#if I get attacked ill revenge but I’m literally chill for now

[obscure-song-tournament]

Guess what ………

NEW SUBMISSION FORM!

We are going to do another round !! (Assuming, obviously, that I get enough submissions :-3)

What is this?

Obscure song tournament, babyyyy. Submit your fav obscure songs (or YOUR obscure songs) and find some new favourites as you vote :-3

Multiple submissions of a song will not help it get in! But I’m not going to disqualify songs submitted multiple times like last year, because that seemed scary for the submitters <3

It will be open until I have about 300 submissions, then I will look over submissions in order of least listeners to most !!

I think itll take a week or two after sumbissions close to do all the seeding !

Id prefer if you didn’t submit songs/artists that were in the running last year but like its chill if your guy didn’t win. Sorry forgetmenauts fans, at least choose a new song !

(Not tagging anyone for reach cos I don’t know any poll blogs anymore <3)

[nemeseos-noctua]

Hi! Could i request hcs for Diluc and Xiao with a reader who is shy? Thank you!

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: xiao, diluc (separate) x gn!reader

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: a few swears in diluc’s! (it’s like one or two)

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: this is actually my first tumblr post.... ive been super busy with school, sports, and other stuff. sorry! ill try to write more in the future! (constellations has been doing everything so far since i still dont know how tumblr works lol)

also, these are stupid long... and for what.

adventuring was a lot for you to process

okay, so maybe having your own Benny’s Adventure Team was not great while traveling through Dragonspine and Liyue

too many of everything

you ended up getting really beat up.

after passing through Mingyun Village, you could see Wangshu Inn and decided to stay there until you were healed up

you always found comfort in the night sky, so you went out there every day

It was your fifth night staying at the inn before you saw a short male standing on the balcony where you would usually be. Strange. You’d never seen anyone like that before.

You seemed to have caught him off guard when you started to approach him since he jumped a little. 

Taking a closer look at his face, you studied it a bit. He had golden eyes and dark teal hair that seemed to frame his face perfectly, accompanied by lighter streaks of the same colour.

Pretty... you thought, completely entranced by this strange man (boy?). 

“Ah, sorry. I’m probably disturbing you... I’ll go now...” 

He blinked. 

god he’s in love

not even romantic love but he loved you like the past adepti

xiao would see so many couples over the years that he’s been at the inn and absolutely hated them, but this?? 

okay it’s a different type of love but damn it felt nice

You started to turn and walk back to your room before hearing his voice.

“Stay.” 

STAY??? WE MOVING KINDA FAST BUT ALRIGHT PRETTY BOY !! 

On the outside, you were cooler than a cucumber. The inside? Chaos. Millions of thoughts raced throughout that little head of yours. 

“Only if you’re fine with it...”

Turning back around, you took a few steps forward before noticing that he wore a lot of accessories on him. One of them being a mask that resembled one of the Vigilant Yaksha’s in that one book you read as a kid. Probably just a fan or something.

You reached the balcony, taking a spot next to him while also keeping some space between the two of you. Leaning on the balustrade (the railing of a balcony), you rested your head on top of your arms.

A comfortable silence was placed in the middle of the two. A silent breeze blew, adding to the mellow mood. 

“What brings you here?” the pretty stranger suddenly inquired, gaining a small jolt from your serene state. “Did I scare you? My apologies.”

“Oh, uh, it’s nothing...” You lifted your head to look out at the lands of Dihua Marsh. Seeing Dragonspine in the distance gave you a chill. Those were not the greatest memories. The small movement didn’t go unnoticed by the boy.

“You’re an adventurer?”

“Oh... yeah, I am... I’m not that experienced yet, though...” 

for SOME REASON... this man felt even more inclined to protect you

you still had a fair amount of bandages wrapped around your limbs, so it was clear that you were injured

GOD IF HE COULD JUST HUG YOU RIGHT THERE AND THEN

but he did not.

he has restraint.

he is a good boy.

“I met a traveler that wasn’t very experienced either.” This fact shocked you. So he has been here for a while... but why hadn’t you seen him before? Does he just... disappear into thin air..?

the answer is yes

he does indeed do that

but that’s besides the point.

“Oh... that’s nice...” 

It was getting late. The moon was starting to lower back down and the lids of your eyes were getting heavier and heavier by the minute. You let out a yawn, but it was muffled by your head being buried in your arms once again.

“You should go get some rest.” You hummed. 

Then, a thought popped into your head.

“If you don’t mind me asking... what’s your name?” 

Even though you weren’t facing him, you could feel his piercing gaze on you. It wasn’t uncomfortable at all, but gave you a feeling of protection.

“Xiao.” You mouthed his name to yourself silently. It was nice.

“Goodnight, Xiao. I hope that we can do this again soon.”

“Goodnight to you...”

“(Y/N).”

“...(Y/N).”

you were a cryo catalyst that tried to fight against some cryo slimes alone

hint: that was a bad idea

my favourite elemental reaction was immune!

literally... you couldn’t even do anything to them

and you were getting beat up. 

badly.

for plot convenience you were at the lake next to Dawn Winery

“Shit...” 

At this point, you’d been fending these slimes off for around a quarter of an hour now and you were getting tired now.

Your dumbass tried to drown them in the lake but forgot that they immediately froze any moisture underneath them. You tried attacking them but everything you could do was inflict the freeze effect (against CRYO slimes). 

You literally could not do anything. Time to get frozen to death!

“Burn!”

WHAT???

Suddenly, a big fire bird swept up the slimes that had been occupying you for the last 20 minutes or so, effectively taking them out. 

At this point, the only thing that kept you standing was your adrenaline, which quickly ran out as you dropped to the ground in exhaustion. You let out a sigh, finally free from those damned slimes. You will have your revenge one day... just not today.

While you were resting on the ground, your saviour had been standing there, watching you calm down. And so you looked up to be greeted by probing crimson orbs, which definitely startled you.

Your saviour was.... Master Diluc. Master Diluc Ragnvindr, wealthiest man in Mondstadt. Him. In front of you. 

“OH! I, um, Master Diluc! What brings you here?” 

‘WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE??’ HE LIVES HERE THOUGH?? 

“I was taking a stroll around the winery and happened to see you in your own predicament.”

You attempted to stand up, though your legs failed you as you only flopped back onto the dirt. 

diluc doesn’t wanna admit it but that was unbelievably stupid, cute, and endearing

okay and what if this emo boy doesn’t like people

he still has feelings too >:(

“I’ll stay here with you so you won’t get attacked again. So relax.”

Mans was telling you to “relax” while you were in the presence of a literal typhoon here. He was so brooding and scary-looking all the time that you couldn’t even try to relax.

A few minutes pass and the sound of water rushing was the only thing keeping you two company. 

It was nice to enjoy nature, but the tension between the two of you was still higher than ever.

To break this silence, you had tried to stir up some small talk.

“The weather is nice today, huh...”

He grunted, which seemed to be a regular response of his. You started to notice this after a few questions like “how’s your day been” or “have any plans today?”

Not that you were genuinely interested. You bet that he could tell that you were trying to make it less awkward by responding at all, but it just didn’t help at all.

You were probably sitting for a good 10 minutes before deciding to stand up again, in which you were successful. But could you walk back to the city?

That was debatable.

You definitely felt and looked unstable, so being the gentleman he was raised to be, Diluc reluctantly bent down and slung your shoulder over his.

The height difference between the two of you was pretty big, so he ended up just carrying you to his place. As goofy as it looked, it got the job done.

― riri ✨

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

His Dark Materials S2 Ep 6 - Rambling/Thoughts

I really cannot believe that we’re at the penultimate episode already, oh my gosh. It’s gone by so fast??

Again, because I’ve reread TSK in the last couple of weeks, the book is fresh in my mind but I’ve probably still missed stuff

Also last week was so intense and seeing the “previously on” section made me remember just how intense that was, so it’s a hard job to top that!

ANGELS AHH RIGHT AWAY IM GEEKING OUT

“The last time they were seen was to make war” - IT’S HAPPENING ASDFGHJKL

Ruta going off to see Asriel and me just remembering what exactly went down between them while she was there with him... heh

So Will’s hand looks AWFUL oh my god poor Will 😭

Pan is REALLY into his Red PAN-da form oh my goodness

So the other kids out for revenge terrified the living SHIT out of me, dear god I don’t think it could be any creepier than dozens of them appearing out of the shadows like that, like it’s genuinely terrifying

Serafina just dropped right in to rescue them and I was both relieved and a little disappointed? Because in the book the whole chase sequence is so much longer and more important, like it takes up most of an entire chapter I think, and here it’s like two minutes?

Serafina: What does this edge cut? // Lyra: Everything (Will at the same time: Nothing.) - 😂

I missed Lee and Jopari tbh so yay to seeing them once more! And they’ve crossed into the next world!

Oh hi again Mary!

^ I wasn’t expecting to see Mary again this series because in TSK book, her last appearance is going through the window (which was last episode), so I’m a little curious as to whether we’re going to get a TINY little peek into The Amber Spyglass here (it’s been years since I reread it, I apologize). Because last series they did a bit of TSK (namely introducing Will + him crossing into Cittagazze), so it would be interesting!

“Good, something I can understand for a change” - LOL Same

Serafina wants to take Lyra back to her world?? Really??

Not gonna lie, the two girls spying on Mary was kind of low-key creepy

Lyra mentioning that she crossed worlds to find out about Dust and mentioning Roger 😭

Also I’m so emotional over just how much she wants Will to be safe, like she would really do anything to keep him safe and I love it

Lyra asking the Alethiometer where Will’s dad is and “he’s in this world” - ahhh it’s going to happen!

