#she's from the 1985 series btw

[alteregomp4]

Lets talk about Lestat and Gabrielle relationship...

HUGE TRIGGER WARNING: for talks of incest. and spoilers for The Vampire Lestat I guess, but once again... talks of incest.

FYI: In no way am I trying to villainize Gabrielle and if it comes off that way that is not my attention as she is also clearly a victim, I view her as such and her story is an interesting one to also dive into especially with the aspects of gender and how society sees gender identity. But we should also acknowledge that victims can sometimes become perpetrators unknowingly sadly, especially due to external factors and deep seated trauma stemming from childhood or events that have happened to that person that are clearly established in the book The Vampire Lestat and throughout the whole series even if unintentional on Anne Rice part. And once again, this is just my point of view and how I interpreted it. I truly just wish people would approach a topic like this with nuance, seriousness, and finally respect as most of the time in the books these subjects are not.

Possible controversial opinion since people love joking about it and even want it in the show which I think that's rather odd to do or want since like you guys do know that victims of this actual stuff exist as well as the fact they could be consuming said media for multiple reasons but I think people in the interview with the vampire/the vampire chronicles fandom especially book readers and ESPECIALLY those that are also Anne Rice d riders should realize that the relationship between Lestat and his mother was and is emotional incest... something that is not often talked but just as harmful as overt incest. It is also very codependent but I will just be high-lighting the convert incest here, though the two overlap a ton in these types of relationships.

This is something that affects someone for life and isn't really that funny and something that shouldn't be seen as sexy like it has been in media recently due to House Of The Dragon plus some other things that's came out in recent years, it's quite gross how normalized it's getting to find it hot because incest of any kind affects not only the development of the child but how they handle their personal relationships after they've grown. Something that is very clear in Lestat's character throughout the whole series.

I do not think me picking up on this is far fetched since the term was coined in the 1980s by psychologist Kenneth Adamswhen (I will be pulling stuff from a interview he did about the subject which I will link as it's a interesting reading) when people first started looking into the subject and the book came out in 1985, though knowing Anne Rice she just probably had a fetish for this thing as it often appears in her books which is whole another thing on it's own. It appears a lot doesn't excuse btw since the topic of abuse of any kind is not handled well. (also before people start saying that these books are gothic fiction and that incest is a staple of the genre still doesn't excuse it in my opinion since there is better ways to handle the topic than make it obvious fetish work. Yes, art is supposed to make you uncomfortable and I actively consume art that does exactly that to the consumer but there is the line that can be easily crossed when dealing with certain subjects if you at least don't treat them seriously and with care like they need to be.)

Their relationship is not enmeshment, something people confuse emotional incest to be and often mix the two up. But their relationship fits so many boxes of emotional incest that it is maddening I have seen no one else bring up the subject and just chalk it up to plan ole incest because of the kissing as well as blood sharing symbolizing sex for vampires in these works. (Which I have huge criticisms on how vampires are in the series plus I may be biased to not see kissing as inherently sexual due to being aroace and by the time the kisses happen Lestat has already faced stalking, literally being kidnapped by a strange man who had been watching him as well as talking to him through his mind referencing the fact he was known as wolf-killer plus having corpses that looked just like Lestat in a tower that Lestat had to stay in, turned Lestat against his will then watched said man kill himself after becoming a vampire, and sexual trauma from said man as well. So it is not surprising to me that Lestat would seek out some sort of affection from an older trusted figure in his life, even if it is negative and harmful. Most victims do this unconsciously or because the trauma makes them feel like this is the only way they feel like they can seek out validation and affection from others.)

"Any time there is physical sexual contact, and that includes things like inappropriate kissing or touching, we’re talking about overt incest. Basically, you’ve moved past playing a role and into being an object. It can be both, of course. When that happens, usually the overt incest lasts a much shorter time than the longer-term surrogate partner role. I should also state that in cases of overt and covert combined, it isn’t uncommon to see the victims involved as adults with incestuous fantasies – mother and son or father and daughter stuff online, or power differential relationships where a boundary is crossed. Or their lovers tend to be much older or younger, so much so that the age difference raises some people’s eyebrows. So, the incestuous dynamic is played out in some way."

"Frankly, I try not to draw too fine a distinction here because there is definitely a blurry line between things like sitting too close and making a child uncomfortable vs. kissing that child on the lips too long. Either way it feels icky. And the result might be that even though nobody touched my penis or breasts or vagina, when my lover tries to kiss me, I withdraw. That withdrawal is your evidence that something happened that was inappropriate and not welcome."

In the book we are shown things that check off boxes on known clear signs of emotional incest, and this is the first few pages of the book when Lestat first starts talking about his up-brining. Before I list five signs that I think fit and how I see Lestat and Gabrielle relationship as well as explain why I feel that way but let us learn what emotional incest aka also known as convert incest is.

"Covert incest describes a relationship between a parent and child in which the child feels more like a romantic partner. Typically the parent is motivated by the loneliness and emptiness of a troubled marriage, so he or she turns the child into a surrogate partner. There is not necessarily any kind of overt sexual touching, but the relationship feels too close for comfort to the child. The boundaries are such that there is an incestuous feeling. The child feels used and trapped, the same as with overt incest."

"Later on, covert incest victims tend to continue functioning in the role of a surrogate partner where they’re overly enmeshed with the parent [or] over-involved as a caretaker, even though they may have long forgotten the icky part that was present early on — usually during adolescence. As adults, instead of feeling icky, they might just feel frustrated, angry, obligated, and way too involved. This type of enmeshment is very common in terms of the adult-life characteristics. Basically, enmeshment describes the nature of the ongoing relationship; covert incest defines the earlier sexual inappropriateness."

In the first few pages after the opening of The Vampire Lestat once he begins to work on his novel we learn that his home life as a child and upbringing was not great to say the least. An abusive father, living clearly in poverty, brothers who couldn't care less if Lestat lived or died, and finally a mother who was often emotionally absent, avoided showing physical affection towards her children, and that also hindered her children's skills of being able to read as well as write out of spite because of the unfilling marriage she was forced into as well as life that she had to have because of being a woman in 1700s society.  Also I feel the disconnect she has from motherhood and being a mother affects her relationship with Lestat from the start as it is clear that she lives vicariously through him due to him having gotten most of her features and traits unlike his brothers, also because of her own struggles with womanhood as well as how society sees has always seen women and what it is to be a woman.

This situation is just brewing for a codependent relationship to happen, especially between mother and child as it's clear they both hold resentment towards the father. A simple codependent relationship can quickly turn abusive especially in a household like this and most of any kind of abuse that children can face is commonly more likely to be from family or people they know than strangers.

The five signs I wanted to point out that really struck me of fitting the two (only doing five as this post is already so long and I do not feel comfortable on trying to score points on it like how psychologists do for cases like these as I am clearly not one.):

Talking about sexual encounters or even dreams of one with your child: Gabrielle in page 39 of the book shares a dream she has of basically having a train run on her by the whole town, this is just after Lestat has opened up about his fears and nightmares he has of killing his brothers and father like he did to the wolves earlier in the forest. That he isn't the same Lestat he was and has come back as a killer instead of her son. He is still in the bloody clothes that he killed the wolves in when she shares this.

"'You know I imagine,'' she said, looking towards me again. ''Not so much the murdering of them as an abandon which disregards them completely. I imagine drinking wine until I'm so drunk I strip off my clothes and bathe in the mountain streams naked.'' I almost laughed. But it was a sublime amusement. I looked up at her, uncertain for a moment that I was hearing her cor-rectly. But she had said these words and she wasn't finished. ''And then I imagine going into the village," she said, ''and up into the inn and taking any men that come there-crude men, big men, old men, boys. Just lying there and taking them one after another, and feeling some magnificent triumph in it, some absolute release without a thought of what happens to your father or your brothers, whether they are alive or dead. In that moment that I am purely myself. I belong to no one." - Page 39, The Vampire Lestat

This is something really weird to just open up about with your child, especially after they open up about their fear of harming others and feeling like they aren't the same person they were after a traumatizing experience. I understand that she was trying to relate in a way about how she also feels these types of feelings towards Lestat's father and brothers but I full on had to put the book down out of pure shock that this was written right after a character was talking clearly about intrusive thoughts with your own ones that inherently sexual in nature, especially to your own child for that matter.

Sharing responsibility for adult decisions such as finances, employment, or where to live: Lestat and Gabrielle are the sole providers for the household. Lestat being the one that often brought in food due to finding comfort in hunting after being taken out of church as Gabrielle provided him the tools like his pet mastiffs, guns, and horse while Gabrielle was the sole reason they had any sort of money in the first place due to coming from a rich family, often selling her own jewelry to help get gifts for Lestat and just have money for the family. With this she also helped him run away to Paris with Nicki.

Because of this Lestat and Gabrielle have been sharing sole responsibility for adult decisions in the household and especially financial ones, which no child should be or feel responsible for.

Missing out on child-appropriate activities such as extracurriculars or time with friends: Lestat life was sheltered. To the point he didn't know how to write or read till he went to the church to study under the priest. The only friends he has had outside of his family up to this point are the people at the church, his dogs, the traveling theater company, and soon Nicki.

"I loved the monastery school. I loved the chapel and the hymns, the library with its thousands of old books, the bells that divided the day, the ever repeated rituals. I loved the cleanliness of the place, the overwhelming fact that all things here were well kept and in good repair, that work never ceased throughout the great house and the gardens. When I was corrected, which wasn't often, I knew an intense happiness because someone for the first time in my life was trying to make me into a good person, one who could learn things. Within a month I declared my vocation. I wanted to enter the order. I wanted to spend my life in those immaculate cloisters, in the library writing on parchment and learning to read the ancient books. I wanted to be enclosed forever with people who believed I could be good if I wanted to be. I was liked there. And that was a most unusual thing. I didn't make other people there unhappy or angry. The Father Superior wrote immediately to ask my father's permission. And frankly I thought my father would be glad to be rid of me. But three days later my brothers arrived to take me home with them. I cried and begged to stay, but there was nothing the Father Superior could do. And as soon as we reached the castle, my brothers took away my books and locked me up. I didn't understand why they were so angry. There was the hint that I had behaved like a fool for some reason. I couldn't stop crying. I was walking round and round and smashing my fist into things and kicking the door. Then my brother Augustin started coming in and talking to me. He'd circle the point at first, but what came clear finally was that no member of a great French family was going to be a poor teaching brother. How could I have misunderstood everything so completely? I was sent there to learn to read and write. Why did I always have to go to extremes? Why did I behave habitually like a wild creature? As for becoming a priest with real prospects within the Church, well, I was the youngest son of this family, now, wasn't I? I ought to think of my duties to my nieces and nephews. Translate all that to mean this: We have no money to launch a real ecclesiastical career for you, to make you a bishop or cardinal as befits our rank, so you have to live out your life here as an illiterate and a beggar. Come in the great hall and play chess with your father." - Pages 20 and 21, The Vampire Lestat

"When I woke up the next morning, she was gone and so were all the players, and my brothers were there. I never knew if my friends had been bribed to give me over, or just frightened off. More likely the latter. Whatever the case, I was taken back home again. Of course my family was perfectly horrified at what I'd done. Wanting to be a monk when you are twelve is excusable. But the theater had the taint of the devil. Even the great Moliere had not been given a Christian burial. And I'd run off with a troupe of ragged vagabond Italians, painted my face white, and acted with them in a town square for money. I was beaten severely, and when I cursed everyone, I was beaten again. The worst punishment, however, was seeing the look on my mother's face. I hadn't even told her I was going. And I had wounded her, a thing that had never really happened before. But she never said anything about it. When she came to me, she listened to me cry. I saw tears in her eyes. And she laid her hand on my shoulder, which for her was something a little remarkable. I didn't tell her what it had been like, those few days. But I think she knew. Something magical had been lost utterly. And once again, she defied my father. She put an end to the condemnations, the beatings, the restrictions. She had me sit beside her at the table. She deferred to me, actually talked to me in conversation that was perfectly unnatural to her, until she had subdued and dissolved the rancor of the family. Finally, as she had in the past, she produced another of her jewels and she bought the fine hunting rifle that I had taken with me when I killed the wolves." - Pages 34 and 35, The Vampire Lestat

Alternating feelings of love and hatred for your parent(s): This is shown in the first book as well as in this one, but now we get to see these feelings he has towards his mother rather than his father as well as brothers.

"She was silent for a while. And as I sat there, looking past her at the fire, I wanted to tell her a lot of things, how much I loved her particularly. But I was cautious. She had a way of cutting me off when I spoke to her, and mingled with my love was a powerful resentment of her. All my life I'd watched her read her Italian books and scribble letters to people in Naples, where she had grown up, yet she had no patience even to teach me or my brothers the alphabet. And nothing had changed after I came back from the monastery. I was twenty and I couldn't read or write more than a few prayers and my name. I hated the sight of her books; I hated her absorption in them. And in some vague way, I hated the fact that only extreme pain in me could ever wring from her the slightest warmth or interest. Yet she'd been my savior. And there was no one but her. And I was as tired of being alone, perhaps, as a young person can be. She was here now, out of the confines of her library, and she was attentive to me. Finally I was convinced that she wouldn't get up and go away, and I found myself speaking to her." Page 25, The Vampire Lestat

"And she almost laughed herself. Maybe in her own quiet way she was laughing. Curious moment. Some almost brutal sense of her as a human being quite removed from all that surrounded her. We did understand each other, and all my resentment of her didn't matter too much." - Page 27, The Vampire Lestat

Your parent(s) turned to you, instead of their partner or another adult, to unburden any feelings of emotional distress they experienced: Gabrielle is only open and shows any emotional towards her children if it is Lestat that she is talking to, she is closed off to everyone else in the household but him due to own her contempt and feelings around of being a wife and a mother. He is the first and only person to be told that she is sick and dying, that she doesn't expect to make it through another winter at best. This is a lot to put on anyone at any age, especially someone who is your child and after they have opened up a bit as well as their own traumatizing event.

