#these two should fight Arthur imo | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fleetways · 1 year ago

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As a young teen in the early 2010s I think I can vouch for a lot of people when I say I basically grew up on those Sonic cutscene “movies.” If you’re more interested in the more modern stuff especially I definitely recommend them! Theres a ton of them out there and they are usually edited quite well to make for a cohesive story. Most of them fall in at around 1-2 hours.

If you go this route, I highly recommend beginning with games like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, the latter of which is a must-watch if you’re interested in characters like Shadow and Rouge.

C.Funk99 on YouTube has definitive “movie” editions of both games that imo are the best experiences of getting the story without playing the game, particularly their edit of SA2 which I think should be required viewing for all fans even those who have played the game.

Watch them here:

Sonic Adventure Movie (Definitive Edition)

Sonic Adventure 2 Movie (Definitive Edition)

(Alternatively, there are the Japanese cutscenes with better English translations provided by Windii here and here. Very cool but certainly not required.)

Like OP said these two games pretty much establish everything you need to know going forward about the modern versions of the central Sonic cast. If you’re still interested after that, you could check out Sonic Heroes, which is a direct followup to Sonic Adventure 2 though it’s pretty light on story in comparison (Good for those interested in Metal Sonic and what happened to Shadow after SA2).

For the real Shadow the Hedgehog fans out there, we have Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), which directly follows Sonic Heroes and goes into detail about Shadow’s origins and struggles with amnesia. This game features multiple non-canon story pathways/endings, but includes one final story that is canon. I’d only recommend this if you’re like. really interested in Shadow because it can get pretty convoluted. (Japanese cutscenes with more accurate translations of all stories)

In terms of other “movies,” I can’t recommend checking out Sonic Unleashed enough. This game more than any other exemplifies what Sonic is about as a character for me and is just generally a really good story (while featuring some of the best cutscenes Sonic’s ever done)

Additionally, if you’re interested in a more lore-heavy and dramatic plot, you may enjoy the most recent game Sonic Frontiers (this version includes the major boss fights which, trust me, you’ll want to see).

If you’re looking to play the games but don’t know where to start, I highly suggest Sonic Generations. It is essentially a “Best of Sonic” compilation, is fairly beginner friendly, has a fantastic modding community and is generally considered to be one of the best of the modern sonic games. You can get it on Steam for like $20 but it often goes on sale for much cheaper.

Generations features both 3D and 2D gameplay, but if you’re interested in the more retro style of classic sonic, I’d recommend Sonic Mania or Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit. The latter happens to be a fan-made game, but is in my opinion the best classic sonic gameplay experience there is (and it’s free!). As OP stated, Sonic Origins is a compilation of the four main classic Sonic titles, however, you can also find versions of Sonic 1, 2, and CD on app stores, and for Sonic 3 & Knuckles there is Sonic 3 AIR.

Also, generally speaking you can find pretty much any Sonic game from the 2000s and most from the 2010s just out there in the wild. *Ahem 🏴‍☠️*

Bonuses for those that just want an insane (awesome) story:

That time Sonic became King Arthur in Camelot (Sonic and the Black Knight)

Extreme Hoverboard Races with Alien Birds (Sonic Riders duology)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

An introductory guide to getting into Sonic the Hedgehog...

…if you're a grown-ass adult who is busy and doesn't want to play a bunch of video games but thinks the characters look sorta cool.

If you've ever been curious about Sonic as a series but haven't known where to start, I have some recommendations! I think Sonic is a cool and still somewhat unique thing because it takes cartoony characters (like a Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat) and lets them jump around in cool action sequences through the lens of a shonen anime. It's colorful and usually pretty light-hearted, and I think the character designs are pretty iconic.

There's two handy places you can start without prior context, to see if it's something you'd be into...