Also I really hope that the BBC/whoever decides to sell replica Alethiometers because the design is so beautiful?! I would fork out serious dough for one, and it would go nicely with the one I have from the film

No but seriously, words don’t describe just how badly I want a replica

“I wanted to fly so I summoned you here, now I’m flying” - LOL OKAY THEN JOHN

Ooh damn, that outfit Marisa is wearing is FINE. I’m slightly gayer than I was before, ngl

I was like “nooo Mary don’t be nice to these kids, they’re awful”

But it’s very sweet that she offers them food?? Like she pulls a chocolate bar out and is like “it’s no good for you, it’s full of sugar”... I love her

The way that Mary was so happy and excited when they mentioned Lyra, only to tell the girls off for trying to kill her - more of a mum than Mrs Coulter tbh

“Miss, can I have a hug?” - AWWW OMG WHY AM I SAD

They asked Mary to stay and look after them omg 😭😭😭

“Come with me, I’ll bring you to your adults” - ooh okay this could go any number of ways... Either she actually reunites them with their families and all’s well, or she takes them up there and their parents/adults are all dead (for lack of a better word)? Or the Spectres attack after Mary leaves them with the adults??

Jopari talking about meeting his dæmon and also a little bit about trying to get back to his family :(

“Can you magic us up a fire?” “One moment” *presents a box of matches” - LMFAO

Wait did Serafina seriously just imply that she thought Will might hurt Lyra?!?

Serafina saying that if protecting Lyra means protecting Will as well... Yes, protect Will please! Protect BOTH of these children, I literally BEG you, they’ve gone through far too much

Ooh okay so the witch ritual/spell was kind of cool to see!

Lyra saying “please tell me he’ll be alright” 😭♥️

The fact that Lyra curled up close to Will and then Pan (in ermine form) curled up CLOSER to Will is so cute, they both love Will so much

Pan: “We feel safe her... don’t we?” / OOF OKAY THIS IS F I N E

I already know what Lyra’s “other name” is because I read the book but the hints are anything BUT subtle tbh. “Mother of us all, cause of all sin, tempted by the serpent”... I’m not even that religious but I think it’s pretty obvious.

Also, if Mary is playing the part of the “serpent” within Lyra’s destiny, does that mean that Mary has tempted Lyra? Or that she will?

Boreal being nervous about being in the city and Marisa is just so unimpressed by him... Mood

That smirk she had when going up to that Spectre victim was so chilling, we have to stan Ruth Wilson and her incredible acting

Also, fun fact, Ruth Wilson went to my sixth form college and is from Surrey (like me), and she grew up in Shepperton, which is where my Nan used to live when she was alive (my uncle and aunt live there still), so that’s super exciting!

“We could learn from this” - PLEASE DO NOT MA’AM

God I hate the Magisterium so fucking much, the patriarchy is so strong with them

Oh great, now they’re gunning to kill Lyra :/

Also, off topic, I’ve only just connected that Will Keen, who plays Father MacPhail, is Dafne Keen’s dad?!?

“She’s lost a lot for one so young” - AND SHE’S STILL GOING TO LOSE PEOPLE, WHY IS THIS FAIR PHILIP PULLMAN 😭

“She must be protected” - AGAIN, they BOTH need protecting PLEASE

The Spectre noises reminded me of the noises of the Smoke Monster from LOST, so that’s definitely trippy for me

Thanks, I hate it

I nearly shouted “WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING” out loud in front of both my parents, I seriously thought she had a damn death wish

I have never been so damn tense in my entire life as I am watching this show - and I KNOW what happens

HOW DID SHE DO THAT WITH THE SPECTRES SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN

Lee’s so worried about Lyra - 11/10, Father of the Year

The Magisterium airships... NO. FUCK. WE’RE AT THAT POINT ALREADY AND IM NOT OKAY BECAUSE I KNOW HOW AND WHERE THIS ENDS AND I HATE IT

I deadass thought Marisa and Carlo were about to kiss when he ran up to her and I actually said out loud “NO please don’t”

Look I must just be so dirty minded but when she said “let’s celebrate”, my immediate reaction was “NO NO NO NO EW EW EW NO” and “I hope she just means having a drink and not doing the frickety-frack”

I was so close to tearing up as Will was talking about his mum, her illness, and the boys who were mean to her because of it. His love for his mum is so beautifully written and the way Amir Wilson is playing Will is so wonderful

I was also close to tears when he was talking about his dad and how he used to imagine about his dad, so maybe I’m just emotional anyway

“Could go to school... have friends” - okay yeah no I’m definitely crying 😭

“I couldn’t trust anyone.” “Until you met me.” “Yeah.” - EXCUSE ME ♥️😭 my HEART

I love one (1) soft boy, and one (1) feral girl and her dæmon

The relief I felt when I saw Marisa and Carlo were literally just having drinks 😅

“They consume what makes us human, so I just suppressed that and hid it” + *cut to the monkey looking kinda sad/uncomfortable* - Umm fUCK OKAY THEN

Why am I feeling sorry for the monkey?!?

“You think we’re equal?” - LMFAO RIGHT

EWW THEY KISSED. No, just... nO

When I saw his snake dæmon moving towards her monkey, I thought one of two things was about to happen: 1) the monkey was going to pet and paw and the snake as Marisa seduced Boreal, or 3) the monkey was going to strange the snake and kill Boreal

OKAY THIS TOOK A SHARP BUT NOT UNWELCOMED TURN

“You’ve NEVER been my equal.” “You’d only hold me back.” - OH MY GOD YES THE SHADE

She’s not wrong though let’s be honest here

So she poisoned him I’m assuming? She poisoned his drink because the monkey didn’t actually touch the snake... damn.

Her just sitting there and continuing to drink with his dead body there is... damn.

“Into that valley” NO NO, please no

Jopari really just summoned a whole damn storm huh

Also the fact he fully trusts in Lee’s abilities to land them safely :3

Lee: “Can we trust him?” // Hester: “Do we have another choice?!!” - LMFAO I love them so much

THE WAY I NEARLY SCREAMED WHEN THAT WITCH GOT ATTACKED BY A SPECTRE OMFG AT LEAST WILL WAS THERE TO SAVE HER

Okay but did Marisa REALLY sit there for HOURS with Boreal’s corpse sitting opposite her?!?

Her burning her hand on the flame in front of the monkey, and the monkey clearly whimpering and in pain was so agonizing to watch, I can’t take this show

Also, you have to wonder just how many times she’s harmed herself (and him) for her to keep doing it with next to no problems (like separating from each other all the time)

I was so excited to see the birds attacking the zeppelins, like it was one of my favourite details in the book, and I worried that they wouldn’t have the budget for it but yay!

I do kind of wish that we’d had Sayan Kötor as the “eagle Queen” leading them though - she probably was but I wish we’d actually seen it or heard Jopari say it or whatever

THEY SHOT THE GAS CANNISTER OH SHIT THEY’RE GOING DOWN HARD AND FAST IN THAT BALLOON

HOLD ON BBC YOU CANNOT END THIS THERE?!? EXCUSE ME?!

The last episode is next week and on an hour earlier, so that’s exciting! I have no idea what I’ll do once this series ends, or when we’ll even get the third and final series because of COVID and filming delays, but I’m excited for it nonetheless and hoping it’s next November/December or something!

[handsred]

italian beauty ? ages like fine wine !

( marisa tomei, 53, cis female, she/her, cousin ) Did anyone else just see FRANCESCA ‘FRANCES’ LEWIS NEE FAUST ? I hear for the FAUST family they can be a bit FINICKY & OBJECTIVE. But I also heard they can be WISE & MOTHERLY. If you dare, I hear they frequent ATLANTIS - IN in their spare time when they aren’t being a MEDIC / OWNER OF HONEY’S BAKERY. Tread carefully or else you might be next on their list !

biography ( tw: weapons, illness / death ):

francesca lucia filomena faust is a girl crafted after tuscany summers and renaissance paintings. a woman beloved by her family and by the ones lucky enough to 'bask in her afterglow.’ 

first cousin of matthew faust, former leader of the mafia, francesca grows up the ‘golden girl’ of the faust family. she’s too sweet, too warm. they keep her sheltered for a good part of her childhood before enough’s enough. time to teach their darling girl the ropes, if only to protect her from the horrors of their business.

she doesn’t take to the business - not as well as her cousin does. that’s not to say she wasn’t gifted in certain parts of the trade. in fact, she’s very gifted with guns. recognizing she’s not much of a close range fighter, they teach her how to be a sniper and she soars. but any firearm will do. 

yet she prefers to heal than harm, and they allow her to ever so slowly break away from their dirty missions to discover medicine. they do this with pressed smiles. they want her as a gunner, but she’ll become a medic. if she has to be anything at all. 

francesca goes to medical school. she’s exceptionally brilliant and charming, and it serves her well. after all, she did graduate high school early. doctor faust is a title on the tip of tongues at every sunday dinner. 

love changes her future drastically, in the form of a man named abraham lewis. it’s just after she’s graduated med school that he waltzes into her life, uproots it, and teaches her warmth again. she realizes she’s lost it over the years.

honey’s bakery is abe’s family’s business. passed down generations like the mafia has for the fausts. francesca and abraham marry a year later and she decides to throw away her titles in favor of a renewed hope. her family keep her as a ‘part-time medic’ and she obliges. she loves them, after all. 

a few years ago, francesca suffers a loss so great it leaves her breathless. abe experiences a heart attack and dies on the way to the hospital. it’s sudden and surprising and she doesn’t know what to do. in his will, he leaves the bakery to her. it’s their child, they’d joke. they never had the time ( or the luck ) to have kids. 

in his memory, she runs neutral ground. honey’s bakery is known for every walk of life coming through its doors to get a taste of warmth in a city of cold intentions. and she’s hellbent on keeping it that way. her family do not push her for the territory, but she is supplied security to keep things running smoothly for customers. and for her well-being. 

frances lewis is an alias she’s adopted since her marriage. because of her name and her business, not many turn their heads for revenge or cruel fun. she doesn’t go around announcing she’s a faust, either. 

plus, there’ll be a number of pissed off customers if someone lays a hand on the brunette. she’s known around chicago as ‘mom’ and ‘aunt’ and ‘godmother’ and ‘friend.’ without her? who’ll bake that perfect fucking maple bacon cupcake, and serve it with a playful joke? no one could live up to the creations she and her former husband have perfected, and no one could do it with a better grin.

details:

frances worked for her family until she was nearing her graduation as a doctor. during her years in the faust family business, she served mainly as a sniper. she’s still great with her marksmanship and guns in general, but she’s horrible at close combat / other weapons / endurance / etc. 

