#if they were real horror fans they would make up more lore about the filming process and how the director almost died filming it

[howlerbat]

Just found out about the tiktok Goncharov rip off and honestly the thing that bothers me the most is that it’s called Zepotha. Like who would name an obscure 80’s slasher film like that one reddit cockroach wife and not something like “Clown Castle Massacre” like do these people know how slashers work??? Do you hate fun??

[cannibalcreepers]

Hii! I was wondering if you’ve ever ranked the Wrong Turn movies yourself? I don’t really count the 2021 reboot cuz it doesn’t have the boys in it, but if you want to count that one you gladly do it. Also if you’ve already ranked them that’s fine and you don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to.

Promise you my dear, that 2021 movie wont be ever ranked in with the Wrong Turn franchise, I don't recognize it as part of the series either lol. But! I will do two rankings, my personal and a non-bias one Personally: 4, 2, 1, 5, 3 and 6 are my Best to Worse. I adore the 4th film, it's my favourite, my comfort movie, my baby, also its the one with the best looking One-Eye, cute as FUCK in that movie.. 2nd is also a fave, love it so much and how it brings in the new side of the family, 1st if a classic, it's the original but I do enjoy fun over seriousness, so the 2nd goes above it. Now with the not-so great side of the films, I enjoyed the 5th with its story and how they handled it as an inbetweener for the 4th and 1st films as well as enjoyed the fun kills but that's all. I'm not a fan of how they handled the characterization of my boys or Maynard, nor the designs of them it truly looked like they didn't put a lot of heart into it. The 3rd is okay and the kills cool, but it felt very bland and flat, hated the story, hated the protags, hated that Three-Toes didn't last long and it just sucked. I hate the 6th film all together, hate the designs, hate the new villains, hate the story, hate the acting, felt the kills were boring, I'd tear it up and re-do it completely if I could. Apologies to fans of this one, but it really sucks its the only horror movie I've ever skipped scenes in and I've watched some real fucking shit-ass low-budget snoozers of some horrors all the way through. The (attempted) non-bias: 1,2,4,5,3,6. The 1st is a classic, it is what brought us the Wrong Turn films and out of every one of them its the most realistic is design and story, it is simply more real in the looks of the brothers, how they are as people and the story of it all, which is what makes it scary cause they were not originally mutants with special healing and strength qualities, just really violent cannibalistic hillbilly-bastard men that could have been inbred (them being inbred is more solidified in the 2nd movie) Its simple and gritty, it stands on its own and really would be fine without the other movies which is why its S tier. The 2nd, is were it broadens the families story out more, though doesn't explain everything as there still needs to be mystery to this family, but it does bring more characters that are family members and I love that it's natural! This is where the 6th WT movie and also where some other horror movies fail when bringing in new family characters when it comes to sequels or prequels where new family members fuck up the dynamic or just make zero sense on where they relate to the original films. The 2nd film is also where it brings the more comedy side of Wrong Turn, but doesn't come off entirely strong so its easier to ease into. It also is the one that brought more lore with how they're related via incest, the involvement of Maynard as well as brought in new lore such as the idea of mutation and that they can take more damage and have more strength to them. The 4th is where we return back to the three brothers and delve into their history more, this is actually where we get a more solid idea of their ages and personalities, the three brother become fleshed out more and really feels like the movie is more about them than their victims we're supposed to be following. It's definitely the one that brought the comedy out the most and made it enjoyable, the new designs on the brothers are also still very nice though they lost their realistic-ness features it is happily not distractible and still appealing. It still has amazing kills, happily does not lack in that creativity, really a good place to find out more lore and it fits nicely in the story line as a beginning.

The 5th is a mix of good and bad, with being the inbetweener of the 4th and 1st film, it filled in the blanks of how the boys got where they are a really good idea, the story is pretty solid and can be seen as fun, it only fails in the design and handling of the characters, with most the victims being bland and boring, though some more interesting than others (the old drunk man and cop lady) but they went a different route in how the three brothers were as characters, in both looks and personalities, as well as how Maynard is in personality and character which is very different from the past films. But the cannibals change personalities is all it failed in, other than that it is a good fun movie with good deaths and a solid lore story that relates from the steps of 4-5-1-2-3. The 3rd, though meant to be the "ending" of the Hillikers/Odets family, leaving an opening of 'mystery cannibal?' at the end. It does have some really nice kills, very creative but that is where it ends. The main idea of the story, though is an idea is one that feels out of place, uninteresting and at times even frustrating. The designs have become more poorly, though is not the worse of the films, it is more a movie that doesn't give a satisfying end and at times loses your interest. It does relate to the 2nd film with having connections, so it does well with keeping up with lore.

The 6th is difficult, since it doesn't fit anywhere realistically or naturally with the 1-5 lore. The acting is poorly, the designs of the brothers are horrendous and the characteristics of the main three boys are the most different and out of place of all the films, it brings in a cult-like lore that doesn't relate nor add up to the original stories, the deaths are okay but nothing entirely creative or fun like its predecessors, neither the new killers or victims are likable or memorable.

(if you want like tier ranking) WT 1: S Tier WT 2: A Tier (My friend would say S tho lol) WT 3: E Tier WT 4: A Tier (personally I'd say S) WT 5: C Tier WT 6: F Tier

[monstrouslyobsessed]

just answering some asks real quick, no writing today but i am working on some n'sfw art of my fave lesbian beastfolk characters. hoping to finish and share that one (but sadly censored) tonight!

cw: mentions of a certain horror hentai, beastfolks

thank you for the quick reply! I am super psyched about the possibility of a book of beast au, like holy moly I'd read it/buy it! And no worries on me selling the fan idea or claiming your idea, its more like me doing fanfiction of my fav author work as fan love ;3 —anonymous

dawwwwwww thank you!! <3 you're a sweetheart!!! do whatever you want! i'm super down to see your (and literally anyone else's) takes on my au~ we need more furry beastman x human tbh.

still a slim possibility tho! it'd be more of a compilation book more than anything as it'd be easier for me to do than to do chapter by chapter thing (and honestly, i wouldn't know who to focus on! i accidentally made the au too vast, rip). the only thing that would kinda suck is having to come up with the identity of mc's in each story, since it's super nice not having to think too much about who the mc is when i write reader x monster. i don't think reader x stories would sell well, though, and especially not the dead dove kind.

but that's alright, it just means i can write the mc's being in the minority if and when i wanted to c: disabled mc's are not something you'd see represented often being one myself and i'd so much love to contribute somehow.

Have you seen puss in boots? —anonymous

i dont...watch many movies lmao but im guessing this is about death the wolf? my friends were all over him! even the ones who aren't into yandere/dd stuffs.

i'll have to see if i can find that film on netflix or prime then and make some time for it

Omg, I didn’t listen to you and I read that hentai fully out of curiosity and wow that’s fucked (and scary) —anonymous

oh nonnie NOOOOOOO-

you poor soul D: it IS a horror hentai though, i should've specified in the initial post (sorry!), but fuck some of them are...

yeah, half of it is extremely fucked indeed. ymmv, but outside the ones involving...minors (shudders), the cow head and the monkey on train are just...no, with the former especially being the worst one and probably the most fucked up of them all. the tall lady and the scarecrows/women in the field would've been...passable to good if they hadn't involved minors, simply because i liked the initial premises. :\ the snake-god would've been a 10/10 for me if the mc is older and less...bratty, but as it is, 8/10 and all of the points i gave were because of the monster's gorgeous unique take on lamia/naga design (that monster lady is a chef's kiss and makes my gay ass heart happy) and her tragic backstory.

idk about the 6-armed snake-god one specifically, but i've heard/read that all the others were based on the Japanese lores. the cow one was supposedly already super gross in the first place though the artist could've just...not do that one and the rest, yeah.

i was able to deal with the statue ones and the worm god fine because...at least they all looked like adults who fell into bad situations they couldn't get out of. the monster on the road is...well, it'd be better if it didn't look like an old man :\ rest i just straight up skimmed through with my eyes half shut and completely skipping the cow head one first few pages in.

…sufficient to say, i only read monster / horror hentai's based on friends' recs than looking for them myself these days. way too many involving minors, which is…unfortunate. yucks.

i'm very, very sorry i led you down there and endured all of that, nonnie dear. D:> i'll go back and edit that post to warn others.

[lorz-ix]

Time for another series retrospective

REC (2007)

I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of mainstream spanish cinema, but holy shit if this isn't one of the best movies my country has produced. This found footage zombie movie released during the peak of those sub-genres, and they really tried their hardest to make it something special. It was filmed in real locations using actual neighbors as extras to make the movie feel truly real, and it paid off.

I won't go into much more detail. If you think what I already said sounds interesting, just go watch it. It's legitimately top quality stuff.

REC 2 (2009)

This one instantly goes in the "sequels that are arguably better than the original" list. Picking up exactly where the first movie ended, now we get to see what goes down when security forces have to enter the scene. This makes for a different vibe, since a lot has already happened, but they really manage to set up strong stakes and drama, plus we get to see a bit more of the reasoning behind what caused the events in the first place. Some people might dislike that the curtain over that mystery gets pulled a little bit, like in so many horror sequels, but I believe it's done just enough to keep things as interesting as they can be.

REC 3: Génesis (2012)

The only one of these I had the chance to see in cinemas back in the day. It's a massive change of pace and tone, since in order to tell a different story, they abandon the found footage style early on, and there's a lot more comedy bits in there.

Frankly, it's very easy to just watch the first two and forget they made more, because this isn't on that top tier level anymore, but I honestly still like the third entry. I think they were able to pull off an emotional story pretty well. Perhaps I am biased as a spaniard, because the setting and characters still feel very real, like this wedding gone wrong is one I have attended many times, minus the zombies of course.

I guess my verdict is "trust me on this one bro", you might think it's generic and not fantastic, but you might like it too.

REC 4: Apocalipsis

If you think a horror sequel that tells you too much about the "lore" ruins the appeal, then you've come to the wrong place. This final entry feels like one of those later Resident Evil movies, with a lot of action, a crazy setting and infodumps from an actual evil villain. It's forgettable, it kinda tarnishes what came before, and I can only suggest watching it if you're really curious about watching all of them.

Quarantine (2008)

You want proof that REC was a smash hit? Here you have it. Americans just bought the rights to remake the whole movie from the ground up, except with half the charm since it was filmed in sets with regular actors, and it's a cynical remake rather than a passionate original project.

In all seriousness, it's not a bad movie, it can't be when they're mostly competently copying something that's so good, but why would you watch this when you literally have a better version right there? Because you hate listening to other languages? Because subtitles bother you?

To add insult to injury though, they took the relatively unique paranormal/religious lore of the original series, which was kinda relevant because the whole catholic angle felt very grounded in the spanish setting, and replaced it with a generic biohazard/virus plot. Yup. They really thought making the movie even less special and more generic would be a good idea.

Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011)

The people who brought you Quarantine couldn't keep remaking the original series, so instead they opted to make an original sequel, and it's even less special, more forgettable, and less worthy of your time.

The one and only reason to watch this one is if you're really interested on hearing a bit more of that sweet "original" lore that they changed for this american copycat. Everything else I already forgot about.

[callmearcturus]

So for literally years now, people have been asking the people at Waypoint to make a subscription service and they finally launched it, and its 5$/month and I have joined it and now I am here to preach the good word of Waypoint Radio.

What is Waypoint Radio?

