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chipmunkfanno1love · 1 year ago

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Headcanons for Ember and Wade’s Steam Child

It was confirmed by writer’s of the movie Elemental, John Hoberg and Kat Likkel that they were originally going tease the idea of Ember and Wade having a steam child in the end credits and open the possiblity of a sequel. In the end, they scrapped this idea in favour of Ember and Wade leaving together on the boat for Ember’s internship and Ember’s mutual bow with her father, Bernie.

https://thedirect.com/article/elemental-sequel-exclusive

While I agree it was smart that they ended the film on where it was for the sake of Ember and Wade’s relationship developing more slowly and naturally, plus opening up more possiblities on where they could go and what adventures they could have, I still hope that their steam baby becomes canon in a sequel and/or some short films.

I have a link to some deleted storyboards by Nira Liu depicting Ember and Wade’s steam baby:

https://youtu.be/IxOSNVbYzDo?si=Ka-OjRiulvnLKkWY

There’s potential they may follow the same design and features for the child as shown in the storyboards here, but I’m hoping that the steam child won’t look too similar to an air child and hopefully adopt physical features from both their fire and water parents.

So far I’ve seen some amazing OC’s and fan-art on the potential steam child/children that Ember and Wade could have in the future. I myself have a number of headcanons about one of their potential children. I’m basing my ideas mainly off @cyndavilachase’s fan art storyboards and her OC, Misty, mainly because not only do I love the character’s design but to me the name Misty just sounds like the perfect canon name of a potential daughter of Ember and Wade.

Note: I encourage you guys to give @cyndavilachase and her artwork some love as she’s going through a hard time right now and I’m sure she’d appreciate your support.

Misty’s name and how she gets it:

Considering both Wade and Ember have elemental names linked to their own personal element, it makes sense that their child also has a name that links to their element...but...that doesn’t mean we can’t get creative with how their daughter gets her name.

I imagine the first time Wade sees his daughter he weeps over how “perfectly beautiful” she is. Ember herself admits holding their beautiful daughter in her arms is making her “all misty”. Inspired by her own words and by their daughter’s misty complexion, Ember suggests that they name their daughter Misty, which Wade whole-heartedly agrees is perfect.

Misty’s design:

I’ve added links to @cyndavilachase’s design of Misty for reference. I give her all the credit for the drawing and design.

https://www.tumblr.com/cyndavilachase/721079532719931392/misty-wade-and-embers-daughter-steam?source=share

I’ve seen designs of steam children, even one from Peter Sohn himself (of which I can’t remember where I saw it) that look more like air elements in the shape of poofy clouds. While these designs are cute, I actually prefer that a steam child doesn’t look exactly like an air child (though steam may be mistaken for “wispy air” at times, much to the offense of Misty and her parents) but instead their head and body moves in an upwards motion like fire does. Like real steam she’s also light grey in colour.

Misty’s elemental functions:

My thoughts about how Misty’s elemental functions is based off what I’ve researched online, but I’ve also added a little creative input to her elemantal functions as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geyser

Being that Misty is part water like her dad, I imagine her body leaves “steam marks” in the shape of tiny water droplets like you’d see on mirrors after you have a hot shower. Misty herself enjoys making “steam drawings” on mirrors and some of her mum’s thrown out prototype glass figurines. She can also use her body to clean dirty surfaces, such the chimney at The Fireplace.

Being part fire like her mum, Misty’s body is most comfortable when she’s at a hot or at least a warm temperature. If she gets too cold she starts to thin out or may even be at risk of evaporating completely. Therefore in winter weather her parents are extremely careful to make sure she’s rugged up for going outdoors and they also make sure she drinks plenty of hot liquids or maybe a hot steam drink they make themselves just in case she starts to fade away.

Because she copes so well in heat, Misty has a higher tolerance to hot food than Wade does. She can blow out smoke rings as result, but unfortunately cannot produce a flame herself.

Like the air elements, Misty has the ability to float and leviate in the air, but is more limited on how high she can get as her body will start to evaporate if she gets too high and perhaps her breathing becomes more shallow much like someone with asthma (which causes her some problems when she tries to join the Junior Air Ball team). Perhaps she uses her steam breath to lift herself into the air. Though limited in how high she can float, Misty takes pleasure in this ablity as it’s so unique from her parents abilities. She’s not afraid to test it out and see where limitations are.

One of Misty’s most powerful and at times most dangerous functions is her ability to turn her whole body into a hot geyser. While this function often explodes instinctively when she loses her temper, with time she learns control this ability and use it in a controlled manner. I imagine if they do make sequel, it would be amazing for her to use her ability in a herioc manner, after making this hero’s speech about her loving and accepting herself in all she is

“Who am I? I am Misty Lumen-Ripple. Daughter of Ember and Wade, a fire person and a water person. I am fire AND water, but I am so much more than that. I’m a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a cousin, a friend...and even a great-graddaughter. I’m an element all to myself. I’m me! I...AM...STEAM!”

Personality:

I personally see Misty taking after both her parents in her personality traits. Like her dad, Wade, I imagine she’s energetic, extroverted, enthusiatic and very fun-loving and in touch with her goofy side. Like her mum, Ember, she’s very passionate, driven, creative and at times hot-tempered. Like both of them she’s adventurous and can be very competitive. I imagine she’s a total tomboy.

Like the element steam itself, I would describe Misty’s temperament as temperamental. One moment she can be calm and joyful, the next moment she’ll either exploding into a geyser of steam or getting weepy in a puddle of tears (she becomes more wet and weepy when she’s sad).

She’s incredibly compassionate and is not afraid to stick up for those she loves, though it’s sometimes a struggle to stand up for herself at times. She can be stubborn on things she cares about most and once she sets her mind on something it’s hard to change her mind.

From what I’ve seen of @cyndavilachase’s storyboards, I get the feeling that her version of Misty may be quite an athlete. Perhaps she takes an interest in air ball after going to a few games with her parents and perhaps even her “Aunt” Gale and “Uncle” Fern (she has their permission to call them that). She develops a huge passion for the sport after playing a few games with Gale and realising that she has a natural talent for it. As I mentioned before I imagine she’s very competitive and even headstrong when it comes to winning the game itself. Let’s just say she definitely proves herself to be her mother’s daughter and Gale’s protégé when she’s playing the game she loves. :D

In terms of similarities to other Pixar children and their storylines, I could see her being adventurous and gutsy despite her physical limitations like Nemo from Finding Nemo and much like Riley from Inside Out I can see a playful and goofy child struggling with a lot of angst and emotional baggage and finding it hard to open up about it to her parents as well as herself. Plus Misty’s athleticisim and competive drive may mirror Riley’s.

I also imagine she has a lot of similarities to a young Judy Hopps' in her fearless determination, her high energy and her desire to acheive a seemingly impossible dream to become the first steam person on an air ball team and perhaps someday becoming an air ball (or in her words steam ball) champion, much like Judy’s unyielding desire to make it as the first bunny police officer. Like Judy, I definitely see Misty being a victim of bullying and prejudice due to being part fire/part water, though with encouragement and unconditional love from her parents it gives her the strength to keep going, even if she sometimes feels insecure and believes herself to be a “freak”. With time and growth, she learns to love and accept herself for who she is and to block out the hurtful, cruel things others say about her.

https://youtu.be/rNCDpTd_j3Y?si=8Tcx6gEIzBCDixR7

Relationship with her parents:

Misty has a very loving, playful and affectionate relationship with her dad, Wade, who is her rock, best friend and is the one she can turn to for a listening ear. Wade loves his baby girl (his nickname for her) with all his heart and will do all he can to let her know that he’s there for her when she needs him. He won’t hesitate to cry with her and hug her when she’s upset or scared. Misty herself adores her dad and always looks to him for support or even a game of wave ball. I imagine Wade as a stay-at-home dad as he wants to prioritise spending time with his family and doesn’t mind doing most of the household chores like cleaning dishes and anything that involves water (Ember will help out with all the other chores that don’t involve water).

I imagine that Misty’s relationship with her mother, Ember being a loving but at times a little tense as I imagine the mother and daughter clash a lot due their similar hot-tempers and stubborn personalities. The two often get into fights, but with Wade acting as the cool-headed third party, both girls do make up after their spats and do their best to talk things out.

For awhile though, I imagine they possibly go through a rough period where Ember struggles with trying to support and understand Misty in her internal struggles and even starts to question her own abilities as a mother. With Wade’s support and encouragement though she finds ways of learning to better communicate and understand her little girl.

One of the areas where Ember and Misty do bond is over their shared love of creative hobbies. One of Misty’s favourites (especially when she’s little) is doing steam drawings on glass. Misty enjoys watching her mother work in her workshop. As a career mum, Ember sometimes struggles with balancing the stress of a successful career with being there for her family. Overall though, Ember always puts her family as her first priority and tries her best to make her talent of glassmaking as fun as possible so she can bond with her daughter

Ember is definitely a mama bear when it comes to her little girl. If anyone bullies or discriminates against Misty for being half-fire and/or half-water she won’t hesitate to flare up and protect her daughter. She wants Misty to be proud of her maternal fire culture and teaches her about fire traditions like the importance of the Blue Flame to fire people and it’s involvement in traditional ceremonies, but she also struggles with the fact that Misty is limited in her fire ablities due to her being made of steam and therefore it’s a physical struggle for her to be a part of the same fire traditions that she herself was involved with as a child. It takes some growth and flexiblity on her part for her to help and support her daughter in her physical struggles while also helping her to embrace her fire culture despite the dismissal and prejudiced views of some old-fashioned fire people who don’t believe a “half-fire/half water” child (or as they cruelly call her watered down fire) should be allowed to participate in fire people traditions. With help from Wade, Ember does learn to find ways to allow Misty to be involved with fire ceremonies. In times she learns how to balance out her love and respect for her fire culture, all while supporting and loving her child for her own uniqueness.

Ember teaches both Misty and Wade (who wants to learn for both his wife's sake and for the sake of communicating with those non-English speakers in the Fire community) how to speak Firish. Wade's Firish is still rusty due his watery tongue, but he's eager to learn and a good listener. 😊 While not quite as fluent in Firish as her mum, Misty is a bit quicker at picking up Firish than her dad. She can hold a conversation fairly well, but may need assistance from her mum and maternal grandparents at times.

Misty calls her father “dad” or “daddy” (though the latter more when she’s younger) and her mother “mum”, “mummy” (when she’s little) and at times her Firish name Ashka.

Relationship with the rest of her family and family friends:

Brook absolutely adores her steam grandchild and always tries her best to make her feel loved, welcome and accepted into her home whenever she visits or she has time to babysit her. At her son and daughter-in-law’s request, she makes sure to adjust the temperature of the living room pool to a warm (but not boiling hot for the sake of the rest of water members of the family) temprature so she can comfortably swim with her two cousins (though being made of steam means that bits of her body float along the surface and bubble up the rest of the pool). Misty makes fun out of this by pretending to be a steam monster to scare her cousins. Though they do tease her and get on her nerves at times, they nonetheless love each other and the boys will often act as protective older brothers to her against bullies and anyone who discriminates against her.

Alan and Eddy often take her on outings with their boys, Marco and Paolo, which are enjoyable for Misty...until people mistake her for Marco and Paolo’s “wispy little cloud friend” rather than their cousin and their parents niece. This leads to awkward moments for the pair, but they always correct others for their mistake and try their best to reassure her that she’s always a part of their family no matter what.

While she doesn’t spend much time with Lake (I’m not sure if she calls her Aunty Lake, just Lake or something else perhaps) and Ghibli due to their commitments to their studies, she has gone to a few of their college art exhabitions and admires their artistic talents.

Cinder is extremely excited when she finds out she’s going to be a grandmother and isn’t hesitant to offer her daughter and son-in-law whatever advice and help they need in order to prepare for the birth of their daughter Misty. Once Misty is born she dotes on her completely and at times spoils her. She and Bernie enjoy babysitting for Misty when Ember and Wade are busy or perhaps going out for a date night (she’s very encouraging that her daughter and son-in-law keep their romantic spark alive).