she is technically a doctor, but she’s never enforced the title. in fact, she’s sorta kicked that old dream to the curb because she adores the bakery so much. while she is an amazing cook / baker thanks to her italian upbringing and her husband’s passion, she sees the bakery as a child she and her former husband shared. and that’s why it holds such a dear place in her heart.

frances doesn’t involve herself too heavily with the family business. in fact, the majority of the time, she simply doesn’t want to know what’s going on unless it may concern her or puts her immediate family in harm’s way. as for everything else? the faust kids are all adults now, they can handle it without her getting in the dang way. her words exactly. the only time she works for the mafia is when they need her to perform as a doctor in dire circumstances. she huffs a lot about doing this, but she does it. 

family is everything to frances. and while hers has its fair share of interesting dynamics, she wouldn’t trade them for the world. it’s safe to say she’s the mom of the group, visiting the faust manor for dinners and celebrations and bringing all the sweets with her. she spoils her loved ones, and insists on maintaining that old-fashioned italian family values. 

she carries a lot of the faust cookbooks passed down. she helped teach oliver his love of cooking and probably forced most of her family to learn a thing or two in the kitchen. she is always visiting ollie’s just to be a perfectionist / pest and correcting sauces, dishes, etc. 

she enjoys visiting atlantis-in because #nostalgia. when she was a kid, she definitely went to a lot of drive-in theaters with dates and got up to her own mischief. she loves films and shows and she’s actually up to date on that. want some movie recs? she’s got a thousand lined up. has a soft spot for foreign films / older films. 

frances is bisexual, biromantic. she has dated both men and women, and she hardly cares which. the last few years she has leaned more towards women, though. 

she speaks the following languages: english, italian, basic latin, average spanish, french, american sign language. 

when she’s emotional ( angry, upset, etc ), she rambles in italian. a lot of hand gestures, a lot of hilarious italian cuss words / slang. it’s truly a spectacle. 

has an alley cat she takes care of called ‘little shit.’ that’s literally it. she loves the little shit, feeds the little shit, keeps an eye out for him. but he’s a pain in her ass. 

wanted connections:

all of them

faust family dynamics

best friend around her age 

childhood friend ( chicago native )

penpal/s

family friends

friends

neighbors ( lives in her own house )

ex husband’s friends / family / connections 

employees 

frequenters at the bakery

security for the bakery

someone/s she patched up as a medic / doc student 

college folks 

medical folks she’s met ( doctors, nurses, etc ) somehow

exes from before her marriage ( she’s bisexual )

maybe one ex after her marriage but it was shitty and way too soon to date for her

ex / current flings, one night stands, blind / regular dates 

people she mothers / practically adopted

people she babysits for

( unrequited ) crush on her

( unrequited ) crush she has one someone

enemies / rivals

someone who’s an enemy and maybe knows who she is but they’re like dammit i like your bakery too much and you’re chill so i’ll keep it on the down low

someone/s who saved her throughout her life

someone who calls her when they’re drunk or w/e and need her to come and pick them up / let them sleep shit off on her couch and they’re such a hassle but she does it

drinking buddies 

gym / fitness buddies

i’m braindead by this point

[teatitty]

Rogues Lore

First of all I want to thank @schweeeppess for letting me spam her with Rogues lore 2 months ago cuz it made this post so much easier to type out when I can just copy-paste everything and then edit it to be more cohesive lmao

Second this is under a read more because it is A Lot

Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold

He grew up with a super abusive father and his only refuge was when he would hang out with his grandfather in his grandfather's ice truck. When the grandfather died, he grew tired of his dad's abuse and set out to start a criminal career and moved to central. 

(He's the one who started the rogues!) 

He found blueprints for a "cold gun" which he ended up making from scratch (it’s also canon that he knows the gun so well he can remake it out of scraps in about 30 seconds to a minute) and had three main rules in his group: No Killing, No Harm To Women Or Children and No Drug Use. His cold gun is capable of interfering with the speedforce cuz it can reach “absolute zero” which is even colder then Mr Freeze's tech. 

He's also the only cold-based villain capable of mastering this temp. In New Earth he was described as an "adversary" but in Prime Earth (same backstory as before mind you) he's described as being a straight villain whose only rule in the group is "no killing" (which seems to be a pretty flexible rule these days cuz DC has made him more, well, down with killing). He's also much younger here then he was in NE. 

In Flash 2016 #17 we see another upgraded version of his gun that's capable of separating the Flash from the speedforce directly and, in doing so, causing Barry excrutiating pain. Generally, he and Barry had more respect for eachother in NE, to the point that Len even considered him family. In PE, though they have teamed up now and again, Len is far more hostile towards Barry, sometimes even being written in a way that suggests he wouldn’t mind if Barry died.

Sam scudder AKA Mirror Master (the first one!) 

He was a simple convict who just really wanted to learn how to get inside a mirror's reflection. He practiced in a hall of mirrors and, once he succeeded, became Mirror Master. He was a frequent foe for Barry and, during Crisis on Infinite Earths, died around the same time Barry did.

 He was the one who discovered the "mirror world". At one point he got himself trapped there and hated that the mirror world could just get him whatever he wanted instead of him stealing it so he got Barry to bust him out. He could also use mirror's to mind control ppl (dont ask) and this intrigued Barry. 

 On PE he's dating Lisa Snart (Len's younger sister) and is the only Mirror Master to exist. In N52 he, Len, Lisa, Mick and Marco all got fused with their weapons for a while and given meta-human abilities which I. hate because it took away what made them all so cool (I'm fine with Marco tho and you'll find out why in a minute) he's also a really big attention seeker lol

Hartley Rathaway AKA Pied Piper

Alright most of Hartley's info is from NE so: he was born deaf to wealthy parents who got him very high-tech hearing implants. He became obssessed with sounds and started experimenting with sonic technology. Bored of his rich life (and sometimes it's implied he had ableist and/or homophobic parents too) he took to a life of crime after learning how to hypnotize people through music (Pied Piper ayyy). 

He was the first person to ever successfully break out of Iron Heights and did so because he befriended the rats there and used them to help himself escape, adding more to his whole Pied Piper thing. After Barry died he gave up crime and started working to help the poor and underprivelaged (I'm not saying he quit specifically bc of Barry's death buuuuuut most of the Rogues did so). 

He struck up a close friendship with Wally and came out as openly gay! On PE all that we know for certain is that he's a "reformed vigilante" who's the conductor for the Central City orchestra. He used to share an apartment with Barry (yes for real) before he moved in with his bf, David Singh (also Barry's director in the CCPD). Lisa was the one who convinced him to come out to the Rogues, and they were all chill with being gay, their problem came when he started dating David who is, you know, a cop.

He has a pet rat called Moon (cute, right?). Also in pre-N52 canon (cant remember if it was NE specifically or older) Hartley once had a nervous breakdown after Barry arrested him so Barry took him to get help at a mental health hospital :')

(Some artists draw him blonde, some brunette and others go more for reddish-brown it’s kinda confusing)

Marco/Mark Mardon AKA Weather Wizard

On NE he's a two bit criminal called Mark Mardon (he's also white and yes thats important to note) but one day, after escaping from a cop van, he ran to find his brother, Clyde, who was a scientist only to discover his bro had died of a heart attack (however, there's implications that he actually murdered his brother and simply blocked out the memory). 

He then found Clyde's notes on how to create a wand to control the weather and made it for himself. The worst he ever did on NE was imprison a town in winter and after Barry's death he went into semi-retirement (told you the Rogues all did this)

On PE however! He and Clyde are Latino and are the heirs to a huge cartel! Clyde takes over the cartel and Marco wants nothing to do with that life. After their father dies, Marco runs away and eventually becomes Weather Wizard. 

He comes back when he hears his brother has been murdered and gets accused of the crime. He finds out it was Clyde's wife, Elsa, who orchestrated the whole thing and, in a fit of grief and anger, kills her with lightning. He also tries to kill himself at the same time but it doesn’t work. After her death, he curls up into a ball and starts crying because he feels like he hasnt got any family left but then Lisa shows up and is like "yo the rogues are still here for you bitch"

His emotions affect the weather in this continuity and I’m a weak bitch for that but that’s 100% my bias for Ororo Munroe showing itself lol

James Jesse AKA Trickster (the first one!)

James Jesse was born to the Flying Jesses, famous circus performers. He, however, was afraid of heights, and preferred reading stories of Western criminal Jesse James. 

He invented air-walking shoes to get rid of his acrophobia, and this led to his fame as an aerialist at the circus. Buuut he wanted more excitement in life and became a conman instead! He had a lot of wacky gadgets like exploding teddy bears and, after Barry's death, moved from Central to Hollywood and started working in special effects. 

Like Hartley, he even attended Barry's funeral. He once beat the devil, Neron, at his own game and eventually started using his skills for good, collecting weapons of incarcerated villains so they couldnt fall into the wrong hands. He eventually died protecting Hartley during Final Crisis. Deadshot was the one who got him. 

On Prime Earth his parents were straight up neglectful and, instead of creating his own boots, he stole them from STAR labs instead. This version of him is also WAY more fucked up and murdery then NE to the point us long-term Rogues fans got really upset at how much DC had changed him 

On NE his real name is “Giovanni Giuseppe” (swear this is, like, the only italian name DC knows) and on PE the Flying Jesse's were a deliberate rip off of the Flying Graysons

George “Digger” Harkness AKA Captain Boomerang

The illegitimate son of an American toy-maker, W.W. Wiggins, and an Australian woman, Betty Harkness, George Harkness was raised in poverty in the small town of Kurrumburra, Australia. His stepfather, Ian Harkness, hated the boy and made his life miserable. (Like canonically Ian was an abusive alcoholic and even abused Betty who was too ill to defend herself or George. The reason George goes by "Digger" is cuz that's what his mom used to call him before she died; it's aussie slang for "soldier") 

In school, Harkness crafted a boomerang. He discovered he had great skill with the aboriginal weapon and often used it for mischief with his best friend, Mick Wentworth. He further honed his skills while spending some time hiding from the law in the Australian bush. 

