#like red becoming a werewolf and/or being a badass with a weapon

[maxwell-grant]

What are your thoughts on Jekyll/Hyde and his archetype of the human periodically changing into a monster ?

Jekyll & Hyde was the 2nd horror story I read following Frankenstein, I got it off the same library and it always stuck very strongly with me even before I got into horror in general. I even dressed up as Jekyll/Hyde as a kid for a school fair by shredding a lab coat on one side and asking my sister to make-up claw gashes on my exposed arm and paint half of my face, although in hindsight I think I ended up looking more like Doctor Two-Face than Jekyll/Hyde, but I was 12 and didn't have any Victorian clothing to use so I had to make do. The first film project I tried doing at film school was intended to be a modern take on Jekyll & Hyde, and I didn't get much farther than a couple of discarded scripts

Much like Frankenstein, Mr Hyde as a character and a story is something that's kind of baked into everything I do artistically. And it's not just me, as even in pop culture itself, none of us can escape Mr Hyde. I would go so far as to argue Mr Hyde may be the single most significant character created by victorian fiction, if only by the sheer impact and legacy the character's had.

(Fan-art by guilhermefranco)

Part of what makes Mr Hyde such a powerful and lasting icon of pop culture is that the very premise of the book invites a personal reading that's gonna vary from person to person. Because everyone's familiar with the basic twist of the story, that it's a conflict of duality, of the good and evil sides, but everyone has a more personal idea of what those entail. Some people make the story more about class. A lot of readings laser-focus on sex and lust as the driving force, and there's also a lot of readings of Mr Hyde that tackle it to explore a more gendered perspective, and so forth.

I don't particularly take much notice of the Jekyll & Hyde adaptations partially because the novel's premise and themes have become baked so throughly into pop culture and explored in so many different and interesting ways, that I'm not particularly starving for good Jekyll & Hyde adaptations the way I am for Dracula and Frankenstein. The Fredric March film in particular is one that orbits my head less because of the film itself (although I do recommend it), but because of one specific scene, and that's when Jekyll first transforms into Hyde on screen.

Out of all the things they could have shown him doing right that second, they instead took the time to show him enjoying the rain.

Just Hyde taking off his hat and letting it all cascade on his face with this sheer enthusiasm like he's never been to the rain before, never enjoyed it before, and now that he's free from being Jekyll, he gets to enjoy life like he never has before. It's such an oddly humanizing moment to put amidst a horror movie, in the scene where you're ostensibly introducing the monster to the audience, and it makes such a stark contrast to the rest of the film where Hyde is completely irredeemable, but I think it's that contrast that makes the film's take on Hyde work so well even with it's diverging from the source material, even if I don't particularly like in general interpretations of Hyde that are focused on a sexual aspect.

Because one, it understands that Jekyll was fundamentally a self-serving coward and not a paragon of goodness, and two, it also understands one of the things that makes Hyde scary: He wants what all of us want, to live and be happy. He's happy when he leaves the lab and dances around in the rain like a giddy child, he's happy when he goes to places Jekyll couldn't dream of showing up, he's happy as a showgirl-abusing sexual predator. Hyde is all wants, all the time, and there's not that much difference between his wants, his domineering possessiveness, and the likes exhibited by Muriel's father and Jekyll's own within the very same film, which also works to emphasize one of the other ideas of the original story, that Edward Hyde doesn't come from nowhere. That no monster is closer to humanity than Mr Hyde, because he is us. He is the thing that Jekyll refused to take responsability for until it was too late.

(Art by LorenzoMastroianni)

While many of the ideas that defined Mr Hyde had already been explored in pop culture beforehand, Hyde popularized and redefined many of them in particular by modernizing the idea. He was the werewolf, the doppelganger, The Player On The Other Side, except he came from within. He was not transformed by circumstance, he made himself that way, and the elixir merely brought out something already inside his soul. To acknowledge that he's there is to acknowledge that he is you, and to not do that is to either lose to him, or perish. Hyde was there to address both the rot settling in Victorian society as well as grappling concerns over Darwinian heritage, of the realization that man has always had the beast inside of him (it's no accident that Hyde's main method of murder is by clubbing people to death with his cane like a caveman).

I've already argued on my post about Tarzan that the Wild Man archetype, beginning with Enkidu of The Epic of Gilgamesh, is the in-between man and beast, between superhero and monster, and that Mr Hyde is an essential component of the superhero's trajectory, as the creature split in between. That stories about dual personalities, doppelgangers, the duality of the soul, the hero with a day job and an after dark career, you can pinpoint Hyde as a turning point in how all of these solidified gradually in pop culture. And I've argued otherwise that The Punisher, for all that his image and narrative points otherwise, is ultimately just as much of a superhero as the rest of them, even if no one wants to admit it, drawing a parallel between The Punisher and Mr Hyde. And he's far from the only modern character that can invite this kind of parallel.

The idea of a regular person periodically or permanently transforming into, or revealing itself to be, something extraordinary and fantastic and scary, grappling with the divide it causes in their soul, and questions whether it's a new development or merely the truest parts of themselves coming to light at last, and the effects this transformation has for good and bad alike. The idea of a potent, dangerous, unpredictable enemy who ultimately is you, or at least a facet of you and what you can do. That these are bound to destroy each other if not reconciled with or overcome.

You know what are my thoughts on the archetype of "human periodically changing into a monster" are? Look around you and you're gonna see the myriad ways The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde's themes have manifested in the century and a half since the story's release. Why it shouldn't be any surprise whatsoever that Mr Hyde has become such an integral part of pop culture, in it's heroes and monsters alike. Why we can never escape Mr Hyde, just as Jekyll never could.

It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character that almost every country in the world has learned to fear and despise. Our Barbie-doll president, with his Barbie-doll wife and his boxful of Barbie-doll children is also America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde.

He speaks for the Werewolf in us; the bully, the predatory shyster who turns into something unspeakable, full of claws and bleeding string-warts on nights when the moon comes too close… - Hunter S. Thompson

There is a scene in the movie Pulp Fiction that explains almost every terrible thing happening in the news today. And it's not the scene where Ving Rhames shoots that guy's dick off. It's the part where the hit man played by John Travolta is talking about how somebody vandalized his car, and says this:

"Boy, I wish I could've caught him doing it. I'd have given anything to catch that asshole doing it. It'd been worth him doing it, just so I could've caught him doing it."

That last sentence is something everyone should understand about mankind. After all, the statement is completely illogical -- revenge is supposed to be about righting a wrong. But he wants to be wronged, specifically so he'll have an excuse to get revenge. We all do.

Why else would we love a good revenge movie? We sit in a theater and watch Liam Neeson's daughter get kidnapped. We're not sad about it, because we know he's a badass and he finally has permission to be awesome. Not a single person in that theater was rooting for it to all be an innocent misunderstanding. We wanted Liam to be wronged, because we wanted to see him kick ass. It's why so many people walk around with vigilante fantasies in their heads.

Long, long ago, the people in charge figured out that the easiest and most reliable way to bind a society together was by controlling and channeling our hate addiction. That's the reason why seeing hurricane wreckage on the news makes us mumble "That's sad" and maybe donate a few bucks to the Red Cross hurricane fund, while 9/11 sends us into a decade-long trillion-dollar rage that leaves the Middle East in flames.

The former was caused by wind; the latter was caused by monsters. The former makes us kind of bummed out; the latter gets us high.

It's easy to blame the news media for pumping us full of stories of mass shootings and kidnapped children, but that's stopping one step short of the answer: The media just gives us what we want. And what we want is to think we're beset on all sides by monsters.

The really popular stories will always feature monsters that are as different from us as possible. Think about Star Wars -- what real shithead has ever referred to himself as being on "the dark side"? In Harry Potter and countless fantasy universes, you have wizards working in "black magic" and the "dark arts." Can you imagine a scientist developing some technology for chemical weapons or invasive advertising openly thinking of what he does as "dark science"? Can you imagine a real world leader naming his headquarters "The Death Star" or "Mount Doom"?

Of course not. But we need to believe that evil people know they're evil, or else that would open the door to the fact that we might be evil without knowing it. I mean, sure, maybe we've bought chocolate that was made using child slaves or driven cars that poisoned the air, but we didn't do it to be evil -- we were simply doing whatever we felt like and ignoring the consequences. Not like Hitler and the bankers who ruined the economy and those people who burned the kittens -- they wake up every day intentionally dreaming up new evils to create. It's not like Hitler actually thought he was saving the world.

