#lengthy rant

[erebus0dora]

ok so i promised you a rant on Eric Bogosian, and i pinky promise i'll try to keep the story short (those beautiful people i've already privately spewed my fascination at deserve peace and love 💜)

TL;DR: Eric Bogosian is a good researcher and judge of human nature, which honestly shouldn't be surprising given his experience, links below

it is easy to google Eric (i'll call him that not out of disrespect, it's just shorter) and get to a conclusion he's just a slightly awkward old man who had extremely weird youth and gives off a powerful bi vibe just for shits and giggles; which is fair, given the wild way he handles most interviews

but hear me out, i'm not an expert, i'm just a book kind of girl. so i sought out the books, and into the books i looked.

back in 1988 he was nominated for Pulitzer's for his "Talk Radio", and i count that as one of the first cases of him using a real story to weave a (semi)fictional one. it is a powerful play, and a gut-punching movie, but I am mentioning it not because of its ehhh artistic value. in my book, it's a proof of the way he tends to critically re-imagine the things he sees and analyses.

keep that in mind when you google his "Operation 'Nemesis".

he initially started looking into the history of Armenian genocide as into the material worth developing into a plot for a movie. but, in his own words, and i quote, "I wrote this book because I had no choice. The Nemesis story required more attention than a simple screenplay."

he is still not a scientist, mind that - and his book reads as a work of fiction. say, there's no way one can look into the head of a deceased person and know their feelings, but one can guess; and Eric guesses, of course. but the fun part is that he makes educated guesses. nearly for each presumption there's a source. a footnote. a quote.

what really strikes me is that he looked into ONE plot line and fished out a complex slice of history, dripping with CONTEXT. White Russian emigration? it's in there. early stages of oil industry? check. the colourful background of Europe in early XX century? all there.

there's no wonder he spent seven years on this book.

i repeat: SEVEN. YEARS.

call me sapiosexual, but that was the moment when i stopped and thought: ok, THIS IS HOT.

what also impresses me is the way he speaks of his past. he admits he's done wild shit, and adds that the best part was the moment he understood he didn't need to be high to be creative. it's the underlying power of "yeah, been there, got better, SO CAN YOU" that gets me.

to keep things short, i'm adding links:

here's a vid where he speaks of the book on Armenian genocide (i had personal reasons to tear up a bit while listening, ngl)

and here's a vid where he speaks of acting, writing, and improv, that basically broke my art block, for which i am going to be grateful for fucking ever, i guess

(if you got to this point of my rant, you deserve a hug and a respectful kiss on the mouth if you're ok with that. go have a lovely day 💜)

[themachine]

[littlenim]

how did the writers of DE make it so addicting to try and get Kim to like... smile near-imperceptibly at you in the flickering light of a cigarette glow. genuinely about to write a google docs page of word salad on this and how the way it's so irrelevant and almost certainly fruitless makes it so tantalizing

[helluvapurf]

*deep breathes* Sooo, those last couple mins from the latest "Full Moon" ep... lets talk about that🍵🍵

Welp, here it is folks... the ep that finally gave us that hyped up "Asmodeon crystal" exchange teased at in the S2 Pt. 2 trailer. And... hooooo boi, I have formed so. many. thoughts. upon rewatching that scene a few times. Some that are... kiiiinda on the rant-y spectrum the more I lingered on 'em, so how bout I share them here lmao

Fair warning in advance, this maaaaay not be particularly "nice" to Stolas in these rambling thoughts, so if anyone out there's a big Stolas(+itz) fan... yall might wanna skip reading ahead- lol .w.;;

*claps*

Okay, so to start things off on a (semi?) positive note, the animation & lighting here is quite beautiful to look at. The glittery curtains, the shine in Blitz's eyes throughout his shifting emotions, even the shots of that one broken chandelier (which I thiiink might've been the same one him & Stolas played under as kids?) was a neat bit of symbolism ngl.

