#surprise there actually is a villain in this!

[forgetme-eternally-blissfully]

Choi Han, for a test from a god, is sent to an unknown land with "Cale."

Choi Han, upon arrival, realizes something is strange about this Cale. He's got a similar appearance to his own Cale but the eyes are sharper, with a witty bite to his tongue and a quick sneer always at the ready.

He's clearly confused and distressed about being in a strange place with a strange person but he does his best to not let it show. His hand reaches for a bottle of alcohol that isn't there.

Choi Han thinks that this Cale isn't like his Cale at all.

Choi Han has a hunch that this Cale is the one from before Kim Rok Soo's possession. It makes sense. So he isn't his Cale.

However, though Choi Han wants to become cold to this stranger version of Cale, when he looks into those red-brown eyes and sees fear, he draws back. It's an instinctual feeling that he gets, right as Cale is spitting more vile words to cover up the trembling in his hands, that he doesn't want to see even a terrible Cale be afraid of him.

This doesn't stop them from arguing. Through towns, forests, deserts, they both learn on an intimate level that they would never, ever get along. Cale is too loud, too threatening, and Choi Han can't resist from debating with this strange Cale about morals, of all things. They argue constantly.

Though they argue, Choi Han can't help himself from sometimes mistaking this Cale for his own. He tells himself it's because they look alike.

They're both in the midst of an argument when a noble-like individual approaches them with cloying words, which seek to lure them inside of the noble's home. Choi Han is suspicious, but before he has the chance to decline, Cale steps in front of Choi Han and demands to speak to the noble who wants to see them.

The noble-like individual turns out to be the servant of a more powerful man, something that Cale saw through immediately.

Choi Han is stunned.

How did this, this trashy Cale with no moral upstanding, clock the intentions of a person so quickly and accurately?

He asks him directly. Cale shrugs. Choi Han believes he's mistaken when Cale's eyes flicker with calculating intent. They don't discuss it further.

Little moments like these keep occurring. Cale does something impressive, Choi Han inquires, and Cale downplays it with a sneer or an insult and refuses to speak about it again. It's weird and strange but it's familiar. Extremely so. Not the insulting, and the sneer is too odd to be his own Cale's face, but it's familiar in the sense that they both underestimate themselves. They both refuse to acknowledge what lies under the surface of their visage.

This Cale is a strange individual. He swears and laughs and grins, he's too calm about their situation, and it's difficult to get through to him when he makes up his mind about something. But the strangest thing is that all of these things remind Choi Han of his Cale.

Finally, it all comes down to a final battle. One more fight and both himself and this Cale can go back to where they belong. Choi Han is ready.

Cale receives a power from a book before the battle and it's unlike anything Choi Han has ever seen. But the coughing up of blood makes him have Cale swear to never use it. Cale swears.

Choi Han makes Cale promise to stay on the sideline and not approach. Cale easily agrees.

They get to the last stage, the last time they'll see each other again, and the villain of this world is too powerful. It's as if he weren't meant for them to fight. It's as if he were made so that they struggle.

Choi Han swings his blade to block a blow that he knows he can't block, knows might end him, and he thinks about how he can't possibly die right now and leave this Cale behind... but he's too weak.

He wonders what his Cale would do in this moment, when everything seems hopeless and nothing is working.

Cale steps in front of him and uses his power to its fullest extent.

White light is shining everywhere, blinding Choi Han who keeps his burning eyes open, desperately keeps his eyes on the Cale that's bleeding from his mouth and his nose and his eyes and his skin is starting to crack, crack like he is about to turn into dust and disappear.

Cale turns to look at Choi Han.

"Ah. I was worried it wouldn't be enough to take out the villain." His eyes stained with blood curl up in a smile. A ball of dread sits in Choi Han's stomach. "I'm glad. I'm really, really..." eyes drifting closed, his body begins to shatter further and further. "Happy for you, Choi Han."

This is why they felt familiar.

It's with a cry of grief and anger, anger at himself, that Choi Han reaches out to hold Cale, hold onto even a piece of him.

Cale's eye, the only one left as he is disintegrating, widens.

Choi Han grasps a fragment that's about to vanish from Cale's chest, somewhere next to his heart, and this piece doesn't break, doesn't disappear from Choi Han's hand. It stays solid and firm and real-

And it's all that Choi Han is left with when the gods test ends.

Choi Han wakes up, surrounded by his family, with a red, glass marble in his hand. He holds it to his chest. It hurts.

It hurts.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

As a Art History and Heritage researcher, I have to say “Nosferatu” (2024) geniality cannot be underestimated. This is an absolute historic triumph. Robert Eggers recreated the early 19th century setting, way of thinking and behaving, so masterfully, he actually convinced the general audience into believing the Victorian characters are the “good guys” here, and the Eastern European Pagan shaman-priest is the villain of the story, and that his protagonist Ellen is a passive victim at his hands. And now many are starting to realize that’s not the case and are throwing a fit or making weird mental gymnastics to validate their incorrect interpretations.

This isn’t surprising because this tale has years on the making, and it’s an entirely new story under a familiar make-up. Academics and researchers helped shape this story (History and Romanian folklore; Eggers is an occult scholar himself but he only talked about it publicly once); Academic thesis were used to create the script and the world building (“Dracula” literacy analysis; Şolomonari connection to Zalmoxis worship); a dead language was reconstructed for this (fictional but very well-researched alongside linguistics specialized on Balkan extinct languages); two different types of English are spoken (late 16th century and 19th century). The historical accuracy of everything is on point: Romanian Folklore, Victorian sexuality views, Victorian medicine, demonization of Pagan beliefs by Christianity, 19th century racist theories; the threat of female sexuality as a contagious disease (Ellen), etc. If this wasn’t horror I would even recommend this film as a study tool to understand the early 19th century.

