#that she wanted a main role in the cannibal cult

[lottieurl]

ben is so funny to me he really could have just lived in that cave away from them and never interact with the little cannibals ever again but he decided to burn Every Teenager and now they will have to live in his cave so it's over for him

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay Ninjago hot take

S8-S9 is a good season, but it’s got some flaws too…

Mostly I think the villains of this season are kinda lack lustre…

(Disclaimer I did enjoy the season and this post is all my speculation and opinions. It’s all for fun)

So s8-s9 try to put a spin (pun intended) on the main series by having the plot be notably darker and mature, I assume to keep up with the aging audience. We have a biker gang (the association with rebellious and counter culture teens), Harumi rebelling against the government which are also her parents, demonic cults, the romance drama with Lloyd and a proper dystopian setting touching on authority manipulation (Iron Baron), news manipulation (Ultra Violet’s show) and the important of faith. We have 3 characters die in the second episode. We literally have Wu grow up throughout the season, and the focus of Lloyd growing up. And this is really cool and well thought out!

I just think the villains were lacking in something. Not to be like “the other seasons were better” but I do think former villains worked well in ways that didn’t happen here. Maybe I just found them more charismatic idk. Like Pythor is downright creepy because he’s like, a cannibal. Chen is one of the best written villains because he’s like the joke character who is actually powerful but villain form. His silly ness, combined with the fact that he STILL had everyone in the palm of his hand, makes him a good villain because you feel you’ve greatly underestimated him. Also he funny. Him and Clouse have such a good dynamic. Morro is also iconic because of his connection to Wu. Heck I think Nadakhan and the Time Twins were decent. Nadakhan had a unique style of villainy and I also liked the twins dynamic, although they are a little generic. (The overlord is boring we don’t talk about him, there’s a reason cryptor was in DotD and not him).

My problem with the SoG, is that most of them are undeveloped, and Harumi could’ve been more. I think the standards are higher because s8 really sets the tone that things will be darker. But Killow, is just the strong one, and Ultra Violet is just crazy, which would be cool if it wasn’t her only character trait. At least Mr E gets an excuse because he’s a mystery, and generally he played a more prominent role. The characters don’t seem to have much of a relationship with each other and we don’t even know why any of them joined a demon biker cult gang, or why they like Garmadon (save for Harumi).

And Harumi. Wow. So while she does have one of the darker backstories, idk it still feels tame in spite of the season. I think it’s cool her story links to the start of the season, her hate for the ninja isn’t reasonable. Like they were trying their dang hardest to kill that snake, and Lloyd was her age when it happened. Why does she want to resurrect an evil Garmadon when the Garmadon who defeated the Devourer did it out of good. She resurrected a Garmadon who didn’t care for his family when the familial side of him seems to be the only appeal for her. And like, yeah the royal family didn’t seem too fun, but like at least she was adopted, especially by rich people. If she was anti- the emperor then why’d she bring back a worse one? I mean I feel like they could have capitalised more on the ninja’s found family vs Harumi’s “for the publicity” family. I think her story isn’t tragic enough considering how casually dark Ninjago has been so far. Like it’s not dark enough to make up for the fact that her motives barely make sense. Harumi has trauma and a cool aesthetic but she doesn’t make much sense and her redemption felt rushed.

Speaking of her redemption, why did Garmadon care so much when she died. Wasn’t the point of him to be heartless. Because it honestly felt like he was a new born baby rather than the embodiment of darkness. Idk I just can’t believe Harumi got special treatment ig, my man Garmadon rlly enabled her toxic behaviour. Idk I think maybe it’s just that actual Garmadon was a pretty rational being, and this one feels like he came straight out of Harumi’s self insert fanfic. Idk idk.

Another thing but did anyone else not understand why Lloyd crushed on Harumi in the first place. I’m sorry but Lloyd “if I see one girl in here I’m gonna go ballistic” Montgomery Garmadon? I’m sorry this kid grew up surrounded crazy relationship drama. Firstly his mum managed to marry evil incarnate, then Jay and Cole fight over Nya, which ends up getting so bad that it contributed to the post s3 split of the ninja, also Zane’s girlfriend initially tried to kill him, Kai’s crush was originally evil, and then he found out that Garmadon had lied in order to date Misako! Like idk about Lloyd but I would consider not dating anyone in Ninjago! Tbh it would’ve made more sense if Lloyd fell in love with Harumi AFTER she revealed herself to be evil, because everyone around him DID date evil.

I think it would’ve been cool if the SoG did actually treat each other as family, maybe they were all orphans together at some point, and created a support network between themselves. It would certainly check out for Harumi and Mr E (assuming he IS echo zane) as they are both orphans. Them treating each other as family, being comfortable around each other, having caring sides to give them more dimension might be a shout. Now idk how to change the whole “why does Harumi like Garmadon of all people” other than she’s crazy (which ig is true for the show, perhaps they could’ve shown her be more unhinged). But I do feel like Garmadon doesn’t need to care for Harumi, because he has no capacity for empathy anymore. We can still have the scene where she’s like “I’ll be your daughter”, but later on when he accidentally kills her he’s just like “I’ve spent years trying to kill my family, it kinda comes with the job”. I also think Harumi’s death was rushed, like suddenly now she grows a conscience? If she was crazy but then watched her found family slowly die, then I feel like that gives her more of a reason to turn her back on the whole Garmadon thing.

So I’m gonna post a bunch of headcanons / rewrite / glorified fanfic ideas that I came up with so I can personally make peace with these seasons (jus my opinions tho)(some of them contradict the books and I’m aware)

Sons of Garmadon headcanons

Alternative Lloyd/Harumi plotline

[screamscenepodcast]

HAPPY HALLOWE’EN 2020: THE TOP TEN

And you thought we’d forgotten All Hallows’ Eve? For shame! Yes, it’s that time of year again - when you’re looking for only the best classic horror movies to make your blood run cold and entertain the ghosts moaning their way through your home! So here it is, our definitive list of the top ten best horror movies, for the period of 1895-1955. Here you’ll learn which films make the top ten, what their deal is, and where to find them online.  We hope you find this list helpful with your evening’s entertainment. Safe scares, Creatures of the Night!

#10. The Invisible Man (1933)

Mark Hamill said it himself - his much acclaimed interpretation of the Joker comes from Claude Rains’ performance as the tragically insane Griffin in this adaptation of the HG Wells novel. The movie shows off James Whale’s great skill at mixing humour and horror, even if some of the British-isms get a bit broad at times, but the true power of The Invisible Man is how it’s gotten more relevant with time - in 2020, the idea that anonymity might lead to immorality is no longer a hypothetical notion. Find it for rent in HD at $4.99 on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Cineplex, Microsoft Store, and YouTube. 1h 11min.

#9. The Black Cat (1934)

What do you even say about a movie like Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat? A metaphor for Austrian/Hungarian relations after World War I, a dip into the world of Satanic cults, a revenge story with elements as unsavoury as Oldboy, and a chance to see Karloff and Lugosi really go at it as adversaries on roughly equal footing at a time when both men’s careers were on about the same level. This movie will draw you in with its gorgeous cinematography, hypnotic editing, and modernist set design to such an extent that by the time it’s over, you’ll hardly notice that the story didn’t seem to entirely make sense… This underappreciated classic is waiting for you to rent in HD on Google Play and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 6min.

#8. Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Watching this movie is like willingly stepping into a nightmare. The HG Wells’ novel might have somehow wanted to portray Dr Moreau “sympathetically” (Victorians, amirite?) but this adaptation understands he’s an utter monster and Charles Laughton delivers a bravura performance that underscores the character’s pure insanity. Combine this with the film’s dark and gritty look, the subtle make-up design of the hybrids (including a heavily obscured Bela Lugosi), and the unforgettable chant of The Law, and you have a film that will burn itself into your memory. Unfortunately, Island of Lost Souls has no current streaming options available, but you can find it on Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection. 1h 11min.

#7. Körkarlen (1921)

The Phantom Carriage is a haunting exploration of the horrors of alcoholism, domestic abuse, poverty, and tuberculosis as well as a critique of Christian naivete while simultaneously an encouragement of spiritual moral values. It has the tone and pace of a dirge, as it seeks to imprint its message on your very soul. All wrapped up in a chilling story of New Year’s Eve and the spectre of Death! The Phantom Carriage is available to stream in HD on The Criterion Channel, and to rent in HD for $5.49 on Pantaflix. 1h 30min.