Props to Brandon Rogers as well for his voice-performance on Blitz here cause... gawd did it hit me in the heart how much hurt you feel from his yelling ;-;💔

Curious to see more of the use of Blitz's new Asmodeon crystal in future adventures (esp from that one shot in the trailer w/ him using the portal effects against the DHORK crew), it looks cool~ ✨👍

....ummmm, ok I think that about covers my positives atm. Onto the problems I have with this exchange:

Stolas... okay, you were this close to actually doing a good job ending the Full Moon deal. Admitting to how "wrong" the transaction part of their dynamic was, allowing Blitz more "freedom" via-the crystal (that could also help avoid any legal issues that the Grimoire gave), even wishing him good luck with his I.M.P. business as the night drew to a close... ...buuuuut then Stolas just had to muddle everything up by his whole "even tho you don't have to be with me, I want you with me if you want it~🥺" ...which honestly came off selfish to me than anything else?? Like, dude... if you really ARE regretful of how long you let this deal go for, and truly DO want to let Blitz go... you CAN'T throw in such sappy, lovey-dovey words on top of that?? Otherwise, how can one blame Blitz for getting as confused & flustered as he was throughout that convo... you've basically just sent even more mixed-messages in the grand scheme of things, my dude-🤦‍♀️

"I have wanted you for SO long, the fact that you couldn't believe that I might have these feelings about you, that your first instinct is that its always about sex..." ...Ummmmm Stolas... did you seriously forget HOW this whole deal of yall's started?? 🤨 Waaaay back in the initial-series pilot, to the first official ep, and pretty much the majority of Season 1:

As far as I checked, Blitz wasn't the one who kept making everything about sex... that. was all. YOU. 😒Heck, literally one of the first things you told Blitz upon reuniting as adults in "The Circus", was that you expected he wanted to "ravish" you-

-so like, get outta here with the whole pushing-the-perv-responsibility-bs onto Blitz... you ain't helping your case >>

Finally... like, it was already getting bad enough by the point of Blitz begging & pleading out of fear he'd lose his livelihood without the book, AND not being allowed space to breathe after getting further pushed away (and thus, more pissed off-)... but THEN on top of all this, Stolas just haaaaad to throw in this lil gem: "Blitz... I think so very highly of you. I didn't realize you think so low of me..." ...Stolas, with all due respect... stfu with that lousy, last-minute uwu-ing self-pity party crap😑Just because you TRIED to show more attentive care & concern post-"Ozzie's", outside of the typical bedroom stuff... that ain't gonna prove shit if you're not gonna be consistent with it. Where was that "high opinion" of Blitz during the two of you getting stuck in the sitcom set during "Seeing Stars", when Blitz was having that panic attack performing live, where all you ended up doing was... just hitting on him/praising his bedroom skills again?? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Like... couldn't you have just, I dunno... TRY to actually cheer him up/comfort him like an actual friend, would? Encourage him on his jokes, "just be yourself", promising another way out of there on his own merit... literally, anything could've worked fine and it wouldn't have come off so skeezy imho >>;;

...*sighs* so, yeah... thats basically what I had to get off my chest regarding the ending of "Full Moon". Honestly, had the writers actually committed to Stolas cutting off Blitz (even if harsh), giving the crystal with no strings, then going about their separate ways afterwards, I would've been totally fine with the scene tbh. But all this... odd lowkey-blaming of Blitz thrown in, the sappy words, and Stolas not once actually-apologizing during all this (Like, literally I checked and the only utterance of "sorry" seemed to come from Blitz's end before he got kicked out... for what, I dunno- 🤷‍♀️). Sorry for the length btw, but hopefully that about covers my thoughts on the matter-

[buffaloborgine]