So no matter how many times you vote to cut food stamps and then use the money to buy a boat, you could still be way worse. You could, after all, be one of those murdering / lazy / ignorant / greedy / oppressive monsters that you know the world is full of, and that only your awesome moral code prevents you from turning into at any moment. And those monsters are out there.

They have to be. Because otherwise, we're the monsters - 5 Reasons Humanity Desperately Wants Monsters To Be Real, by Jason Pargin

(Two-Face sequence comes from the end of Batman Annual #14: Eye of the Beholder)

For good or bad, Hyde has become omnipresent. He's a part of our superheroes, he's a part of our supervillains, he's in our monsters. He lives and prattles in our ears, sometimes we need him to survive, and sometimes we become Hyde even when we don't need to, because our survival instincts or base cruelties or desperation brings out the worst in us. Sometimes we can beat him, and sometimes he's not that bad. Sometimes we do need to appease him and listen to what he says, about us and the world around us. And sometimes we need to do so specifically to prove him wrong and beat him again.

But he never, ever goes away, as he so accurately declares in the musical

Do you really think That I would ever let you go...

Do you think I'd ever set you free?

If you do, I'm sad to say It simply isn't so

You will never get away FROM MEEEEEE

(Art by Akreon on Artstation)

[grigori77]

Summer 2020′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 2)

10.  BODY CAM – in the face of the current pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient lately, but as COVID led to civil unrest there were a couple of films in this summer that REALLY seemed to me to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist.  Admittedly this one highlights a problem that’s been around for a good while, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror.  The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar over the past decade or so, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result was, for me, a real winner.  Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Natt Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself.  Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust.  This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I’ve enjoyed so far this year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”.  Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper.  In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

9.  BLOOD QUANTUM – it certainly has been a great year for horror, and for most of the summer this was the genre leader, a compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre with a killer hook.  Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town.  It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble.  Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers.  The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michale Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; meanwhile, Olivia Scriven is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s a memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon.  This is definitely one of the year’s darkest films – by and large playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display. This certainly isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here.  Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …  

8.  PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status.  You certainly can’t possibly believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days.  Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings.  The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (Supergirl’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after being trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are uniformly excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been stuck like this for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it.  This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in even more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax.  Ultimately this was one of the summer’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

7.  THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – the summer’s other heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times.  Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected.  It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada.  From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances.  Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back.  This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other more glossy Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

6.  HAMILTON – arriving just as Black Lives Matter reached fever-pitch levels, this feature presentation of the runaway Broadway musical smash-hit could not have been better timed.  Shot over three nights during the show’s 2016 run with the original cast and cut together with specially created “setup shots”, it’s an immersive experience that at once puts you right in amongst the audience (at times almost a character themselves, never seen but DEFINITELY heard) but also lets you experience the action up close.  And what action – it’s an incredible show, a thoroughly fascinating piece of work that reads like something very staid and proper on paper (an all-encompassing biographical account of the life and times of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton) but, in execution, becomes something very different and EXTREMELY vital.  The execution certainly couldn’t be further from the usual period biopic fare this kind of historical subject matter usually gets (although in the face of recent top-notch revisionist takes like Marie Antoinette, The Great and Tesla it’s not SO surprising), while the cast is not at all what you’d expect – with very few notable exceptions the cast is almost entirely people of colour, despite the fact that the real life individuals they’re playing were all very white indeed.  That said, every single one of them is an absolute revelation – the show’s writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (already riding high on the success of In the Heights) carries the central role of Hamilton with effortless charm and raw star power, Leslie Odom Jr. (Smash, Murder On the Orient Express) is duplicitously complex as his constant nemesis Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson (In the Heights, Moana, Bull) oozes integrity and nobility as his mentor and friend George Washington, Phillipa Soo is sweet and classy as his wife Eliza while Renée Elise Goldsberry (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Jacks, Altered Carbon) is fiery and statuesque as her sister Angelica Schuyler (the one who got away), and Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter) consistently steals every scene he’s in as fiendish yet childish fan favourite King George III; ultimately, however, the show (and the film) belongs to veritable powerhouse Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting, TV’s Snowpiercer) in a spectacular duel role, starting subtly but gaining scene-stealing momentum as French Revolutionary Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, before EXPLODING onto the stage in the second half as indomitable eventual American President Thomas Jefferson.  Not having seen the stage show, I was taken completely by surprise by this, revelling in its revisionist genius and offbeat, quirky hip-hop charm, spellbound by the skilful ease with which is takes the sometimes quite dull historical fact and skews it into something consistently entertaining and absorbing, transported by the catchy earworm musical numbers and thoroughly tickled by the delightfully cheeky sense of humour strung throughout (at least when I wasn’t having my heart broken by moments of raw dramatic power). Altogether it’s a pretty unique cinematic experience I wish I could have actually gotten to see on the big screen, and one I’ve consistently recommended to all my friends, even the ones who don’t usually like musicals.  As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t need a proper Les Misérables style screen adaptation – this is about as perfect a presentation as the show could possibly hope for.

5.  SPUTNIK – the summer’s horror highlight (despite SERIOUSLY tough competition) is a guaranteed sleeper hit that I almost totally missed, stumbling across the trailer one day on YouTube and being completely bowled over by its potential, prompting me to hunt it down by any means necessary.  The feature debut of Russian director Egor Abramenko, this first contact sci-fi chiller is about as far from E.T. as it’s possible to get, sharing some of the same DNA as Carpenter’s The Thing but proudly carving its own path with consummate skill and definitely signalling great things to come from its brand new helmer and relative unknown screenwriters Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev.  Oksana Akinshina (probably best known in the West for her powerful climactic cameo in The Bourne Supremacy) is the beating heart of the film as neurophysiologist Tatyana Yuryevna Klimova, brought in to aid in the investigation in the Russian wilderness circa 1983 after an orbital research mission goes horribly wrong.  One of the cosmonauts dies horribly, while the other, Konstantin (The Duelist’s Pyotr Fyodorov) seems unharmed, but it quickly becomes clear that he’s now playing host to something decidedly extraterrestrial and potentially terrifying, and as Tatyana becomes more deeply embroiled in her assignment she comes to realise that her superiors, particularly mysterious Red Army project leader Colonel Semiradov (The PyraMMMid’s Fyodor Bondarchuk), have far darker plans for Konstantin and his new “friend” than she could ever imagine.  This is about as dark, intense and nightmarish as this particular sub-genre gets, a magnificently icky body horror that slowly builds its tension as we’re gradually exposed to the various truths and the awful gravity of the situation slowly reveals itself, punctuated by skilfully executed shocks and some particularly horrifying moments when the evils inflicted by the humans in charge prove to be far worse than anything the alien can do, while the ridiculously talented writers have a field day pulling the rug out from under us again and again, never going for the obvious twist and keeping us guessing right to the devastating ending, while the beautifully crafted digital creature effects are nothing short of astonishing and thoroughly creepy.  Akinshina dominates the film with her unbridled grace, vulnerability and integrity, the relationship that develops between Tatyana and Konstantin (Fyodorov delivering a beautifully understated turn belying deep inner turmoil) feeling realistically earned as it goes from tentatively wary to ultimately, tragically bittersweet, while Bondarchuk invests the Colonel with a subtly nuanced air of tarnished authority and restrained brutality that makes him one of my top screen villains for the year.  Guaranteed to go down as one of 2020’s great sleeper hits, I can’t speak of this film highly enough – it’s a genuine revelation, an instant classic for whom I’ll sing its praises for the remainder of the year and beyond, and I wish utmost success to all the creative talents involved in the future.  The Invisible Man still rules the roost in the year’s horror stakes, but this runs a VERY close second …

