#scar king is a classic villain though

[photofinder]

saw godzilla x kong

good movie, fun, nothing particularly earth-shattering but I dont think it had to be (nor did it want to be)

but

I'm not sure that Godzilla X Kong was. the best title for it. Whoever came up with it has NO idea what X is used for in fanfiction, clearly...

[kairithemang0]

Disney is such an interesting company, the way it's evolved over time to what it is now. Apart of me is disappointed, another part of me feels as though the current drought of good Disney content was inevitable.

I think about right after Walt died, how the company struggled then. However, even then I think their movies were still good, Robin Hood, the Aristocats, Great Mouse Detective, they're still good movies.

That's the era my parents grew up in, sure looking back on it now you can see the flaws in some of the movies, how the animation wasn't as polished as it was before Walt's passing, but then I compare it to the movies now.

The 2020s haven't been a good decade for Disney, Raya, Strange World, Wish, they all flopped. Encanto only made waves on Disney+, which is a good thing but that's one movie out of 5 that have come out of Disney in the past 4 years

Then you have to look at the remakes, how much money they're getting from those. However, their recent ones are flopping. The public knows what they're doing now, just remaking their old movies isn't going to keep bringing in money. The Lion King, Aladdin, they made over 1 billion dollars, The Little Mermaid? Under 600 million. That's still a lot of money, but Disney is also putting in so much money into these movies just for them to fail. People are sick of the remakes, they're sick of the sequels, but their original products aren't causing any excitement.

I don't know if Disney is still dealing with lost time and profits from Covid, but it's sad to see other studios doing so well only for Disney, who reigned supreme last decade with Moana and Frozen and Wreck it Ralph, to fall behind again

Disney seems to do this a lot, actually. The 80s were bad, the 2000s weren't great, the 2020s are bad again. Maybe the 30s will bring us something good, if Disney gets their act together and figures out what people want again.

People ask for 2d, for that old disney feel to come back. An obviously evil villain. Villains don't need a tragic backstory, they don't need anything, but this twisted foulness, a catchy song, and to be memorably evil.

Scar, Ursula, Lady Tremaine. You look at them and you go "oh yeah, they're evil". Which not to say Disney can't do twist villains, but it fails more often than it succeeds. Turbo was a great twist villain, his motivation was there and he was fun. But Hans? And Yokai? It felt random, out of place, like they were lacking the motivation to be good villains.

Scar wants power, so does Ursula, and Tremaine more of enjoys torturing her adopted daughter. These three are so iconic because they're so unashamedly evil and cruel, they're these powerful figures that spark fear into people who get what they deserve in the end.

But Magnifico? He's so painfully boring, he's so underdeveloped. It's sad, disheartening the way he could've been so interesting and yet fell flat in such a pitiful way.

I sometimes think about once upon a studio, this gorgeous mix of all pieces of disney animated history, every movie in there. No pixar or marvel or star wars, just everyone who started this, who made disney disney. It's such a lovely short, and it just radiates this pure disney energy, vibrant and colorful and magical. That's what disney is missing now, maybe that's me growing up, maybe it's just not for me anymore.

but honestly, i don't think this generation is going to have that nostalgia for disney the way me or my parents did, it's lost that because it feels so manufactured, this charm that only disney could do gone.

a weird way to say this is the new intro that plays at the start of their movies, it just feels so manufactured, like all it wanted to do was slide references into it to remind you of better movies. that 2000s/2010s CGI intro? that's my shit. the basic 2d intro? it's a classic, it's memorable, but this new one just doesn't have that affect

this is one man's opinion on something he once loved, but i'd love to hear other thoughts on what disney has become

[ozaitheestallion]

You said you immediately saw Ozai as being played as a drag queen?? PLEASE elaborate I'm so interested in the way ur mind works ��

Okay so maybe I’m just incredibly fucked up and deep down the queer horror rabbit hole (I’ve been watching a lot of Dragula, American Horror Story and classic horrors lately), but the second you start looking at Ozai through a drag, camp, “classic Disney villain” lens, it’s hard to see him any other way.

Like I watched this show as a kid when I originally aired and like basically everyone, I was absolutely terrified and sickened by Ozai, the shitty dad and ultimate big bad villain who is also not even really the main villain, right? Like that’s Azula or Zhao or whoever. That’s how basically all of us original viewers saw him and how a lot of new viewers still do. Fair enough. Not inaccurate.

However, I didn’t do rewatches of the show again, not until the revival in interest over COVID. I hadn’t rewatched it even once since it originally aired and so therefore I expected my viewpoint to change…but nowhere near as drastically as my view of Ozai did.

I’m not saying Ozai is written to be viewed as a drag character, because of course he isn’t, but as I said, once you start looking at him through that specific lens, you won’t be able to see him any other way.

He’s kept in the shadows unless we need a dramatic scary reveal. He’s constantly making dramatic, prose-filled speeches for the benefit of…like…no one lmao like most his scenes are one on one confrontations. He has a very dramatic design, being a conventionally attractive man yet has that fuck ass goatee, the best eyeliner in the country and more detail put into his hair than any other character gets.

He does his whole reveal as the Phoenix King that goes off without a hitch, perfectly rehearsed. This was a surprise to no one but Azula. He got every damn person in the palace in on this stupid reveal. They already know he’s going to become a new ruler with a new title. They already know. This isn’t for their benefit. He did an entire reveal just for the benefit of his kid. If there’s one thing a queen loves, it’s a dramatic unnecessary reveal.

As he fights Aang, he just keeps making these speeches that a child will either not be interested in or too far away to even hear or appreciate, yet he keeps going anyway.

Right up until the end and then going into the comics, he’s dramatic, bitter and playing everyone against each other even though he has absolutely nothing to gain anymore. He puts Zuko and Azula against each other and antagonises Ursa even though it will gain him nothing and do nothing except kill time. Insults for the sake of insults and mess for the sake of mess. The fact insults of far greater power can be thrown back at him in his position is something he doesn’t even consider. Just messy for the sake of being messy and evil for the sake of being evil.

Ozai would fit nicely alongside classic queer-coded Disney villains like Ursula, Scar, Hades, Maleficent and Captain Hook.

He’s so dramatic and so over the top with his cruelty, his crimes and his villainous actions, yet is completely and utterly committed to the bit he’s doing. There’s no self aware clever jabs like Azula or obvious moment of “look at how ridiculous he is” like with Zhao. Ozai and his writing are completely committed to what he’s doing and burning down the entire world literally by hand, and at no point is it questioned. It’s like watching Divine in a John Waters film. This is simply what the character I doing and you’re the ridiculous one for questing them.

Ozai takes himself so seriously and so literally and is so very offended and genuinely surprised when he’s questioned and called out, (like why on earth would he think burning his son’s face is a valid teaching moment or burning the entire earth kingdom will in any way be a good start to his new empire), that it becomes camp.

This is…extremely long and meandering and tbh I don’t think there’s any way for me to really clearly define why I view Ozai as an example of a classic queer/drag coded villain. If you don’t agree and do take his portrayal as an abusive father and an imperialist tyrant seriously and that’s how you prefer to view the story, then by all means do that. I’m not trying to change your mind.

I’m just saying that sometimes our views of things can change dramatically as we ourselves change as people, and sometimes those changes are extremely entertaining, nonsensical and fun to explore.

Like the IT remakes, some unspeakable horrors can also be viewed and enjoyed as queer adjacent comedies if you look sideways and saying. And sometimes the unspeakable horrors are better that way.

[mdhwrites]

(Owl House question) What do you think of the fandom discourse around Hunter needlessly suffering? A lot of other toh critical posts have been pointing out how Hunter suffers so much but never gets to address any of it, he's just expected to be okay with it in time for the next traumatising thing to happen to him. And I agree. He is a child soldier who literally cut his hair out of a nervous breakdown to not look like Caleb in TTT and later that very episode, after he confesses to finally liking who he is, he gets possessed, gets more scars, loses his first and best friend, and his hair grows right back. And he's never allowed to mourn Flapjack or process any of that (love that the only time he's allowed to be angry about what he's been through is in a dream). Hell, the writers confessed to originally wanting him to be covered in Belos goop in King's Tide and have a breakdown there itself. It's just all suffering, no healing with him.

