#taking it from HIS OWN CORPSE

[everybodyloveshippos]

absolutely fucking me up that other than drizzt and guen, all the companions have corpses rotting in the earth. catti and regis in tombs in mithril hall. bruenor in gauntlgrym. wulfgar on the tundra of ice wind dale.

[greykolla-art]

Dropkicks this thing out of my Procreate gallery before I ruin it with more filters.

[zeb-z]

also can I just say. the difference between the joy of fit and bagi having a full day with blue, getting acquainted with the base, reuniting with their loved ones, all relieved to have more materials and more of a team - and then the absolute misery of etoiles and roier, moving the few valuable possessions red has to a new base that got immediately discovered anyway, losing all their gear, getting it back, then burning it themselves before killing eachother, is just so fucking funny. the new blues had freshman orientation while the new reds had a trial by fire canon event

[hello-galad]

[silverwhittlingknife]

antigone. jean anouilh.

quotations from antigone: a tragedy by jean anouilh. translated by lewis galantière.

comic panels in order are from: battle for the cowl 3 (x3), batman annual 25, batman and robin 5, batman and robin 6, battle for the cowl 3, batman 416, battle for the cowl 3, battle for the cowl 2, batman annual 25, batman and robin 6, under the red hood, battle for the cowl 3 (x2), batman 427, lost days 5.

[maliciousmagpie]

Just finished S14, just have to question why Dean was so quick to try and kill his magic son like his brother and bestfriend haven’t also done incredibly insane things for a variety of reasons.

And the real kicker is.

It’s going to get so much worse.

[shima-draws]

Thinks about Perry covered in the blood of his enemies and swoons

[toriliashine]

Multiclassed wyll into a warlock/ranger. Best decision I've ever made, live your Disney princess with a gun truth man

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable asking, Emily," June said gently, as she pushed her dinner around her plate (a part of her could hear her father admonishing her for it, but truthfully, she was much too nervous to think about eating), adding, "I just...well, it's like you said, you don't feel like you're over a hundred years old and, well...you certainly don't come across that way."

That night that she and Wilhelm kicked Emily out of the house (a night she continued to regret), her perception of the young woman had changed, going from a sweet, soft-spoken young lady her son was smitten with, to a manipulative monster looking to sink her teeth into Randall's soft flesh, and that image stayed with her long after that night...

...but now, in the gentle light of the kitchen, looking at her now, that familiar visage of a good-natured, gentle-hearted woman returned, though more tinged with melancholy, for reasons June now understood, and was sympathetic towards. She saw not a monster, but a very lonely soul, in need of love.

"Well, uh," Wilhelm commented, similarly eating little (despite his usually strong appetite, it was, like his wife's, waning this evening) as he took a stab at humor, joking lightly, "You look pretty good for a centenarian, lass!"

[silo1013]

what are your thoughts about krycek's kill in sleepless?

i think i made some kind of small post about this like a month ago but i'm going to get more into it now that you've sent me an ask about it specifically. unleashing the beast.

ok so i don't know if this is like. #controversial or whatever but i don't actually think he was faking his reaction to killing augustus cole! i do think that was baby's first murder.

in the LSG media x-files podcast, one of the hosts points out that, at the end of sleepless, krycek kind of has no choice but to kill cole. cole wants to die, and was going to die either way (he was clearly planning to jump off the ledge of the vehicle yard building before being confronted by mulder)--but he knows that mulder isn't going to do it, so he puts it on krycek by manipulating him into seeing the gun where the bible was. there's obviously no way for krycek to fake that, it's external. so if he thinks that his partner is about to get shot, what does he do? if he wasn't a spy, he'd do what he's supposed to do according to what they teach you at the FBI, which is to shoot cole (the hostile suspect) before he can shoot mulder (the LEO). he is a spy, but he still has to do what he's supposed to do, because if he doesn't, it'll blow his cover.

the conversation between krycek and the cigarette-smoking man in ascension makes it pretty obvious that krycek is like. at this point, basically an errand boy. a foot soldier AT MOST. the cigarette-smoking man tells krycek, among other things, that he "has no rights, only orders to be carried out," and that if he has problems with that, they'll "make other arrangements," which is like. very obviously a threat that krycek seems disquieted by, placing him in what is probably a relatively low position in the syndicate's hierarchy. he's a mole, someone who watches and passes along information--not the kind of operative that assassinates people.

we get basically nothing on krycek in terms of backstory/what he was doing before being introduced into the story (which in almost all cases i think is a plus) but to be honest i don't think there would have been any reason for him to have killed anybody before cole. krycek mentions in ascension that the cigarette-smoking man "had" him do something--we infer that this is related to the death of duane barry at the least, if not also what happened to the tram operator at skyland mountain--so we know that he wasn't doing that of his own accord, he was receiving orders. we see him doing the same thing in anasazi (before the cigarette-smoking man decides he's a loose end that needs to be tied), except now he seems to be being specifically ordered to carry out hits; likely because somebody, somewhere, saw what he did in ascension and decided that he could handle it. i don't believe that that was always his job, and i definitely don't think that it was anywhere NEAR his job during the period of time he was assigned to be mulder's partner. the confrontation the end of sleepless puts him in the position to kill someone when he wasn't intended to be, and he does it, and after they realize he can do it, he's put in positions where he has to do it more. if it helps the government cover up the fact that they've been doing fucked up experiments on people, that's an added bonus.

