#some people's fantasy: i want to be bruce lee

[thatiswhy]

nvm they wanted to teach me "Hundred-Man Slaying Fist Technique" instead of "illuminate manuscript" and "eat hearty stew with ale" so i don't care anymore

i need to train in a temple for 50 years bye

[ulkaralakbarova]

On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Rhoda Williams: Brit Marling John Burroughs: William Mapother Alex: Matthew-Lee Erlbach Maya Burroughs: Meggan Lennon Amos Burroughs: AJ Diana Purdeep: Kumar Pallana Symposium Speaker: Bruce Colbert Symposium Speaker: Paul S. Mezey Symposium Speaker: Ana Valle Symposium Speaker: Jeffrey Goldenberg Symposium Speaker: Joseph A. Bove Kim Williams: Jordan Baker Robert Williams: Flint Beverage Himself (voice): DJ Flava Jeff Williams: Robin Lord Taylor Keith Harding (voice): Rupert Reid Career Counselor: Natalie Carter Himself: Richard Berendzen High School Girl: Shannon Maliff High School Girl: Stephanie Le Blanc High School Girl: Jasmine Andrade High School Girl: Kara Tweedie Claire: Ana Cruz Kayne Television Reporter (voice): Yuval Segal Dr. Joan Tallis: Diane Ciesla Radio Reporter #1 (voice): Robert Phillips Television Anchor (voice): Hollyce Phillips Federico: Luis Vega Radio Reporter #2 (voice): Rich Habersham Nurse: Jennifer Jaramillo Valkana Conspiracy Theorist: Ari Gold Television Interviewer (voice): Steve Giammaria Keith Harding’s Secretary (voice): Rebecca Price Film Crew: Writer: Mike Cahill Producer: Hunter Gray Writer: Brit Marling Producer: Nicholas Shumaker Executive Producer: Tyler Brodie Executive Producer: Paul S. Mezey Casting: James Calleri Casting: Paul Davis Makeup Effects: Aileen Alvarez-Diana Dialogue Editor: Sasha Awn Dolby Consultant: James P. Nichols Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Ryan Price Visual Effects Supervisor: Adam Fanton Visual Effects Supervisor: Darren Fanton Assistant Director: Liang Cai Gaffer: Sonny Plescia Script Supervisor: Marketa Tomanova Sound Effects Editor: Sebastian Henshaw Musician: Phil Mossman Post Production Supervisor: Phaedon A. Papadopoulos Production Design: Darsi Monaco Production Coordinator: Morgan Marling Assistant Production Coordinator: Tomás Diaz Production Sound Mixer: Michael Gassert Art Direction: Brian Rzepka Production Coordinator: James Brettell Assistant Editor: Alice Borrelli Supervising Dialogue Editor: Steve Giammaria Musician: Will Bates Makeup Effects: Marni Giannotti Assistant Director: Marcello Montesanti Digital Intermediate Colorist: Joe Gawler Digital Intermediate Colorist: Zak Tucker Digital Intermediate Editor: Jonathan Sanden Digital Intermediate Producer: Molle DeBartolo Digital Intermediate Producer: Darrell R. Smith Movie Reviews: Andres Gomez: More ambitious than interesting. A story that wants to joint an epic sci-fi moment with a drama. Not really working although seeing the Earth in the sky is quite interesting. Peter McGinn: When I first saw Another Earth several years ago I thought that, like some science fiction out there, it was light on the science and heavy on fiction. Fantasy, maybe. I was okay with that as long as the story and characters were strong. Besides, nowadays it seems like many mainstream physicists are seriously promoting the ideas around multiple universes or perhaps even an infinite number of alternate universes, perhaps science is catching up with the fiction. (Though I still think a planet popping into our galaxy so close to us would cause cataclysmic tides and whatnot.) . In any case, I recently bought and downloaded a digital version of it to watch it again. But Another Earth isn’t about physics or science or what would become of humanity if a twin earth and moon suddenly showed up in our sky. It is about a heart-stopping event that cause a planet full of people to stop what they are doing and look up and wonder. Is that earth different than ours? Am I up there, and if so, is that version exactly like me or have they made different decisions that affect who they have become? Could I have made different decisions, or was this version of me locked into what I decided and thought? And in the case of our lead character, Rhoda, it leads her to a path to seek forgiveness and try to make up for a tragic mistake she m...

[snugglyporos]

// I have really been struggling with my stupid hyperfixation problem with the autism. 

Like, I’ve been trying to create a fantasy world of sorts. Mostly for fun. But my brain decided to hyperfixate on like, a japanese themed nation, but only aesthetically. Not culturally or socially or anything. Sorta like when people make everyone wear togas or medieval european armor and have none of the actual underlying period things. 

Part of that is because when I was a kid, my parents wouldn’t let me watch anime. They would however, let me watch all the martial arts exploitation films I wanted, which is weird in hindsight because the stuff coming out of hong kong and japan at the time was, uh... very graphic in some cases! 

But I have a love of that sort of nonsense. Because they didn’t take themselves overly seriously. I mean, there’s an entire bruce lee exploitation genre. No joke, there’s a movie called ‘Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave’ and he’s not in the movie. Also, there’s a movie called ‘The Clones of Bruce Lee’ starring multiple Bruce Lee impersonators of other exploitation movies. 

Idk. I don’t want it to be like... appropriation? But at the same time, I like the aesthetics. Much like how I enjoy bronze age greek aesthetics. 

Really, all of this is just for me to shove a bunch of different styles in one world with no rhyme or reason, because every fantasy world needs bizarrely juxtaposed cultural styles that don’t make any sense. 

[house-of-slayterr]

Fear Toxin:

@keffirinne @flaysthings @howl-fantasies

Maggie’s POV:

Basil and V were off bonding. So Y/N sent me to run some errands down in the narrows. Oswald’s birthday was coming up and there was a very specific gun we had in mind to get him. The only place you could get it was in the narrows. But I was apprehensive, I’d never been to that side of town by myself.

Usually I was escorted by Y/N or Victor, or Selena or Jim. I shuddered at that last thought, trying to push that man as far out of my mind as I could. I didn’t want to think about him, not after the tea party. Not after the way he looked at Lee so hopelessly when he congratulated the happy couple on their engagement. There was no sincerity in his words, and I almost felt for Lee. I didn’t like the woman, but we were both women trapped in Jim’s web of chaos and pain.

But I was a big girl, I could handle the narrows by myself. I mean for fucks sake, I killed Sofia Falcone and Ivy Pepper. I wasn’t some innocent little thing. I threw on the leather jacket I browsed from Basil and set out on my quest. The shop was closed for today as I waited for the new shipment of plants. Of course, you couldn’t have anything nice in Gotham. Someone blew up the green house I normally got my deliveries from so I had to source from out of town. But being your own boss had perks like this, where you can take a day off whenever you want.

I put up the hood of my jacket and shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to blend in. You don’t wear your good clothes down in the narrows unless you’re itching to get mugged. I passed by a few stalls that had some interesting assortment of knives and daggers. Maybe I’d surprise V with a new Dagger, her old one was getting pretty dull. I knew she could hold her own, but it’s always best to have a sharp knife when wondering the streets of this city. I kindly paid the lady and went back onto my main mission.

Oswald’s birthday had to be perfect! The last thing anyone wanted was for the man to throw a tantrum on his own birthday. Besides, he’s been a little down about birthdays since his Mother’s passing. And I wanted to do something nice for my best friend.

I flinched when I heard screaming in the distance. I groaned under my breath, letting my hood fall as I turned to look at whatever unfortunate chaos was happening now. There where many people screaming, holding their heads and crouching in uncomfortable positions. A thick fog rolled in and I raised my brow. I knew I should keep my head down, lay low, but I couldn’t help but think about what Bruce or my Brother would do in this situation.

I ran over to a woman on the street and gently placed my hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

“Please, just make it stop!” She begged, her breathing heavy and ragged.

I could smell the strange fog now, it was bitter and sour. I placed my sleeve covered hand over my mouth and nose to try not to breath it in. My heart broke when I saw a kid a few booths over, crying. Suddenly someone emerged from the fog, wearing a crude home made scarecrow costume. Of course, another villain. Just what Gotham needed.

I drew V’s new blade with my other hand and stalked forward. He had some sort of contraption in his back, producing the thick gas. Maybe if I could damage it I could disarm him.

“Hey, bag head!” I gained his attention.

Not the brightest plan, I know.

“Stop attacking these poor people, they didn’t do fuck all to you!” I said sternly.

He just tilted his head at me, not saying a word. I growled under my breath, and took a step forward, gauging his reactions. I made a swift move to try and knock him off his feet, using someone’s scream as a distraction. I got him to the ground, but he recovered quickly, pulling me down with him. We struggled on the ground for a minute, for his size he was surprisingly quite strong. I stuck the dagger in his leg as he sat on top of me, and he yelped put in pain.

I used that to my advantage and pushed him off me, trying to scramble to my feet. But as I turned around I was hit directly in the face with a cloud of gas. I blinked for a moment trying to catch my bearings, but everything felt fuzzy. My vision was going in and out and the screams were only getting louder. I began hyperventilating, backing away from him. What the hell was this stuff?

I tripped as I backed away, landing myself on my ass. I couldn’t bring myself to move from that spot. I felt stuck, petrified. I could barley register him standing over me, until something hit me head over the head and I blacked out.

I could feel my body thrashing, but I couldn’t bring myself to wake from this nightmare. It was too much, entirely overwhelming. I felt like I couldn’t breath. There was so much blood everywhere. I was covered in it, dripping from head to toe. And I saw the familiar orange tint of his suit out of the corner of my eyes. He was laughing, I was laughing…

I shot up suddenly, trying to catch my breath and shake those thoughts from my head. I could feel my skin clammy with sweat. And my hands were shaking.

Jonathan’s POV:

I looked down at her laying on the pavement. Why couldn’t she have just dropped it? I didn’t want to hurt her. What was a girl like her doing in the narrows anyway? She seemed to sweet for a place like this. She was wearing a little white sundress, topped with a grey hoodie and a black leather jacket.

She couldn’t have been that much older than I was, buy the looks of it. I frowned, I would have to test out the rest of my new fear toxin later. I nodded to one of my goons, instructing them to carry her back to my hide out.

She remained motionless for the first few hours, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d hit her over the head to hard. There had been a little blood on her forehead that I cleaned up. But it didn’t seem too bad. I jotted things down in my notebook as I watched her. I was worried that she might never wake up. But what would that be like? Trapped in a nightmare forever, could the human body handle such a thing?

I heard the sound of her chest heaving and turned my attention back to her. Watching her every move intently. Whatever she was dreaming, it was bad. Her hands shake and her skin grew pale and clammy. What did girls like her have to be afraid of? I moved closer to the bed, observing her. I brushed a clump of hair out of her face, her skin was burning. Perhaps a side effect of the new toxin. I jotted it down in my notebook.

I could hear her muttering under her breath.

“Please don’t make me do this.���

“Please don’t leave me!”

“Don’t make me go back to him.”

Interesting. She was terrified of someone. I wondered what other things she could be afraid of. Perhaps spiders, or clowns or maybe thunder storms. Suddenly she shot up awake and clutched her chest, her breathing somehow even heavier than when she was asleep.

When her eyes met mine, I nearly choked. I could see it all so clearly, the fear, the terror. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. She scrambled back on my bed, pulling herself away from me. I had my mask off, I didn’t like to wear it in my own house. I was safe to just be Jonathan here. I watched as she pulled her knees to her chest and ran a shaky hand through her hair, attempting to slow her breathing.

“Why won’t it go away?” She asked softly.

I was starting to feel bad. She was a brilliant test subject. Unlike most of the people I came across in Gotham. She seemed to have a good heart, good intentions.

“The toxin should wear off in a few more hours. I didn’t mean to give you so much, but I was afraid you were going to hurt me.” I explained calmly.

She furiously tried to rub the tears from her eyes, making the skin on her cheeks raw and pink.

“Toxin? Is that what you did to those people?”

Her eyes met mine again, and I watched her look over my form. She seemed to connect the pieces pretty quickly for someone in her state. She was smart, that much was obvious. I smiled at her.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“The human mind is fascinating. I want Gotham to feel what I felt. I want to create a world without fear.” I said simply.

I watched as her eyes shifted to the corner, she was still clearly hallucinating.

“But you’re just a kid. How could you possibly do all this?” She asked.

I avoided her question, she wouldn’t understand my motivations. And instead asked one of my own.

“What do you see?”

“What?”

“What are you afraid of?” I asked more clearly.

Her eyes wandered back to that corner and she shuddered. The sight made my skin warm. She looked pretty when she was scared.

“You wouldn’t understand kid, it’s- it’s stupid. I can handle it.”

The last part seemed to be more aimed at herself than at me.

“Jonathan.” I introduced myself.

“Maggie.” She offered back.

She seemed much less hostile now than when I first met her. I’d checked her body for weapons and put them all safely in the other corner of the room. I was surprised by how much she had on her, but that was smart. Gotham wasn’t safe for people like her. People like me. But I wasn’t scared of that anymore. Nobody would ever make me feel that way again.

Another tear rolled down her check, and I reached across the bed to wipe it away. I was surprised when she didn’t try to pull away.

“You said you felt this way… what did you see?” She asked.

I chuckled slightly. How interesting. She seemed to adapt quickly to her surroundings.

“Scarecrows. But they don’t scare me anymore. Nothing does.”

“How can you be afraid of nothing?”

“Because my father cured me. I want to cure you.” I explained.

She shuddered at that.

“And where is your father now Jonathan?” She asked.

It was like the questions were calming her, so I let her ask them.

“Dead. Gordon killed him.”

This caused her whole body to tense. Maybe she had a fear of dying, that was quiet common. But no, that didn’t seem like it was it. I watched her reaction more closely. Her hands clenched into fists around the hem of her dress. I had taken the hoodie and jacket off, and placed them into the corner with her other things. Fearing she’d get too hot with them on. Her jaw clenched, then unclenched, like she was trying it thing of something to say. She leaned her head back on the headboard and closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She finally said. She met my eyes again. “For what your father did to you, we’re you- were you there.”

I just nodded.

“I know what it’s like to watch a parent die Jonathan, bad or not.”

That had to be it, she was reliving that moment like I had so many times. Maybe we were more alike than I thought. Maybe she could understand me.

“But you can’t cure me Jonathan, I’m not sick.”

She began crying again. She wasn’t afraid of me per say, just of what I could do to her.

“Don’t you want to never feel like this again?” I asked sincerely.

I’d watched many other writhe in agony, but seeing her do it was different somehow. She’d gotten what I thought was possibly a lethal dose, stronger than the stuff my father had given me. She must be miserable, and I caused that. And now she wasn’t going to let me fix it, and I was annoyed. The hard part was already started, what was she afraid of.

“I’m not sick.” She repeated, screwing her eyes shut.

Another hallucination was taking over her, a more vivid one at that. But now she was awake, now I could get answers.