Plus, he ends the series with long hair, his classic hair noodle, a woodcarver, and possibly dating Willow. He literally just became Caleb. It's so ironic that the writers who made him have a panic attack over looking like Caleb in TTT just transformed him into Caleb so much more potently in the finale, complete with the fact that his personality has been diluted enough to be blank enough for people to just HC him as anything - just like Caleb. And I think that's just so funny cause now Belos got exactly what he wanted. Hunter truly lost himself to just become Caleb by the end. Which wouldn't be a problem if he had not been shown to want to distance himself from Caleb as much as possible.

It all just feels like the writers wanted to give Caleb closure and a happy ending THROUGH Hunter but they sacrificed Hunter's character for that to happen. Not to mention, Hunter has never expressed interest in woodcarving prior. And besides, there was a much easier way to give Caleb closure - just let him be a part of Belos's death. Make him and Evelyn appear even for just a little bit in the finale so they get their closure and so Hunter can remain as himself. Between him not being there for Belos' death and the fact that he never gets to grapple with how he helped Belos even more than Luz did, it feels like he just got done dirty by S3.

Sorry for the jumbled thoughts though, but what do you think?

So I think the first thing one needs to remember is that this show does not like the male characters in it. That's not me accusing the creators of anything or the like, it's just how their writing style comes off. Every male character is evil, was evil, or a joke/was a joke. There are very few exceptions to this, usually requiring them to be dead at this point or debates on if they ever counted as a villain, like Bump in his first appearance theoretically counting.

So, that's the basis for male writing in the show in general. They are not treated as human. Now let's also discuss how members, including ex-members of the EC, are treated. They are treated as jokes, with part of how the EC is portrayed as evil, especially in the long run, being that just joining up with them makes you look like a moron. As such, if you're kicked out of that group, you must be genuinely brain dead in the writer's eyes. The only one that escapes this is Steve... And he's the only who left by choice who gets more than one rant. He is made out to be better than the EC through this enlightenment process. Lilith though? Absolutely loses her competence and intelligence, except for the 'smart character' ways a lot of show do intelligence that fucking sucks once she leaves the Emperor's Coven. Even her trauma with Belos or what she used to have to do is a joke. Remember, 'I'm realizing I was bad at my job' instead of any form of sympathy for just how codependent she is for others approval.

At the intersection of these two problems is Hunter. You have a male character who has to be redeemed but also is too important to be purely a joke. You cannot make him comic relief like Gus, King or Hooty but you also can't make him enlightened eventually like King became late in the series because... Reasons. That's because he's ex-EC. He's a dumbass enough that he didn't leave Belos until his life was at risk which genuinely puts him WORSE than Lilith in the show's mind because Lilith at least did it for someone else.

So kind of the only thing that this writing team, with their skills and how they treat male characters/EC characters, has is to lean into the trauma both for spectacle and for comedy. Look how sad the boy is. Look how mad he is. Look how right Luz was when he pitied him by calling him a sad but mad boy (which sorry Lunter stans, is NOT an endearing term because he wasn't sad in Hunting Palisman. This is Luz just straight up calling him pitiable AT BEST.)

NOW I will actually be fair and say that a full S3 could have genuinely handled this better. It would have had the time to have two episodes, one in each half, about all that was hurting him, at least theoretically. Without making S3 literally only about Hunter (which is the show's own damn fault for S2 making it so only Hunter, Luz and Vee had narrative potential left for human realm stuff) during the three specials, you just can't cover his trauma properly. There's no time for it. One could argue they should have pumped the breaks on it some then but possessed Hunter was one of the few things the fandom actually seemed to like out of Thanks to Them as I saw art of that before Lumity FINALLY dressing up canonically as Hecate and Azura. People REALLY liked that twist and Flapjack's death at least gave a large amount of spectacle that was different from the last time the cast got their ass kicked by Belos ONE EPISODE AGO.

And frankly while I started this with one potential explanation for why Hunter ended up the way he did, narrative necessity could be it too. You have a final season with characters in a world very similar to theirs, who are OP because of their magic and all their loved ones are far away. Their character arcs are over or stupid so you have no drama to milk for the specials out of them without damn near completely fabricating them like with Willow who... Even if it's true, she's doing a real shit job at being everyone's rock.

Hunter meanwhile is both important enough lore wise to deserve attention and ripe for abuse for cheap, soap opera level drama that is actually befitting a fantasy story. He's even weak enough to actually be threatened unlike everyone else. But then you get TOH never cutting anything so they can't decide if Hunter should be inspired to follow in the steps of the good man he is based on or to try to be someone new entirely... But the first one is a FUCK TON easier to do, fits in with getting in Belos backstory and is easier to do visually so it's the one they leaned harder into despite it being against the core theme of the show that individuality is literally the most important thing on the planet.

Tie this together with how TOH treats male/EC characters and... of course the first mention of Flapjack's magic isn't him marvelling at the power and having a moment from realizing that he now has magic, what his friend gave him, etc. like that which would be reasonable for the excuse of mourning but instead "The Power of Friendship?" Because really, how different is that then the line targeted at Lilith about how warped her perceptions of reality and self worth were in the EC? And in most kid's shows, that'd actually be okay. However, this is the same show that a fandom meme of a quarter of S2 being the weekly trauma club meeting, inviting all new members. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, even when it comes to its progressive outlook.

It's how you get a very obviously Zuko inspired character who ends up feeling NOTHING like Zuko. Then again, that's The Owl House in general, isn't it? Wanting to be Avatar, or any other great kid's show, maybe even better, but in that ego and hubris crashing into something that makes you question why it was ever compared to it in the first place.

[tragicbeauty1991]

So, I’m planning to go see Disney’s new movie Wish when it comes out, and as perhaps is unsurprising, I’m most excited about the film’s villain. King Magnifico looks like he’s gonna be a fun, likable (in the sense you love to hate them) villain while also perhaps being a little more complicated. Some things I’m loving so far from the trailer clips and soundtrack:

We get a classic Disney villain again! Finally! There’s nothing wrong with the “surprise” villains or the idea of family trauma as being the real source of evil but I have desperately missed the old villains who embraced and reveled in their role. We’ve been severely lacking in those over-the-top villains with their catchy songs and big personalities for a long time now, and it’s good to see it again.

“This is the Thanks I Get,” while a lot more upbeat and lighthearted compared to many classic villain songs, is definitely a song that gets stuck in your head. Gives me Gaston vibes, for sure.

Classic evil villain lime green returns!

I really have missed how the old hand drawn characters used to be so strongly based on the voice actors performing the role. You could see the live action reference model’s facial expressions, etc., in the character if you looked closely. It made them feel more…real? Human? Wish, though not traditionally animated, seems to be returning to that to some extent. King Magnifico looks exactly like an animated Chris Pine should.

I don’t think we’ve ever had much in the way of evil kings. (Unless you count Scar, maybe, but I’m mostly talking about human characters here.) We’ve had plenty of evil queen tropes and we do have Hans, who is a prince, but this just feels different somehow. I think part of it is the fact that the king is married. Most all the classic villains are single. Magnifico has a wife who genuinely seems to love him and is concerned when he lets the power go to his head.

“At All Costs” - This song is the least advertised and yet probably the best on the soundtrack in my opinion. It’s a gorgeous villain/hero duet that sounds like (entirely out of context) it could be a love song or a father/daughter duet. Now, I’m totally aware that that is very likely NOT what is actually going on in the song, BUT it doesn’t take away from the fact that we rarely, if ever, get to hear a villain be a part of such a sweet, gentle song. It’s different and I like the “softness” of it. Chris Pine has a great voice and while “This is the Thanks I Get” is fun, “At All Costs” is the song that really showcases his talent.

I’m not expecting King Magnifico to have a change of heart in the end, but I do like how Disney has seemingly gotten just the right mix of a classic villain and a complicated character in Magnifico. I hope he lives up to the hype!

