#it's free on tubi please go watch it

[herewithinthevoid]

Thirty-one days of my favorite horror movies in no particular order. When I say this movie was the bane of my existence for TWO DAMN YEARS, I mean it.

Tl;dr I saw this movie all of one time the year it came out and immediately life went insane... So it was yeeted from my consciousness into the abyss for several years until one particular scene/visual suddenly grabbed my brain cell in a chokehold. Spent the next two years trying to hunt down what movie I'd seen it in, and trying to run searches on authors and books in horror movies just has Google trying to cram Misery down your throat as if it's the only thing to exist.

Don't even remember how I eventually found it, but I did. Watched it within minutes and the insane satisfaction was wonderful. It's not a perfect movie, but it's a really fun concept and it's a favorite to toss on and just enjoy the absolute pain in my ass this movie was for two years of my life 💀

Day Twenty-seven - Residue (2017)

[hairscare]

me and stevo talk about the commodification of alternative crowds

[cozylittleartblog]

do it

hey wait a minute, i've seen this one before

[redisthenewblue]

TINKER-Twisted Wonderland x Tinkerbell!Yuu/Fem!Reader Part 2

Part 1

[Name] was jolted awake by a gentle poke to her side.

“Mrggg…” The girl mumbled, rolling over.

“[Name], you need to talk to Headmage Crowley,” Lilia said, and at those words, the girl shot up, her head darting from side to side.

“Headmage Crowley?! Where is he?!” she exclaimed, confusion written all over her face.

“In his office. You need to see him right now while he’s not busy,” Lilia replied.

With that, [Name] rolled out of her makeshift bed and landed on the dresser. She stretched her wings out, feeling the need to wake up a bit more, and ran her fingers through her hair. To avoid drawing too much attention, she decided to stay in her smaller form. She turned to Lilia, who was busy gathering his supplies in his bag.

“Thanks again, Lilia.”

“Not a problem at all… Good luck!” he said.

With a quick nod, [Name] set off to find Crowley. She zipped through the halls, feeling like the school was a giant maze. Finally, she stopped in front of a door that looked significant enough. Peeking at the gap under the door, a grin spread across her face. She took a few steps back to gain momentum and—oh, she got stuck. Maybe she had overestimated the size of the gap. She could see Crowley right there too! Pushing against the door, she tried to wiggle free. With one last strong shove, she tumbled across the floor, fairy dust sparkling around her with every movement. Comically, birds circled her head as she transformed back to her normal size.

“Mr. Crowley, sir,” she paused to catch her breath, “I wanted to talk to you about staying at this school. Before you say anything, just hear me out. I can’t go back home right now. If I do, I’ll be stuck in a horrible house with older siblings who absolutely despise me in Fairy Hollow, a town that feels completely unfamiliar with a future that seems just as uncertain. Please, please, please let me stay!”

Crowley’s eyes widened at her outburst, and he let out an exhausted sigh. “You can stay under certain conditions. You’ll have an earlier curfew, must keep your grades above a B-, no tardies, and if you ever feel threatened, you’re allowed to use your magic.” [Name] lit up, her glow brighter than ever. “Got it! But what about my dorm and uniform situation?” she asked eagerly.

“That will be sorted out later. For now, get to know the school and your classmates,” Crowley said, pushing a magic pen towards her. With a smile,[Name] enthusiastically took the pen and bolted out the door.

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“Pfft. All it takes is a little gust to—Hah! Oh no! The Queen of Hearts's statue looks like it’s been flame-broiled!” Ace exclaimed, his cool demeanor crumbling as he took in the damage from the fight.

“Flame-broiled indeed,” [Name] replied with a mischievous grin, enjoying Ace’s misfortune.

“Where did you come from?! Why is there a girl on campus?!” Ace shouted.

“[Name]?” Grim and Yuuken chimed in unison.

“I go to school here, duh,” she said, sticking her tongue out playfully. “So, what’s going on?”

“It’s Ace’s fault for trying to divert my fire! He should’ve just let it burn you to a crisp!” Grim shot back.

“Who in their right mind would ever do that?!” Ace retorted.

“What’s happening here? Cease this at once!” Crowley called out, making his way over.

At the sound of Crowley’s voice, [Name] froze. She really didn’t want to get blamed for anything, so she did what she does best—she shrunk down. But of course, she wasn’t going anywhere; she wanted to see how this played out. It felt like one of those cheesy Tubi movies she used to watch for inspiration on her inventions.

“Oh no! The headmage!” Ace cried, panic creeping into his voice. It was only the first day, and he was already in deep trouble.

“Not more lashings of love! We gotta get outta here!” Grim, Yuuken, and Ace tried to make a run for it, but [Name] had other plans. Whipping out her magic pen, she tripped the boys with a vine, falling over in silent laughter. This school was going to be full of opportunities for mischief! As they stumbled, Crowley approached with a fierce expression.

“OW!” Ace yelped, clutching a bruised spot on his side.

“Myaaaaah! I’m still sore from yesterday too!” Grim complained.

“As if the likes of you could ever escape my wrath! Did I not just warn you about ‘no more incidents’? And now you’ve charred one of my statues?! It’s almost like you WANT to be expelled!” Crowley threatened.

Yikes… So glad I managed to dodge that bullet!

“No! Please forgive me!” Ace pleaded.

“Hahhh… I wish I had my phone on me. This would totally blow up on magicam,” [Name] said, rolling over onto her side and getting comfortable as she watched the chaos unfold.

Crowley shifted his glare to Yuuken. “And you! You were specifically told to keep Grim under control!”

“I tried to stop him, but…” Yuuken began, only to be interrupted by the furious headmaster.

“This is unacceptable. And you! State your name and grade.”

“Ace Trappola… Freshman,” Ace said solemnly, sulking so much that [Name] thought he might just sink into the floor.

“Then listen carefully, Trappola. You, Grim, and Yuuken will be punished for today’s antics. You’re all assigned to wash a hundred windows!”

“Myah?! This is what you get for making fun of me! It’s all your fault! And where’s [Name]?!”

[Name] felt the urge to storm over and help Grim clean those dirty windows, but she had to keep her wings down and play it cool. 

“What? I have to do it too?!” Ace whined.

“Of course you do,” Crowley scoffed. “You’ll meet in the cafeteria after class. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Ace finally relented.

“Ugh, I can’t catch a break!” Grim groaned. “I’m already worn out from a full day of cleaning. I can’t believe we still have to wash a hundred windows.”

Yuuken, clearly annoyed, cut in to silence Grim’s complaints. “We just have to suck it up and do it. You didn’t help at all earlier anyway…”

That’s when it hit [Name]. Yuuken didn’t snitch on her when Crowley asked where she was. In a way, she owed him something, but she just didn’t know what. Then it clicked, and she snapped her fingers.

“I know!”

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With a sense of urgency, [Namel hurried toward the ramshackle dorm, logs of wood trailing behind her. All she needed now were some metal scraps, screws, and a bit of wood polish to get things rolling. As she turned the corner, her wings twitched—a telltale sign that something was about to happen. Maybe it would be wise to take a different route to the ramshackle. "Hey, hold up there! No fair getting a head start! Wait!" The unmistakable voice made [Name] shake her head in frustration. Of course, it had to be them. 

Just as she was about to turn around, something knocked her to the ground along with the logs. "Outta my way!" a boyish voice shouted, fading into the distance. As she tried to get back on her feet, Namel stumbled over the logs in a rather embarrassing fashion. Her previously calm expression morphed into one of pure fury. She whipped around to see who was responsible for this mess—it was none other than Ace Trappola. Taking a moment to gather herself, she stood up, piled the logs together, and tied them securely. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, she made them float again. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that she couldn't deal with this chaos right now; she had to get to the mirror hall.

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"This is not good..." Ace winced, clearly feeling the weight of the situation.

"What am I going to do?! How am I supposed to break this news to my mom...?" One boy was in full panic mode, realizing he couldn't afford to lose his place at NRC.

"Well... there might just be a glimmer of hope," the headmaster chimed in, offering the students a ray of optimism. "There’s a slim chance we can fix this chandelier."

"Wait, really?!" The boys shouted in unison, their hopes lifted.

"The magestone that powered this chandelier was sourced from the Dwarfs' Mine. If you can find a magestone with the same properties, we might be able to make the repairs."

"Then I’ll go look for a magestone! With your permission, sir!" one of them declared, determination shining in his eyes.

"Just a heads up—I can’t guarantee that any magestones are still out there. The mines have been closed for quite a while now, so it’s possible that all the magestones have been mined already."

"I'll do whatever it takes to avoid getting expelled, sir!" the boy insisted, desperation in his voice.

"Hmmm... Alright then. I’ll postpone your expulsion for just one night. But if you don’t bring back a magestone by morning, then all of you are out." Crowley negotiated, setting the stakes high.

"I understand, sir! Thank you so much for this chance!"

 "Okay, let’s get moving. We need to find a magestone and wrap this up," Ace said, his shoulders drooping as he let out a heavy breath.

"You can reach the Dwarfs' Mine instantly by using one of the gates in the Mirror Chamber," Crowley informed them.

"Yes, sir!"

"Why do I keep running into you guys...?" [Name] grumbled as she stood at the entrance of the mirror hall, eyeing the chandelier on the floor with a frown. "How do you always manage to get into trouble?!"

Yuuken simply shook his head, muttering, "Grim and Ace..."

"Hmph." [Name] replied, "Who's that, and why is he staring at me like I’m the elephant in the room?" She pointed at the boy who was looking at her with wide eyes.

"Maybe it’s because you’re the only girl in an all-boys school?!" Ace shot back, much to [Name]'s irritation.

"Shut it," she hissed, switching her focus back to the boy who looked completely taken aback. "What’s your name?"

"Deuce... Spade…" he managed to say, still looking a bit overwhelmed.

"Deuce?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Please stop looking at me like that."

"Sorry!" he said quickly, before turning back to the boys.

"We can’t waste any more time. Let’s go! Dark Mirror! Take us to the Dwarfs' Mine!" Deuce urged enthusiastically.

"Huh?! Wait!" [Name] exclaimed, feeling herself being pulled into the portal. She desperately tried to grab onto the smooth floor, but her efforts were in vain.

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

"So, this is the Dwarfs' Mine... A long time ago, it was overflowing with magestones," Deuce remarked, taking in the surroundings. 

The girl rubbed the spot on her head where she had landed. "Are you serious right now?!" She quickly dusted off her pants, her wings twitching as they prepared her to take off back to campus. 

"Where do you think you're going, insect?!" the cat called out, a hint of annoyance in its voice.

"Back to NRC," she replied flatly, not bothering to look back.

Just as she was about to launch herself into the air, she was suddenly tackled by a ball of fur. 

"Get off me! How are you so heavy?!" [Name] struggled to push the cat off her.

"Nyah! You left us behind near those statues!" the cat exclaimed, indignation in its tone.

"That wasn't my fault, was it?!" [Name] crossed her arms defiantly. "But... I guess I can help you find the magestone. I could use a little adventure anyway."

"Look, everyone! I see a house over there. Let's check it out and see what the folks there have to say," Ace suggested, his shoulders slumping in a casual manner.

"Hello? Is anyone home...? It must be empty. This place looks like it’s been abandoned," Deuce said, glancing around.

"Bwah! I just got a spider web on my face! Ptchoo! Ptchoo!" 

"Wow, these desks and chairs are tiny! Did kids live here? One, two... seven! It’s like a clown car in here," Ace joked, managing to elicit a giggle from [Name].

"When the mine was thriving, this house must have been a really lively spot," Deuce mused.

"Well, standing around here isn’t going to get us anywhere. If we want to find a magestone, we've got to go inside the mine. Let's head in," Ace declared, stepping out of the house.

"You want to go in THERE? It’s pitch black! Insect! You go first! You’ve got that weird glowing thing around you," the cat retorted, a hint of fear in its voice.

An irked expression crossed her face. "Wuss," she muttered as she stepped into the cave, her glow lighting the way.

"What, scared of the dark? Pathetic," Ace teased Grim.

"Myah?! I’m not scared of anything! I’ll take the lead! You all follow me!" Grim puffed out his chest and moved in front of [Name].

"Whoa, hold on!" Deuce warned the others.

"What now?" Ace asked, clearly annoyed.

"There's something up ahead!"

