#since I saw the first in the theaters with my mom and we both had a very good time

[bouneilly]

I love how sing 2 made me start drawing anthropomorphic animals again. While I wouldn't necessarily call myself a furry (since I'm not that familiar with the community, but follow artists who are in it, and do have a fursona), I always found the concept of animals and insects being portrayed with human like characteristics in media so fascinating, especially in dramatic settings. It's kind of refreshing to get back at drawing them again when I've been so burned out by art lately because of my inability to properly draw humans in an appealing, semi realistic style, or the exact same way their foggy appearance looks like in my head without getting frustrated

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Neil, my name is Zalean. If you have a few minutes, I wanted to tell you a little story. Not really a question and I’m not sure how to use tumblr but I wanted to say thanks so much for coming to Florida a few months back and talking with Art Spiegelman. It was my first time ever figuring out how to buy tickets for something. I lived in, middle of nowhere, Vermont for most my life and had no idea what I was doing, I had never been to anything before, nothing had made me excited enough to do the 5 hour drive. And then you just appeared 20 minutes away from where I am living now.

See, I was just starting to get to know your books and work because I fell in love with Good Omens so deeply when I discovered it during season twos release. Funny thing is, I knew of you all along without even realizing it, Stardust has been my favorite book and movie since I was a kid because it was my dad’s favorite story. Finding out my two favorite things were actually connected, I started trying to get hands on as many of your books as I could. I hadn’t read in years before finding your books. It was eye opening.

The talk event at the Dr.Phillips Center was sold out by the time I knew about it, someone had asked me if I knew of the event when they saw my Good Omens keychains my mom had made me. I called the box office because there is no harm in asking. I explained how I’m an art student at UCF and desperately wanted to be inspired and learn from you both. The customer service people were amazing and ended up calling me back to get me a seat in the orchestra pit before they were released to the public. I drove alone, I walked there alone, I sat alone, and it was worth it. I was so thankful to get a seat and grateful to my professor who was a bit jealous he didn’t know about it but let me leave class early to go because of course the art professor would be understanding for any learning opportunities in the arts. And it was truly wonderful, it seemed real and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want a show. I just wanted to hear, in some sense, that you were like everybody else. I brought a notebook and pen for any information or story’s that I thought made a difference to my little life. The other people around were wonderful, you inspire kind people.

Like I said, I had never been to anything like this and I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know you would have signed books and I only found out because the people next to me came in late. I asked them why they brought the books after it was over and the lights turned on. They did look at me like I had three heads for a moment until they realized I didn’t know there were books to buy, they looked kinda sorry for me but they were so nice. I had never really thought about the importance of someone’s scribble before this but it’s something that proves you were there. It says “Remember when this person made you happy? Remember when they changed your life? Remember when they gave you hope? Look at this and remember.” I hope to see David Tennant and Michael Sheen to get an autograph now that I understand the meaning behind it a bit more but honestly I just love diving into everyone’s projects, the wonder you all create. Oh what fun it is to live a life full of stories!

The people that were sitting next to me let me look at their signed books and hold them. I flipped through some of the big ones, handed them back and expressed my gratitude just to be in the theater. I showed them all my little quotes I wrote down, I never want to forget why I create things and you say so much about never stopping, always creating. Then the women handed me a different book, a smaller book, but when I tried to hand it back, a bit confused, she softly placed it back in my open hands and said “I want you to have it, we have plenty and I want you to love these stories just as much as we do. It’s just starting for you, I want you to remember who started it”. The book she handed me being“The Ocean at the End of the Lane”. The first book I decided to read by you and had just finished a week before. The women had no idea she given me a signed copy of the book that made me want to read again. Your books make the world better. For such a big theater and such a big stage, I just wanted to tell you my little point of view.

The story you told about wishing you enjoyed the past more than you did, I hope you get to enjoy it now, and I hope you want to. And thank you, to you and to Terry Pratchett for creating something special. I convinced my dad to watch Good Omens with me over December break, he loved it.

I forget sometimes that everything is someone's first time, and then I read something like this and feel like I need to remember that better. I'm glad the people beside you were kind.

[doctorcurdlejr]

Niko!! what'd you think of I saw the tv glow. I finally saw it last night and noticed you posting about it so I wanted to know your thoughts :)

Levi!!! I was JUST wondering what you were thinking about the movie after I saw you posting about it as well... we are so media discussion pilled in this way, it's awesome. ANYWAYS I've had so many thoughts since I first saw it and I've been trying to turn them into something coherent for a little bit now.

Ummm okay I have written 1k+ words about this movie, the suburbs, and escapism via teen TV.... clearly I was dying for somebody to ask this I guess so thank you for indulging me <3

First and foremost, I absolutely loved it! I've seen it twice now and the first time I watched it I got to see Jane Schoenbrun talk about the film right after. I already really liked it from that first watch alone. I found it so deeply relatable to my experiences - both in terms of growing up gay and trans, but where I am now in my 20s trying to navigate adulthood. Hearing what Schoenbrun had to say really cemented my feelings and thoughts about the film.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big influence on the movie (it's why Amber Benson makes a cameo as Johnny Link's mom). Even though I don't have the same emotional link to Buffy since I never watched it, I recognize it as the same type of warmth I experienced growing up with Riverdale. When Owen says he feels like his insides have been scooped out but that he's too afraid to look and have that wrongness everybody knows is there be confirmed, Maddy simply responds "Maybe you're like Isabel. Afraid of what's inside you." Tears forming but not falling, breathing shallowly, I grabbed the paper and pen the theater keeps at the seats for people to order food with and wrote that line down - the slip of paper is still somewhere in my car. Writing it now almost feels lame in its simplicity, but it felt like my insides were being flayed open.

During the director discussion, Schoenbrun talked a little bit about this idea of how truly fucking bizarre it is to grow up in the suburbs. Like, when we think about the pinnacle of normality in American culture, it's the image of middle-class cis-hetero-white suburbia. At the same time, despite this cultural dream of normality, everybody is hyper-aware that the suburbs are one of the least normal things ever. So, the ACTUAL cultural understanding of it is that it's where we go to, like, passively kill ourselves (*George Costanza voice* WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY YOU KNOW!). This idea isn't new, I mean there are so many films and shows about navigating that specific bizarre dissonance from Rebel Without a Cause to Heathers to Twin Peaks. Probably half the pre-teen to teen TV I watched obsessively growing up, stuff like Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, Making Fiends, Truth or Scare, and eventually Riverdale, were never shy about being weird and morbid and saying "yes, the suburbs are exactly as bizarre and lethal in the ways you can already feel in your bones at 13." I Saw the TV Glow does a really good job of keying not only into that mental dissonance but more specifically into how those of us who have felt so intrinsically weird and different and wrong fell back on these shows like they were capable of doing the emotional version of a rescue breath maneuver after being drowned.

In high school, if there were two things about me that any person who even vaguely knew me could list off it was that I watched Riverdale, and I was a lesbian - and I was mocked more for the Riverdale. At that age, I was, without a doubt, the most miserable I have ever felt in my life. I rarely left the house because my family lived in a development that made me want to scratch my skin off when I walked out our front door. Owen didn't leave the house for days, afraid Maddy could somehow force him out. I sobbed constantly and frequently to depressing indie rock on the floor of my closet while hoping my family would just once read the (honest to god) KEEP OUT poster plastered on my door since I didn't have a lock on it. Owen didn't leave his room for days, afraid of what Maddy recognized in him. I didn't go on dates and kept my chest binder shoved to the bottom of my bookbag while wearing dresses that could've come from a how-to-be the perfect 50s housewife manual. Owen didn't leave his bed for days, afraid of Maddy touching his neck and Isabel's dress. I also watched Riverdale with the kind of zeal you see in a Pentecostal who has found God and started speaking in tongues to let you know it. I own a button that says, "Don't Make Me Go Dark Betty On You," I cherish it in a way that is only achieved by knowing exactly how corny and trite it is and then moving straight past that because well actually, and most people wouldn't get this, she's holding back something deeply dark and wild and- and disgusting. something painful yet intrinsically her. but i get it, obviously. or maybe not obviously! hopefully not obviously, but- basically, I'm just saying I get it: the experience of reflection and recognition through the other and all that.

Whatever, the point is that this movie is one big glaring trans allegory about how it sucks dog shit to live in the suburbs, and even at our most repressed we find these little snow globes of actualization in the glow of a tv screen that isn't afraid to show you the world you see. I've seen some people say that, like, in this context accepting or coming into your transness is this monumental death of self, which I get, but I feel there lacks a nuance in that because either way Owen is dying. Unlike Maddy who buries herself alive only to come out renewed, Owen doesn't kill himself upon facing the reality that the world is constructed to keep him miserable and the only way out is to take back what it is that the world wants to keep scooped out of him. Instead he just passively lets it drag him to a much more permanent death. This lack of suicide sucks in the kind of way that forces you to sit in your car on the midnight drive home and think to yourself am I letting myself suffocate because at some point knowing the misery became less scary than admitting I've been capable of doing something about it the whole time?

Clearly, I’ve been enchanted by the film’s narrative and meta-textual language. If you're familiar with it, you can see how Schoenbrun built this movie like a long-form dream episode of a canceled teen show filmed in Vancouver. Lynchian? Yeah, sure. Riverdalesque? THIS we cannot possibly deny. Schoenbrun said they included Amber Benson as an act of healing the inner rage experienced at Tara’s death in Buffy. This is a Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ending Riverdale with a bisexual polycule after his gay Archie play got ceased-and-desisted type move. There’s probably more I could say about the soundtrack and the visuals, but I’ve hit over 1k words on this, so I’ll leave it at I enjoyed this movie a lot. :)

Maddy is an out lesbian who left town to escape the misery and found it strapped to her ankles. She slinks out, an animal pressed against the gymnasium floor, and says "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know." Owen looks into the camera and narrates. He cuts himself open with a box cutter, fully acknowledges what's there, and the movie ends with his suffocating apology parade for the unremarkable inconvenience of his excruciating suffering. You can be gay and trans, you can know it and you can stop repressing it, but you're not going to stop suffocating until you can find a way to destroy the part of you that truly deeply does want to die, reaching for the comforting euthanasia of normalcy. Stop visiting the dream of the life you want and make it into your reality with the same kind of unrepentant conviction seen in some underfunded but wildly ambitious teen television series. In other words: you must try to survive the ego death of being weird. A weirdo, who doesn't fit in and doesn't want to fit in!

[mintkookiess]

It started out slow (Miles x fem!reader)

I saw someone post about writing a fic where Miles is cheating on Gwen with us (I reblogged it like before this post) and I just had a surge of "HOLY SHIT LET ME COOK SUMTH" So here we are I made this like straight out of bed at 7 am.

Not proofread as I was hurrying to squeeze the creative juices out of me before it runs out. Hope yall still enjoy!

Love,

Mint

Summary: Miles had garnered a new friend, but didn't know it would cost his relationship, and start a new one.

Tags: Miles x fem!Reader, Miles x Gwen, cheating au, kind of fast paced, idk what else to put here

Word count: 1.7k

It started out slow.

You first saw Miles at a supermarket and thought nothing of it, thinking it’s just the ordinary stranger you see around the city.

But then you suddenly just see him everywhere.

Like fate wanted the both of you to meet so bad.

You were both given so many chances; finding out you sit beside each other in the movie theater? To find both your families eating in the same restaurant? Or you’d see each other at the supermarket again but with a more familiarity and peculiarity at the same time.

So it started out slow.

With the casual curious glances, or catching the other staring then immediately looking away.

When fate has finally had enough, it forced Miles to accidentally pour juice on your white dress in a crowded mall.