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here's all the jackal/wild dogs/foxes across TLK:

Starting off with the classic black-backed jackal family is parents Reirei/Reia(queen) and Goigoi(lazy) with their most prominent pups Dogo(young) and Kijana(youth). Kijana is the only girl of her siblings, which consist of Dogo and two other brothers. Since jackals have between 2-4 pups and we see eight when Reirei is using her cute sad eyes with them to try and convince Kion to let them say, plus three adult ones during most attacks, they all are Reirei and Goigoi's kids, bringing the total up to eleven kids from three litters. The three adult jackals we see with them are their eldest; Kulala/'Lala'(sleep), Zaizai(he will-Hausa), and Jabujabu(forgery-Hausa). After the defeat of the Outlander army, Zaizai and Jabujabu decided to leave to go find their own mates and territory while Kulala decided to stay and watch over her siblings and parents, taking care of the ones that weren't her parent's favorite pups Dogo and Kijana. Also Reia is Reirei's real name, though the nickname has been a part of her since she and Goigoi were pups, so she refuses to use it.

Next from T&P Show's episode "Doubt of Africa" we have Jackal/Jakkali(jackal-Hausa) the side-striped jackal. This guy hunted Timon and Pumbaa, though eventually with the help of an elephant herd and a leopard the duo were helping, caused him to retreat. Also from T&P Show, this time the episode "Congo on Like This" we have the Eurasian golden jackal disguised as a tarsier, Barakoa(mask). Here he's just a regular jackal with a galago sidekick who try to get revenge on Timon and Pumbaa, or just a meal in the jackal's case, though Simba ends up intervening just in time and kicking them both away.

Lastly, from King of the Jungle we have cut character Ndogo(small), another black-backed jackal. Apparently meant to be the main villain before Scar took over that role, he also apparently attacked Simba before being defeated, so I've decided to make him one Simba encountered in the Oasis, allying himself with Onye/One-Eye the leopard and his group of carnivores in "Monkey Mountain", along with the vulture Mshipa, the hyena Shriek and wild dog Fujo(chaos/mess), though again as defeated when the trio sends a nest of bees at them, then scares them with the echoing capabilities of the cavern on the mountain. After Onye's death, he and the others form their own little group to watch out for each other, though Mshipa decides to live his life elsewhere, eventually going to the Pridelands and becoming Mwoga's father.

Continuing with wild dogs, we get two with Mwitu(wild) and Mbwa(dog), a pair of brothers from "And on the Menu Tonight..." who chase after Timon and Pumbaa, but are distracted by them arguing who gets the kill before Simba leaps out and scares them away. They eventually would return back as part of the next character's pack, 'Snarl'/Zagezage(snarl-Hausa), the former leader of a pack of wild dogs in the Oasis, from "Timon in Trouble". While trying to pursue Timon with his pack, Timon ends up crawling into a rock pile to escape and the dogs try to dig them out, only to cause a rockslide which kills several of his members. When tries to rally them again, the rest flee and Snarl has to face Timon and a now adult Simba on his own. Before anything can happen, a boulder falls down and crushes him, ending his life. Mwitu, Mbwa, and several other dogs make it out alive and flee the Oasis.

Lastly from "The Shiny Stones" we have Udaka(catch). In the story, Timon finds some shiny stones, takes a liking to them, and decides to find more of them based on a parrot's direction, only to run into Udaka twice. Once he get a stone dropped on his head by a parrot, then once by a stone-filled sack by Timon as he makes a break out of Udaka's cave. He later would join up with Snarl's pack to try and hunt down that pesky meerkat, but after the rockslide he joined Mwitu and Mbwa in getting the heck out of dodge.

Edit: Both Fujo and Udaka were unnamed and I literally only discovered them after searching through the wiki, finding them in some of the comics, and assigning them names/personalities. In case you were curious how I come up with these characters/decide which ones to include.

Next up we have the last of the wild dogs and the first of the foxes, starting with an African red fox/Mbweha(fox) from T&P Show's "Puttin' on the Brits". He is a close friend of a lone wild dog Nkita(dog-Igbo), and the unusual duo travel together, sometimes being mistaken as one hunting or chasing the other. Apparently red foxes are a thing in Northern Africa, though they are more of a Eurasian species, though I wasn't gonna argue semantics this time, so here you go.

Next up we have Bhati(luck), a bat-eared fox from TLK's concept art collection. Wise-cracking and witty yet mature and friendly, Bhati acts as a sort of in-between, pseudo-messenger and partial majordomo to the Mbala/Malka's pride, or at least during the night shift. Very sly and stealthy when needed, her ability to stay hidden and only appear when needed has saved her and others' lives in the past. She served as a lookout and possible distraction for the evacuating cubs during Scar's reign and his paranoia regarding the male cubs, Chumvi, Tojo, and Mheoto. Bhati followed them out of the Pridelands and stayed with the pride, even after Simba's return, where she serves as one of Malka's many eyes and mostly ears, usually the keeper of goings-on in the land they inhabit.

Lastly we have TLG's Astuto/Atieno(born at night-Afrikkan), now a Cape/silver-backed fox, and her pup Msitu(forest). Though their original species of Darwin foxes are endangered, cape foxes are less so. The Tree of Life is known for being a sanctuary kingdom where rare a/o sick animals can find solace and healing at, though in the case for less endangered animals such as her, she and her pups will eventually leave the lands and find their way in the world. The reason for her being here is that some foxes are monogamous and mate for life, however she lost hers right before she gave birth. Since male foxes usually help rear their kits alongside them, she was in need of help and the Nightlands are known for being safe, hence why she petition the ruler's for a temporary stay. Though staying doesn't require payment, she has offered to keep in touch and act as one of their many scouts working outside the kingdom, sending information back about the goings-on.

[dark-elf-writes]

KOT au is so fucking awesome I'm going through it now.

-(Imagine him with hate in his heart but always willing to split what little he has with the other kids out on the street, wide-eyed and so damn scared but hungry enough to get close to the scary boy with all of his scars.)

Touya would be the best, worst big brother ever. Like prickly as hell until you worm your way under his skin then he would commit many crimes for you, up to and including murder.

-(murderous little ducklings)

this will forever be a favorite line. Like all picture is this ^^^ with knives🤣🤣

-(Imagine a king of the lost and broken.)

OUCH like this whole paragraph is brilliant but you paint such a picture with words I CAN'T. Like 'villains' is appropriate for sure, but like the number of adoption papers floating around UA must be ridiculous, leaving supplies out there my god 🤣🤣

-(Remembers that nothing in life comes free and there are always strings attached.)

For this to be his viewpoint only to be confronted with the actual reality of (Present Mic with the lamest disguise he has ever fucking seen) ghajnvfjallghllnjdklalgjklHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA Fucking perfection!!!!!!!

And Vlad King's inability to whistle is classic, but nothing will ever top Aizawa (omeone who is either an Underground hero Touya has never heard of despite living on the streets for years or an Actual Fucking Demon™️ shoves a backpack full of supplies and cat keychains into Touya’s chest before swinging off into the night like some sort of Sleep Paralysis Spiderman.) The first time I read this I laughed myself to tears and I still cackle every time I go back through this tag.

-(Nezu himself sauntering up with a new notebook and set of pens every time Izuku runs out is any less terrifying.)

Fear! Totally valid fears here.

-Izuku doesn't need the sharps, no sir ma'am mx, noooooo. keep the knives and pointy things away from the green one.

-(t’s in essence one teenager trying to raise three feral children while every hero in the area tries to lure all four of them home like stray cats while also pretending that it is absolutely not what they’re doing.)

I need this. For survival I need this. The pros finally convincing them to go to UA and literal explosions happening minimum twice a day once Izuku finds the support labs. Himiko traumatizing at least one person a day by playing up the creepy factor for funzies. Shoji following suit by deliberately placing limbs in the worst spots just to see people jump. And Touya laughing when the Pros look to him, "You volunteered for this, they found me, I was stuck with them. You dumbasses picked them up with a fucking bear trap, what did you expect?" fully ignoring the fact that he's the only one they listen to and that he has (and will continue to) risk prison for all of them.

-(hat scar is the only one he wears with pride)

I feel like he flash the scar as an intimidation factor whenever he could. Like someone doubts Himiko, show scar 'she did this to me. She likes me. She doesn't like you. Think about it.'

-(Mezou tucks himself behind a dumpster to eat)

BABY😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 You deserve all the love you sweet child!!!!! For real though, I feel like Mezou is criminally underutilized in fics and in canon material honestly.

