#some other characters that feature less prominently but are still worth noting:

[bayboyzone]

copilot: a sonic fanzine is out now! have spent a while collecting sonic fanart to make this project and i'm excited to share it with you all! you can grab it for free on my itch.io page!

[frauleinandry]

a persona 3 reload review

uuuuuuh so i was meant to post this like... two weeks ago, but then real life hit me in the head like a frying pan. now that i've had the time to edit this though, here are my thoughts on p3re! this is also a minato route review, as i played kotone's in P3P (i know it's not his canon name, but i don't want to use makoto due to P5 confusion).

on the whole, reload is a fantastic game. the gameplay easily rivals P5R, and surpasses it in some aspects. the new content is typically great. i also enjoyed minato as a character (well, as much of a character as persona protagonists are anyway), though that leads me to the main gripe i had with reload...

... and that's the lack of kotone's social links. to be precise, two of her social links, the absence of which greatly hurts the overall story.

don't get me wrong, i'd still rank reload a solid 8/10, but it could have been a 10/10 with the addition of those two links (plus one other spoiler thing), and I think that's a shame.

my in depth analysis is under the cut - note, it's very much not spoiler free.

okay, so, i'm gonna split this into 3.5 segments - the good, the mixed, and the bad (you'll find out what the 0.5 is later).

1. the good:

minato - while i'm still a kotone girlie at heart, he's not a bad protagonist at all! his dialogue options have a very distinct personality to them unlike joker and yu, and his character arc is one of the best of all of the persona main leads. an aloof, apathetic boy who learns to love the world/his friends so much he's willing to die for them... it's good!

koromaru - minor, but worth mentioning. you can pat him, and it's so cute. in fact, everything about him is perfect. from his all-out attack screen, to his animations, to... well, everything. no joke, if I needed to sell this game to a non-persona fan, i'd use him as the main draw.

hangout events - while I think being able to chat to everyone in the dorm already made SEES one of the more developed casts, having additional scenes really helped flesh out the party members who are less prominent in the plot (fuuka, pre-january aigis, ken). more things to do at night is also great, given there was nothing to do in the evening after maxing your social stats in the older versions. the perks they give you are great too, but i'll talk about that more later.

voice acting - not gonna lie, i generally don't like the persona dubs, and normally always play with the JP audio. given reload features some of my favourite voice actors though and was basically fully voiced, i decided to give it a chance this time. and i don't regret it! while some actors are definitely stronger than others, none of them were actively jarring, and quite frankly, they hard carried a lot of the social links. kudos to the cast!

strega - while they could have gone a bit further with it (jin needed a linked episode for sure), takaya finally got the development he sorely needed, and his and jin's final battles were actually interesting, instead of being annoying distractions from nyx. in fact, i'd say takaya's new content is easily the best of the new reload exclusive material. in portable, he made no impression on me whatsoever, but now, he finally gets to be the anti!minato he deserves to be.

1.5. the tartarus (aka good part 2, electric boogaloo):

i have so many things to gush about in terms of the new combat/exploration system, i decided it needed its own section! the glow-up tartarus got was massive. i was pretty disappointed when i heard they were keeping it randomly generated, but somehow, atlus pulled it off! i'll talk about individual things below.

collectables/monad doors - one issue with OG tartarus is that it's monotonous. breakable collectables make it much more entertaining to romp through though, as smashing things is Fun. the monad doors interspersed throughout are another good addition - if you want a break from roaming, you can challenge them, but if not, that's fine!

floor layout - another thing that makes tartatus more fresh to explore is that the HD graphics really make the differences between the blocks pop out. the generally smaller floors with more unique layouts really helps too.

shifting - it's baton pass, though without the ridiculous power/sp bonuses that made baton pass a little bit too gamebreaking in persona 5. in other words, perfect!

theurgy - out of all the battle-specific improvements, theurgy and the personality traits have got to be my favourites. showtimes were fun, but too random/gimmicky to be that useful, and ultimate skills tended to fluctuate between being absolutely gamebreaking or too SP intensive to be worth using. blending them into one feature with a content-specific gauge fixes all the problems with them while keeping everything that made showtimes/ultimate skills good.

ambush mechanics - this was one of the things i was most worried about before playing reload. ambushing in P5 is fun, but ambushing in the other persona games...? not so much. reload manages to fix this though by making the shadows less sensitive, which makes the early game a lot better, and but introducing dash-ambushes once the floors get bigger. if the persona 6 ambush system works like this, i'll be happy.

navigator skills - fuuka being retooled to work more like a playable character was an A+++ decision. making her skills player-activated but with an SP cost is so much more immersive than randomly getting a stat boost/enemy info.

unfortunately, while i think most of the tartarus additions were great, there were a few new mechanics which weren't... dreadful, per say, but could have been implemented better.

great clocks - they're better than nothing, but quite frankly, i would have preferred it if benched units got 50% exp instead. they incentivise you to drop two units for a period of time, which is annoying, given i want to use everyone on my first playthrough. late game, great clocks are also a pain to summon, for reasons i'll talk about below.

twilight fragments - i think they're a neat idea in theory, but they need to be easier/more reliable to farm. once you finish off the bulk of your social links/elizabeth's requests, replenishing them becomes a nightmare, which is annoying because you need them for great clocks.

2. the mixed:

while reload did a lot of things right, as per above, there were some things that didn't quite hit the mark.

linked episodes - i'm gonna be blunt. anyone who thinks these are better than social links is smoking something. one thing i like about party member social links is that it gives them a subplot outside of the main story, focusing more on their mundane struggles as opposed to their supernatural ones. half of the linked episodes just develop the main plot more though (and really should have just been included in it), meaning the linked episode exclusive subplots are underbaked.

another problem is that some of the linked episodes are just... kinda badly written. ryoji's completely lacks his existential dread, akihiko's comes off as a poor attempt to make his arena behaviour less OOC, while shinjiro's... it feels like persona 5 writing, in the worst way possible. it's like atlus completely forgot that subtext is a thing that's Good, actually.

while I have been fairly critical of them so far though, there are a couple of linked episodes i liked. koromaru's actually worked with the format, given he's a dog, but the real winner here was takaya. i loved all of his. if linked episodes appear again, i'd rather they be locked to antagonists like him.

art direction- i'll say right now - the UI is fabulous, the model shaders are great, and tartarus looks fantastic. the environmental design on the whole though is a bit iffy - a lot of the environments didn't translate to the super HD very well, and the lighting sucks in general. i needed to turn down the brightness it was so eye-searing. the animation of the 2D cutscenes is also pretty mediocre, and while the 3D cutscenes tend to look better, they're held back by some of the character models looking a bit goofy (mitsuru's is probably the biggest offender). i also think they were too scared of making the sprites 'ugly', and therefore on the whole they're slightly less emotive than the ones in the older versions of the game, which is a pity.

3. the bad:

minato's social links - the vast majority of the minato-exclusive social links are just flat-out not great. serious props to the voice actors here, since they hard carried them. quite frankly, they're just... bland, except for maya's and suemitsu's, which. uh. have problems. on the topic of social links, while i'm happy the romance isn't mandatory anymore, i don't like how half the girls explicitly confess to you. i much prefer the more subtle vibes of the P5/P4 romantic options, as yeah, most of them can lead naturally into romance, but they don't make the MC feel like a harem anime protagonist (derogatory). it kinda brings to mind this twitter post; sometimes, subtlety is simply better.

the absence of shinji and ryoji's social links - i can live without saori, rio, and most of the new and improved SEES member social links, but this is where i draw the line. while shinji dying is better storytelling, just like with chidori, having the option to save him is also important. lock it behind new game plus, yes... but keep it. also, him priming kotone to support akihiko one he's gone is far better than him just flat-out telling minato that he's dying. ryoji's missing social link though is infinitely worse. where is his slowly mounting horror as he starts poking holes in his backstory? his desperation to validate that he's actually real? that he exists?! like yeah, it's nice that the linked episode doubled down on his bisexuality, but i'd rather keep the psychological breakdown aspects of it, y'know?

the difficulty - i started playing reload normal - the level i'd typically use for a blind run of a persona game - aaaaand swapped to hard the second i unlocked theurgy. even then though, the game was a cakewalk until january hit. while i love theurgy, the game is absolutely not scaled around it, especially since you can charge/concentrate them. doing that, you can easily rack up thousands of damage without even going ham with fusion. unfortunately, reload is just... really easy.

the plot's too faithful to the original - while reload added new content, it pretty much left the story untouched outside of the beach scene. that's... not good, as persona 3's narrative had some pretty big problems. the biggest issue is the unchanged pacing - the strega storyline really needed to start a month earlier, and ryoji needed an extra month to integrate with the characters due to his lack of social link. this is one of the things i'm explicitly docking a point for - reload still doesn't kick off until the yakushima arc, which is well over a third into the game.

despite my criticisms, i do want to note that my experience with reload was predominately positive. it's (extremely) sad that you still need to play portable to experience the full persona 3 story, but p3re is still a fantastic game, and has a lot of gameplay features i'd be delighted to see in persona 6.

that's all i've got to say for now - until next time!

[anistarrose]

Hey Anon! I've actually been meaning to make a post of my own about this for Disability Pride Month, but I'm happy to post a fanart-centric version here! There's no universally accepted "perfect" way to write IDs, and no universally perfect level of detail to include, but here are some starting points:

Basic intro, slightly emphasizing fanart (OP's blog has tons of described fanart if you want to learn by example)

Another intro, for more general topics with fanart included (and misc. examples linked)

Guide for describing art in general, from the Cooper-Hewitt museum (some of these examples get slightly longer than I would advise for most simple fanart, and it's generally geared towards describing art created by someone else, but it's a good read nonetheless)

One thing I strongly suggest is to be consistent about what features you describe — for example, with respect to skin tone, hair texture, body type, etc, you generally want to do it either all the time or none of the type, so not to risk implying that any one type of the above is the "default" to be presumed when no info is given.

That said, there's also variability here in terms of what you're describing: if you're describing art of animated, comic, etc, characters that have consistent canon designs that you're adhering to, you might reasonably decide you need less overall detail about character design in your descriptions.

On the other hand, if you're describing characters from books, podcasts, or anything else that sparks a lot of different fan designs, then details like skin tone might be more important — likewise, if the character has a canon design but you're departing from it a lot, that could be worth specifying.

(You'll notice that when I describe The Adventure Zone, I try to always indicate skin tone/body type, but when I describe Gravity Falls/The Owl House, I rarely do unless it's a departure from canon. Different people will do this differently, though, and that doesn't mean anyone is objectively wrong.)

On that note, when I'm describing fanart, I run through a mental heuristic that's a little different depending on fandom (for reasons related to the above), but basically I try to address the following, in flexible but approximate order:

characters

source material

mood and, if applicable, prominent colors

(see: "Blind People Still Like to Know About Color")

character design traits like those mentioned above

if applicable, dialogue/other text

background (though sometimes I admittedly forget this one, and sometimes simple backgrounds can be rolled into mood/color)

In terms of formatting: stuff like italics, caps lock, and tumblr's small text can be difficult for screen readers, so it's best to avoid them. Don't add jokes or subjective judgements like "cute" or "ugly," but do indicate where the ID starts and ends, and do add occasional line breaks to keep the image from becoming a wall of text.

(The reason for that last part is that sometimes people with trouble interpreting images, and people who are low vision but don't necessarily use screen readers, will read IDs for help with some or all of an image, and walls of text aren't super accessible in that regard.)

I also very recently joined the People's Accessibility Discord server, which helps crowdsource IDs, including for fanart! If you're getting started, you could always ask for help in there.

Lastly, I just want to give two more links that aren't necessarily related to fanart, but are just all-around useful: this guide for describing screenshotted tags, and this document full of templates for describing common memes!

Your desire to make your art more accessible is super appreciated, Anon, and I want to assure you that artist describing your own work, you're already at a great starting point to write some wonderful descriptions! You know better than anyone else what the important details of your work are, what expressions and emotions the characters are conveying, and the mood it's setting — and for all those reasons, I love seeing more artist-described stuff!

sorry if you'd already been asked this/aren't the person I should go for for this, but any tips for writing image IDs for fanart? I want to make my work more accessible but I'm not fully sure what's helpful and what's unnessasary/overkill/actually makes the experience worse.

I am by no means an expert at this (and often, regrettably forget to add image IDs/alt to my own posts, though I am working to be more consistent.)

@anistarrose has a great list of resources on this here! I have found the links on that page to be a great starting point.

[asce-of-hearts]

Hey bee!

I Just Wanna Request Something! Take Your Time Tough! Drink water! And Eat healtyly

So Uh, How Will (Yandere Of Your Choice) Reacts To Sketches of their face with heart on Reader's Sketch Book That They Bought For Them?

Stay Healthy Bee! ♥︎♡︎♥︎♡︎♥︎

-🥧 Aɴᴏɴ

Hehe, of course I can do your request. Also, please take care or yourself! Drink water, brush your teeth and sleep enough time, dear.

Also I’m really indecisive so I made it will al my yanderes, so, enjoy the feast hehe (also I need more content for all my yandere’s)

Sketches  🍨

MASTERLIST

Contents: How would yandere!mha characters would react to finding sketches of their face with hearts on it.

Warnings: Yandere themes, really really long post!

Eraserhead

You were showing him some of your drawings, he wanted to see what occupied you for so long and what you did while he was sleeping or at work. You sat beside him, his arm around you and you passing pages when he finished looking at the art decorating them.

His eyes fixed on a specific page that had a couple of hearts in bright red. Cute. And then he saw... himself. A bunch of small drawings about him. One of him sleeping, another of him laughing and another with his cat. When had you done this? His face got a bright red and yours did as well.

“Kitty, when did you draw this?” he smiled at you, a lot of hearts around his face in your sketchbook.

“I don’t know, maybe a couple of months ago” you averted his gaze and attempted to hide your face when he inspected the drawings further. Was he really that handsome? He was happy you saw him that way.

“You are so cute, kitty-cat”

Mr. Compress

“Here” you said looking at the floor and your hand extended with a piece of paper. He took it gently, his brow arched wondering what could be inside the small piece of paper. He was cooking dinner for both of you. You were sitting on the kitchen counter doodling something.

He saw the content on the piece of paper, a couple of hearts decorating a pretty detailed drawing of his face. His profile while he was concentrated cooking a meal for you both. Precious, it looked so good, so perfect, like a work made by Da Vinci himself. 

“You did this, honey?” he asked surprised, not worrying about the boiling water in the stove, only focusing on you and your cute face

“Yes... I wanted to do something cute for you” you played with your fingers and smiled shyly “do you like it?”

He compressed the small drawing, so he could have it with him at all times without worrying about it getting lost or damaged.

“I love it!”

Dabi

“Watcha’ doing, doll?” he asked while leaning on top of you, he just wanted your attention after a hard day of working with the LoV, you were so immersed in your drawings that you didn’t notice him entering.

You jumped and yelped a little when you felt him so close.

“You scared me, dummy” you laughed a little, letting him press a kiss against your cheek, you answered his question “nothing, I was just sketching and drawing things”

“Can I see?”

“Yeah, sure thing!” you lended him the piece of paper that you were using, he looked at the traces and lines on the paper. Specifically at a part with a man, who looked strangely familiar... because it was him. And it had a heart around it.

When you saw his eyes fixed on the small portrait you had done about him you blushed and giggled nervously. He smiled, his usual cocky half smile and he kissed you.

“C’mon doll, I’m not that handsome”

Chronostasis

“Lovely” he whispered when he noticed you were so concentrated in your drawing, and when he noticed what you were drawing. Him.