4.  GREYHOUND – when the cinemas closed back in March, the fate of many of the major summer blockbusters we’d been looking forward to was thrown into terrible doubt. Some were pushed back to more amenable dates in the autumn or winter, others knocked back a whole year to fill summer slots for 2021, but more than a few simply dropped off the radar entirely with the terrible words “postponed until further notice” stamped on them, and I lamented them all, this one in particular.  It hung in there longer than some, stubbornly holding onto its June release slot for as long as possible, but eventually it gave up the ghost too … but thanks to Apple TV+, not for long, ultimately releasing less than a month later than intended.  Thankfully the final film was worth the fuss, a taut World War II suspense thriller that’s all killer, no filler – set during the infamous Battle of the Atlantic, it portrays the constant life-or-death struggle faced by the Allied warships assigned to escort the transport convoys as they crossed the ocean, defending their charges from German U-boats.  Adapted from C.S. Forester’s famous 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by Tom Hanks and directed by Aaron Schneider (Get Low), the narrative focuses on the crew of the escort leader, American destroyer USS Fletcher, codenamed Greyhound, and in particular its captain, Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks), a career sailor serving his first command.  As they cross “the Pit”, the most dangerous mid stretch of the journey where they spend days without air-cover, they find themselves shadowed by “the Wolf Pack”, a particularly cunning group of German subs that begin to pick away at the convoy’s stragglers.  Faced with daunting odds, a dwindling supply of vital depth-charges and a ruthless, persistent enemy, Krause must make hard choices to bring his ships home safe … jumping into the thick of the action within the first ten minutes and maintaining that tension for the remainder of its trim 90-minute run, this is screen suspense par excellence, a sleek textbook example of how to craft a compelling big screen knuckle-whitener with zero fat and maximum reward, delivering a series of desperate naval scraps packed with hide-and-seek intensity, heart-in-mouth near-misses and fist-in-air cathartic payoffs by the bucket-load.  Hanks is subtly magnificent, the calm centre of the narrative storm as a supposed newcomer to this battle arena who could have been BORN for it, bringing to mind the similarly unflappable turn he delivered in Captain Phillips and certainly not suffering by comparison; by and large he’s the focus point, but other crew members do make strong (if sometimes quite brief) impressions, particularly Stephen Graham as Krause’s reliably seasoned XO, Lt. Commander Charlie Cole, The Magnificent Seven’s Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Just Mercy’s Rob Morgan, while Elisabeth Shue does a lot with a very small part in brief flashbacks as Krause’s fiancée Evelyn.  Relentless, powerful, exhilarating and thoroughly unforgettable, this was one of the true action highlights of the summer, and one hell of a war flick.  I’m so glad it made the cut for the season …

3.  PROJECT POWER – with Marvel and DC pushing their tent-pole titles back into late autumn in the face of COVID, the usual superhero antics we’ve come to expect over the main blockbuster season were pretty thin on the ground, leading us to find our geeky fan thrills elsewhere.  Unfortunately, pickings were frustratingly slim – Korean comic book actioner Gundala was entertaining but workmanlike, while Thor AU-take Mortal was underwhelming despite strong direction from Troll Hunter’s André Øvredal, and I’ve already made my feelings clear on the frustration of The New Mutants – thank the Gods, then, for Netflix, once again riding to the rescue with this enjoyably offbeat super-thriller, which takes an intriguing central premise and really runs with it.  New designer drug Power has hit the streets of New Orleans, able to give anyone who takes it a superpower for five minutes … the only problem is, until you try it, you won’t know what your own unique talent is – for some, it could mean five minutes of invisibility, or insane levels of super-strength, but other powers can be potentially lethal, the really unlucky buggers just blowing up on the spot.  Robin (The Hate U Give’s Dominique Fishback) is a teenage Power-pusher with dreams of becoming a rap star, dealing the pills so she can help her diabetic mum; Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of her customers, an NOPD detective who uses his power of near invulnerability to even the playing field when powered crims cause a disturbance.  Their lives are turned upside down when Art (Jamie Foxx) arrives in town – he’s a seriously badass ex-soldier determined to hunt down the source of Power by any means necessary, and he’s not above tearing the Big Easy apart to do it.  This is a fun, gleefully infectious  rollercoaster that doesn’t take itself too seriously, revelling in the anarchic potential of its premise and crafting some suitably OTT effects-driven chaos brought to pleasingly visceral fruition by its skilfully inventive director, Ariel Schulman (Catfish, Nerve, Viral), while Mattson Tomlin (the screenwriter of next year’s incendiary DCEU headline act The Batman) takes his script in some very interesting directions and poses some fascinating questions about what Power’s TRULY capable of.  Gordon-Levitt and Fishback are both brilliant, the latter particularly impressing in what’s sure to be a major breakthrough role for her, and the friendship their characters share is pretty adorable, while Foxx really is a force to be reckoned with, pretty chill even when he’s in deep shit but fully capable of turning into a bona fide killing machine at the flip of a switch, and there’s strong support from Westworld’s Rodrigo Santoro as Biggie, Power’s delightfully oily kingpin, Courtney B. Vance as Frank’s by-the-book superior, Captain Crane, Amy Landecker as Gardner, the morally bankrupt CIA spook responsible for the drug’s production, and Machine Gun Kelly as Newt, a Power dealer whose explosive pyrotechnic “gift” really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Exciting, inventive, frequently amusing and infectiously likeable, this was some of the most uncomplicated “cinematic” fun I had this summer.  Not bad for something which I’m sure was originally destined to become one of the season’s B-list features …

2.  THE OLD GUARD – Netflix’s undisputable TOP OFFERING of the summer came damn close to bagging the whole season, and I can’t help thinking that even if some of the stiffer competition had still been present it may well have still finished this high. Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, the Secret Life of Bees) directs comics legend Greg Rucka’s adaptation of his own popular title with uncanny skill and laser-focused visual flair considering there’s nothing on her previous CV to suggest she’d be THIS good at mounting a stomping good ultraviolent action thriller, ushering in this thoroughly engrossing tale of four ancient, invulnerable immortal warriors – Andy AKA Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), Booker AKA Sebastian de Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe AKA Yusuf Al-Kaysani (Wolf’s Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky AKA Niccolo di Ginova (Trust’s Luca Marinelli) – who’ve been around forever, hiring out their services as mercenaries for righteous causes while jealously guarding their identities for fear of horrific experimentation and exploitation should their true natures ever be discovered.  Their anonymity is threatened, however, when they’re uncovered by former CIA operative James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), working for the decidedly dodgy pharmaceutical conglomerate run by sociopathic billionaire Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, formerly Dudley in the Harry Potter movies), who want to capture these immortals so they can patent whatever it is that makes them keep on ticking … just as a fifth immortal, US Marine Nile Freeman (If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne), awakens after being “killed” on deployment in Afghanistan.  The supporting players are excellent, particularly Ejiofor, smart and driven but ultimately principled and deeply conflicted about what he’s doing, even if he does have the best of intentions, and Melling, the kind of loathsome, reptilian scumbag you just love to hate, but the film REALLY DOES belong to the Old Guard themselves – Schoenaerts is a master brooder, spot-on casting as the group’s relative newcomer, only immortal since the Napoleonic Wars but clearly one seriously old soul who’s already VERY tired of the lifestyle, while Joe and Nicky (who met on opposing sides of the Crusades) are simply ADORABLE, an unapologetically matter-of-fact gay couple who are sweet, sassy and incredibly kind, the absolute emotional heart of the film; it’s the ladies, however, that are most memorable here.  Layne is exceptional, investing Nile with a steely intensity that puts her in good stead as her new existence threatens to overwhelm her and MORE THAN qualified to bust heads alongside her elders … but it’s ancient Greek warrior Andy who steals the film, Theron building on the astounding work she did in Atomic Blonde to prove, once and for all, that there’s no woman on Earth who looks better kicking arse than her (as Booker puts it, “that woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn”); in her hands, Andy truly is a goddess of death, tough as tungsten alloy and unflappable even in the face of hell itself, but underneath it all she hides a heart as big as any of her friends’. They’re an impossibly lovable bunch and you feel you could follow them on another TEN adventures like this one, which is just as well, because Prince-Blythewood and Rucka certainly put them through their paces here – the drama is high (but frequently laced with a gentle, knowing sense of humour, particularly whenever Joe and Nicky are onscreen), as are the stakes, and the frequent action sequences are top-notch, executed with rare skill and bone-crunching zest, but also ALWAYS in service to the story. Altogether this is an astounding film, a genuine victory for its makers and, it seems, for Netflix themselves – it’s become one of the platform’s biggest hits to date, earning well-deserved critical acclaim and great respect and genuine geek love from the fanbase at large. After this, a sequel is not only inevitable, it’s ESSENTIAL …