-Every thing about Izuku and how Touya found them hgnreaklfnfdiaeghruaingkdf;ae They need someone and Touya's over protective sibling energy came through like a freight train with no brakes. And the back and forth with the shop owner 🤣🤣🤣 She is 100% grandma energy and I hope there comes a day that Touya shows up with one of the pros and she lectures him for disappearing.

-(keeps threatening to make hawks into fried chicken)

I would actually pay money to see this conversation animated. Like Hawks has gone full birdy, and Touya is desperately trying to escape before completely losing his shit, whether it's burning him alive or busting into laughter, who knows, he'll never admit it.

-Fuyumi and Mirko for the win, no notes, full support. WE STAN THE LESBIANS!!!!

-Fuck Endeavor and Ass Might. That is all.

-(matching a sad blue eyed, white haired child with burn scars to the other sad blue eyed white haired children with burn scars.)

Okay soooooo seeing the reunion of the kids would be heartbreakingly beautiful.

-(I mean Touya if he can’t get his hands on a box of hair dye is pretty obvious)

IF this ain't the truest fucking fact. It's the Clark Kent Effect, but hair.

-Just the discord server. Please! I need an entire series just of that because can you imagine?!?!?!?! The mass parental energy? The conspiracies and 'fuck you' at the Commission. Fuck I'm here for it.

-Fire puppets. Just FIRE PUPPETS!!! Can you imagine the first time Yamada finds the kids together and Izuku and Shoji are giving the big eyes at Touya until he caves and starts doing a fully fleshed out puppet play? Like Aizawa saw it first, but the first time they see it in person???

-*chants* To-ko-de-ku, To-ko-de-ku, To-ko-de-ku. The first interaction being Izuku saving him from bullies and using their ridiculously intimidating siblings as the visual threats they are??? hgaingdmklghiwuopapghi (“I’m telling nii-chan you inherited his bird thing.”) I hope to fuck someone records Touya's (and Keigo's) face(s) when she tells them. It needs to end up in the discord server.

-(he sprawls over some back alley couch that’s definitely infested with something and smells like cat pee.)

Still top tier imagery ,10000000000000000/10 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Plus the gremlin intervention fuck yes!!!

-(Touya is both Gay and Dramatic as personality traits)

Enough said.

-(Aizawa doesn’t feel like either death or retirement can come fast enough.)

This is just canon? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

-The gremlins version of Santa is correct. We support 100%. Touya can stop being a buzzkill

-Pickpocket alllllllll of the villains. ALL of them. AFO has to be the goal though. Just out of spite. It's gotta be him.

-(Mezou stole the bullets out of Snipes gun and the man was so baffled trying to figure out how he did it that he didn’t even fight when the cuffs went on.)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHERHIOJKGNFKABNJ

-(Monoma’s wallet shows up.

In Bakugou’s pocket.)

WHY DO I HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO ARTISTIC TALENT?!?!?! I NEED TO SEE THIS!!!!!

-(Touya with head in hands like “we had arson for dinner yesterday choose another felony”)

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Careful what you wish for there 🤣🤣🤣🤣

-(Plausible deniability makes the world go round tbh.)

I feel like that's the entirety of this AU.

I FUCKING LOVE THIS!!!

When the muses return to MHA, I'm so excited to see where some of these ideas go. Like zero pressure, but like I'm waiting like this. very patiently.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I MEANT TO REPLY TO THIS EARLIER I FORGOR

No but King Of Thieves is so special to me. Like Touya who is more morally flexible but still above all else a good brother and his hoard of equally morally flexible younger siblings that can’t keep their hands to themselves is so dear to my heart. Once I can get the words to go for MHA again it’s all over no one will be able to stop me

[slashingdisneypasta]

Ok so we all know that The Black Coldron is the closest thing to a horror movie we have from Disney (aside from the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes, assuming I'm remembering correctly that it was done by Disney), but what if Disney made all their movies more creepy like? I'm not talking about like if they just dropped the fairy tales and made slashers, I'm talking about the films they've done getting a scary spin similar to the Black Coldron. Like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, etc. How do you think your favorite Disney films/villains would turn out if Disney let themselves go into the dark side?

And for the other side of the coin, imagine horror films getting a more... Well, family friendly feel/look. The plots are still the same, but they get Disneyfied. How do you think they'd turn out? I'm personally willing to bet all my money that Jason would be a classic Disney prince(ss); lives in the forest, one with nature, seen as one of the more kinder/sympathetic of the slashers, etc (and Chucky would definitely have some Dr. Facilier thing going on with all the voodoo)

Oh I love this concept!! First of all- Disney movies getting a darker twist.

Considering most fairytales and mythologies are dark in the first place- it wouldnt be very difficult. Unfortunately though I can't think of anything original 😅 Most everything has been done before with dark disney. Sorry I can't be more creative!! Haha 😅

As for Disney-Horror though!! I actually do have some things in the works for that- silly crossover things XD Like:

Hercules with Y/N as Meg, Jason as Hercules and Freddy as Hades. (Just fits so well?? 😅 )

The Princess and the Frog with Y/N as Tiana, Michael as Naveen and (Yes!!) Chucky as Facilier. (This is for sure the most crack, but I love Michael and Chucky together as a concept so 🤷‍♀️)

The Lion King, with Y/N as Nala, Thomas as Simba and Hoyt as Scar (a la the creepy Madness of King Scar scene where Scar Hoyt will try to convince Y/N, Simba's Thomas' betrothed, to help create a 'Host of little Scar's' with him)

Apart from silly x reader nonesence- I can truly see some of these Slashers as Disney movies though!! Haha XD Maybe I'm crazy- but- Jafar's and Jasmine's whole slave girl scene is farr creepier then anything Freddy did in the first ANOES. He was still invasive in that movie of course, thats the scary thing about Freddy, but with less then 10 mins of actual screentime he was not the full-on, backwards ✌️ sign in front of his mouth kind of sexual predator character that he builds up to. They could definetly keep the 'I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy' line considering the way Hades talks to Meg in Hercules and mayyybe the phone thing too (After all... Greasy did full on stick his hand down Jessica's cleavage in WFRR and that is a Disney movie folks XDD)- it's just the actual slashing that's posing a real issue!! XD😅XD😅 But Freddy's method of killing can be cushioned, I guess- make it more ambiguous and fantastical? With the dream powers and all. ANOES definetly has the magical element+larger then life, handsy villain+memorable setting+memorable heroine, which seems to be a tride and true Disney movie sum XD I dunno, take this or leave this- I'm just talking! XD 😅

Also Freddy has the greeeeen element, you know?? The limeeee green?~~

... plus if ANOES is animated you can have the original cast back *cough*

AND I LOVE YOUR DISNEY PRINCESS JASON IDEA!! He is absolutely majestic enough. Imagine that's how he knows where all his victims are, though?? Squirrels and little birdies tell him XDD

Imagine that movie though!!! A backwards Slasher with Disney animation and a KILLER ZOMBIE PRINCESS. He can talk to forest creatures so you can't hide, he's hard-working so you'll never get away, and his mother is dead. Because, obviously. They're all dead.

^^^^ this fucks me up (negatively) WAY WORSE THEN FREDDY'S SLIMEY TONGUE

[super-movies-funda]

Mufasa: The Lion King (December 20)

Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) is set to be a major addition to Disney’s Lion King franchise, offering fans a deeper exploration of the iconic character's past. Slated for release on December 20, 2024, the film serves as a prequel to the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King, bringing fresh depth to the beloved story of Mufasa, the father of Simba and the wise ruler of the Pride Lands.

A New Chapter in the Lion King Saga

Unlike the 2019 remake, which followed the plot of the 1994 animated classic, Mufasa: The Lion King is set to explore the untold backstory of Mufasa, shedding light on his early life and his journey from humble beginnings to becoming the respected and noble leader of the Pride Lands. This exploration into his past will help answer some of the questions fans had about the larger Lion King universe, particularly the details surrounding Mufasa’s relationship with his brother Scar and his rise to power.

Storyline and Themes

The film promises to offer a fresh perspective on Mufasa’s character. The audience will see his younger years and the challenges he faced in becoming the ruler of the Pride Lands. The narrative is expected to highlight themes of leadership, loyalty, and destiny, similar to the central themes of the original Lion King movie. It will also introduce new characters that were not featured in the previous films, potentially expanding the Lion King universe further.