He didn’t want to interrupt your concentration, but his faced covered in a prominent blush was something you could not ignore, after all you were using him as your model. Did he notice?

You were in his office, he was working on something you didn’t quite understand and he just looked so... model like. You got your hands to work as soon as you could. His profile being sharp and masculine, but also so incredibly cute!

You giggled nervously “Sorry, I just couldn’t help it” you said with a smile. He smiled back and got closer to you, kissing your lips as a form of telling you !It’s okay, it doesn’t bother me”

He broke the kiss a couple of seconds after, leaving you a blushing mess, he chuckled and cupped your cheeks.

“If you wanted me as your model you should have told me”

Hitoshi Shinsou

Shinsou knows he is quite handsome, he has been told. But he didn’t think he was this handsome. 

What do I mean by "this”? well, the fact that you drew him like he was Brad Pitt or something like that, he looked so fine in you drawing. Your work of art made him look like he was made from a piece of God’s clothing, maybe he was. After all you had drew him, created him in a new space with your bare hands.

He felt so flattered, so flustered, so everything. He immediately got his attention to the big red heart surrounding his face, he blushed even more. he left the notebook there. He wanted to kiss your adorable face and your talented hands.

He wanted to be your model for everything you drew now on, you can’t expect to draw anything but him. After all, he is your muse, right? You drew him so perfectly. He has to be your model from now on.

Even if he has to brainwash you until you grant him his wish.

Hanta Sero

“Baby, this is so beautiful!” he said when he looked at your awesome works of art. You blushed and smiled shyly at his constant praises.

“Can I get this one framed?” “This is worth of a museum!” “You are so talented, honey” praises, praises and more praises were directed at you.

And you directed one at him, in an indirect way. A drawing of his face, with his big dumb smile there, and a lot of hearts surrounding it. His face lit up and he smiled even more.

“You drew this for me?” he blushed and cupped your cheeks, making you blush as well. “Y-yeah!” you said while smiling “Do you like it?” you asked, awaiting his answer and praise.

“I love it sweetheart! I’m so flattered by this” he kissed the small drawing, and he then kissed you.

Maybe you should draw both of you, together

forever.

Present Mic

Hizashi loved your artworks almost as much as he loved you, he treasured them and kept them in a good state whenever you he could get his hands on one of them. He got his hands on the notebook he had gotten you, the cover decorated in cute stickers and tape “cute” he mumbled as he opened it.

The pages were filled with drawings of people, some more detailed than others, lots of scribbles and lots of small notes you put in there. He even spotted a recipe in one of the pages, followed by a small drawing of the dish that was being described.

And then he found that page. Filled to the brim with drawings of him. His face and smile, him with his hair down, him sleeping, him doing anything and lovey dovey cutesy hearts decorating the page. Just enough to leave him feeling like a schoolgirl receiving a love letter from his crush.

He smiled, you were still bathing while he examined his own features translated into an entire different language by your hands, made into a work of art by your talent.

You were just so perfect.

Deku

Izuku worshiped you in every possible way he could, only for the small price of your affection... and freedom. This small price also includes your privacy, not that you know about the cameras or the fact that he looks through your stuff.

Its only for your safety, he came across the small notebook you had requested a while ago. He gave it to you with a smile, and you smiled as well, which made him smile a lot more!.

He opened the book, looking through the pages filled with drawings and small notes for yourself. There were mostly portraits of people, some less detailed and some being extremely detailed. He didn’t know these people, so he assumed you just came up with their faces on the spot or that they were from your vague distant memories of people you used to know.

And then his faced popped up, filled with freckles and his dumb flustered smile. He blushed instantly, a heart was surrounding his face. And a small note that you had written

 “my hero” it’s what could be read from the sentence, he smiled like a high schooler in love. 

You were just so adorable

Bakugou Katsuki

He was still processing the fact that you had drew him, him and his face, him and part of his torso and then him and his naked body.

You were a really talented artist and he knew, maybe he was a little rude and insulting towards you but never in his life towards your art. He understood the importance it had for you, he knew it was like his hero career for him. He would never even make a sassy comment about it.

He was just staring at the piece of paper, so easily flammable and destroyable in his hands. Your signature and a small heart around his face in one of the drawings. He blushed, he wanted to cry. God, he is so pathetic.

But mostly he was flattered, not only flattered but proud. Proud you weren’t afraid anymore, proud you were finally giving in to express your love towards him.

Proud that you were finally all his.

Overhaul

“Kai?” you said shyly, you were on his office, accompanying him through a rough day of work. You just didn’t want to be alone.

“Yes, y/n?” he said, interrupting his work for a moment “are you busy?” 

“No, dear. What do you need?” he said gently, you got closer to him, holding a small piece of paper “I- I noticed you’ve been a little bit down and stressed... and I wanted to do something nice for you” he arched a brow “Here, I know its not much but I made it with love” you smiled and lended him the sketch you made.

A small drawing of him, he had his mask on and a relaxed expression on his face, contrary to his usual cold and bothered look. His eyes widened and his mouth opened a little. You made this for him? This was unbelievable. You made a work of art based on him. Made him your muse.

You were just so pure

Denki Kaminari

Heartwarming, that’s what the scene was like when he found out about your drawings of him. Constant doodles and sketches of his face all over your sketchbook.

He blushed, cried a little and short-circuited himself a couple of times just so he could know it was real. It looked so delicate, this work of art looked so perfect. Just like everything you did. It was amazing, astounding, incredible and every compliment he could think about.

“Hey, babe!” he called you, you were cooking dinner for both of you. You had learned to not let Denki near the kitchen. You walked into the living room and saw him holding the small book in his hands with a big smile. You blushed. It didn’t bother you that he took it, after all he had bought it for you and you had nothing to hide. Well, except the constant drawings of him.

He smiled at you and left the book on the couch with caution and delicateness, and then ran towards you and hugged you. Then kissed you.

“I love you!”

Kirishima Eijiro

“What are you drawing, baby?” he said while nuzzling you, you were sitting on his lap drawing while he answered some e-mails he had. Being a hero was really stressful. Still, you made it worth it. He met you thanks to his work! 

“Just... nothing, whatever comes to my mind” he smiled and gently pulled you into a kiss.

“Can I check ‘em out?” he asked, referring to your drawings. You immediately blushed, he would realize you were drawing him all along! Well, he would notice either way. So you just slided the sketchbook to his hand. Slowly, cautiously.

He took it gently, not wanting to damage the pages that you had just gave him. And he immediately noticed his face there. Drawings of him in his hero costume, with his hair down, sleeping. Everything. There was one more detailed than the others of him saving a civilian. Oh, the civilian was you.

A small creeped onto his face, he just had a great idea. He needed new merch after all.

Why aren’t you his designer? You would make it better than anyone else.

Gang Orca

He entered your shared room. You weren’t here, instead taking a shower since it was almost time for you to sleep. Kugo entered there with a small cup of tea, just for you. 

He sat on the bed and noticed something underneath your pillow. A book, not just any book. Your sketchbook! He grabbed it, examining the cover, a little bit worn out since you used it a lot.

When he opened it he found another cover inside, this time an illustration made by you. It was of both of you, snuggling, a bit simple and not overly detailed but just cute enough to make him want to kiss your face. 

He noticed the hearts surrounding his face and the small “I love you” that was there. He smiled and hugged the small book.

You were definitely his soulmate

Hawks

He put you to bed, he was gonna stay up a little more. He had something he wanted to check out. 

“I’ll be right back, feather. Just got to check that there are no baddies around here” that was a lie, he just wanted to check the notebook you always carried around, he was curious about what could be in there. He had bought it for you a couple of months ago. 

What did you hide in there? Were you keeping count of the days since he took you away, a secret diary. No, not at all.

He was surprised, he knew you enjoyed drawing but not this much, I mean, you had almost filled a hundred pages with drawings. He passed the pages with delicateness, not wanting to damage them.

And he found some familiar faces. Including a self portrait and a drawing of him. He looked like an angel, his wings spreaded and his face with a serious yet relaxed expression. “Wow” he murmured to himself, caressing the small drawing.

You were so talented.

Mina Ashido

Mina wanted to know more about your hobbies, after all, you were so attentive whenever she tried to teach you how to dance. 

“Hey, babe! I wanted to ask you something!”

“Oh, tell me, what is it?” you smiled, leaving the mechanical pencil in the table next to you.

“Well, I know you love to draw and I just wanted to know what you draw you know? Just look at you amazing works of art!” she said smiling, you blushed a little and thought about it. It wouldn’t harm you, right? After all she had brought your sketchbook to your hands and is always spoiling you with artsy materials.

“Okay” you whispered and heard her squeal. 

Now you were sitting on the couch while you explained to her your drawings, avoiding talking about your family or friends since your past life was a... sensitive topic for both of you.

“Oh, and here’s you” you pointed at a small drawing of her with lots of hearts around it. You swore her squeal was so high it could break a window.

“You are so adorable!”

Miruko

“Stop moving!” you whispered, you were clearly annoyed by something. Rumi was doing some paperwork at your home. You were next to her doodling on your sketchbook. She is really energetic and constantly moves around just so she doesn’t fucking explode from how bored it is to do paperwork.

“You okay bunny?” she turned around to look at you, causing you to blush instantly. 

“No! I mean- Yes!” you chuckled nervously and she moved closer to you.

“Watcha’ doing, baby bunny? Is you drawing not turning out like you want it t-” she said before stopping when she noticed what you were drawing. It was her! Her doing a lot of things! She smiled and kissed your cheek, trapping you in her arms for a second.

“You should’ve told me, bunny! I can be your model as much as you want”

Shigaraki Tomura

He noticed at you staring at him like he had a giant spider on his forehead. He backed away a little. You were sharing the desk, him playing and you drawing.

“A-are you okay?” he asked getting closer to you.

“Yes! But please don’t move” you requested, going back to your piece of paper, biting your lip a little from the concentration. He just stood still waiting for you to tell him he could move again “There we go! Thank you, Shiggy!” you smiled and lended him the small piece of paper.

It was a drawing of him, so beautifully done by your skilled hands. He loved it. He took it carefully, he didn’t want to dust it. Even if he had his quirk cancelling gloves he just wanted to treasure it.

He has to treasure every little thing you do for him.

Setsuno Toya

Setsuno used his quirk to get the notebook out of your hands, careful to not interrupt anything and careless enough to tease you a little.

“What? Can’t I look at the art my angel does?” he smiled at you, his voice cooing you like you were a child, you pouted and blushed “F-fine! But be careful please”. He nodded, he knew your art was important to you and wouldn’t want to ruin it. 

He ran his hands trough he pages, staring at the faces you drew with your very talented body and mind. He smiled when he found a heart on one of the pages, so adorable.

And he smiled even more when he noticed his face on the paper. Oh my! You drew him! Oh my oh my! An angel drew him! This must be a sign from god.

A sign you belong with him for the rest of eternity.

Tamaki Amajiki

He knew it was wrong to go through your stuff, its just that he was a little curious and you were a little shy. He got his hands on the small notebook he had got you, decorated by your small hands and your incredible talent.

He looked trough all of the pages, drawings of everything you could imagine were there. something told him to stop at a certain page, he didn’t knew why he stopped there. Maybe it was the red hearts and your hand writing that said something corny and sweet.

And a familiar face... his face. You drew him?

A blush covered his entire face and he felt like he was about to faint. You drew him! So handsome and so cute, he was so flattered, and so flustered at the same time. He smiled to himself, you drew him, you loved him.

You were his.

Endeavor

He had a habit, wanting to know everything about you and your hobbies. At your request he got you the notebook you kept so perfectly. It was lined in leather and had your initials in the cover, just a small detail he wanted to include for his baby.

He had noticed how you left it on his desk. Was it on purpose? Or did you just leave it there by accident? Either ways, the curiosity killed the cat and he started looking at the pages. Amazed by the talent you had in your hands, you works more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. Fitting for his true and only love, you were so amazing.

His ice cold eyes fixed on a man’s face, it was his! So detailed and so perfectly handsome, did you really see him that way? He was surprised, normally everyone thought of him as menacing and intimidating. But you

You thought of him as the love of your life, the heart and handwritten “giant teddy-bear” confirmed it.

Mirio Togata

Mirio liked watching you draw, it relaxes him seeing you so relaxed and concentrated. Sometimes humming a tune or hearing him talk to you. Its a nice way of bonding and spending time together.

He also likes looking at your drawings after you’ve finished them. Another way of bonding, another way of bonding. He looks at the sketches and the complete illustrations you’ve done about life and yourself. Even part of your past life and other things, nature, animals and everything else.

He was now looking at your drawings while you were in the bathroom, he smiled at your talent. And then he stumbled across his own face. And he blushed, a lot. You came in the room again, and blushed when you noticed why he was blushing. A thought stroke Mirio’s brain

You were made for him and only him, every single part of you.

Shoto Todoroki

Shoto was quiet and calming, much like you. Enjoying the shared silence you both created. He was reading a book while you were sketching ideas for an illustration. Together, alone in your own little world.

“Can you give me your opinion on this? I just want to know how to improve it” you said fixing your eyes on his face.

“Sure” he hummed and got closer to you, looking at your small sketches. Something felt familiar about the man you were drawing, specially the oddly similar scar in his eye. 

Oh my god it was him.

He was dressed like royalty, the sketch having a medieval vibe. And, was that a heart on one of the faces?

“Were you drawing me?”

“maybe... You’re really handsome, you can’t expect me not to use you as a model!” you said in defense, he chuckled a little. Ready to give you the feedback you needed.

“Maybe if I was kissing you, your drawing would be complete”

I just used my entire brainpower into this oh god why am I so ambitious at times.

Still I really enjoyed writing this!

If you have any other requests you want me to do so I can milk my brain onto the last ounce of creativity I have please tell me!

Have a great day/night!

[ganymedesclock]

Hey I got question for something in hollow knight that nobody talks about: What is up with the goddamn delicate flowers? Like seriously what kind of flowers they are?? They seem to have the ability to make characters poof since Grey Mourner fades away when her quest is finished and godseeker disappears with the shade lord if given a delicate flower like what exact power do these seemingly delicate flowers have??

I don’t think that the Grey Mourner’s disappearance is specifically tied to the flowers; I personally took it that she’s a kind of undead by the time you encounter her since she visibly sheds dust as she trembles upright to talk to you (and her silhouette in Ogrim’s memory is significantly less... wilty) and bleakly asks why she still ‘persists’, and if/when you succeed in the quest, she states that her grief might eventually end, and then amends that to say that she can potentially ‘end’. In short, very much someone who is supernaturally bound to last regrets, even if she lacks the typical ‘cues’ of a ghost.

What we know about the flowers seems to be that they react dramatically with the void in particular; White Lady has no hostility to it, but she does make an assumption that Ghost wouldn’t hold it so close if they knew what it was. She also tells us that Ze’mer brought it with her from her homeland, wherever that is, a place described as “lands serene”- so mostly of note here is a motif of serenity, of peace and rest- which are even concepts associated with the void itself, counter to the Radiance’s influence. The Traitors’ Child- the proper recipient- has the same void-drippy eyes as several other characters, and only shows up to thank you if you deliver the flower to her grave.

