#round 2: dystopia | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

spiegelgestalt · 6 months ago

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Timebomb feelings because of the Arcane trailer for season 2

So I just saw the arcane trailer for season 2. It's great. I'm so excited. (so sad that Victor and Jayce died in the explosion quite an apprupt ending for them i guess... /s)

but what i really want to talk about is these two pictures:

Because it got me thinking. One of the interesting aspects of the Jinx/Ekko relationship is that they are able to communicate through other means than direct words. And that they are able to create a different image for each other.

Long and rambly explanation under the cut, which got away from me and can be summarized with: Jinx makes Ekko more violent and Ekko makes Jinx more heroic and they love each other your honor and i want to see a team up in season 2:

Song:

Jinx has a few songs (Guns for hire, goodbye, What could have been) but they are usually solos. They are usually melodic rock. And they usually concentrate on how much Jinx was wronged.

And than there is Dynasties and Dystopia. On first watch i thought it was an Ekko song. It's after all in his style (both in animation as in genre) but some words don't quite fit:

"I might just might kick your butt Go run amok then paint my nails Never learned to raise my hand Was too busy raising hell Everything I know I am You should go and save yourself Thought you had my number, huh Congratulations, you played yourself"

this just screams jinx to me. Ekko has yet to run amok. Jinx does it all the time. I don't even know what Ekko's nails look like, but we have several distinct shots of Jinxs' blue and pink nails; Ekko doesn't raise hell, if he's raising something it's paradise. And the line "you should go and save yourself" is a good continuation/rejection of the one thing Jinx says in this fight: Look who it is - the boy savior -> go save yourself! And it forshadows the way jinx will be able to get just a loss instead of a total defeat (look she was defeated- in the aftermath Ekko had a hurt leg, while Jinx needed to be revived with terrible magic drugs there is a clear winner here). Ekko thinks he has jinx figured out but he hasn't and thats why he will hesitate in the end.

But i would also argue that not all of the song is jinx:

Ooh, yeah, he mad I'm racking up white diamonds Throw me in the sky You would swear the sun shining Ooh, yeah, he mad I'm racking up white diamonds Throw me in the sky You would swear the sun shining

this verse is both of them: Basically they are saying: Look how great i'm doing (lie) Aren't you mad about it? (They will never beat the allegation that they are bitter exes.)

And I'd argue that this is Ekkos verse:

In this gothic underground city We all sin If I bring a couple rounds with me Then we all win I came back and brought the crown with me The king's den Break your nexus and your neck 'cause Everybody's on your head

and interestingly enough it's an offer. This makes sense with the visual. Encouraged through Vi who insists that Powder is still in there somewhere Ekko conjures a situation wich is similar to their old games. And it works: It's the only time Powder appears as her young self on screen. And so Ekko makes an offer he probably made before: Trust me, back down, i can help:

He starts with: We all make mistakes - one of the things that bind Powder to the Jinx personality is her guilt over having killed her entire family. But Ekko doesn't blame Jinx he blames their circumstances (something he also does in his Zaun-duet misfit toys)

If i bring a couple rounds with me, then we all win -> this foreshadows his timetravel ability. And even if he doesn't has it at this point this whole scene breaks down time itself so it still works in my head. Ekko brings the crown with him (the hextech-crystal) and he warns Jinx that everyone is going after her.

And the second refrain which I'd argue both sing once again:

Hold still while I bag that, uh Talk bad 'til I snap back, uh This ain't brown, this that dark black This that pitch black, jet black Snap yo' ex watch me give him flashbacks

Meaning: keep still, i've got this, just trust me dude!

This song shows that Ekkos and Jinx's disagreement is far more similar to the disagreement between Vander and Silco than to the disagreement between Vi and Jinx. Vi and Jinx' disagreement is personal. Vi rejects everything jinx has become and just wants her "sweet" little sister back - Ekkos and Jinx's disagreement is political. They disagree about the question what is best for Zaun. AND I'd also argue the Ekko is far less surprised by the jinx personality. He knew Powder was a bit of a shithead. He's just pissed that she's working for Silco.

Well let's finally get to these two pictures:

We see Ekko and we see Jinx drawn as hero of the resistance in Ekkos style* (compare the mural to the video of misfit toys) We know that Jinx gave Ekko a definition that didn't suit him by creating the firefly bombs and recasting him as a terrorist. And know we see Ekko who maybe drew this picture of jinx recreating her from a terrorist into a hero of Zaun.

(see me get proven wrong in the first episode of arcane season 2...)

#arcane ekko #ekkojinx #timebomb #Jinx #Arcane season 2 spoilers #but like very minor #a lot of feelings #meta

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queereads-bracket · 1 month ago

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Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries below:

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.

Fantasy, romance, cozy fantasy, contemporary, humor, adult

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

Dystopia, speculative fiction, science fiction, adult

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wordstro · 9 months ago

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[3] sector one: post-apocalypse au + mingi + "you're safe in sector one."

a/n: 3.4k words, gender neutral reader, mingi x y/n, post apocalypse/dystopia typical violence, baker!yn

part 2 | series masterlist | part 4

you'd gotten up extra early the next morning, the morning chill creeping under your skin as you wrapped your arms around you. You walk through dewy grass, arriving upon the main building. sector one was built by hand and you could tell. the wooden structures were put together rather shoddily, but they held up and joy had a team constantly repairing and working on the buildings, making them stronger. the sleeping quarters were built in the back of sector one's walls, right next to the commune's meeting rooms. one of the meeting rooms is used as a daycare-slash-school-room of sorts, where the children too young to contribute elsewhere would spend their days. it was filled with old toys and books and colorful chairs. the normalcy of that room alone often made you want to bury your face in your hands and sob. you avoided that room often. it felt unsafe, for a child to grow up in a world like this, or even worse, be born into it.

the other room was curtained off and used as the medical bay. joy showed it to you briefly, and it seemed well-stocked, but incredibly understaffed. sometimes, there was a line of people waiting to see a medic, and the line would go out the door.

joy's quarters sat separately down a side hallway, away from the noisy children and the people lingering in the medical bay hallway. it reminded you of the little managerial offices your bosses would clack away on a computer at during your restaurant jobs back Before. she had an open door policy and everyone called her little sitting room the counsel room.

as you step into the side hallway, you can see that joy's door is cracked open. so you knock once before slowly letting yourself in. joy is leaning over her wooden desk, pouring over a map laid out across the huge table. you recognize it immediately as a map of South Korea, but you don't understand the dozens of red X’s scattered across the map means. joy rounds the table, stepping into your view, and her soft voice echoes throughout the counsel room, "what's wrong, y/n?"

"sorry for interrupting," you say, though you're not sorry, "i'm just...i want to know why you didn’t let me know where we got those chocolate chips from."

joy frowns, "what do you mean?"

"they're from one of the newbies. you should have told me."

you'd spent all of yesterday ruminating over what wooyoung said. sure, he'd was an asshole for his actions, but when it came to precious resources like chocolate chips, it was always finders keepers. it was an unspoken rule, you thought.

"why?" joy continues frowning, her airy voice quiet.

you say, "i wouldn't have used it for everyone then. that's not fair."

joy shakes her head, and her expression grows extremely gentle. kind, even. for some reason, it angers you. she looks at you like you're one of the little children tucked away in the school room, throwing a tantrum because you don't understand something.

"sector one is a commune, y/n," joy says. "everything we bring into these walls is to be shared with everyone."

"i don't think that's fair." you say, flat out ignoring her kind, frankly condescending tone.

joy shrugs, "it's every person for themselves beyond this wall, but if we want to build a healthy community then we need to share our resources. we can't be so individualistic. we must survive for the future of humanity."

she's not wrong, annoyingly enough, but the way joy's eyes soften with her words makes you frown still. you sigh. she won't budge in this, and you still don't want to cause any waves - not with joy. you concede, "i'd appreciate if you tell me where you got it from next time at least."

so you don't get blindsided by another angry newbie next time.

"sure," joy says, and her tone grows an edge to it that is unexpected. almost as if she's holding back an eye roll. you'd done that often with annoying customers back before to catch it in her voice. joy says, "did you want to know where every single bag of flour comes from, too? a map of every neighborhood and every house each team has raided just to find a single can of condensed milk? do you want a debrief of what we found in each of those houses along the way? maybe you want pictures of the families that lived there back Before?"

you blink at her tone, bristling. you did not imagine the contempt, clearly. you should not match her tone or her energy. you've always told yourself to remain calm, to maintain a demeanor that kept you out of trouble, but perhaps staying here has softened your rules for the worst. you bite out in the same politely cutting tone, "if you think it's necessary, then why not?"

joy meets your steady gaze from across the room, and there's a tick in her jaw that you would have missed if you were not looking. she lets out a long drawn out sigh, and says, "it's early, y/n. we'll talk later. and," joy smiles and her gentleness, softness, returns, "i'll consider your request, alright?"

you know what a dismissal sounds like, so you nod and say, "thanks."

