#the death watcher
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Shadows of Fear: The Death Watcher (1.4, Thames, 1971)
"I should like to have danced with you first, you know. It may sound frivolous, but I mean it. There's a certain communication involved there. Have you noticed how some couples have a much more highly developed intuition? They dance as one. There is instinctive anticipation. I used to be very good at ballroom dancing. These are my trophies. Once, I reached the county finals with a girl. Her name was Beryl Harcourt. We were completely in sympathy, you see. That's why I made her the subject of my first experiment. After she'd... gone, I used to play the gramophone in my bedroom for hours on end. We used to do a speciality tango. There's a lot of jealousy and backbiting in those competitions, you know."
#shadows of fear#the death watcher#1971#single play#horror tv#classic tv#thames#jacques gillies#peter duguid#john neville#judy parfitt#victor maddern#michael hawkins#george hagan#daphne oxenford#ann way#perhaps (if memory serves) (and it doesn't always) the closest this series comes to dipping a toe into the supernatural; but only a pinky#toe and only very very slightly. the plot is relatively old hat: a slightly mad student of ghosties and whatnot decides to test a theory#about communicating beyond the grave‚ unfortunately involving the abduction and eventual murder of an expert on ESP. as always with this#series‚ the emphasis seems to have been solely on finding strong casts over other visual concerns; still a cheap looking series with just a#couple of sets (tho it does actually manage a little location shooting). Neville‚ in one of his last uk tv appearances before his move to#Canada‚ is the unbalanced science wannabe‚ in a typically restrained and subtle (considering the character and the plot) performance#the great Judy P is his unfortunate victim and is very good but has little to do past the halfway mark except to act scared or drugged or#both. Duguid's direction is unusually showy for this series; he favours extreme closeups on eyes and mouths during key scenes of#exposition‚ adding to the general sense of uneasy weirdness around everything that's happening. the very ending is the series at#its most deliberately spooky‚ but it works; a troubling little sting in the tail of an old fashioned bit of mad science nonsense#oh and Neville's monologues near the end of the ep (part quoted above) are truly something‚ a real masterclass moment
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after watching several povs, there's something so striking about the way mumbo died.
he dies at home, first of all, which is notable in its own right because so much of his time was spent running about, usually in pursuit of kills. he dies with grian, too— to a thing grian created, no less, but it isn't actually grian's fault for once.
mumbo dies in that tall tower and when lightning strikes, from all across the server, everyone looks. their eyes land on that tower, and everyone is watching. even in grian's perspective, you can see everyone at renwood mound, lined up and staring. those at the bamlands looked on too.
they didn't see mumbo die, but they saw grian's grief. grian, who, throughout this season, has seemed cruel and untouchable to those outside of his circle due to his involvement with and knowledge of the wild cards. they watch grian immediately crumble under the weight of mumbo's death; several of them even explicitly comment, "look at grian, he's grieving, he's in mourning."
i like to think that, until that moment, grian was almost god-like in their minds; now, though, he's the quintessential concept of humanity. grief can be religious if you do it right, after all. even beyond the grian aspect though, isn't this just the most despairing omen of what's to come?
i mean, there's something about this image of a man fallen from grace, crying out as he holds the mangled corpse of his friend in the home they made together, high in the sky, on display for all the world to bear witness to. and the world did bear witness, be it with pity, horror, joy... it doesn't matter, because they saw.
the canary curse has been broken, but this was a fittingly foreboding, tone-setting image that did a stunning job filling its shoes
#wild life spoilers#life series spoilers#idk im not normal#i just really want someone to draw mumbo's death. im imagining it almost panel-wise?#like some panels of all the expressions on the onlookers' faces#plus of course the shot of mumbo#and a shot of grian#maybe both together.. idk im not an artist i just write#mumbojumbo#grian#trafficblr#wild life#life series#wlsmp#wild life smp#mumbo#watcher grian#technically#mumbo jumbo#waffle duo
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Death looms over Vanny's shoulder in FNAF..