My personal take on the void is that the abyss is a sort of akashic record in some ways; as an ‘emptiness’ it drinks and receives heavily from other entities. It’s the final darkness that accepts everything- in a sense, a kind of afterlife, or at least the threshold to it. We don’t have anything explicit about bug heaven, but it is worth noting Radiance, who keeps people both dead and alive in a state of dreaming undeath, actively hates the void and names it her enemy. No Eyes, who seems to have blinded herself and others desperately trying to escape the plague, speaks warmly of her defeat by Ghost as a “warm stillness” falling over the ghosts she gathered to herself, and asks Ghost to “Take us there, please. A place where light can not haunt us, a place without dreams...”

In some ways, I’ve always read Ghost as a kind of reaper figure, and with the dream nail, they are actively characterized as gathering to themselves the spirits of the deceased. Their power, and their personal composition, is very much tied to the memories, and spirits, of Hallownest and wherever else they’ve been. This may be why implicitly they had some memory troubles and had to refresh themselves by coming back to the Birthplace and dream nailing their reflection- it’s very hard for them to separate from all the clamoring ghosts they carry with them.

In that sense I don’t think the Delicate Flower is a literal void-be-gone in the way that you might brandish a cross to repel a vampire; I think that rather, the Delicate Flower is exactly what we are told: specifically, a funerary token. Something symbolically and practically for laying a spirit to rest, given to you by one restless ghost to try and appease another, so that the two, as lovers, can be reunited in whatever afterlife might be waiting for them. Everyone else who accepts it gains some reprieve from their own ‘hauntings’, whether that’s Oro’s relationship with his siblings and teacher, or Elderbug who remembers his fading town and at least one specific dead friend.

I think the Shade Lord is Ghost in the sense that I don’t think there’s a separate being there, but I think in some ways the Shade Lord is not Ghost in the sense that the extra mass comes from somewhere, and in both endings where Ghost manifests the Shade Lord, they plunge into the teeming mass of all of the Siblings, and emerge out of that. When horns are really the only ‘unique facial feature’ that the vessels have, the Shade Lord has a complex tangle of horns, though Ghost’s are clearly the main/prominent ones. So basically the “body mass” of the Shade Lord is 95% the unquiet dead and Ghost themselves as the conduit / centerpiece is also acting like an unquiet dead being.

Godseeker, as a valid delicate flower recipient and someone who has literally her entire civilization crammed into her head such that it has messed her up body and mind to a staggering degree (that she seems in denial of / rejects, but the ‘tuner workshop’ memory makes it clear just how much she’s suffered to get to Hallownest) is also a highly haunted person, and when Ghost becomes Shade Lord, they basically open a thoroughfare to the void, inside her head. In that sense, they try to escape her, but no longer have a body to do so having cracked theirs open to assume this form; so Godseeker pouring void is basically because Godseeker is leaking restless ghosts.

The delicate flower, thus, doesn’t destroy that (one of its petals does turn black!) but ‘lays this to rest’ by sending it down to the abyss.

I feel like this makes the most sense, since using void magic while carrying the flower doesn’t hurt you at all, and you can actively go swim in the abyss with it in your inventory not affecting anything provided you have the void heart so it doesn’t attack you. None of this prompts the flower to vaporize Ghost- so clearly the flower is not “void-opposed” fundamentally. But it makes a lot of sense if the flower, as a funerary gift to its core, does ‘act on’ restless ghosts, so at a point Ghost no longer really has an active ‘unfinished business’ but is lashing out in a blind chaotic panic, potentially getting disoriented in the chorus of their siblings, that the flower in essence falls onto their grave and quiets them.

[generallypo]

in all sincerity, kim dokja makes me happy and he deserves to be so too :^(

incoherent yelling and sobbing under the cut. these fEELINGS will not be contained aaauuunnghhh. 

------

anyway i binge-read all 500+ chapters of ORV this week and i honest to god feel bad for this -- completely! fictional! aghhhh -- guy. in case you haven’t figured it out, the following is some spoilerly shit

i went in expecting a fun, brainless power trip fantasy for dudes with an isekai addiction. instead, it turns out ORV is actually a gigantic, self-deprecating prank on the entire genre itself. kdj plays more into the sad -- if high-functioning-- clown trope than the sexy, edgy, chuuni bastard type i was prepared to laugh at. there were -- gasp! -- female characters with personalities! parents (aka ADULTS who act like ADULTS) who actually survive and feature prominently! adorable children! a real sexy, edgy bastard! a power trio with amazing fashion! sexual tension and bickering! friendship! life and death bonding! 

*breathes in deeply* fouND FAMILYYYYYYY.

like, yeah, the plot around the first few arcs seems a little aimless, but the buildup is worth. the world-building is pretty decent. there’s discernible effort put into the fight scenes, and i can appreciate that. but -- but! what i stayed for were the characters -- namely, the fantastic OT3 of KDJ, HSY, and YJH -- who come together despite their initial rivalries and end up saving each other’s asses, like, every other day. granted, the other characters don’t get as much focus, and they do fall into certain character tropes.. 

but a trope done well is nothing i would gripe about. every significant character in ORV has a coherent, and more importantly, respectful take on their respective trope. maybe it’s because sing-shong is actually a married couple, but all the interactions between even minor characters are a convincing blend of awkward rambling, suggestive humor, sharp remarks, and casual banter. in other words, this cast of mostly working adults (plus a teen and two kids) talks like working adults. the relationships built throughout the story are, frankly, some of most realistic of its genre. sing-shong has managed to craft a dynamic that undoubtedly brims with fluffy fondness all around, but also drips with sarcastic tension, with unspoken urgency, with a wariness that softens into sincerity over the course of many, many chapters. it’s the kind of progression that makes even stock characters read like more than just the 2-bit villain or comrade or love interest. here, we have relationships both straightforward and not, strained or otherwise, romantically-oriented as well as decidedly the opposite -- and then numerous others scattered along the spectrum with the freedom to shift either way. 

it’s also an interesting point of note that our MC kdj actually does not end up with a stated romantic partner, much less a conventional heteroromantic harem. he gets teased about that fact from time to time, but it’s with less of the sleazy shonen locker room humor one would expect and more of the good-natured ribbing you’d find among friends or that one especially nosy auntie at the yearly family reunion. kdj is a grown ass man. in the background, i applaud his maturity, and he handles all the prodding like a champ. 

so instead of finding and fulfilling his horny, he builds himself a wealth of loving family. yeah, there are beautiful men and women around him. yeah, they unequivocally adore him. but they’re also adults, and they have priorities, too -- which are not so much finding a way to bang kdj’s brains out and more so simply keeping the damn guy alive. this is truly not ‘oblivious mc with his thirsty, sex kitten harem’. it just so happens that a guy proves himself to be unflinchingly gentle and capable in an apocalyptic setting despite his broken self-esteem, and lots of people find that attractive, romantically and platonically. 

it.. kinda makes sense? he’s a hard worker, thoughtful, and good with kids. kdj is the kind of guy you know would make a reliable partner, and anybody with eyes can plainly see and appreciate that. 

and it’s not that our MC’s a total brick wall. in fact, it’s likely the opposite, and he’s just too darned repressed to admit it. from what has been implied, kdj does indeed recognize and accept love, or at least a primitive concept of it. i like to imagine that the kind of love that he ends up seeking out simply manifests itself more easily as acceptance and safety, as warmth and a home of people to return to every day. even better, the people who surround him know this, and they give him exactly that. it’s refreshing, and honestly, really sweet.

(as a side note, i really, really do appreciate the cosmic bi energy radiating off of kdj, who canonically earns the title of being loved by all and is all but in name married to yjh and hsy. he also respects women and small children and honestly anyone who isn’t total scum to him or his family. i respect that.)

but the happy stuff aside, you know it it just ain’t ORV without the generous screaming dollop of angst. admittedly, there’s self-sacrifice, injury, lonesome wandering, more sacrifice, some epic fighting, reunion and confrontation. all of it is a lot to digest, sure, but never does it feel entirely hopeless, or truly, truly heart-clenching. ORV, up until the final act, is a mostly light read. you relax in your chair, thinking that nothing beyond this point can disturb you. 

yeah fucking right.

------

and then the beginning of the end arrives. when the squad finally break through to their ‘ending’, the scene that kind of breaks me is the reveal of the Most Ancient Dream. it ties so much thematically into the little tidbits that we get of kdj’s past, and it though it feels like almost a joke that the source of the goddamn apocalypse is a kid with bruises smeared across his skinny ass body -- it’s such a pathetic picture that it’s kinda poetic, actually. you’re left mystified but somewhat convinced, like a math problem explained halfway through. this.. child.. is a villain somehow, isn’t he?

and then 999th turn uriel speaks up, and she. just. hugs him. 

[[You are this universe’s most powerless existence, aren’t you.]] 

that. that gets me. kdj’s reaction immediately upon this revelation? absolute murder. seeing him essentially self-destruct upon realizing that all these people he’s surrounded himself with -- some who continuously proclaim their loyalty and affection for him throughout their journey, some who suffered eons of war and loss and trauma because of his existence -- not only forgive his younger self but smother him with unconditional acceptance and love is stifling, is too vulnerable and exposed and he simply can’t cope -- it’s so telling of his true mentality, of his crippling insecurity and crumpled sense of self-worth. kim dokja is a liar, through and through, so much that he fails, or perhaps refuses, to comprehend the veracity of others’ kindness and love towards himself. 

by some miracle, the events at the end of the world somehow resolve.. or so it seems. there is a departing train, a liberated team of ex-gods, and a child rousing from his slumber. in the aftermath, i am left shaking. somehow, despite the ending having been (happily?) reached, there’s still another chapter ahead. what is this witchcraft?

------

and then ah, yes -- the epilogue arc. i teetered on the edge of being critical for a little bit there -- is that display of deus ex machina, of sad, self-sacrificing nobility a bit too egregious to be acceptable? is this some wild last let-me-yank-this-outta-my-ass plot twist to drag out the chapter count? i sincerely thought that the arc before it would have been the finale. i was wrong. thank god.

anyways, as an answer to the above: no, and no. i stake my firm claim on the belief that the epilogue arc was meticulously planned out well in advance of its release, confusing and time-warpy as it is. i liked it. tremendously. even if it entirely invalidates all of kdj’s supposed development (”haha lol yeah sure i won’t sacrifice myself or anything anymore guys don’t worry about me” -- KDJ, at some point because he’s a lying rat bastard). actually, our beloved MC disappears for a large chunk of this arc, and i think it’s great. in his absence, the other characters not only go absolutely fucking nuts, but they have to figure out this new problem on their own, even if the lure of peaceful complacency in the newly saved Korea might convince them otherwise. 

and then the whole time paradox thing comes around. yjh goes to space, hsy saves the only life she can, and kdj grows up. the crew waits, holding onto their hope even if it bleeds them dry. sing-shong does a damn good job of illustrating their fraying calm, their lurking madness, the unseen but pervasive depression that seeps in from kdj’s absence. the kids lose their father, lhs and jhw lose their reliable leader figure, ysa loses a best friend and confidant, lsk -- as distant as she pretends to be from her son -- loses her only child. and then there’s hsy and yjh , who are essentially bereft of the other half of their existences. their pain is palpable, is grounded in the hopeless, gnawing frustration of an utterly meaningless victory. emotionally, ORV hits all the right -- if agonizing -- beats.

however, a story can’t sustain itself just through its pathos. i’m happy to say that ORV doesn’t drop the ball after the first milestone, and after all the hurt, the characters do leap straight back into action. even better, the plot holes actually do get patches, and the poetic cycle of writer, protagonist, and reader comes full circle by making use of all those supposedly throwaway characters from the myriad world lines. 

at the end of the road, there is a distinct sense of unity, of a delicate but undeniable cohesion to the world lines and their origins. sing-shong lets us guess a little here at the finish, but there’s just enough information to feel hopeful. maybe there never had been a definite start -- or finish -- to the story of kdj company, and... that’s okay. everybody ends up where they were meant to be, where they fought and struggled to reach. it’s.. almost like a happily ever after, if we’re allowed to dream of that.

------

now, i realize, this was all an orchestrated maneuver.

i’ll take it.

to me, all of this work sounds like someone put some serious thought into this behemoth of a plot. it cements the entire original premise of the story. it suggests -- but never explicitly confirms! -- the possibility that breaking free of the cycle is possible through the exact same system that sustains it. it’s terribly interesting -- and inspirational! with all the dramatic revelations and life-threatening scenarios  and the cast’s resigned acceptance of them that essentially make up ORV’s entire mood, there’s still that last hint of rebellious and righteous anger that lights up the whole damn nebula. it’s like the kdj company blasting away at the heavens just to yell into the nether: we’re not looking for the happy end, but the free one. stay alive.

it’s subtle, and yet it’s such an emotional gut punch. i came away with the most ruinous, frustrating, bittersweet sense of longing in ages. i pined. for these fictional darlings. god, i am weak.

so. yeah. ORV is pretty good. flawed, but ambitious and impressively thought out.  i’m stoked that the webtoon is making pretty good progress, even if it’ll take an eternity and a half to meet that monstrous chapter count. i’m still gonna follow it. hell yeah. 

------

(by the way the idea that secretive plotter and co are literally gonna take care of and raise baby kdj and spoil him and be the best friggin family a kid could ever want does things to me. protect him. he’s suffered too much. let at least one worldline’s version of him know happiness. and actually, aLL OF THEM DESERVE DOMESTIC BLISS TOGETHER IN A BIG OL MANSION WITH SUN AND FRESH AIR AND TENDER FAMILY MOMENTS UGH)

------

and there you have it, folks. you made it to the end. in the far, far distance, i’m cheering you on and crying my eyes out in gratitude. thanks for tuning in!

[tuiyla]

A Definitive History of Bubbline

With “Obsidian” coming out in two days, it really is time for a definitive history of Marceline and Bubblegum’s relationship. And by that I mean the tumultuous road that led us to “Obsidian” from a production and fandom point of view. For a list of Bubbline episodes, check out my Bubbline Guide (and part two) - which I need to update, I know I know. For this post, I wanted to highlight how far this pairing has come and what Bubbline means to queer representation in children’s cartoons.

This is less of an analysis and more of an overview with links to more information on specific incidents to keep it (relatively) brief. I say it’s a definitive history but it isn’t an exhaustive one, so do check out the links included to learn more about how we got here. I realize not everyone cares about these kinds of things but I think it’s important to know how hard Adventure Time’s creators had to fight. Bubbline is a pioneer ship in many ways but it doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves.

Initial Concepts

As is the case with much of Adventure Time, the initial concept of who the characters of Bonnibel and Marceline were going to be is very different than what we ended up getting. @gunterfan1992 explores this and other production tidbits in depth in his book so I do recommend checking that out. The short version is that these two were created to be opposites and with a Betty and Veronica type dynamic in mind where they would both be love interest to the protagonist, Finn.

This didn’t quite end up being the case but remnants of this concept are seen in “Go With Me” (March, 2011), the episode with the first on-screen Bubbline interaction. As Marcy helps - and sabotages - Finn in asking Bonnie out, she also becomes a potential love interest for him but she shuts him down immediately. So while Finn’s crush on PB continues, the notion that Marceline would be part of a love triangle is dismissed. Instead, this first Bonnie and Marcy interaction established that the two already know each other and there’s some bitterness in that past.

“What Was Missing” and the Mathematical Controversy

A potential preexisting relationship between the two was further explored in “What Was Missing” (September 2011) just a season later. The episode was written and storyboarded by Rebecca Sugar and eventual showrunner Adam Muto. Sugar was responsible for much of the character depth added to Marceline and later even played, quite aptly, her mother in the Stakes miniseries. It was Sugar who wrote the now beyond iconic “I’m Just Your Problem” based on personal experiences and suggested that Marcy and Bonnie be queer characters with a complicated romantic past.