Waypoint Radio is the flagship podcast of VICE GamesWaypoint, a subsection of VICE News that focuses on video games with a more critical lens then you'll find most places. They've been around about five years, founded by Austin Walker (formerly Giant Bomb, currently Friends At The Table and other ventures), helmed by Patrick "Scoops" Klepek, Rob Zacny, Ricardo Contreas, Gita Jackson (formerly Kotaku), and other contributors.

The website has many very good articles on video games. They've run everything from goofy internet shitposts to stuff like...

A Hardcore Lego Fan Spent Six Years Making an Ambitious 'Bionicle' Fan Game

The Quiet Horror of ‘Fatum Betula’ Harkens Back to a Classic Era of Games

The Near Impossible 20-Year Journey to Translate 'Fire Emblem: Thracia 776'

Super Nintendo Music Does Not Need "Restoration" (THIS ONE IS SUPER INTERESTING I PROMISE)

They once did an entire week focusing on firearms in games and our relationship to them. They both have on-staff writers who are black, hispanic, queer, neurodivergent-- and also spend their freelance budget on marginalized voices to talk about shit other sites don't make time for. They are one of the voices that made Labor In Games a huge deal in the past 5 years. They are very solidly part of the rise of the post-GG voices in the industry.

They're also sharp people, extremely funny, have incredible chemistry. Their podcasts are long (jokingly said to be "five-star podcasts with five-star run times). Topics range from

what does it mean when Blizzard lays off their employees while reporting record-breaking profits, how does that happen?

what happens if you try to figure out the plot of Kingdom hearts using only lore wikis and watching cutscenes in chronological order?

what's Rob baking today?

are the Jedi cops? what is their jurisdiction? where are they empowered from?

is The Purge series quietly the most cutting social commentary of american society that exists in modern film?

how irrational is it to do the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon demo 40 times and make a spreadsheet of all the quiz answers because Cado is certain he's not a fucking mudkip, Nintendo?

serious in-depth discussion of games and their themes and how they portray people and what verbs they offer us

“Did I ever tell y'all about how I started collecting protection money in grade school?”

They do good work.

If I had to unsubscribe from every podcast in the world but one, I would pick Waypoint Radio.

Also, this is important: this podcast has ruined me for most other discussion podcasts because they fucking know how not to interrupt and speak over each other, when someone is cut off they loop back to them, and people just get to TALK. That, to me, is incredible.

I can go on. I can talk about how Patrick has literally 5000 stories about games industry minutiae because he's been in it literally his whole life. I can talk about how Austin has influenced me so fucking heavily in how he speaks about media, especially about how famine mentality makes us act like morsels are feasts. I can talk about how it's been years and the sheer JOY everyone has when Cado accidentally fucks up his twitter handle makes me cackle. And I... could never explain who the fuck Rob Zacny is because I think he's a fake person. He cannot be real. But his and Natalie's friendship truly is a guiding light.

But the point is: Waypoint is the best video game podcast by far, and they are gearing up to expand.

(well really over the years they've done a lot of cool shit like devoting some 12 hours of podcast to talking about the BBC Pride & Prejudice, and having a video game book club DEEP discussion of various games, and a weekly pop culture podcast, but all of those were cancelled by their bosses at VICE, and with this they want to revive all those shows)

So I am now asking: If you like video games, please listen to Waypoint Radio. Start anywhere. The latest episode is super good, but also I can give you recs. And if you enjoy their work, please subscribe to them.

Thanks for reading. Be good, and be good at it. Peace.

[yamaoni]

The Second Great War of Remnant has begun. Once more, Vale and Mantle are embroiled in a massive conflict, only this time, they are on the same side against Atlas.

I don't think it was a coincidence that so many people drew parallels with the last episode and WWI. We've never seen people fight that way in RWBY. Grimm don't use projectile weapons the way humans do, so the benefits of the trench are diminished; especially if you compare it to the drawbacks.

Now, I understand not everyone in the Atlas military has their aura unlocked and the squishy soldiers need some cover, but if The Long Memory didn't nuke every grimm on Atlas, the lines would have been overrun and then there would have been nowhere for them to retreat to.

You think the very real hand to hand struggles in the trenches of WWI were bad, imagine being trapped in a narrow trench with a bear. Or having this thing explode out of the ground under you.

I refuse to believe no-one in Atlas ever thought, "if we put the dirt from the trench in a box, no only can we give our soldiers cover, we can also give them an elevated position to fire from."

The top of a wall has been the primary defensive position for the people of Remnant for a long time. You can see them in the establishing shots of most settled places the team has visited. So why are we seeing a trench now?

Simple.

Show, don't tell.

RWBY has done a pretty great job, especially in the last few seasons, of showing the audience what it is trying to convey without explicitly telling them. They especially like drawing from well known folk lore to give insight into the future of the show.

Only difference here, instead of drawing the parallel between characters, they're drawing parallels between worlds.

Remnant's first Great War started with Mantle suppressing freedom of expression, the destruction of Art and Color. Ironwood always has little in the way of color, but in his first broadcast since everything started hitting the fan, he has none.

That broadcast also included evacuation ships being blown up by fighter-bombers, Dunkirk. It threatend to level a city if they didn't surrender, Battle of Brittan. All delivered by a dictator trying to scare his opponents into submission through careful use of film.

Theories

If the rest of the season is WWII, I have several theories on plot direction. Considering how well they did keeping up with both ends of the battlefield it wouldn't surprise me if they followed all of them at the same time.

Operation Dunkirk

Or, the evacuation of Mantle.

Players: Penny, Nora, Ren, Happy Huntresses

The Happy Huntresses involvement is a given. Not only has saving Mantle been their goal the whole time, they're also stuck in the middle of it right now.

Penny is the Protector of Mantle. It would be a shining moment for her character to fully throw off the virus Watts implanted and overcome Ironwood's threats to do so. Just crossing my fingers that it doesn't end like the Iron Giant.

Nora is currently Penny's tether to sanity, so she has to go with, and I doubt they would separate Ren from her for the next arc so he's going too.

Surprise twist for this plot I'm betting will be the Starwars "they aren't warships, just people" scene everyone loves to rag on. After all, the broadcast went out that they needed help and, at least at Dunkirk, it was fishing boats and pleasure crafts that retrieved the 338,000 surrounded on all sides.

Why We Fight

Or, countering Ironwoods propaganda.

Players: Robyn and Qrow

For one, these two are unaccounted for and in the heart of Atlas' military machine. If anyone has means to do so, it's them.

The film, Why We Fight, also countered the dramatic cinematography of Goebbels propaganda by painting it as ridiculous and making a folksy call to action much like Robyn has done in the past.

Operation Fortitude

Or, the deception of Ironwood.

Players: Emerald, Jaune, Oscar

This is the mission to make Ironwood think the team is going after the relic. This theory is why I actually thought of and wrote out this whole thing. Thanks @maxiemumdamage, I had things I was supposed to do tonight.

https://maxiemumdamage.tumblr.com/post/644291955872890880/willing-to-bet-my-own-soul-that-emerald-uses-her

Only difference in my theory and their's, is Jaune is going to be playing the part of Penny.

I say this for two reasons. One, Joan of Arc pretended to be a man. While we've gotten both Jaune pretending to be something he's not and him in a dress, this would pose the first time in the story he could do both. Two, it would put him on a direct collision path with Cinder. It needs to happen at some point to bring his arc to a conclusion, but man I hope we're not about to watch him burn.

With Ozpin active again, Oscar has to go along to direct them to the vault. He's also one of two backing the idea of Emerald joining the team and Jaune wouldn't be willing to work with her without him.

Operation Overlord

Or, busting down the doors of Atlas Acadamy.

Players: Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yang

Where Operation Fortitude was the faint, Operation Overlord was the real deal. For those that aren't history buffs, this is D-Day.

I think this is the reason we've only seen the main team fighting together once since their split from Beacon. And even then, that fight was at most pairs of fighters and not all four of them supporting one another.

RWBY tricked us into thinking season 4 was the post-timeskip level up we come to expect from anime when really we ended up watching the training flashbacks as they happened instead.

We've seen hints of it with the various team ups and combinations, but are we really ready for how much ass kicking they are about to do?

I'm hoping for a One Piece level of badass entrance that can give me shivers whenever I go to watch it again like the walk to Arlong Park still does to this day.

(Aside: if you try telling me RWBY isn't anime, I'm just going to ignore you. Anime is an art movement. If you don't understand what that means, watch this video. https://youtu.be/uFtfDK39ZhI)

Now last and certainly not least

Operation Valkyrie

Or, the death of Ironwood.

Players: Winter and Marrow

The long awaited defection. Plenty of speculation has already floated around about if and when these two where going to cave to their morals and jump ship. I don't know how many of us were expecting the straw to break the camel's back to be a nuke held over Mantle, but I certainly wasn't.

What worries me, is Operation Valkyrie failed and all its conspirators were executed. As if there weren't enough death flags for Winter before.

Even if it's not Winter that kills him. I don't see Ironwood surviving this season. Even if it means he goes out like another hated dictator. It's not like it would be the first time RT had a fallen hero chose to use his own sword.

Wildcards

Or, Murphy will have his due.

Players: Cinder, Watts, Neo, Tyrian, Mercury, Clover

These players can go any which way. Three we know for sure are going to be active in the coming episodes and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three play a part as well.

Oscar made a hell of a light show for Tyrian and Mercury to see behind them. Not to mention, Salem will still need a ride home when she pulls herself back together.

Clover keeps getting mentioned even though he's hospitalized. If he was truly out of commission for the rest of the season, they would have made us think he's dead before bringing him back like they did with Penny.

Up to now, what we've seen is a three way conflict. But one of the hallmarks of Remnant's First Great War, was making temporary alliances to fight off grimm.

The grimm might be gone, but the wild cards can't complete their own objectives if they are dead. The question is who's goals better align with their own.

Two surprise twists I can see here. One, Mercury stabbing Tyrian on his way to defection. He was raised by an assassin and has not going to get a better chance than that. Two, Clover joining Operation Valkyrie. He might have accepted that sacrifice is a necessary evil to ensure Atlas' survival, but might go Schindler's List on us and find horror in what Ironwood plans to do.

TLDR

I spent way too long writing this out. All the WWI imagery means we're getting a WWII movie with RWBY characters. Major death flags for Penny, Jaune, and Winter.

Also I finally figured out how to do a readmore. Apparently it's just been a long time since I updated.

Note: kept seeing things talking about clovers death and I kind of went ???? Isn't he barely alive in medical? Went back and watched that scene and though I am 90% sure he is dead still kind of weird that they have him in his own room instead of a morgue and the initial framing made my mind instantly think he was propped up on a hospital bed. I mean, I guess we needed to have all the ACEOPs there for their reaction to Ironwood... but it definitely made me think he was alive. That and they have a bandage on his chest wound... when he's supposedly dead. Also have a phantom memory of Harriet saying something about him being in critical but I think that's my memory playing tricks on me.

Having his face exposed instead of covered by the sheet and seeing him in the same frame as Winter being treated also didn't help my gut reaction of "Oh Shit! He's alive? How?!" If I'd followed up more on the "how" might not have made the blunder of writing his return as the final twist in my theory. Oops

[generalasshattery]

MK Movie Thoughts and Reflections

It’s been a few days since I watched it, and it’s all had time to settle in my brain. Who wants a tangent?

