#return of the inferno

[goryhorroor]

my top 30 favorite horror movies

[yaksha-lover]

“malleus would just find a way to extend your lifespan.”

what if he didn’t, though. what if it didn’t matter. what if he knew how few years you have left in comparison to his own, and chose to love you anyway. no conditions. no extension of life. no easy way out.

because love is a commitment to him; one to joy and one to suffering, both of which he has accepted as consequences to his choice.

because it doesn’t truly matter; he knows humans are fragile, even the few decades most of them live for aren’t guaranteed. but the same is true of beastmen, of merpeople, and of fae.

the temporal nature of your life and your love only makes him more certain as to his feelings; he’d face a lifetime of ache for a fraction of time bathing in your sunlight.

[driver270]

Always Remember What Came Before

[inamindfarfaraway]

Do you ever think about Azula after Zuko's banishment and before she was sent on her mission? About the time it was just her and Ozai? Because I do.

Her worst fear is being what Zuko is to their father. It's easy to look at her smirking while she watches Ozai light Zuko’s face on fire and think that she enjoys her brother’s suffering, but from the day she was born, Zuko has been the bad example. The scapegoat. The failure she exists to surpass. Where he is disrespectful, she will be obedient. Where he is weak, she will be strong. She will make Ozai proud. She will be perfect. She has to be. Because if she isn’t -

well, in that moment she sees that for herself. Iroh looks away, but she doesn’t. This eleven-year-old child watches the whole gory scene that her experienced general uncle can’t stomach, because this is a lesson for her as well, that’s why Father had her be here, and so she must not let herself tremble or cry or flinch or scream. Zuko is. That means she can’t. Instead she will do the exact opposite, smile with a princess’s proper posture.

Then Zuko is banished. He will most likely never return - most likely die young. He isn’t around to be the foil under her jewel anymore, making her shine brighter simply by contrast. (Or to play with her or comb her hair. But it isn’t useful or becoming to miss those moments. She isn’t a child anymore; her childhood was burned through like Zuko’s skin.) All Ozai’s attention is on her. All her people’s hope in the next generation of royalty rests in her. If she doesn’t hold her shoulders back and keep her head high, she will collapse under the weight of her nation’s future. Zuko got what he deserved. Just as whatever happens to her, she deserves it too.

How many nightmares does she have? How many times does she flinch or shake when her father touch her? Or force herself not to? How many times does she smell burning hair and flesh and hear her brother’s agony when she spoke her own opinion in a war meeting? How much does she secretly grieve him, and scold herself for it?

[trashhole]

Red alert + inferno wip and my tfcon haul

Cw: pin up/probably nsfw(?) further down

Yes I’m alive and back from the war, hopefully to stay. Unfortunately the fire department thirst brainrot took over so you all get this:

Something about those fire vehicles…

And here’s the pin up:

And my haul (ignore the sewing equipment)

Full pieces, and my figures being silly

I’ll do a more through tfcon/figure post later

Anyway…wfc Red Alert I’m just saying…

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Gul Dukat

By Ames

Last week we expanded our spotlight series to include villains, and like our focus character Kai Winn, this week’s villain is so compelling he deserves his own post. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Dukat (both my favorite Cardassian and my favorite DS9 villain), but what is it about him that’s just so entrancing? Is it the swaggering charisma he exudes? Is it all the justifications he makes for his clearly villainous actions? Clearly it’s the mile-long neck, right? Well A Star to Steer Her By is going to get to the bottom of how such a bad man makes such a great character.

Did Dukat do nothing wrong? Of course not; he’s a monster, after all. But as a character, he gets so much right, and his performance by Marc Alaimo is so devoted that, every so often, you let your guard slip and root for the guy. He has the sheer audacity to pull off some of the schemes we’ve highlighted below, so scroll on down, listen to us whispering in your ear on this week’s podcast (jump to 1:15:10), and swagger up the place.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Favorite moments

Won’t someone please think of the children? One of the most impressive things about Cardassians is their ability to scheme for the long term. And Dukat is particularly skilled at scheming. His war orphans plot in “Cardassians” to undermine Gul Pa’dar sat dormant for eight years before it emerged! How many other schemes is he sitting on, waiting for them to hatch into something nefarious?