"I made some little anguished sound. I think I leaned forward and said, "Mother! " "Don't say any more," she answered. I think she hated to be called mother, but I hadn't been able to help it." - Page 27, The Vampire Lestat

"I just wanted to speak it to another soul, " she said. "To hear it out loud. I'm perfectly horrified by it. I'm afraid of it. " I wanted to take her hands, but I knew she'd never allow it. She disliked to be touched. She never put her arms around anyone. And so it was in our glances that we held each other. My eyes filled with tears looking at her. She patted my hand. "Don't think on it much, " she said. "I don't. Just only now and then. But you must be ready to live on without me when the time comes. That may be harder for you than you realize. " I tried to say something; I couldn't make the words come. She left me just as she'd come in, silently. And though she'd never said anything about my clothes or my beard or how dreadful I looked, she sent the servants in with clean clothes for me, and the razor and warm water, and silently I let myself be taken care of by them." - Page 27, The Vampire Lestat

"I began to feel a little stronger. I stopped thinking about what happened with the wolves and I thought about her. I thought about the words "perfectly horrified, " and I didn't know what to make of them except they sounded exactly true. I'd feel that way if I were dying slowly. It would have been better on the mountain with the wolves. But there was more to it than that. She had always been silently unhappy. She hated the inertia and the hopelessness of our life here as much as I did. And now, after eight children, three living, five dead, she was dying. This was the end for her. I determined to get up if it would make her feel better, but when I tried I couldn't. The thought of her dying was unbearable. I paced the floor of my room a lot, ate the food brought to me, but still I wouldn't go to her. But by the end of the month, visitors came to draw me out." - Page 27 and 28, The Vampire Lestat

"She did not laugh often. She could look profoundly cold. Yet she had always a little girl sweetness. Well, I looked at her as she sat on my bed-I even stared at her, I suppose-and immediately she started to talk to me. "I know how it is, " she said to me. "You hate them. Because of what you've endured and what they don't know. They haven't the imagination to know what happened to you out there on the mountain. " I felt a cold delight in these words. I gave her the silent acknowledgment that she understood it perfectly. "It was the same the first time I bore a child, " she said. "I was in agony for twelve hours, and I felt trapped in the pain, knowing the only release was the birth or my own death. When it was over, I had your brother Augustin in my arms, but I didn't want anyone else near me. And it wasn't because I blamed them. It was only that I'd suffered like that, hour after hour, that I'd gone into the circle of hell and come back out. They hadn't been in the circle of hell. And I felt quiet all over. In this common occurrence, this vulgar act of giving birth, I understood the meaning of utter loneliness." - Page 24 and 25, The Vampire Lestat

Finally to conclude this post, this is just my point of view on their relationship and how I interpreted it but I really hope the show handles something like this with care instead of making a joke out of it or making it seem like a normal vampire thing since that's what Anne Rice did. I would love if they went at with this angle of emotional incest or even just a strong codependent relationship between mother and son as I feel like it could open a lot of great conversations on the topic as bring it more into the spotlight which could lead to others realizing their not alone. But we'll see when season three is released.

Important links:

Kenneth Adamswhen interview

RAINN

[lazlolullaby]

Intersex Terry Mcginnis

Because I've seen fantastic non-binary Terry from @theycallme-ook and their series, I've seen this gorgeous transmasc Terry from this fic, crown of neon, and @jasontoddssuper with their transfem Butch Terry agenda and hot damn is it great.

(btw using he/him for Terry because that's what the show did.)

Whatever he is, he cisn't.

This is all in the name of trying to incorporate the VERY late game (I truly mean last episode with him ever so it never impacts any other plot just a wrap up theme and thesis statement on Heroism) twist and have it inform his whole - teenage attitude and everything.

so. uh. let's dive.

General warning for intersexism, queer phobia, messing with gender and such. Divorce. Cadmus manipulating people. The violation of consent that's inherent in making someone give birth to and raise a child designed to be a legacy vigilante without them knowing.

Genetic alteration isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It's DNA testing, it's virus loads and constant correction, it's incorporating extra violet genes into flowers and them rejecting them completely and going blank white.

I know it's the DCAU, with Manbat being the first episode, animal chimeras being created all throughout but, fantastic science that let the plot move but. It was the 90s and the early 2000s. on our side the human genome project started in 1985, was partially complete in 2003, and only fully completed in 2022! Cadmus is cutting it close.

there's a lot of room for error, here.

The alterations done to Warren's DNA were sketchy at best. Lots of sperm failed after the nano machines got to them. It was difficult for Mary and Warren to conceive, which is why Terry and Matt are so far apart in age. That put stress on their relationship, not including that the kids don't even look like Warren either.

Mary and Warren were very happy that Terry came to term without major problems. He wasn't visibly intersex until he was born, but because it's the Future TM, they ran the DNA to screen for any major disorders. Terry comes out chimera style intersex, with different DNA depending on where you take the sample. His hormones are giving him a mix of traits that make him ambiguous.

((yeah this is specific but shush: Terry can't naturally grow a beard. (Not like he wants to, he's heard his mom complain too many times about his dad's face bristles to be excited about getting his own.) People generally do a double take with him. "I ate my sister in the womb." Is the snappy answer he likes to give. "she left me with some things."))

The Future is a little more forgiving, there's some paperwork and not much pressure for the parents to put him through infant surgery.

And then we get to Matt. Because Terry was difficult, the parents sought out a fertility clinic to get Matt as good a start as possible.

Terry is angry at first, that he's a genetic mess and they had to go to a clinic to get a "real boy". That they tried to have a "good kid" but it couldn't fix their relationship. That even Matt didn't turn out right; A "clerical error" gives Matt an "anonymous donor" as a father instead of Warren.

It's building up with bunch of smaller things - having to explain their gender every so often, being confused with older buildings with split gender bathrooms and teachers treating him different depending on his perceived gender.

It was clear that the grace period ran out. He just - was given an ultimatum. Guy or girl. There's also some manipulation on Cadmus's part - can't be Batman without being a man...right?

and It's Gotham. Having a healthy vision of masculinity is not going to happen. So to protect himself Terry decides to be a Guy. A Real Cool Guy.

But it's not clicking. He's not comfortable. His parents tell him that he can be "whatever kind of man he wants" but that's still vague.

All this gender identity frustration builds up with his general teenage "pushing boundaries" and "parents arguing" leads him to hang with the wrong crowds.

and that's how he lands in juvie. He ends up calming down, putting himself into a box of "reformed good bad boy" and "I'm committing to the bit." and just dealing. Being a man like Warren is trying to teach him and not just...staying an unknown variable.

Now we incorporate Neo Batman and Bruce. Who have a very strict set of rules about what or who Batman is meant to be. And in a way, it's freeing his head to think about who Terry is outside of the cowl. Bruce is also a Queer Elder, he's seen plenty of people work through their identities and he works with Terry to find a label that fits.

That it doesn't have to be all or nothing, that it can change over time.

Experimentation is expected of teenagers. Splicing is a flat no because of his already precarious genetic status. And Terry likes hanging with his girls that are friends and his girlfriend. He does a mean eyeliner too. Terry is a lot happier.

Mary sighs "is this some late teenage rebellion against your father?"

"I...really don't know what he'd think. This isn't a spite thing. But I don't think he did - or you did anything wrong. It just took me some time to get out of my own head and realize."

"Well. You look settled. He'd be proud of you."

"Thanks ma."

[volixia669]

Vampire Chronicles Basics

Okay, with the new Interview with the Vampire show coming out, there’s probably going to be some folks who might be curious about the books and wondering why there’s so much disrespect towards the author. This probably isn’t the ONLY primer, but like, whatever.

Note: I never got around to reading all of her books, and some of this is drawing from memory though wikipedia is helpful.

Contextual History Lesson Time!

As a media criticism type person, I find it important to not examine media in a vacuum, and take into account what was happening at the time it was created.

The timing of the first three books is notable. Interview with a Vampire was released in 1976, The Vampire Lestat was released in 1985, and Queen of the Damned was released in 1988.

So we have one book with gay subtext released post free love movement but prior to gay folks becoming more known in society, then two more released during the aids crisis with the queer subtext/text still going strong. This? This is huge. Reportedly, there were people sending Anne Rice letters about how amazing it was to see themselves in the characters. Some these days might roll their eyes at how subtext might be revolutionary, but please understand. During the aids crisis, the queer community, particularly gay men, were being blamed and discriminated against to horrifying levels to the point gay men still can’t give blood.

So for a book series to have not only the metaphor of penetration and being an outbut but also have these characters seem very gay? It’s huge! It’s like a weight being lifted off, even just temporairly, while you go, “Someone sees me and my situation.”

The Vampire Lestat even had Lestat’s mother questioning her gender and deciding to dress and act more masculine. Sure, these days we’d call it “problematic” trans rep for many reasons, but back in 1985? Except for certain more indie films, trans people weren’t even talked about.

Which is a huge reason the series got big among the queer community, others caught wind, and eventually that movie with Brad Pitt was made.

And now we’re in the 90s with a few things happening. One of which being Anne Rice uh...Firing her editor? Not bothering with an editor? Whatever happened, the quality of writing goes downhill.

Additionally, Anne Rice was going through...a lot, and it shows in her writing. She started as one sect of Christianity, left it after a family member died, was athiest/agnostic for awhile, then went to a different sect of Christianity when another family member died, then eventually was in her own thing of believing in God & Jesus but not following any particular sect. Then she died.

This is relevant, as we see Lestat go from prissy rockstar to literally meeting Jesus. So. There’s that.

Another thing that happened in the 90s was the internet becoming bigger, resulting in things like forums, chatgroups, livejournal, and essentially online fandom. People in the Vampire Chronicles fandom began sharing their fanfiction.

Anne Rice hated that. It was her world, her property, her Gary-Stu, and therefore only she could write Vampire Chronicles. She began suing anyone who was writing fanfiction, yes, even the broke teenagers.

She wasn’t the only one doing this of course, but she was certainly adamant about it. Additionally, there’s an emotional element too. Because her work was one of the few popular media where queers could see themselves in, it was like a betrayal to have her say, “No, I hate anyone who loves this world so much they’d write fic.” (not a real quote btw just how it felt)

This is why many fanfic writers in the 2000s, early 2010s, and a few even today write disclaimers at the top of their fic. Because a “I do not own this property. This property belongs to blah blah blah” was one of the few defenses (however flimsy) fanfic writers had. It’s also why, as of the last time I checked ff.net, Anne Rice’s works are not allowed on that site.

That said, from this backlash against fandom, Archive of Our Own and its lawyers were born. The volunteers of OT3 are why y’all will be able to write Lestat fucking Louis into next week and post it there without worrying about Anne Rice’s estate hounding you.

The Books Themselves

So! With that lengthy history done, what about the books? To start off with, while the movie, and this new show are called “Interview with the Vampire”, that’s just the first book. The series as a whole are The Vampire Chronicles.

So we’ve got:

Interview with the Vampire (1976)

The Vampire Lestat (1985)

The Queen of the Damned (1988)

The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)

Memnoch the Devil (1995, the one where Lestat meets Jesus, a lot of people hate it, I think its hilarious with some interesting theological points)

New Tales of the Vampires-Pandora (1998, prequel about an older Roman vampire) New Tales of the Vampires-Vittorio the Vampire (1999, another prequel, about a 15th century Italian Nobleman vampire)

The Vampire Armand (1998, it’s Armand’s story and also I maintain the first 60 pages reads like an M-rated fanfic on ff.net, which is objectively hilarious imho)

Merrick (2000, crossover with another her series called the Mayfair Witches)

Blood and Gold (2001, now the ancient vampire Marius gets his own origin story.)

Blackwood Farm (2002, more Mayfair Witches crossover)

Blood Canticle (2003, EVEN MORE CROSSOVER also was originally gonna be a conclusion buuuuuuuuuuut)

Prince Lestat (2014, Lestat is back and is facing pressure to lead the vampires because I guess all the ones with enough of a brain cell to go that would be a TERRIBLE idea are dead)

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantic (2016, I guess we’re now in Atlantis?)

Blood Communion (2018)

As you can see there’s a lot of books and content. Especially because Vampire Chronicles wasn’t her only series. On top of her erotic romance series that even my “sure you can watch Criminal Minds while 9 years old” mom was like, “Do not touch that,” she had her Tales of the Mayfair Witches series, which AMC incidentally also has the rights for. So...Lots of books, one world with vampires and witches and Jesus.

However, because of the drop in quality as well as the level of batshittery (no I’m still not over Lestat going to fucking Atlantis), last I checked the main reads are the first three, with Vampire Armand also being thrown in because I mean, after you see Antonio Banderas as Armand you want to know more about him.

Of course by all means! Read more of the books! Maybe you’ll get a laugh like I did! Maybe the quality doesn’t seem so bad to you! Maybe you enjoy batshittery! 

And if you don’t want to give the Anne Rice estate more money because she was a bad person, there’s plenty of libraries that have the books! Trust me. They do. Some might even have them in ebook version, so you can use apps like overdrive or libby to check them out without even leaving your house!

Appropriation in Vampire Chronicles

This is gonna be short since I’m sure there’s whole pieces about this and I don’t have the books in front of me nor am I part of any of these cultures, but I do want to run over that yes, there’s certainly some cultural appropriation in this series, particularly of Egyptian Culture, but also of voodoo and creole culture.

I want to warn of this, so it doesn’t catch anyone off guard, especially since “Merrick” and “Queen of the Damned” in particular are uh. Full of this. I also have no idea if the more recent books are any better in this regard.

That said, I’m curious about how the AMC tackles these aspects, as its already quite clear they’re not following the books 1:1, which is actually going to make for a better story.

Hopefully all that is helpful!

[tomhiddelstonandzaynmalik]

"Death, Pestilence and Famine"

Warren Worthington III x reader

Chapter 2

Summary: What would've happened if instead of Psylocke having been recruited by Apocalypse, it had been you? What would've happened if Ororo had realised Apocalypse's true intentions earlier? How things would have turned out? Would Cairo could've been avoided? What would've happened if... ?