When Digger was eighteen, he and Wentworth robbed a general store and were able to make their escape with the aid of Digger’s boomerang. However, this incident caused Digger’s stepfather to kick him out of the house. 

His mother gave him a plane ticket to Central City and told him to get in touch with Wiggins. Wiggins had been searching for a spokesman for W.W. Wiggins Game Company's latest product, a toy boomerang. Under the alias "George Green", Digger auditioned for and got the job. Wiggins outfitted him with a costume and gave him the name "Captain Boomerang."

Ridiculed by the audience, he took to a life of crime instead.

His story is pretty much the same on PE. The only diff being there was no childhood friend and Digger made boomerangs in an attempt to impress his absentee father. Also he has a habit of making up fake stories about himself lmao 

The only one's he really doesnt stab in the back are the Rogues and Harley Quinn but everyone else? fair game. In Flash: Rebirth he and Barry even exchange favours for info and it’s implied this is a regular thing for them

Roscoe Dillon AKA The Top

He technically appears on PE but he's one of Thawne's acolytes so lets just. Skip that and focus on NE instead

Literally his whole thing is that he was obssessed with spinning tops as a kid and taught himself how to spin fast enough to deflect bullets. He became a criminal, tried to blackmail the entire world once, and was Lisa's first boyfriend! 

He was also her ice-skating coach and taught her how to spin super well like himself! He has a very confusing characterization tho cuz sometimes he was written to be all about revenge and killing but other times he was just like the other rogues; a blue-collar criminal who stole things because he liked to. 

He died eventually which I'm not going to try to explain cuz it's...yeah. There's also this whole thing where he could possess people after his death but this was in the silver age and that shit just happened sometimes so whatever 

In short: Roscoe has a really cool concept to him but nobody really knew how to write him so he ended up all over the place

He also has a Spinning Top shaped satellite in space where he stores all his loot (dont ask)

Mick Rory AKA Heatwave

Mick Rory has pyromania! Very severely! He was born on a farm outside of Central and, as a child, was very fascinated with fire. This turned into an obssession and he ended up burning his house down. So fascinated by the flames, however, he never ran to get help, watching his whole house burn down (and killing his parents inside) and he ended up living with his uncle after this. 

On a schooltrip, his schoolmate stuck him in a meat locker as a prank where he gained Cryophobia (fear of the cold) so in retaliation Mick locked the boy in his house and set the thing on fire (again, pyromania). He ran away again and ended up becoming a fire-eater for a circus. That didn't last long either because, surprise!, he burned the place down. 

Desperate to find a way to help his obssession, he happened to see the Rogues operating in Central and decided to take up villainy. At first he and Len got into a few altercations with eachother due to Mick's fear of the cold but eventually they settled their differences and Len officially brought him into the Rogues. 

Mick kinda relies on them to keep his pyromania in check basically. There was a time where he was, briefly, reformed and gained a close friendship with Barry (even being roommates with him. By then he'd already known Barry's real identity for a few years) and used his pyro knowledge to become a fire-fighter consultant. At one point he even worked for the FBI

His backstory is practically the same on PE the only difference being that he never expressed regret for burning down his house, and actually says he wishes he’d burned down the whole neighbourhood instead

Lisa Snart AKA Golden Glider

When I say her NE version is leagues above PE I mean it. 

Like Len, she suffered abuse under their father and escaped it by becoming a figure skater under the name Lisa Star for the Futura Ice Show! Her fame came from her very fast spins, a trick she was taught by Roscoe. When Roscoe died while fighting Barry (brain complications though there’s more to it, but again I’m not going to get into that) Lisa turned to villainy, blaming Barry for her lover's death. 

Her attempts on Barry and Iris' lives were always foiled. She used a pair of ice skates that created their own ice flow, and had many gadgets that caused hypnotism. She also stole Len's gun once but retooled it into a twirling Baton. 

When Barry died she renounced her feud with him and attempted to go straight again with her brother. They created a company that recovered lost or stolen items. Eventually she returned back to a life of crime, went through three boyfriends, all using the name Chillblaine (she named them that iirc), until the fourth Blaine killed her. Len got revenge on that one 

On PE, however, Lisa had a brain tumor (it got cured later) and was a tag-a-long villain for her brother and her boyfriend, Sam Scudder. This version of her never became a skater and is instead murderous just for...the sake of it. She also has this thing about wanting to be the leader of the Rogues instead of Len, and when she's in charge of them for a while the Rogues’ morals change and killing is suddenly fine so. Whatever. NE Lisa is the best (also her whole outfit? Stunning)

Roy G. Bivolo AKA Rainbow Raider (not technically a Rogue anymore but he was a member for a while)

He appeard on PE as Chroma but gets murdered by Grodd so we only have NE canon to use (they did my mans dirty) 

He was a wonderful painter from an early age but was born colourblind. His father, an optometrist, was determined to create a device that would let him see in full colour. Toy didnt get the device until after his father's death but unfortunately the device didnt let him see colour. 

Instead, the goggles could project beams of light that could become solid objects, make him invisible, blind his opponents, or affect the emotions of his targets. Angry that he couldnt pursue an artistic career. he decided to become a thief and primarily stole famous artwork. He was eventually killed by Amunet Black

Evan McCulloch AKA Mirror Master (second one)

Evan was born to rich parents Louis and Carol Erikson who gave him up for adoption because they were too young to be responsible parents. He ended up at the McCulloch orphanage. 

At age 8 he was molested by one of the older boys there and, in self-defence, ended up drowning the him. At 16 he left the orphanage, taking on the name of the woman who raised him and moves to Glasgow (he’s scottish btw) 

He found that it was super difficult to hold down a job but, needing to make ends meet and constantly breaking the law anyway, he turned to a life of crime and became a hitman and then a professional assassin.

One day he got hired to kill his birth father but was unaware of who his target was until after he took the shot. Grief-stricken, he attended the funeral and tried to work up the nerve to approach his birth mother. By the time he had, she'd committed suicide and he turned himself in for his crimes. 

Either the Scottish or US government gave him Sam's old Mirror Master gear and hired him to be a mercenary. 

His first job was scaring Animal Man into stopping his activism, but he failed because of Animal Man’s wife. Refusing to actually kill the wife and children (thanks to his own morals) he gets fired and helps Animal Man seek revenge.

He continues to work as a criminal and supervillain-for-hire, even working out of costume as a mercernary in Britain.

Eventually he found his way to Central City and joined the Rogues, taking over as Sam Scudders official successor. There was a time where he had a Cocaine Addiction which caused friction between him and Capt Cold because of Len’s rule against drug use. 

Throughout all of this, Evan made sure to donate a portion of all the money he ever got to the McCulloch Orphanage

Axel Walker AKA Trickster (second one) 

On PE, Axel was recruited by the Rogues early on in his career. He messed up during a heist and they kicked him out (they'd never do that but w/e) 

He worked for Mob Rule as a henchman for a bit then went freelance when MB was arrested. He saved Cold's life cuz he felt he still owed Cold a debt. When Grodd took over Central, Axel tried to join his side but Grodd tore his arm off from the bicep (ouch) and left him to die on the street. Axel got himself a cool sleek robot arm and returned to crime anyway. He got accused of murder, Barry cleared his name, but he still got sent to Iron Heights for other charges. 

The Rogues, hearing about this, went to bust him out and were like "okay fine u can hang with us" and he stayed with them from then on

In NE canon, while Jesse was working with the FBI, Axel stole all his gear and ended up working for Penguin in Gotham. Penguin gets attacked by Tarantula, Axel fails to stop her and a few days later he gets caught by Robin (Tim) for causing trouble in Gotham. 

He moves on to work with Amunet Black, but after her defeat is offered to join the “new Rogues” by Capt Cold and accepts the offer. Some stuff happens, he fights the OG Trickster who leaves him in a dumpster and tells him never to pick up the gear again, then Axel answers an ad from some college students asking for a trained hero to teach them some things, he has dinner with them and then kills them all. Neat.

When Jesse died, Axel redonned the Trickster gear and started operating his own crew out of an old Rogues hideout. When the Rogues returned to Central, Axel found out they were gonna retire and go underground. He rejoined them to help them get revenge on Inertia for manipulating them into killing Bart Allen, and he stayed with the group henceforth. 

Evan explained to him that joining the Rogues wasn’t a matter of him wanting to be one, but why he needed to be one

In short: Axel is a punk kid who wants to fit in with the big boys and the Rogues are the only ones who really gave him a chance, acting like his older siblings. It’s worth noting that canon never mentions any relatives for him so, as far as we know, crime is all he’s ever known

And that’s all of them!

[darkspellmaster]

The Dragon Prince Theory: Could Aaravos be Callum's Ancestor or Father?

I was thinking of how much Aaravos and Elarion,  remind me of Mythal and Fen'Harel or Solas from Dragon Age and the myth around them, and how much Callum looks like Aaravos in the face area, jaw line and such, making me think the two are related.

So let me lay out some facts before I start to explain my reasons. 

Things that we know about the world of Dragon Prince: 

Elves can use one form of magic (moon elves use moon magic, etc.) 

Creatures have a primal connection to one form of magic (bait is fire, etc.) 

Humans can only use, as far as we know, dark magic 

Dark magic needs to exchange a life to extract the magic

Aaravos is the only elf that is shown to know/use  all of the known magics

Callum was able to tap into the wind

Callum’s father is said to be dead

Sarai seemed to have a stronger understanding of the magic world in general

Callum rejected Dark magic

Callum is said to be the key to unlocking Aaravos’s box 

Humans can use elemental magic but only with a primal stone

Humans can be attracted to Elves (Soren’s comment on Rayla.)

So why did I point those out, because I think there are some key factors in the story of Aaravos and Elarion, that leads into Sarai and Harrow’s story along with what’s going in regards to Rayla and Callum. 

Let me though start with Aaravos and Elarion’s poems and explain about Mythal and the Dread Wolf. 

I am not going into the long history of this as it’s way to long and complicated, so to all DA fans sorry if I miss things, I’m trying to simplify. So in the games of  Dragon Age we learn of the lore of what we could call the High elves. These High elves are very fae like, aka, as with folklore they promise to help you only to screw you over in the end. In the world of DA these High elves were owning the rest of the elf races and other races in the world. In their greed and lust for power they pretty much caused the birth of Demons and other things. 

