demon way will be discontinued, and that'd mean no binghe, for the rest of his life. But he can avoid him! (Such as, you know, moving away, getting some internet safety tools, avoiding the routes that are detailed in the chapters...)

Weird thing is, that doesn't stop "airplane". The chapters mention that he's changed locations, but the new location doesn't take much to discover at all, not for bingge. Shen Yuan starts feeling scared at this point, but he tells himself he isn't. Airplane is just some messy, absentminded, just-for-lolz kinda guy who couldn't even write a single decent novel. If he actually appears before him, Shen Yuan wouldn't be scared, he'd simply beat that guy up until he begged for mercy!! So really, do your best, great master airplane! See what you get for all this bullshit, you freak author!!

Until the last chapter, which he reads while on the bus on his way back home. In the chapter, Bingge has finally settled down into his new life and waited long enough to have some history in the world, and now he's making his move. Around this hour (which is exactly now, Shen Yuan notes) he heads to Shen Yuan's apartment, climbing the stairs, picking his lock, and familiarizing himself with the place. Shen Yuan feels goosebumps rise on his skin— the descriptions are exactly right. Everything written there is completely accurate to real life. Which meant that... Airplane must have broken in?

When he's in the building, he hears footsteps from the staircase leading up, and runs to use the elevator to avoid whoever is coming down. He goes up, comes to the door, finds nothing out of place, and suddenly wonders if he's actually wrong, but another look at the chapter on his phone convinces him otherwise. There was really no way this Shen Yuan written by Airplane could be an imagined character at all.

So he goes in, and finds a plate of food on the table, still steaming, and a note beside it. He picks it up and reads.

'Apologies for my intrusion, I had intended to greet you. Next time, I hope Yuan-ge and I can have a talk over dinner. For now, please enjoy this meager offering.'

Shen Yuan debates over eating or not eating it, and finally, tired of all the stress, takes a bite, and suddenly thinks, "you know, maybe Luo Binghe is actually real, because there is no way a normal person could cook this well"

After that point Shen Yuan starts becoming a little delusional (according to himself, and also objectively, a little bit) but slowly as clues add up, he starts to actually believe that Luo binghe is the one communicating with him. At some point he even starts wondering if airplane was actually Luo Binghe all along (ladies and gentlemen he's losing it). Like, yeah, he's right, but tonewise his inner monologues should have a kinda mentally ill vibe you know?? He's so down bad for binghe ough

Bingge communicates through the notes for a while— mostly cause Shen Yuan, even though he starts believing that it's binghe himself, keeps avoiding meeting him face to face for fear that there's still a chance that he could be wrong, and he just wants to pretend that this is all real— but at some point he figures out that Shen Yuan is avoiding him way too well for somebody who isn't informed about his patterns, and figures out what's happening. He gets pidw to stop posting momentarily and while Shen Yuan is going through the motions, bereft of the pidw update, bingge finally catches him 💖💖💖 and Shen Yuan is forced to face the protagonist and his massive obsession

Imagine being Shen Yuan, faithful hate reader of Proud Immortal Demon Way, the 30 million world "hit classic" trashfire, ever imitated, hot blood ed stallion novel.... That finished like a wet fart!!!

After a week reeling, you pick yourself up, get on with your life (reading every PiDW fanfic you can get your grubby hands on, and leaving back handed comments like "this was shitty from start to finish, but still managed to be better than anything airplane ever wrote") until one day, Airplane publishes some extras?

And it's WEIRD AS HELL! Alternate universes?? Bing-ge fighting, what, bingmei??? Who is this weak willed protagonist?!?!?! And what's with bing-ge doing.... THAT, with... With SHEN QINGQIU!!!! He's a hot blooded STRAIGHT lover of women!!! Stop describing Shen Qingqiu's eyes like that bing-ge he's not good for you?

But, it doesn't stop at one extra?? Every day a new chapter comes out, following Luo Binghe as he tries to find that "kind" version of his Shizun... Why is this universe hopping romance thriller so fascinating??? The comments are full of hate, airplane's rep is in the trash, nearly EVERYONE is hate reading now...

Eventually Bing-ge begins the believe that SQQ has been possessed in some way, and comes up with a clever way to discover the true name of that Shen Qingqiu!

Anyway, that's your name, Shen Yuan, right there on the screen??? What the fuck.

What the fuck "great master" airplane!!! Bro!!

It was just some salty comments okay no need to take things so seriously 💀💀💀💀

This weird doxx doesn't seem to go anywhere? So you just keep reading! Okay airplane, point taken, no more nasty comments! Peerless Cucumber will keep things quiet from now on!! Luo Binghe begins a search for "Shen Yuan", finding... Finding his way to the real world, with Xin Mo? Okay...

Every day another chapter comes out, and every day it gets weirder? That's - that's your city?? That Binghe is familiarising himself with? You read about him usurping violent gangs, unrest and danger leaking out into the daylight world, murders and mayhem, and every siren you hear outside seems more and more -

- your parents call? Apparently there is something dangerous happening in your city? Don't be ridiculous...

Every word... Your street... Your apartment block? Binghe! You live on the twelfth floor just take the elevator, not the stairs!!

Maybe you should, um, go out for tea?

Just as the elevator doors are closing, you hear the door to the stair well creaking open, footsteps that are neither slow nor fast, quiet not loud, reaching the landing of your floor... Through the thinnest crack you see...

[dreamwritesimagines]

Sunshine 12 - Wildfire

AN: My loves, thank you so so much for your wonderful support and lovely comments and HCs! ❤️ You’re amazing! ❤️

I hope you like this as well, and please don’t forget to tell me what you think, thank you! 🥰

Pairing: Logan Howlett x Female!Reader

Summary: It's important to have boundaries after a break up.

Word Count: 4340

CW: Explicit language, toxic!Logan, angst, adult themes MDNI

Series Masterlist

As your friends kept telling you, most of the time getting over a relationship required going out with other people.

And you were trying, you really were.

Didn’t mean it was easy though.

On paper, Hayes was perfect. In fact, you were pretty sure that if you hadn’t met Logan, you would’ve been head over heels for Hayes but Logan's presence seemed to have carved itself into your heart way too deep to let anyone else be there as well. Hayes seemed to understand that even if you didn’t give him any details, so this past month you had been taking things extra slow and getting to know each other, becoming friends before becoming anything else.

“You want to go to a horror movie,” you stated, staring at Hayes before you filled his coffee then leaned on the counter. He had made it his habit to drop by the diner whenever he could before his morning shifts and you were beginning to get used to it.

“Thanks,” he said and sipped his coffee. “And technically, it’s a thriller.”

“It’s a horror movie.”

“It got awards.”

“They make awards for horror movies?”

He nodded his head and you huhed.

“And you don’t see enough blood at work so you have to see it on screen as well?”

“I mean I’m not responsible for people fake dying on the screen,” he pointed out. “And to repeat, it got awards.”

“What is it about?”

“Well it’s this protagonist who starts out with a totally normal life but then descends into chaos and madness.”

You tapped your pen on your lips, deep in thought.

“Say yes,” Hayes teased you and you heaved a dramatic sigh, then shrugged your shoulders.

“If I get too scared, we’re getting out of that movie theatre.”

“Deal,” he said with a bright smile, making you giggle. He checked his wristwatch then bit into his toast.

“So you’re meeting Jamie after work?”

“Yep,” you said. “I’ll drop by the hospital to give him Theo’s newest drawing. He drew it specifically for him, so you know, I’m playing the messenger.”

“That’s sweet.”

“But it won’t be long, he and Nik has their date night tonight.”

“I mean you could drop by where I work as well?” he offered. “I’m two floors down so you’d see me on your way out.”

You tilted your head.

“Sure,” you said. “If you’re sure it won’t be weird.”

“Why would it be weird?”

Your heart skipped a beat and you shrugged your shoulders again.

“Um—” you said, biting at your fingernail. “You know, going to your workplace.”

“I am in your workplace right now?”

“Yeah but it’s a diner,” you said. “That’s a hospital.”

“So?”

“I don’t want to intrude or anything,” you murmured. “Or…make your colleagues think something you don’t want them to.”

“Friends can’t visit each other at work?” Hayes asked and you let out a small laugh.

“They can.”

“Then?”

You nibbled on your lip, then took a deep breath.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Does this bother you?”

He looked confused for a moment. “Does what bother me?”

“This,” you said, motioning between you two. “Taking things extra extra slow.”

Hayes thought for a moment, furrowing his brows before he sipped his coffee and shook his head.

“Not at all,” he said. “If anything, it makes me feel nostalgic.”

“Nostalgic?”

“Yeah like I’m in high school again.”

You repressed a mischievous grin. “I mean I don’t know what to tell you, I got laid in high school.”

“I will tell you something that will surprise you,” he said. “Being the president of Sherlock Holmes club didn’t really lead me to meet many girls for some reason.”

“I can’t imagine why,” you told him with a smile. “Sounds like a fun club.”

 He stared at you, then heaved a sigh. “Okay, I should go.”

“Why?”

“Because the more I talk to you the more I feel like I want to be more than your friend,” he said. “And I’m not gonna ask you out on a date until you’re ready so…”

You could feel your cheeks burning and you pressed your lips together to keep yourself from smiling.

“I appreciate that,” you managed to say and he downed his coffee, then got up from the stool.

“I’ll see you around then?”

“See you around,” you told him and he smiled at you, then walked out of the diner. Stacey came closer to you to bump your shoulder with hers.

“He’s cute.”

“He’s a friend,” you said and she hummed.

“So we’re still not over that other guy?”

“No no, I am,” you said, trying to ignore the small spark of pain shooting through the scar on your arm. “I barely think about him anymore.”

Stacey squeezed at your shoulder.

“Good,” she said. “I mean he was hot but he also looked like trouble, you know? Bad boy vibes all around.”

“Right.”

“But this one looks actually nice!” she said, making you force a smile on your face.

“Yeah,” you muttered. “I know. And that’s exactly what I need. Nice.”

                                                   *

You’d had fun with Jamie when you dropped by the hospital, but you hadn’t gotten the chance to see Hayes, seeing that he was very busy. You had just left him a message, then left the hospital to go home and take a quick nap.

That quick nap had turned into a two-hour nap and when you woke up, your teeth were chattering because of how cold it was. You frowned to yourself and went to turn on the light, but it wasn’t working. A quick check in your phone had told you that the power would be off until tomorrow, and you threw your head back, irritation taking over your whole mind. Your phone—that you had plugged in to charge before your nap—was dying and you let out a groan, trying to think what to do.

It was Nik and Jamie’s date night, so you really couldn’t crash it. Julie was out of town visiting her parents which made it impossible for you to go to her place, and the diner was closed, so it wasn’t like you could just go there to warm up. You bit at your nails, maybe you could go warm up in a coffee shop and charge your phone and then come back to—

You were pulled out of your thoughts when your phone started vibrating in your hand and you let out a breath, then plastered a smile on your face as you answered.

“Hi bean!” you said, trying your hardest to sound cheerful. “Sorry I can’t stay for long, my phone is dying and the power went out. What’s up?”

“Power went out?” Theo asked and you hummed.

“Yeah but no worries, I’ll—”

“Mommy no, it’s very cold outside!”

“I know that, but I’m—” you started, then pulled your brows together as you heard his footsteps along with his fast breathing on the other line. “Bean? What are you doing?”

“Mr Logan!” Theo’s voice was almost hysterical, making your eyes widen. “My mom doesn’t have power and her phone is dying so she’s gonna have to hang up soon and then she’s gonna die alone in the cold!”

“What?!” you exclaimed, your heart dropping to your stomach. “Bean—no no, that’s not what’s happening and I’m totally fine, I’m not dying so please don’t worry and don’t—”

“Your power went out?” Logan’s voice reached you and you squeezed your eyes shut before taking a deep breath, commanding yourself to stay calm.

“Yeah but it’s fine, I’m handling it. Can you please put Theo on the phone?”

“Pack a bag, I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“What? No—” you started but before you could say anything, you heard the shuffling on the phone and Theo’s voice reached you.

“Oh you’re coming here then mommy! See, I solved it!”

You felt like your teeth were going to break from how hard you were clenching them but you cleared your throat, then managed to smile again.

“Right,” you said as you sat down on the floor. “Thanks bean.”

“I’ll see you when you get here, love you!” he said and hung up, and you grabbed the pillow, then buried your face into it to let out a frustrated scream, kicking your legs at the floor. You took a deep breath, then put the pillow back and massaged your temples, forcing yourself to focus.

This was just embarrassing at this point.

The urge to leave your apartment and not be here when he got here was strong, you couldn’t lie, but you knew you couldn’t. Now that Theo thought you were going there, you had to actually go there to make sure he wouldn’t worry about you. You could feel the tears of frustration burning at your eyes but you pursed your lips together and wiped at your eyes furiously, pushing yourself off the floor. You made your way to your backpack to grab it, then started shoving the things you would need tonight into it.

When Logan knocked on your door, you were sprinkling Cheeto and Popcorn’s food into the bowl. You dragged your fingertips over the bowl as a way to tell them goodnight, then went to the door to open it.

You were beginning to think your heart would never be calm in his presence, no matter how much time passed after your break up.

“Hi,” he said after a beat and you gritted your teeth, trying to ignore just how uncomfortable you were feeling to have him here when you were quite frankly a mess.

“I don’t need your help,” you managed to say and he raised his brows, then nodded fervently.

“I know.”

“I was taking care of it.”

“Of course,” he said, holding out his hand to take your backpack from you. You shifted your weight, then gave the backpack to him before grabbing your coat to put it on.

“The only reason I’m coming there is because I don’t want Theo to worry,” you said through your teeth as you slammed the door with an unnecessary force before you locked it, then made your way downstairs with Logan following you. “That’s it.”

“Yeah.”

“And stop with that!” you told him, glaring up at him and he had the audacity to look confused.

“You don’t want me to agree with you?”

“No because coming from you, it just sounds sarcastic.”

“I’m not being sarcastic,” he told you as you both stepped out of the building and you let out a breath when the cold air hit your face.

Jesus, it was freezing tonight.

You made your way to the truck, Logan opening the door for you before you got in, and you slipped a little in the seat, rubbing your hands together to get them warm. Logan got in the truck as well and started the engine, turning the heater up so that you could get warm.

After a couple of minutes of complete silence, he stole a look at you.

“You okay?”

“We really don’t need to talk.”

Your name left his lips in an exhausted whisper, making your heart skip a beat and you frowned to yourself, crossing your arms and fixing your gaze outside the window.

“I know you’re doing this for Theo, okay?” he said. “And I know you don’t like this, but—”

“Don’t like this?” you repeated with a scoff. “I don’t know why you think that. Being in a position where my ex-boyfriend who dumped me out of nowhere had to rush to save me yet again is actually a hobby of mine.”

“That’s not—”

“Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t even know if I can even call you an ex-boyfriend,” you mused, cutting him off and he pulled his brows together, taking his eyes off the road to give you a look of disbelief.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Eyes on the road, Logan!” you snapped. “Not everyone in this truck has superpowers, in case you forgot.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means whatever you think it means,” you said, slipping a little in the seat and resting your knees against the dashboard and Logan shook his head slightly.

“Am I missing something here?” he asked. “Where is this coming from? We were together—”

“Were we?”

He looked like he was at the end of his patience. “What did you think we were doing?”

“Wouldn’t know, we never talked about it.”

“And we needed to talk about it for you to know we were together?”

“No,” you said, sarcasm laced in your tone. “You cleared up any potential misunderstandings pretty well I would say.”

His jaw clenched before he exhaled through his nose.

“It was to keep you safe.”

You hummed, biting at your nail. “Sure.”

“It was,” he insisted. “You know that.”

You repressed the bitter laugh threatening to spill from your lips, keeping your gaze on the trees whizzing by.

“You do know that?” he asked after a beat and you rolled your eyes, nibbling at your lip.

“I do,” you muttered. “Doesn’t make any difference.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see him swallowing thickly and you hugged yourself, resting your head against the window.

                                              *

When you got to the mansion, Theo was already waiting for you. After assuring him that you were alright, you went with him to read him his bedtime story but unlike before he didn’t fall asleep right away.

“Mommy?” he muttered as you put your phone on the bedside table, and looked down at him.

“Yes bean?”

“Do you think Sir Bartholomeow would get along well with Cheeto and Popcorn?”

You hummed, stroking his hair.

“Cats aren’t exactly known to be friends with fish, bean.”

“Maybe it’ll be different with Sir Bartholomeow if I introduce them to him.”

You repressed a smile.

“Maybe.”

“I’ll tell them about him before I introduce him to them, that way they won’t get scared.”

“Good plan,” you said. “Where is Sir Bartholomeow anyway?”

“He likes walking around the school but he comes here at midnight most of the time,” Theo said with a yawn. “I think he thinks he is my personal bodyguard.”

“Really?”

“He hisses at anyone who’s not me,” he said. “Even Mr. Logan.”

You tilted your head. “Is that right?”

“Yeah because-he wanted to take him from me so that I could catch my class but Sir Bartholomeow just hissed and jumped from my lap.”

The mental image of a tiny grumpy cat hissing at Logan was way too funny so you bit back your smile, clearing your throat.

“Yeah, Sir Bartholomeow probably feels very protective of you,” you said, making him giggle.

“But he’s a cat,” he said. “And I have powers. I can protect him better than he can protect me. I can protect everyone! You too, mommy!”

You awwed, pressing a kiss into his hair.

“Yes you can, but that’s not how it works,” you said. “Mommies protect their babies, not the other way around.”

“But I’m not a baby!”

“You’re my little bean, and you’ll always be my little bean no matter how old you are.”

“I’ll be a sprout when I grow up,” he said, looking up at you with a proud smile, making you let out a laugh.

“Mm, that’s true. A bean sprout.”