Mufasa’s brother, Scar, who was famously portrayed as the antagonist in the original Lion King, will also play a significant role in this prequel, with the film providing deeper insight into his motivations and relationship with Mufasa before they became rivals. Fans may see a more complex and layered portrayal of Scar, beyond the villainous image he has in the main franchise.

Music by Lin-Manuel Miranda

A standout feature of this prequel will be the music, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning creator of Hamilton, contributing original songs to the film. Miranda is known for his ability to craft memorable, emotive music that resonates with a broad audience, and his involvement in this project is highly anticipated. The combination of his lyrical talent and Disney’s grandiose musical tradition promises a soundtrack that will be both captivating and emotionally rich, further adding to the film’s immersive storytelling.

Miranda's involvement signals a shift in the musical style of the Lion King films, possibly incorporating new rhythms and musical influences while still paying homage to the iconic scores of the original films. The prequel’s soundtrack is expected to feature both grand, sweeping ballads and more intimate, character-driven songs that highlight Mufasa’s journey and the challenges he faces on his way to kingship.

The Visuals and Animation

Though not much has been revealed about the film's visual style, Mufasa: The Lion King will likely continue the photorealistic animation seen in the 2019 version, which used cutting-edge CGI technology to recreate the savanna landscape and its animal inhabitants in stunning detail. The visuals in The Lion King 2019 were one of the most celebrated aspects of the film, and this prequel will likely follow a similar visual aesthetic, blending realism with the stylized storytelling that has come to define Disney’s animated features.

The Return of Iconic Characters

Mufasa: The Lion King will also feature some familiar faces, including the iconic characters Timon, Pumbaa, and Rafiki. These characters, beloved by fans, will likely provide some levity and comic relief as the film explores more serious themes. However, the film’s primary focus will be on Mufasa’s early life and his relationships with those closest to him, including the eventual introduction of Simba.

The voice cast for the prequel is expected to include both returning talent and fresh voices to bring these characters to life. While it is not confirmed whether actors from the original film will reprise their roles, there are speculations about how the characters will evolve in this prequel setting.

Expectations and Reception

Anticipation for Mufasa: The Lion King is already building among fans, who are excited to learn more about one of the franchise’s most important figures. The film promises to offer an exciting new perspective on the Lion King saga, enriching the backstory of a character who has long been a symbol of wisdom, strength, and leadership.

The involvement of Lin-Manuel Miranda in the music is likely to draw in fans of both his Broadway work and the Lion King franchise, as his reputation for crafting emotionally resonant songs adds a layer of excitement to the project. Additionally, the use of cutting-edge technology to bring the story to life visually will appeal to fans of Disney’s high-quality animation.

Overall, Mufasa: The Lion King is poised to be a major event in 2024, offering a blend of nostalgia, new music, and a deeper exploration of the Lion King universe. Whether the film can live up to the legacy of its predecessors remains to be seen, but its premise and talent suggest that it has the potential to captivate both old and new fans of the franchise.

For more details, you can check out recent updates on upcoming movies, including Mufasa: The Lion King, on entertainment websites like Digital Fix.

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics:

1. Godzilla way too close!

2. King Kong up close!

3. King Kong's full body exposure!!

4. Godzilla's truly impressive bod!!

5. Mothra's amazing looking wing span!

6. Ghidorah, the best Kaiju/Titan villain around!!

7. "Western" Hollow Earth map.

8. "Eastern" Hollow Earth map.

Note: A little from the middle of the maps is missing... There's still mystery out there! Or, should that be IN there?

1906: The Earth (is) Not Hollow.

Intro: Our modern Monarch Monster Verse is an American multi-media shared universe & franchise.

The series on TV & the big screen feature a mix of new & classic Kaiju/Titans. Basically, a monstrous MCU.

The whole series concists of:

1. "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" a 2023 Apple TV spin-off that jumps between the 1950s & the aftermath of Godzilla's reboot.

Explains how the U.S. military tried to kill Godzilla - in 1952! This led the 1st Kaiju to stay dormant until 2014.

2. "Kong", premiered in 2017 but takes place during 1973.

A Monarch team searches for giants in a newly discovered island.

And, a scientist looks for proof on the Hollow Earth Theory.

But, an encounter with the last 'king' of Skull Island turns into a fight for survival.

(I blame Samuel L. Jackson!)

3. 2014's "Godzilla" has 2 titanic insectoids waking up to mate!

Luckily, Godzilla's hunting them down - being the apex predator & all...

Meanwhile, a somber Bryan Cranston (& son) look into the atomic accident that killed his wife.

(Hello! And, released the insectoids!!)

4. 2019's "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" shows what happens when eco-terrorists allow the other Titans to awake!

Worse, the other Titans don't dare to challenge Ghidorah, who wants to terraform our planet!!

Godzilla's the only Titan willing to put up a fight...

5. 2021's "Godzilla vs King Kong" actually occurs in 2024!

A corporation manipulates Godzilla & Kong into fighting themselves.

Millie Bobby Brown works to uncover why - inside the Apex Corporation.

Meanwhile, scientists send Kong into the Hollow Earth - searching for a new power source.

Together, Kong & Godzilla are forced to fight against Mecha-zilla, who's being guided by Ghidorah's mind!!!

April, 2024's "Godzilla X King Kong" timescape is as yet unknown. Though, 2024 feels right.

Kong & Godzilla team up again.

(They're really milking the two Titan's "friendship.")

This time they're fighting Scar King, a new threat who might just be the true king of the Hollow Earth...

(Sounds like fun.)

[xcarveoutmyheart]

What's your favorite movie? -🧁Anon

Difficult question! I have quite a few across a lot of genres, mainly animated films, horror, romance, among others, but I think I’ll focus on specifically Disney movies to at least keep this concise and sort of together hehe. I love a LOT of Disney movies, especially the classics, so this is gonna be a bit of a difficult question to answer.

The Hunchback of Notredame, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, and The Lion King take the cake for most rewatched on my end. I just love them so much??? I relate with a lot of Disney protagonists, but especially the protagonists in at the very least MOST of these. Especially Quasi, Ariel, Belle, Rapunzel, and Herc! We have… similar experiences? Motives? Difficult to really explain in detail hehe. Aurora is also someone I identify with but for different reasons in comparison to the previous four (mainly sleeping habits honestly, but to the extreme.)

The Lion King was my first favorite though, and is one I hold close to my heart, so I think I can say that one is my favorite movie?

They also have like, the best villains by the way. Another thing I’m honestly so in love with when it comes to these movies. Scar is my favorite in this regard, if you’re curious. Also??? The music??? Hello??? Bangers, all of the songs are bangers.

Special mentions: Cinderella (but specifically Cinderella III, but the other two are okay also), Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, and 101 Dalmatians.

Some non-Disney movies in the tag ig~ What movies do you like? :)

[fairestwriting]

Hi its my First Time with a request and i am pretty shy + english isn't my First languege but i wanted some hc's with the dorm leaders and jamil watching a Classic Disney movie like watching the sleeping beauty with malleus or the Little Mermaid with Azul???

i will do jamil and kalim in the same paragraph so it doesnt go over my character limit!!

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle missed a lot on children’s movies because of... obvious reasons, so when you ask him to watch Alice in Wonderland with you he’s actually rather excited for it.

The way he watches it is very... earnest, if that makes sense? He takes the movie rather seriously. He gets you two snacks to eat while you watch it, even, fully intending to have a good time with you. It’s cute.

He thinks the movie is just fine. He finds the animation pretty and may comment on it a few times, though the protagonist does get on his nerves a bit, sometimes, and he doesn’t think the Queen of Hearts was all that bad, which is an opinion he’ll make sure you know.

Leona Kingscholar

It was definitely your suggestion. Leona complains about it but, well, it’s a low effort activity, and he knows he’ll end up falling asleep 1/4 into it anyways.

The songs annoy him. He’s just not a musical fan -- He’d be able to pay attention to the story better if they weren’t singing all the damn time, he says.

Doesn’t actually fall asleep during it because Scar’s plot grabs his attention. He’s surprised to see him kill someone onscreen when it’s a children’s movie, and then he’s grumbling about how it made no sense how the kingdom withered away just because of Scar being king, then heals because Simba comes back. That’s ridiculous and bad storytelling.

