#part-talkie

[naldibutnice]

Laura La Plante in The Love Trap (1929) Dir. William Wyler

[celebratetheclassics]

Lars Hanson in The Informer (Arthur Robison, 1929)

[hatosaur]

it's pretty implied that ellie never came out to joel in the proper sense. she lets him assume that she's into men, gives him the false satisfaction of "seeing" her "crush" on jesse, does not correct him. she's fairly confident in being gay in public for others to see and having others close to her know; so why not correct him? why dodge the topic?

was it out of fear? could it be that she never broached the topic despite being close to him in the early years because of the possibility of his reaction being negative? that she was afraid that out of all things that could force them apart (further apart after they split), him reacting badly to her being gay would be the worst?

what about at the dance? would she have been as wound up as she was if the moment hadn't been an encounter with a vicious homophobe? maybe she would've still snapped without this context, but why is she immediately on the defensive against joel after he sticks up for her?

what about the porch scene? why did she refute his question of dina being her girlfriend so insecurely, looking away, nervously and quietly stumbling over words? why isn't she mean about it? why doesn't she get defensive at the question? why did she lash out again when he expressed acceptance?

i think these scenes revolving around her queerness indicate it as such; that ellie never told joel for fear of a response, that she lets him think what he wants because that's the easiest way for it to be. then, when she's ready to face off against a homophobe, because that's the way things are, that's what she can expect, and joel defends her, she lashes out.

it's such a clear juxtaposition of support and hatred between joel and seth, and being faced with joel's acceptance is too much, makes her turn to the anger she'd been holding onto and reinforce what she thinks is true -- that she doesn't need him. and in the fallout, as her regret dawns on her, so too does the realization; he was protecting her, like always, without hesitation, over this thing she was always afraid he wouldn't accept her for.

in the porch scene, joel chooses his words wisely, and asks if dina is her girlfriend -- not "so you're gay?" or "why did you never tell me?" or "how long has this been a thing?" -- with such a casuality that it seems to throw her off. it's like ellie can hardly get the words out. she refutes the idea, fumbles for each following part of her response, is tense. she wasn't prepared for the question.

and when he finally asserts his support for her, in as explicit terms as he can, you can see ellie become emotional, touched for a moment but overcome, before she launches into the defensive again, exactly like at the dance scene -- meeting his kindness with hostility as a way to cope with her emotions.

and then, in response to her basically saying her life doesn't matter, he affirms that it does.

so he's now affirmed two things that ellie has doubted: that he accepts her being a lesbian, and that her life matters. a conflation of the two, in ellie's mind, may have come after; and after that, her olive branch.

and yeah, him affirming these things for her is fully in the context of his overwhelming parental love for her and her complex feelings about being the cure, but within a queer subtext, it means more. it's such a familiar thing to slink around loved ones and hide being gay/queer for fear of any type of response, and lying by omission in conversation just to keep that state of peace, of normalcy. ellie, with all her brutishness and bravery, falls into it like anyone else, because even while mad at him, she valued that response from him.

a lot of people seem to think that the approach to ellie's queerness is nonchalant, that it's just some unrelated thing about her, but i think that it holds more weight in the narrative that what is explicitly spelled out. it's subtle but it was a deliberate choice to place her queerness at the center of the confrontation. i think that's why ellie's relationship with dina took center stage in the story, and why so much time is devoted to just them -- because her being queer matters to her character, but in a way that perhaps only a queer person can see, analyze, and appreciate (without being blatant enough to anger certain other fans).

[skunkes]

More life sims/farming games that arent 3D or hashtag "cozy" and arent ugly as fuck PLEASE

[baltharino]

Titans | 2x01

[baconcolacan]

Never really explained this huh

Why is the Stay AU called that? It’s funny, the concept actually started out as canon divergence, a ‘what if Tord Stayed a little longer?’ But then like I always do, character studies and world building started up.