Again, my lovely @yelenabelovasbathwater gave me an awesome idea, what if Warren and the reader are Horsemen and fell in love during the big fight from Apocalypse. I changed I little the settings buuuut I guess I got the overall idea. BTW I'm going for a serie so be prepared hehehe.

The year is 1985 and the world is, surprisingly, not neering its own destruction.

After the whole madness that took place a few years ago in the White House: A flying stadium, a madman with knifes instead of hands and giant robots armed to the teeth, all of which could have ended with an official War Against Mutant Kind, was thankfully avoided by none other, than a mutant. A blue shapeshifter who changed the course of life as we know it forever, by saving the life of the President of the United States.

This much needed bekon of light for an entire race went by the name of Mystique. She was the reason why now, humans and mutants all around the globe could enjoy these, somewhat, peaceful times. This mysterious saviour bacame known, loved and admired world wide, specially amongst her people. They could now come out of hiding and face the world as who they truly were without fearing for their lives...

Or at least not so much, at least this time around they had a heroine who could saved them, at least this time around they weren't alone.

The year is 1985 and everyone wants to be like Mystique.

Everyone, yourself included.

Up until that moment, you never felt like a true mutant, sure you were by definition 'special' but still, you never felt that type of special. You couldn't blast fireballs out of your hands, you couldn't move things with your mind, you weren't super strong or super fast or... super in any way.

To disappear was all you got from the mutant-power-lotery. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't extravagant and, unlike what many believed, it wasn't as useful as it seemed. Sure you were a mutant, but next to telepaths or those whose mutation ended with the suffix -kinetic, you were just the one who could dissappear.

As someone who spend their entire lives aching to be something, more: more exciting, more interesting, more capable MORE...

It was obvious why that afternoon in particular became engraved into your mind forever. The day you saw the read-headed woman with blue skin stand against a man, who literally carried an entire construction through the city as if it was made of feathers. That afternoon was the moment which redefined your life.

Witnessing how that woman, whose apparent only power was to shapeshift, therefore making her a much smaller and weaker opponent to the man who could control EVERY-FUCKING-METAL-THING, got you stucked in font of the many TVs, who were been showcased at your local electronic shop, as the event was been broadcasted live for the world to see.

You had never paid so much attention to anything before, aliens could have come down to Earth right there and there and you would have missed it. Your entire focus was on her, and how she not only saved the President but how she, against all oaths... Won.

Your meek mutation always dragged you down from aspiring to do something meaningful with your life. The endless comparison between every other mutant you met, the never ending mockery and hurtful comments you had always received, kept an invisible toll on you. But now...

As the crowd, who had gathered around the shop to watch the scene, dispersed. And you slowly came back to your senses. After the stress faded away and your heartbeat steadied, your newfound purpose remain put.

If she could do something like that, why can't I?

The year is 1985 and things couldn't be worse for you.

What happens if you add naivness, some bad company and to top it up you sprinkle it with a bad decision next to a worse one? You get the perfect mix for turning a hopeful and blissful idea into the most stupid and downright disastrous one you could have ever had.

"It makes no sense! My life wasn't so bad. It wasn't perfect but at least I had a home.

I had a family.

God, I wish I knew what happened to my family.

Why did I ran away?

How could I have been so damn stupid?

Why did I ever listen to them?

How did I let them fool me so easily?

STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!"

It was the same Mantra you muttered to yourself each time you were brought back into the Cage. Each time you were forced to fight against bigger and deadlier opponents. Each time you managed to escape alive.

"This is definitely NOT what I ment when I said I wanted to be like... Her".

[colombinna]

Fine, here's how you read the comics for Wandavsion:

So from my accounting there's around 35 to 50 issues worth reading in all of the scarletvision timeline (the stuff kinda went down when Bendis joined marvel and it still hasn't gone back up). Here they are, in what I hope is a comprehensive list:

TL;DR listing of all the best 616 scarletvision comics to be found here. If you want to know why I excluded some issues mentioned in other reading guides, or which specific ones you can skip or skim through, read the text under the cut.

(special thanks to @userpym for the banner art and their correct opinions)

So, let's start with their first solo appearances:

Wanda makes her debut in X-Men issue 4, way back in 1963 (she's one of marvel's OGs!). She and her brother are coerced into joining Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, before they decide to leave. Read X-Men vol 1 issues 4, 11 and 17 (I think). The twins join the Avengers in Avengers vol 1 #16 and stay there until issue 49.

Vision shows up first in Avengers vol 1 issue 57, and it's really good. Seriously, whatever you think of the Age of Ultron movie, this one is infinitely better. Read issues 57 to 62 and you can get a good initial look of his character.

Now, onto the romance:

It starts on Avengers 76 when they first meet (wanda is in less than ideal circumstances. The late 60s were sure a time) and imo you should keep it going up to Avengers 135 when they're about to get married. So, Avengers vol 1 issues 76 to 135.

It feels like a lot but most of them really only have one or two scenes worth of their story each, so you can just skim through those issues until either wanda or vizh are in scene.

(Except for the kree-skrull war which I paid more attention for the captain marvel storyline cause i wanna see how that unfolds in the future with their son and his boyfriend. It's also fun to draw parallels between the boys and their parents).

Do be aware though that there's a bad love triangle arc with Mantis after she joins the Avengers in between those aforementioned issues, so when you stumble upon it, I wouldn't reccomend paying much attention to it. Just skim through those or outright skip the issues if it bothers you too much. (Except for Avengers issue 128, that focus on Wanda's witch training and shows Agatha Harkness for the first time in an Avengers comic. Do keep an open mind for her, btw).

Then they get married at Giant-Sized Avengers 4 which isn't really that fun to read in its entirety. But hey, it does tells vision's origin story (which John Byrne retcons 15 years later, and Geoff Johns explains further 15 years after that). And also Wanda beats the shit out of Dormammu at age 23 and as newly-trained witch using nothing but sheer determination and the power of love (why yes she should've been sorceress supreme for a long time now), so that was pretty nice too.

After that, I didn't really read much because I felt Avengers got kind of samey. However both Wanda and Vision do get important arcs for their respective backstories until the decade ends. (but I have to mention that it is still the 1970s so Wanda does get treated badly in hers)

Vision's story happens in Avengers 151 and goes all the way through Avengers 160 (which is sooo good btw. I really really really love the construction of his character during Bronze Age); while Wanda's are in issue 181 to 188.

Then you can just skip to their duo series from 1982, The Vision and the Scarlet Witch vol 1, and read issue 252 of avengers just because the reflections made in it are really good imo.

And then you get to the main attraction, The Vision and The Scarlet Witch vol 2 (1985). Read all the 12 issues alongside the crossover in West Coast Avengers, I guarantee you it's a hella fun time.

When the series is concluded they kind of go into ice for a few years while they take care of their newborn twins, until West Coast Avengers 33, where a conflict from Vision/Witch vol 2 is finally resolved. It's a really nice series up until issue 42 when Byrne takes over the book and decides to turn Wanda's life into an endless hell, killing Vision and assassinating Simon Williams' character in the process.

The entire overarching plot starting in issue 42 doesn't end with the Vision Quest - no, it actually drags on for over 20 issues and it's just time after time Wanda being traumatized and fucked up. If you're looking for a good time with comics you absolutely do not need to read those.

However I WILL say, if you're into character analysis and all that, and you wanna get a good understanding of the character's relationships and decisions from that point on you should at least read up till the Mephisto arc (West Coast Avengers vol 2 issues 42-53).

Again, if you want to just have fun you don't have to, but if you like to discuss comics and all you should read them, because I will NOT have more people who didn't read the comics claiming Vision was an "absent father" when he was actually fucking dead from day one. So, West Coast Avengers vol 2 issue 42 to 62 if you want to get deep into the characters and discuss them.

Moving on, most of Wanda's mystical role as a powerful sorceress and as a nexus can be understood reading The Scarlet Witch vol 1, which in my opinion is a much better take on almost the same concept, and West Coast Avengers Annual 7 feats an amazing story explaining what happened in John Byrne's WCA, Wanda's feelings about the whole thing and with some of the best character work I've ever seen for Wanda.

Then, since Vision is dead until 1994, there really isn't much to work with, however we do get a pretty cute scarletvision story in Marvel Fanfare vol 1 #58

And we do get Vision's thoughts on life with Wanda and the death of his children (and his own) during Vision vol 1 (1994), when he finally comes back to life.

Unfortunately not much long after that (in 1998) he goes into Kurt Busiek's Avengers (vol 3) and that man either doesn't know or doesn't care about any established canon whatsoever - so Vision's character is just a weird contradictory mess for a while.

So besides the Ultron Imperative graphic novel (which is so so so fucking good because it's done by a lot of long time marvel writers like Steve Engleheart) (don't bother with Ultron Unlimited though), I wouldn't waste my time with anything Avengers related up until Geoff Johns hands us little blessings of scenes over 19 issues. Besides the romance and how cool Wanda is throughout all of them, he's just really good at writing avengers stories in my personal opinion. I had a lot of fun with them.

So read Avengers vol 3 (1998) issues 57 to 60 (order/chaos arc), and 61 to 76. (Plus his Avengers Icons: The Vision miniseries, which focuses on Vision's relationship with the Horton side of his heritage, and is fucking amazing.)

You can keep reading avengers vol 3 until ends with issue 84, it's nice overall, but there's really no need if you're interested only in the couple.

After that, the meteor hits. Bendis takes over Marvel for some reason, and starts what I like to call The Late 2000s Bullshit Crisis. He villifies disabilities and mental illnesses in a mess of a story arc only to turn Wanda into a supervillain in Avengers Disassembled and its much, much worse sequel, House of M. (Children's Crusade ends the evil trifecta by being Allan Heinberg's worst comic ever to date. Do not read any of those if you want to keep your peace of mind.)

Vision dies in the middle of Avengers Disassembled, and stays dead until 2011 when he has an underwhelming comeback in Avengers Shattered Heroes.

However, we were blessed with Fred Van Lente deciding to bring him back in 2010 for a special tie-in in a crossover event called Chaos War Dead Avengers. You don't need to read anything from Chaos War (honestly I find it kinda boring) to understand Chaos War Dead Avengers and this is so far my favorite Vision comic ever. Fred van Lente may not have known how to deal with Amadeus Cho in my personal opinion but god does he know how to deal with Vision.

And, if you want some more scarletvision family material, there's always Young Avengers volume 1 (issues 1 through 8, Young Avengers Special, then YA 9-12). This is where the boys come back, in all their queer glory in one of my favorite comics of all time. Despite the main book only having 12 issues, the young avengers were everywhere in the Avengers franchise in the late 2000s; they show up in all events, complete with multiple YA one shots, special issues and crossovers - but to our goal over here the only ones that matter are Young Avengers Presents, the Runaways/Young Avengers crossover miniseries that happened in the events of Civil War and Secret Invasion, and my personal favorite) Siege: Young Avengers.

Some people dislike the runaways crossovers, and the civil war crossover is definetely not a light read, but I personally can still enjoy them. (And if you want to see Simon Williams bring more harm to members of his family, read the whole Civil War event)

Meawhile, Runaways/Young Avengers: Secret Invasion expands even more on the kree-skrull related circumstances that the Pym-Maximoffs seem to always find themselves in somehow.

That is mainly it for them in their best characterization. And if you're wondering "what about vision 2015" we do not talk about Vision 2015. That's our Heroes in Crisis, that's our Batman Wedding (because they were all written by the same shitty guy lol). It's a bland, hollow and mostly ooc take on the character we all agree on collectively forgetting it ever happened.

To close this post, an update on their state in current comics (which I'm still not caught up on, which is why this list mainly consists of older stuff): As far as I'm aware nowadays they went back to that will-they-won't-they stage so we have some one off cute scenes whenever an author feels like it. But also Wanda's got a boyfriend and Vision is just hoeing around ig, but it's comics so consistency isn't really a thing, so you never really know how the next author might feel towards them.

if you have any questions feel free to just ask, either here or on my ask box

[lokigodofaces]

thoughts on loki ep 2: the variant (spoilers)

under cut to not disturb your scrolling

Overall I enjoyed so that's good

Uh frick my mind blanked so sorry if things are completely out of order

I don't know, I expected the renaissance fair to be 2012 or 2021 or 2024 (Loki's time, our time, current time in the "sacred timeline"). So I was genuinely surprised when it was in 1985.

Ok, i really like the title card thing. And how the year scrolls around. It's a nice aesthetic touch there.

I wonder why the female Loki variant chooses her locations? Does she have a thing for renaissance fairs, French cathedrals, and Oklahoma?

1985 is when Back to the Future came out. And it's y'know, one of the most popular time travel movies ever. So I think they chose that year as a reference.

Again, not liking that the minutemen only have numbers, not names. It is giving me lots of Clone Wars vibes. If you don't know anything about Clone Wars, the clones are given number identifiers by the Kaminoans. Things like CT-7567. The clones would give themselves names (CT-7567, for example, names himself Rex). A really good sign throughout the series that someone is a sketchy person is if they call the clones by their numbers. The clones don't want to be known as numbers. They are people too, they deserve names, so they come up with all sorts of creative names (Rex, Fives, Cody, Tup, Hevy, Hardcase, Echo, Waxer, Boil, Wolffe, Jesse, Kix, Fox, Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, Omega, Tech, Matchstick, etc). The jedi respect this, and the only jedi that i can think of that called clones by their numbers is Krell, who fell to the dark side. the Kaminoans and other sketchy people all call them by their numbers and the clones don't like it. A big focus of the show is on the clone's agency (at the end, they all have brain chips that take away their agency and force them to kill jedi), and how the clones need to be respected. So for me to see in another series that people are only given numbers is bad. What's worse is that the minutemen are fine with this. They don't see it as dehumanizing or belittling. They are brainwashed into being okay with it. Which says a thing or two about the Time Keepers.

did. did the renaissance fair really have Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" for their renaissance themed fight? Is this normal? Was it normal in the '80's? We saw later that the female Loki can do electronic stuff. Did she rig it to play it? For the vibes?