“You can still call me bean when everyone else calls me by my superhero name,” he said. “But only in secret. Because people need to take me seriously when I’m a superhero.”

You smiled to yourself.

“Noted,” you said. “Now come on, go to sleep. You have classes tomorrow.”

He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes, hugging you tighter on the bed and you stroked his hair, humming him a lullaby from when he was a baby until he fell asleep. You looked down at him, then carefully got off the bed and kissed his forehead, then pulled the covers over him and grabbed your backpack, then left the room. When you entered the kitchen, Logan was the only one who was there considering how late it was at night and you offered him a small, forced smile and grabbed a glass to fill it with water.

“So uh—you can sleep in my room if you’d like.”

You turned to him with a frown pinching your brows together. “Huh?”

“Not that I’m—not that I’m gonna be there,” Logan added in a rush. “I’m not.”

“I’m sure I can find another room, I’d hate to impose—”

“You’re not,” he cut you off. “I have a mission early in the morning and I’m not sleepy so I’m just gonna be in the Danger Room anyway.”

Your frown deepened.

“Danger Room?” you repeated. “What’s that, a night club?”

He repressed a chuckle.

“It’s a training room,” he said. “For us to…well, train. For the missions.”

“Right,” you said after a beat. “Are you sure?”

Logan nodded fervently.

“I mean it’s gonna be empty anyway.”

Even if you wanted to ask him whether his mission would be dangerous, you knew you couldn’t so you downed your water, then put your glass on the counter.

“Well I should go then,” you murmured. “Good night Logan.”

“Good night,” he said, his burning gaze following you as you walked out of the kitchen. You could feel the warmth blooming under your skin but you managed not to look back, then forced yourself to walk down the hallway to make your way to Logan’s room.

You had been here before, and it did nothing to ease the ache in your heart.

You shook your head, then slipped your backpack off your shoulder to pull your clothes out of it, then tossed the bag on the ground. After changing out of clothes into an oversized shirt, you dragged your fingertips on the bed, your heartbeat getting faster. The lump in your throat felt like it was getting bigger but you ran a hand over your face, then got in the bed. The pleasant scent of him surrounded you as soon as you put your head on the pillow and pulled the covers over you, the happy memory of you two on the bed flashing in your mind before you shook your head, then forced yourself to close your eyes, sleep pulling you into its warmth in minutes.

                                            *

Contrary to last two months, you woke up incredibly well rested for some reason. When you opened your eyes and came to your senses, you frowned slightly and buried your face deeper into his pillow before you pursed your lips, rolling over to your back.

Even two months after your breakup, even if you were still furious with him, even if he had ripped your heart out, somehow his mere presence that lingered in the room calmed you down in your sleep.

You shook your head at yourself and pushed yourself off the bed to grab your toothbrush from your backpack, then made your way to the bathroom. After washing your face and fixing your hair as much as you could, you opened the small mirror cabinet to look for some toothpaste, his cologne catching your eye as you did. You quickly brushed your teeth and looked over your shoulder as if Logan could materialize out of thin air before reaching out to uncap it, then inhaled the pleasant scent.

Okay.

You were officially pathetic.

You bit inside your cheek and put the cologne back to its place, closed the cabinet and heaved a sigh at your reflection. Rubbing at your eyes, you let out another yawn and when you stepped out of the bathroom into the room, someone knocked on the door. You paused for a moment before rushing to open it but as soon as you did, your heartbeat sped up.

Fuck.

Okay, this was how Logan looked in his superhero suit then.

“Hey,” he said, giving you an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I just…forgot my wallet here. You mind?”

You were never going to get used to just how hot he was, that was for sure, but this was a whole different level. You tried to peel your eyes off his muscular figure in the suit, and blinked a couple of times.

“Sure,” you said, stepping aside for him to enter the room and closed the door when he did, crossing your arms over your chest. Logan made his way to pull open a drawer, then grabbed his wallet.

“A mission then?” you asked, nibbling on your lip and he turned around, then nodded.

“Yeah.”

“A dangerous one?”

He pulled his brows together as if he was surprised by your question and shrugged his shoulders.

“Not really.”

“Is—” Your phone vibrating on the nightstand cut you off and you grabbed it to check the caller ID, your stomach doing a painful flip.

Hayes.

You declined the call and looked up at Logan but he seemed to have noticed the change in your body language so he nodded at the phone.

“The date?”

You gawked at him, then scoffed a laugh.

“Don’t.”

“Just a question.”

“Is it?” you asked and Logan shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m guessing you’ve at least talked to him whether you’re a thing or not?” he asked back and you narrowed your eyes.

“I’d have to see whether he will break up with me out of nowhere first,” you said. “People tend to do that.”

“It was to protect you—”

“Much appreciated,” you snarked. “I will just go find my fainting couch now I guess, after being protected by some guy who thinks he can make my decisions for me.”

“That’s not what—”

“Should I drop a curtsy on my way out?”

“I don’t know why you’re being like this, it’s obvious that you moved on,” he pointed out. “Pretty fast too. So what’s the problem here?”

Your jaw dropped and a dry laugh climbed up your throat.

“Well it’s the 21st century Logan, I’m allowed to move on two months after you broke up with me. I could’ve moved on two days after that to be honest with you, because to repeat; you’re the one who broke up with me—”

“I was saving your life!”

“Did I ask you to do that, dickhead?” you snapped back and let out a furious breath. “And for your information, yes. That was the date.”

Logan’s burning gaze was almost too intense on you but you refused to let it get to you.

“And he’s very sweet,” you continued, blind to the fire flashing in his eyes upon your compliment to Hayes. “And so polite, and patient and he doesn’t look like the type to just wake up one day and decide to—”

All your angry rambling came to a halt when he reached out to hold your chin between two fingers, tilting his head as he looked down at you.

“Is he now?” he asked, his voice a rumble in his chest and you could feel your eyes fluttering close for a moment before you forced yourself to open them to blink up at him.

It was almost funny, how a mere, innocent touch of his had this effect on you. The fire you had been trying to hard to breathe into life when you were with Hayes roared through you, warming your insides, making your head spin.

“Yes,” you managed to say even if your voice came out as a whisper. “He is.”

“And you’re happy with him?”

“Yes.”

You were lying, and you knew he knew you were lying.

Logan tilted your head up a little, tracing your bottom lip with his thumb, making your heart skip a beat. You could practically hear Julie’s voice in your head screaming at you to ‘stand up!’ but it felt so, so hard not to lose yourself in this haze.

“And you don’t miss me at all.”

You swallowed thickly. “…No.”

A cocky smile twitched the corners of his mouth and he leaned in a little, your breath hitching in your throat.

“Not even a little?” he asked, making you let out a breath before desire took over you and you stood on your tiptoes to pull him down into a kiss. His arm sneaked around your waist as he pulled you flush against his body, his other hand cradling the back of your head, and you let yourself fall deeper and deeper into the feeling, the fire surrounding you—

“Logan, come on!” Scott’s voice reached into the room as he slammed his hand on the door, making you pull back as if Logan burned you. “We can’t be late!”

And just like that, you were pulled out of the haze.

You took a step back as Logan looked over his shoulder at the door, then turned to you, still breathing hard. You could feel the lump in your throat along with the stinging in your nose as you covered your mouth with your hands, the warmth inside you turning into ice. Logan swallowed thickly, and took a deep breath.

“Can we—”

“I think you should go now,” you managed to say, still covering your mouth, your gaze fixed on the floor and Logan lingered there for a moment as if he wanted to refuse, but then he let out a breath and walked out of the room.

You had no idea how long you stood there completely frozen, but after a couple of minutes you felt yourself sliding down to sit on the floor, your hands slipping from your mouth. The trembling breath that spilled from your lips turned into a sob, tears rushing into your eyes and making you sniffle. You bit inside your cheek hard enough to hurt, then shook your head at yourself.

“I’m an idiot,” your voice came out as a whisper and you wiped at your eyes as another sob shook your body, taking your breath away. “Oh God, I’m such an idiot.”

13 - Clouds

[kwanisms]

Kinktober 「10:09」 — k.seungmin

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➮ fallen angel!Seungmin × fem!Reader wc: 4.5k summary: His fall from grace had been due to his hard headedness and Seungmin’s status as a fallen one never really crossed his mind. At least until he met Y/N. He’d been dejected and grown disillusioned with life but upon meeting her, he started to see some meaning to life again. To put it simply -- Y/N made him feel alive. genres/themes/au: angst/fluff/smut; supernatural, horror, thriller; non idol au, monster idol au warnings: adult dialogue, female reader, supernatural and horror themes, mentions of: past bodily harm (seungmin had his wings literally cut off), not-so-high-speed collision of person on a bike with an angel (Y/N runs Seungmin over with a bicycle lol), one baseball reference (cause I couldn't help myself), past crime life/criminal activity (glosses over it but its there); sexual content (18+ mdni), see smut warnings under the cut! taglist has been moved to reblogs join my taglists! kinktober taglist is closed! Strikethrough means I cannot tag you.  MINORS WILL BE BLACKLISTED & BLOCKED. AGELESS BLOGS WILL ALSO BE BLOCKED.

a/n: i thought about revisiting vampire!Seungmin for kinktober but I changed my mind for fallen angel Seungmin. I like the direction I went with this and I tried to keep the wordy bits down so it wouldn't be too long. So far I've written a total of 45k for kinktober not including this piece so, words are wordin'. anyway, next piece is Yunho which I am very excited for so stick around! thank you for reading. if you liked this, pls consider reblogging so more people will see it and as always, this is a work of fiction and all characters are not reflective of their respective irl counterparts. for entertainment purposes only.

smut warnings: teratophilia (aka monsterfucking), impact play (f receiving; spanking, pussy slapping), begging, unprotected sex (use condoms! ):< ), oral (f receiving, m receiving), fingering (f receiving), use of pet names (hers: kitten, baby, angel; his: Minnie, sir), dom!Seungmin, sub!Reader, and that should be everything but if I missed some, let me know! kinks: Impact play + begging dialogue prompt: ❛❛ Oh no. Not until you beg. ❜❜

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Falling from heaven is not as graceful or as ethereal as one might think.

For Seungmin, it was painful, bloody, and nightmarish. The process is one no one could ever fathom. Being cast down from all you’ve known, thrown into a cruel, dark world with nothing and no one. The only thing more painful was having his wings removed. Even now, years since then, he could still feel the burn of the hot steel as it sliced through tendon and flesh.

When he first arrived on Earth, Seungmin had nothing. He had his name and his memories but a drive to survive and so he did, albeit not by the most legitimate of ways and he did fall into the wrong crowd but it was so much easier to climb the social ladder of the underworld than to try things the proper and legal way. After all, he didn’t even have a social security number, a line of credit, or even a last name.

Seungmin realized he was caught in the wrong crowd when the hideout he was in was raided. He barely managed to get away and broke into a convenience store to hide from the cops. He was confronted by the owner and instead of alerting the authorities to his location, the man took him in, giving him a place to live and a job.

It wasn’t much but it was something and it allowed Seungmin to start over. His old crew were all rounded up and seeing as no one knew who Seungmin actually was, they were never able to turn him in. He was safe. For now.

Seungmin ended up taking the last name of the man who took him in, a man who simply went by Mr. Kim, and came to regard him almost as a father figure. Mr. Kim owned a small convenience shop off the beaten path. Seungmin was given a room in the small apartment above the shop where Mr. Kim lived alone. 

His life had gone quiet but a sort of disquiet had settled over him, not knowing where he was going or what he was going to do with his life. He simply was going through the motions of life.

Until he met you.

You had come crashing into his life. Quite literally.

He’d been walking down the sidewalk on a particularly gray and gloomy day, running errands for Mr. Kim, when he heard a high pitched scream. It wasn’t a scream of terror or fear. It was more like a shriek of excitement. It was playful in nature.

Seungmin didn’t have time to even respond when he heard a voice screaming at him to move out of the way. He turned, finding someone on a pink bicycle hurtling towards him. “BRAKES! HIT THE BRAKES!” someone had cried but despite the brakes being squeezed, you still managed to crash into him.

It wasn’t like you were going all that fast, but it was enough to knock the wind out of him as you toppled off the bike onto him, pinning him to the sidewalk as the bike flipped over without your weight on it. You let out a groan, pushing yourself up and glancing towards the mangled heap that was your bike.

Seungmin stared up at you, blinking as he tried to process exactly what just happened.

“Oh my god,” you gasped. “I’m so sorry!” You quickly scrambled up, pulling him into a sitting position. You panicked, inspecting him all over, asking a plethora of questions. 

“What hurts?!” Nothing.

“Are you bleeding?” No.

“Did you hit your head?” Yes.

Your introduction to him was as violent as they come but his life completely turned around after meeting you. He finally had someone else to talk to. Someone he could spend time with outside of the convenience store and upon meeting you, Mr. Kim urged him to spend more time with you.

Your friendship grew, blossoming naturally over a short period of time and after knowing you for nearly a year, Seungmin couldn’t imagine his life without you.

You were vibrant, full of life, eccentric, and ecstatic about everything. You never seemed to have a bad day in the entire time Seungmin knew you and he found your optimism a refreshing new outlook that he started to adopt into his own life.

Of course, while you were very bright, bubbly, and vivacious, you were also extremely bratty. Seungmin often had to argue with you about things he thought he’d never have to argue with anyone about. Making sure you took medicine when you were sick was a chore and Seungmin came to realize you were only a brat because it pushed his buttons.

Especially today.

Mr. Kim had given him the day off and so he was at your place, a cute little studio apartment on the 14th floor of your building. It had an exposed brick exterior wall and floor to ceiling windows that spanned almost the entire wall. Outside the window was a fire escape where you had lots of plants as well as smaller potted plants sitting in the window. Your bed was sectioned off with a large cube storage unit and sheer curtains.

The living area was small and cozy with a flat screen television, a cream colored loveseat with lots of blankets and pillows. A coffee table that doubled as a dining table stood between the couch and the media center where you kept your gaming consoles and collection of games and movies.

The kitchen was also small. White cabinets hung on the walls where you kept your dishes. An island with a sink separated the kitchen from the living area and at the bar of the island stood three bar height chairs. Seungmin had arrived early, bringing food and drinks but they had long run out and you were whining at him to get more.

He sat on your couch, feet resting on the coffee table despite your insistence to remove them. You sat on the other cushion, next to him, wrapped up in your favorite blanket. Seungmin had arrived as you were opening your windows, saying it was a nice day out — it wasn’t, it was freezing — and that you and your plants needed the fresh air.

Despite insisting it was a nice day, you had immediately wrapped yourself in your blanket and curled up next to him on the couch, sapping the warmth from his body, not that he exactly minded. You had exhausted your movie library, picking the things you either hadn’t seen in a long time or at all which wasn’t much. 

Streaming services didn’t provide much of a difference in options so for the last hour, you’d been playing games on your phones, showing each other silly videos while enjoying the other’s presence. You’d finally grown bored of your game and were now pestering Seungmin into leaving to go get more snacks and drinks. 

“Why don’t we get food instead?” he asked as his little avatar died on screen and he shut the game off. “I think we need actual food, Y/N,” he added, locking the screen of his phone and turning his head to look at you. The urge to smile came over him because you looked sort of ridiculous wrapped up in your blanket so only your face was showing.

“But I don’t wanna!” you protested. “That means I have to get up.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes, throwing his head back against the back of the couch. “You’re so impossible,” he sighed before getting up with a groan. “Come on,” he said, holding his hand out. You shook your head, pulling your blanket tighter around you.

“Yah,” Seungmin said, giving you a playful but stern glare. “Get up,” he said, moving to stand in front of you, towering over your seated form. You shook your head wordlessly, staring up at him. He grabbed your blanket, tugging at it in an attempt to get you to listen. “No!” you squealed as he tried to pull the blanket harder. “You’re gonna rip it!”

Seungmin tugged harder. “Then let go so it doesn’t rip,” he countered. You glared at him. “It’s my blanket!” you reminded him. Seungmin tugged harder and you could have sworn you heard the material start to rip and so you let out a panicked whine and let go, allowing Seungmin to pull the blanket away.

“Alright,” he said, wading up the blanket and throwing it onto your bed. “Let’s go!”

You shivered, your once warm skin now exposed to the cool air filtering in from outside. “It’s cold!” you whined, curling in on yourself. Seungmin rolled his eyes and walked over. “Then get up and get changed,” he said, holding out his hand. You hesitated before taking his hand and then quickly tugging him towards you.

Unprepared, he lost his balance and fell onto the couch on top of you as you giggled, immediately hugging onto him like a koala. “So warm,” you murmured. Seungmin groaned trying to pull away from you but unsuccessfully. It wasn’t like you were all that strong, he just liked to indulge in some skinship with you from time to time.

“Okay,” Seungmin said. “You warm?” he asked. You nodded, smiling contentedly at him. “Good,” he said softly. “Now get up.” He tried again to pull away but you whined, holding onto him tighter so when he tried to get up, you moved with him.

“Y/N,” he scolded. “I’m not going to ask again. Get up.”

You looked up at him and he could see it before you even replied. A defiance in your eyes. 

“Make me.”

He didn’t know if it was because of your continuance to press his buttons mixed with the obvious tension between the two of you, but your resistance and disobedience made something in him snap. He quickly pulled your arms from around his neck, pinning you under him on the couch.

Your giggles died immediately as he leaned over you. Your eyes widened as you stared up at him. This was a side of him you hadn’t seen before nor had he planned on sharing but you really, really liked to push his buttons. 

Seungmin hesitated as he looked down at you, assessing whether or not he’d taken things too far but the look in your eyes, while being one of surprise, was also a look of eagerness and he could tell then that you wanted this as much as he did. 

He leaned in closer, testing your reaction, wondering if he should stop and when your eyes dipped down to look at his lips, he closed the distance, pressing his lips to yours for the first time. 