“I’m not like you.”

Maybe a part of that sentence was aimed at me, but I was certain she was talking to whoever was in the corner.

“And what am I like?”

I knew that voices distorted with the fear toxin. Nothing seemed based in reality, it was impossible to tell the nightmare apart from real life.

“You’re cruel and miserable, and I’ll never be like you.” She hissed. “You killed them, you killed all of them. Why would you do that?”

“Maybe they deserved it.” I egged her on, despite to have answer to the intricacies in her brain.

“No! They didn’t! The only person who deserves to die here is you, and me for letting you into the damn house.”

She thought she deserved to die. No, no that wasn’t right. How could someone like her be deserving of such a fate. I wouldn’t allow that to happen. If her delusion got to strong, I would step int to stop her. Knock her out again if I had to.

“And why did you let me in?” I pushed.

“Because I thought you could change, I thought you’d remember…”

Her tears were pooling on the collar of her shirt. I remembered what she said earlier about making her go back.

“Where did I make you go?” I asked.

“Don’t say that like it was easy, you weren’t there. You gave me up. You let that man change me. And I hurt so many people, but that doesn’t mean I’m anything like you, Dad. I never wanted to be your kid, no matter how many times I fooled myself into thinking I would have been better off with you. That’s just not true, you crawled your way into my life and you ruined it. And no matter how far I run I can’t seem to get rid of you!”

She hated her father as well. I couldn’t blame her, from what it sounds like, whatever he did to her was horrible.

“He’s not really here you know.” I sighed, trying to bring her back down to reality.

“Then why can I still feel him? God, the blood, there was so much blood! Why is there always so much blood Jonathan?”

She used her finger nails to ground herself, digging them into the soft flesh of her palms. I frowned, grabbing her hand to make her stop.

“Why did you do this to me Jonathan?”

“You shouldn’t have to feel this Maggie, any of it. I could take it all away. The memories stay but they don’t hurt as much as they used to.” I explained.

“Jonathan please, I can’t. I can’t do whatever it is you want when it feels like this-“

“But it’s only temporary.” I tried to offer.

But she shook her head.

“I can’t see him again. Either of them. I’m sorry for stabbing you earlier.” She said.

I let out a breath of air. Even after everything she just experienced, she was still apologising.

“I’m sorry for giving you my fear gas.” I said honestly.

She sent me a gentle smile.

“It’s ok kid. I’ll make it.”

She squeezed my hand tightly.

“I’ll wait for it to wear off and then I’ll take you home but-“

“But what?”

“I don’t want you to go.” I said honestly.

She was kind to me. Minus the stabbing, but I sort of deserved that.

“I’ll be around, just promise me you’ll never do that to me again Jonathan. Then maybe I can forgive you.”

Forgiveness, it was a strange notion. I never forgave my father, or the detectives that killed him.

“I just want everyone to feel better.” I said, defeated.

“Then perhaps you can start by being a friend.”

She smiled up at me. Her breathing was still a bit heavy, but it seemed like the worst of it was over.

“Would you like to be my friend Miss Maggie?”

“Sure kid, I’d like that.”

Basil’s POV:

A week had passed since Maggie came back with Oswald’s gift. But something was wrong, she was different. She didn’t seem happy, of course she smiled just as much as she used to. But it was different, like she was hiding something. And I hated it. I wasn’t good at this whole emotions shit, and I had no idea how to comfort her when she kept insisting she was fine.

But she was skittish, she jumped at nearly every sound. She flinched more when Victor raised his voice, or when V would touch her. I tried to ignore it, but the day came for Oswald’s party and she looked absolutely wrecked. She had dark circles under her eyes like she hadn’t slept all week. And her makeup didn’t do much to cover them.

I knew she didn’t like big parties, and Cobblepot never did anything small. It confused me why she even stayed by his side and did everything he asked of her. Victor and Y/N made sense, they worked for him. But Maggie had no stakes here, did she stay for them? I thought to the last time we had a party in this ball room, her own birthday. Maybe that was it, she was remembering the train wreck that occurred that night. Her brother, her real one at least. It was funny how a girl like her could just collect family members.

She had dozens of villains in the city putty in her hands. And so effortlessly, I don’t even think she knew she was doing it half the time. She just made everyone around her feel better, lighter. Like the weight of the world was lifted off their shoulders, but that weight has to go somewhere. And it felt squarely on her dainty little ones. She did everything for everyone else, but nothing for herself, and frankly it was starting to piss me off.

The whole situation with Jim made me the most angry. She claimed to hate him, but would drop everything if he called. I heard about the events of the tea party when I cornered the Hatter a few weeks after. Maggie didn’t want to talk about it, she never wanted to talk about things like that. But it was easy to make him talk, with a little force. I’m sure he’d keep the broken nose our secret.

I watched from across the floor, tuning out Oswald as he opened his presents from his ‘throne’ the self proclaimed king of Gotham. I rolled my eyes at the thought. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. Since when did she start smoking? I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You know, you squint any harder your face is gonna get stuck like that B-boy” V said.

I hadn’t noticed her creep up on me. She was just a silent as her father. I sighed.

“Something up with her.”

V shrugged.

“When is something not up with her? Maggie is nearly as bad as Bruce, I swear they’re both beacons for the craziest people in this fucked up city!” She said exasperated.

I chuckled at her.

“How is the little billionaire?”

“Broody as ever. It’s almost like he and Maggie are opposites. She has a perpetual smile, while he always wears a frown. Maybe we should tell Y/N, she can make Maggie talk.”

“No.” I said quickly.

That was an awful idea. I knew she was sweeter on Maggie than she was on me, but that woman was not someone to mess around with. Even the people she loved ended up getting hurt by her hand.

“I don’t know what to tell you B. If Maggie says she fine than all we can do is go with it. I’m gonna go steal one of her smokes.” She said mischievously.

I rolled my eyes once more. Teenage girls were an enigma, they made no sense. Yes, Maggie was in her early twenties, but sometimes it felt like she never grew up. Despite being younger than her, I felt like an older sibling most times. Much more clam and rational, not swayed by petty emotions of love and jealousy. I’d figure out what was wrong with her if it was the last thing I did.

I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard calling. Maggie was by his side now.

“Happy Birthday Oswald.” She smiled, kissing him on the forehead.

An: I love complicating her backstory so much… who do you guys think is her real dad? Could you figure it out. Poor Maggie, Victor is genuinely the best father figure she ever had. And that’s saying a lot, that man is a menace. 😂

[allaboutjoongi]

LEE JOON GI : W Korea 2022 April Issue Interview _ English translation

🔗 https://www.wkorea.com/2022/03/22/%EB%B3%80%ED%95%98%EB%8A%94-%EA%B2%83%EA%B3%BC-%EB%B3%80%ED%95%98%EC%A7%80-%EC%95%8A%EB%8A%94-%EA%B2%83-%EC%9D%B4%EC%A4%80%EA%B8%B0/?utm_source=naver&utm_medium=partnership

Things that change & things that never change about [Lee Joon Gi]

The images that the name “Lee Joon Gi” evokes will vary from person to person. He is still surprisingly true to himself and yet, surprisingly enough, he’s also living as a different person from what he was at one point in the past.

<W Korea> (“Q”): We enjoyed tvN’s <Flower of Evil> you starred in with actor Moon Chae-won. It’s a story about a man who is suspected of being a psychopath and a serial killer, and there’s a romance to it as well. What have you been mostly doing since that drama ended back in September 2020?

Lee Joon-gi (“JG”) – I have been idling away, spending time alone. For me, it’s boring just spending time at home. I exercise, watch something on OTT services or surfing the net while lying down, clean around the house. Other than that, I don’t do much else.

Q. It doesn’t really sound like you aren’t doing much else, though (laughs).

JG – I feel much happier going out on set. When I just stay at home, I don’t get to use that time to see who I am. I end up spending that time being aware of other beings aside from me. But when I am at work, I feel great because I can only focus on myself as an actor—getting feedback on my work and becoming conscious of different perspectives on it.

Q. Actors discover such feedback and perspectives first through the types of projects they are offered. Do you like the types of opportunities that come your way?

JG – For me, I definitely get lots of offers in the genre pictures, period drama, and fantasy. I don’t think I have a bulky physique or am a rugged tough looking guy, but I do get offers in such tough genres. While I was on a break, I received quite a lot of scripts, but I’d had a thirst for melodramatic, romantic, or slice-of-life projects in which I get to give more natural performances. And time flew by while I was looking for what I wanted.

Q. How come directors and writers think of Lee Joon-gi when it comes to tough-guy stuff? Do you think that’s because there is only a limited pool of talent that can pull off physically demanding roles?

JG – I decided to take that [perception of me] as a compliment. Because you don’t really get feedback like that easily – that you are an actor who specializes in certain genres. I changed the way I view things like this as I made up my mind to take this project – SBS’s <Again My Life>. How come I kept trying to avoid those projects that needed me? I realized that when you’re too preoccupied with one thing, you unintentionally end up ruling out the things you are actually good at. I won’t be able to run, jump, and roll forever as much as I do now. I think doing what I am good at is my way to repay people who have chosen me, as long as my body allows.

Q. A few years ago, on variety program <Knowing Bros>, you had your legs lifted up to 180 degrees or did the splits so effortlessly. I still remember that Kang Ho-dong gave you that look of “approval” he rarely gives. He said back then, “[JG’s] His body is like a rock. Like a rock.”

JG – Haha. I don’t really have a particularly muscular body. I love making movements with my body that make me look agile, elaborate, and flexible. Some actors have bulky bodies and are powerful, but for me, I think my [action] style is more like that of Bruce Lee. Even when I plan action stunts, I put emphasis on how speedy and elaborate those moves look.

Q. For an actor, “action [fight]” actually means “action performance.” In other words, you should be able to put your body to good use while at the same time giving a performance.

JG – That’s right, because, after all, it is part of acting. It [action stunt] should help my performance look even better and convey my character and the situation my character is in. We don’t say it’s a good action performance simply because the moves look great.

Q. Just as Bruce Lee and Don Lee have different fighting styles, I guess different types of action performances require different types of details.

JG – Sometimes, the fights should be full of spectacle that make you look invincible, like those in fantasy or hero genre pictures. There are also times when your fights should feel very raw and real and involve taking hits, dodging, and rolling around to get out of situations your character ends up in. In my previous drama called <Two Weeks>, the protagonist [JG’s character Tae-san] gets into situations where he falls off the cliff and almost drowns, or gets buried up to the neck and has difficulty breathing. I remember constantly rolling around and getting injuries every day while filming that drama. At one point, I really came this close to dying. Those action performances were done to show the desperation in my character. If I want my character to look desperate, then I really have to feel that desperation myself. I can only achieve that level of desperation only when I suffer fractures or come close to dying, for instance.

Q. I feel like listening to some unbelievably amazing stories right now… (laughs). Okay, then, how do you get an action performance that is a bit less desperate?

JG – Action scenes in historical dramas for TV are usually supposed to be fantasy, so they should look beautiful and graceful. In <Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo> or <Scholar Who Walks the Night>, for instance, we needed the action scenes to stir viewers’ imagination and be visually pleasing as well. Those scenes were often directed in ways that let me incorporate the movements of the [flowing] hanbok sleeves or that made my character leave a sort of afterimage behind [following a fight]. They might look a bit childish when compared to straightforward action scenes in contemporary dramas. But when you let yourself immerse in the fantasy of a historical drama, each scene feels like a dream in and of itself. On the other hand, <Gunman in Joseon> is a historical drama where I went more rough and tough, riding horses and running around. I could spend all night talking about things like this (laughs).

Q. In <Again My Life> that’s premiering in April, you play a prosecutor who gets killed, is born again traveling back in time to high school days, and then sets out for revenge. Is this character also desperate?

JG – This time, my character does not really turn into, say, vengeance incarnate or look like a wounded beast after losing everything. For my character, focusing on pursuing justice comes first because that’s his goal as a prosecutor; revenge comes second. So it won’t feel so desperate or pitiful; it will be a very satisfying drama.

Q. Based on the web toon and the original web novel, it belongs to the time travel genre. What’s so unique about it is that the main character gets sent back 15 years in time when he is born again.

JG – We [Team Again My Life] call it “second chance at life.” In other words, he is given a chance to start over, from a specific point in his life. Since he is born again with all the memories of his previous life intact, bringing back all the existing data with him, this main character clearly knows what to do and what to prepare.

Q. Imagine you go back 15 years in time and start all over. What would your life look like?

JG – I actually talked a bit about it with the director and the staff members. I think it’d be so painful for me. What about all the things I went through to get this far in my life! (Laughs) I don’t think I could deal with again all those things I went through. I’m not even sure if I could pass those numerous auditions again. But after going through all the hardships and building things [my career] well, I got to where I am today. I love the way I am now.

Q. What’s the best way for you to return to the ‘normal you’ after finishing a project?

JG – Up until recently, I thought resting as much as possible was the best way. I felt like when I was on a break, I could remove the traces of my previous project gradually by preparing for fan meets or concerts. But how should I put this… Living in this Covid-19 era made me face reality, I guess? I began to think that not being able to do the things I used to do is no longer a temporary thing, but the whole world will have changed completely by the time Covid-19 has ended. When that time comes, then, hopefully I will have had my whole system changed as well so I can adapt to that [changed] world. I am not sure what the answer is just yet, but at least I would like to change the way I think so long and hard about something and get very serious when I approach it (laughs). Because when I do, I feel like I get wrapped up in my own useless worries and fall deeper and deeper into them. I figured that I’d be better off just quickly bringing home new worries about the next project [instead of useless worries].

Q. I have heard about Lee Joon-gi’s fan meets that are like festivals. Have you noticed your international fan base has grown noticeably bigger since <Moon Lovers> where you starred alongside IU, Kang Ha-neul, Nam Joo-hyuk, and Baekhyun?

JG – Yes, to my great surprise. To be honest, it was quite a bummer that it didn’t perform so well locally [in South Korea] as we had expected, but about a year after it came off the air, we started getting so much feedback from overseas fans. We got so much response from all over the world, not just in Asia—Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America….

Q. Normally when a project ends, it’s out of the hands of the cast and production crew, but we are seeing more and more of this situation where you never know what kind of news you’ll hear, and when or where you do.

JG – That is exactly why I feel “right this moment, right now” is important every time I am at work on set. [While at work on set] I want to pour everything that I possibly have into it, right now, at this very moment. I do not want to think of being on set as just business, especially when I make a living from doing a job that involves conveying and expressing human emotions. I hold dear every single person I work with and connect with. When you work hard and live diligently, you will have no regrets even after it [that moment] passes by.

Q. So you work hard and live diligently, and is there anything you can say “I am the best at this”?

JG – Well, I think I try my best to be good at whatever I do. For one thing, observing people is like a natural part of me. I hate bothering other people, and I also hate causing other people even minor inconveniences, so I keep my eyes open and constantly watch my surroundings. Even at moments when the other person is not aware, I try to gauge how that person’s feeling and stay observant.