“O-Oh crap, I’m so sorry!” Miles had exclaimed, mentally slapping himself for being such a klutz. You hadn’t even minded a bit in the least when it happened, but you did finally get the name of the boy you’ve been seeing everywhere a lot lately.

“I’m uh Miles. Sorry about the juice.”

You had shook your head at the time, a polite smile on your face as you said that it was fine and that he didn’t have to worry about it. You introduced yourself and that was that, you both became friends.

That polite smile of yours had become friendlier.

When you find out you both were neighbors and you spotted him by his apartment building’s entrance with his mom smooching his cheeks as he was ready to leave for school, you couldn’t help but stop and watch in amusement.

He catches your eye and he grows red with embarrassment, you nonchalantly walked towards them as his mom spotted you and asked if you both were friends earning her a nod of affirmation from you.

So suddenly, you’ve been invited to dinner.

And almost every week after that.

What he didn’t tell you though, was that he has a girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.

You didn’t think much of it, since you were content with being friends with Miles, but there were times where you knew your presence was causing a little rift between them.

He had introduced her to you at one point, but the girl was immediately playing in the defense with you, and you weren’t entirely sure why at the time, till you overheard them in his bedroom one day when you decided to help his mom with her groceries.

“I know you like her Miles,”

“Me? Gwen you’re my girlfriend why would I like anyone else?”

“I’m not blind.”

You immediately knew it was about you, because you were the only other friend he had other than Ganke, and you’re a girl.

You didn’t worry about it since you know you haven’t done anything wrong.

Until you both did.

The kiss was magical.

Miles had swung you on top of a building when he told you about his Spiderman identity. He was so excited to tell you, wanting nothing more but to show you a cooler side of his.

The two of you watched the sunset for a few minutes until you both were hyper aware of this strange tension between the two of you.

You thought something was bothering Miles, and he thought the same with you,

“Are you okay?” You both had said simultaneously, but only made the two of you laugh, the sun seemingly making your faces glow a tinge of orange.

It started out slow.

The way his fingertips touched yours, and his smile faded into a more serious look as his hazelnut eyes stared into yours.

You hadn’t even seen it coming, but the next thing you know your lips were enveloped between his. You remember your mind making siren noises, warning you that this was completely wrong.

He has a girlfriend. But the girl he was kissing right now, definitely was not said girlfriend.

And it all went downhill from that.

Or uphill, depending on who’s perspective you’re looking at.

The two of you were awkward after that kiss, not talking to each other for a week, and Mama Rio of course notices this but doesn’t pry.

But when Miles couldn’t take it any longer, he swung to your window and immediately apologized for what he did.

You had apologized too, wholeheartedly, but…

Neither of you regretted it.

You haven’t said that part out loud and neither did he, but you two knew by the way your eyes danced around each other between the silence and darkness of your bedroom.

The next days were full of poor attempts from the both of you to salvage the normalcy of your friendship, but at the same time wanting nothing but to repeat that kiss again.

But the both of you knew you’ve done something terribly wrong.

Miles had been torn ever since, getting extra jumpy whenever Gwen would suddenly appear in his room unannounced, kissing his girlfriend hello but it felt different.

He couldn’t help but compare your lips to hers. Gwen’s lips were so different from yours, from the feeling to the taste, how soft it was, and how much he wanted more of you.

He knew he was being a terrible boyfriend, but fate had different plans for him apparently.

Falling for someone other than his girlfriend was definitely not a part of his life plan, but here he was, back in your bedroom window once Gwen had left.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so freaking sorry.” He had said, before strutting inside with no greeting and immediately grabbing your waist to pull you against him, lips instantly smashing together.

He didn’t know why he was apologizing exactly, there’s so much to be sorry about and he just wanted to say it out loud maybe to feel some sense of humanity. Like he’s showing the world how sorry he actually was but internally wasn’t at all.

This second kiss was more urgent, held more longing from the both of you.

You had held out for as long as you could, but the moment he was on you once more, all that willpower you had mustered to distance yourself from him faded into dust in seconds.

It started going fast.

The way his hands gripped on your hips as the both of you made out in the middle of your bedroom. So many words hung in the air, but neither of you spoke up.

Your arms locked around his neck, your head tilting slightly and he took this as a silent permission to deepen the kiss. Next thing you know he was pushing you down on your bed, hovering above you as his hands started to roam your sides.

That night went by blissfully, being in each other’s arms without a single word being said and just letting your bodies do the talking. You both knew what was happening.

But you two weren’t ready for the consequences.

The next weeks were full of hidden kisses, secret meetups, or whenever Gwen was sure to be in another dimension fixing anomalies.

There wasn’t a day where you had thought of how shitty of a person you were, and the same could be said with Miles. But the heart wants what it wants right? And fate had both your hearts twisted around each other into something that was just too complex to just suddenly cut off.

Miles had tried. He definitely did.

Tried to destroy his feelings for you as he couldn’t handle the guilt. Gwen had known something was up since he was acting strange, but he’d blame it on Spiderman duties. He was still too scared to tell her, not really ready to lose Gwen.

But also wanted so much more of you.

It started to slow down to a halt.

How the time seemed to have stopped, the world stopped turning, and the both of you with the same horrified expression as Gwen stood by the doorframe of his bedroom door, watching as he was positioned above you, hands on the hem of your shirt.

The color seemed to have drained from his face as he scrambled to get out of bed, chasing Gwen out of his apartment and left you in his bed with tears streaming down your face.

It had finally happened, the thing that the two of you were dreading the most.

You stayed seated, covered by his blanket as you leaned against the pillows, staring at the ceiling as more tears fell down silently.

Miles had come back after two hours or so, you couldn’t really tell as you were busy wrapped up in your self-hatred.

He had told you how Gwen broke up with him, and you could tell it was bad by how his eyes were bloodshot and puffy, his nose still sniffing and his lips held a frown you rarely saw on his face.

The two of you didn’t know what to do, but before you could make a decision to distance yourself from him, fate had other plans as he beat you to it.

He wrapped his long arms around you, and the both of you cried that way for the remaining time that the night allowed you until you were sure it was getting quite late.

“Don’t leave me, please.” He had begged, his voice barely above a whisper as he buried his face in your hair. You thought he’d want to push you away for ruining his relationship, but it looks like you thought wrong.

“I need time Miles.” You replied, staining his black shirt with your tears and you felt him nod in silent response. “It’s okay, I’ll wait. No matter how long it takes.”

Soon, it started to move again.

The two of you had ignored each other for months after that, or more like he gave you as much space as you needed. But it was the biggest, fattest mistake you’ve ever made.

You longed for him more than anything despite everything. You know you should be wallowing at how you broke up a relationship, but wanted nothing more to be in his arms once again, and he did too.

You both agreed to meet at the cafe you both had grown accustomed to going to together through the duration of your friendship. You ordered your usual, and he ordered his.

The silence was defeaning, and the noises of the customers around the both of you seemed to have drowned out.

You wanted to say something but as always, Miles beat you to it.

“Can we, start over again?”

And you had nodded, tears forming as a smile danced across your lips. “I’d like that.”

Fin.

Taglist: @ii01vp @laylasbunbunny @missusmorales @fiannee @faeriesberries

(If you want to be on my taglist pls let me know!)

More of my Miles content here babes!

[sometimesanalice]

I’m so curious about ‘Like I Can” and reader’s childhood/high school background!! Could we get some little flashbacks? Your work is amazing btw❣️❣️❣️

Ah! This was such a fun message to get! Sorry it took me a minute to respond, I wanted to make sure I had time to sit down and give it the attention it deserves!

What do you want to know? My inbox is always open, so please feel free to send thoughts or questions in any time they pop up! 🫶🏻

But here’s more about Sweet Girl for you! (i might have gone a little overboard, lol)

Sweet Girl was a bit of a shy girlie and a bit of a late bloomer in her younger years. It wasn’t until high school where she really started coming out of her shell.

She spent a lot of time at the Bradshaw house growing up and felt like it was hers too. Carole was the one who first gave her the “sweet girl” nickname and they had a really close relationship (sg still has the locket Carole gave her for her 13th birthday). And SG’s favorite nights were the ones where they’d get to have sleepovers. The moms would be upstairs having their own (wine, brownies, and romcoms), and her and Bradley would have free rein of the living room. (she famously isn't a fan of movie theater popcorn while Bradley is the extra butter kind of guy, but she does like the kettle corn kind.)

After her parent’s divorce, she had a complicated relationship with her dad. SG never saw it coming and then he moved very quick with a new wife and step siblings, and she felt really betrayed there for a while.

She had a few close friends in her grade, but Bradley was always who she considered her best friend. And because of that she did get picked on sometimes mainly by shitty boys who didn’t understand why they were so close or why he’d want to hang out with her (especially since they have a 2 year gap, so they’d call her his shadow or a tagalong). Bradley made it clear that anyone who messed with her wasn’t cool with him, but there were still some comments under breaths that she’d hear sometimes chose to keep to herself.

She’s always been artsy (she doodled some very detailed fireballs on the page of the sheet music book with Great Balls of Fire that she gave Bradley for his 12th birthday). But her favorite classes in high school were AP history (preferred euro over us) and computer science. (She originally wanted to be a graphic designer, and focused on pursuing her freshman year in college before later changing her major.)

Tennis was her sport of choice, and she was pretty decent at it. Her mom, Carole, and Bradley (baseball schedule depending) were always in the stands to cheer her on (the moms had to sit through so much spring sports, those opaque tumblers were definitely filled with wine, lol)! Both SG and Bradley had shirts they’d made as self professed #1 fan of the other when they were at each other’s games. The year she almost made it to the state playoffs was the year after Carole passed away, and after that happened and seeing her mom there alone in the stands without Carole or Bradley, she quit playing.

Miss ma’am is a smart cookie, and was one of three valedictorians in her class. (She did not audition to give the speech and let one of the others do it because she doesn't like a lot of attention directed at her.)

Her respect for the library (and why she won’t make out with Bradley in the stacks, even though he’s always trying to get her to after they get together, she won’t but she does let him carry her books, lol) is because she used to spend her summers volunteering there. Bradley would either drop SG off or pick her up depending on his baseball camp schedule and his job scooping ice cream. (Which Bradley has a struck ‘no milkshakes’ in the montero rule after she spilled hers one time, and he never let her forget about it)

I do have plans for a couple longer oneshots about their younger years! Including one about the night at the homecoming party where Bradley got his scars, and then also about the period after Carole died and Bradley's self destructive era (when he tried to implode their friendship).

As for some little flashbacks, I think that sounds like so much fun! I love their dynamic so much and have fun weaving in things from their past into the stories I write when I have the chance to do it! If there's specific things you're interested, send them my way! I'm happy to keep a little list and work on them when the time and inspiration hits!

[smww4ever]

Lois & Clark

Most people when they hear you are a SuperWonder fan, think you know nothing of Lois Lane. Assume you were born yesterday and just popped out of nowhere with this radical notion of SuperWonder.

No. I grew up on Clois. That’s all that was on the movie and tv screens. The love interest didn't really become a 'thing" until the show came out in the 90s to coincide with the comic where they get married. At least to me, it was always Superman’s girlfriend in the comics, playing around with different love interests. They finally decided to tie him down permanently with Lois. I’ll talk more about that in a little bit. But I want to first write about my thoughts and reactions to the finale of the Superman & Lois show.

I don't subscribe to Max. Can't afford it. I'm barely making ends meet. And it's not the type of show I'm interested in watching. I'm not a Clois fan anymore (or maybe I never really was). But what really shocked me, well maybe I shouldn't say shocked but found very interesting was what the writers of the show did with these characters.