Your stomach fluttered as his lips moved against yours. It was entirely new but it felt completely right. Your lips parted at the same time, his tongue slipping into your mouth. You let out a soft moan, muffled by his mouth, as his thigh pressed against your cloth covered crotch.

Seungmin pulled away, lips ghosting over your ear. “Do that again,” he whispered, pressing his thigh against you again. You muffled your moan, biting into your bottom lip. Seungmin scoffed as he reached up, using his thumb to gently pull your lip from between your teeth. “You’re such a brat.”

You opened your mouth to respond and at that exact moment, he grinded his thigh against you, making you whimper. “It’s so much nicer when you listen to me,” he sighed, nuzzling into your neck. He let go of your wrists, moving his hands down to your sides.

“Are you still going to be a brat and fight me or are you gonna let me make you feel good?”

You whined in response as his hands cupped your chest over your shirt. “I take it that’s a yes?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. You nodded eagerly. Seungmin let out a low chuckle, hands sliding down your stomach until he could curl his fingers under the waistband of your shorts.

“Then these need to come off,” he murmured, pulling them down slowly past your thighs as you lifted your hips. He discarded them on the floor behind the couch, eyes drinking in your naked lower half. “Lace?” he asked, looking up from the crimson material to meet your gaze.

His eyes were dark, pupils blown as he moved his hands up your thighs towards your hips. “Be honest,” he said as he leaned over, pressing a kiss to your stomach. “Did you wear these for me?” You giggled as his tongue traced a line up your skin. “No,” you giggled. Seungmin pulled away with a slight frown.

“You mean you just wear these for no reason other than to wear them?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. You nodded silently, letting out a gasp when Seungmin delivered a sharp smack to the inside of your thigh. “Don’t lie to me,” he snapped.

“You don’t wear anything uncomfortable for long periods of time without a purpose,” he continued. “You told me so yourself.” A small smile spread across your face as you looked up at him, hands still resting by your head where he left them. “You always listen to everything I say?” you asked as his eyes wandered back down to the red material that barely covered anything.

“Yes,” he said simply, moving his hands up your sides, pushing the hem of your shirt up to just under your breast. He met your gaze once more. “Are you wearing a matching set?” he asked, tilting his head like a curious puppy. You giggled, shaking your head. His eyes narrowed. “If you’re lying to me, there will be consequences, you know that, right?” he asked. You nodded. “I know.”

Seungmin held your gaze as he pushed the shirt up over the swell of your breast, exposing the incriminating evidence of your red lace bralette. He made a tsk sound as his eyes fell to your chest, taking in the sight of the red contrasting with your skin, your nipples visible through the sheer material. He looked back up to meet your gaze. “You lied to me, again,” he muttered.

You watched with excited eyes as he sat back on his heels, looking down at you. “I told you there would be consequences,” he added. “I know,” you said softly. Seungmin sighed as he shifted on the couch so he was sitting before holding out a hand for you to take. “Are you going to be good and take your punishment or am I going to have to force you?”

You took his hand, allowing him to pull you up and over his lap so you were lying on your stomach. You felt one of his hands move to your ass, fingers skimming over the lace as he inspected the sight. His other arm held you down. One of his fingers slid under the material of your panties, sliding it over to expose your cheek.

“I want you to count,” he said softly as his hand returned to your bare cheek. “How many?” you asked, glancing over your shoulder. Seungmin looked up from your ass, meeting your eyes with his. He had a dark look in them, something that both excited and sent a chill down your spine.

“Until I say so.”

By the time Seungmin finally did tell you to stop counting, your ass was sore. The skin burned and your body was aching, as was your cunt. You needed release and you were practically dripping. “Seungmin,” you whined. “I need release.”

Seungmin scoffed, moving his hand to pull your panties aside while he traced your folds with two fingers, spreading them slowly. The cool air against your hot cunt felt both foreign but oddly wonderful. “So needy,” Seungmin murmured, sliding the tips of his fingers between your lips, gathering your wetness before slowly pushing them into your hole.

You let out a pornographic moan, the sound resonating around the apartment. Seungmin felt his cock twitch in his pants, straining against the material of his underwear and aching to be freed. ‘Not yet,’ he told himself. ‘Not until Y/N proves she can behave.’ 

You moaned loudly as he pumped his fingers in and out of your sopping cunt, lightly scissoring them and curling them against your walls. “Seungmin. More,” you gasped, making him chuckle. “More?” he asked. “I have two fingers stuffed in you and that’s not enough?”

You shook your head as he sped up. He delivered a sharp smack to your sore ass. “Words, kitten,” he cooed. “N-no!” you stammered. “No you don’t want to use words?” he asked. “No!” you said quickly. “It’s not enough! I need more!” you clarified. Seungmin shook his head. “Such a greedy little baby.”

He obliged, giving you a third finger, opening you up to take his cock easily but he wasn’t about to give it to you that quickly. Your moans grew in pitch and volume as he fucked you with his fingers. He could feel you start to shake, your walls clenching rhythmically around him. “Don’t you fucking cum yet,” he growled, pulling his fingers from your hole, making you whine in protest.

“But Minnie!” you complained. He nudged you, signaling you to sit up. “Do you want me to fuck you here, on your couch, or over there,” he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards your bed. “Where I’m sure it’s much more comfortable.”

You grumbled softly as he got up, grabbing your hand and all but dragging you over to the bed, stepping up onto the small platform upon which your bed stood.

He turned your back towards the bed, moving his hands to quickly strip you of your shirt and bralette. “Sit,” he instructed but you didn’t listen, instead trying to pull at his clothes. He grabbed your hands, bringing your wrists together to hold with one hand and grabbing your chin with the other.

“If you don’t listen to me, I won’t let you cum at all, understand?” You nodded quickly and as soon as he let go, you sat on the bed, looking up at him. “Good, kitten,” he said, cupping your chin, moving his thumb to brush over your bottom lip. “I need you to do something for me,” he said, moving his hands to undo his buckle. “And then I promise I’ll make you feel really good”

You nodded, keeping your eyes locked on his as he unzipped his pants. “Do me a favor and put that mouth to good use, yeah?” he asked, pushing his jeans down past his hips. Your eyes roamed down his body, taking in the outline of his hard cock behind the dark blue color of his underwear. 

You could see it was straining against the fabric, begging to be freed. Your hands trembled slightly as you reached to pull the front of his boxer briefs down. Seungmin quickly grabbed your hands, stopping you. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, the dominant persona he’d taken on dissipating for a moment as he gave you a look of concern. You nodded, giving him a smile.

“Just nervous,” you whispered. He caressed your cheek gently. “You don’t have to be nervous,” he said softly. “It’s just me.” You nodded, swallowing thickly as you returned your attention to the task before you.

Your fingers snuck under the waistband of his underwear, pulling it down in one swift motion and freeing his cock. You stared at it in awe, saliva starting to pool in your mouth at the sight of it bobbing before you. Wrapping your fingers around the base of the shaft, you looked up at Seungmin for confirmation to keep going. He merely nodded, watching as your lips parted and you gave the tip of his cock a kitten lick. He let out a hiss but was unable to catch his breath as you immediately went back in, tongue swirling around his cockhead.

“Fuck,” he hissed, eyes fluttering shut as your mouth enveloped his cock, taking it as far as you could in one go. “You’ve done this before,” he groaned as you pulled back, cheeks hollowing as you sucked. Seungmin let out a sigh as you took him back into your mouth, the tip of his cock barely brushing the back of your throat.

“Keep going, baby,” he murmured, resting his hand on the back of your head, pulling you closer. You gagged as the head of his cock tried to push into your throat. “Shit,” he gasped as he let go and you pulled back, coughing. “Sorry,” he murmured. “We can stop if you’d — oh fuck!”

His words were cut off when you took his cock back into your mouth, keeping your hand firmly wrapped around the base as you started to bob your head, taking everything up until you hand. Seungmin let out a choked moan, throwing his head back as you continued to suck him off, now moving your hand as you pulled back.

You let his cock fall from your mouth, continuing to stroke him quickly. Too quickly. He had to stop you before he came. He didn’t want to cum on your face or chest or in your mouth. “S-st-stop,” he stammered, moving his hand to try and grab yours but missing. “Y/N,” he said, a little more firmly. “Baby, stop.” You finally looked up at him, hand stalling but his cock still firmly in your grasp.

“Did I do something wrong?” you asked as he pulled your hand off him and slowly knelt down at the edge of your bed. “No,” he murmured, pulling you into a kiss. “You were perfect. I just wasn’t ready to finish,” he added. “Lay back,” he instructed.

As you laid back against the soft material of your comforter, Seungmin took that opportunity to rid himself of his clothes. You started to scoot back towards the middle of the bed but he stopped you. “Here,” he said softly. “I want your ass hanging over the edge of the bed.”

You pouted at him. “But I’ll fall,” you protested. He shook his head as he knelt down. “Just trust me, angel. Do as I say or am I going to have to punish you again?” You shook your head, moving until your hips were hanging off the edge of the bed. You watched as he slipped your panties off before he shrugged your legs over his shoulders, his hands grabbing your hips and holding them in place as he licked his lips.

“Minnie,” you cooed, reaching down to comb your fingers through his dark hair. He looked up at you, his dark gaze meeting yours and making a fresh wave of arousal course through you. “Can’t you just fuck me?” you asked as sweetly as possible. Seungmin chuckled, shaking his head. “No,” he answered. You frowned at him. “Why not? You’ll find I’m more than ready to take it,” you answered.

Seungmin merely chuckled again. “No,” he answered again. “I want a taste first.” 

The words on the tip of your tongue died as you felt him spread your folds and his tongue run from your hole to your clit. The moment his tongue met the nub, he sucked on it, making your thighs involuntarily try to close around his head but he moved his hands, wrapping his arms around your thighs to hold them open and keeping you firmly in place.

You were left to the mercy of his tongue as his mouth ravaged your clit. One of your hands moved to grab the bedding by your head in a tight fist while the other combed through Seungmin’s hair, grabbing a handful of the locks. Each time he flicked his tongue, your body jerked and you cried out. 

“M-Minnie. M’gonna cum!”

Seungmin pulled back and you whined only to receive a slap to your pussy which made you gasp, thighs twitching. “You don’t cum until I say so, understand?” You nodded quickly, your orgasm slowly slipping away. Seungmin’s mouth returned, attacking your clit with quick flicks of his tongue until the sensation started to rise again, tension building in your stomach.

“Minnie, I’m close,” you warned him. “Hold it back,” he retorted. “Don’t make me punish you again.”

You bit your tongue, trying to will away the tension and the building orgasm. “I-I don’t think I can,” you sobbed. Seungmin pulled back, delivering another slap to your sex. “Such an impatient and greedy kitten,” he snapped. “Can’t even wait a minute more.”

“Just fuck me then,” you retorted. Seungmin scoffed, almost mockingly. “Oh no,” he said, landing another slap on your clit. “Not until you beg.” You whimpered. If that was all he needed, you could do that. “You should have just said so,” you gasped. “Please Seungmin. Please give me your cock. I want it. I need it.” 

“You need it, huh?” Seungmin asked, brushing his fingers over your clit languidly. He wasn’t trying to bring you to climax, simply giving you some friction while he listened to you. 

“How bad do you want it?”

“I want it so bad, please,” you sobbed. “I promise I’ll be good. I’ll do everything you say but please Minnie, please fuck me.” You needed him inside you so bad and you weren’t above begging if that’s what he wanted you to do. “One more time,” he cooed. “What do you want?”

“I want your cock, Seungmin. I want you to fuck me!” you snapped. Seungmin moved quickly, letting your legs fall back as he climbed over you. “Middle of the bed, on your hands and knees, now,” he growled. You scrambled to get up, moving into place and presenting yourself to him. He kneeled behind you, hands grabbing your ass and kneading.

“I’m going to fuck you how I want to,” he started as he leaned over your back, the tip of his cock brushing against the inside of your thigh. “If it’s too much for you, say ‘pitcher’s mound,’ understand?” he asked. You nodded. A smack rang out as he landed a slap to your ass over the same side he’d made sore earlier.

“Words, kitten. We use our words,” he snapped. “Yes, sir!” you gasped out, your backside burning. He gently ran his hand over the spot soothingly. “What do you say if you need me to stop?” he asked, leaning over your back and whispering in your ear. “Pitcher’s mound,” you replied softly. You felt him press a tender kiss to your shoulder. “Good,” he cooed.

You felt the tip of his cock press against your entrance and without any resistance, he pushed into you. Once the head was firmly lodged inside you, he snapped his hips, pulling you back to meet his thrust and filling you with one stroke.

You cried out in both pleasure and pain as he buried his cock to the hilt inside you. Seungmin still, thumbs rubbing circular patterns into your skin as he held your hips. He waited for the spasming of your walls to cease before he pulled back, giving you a shallow thrust which made you moan softly.

“Any pain?” he asked quietly. “No,” you replied, shaking your head. “Good,” Seungmin said simply, tightening his hold on your hips. “Remember your safeword,” he reminded you. 

“Cause I’m not stopping until you’re screaming.”

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[jacobsbadwig]

I have this long standing analysis of YA media dropping the ball on themes and consequences for its main characters giving them huge plot armor. What I realize the frustrating part about them is that often they are fantasy or fantasy adjacent, the authors accidentally create these huge worlds and severe problems and implications, but ironically, their main characters are separate from the world they inhabit via tone or their characteristics or mindset not aligning with the world (aka 21 century American mindset in a fantasy that takes place in 18th Russian analog iykyk)

Like Bella’s story being a romance while everyone else in a horror or gothic novel or pseudo vampire thriller or fantasy series is like odd as @panlight often points out mentioning SMeyers unwillingness to really lean into the vampire of it all. Honestly in a non first person story, this could be played for laughs to even be interesting.

(Never mind Smeyers surface understanding of the novels and plays, that she references as Bella’s favorite stories. As a former English teacher, her understanding and Bella’s understanding is in fact of someone who read some classics in high school but didn’t necessarily delve into the commentary and themes of the works focusing on the aesthetics of the romance rather than understanding what said purpose romance actually serves in the narrative as a critic or other wise. Insert ‘Smeyer doesn’t know what star crossed lovers means and refuses to learn rant)

Ironically, Bella having a romance in her world is portrayed as the exception when we look at other characters, even the uncivilized vampires, she is in fact the norm.

What makes Bella special other than her shield she gets at the end? She isn’t even the only one with great control. There are other hybrids. She is special because the text tells us she is. I’m not going to compare her to other female protagonists because my point isn’t about Bella as a character but rather how her narrative allows her to be special without really, really setting her apart from everyone else.

Just about everything the narrative says is specific to Bella’s story can be found in other characters backstories (that honestly don’t matter but do matter as a comparison that Bella is the exception to the rule rather than the example as I stated above.)

I think a lot of people cling to the Twilight saga (and other YA novels) but simultaneously desire more from the narrative because we want to feel special without doing the work, which isn’t wrong especially at a young age when you are finding yourself, but once we reach a level of maturity, we want our gifts and specialness to allow us to love ourselves and move in society as it drives our lives.

It’s why we cling to characters like Carlisle who doesn’t have known powers and has had series of trauma and has to actively rise above it. Or Jacob who is beaten by the narrative and should have been a symbol of how fate is myth and bullshit and circumstances may forge your path but choices and perseverance can alter it or make the path better.

I wanted to discuss @fuckmeyer Come Nightfall along with other Twilight reimaginings and how I feel as though, hers is the best damn thing we have. But while trying to write out my thoughts and why I feel as though I could never accomplish something like that, I ended writing this post after many posts about Star Wars. Honestly, I am reminded about two ideas: we are protagonist in our own stories and we are also side characters in others. Meaning we are chosen ones chosen for something greater but that doesn’t mean no one else is a chosen one.

Maybe that’s why I have out grown YA novels. Adulthood is in fact learning that you are hot shit but not always hot shit but other people also make sure your shit stays hot and you also make sure theirs stays hot too.

At the end of this thought process, I am left asking what was Bella actually chosen for. To be born a vampire? A Cullen vampire? A vampire in general? Edward’s wife and Renegades mother? Did she actually take the Volturi down (no but I’m posing the question) Or did she deny the call to what her purpose was.

If the last thing is true, then someone must rise to take her place.

I think Come Nightfall and other ideas answer this question and make it clearer that Bella chose her path rather than it being forced upon in a way the OG Twilight didn’t convince me. At the same time, fics and musing that pose other answers are just as compelling.

As for me, I believe Bella Swan denied her call arguably the call was declined for her the moment Edward entered the picture or maybe when she went to the Volturi (the Volturi of it all is for a other post but they should have killed her or turned her like WTF? Dumb). But also Bella Cullen’s only purpose in the narrative was to be Edward’s wife and Renesemes’s mother regardless of her earlier apprehensions.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

book recs? My fav books are trc, aftg, soc, shadowhunters/riordanverse etc and the likes (so basically the most basic literature taste known to man) thanks!

well I enjoy all of those and trc is my fav series so will give you a couple of my main fantasy recs along those lines or not dissimilar and throw in one of my fav thrillers which is very gay and explores dark themes for aftg adjacent rep, and then another suspense book i love. I sort of went with books i could draw some type of lines of comparison to at least one of the books you mentioned.

•The Diviners series by Libba Bray — this is my go to ya fantasy rec these days, it’s historical urban fantasy with some horror and mystery elements. It’s set in 1920’s New York, book one opens focusing mainly on Evie and a specific case of a ghost serial killer but introduces other chars, after the first book it becomes more about an ensemble cast of Diviners who have different supernatural powers and their dynamics, also the main antagonist is bigotry and hate which I’m aware is a concept that can be done poorly in fantasy and I won’t pretend every beat of it is flawless but it is my favorite example of a fantasy series take on that concept that I’ve read. More importantly stunning character work I especially adore the female chars among the diviners Evie Theta and Ling, Ling is one of the most special characters ever and these books should be worth reading because of her INTP canon ace lesbian with autistic swag realness alone. 