Also the stuff before the song was about fighting for a princess, and in the end she kidnaps C-20.

Okay, btw, I'm just gonna say Lady Loki for a while because no one has explicitly said Sylvie yet, so I'm going to refer to di Martino as Loki until she or another calls her Sylvie. Cool? Cool.

I was thinking the "Holding Out for a Hero" fight would be the roomba fight or something. It is such a good song that has huge potential for this genre. Why did they use it in a lame fight as that one?

When Lady Loki did the spell on C-20, it looked similar to what Wanda and Agatha can do. As in, it had similar visuals.

Loki reading a random magazine he finds while sitting with his feet on the desk bored out of his mind because he has to learn sh*t is a MOOD.

What is Miss Minutes? She can jump around anywhere, and pop into computers. But she can't be just a projection. She took the effort to dodge Loki swatting at her, so that may mean she was corporeal. She also could be something similar to the Kree's Supreme Intelligence?

So, did Mobius give Loki the shirt, tie, and slacks, but really didn't give him the jacket until they had to call him in? What? That makes no sense? Did the TVA not have any jackets with the variant label? Did someone have to custom design a jacket for Loki?

What is up with this show giving me things I wanted to see only in holographic form? First we saw Coulson's death, and now Loki in his Jotun form in a holograph of another variant.

Okay, Loki being someone the TVA has to constantly deal with is very on brand. Loki is a creature of chaos, of course he's going to unknowingly rebel against the sacred timeline.

Also, headcanon that the Jotun Loki we see is king of Jotunheim because that would be epic.

Also, for personal reasons I choose to believe there is a Loki variant that defeated the Avengers and immediately went queer rights.

Loki's reaction to there being many Loki variants. He's seen what his life is supposed to be. I think he is even more upset that the TVA often deals with him, that there are so many things that could have been instead if it weren't for the TVA and the "sacred timeline."

Also, I totally think Mobius was waiting for another Loki to show up to help him defeat Lady Loki. They get them so often, it makes sense.

Loki explaining the difference between illusion projection and duplication was great. And very helpful to me personally understanding lore. Also, Mobius, get your crap together. If you're a Loki expert, figure this stuff out.

Loki calling the TVA out on propaganda, we love that.

The wolf quote is actually very nice, I quite like it.

Okay, the TVA doesn't even bury or cremate or do any sort of ritual for their fallen minutemen, they just reset the timeline. Which to me seems like another way to show how little the TVA actually care for their workers.

There are statues of the Time Keepers in Ravonna's office. The camera pays extra attention to it. Keep reading for more about Time Keepers and cinematography choices.

What. What sort of relationship does Ravonna and Mobius have? What is going on there? I am really confused.

Who is this "analyst on the side?" What is going on there?

Ravonna is MEGA SUS. Along with that, the Time Keepers are mega sus.

She signs R. Slayer. Yeah. Slayer. Not at all subtle, Marvel. Letting us know that she'll do the deed if needed.

Mobius you are sending me mixed signals. What do you want?

Okay, Mobius saying Loki was a "cold, scared boy" and an "ice runt" and stuff was totally a jab at Loki being Jotun.

Mobius saying Loki is insecure because of Lady Loki is...probably true.

With the elevator, the camera stops and focuses on the Time Keepers.

The Creation of the TVA, the beginning of time, the end of time, all classified. That is sus.

Loki almost crying over Ragnarok was good. Let him cry over the destruction of his home.

Loki being the one to discover something the TVA had no idea about after a day is on brand for Loki. And it shows how the TVA really are vulnerable.

Mobius: Really? In front of my salad?

No but the object lesson was well done and actually did help me understand what Loki was talking about.

Casey! Casey drinks grape juice! Imagine how confusing this is for Casey though. Loki is captured, threatens to gut you like a fish (whatever that means), and now he's dressed like an analysist, stealing your juice box. Does Loki get Casey more juice?

Honestly, Loki looking at everything logically and scientifically is fantastic. Adds to the science = magic thing Marvel's got going on, since Loki is a sorcerer.

Loki saying volcanoes are cool is fun. I agree. Volcanoes mean the planet is geologically active, which means we won't die. Also, there is a volcano named Loki on one of Jupiter's moons. I wonder if the creators knew that and put Loki in Pompeii because he is already linked with volcanoes.

Mobius telling Loki to start off small and Loki completely disregarding that felt very personal to me.

Loki being absolutely chaotic and telling everyone they were going to die while speaking perfect Latin was iconic. I want more of that content. Let the man be buckwild.

Again, Loki finding something out after a day that the TVA never knew about is on brand.

"Be free, my horned friends, be free!" I love that way too much.

Mobius being obsessed with jet skis wasn't something I expected, but I'm down for it. Heck, even Loki admitted they were cool.

The discussion on beliefs is going to lead to saying the Time Keepers are bullcrap. Hopefully.

Grapes and nuts are "candy" on Asgard. So, when Loki was eating grapes in Ragnarok, we can interpret that as him eating M&Ms. Second, this might add to something I've seen around here. I've seen things about a book somewhere with Loki saying chocolate fountains are mythical (which is really funny to me). So, I guess Asgard really doesn't have chocolate.

Oh my gosh, so many apocalypses between 2047 and 2051...hopefully none of those happen in real life.

Roxxcart is probably part of Roxxon, something that has been around in Iron Man movies.

Lady Loki got the shovel thing from Roxxcart that she left in Oklahoma! The minutemen said it was from the early third millenia, which is where we are now! 2050 also fits that category!

I saw something about the file saying Class 8 hurricane...there are only 5 classes...which means this is a crazy storm.

Does B-15 want Loki dead? This is a legitimate question, because I think she does. Dead or pruned.

Loki looking around at the storm, I love it. This could be him loving science, or him missing Thor, since Thor creates storms. Also, at this point Loki probably things Thor dies shortly after him in the sacred timeline, so Loki would be particularly sentimental about Thor.

I love Loki drying himself off and not anyone else. And B-15 yelling about his magic. And Loki's motions are so fluid, it's so aesthetically pleasing, I love it.

Dudes, I thought B-15 was going to try to prune Loki when they were alone.

Okay, was Lady Loki bsing about the azalea sale, or does Roxxcart actually do that? I want to know.

Wunmi Mosaku did a really good job as Lady Loki, I loved it.

Loki being annoyed at Lady Loki and saying he understood how Thor felt, does that insinuate Loki can do what Lady Loki was doing?

B-15 and C-20 were both very shaken after being possessed by Lady Loki. I wonder how that felt for them? We've had different explanations of mind control/brainwashing/similar from Clint, Bucky, Daisy, Mack, Fitz, and Monica in the MCU (including AoS). I wonder what is specific to Lady Loki's possession.

C-20 kept going on about something being real. What was that about?

C-20 revealed the location of the Time Keepers to Lady Loki!

Lady Loki not wanting to be called Loki could be a sign she is Sylvie.

There's something weird where Loki's voice echoed around while the camera focused on Lady Loki. Maybe she's telepathic?

Someone needs to keep a tracker on people telling Loki this isn't his story in a show literally about him.

But, that does add to themes for his life, and how everything was always about someone else in his life. He was always a supporting character for Thor, for Odin, for Thanos. Now, even in his own story, everyone insists he doesn't matter.

I was wondering what the reset charges would be used for. I wasn't expecting a massive bombing of the sacred timeline! Wow! That was unexpected and I loved it!

Okay, this isn't from me, this is from New Rockstars. But to list all the places mentioned on chronomonitors, either bombed or not: Knowhere, Barcelona, Niflheim, Dartford, Phong Nha, Lisbon, Vormir, Thorton, Cookeville, Asgard, Rome, Sakaar, Barichara, Porvoo, Ego, Titan, New York City, Tokyo, Hala, Kingsport, Xandar, Beijing, Madrid, Portland, Jotunheim. Bolded are other planets. Those are almost all the planets visited in the MCU. So fun easter eggs there!

I like Lady Loki's aesthetic. The fingerless gloves, the cloak, I love it. And YES SHE ISN'T SEXUALIZED. So many genderbent characters are excuses to sexualize women. But Lady Loki is just as covered as the male Lokis.

Lady Loki just...left the time door open for Loki to follow...for a really long time...I'm worried he's running into a trap.

What is Loki going to do now?

Theory time y'alls: Lady Loki bombed the sacred timeline to flush the minutemen out of the TVA, leaving it defenseless. And she's gonna go after the Time Keepers themselves. We know she gets into the TVA from trailer footage, and that's what I think we're gonna see next episode. I think she (like the Loki we are following) is upset over the lack of free will, and she plans to change that. That's why she wasn't interested in helping Loki "take over" the TVA, because she doesn't want to become the leader of a new TVA, she wants it destroyed.

Alright, back to the Time Keepers stuff. They keep focusing on the middle Time Keeper. Even in the end credits they have a weird cut to focus directly on his face. I'm not 100% on this, but I like this theory. That face is similar to Jonathan Major's, the actor confirmed to be Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Kang is a well known time travelling villain in Marvel. Maybe he is Kang, and is using variant versions of himself (that's a Kang thing in the comics) to mess with the timeline, and no one expects that from him. Also, Renslayer was his S/O for a bit in the comics, and they keep framing her in front of that one Time Keeper's face. I feel like this would be a good way to set up Quantumania and to show how sus the Time Keepers are.

Also, Loki was absolutely adorable the entire episode. And he got to sleep! Yay for him!

Again, I enjoyed, and can't wait for next week!

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Andy on Asian Animation or SYAC: The Master Review 2

Let’s talk a bit about anime and Dobson’s work relation with it.

I think we can all agree, that starting from the late 90s and early 2000s on, anime and manga became extremely popular in the western world. Sure, Japanese animation was nothing completely new to us (Speed Racer, Nadia-Secret of Blue Water, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Kimba and Akira e.g. come to my mind as properties already known in the west before 1995) but it really was around this time that thanks to “mainstream” stuff like Dragon Ball and Pokemon people became aware of how different Japanese animation was from western. Eventually resulting in the really good shit (like Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, Kenshin and Heat Guy J) coming over and enriching nerd culture for more than just a few people who knew of it as an obscurity at that point. Now, if you know anything about Dobson, you likely know that his relationship with anime is rather… complicated to say the least. Or, to let him explain it with his own words…

Dobson essentially likes silly and wacky 90s anime. But later on he hated anime in general, because it got too popular and a bad experience with an anime club in college soured his enjoyment of it. Furthermore, he put the blame on his lackluster art style and storytelling capabilities as seen in the likes of Formera, Patty and Alex ze Pirate, on anime in general, while also claiming that Disney pulling the plug on 2D animation is the result of the “anime inspired” Treasure Planet, meaning anime in a sense deprived him of his chance at working at his dream job and “ruining” western animation.

Which to me has always been ignorant as fuck. For starters, I can understand not liking certain stories or genres, either for objective or subjective reasons. But to hate on an entire nation’s form of entertainment (not just individual shows or genres), depriving yourself of the chance of potentially watching a lot of good stuff while also being rather insulting to these other works and people enjoying them? Especially when the stuff you can supposedly “stomach” has been rather simplistic compared to other things?

 Second, blaming Japan for “poisoning” your art style? What, did the ghost of Osamu Tezuka possess you and FORCE you to put sweatdrops on your characters forehead while also going for the rather simplistic character style of Rumiko Takahashi, as well as emulating the slapstick of the likes as Slayers and Ranma ½?

 Next, if he had emulated them successfully, I say he would have actually managed to tell decent enough stories worth to read online. Not create Uncle Peggy aka “Discount Happosai” or the bland proto-Isekai known as Formera.

I mean, let’s give some context here: There have been people who successfully managed to emulate certain anime and manga aesthetics into western animation and make it work. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the likes of Avatar-The last Airbender, Samurai Jack, the Animatrix, Thundercats 2011, Super Robot Monkey Hyperforce Go, Kim Possible, W.I.T.C.H, Megas XLR and Wakfu. You know, shows that are actually awesome as hell.

Heck, Dobson’s favorite animated show of the last decade, Steven Universe, is heavily inspired by anime aesthetics to the point of being embarrassing.

 But Dobson… well, he emulated anime aesthetics in his work the same way as these crimes against animation did.

Combined with his general shortcomings as a storyteller it is no wonder his initial comics did not do well.

 Lastly, and sorry for digressing here a bit, but if the Wikipedia entry on Treasure Planet is something to go by, there was no real inspiration by anime involved in making this movie.

Supposedly the idea of making an animated Treasure Planet in outer space movie was already pitched by Ron Clements WAY BACK in 1985 but only came to be after Michael Eisner greenlighted stuff in the late 90s. Design wise the movie was supposed to look 70% traditional and 30% sci-fi inspired and people took inspiration for the art style by illustrators associated with the Brandywine School of Illustration. A western style of illustration established in the 19th century, that had a big impact on the illustration styles for many 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and short stories.

What, is anime supposed to be the only form of animation allowed to have sci fi elements or steampunk in it? Fucks sake, The Lion King and Atlantis, which came out one year earlier to Treasure Planet, were likely more inspired by anime. Don’t believe me? Watch Atlantis and then a certain anime by Studio Gainax called “Nadia-Secret of Blue Water”. Or read up on the controversy surrounding the two.

The truth is, it is not entirely clear what caused Disney to shut down 2D feature film animation in the early 2000s. In fact, if anything, most people put the blame on Michael Eisner and a certain change in the publics taste in movies in general, combined with Disney trying to turn almost every movie they had into a franchise via cheap follow up movies on video and DVD.

And even if Disney did not shut down, are we really supposed to believe that a certain guy with fedora would have made it big at Disney to the point Alex ze Pirate would have been made into a feature film?

But Dobson could never quite understand this and instead of “reinventing” himself properly, he would rant about anime and its fans in one form or another…

 And on the peak of his hissy fit create this little art piece he baptized Anime Sux. Alternatively “West vs East”. Or as I like to call it, slap a jap.

Now, the pic was done in 2008 and Dobson claimed sometimes in the last decade, that he no longer holds his old opinions. Unfortunately, by that point he would also more or less use the chance to vent in his webcomic about anime (or rather its fans), which brings us finally back to SYAC.