Q. It’s not necessarily because they are good or bad people, but celebrities are more prone to put themselves before everyone else because that’s typically part of their job—having others take care of them and getting attention.

JG – I became what I am now, after I kept making changes to myself because I wanted to change the way I was. Back when I first gained popularity, I realized I would not last long unless I changed myself. When I come across some old stuff about me, I see a version of myself I find strange now. ‘Lee Joon-gi at 24’ and ‘Lee Joon-gi from his 30s onwards’ are two totally different personalities.

Q. They say people don’t really change. So if you really did change, does that mean there was some big occasion or some effort that led to the change?

JG – People can change. They do change. As long as there is some event that’s big enough for you to break out of your own ego, and as long as you have the willpower to break out of it. I learned the fact that “people can really change” through none other than myself. Doesn’t it happen to everybody that, when you’re put in a certain situation [new to you], you eventually get acclimated to it or have it hammered into your head? In my case, I hammered it into my head myself [that I needed to change] and I did change in a good way, so how lucky I was! (laughs).

Q. So when you had this big realization that you had to change, was it about your personality and attitude?

JG – I did not have a specific notion [about what to change] in mind, and it was a step-by-step search for me. Because, until I actually changed, I had not had the slightest idea exactly what I was doing wrong, or what part of me I had to change and how. So, I decided to take small things first and do them differently than I had done before. [When I asked myself] “What kind of life am I living? Have I not been seeing certain people as much as I should have?” Then I started by seeing those people first. Or, “Am I not listening to people properly?” Then I would start by listening more carefully. Or when I felt like, “Just listening without showing any reactions means nothing,” then I would start showing more reactions. So I made more small changes along the way, step by step. And then came a point where I found myself comfortable with such changes and efforts I was making, and the changes became a natural part of me.

Q. Looking back on your 20s, I see you went through so many ups and downs you’d encounter in show business. Can you tell us about the small efforts you make or things you enjoy to step out of your comfort zone as a celebrity?

JG – I love walking, so I walk a lot. Watching things like people laughing and chatting, I walk all the way to the Han River for hours on end, and it’s so fun. I feel like I see more of the world as I walk.

Q. Are you good at dealing with loneliness?

JG – No, I feel loneliness boiling up inside of me (laughs). As I get older, I feel huge waves of this loneliness washing over me. There are a lot of times when I want to feel the warmth of people, whether by working closely with them or by dating someone. The hardest part of my job is still acting itself. I think actors should know a lot about how people live [human affairs], but I mostly rely on my own imagination when I act. I hardly ever get to interact with different people and get to know other parts of the world…. I only have a small, close-knit group of people I’m close with.

Q. So, for Lee Joon-gi, is ‘walking’ about refreshing yourself and watching parts of the world, and at the same time, a solution to dealing with this loneliness boiling up inside of you?

JG – It made me realize why it’s important to get expensive shoes that only marathoners would wear; it opened my eyes to that part of the world (laughs). I sometimes act like an early adopter buying electronics or creating a whole new atmosphere for my home. In other words, I find fun in ‘unboxing’ and ‘remodeling’ [refreshing]. I bought this projector that I did not even feel the need to buy and project videos on the wall just because I felt like it (laughs). Then it occurs to me, “Why on earth am I projecting these on the wall and watching them alone?...” Or, when I see photos of beautiful homes while looking for remodeling ideas, I’m like, “I wish I could make my own family in such a beautiful home…” And then, I will go out and start walking again. That’s what my life is like.

Q. Are you hoping that getting married will help you know more about how people live and will bring some big changes to you personally or your career?

JG – Because then [by getting married] I will learn about all sorts of emotions like happiness, pain, and sorrow, and gain experiences. I grew up being loved in a warm family. A big life goal of mine is that as a human being, I want to make a family of my own like that. It also means that, as an actor, going forward, I want to continue to live just the way I have lived up until now, not more, not less. If we can describe a person’s life as a declining line graph as the person gets older, then I want to make that decline a beautiful way down. Slowly, and beautifully. It will be a long journey until I successfully land. I think it would be a shaky landing if I remain alone throughout the journey.

Q. What is your ideal partner like?

JG – I don’t know. If I meet that person, wouldn’t I feel drawn to her or get certain feelings? I do not want to sound like such a clueless person, but in a way, it’s true I am clueless (laughs). I was afraid of turning 40 before I did, but now that I am in my 40s, I find myself just the same. Even physically, I have not really changed. Even those in their 20s are amazed by my stamina and energy! Why, though? Maybe because I devote all my energy to myself and myself only? I don’t really have any personal relationships or [my own] family that I divert this energy to (laughs).

Q. I feel like Lee Joon-gi is longing for marriage and at the same time, feeling proud of the life you have lived so far as an actor.

JG – All my life I’ve been diligent and hard-working. Acting is a profession where there is a specific use for each actor. I may not be the kind of actor who makes consecutive hits, but there are still people out there giving me offers even now because I have met or surpassed certain expectations. Of course, there are people who have supported me so that I don’t get swamped by useless worries. If someone else, not just me, has been able to live like this, too, then those who have made it possible for that person also deserve our applause. Because it shows the sense of responsibility that they have had.

Q. When you get to have a soft landing at a certain point in life, then do you think you will give yourself a round of applause?

JG – I feel like there isn’t anything so special about ‘life.’ Perhaps life is about living in the present moment and being happy with who you are now while waiting for another ‘fate’ to happen? Whether that ‘fate’ means a person I meet and connect with, or a project I do, or whatever it is.

End.

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

Universal’s ’47 Ronin’ Gets a Facelift With Female-Skewing ‘Blade’

Production wraps this week in Hungary on “Blade of the 47 Ronin,” a sequel to Universal’s 2013 Japanese-themed action classic “47 Ronin.” The new movie represents a substantial revamp that emphasizes Asian fantasy heroes and female characters and addresses some of the cultural criticisms of the previous Keanu Reeves-starring picture.

The action is moved forward by some 300 years to present-day Budapest, which is intended as a metaphor for East-West confluence, and where a meeting of the five Samurai clans is taking place. In addition to the male clan leaders, the meeting is also attended by three Onna Bugeisha (literally ‘Women Warriors’), though their presence is initially resented.

Production was handled by Universal Studios through its 1440 Productions unit for Netflix. The streamer is expected to release it sometime in 2022, though a specific date is still unknown.

The existence of female Samurai who fought alongside their male colleagues in feudal Japan is well documented. But their stories have rarely been told due to societal pressure and political turmoil. In “Blade” the women lead the campaign to reunite two halves of a mythical sword and keep it out of the hands of a villain who wants power for himself.

The cast is headed by: Anna Akana, a U.S. actor and YouTube creator; U.S. martial artist Teresa Ting; Mike Moh, who played Bruce Lee in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”; veteran Vietnamese-American actor and filmmaker Dustin Nguyen (“Warrior”); Australian Chris Pang (“Charlie’s Angels,” “Crazy Rich Asians”); Japanese actor and model Chikako Fukuyama (“Terrace House: Aloha State”); and seasoned action specialist Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3,” “Wu Assassins”).

They are joined by Luna Fujimoto (Chinese hit “Monster Hunt 2,” and the upcoming “Wandering Earth 2”) as one of the three female leaders; Koieyama Akira (“Samurai Marathon,” “47 Ronin,” “Sense8”); and Nino Furuhata (“Spaghetti Code Love,” “Tetris,” “The Limit of Sleeping Beauty”).

The ensemble is pulled together by director Ron Yuan and producer Tim Kwok.

Yuan acknowledges that the preceding film was accused in some quarters of “whitewashing” and by others of distorting Japanese history through the use of elements such as Chinese-style dragons. “We need people who know the genres, people that know the history, people that can understand how to bring these stories, make it fresh and pop off the screen. Not like those old TV shows where every time there’s an Asian theme, or an Asian character, you hear the gong going ‘ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding dang’,” he told Variety. “None of that shit anymore.”

Yuan also wanted to use the sequel to give the franchise a facelift. “It was important that this new samurai and Ninja culture could be opened up to different personalities, not just in the Asian world, but all over, making it more international,” he said.

“It is an English-language film. But I purposely have two of our actresses speak to each other in Japanese. It is a homage, but it is also just to let people know, they can speak Japanese, they can speak English, it doesn’t have to be either-or.”

(via Variety)

[blacksunscorpio]

The Planets, Elevated

Sun

As the Most Elevated indicates a drive to express one’s creative essence and core ego values before the world. This individual will shine amongst their circle of peers. This person’s 15 minutes of fame can extend to a lifetime of fame in one area of life or another. The world is a stage they play on. They were put here on earth to display their creative gifts and talents. They tend to be leaders. Tend to be worshipped. Popular. If the elevated planet is conjunct the Midheaven, this is a strong indicator of celebrity. Martin Luther King had his Sun in Capricorn as the Zenith of his chart. Albert Einstein’s Sun was his most elevated as well.

Moon

As the Most Elevated is more inverted than the Sun. Whereas those born with the Sun highest in the chart can feel an urge toward leadership or expressing their egoic and creative impulses in a public way, those with the Moon highest are more often drawn to project their personality or their emotions into the spotlight. Many actors and musicians have this placement. Individuals with the Moon at the Zenith of their chart can become well-known for their nurturing talents. Their emotions. Their moods and the creativity surrounding them. Their temperament and what they create with them/ expressing their emotions to the public can gain them notoriety. The late John Lennon of Beatles fame had his Moon as his most elevated. Academy Award winner, Meryl Streep’s most elevated planet is the moon as well.

Mercury

As the Most Elevated indicates a native with an urge to project one’s ideas or verbal skills before the world. They will find many ways to get their voices out there or “broadcasted to the public”. The sign the Planet is in indicates how this will be done. This individual will be renowned for their linguistic, mental, and/or intellectual talents. Could become well known for their teaching abilities, writing abilities, communications abilities, or public relation abilities. Writer Sylvia Plath had Mercury in intense Scorpio as the highest planet in her chart.  

Venus

As the most elevated indicates a desire to project beauty and/or harmony in some way before the public. Widely desired/admired.  Marilyn Monroe was born with Venus as her highest planet, and she became virtually synonymous with mainstream ideals of beauty. They will be the Models, the creatives, The fashionistas, the person with a “nice girl or nice guy” persona.  This placement often leads to occupations directly or indirectly involved with aesthetics and design. Tom Hanks, widely considered as Hollywood’s nicest leading man [A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, anyone?] has Venus as his most elevated. Marilyn Monroe and David Bowie both did as well.

Mars

As the most elevated Indicates a drive to project energy and strength before the world. Muhammed Ali had Mars as his most elevated planet. Ruthless ambition. Renowned undefeated heavyweight champion in boxing. Martial arts ruled his life and where he received the most notoriety. Definitely a feisty placement as well as one that will make the native hard to ignore. This placement indicates a leader. The types to set shit off. The type to be the “boss” in whatever field of work they choose. Spearhead some sort of militant movement. The ‘Gangster” placement. Very often seen in the charts of those who take part in sports. Franklin D. Roosevelt had Mars as his most elevated planet and he was the driving for behind America’s decision to partake in WWII. Founding father of the Mafia Lucky Luciano also had Mars at the zenith of his chart.

Jupiter

As the most elevated Indicates there is confidence about matters of career or dealings with the public. As a result, this is one of the leading chart indicators of popularity and success, as well as general “good luck,”. Global awareness, travel, teaching, and philosophical/spiritual matters will be their forte. The “prophet” or “guru” aspect. Someone who’s calling in life may involve lots of travel or they can be a “citizen of the world”. Angelina Jolie has Jupiter at the highest point in her chart and not only was her film career a huge success, but she also became a bit of a 2nd Mother Teresa, traveling internationally to adopt children, and doing humanitarian work worldwide. There is also an interest in different spiritual teachings [i.e the Cambodian prayer tattoo on her left shoulder blade.]  This is one of the hardest-hitting horoscopic indicators of popularity and success, as well as general “fortune/luck” in life. Basketball heavyweight Michael Jordan has Jupiter at the Zenith of his chart as does Kim Kardashian. This is also an indicator of one who can become famous or well known for their ideas/thoughts on spirituality. If Jupiter is in Virgo, the native can become renowned for their writings on esoteric or spiritual matters.

Saturn

As the most elevated Like Jupiter, Saturn near the top of one’s chart can show considerable success and prominence in one’s life. But unlike Jupiter, this usually involves far more work and a few tough building blocks along the way. There’s a “late bloomer” quality to the lives of these natives. Many instances, they can experience great struggle in building their career and reputation — that constant ‘between a rock and a hard place”. Yet these people often live to see great rewards and prestige as a result of said hard work. The types to be in inevitable positions of authority in whatever they do but also the types to hold themselves to impossible standards. They must be the best. They will often become well known/ be in positions that involve structure. For example, Queen Elizabeth has this placement, I don’t know a life more structured than the life of a monarch. Spanish artist Picasso was born with Saturn in Taurus as his highest planet; he was subject to enormous criticism regarding his art early on, but eventually found prosperity and fame as a result of his discipline and productivity. Bill Clinton has Saturn at his Zenith and became the leader of the free world. Jazz musician Louis Armstrong rose from an intensely difficult childhood in Louisiana to become a pioneering artist admired by audiences all over the world.

Uranus

As the most elevated indicates a native who possesses a fiercely independent streak and a desire to pursue uniquely personal or unconventional life paths. The weirdo who becomes famous for being.. well, a weirdo. Needless to say, this generally makes it difficult for these people to adapt to rigid routines and structured environments, and in terms of career, they like to have/need as long a leash as possible. They think outside the box and as a result, can gain prestige for doing just that. The “fuck it I do what I want” aspect. This attitude may make them famous and even admired. Geniuses. Actor Steve McQueen had Uranus in Aries as his highest planet, and virtually became Hollywood’s poster boy for the ‘Rebel’ archetype. He also spent time in reform school as an adolescent. The late great Nipsey Hussle had Uranus at the Zenith of his chart and he lived his life in unapologetic opposition to the law being part of the Rolling 60′s Crip gang. You can see this rebel spirit in many of his songs that went platinum. Many Astronauts including Edgar Mitchell have this placement. Those with Uranus as their most elevated see “beyond”. This also indicates the maverick spirit of innovation. This placement is often connected to technology or the media [remember, Uranus has an ‘electric’ energy to it]. A prime example is Apple computer founder Steve Jobs who had Jupiter and Uranus in conjunction as his highest point.