I definitely would recommend it to TID/TLH fans for the historical setting and atmosphere as well as some of the playing with man vs machine + to TRC/TDT fans for the characterization and also the second book is largely about Henry and Ling learning about their dream powers and developing a friendship through this and also Ling has a narrative foil in dreamspace she’s gay with just think some of those idea would resonate with trcers + to SoC fans for the ensemble dynamics. 

•The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray

This is one I used to describe to people as The Gangsey all girls au set in Victorian London and that’s not fully accurate but it works enough to be a pitch, but basically it’s about this group of four girls who go to a boarding school together and discover a sort of parallel world where they can bee free and realize their ambitions detached from society, but in the real world they’ve awakened horrors they must deal with too. I need to reread this one but it was deeply formative, if you love messy complicated female friendship dynamics and paranormal/mystical plots that are just creepy enough this is for you. Also my favorite character in it is a gay blonde mean girl character who is ambitious and wants autonomy above all else but does also love her friends fiercely Felicity Worthington you will always be famous <3 if you enjoy Jessamine Lovelace and Grace Blackthorn from TSC she has strong parallels to both those chars imo and is better written/handled arc wise. But I will tell you that the other wlw char in the book who is her love interest dies there is byg, just so you no one gets mad at me for that. But still very worth the read imo. 

•The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

this series is a mix of urban fantasy and high fantasy, the first book is set mainly in Prague but large parts of the other books take place in a fantasy world called Eretz so there is a fun parallel worlds element. But it’s about Karou who is one of theee protagonists of the 2010s yet got paid dust justice for my girl, and she’s an art student in Prague who was raised by a family of monsters (chimeara), her surrogate father is Brimstone and he has a business of selling wishes for teeth that Karou sometimes helps with but is frustrated that she isn’t allowed to know why or what they’re for. Karou’s dynamics with the chimearas and with her best friends Zuzana who is also a wonderful character and inspo for my letterboxd url rabidfairy09, are really lovely and the prose is so beautiful… but the story really takes off when the love interest Akiva is introduced I won’t go into details about that because spoilers, but they have one of my absolute favorite romances in the genre that does subvert and play with those paranormal forbidden star crossed romance tropes in ways I think are quite fascinating. Books 2 and 3 are more complicated to describe there is an essential conflict between chimeras or devils vs angels in this world so there’s your modern tsc connection, and very lyrical prose although I find Lainis even lusher and more elegant than trc prose. 

• Sawkill Girls by Clara Legrand 

Ya horror book that I remember reading over the summer in high school and I think it’s a good summer read tonally, part of the plot is one of those stranded on an island survival stories but it’s less intense than like Yellowjackets (no cannibalism), I don’t actually have much to sell about the plot I just enjoyed the vibes and also there are lesbians one of whom is an ambitious driven abuse survivor who had an arc I remember really liking.

•Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie Mclemore I actually really love all the books by her I’ve read but I think this is a great one to start with. Basically there are multiple generations of women who are all witches living together (300 fox way vibes), and Estella has several cousins and she and them are all in love with the same woman who is the daughter of the man who owns the estate, and there’s a thing where boys and this family keep disappearing and then one of them shows up and resulting drama. The main romance is m/f but like all the female chars being bi, it is a good romance from my memory but the main event is the familial dynamics, the main character Estella’s arc around dealing with her internalized self hatred and a lot of anti colonial themes those anti colonial themes and themes of multigenerational trauma are very relevant in all the Mclemore I’ve read so yes, very much would read her starting with this book. Also very gorgeous prose as is in all her magical realism stuff. 

•this one is already quite popular on tumblr so you may have read it but The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black, if you enjoy the cutthroat gang in SoC and that high fantasy world I think you would enjoy it I also get some Zoya vibes as well as Kaz vibes from Jude the main heroine. Won’t bother with detailed description because again, very popular books. 

•Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire

basically a series of portal fantasies or fairytales for adults, they are all novellas and it’s an ongoing series following several different chars not all of whom appear in each book. But I enjoy them and I think if you like Riordanverse this is like an adult fantasy take on similar concepts in a way, even though it’s not directly mythology based.

•The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

This is the other tumblr popular series on the list and has a good amount of overlap with trc/aftg/soc fans so will only give the brief pitch that it’s adult sci fantasy and about lesbian necromancers in space. You will be very confused at least some of the time but it is worth it, trust me. 

•Black Iris by Leah Raeder 

new adult psychological thriller with a sapphic romance that slaps so hard. Delaney Keatings is one of my favorite unreliable narrators and also just an A+ character, there’s not a lot I can say about the actual plot because a lot of it is psychological but will give one other plot hint: vigilantes. Definitely look up trigger warnings before reading this there’s a lot about homophobia and also references to sexual violence, drug use a lot more it’s very in line with Aftg in terms of like, grittiness in that regard. Do highly recommend. 

•Dare Me by Megan Abbott 

like with Mclemore I love this author in general and would recommend everything I’ve read by her but this was my first book of hers so it’s a good introduction, and also a lot of it is about girls on a cheer team having homoerotic psychosexual dynamics as well as the murder, so it’s also in line with aftg thematically in that way. gay sports media. 

There are a lot of others but I don’t want to make this list ridiculously long so… here are some recs <3 thank you so much anon for letting me ramble and I hope you like them!

[excusethequality]

My 2024 in Film: February

Another month of movies.

Like usual I'll hide it behind the line so as not to bombard the timelines of the uninterested.

But there were a lot of good movies watched in February.

* = Rewatches

February

14.

Evil Demon Golf Ball from Hell!!!

(1997)

—Short Comedy Thriller

Directed by: Rian Johnson

After a robbery takes a bad turn a criminal finds himself cursed with a golf ball that won't stop following him.

Here I was thinking that I was an old school Rian Johnson fan, because I've loved Brick since back in the day, but turns out he was making short films even before that.

I'm not gonna say it's amazing tell-all-your-friends cinema or anything. But I will say that if you're in the middle segment of the venn diagram of people that both enjoy Rian Johnson and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, I'd recommend you check it out. It definitely has the vibes of a Jojo episode, because that golfball has got to be an autonomous stand like Notorious B.I.G.

15.

La Nuit du 12

[English title: "The Night of the 12th"]

(2022)

—Mystery

Directed by: Dominik Moll

A French homicide detective, plagued by the mystery behind the brutal murder of a young woman, is forced to confront the harsh truths of the world and the reality of what modern law enforcement really is.

There's some things to like about this one, but it can't ever escape the fact that—at its heart—it is not a story about the dangers of living as a woman under the patriarchy. It is a story about how difficult the brutal murder of this woman was for this poor male cop.

And how can you make a statement about the systems of a world where women have to fear this sort of thing from within a story about a woman getting fridged to give the male protagonist some pathos?

16.

Bound

(1996)

—Crime Thriller

Directed by: Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski

While fixing up an apartment a handywoman falls for the woman next door only to discover that their criminal connections could prove to be their salvation or their downfall.

My roommates and I have roommate movie nights wherein every month we select a new theme and everyone has to pick their own movie fitting the theme without telling anyone else what it is until it's their night. Then throughout the month we'll watch them all.

And before each showing the picker will show a couple trailers of the things they were thinking about picking but that didn't make the final cut.

I had always avoided this movie because anytime I hear something described as an erotic thriller my ace ass is running the other way. But we wound up watching the trailer for it during a roommate movie night and I was intrigued.

(extra intrigued because I didn't know Jennifer Tilly was in it and I hadn't seen her in anything in some time.)

So I figured I'd give it a try. And much to my surprise I really enjoyed it. I think I might actually prefer the Wachowski's style in this than I do their later stuff? Not only is it super queer, but it's also just a really engaging thriller. Definitely worth sitting through the couple of erotic scenes for.

17.

Corner Office

(2022)

—Comedy Mystery

Directed by: Joachim Back Based on: "Rummet" by Jonas Karlsson

A businessman starts a new job only to discover a mysterious office that grants him exceptional clarity. The only problem is that he's the only one who can see it and the rest of the office is a little uncomfortable with how he keeps going into the hallway to stare at the wall during his breaks.

I'm not really sure what the message of this movie was supposed to be? It's too uncomfortable to be funny, and it's too odd to be thrilling. I'm open to the idea that I just completely missed the point, but the whole thing felt like having some Boomer talk at you for 102 minutes.

18.*

Ready or Not

(2019)

—Horror

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

On her wedding night a bride is asked to partake in a family tradition of her new in-laws: to play a game. However, the stakes of this game are far higher than she was expecting.

Right off the bat I'm gonna warn you against watching the trailer for this one. It shows way too much and spoils some surprises. I think it's a great one to go into knowing only the broadstrokes. But if you really want one, this one with Indonesian subtitles is cut much better than the standard US one.

Anways, I love this movie!

Samara Weaving is phenomenal as the lead. It's shot super well. And its satire of the rich is excellent.

I don't care what anyone thinks, it's a 5/5 to me. I have a blast every time I watch it and I have seen it quite a few times.

19.

The Lost City

(2022)

—Comedy Adventure

Directed by: Aaron Nee and Adam Nee

An eccentric billionaire kidnaps a romance novelist in order to find a lost treasure. Now it's up to the cover model of her books to rescue her.

I don't know how to put this, but this is a great example of where the writing of big studio Hollywood is these days, and why it drives me crazy. This is essentially (but not technically) a remake of Romancing the Stone (1984) and when you compare them you can really see how screenwriting has changed.

And I wouldn't even say Romancing the Stone is top tier writing or anything. But from the standards of its era it was a solid entry. It might not be the flashiest thing, but it has a strong foundations and it is first-and-foremost telling a story. And that's why it's memorable.

But The Lost City feels like a 2 hour long SNL skit. It's inherently NOT about the story. The story is secondary. It's about the jokes. The story is just there to be a set piece to tell some jokes. Because of this the scenes don't progress in a way to tell the story, they progress to get from one skit to another.

The result is that there is no foundation for me hang my attention on. It's all just empty calories. Yet the film will still try to have big story and character beats, but they didn't do any of the groundwork and so it's all hollow for me.

The viewers wanted silliness and adventure and big names and bigger action, right? Well, here it is! Isn't it great!? Here's a plate of sugar and salt and oil, these are the things you wanted, right? What you put them in is secondary, right? Why bother making a dish when we can just give you what you want.

I don't know. I was excited about this one, because Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock, and Daniel Radcliffe usually always make me laugh. So them being in something together seemed like a recipe for something I'd like. But it very much was not.

And so many big movies feel like this these days; as if movies are being written by a group consensus instead of by a storyteller.

20.

Cameraperson

(2016)

—Documentary Memoir

Directed by: Kirsten Johnson

Documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson creates a memoir of her life and career through the unused footage of the documentaries she's worked on.

I had never seen this one before, but this was my pick for a roommate movie night. The theme was: "Oh!...So that's a thing."

I figured that the easy road would be to pick a documentary that highlighted some unusual group or idea, but I wanted to push the boundaries of the theme. I wanted to find something that wasn't about something unusual, but was itself something unusual.

And that's how I wound up at Kirsten Johnson.

I had first heard of her during a fantastic episode of Switchblade Sisters where she was the guest and she put forth a truly fascinating documentary-filmmaker view of Jackass: The Movie (2002). In the episode she also talks about her film Dick Johnson is Dead (2020), and I was thinking that maybe that would work.

But in looking at her other work I saw this and the idea behind it sounded so interesting that I had to go with it.

It's April as I write this post and this is currently sitting as my favorite thing I've watched this year.

I just love it. It is such a uniquely compelling film. If you were to make a standard documentary about documentary filmmaking I don't think it could come close to reaching this kind of impact. It would seem too sterile. But by using the parts of the documentaries that you don't see it is able to paint this fascinating picture of both her life and her profession, while making you feel like you're along for the ride.

I've thought about this movie so much since I've watched it. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

21.

Marry Me

(2022)

—Rom-Com

Directed by: Kat Coiro Based on: Marry Me by Bobby Crosby

A pop-star in the middle of a crisis decides to accept the offer of a fan at her concert who is holding a sign saying "Marry Me."

I am part of the small percentage of people that have read the webcomic this was based on, so I was shocked when I saw it had been adapted.

As a connoisseur of Rom-Coms I found this is to be a little below average. But I can't really dislike it, because J.Lo is giving it her all.

Owen Wilson is phoning it in HARD, but J.Lo is going for it.

I wouldn't tell you to go out of your way to see it, but if you're low on options and you see it somewhere, you could do a hell of a lot worse than a movie with J.Lo proving she's still as good as she ever was.

P.S. "On My Way (Marry Me)" is a banger.

22.

Knock at the Cabin

(2023)

—Mystery Thriller

Directed by: M. Knight Shyamalan Based on: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

A strange group descends on a small family vacationing in a rural cabin and presents them with a choice: decide which member of the family should die and then kill them, or else the entire world will be destroyed.

I distinctly remember early in M. Knight's career where that man could do no wrong. I also distinctly remember years later where a trailer said "From the mind of M. Knight Shyamalan" and everybody laughed.

After he created the absolute heaping white-washed trashfire that is The Last Airbender (2010) I has just wrote him off. But it's been a decade! Maybe he has managed to get back to his roots? And the library had his new stuff so I figured why not see what the man has been up to, without giving him any money.

Anyways, I hate this.

I hate this a lot.

I also hate that Dave Bautista is giving a really great performance, because it'll be the hidden silver lining to an otherwise terrible movie.

From what I read the book this is based on takes the story in a very different direction, so no shade on the book. But I am just lost at knowing what this movie is trying to say? Because I can't help but be wildly uncomfortable with a movie written by a straight man about how a gay couple should kill each other in order to save the world?

Like...what the actual fuck is this? Why would you make this?

23.

Old

(2021)

—Sci-Fi Mystery

Directed by: M. Knight Shyamalan Based on: Château de sable by Pierre Oscar Lévy & Frederik Peeters

A group of families find themselves trapped on a strange beach where they seem to be aging at a highly accelerated rate.

I haven't done the proper research, but I have a working theory that if Gael García Bernal is in a big Hollywood movie: it won't be good. But if Gael García Bernal is in a Spanish-language movie: it will be fantastic.

Which is to not to insult him in any way, but is to say that Hollywood has no idea how to use this man's talents.

Anyways, M.Knight is back at it! Once again getting great actors to be in bad movies. This is just plot hole after plot hole after plot hole. And since this was based on a French graphic novel I actually did read it afterword, so now I can confidently say that he has once again both entirely missed the point of the source material and also gave it a ridiculous ending.

I can't say it's utterly forgettable, but I kind of wish it was.

24.*

Best in Show

(2000)

—Comedy Mocumentary

Directed by: Christopher Guest

Cameras document 5 contestants on their way to the biggest dog show of year.

I'm not positive, but I think this is the first mockumentary I ever saw? My best friend's family loves mockumentaries so I wound up watching a bunch while over at his house and it rubbed off on me. So I have a lot of nostalgia for this one.

It's just such a fun movie. Quotes from this movie live rent free in my head. And the cast! The cast is so good. This is one of those movies that I'll always be down to watch.

25.

Cane Toads: An Unnatural History

(1988)

—Documentary

Directed by: Mark Lewis

A wild look at Australia's history with its most notorious eco-terrorist: the cane toad.

This is one of the movies I was thinking of for the previous roommate movie night, but didn't go with. I obviously still had to watch it by myself later, because I mean...how can you not want to see this?

This friggin' movie is wild. Not only is the story it's telling wild, but it shoots from the perspective of the toads? They had songs written for the movie about toads? It's just something you have to see to understand.

I also thought I knew the story of the cane toads ravaging Australia, but I definitely didn't know the whole story. It's only 47 minutes long. You can find the whole thing on Youtube if you can't find it elsewhere. If you don't watch it for the unique style of Documentary, you gotta watch it to hear the story about these toads. That's the kind of crazy history that you just can't make up.

26.

Nimona

(2023)

—Animated Sci-Fi Fantasy Found-Family Adventure

Directed by: Nick Bruno & Troy Quane Based on: Nimona by ND Stevenson

A young shapeshifter teams up with a criminal ex-knight to overthrow the status quo.

What's this? Another movie this month based on a webcomic I read back in the day? What are the odds?

I've always been a fan of the Nimona comic. In fact I was even one of the many fans reading it here and Tumblr back in the day!

When I was working at a bookstore the Nimona graphic novel was a real popular seller and while the store's owner never gave me credit, I am taking full credit for it. Because it wasn't even on her radar until I pre-ordered my copy and told her how great it was, so she ordered an extra copy for the store. Then I wrote a shelf talker for it and we kept selling it and boom! It became a store staple.

[Sorry, I' hope y'all don't mind 'm just in a chatty mood. So you're are just gonna have to keep putting up with all this stories behind the things I'm watching!]

Netflix has a love for dicking me over time and time again, so I was resigned to probably not being able to see this one, because I refuse to give them any money. But they actually decided to do something cool for once and they put the full movie on Youtube for free in the time leading up to the Oscars.

Overall I really liked it! But I've gotta say that I like it as an addition to the graphic novel and not as a replacement for it. Because in the context of the source material it's delightful, but if you only watched this I feel like you'd be missing out on a lot. Ballister and Ambrosius' relationship in particular is WAY more interesting in the comic.

Also, I'm also not sure why the art director of the movie decided to give Ballister permanent puppy-dog eyes? But that's neither here nor there.

27.*

Evil Dead II

(1987)

—Horror Comedy

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Both a sequel and a remake of the first movie. Ash is back at the cabin and so are the deadites! But this time...it's zanier!

I have discovered that among Horror fans I have some hot takes regarding the Evil Dead films. The first of them is that Evil Dead (2013) is an amazing movie and a fantastic adaptation, and all y'all are just haters.