So, I guess I should start with the like biggest issue. Cole. Like I get he was only put in the movie because the studio insisted, and I feel like a little bit of the resentment for having to do that is obvious by just how bland a character he is. If they had to have him, they could’ve at least made him a little more fun to watch. Like, you had the opportunity to make a new Mortal Kombat character, some of the most deliciously and wonderfully over the top and charismatic fighting game characters out there... like why didn’t they make any effort to justify his existence on screen? Want to give us an everyman that can be used to introduce the world to the public? Do it, make him an audience proxy. Use some wit and charm to make people feel like he represents how they’d act in that scenario. I’ve seen this done to absolutely beautiful effect, my favorite example is actually a short horror film on YouTube called Downstairs. Lean into the batshit insanity you’re introducing in the form of mortal kombat. This role is historically handled by Johnny Cage, but he’s a celebrity rich boy, how would Joe down the block honestly handle this shit? Would he be stressed the fuck out and anxious? Or riding high getting to live out an ultimate power fantasy? That’s what would’ve been fun to explore with a new character IMO.

With that out of the way, I’m not going to belabor all the things I didn’t enjoy. Because well, it’s obvious. Jobbers irritate me, like what the fuck was that they did with Reiko? Did not like. Killing a clearly post burns Kabal in a fire? Like that just upset me. And all the weird lore building choices were just that... fucking weird. They do not need to be super heroes. They do not need to awaken super powers. Tech based abilities make it more interesting against the more supernaturally influenced characters. Genre bending has always been a feature and not a bug in MK. The game was supposed to be a Jean Claude Van Damme game, it was supposed to be all these different genres of movies coming together to fight the Van Damme, in a manor of speaking. Taking away the absolutely fun part of the story where special ops, a celebrity, and monks team up with a god to fight ninjas, a sorcerer, criminal empires, and monsters, is like missing the forest for the trees with the franchise. And I just can’t even go into Shang Tsung. I just can’t. I like Chin Han, he plays assholes very well, but Shang Tsung is a special kind of asshole. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa just set the bar so high with how much intellectualism he brings to the lines. He can drop them in such a smart sounding way that it makes you feel like he’s three steps ahead of you. There’s something so obviously manipulative and toying in his vibe (god the best part of MK11 is him, I’ll fight people on this, he fucking stole that shit for me) that it makes him feel instantly threatening. Immediately you know this is a man you Should Not Fuck with. I need that from Shang Tsung, or I don’t even really feel like you should bother bringing him to screen.

But despite all that, I did actually enjoy the experience of watching the movie, admittedly because I expected not to like any of it, so there were quite a few pleasant surprises. The gore and fight scenes were so perfectly stylized with the excessive blood and choreography, showing off the characters fatalities and famous moves... yes feed me that fan service. Feed it to me.

And while I don’t love all the casting (Reiko and Shang Tsung for example), some of it was pure perfection. Kano, Jax and Sonya? Story was... A Choice but loved the actors and what they brought to the characters. Also, like Lui Kang being cast with just the prettiest actor made me very happy. Pretty boy Lui Kang can hang, especially with his belt/slash floating in the wind. I was here for that.

Holy god damn hell, Joe Taslim, what the fuck dude? You made all my Bi-Han fantasies and dreams a reality. Like god damn, I could feel the depth he was bringing to the role even if the script didn’t let him explore it. I seriously hope we get so much more from him because got damn. I was so pleased with his performance. Holy shit not to mention the ice effects, his Katara moment of stopping the rain and then wrecking the shit out of a street is the kind of raw destructive power that canon has always hinted he has but hasn’t really shown us. He’s so often relegated to being a jobber, and MK is so especially bad at telling you a character is powerful but not showing it. Oh boy the movie showed it. Not just him either, I felt a real sense of power from a few players, and that was deeply satisfying.

Also like Kabal? For as much as his death pissed me off, damn did they nail his vibe. I think we’d all rather have good guy Kabal (which would’ve been a more interesting story with Kano on both sides the fence [and I DO NOT have the energy to write the dissertation I have for that weird ass choice]) but I really thought they got the bad guy him just right. Side note: My sister watched it with me and just adored him, she loved his fight scenes and kept asking me who he was and telling me how damn cool he seemed. And I do agree. His fighting scene was so damn good. The way they handle his choreography and effects made him look every bit the intimidating opponent he is, even if he didn’t actually win. Very good work there.

Hanzo has some promise here, but man did they cock tease us with those trailers. Didn’t even toss a handy j for our troubles. I will say, assuming they do make another film (and that is a big assumption) I am cautiously optimistic about where it could be heading. The actor really didn’t get enough time to explore the part, but Scorpion has the potential to be fascinating and I feel like him and Sub Zero getting their own film properly could really give me some satisfying story telling in Mortal Kombat’s biggest rivalry.

Over all? Not super satisfying for the dedicated fans. Wouldn’t really recommend it if you don’t Stan Bi-Han specifically. But if you set your expectations as low as possible, you may find some fun in it the way I did.

[samwisethebitch]

In defense of urban fantasy

Note: This was originally posted on my WordPress blog in October, 2020.

Last week, I was hit with the dreaded condition that plagues all readers at some point. That’s right — I hit a reading slump. I was in the middle of Dark Corner by Brandon Massey (which is, objectively speaking, a very good book and one I highly recommend for fans of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot) and suddenly I just… wasn’t into it anymore. I got into this weird headspace, and suddenly I just didn’t want to read.

Whenever this happens, there is one genre that can always break me out of my funk and get me excited about reading again: urban fantasy.

According to GoodReads, “urban fantasy is a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of novels and stories with supernatural and/or magical elements set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings–as opposed to ‘traditional’ fantasy set in imaginary locations.” That’s one way to put it. I think a less wordy (and perhaps more honest) definition would be one coined by a bookseller in my hometown: “urban fantasy is somewhere between fantasy and paranormal romance.”

If you search for urban fantasy books on Kindle, you’ll quickly pick up on some common themes. Nearly all of the top books in the subgenre have female protagonists (usually of the tough-girl-who-takes-no-shit variety), fast-paced first person narratives, and some sort of romantic subplot (usually involving a sexy vampire/werewolf/angel/whatever). They also have a mindblowing ability to generate sequels — the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series currently has 27 books out, with a 28th releasing next year; the Mercy Thompson series has 12 books and counting; and the Black Dagger Brotherhood series has 18 books out with a 19th scheduled for release in 2021.

There’s another thing you might notice about urban fantasy — they’re the kind of books that ordinarily get labeled as “guilty pleasures” by the people who enjoy them.

Why is that? Sure, most urban fantasy novels aren’t going to change your life or make you think deep thoughts about the nature of reality, but the same could be said of lots of media. No one feels guilty about enjoying superhero movies or formulaic horror films. Why does the addition of vampires and the occasional sex scene suddenly make a whole subgenre “trashy”?

Part of it is probably just good, old fashioned sexism. Most urban fantasy books are written by women for a primarily female audience. As Mia Mercado points out in an article for Bustle, “Work created by a woman is seen as ‘niche’ while work created by a man is presumed to be applicable to everyone.” For proof of this, just look at the slang we use to refer to primarily woman-centric media: chick flicks (romantic movies), chick lit (romance novels and women’s fiction), etc.

And that really isn’t fair. It leads to some damn good books getting swept under the rug because of their genre.

For example, to break myself out of my reading slump I picked up Angel’s Blood by Nalini Singh, which is the first book in the Guild Hunter series. And it was a fun read. The plot was fast-paced, the characters were compelling (and weren’t all white, which is a common issue with urban fantasy), and the action was well-written. This book has one of the most original takes on vampire lore I’ve heard in a while, and there were some horror elements that would have made Stephen King jealous.

And, yes, there was a romance subplot which, if you must know, was also handled fairly well. The romance did not diminish any of the fantasy, action, or horror elements.

It makes me sad that books like Angel’s Blood often get overlooked or written off as “guilty pleasures” because they were written by women. I think people who refuse to read “trashy” books end up missing out on a lot of fantastic stories, and this is definitely one of them.

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

Morality-Focused Frameworks Of Discussion As Acts of Control

This is a post in response to a larger conversation I’ve been having with @eshusplayground. I have a perspective that I think would be really relevant to the conversation but I also don’t want to derail the specific focus of the following posts she’s been making recently.

(Trigger Warning For Abuse Discussion and Brief Mentions of Rape)

---

So I’m in the Hellraiser fandom. More specifically, I’m a Pinhead/Kirsty shipper.

For those of you that don’t know, Pinhead is a demonic torturer from hell who’s design is inspired by the BDSM community. Characters who open a magical puzzle box have unknowingly given themselves away to his violent underworld community of eternal torment and depravity. Hellraiser is a film about romantic and sexual horror, and there’s quite a lot in there about abuse and trauma. Kirsty is a traumatized person, and in my personal opinion, very likely a CSA victim.

And I ship these two characters together.

So the subject matter of my particular fandom is extremely intense and niche and complicated to navigate, although YMMV (I have no trouble with this franchise, but I cannot really handle GOT or American Horror Story, for example). After I grew interested in Hellraiser and integrated into it’s fandom, my perspectives about the way we have conversations about villainous characters started to have a major shift.

I often see people have these intense conversations (and arguments) about where a particular character exists on a moral scale, with the subtext (or outright text) that if they tip too far one way or another, they can be rendered unworthy of their own subgroup of fans within their own fandom. People who love those characters or find them shippable are then subject to moral judgements.

So how does one apply such logic to a psychosexual torture demon?

The answer is you can’t.

The frameworks people online use to have these discussions do not make any sense when talking about my fandom. Hellraiser is a dark horror fairytale presenting disturbing, surreal images and behaviors in order to discuss complex and difficult experiences and perspectives. The monsters within it, like Pinhead, are more metaphor than anything.

Now, my follower count is too low and my fandom is too niche for me to really be on the receiving end of a lot of the cruelty that manifests online about the moral validity of the fiction I enjoy. That said, between the anti-kink TERFS and the younger folks involved in purity culture on this site, I can imagine exactly what it would look like. You know what they would look like.

“You’re an Abuse Apologist!”

“You’re an Abuse Fetishist!”

“You’re reinforcing sexism!”

“he’s an irredeemable torturer, you’re probably okay with literal real world rape lmao uwu”

“This is bad kink representation and you’re complicit in the abuse real men do to women because you like this!”

Now, setting aside the fact that the canon lore context of Pinhead involves him having a human soul brainwashed by a monster god to become what he is, and is also in a roundabout sense “redeemed” in canon, I think most people utilizing this kind of framework would assume that I believe Pinhead can be redeemed in the way online Discourse (tm) means it, because that’s how we talk in fandom about the villains we really like.

I do not want to redeem Pinhead. I don’t think he even needs redeeming. I don’t even see value in that conversation at all. Redemption is not a concept that makes sense for what he is, or what he could become as a character. The framework of Pinhead as a Real-World-Equivalent Human Male Abuser who Cannot Be Redeemed From His Actions would inevitably dominate all conversation, regardless of the fact that it is inherently incorrect and detrimental to real, robust literary analysis of the narrative he exists within and how brilliantly it actually interacts with male on female abuse as a subject. By nature of it’s gross oversimplification and misrepresentation, It ruins the potential for greater, more nuanced and complex conversations.

And that’s the thing: my engagement with this particular story and it’s characters has a lot to do with the potential in the narrative to examine how trauma interacts with love, desire and gender politics. Hellraiser has a very unique way of exploring that kind of subject through a storytelling aesthetic that appeals to me (horror/fairytale, gothic romance, etc).

This is about to get personal, so strap the fuck in.