When Bernie finds out that Ember is pregnant with Misty, he feels torn in his feelings about it. Part of him is happy for his daughter and proud of the fact he’s going to be a grandfather, but the other half is hesitant about having a “half-water” grandchild, mostly because he’s not sure if the child can properly connect to fire due to them being made up of two different elements. It’s only when he meets his granddaughter for the first time that he immediately falls in love with her. The moment he sees Misty sneeze is moment he realises that she is “her Ashka’s daughter”.

He and Ember herself share the beauty of their fire culture with the young girl and she (and even her water father) can’t help but be enthralled by the beauty of fire and the fire culture itself. While Bernie wants Misty to take pride in being part fire, he is also wary of Misty’s limits around fire due to being unable to produce a flame. He is also wary of the prejudice that a number of fire people have against the child for being part water. Though he’s proud of his culture and being a fire person, his love for his granddaughter is far stronger and he won’t hesistate to turn himself into a raging inferno if anyone discriminates against her (e.g. calls her hurtful names like “watered down fire” or they prevent her from being involved in fire ceremonies, etc).

Misty’s name for Brook is either “Grandma” or “Nana”, while Cinder and Bernie she refers to them by their Firish names for Grandma and Grandfather/Grandpa.

I imagine that Misty has a strong bond with her “Aunty Gale” She considers the air woman, her dad’s (possibly former) boss and family friend to be like an aunt to her, and Gale herself adores the “little steam ball” (an affectionate nickname that only Gale is allowed to call her). Both girls are huge Wind Breaker fans and air ball enthusiasts. In fact, it was all through playing airball with Gale that Misty realised she had a natural talent for it. Gale encourages the young steam child to try out for the Junior Air Ball Team, and doesn’t believe the girl should let the fact that she’s not technically an air element stop her from playing the game she loves. Gale is so supportive of Misty and her talent she’s even willing to coach a junior air ball team herself, in which she’ll include steam players (though Misty is currently the only known steam element in Element City) as well as air players. Gale is willing to make technical adjustments to the court so Misty doesn’t lose too much steam (no pun intended) and play along fairly with the rest of the air players.

Misty’s relationship with her “Uncle Fern” is a bit tentative as Fern’s slow-talking and rather sarcastic personality tends to weird Misty out a bit. Overall though they are on relatively friendly terms and they share their bond along with Gale over their love of the Wind Breakers.

She gets along well with Flarry and Flarrieta, her grandfather’s protégé’s and the current owners of The Fireplace. She enjoys joking around with them and always tries her best to outwit them with a few playful puns and innocent jokes. She also enjoys helping them out with chores in the store, her personal favourite being the cleaning chimney as she can test out her physical abilities in cleaning, levitating and squeezing through tight spaces. Though her parents aren’t too impressed when she gets her clothes dirty, but luckily they aren’t that hard for her to clean herself with her steam breath. Flarry and Flarrieta believe she could possibly open successful cleaning business someday, but Misty is more interested in persuing her dream to be an air ball/steam ball champion.

I could see her looking up to Clod and his little fire girlfriend as older sibling mentors. Maybe when they're a bit older they babysit Misty (and perhaps some future siblings) from time to time. Though I imagine Ember feeling very nervous at this prospect at first, worrying that Clod and his girlfriend aren't old enough or mature enough to babysit the young steam child. It takes a bit of convincing from Wade for Ember to give Clod and his girlfriend a chance. Hopefully they prove themselves responsible.

Her storyline in a potential sequel:

I would like to go into more detail about possible sequel storylines in another post, but overall I’ll go into minor details about what Misty’s role would be in the story.

I imagine Misty’s storyline will be mostly about finding her own identity and value for herself as a whole person. For most of the movie she struggles with this, seeing herself as “not fire enough” to fit into her mother’s culture and to be part of their fire traditions (due to she can’t produce a flame) and she also isn’t “water enough” to fit in with the rest of her father’s family as she not only looks different to them but she also can’t completely immerse herself in water. She spends most of the movie focusing on what she’s not rather than what she is. Only with emotional growth and self-discovery does learn to embrace all sides of herself in her culture and parentage while she also learns to value herself as her own person and elment to herself.

I could also see Misty struggling in her relationship with her parents, particularly her relationship with her mother. Perhaps she may come to have resentments of her parents as she feels she doesn’t belong in either side of the family and even feels like outsider due to how different she looks and functions as an element. I imagine both her parents (especially Ember) struggle themselves with trying to be there and support their child, but ultimately they realise the only thing they can truly do right is to love and support their daughter for exactly who she is. It’s only with her parents unconditional love and their support does Misty have the wisdom and guidance to grow as a person and comes to love and accept herself for all she is and more.

I hope you like my theories so far. Be sure to see more from me once they’re finished.

#elemental #elemental pixar #Pixar #pixar film #ember lumen #wade ripple #ember x wade #elemental oc #ember x wade child

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ellethespaceunicorn · 2 years ago

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Bright Like The Moon: Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Love Me At The Ungodly Hour

Rating: Explicit, 18+, Minors - DNI

Fandom: Night Hunter

Pairing: Walter Marshall x Black!OFC

Word count: 4.2K

Summary: Kamaria Mansfield is hired at the Minnesota Police Department as an intern. Detective Walter Marshall is overworked and unsatisfied. Takes place post-film.

Chapter Summary: Kamaria and Walter take things to the next level in their relationship.

Chapter warnings: oral sex (m receiving), Dom!Walter, dacryphilia, Daddy kink, non-barrier contraception (no condom usage), choking, creampie, breeding kink, spanking

A/N: Another time jump in this chapter, from Monday morning transitions to Friday evening, skipping Tuesday-Thursday. Does everyone know that ‘trousers’ are like a pair of jeans, and ‘pants’ is the same as underwear? I went English, I figured Walter wouldn’t say boxer-briefs. And yes I imagine he is a boxer-briefs kind of guy. Don’t @ me. Also, this chapter marks about two weeks of time since Chapter 1. Un-beta’d, we die like people who tried their best.

Dividers: @firefly-graphics

Support/Reblog banner by me

Cover Art by me

Cross-posted on AO3

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

Walter’s POV

Monday Morning

The first thing I did on Monday morning, after kissing Kamaria on her temple and walking her to her desk, was to hunt down Rachel. I promised Kamaria that I would be speaking with Rachel about her attitude. There was no point in waiting until she offended my girlfriend again. And yes, we are officially titled. After a weekend of pampering her and treating her like the Princess she is, I asked her to be my girlfriend yesterday afternoon. She answered with a little yelp, jumping into my lap. She addressed me as ‘Boyfriend’ the rest of the day.

As her boyfriend, I believe it’s my job to make sure she stays happy. And if something displeases her, I’ll kill it with fire. Or, the next best thing.

I make it to the Cybercrimes office and spot Rachel speaking with her team. I steady my breath, clear my throat, and walk up to her. “Can I speak to you for a moment?” I ask, interrupting her morning meeting.

“Walter, I’m kind of in the middle of something, can it wait?” she tries to blow me off and any other day, I might have let her. But this isn’t any other day.

“Actually, it can’t wait. But I can make it quick for you,” I assure her, not requesting for the team to give us privacy and continuing, “You’re to keep your distance from Kamaria. Whatever your problem with her is, sort it out yourself. She’s my girlfriend and I’ll do anything to make her happy. And that includes informing my ex that we’ll be going to Human Resources if you so much as look her way or mine for that matter outside of strictly professional business. I hope I’ve made myself crystal clear, I won’t be repeating myself.”

With that, I leave her, mouth agape in surprise. I pray, for her sake, that was the only time we need to have that conversation. She is smart enough to know I’m serious, I refuse to believe otherwise. I can’t afford to think of whether or not her feelings are hurt, if she was embarrassed, or anything of the sort. I can only take care of what’s my responsibility. And Rachel is no longer my burden.

Before reaching my office, I get Kam’s attention to meet me there. No one else could tell it would be for our previously agreed upon ‘scene’. As I enter behind her, I shut my door and lock it. I lean back on the door, hands going to my belt, unfastening it, and unbuttoning my jeans.

“I seem to remember Daddy promising someone that they could give him a special treat if she let me handle a certain something for her,” I remark, watching as Kam’s eyes light up and she is on her knees in front of me in seconds. We agreed that she could refer to me as Daddy whenever she wanted, now that I know she has that kink thanks to my talented tongue and hands this weekend. She refers to me as ‘Daddy’ when she needs a more intense and feral session, and ‘Sir’ is when she needs intimacy and passion but with a softer approach.

“May I take out your dick, Daddy?” she whispers, no doubt excited to touch me for the first time. I purposefully denied her this since we only just started being intimate. And only oral for now until she feels 100% comfortable going further. I am more than ready to have her over every surface in my home until she can’t think of anything but her pussy molding to my cock.

She has been salivating over the chance to suck me off. I’ve let her palm me through my pants and we’ve done a healthy amount of dry humping where we both get off.

“Go ahead and take me out, baby,” I reply, watching as she is carefully pulling down my zipper. She tugs my trousers and pants down until my cock springs free in her face. Nothing compares to the way she lights up, trying to wrap her small hand around me.

“I can’t believe you were hiding this pretty dick from me, Daddy,” she moans, marveling at my girth.

I capture her chin and tilt her head up, “He’s not hidden from you now, so what the hell are you waiting on?” I press, releasing her and crossing my arms while I peer down at her.

She presses those glossy lips along the underside of my cock, leaving satiny kisses across every inch. When she snakes her tongue out to lap at my pre-cum, I am beyond aroused as she moans at the taste and takes in the head past those perfect lips of hers. The slide of her lip gloss and her wet little mouth makes it easy for her to make a mess. The fucking sounds coming from her have me trembling.

She pulls off, inhaling sharply, drool hanging from her lips. “Please fuck my face, Daddy,” she whines, and I can’t deny her when she begs so beautifully.

“If it gets to be too much, you tap my hand, ok?” I watch as she nods then takes me back into her mouth. I lock my fingers behind her head, not wasting time and getting right to thrusting deeply into her waiting throat. She mentioned loving being face-fucked and since then, I have thought of nothing else. “Fuck, baby, this fucking mouth of yours is Heaven. I guess it had to be if you’re my Angel.”

I feel her reach around my hips to my ass, a favorite of hers. She likes to comment on how shapely it is, I never really put much thought into it. But if she enjoys it, I’ll make sure to do my squats. I realize she is trying to go deeper and I take the hint and hold her down on me until she sputters and gags. Tears trickle down her cheeks as she catches her breath but I don’t let her go for long.

“So fucking beautiful when you cry for me, pretty girl,” I praised, shoving my cock back between her lips, chasing my release. My balls slap her chin and her nose is buried in my pubes. She has yet to tap on my hand, she must be enjoying this as much as I am. As that thought springs to mind, I feel the unmistakable tightening of my impending orgasm. “Gonna cum for you, baby. Fuck fuck fuuuuuck.”

She rewards me with an earth-shattering orgasm that has me weak at the knees. Snatched my soul straight through my cock on that one. Even as I heave a sigh of contentment, my cum still leaks from me. She is making sure not to waste a single drop and helps to tuck me back in. She stands to her full height and I wipe at the fallen tears on her face before capturing her lips.

What I can’t manage to verbalize, I try and push through my kiss. How much I enjoyed myself, that I don’t mind kissing after a blowjob, and how fucking lucky I am to have her be mine. We pull apart and I rest my forehead against hers.

“You are so fucking perfect. And that is not just the orgasm talking, trust me,” I say, laughing along with her when she has a giggling fit at my words.

“I think the orgasm might have a little bit to do with it,” she chuckles, kissing the corner of my mouth, “but either way, thank you, Daddy. Never thought I’d be called perfect.”

“Get used to it, I’ll make it my mission to get you to believe in your perfection.”

“The only thing I need to be perfect right now is my face. God forbid I go out there with dicksucking evidence. Tear stains and messy gloss? Not for long.” She pulls out a compact mirror and her lip gloss tube and gets to work.

I’m done stretching my limbs as she finishes up her face. I kiss her forehead and straighten myself before unlocking my door and walking her to her desk. Nina and Sophie exchange glances before simultaneously waving at me. I smile and nod my hello before whispering in Kam’s ear, making her laugh as I make my exit.