At that moment, [Name] felt a bone-chilling sensation crawl up her spine. Turning around, she gasped at the sight of a ghost, her wings instinctively spreading out as a defensive measure.

"Do make yourselves at home... You can stay forever!" the ghost rasped, a cold aura enveloping the cave as it spoke. More ghosts emerged from behind the first one.

"More ghosts?! They're floating around here too!" Ace stepped back, ready to defend himself with his magic pen.

"If we stop to fight, we’re never going to get anywhere. Let’s just keep moving," Deuce reasoned, trying to keep the group focused.

"Sure, but don’t act like we voted you as team leader. We’re here because of that ridiculous stunt you pulled," Ace shot back.

"Oh? I’m pretty sure this all started because you tried to dodge your window-cleaning punishment!"

[Name] listened to the boys argue, feeling her blood pressure rise. She just wanted to rip her hair out in frustration.

Yuuken watched [Name]’s face twist in exasperation. From what he had seen during orientation, he didn’t even want to imagine how she would react now. He cautiously covered his ears, bracing for her outburst.

"So, we’re digging up ancient history now? If we're getting into it, this all started when furball here torched that statue!" Ace pointed an accusing finger at Grim.

"Myah?! Maybe you shouldn’t have made fun of me, then!" Grim defended himself.

"SHUT UP!" [Name] snapped, startling the boys into silence. The cave echoed with her voice, and they could have sworn they heard birds fleeing from the nearby trees.

"Everyone, just calm down," Yuuken attempted to diffuse the tension.

[Name] scratched her neck sheepishly. "Sorry..."

"...iiivvv... ...oooouuu..."

"Huh?!" the group gasped in unison, fear creeping into their voices.

"Wh-where's that coming from? [Name], was that you?" Ace asked, his eyes wide.

"No! Why would that be me?” [Name] whispered, hugging herself tightly.

"...neeevvvaaa... ...iiivvv... ...ooouuu..."

Why did [Name] let herself get tangled up in this mess? Would she even make it out alive in time for her first day tomorrow?!

"Sounds like... it's getting closer..."

"Stooonesss... Stooonesss aaare miiiiine!"

"There it is!" Yuuken pointed out the looming monster.

"What is that?!" Deuce’s eyes widened in horror.

"Myaaah! No one said there'd be monsters! Let’s get outta here!" Grim tugged on Yuuken’s pants, panic in his voice.

"That thing is super creepy! But didn’t it just mention something about 'stones'?!" Ace exclaimed.

"Stooonesss... ...nevvva give stooonesss...!" The monster swung at the group, its movements threatening.

"So there ARE still magestones here!" Deuce concluded, his eyes gleaming with determination.

"Myaaah... Even as a master sorcerer, I... I don't think I can take that thing down!" Grim admitted, his bravado fading.

"Are you really a master then?" [Name] couldn’t help but tease the cat, even in such dire circumstances.

"But we need a magestone or we’ll get expelled! I’m going in!" Deuce charged toward the monster, ignoring the warnings.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"You can't do this alone!"

But Deuce brushed aside their concerns. "I won't be expelled! No matter what!" 

"Get lost! Get lost! Get loooost!"

Deuce cried out as the creature lunged at him.

"Oh no! Loosey-Deucey is in trouble! Not on my watch! Heeyah!"

"Oof!" Ace hit the ground hard, wincing in pain as his muscles tensed.

From the sidelines, [Name] struggled to contain a laugh, watching the boys get tossed around like rag dolls.

"Myaaah! Keep away from me!" Grim raised his paws in sheer panic.

"GRRRAAAWWRR!" The monster let out a fearsome roar.

"It's like nothing even phases it!" Grim shouted in disbelief.

"Did you just see that sparkle?!" Yuuken exclaimed, staring past the monster at a glimmering rock.

"Look behind the monster! There's something shining in the mineshaft!" Ace said, pushing himself up from the floor.

"Could that be a magestone?!"

"GWAAAAAAAH! Nooo, I won't let you take the stooooone!" The monster attempted another strike. [Name] flinched, that attack almost hit her.

"Yuuken, we need to get out of here, and fast! That thing's going to turn us into tuna paste!" Grim pulled Yuuken by the sleeve.

"Retreat!Retreat! Retreat" Yuuken called out to the others.

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"This should be far enough, right?" Grim panted as he rolled onto his back.

"Owww... What was that thing? No one warned us about something like that!"

"That was definitely not your average ghost."

"Let’s just give up and go home. I'd gladly take the expulsion if it means I never have to face that thing again." Ace sighed, resigning himself to the idea of leaving NRC.

"What?! No way, that's not happening! I'd rather face death than get kicked out of Night Raven! How can you give up when the stone is right there?" Deuce shook his head vigorously, refusing to back down.

"Pfft. Easy for you to say, considering you’re not even half the mage I am. If you want that stone so badly, go get it yourself. I'm out." Ace turned to walk away, but Deuce shouted after him.

"Oh YEAH?! Fine, just run back to your little coop, you big chicken!" Deuce taunted, momentarily breaking character.

"Whaaaaat?! Who are you calling a chicken, huh?!" Ace shot back, crossing his arms and stepping closer to Deuce.

"Whoa, Deuce... Did you just, like, totally change personality there for a second?"

"Huh?! Sorry... I lost my temper for a moment." He cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed.

"So, what do we do now?" Yuuken squatted down, looking to the others for guidance.

"Can't you guys just blow that thing up with magic?" Grim directed his question at Ace and Deuce.

"Can't you do something magical yourself?" Yuuken asked Grim, raising an eyebrow.

"The headmage said it himself... magic has its limits. If you can't visualize your magic clearly, it's not going to work." Deuce explained to Yuuken and Grim. "Using magic on a larger scale or trying different kinds of magic requires training."

"Exactly, that's why magic academies exist. It takes a ton of practice before you can just snap your fingers and make your thoughts manifest as magic. And the more flustered you are, the more likely you are to mess things up." Ace added in.

"So that's why Grim can only summon fire," Yuuken said, taking a jab at Grim's ego.

"Hey! Just you wait! I'm gonna learn to use way cooler magic than that! I'm just getting started!" Grim shot back at Yuuken.

"Anyway, we need to come up with a plan to defeat that creature and grab the magestone," Deuce reminded everyone.

"Yeah, just like last time with the chandelier, right? You 'found a way,' and now look where we are. We just fought that thing and it wiped the floor with us. So what's your grand plan, genius? Because I definitely don't trust you to wing it!" 

"What?! You're the one who—"

"And here we go again," Grim sighed, realizing this was going nowhere.

"So, I guess we should all just get expelled then," Yuuken shrugged, sounding indifferent.

"What?" Ace and Deuce exchanged bewildered glances, taken aback by Yuuken's sudden defeatist attitude.

"Whoa, that was a bit harsh. Where did that come from?" Grim's eyes widened at Yuuken's unexpected demeanor.

"Why not try working together for a change?" Yuuken suggested earnestly.

"With Loosey-Deucey? No way! He'd get me killed!" Ace shot back at Deuce, dismissing the idea.

"Like I'd enjoy teaming up with you?!" Deuce retorted.

"What if we actually came up with a solid plan first?" Yuuken proposed.

Ace clicked his tongue in annoyance. "A solid plan? Like some buddy system? Are you kidding? You always say the most ridiculous things with a straight face, [MC]."

"Agreed. There's no way I can work with him." The blue-haired boy shook his head defiantly.

"Yeah, but... getting expelled on the first day? That's pretty lame too. Maybe even lamer." Grim pointed out.

Ace stuttered, caught off guard by Grim's comment, "W-well..."

"Yeah, there's nothing cool about that!" the black-haired boy added.

"Ugh... Fine. Let's just get this over with. All right, Yuuken. What's the plan?" The orange-haired boy asked, sounding resigned.

"Yuuken… Is this plan of yours really going to work? I'm scared—I mean, I'm a little... uh, hungry," the cat confessed.

"Then let's brace ourselves for the worst," Yuuken said with a hint of pessimism.

"Heh heh. That's not exactly encouraging! Keep it loose and lively! Let's do this!" Ace declared, pumping his fist in determination and flashing his trademark smile.

"Wait! I feel like we’re forgetting something..." Deuce said, deep in thought.

"That monster really must have done a number on you," Ace chuckled.

"Whatever!" Deuce shot ahead of Ace, ready to take action.

What do you guys think they forgot in the mines???

[xxportfolio]

while i am a proponent for higher education of all levels, i do understand it truly isnt for everyone.

that being said, please don’t rule out education in general just because higher education isn’t something that calls to you. you don’t need to go to college, but please continue to propel your learning in some way.

1. read books

-> i will never be able to recommend the public library enough. you don’t need to purchase all of these educational books, your library has them for you. and if they don’t, they will get them for you - just ask. i can vouch for this seeing as i am a librarian. if you prefer digital formats for a kindle/ipad, or prefer audiobooks, you can use your library card with the “libby” app or “hoopla” app. there’s no excuse to not use a public library if there is one available to you.

-> you don’t need to read as many educational books as you possibly can. instead, read whatever you’d like, as slow as you’d like, and apply what you learned. reading educational books and not practicing the lessons is pointless if you’re trying to expand your knowledge. read, apply, review results, adapt, repeat.

2. consume educational videos

-> you’re already on your phone. dedicate 10-20 minutes a day learning something. hold yourself accountable and set a timer on your phone to remind yourself to give this carved out time to watching something educational. find videos that make you stretch your brain. youtube and TEDtalks have endless hours of educational information for you for free.

-> if you have more time to spare, choose a documentary on your preferred streaming service rather than a TV show. maybe devoting 1 hour a week to this to start (again, set a timer.) if you don’t have streaming services, kanopy (with your library card), tubi, and soap2day are all free. take advantage of these, that’s what they’re there for.

3. pick a topic (or a few, preferably) that you genuinely want to learn more about

-> i always encourage to do 2 sets of learning side by side to even things out. when it comes to new topics choose one that’s fun for present you, and one that’s helpful for future you

-> fun learning for the present could be literally anything you want or anything you’re interested in at the moment

crochet

music writing

instrument playing

painting

sculpting

perfecting a recipe

&c.

-> helpful learning for the future could be something career related or anything to simply expand your knowledge outside of your immediate interests

finances/saving/investing

language learning

medical studies (make sure your resources are science backed. please reach out to me if you don’t know how to check validity of sources or don’t know what lateral research is and how to conduct it)

mental health studies (same warning as above)

coding (or anything tech related)

&c.

again, i will always recommend you get your AA degree at the very least. but if that’s not possible, don’t exclude learning in general because school-learning isn’t your thing. you don’t need to be a student to learn, but you need to continuously learn in order to be a human. education is a necessity. everyone loves to learn, if you don’t, you haven’t found your niche yet - i promise it’s out there.

i believe in you.

[franki-lew-yo]

--Fifty actually good Free to Watch Animated Movies--

Most are on Tubi, of course, but I don't think you'll mind that. Get em while they're hot - please dm/pm with any potential triggercontent warnings that you think might be needed.

I especially recommend Mary & Max, Kubo and the Two Strings, Last Unicorn, The Wolf House, Ernest and Celestine, Rock & Rule, Hair High, and Nocturna.

They're all beautiful and absolutely worth your time while they're still on Tubi, Youtube, or just online at all.