But the second of them is that The Evil Dead (1981) is the far superior film to Evil Dead II.

The Evil Dead is creepy and wild and delightfully independent and creative. Army of Darkness (1992) is a campy and hilarious adventure through a nightmare world. And floating adrift somewhere in the middle, with no real goal is Evil Dead II.

I know many people who love it, and I wish them the best. But personally every time I've watched this I've just been thinking that this is all time I could've spent watching one of the other ones.

[Except for Evil Dead Rise (2023) which is by far the worst of them all. I'm not sure if that's another hot take or not, but it's true.]

28.*

Leprechaun

(1993)

—Horror Comedy

Directed by: Mark Jones

While sprucing up an old house a spoiled girl and a family of painters runs afoul of an evil leprechaun when one of them eats some of his gold.

I thought I hadn't actually seen all of this when I sat down to watch it, but then the character Ozzie showed up and it all came flooding back to me.

But don't be like me. Don't watch Leprechaun by yourself. Leprechaun is a dish that should be enjoyed with the company of friends. Also some alcohol.

Because it's not a good movie, but it can definitely be a fun movie.

29.

Leprechaun 2

(1994)

—Horror Comedy

Directed by: Rodman Flender

The leprechaun is back! This time he's determined to transform a girl into his leprechaun bride.

Okay, now THIS one I'm pretty sure I had never seen before.

It's also not good. And not even bad in the fun way the original one was, it's just not good. Although Warwick Davis being a menace is never not fun.

But the girl is the most interesting character and she is sidelined for most of it. Thus we're stuck following her dumbass boyfriend and his alcoholic boss around. And they are just the dullest characters to follow around.

30.

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar

(2021)

—Comedy Adventure

Directed by: Josh Greenbaum

Two mid-western best friends decide to spice up their life and take a vacation to Florida.

I have a friend that adores this movie. It looked a little weird, so I wasn't sure about it, but I decided to trust her judgement and my love of Kristen Wiig and give it a try.

And she was right, because this movie is so much fun. It's probably not the sort of humor that everyone will love, but it's definitely the sort of humor that cracks me up.

31.*

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar

(2021)

see #30

After I finished it, I immediately watched it again with commentary, okay?

Don't judge me!

32.

Oppenheimer

(2023)

—Bio-Pic Drama

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

The story of Robert Oppenheimer's history of developing the atomic bomb.

One of my roommates told me at nearly midnight that he was about to put this on and asked if I wanted to watch. It is 3 hours long, but I'm always up late anyways, so I figured why not.

I don't really have many thoughts on this. I typically love Cillian Murphy, but I kind of don't like his Oppenheimer accent in this?

Also people kept talking about Robert Downey Jr.'s performance and I don't know why, because Josh Hartnett was the real standout for me. Somewhere along the line he got really good at acting.

33.

Shall We Dance

(1937)

—Musical Rom-Com

Directed by: Mark Sandrich

A famous ballet dancer starts a rumor that he's married to a performer he has a crush on. This is rather unfortunate for her as the rumor is making it difficult for her to marry her actual finance.

I had never heard of this before, but I stumbled across it while trying to see if the library had a copy of Shall We ダンス? (1996). It turns out they did not, but they did have this.

I didn't like it.

The plot is really creepy when you think about it. Most of the musical numbers aren't very good. And I just was rather bored for most of it. And the moviegoers of the time didn't love it either, so it's not just me!

The main thing it has going for it is that Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are so friggin' talented that it is always fun to watch them perform. And old movies are always a trip. They have a scene with barely any cuts where Rogers and Astaire do a tap dance number on roller skates. If that's not talent then I don't know what is.

34.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

(1985)

—Post-Apocalyptic Action Adventure

Directed by: George Miller & George Ogilvie

In a post-apocalyptic Australia a lone wanderer becomes embroiled in a power struggle between the sibling rulers of a city.

In a reverse of Leprechaun, I was convinced I had seen this before. I was so sure of it. But when the film truly goes BEYOND the thunderdome? None of that rang a bell AT ALL.

I'm going to assume I had only watched parts of it some time in the past, but never the whole thing. Because the whole second half was a wild surprise for me.

Definitely an interesting watch if you're a fan of the Borderlands games.

35.*

Scream 4

(2011)

— Meta Horror

Directed by: Wes Craven

Ten years after the events of the last movie and Sydney Prescott has finally managed to piece her life back together. But when she returns to her hometown as part of her book tour she soon finds that another familiar face has also returned to Woodsboro.

Unlike with the Evil Dead series, I have no idea how my Scream takes are seen within the Horror fandom. But I love Scream 4. I would go so far as to say that it is my second favorite of the entire franchise, with the first one being the only one that tops it.

I know the third movie gets a lot of hate, so if you dropped off the series at some point and never made it to 4, I humbly suggest you give it a watch. Heck, I'm not positive, but I think you could firmly enjoy this one if the only other one you had seen was the first.

I had never seen anything past 4, so I figured I'd give it a rewatch before finally getting around to watching 5 and 6.

36.

Scream

(2022)

— Meta Horror

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

Ghostface strikes again! And this time Sydney isn't even in town! Maybe people shouldn't live in Woodsboro?

[Right off the bat I should mention that although it is the fifth movie, they decided to make the bold choice to name it "Scream." Does this mean that 2 of the movies in the franchise now have the same name? Yes. Yes it does. Is that kind of confusing? Yes. It certainly is!]

Ohhhhh boy. On one hand I'm glad I rewatched 4 to remind me of where the series last left off. But on the other hand I wish I hadn't because it set my bar really high.

I've heard people screaming praises for this one, so I figured I'd finally get around to checking it out. Especially because these directors also did Ready or Not which—as we have previously established—I love.

HOWEVER, I did not love this.

I don't care what any other fans think, this is going dead last in my Scream rankings. I'd gladly watch 3 before I'd watch this again. The whole thing is like a terrible Scream fan fiction story.

I am so glad I got this from the library, because if I had paid to see this in the theater I would have been even more annoyed.

——————

——————

February Stats

——————

Movies watched this month: 23

Rewatches: 26% ( 6/23 )

My favorite new movie of the month: Cameraperson

Least favorite: Knock at the Cabin

——————

Previous Month's Posts:

JAN

[adamwatchesmovies]

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

To properly appreciate Alice, Sweet Alice, you’ll need a bit of an education. The film was controversial upon its initial release for its so-called anti-Catholic themes - themes that might not seem so revolutionary today. It was also controversial for the violence featured towards children - that might still curl some toes now. Shocking or not, it features a great mystery, surprising twists and a resolution that forces you to pause and think. The performances are off-putting but even if you don't know the film's history, you can tell this is a picture people would come back to.

In 1961, in Paterson, New Jersey, nine-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields) is getting ready for her first communion when she is murdered - strangled to death inside the church. The obvious suspect is her jealous older sister, 12-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard). Born out of wedlock, with divorced parents and a nasty attitude, who else could commit such a heinous crime?

Released in 1976, it's hard to tell if certain off-putting aspects of the film are dated or deliberate choices. Today, it would be tasteless to infer that someone would develop sociopathic tendencies just because they belonged to a specific religion or were born under “the wrong circumstances”. Back in the 60s and 70s? Not as much, and in a horror movie when good taste is not often a priority, you really don’t know if the movie is warning people about "the truth" or playing with their expectations. The same goes for the way the picture views Alice. There's a weird obsession about how beautiful and sexually liberated a woman the 12-year-old will surely become when she grows up. It makes your skin crawl but is that the point? It makes the killer’s identity difficult to pin.

There isn’t a lot of violence in the film but when blood is shed, you'll reel in your seat. The violence comes from strong emotions but is strangely cold and calculated as well. It feels uncomfortably real. Much of this film is uncomfortable. The way people dismiss Alice even before the first murder is committed, the fact that everyone except Alice's mother (Linda Miller as Catherine) and father (Niles McMaster as Dom) immediately suspect her, the oppressive way crucifixes and religious statues dominate the screen all force you in a direction you don't want to go toward. You know there’s no way this little girl did it. I mean, there’s a reason the killer was wearing a mask and disguise. Yes, I know that disguise looks like the one Alice likes to play in but that would be too obvious. There’s no way! Right?

The moment you think you’ve got the killer’s identity figured out is when Alice, Sweet Alice reveals who’s behind the mask. Then, it keeps going. It isn’t enough that we know the who and the why. They either need to be apprehended or their actions need to continue up to their logical conclusion. The thrills come from a different place now. You want to see what’s going to happen next, which means the film has a life beyond that initial viewing.

One aspect of Alice, Sweet Alice that hasn't aged well is the acting style. Maybe it was just the way they did it back in the day. Maybe the minuscule budget ($350,000) meant director Alfred Sole couldn’t get anyone better. Either way, the actors are often unconvincing and certain characters, like the morbidly obese Mr. Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble) seem very over-the-top; too much for their presence not to mean something. Even so, there's a part of you that wonders if this is not a stylistic choice. If it is, what does it mean?

Even once you know the answer to the film's mystery, there’s a lot of suspense in the relationship between the characters and the drama that enters their life following the initial murder. Though it is rough around the edges, this is an instance where the imperfections sort of make the film more interesting. Any suspense thriller/horror that keeps you guessing without cheating for as long as Alice, Sweet Alice does is worth checking out. There’s a lot to unpack in its subtext and characters. (October 29, 2021)

[cerberus253]

So, that Guy Named "Jack" and He Carries a Candle Around

After years not being on my mind, he finally showed up in my dreams some time ago and I've been thinking about him a lot (that's usually how my hyper-fixation gets re-kindled of an old character).

Contains- Canon Info, Headcanon Info (SFW and NSFW)

Veeeerrry long post

Canon:

- Is called "The Boogeyman. The For Real one."

- Poor back posture (is usually seen hunching over)

- Will kidnap you if you say his name out loud

- Loves Pumpkin Pie (just look at him smelling it!)

- Can levitate while awake and asleep, also those tied in his ropes

- Sleeps like a cat, does the "Stinky Face" like a cat (probably just squinting, but it's still cat-like), and does the "Raptor hands" thing

- Likes satirical sitcoms (F Troop)

- Polite and witty (he even holds his pinky finger up when holding his candle)

- Talks in monotone unless very upset

- Likes to eat peanuts

- Is rather one-track minded when kidnapping targets, ignoring those who have not said his name

- Is an escape artist

(pic of Candlej-- uh, y'know, right after Freakazoid (not pictured) trapped him. He got out pretty fast. Look at that cheeky bastard. Love 'im <3)

- The stitches on his mouth actually open up to a mouth (I saw it happen for a few seconds, so it's real)

Headcanon (SFW):

- Shows up and attempts to kidnap those who are actually scared by him, which are usually children.

- Answers to teens and adults if he wants to, since a lot of times it's for shits and giggles, parties, or weird cult stuff. Disrespect with the use of his name will not trigger him in this day and age!

- While Jack appreciates the wanted invitation to just hang out, he's rather an introvert and values his alone time, but does have his social moments.

- If he does show up [for adult strangers], and it isn't for kidnapping, its usually for Halloween-themed occasions (parties, fairs, carnivals, etc). Since it's usually around strangers, he just creeps around, watching people, either finding someone to scare or talking to those who seem interesting to him, or anyone who just comes up and chats to him. If at carnivals or fairs, he'd also play some of the games.

- I honestly believe, when his name is called, Jack can see the situation/setting he'll be getting himself into. Like, if just saying his name aloud will ALWAYS make him appear, then one could easily trap him in some max security prison. He'll know if he's floating into a trap or not, or if the callers aren't worth going after (especially in this day and age). Besides, if he came to everyone's beck and call, he'd be all over the place, and how could some people know about him yet be here? Survival of his kidnapping? Okay, so if you called again, he'd show up again, and now you'll know what to do to stop him. Why would he float into that? Anyway, yeah, I think Jack's picky and will only show up if you're actually afraid of him or are being serious about it.

- Has a strong sweet tooth, and likes salty treats. You will win him over if you can bake well AND bake his favorite things: Pumpkin Pie!

- Enjoys horror media (movies, TV shows, and books), specifically psychological and thriller ones. This includes watching people playing horror games or watching horror videos and get terrified by them. Will eat popcorn to it.

- Goes to candle and occult stores, which are the only places he'll actually pay for things other than rope. Where does he get the money? Uh... *whistles*

- Enjoys moonlit graveyard night walks (floats?), reading in dimly lit libraries, exploring old, haunted abodes, morning Autumn forest walks, etc.

- Pocket Dimension in his gloves, boots, and sack mask. He's gotta put all that rope somewhere.

- When outside of his kidnapping/villain hobby, he doesn't talk to strangers as much, preferring to let the other person go first, then indulging in conversation if he likes them enough.

- Doesn't talk about too personal of stuff unless he really really likes the person.

- Great listener and observer! Will be the kind of guy to remember seemingly small and insignificant details about someone he likes!

- Struggles to express his emotions normally, but when they are extreme they are noticeable (EX: The Peanut Incident of '97).

- Knows how to do all kinds of rope knots, easy and complicated.

- Doesn't mind physical contact, but isn’t the one to initiate unless it’s for scares. A little nervous if it’s romantic/sexual. Despite this, the Ghost-Man is TOUCH-STARVED, he's just unsure when it’s a good time to indulge himself.

- Jack is normally polite, and a little cheeky, to strangers, but when it comes to friends, he's also kind and considerate.

- Doesn't feel bad about kidnapping people, nor what happens to them after. However, if you strike up a good conversation, and get him to like you enough, he might change his mind. It would be a shame if such an interesting and compassionate person were to disappear and never be seen again... Don’t worry, he won’t stalk you (unless…👉👈 maybe he likes you a little too much 🙄)

- Why does Jack like to scare people and kidnap them? Yeah, he's weird, but what if it's because he's lonely and he didn't know how to socialize? Like, what if he was a creepy and weird kid that liked spooky things growing up, so people avoided him and he didn't know how to converse with his peers, so he found out that scaring people was a way to get them to notice him? Ya know, like "bad attention is better than no attention?" So now, as an adult, it's just what he does on a day-to-day basis because he's so used to it? Just a Theory.

- Jack’s a kind of Sheet Ghost. Him and the burlap and cotton/leather apparel are separate, like removable skin. Without it, he cannot eat. He doesn’t have to eat, but he likes to.

- Likes animals that people deem creepy/scary (insects, arachnids, deep sea fish, snakes, bats, etc.), but his favorite ones are black cats.

- Enjoys surprise gifts, including: Old books, old candle holders, baked goods, and spooky/creepy knick-knacks.

- I see him more as a Giver than a Taker kind of guy in any relationship, but when it comes to physical affection, he’s nervous and doesn’t usually initiates unless he can’t help himself, or he knows and trusts you enough.

- If ya wanna be friends with him, ya gotta be open and accepting of his (non-criminal) behaviors. Simply going out of your way to talk to him when he's around tells him you might want to be friends with him.

- If Jack [also] wants to be friends with you, he'll purposefully seek you out on occasions, scaring the shit out of you when you're least expecting it. Then he'll get down to casual stuff.

- If you have some sort of sensual (not sexual) relationship with him, he will accept cuddles and hugs when you need them. In addition, if you have trouble sleeping, he’ll sit/lay next to you to keep you company (might fall asleep himself).

- I’m gonna say this: Jack does, in fact, live somewhere. I am going to headcannon that he lives in an abandoned Victorian mansion that was left alone for so long that even time forgot it and now it sits between Life and Death in mist strewn woods. When people go missing on their own, they may stumble across it, seemingly empty, but Jack doesn’t like that someone literally entered his place so he scares them out. On the other hand, sometimes he invites close friends over for some quiet spooky time, but that hardly ever happens.

- His place is old, dusty, and dirty, which he doesn’t mind, but he also wouldn’t mind if someone wanted to clean it up (maybe that's why he kidnaps people). Just don’t kick out the rats and bats, change the aesthetic of the place, break anything that isn’t already damaged, install too many modern things, that sort of stuff. He still wants it to be old and creepy, but he understands if you need to charge your phone.

- If ya wanna be more than friends with him, ya gotta not only be open and accepting of him, but love the strange, dark, and mysterious things in the world (which includes him). Someone who’s kind, understanding, weird (complimentary), enjoys being alone with him, but also goes along with him when he wants to socialize; someone who isn’t extremely loud and energetic, but does give life and warmth around him; has a lot of similar interest with him, etc.

- Anyway, I think Jack is pretty inept when it comes to people flirting with him. I mean, yeah, he recognizes someone being really nice to him, but to get romantic, even physically? Nah, that's silly! Falling for a ghost is weird! Once he does get it, I think he'd be rather awestruck and confused, not really knowing what to think.

- However, you'll know he reciprocates when he leaves little gifts for you to discover (possibly even a Treasure Hunt!). or maybe even doing small domesticated things, like doing dishes, making breakfast/dinner for you, making your bed, etc. I don't see him doing laundry (undergarment respect) nor dusting, though. If he doesn't do anything, you'll definitely know he's been around because of the smell he leaves behind (candles and smoke).

- He struggles to know when you really need him around when it comes to emotional/mental struggles. Don’t get me wrong, he can recognize when you’re feeling that way, but doesn’t know what to do or if you need alone time, so he’s going to need you to tell him to stay or go, listen or give advice, and/or to touch or not to touch. Whatever it is, he’ll do it for ya because he cares and worries on the inside (referencing back to the struggle to express emotions). Communication 👏 Is 👏 Key 👏

- Not into hook-up culture. Definitely, at least, Grey-A in both romantic and sexual departments. Like, yeah, Elvira, Mistress of Darkness is a very pretty lady that he crushes on, but personally may be a little much for him.

- Appreciates if you helped clean his clothing attire. Being in the woods or a dusty mansion can get ya pretty dirty.