I found out that both Superman and Lois die in the finale. She died of cancer. It came back. And Superman died of a heart attack. Yes you read that right. How? Well he received a heart transplant from Sam Lane. Yes you read that right too. His heart was ripped out of his chest by Doomsday and got squashed by Lex's boot.

Take a moment.

Ok we are back.

Like wtaf?

Oh and something about a serum that got the human heart of Sam Lane to work and go into Superman’s body according to his holo mom in the fortress. Don’t know any details as to how they did it, or who performed the surgery etc.

So, Kryptonians are not as advanced as we thought? Now I know why they sent him to Earth.

It's Dollar Store Earth.

But wait. Don't we have stem cells, and research into growing human organs?

If Krypton was an advanced civilization that achieved interplanetary and inter-galaxy space travel, wouldn't they have already solved that?

I mean his dad was a scientist? Maybe he wasn't that kind of scientist, huh?

Ok I had to stop and just re-read what I wrote. Are we in some alternate reality?

Yes we are. If this is the type of stuff they are writing into Superman. And people —I have no idea of the percentage that watched— think this is the best ever Superman, we are so f****d. They lapped this up. Guess they'll lap up Gunn's stuff too. You know dogs eat their vomit. Ok I know kinda gross.

He died twice. In this show he died twice. And neither him nor Lois lived on. He didn't cure her cancer. And because he only had a human heart lived less than if he had his own heart or a Kryptonian. And the writers wanted to give him his brother's heart. But most fans still think he would have only lived a few more decades. They are still thinking maximum life span like 80-90. Which is the life span of a human. Yet the lore is he can live centuries. Ok talk about a rip-off.

And they are crying, weeping, moved over this?

Superhero soap opera crud.

Meh.

Superman, The Movie

Ok I'll start here. I'll be honest about my impressions.

I saw the movie in the theater when it came out in 1978. It was an exciting time. As a kid you could imagine. What was cool was there was a movie theater down the street from where I lived. A neighborhood movie theater. It has long since been demolished. But I remember that opening shot to Superman and the music. The thrill, the magic. It took you there. A man could fly. Superman!

As a kid, when the damsel in distress got introduced, my impression was like "her"? Eew. Like that is so weird. Of course, mind you I'm a kid. All that romantic, gushy, kissy stuff was weird and gross, but it just didn't make sense to me.

Even as kid, I knew something was off.

Superman 2, something is really off. He did what? Well thankfully General Zod and his gang made the movie cool, but Clark was just dumb. We got to see Jor-El again. And mom too.

Superman 3, it started to fizzle. Richard Pryor? Well he was cool at the time. And of course Lana. I liked Lana better than Lois.

Superman 4, yes this run is over. Nobody cared.

Next!

The 90s roll in.

We get the Lois & Clark show. Renewed excitement. I didn't catch all of it. It was one episode per week. You didn't have streaming services back then. You had to wait the next week for next episode.

So I missed a lot of that show. I tuned out when Lois got her superpowers. It wasn't until years later, when Netflix came out and they had the entire series available. This was long after the death of Blockbuster. And when Netflix was actually good. The only service of it's kind. I had to order the DVDs to watch the entirety. So I decided to watch all of it from beginning to end.

My Impressions

Lois was a b**** in much of the show, especially the beginning. She was enamored with Superman, a completely different woman. Around Clark, it was opposite. The fact that Clark was infatuated with her in the face of how she treated him, says a lot about him.

It wasn't until the end of the series that Lois mellowed out after the reveal that Clark is Superman. Boy did it take a long time. I remember I was yelling at the tv: "You idiot!' Then they superfluously said something about how she will be the mother of descendants and an icon or something. I was like ok. Then a baby was delivered to their door with a Kryptonian blanket. That was it. Forgot who's it was. I think it was supposed to be General Zod's kid. I don't remember.

You know for a tv show, it had it's moments. Some nonsensical moments and romanticism. It did sweep you up, but it left me wanting. Like something was missing or off.

I know the storytelling of Superman could be better. It should be. But we are stuck on the creators who decided to initially write him this way.

Newspapers and media overall are dying. It's changing big time. Superman can be written differently. Heck this last show, they did.

You're probably wondering about Smallville. I tried to. Man I tried. A few episodes in was the same storyline. Everybody got infected with Kryptonite. This was canned Spam Superhero Soap Opera with hot young actors. I couldn't take it anymore.

Superman Returns. They did him dirty again. Brandon could have had a better everything. Some nice things, some not so nice things. I still watch that from time to time.

At least we got Brandon in the crossover. I made a meme for that.

The CW was total cheese fest. How it made it to the best Superman ever,... folks is smoking some pretty good weed. And I don't even smoke anything. Except for preferred smoked meat. 😂

But I'll wrap this up.

When I saw Superman and Wonder Woman together, my epiphany came. It made perfect sense. So I dug deep. Of course there was a history with these two. Most people don't know of this rabbit hole. They dismiss rather easily. There is a fandom that loves them. And fan art, etc. The rest is history shall we say.

The New 52 and the DCEU animated movies made this relationship the most sense. The most positive thing I've seen. Yes, there are stories that could haven been written better. As I've said before they never gave SuperWonder a chance.

Now, SuperWonder fans to this day, are ridiculed, harassed, scoffed at and talked down to because they still believe in Clark & Diana.

Yes because there is a story to tell. Many stories.

Until next time...

[possum-quesadilla]

The first chapter of Lonely Remnants, the fic about my CorpseJuice AU, is up! It’s called “Your body may be gone, I'm gonna carry you in, In my head, in my heart, in my soul”.

CorpseJuice is an AU where Lydia’s mother dies in a car accident, and her adopted brother, Lawrence, goes missing and is presumed dead. A year later, she stumbles upon a demon puppeteering his corpse! She and the demon work together to find out what happened the night of the wreck, and who her brother really was.

Please read the warnings attached to the start of the chapter before continuing, this fic is a doozy!

Here are the extras for chapter one!

- The lyrics for this first chapter are from “Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse! It is very literal for Lydia and her lost family members. I wonder if it’ll come back later?

- “Lawrence Graham” - Since his last name can’t be Shoggoth, I decided to pick a last name that has relevance to the plot! But I can’t tell you what sort of relevance yet. Because spoilers.

- “He could look at someone and know in an instant just what to do to scare the absolute shit out of them.” - This is a sort of joking reference to Beetlejuice’s line in “That Beautiful Sound”, about “clean white shorts turning brown”!

- “Talking Heads and MCR” - I listen to one of these. The other my best friend listens to and says he thinks Beetlejuice would be really into.

- “the ‘TinyTimes Hardware store’” - Thank you @jessicawesker83 for this whimsical suggestion. I love it!

- “Barbara Butterfield” - thank you @bjfinn and @ten-chocolate-sundaes for helping me figure out a good maiden name for Barbara!

- “Lydia remembered her mother cheering for Lawrence when he’d finally asked them to “hang out” with him, seeing some sort of cheesy horror comedy flick with them.” - IT’S MY FIC AND I GET TO PICK THE ANACHRONISTIC MOVIE THEY SEE IN THEATERS!! They saw “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” because I said so

- “One moment, Lydia and her mother were laughing and singing along to ‘Jump in the line’ by Harry Belafonte.” - This is, of course, a reference to the line in the musical where Lydia says that this was one of Emily’s favorite songs.

- “Only a portion of his left arm, and six liters of his blood were found in his stupid, beat-up old green 2001 Volkswagen Beetle.” - the most blood a human can lose and still survive is two liters. Also, get it? A Volkswagen Beetle? A green buggy?

- “Charles refused to pay for a cemetery plot, and certainly not one next to Emily.” - What an ass! I wonder why this is.

- “Jumping off the old bridge at the edge of town, into frigid waters, letting them carry her to wherever her home was now.” - This is a reference to Barbara and Adam’s death, and how Lydia planned to kill herself in the original film. It is also a reference to how she often called her mom “home” in the musical.

- “They sat huddled together and watched his favorite movies. ‘Zombieland’, ‘Groundhog Day’, ‘The Mask’.” - Haha, “Zombieland”. ‘Cause he’s a zombie now. Also yeah “Groundhog Day” is a sort of reference to LoopJuice, sue me. Notice how Lawrence only really likes comedies! He was actually pretty squeamish with blood and gore that wasn’t for the haunted house.

- “Barbara and Adam helped Lydia find a counselor that same day. Her name was Kerry, and although she was resistant at first, she’d helped Lydia tremendously.” - The name ‘Kerry’ is, of course, a reference to Barbara’s actor in the musical, Kerry Butler! I just think she’d have such a calming presence, and that she’d listen to you so well.

- “They both wore a necklace each; a simple chain with a ring attached. They got them shortly after the accident. Lydia had never gotten a good look at them, but she could take a guess as to what they were. (In June, she got her hands on the police report. A box with identical engagement rings had been found in Lawrence’s glovebox, and were handed off to “next of kin”.) Barbara and Adam never took the necklaces off.” - Ouchie. Are we connecting the dots here? Because I don’t like the image they’re makin’.

- Bellflowers mean everlasting love, forget-me-nots are pretty self explanatory. Also, bellflowers are purple! Lawrence loved purple and green.

- Sunflowers obviously represent happiness, which is a little ironic, but Lydia chose them more because they were her mother’s favorite.

- “A dirty, stained, shredded grey trench coat, the arms caked in dark splotches she could only hope was just mud. (They were black and russet brown, so probably not.) The left sleeve of his trench coat was tied off, most of that arm obviously missing. His hair was wild, stained green from what seemed to be moss growing on what little she could see of his face, as well as on his clothing and down his neck. A… somewhat familiar red button-up underneath, patterned with beetles, and tattered black slacks- ” - Yeah, he is dressed like Beetlejuice’s cemetery appearance in the movie! But he is not a KeatonJuice. The button-up and pants were what Lawrence was wearing when the crash happened, and the trench coat… let’s say the demon stole it.

- “C’mon, Scarecrow, don’t be so glum. I’ll be back before you know it.” - This was the last thing Lawrence ever said to Lydia before leaving for his “family emergency”.

- “Lars!” - Lydia’s own nickname for Lawrence.

- “Like he’d gargled a bowl of nails every day for the past century without any milk.” - Sorry not sorry for the SpongeBob reference.

- “His skin was a sickly sort of green, with moss patches growing on his face, and various sickly bruises dotting all of his visible skin.” … “His movements were stiff and robotic..” - Sorry, I studied forensic science for a few years, so there is a lot of gross dead body stuff in this fic that I will do my best to tone down. The “bruising” is livor mortis, or discoloration of the skin after death. The weird, stiff movements is from the demon being a freak as well as rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the joints/limbs after death.

- “Number 88, to be specific. We’re part of a big collective, see? A big ol’… mishmash of primordial goop.” - The demon’s true form is goo. The black stains on Lawrence’s face is it leaking out. This Beetlejuice is more Lovecraft than Dante’s Inferno. Also, #88 is a reference to the year the original film came out!

- “Let me take the driver’s seat!” - This is a reference to the song Alex Brightman sings in “Dead End: Paranormal Park” as his characters Pugsley and Temeluchus. The similarities were an accident.

- “Shuddering twitches wracked through it’s body, moving up from it’s legs, to it’s torso, to it’s shoulders, then it’s head, but it didn’t seem to care.” - The twitches and shakes are from both the demon being a weirdo (and AuDHD but we don’t have time to unpack that) and from algor mortis, or the body cooling after death.

- “Whatever-the-fuck. The.. it’s a chemical only found in brains. Gotta eat it or risk total rejection from the host.” - Yeah I kinda stole the idea from “Venom”. Yes there will be more things I stole from “Venom”. Let a creature (me) have fun and borrow things from their favorite rom-com!