“What Was Missing” was hugely important in how it hinted at a complex relationship through character interactions, Marceline’s song, and the last scene twist with PB’s shirt. The AT crew were supportive of the idea and sneaked in plenty of queer subtext, but this is where I have to point out that 2011 was a very different time and it’s thanks, in part, to Bubbline that things have changed. Autostraddle’s article from back when covers what is now known as the Mathematical controversy. Audiences picked up on the subtext and Cartoon Network was not having it. The popularity of the ship soared but the execs were not taking to queer implications kindly.

Great Bubbline Drought

So, the ship has sailed but controversy looms over it. “What Was Missing” s subtle by today’s standards but it was enough to keep Marceline and Bubblegum apart for two years on-screen. Each character went through wonderful development in the meantime, as did the show itself, but there’s a certain sense of bitterness to what came to be known as the Great Bubbline Drought. CN got so afraid of the potential backlash that they waited two years to have a new episode featuring the pair, “Sky Witch” (July 2013), by which point Sugar had left AT to work on her own show, Steven Universe. I’m happy that Sugar got to create her own show and push for even more queer representation, but it’s also sad that she never got to write more for the ship she pioneered.

“Sky Witch” still happened, though, and featured even more subtext, from PB’s side this time around. The shirt returned and there was hope as Marcy and Bonnie were seen hanging out together more often (”Red Starved” and “Princess Day”). Another controversy threatened to emerge in August 2014 when Olivia Olson, Marceline’s voice actress said that creator Pendleton Ward had confirmed a pre-show Bubbline romance. It was a messy ordeal with deleted tweets and questions about whether the two could get together again in the series. Fortunately, though, things changed in the three years between 2011 to 2014 and another Bubbline drought didn’t follow.

The Season That Changed Everything

It took another two years after “Sky Witch” but the ball was finally, inevitably, relentlessly rolling. “Varmints” premiered in November 2015 and three episodes later, the Stakes miniseries kicked off. What season 7 meant wasn’t just breadcrumbs and (not so) subtle songs anymore: suddenly, there were too many Bubbline moments to count. “Varmints” served as a follow-up to “What Was Missing” and a final reconciliation, and though Stakes was primarily about Marcy, it also developed her relationship with Bonnie. Afterwards, it became clear that Bubbline was heading somewhere.

It’s worth noting that the cultural context also changed between when “Sky Witch” and “Varmints” aired. In December 2014, The Legend of Korra ended with Korra and Asami beginning their romantic relationship, and Rebecca Sugar was making Steven Universe more and more explicitly queer by the day. Adventure Time started the ball rolling but now it wasn’t alone as a popular Western cable cartoon with queer characters. However, Bubbline was still very much subtext at this point, just with significantly more hope of becoming more.

Late Series Entanglement

But at what point does subtext become plain text? Bubbline fans sure did have fun with that question between Stakes and the finale. Bonnie and Marcy became near inseparable, with most of their major appearances involving one another from this point on. These included the meet the adoptive dad date “Broke His Crown” (March 2016), the Elements miniseries (April 2017) and the nigh on obnoxiously on the nose “Marcy & Hunson” (December 2017). In fact, all but two of Marceline’s major appearances from season 7 on included Bonnie - the exceptions being “Everything Stays” as part of Stakes, and “Ketchup”, which really wasn’t any less gay.

Bubbline moments really did become too many to count, with the vast majority of them having romantic implications. And with queer representation becoming more and more prominent in Western animation, canon Bubbline romance seemed like a question of when rather than if. I’d like to point out here how this was often frustrating, though. After the very rocky start, this relationship was thriving and was really basically confirmed, but that last little push to make it undeniably a part of queer history was still needed.

“Come on!” - The End and Beyond

The almost three years that passed between Stakes and “Come Along With Me” (September 2018) were much more tolerable than the Drought; after all, there was plenty of Bubbline content in the later seasons. The big question as the finale came was whether Adventure Time would fizzle out on its early pioneer of a wlw ship or follow through, once and for all. Almost four years after LoK ended and just before season 1 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power dropped, Marcy and Bonnie had an emotional moment, kissed on screen, and ended the series together.

The intricacies of why a kiss was needed as a signifier of romance is a discussion for another day. But wouldn’t it have been strange after almost a decade of build-up for them not to seal the deal with a kiss? And to think it almost didn’t happen, as by that point it was so obvious they were together. Again, I direct your attention towards Paul Thomas’s book, he explains how it was storyboard artist Hanna K. Nyström’s call to add this final detail. Because, come on! Sometimes, you need to be as clear as possible, and that’s the case with queer representation in animation.

Since the finale, the comics have been continuing the Bubbline train - which are not technically canon but one can have fun regardless. In any case, the existence of Marcy and Bonnie’s relationship, of their queer identities, is not something that can reasonably be denied. It was a long road, and, make no mistake, an arduous one, but this is the story of a win. A win for storytelling and a win for wlw relationships.

We’ll Build Our Own Forever

So, there you have it, a Bubbline timeline of sorts. In March of 2011 we had the first on-screen interaction and now, in November of 2020, we’re getting a 45-minute-long special with the two of them as the central characters. They’re canonically in love, with King Princess covers of Bubbline songs and more. I tried to contain myself, for once, and not write too much. I think it’s important that people have a general idea of just how monumental all of this is and how, even just 9 years ago, “Obsidian” would have been totally inconceivable.

Some of this might have come as a surprise to you. It’s certainly not been easy to get to where we are now with Bubbline and it’s yet to be seen how open “Obsidian” will be about the relationship. I’ve been talking about Bubbline for years and attempted to chronicle their relationship many times so I’m happy I’ve finally done it from this perspective as well.

Adventure Time: Distant Lands “Obsidian” is streaming on Nov 19 on HBO Max. If you can, stream it so we can show that there’s popular demand for stories like that of an angry vampire and a despotic piece of gum.

[mst3kproject]

The Flame Barrier

I’ve got an awful lot of movies from 1958 on my resume, don’t I?  Why is that? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. Apparently it was just a bumper year for cheap, crappy black-and-white films.  This one stars Kathleen Crowley from The Rebel Set and Rodd Redwing from The Mole People, in a movie written by George Worthing Yates, who also penned Earth vs the Spider.  Also featuring a blob from outer space, with motives even less clear than the one in The Space Children.

Over yet another stock-footage rocket launch, one of those deep-voiced 50’s narrators informs us that there’s a layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the Flame Barrier which destroys everything it touches. This particular rocket was no exception, and its crash-landing in the Mexican jungle may be related to the disappearance of explorer Howard Dalman, whose wife Carol has now come looking for him. She seeks out a pair of prospectors, Dave and Matt Hollister, to guide her to his last known location.  As they go deeper into the bush, they find they’re wandering into something unknown… something that can make men burst into flames!

This movie isn’t terrible.  It’s not great, but it’s not irredeemably awful.  It reminds me a lot of The Giant Gila Monster, in that there’s a story going on and it’s not a bad story per se, but it’s one that’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the title and premise that drew us to the film in the first place.  When the supposed main plot pops up again at the end, it makes for a sudden and jarring shift.

The Flame Barrier starts off all right.  We have the inevitable narrator to give us the backstory, and then it gets right on with meeting the characters.  They’re introduced one by one, telling us their personalities and goals: Carol is naïve and spoiled but she’s trying her best, Matt is a drunk fool but he’s got a good heart, and Dave is a gruff, cynical realist who loves his brother but is tired of his bullshit.  None of them are exactly nice people but you can see where they’re coming from, and they each get an arc.  Carol struggles with whether she really loved Howard, whom she barely knew, and the movie allows her to toughen up and learn how to survive in the wilderness. Dave spends much of the movie being a jerk to Carol but eventually realizes he judged her too harshly and apologizes.  Matt gets a chance to be a hero and takes it, believing that he owes it to Dave for never giving up on him.  The writing is frequently unsubtle but the actors are competent, and these little stories work just fine.

The movie that surrounds them, however, is often very sloppy.  The narrator tells us that the space probe from the opening crashed because ‘it unexpectedly lost its gravitational force’.  What?  What is that supposed to even mean?  The narrator also tells us it’s been six months since Howard disappeared, then mere minutes later Carol says it’s been four. There’s a bit where Carol is menaced by an iguana… the creature is never actually in the shot with her, so they couldn’t find anything scarier?  The stock wildlife footage on their trek through the soundstage sets of Central America includes hyenas.  I can hear Crow saying, “boy, are we in Afri… wait a minute…”  And, pet peeve, they describe a snake as poisonous instead of venomous.

This being a jungle movie, obviously there are ‘natives’.  I think most of these are actual Mexicans, although Wikipedia says Rodd Redwing may have been from India (if so, I like to think his entire career in Westerns was based on just walking into casting directors’ offices and announcing he was ‘an Indian’, and letting them draw their own conclusions).  Being as this is a movie from the fifties, the natives are there largely to provide a body count – white people aren’t allowed to die until the climax.  To its credit, The Flame Barrier mostly (though not entirely) avoids the trope where the natives have interpreted the mysterious happenings as supernatural, leading the white characters to scoff at the whole thing.  There is some of this, but Dave clearly knows these people well and respects their culture and their warnings.

Then there’s the love story.  Obviously this is a movie, so Carol’s gotta fall for one or other of these idiots, but neither of the Hollister brothers is a good choice. Matt is sweet to her but he’s also a useless drunk who only has a job because his brother puts up with him.  Dave spends eighty percent of the movie being an asshole and I have no idea what Carol sees in him.  At least the two men never fight over her.  I guess the love affair is important to the plot, because it spurs the party on to finish their search for the missing Howard Dalman despite the odds being stacked against them… but that basically boils down to Carol and Dave needing to be sure she’s a widow before they can bone.

After all this messing around in the jungle, with the run time half over we get to the plot, and the movie changes gears with an almost audible ka-chunk.  Now we’ve got this space blob sitting in a cave (how did it get in there when it’s still attached to the rocket?) doubling in size every two hours, which must be destroyed before it can consume the entire earth!  Suddenly we have a laboratory, because all the scientific equipment Howard brought with him is still in perfect condition despite having been sitting in the jungle for either four or six months.  Suddenly Dave the rugged survivalist is a scientist and mathematician.  It’s like they took the same actors and sets and started trying to make a totally different movie.

Honestly, I think this is more or less what happened. I think the multiplying space blob was the movie somebody originally wanted to make – it starts out as a tiny thing in a test tube, growing bigger and bigger until it consumes the whole building and will destroy the entire city if it isn’t stopped!  That sounds like a pretty fun 50’s sci-fi movie in itself. It also, however, sounds like an expensive 50’s sci-fi movie, needing miniatures destroyed and screaming extras and other stuff The Flame Barrier just didn’t have the money for. Hence the need to spend so much time wandering around in the jungle swapping tragic backstories before the characters are allowed to get to that point.

The unfortunate thing about this is that the movie doesn’t really have time to get into the nature of its alien.  In Spacemaster X-7, the Blood Rust was offscreen much of the time but we still had a good idea of what it was and of its capabilities, and the explanations we were given made a reasonable amount of sense.  In The Flame Barrier, we’ve got this blob that apparently lives in the rarified and super-hot outer atmosphere (the writers seem to have confused Earth’s atmosphere with the Sun’s corona), but can also survive on the ground… and its effects are all over the place. Sometimes when things get too close to it, they’re just electrocuted and disintegrated, as happens to the rocket’s original passenger, a very young chimpanzee.  Sometimes people get horribly burned and then burst into flames and are reduced to skeletons hours or days later, as keeps happening to the natives. And then there’s Howard, who somehow managed to get close enough to be swallowed up by the thing and his corpse is still completely intact inside it.

None of this makes any sense.  If the blob has that protective electrocution barrier that the humans must be so careful to avoid, how did Howard get close enough to be trapped in it?  How did the chimp get out to end up wandering around in the jungle?  What the heck is happening to the natives who get burned and then skeletonized and why doesn’t that ever happen to the chimp or any of the main characters?  And how do they manage to kill by electrocution a creature that uses lethal amounts of electricity without any harm to itself?  ‘It’s an alien – we don’t understand it’ can cover a multitude of sins in movie writing, but the blob’s random effects don’t even feel like they could potentially make sense.

The Flame Barrier reminds me of other MST3K movies, too. Prominent among them are It Conquered the World and The Crawling Hand, both of which ended on the same unintentionally depressing note: they suggest that the dangers of going into space are so great that humans will never be able to overcome them.  It Conquered the World tells us that there are eight more Venusians just waiting for their own turn to invade.  The Crawling Hand says that exposure to outer space causes mutations that will turn astronauts into mindless murderers.  The Flame Barrier posits that not only is space itself deadly, but is also full of deadly creatures, and the only way to avoid them is to stay on the ground.

This has always interested me because movies like this stand alongside things like the tales of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!, in which humans have an exciting future among the stars. Stories set in space can be about either the exhilaration of discovery or the terror of the unknown, and this dichotomy seems to be as old as science fiction – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered the first work of proper sci-fi, and it encompasses both.  Frankenstein tells us that if we let our fear over-rule our curiosity, we’ll miss out on something potentially wonderful.  Movies like The Flame Barrier, and even modern space monster flicks like Alien, seem to say the opposite, that we shouldn’t meddle with the unknown at all.

This movie was kind of a compromise on my part.  I’ve had a lot on my plate lately and I picked The Flame Barrier as a movie that was kinda stupid but wouldn’t be either a test of my endurance or particularly challenging to write about.  I’m hoping to have something a little juicier for you next time.

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Lilith and the Midnight Sons Explained

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While we’ve heard rumors about a Marvel game being developed by the XCOM team at Firaxis, nothing could have quite prepared us for the official reveal of Midnight Suns at Gamescom 2021.

The fact that Midnight Suns isn’t really an XCOM-style game may be the talking point that ends up defining the early conversation about this project, but the first thing that will probably jump out at you about this game is its name. Who or what are the Midnight Suns? Why are they seemingly so concerned about a character named Lilith? Who is the mysterious hero that is so prominently featured in the game’s debut trailer?

While many elements of this game might remain a mystery until the project’s currently scheduled March 2022 release date, here are a few of the answers to the burning questions you probably have about Midnight Suns‘ lore and Marvel ties.

Who are the Midnight Sons?

The Midnight Sons is a somewhat odd group of Marvel superheroes who first appeared in 1992’s Ghost Rider (Vol. 2) Issue #28. They went on to star in a few big events (most notably the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” arc) and would occasionally appear in crossover titles featuring members of the group and associated characters. The original version of the group was essentially disbanded during the mid-90s, but a different version of the Midnight Sons later appeared in the Marvel Zombies series.

The Midnight Sons were formed by Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze after they learned that Lilith (more on her in a bit) was being resurrected and intended to use her incredible demonic abilities to (you guessed it) take over the Earth. It’s honestly a relatively obscure storyline by Marvel standards (especially if we’re talking about storylines that have or are about to receive a pretty significant adaptation), but the story has developed a cult following over the years largely due to its somewhat strange collection of heroes as well as its supernatural style and dark tones.

Actually, Midnight Sons’ supernatural elements may be the group/story’s defining trait. It really seems like the entire Midnight Sons concept was Marvel’s most concentrated attempt at emphasizing the supernatural elements of their universe. While the group and their adventures didn’t last long, it’s hard to deny that the idea of focusing on that sometimes overlooked supernatural side of the Marvel multiverse is fascinating.

Why is the Game Called Midnight Suns and not Midnight Sons?