I get a call from Faye at the end of the day, wondering about visiting this week. I agree after she admits that she and Angie are fighting again. I let her know I will pick her up for dinner and she can stay as long as she needs.

After the call, I inform Kam about Faye staying over and that our usual after-work time would need to be rescheduled. She seemed upset for a moment but then smiled up at me and had me promise to have fun with Faye while she was over. I remember that she doesn’t have a relationship with her father as I have with Faye. She doesn’t want me to miss a single opportunity I can get with my daughter.

That’s only one reason I say she’s perfect. I have a new reason for every day I get to spend with her. And it only makes it easier to fall for her. But I’m 1000% fine with that.

Walter’s POV

Friday Evening

This week goes by like a tornado, fast and chaotic. Life with a teenage girl is like…actually no, there is nothing quite like having a teenage daughter. I have heard her yell at her mother over FaceTime for two hours straight. I’ve seen her scroll through TikTok at a ridiculous volume laughing her head off. I’ve had to talk her down from wanting to cut off all of her hair when her curls wouldn’t cooperate with her.

I have never been happier to drop her back off at home. As soon as I get back home, I kick off my shoes and melt into the couch. I send a couple of texts to Kam, checking to see if she is still awake. I know today was a long day for her with work and therapy.

Me: Back to an empty house

Me: How’s my Angel?

Kam: Missing Daddy 🥺

Me: My baby girl

Me: I miss you too

Me: I’m right here

The typing bubble starts and stops a few times before I see a new text appear, and it stops me in my tracks.

Kam: I need Daddy here

Kam: [image sent]

Me: Fuck

Me: Look at that pretty little pussy

Me: Does baby need Daddy’s cock?

Me: You ready for that?

Kam: [video sent]

I click on the video she sends and my dick swells. My sweet Princess sends me a video of her playing with that flawless cunt of hers while calling out for Daddy to fuck her. I’m putting on my shoes and coat in record time. With keys in hand, I send another series of texts.

Me: Daddy is on his way

Me: I’ll be there in about ten

Me: Keep playing with that perfect pussy for me

Me: Get it nice and wet

Me: NO CUMMING, is that clear?

I wait with bated breath for her to respond.

Kam: Yes, Daddy

Kam: Need Daddy inside me please

I can hear her little whimper as if she said it aloud, reaching to squeeze my dick to calm it down.

Me: Daddy is in the truck already

Me: Ten minutes baby

Me: Then you’re all mine

I drive for the next eight minutes and thirty-eight seconds. I may have ignored some speed signs and lights, but I honestly couldn’t care less. I’m out of the truck and walking up the steps of her apartment building, lucky that someone was coming out at the same time. I raise my fist to knock on the door when it opens. A panting Kam greets me, a light sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead and neck.

“I followed your location, you got here fast!” she gushed, pulling me into her apartment and closing the door behind me. I notice her satin nightie that leaves little to the imagination and I pounce on her.

Reaching in to cup her face, I slot our lips together. We both smile into the kiss when we feel a little spark as our lips join, no doubt from our feet shuffling on her carpeting. As my hands wander, I pull back from the kiss.

“Scene break, baby,” I insist, watching as Kam steadies herself to pay attention, “Now, I wanna make sure of a few things before we do this. I need to know if you still want this. I also need to know if you need Daddy or you need Sir.”

She takes a deep breath, steadying herself before answering, “I want this and I need this. I need Daddy to beat this pussy up. Please?”

Instead of answering, I pick her up and she wraps her legs around me. I carry her to the bedroom and put her down. I take off my layers and she watches, patiently kneeling on her bed. Once I’m down to just my pants, I crawl onto the bed and my brain registers there is music playing. As I kiss her, I listen to the lyrics.

‘Love me at the ungodly hour

I don't have the time

To teach you how to love all over again

And let me ask you this

Are you givin' all that you could give?

Once you get it right

Baby, just know I want you here, come here

Right here’

I push through the raw emotion this song brings up and bring myself back to the present. I lay on my back and turn to Kam. “Come sit on Daddy’s face, baby,” I instruct, stopping to remind her of my rule with that, “And you sit down on Daddy’s face. I promise Daddy can take it.”

Her smile is so brilliant, like a lighthouse. My beacon. She sits down on my face, following directions so well for me. Her delicious nectar is coating her pussy and has me already ready to fuck into her, but I have to make her cum at least once before I’m inside her. I hold her open as I lick and suck at her, silently proud of her as she doesn’t touch me without permission.

Pretty soon, I have her right where I want her. She’s babbling and begging to cum, her hips rocking against my mouth. I reach down, pulling my throbbing cock free, and allow her to take me into her mouth. As I tell her to cum for me, I feel her moan around me, the vibration going through me like a tremor. I moan around her clit and she loses it. I watch as her walls contract around nothing and my cock twitches in her mouth.

I help her sit up and lay down next to me, taking off my last layer and helping her out of her nightie. Fuck, those beautiful tits look delectable. I lean down, burying my face between them as Kam pushes them together. I tell her how much I love these tits but it comes out in a mumble causing her to laugh. I lean up and smile down at her as I reach down to rub the head of my cock along her folds. Her laugh dies in her throat as he eyes roll up in her head.

“Are you ready for Daddy, baby girl?” I challenged, pressing the tip in just slightly.

“Wait,” she yelps, and I stop and wait for her to continue, “I’m just nervous…and I really wanna do this. And I already told you about having that awkward talk with Yada about using condoms. And we both got tested and I have an IUD so I don’t have anything to worry about. But yet, here I am.”

“I want you to know I am not going anywhere. Whether or not we have sex tonight or ever. Whether or not we have an…’accident’. I know this can be daunting, being with someone after so long. Trust me, I am right there with you. But one thing that makes it not so scary is that it’s you. I care about you so much, and I can tell you care about me. And the fact that I get to experience any level of intimacy with you is a gift. But this? This is a big step. And as ready as I am, I want you to match me. I don’t want you to have any doubt about anything, baby. Least of all, how well I’m going to take care of you.” I finish, suddenly feeling like I had just rambled on as my dick throbs and hangs between my legs.

“I want this. I want you. You make me feel so safe. And I wanna feel all of you, nothing between us,” she confessed, her hands finding mine, “You always know just what to say to make me feel better. I love that about you.”

“What can I say? You inspire me to be better, baby. Now, where were we?” I ask, raising her left hand to my lips to kiss. While she is trying to hide her obvious enjoyment of my gesture, I slip my hands under her knees and pull her closer to me. The look of surprise on her face is enough to send a warm feeling through me.

I hold her right leg over my shoulder and place my left hand on her face as I lean down to kiss her. As our lips touch, I slap my cockhead on her clit. I am rewarded when she opens her mouth to moan directly into mine. Collecting some of her moisture, I line myself up with her entrance and lock eyes with her as just the head disappears within her.

“Shit, Daddy. Fuck that dick is so big,” she moans, arching off the bed.

I pull out just enough and then slide back in further. “You want me to stop, or you gonna be a good girl and take it?” I dare, pulling out so just the head is in and slam back in deeper.

“Oooooh shit. I’ll be good, just please don’t stop,” she begs, moving her hands to her breasts.

I pull out again and thrust in until our hips are flush, her low moan rumbling through both of us. When I’m fully seated inside her, I lean in and kiss and nip at her neck. Using my right hand, I pull her left leg over my shoulder so I can lean down on both hands.

I angle my hips so I can start a rhythm digging out this pussy. I change the focus of my lips from her neck to her mouth and kiss her passionately as I begin to pound into her. My tongue mingles with hers and my cockhead and her cervix become friends.

“Fuck, baby. This fucking pussy is perfect,” I grunt, watching my cock disappear over and over into her, “Who’s pussy is this, baby girl?”

“It’s yours, Daddy,” she sobs, unshed tears at the corners of her eyes.

“Yes, baby,” I coo, reaching up and holding the back of her head, “Now, fucking cry for me.” I pull out harshly and start a punishing stroke inside her. Her cries mix with her moans and soon, I feel the fluttering of her walls around me for the first time. I fuck her through her orgasm and have to praise her. “Such a good girl, taking Daddy’s cock. Creaming all over it too.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” she beams, her hands roaming down my chest to rest on my hips, “Want you to hit from the back now, please?”

I growl, pulling out and flipping her over on her hands and knees. “Ass up, head down, baby girl.” She gets in position and I can’t believe how lucky I am. She is all mine, and I am hers.

She wiggles her hips, no doubt to get my attention…as if I could forget she was here. I massage her ass lightly before landing a few slaps upon her ass. I lean down to place kisses and bites before I lean up and enter her swiftly, gripping her hips, her welcoming warmth like coming home after a long day.

While picking up the pace, I revel in the sounds our bodies make. Almost like a round of applause and my exhibitionism kink raises its head for the first time in ages. The thought of fucking her in the mirror is floating through my mind at high-speed. For now, let’s just focus on this experience.

“Fuck this pussy just like that Daddy,” she whines, and her back arches, allowing me a new angle to pound her g-spot over and over until I feel her squirt all over my cock and balls.

“Fuck! And I thought it couldn’t get any fucking hotter than you squirting on my hand, baby girl,” I hum, slapping her ass hard enough to make her yelp, “Fuck you’re gonna make me cum in this pussy so fucking hard.”

“Yes, please cum inside me Daddy. Breed this fucking pussy, please!” she pleads, and what can I do but give her what she needs.

I lean forward and wrap my arm around her neck, pulling her back against my chest. “My sweet baby. Beg for Daddy’s cum like a good girl.”

“Fuck, please Daddy. I need it. Need to feel it filling me up,” she urges, and I can hear the tears in her voice before I see them roll down her cheeks, “My pussy was made for your cum. Just want you to keep me always full of you,” she moans, reaching back to grab a fistful of my hair before she fucking decimates me, “Please, Daddy, fuck a baby into me.”

I have never been hit with an orgasm quite as hard as the one I am experiencing right now. To say I saw explosions behind my eyelids would be an understatement. I saw galaxies being born, or were they dying? My ears perk up at a loud sound that I come to realize is my own moaning as I fill Kamaria with my release. I continue to fuck into her in what can only be considered muscle memory. I also don’t remember falling forward onto her back, but I’m currently holding her down.

My cock is softening inside of her and it feels like I’m pushing wet rope at this point. I pull out of her and watch as she leaks with the evidence of my orgasm. I get off the bed, going to the bathroom and grabbing a towel to clean our bodies. When I come back to her, she is on her back and smiling lazily at me. I reach down and wipe away my cum, making sure to be gentle with her now swollen netherlips. I throw the towel over my shoulder and head back to the bathroom to empty my bladder.

Once I’m done, she enters and uses the bathroom after me. At this point, we’re more than comfortable being in the bathroom together. It’s just another bonding experience for us.

We go back to the bedroom, change the sheets, and lay down under the blankets. She cuddles into my side and I wrap my arms around her. I debate bringing up the ‘baby’ line but I’ll let her slide for now. I mean, it was the perfect thing to say and I wasn’t expecting it at all. It excited me. And I am not ready to have that conversation with myself yet so I won’t.

I kiss her forehead and slide to my side so I can spoon her. “So, how did this old man do?” I query, holding her close to me.

“Bruh, you’re like five years older than me, at best, so if you’re old then I’m old. And I squirted on your dick, I think you did fucking amazing.” she replies, making me laugh in her ear. “So, how did I do then?”

I lean up over her and lift her face to look into her eyes. “I can’t articulate the level of emotion I have for you right now, seeing as you stole my soul through my dick. But if you’re patient, I will try to tell you later.”

“I can be patient, but don’t make me wait too long to hear it,” she informs, making it sound like she was waiting for me to say something specific, like a certain phrase. I shake the thought from my head, not ready to believe that she is ready to hear that.

Instead of thinking too long about that, I smile down at her and lay down on her breasts while she plays with my hair. I love this. I love laying with her in silence as we just breathe. I love the way she always finds a way to make me laugh at something when I’ve had a long day. I know where my brain is going with this train of thought and I don’t even care because it’s the truth.

I love her.