#6. I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

The second Val Lewton produced film on the list, I Walked With a Zombie is perhaps best described as Jane Eyre in the Caribbean, but what is surprising is that the film is also a well researched depiction of Voodoo practices for 1943. The haunting imagery, sparse sound design, and dreamlike poeticism of this film might make it among the most unique zombie movies you’ve ever seen, made in a time with zombies were supernatural undead slaves, instead of reanimated undead cannibals. Do yourself a favour and check it out - it’s available to buy online in SD for $9.99 from Apple iTunes, and $14.99 on Google Play Movies and YouTube. 1h 8 min.

#5. The Old Dark House (1932)

James Whale’s definitive take on this traditional mystery thriller formula is a movie that will have you laughing right until the moment it has you screaming. In some ways, it’s a movie of clichés, with the protagonists seeking shelter in an old mansion during a rainstorm in the night and having to deal with the reclusive family they find within. But the dark, brooding cinematography, and truly shocking twists that rivet up the intensity over the running time, all contribute to make this a harrowing watch. It’s one part Rocky Horror Picture Show, one part The Addams Family, and one part The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I’m not kidding. The Old Dark House is currently streaming in HD on Flix Fling. 1h 10min.

#4. The Spiral Staircase (1946)

This RKO classic is another great take on the old dark house subgenre, from noir director Robert Siodmak. A masterpiece of suspense, featuring wonderful production design and dynamite performances from its cast, this movie will draw you in to the world of a mute servant named Helen trapped in a dark manor on a stormy night with a whole cast of lunatics! A forerunner of giallo (no, really!), this classic and classy thriller is not to be missed! The Spiral Staircase is currently streaming in HD on Flix Fling. 1h 23min.

#3. Gojira (1954)

Ishiro Honda’s classic giant monster movie, the progenitor of all kaiju and tokusatsu movies to come, is a masterpiece of ingenuity and imagination. But more than that, it’s a powerful statement about the horrors of nuclear war, an angry and relentless funeral dirge mourning for the Japanese lives lost and raging against the American foreign policy that continued to poison Japan with radiation even after the war. Godzilla is an apocalypse personified, the great revenge of the natural world against the hubris of man that has harmed it. But Gojira is also a film about the immense weight of personal and scientific responsibility weighed against the greater good, and its position on the use of weapons of mass destruction is perhaps more nuanced than you’d expect. Don’t let the campy reputation of Godzilla in the West fool you. Clear your mind of that and sit down to watch this powerful black & white epic. Gojira is streaming in HD on the Criterion Channel, and can be rented in HD for $4.99 on Apple iTunes. 1h 38 min. The American adaptation Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) is also worth a watch, and is available from the same sources.1h 20 min.

#2. Cat People (1942)

Cat People is brilliant. The first of Val Lewton’s horror movies for RKO, it best exemplifies his shadow drenched, suggestive, adult, contemporary, and ambiguous brand of horror. Irena is convinced that if she experiences sexual excitement, she will turn into a black panther and kill the man she loves. Her husband is convinced it’s all in her head. What is the truth? Cat People gives the viewer plenty to chew on while being the first horror movie to understand that less is more, that the monster is scarier if you can’t see it, and also how to pull off a jump scare. You can find this absolute classic to stream in HD on The Criterion Channel, and to purchase in HD for $9.99 on Apple iTunes and $14.99 on Google Play Movies and YouTube. 1h 10min.

#1. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

FOUR! YEARS! IN A ROW! Early on in the first Hollywood horror craze, Paramount Pictures managed to outdo their main competitor Universal with this masterpiece from director Rouben Mamoulian. With a use of sound, visuals, effects, script, and performance far beyond what most films were doing at the time, this adaptation reigns supreme among other versions of the same story. Fredric March utterly inhabits the dual title role, but it’s Miriam Hopkins’ performance that will stick with you in this superb examination of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and the beast that dwells within us. Currently for rent in SD on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 38min. Well there you have it, Creatures of the Night! Will Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde ever be knocked from it’s perch at the top? Keep tuning in to Scream Scene each week on Wednesday to find out! Until then, Happy Hallowe’en!

[aplusblogging]

An Analysis on the History of Gender in the Horror Genre

This is one of my classmates’ final projects for Sociology. I loved it so much I asked for her permission to share it here. Hope you enjoy it too!

Transcript under the cut, since the auto-generated captions are mostly accurate but punctuation is good for comprehension.

TRANSCRIPT:

“My name is Davis Barelli, and in this video essay I'm going to look at the portrayal of gender through the lens of the horror genre.

Women in particular may have a reason to keep coming back to the genre, outside of a cheap thrill. In a study done by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Google, using the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient—or the GDIQ—it was determined that women are featured on screen and in speaking roles more than men only in the horror genre. With the advent of the MPAA rating system in the '30s, the kind of horror we know today didn't re-emerge until the '60s.

Making female characters who would later become known as "Final Girls" the vessel for traumatic experiences allowed viewers—especially men and boys coming home from war—to see someone reacting to trauma in the way that they wanted to, but wasn't socially acceptable. Instead, the model for men to see themselves in was the macho, womanizing jock who goes outside to find the big bad, typically resulting in him being the first to die. While there was a lot of good in the survivors of these horror movies very commonly being female, a specific archetype of the female survivor made it clear what kind of girl it took to be the hero.

The Final Girl being portrayed in '60s, '70s, and '80s slasher horror as an innocent virgin stereotype was no accident, what with America experiencing the breakdown of the nuclear family and Christian morals thanks to the free-love movement of the '60s. This led to frequent themes of occultism, homosexuality, and hypersexuality in horror at the time. Characters who gave in to these evils were given a death sentence, as opposed to the Final Girls, who were rewarded for their abstinence with survival.

When films did stray from the norm by casting male leads in sequels in place of the Final Girl, a double standard emerged. Male protagonists were branded as "homosexual" for acting like the Final Girls before them, and the actors who portrayed them had their careers effectively ruined. Where the '70s gave rise to exploitation horror centered on violence against women, '80s niche horror had different scapegoats.

Cannibal Holocaust, released at the beginning of the decade and directed by Ruggero Deodato, tells the story of a group going to the Amazon in search of a missing film crew. They discover footage detailing the gruesome things the crew did to the tribe they encountered before they were killed. Not only is the portrayal of hostile tribes in the Amazon harmful to the actual tribes in the Amazon, but framing the main character of the film as a kind of white savior for not wanting the footage of the tribe distributed is basically rewarding him for the absolute bare minimum.

The other standout film of the '80s notorious for its subject matter is that of Sleepaway Camp. Sleepaway Camp tells the story of a young girl who experiences the death of her family during a boating accident and is sent to live with her aunt and cousin. She and her cousin go to the summer camp and it quickly becomes a bloodbath. The reveal at the end is that the young girl was the culprit, because she wasn't a girl at all, but her twin brother who was forced by the aunt to live as a girl. The narrative of trans people as dangerous, deranged villains pretending to be a different gender due to mental illness or against their will is deeply harmful to the LGBTQ people who were battling misconceptions at the time similar to this, and still are.

This energy evolved with the '90s, which shifted its focus to supernatural teenage hormones, with the likes of The Craft and many others. Looking at the villains of these movies, though, is a clear pointer to the ostracization of the "weird kid" in the '90s. This is most prominently seen in The Craft, where a girl with supernatural powers befriends a group of girls pretending to be witches. She bestows them with real powers and hijinks ensue. The film culminates in the ringleader—who, out of the group, is the least conventionally attractive—being put in an insane asylum for her misdeeds, while the rest of the group gets off relatively scot-free. This served as an unfortunate continuation of the narrative that girls who were weird were to be punished, but if you were pretty, you could get away with it.

With the 2000s filled with American-made J-horror and classic horror remakes, I'd like to skip forward, save for one movie.