~.~.~.~.~

your annoyance grows as you head to the kitchens. you walk past the training grounds - it’s closed off to the rest of the commune by wooden fences that are chest height. the showers are accessible from the training grounds and from the rest of the communes, though you doubt one could call them showers really, since it was just a giant room with a dozen shower heads installed all across one wall and bathroom stalls on the other side. there were allotted times for certain genders and age groups to shower and it was heavily enforced by both joy and the people themselves. it still lacked privacy, nothing but a measly hooks separating each shower head that was meant for you to hang up your own towel for privacy, but it was better than nothing. you'd gone months without a proper shower before sector one so you really could not complain about these, especially because sector one somehow had hot water.

you sigh as you head past the courtyard that held all the dining tables - benches lined up side by side like a picnic camp ground - and through the bustling kitchen. joy was never quite so abrasive with anyone, and you wondered if she'd bristled at your request, or because of something else entirely.

the kitchen is hard at work on breakfast already, the head chef - kyungsoo - shouting instructions over to his bustling aids. the main kitchen is huge, with scratched up industrial steel tables, an oven, and a gas stove with blackened coils. everything is mismatched and broken in some way, but it's all the scavenging crews could find. tiny potatoes are piled in boxes in the far corner. an aid calls, behind you! and you step out of the way as they stumbled past with an armful of canned vegetables. another one follows with a couple large knives. you’d worked with kyungsoo during your first week in sector one, and you did not enjoy it. he was particular about everything, and ran the kitchen like the military. being late was not tolerated, and messiness resulted in punishment - usually hand washing the dozens upon dozens of dishes after meals, and getting more water from the wells. he'd despise the way you ran the baking kitchen, and you knew that was why he never crossed the line to your kitchen unless absolutely necessary. kyungsoo was also awful at baking, apparently.

kyungsoo tips his chin in your direction and you wave back before you slip into the back hallway, kyungsoo's shouts and the banging of pots and pans echoes behind you. the dark hallway is used as storage for both your kitchens, and serves as a small pathway leading to your bakery. there are a decent amount of flour bags lined up along one wall, and some small containers of cooking oil on the other. cooking oil is a precious resource these days and the main kitchen had priority over yours when any food hauls came in, so you often had to improvise with your recipes to substitute oil. sugar, though, was the hardest to replace, and often you had to look for natural sugar alternatives, or worse, go sugar free until the next food haul.

the lights to the bakery are on. you wonder if yeri arrived early to prepare all the dough left to rise overnight. unlike kyungsoo's kitchen, you did not get very many assistants assigned to your kitchen. it was a small space, and bread was really deemed the most necessary of baked goods that came out of your kitchen. everything else is a luxury. a treat.

you are startled when you step into the kitchen, and you're greeted by a deep grunt in response. that is certainly not yeri.

you pull your knife that you keep hidden at your hip - you cannot help it - spinning in the direction of the grunt.

you blink.

mingi has both arms up in the air in a placating manner, his eyes wide. he tries to make himself look less threatening but his height does not help.

"shit, sorry," you say, dropping your arm to your side, sheathing the knife quickly.

mingi shakes his head as he slowly lowers his arms. he says, "you're better with a knife than fists."

you frown at him. he cracks a small smile. it lights up his face, though you notice his smile does not reach his eyes. you've seen it quite a bit in everyone's faces, the dim look in their eyes, but his eyes are something else. something sallow. broken, maybe, like cracked bread or all those crushed picture frames you'd seen since the world went to shit or the way your heart shattered when you left your parent's house for the last time.

mingi peers around the kitchen, and you break the silence first, shaking yourself from your thoughts, "why are you here?"

he says, "i've been assigned to help here."

his deep voice helps expel your spiraling thoughts. broken eyes are common these days. nothing was worth fixing unless it helped you survive, especially people.

"really?" you ask, surprised. kyungsoo hinted a while back (with infuriatingly gleeful audacity) that your kitchen would only get one kitchen aide, and you and yeri had grown resigned to the fact.

"i used to work at a bakery back..." mingi trails off, shrugging, "i guess someone told joy."

the way his voice curls around someone makes you think mingi knows exactly who told joy. he's nonchalant still, unbothered in a way that makes you wary. where yeosang is guarded and, frankly, angry, mingi is calm and unbothered. you don't know which is worse. one put his cards out on the table right away, and the other felt like a mysterious ticking bomb.

"you have more experience than me, then," you say, laughing a little as you grab two aprons from the hook beside the counter. you toss him one, and he catches it easily.

mingi shakes his head, "i was just a cashier."

"even better," you say, tying off your apron, "my head baker position is secure."

a beat of silence passes between you both as you pull out dough left to cool in the fridge overnight by yeri during your day off.

then, mingi says, voice soft, "for now."

you look up at him. mingi grins once more, and his face is softer, his shoulders less stiff. you can't help but laugh. his grin grows a little wider.

you think mingi is easy to like. that makes you a bit wary.

~.~.~.~.~

you can't sleep. it's difficult to ignore what night brings, even if you are supposed to be safe in sector one.

nights are always quiet in sector one. days are often filled with chores, and the hustle and bustle of getting things done. the older compound members would sit under one of the three shade structures built along the three walls of sector one that did not hold the training, dining, and kitchen facilities, the canopies made of mismatched wood and plastic, sandbags holding the posts down, and they would weave baskets, sandals, plates, and other necessities, or scrub laundry. your first few months, you found the way they hollered at each other or howled in laughter jarring. but now, it was comforting. stronger able-bodied folks would carry pails of water in from the wells, or spend time in the greenhouses and gardens. the scavenger teams and patrol parties would walk with purpose, busy whispering to each other of their plans. an occasional child would run about, weaving through groups of people and kicking up dirt and grass. it was overwhelming when you'd first arrived. especially with how quickly the atmosphere changed as night approached.

once the sun set, everyone retreated back to their quarters. there was a large common room, with couches and ratty cushions and board games missing half their pieces and unfinished puzzles on the floor, and the hallways to the individual bedrooms and family rooms were lit up with dim torch lights, but conversations remained hushed, and no one dared to step outside. despite joy's promises, despite the fact that sector one truly did seem safe from the black fog and whatever lurked outside at night, everyone remained cautious, quiet.

perhaps, it was indication enough that the survival instincts from beyond the wall still lived on in these people. it made you feel less strange for still being wary. but the switch from lively to dead silence made it difficult to sleep.

this particular night, you wander outside the common room. oftentimes, you would not be the only one sitting quietly in the common room. a pretty boy with dark freckles and kind eyes always sits in the corner and reads under dim candlelight. he never says anything to you, and you to him, but you find his presence reassuring.

tonight, however, you step outside. the boy looks up from his book as moonlight douses him. he frowns, opens his mouth, but does not say anything. you shut the door quietly behind you, the wooden door clicking shut softly.

it's cold outside, and the hairs at the back of your neck stand on end. it feels as if there are eyes on you - there very well might be. whatever attacked humanity, whatever hung between the moon and stars and caused the black fog and horrible screams at night, is probably watching you walk around like a goddamned idiot.

you clutch your sweater closer as you pass by the training fences.

the grass slopes off into a short hill, that leads down to the courtyards and the kitchens. at the top of the small hill sits a familiar figure. he is awash in moonlight, and his pretty features are almost ethereal like this. he's staring up, presumably at the moon.

you still don't have the guts to follow his gaze. he's brave. you've looked up at it once, just briefly, and you still remember the tiny reflective silver objects flitting in and out between the clouds, darkening the whites of the moon. you still remember the way your stomach sank at the sight, as if your instincts knew there was something very, very wrong. it was a deep-rooted, evolutionary fear that curled under your bones and never really left you.

a burning ember sets yeosang's face ablaze, orange mixing with white moonlight. the smell of cigarette smoke is strong. you didn't know those still existed.

he looks back at you over his shoulder, his dark eyes widening slightly at the sight of you before he looks away as if he is disappointed.

you step closer, plopping down uninvited next to him in the grass.

yeosang rests his hands on his folded knees, the cigarette burning out between you both. one of his knees are shaking.

after a moment of silence, yeosang speaks.

"sorry for being a dick earlier," yeosang mumbles, "and for disappearing."

"thanks," you say, fixing your gaze on the gates straight ahead. "appreciate the apology. appreciated the silence a bit more though."

yeosang snorts as he sticks the burning cigarette in a patch of dirt, grinding the end until the orange ember sputters out.

you look at him. yeosang looks tired. you say, "can you tell your friend wooyoung to apologize though? he beat me up because of you and a bag of chocolate chips."

yeosang laughs then, and the sound is unexpected. it's pretty. softer than his walls. "wooyoung is an idiot."

"that doesn't excuse him trying to dislocate my arm."

"yeah," yeosang mutters, frowning suddenly, "it doesn't. i'll tell him."

the silence afterwards is tense. you have no idea why. you want to ask, but you also don't care to know.

suddenly, yeosang says, "i heard mingi is helping you now."