The comprehension of these references and themes are way out of your league. Many of these are academic-level knowledge; others should be general knowledge (Victorian era as sexually repressed) but apparently aren’t(?) Either way, the entire “discourse” around this film comes from the general audience lack of historical knowledge and ignorance about these themes and references. I’m an academic myself, and I had to breakdown the entire story to see what this is actually about. Some of you watched this film once and already think you know? When you can’t even interpret one scene from this film correctly, and think Orlok appeared to Ellen when she was a little kid or that Ellen’s father abused her?? The prologue and her scene with Von Franz contradicts both these “interpretations”. Most of you don’t even realize it was Ellen who cursed Orlok to be a strigoi, to begin with (or probably don’t know what a “strigoi” is).

The cast and crew already explained what this film is about in interviews, but there appears to be a weird rejection of everything the creators of this story have to say. But Robert Eggers probably isn’t concerned because he didn’t make this film for you. The way modern audiences digest Art is extremely bizarre to me. This is not how interpretation of Art works, and I tell you this as someone who interprets Art in its historical context for a living. This is my job. And this is a director obsessed with historical accuracy and with a strict artistic view. There are no “multiple opposite interpretations” here. Because he’s using specific academic thesis to create his story. On a personal level you can see whatever you want to see, but if your intention is to understand this story know you are incorrect. And the majority of the “breakdowns” and “interpretations” out there are incorrect and the only world I can use to describe them is “bullshit”. Because these content creators and influencers have no idea of what they are talking about. But the Internet gave them the illusion they do, and they are very proud in displaying their ignorance to the world. Or those who are going around making jokes about “wanting to bounce on Orlok crazy style”. Your anti-intellectualism gives me second-hand embarrassment. This is the peak definition of functional illiteracy, and what’s worse is that the folks who want to know will come across this content and think “yeah, that’s what’s this film is about”.

This entire story a huge middle finger to Christian Victorian society. This a celebration and vengeance of Paganism on Christian civilization, embodied in both Orlok and Ellen characters. Robert Eggers called Ellen the only heroic character of his story; and Ellen and Orlok share the same spirit, the same nature (one Ellen rejects until she embraces it, at the end). They are the true heroes here. The Pagan priestess and the Pagan priest-shaman bringing death and plague upon the Christian civilization that demonized them using their Sex Magick, and end it with Sex Magick too, to give birth to the New Age of Aquarius (which was already the occult meaning of the 1922 “Nosferatu” ending, Eggers included the divine feminine instead of the “virgin sacrifice”). That’s why Eggers describes his ending as a “sacred marriage” between Ellen and Orlok: their sexual encounters are ritualistic, and always have been, and it’s Ellen sexual energy that conjures Orlok, every time: she’s the one who calls out to him, always. She has full agency over their connection (and Herr Knock ritual scene should tell you this; Ellen ending their connection when she met Thomas, and sending the maiden token to reconnect).

Everything that happens in this story is according to Ellen’s will. She has Orlok where she wants him to be; and, yes, she plays both Thomas and Orlok, and weaponizes them against each other (“Wuthering Heights” inspiration, hello?). Because she’s a dark character (like every Gothic horror protagonist), and her innocence and naivety are a front she puts on for Victorian society, her true self is only shown in some occasions because this story gives you several POVs. And that’s why Lily-Rose Depp tells us Ellen is “not a victim at all” because “she’s the one calling the shots the entire time”. She’s like Catherine; she wants to fuck around with Heathcliff/Orlok, while being married to the respectable Edgar/Thomas. But here it’s Orlok that’s not having any of it. I would even say the only victimized character here is Thomas himself, who gets caught up in the middle of something he doesn’t know nor understands and gets his entire life wrecked as a result (like Edgar Linton).

This whole story is about Ellen liberating herself from Victorian society, taking ownership of her own sexuality (one that according to Victorian era belongs to her husband) and embracing her nature, as she fully accepts Orlok at the end. She’s as evil and as good as he is. It’s not that hard to understand.

[zahri-melitor]

Given the recent(ish) fandom bent of "Tim is so unhinged," "he's one bad day away from being a supervillain", etc. Can you think of one instance of Tim's Robin career that *could* have been a turning point to create such a person?

Generally? No.

I mean I could pull out the classics everyone likes to repeat about cloning during 52 and Captain Boomerang in Red Robin #26, but I don't actually think those are moments when Tim could have twisted.

If I were going to pitch turning points for Tim, there's two I personally would pick: the end of Robin I; and while Tim was imprisoned by Mister Oz.

The last scenes of Robin I have Shiva baiting Tim to kill King Snake, and Tim does turn his back and let him fall. (Functionally Dorrance is immortal in terms of 'surprise I survived' being his response on returning every single story after this; but he clearly initially looked like he died there). Henri Ducard gathers Tim up and makes sure he gets back to Gotham, where Bruce is briefed about what happened and comforts Tim.

However. If you wanted to pivot to break Tim, I think this would be a great moment to disillusion him. Have Tim 'fail' the falling villain situation, and have Bruce make a big deal about it, and you could develop fault lines that eventually lead to Tim breaking away.

In terms of Mister Oz: Tim got trapped in a pocket dimension for what is quoted to be year but in comics time probably equalised out to a couple of months in the long term timeline. Tim's social, gregarious, and now stuck somewhere with nobody to talk to, nothing to do, nowhere to go in a featureless cell, and just a mysterious-to-him villain dropping by every now and then to gloat.

If Oz had let Tim know that everyone believed he was dead, and weren't looking for him, and convinced him to believe it, and exploited that grief? You could probably dig in to break Tim here as well. I think it would be a far harder moment to fork given his extensive experience, but Tim was literally dealing with unending solitary confinement, which does weird things to anyone's mind.