Safe for Families 

The Legend of Hei (Chinese, English Dub) Action, Fantasy

Ernest and Celestine (English Dub) Comedy/Drama

All Dogs go to Heaven (English) Fantasy/Action/Musical

The Secret of NIMH (English) Adventure/Action/Drama

Nocturna (English Dub) Fantasy/Comedy

The Mouse and his Child (English) Drama/Adventure

The Magic Pony/The Humpbacked Horse (English Dub) Fantasy/Adventure

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (English) Fantasy/Adventure/Musical

Here Comes Peter Cottontail (English) Comedy/Fantasy/Musical

Moon Man (English Dubs) Fantasy/Comedy

The Legend of Sirius/Sea Prince and the Fire Child (English) Fantasy/Romance/Drama

The Adventures of Unico and Unico and the Island of Magic (English Dubs) Fantasy/Adventure/Comedy

The Snow Queen (English Dub) Fantasy/Adventure

Long Way North (English Dub) Adventure/Historical

Eleanor’s Secret (English Dub) Fantasy/Adventure

The Last Unicorn (English) Fantasy/Drama/Adventure CW: Contains a harpy for one scene that your super religious mom might have a fit at but otherwise safe

Night on the Galactic Railroad (English Dub) Drama/Fantasy

Havoc in Heaven (Mandarin, subs available) Fantasy/Action/Adventure

Tito and the Birds (English Dub) Fantasy/Action/Horror

The Thief and the Cobbler (English) Adventure/Fantasy/Action CW: Ideologically sensitive despictions

The Adventures of Mark Twain (English) Adventure/Fantasy CW: May disturb some children, ideologically sensitive material

Raggedy Anne and Andy: A Musical Adventure (English) Adventure/Fantasy

On Happiness Road (Hokkien/Mandarin, English Sub) Drama/Comedy/Adventure CW: Systemic oppression

The Tale of the Fox (German, English Sub) Fantasy/Adventure

Ringing Bell (Japanese, English Sub) Drama/Adventure CW: May upset some children as it's an analogy for child soldiers

The Brave Little Toaster (English) Adventure/Drama CW: violence towards appliances

The Little Vampire (English Dub) Fantasy/Adventure

--Mature--

Have a Nice Day (Mandarin, English Sub) Action/Thriller/Crime CW: Violence, Domestic Abuse

The Painting (English Dub) Adventure/Comedy/Drama

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (English Dub) Drama/Thriller/Action CW: Police Brutality

A Cat in Paris (English Dub) Action/Comedy/Crime

Penguin Highway (English Dub) Speculative fiction/Drama

When the Wind Blows (English) Drama/Horror CW:Radiation poisoning, Elder Abuse

I Married a Strange Person (English) Comedy/Horror/Romance CW: Violence

Blood Tea and Red String (English) Horror/Arthouse CW: Violence, Sexual assault imagery

S He (non-verbal) Arthouse/Horror CW: sexism and misogynist ab*se (with shoes)

The Plague Dogs (English) Drama/Action CW: Animal abuse, animal death, violence

The Romantic (English) Fantasy/Horror CW: Domestic abuse

A Dog's Courage (English dub) Drama/Action/Adventure CW: Animal abuse

Robot Carnival (English Dub) Sci-Fi/Drama

Vampires in Havana (Spanish, English Sub) Comedy/Drama CW: Violence

Gandahar (French) Fantasy/Action/Adventure

Animal Farm (English) Drama/Thriller CW: Animal death, animal abuse

Technotise: Edit & I (Serbian, English Sub) Thriller/Fantasy

Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (English) Horror/Fantasy CW: Religious/sexual/domestic abuse imagery, violence

Louis by the Shore (English dub) Drama/Psychological

Rock & Rule (English) Fantasy/Action/Musical

Ghost in the Shell (English Dub) Action/Thriller/Drama

Millenium Actress (English Dub) Fantasy/History/Action

Away (Latvian, no talking) Arthouse/Drama

[palfriendpatine66]

Your Pal’s Hayden Review: Higher Ground

What? Yes. I’m going to take a second away from my 24/7 Ewan obsession to throw a little love Hayden’s way and talk about Higher Ground. I had heard a lot about the series before I decided to check out the series and I’m so glad I did. It can be really difficult to track down but right now it’s streaming for free for a limited time on the CW website (and app) as well as tubi.

TLDR: I highly recommend a watch for a great Hayden performance in an angst ridden, emotional teen drama about kids working through their trauma in a therapeutic wilderness school. Many many content warnings for difficult topics and content warnings after my general review below the cut.

This was seriously the role Hayden was born to play. He plays a broken, sulky teen who lashes out in flashes of anger before he breaks down and cries AKA he is modern AU Anakin. It’s no wonder he was cast as Anakin after his work on this. His performance is emotional and vulnerable and shattered my heart multiple times.

The show is never quite able to make the viewer forget that they’re watching a teen drama with a cast of actual teens playing the teenage characters filmed in the year 2000, but I was able to forgive it for it’s occasionally overacted and/or not quite realistic dialogue and key moments accompanied by in your face soundtrack choices to pump up the drama and I think you will too. A very diverse collection of issues that impact real teens but are rarely talked about were depicted surprisingly realistically and sensitively. I was really impressed that the show consistently emphasized - over and over again - that the traumas the kids went through that were behind the problematic behaviors that landed them in their one stop shop rehab/intensive therapy/social and life skills group/high school program were not their fault, but only they could be responsible for how they coped and chose to go forward with the rest of their lives. The councilors on the show had healthy, caring, supportive relationships with the kids in their program, and the advice they gave was (generally) actually helpful and real life strategies. What I liked the most about this show was that it was realistic in there is no magic cure or happily ever after, but there is hope and there is healing and there are opportunities for a positive future even when everything is awful.

Content warnings below - feel free to dm if you want more details if you’re considering a watch. Also if you have watched please let me know if I missed any. For the most part these weren’t graphic depictions (they were rated TVPG in 2000) but the emotional impacts and aftermath are focused on in detail and can be very heavy.

- depictions of depression, anxiety, and panic attacks with flashbacks - drug addiction - drug use - overdose death - alcoholism - teen runaway - rape - sexual abuse of a minor - sexual abuse of a minor by a parent - sexual abuse of a minor by a step parent - emotional abuse - gaslighting - abuse allegations being dismissed, not believed - eating disorders - discussions of self harm - graphic depiction of cutting - scenes and discussions of suicide and death - death of a parent - gang involvement - domestic violence - physical abuse - infertility - drowning death - teen prostitution -

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

Pride & Prejudice: A New Musical (2020)

god help me, I am on my knees

I adored this. It was a delight. Did they change things? Of course, once again proving that my heart is a fickle creature; changing things is terrible and insulting unless of course, I happen to like the change, in which case it is unique and commendable and wonderful.

Occasionally I come across a show that makes me wish I was rich enough to fund a vanity project solely so I can perform in it, and this was one of those.

In the US, this is currently on Tubi which is a free service and I am extremely grateful for it.

Mary and Jane are given lines that make us laugh for very different reasons, in character, which I adore. For instance, Mary is the one who announces where each scene is taking place, and gets more annoyed that it's her job as the show goes on.

There's an adorable duet with Bingley and Jane about the things they would say, if they weren't so shy. This Bingley is so shy he becomes tongue-tied, which is not the usual depiction of gregarious Bingley but I feel is still true to the heart of Bingley's character.

Caroline gives the best sign-offs to her letters, "yours ever, Caroline Bingleyyyyyyyy" in the flattest affect possible. It's passive aggressive and beautiful.

The banter between Darcy and Elizabeth is at Netherfield is so quick, which I really appreciate - makes it seem more like a quarrel, and leads to this beautiful perfect moment that is what introduced me to the show. If all you watch of it is this 20 seconds, it's worth it:

Darcy's songs are more of a pop vibe than I would have expected, but Justin Mortelliti rocks it so well I love it anyway.

There's a fantastic Collins song where all the Bennet ladies are lined up and he's singing about picking who will have the honor of his hand, and the Bennets are singing a counterpoint that is essentially oh please no don't pick me. And Elizabeth gets a fun, fairly comedic refusal song.

Lady Catherine gets a surprisingly almost jazzy song, with a chorus of servants talking about how grateful they are for her advice. At one point she makes a rebuttal and Darcy guffaws loudly until he abruptly slaps his hand over his mouth.

If you don't know the rules of musical theatre, when the emotion becomes too much for words, song breaks out, which means Elizabeth starts singing during her refusal of the proposal scene (love). This Darcy actually opens his mouth to defend himself, but Elizabeth refuses to listen. Leading to an amazing line in the next scene "I've written you a letter - since clearly I found 'speaking' far too challenging." (Also, the bitter Darcy song after her rejection? yes please. Fuckin' Broadway tenors and their ridiculous range, man, sure just pop those high notes and make my soul thrill that's fine I didn't need to have equilibrium today)

Jane has a beautiful song and reprise about how she's definitely not going to think about Bingley any more.

Cute scene where they run into each other at Pemberley. This Darcy spies Elizabeth and sneaks up on her, which is fun.

Did I become immediately obsessed with Darcy's song "The World She Lives In" where Darcy sings about how he's a better man because of Elizabeth, and listen to it on repeat? Yes, yes I did.

There's a fantastic song about being ruined that really captures the despair a lot of movies can't.

When Bingley and Darcy return to Longbourn at the end, Bingley is so shy he can't speak. He sings about what he would say, but in reality says nothing. It's comedic and wonderful.

And the writers love us - they really love us! - they gave us a scene of Darcy rehearsing what he's going to say to Elizabeth and despairing at his inability to speak in her presence: "Miss Bennet, how good it is to see you again...........and after that I'm blank. Maddening."

Of course it's all happily ever after and I may or may not have watched it twice before even posting this. And then someone showed me a list of other P&P musicals, which I will now be watching ALL OF because I love both of those things and them converging delight me beyond reason.

Anyway. Go watch it. Just watching this made up for watching all those hallmark movies. Joy.

[slotmachines-fearofgod]

babby ahsoka + twins

Please enjoy this not proofread not edited not ready WIP! we need more baby ahsoka & clones in the world

---

For the first time in his (relatively short) life Rex was at a loss. 

They were investigating some temple on behalf of the Jedi. Anakin had been sent because of his intense attunement to the Force and the 501st had happily followed his lead. Rex hadn’t gotten much out of the man, just that the Jedi would know what to do and all he needed to worry about was following their lead. 

Rex was going to kill him. 

When they first landed and entered nothing had seemed off. It was an old, crumbling structure built by neither Jedi nor Sith millenia ago. The Jedi wanted it investigated due to the strange flow of energy around it, an energy that had steadily been increasing over the past month until the signal reached Coruscant itself. Rex had braced himself for mental games or mind tricks but there had been nothing. 

In fact, there had been so little sign of anything that Anakin decided it would be best for them to split up. Coming as a surprise to no one Ahsoka took Fives, Echo, and Rex along with her down the side passageways, leading them through a winding maze Rex wasn’t sure he’d be able to figure out on his own. 

Which was what led them here. 

Rex stared down at the three children in front of him and felt the vague urge to cry.

Fives blinked up at him, his big eyes full of curiosity as he looked at Rex’s armor. Rex, still frozen from where he’d busted through the door that had trapped his compatriots, watched as his second waddled up to him and grabbed his kama. 

“Fives?” Rex croaked, incredibly out of his depth. 

Fives laughed brightly, “See Echo! I told you it would catch on.”

Echo, now half his original size, scowled, “No fair. Why do you get the fun name?”

Ahsoka, his little commander, his almost-sister, his charge, stuck her finger in her mouth and immediately jammed it into Echo’s ear. 

Echo yelped, scurrying away from the girl who was grinning with her fangs out, “Ew!”

“What’s your name?” Ahsoka asked, seemingly innocent. 

Echo grumbled quietly so they couldn’t hear, still trying to wipe the spit out of his ear. 

Fives ran over to him, laughing all the way, “It’s Echo! It’s ‘cause he only repeats what the trainers say!”

“Shut up!” Echo’s face lit up red as he smacked his brother, “I do not!”

“Ow!” Fives whined, rearing up to hit Echo back, “Don’t be such a tubie!”

“I hate you,” Echo growled, “Stop being so mean.”

“I’m Ahsoka!”

Both clone cadets momentarily paused to look at the togruta girl. 

“I’m a Jedi!”

And with that their feud was forgotten. Rex sighed and walked over, accepting that this was his life now, as Echo launched question after question at a giggling Ahsoka. Fives was trying to bodily drag her away to see her do “cool Force shit,” leaving Rex to wade in between the pack to pick up the little padawan. 

“Hey,” Fives complained, “Give her back.”

“Hush,” Rex fixed him with a look, “Give me a sitrep cadet.”

Fives rolled his eyes, a move that would’ve gotten him another hour of training at the least on Kamino, while Echo stiffened into a less than perfect parade rest. 

“Sir!” Echo started, his voice just a little too loud in the echoing chamber, “Myself and CT-5555 were enjoying our downtime in the bunks. We were taking the allotted rest period to sleep and woke up here in this…where are we? Sir.”

Rex sighed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, “We are on the planet Erot in the Outer Rim. As for the name of this place, I was not granted access to that information.”

All three kids' eyes widened. 

“Outer Rim?” Ahsoka asked, “That’s so cool!”

Rex shifted her onto his hip so she’d be easier to carry. If he had to guess, they were all about five or six standard years. They could speak plainly and fluently and had little coordination issues, but they were much younger then they’d been a mere five minutes ago. 