Getting Started: If You Wanna Read Something

The IDW Sonic Comics

There were years of different Sonic comics back in the '90s and early 2000's, but the franchise got a complete reboot and fresh start with IDW Publishing in 2018. If you're looking for the most straight-forward way to get into this world of characters, I think this is a great start. You don't need any prior knowledge whatsoever to crack open issue 1 and get started. All you need to know is "Sonic and his friends protect the world by fighting against an evil scientist named Dr. Eggman, who they just recently defeated after he briefly took over the world."

I love these comics and I feel that the writers and artists who work on it have a really good sense for this series. Reading issues 1 through 12 will get you the first major story arc. If you like it so far, I highly suggest reading up through issue 32, when another major story arc concludes. After that, the world's your oyster! Unlike the tangled web of Marvel or DC comics, IDW Sonic has a very simple and linear reading order. You pretty much just read the issues in order, and occasionally there are spinoff stories that are optional to read.

Getting Started: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic Mania Adventures

Maybe comics aren't your thing and you want something even quicker. These are a series of animated shorts that are lovely. Conveniently, they've been compiled together by Sega into one little video right here.

It's a great intro to some of the main characters, and combines cartoon slapstick with some amazing action sequences.

There's also a nice little epilogue short.

Sonic CD's intro cutscene

If I had to pick a single 1-and-a-half minute clip to embody what I like about this series, it would be this very simple intro movie that plays before Sonic CD. Check it out!

Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus Cutscenes

In 2022, Sega released a compilation of the classic Genesis games on modern consoles. In it, they added a few animated cutscenes. You can watch those cutscenes, plus the Sonic CD intro and the Sonic Mania Adventures episodes, all compiled into one handy Youtube video.

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Read Something

The Archie Sonic Comics

You might have heard that Sonic had a comic series published by Archie Comics from 1992 to 2016. This was a vast, overarching series that wrote an original story by weaving together ideas from the different Sonic cartoons and games. It went through several different writers, many different artists, and obviously spanned over multiple eras of pop culture.

It's pretty cool! The fact that it was so long-running, and the fact that Sega wasn't very strict with what the writers could do, led to a lot of buckwild lore, new characters, and plot developments. That said, it's also pretty bizarre, complicated, corny, and cringey at times. There is a stretch in the middle that is pretty infamous among fans.

You have a few options for jumping in.

Option A: You can start at the very beginning and read all of it. If you do this, it is going to be like a One Piece / Homestuck / etc. kind of undertaking, and you're going to be pushing through the good and the bad of huge genre and tone shifts. That's your call!

Option B: You can brush up on the main characters on a wiki and then start at Issue 160, when Ian Flynn (who now does a lot of work on IDW Sonic) became the lead writer. More specifically, you can jump in at the start of a new story arc by starting at Issue 175.

Option C: You can start at Issue 252, when there is a universe-altering event that essentially retcons all of the characters and plot threads from the previous writers and starts completely fresh. Easier to keep track of and you won't have to worry about all the previous plot and lore.

If you want something you can read in a single sitting, you should instead read Sonic: Mega Drive, a short-lived miniseries published by Archie that follows "Classic Sonic" characters (aka, the same vibe and art style of Sonic Origins, Sonic Mania Adventures, etc.) It's really great!

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA) aka "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" (1996)

This is, essentially, a 1-hour Sonic anime movie. You can watch it in Japanese or in English. I adore it. It makes up its own lore and continuity so you don't need to know anything before going in, besides generally knowing a one-sentence synopsis of who Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik are. It's action-packed, well-animated, and has great music. Enjoy! Sonic X If you're enjoying what you've seen so far, and you want something much, much longer...there's an official 78-episode anime adaptation of Sonic called Sonic X. It's an original story that loosely pulls together some ideas from a few of the games. It's mostly intended for a younger audience, but I hear if you watch it in the original uncut Japanese, it feels a little less "for kids."

Other Ways To Get Into Sonic

There's some great video essays on Youtube about the series!

Professional animator Dan Floyd did an in-depth video looking at the highs and lows of Sonic character animation in the games starting from Sonic 1 up through Sonic Forces.