Certainly Gun!Batman thought there was the potential to exploit Tim here.

But generally no, I don't think Tim really does have supervillain turning points. He's got too much self-examination and talks himself out of thought processes leading down those paths.

[insanelydeadlybookcollector]

Not to mention, this moment here is directly paralleled by Emma and Neal having the same conversation where Neal turns down Emma's ideas and laughs/condescends about them (can be read as either thinking she's incapable, inexperienced, or doesn't want her included in the crime [which has a bit of an issue seeing as they are already committing crimes together] or it could be read as thinking she's too young ["cross the border with you in the front seat" could be read that shes a minor and hes worried about that crime]). But Emma powers through with Neal, fighting for her chance to prove herself and have a say in what happens (partly so as not to be abandoned again, could also have romantic, or wanting to feel empowered, undertones).

The surprise on her face with Killian in this scene is so soft and meaningful. It directly parallels how much she fights to have Nea (man/lover/authority in their crime) l hear her and respect and allow her idea to go ahead. Then you have this captain(authority in this adventure and all others hes been on)/villain/man/stranger not only not put up a fight and insist hes right but immediately go, "Yeah actually that's better. Let's do that. Bloody brilliant."

Such a huge moment both contained in this scene and in context of the immediate surrounding flashback scenes as well as both Emma's journey as an individual and Captain Swan as a unit.

CS little moments appreciation [2/?]

Requested by @seaselkie

What a great moment! As Rachel pointed out in her ask, this particular moment in that most significant scene didn’t get the proper attention it deserves. We had so much in that scene, the scarf, the “tough lass” comment, the “hell of a pirate” comment. But what is so unique about that particular moment is that it projects so much on their future relationship, and how Killian would end up being with Emma all through their relationship.

Lets recall what lead him to say these words, he was offering an idea (to wait for the giant to fall asleep), he was thinking that he came with this great pirate idea, and he used to being the captain who come up with the plan and that others follow. And then she comes with an idea of her own, and she gives a valid point into why her idea is so much better. And that’s when he says “point taken”. He’s not starting to patronize over her, saying that he knows better. No, instead he can actually admit that her way is better. Like the true feminist that he is!

But that’s not even all he does there, he actually likes it!!!!!!!!!!!! He likes the fact that she “bested him” once more. He likes the fact that this is a strong woman standing in front of him, not afraid to tell the pirate to his face that his idea sucks and hers is much better.

And that’s when it happens. This is the moment where he can no longer conceal that he likes this woman, her way of thinking, her braveness, cleverness. And so he smiles, his first genuine smile to her. He smiles in the same way he smiled later on every time that she said something that made him fall for her more (for example just before the “perhaps you’re the one who couldn’t handle it”). And he even throw in a little stare at her lips there.

This little moment was maybe the first indication that this person is exactly what she needed in her life. Someone that will appreciate her strength and not feel threaten by it but actually drawn to it. That will know to give her the lead and actually admire her for her leadership because that’s what she was born to do. What’s amazing about it is that this is what he was born to do as well, yet, it never prevents him from letting her take the lead, and he started to do it from that moment on.

Another great reason to say what I always say, “It always goes back to Tallahassee!”

Send me a CS little moment and I will add it to the appreciation list

The  CS little moments appreciation project

[itsabouttimex2]

Oh! Can you rank macaque ships too?

69, shadowpuppet ect

Macaque Ship Ratings

(Scores rank from -10 at the lowest, and 10 at the highest)

(Sun Wukong)

Before reading this list, please keep in mind:

1. Not every ship has enough content for me to remark on, and some ships contain dynamics that I find triggering!

2. My social media usage is limited, and I don’t use every site.

3. I have not consumed every piece of artwork and fanfic in the fandom, so I’m just remarking on trends from what I have seen.

Shadowpuppet

Name Rating: 10/10. I’ll admit- this one is good! I like the reference to: Macaque’s powers, the Mayor’s status as a (willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s status as a (sort of willing) pawn of the LBD, Macaque’s actual use of shadow puppetry… it’s a good name!

Canon Rating: -5/10. Look. C’mon. The Mayor and Macaque have literally no positive interactions at all, they have barely any screen time together regardless. Anything the Mayor does to Macaque is immediately harmful and he takes glee in it.

Fanon Rating: -3/10. In general you’ll notice a running trend that Fanon!Macaque in general is your generically rancid and one-note “He never did even a single bad thing ever at all!” that woobified villains tend to get, and Shadowpuppet goes hard on this trend by portraying Macaque purely through the lens of him being a flat and uninspired “eternal victim”- but it only gets a -3 because it is somewhat appropriate when the person in question genuinely is an awful person who has only ever hurt Macaque.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. Sorry, y’all. I just don’t see it.

Shadowpeach

Name Rating: 5/10. Basic, but rolls off the tongue. Started the trend of Sun Wukong having extremely basic ship names, unfortunately.

Canon Rating: 0/10. Whatever they had in the past, Macaque simply treats Wukong far too awfully to really justify the two of them ever getting together. Even the attempts at reconciliation feel more like extremely forced ship baiting, given how it goes from one of the two being marginally kinder to the other than usual, then immediately dropping it for more sniping. (Past!Shadowpeach receives 5/10.)

Fanon Rating: -10/10. I've spoken at length about this, but fans love to distort Wukong into a drooling abuser so stupid he can't breath through his nose, usually while turning Macaque into a Possession Sue who only serves to be the author's simpering self-insert who is the most perfect little baby of all time who has never ever done anything wrong at all even once. If there is an attempt to be “nuanced" or "unbiased" it manifests as "Sun Wukong "killed" (re: defended himself against) Macaque so he's worse." It's an awful, extremely pervasive dynamic that rots any fandom enjoyment I could have had for this couple.