I am the victim of gendered abuse, in that I had an emotionally abusive step father and sexism was absolutely a factor in why that manifested the way it did. I am also a second hand victim of gendered abuse, in that my biological father was a serial stalker and rapist, and other male abusers (or just self-centered family members) caused severe emotional destabilization in my childhood. I grew up viewing adult men as unstable, selfish children. My family endured a lot, and I came to resent the men in my mother’ life for not taking on the role of protector and nurturer when she needed them most. I had discovered the great lie of traditional masculinity: in the face of real crisis, grown men were not protectors. They did not hold together the domestic space. They abused or faltered and abandoned us. This was a repeated pattern among several men in different roles. I was often left picking up all the pieces, taking on roles as a child that these men could not. I had to have strength they did not.

My experience of desire for romantic intimacy with men and men in roles of stable, nurturing authority now inherently involves a jumbled emotional soup of fear, pain, and a deep longing that comes from a place of feminine vulnerability, a desire to be taken care of instead of being the caretaker.

The narrative of Hellraiser pushes a lot of buttons for me. It speaks to my own trauma experiences in a very specific way. In an effort to further that conversation, I’m trying to create a piece of art (a fic) inspired by the deeply personal feelings this film gives me.

For me, Pinhead represents the Jungian shadow masculine, a simultaneous mix of fear and desire, the potential for suffering and pleasure, and everything in between. These experiences are inherently intertwined for me. And Kirsty’s experiences mirror many of my own.

In other words, in order for me to get out of Hellraiser what I get out of Hellraiser, Pinhead has to be exactly what he is, and everything that he is. Which includes monstrosity. Which includes the potential for change. His place in the narrative must fully, truly embody this conversation I need to have with masculinity, which inherently involves painful, scary things.

Anybody demanding that I either denounce my interest in him as morally offensive because he’s a monster in the full sense of the word (and not just the aesthetic one like what is currently trending in Monster Boyfriend fandom), or force a traditional redemption arc upon him as if he were a real life human person who must repent for his real life sins, are essentially saying that I am not allowed to engage with this work of fiction in a way that is transformative for me. And that’s very unfortunate, because honestly, I think my perspective is so much more dynamic and has so much more to offer.

This is not just about basic catharsis. This is not even a power fantasy about emotionally transforming a powerful (white) dude, or “bad boy” fantasies, both standard arguments for villain stanning that feels like it has never truly represented me or the complexity of my experiences and interests. This is a full-on conversation and act of self expression I want to have through art about the experience of fear and trauma when dealing with men as a woman who desires men.

And I don’t think a person has to be traumatized in order to want to engage with this type of fiction. I want to be clear that my experience is not a justification for my interest (I do not need to justify myself), it is an example of a perspective that gets erased by the framework of these conversations.

To me, the framework of moral validity for enjoying fictional villains and monsters and whatever you please feels incredibly stifling to the complex, dynamic ideas and analysis that I want to engage in, because I, and many people I know, are consistently pressured to structure their thoughts with this framework as the only acceptable baseline of discussion. This is so ubiquitous that when people I’ve known have tried to engage in ways that diverge from that framework, the responses they get are outright confused or direct the conversation right back to the original framework they tried to avoid. Complex conversation gets steamrolled.

Somewhere in the conversation we were all having about acknowledging and discussing abuse and oppression, and acknowledging troubling patterns in media which reinforce the normalization of abuse and opression, some people decided that there was a very serious moral discussion to be had regarding the mere act of liking things which involve dark subject matter and complex, or even monstrous characters. They now argue that there are very clear cut, simple moral frameworks for A) telling stories and B) enjoying stories, and most importantly, that this moral framework is a valid justification for the social treatment and silencing of certain people.

A framework, by the way, which I think is actually not functionally a framework, because like the toxic American fundamentalist christian groups it’s thinking is structured from, it does not account for the vastly diverse moral landscape within it’s own space. There is no objectively consistent body of knowledge anybody is working from, because morals are derived from the human experience, which is inherently subjective.

Interestingly, no where does this have more of an impact than with marginalized people, and people like me, who want to express something deeper and more meaningful in the conversation about abuse and oppression than what this framework really offers us. To be honest, The more I see this kind of conversation making the rounds, the clearer it becomes that it’s a means of control and power game playing. It’s not about morality, but about how morality can be leveraged in order to silence truly diverse and nuanced perspectives and uphold people’s sense of self-comfort. It is a means of supplanting more convenient and easily digestible understandings of these highly complex subjects that require more intensive, thoughtful engagement, especially when it gets challenging. This kind of rhetoric absolves people of making room for complex and diverse experiences, and reinforces an (at face-value) easy to follow set of moral rules of how we are all allowed to think and feel.

The implication of all of this is that if we all adhere to the One True (alleged) Moral Framework of Fandom Engagement, then we will somehow come out on the other side with all the Good People having a Great Time having Squeaky Clean Fun. And I don’t think I should have to tell you at this point how stifling and disturbing the implications of that kind of mentality really are.

 Quite frankly, I think a lot of us are very tired of constantly speaking on other people’s terms.

[soul-dwelling]

Anything thoughts on big shonen series like One piece or Naruto?

One Piece: Probably the best plotted manga, if not the best manga, out there, currently in publication or otherwise, just in terms of plot setup and payoff. I have not done well keeping up with the manga and anime, so I am ignorant about a lot of what is going on right now, so I can't speak very well regarding the anime's pacing and some animation problems and animation highlights.

Naruto: I wish I had kept up on the series, as I have some thoughts about Naruto's role as a trickster--although that obviously has changed by the time we get to Boruto. I just haven't gotten into Boruto, the anime (when it was on Toonami) or the manga.

And for a few others:

Dragon Ball: I pretty much really like only Super for its tighter plot (yes, even that way-too-long tournament finale), more time engaging with the characters, animation that at least to me was easier to follow and cleaner, and a good portion of Saiyaman thrown in. I do wish Vidal was brought back for more fighting, though.

My Hero Academia: I have been struggling to get through a lot of it since the Meta Liberation Army Arc, in terms of trying to figure out, "Is this too dark?" "Does the animation seem limited in the anime because they were busy working on the third film?" "Should we be getting back to the high school stuff or is that no longer relevant?" and "Is the pacing off or rushed?" Add to all of this that the spinoff manga Vigilantes has taken a long time to wrap up and has the same "fridge a woman character" problem that the main manga has had.

Bleach: I lost track. I think I saw the final episodes of the first anime when they were on Toonami, and I just didn't feel much.

Haikyu: I enjoyed a lot of what I saw in the anime and the manga--but then I skipped to the manga's finale, which spoiled a lot of anticipation for me, which is my fault, but it does speak to a problem I have with sports-focused series: once you know the outcome, it's kind of hard to ever feel interested in re-reading or re-watching it (barring some sports series like Hajime No Ippo / Fighting Spirit).

Gintama: I did not think I would enjoy that series as much as I have. There are definitely problematic parts of it, although I think for the most part the show matures beyond those parts and gets better. I wasn't satisfied with where the anime ended: yeah, it's obvious the adaptation wasn't done yet, but that was such a troll ending. At least there is a real finale in the new film...Too bad COVID is making sure I'm not about to set foot in a movie theater to see it. So, I'm stuck waiting for that film (and the second live action film) to get official home video releases.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba and Black Clover: I am so behind on both of these and don't feel comfortable commenting on them without a re-read and a re-watch.

Attack on Titan: I'm ambivalent, especially given its politics. Granted, it's debatable whether it's shonen.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Can something be too bizarre that you struggle to keep up with the plot intricacies and decide, "I'm just going to sit back and turn my brain off"? Yeah, yeah, I know, I should have figured that much with a title like "bizarre."

Hunter x Hunter and YuYu Hakusho: I struggle to keep up with the former, I really enjoyed the latter on a much later re-watch.

Jujutsu Kaisen: I only wish other series handled the complexities of representing death and loss as well as the story's initial setup did, and how it has continued to approach that topic. I'm not a fan of body horror, so getting through some of it is rough.

And for some lesser appreciated ones:

Magu-chan: God of Destruction: This one is just delightful, relaxing, and funny, like a children's introduction to Lovecraftian horror.

Bungo Stray Dogs: Again, debatable whether this is shonen, but intricate plots, lots of back story to dig into, humorous character interactions, deep lore into the giants of Japanese and United States literature, and some well-animated adaptations from Studio BONES.

[aion-rsa]

The Suicide Squad: What’s Next for Harley Quinn in the DCEU?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains major spoilers for The Suicide Squad. We have a spoiler free review here.

The Suicide Squad might just be the best DCEU movie yet. Not only is it a sterling ensemble piece about the horrors of American imperialism but it’s also the world’s weirdest buddy comedy. And in a film full of stunning performances–Idris Elba, David Dastmalchian, and Daniela Melchior please stand up–we got another killer turn from Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. 

After kicking all kinds of ass in Birds of Prey, the Mistress of Mischief is back and better than ever. This is a truly emancipated Harley, one who hates the Joker, will kill an abusive man in a second, and who plays a huge part in saving the day after choking out a man with her thighs, of course. 

While Robbie has said she has “no current plans to reprise the role” after The Suicide Squad, we couldn’t help but think of where the DCEU’s most badass and brutal on-screen anti-hero has been and where she could go next. Thanks to the comics, cartoons, and imagination of those at DC Comics, we’ve got plenty to draw on. 

Let’s start with where Harley has been to see how it impacts her potential future…

Before the DCEU

Harley began her career in the beloved Batman: The Animated Series cartoon as a one-time henchwoman for the Joker. But that quickly changed and she soon became a core part of the show, and not long after became a fan fave character in the comic book universe. 

This iteration of Quinn was a huge influence on James Gunn in bringing her to The Suicide Squad and might explain that unforgettable animated sequence as she escapes from the palatial prison of Corto Maltese. 

It’s also important to note as until The Suicide Squad her most popular contemporary iteration was once again in a cartoon, but this time it was the DC Universe turned HBO Max smash hit adult animation series that bears her name. 

Harley Quinn in 2016’s Suicide Squad

While David Ayer’s Suicide Squad might not have been for everyone–apparently including Ayer himself–one thing stood out: Robbie as Harley Quinn. While she was mostly sexualized and used as eye candy, Robbie gave Harley depth, humor, and heart. It was the standout performance and is a huge part of why the DCEU version is so popular today. While it’s great to see Harley’s growth, we have to mention the movie where Robbie made her debut. 

Birds of Prey

Cathy Yan’s brilliant Birds of Prey let Robbie go wild with her take on Harley. This was the action heavy R-rated take that fans wanted to see. With a predominantly female creative team behind it, the film eschewed the male gaze and misogyny that Harley has sometimes had to fight through. 

Here we saw a Harley who was freed from the Joker, had her own crew, her own incredible fashion sense, and even her own burgeoning moral code. Not only was this a badass outing for Harley but it feels tonally and aesthetically in tune with the route that James Gunn went in The Suicide Squad. The emancipation of Harley Quinn began here, long may it reign! 

The Suicide Squad Sets Up What’s Next for Harley Quinn

While it’s unclear where Robbie sees the character going next, we get a good feel for Harley and her new found freedom here. The world is her oyster. She has new allies–maybe even… friends?–and a magical javelin. Basically, anything can happen as she heads into the future. 

Poison Ivy

This seems like the clearest and most popular option for more Harley Quinn. 