Super Bunnyhop plays through the first level of a bunch of Sonic games to compare how the mechanics, physics, and level design feel throughout the games' history.

Liam Triforce has a great deep dive on the franchise's music.

You can play The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a murder-mystery-party themed visual novel put out by Sega. It's nice and short, so you can finish it in an afternoon.

If you haven't seen them already, you can check out the live-action/animated hybrid films Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 featuring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, they're pretty good. That Sonic Prime cartoon that's currently on Netflix is pretty good too.

This may sound strange, but honestly you might enjoy poring over the sprite sheets from the old games. In particular, I really like the sprite animations from the GBA games, like Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle.

Sega is pretty lax about allowing noncommercial fan games, so there's at least a hundred different Sonic fan games out there by hobbyist developers. Check out the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Fan Games HQ.

You can watch LPs or cutscene compilations of the games on Youtube! If you watch Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, you'll get a crash course on most of the characters.

And finally, of course...you can play the games if you want to! There's a number of them that are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation if you don't have access to older consoles.

There's a lot of different angles to come at Sonic as a franchise, and lots of different entry points. Have fun!

#sorry op I didn’t mean to ramble on ur post but I’m very insane #please go watch sonic adventure 2 definitive edition #text #sonic the hedgehog

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kiseiakhun · 3 years ago

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Ask Meme: GARTH

GARTH

First impression - I encountered him first in the rb Titans book so I thought he was the muscle of the team 💀 Like he was one of those STRONG BURLY MEN ready to FIGHT EVERYTHING. But I also fell in love with his design and paid a disproportionate amount of attention to him; he was the most visually interesting character in the book for me.

Impression now - I want Garth to [censored] me and [censored] and then [censored] and

All joking aside, Garth is such an interesting character to me. He has such an air of mystery about him probably because he never appears in any books and there's just. So much potential in his character? Like, if you go down a list and tick off his traits... he's one of the more tragic characters in the dcu and he has such a complicated relationship with his mentor. He's strong enough to stand next to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman. It's been stated on-page that Garth is one of the most competent magic users in the DCU. He should be a powerhouse. He should be in every major event, standing next to the headliners, and it's so tragic that he suffered from the Aquafam irreverency syndrome that struck everyone close to Arthur. Garth feels like a character in limbo; Arthur himself is just stepping back into the spotlight, and now that we have Jackson he can't really fill the role of Aqualad. It's clear that the writers don't really know what to do with him and that's so sad :/

I looove him. I love the concept of his character. When he's written right (re: the way I prefer), he works as such a great counter-balance to the more hotheaded personalities he's usually stuck with. He gives breathing space on a team full of aggressively emotional people. He's like a rock to rest on among a stormy sea. There's so much to explore when it comes to just him, too - I mean, Garth is the LOST PRINCE of an UNDERWATER KINGDOM born with STRONG INNATE MAGIC POWERS who was ABANDONED BY HIS PARENTS FROM BIRTH in order to SAVE HIM. He has purple eyes!! He has cool tattoos! HE HAS SEXY EYE SCARS. He's the subject of an ancient prophecy! His relationship with Arthur jumps all over the place from love to hate to love to hate. He has SO MANY PARENTAL ISSUES you can fill up a whole book with them. He has SO MANY ISSUES. Garth is literally an anime pretty boy. I can't believe more people don't love him, except I can believe it because he rarely ever shows up ;_; Wasted potential, thy name is Garth

Favorite moment

Remember when he had to rehydrate himself every two hours? That sure was a choice.

In all seriousness though, probably the time he led the mission to save Lilith (Omen). Let him be smart and competent... let his friends see and acknowledge it...

Idea for a story - ONE DAY I'm going to write that Roygarth fantasy epic where they have to journey through Treacherous Lands to save someone (Wally). Currently I have just vibes. But once I find a plot it's over for you hoes.

Unpopular opinion - Imagine if Garth was popular enough for people to have opinions. Umm. I like his rebirth look better 😔 that's the version I was introduced to and unfortunately I imprinted.