Personal Enjoyment: 6/10. Getting to write Macaque as the legitimately awful person that he is takes off the edge of seeing constant “uwu sadboi" Macaque content. Still, I rarely touch anyone else's Shadowpeach content because of how pervasive “Fanon!Macaque” is.

Blackberry

Name Rating: 10/10. Macaque actually gets like… really good ship names. Whoever is coming up with these is putting in more effort than whoever came up with all of Sun Wukong’s ship names, at least. The name references both Change’s association with food, and is a color that both characters share! Also- I have a serious weakness for ship names that reference real things.

Canon Rating: 0/10. There’s not even any indication that the two know that the other exists. Maybe they’ll meet up at some point, but as for right now

Fanon Rating: -5/10. Hey, remember what I said above two times already? That Fanon!Macaque is a big simpering bitch baby who only exists to serve as an eternal victim for the writer to coddle like a saint whose only crime is being too perfect? Same applies to Blackberry, to no surprise! It’s less egregious in that Chang’e is legitimately a sweet and loving lady.

Personal Enjoyment: 3/10. The fanart can be cute, but that’s about all that Blackberry has going for it that appeals to my taste. Maybe I’ll come around to it if they have some interaction in the show proper, but I’m not banking on it.

Inkypages

Name Rating: 7/10. This is a simpler name, but I like it! Again, Macaque’s (and Tang’s, too!) ship names are willing to go beyond trying to confine him to a single aspect of his character and actually utilize several aspects of his personality and being beyond just one food. (Yes I’m still mad about the peach prioritization that Sun Wukong’s ship names have.) Inkypages isn’t bad! I like saying it! It’s a logical thing to say!

Canon Rating: -10/10. Okay. Okay, I know. I talk about this a lot. Macaque in the story doesn’t really have logical growth as a character because the show isn’t willing to center any significant time around his flaws and misdeeds outside of MK being hurt by him and then in turn throwing him second chances like cheap candy, which means that Macaque’s genuinely villainous actions have no weight because even the people hurt the worst by him don’t actually get to have thoughts or feelings on how he’s hurt them, and even at his absolute most rancid all of his wrongdoings are simply forgotten, which means his dynamic with Tang is literally: Be a piece of shit -> degrade him -> violently attack him -> try to manipulate him -> be defended by Tang after releasing the Samadhi Fire -> nothing.

It’s... it’s just not good. I still don’t understand why Macaque was going to be a villain at all if nothing he did reflects back onto him in any way or is hard to grow past. It’s just... their dynamic is bad. Most of Macaque’s dynamics are bad because the majority of his growth happens offscreen and away from the people that he’s hurt, which leaves reduces what could’ve been a genuinely intriguing and complex character arc to nothing.

Fanon Rating: -8/10. Hey, do you guys like seeing Tang be turned into a snarky lid-eyed whore who hates Wukong? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like seeing Macaque be reduced to a blubbering pants-shitting baby who needs to be coddled past whatever misdeeds the author invented to be mad at Wukong for supposedly committing? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages. Hey, do you guys like blatant character assassination for the sake of babying villainous blorbos and over-angstifying old men? No? Then you won’t like Inkypages.

Personal Enjoyment: 0/10. This is the longest section of this rant for a reason. I just… it’s a lot like Shadowpeach, where to a large degree the fans have kinda turned me away from any portrayal of the ship- except Shadowpeach has an interesting enough dynamic that I like engaging with it anyhow, at least on my own.

End Result

(Scores ranging from -40 to +40)

Shadowpuppet= 2/40

Shadowpeach= 1/40

(Past!Shadowpeach would be around 20)

Blackberry= 8/40

Inkypages= -11/40

[docwritesshit]

Hello! I hope you're doing well and taking care of yourself today/tonight. I was wondering if you could do pregnancy/parent headcanons for Sun Wukong, Macaque, and MK (separate) of how they would be as dads. Like how they would take the news of their S/O being pregnant, how they would be throughout the whole pregnancy, and what fun things they would do with their kiddos. If you feel uncomfortable with this, that's totally fine

I feel like I’ve done these guys with kids but I could be entirely wrong

ANYWAYS

The Monkey boys with a Pregnant!SO and how they are with the kids!

Wukong

This man is over the moon when he first got the news

Immediately goes overboard in decorating for the babies nursery

I feel like it takes him a few days before he goes “… wait. Shit”

Because this man has aloootttt of enemies. And they are all not above harming innocent parties

So he’s taking every precaution there ever is

Barely lets you leave the mountain by yourself. Either him or someone else has to accompany you

Is constantly holding onto you, even more than usual

Can only sleep with you in the same bed, even more than usual

When your showing more and the baby is moving, good luck going anywhere by yourself

“Wukong-“ “Shhhhhh, I can feel ‘em kicking”

Will not ever miss when the baby is kicking, he swears he will witness every single one

When the baby is actually born, he is not leaning that little angels side

I feel like he is SUCH a girl dad. Idk why

Is mesmerized by every babble and smile with his kid.

Honestly, I feel like he enjoys tea time with his daughter. Pinky will be out and proud as he sips his ‘tea’

Macaque

Do not be surprised to see and extra shadow following you around for a bit

You’re very curious so you ask him about it

“Just trying to protect my kin”

… excuse me, THE FUCK-

After an explanation and you going off on him for not telling you (legit he thought you knew already), you just let the shadow be

Be ready to just see a baby room just fucking appear in your house.