1.  TENET – granted, the streaming platforms (particularly Netflix and Amazon) certainly did save our cinematic summer, but I’m still IMMEASURABLY glad that the season’s ultimate top-spot winner was one I got to experience on THE BIG SCREEN.  You gotta hand it to Christopher Nolan, he sure hung in there, stubbornly determined that his latest cinematic masterpiece WOULD be released in cinemas in the summer (albeit ultimately landing JUST inside the line in the final week of August), and it was worth all the fuss because, for me, this was THE PERFECT MOVIE for me to get return to cinemas with.  I mean, okay, in the end it WASN’T the FIRST new movie I saw after the reopening, that honour went to Unhinged, but THIS was my first real Saturday night out big screen EXPERIENCE since March.  Needless to say, Nolan didn’t disappoint this time any more than he has on any of his consistently spectacular previous releases, delivering another twisted, mind-boggling headfuck of a full-blooded experiential sensory overload that comes perilously close to toppling his long-standing auteur-peak, Inception (itself second only by fractions to The Dark Knight as far as I’m concerned). To say much at all about the plot would give away major spoilers – personally I’d recommend just going in as cold as possible, indeed you really should just stop reading this right now and just GO SEE IT.  Still with us?  Okay … the VERY abridged version is that it’s about a secret war being waged between the present and the future by people capable of “inverting” time in substances, objects, people, whatever, into which the Protagonist (BlacKkKlansman’s John David Washington), an unnamed CIA agent, has been dispatched in order to prevent a potential coming apocalypse. Washington is once again on top form, crafting a robust and compelling morally complex heroic lead who’s just as comfortable negotiating the minefields of black market intrigue as he is breaking into places or dispatching heavies, Kenneth Branagh delivers one of his most interesting and memorable performances in years as brutal Russian oligarch Andrei Sator, a genuinely nasty piece of work who may be the year’s very best screen villain, Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Widows) brings strength, poise and wounded integrity to the role of Sator’s estranged wife, Kat, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson gets to use his own accent for once as tough-as-nails British Intelligence officer Ives, while there are brief but consistently notable supporting turns and cameos from Martin Donovan, Yesterday’s HImesh Patel, Dirk Gently’s Fiona Dourif and, of course, Nolan’s good luck charm, Michael Caine.  The cast’s biggest surprise, however, is Robert Pattinson, truly a revelation in what has to be, HANDS DOWN, his best role to date, Neil, the Protagonist’s mysterious handler – he’s by turns cheeky, slick, duplicitous and thoroughly badass, delivering an enjoyably multi-layered, chameleonic performance which proves what I’ve long maintained, that the former Twilight star is actually a fucking amazing actor, and on the basis of this, even without that amazing new teaser trailer making the rounds, I think the debate about whether or not he’s the right choice for the new Batman is now academic.  As we’ve come to expect from Nolan, this is a TRUE tour-de-force experience, a visual masterpiece and an endlessly engrossing head-scratcher, Nolan’s screenplay bringing in some seriously big ideas and throwing us some major narrative knots and loopholes, constantly wrong-footing the viewer while also setting up truly revelatory payoffs from seemingly low-key, unimportant beginnings – this is a film you need to be awake and attentive for or you could miss something pretty vital.  The action sequences are, as ever, second to none, some of the year’s very best set-pieces coming thick and fast and executed with some of the most accomplished skill in the business, while Nolan-regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar and Dunkirk, as well as the heady likes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, SPECTRE and Ad Astra) once again shows he’s one of the best camera-wizards in the business today by delivering some truly mesmerising visuals.  Notably, Nolan’s other regular collaborator, composer Hans Zimmer, is absent here (although he has good reason, currently working on his dream project, the fast-approaching screen adaptation of Dune), but Ludwig Göransson (best known for his regular collaborations with Ryan Coogler on the likes of Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther, as well as truly awesome work on The Mandalorian) makes for a fine replacement, crafting an intriguingly internalised, post-modern musical landscape that thrums and pulses in time with the story and emotions of the characters rather than the action itself. Interestingly it’s on the subject of sound that some of the film’s rare detractions have been levelled, and I can see some of the points – the soundtrack mix is an all-encompassing thing, and there are times when the dialogue can be overwhelmed, but in Nolan’s defence as a film this is a heady, immersive experience, something you really need to concentrate on, so these potential flaws are easily forgiven.  As a piece of filmmaking art, this is another flawless wonder from one of the true masters of the craft working in cinema today, but it’s art with palpable substance, a rewarding whole that really HAS TO BE experienced on the big screen.  So put your snobbery at post-lockdown restrictions aside for the moment and get yourself down to your nearest cinema so you can experience it for yourself.  You won’t be disappointed.  Right now, this is my movie of the year, and with only one possible exception, I really don’t see that changing …

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

Gormless Ch. 4 - Dab on them Pineapples

A well-meaning friend gave me a book series that is hilariously bad. The first book was Souless and my riffs were entitled brainless. This second book is entitled Changless and these riff are then gormless.

I mean to say I have entitled them gormless! Not that my riffs are dumb, and the effort I spend on them stupid since I’m the only one who enjoys them. HAHA!

The story is SUPPOSED TO be about how a badass lady wearing a rad-looking carriage dress hits baddies with her umbrella and bangs her hot werewolf husband.  In reality it’s mostly poor attempts at being witty, flirty, and superior.

For the last book check out the brainless tag.

If you want the TL;DR version but want to read these new riffs anyway?

This story is set in supernatural Victorian steampunk England.  Alexia is our NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS protag.  She is a soulless, which means she’s able to negate the abilities of vampires and werewolves by touching them. She’s recently married a big oaf, named Lord Connel Maccon.  He’s the manchild in charge of the supernatural police with a zillion dollars and he’s totes super hot too ok.  Their relationship is mostly arguments about how Maccon can’t tell her fucking anything.  Alexia has also recently become head of ~Soulless affairs~ in Queen Victoria’s government.  She has a dumb friend named Ivy, a gay vampire friend named Akeldama, a family who’s evil because they do the same shit as her but while being blonde, and most importantly Alexia is better than everyone cause…cause.

Last time on Gormless:

There’s some mysterious force that’s turning the Vampires and werewolves into humans. Alexia is in charge of figuring out that deal, and she is doing a bad job at it.  Her husband is in charge of the Supernatrual Police (BUR) so he’s going to Scotland about it.

There’s a dude named Channing who wants to punch and have sex with Alexia, and Ivy is getting married to some rich slub, even though she’s in wub with Maccon’s servant Tunstell.

Alexia’s hubby told her to go to a hat store for mysterious plot reasons, she brings her dopey friend Ivy.  The hat store is run by a hot lesbian and as they’re chatting BOOM an explosion! GOLLY WHAT’S NEXT!?

Chapter 4 - Dab on them Pineapples

This chapter starts off totally under described.  Basically the explosion shook the hats on their nice dangling hooks, and turned out the lights.  They don’t even describe it as unbalancing Alexia.  So the whole next bit makes so little sense.  She first reacts by feeling around for Ivy.  She finds Ivy has fainted…cause okay? Ivy is whispering about Tunstell though so she’s like, “YEAH MY FRIEND UNCONCIOUS ON THE FLOOR AFTER AN EXPLOSION IS FINE! BYE LOSER!”

She immediately starts scurrying around for that secret passage she thought she saw earlier. Finds it, goes in, and down an elevator. I just…I was so flummoxed that this was her first response?  All it would take for this to make more sense is to write, “It sounded as if the explosion happened below them, and Alexia would bet you 100 pounds that this secret passage would lead her straight to it. And what if someone was hurt down there?”

It seemed so bizarre for her to go, “EXPLOSION? I’M GOING TO MAKE A BEELINE FOR THE SECRET PASSAGE! MY FRIEND OUT COLD? WHATEVER!”

When she gets down there she finds a messy workshop, where a small explosion clearly took place.  She finds LeFoux yelling at a child and there’s a ghost lady just chilling there.  The gist of the conversation is that the child threw a rag soaked in ETHER into a huge furnace which caused the explosion.  The boy is just like, “lol it went bang.”  And Alexia thinks that’s hilarious and reintroduces herself. LeFoux has to remark that WOW ISN’T LADY MACCON SMART FOR FINDING OUT THE SECRET PASSAGEWAY? GOSH I KNOW I CONFIRMED IT TO HER MINUTES AGO! BUT SHE’S SO SMART!  The ghost is LeFoux’s aunt Beatrice, and the boy is introduced as LeFoux’s son Quesnel even though the two do not look related.