Neptune

As the most elevated indicates a spirit of “reaching for the stars”. I see this planet most elevated in the charts of those renowned for their artistic talents. ESPECIALLY in music and the arts. Many actors have this placement, which is fitting considering Neptune is the planet of dreams/fantasy, and actors are paid to pretend to be someone else. Famous for the mask they wear. Powerful spiritual impulses. An inspiring individual. Can become famous/well known for their idealism or the spiritual messages they send out to the world. When well aspected or unafflicted it can indicate an individual who can become revered for their fantastical ideas. Walt Disney’s most elevated planet was Neptune and I feel many of us can agree that his classic works of fantasy shaped our childhoods. His billion-dollar empire still stands today decades after his death. Elevated Neptunian Bruce Lee not only brought martial arts to the attention of thousands but also expounded on its spiritual philosophy in writings and interviews. He even created Jeet Kune Do, a martial art deeply rooted in spirituality, wrote a book about it, too. 44th President Barack Obama has Neptune as his most elevated planet and his campaign slogan “hope” gave many just that during the 2008 election. An affliction to this most elevated planet can still make one very well known but not necessarily for the best reasons.  When afflicted it can be a dangerous placement and one can suffer or make others suffer from fanatical or delusional teachings. Cult leader Jim Jones had Neptune has his most elevated and his spiritual teachings resulted in the death of hundreds of naive and innocent people due to drugged [Neptune] kool-aid.

Pluto

As the most elevated indicates that an individual’s career or sense of “calling” will be involved with any or all 8th house dealings. Sexuality, death, transformation, secrets, the occult. Megan Fox has Pluto at the highest degree in her chart, though she is a Taurus, her MC is in Scorpio and conjunct her Pluto which is the most elevated. She comes off an undeniable Sex [Plutonic/8th house] symbol. Same for the late great musician Prince, who was very public about sexuality. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia has his Pluto closest to his MC and he was a KGB spy. This is definitely a placement of someone with considerable power. Not one to be underestimated. Capable of covert manipulation and may/can become famous for it. They may also become well known for dealing with dark matters. Jack Kerouac, who celebrated the bohemian “underworld” had his Pluto elevated. Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein became renowned for a book that had to do with a monster made of dead bodies transformed through supernatural means. It is now one of the first books parents will read to their children on Halloween.

Honorable Mentions

There’s been an ongoing discourse about Asteroids/Hypothetical Points being considered “elevated.” It’s a topic of debate within the astrological community. However, if we are to entertain them, this is what they can mean:

Chiron

As the most elevated indicates a calling in life dealing with healing. Dealing with the pain of others and making things better for them. A teacher that is known for helping others find their way.

Lilith

As the most elevated indicates an individual feared and admired for their rebellious sexual spirit. The seductress/seducer. The individual can become loved or hated for their ability to put their wily charms on both men and women. Audrey Hepburn had Lilith at the zenith of her chart, quite close to Saturn near the MC.

Juno

As the most elevated planet may become famous for their marriages or whom they are married to.

Vesta

Famous for their devotion or well known for becoming homemakers.

Pallas

As the most elevated can indicate someone known for their wisdom. How they temper their instincts with discretion.

[therealeagal]

Thoughts on Batman

DID YOU KNOW that Batman is the GOAT? That’s internet lingo for Greatest Of All Time. Bruce Wayne is richer than fifty Jeff Bezoses but still goes out to fight the good fight and he doesn’t afraid of anything.

“But Eagal!” I hear you say. “ AK-SHOO-UH-LEE Batman is a criminal! He’s a rich billionaire who beats up guys who are just-”

Going to have to stop you right there, with two counterpoints. 1: Shut the fuck up. 2: Go away.

Yes, those are my two counterpoints. Very compelling, wouldn’t you agree?

What I mean to say is, yes, Batman is a criminal. He’s a vigilante who operates outside of the law because the police in his home of Gotham City are varying degrees of corrupt and/or incompetent.

But he saves the world. He fights the bad guys and he doesn’t afraid of anything because he wants to make the world a better place. He does everything in his power.

You would think this would make him more popular than ever in this day and age, but all I ever see are boilerplate think-pieces (ones that lack any original thought, or indeed, any thought period) about how “AK-SHOO-UH-LEE BATMAN IS VIOLATING THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF THOSE QUOTE UNQUOTE “CRIMINALS” WHO ARE AK-SHOO-UH-LEE JUST TRYING TO GET BY IN THE WORLD AND AK-SHOO-UH-LEE RICH BILLIONAIRES ARE THE REAL VILLAINS OF SOCIETY“.

That kind of basic take is right up there with “AK-SHOO-UH-LEE SOMEONE WITH SUPERMAN’S POWERS WOULD BE A HORRIBLE PERSON BECAUSE AK-SHOO-UH-LEE NO ONE WOULD EVER AK-SHOO-UH-LEE  BE A GOOD PERSON THEY WOULD AK-SHOO-UH-LEE ABUSE THEIR POWERS”.

In real life there is no question that Batman’s methods would be unacceptable, and that we would all be better served if he put more of his money to combat systemic inequality (more than he actually already does, that is).

But to paraphrase one J. R. R. Tolkien (well, ok, a fictional parody of him), “That’s why it’s called fantasy. It’s meant to be unrealistic, you myopic manatee!”

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but Batman is a fictional character. It certainly came as quite a surprise to me.

If Batman needs to violate the civil rights of someone like Joker in the process of preventing him from murdering everyone in Gotham because he thinks it would be funny, I’m not going to write any essays about how AK-SHOO-UH-LEE JOKER WAS JUST TRYING TO GET BY IN THE WORLD BEFORE THIS RICH ASSHOLE BEAT HIM UP FOR NO REASON.

Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m going to let him, because he lives in a world where the only way to deal with some people is to hit them until they stop being assholes and/or conscious.

“But Eagal!” I hear you say.

Hold on just a moment. Before you speak, I should inform you that this is not a debate. I’m just here to pontificate and will not be entertaining any dissenting opinions at this time. So if you wish to rebut anything I have said here, please refer back to the counterpoints I made at the start of this post.

Still here? Cool. Have a nice day. :)

[introvertguide]

15 Badass Movies for a Fun Time at Home or with Friends

There is a buzz in the air as COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out and the hope of having a movie night with friends is again becoming a reality. Watching alone isn’t as fun because I want to talk to somebody about what I have just seen. A full theater does not agree with my introvert nature because somebody screaming or laughing or talking on their phone will ruin it for me. Watching with a fellow cinephile or two is perfect. But what to watch first? People have been stuck inside, so fantasy and alternative worlds have been overly popular. All I do is talk over zoom for a living. I think what I need most right now is a movie about realistic people with realistic skills that go into a situation and just wreck house. I need a badass movie. What is this “badass” movie you might say? Well, here are some basic criteria: 1) There must be a tough lead character who kicks butt while spouting one liners and doesn’t need superhuman powers (high levels of peak skill with speed, aim, or strength is OK if they are plausible in the real world), 2) most of the characters (good and bad) must be likable, admirable or at least memorable, 3) the lead must face and defeat overwhelming odds against them, and 4) extra points for memorable one liners. Also, I am only dealing with human protagonists (sorry Terminator), but slightly superhuman opposition is acceptable. This list is by no means exhaustive, it is just an example of some badass movies. So in no particular order:

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

To start off the list, I want to mention the most well known American badass. Indiana Jones is a smart guy with a gun and a whip. He is rugged and punches guys in the face. He has weaknesses but works through them to get the job done. Harrison Ford was in his early 40s for this role and had this tough-as-nails and seen the world kind of feel while still being young enough to fight hand to hand. Any of the first three films featuring Indiana Jones would work here, but this is the original and it started the fun. Easy to watch. Easy to cheer for. Great movie. You can’t really go wrong with any age or group with this one. 

2) 13 Assassins (2010)

This movie is extremely badass but not for everyone. This is one of the goriest films I have ever seen as 13 warriors kill off a couple of hundred soldiers and the evil leader that they guard. The movie was directed by Japanese extreme horror icon Takashi Miike if that means anything to you (hey made Audition and Ichi the Killer). The movie has gallons of blood, but also an amazing story of redemption and honor. There are tons of scenes of a single warrior taking on dozens of soldiers and managing to overcome. Not for everyone, but still very much a badass movie.

3) The Raid (2011)

This is an Indonesian action thriller with the word action in bold. The film is directed by Gareth Evans and stars Iko Uwais as part of a small police force that tries to take down an old building that houses a drug lord and his violent gang. It has a lot of what I like in badass movies: one-on-one fights between the lead and almost superhuman villains, long well-choreographed scenes, a banging soundtrack, ridiculous weapons, and ridiculous gore. The fight scenes in tight places and the use of the environment for weaponry is amazing and the sound design makes sure you can feel every punch. The lead character should have no chance, but he makes up for it with skill and being a pure badass. This movie is one of the few that I would describe as having non-stop action.

4) Jon Wick (2014)

When did Keanu Reeves become so cool? I grew up with him being part of the Bill and Ted duo. He decides to learn martial arts and play a god-like being in the Matrix movies and then becomes a one man wrecking crew? I guess he is a badass because he does it so well. Keanu plays a retired hitman who is wronged and decides to go back to work for vengeance. He just won’t stop coming and seems to constantly survive out of pure hatred alone. There are 3 films in the series and any one of them will impress. Pure fun too watch.

5) Casino Royale (2006)

When I was asking around, there were many people who thought that James Bond was the ultimate badass. I disagree in that many of the older films show Bond as overconfident with the assistance of many people. In fact, Q is more of a badass in many ways than James Bond. However, when the series was taken back to its roots with the last book that had not been made into a serious film and made darker, it reached badass levels. From the parkour chase to a poisoning to an extreme torture scene, this was not like any James Bond movie before it. Roger Craig plays a much colder lead who gives no quarter, much more like what the greatest secret agent would have to be. Heavy on violence but light on gore, this film is more for all audiences than other films on this list.

6) Desperado (1995)

What makes this movie is not all about Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek. It is that every other character is memorable and badass as well. The street standoff with Bucho’s men versus El Mariachi, Quino, and Campo is iconic. El Mariachi murders everyone in a bar with precise skill. The rogue assassin Navajas with all the knives played by Danny Trejo. Nothing but extreme shoot outs and fight scenes with a ridiculous variety of guns and explosives. I think what makes this movie so amazing is that all these amazing assassins are incognito and, when they suddenly produce an arsenal out of nowhere, it is always a pleasant surprise. Quino and Campo are amazing when they bring their guitars. 

7) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Truly the role that made Samuel L. Jackson into the ultimate badass. He and his partner Vincent are hitman that keep running into the worst situations. The thing about the film is that everybody is so cool. The characters are cool, the music is cool, the dialogue is cool, hell even the diner featured in the movie is cool. The movie only spans a couple of days (in completely separate segments shown out of order) but packs in 7 distinct situations that are all berserk. From the mind of Quentin Tarantino, this movie is dripping with the best characters traveling through the best story. Highly recommend.

8) Leon: The Professional (1994)

Also known simply as The Professional in the U.S., this film features the debut of Natalie Portman. It is directed by Luc Besson at his best period, right between La Femme Nakita and The Fifth Element. The lead is actually a quiet hitman who reluctantly takes a little 12-year-old girl on as an apprentice to become a paid assassin. Her parents were killed by a corrupt cop and she wants Leon to help her exact revenge. He is an absolute badass and somewhat of a caring surrogate father to the girl. Unlike a lot of the films on this list, the premise is not simply kicking butt in a bad situation. There is serious character growth. Apparently you can be a caring parent and a cold-blooded murderer...and that is badass.

9) Kill Bill (2003)

Being a badass is not exclusive to men and The Bride is a prime example of this. She survives a shot to the head, kills deadly assassins, slaughters a gang, and takes on a crazy school girl bodyguard. She is tougher then any lead I can think of and she has the bad attitude and sense of vengeance that makes for a badass. Combine this with the soundtrack and beautiful cinematography associated with director Quentin Tarantino and you have a beautifully violent movie in which the hits keep coming. Even on this list, the fight scene between the bride and Gogo Yubari is insane. Also note the nod to Bruce Lee with the bright yellow motorcycle suit. Beautifully badass film.

10) Aliens (1986)

In nature, there are few things more dangerous than a mother protecting their young. A mother will fight you to the death and make sure that, at the very least, you won’t be able to go after her kids. Now imagine an alien planet covered with hostile beings created in the mind of James Cameron and Stan Winston and you have a setting made to create a real badass. In the beginning, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is just desperate to survive and barely knows how to use a weapon. She meets a little survivor named Newt and then has a real reason to become aggressive. She and a group of marines fight through a station filled with super destructive xenomorph aliens made straight from nightmares to save this kid. The transformation is truly amazing and culminates in a mech suit versus a giant queen alien and it is extremely badass.

11) Army of Darkness (1992)

Far and away the funniest movie on this list, this is the third film stemming from Evil Dead and again stars Bruce Campbell taking on the deadites that were raised by reading from the Necronomicon. The opposition is the undead evil that faces the world which makes the violence very unrealistic. This was early work from Sam Raimi and features a variety of different shots done to the extreme. What really makes this film stand out is how Bruce Campbell is amazing at delivering a one liner. His classic quips have been used as fun Easter eggs in video games like Duke Nukem and World of Warcraft for decades. The quintessential horror comedy and a perfect example of a badass.

12) Die Hard (1988)

Apparently, I am a big fan of single characters that need to work their way through a building of villains using mostly intelligence and the element of surprise. Throw in some one liners and I am all for it. That is exactly what this is with Bruce Willis crawling barefoot around a 40 story building and fighting off a gang of villains. The movie also has Alan Rickman as the main bad guy and he is chewing the scenery. This is a great example of being a badass, but it is too bad that the follow up sequels were so poor. Definitely stick to the original and let the rest pass by.

13) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

An OG of the badass movie genre, this is some of the best of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western. Instead of one badass, this movie has three different leads that are all amazing. You have the good, Clint Eastwood, who is an amazing shot and a heart of gold under a rough exterior. You have the bad, Lee Van Cleef, playing an conniving assassin that will kill anyone that he doesn’t have a use for. Finally, you have the ugly, Eli Wallach, as a desert rat that will do anything to survive. They all gain information about a gold stash and need to work together to get it, but this creates a vortex of cheating, undercutting, and straight up murder. Clint Eastwood is more of the classic badass with his cigar, hat, and poncho, It is an iconic look on an iconic character in an iconic movie. That is what I call badass.

14) Ong-Bak (2003)

This less of a badass movie and more houses some of the most amazingly badass fight scenes that can only be described as badass. This movie introduced the great Tony Jaa to the western world and showed the high flying nature of Thai boxing and Muay Thai in general. The main character is entered into a street fighting tournament and the moves include a flying double knee drop and a full splits kick. If the whole movie was the tournament, it would be the best movie that ever existed. The variety of opponents makes the fighting even better and the cinematography is top notch. Tony Jaa is truly badass in this film.