- Isn’t too picky with other peoples’ apparel, but he is fond of gothic attire. I want to say his favorites would be: Traditional, Romantic, Mopey, Victorian, and Medieval.

- Will help you with your make-up, King/Queen ✌️

- Okay listen, I don’t doubt that Jack may stalk people he has strong romantic interest in, because he’s a weirdo, BUT he is RESPECTFUL about it. He will watch you watch TV, doing chores, cooking and eating, doing sit-alone hobbies (reading, art, gaming, etc), doing taxes, sleeping (a BIG one), etc.

- He will NOT watch you do anything too…revealing (showering/bathing, changing, etc). He may be weird and lack certain social skills, but he knows when to look away…

Headcannon (Suggestive/NSFW):

-… HOWEVER, if he knows that he’s allowed to look at you naked, or doing naughty things, he will. He will. Might even sneak up on you to scare you, then to “help you out,” if ya know what I mean~ Despite this, I don’t think he’d be the kind of guy to watch and pleasure himself while doing so. I just can't think of him doing that. He's weird and creepy, not sick and perverted.

- Would set up a relaxing bath (with candles, of course!) for you after a long and hard day, resting against the side of the tub while you’re bathing, watching and listening to you. Maybe helping you wash yourself.

- Jack comes off as a Soft Switch to me, mostly leaning Soft Dom.

- Remember the “he knows how to do all kinds of knots?” Yeah, he’d have fun with bondage. I don’t think he’d be really aggressive with it, but in fact passionate and loving. Wouldn’t want you getting rope burn.

- If he did decide to “unwrap his gift,” he would do it carefully (again, to avoid rope burn) and methodically, speaking softly, monotonously, and sweetly while he comments on how beautiful you (his gift) is 💛

- I mean, you can suggest he use soft or lace-like binding rope fabrics so he doesn’t have to worry about hurting you, but he prefers classic, plant fiber rope 👌

- Expect playful teasing from him, both verbally and physically. Will use words like “naughty,” “silly,” “little tease,” “my beloved toy,” etc, and would tell you to mind your Ps and Qs (English Idiom for “manners”) if you want him to do something for you.

- Will call you sweet nicknames like, “pumpkin,” “darling,” “my dear,” “little moth,” etc.

- Normally he’d be wearing regular burlap cloth, which is rather irritating to skin (luckily he doesn’t have any), but when he wears the softer kind, you know he’s looking for a lot of physical affection.

- With said soft fabric on, Jack can finally really touch and feel you up as much as he wants and as long as he wants, really squishing, massaging, and fondling all those soft and squishy curves and crevices of yours~ 🖤

- If you want to really get him Turned On: LACE. NIGHTGOWNS. Walk around the house with it on, sleep with it on, cuddle with it on, get intimate with it on, etc. Just seeing the delicate fabric loosely hang around your form, and the intricate lace designs flowing around your chest, sides, and edges (also sleeves if applicable) makes him giddy and warm up fast. If you’re not wearing any undergarments underneath, I think he’ll get the message why you’re flaunting yourself in front of him~ 💖

- In addition, since he's so into scaring people, I think he'd be into playing Hide n' Seek/Cat and Mouse, with you hiding (the Mouse) and him seeking (the Cat). He'd be talking a lot during it, saying things like, "Where oh where has my darling gone?~," "I'll find you soon, my pretty~," and "Come out come out wherever you are, little one~."

- Of course, after finding you, he would love for you to try to run from him! "You can run, but you can't hide, my dear!~," "Running only excites me more, once I catch you, my little moth!~"

- After getting caught, "There, finally! I've caught you now, little rascal~ Now to make sure you won't be running from me any longer, love~" *brings out the bondage rope*

- I honestly don’t think he’d be into violent and aggressive sexual interaction. Like, despite his love to scare, I don’t think he’d try to bruise nor hold a real knife to your throat or anything like that. Legit the worst he’d do would be pretending to choke you or leave red marks on your skin.

- Jack’s favorite parts of you are anything squishy and soft, which includes chest/breasts, stomach, love handles, butt, and thighs. He just adores it when you smile and giggle while he lovingly squeezes any of said parts, and will continue to do so for your arousal. Then he’ll go for the other soft and sensitive spot that will surely get you heated and huffing~ 💗 Be careful not to say his full name, though! Or he'll just tighten those ropes around you!

- I’m not sure if intercourse would even be possible, but I know he’d take great pleasure in pleasuring you in any way he can, whether it be massaging, fondling, fingering, or using sex toys on you (maybe he has specific apparel that has a hollow dildo attached to his crotch so he can be in you XD).

- Jack would like really any position, but I think he’d prefer to hug and play with you from behind. He likes to feel you press into him (or he pressing you into him) when you’re rhythmically gyrating from his touch, and even better if it’s into the bed (he wants to be squished by you👌).

- Another location would be in front of a mirror so you, and him, can see yourself getting fondled/fingered/loved/fucked by him, blushing, smiling, and giggling, all the while stealing glances when your eyes aren’t shut from the pleasure. Additionally, turn your head and give him soft yet passionate kisses, using a possible free hand to hold his face against yours, to make him just as giddy👌👌

- One thing he would prefer is doing it in the dark, or dimly lit space with only candles to light it. Maybe start off in a dimly lit room, and one by one, over the course of the passionate and romantic affection, they’d be blown out until pitch blackness. That’s when he’d start fingering/fucking you, when your sense of sight is unreliable so your sense of hearing and touch are strengthened. Kinky AF~

Closing Notes:

- Like I said before, I see Jack as more of a Giver than a Taker. With friends, and close friends, he’s rather tolerant to all kinds of folks: Loud, quiet; eccentric, secluded; freaks, geeks, creeps, and weirdos; neurotypicals and neurodivergent, etc, just don’t be an asshole (racist, sexist, homophobic, a rapist, all that stuff). He enjoys watching the diversity of people.

- However, when it comes to romantic relationships, I see him like how I am: Yeah, I may have a handful of people I crush on/admire, but you have to really catch my interest for me to actually pursue you, which is quite rare.

- The types of people I think Jack would have strong interests in are the quiet, introverted/extroverted-introvert ones, and outcast types. He’d want someone who is kind, sweet, accepting of him, (trying to) understand(s) him, exclusive, mindful, considerate, weird (affectionate), giving, observant, patient, unique, quiet but not shy, has many similar interests as him, indulges in his hobbies, and their weirdness matches his weirdness.

- Then there’s the “darker” side of said person he’d also like: Reflective, mysterious, a loner (but not truly isolating), gloomy, obsessive (with interests and hobbies), struggles to show emotions but can express them, and prefers to have personal/intimate alone time with him rather than dates or parties every weekend.

[trendingdrama]

I most recently saw ‘Destined With You’ and ‘Doom at Your Service’ and loved both. I want to watch something that is more serious than silly and I’ve discovered that I really like the whole theme of love that exists beyond time or just love happening despite tragic circumstances. ‘While You Were Sleeping’ is probably my most favorite kdrama. If there are some kdramas you can think of that have similar vibes to those, I’d love to hear about them.

at the outset with time travel or past lives / tragic love...I just know a few ...

Mystic popup bar :

this is more of mix of part comedy , drama , romance ( sub sub plot) and action. Weol Ju (played by hwang jung eum) is a pop up restraunt owner who sets her food tent at night where both the dead and the living can grab a drink and she helps people appease their grudges / problemswith a special drink...( i am sorry this synopsis seems weird but give it a go you might like this :) )

2.Hotel del luna

i think this a mix of romcom , fantasy and horror. The story revolves aroung jang man wol ( played gorgeously by IU ) who is the owner of the hotel del luna (she is bound by curse to look after the hotel for dead and make easy passage for them to the nether world). Things start to be different for manwol once she hires goo chan sung as the assistant manager ....While this synopsis sounds boring it is far from it ... It does explore on some thematic aspects of ' resentment ' letting go and found family themes . Also since you said you liked while you were sleeping it's from the same directors that's an added bonus. Also cinematography and OSTs are my absolute favs...

3. Youth of May

this one not a fantasy but rather a sad romance melodrama.. but the directing acting the story was amazing . It revolves around old school romance of two strangers who met at the time of gwangju uprising. (And this drama made me look into south korean history ) It just gives you that nostalgia of what it is to be in love. Also because it is in the backdrop of a major event in sk history it does depicts deaths and cruel reality of the olden time. Anyway this was one of the best dramas i have watched ( please be ready with lots of tissues when watching this )

4. My dearest

Was released as a two part series with total of 21 episodes with each episodes were a art in itself , set in historical times of Qing invasion Yu Gil Chae is a pretty, bubbly, and a bit spoiled young lady who's called the 99 tailed fox of Neunggun-ri. She is also a bit of an outcast because other young ladies are jealous of her. They seem to think she's too straightforward and her behavior is inappropriate for a young lady, while young noblemen think highly of her. Gil Chae knows how to get men to fall for her but fails to capture the heart of the person she likes. Lee Jang Hyun is a mysterious man who suddenly appears in the Neunggun-ri social scene. Nobody really knows anything about him. Young nobles don't like him, but the elderly are wrapped around his finger. He's been dating around a lot, but he becomes curious about a certain 99 tailed fox, and one day, the said fox quite literally crash lands into his arms.

Once war is brewing, the pair finds themselves separated before they could even start to make sense of their feelings.

But the drama isn't just about their love it is much more than that it captivates it's viewers to empathize with emotions of ongoing war and how wthe invasion affects each and every character ( not just the main ) and the beautiful storytelling and the cinematography with added acting brilliance of nam goong min and ahn eunjin you keep yearning for more and more...

this is definitely the most serious one out of this lot.

JUST another rec of a not romance in fantasy but just a thriller fantasy drama that i am currently watching seems absolutely good

5. TOMORROW

Choi Joon Woong seeks a job, but it's hard for him to get hired. One night, he witnesses a man trying to end his life and decides to stop him. He gets acquainted with grim reapers Koo Ryeon and Im Ryoong Gu, who belong to a crisis management team. Their purpose is to prevent people from committing suicide. After Joon Woong ends up in a coma and becomes half-human and half-spirit, he is employed by a company of grim reapers as the newest member of the crisis management team.

other dramas: that fit love in tragic circumstances maybe :

queen for seven days

it's okay to not be okay ( tragic past )

extraordinary you ( not tragic but how love transcends two webtoons / two stories in fantasy based story where characters are in webtoon and one of the side character relaises THAT FACT !!)

it's okay that's love

[cathalbravecog]

since you have a lot of thoughts of whats out there in the toontown universe i wanna throw my 2 sents: so "toons" is short for carTOONS, the much is obvious. but as you & i both know cartoons can be so much more than your typical loonytunes slapstick humor. so i like to think there are other islands out there which represents a different genre, such as: a fantasy adventure land, a sci-fi land, a western land, a horror thriller land, a rom-com land, a detective mystery land, a preschool land. so on so forth. with all their own unique animation styles. with the only consistent thing is that all the land's inhabitants are anthropomorphic animals (GOLLY sorry if this is long)

OHOHOO. you caught me in a rambly day, so prepare for a long one, lol!! (i JUST talked about some world building for my deltarune AU in private) (and i just spent my whole day listening to video essays)

this MAY be ttcc specific but aside from some ttcc details, this could apply to just... toontown in general. but i am a ttcc blog and that's my hyperfixation so that's what i'll talk about.

-----

i love that idea! honestly, something like that is what i've had in mind, too! maybe not everything being placed on island - but a majority of them being. (perhaps similar themes being on bigger islands or just masses of land with some wilderness and such between?)

i already have my idea for a prehistoric toon land, but it's also still based on your looney tunes type cartoon - just populated completely by dinosaurs! it's where my OC, archie archaeopteryx comes from.

an idea like this in general would allow for a lot of interesting places to be made, stories to be told, characters to be made... all that could eventually get into toontown and interact with our typical toons and interact together in interesting ways and have jokes and themes based around their different animation styles and genres.

it would also let the toons to be expanded upon even more, since, in my opinion at least, ttcc can lack that a little bit in some ways. (but going out of my way to look at toons a bit more rather than just the cogs does bring some small interesting things into the light, even if just singular pieces of dialogue, lol. sadly, i don't have examples on my mind right now.) i'm a big cog fan and all, but i wanna see more from the toons! but then again, we play in the role of the toons - so i suppose that's our stories to tell! :]

I also like the idea of everything being anthro animals (ignore the fact i'm a furry for a second) it just allows for more fun, diversity, and just consistency. human-ness being reserved for cogs is what makes this work more in my opinion, but even with that not even all cogs are humanoid. (i am so glad ttcc brought us more robotic cog designs!!)

but the sheer contrast of a human-like robot interacting with ANY cartoon animal is what works in it's favor, y'know? makes the division more clear - even if there's a lot of stories and themes of these lines being blurried more. (like cog and toon friendship -> william and rain, misty in general, whatever dave has for the player toon, thomas warming up to the toons...) which i really like! gives more ideas for stories to be told and explored, and question the laws and logic of the world.

i guess this could also explain art style changes and design choices - like, for example, i don't exactly like the way flesh colored snouts look, it just doesn't fit my art style and so i leave them out. obviously, that's for all toons i draw - and honestly all art styles for just our regular toons are to be loved and celebrated. but y'know, this doesn't have to be! just a little idea i wanted to throw on the table as well.

one thing that could be interesting would just be different medias - i know toontown is a 3d game based on traditionally animated cartoons - but imagine the mixing you could do in art and in story telling! a classic cartoon coming across a pixar-esque cgi animated cartoon and them interacting, both baffled by one another - but still connected by their tooniness deep down!

it's a really interesting idea i like, thank you for sharing this with me and letting me ramble a bit! now, i'm going to list some genres or artstyles that i would like to see! based VERY OBVIOUSLY on my personal interests.

old kids edutainment game, i'm talking 90s - early 2000s. the jankier animation, bit-crushed voice acting, pretty off-model art... but all just very jolly and meaning to educate a young audience! could mix in cgi elements as well, since old games like this would have this. and y'know, some of these would be based on pre-existing thing.

honestly, just old games like that in general... the type of ones you don't see a lot, especially when spoken about online between more mainstream gaming places... but games you probably owned! games of mysterious origins, with very good charm tied to them despite their obvious lower production value... but maybe also something like pf magic petz! oh i'd die i'd love to see petz toons running around - except perhaps more anthro, but still four-legged since there are cartoons of non bipedal animals living more human-like lives.

just... digital in general? perhaps low poly cgi... listen i just like old games and their vibe. but we could do modern animated cartoon toons! both things from studios - but also indie things!

FLASH ANIMATED

eastern european slav cartoon toons - hey, that's where i am from! i grew up with a lot of cartoons from here (czechia), russia and poland! (these being the most notable obviously) and... the themes, animation styles and vibes are very different to anything anywhere else in the world! i would love to see that! obviously, this is hinted at older cartoons - but newer modern ones could apply, too! i'm just unfamiliar with those.

a bit more on the previous topic, since my country has a big history of this type of animation... stopmotion and/or claymation!!

i'm NOT a comic book person, but oh my god would comic book toons be interesting to see! i don't even mean super hero - just comic book style in general! comes from someone who's only comics they read and own were like... my little pony, astérix and obélix, tom and jerry, smurfs and some ducktales. very toony things!

now, most of these relate to art mediums and art styles... i think those are a bit more interesting than genres, since after all art is an art medium, and genres come second. soo many possibilities. thought there are some genres i think would be interesting to see!

detective/noir type toon world? a mysterious place filled with crimes and mysteries to be solved! could make call-backs to things like scooby-doo, too!

kid's cartoon, like you've said! something cute, fluffy, there to entertain the whole family and teach the kids a valuable lesson. not to be a bluey enjoyer on main here but... bluey toons. that would be very very cute, i think.

on that note, one could argue there could be an adult animated cartoon place, but considering a place like toontown we probably want to keep things pg 13... maybe not! but it's still a possibility - as long as you take inspiration from good animation made for adults. i will not be naming any names here...!

okay, this one is MORE an art genre/style thing but... illustrated children's book type thing? maybe not for VERY young kids, but still filled with fun stories and anthro cartoon animals regardless! could appear as 2d cutouts.

medieval toons, but in the art style of medieval styled drawings...! based on old tales and fables! could also mix with some fantasy elements, of course!

SPAAAAAAACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (space core portal 2 voice) (BUT LIKE... ALIEN TOONS. NOT JUST SPACESHIP TYPE STUFF THATS BORING TO ME I WAND INVADER ZIM TYPE SOMETHING RAAAA...!)

just anime. toon beastars. shoutout to that one louis fan-toon i saw some time ago

and honestly...im out of ideas for this here! i don't really look at genres too often to be honest! they kind of fly over my head, so i'd probably want these to reference specific types of stories that could be told in one of these, but not enough to base a whole place on. anyways, running a bit low on steam here, and i'd repeat myself on possible video game genre based toon worlds, so...! that's it from me! hope you had fun reading this... and my many callbacks to other medias for reference.

(also, your ask is not long! just long enough to be a delight to read! just look at my own responses here :,] )

also, question- should i get a tag for big rambles like this relating to like... world building and ideas in general? both for the cogs and the toons! would make it a bit easier to navigate, even if i am a little bit shy about people reading back through these, especially as my opinions may change. looking at you old thomas and robert ramble...

[devious-little-milkmaiden]

All the Movies I Watched in 2023

This is a very long post so buckle up! (And I'm sorry. I love movies.)

Ticket to Paradise (2022)

5/5. I expected this movie to be a bad cash-grab, but was surprised to find that it had plenty of redeeming qualities. Maybe that's attributable to the charm of Julia Roberts and George Clooney. A lighthearted watch that's enjoyable if you allow yourself to relax and not treat every movie like it has to be a cinematic masterpiece.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

4.5/5. I am so, so ready for a Knives Out, Sherlock Holmes-esque series. This movie was so, so entertaining, and presented a mystery that was different from the first in Knives Out, yet equally enjoyable.