Favorite relationship - I looove his relationship with the Titans, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I do wish his and Wally's friendship would get explored more - he and Roy have this vitriolic thing going on, and he occasionally pops up in Nightwing books to give Dick supportive words of advice, and he and Donna have similarish personalities (at least outwardly, Donna seems a lot less chill on the inside than the image she tries to project) so they have this tendency to just snark about the others from the side and it's great lmao. In comparison, his and Wally's relationship seems less prominent which is a shame imo. They're friends too!

Favorite headcanon - After Koryak died Garth plundered his clothes and stole his fashion sense. I realized a couple days ago that Rebirth Garth resembles Koryak far more than he does pre-Flashpoint Garth and I'm still recovering from it.

Also he's so chill because he smokes a metric fuckton of weed. (Garth ran out of weed at the start of rebirth and that's why he was Like That)

[ask meme]

#garth of shayeris #asks #ask memes

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weakforarwen · 2 years ago

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A Servant of Two Masters

I’ll review this episode in a different format than usual, by character/pairing.

Arthur: He suspected someone in court of betraying him. He doubted even his knights, and was smart enough to doubt Agravaine, but Agravaine talked his way out of it, as usual. The last thing Arthur wants is for his last connection to his mother to be a traitor. I found some of his ramblings to Merlin interesting.

My father prepared me well for being king, but he told me nothing of the loneliness of the job. What it's like to have all eyes on you, waiting for you to provide the answer. In all the years I watched him, he never wavered in his certainty. He was strong, he was sure. And I'm not in that place yet. I value the guidance of others. Maybe I've been foolish to do so. Everyone has their own agenda. It feels like I can trust no one anymore.

Will Arthur ever learn? It’s exhausting. His father “never wavered in his certainty” because he was harsh and inflexible, and he was always “sure” because he was arrogant and prideful and refused to own his mistakes.

Arthur’s insecure now about leaning on others and being compassionate, but he used to know, back in season 3, that those things made him stronger. He never wished to rule alone and alienate those closest to him like his father had.

I get that, even if Arthur likes being compassionate and merciful, he still wonders whether he shouldn’t be more like his father (and most Kings). There’s comfort in being like everyone else; I think, at times, we all believe we’d be happier if only we were more like “everyone else”.

But, in that case, we wouldn’t be ourselves and the grass isn’t always greener. Arthur should know that. If he truly thought Camelot needed someone like Uther he would be making different choices.

Just the other episode, Arthur narrowly escaped fighting in a war he could’ve prevented altogether by simply being himself and not trying to do what his father would’ve. Did he forget his lesson already? It’s like every episode the writers hit the reset button on Arthur. It’s so frustrating. I’m starting to headcanon he had a special case of amnesia.

Gwen: It’s weird that Gwen didn’t want Arthur to search for Merlin. She was worried about Arthur, of course, but if she cared about Merlin, she wouldn’t have given up on him. Gwen had a good amount of screentime this episode, but she honestly didn’t feel like Gwen. I liked her and Gaius working together a lot though, and Angel’s reactions to assassin Merlin were pretty funny.

Gwen/Arthur: There’s a lot of domestic Arwen in this episode. Gwen’s in the throne room when Arthur returns to Camelot sans Merlin, the only non-royal or knight present; she sees Arthur off when he leaves to find Merlin and begs him to return safely; she serves Arthur dinner (to give Merlin a break); she saves Arthur twice. But, still, I didn’t really enjoy their scenes. It’s like Gwen was there but not there, and there was no sense of intimacy between them, because they weren’t the focus of the episode at all; we were like outsiders, watching Gwen and Arthur from afar.

It’s a bit gross that Gwen was serving Arthur his food when she’s his girlfriend. She wasn’t even eating with him, she was just watching him eat. Had she eaten already? Merlin told her she’d be "pouring his [Arthur’s] bath water next” and I agreed. It was nice of Gwen to try to give Merlin the night off, and she probably wanted to spend some time alone with Arthur, but did it need to be that way?