15) Dredd (2012)

Not the crappy version with Stallone, this movie is seriously badass. It features Karl Urban who is helmeted for the entire film (as Dredd would be) taking on a 200 story mega slum filled with residents that want to shoot him dead. There is a drug dealer high up in the building and she locks down the entire compound with instructions to kill Dredd, who only has his rookie partner to help. He takes on random resident mobs, groups of gang members, and even a trio of mini guns that have bullets that can rip through walls. He has a smart gun with a bunch of ammo that he uses judiciously to kill everybody. This movie was seriously underrated since it had not been that long since the garbage Judge Dredd came out in 1995. The 2012 is a far superior movie, being much more violent and dark instead of having Rob Schneider as the comedy relief (not badass).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know there will be a lot of opinions about what makes a badass film and what movies i didn’t add. Feel free to add your own movies or critique my choices. I will stand by my choices, however, and recommend any of these films for a night of cheers and badass action.

[sagemoderocklee]

Reiteration ❤️ A (but not GaaLee :p) P T

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

oof. okay so aside from GaaLee:

1) ShikaTema 2) NejiTen 3) Kakagai

i think these are the only like three ships i could say i feel strongly enough about that i’d classify them as OTPs. GaaLee honestly gets its own category anyways. im not really active in any other fandoms, and the only other ship I’ve ever felt as strongly about as i have gaalee was really Harry/Draco and well... ya know. Although if i were still super active in CLAMP fandom KuroFai and DouWata would 100000% be up there. And of course the forever and unbeatable Sakura/Shaoran but specifically CCS SakuShao because I think TRC isn’t quite as good with their romance

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

oh. that’s. okay we’re answering hard questions tonight i see.

something niche for you and me: new member of your MLM/communist/leftist reading group is Very Cute but very new to MLM/etc and needs extra help to understand the complicated history, theories, etc.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything).

oh god. this is really opening a can of worms lmao and also.... i may have to put this under a cut because god i have so fucking many and some of them may need elaboration.

1. Gaara doesn’t ever take up sleeping/napping post Shukaku

this is something that I know a lot of ppl don’t like/want because everyone wants Gaara to be happy and like big same! but i do think that Gaara’s physiology is entirely altered from Shukaku and the lack of sleep. I feel like having it ingrained in him that he couldn’t sleep, knowing the devastation it would cause, plus all the trauma he has--he’d be plagued by nightmares first of all, and no shinobi is gonna wanna take a sleep aid or something to help them sleep more easily because that would just be a huge opening for someone to attack you. but the other thing is i think it would genuinely make him feel sick. like i know that when i get too little sleep i feel sick because my body needs a certain amount. BUT i also know that those days where im too depressed and don’t get out of bed and sleep too much i ALSO feel like shit. Gaara has lived his entire life without sleep--barring specific instances of forced sleep to release Shukaku--and his body has to have adapted to that. fifteen years of not sleeping there’s no way his body would know what to do with that. his body is so used to subsisting (and this is my own like explanation for how Gaara survived pre and post Shukaku) off of massive quantities of food and by funneling his own chakra into his brain to act as rest, healing, etc.  like i think at this point it’s so unconscious that he isn’t even aware he’s doing it anymore--like breathing. His chakra--which is already another physiological system in their bodies--is just taking up the job of the rest portion of his brain.

that all being said, i do still think this will have an overall affect on his lifespan, but not necessarily his physical or mental health in the immediate sense.

2. Kankuro is straight.

this goes for like all the characters i see as straight, and like i hate like putting this in the like “die defending” category, but there’s this sort of.... sense that when you’re LGBT in fandom you’re gonna see every character as gay and you’re sus/someone’s gonna side eye you if you don’t. like i get the whole ‘well obviously everything is straight and cis IRL, and im sick of it’ reasoning behind “everyone is gay/trans” but the thing is.... I wanna see cis and straight people who support their gay/trans friends and family. I don’t need to live in a world where no one is straight and cis. I need to live in a world where people who are straight and cis actually support and love LGBT people. i personally don’t get anything out of the fantasy of no straight cis people because what does that solve? and what does that say about the homophobia and transphobia within the series? It doesn’t solve or say anything. And quite frankly a series like Naruto is inherently homophobic and transphobic (especially trans misogynistic), and i think brushing that aside with an “everyone’s gay/trans” is more insulting than helpful because it’s not addressing the issue. I’m more invested in seeing the characters who aren’t LGBT supporting and loving and working to make the world better for their LGBT friends, family, and community.

like i know not everyone is writing/reading fanfiction or art or what have you in fandom for like realism or whatever, i get the whole escapism of it all, but i approach it this way because for me I just don’t get anything out of pretending that the -isms and -phobias within the series don’t exist.

also straight trans people exist?????

i could go on about this--like some characters are just... not good and i don’t wanna claim that as LGBT because of that--but like i think this is the biggest thing for me at the end of the day: seeing ppl who aren’t LGBT supporting LGBT ppl.

3. Gaara is a polyglot. Also, he’s self-taught in just about everything. He spent most of his youth in the Suna library for obvious reasons, so reading, writing, language, poetry, history, politics, arts, etc he learned there on his own.

4. Shikamaru and Temari live in Suna 6 months out of the year, and Konoha the other 6. Temari does NOT give up her job to be a nagging wife, and Shikamaru is 100% a wife man.

5. Lee is not originally from Konoha or Fire. He doesn’t remember his parents or how he wound up at a Konoha orphanage because trauma. Also his first language isn’t Japanese.

I have more specific HCs about who Lee’s parents are, where he came from, and what happened to his parents, but that’s like spoilers for a fic.

6. Tenten is not an outright orphan. She actually comes from a clan of weapons masters and smiths.

I think it’s fairly common for ppl to assume Tenten is an orphan because we obviously never see her family--granted we just don’t see much of her to begin with--but I personally fell in love with the idea of her having a clan with the focus being weapons. Her parents are still dead, but she lives with her grandmother, who’s renowned for her weapons.

7. Lee has a HUGE amount of chakra. Like obnoxiously huge stores of it that he just doesn’t know how to manipulate--not quite Kisame levels, but definitely a LOT. He gets as far as walking on water and walls, but he absolutely has to be focused to accomplish those feats and prefers just going really fast so he doesn’t fall in/off.

8. Sage mode!Rock Lee.

I have talked about this before(x, x), but you can absolutely pry this from my cold dead hands--actually, you couldn’t. I’d still hold on to this even in death.

9. Lee has like a photographic memory which is why he always writes things down that people tell him.

10. Gaara will be the last Kazekage--whoever comes after him (and i do have a HC for that) will be Kazekage only in the sense that they’re like the figurehead maybe, but ultimately Gaara is working to completely change the shinobi way of life and the Kage system will be dismantled starting with Suna/Gaara.

11. In a modern AU context, Lee is a HUGE fan of Queen and Bruce Lee.

12. Lee definitely grows his hair out later on in life and changes up his attire and becomes his own person.

13. The Kazekage Estate is a generation home--most households in Suna are, and in fact, it’s really fucking weird for someone not to live in a generational home--so Gaara lives there with his siblings. When Temari gets married, she and Shikamaru live there, and continue to do so when they have kids. If Kankuro has a kid (and a spouse), they’ll live there too. Lee eventually moves in. The house is always filled with love. When Gai visits with Kakashi, or when Tenten and Neji visit, they stay there too.

[gravecinema]

Top 10 Horror Movie Franchises - 07/06/2020

Number 10 – Phantasm

Number of movies - 5

In the first movie of this series, the residents of a small town have begun dying under mysterious circumstances, leading the young boy Mike to investigate. After discovering that the town's mortician -- known as the Tall Man -- is killing and reanimating the dead, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody, and local ice cream man Reggie. Working together, they try to lure out and kill the Tall Man, all while avoiding his zombie minions and a deadly flying silver sphere.

Featuring a beautiful Plymouth Hemi Cuda, a four-barrel shotgun-toting ice cream man, and a menacing tall and creepy antagonist with a ton of iconic flying silver balls of death, the Phantasm series is one the best and most enduring franchises in all of horror. With most of the main cast and actors returning and being featured in all five films, the quality of the series rarely dips, which can always be a detriment for other franchises. This is extra impressive considering the first film came out in 1979, with the final one being released 37 years later in 2016.

The character of Reggie would go on to become a great horror hero on par with the character of Ash from the Evil Dead series. His character becomes the main heart of the series, and really gives the audience someone to root for in each of the films. Combine that with the great villain of the Tall Man and the unforgettable killer flying spheres, and the Phantasm series is definitely deserving of the number 10 spot in the top 10 horror franchises of all time.

Number 9 – Saw

Number of movies - 9

In the first Saw movie, a photographer and an oncologist wake up in a dark and dirty bathroom while chained to pipes at either end. The two men soon realize that they've been trapped by a sadistic serial killer nicknamed "Jigsaw." Jigsaw then forces them to complete his perverse puzzle to live, while flashbacks reveal the fates of his previous victims. Meanwhile, the Dr.'s wife and young daughter are forced to watch his torture via closed-circuit video.

That first Saw movie is intense and suspenseful with a great twist ending. Working off a low budget, it would become one of the highest grossing movies of the year, and spawn 8 sequels, with the latest one set to be released within the near future. For seven years, the Saw franchised owned the Halloween movie season, with a new installment of the series being released every year. The low cost of the production of the movies pretty much guaranteed a high return at the box office for as long as the movies remained popular.

The character of Jigsaw would go on to become an Icon of the new millennium of horror. The movies would coin a new subgenre of horror known as torture porn. They have certainly left their mark and continue to inspire newer filmmakers today. They will always make us want to answer the question of whether or not we want to play one of Jigsaw’s games.

Number 8 – Psycho

Number of movies - 6  

Secretary Marion Crane is fleeing after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis. She buys a new car and soon gets caught in a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the small Bates Motel and meets the polite but odd proprietor Norman Bates, a young man with an interest in taxidermy and possessing a difficult relationship with his mother. One fateful shower later, and Psycho would then transform itself into a landmark of horror cinema.

The original Psycho movie by Alfred Hitchcock is one of the great masterpieces of horror. It made an entire generation afraid to take a shower the same way Jaws made people afraid to go into the ocean. The shower scene is one of the true iconic moments of horror with a great soundtrack to go with it. The great twist at the end would give Anthony Perkins one of the most memorable roles in horror, and he would go on to give equally great performances in the next three sequels.

The first Psycho sequel released 23 years after the original is one of the best sequels I have ever seen and is just as pleasing to watch as the first movie, with another great ending. While the quality of the other films may be questionable, Anthony Perkins always gives a great performance and makes the movies well worth a watch. That’s why the Psycho series is one of my favorites, and worthy of a spot in my top 10.

Number 7 – Evil Dead

Number of movies - 4

Ashley "Ash" Williams played by the great Bruce Campbell, his girlfriend Linda, and three friends drive into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book bound in human flesh and inked in blood called the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens and possesses the dead when it's read aloud. The friends inadvertently release the evil from the book and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead. Ash watches his friends become possessed one by one and must make a difficult decision before dawn in order to save his own life in the first of Sam Raimi's great trilogy.

The first movie of the series is a landmark in independent horror, and the next movies would each outdo the other in their own way, with Evil Dead 2 being more of a horror comedy, and Army of Darkness being more of a horror fantasy adventure. There would also be a remake released in 2013 that would take the series back to its terror roots and it is one of the better remakes of the genre. Bruce Campbell would also return as Ash in the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead in 2015 for three seasons.

There is not a weak installment in the entire series, and the character of Ash continues to be one the most iconic heroes in all of horror. When you have a chainsaw for a hand, and a boomstick in the other, the cool factor is definitely on your side. Another movie installment has recently been announced, and that is sure to be another great watch in one of the greatest horror series ever produced.

Number 6 – Frankenstein

Number of movies - 7

Released in 1931, The first iconic Universal horror film of this series follows the mad scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to create life by assembling a creature from body parts grave robbed of the deceased. Helped by his loyal hunchback assistant, Fritz, Frankenstein succeeds in animating his great monster, played by Boris Karloff in his breakout role, but, confused and possessing an abnormal brain, it escapes into the countryside and begins to wreak havoc on the local villagers. Frankenstein searches for the elusive creature, and eventually must confront his tormented creation.

The original Frankenstein series of movies is among the most historical and iconic in all of horror. It was the original series to bring true terror to audiences starting all the way back in the 30’s. It is the most successful and prolific series of the original Universal horror monsters and maintains a high level of quality with each film. Bride of Frankenstein is highly regarded as one of the best sequels ever made. Each film has some of the best actors of their time, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man kicked off the very first cinematic universe of films.

This universe reaches its zenith with the final film of this franchise in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. This classic film can be considered the first horror comedy, and brings together the classic monsters of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man, with even the Invisible Man making a quick cameo at the end. It features only the second and last cinematic performance of the great Bela Lugosi as Dracula and has as great an ending as any horror franchise can ask for, inspiring even greater franchises in the years to come. This landmark horror series of cinema more than earns its place in the top 10.

Number 5 – Child's Play

Number of movies - 8

Gunned down by a detective, dying murderer Charles Lee Ray, played by the great Brad Dourif, uses black magic to put his soul inside a buddi doll named Chucky, which an unsuspecting mother then buys for her young son, Andy. When Chucky kills Andy's babysitter, the boy realizes that his new doll is alive and he tries to warn people, but he's institutionalized. Now his mom must convince the detective of the existence of the murderous doll, before Andy becomes Chucky's next victim, and the next vessel for the killer’s soul.

The greatness of the Child’s Play series is the ongoing story of the killer doll Chucky. Aside from the recent remake, all the movies in the series are written by Don Mancini, which provides the series with great continuity. Once the series starts getting named for Chucky and drops the Child’s Play title, each installment offers something new and different from the previous one. The introduction of killer doll Tiffany in Bride of Chucky breathes new life into the series, and her character soon becomes just as iconic as Chucky himself.

After the events of the most recent film which ended in a bit of a cliffhanger, a new television series will soon be released further exploring these characters and expanding the mythology in this great and ongoing franchise that started in 1988. The length of this franchise, it’s iconic status, and the continuing installments of the series has this franchise earning its place in the top half of my top 10 horror franchises.

Number 4 – Halloween

Number of movies - 11

On Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was then locked away in and institution for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a now adult Michael Myers steals a car and escapes. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, donning a simple white mask where he looks for his next victims, including that of Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her first starring role.

The very first Halloween movie has to be the most iconic in all of slasher-horror. It has spawned a franchise that has released 11 theatrical movies, with 2 more soon to be released within the next two years. The memorable theme song can be considered to be the finest in all of horror. Laurie Strode is also known as one of the best final girls of all time. Even after the series gets a little tired, every now and again, a new semi reboot gets released to install new life into the series, such as the most recent installment in 2018.

Even though the Halloween series is probably the most well-known horror franchise, the inconsistent quality of the movies and multiple restarts of continuity keeps this series out of my top 3. Starting with the third film, the series starts to branch off in multiple directions and continuities that essentially turn the Halloween franchise into a choose-your-own-adventure series. However, just like Michael Myers, the Halloween franchise never stays dead for long and always finds a way to come back.