#myart#chloesimagination#comic#fnaf#five nights at freddy's#fnaf fanart#fnaf vanessa#fnaf vanny#nightmare marionette#security breach#fnaf help wanted#horror art#nightmarionne#I like the idea nightmarionne is like a symbol of death#seeing their appearances in the games are pretty scattered#and their images shows up around tragedy#they are more of a watcher of it a witness#so I wanted to show this idea off with Vanessa#Vanessa being awoken from her daze#trying to understand what’s going on#only for it to slowly process the damage she has caused#frozen in fear over her own mind#a silent watcher looms over her shoulder#I love drawing Vanessa’s story out#I don’t think there’s been enough are depicting the things she’s probably gone thru
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id like to think that the reason why the lifers are stuck in an endless reincarnation loop isnt out of some twisted malintent of the watchers or some mechanism of fate its just bc the winners keep making the exact same wish every single time
#that the watchers dont necessarily want to put them through an endless cycle of life & death#but they are obliged to grant the wishes of whoever wins#and they just. keep making the same wish#''i want to see them again''
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Truly some of the greatest detective minds to ever detective
#yes ryan the lady from the 1800' that died of death as shane said was hit by a car#mystery files#watcher#watcher enterainment#shane medej#ryan bergara#shane and ryan
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please don’t take him away. please don’t.
alt title is pls don’t separate them <33 they (me) cannot handle it </33
#fanart#mcyt#life series spoilers#spoilers#wild life smp#trafficblr#trafficshipping#in an unfortunate and sad way#grumbo#grian#mumbo jumbo#< I don’t think I’ve draw him in five years??#wlsmp#watchers.. when u catch you…#character death
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Something something- Grian getting the most questions wrong about his own series.
Something something- Grian being the first winner and exposed to the Watchers the longest.
Something something- the Watchers take more and more from the players each cycle and still, they only get hungrier.
#watcher grian#eyesandears#life series#wild life smp#trafficblr#slay the princess#the long quiet#I think grian works as the long quiet#a bird-like eldritch entity doomed to never ending cycles of blood death and betrayal#“the princess” is every friend and ally he'd had in the series#because Grian's curse is to bring death to those he loves#grian fanart#wild life fanart
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There are several things Martyn realizes, all at once, when he opens his eyes:
He is dreaming.
It's one of those in-between dreams, the ones that aren't quite dreams.
He is sitting at a green felted table. It is sitting on a stage. The lighting is dim, and no one is watching, but out of the corner of his eye he can see the stagehands dressed in black, waiting.
He is not the only one sitting at the table. There is a Watcher, draped in purple. There is a Listener, draped in yellow. There is someone he recognizes in a red sweater. There is someone he thinks he should recognize, but can't quite, shuffling a deck of cards.
"Right. What's all this, then," he mutters.
We are playing blackjack, the Listener says.
We are deciding the rules, the Watcher says.
"It's not like we have anything better to do. Honestly, I'm glad you're here. Do you know how boring these guys are?" Grian says, and Martyn decides to quietly file Grian away as a dream-Grian, as opposed to real-life-Grian, so he doesn't go insane and/or stab him when he wakes up. He waits for the almost-familiar dealer to say something. He does not. After another few moments of awkward nonsense dream-silence, Martyn sighs and leans forward on the table.
"Sure, this might as well be happening," Martyn says. "Deal me in. How's the betting work, again?"
"You put your bet on the table. If you beat the dealer, you get to add it to the game," Grian explains. "If you don't beat the dealer, it takes it."
"Yeah, but like, that's abstract, isn't it? What does that mean, exactly, me losing what I bet if I don't beat the dealer," Martyn says.
Grian shrugs. "Don't ask me. To be honest, I'm hardly the storyteller you are."
"Me? Why are you acting like I have any control over these things when you're--"
Are you ready to play?
Martyn shuts up, looks at the Listener, and sighs. "Yeah, sure, I'm ready to play. Why not."