 While Dobson never outright thematized in more detail WHY he hates anime and manga in SYAC (likely cause if his comic reasoning was even slightly like his reasoning in his blogs, people would have torn him apart like a bag of paper) he did use the format to punch down on anime fans and their preferences.

 For example, for someone who has a 4chan story going around of having been rather arrogant towards others in college for not liking Ranma ½, Dobson has THIS little college related comic to show off, where he portrays an aspiring manga artist as a delusional jackass.

Then in this strip titled manga, his manga fan is essentially portrayed as a young woman dressing up like a very stereotypical high school anime girl, who is in the wrong for even just DARING to draw her comics in the direction manga are read.

On one hand, I get Dobson’s point. She could be at risk of alienating a market of readers as she is obviously drawing for a western audience. Then again, if she doesn’t draw a traditional western comic but a manga, why shouldn’t she? I mean, as long as she enjoys it, which I assume she does as she seems genuinely just happy when stating that she likes manga, why not let her? Plus, this comic was drawn in the late 2000s. I think by then most people kinda knew how to read from right to left, so Dobson’s claim she would alienate or confuse people is kinda redundant. If anything I find a) Dobson getting angry at her just very petty (just let her have fun) and b) portraying a western manga fan as someone who would be confused by the sheer idea of reading stuff from right to left is also in itself just really dumb and insulting. What is Dobson trying to imply? That anime fans are so stuck in the way they consume certain media, they can’t act according to “western standards” again?

Then there is this strip where yet another female anime fan is essentially portrayed as the embodiment of how “ignorant” manga fans are of the idea of different art styles...

Which becomes rather laughable once Dobson describes his style as a mixture of European, American and  Japanese. Why? Because he is the one oversimplifying things, rather than the anime fan.

You see while anime and manga of all sorts do share certain aesthetics (like the black and white art style, emphasize on the eyes of characters, the way hair is drawn, recurring tropes within certain genres and so on) style wise (both in art and storytelling) there can be severe differences, depending on the artist alone. Akira Toriyama’s style differentiates significantly from the likes of Eichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi, Kentaro Miura, Tezuka, Kaori Yuki and so forth.

The same also goes for many western artists. Herge had a significantly different style from Uderzo and Goscinny. Don Rosa has a different style in which he drew Scrooge McDuck than Carl Barks did. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee draw mainstream superheroes differently compared to how Jack Kirby, George Perez and others did. Heck, Ethan Van Sciver and Jim Lee were closely associated with Green Lantern in the 2000s and look how they differentiate.

 Which btw is the kind of skill level Dobson would have needed to have, to make it in the mainstream industry

So when Dobson says “I draw in a combination of American, Western and Japanese” all I can think is the following: THAT DOESN’T NARROW IT DOWN! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU LEARNT IN COLLEGE ABOUT COMICS? WHICH ARTISTS, WORKS AND STORYTELLERS DO YOU TRY TO EITHER EMULATE OR HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY?

Then there is this little thing…

Where do I even begin? How about the fact that Dobson’s hand in the last panel looks like he has lost a thumb? The fact that the little boy, anime fan or not, is aware of Sae Sawanoguchi, a character from a short lived OVA and anime series from the 90s, which considering his age, I kinda doubt he would be aware off. Unlike Dobson, who got into anime in the 90s and admits in fact within the posts I loaded up earlier, that he had watched the anime in particular, known in the west as Magic User Club.

Then there is the implication by Dobson, that anime is so “corruptive” as a medium, little kids don’t even know the most basic characters in western animation because of it. I expect in a next panel, that all of sudden some 50s PSA guy comes along and lectures me that if I want this kind of thing not to happen at MY convention, I need to teach little kids more about the GOOD western animation, instead of the BAD eastern one. Then there is this rather unflattering portrayal of a shonen ai/shojou ai fangirl…

 Which makes me laugh cause honestly, even some of the worst shonen ai and shojou ai can do better in portraying a “realistic” gay relationship than Patty if you ask me.

Also, as much as I think fangirls can be extremely thirsty (I have read my fair share of extremely stupid yaoi and yuri fanfics) I think that in hindsight Dobson is really not anyone to complain about shipping obsession and sex when he himself has KorraSami, the Ladybug fandom and a certain rat pirate under his floppy belt.

As you can imagine, Dobson would get heat for those comics, considering how he himself has been greatly inspired by anime and manga for his major comics. And while I don’t have any explicit deviantart posts of him reacting to criticism in that regard, I do have this comic which addresses it directly.

 And yeah, if I were schoolgirl number 4, I would just sigh and walk away after telling Dobson that his mistakes and shortcomings are not related to having consumed anime, but rather by what sort of anime (and other stories) he had consumed and the amount of effort he had put in creating his stories instead of emulating just something more popular. Plus, if you really want people to draw more from life, how about drawing more from life yourself down the line? And no, tracing Star Wars movie frames does not count.

Finally, Dobson, considering how very little most people think of your work, I say mission accomplished: People have learnt from your mistakes and know not to be a Dobson.

And at last, there is this comic, which kinda wraps up Dobson’s “vendetta” with anime and manga fans within the pages of SYAC.

By trying to mock anime fans and make them look just as shallow as he is. I at least suppose. Honestly, the message of this comic is rather muddled. On one hand, I would say the strawman accusing Dobson hates anime just because it is popular is very simplified. After all, Dobson has made his reasons for not liking anime clear in a few more details. It’s just that the details in and on themselves in real life are still rather shallow and boil down to a lot of personal bias rather than an objective criticism of actual flaws. Which I think is worth pointing out.

But frankly, what is Dobson trying to say or point out here? That the strawman is not so different or even dumber than him, because he hates Justin Bieber for “shallow” and superficial reasons too?

Okay, this doesn’t quite work as well as Dobson wants. First, the argument Dobson’s strawman makes is in huge parts based on some verified statements Dobson made for not liking anime. Second, he just says a name and that triggers the guy to express his hatred for Bieber. We don’t know why the guy hates Bieber and you could make in fact the case, that he hates him not because he is popular, but because he has a genuine issue with the artist, his work or his behavior as a human being. Third, if you want to make yourself look like the better person Dobson, try to argue with the guy and make solid arguments why you don’t like anime. Instead you just deflect the criticism by changing the subject and then try to make yourself look like the “smarter” person in the room by mocking your critic in the most condescending manner.

Which as I think about it, sounds like your modus operandi on twitter and tumblr.

Weirdly enough, that more or less marks the “end” of Dobson tackling anime fans and the beef he has with them within the pages of SYAC. Despite how much Dobson’s negative reputation especially in early years was build around him hating on anime and belittling its fans, he didn’t really do more afterwards in the Dobson focused pages of SYAC. And mind you, those strips were also separated by other strips in-between, focused on Dobson just being at conventions.

Unfortunately for him, the strips didn’t really help in any way to diminish that negative reputation and instead just confirmed for many, that Dobson can’t handle criticism about his flawed opinion on anime. If anything, it just made people think even less of Dobson, as the strips just painted him as someone who would rather portray his critics as strawman he can be “rightfully” annoyed at, instead of fellow humans with slightly different tastes in entertainment, who are still worth listening to.

So, now that we have the anime fan related “annoyances” out of the way, what other sort of silly problems in making webcomics would Dobson cover in his strips and are “relatable” to everyone?

Lets see some of these examples in the next part.

[photolover82]

The Masked Singer Season 4 Episode 3: Group A... again? Playoff Time! Commentary & Guesses

Hi all my Masked Singer fanatics! Time for episode 3 of this new season of The Masked Singer woohoo! Group A is back... and you are probably thinking how about Group C? Group C won’t be performing until after the World Series which is about last week in October to first week of November... so next week we will be seeing Group B in the playoffs as well, but having said that, let’s focus on Group A  (aka Popcorn, Giraffe, Sun, and Snow Owls) again because my guesses have changed like a lot since last week... I feel more sure about my guesses this time, I swear they are better and more researched this time... 

But First let’s talk about the eliminated contestant who is....

DRUMROLL PLEASEEE 

THE GIRAFFE 

Performance: He sang “Get Down on It” by Kool & the Gang and it was much better than his first performance, even though the beginning was a bit scary. However, I kind of figured he was going to go home because the rest kind of outshined him by a lot. 

Anyways, the Giraffe ended up being...

*INSERT DRUMROLL AND AN AUDIENCE SCREAMING “TAKE IT OFF”* 

BRIAN AUSTIN GREEN 

And if you are like, um who... same! Well he is from the hit show Beverly Hills 90210 and he’s Megan Fox’s ex husband.... and I actually was convinced due to a large amount of YouTube comments saying that it was him because of the clues (did you see how wonderful that segue was? Come on, that was flawless): 

The Fox from Season 2 and Transformers clues= his ex wife/mother to his kids, Megan Fox reference 

Peach Pit= famous scene from 90210 (idk man I’ve heard of the show but never seen it, don’t judge me) 

Robins on his shoulders= nod to him being best friends with Robin Thicke (we’ll talk about that hilarious moment in a second, btw spoiler alert Robin didn't guess his best friend) since they were both 16 

Golden Ear Time: 

It’s been a while since last time they didn’t show it (btw Jenny got a point for guessing Gremlin) so lemme explain this is the segment where I talk about the judges’ guesses... but today I am just gonna talk about Ken and Robin because they had some funny moments with these guesses (oh and btw I am gonna do judges’ guesses for the rest of them, and Joel McHale was a guest judge so he’s included below.. just so you guys know who I mean when I say Joel) 

So Ken guessed Shia Lebouf.... um, ok? Not the first time... What’s funny tho is that his explanation for his answer was so much that even the Giraffe fell asleep like damn lmao 

Then Robin... his best friend since age 16 (these men are both in their 40s, married/divorced with kids and everything), his neighbor, they were in a 2 man band together.... and HE STILL DIDN’T GUESS HIM (and a bunch of 90210 fans did and even got the reference wowwww). The best part was his face when he saw it was Brain, he was like nooooooooo I done messed up (I was about to curse, but this is a family show), funniest thing ever 10/10 would recommend watching just for that reaction

Anyways, we are done here, now to the final 3 for Group A: 

1. THE POPCORN 

Performance: She sang “Falling” by Harry Styles and damn what an improvement! This is the stuff I was looking for when I saw how adorable her costume was. Omg this was my favorite performance of the night, it was so memorable and amazing! 

As for my guess, I changed my answer and I feel confident about this one, I am locking it in.... 

I think that the Popcorn is 80s pop star.... 

TAYLOR DAYNE 

Here’s why, clues please:

Mention of her being sick and having anxiety as a kid= when she was 5 she underwent ureteral reimplantation surgery and struggled with panic attacks, anxiety, and agoraphobia (fear of open/crowded spaces) 

Crimper and Rubik's cube= 80s reference, when she started her career (1985) and gained success

LGBTQ+ Flag= huge LGBTQ+ supporter 

Venus= planet of love, which most of her songs are about

Judges’ Guesses: 

Ken: Katy Perry?! (I know it’s Ken and he’s not great at this, but really?!) 

Joel: Gloria Gaynor (meh, that’s better, I’ve seen this guess a bit, but nope) 

Jenny: Vanessa Williams (nope, I don’t think so Jenny, that’s worse than Gloria Gaynor) 

2. THE SNOW OWLS 

Performance: They sang “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” by John Legend and Meghan Trainor and I really heard the country in their voice this time and they sounded older so the moment I heard them I was like yeah nope not Julianne and Derek at all. However, even though I love them, I really preferred their first performance even though this one was cute and I really want them to go super far. 

As for my guess, I changed my answer and thank you to all the people who helped me out by yelling at me on the YouTube comments section, I am gonna go with country duo....

CLINT BLACK AND HIS WIFE LISA HARTMAN 

Here’s why, clues please:

Witch hat= Lisa played a witch, Tabitha, in the Bewitched sequel 

Going through a messy breakup = Clint had a pretty bad legal falling out with his management company

Anchor with MANagement= Clint was in a movie named Anger Management in 2004 

Opportunity fit for a queen= their song together “When I say I do” going to the Tonight Show and her being apprehensive about it, but him pushing her to do it. 

Judges’ Guesses:

Ken: Will Ferrell and Rachael McAdams (what’s your proof?)

Joel: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood (I like that one, pretty close) 

Jenny: Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman (also close not mad at this guess)

3. THE SUN

Performance: She sang "Praying” by Kesha and wow, so good! I loved it so much, her and the seahorse are stiff competition. She’s amazing, I am really into her, she’s one of my faves. 

As for my guess, I am doubling down on my last guess (only one I felt good about).. Let’s go: 

LEANN RIMES

Here’s why I’m doubling down, clues please:

Fractured home= parents were divorced

Into the woods= she used to date Tiger Woods (say what now?! yes this is real, I searched it up after reading a comment on YouTube)

Ugly Rumors= She appeared in Coyote Ugly/ sang for the soundtrack and there were really horrible rumors about her and her divorce

Over the moon= her songs: can’t fight the moonlight and nothing new under the moon 

8 Ball= She was on Star Search at age 8

Judges’ Guesses:

Nicole: Carrie Underwood (her logic is bad, but close enough) 

Jenny: Mandy Moore (um, idk the voice doesn’t match) 

Robin: Katherine McPhee (I like his logic, but no, the voice is too distinct) 

Alright so that’s it! Sorry for it being late but better late than never. I hope you guys enjoy! Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments and I’ll see you in a couple of days for the Group B playoffs (little fun prediction if you made it this far: I think the Whatchamacallit is next to leave)! BYE!!! 👋🏼

[idasessions]

Famous Muses & Groupies in Rock Music Pt. 39

GROUPIE: Pamela des Barres (born Pamela Ann Miller)

So you might be wondering why, nearly 40 posts into this series on muses and groupies, I haven’t focused on the queen bee herself yet. Well to be completely honest, it’s because I don’t like her I figured everyone already knows her story, lol. But I might as well give it a go just for the sake of continuity. Pamela was born on September 9th, 1948 in Reseda, CA to a housewife and a gold miner. She grew up in the San Fernando Valley right in the middle of where the first wave of rock music history was taking place. She passionately fangirled Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Paul McCartney was her blueprint for the perfect boyfriend as a teen, and in her first memoir I’m with the Band (1987), Pamela claims she got an ‘A’ on an art project by drawing Mick Jagger’s crotch (….). She quickly met her first musician through high school classmate Victor Hayden—who just happened to be Cpt. Beefheart’s cousin. Through Victor, Pam got to go backstage and to local parties where she met Frank Zappa, the Byrds, the Stones, the Doors and Steppenwolf when she was 16-19 in 1965-68.