Azul Ashengrotto

When you invite him to watch a movie like that, he’s kind of skeptical about whether he’d enjoy himself or not, but he’s fine with doing it for you.

He doesn’t expect to get so invested in it, honestly. It begins with Ariel’s naivety just stressing him out, then Ursula shows up and Azul is ranting at a children’s movie. Why are they framing her as the villain? She’s just doing her job!

You finish the movie and he hasn’t stopped talking yet. Ursula did nothing wrong, she didn’t even coerce Ariel to sign the contract! See, it’s just her fault if she didn’t read the terms properly-- It’s kind of endearing how much he gets into it, really.

Kalim Al-Asim + Jamil Viper

It was probably Kalim’s suggestion. He found this cool new movie and he wanted to show it to his two favorite people in this world! You’re probably having a sleepover along with it.

Jamil is just exasperated. Why are you watching a children’s movie-- You know what, nevermind. Meanwhile, Kalim just sings along to the songs in the background.

Kalim takes the story as it is, he loves Aladdin and the Genie and he won’t shut up about it. Jamil looks vaguely annoyed, he does agree with Jafar in some level, thinking the sultan had it coming, really, but he finds his character so annoying for some reason...

Vil Schoenheit

Vil is an actor, and he’s definitely done children’s movies before, so when you suggest to watch one with him he’s open to it. Sure, there’s merit in every kind of art. He does hope it is as entertaining as you make it seem.

He genuinely finds the aesthetics of the movie quite charming, which he comments on a couple time. He’s mostly silent through it, only speaking up about things like the animation’s quality every now and then, but he does have a sort of vaguely endeared, vaguely amused look on his face.

When you ask him if he liked it, he’ll say he thought it was fine. It felt rather nostalgic, and decently ahead of its time in terms of production quality. A 7/10 maybe, it just didn’t blow his mind -- And they could have definitely given the characters better outfits.

Idia Shroud

When you suggest watching something with him, Idia first assumes it’s an anime, so he’s a bit surprised when he notices it’s this children’s animated movie, but he’s open to it.

He has a pretty good time with it, actually. Hades’ character is amusing, you’ll see Idia snicker at his sarcasm every now and then. And, as much as Hercules ticks him off for whatever reason, his thing with Megara was rather cute.

The singing doesn’t bother him at all either, man’s definitely watched idol anime before so that’s not an issue for him. He actually enjoys the songs sometimes, maybe you’ll catch him humming “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” while he does some coding a couple days later.

Malleus Draconia

Not much of a movie watcher, he has a big preference for books, but he’s interested on your interests, so of course he’ll oblige. He’s never heard of Sleeping Beauty before either, he’s quite curious about it.

He’s oddly enough a lot like Riddle? Asks if you want any food or drinks to enjoy during your movie watching and just tries to make the experience as pleasant as possible to both of you, taking it rather seriously.

Gives very honest commentary on the movie when you ask him about it, going on a tangent about how Maleficent’s inner turmoil wasn’t touched up on enough, how the prince’s actions put him off a bit. He does think it’s a nice movie, though, and he actually likes the protagonist despite her naivety.

if you wanna support my work, you can buy me a ko-fi or commission me!

[fatimajpeg]

can you rank all these disney villians from most to least camp. with one sentence for each on why.

chronological list copied from wikipedia

Evil Queen(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Chernabog (Fantasia)

Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

Cruella de Vil(101 Dalmatians)

Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Jafar (Aladdin)

Scar (The Lion King)

Hades (Hercules)

Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog)

1 - Ursula

She gets top spot cuz she’s based on the drag queen Divine. All the other disney villains are queercoded yeah but it’s the most explicit with her imo. Little Mermaid in general is such a sweet film that had a lot of queer people work on it (Howard Ashman <3) and they definitely camped Ursula up on purpose.

2 - Cruella De Vil

I mean her whole concept is so camp. An evil rich lady who wants to skin puppies for their fur. That’s so over the top and delightfully evil. Her look is stunning as well. Cruella was also based on another Camp Icon, Tallulah Bankhead. Old hollywood in general is considered camp now but Tallulah was camp even back then.

(imo both Ursula and Cruella are the campiest because they take what society deems abhorrent like self-centred independent women and just take it up to 100 on the cartoonishly evil scale)

3 - Captain Hook

Guy’s got beef with a 12 year old lol. He’s also over the top evil and the audience laughs at him instead of being scared for the most part. He’s a silly pirate and overall pretty campy.

4 - Jafar

While i do have my issues with Jafar, he’s pretty Campy. He’s practically a caricature of a greedy man and has a lot of fun being evil. He’s very camped up.

5 - Chernabog

Wow literally a perfect camp villain. Even though his appearances are very theatrical and over the top, there’s still an imposing and scary quality to it all. Very horror-esque camp i love it <3

6 - Maleficent

A classic over the top evil Disney villain but wow she’s so graceful! Nothing about her is comedic imo but she does the maligned witch thing so good. An evil woman doing evil things, that’s camp!

7 - Queen of Hearts

Alice in Wonderland is just plain weird and nonsensical (this is a good thing) so in theory she should be up way higher but idk i feel like the others have a better camp legacy. She’s an over the top homocidal queen like ofc that’s campy. Idk i feel like everyone after the first 2 can be interchanged.

8 - Evil Queen

she’s the first to do it! But maybe it’s cuz she was first she wasn’t as camp as the others. But even though she’s low on the list doesn’t mean she’s not camp! She’s been a camp icon for yearsssss.

9 - Scar

Scar’s probably the 2nd most queercoded villain after Ursula. And while “be prepared” was deliciously evil and campy, i don’t think any of his actions later on were enjoyable to the audience. He’s definitely a camped up Shakespeare antagonist but idk if he should be placed higher.

10- Dr. Facilier

Smooth talking witch doctor (with a great look). He’s the best classic Disney Villain we’ve seen over the past 30 years. but his overall campiness? hmm i’m not so sure it’s that high

11 - Hades

I feel so bad for placing Hades last because he’s one of my personal faves but again, comparing to the others, is he really that camp? Ik you might think he can take the Evil Queen or Maleficent’s spot but those two have such a rich legacy that Hades hasn’t had. He’s goofy and has tons of fun, but sometimes you can feel him winking at the audience. Ursula does that better and with more extravagance so 🤷🏻‍♀️

[setzappersto-pew]

StarKid and Musical Score #2

Pop culture parodies tread fine lines to avoid copyright violations, especially when it comes to music. Some go for a certain mood or genre to evoke the source. Holy Musical B@man! is a great example. Nick Gage and Scott Lamps used strictly synthesizer and an electronic drum kit. They made great use of the standard synthesizer sound, calling to mind ‘80s new wave electronic music; a darker electric guitar sound to capture the gritty Batman from The Dark Knight or The Killing Joke; and light and playful bell tones, representing the innocence of Robin or perhaps the campy silliness of the ‘60s Batman TV show.

When it’s a parody musical of a musical, the challenge is even greater. Enter Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier.

There’s not a lot of interstitial music to set the scenes, but what little there is excels with capturing the mood, like the eerie strings and woodwinds coupled with sporadic percussion during Aladdin’s breakdown near the end. Instead, Twisted features a large number of songs to fill its 2.25 hour runtime, so I’m going to focus on the instrumentals of those for this post. The instrumentation for this show includes keyboard, drums, guitar/bass, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and alto/tenor saxophone. It’s a much bigger and more varied band than any StarKid show had before or since.

The endeavor that composer A.J. Holmes, accompanied by incredible lyricist Kaley McMahon, set out on was to evoke not only the source material, Disney’s Aladdin, but also other Disney movies of the same era and the Broadway musical Wicked. The Disney references are all over the place, including the Disney-fied StarKid logo. The latter was accomplished via the title (Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier vs. Wicked: The Untold Story of a Wicked Witch), the album cover, the method of role reversal (a villain posed as the hero of their own story), and even a direct reference to the book. But A.J., along with orchestrator Andrew Fox and music director Justin Fischer, took it a step further with several songs to give the audience a truly immersive and magical experience.