The dealer looks to its left. Grian sighs. "Why are you making me bet first. Again. We should rotate where we're sitting--fine, fine, I know it's an advantage because I'm the worst at this. Uh. Hm. No trading or giving away lives again. Not even as time or something. It makes the dynamics all weird, and I think we could use a nice straightforward death game next time."
(Martyn wants to roll his eyes. Nice and straightforward. Sure.)
The Watcher goes next. I would like there to be deep and wonderful bonds between the players. I would like those bonds to seem unbreakable.
"Coming from you, that's ominous," Martyn says.
Can I not just miss the alliances of the early days? the Watcher says.
"Never left the desert," Grian says, rolls his eyes, and looks at Martyn in commiseration. Martyn just stares back. So sue him, he's a bit more worried about this whole concept than an eye roll and a pithy phrase. Things Watchers want are rarely good.
When the bonds are enforced, they're less interesting, complains the Listener.
Martyn looks over sharply. Hey, wait, he thought--
I didn't say they had to be enforced by rule. I said they had to be deep. Encouraged, as opposed to discouraged.
Just saying. You'll never recapture Third Life.
Martyn swallows. His throat is dry. Weren't the Listeners supposed to be the good guys, here?
Besides, what I want is for each death to be meaningful again. They've felt too meaningless, lately, the Listener continues.
Martyn thinks the dealer raises an eyebrow, but it strikes him he's not exactly sure. Grian snorts. "Meaningful deaths. That's rich for you to say. I mean, I guess they're meaningful sometimes? I don't know, Martyn's the one who understands dramatic sacrifices, I just like killing things."
"Why do you keep on looking at me when you say those things," Martyn says.
"Look, you wouldn't be here if you weren't helping write," Grian says.
"What?" Martyn says.
We're here to play our cards for the story, the Watcher says. Aren't you also one of the authors?
"Me? What? No, I'm--what are you talking about," Martyn says.
Oh, well. I also hope your meaningful deaths make it in, the Watcher says the Listener.
Thanks, even if I disagree on the bonds, the Listener says.
"They hardly ever talk about real, concrete rules they want," complains Grian. "It's easier to understand the consequence if they bring up actual rules. Like boogeyman or no boogeyman."
"We're all just betting on cards!" Martyn says, throwing his hands up. "You're giving me a headache!"
It's your bet.
"Fine!" Martyn says. "Fine! You know what? Screw all of you. I hope this is the last one. I hope we never have to go back to that stupid death game. I hope it's miserable to watch or to listen to or to play and everyone just gives up. How's that for a bet?"
You're no fun.
Is that what you really want?
"Suit yourself," Grian says. "Honestly, if I still had that to bet, I guess I probably would."
"What do you mean, if you still had that to bet?"
"Well, I mean, that's not how blackjack works, is it? I don't just get back my in when I play it."
The dealer nods, and then silently, with a long bony hand, deals the cards.
Grian is dealt the four of diamonds. The Watcher is dealt the nine of spades. The Listener is dealt the five of clubs. Martyn is dealt a jack of spades. The dealer deals itself a seven of hearts. The dealer deals Grian a six of clubs--
"Hey, isn't that supposed to be face-down?" Martyn asks.
"Not here," Grian explains. "They're all face up so we can't touch the cards. So we don't have to. So we can't cheat."
"Who said anything about cheating?" Martyn says.
"Please," Grian says.
The dealer makes a hand motion. Martyn, grumpily, falls silent. He supposes they're playing by casino rules, then. He hasn't been in a casino since--he wouldn't know. Hard to remember anything that isn't this, isn't it? Isn't killing and dying and things out of his control and things very much in his control and, apparently, bizarre dream sequences designed to make him want to strangle Grian.
Anyway. Grian is dealt a six of clubs, giving him ten. The Watcher is given an eight of spades, giving it seventeen. The Listener is dealt a king of hearts, giving it fifteen. Martyn is given a six of clubs, giving him sixteen. The dealer deals its own second card face-down. Martyn stops to try to speak, and then shuts his mouth. Right. Dealer's advantage.