Before reading, I want to emphasize, I don't hate Sephiroth as a character, I hate how some people dismiss all of his heinous acts and cling to "He is a victim" and shove the tragedy he caused onto other characters. About that one post about Sephiroth and someone replying to it, let me be clear: I don't deny Sephiroth was a victim. Like many, he was the victim of Shinra and Hojo, that's undeniable. But to write like he is a good person and all the bad things he did were influenced by his upbringing? NO. Sephiroth is selfish, and no matter what you try to bend the narrative to fit your imagination, it is a fact. When the theme of FFVII is about "imagination/illusion", if we use the structure of protagonist vs antagonist, Cloud is the one that was affected by the illusion but he accepted help from others and got over it. Sephiroth would simply be the reversed version of that, he wasn't even illusioned, he knew for sure what he is but deciding that it was better for him if everyone else, and even himself stayed in that illusion forever. Sephiroth wasn't the only character to be affected by Shinra's evilness, but then let's take a look at those who also were affected: - Zack once learned and accepted that Shinra is evil had started running away with Cloud. - Angeal and Genesis don't share the same reaction but eventually once accepted the truth, they both rebelled against Shinra (also Lazard). - The Turks and Rufus are easy to see, I don't need to explain. - The massacred 1st SOLDIER unit mentioned in Dirge of Cerberus, fighting against the creation of inhuman Deepground facility. - Deepground themselves, they know what they are and they fought against Shinra, knowing they would even die if they do. So many would say, but Sephiroth does disobey Shinra and that he wanted to leave Shinra. Vetoing orders onto co-workers' heads doesn't seem to be a good way to protest, rather that's just push the responsibility onto others. And about "wanting to leave Shinra", as far as I remember, Sephiroth just said he would consider the idea, not that he would ever leave, and even till the event of Nibelheim, he didn't leave Shinra, not at all. So let's put this together, should we just see Sephiroth as a victim and say he isn't accounted for other tragedy happened in FFVII? Personally? Of course not. There are other victims and they fought back their abuser in different ways, maybe causing mayhem on the route but they still fought for their freedom. Sephiroth has never once given a single thought for others, and he was comfortable staying in Shinra, after all, he got the privilege for 1st Class, can veto orders and get admired by other SOLDIERs. To debunk people who claim that Sephiroth was thoughtful about Genesis' injury: Who was the one causing that mess in the first place? And even when you look at the cutscene, it was less of caring thought but more of "Why I am inadequate for this?" If he was sincere, he would have gone to check on Genesis later, but nope, he assumed Genesis was fine, like really, what kind of friend is that? No fucking friend would just assume friend is fine knowing they are hurt, no fucking friend would just condemn friends as traitor while not knowing the reason why they leave, and no fucking friend would keep their friends in the dark while knowing they are being tricked, abused. In conclusion, please stop saying Sephiroth is a good friend to anyone. If he cannot earn Zack's forgiveness, he is a prick, but if even Weiss stood against him (in DFFOO), consider he surely won't get any redemption.

[gods-favorite-autistic]

If Paul had the choice he would be a history teacher send tweet

[transtalesofdoom]

I'm a bit conflicted about getting he/him'd online. Online pronouns in general are a weird thing.

Back when I was a woman, I was pretty insistent on people using she/her, because people would use he/him by default. When strangers immediately used she/her, half of the time they were about to be sexist. (Genuinely had a guy request to talk to a different moderator because I clearly was on my period. Don't miss my moderation days.)

Now I'm fine with any pronouns in theory, and he/him is my favorite of the bunch. But when people use he/him for me now (not counting online friends), it's almost definitely because that's their default. They just assume I'm a guy because everyone's a guy. And what am I gonna do? Correct them? "Hi yes my pronouns are indeed he/him, but not like that"?

There isn't really a pronoun that tells me people have perceived me in all my complexities. Before, she/her would at least be an indicator that I was more than the default Mii to them.

I know there's neopronouns, but they don't feel like something I want for myself. No pronouns is an option, but I know that gets annoying to implement.

So really, I'm fine with any, but you must also submit a 500-word essay on what my gender means to you emotionally, spiritually, and carnally.