Chapter 6

**Tag List**

@brattymum96 @ambinxe

@enchantedbytomandhenry @astheskycries

@geralts-yenn @deandoesthingstome @liveoncoffeeandflowersss @kebabgirl67 @foxyjwls007

Let me know if you wanna be added and for what plz 😁

[General Fanfiction (Everything), Henry Fanfiction, August Walker, Bright Like The Moon]

#walter marshall #walter marshall fanfic #walter marshall x black!plus size female #walter marshall x black!plus size female oc #walter marshall x ofc #walter marshall x black!ofc #ellethespaceunicorn fanfic #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill #walter marshall fanfiction #walter marshall fic #night hunter #night hunter fanfic #night hunter fanfiction #bright like the moon

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lunarsilkscreen · 4 months ago

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What makes a [Star Wars]?

What makes a piece of SW media have that signature style, that flair? That... je na se quis?

Star Wars draws from many inspirational sources. From John Wayne, to Kurosawa, to Flash Gordon. And all of these sources make up the core elements of Star Wars. But what is the secret sauce that makes fans want more?

Let's take the original film; What is it about this film that attracted fans in the first place? One thing was it's accessibility; it is a family friendly romp through space that didn't have the extensive grit of some films (meant for an older audience), or the intense metaphor and metaphysical concepts of other space films, and it didn't treat its audience like they were children, despite being "family friendly."

The Christian anti-anything-magic movement sure didn't hurt bringing attention and notoriety to the movie either.

Light Sabers and Force powers have become an ubiquitous replacement for the idea of "witchcraft" as well. Which makes a kind of substitute for religious nuts to say "oh it's not black magic, it's start wars".

Plus the black magic was controlled by the bad guys anyway!

But what is the staying power of these movies? It follows the fighting choreography of martial arts movies, and includes the same kinds of morals and lessons taught in those eastern epics.

But why does it have staying power? As opposed to something like Flash Gordon? Why aren't we culturally "Oh those silly boomers and their imaginary laser swords from BACK IN THE DAY. lol"

"Remember when [lightsabers] were a thing?" -- a reminiscent quote that will never be said.

In the First Movie; Luke meets a dirty sand Hobo, and then his surrogate parents are deep fried. This institutes several concepts all at once.

1) His parents (aunt and uncle) are pushing him to become an upstanding citizen of the empire.

2) The empire which has been established as the good force in the universe, wants to exterminate this single family of farmers for *seemingly no reason*

3) we immediately see that what's Good is bad, and what's bad is the only option.

As the dirty space hobo takes Luke, convinces him to sell his car on the spot to buy a plane ticket on a smuggler's freighter to God knows where, and ends up arrested by the imperial fleet, because now Luke is definitely a wanted criminal by association.

And ended up accomplice to murder of a handful of imperial soldiers.

This is our introduction to the series.

And we're told that the dirty Space Hobo is the good guy, and the GOD DAMN MILITARY GENERAL, who is on a mission of peace; is the bad guy.

Which, we later find out is Luke's daddy. And the only reason Luke was attacked was because the emperor *knew* it would help sustain his control over said GODDAMNED MILITARY GENERAL.

Fans might tell you it was because they were associated with the Dirty Sand Hobo, or that the Aunt and Uncle were secretly [spice traders]. But we know the truth, because Luke doesn't.

And the entire series questions what is really the good, right, and just thing to do, compared to what truly is evil... And it does so without explicitly stating it.

We're shown that the empire isn't above a few billion casualties to get what they want, even if it's to silence otherwise peaceful protesting.

Unless Coruscant is responsible for a [Space Pearl Harbor] and are actually enemy combatants against the Empire who won't settle down. But that's never really clarified either. Nor does any SW:Media suggest it's the case.

Just political dissidence.

[The Return of the Jedi] denoting Vader's fall from grace to the light side of the force; is important. Because Luke Skywalker doesn't start his own Empire. He doesn't start a new republic.

He just excised a cancer. The darkest part of the empire, in order to let the rest of the universe thrive. That it ended up toppling the entire empire is really the empire's fault for having an organization that couldn't keep running after one guy died of old age.

Where the prequel trilogy goes wrong; is that Anakin is never shown to be doing what he thinks is right. He's a soldier following orders. And he simply changes master and follows his orders instead.

This throws Audiences off, because to [Anakin - Youngling Slayer] the order to do that was the same as any order the Jedi Council gave him. Synonymous.

He saw this atrocity as the trolly problem. Sacrifice a few tainted apples, save the rest of the galaxy's children.

But the movies; they don't do a good job of demonstrating *why*. It's just oh, Anakin was good, now he's evil. I guess that's just what happens?

It showcases his inability to see murder as anything other than a tool for peace, imposed by the council and war itself. But the series *doesn't* do a real good job of making us Sympathize with Anakin.

He literally looks like any other random edgelord. There's no rhyme or reason, he just goes hard in the paint for "REVENGE".

What is he revenging? His own hurt Ego? Anakin was shown to be above that, but struggling with the things he was asked to do, and the trauma he endured. And the knowledge he had that Republic Council and the Jedi Council all refused to listen too, despite his proficiency.

They were so distracted with their own machinations; they didn't see the enemy on their doorstep. And Sidious used that as a way to tweak Anakin's understanding of the situation.

But none of that is demonstrated in *that* series... Instead; we the audience are treated as children... The bad guy is definitely a bad guy, the good guys are definitely good guys, and nobody understands why anybody is fighting to begin with *except* that there's good and bad.

And that part of the prequel trilogy is good *because* it makes the audience question good and bad. But then; it doesn't make the audience question if what Anakin does is good or bad.

It didn't go far enough to complete the entire illustration of Anakin as being a force for good in his own mind.

The next trilogy, takes all the elements from all the media over the years and tries to take all the beat parts while writing a new story that isn't simply repeating the old canon. And it makes a lot of poignant assertions.

Ren thinks he's doing the right thing. And Stimpy, well, she's caught up in a shitty way of living after being dumped off by God knows who in God knows where to relive both Anakin and Luke's childhood's simultaneously, except without parents of any kind at all.

As if it were some sort of experiment to see if a wild child would end up civilized.

And at the end of The Most Recent Jedi, the single.most profound point is made. As Luke tries to save the force tree that is getting burned down and Yoda convinces him that it's ok to let it burn.

Luke Skywalker is the first Jedi in a long while to master both sides of the force, as visualized in the end of the movie.

A true master. But remembered only for his legend. And his Green Laser Sword thing.

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whoiwanttoday · 2 years ago

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Well guys, the Oscars are upon us. The coming days will no doubt be full of pre-party pictures, Oscars red carpet pictures, Oscars viewing party pictures, after party pictures, and so on all revolving around Hollywood's biggest award. It is a cultural event that continues to drop in the ratings and overall esteem but has an out-sized importance on the culture and the film world. It's hard to explain how something has gone from the average person going, "These are the best movies!" when I was a kid, even though they were not, to "The Oscars are a joke!" when nothing about the Oscars has much changed. It more about the pop culture landscape, as the film world narrows and grows more top heavy but also now that the internet gives more voices. It is still important in the sense that it is a bellwether of what is considered most important by the most mainstream of the film industry. It tends to always be looking back but then most things are. Anyway, the Oscars are most decidedly not the best movies of the year in my mind, as a matter of fact some of the Best Picture nominees are kind of bad actually. Not in the microbudget horror DVDs I own bad, they are competently made by professionals but also forgettable tripe that will largely just be forgotten in a decade. So here are some movies that I think are worth your time from 2022, a year that people bemoan for not being that great but that's a weird way to look at it, there were great things in this year, just not the sort of great things people are going to give a gold statue to. This list is not exhaustive nor is it ranked. I feel like ranking art is a stupid thing for stupid people. I apologize if you really like this but it strikes me as completely destructive and counter intuitive to actually enjoying art, it exists to create drama online and drive "engagement". There is a reason listicles are one of the internets most common piece of journalism in the era of click bait, they are arbitrary, a monkey can do it, and they make everyone upset so they tweet about it, thus bringing in more eyeballs and that sweet, sweet ad money. I also am not great at favorites because I find the art I like best in this moment is the one that speaks to my current mindset, that's the joy of great art, it grows with you and what you bring to it matters a great deal, it's why things shift over your lifetime. If you like listing your favorite whatever though that's great, my weird commitment issues are not your problem nor an indictment of your taste. There's a different between favorite and best I am saying. Final caveat is that I haven't seen every movie this year. I tried to see a lot, I did see a lot but you know, some stuff falls through the cracks. Or I know it's not for me so why bother? I knew I wouldn't like the Fablemens but got pressured into seeing it because it was important and you know what? It kind of sucked. A totally mediocre movie made by a great director. Who cares. So that said, the movies I saw this year that I think are of real value are as follows: Aftersun, After Yang, the Banshees of Inisherin, RRR, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Pearl, And X. Honestly, it was a strong year for horror in general and Pearl and X might not even be the best horror movies of last year but they are the most interesting and most compelling to me. Aftersun was probably my favorite movie of the year and really was magnificent top to bottom. Two strong performances and an examination of both depression and memory and how our relationships with our parents shift over our life as we can see things differently and understand them in a different light as an adult. After Yang also has a lot to do with memory and how we remember and what makes us. RRR is an amazingly fun action movie that is pure joy if you can ignore all the Hindu Nationalism and let's be honest, most of you are Americans so I bet you can. The Banshees of Inisherin is a difficult movie about a lot of things that I still think about. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a wonderfully joyful and emotional movie that manages to be hilarious, action packed, and beautiful and in a just world will win the Oscar tonight. Luckily, win or lose it's also a movie that makes us realize being a loser isn't so bad if you keep trying. So those are mine, feel free to make recommendations my direction if you want, or to talk to me about any movie you saw this year. I probably have thoughts, I am very opinionated. Anyway, getting on to my opinions, let's talk about who I want to fuck today, the main opinion that drives this blog. I am posting Mia Goth for lots of reasons but the big reason she's in my brain is we may not see her anywhere this weekend and that's a real shame because she should have been nominated for an Oscar. I will preface this by saying I don't have the same issues with a lot of the acting nominees that I do with the movies, in that it's rare to see a truly terrible performance get nominated (though there are quite a few life time achievement nominations I spy this time out) but they are often safe and predictable ones. Performances that seem to have been created to win awards rather than to illuminate and empower in the way only art can. Mia Goth hands down gave the best performance I saw last year of any woman. Her role in X was very good and you know, she played two parts and that could be seen as gimmicky. Much more of a "give me awards" sort of thing if that was the performance I wanted to talk about. It was very good, most telling to me is we are told early on in the movie her character is someone with an extra something. That is often a curse because if we don't feel it from the character then it's tell don't show and can hurt the entire thing. But by the end I got it, her character, when the spotlight is on, lights up in a way that you could just feel. So she was good in X. I am not here to talk about her in X. I am here to talk about her in Pearl which would have been an astounding character piece no matter what. It's basically all her, the movie is her and the pieces the come in and out of her orbit. They are people but for her character they are accessories. Obstacles or facilitators to her own happiness. Mia Goth played someone with some very serious mental issues and managed to make that person sympathetic and monstrous. She was a monster and I knew it but the performance was so good and so powerful you could still feel her sadness, her desperation, her need for whatever it was that was missing inside her that she just could not seem to fill with anything. That alone would have made this a really good performance. It's just that I also saw X, where she was someone so radically different if I didn't know it was the same actress I never would have guessed. Which is why Mia Goth's performance really should have gotten her award nominations but these aren't the kind of movies that get awards because these aren't the kind of movies you can brag about yourself with nearly as easily. The movie where Mia Goth fucks a scarecrow doesn't quite signal the prestige and bring about self congratulatory masturbation the way giving an award to a movie about say deaf people would. So the world is what it is but I am going to recognize her today. She is amazingly talented, I hope to watch Infinity Pool soon and I am very excited for what she has coming down the line. Oh, she also helped write Pearl, feels important to explain what a complete artist she is, she really did built the character from the ground up. Today I want to fuck Mia Goth.