“Ahsoka,” Rex started, “Do you remember what you were doing in this room?”

Ahsoka shook her head, now looking around the space, “No. I was in the creche with Uzaa and we were going to class with Master Che. I was late.” Ahsoka looked down sheepishly, a blush of her own on her face. 

Rex smiled weakly, “It’s alright. We’ll work it out.”

“Who are you?” Fives piped up, never content with being silent too long. 

“I’m Rex,” he could answer that at least, “Captain Rex.”

“Captain?” Echo looked up at him with something like admiration, “Wow. Does that mean the war has started?”

“What war?” Ahsoka asked, now alarmedly squirming in Rex’s arms, “Why do you all look the same?”

Rex winced, “It…may be best if we regroup before we talk about everything,” he said apologetically, “But I’ll explain.”

Ahsoka frowned, wiggling so much that Rex gave up and just set her down, “Okay. Are we going back home?”

That was a good question. Right now Rex wasn’t sure what to do with his sort-of soldiers. And there was no way he was getting back through the tunnel system without a guide to help. 

Rex looked around the room, searching for clues or hints of what did this to them. There were strange carvings on the floor in the center and metal piping running along the ceiling, but other than that the place seemed empty. Devoid of anything and everything except for the group of four at the door. 

Rex pinched his nose as he pulled up his comm, already dreading this call. 

“Skywalker here, what’s your status Rex?”

“Uh,” Rex looked down at three innocent and eager faces, “I need a rendezvous at my position ASAP.”

“What?” Skywalker’s voice changed, now startled and anxious instead of cool and collected, “What happened to Ahsoka? She can’t lead you?”

Ahsoka gasped, “He knows me?”

“...What was that?”

“That is my predicament sir,” Rex sighed again, “I believe your padawan activated something. ARC troopers Fives and Echo are down along with Tano.”

“ARC trooper?!” Fives cried in excitement, now bouncing on his toes, “We make ARC troopers?”

Rex gave all three of them a scolding look and pressed a finger to his lips. They all looked down at their feet, adequately shamed. 

“Riiight,” Skywalker drawled, “Sounds like I should see this myself. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Bring Kix please,” Rex tiredly requested.

“Of course,” Skywalker sounded less upset now. It helped soothe some of Rex’s own nerves as he mentally cussed out stupid Force shit in every language he knew. “I look forward to seeing what this is about.”

Rex let out a breath of relief as the call ended. He sat heavily next to the kids, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. 

At least until Echo rounded in front of him. 

“Captain?” Echo asked in a small voice.

“Yeah?” 

“Are we in trouble?”

Rex softened a bit and shook his head, “No. It’s just been a long day.”

Echo hummed, “So is it true? Has the war started?”

Ah yes. The great war. The one they used to dream about as kids. Their strange light at the end of the tunnel. 

“Yeah,” Rex said hoarsely, staring into Echo’s eyes and suddenly being hit with the realization that this Echo’s brothers were still alive, “It’s started.”

Echo frowned, “But you’re not an A clone. Why are you deployed?”

Rex shook his head, “It’s complicated. We’ll explain later, I promise.”

Echo seemed unhappy with that answer, but he didn’t get another word in before Fives was bullying his way into Rex’s line of sight. 

“You said we’re ARC troopers,” Fives accused, “But we haven’t even graduated our base combat modules!”

Rex laughed softly, “You’ll get there someday. Trust me.”

Fives scowled, unsatisfied with Rex’s half answer but Rex wasn’t really sure how much to tell them. Telling them everything - Rishi, their batch’s destruction, their missions with Torrent - seemed unwise. They were still kids. They deserved to be kids. Just for a little bit. 

Rex startled as he felt a weight lean into his side, briefly reaching for his blaster before looking over and realizing it was Ahsoka. 

She looked up, her usually large eyes now seeming comically huge on her face, “‘M cold.”

Right. Togrutas were warm blooded. And she hadn’t gotten as lucky as Fives and Echo, whose blacks shrunk with them. She was still stuck with her skirt and stupid tube top. Rex wanted to rip that thing to shreds and replace it with armor. He’d had the instinct many times before but now…

Rex just opened his arms, allowing the girl to crawl into his lap with a happy sigh.

He glanced at Echo and Fives, unsurprised to find them bickering quietly off to the side. 

“Boys,” he called, his voice booming around the chamber, “Cut it out.”

Fives made a frustrated noise and stomped his foot, going off to sulk in the corner, while Echo stared after him with an angry look. Eventually the younger of the two made it over, subtly checking out of Ahsoka had left any room in Rex’s lap. 

Rex scooted backward against the wall so the three of them could sit more comfortably before he called out, “Fives. Come here.”

Fives turned around, stuck his tongue out, and turned back to the corner. 

“CT-5555,” Rex put a little more authority into his voice, “Now.”

Fives hesitated, fighting with himself a little bit, before groaning and stomping over. Rex gave him an appraising once over, finding nothing wrong with him other than the attitude. 

“What’s this about?” Rex tried his best to go for strict older brother but he was pretty sure the image was ruined by the two kids in his lap. 

“Don’t wanna be here,” Fives mumbled, crossing his arms and looking down, “I miss 4040.”

Ah. Cutup. Fives’ favorite of his old batch. 

Rex relaxed a bit, crooking his finger at Fives and watching the kid tentatively step toward him, “It’ll be alright. We’ll get you three fixed up in no time.”

“Fixed?” Echo craned his neck to look up at Rex. 

Rex winced, knowing where Echo probably jumped to, “Back home, I mean.”

Echo nodded, slumping against Rex as Fives tried, and mostly succeeded, to fit himself between his brother and his future commander. Rex held the three of them in his arms and tried to remember to breathe. 

He didn’t know what to do with this. They couldn’t fight and there was no way in hell Kamino would take Fives and Echo back. He didn’t have the first clue what to do with Ahsoka, hell he didn’t even know if they’d allow her back at the temple after this. Were the Jedi as strict as the Kaminoans? Certainly not except for the exceptional cases. The issue was this was most certainly an acceptable case. 

They sat in a tight anxious silence for the next few minutes. Rex was shielding as best he could, but his skills were rudimentary at best and he knew it was getting to Ahsoka. Adding on to that Fives and Echo kept poking each other and making faces when they thought Rex wasn’t looking. Eventually one of them was going to hit Ahsoka and he just knew that would start an all out war. 

Ahsoka perked up before the rest of them, her eyes going wide and her figure stilling. Rex let out a sigh of relief, well aware of what that meant by now. 

Sure enough, a few moments later they heard hurried footsteps and a few calls between troopers. Rex had them all stand, drawing his blasters and putting on his helmet as he walked to the door. 

Skywalker was the first in line, his face curious but not alarmed. Rex let the blasters fall when he saw him, nodding respectfully to his general. 

“Rex,” Anakin greeted him, “Mind showing me what this is about?”

Rex nodded, peeking over his shoulder to see Jesse, Kix, and Hardcase. That was good. The boys would love Hardcase. 

“Yeah,” Rex stepped aside and pointed at the trio of children, “Feel free to take a look.”

Anakin, it seemed, had the same reaction to children as Rex did. Which was freeze. 

Kix nudged him aside easily, sparing a curious glance at his general, before he too paused in the doorway. 

“Hi!” Ahsoka waved cheerily, one of her hands in Echo’s, “I’m Ahsoka!”

[steviewashere]

Okay, I'm going to ramble to you about a theory I have, please excuse me.

So, a couple years ago when Letterboxd was reaching peak interest among people, Netflix made an Instagram post about each of the Stranger Things's characters top four movies.

Steve's top movie, I believe, was Animal House. Eddie's was Spinal Tap. Dustin's was The Neverending Story. Just so you know what I'm talking about.

Right. Anyway, they said Robin's number one favorite movie would be The Apartment (1960). This makes sense for her, as she likes black and white film, she's obviously big into film. So, kudos to Netflix for being on the dot, I suppose. Now, I just watched this movie tonight, I totally see the appeal. It's my favorite now, too.

But...I noticed something.

This is the main love interest in The Apartment, her name is Fran Kubelik:

She falls in love with the wrong guys, she's unhappy in the relationship she's in (I won't spoil the relationship she's in, so go watch this or look up spark notes or something), she's in love with the guy, but the guy doesn't love her. She tells the main character, C.C. Braxter, that she wishes she could love somebody like him because he's so nice. He rambles a lot, knows a lot of (almost pointless) information, feels hopeless in his romantic endeavors, is on his own—no family, no spouse, not a lot of friends—ultimately very unhappy with how his life is going.

Anyway. I, for one, think C.C. fits Robin's description quite a bit. Not in a lot of ways, but some key components of the character's personality and life match Robin's outlook on her own life. And, I got to thinking, well, who does Fran remind me of...

May I present Vickie, Robin's crush in season 4:

Now, Vickie is stuck in an unhappy relationship. At least from what I remember. She loves her boyfriend, her boyfriend isn't very into her...that kind of thing. She gets caught out by Robin in the military surplus store, which semi-resembles a major plot point in The Apartment (seriously, go watch it or look up what happens; I'm not spoiling it for you). But then, at the end of the season, she talks to Robin about being happy because she broke up with her boyfriend, and that makes Robin even more interested in talking to Vickie (which resembles another big plot point in The Apartment).

Another thing I noticed, though, is that Vickie and Fran resemble each other physically. The makeup, the fucking hair, even the facial structures are very similar. I mean...if The Apartment is Robin's favorite movie of all time...then, Fran has to be her lesbian awakening—yeah? Or maybe even first celebrity crush? Or maybe she just likes Fran because Fran reminds her of Vickie? Or what if she likes Vickie because Fran is her type?

My theory is that Robin loves The Apartment, yes absolutely, but also she likes Vickie because she has a fangirl crush on Fran.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, apologies for the ramble. I will go now.

Also, again, go watch The Apartment, it's free on Tubi with ads. (Everything on Tubi is free with ads. All you need is an account with an email and password. Go watch the damn movie.)

Also, also, I will say trigger warning for The Apartment if you do decide to watch it, there is a suicide attempt (that isn't shown, but the aftermath of that is), and a discussed suicide attempt. That's the only plot I'm spoiling. Now go watch it.

[blahahala]

Watching Sam Hazeldine's Movies, part 2:

I've added three more of Sam Hazeldine's films to my watched list: The Machine (2013), Persuasion (2007), and The Last Duel (2021).

First up, I really enjoyed The Machine; it's a solid 90-minute AI thriller. Sam's role in it is fairly small, and it's actually one of the critiques I have of the movie - I would've liked a little more of his character. Besides that, the movie is filled with solid performances including those of Caity Lotz (who is excellent), Toby Stephens, and Denis Lawson. It's nothing life-changing, but is a solidly engaging film. It can be found for free on tubi.

Next, I watched Persuasion. I'll be honest that I was completely unfamiliar with this story, having never read the book or seen any other adaptation. I enjoyed the film and Sam's performance as Charles Musgrove; he reminded me a bit of Hugh Laurie in the role. This movie is very Adar heavy as Joseph Mawle is also in it! Really enjoyed him in his role. Overall, I can't say it's my favorite movie in the world, but I'm glad I watched it; there was a lot of running towards the end 😂 It can be watched on Peacock.

Most recently, I watched The Last Duel. This is a movie I'd been meaning to watch since it came out in 2021, so I was glad to finally sit down with it. Firstly regarding Sam's role - I spotted him a couple of times sitting next to several of the main supporting characters at the duel, but I didn't spot him anywhere else in the film? I'm not sure if I just missed him, or if most of his scenes were cut... given where he is sitting in the opening scene, I expected to see more of him.

Here he is in the opening scene:

The movie as a whole is good - I think I'd give it a 7.5/10. Jodie Comer is excellent in her role and Adam Driver also gives a solid performance. Where I came away a bit puzzled, though, was with Matt Damon and, in particular, Ben Affleck. Neither of their performances were bad, but they just seemed to be really odd casting. It didn't necessarily take away from the film (though good lord what was going on with Ben Affleck's hair) but I do think that some different actors might have added a bit to it. Jodie Comer was, in my opinion, the highlight of the film.

A few of my favorite clips:

Ben Affleck's fantastically protracted proclamation of "cuuunt!":

Adam Driver's epically devious cape swish in front of the king:

Jodie Comer's delightfully delivered "sow!":

This movie is available to rent online, though I got the DVD from my library (and ugh the DVD is so frustrating to navigate; I accidentally hit the scene back button and I swear it went back 20 minutes). Please read a bit about the content of this film if you are going to watch it, as it is very violent.