But this episode has one of the funniest Arwen scenes, imo, in which Merlin hilariously tried to kill Arthur during his bath. You guys know what I mean:

A: Right... Good job I'm not very dirty, then. G: It's a good job indeed!

Merlin/Arthur: Arthur finally gave Merlin some well deserved praised, though it was only because he thought Merlin might die. It was sweet anyway.

M: You have a very good servant. A: You're right. I do. A servant who's extremely brave. And incredibly loyal, to be honest. Not at all cowardly.

Arthur never gave up on Merlin and was clearly displeased with George, haha. His punishment for Merlin was rather clever too - a week with George.

Merlin doing a terrible job of killing Arthur was funny, but the episode vacillated between slapstick humor and drama so many times that the humor fell flat.

Gwaine: Just wanted to mention how nice it was of the writers to remember Merlin and Gwaine used to be close, thought it seemed like Gwaine had already given up hope for Merlin; he was practically eulogizing him:

You know what I like about Merlin? He never expects any praise. All these things he does just for the good of doing them.

Leon: His funny scenes were funny, but is Leon really a funny person?...

Emrys: Old Merlin’s a blast, but, again, the humor felt a bit forced. The episode isn’t nearly as lighthearted as it seems. It was odd seeing Morgana scared. She is so terrified of Emrys that she actually ran out when she saw him and thought she'd been dreaming him up.

Morgana clears fears Emrys, and was even surprised she landed a hit on him, so I can’t understand why she walked away without killing him. She knocked Merlin out, but instead of finishing him off, she left. Likewise, Merlin could’ve killed Morgana but didn’t. It just makes no sense and ruined the episode for me.

Agravaine: How and when did Agravaine fall for Morgana? Before she went evil? Did he lust after her when she was a teenager? He desperately wants her approval, it’s pathetic. I wish the writers had given us some backstory. It’s like Morgana showing up evil in season 3 all over again.

Morgana: She’s as terrible at killing Arthur as Merlin. It makes no sense. It also makes no sense that Morgana can’t understand Merlin’s loyalty towards Arthur. Has she forgotten her and Gwen used to be close too? I liked this line:

Don't think I don't understand loyalty just because I've got no one left to be loyal to.

Merlin: When Morgana took Merlin, was his plan to die? He let Morgana place the Fomorroh on his neck, to kill Arthur, when he could’ve used his magic to stop her. Was he more afraid of revealing himself to her than of dying?

Overall thoughts: I enjoyed the beginning of the episode, but, as it progressed, I found the back and forth between seriousness and humor boring. The scenes with Merlin, Gaius, Arthur, and Gwen, when Merlin was trying to kill Arthur, were funny, but Gwen didn’t feel like herself. Merlin was also made a fool of, which I thought unfair. Why would Merlin be a terrible assassin? Why didn’t he just use his magic to kill Arthur?

The humor and OOC-ness of the characters made it so that half the episode read like a parody and the other half couldn’t be taken seriously because of it (among other reasons). I couldn’t connect with the characters, and I disliked how some of them were written.

The ending was also incredibly anticlimactic. Morgana and Merlin had every chance to kill each other yet didn’t. Somehow.

So, yeah, the episode had incredible potential at first, but the characters were poorly written and that interfered with my enjoyment of it.

#bbc merlin #bbc arwen #arwen #gwen pendragon #arthur pendragon #merlin #morgana #a servant of two masters commentary #a servant of two masters

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akampana · 4 years ago

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Continuation of this ask

Bedivere x Arturia - Ship it

What made you ship it?

TBH I was one of those few people who shipped it based on that like 2 second scene at the end of FSN. The Camelot Singularity just reinforced it. A lot came from the original Arthurian legend as well. Bedivere is similarly insanely loyal as he is in the game, and like in Fate lore, he’s been with Arthur longer than most.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

He journeyed so far for so long just to see her smile OH MY GOD BRB IM SOBBING HOLY CRAP CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE—

I’m a sucker for intensely loyal knights and I will always be. ALWAYS.