[bravest-notts]

my absentee ballot arrived in the mail today so here's a reminder to please dear god fucking vote i would like to cling onto what rights and safety i have in this country

[sardonic-the-writer]

having strong character playlist opinions is sooo exhausting. i see everyone with their six hour playlists based on Blorbo's One and Two having a great time and i want to join them so bad.but i physically cannot bring myself to add songs to a playlist about a character if they don't make me want to set myself on fire in an act of unbridled passion. sitting here, lamely holding teh arms of the only two (2) songs that make sense, because my brain refuses to listen to any sort of music number that doesn't invoke a biblical reaction from me. i ask for song recommendations about Them, get the Top Ten TikTok Sounds Of The Week in response, and politely remove myself so that way i don't fall to my knees and vomit blood in front of anyone

[groenendaelfic]

Erik Day (3733 words) by groenendael Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Young Royals (TV 2021) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Simon Eriksson/Wilhelm Characters: Simon Eriksson, Wilhelm (Young Royals), Rosh (Young Royals), Ayub (Young Royals) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Wilhelm needs a hug, Cheap Melodrama, Thirsting After Omar, mentions of past canonical character death, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Meet-Cute, Love at First Sight

Summary: Simon doesn't know who he hates more, the Crown Prince or Omar, Sweden's newest pop sensation.

Okay, that's a lie.

He knows exactly who he hates more, out of principle if anything, but he can ignore the fact that he lives in a monarchy for weeks at a time, while nowadays hardly a day goes by without someone telling him that he looks just like Omar, omg!

Today however it's definitely a tie. Neither of them knows he exists, and yet both seem equally set on ruining his day.

[erebus0dora]

um hi, since i have mentioned things about Eric Bogosian being perfectly capable of portraying a seductive predator (which made some of you seek out and watch Special Effects, I AM VERY SORRY), i feel like adding a tiny bonus

in Special Effects, he's around 30; in Wonderland (yes, the GIF is from there, but for the love of all that is holy, this is also not a particularly good movie, be forewarned!) he's around 50; in IWTV he's around 70. usually one can tell something about an actor reaching their prime, or limiting their abilities, or something like that

Eric, for lack of a better word, is not just consistent; he is always WHOLE

if you've seen him in his 30s, you know he is capable of the same movement patterns and weird verbal shit and quirky facial expressions in his 70s. the only difference is maybe that he kinda runs slower and is less willing to get naked

honestly, to me watching his works isn't like perceiving different stages of development of the same picture; it's like looking at a stereo image with all the added layers from different angles

p.s.: i know this explanation hardly makes any sense but my morning is lacking coffee, so i needed to speak of anything that gives me the energy boost to get through the day

p.p.s.: honestly, speaking of Wonderland - the most memorable part of this movie is him enthusiastically telling a story about the actual wounds the handcuffs left after filming, and the way it took a year to fully heal...

[charybdiaa]

Oil and Sport - CP2077 fic Ch 8

Chapter 8: Moon Over Marin

Entire Fic Description:

Johnny joined the NUSA Marines fresh out of high school entirely because he wasn't media literate enough to hear the warnings from the songs his heroes sang to him. Now he's ragged, aged a decade, and half metal, unable to grapple with newfound irritability and a near constant state of manic rage. But that hardly matters- because 2007 is a great first year for the band Samurai as him, Kerry Eurodyne, and Nancy Hartley work their way to the top of Night City's hardcore underground. But behind the stage, Kerry has a feeling there's something more complex going on behind Johnny's dark aviators and violent hands. The only issue is: How will Kerry push past his wall without being burned? Easy answer. It's just not possible.

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

How I feel after infodumping about the Blitz to my friends for over 2 hours

[heirtotheempire]

The Bad Batch season 3 has been interesting thus far. I really liked episodes 1-7 and I've nothing particularly bad to say about any of those episodes. But honestly episode 8, and after today, episode 9, it's once again gotten to be a bit of a pain to get through. Maybe I'm just too much of a Crosshair guy, idk. Today's episode especially irked me but last time I discussed the topics it delves into I got some pissy people in my notes and I'd rather avoid that this time around.

[solar-halos]

hey everyone it’s me again. i know i’ve deleted + reuplaoded this same pic like a billion times but since im trying my hand at (hunger games!!) pixel grid crochet again i figured that i should upload this as a progress marker, so i present to you: my (semi-failed) mockingjay tote bag (ft my ugly floor pls don’t judge xoxo!)

[opalsiren]

i do love that burgess got an ankh tattoo on his wrist prior to s3 filming and how it's visible in some shots like you just know zane would wax philosophical about egyptian conceptions of mortality to anyone unprompted