While it looked like it might happen in the form of the now not happening Gotham City Sirens movie (which Suicide Squad director Ayer was once attached to), there’s still legs in this partnership which has been delighting fans for decades. In both the comics and cartoons her relationship with Poison Ivy has been a key part of Harley’s lore. While they began as friends, the canon has shifted to being on-again off-again romantic partners in all mediums. So we need to see that on screen in live action… SOON! 

It would be really easy to take the comedic action stylings of the HBO Max Harley Quinn series which saw the pair traverse the hard realities of love in Gotham and bring that to either a longer format series–which we’d love–or a movie. Just putting these two A-listers together would be a huge selling point and if they played into the queer romance it would make huge waves. 

“Trust me, I chew their ear off about it all the time,” Robbie recently told us when we asked about the possibility of adding a live action Poison Ivy to the DCEU. “They must be sick of hearing it, but I’m like, ‘Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy. Come on, let’s do it.’ I’m very keen to see a Harley-Poison Ivy relationship on screen. It’d be so fun. So I’ll keep pestering them. Don’t worry.”

If DC decided to go a little more dramatic they could take from the pair’s comic book canon. It would make a lot of sense to explore Harley’s love life post the Joker as both of her most recent DCEU appearances have made note to mention his negative impact on her life. 

During the 2013 Harley Quinn comic series fans got to see the pair finally become official as Harley came to terms with her abusive relationship with the Joker. An easy route for the DCEU to take–either seriously or more comedically–would be to make Harley and Ivy a sort of Thelma and Louise of the DCEU, a couple of cool gals against the world… and if they have their “daughter” Cass Cain with them too we’d be very happy. 

While they broke up in the official DC Comics continuity, they are currently getting back together in Harley Quinn: The Animated Series – The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour. The hilarious sequel to the cartoon expands on their romance and plays into that more humorous angle. But simply the fact that the pair are together again in the comics means that there’s even more canon to take from here. 

Female Furies 

In spite of the sad news that Ava DuVernay’s New Gods movie is no longer in production, we might have found a silver lining. In recent years Harley has faced down against Granny Goodness and even joined her Female Furies. This has happened in both the ongoing Harley Quinn comics series and the DC Universe cartoon. It’s a really cool and out there idea for the character in the DCEU, and could be a cool way to introduce the more cosmic aspects of the universe through the lens of one of the world’s most popular comics characters. 

It would be pretty easy to do a Female Furies movie or TV show where Harley is enlisted into Apokolips’ hardcore squad of warriors. There’d be an exceedingly fun fish out of water element as well as the potential to do something totally different than we’ve seen before. 

There’s also the option to emulate the Harley Quinn TV series and follow Harley as she seeks out Granny Goodness in order to gain the nefarious power of the Motherbox, which would obviously go wrong pretty quickly. While we’ve seen elements touched on in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, DC isn’t afraid of reimagining things regularly and we’d love to see Harley on an epic cosmic adventure with Darkseid on her heels! 

Another HBO Max Spinoff? 

If the villainous Peacemaker is getting his own HBO Max show, why shouldn’t Harley? And there are a ton of incredible routes the series could go. The most obvious right now would be continuing the Harley we see in The Suicide Squad. 

Seeing as Rick Flag and Harley were clearly close, it would be very easy to intertwine the Harley show and the Peacemaker series. What if while Peacemaker was trying to “save the world,” Harley and potentially Bloodsport–he served with Rick and clearly cared about him–were hunting him down in their own series? That would be a pretty smart way to expand the radical world of The Suicide Squad while giving Robbie far more space to play with the character she’s long defined. 

Ever since Birds of Prey, fans have been wishing for a Black Canary or Harley-focused spinoff. With Peacemaker setting the precedent for solo DCEU shows, this could be another great route. We’d love to see the return of Ella Jay Basco as Cass Cain or even the return of Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya. This is a little more of an outlier but the gritty crime movie tone of Birds of Prey really fits into the current DCEU and HBO Max vibe. And in our real dreams, Cathy Yan would get the Gunn treatment and direct. 

Batgirl

We’re finishing off with what is currently the most likely of our options. The upcoming HBO Max Batgirl movie is penned by Christina Hodson. Hodson and Robbie have a close working relationship as the Bumblebee screenwriter also wrote Birds of Prey. There’s also the fact that Robbie is a huge supporter of female-led storytelling so bringing her clout and fan favorite character to Batgirl would do just that. It would be really cool to see Harley pop up here as either an antagonist or ally to Barbara Gordon. 

As this is going straight to HBO Max, there’s likely more freedom to play with canon and format. But with Robbie unsure of Harley’s future it could be more realistic to expect a brief cameo rather than a full on-screen Harley storyline when the movie hits the streamer down the line. 

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The Suicide Squad is on HBO Max and in theaters now! 

The post The Suicide Squad: What’s Next for Harley Quinn in the DCEU? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3AhUjCZ

[the-cookie-of-doom]

Good morning! Whats your favorite show/movie? Who are your favorite characters? Why do you like them so much? Also!! Did you have a good sleep?

Okay so I was a film major for a while, and I have opinions. 

Penny Dreadful 

I love this show. Like, so much. I adore it. I can not get enough of that show. Just all of the imagery, and the fantastic writing and acting. The episode intro alone is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Eva Green is a goddess and I love everything she’s been in. The take on classic horror stories is So Good, and it actually became the inspiration for my Gay Frankenstein story! (Started as a stitch AU, and then went completely OC after I had Ideas) but the show itself is so intimate? I think it’s largely that the period they’re in, everything was so repressed and restricted. So when the characters break out of those moments, it’s more meaningful. And the love-hate relationship between Ms. Ives and Malcolm in season one? Exquisite.  I could literally write essay’s about this show, but I’ll restrain myself and just say: it’s the best ensemble show I’ve ever seen. The characters come together, but they also each have their own distinct lives that sometimes intersect, but in s2 especially, are quite separate. They are constant with one another like ensemble shows usually portray. Also gothic horror and romance? My absolute favorite. 

Anything by Guillermo del Toro

This man Owns My Entire Soul. I’m not even joking, everything he writes and directs is perfection. Crimson Peak is probably my favorite (I have a stitch AU for this too ;) ) because again, Gothic horror and romance. I’m a slut for that shit. Also Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain? Delightful casting. I think it’s obvious by now that I love tragic relationships, so their dynamic is *chef’s kiss* amazing. they’re so damaged. And this quote right here is one of the BEST things I’ve ever read: 

“But the horror... The horror was for love. The things we do for love like this are ugly, mad, full of sweat and regret. This love burns you and maims you and twists you inside out. It is a monstrous love and it makes monsters of us all.”

Engrave that on my headstone, please?? I’ve got a sort-of Dorian Gray AU (it’s delightful) that’s basically built on this entire premise. Mitch makes the mistake of falling in love with Stiles, and does many terrible things because of it. Mostly to himself, at least. 

I think my love of Crimson Peak is very closely tied with The Shape of Water. another beautiful movie, I could wax poetic about this forever. it was beautifully written, and such an artistic movie. I love the way it was filmed, and the set design, and all of the subtle imagery. Such as Elisa’s apartment being cast in cooler tones, it always felt very damp and had evidence of water damage, compared to Giles’, a mirror image of her own, in more warm tones. This is another one I could (and have) write essays about. There is so much packed into this movie, from the themes on toxic masculinity and entitlement, to the conversation on queerness and race and disability, and how all the various relationships are portrayed. Like. there is so much to pick apart in this movie. 

Aside from that, ofc Hell Boy deserves an honorable mention because i grew up on those movies. I’m pretty sure the Golden Army especially is responsible for who I am today, given all the lore on the fae in that universe. Wow, that explains so much about me... Also one of my first WoW characters was an elf named Nuala xD I still have her, too, and it’s been like 12 years lol

Near-Future Sci-Fi

Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, I am a huge nerd for theoretical and astrophysics. But my favorite kind of sci-fi is the stuff that still takes place on Earth, rather than epic battles in space. Ex Machina and Annihilation are at the top of that list. Alex Garland is another writer/director that I love. He has the same kind of approach as del Toro, where he puts a lot of fine details into his work. And I love that it’s very cerebral; there are so many layers to Ex Machina. My English 101 prof actually refused to analyze it in class when I suggested it to him, because he didn’t think my class could. Basically handle? Dissecting that movie? Because a lot of it comes across as very surface level, but in some cases when you look deeper, it’s actually suggesting the opposite of what you might think at first glance. (And he was right, my fellow students were awful. I miss that class though, it was one of my favorites T_T Mr. Ryder was an awesome dude and super chill.) 

Morgan is another good example. As you can see, I fucking love androids lol. Which brings me to another of my all time favorite movies: Cloud Atlas. I could literally watch this movie endlessly, I love it so much. The acting, the writing, the filming, all of it is top notch. And one thing they did in the movie that didn’t come across in the book, was reusing the same actors through the different eras in the book. That was just so neat, because it really encapsulates how connected these souls are, as we follow the threads of their story throughout time. If you haven’t seen the movie, I can’t recommend it enough.  

Another one I always think of alongside Cloud Atlas, even though they aren’t related at all, is Predestination. It’s a great movie that explores the idea of fate and free will in a really clever way, utilizes time travel in a very organized way that I think was neat (think Umbrella Academy. They even use briefcases! As you can see, I love sci-fi bureaucracy, it’s fun. In fact The Bureau is another movie I enjoyed) and the main character is actually, explicitly trans, which was cool. You basically get to see the entire story of their life, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s just. So good. Mindfuckery galore. 

Shoot, and I almost forgot! Arrival! That is one of the best movies, and another one I could watch nonstop. It focuses on mathematics and linguistics and I swear to god, I almost altered my entire college course because of this movie. Amy Addams is brilliant, Jeremy Renner is so soft and nerdy, and again, it has an amazing take on time travel. I am very particular about how time is handled in Sci-fi, and this portrayal was one of my favorite. (Most of my physics studies have been dedicated to the theory of time, so like. Strong Opinions.) 

Fantasy

Stardust! It wasn’t until Good Omens can out that I realized Neil Gaiman is responsible for most of the stories I loved as a kid lol, and I had no idea he wrote stardust! But that is such a beautiful movie (I have a Stardust AU lol) and it’s definitely one of my comfort movies. Captain Shakespeare is one of the best characters ever, bless Robert de Niro. I would die for him. Fun fact, i had no idea Ipswitch was a real place until like. 2019. I 100% thought it was made up for the movie 😂

Alongside Stardust, I’ve always loved The Golden Compass. It’s fantasy, but also with that old-timey steampunk science feel, which is so fun and surprisingly difficult to find! 

Mortal Engines also has the same kind of feel, and it was such an epic movie in every sense of the word. I’m a little sad that after all the work that went into it, it didn’t get a dedicated following or fan base, because I feel there’s so much potential in it. But at the same time, fandom tends to gather around media that has plenty of flaws for us to repair with gold, and there wasn’t much room for that in Mortal Engines. 

I’m going to put Jupiter Ascending here even though it technically fits with the sci-fi, because that section is long as fuck and also this movie has such a fantastic feel. Mila Kunis? beautiful. The CGI? beautiful. Eddy Redmayne? One of the best villain portrayals i’ve ever seen. The whole oedipal vibe he had was immaculate, as was their portrayal of reincarnation, and just. The world building. GOD. I get so weak for through world building. Also the fkn intergalactic bureaucracy when they’re basically at the space DMV? One of my all time favorite scenes in movie history. 