I also find it odd that LeFoux, the owner of this establishment, with a shop full of customers, just slips into the passage and doesn’t give a token, “DO NOT PANIC CUSTOMERS I’M GOING TO FIGURE OUT THE ISSUE, PLEASE STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”

Alexia praises the child for the explosion.  I can’t help but feel a bit exasperated by the book’s tone for this.  This child could have not only killed himself on a flight of fancy but perhaps a block worth of buildings full of humans in a crowded city, and the story treats it like he stole a pudding out of the fridge he wasn’t supposed to have.  But I mean, my job is to worry for the well-being of children and I have a habit of overthinking this shit so take that paragraph with as much or as little care as you see fit.

LeFoux punishes Quesnel and tells her aunt to take him away so she can have sexual tension with Alexia.  Alexia, you do not deserve the sexual attention of anybody except your dipshit husband. Leave the MacDougalls and LeFouxs for the more-deserving slutty, bisexual hate-readers okay.

Faps you realize you will never be able to have sex with a fictional character right?

Faps why would you want to bang a fictional character in a story you don’t even like?

I HAVE TO FIND SOMETHING TO ENJOY HERE OKAY!?

During some mild flirtation where Alexia first realizes women are hot, LeFoux explains that Maccon commissioned a gift that is ready for her.

It’s a huge ugly umbrella that takes a page to describe just its physical appearance, which was hard to follow.  My favorite detail is,

“The handle looked like something that might top an ancient Egyptian column, carved with lotus flowers---or a very enthusiastic pineapple.”

I don’t know what the fuck that’s supposed to mean but with that line I have decided that the handle of her umbrella looks like this:

(Picture of a pineapple dabbing, while wearing bright red shoes.)

And you cannot convince me otherwise.

We spend a few more pages explaining what her James Bond styled umbrella can do. Which includes:

Shoots poison darts.

Can switch between a silver and wooden tip depending on if you’re stabbing vampires or werewolves.

Can emit a magnetic field which can disrupt steam engines temporarily.

Can spray different kinds of toxic mists which can kill humans, and severely injure werewolves and vampires.  

Okay sure, she gets a proper weapon with a lot of weird uses. Sure good!

So now it’s time for me to complain about some writing choices!

Much to my annoyance, every time LeFoux smiles at all (which is a fucking lot) instead of using multiple verbs and descriptors such as, “She smiles, grins, smirks, beams, looks amused/smug/delighted/etc.” She says LeFoux ~dimples~ 100% of the time. And I’m like nobody verbs dimples that way you fucking weirdo who writes like they’re 12.

There’s also this really clumsy pointless exchange where it’s revealed that LeFoux has made special equipment for Prof. Lyall, and she remarks that he’s a curious man. Alexia says he’s not a man at all (cause he’s a werewolf) and LeFoux remarks, “I, too, am not a man. I simply enjoy dressing like one.”

….This is like super clumsy and not how humans talk at all. And there’s no reason why you need to bring that up AGAIN at all? We can tell she enjoys masculine dress because…she’s described as dressing masculine. Like….why? 

Like I know this isn’t meant to be a complex novel, but like I feel condescended to how often unimportant shit needs to be brought up again and again. UGH!

So they head back upstairs, Tunstell shows up so he and Ivy can stare longingly at each other, and OH YEAH tell Alexia Lyall wants to speak with her.

You gotta do more for me to ship Tunstell/Ivy then like show them cozy with one another and shouting in my ear about how they pine for one another.  Like maybe some dialog besides, “How are you?” “Oh I’m fine”?

So Alexia goes to see Lyall. She struts in swinging her new umbrella like HEY! HEY! ASK ABOUT MY NEW TOY!  Lyall does not.  Lyall has his issues don’t get me wrong.  But I find it so refreshing that he refuses to feed Maccon and Alexia’s shitty little egos.

Lyall says the humanization phenomenon has been ~spotted~ again and it’s moving toward Scotland, a bit ahead of Maccon, who is also heading that way.  Maccon doesn’t know he’ll be meeting the mysterious soul-sucking power soon, which could be a problem since he’s only useful in the sense that he has powers.

Alexia takes note of this, and decides she wants to have Lord Akeldama and LeFoux meet cause that would be cool I guess.  That’s where we leave off.  I’m not sure if the two are going to get along immediately upon meeting or hate each other’s guts. I hope they hate the other’s guts cause I think that would be more entertaining.

Say something nice Faps:

These chapters don’t always end and start on similar notes. So it doesn’t feel repetitive.

Lyall, while not totally free from this writing’s bullshit, helps ground this material by being a voice of sanity. A lot of authors can get caught up in HOW FUCKING COOL THEIR PERFECT FUN CHARACTERS ARE and it’s just kinda refreshing that this author has enough self-awareness to realize how exhausting and irritating their antics/personalities can sometimes be. Or in the very least enough awareness of writing to know when to slow it done and take a breather.

 LeFoux is hot.

Since I have identified her new murder parasol as having a dabbing pineapple handle, all mentions of it conjure hilarious mental images for me.  She was described as cradling it like a baby, and swinging it wildly in order for it to fail to catch Lyall’s attention.

 I also kinda like how despite getting a badass weapon crafted for her, it’s hideous.  Like perhaps it’s for the humor sake, but I appreciate we’re not just going to steamroll how cool and great Alexia is. Even though she got this super rad weapon with all these functions without having to earn it. The item does have the downside of being tacky and heavy. You know?

[millipedish]

Dang. Wishing Night got me reinvested in notfm in a way that diaries and memory in the mirror couldn't. While i enjoy the gameplay for all four game modes, the stories had a very "by the way" feel to them that took immersion away. By the way, when Red was 10 she was way more powerful than she is now. By the way, Red has a sister that no one has even mentioned before. Even the Jerry route in full moon is a "by the way" that kind of tries to retcon some of my fav characters and i still don't know how i feel about that. Wishing night is the first true sequel and it's a long time coming

It also sold me on the central ship, a little? I can't say that I ship the kids but but the tragedy is interesting to me. Red's denial is engaging. Her denial about Jerry's death and even that fact that he's a werewolf. She is such a badass in full moon and diaries, but she is just a kid who's gone through way more than she should have. It's heartbreaking to see such a strong character showing the signs of a mental breakdown.

This makes mechanic Red the only Canon Red in my hc, simply bc of my feels. Will I feel like that still later? Who knows.

Not to mention that the reused art gives me brainworms. I can't imagine why the weapon dealer has become so enthusiastic about the weapons he sells given his backstory. Unless it's a different guy? The owl shopkeeper canonically being the other shopkeepers son is a great touch. And i love seeing the apocathary again. His English voice is so great.

Also several of my favorite characters from full moon were retooled as minions, mostly for Red. Probably this is the closest I'll ever come to seeing Red and Crocdad teaming up. Au where the forest spirit is defeated but instead of transforming back, the cursed people are recruited by mechanic Red.

Not terribly impressed by the new enemies, tho I am curious about wtf is up with the orbs. I wonder if the devs will follow up on that, our of its yet another lost thread.

Also i like the mermaid and the shark. The mermaid is adorable and I want to be her friend, and the shark's PTSD symptoms are haunting. His cage is his mind :(. Makes me want to write a drabble with him and the Tin Man, who's body turned into a cage.

Also hecking curious about Queen Italis(sp?). Not only how does she connect to the plot, but all this stuff about her not being of the world and having visiting the God of wish once before. My headcanon? She was the nightingale mentioned in one of the endings. Maybe she fell in love with the king she belonged to and wished to become his wife? But idk. Would love to see other people's theories

[mystic-scripture]

:O TELL ME about "The Silken Dagger". Has it been published yet? Tell me EVERYTHING. Inspiration - where'd you get the idea for this? Tell me about Valinia!!!

There is so much to tell about my scrappy little werewolf and her journey through my head!! At one point I had gotten like 8 chapters of the original story, Twisted Fates on DeviantArt and my old and since deleted FF.net account. Right now, I have two chapters I want to run through before posting. They are currently sitting in my Wattpad Drafts as well as in my google drive, teasing me as of late. 

Since you asked for everything…Imma put a read more line just to be on the safe side.