[remuslupinschocolat3]

My stardew valley headcanons because no one can stop me!!!!!!!

Part one

In alphabetical order

Abigail:

💎Bisexual

💎she/they

💎Hates children

💎In a Polycule with Sam and Sebastian

💎Shares a braincell with Sam

💎smoked weed once with Sebastian and threw up afterwards

💎has random beef with Haley that Haley isn't aware of

💎gets piercings just to spite her dad

💎was only good in English class in highschool

💎regrets being on 2020 alt tiktok

💎 secretly vandalizes their father's yoba shrine (he thinks it's Sebastian doing it)

💎their gay awakening was Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean (she just like me fr)

Alex

🏈the definition of comphet

🏈himbo

🏈gay man/lesbian alliance with Haley

🏈his first crush was the team captain of an Opponent's school gridball team

🏈 doesn't drink alcohol because he's scared to be like his father

🏈he had a pathetic crush on Elliot when Elliot first moved to the valley

🏈has a bottle of the perfume his mother used to wear and sprays it on his pillow when he's sad

🏈used to go to a gym in Zu City but stopped after a boy there asked him out

🏈dated Haley in highschool for half a year until both of them came out to the other in hopes to let the other down gently

Caroline

🍃not a single thought behind those eyes

🍃fell out of love with Pierre ten years ago

🍃grows marijuana plants in her tea house (have you seen her two heart event?)

🍃dyed her hair green once when she was 15 and never tried a different color again

🍃has a few secret tattoos

🍃the necklace she wears is a gift by Rasmodios

🍃best friends with Jodi and Robin

🍃loves to gossip, she knows everyone's business

🍃almost became an almond mom but stopped before it could affect Abigail in the long run

🍃she has no enemies, everyone loves her but hates her husband

Clint (it's red cus he's a red flag)

🔨4chan user

🔨incel

🔨used to tell his mom to make him a sandwich

🔨called his parents by their first names

🔨knows the Irish dance (I don't know what it's called lmao)

🔨can't have friendships with women because he always thinks they fall in love with him

🔨hasn't exercised since he finished highschool

🔨stalks Emily (that's canon) (stay away from her)

🔨can you tell I hate him yet?

Demetrius

🧪is the reason his first marriage failed

🧪controlling and possessive (Maru's two heart event)

🧪so boring

🧪thinks missionary is the only way to have sex

🧪I know people headcanon him as autistic but I think he's just petty

🧪 arrogant, thinks he's smarter than everyone else because he knows science

🧪was actually an okay step father to Sebastian until Maru was born

🧪him and Robin are not compatible but neither of them want to go through a second divorce

Elliot

🦀 gay and proud

🦀in his mid thirties

🦀 can't swim

🦀 used to write star trek fanfiction as a teenager on fanfiction.net

🦀so fucking tall

🦀went through three separate gender identity crisis before realizing that he just isn't comfortable expressing himself as a stereotypical manly man

🦀demi romantic

🦀gay man/lesbian alliance with Leah

🦀sees Leah as the little sister he never had

🦀 isn't really broke, he's a trustfund baby who wanted to experience what it's like to be a starving artist (thinks it makes his art more valid)

🦀Leah beat him up when she found out

🦀 obsessed with his hair (I'm so jealous of his luscious curls 😭😭😭)

🦀so dramatic (used to be a theater kid for sure)

Emily

🔮the character I headcanon as autistic

🔮 pansexual and asexual

🔮they/she, trans

🔮dating Sandy

🔮knows everyone's zodiac signs

🔮names her plants

🔮gets the zoomies after work (at night)

🔮Haley hates it

🔮Haley's biggest supporter

🔮vegan

🔮thinks of Clint as a genuine friend (save yourself girly pop)

🔮calls Sandy the weirdest nick names "hello my cuddle bear" "it's been too long since we last saw each other my strawberry jam"

🔮suckles on Pennies (she just like me fr)

🔮reads books about crystals for hours on end, Haley has to take the book away from her and drag her to bed sometimes

🔮has befriended the junimos

🔮Sandy sells the clothes she makes

🔮hates the taste of strawberry in candy and stuff

🔮would vape if vapes existed in stardew valley but not in a I'm a thirteen year old boy way but in a I like the taste and I enjoy making smoke rings kinda way

🔮you can't tell me that she's not a pothead

🔮knows Haley is a lesbian years before her sister figures it out

🔮besties with Shane (refuses to sell him alcohol at the Stardrop saloon)

🔮gets extremely flustered around people she deems as attractive

🔮is really bad at doing her own makeup (Sandy or Haley do it for her)

🔮has a huge tattoo that covers almost her entire back

🔮her energy is contagious

🔮high School was very hard for her but college was the best time of her life

🔮wants to buzz her hair so bad but has enough restrain to keep herself from doing so

🔮loves to make cocktails (she makes Gus try them and he always loves them and puts them on his menu)

🔮makes Shane, Sandy and Haley cosplay with her (none of them want to but they can't say no when Emily looks at them with that wide eyed grin of hers)

🔮unleashed a group of rats in JoJa mart because Shane complained once (1 time) about his working conditions, the store closed for two months

🔮can you tell how much I love Emily?

[over-rad-squad]

But I'm sure you still remember it. It's a "love song", you know?

(My Dear Starlight Chapter 1)

|🎹|

"Onii-chan!!... I'm bored can we invite some friends over tonight Mom's not going to be home for a few months"

I looked at Tsukasa as he got up and did his iconic pose

"HAHAHA OF COURSE MY DEAR SISTER!,I could invite my friends at school and Emu"

"Ooo!,Can I invite Ichi-chan?!"

"Of course you can't be left out of our sleepover if you don't have Ichika Hoshino"

We both giggled as we texted our friends to come over!

The first one to arrive was An Shiraishi,Tsukasa's Friend

"Yo You're Saki Tenma Right?"

"Mhm the one and only pianist of Leo/need!"

"Pleasure to meet you Toya always talks A lot about you and Your brother"

"Oh we were his Childhood friends!"

-🌟-

I heard the door knock as I left the living room leaving An and Saki Alone to get to know each other

As I opened the door the next person to arrive was Emu,Rui and Nene

"Ha-Ha!,well if isn't My Theater Members!"

"Just call us friends Dumbass"

Nene Looked annoyed at my loud voice

Of course Emu tackles me with her usual catchphrase...

"WONDERHOY!~★, Tsukasa-Kun!! Thank you so so so so MUCH for inviting us over!!"

"Emu....You're killing me Ack!"

"Emu Get off of Tsukasa Your going to hurt him"

Emu immediately got off me as I got up

"Fufu, Tsukasa-Kun it's a pleasure to be here you know!"

...Of course Rui....

ALWAYS giggling like he's flirting with me WE AREN'T DATING EACH OTHER

As we walked to the living room Saki noticed me and the others

"Hi Guys!!"

Nene and Emu Went towards Saki and An and Not Rui

"Why are you still here aren't you going to hang out with the others?"

"No Tsukasa-Kun I want to hang out with you instead!"

Act cool Tsukasa I thought as I chuckled to Rui

"OF COURSE A WORLD FUTURE STAR WILL HANG OUT WITH YOU DIRECTOR!"

-🎮-

Of course we all heard Tsukasa yell how is Saki Okay with all the yelling?

"Saki how can you still handle his yelling?"

"Hehe he's always been like that"

As I sighed and continued playing my game until I heard another knock pausing my game

"I'll get it..."

I approached to the door to See Mizuki And Toya

"Ah Mizuki,Toya!"

"Hi Nene-san I had to bring Toya-kun with me while we were on our way to Tsukasa-senpai's place!"

I smiled softly since I'm neutral with them

"Of course You two are my school mates after all"

-🎈-

I noticed Nene Talking to Toya and Mizuki and I waved at Mizuki

"Oya Mizuki!"

"RUI!!!"

Mizuki Immediately ran Towards me and Hugged me as Toya Went To greet Saki and Tsukasa

"I missed you Sooo much Rui!"

"Fufu Anything that makes you happy to see me!"

-🎧-

I smiled at Saki and I saw Toya

"Yo Toya!,your invited too?!"

"Ah...well yes Tsukasa-senpai invited the people he knows at School"

"Isn't Onii-chan the best?!"

Saki smiles At the both of us as I sighed in defeat

"If he wasn't a troublemaker at school with Kamishiro he would've been the best"

We heard the door knocked as Saki got up to get it

-🎹-

As I went to door I opened it to see Ichika,Akito and Ena

"ICHI-CHAN!!!"

I hugged Ichika as I squeal

"S-Saki you're embarrassing me!"

Ena And Akito just watches have a lovely time and I started to blush

"S-Sorry Shinonome-Kun and Shinonome-san! C'mon in!"

"Ugh Finally about fucking time..."

"Akito!"

"What You swear too!"

"Nuh uh!"

And of course the Shinonome siblings began to argue

-🌟-

Saki Came in with Akito and Ena and her Girlfriend Ichika

"AKITO!"

".... oh dear God no"

"Oya Shinonome-Kun!"

"OH GREAT!"

"Ah Mizuki!!"

"Enana!~♪"

"Wh-?!,ENA YOU AREN'T GOING TO HELP ME?!"

"Nope"

"WHAT THE FUCK ENA?!"

I gave Akito a pat on the shoulder

"Pleasure to see you again!"

"....oh brother"

-☕-

I approached Akito with a smile

"Akito,I wasn't expecting you to be here! "

"TOYA?!"

Akito shouted as I gave him a hug TOTALLY NOT HOMO

"Geez...You always make me happy y'know that right?"

"Mhm!"

—🌟—

I watched as Toya and Akito get along of course I am the World's future star

I'm so happy that Toya's happy...

And so does Saki

"Alright I think that's Everyone!"

"Yep Everyone's here Onii-chan!"

"We'll let's get the slumber party Going!"

[sonicphobia0601]

Billie Bust Up Characters as Melanie Martinez Songs

I know. I know. "Sonicphobia/Puddie, why? Don't you have a research paper to do!?" Yes, but this has been sitting on my mind ever since I joined the fandom/community and it has been driving me insane. Would they be totally accurate? No. Is it a fun thing as a break from college? Yes.

Aristotle: Well, there are a few. If with Arthur, "Play Date" would be a go to. In being a teacher/mentor... um... "Tag, You're It" since from the looks of it, he is probably the one getting kidnapped or chased the most.

Arthur: Yes, I'm including this one. "High School Sweethearts" can go both ways. And for him, "Dollhouse" or "LIGHT SHOWER".

Percy: I can't think of anything. HELP. So I'm putting "The Void" as a placeholder.

Billie: "Soap". Reason why? From what I can see from Billie, they tend to... um, don't take this the wrong way but they don't exactly have a filter. If what we saw with Elaine and Barnaby is anything to go by, she tends to act first and find out later.

Scrimshaw: "Copycat". Sorry, I had to! Mostly because I think people would emulate Scrimshaw in universe a bit. Like pick up on his mannerisms.

Dutch: "The Principal". I mean, the first few words Melanie Martinez used to describe "the principal" is also the opening of the song. "Sneaky, greedy, money seeking." That sounds like Dutch to me...

Hayes: "The Bakery" only because from what I can see from Hayes (not much), he is basically working with someone who is very... um, listen to the lyrics. I think Hayes is working in a bad environment.

Elaine: "Spider Web". If this was a "which song is a fitting sea shanty song for the crew" I'd say something else. But we're going with Spider Web because... well, I think of her as kind of spider like with her actions.

Barnaby: "DEATH". Do I need to say anything? I don't think I need to elaborate on why this song fits, but if I have to, go watch his chase and cutscenes. "The Contortionist" works for him too because he can... well, do some pretty crazy stuff with his limbs.