You’re not even showing yet and this dude already has a stock pile of diapers and bottles and wipes and all the things

Over prepared ass mfer/pos

As soon as the baby is born, attached to the hip this one

Cannot get this man to put yalls child down. He is constantly hold them

(I keep wanting to say her. Why are they both girl dads? Who knows)

Can and will throw hands with the baby while they are out and about

MK

Shocked. Gob smacked

He is starting at the wall for a good few minutes

Then he is all over you, giving you all the love he can

You can see him drawing in his sketchbook a lot more

His excuse? “Just trying to capture that glow”

God he is ENAMORED with your growing body. Has to always be touching you in some way or form

There’s also anxiety with him

He can only imagine how he can handle a child while also being Wukongs successor.

Is trying so so hard to be with you and the kid but GOD THE VILLAINS ARE FUCKING ATTACKING HIM

When the kid arrives, he enjoys just drawing with em in the room

Sometimes he tries to draw what they will look like when they grow up. He hopes they atleast get your eyes

King of Daddy- Kid dates while you get some me time. None of them would say no to spending time with your kid while you go and do your own thing but MK especially loves it

That’s all I got

[thekoalapastriesbakery]

pookie :(( take care of urself, okay?

lance, oscar, lando & yuki finding out that the reason their crush is hesitant to go on a date with them is because their last relationship was toxic/manipulative? no pressure, honey <3

-bear

i'm trying but it is an uphill battle my god

lance stroll:

he's got self-esteem issues. he didn't use to, but with all the hate he got for no apparent reason, you supposed it was inevitable. you probably realised he had a crush on you long before he ever told you because he was scared of rejection. scared you'd say the same things as the comments section of his instagram.

you'd never, of course, but it's still in his mind. so when he finally musters up the courage to ask you out and you hesitate? baby boy is scrambling to take it back, play it off as a joke, and pray you can't see the aching in his heart. it takes days to get him to stop leaving the room when you enter, let alone to get him to talk to you.

eventually, though, he'll listen. he's braced himself for the worst. an explanation of his worst flaws that you could never possibly stand, an angry rant about how he'd ruined your friendship–hell, lance wouldn't have been surprised if you'd served him with a restraining order. that was how disposable he thought he was.

but the truth is so much worse.

the words tumble out of your mouth. all the things your ex did and said had haunted you since the breakup. try as you might, they were stuck in your head, constantly on repeat and keeping you on high alert.

he just listens. he listens to you talk about how your ex had treated you. what they'd expected of you. how you'd withdrawn from your friends and family until you finally managed to get out. lance didn't know what he hated more; your ex, or hearing you immediately try to clarify that "of course" it was partly your fault for staying in the first place. the first time he speaks is to tell you that, categorically, it is not your fault.

he's content to take things slow. as much as he'd rather be your boyfriend as soon as possible, he'll let the relationship develop at your pace. he's more protective than he used to be. his ears are far more attuned to the way you speak about yourself, and he's quick to correct you when you start down a negative path.

lando norris:

he tries to hide it with bravado, but he's got just as many insecurities as lance. at first he'll be really blatant and borderline pushy with his crush. he's not trying to intimidate you or even really trying to push you. he's just not yet sure how to assert himself without having to really push and shove to get what he wants.

he'll ask you out in one of two ways. either it's really public, or really private. he sounds cocky no matter what. he has to. if you can't see that he knows what he wants, how will you think he's a man?

it's flawed logic, and he knows it, but he still can't bring himself to break from it. yet.

the second he notices your hesitation, he'll panic internally. he doesn't have good emotional regulation. so, he'll probably lash out at you a bit. he'll say it was a joke, that he didn't really want you anyway ... anything he can do to salvage the dignity he thinks he's lost.

when you tell him the truth, that you don't know if you're ready for a relationship after how your last one had been, lando doesn't react perfectly. he gets a bit defensive. he's never given you a reason to think he would be like that! later, he'll understand your perspective and he'll feel guilty for how he behaved.

you have to understand–he's portrayed as the villain, as someone who treats the people close to him terribly, so often that he can't help but take your rejection as yet another example.

give it a few days. lando calms down, he apologises, and you can have an actual conversation. you do like him, and now he knows what you need from him and you know what he needs from you to make it work. it's messy and chaotic and there will be more than a few tears in the beginning.

but it's worth it. lando makes sure of it.

oscar piastri:

he has more of an understanding of emotional intelligence than lando, and is less emotionally fraught than lance, so he takes it a bit better.

at first he'll assume you're just trying to politely turn him down. and he's cool with that! he'd rather you didn't, of course, but he knows he can't force you to date him. he respects what he thinks is your decision.

then his sisters intervene. it took hattie approximately one conversation with you to realise what the problem was, and she tells oscar. a few hours, a lot of reassuring, and a few smacks upside the head later, oscar calls you and asks you out properly. he gets the full explanation.

he has a reputation for being calm. you're not sure how or why, but he does. when he hears about your last relationship, it takes all his self-restraint (and a little of his sisters') to stop him from going to your ex's house and punching the fucker.

oscar is understanding, and more than willing to put in the effort to show you that he's not like your ex.

yuki tsunoda:

telling yuki you don't want to go on a date with him may have been the hardest thing you'd ever done. you liked him, he liked you, and he'd just asked you out.

and yet, because of your past relationship, you couldn't bring yourself to say yes.

part of it was fear that it would get as bad as it had the last time you tried to date someone. part of it was guilt at your own part in the break up. your ex may have done more, but you knew you didn't react well to things either. you couldn't bear the thought of treating yuki the way you had been treated.

he's confused at first. you'd been quite happy to flirt with him, and the two of you were already (at the very least) overly affectionate friends. he'd been certain you would say yes. but you didn't.

he drives pierre crazy for several days as he agonises over what he had done wrong–he must've done something! everything had been going perfectly until he asked you out. had he misread signals? had he ruined his friendship with you?

a very fed-up pierre appears on your doorstep one night and demands to know why you won't go to dinner with yuki because the poor guy will not shut up about it and pierre is sure that one more day may make him lose his sanity. he doesn't mean to confrontational, and he regrets it when you hesitantly explain. he'll mumble a few apologies then and there. kika will also make him do something nice for you later.

once yuki knows why, he turns up at your apartment and the two of you spend the night lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling and spilling your guts to each other.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Gerald Robotnik

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

You may not know this, but Jim Carrey is actually really good at playing villains. Like, it’s a pretty obscure fact about his career. So obscure that despite him playing at least three of the funniest villains I’d ever seen growing up, I completely forgot about them when I did the Psycho Analysis for Ivo Robotnik back when the original Sonic film dropped.