"yeah," you say, "he said he used to work at a bakery."

"i met him there."

you raise a brow, "oh, back Before?"

"no, during the Invasion," yeosang cranes his neck as he peers up at the moon. you don't dare to follow his gaze. he says, "mingi killed someone who tried to kill me. was still wearing his apron and everything."

he speaks so casually, as if that day is not still a sore spot for nearly everyone you've ever met.

"you've been together ever since?"

yeosang nods.

you can't help it when you ask, "how?"

yeosang frowns at you, "what do you mean?"

how were you meant to explain that with longevity comes attachment? that survival in this world meant to remain detached, and therefore protected? that you thought him ridiculous for judging the way these people coped when he clung to mingi for so long you were sure he'd lose his mind if something ever happened to the other man? that level of commitment was insane to you. maybe yeosang was not brave, but rather insane, and that was why he could so easily look at the moon.

yeosang's eyes flickers between yours, waiting for a response. you shrug, "i don't know. i've just never stuck around with the same people for -"

a loud screech cuts you off. it's clearly from beyond the walls, triggering a chorus of shrill bird caws and the rustling of leaves. the keening sound is piercing, and you wince. you've heard that sound often when you were beyond the walls, when you were holed up in a stranger's home or some abandoned shed.

yeosang jumps to his feet, bristling like a startled cat, his gaze fixed in that direction beyond the walls.

then the keening abruptly stops, the same way symphonies stop with a conductor. the same way screams stop when someone puts a hand over the person's mouth. you'd seen that once, with one of the groups you'd left after just a few hours.

the silence afterwards is utterly engulfing. the crickets do not chirp. the breeze does not blow. it is as if the world has stilled, and even a single breath or a single twitch of your fingers will bring whatever was beyond the walls back.

you open your mouth. you want to say something, but you are struck once more by that primal fear, the kind that has every cell in your body begging for you to run.

grass crunches behind you, the softest sound turned into a blaring horn in the silence.

you spin, knife in hand. yeosang's head snaps over his shoulder.

joy stands illuminated by torchlight, soft yellow-orange lighting up her rounded features.

she's staring at both of you, eyes flickering back and forth, back and forth.

you say, "did you hear that?"

joy holds the torch higher, and she says, "it's nothing to worry about."

you glance over at yeosang, and he frowns, but he doesn't say anything. your heart slams against your ribs, still injected with fear.

"we're safe in sector one," joy says gently. "there's nothing to worry about. just breathe, y/n."

her voice is soothing enough. you let yourself breathe.

joy gestures back to the sleeping quarters, "you both should go inside."

"okay," yeosang says after a beat of silence. "fine."

joy's smile is reassuring, but her eyes are fixed above your head. behind you.

"everything is fine," joy says, once more. "you're safe in sector one."

#ateez scenarios #ateez angst #mingi angst #mingi scenarios #mingi #ateez #itpfl #sector one

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fictional-library-tournament · 1 year ago

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Prelims round 2, poll 3

Propaganda:

Sazed's Copperminds, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson:

Copper bracers called copperminds that contain many, many forbidden books. They are accessible only to Sazed, a scholar specialising in religion and also a member of the Skaa rebellion.

‼️MAJOR SPOILERS‼️

At the end of the trilogy, the world is literally about the end, and Sazed becomes a god and uses the knowledge in his copperminds to fix/remake the world.

ART's archives, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells:

"My onboard archives are extensive. Why haven't you sought access to them?" Of course a research vessel would brag about its research library. Why wouldn't it?

Sunai, The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Cando:

He contains a living AI god referred to as an Archive. He is a relic who can interface with other archives and falls in love with a cute boy when he normally runs away from all attempts at intimacy and keeps being like oh? I...like him?

Merlin's Library, The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne:

None

The Scholomance Library, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik:

The library inside the Scholomance is so cool. It’s open to a void above, and is the safest place inside the entire school. The sections are mostly in the same place every time. But the shelves can stretch out and fill up with more books

The Thunderhead, Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman:

It contains the collective knowledge of humanity and is a perfect, almost-sapient AI that doesn’t follow the “utopia is actually dystopia” trope

#fictional libraries #tumblr tournament #books & libraries #fictional archives #libraries #archives #tumblr polls #poll #stormlight archive #mistborn #cosmere #brandon sanderson #asshole research transport #murderbot #murderbot diaries #a deadly education #arc of a scythe #aoas #thunderhead

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physalian · 6 months ago

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What No One Tells You About Writing 8— “Anyone can write a book”

Yes. But actually no. I say “writing is easy” in that it doesn’t take a degree and textbook learning to understand. You can get an English or lit degree if you want, but writing is incredibly subjective. It’s not even like an art degree that has you study different mediums and historical styles. “Writing is easy” in that it’s about feeling, and instinct, and a little bit of common sense. Anyone can do it in that it doesn’t take financial investment to start. Steal a tchotchke pen and paper from a hotel room—you’ve got all the tools you need. I have a communications degree and 9 years of experience, and I'm about to publish my first supernatural fantasy novel.

Writing is not easy, however, if any of the following applies to you:

You want to make enough money to do this full time

You want to appeal to mass audiences

You want to be a NYT bestseller**** or get an adaptation

You want to be regarded as the best of your generation and fill bookstore shelves

1. It takes a healthy dose of self-awareness and a reality check

I beta’d for an author who thought that he was comparable to GRRM, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, because both have adult themes in their book and if GRRM can do it, why can’t he? The sheer vastness of the divide between ASOIAF and this awful, awful manuscript wasn’t worth putting into words for the amount I was being paid, though I tried.

Yes, you can write whatever you want. Yes, you can write to please yourself and stroke your ego. You can write the hammiest wish-fulfillment author insert that you desire. But you can’t expect anyone else to want to read or pay money for it. It’s great to have confidence as an author and envision your success, but starting right off the bat with “everyone will love this book because I’m really smart and I love this book” is only going to leave you bitter and penniless.

2. You might be an expert in your given field, doesn’t automatically make you an expert at storycrafting

I really, truly want the above godawful toe wart of a human (who tried to justify pedophilia in his book with the Israel-Palestine conflict) to stop featuring in my writing advice, but I know he’s not the only person out there who thinks like this. You might have a doctorate in engineering, medicine, political science, chemistry, physics, history, paleontology—any field you want. That does not mean you can successfully translate your expertise into a well-crafted and compelling narrative. It means you can write a college textbook lecturing your readers for 300 pages. Heck, if you can't explain what you do like I'm 5 years old, then you're not an expert in your field.

Elements of good storytelling include well-rounded characters, solid pacing, compelling themes and motifs, an engaging main conflict and character arcs and edge-of-your-seat action, romance, debates, and arguments. It’s so much more than “I’m going to write a textbook, but have my character tell it to you, and everyone will love it”.

They won’t.

3. “I’m gonna be a millionaire like JKR”

The frustrating thing about making money writing is that at the end of the day, you are still selling a product. Which means that it doesn’t matter how amazing you think it is, if it’s not what sells. The Fifty Shades series is hardly a poetic epic with deep, meaningful characters and themes, but it sold. It got adaptations. Why? Because it was a product people wanted and its writing style appeals to mass audiences who aren’t entertained by fluffy, antiquated prose. I hated the Divergent books. They soullessly and shamelessly fed off the success of Hunger Games. But they sold because “teen dystopia HP houses” was what audiences craved and what Hollywood was pushing to make movies out of.

Personally I don’t have any nostalgia for Harry Potter and I both wish I did so I could have one more beloved series and fandom to participate in, but also am glad I don’t because of JKR. HP is chock full of plot holes and “fuck it we’ll do it live” worldbuilding and so many concepts that look cool on paper until you really start thinking about it.

JKR didn’t make a million dollars because she wrote the greatest fantasy series. JKR made a million dollars because she wrote a book that sells every goddamn piece of lore for $15.99 or more and collects on all those sweet, sweet royalties. She understood that she’s selling a product, not just a story, selling everything from Slytherin ties and wizarding robes to golden snitches, sorting hats, wands, chocolate frogs, and every other prop seen in the movies.

You sure can chase trends and I’m sure Divergent is somebody’s favorite book and you can hock chocolate frogs. Everyone’s writing goals are different.

4. “But GRRM did it” (or, adhering to genre expectations)

Circling back to this one. Once again, you can write whatever you want, no one is stopping you. However, books are products and if what’s in the summary and on the cover isn’t what’s on the pages, you’re going to upset and annoy your readers. For example, if I slap a chiseled six-pack of man meat on my book cover with flowy calligraphy for the title that reads something like Sex and Pink Champagne and my summary is all about how protagonist girl gets the adonis of her dreams, you’re not going to be happy if, 200 pages in, the plot detours and Mr. Sexy fucks off to sell NFTs.

It doesn’t meet genre expectations.