It went from ‘What if Tord Stayed’ to ‘What does it mean for people to Stay’ to ‘What if the eddsworld world is set post apocalypse after a rapture, and the people still living in that world are the ones who Stayed and that’s why weird things are able to happen- oh my god I have an idea for a fanfic’

[freakcliff]

people are always asking things like "what are ace people spending all their time doing if not thinking about sex" and the answer is that i am in fact thinking about sex just intellectually. its a really fascinating topic tbh

[sentientcave]

WIP Wednesday - Impound

A little peek at that tow truck driver idea I was tossing around last week, for any interested parties

He shuffled through the papers deliberately. The sound of the cop’s rubber-soled boots squeaking impatiently on the dated linoleum floor was music to Simon’s ears. “Oh, of course. The squad car. Parked in a fire lane.” He tutted, shaking his head. “You’re lucky I got there before bylaw did. ‘S a big fine if they ticket you.”

They both knew that bylaw didn’t have the stones to ticket a cruiser. The fire department might, but they didn’t go around looking for trouble either. That was really more Simon’s area of expertise.

“You could have been impeding an investigation,” Price said, steely eyes narrowing.

Simon snorted. “At Ronnie’s? I fockin’ doubt it, unless you were investigatin’ how fresh the pastries were. Everyone knows that’s Laswell’s girl. Nobody’s stupid enough to cause trouble for ‘er.”

Price’s jaw was so tight that Simon was surprised his teeth didn’t start cracking under the pressure. He could almost hear the grind of enamel. “Fine. Just get the bloody gate open so I can leave.”

“Sure, no problem officer. Just a matter of the impound fees— Y’want me to bill the precinct directly, or are you gonna pay ‘em yourself?” He set the paperwork down on the desk top and fished the debit machine out of the top drawer suggestively. “Just need some I.D., if you don’t mind. Gotta keep things tidy on my end.”

Price snatched up the invoice. “One hundred and fifty dollars? Are you mad?”

“That’s the rate. Take it up with council if you’ve got a problem with it. You still gotta pay.”

Price was pretty near growling as he yanked out his wallet. Simon made a bit of a performance out of logging in the information on his I.D. on the slow computer, of punching in the total on the debit machine, and of checking everything to make sure it was in order. Price initialled the invoice where he was directed, pressing so hard it left a permanent indentation in the cheap veneer of the desk.

“Olright. You’re all set then,” Simon said at last, when he could drag his feet on the matter no more. He got out of his chair with a sigh, pleased to find that he stood a good three or four inches taller than Price, and walked out the side door without any further ceremony. Price was still standing in front of the desk, red-faced and angry. “Come on then.” Simon stopped just past the doorway, looking over his shoulder impatiently. “Haven’t got all day you know. Some of us have important work to do.”

He half expected Price’s head to explode.

Price stalked across the lot to his cruiser and threw himself into the driver’s seat while Simon went to open up the gate. The rev of the engine was the only warning Simon had to get out of the way before Price drove through it, cutting it a little too close for comfort. Simon raised his hand and wiggled his fingers in farewell, enjoying the glimpse of that furious blue glare in the mirrors before Price turned onto the road and sped off.

“Wha’ the hell was all that about?” Johnny asked, leaning out of the building, braced on the door handle, Roach a step behind him. “Ye pissin’ off the new police chief?”

“Yep.” Simon corralled the boys back into the office. “Fuckin’ hate cops.”

“Sure, but aren’t ye worried—”

“Not really. ‘F ‘e gets to be a problem I’ll talk to Laswell, get ‘er to put ‘er fuckin’ dog back on ‘is leash. Owes me a favour.” He snagged the singular tea out of the tray of paper cups and lifted it in thanks. “See you lads later. Goin’ home. When Kristen comes in to pick up ‘er shitbox waive the fees an’ tell ‘er not to park there again. Pretend you’re riskin’ your ass doin’ it, she’ll prob’ly give one of you muppets ‘er your number.”