But now I know better. The Grinch, Count Olaf, the Riddler… Carrey is a master of playing cartoonish creeps. And Ivo Robotnik has proved to be the best and most fun of all his villainous roles, evolving beyond the simple yet fun egomaniac scientist of the first film into something that hews far closer to what Sonic fans might expect from the world’s sexiest fat man AKA Dr. Eggman. In fact, Robotnik might be my favorite villain role of his, and one of my favorite villains of all time.

Now what if we doubled that?

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 went bigger and better than its predecessors, and considering it was introducing the most popular character in the Sonic franchise who isn’t the Blue Blur himself—Shadow—it kind of had to. And that meant giving us not one, but two Jim Carrey performances. In this movie, the typically posthumous Gerald Robotnik is alive and well and out to enact some revenge. It’s a pretty bold and different approach to the beloved story of this Sonic adventure… so how does it work out?

Motivation/Goals: Gerald Robotnik is motivated by revenge, much like in the games, though this time he’s around to pursue it himself. After what G.U.N. did to Maria, he wanted to completely dismantle and destroy them. But the thing is, his decades of stewing in his hate and rage made him a little cuckoo, and now his hate extends to not just G.U.N., but the entirety of the human race… as well as himself.

Performance: Jim Carrey had already perfected Ivo over two films, but I think there may have been a little worry he’d make Gerald too similar and ignore what made fans love him in the game. Of course, we needn’t have worried; not only is Gerald a distinct character from his grandson, he still manages to be a truly despicable human being, perhaps more vile than he’s ever been before. He’s still as wacky and ridiculous as Ivo, but unlike with Eggman he manages to drop the silly at just the right moments to make Gerald a genuinely threatening monster.

Final Fate: No firing squad for Gerald this time; no, his ending here is much more undignified, but also incredibly well-deserved and satisfying. After callously trying to send his grandson into the vacuum of space, Ivo surprises the old man with a super-charged Sonic quill into his ass which sends him flying through the air into the chaos energy. He then proceeds to be disintegrate with a little pop like a bug in a zapper.

Now, this may seem incredibly cartoonish and even ridiculous as a way to defeat such a villain… But read the rest of this analysis to see just how disturbingly vile Gerald ends up being. I think this truly absurd and cartoonish death is exactly what the movie needed to do to rerail things and keep it from going way too dark. And, if you think about it, his death is still colossally fucked up, particularly because Tails seems a little too chipper about committing murder.

Evilness: For most of the movie, he seems like he’ll end up being like… a 6 or 7/10, like clearly a bad guy but one with an understandable motive that you can root for. G.U.N. do not come out of this film smelling like roses, and when you see the full extent of what they did to Shadow it’s hard not to root against them.

But then comes the third act. He reveals he wants to kill everyone and himself, he reveals he doesn’t give a shit what Maria would want because he’s so utterly consumed with misanthropy, and he drops the coldest line ever to reject his grandson… Yeah this guy is a 10/10. Maybe even a 10.5/10. He is genuinely fucking callous and vile and monstrous.

Best Scene: Without a doubt it’s the scene where he and Ivo dance through the lasers.

This scene is great for multiple reasons. The most obvious reason is that t’s an amazing example of the movies effects and how well it showcases the dual Jim Carrey performance. Like, this must’ve been a bitch and a half to make look convincing, especially with Ivo picking Gerald up and swinging him around. It’s amazingly well done, the choreography is great, and “Galvanize” by the Chemical Brothers kicks ass.

But it also works as a further highlighting of the character of Ivo, how he’s still desperately cramming in family fun now that he feels he has someone who cares about him… and it also makes the later reveal about Gerald sting all the more.

Best Quote: Remember that line in Frozen where Hans coldly reveals he’s a villain to Anna? Remember how it’s a stupid twist that doesn’t make sense, yet the line is one of the rawest in all of Disney’s canon? Imagine that except the twist actually works and is effective. That’s what Gerald gets:

“Oh, Ivo… You’re no Maria.”

This single line completely recontextualizes everything Gerald has done up until this point. Every single bit of fun and goofiness now comes off as deliberate manipulation of Ivo to help in his schemes. It also highlights just how single-minded and insane he’s become in his pursuit of revenge; here he has a living member of his family, someone who could fill the void Maria left, but he coldly rebuffs them because he is too consumed by his own hate and rage.

Final Thoughts & Score: I fucking love Gerald.

Jim Carrey really went above and beyond here (and considering they sent him the script in gold and let him play with himself on camera, why wouldn’t he?). He manages to make Gerald hilarious and goofy but also perfectly captures his grief, rage, and hatred when the third act hits. And that third act is genuinely impressive even when he gets into a scientifically-enhanced slap fight with his renegade grandson; just his eerily calm statement of his desire to commit murder-suicide with the entirety of the Earth, his callous brushing off of both his grandson and Maria’s desires, his flippant shrugging off of the worth of Shadow’s life when the hedgehog betrays him… It’s honestly shocking just how nasty Jim Carrey manages to be without completely dropping the inherent goofiness he brings to his roles. In fact, his goofiness just makes it more chilling when he drops the act and gets going.