In the 2000s a movie came out that caused a huge ruckus over how bad it was, but I think deserves a spot here for its portrayal of teenage girls in horror. Jennifer's Body, directed by* Diablo Cody, starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, tells the story of Jennifer getting possessed after a botched human sacrifice because she lies about being a virgin. It was almost universally panned by critics, who called it a "sexploitation film lacking the all-important ballast of sincerity." Both Cody and Fox—who were gaining fame for Juno and the Transformers franchise, respectively—were already written off by critics, most of whom were men, before the movie had even been released. In reality, Jennifer's character was unique for being the mean girl who gets killed off, the big bad, and a revenge film-esque survivor, all in one. And her best friend, "Needy," was the sarcastic, dorky, sexually active Final Girl we never would have seen in classic horror.

The last decade has given rise to a genre dubbed "intelligent horror," ushering in an age with less mindless bloodlust and more nuanced characters and themes. Directors Jordan Peele and Ari Aster are arguably at the forefront of the intelligent horror genre; Peele's Get Out and Us giving people of color representation in a severely whitewashed genre. Get Out, especially, has received praise not just for the representation of people of color, but the very real, very prevalent issues of race and police brutality. One of the most important aspects is the depiction of the white savior character in the form of the protagonist's girlfriend, who is revealed to actually be a villain, showcasing the dramatization of the danger of performative activism and how that affects people of color.

Ari Aster, on the other hand, deals with themes of mental illness and family trauma, something unfortunately somewhat universal. While mommy issues and cults are nothing new in horror, Ari Aster's work frames both subjects very differently, especially in regards to the women in his films. Midsommar heavily focuses on Dani, the protagonist's, mental health and manipulation by others throughout the film, as she navigates grief unapologetically and realistically. This portrayal of grief in Midsommar from a woman's point of view is so important, because Dani is clingy, she's anxious, she's emotional, and she's human. As opposed to the polished, over-dramatic depiction of women and their emotions that are so commonly seen in horror.

Over the decades, horror and its portrayals of the human experience have shifted to continue being a compelling mirror for the issues of the time. But something that will always be current is that we can be scared.”

End of transcript.

*Jennifer’s Body was written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 5x05 Shifting Sands

After four really strong episodes at the beginning of season 5, this is a slower episode focused on developing the new dynamics. This episode is by no means bad, and there are some lovely character moments in it - but this is, unfortunately, where the plot starts getting kind of boring. It’s the start of many subplots that, either intentionally or unintentionally, ended up not mattering much for the overall story.

Some of the subplots introduced:

the mutant worms - I’m not a fan of this subplot, which the show will literally chuck out 5 episodes later. Also, it’s gross. I don’t like to have to actually avert my eyes from the screen. The show was really going for the Alien vibe here.

Zaven romance was probably meant to be Raven’s endgame, but unfortunately, Jordan Bolger got another role and we know what happened. And now all that screentime devoted to the development of their relationship feels like a waste of time, which may be unfair to season 5, but it is what it is. In itself, it’s not the worst romantic subplot by any means, but it’s another rushed romance.

It seemed like the show was going somewhere with the friendship between Diyoza and Kane (with some flirty moments that could have at least suggested even more) - don’t get me wrong, I was very much against it being a ship (not a fan of Stockholm Syndrome romances, and Kabby is one of the very few well developed romantic relationships on the show), but every relationship involving Kane got pushed aside when Henry Ian Cusick decided to leave the show. In S6, only Kabby and his friendship with Indra were addressed. On the other hand, it’s always it’s nice to get more Diyoza backstory, which we get when she tells her story to Kane: her suicide attempt - when marines who used to be her own team came to arrest her and after they killed her father. 

Both Diyoza’s shock collars and Vinson are introduced. Vinson is a very unusual character for The 100 - which is full of leaders, warriors and cult leaders, but which doesn’t usually feature cannibal serial killers. I have to say that I quite liked where they went with this character - he was like an embodiment of Abby’s demons (addiction, cannibalism during the Dark Year) and the demons that almost destroyed the Kabby relationship.

The last scene sets up the main plot of the next episode, which is Octavia and Bellamy arguing about Echo… Not the best subplot out there.

In Eden, Diyoza shows again that she may be ruthless but she’s smart - she is against waging war in Eden and potentially destroying the only habitable land on Earth. Not such good news: she wants to use missiles on Wonkru, which makes sense - especially since they are, from her POV, a bunch of dangerous fanatics. (Actually, they are a bunch of dangerous fanatics, period.)She is aware that the rest of Spacekru are still somewhere in the woods, as is Madi (since she knew 5 of them were almost captured by her people, when Madi saved them). The rivalry between her and McCreary is highlighted again - and we also learn about their history. (Which is going to be important because of a certain reveal that will be coming soon…) I guess Diyoza was more honest than McCreary knew when she dismissed his sexual prowess as “that was torture, too” - since we learn in S7 that she had sex with him to get him to be on her side in the rebellion.

Diyoza’s choice of sex partners may not be the best, but she has good taste in music and hates speed metal or trash metal or whatever that was just as much as I do. “Play something with a beat” - exactly!

Kane in the meantime offers intel on Octavia in exchange for a guarantee of protecting Raven and Murphy, but his other reason is that he thinks Octavia will get all of Wonkru killed and wants to stop her.

And we get more of McCreary torturing someone, this time Raven and Murphy. McCreary torturing various people is a recurring thing this season. Is there any episode where he isn’t either murdering, torturing or both? I guess no one has told him that torture is not an efficient or reliable way of extracting information… but it’s quite possible he doesn’t care. Shaw gets to be reluctantly present during someone’s torture again - not a great way to get to know your future girlfriend. The fact that she’s in pain and tortured for who-knows-which-time may be why Raven is showing her judgmental streak again, this time dissing Shaw for lying about the fact he was the one who disabled the missiles and accusing him of getting them tortured to save his ass, which is technically true but ignores the facts that 1) he saved hundreds of Wonkru, 2) he saved Raven’s and Murphy’s lives, and 3) admitting the truth wouldn’t have helped anyone. But Raven also shows her smarts and comes up with a good plan how to get Murphy out so he can inform others about the missiles - and does some really good acting when she pretends she’s furious with Shaw.

One of the highlights of the episode is Murphy meeting Madi for the first time (”hobbit” as he refers to her), as everyone is in the Rover that Madi is driving. Murphy is not happy when Madi says she thought he would be funnier, and even less so when she says Octavia is her favorite. (It’s OK, Murphy, Hope and Jordan (during his rebellious phase) will love you.)

Contrary to what you’ll often hear in the fandom, Spacekru have been, in these early episodes, talking repeatedly about the fact that Clarke saved them and thanking her. They mentioned it all by themselves in 5x03. Bellamy told Clarke ‘Clarke, you saved us all!” in 5x04 and Raven tearfully thanked her for saving their lives. And now Echo tells Madi they wouldn’t have made it without Clarke, and Harper confirms it.

When Murphy realizes that his shock collar/tracker can be used as a bomb, he tells the others to leave him and save themselves and go warn Bellamy - which , I believe, is the first time that Murphy has been really unselfish and unconcerned with saving his own life. Emori has, up to that point, been hostile to him, accusing him of selfishness (she even jumped to the conclusion that he left Raven to die to save himself). But the moment he says this, you can see her face and her whole attitude changing. She says nothing, just staring at him - and then stays with him instead of going with the others. (Murphy will again be unselfish and ask others to leave him to save thrmselves in the season 5 finale, and Emori will refuse to leave him.)

………..

In Polis, there are more reunions: Clarke gets to interact with Jackson and Miller. Jackson tells her they could have used her in the bunker (Clarke replies that they had her mom, and Jackson’s silence hints that something is wrong, but she’ll only find out what much later).This is an interesting “What if” - what if Clarke and/or Bellamy had been in the bunker? How would that have affected everything - Octavia and Abby, above all? Indra later tells Bellamy that Octavia needs him. She is clearly not one of those who drank Kool-Aid and hopes for Bellamy to be a good influence on her, the way she obviously wishes she could be, but Octavia is not listening to her. Cooper, on the other hand, is Octavia’s yes-woman and clearly encourages her worst behavior. Miller still seems somewhere in between at this point - unlike Jackson, he tells Clarke not to get involved, but then changes his mind and tells Blodreina that Clarke has something to tell her.

(This is also a rare occasion: an actual Mackson kiss.)