Even though she had been meeting and befriending rockstars since 10th grade, Pamela says she was mostly a virginal groupie in the late 1960s, and didn’t sleep with any of them as a minor. With a couple of intimate exceptions—like making out with Jim Morrison when Pamela Courson wasn’t around—Pamela didn’t lose her virginity until she was 19. The guy ended up being bassist Nick St. Nicholas of hard rock band Steppenwolf, and she claims the experience was ~just okay (i.e. she barely remembers it). Since then, Pamela went on to casually date and randomly hookup with stars in the 1970s like previous art class subject Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon of the Who, Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Chris Hillman of the Byrds, Gram Parsons, and Waylon Jennings. Her first and only husband would be Michael des Barres of the B-list rock bands Silverhead and Detective from 1977-1991. Her only child, son Nicholas, was born on September 30th, 1978. She also went through a movie star phase and went on dates with former child actor Brandon de Wilde, TV star Don Johnson, comedian Michael Richards (??) and comic-turned-filmmaker Woody Allen (?!?!).

For work, Pamela had random jobs around the Sunset Strip from waitressing and retail to TV hosting and B-movie acting. After she finished school, she briefly babysat Frank & Gail Zappa’s kids and became part of Frank’s side project Girls Together Outrageously (AKA, the GTOs). The group was comprised of local LA County groupies as an experiment to see if they could make their own music too (spoiler: they can’t). During this period, Pamela went by the moniker ‘Miss Pamela’ or just ��Ms P.’ The girls broke up after only two years together (1968-70) and one album released, ‘Permanent Damage’ (1969). Pam and fellow GTO Lucy Offerall both later had cameos in Zappa’s cult film 200 Motels (1971) alongside Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Mark Volman. In her late 30s, Pam was inspired to take up writing after gossip journalist Stephen Davis told her she was a good storyteller while interviewing her for the (awful) Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods (1985). Soon she went on to coin the first ever groupie memoir in 1987 called I’m with the Band, which quickly gained notoriety in the music community. Since then, she’s written three more memoirs: Take Another Little Piece of My Heart (1993), Rock Bottom (1996), and Let’s Spend the Night Together (2007). In modern times, she occasionally writes featured columns for publications, her own blog posts and has her own ‘groupie’ fashion line. She’s also still friends with GTO pal Miss Mercy and fellow Led Zep groupie Michele Overman.

But how does she feel about carrying the title of ‘the most famous groupie in the world?’ Well, it’s complicated. Pamela claims the first time she ever heard of the word ‘groupie’ was by a Zeppelin roadie at a Hollywood party in 1969. For a decade she battled with people labeling her the ‘G’ word, as she tried to be taken seriously and not viewed as a slut. But by the time she was writing her books, she changed her tune since it’s the only reason anyone knows who she is. She even goes as far as to argue that groupies are the ‘real’ muses of rock music and feminist. 😒 Another little issue that occurred after living it up in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. There was a new, wilder, less legal breed of groupies in town: baby groupies (or the Star Girls). Teen girls between ages 13-17 who were ~stealing all the rockstars from the 20-something, seasoned groupies like Pamela and Bebe Buell. In 1971, while Pamela was dating Don Johnson, she noticed that 14-year-old Melanie Griffith was hanging around his film sets and neighborhood a lot. Soon ‘a lot’ became all the time, and Don infamously dropped Pam for Mel. Then only two years later the same shit happens again, when Zep guitarist Jimmy Page ditched Pam at the English Disco for 14-year-old Lori Maddox in 1973. (BTW, Jimmy wasn’t even legitimately with either of them. He was living with French model Charlotte Martin. Oh, and Jimmy and Pam’s husband Michael were friends at one point and Jimmy would hang out at their house sometimes…awk.) Now seen as ‘old,’ or ‘over the hill’ as queen baby groupie Sable Starr apparently called her, Pamela went through an existential crisis at age 25 about her exes leaving her for literal school girls.

But rather than, I don’t know, raising her standards on men, she spends the next 30 years shaming these teen girls for being man-stealers or something. In I’m with the Band, she’s a lot more forgiving of Melanie and even claimed they’re friends now, but she still held a grudge at Lori. Then sometime in the mid-2000s, Pamela and Lori are suddenly ~good friends and Lori is subject of a chapter of Let’s Spend the Night Together. When David Bowie died in 2016, Pam finally started publicly stating that teen groupies are unethical. But then #metoo blew up in 2017, and it quickly occurred to people that in an environment where sexism and sexual misconduct are being re-evaluated; music stars getting one-night stands and random blow jobs while partying with young women anywhere from 13 to 30 years old started sounding really, hella sketchy. Instead of owning up to the culture being outdated, Pamela doubled down hard on groupie-ism, defended the statutory rape with the baby groupies, and thinks ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ isn’t an issue. In most of her interviews from 2018, like on “Ken Boxer Live,” and in Women Wear Daily, NME and The Big Issue Magazine; she says she’s ‘bored’ with being asked about #metoo and that it’s a whole different vibe in the music industry. (I’m sure the women accusing R. Kelly, Ryan Adams and Russell Simmons of abuse agree.)

I’m sorry, but you can’t claim being a groupie is feminist, and at the same time say all that shit and brag about giving hickeys to Jim Morrison or blowing Mick Jagger. Just admit it was all about partying and being with famous people.

P.S. Penny Lane in Almost Famous (2000) is not based on Pamela, no matter how much she (or any other famous groupie) claim the character is. Penny’s based on Pennie Ann Trumbull. Check out my earlier post on her.

[introvertguide]

Meryl Streep: Perhaps the Greatest Living Movie Actress

I am getting a little bit older and I find that I sometimes make references that the younger millennial generation does not really understand. I understand when people refer to an actor as “good, but no Daniel Day-Lewis/Meryl Streep” and I get when people refer to a mundane decision as “Sophie’s Choice” to show absurdist hyperbole. However, I work with high schoolers for my day job and data entry 20-somethings over the phone for my evening job. So when I bring up a “Meryl Streep film,” I am referring to the amazing acting ability of this woman that carries a film that might not otherwise be a great film. Here are some Streep facts that might give you an idea of what I mean:

She has a lot of acting accolades: She only has 2 Best Actress and 1 Best Supporting Actress award from the Academy, but she has been nominated for an acting award 21 times in the last 40 years. According to IMDB, she has won 175 cinema related awards with another 350 nominations. 

She never took a break: She has been in at least one movie every year since 1978. I was born in 1980, so this woman has been putting out a film every year my entire life. I grew up with the current “Meryl Streep film” as a movie to be seen for my entire life.  

She carries movies: Meryl Streep has been in 3 movies that were nominated for  Best Picture and they all came out between 1978 and 1985. All 3 of these movies won the award. She has been nominated or won best actress or supporting actress 21 times. Do the math. It is not that she only picks great movies to be in, she picks parts that fit her and she consistently performs. She does not necessarily pick only box office hits either, so it doesn’t feel like she is only doing it for the paycheck. It seems like she genuinely enjoys acting and is supremely good at it. 

There is a lot of variety in her films: Streep does not seem to really prefer one kind of movie. She is in fun movies like The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. She is in serious dramatic roles like The Deer Hunter, Iron Lady, and Sophie’s Choice. She also uses her voice acting skills playing parts on King of the Hill and in The Ant Bully. A lot of range on this actress.

Hopefully, Meryl Streep will continue to make movies so that the kids in their teens can know a lifetime of her movies like I do. BTW, the pics above are from Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, Out of Africa, and Iron Lady from top to bottom. If you did not know that, then watch Sophie’s Choice with the group and then check out some other great Meryl Streep films. 

*Edit Note: The Hours and The Post were nominated for BP as well - Thank you evasofie19. This means she was nominated 5 times. 

[itsametaphorbriansblog]

Okay, I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY

First of all, I love Bohemian Rhapsody, it's a fun movie, with awesome music and quotable lines.

BUT there are some things I don't like about it:

1. The characterization of the band. (I love the guys' performances, so nothing against them) Almost everyone felt like a 2D character:

Roger was a sex-crazed hot-headed guy, they didn't show how he actually is really a loyal friend, kind human being and a sharp, funny and intelligent guy (the "who even is Galileo?" line even tho was funny, it enraged me, he studied BIOLOGY AND ENTERED DENTAL SCHOOL, he for sure knows who is Galileo and if it truly was a sarcastic comment, they dumbed him down so much, that you can't realize it, and for what? I don't think there was a good reason for him to be that stupid. AND HE WAS THE ONE TOTALLY COMMITTED TO THE BAND SINCE THE BEGINNING, that was his fucking dream. And he didn't have his moment to shine with a song, a video idea or a concept ("Radio Gaga" if you want to start somewhere) like the rest of the guys, instead they made "I'm in love with my car" (a bop) the butt of the joke and a running gag.

John was poorly treated, I know he was introverted or shy, however when a person is shy or introverted, it escalates to the point where you feel comfortable around 'your family' (as the movie puts it) and in the film I don't see that escalation, he took 2 albums to finally write a song, in where he called himself someone out ("Misfire") but he at the end was comfortable with the rest (he made them sing "I'm happy at home" for the love of god). He had little to no lines, and they didn't show how "with two sentences he could make you curl up and die", and even if that wasn't the point, he was a sarcastic, witty, soft and happy guy, who came up with amazing songs like "Back Chat".

Brian was an angel in the movie, and I KNOW he is gentle, soft-spoken and smart. But he also was the most strong-headed out of the four, He and Roger were the ones that fought over songs the most and FREDDIE was the mediator. He also wanted to make a guitar solo in every song (pissing of Deaky), and he was the first one to have a cheating scandal (and making a song out of his cheating habits "It's late")

HOWEVER, THE WORST CASE WAS FREDDIE. Even tho he was the most "real" out of the four, he ended up being a victim and had his sexuallity demonized. His relationship with Jim was really cut short, and they extended Mary's soooo much, it was not necessary. I know they were friends after their break up, but if you want to make the point that Queen is the addition to it´s parts and a family, then why she had to be so involved n "saving" him? Why not the guys actually made the intervention? they knew Freddie was not ok in the movie. They, also, made his stage persona, his personality. He had a flair for the theatrics, however he was not a diva 100% of the time, he had his playful, funny, chill moments. And his commitment to the band was amazing always, In 1969 he said he was going to be a pop star and a legend so him to his friends, and he had an awesome work ethic (they were all perfectionist) so why showing him arriving late to rehearsals?.

2. The interrelationships between the band members were cut short:

They didn't show how Roger and John interacted. Roger was the first one who bonded with John TRHU THEIR LOVE OF CARS, and the one to introduce and make Deaky comfortable with the rest of the guys for starters. Deaky pointed Roger as the most handsome guy in a room full of contestants, even when Roger was not in that competition. Roger remembered the 'Under pressure' line when Deaky forgot it. They complimented each other.

The relationship between Freddie and John was criminally robbed. Freddie was a momma bear towards John, so Freddie actually being so pissy towards Deaky, and not encouraging makes me angry. He made John got out of his shell, and was the OG Deaky stan.

The Roger/Freddie relationship was transform in the opposite,They were good friends (soulmates as Jim puts it) and they got each other (the one vision behind the scenes anyone?), why the fuck put them against each other so much? they messed around together, they even lived together at a certain point for god's sake! the both of them were PLAYFUL and had fun, they knew each other long before Queen, they had a Kensington market stall. So fuck off.

Brian and Roger were completely pissy. And I know they fought in the studio. But they friendship outside of it is legendary, they have 50+ years of being friends. Brian was in awe when he first saw Roger toning his drum set and heard him play, he said "that's how a drum must sound" he always compliments Roger's play style, saying it's unique and identifiable. He also says that Roger is one of the brightest, sharpest and down to earth persons he knows (and we are talking with and astrophysics). You can see the familiarity in interviews, the banter, they are brothers.

3. They robbed us of iconic moments:

The "Simon Ferocious" scene

The "Under Pressure" incident

LIVE AT MONTREAL

Rogers styles thru the years (he was the rainbow man for the love of God, not some plain ass bitch)

AND HIS MULLET

Roger chasing Dominique (cause his a soft boy)

Brian with his kids

"It's a Hard Life" video

The cupboard moment, even if it wasn't true, now is canon.

Deaky meeting the guys in a disco (a place which Roger and Brian hated)

Roger being the trendy bastard that he is (and his awfully bad acting)

Micheal Jackson saying that AOBTD was a bop. And the llama incident.

"Crazy little thing called love" creation.

Roger breaking the nose of someone that had called Freddie mean things.

"Liar", " March of the Black Queen" or"Death in two legs" anyone?

And I could go on for hours.

4. The flow of the editing was kind of weird, and had too many montages.

NOW THE SOLUTION TO THIS:

Make a Netflix series with one season and 8/10 chapters, like "Luis Miguel" for example.

You can divide it into 4 eras, and every era occupying 2 chapters of an hour each chapter ...

First one in John's P.O.V: from 1970 to 1974, from John joining the band till Live at Rainbow. Including John meeting Veronica, Brian presenting Mary to Freddie and John feeling comfortable with the guys. Plus, Brian marrying Chrissie.

The second one from Freddie's P.O.V: from 1975 to 1978. Dedicating an entire chapter to them being in the ruin, John having basically no home, and having to move with Brian (another robbed friendship, btw) and the creation of "A night at the opera". The other chapter Roger meeting Dominique, Freddie ending things with Mary, and finishing with "Jazz", plus "Don't stop me now" opening the door to the United States's public.