Now among these High Elves were two High Elves that didn’t agree. Mythal and Fen’Harel (or Solas in DA3) -although we don’t know his actual name as of yet. Mythal, as per the lore we know now, was trying to do something to stop the High Elves from harming others and ended up being murdered and later her spirit wound up in the body of a woman named Flemeth. 

Fen’harel seeing his love killed, wound up locking away the High elves, and pretty much caused a very large problem in the world of DA regarding magic for a long time and moving forward after avenging his lover’s death is trying to stop the High Elves in his own way which could kill everyone. 

Now I bring this up because their love story reminds me a lot of the poem that was referenced in The Dragon Prince when Viren was looking for info on Aaravos. 

(Link to the first poem here done by Moonshadow Meme’s) 

So in Moonshadow’s translation we have various versus, which I’m going to label as V and a number next to it, and it goes from the top to the bottom of their post.  

V1.  They turned their backs and left Elarion to die.

Now you can read this in various ways, but it’s clear that some group turned their backs on this woman and left her to her death. However, if I take into account the various myths out there plus the DA story of Mythal, you can surmise that the young woman here is a Christ like figure. Typically this means that you have people that are shunning her for her gifts. As with Mythal, when she was killed the other High Elves did nothing to stop it from happening as per what’s in the game lore. 

V2. Elarion, her vessel fighting death, withered and suffered in darkness...

The first thing that strikes me is the word vessel. Now what we’re looking at here is the biblical used of the term vessel and not the ship. 

“ (chiefly in or alluding to biblical use) a person, especially regarded as holding or embodying a particular quality.”

So what does this allude to here? Well again the idea of her being an important figure at some point is clear, and she embodies qualities that make her “The special” in this case. The implication here is that either she was attacked or poisoned and is now dying, as withered itself shows that she’s becoming ill from possibly something. It could be the dark magic, as we see what that does to a person, or some other illness or poison that’s consuming her body. Whatever it is it’s painful and she’s on her own or blinded, or in the literal dark. 

until the last star shone from afar...

You could allude to the idea of the last star being just that, a bright light from the early dawn that fades when the light of the sun comes up. 

Or, more likely the allusion here is to the idea of Aaravos being the last of the Star Elves. We know that they are rare, as per the comments from the official tumblr and twitter that Aaravos is a rare elf, telling me that there isn’t that many left. In this case the implication is that he’s the last one, and the shone from afar means that he wasn’t physically there. Or at least he wasn’t there at first...

Now it could be that Aaravos was in the mirror all this time and had passed the cube to Elarion, like how he sent the worm to Viren. But, if that was the case then why would the humans have said mirror? Seems a bit odd to me. So for now let’s put the “Aaravos has been in the mirror for a very very very long time” to the side as we don’t know how long he’s been locked up. 

But the afar idea give me the feeling that he came to her from a distance and she saw him through her minds eye, rather than in person at first. 

In all likelihood Aaravos found her in the woods or someplace in Xadia, and heard her and came to her to see what was going on, and he was physically near her.  

she touched it: fire, a gift, a spark

Now again, we have to assume here that the it is Aaravos and not the mirror as, again, we saw that Aaravos could only send things through the mirror and not physically come through it yet. On top of this, Viren touched the mirror a few times, and didn’t learn the magic through the mirror itself. Though it’s clear that Aaravos knows how to teach through it. 

Assuming then that it was Aaravos she touched, then the words have some different meanings. 

Fire could mean the actual teaching of fire like how he put out the flame. It could however indicated attraction, as fire is known as a symbol of passion. It could also be shown that he showed her about fire in some way.  

A gift, clearly the gift of magic given by Aaravos to her, to teach her. 

A spark, again two meanings here. First one could be lighting, thus an electrical thing going on in magic or how to pull the spark from a living being to use the magic, but there’s an issue there as Aaravos never used a living being to do the magic, only his own blood making me think Dark Magic is a kin to blood magic in DA, where you could kill yourself using it if you are not careful with it. However spark could also mean love, or the spark of love. Indicating that there were feelings there. 

V 3. Elarion, with her bright white, embraced the night’s great dark flame...

Again so much going on here that could mean a few things. Bright white could be indicate a blank slate of a person that could be taught, as in there’s nothing there that can’t be molded. Bright white could be connected to innocent purity, like something angelic, or it could also indicate the potential for light magic if there is such a thing. 

Embrace could be her willingly accepting Aaravos’s teachings, or/and, it could mean a hug as a sign of affection, or in some cases it could be alluding to a more intimate sort of affection being shown. Whatever the case may be Elarion clearly took on Aaravos as a mentor figure, and possible more, given the next line. 

and when she (it?) bowed, offered surrender, the name “Aaravos” was whispered...

Clearly this, again, can be read in various ways. For sure she’s becoming his student and learning from him. She’s offering herself to his services, though in the scene with Viren, it’s the reverse that’s going on. Also, again, surrender could take on double meaning as it could imply a more intimate sort of surrender here, as in a physical as well as a spiritual one. 

The poem then goes on to talk about the fact that Elarion spread her roots, as in she was out there teaching people what she was taught and Aaravos was her midnight star. That line there seems way more intimate than just something you would call a mentor or teacher in this case. 

The last full verse indicates that it’s probably winter, but the implication there too with the idea of her pulling her roots close, or her servant’s close, against the night’s murderous chill could be two things. 

One it could be indicating an attack by Moon Shadow elves, or two Aaravos was betrayed by her and he was going to get revenge on it. 

The last lines in the poem are interesting though without connections. Flower blossomed in allusions could be her growing from a weaker person to a stronger one. Or it could indicate a more womanly person, we see her going from her being weak in the dark to her fears and the dark being scared of her. The issue becomes what are the last lines? It could be that she was looking for Aaravos, or that others were seeking him out? The last line makes me think that there’s a connection to him and the dragons. 

Now, to me the poem may hint at Elarion and Aaravos having some sort of intimate relationship on top of just being teacher and student. As with Fen’Harel and Mythal, the idea I’m looking at is that Elarion was able to learn magic from Aaravos, and became a stronger person who taught others how to use the dark magic to better their lives. With Elarion mirroring some of Mythal’s story, you may have some one that is being blacklisted by the Elves, but praised by the humans for using the magic that doesn’t seem normal and which takes life in order to use it. 

We know whoever wrote the other comment on Aaravos, it’s clear this is someone who likes him. 

(Translation from salemsrealm ) *Note: the red lines were done by Salemsrealm 

The way it’s written is very much like how in the bible you have Letter’s to different groups discussing their religion, like “A letter from paul to the Corinthians” that’s the feel I get regarding the passage that has Aaravos listed as a friend to all. It also goes on to add notes about how others are going to see them (humans I’m assuming) as equals and that he sees potential in us. 

  Which leads to the Option one aspect of this theory that Callum, possibly through his father’s, or maybe Sarai’s family line is related to Aaravos. We know that, though Harrow’s letter, the cube was passed down through generations, though we’re not given a clue who had it last. I have to assume it was either via Sarai getting it from her husband or getting it through her own parents. 

And then there’s Option two, which is that Avaravos is Callum’s dad. 

So let’s start with Option one here since I know a lot of people will be wondering how the hell option two works. 

Now what do we know about Callum’s father. Well nothing, honestly. What little we do have comes from King Harrow in his letter: 

“ Because I’m your stepfather, I was trying to give you the space I thought you needed to love your real father, even though he passed away.” 

We know that according to Harrow Callum’s birth father is dead. But outside of this, we have nothing about him. 

We do know though that, again, through the letter about Aaravos’s box. 

“This cube is an ancient relic that has been passed down through the ages. It belonged to an elven wizard in Xadia, the Archmage Aaravos, a master of all six primal sources. It is hidden in a box of keys because it is known as the"Key of Aaravos" and legends say it unlocks something of great power in Xadia. Perhaps it will be you, Callum, who discovers the key’s secrets.” 

So what can we say about this bit of information that is important. 

Well for one thing we know that it belonged to Aaravos and was passed down through the ages. So...how did Harrow get it? We know that Viren doesn’t know about the damn thing, he’d have gotten to it already if he did. And it’s clear that he didn’t know who Aaravos was, meaning that the name is not well known. 

However there are books and the poem to go by. Question is, who gave Harrow that box? How long has he had it? If it was something in his family he would have told Callum that it was passed down to him, right? So let’s assume for the moment this object didn’t belong to Harrow, well then who had it first? Given it’s an elven item and going into Xadia is not easy, that means that it had to have come from someone connected to Xadia. 

If we assume that Sarai is like Ez, then we can guess she has some skill with talking to creatures. So it’s not too far off to assume that she may have gotten the Cube and given it to Harrow as a gift. 

Now the question is, how did she get it? Well option one is that she took it, but she doesn’t strike me as the sort to do that. So option two it was a gift. We know that the elves are not really very into humans all that much, but there could have been a friendship that was struck up between Sarai and an elf that lead to her gaining the box. But...

Option 3 is more likely, where in Sarai may have met an Elf that became her husband, or lover, and they produced Callum. Now given that Callum managed to connect to the Storm/sky, I wouldn’t be too surprised if we had a case of his dad being a Sky/Storm Elf. 

Note the green in the skin tone, could be connected to the eye color Callum has. 

So let’s assume for a second that could explain Callum’s connection to the storm. But, given how this story is going there’s a chance that Sarai may have some abilities in her, passed on through her family, which could make her a descendant of Aaravos and Elarion. Given that human’s are a more common aspect, this could be a case of said sky elf, or even if his dad is human, than he could be the descendant of Aaravos through various means as we don’t know yet how the family line works for elves and if they can intermix. 

If this is the case that Sarai or Callum’s dad has the blood of Aaravos in them, then it’s likely they could have passed it onto Callum and caused him to gain the magic to unlock that box. The likely scenario would be that Elarion had a child with him and that the child, or children, went on down the line until we hit Sarai or Callum’s dad. Either case we have a person who would be considered a halfling or some percentage star elf allowing for magic to be part of the blood line. 