He stares at the numbers.
Grian sighs. "Well, I've got to double down, don't I? Fine. I want the whole 'red lives can kill' thing to be enforced somehow. I don't care how. There's my double down."
The dealer nods.
"Why would you want that," Martyn says blankly.
If we all win, that will be interesting with the bonds, the Watcher says mildly.
Grian shrugs. "I mean, we've enforced red names not befriending green names, but not the murder thing before. Figure we should switch up the game, right?"
"Why?" Martyn says again.
Well, it wouldn't do for it to be boring.
"No, not that. Just... isn't it easier to handle when the rules are laid out properly?"
Martyn throws his hands up, but stops arguing. The dealer gives Grian a face-down card. The dealer moves to the next party at the table.
The Watcher looks over at the dealer and makes a cutting-off motion. I stand.
The dealer moves on. Hit me, the Listener says, and is dealt the queen of diamonds. The Listener gestures to Martyn. It seems I bust. Pity. I suppose there will be no guarantee of meaning, then. Not what I'd prefer.
The dealer looks at Martyn. Martyn looks at the other hands. Martyn pauses.
"Wait, this is like, casino blackjack, yeah? I'm only playing against you, not the whole table?"
"Why would you be playing against us?" Grian says. "Writing's a collaborative process."
Martyn looks entreatingly at the Listener, but the Listener is a little too caught up in the bad hand it has been dealt. Martyn looks entreatingly at the Watcher, but the Watcher just looks somehow confused.
"I was under the impression that, I don't know, you all were adversarial."
Why? All we want is the same thing as you: the story to be told a certain way.
Martyn's not sure if he's furious or just numb.
"Fine. Got a sixteen, don't I? Hit me."
Two of spades.
He's furious. He wants to win against the dealer. He wants to win against everyone. He wants his idea to make it through. He has an eighteen, though. There are only two numbers in the deck that will not bust him, and he's no fool. Hitting on sixteen is a risk enough; if he wants his stupid bet of everything finally ending to make it through, he's got to hold here.
"I hold," he says through gritted teeth.
The dealer silently deals itself another card. A three of hearts. Distantly, Martyn's ears rush. He could have taken that. He could have taken the hit. He could have won. He could have had blackjack, and he doesn't know what the extra payout for blackjack even means in a game like this one, but he could have had it, and he held back, he didn't take the risk, he didn't--
The dealer flips up its cards. Seven, eight, three. Eighteen.
Martyn's heart pounds. A stand-off.
Grian flips up his own card and groans. It's a five of diamonds. "There goes that bet," he mutters.
The dealer makes a sweeping motion around the table. The Watcher smiles, a terrible, terrible thing. Martyn, all at once, realizes that he can't ask again. He can't say 'this is guaranteed to be the last one' again. He backs out of his chair. To the sides, he sees the stagehands change the lighting. A spotlight, on him and the dealer--
"That isn't fair," he says. "It's a tie. I should get my bet back, right? It's a tie!"
THAT IS WHERE WE DIFFER FROM THE HOUSES IN VEGAS, the dealer says, and Martyn's heart stops.
(The voice is familiar. Familiar, but he cannot place it.)
YOU SEE, IN THIS GAME, THERE IS ALWAYS ONE THING THAT HAS AN ADVANTAGE. ONE THING THE STORY IS ALWAYS PLAYING AGAINST. ONE THING, THAT INEVITABLY, AFTER LONG ENOUGH PLAYING, WILL WIN.
There, the dealer looks Martyn in the eyes, and Martyn, all at once, knows exactly what the dealer must be.
AND THAT IS ME.
Martyn stares Death in the eyes.
Then, in a cold sweat, Martyn wakes up.
He does not sleep again for a long time.