To keep it simple, I’m going to link each song--or most, as some I can’t quite figure out--to another Disney or Wicked song that A.J. was likely, or even obviously, taking influence from. The similarities are often in the instrumentation and tempo; chord progressions and adjacent melodies; or lyrics and character situations.

Not a song, but the opening music evokes the haunting strings and bells in the opening of Beauty and the Beast to a tee. Like...it’s a dead ringer, obviously in purpose.

“Dream a Little Harder”: An opening ensemble number like “Belle” from Beauty and The Beast. Introduces the protagonist and the surrounding characters with a sweet and tremulous flute at the beginning and bouncy strings throughout. Lyrics mirror each other, i.e. “Fuck you” = “Bonjour”...Nick’s favorite line, “Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!”...they all hate Ja’far vs. they all think Belle is weird. Belle is even part of the ensemble, telling Ja’far to keep his “fat face out of the mother fucking book”! It’s a pretty obvious comparison. 

“I Steal Everything”: “One Jump Ahead” from Aladdin is the obvious parallel in orchestration, melody, tempo, lyrics, character situation...everything.

“Everything and More”: Again, an obvious parody of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. Same gentle yet sweeping melody, same lilting tempo paired with vocals timid one moment and powerful the next, lyrics exploring desire for more.

“A Thousand and One Nights”: This one was a little harder, as really none of the Disney princesses have duets with their princes. But I think it pairs well with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, at least after Timon and Pumbaa have their moment! The back and forth between lovers talking to themselves about the other has a similar feel. Honestly, this song is pretty original and yet manages to evoke Disney love song perfectly without copying any. The gentle melody, sweeping yet sweet orchestration, and the dialogue really sell it. They knew it was the love song because they went ahead and parodied the cheesy pop covers that ‘90s Disney movies are known for with a true bop performed by Britney Coleman and Carlos Valdes.

“Orphaned at 33″: Perhaps the reprise of “One Jump Ahead”? It’s slower and more melancholy and has similar chord progression and crooning vocals. Maybe “Go the Distance” from Hercules? Both are songs of sadness and longing, but StarKid’s Aladdin is far more pathetic and creepy than Hercules. EDIT: “Proud of Your Boy”, which was cut from Aladdin and put in the stage show, is absolutely the reference here! Again, a song of sadness and longing and self-pity and lamentation of a bad childhood...and StarKid’s Aladdin is still more pathetic. Musical parallels: similar chord progressions, embellishments, instrumentation, time signature, tempo, etc.; starts with delicate notes and Aladdin just talking (this starts at 46 seconds in “Orphaned at 33″, after a prelude); lilting and tiptoeing melody in the middle (1:56 for “Orphaned”, 1:08 for “Proud”); powerful sustained vocals and sweeping winds and strings to finish. I know this song was in the back of my mind, but it just wasn’t coming to me. Thank you @hatchetfieldtheories and @melchron for helping me out! 

“Happy Ending”: The last half, at 1:50, really reminds me of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, specifically at 5:15. The quiet and tense music make way for powerful vocals and are just waiting to burst forth for a showstopping ending. Both songs are also Act 1 closers. I can’t really place the rest of “Happy Ending”, but it all reminds me of Wicked with the powerful rock guitar and drums paired with cinematic strings. Plus, I always love when multiple melodies come together as reprises, most often as Act 1 closers!

“No One Remembers Achmed”: A sillier version of “Gaston” from Beauty and The Beast. The spurned villain’s cohorts are pumping him up and singing his praises! Both melodies are jaunty, though with different instrumentation...Twisted’s featuring sillier sound effects and goofy xylophone.

“Take Off Your Clothes”: A sexier version of “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. Slightly modified melody, and obviously the lyrics, but it’s exactly the same.

“The Power in Me”: A solemn and sweet farewell duet between friends like “For Good” from Wicked. The delicate woodwinds and strings sound similar to the gentle synth in “For Good”. Vocal performances are cautious and tender at first but quickly become strong and confident. “You are the power in me” and “I have been changed for good” follow almost the exact same rhythm.

The titular song has many facets, so I’ll detail them here:

Opening to 1:03 and 5:55 to the end = “No Good Deed” from Wicked, with the same intense strings and percussion. The whole situation and lyrics match, with both Ja’far and Elphaba deciding to just be antiheroes because no one sees them as heroes anyway. “I’ll be twisted, it’s my turn” matches “No good deed will I do ever again” and “I’m wicked through and through”.

1:10-2:06 = “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid...it’s Ursula, so of course...but also, the woodwinds and keyboard mimicking brass evoke the same bouncy yet menacing rhythm, akin to an evil polka.

2:07-2:50 = “Be Prepared” from The Lion King. Obviously, it’s Scar’s moment...but also, they have similar deep and primitive drums and woodwinds.

The rest of the songs (”Sands of Time”, “Golden Rule”, and “If I Believed”) I couldn’t really place, but they still evoke the source materials. “Golden Rule” has a classic musical theatre ensemble number feel, with fun strings and woodwinds and delightful choruses; the reprise turns it on its head with menacing piano and bass. “If I Believed” is another take on an “I want” song; the flute and cello pair very nicely together to support Dylan’s soulful voice.

My next post in this series will likely be about the Hatchetfield series: The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, Black Friday, and Nightmare Time. There’s a lot in between, like the AVP Trilogy, ANI, and Starship, but the music for those stands out less to me. They’re great, don’t get me wrong, but I think that the score is not what makes them special. The Hatchetfield stuff, however...is intense.

Thanks for reading!

[lovee-infected]

Do you have any thoughts about RSA, we already got two official students so how do you think the rest of students will be like? What’s the academy is like? Do they have dorms presenting Disney princesses?

RSA BRAINROT TIME- Yes anon !! I've been thinking about this for quite a while so I've got A LOT to tell

Students and staff:

First off, the students and staff, I decided to sort them by their possible rival dormitory in NRC since I'm assuming that if we've got the villains for the 7 Disney classics, they're just getting the heroes of the same classics. So here we go:

Alice in wonderland: We've already got Chenya! Other than him, I can see an Alice inspired dorm leader, a mad hatter ispired student and a marchheir inspired one! The dorm istelf would have more of an wonderland theme while Heartslabyul looks more like inside the Queen of hearts' castle.

Lion King: Okay I'm empty of this one. Leona's currently at NRC, Farena's probably graduated RSA years ago and Cheka is still to young to enroll in RSA! So...what are we even getting here???? I was thinking of Timon & Pumbaa inspired characters but no, we'll need them when Cheka possibly enrolls in RSA to be his best buddies, so????? All I could think of was the lion guard series where we got some concept on Scar's teenage hood, so maybe they can be somehow inspired by his Scar's old friends? I don't know...

The little mermaid: We've got Rielle! Can't wait for them to reveal his design but other than him, I'd love to see a Sebastian inspired vice dorm leader and a Flounder inspired student! But I'd also like them to give Rielle several siblings just like Arielle, and since he's the youngest he'd enroll in RSA after most of them have already graduated! From what we got in Chapter 3, I can tell that Rielle, Azul and tweels seem to be childhood friends, so I'd love to see how they can twist a rival ship into a friendship between them! I can also imagine the tweels hanging out with Rielle while the Sebastian inspired character is about to lose his mind and keeps telling Rielle to stay away from those evil beings- (JUST LIKE THE SCENE FROM THE LITTLE MERMAID)

Aladdin: Kalim is believed to be twisted from both Sultan and Aladdin, so it gave me chills to imagine a Aladdin inspired character in RSA. But like...I guess they'd get along with Kalim anyway? Lol. What I want to see the most would be a Genie inspired character, I NEED ANIME GENIE OH GOD- Also a Jasmine and maybe a Rajah inspired character? That'll be nice!

Snow White: We've already got Neige...so what else might we have? 7 dwarfs? Animals? That's kinda hard to tell! Snow white herself didn't have any friends other than animals and the 7 dwarfs through the game, so we don't have much options left for this dorm. But I'd say dwarf inspired characters might be cool? Who knows, maybe we can even twisted dwarfs who can shapeshift from their dwarf forms into tall and handsome boys~ it's twisted wonderland after all.