Clarke and Bellamy are starting to realize that Octavia is pretty scary now, starting with the way her cult worships her and turns against anyone daring to criticize or question her, and then with the way Octavia herself has changed. The episode does a good job of showing that she has been losing her grip on reality,  and apparently drinking her own Kool-Aid a bit too much. She is obsessed what she sees as her messianic role pf delivering her people to Eden, and trying to get her people through the desert during the sandstorm, contrary to the advice of Clarke, who actually knows the terrain, (Maybe she’s taken it too much to heart to continue Jaha’s legacy.) Some of the things Octavia says in this episode:

“The wind hasn’t met Wonkru” - many people mock it as one of the worst lines in the show, but I like it, I think it’s intentionally hilarious, one of the few funny moments this season - and meant to show what ridiculous things Octavia says when she’s boasting in front of Wonkru. All the Wonkru members fully accept it while only Bellamy and Clarke are looking at her with WTF? faces.

She also says “Wonkru doesn’t retreat” And then orders retreat at the end of the episode. She’s not fully delusional.

“That valley is (our home) and we’re taking it back” - Back? When did she/they have it exactly? I guess she may just be considering everything that any of the clans had/where they lived as belonging to Wonkru… but she’s never even been there

“Thanks to you, we’re at war” to Bellamy again (would it have been better to stay locked in the bunker forever?)

“You don’t understand because you’re not one of us”

and finally, she straight up threatens her brother if he keeps questioning her.

During a meal by the campfire at night, while Wonkru are chanting “All of me for all of us”, we find out that Octavia is trying to live by the “Love is weakness” maxim, which is here retconed as something that all Flamekeepers teach all Commanders (and that Gaia is teaching her now, accordingly), rather than just a Titus/Lexa thing, as it seemed in season 3. (Which in itself was a retcon, since it first seemed in season 2 that it was just something Lexa came up with as a result of her tragic experience with losing her lover Costia.) And yes, it’s love in general, not just romantic love. “Love no one, and no one can hurt you”, says Octavia, and she clearly includes her brother in that. Indra rejects that and replies with “I love you”, asking if that makes her weak. This is a recurring theme in the show: Clarke and Octavia have both gone through “Love is weakness” phase. (And now in season 7, it’s time for Bellamy - only this time, this idea came to him in the form “love is selfish”, and that he should love all mankind rather than focus on love for individual people.)

Clarke finds something “beautiful” and impressive in Wonkru’s unity - maybe because she has been alone for so long. The long isolation has changed her - she seems less assertive when she’s around others, although, to be fair, it doesn’t help that she’s not in the position to be a part of the leadership while they are around Wonkru. But she’s also shy and vulnerable when Bellamy - after telling her how amazing she was for surviving so long on her own - tries to make her talk about that time. She starts saying “Well, I wasn’t alone” - and if she immediately answered “I had Madi”, that would be nothing strange, but the way Clarke makes a long awkward pause and seems to catch herself, before saying “I had Madi”, and then quickly leaves, almost as if running away - suggest that maybe she was, for a moment, thinking and going to say something else - something about radio calls that allowed her to keep her sanity. Subsequent events have certainly supported this interpretation - we will learn in 5x13 that Clarke has been keeping it a secret from Bellamy (when Madi tells him, she says “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this”), and when Bellamy finally reveals in 6x01 that he knows about them, Clarke is again very shy and embarrassed and almost runs away from the conversation.

But at this point, Bellamy doesn’t know any of that, and I don’t think he understands Clarke’s state of mind. To him, it must seem like she’s withdrawing into herself. 

Later on, the two of them get another moment, and this time it’s Clarke’s turn to tell Bellamy how awesome he is. She praises him for not killing the prisoners in cryo and for saving her, and says “the Heart and the Head” - recalling their conversation from over 6 years ago,. in 4x13, when she told him to use his head and not just his heart. She’s saying that he’s using both his heart and his head now. Bellamy repeats “The Heart and the Head”, and I believe that’s the first time they’ve said that phrase to each other. Now they have another canon catchphrase to describe their relationship, in addition to “Together”. (They will say it again - a little different - in 6x10: “The Head and the Heart”.)  Clarke then asks Bellamy “What does your head say about fighting a war (etc.)” and he replies “Same as yours”. Which is just crying for a callback to happen in the final season. Will we get Bellamy and Clarke saying “What does your heart say…”?

Clarke - in a rare moment of medically treating someone (something she did a lot in season 1, but rarely after that), saves Octavia’s life from the worms. And - in one of her better moments in this episode - Octavia thanks for her saving her life. Sadly, their relationship is not going to be that harmonious in the rest of S5.

And at the end of this episode - more reunions! The rover comes with Madi, Monty, Harper and Echo, with three memorable reunion moments:

I love the moment when Monty greets Octavia (he still has no idea how much she has changed) and she greets him back with the most awkward smile ever. It’s like she isn’t sure if she can be Octavia now that she’s Blodreina but she’s acting like her old self for a moment with an old friend who has no idea what she’s like now. 

And this is just moments after she has threatened her brother. This camerawork in this episode is quite interesting - the way it plays with focus. When Octavia threatens Bellamy, while Clarke looks at them, concerned, we have Octavia/Bellamy in focus and Clarke out of it, and then the reverse.

And then in the reunion scene at the end, after we see Clarke and Madi running into each other’s arms for a big hug, and then we also see Echo and Bellamy running towards each other - it’s interesting and very telling that. as we see Clarke and Madi hugging and Bellamy and Echo kissing, in the same frame, the Becho kiss is out of focus throughout, while the camera zooms on Clarke’s reaction. While the first Becho kiss we saw (in 5x01) served the purpose to reveal the relationship to the audience, this time, the kiss is there just for Clarke’s and Octavia’s reactions to it, and this frame screams - what matters here is Clarke finding out about Becho.

Does this look familiar? Oh yes, we saw the same kind of scene and the exact same facial expression from Clarke in 1x05 when she learned that Finn had a girlfriend.

(But in case you ignored this moment, since it’s subtle - the dramatic music only starts with Octavia’s reaction to seeing her brother with her old enemy, which is the cliffhanger - don’t worry, you’ll get another scene of Clarke looking sad while Becho are kissing, in the next episode.)

And here’s the (melo)dramatic cliffhanger! I guess the audience is supposed to be on Bellamy’s and Echo’s side as Octavia is showing once again she can stare daggers - but I suspect many were on Octavia’s side on this one, since we’re pretty much in the same boat as Octavia and Clarke -, for us and for them, comes from nowhere, after we’ve only known them as enemies. Especially Octavia - Clarke did spend semi-amicable moments with Echo and witness Bellamy spending them just before Praimfaya. Octavia's last memories of Echo are… Echo mortally wounding Ilian, Bellamy almost strangling Echo for trying to kill Octavia/cheat them all out of the bunker, and Octavia banishing Echo. and Echo briefly trying to threaten her with telling the other Grounders about the Skaikru rebellion.

Was this really necessary in terms of the conflict between the Blakes? I don’t think so. They’ve already been butting heads over Octavia’s leadership and actions and her intention to fight a war - but yay, we are getting an episode centered around Octavia objecting to Bellamy’s girlfriend, which will ultimately go nowhere and matter little in terms of overall Bellamy/Octavia relationship this season.

Body count: 12 Wonkru members died: Obika died a horrible death from mutant worms. (His death will haunt Miller, who was with him when he was attacked by the worm, during the red sun eclipse in 6x02, when Miller hallucinated having bugs inside of him and yelled he would end up the same as Obika.) 11 other Wonkru members died from Diyoza’s missile, which means there are 801 left.

Rating: 6/10

[vortahoney]

Hello! I’d love to know more about your OC species specifically! Everything about their planet, it’s economy, and its biomes? Religion/spirituality? Gender/general societal LGBTQ+ things? Education systems? Guiding values? Diet? And most importantly, what is the weirdest thing about humans to them? :P

Thank you!