#trafficblr#martyn inthelittlewood#grian#the watchers#the listeners#a bee fic#this is me getting ALL OF MY MOST PRETENTIOUS URGES OUT before i go write more giftfic#literally all my most favoritest pretentious tropes. death personified. weird audience/writer avatar watchers and listeners. cards.#the series abstracted as a stage show. martyn being tired and confused.#really really ominous portents of the next game that hasn't actually happened yet#this is what self-indulgence looks like. if you're me.#there could not be. a more me fic.#anyway. ANYWAY. martyn doesn't understand why he's here. but why WOULDN'T he be here?#out of everyone in the series he's one of the ones who shapes the narrative the most after all
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Puppet History season 1: cute lil puppet teaches his pals about weird events throughout history
Puppet History season 5: Ryan fistfights an evil hologram who’s trying to make a skin-suit out of him, eventually yeets said hologram through a window, and wishes for a crafty genie to save The Professor from being obliterated by the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and bring him back to the present so he can make amends for trying to kill the lil guy
#puppet history#puppet history spoilers#watcher#tw: violence#tw: death#ghoul boys#insert tyler the creator 'unfollow me now' tweet here#the RELIEF i felt when this ep ended
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⚠️blood,Dead body!
Celebration for the winner
sooooo…watcher eat negative emotions right?
#i just finished dungeon meshi lately#and i just decided we should eat something#tw blood#tw corpse#tw death#tw dead body#life series fanart#life series#secret life smp#goodtimeswithscar fanart#goodtimewithscar#goodtimewithscar fanart#goodtimeswithscar#gtws fanart#grian fanart#grian#pearlscentmoon fanart#pearlscentmoon#inthelittlewood#inthelittlewood fanart#martyn inthelittlewood#scott smajor fanart#scott smajor#watcher#lumiart
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I adored the scene between Orym and the Wildmother. I thought it was beautiful. they cannot make me hate either of them. but of course I must take it upon myself to address some responses to it that I’ve seen floating about, especially bc the way some people talk about emotions makes me concerned:
1) an appeal to emotion is not inherently manipulative. it’s a normal part of communication, and treating it as “playing dirty” will negatively affect yourself and your relationships with others. trust me. you are allowed to express your feelings, and other people are allowed to take your feelings into account and adjust their behavior. it’s actually a good thing! that’s healthy communication!
2) “see you soon” is not a death wish, nor is it a firm belief that he will die in the upcoming battle. it’s an acknowledgement that on the grand, cosmic scale of time, their separation is only for a short while. I suppose it would depend on the belief in an afterlife of the people around you, but have you never heard this sentiment expressed? not once?
#I’m not sure if people making the death wish assumption are c1 watchers#but orym’s “see you soon” feels like something of a similar sentiment to keyleth’s#“I’ll see you again”#oh man I pulled up the transcript to make sure I had it right and nearly started crying#no one is doing it like vaxleth. the ship of All Time#critical role#cr spoilers#eve talks#orym of the air ashari
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February's zine! Each scene is a 4-page spread making up a 16-page booklet. Originally, I was just going to draw one bug per page, but I got more than 16 bugs, and I am fond of making scenes and telling stories anyway, so that's what I went with. :)
Bonus flat view of the zine below the cut
#hollow knight#zine#monthly zine#flameshadowart#id in alt#this zine was fun to do#oh god now to try to tag everything i guess--#lesser mawlek#infected balloon#lance sentry#maskfly#ooma#Caelif and Fera Orthop#death loodle#deepling#pilflip#distant villagers#jiji#aspid hunter#heavy sentry#husk guard#watcher knight#gorgeous husk#poggy thorax#gruz mother#hopper#hive knight#soul warrior#leaping husk#crystal crawler
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Dazai and Chuuya being alive and working together? Nikolai putting Fyodor’s hand against his face kissing it?? Young and present FukuFuku content??? Atsushi fighting alongside Akutagawa, who is in a new sick ass outfit???? SUDDENLY I LOVE BONES!!!