This really seems to be one of the biggest non-gameplay questions about Midnight Suns that people have at the moment, which makes it that much more frustrating that we don’t currently have a definitive answer to it. While the Midnight Suns team is starting to share details about the upcoming game (and more information is on the way), this is one of the elements of the project that they’re clearly keeping under wraps.

However, it is very much worth noting that Midnight Suns‘ creative director Jake Solomon has said that Marvel approached developer Firaxis with the vague idea of partnering up and Solomon chose the Midnight Sons group/storyline due to his fondness for that series and his desire to focus on some of Marvel’s supernatural characters.

So far, it certainly seems like Marvel has given Firaxis permission to essentially create their own universe (as well as a new character to star in it) much like Insomniac did with Marvel’s Spider-Man and Square Enix is currently doing with Marvel’s Avengers. That tends to suggest that the Midnight Suns name is a reflection of the ways that this game will differ from the original Midnight Sons stories, but we’ll likely have to wait until closer to the game’s release date for a more definitive explanation of the difference between the names.

Which Superheroes Are On the Midnight Suns Roster?

It sounds like Midnight Suns will eventually feature 12-13 playable heroes, but these are the members of the game’s roster that have been confirmed so far:

Ghost Rider

Dr. Strange

Iron Man

Wolverine

Captain America

Magik

Nico

Captain Marvel

Blade

The Hunter

If the name “The Hunter” doesn’t ring any bells, that’s because they’re the player character that Firaxis created specifically for the purposes of this game (with Marvel’s approval). Otherwise, you’ll likely be at least vaguely familiar with most of the other names on this roster.

Interestingly, though, few of those heroes ever officially joined or assisted the Midnight Sons in the comics. While Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, and Blade were all key members of the group at one point, it seems like Firaxis decided to bring in Captain Marvel, Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man to give the group a little more star power.

Actually, it sounds like one of the main internal conflicts in the game will be the tension between some of the bigger stars on the Midnight Suns roster and a few of the less famous members of the group. They’ll all interact in a shared hub world called The Abbey that players will be able to explore as The Hunter. It even sounds like you’ll be able to give characters gifts and learn more about them, which kind of reminds me of a similar system featured in Hades.

Who is Lilith?

There are actually two major characters named Lilith in the Marvel Comics multiverse: one who is Dracula’s daughter and one is known as the “Mother of All Demons.” The Lilith featured in Midnight Suns is the latter (though the former would have also made sense given the name and supernatural vibes).

Here’s how Firaxis describes Lilith’s role in the game:

“Through a twisted marriage of magic and science, the nefarious force known as Hydra has revived Lilith, Mother of Demons, after centuries of slumber. Lilith will stop at nothing to complete an ancient prophecy and summon her evil master, Chthon. Pushed to the brink, the Avengers desperately look to fight fire with Hellfire by enlisting the help of the Midnight Suns – Nico Minoru, Blade, Magik, and Ghost Rider – young heroes with powers deeply rooted in the supernatural, formed to prevent the very prophecy Lilith aims to fulfill. Together, they resurrect an ancient warrior – the Hunter, Lilith’s forsaken child and the only hero known to have ever defeated her.”

It certainly sounds like Lilith’s role in Midnight Suns will be relatively similar to her role in Midnight Sons (she’s still an incredibly powerful figure whose resurrection threatens the world), but the small differences in the details are fascinating. For instance, Hydra wasn’t really a major player in the original Midnight Sons comics, and that description makes a clear distinction between the new Midnight Suns group and The Avengers (The Runaways will also apparently be featured in the game). That seems to help explain the lore behind the game’s initially odd roster and might even help explain why this game isn’t simply using the Midnight Sons name.

It’s also certainly interesting to see the name Chthon mentioned in the game’s official plot. The ancient entity seems to be the game’s true “biggest bad,” though it should be said that it sounds like Lilith will still be the star of the show and the more than capable foe that you’ll spend most of your time opposing.

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The post Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Lilith and the Midnight Sons Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #333

“imaginary chain  /  the one you never break  /  seething all alone”

Do you have any fears you would rarely admit to anyone? Nah, I'm pretty open about what I'm afraid of. What website do you spend most of your time on? YouTube. What class in high school did you struggle with the most? I honestly don't remember with certainty, but it was probably math or economics. At least, I think econ was my senior year. What could you talk about for hours? Mark, meerkats, a few game franchises... maybe a couple more topics. Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? I wouldn't know. Do you salt your popcorn? Yes. Do you have a Steam account? Yeah, but I don't have many games on there and rarely touch the ones I do. Do you like gaming? I do, but not as much as I did for most of my life. I mostly just play WoW now, and even that I'm not that into anymore. Part of it though comes from not buying any new games that I'm interested in because 1.) no money and 2.) no proper console, and you can only replay games so many times before you're just... yeah, done. Do you like reading books? Some days. Do you like religion? All things considered? No. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Y'know, growing up, I actually liked watching my younger neighbor play one of those games, but I don't remember which. Though he never actually "played" it... just ran around wreaking havoc, lol. I do however think GTAV was the one that Jason and Jacob started playing together when we moved into the apartment, and I thought the story was okay; I don't think they ever got far into it, though. Definitely wasn't Jason's sort of game, and I don't think it was too much up Jacob's alley, either. Can you twerk? I haven't tried and you will never see me try either, lmao. Do you have a Spotify account? Yes, but I almost never use it. If the last person you kissed tried to kiss you again, would you start kissing them back? Yes. If your best friend of the opposite sex tried to kiss you, would you start kissing them back? No. Have you ever kissed someone who has previously kissed someone you hated? Yes, because of how badly she hurt him. I don't have any negative feelings towards her now, though. We're actually friends, haha. The irony. Are you an easy lay? What weird wording. But whatever, quite the polar opposite actually. When’s the last time you said you were sorry? A few days ago. Are there any songs you listen to everyday? No. Would you like living on the coast? As someone who lives in a state hit by hurricanes usually every year and has seen the incredible damage they usually bring to the coast, no. I don't like the smell or gritty feel of salty air, either. When’s the last time you were really late to something? No idea. That's usually not a problem with me. Why did you stop liking the last person you liked? The last person I actually stopped like-liking would be Girt, and that would be because I just came to the realization I saw him too much as my brother instead of boyfriend. It just always felt awkward. Do you still talk to that person? Yeah, we're good. No hard feelings or anything between us. Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth? No. Do you trust easily? Fuck no. I'll be cautious, at least to some degree, about new people for a while. What is the last song to make you cry? Since I've actually behaved and not listened to any trigger songs, it's been a long while, but it was probably "Another Life" by Motionless In White. Last person you hung up on? I'm sure some automated message. I barely ever answer the phone to numbers I don't recognize, though. Where was your last car ride to and from? To Wal-Mart w/ Mom to pick up our order and then back home. Next big outing? *shrug* Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? Not really, no. Considering I'm by far my most authentic self online, I actually tend to appreciate virtual friends more, if I'm being honest. I try to keep up with those people. Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? Not really, no. I think I saw Warcraft the day it came into theaters, though. Do movies often make you cry? What kind of films/scenes make you tear up most? Yep. Tragic romance tends to do it the most, I think. Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? I have one to track my menstrual cycle as well as another that tracks my daily caloric intake, but I'm bad at using it because it's tedious if I actually have to measure something. Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? Ummm if you mean like, in general, probably my mom's. But this most certainly depends on the subject I'm taking feedback on. What is something society "expects" you to do that you don't want to do and/or don't plan on doing? Shaving my legs came to mind first. Granted, I will if there is almost any chance of someone seeing them, but otherwise, I just don't care. We respect women with body hair on this account and see them as no less feminine. Are you interested in architecture? Is there any particular style that you're drawn to? I think it's cool, yeah. I should have an answer for this, given architecture was a massive focus in Art History the last time I was in school... Roman architecture comes to my head first, if that says anything. What was one of your favorite things from the nineties? BOY OH BOY, SO MUCH!! I'm probably gonna say the toys. There was some dope shit, man. Do you collect things pertaining to an animal? ANYTHING and EVERYTHING featuring a meerkat!!!!! :''') Do you wish that people were kinder to spiders? Well, yes. I hope everyone in their heart wishes this, even if they're afraid of them. They're very important to our ecosystem, and none are out there to harm us; their existence does us a favor. Where do you normally order pizza from? Domino's (my favorite) or LIttle Caesar's for the price. Did your parents keep anything of yours from when you were a baby? Oh yes, loads of stuff that's stored away somewhere. Do you own one of those "____ For Dummies" books? No, but I feel like we had one at some point? What was the last VHS tape that you watched? Yikes, who knows. Did you watch Boy Meets World back in the day? I actually didn't, no. Our old neighbor though loved it so much that she named her daughter Tapanga (deliberately spelled that way). Who is your favorite Scooby Doo character? I never really had one. Maybe Thelma. If I were to give you a coloring book, what would you want its theme to be? Animals. Have you ever won a stuffed animal at a carnival? Possibly a small one. I can tell you I did however accidentally stab the guy who ran the dart-throwing booth though, lmfao. He was obviously fine, and it wasn't a bad wound. I felt SOOOOOO bad. Are you a fan of narwhals? I'm a fan of any animal. Narwhals are definitely fascinating creatures. Grape or orange soda? Orange. Grape-flavored soda ain't my thing. Have you ever wanted to vlog? Noooo. My life is so painstakingly boring and repetitive. Did you have a favorite Disney movie as a child? It was and still is The Lion King. Do you or have you ever owned a portable gaming console? Yeah, a GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Is shyness cute? It definitely can be. Have you ever had alcohol poisoning before? No. Do you like to gossip, or do you prefer to keep your mouth shut? I'm not a gossip fan. Have you ever vandalized someone else’s property before? Most definitely not. Are your parents divorced? Yes. Have you ever been under suicide watch for 72 hours in a psychiatric ward? Yes; at least here, that's protocol when you're admitted for suicidal thoughts/tendencies. Have you ever gone through your significant other’s phone or social media accounts, or do you respect their privacy? Absolutely not. That shit pisses me off so badly. Do you wear any sort of clothing for religious reasons? No. What's something you worked extremely hard to get? My sanity back. Sounds so dramatic, but I'm literally not kidding. Have you ever been labeled negatively or otherwise been called something extremely derogatory? Not that I remember. How many kids do you want to have? I don't want kids, but to entertain the question, when I did, I wanted three. It's fuckin wild to imagine for even a second that I once wanted that. Do you believe that being gay is a sin? *eye roll* Are you any good at photography? If so, what’s your specialty? I mean it with modesty, but I think I'm pretty good. My favorite thing to photograph are animals, but I generally take most pictures of people by request or pay. Judging by my deviantART account, my nature pics definitely get the most attention. Have you ever been a member of a gang before? Fuckin yikes, no. An infamous gang tried breaking into my childhood home once, so you can probably gather that I would never take part in their "big bad guys" bullshit. Have you ever felt like you were neither male nor female? No, I'm comfortable as a cisgender female. Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies? NO. Anything with raisins = NO. Do you think you’re attractive? No. Has a teacher ever caught and read a note you were passing in class? No, not that I really passed notes to begin with. I'd be mortified, regardless of what it was about. Would you rather live in a tropical or arctic climate? Arctic. Do you have an older brother? Yes. He's technically my half-brother, but I don't see "half"s. Have either of your parents ever been to jail? No. Are your collarbones prominent? Bitch I wish so I could get the damn dermal piercings I've wanted for years. Have you ever in your life worn overalls? As a kid, yeah. So ugly. Do you love yourself? It's... weird. Therapy is making me realize that a part of me, maybe even the bigger one, doesn't, but at the exact same time, I know I have worth just like every other human. I just don't treat myself like I do. What TV shows do you keep up with? None, until Meerkat Manor returns this summer. :') When’s the last time it snowed where you live? A couple months ago we got a little bit of it. Is your belly button pierced? No, but it would be if I was actually skinny. Just in my personal opinion, I don't at all think that that piercing would look nice on someone as overweight as me. Even if my damn dreams come true and I lose all the weight I want, my stomach will never look "normal," even after I get the excess skin removal surgery that will be very high on my priority list for my own self-image that's been nothing but loathsome since 2016. What is your favourite dinosaur? Spinosaurus is the obvious answer. What do you remember the most about your childhood? Lots of imagination. Parents arguing. Playing with my little sister. What age did you get your first hair cut? I have no idea. Do you have a favourite toy from childhood still? No. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it. Have you ever made bread? No. Would you ever consider shaving your head? Nah. Would you like to live in a realm where the zombie apocalypse is possible? Who says we don't now? Zombifying parasites already exist among insects and such, so like... it's not unimaginable to one day see one developed enough to infect humans. I sure as fuck hope not, but. What do you use to dry your clothes? (Tumble dryer, radiator, etc) We have a dryer. Do you ever play the built-in games on your computer? Which ones? Nah. What was the last spontaneous thing you did? I did this many, many months ago, but I guess watch an episode of The Witcher by my own volition. I don't really do spontaneous things with how routine I am, but I had a random urge to check it out one morning. How loud can you whistle? Not very loud at all. Does anything on your body hurt or itch right now? My knees really hurt. They're getting worse. When was the last time you built a sandcastle? There's noooo telling, it's been many years. Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull? No. Well, not a *real* one, anyway. Just the little ones for kids. If you had to appear on a game show, which one would you choose? Family Feud. What is your favorite hot beverage? Hot chocolate. Do you have an alter ego? Describe them: No. Food: Are you adventurous or do you stick to what you know? I absolutely stick to what I know. I am SO picky. Is there anything (out of the obvious) that makes you feel really ill? I'm not immediately sure, but there's probably something. Do you bump into things often? Yes. I've always had this weird habit of like... drifting when I walk, so I do this easily. I just kinda wander to the sides a bit without realizing it. What design is on your calendar this year? I don't have a current one. Did you enjoy playing Hop Scotch when you were younger? I did. Do you feel uncomfortable going to the movies by yourself? Nah, not really. I did that with Warcraft and it was actually pretty chill. When thinking about your dream home, what do you think would be your favorite thing to shop for? The ~g o t h i c~ decor. Do you ever listen to those lo-fi hip hop/study music playlists on YouTube/Spotify? No. Are you likelier to work harder if you’re being paid? If not, what drives you to give your best effort? I mean, yeah. I'd assume that's pretty normal. Does the fashion sense of a potential partner matter to you? No. Is there anything that you prefer to write down rather than type? I'm unsure. If you download/torrent things, do you remember the first thing you ever torrented? Oh, the Limewire days of music pirating... but no, I don't remember. What was the last thing you posted on Instagram? Something photography-related, but I don't feel like checking. What do you wish your hair looked like? I wish I could pull off pastel pink hair rn. It also desperately needs a trim. Do you still feel anything for the first person you fell in love with? I'm sure I always will, at least a little. Do you get any magazines in the mail? No. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? Uhhhhh have I? I don't think so. Who’d you last see in a tux? Probably the groom of the last wedding I shot. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? No, but I used to do that big time because I loved "rewatching" stuff when I was on the computer. Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? My mother, big time. Who’s the bravest person you know? Also my mother. Or Sara. What profession do you admire the most? Teachers might just win. The patience that must take, among so many other things. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? No.

[365days365movies]

January 2, 2021: Mission: Impossible (Epilogue)

Now, after all of that, I have my opinions about the movie, but I think we need to talk about the franchise first. Not the franchise that came after, but the one that came before. You might have wondered why I was so absolutely pissed about the whole Jim Phelps thing. Well, I’ll explain. Because, while this might not be the worst action movie of all time or anything, MAN, is it a contender for the worst adaptation of all time.