Which could explain why Callum insisted that he could feel that he could do magic. This I think is important as no one else ever says this, not even our two dark magic users. Callum knows it’s something that he can do, he must do, and thus the letter from Harrow makes him feel more sure that he can connect to that part of him. Leading to Harrow’s comment in his dream state where he was able to break from the hold the dark magic had on him. 

This could be the most likely case in regard to the story since Aaravos is a rare elf, given the details we have so far. However there is option 2. 

Now Option 2 is a bit...odd. Not because it’s something that seems illogical, it’s just a question of how and when, and possibly why. 

So let’s start with the first issue of this theory, which would be “Wasn’t Aaravos locked up for a long time?” 

Answer: We don’t know. We know that Ruaan said that it’s something worse than death. But how does he know this? You could argue, Legends, but then wouldn’t that have come out at some point? Either through Rayla or the Moon elf? Fact is we don’t know, and the thing that is making this a bit fuzzy is that Rayla’s parents were where Viren found the mirror. If this was something that was that old, why need elves to protect it if it’s with the dragons? You would think they would trust them to not have it taken. 

So assuming that Aaravos wasn’t locked up for a long time...then where was he? 

Well, probably hiding out, away from the eye of the elves for his crime, or at least what they perceived to be a crime, giving magic to the humans. And the most likely place is the place that Lujanne mentioned, the weird world between life and death. 

If, as I’m guessing and hopefully correct, the mirror acts as a portal and was locked due to the magic writing on the frame, then Aaravos could have used the mirror or mirrors like it to go through this place, since he knows and can use Moonshadow Elf magic. This would mean the mirrors are like the Eluvians from Dragon Age, acting as a means of travel through the fade and the veil where all the magic in the world there is kept. 

So how does this lead to the idea of Callum being Aaravos’s son? 

Well let’s start with the facts. We know that, according to the poem, Aaravos gave magic to the humans, and he sees them as interesting and having potential. To me this reads again, like Solas, seeing great things coming out of them. Meaning that Aaravos has no issue with being around and hanging out with humans. 

We also know that the box in question belonged to him, but not that he made it. 

It belonged to an elven wizard in Xadia, the Archmage Aaravos, a master of all six primal sources. It is hidden in a box of keys because it is known as the"Key of Aaravos" and legends say it unlocks something of great power in Xadia.

So what’s important here to note is that it belong to Aaravos, not that he made it, making me think that this wasn’t just a case of him crafting this but it being passed on to him through his clan of mages. This means that he was a holder of it. 

Now we know that Aaravos can use all the sources, we’ve seen it in action:

And yet he’s the only one that can do it. According to Rayla the magic that the elves use is an internal thing, and the implication is that the elves can’t learn other forms of magic. A sun elf can’t learn water magic, and a moon elf won’t be able to learn say storm magic. 

As seen in season one, there is no hand motion, and Rayla goes shadow. But like Callum Aaravos needs to use the magic in the same way Callum does. He has to write the symbol. 

Yet Aaravos, because he’s a star touched elf, this probably means that he has a connection to the world in a different way because every thing on earth has some connection to a cosmic energy due to the fact that, you know, we’re kind of made of star dust. 

If you notice the other person that seems to have that connection is Callum. 

After he wakes up and talk to Rayla he mentions that he feels more connected to the world and is able to latch onto things. 

During his time in his mind there’s a moment when his mother helps him out of his panic attack and when he’s using the other magic...what does he do, draws it out like Aaravos. We know he knows how to do this due to the Primal stone, but, it’s interesting that he recovers so fast, and seems to understand it better now. 

Another factor to consider is the fact that Callum and Aaravos have similar looks:

The reason I bring this up is because while faces on the show do have similarities, both Ez and Callum show looks like their parents. 

And if you look at Aaravos and Callum, with Sarai’s softer side, well you can see the similarities there. 

So then the question becomes how, how could Callum look human and still be part star elf, wouldn’t that stand out? 

Well, again we look to Dragon Age. One of the lead characters of the first story Alistair , is actually half elf on his mother’s side. However because of the more dominate traits from his human father, Alistair looks human. 

We don’t know how it works in the world of The dragon prince but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s similar in nature to how DA does it where the human aspect is physically stronger and takes away the ears and the horns. After all Soren even comments on how good looking Rayla is, meaning that a human could fall for an elf and vice versa. 

So how would Aaravos and Sarai meet and create Callum? 

Well the most likely situation was that Aaravos probably was hiding away from the elves, or they didn’t know that he had been the cause of the dark magic being created. It’s not that hard to buy into the fact that he was more of a person that like solitude. 

We see in his room that he studies a lot of books, and clearly he seems pretty calm and collected for someone locked away. So it’s not too hard to suppose that after events with the humans being pushed out of Xadia, he may have followed in a way over time and watched how things played out. 

As for Sarai, well, to me it seems pretty clear that she has the same skill that Ezran has, to talk with animals, and this could flow into talking to magical creatures as well. Given the fact that no one believes Ezran when he says he can talk to the animals, it could be that Sarai had the same issue, leading her to probably go off on her own as a young woman to deal with that. 

And let’s be honest, after seeing her personality and looks, it’s not hard to believe that anyone wouldn’t find her attractive. 

On the side of Aaravos, given how many are already liking how he looks, attraction wouldn’t be that huge a jump for Sarai in this case. On top of that he may not have been walking around as an elf. We know that the Moonshadow mages can cast illusions, as per Lujanne in season 1 and 2, so turning that magic on himself and creating a persona would be a easy trick for Aaravos. 

We also know now that Ezran takes after his mom in the trust department, and that she doesn’t seem to be against magical beings. So it’s not a leap in logic to assume that she wouldn’t be against the idea of being in love with someone who was an elf and different from her. 

It would not be a hard sell either to have it were Aaravos showed Sarai about the other creatures in Xadia, and helped her to hone her ability. if the poem is true too, Aaravos wouldn’t be against Amaya for her being unable to hear, though I don’t think he would have shown her his true form, but would have probably shown Sarai. Aaravos probably also would have seen a skilled warrior in her, something that could have complimented his magic. (Heck you could argue that their dynamic mirrors that of Rayla and Callum, a female fighter and a male mage.) 

The two easily could have met in the woods, with Aaravos in his illusion, and the two hitting it off. Leading eventually to some sort of confession of love, leading to something akin to a marriage, and possibly Aaravos confessing about what he is at some point in time. This could have easily lead to the two creating Callum and him being born with the hidden power to use the other primal sources like his father. Keep in mind that there’s no rules that say he couldn’t have loved to women at different times. 

However I have a feeling that if Aaravos was in hiding, his cover may have been blown and he would have had to flee. We know due to Runaan that the mirror is seen as worse than death, and we know that Rayla’s parents were more than likely guarding it. Moonshadow elves are the assassins of the clans, and we see how they do things, which leads me to think that they couldn’t outright kill him and were probably sent by the other elves to take him out for teaching the dark magic to the humans. 

Which brings me to the second point of Sarai. Given her actions in season 2 I have to think she wouldn’t just let him be killed or taken before her. So more than likely Aaravos could have given her the cube, and explained to her what it was, which she later gave as a gift to Harrow to keep safe for Callum for when he was older. And she in turn explained to him the story behind it as explained by Aaravos to her. No doubt to keep her safe it’s not to large of a leap to think that he used that magic of his to make it hard for her to find him, and probably she thought he had died due to blood or other things she could have found in an event of a struggle with the Moonshadow elves. 

This leaves the next big question. If he is Callum’s father, now what? Is he evil or no? 

To me Aaravos seems to be the type where what he’s doing is bad, but he doesn’t think he’s being bad. Again, if the poems are telling truth, then there’s a chance that he actually saw good in humans, and this may be a case of him, over time, wanting to get back at the world for screwing things up for him. 

As with Solas from DA, there’s this idea that he’s a bit of a trickster type who is seeking revenge for what happened not just to him but those he cared for, and becoming more and more willing to find a way out. Clearly he was doing something when he walked out of that room, and we know he’s manipulating Viren. It seems to me he sees him as a way out, and this could lead to some interesting moments with Ezran and possibly Callum. 

Let’s say he finds out that Sarai is dead, if he still has feelings for her, will he blame Xadia more for it’s actions? Would he see in Ezran what he saw in Sarai, and want to help him grow his gift? Or would he be jealous of the boy who’s father was with the woman he loved and who’s actions lead to her death? 

Also if you look at Callum in this case, not only would he probably want to see his son again, but it’s highly likely that he would want to train him too. Yet as we saw Callum could be the one able to unlock that box, and for someone that is probably very good at playing others with a silver tongue, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to think he could get Callum to help him get whatever it is that the box connects to in Xadia. This could lead to some very dramatic aspects, especially if Aaravos uses the weakness of Claudia, or Rayla or even Callum to exploit things and get his way. 

Could he love his son and want him to join him? To train him? Would Callum be willing to work with him? Or would he reject him and connect back to Harrow as his father and want to be like he was? How would this affect Aaravos, and would that lead to some darker things coming. 

Having Aaravos be Callum’s father not only would be a huge dynamic for the magic and growth of Callum, but for the over all story as well, because it would make him have to confront who he was and connect directly to the idea of what Harrow said in his letter to him...

“ I ask you and your brother to reject history as a narrative of strength and instead have faith that it can be a narrative of love.

I’ve tried to be selfless as a king, but as a father, I have a selfish wish. And that is for you and Ezran to be…free. Reject the chains of history. Do not let the past define your future, as I did. Free yourself from the past. Learn from it, understand it, then let it go. Create a brighter future from your own hearts and imagination.”

Having both these men effect Callum’s choices could lead to some really great story telling and push the idea of creating that brighter future. It would explain all of Callum’s desires to be a mage, because it’s something he’s born with, and would also be a huge connection to the box and make sense for why he can be the one that can unlock it. Having Aaravos being his father would be, honestly, fun. 

*Well if you made it all the way to the end, congratulations, and I hope this all makes sense as a theory to you dear reader. 

[aion-rsa]

Best Horror Movies Streaming on HBO Max

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Editor’s Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see the new horror movies on HBO Max.

Updated for October 2020

What ever would we do without horror?