The third one in Roger's P.O.V: from 1980 to 1985. Starting in a high note with AOBTD, going thru Hot Space, the fights (and possible break up of the band) because of the album and Roger's solo work. The second chapter would include the South American Tour (since there were dictatorship in all the countries they visited and was basically like Beatle Mania), Freddie meeting Jim, Freddie's solo stuff, the creation of Radio GaGa and finishing with Live Aid. Roger quitting smoking cause of Dominique's bronchitis.

The fourth one in Brian's P.O.V: from 1986 to 1991. Starting with Wembley Stadium, "A kind of magic" album and him meeting Anita and divorcing Chrissie, discovering that Freddie had aids and showing his strength, and his bright attitude, and not having pity for him. Roger's divorce and him meeting Debbie. Ending in The "Show must go on"™ moment.

And the fifth era as an epilogue, in John, Brian and Roger's P.O.V.: They don't show Freddie's death, nor his last stages. However, the chapter starts with the press harassing both Roger and Brian, and Roger defending Freddie a week after his passing. They show the damage that caused Freddie's death not only in the members of the band but in the fans. The last chapter is the "Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert" Ending with Somebody to Love, cause that is THE Freddie Mercury ™ song.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

[amandajoyce118]

Aquaman Easter Eggs And Comic Book References

I’ve seen Aquaman a few times over the last couple of weeks, and I finally got around to sitting down and typing up my list of Easter eggs. It’s unlikely I caught everything, but you know, it’s always fun to try.

There are spoilers in the list for the movie since plenty of the plot points where Easter eggs occur are major moments in the movie. By this point, you know the drill. I kept mainly to comic book references, but there’s the odd pop culture one in here as well.

Obviously, there are other pop culture references as well. Everything from The Karate Kid to Pinocchio seems to get a shout out. The more general pop culture knowledge isn’t going to be here. I also didn’t list every single character who comes from the comics unless I thought there was something specific about their appearance that deserved a nod.

DC Logo

Because Warner Brothers produces all of the DC Comic movies, the DC logo appears following the Warner Brothers one, usually. This time around, the logo doesn’t just flash in its cute CGI glory. Instead, it appears as though it’s underwater.

The Opening Sounds

In addition to the DC Logo being submerged, there’s also the sound of a sonar ping and a humming that you wouldn’t really notice as anything important. Turns out, it matches the sounds made by the trident at the end of the movie. (I only noticed this on a second viewing.)

Jules Verne

Arthur’s narration that opens the movie gives a nod to genre writer Jules Verne as he quotes the author. The hidden sea also provides a nod to Verne’s classic Journey To The Center of the Earth (though it is also a comic book locale from a recent story where Mera and Arthur discovered Atlanna was alive and leading an island full of exiled Atlantean descendants).

Amnesty Bay

This is the comic book location where Arthur Curry makes his home on land. The whole Tom Curry as his dad, owning the lighthouse, etc, is out of one of the newer comic book origin stories. The difference is that in the comics, when Arthur is an adult, his father is dead. It’s nice that the movie kept Tom alive. (In modern comics, as in, last year, Mera even lives in Amnesty Bay while she’s recovering from injuries.)

1985

I don’t know why this year in particular struck me, but I thought Atlanna ending up in Amnesty Bay that year had to be significant. After all, Jason Momoa was born in 1979, so it’s probably not a result of trying to get his age lined up with Aquaman. Here are a few things that happened in 1985: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) was born and the Crisis on Infinite Earths event debuted. The latter seems more likely of an Easter egg nod, but we may never know.

The TV Show

The show playing on Tom Curry’s television when he brings Atlanna back to the lighthouse? That would be Stingray, a show that used puppets as underwater heroes. The group had their own submarine and a princess from an underwater kingdom. The show originally aired in the 60s, the same decade the Aquaman comic book series was originally published.

Dunwich Horror

The book under the snowglobe on the coffee table is by H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a collection of short stories, one of which is the title story. In it, a son is born of two different species, much like Arthur.

Atlanna’s Crafty

She’s got a box on the table at the lighthouse, yes? You’ll notice that its design is very similar to the motherbox. Perhaps she spent a great deal of time guarding it. That might be why we get Mera saying (in Justice League) that Arthur needed to retrieve it, since Atlanna would have been responsible for it. As a bonus, we also get Mera mentioning the events of Justice League to Arthur later in the movie.

Manta

Black Manta is (perhaps obviously) a comic book villain. His origin gets a bit of a tweak here, and I like the joke for just why ends up with the giant helmet. (And the nod to Jaws there with “I”m gonna need a bigger…” you get it.) What’s great is that before he actually declares himself Black Manta is all the nods to his ocean inspiration. You’ve got the experimental craft that’s shaped like a manta ray, you’ve got the engraved manta on the knife, and you’ve got his family backstory as well. (Fun fact: Michael Beech, who plays his dad, was originally cast to voice Black Manta for an animated series, but rights issues meant the name of the character had to be changed.)

Lifting The Sub

That shot of Aquaman lifting the submarine is straight out of the comics. A lot of the big money shots in the movie are, like Aquaman holding the trident in front of his face when he activates its power. The team did a good job at nailing the comic book aesthetic.

Languages

Probably not an Easter egg, but I find it interesting that Aquaman appears to pick up on other languages pretty well, just like the Amazons. It feels like a nod to the fact that Atlanteans and Amazons have been around for centuries and have lived hidden from humans, but have still learned a thing or two about them.

GBS

The news station that pops up is the Galaxy Broadcasting System. It’s part of Galaxy Communications, part of a multimedia company from the comics. It’s kind of like Supergirl’s CatCo.

Dr. Stephen Shin

Okay, I know he kind of seems ridiculous and cartoonish in the movie compared to a lot of the other characters, but… he’s pretty on par with the comic book character. The character actually knows Aquaman in the comics. Arthur even comes to him for help once in a while, but Shin ends up disgraced because of his involvement with Aquaman, and Arthur won’t even let him prove that some of his research is accurate. So, yeah, I could see him going the supervillain route.

Annabelle

When Mera and Arthur pay a visit to Vulko, there’s a doll on the ocean floor outside the sunken ship (BTW, is that a sunken galleon, as in the name bar Arthur and his dad frequent?). It looks just like Annabelle. It makes sense that we’d see some horror nods since that’s James Wan’s wheelhouse.

Nereus

Mera’s father is a comic book character, just like every main character in the movie, but his comic book backstory is very different than what you see in the movie. For one thing, he wasn’t her father. Instead, Nereus was a military general for the Xebel people. He was also Mera’s betrothed before she left Xebel behind on a mission to kill the King of Atlantis (yeah, her comic book backstory is a little different too). It’s an interesting twist on his character, though Nereus is very jealous of Atlantis and pushes for war a time or two, so he’s not that far off.

Atlantean “Tribes”

Some of the different groups of Atlanteans are rooted in the comics. Mera and Nereus lead the Xebels, for example. In the comics, Xebel is an extradimensional pocket for Atlantean separatists were sent long ago. It was basically a prison, but the people evolved and adapted. The royals learned magic that allowed them to control water, hence Mera’s abilities. Those in the Trench? They were a species of sea animals that lived in a literal trench in the comics that were dying out. Mera and Arthur ended up trapping them to prevent them from trying to eat humans.

Ocean Master

The name Orm spouts as the leader of all of the Atlantean tribes is Ocean Master. That term is also his supervillain name in the comics. It’s a cute way to change it up for the DCEU.

Man of Steel Reference

Okay, I frequently forget that Man of Steel technically started this cinematic universe, but when Orm takes Arthur to task for the way the surface world poisons the oceans, we get a nod to it to remind us. One of the images used is a collapsing oil platform. It’s the same one that fans theorized Aquaman saved Superman from by sending whales in to help him during Man of Steel.

Octopus On Drums

In the 1960s, back when Aquaman first got his solo series, he had a slew of sidekicks, both animal and Atlantean. One was an Octopus named Topo. I like to think this Octopus was a nod to Topo, but also, a nod to The Little Mermaid, because, come on. We all notice Mera’s fondness for ship wrecks, her red hair, and her not staying underwater like everyone wants her to, right?

Leigh Wannell

This guy appears in a cameo role as the cargo plane pilot. He’s a close friend of director James Wan. Like Wan, he’s a big horror guy. In fact, he’s an actor, director, writer, and producer for the Saw and Insidious franchises.

Africa

The sequence that sees Mera and Arthur rising from the water with the Africa remic playing in the background? That’s intentionally shot as an homage to the Fast and Furious franchise, according to James Wan. I mean, sure. I guess if you got to play in that world, and one of your stars became a DC superhero, and then you got to direct a DC movie, why wouldn’t you want to come full circle there?

The True King

Arthur becomes the True King when he gets the trident and comes back to battle Orm for the throne. Before that though, he has to find the trident with the help of the “true king” in Italy. That turns out to be Romulus. It’s a nice parallel since Romulus becomes the first true king of Rome when he defeats his brother Remus.

Murk

Played by (Power Rangers Black Ranger) Ludi Lin, Murk is one of Orm’s inner circle, and high ranking in the guard in the movie. In the comics, he’s also high ranking in security when Arthur is King. He looks a little different in the comics. He looks more like a big gladiator than Ludi Lin. He also has a harpoon for one of his arms. When he fights Mera in Italy though, she gets one very deep slash to his arm, so maybe we’ll see that come to fruition in the future.

Khal Drogo’s Kelp

The scene where Arthur wakes up on a boat after his fight in Italy? His injuries are wrapped with kelp in a very specific way. Game of Thrones fans will see that as a nice nod to Khal Drogo, the role that really put him on the genre map.

The Trident And King Atlan

There’s a whole thing in the comics with the “Dead King” coming back and trying to get control of his kingdom, wanting to use the world. There’s also his scepter in the comics, which does a lot of what his trident does in the movie. Atlan’s clothing, and the ceremonial armor Arthur ends up in, are also a nod to Aquaman’s gear in the comics.

The Karathen

The comics label this sea monster as the Karaqan, but it sounded like it was pronounced differently by the actors, so choose your spelling. The sea monster looks exactly like it does in the comics. The effects guys did a great job. More than that though, they gave it a better story. In the comics, the animal went a little crazy and Arthur ended up having to kill it because he couldn’t communicate with it. I prefer the movie version where he’s the only one who can communicate with it. Bonus: the giant sea monster is voiced by the classic Julie Andrews. She actually didn’t cameo in Mary Poppins Returns (which opened in theaters the same month!) because she chose to do this voice role instead.

Aquaman Rides A Seahorse

The Superfriends TV series had a lot of silly moments for Aquaman. One of those things was him riding a seahorse into the thick of battle. It’s one of the things that has made a lot of people make fun of the character over the years, but now, it’s also iconic. The movie gets to put its own (much more badass) spin on that idea as Arthur grabs a seahorse to meet his brother in the climactic battle.

Coast City

This DC comics locale gets a nod in the post credits scene. It’s one of the locations where Dr. Shin has a newspaper clipping from. Coast City is home to Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris of the Green Lantern comics.

That’s all I’ve got for this one! Let me know if you guys spotted anymore!

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Shanie’s Action Figure Update 8/21/2021

NEW FIGURES!

I'm putting this one behind a cut because it's longer than usual!

Row 1: Elite 85 FFH Bray Wyatt (With Puppets from Ringside Exclusive Bray and this Bray) Row 2: Elite 47 and WrestleMania 34 Elite Kevin Owens, NXT Takeover Series 1 Basic and Series 73 Basic Kevin Owens Row 3: Basic 96 Sami Zayn (Chase Attire), “Then, Now, Forever” Elite Sami Zayn Row 4: AEW Unrivaled Series 5 Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus (Jurassic Express) Row 5: AEW Unrivaled Series 6 Hikaru Shida, UFC Ultimate Series 1 Amanda Nunes Row 6: Playmates Star Trek TNG Ensign Wesley Crusher

Not Pictured: NECA 1955 Doc Brown (BTTF), Basic 123 Dexter Lumis (I am so sorry about this, I forgot about him because he got kicked somewhere still on card and I have to find him. I’ll make a separate post about him when I find him!)

Woo Boy! Here we go!

So, did you see where I said that “I mostly bought Sami and Kevin figures”? Well it is true, individual figures I bought two Sami figs and four Kevin figs. But there was an entire HAUL from Ringside Collectibles that I made this month that consisted of six NON-Zowens figures! (One of them was the Dexter. Again, oops!)

Anyway, about the Bray. I wasn’t going to get this one. I told myself I wouldn’t get it and I almost didn’t. I even passed it up at the store for 15 bucks. I had the Huskus which I bought loose, I didn’t want the Bray. And then... well, we all know what happened about that so yeah. Broke down and got him from RSC. Huskus is the only puppet that came with him (meaning now I have two Pig Boys), the rest were from the RSC Exclusive Bray which is just SO bad that he’s tossed in a pile somewhere. I made those puppet stands BTW, from paperclips. They aren’t pretty but they work. The puppets don’t stay upright without them.

Moving on, as I said, four Kevins and two Samis. The “KO Mania 2” and “Fight Owens Fight” Kevins are both Elites which I needed as fills and the “Prizefighter” Basic is also a fill. There is no “Prizefighter” Elite Kevin that I can find so I’m settling for the basic. And the NXT Debut Kevin is my second figure of that attire but the head on the original is SO bad that I bought the other version just to have a better head. The original one will probably end up in a box, if I’m honest.

The Sami figs, however... Well, I’ve already made my thoughts known about that Sami card photo (again, woof) so I’m going to try and preserve it. I’m thinking I’ll cut the plastic bubble off. I dunno. We’ll see. And the Zayniacs shirt Sami is the “Then Now Forever” Elite one which might have been an exclusive? Not sure. He’s a fill from before I got into Zowens and possibly before I was collecting WWE figures again. He is the last of the four Sami Elites that I needed to get. Now I just need to fill in the rest of the unique basic figures. (There’s only two or three left after the Chase 96 here.) Oh! And, in case any of you were wondering, I’m pretty certain that Chase 96 Sami (and the regular version) are the last two Sami figures ever got. We’ll see if the E91 figure come out. Fingers crossed, on my knees in prayer.