 Ohhhohohoho yes this I love this

Orileans (for reference I’m using the Standard Orilean language that was established after first contact, but is not widely used on Orlei)

Orlei, at the time ds9 takes place, is a bit of a mess. There’s a drought/dust bowl on the western side (region of K’Tax) and a civil war in the Southeast region of K’thane. Famine is widespread due to the drought and K’thane blockades. The president of K’thane (where Nah’Lei grew up) is not a very good dude, and this war has been going on for like sixty years, starting with the current presidents father in power. Nah’Lei had been a diplomat for the K’thix Separatists (the rebel group trying to break away from K’thane) long before she was in the Federation. Basically, K’thix is a region that was taken over by K’thane hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and now they’re rebelling to get their land back.

Mostly, Orlei is a desert planet, with scattered forests and only 45% of the planet covered in water. That’s why the spikes were developed, to deter swooping predators. 

As for religion, there are many different ones, as for any planet, but the most widespread is a polytheistic religion that worships various gods of harvest and hunt. There are certain spike adornments that indicate religious affiliation, as well as some non-religious ones that have appeared more recently and are HIGHLY debated by religious authorities and politicians.

Despite the fact they each have their own language, they value connection with each other HIGHLY. Usually, each person’s first language is mostly made up from the combination of their parents' languages, and as relationships progress, they make their own languages as well!

There are four genders! One with a role much like human women, one reserved for high religious figures (whose word literally translates in most languages to “one of the rain”), farmers and their children, and one another that is very similar to human women but with a more religious presentation. They don’t correspond with sex, and they’re very caste-based. And there are certain taboos in marriage (1 and 3 weren’t legally allowed to marry until only around a hundred years ago)

There is a role of person that just travels and learns! Most children’s education consists of five parts (basic baby socialization, elementary school, high school, a three to ten year university period, and a year or two of traveling), but many kids of the richest families decide to become wanderers (who travel, learn, make art, and spend their whole lives exploring the nature of knowledge and the self)

They can’t cover up the place where the bony spike meets their shoulder or else they risk “contact infection” where the seam of skin gets a bunch of cysts and causes extreme pain. This often conflicts with starfleet dress codes and Nah’Lei (one of the only Orileans in the fleet) is in the sick bay with them a LOT. Because of this, a lot of their shirts are open shoulder or wrap around.

Pop culture is also really fun! There are an insane amount of music genres (some varying by the smallest things) and I won’t even try to explain them all because even I have no idea how to actually categorize them. There is a standard writing system (and since joining the federation, a standard speaking system was created for speaking with aliens) and literature consists of mainly adventure novels very akin to Lord of the Rings. 

Weirdest thing about humans to them: either the smooth shoulders or the fact that they sleep for eight hours a night. Orileans don’t need as much sleep, but if they don’t go into the deep, almost death-like state that they need for at least an hour they’ll be very cranky (much like humans when they’re sleep deprived) and it’s pretty difficult to go into that state when stressed. Nah’Lei hasn’t had a full hour since she joined starfleet.

Katrians

I honestly don’t have a lot of information for them. They’re a fairly new species for me, but I do like exploring how the destruction of their planet affected them culturally. 

A lot of Katrians struggle with identity issues. They are constantly living under others’ governments and among others’ people with very little political representation wherever they choose to live. 

The main religion is like Catholicism in that they pray to something like Saints. Really, they worship the “enlightened” which is a group of artists and scientists that really existed and brought about a Golden Age of Katria. 

The smaller religion (the one Lierza and her family are a part of) is considered an evil, unenlightened cult by those who worship the Enlightened and have been persecuted throughout Katrian history. They actually have two goddesses who are in love and created Katria and its surrounding star system. They pray by planting, actually! Gardens are kinda like shrines and seeds are considered the children of the goddesses. 

A lot of major cities on Kronos and Earth have “little Katria” regions where a lot of Katrians (usually of the same religion/ethnic group) congregate. 

Weirdest thing about humans to them: How easy their bones are to break. Katrian bones are like fucking steel and if one breaks it’s basically fatal.

That’s about it I have for them so far, but I’ll let you know if I think about anything else!

Hysarai

First and foremost, cannibalism is considered an honorable way to treat a body. In times of famine or war, Hysari will eat dead bodies and bury the remaining shell.

They’re very mechanically curious, and had a period of EXTREMELY rapid scientific progression, developing warp speed and making first contact only about one hundred years after developing electricity. They made first contact with Andorians, who are only about a star system over.

Interestingly enough, the Hysarai never developed religion. Their pattern of evolution was just sort of known by everyone and they just... never had one.

In starfleet, they usually go into engineering. Their silk is a fantastic adhesive and they can get into places some others can’t. That, combined with the value placed on machines and tech, they make incredibly engineers.

They only have two basic sexes, but are fluid about gender. Otherwise, they’re pretty matriarchal, with mothers being some of the most valued.

They also really like jazz because their main prey sounds a lot like trumpets. They mostly eat other bugs (usually just raw with seasoning or very lightly cooked).

Their planet is a jungle planet and there is so much oxygen that a human will probably immediately die on it. It’s largely populated by arthropods, with only ten or so species of mammals. They also had a lot of cities spring up after the rapid period of mechanical development. 

Weirdest thing about humans to them: they eat plants. Who eats plants?? and they DON’T eat their fallen comrade’s dead bodies? 

If you have anything else you want to know shoot me an ask or a DM!

[jotunlokisuggestion]

I’m gonna illustrate to you the Thanos-problem not so quickly.

The studio went to Kenneth Branagh in 2010 and told them they want a villain as good as Magneto for their Avengers film.

And almost 10 years later the MCU wanted to write an interesting, political villain called Thanos for Infinity War/Endgame.

Now, when Kenneth Branagh got the (really annoying) custom-order for a good villain, he didn’t look at the villain the studio liked and copied him. Instead he had the brains to write Loki as a character. With his own personality traits, qualities, quirks, a unique backstory that appeals to Branagh’s strength as a writer, whose origin story can be used and re-used in future films and plots, who has unique and adaptable strengths and weaknesses and who is played by an actor who is really good at playing roles like that.

Meanwhile Thanos is just...going through the Killmonger/Loki/Magneto motions of: political villain: ✅ tragic backstory:  ✅ destruction: ✅ big baddie speech ✅ --- but there is no heart to any of that, no sense of detail, no moment for him to shine no personality.

And you know (I really tried to stop myself from adding this) in the 90s we had this flood of dark, gritty anti-heroes with their giant guns and ten thousand pouches. And some of them like Cable were really good while later characters became pale imitations of Cable (think of that famous video of Liefeld inventing a character and he just draws Cable number 8948320 and his backstory is that he’s a cyborg) and all those rehashes of the Killing Joke. And in the end they all lost track of what made these characters good in the first place.

And in the late 2000s and early 2010s we had this wave of young, hip, funny for the lulzs supervillains who just had quirks and no reasons and personality and in the end, basically nothing of substance remains of any of them - an epidemic starting with Heath Ledger’s Joker but were later replaced with young men in suits who were also kinda pop-culturally - ironically Leto’s Joker hopped onto that bandwagon like 9 years late with a starbucks 

And I understand why in the last few years, political villains have entered mass-production, but a villain like that doesn’t work unless your writing challenges their ideas. Okay lemme give you another example: Since the (in)famous Far Cry 3 with its very 2012 villain quirky-crazy-Joker-y villain Vaas we now had Far Cry 4 playing in the land of a slightly quirky fashionable young man dictator and Far Cry 5 and New Dawn with an evil Christian cult right in the US. 

The transition from early 2010s to late 2010s is obvious but - these are video games and by the time we fight the final boss, we have automatically actually spent a lot of time in their respective worlds. We know why these are horrible people. We are challenging their methods and ideas already when we encounter them. In the MCU, we see Killmonger actually rule over Wakanda and we know while his ideas are good. his methods aren’t - while at the same he challenges Wakanda and forces T’Challa to accept that his father was not perfect. Each time we see Loki rule over Asgard, imperialism is challenged - in the first time when he actually attacks Jötunheim (thus executing exactly the things he had been taught his entire life) and by not intervening in the colonies in Ragnarök.  But, you are going to say, Thanos ideas are challenged! We see that people are sad that he killed half the universe! - and I mean yeah, but I didn’t need to watch the movie to know that people would be sad. Instead, everything happens exactly as you expect it would. All these previous examples were interesting because we wouldn’t know what the villains would do and how it would affect the population. Also the final notion - that the universe would eventually be better of if half the universe was destroyed, remains unshaken and unaddressed.