#Mia Goth #blonde #Actress #whoiwanttofucktoday

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rosenlily-aka-choconut · 1 year ago

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i think the girl in the final scene was the sex worker he had gotten to know, who first dissed him and then defended him/got punished for it (i think that was what happened? again weird pacing and i don't think what i watched was the full version). i got the feeling she was inspired by beom's character's love for his girl to pull herself out of her situation and we could see that he managed to do some good in someone's life but that's just a guess.

but what i saw of their relationship seemed like a really interesting dynamic, especially contrasted to his idealistic love for the main girl, and i wished that was leaned into more. there were just so many provocative relationships going on in this movie (also with the guys he works with/ends up triumphing over in the end) that beom is 1000% capable of showing the nuances of...and he certainly tried!...if only it were better written.

i also don't know enough about film to say whether it was the direction or the cinematography that sucked but i wished it just looked as aesthetic as it was clearly attempting to be imo. part of that was probably the fact that it was made in 2009 but also if you're trying to make an art house style film, the production team could have tried a little harder.

i hope beom would take a role like this now since he seems to have tended away from movies/melodramatic plots like this but who knows? i just hope he announces a new project soon.

let me know how you're enjoying dream! i'm still on a hunt to find psychometry/gifted hands since i saw park sungwoong is also in it and i've become a fan of his too after hidden identity.

finally, have you seen east of eden?

--kbcu anon

Hmm… though I still don’t understand the significance of the (creepy) smile the tattoo-girl had for the camera in the end. But… that’s one of my milder complaints with the movie that could’ve been a masterpiece if well done. As for him falling so head over heals for the girl - why? That romance, to be honest, felt unrealistic. No guy would invest all he has for a girl he’s spent so little time with. Maybe if they had spent time building that love story, it might have been convincing.

I think I did watch the full version because it had the credits rolling after a flashback scene of happier times of the couple enjoying on the beach. You know, I don’t think 2009 is the problem here. The movie I compared it to came in the 90s and it was brilliantly done! This could’ve been at that level but… we got what we got.

I hope someone would give him such a project again - he’ll knock it out of the park with his talent and screen presence. I’m hoping those rumours about the Indonesian movie he’s being mentioned in context with, is true. That is one character I’m pretty sure he’ll do well.

I’m still waiting for that Enemies-to-lovers thing - something similar to Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. Rang has a lot of Jaime’s personality traits and I can bet all my money that Beom would give us something to remember for long. K-drama showrunners, are you listening?

Dream is mediocre - I’ll be honest. Nothing is keeping me going except Beom and even he’s average in that role. But, as always, his smile lights up the screen and Im not expecting more than that. There’s an unnecessary love triangle with a lacklustre FL (the only actress probably Beom doesn’t have chemistry with) and I’m okay with the way it is resolved.

I am yet to watch Psychometry - waiting for the right day and the right mood for it. I read up long back on East of Eden and… it’s not my cup of tea. Though Beom has been praised a lot for his short appearance. Have you watched it? Is it worth?

How about Law school? Did you decide to watch it or not?

#kim bum #kim beom

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yagodichjagodic · 1 year ago

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If you’ve followed me for any period of time then you know I have a shop. I make horror, kpop, & film inspired art/jewelry/plant accessories. I'm also queer AF & it isn't something I hide. 2023 has been a super rough year for me (for a lot of reasons), but struggling with my sense of self & my art has been overwhelmingly prevalent.

I'm trying very hard to work on my mental health, & just myself overall, so I decided to try vending again. I thought the place I chose was a safe call. It was a local artist flea that I used to do monthly, but hadn't been to in a year & a half.

My anxiety had been getting worse & worse leading up to the event (which was yesterday), but I worked through it as best I could because I didn't want to bail & get black-listed as an unreliable vendor.

A few hours into the event an older guy (late 50's early 60's) came up & started to look at my work. The first thing he saw were two clay heart necklaces. They featured sculpted eyes painted with rainbows & he says, "I don't drink bud light anymore."

I didn't understand what he was saying at first, or why....but then I saw what he was looking at & put two & two together. In retrospect, I think he was even waiting for my reaction. I asked if it was because of Dylan Mulvaney....I was still honestly unsure what was going on in this conversation. I feel really stupid looking back on it.

From there he started off on a really insulting & cruel tirade about LGBTQIA+ individuals. I was still trying to be a professional, & counter what he was saying, but I forgot how people like that really are. At one point he started yelling that I was offended too easily & how woke he was because he had a gay daughter. I just remember feeling so fucking bad for her if that was true. Like this overwhelming sadness came over me.

At this point I was starting to cry. I was angry, frustrated, & incredibly sad...& when I get that way, I cry. I felt so fucking stupid. Still kind of do if I'm being honest. This was the moment when I told him he needed to leave my booth. I was still polite (which I wish I hadn't been), but other vendors & people shopping were paying attention & watching now.

He refused to leave & I just kept saying, 'Sir, you need to leave my booth." Then he started yelling & making personal insults about me. So I started shouting back to get out of my booth. Finally he walked away, but not before screaming at me not to follow him, as if that was the issue when he was the one who wouldn't leave!

It was then that I had the opportunity to really look around & see that the vendor across the aisle from me had stepped up & was making sure he left my booth, & his partner who had been elsewhere while this happened (only catching the tail end) rushed over to check on me. I appreciated that immensely, she talked me into staying the rest of the day & checked on me throughout

But the thing that isn't sitting well with me is that the organizers of the event (who were only two tents away from me) just watched all this happen & didn't do anything...they didn't even make him leave. They just let him continue on through the rest of the flea.

Eventually one of them came over & mentioned how he must have been looking for a fight. When he came in the entrance he said, "I hate Harrisburg, I don't know when I even came to this fucking thing." & then walked in...

This whole situation is really messing with me mentally. The things that he said to me, the fact that arguably the most 'inclusive' & 'progressive' art market in the area did nothing to protect me or even ask that guy to leave. It makes me feel really fucking worthless.

I've been struggling so hard with that these last few months, feeling like I, or my art, has any value. I'm also in the nightmare process of adjusting my meds, have been since February. I'm just trying so fucking hard to work on myself & make things better, but it feels like I get knocked down at every turn.

I just needed to share this some place. All of this. I can't say anything on IG because I'm not trying to cause any kind of issues or 'dox' anyone associated with the market I vended at. I just needed to put all of this out there...& tumblr feels safe to me.

I just feel so invisible & worthless anymore. My art feels pointless, I feel pointless. Like, why would anyone protect me or care about me?

I really don't know why I keep trying...but thank you for listening.

#personal #the idol collective #lgbtqia #queer artist

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hotfuzy · 2 years ago

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LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (2021) - a movie that sits as bad with me as ‘promising young woman’

i really do not understand what they wanted to do with this movie, and the fact that I was so excited and hyped for this film as it continued on, to have my face completely drop as the last half an hour pulled through. that is shit, that is pathetic and pointless filmmaking.

(i felt this film very personally)

some positives were the cinematography, the music, colour works and a few on the actors doing an ok job within the film. the beginning and first half had me relatively gripped, the faceless men were terrifying and the obvious target towards of the nastiness of london street life in the 60s was interesting, compelling and made the viewer want that justice, want to find out what happened to sandie. the negatives were the majority of the acting was awkward, forced, the love interest was the weirdest character i have ever seen, his speech, his actions, what?? the bullying which added nothing to the movie and felt so forced that it was ridiculous. the plot holes as the ending began pulling up.

i dont exactly know how to word it all, but the scene where the main character is reaching for the phone, and all of the terrifying men turn into these ‘helpless’ ‘scared looking men, was the worse scene in the entire film. although a few seconds later they tried to pull back and make sandie the victim again, i dont think they could undo what was done. why? why for a moment make these men look like helpless. yes. murder is not always right, especially if the prostitution of herself was ‘consensual’ (despite being forced by matt smith), but why try and make these men who knew exactly what she was, exactly her situation, look like these helpless men who were destroyed by this monster woman.

i cant exactly word this how i want, i just dont know why they suddenly made sandie this villain, this evil woman that the random cop guy (weird character btw, hate that obvious suspicious guy being fucking not who we thought, its such a pathetic TROPE BRO) told us she ‘wasn’t as it seemed’.

why? why couldn’t this be the story of a girl finding out the horrors of sandie trying to get into fame in the 60s, and the lack of justice and suffering that she had to go through. Using her fashion she could of talked about these issues, shed light on the death of sandie and it could of being such a powerful work of freaking art. why why why do they try and push it further. to make it worse. it just ruined everything for me and it really hurt my damn feelings. im getting tired now so cant add much more, just frustrating, especially with edgar wright, this film could of been so special! fuck you guys

(sorry this is convoluted i do not remember any names and also tired af)

#last night in soho #movie review

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josiebelladonna · 1 year ago

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dodgers lost (feeling teababe right now with the mets sucking eggs, too. ugh)

formula 1 is not what it used to be, when i was a kid. holy fuck. (dude, i remember there was a time red bull were like the bad boys of the grid, seb and dan with mark webber)

i’m not really into spiderman (i can give credit where it’s due, like i can tell from a distance the art direction is stellar), and aside from asteroid city and oppenheimer, there’s not really anything film-wise that’s catching my eye (we called it when we said it’s going to be hard to top bob’s burgers and top gun)—yeah, i really don’t have any desire to see the barbie movie. something like that, that’s hyped to the moon, usually never turns out that good. i figured that one out from all the hype surrounding twilight and those movies, in comparison to the books, kinda sucked. and can we please put harry potter to rest already. for the love of god, people, we’ve been riding this magic wand since 1997, it’s time to move on.

the man of my dreams is dating a racist kinda terf-y (?!) neurotic supercilious snob—she also strikes me as very controlling. it’s hard to explain, but when i think to that last week before he came back, i only saw him once on ig, and it was like a “here and gone” sort of thing and i know for an absolute fact it was because of her, just from watching his behavior when she’s around. their relationship gives me codependent vibes, too; again, hard to explain but… “without whom, it would have been unimaginable”. without *her, alex—i was never a grammar nut but even i know that; kind of embarrassing when you think about it, as a badass published writer—and it gets so damn greasy when you think about my leaving my porch light on for him, rain or shine, no matter where he is. plus, you have tayva martinez and i both telling to take time to himself in that time away—it just feels like codependency even though they don’t live… together. the fuck. yes, if nothing else, she’s a snob. like whoop-de-freaking-do, you got a dickload of degrees, meanwhile actually brilliant doctorates are on welfare and in debt for life because theirs are useless and are glaring at your business, which i feel like was started through some money-laundering scheme (you can’t trust people like that anymore), hoping it goes under. and now. his beautiful body is wilting like a sick plant and his personality is a complete husk of what it used to be… and there’s nothing i can do, even though i desperately want to. really, i want to cry when i think about it. it’s about as unfair as losing chris. if i could, at the least, send him like a care package or something (a little box filled with art, something i crocheted because i got into crocheting last year, and maybe some candy, too), i would in a heartbeat. he’s too sweet and too precious of a human to be with a piece of work like that. he’s just… he’s a good guy. he’s a good guy. you don’t come across good guys all too often. good guys need to be protected and cherished. not saying i know what’s good for him, but he deserves better. i said what i said, alex, and i’m sorry ahead of time (in fact, you have every right to tell me to fuck off). hey, you said it yourself: you appreciate sincerity, i’m being sincere right now. there’s nothing sincere about using the word “gipsy” for any goddamn reason, especially out of irony (like i said, it may as well be the n-word).

i got my fics and my art (and there’s a lot of great music coming out right now, too, i mean… foo fighters, avenged sevenfold, queens of the stone age, blur, and pj harvey over the course of a month? i’m not worthy, man), my fantasy world, my wonderland, but. god. what the hell else do you do at a time like this, when everything you love is going to shit and everything new is lackluster.

#it really is 2007 again #i remember that was a great year for rock n roll too; and there was a writer’s strike!#text

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tin-tweezers · 2 years ago

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This fits so well into the series’ ongoing critique of empire.

Imagine: You’re a poor kid in a backwater region. You have no money, you have no opportunities, you’re told you’re a burden to society, the clothes on your back and the food you eat have been resentfully bestowed by your social betters.

How do you get out? You join the military.