Jurassic Express I had once said that, if they ever make figures of them, I will buy them and I did. Took me a bit, but I got them. I fully intend on displaying them like this on my shelf (unfortunately the clear band is needed to keep them together) and, maybe someday, we get a Marko to go with them. Probably not though. More than likely, they will be the last of the men’s AEW figures I get until the inevitable CM Punk figure comes out. I can’t keep up with AEW and WWE I just can’t. From here on out it’s women only from AEW.

Speaking of AEW Women, glad to have another women’s champion figure in the mix, although I do believe that *every* woman released in the Unrivaled line except the original Brandi figure has come with a women’s title belt. Both Nylas (when they come out) will have the belt, both Rihos had them and Shida also has it. They’re the only four women we have seen in the line so far. Anyway, glad to have Shida in the mix. I have one MOC on my wall as well, if anyone was wondering.

UFC Amanda Nunes. I know diddly squat about UFC. Everything I do know about Women’s UFC has come from my research for my story. But I wasn’t passing up this figure. It’s awesome to have her and she’s gonna look great on my shelf. Hope that, if they do make a Series 2, they can include another woman.

Finally, Wesley Crusher. Say what you will about Wesley, Wil Wheaton is awesome, and I needed a Wesley for my TNG setup. I wish he was in the grey striped shirt, but it is what it is. I didn’t want the Cadet Wesley figure, and this is the only other option.

As I said, the Dexter Lumis figure got kicked somewhere and I need to find him. He’ll get a post later. Also, NECA Doc Brown is an awesome figure, but I haven’t taken him out of package yet and packaged figures have issues with photographing. So he’s not included. However, I have found out that NECA has no intention of making ANY of the BTTF women in their series so now that I have Movie 1 Marty and Doc I have no need for further figures in this series... unless of course they make a 1985 Movie 1 Doc in which case I will replace 1955 Doc with that one. For now, though, this is as far as I’m taking the BTTF figures.

So. This concludes another edition of Shanie’s Action Figure Update! Stay tuned next time when (hopefully) there will be a certain TNG Klingon AND everyone’s favorite Doctor Who Imbicle!

Until next time!

[greensparty]

RIP Tanya Roberts, Marion Ramsey, Michael Apted, and Tommy Lasorda

This past week there were several celebrities who passed away. Here is my combined remembrance: 

Tanya Roberts 1949-2021

Roger Moore and Roberts

Actress/model Tanya Roberts has died at 65. There was some confusion this week because they announced she died, then it was announced she was actually alive...and then she died. She played Julie Rogers on Charlie's Angels  from 1980-81 and Midge on That '70s Show from 1998-2004. But her best role was as Bond girl Stacey Sutton in the underrated 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill.

The link above is the obit from The Guardian.

Marion Ramsey 1947-2021

Ramsey as Officer Hooks

Broadway, film and voice actress Marion Ramsey has died at 73. Her greatest role was as Officer Laverne Hooks in the Police Academy series. She appeared in Police Academy through Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. Six movies total! I used to enjoy those films a lot, especially as a tween / teen. She was quite funny. 

The link above is the obit from Deadline.

Michael Apted 1941-2021

Sophie Marceau, Pierce Brosnan and Apted

Film director Michael Apted has died at 79. Like a lot of directors I admire like Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese, he dabbled in both narrative film and documentary film, as well as television. He did the Up series, documenting the same participants from 7 Plus Seven all the way up to 63 Up. He was really diverse doing everything from the Sting doc Bring on the Night to Nell to the 1999 James Bond flick The World Is Not Enough, the one where Denise Richards is a nuclear scientist. BTW - Sad week for 007 fans. 

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

Tommy Lasorda 1927-2021

Lasorda in a 1982 episode of Police Squad

Baseball player and L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda has died at 93. He actually popped up quite a bit in pop culture, playing himself in episodes of Police Squad! and Silver Spoons among others. 

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[dachi-chan25]

Cycle of the Werewolf 1983

What is it about?

A series of gruesome murders start in Traker’s Mills bringing terror to it’s inhabitants every full-moon until Marty Coslaw– a paraplegic 10 year old boy– figures out who (or what) is the culprit.

Thoughts:

* So, in comparison to most of SK’s novels this one is father short, but not less enjoyable, the plot is very easy to follow and pretty straightforward (I was able to deduce who was the werewolf right away) which was pretty relaxing to read.

* The beautiful illustrations by Bernie Wrightson, so most of the books I read (including the ones from this challenge) are from the library and I was lucky enough to find the illustrated edition, and I recommed y'all to try and find it.

* Again Marty’s disability was amazingly handled, plus he is the hero of the story and honestly it’s such a good representation, let’s be honest the horror genere doesn’t give any represenation to people with physical disabilities and I find it great that King does.

*Also I'm not a werewolf kind of girl, but I loved this one, and the lore is very intresting.

TV/ Movie adaptations:

There is only 1: “Silver Bullet” from 1985.

It’s worth mentioning Stephen King wrote the script, so even if I found a LOT of changes from book to movie I still feel conflicted because SK wrote all those changes ya feel me?

I just loved Marty and his “Silver Bullet” looked so cool. His relationship with his uncle I loved from the book and only liked in the movie (cuz they completely changed the uncle) but seriously I loved the ‘Silver Bullet".

All this religious thing with the werewolf I kinda liked because it was a way for the beast to justify itself so that was great.

The werewolf looks fake af, I ain’t gonna lie, but also it’s all so nostalgic, maybe I’m just too positive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but I really recc it.

Quotes:

"“Lover," she whispers, and closes her eyes. It falls upon her. Love is like dying.”"

"Something inhuman has come to Tarker's Mills, as unseen as the full moon riding the night sky high above."

"(...)the shriek of the wind seems savage with pleasure. There is nothing of God or Light in that heartless sound-it is all black winter and dark ice. The cycle of the Werewolf has begun."

"Her store is failing by inches, and she weighs too much, but now, on this night of dreams with the moon a bitter blue flood through frost-traced windows, it seems to her that love is still a possibility, love and the scent of summer as he comes ..." ( btw I found Stella's brief POV beautiful and so poetic.)

"As many colors as there are on a dragon's breath, Uncle Al had said. But Marty supposes there's no law against a dragon breathing silently."

"He senses the moon somewhere above the clouds; he senses its power; his chest expands, straining the seams of his white shirt. He tunes the radio to a rock and roll station, and he feels just ... great!"

"Outside, the wind howls and screams against the snow-filled sky, and in Tarker's Mills, the first minute of the new year becomes history."

Next Book: "The Talisman" co-written with Peter Straub

[otterlylla-archive]

Lylla Masterpost

It’s been almost 3 years since GotG came out and Rocket Raccoon became hugely popular and I still keep seeing people wondering: Who’s Lylla?

You probably all know her as Rocket’s (ex) girlfriend, who is also an otter. She’s  appeared in VERY few stories, even less so than Blackjack O’Hare or Wal Russ. According to official sources, she’s coming back in the upcoming Rocket solo comic. 

So, to refresh some people’s memories of the character, or if you don’t know who she is, here’s a post with EVERY time she’s appeared in since Rocket’s debut to this day.

Lylla’s first appearance was in Rocket’s first appearance as well (not counting the Marvel Preview where he was called Rocky). She’s presented as Rocket’s girlfriend and Wal Russ’ (honorary?) niece, who named his ship, and a distressed damsel who gets kidnapped to lure Rocket into a trap. Of course, Rocket saves her and all is good...for the time. In general, she’s shown to be a weak, helpless individual who never gets to do anything on her own. She’s less a character and more a walking plot device. She barely has any dialogue, at that (I’m not posting every panel where she appears, btw). 

When she reappeared in the limited 4-issue Rocket Raccoon series, in 1985, Lylla’s character was expanded. She’s introduced as stripping, jumping into a waterfall and fooling around with Rocket.

Here, she is the heiress of Mayhem Mekaniks, the biggest toy-making industry in planet Halfworld. The toys are used to entertain the mentally ill humanoids living in the planet. However, her parents were killed when she was very young and the company was taken over by the mole Judson Jakes (who was the one who had her parents killed). Supposedly he’s only the owner of the company until “she comes of age” (Lylla was underage here?), so he’s forcing Lylla to marry him and thus get her company. Lylla refuses, of course.At the same time, rival toy company owner Lord Dyvyne also wants to marry Lylla in order to get her fortune, and she refuses as well. 

So Dyvyne sends the Black Bunny Brigade (lead by Blackjack O’Hare) to kidnap her and send her to him. Blackjack captured her (JUUUUST when she was holding a gun and about to fight to retrieve the Gideon’s Bible on her own, because she’s apparently not allowed to do that), but then decided HE wanted to marry her and get her fortune. Again, she refuses. He hits her, as well (for getting distracted looking at a mural, at that).

When Rocket and Wal Russ go to save her, she gets to punch a few bad guys, but then goes back to being a doormat when Blackjack becomes forceful. 

When Rocket arrives, Lylla...scolds him, for not being brave enough, even though he was in a hurry at the moment. When Blackjack joins Rocket’s group and they escape, she’s wary of him and he wants to get rid of her (because she’s the one the villains want).

Later, the scientist turtle Pyko explains what is the true nature of the planet: It was always meant to be a mental asylum and the animals are there to look after and entertain the patients, and everything the animals did was because of the original robot caretakers. Lylla, like Rocket, is surprised, but nowhere near to Rocket’s extent. 

Blackjack betrays the group and attempts to stab Lylla, but she (finally) fights back.

When they get to the toy-making factory (apparently the “real” one operated by robots, which makes the Toy Wars completely moot) they make special helmets  that can “cure” the mentally ill people (I’m making a whole different post about the ableism in Rocket’s backstory). When one is used on Rocket, he “realizes the depth of his love for Lylla” and smooches her, to her surprise (?). Lylla is also the first one to realize how quiet the patients got when the helmets are used on them. 

The villains strike back, and Lylla uses a gun alongside the main characters. She doesn’t fight directly though, and mainly hugs Rocket and swoons over his bravery. 

In the end, Rocket defeats the villains and Lylla leaves the planet with Rocket and the other animals in a giant spaceship, since they’re “no longer needed”. 

Something I noticed: thorough the story, Lylla NEVER does any work for her company at all. In fact, Jakes and Dyvyne fully believe that she’ll only manage the company with Rocket and then give all the toys away. This could be a good chance for a “villains underestimating a woman and then being proven wrong”, except that she NEVER does anything about it. She doesn’t even care about Rocket wanting to decipher the mysteries of Halfworld; she just wants to swim and have fun with her boyfriend. 

So basically: Lylla is a very passive, caring and sweet lady who nevertheless can fight and use a gun, doesn’t like working, has no authority over anybody, no ambitions and would rather have fun all day with no worries. That is, until Annihilators happened.

In this story, the entire “Toy Wars” thing got retconned into a holographic projection inserted in Rocket’s brain to keep him from going back to his planet. Here, Halfworld is portrayed as a maximum security psychiatric hospital/prison for the “incurably insane” (eeeeuuugh) attended by uplifted animals, and Rocket left to keep a powerful evil psychic from escaping by turning himself into the “key” that kept him prisoner (long story).

As for Lylla, she’s the head nurse and helps Rocket regain her memories using a special helmet (of course). She also used to be in a relationship with Rocket, but after he left, got married with Blackjack (who, in this version, was always a good guy and never hurt or kidnapped her). Rocket takes it all VERY well and wishes them for prosperity.

In this series, Lylla narrates what “truly” happened to Rocket and his planet, but NEVER does anything on her own, outside of shooting Rocket with a paralyzing gun when he got scared. Once the action starts, she gets shoved into the background, because she’s a woman or something. She also barely changes her expression and seems much more distant than how she was before.

it’s worth mentioning that here, none of the animals CHOSE to work in the hospital. They were just made to do so and nobody says anything about it. Rocket is the only one showing any interest of working in a completely different field. 

In the Free Comic Book Day 2014 comic, Rocket is accompanied by Wal Russ and fights against Blackjack (who is a mercenary again....?) and Dyvyne (who is alive...?!), and Pyko gets an appearance, but Lylla is nowhere to be found. Then there are the Skottie Young Rocket comics, which apparently negate Annihilators happened (and Lylla gets no mention at all, which I feel is for the better given the awful “Angry ex girlfriends” storyline). She doesn’t show up in the animated series episode involving Halfworld, either, even though most of the original characters appeared.

Ever since Annihilators, Lylla hasn’t appeared in ANYTHING, outside of getting her name dropped in a freeze-frame bonus in the GotG movie. Her name is included as one of Rocket’s allies along with Groot. Where is she and what did she do? Hasn’t been shown yet, and probably never will. 

According to official sources though, she IS coming back in the upcoming Rocket solo series, but given what happened with Blackjack O’Hare and how Rocket’s character has been getting increasingly more violent, self-centered, obnoxious, smarmy and petty, it wouldn’t be out of place for her to be completely derailed, turned evil, attempt to kill Rocket and/or get killed off. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: On May 2017, the latest Rocket solo series came out. One important character was Rocket’s “old flame” Otta Spice, an otter-like alien femme fatale who’s very clearly a stand-in for Lylla with a different personality. Lylla herself was alluded to during the story but didn’t show up until the last issue, in the form of a dream/hallucination. 

In this continuity, the events of the older comics happened BUT they kept the “Lylla married Blackjack” bit from Annihilators. Huh. Gotta keep her out of the way.

But the most notable reappareance of Lylla was on the Telltale GotG videogame, where she’s part of Rocket’s backstory. She’s voiced by Fryda Wolff and has a sweet, calm and playful personality, helping Rocket escape from Halfworld while gently teasing him. She’s also a skilled engineer and inventor. Unfortunately she dies to further Rocket’s angst, but she can be revived at the very end of the game.

So, after all this, I gotta ask: how would YOU save Lylla (from her narrative)?