Number 3 – Scream

Number of movies - 4

In 1996, writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven re-invented and revitalized the slasher-horror genre with this modern horror classic, which manages to be funny, clever and scary. The movie starts with the finest opening scene in all of horror and shocks the audience into believing that no one is safe and that anything can happen. As a ghost-faced knife-wielding maniac stalks high school students in the remote town of Woodsboro, a who-dun-it takes place as the cast tries to figure out who the killer is as they all start to die one by one.  

With the first few sequels, the Scream franchise single handedly revitalized the entire horror genre that had been on a downward trend in the 90’s, with each film being a commentary on certain aspects of the genre. After the initial trilogy, a fourth film was released a decade later to add another self-aware take on reboots and remakes that had been happening more widely during that time period. With each movie being directed by Wes Craven and with the main surviving characters returning for each one, the quality and continuity of this series remains higher than any other franchise in horror.  

With the announcement of a new movie planning to be released within the next few years, the Scream series continues to live on. Even with the sad passing of Wes Craven, the willingness of cast members to keep returning to this series almost guarantees that the quality of movies will remain to be high. As Sydney Prescott, Neve Campbell will go on as possibly the greatest final girl in all of horror, starring and surviving in each installment of the series. The sheer force of creative nature that keeps the quality of each movie insanely high earns this franchise my number 3 spot.

Number 2 – Friday the 13th

Number of Movies - 12

In the first movie of this classic and iconic horror series, Crystal Lake's history of murder doesn't deter a young group of counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced and lusty young people pay little heed to crazy Ralph. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they're slashed, maimed, and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless and unseen killer.

If Halloween started the slasher craze, then the Friday the 13th series launched it into the stratosphere. With 8 installments released in the decade with varying degrees of quality, Friday the 13th lorded over 80’s horror. After a brief cameo in the first movie, the character of Jason Vorhees would go on to become one of the titans of horror. Donning his iconic hockey mask for the first time in part 3, the image of the machete-wielding hockey-masked killer would live on as one of the most recognizable and greatest in all of horror.  

Since the remake that was released in 2009, the franchise has remained stagnant and caught in litigation hell, preventing another movie from being released for the time being. However, that will eventually pass, and just like Jason Vorhees himself, there will be no stopping this behemoth of a franchise from returning from the dead with a new movie in the near future. The only thing keeping this series out of my top spot is the franchise performance of Jason’s greatest rival in horror...

Number 1 – A Nightmare on Elm Street

Number of movies - 9

In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger, played by the charismatic Robert Englund, a disfigured fedora-wearing murderer known as the Springwood Slasher who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in turn, kills them in reality. After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends' parents may be the key to solving the mystery, and finally defeating Freddy Krueger once and for all.

Released in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street is quite possibly the most unique and best horror film ever made. The story terrorized audiences, and throughout the sequels, Freddy Krueger became a household name. Each movie launched Freddy more and more into the spotlight, giving us a killer who was not only scary, but also funny. The success of these movies single handedly turned a small movie studio into a major player in Hollywood. There’s a reason why New Line Cinema is known as the house that Freddy built. No other horror franchise can lay claim to that honor.

With the rights to Freddy Krueger recently reverting to the Craven estate, rumors continue to run rampant on the possibility of Robert Englund returning for at least one more movie as Freddy. His last movie as Freddy was when his character finally faced off against that other titan of 80’s horror, Jason Vorhees, in Freddy vs. Jason from 2003. If that movie should ever come, you can be certain that it will be the king of the box office just like the Freddy films of old. Even though Freddy may have lost his fight against Jason in Freddy vs. Jason, the massive success of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the continued adoration of the Freddy character has let A Nightmare on Elm Street claim the top spot as my top horror franchise of all time.

[house-of-slayterr]

Mad Hatter

@howl-fantasies

Tw: Yandere and mentions of sexual assault

Maggies POV:

It was so nice to wake up in my own bed again. It was nice to not have overly lavish sheets and people doting on me every five seconds. Even mom never made me buy the expensive stuff for my room. I rolled over and smiled when I remembered the book Bruce gave me. I’d carry it with me everywhere. I got up and made my way over to the dinky coffee pot, and frowned when I realised I didn’t have any coffee. In fact it had been over a month since I’d been here, I’d probably have to throw everything out and buy fresh.

I quickly hopped in the shower and got dressed before heading down to the local coffee shop. Maybe I could get something fancy today. It was just nice to be out of Oswald’s suffocating grasp for five seconds. I opened the door and the sweet smell of espresso hit me. I was hooked on the Latte Y/N had ordered me way back when we first met. Nothing could ever beat that tatse.

“One french vanilla latte, extra foam and two plain coffees please.”

The barista took my order and left to make my drink. As I waited I checked my phone and realised there were 54 unread messages from Oswald.

“Shit.” I muttered under my breath.

I pulled up a group chat with Tabitha and Butch.

Maggie:

Good morning my favourite people on the planet.

Tabitha:

…

Butch:

Do you have any idea how much screaming we’ve put up with today? Where are you?!

Maggie:

Haha… about that.

Tabitha:

Don’t think just because you have a cute face and a nice ass I won’t kill you… cause I’ll do it… I’m this fucking close

Maggie:

Oh I believe, I’m not testing my luck. I just needed a break to clear my head for a bit. Just distract him until the end of the day ok, I promise I’ll be back soon 🥰

Butch:

The blushing heart emoji isn’t going to work this time…

Maggie:

What about my smiling face?

…

Tabitha:

God Damn it woman, stop being so fucking cute… well put up with the gremlin and his bullshit today but you owe us!

Maggie:

Whatever you say hottie 😘 I’m all yours

Butch:

Damn, I feel left out…

Maggie:

Please you know I’ll give you whatever you want, just might make you beg for it first

When neither of them replied back I assumed they got to work on distracting Oswald. The Barista came back with my drinks and I blushed when I noticed she wrote her number on the cup.

“I assumed the fancy one was yours cutie… text me” with a smiley face.

I don’t know what it was about Gotham, but I must have pleased Cupid in another life. Nobody ever talked to me, let alone approached me for dates back in Starling city. I was used to people flirting with Ollie and Thea all the time. Hell I even had to see people flirt with mom after Robert passed. It was a bit overwhelming, when really the only person I wanted to be with was Jim. But things just had to be so damn complicated.

I made my way over to the police station, taking the familiar path I used to take every day. I spotted Harvey right away.

“Long time no see mi amigo!” I greeted.

He turned around to meet my gaze.

“I see Oswald’s let you off your leash.”

“Let is a strong word… I broke out.”

He laughed.

“This one is for you!”

“Maggie, you didn’t have to get me coffee.”

“Really? You sure there’s not some law somewhere saying ‘you must bring your overworked cop friend coffee or you will be submitted to death by disappointed dad glare?’ Cause I think I read that somewhere.” I joked.

“I do not have a dad glare!”

“Yeah you do. You seen Jim?”

I saw his face scrunch up.

“Nope. Hey thanks for the coffee but I really got go handle this case.”

He was lying. I just sighed. I had to fix whatever this situation was before the tension destroyed me. It was driving me insane. I stood there for a movement sipping my latte, waiting to see if I would spot him, when someone popped into my vision. Lee. I frowned.

“How are you?” She asked in her sickly sweet voice.

“I’m fine.” I said a bit more bitterly than I meant too.

I mean what kind of girl leads a guy on, tells him that she loves him, then goes and gets engaged to Carmine Falcones son? Maybe Jim didn’t have enough money for her tacky taste. But all I know was that she didn’t deserve him. But part of his heart would always belong to her and I hated her for it. She must have picked up on my animosity, because she became blunt very quickly.

“I don’t think you should see Jim. Harvey told me you were looking for him.”

“Yeah, to bring him his coffee.” I waved the cup for emphasis.

“But he hurt you-“

“So people keep saying, but I want to hear it from him Lee. I wanna hear his side of what happened, because no matter how many times I try to run over the scenario in my head, nothing makes sense. So if you could please step out of my-“

Lee cut my off my by grabbing my arm and pulling me into the autopsy room. A small bit of Jim’s coffee spilt on my wrist and I held my breath at the soft pain.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed.

“Look I really don’t think it’s in your best interest to talk to him.”

“And I really don’t think I asked. I’m not a baby Lee, I can take care of myself. Grab me like that again you’re gonna be the one laying on that table.”

I motioned to the unfortunate soul who was splayed open on the cold metal.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Are you gonna touch me without my consent again? Cause I can get you for harassment and assault…”

“You’re being defensive.”

“You cornered me.”

Lee stepped to the side and I pushed open the door, glaring back at her. That’s when I ran into someone. Jim.

“What the hell?“ I heard him mutter.

“Omg Jim I’m so sorry.”

His whole body stiffened when he heard my voice. I cringed. I was yet again grabbed by my arm and dragged into a side room, but this time I didn’t much care. I stumbled a little bit Jim steadied me, realising he had been too rough.

“So first you accuse me of sexually assaulting you, and now you spill hot coffee on me?” He says, sounding annoyed.

“Jim I didn’t-“

“What, you didn’t tell Harvey that you didn’t remember anything from that night?”

“I did tell him that, but I didn’t know that was the conclusion he would reach. I didn’t know he would run with it! Jim I didn’t mean for any of this to happen you have to believe me.”

“Why didn’t you just talk to me?” He sighed.

“Am I not I doing that right now?”

I could feel tears spilling from my eyes and I frustratedly wiped them away. I felt like a child, it was so stupid to be crying. Jim was hesitant to touch me, that much was obvious.

“So you really don’t remember?” He said softly.

“I’m so sorry. Trust me, don’t you think I’d want to? I was dreaming of that moment since the day we met. And now I’ve gone and ruined everything cause I have this stupid memory problem.”

“Memory problem?”

“Since I was younger. Ollie, my- my brother, he says I lose time. And no matter how had I try I can’t get it back. Therapy doesn’t help, meds don’t help, it’s just gone. And I hate it so much. You must hate me.”

“I could never hate you Magnolia. I just, I really wish you came to talk to me sooner. Or maybe I should have come to you. Look, things will work out with time, but maybe for the time being it would be a good idea if we aren’t seen with each other.”

“Oh.” I choked out. “Ok.”

I ran out of the room, leaving Jim in my wake. I’m not sure how I expected this conversation to go, but it certainly wasn’t this. I hated this, I hated not knowing what was happening, not understanding my feelings. Everything felt broken. Before I knew it my legs dragged me to the Gotham cemetery of all places.

But I had to admit, it was quite peaceful. Not many people wasted their time in the cemetery, and at least I knew nobody would come looking for me here. So I walked to the corner of the lot and leaned against the fence, pulling out my backpack. I took out the book Bruce had gifted me, and quickly got lost in my own world. It felt nice to just turn my brain off for a while. That was, until I heard crying.

I tried to ignore it and just mind my own business, of course people would cry in a cemetery. I didn’t want to interrupt anything going on, that would be rude. But the utterance of a certain name caught my attention.

“Oh Alice, my sweet Alice, these roses I’ve painted red just for you. The white rabbits still hoping, the clock is still tocking, tomorrow i start a new.”

“Alice?” I questioned. A little louder than I meant to.

I hid my face behind my book when I could sense he would turn my way. I didn’t want to be caught staring, when Is hardly even gotten a glance. When he didn’t say anything, I assumed it was safe to move on as if I’d said nothing, but I was wrong. When I dropped the book, the man was right before me. I jumped slightly, dropping my copy of Alice In wonderland, but he caught it before it could hit the dirt. His gaze was intense, but I couldn’t seem to avoid its severity. The stranger was the first to break the silence.

“There is a place like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger. Some say to survive it, you need to be as mad as a hatter. Which, luckily, I am.” He spoke effortlessly.

“A hatter is only as mad as the head on his shoulders Mr….” I responded sceptically.

He broke into a smile.

“My apologies! The names Jervis Tetch, and what May your name be?” He bowed, gradually handing me my book and offering me a hand up.

I took his hand, it was softer than I expected it to be.

“Magnolia Blossom, but you can call me Maggie.”

“Maggie, like a Magpie?”

I looked at him incredulously.

“That’s what my brother calls me, yes.” I narrowed my eyes at Jervis. “And I suppose they call you The Hatter?”

He was dressed like one, and living in Gotham has taught me many thing, but I’ve grown used to expecting the theatrical. Everyone had a Persona, and I couldn’t tell his his first was Mad, or Jervis.

“Right you are little Magpie! Tell me, why is a Raven like a writing desk?”

“You haven’t the slightest idea.” I responded boldly.

An endearing smile crept onto his face. He must not have expected me to continue with my answer, because his face lit up even more if possible.

“But I suppose, it’s because they can produce a few note, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in the front.”

He jumped up and down clapping!

“Spectacular, we’ll done! Well don’t my dear! Here, have a rose!”

He handed me one of the roses from the grave he was previously at.

“This is a Rosa alba.” I muttered, I didn’t think it was loud enough for him to hear.

“How could you tell?”

“Because Im a florist, I can always tell when a flowers been tampered with Mr. Tetch.”

“What a wonderful brain you have my sweet little songbird. I’ll be see you around, be carful not to fall down any Rabbit holes now.” He mused.

Before I could ask what he meant by that he was gone. God I hated when they did that. Ivy was good at it, Tabitha was great at it, and Y/N, fuck she was the best. I don’t know how they could just vanish without a trace. Even my own brother was good at it. Maybe it was a skill I’d have to learn if I wanted to stay in Gotham a little longer.

But skill building would have to wait, nightfall was coming and I was sure Oswald would blow a gasket if he didn’t see me by dawn. So begrudgingly I packed up my things and made my way back to the mansion. I hide the rose in my bag, not wanting Oswald to question me about it. I couldn’t risk upsetting him more than I already had. But thoughts of my new acquaintance plagued my mind on the journey home. What even would my rabbit hole look like?

An: I’m so sorry this took so long to write. I could have written more but my minds kinda blank right now. But I’ll have more ideas soon and the next chapter will be even better!

[bafflinghaze]

Original M/M Fic Recs

organised by rating 👀 I may have recommended some of these before, but they’re just so good. Like, seriously 👀 👀

— 

Raindrops In The Desert

Diamond_Raven | 230k, Explicit

After years of bad experiences with doms, Scott decides to stop having sex. Unfortunately, his attempt at celibacy only succeeds in frustrating himself and his detective partner Ryan, who happens to be a dom. When Ryan offers to be Scott’s dom, the arrangement seems like a good solution to Scott’s problem. What neither of them are counting on is falling in love.

Contains: caring dom/sub, friends first, mutual pining, fluff, kink negotiation, aftercare

—

With Love in Mind

TuppingLiberty | 82k, Explicit

Tongue stuck between his lips, his mind goes quiet for a few precious moments as he concentrates on the polish. He sighs with happiness when he’s done, admiring his toes, wishing he could wear the color on his nails. Graeme Webster, 20, is clawing at survival the best way he can. He works two jobs, but can’t make rent. He has an anxiety disorder, but can’t afford his meds. He’s trying his best, but he needs help.