So much of our daily life is built around logic and known, verifiable facts, and for some, the rest of the time must be supplemented with comforting reassurances that everything is going to be alright. Well if the last year has taught us anything… that’s not the case. Perhaps this is why horror hounds know the best way to face abstract fears is to confront them head on… and preferably with a screen in the way.

So, with Halloween around the corner, we figured it’s time to get in touch with our illogical, terrified animal brain. That’s where horror and horror movies in particular come in. Gathered here are the best horror movies on HBO Max for your scaring needs.

Alien

“In space, no one can hear you scream,” the tagline for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror epic promised. Well maybe they should have screened this thing in space because I’m sure all that audiences in theaters did was scream.

Alien has since evolved into a heady, science fiction franchise that has stretched out for decades. The original film, however, is a small-scale, terrifyingly claustrophobic thriller.

Altered States

What if you could tap into the vast swaths of the brain you never use? What if you did and didn’t like what we found? And what if it was an absolute psychedelic rush of a cinematic experience?

All three questions are answered in their own way during Ken Russell’s Altered States, a wild sci-fi thriller. In the film, William Hurt stars as a psychologist who begins experimenting with taking hallucinatory drugs while in a sensory depravation tank.

Yes, he manages to expand his consciousness; he also begins to expand his physical body as it transforms beneath his skin. Or does it? Well that’s yet another good question…

An American Werewolf in London

Arguably the definitive werewolf movie, John Landis’ 1981 horror masterpiece has the single greatest on-screen lycanthropic transformation in movie history… and that’s only one of its appeals.

Peppered with loving references to the werewolf movies that came before it and a few legitimate laughs to go along with the scares, An American Werewolf in London is remarkably knowing and self-aware, without ever flirting with parody.

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Movies

An American Werewolf in London Is Still the Best Horror Reimagining

By David Crow

Movies

13 Must-See Werewolf Movies

By Mike Cecchini

Not enough can be said about Rick Baker’s practical effects, which extend beyond the aforementioned on-screen transformation and into one of the most gruesome depictions of a werewolf attack aftermath you’re ever likely to see. A classic of the era, it still can get under the skin whenever Griffin Dunne’s mutilated corpse rises from the grave to warn his friend to “beware the moon.”

The Brood

I bet you never thought placenta could look so tasty, but when Samantha Eggar’s Nola Carveth licks her newborn clean you’ll be craving seconds within the hour. She brings feline intuition to female troubles. We get it. Having a new baby can be scary. Having a brood is terrifying. Feminine power is the most horrifying of all for male directors used to being in control.

David Cronenberg takes couples therapy one step too far in his 1979 psychological body-horror film, The Brood. When it came out critics called it reprehensible trash, but it is the writer-director’s most traditional horror story. Oliver Reed plays with mental illness like Bill Sikes played with the kids as Hal Raglan, the psychotherapist treating the ex-wife of Frank Carveth (Art Hindle). The film starts slow, unfolding its drama through cuts and bruises.

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Movies

Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

By David Crow and 2 others

Movies

Katharine Isabelle on How Ginger Snaps Explored the Horror of Womanhood

By Rosie Fletcher

Cronenberg unintentionally modifies the body of the Kramer vs. Kramer story in The Brood, but the murderous munchkins at the external womb of the film want a little more than undercooked French toast.

Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls may be the most unlikely of chillers to appear in the Criterion Collection. Hailing from the great state of Kansas and helmed by commercial director Herk Harvey, who was looking for his big break in features, there is something hand-crafted about the whole affair. There’s also something unmistakably eerie.

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Movies

Carnival Of Souls: The Strange Story Behind the Greatest Horror Movie You’ve Never Seen

By Joshua Winning

Movies

A24 Horror Movies Ranked From Worst to Best

By David Crow and 3 others

The story is fairly basic campfire boilerplate, following a woman (Candace Hilligoss) who survives a car crash but is then haunted by the sound of music and visions of the ghoulish dead–beckoning her toward a decrepit carnival abandoned some years earlier–and the acting can leave something to be desired. But the dreadful dreamlike atmosphere is irresistible.

With a strong sense of fatalism and inescapable doom, the film takes an almost melodic and disinterested gait as it stalks its heroine to her inevitable end, presenting images of the walking dead that linger in the mind long after the credits roll.

The Curse of Frankenstein

Hammer is probably best remembered now for its series of Christopher Lee-starring Dracula movies. Yet its oddball Frankenstein franchise deserves recognition too. While Hammer’s efforts certainly pale in comparison to the Frankenstein movies produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s and ’40s, the Hammer ones remain distinctly unique. Whereas the Creature was the star of the earlier films, so much so the studio kept changing the actor beneath the Jack Pierce makeup after Boris Karloff got fed up three movies in, the not-so-good doctor leads the Hammer alternatives.

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Movies

The Conjuring Timeline Explained: From The Nun to Annabelle Comes Home

By Daniel Kurland

Books

Frankenstein Adaptations Are Almost Never Frankenstein Adaptations

By Kayti Burt

Indeed, between bouts of playing the almost sickeningly pious Abraham Van Helsing, Peter Cushing portrayed a perverse and dastardly Victor Frankenstein at Hammer, and it all begins with The Curse of Frankenstein. It isn’t necessarily the best movie in the series, but it introduces us to Cushing’s cruel scientist, played here as less mad than malevolent.

It also features Christopher Lee in wonderfully grotesque monster makeup. This is the film where Hammer began forming an identity that would become infamous in the realm of horror.

The Conjuring 2

Making an effective, truly spooky mainstream horror film is hard enough. But The Conjuring franchise really nailed things out of the gate with a sequel that is every bit as fun and terrifying as the original.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2. This time the Warrens head to Great Britain to attend to the Hodgson family, dealing with some poltergeist problems in their Enfield home. The source of the Enfield haunting’s activity contains some of the most disturbing and terrifying visuals in the entire Conjuring franchise and helped to set up a (sadly pretty bad) spinoff sequel in The Nun.

Doctor Sleep

Let’s be up front about this: Doctor Sleep is not The Shining. For some that fact will make this sequel’s existence unforgivable. Yet there is a stoic beauty and creepy despair just waiting to be experienced by those willing to accept Doctor Sleep on its own terms.

Directed by one of the genre’s modern masters, Mike Flanagan, the movie had the unenviable task of combining one of King’s most disappointing texts with the opposing sensibilities of Stanley Kubrick’s singular The Shining adaptation.

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Movies

Doctor Sleep Director Mike Flanagan on the Possibility of The Shining 3

By John Saavedra

Movies

Doctor Sleep: Rebecca Ferguson on Becoming the New Shining Villain

By John Saavedra

And yet, the result is an effective thriller about lifelong regrets and trauma personified by the ghostly specters of the Overlook Hotel. But they’re far from the only horrors here. Rebecca Ferguson is absolutely chilling as the smiling villain Rose the Hat, and the scene where she and other literal energy vampires descend upon young Jacob Tremblay is the stuff of nightmares. Genuinely, it’s a scene you won’t forget, for better or worse….

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Hammer Films’ fourth Dracula movie, and third to star the ever reluctant Christopher Lee, is by some fans’ account the most entertaining one. While it lacks the polish and ultimate respectability of Lee’s first outing as the vampire, Horror of Dracula (which you can read more about below), just as it is missing the invaluable Peter Cushing, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave arrived in 1968 at the crossroads of Hammer’s pulpy aesthetic. Their films had not yet devolved into exploitative shlock as they would a few years later, but the censors seemingly were throwing up their hands and allowing for the studio’s vampires to be meaner, bloodier, and sexier.

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Movies

Taste the Blood of Dracula: A Hidden Hammer Films Gem

By Don Kaye

In this particular romp, Dracula has indeed risen from the grave (yes, again!) because of the good intentions of one German monsignor (Rupert Davies). The religious leader is in central Europe to save souls, but the local denizens of a village won’t go to a church caught in the shadow of Castle Dracula. So the priest exorcises the structure, oblivious that his sidekick is also accidentally dripping blood into the mouth of Dracula’s corpse down the river. Boom he’s back!

And yet, our fair Count can’t enter his home anymore. So for revenge, Dracula follows the monsignor to his house and lays eyes on the patriarch’s comely young niece (Veronica Carlson). You can probably figure out the rest.

Eraserhead

“In Heaven, everything is fine,” sings the Lady in the Radiator in Eraserhead. “You’ve got your good things, and I’ve got mine.”

You may get something short of paradise, but the insular world David Lynch created for his 1977 experimental existential horror film is a land of mundane wonders, commonplace mysteries, and extremely awkward dinner conversations. Lynch’s first feature film is surrealistic, expressionistic, and musically comic. The minor key score and jarring black and white images bring half-lives to the industrial backdrop and exquisite squalor. At its heart though, Eraserhead is poignant, sad, and ultimately relatable on a universal level.

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TV

Buffy: The Animated Series – The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spin-Off That Never Was

By Caroline Preece

Games

How Scorn Turned the Art of H.R. Giger into a Nightmarish Horror Game World

By John Saavedra

Jack Nance’s Henry Spencer is the spiky-haired everyman. He works hard at his job, cares deeply for his deformed, mutant child, and is desperate to please his extended family. Lynch lays a comedy of manners in a rude, crude city. The film is an assault on the senses, and it might take a little while for the viewer’s brains to adjust to the images on the screen; it is a different reality, and not an entirely inviting one, but stick with it. Once you’re in with the in-laws, you’re home free. When you make it to the end, you can tell your friends you watched all of Eraserhead. When they ask you what it’s about, you can tell them you saw it.

Eyes Without a Face

“I’ve done so much wrong to perform this miracle,” Doctor Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) confesses in the 1960 horror film Eyes Without a Face. But he says it in French, making it all so much more poignant, allowing it to underscore everything director and co-writer Georges Franju did right. We feel for the respectable plastic surgeon forced to do monstrous things. But the monster behind the title character is his young daughter Christiane (Édith Scob). She spends the majority of the film behind a mask, even more featureless than the unpainted plastic Captain Kirk kid’s costume Michael Myers wore in Halloween. The first time we see her face though, the shock wears off quickly and we are more moved than terrified. 