Fantoccio: *laughs in "Drama Club"* I thought of this one because well, the song's music video takes place in a theater, and from what I can tell, Fantoccio spends time in a theater. And from what I can see, he didn't ask to be stuck in a city alone. Therefore he "didn't sign up for this drama club" of his own choice. He was stuck there.

Belle: Don't get mad, but I'm saying "Lunchbox Friends" because to be painfully honest, being told to stifle yourself is just... well... I've been told to be myself, but when I do that, my mom tells me that I have to be less weird and like things geared towards adults... neurotypical adults. I've tried adult things and I don't find it very interesting. Like, she tells me not to stim in public. And from what I can tell, magic is a form of stimming to Billie, and being told not to do that... that doesn't sound like a real friend to me. That sounds like a friend to talk with over lunch, but not a real friend who would hang out with you. I know, "But Belle is Billie's mother! She can't-" and that is where I'm stopping you because you can be close to your mom and see her as a friend.

Dmitri: Yes, I am saying this one despite the fact that not much is known. "FAERIE SOIREE." Because the chimera thing being mythical and (in my opinion) pretty much starry eyed.

Any other characters I missed? Let me know!

Holy crap... I am hyperfixating on something I found awesome again. Heh. My bad.

[starlitangels]

I Promise

To be clear, I refuse to care about Blake. However, I am deeply fascinated by his relationship with his listener

This one is from Blake’s POV, by the way. And I made up a lot of stuff for the sake of it 1.5k words

—

You sit beside me at the movie theater the way you always do. You smile and laugh at the jokes, glancing at me to make sure I’m sharing in your humor. My mom will come pick us up after the movie the way she always does when we’re out like this. Too young to drive ourselves.

I sit in the dark, smiling in all the right places back at you, but I can’t pay attention to the movie, this time. I already Saw the whole thing the second you decided we were going to come watch it together.

And I think about telling you.

Hell, I think about it all the time. Ever since that day a few years ago when my Core woke up and my entire life got flipped on its head.

I’d expected to be a Dreamwalker, like my mom. Although, being a Freelancer like Dad wouldn’t have been bad either. But, according to one of our teachers at school, a Freelancer-specialist coupling often resulted in the offspring taking the specialty, rather than a Freelancer’s unspecialized magic. For reasons no one particularly understood. Magic was genetic, but it also wasn’t. Not entirely, anyway. And despite hundreds of studies, no one had ever figured out the patterns.

That night, you’d gone home after doing your homework at my place like we did every couple days. I’d been alone in my bedroom, my parents out for the night. Mom to work with her Defensive Dream Design clients, Dad at the Healing hospital.

No one was there for me when my chest burned like fire and the entire timestream opened up before my eyes.

You got your powers a few months before I did—and I’d been jealous. I wanted mine to manifest so badly.

And then when they did, I’d wished they hadn’t. Because of what I was.

The first thing a Seer is supposed to See when their Sight manifests is their own death. But as the timestream hurdled past me toward my death, I saw yours. Way too young. I saw the both of us, older than we are now, in this movie theater. I saw you in my arms, unmoving. Dead. I saw myself sobbing, pleading, begging you to stay with me.

It passed like a flash of lightning on my way to Seeing my own death, but the image was burned into my mind. Like someone tattooed it on the back of my eyelids. Every time I closed my eyes I saw you, dead, in my arms.

I still do.

I can’t let it happen.

And, God, have I tried to stop it. Not even sixteen yet and I’ve already tried setting things in motion that would prevent you from dying.

It hasn’t worked yet. It’s just changed the background of the image and the details of the injuries on your body. But it will work. I refuse to accept otherwise. You’re my best friend, and I’m not letting that go. I’ve never had a friend as close as you are. I can’t lose you.

You grab my arm, jolting me out of my thoughts, as you laugh so hard you bend in half. I manage a chuckle, agreeing that the moment on screen was funny. Even with my mind spiraling far away.

I think about telling you, again.

Would it really be so bad if I told you I’m not actually a Dreamwalker? I’ve never had the courage to peek and See how you’d react to the news. But you’re my best friend—surely you’ll be willing to accept me as I am, right? Even if I have lied to you for a couple years? Hiding their specialty is just what Seers do. Maybe not all of us, but a good portion of us never reveal our true nature. Live and die hiding behind another specialty.

The night my powers manifested, I’d been terrified. And desperately wishing I was just a Dreamwalker. I felt my aura shift, but didn’t realize what it had done until Mom came home the next morning, delighted in announcing I’d inherited her magical specialty.

My parents still don’t know. And neither do you.

I’d rather you know than them, to be honest. I love my parents, but I trust you more than anyone else.

I think about telling you, right here. In the movie theater. In the middle of the comedy you’ve been so excited to see since we first saw the trailer. I think about leaning forward where you’re still bent a bit in your laughter, and just whispering, “I’m not a Dreamwalker. I’m a Seer. And I’ve been hiding because I’ve been scared. But I’m not scared of you.”

But I don’t.

I settle back against the back of my chair and stare blankly at the screen. At the movie I’ve already Seen. Funny enough, I guess. But definitely more aligned with your sense of humor than mine. Ours cross over a lot, but not everything you find funny amuses me, and vice versa.

It’s enough though. And I’ll never turn down the opportunity to spend time with you.

No matter how wracked with guilt I feel every second I lie to you about what I am.

I’m tempted, not for the first time, to See how you’d respond to the truth. A small peek into the future. I can’t imagine you wouldn’t accept me but at the same time I don’t want to destroy your trust.

A problem that I’m fully aware will only amplify the longer I keep the secret from you. But if you never find out... maybe there’s no reason to worry.

But still...

I shake my head to clear it. You glance over at me with a curious look on your face. I shake my head one more time. It’s nothing, the gesture says. Your eyes, so open and trusting, linger on mine for a few moments before drifting back to the movie in acceptance.

I pretend I don’t remember the look of the light in those eyes of yours fading out in dozens of visions. I pretend I don’t see another one of the same vision bubbling up after looking at you for long enough.

God—what am I gonna do? I have to save you. But I don’t know how.

I’ll figure it out. Some way. Somehow. You’re not dying in my arms if I can help it.

I promise.

I care about you too much to let that happen.

—

My emotional state has been an absolute wreck since senior year of high school. That night when my parents weren’t home—again—and you and I...

Well. You call it a mistake. I call it a realization. That my feelings for you have possibly always been more than friendship. Or, at least, at some point they developed a depth I hadn’t known until that night senior year.

And I’d scared you. And you pulled away. And I wanted to be fine with that. But when you finally started to come back into my life, I was scared as my feelings for you hit me again.

And I pulled away.

I never told you that my pulling away was dual-intentioned.

See, I’d started to suspect that I couldn’t do more than change the circumstances of your death because I was still part of your life in those visions. I’m always the common factor.

So I withdrew from your life, trying to change your future. I thought maybe you’d be safe if I was no longer in your life. And you were angry with me when I retreated. You had every right to be and I still don’t blame you.

But if it meant saving your life, I had to try. I could leave, if it meant you’d live.

Months passed. You’d stopped trying to reach out. It broke my heart when you finally gave up on me. When I dared to try to text you and found you’d blocked my number.

Finally, I’d looked into your future again.

And nothing had changed. Just the background and the injuries. You were still dying in my arms. Even without being part of your life anymore.

I couldn’t stand it anymore. Being away from you. I had to come back.

You bless me by accepting me into your life again within a few days. You listen when I explain myself. Everything but that deepest nugget of truth about my magic that I still haven’t told you, more than ten years after the movie theater where I sat there and thought about it for two hours.

But your feelings... they’ve grown to match my own for you. When I kiss you, you let me. When I bend you back over your sofa, you lie down and pull me close.

When we wake up together in your bed, that wrecked emotional state of mine has settled a bit, but still roils.

The need to protect you from that early, untimely death has never been stronger.

Whatever I need to do, I will do it. To keep you safe.

I promise.

[real-odark]

25apcsb enjoyers listen to me talk about(/kind of review it for you? except not really because i will never say anything bad about this production) my favorite production of the show!

ever.

MAD theater i LOVE YOU.

i saw their production live (the first time ive ever seen this show live or a production by this company) and it was AMAZING. this is my favorite cast for this show hands down and let me show you some stuff and why you should love them, too !!

(IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ME TALK ABOUT IT/WOULD RATHER SEE THE CAST, I HAVE PICTURES AND A VIDEO NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE POST!!)

here are all of the spellers! arent they the cutest :3 they all portray their characters PERFECTLY, and im currently on a hunt to see all of them in more performances because WOW . i know the point of the show is for it to be obvious these arent preteens playing them but all three of the girls were so cute honestly id trust them if they said they were it was so good. im gonna talk about all of them too !;;

their leaf was obsessed with sonic (sporting a nice sonic cape), and had a very good dynamic with every character and audience member he interacted with ! he say by me when he was eliminated and we talked a bit, and met his actor after the show. ALSO, playing logainne's dad with his soda and being the soccer mom ever is 100% approved by me . the way he effortlessly exchanged between the two roles was . AH.

olive was PERFECT. i cried at the i love you song so bad her little pom poms and im just mhejkn, her fidgeting with the strings of her cat hoodie whenever she was nervous was a great detail just small things like that

CHIP. chip chip chip. boy scout of the year, and JESUS ON A SCOOTER. he was so sassy and his little shenanigans made this character so good hed bite his lip and do little faces like that all the time he never broke id trust this man with my life

barfee , so nerdy i cannot resist this guy. he looks like he smells like hamburger and you know what? perfect. meeting him afterwards, he said that his shoes (for magic foot) were glow up sketchers and both of them were supposed to glow but only ONE did (the other broke) a few nights before and what a champ because he just went with it and CHANGED THE FOOT HE WAS USING to match the one that glew. i wouldve had a breakdown but go richard brown. through the whole show his bad accent and wet dog looks intrigued me

marcy was literally perfection, she had ME stressin out for her. i was sitting by the actresses' grandma and she was so fond of her its so cute. her singing voice is AMAZING there is a clip online i know of its on the theatre's tiktok but to hear that in person when its the song that got me into the show was wow. i relate to her very much and she made this character so personal even with just being in bits and pieces of the show

and finally, logainne. god she was SO FUNNY. the interactions between her and her dads, as well as the other spellers, were hilarious but also so real feeling. her actress, taylor,'s dedication to this role really showed and it worked awesome in the character. her appearance and outfit is the BEST for logainne btw??? no ones talking bout that its so so her ...,

^ also since i mentioned leaf's water bottle, logainne had a pride one + barfee had a pokemon cup. i think olive had one but if she did it was in the bleachers so i couldn't see, but i love how all of their bottles (yes even something just SMALL LIKE THAT) represent their characters the details in this show are sjsjd

here is a picture with the adults too! ill talk abt those three next;;

rona. again, had me crying in the stands. she was adorable the whole show though, with her little quips and interchanges !! her + panch were so funny and also shes GORGEOUS?? but her soccer mom teacher type deal is exactly what i picture rona as.

panch reminded me very very much of ron swanson. he was so sarcastic and hes just such a big guy with all these kids it played off so well !! i love so many different interpretations of panch like twink panch and butch panch, but i think this burly panch with his soft, creepy side for rona was my favorite !