-------

I'm not sure what is up next - any recommendations? I'm also thinking of delving into Charles Edwards' filmography; I've seen a few things he is in, but there is a lot left to discover so I'd also be grateful for recommendations there!

✨

[henry-the-queer-artist]

Watching A Queer Movie (that I've never seen) Every Day for a week: a log

I decided that to cope with not being able to be as openly queer as I would like, that I'd watch some queer movies that I haven't seen before for an entire week because why the hell not.

alternate title: ''op is using tf out of his free tubi account''

I decided I'd alternate between wlw and mlm movies in a pattern.

I'll update this list every time I watch a new one

Day #1 - Monday - But I'm A Cheerleader

Year: 1999

Review: Oh my god! What a great way to start the week. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this movie. It's campy and fun but it's also important and very ahead of its time. The romance is excellent and the characters are vibrant and likable. also omg I forgot that the coach was played by RuPaul for a minute. Easily one of my new favorite movies. Love it!

My Rating: 10/10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day #2 - Tuesday - Maurice

Year: 1987

Review: oh my goddddd. Why is this the most made for me movie ever. They were like yeah let's put Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, and James Wilby in a gay movie in set edwardian england. I'm still reeling from the emotional damage (in a good way) that I have from watching this movie. I love this movie so much. but i hope clive dies in a hole all alone and that alec and maurice live a happy life together. Once again another movie that's going straight (gay) into my favorite movies.

My Rating: 10/10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day #3 - Wednesday - Jennifer's Body

Year: 2009

Review: First queer horror movie of the week WOOOHOOOO! I fucking love movies like this so fuck yeah. This was a fantastic movie that reminded me of one of my other favorite movies, Like Minds. Also Amanda Seyfried not only do I have a huge crush on her but she's also an AMAZING ACTRESS holy shit. Only half a point off because of a slight lack of gayness at some parts (still very gay though) but all-in-all, another movie going straight (gay) to my faves list.

My Rating: 9.5/10

-------------------------------------------------------

COMING UP NEXT DAYS:

Day #4 - Thursday - Wilde

Year: 1997

Review: N/A (I'm so fucking excited to watch this though. I love Oscar Wilde sm)

My Rating: N/A

----------------------------------------------------------

Day #5 - Friday - Carmilla

Year: 2019

Review: N/A

My Rating: N/A

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 6 - Saturday - Another Country

Year: 1984

Review: N/A

My Rating: N/A

---------------------------------------------------------------

Day 7 - Sunday - Suggestions?

Please suggest a wlw movie in the reblogs I'm kinda still trying to find one that's free

[biomic]

rob / '96 / white / bi / gender buffering / minors dni❗️❗️

she/her or he/him, no they/them please

im here to post tokusatsu and yap

toku watchlist / posts about my cat

i have NOT seen kamen rider geats yet.

who is kendrix morgan? - the pink ranger from power rangers lost galaxy. she died but she got better.

what does "for ts" mean? - tumblr savior, which was an old blacklist extension for tumblr. i add it so it doesn't clog up the main tags

will you watch—? - i will watch every toku i can get my hands on, eventually. trust the process.

when will you watch—? - when i get to it.

where did you watch—? - i torrent/download pretty much every tokusatsu series i watch. most of it can be found on nyaa (dot) si, though tubi has some shows available to stream for free. tokusubs (dot) fandom (dot) wiki has a big list of which groups have subbed what which should make googling easier 👍

what toku should i start with? - whichever looks the coolest or most fun to you! but these are my go-to recommendations. if you were interested in something not on here or had any other questions, feel free to ask ^_^

[should-have-been-at-the-club]

Round 1 Match 5: They Should Have Been At The Club Tournament

Propaganda below the cut.

Propaganda for Gideon Nav:

One: She should be badly flirting with women Two: She would have fun and she deserves it

Propaganda for Jane Olsen:

PLEASE just watch tcodc it's only like an hour long and there are english translations for the subtitles. anyway uhh most of her characterization is only implied but it was beautifully extrapolated in @sixty-silver-wishes' essay posts. she's doomed by the narrative to be the Perfect Innocent Victim in francis' story, but she deserves so much more than that!! p.s. if you're going to get into silent films I recommend plex over tubi. they're both free but plex keeps the original soundtracks while tubi just throws whatever over there

[cipheramnesia]

Can I ask you for horror recommendations, please? I'm exhausted from surgery recovery and I need something light for pizza night

Patchwork (2015) is a kind of homage to / unofficial spin off from the Reanimator series and you can watch it for free on Tubi. Very fun, not too deep, gory but not gross. It's a favorite one of mine that I always have fun re-watching.

If you don't want to get all surgery themed and don't want anything too bloody, Suburban Gothic is one of my go-to choices for horror comedy that everyone can watch. Also consider Housebound. They're both very clever, very well made and will make you want more.

Lastly, back to Tubi for a real oddball, the low budget fun on a bun Evil Dead if it was made in the 1940s as a cheap ghost scare film indie movie Here Comes Hell. The budget really shows at times, but the ideas are so fun and the movie itself is so silly that it's another long time favorite. Prime example of how to take no money and make it work in your favor.

[yourdrugisafartbreaker]

So I just finished my Tubi watch through of Class of the Titans and… Wow, I wasn’t expecting that ending. But, with all of that done with, I need to talk about my favorite character.

And, like, a lot…

(WARNING: This post has MAJOR spoilers for the show Class of the Titans, I basically go over the whole show, although they mostly pertain to a certain character from the show. This show is currently FREE on Tubi and other streaming platforms. Hell, I looked it up on YouTube, it’s also there too! Please go watch it! It’ll grow on you! Of course, you’re fine to read on if you don’t really care about that, but I wouldn’t want to be the one ruining any possible enjoyment of the show for you. Anyways, infodumping!)

While at the beginning of my watch through of the Canadian cartoon Class of the Titans, I posted about it, and I said Hermes seemed to be my favorite character so far. Now, I still like him pretty strongly, I will admit that he didn’t get enough screen time for me to fully consider my favorite character in this show period.

Now, Cronus on the other hand, he got a LOT of screen time. (Being the main villain will do that to you.) He’s relentlessly evil and campy as hell, not to mention that with his lines, he is the epitome of a villainous Tumblr sexyman. In addition, not only is he the God of Time AND Space, he’s also Zeus’ dad. As a main villain, I absolutely adore him! But, admittedly, something is missing to me. See, he’s the main villain, the foil to the protagonists. If he succeeds, well, the show is done pal. Thus, he’s not really allowed to grow because of that. He always gets beaten and/or forced to flee by the main seven heroes. Because of that, while his writing in terms of pure lines is fantastic, the overall writing is admittedly static. Now, the show does admittedly occasionally venture outside the box and make Cronus something besides the main villain to our heroes, but that’s also understandably limited.

So, someone with screen time and is allowed to develop, who could belong to that group… Why, of course, who else but the main group of heroes! Well, in a way, they are a bit samey. They’re all the destined heroes who want to focus on heroing. Well, of course, there is a bit of an exception…

Neil’s character is written brilliantly.

That’s right, Neil, I’m talking about you.

As the seventh and last hero introduced in the series, the team depends on him to fulfill the prophecy that seven heroes will defeat Cronus! Except, he’s not much of a hero. The word that Neil wants after super is model, not hero. And, this is by design.

First off, all of the heroes are descended from Greek figures. Archie is related to Achilles, Atlanta is related to Athena, and on and on and on. And then, there’s Neil, who is descended from Narcissus. Now, a beautiful guy who fell in love with his own reflection in some water and stared at it until he died doesn’t sound so heroic, does it? Of course, Neil reflects this narcissism, his vanity being his signature trait.

This signature trait shows that, compared to the other characters, his personality is essentially fundamentally flawed from the start. In fact, in the intro, it gives everyone a descriptor for their role in the team. Jay is the leader, Herry is the brawn, and so forth. Neil’s descriptor? He is simply dubbed the good looking one. (For reasons we’ll discuss later, this vastly undersells Neil.)

Now, while this makes him sound like the least likable hero in the show… Well, he 100% is, but that’s the point. I don’t know if I could truly be friends with him, but goodness, he’s probably the objectively best hero in terms of character. He’s egocentric, self-centered, and honestly not too empathetic. However, because he displays these flaws so much, it kinda becomes accepted that this is just Neil.

When other heroes have their flaws become evident, like Odie’s carelessness in taking Zeus’ Time Piece because everyone keeps taking up his time, it’s addressed rather quickly. More often than not, with a lesson learned, it kind of gets swept under the rug. But Neil? Oh boy, try unraveling all of that, much less try fixing all of that!

But, in turn, this has a bit of an inverse effect. Cool, Herry did the hero thing, he’s supposed to, because he’s good guy Herry. But, Neil? I am screaming “GO, WHITE BOY, GO!” at the top of my lungs whenever he seems to be actually helping. It’s a bit dependent of the principles of quality over quantity and how can I miss it when I see it so much. Neil, if he ever looks away from his mirror, can have more meaningful rescues and moments where he helps out simply because he doesn’t do it as much. (Admittedly, he is a hero and should be helping more, but we take the small victories with Neil here.)

Now, how does Neil help, exactly? Well, again, all of the heroes have their roles. Theresa is psychic, Athena is super fast, Herry is super strong, Odie is super smart, Jay is a leader with excellent battle intuition, and Archie is… Immune to disease and has a crappy ankle? (How helpful is that? It does come into play, but it’s not like he’s a healer or anything. Archie is probably my least favorite hero though, so…) Anyways, they all have their powers, and Neil has his. You know what it is? Plot armor.

No, I’m not kidding, it is essentially plot armor. Of course, the show calls it luck, and he is pretty damn lucky. He always wins coin flips and gets good grades on tests without studying, he miraculously avoids getting hurt many times, and can often accidentally or unintentionally inspire ideas in others on the team. This is the reason he is on the team, he can be a pain to put up with and often doesn’t have a weapon, but this luck is literally the answer to anything you need on the show. Admittedly, his luck can only help him so much. (Gods, please help this boy try to perform social interactions…) But, it is very important to not only the show’s story, but also to the character of Neil as a whole.

A guy easily chucking cars around? Superhero to the max. A girl running faster than humanly possible? Yeah, that’s a superhero. A really lucky guy? That might just be how the stars line up. If Neil has always had these powers, (And I am assuming here, because we get like… Not much sense of these heroes’ home life at all really.), of course Neil ended up as the brat he is! If things often tend to go his way, he wouldn’t often have to face the reality of things NOT going his way. He’s obviously gonna get bigheaded because of this, which might inspire others to be jealous/not like him, which only further perpetuates his ego. Also, this luck and subsequent ego allows him to be really dumb. Like, he has enough sense to know he can use his mirror as a way to see things without actually looking, but otherwise, he is as dumb as a bag of bricks. Perhaps because he really only tries to act smart (enough) whenever it seems to benefit him or he already knows about it. (Odie talks to him about tectonic plates and Neil seemingly has no clue what a tectonic plate is. It doesn’t immediately benefit him to know what a tectonic plate is either, and he just knows the team has to stop an earthquake thingy.) This power is so significant, yet it doesn’t really actually empower or instill any sense of heroism in Neil because it’s not obviously a power, which still allowed for Neil to end up as a coward. (At first. Also, damn, he has a high pitched scream!)

Yet, amongst all of the vanity inspired by both his ancestry and his power, there are some interesting layers. Sometimes, he’ll end up coming across as really genuine, even if comes off as SO awkward. He’ll drop down the mask of being cool in a more vain sense, exchanging it in for a more authentic self, which can often still be seen as cool. (For example, he talks about how he would be a really cool DJ while talking to the group in the cafeteria, before he starts using two plates as discs, and it actually pops the team and they laugh about it.) He has one liners throughout the series, but over the course of the series, they come off as more genuine and oddly heroic in a strange way. Of course, Neil will be Neil, but Neil can actually stop focusing on himself for a second. (Probably on something shiny. He loves shiny things.)