So, without further adieu, let’s talk about:

Jim Phelps

Poor, poor Peter Graves. You may know him from the film Airplane!, as the pilot of the plane, Captain Oveur. But, one of his most iconic roles on TV was as Jim Phelps, the director of IMF from seasons 2 to 7 of the 1966 series, and in the 1988 revival. Phelps was not only the leader of the group, but one of its most prominent and versatile members. Because of this, he’s arguably the most notable person involved in the IMF, and a faithful member, always taking on impossible missions for the greater good.

So, you can imagine how absolutely pissed off the 1996 film made fans of the original, the cast of the original, and Peter Graves himself, when the writers decided to make Jim a straight-up villain, and brought in no other members of the original team. It should be noted that this movie is indeed intended to be a continuation of the original series and its revival. And yes, Peter Graves was asked to reprise his role as Jim Phelps, but turned it down when he found out that Jim Phelps was meant to betray and MURDER IMF. Because, yeah, not cool!

Maybe this was intended to surprise people, including and especially fans of the original series, which did have quite a fanbase at the time. But this had two problems. One, by turning one of the longest lasting heroes of the franchise into a straight-up villain with a Cold War-chip on his shoulder, he immediately is acting extremely out of character as compared to the version of the character that got all of those fans together in the first place. And second, WHAT SURPRISE? As emphatically noted by me, I figured out that Phelps was the villain within the first 5 minutes of runtime. Seriously. IT WASN’T THAT HARD. 

Not to mention the fact that the original cast also hated this movie. Greg Morris, who played a character that I think Luther Stickell may be loosely based upon, literally walked out of the theater before the movie was finished, because he was reportedly “disgusted” by what they’d done to Jim. Martin Landau, another original cast member, said that the original plan was to have the entire cast come back, only to get immediately killed off so that Tom Cruise could be the only surviving IMF member, and he was very against that. He also cast shade on the script in the same interview, which is kind of funny.

So, yeah, with all of that said, this is a very bad adaptation. But is it a bad movie? Let’s go over it, shall we?

Cast and Acting

So, yeah, Cruise was Cruise again. But, he was definitely more likable as Ethan Hunt. Although, he also was a little less-defined as a character. I’d wager that that’ll be fixed in later films, but he was blander than Maverick, I’d say. Still, he wasn’t Maverick, so that’s an improvement. Voight as the main villain was...obvious. Sorry, but I’ve seen Voight not act somewhat sinister in any role. Hell, even in National Treasure, I didn’t trust him. Maybe that’s just me; Anaconda was a memorable movie from my childhood, what can I say? Emmanuelle Beart was fine, I suppose. But for me, the stars of the show were Rhames, Reno, and Redgrave. The 3 R’s dripped with charisma and energy in every scene they were in. Redgrave was regularly ravishing, Rhames was remarkably refined, and Reno was roguishly rakish. Right on.

Cast and Acting: 7/10

Plot and Writing

Well...OK, look, the writing in this film is mostly fine. And the plot is mostly (mostly) competent, but...it’s so obvious. IT IS SO OBVIOUS. Even without my Jon Voight-bias, his heel-turn is obvious within 20 minutes. Not hard to figure that out, seriously. And outside of that, this really is just a standard spy flick. It’s nothing really out of the ordinary and spectacular, at all. And that in and of itself definitely doesn’t make it a bad movie. However, it also detracts from the suspense. The significant other pointed out that this may be because I’ve seen movies that came out after this one, and that this film may have been a trope-maker. Which, yes, entirely valid point there. But even then, this film doesn’t go far enough out of the James Bond comfort zone that it’s nestled within. So, yeah, not bad, but also not spectacular. With a very predictable twist.

Plot and Writing: 5/10

Direction and Action

I just, that scene! That ending climax is amazing, seriously! I’ve put it up here in this review, chopped into GIFs, but seriously! Rewatch this scene if you haven’t seen it in a while. And if you haven’t seen this movie, I’m sorry that you’ve been spoiled, but still! Check this scene out! But outside of this scene, how was the movie? Well, first things first, the director was Brian DePalma, the director of Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and Phantom of the Paradise. When you look at his credits, he has a lot of great films under his belt, as well as some mediocre ones. But, he knows what he’s doing with this movie. While it might not bear the most stylish of directorial flourishes, it’s still a hell of a ride. And, in terms of action, this is definitely more of an action movie than Top Gun was. The movie literally cannot work without some of its most suspenseful and iconic physical sequences. Man oh MAN, it’s one hell of a ride throughout. So, yeah, this category is getting a high score. A perfect score? No. Like I said, not too many directorial flourishes that I really noticed. Excellent directing, but not 10/10.

Direction and Action: 9/10

Costume and Set Design

This was pretty good, honestly. Some character outfits stood out to me (Rhames in particular), and the set pieces that were present were great! The train-copter-Chunnel scene obviously stands out, as well as the fish tank scene in the beginning. Not much to say for this one, in truth.

Costume and Set Design: 8/10

Music

OK, so, here’s the thing about the M:I theme song. I VASTLY prefer the original version. Honestly, Danny Elfman is a competent composer and all (if not a bit overused and overexposed), but Lalo Schifrin’s song is so timeless that the update in the movie, in my opinion, actually kind of ruins the original. And given that I genuinely don’t remember most of the music in the movie outside of the theme song...yeah, this one weirdly isn’t going to get a high grade from me. All points go to Lalo Schifrin. Sorry, Danny Elfman.

Music: 5/10

And there you have it, Mission: Impossible (1996). Tallying up the scores, that’s a 34/50, leaving us with a 68%. And yeah, that sounds about right to me. Seriously, this is a by-the-books spy film, and I got exactly what I expected from it. Well, mostly. I expected a better plot and twist, and a better mystery. I got a much worse one. But I DID NOT expect the action, especially the climax. And yeah, that ending scene alone is worth the price of admission. Might make me sound shallow, but MAN, it was cool. Do I recommend this movie? I recommend scenes from this movie, at the very least. But, if you watch it, you’ll get about what you expected: a spy movie starring Tom Cruise and an obvious twist.

OK, that’s enough of Tom Cruise for one month (maybe for one year, let’s be honest). What about another iconic action film star of the ‘80s and ‘90s? I’ve seen a lot of Schwarzenegger (and the movies of his I haven’t seen will feature later this year), so...what about Stallone? Not Rocky, though; that’ll be for sports month. And First Blood is...we’ll see about First Blood. OH! Got it!

January 3, 2021: Cliffhanger

[theparanormalperiodical]

The True Story Behind The Amityville Horror (1979) And The 9 Other Times Paranormal Evidence Was Used In Court

I can hear the birds singing.

I can see a brilliant blue sky as it bathes my small Kentish town in the year’s first rays of light.

And I can feel the first thawe of February.

F*ck off winter, and hello spring!

As I sit on my bed, looking outside my window at the resurrection of the once-green landscape of my hometown, I am reminded of the true meaning of this season: life.

The mating season begins for most small, furry creatures, daffodils stand proudly as the first flower to mark their territory, and, like, there’s something about Jesus but I don’t think that had that much of an impact on the world, did it?

But I’m not the first person who was eager to turn their back on winter - the season of death - and look forward to a brighter year.

I’m sure the Lutz family, having fled their family home in mid-January, were just as ready to quash their terrifying experiences that were only darkened by the brutal winter months.

“Lutz… I know that name.”

Unless you were only until recently within a cult and decided to turn your back on Almighty Zarp Goddess Of Destruction, you’ll probably have heard that surname before. But who were they?

Well, to jog your memory, they were a small All-American family who lived in a small All-American town known as Amityville.

Yeah, there you go, now you know where I’m heading with this.

(Or you read the title of this post.)

Amityville is a town in New York which set the scene for probably the most famous haunting the world has ever witnessed. And with several families undergoing intense happenings - from murders to manic paranormal activity - this house has earned its place in the history books.

Oh, and on the big screen, too; 16 feature films have retold the story, including one film which featured Mr Pool himself, Ryan Reynolds.

So, as your favourite paranormal blogger, I thought I’d devote an article to the insanity that was Amityville, and dissect how real the reality shown in the films was for the 2 families that once lived at 112 Ocean Drive.

And I’m not stopping there.

What made this haunting so iconic was how it planted its paranormal feet into the legal system as a result of the murder case the hauntings are linked to. But the thing is, Amityville is far from alone when it comes to legal courts having to deal with the supernatural.

There are actually 9 other prominent legal cases from which the courts have had to debate and discuss the paranormal.

And I’m gon’ tell you all about ‘em.

*Bangs gavel*

Before We Get Spooky, Let’s Summarise What The Films Had To Say About This Haunting

(And they’ve got a lot to say.)

Like I said, there are 16 films that claim they document the events witnessed by the Lutz family in their short stay. No, really, they were there for less than 28 days.

From 1979 all the way up to 2017, we have a variety of films that explore what went down in that house, and, given they are horror films, we also get a few laughs along the way.

Like the 1992 classic Amityville: It’s About Time, which sounds like it might star Vin Diesel in a Fast and Furious crossover.

Or maybe how in the same year Amityville: Playhouse and Amityville: Death House hit the theatres.

And even the rendition of the Amityville Horror from which the realtor having shown the new occupants around the house died in the driveway when he attempted to leave the property!

So, to cut out that crap, I’ve decided to just recap what occurs in the 3 most popular movies of this franchise:

The Amityville Horror (1979), The Amityville Horror (2005), and Amityville: Awakening (2017).

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Sharing the same title as the book supposedly based on the real events witnessed by the Lutz family, this film was the first to share the story of the DeFeo family and the following inhabitants of the house. . The film starts by showing us the final moments of the DeFeo family, from which some bloke kills all of ‘em. From there we bear witness to a new family moving into the home.

And things get spooky quickly.

A visit from a priest gives us the first signs of the supernatural as he  experiences a variety of attacks from beyond the grave, whether its swarms of flies to a blistered hand when trying to warn Kathy, the mother of the family, about. An angry spirit then tells him to ‘get out’, triggering his complete mental breakdown.

The paranormal forces then encroach on the patriarch of the famalam - George - leaving him to split firewood to keep the constant cold at bay. Unexplained events begin to haunt the entire family:

The young daughter of the family mentions an imaginary friend, and a pig with glowing red eyes is seen by her bedroom window. The doggo then becomes cray-cray about the basement which is later revealed to conceal a small, hidden room that has red walls.

Things then get weirder. George begins to wake up at 3.15am every morning to check on the boathouse, and Kathy has nightmares which reveal details of what down in the first scene of the movie. A quick trip to the archives later, and she deduces that this house is built on a Shinnecock (Native American) burial ground, and that a satan worshipper - John Ketchum - once lived there.

If that wasn’t enough, she discovers the story of the DeFeo family, and notes that Ronald DeFeo - the murderer - looks uncomfortably similar to George.

It all comes to a head when blood oozes down the staircase and Jody (you know, the sweet adorable imaginary friend who is actually a pig) is seen through the window. Oh, and George tries to kill everyone with an axe.

Kathy brings him out of his trance, and they both get the f*ck outta the house.

We are told that they didn’t return for their belongings.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

For this modern retelling of the original film, the scenes are re-arranged, the hauntings are more minimalist, and just a dash of Ryan Reynolds is added.

And is he playing Ryan Reynolds? ‘Course.

But the major difference between the OG and this icon is that the basis for the hauntings is explored in a much more artistic and developed way:

We see the Native Americans that were supposedly tortured and killed by some guy called Ketchum, and we even see Ketchum himself! Well, for a very brief moment; he simply recreates his suicide and spews blood over Ryan Reynolds George.

This possesses him, and causes him to try and kill the rest of his family as they try to escape the house.

Kathy knocks Ryan Reynolds George out and takes him off the property to release him from Ketchum’s control.

Aside from the greater detail regarding Ketchum - that is, we discover that he was in a cult and was a reverend - we also see Jodie for the first time. No, she’s not the demonic pig we see in the first film. She’s a young creepy-ass girl instead.

What a trade!

The film ends just like the OG, with a title card explaining that they pissed off and never returned to the house. But once again, a divergence with the 1970s version is revealed. 

No, not the questionable hairstyles and cinematic style that looks like it was filmed with a toaster:

The final scene shows Jodie scream in terror inside the house as the furniture rearranges itself. She is then dragged beneath the floorboards by two hands, and the screen fades to black…

This confirms that this movie - alongside the later renditions of the story - don’t necessarily point to a specific haunting, but rather look at the house as the source of the haunting. In fact, they just skip out the DeFeos altogether!

This is down to the fact that the movies are directly based on the book of the same name which was released in 1977. Based off 45 hours worth of tapes from the Lutz family, this book wasn’t necessarily written with the family, but clearly had enough information to brew this highly controversial book.

The events charted in the book will be discussed later in this post.

Amityville: Awakening (2017)

The latest film in this franchise swaps out one famous face for another - Bella Thorne stars as a teen that moves into the infamous house with her family and brain-dead brother.

But instead of retelling the Lutz’s story yet again, it explores the power of the house as it slowly begins to possess the brother until he begins to carry out the murders that plague the house.

It is even revealed that the mother brought them to the house in the hope that the demonic energy would help the brother. But, with a gaggle of friends who know the story of the house - and even show the main character the 2005 film - they help her defend against the powers of the house.

The film ends with the sister dragging her brother out of the house and beyond the magic circle she drew, ending the power of the house over the brother after he begins murdering various family members.

The final scene notes that the main character is being questioned by the police, bringing us back to the main point of this post:

This haunting set itself apart by roping in the legal courts.

But how true were these films to the real claims made by the family? And what really happened on November 13th 1974?

What Really Happened At 112 Ocean Avenue?

Whenever someone mentions Amityville, someone gets sued.

Some guy writes a book? They get taken to court. Another bloke makes a film? Lawyers get pissy about the new details added in.

But obviously, this all started in 1974, when Ronald DeFeo killed all 6 members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue. The courts definitely got involved then, and they are still are - he is currently serving time having been convicted of second degree murder in 1975.

The DeFeo’s deaths were rather peculiar though, mirroring an almost ritualistic scene; each victim was found lying in their bed, face down. At first he ran out of the house and reported that his family had been shot, only confessing days later that he was the killer.

The family had lived in the house since 1965, and thus spent a decade in what many presume to be a haunted due to the experiences of the Lutzes. Could this have caused the murders?

According to some, the paranormal forces could’ve been at the house before the DeFeos moved in as the insanity defense pedalled by DeFeo’s lawyers claimed that he heard the voices of his family plotting against him.

"Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast" - Ronald DeFeo 

I’m sure this mirrors the beliefs and actions of most murderers, but this sense of being out of control or maybe even not yourself certainly fits the bill of possession that the movies always pin on George Lutz.

The isolation of the George figure we see in the film and the voices heard throughout suggest this, but the DeFeo story is often skipped in the films and the books.  

Yet despite DeFeo’s confession, the murders are still bathed in mystery. The police were puzzled by the fact that the corpses showed no sign of struggle, and were confused by the sheer scale and speed that the killings would have required. On top of this, neighbours didn’t hear the shots despite the gun not having a silencer.

Even the motive was uncertain.

Sure, DeFeo did ask about his father’s life insurance very quickly following his death, but many didn’t think that was reason enough to kill one’s entire family.

DeFeo’s story has twisted and turned overtime, but one thing is for sure: no haunting is ever mentioned in this side of the story. 

None. Nada. Zilch.

This is why any retelling of Amityville focuses on the murders that took place there, but also tries to trace back the haunting to a satanic cause buried in the history of the house.