and now, lastly, mitch. HE KEPT BUSTING OUT AS THE SIDE CHARACTER WITH THE AMAZINF SINGING VOICE AND IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD EVERY TIME ??? mitch himself was so so awesome, the tattoos and drug apparell (i am struggling spelling that) fit so well. and also, he just looks so mitch mahoney doesnt he?? like. the character fits the actor so well id be shocked seeing anything else from them because mitch was the perfect role... again, his brief dynamic with all the kids is so goofy

the set;;

it was so cute and the details in the posters on the wall were so childish it made me giggle. they even advertised their theatre's next production, which will be urinetown!! they had seats ON the stage (which is where i sat, naturally), which i think makes for a fun and realistic effect !! when the spellers were eliminated, theyd sit there (they had reserved spots) :3

its evident that all of the cast members had very good relatioships and play off that REALLY well

a little photo dump of them!! on the MAD theatre social medias, they have more and clips of them, too!! id definitely reccomend checking them out because the show's closed :3

overall; i have so much love for this cast and MORE PEOPLE NEED TO AS WELL!!! so here you go 😊😊

[isabelleadjani]

hi hiiiiii 💗 1, 2, 9, 16, 19, 31, 38, 39, and 42! 🫶🏼

omg hiiiiiiiiiii thank you for so many questionssss 🤭💖 i already answered 1 but the rest are coming riiiight now

what movie do you wish you could unwatch? honestly i wanna say nymphomaniac. there are a lot of films i dislike or even hate and deeply wish to never have to watch again but i think nymphomaniac stands out as the one that if i could only choose a singular film to erase from my memory it would be that one. like it's just so deeply fucking stupid and disgusting on many levels but more than that. it's so unbearably long that it's just an INSANE amount of time wasted on one film (well, one film in two parts or whatever). i neeeeeeeed to fist fight lars von trier so bad.

guilty pleasure movie? i don't believe in guilty pleasures as a concept really but i think maybe the closest i get is reservoir dogs. because i have such a deep disdain for tarantino as a person and as a filmmaker but i just can't ever shake the comfort movie-relationship i have with that film. tim roth as freddy newendyke made me who i am it just is what it is.

favorite book to film adaptation? i'm tempted to say both farewell my concubine and the handmaiden which are both adaptations of novels but since i have yet to read either of those books (they ARE on my tbr 😭) i'm going to say park chan wook's thirst! which is a loose adaptation of émile zola's thérèse raquin... it might be debatable whether it really counts as an adaptation but it counts TO ME.

name a movie so bad it’s good i don't think i'm really the kind of person who has this feeling about films often, mostly i sometimes think that movies can be fun to watch with other people if you can like comment and make jokes while you watch. like recently i watched deVour with jensen ackles and shannyn sossamon with my bestie and that was so fucking messy and horrible but i would still recommend it for a group watch because we had so much fun watching it as a social activity. do you remember the first movie you saw in theaters? well honestly idk if it was actually the first one i saw, but the first film i do remember seeing in the cinema was stuart little 2 jfgbdskjgb which i went to see with my mom and my sisters literally the day after my grandma died when i was 5, which was an unfortunate coincidence but we already had the tickets and my mom didn't wanna waste the money.

in your opinion what is the most overrated movie? oh MANY such cases.... let's go with uhhhhhh. call me by your name because i have to hear about that film SO fucking often and i am TIRED OF ITTTTTTTTT. god i hate that piece of shit film.

in your opinion what is the most underrated movie? once again there are so many one could pick here but i would like to highlight lady vengeance actually. because like, i'm a huge fan of most of park chan wook's work and it's not that i think that people don't appreciate lady vengeance. that's be a bit silly because pcw is such a popular and celebrated filmmaker on the whole. it's just that it does NOT get the attention it deserves within pcw's oeuvre and is always overshadowed by oldboy when people talk about the vengeance trilogy, when in fact it is easily the superior film in that trilogy, and in my opinion in the absolute top tier of his films to date.

show me a pic of your favorite movie poster alright in the interest of talking about a movie i haven't already gone on about in this post, i am going to pick the poster for in the mood for love! i have a lot of posters that i am a bit obsessed with and could choose from, but i definitely don't have one single fave. this is, however, one of them. so butch/femme realness tbh.

movie asks 🎥

[the-rewatch-rewind]

What a glorious feeling

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number four on my list: MGM’s 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds.

It's 1927 and silent film stars Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) have just premiered another smash hit. To escape from a mob of fans, Don jumps into the car of Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), who is surprisingly unimpressed by him, which he is both insulted and intrigued by. Weeks later, when Don is still focused on trying to find Kathy again, and his friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) is running out of ways to get him to snap out of it, the success of Hollywood’s first talking picture prompts the studio head to turn the next Lockwood and Lamont film into a talkie, and Don’s life – and Hollywood itself – will never be the same.

This is a very important movie to me because in a way, it’s the one that started it all. My love for Old Hollywood began in a movie theater at a 50th anniversary screening of Singin’ in the Rain. I’ve mentioned in several previous episodes that I started getting into Old Hollywood in 2002 – this is why. My mom took me to see it, and then based on my reaction started introducing me to more of her faves from around this era, and here I am, 21 years later, still loving these films. I can’t remember exactly when I watched Singin’ in the Rain the second time; I might have seen it again in 2002, I don’t know. But I believe it was 2003 when we bought it on VHS while on a family road trip. We had a little TV/VCR that we used to set on top of a cooler behind the front seats, held in place with bungee cords. I could not get enough of this movie and insisted on watching it probably way more times than my siblings wanted on that road trip, although I think they enjoyed it too, just not quite to the extent that I did. I watched it seven times in 2003, six times in 2004, three times in 2005, once in 2006, once in 2007, twice in 2009, once in 2010, once in 2011, twice in 2012, once in 2013, twice in 2015, once in 2016, once in 2019, once in 2020, once in 2021, and twice in 2022. I can’t remember when, but at some point I ended up with a DVD in addition to the VHS. And one of my 2022 watches was in a theater for the 70th anniversary. While in many ways that was a very different experience from the first time I saw it, since every moment of the movie was deeply familiar rather than fresh and new to me, it felt no less magical. I still love this movie just as much as, if not more than, the first time I watched it, and I am so grateful that it introduced me to a world of films from generations before my time.

There is so much to love about this movie that I don’t even really know where to start. The dialogue is clever and delightful, the casting was perfect and the performances are brilliant, the costumes, sets, and lighting are gorgeous, and the music makes you feel like you’ll never be unhappy again. In some ways, it’s actually kind of similar to Mamma Mia, in that it’s a jukebox musical. Like how Mamma Mia took popular ABBA songs and loosely draped a story around them, Singin’ in the Rain took a bunch of old songs, mostly written by MGM producer Arthur Freed (who came up with the idea) and Nacio Herb Brown, and tied them together with a story. I will say I feel like the story of Singin’ in the Rain works quite a bit better, mainly because the subject matter fits the songs so well. It was a stroke of genius to make the movie that would feature songs from early talkies be about early talkies. Freed and Brown did write one new song specifically for this movie, “Make Em Laugh,” but it bears a remarkable resemblance to Cole Porter’s “Be a Clown” from the 1948 Freed-produced film The Pirate. Screenwriters Comden and Green wrote the “Moses Supposes” song based on an existing tongue-twister, but all of the other songs in the film had been featured in at least one previous movie. These days, Singin’ in the Rain is such a beloved, iconic movie that many of the songs’ origins are all but forgotten, and they’re generally associated with this picture. But it’s always kind of fun to be watching some random old movie that predates this one and hear one of these songs pop up. Probably my favorite instance of this is in Adam’s Rib, which was number 27 on this list and made in 1949, when Tom Ewell’s character is going to visit his mistress, played by Jean Hagen, he’s whistling “You Are My Lucky Star,” and I love that both that song and that actress ended up in this movie three years later.

A big part of what makes Singin’ in the Rain such a perfect introduction to Old Hollywood is that the songs are from Old Hollywood and the story is about Old Hollywood. It’s so fascinating to watch the characters figuring out the technical aspects of adding sound to a medium that modern audiences automatically associate with sound. But even beyond that, this movie breaks the illusion of Hollywood glamor while still sort of trying to hide behind that illusion, in a way that almost feels like it’s laughing at itself. So much of the story is about how movie magic relies on facades and deception. The movie starts with a red-carpet interview where Don tells of his rise to fame and his motto: “Dignity, always dignity,” while the audience sees flashbacks of his very undignified beginnings. Lina is on screen looking quietly glamorous for about 10 minutes before she finally speaks, revealing what the silence of her films has concealed: her voice is almost unbearably squeaky and obnoxious. So in order to make her presentable in a talking picture – which eventually becomes a musical – her voice is dubbed by Kathy. Initially the plan is to credit Kathy as Lina’s voice and use this to help launch her to stardom, but Lina threatens to sue the studio unless they force Kathy to be her voice indefinitely without credit. I don’t think it was usually quite that dramatic, but uncredited dubbing happened all the time. In previous episodes, I’ve mentioned Marni Nixon, who dubbed the singing for many iconic performances, such as Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Natalie Wood in West Side Story, without credit at the time, although now her contributions are kind of general knowledge, at least among movie buffs. But we don’t even have to go that far to find an example: it happened in Singin’ in the Rain itself! Betty Noyes, also known for singing “Baby Mine” in the Disney movie Dumbo, sang for Debbie Reynolds in a couple of her songs without credit, notably including “Would You?” which Kathy is meant to be dubbing for Lina. So Betty Noyes sang for Debbie Reynolds when she was singing for Jean Hagen. (Part of the time, anyway. The “Singin’ in the Rain” reprise that Kathy sings for Lina behind the curtain was definitely Debbie Reynolds’s voice.) Even more ironically, when Kathy is dubbing Lina’s dialogue (“Nothing can keep us apart, our love with last ‘til the stars turn cold”), that was Jean Hagen’s normal speaking voice, so Jean Hagen dubbed Debbie Reynolds dubbing Jean Hagen. I just can’t get over how blatantly these filmmakers went, “Hollywood is fake and yes that includes us” – although I suppose it was much less blatant at the time, I’m not sure at what point all of this became so well-known.

Learning about the dubbing didn’t decrease my love for this movie, although some of the other behind-the-scenes trivia kind of did – specifically the fact that nobody seemed to have a very good time working with Gene Kelly because he was so demanding and impatient, particularly with then 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds, who was not a very experienced dancer, which Kelly found exasperating, even though he knew about it when she got the role. Apparently at one point Fred Astaire – also a notoriously demanding perfectionist – found her crying under a piano at the studio and offered to help her with her dancing. She learned fast and committed hard, literally bursting blood vessels in her feet during the “Good Morning” number. Reynolds later famously said that Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things she ever had to do. Not that she was the only one who worked hard. Gene Kelly was sick with a 103-degree fever when he performed one of the most famous scenes in Hollywood history, dancing and singing to the title song. I used to view this as admirable, but now I’m like, maybe they could have waited to film it until he got better? Similarly, Donald O’Connor, who was smoking four packs of cigarettes a day at the time, had to rest in the hospital for several days after filming the “Make ‘Em Laugh” scene, and again, it’s like, it’s an incredible performance in a great number, but was it really worth going to the hospital for? Both the story within this movie and the story of how it was made raise some very interesting questions about the “point” of motion pictures – as art, as entertainment, and as an industry – that are still being wrestled with today. Personally, I don’t believe anyone should be forced to risk their health for their job, but at the same time I appreciate how dedicated everyone involved was to making this masterpiece the best it could possibly be. It certainly paid off in this instance. It’s easy for me to say now that it would have been worth making a slightly worse movie if that meant protecting the well-being of the actors, but maybe if it was worse I wouldn’t have quite fallen in love with it to this degree and my life would look very different. So I still don’t know how to feel about all this. And I don’t even know how much it matters anymore, given that the only major cast member still alive is Rita Moreno, whom I absolutely would not have recognized without seeing her name in the credits, and I don’t think she personally was injured on this set – although she was originally supposed to sing “I’ve Got a Feelin’ You’re Foolin’” which then got absorbed into the “Beautiful Girl Montage” that she wasn’t part of, which is a major bummer because she deserved a bigger role in this.