GoT kicks off with incest and child defenestration. It tells you *exactly* what you’re getting into immediately. You can subvert plot expectations all you want. You can subvert tropes and archetypes and throw in all kinds of twists and turns. But if you’re writing a YA novel and 100 pages in after campfire songs and the power of friendship, Protagonist gets assaulted in a 7-11 parking lot because you wanted to be ~edgy~ you’re going to piss off your readers.

Take Mulan for example. It has a dramatic tonal shift so powerful, the musical stops being a musical because it’s traumatized. Mulan doesn’t drop in the grizzled and horrifying wasteland of a battlefield with thousands of dead soldiers in an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s already a war movie, the possibility is already there.

If you want to write adult content, then write a book for audiences who are prepared for and want to read adult content. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure.

5. “Okay but it’s not entertaining”

Your first job as an author is to entertain (your second is to do it responsibly imo). There’s millions of books out there—why should someone read yours? Whether that’s entertainment through a feel-good romance or a gut-wrenching tragedy, you need to keep convincing your readers to stay invested in the story, otherwise they can and will put it down to read something else. No one is obligated to read your book to the end.

So, yeah your protagonist might have all the elements of your own personal tragedies and it sure is meaningful to you, but the way you wrote it is incredibly boring and no one will care. It might be the most brilliant heist plot ever conceived, but you focused on all the wrong elements, the pacing is whack, and your protagonist is annoying, so no one will read it.

Very few individual elements can be good enough to carry the entire manuscript and the likelihood of an author being really good at one thing and awful at the rest is slim. Readers can quit a book over the most arbitrary reasons. Do you want to die on a hill of “I’m not changing my annoying protagonist, I’m right and they will see”? They won’t. The arguments authors get into with me over how I hated their protagonist or I told them which parts were boring and dragged because I “didn’t understand the story” are pointless. If it’s boring or confusing or annoying, no one will read it.

6. First Drafts are drafts for a reason

Actually writing is less than half the time and effort spent on getting a book to publication. Probably less than a quarter. The rest of that time is spent editing and rewriting. Some first drafts will be better than others, not arguing that, but your first run through your story has a non-zero chance of needing revisions, even for something as small as typos and punctuation.

You have to edit for pacing and tonal shifts, erroneous details and entire scenes, character inconsistencies and goals. You have to make sure your conversations flow believably, that you hit every talking point that scene requires. You have to make sure your character’s motivations don’t create plot holes and that they’re always on track like a real person and not a creation of your imagination. You have to make sure your action scenes and sex scenes are legible and as thrilling for a reader as they are for you. You have to make sure your worldbuilding is consistent and logical and easy to understand.

Some people outline heavily before starting page one. Some people have a sticky note of “beginning middle end” and run off that. Some have whole folders of different documents to keep track of all their elements. Everyone’s writing process is different, but it is a process, not a one-and-done. It requires revisions, seeking feedback, implementing that feedback, and more revisions until it’s as good as it can be.

Yes, you need to edit. No, you’re not the writing god who penned perfection on your first try. Maybe a piece of your story is perfect on the first draft, but not the whole thing from start to finish. It’s okay that your story isn’t what you thought it would be when you started, and it’s no failing of you as a writer to need edits or even massive changes. It happens to everyone.

7. “Writing is easy, thus it’s not a real job”

Really the notion that creatives are lesser than corporate business people solving problems that their business created. But specifically for writing, the idea that it’s just putting words on a page, thus it’s easy and anyone can do it, so it’s not impressive or deserving of praise and you really need a real job (you probably will because writing doesn’t make much money for most people, but that’s just how it shakes out).

I know ENNS won’t appeal to everyone. I know there will be people who hate my characters, who don’t understand them or don’t agree with their philosophies or find my writing trite and too lean and not ~immersive~. I know there’ll be homophobes out there who won’t even read it but hear about it and make assumptions and will leave me crap reviews. I know it’s not the greatest supernatural fantasy novel ever written.

I’m not in it to make money or get a movie deal and see my merch all over the shelves and get my own theme park. I write so that even one reader might see themselves in my characters and know they’re not alone. So that even one reader has one of my characters as their favorite and that character motivates them to do the Thing or keep moving forward or be brave enough to finally do whatever they’ve been too afraid to attempt before. I want to help people, even if at the end of the day, my writing only helps myself.

Yes I need supplemental income (who doesn’t these days). It’s the way of the world. But I’m doing what I love in my free time and it is a real job because it takes work, and it might not have monetary value but its value to me is priceless.

#writing #writing advice #writing resources #writing a book #writing tips #writing tools #writeblr #what no one tells you about writing #the writing process #long post

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besttropeveershowdown · 6 months ago

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The Most Annoying Trope Showdown: Round 2, Poll 12

Darker and Edgier

The tone of a work shifts to become darker.

Propaganda:

Remember when everyone was making grimdark dystopias after Watchmen got popular? — When done wrong it is laughably bad and a self-making parody of the source material.

Aliens are Bastards

Aliens appear only to cause havoc amongst humans and for no other tangible reason. Even if they have an ulterior motive, it's always going to be something that requires the death of all humans or something along those lines.

Propaganda:

This one's obvious- we would be the evil aliens. We're just projecting. The handful of alien movies that avoid this trope are the ones that get remembered, while the violent unconsidered aliens are lost to time.

#the worst trope ever showdown #wtes polls #anti tropeaganda #darker and edgier #aliens are bastards

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fairytale-poll · 5 months ago

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WORST MODERN ADAPTATION! SEMIFINAL ROUND, MATCH 1 OUT OF 2!

Sydney White (2007) is based off Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Beastly (2011) is based off Beauty and the Beast.

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Sydney White (2007):

Sydney White has lived rent free in my head for the last 17 years because the levels of bad it reaches is unprecidented. It was only when I forced one of my friends to watch it recently that I found out what makes it stand out. Yes, it's dumb. Yes, it stereotypes geeky guys to a level only rivaled by The Big Bang Theory. Yes, everything about its premise makes negative sense. No, college does not work how this movie thinks it works. But the main problem is that it does not commit to the level of absurdity it needs to make any of that work. Sydney White is a movie that should either take place in an alternate universe, or it should commit to realism. It does neither. It is a movie that expects us to accept that university student counsels have any sort of power, let alone complete control over university discretionary funds. It expects us to believe that a MySpace poll of which girl is the hottest matters in any way whatsoever. (This movie came out in 2007). It's a movie that expect us to accept that any college would allow students to live in a building that is in no way up to code, and that would let a female student live in a house with seven male ones and not expect to get sued into oblivion. Which would be fine if it was set in an alternate universe. An urban fantasy, or a dystopia, or literally any world that would justify its premise. But it isn't. It's set in our real, modern-day world, trying to make the audience believe that anything that happens in it is in any way realistic or reasonable. Add a villain who gets off with minimal consequences (her only punishment is being kicked out of her sorority and off the student council, things that literally will not matter in the long term) and a cast of extremely boring and one-note characters, and it's a terrible movie that I can never, ever forget. (This is the cliffnotes version of a video review I'm writing on the subject.)

Beastly (2011):

Just watch Jenny Nicholson's Beastly video but some key points Vaguely racist and ableist Nonsensical Plot Little Chemistry between lead actors I hear the book is better tho

*gestures vaguely at the whole movie* just, all of it.

There's a Jenny Nicolson video that details why it's a Terrible modern adaptation

#sydney white #beastly #amanda bynes #vanessa hudgens #alex pettyfer #poll tournament #poll bracket #polls #fairytale #fairy tale #snow white and the seven dwarfs #beauty and the beast #round 3 #semifinals #worst modern bracket #worst modern bracket semifinals

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sexiestpodcastcharacter · 1 year ago

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Sexiest Podcast Character — Scripted Bracket — Round 2

Propaganda

Oleta (Within The Wires: Season 1):

Amnesiac escapee getting walked through a way out of a dystopia by her girlfriend the narrator. Doesn’t actually say anything since she’s listening to the relaxation tapes but still! Listen to that narrator go.

more Oleta propaganda because she sure does say some stuff offmic!!

laughs like she's getting away with something. often she is getting away with something but she laughs like it even when she's not

is so ready to risk it all and bust out of the institute at the first opportunity that Hester has to remind her several times not to try escaping until she's been given all of the information about The Plan

is a sound engineer. an obviously sexy trade

knowingly risked arrest to continue saying hi to her sister every day. got very elaborate about it

has good taste (reads ursula k le guin and listens to siouxsie and the banshees)

appreciates art by asking speculqtive questions about it

Strelitzia (Additional Postage Required):

women..............................................in space

A true boss babe, not in the #girlboss way, but in the "I care deeply about my city and see how it's crumbling under the weight of its tourist economy, and I am willing to commit some domestic terrorism to try to improve things in the long run" way

Vote Strelitzia!