However, his vain and genuine parts combine together to create probably his most important part: His lack of a filter. Now, this obviously can create some funny moments, such as his incessant complaining and whining and wailing. Then again, Neil can get kinda wild at times. While talking about Dionysus, the god of partying who consumes an excessive amount of wine, Neil asks, “Is he still a…?” before continuing by making a bottle sipping gesture. Like… Oh my gods. Did he really just ask that on a kid’s show? That is probably the most direct way to ask that in a way that is also allowed on a kid’s show. (Even Hera is a bit taken aback by this, Neil’s question means she has to quickly explain Dionysus now focuses on science.)

However, in a way, his lack of a filter is also a good thing. See, in some strange way, this makes him actually pretty genuine. Now, this man is basically blind to his own flaws for a majority of the series, but that doesn’t prevent him from calling out others. He’s done this multiple times, such as when Archie opened up Pandora’s Box. (He basically called Archie a failure for that, so, again, Neil can get wild!) Hera is explaining to them all (and also the audience) the story of Pandora’s Box, and how she was gifted a box by the gods, but was told not to open it, and her opening up the box released some pretty bad stuff. Neil of course has to add his commentary to it, as he basically says, “You gods suck! You give people presents they can’t open and apples they can’t eat!”. He says this directly in the presence of the gods! Also, he tossed in a potshot at Christianity! He doesn’t care, and I love him for it! (Then again, Neil probably just worships himself, so…)

I fell in love with Neil because of his pure lines written for him, he’s very much like a smarmy pro wrestling heel, which is great, considering I’m a pro wrestling fan. However, after investing into Neil, I most appreciate him for his change over the course of the series. Now, it’s subtle and probably overshadowed by his constant unwillingness to change, but his arc over the course of the entire series is the perfect slow burn for me. Now, let’s start at the beginning.

(Get ready for the length because I took so many notes on Neil!)

He actually isn’t brought in until the third part of the introductory Chaos arc, as he is the last of the prophesied seven heroes, and the others have to go look for him. He’s… Just so not what they thought they were looking for in a hero. Hell, he’s even aligned with Cronus at first! (Then again, Cronus finds Neil when he’s at a photo shoot and convinces Neil that he is a talent agent, so I can’t really blame Neil there.) To make him live up to his Narcissus ancestry, Cronus gets Neil to oodle over his own reflection in a pool of water, before the heroes realize Neil’s power is luck and the heroes chuck Cronus over the top of the building. However, in response, Neil yells about how the heroes just killed his agent. Cronus was okay on the side of the building and climbing up with his scythes though, but the heroes manage to take Neil away, bringing him to the school. He’s so dismissive of whatever the others say until they bring him into the school, and whether or not he likes it (He doesn’t.), he is a superhero now! Funnily enough, Neil ends up unintentionally inspiring Odie to create the thing to stop Cronus’ plans, and the intro arc ends, and we’re strapped in and ready for the rest of the series.

Neil does his thing in the meanwhile, slinging insults and staring at himself in his mirror, all the while not having any weapons and not really fighting all that well, if he even chooses to fight. He gets his first real focus as a member of the team in a particular episode, The Trojan Horse, where Odie gets seriously hurt and gets mad and leaves. After saying Jay’s recent track record as leader stinks, Hera makes an executive decision to replace Jay with Neil, and everyone starts arguing while Odie joins up with Cronus and Jay leaves while feeling disillusioned and Neil gives himself a captain’s hat. After Jay returns with Odie being all evil and strong and stuff now, Neil appoints him as the leader again on the condition that he gets to keep his captain’s hat, and the episode ends with Odie revealing he was a fake defector and helped take out Cronus.

After annoying an already set off Archie (who is afraid of water) by imitating submarine pings, as well as somehow doing magic right on his first try by saying bibbidi bobbidi boo, Neil’s at the zoo taking a photo shoot with monkeys in the Sibling Rivalry episode. Medusa tries to attack him, but thanks to Neil’s good luck, Medusa takes herself out. Well, that’s not how Neil’s telling the story, he’s saying that he laid haymakers into her. Then, when the Gorgon sisters kidnap him, he’s scared and can’t even look at his captors. Of course, Neil gets saved by the others, as the Gorgon sisters get crushed thanks to the cave they are in collapsing on them. And how does Neil tell the story? Well, he goes on about how he took out all 3 Gorgon sisters.

During his first arc, which I call his Getting Acclimated arc, Neil adjusts to everything between his introduction and the Pandora’s Box episode for the first half of Season 1. Everyone gets used to Neil, how he is always late and focused on his beauty, along with his general dumbassery and lack of a filter. Then again, Neil also has to get used to everything, and he leans on certain tendencies to keep himself a bit distant while he grows accustomed to everything.

His next arc, which starts around the Make-Up Exam episode where Neil offers a brainwashed Atlanta his stereo in order to escape Arachne’s web, is his Growing Responsibility arc. He feels he now has to try and prove himself as a hero, and while he doesn’t always help, he is trying to be helpful and fill his role more than being self-serving.

In the Odie-ssey episode, Neil is fine with being stranded on an island with Odie and Jay because he gets to be on the beach and relax, but he ends up doing a lot of climbing and even has to face Cronus by the end of the episode even thought he hates it. In the episode Get Kraken, where a confused Neil infamously says that there is a cracker on the loose, Neil is clearly trying to help by pointing out the Kraken first. However, after Jay saved Neil from being slapshotted like a hockey puck, Neil gets fussy with Jay because Jay interrupted Neil’s thought process and he forgot a very important idea. In the Eye for an Eye episode where Odie is attacked by a one-eyed monster, Neil is convinced the one-eyed part means that the attacker is a pirate, not to mention that he points out where the cyclops is going while he is actively standing in a cyclops footprint. (Neil also faces instant karma this episode, as he makes fun of Atlanta for getting electrocuted by not jumping over the electric wire, before Neil then gets electrocuted by an electric mine.) Again, trying to help, but he’s going about it in a Neil way.

Neil is becoming less static as a character as his boundaries are slowly being opened, but this means that sudden shifts may occur, such as in Bows and Eros. This Valentine’s Day episode, which is the first holiday episode of the series, features a corrupted Eros (Do not call him Cupid!) shooting hate-spiked arrows at everyone thanks to Cronus. As a result, not only do the heroes hate each other, all of New Olympia hates each other! Except, for Neil, it makes possible the one thing thought impossible: It makes Neil hate himself since he looked into a mirror. (Of course, Eros has to shoot him with a second arrow, as the first one missed thanks to Neil’s luck.) He immediately cries about his hair, saying how ugly he looks as he puts a bag over his head, before running out of the bathroom. Next time we see him, Jay finds Neil bald while strapped into a chair with duct tape over his mouth, as Odie explains to Jay that he wanted to do something about Neil complaining about his hair. However, after being comforted by Aphrodite and donning a fake wig which he totally rocks, he actually powers on and helps the other heroes take down Cronus. In typical Neil fashion though, once Eros and Psyche are reunited and start kissing, Neil and some others in the group tell the two to get a room. The ultimate takeaway though is that, instead of backing down and crumbling, which Neil might have done before, Neil actually powers on. (Also, thank the gods Neil being bald exists only during this episode, because I never want to see his egg head again.)

After he gets turned into a statue in the Underworld in Road to Hades, Neil’s importance is raised a bit in the show, and what he manages to accomplish in the next few episodes is astonishing. After agreeing to give up his plans of any Spring Break parties in Many Happy Returns, Neil actually gets the gang out of a tight spot when they get caught breaking into a museum by a security guard, as Neil uses his Speech 100 to convince the security guard that they are night researchers who study things like owls and comets in order to bring back Hephaestus’ robot ladies. This… Somehow works. In fact, later on in that same episode, Neil proudly lives up to his role as a decoy standing at the peak of a volcano while a bronze giant in Talos is actively trying to destroy the heroes. The next episode titled Labour Day shows a wrestling match between Herry and Neil, and even if Herry is super mega distracted by some bodacious babes he saw yesterday, along with Neil shockingly throwing out the worst insults ever, all of that doesn’t matter when Neil actually beats Herry! (Then, when the gang has to search for a missing Herry, Neil tries to stay in the car to listen to some sweet jams.) Neil is putting in the effort and actually being rewarded.

Now, with this episode called They Might Be G.I.Ants, Neil’s shenanigans get taken to some of the weirdest I have ever seen. So… Cronus raids a military base and turns all of their soldiers into giant ants. How does Neil get involved? Well, when the heroes end up clashing with these ants, Neil manages to get the collar off of one. Not only does this help later, as Odie needs one of the collars to try to take over the ant brains back from Cronus, a particular ant becomes super connected to Neil. Why? Well, the ant stung Neil in the ass. This sends Neil into a state of delirium, where he befriends the ant, and even lowkey flirts with it. Neil somehow is the key to helping mitigate the giant ant problem. I could not believe this at all when I first saw this episode. Interestingly enough, there’s a part of this episode where Neil and Odie form their own team in a tactical exercise because they got picked last and are upset that they are perceived as not as valuable, and they actually end up as the winners of the exercise by the end of the episode.

Neil gets kidnapped (again) by a Stymphalian Bird in Cronus’ Flying Circus, but uses his mirror to avoid becoming bird food, although he sadly broke a nail in the process. He ends up being the most knowledgeable in the episode Sybaris’ Fountain episode when it comes to fighting Sybaris and her ghost vampires, considering he has watched so many vampire movies before, as he brought garlic and stakes and holy water soakers in his vampire hunter drip, and these tools end up stalling their undead foes for long enough for Sybaris to be defeated.

But, amongst all of the things he has had to do, The Last Word may host Neil’s biggest show of commitment to the team so far despite how annoying things personally get for him here. While performing a beautiful rendition of Michael J. Frog’s Hello My Baby in the shower, Neil gets paranoid about a voice talking to him, but no one else cares because they cannot hear it. Surprise, Neil is kidnapped for a third time in Season 1! Echo is enamored with Neil’s ancestor Narcissus (which means she is also enamored with Neil by extension) and is a chatterbox who always has to have the last word, but she ends up spilling about how she is working with Cronus to keep Neil busy while the others are trapped, but Neil convinces her that Cronus would mess things up with no more talking and no more Neil. Thus, his logic makes Echo work with him, and his friends end up freed with Cronus defeated. At the end of the episode though, Echo gently dumps Neil because he is way too obsessed with himself, and Neil is mad she dumped him before he could dump her.

In the season 1 finale, Time After Time, the gang essentially has to time travel in order to stop Cronus’ attempts to change history through time traveling in order to change the prophecy of the seven heroes who can defeat him. Neil… Doesn’t really do much. However, he does have to tell Zeus and Hades from the past that he is not an action figure for the gods. This is basically the end of Neil’s second arc. So… What now?

The first half of Season 2 houses Neil’s Deep End arc, because Neil is finding himself able to swim in the deep end and do things Neil used to be unable to conceive, but the problem is making sure he can stay above the water in the deep end. How does he start this arc? By knocking Cronus out cold! In the opening scenes of Cronus Vanquished, Neil complains about not having a weapon, with Jay realizing Neil should probably have a weapon in the middle of combat. Jay gives Neil his reflective laser shield thing before Neil complains thag is too tight on his wrist, which causes Cronus to easily spot Neil and goes to shoot him as Jay tells Neil how to turn it on, and Neil essentially pulls off a perfect parry and sends Cronus’ evil fire back at him to send him into trees before knocking him out into a big rock.

Here, everyone assumes Cronus is defeated, with Hades personally dealing with Cronus in the Underworld. Neil’s response to the seeming end of their battle with Cronus is that he can’t wait to get out of the “dump” they’ve stayed at, as he’s had enough with doing good, he just wants to get back to looking good again. But, surprise, Cronus did Cronus things and trapped Hades and Persephone in hourglasses and is currently in control of the Underworld right now! In response to this news, Neil in particular seems to be upset, as he complains about how he’ll have to unpack. However, once again, Neil puts on his brave face and serves his role once again. He does complain about how his role is as bait with Odie for the literal God of Death Thanatos, but his absolutely fantastic acting attracts Thanatos into the trap, Odie breaking a rope that causes a big tree to snap into Thanatos and send the God of Death into a pile of rocks. Neil says something of interest after their success though, as he blurts out, “Yeah, we bad!” Hm… Has… Has Neil actually developed a bond with Odie? A friendship, if you will? He might just be reacting to their success… I might be overlooking into things, or perhaps crazy, but I’ll put a bookmark on this one for now.