Anyway, speaking of complicated feelings, let’s talk about the romantic aspects of Singin’ in the Rain. The romance between Don and Kathy is an important part of the story, and while that’s a little disturbing knowing how terribly Kelly treated Reynolds on set, and that he was approximately twice her age, their characters’ relationship within the movie is mostly very sweet and I don’t really have a problem with it. And I appreciate how much screentime is devoted to the friendship between Don and Cosmo, which Don is shown continuing to value just as much as he always did even after he starts seeing Kathy. It’s always great to see characters refusing to follow the amatonormative idea of a relationship hierarchy, with every other relationship falling far below one’s romantic partnership. I love the scene in Don’s house that leads to the “Good Morning” number partly because it’s an important turning point in the story and it’s a great song, but also because it shows Don and Kathy and Cosmo as a trio, not a couple with a third wheel, which is so lovely to see. But though Don does his best to resist amatonormativity, it still pursues him rather relentlessly in the form of his costar, Lina Lamont. The studio leaks rumors that Don and Lina are romantically involved to increase publicity for their films, and Lina seems to believe them, despite Don’s adamant assertions that, “There is nothing between us. There has never been anything between us. Just air.” Their relationship is yet another example of a Hollywood façade, and one of my favorite scenes is when they’re working on a silent film and pretending to be madly in love when they’re in the middle of a fight. Their scene ends with a kiss, and as soon as the director yells, “Cut!” Don pushes Lina away in disgust, but she is so sold on their romance that she says, “Oh Donny, you couldn’t kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy weensy bit!” to which he retorts, “Meet the greatest actor in the world! I’d rather kiss a tarantula!” It would be easy to attribute many of Lina’s actions to jealousy after Don falls in love with Kathy, which was definitely an important motivation, but it wasn’t her only motivation. Because while she is portrayed as relatively clueless, she has to know that the rise of talking pictures is bad for her. It’s not just that she’s losing her man, she’s also losing her career. When she tries to use her star power to force Kathy to work solely as her voice, part of that is certainly to get in the way of Don and Kathy’s happiness together, but I would argue that more of it was a desperate attempt to remain in an industry that was moving on without her. Lina is portrayed as the villain, and granted some of the things she does are pretty awful, but at the same time one can’t help feeling sorry for her. She was taken in by the glamor of Hollywood, unable to see that everything from her romance to her popularity was make-believe, and suddenly her entire life is crashing around her. We cheer when the curtain opens to reveal that Kathy is singing for Lina, but we also cry for her a little – at least, I do. I find Lina to be a thoroughly fascinating and compelling character, and Jean Hagen gives one of my all-time favorite performances (she was nominated for an Oscar and absolutely should have won), and I really want to know what happens to her after the events of the movie. Hopefully she realizes that she doesn’t need a man, least of all one who hates her like Don does, and finds a new career that makes her happy.

If being a Lina Lamont apologist doesn’t get me kicked out of Old Hollywood fan circles, this might: I don’t understand why Cyd Charisse is in this movie. I get that the “Broadway Melody” number is a gorgeous spectacle, but it doesn’t have anything to do with anything and it goes on way too long, and in world it makes zero sense. First of all, they have six weeks to basically remake their entire movie, and that number alone would have absolutely taken more than six weeks to put together. Secondly, a big part of the appeal of that number is how colorful everything is, but their film is in black and white. And like, okay, we can suspend disbelief and just accept that, but there is absolutely no way that Lina Lamont would put up with a 15-minute musical number in the middle of her picture, in which, not only does she not appear at all, but Don is dancing very suggestively with another woman. Like, come on. I know that having a random ballet toward the end of a musical was a major thing back then, especially in Gene Kelly films, but that has never made sense to me and it never will. And like, why did they give Cyd Charisse a very distinctive look for most of her part and then change it for the ballet so that she’s barely recognizable? It’s so confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to Charisse, she was a wonderful dancer, and I think it’s great that her appearance in this movie helped put her on the map and lead to bigger roles for her, it’s just that that scene is my personal least favorite part of the movie. Although I guess the message of that whole number can be boiled down to, “when romance fails, turn to your hobbies,” which is something I can definitely get behind. So maybe I wouldn’t cut it out entirely; I would just make it significantly shorter so we can get back to the main story faster.

The thing I find so compelling about this movie is that while it exposes Hollywood glamor as a sham, it also shows that when you see through that, there’s often still something valuable underneath. The smoke and mirrors of movie magic add to the entertainment value, but fundamentally, movies are stories, and storytelling is a deep-rooted feature of humanity. Sometimes when I tell people that I enjoy old movies, they assume that means I’m into the fancy costumes and larger-than-life stars, and like, I guess that’s part of it, but mostly I just really enjoy good stories that are told well, and that’s what a lot of old movies are. And it’s not just Hollywood that tries to glamorize people and their stories; our whole society does it, too, only to a slightly lesser extent. Just as Lina needed to conceal her unpleasant voice and the studio felt that Lockwood and Lamont would sell more tickets if people thought they were actually dating, or just as people thought Debbie Reynolds’s voice wasn’t strong enough for all of Kathy’s songs, normal people in everyday life feel the need to disguise facets of their identity that are less socially acceptable. Don’t act too queer, conform to your assigned gender role, don’t infodump about your hyperfixations; in short, put on a show to pretend to be “normal.” But just as nobody is really as glamorous and flawless as movie stars’ personas pretend to be, nobody is really normal either. Hopefully our society will someday get to the point where people don’t have to keep up this façade, and perhaps future movies will reflect that. But for now, it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect illustration of how the film industry reflects society than the layered deceptions of Singin’ in the Rain. It’s sort of halfway between satire and an honest reflection, and it works remarkably well as both. But it’s also very easy to just watch it as a fun musical without thinking too hard about any of this. I just happen to greatly enjoy overthinking the stories I love, and this happens to be one that lends itself to much overthinking, which is one of the many reasons why I love it.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. It’s getting to the point where I know these movies so well that I’m not really sure how to talk about them to people who haven’t seen them, so if you’ve never watched Singin’ in the Rain and still managed to follow this episode, I’m very impressed. Next up is a movie that I’m pretty sure would be number one on this list if I’d started keeping track about two years earlier because I already had it completely memorized before 2003, but in the 20 years I was tracking I watched it a mere 35 times, leaving it at number three. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Well. Someone’s got to break the ice and it might as well be me. I mean, I’m used to being a hostess, it’s part of my husband’s work, and it’s always difficult when a group of new friends meet together for the first time, to get acquainted, so I’m perfectly prepared to start the ball rolling. I mean, I have absolutely no idea what we’re doing here, or what I’m doing here, or what this place is about, but I am determined to enjoy myself, and I’m very intrigued, and oh my, this soup’s delicious, isn’t it?”

[lobotoboy]

Today I ascended from this mortal plane and remembered why I love movies and want to pursue filmmaking.

For context, I watched Barbie, and the Miraculous Ladybug movie today.

So, I saw Barbie with my mom, in a theater full of women. The first five minutes, I was sat there like "Did the internet lie to me again?" cause I was genuinely confused about what the hell was happening onscreen. But once I managed to get into the groove of things, I really enjoyed myself. I didn't play with Barbies growing up, and it was still enjoyable to me. It was so campy and funny(thank you Kate McKinnon and Michael Cera for being a big source of that), but it had some pretty deep themes, such as criticism against both a patriarchy and a matriarchy, the struggles of women in society, existentialism, and mother-daughter relationships. Definitely a movie for the girlies, but I think it's enjoyable for everyone.

I think the music was great. My mom hates musicals, despises them with her whole heart, but she told me after the movie that she loved I'm Just Ken. And yeah, it was so much. My favorite bit was the fast paced "Can you feel the Kenergy" moments. I've been playing Identity V, and I use that to hype me up for matches. It gives 80s power ballad, and it's super fun to listen to over and over again. Ryan Gosling did a very good job with it. I can see I'm Just Ken and Peaces battling it out for Best Original Song. Push was great as well, despite being underused in the movie, the full version(which is a cover of an existing song) is very interesting, and lyrically fits the movie so well.

I'm not typically a fan of bright colors in movies, catch me watching The Batman any day, but Barbie is the exception, as it just made certain scenes feel so much more important. Mattel offices being cold and gray, really sold that corporate vibes, and the soft white at the ending with Ruth definitely made it feel like Barbie was reaching a life-changing conclusion. It's a wonderful use of color.

Now the themes are the big draw of the movie. Regarding the patriarchy, matriarchy, and daily struggles of women, those themes are definitely hard to miss, but they do so much good with them. Showing Ken being essentially brainwashed by the idea of the patriarchy is interesting, and definitely rings home for anyone who grew up with boys as friends. I've seen a few guy friends of mine turn from sweet guys, into womanizers as they grew older. And it also shows that a matriarchy isn't good either, by showing how the Kens feel less than in BarbieLand. The Ken's situation is a muted version of women's situations in the real world. The Kens aren't sexualized or hated, but they're ignored. In the real world, both in the movie and real life, women have it worse than the Kens, and feel in a similar position. Makes it easy to enjoy both perspectives. Barbie focusing on thoughts of death and change as a whole hits with me on a personal level, as I have a lot of issues with existentialism, and any movie with death as a major theme usually brings me close to tears(such as Puss in Boots 2, curse you good movies). Seeing Barbie meet her creator in Ruth was so sweet, and was incredibly heartwarming.

Special mention to the line "We mother stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they've come". It made me want to give my mom the biggest hug, and I'm in no way a hugger.

Then I went home, and watched the Miraculous Ladybug movie because I had nothing else to do. I've been with the show since 2020, which isn't as long as other fans, but the show still sticks in my brain the same. I knew the animation was going to be great, and that the art direction would make up for any shortcomings in the story. And while yes, the plot was rushed (duh, like, how many years has it taken to get to this point in the show? its gonna feel rushed) but the art was absolutely stunning. My favorite moment was from Hawkmoth's villain song, Chaos Will Reign(available on Spotify) when they pulled out the Disney Villain lime green color. I love that color, and seeing Hawkmoth with it made me ascend. I really love the ending battle as well, the use of colors, lightning effects, butterfly textures, was just perfect. The animation was also really smooth, down to the small details of hair movements, such as when Nino and Alya are on the roller coaster, or when Chat Noir's hair gets wet.

The music was probably my least favorite part, just because I think Cristina Vee could've slayed it, and that the songs sounded kind of generic. But Oh My God, Chaos Will Reign had me bopping and replaying it. In fact, I'm listening to Chaos Will Reign and I'm Just Ken while writing this. It definitely gave me old Disney villain song vibes, mixed with the slightest hint of a Danny Elfman soundtrack. It just sounded so evil, but in a way that I can get behind. Keith Silverstein can actually sing, and that note at the end was wonderful. The vibrato gave me life. I was lowkey hoping Nooroo would stop talking so I could hear more. The chanting was awesome, and gave Friends on the Other Side vibes. I was (and still am) a big fan of villain songs, and this is a throwback to my theater kid days when I exclusively played villains and enjoyed it. Definitely overthrew the Hawkmoth Rap as my favorite Miraculous Ladybug song, but the Hawkmoth Rap is like, second place still. The only crime this song had was being too short. Release the ten hour cut.