part of this can be attributed to nicholas lea being a good actor, obviously, but i think when it comes to determining this sort of thing, it's physical reactions that tend to sell it. at the end of the scene, right before the cut to mulder finding out his file's been stolen from the car, there's the shot of mulder and krycek leaning over cole's body in the vehicle yard building. it's the most well-lit part of the scene, and there's a long shot focusing on the bible lying at cole's side where he'd dropped it as he fell. it's pretty zoomed in, since the focus is on the book, but both mulder and krycek are partially visible in-shot. mulder, who we know has killed people before, doesn't enjoy it but is familiar with it, is very sober and still; krycek's hand is shaking so hard it's changing the reflections on the face of his wristwatch.

so yeah, i do think augustus cole was the first time he ever killed anyone, and i think his hesitations and reactions were real. frankly i think most of his reactions to things regarding the case were real; he might be part of the alien cover-up conspiracy but i feel like maybe that doesn't prepare you for war veterans that can kill people with their minds. i guess it's the sort of thing where it's like. he COULD have been faking it? "it" being the fear and anxiety and immediate shock of killing a person for the first time. even though i think the emotions that you must be experiencing after you kill someone for the first time, especially if you didn't necessarily want to do it--residual fear, sick adrenaline, some kind of fucked up relief--would be pretty difficult to fake, particularly if you're trying to fool one of the best psychologists in the bureau, i don't doubt that he could have gotten away with faking it if he'd had to. but i just think it's a little more interesting if he didn't

[daisyachain]

there’s one version of an f/m/m triangle that crops up so often I’m surprised there isn’t at least a tvtropes/vernacular name for it. Miyokichi/Kiku/Shin. Molly/Fitz/Fool. Asuka/Shinji/Kaworu. Futaba/Taichi/Touma. not-really-but-you-could-shove-it-in-here Luthien/Beren/Finrod. Utena/Touga/Saionji is a twisted spun-on-its-head version of it. Specifically comprising:

masculine male character A: either is the protagonist or a character on to which male viewers can project.

female character B: a secondary character and A’s official love interest, often kept apart from A by story/circumstance/gender roles. Shows some resentment of the trials she’s put through by the story in being A’s lover such as being shoved to the side, cut out of his life, or put in danger.

less masculine male character C: another major character, A’s devoted sidekick, feminine and/or conspicuously cold toward women or sexuality, somewhat ill-used by A but not resentful about it, as a contrast to B.

The dynamic is used pretty equally by female and male creators, though probably with different purposes. Outside the story, there’s a clear explanation for how the roles are divided: men are main, women are peripheral. Obviously the female love interest has to be on the margins of the story. Obviously the male main character has to have an ally in-story who can bounce dialogue back. Any human person has to have a best friend (for men, has to be male) and a lover (for men, has to be female). The major character male bestie and the minor character female gf is the minimum character dynamic you need to sustain the main character as a believable construction.

Except within the story, the dynamic begs far too many questions. On B’s part: her other half and love interest uses her for sex once every few chapters and dumps her to go off on another plot-relevant adventure. She’s kept in the dark, talked down to, pushed away, and distrusted. Her place at her sweetie’s side is occupied by Some Dude and no matter how much she puts into their relationship, she’s always going to be a prize for after the mission. Why does she stay with him? What could possibly attract her about this bestubbled grunt machine whose passion for the sword outmatches anything she’s given him?

On C’s part: he gets used as an emotional support crutch, designed to service his best friend’s every need at the expense of his own goals or story. He’s a housewife, he’s a domestic, he does every thankless story task with a smile because he has to provide the exposition/set up the plot/set the plan in action that carries the main male character to victory. He doesn’t have a love interest of his own, meanwhile the most important person in his life is obsessed with a woman he barely speaks to. Why should he care so much about someone who only takes? Why is he committed to this one-way friendship? What does he think of taking the backseat, providing support, submerging his own will for the sake of a person instead of an ideology?

On A’s part: if he’s a red-blooded heterosexual male character who pursues a woman as is acceptable, why does he dig himself so deep in with his designated ally? Through dialogue and because he has to in order to show the audience, he exposes his heart and soul to C and keeps him in his pocket for as long as we are watching, so why then does he cast him aside so easily? He invests the most time and energy into his relationship with C, cultivating love and loyalty there, but he draws the line so firmly in the sand that the audience is sure he’ll never, ever step aside for one minute to follow the friend. Why does he choose a man for his emotional battery? Why doesn’t he communicate with his supposed partner? Why does he choose to use B and C for sex and solace respectively, and why don’t they ever mix?