We get into Neil’s mind a bit in Graes Anatomy, where Odie finds the Eye, a magical thing that can show where anyone desired is. While the group is using the Eye, they are baffled about how they are right by Cronus, and it takes Neil wanting to nap on a log that he accidentally finds Cronus by leaning back into a part of rock that wasn’t actually rock. However, the group using the Eye pissed off the Graes, who the Eye belonged to until Perceus stole it and put it in some lake where the gang originally found it. As punishment, the Graes trap them in their own head, leaving them to fight their fears. Get ready everyone, because Neil’s fears are… Being bald, fat, and having acne. That… That just seems obvious. Anyways…

in Star Quality, a girl named Cassie is supposed to interview Neil due to his rising stardom. (Where does Cassie first recall seeing Neil from? A diaper commercial. In addition, Neil is currently in a fast food employee outfit during their initial conversation, as he is doing a fast food shoot when Cassie interrupts it.) This is Neil’s dream, he has always wanted this, it’s what will truly make him the star he always envisioned himself as! And yet, the entire time, Neil’s words and actions basically show everyone that he’d rather focus on this interview instead of help with the team’s SECRET mission. The way he goes about it to becomes a bit of an active hinderance to the team, as they have to spend time tracking down Cassie and destroying any possible tapes she has, this is happening while they also have to track down and fight Orion. (Orion? Like the constellation from the stars? Yeah, him.) By the end of the episode, Cassie gets her mind erased of recent events, and Neil gets super annoyed because Cassie has no clue who Neil is and won’t give him his interview. (This is also the episode where Neil says he is allergic to clothing without designer labels.)

Neil basically gets punished for his lack of care for the mission in the next episode, Forget Me Not, where the heroes attempt to traverse through the Underworld to get to Elysian Fields to meet their ancestors. Neil tries to drink from the River Lethe because he is thirsty, but Odie ingrains it in Neil’s head that the River Lethe causes forgetfulness with said forgetfulness becoming permanent if they step into the Elysian Fields, and the only cure are some flowers that cause bring back memories before one steps into the Elysian Fields. (Of course, to add on, these flowers can cause drowsiness.) As cruel fate would have it, Neil has to remember this, because he is the only one who can remember it, since the heroes AND Cronus get splashed with water from the River Lethe. The now forgetful group doesn’t take Neil’s help, because they don’t remember him, not to mention that he’s on the other side of the river. This means that he has to go through Charon, the boat guy, but he didn’t bring any money with him. However, he still has payment Charon deems suitable, so Charon will work with him. This leads to the scene of Neil begging for his friends to listen to him and take his flowers before they step into the Elysian Fields while arguing with Cronus, which is accentuated by his lack of his typical vintage shoes and silk shirt, because Charon took those as payment. After all of this, do you know what his reward is after convincing his friends to defeat Cronus? He meets Narcissus, who Neil was thoughtful enough to bring hair product for as a present, with Narcissus giving him clothes he describes as unique and asks if they are made of toe hair. This seems fair enough after last episode.

The focus on Neil basically drops before being built up to later, as he doesn’t really do anything too notable in the next episode, although he drops a wild comment in the next episode called Pandemonium about Chiron needing to watch his diet while ALL OF THE GODS ARE LITERALLY DYING. Neil drops a cool line in the next episode titled Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself by telling Theresa he wants her to take a picture of him IN Greece, not him AND Greece, and he busts it down sexual style on the dance floor with some pretty sick moves. (This scene made me laugh so hard, because not only is Neil doing the coolest dance moves in such a Neil way, but because it’s cutting between Neil dancing and a fear-stricken Archie shaking and pissing himself because he’s so scared in an alley somewhere.) He does get to show off his monster movie knowledge again though, as Neil mentions that silver can take out a werewolf, and Archie ends up using a silver medallion he bought while in Greece to slay the werewolf chasing after him and Atlanta.

Speaking of Atlanta, her and Neil have to work together in this next episode titled Cold Day In Hades, and we see probably one of the strongest examples of Neil’s good luck power. Persephone sits down in the Chair of Forgetfulness placed by Cronus while on her way back to Earth, and her capture makes her Goddess of Harvest mother Demeter so sad that she causes an intense winter on both Earth and in the Underworld. (Neil still tries to work on his tan despite it being a “little chilly” because he is a hero after all.) Once all are informed of Persephone’s disappearance, most of the group goes to find her and bring her back, while Neil and Atlanta are tasked with finding Demeter and calming her down so the snow in spring stops. Atlanta is driving the two to Demeter’s farm on a snowmobile, but she is going so fast which is making Neil scream and complain, which basically forces Atlanta to let him drive. Neil then proceeds to go really slow despite the mission at hand, until he hits the nitrous boost button, which makes the snow mobile go so fast that it crashes into a tree. However, his luck makes it so him and Atlanta are somehow completely unharmed at the cost of the snowmobile, with even Neil shocked at this turn of events. Then, once Neil and Atlanta finally find Demeter, Neil tries to work his magic. However, he was (for some reason) tasked to talk Demeter for his social skills, and he is doing nothing but making the winter more intense. Instead, Neil ends up going fast anyways because Atlanta convinces Demeter to let them borrow her flying horse chariot, and Neil literally kisses the ground beneath him once he got off of the ride. In one of his biggest tasks so far, Neil came off as an active hinderance to the mission.

For the rest of the Deep End arc, he doesn’t quite have this level of focus again, although he still has moments. In Tantalize This, Neil complains about Herry trying to save a cat because Herry got in the way of his light, later bemoaning about how cats are so self-centered without a hint of irony. In Mother Knows Best, Herry’s Granny tells Herry to be a good host and get his friends whatever they want as they are guests, with Neil using this as an excuse to make Herry get him lemonade refills while the others look at him pissed.

Neil does a good bit of varying helpfulness in the episode Applet of Discord, where the God of Discord (@everyone) Eris makes people argue with each other, Atlanta and Archie being affected by this. They come home and bother everyone, including Neil while he is reading a magazine that has him on the cover and causes him to say, “I hate when mom and dad fight, I’m out of here!” He then goes to respond to his fan mail before getting a message from Eris, which unleashes a sound that makes everyone argue with each other, but he also gets a picture of Eris to help the team plan on what to do. (The group does this while ignoring Theresa who has a vision and knows what is going on.) After finding Eris at the bell tower and working with his teammates despite Eris’ attempts to sow discord into the group, Neil drops Eris’ phone down to the bell tower floor to stop the discord, with Harmony causing everyone to be happy with Neil striking the final death blow of a hug to Eris making the Goddess of Discord go away. After not doing much notable in Bad Blood, Neil in Dreamweaver is hesitant about Cronus taking the talisman in their plan to try and trap Cronus because Cronus isn’t “street” enough to go for that bling, and he leads Archie and Atlanta in a marching jody that pokes at Jay being cranky since he is so focused about the mission and is essentially overworking everyone.

For the rest of the series, we get the Realization of Neil arc, as Neil seems to get what he is. Overall, it seems like Neil has comfortable, but perhaps too comfortable. This can lead to carelessness, and even a bit of hostility on the part of Neil, such as in the episode titled Breathtaking Beauty. Odie is texting some girl named Wendy he met up with online while at the movies, until he sees her actually in the film he is watching, with Neil laughing and revealing that he was Wendy along. Odie gets pissed, not to mention that Herry and even random moviegoers get pissed at Neil, with Odie driving off on his little moped scooter thing. Neil tries calling Odie to apologize, but Odie’s not having it, and it seems that karma would agree because Neil and Herry end up getting in a GAS STATION FIRE AFTER A GAS PUMP BLOWS UP. Once all of that is resolved, Neil finds Odie being challenged by a Sphinx (who was disguised as a hot babe) to answer a riddle, and Neil also ends up taking the challenge because he wants to show he is sorry. (Neil can’t come up with sorry himself, Odie has to say it, but Neil says that’s why Odie is the smart one.) Neil comes up with an incorrect and vain answer of good looks to the riddle, which Odie berates him for and says he’s some friend, before realizing Neil led him to the correct answer of friendship with the two making up after the Sphinx is truly defeated. Now, this! This episode is actual confirmation as to Odie and Neil being friends! Neil is probably the closest to Odie out of any of the other heroes, and with this episode, it is firmly cemented. (Go white boy, you truly made a friend!)

Of course, in typical Neil fashion, he ends up helping out Odie again in the Recipe for Disaster episode. All of the gods are behaving like old people, and this is traced to the ambrosia they are eating, which is later traced specifically to the plants involved in the honey making process being tainted evil plants by a tainted evil botanist who used to be Hercules’ friend. In the meantime, Odie has to make ambrosia, which sucks considering the main ambrosia maker Athena can’t remember the recipe. In addition, Odie overthinks things, and he ends up convincing himself that he absolutely cannot use honey not from the magical garden of the gods. However, Neil runs to the corner store and grabs some organic honey despite Odie’s repeated resistance, but it turns out that Neil’s corner store organic honey creates ambrosia that is loved by the gods and makes them all act not like old people again.

Neil steps back in terms of focus in the episode named Polyphemus Returns, acting more like the old Neil since he is quite concerned about how the heat of the volcano he is in will do to his pores, and Neil’s insists on not leaving behind his moisturizer even if he nearly gets struck by lightning by a giant. (This actually turns out to be a smart move, as he causes a giant to slip in it.) He is slightly more notable in Cronus 2.0 though, as he teams up with his best friend Odie in combat class, hitting him with a down low too slow before following Odie’s plan and set up to absolutely clown on Herry to cause him to fall out of the ring by poking him in the butt. Despite their gelling in combat class though, when Odie builds a cyborg called Cronus 2.0, he is not immune to Neil’s lack of a filter. After a close incident with Theresa, Odie assures the group that Cronus 2.0’ safeguards are fine although he needs to install some new ones, with Neil asking if the old safeguards can really be fine if new ones are needed.

You wouldn’t think an episode titled The Game Plan would be a Christmas special, but it is, and let me tell you, it is a doozy! Amongst all of the craziness though, Neil plays a pretty significant part. Neil is shopping with Jay when Jay mentions how Neil could probably get some presents for people besides himself, but Neil says he cannot help resist buying gifts for himself as he see things he “desperately” needs, basically implying that he feels more comfortable buying presents for himself since he knows himself way more than others. He then meets up with a talking goat named Almatheia who claims to have raised Zeus, dismissing the idea before admitting that he’s been through weirder things, with him coming to the realization that him causing Zeus and Almatheia to meet up again would be the perfect present. Well, it would be, but Cronus was actually the goat in disguise and ends up capturing Zeus and goading him into a game of chess where the lives of the seven heroes are on the line if they are taken out. (Guess what piece Neil is? The queen.) Neil and Jay have to find the Goddess of Good Fortune and Luck Fortuna to get Almatheia’s Cornucopia, which is obtained by playing the Wheel of Fortuna, a wacky and zany game of luck where a wheel spin can cause anything to happen! Neil spins first and he… Oh my gods. He turns into a baby and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen. (He is literally absorbed into his shirt, I can’t-) Anyways, baby Neil ends up spinning the wheel while Jay fights for his life, with Neil winning and being able to use his wish on anything he wants. Neil really stretches out his wish to bring Zeus back and end the chess game which thwarts Cronus’ evil plan, as well as getting everyone the perfect presents for everyone, although he forgets to wish for some pants after turning back from a baby and he ends up in his underwear. (For some reason, the show loves stripping down Neil of some layers…) Anyways, Fortuna is also there and awaits her present, but Neil lays into her and doesn’t have a present for her because things could have been done a lot sooner if Fortuna wasn’t so fickle about things. (And honestly, he’s right, screw you Fortuna!)

In the next episode called Like A Rolling Stone, Neil arrived late to mini golf late and apologizes, which catches people off guard because he usually never apologizes for that. I’m gonna be honest, the way they laugh this off kinda makes me feel a bit sad for Neil because of circumstances, these circumstances being revealed once Herry pours some mustard on Neil and Neil doesn’t immediately freak out. This is because this is not actually Neil, this is Sisyphus granted the power of metamorphosis by Cronus, and Neil doesn’t actually show up until later since he was conditioning his hair in the time he was supposedly eating pizza. (Neil is confirmed at the real Neil deal because Jay tries to touch Neil’s shirt, and it doesn’t even take Jay touching it for Neil to get fussy, trying to get Neil to mind the crease.) While his friends know him well enough in order to figure out the real Neil, their earlier laughing off of Impostor Neil’s apology hurts because if that was actually Neil, the poor boy’s heart would sting after that.