Our own Strelitzia [Last Name Redacted] has made it to a sacred and significant competition. A vote for Strelitzia is not just a vote for series scripted podcast character - it's a vote for all of New Penzance!

Oh hey I voiced that character, hi! Vote Strelitzia y’all, she rocks

#Round 2 #Oleta #Strelitzia #Within the Wires #Additional Postage Required

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themerlinlibrary · 18 days ago

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Favourites Friday (Aug 2024) – Arranged Marriage

TML Favourites Friday round-up! August 2024 round 2

What is Favourites Friday? – The Basics

a different theme is announced on Friday each week; FF recs must match the theme of the week

only one FF rec per person per week/theme

FF recs must be unique within that week/theme; no double-posting the same fic for one theme!

no self-recs during regular rounds

only self-recs during self-rec rounds (last Friday of each month)

Theme for week 2: Arranged Marriage!

Counterpoint by PlaneJane E, 56k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Dystopia AU

and you held me tightly ('til the morning) by Imagined M, 16k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Canon era, druid leader Merlin

At Arm's Length by sirencalls T, 9.1k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Canon Divergence AU, friends to lovers

To speak the whole truth (in prayers, words and thoughts) by GonEwiththeWolveS T, 11k, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Canon Divergence AU

To Love, Honor, and Piss Off by thenerdyindividual T, 65k, Merlin/Arthur Canon era

Run into the Unknown by thenerdyindividual M, 14k, Merlin/Gwaine Canon divergence

A masterlist of all round-ups can be found here.

If you want to make sure you never miss a FF rec, or would like to participate and share your own favourites; join us on the Discord TheMerlinLibrary! Happy reading!

About the FF round-up lists:

Recs are listed in the order they were posted on the Discord; the order does not imply any sort of ranking.

The pairing given in this list is the main pairing of each respective fic – please read the tags for any possible minor or side-pairings, as well as any potential warnings or triggers.

Pairings and Eras are given as tagged in each respective fic. (?) signifies that the tags were unclear and I do not know enough about the fic to fill the gaps.

Round-ups are compiled on the weekend of the week after the respective theme of the post (when the new theme has already been anounced), to avoid omitting potentially belated FF recs.

The weekly round-up is not a guarantee! I'm running this alone, so it can only be posted for weeks when I have enough time on my hands to compile a list. If you'd like to help out, feel free to contact me on Tumblr ( @zaharya ) or Discord. Thanks to @ravenwilds for helping me out with these round-ups, and to Chel for making a whole-ass bot to make it easier!

#the merlin library #tml #favourites friday #ff #merlin #merlin discord #favorite #recs #fic recs #arranged marriage

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gayelderstourney · 1 year ago

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OLD MAN YAOI BRACKET ROUND 1

Propaganda:

Sir Alistair Hammerlock/Wainwright Jakobs:

THEY ARE CANONICALLY MARRIED!!!!! THEY ARE FORCE/FINESSE SUN/MOON SALT/SUGAR. THEY ARE SILLY GENTLEMEN WHO ARE IN LOVE. HAMMERLOCK IS A VICTORIAN BIG GAME HUNTER LIFTED STRAIGHT FROM A STEAMPUNK NOVEL WHO IS ALL ABOUT ADVENTURE AND WAINWRIGHT IS A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN HEIR TO A GUN MANUFACTURING MEGACORPORATION WHO HAS SMALL AMBITIONS. OPPOSITES ATTRACT ULTIMATE INCARNATION. THE THEMES AND MOTIFS AND PARALLELS BETWEEN THEM ARE IMPECCABLE. THEY SUPPORT EACHOTHER UNCONDITIONALLY AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY. HAMMERLOCK THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DIE AND HE RECORDED WHAT HE THOUGHT WERE GOING TO BE HIS LAST WORDS AND HE SAYS, I QUOTE: "but I long not for death seeking adventures, but instead for one… last… peaceful… moment… with you. I love you, Wainwright. Farewell." DID I MENTION HAMMERLOCK HAS A NICKNAME FOR WAINWRIGHT. HE CALLS HIM Winny AND IT MELTS MY HEART EVERY TIME. GOD THEY GET MARRIED IN THE CORPSE OF AN ELDRITCH GOD AND THEIR WEDDING IS AN ENTIRE DLC. IT ALSO COVERS THEIR RESPECTIVE DOUBTS THAT MAYBE THEY AREN'T THE RIGHT MAN FOR EACHOTHER BUT IN THE END THEY REALIZE THAT IT'S NOT TRUE AND THE OTHER LOVES HIM SO SO SO MUCH JUST LIKE HE IS. I AM SO SO AUTISTIC ABT THEM THEY ARE PEAK OLD MAN YAOI BUT THEY ARE VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN IN THE OLD MAN YAOI COMMUNITY. PLEASE.

They have an entire DLC about their wedding. Their base game story arc starts with Wainwright calling you to ask you to go on a rescue mission to save Hammerlock and calling him the love of his life.

There is a whole game DLC dedicated to their canonical marriage, they constantly call each other by pet names, every single time they talk about one another there is passion in their voices, they express how much they love and care for each other.

Irving Bailiff/Burt Goodman:

they are TRAPPED in capitalist dystopian hell and yet gay love persists. literally they are fighting for their got damn lives to be gay. they've been subjected to evil fucked up brain surgery to make them forget who they are outside of the workplace and yet. AND YET. they fall in love INSIDE the workplace and gain the desire to fight their oppressors so they can do old man yaoi activities. i forgot to take my adderall today sorry im not forming coherent thoughts but they made christopher walken yaoi real

They have only ever experienced being at work and are desperately trying to find meaning with no memory of the outside world. Fraternization is against the rules as well. The yearning is so much.

they are 2 sad old men who are in forbidden love. they bond over a mutal love of corporate art & company tote bags. their love inspired Irving to rebel against his employers for the first time ever. Burt is even Christopher Walken.

They’re so quietly sweet and heart-wrenching… fell in love on the ‘inside’ (they both work a job that ‘severs’ their work memories from their out-of-work memories; inside the job, they have no idea who they are on the outside or what the world is like, but they found each other and found a little bit of love and meaning and happiness inside the nightmare corporate world that is their job)

canonically in love with each other! in the show people sever their consciousness so they aren't aware when they're working. this creates a separate person that only exists while they're at the office, who doesn't share any memories with the person they are on the outside. these two old men bond and find comfort in each other despite the dystopian hell situation they're in

Old men having a forbidden romance while stuck in a hellish workplace dystopia

These two old men know nothing outside of their company propaganda, which says romance is forbidden, and they still choose each other. They bond over paintings, discuss company policy in each other's arms like they're debating scripture on whether their love is allowed. They're sooo gay and it's so sweet to see true, canonical old man yaoi

Weird old man office romance except they only exist inside the bounds of the world’s worst office building and they go on a little date to a room full of plastic plants

#polls #round 1 #gay elders tourney #tournament poll #sir alistair hammerlock #wainwright jakobs #borderlands #wainlock #irving bailiff #burt goodman #severance

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thehorrortree · 1 year ago

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Deadline: April 15th, 2024 Payment: Fiction: 2¢ per word for original, 1¢ per word for reprints. Poetry: $20 per original poem and $10 for reprints. Theme: Stories and poetry containing elements of science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, or dystopia. Note: Reprints Welcome Submission Guidelines Radon welcomes short stories and poetry containing elements of science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, or dystopia. We publish quality work every January, May, and September. Submissions accepted year-round. Simultaneous subs are welcome. Reprints taken if writer has rights. AI submissions are not allowed. Please click below to submit your work through our no-fee Submittable: SubmittableWe kindly request a third person bio that is 100-words or shorter in your cover letter.Author rights: For original work, Radon asks for first English digital rights and non-exclusive, indefinite archival rights. Authors published in Radon cannot be accepted into the issue immediately following, but may submit after this period. Our reading periods are: January issue: Aug. 16 - Dec. 15 May issue: Dec. 16 - April 15 September issue: April 16 - Aug. 15 Prose We accept flash fiction and short story submissions up to 3,000 words. Radon pays a semi-professional rate of 2¢ per word for original work and 1¢ for reprints. For quicker processing, please use a submission style similar to the modern manuscript format. We ask that you utilize single-spacing. Please note that we do not publish fantasy stories and are looking for work that includes leftist social commentary. Poetry Please submit up to five poems in a single Word document. There is no line limit. Radon pays a semi-professional rate of $20 per original poem and $10 for reprints.We request single-spaced formatting using a standard 12pt font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, or Lato. The poetry editor prefers free verse poems with narrative elements. Page and spoken word poems are equally welcome. Are you an artist? Radon is looking for evocative digital art to showcase in our published issues and on our website. We pay $100 for issue cover art, $30 for back cover art, and $20 for art used on our site. Please use our Submittable system to submit your art, accessible via the Submit button on this page. Due to ethical concerns, we do not accept AI-generated artwork. As an online publisher, we request digital artwork that is at least 300 DPI. Cover art submissions should fit in a 5.5 x 8.5 aspect ratio. Via: Radon Journal.