Frankly it’s surprising just how much nuance there is in such a goofy role, how much can be read in to his actions. Like they really didn’t have to put so much work into the silly villain in the second sequel of a video game movie franchise, they could have easily half-assed Gerald or even just had him be posthumous to save themselves a lot of work. But they didn’t do that, they brought him in, managed to flesh him out and give him depth while still keeping him true to the core of the character, and they knocked him out of the park. Of course, Carrey’s amazing dual performance where he goes out of the way to interact with himself is a big plus too. The sheer spectacle is at least 50% of what makes Gerald so fun to watch.

All in all, Gerald is one of the greatest live-action family film antagonists ever seen, and he’s a big part as to why Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is so great. And best of all he continues to show that the human characters related to Eggman are the best in the franchise. Easily a 9.5/10 for me, with the .5 less than his grandson only because we get far less time with him since, you know, he fucking dies at the ends of this one and isn’t going to develop more. But the fact they manage to make him so well-rounded in just a single movie is worth a lot.

[monsterblogging]

So, I decided to rework Amara Namani for a better Pacific Rim 2.

First, her name suggests to me that the character was originally not meant to be white; or that the version of Amara we actually see in the film was combined from multiple characters, one of whom was not white. So, I'm going to make her Desi.

I'm also going to make her a survivor of K-Day, because I suspect this was the original intention, and because it makes things make a little more sense. The novelization informs us that the specific Jaeger Jake was stealing parts from was Romeo Blue, which would suggest that this scene was originally written to take place in Oblivion Bay, in the San Francisco Exclusion Zone. (This will also make Amara a young adult.)

I'm also going to make her someone who fights in mini-Jaeger battles. I don't know for sure if this was the original intention, but it makes sense and establishes her as someone with combat ability. (We know from the comics that these kinds of fights happen, and the very name "Scrapper" makes me think that a double meaning could have been originally intended - the mech is built from scrap, to scrap in fights.)

Jake (who is now Stacker Pentecost's nephew) meets her in a very similar way to what we see in PRU. But there's one important difference: the pair of them don't get chased down by November Ajax, but by Lady Avenger, which is piloted by Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket. (Mako is a little surprised to see that the man she's chasing is her own cousin!)

I'm also getting rid of that weird cop stuff, by the way. (This also means that Jake/Amara/Scrapper are not getting tased, because that was honestly fucked up.)

Amara is offered the chance to join the PPDC as a cadet, where she is trained by Raleigh Becket, who has just been diagnosed with cancer and will no longer pilot Lady Avenger while he's in treatment. (And yes, he will recover!)

This version of Amara also has difficulty fitting in with the other cadets. One of her problems is that she's spent all of these years fighting by herself, for herself. While she wants to pilot a real Jaeger, she doesn't really have the right attitude for it.

Meanwhile, Jake is now working for the PPDC because Mako has convinced him to fill in for Raleigh for the time being. Jake and Amara bond over Jaeger tech together, and before long it's obvious they're drift compatible - we can see them anticipate each others' actions.

When the kaiju attack, Amara is paired up with the best match they can find for her among the other cadets. However, their drift compatibility score wasn't great, and their performance in the conn-pod is also not great. Amara and her assigned co-pilot fare poorly. Jake and Mako step in to save them and take the kaiju down, but Lady Avenger has serious damage, and the fight isn't over.

Jake has an idea - he switches places with Amara's injured co-pilot, and they proceed to kick the ass of the kaiju. (Mako, meanwhile, gets into Scrapper, and continues to assist the fight.) The story plays out similar to what you see in the original PRU, though with certain differences as the nature of the main villain is quite different.

[onesaltyerik]

Father Blackbird chapter 21! Ender King mentioned? Redza mentioned? Philza mentioned? Mentions of mentions? Many mentions!

Preview:

Was he alive? 

After all these years, was he still out there? 

“Well you see,” the Arena Master gestured to him. 

“He was the spittin’ image of you.”

[ladyelainehilfur]

holding up a grown man and a teenager your own weight with one arm each?? okay miss girl, I see those pull ups coming into clutch

[iero]

SCREAM 2 — Wes Craven (1997)

[skierisa]

I'm alive, but I'm dead Hear my voice up in your head Watch it fill you full of dread 'til you go (ah, pow)

-Villain by KDA

[blue-mood-blue]

I’ve grown to appreciate the aus where Shen Yuan enters the story as “Shen Yuan” - same name, probably similar face, generally able to interact with PIDW as himself and change the story through his added presence. I like the sense of “if only you’d been here, things might have been better the first time around” of it all.

And I was thinking, it’s a funny coincidence in that scenario that someone named Shen Yuan gets put into… another Shen Yuan. What are the chances? What a weird twist of fate that Airplane would pick out the name that his most dedicated critic could slip into seamlessly.

What about a version where it’s not coincidence at all?

Airplane goes to school with a kid named Shen Yuan. He’s prickly and hard to approach and a little intense, but Airplane is persistent. In fairness, Airplane is relentless - and maybe it’s a good thing that they end up being friends, because they’re a little too much for anyone else to handle. They balance each other out. They’re the “weird kids” in class and they’re okay with that, because even when they don’t have any words for it, they know they’re not like their classmates, not really. That’s okay; they don’t want to be.

Recesses and breaks are consumed with the elaborate stories that Airplane wants to tell, and all the holes Shen Yuan pokes into them. It’s not mean-spirited, though, even though Shen Yuan isn’t the kind to temper his words. It’s passionate. He cares about those stories the way Airplane cares about them, and it can’t be mistaken for anything else when they lean together conspiratorially across the lunchroom table. They’ve both got notebooks filled with details and characters and monsters. Shen Yuan’s practically got a whole bestiary sketched out in wobbly childhood attempts at art, entries fervently scrawled beside them. Airplane prattles out plots nonstop, always with the promise of shining eyes and being asked “what happens next?”