Hiding the rest beneath the cut, because this got long.

In America, joining the military means you get money, healthcare for you and your family, assistance buying a house, a subsidy for a college education, a chance to see the world. When you ship out, your town installs banners on the street lights with your face, name and an American flag in the backdrop. And if you live in an American territorial holding (Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, all the others) the military is by far the best pathway to citizenship. You don’t even need to be a permanent resident. If you want to vote for the president who sends you off to war, you have to join the war. Your body is the collateral that jumps you to the front of the line.

(Here’s a poem about it by afakasi Samoan poet William Nu’utupu Giles.)

The thing is, you might not survive to reap the military’s benefits. You might die - and even if you do make it back alive, you might be different. There was a guy in my high school, we’ll call him Prince. He was an asshole - he bullied smaller kids, skipped class, homophobic comments. I lost track of him after graduation - I had shit to do and also wanted to get as far away from that place as possible.

Five years later, I see Prince on the MetroNorth commuter train platform, and almost don’t recognize him. His hair was short, because he seemed smaller, held himself more still than the aggressive kid I graduated with. I called his name, because I was far enough away from high school now that it didn’t hurt as much. When he turned and walked over, he had a limp. A really bad one. I asked him what he’d been doing since graduation and he told me he’d joined the Marines.

I, queer artist and budding socialist, neutrally asked him how that was going. First, he shrugged and showed me his leg. I awkwardly nodded and asked, “How did that happen?”

“It was shrapnel. It killed my best friend.” No preamble. He was on convalescent leave, visiting his family.

We got on the train together and he showed me some videos of the chopper he and his division manned on his phone. I told him a bit about my life, how I’d been to art school and how I was freelancing in the film industry. In my memory, he listens politely but we don’t really have much to say to one another because our lives are different now. And we weren’t friends in high school, so we didn’t have the good old days to fall back on. But, I don’t actually remember how we acted after that initial surprise. Maybe it was awkward, or it could very well be me projecting in hindsight.

We arrived in Grand Central and parted ways at the clock. I gave him a hug, and headed off towards the subway downtown (I had a gallery opening to go to.)

I realized later that my awkwardness stemmed from the fact that I had no military family members, or friends, or colleagues. Not even acquaintances. My long-dead grandfather had been an engineer in WW2 - after that, he got a full time at Bell Labs and helped design communications satellites. Never left, and never spoke about the war around me when I was little.

I mentioned that disconnect to a friend later, who grew up in rural Wisconsin. “Well, of course you didn’t have any friends in the military. Your family’s rich.” I didn’t think of us as rich, but I suppose we were rich enough that no one we knew enlisted. While I had never noticed, it was quite obvious to her.

I don’t know what happened to Prince after we met on the train. I’ve met other veterans since then, of course. Some of them had very nice houses paid for the GI bill, one became a playwright I worked with on a project, one lived in public housing and begged for food on the street in a wheelchair. (I never talked to that last guy, Ed, until my working class Trinidadian friend brought him coffee on one of our walks. After that, I said hello whenever I went by, and he talked about losing his legs in Vietnam.) As for the others, the ex-Navy Seal with the big GI Bill house in Florida flinched at loud noises, and the playwright writes about PTSD.

Anyway. That idea in The Locked Tomb, of sending your kid off to war so they escape the cycle of abuse/disenfranchisement/poverty? And having them come back different? Dead, even? And of course, Aiglamene herself has a wartime injury. Permanently disabled, invalided home. She still knows the Cohort is the only way out for Gideon Nav.

Sure makes you think.

thinking about Aiglamene. Like, so

a child crash lands in town. mystery where she came from. the mother is dead. this tiny redheaded thing has no one in the world. the town takes her in because what else are you supposed to do with a orphan dropped on your doorstep, but they don’t love her. the reverend family needs an heir, so they kill every single child on the planet- wait, scratch that, all but one. this one kid is alive, she’s alive, against all odds. so naturally, everyone’s scared of her. everyone hates her. out of all the children to survive why was it the one no one cared about. but they move on, everyone does, and the kid grows. and she starts asking questions. you start answering them. you start telling her stories, and it’s nice to be listened to, even if the kid is just a twerp. you start teaching her, she’s a natural with a sword, but you don’t tell her because it’ll go to her head. you’ve never had a maternal bone in your body, you aren’t mothering her… but she’s got nobody. and neither do you. you train her, you teach her, you tell her she can get out, get free from this place, if she works hard enough, fights good enough. she works hard. she fights well, better than you ever did at her age. she tries to get out. she gets caught. she tries again. and again. and again. and eventually, there’s a chance, a real chance. you’re the only person in the world who could get through this kid’s thick skull, and you tell her: this is your chance, this is it, you’re getting out, you’re leaving me, you’re never coming back, you’ve going to live, you have to get out now. and she goes. she goes, and she doesn’t come back. she doesn’t come back, and then she does… and she’s dead. she’s dead, and she’s back, the two things you prayed wouldn’t happen. she’s back and she’s dead and this is your child, you raised her, and you sent her off, promising a bright future, and it killed her.

#tamsyn muir #is very smart #and she knows what she is doing #gideon nav #aiglamene #tlt #Gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #harrow the ninth #Nona the ninth #the cohort #militarism #military #empire

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back-and-totheleft · 2 months ago

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INTERVIEW: OLIVER & SEAN STONE (ALEXANDER REVISITED)

Q: When we talked to you during the junket for the theatrical release of Alexander, you weren’t a fan of the DVD format. Have your feelings changed now that DVD has allowed you to do several cuts of your movie?

Oliver Stone: Yes. DVD gave me a creative freedom I’ve never had before. This was an unrated three-hour-forty-five-minute cut, which would’ve been unacceptable in theatrical exhibition terms. They just don’t do it anymore. I grew up in the 1950s, and we had roadshows all the time. And the intermission aspect of it was like theater today; if you have an Act One, Two and Three, you can get out in the middle, take a breather, and think about what you’ve seen. That was the right length to this movie. It always was. It was in the script. Unfortunately, I didn’t [initially] see it quite that way; I was arbitrarily trying to make this movie three hours or less. So, as you know, I made two cuts of it. About two-and-a-half years after the film was released was when I worked on this – during the editing of World Trade Center. And I was finally able to come to peace with myself, letting the whole script express itself. It has a different pace, this film; the emotions come out differently. And the intermission comes at the right spot: it comes when Ptolemy and Alexander are in the mountains and deciding to go into India, and Alexander says, "We must make an end; we must find an end." It just has the right feel for me.

Q: Is this really the "Final Cut"?

Oliver: Yeah, I can’t do anything more. This is it. (Laughter)

Q: It’s just that you didn’t refer to this as your cut.

Oliver: I didn’t even bother. I called the second one the "Director’s Cut" because I thought that would be the end, but, in fact, two-and-a-half years later, I would call this "Revisited". But this is it. I promise you I won’t be back. (Laughter) All the footage is here, and this is the film I’m happiest with. DVD does give you that, and although I may have disparaged the idea that people are looking at films on smaller and smaller screens… it’s a shame that people have to watch DVDs with the lights on in a television-type situation where people are wandering in and out of the room. Movies are different from television, and you cannot watch movies like television. It distorts it.

Q: You mentioned the old road shows, and the way that these films used to play – like David Lean films. And in the documentary, Sean mentions that you had to pull Alexander together in less than ninety days. I know David Lean had a lot longer to make Lawrence of Arabia, and, yet, this film strives for that scale. When you have that limited amount of time, how do you bring all of these elements together to make something that is as big, hopefully, as Lawrence of Arabia?

Oliver: You can’t do it anymore. I think Ridley Scott is the perfect example, with Kingdom of Heaven and Blade Runner. He wanted to make more ambitious films, and he finally got the chance with DVD. I don’t know how, because exhibitors have cut it off. They have to make so many shows a day, it’s impossible to sell a three-hour forty-minute movie. I could never have gotten this through the system; it would’ve been a scandal. I have thought of alternative scenarios. Since you guys are mostly buffs, I would say to you that if I had had the guts, which I don’t think I had, I would’ve released a three-hour forty-five-minute cut in Europe. They probably would’ve done it. Remember, we were truly an independent film; we were financed essentially from Europe, an English-French co-production. I probably would’ve released this version in Europe and given it Warner Brothers, and they would’ve probably cut it. It would’ve been the typical Sergio Leone scandal, and I don’t think I’d be here right now. (Laughter) It’s just this system. You live in this system.

Q: Since this is an art form that costs millions and millions of dollars, what does an artist do?

Oliver: You can’t make big movies. You have to make smaller movies. You can’t take on Alexander unless you figure out a way to do it for less than three hours – which is possible. I couldn’t do it that way. Honestly, it does cut down your ambitions. Because some movies do take longer. There is a breadth to them.

Q: Does that mean that in the future you would won’t go for that kind of scale, or that you’ll look for other options?

Oliver: If seventy–five percent of the revenue is coming through DVD, you have to assume that there is a possibility of doing this, but you have to do it for DVD – unless an occasional theatrical would break through. But I don’t see that happening because who would put up the money for these kinds of things unless DVD becomes highly profitable?

Q: Would you be able to live with compromising for the theatrical release knowing that you’ll get your Director’s Cut somewhere down the line?

Oliver: That’s a very good question. You don’t set out to do a DVD cut and a theatrical cut, but perhaps because of the nature of circumstances, now we have to think that way. But, no, I would go for the best on theatrical.

I had a very short [production period on Alexander]. There are two versions of this story, but David Lean [said] he did not start cutting [Lawrence of Arabia] until it was over. In other versions, it was cut during. But, honestly, when we finished this thing, we had four or five months to get ready for mix, and that was too short a time. And it was my fault. I thought I could pull it off, but I just couldn’t. I mean, I was happy with the film theatrically; I wouldn’t have released it otherwise. But it would’ve been a huge scandal to pull out [of the release date]. Marty Scorsese had done it two years before with Gangs of New York. He did take that extra year, but that was a different situation; we didn’t have the money to do that because of the interest rate. It would’ve been an enormous problem for us, so we had to get it out.

Q: Did you see Sean’s documentary before it was approved for the DVD? At times, it’s not a flattering picture of what filmmaking is like.

Oliver: Sean was courteous enough to show it to me before, and I made some suggestions, but only for filmmaking reasons. I was embarrassed about some things in it, but I said, "Fuck it! I’m going down anyway with this movie. I might as well tape the whole thing." (Laughter) It wasn’t very flattering at times, but there was a special moment in our relationship because he was coming of age. And it was the first time we really had truly spent time together in a working environment over a long period of time, which was very good for him to see and for me to bond with him. He was shooting at weird times, but he was my son. Had it been a documentary crew, it would’ve been more difficult for me. He was in the hotel room, and on the way to the set, on the way back from the set… I mean, these are key moments for a director to say things they wouldn’t normally say.

Sean: I’m curious as to what you’re thinking of when you say "more embarrassing" or "private" things. There’s the aspect of the budget and producers, but from [Oliver’s] point of view I don’t see why that would hurt at all, because it only helps the audience understand what kind of pressure the director is under. That was the intention behind most of that: understanding what this project means, how big it is, how much money, how many people are working on it, and what’s on the line. You can understand the process better by this.

Then there was the personal aspect, which is the father-son relationship, which is what we were exploring towards the end. Actually, he incited it; he was the one who encouraged me to put the camera more on myself and introduce myself as a character. Initially, it was just going to be about him, purely as a portrait of a director.

Q: Oliver, there are some scenes with you going back and forth with the producers over money. Is that a variation of a conversation that happens on every movie?

Oliver: Oh, definitely. I would say it’s even more intense. I’m glad he caught that scene because we’ve had several conversations like that. I happened to have a great producer on this show: Moritz Borman. He was truly an independent. And the fact that we had French and German partners gave me… when Warners saw the first and second [theatrical] cuts, they would’ve cut all references to sexuality and all of the gorier stuff. All of the primitive warfare that you just saw, they would’ve cut that. They would’ve probably simplified the story enormously; the eunuch would’ve been gone. It was a very tough one to get through.

Q: Those cuts would be for getting the proper rating?