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starkparade · 3 months ago

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Title: with you (in never-ending twilight) Ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Universe: Avengers: Twilight (comic) Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Dystopia, Referenced Past Torture, Growing Old, Loss of Body Parts, Prosthetic Suit, Body Dysmorphia, Angst and Feels, Love Confessions, Getting Together, Smut, Hand Jobs, First Time, Fix-It of Sorts, Hopeful Ending Word Count: 5100

Summary: In the dystopian future of Avengers: Twilight, Steve found out that Tony had survived the devastating H-Day that had claimed the lives of many heroes and led to the rise of a totalitarian government twenty years ago. After Steve rescues Tony from captivity, they must face their feelings for each other. The problem is, Tony's body is now reduced to his disembodied head. How could he ever be good enough for Steve like this?

The title is from this poem offered by Lights on Park Ave Round 55 because I just couldn't resist after seeing the word twilight in it! I also used this gif set and this qoute for inspiration because the current theme is apparently a perfect fit for Avengers Twilight stevetony!

Written for: @lightsonparkave Round 55: The Undying @tonystarkbingo Round 8: R4 - picture prompt (Iron Man armor) @cap-ironman STONY BINGO! 2024 Round 2: O3 - free space

#lightsonparkave #stony bingo fill #tsb8 #stevetony #stony #fanfic #fics by starkparade

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wordstro · 10 months ago

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[2] sector one: post-apocalypse au + mingi + "it's for my friend."

a/n: 3.2k words, gender neutral reader, mingi x y/n, post apocalypse/dystopia typical violence, baker!yn

part 1 | series masterlist | part 3

you liked baking focaccia. dimpling the bread calmed you.

you also liked learning combat. just in case you needed to run. just in case. combat was not as calming as the hours you spent baking, but it was important. complacency would be dangerous, and that thought remained a nagging voice at the back of your head.

for weeks now you attended ms. hyori's combat training sessions on your days off from the bakery, but ms. hyori had an accident where she'd slipped from one of the watchtower ladders and broke her ankle so she's been stuck on sewing duty - she hated it, if her constant, very loud groaning that could be heard throughout the compound was anything to go by.

unfortunately for sector one, the medic was a temporary replacement after the previous one had died on a medical supply run, and sector one still had not found a medic with actual working medical knowledge. this had been a problem since before you'd even entered sector one. unfortunately, training people who spent years spent within the walls of sector one with a measly tattered medical textbook only created a group of medics that could treat nothing worse than cuts, scrapes, and sprains.

injuries such as hyori's were treated mostly with bandages and strict rest orders to ensure that they healed properly; at least this was what yeri had told you the other day as you both worked on a round of focaccia bread from possibly expired yeast scavenger crew three found near a rundown gas station. broken bones often did not heal right before the Invasion; you could not imagine dealing with one now.

when you arrive at the training grounds, everyone else is already discussing who would replace ms. hyori, their hushed voices mixing with the early morning chirping from the birds. despite everything, nature kept on, and you always figured that was how the end of the world would go. hearing it and seeing it firsthand, though, was still jarring.

"morning, everyone," joy's soft, airy voice fills the training grounds. though she isn't loud, her voice echoes, and it seems to capture the attention of everyone instantly. even the early morning birds get quieter. joy strides to the front, people stepping aside to make room for her. there were two people trailing behind her.

joy has a bright smile on her face, her eyes sparkling, as she turns to face the group. the two unfamiliar people at her shoulders - one tall and the other shorter, but both angular, made rugged by their days beyond the wall, no doubt, with matching knitted brows, watchful eyes, and an air to them that you knew meant they were New - merely loomed behind her, like a brewing storm.

joy gestures to the two men beside her. the tall one towers over her, a looming figure with a quiet, intense aura. somehow the shorter one is scarier, his features sharp. he looks like the type of man that would have been casted in a television show about gangs.

the tall one, though terrifying in his height and stoic demeanor, appears almost docile in nature, gentler, in comparison. he keeps his distance from joy, you notice, but his eyes flit over the class attendees, lingering on each of you as if he is making mental notes in his head. he is rightfully wary, but he did not seem explosive or impulsive, which was hard to come by in this new world where many attacked first and asked questions last.

"as you may have already heard, hyori is out indefinitely until she's fully recovered. luckily for us, a couple newcomers have enthusiastically agreed to help with combat training during this time slot."

joy waves at the two men. neither of them look remotely enthusiastic.

"hyori has given them her approval, so i'm sure they'll do great. everyone, meet san," joy gestures to the shorter, sharp-featured man. his name suited him, his demeanor jagged like a mountain. joy turns, craning her neck to look up at the tall man, smiling brightly as she points at him, "and mingi. i know you all have things to do, so i won't keep you any longer. i hope you all treat each other kindly. san, mingi, if you need anything you know where to find me."

joy waves as she leaves, her personal guard following behind her. you stare at the two men.

mingi. back Before you would have thought this was merely a coincidence, but the world was truly small nowadays so coincidences no longer existed, at least not with names. this had to be that mingi. chocolate chip mingi. yeosang's friend.

yeosang comes by at least three times a week to request pastries. it was not the norm, really, and the kitchen head often looked down upon such a thing, but you allowed it. you liked the company, and he seemed more relaxed with each visit. it fascinated you, watching him open up to you so slowly. unfortunately, you didn't have chocolate chip cookies, as that last bit of chocolate chips was devoured quite quickly by dinner time the very same day you met yeosang, but you you still referred to yeosang's friend as the chocolate chip man. yeosang's friend who was named mingi. who is here in front of you. you you could finally put a face to.

yeosang never really bothered to bring mingi around.

"i swear you only come around here so you can get first dibs on any fresh batches," you muttered after you swatted yeosang's hand away when he tried to pick at a scone you'd just pulled from the oven.

"it's for my friend," yeosang said, "he's sad."

"yeah, yeah, yeah," you'd rolled your eyes, "i'm starting to think this sad chocolate chip man isn't real."

yeosang had laughed, but he did not say anything to refute your half-assed joke. you still gave him an extra scone before shooing him away from your kitchen.

you'd started to think you might have liked yeosang's company.

most importantly, you started to think his friend did not exist. perhaps yeosang needed company himself, and had no idea how to ask for it. you understood that need; you've had plenty of newcomers linger in your kitchen in search of someone to listen as they rambled on and on. yeosang mostly lurked in your kitchen in silence though. so clearly, this mingi was not real.

except now you know he is very much real.

mingi's eyes meets yours over a few heads, and you find yourself quickly looking away first, shuffling from foot to foot as you focus your attention on san. you feel as if you know him, when he likely has no idea who you are.

"...start with a few simple stretches and then i want you to show me your defensive st..." san's voice drones.

~.~.~.~.~

the rest of the session is quick, and on par with hyori's level of skill, though san and mingi clearly lack her positivity. san does not smile once, and mingi did not speak. somehow, san's intimidating, piercing stares and one-worded corrections as he walked around the training field is motivating though, because the class seemed much more serious this morning than you've ever thought it'd be.

when you first arrived at sector one, the disregard in everyone's demeanor had put you off. it was disconcerting, to think that you'd spent so long living in constant vigilance, while everyone here treated important things such as combat training like it was a boxing class at a local gym.

even after so much time in sector one, the nonchalance still bothered you. you could not shake the fear and anxiety, despite everything. san's stoic demeanor brings with it a sense of urgency in the other members of sector one that you often did not see. perhaps it was more present in those who did supply runs or worked outside the wall, but not in classes like this. it's as if his wariness is contagious.

where san is stoic, his directions short and his patience shorter, mingi does not say a word. he merely taps on shoulders, taps at incorrect points in someone's form, and demonstrates the correct form over and over until the person understands. he certainly has patience, and his presence draws command, despite his inability to speak. you find your eyes drifting to him, even as you try to keep your focus on san.

after class, you sit sprawled in the grass, fanning yourself. the sun has gotten hotter over the last few days, and sweat drips down your back at the simplest of tasks.

san and mingi are talking quietly as the other sector one training session attendees disperse. you didn't think mingi could speak, but it seemed he could, but he chose not to.

"hey, mingi, san!" a familiar voice calls. yeosang appears, waving at mingi and san. so, this is chocolate chip mingi. "do either of you want to -"

yeosang cuts himself off when san walks away mid-sentence, disappearing into the shower rooms at the edge of the training field. he did not look back or acknowledge yeosang. yeosang stares after him, a long look that has you scrambling to your feet, suddenly feeling as if you are intruding on something that was none of your business.

being nosy, though tempting, only spelled trouble, Before and After. besides, the secondhand embarrassment curling at the pit of your stomach as you watched yeosang's shoulders droop and his smile slip from his face was enough to have you scurry to the showers as quickly as you could.

~.~.~.~.~

"it seems this mingi character is in fact very real," you say to yeosang moments after he appears like clockwork at the door of your kitchen the next day.