To this day the question still stands: what really caused the haunting of Amityville?

The book The Amityville Horror (1977) tries to answer this question, and charts each claim of the Lutz family. And unfortunately, it confirms that the films portray an uncomfortably accurate haunting.

The hauntings noted by the Lutz family are nothing short of incredible - however you interpret my use of that word..

The spooky goings-on reported include:

A priest being told to ‘get out’ and his subsequent telephone call warning the family to stay out of a room being cut short

George would wake up at 3.15am an check the boathouse - this was the estimated time of the murders

Flies would swarm the house despite their arrival in mid-winter

Kathy would have violent and detailed nightmares about the murders

The family members all began to sleep on their stomachs

Missy, the daughter, made an imaginary friend called Jodie, a pig with red glowing eyes

Green slime oozed from walls

Hoof prints similar to that of a pig were spotted in the snow

However, the most intriguing piece of the paranormal discovered at Amityville was that small room with red walls that was found in the basement - a room considered to be the source of the evil in the house. And, just like in the films, the family dog had severe reactions to it such as cowering and refusing to go near it.

It was only when they fled to a relative’s house and saw slime coming up the stairs towards them that they decided that they would not be returning to 112 Ocean Avenue.

Evidently the silver screen tapped into the nature of the hauntings, but the possession of George Lutz? According to the Lutzes, it only went as far as George noticing that he bore a resemblance to Ronald.

What about Reverend Ketchum? And the Native American burial ground?  

Doesn’t exist and didn’t happen. 

Well, okay, some bloke called Ketchum would have existed - this was a popular name for settlers from England. But there’s no evidence that he spent his spare time in a cult or murdered Native Americans there. And the Shinnecock Native Americans? Sure, they exist, but leaders claimed this was not a burial ground.

In reality, all we have is a chaotic level of activity.

Or do we?

The book has encountered a fair share of controversy, with most major details being overturned.

Hoof prints in the snow? It didn’t snow that day.

The red room? It was a closet, and it wasn't concealed.

The claims by the priest? He never said they were of paranormal origin.

"Nothing weird ever happened, except for people coming by because of the book and the movie." - The couple that lived there after the Lutzes.

The 9 Other Cases Of Evidence Of The Paranormal Being Used In Court

I love me a ghost.

The problem is, there’s a lot of ‘em.

You’d think Amityville was like the only case where the paranormal made their way into court cases, stamping the supernatural into legal files and sending shivers down the jury’s spine…

But unfortunately, that is not true.

It turns out that tales of haunting are actually clogging up legal archives. And no, I don’t mean cases where a woman would sneeze in the 16th century and they would legally have some right to burn her cause clearly she was a witch.

In fact, some of these mysterious mentions have founded laws!

“Alexa, play the Legally Blonde soundtrack.”

#1 - The Greenbrier Ghost

Woman dies. Husband acts suspicious. Husband acts more suspicious. Ghost tells mother the husband did it. Case closed.

No, seriously - that’s what happened.

Elva Zona Heaster was murdered in 1897 at the hands of her husband. Having broken her neck, he claimed complications with pregnancy killed her, and dressed the corpse to prevent people seeing the real cause of her death.

The grandmother was the first to become unsure of his story having washed the scarf that was tied around her daughter’s definitely-not-f*cked-up neck and being unable to wash out a blood stain. She began to pray, and her daughter’s spirit explained to her what occurred.

She even did an Exorcist and twisted her head round to confirm just in case her mam didn’t get the message.

She reported the sighting, and the deputies immediately questioned people of interest. The body was reinvestigated, and the husband arrested.

Boom. Ghosted.

#2 - The Hammersmith Ghost Murder

You’d expect most cases mentioned here to involve someone being murdered and their ghost being the problem, right?

This bad boy bucks the trend.

Its 1803, and we are in fair London town. A ghost is on the loose from, I don’t know, hell, and is wandering the streets. An armed patrol is in the area to protect the citizens when a figure emerges, wearing all white.

“Looks pretty ghosty to me, must shoot ghost” thinks one of the armed patrol guys. They shoot ghost, but ghost is actually a bricklayer.

F*ck.

The British courts thus debate whether attacking or killing someone out of a misunderstanding counts as a crime. It officially becomes a part of UK law that stands to this day that such an act is not worthy of a sentence as if the crime was intentionally committed.

#3 - Stambovsky vs. Ackley

Also known as The Ghostbusters Ruling, this takes us to the other side of the Pond, all the way to New York. Oh, and this time we aren’t in the 19th century, it's 1991, instead.

The story goes a buyer bought a house that was widely believed to be haunted, but they weren't aware of these claims. Thus, they asked for a recission of the contract and claimed that this sale was fraudulent as they concealed the haunting to avoid lowering the sale price.

The courts - after much mocking and deliberation - finally came to the conclusion that legally the house was haunted, and therefore houses that are supposedly haunted must be presented in this way.

#4 - The Devil Made Me Do It Case

This case does what it says on the tin, and is even set to be the basis for the next instalment of The Conjuring franchise.

The trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson has already been covered by this blog (that awesome post about The Conjuring 3),  but for those not up-to-date on all the amazing articles I do, I guess I’ll just have to fill you in:

The story goes that whilst clearing out a house they just rented, David Johnson encountered an old man - who we now believe to be a demon - that began to slowly possess him.

David was only 12 years old, so, to protect him, Arne (his father) asked for the demon to possess him instead.

However, it was during an altercation with their landlord, Alan Bono, that the demon reportedly influenced Arne’s actions and assisted in his murder. In fact, it was Lorraine Warren that was the first to go to the police and make the initial claim that it was the demon that caused the murder.

The legal team roped in lawyers who had worked on similar cases abroad, and exorcism specialists were encouraged to speak up and defend Arne.

Their efforts did not prove successful, however, and Arne was handed a sentence of 20 years. He only served 5.

#5 - Booty vs. Barnaby  

No, this isn’t the title of the next Cardi B album. Instead, it's another historic tale from my homeland.

Our story starts in 1687, when some bloke called Captain Barnaby is on holibobs in Stromboli. When he’s not busy shooting innocent animals, he’s watching his next door neighbour from London Town getting chased by a phantom into the mouth of an active volcano.

No, I’m serious.

The neighbour’s wife thought the story sounded ridiculous too, which is why she had him arrested for slander. But then 30 of his crew supported his claims, clearing his name, and leaving a rather peculiar tale clogging up our court records.

#6 - The Haunting Of Lowes Cottage, Derbyshire

For some reason, every person buying a house in the ‘90s was using the hottest new way to bag a bargain: just say it's haunted or somethin’!

And that’s exactly what happened in fair Derbyshire. The Smith family were keen to move into their new cosy ‘lil cottage, but the oozing walls, ghostly hands sexually assaulting family members, the pig faced boy and other strange occurrences were a cause for concern.

(Obviously.)

Having withheld payment for the property due to the events noted, they took the sellers to court, saying it should be reduced by £50,000. Even the vicar threw in his two cents, offering up the evidence which sounded a lot like a little house in a place called Amityville.

Ever heard of it?

The case was eventually thrown out of court by the judge.

#7 - Reed vs. King

Before the DeFeos were murdered, and before the Lutzes even made the mistake of telling their furniture movers to head to 112 Ocean Avenue, a court case regarding a haunted house first hit the legal scene.

Our story starts in Grass Valley. A family moved into a new home, but the estranged husband paid a visit one night, and murdered 5 of the family members and injured 2 others.

Many years passed, and the Reed family shacked up here. However, it was only when they were told of the true events that transpired that the new residents became concerned. Sure, no one mentioned a haunting per say, but they claimed that the house “retained an echo”.

Small bloody footprints, blood stains smeared on the walls - no, it's not the bathroom after I’ve emptied my Diva Cup - it’s what Reed began to see throughout the house.

Reed thus decided to sue the sellers of the house, claiming that they tried to conceal the murders to avoid a wowcher.com-esque deal. But, when the case went to court, Reed didn’t mention hide nor hare of potential ghosts - instead, the potential haunting was used against them to prove how ridiculous the claims were.

#8 - The Death Of Estefania Guitterez Lazaro

It’s been discussed, dissected, and even given a Netflix contract - the death of this Madrid teen in 1992 is  officially one of the most prominent cases of possession to date.

Despite slipping under the radar, this tale is known not for its rather simple story, but because it was the first modern-day haunting that was verified by police reports.

The story goes that Estefania died following a session using a Ouija board with her friends in school. When interrupted by a teacher for trying to contact the dead, Estefania became possessed. A strange vapour began to enter her mouth and nose, and from there her seizures and hallucinations began.

After her death in hospital, the family claimed there was a variety of paranormal activity occurring throughout the family home. From the picture of Estefania catching fire of its own accord, to unexplained noises and a rather slimy, broken crucifix, the police had seen enough.

A report was filed citing the unexplained events and confirmed it was the paranormal.

#9 - The Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel

This is one of the most tragic tales I’ve ever had to write about.

Anneliese Michel’s story has been detailed on this blog many-a-time, and has received its fair share of attention in popular culture, including in the film The Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel.

But the main reason it’s been recognised as possibly the most famous case of possession is because it brought the paranormal firmly into the legal courts. Due to Michel’s extremely weak state at the time of her death - including weighing only 68 pounds at the time of her death - the priests that carried out the exorcisms were charged with negligent homicide.

However, it's not the fact that they were charged that puts the supernatural spin on this case.

To fight their corner, the priests used tapes that recorded Michel’s exorcism to bolster their claims of her possession and had her body exhumed.

Their mere 6 month stint in jail was down to the jury’s beliefs that they didn’t intend to harm her, nor neglect her. And the suspension of their time behind bars confirms that their case was backed up by their claims.

But let it not be mistaken: the jury weren’t convinced that Michel was in fact possessed - they were convinced that Michel’s belief in her possession could only be alleviated by the priests’ actions.

*Bangs gavel* What’s your verdict?

Is the jury out? Are you pissin’ on my leg and telling me it’s raining?

Or are you still awake at 3am and waiting to see the glowing red eyes of little Missy’s childhood bestie?

If so, why not fill the rest of your evening with the rest of my awesome articles on real paranormal activity just like this... Don’t forget to hit follow, too, to get a new ghost story in your feed everyday!

[gascon-en-exil]

Joining the Game Late: S8E6 “The Iron Throne”

Synopsis

Tyrion surveys the damage and finds his siblings, while Jon almost fights Grey Worm over executions. Arya and Jon are in the crowd as Daenerys gives her victory speech and Tyrion gets arrested for throwing away his pin. Tyrion goads Jon into growing a spine; he sort of does. Daenerys lives out her Season 2 vision and expounds upon her philosophy of conquest before Jon stabs her (not like that) and Drogon burns the symbolism...but not Jon for some reason. A tense trial at the Dragonpit, with Edmure still being a dumbass and a bid for democracy from Sam that goes over poorly. The man on trial nominates Bran as the new king which everyone accepts because he monologued a good thesis statement for the show, except Sansa who makes the North independent. For their crimes Tyrion is still Hand, and Jon is sent back to the Night’s Watch. Grey Worm, his antagonism ignored, sails to Naath, while Arya sails west off the map and Brienne finishes Jaime’s entry. The new small council features Sam dropping the book series title, Bronn arguing over the necessity of rebuilding brothels, and Davos completing a very old brick joke. Jon comes home to Tormund, and the two of them and Ghost lead the Free Folk north of the Wall as Sansa and Arya join them via cuts for a Stark ending.

Commentary

There are parts of this ending that I like. I like that the episode concludes with the Starks; uninterested as I generally have been in the family as primary PoV characters, it’s thematically appropriately to close out on the ongoing adventures of Jon, Sansa, and Arya. I like that Jon/Tormund is less of a joke than I was expecting, that Tormund features prominently in Jon’s final scenes and that the show sends them off as a sort of family unit along with Ghost and the remaining Free Folk. I like Brienne’s addition to Jaime’s entry in the book of the Kingsguard, highlighting his heroism while also remaining honest about his final decision...and delicately leaving out the incest, or her own fling with the man for that matter. It’s sterilized, and yet not wholly so, a fitting way to end the story of such a morally complicated figure whose very existence in the narrative seems to hinge on a deconstruction of the knight in shining armor archetype. I like the realization of Dany’s vision at the end of Season 2, a tacit understanding by the showrunners that they (and GRRM advising them) knew they were eventually going to get to that image of the Iron Throne in a ruined Red Keep covered in snow. I like that the show doesn’t belabor the “where are they now” aspect of the epilogue, that not everything is perfect and tidily wrapped up even if most of what isn’t is left unmentioned offscreen. It reminds me very much of most Fire Emblem endings, in the sense that a true happy ending remains elusive and there are always challenges left to face and tales remaining to be told. This isn’t Lord of the Rings, concluding when a fat and allegedly relatable guy named Samwell plops down a book (for the most part not written by him) bearing the title of the work in-universe as if to say that that’s the end of that and everything will sort itself out, nor is it Harry Potter with its treacly epilogue pairing everyone off into neat heterosexual marriages with 2.5 children and middle-class comfort. The story will continue, and you can place bets on how many decades of peace Westeros will have before there’s another continental war and a bunch of these characters get violently offed like the generation before them.

There are parts of this ending that I can abide. I’ve reconciled myself to the indignity of Bronn taking Highgarden by seeing in him a type of character like Thénardier from Les Misérables. Both of them are amoral, avaricious assholes despite occasional entertaining moments, and despite that their stories reward them not only with survival but with wealth and notoriety far beyond what they deserve purely as a demonstration that life is often unfair like that. Perhaps Bronn’s lordship of the setting equivalent of Paris was an explicit nod to that? I don’t mind the council at the Dragonpit laughing outright at Sam’s suggestion - transparent as it was coming from the author’s self-insert - of elective democracy, because much like FE the pseudo-medieval stasis this setting is locked into is not realistically equipped to handle such a revolutionary political shift, much less competently depict it in around half an hour of remaining screentime. I can bear the overt allusions to fascist regimes in Daenerys’s victory speech scene, because if you’re going to pivot her from liberator with worrying violent tendencies to tyrannical conqueror hard enough to make it reasonably justifiable that the show’s two most prominent remaining “good” guys would conspire to assassinate her with only that one scene to do it in you may as well go all out with the shorthand. Drogon not roasting Jon is stupid, but melting the Iron Throne is a great symbolic image: destroying all the ruin and strife it represents, coming full circle with the Targaryen reign over Westeros, and so forth.

And then there’s one part of this ending that’s really hard for me to swallow, particularly as Fire Emblem: Three Houses presents a variation of the same scene with much better execution. As this episode aired only about three months before the release of FE16 the similarities between Daenerys’s death and the final cutscene of Azure Moon can be nothing more than an interesting coincidence, but as you’d be hard-pressed to argue that Edelgard did not take some design cues from Daenerys - and to a lesser extent Dimitri from Jon - during the game’s development it’s a useful coincidence for contrast purposes. I mentioned a few posts ago that most of the uncomfortable elements present in Dany’s death are absent in Edelgard’s; she and Dimitri are not sexually involved at any point, and the game focuses instead on their familial bond even though (ironically) they are not biologically related. Dimitri also kills Edelgard in self-defense, after he reaches out his hand to her and she responds by throwing a dagger at him - which is considerably less awful than Jon leading Daenerys into a kiss just so he can stab her. Three Houses also benefits in that Dimitri is a far better realized character overall than Jon Snow, with a clearly defined arc in Azure Moon, meaningful convictions that place him at odds with Edelgard on both a personal and philosophical level, and even a stronger queer angle - also with a bear belonging to a historically marginalized culture/ethnicity, humorously enough. Jon by contrast feels at this stage mostly formless, with nothing strongly defining him (barring perhaps his affection for the Free Folk, which is what he returns to when everything is said and done) and in fact a repeatedly reference lack of desire to do things. Little wonder then that his decision to kill Daenerys comes more or less entirely because Tyrion told him she was the final boss and had to be taken care of.