Johnny and Roach looked at each other, and immediately launched into a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who would get to be the knight in dirty blue coveralls. Simon let the garage door bang shut behind him, and trudged across the dimly lit space to the back door. The acrid smell of weed smoke hung in the air, thin tendrils of it still drifting across the bars of sun coming through the back windows. Fucking muppets, smoking up while chief of police was steaming mad on the other side of the door. And they thought that Simon was the one who needed to be careful.

[rosetyphooon]

lalalala sing a song sing along ^_^

[brainfilehasstoppedworking]

Look at these dumb pomp fucks.

[homicidalbrunette]

"Well I love you for sure."

"Love you too."

"And also that's a long relationship."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! SINCERE AND EARNEST DECLARATIONS OF LOVE?! WITH NO JOKES?!

😭😭😭

[cyancherub]

just read 'the tenant' by roland topor. hands down fav book of the year so far.............utterly deranged, surreal, disturbing. OMG

[skunkes]

i dont understand the hate toward musicals as a genre tbh

[hatosaur]

if/when we get tlou3, what would you want to see happen? realistically OR your total dream scenario, either way...where do you see ellie's story going? what would you love to see and what would you hateeee to see go down?

realistically speaking, i imagine tlou3 would be what wraps up the franchise. if there's ever going to be more games after part 2, i pray to god naughty dog doesn't milk the franchise and make a billion games. people like to say "well, what if they focused on characters other than joel and ellie?" to which i say, shut the fuck up, you don't understand the last of us, you just want a sad zombie game, and i'm much smarter than you. because tlou IS joel and ellie's story; without ellie and joel, without even the idea of them, it isn't the last of us.

i'll be honest, i don't have any specific plot points that i'd for sure want in part 3. maybe it would be ellie's long journey back home after who knows how long. maybe the ending of part 2 was her deciding she needed to stay out of people's lives but circumstances drag her back home. abby and lev are just a part of it now -- it'd be weird to have them for one game and then just forget about them lol -- so they could share the focus. i'm not a big fan of firefly plots but that's their through-line if ellie crashes into abby and lev's path or vice versa. whatever, i kinda don't really care about the nitty-gritty.

but what i do want, over anything in the entire world, is ellie finally getting a happy ending. now this only works if part 3 is actually the end of the story, which again i hope it is. the game would be shit if ellie gets another bad ending or dies in the end (though her dying could be done right, i'd just prefer her death not be a tragic, depressing one). to me, the point of the games isn't the darkness of humanity or the futility of hope the way people say. it's about love, from beginning to end. it's love that drives joel to disastrous ends all for ellie, it's love that sends ellie on a revenge mission lamenting her chance to reconcile with joel, it's love that causes dina to follow ellie and then to ultimately leave the farmhouse with jj, it's love that forms abby and lev's duo and gets them as far as they do. no one wants to see it, because it's "corny" or whatever, but it's true.

ellie dying a tragic death or losing everything again or ending up somewhere in a depressive state doesn't round off any themes, because if the point of the games where that humanity is shit and love doesn't prevail, things would have been much, much darker.

ellie is a symbol of hope in the first game and a symbol of doom in the second, and i would love it if the third game could just allow her to be a person without any heroic or self-destructive sense of purpose. make her come to a point where she sees that her value lies in something beyond being a cure or an avenger; and maybe that's just being a person. being there in her loved ones lives. being a mom and partner, or a valued member of her community.

there is no point to be made in ellie reaching a new low -- she reaches rock bottom at the end of part 2 -- because there's nothing to say there. saying "everything is shit and horrible and everything good in the world dies" directly clashes with the moral of the first game, that even in a hellscape of monsters, infected or not, you can find purpose. ellie is joel's purpose in part 1. revenge is ellie's "purpose" in part 2. what about part 3?

again, it's "corny," so people won't want it, but what if it was just...her family?

it makes the most sense to me, the series begins with joel's loss of family, so why not end with ellie gaining hers back?

[baconcolacan]

Little difficult to want to draw and write at the same time, I gotta pick a struggle

[fishfingersandscarves]

dulcinea septimus cosplay in progress !