I’m a Writer and Totally Down for Fic Questions in My Inbox!

Okay, So back when I was a junior/ senior in high school, I really wanted to add something to the Vampire Diaries, right? Well, this is where Valinia was born. Her first iteration she was a witch from a founding family and her mother was a Salvatore expert, they were always tracking them and moving, and her father was a hunter. Except one day, they were on their way to Mystic Falls, and a few of Katherine’s “friends” killed her parents. Damon intercepted before she could and then he uses her to help find Katherine (thinking she’s still in the tomb at the time).

He compels her to forget unless the two of them were alone together, and so she is helping Stefan to take him down at the same time she’s helping Damon with his evil plot. Then enter the whole Vicki of it all, and she gets hurt real bad protecting Jeremy and Damon turns her. 

However, since vampire witches didn’t exist in the canon for a long ass time until the siphoners became a thing….I had to do some rethinking of my girl.

So I did a full scale redo, new faceclaim, new back story, everything. 

For Version Two: I had Holland Roden instead of Emma Roberts and she was a werewolf that came into Mystic Falls with Jules and her pack. Her mission to get close to Tyler to find the moonstone as well as find out what the hell happened to Mason. This would turn into her getting compromised and helping the scooby gang, as well as a personal vendetta after Klaus since he killed her pack.

This version didn’t get very far because I just couldn’t get into Nia’s head as much.

Bring in Version Three: So, I changed from Holland to Kat, who after being cast as Clary became the obvious choice for me. As well as with the characters I wanted her to interact with more, I decided to keep her a werewolf like Tyler, except for one difference. She was from an amish/ domestic terrorist cult pack that had paired itself with a good coven of witches, where they brainwashed their young into becoming super killers. And well, I’ll just pop this here and you can ask any other questions you have, since I really REALLY want to write for her more!! 

Full Name: Valinia Marie Thomas

Face Claim: Katherine McNamara

Birthday: May 19, 1993

Age: 17 (season 3)

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 5'5"

Hair: red/ ginger

Eyes: hazel/ glow yellow

Species: natural born Werewolf, Hybrid (as sired by Klaus)

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Occupation: Vampire Hunter

Fandom: The Vampire Diaires

Location: various motels/ back seat of her car/ mystic Falls, Virginia

Love Interest: Matt Donovan, Kol Mikaelson (more of a spying mission/ easy sex)

Weapon/Fighting: wooden stakes, arrows carved and forged with vervain and a crossbow, hand to hand combat, Hybrid abilities and instincts

Book: The Silken Dagger

Backstory: Valinia Thomas was raised in the boonies with a pack of werewolves who teamed up with a coven of witches dead set on one thing, and one thing only; creating the best vampire killing machines. At the age of ten her curse was forcefully activated, and after four years of training, her and a couple of others her age underwent a ‘breaking Amish’ mission that ended with her coming back to find her pack decimated. Three years later, she is still doing what she was trained to do.

Unfortunately, she gets a call from an old contact and is sent to Mystic Falls where her life is about to make an interesting turn.

Sorry for the really long post, but I hope that this helped you with your curiosity, Day!! Thanks so much for asking! She has always been a precious little badass who needed to be reminded of her humanity (Something that Matty Blue Blue sure as hell is gonna do 😉)

[daresplaining]

Luke Cage Countdown: 4 Days

Deadly Nightshade

Tilda: “The first act of [my] amazing book will be the story of Tilda only caring about Tilda. It will be about a life of unlimited potential, pointed in the wrong direction, fighting for the wrong reasons-- for the wrong gains. But then will come the second act-- and oh, %$#@, that’s going to blow people away.”

    The other big new addition to this season is Tilda Johnson-- Deadly Nightshade, Queen of Werewolves, engineering genius, and all-around badass. We’re really excited about her, and are curious to see how many aspects of her wild comics career (if any) make it into the show. 

    Deadly Nightshade is a strange, awesome character who is finally getting her due in the comics. She was first introduced in Captain America volume 1-- and in fact, so many of her early appearances were in Cap comics that she would probably be classified as part of his rogues gallery. In her introductory issue, she is an up-and-coming young supervillain working for the Golden Age-y baddie Yellow Claw. With his funding and support, she produces a serum that transforms people into werewolf-type creatures, and attempts to use it to take down Captain America and Falcon.

Tilda: “Very nice, Captain America... but you better not have hurt my babies permanently.”

Steve: “Who--?”

Tilda: “My name’s Nightshade, Cap-- Deadly Nightshade. Also called the Queen of Werewolves.”

Captain America vol. 1 #164 by Steve Englehart, Alan Lee Weiss, and Jim Starlin

    Though a brilliant scientist, she is young and inexperienced, and her plan fails. She flees the scene, faking her death in the process. The next time she appears, she is a bit more seasoned, a bit more self-confident-- and has a completely new modus operandi.

Tilda: “You see, Cap, I’m going to take over all of SHIELD. The Yellow Claw’s serum might have been able to turn men into werewolves, but I always had the power to control most male-type human beings.”

Captain America vol. 1 #190 by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins, and Michele W. 

    These pheromone powers are new-- and again, they don’t stick. Nightshade returns yet again, this time in Power Man and Iron Fist, and this time she is a robotics genius aiming to build a criminal empire. This version of Nightshade is the one that sticks, and it also finally provides a backstory: 

Tilda: "Everyone who ever laughed at me-- who ever underestimated me-- they’ll all be sorry they ever heard of Nightshade! I learned early what the world was like-- in Harlem that was easy. I could see that the ghetto was a dead end-- I had to get out. The only two ways out were learning and crime-- I decided to master both! I studied avidly... and secretly. I was a genius-- but no one suspected-- and I made sure no one would, by playing dumb. By the time I was sixteen, I had amassed the knowledge of a trio of PhDs. The time came to put it to use-- as the Deadly Nightshade! My first tries were foiled by super-heroes, but they were bold attempts. And the authorities soon found that no jail could hold me for long.”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #53 by Ed Hannigan, Sal Buscema, and Nel Yomtov

    Tilda’s manipulation of people’s perceptions is, for us, one of her most compelling features. Even in her early Cap appearances, she displayed a childlike demeanor that masked her intellect. Her scheme in PMIF involves creating a lifelike mob boss robot, and staying under the radar by pretending to be his ditzy girlfriend. Tilda is resigned to the fact that, as a young black woman, she will always be underestimated, and so has decided to weaponize these expectations and use them to her advantage. 

Tilda: “Ch-Chunky. You’ve killed him! *Sob* He was more than a cybernaut to me... *Sob* ...He was the only friend I ever had... a-and now he’s g-gone.”

Luke: “Aw, hey-- c’mon, don’t cry.”

Tilda: “Ha ha ha. Insipid fools. They fall for that bit every time! [...] Always underestimating me-- always thinking of Nightshade as a child. Always giving me a chance to escape!”

Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #53 by Ed Hannigan, Sal Buscema, and Nel Yomtov

    But her plans never quite work, and for a while, Tilda remains a second-rate villain, never quite achieving the respect that (we think) she deserves. But recently, to our excitement, writer David F. Walker has taken an interest in her and given her a second life in his comics. 

    This has come with a complete lifestyle change. Having fallen on hard times, Tilda is mugged in a back alley. She is rescued by the superhero Nighthawk, who offers her a choice. 

Tilda: “Who... who are you?”

Nighthawk: “You’re Tilda Johnson-- Deadly Nightshade-- robotic engineering expert. I need someone like you working for me. I can leave you here to die-- I could kill you myself, and no one would care... or you can turn it around and put your skills to work doing something important.”

Occupy Avengers #4 by David F. Walker, Carlos Pacheco, and Will Quintana

    Thus, Tilda becomes a hero, working alongside Nighthawk and using her brilliant intellect, engineering skills, and all-around badassery to fight street-level crime and corruption. 

Tilda: “I managed to download all the data stored on the computers here. Then I sent the emergency distress signal you asked for, Barton. And then... I got bored. Figured I’d work up a sweat by saving you guys before help arrived. [...] I just wish I’d gotten here sooner. Maybe I could’ve helped save them.”

Nighthawk: “Tilda, they were robots.”

Tilda: “Some of my best friends have been robots, ‘Hawk. They’re the least judgmental people I know.”