Like Val Lewton films, the horror comes from the desolate black-and-white atmosphere, shrouding the claustrophobic suspense in German Expressionism. Maurice Jarre’s score evokes a Gothic carnival as much as a mad scientist’s laboratory. After his daughter’s face is hideously disfigured in an accident, Dr. Génessier becomes obsessed with trying to restore it. We aren’t shown much, until we’re shown too much. We see his heterograft surgical procedure in real time. A woman’s face is slowly flayed from the muscle. The graphic scenes pack more of a visceral shock after all the encroaching dread.

Godzilla

As the original and by far still the best Godzilla movie ever produced, this 1954 classic (originally titled Gojira), is one of the many great Showa Era classics that the Criterion Collection and HBO Max are making readily available to American audiences. And if you want to watch one that is actually scary, look no further.

In this original uncut Japanese form, the movie’s genuine dread of nuclear devastation, as well as nightly air raids, less than 10 years since World War II ended in several mushroom clouds, is overwhelming. Tapping into the real cultural anxiety of a nation left marred by the memory of its dead, as well as the recent incident of a fishing crew being contaminated by unannounced hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, Godzilla encapsulates terror for the atomic age in a giant lizard.

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Movies

Godzilla: First 15 Showa Era Movies Ranked

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla 1998: What Went Wrong With the Roland Emmerich Movie?

By Jim Knipfel

And unlike the sequels there is nothing cuddly or amusing about this original Kaiju with its scarred body and legion of tumors. This is the one Godzilla movie to play it straight, and it still plays today.

Horror of Dracula

Replacing Bela Lugosi as Dracula was not easily done in 1958. It’s still not easily done now. Which makes the fact that Christopher Lee turned Bram Stoker’s vampire into his own screen legend in Horror of Dracula all the more remarkable. Filmed in vivid color by director Terence Fisher, Horror of Dracula brought gushing bright red to the movie vampire, which up until then had been mostly relegated to black and white shadows.

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Culture

The Bleeding Heart of Dracula

By David Crow

TV

BBC/Netflix Dracula’s Behind-the-Scenes Set Secrets

By Louisa Mellor

With its penchant for gore and heaving bosoms, Horror of Dracula set the template for what became Hammer Film Productions’ singular brand of horror iconography, but it’s also done rather tastefully the first time out here, not least of all because of Lee bring this aggressively cold-blooded version of Stoker’s monster to life. It’s all business with this guy.

Conversely, Abraham Van Helsing was never more dashing than when played by Peter Cushing in this movie. The film turned both into genre stars, and paved the way for a career of doing this dance time and again.

The Invisible Man

After years of false starts and failed attempts at resurrecting the classic Universal Monsters, Universal Pictures finally figured out how to make it work: They called Blumhouse Productions.

Yep, Jason Blum’s home for micro-budgeted modern horror worked wonders alongside writer-director Leigh Whannell in updating the classic 1933 James Whale movie, and the H.G. Wells novel on which it is based, for the 21st century.

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Movies

How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

How The Invisible Man Channels the Original Tale

By Don Kaye

Turning the story of a man who masters invisibility into a horrific experience told from the vantage of the woman trying to escape his toxic violence, The Invisible Man becomes a disquieting allegory for the #MeToo era. It also is a devastating showcase for Elisabeth Moss who is compelling as Cecilia, the abused and gaslighted woman that barely found the will to escape, yet will now have to discover more strength since everyone around her shrugs off the idea of her dead ex coming back as an invisible man…

Lifeforce

Most assuredly a horror movie for a very acquired taste, there are few who would call Tobe Hooper’s career-destroying Lifeforce a good movie. There probably aren’t even many who would call it a fun movie. But for those with a singular taste for batshit pulp run amok, Lifeforce needs to be seen to be believed: Naked French vampire girls from outer space! Hordes of extras as zombies marauding through downtown London! Lush Henry Mancini music over special effects way outside of Cannon Films’ budget!!! Patrick Stewart as an authority figure possessed by said naked French space vampire, trying to seduce an astronaut via makeout sessions?!

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Movies

Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce: Space Vampires, Comets, and Nudity

By Ryan Lambie

Movies

The Mummy and Lifeforce: The Strange Parallels

By Ryan Lambie

… What is this movie? Why does it exist? We don’t know, but we’re probably more glad it does than the people who made it.

Magic

As much a psychological case study as as a traditional horror movie, for those who like their terror rooted in humanity, Magic may be the creepiest iteration of the “killer doll” subgenre since this is about the man who thinks his dummy is alive. Starring Anthony Hopkins before he was Hannibal, or had a “Sir” in front of his name, Magic is the brain child of William Goldman, who adapted his own novel into this movie before he’d go on to do the same for The Princess Bride (as well as adapt Stephen King’s Misery), but after he’d already written Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Marathon Man.

In the film, Hopkins stars as Corky, a down on his luck ventriloquist who tries to get his life together by tracking down his high school sweetheart (Ann-Margret). She’ll soon probably wish he didn’t bother once she realizes Corky believes his ventriloquist dummy Fats really is magic… and is determined to get him to act on the most heinous of impulses.

The Most Dangerous Game

Before King Kong, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack released The Most Dangerous Game, one of the all-time great pulp movies, based on a short story by Richard Connell. This classic has influenced everything from Predator to The Running Man, The Hunger Games to Ready or Not.

It’s the story of a big game hunter who shipwrecks on a remote island with an eccentric Russian Count who escaped the Bolshevik Revolution (Leslie Banks). The wayward noble now drinks, studies, and charms his apparently frequent array of unannounced guests, including two other survivors from a previous (suspicious) wreck. The film quickly boils down to a mad rich man determined to hunt his guests as prey across the island for the ultimate thrill.

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Movies

The Most Dangerous Game That Never Ends

By David Crow

Culture

Why King Kong Can Never Escape His Past

By David Crow

Man hunting man, man lusting after woman in a queasy pre-Code fashion, this is a primal throwback to adventure yarns of the 19th century, which were still relatively recent in 1932. Shot simultaneously with King Kong, this is 63 brisk minutes of excitement, dread, and delicious overacting. Let the games begin.

Night of the Living Dead

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

The zombie movie that more or less invented our modern understanding of what a zombie movie is, there is little new that can be said about George A. Romero’s original guts and brains classic, Night of the Living Dead. Shot in black and white and on almost no budget, the film reimagined zombies as a horde of ravenous flesh-eaters, as opposed to a lowly servant of the damned and enchanted.

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Movies

Night of the Living Dead: The Many Sequels, Remakes, and Spinoffs

By Alex Carter

Games

The George Romero Resident Evil Movie You Never Saw

By David Crow

Still visually striking in black and white, perhaps the key reason to go back to the zombie movie that started it all is due to how tragically potent its central conflict from 1968 remains: When strangers are forced to join forces and barricade in a farmhouse to survive a zombie invasion, the wealthy white businessman is constantly at odds with the young Black man in the group, to the point of drawing weapons…

Ready or Not

The surprise horror joy of 2019, Ready or Not was a wicked breath of fresh air from the creative team Radio Silence. With a star-making lead turn by Samara Weaving, the movie is essentially a reworking of The Most Dangerous Game where a bride is being hunted by her groom’s entire wedding party on the night of their nuptials.

It’s a nutty premise that has a delicious (and broad) satirical subtext about the indulgences and eccentricities of the rich, as the would-be extended family of Grace (Weaving) is only pursuing her because they’re convinced a grandfather made a deal with the Devil for their wealth–and to keep it they must step on those beneath them every generation. Well step, shoot, stab, and ritualistically sacrifice in this cruelest game of hide and seek ever. Come for the gonzo high-concept and stay for the supremely satisfying ending.

Sisters

One of the scariest things about the 1972 psychological thriller Sisters is the subliminal sounds of bones creaking and muscles readjusting during the slasher scenes. Margot Kidder plays both title characters: conjoined twins, French Canadian model Danielle Breton and asylum-committed Dominique Blanchion, who had been surgically separated. Director Brian De Palma puts the movie together like a feature-long presentation of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The camera lingers over bodies, bloodied or pristine, mobile or prone, with fetishistic glee before instilling the crime scenes in the mind’s eye. He allows longtime Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann to assault the ear.

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Movies

Ready or Not Ending Explained

By David Crow

Movies

Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now

By Alec Bojalad and 3 others

De Palma was inspired by a photograph of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, Russian conjoined twins with seemingly polarized temperaments. There may be no deeper bond than blood, which the film has plenty of, but the real alter ego comes from splitscreen compositions and an outside intruder. The voyeuristic delight culminates in a surgical dream sequence with freaks, geeks, a giant, and dwarves. Nothing is as it seems and an out-of-order telephone is a triggering reminder.

Us

Jordan Peele’s debut feature Get Out was a near instant horror classic so anticipation was high for his follow-up. Thanks to an excellent script, Peele’s deep appreciation of pop culture, and some stellar performances, Us mostly lived up to the hype.

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The film tells the story of the Wilson family from Santa Cruz. After a seemingly normal trip to a summer home and the beach, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two kids are confronted by their own doppelgangers, are weird, barely verbal, and wearing red. But then Adelaide is not terribly surprised given her own personal childhood traumas. And that’s only the beginning of the horror at play. Fittingly, Us feels like a feature length Twilight Zone concept done right.

Vampyr

A nigh silent picture, Vampyr came at a point of transition for its director Carl Th. Dreyer. The Danish filmmaker, who often worked in Germany and France at this time, was making only his second “talkie” when he mounted this vampire opus. That might be why the movie is largely absent of dialogue. The plot, which focuses on a young man journeying to a village that is under the thrall of a vampire, owes much to Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu from some years earlier.

Yet there horror fans should seek Vampyr out, if for no other reason than the stunning visuals and cinematography. Alternating between German Expressionist influences in its use to shadows to unsettling images crafted in naturalistic light, such as a boatman carrying an ominous scythe, this a a classic of mood and atmosphere. Better still is when they combine, such as when the scythe comes back to bedevil a woman sleeping, trapping us all in her nightmare. Even if its narrative has been told better, before and after, there’s a reason this movie’s iconography lingers nearly a century later.

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