And honestly, their attempt to make Thanos likeable or understandable might be the huge problem of the film. Thanos as a morbid, unlikable killer who’s in love with death works because we don’t need to relate to him for that. We don’t need a connection. Many good villains are absolutely detestable. You can do a lot not by making them seem sympathetic (which is almost impossible with villains like Thanos anyway) but you can make them interesting to the audience-

let’s talk about villains who are absolute giant assholes but I like them:

Yeah him <3 You remember the first season of Hannibal? As members of the audience, we know who Hannibal is before we even start watching. Hannibal Lecter is one of the most famous villains there are. In the movies, he’s arrested in Red Dragon right in the first scene - there is never any doubt about who he is. But in the show, he’s yet an active serial killer and working with the police. The police that solves his murders. The police who doesn’t know that he’s the killer. The killer whose name literally rhymes with cannibal and who makes cannibalism puns. There were hundreds of memes about how fucking frustrating it was that the police always just walked right past him.

That was the thing: We, the audience, knew something the characters didn’t. Like in a horror film when we know the killer is hiding behind the door and the main character doesn’t. You want to fucking scream at the screen in frustration. Okay what does that have to do with Thanos? Imagine all those glimpses and we saw of him in previous movies would have presented him in a likeable light. Imagine if his disciples were actually seen gaining people’s trust or if people in GotG would actually casually mention “oh Thanos will fix this, I heard he has a brilliant plan” or he tried to convince them that there was a huge famine coming. It would have been so frustrating to see people trust him because obviously everyone who reads the comics would know that Thanos is bad news and if we saw people actually trust him? maybe actually give him Infinity Stones to fix the universe because he’s the only one who can use them? Fucking rude.

Reveals :)

I guess I don’t have to tell tumblr who the first guy is but a quick rehash: In season finale of Sherlock, a guy who appears in one scene as the girlfriend of a colleague of Sherlock turns out to be Moriarty. 

And guess what? It absolutely doesn’t matter one single fucking bit that Moriarty is the lab guy. And the big reveal doesn’t matter because we’re not given any of the clues. He might as well have been the mailman. Now, the Man In Black from Westworld however? That was a huge reveal. (Major spoilers if you haven’t watched it but I’m keeping it vague). We saw the Man In Black commit the worst crimes imaginable throughout the first season of the show, he killed hundreds of people without remorse. And in his defence, we thought that he thought it was all a robot theme park. Except? We find out that he’s actually the older version of one of the main-characters who absolutely saw robots as people once and evn protected them and loved one. This was both a horrifying reveal, an origin story and it made his crime even worse. That’s good villain-writing.

What does that have to do with Thanos? - Technique. Just how the reveal was written has a huge impact. Imagine if there had been no mention of Thanos at all until Infinity War - and the characters were actually forced to figure out who brought Loki to Earth, who supported Ronan, who attacked Asgard. Maybe you catch some glimpses of his disciples and maybe you get to hear the name of one of them at the very end or Loki even whispers “Thanos” in Thor’s ear before he dies and he as to figure out what that means. Make us work to get there. 

Relevance!

Now, they wanted a political villain, right? AHS Cult gave as a political villain who is absolutely detestable every step of the way. But the reason he was scary and interesting is because...it was relevant af. Every word he said, every political opinion he expressed, the way he staged attacks on him by migrant workers and spread fear in his community - that rings very close to home right now. I  can get why someone would say you can’t do the same in a Marvel film, but Sci-Fi has always been a projection screen for political subjects for decades now. Star Trek has been doing it since the 1960s and if they had actually committed to making Thanos allude to actual political slogans of today, he would have been way more relevant.

Dynamics (aka how to make someone likeable without condoning their actions)

On my main, I made a post once about Loki and Magneto and how having, forming and developing relationships helps to flesh out a character. In short: We learn to understand them. We see them grow. We see (ideally) how they learn from encounters and how it shapes them. Now we are entering the realm of likeable again with Azula, because what made her a brilliant villain was not her brilliance or her abilities (they made her a great opponent though) but her motivations. The more we see her family, the more we learn that she, too, is a victim of a dysfunctional family. She allows a whole new perspective on the royal family. That scene where she tells Ozai that he ‘can’t treat her like Zuko’? - those were ten fucking books written in one line. Her descent into paranoia basically rewrote every scene of her in the past and is also a reminder that she’s 15 and yes, of course, she’s a victim. She’s a child fighting in a war.

How many meaningful relationships does Thanos have? He’s quite fond of Gamora I guess? Less fond of Nebula? There was an embarrassing attempt to create a connection between him Tony. Now, remember that in the comics, Thanos is someone driven by love. He loves death - that’s the relationship that drives him. It’s important that there is a face to everything. Show me Thanos family, show me his homeworld. Show me his previous desperate attempts to save the people he loved and how he was held back and driven to more and more desperate measures. Show me how he finally gives in and wants to destroy everything.

“show don’t tell”

I’m going to argue for a Thanos solo movie now :)      (kinda) 

Okay I feel kinda compelled to put David in this when I’m already posting this on my rp blog but also a) I love him and b) shut up. short summary: David was created an android that is programmed to serve humans. He grows to resent them more and more, especially because many of them are petty and abusive towards him until in the second film, he just wants them dead.  Now in his first scenes of Prometheus, we see him alone on the ship while the human crew is in cryosleep. We see him eat, play basketball, ride a bicycle, watch people’s dreams. He also watches Lawrence of Arabia while dying his hair to look like him and quotes the above sentence several times just before the rest of the crew wakes up. 

It’s a tiny sequence in the film but we learn various things about David: He’s vain, he does things he - as a robot - doesn’t have to do, he identifies strongly with a man torn between two cultures, he has a lot of fun when he’s alone, he habitually spies on people, he is feeling pain in some capacity and he associates it with humans. We learn all of that in those few tiny moments.

compare all of what we learnt in this short sequence to what we know about Thanos. After seeing him in...I think three films by now? And having people talk about him in even more? With literally every character I listed now (excluding Moriarty bc he’s a negative example) we know what drove them to do what they did. We know their pain. We know them.  Even if the things they are cruel because here it comes:

They are a Story.

And Thanos is a plot device.

or to quote fellow tumblr user hackedmotionsensors:  I’ve never liked Thanos because hes like a video game villain. Like he’s the annoying equivalent of finding the final boss in a FF game and its just a giant head or something stupid.

[symbioteburnout]

lowkey talked to Mr. Cates and he mentioned Andis has a role in his main book, supposedly after. Also who knows you may teamed up with Grandpa Eddie and Uncle Mac.

He’s been saying that since the start. THat was why I was initially so enthusiastic for his run, after the dumpster fire that was Costa’s 2016 series that should have never happened with a paper thin Eddie, and Fuckface McEdgelord.

While I’m hopeful Cullen Bunn won’t kill Andi off and she survives her encounter with Carnage, it’s pretty clear Marvel has no interest in Andi, at all, unless she can be used as a damsel or a punching bag. Her whole role in Venom Inc was to just get beaten up and make Lee Price look like an actual threat.

If Andi survives, yes, I’d be enthusiastic to see her have a bigger role in comics, maybe even leave enough of an impact that Marvel will put her in another title. But at the same time, considering Cates’ track record when it comes to writing women in Venom;

He retconned Eddie’s sister out of existence by claiming Venom altered Eddie’s memory to make him THINK he had a sister.

He brought Scorn back and made her the creator of a cult to bring back Carnage, despite Scorn HATING Carnage and Cletus with a passion. He also followed this up by having Scorn get cannibalized by Carnage.

And most recently, he implied the Venom symbiote impregnated Anne Weying when she became She-Venom, aka, Venom raped Anne, and Cates has DEFENDED this plot point.

I’ll be honest, I don’t want Cates anywhere NEAR Andi, because God only knows what kind of messed up shit he’d make her do.

[valtharr]

I’ve been thinking about how I feel about Season 2 of Castlevania, and...I think I feel about the same way I feel about Fallout 3 & 4.  I like it as a standalone product, but as an adaptation of Castlevania, I’m pretty disappointed.

Let’s start with Trevor.