I spent the last few years building up an immunity to mind melds When Sarkonna tries to mind meld Dukat to extract information, she learns the hard way that Dukat’s mental discipline somehow surpasses hers. And she’s a freakin’ Vulcan! And then Dukat spends the rest of the scene in “The Maquis” sassing at his Maquis captors about how terrible they are at handling their prisoners and how the Cardassians are so much better at it.

Attention Bajoran workers It is downright badass for Dukat to beam in during “Civil Defense” and snark at the crew in Ops about how naive they were to set off the counterinsurgency program… all while standing in front of a ball shooting lasers! We also see more layers of trademark Cardassian scheming when even Dukat’s program is supplanted by yet another directive from Central Command!

I thought the Obsidian Order didn’t have any ships I find it amusing that, while normal Romulans acquiesce to the Tal Shiar in “Face of the Enemy,” the Cardassian Central Command and the Obsidian Order seem to loathe each other. In “Defiant,” Dukat has teamed up with Sisko to get the Defiant back from Tom Riker, and he manages to gleefully expose the Obsidian Order’s illegal ship-building plans on the way!

Cue the fireworks! Cardassians are nothing if not petty. When the Siskos have proven it possible for Bajoran lightships to have traveled to Cardassian space in “Explorers,” Dukat is there to congratulate them. Turns out the Cardassians have beaten Sisko the punch by “discovering” wreckage of a Bajoran lightship right before Sisko arrived. Coincidence? I think not.

You’re my number one dad, give or take Okay, so Dukat was fully planning on killing Ziyal in “Indiscretion,” and it’s the lowest bar for a man to not murder his progeny, but he manages to clear it! Leaving his bastard daughter alive ends up ruining his position and his marriage, but Dukat can’t bring himself to harm his daughter when he finally confronts her. And damn does he look good in a Breen uniform.

The first Klingon Bird-of-Prey ever to be captured by Cardassia Marauding Dukat may be my favorite Dukat. Sure, he lost his status after the news about Ziyal spread, but in “Return to Grace,” he just goes with it! He uses his dinky little freighter the Groumall to actually capture a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which is all kinds of impressive. And he even has a good rapport with Kira this episode, trying to tempt her over to the privateer life.

Remember to rate your Uber driver While Sisko, Odo, and O’Brien are dressing up like Klingons to infiltrate the Order of the Bat’leth ceremony in “Apocalypse Rising,” Dukat is flying around with his stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey. He’s even magnanimous enough to bring our DS9 friends to the ceremony, likely as an excuse to show off his spoils and how damn great he looks in a Klingon baldric.

The enemy of my enemy, twice removed If there’s a theme to many of these favorite Dukat moments, it’s the sheer audacity he displays. If nothing else, he always picks the ballsiest moves, which makes for the most entertaining developments. And it’s nothing short of audacious when he reveals that he has allied Cardassia with the Dominion in “By Inferno’s Light” while the DS9 crew picks their jaws up off the deck.

A graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! Just everything about “Waltz” is spellbinding, which is a testament to Dukat’s character because a majority of the episode is watching him go slowly (and then quickly) absolutely insane. He reveals to Sisko with relish how he believes he was right in how he treated the Bajorans and how he deplores that they never so much as said “thank you.” Ingrates.

Yo Momma jokes, Bajoran edition Is it contrived that “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” establishes that Gul Dukat took Kira’s mom as a comfort woman during the Occupation? Yeah, a little. And I’ve already given both Sisko and Kira guff for their actions this episode. But you’ve got to appreciate the gall of Dukat, ringing Kira in the middle of the night to drop this bombshell on her for no damn reason.

How do you fight a god? Dukat turns a new leaf when he gets really into Bajoran religion. And sure, all his leaves are evil, but this one is still new! In “Tears of the Prophets” he lets himself get possessed by Kosst Amojen so he could take on the Prophets, and subsequently hit the Bajoran people where it hurts: right in the religion. Sadly it results in Jadzia’s death, but Dukat was just that committed.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid Another “Oh the audacity” moment from Dukat comes in “Covenant” when he establishes the Cult of the Pah-wraiths. Rather successfully too, I might add! He’s got a decent and devoted little cult going, so brainwashed that they don’t bat an eye when he knocks up [at least] one woman, and even convinces them to go full Jonestown to cover his ass.

A little more than a neck lift If other Cardassians thought it was audacious to jump feet first into bed with the Dominion in “By Inferno’s Light” or watch a Pah-wraith possess him for reasons in “Tears of the Prophets,” imagine how Damar feels when he finds Dukat has gotten cosmetic surgery to try to infiltrate the Bajorans’ ranks in “Penumbra.” This guy. Always upping the ante, he is.