Following this Sisyphus metamorphosis debacle, Neil in the Cronus’ Keystroke episode looks real cool after Theresa sets him up for a spike shot in beach volleyball that makes Odie and Herry crash into each other while Neil is wearing some cool shades, but there is a minute he actually scares the rest of the group closer to the end of the episode where Neil comes out of the portal while unintentionally making people think he was Cronus coming out of the portal. Neil’s whole thing in Daedalus or Alive is that he goes to the island Odie and Herry and Jay find because he wants to stay at the beach, ultimately being distraught at the end of the episode when he cannot stay. He also makes a comment about Theresa kicking the head off of a sentient stone statue imposter of Jay because he called her Atlanta, with Neil saying a wild comment that Theresa REALLY broke up with hey boyfriend, which makes Theresa quickly fling back a comment about how Jay is NOT her boyfriend. (Heh.)

Now, this episode titled Face Off probably has the most notes on it, and for good reason. Out of all of the episodes in this show, this is probably where Neil gets the most aggressive. Then again, his territory gets encroached on this episode, so it’s understandable. Now, how exactly does Neil’s territory get encroached on in this episode? Well, after saying that his beauty is both a gift and a curse, Neil opens up a box and unknowingly releases Adonis. The appearance of the God of Beauty causes Neil to become extremely jealous as literally every girl (Including Atlanta and Theresa) starts oodling over Adonis, and his pleas for Adonis to get back in the box are ignored, not to mention that he gets ignored while trying to make a dramatic exit. (During this bit of the episode, Adonis says that he usually hunts wild boars, but Neil takes that a different way as he says that it is wrong to hunt boring people. Neil, never change. Or, wait, do change, because that’s literally what I’m writing about…) In addition, Neil becomes extra angry with Adonis this episode because he doesn’t refer to him as Neil, with Adonis calling him Ned instead. Neil also has trouble properly expressing his frustrations to others either, as Herry and his best friend Odie don’t care because they’re playing video games, and Neil bringing up Persephone just makes here start throwing herself at Adonis as well. (By the way, Persephone is married to Hades, yet this wench cannot resist Adonis.) So, using 100% of his brain power, he comes up with the idea to challenge Adonis! Adonis interprets this as a fight to the death, Neil having to quickly back up and explain that he doesn’t want a physical contest, but a beauty contest. Neil throws out all of the stops, as not only does he look good in his first strut out on the catwalk, but he tells Adonis to bring it on as he employs the use of spotlight tricks and even brings out his signature black jacket and shades on the second go around. And… He fails miserably. Everyone cringes, his score is nowhere close to that of Adonis who really only had to walk out once, and his own mentor Aphrodite shoves him off the stage to kiss Adonis and announce The God of Beauty as the winner. As Aphrodite and Persephone start fighting over Adonis, Neil is watching this by peeking behind the curtain, with his takeaway basically being that people should be fighting over him instead. In the overall course of this series, I feel so bad for Neil, as this is the second lowest point Neil gets to in this series. (We’ll get to the first lowest point later.)

Neil’s comment in Tantalize This about how cats are self-centered carries more weight than I thought, because it just seems like a joke comment, but it actually helps reveal the psychology of Neil. The hilarity of the comment comes from the irony of how cats and Neil are both self-centered, which means that Neil is kind of like a cat. (I… Kind of want to see that fanart now.) Extending this metaphor further, much like cats, Neil can often be so greedy for attention. When he doesn’t receive this attention, he can become aggressive towards those not giving him attention or stealing the attention, but he can also become distraught. How does his life continue without the attention?

The rest of this episode focuses on Envy’s appearance, as the amount of envy generated by this situation attracts her, and she ends up trying to shoot Neil with her envy beam. Key word: trying. Instead of Neil getting shot, Adonis pulls a “GET DOWN, MISTER PRESIDENT!” and takes the beam instead. One problem: This makes Adonis hellbent on killing Neil. Neil starts scurrying as the chase begins, and Neil can initially outsmart Adonis with some cool reversals, but Adonis ends up catching Neil in the library. Neil ends up pinned on a statue by Adonis as he starts to admit that Adonis is the fairest one of them all, but after seeing himself in a mirror, Neil stops himself because that simply cannot be true. After the other heroes trap Envy back in Pandora’s Box, the episode ends with Adonis apologizing to Ned for nearly shooting him with his bow and arrow, and Neil finally begrudgingly overlooks the incorrect name and accepts the apology.

We don’t have much of the series left, which unfortunately means not much Neil left, so let’s get a move on! In the episode titled The Deep End- Hey, what the hell! I’m already using that name for Neil’s third arc, get a new name! What? That can’t be changed? Well, alright, I’ll ignore it… In The Deep End episode, mostly everyone (Except poor little Archie who is afraid of water) is enjoying their day out on the water, and they all start playing water polo a bit out of nowhere. This catches Neil off guard because he doesn’t know what the teams are, and his best friend Odie informs him he is the goalie of the team with Odie and Jay, before the team of Atlanta and Herry and Theresa subsequently score on them. Neil’s totally healthy response to Odie not informing him of this soon enough is to deke Odie in the back of the head with the water polo ball. (This isn’t addressed again in the episode, Neil gets away with this major friendly fire.) He also later teases Archie for accepting Atlanta’s swimming lessons and says that Archie’s fear of water is not as big as his crush on Atlanta, and despite being too busy tanning to go diving with the rest of the group, Neil gets fussy about there being no pictures of him on the dive camera.

Considering we’re now on the episode before the finale, along with how Neil centric Face Off was not too long ago, I didn’t think we’d get much Neil focus again. But… Oh boy. Would I be wrong. So TERRIBLY wrong! In fact, honestly, Golden Boy is probably the best Neil episode. However, this is only really worth it with all of the buildup we have had so far. At the beginning of the episode, the group notices Neil trying to pick up a girl by asking her to go be beautiful together, laughing amongst themselves about how that girl has no clue how vain Neil truly is. Shockingly though, with his unspoken rizz, Neil actually convinces the girl to go on a date with him. However, the girl quickly ends up leaving the date upset, because Neil is constantly talking about herself and dismissing her in the process. Neil gives himself a not so helpful affirmation that, if he really did talk to himself, he’d look stupid. Neil is then shown taking a depressed walk, and while realizing he does talk to himself and driving himself mad over it, he is giving off lowkey incel vibes by asking why no girl ever really wants. (I do hate the lowkey incel vibes this scene gives off, but it makes sense with the context of this scene, and it is admittedly a bit funny and pointed that such a self-centered character is the best incel representation.) Nemesis then shows up and tells him to shut up, before then cursing him with The Midas Touch, as he is such a golden boy. In typical Neil fashion, he of course sees this as a benefit at first, before then telling Nemesis he can’t exactly use a phone made out of gold. But then, it sinks in for Neil that everything he touches turns into gold, and he then freaks out and calls out for Nemesis and asks what he did wrong while having no self-awareness.

Neil’s not heard the end of it however, because his date and later interaction with the God of Justice has made Neil do the one thing he has always done, and that is be late. This extra sucks considering the group has a super important mission, a mission where the group could actually defeat and take out Cronus for good, and Atlanta is sent to pick Neil up with her super speed. All the way from the place where Atlanta picks Neil up to the docks where the mission is going down, Neil is trying to explain his situation, but Atlanta is just chewing him out the entire time because he’s always late and self-centered. This causes Neil to acquire depression, and in the process, he messes up with his task on a really big mission once again. He turns a boat to gold, which is causing mayhem with the other boats, alerting Cronus of the heroes’ presence and ruining the element of surprise. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: He also ends up turning Atlanta, Herry, and his best friend Odie into gold. Everyone is pissed at him, Cronus dismisses him off as a golden boy, and Neil runs away.

Neil ends up at the park, complaining about how it’s not fair that narcissism is literally in his veins due to his ancestry, before sarcastically remarking that he is like a mutant superhero named Golden Boy that people need to be saved from. He then spots a fountain and turns it to gold, before then hopping into the fountain, then turning the fountain water into bars to make himself a makeshift cell. This, right here, is Neil’s lowest point. His friends hate him, Cronus could very likely take power because of his mistakes, and he can’t even deflect by being narcissistic. In his moment of self-conviction, things are made even worse when the rest of the group decides it’s more important to find Cronus instead of Neil, making Neil truly feel all alone. (This… Wow, this entire scene just makes me feel so sad.) However, without his knowledge, Nemesis is watching this go down on a park bench. Then, he gets a smart idea to ask for Zeus to reverse The Midas Touch, before breaking out of the cell he made for himself. (Even Neil is surprised on how the gold is shocking soft.) Zeus then tells Neil he cannot reverse another god’s will, but instead, he should use the Midas Touch to his advantage.

Jay. Archie, and Theresa are trying to fight Cronus on their own. However, they don’t have the power to defeat him just on their own, and it looks like Cronus is gonna take them out. However, like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin running in to help Mankind win the WWF World Championship, Neil makes his entrance to save the day. He unironically calls himself Golden Boy and fully owns up to the nickname he has been tormented by this episode, and while his friends are just so shocked and honestly cringing a little bit, Cronus explains to Neil that he was mocking himself with that nickname because he assumes Neil is being just idiotic. Cronus doesn’t know what he’s getting into though, as Neil ends up turning Cronus to gold like a boss, and ends up calling Cronus pretty arrogant. Nemesis has seen enough, as she reverses the curse which turns everything and everyone Neil turned into gold back to normal, Nemesis believing that there is still hope for Neil. (Cronus really tries to claim he reversed the effects of The Midas Touch before Nemesis has to tell Cronus that she reversed the curse.) At the end of the episode, thanks to Neil’s actions, Cronus is defeated for now. This is the payoff I’ve been waiting for, and despite constantly blowing it and having a massive curse placed on him, Neil proves that he has truly changed enough and that he is truly a hero.

It’s now time for the series finale, and since it’s all hands on deck, Neil gets some good moments before we have to say goodbye to him. Neil gets woken up by a purple ghost thing, when he realizes that the purple ghost thing broke his mirror in his bedroom, which causes him to wail about it. (Side note, Neil immediately crying about a mirror of his getting broken is my favorite running gag.) While Odie and Hephaestus wonder how they are going to defeat the purple ghost thing, Neil does his Neil thing and his best friend Odie uses some big words to essentially describe a ghostbusting gun, with Neil not even realizing how he inspired the ghostbusting gun. Neil is hesitant about the ghostbusting gun, but his best friend Odie offers to let him use it, and Neil is immediately on board considering he gets to deliver cheesy one liners while using it. Jay asks if Theresa can sense Cronus, and Theresa says she can practically smell him, with Neil responding with “That’s just gross.” Later on during the big bad boss fight, literally everyone is getting in the way of Neil’s shot, with Neil understandably complaining about it. When he finally lines up a shot, Neil nearly blows the mission again, but Jay tells Neil to shoot the purple ghost thingy and not Theresa.

However, the cherry on top is my final note on Neil, and it wraps everything so nicely to me. So, at the end of the big fight, Theresa dies. Theresa is dead. She’s gone. Everyone is sad. Especially Jay. Jay never got to tell her the words he wanted to say. He loves her. He goes up to her. He holds her. He starts to cry. Tears fall down his face. They fall onto Theresa. Theresa… Wakes up. She’s alive again. Everyone is unsadified. Everything seems right again. And, before another situation pops up and it is too late to tell each other what the wanted to say, Theresa and Jay exchange a kiss. And… You know what Neil does? HE TELLS BOTH OF THEM TO GET A ROOM AFTER ALL OF THE SHIT THAT HAS JUST GONE DOWN! Gods, I love Neil. He has obviously changed significantly from his original appearance, but he’s still Neil at the end of the day, which I appreciate.

Obviously, I prefer Season 2 Neil over Season 1 Neil, he got more of a chance to improve and evolve and I got more invested into him because of that. Admittedly, while I am overall sad that the show didn’t get another season due to low viewership in the United States, I am also sad because we don’t get more of Neil. In a third season, I imagine he has storylines along the lines of one where he actually makes a friend that isn’t one of the heroes with that friend then turning out to be bad and/or a monster working for Cronus, or maybe one where him and Odie’s friendship is explored more. I am still very happy with the rollercoaster I got on by watching this show too, and after reading this and finally making it to the end of this extremely long post, I hope you did too.