Signs (2002)

4.5/5. Mel Gibson, Rory Culkin, and Joaquin Phoenix are absolutely amazing in this movie. Definitely one of Shyamalan's stronger films, but the ending is weak and doesn't support the weight of the rest of the movie. The concept of combining a tragic backstory for characters in a horror/thriller movie certainly isn't new, and by all accounts this movie could suffice without it, but I think it is a good contribution to its depth and themes. I was watching this in class and when M. Night Shyamalan appeared someone said, with full sincerity, "Who's that random Indian?" 🫥

The Theory of Everything (2014)

4.5/5. I love Eddie Redmayne, and his performance was pretty good. This biopic suffers from the pitfall of refusing to portray their subject as a human (someone who makes good and bad choices), opting instead to paint them as a god-like figure (insisting that they are incredibly moralistic even if it's clear that they aren't), which I think takes away from the intelligence of the film. There's no harm in showing Stephen Hawking as a normal person, and I think more biopics should have a little less bias. Good soundtrack.

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

2.5/5. It was fine. It was hard for me to stay invested or care about the characters. Pretty cliche, and didn't have much nuance considering the plot. I think you could live without ever seeing this movie.

Twilight (2008)

2/5. A great movie to play in the background while doing something else. That baseball scene is fantastic though. Romance is bad. I'm pretty sure Carlisle Cullen is Lestat. Alice Cullen's hair is my everything.

Senseless (1998)

2.5/5. This movie is bad, but somehow I can't help but love Marlon Wayans' surprisingly vulnerable performance. He has an effortless charm. David Spade and Matthew Lillard are two of my longtime favorites, and both of them give a solid delivery in their respective typecasts.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

4.5/5. More children's movies should take themselves seriously!!! More children's movies should treat their primary audience with respect and intelligence!!! Children are more intelligent than we give them credit for!!! Thank you to this movie for understanding that. The animation was incredible, such a beautiful watch. I've said this before and I will not be quieted: Puss is Zorro's fursona.

The Lost Boys (1987)

3.5/5. "AAA THEYRE COMING AAAA" I love Keifer Sutherland, and I wish there was more of him in this movie tbh. Kind of boring. I think this could be remedied with more Keifer Sutherland.

Grease (1978)

2/5. I honestly do not get the appeal of this movie. I like Sandy and love Frenchie, but the musical aspect is a little underwhelming and the story is (and I'm sorry) just godawful. I'm referring less to its problematic aspects and more how frustrating it is, misunderstandings and such.

LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

5/5. Peter Jackson Gets It. His love for the book series and the world of Middle Earth is just so evident in this movie's intricacies and imagination, yet it also strays away from the book in ways that I think are really good, such as some of the dialogue choices (Frodo's a little bit meaner in the books, which I don't think would make him very likable if we were actually hearing it be said.) I want to live in Bag End SO BAD.

LOTR: The Two Towers (2002)

5/5. Legolas, my beloved. A bridge between the first and last installments that doesn't feel plot-deprived. Balances perfectly between mounting the tension for the final installment and also maintaining its solitary plot points. I want to include my Letterboxd review because it's ~sO fUnNy~

LOTR: The Return of the King (2003)

5/5. Man. Wow. I cry. I cry. I cry. Literally cannot even give a review bc of the overwhelming mixture of emotions I feel when I think about this movie.

The gayest installment of the series, though that's a hard trophy to hold considreing the competition.

A League of Their Own (1992)

5/5. I do not think it is so bad to be a stereotypical underdog sports movie if you can approach the convention with a story as entertaining and genuinely as heartfelt as this. Very funny. Geena Davis!!!!! Geena Davis!!!!!!! Many of these women are lesbians in real life and although that was conveniently left out of the movie... you can still tell. I was scared that the conversation between Geena Davis and Tom Hanks meant a stupid romance subplot was going to happen, but thankfully this movie has too much dignity for that.

Suburban Gothic (2014)

2.5/5. I didn't really enjoy this movie because there wasn't a single strong aspect of it that I could rely on to forgive it. All of the characters were unlikable, the plot was strange and inconsistent (and I was upset because I was looking forward to it in this aspect). However, Jeffrey Combs is his usual amazing self and the humor is pretty good at times.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (rewatch) (2016)

3.5/5. I watched this when it came out and it was one of my favorite movies. It still holds a special place in my heart for the surprising breach of conventions it makes. Newt, as a leading man in a big-budget film, is shy, sensitive, and polite. I love him to death. (This is the movie that started my love for Eddie Redmayne) However, considering that it is a big-budget blockbuster, it's only allowed to go so far with its breach of conventions.

It's very beautiful to watch. The romance between Newt and Tina actually feels like a romance, which I find is surprisingly hard for movies to do. It's also the strongest installment in the series, and it goes downhill from there.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (rewatch) (2018)

3/5. I wanted to like this movie so bad when I first watched it, and I do, sort of. I love everything in this movie that replicates the last movie: Newt's characterization, Tina's characterization, the visual effects, the beasts!!!!!, the time period, the worldbuilding, the sophisticated air. I also love the addition of Newt's brother and Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam is just incredible!). And that's where my love for this movie ends. Everything else annoys me. Like, I understand that Queenie loves Jacob so much she'd do anything for him, but I find it hard to believe she'd be convinced by Grindelwald. She's smarter than that. And, I don't really care about the Dumbledore, Lestrange, and Credence Barebone/Nagini storyline. They just aren't that captivating. This is where the series starts to tip from an equal balance between the beasts and 1920s Wizarding World Politics into more WW Politics, which makes me sad.

Fantastic Beasts:The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

2/5. This movie makes me so fucking mad. Out of all the movies in the series, this one is the worst. It's not even about Newt Scamander anymore! If you wanted to make a Dumbledore/Grindelwald origin story, just make a separate movie series! I wanted to see beasts! I wanted to see Newt travel the world! Goddamn this movie for taking that away from me, and every other Scamander fan!!!! The last shot of this movie is of fucking Albus Dumbledore, for christ's sake!!! I just don't care!!! Fuck this!!! WHY.

I'm actually so sad.

(J. K. Rowling can't write for shit and she's a TERF. Neil Gaiman can write for shit and is a trans ally. Coincedence? I think not.)

I think Mads Mikkelsen is great as Grindelwald. He delivers a sophisticated and somewhat sinister performance to this movie that I think does more service to it than Johnny Depp's campiness, which isn't really right for this type of movie. If the stars had aligned differently, I would have liked Mikkelsen to play Grindelwald from the start. But not even that could have saved this shit movie.

The Power of the Dog (2021)

5/5. Beautiful and visually captivating. Very nuanced plot that I will not pretend to understand in its entirety, though I'm sure a rewatch would do it justice in that regard. This is not a movie you want spoiled, so look it up with caution. Jane Campion? More like Jane CHAMPION. Definitely recommend.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

4/5. Maybe a controversial take, but I actually really enjoyed this movie, as someone who hasn't read the book. Maybe I would enjoy it less so if I did read the book, (which I do eventually plan on doing) and I understand people's complaints about the movie. I don't think this movie (and the Hobbit series as a whole) should be considered with the same judgment as the LOTR series: despite being made by the same director, their appeal and intended demographic is vastly different. While LOTR's appeal was more based on its faithfulness to the books and authenticity, and intended demographic is more longtime LOTR/fantasy fans (nerds), the Hobbit trilogy's intended appeal is more of a meatheaded likability intended to appease more widespread audiences (everyone who's not a nerd). I don't think it lives up to LOTR, and I do think a singular movie should have been made more in the vein of LOTR (faithfulness to source material and avoidance of blockbuster stereotypes), but this movie is still fun. The performances are good and overall I can't hate this movie.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

4/5. This is probably my favorite in the Hobbit series. The romance between Kili and Tauriel is pretty solid. Bard is fantabulous. Smaug is an absolutely terrifying villain. Bilbo is a Chad. The story never feels stretched out or annoying. I dunno, I just like it. :)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

4.5/5. Again, I don't expect anybody to agree with my opinions on the Hobbit trilogy. I just find them fun. This one is heartbreaking. But still fun!

Mikey and Nicky (1976)

3.5/5. Very interesting to watch this as a Columbo fan.

I expected this movie to be kind of boring, and while there are some slow bits, it's very entertaining throughout. The tension simmers on the back burner for almost the entire movie until the end, when it boils over and everything catches on fire. I think it's good that there are moments where the tension takes a backseat to let some of the other themes develop, particularly regarding the character development and relationship between Mikey and Nicky. I also love this movie's concept. Def recommend.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

4/5. I didn't expect too much from this movie, and found that it was good. Very entertaining. Johnny Depp is wonderful as Jack Sparrow (this is the type of movie where his campiness is appreciated). I love pirates. I'm so annoyed about the "You like pain? Try wearing a corset." Line sm. Like... they're called stays in that time period, for one thing. Secondly, they shouldn't hurt if you're wearing them properly. Like my god that line was so written-by-a-man it hurts. Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley were great. Fun.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

5/5. If people have told you to watch this movie, go watch this movie. If people haven't told you to go watch it, I'm telling you right now. Animation is gorgeous and it maintains and elevates all the appeal of the first movie. The diversity just exists in this movie, because this movie understands that diverse people just exist. PLEASE go watch it.

Bridesmaids (2011)

4.5/5. This is a movie for the girls who are morally grey and fear they may be a bad person and are just trying their best to trudge through a burned out existence. Emotional aspect is just as strong as the comedic aspect, and they transition in and out of each other really well. Just... skip the bridal dress scene.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

5/5. One of the most entertaining and lovable movies I've ever seen. A good watch for when you need to clear your head and just relax.

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

5/5. Intelligent and revolutionary-for-its-time movie that still has modern relevance. Sidney Poitier deserved an Oscar for this, and I'm really sad he didn't get one. (However he did get a British Academy Award for this movie.) Love the concept, though I do wish the racial aspect had been carried through to the end, as it kind of drops off in favor of the murder-mystery aspect, culminating in a resolution that's essentially just "I guess I'm not racist anymore because you're really good at solving crimes." I think Virgil deserved a better end to his story.

Rango (2011)

5/5. This is one of those rare children's movies that feels older, mostly because it takes itself seriously and delivers on that 100%. Animation is wonderful.

War of the Worlds (2005)

3/5. It's sort of fun, but so annoying and underwhelming that it's not even worth it. Tom Cruise's character is supposed to develop but we never really see that. Dakota Fanning screams so much. I was pretty scream-y when I was a little girl, but not even I screamed that much.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

4.5/5. Maybe I do believe in love.

I think this is like the Hobbit trilogy version of book adaptations: not totally faithful to source material but pretty enjoyable. Had me sobbing.

I always get a little annoyed when period pieces feel like they have to sacrifice historical accuracy in costuming and customs in favor of appealing to a modern audience because I think audiences are smarter and more open-minded than they give us credit for.

Stand by Me (1986)

4/5. Even though this isn't really horror, you can definitely tell it's a Stephen King movie: self-insert writer character, set in the pacific northwest or northern east coast, gratuitous 1950s-ness, psychopath bully, and bad parents.

This movie has so much heart behind it. It's such a genuine and heavy portrayal of boyhood and the emotional topsy-turviness of male adolescence. I can't say female adolescence because there's hardly any women in this movie at all. I think it's fine if it's a boyhood-centric movie (but when did boyhood mean that women don't exist?) but it is by no means a commentary on adolescence as a whole.

Clue (rewatch) (1985)

4.5/5. Witty humor and a well-crafted mystery. Very fun, even if it falls short in some of its intended appeal. You know what never falls short? Tim Curry.

Batman Begins (2005)

3.5/5. My least favorite installment in the Dark Knight trilogy. Just not as appealing as the other two in terms of tone and storytelling ability.

The Dark Knight (2008)

4.5/5. My FAVORITE installment in the trilogy. What can I say about this that hasn't already been said before? I'll tell you: YEAAHHH GARY OLDMAN!! I LOVE GARY OLDMAN!!!!

This movie is THE quintessential neo-noir movie.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

4/5. Again, what can I say that hasn't already been said before?

SPOILERS: I'm so glad Gary Oldman didn't die because I was almost certain he was going to. Also I love when Batman reveals his identity to Gordon by quoting what Gordon said to him when he was a kid, and of COURSE Gordon realizes because that's just the amazing person he is.

Apostle (2018)

4.5/5. I get that not everybody thinks this movie is good, but I can't help but love it. I think part of it is that it holds a lot of personal appeal (that being Michael Sheen, in case my 10,000 Good Omens posts didn't allude to that).

Here's a list of stuff I liked:

Michael Sheen

Dan Stevens (Now I know he'll never leave me.)

The solid romance subplot.

Michael Sheen

Religious symbolism.

Cults.

Solid historical accuracy in terms of clothing.

I liked this movie up until the very end, where it kinda feels underwhelming. I didn't like the supernatural aspect, which kind of undercut the themes of the movie.

1917 (2019)

5/5. I made a whole slide presentation on why this movie is amazing so I think I'll just link it here.

If you don't want to read all of that, just know that this movie is, a) incredible with historical costuming, b) an effective anti-war film, c) soundtrack is wonderful, d) it will rip your heart out and you will like it. You will like it.

Young Guns (rewatch) (1988)

3/5. A classic slightly-historically-accurate cowboy movie of the eighties. Keifer Sutherland :). Kinda gay. It's a bit boring and forgettable, and the romance aspect isn't that good. If I ever gave it another rewatch, I think I would just turn it off after Billy shoots that traitor, turn it back on for the peyote scene for a laugh, and then turn it off again.

Master and Commander (2003)

4.5/5. My rating may lead you to believe that I like this movie somewhat, but not very much. However, I love this movie so much I can hardly put it into words. There's just something about it. I didn't know I was starving until this movie fed me, to be dramatic. I love how precise it is with historical accuracy. I love the characters. I love the strings duet. I love James D'Arcy. I love Paul Bettany and his flightless birds (GOD I love him in this movie. Doctor characters in period pieces are always my favorites). I love bros. I want to live in this movie, it's so cozy. I want to be a sailor for the British Royal Navy in 1812 so damn bad.

I would recommend this movie. It happens to fit in a personal niche of mine, so I think it's the greatest thing ever, but I understand that not everybody has that same niche lol.

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

5/5. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I prefer this miniseries to the 2005 movie. Maybe it's just because of its intense historical accuracy and closer allegiance to the book (if 2005 is the Hobbit trilogy of P&P adaptations, this is the LOTR trilogy), but this series really makes the book come to life. I think it's mostly because it has way more time to tell the story. Jennifer Elhe is so good as Elizabeth: her sly glances and clever deliveries have made me, a straight girl, fall hopelessly in love with her. Colin Firth falls in love. Just look:

I can't breathe. Look at him.

Damn this series is good. Definitely recommend 100000000%.

Surf's Up (2007)

4.5/5. So damn funny. A good story about penguins surfing to Green Day. A fun relaxer.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

4.5/5. A Christmas classic that I had never seen before. It has charm. It has a Good Omens reference 44 years before it was published ("angel" being confused to mean something gay)

Off Track (Ur Spår)

3.5/5. A Hallmark-y Swedish drama-comedy about an alcoholic single mother who is trying to turn her life around for her daughter, her ex-husband and his new wife, her brother (an amateur athlete training to compete in the Vasa race--a cross-country skiing competition), and his issues with his wife and their inability to conceive. It's not the greatest movie ever made, but what it does have is heaps of heart. Lisa is a character with so much determination, and it's incredibly satisfying when (spoiler) she crosses the finish line--the final person to do so--and she is given a celebratory wreath and the announcer calls her the true hero of the race. I cried. She's been at the bottom of the rank with every chance to turn back, but she endures, just as she does in life. Love her. Her brother on the other hand is sorta scummy and remains scummy throughout the entire movie. It's very easy to not root for him because his arc never really has a resolution. Klara deserves better.

Man of Steel

3.5/5. It's enjoyable. Henry Cavill is perfectly cast as Superman. Love how much of a sweet country boy he is. I kinda hate the way Lois Lane is written, but at the same time she has her moments.

Final Thoughts: I've watched a lot of really popular, big-budget blockbuster movies this year (e.g. LOTR series, Dark Knight series, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). In the past I would have avoided movies like these because I always assume that I won't enjoy these types of movies. However, I think this year I was less over-assumptive and was able to sit back and enjoy movies without expecting every single movie to be the greatest thing I've ever seen.

I watched a lot of "dudebro" and male-centric movies in 2023, and though I enjoyed a good number of them, I'd like to watch more movies that are female-centric/feminist/have a good portrayal of women in 2024. I think I enjoyed male-centric movies like Master and Commander because of their nuanced characterization, mostly stemming from the fact that they were written by men and about men. (I don't think it's a bad thing to enjoy movies that celebrate masculinity, like Master and Commander, as long as it's not misogynistic in its celebration.) Some of the movies I watched that feature women are written by men, and therefore the women were underdeveloped and fall into the misogynistic storytelling pitfalls that portray women as stereotypes (whether conscious or not), which is why I'd like to see more movies written by women and about women, to see an honest and nuanced portrayal of women.

[the-queerview]

Saltburn (2023)

by Emerald Fennell

My dear readers,

I know it seemes like I abandoned you, but lately I really felt no need to write about a film, that would capture a certain Zeitgeist or some surprise to me. I wanted to write about the show "los espookys" by the creators Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, Fred Armisen, a mexian-american comedy tv, which really made me pass this quite depressing winter in Berlin. But los espookys felt more like a warm, fresh bread, that I could snack at a sunny day, so I might write about it on a better day.