Hercules: Four words: Hercules inspired dorm leader. That's it, that's the most important part. Many artists have already designed some great Hercules inspired OCs and I'd say that they all looked amazing! Also, I NEED a meg inspired character so badly- Hhhhhh let that sarcastic queen come to life again. Also, what about Pegasus? I'd personally love it if a twst Hercules had his own Pegasus buddy, so cute!

Sleeping Beauty: I'm def down for an Aurora inspired Leader for this dorm but...then I thought of something else. Would he be more like Prince Philip or Princess Aurora? Or both? God if the theory saying that Silver is the twst Aurora is right then this RSA dude would definitely be inspired by Philip... i can't even think of how bitter things can get then- wait a second, I need a moment to cry Anyway, could it be that we'll get 3 characters inspired by the three fairies? That'd be cool! Maybe the animal inspired characters too

Staff: History: A twst version of fairy godmother. Alchemy: Kind of hard to tell but what if their Alchemy teacher is dalmatian inspired himself? A puppy teacher...[sobs] PE: Oh god what about a beast inspired coach now?? Someone who can shapeshift from his beast form to a handsome prince depending on his mood- Shopkeeper: A twst version of Mama Oddie! Definitely perfect! Mama Oddie and Facilier sure do have a lot in common but like, Facilier is the evil side.

But the most important question is: Who would be the principal? Who would be the possible opposite to Crowley? Hm? Some theorised their principal being Mickey mouse and I'm cjcjsnsjxk- I don't know!!!

But, let me note something: I doubt that we get more than one character per each RSA dorm. Every Chapter we've had so far just had one RSA character reveal (Except for Savanaclaw's because we had both Farena and Cheka, though we didn't get any design for Farena so I don't think if that counts, and Scarabia's because we got none) we didn't get anything about Rielle either but I believe he'd appear in the future chapters otherwise they wouldn't have mentioned him though the story.

Out of all dorms, Pomefiore and Diasomnia's got the highest chance to have an RSA character introduced as their rival and enemy through their chapters, which is also because of the "Weapon inspired characters", who are Epel and Silver.

We've seen much and less of how Epel's the red poisoned Apple and how this is relating Neige to Vil, but what about Silver? The scariest part about it is how he isn't even the villain's weapon, but the Hero's. I don't want to rant about Silver now because I already have several posts scheduled to cry about Diasomnia so let's skip it, just keep it in mind that the chance of having a RSA Aurora/Philip inspired character appear in Diasomnia's chapter is VERY high.

Something that has been keeping my mind busy for a while was the possibille design of RSA's building; NRC's building is simply the famous Disney castle, but isn't RSA supposed to have something similar? Soooooo...would the buildings look the same just RSA would have brighter colors? How ironic.

Another thing that absolutely thrills me about RSA...is the shape of their magic stone on their uniform.

NRC's magic stone is in fact in the shape on Evil Queen's mirror

Meanwhile RSA's...is actually a Sword in the stone reference!

So that's all I had in mind about RSA's general design and dynamics for now, though if we're going to talk about RSA's relationship with NRC and the possible futures of the storyline that'll take another post to talk about it- Diasomnia especially had A LOT to explain about NRC's connections with RSA so prepare tissues for the Diasomnia chapter guys, it's going to hurt.

[greensaplinggrace]

What Is There To Celebrate About the Darkling? (Part 2)

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He’s a musician. He plays the fiddle.

He’s the darkness to Alina’s light. He’s steeped in yin and yang symbolism. His banner is the eclipse.

The Starless Saint is a badass title.

Him and Alina are soulmates.

He’s eternal. He’s tragic. He has a vast and complex history that we can’t even begin to unravel, but one that would be so incredibly interesting to learn about.

He’s wicked smart. Very intelligent. A great tactician.

He sits as an equal with his men and treats his soldiers well.

He has a complex relationship with the Otkazat’sya. He doesn’t hate them as most would assume, and in fact trusts quite a few with his life and the lives of the Grisha

That entire scene in Demon in the Woods where Sylvi keeps asking to play with his shadows and he smiles while he makes shapes and lets her have fun with them.

His title is the Darkling, which is honestly just kind of pathetic and makes me think of tiny fluffy shadows. So whenever people refer to him as the Darkling I think of him as a baby shadow and that’s entirely Leigh Bardugo’s fault.

He’s a murderer and he looks sexy doing it.

Do I agree with him killing all of those ambassadors? No. Do I think it was funny? Yes. Did I hate the ambassadors with a burning passion? Also yes. Was I cheering when they died? Quite possibly.

Dumbass didn’t tell Alina about Marie or the Conductor, so every time he mentions how he’s doing this for her she literally has no idea wtf he’s talking about.

“Fine, make me your villain.”

Gave Alina the most elaborate and plush tent in the universe even though she was his prisoner.

The way he says “Mal” when they first meet like a scorned lover surprised to see his ex at a ball.

“Where is the boy? I have my Summoner. I want my tracker too.”

The way he kisses Alina in episode five like a man starved.

How surprised and enamored he is after she kisses him for the first time

“I used to come here as a child” he said, like a liar

His hair is perfect and beautiful.

He looks stunning even when he’s crawling out of the fold like a bat with rabies.

His face scars.

His entire bromance with Ivan.

“Ivan? My kefta!” Bro do you not have legs? Why is Ivan dressing you?

Literal walking disaster of an ancient being.

“I bEg YoUr PaRdOn?”

When the Little Palace is called quaint and he looks as if he’s about to commit a murder.

“After a long moment he said, ‘Aleksander.” A little laugh escaped me. He arched a brow, a smile tugging at his lips. ‘What?’ ‘It’s just so…common.’ Such an ordinary name, held by kings and peasants alike. I’d known two Aleksanders at Keramzin alone, three in the First Army. One of them had died on the Fold. His smile deepened and he cocked his head to the side. It almost hurt to see him this way. ‘Will you say it?’ he asked.”

He talks about how amazing Alina is and how much she matters constantly.

He can speak multiple languages.

Every time he uses the merzost is something to be celebrated because it legit just looks like porn.

“’Alina’s blade wrapped in my shadows and your blood.’ The Darkling’s voice was thoughtful, like he was remembering a favorite recipe.”

He’s very protective. He’s a protector.

He created the Little Palace.

Him looking absolutely feral in that entire fight scene with Mal in the fold. Also never really realized how long his legs were until I saw him get flipped on his ass.

Ben Barnes saying moya tsaritsa.

The mental bond with Alina only works when they’re both thinking about each other. Alina sees him when she’s kissing Mal.

He makes so many innuendos about his relationship with Alina for someone who barely even got past first base.

Gets reverse uno’d to shit and back by Alina when trying to seduce her. Catches feelings like an amateur. Tragically unable to think about literally anything else anymore.

Have I mentioned that he’s whipped as shit yet? Because he is.

The dramatic coat billow when he enters the stag scene like a classic fantasy villain. Only man on the planet who doesn’t need words to say “I’m the bad guy.”

He lets Mal get healed.

Wears all black even though his favorite color is every single other one on the planet.

Gives zero fucks about Mal escaping for someone who felt so threatened by the guy literally two seconds ago.

“I’m not going to kill you, Mal. I don’t need to. Time will do it for me.” Me, who knows how this is going to end: yeah it sure will buddy.

The way he wraps his legs around Alina in the name scene.

He created the fold.

He loved Luda and he loved Annika (as a friend) and he loved Alina. His feelings for them all were genuine and all encompassing, and that’s not talked about nearly enough.

He defends Annika and Sylvi from Lev.

He embodies the “that’s my wife” meme.

Height difference.

The way he speaks so softly. Idk if its my issues with men yelling, but the Darkling being soft-spoken was what made me really appreciate his character from the start.

But also, him pulling the knife out of his chest and screaming “it will take more than this!” 🥵

He’s bisexual as fuck.

He’s here, he’s queer, and he’s ready to murder an entire city.

Him going absolutely apeshit when Alina disappears. Convinced she’s been kidnapped.

He makes shadows go snip.

Alina loves him (despite the warning signs).

Oh, what’s that? It’s a tracker! *gets tackled over the edge of a skiff*

Unkillable. Will come back to life just to fuck with you. Gives zero shits about the way reality should work.

Would sell Alina’s and his own soul to the devil for a corn chip. But sike! He’s actually the devil. So now he’s got two souls and a corn chip.

He’s just plain amazing. 💖