“You might be leaning on urban geekster a bit too hard.” “Okay, I’m probably going to regret asking, but ‘geekster?’” “Geek-hipster. Geekster.” Alan Garry, 30, is an app programming millionaire with a middle class background. He may be a workaholic, but he’s carved out time for the Seattle kink scene since being introduced to it in college. He sits somewhere on the asexual spectrum, and the fact that he can’t figure out precisely where bothers him more than he’d care to admit.

“It’s going to be okay, Graeme. Where do you hurt the most?” An unfortunate chance encounter brings them together, but they realize quite quickly that neither of them are willing to part again.

Contains: caring dom/sub, sugar daddy, fluff, kink negotiation, aftercare

—

Collateral

LauraSFox | 93k, Explicit

Jake is young, wild, and runs with his brother's bad-ass gang. But he has a secret he needs to hide. When he is saved from a rival gang by a guy with eyes blue as the summer's sky, all dressed up in an Armani suit and moves like Bruce Lee, the walls he carefully built around him start to crumble.

Contains: sugar daddy, Romance, some violence (happy ending), first times

—

And Then There Were Five

DarkSparx | 75k, Mature

Ricky is a low ranked demon who's ex husband cheated on him. Seven years later, he learns that they're still technically married, but due to demon law, he's now the property of his ex's current husband. What's more, they have two more husbands for him to meet. How is Ricky going to climb the ranks of demon society when he's suddenly thrust into a polygamist marriage that he never asked for?

Contains: Demons, Mild magical elements, M/M/M/M/M, Angst

—

The School Idol's Roommate

At 12 MN | 137 Episodes (tapas), Mature

After getting his heart broken, Aki closed the doors to his heart. But his life was thrown upside down when he started living with the most popular guy on their campus.

Contains: Romance, Mutual Pining, Flat mates, Angst, Fluff

— 

Daz The Destroyer Conquers Prom

Fair_Feather_Friend | 8k, Teens and Up

When Melchior Gordon is faced with the prospect of either attending prom alone, or not going at all, he summons a demon to escort him.

Daz the Destroyer is not the date Melchior expected.

Contains: Demons, Cinderella elements, Fluff, Light-hearted humour

— 

Old World Coffee

Daniellecluck | 15k, Teens and Up

Since he was a vampire, working the night shift at a slow 24 hour coffee shop had seemed like a good idea to Aleks at first. No need for sleep meant it's not like he had anything better to do, might as well try to earn easy rent money somehow. However, some new customer turns out to be a bit more tiring than he'd like, meaning he might actually have to both care and make an effort to survive this.

Contains: Vampires, Fae, Hunters, Coffee Shop, Humour, Enemies to Friends to Lovers

—

Instinctual

Only_1_Truth | 209k, Teens and Up

Inside a Werewolf pack, Omegas are prized: they calm everyone around them, like a cool sea on a hot day, making it possible for that many people with fanged alter-egos to live together.  The problem is, no pack ever has more than one Omega.  

Marcus Rushton lost his pack, and has been learning the hard way how impossible it is to find another one when you’re an Omega.  What he’s learning even more is that a lone Omega is wrong - an aberration.  A threat.  Loved within packs, without one, Omegas are seen like blood in the water, and he’s already spilled enough of it whenever he’s stumbled upon others of his kind…

Werewolves can look very human, and mingle freely with their human counterparts, but Declan Fen (a resident Alpha who just found out that he’s got a lone Omega in his territory) is learning the hard way that Wolf instincts can override just about anything - even the side of him that says he should be nice to Marcus, whom he’s only just met.

Contains: Werewolves, Angst, Fluff, Modified A/B/O dynamics, dom/sub undertones

—

can't turn away

carmiros (lemonlee) | 38k, Teens and Up

A love story between a college student and a bookstore owner with an absurd amount of cats.

Contains: FTM Character, Cats, Fluff, Romance, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn

���

Like & Subscribe

Jay Bell | 8 Episodes (tapas), Teens and Up

Remember that hunky guy on YouTube who caught your eye? The one with the awesome pecs and killer smile? I bet you couldn't stop watching his videos. Just imagine if you had a chance to meet him and all your fantasies started coming true. There's only one catch: Between you and your dream guy is his less-than-pleased boyfriend. They say that love conquers all, but can love conquer love?

Contains: Pre-romance, Mild Angst

—

Shut Up, Cinderella

Rubyleaf | 45 Episodes (tapas), Teens and Up

A grumpy Cinderella and a childish prince—what could possibly go wrong?! Cinder is a young shoemaker who just wants to do his job. The only one to support his irresponsible stepmother and stepsisters, the last thing on his mind is the prince's ball. He'd much rather stay home alone and clean...too bad his fairy godmother has other plans and drags him to the ball against his will! It's love at first sight—for Gem, the prince. Cinder just hopes to never see the obnoxious guy again. Too bad Gem is such a hopeless romantic that he searches the entire country for his mysterious guest...and winds up enlisting Cinder's help as a shoemaker to find the owner of the one shoe he kept from his crush? The pay is good, but for how long can Cinder hide his identity while pretending to help the bratty Gem? And what happens when the two start finding common ground after all? At this rate it won't be long until Cinder is hard pressed for his sanity...

Contains: Humour, Oblivious Prince, Romance, Fantasy/Cinderella Elements, Friends First

[movienotesbyzawmer]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

I mostly like Quentin Tarantino's movies, but when I saw this in the theater I considered it one of his worst. But I still liked some stuff about it. I liked the thick atmosphere of late-sixties Los Angeles, and I liked Leonardo DiCaprio's character's arc & his performance, and I liked some of the playful touches, even though some of them feel indulgent. "Indulgence" is a big concern when it comes to evaluating QT's movies. Sometimes his indulgences are charming and sometimes not so much. I'm kind of hoping a second viewing will make me like this movie a bit more. Okay, here goes…

Vintage Columbia logo. That kind of thing always works well on me.

First five minutes or so are cinematic in a familiar way, not much to note. But at about 0:06:15 there's a jarring little interruption where a narrator tells us LD just lied. The only moment of narration at all.

Then Al Pacino is reflecting on some of the movies he's been watching, and we see some clips. They look kind of vintage, but also kind of Tarantino-y. Like, that scene where LD torches Nazis doesn't actually look like it could be from the 60s.

"Bounty Law! Starring Rick Dalton!" Then a cut to a dorky TV musical sketch. Kind of funny. Not subtle. I love that announcer voice that says "Bounty Law!"

One thing that often works well in QT movies is when he has an actor deliver, and savor delivering, a weighty minute or so of dialogue that really sets up a situation. Think Christopher Walken's monologue in Pulp Fiction or the first scene with Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. This AP conversation where he talks to LD about where to take his career is like a mini version of one of those but doesn't last as long.

0:15:10 - First really nice period shot of LA. Very nice to look at.

I think the intended audience for this movie knows details about the Manson murders that most moviegoers don't actually know. For example, the ominous close-up of the sign for Cielo Drive. I don't think it's a mistake; I think he's knowingly alienating some viewers so he can give a better experience to those who do know about them. So I can't imagine recommending this movie without also strongly suggesting studying the Manson murders first.

Brad Pitt speeds down a boulevard in West Hollywood, a filming location which has been very lovingly decorated in the style of the period. The production design of this movie was rightly heralded.

Sequence with BP in his trailer making dinner for himself and his dog. Vivid; at one point they cut to a closeup of a pinup poster. Doesn't seem to be a reason for that except for "I'm Quentin Tarantino and I do whatever I feel like". Indulgent, is what I'm saying.

Also indulgent is this minute we're spending watching Roman Polanski drive to this party at the Playboy mansion.

I don't remember noticing this before, but that's Damian Lewis playing Steve McQueen and that's kind of perfect.

Scene where Kurt Russell is telling LD that BP has a creepy vibe and killed his wife, then we cut abruptly to apparently a scene of BP having a mundane argument with his wife maybe… okay, leaves the audience wanting more info, but maybe in kind of an irritating way.

Now this scene with Bruce Lee holding forth. Bruce Lee probably didn't generally speak in arrogant, bullying Quentin Tarantino monologues. Entertaining scene though.

But the left-me-wanting conversation from the previous scene helps this scene with Bruce Lee be more tense. Also the not-ringing-true snottiness of Bruce Lee makes it funny how that fight goes down.

0:52:30 - Okay, LD is in costume as a bad guy on a show, and he's got the long hippy hair that was spoken of in the AP scene. Just saying, I like that it was described and now we're seeing what I'd pictured.

And now this memorable conversation between LD and the little girl actress. The kid acts so grown up. This could have failed because of course no eight year old talks like this girl. But this scene is awesome. And without movies by QT, there aren't scenes like this.

Now Margot Robbie. We've seen her in a few scenes so far as Sharon Tate, but she's only been depicted as a dancing starlet bopping around town. For those of us that know she's a Manson victim, it works in a certain way. But does it work otherwise?

Okay, this is a peculiar part of the movie, it's pretty fun but kind of insider-y. LD is talking about being in the running for Steve McQueen's role in The Great Escape, and they edit in some outstanding CGI scenes of LD in the actual movie of The Great Escape. Playful, but just a weird bit of color…

…but then here's this next scene where MR, playing Sharon Tate, happens upon a cinema playing a movie she's in, and after a leisurely-paced interaction with the cinema workers, she goes in and watches the movie. Unlike the CGI trickery demonstrated in the last scene with LD, we watch actual Sharon Tate on screen. MR is visibly delighted to see "herself", and to hear the audience reacting to her performance. It all works, maybe more in spite of than because of QT's ever-present choice-broadcasting (which is also why we get a good look at MR's feet in this scene).

This is followed immediately by the sequence of the TV show LD is shooting. More playful indulgence. We see the scene edited as it probably would have been edited in 1969, but shot with modern cinematography, and interrupted by LD calling for his line, then backing up and redoing some of the scene. Can it be justified beyond just the undeniable fact that it's pretty interesting? Maybe that's enough. Maybe I'm being a snob, but also, what, was I not supposed to acknowledge it at least?

Stuff now starting with BP picking up Margaret Qualley's dirty hippy flirty cultist character. Before she even has any lines, the screen is practically bulging from the force of MQ's personality. It's entertaining.

1:28:30 - More of the TV show. We get to see LD's character be a good actor, and impress the director and the kid actor, which touches him, it's nice.

It's an hour and 38 minutes into the movie, and now we're to the scene on Spahn's Movie Ranch. I'm already thinking that by now we should be deeper into some kind of story than we are, and now this scene that I remember vividly. Not totally in a bad way, but for all the good things about it, it is stretched way out. Suspense is built up, skillfully, but without the kind of payoff we'd probably like. I mean, it's like a horror movie, with the rat squirming in the trap and the tense music and the "HE MAY BE TIRED" line from Dakota Fanning, but then it's back to not being a horror movie….

…in fact, it's on to this charismatic-tough-guy scene that feels Pulp-Fiction-y. Our MINDS are BLOWN that he hit the guy so hard and made the cultists so mad, it's a fantasy come to life, but just in a movie!!! This stuff is long, but not THAT boring, but maybe it could have been a little less boring, plus more relevant to later events.

LD and BP are now watching an episode of a show he'd done. Way more violent than TV shows probably were in 1969. They like watching his little "heavy" role and chuckling about it.

Then a SIX MONTHS LATER card, and some narration for the first time since that little jokey bit in the beginning. Also jokey is the fact that this new section is narrated, VERY narrated, and is the fact that Kurt Russell is the narrator also jokey?

2:02:50 - "…going back to Missouri." LD's character is from Missouri? With that accent? Is this also an in-joke?

The aforementioned narration persists for a long time. Seems gratuitous. QT was clearly like "We'll do the first two hours of the picture without a narrator, and then suddenly there will be a whole bunch of stupid narration hahahahahahaha! No one else would do that!!! That's reason enough for me to do it!!!!"

Finale is going on now with the Manson cultist killer people approaching the house. If you know what really happened, you're freaking out. But if you know what really happened and you already know how this movie changes that story… it's entertaining. What I'm saying is that it's funny this second time through, without the worry about seeing what really transpired.

"And you were on a horsie!" "Nah something dumber than that" Hahaha BP is super funny in this scene.

Dang, the dog just mutilates Tex, and it's funny!

He violences that woman very very very much, it's nuts, kind of funny but so disturbing.

LD flamethrowers that girl in the pool. She's in the pool. But still dies from being on fire. /shrug

We never did get the whole story about BP killing his wife.

The last scene, MR talks to LD, inviting him up for a friendly drink with her friends. It ends with us thinking how nice it would be if she and her friends hadn't been the victims of a cruel slaughter just moments earlier. That's not a bad way to end a movie. But it's a long movie, and I'll say this again: indulgent. You might not feel that in on the jokes, and even if you do, you might not have as much time for them as this movie requires.

[kpophours]

a very necessary guide to SF9

so. let’s talk about these underrated kings. be prepared for rambling. I just love them too much. my favorite boys, 10/10 would recommend stanning them.

some basic information

9 members (5 vocals, 4 rappers, 9 dancers and 9 visuals just stating the facts)

SF9 stands for Sensational Feeling 9

debuted on October 5, 2016 with Fanfare (still a BOP)

currently under FNC Entertainment and actually their first male dance group

their official fandom name is Fantasy (such a good name, honestly) and the official color is Fantasia Hologram (aka the  p r e t t i e s t).

debuted after winning a survival show called Dance or Band (they participated as the dance team; the band team debuted as Honeyst in 2017)

7 mini albums so far with RPM being their latest comeback 

... now onto the members (buckle up)!

Youngbin

Kim Youngbin, born on November 23, 1993

LeaderBin aka the Dad™

very charismatic, be prepared for some really intense eye contact (two words: stage presence)

rapper (highest rapping voice out of the four of them)

D A N C E R (a former 1MILLION dance studio trainee), so he‘s obviously 1/3 of sf9′s extremely talented dance line

also 1/3 of hyung line

cutest eye-smile (so soft) + cutest giggle™

rocked his red hair and looks amazing with slightly curled hair (do not fight me on this)

is tattooed (very  p r e t t y)

threatens everyone’s bias at least once

gives amazing (and unnecessary long) pep talks together with Jaeyoon (just let the other boys sleep, please)

gazes so, so fondly at all his members in pretty much every video (no, I will NOT cry)

Jaeyoon is his roommate and secret wife.

Inseong

Kim Inseong, born on July 12, 1993

the oldest (not mentally) aka the Grandpa™

main vocal (those HIGH NOTES, damn). extremely steady voice.

unique beauty. looks a bit like a desert fox (according to himself and everyone with a pair of functioning eyes).

1/3 of extra line (see and hear three loud idiots in all their videos? yep, that’s him ft. Jaeyoon and Dawon)

also 2/3 of hyung line

v e r y intelligent and educated (holds a degree in Journalism and Communication) but also stupid

owner of an extremely cute smile 

t h i g h s  i am not weak or biased at all

SF9’s designated English speaker (used to live in London for a year)

amazing winking-ability, 10/10 will leave you weak-kneed

King of Lies. he’ll probably never pass a lie detector test. but it’s okay we still love him.

is left-handed and really good at drawing

married to Jaeyoon (it‘s complicated).