They come up with a whole world together. Airplane’s going to write about it someday. Shen Yuan is going to read every word.

Shen Yuan misses school. Shen Yuan starts missing school a lot.

Airplane goes to the hospital room instead. He doesn’t think to worry, because Shen Yuan is okay - that’s what he says. He looks okay, and he’s a kid, and it doesn’t feel real that anything bad should happen to a kid. He doesn’t think to worry. He doesn’t think to say goodbye.

It’s one of the older Shen brothers who catches him on the way up to the room one day, in the hallway just outside - snaps at him to go the fuck home, and when Airplane hesitates, pushes him into the elevator and tells him not to come back. “Tells” is a generous way to describe the way the words come out - a growl, a hiss, the sound an animal would make when a hand got too close to a wound.

(It’s not fair to name a villain after him, even if the name never really comes up in the story. He wasn’t trying to be mean. He’d lost a brother minutes before, and he was getting his brother’s friend out of the way so he didn’t have to… see. It isn’t fair, but then, none of it is fair.)

Death feels very real after that.

The notebooks get shoved into a closet, and it’s not until Airplane’s moving out and one falls on him from a high shelf that he thinks about it again. He’s written things, lots of things, but nothing as ambitious as this - nothing as important. It could be good, he considers. He’d promised. Shen Yuan wanted to read it.

The problem was that no one else does, not for a long time, not until Airplane has whittled himself and his art into a corner and into such an unfamiliar shape that he has to wonder how it’s still his own face he sees in the mirror. He has to eat. He has to pay rent. Shen Yuan would yell at him, but Shen Yuan isn’t there to yell at him, and who cares. Who cares if it could have been better? The people who actually are here love it, and it’s paying his bills, and sometimes stories don’t go the way they’re supposed to and the world is fucking unfair. It doesn’t matter.

(It does. But he shoves that thought away along with styrofoam cups and soda bottles to the bottom of a garbage bag.)

Authors are not gods and their power is limited, but Airplane exercises just a sliver of what he’s been granted and gifts an inconsequential sort of immortality. He thinks about making him a rogue cultivator, maybe the kind that goes around documenting beasts and compiling his findings. He thinks about making him someone too powerful for death to touch, or too important to threaten, but when Airplane looks at the world he crafted and everything that’s become of it, it feels like the kindest thing he can do for Shen Yuan is a childhood where he’s loved, and a death that’s peaceful. What does it say about that world, that he’d kill off his best friend too early again instead of making him live there?

(The best writing he ever does is the only, shining moment of humanity that his scum villain ever displays: a lament about death that comes too early, about a brother gone too soon. The commenters praise him. The commenters flatter over how real the emotions feel. The commenters don’t get any response from Airplane on that chapter.)

Death is incredibly real when it comes for him too early, too, still hovering over his keyboard with the story technically finished and incredibly incomplete. Airplane could tell himself that’s because the written version can never be the version in the writer’s head, always shifting and with every possibility still on the table, but he knows better than that. The System knows better than that, with its condescending message about “improving” his writing and “closing plot holes” and “achieving his original vision”...

…and he’s a child again. He’s a child in his own story, he’s Shang Qinghua now without the benefit yet of a peak or cultivation or anything, and maybe he’s a little bitter, and a little scared, and…

And Shen Yuan - with longer hair, with robes, with a couple of older kids watching him from across the street, but undeniably the prickly little boy who used to sit down imperiously across from him and tell him everything that was wrong with the chuck of writing that had been handed to him last period, but with that smile that said he was only invested because he knew it could be better and they were going to make it better - marches up to him with a fire in his eyes and a frown that warns of a coming tirade.

“You told it wrong,” is the first thing he says.

Shang Qinghua wants to ask how him how he’s here, how this is possible, or maybe laugh because, yeah - yeah, Shen Yuan has no goddamn idea how wrong he got absolutely everything.

(Shang Qinghua wants to say “I missed you” and “why did you leave so soon” but he’s here now. He’s right here.)

“I know,” he says instead. “I’m sorry. It all kind of… spiraled out of control.”

Shen Yuan frowns, but then it dissipates the way it always does, and his eyes shine with ideas the way they always used to. “That’s okay,” he relents, grabbing for his hand. “We’ll fix it. We’ll make it what it was supposed to be.”

[mcytegg]

mane should be spacewaffles third, but like in a /r way i think. hes already a freak abt bacon and seeimgly? has a soft spot for planet.

[keets-writing-corner]

can you all IMAGINE being Vaggie???

you're an exorcist. You're supposed to kill demons. You're an angel. All you're life you've followed the first man, and heard tales about the dangers of questioning heaven. Tales about Lucifer. You know he's not to be messed with and that he's the king of hell. That heaven FEARS him to a degree.

then you show compassion to ONE demon once, against Adam's orders, and boom. Now you're cast out. You're stuck in hell. Oops this cute girl shows up??? She's taking care of you?? Clearly your intuition that maybe the sinners didn't all deserve to be killed were correct. She's nicer than a lot of people in heaven-WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS PRECIOUS BEAN IS LUCIFER'S DAUGHTER???

clearly heaven was wrong about a lot of things, so if the big bad lucifer has a daughter this sweet, maybe something is up with him???

And then you meet him, and like, meeting your partner's parents is already nerve wracking and this is supposed to be THE king of hell, THE fallen angel, THE GUY THAT HEAVEN FEARS and the first thing he does is completely flub his words out of excitement, mispronounces your name, hugs you and calls you pretty???

like how weird is that to process????