"what?"

"so it turned out my new combat instructor's name is mingi."

"oh," yeosang nods. "yeah, joy's forced us all to take up hobbies."

there's scorn in his tone as he spits out the last word. you laugh and he scowls at you as you say, "so what does she have you doing?"

"take care of the livestock," yeosang mutters.

"that sounds nice." it did. sector one only had a handful of cattle and chicken, but they were sweet. joy mentioned during your tour that the cattle would not be used for meat unless absolutely necessary, as their manure and milk were more beneficial to the compound. the chicken were used solely for their eggs. it was as if joy was giving you reassurance, as if you were allowed to get attached to these animals if you wanted to, because they would remain. she listed it off as if she'd repeated the same sentiment time and time again.

"well, it's not nice." yeosang rolls his eyes, "it smells like shit."

"sounds like cuddling a cow or two would do you some good, yeosang."

yeosang glares at you, "that is exactly what joy said."

"and now you have a second opinion."

yeosang's glare deepens, but he keeps his mouth shut.

you cut the sourdough loaf in front of you into thin slices. the crunch as you slice into the bread with your dull knife fills the room for a long moment.

"it's so fucking stupid."

you look up at yeosang, "what is?"

yeosang gestures around you both, "all of this. everything is so...nice, and it's fucking insane. how do any of you...why is everyone so..."

yeosang's frown only deepens as he crosses his arms over his chest.

"normal?" you finish for him.

he nods, "it's fucking insane."

you'd thought the same thing, when you were alone in your little cot in your tiny room - it was a little brick room that fit a small cot, a tiny rickety chair, and a scratched up table that you were sure they'd swiped from a school. your clothes were stacked neatly in a woven basket you'd made yourself the first few weeks after you'd arrived. it wasn't much, and you figured the single rooms were so tiny so no one would spend all their time in their rooms - you spent countless nights staring up at the stone ceilings, counting scratches on the brick or missing pieces in the grout, and wondered the same thing. how was this sane? what if the compound was attacked? would anyone be prepared? what if none of this was real, and you'd succumbed to some kind of madness? how was everyone okay with pretending things were normal?

you still wonder the same thing. but the thing is, more often than not you find yourself looking forward to your shifts in the bakery. you watch exhausted smiles stretch across the faces of people - fellow survivors - as they bite into fresh bread or a sweet treat you'd made, and you understand it. it feels like living again. you hadn't had the chance before the invasion, really. everyday, rumors spread of new couples dating. two pregnancies were announced during your time here. it's insane, and you think everyone around you knew it as well. yet you congratulated them anyway. you kept an escape bag under your bed just in case. yet you returned to your kitchen shift like clockwork. you understood it so well. was that naive of you? of all of you?

you wipe your hands on your apron and you say, "why do you come here everyday asking for sweets for mingi?"

yeosang frowns, tone harsh, "why the fuck does that matter?"

you glare at him, matching his harsh tone, "do you think you're the only person in this entire compound that comes here asking for fresh bread or something sweet for a friend? everybody is just trying to cope. is it a little insane? probably, but who the hell are you to judge when you're the same?"

yeosang maintains his scowl, his lips pressed into a thin line. he says, "i don't trust places like this. you're an idiot if you do."

"do you think i do?" you snap back.

yeosang scoffs, "whatever."

you watch as he rolls his eyes, turns on his heels and storms off, a whirlwind of anger, and you wonder if yeosang had a bad experience with settlements like this before. you'd ran from a previous group when they started plans to settle. yeosang did not seem like the type to run from things before they got difficult, at least not the way you did.

~.~.~.~.~

"partner up!" san calls out, clapping his hands as he looks around expectantly. "we're going to practice one-on-one now."

there's been an influx of participants in this particular class ever since last week - likely due to whispers of the new instructors. yeri had mentioned to you how dreamy the newbies were, especially the tall kind medic who she assisted the other day. you did not blame them, really. san is handsome, in an angst-ridden sort of way - a rugged mysterious man whose serious demeanor leaves everyone wanting to know more. mingi was a chiseled handsome, more sad than anything else to you, and, frankly, you found it fascinating how quiet he was. but most of all, you liked that he seemed gentle, like he would not even hurt a fly. his presence made you more comfortable than san's for that reason.

"you're the baker right?" you turn at the voice.

a man with longer black hair, tanned skin, a stocky build, and twinkling eyes crosses his arms over his chest as he peers at you.

you frown, "yeah, i am. why are you asking?"

"let's partner up," he says, ignoring your question. he does not smile as he holds a hand out, though he does keep talking, "i'm wooyoung. i'm new."

you introduce yourself, and his expression twitches. you watch as he settles into a fighting stance, fists in front of his face, legs solid and wide. you settle into your own fighting stance.

san calls for you all to start, his voice ringing through the training fields.

wooyoung says, "so you're the one who's upset yeosang."

he says it more as a statement rather than a question. you blink in surprise. you hadn't seen yeosang since he walked out. you wondered where he was - maybe you even worried a bit - but at the end of the day you and yeosang were not friends, so did it really matter if you checked on him or asked around about him?

"i..." you frown at wooyoung, "he upset himself."

wooyoung's eyes narrow. suddenly he lunges at you. you're unprepared for when he easily side swipes your limp hands and pulls your hands back, shoving you into the ground. you certainly eat dirt. wooyoung lets go of you pretty quickly. you glare at him, "what the fuck was that for?"

wooyoung shrugs, says, "you should have been ready."

you get to your feet, swinging at him as soon as you do, but wooyoung is ready. he's too good at hand-to-hand combat. it pisses you off. he grabs your wrist and twists it until you're turned with your back to him. then he jabs you in the knees and you collapse. he lets go of you, stepping into your view.

you rub your twisted arm, bewildered, "are you serious? is this because yeosang is upset?"

wooyoung hums, "nah that last one was because you used up my entire chocolate chip stash."

before you can say anything, someone clears their throat behind you. wooyoung's flick up behind you and you turn from where you are still sitting on the floor clutching your arm.

mingi looms over you, nearly blocking out the sun. he is a shadowed outline, his chiseled features softened by the shadows he casts. his hands are stuffed into his pockets, and he does not say a word. he just holds out a hand towards you. you take his hand, and he easily hauls you up to your feet.

wooyoung rolls his eyes, "i'm just having a bit of fun."

"you're being mean." mingi says. you startle at his voice. it's a deep rumble, a little raspy. you look between mingi and wooyoung, as they both seem to have a conversation with only their eyes, leaving you to stand awkwardly in silence between them.

wooyoung throws his hands in the air, "whatever, i'll spar with san."

you watch wooyoung stalk away, and all you can think about is that those chocolate chips must have come from the newbies. from yeosang and his friends. why didn't joy tell you when she gave you the bag? all you can think about is wooyoung clearly being pissed at you because yeosang was upset. protectiveness like that was normal these days, though you found such codependency dangerous. you were with a group once who would kill people just for looking at them the wrong way. it was dangerous and strange, and you were never one for codependency, even back before the invasion.

"thanks for that," you say, after a beat of silence.

mingi just shrugs.

the silence lasts another moment before you add, "i'm y/n."

mingi smiles then, even as he says, "the baker."

you nod, unable to help your own smile. his smile is infectious, all gummy and sweet, adding an unexpected charm to his expression. you laugh a little as you say, "yeah, the baker."

#ateez scenarios #ateez angst #mingi angst #mingi scenarios #ateez #mingi #itpfl #sector one

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tilbageidanmark · 23 days ago

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MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #206:

9 MORE POST-DOGMA DANISH FILMS:

🍿 I probably seen RIDERS OF JUSTICE 12-15 times already, and I just can't get enough of Anders Thomas Jensen's 2020 brilliant thrill ride. It's an absolutely perfect movie, perfectly-told. The level of nuanced cinematic story-telling here is as good as any movie I've seen. It's about fate and chance, the power of coincidences and healing, about grief and mental health, and a fraught relationship between a father and daughter...

Watching it around now is even better, because it's actually a Christmas fairy tale (although a tale that include PTSD, sodomy, death of a mother, sale of a child (alleged), and intense bloodshed and gang violence.) 10/10 re-watch ♻️.

🍿 The new FAMILIES LIKE OURS which just premiered on Danish TV, is my 6th by Thomas Vinterberg, and his first miniseries. It has a terrific premise: Because of rising sea level, flatland Denmark [whose highest hilltop is 186 meter] is about to be completely flooded, and all its citizens must evacuate to other countries. So the nice, middle-class society which was used to life of civility and leisure, become climate refugees among other European countries, who may or may not be interested to have a new flood of immigrants among them.

Instead of creating over-dramatic situations, Vinterberg concentrates on the interpersonal travails of the members of one extended family, some more interesting than others. Eventually, the 7 hour-long saga becomes a bit too lengthy and kind of stodgy - a condensed 2 hour version would have been so much more effective. 4/10.