Oliver: No, we knew we were in for an R-rating. It was just to avoid an NC-17, but I think we got through that, Rosario Dawson withstanding. (Laughs) The eunuch was the biggest problem, I think, in terms of sexuality; the fact that he was a military commander who had Greek proclivities was not easy, because that’s not the way Americans like to think of military people. But the eunuch was a real hang-up. He was chopped out of the theatrical version. And I’m glad he’s back because he brings a humanity to Alexander when he’s dying; you see the emotions in the eunuch’s face. That’s part of allowing the emotions to play themselves out.

Q: Do you think production documentaries take on the face of the film that they’re talking about naturally? Or was that something created in the editing room?

Sean: The only thing I had as a model was the Apocalypse Now piece, Hearts of Darkness, which was very well done. It really gives you a sense of what that shoot must’ve been like, how hellish it was. And then, of course, I liked Lost in La Mancha. But, when I went into it, there wasn’t much that I was working with as a model; it was something where I shot everything over eighty-something days with 100 hours of material. I didn’t really know what I was doing. (Laughs) I didn’t catalogue it, so at the end I come back to it and I start working with an editor, and we just had to go through it. We had to watch and categorize all the interviews we had, and the material we had. Out of that, you kind of start to build a story. He often was saying, "Why don’t you shoot the clock, and pay attention to the time, and do a day in the life of a filmmaker and how stressful that is?" Well, I didn’t want to do just one day. I had so much material, and nothing that just added up to one day. So it was trying to do a metaphor by using three or four different locations, and giving you an impression of arriving on the set in the morning time, the slow build-up. And then how you get through one day, and then will be in the editing room until ten or eleven at night. You really don’t sleep much. You get home for like six or seven hours, and then you’re back out to the set. Some of those days you really did finish at five in the morning. It was insane.

Q: How inviting was the cast and crew to your filming? We see one moment where Colin says, "Fuck off with your documentary bollocks!"

Sean: Colin was great, actually. That was a joke for him. It wasn’t intended to be nasty. That’s just his humor. But when [Oliver] was dealing with actors, I didn’t want to intertwine into that relationship that he had going, so I would try to stand back and get some audio bytes if I could. But mostly I respected that distance. I would take the actors separately, approach them, start a conversation, and just deal with them independently. Angelina, for example, made sure I made an appointment for the interview with her because she has her own PR people and a lot of security. Val Kilmer I’ve known since I was seven, with The Doors, and he was just great joking around all the time. But because I was [Oliver’s] son, and I was there every day, you do break down the barriers.

Q: Oliver, is it difficult to direct when you have cameras lingering around? It was obviously more impersonal when you had to contend with EPK (Electronic Press Kit) crews.

Oliver: It’s very difficult, talking to actors especially. It’s the most personal stuff. Each actor requires a different language. It’s very personal. It’s like sex; sometimes you don’t want to be filmed doing that. But if anybody is going to do it, I think your son… and I had committed to the idea that he was going to work with me. He started as a soldier in the phalanx, actually, and after doing that for a few days, he switched over. Then he was behind camera. As I said, I committed to being honest. He may have cut out some stuff that may have embarrassed me.

Q: Was the presence of the cameras ever irritating?

Oliver: There were times I was irritated, yes. Things would not go well, you know. But, as I said, it was a warts-and-all kind of thing. I knew this project was going to be a tough one, and that the chances of its success would be very tough. So if you’re going to sink, you might as well go down in all its glory.

Q: How do you split your time between the tent (Stone sets up his video village, a bank of monitors where the director watches each take via video, under a big black tarp) and talking to the actors?

Oliver: I balance it out. When the take is done, I’m out there mixing it up. I keep a hands-on relationship. I don’t want to make it remote. If anything, it’s very touch-and-feel, like looking in the face of the actor. But the tent is crucial because it’s an objective perception. And I had many cameras, too, so I had to look at various cameras. But it’s a way to really concentrate because the one thing you lose on the set is the script. The script is the bible. What is your original intention in this chaos, this puree, this noise, this money, all of the thousands of issues of everyday. You often lose sight of what was the original intention. And having worked on the script so hard… every time we would roll, I would basically have the script in front of me. And when I was in doubt, I would look at the line and try to remember the moment of the writing. That helps to balance out the madness. That’s why [the tent] exists: you need a sacred place. If you’re out there all the time in the noise with horses and elephants and dust, you become so externalized that you lose your internal.

Q: When do you feel you’re at your best on set, and when do you feel you’re at your worst?

Oliver: I’m at my most when I arrive. (Laughs) It’s hardest when you arrive because so much has to happen. And I think I’m at my best towards the end as I’m getting it. When you’re getting it, you really feel it. Sometimes you get the essence of the day in the late morning, and sometimes you don’t get it until after lunch. But the important thing is to get it. If you feel you don’t get it, that’s really frustrating.

Q: At the beginning of the documentary, Sean talks about how you were so prolific as a director during his childhood. You were making films at a year clip. In 1991, you had two films come out: The Doors and JFK. You were a machine in the sense that you were really locked-in. And with every film, there was a certain expectation: when you went to see an Oliver Stone film, you knew you were getting a certain kind of experience, what with Robert Richardson as your cinematographer, and the use of different film stocks and so on. Finally, in 1997, with U-Turn, you shifted gears. Was it that you got bored, or that you had exhausted that style of working and that you had to pull back?

Oliver: I think the latter would be the case. U-Turn was the eleventh film in twelve years. But it was ten films in ten years [from Salvador to Nixon]. We had worked at a pace that was incredible. I mean, one film a year of that size, that energy – and you can imagine the details that went into those films. They were huge films. They were muscular and big. And I do think we reached a natural exhaustion point. And then, in 1996, I edited a novel I had written earlier [A Child’s Night Dream]. I really worked on the novel; I went back to writing. U-Turn was a smaller film done with a smaller budget; it was done quicker. So I was tired. Then, when I did Any Given Sunday, I re-exhausted myself again, because that was probably one of the most difficult experiences, having to stage those football games. And then Alexander, with the documentaries in between. The pace has let up, but the intensity has not. And, actually, World Trade Center was exhausting. There was so much dust, and to shoot in those conditions, that was physically exhausting to all of us. So I’d love to do a little drawing room drama. I’d love to do Gosford Park. (Laughter)

Q: Around the time JFK came out, you became the go-to guy for conspiracy theories. I’m sure you must have some opinions about what’s going on now. (There’s laughter, as well as an audible groan from one of the publicists.)

Oliver: Listen, I think the obvious has been missed, which is that the conspiracy these days has been so overt. You don’t need to hide it. There’s no need for covertness. If the President of the United States has been caught leading us into a war under false circumstances and everyone knows about it, that is a conspiracy. And no one seems to have impeached him for it.

Q: But we really need our agitators at this point. I think it’s interesting that you’re going to do Pinkville next, which is about the My Lai Massacre, and here we have another filmmaker of your generation, Brian De Palma, who’s doing a film about Iraq [Redacted]. I think it’s interesting that… it seems like you might want to attack what’s going on right now by going back to what you know best and what you’ve done best. Is that what you’re doing with Pinkville?

Oliver: I’m not going back to Vietnam per se; I’m going back because it’s a hell of a script [written by Mikko Alanne]. In 2001, it came in, and we worked on it. It’s more like JFK in that it’s an investigation of how things get covered up. I think that’s an old fashioned genre. In a sense, it’s a crime thriller, because a crime happens but it’s covered up, and it takes the tenacity and the veracity of two, three, four… actually, more men, but two main men to really uncover this crime. Because it was buried. People forget that My Lai did not come out for a year-and-a-half, and it was only in dribbles and drabbles. I didn’t even know as a soldier what exactly had happened until I read Alanne’s script in 2001. So the full implications of it, people still don’t remember. And certainly the new generation doesn’t remember. I think there is an historical obligation to remember. If we don’t remember, we’re really fucked.

Q: You still bounce back-and-forth between directing other peoples’ work and writing your own scripts. How does that work?

Oliver: When I’m working with another writer, I tend to make a lot of effort. When I collaborate with a writer, I’m not interested in credit, but I’m feeding him stuff all the time that I feel is important to shaping the script. We’ve been working very hard on Pinkville. We’ve had about eight drafts since 2001.

Q: Many people stop being writer-directors at a certain point and just become directors. Could you see yourself doing that?

Oliver: No. I love the act of writing. I like the quiet, internal aspect of it. If I lost track of that, I couldn’t direct the same way. I couldn’t be a director for-hire; it’s just not my nature. (Pause) I take that back, because you’re going to catch me one day. (Laughter) If there was a script that fit my sensibility to a T, I would take it and I wouldn’t change a word. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Q: We talked to Shekhar Kapur yesterday for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and he was asked if there were parallels to contemporary issues. He said, "Of course, there is. Otherwise, what’s the point of making the movie?" Do you agree with that?

Oliver: I think we can only see the past through the conditions we live in in the present. Therefore, we’re conditioned. The past assumes the nature of the present. Certainly, Elizabeth means something to Shekhar Kapur in terms of today. We’ll see what it means when I see the movie. I’m a history person; I love history, so I don’t look for that necessarily. But I am conditioned by the present.

Q: Have you every thought about looking forward? Have you ever thought about doing a film depicting where you think society is headed?

Oliver: I’ve tried. I’ve developed several sci-fi projects over the years. I wrote The Demolished Man years ago. I wrote Conan the Barbarian as a sci-fi. But I’ve never been happy enough to make [that kind of] film. It’s a high-level field; you’re going into Kubrick-land, Ridley Scott… there have been some great sci-fi films, and I don’t want to make a half-assed film. It’s not my area of expertise. But that’s not to say it won’t change. I will say, in answer to your question, that the reason for Alexander… is that Alexander is one of the greatest inspirations. He’s an example to the youth of today – of leadership, of guts, of bravery, of following your dream. True, at the same time, with inspiration there is also misery and suffering and burden that he had from his youth. But I wanted to show the young generation that there are heroes; there are people who can change the course of history – for better or for worse. In Alexander’s case, it’s one of the greatest models, and I think we’ve forgotten that – especially in America. They know Alexander much better abroad. We did much better in Japan. (Laughs)

Q: Looking at the full range of your films, all of your protagonists have something in common with Alexander, whether they’re charismatic and self-destructive, or going up against impossible odds. Do you think this is an outgrowth of your interest in Alexander, or is he just another character in that line?

Oliver: I would say that Alexander was in that line of people; otherwise, I wouldn’t have focused my life around Alexander. As a young man, I read Mary Renault’s books, and they much moved me. And then I read Robin Lane Fox’s great biography from 1972, which gives you a very Western-oriented overview of it. Alexander is a prototype. You realize that when he went to the East with this size Army, no one had done that. All the Greek mythic heroes had gone east, but they were myths. Achilles was a myth. Perseus, Theseus, Hercules… they probably existed in some form. But they all went east. That’s where a Greek went to make his bones so to speak. And Alexander was the first man who actually went east not to plunder, not to loot and come back to Greece – which is where the Macedonians wanted to go back with the money. He stayed. And he became half-Eastern. That was the interesting thing about his journey. It wasn’t like "Let’s get out of Iraq." He went over there to stay. He probably didn’t know that at the beginning, but there was something that chased him out of Greece. I hypothesized some of it had to do with his mother. Why didn’t he ever bring his mother out to see him? It beats me. But I’m fascinated by the idea of this man. He did something that no one’s ever really done before. Even the Mongols went home.

Q: There’s a quote in the documentary: "Perfection is the enemy of good." I’m wondering if you can elaborate on that. And did you always feel that way, or did it take you some time to come to that conclusion?

Oliver: That’s my personal idiosyncrasy. It’s a French expression. Perfection is the enemy of good. You do hear of these cases of the Kubricks of the world who do take after take in search of perfection, but I think that’s an illusion. I really do think that it’s subjective. The kinds of films I’m making, which are fairly large and ambitious… and they’re controversial, and you can’t get a lot of money to make them. I say you have to settle. Get the overall. Some of my films may have been crude at times, or tough, or missed the points, but I’ve tried to get the overall in. I think that’s more important. You may miss a thing or two, but you move faster. If you can do it in three takes, do it in three takes.