Today we gonna talk about the highly controversially labeled film Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, who directed as well the masterpiece "Promising young women". You might remember this heavy, metoo themed vendetta film, with the amazing violine version of Britney Spears "Toxic".

Saltburn is a film about a guy namend Oliver enrolling in oxford, starting to be obsesses with everybod¥s darling Felix. Felix, coming from a wealthy background gets tricked by Oliver into a friendship and after Oliver's father dies, Felix invites him to spent the summer at his castle in Saltburn. Living with Felix rich, aristocratic family and their flaws, Felix adapts easily with the new won luxury lifestyle and his obsession with Felix seems to grow, ending up with shocking scenes, that didn't seem to shock me at all and clearly seemed like intended provocative gestures from the director to get prices.

I won't spoiler to much here about the storyline to follow for the ones, who would like to see it and focus on the further part on my critic.

So the film starts building up with heavy color grading during the oxford times, it reminds of middle 2k format drama shows and keeps rolling up to arthouse typical shots, with intense skies in the background, different camera angles, close ups reminding of advertisement and homo erotica ala Abercombie ans Fitch. But it continues to pave its way into a forced horror shots, there are to many different genre laps in this thriller. We are dealing with such an overlap of genres, that trough the moving pictures we encounter, we get lost in the storyline. Till the first middle part of the film ( and the film is asslong) we develop an understanding of the world Oliver entered, being an outsider at Oxford. feelings of less worth trough class dividence till the mood is entirely changed and Olivers live at Saltburn reminds more of a Wes Anderson themed kill the rich format, critical wannabe but not critical at all. The portrayal of the riches and their misery Emerald is clearly missing, by still showing their glamour and their fresh "bed sheets" (a metaphor) trough the lense of a beautifully placed camera setting. Here a few examples:

So being rich is aesthetically pleasing seems like especially with scenes of Felix. the rich kid, depicted in perfect lightning, while the shots of oliver are always creepy and bizarre ( like i try not to spoiler here, you have to figure out why i say creepy, and by that i mean specifically him WATCHING, what you will understand while watching the film). Anyways the film ends with a portrayal of the riches being the poor ones and the middle class being super evil, but i wont elaborate here not to spoiler.

I think the performances of Barry Keohghan ( you might remember him from "the killing of a sacred deer" by Yorgos Lanthimos), Jacob Elordi (Priscilla by Sophia Coppola) and Archie Madekwe ( Midsommar by Ari Aster) were well played. Every character had their development, from Oli ( Barry Keohghan) starting as a loser, becoming more popular and later actually evil, to Felix ( Jake Elordi) starting as the nice guy towards the spoiled brat, that really thinks the world is made for him and he believes to be a good guy, to Farleigh ( Archie Madekwe) starting as a bully, changing towards loosing and winning and loosing in this societal game, and having as the only character at the end of the film of this male characters dominated film, complicated feelings of loss and pain.

So I think the film itself lost thou its pace. It started off like a high school drama college mid 2k, continued to arthouse sway and ended with a film, that seemed like it rather was a tv show not a film. I felt as if the director made wrong decisions towards the end. While the pace was very slowly in the beginning till the middle. the end of the film and therefor the resolution just happened to quick. I wonder how important the role of the budget was to finish it, since if you watch the film, and made films, you can only imagine how high the rentals for this castle as well as the hundreds of extras costed, if you consider this party scene. So i look it up now.

"The film reportedly had a $20 million (£18.4m) budget. Details on Saltburn's production costs remain under wraps, but it's estimated to have had a budget between $10 million and $38 million" ( google search)

Also for the ones of you who are interested what the actors and actresses earned here's https://www.showbizgalore.com/saltburn-cast-salary/

So yeah phu, I guess and this is my true honest opinion, because I believe in Emerald Fennel as a filmmaker ( love love love promising young woman), that she had probably dreamed of megacake, like the ones my friend B does, what are they called, oh yeah, MAXIMALIST CAKES. They look amazing, lashy, rich, and its really about the cover, but the inside is not as much interesting as the decour. So Emerald Fennel created a very superficial portrayal of the riches, its trying to be an eat the rich film, but it makes the middle class look scary and and its message is just loosing the point, but we have intense pictures, lots of color grading, like they did good, also the camerawork was trying literally the whole alphabet of lense operations in there. I think their money ran out and they had to finish it. So we are left with an unsatisfying speedy end, i dont believe any of this. but hey its a film.

Like it's not that deep as it wants to be. sorry Emerald, I know you can do better.

see you around

here

visiti my blog

hehehehe

[pynkhues]

Roles or projects you want to see the succession cast take on next? And somewhat related but any career predictions for the main cast? I wonder if Succession will be the high point for a few of them or if some will go on to win Oscars...

I can't take credit for this one, but I saw someone comment somewhere that Jeremy should work with Ruben Östlund, and having finally watched Force Majeure last night, it's literally all I can think about. I'm not sure if it would be that much of stretch though really, as I think Östlund has a similar sense of humour to the Succession writers and explores similar themes of wealth, masculinity and toxic families, but the way he utilises nature to amplify tension feels like something new and I just think Jeremy would eat it up, haha.

I think his interests as an actor tend to skew towards drama, and I do suspect he has directors he wants to work with (his last three films being quite weighty / noteworthy directors in Guy Ritchie, Aaron Sorkin, and James Gray [albeit I thought they were all weaker offerings from all three directors unfortunately]). I'm not sure if I can see him flipping genre at all really, but he might for the right director in that sense. I would like to see him in something that maybe toes the line between drama and genre? I think he'd do well in a gothic period drama like The Little Stranger or The Others, or a magical realism thriller like Barton Fink. Ooo, actually, I think he'd be great in something by the Coen Brothers.

I'd also really love to see him in a Jane Campion movie. I think he'd really work in a moody, tense, romantic period drama like The Piano or Power of the Dog, and I think they'd work well together given Jane generally encourages immersion with the actors in a way that plays with method acting in the way Jeremy seems to.

On that note, I would love to see Sarah work with Jane Campion too, particularly in something like The Piano or my personal favourite, Bright Star. I think she's got such a good look for it and would eat up that sort of sweeping romance (I am forever bitter we didn't get her Persuasion with Joel Fry).

Really, I think Sarah can pretty much do anything and I do think she's more adventurous with genre than Jeremy is. She's already done high sci-fi (Predestination), quite a bit of horror (Jessebelle, Winchester), prestige drama, romcoms and even family films. I'm curious as to her new one about the rise of the beanie baby empire, but from the trailer it doesn't look like she's being given much to do, which is a bummer.

I'd love to see her in more lead roles, and I'd especially love to see her work with Jennifer Kent, who between The Babadook and The Nightingale has a real knack for sharp edged, damaged women on the edge. I think she'd be great in a David Fincher project too, something like Mindhunter or Gone Girl - - ooo, actually, I'd love to see her in an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places (I don't count the Charlize Theoron adaptation).

I guess that means I want to see her in crime? Haha, I do think her comic timing is underrated though too, and I think it could be fun to see her in more of that. Maybe a Wes Anderson style thing?

After watching Sorry to Bother You a few weeks ago, I was actually thinking about how good Kieran would be in a Boots Riley film. I think Kieran's energy naturally lends itself really well to absurdist comedy - a big part of why he could sell some of Succession's more unhinged moments, haha - and there are so many interesting directors operating in that space at the moment that I just think Kieran would sing with. Particularly the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Swiss Army Man), Yorgos Lanthimos, and Taika Waititi.

Oooo, actually, I think he'd be great in something by the Safdie Brothers too, something like Good Time or Uncut Gems. I didn't particularly like the latter, but I do think they're interesting directors, and I think they could do something with Kieran that really lets him show off his range again. I'm not sure if I can see Kieran really doing high drama any time soon (which is kinda funny given he has done it before), but it'd be great to see him in things that straddle genre-lines. Oh, actually, I think he could be great in something by Jordan Peele too.

Okay, this got suuuper long, so I might just leave it there, haha.

[pastabadguy]

reccomend us :

- 3 movies

- 2 games

- 1 show

- 3 random other things of ur choosing

Movies:

- Riders of Justice: very cool take on/deconstruction of vengence/revenge narratives. Plus Mads Mikkelsen if that's your type of guy.

- Excision: blended horror/coming-of-age story with some of my favorite visuals in any movie. Love this fucking movie. It's got John Waters in a minor role.

- The Devil's Rejects: one of my all time favorite movies and probably my favorite example of villain protagonists. It's probably good to look up the content warnings if that's something you do.

Games:

- XOXO Blood Droplets Beta Build: I'm sorry I gotta bring this up whenever I can, it's a reward for giving $15 (I think) to the patreon, it's got way more routes than the free game (at least one for each boy, Everett's second route is by far my favorite), it's my baby my love my favorite

- the first 4 episodes of Sally Face: the style, the hidden bonus content, and the building of the story itself is just very cool and engaging to me. And Sal is such a good protagonist imo. The last episode of the game kinda sucks ass and doesn't even give a satisfying ending, so maybe just play through 4 and let it have a tragic (but great) ending.

Show:

- Venture Bros: adult swim cartoon that grows a dramatic plot. I'd definitely recommend it on a "get through the first 2 seasons" basis. S2 is actually pretty fun also but it starts getting really good around 3. It's very early 2000s in its humor tho

Misc.:

- Sad Sack: (comic/webcomic) oh my god read the warnings and description but it's seriously good, the art is amazing, it's funny and disturbing and thought-provoking and that ending my god

- Japanese Breakfast: specifically their music videos. I'm not sure what it is about them but they have inspired my style (art and just visual/fashion) a lot. Road Head and Machinist especially. Something about the strong themes/filming style?

- Wolf 359: my favorite podcast and one of my formative pieces of media. It starts kinda silly but grows into such a good serial drama/tragedy/thriller? Not sure what to call the genre (other than science fiction). I am so attatched to these characters. Everyone is flawed and forced into tough decisions and desperate times and it's great. The music is gorgeous as well. Fuckable villains. Human experimentation. Really strong, interesting, not-clearly-defined emotional bonds between characters. What more could you want

[sleepymarmot]

Get Out (2017)

[Watched on July 15th]

Very glad to see this film lives up to its reputation.

Of course I haven’t escaped spoilers in all these years; I knew what the plot was going to involve, but didn’t know how. So I figured it out 45 minutes in, when a young black guy was acting like an old white guy and also like the husband of an old white lady. This made the pacing feel pretty slow until the secret was out in the open, though I can’t tell if it’s the film’s fault for playing its hand too openly, or my own for knowing spoilers. The only thing that stayed unclear until the reveal was whether Rose was in on the conspiracy or not.

As a fan of the “bodyswap” and “actors playing each other’s character” tropes, I was very impressed by the writing and performances of the bodysnatched black characters, especially Andre Hayworth/Logan King. Throughout the whole film but in these scenes in particular, I kept thinking that it must have been difficult to localize it for other languages, especially in dubbing. The film places a lot of attention on speech — I’m glad to discover it won an Oscar for best original screenplay, well deserved — and a lot of horror comes out of how unnatural both their words and intonations sound, which is probably hard to convey in localization. I usually find the “person acting weirdly” kind of horror to be tropey and contrived, but it really worked for me here. After rewatching a few of their scenes, I also noticed that the two grandparents acted in an eerie, semi-hypnotized way, while the guest behaved more naturally as an old man with a young face; I wonder if that’s intentional and why. Another difference between them I noticed is that the grandparents have a more youthful body language, while the guest is slouching and pulling in his head as if he still has an old body with a bad back; I’m assuming that’s because he is the newest “patient” and not yet used to being young again (there was a shot of him showing off his new body to other guests).

Some nitpicks:

I had to rewatch the scene to see that “Georgina” died in the crash — the shot of her still face was very dark and short, so I assumed she survived and was confused why Chris didn't go back for her again.

The portrayal of Rod veered into comic relief a bit too much. More importantly, what was with the glorification of TSA? The film goes out of its way to say “Cops, even black ones, are dismissive, useless, and drunk on their power. You know who doesn't share the same flaws at all? The kind of cops who frisk people at the airport.” ????? Am I missing something about the US realities again or is this choice really bizarre?

Connections to other films:

I think this was more cohesive than the other directors’ recent films in the satire/thriller genre I can think of. The 2021 Candyman sequel (also co-written and co-produced by Peele), Midsommar, and Knives Out kind of undercut their own narrative each in its own way, and as for Parasite, I have already posted two angry rants about everything that didn’t work in it for me. It feels like Get Out was much better at showcasing its own themes — or maybe I’m still in the post-viewing high and the fridge logic hasn’t kicked in yet.

The plot has a surprising amount in common with Midsommar: a young American person traumatized by the loss of their family is invited into an insular traditionalist white cult so that they could be brainwashed and their body used for the perpetuation of that community. In both cases the protagonists are targeted specifically because of their race, for opposite reasons.

In retrospect, the plot of Get Out is pretty much what I expected the plot of Parasite to be. The rich are literally parasites in this one! Conversely, Parasite is like if the family from Get Out didn’t actually have a violent sinister secret and their wrongdoings were limited to “being wealthy” and “committing microaggressions”.

Had a bit of deja vu at the beginning: the protagonist of the Candyman sequel was also a young man with a successful career in arts. A relatable archetype for Peele, I’m guessing :D

Other notes:

Immediate red flag: Rose tells Chris her parents don’t know he’s black. You mean you have a good relationship with your parents and have never shown them a single photo of your boyfriend of five months? You mean your parents have invited your boyfriend to their house even though they haven’t even seen a picture of him? Bullshit.

The microaggressions were so painful and embarrassing to watch that the straightforward horror scenes were almost a relief.

Why did the grandparents pretend to be servants? Why didn’t they hide, or pretend to be other guests? Was that another mind game — did they think seeing black servants in the house would prepare Chris for his fate on a subconscious level? So in addition to his personal trauma (guilt for his mother’s death) the family also intentionally triggered his generational/racial trauma?

I’m surprised to see most reviews on LB talk only about race: my own impression was that the film was defining the conflict as being between classes/social groups as much as it was between the races. The protagonist is well off, but the difference of wealth between him and the family is even more striking than the difference of culture. One of the secret society members is Japanese. There’s a fairly long scene where a black man goes to the police about the disappearances of two other black men and expects sympathy from the policemen because they’re also black — and they laugh in his face, because they’re cops first and everything else second. It’s interesting that the film avoids a simplistic “white bad, black good” dichotomy not by adding sympathetic white characters, but by adding asshole characters of color.

[shuuji-thoughts]

on Pulse - Kiyoshi Kurosawa (2001)

Initial Impressions

I had a pretty mixed experience with this one, mostly because I went into it with somewhat confused expectations. First of all, this being branded to me as simple "J-horror" was detrimentally redundant, as the film felt more to me like a unique blend of various genres (ranging from techno-horror to psychological thriller to apocalyptic sci-fi), which is apparently the type of film Kurosawa is known for. In terms of horror, much like Ring, this film scarcely had any genuinely scary bits, although the techniques used here were regardless remarkably more innovative and effective than whatever the hell that film was doing. Unfortunately, this film— at least to me— also felt extremely scattered and inconsistent, despite containing many memorable and interesting scenes/ shots.

Further Critique

In terms of presentation, the film overall carries that uniquely pleasant early 2000s essence that I am notoriously in love with through its set design, costumes, effects, and camera work, which was personally the main draw for me. There were also several noticeable camera techniques and shot compositions that caught my attention. For example, the camera would occasionally switch to handheld. I first noticed this in the scene when Yabe comes back drained after his ghost sighting. I'm not entirely sure what the significance of that was but it was certainly a striking choice. I was also pretty satisfied with the film's depictions of its ghosts, although a little confused with how inconsistent they were. I also really liked the consistent parallel framing across scenes when the characters would fade into a wall, always being against the left side of said wall, often next to a window. This pattern made it easier to anticipate the deaths in the latter half of the film. Another thing I REALLY liked and wish would be better utilized in horror generally was this film's use of liminal space and silence. The way the film slowly drip-fed more and more scenes depicting characters alone in big open spaces where one would normally expect to see an abundance of extras was extremely effective in my opinion, especially because this is the main device through which the subtle apocalypse happening just outside the main plotlines is communicated to the viewer. Additionally, there were a number of scenes that effectively utilized silence to elicit an errieness that I don't think could be accomplished through the use of your typical spooky noises. What comes to mind are of course the scenes where nothing can be heard but the faint whisper of a ghost/ vanished individual calling out for help. Those were the only scenes that actually kinda got to me. In general, these are two elements I want to see more often utilized in horror, as I'm really tired of the typical jumpscare shit and want to see something that really plays with that existential dread of being alone in an open, quiet space.

In terms of themes, this could not be more on the nose. In fact, one of my main gripes with this film was just how overstated its themes were, introducing the metaphorical dot simulation one scene and then explicitly explaining the metaphor through dialog in the next. There was also a bit where one of the characters just randomly starts lecturing on the Hedgehog's dilemma unprompted, like they really couldn't have spelled it out more clearly, and I felt that kinda detracted from the otherwise mysterious, show-don't-tell type of story that the film seemed to be going for. That being said, I don't entirely know what the actual conclusion was meant to be, aside from just a vague critique of the internet's effect as an alienator and a commentary on the Hedgehog's dilemma, but I did find some of the methods the film used to communicate its themes quite deep and worth further exploration, namely the significance of the red taped rooms and their apparent connection to the dot simulation. According to a video essay I was casually listening to while cooking lunch, all of the main characters who die from ghost encounters are first drawn into the red taped rooms for whatever reason (loneliness or smth idk), at which point someone close to them starts searching for them, only for their fate to be sealed the moment they come in contact again. I'm sure you can see the obvious parallel here to the dot thing, although I'm not entirely sure what the point of any of that is? If ya'll have any theories feel free to drop 'em down below. Overall, a very interesting film with some slight annoyances here and there, solid 6/10.