Trevor is a Belmont. The Belmonts are the heroes of Castlevania. Most games have one as a protagonist, and even the ones who don’t still have one play at least a minor role in the story and/or feature a separate playmode where you can play as one. They’re a big deal in the games.

In the show? I honestly get the feeling that, if Trevor had died after saying “let’s check out the Belmont hold!”, the rest of the story wouldn’t really have played out much different. Like, what did he even do this season? He was pretty much a supporting character! The closest he did in advancing the plot was protecting Sypha while she was actually doing something that advanced the plot. Then he chopped off Dracula’s head...which wasn’t really necessary, since he had already been staked, and even if decapitation was necessary, Sypha could have done that, as well!

Hell, the entire final confrontation was a huge letdown, looking back on it. Sure, the three “protagonists” entering the castle and wrecking all those vampires while “Bloody Tears” was playing was fucking awesome, but...they were essentially just the cleanup crew! Most of Drac’s troops had already been killed by Carmilla! Oh, and I’ll get to Carmilla and her plot, don’t worry. But yeah, they killed the last few remnants of Drac’s army, and then go to fight the big man himself. And the beginning of the fight was awesome! All three of them fighting, but Dracula giving them a run for their money....I think I actually said out loud “Finally, they’re showing how powerful Dracula is!” And then he unleashes his fireball in another cool reference to the games, the heroes deflect it and blow a large hole in the wall, Alucard zooms after his dad, and Trevor and Sypha...just go run around the castle, hoping to eventually stumble upon the fight, I guess.

So, while Sypha and Trevor take the tour, Dracula and Alucard have their little Dragonball fight, which is awesome, and then they arrive in Alucard’s old room, and Alucard kills his dad due to him turning into a little crybaby. Wow.

Which brings me to Dracula’s characterization. Again, looking at just the show, ignoring it’s based on a preexisting property, Dracula is a pretty good, nuanced, three-dimensional villain. Lashing out at humanity, but deep inside, he’s actually just depressed and wants it all to end. That’s not a bad characterization in itself...but it’s not Dracula. At least, it’s not Castlevania Dracula.

In the games, Dracula has the same backstory as he has in the show. But in the games, it results in an unending, vicious hatred and disdain for humanity, that can only be quenched once they’re all dead. He might have started out as a man driven by the loss of the love of his life (twice), but more and more, he simply became the embodiment of pure evil.

Castlevania Dracula isn’t just a vampire. He isn’t even just “king of the vampires.” He is an immensely powerful sorcerer with the power to dominate entire legions of night creatures to do his bidding. He is evil given flesh. In one game, which takes place in a time after Dracula has been killed off for good, a cult tries to resurrect him because they believe that Ultimate Good (aka God) cannot exist without Ultimate Evil, and that Ultimate Evil is the Dark Lord, aka Dracula. In another game, Dracula’s essence has been split into three glyphs that bestow the main character magical powers. Each of those glyphs is the most powerful one of its type, but also damages the character when she uses it. And when she uses all three glyphs, everything on the screen automatically dies - including herself. Dracula is so powerful and so evil, that if someone tries to channel his power - even someone specifically trained in channeling magical energies - that someone dies, and takes every living thing in the vicinity with it. Dracula isn’t an aristocrat who navigates a web of intrigue within his vampire court, he’s basically a demigod whose right-hand man is literally Death himself, and who turns into a giant gargoyle creature if he gets pissed enough.

Oh, but speaking about navigating a web of intrigue, let’s talk about that subplot, shall we?

Again, taken on its own, it wasn’t that bad, but looking at it as part of a Castlevania adaptation, it really ticks me off. First of all, it really seemed to take up most of the screentime, taking even more focus away from our supposed “protagonists”, Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. Secondly, it took up a lot of plot relevance, too. Again, by the time the golden trio arrives at Dracula’s castle, most of his troops are gone as a result of the silly intrigues and backstabbing. What the hell? Yeah, it wasn’t badly played out, and people compared it to Game of Thrones, but you know, the thing is...

CASTLEVANIA ISN’T FUCKING GAME OF THRONES!

Castlevania isn’t some super serious gothic dark fantasy epic that’s littered with political intrigue. Castlevania is goofy, campy, ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek, action.

It’s the series that literally started out as a deliberate homage/parody of campy Hammer Horror movies. The series that features enemies such as chainsaw-wielding cannibal butchers in the early 1800s, or demonic maids who know kung-fu and whose souls you can absorb to gain the ability of summoning a magical vacuum cleaner that restores your health. The series in which one game gives you literal cream pies as a weapon, and where those cream pies are one of the most potent weapons against that game’s super hard optional boss.

Why were the writers so afraid to embrace the camp? Why take away the corniness? Why shift the focus from fun action and creative monster designs to political intrigue and rehashing of typical vampire tropes? Why, when adapting a show based on a series that is 90% running through Dracula’s castle, and that is fucking named after said castle, did they decide that the heroes should only spend about twenty minutes of screentime INSIDE THE FUCKING CASTLE?

Why not, I don’t know, have them arrive in the castle in the first or second episode, and then being all “oh, Dracula is cooped up in his throne room, and we need five McGuffins to open the magical seal!” and then have the rest of the show be the heroes fighting cool monsters in epic boss battles to get those McGuffins? You could still have character- and worldbuilding. You could still have flashbacks, or have Alucard talk about his time in the castle, or whatever!

The Fallout comparison I made earlier wasn’t just chosen willy-nilly. Because when looking at Fallout 3, one gets the impression that Bethesda just wanted to make a post-apocalyptic game, and thought that including stuff like Super Mutants, Power Armor, and Deathclaws was enough to make it a Fallout game. And just like that, I kinda get the impression that the creators of Netflixvania wanted to create a dark fantasy show, and thought that including stuff like Slogra & Gaibon (literally the only iconic CV monsters they used), Bloody Tears (literally the only iconic CV music they used) or the Morning Star whip would make it a Castlevania show.

Again, it’s a good show. I enjoyed watching it, and I’m curious what they’ll do in future seasons, if there are any. But...well, let’s just say it like this:

As a fan of dark, fantastical horror media, I really like it. As a fan of Castlevania, I’m severely disappointed.

[welcometowhitepinebay-blog]

Hannibal Lecter & An Andalusian Dog

Devoid of a traditional narrative structure and plot, Luis Buńuel and Salvador Dali's 1929 film, Un Chien Andalou, reads as a surrealist dreamscape that disrupts and denies cinematic convention.  While the film's opening title card, which reads: "Once Upon a Time," positions the text as traditional cinematic experience,  that will proceed following a chronological timeline, the remaining structure says otherwise.  The scenes follow prove to be linked through little more than free associations, as dreams and reality appear conflated, and images of the grotesque and bizarre are juxtaposed with the mundane and every day.  As the film's disjointed storyline proceeds, notions of temporality are manipulated, as cue cards reveal a timeline that jumps between the future and past with no clear point to such disorienting leaps.  To further enforce the absurdity of these temporal jumps, the characters (if such entities can be called such without any real development), featured actors appear unaffected by age throughout these transitions, a fact further complicated by the use of the same actors for multiple characters within the film. In combination with one another, all of these factors served to alienate the film's original audiences, denying any rational reading of the film on its surface, only finding symbolic meaning through close psychoanalytic examination (against the wishes of Buńuel and Dali).  

Despite hopes of disruption on behalf of the film's creators, the initial reception of Un Chien Andalou was largely positive, but nevertheless remains a protest in traditional form and content.  As I watched the film for the third time (albeit the first in nearly ten years), I could not help but associate its disruptive aesthetic with that of our current phase of contemporary horror.  Initially, A&E's Bates Motel came to mind, a show whose narrative grows increasingly far away from coherence as its main protagonist falls deeper into psychosis. As the young Norman Bates struggles to separate his own identity from that of his deceased mother, so too does the audience, as the show's cinematography no longer offers context clues as to what is real, and what is a dream.  The camera does not shy away from the morbid and grotesque aesthetic of the show, it embraces it, just as that of Un Chien Andalou.  While close-up shots of eyes being cut are not offered in Bates, the grim scene of a besot Norman gluing his deceased mother's eyes open (as he thinks she is faking her death and merely being difficult) is starkly contrasted with the dark comic relief of his struggle to dig up Norma from her recently dug grave, to end this little death charade.  It is no surprise that the macabre, anti-cinema sensibilities of surrealism, and notably Un Chien Andalou, have been of great influence to horror auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock (an admirer and collector of Buńuel's work).  However, while Bates Motel positions itself as a more narratively conventional, contemporary antecedent to Andalou, I am interested in using the film as a lens through which the confusing and incoherent third season of NBC's Hannibal, can be examined.