There’s the great story with John Huston and Jack Nicholson, where he said to Nicholson, "You got one take." And he didn’t believe him. But he actually did have one take, and he got it right. I’ve been on sets as a writer before where actors would warm up with the first take. I don’t believe that. I think you should do rehearsal and work at it, but when the camera rolls, you should be ready. I think Clint Eastwood would agree. Try to make it good the first time.

Q: The Hand is coming out on DVD in a couple of weeks. Have you looked at it? Is there anything different about it?

Oliver: No. That was an early work. It’s flawed. But the last time I saw it a year-and-a-half ago, I thought some of the dialogue was really good. And the story is based on a good thriller. Michael Caine’s performance in interesting. It’s a strange movie; it’s an uncomfortable blend between the psychological and the horror. I was pressed to put more horror in there. I was a young filmmaker, and I had a good dose of studio pressure there.

Q: As an experienced filmmaker, do you think, "Hey, there’s some good stuff in there," or do you obsess on the mistakes?

Oliver: I see the mistakes, yeah. But I think there’s some very good stuff. It did take a beating. I did not work as a director for four or five years until Salvador, and I had to do that off-lot with British [producers]. I suffered for that film. But it did make money, ultimately, for Warners.

Q: You talk about how you knew you were going down with Alexander. At what point of the production did you feel that, and how did you then rear your shoulders up and keep going?

Oliver: You know, I felt the same thing on JFK: that this was going to be the end of me. I really did. It was another three hour-plus movie, the dialogue was cerebral, there was enormous amounts of difficulty, it was a complex screenplay and a very complex edit. I didn’t think it would make it, and I was amazed when it did. It resounded as it went around the world. JFK was a huge hit. So I guess that emboldened me to keep going, but I knew that one day I would come to this point that I would make something so outrageous and so ambitious that… it’d be that Don Quixote feeling, that I’d have to tilt at a windmill. Sometimes you’ve got to do it. That’s the only way you can do things.

Nixon was a setback for me financially, far worse than Alexander. Alexander did well abroad, and will make money for its participants. Warner Brothers is doing well with it on DVD. But Nixon was the biggest setback; we spent $42 million, I think, and we grossed $13 million. I love that movie; it’s one of the most ambitious I’ve made on the political scene. But it just did not take. I guess the character of Nixon was not attractive to American people or foreign people. That was the worst setback. But people who write about the setback of Alexander are wrong. My worst period was Nixon, Heaven and Earth and U-Turn. Those were the three least performing pictures I directed.

Q: Sean, my favorite part of the documentary is when you confront your father with what the critics have said about him – in particular, the charge of heavy-handedness. How did you work up to that? Was there some trepidation there?

Sean: No, I think that was one of the first questions I asked. (Laughter) It’s important to have a good ongoing dialogue, and [Oliver’s] never been shy about hiding things from me or talking to me about those things. Honestly, I think it was one of the first things we were talking about. It’s one of the things critics do reference: heavy-handedness. Aside from the conspiracy theorist thing, which sort of gets thrown as a jab.

Q: Oliver, how do you draw the line between being an artist and a businessman?

Oliver: I think you can maintain two tracks. I think you have to. That’s what this kind of filmmaking is about. If you’re not aware of the limitations of what you’re up against… it’s like a general: you have to know your artillery and you have to know your infantry. You have to know what you have. You have to marshal your forces and use them well. It comes down to the personal and the intimate, but at the same time you have to have the big picture.

Q: Given the television landscape today, is there anything you’ve thought about developing for maybe HBO or F/X?

Oliver: I produced films for television, including Wild Palms for ABC back in 1993, which was pretty advanced for its age. But I would work in television if I had no choice. It’s not a hot medium. It’s a cool medium: people walking out of the room, the lights are on, your wife or husband is talking, your kid is talking. It’s mind-boggling. It’s a medium in which you can miss something and come back to it. But film… I make my films like you’re going to die if you miss the next minute. You better not go get popcorn. (Laughter)

Q: Don’t you think shows like Heroes and Lost have afforded people the opportunity to bring a more film-like attitude toward television.

Oliver: Well, they have. Television has usurped everybody from film. And so have commercials, by the way. In a sense, we’ve democratized the image. If you look at the techniques of JFK and Natural Born Killers, they’re all over commercials now, all over TV, all over the place. I see them so constantly that I feel that it’s a degeneration; there’s no point or purpose for it. To the contrary, stylistically, I would go the other way like with World Trade Center, where you’re really concentrating on the acting, the lighting and the story. This is what we are: we’re storytellers. There are reasons for stylization, but let’s do it better than television. The stock is great, and they have access to digital. Everyone has DI [Digital Intermediate] now, and they can make their films look great. But, for some reason, television still bores me. Even the best shows. I’m not a Sopranos fan, I hate to tell you.

Q: You talked about how your aesthetic was appropriated by commercial directors. They took the look of your films to sell product, and now there’s no meaning to it.

Oliver: It’s not just me. They’ve taken from all of us. A lot of the good cameraman who we used are doing television work; they’re doing commercials for a lot of money. And the commercials look incredible. But what’s it about? I made three major commercial campaigns. I enjoyed it, I experimented with it, and at the end of the day I felt no satisfaction. It was like having a fast food lunch.

Q: But when you consider how people have gotten used to your aesthetic in the hands of other people, did it force you to completely change? And was that frustrating?

Oliver: I would never go back to the style of Natural Born Killers. You always try to find the right style for the movie. That’s the key. Every movie requires its own style. Just be honest to the story. Tell the story in the best possible way that is different, exciting and original. But with television, the image has been degenerated, no question. With the internet, commercials… people are much too cynical about image. It’s stale. And all over the world, not just America. I was on a plane two days ago from Asia, and you can’t believe the flatscreen images on the plane. So what can you do? You have to find another way.

Q: With movies becoming more television-like, especially with the glut of ads and previews beforehand-

Oliver: Oh, god.

Q: -how do you make sure that film stays unique?

Oliver: It’s very difficult. When I go to the movies, and I have to sit through ten previews of films that look [alike] and tell the whole story, you know that we’ve reached an age of consensus. And consensus is the worst thing for us. We all agree to agree. That’s where we lose it as a culture. We have to move away from that. That’s what I’m trying for, and what I hope [Sean] is trying for. I would like to see originality. It’s so difficult.

Q: Sean, what are your ambitions as a filmmaker, and does it help that your father’s an established filmmaker?

Sean: I’m not sure yet. (Laughter) I wouldn’t have been able to get this documentary done if that weren’t the case. This was a unique circumstance. But on the other hand, I’m proud of the work. And I’m now doing a documentary for the Nixon DVD release from Disney next year. It’s a featurette about Nixon; we did about eighteen interviews with people from that time period – historians, politicians, law professors. Beyond that, we may be able to take that material and do a feature documentary with it. Long term, I love writing and I’d like to direct ultimately. But in the meantime you have to do what is available to you, and documentary is what I can do now.

Oliver: I just want to say that he’s a little modest. He’s cut a a thirty-four minute documentary called "Beyond Nixon". Nixon is very specific to our age because we have another president who’s gone way beyond Nixon. So what he’s done is remind us of who Nixon was, what he did, and it’s a very succinct documentary – very good writing and especially writing. The interviews he did with people from Gore Vidal to John Dean to reposition Nixon in this era to remember who he was for young people.

Q: With that in mind, a natural fit for you would be George [W. Bush]. With the father, the son, the war and conversations with God, it sounds like something right out of a movie. Is that something that might interest you?

Oliver: (Big smile) Yes, very much so. (Laughter and applause.)

Q: When?

Oliver: Soon.

Q: How soon?

Oliver: Soon, soon.

Q: Sean, what did you learn about your father as a filmmaker from doing this documentary?

Sean: I mean, he’s one of the masters as far as I’m concerned. What I saw from filming him actually made me much more aware of why he is such a great director. Direction is a thousand choices, a thousand decisions a day. And having a vision of what you want, and then knowing what you want frame-by-frame, second-by-second… if you don’t have it laid out in the design and in the way the actor performs it, it’s not going to happen. So for somebody to craft that mentally, it gives him the opportunity to develop the story over time. And he always chooses the right people to work with; he always has a great sense of who would be right for what role in terms of actors, but also for the crew – what kind of DP, art director, set designer, costume designer. He knows every aspect of the filming process. Then, of course, the editing process… he’s there every day. Shooting all day, going into the editing room at night, looking at the material, covering it, working with the editors hands-on. That’s a total filmmaking process, and I don’t know what to compare it to because I’ve never seen other directors work. But you can see that in the output: this is someone’s vision. When you see so many films [that are a] consensus form of cinema, where they have a certain look because the studio or producers or director are limiting themselves, saying "It has to look this way, and this is the standard form of performance"… then, when you see a film like Alexander, it does challenged the audience. And it’s something that has to be done. You have to challenge people to reconsider what is art, what is taste. Because it’s someone’s point-of-view. I think that’s the strongest thing he offers: you’re going in to see an Oliver Stone film, and you’ll know it’s an Oliver Stone film. You may not like it, and you may disagree with things, but you get art.

Q: I remember reading your script for Nixon, and it was like 300 pages. What is your writing process like? Do you edit yourself when you’re writing, or is the script the bible and we’ll worry about how long it’s going to be later?

Oliver: I’ve fallen into that trap. My scripts do tend to be long. I wrote Nixon with two other young men, Chris Wilkinson and Steve Rivele, and they really did a great job. Nixon was a mind-twister, but it’s a wonderfully structured script. I love the way it’s structured about that life. It is a story of his life, but it’s unlike other biopics I’ve seen because of that structure. The structure was very important, and the length was three hours and ten minutes. (Sighs) What do you do about it? You cut the script as much as you can to get to the essence. But some lives take time. I don’t know what the answer is, except DVD. (Laughter)

Q: You’ve done a lot of Director’s Cuts of your films. Is there a particular film you’d like to revisit like you’ve done with Alexander?

Oliver: No, I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do. There’s an unrated cut of Natural Born Killers which I prefer; it was released briefly by Lionsgate. And there is a director’s cut of JFK where I’ve added some scenes to make it longer. Nixon‘s got a director’s cut, which is longer.

Q: Is that the version you’re doing for Disney? Will it have new footage?

Oliver: No. It’s the director’s cut with additional scenes, but they’re more integrated. Before, we didn’t have the technology to integrate that. Right now, it’s the best looking cut, but it’s the same cut.

Q: Forgive me if this is a touchy subject, but what’s your relationship with Quentin Tarantino? We understood that there was a great falling out over Natural Born Killers over what you did to his script. Do you guys talk?

Oliver: I’ve talked to him many times since then. We do get along. He was upset at the time; he was a young filmmaker, and he was upset that we changed… not his story, but the screenplay quite a bit. We put more emphasis on other things. He was upset, and he came out publicly.

Q: By that same token, when you were a younger writer, you had your screenplays turned into very notorious films – in particular, Scarface. It’s an indelible work. It’s really impacted the culture in a huge way and, some might say, in a pernicious way, because some people misinterpreted the meaning of that film. How do you now view the film and the reaction to it.

Oliver: I always thought it was a satire. I never saw it as threatening to be reality. It never sought to be The Godfather. I think Brian was the right director for it because he has the necessary sarcasm. There is a lot of humor in the film, but it was sort of lost at the time because of the bloodbath, the violence and the viciousness of the characters. My model with it was twofold: one was Bertolt Brecht’s Arturo Ui and the other one was Richard III. Those were the models, and they were not exactly reality models. But the film was attacked for being literal. Natural Born Killers was attacked for being literal, and it wasn’t. As you know, with Wall Street they took the Michael Douglas character and made him into a role model, which was not intended. You can never judge how the film will be taken; you can only make your best effort, and put out what you feel. How it’s read, you never can tell. Or remembered for that matter.

Q: Could you ever see yourself working in another medium? Opera seems like it might suit you.

Oliver: For length purposes? (Laughter)

-Jeremy Smith, CHUD.com, Sept 19 2007

#Alexander #video village #Quentin Tarantino #Sean stone #fight Against Time

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