Regarding Dany herself...if you’ve been following this liveblog the whole way through you know that I’ve been watching her character since the show began for signs that she’d wind up where she does. Yes, they are there, quite in abundance actually, and where the show stumbles comes of course from how terrible paced the story is by the time it reaches her breaking point. The audience has to make do with some of the most obvious fascist signposting imaginable and a single nonsensical speech to Jon (something else she has in common with Edelgard incidentally, who has many of these) revealing Daenerys to be the egomaniacal conqueror she always was with no subtlety whatsoever because the show has run out of time for subtlety. To this episode’s credit I do appreciate that Grey Worm continues to stick around as a foil and reflection of Daenerys. His rage over Missandei’s death sees him executing captured Lannister soldiers en masse, and he continues to demand justice for Tyrion’s betrayal even though after this point the writers stopped caring about him and shipped him off to Naath for an ending (where I am told there are plague-bearing butterflies? That doesn’t bode well.). In Grey Worm one can see a version of Daenerys’s own anger at all that she has suffered and lost, and how destructive that anger can be - only Grey Worm doesn’t have a dragon that can charbroil a city in minutes. Still, these are mere scraps of characterization to set up such a drastic shift in presentation for one of the show’s two biggest leads, and I can definitely understand why fans were angry about it and probably still are. Even as someone who was expecting this all along and was never personally invested in Daenerys the way I was with some other characters, her death - the centerpiece of this episode, and the lead-in to GoT’s epilogue - was easily the biggest sour note of its finale, less that it happened at all and more how, and probably the single event in the last two-ish seasons that more than any other really needs the book series to flesh it out and develop it into something worthwhile.

I think that’s a wrap. I’ve spent nearly four months on this liveblog and have written far more than I possibly imagined that I would. Maybe sometime in a year or so I’ll return to this series again and just watch it through without taking notes. Perhaps I’m in a minority for believing that GoT would even be worth a rewatch. Eh...if you’ve read all this at least you know why.

[mrjoelgarcia9]

Let’s Talk #Digimon: The Movie

What do you get when three loosely related short films are edited together into a feature-length film?

For a review of Digimon: The Movie, feel free to keep reading. There will be spoilers.

While multiple Digimon films have come out since the late 90s, only the first three would make it outside of Japan until Digimon Adventure Tri nearly two decades later.

UPDATE (12/8): Four Digimon shorts were actually dubbed and released a few years after Disney bought the rights from FOX. The shorts were from the second, third (Tamers), and fourth (Frontier) seasons and aired throughout 2005 on ABC Family’s Jetix block. A short from the fifth season, Savers/Data Force, was also dubbed but by a different company and only distributed in Asia. However, between this film and Tri, none of these films were made available in a physical format.

This “film” consists of three shorts. They are reminiscent of Toei’s Dragon Ball Z films, with run times ranging from 35 to 60 minutes. 

On a related note, Fox promoted the film’s indirect connection to both this and Sailor Moon on the home video releases. The only things they have in common are being produced by Toei Animation and some directors.

The franchises’ multiple films were distributed differently in English-speaking countries during the late 90s and early 2000s. The Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon films first aired on TV in an edited format and then released uncensored on home video. The three Digimon shorts were exclusively edited, censored, and combined into a single theatrical film.

To quickly get out of the way, the cold open has nothing to do with the film. It is an original short from the animated series Angela Anaconda, which at the time ran on FOX Family (now Freeform), the then-sister channel to the FOX network which aired Digimon. It only serves to pad out the run time alongside the corny “Digi-Rap” opening sequence. The short itself would later air as the TV episode “Good Seats” with the Digimon references removed.

The rest of the film is divided into three segments. The overall narrative centers around events involving the characters from the anime’s first two seasons who interact in some form or another with a new character made for the film.

Each segment is given a title card to glue the film together. The titles in parentheses are the short films’ original Japanese titles.

Four Years Ago (Digimon Adventure): As the title indicates, it is set four years before the anime’s first episode and focuses on Tai and Kari’s first meeting with Koromon. In Japan, this short originally premiered the day before the anime’s debut.

Eight Years Later (Children’s War Game): Taking place sometime after the first season, a virus called Diaboromon has unleashed chaos on the internet and global communications. It is up to Tai, Matt, Izzy, and the Digimon to stop him before he starts World War III. This short’s premise was also used in the 2009 film Summer Wars (more on that below).

Present Day (Hurricane Touchdown/Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals): Set during the second season, T.K. and Kari are in New York City when they find another Digidestined named Willis with his own Digimon named Terriermon. He was fighting Kokomon, who was also affected by the same infection as Diaboromon. The latter summons Willis to Colorado, with the two (and the rest of the second season team) joining him to help save Kokomon. This segment was originally released as a two-part short.

This “film”, in its heavily edited format, is a barely comprehensible mess. It is glaringly obvious how many alterations were made to these shorts so they could be presented as a theatrical feature. There are direct-to-video compilations of TV episodes with better editing than this “film”.

Not counting the Angela Anaconda short and rap, the film runs at only 76 minutes. The combined run time of the original shorts, in comparison, is 130 minutes. The respective shorts run at 20, 45, and 65 minutes. The editing is obvious, especially by Kari’s narration serving to glue the segments together. It retroactively integrates Willis, a character only in the third short, by Kari introducing him in the first and Izzy briefly mentioning him in the second. 

The editing is especially obvious with the third short. Several elements were cut out for it to align with the first two segments, such as an entire story thread of the first Digidestined team disappearing and the actual reason for T.K. and Kari visiting New York City being to visit Mimi.

The film features pop songs which feel very out of place even for the dub. The show heavily recycled music from other Saban-produced series such as Power Rangers, so having the film play songs by Barenaked Ladies, Fatboy Slim, and Smash Mouth is both jarring and shoehorned. Interestingly, the latter band’s song “All Star” was featured in this film less than a year before Shrek.

It would be unfair to compare the “film” with the shorts. Any dub-induced plot holes could be explained by seeing the uncut versions, but they have never been released outside of Japan.

Despite the edits, the dub’s voice cast does a great job. Lara Jill Miller (The Loud House) is the only voice actor to prominently appear in all three segments, playing Kari as a toddler, child, and teenager, as well as being the film’s narrator.

The original shorts were directed by two directors: Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) worked on the first two, while Shigeyasu Yamauchi (Dragon Ball Z) worked on the third. The former’s realistic animation style is noticeable, while the latter’s style is just a far more fluid version of the anime. Despite the conflicting styles, all three segments look great and show Toei produced the films with the same high quality animation used in the many Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon films.

At this point, it should be noted Hosoda later wrote and directed the 2009 film Summer Wars, which is often accused of being a ripoff of the second short. 

Both have the word War in the title, a computer virus unleashing chaos to global communications, said virus firing a missile towards the protagonists, and a climax where the hero is supercharged by everyone online giving them energy.

They differ by their protagonists and digital worlds. Also, without giving away spoilers, Summer Wars shows more of the virus’ real world consequences whereas the Digimon short played it for laughs.

The film is worth watching, especially to compare and contrast with the short.

Going back to this “film”, continuity is mostly not an issue. The first two segments clearly take place before and after the first season. The third segment, on the other hand, is not canon.

Ken is nowhere to be seen, likely placing the short sometime early in the second season when he was still the Digimon Emperor. 

Because the aforementioned New York City setup was cut out, the characters are just in America with no rhyme or reason for how they were able to fly from Japan or even get to Colorado. Additionally, it is set far too early to be part of the “Digimon World Tour” story arc. 

Digimon: The Movie would have been better had it just aired on FOX Kids, either as individual episodes or a TV special. It barely qualifies as a "film” by the vain attempt to combine the three standalone shorts with shoehorned narration, numerous edits, an out of place soundtrack, and both a great voice cast and excellent animation. If this film was someone’s introduction to Digimon, they would immediately become confused and lost by the inconsistent shifts in tone, main characters, and situations. 

With all of that in mind, this film is worth watching only for fans of the dub.

While the North American rights to the Digimon anime now appear to be back with Toei, the “film” is currently owned by Disney following their acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

Digimon: The Movie has been out of print since its original VHS and DVD releases. Currently, it is not available to own, rent, or stream in any format. However, the soundtrack is available to buy on digital music platforms and partially stream on Spotify.

As for Summer Wars, it is available to own on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital.

Until next time, thank you for reading!

[falkenscreen]

Uncut Gems

Very possibly Adam Sandler’s best turn, he’s far from alone.

Casting non-traditional performers and filmed in and around bustling New York streets for authenticity’s sake, the Safdie Brothers’ (Good Time) latest sees gem dealer Howard (Sandler) finally having gotten hold of a prized opal and (hopeful) deal of a lifetime. This is only for happenstance, good luck, bad luck, trusting others and failing to do so lending him to some of the more confronting, hectic days and hours of his life.

Newcomers Kevin Garnett (the Basketball legend playing himself circa 2012) and Julia Fox as Julia De Fiore, a lover with whom the married Howard is enamoured, are both exceptional though no first-timer herein manages nearly so well as Fox; this being a star-making turn if ever 2019 had one. Lakeith Stanfield is reliably good, as is Idina Menzel as Howard’s wife who, amidst a confrontation with Howard who is desperately grasping for affection, brutally delivers the best line in a very well scripted movie.

But for it being a bit long and momentum waning between several extended, tension-heavy stretches as we wonder whether Howard is going to extricate himself from some mess, the film does well to highlight that dramatically analogous between strategic game play within a given match (as the film has it basketball) and cinematic plotting; no less so during a very consequential four quarters.

There’s a reason sport lends itself so well to movies with even grounding giving way to upsets, triumphs, surprises and thrilling denouements themselves no strangers to film in general, with the suspense of the court action here, as good as it is, playing but second fiddle to a multitude of machinations we more acutely experience in the foreground.

As accomplished as Sandler here emerges, what lets him and too the film down to some extent is an inability to overly empathise with this central figure given not simply that he is a lousy person but his (repeated) penchant to make lousy choices amidst second, third chances and opportunities at redemption. It’s one thing to have a tragic figure, but when a character overwhelmingly can’t learn or subsequently express caution they simply become much less empathetic or engaging than any filmmaker would otherwise have hoped. Regardless, the denouement is very good.

Turning to the film’s racialized depictions (and importantly lack thereof), this heavily diverse feature takes note to draw attention to that akin between African-Americans and American Jewry; the aspirations and identity-driven yearnings of Sandler’s Ratner and Garnett herein, outwardly different, mirroring each other in the most important respects. Refusing affixed characterisations while both ingraining themselves within the practices of and still seeking to rise above and beyond their respective communities, the “this is how I win” speech will no doubt prove cathartic for film and sports fanatics for years to come.

Moreover, the film’s subtle use of language is key, with typical negative phrases often used in a positive, affirming sense while particular enunciation plays key, blink and you’ll miss it functions. Sandler’s recitation of copacetic (a North American and even New York-centric word familiar to communities prominently depicted in this film) meaning ‘all good’ near sounds as if he could too very well be saying kol b’seder (the Hebrew term for “everything’s OK”); but one effective, well-placed parallel the film draws.

On this matter, it would be very easy for Sandler or the Safdie Brothers (whose Jewish father worked in New York’s gem district) to play more directly or land quick jokes off prominent stereotypes given the lead character’s profession. Instead, the film coyly dismisses racism by bare acknowledging the ubiquity of this trope, instead hilariously pivoting to more idiosyncratic, American-centric Jewish cultural touchstones or understandings to situate us in this world without perpetuating else. “What is it with you Jews and basketball?” is a particular highlight.

Uncut Gems is a stellar effort and follow-up for the directing duo, and well worth the wait it has been.

Uncut Gems is now streaming on Netflix

[lime-bloods]

Is Candy Canon?

When Act 7 seemed like the end-all of Homestuck, one symbol seemed to be set in stone: the colour black represented the story - what is canon - and the colour white represented what was outside the story, or outside of canon. Black is the colour of the space that acts as the backdrop to the Medium and the void of the Furthest Ring, while white is the colour of the extracanonical space that peeks out from underneath when the black space is blown away. 

The white house juju that gets John “un-stuck” from canon is a representation of this; a “white hole” to outside of canon. The similar white door that appears in Act 7 to usher the heroes into their new universe - a white frog, as opposed to the black frog created by Karkat and the other trolls - served to cement the same concept, acting as a gateway for the characters of the story to finally leave it.

So it only followed that if a “white hole” was one that led out of the story, a black hole was one that led back into the story; that by creating the black hole by the Green Sun, the Dead Cherub was intending to doom Lord English to forever be trapped within Homestuck itself.

The colour diagram - cyan, magenta, yellow - that the Dead Cherub draws to create the black hole was often pointed to as significant following Act 7′s release, and the three colours used support the argument that the black hole represented the story itself: they are the colours of Skaia, Prospit, and Derse, the three forces locked in eternal conflict that serve to keep the story of SBURB in motion.

The Homestuck Epilogues seem to throw a spanner in this very straightforward machine, though. The black hole the Dead Cherub created seemingly took Lord English and the rest of those who fell past its event horizon to exactly the same place the white door did: not only the supposedly extracanonical Earth C, but the Candy timeline, which seems to be regarded by many of its inhabitants as even less canon than its Meat twin.

So what does this mean? Is the running hypothesis for black/white symbolism just way off the mark? Or is the situation regarding what is and isn’t inside canon more complicated than the story’s residents seem to understand? I think a good argument can be made for the latter.

One prominent piece of evidence is the logo for the Epilogues themselves, which feature black/white duality heavily; one side of the story canon, the other outside of canon. But perhaps more importantly the logo uses a black-within-white/white-within-black motif akin to that of the yin-yang part of a taijitu, symbolising the ways that two aspects of a duality feed into each other: canon begets noncanon, noncanon begets canon; noncanon contains canon within it, canon contains noncanon.

Another comparable symbol from Homestuck is the intertwined ouroboroses that make up the sucker juju; a white and black snake biting each other’s tails, canon feeding into noncanon and vice versa. This is especially important because these two snakes are also symbolic of two poisons - one black, one white - that are essential to the narrative of the Epilogues.

The black poison appears in the Candy timeline infecting Jade, allowing the Dead Cherub some influence over a timeline she otherwise considers “inconsequential”. Meanwhile the white poison afflicts John in the Meat timeline - a part of the Epilogues which it should be mentioned largely takes place in the white space around the black hole, which is the most literal example of ‘outside canon’ that Homestuck has to offer. Despite all the posturing about Meat’s canonicity and Candy’s dubiosity, there is canon and noncanon contained within both.

It is also worth noting that the Dead Cherub considers the black hole to be “basically her,” and that the Postscript to Meat acts as a continuation of Candy, wherein the Dead Cherub - a Muse of Space, one who represents creation itself - literally eats Lord English, symbolically trapping him within herself. The swapping of the Postscripts reinforces the same concept presented by the yin and yang and the double ouroboros - that black and white flow in and out of each other in a cyclical manner - and Lord English’s becoming part of the Dead Cherub is proof that he is still very much part of the story. What that means, however, and what happens from now, is anybody’s guess.