Occupy Avengers #4 by David F. Walker, Carlos Pacheco, and Will Quintana

    When Hawkeye and Red Wolf come to town, she joins their impromptu road trip Avengers team, further expanding her superhero resume. And when Nighthawk is killed, she honors him by taking on his identity. She has entered a new (and thankfully, bikini-less) stage of her career, and we really hope she sticks around.  

Tilda: “If I’d known being one of the good guys was this much fun... I’d have switched sides a long time ago!”

Occupy Avengers #9 by David F. Walker, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Jordie Bellaire

    MCU Tilda has only recently started popping up in promos, and we still know next to nothing about her in this universe. This is an instance in which we’re worried a character might not live up to their comics coolness factor. Any version of Nightshade that doesn’t involve robots and/or werewolves in an inherently inferior Nightshade. The character description leaked way back when called her “a brilliant holistic doctor with a complicated history in Harlem where, as much as she tries to stay far from trouble, it seems to always find her”. This presents her as a bystander who is pulled into the plot-- a more passive role than that of her comics counterpart. The career shift is also interesting, and we’re curious about the reasoning behind it. 

    That’s not to say that we don’t think MCU Tilda will be great. There’s a lot more to her than just her inventions, and these shows have a good track record of adding compelling new layers to their characters. The most significant revelation we’ve so far received about Tilda is that she is Mariah Dillard’s daughter. The development of this relationship, in regards to Mariah (and thus Tilda’s) messy family situation, the increasingly shaky morality of Mariah’s life, and Tilda’s own comics-based potential as an antagonist, should be really complicated and compelling. Either way, we can’t wait to see this new version of one of our favorite underused comics characters.  

[kappasigmalife]

Characters for a story im doing

Christopher “Chrisper” Matthews Age: 22 (chp 1), 24(chp 2) Eye Color: Brown (Chp 1), (Greyish-brown, Chp 2) Hair color: Brunette, crew cut, greyish brown (Chp 2) Identifying feature (Beginning comics): Rectangular glasses, sapphire stud on right ear Cause of death: Freezing, taken off life support Spectral Ability: Cryomancy, Emotional Calming Family: Helen Monroe: Half-sister         Joesph Matthews: Little brother         Laura Matthews: Mother         Andrew Matthews: Father Skills: massaging people, fencing, able to write almost anything, only person who can calm Robby down without violence, freezing the school to get out of class. Interests: reading, writing, bass guitar, walking in the dark, smoking, gaming, keep his area clean Background: Fairly neutral and stands by his beliefs, but keeps them to himself before causing a scene, caring to all that aren’t assholes to him, and ready to help his friends when they need it. While in chapter one he is normally happy on the outside, but deep down has loneliness building up from failed dates until meeting the man of his dreams at pride. An asshole with a heart of gold, many see him as any other dick, but when you need a massage or a talking to, he’s your man, seen with a hand of ice in one and a joint in the other; he still can’t get to the level of chill as Paul. Despite being abused emotionally and physically by his father, he still holds his head high. While considered the heir to a major industrial corporation ran by his father, Chris was more of a reclusive creative thinker, jotting down ideas for stories in a journal he kept hidden away, despite what his father wanted, Chris went to university under a liberal studies major focusing on natural and social sciences, hoping to get into social media coordination in conjunction of being a writer. As payback his father forced him to join a frat or risk losing his college tuition as a result, this ultimately led to his untimely death. Confused of what he really wanted, Chris explored dating both genders and always fell flat on his face either from superficial morons or people who confuse lust for love. He comes to love the man of his dreams, brendan a chubby goth who also happens to be a werewolf, they moved in mated and got married, all the while during an ritual for the mateship, chris is turned into a frost wolf and remains to devote his love to his one true love. Despite everything, chris slowly becomes cold and regretful after murdering a werewolf while being jumped after a meeting, leading to his imprisonment, and trial. While detained he was tortured by the guards as a turned werewolf instead of pureblood now scarred and having no lasting look in his eyes, even when gazing in the heart of brendan. Although slowly turns back after being hugged.

Paul Stone Age: 23(Chp 1), 25(Chp 2) Eye Color: Blue Hair color: blonde hair to the neck Identifying feature (beginning comics): Wireless headset on head Cause of Death: Electrocution by speaker Spectral Ability: Technological Transport, Omnipotence Family: Eh doesn’t care to say Skills: Hacking, engineering, singing, expert gamer, arson, canny ability to remain calm in any situation. Interests: gaming, singing, listening to metal, smoking, drinking, going on warpaths, setting the campuses forest on fire. Background: stoner genius, Paul complies with society’s bullshit and tends to stay away from drama by getting high as much as he can. Completing a collection of games from the human world keeps him occupied while learning about gender studies and music production while at AU. Moreover he relies on his RD of the house Reefer to get him the good shit before he’s got to deal with more crap around the house. While knowing everything about everyone, he tends to wait for the perfect moment to pop out and tell someone off for a witty comeback or just film a sex tape with his friends involved with no consent and a measly 10% of the profits. A natural ladies man ready for a polyromantic night in or out of his house tends to go well for him, although many end up falling for another. Being friends with a cryomancer massage therapist helps his stress during finals week, but if he’s pushed over the edge, you’ll be knocking on heaven’s door with his growling voice. Born into a moderately decent home, Paul was drawn to the art of metal at a young age and developed his voice by the time puberty hit; his longtime friends formed a band originally covering popular tracks of the time but soon after making original music on soundcloud got gigs ranging from their hometown to the upper levels of city limits, growing in popularity, only for his dreams being shot down by a bolt of lightning hitting a speaker and ending up being the newest edition to AU. despite knowing everything the only thing paul does know is why helen falls for robby, which baffles him to no end, until he tokes up again.

Robert Esposito Age: 21(Chp 1), 23(Chp 2) Eye color: Green Hair color: Dirty Blonde, cut short Identifying feature (Beginning comics): Naruto headband around forehead Cause of Death: Exhaustion from a 13 day watching spree of Naruto from beginning to end Spectral ability: Can enter any known fantasy world, accumulates a cartoon body Family: repressed so much of his childhood he doesn’t even remember being born. Skills: Filibustering, knowing way too much about anime and manga, sketching and painting, taking a punch, getting a girl out of his league to go out with him. Interests: Reading manga, fighting his roommates on chores, peeking on Chris’s failed romance life, making smart jokes, making his own manga a reality, organizing his dvd collection Background: Not much known in the past of his 6 ft. muscled nerd and his manga collection, he just showed up out of nowhere and was sent to live with Paul to get off Arthurs back about the amount of “flaws” of the afterlife. Going through 4 houses, he finally found someone who could tolerate his filibuster, or at least stoned enough to not care. Although ready to jump into a issue and help as much as he can, he is far more doing harm than good, probably from being doped too much as a kid. Usually buried in his collection of every one piece and Naruto issue known to man, he usually fights Chris on his taste of bad anime like gurren laggan, fate/stay, and Magi. Always ready for an adventure while everyone else wants to smoke and chill with a few games, he’s ready to drag them into any world he chooses, even without consent. Known for his abrasive commentary the housemates have their own way of dealing with Robby’s tirades of ranting, mostly with a hammer to the head or ice to the mouth, either way he’s quiet for an hour. While many find his words confusing, no one can compete with his art style and his attention to details and knowledge of chemistry