The gender dynamics wrap around to simple: women aren’t up to being equal partners to a cool guy, so you need a male wife to do everything for you and appreciate the protagonist’s sick abilities. romance with a man is perverse and impossible, so you need a female love interest to prove that the protagonist isn’t gay and fulfil the audience’s needs. But in-between all of that you could ask some interesting questions of the spoke character, A, the male protagonist whose actions are taken as normal. the question being: bro. what’s wrong with you

[ragsy]

MOTW NPC Rach Lombardi, Mark's toxic ex who got ripped to shreds by dogman and then whose revenant ghost latched onto someone else who was on their own dogman revenge quest (player character Tatara)

she's fun.

[martyrbat]

Embalming: History, Theory, and Practice, Sixth Edition

[TEXT ID: As we yearned for physical connection with the ones we love, we also longed to be present with the ones we had lost.]

[kylermalloy]

Nai shaving his hair off in a fit of panic, & Vash follows suit later when he sees Nai self-conscious about it

Alt idea: Vash going missing/being kidnapped, & Nai keeps getting excited by his reflection, so he shaves his hair off so he stops thinking he's found Vash.

I love this ask, partly because it’s almost the exact reverse of what happens in the 98 Trigun anime. Rem cuts Vash’s hair into his signature spiky style, and Nai, in a fit of…rage? Jealousy? runs away and shears off his own hair, complaining that “it’s all wrong!” when it turns out shorter and choppier than Vash’s. I’m still not 100% sure what that scene was meant to convey, whether it was a rejection of Rem, a desire to be like Vash, some combination of the two, or just a way to show how *wrong* Nai always was. (Idk man, the 98 anime isn’t kind to Knives.)

But I love this idea! Vash wants to still be like his brother. He wants them to match, and he wants Nai to not be alone in his self-consciousness. It’s a very sweet gesture, very Vash.

And the second idea…listen, there’s a reason twincest is so amazing. The boys look like each other! They can’t look in the mirror without thinking of their brother. How delicious is that?! How…inescapable.

Nai can’t bear to see his reflection anymore and not have it be Vash. Constantly reminding him he doesn’t have Vash anymore.

But even without their matching hair, Nai still sees Vash in his face. In the set of his mouth, the shape of his eyes. (And has Vash really been taken? Or did Vash leave of his own accord?)

[the-cooler-king]

Me to my s/o: oh, I'm really sorry - I was so caught up with meetings and pictures that I didn't get a chance to tell you - you look incredible today

[wizzard890]

okay so picture this.

You're a man named Jim Steinman. You are one of the most prolific songwriters of the 80s. In your spirit, output and essence, you are eternally popping a wheelie on a motorcycle while a hot half-naked woman clings to you and bats wheel in the sky above.

You wrote a song in which Meatloaf plays a hideously disfigured hunk who steals a nubile lady back to his crumbling manor and introduces her to the pleasures of magic lesbian group sex.

You wrote a song in which Celine Dion sings as Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, dancing with Cathy's corpse on a beach in the moonlight; a scene which you, Jim Steinman, believe should have been in the book. (The moors of Wuthering Heights are landlocked, but you, Jim Steinman, are too fucking real to care about that.)

You wrote the song for the opening scene of the movie Streets of Fire, in which evil leatherdaddy Willem Dafoe leads his malefic motorcycle crew into a concert to abduct Diane Lane while she's wearing a skintight satin jumpsuit.

You wrote a song in which Bonnie Tyler wanders a haunted boarding school as literal demon twinks gyrate at her out of the fog.

There is no peak of goth camp that you, Jim Steinman, have not summited, no horny energy you have not tapped. They say that Alexander the Great wept when he saw there were no more worlds to conquer. But you, Jim Steinman, are not Alexander the Great. You, Jim Steinman, are better. You, Jim Steinman, have vision.

You take your most successful song, the song everyone knows, the most big-haired, white dress, gothic arches, doves flying, possessed choir boys chanting, bombastic song you have, and think: what if this, but with vampires.

And so you change the lyrics to be about death and infinity and a powerful bloodsucking lord seducing a girl who is ALL ABOUT IT, and then toss off a whole musical for this song to be the centerpiece to, and the musical is bad but it's also a weird hit that's been staged in fourteen countries and revived seven times, because nothing has ever whipped as campily, as ridiculously, as perfectly as this:

It never takes off in America. A prophet is without honor in his own land. But that doesn't matter. How could it matter? You are perhaps the most creatively self-actualized man who has ever lived. Look at that vampire. He's coming in hot and a hundred Venetian nuns gave their lives to make his ludicrously capacious lace sleeves. Look at that girl. She was born in a fog machine. She wore her best red velvet cape. She's down bad. She's singing Total Eclipse of the Heart the whole time.

You are Jim Steinman, and you have reached apotheosis.