🍿 LAST ROUND (1993) was Vinterberg's film school graduation short. Young Thomas Bo Larsen has terminal leukemia, so he parties hard in his last night in town. But it's an unconvincing, nervous, childish effort.

🍿 THE IDIOTS WHO STARTED THE PARTY is a celebration of the Dogma 95 movement, on its 25th anniversary in 2020. Exciting recollections by members of the collective, as well as interviews with my old film professor from the University, Peter Schepelern! (Photos Above).

The 10 "Rules of Chastity" which they defined and enforced were gimmicky and off-putting, and out of the 35 movies made in this style, only a few are worth watching today. But it definitely built a highly-successful 'New Wave', it energised a whole generation of local filmmakers, and it re-established the Danish film-scene into an international powerhouse.

🍿 WHEN DANISH FILM CROSSES THE LINE (2020) is another Denmark Radio documentary about the most controversial Danish films, From Benjamin Christensen's 'Häxan' (which I haven't seen yet) and Asta Nielsen's 'The Abyss', to 'A stranger knocks' and Lars von Trier. Denmark was the first country to legalize pornography in 1969, so there's plenty of sex involved, but also violence, animal abuse, profanity and atheism, sometimes all at once. Among the talking heads, Peter Schepelern again puts things in prospective! [*Female Director*]

🍿 ØDELAND (WASTELAND) (2015), an unusual film school short - not from Copenhagen, but from the the town of Odense on Fyn . A live action doomsday dystopia, similar to 'The Road', very low-budget but fully accomplished. A father and his teenage daughter, among the last survivors, must use extreme caution when they run across a deaf, traumatized boy. Found at random on YouTube, and surprised that the director never broke through.

🍿 Susanne Bier directed 6 of Anders Thomas Jensen's manuscripts (including my all-time favorite 'After the wedding'). OPEN HEARTS (2002) is the only one I haven't seen until now. It's different from his usual fare, being a straight love melodrama with a strong, domestic plot; A driving mother causes an accident that paralyses a young man who's preparing to get married. Mixed-up doctor Mads Mikkelsen, the driver's husband, falls in love with the fiancé of the paralyzed man, and eventually leaves his family for her. It's a small mess.

There's a lot of fawning online, both gay and hetero, over sexy Mads Mikkelsen. This film surely created much of this fawning: he is playing here an ordinary guy, not a hero, who's just deliciously lovable. [*Female Director*]

🍿 Also, two of Mads Mikkelsen's earliest films: In his very first film, CAFÉ HECTOR, Mads has a small cameo, while the main character is played by his real-life brother, actor Lars Mikkelsen. An affected little make-believe story about a social outcast pretending to be Travis Bickle who actually gets to stop and kill a real psychopath with a gun. Surprisingly, this is also one of Anders Thomas Jensen's first works as a writer. 1/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 THE CARETAKER (1997), a little nightmarish Noir about a man watching a woman with binoculars, sees a murder, maybe not. Some surrealist touches, cockroaches crawling in the ceiling, bloody hand - M'eh.

🍿 The "romantic" comedy ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS (2000), my second by Lone Scherfig. But while 'An Education' was wonderful, this one was unpleasant all the way through. Not only the low-cost, indie, badly lit and noisy vibes, but none of the clumsy, meek and fumbling characters were endearing. There are two abusive parents (who fortunately and separately, die), and especially the main dude, Hal-Finn, is a real asshole but whom everybody tolerate. And they all want to learn Italian, for some reason. Pass! [*Female Director*]

🍿

ROSE HOBART was a 1936 experimental collage film, an early re-purposing of found footage. It comprised mostly from snippets of Rose Hobart, the main actress of 'East of Borneo' which Joseph Cornell, the shy avant-garde artist who made it was obsessed with, making it also an early 'fan-edit'. Salvador Dali disrupted in rage during the premier of this film which he attended, claiming that Cornell stole the idea "from Dali subconscious". Selected for the 'National Film Registry' in 2001.

🍿

4 SHORTS BY GERMAN ANIMATOR VOLKER SCHLECHT:

🍿 THE WAITING: "Ecologist Karen Lips lived for several years in a tiny little shack in Costa Rica to observe frogs. When she left the cloud forest for a short time and returned, all the frogs were gone. She set out to find out what happened to them – and encountered a horrible truth. Mysterious deaths occur all over the planet and have a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished? And what does it all have to do with us?"

This outstanding 2023 science animation of a real-life crime mystery won a bunch of awards at film festivals. 9/10.

🍿 In KAPUTT (2016), two women who were political prisoners in East Germany describe the horrific conditions of forced labor and abuse in the notorious central prison at Hoheneck. Hard watch. 10/10.

🍿 GERMANIA WURST (2008) is a semi-humorous rundown of Germanic history, from the Holy Roman Empire to the present day. He serves it sliced with bouts of sausage making and lively military march music. Terrific! 8/10.

🍿 NOTHING ELSE (2001), Schlecht's second film, more of a mood piece about tiny gestures on a train ride.

🍿

MORE FROM FREAK OF NATURE RICHARD CONDIE:

🍿 Re-watch♻️: Isn't his 1985 THE BIG SNIT the best Canadian movie ever made? Yes, it is. And why is there a giant Goodyear Tire in one of the rooms? 10/10.

🍿 "Moments ago I had everything - Now there's a cow in my nose - Because I opened the stupid door!"

In LA SALLA (1996) a wacky Italian inventor literally loses his head. So much drugs were used during the creations of this film!

🍿 OH, SURE (1977), a very short short about how to make a fool of yourself, even at your old age. Perfect for me.

🍿 In PIGBIRD (1981), a man smuggles a hybrid animal into the country, only to discover too late that it is covered with some nasty ticks. It was actually a PSA for Canadian Customs. 9/10.

🍿 THE APPRENTICE (1991) is another weird, incomprehensible story set in medieval times. Wordless, it's told only through guttural, cacophonous sound effects.

🍿

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA is a new documentary about the first woman whom Leonard Bernstein allowed to play with the all-male New York Philarmonic in 1966, and her illustrious career as a double-bass musician. It features some beautiful music, but the old-time sexist theme is told in the typically pedestrian Netflix style, devoid of air and life. [*Female Director*]

🍿

2 WITH ELEANORA PIENTA:

In PLAISIR (2021) she's a young American seeker who doesn't speak French, but nevertheless comes to the south of France to stay in an art/work commune. It's about the inability to communicate, and not being exactly sure what you know and what you want. Female-focused with a distinct female gaze. [*Female Director*]

🍿 LITTLE CABBAGE is a Southern Gothic of a kind. In 1959 Alabama, a young female composer falls for a black man and goes insane. 1/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

A BUNCH OF SHORTS:

🍿 My first Popeye cartoon, the 1934 A DREAM WALKING. What a terrific piece of art! Popeye and Bluto fight each other to see who will get to save the sleepwalking Olive from the beams of a high-rise construction site. Absolutely thrilling - 10/10.

🍿 "Shag me kindly...?"

LADY PARTS (2018) is the pilot for the series about this all-girl Muslim punk band in Camden. The musicians are one Halal butcher, one Uber driver, one illustrator who sells her art at the open market, and their Niqāb-clad manager working at cheap ladies' lingerie booth. [*Female Director*]

🍿 "Give the kid a bagel!"

A miracle in Brooklyn, and a holiday classic: In 2007 Ken Russell's was challenged to make a film so offensive that even he would want it banned, so he made the absurdist A KITTEN FOR HITLER, with an Oompa-Lumpa playing a little Jewish boy with a swastika tattoo. As much as I hated 'Jo Jo Rabbit'...

🍿 MERMAID (1997), my 5th Pagan/Christian Russian fairy-tale by animator Aleksandr Petrov, done in his recognized style: Pastel oils applied by hand unto glass plates, like moving paintings, making his films seem like blurred dreams.

🍿 When I lived in Norway in 1974, there was a little toddler in the farm, and her favorite TV-characters were the classic KARIUS OG BAKTUS. These two puppets were tooth bacteria that lived in some boy's mouth, and destroyed his teeth. I can see how traumatic was this 1955 horror cartoon for little kids.

🍿 I only watched the Israeli love story SASSI KESHET NEVER EATS FALAFEL (2013) because it had 'Falafel' in its title. It's a stupid reason - just like this film. 1/10.

🍿 "Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty details." Don Herzfeldt's WORLD OF TOMORROW, my second favorite movie of all times. I should start watching it every week... 11/10.

🍿

When I saw the first episode of STONER CATS, I wrote: "I like cats and I like 'stones, so (this) was exactly for me. 5 cats gets stoned when their old lady shares her medicinal delivery stuff with them." But now that I saw the whole first season, I say: Screw that! It was a one joke stretched into an unwatchable lame, thin slop soup. 1/10.

🍿

(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

#Movies #danish movies #Danish cinema #Dogma 95 #mads mikkelsen

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