Helen Monroe Age: 24(Chp 1), 26(Chp 2) Eye Color: Hazel Hair color: Light brown Identifying Feature (Beginning comics): Black choker with a rose petal Cause of Death: Overdose of Adderall Spectral ability: Magic bag of weapons, can pull them out of thin air for comedic relief Family: Sophia Monroe: Mother         Andrew Matthews: Father Christopher Mathews: Half-brother         Joseph Matthews: Half-brother Skills: Weapon proficiency, singing, fencing, dealing with Robby’s attitude, make people pay for their crap against others. Interests: Singing with the band, cuddling with Robby, listening to Chris’s stories, smoking joints, singing Disney songs with Paul. Background: Born from an affair with Andrew Matthews and a woman he picked up from the bar one night while engaged to Chris’s mother Laura, Helen was born into a bad part of the neighborhood after Matthew viewed her mother as nothing but a druggie and herself a waste of life. She struggled with her mom’s issues but saw the love Lauren gave her working two jobs to make ends meet. She put herself through college thanks to odd jobs in babysitting her bitch of a landlords child and being paid with cash and half their rent taken down as a result. She made it to university where she finally met her half-brother during the first day of orientation, while the two saw their uncanny resemblance from their mutual bastard father, the two found no ill will towards the other, knowing in each other’s eyes that they had it rough.  Struggling with classes led her to purchasing Adderall just to focus on the majority of work piling up, only to later overdose one night while her roommate was away. When in the university she’s placed with Chris and his friends and finally feels like she got a family, a horrible dysfunctional family, but one she loves, and while loves Robby with all her heart, doesn’t stop her from correcting his behavior when he does something stupid. A true badass at heart, even Paul warns never to get on her bad side.Reefer Age: Unknown Eye Color: I don’t know red I think Hair color: Bro I’m a skeleton Cause of death: Something stupid I’m sure Family: All dead Spectral Ability: reap souls, create weed, somehow can be high without getting high Skills: Growing and cultivating weed, reaping through super smash brawl in one hour, smoking a literal farm of weed in a day, pyrotechnics. Interests: Watching the gang grow up, play with the band, smoke weed, go on crazy adventures with Paul, customize his scythe to fit his mood, disobey Arthur's commands. Background: a lovable dealer from god knows where and god knows who, reefer comes from the command of Arthur and acts as the groups guiding force of growth and weed collection. Knowing Paul since he got to AU, considers him to be his little bro and chilliest of anyone on campus, randomly sleeps in the house and allowed to stay, he lurks around cleaning and cooking while everyone does their own thing. His main prerogative is to follow the few rules he keeps close to his few remaining brain cells, being that no more than 3 pets at a time. also provides many gadgets and pieces that result in consequences later on usually in the form of Arthur visiting the house enough times to have a welcome mat saying, hi Arthur sorry don’t care. Generally the calmest RD in the whole campus, but can lose his shit whenever he senses shit going down. 

Brendan Balfour Wolfheart Age: 21(Chp 1), 23(Chp 2) Eye Color: golden brown/ red when turned Hair color: black Nickname: Fluffy butt Cause of death: Illness when an infant Family: Alasdair Wolfheart: Father Veronica Wolfheart: Mother Baltair Wolfheart: Grandfather Alicia Wolfheart: Adoptive younger sister Christopher Matthews Wolfheart: Husband/mateship Helen Monroe: Sister In Law Joseph Matthews: Brother in law Andrew Matthews: Father in law Laura Matthews: Mother in law Spectral Ability: Echolocation Growl Skills: Photography, hunting, cuddling, making chris happy, flaunting his body, tracking people Interests: Getting to see chris naked any chance he gets, cuddling to him every night, making sure paul gets the best angle of his furry ass for the channel, trying to get his dad to stop being so embarrassing, eating (like a lot of food), the only man who can make chris smile like an spaz. Background: Born to a wealthy family of werewolves, brendan is the firstborn son of alasdair and veronica, whom were pleased to shower their pup with acceptance. By the time high school hit, he came out as homosexual but kept it within the family to avoid bullies, like being chubby wasn't bad enough. Not being much of a musical prowess like his father, brendan would focus on film and photography as a hobby always getting the latest equipment, until Azazel got to them. Going to AU began a new chapter of his life and was welcomed into the gay community with open arms, and asses. He was nervous of meeting someone special, until he took western civilization and noticed a certain brown eyed cub sitting next to him who got his attention, but being shy he turned his tail and ran off when he offered to help him study. Only after running to the bathroom and feeling his chest pound did he think otherwise to respond with a yes to the question. Brendan would see him around campus smoking and drinking with his friends and get red faced by his genuine smile and wisecracks. It wasn't until he went to pride with link and was given an invite to Pans wedding that he was given the chance to talk to him, after 15 shots of liquid courage though. After talking and finding their love of art, scifi, fantasy, horror, and mythology, they danced under the spotlight gazing with him making the first move by stepping on his foot, leading him to follow his heart. While normally a shy boy and a little self conscience of his appearance, chris would always reassure him he loved him no matter what, to the point that he was asked to move in with the gang not one month after beginning to date. But was hiding a side of himself, and showed chris his werewolf form with a sexy striptease only for chris to look shocked but ultimately showed who was top dog that very night. It wasn't long before they became mates for life and engaged, with hijinks ensuing including robby kissing his man, flying into a blind rage, trapped in castlevania and falling into a coma, only to see his love in his lap worried. All together this shy boy knows how to come out of his shell but also has a habit of stepping back in when times get too rough.

Alicia Fiona Wolfheart Age: 20(Chp 1), 22(Chp 2) Eye color: Emerald green Hair color: Raven black Cause of death: Stillborn Family: Alasdair Wolfheart: adoptive Father Veronica Wolfheart: adoptive  Mother Baltair Wolfheart: Grandfather Brendan Wolfheart: Adoptive Brother Christopher Wolfheart: brother in law Spectral Ability: Matchmaking Skills: swordplay, event planning, playing piano and guitar, being daddy's little girl, blood draining, matchmaking, spying on paul. Interests: Being with paul, making sure daddy doesn't embarrass the family with his nudity, wrestling her brother, trying to get Robbie to stop being a idiot. Background: oh bet you didn't expect a vampire to be adopted by werewolves, well that just makes you a bigot, now it may be shocking but alasdair and veronica love their badass daughter even if of different blood and race. From an young age alicia ran around crapping on alasdair's car changing into a bat and spooking the neighbors around the islands. Her mastery of swords comes from teaching of veronica and how to cut a bitch who messes with your man, although alicia depends more on sabotage and mental torture. Her affection for paul comes from a odd attraction to him despite not feeling a connection using her skill as a matchmaker. Growing up with brendan was all about chases and seeing his werewolf dick running around the house, truly he grew up to be dad. While developed early, alasdair played overprotective daddy by hunting them and keeping the boys from hurting his baby girl. In high school, she did fall in love, only to be played as a fool and humiliated by the boys saying she was just a rich girl looking to play. After being homeschooled, she discovered her love of music playing guitar and piano and working with her father at the record studio, although only for the summer as she demanded to go to college. Being sent to a werewolf school kinda sucked without brendan, so after meeting paul the first time, she decided to transfer to AU where she would bunk with helen, further cockblocking robby and enjoying every minute. After seeing chris and brendan marry, as well as copious amounts of alcohol and weed, she slept with paul and soon began a nice relationship that would be short lived after not seeing her matchmaking working with the two of them, only to discover her limitations are on herself, while she can see the matches of everyone else. Telling paul her true feelings, even after seeing him marry led her to find happiness with another, a man named hiro who she would meet in the later chapters and help raise a child together. Her father may see her grown up but will tackle pounce at any second to hug and praise her as his little angel.

Alasdair “Romulus” Wolfheart Age: 42(Chp 2), 44(Chp 3) Eye color: Orange Hair color: Reddish Brown Cause of Death: Impaled on Excalibur Family: Veronica Wolfheart: Wife Baltair Wolfheart: Father Brendan Wolfheart: Son Alicia Wolfheart: Adoptive daughter Remus Wolfheart: Older brother Christopher Matthews Wolfheart: Son in law Skills: Music production, tracking, loving his family, giving it to veronica all night long, flaunting his stuff, tearing apart anyone who messes with his daughter, metal music, stoning out with paul and chris, stripping naked in a matter of moments. Interests: Planning weddings, ensuring his children have a bright future, getting belly rubs from his wife, reminding robby to pay for his busted wall. Background: raised to a middle class family of werewolves, alasdair used to go by romulus by his family until college when he met his best friend Arthur, while the two were utterly different, they both saw the good in each other and would hang out around the house as much as possible. Although when the years came to a close at university and a race war was starting, arthur would change his demeanor and go on an all out kill spree against the others that stood in his way. In the chaos romulus lost his love and committed suicide on arthur's sword telling him to live with his choices before dying. As he awoke he was reunited with veronica and his son, who he lost at the age of 1 to illness, now able to grow as a healthy child and start a new life, he gave himself the name alastair to repress his old life and make himself a new man. While in the afterlife he is able to create his own record label. While his personality is optimistic and cheery at least for the first few chapters, he does come with some things in his life he keeps secret, like why he wants to break arthur's neck, why he's protective of his kids and why he never goes to a council meeting. Joining the crusades at the age of 22 way back when really cost him after seeing nothing else of the world after losing the child he and veronica loved most. Only to be reunited later on.