Throughout the series, Hannibal has treated the body as a site of grotesque beauty, and ultimately, an art object.  Through gruesome death and cannibalization, the series' main antagonist honors his victims by creating taboo beauty from the act of violent death, a concept that ruptures the very moralistic core of humanity. Following a more traditionally based procedural narrative in its first two seasons, the show's creators wanted to use the final season to push the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable on network television, and do so through a more abstract, poetic and ultimately, surrealist lens.  Filled with narrative inconsistencies and temporal incoherency, season three's episodes are plagued by drug induced euphoria, sexual dreamscapes, and vividly abstract sequences that help convey the addled mind of the main protagonist.  Through a "veil of surreality," the show's creator hoped the final season would blur the lines between the subjective perspectives of the narrative's characters, with that of the objective story, so that viewers "would not know they were dreaming until they are well within the dream." Unlike Un Chien Andalou, the third season of Hannibal was not well received, and the show, despite its cult following, was cancelled, proving too disruptive for network programming. Nevertheless, the role that this third season plays in the history, and subsequent future of disruptive television seems a worthwhile exploration.

A brief sampling of a surrealist moment from Hannibal’s third and final season.

[screamscenepodcast]

HAPPY HALLOWE’EN 2019: THE TOP TEN

It’s that time again! All Hallow’s Eve! And that means you’re looking for only the best classic horror movies to make your blood run cold and entertain the ghosts moaning their way through your home! So, once more, we bring you the definitive list of the top ten best horror movies, for the period of 1895-1945. Here you’ll learn which films make the top ten, what their deal is, and where to find them online. A new entry to the top ten just snuck on in yesterday’s episode! We hope you find this list helpful with your evening’s entertainment. Safe scares, Creatures of the Night!

#10. Isle of the Dead (1945)

The first of three films in the top ten produced by the legendary Val Lewton, Isle of the Dead stars Boris Karloff as a Greek general trapped on an island with a group of people who carry the plague. As death closes in, the question must be asked - are the deaths caused by disease, or is there a supernatural force at work? Excellent sound design and shadow drenched cinematography define this film that starts slow and builds the tension to a screaming crescendo! Isle of the Dead can currently be streamed in HD on The Criterion Channel, and is available for purchase in SD at $9.99 on Apple Movies and for $14.99 on Google Play and YouTube. 1h 11min.

#9. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

This Oscar Wilde adaptation features a top notch cast, including a 20 year old Angela Lansbury, a wickedly intelligent script, and an absolutely chilling depiction of a man without a soul. Beautiful high-contrast lighting is paired with a startling gimmick of four Technicolor shots in an otherwise black & white film. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer finally achieved their goal of making a horror movie with class. Available to rent in HD for $4.99 on Google Play, the Microsoft Store, and YouTube. 1h 50min.

#8. The Invisible Man (1933)

Mark Hamill said it himself - his much acclaimed interpretation of the Joker comes from Claude Rains’ performance as the tragically insane Griffin in this adaptation of the HG Wells novel. The movie shows off James Whale’s great skill at mixing humour and horror, even if some of the British-isms get a bit broad at times, but the true power of The Invisible Man is how it’s gotten more relevant with time - in 2019, the idea that anonymity might lead to immorality is no longer a hypothetical notion. Find it for rent in HD at $4.99 on Apple Movies, Google Play, PlayStation, the Microsoft Store, and YouTube. 1h 11min.

#7. The Black Cat (1934)

What do you even say about a movie like Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat? A metaphor for Austrian/Hungarian relations after World War I, a dip into the world of Satanic cults, a revenge story with elements as unsavoury as Oldboy, and a chance to see Karloff and Lugosi really go at it as adversaries on roughly equal footing at a time when both men’s careers were on about the same level. This movie will draw you in with its gorgeous cinematography, hypnotic editing, and modernist set design to such an extent that by the time it’s over, you’ll hardly notice that the story didn’t seem to entirely make sense… This underappreciated classic is waiting for you to rent in HD on Google Play and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 5min.

#6. Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Watching this movie is like willingly stepping into a nightmare. The HG Wells’ novel might have somehow wanted to portray Dr Moreau “sympathetically” (Victorians, amirite?) but this adaptation understands he’s an utter monster and Charles Laughton delivers a bravura performance that underscores the character’s pure insanity. Combine this with the film’s dark and gritty look, the subtle make-up design of the hybrids (including a heavily obscured Bela Lugosi), and the unforgettable chant of The Law, and you have a film that will burn itself into your memory. Unfortunately, Island of Lost Souls has no current streaming options available, but you can find it on Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection. 1h 11min.

#5. Körkarlen (1921)

The Phantom Carriage is perhaps the… least “fun” entry here in the top ten. Victor Sjöström’s haunting exploration of the horrors of alcoholism, domestic abuse, poverty, and tuberculosis is a critique of Christian naivete while simultaneously an encouragement of spiritual moral values. It has the tone and pace of a dirge, as it seeks to imprint its message on your very soul. All wrapped up in a chilling story of New Year’s Eve and the spectre of Death! The Phantom Carriage is available to stream in HD on The Criterion Channel. 1h 47min.

#4. I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

The second Val Lewton produced film on the list, I Walked With a Zombie is perhaps best described as Jane Eyre in the Caribbean, but what is surprising is that the film is also a well researched depiction of Voodoo practices for 1943. The haunting imagery, sparse sound design, and dreamlike poeticism of this film might make it among the most unique zombie movies you’ve ever seen, made in a time with zombies were supernatural undead slaves, instead of reanimated undead cannibals. Do yourself a favour and check it out - it’s streaming in HD on The Criterion Channel, and can be purchased in SD for $9.99 on Apple Movies, and for $14.99 on Google Play. 1h 9min.

#3. The Old Dark House (1932)

James Whale’s definitive take on the traditional mystery thriller formula is a movie that will have you laughing right until the moment it has you screaming. In some ways, it’s a movie of clichés, with the protagonists seeking shelter in an old mansion during a rainstorm in the night and having to deal with the reclusive family they find within. But the dark, brooding cinematography, and truly shocking twists that rivet up the intensity over the running time, all contribute to make this a harrowing watch. It’s one part Rocky Horror Picture Show, one part The Addams Family, and one part The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I’m not kidding. The Old Dark House is currently streaming in HD on The Criterion Channel and in SD Shudder. 1h 12min.

#2. Cat People (1942)

Cat People is brilliant. The first of Val Lewton’s horror movies for RKO, it best exemplifies his shadow drenched, suggestive, adult, contemporary, and ambiguous brand of horror. Irena is convinced that if she experiences sexual excitement, she will turn into a black panther and kill the man she loves. Her husband is convinced it’s all in her head. What is the truth? Cat People gives the viewer plenty to chew on while being the first horror movie to understand that less is more, that the monster is scarier if you can’t see it, and also how to pull off a jump scare. You can find this absolute classic to stream in HD on The Criterion Channel, and to purchase for $14.99 on Google Play and YouTube. 1h 10min.

#1. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

THREE! YEARS! IN A ROW! Early on in the first Hollywood horror craze, Paramount Pictures managed to outdo their main competitor Universal with this masterpiece from director Rouben Mamoulian. With a use of sound, visuals, effects, script, and performance far beyond what most films were doing at the time, this adaptation reigns supreme among other versions of the same story. Fredric March utterly inhabits the dual title role, but it’s Miriam Hopkins’ performance that will stick with you in this superb examination of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and the beast that dwells within us. Currently for rent in SD on Google Play, PlayStation, the Microsoft Store, and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 38min.

Well there you have it, Creatures of the Night! Will Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde ever be knocked from it’s perch at the top? Keep tuning in to Scream Scene each week on Wednesday to find out! Until then, Happy Hallowe’en!