Horror

I have very little room in my life for horror. As I said, I have strong movie opinions, especially when it comes to horror movies. I don’t like how most of them rely on cheap jump scares and overused gore and gratuitous rape scenes, instead of, y'know, actual good writing. 

Which is EXACTLY why I adore It: Chapter 1 & 2. It has none of those things, but still manages to be so terrifying. They are my favorite horror movies, and I’m saying this as someone who has genuine childhood trauma bc of the novel. Like. I couldn’t shower/take baths alone until I was almost 10 T_T When I was 6-7 and saw kids play by storm drains, I would run over screaming about how Pennywise was going to get them. Like, I had issues man. I was terrified to see the first one, and wouldn’t go until I could go with my best friend after she had already seen it, so she could warn me when something scary was about to happen 😂

And, one of my favorite aspects of the movie, and the thing that gave me Mad Respect for Any Muschietti? The way he filmed Bev and her father. They have a character who is literally being molested, but they never once have to show it. And yet their interactions are still so viscerally upsetting to watch. Sexploitation puts me off of most horror, and the fact that Muschietti doesn’t use it here, even when it would be actually somewhat justified? *chef’s kiss*. I love him. 

I love horror as a concept, I’m just really picky about it because I expect the writing to be good. I don’t like short cuts. But in a lot of cases, even if I don’t enjoy the movie itself, I love to watch analysis videos on youtube! I love to see the philosophy and symbolism in different horror movies, even if i don’t like to watch the movies themselves. It’s a fun hobby. 

Misc. 

Then in general, some other stuff I love in no particular order:

The Internship (Bless Dylan, Stuart is such a bitch and I love him) 

American Assassin (ofc. The writing itself is eh, but Mitch is my man) 

Dylan’s episode of Weird City. (I actually have a lot of feelings about this one. Jordan Peele is another amazing writer/director, I really need to catch up on his works.) 

Dorian Gray (*chef’s kiss*)

Rogue One (Makes me cry every time) 

WARCRAFT (Obviously this is a fav. It made me so happy, words cannot express.) 

Coraline and most other stop motion animation. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for that. 

Literally anything associated with Tim Burton. Fun fact, when I was 12 and in middle school, I planned to decorate my future house inspired by tim burton. Like, i had Plans. 

Most adaptations of Alice in Wonderland!

So! this got long as fuck! But you said you like that kind of thing lol 😂 I had kinda Eh sleep since I was up so late lmao, and I kept waking up (as usual, rip). And I’m so mad I go up for nothing! The dude I was supposed to show my listing to never showed, and is refusing to answer my calls >_> It’s been 2 hours now, and I still haven’t heard from him. But whatever, I already have a full price cash offer on the house so who cares. And that means I can play WoW all day, now! 

[p-and-p-admin]

Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.  (sharing here Admin approved)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello Ciule and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you for sitting down with us for a chat.

SS/HG readers might be familiar with your stories “Awkward” and “Headmaster’s Wife”. 

Okay, let’s jump right in. What's the story behind your pen name? Well, I sort of took one of my real names, swirled the letters around in the air with my imaginary wand, and I ended up with this. Can’t begin to imagine where I got the idea from... ;-) Later on, I realized that Ciule is actually a name in Romania. I had no idea, but there are people out there carrying this name for real. I guess I’m #sorrynotsorry?   Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most? To be quite frank: No one, really. This is more about the characters I like, than truly identifying with them. I can relate to parts of some of them, but not the whole package. Primarily, I write about Hermione, Voldemort and Severus, and the one common thread between those three is the search for knowledge. That’s a trait I can identify with, but I’m neither an evil bastard, a grumpy protector nor a fretting, intelligent activist. I am, however, a swot. If you had asked who I’d want to be, the answer is clear. I want to be Albus Dumbledore. Though I can’t agree with the things he did, I feel absolutely certain that he’s the one who has the most fun during the books. I want to have that twinkling fun in face of absolute chaos.   Do you have a favourite genre to read (not in fic, just in general)? Fantasy! Definitely fantasy. While growing up, I read ‘everything’ in every genre, and in my twenties, I decided I’d spend my time reading what I loved the most. So, fantasy it is. Do you have a favourite "classic" novel? You landed me in an existential crisis right there. I mean, there’s so many to choose from! ‘Wuthering Heights’, I think. It hurts so good. Or maybe ‘Rebecca’, at least, I loved that when I was younger. Or the fairly obscure ‘Lorna Doone.’ When I was a kid, I wanted to be a film director, shooting Lorna Doone into an epic film. Oh well, there might be a theme in this selection of books which reflects in my writing… At what age did you start writing? The creative process has gone on since forever. I’ve told myself thousands of stories in my head, but rarely written anything down. At the age of ten, I had a co-writing project with one of my friends. We created this secret room in her basement, and painstakingly wrote a ‘novel’. It was fun, though the writing ended as it became too cold down in the basement during winter. How did you get into writing fanfiction? In 2009, I became completely obsessed with a TV-show in the last episode. I was watching the entire series, casually enjoying the murder mystery, and in the last episode, the villain said: “I can do the math,” and I was literally gone. That obsession sparked writing my first fanfic stories. Those stories are still on FFnet, but they aren’t any good. *shrugs* What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works? Compromise. The world isn’t a perfect place, and will never be. You can, however, make it more to your liking. It may not be perfect, but if you play the cards you are dealt, you might improve something. In Robert Jordan’s “the Wheel of Time”-series, one of the characters goes through a test in a parallel universe of sorts, and she thinks: “The world was not what she wanted, not anywhere near it.” I loved that: trying your best to make things as you want them to be in the face of dangers and difficulties.   And then there’s time travel! I love messing with time, and there are so many great Time-travelling fics. Plus, I have to say I have a certain love for the villains...   What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter? Currently, I’m not writing for any other fandoms. I read Star Wars, GoT, POTO and LOTR, and in the past I read Smallville. Though it’s more of a type of ship for me, because I only read Reylo, SanSan, Erik/ Christine, Lex/Lana and ….drum roll… the extremely small and quite oddball ship of Eowyn/ Grìma Wormtongue. If you’ve never tried the last one, go search for the fantastic stories by auri_mynonys. If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon? One change: duh, that’s easy, isn’t it? Severus lives. Or, maybe Dumbledore acting more rational, not keeping so many secrets. Maybe telling McGonagall that Severus is on the Order’s side… (Interviewer is laughing - ”NOT so easy”) I do write Voldemort wins AUs, but I wouldn’t want canon Voldemort to win. I prefer him to be more sane than in canon. My absolute favourite piece of fanon has to be the Black library. I thought it was canon, but it’s not. This is a thing that really, really should exist in canon! Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet? I’m very much inspired by music, and sometimes I listen as I write, but not always. Some fics are heavily inspired by music, such as ‘Absence’ and the last epilogue to ‘The Manipulation of Time and Matter’. What are your favourite fanfictions of all time? Definitely ‘Two Steps from Hell,’ by the amazing Ssserpensssotia, but that’s a Volmione. This was such a wild ride, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath the entire time. Those twists and turns were so unpredictable and … Well, I’m in awe. The SS/HG fandom is so massive, there’s a plethora of great stories out there. The unfinished ‘Self-Slain Gods on Strange Altars’ is a wonderful story by scumblackentropy, and I love Slytherpoufs stories, especially the wip ‘Ghosts’, but also ‘Angels to Fly’. And then there’s the one that got away - it means, I can’t find it. In this story, Severus watches the thestrals, befriending one of them, I think, but they’re unpredictable and maybe even dangerous. He’s heartbroken, and knows how it all will go down, having bitterly accepted his role. It made me cry. And then there’s the works by Aurette, and lena1987, Subversa, Kittenshift… Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process? I need (strike that: want) to draft the entire story before I post, to have some idea on how it goes. That makes it easier to write, but if it’s a long story, I’m happy as long as I know the general direction. This year, I finished a story that was on an unintended hiatus for two years, and I think part of my problem on getting back into writing it up was a too vague idea for the ending.   What is your writing genre of choice? Uh. I don’t know? Basically, you could argue that I’m a porn writer, or at least it’s fuelled by sexual tension and angst. So, romance or drama, bordering on erotica might be correct. To be frank, I haven’t really thought about categories after I started posting on AO3. Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why? Hard to say. I might go with “the Manipulation of Time and Matter,” because I think it’s the best plot I’ve created. Besides, I managed to write Hermione having a relationship with both Severus and Voldemort in the same fic. My favourite “clean” SSHG would be the short story ‘Grimmauld’. Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it? In Grimmauld, the house became a character. That was unexpected, and not something I had planned from the beginning. So the lesson would be “don’t start posting until you know what’s going to happen.” Or else, this story might have turned out very much different. I had to throw in a little made-up lore on how you set blood wards on a house too to make it sentient. That proved to be a quite chilling piece of magic.   How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write? I love old houses. Exploring abandoned houses, going inside to see what remains of furniture, tapestries and everything is so exciting. (It can also be dangerous, but that’s another matter). Such houses makes me feel .. nostalgic, plus I get those nice little shivers down your spine that is a little like a horror story. So, I wanted to use Grimmauld as a setting to explore that in a fic, to really dig into the aching loneliness of a lost house. The story came very quickly to me, so I guess that helped me.   What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing? Big question there. Hmm, I think … it’s hard to say. I’m a reader, really, and I couldn’t easily pick apart any influences. Though I have to say that one of the things I enjoyed when reading ‘Two Steps From Hell’ was the attention to magic. I think it’s important to include spells, rituals and the use of magic in my fics, because that’s what sets it apart from a Muggle AU, for example. That’s an important part of the world-building.   Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction? My significant other knows. I didn’t tell him, but he found out for himself, probably by spying on me. When he told me, I almost couldn’t stop laughing, because he… erm, he said he had thought about reenacting a scene in my PWP ‘Twenty Points to Gryffindor’, where Severus shouts the title as he… well… you get the gist. If he had done that, I’d have had a heart attack. I would literally be dead. Instead, I laughed non stop for an hour.   How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"? Haha, so true. You spend all those hours in front of your laptop - and if I wasn't motivated by doing it for myself, I can’t even see how I’d force myself through all those hours. It’s fun, though. I do this because I love it.   How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media? Very important. I'm on the publishing sites (visible interaction is why I prefer AO3 instead of FFnet) and on Facebook, mainly. I love feedback (as all authors do), and when people form theories or make comments, I get an insight into my own writing. I know how it’s going to pan out, but the audience doesn’t, and how they perceive things might be different from how I think it is. At times, it influences how I go forward, mostly because I need to add things, to explain what’s going on. What is the best advice you've received about writing? Don’t post until you know the ending, and remember: the devil on your left shoulder will be at war with the angel on the right side. Listen to the angel telling you to wait a little longer, and not to the devil chanting: ‘Post, post, post!’ In the end, of course, you’ll give in to the devil, regretting it until you’re done. What do you do when you hit writer's block? Read. Read a lot. And read some more. Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing? Certainly. I’m a foodie. For example, everything that Voldemort eats is stuff I love. His food habits are primarily mine, and I love cooking.   Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser? It’s a short piece, maybe three or four chapters, with the title ‘Transference’. The point of departure from canon is during their time in the tent at DH. Hermione wakes up in a bed, in a room she doesn’t recognize, having no idea where she is, but she spots a large, moving picture on the drawer:  Feeling panic rising, she stared hard at the moving and smiling pictures, and her heart leapt into her throat, pulse hammering as she recognized herself in the largest picture. A slightly older Hermione, in a white wedding dress, kissing and laughing at someone who simply had to be a much younger Severus Snape. It had to be him: Long black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin - but then he looked so young, carefree and happy - expressions she had never seen on her dour Professor's face. Beside the picture, there were numerous cards, greetings and well-wishings for their wedding - the date an impossible 21 August 1982, and amongst the cards, the largest one stood out, the black ink showing an elegant handwriting: “Dear Hermione and Severus! Best wishes for your wedding, Lord Voldemort.” Any words of encouragement to other writers? Read and write, in that order. Don’t worry about trolls, because when you contribute something that you created, it makes you so much more than people spending their time just raining on anyone’s parade. You brought something new to the world, they’re just reacting to things. If someone accuses you of a self-insert, go ahead and lecture them on the intentional fallacy. I promise, you won’t regret looking it up. ;-)   And please, mind the normal physical limits when you’re writing smut. Unless you give the male a stamina potion or put him under the Imperius, it’s unlikely that his refractory period allows him to come five times in one hour. Realistic smut is so much more sexy, lol. Thanks again for speaking with us Ciule.