Finally, aside from the glory that is Chaos Will Reign, I want to say that the two identity reveal scenes were amazing. I'll start off with Adrien and Marinette's, just because I care about that one the least. I think it was a creative way to go about it, with the masquerade masks. Fanfiction wins again. But I have so much to squeal about when it comes to the Adrien and Gabriel reveal. This version of Gabriel was definitely way more sympathetic than his show counterpart, despite committing atrocious acts. I actually wanted this Gabriel to get some redemption, and I think that bit of forgiveness from Adrien is just that. Let them have a good bond, PLEASE! The whole battle scene was just amazing, the fact that Hawkmoth was willing to do literally anything, and very nearly came close to winning. I knew he wasn't going to win, it's a kid's movie, but I was still on the edge of my seat and biting my nails.

I need both of these movies injected into my bloodstream ASAP.

Do I recommend them? Depends on your preferences. For Barbie, I can see why people wouldn't like it, it's campy(in a fun way), and it's anti-patriarchy and anti-matriarchy, which would make the misogynists and misandrists mad. But I think if you're open to a goofy time that will make you appreciate the women in your life, then give it a watch. It's definitely worth it.

For Miraculous Ladybug, it's a kid's movie, based on a show with a big following spanning years. I think it's something to watch if you're a fan, former or current, of the show. If you're just starting to watch Miraculous, it'll be a better watch if you sit through the show. But, it's a good movie, and still enjoyable for novice Miraculers.

I'm definitely watching these over and over again.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

18, 23?

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

Xenoclea — or, well, Gaea within his favored priestess’s body — rose to her feet. Apollo remained in the half-kneeling position he took in his panic to help Xenoclea. She examined the body she possessed.  “Hmm,” the primordial deity hummed, gazing at Xenoclea’s nimble fingers, her bronzed skin. “Rather strange, the body of a mortal. Not at all vast like my own…” she sounded wistful, like she missed the sensation of a physical form.

From my fic Shattered Minds

I just. absolutely loved writing Gaea. Imo, she was done dirty by HoO - a not-at-full-power Kronos took an entire book/war to defeat him, with major losses of beloved characters to boot.

Meanwhile, his mother, the frickin primordial goddess of the Earth itself...died in one chapter. #LetDown

Sadly, I cannot edit HoO, but I can give Gaea the justice she deserves and be the manipulative, savvy queen we all know she is :)

And like. it's not just this specific passaged I liked to write! It's was her whole scene! Xenoclea's sudden possession! Because they're in the Delphic cave, and it used to belong to Gaea! It makes sense that she could possess Xenoclea!

Also just. the creepy factor of Xenoclea being possessed. Marie Levesque's whole deal was creepy for Hazel, and it was creepy for Apollo too! Terrifying, in fact!

Also also! She calls Apollo 'Paion' a lot here! 'Paion' literally means 'helper', and later in the fic, she's like 'heehee, thanks for the help~', and Apollo realizes that he was dupped into helping her agenda! again

Gaea is just. so good at manipulation imo. she can play the loooong game. Shattered Minds is basically where she lays the groundwork for HoO, for her eventual comeback!

SHE IS A CUNNING QUEEN AND DESERVED TO BE A BETTER VILLAIN!

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

Okay, so, this got long lmao XD

pale blue walls. my bed is a mess of green sheets, a black comforter, and a white tiger-print soft blanket. i have four pillows staked on top of each other on my bed, with my gray reading pillow propped up against them. no, i don't sleep with the reading pillow. but yes to the four pillows.

also, many stuffed animals. many. and i have no shame in saying so :)

my bed also functions as a dresser/bookshelf. in the three bookshelf slots are all of my Warrior cat books, as well as many of my Star Wars ones (that i have yet to read oop) and on top of it is a special edition cup i got from a Iowa football game as well as a cup I got from a production of Newsies i saw with my grandma and mom. both hold an assortment of pens/pencils/sharpies/ect.

a mini globe sits up there too, with two dreamcatchers i've had since forever hanging off it. one is from a great-aunt who lives in Connecticut, btw! a couple remotes that i barely use anymore are up there too, as well as the current books I'm reading (The Iliad - also packed with the Odyssey - and the first Hunger Games book). My alarm clock is next, with my blue earbuds nearby, and my blue flashlight is next door. more hairties because i am disorganized. a tissue box (green and blue). another book - Star Wars Allegiance - a mini motivational quote my aunt and uncle got me this past Christmas, and three small LEGO sets - Luke Skywalker on a Tauntaun, Ahsoka V Maul, and Mando & Grogu.

also a new blue-green lamp! :D got it in my stepdad's family white elephant gift exchange (pro tip: put what you want in (don't make it obvious it was you) and then do your damnest to get it. has worked the past 2 years for me.)

my computer sits on a computer stand on my very old white desk. i have a coaster i bought from the Branson Belle Showboat with my special edition Queen Ester cup i got from Branson's Show & Lights Theater. I also have a little trinket from my trip to Branson's Titanic museum - one of those clear, long rectangular things filled with blue liquid? with a little floating Titanic in it? with an iceberg? my ADHD loves that thing. also a quartz necklace i bought in Branson is just lying there.

behind my computer is a picture of my graduation class - 11 kids total, 6 girls, 5 boys. we be small. also, it has a picture of me with my principal getting my diploma.

to my left is my desk lamp, a real skinny black one with like. three modes of light. i have a couple rubber ducks sitting by it - one's the statue of liberty, and the other is a Kansas City Royals duck (I am not a KC Royals fan - cough St. Louis Cardinals 4 Life cough - but i have solidarity with the fellow Missouri team. if the Cards aren't in, and the Royals are, I will root for them.

also i have a little cross-stitch thing i did back in Quarantine by my lamp. it has a couple white and red bead necklaces (you know the ones) wrapped around it so that's how the cross-stitch stays up. also, the flower bracelet i wore to my last Homecoming is still kicking and hanging from the lamp in question. it has a white band, with now-crinkled pale green leaves and white flowers - roses, and i think hydrandea? real small white flowers. real small. tiny.

i also have a small foam airplane i got way back in Freshman year of high school from the nearby aerospace administration. the girls where invited to see what they did and we got some free stuff out of it and the squishy plane was one of them.

(I got to do a bit of welding during that lol)

I also have various other things. my wallet and car keys. a fitbit i still need to hookup to my new phone. a yellow sharpie i use to highlight my school books/notes. a couple hairties (white and black). a black pen. a portable charger i should probably charge before this weekend's vacation. also a pale blue turtle decoration my dad bought me. a pair of green earrings i should put away. a couple Senior photos of myself i still need to mail to my dad and paternal grandpa.

also a paper with all of my future college classes on it that i use to write my grades down on.

i have a 3D model of the Eiffel tower i got when I was 8 and didn't put together until Quarantine XD it's down to the left of my desk. directly next door is my closet, one door is usually open revealing the absolute mess within. on the other side of it is my clothing hamper, where clothes go to be forgotten about for a week until i remember hey, laundry's a thing.

FINALLY. the magnus opus of the room - my bookshelves.

This holds the rest of my precious books, as well as various other things - blank notebooks, school books, jewelry box, my diploma, a small telescope made out of metal from my grandpa way back during my astronomy obsession phase, Cardinals stuff, coloring books, space books, multiple binders, my Bible, picture of my sister, fuzzy orange dice, box of a star wars puzzle i got in last year's gift exchange i have yet to put together (we are focusing on out long-forgotten Busch Stadium one shush), GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS, extra sparkly pillows, and my clarinet case.

on top is my TV with a DVD player (i use it. like....twice...a year?) and MORE LEGO SETS.

i have the death star duel. 301st clone troopers. London, New York, and San Fransico CITY sets. mini Slave I. Luke's X-Wing. TIE-Fighter. Grevious's starship. big Slave I. also, 3-in-1 LEGO set. i can make a car, boat, or bike. it's in car mode rn.

my floor is carpet. kinda a soft brown with specks of black. couple school books are on the floor. couple notebooks. a wite-out. and a black pen.

lastly, on my walls: above and around my desk is a black and white bulletin board with purple ribbon. it is completely covered in old photos, things I got from a school trip to Indianapolis (yes i got to see the inside of the Colts Stadium hehe i was like 'COMMODUS USED THIS IN TDP! :D'), ect ect. I also have a old framed picture saying 'Let's Get Lost' that I wanna move to my bathroom. further to the right is a poster of Big Ben from way back during my London obsession (i wanted to visit someday but now Delphi, Delos, Sparta, Rome, ect ect are top priority lmao).

on the next wall is a Ravenclaw banner i've had since i was seven. a window takes up most of the rest of the space (white trim btw).

next wall i have my sports teams pride hung up :D a pennant each of KC Chief's quarterback Patrick Mahomes II, St. Louis Cardinals, and Boston Celtics.

WARNING: SPORTS GEEKING OUT AHEAD

and no. i am not a bandwagon. 4th gen Cardinal fan. my paternal great-grandpa chose the Cardinals (idk the story behind it i will have to ask my grandpa).

I was BORN and RAISED on these teams. I was raised on the tales of backflip-boss Ozzie Smith, the Man the Myth the Legend himself. I HAVE HIS BASEBALL CARD! I STILL HAVE MY MATT HOLIDAY JERSERY WHEN HE USED TO PLAY! I HAVE AN ADAM WAINWRIGHT BASEBALL! AND A HOLIDAY ONE (i am his biggest fan)! I AM IN MOURNING WITH THE REST OF THE FANS FOR YADI'S FINAL YEAR. I CHEERED WHEN PUJOLS RETURNED HOME AND HIT 700 HOME RUNS.

I. WAS. RAISED. ON. THE. DUO. OF. YADIER. MOLINA. AND. ADAM. WRAIN. WRIGHT.

i still have a Matt Carpenter poster. i remember Matt Adams playing first base. I remember Goldschmidt & David Freeze, who received a standing ovation from Busch Stadium when he came up to bat for the Pirates because We Loved Him.

I am determined to get a Tommy Edman jersery. he can hit homers with the right and left AND steal bases.

I am also a 3rd gen Chiefs fan. my paternal grandpa chose the Chiefs when they SUCKED and he is LIVING THE LIFE now that they are back in business <3 I watched the famed Super Bowl Win after a 50-year drought. My family was going nuts in my living room. so nuts my aunt accidently pulled her Achilles's tendon 🫢 dw she's alright now we got a little crazy that night it was INTENSE

I was not able to wear my Chiefs jersery to school the next day (dresscodes eyeroll) but I did wear the reddest sweatshirt i could find, my Chiefs necklace, and a hairtie decorated with red and white ribbons from my middle school volleyball season.

I had a shit-eating grin on the whole day. Everyone knew I was the winner <3 Also pretty sure I was the only Chiefs fan in the high school then. It was an exhilarating feeling <3

(Sidenote: The Kelce Bowl was a 10/10 too lol)

(sidenote sidenote: AFC Championship is this Sunday AHHHHH! We'll be playing the Ravens. i had a classmate who was a Ravens fan. he was supremely annoying. i wanna see them lose. :) to every other Ravens fan out there, sorry but he was that annoying. also racist. and homophobic. and sexist. so. you understand why i want the Ravens to lose to spite him.)

and I became a Celtics fan when I was seven. because my stepdad is one as is my great-uncle/godfather. Larry Bird is The GOAT and #GoCelticsTonight

quench that Heat. :)

END OF SPORTS GEEKING OUT

i want to put up the Hawkeye pennant i have too but haven't gotten around to it. it'll go below the Cardinals one because they are the smallest ones.

and finally, in the small wallspace between my door and my closet, above my hamper, is a small, rectangle picture frame of Patrick Mahomes (yes, again. he is that good.) with his surname printed across it. i bought it during my first trip to Kansas City and first Chiefs game (it was against the Chargers. very good game. we beat them :D sorry any Chargers fans I am a very happy Chiefs fan <3)

welcome to my room lmao it is a humble collection of my past and present obsessions, and my hyped-up love of my teams <3