#But I’m still pissed about them ruining the scene where Akutagawa bites Atsushi#And Akutagawa’s “death”#And basically all of Akutagawa’s good scenes#AND SO MANY OTHER SCENES IN THE MANGA THAT WERE SO GOOD#Rip ant watcher Tecchou :’(#bsd#bungou stray dogs#bsd season 5#soukoku#fukufuku#fyolai#shin soukoku#sskk#skk#fukuzawa yukichi#fukuchi ouchi#atsushi nakajima#akutagawa ryuunosuke#chuuya nakahara#dazai osamu#fyodor dostoevsky#nikolai gogol#bungou gay dogs
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Pregaming OFMD s2 with this
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Marks and Rec: Misc #2591
Got 'em. (Dialogue from 50% Off.)
#ghoul boys#ghost files#ryan bergara#shane madej#demon shane#watcher#incorrect quotes#marks and rec misc#source: 50% off#vid: the death row poltergeists of missouri state penitentiary
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I'm still seeing a lot of angry takes in the tags about how excessive Watcher's current costs are and how all fans really want, apparently, is "just shane and ryan sitting in a basement" back again. While I do think Watcher is probably spending over budget and that's a real issue, a lot of the takes I'm seeing show a fundamental misunderstanding of how video production works and where costs actually lie. So a few quick things that I just keep seeing that are bothering me:
It was never just Shane and Ryan in a basement. BFU did a great job selling that conceit and making sure you never saw anyone beyond them and maybe TJ, but they absolutely had other crew members with them on ghost hunts and they didn't do all the work on BFU themselves. This Q&A from Season 2 lists 36 people on staff for Buzzfeed Unsolved. It's fair to make arguments that Watcher may or may not need 25 people, but those arguments should not be coming from a place of "before it was just Shane and Ryan and nobody else."
If you don't know how many people are needed to make a professional video from a TV/film standpoint, you will not have a reasonable grasp of why Watcher wants to keep 25 people on staff. Sure, some YouTubers get by with a ring light and a contracted editor. The Watcher team have stated repeatedly that they do not want to work as just YouTubers and see themselves more as a production studio—so why do people keep referencing the YouTube model to understand their business? This is like asking the local shake shop why it doesn't function like the kids' lemonade stand down the block. The item category is similar but they're not trying for the same products or process.
The "gold dusted food" is not the big budget sink you think it is. On most TV shows I've worked on it's normal to partner with businesses that are shown onscreen and work out a deal where the price of the product (in this case the gold food) is reduced or eliminated in exchange for the free publicity. Watcher very likely made a deal with every restaurant it worked with to make the Korea trip affordable for the company. The real budget spends are on things you're probably not seeing but that still matter: camera and lighting equipment is expensive, insurance for that equipment is expensive, business overhead and paying your staff are expensive. So again—it's fine to critique Watcher for the streaming plan and the perceived budgetary issues, but go into this knowing the costs might not be coming from the things you see onscreen.
My source is that I work in TV and film and actually have a clue on how the industry functions. Again, 36 people worked on Unsolved (and those were the people mention in Season 2—who knows how big the team blew up past that in later seasons). Entertainment work is real work, and demands decent equipment, competent staff, and the same types of business and budget problems you'd find in any other business (overhead, staffing, etc.). Feel free to critique Watcher's business model, but first try to understand where that model is coming from and what goals it's attempting to serve.
#watcher#watcher entertainment#rant! sorry! couldn't see another take from someone who clearly thinks video work is just fun and games because “it's entertainment right”#funny how people expect normal business costs and problems for any other career but if it's involved with production they think everything#just magically happens and is made entirely by the onscreen talent. nutso#anyway i think watcher is probably trying its best; maybe got too overexcited; but cares about quality of life for its employees and#wants no one working to the bone. which is admirable! the streaming service was a bad idea but they're not the literal devil like some thin#they're 3 self described idiots doing this for the first time. they backpedaled. i don't see this as the death of the company & i'm gonna#keep supporting them :)
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