Jaeyoon

Lee Jaeyoon, born on August 9, 1994

3/3 of hyung line

honey voice (aka OST King)

d i m p l e s.

blindingly white teeth. the most beautiful smile (canines!).

very proud of his hips and butt (as he should be).

his actual name is Ethan

likes to work out and is  f i t (he ended all Fantasies during rpm promotions, so thanks for that)

King of girl group dances and in charge of sexy (Zumba) dances

a  fuc ki ng  tease (again, rip all Fantasies during the UNIXERSE rpm stage)

2/3 of extra line (shares one brain cell with Inseong and Dawon. they don’t use it very often.)

had a pink undercut during the Mamma Mia era and probably made people cry with his outstanding beauty. again, i’m not biased at all

seems a bit shy and quiet at first. don’t be fooled. he is loud and will come for you.

married to both Inseong and Youngbin.

Dawon

Lee Sanghyuk, born on July 24, 1995

oh boy... such a bundle of utter chaos.

e x t r a (3/3 of extra line and probably their President™)

hear something loud and annoying in the background? it’s probably (most definitely) Dawon (helped by the other 2/3 of extra line)

a unique and beautiful voice (he needs more lines or else I’ll throw hands) - rapping, singing, screaming, he can do it all.

a fucking tease 2.0 (seriously, he and Jaeyoon need to be stopped)

Bruce Lee impressions on point

has tattoos

such a meme-face but also so handsome, like H O W

looks amazing and so soft with curly hair must protect

had so many different hair styles during their Mamma Mia promotions, rip his hair (and rip to all new Fantasies trying to keep track lol)

actually very soft. cried when Inseong surprised them during their UNIXERSE concert (which our Grandpa couldn’t participate in due to an injury)

likes to bully Taeyang.

Zuho

Baek Juho, born on July 4, 1996

Mr. Deep Ass Voice™

“my nose is my swag“

such a good dancer, definitely underappreciated. 

looks intimidating at first, but is actually the softest (d u a l i t y)

the best cat dad (Huru has yet to accept his undying love for him though)

composes/produces own songs (@FNC: please, I’m b e g g i n g you to finally put Champagne on an album) and writes lyrics for a lot of sf9′s songs

didn‘t participate in most of their Enough promotions due to his (still ongoing) back problems (#FNCletZuhoRestChallenge2019)

a dork and meme and honestly just so, so cute and lovable

social butterfly (seriously, he‘s friends with literally e v e r y idol out there)

composed a (love) letter to Fantasy while driving a car with Hwiyoung, Taeyang and Dawon sleeping in the passenger and backseat yes I cried

a scaredy cat (ran away and left his members behind when he got scared by a staff member during their Trip with Fantasy)

Rowoon

Kim Seokwoo, born on August 7, 1996

yes he‘s a Tree™. is made up of 90% unnecessary long legs.

main vocal 2.0

1/2 of actor line

very handsome, I know (but he‘s so much more than just his good looks)

a devoted mom of 8

loves all Chanis and not-Chanis equally

almost had a mental breakdown because he managed to hit Chani’s face with a football which resulted in his precious maknae getting a nosebleed

always hugging and kissing and generally just smothering all members with his endless love and affection (especially Chani)

(t) h o t  and knows it (very shy with fanboys though)

has literally only one selfie angle he uses rigorously  

his One True Talent™ is staring sexily into the camera and doing nothing else because yes, he’s just that handsome

tries to be funny and fails most of the time, but he‘s cute so it’s okay.

Taeyang

Yoo Taeyang, born on February 28, 1997

undercover main vocal (has almost as many lines as Inseong and Rowoon)

best dancer, period. his entire body is probably made out of water. such. fluid. moves. - 2/3 of dance line, often in charge of choreographies.

also 1/3 of maknae line

speaks in ᵀᴵᴺʸ ᶠᴼᴺᵀ 

the literal Sun™, his smile has healing properties.

has great hair and pushes it back a lot during his dance moves

a flower boy (literally. wanted to become a florist before debuting as an idol)

looks a bit like Lee Dongwook aka The Reaper from Goblin

you think he‘s soft? uh, sure, yeah. but is also s a v a g e (the personification of that then perish meme)

has a... unique way of drying his hair (ask Dawon, he‘ll show you. even if you don’t want him to, Dawon will show you)

gets bullied by Dawon. bullies him back. very spot-on impressions of Mr. Extraness (as seen on their Weekly Idol episode)

soulmates and married to Hwiyoung, I don’t make the rules.

Hwiyoung

Kim Youngkyun, born May 11, 1999

rapper and Mr. Charismatic™

yes he is that guy from their Now or Never mv 

looks bad-ass but is a certified baby boy (2/3 of maknae line)

cute without trying and is actually a cat

has literally the best gummy smile which he used to hide behind his hands (but his hyungs encouraged him so much and now he smiles openly, I am not crying, you are)

grew up so suddenly and had long hair out of nowhere and left everyone sh o ok (should definitely be in a shampoo commercial)

composes songs. put one on SoundCloud just very recently. writes lyrics for a lot of sf9′s songs.

cried during their survival show when he got scolded for continuing to mess up the choreography and had to be hugged by Youngbin (who really is the best dad™)

King of the Cleopatra game thanks to his dolphin screams should probably be part of vocal line

pretended to not recognize his soulmate and roommate aka Taeyang when he had to guess his members from their hands while wearing a blindfold. Taeyang will probably never recover from this betrayal and is most definitely still whining about it.

Chani

Kang Chanhee, born on January 17, 2000

deep ass voice 2.0

d a n c e r (his little solo dance in Now or Never will forever be superior), 3/3 of dance line

Evil Maknae™ (3/3 of maknae line)

2/2 of actor line (yes he‘s that boy from Sky Castle)

speaks fluent duck

Taemin‘s Nº fanboy (literally knows his blood type, like... wow okay)

can‘t remember any of the members birthdays (he actually thought Youngbin was born in August when his birthday is literally in the middle of Winter. Leaderbin was hurt).

always looks like a smol bean, but everyone else is just ridiculously tall

had bright orange hair once only for about one second though lol

constantly smothered with love and hugs from Rowoon and pretends to hates it

has all his hyungs wrapped around his finger and knows it (they‘re all whipped for him, especially when he’s doing aegyo)

has a lot of hair aka (my favorite) coconut head (#freehisforehead2019)

looks expressionless and tired 24/7 (a whole mood and true gen z)

some videos to watch

all of their mv’s of course

literally every comeback stage

the suit versions of Now or Never and RPM

the ghost prank/horror version of Now or Never (I cried laughing) 

this really cute Dingo Music version of Enough 

basically all their dance practices, but especially K.O. (we all know they should have gone viral with that choreography)

their adorable pajama version of Different

them performing RPM on a treadmill (Chani is a mood™ and Inseong’s grandpa waddle is so cute)

these stunning acoustic versions of their songs brought to you by 2/3 of extra line + The Tree™

their kcon New York 2019 performance (+ their cover of Love Shot)

their reality show Trip with Fantasy 

them dancing to O Sole Mio ft. Ostriches

their episodes on Weekly Idol and Idol Room

their girl group cover dance battle on Weekly Idol (ft. Cross Gene)

Rowoon and Inseong on Masked Singer

Dawon on Weekly Idol as part of the Masked Idol segment

the Now or Never choreography ft. dance line and the 1MILLION dance crew

them covering BTS’ Boy in Luv + EXO’s Call Me Baby

the Idol Dance Cover Challenge of Love Shot (ft. Astro, The Boyz and CIX)

this interview (I mean, that title alone... lol)

those are just a few of my favorite videos - there’s so much more content out there, so you’ll definitely never starve, lol.

I could literally ramble on about these nine incredible men for hours on end. 

But this will be the end of my guide (it’s long enough already, lol).

Stan SF9 for (clear skin and good grades) nine hard-working and so, so talented individuals with amazing voices, incredible dance moves, outstanding visuals, chaotic energies and a lot of meme-worthiness.

You won’t regret it, I promise.

(Don’t worry, Rowoon(’s face) is okay).

[masterlist] | [requests] 

[aion-rsa]

Stargirl: What is Eclipso?

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This article contains Stargirl spoilers.

“I know you’re in there, Eclipso.”

With these words burgeoning supervillain Cindy Burman has introduced a whole new world and threat to Stargirl. After killing her father and attempting to defeat Courtney and co. it’s clear that the Dragon King’s daughter is keen on getting revenge, which is lucky as she’s just invoked the name of a deep cut character who could be a way of introducing an entirely new supernatural layer to the series.

Get ready to meet Eclipso. 

1963 was a massive year for comics. At the House of Ideas, the X-Men, the Avengers, and Iron Man were bursting from the pages, changing the future of comic books and ultimately Hollywood forever. Meanwhile, their Distinguished Competition saw the Silver Age as a time for reinvention, taking classic characters like Green Lantern and The Flash and turning them into legacy characters. That doesn’t mean that new characters weren’t being created, though, and in sci-fi horror anthology House of Secrets #61 Bob Haney and Lee Elias imagined a new type of archetype for the publisher. It was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde style creation who was both hero and villain and first appeared in the story “Eclipso: The Genius Who Fought Himself.”

After a trip to Diablo Island to take a photo of a solar eclipse, Dr. Bruce Gordon ignores the warnings of the indigenous population and ends up offending a god, Morphir, and then killing him. So basically your average colonizer shenanigans. It’s a surprisingly nuanced take on what could have been some classic comic book racism where instead the blame is solely on Dr. Gordon and his ignorant and arrogant actions.

After killing the god by tripping him over a cliff, he heads back to his homeland to complete his work on the Solar City, a futuristic utopia fueled entirely by the sun. Alas, he is nearly thwarted by the god he apparently killed when an eclipse struck during the ceremony… but the big reveal comes in the in media res opening page when it’s revealed that the villain is none other than Gordon himself, becoming his own literal worst enemy. The split is explained by Morphir cutting Gordon with his black diamond before he falls to his death, and in a humorous twist the villainous side of Gordon always hides his costume and the black diamond he took from Morphir before his good side wakes up. 

Though Eclipso’s early adventures are incredibly fun to read, the version of Eclipso that we’re more likely to see came to the DC Universe many years later. From his debut in 1963, Eclispo evolved in the pages of House of Secrets, his powers becoming less directly connected to solar eclipses and expanding to more general light phenomena.

But it was in 1992 when Eclipso was reintroduced in the gem-heavy Eclipso: The Darkness Within event (there’s literally a plastic gem on the cover of the first issue… I know, I own it!) that we get to know the new version of the character who was revealed to in fact be a villainous spirit who had possessed Gordon rather than Gordon himself. That is clearly the version that we’re dealing with in Stargirl, so if you want some idea of where the story might be going in season two then keep reading. 

In this iteration Eclipso is discovered by a maniacal and murderous treasure hunter who once again goes against the wishes of the native population, this time in “The Upper Congo.” His quest for riches leads him to a black gem which he kills his partner to possess and then has chopped into thousands of pieces in a London jeweler in the 1800s. Stealing from indigenous people and trying to get rich has bad consequences (shock!), and 100 years later Lar Gand discovers a strange planet where the demon Eclipso has been collecting the pieces of his shard and hiding. We then meet modern day Bruce Gordon who still believes he is to blame for the creation of Eclipso. He soon learns that isn’t the case when he discovers other shards of the black diamond which the spirit is using to possess and control super powered earthlings. 

Read more

TV

Stargirl Season Finale Ending Explained and Unanswered Questions

By Rosie Knight

This concept of Eclipso as a sentient being that lives in or is connected to the black gem known from here on out as the Heart of Darkness is a consistent part of the villain’s modern lore. That’s why when you saw Cindy pick up the black diamond shape gem in The Wizard’s basement, she referenced the rogue who we could then hear laughing in his shiny prison.

In Eclipso: The Darkness Within, they build on the connection and struggle between the villain and Gordon by adding a motivation that Eclipso wants to destroy Gordon’s solar research as solar power and light are what defeats the villain and keeps him trapped in his jewel shards. We know that Blue Valley and the project for New America was keen on clean energy and there is a likelihood that Eclipso was trapped after trying to stop the Injustice Society and their plan to keep his power. But there’s a different theory that I am far more inclined to believe, and it’s one that would introduce a new teen hero. 

It’s likely that Cindy will probably try to harness the power of Eclipso, likely becoming its host like many DC characters before. One of his most formidable vessels was Jean Loring who readers will remember is the ex-wife of Ray Palmer and the superhero murderer in the controversial comic event Identity Crisis. All of that is to say that there is a precedent for Eclipso being a woman, though honestly Stargirl hasn’t been too worried about following conventions in the past.

But whatever route the creative team decides to go with Cindy and Eclipso, there’s a chance that they’ll decide to explore his origins and stray from the somewhat problematic aspect of colonial explorers and the theft of native artifacts to use a story and vision for the character that was introduced during the New 52 era of DC Comics. Excitingly, it’s an arc that ties Eclipso to one of DC’s strangest and most fantastical fantasy spaces: Gemworld. 

Read more

TV

Stargirl Episode 13 Review: Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two

By Lacy Baugher

During DC’s New 52 era, Eclipso was reimagined as Lord Kalaa, an ancient inhabitant of Gemworld who’d turned on his own people and become a tyrannical leader after his powers were sparked by a… you guessed it… eclipse. If this doesn’t sound familiar, don’t worry as it took place in lesser known series like Team 7 and Swords of Sorcery: Amethyst.

The important part to note is that here Eclipso is part of the Gemworld royalty born from the House of Onyx and the House of Diamond who, after enslaving and oppressing the House of Amethyst, was imprisoned in a gem by the then Princess of House Amethyst, Lady Chandra. But he returns and is defeated by Princess Amethyst, but not before he kills her family. Now that Cindy has the Heart of Darkness, there is a large chance that we could see DC finally bring Amethyst Princess of Gemworld to the small screen. 

If Cindy unleashes Eclipso it could be an easy way to introduce Amethyst to the DC TV universe. The young Princess could head to Blue Valley in order to get revenge on the creature who killed her parents or simply to trap him back inside the gem for the good of the universe. Either way it seems like a far more interesting route rather than trying to tie it to his early origins, especially as DC Universe played with some similar aesthetics and themes with their recent representation of Rita Farr and the origin of her powers in Doom Patrol. 

Whichever route Stargirl goes, this is a very interesting twist into the supernatural for the series. The first season has leaned into an Americana nostalgia that despite featuring giant mechs, superpowered teens, and numerous supervillains felt very grounded. It’ll be really exciting to see what happens now that a totally cosmic and creative new threat has been introduced, especially in the hands of someone as maniacally messed up as the iconic Cindy Burman. 

The post Stargirl: What is Eclipso? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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