[thenightling]

Opinion on the rioters who dressed as The Punisher

Opinion on the Rioters dressed as The Punisher:

I recently found out some of the Capitol rioters were dressed as The Punisher from Marvel comics.  Do I blame the character?  No.   However, i have become very cautious in regard to hardcore fans of the character and not merely over this.

First, I admit, I never really liked The Punisher as a character.   I thought of him as an edgy byproduct of comics gradually shifting to being darker and grittier.  He was one of the first heroes to not preach about justice and redemption but instead wanted to kill.  He was not a protagonist.  He started as a villain in the Amazing Spider-Man comics.  Stan Lee had not liked the character. (This is a fact that is easily checked and Googled).

In the late 80s and early 90s he became very popular as comics became darker and so he was given his own comic and appeared more often and often as a protagonist anti-hero.

I never liked the concept of him.  Sure, he had a sympathetic backstory but the “Killing is the only answer” never sat right for me.  The lack of mercy he showed even to the repentant, it always bothered me.  I got that he was supposed to be mentally-ill but in his own comics his behavior was, far too often, justified.

Other media tried to mimic the character.  The Ben Affleck Daredevil behaved more like The Punisher than Daredevil.  Instead of a defense attorney he was now a prosecutor.  And if he lost a case he would hunt down the criminal and kill him, brutally.   There’s one scene where he severs a man’s spine and then gloats as a train comes to hit him, as he lays paralyzed on the track. That’s not Matt.

Ben Affleck again played totally-not-Punisher in his portrayal of Batman.  A gun-using batman that was loosely inspired by Frank Miller.  And all the Zack Snyder Fanboys came crawling out of the woodwork, insisting that this was “realistic” and “more accurate to the comics” and “but look, he killed in these old comics!”   They either were lying by omission or didn’t know about Crisis on Infinite Earths and how main continuity Batman had been anti-gun and anti-killing since at least 1985.  The entire plot of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke was based on this established lore. 

There’s no doubt Punisher has had a serious influence on popculture and something I called Darkity, dark, dark writing or as others have named it: “Edgelord.” 

It’s a sort of “dark and gritty” “realism” popular among boys between the ages of eleven and fifteen who genuinely think crime would end if we shot every criminal and don’t realize that most real world police officers have never drawn their gun, despite what you might see in the news.  If murder truly was the norm, people wouldn’t still be horrified by it.

Now on to the fans.   There are far too many Punisher fans who think he was and is in the right.  They think he is an aspirational figure to admire and look up to.  A “realistic” hero by Zack Snyder standards, because hope and mercy are what is apparently unrealistic in a world consisting of aliens, Greek Gods, witchcraft, and even the folkloric Sandman (That’s in DC, not Marvel though Nightmare is arguably the Marvel equivalent).

I used to be Facebook friends with a Punisher fan.   He was equally obsessed with The Joker.  At first i just let it be.  You’re allowed to like edgy or dark characters.  There’s no harm in that.  But... he got creepy.   He would quote the Joker in conversation about “SJWs” and “progressives.”   He would say things like “My eyes were opened as yours soon will be.”   

He was convinced liberals tried to ruin The Joker movie and posted pictures of the Joker dancing down the stairs with “HAHAHAHAHA!  Suck my dick, Progressives!” in at least two of the facebook groups I run.  It got embarrassing that when people would search for my Horror Comics group, the sample post Facebook gave was that one.  

He kept talking about how both The Punisher and The Joker are right.  His facebook picture would alternate between the two characters depending on his mood.  He would post memes “explaining” why The Punisher is right.

He would post articles about this or that criminal being arrested and refer to them as “it” and “thing” and how “it should be tortured four hours before someone kills it.”   things like that, about various people who did things that were (admittedly) horrific and reprehensible but he would go into graphic detail about what he wanted to do with them   Very sadistic, Saw-like tortures before “Mercifully” killing them.  

He once casually told me how he wanted to kill all progressives.  I gently reminded him that I have liberal leanings and I got a “You’re different” sort of response.  

As his behavior got more fanatical and disturbing, the more uncomfortable I became.   After the progressives threat I made the mistake of telling someone who was mutually friends with us both that I felt threatened.  Needless to say the one I have just described to you called me a liar, insisted he never said anything threatening.  And accused me of being “one of them.”

I told him he had been acting increasingly strangely and needed to stop posting the pro-Joker stuff.  And it wasn’t just the film The Joker.  It was the version from Gotham (TV series) he tried to emulate and praised.  A woman celebrity he didn’t like was soon being called “It.”  Then some feminist (I didn’t agree with this person) was saying how The Mandalorian didn’t have enough female characters or diversity and should be canceled.  It was some stupid opinion piece published by a site like Buzzfeed or Io9 during the first season of Mandalorian. 

This guy was very conservative but had a bad habit of seeking out fanatical articles like this to make himself angry.  The only time I ever agreed with him on the matter was when he came to my defense for not liking the 2016 Ghostbusters.  Someone in my own Gothic Horror Facebook group had decided to call me a self-loathing misogynist and insisted the only reason I didn’t like it is because the characters were women.   No, I don’t like slapstick comedy.  I didn’t like that they didn’t bother to use real parapsychology or theoretical physics (as the original had done).  I didn’t like that the “genius” of the group licked her proton blaster and that was the common promo image for the film. I didn’t like that people who praised the film entirely forgot that there was a diverse team lead by a woman in the 90s. (Extreme Ghostbusters).   I didn’t like that they destroyed ghosts instead of trapped them.   That violates the law of conservation and most spiritual beliefs as even being possible. It was just a bad movie.

I agreed with him on that one but when this anti-Mandalorian article came out he went too far.  He insisted the woman who wrote it should be dragged out into the street and shot.  He called her “it” and “thing” and said she didn’t deserve to live . I told him he was going too far, and she couldn’t take the show away, that he was over reacting. 

He then blocked me.   I thought it was done and over with, then the Pandemic hit.

When the Pandemic happened he unblocked me and in a revisionist history of events insisted he had blocked me because I had “lied” and said he threatened me.   No, he had told me he wanted to kill all progressives, knowing that I am one.   And that was not why he blocked me.  It was because I disagreed about his death threats about the writer of a Mandalorian article.  He wanted to fight.  He alternated between insulting me and trying to show how good he was to come to me during a world crisis, like he was doing me a favor.  I blocked him this time.

That night my Facebook account was disabled.  Someone had reported my account as not being a real person, and Facebook wanted photographic proof that I’m real.   It was re-enabled as soon as I sent in a photo but as I don’t have a smartphone (I live in a deadzone) and I’m visually impaired it was a little bit of a pain.  This was not something that had ever happened to me before.  And I had witnessed this Punisher fan report accounts of those he wanted to “punish” before.

And now I find out some of these rioters were wearing Punisher shirts.   So yes, I keep my guard up around Punisher fans.

Do I blame the character?  No.  Not really.   If not him they would have found someone else to try to emulate and idolize.  Getting rid of the character won’t get rid of this mentality.   I never liked the character but I don’t want him banned.  I would be happy if less people were obsessed with him.  I would be happy if those obsessed with the character didn’t all remind me of the man I described here.  I would be happy if fans of the character were more likely to say that they don’t agree with the character’s actions, they just like his story.

There’s nothing wrong in liking a character with problematic behavior.  But if you can’t acknowledge that it’s wrong and instead glorify and romanticize the actions of the character, that’s the problem.   I love lots of characters who do bad things.  I love Count Dracula.  I don’t intend to drink blood and sic wolves on people.   And I have absolutely no interest in impalement.   

I think far too many Punisher fans don’t realize he’s in the wrong, instead want to be like him, and have trouble separating fiction from reality.  I do not blame the character.  They would have found someone else if not him.  But unfortunately, I AM starting to view hardcore / obsessively being a fan of The Punisher as a bit of a red flag considering how many of them behave this way...

[koffein-art-archive]

Marble Hornets: Creativity through the static.

What was it that inspired you when you were younger? Was it a tv show? Perhaps a video game or even a series of books? Boundless creativity at your finger tips that led to portals that could whisk you away to different lands. To escape real life.

At the end of the 2000’s, and onto the 2010’s, there laid a piece of media that many would flock to in their time to indulge, engage, and escape through.

A simple web series called ‘Marble Hornets’.

Marble Hornets is, considered to be by the internet as an ARG, (an ARG standing for ‘Alternate Reality Game’), a web series that started on the video sharing platform Youtube. The first upload of the channel was uploaded onto the site on the twentieth of June, 2009. ‘Introduction’, a simple title for something that would grow into much more as time would go on. You never could expect the story to go down the road it did.

The contents of the story is summed up quite nicely in the first video. Jay, the main protagonist and cameraman of the series, explains that one of his old buddies from college, Alex Kralie, was trying to create a student film called ‘Marble Hornets’. His crew complained about his stress and irritability throughout the project, and Alex finally stopped production on the film due to ‘unworkable conditions’. When asked about what would happen to the tapes from production, Alex replied with two simple words; ‘Burn them’.

Throughout the series, several strange, or what could even be described as paranormal, events unfold for Jay and the rest of the cast as he goes about his journey to try and document odd things around him, wanting to know what exactly was going on with Alex after viewing the tapes. Little did he know that by doing so he would seal his fate, as well as the lives of those around him.

Marble Hornets ended on the twentieth of June, 2014, totaling in eighty-seven entries. Or one hundred and thirty-three entries if you include totheark, a separate youtube account that would respond and even sometimes hack the main Marble Hornets channel, contributing videos for the series as a whole. Though the series it self might get a little confusing at times, and it’s elements of storytelling might drag on at points, it’s still a great series to watch when times are a little tough and you need something to focus on. To dip into something out of this world and become immersed in the lore and characters.

Marble Hornets is immersive in the world it brings to the viewer, whether it be a quaint town, a lovely forest with luscious and vibrant trees, and or a strange entity that stalks those that encounter it.

Now to get into the meat and potatoes of this essay, the following topics will now be run down; the creativity of Marble Hornets, the mental illness subplot, and the macabre essence carefully sewn throughout the series as a whole.

To many fans, Marble Hornets is a wonderful piece of storytelling. It can be attributed with inspiring many people within the fan-base. Examples of this being the creation of what is known as the ‘Slenderverse’. The Slenderverse is typically described as ‘a series on the web, usually in the form of online video storytelling, that surrounds the mythos of the infamous Slenderman.’. A wildly popular set of series that took inspiration from Marble Hornets are the two video based web series ‘tribetwelve’ and ‘everymanhybrid’. And as the years pass by, more web series inspired by Marble Hornets continue to pop up.