I’m just a simple man of the land By the top of the next episode, “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” Dukat has weaseled his way into the good graces of Kai Winn. And an episode after that in “Strange Bedfellows,” he’s weaseled into her bed. We covered all this in the Winn Adami spotlight, but Dukat’s skill at deception and persuasion are rivaled by none. He plays Winn like a fiddle and she loves it!

Feel our love: the love of the Pah-wraiths Okay, the Prophet stuff at the end of the series treads too far into fantasy for me, but what’s perfectly on the nose is both Dukat’s and Winn’s characterization. Dukat so seamlessly plays Winn into the hands of the Pah-wraiths by “Strange Bedfellows” that it is a work of art. And he gets her to read from the Book of the Kosst Amojen in “The Changing Face of Evil,” sealing their fates and bringing the whole series toward its conclusion. Praise be!

—

What a truly audacious journey! That’s everyone from Deep Space Nine I felt like covering in these spotlights, so next week we start revisiting some of our friends from Voyager! Boy, are we missing them during our watchthrough of Enterprise, for which I hope you’re humoring us by following along on SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summon the Pah-wraiths with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and see what schemes transpire!

[oliversexireed77]

Olly and a cub 🥰

[firedragon1321]

The Bible is weird. I hate canon. But the fanfiction is top-tier. Paradise Lost and The Inferno are not canon and this makes me very sad. Malacoda? Just an OC. "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven?" Rawer line than anything canon could ever dream up.

Canon almost had it with The Book of Revelation, but dropped the ball with the whole "Jesus chooses who goes to heaven or hell forever". Like, isn't hell already forever? And all the bad people are already there??? Lazy stupid writing. They should make fans write this shit.

[anthyies]

x-men comics are the autism media of all time and i know this because 18 hour cerebrocast episode about madelyne pryor just dropped

[goryhorroor]

day 24 of horror: favorite horror from each decade (1890s-2010s)

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

I'm trying to remember, but was there a plan or at least the seed of one for bringing back Illyana after she was de-aged? I have this vague recollection that either Louise Simonson or Chris Claremont had something long term mapped out, but it was scrapped after they both left and Illyana was eventually killed off for all that Legacy Virus nonsense.

[killjoygem]

Ive finished Inferno!

Definitely my favourite of the serials I've watched so far, i really loved the parallel world thing. It's a shame the doctor couldn't save the people in the other world though :(

Petra and Greg especially, a lot of people in that world weren't the best, but I was really rooting for those two. But hey! The original Petra and Greg are still alive so who know what'll happen

I loved the interactions at the end, between the doctor, the brigadier and Liz, the doctor trying to leave but just landing the tardis console in a rubbish tip made me laugh lmao. and then having to ask the brigadier for help to get it out after just insulting him, it was great

Next up is Terror of the Autons, which I'm pretty excited about because i know its the master's first appearance :D

[trendynewsnow]

In Memoriam: Bob Yerkes, Hollywood Stunt Legend

In Memoriam: Bob Yerkes, Stunt Legend Bob Yerkes, a remarkable figure in Hollywood who faced perilous challenges including being set ablaze, thrown down staircases, and launched from towering skyscrapers, bridges, and trains, passed away on October 1 in Northridge, California. He was 92 years old. His death, which occurred in a hospital, was confirmed by Tree O’Toole, a former stuntwoman who had…

[mothervvoid]

if endeavor REALLY wanted to keep touya safe bcos of his weak constitution then why didn't he teach him to decrease the heat from his flames?? sekoto peak happens in part bcos he doesnt know how to STOP. "stop touya!!" bro you never taught him how???

[softgrungeprophet]

last night i was researching thinkpads and i was looking at some of my current specs while doing so and i realized that my 15" laptop screen is a higher resolution (1920 x 1080) than my 19" desktop monitor (1600 x 900)

really this isn't too surprising because i got my monitor around 2016 and the laptop is from 2020, but i did find it kind of funny.

i don't use my monitor for art or anything though so it's like, yeah, my games might not be "full" HD but they're HD enough for me.

[demimusicjunky]

I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to me. 🤦🏼‍♂️ i bought these months ago and forgot to post them. Both from around October.

"The City Introvert" by The Prize Fighter Inferno (2021)

"Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy" by Return to Forever Feat. Chick Corea (1973)