Another creative aspect of the Marble Hornets series would be the countless fan works; from fans that dress up as the characters, to countless fanart and fanfictions. Some fanart and fanfiction tend to use the source material to create their own headcanons, or rather ideas that they have about characters in the series. While others are deconstructing the entire plot and rearranging Marble Hornets into an entirely new story.

The final point that needs to be talked about would be the visual and audio effects that the series is well known for. It’s no secret that the series didn’t have the best budget, but the crew made do with what they had and created something both wonderful and rather unsettling. From visual effects, such as static or cuts in the video feed itself, on the cameras used in production, to various distortions in audio that could make one's ears bleed.

A fun fact to note would be the use of tapes in the series. The tapes didn’t actually work on the cameras used to film. Instead, they were added in to give that ‘found footage’ staple that is unique for Marble Hornets.

Now let's get into a more ‘sensitive’ subject.

Marble Hornets has a few elements of mental illness. It deals with people who have gone through intense mental health, with their lives constantly being on the edge of danger from tapping into things that they were never meant to see with their own eyes. it’s discussed by the characters or physically shown through one's actions.

One of the major characters, Tim Wright, can be seen as one such character. He’s a clear advocate of mental illness as well as the importance of keeping your mental health in check.

Tim has suffered from intense mental health issues since his early childhood, even being sent to a hospital by his mother when things got bad. He’s constantly seen taking medication, in the form of pills, whenever his symptoms flare up. His symptoms ranging from blackouts, this is most known to be when Masky comes out, a sort of alter ego that seems to have appeared even when he was younger, especially with his bouts of anger issues and violent tendencies that was noted by doctors.

Another character that also deals with some of these symptoms is Jay, caused by prolonged exposure to the Operator. He gets gradually worse as the videos progress, and is even told by Tim to go to the doctor. When he doesn’t and continues digging deeper, Jay loses himself near the end of the series. This is something that can happen to a lot of un-medicated/untreated individuals of mental illness.

For a while now, fans have been able to see themselves through these characters. Either by actions or personality. Marble Hornets has often been used by fans as a means of comfort or even coping when dealing with their own issues.

Seeing a character deal with similar issues that the viewer has been dealing with can be something incredible, and not often seen in other forms for media nowadays, it was especially less prevalent back when Marble Hornets was still updating.

Marble Hornets is most known for it being a horror themed web series. But what kind of horror? The macabre? Something terrifying that makes one's skin crawl? Is it the endless fear of the unknown and wondering if or when you will be caught and killed?

In a way, it’s all of these things, all carefully sewn together to make the viewer want to watch more until the very end.

Various members of the series are plagued with stalkers, threats made towards them through cryptic videos as well as in-person encounters, and are always struck by the unknown. They live each day in paranoia, wondering if or when they will die. Be it from the operator, or by their own undoing.

They are paranoid about when they will be attacked next, or if they'll even survive the next attack. They are paranoid about being constantly surveyed, and fear the vulnerability that their stalkers can clearly see from them, whether it be through a camera feed or by being viewed from windows.

The static and noises that plague their dreams, the thing that stands in the corner of their eye, just there long enough to give them a fright and make them think they are going mad.

No one knows who the operator is, nor do they know its intentions. All that is known is that it wants something from the main cast of characters. Something that will cost the lives of them and others. Destruction, possibly.

The operator is perceived to be a type of entity, or even an eldritch being that stalks people. It controls people, infecting them with the urge to kill and cause mass destruction. It uses the main cast as puppets to do it’s dirty work.

Now doesn’t that sound scary? Something that can never really be proven to be real, or seen as fake by outsiders looking in, and having nowhere to turn to for help? It is scary. And that’s something that Marble Hornets does right.

To wrap this whole thing up as neatly as possible, there are many aspects of Marble Hornets that can still be discussed. The atmosphere, the story-line, even the various scenes that involved trees and forests. Marble Hornets is something so unique to the early 2010’s, something stuck in a perfect loop from 2009 to 2014 that would be very hard to replicate.

Marble Hornets is in no ways a masterpiece, it still has its faults. And that’s where the series shines the most. If it were perfect, it wouldn’t be, now would it? Countless questions still left unanswered, hearts aching at the ending of the series.

The series as a whole is a loop of unhappiness.

That’s what Marble Hornets is.

[practicallynonsensical]

Let’s talk about the absolute drug-induced fever dream of metal that was Bliss. Now when I chose to watch this, it was only after watching the trailer, I had no other context, no summary, no nothing, so when I got into the meat and grime of the story I was really LIKE WHOA. If possible, I recommend going into this movie blind and unspoiled.

Bliss opens with bright, florescent, and disorienting title cards. Like colorful, moving, graffiti art flashing violently. This is not for the photosensitive viewers, and honestly, this movie may be an entire skip it for the photosensitive folks.

Enter Dezzy, a moderately famous artist, who is beautiful, and very stressed. We meet her as she is behind on her rent and at a loss with her art.

Within the first 10 minutes, she is fighting with her boyfriend, landlord, agent, and well, is being dropped by said agent, who we immediately know is massive jerk trash by his greeting.

In her agitation, she visits dealer and friend, Adrian, whom she hasn’t seen in a while as she had been staying away from hard drugs.

She’s here looking for some “inspiration,” and Adrian has just the thing, and its name is Diablo. He calls it the best bliss in town. He tells her only to do a little. She, of course, does a lot. As soon as she does a large line, she is transported into a visual trip of moving colors and transcendent beauty. Her inspiration seemingly returning. We realize she blacked out for hours.

Naturally, she does more drugs; we meet her friend Courtney, and her man, a blonde guy with sunglasses, played by our favorite Purge villain. This drug-filled night culminates in an extended scene of a threesome that was honestly beautifully shot.

When Dezzy awakes again, she feels overcome with inspiration to paint. And when she snaps out of it, she does not know where this is coming from, but she loves it. She feels odd, sees something on her neck, and hallucinates herself covered in blood.

We follow Dezzy through what seems to be the symptoms of withdrawal. She is in a bad way. She doesn’t know if it is that Diablo stuff or something more insidious going on.

When she goes out that night the pieces begin to make sense once she runs into Courtney. Her friend is unfazed by the behavior and knows just how to make this go away, a cool and refreshing splattering of blood.

An unsuspecting girl in the bathroom is subject to Courtney’s calming technique. Dezzy drinks, has a great night covered in blood, paints, and then blacks outs again. This time waking up and feels paranoid and worse than ever, fearing that Courtney dosed her. She is confused about whether or not the night before even happened the way she remembers.

She does know one thing, she is craving blood in the worst way. And goodness gracious, her first kills are brutal.

In desperation, Dezzy goes to see her friend Adrian, and after a mishap that leaves him bleeding, she is unable to control herself, she annihilates him and everyone else in the home. It is a terrifically gory scene that leaves Deezy driving through LA in her convertible with a blood-covered face and a smile. Beautiful.

After days of trying to find Courtney again, we finally get confirmation, this is a true blood-red cloaked vampire story, and oops, sorry Dezzy, there is no cure, this is forever. Courtney sends Dezzy on her way with no real answers, just a promise that she will enjoy this gift she has given her.

Dezzy tries to resist the urges, but those horrid withdrawal symptoms once again  to plague her.

And man, this is where the blood gates OPEN. My girl starts up with the bloodshed and does not let up as she gets more and more of her painting done. She is obsessed, now with her career back on track, she believes this to be her masterpiece, she is willing to kill or die for it.

Clive, her boyfriend or FWB’s, death was particularly brutal as he came by her apartment because he was genuinely worried. She murders him with this gnarly neck snap that left his neck gushing like a fountain to quench her never-ending thirst. Literally bleeding him dry.

Post-snack, she hallucinates that he comes after her and calling her a murderer.

She tries to kill herself to no such mercy. She is devastated but feels calm once she sees her painting near completion.

Clive is back! The now vampire, Clive, is back because, apparently, she turned him  accidentally instead of killing him. He feels she did this purposely, Dezzy does not seem to agree, he gets aggressive, and then Dezzy is saved from another violent breakup by Courtney, who drives a SWORD?!?!? through his heart.

Courtney has come by because she is angry at the bloodbath Dezzy has left around town. And now Courtney decides that Dezzy’s blood would be the perfect meal.

The vampire ladies battle to some metal tune with Dezzy’s painting looming in background. Dez stabs Courtney in the heart, and just like with Clive, we see this excellent melting effect of the dying vampires.

It is a really awesome looking practical effect! It looks like a doll that was melted and then sped up. Maybe a metaphor for the plastic/shallow folks dying in their hedonistic pursuits of power and well, in this case, literally blood.

More heavy metal plays, Dezzy dances wildly, and she paints with a singular purpose. Covered in the blood of her friends, she steps back to look at her finished painting.

She again hallucinates all of her victims, reaching for her desperately. This scene mirrors her masterpiece, now completed, soon after all of the screams and hallucinations fade away. She has created something that will live on forever, and forgotten are those she hurt to get here, to this moment of absolute bliss.

The sun rises, and she explodes with the light of a new day.

What I liked: This was an absolutely grimey, 80’s nostalgic, stylish, heavy metal, stress-filled joy ride. It was a fresh take on the vampire genre for something jammed packed with nostalgia shots, and grindhouse feels. I loved the subtleness of the classic vampire lore. No sun, stakes through the heart very bad. We see that narcissism of vampires that we love heightened through the lens of the LA art scene. Instead of making dying for your art romantic, soft, and beautiful, the filmmaker made it violent and a bloodbath. Sidenote: Which I think needs to be seen more, let’s chill with the idea that we need to kill ourselves to be creative. The main character was not likeable, she was talented but really lacked any personage beyond her art and drugs. You can live for your art too.  Another big up, the practical effects were incredible. Something additional I loved was this realistic look into the inescapable feeling of addiction. I think the film really used its story matter to advocate how powerless addicts can be in the throes of their illness. This movie does not glamorize drug use, it makes it look bloody disgusting.

What I disliked: As i mentioned above, the characters were not really likeable. Which I guess is fine and reminiscent of old horror movies.. Most characters we are introduced to are just there to boost the final body count, but I really REALLy, wanted to like Dezzy, because Dora Madison is absolutely incredible in this movie. She was sorely underused in the episode of “Into the Dark” i saw her in, because she brought an excellent physicality to her movements in this film, especially when she was supposed to be blacked out. When she was disorientated, so were you, and that is due to the amazing camera work and her captivating performance. The writing did not flesh out her backstory or really her story other than the surface or maybe enough for me to be gung-ho for this character. Most of the time, I was really fine if she died. Which sucks because the acting was great, but that goes for most of the characters. But if we are going by old school horror rules, I must get over it, cause everyone sucks, so by proxy; they must die?!? I guess.  My bad for wanting to root for someone.

Should you watch it: If you are a metal fan, vampire fan, or horror fan, I recommend it. This is like our Uncut Gems. Yes, I said it. Bliss is the Uncut Gems of horror. Feel free to @ me. This film is purposefully disorientating, non-stop, and will stress you out. The main character stresses you out, and you TRULY wish they made better life choices. The camera work is incredible, and you can tell this was shot with care and edited with love for the genre. Joe Begos, the director, is a horror pro, and I am excited to work my way through more of his work. So yeah, it is on the streaming service Shudder now. Watch it.