THE ANGST POTENTIALLLLLL but also THE FLUFF POTENTIALLLL

This man loved his king so bloody intensely. So strongly that his desire to see her survived the test of time. To be loved so much, so unconditionally for a thousand and a half years? Gods, that’s just too much, man. ;-;

And I absolutely adore how much it means to him to remain her knight, even if he tends to be insecure about the limb that he lacks, and how he believes he is nothing special in comparison with everyone else. I love that Arturia recognizes his strength and his worth, even if he himself can’t see it.

THE ENTIRE CONFRONTATION IN THE THRONE ROOM LET ME TELL YOU I WAS CRYING SOOOOO HARD THROUGHOUT THAT IK NIT EVEN KIDDING

THIS, the MINDBREAK Arturia goes through when she tries to remember

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think that THIS SHIP NEEDS MORE LOVE AND I REALLY OUGHT TO CONTRIBUTE

All the other answers below cut!

Irisviel x Arturia - Ship It

What made you ship it?

I think I was bound to the moment I watched Fate Zero. When I was younger it was overshadowed by the feels Diarturia brought and not to mention Kiritsugu and Iri but this ship is damn good on its own.

What sold it though, is the argument she and Kiritsugu have in Episode 16, right after the last Saber and Lancer fight. Irisviel, who we all know loves her husband so much, forced Kiritsugu to answer Saber. That’s just how important Arturia was to her.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I think they both found in each other something they themselves lack. It’s actually kind of funny. Arturia is human, and yet she’s so heavily consumed by her ideals that she doesn’t act like one. Irisviel, on the other hand, is not human, and yet everything that she does and wants to do is exactly that.

Throughout the anime, Being with Iri puts Saber into such mundane, ordinary situations that it teaches her to live. The suits, the escorting, being a passenger instead of a driver, appreciating the water by the seashore, etc. It's like the woman wants to leave her with some appreciation for the world, especially when she herself doesn’t have all that much time left.

On Irisviel’s part, I think she found in Saber the companionship she would have wanted from Kiritsugu during the last few days she remained on the Earth. Arturia had been the perfect knight in shining armor, taking Irisviel around to see the world as much as they could amidst a war. If they’d just had more time, I have no doubt Arturia would have taken Irisviel even more places, you know?

It makes me sad :( but in a good way.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I’m pretty sure Irisviel would wear the pants in this relationship ya know what I mean? Hahaha

Much as I love this ship, I think that it becomes all the more valuable because of how it ended. To each other, they were this brief, fleeting feeling of happiness. A love that was so short and yet so strong.

Shirou x Arturia - Don't Ship it

Hooooooo boi. Hear me out, mkay ? But this is just my personal opinion so pls no hate

Why don't you ship it?

I’m gonna start out by saying I don’t think I need to, tbh. Hahaha there’s enough content for this ship being fed to us, so my liking it or not is immaterial. But the reason is well...I watched FSN and Shirou x Saber was...not the best thing about it (the best thing about it was the soundtrack omg iconic) Shirou comes off as a bit of a misogynist, and kind of immature, and the whole time it’s like he doesn’t really listen to Arturia at all. Plus, it’s kind of like he just likes her looks at times. The final deciding factor was the date scene. That was just unbearable.

But then I go online and I see all this good stuff about them. And my friend ships them cause they’re canon, right? So, I’m like okay, what if I judged too quickly, let’s play the VN...and I did. And I still didn’t like him with Saber at all. So, I played the next route, watched the next anime, trying to redeem 1st route Shirou as much as I could but it just....didn’t happen. I think I can safely say I tried to like them. I really did. But no.

What would have made you like it?

Removing the misogyny and the immaturity and letting him listen to her. Like he should have.

At no point in their interactions did it feel like they were standing on equal ground, ever. Either he was speaking over her or the opposite. So less of that and a lot more respect.

And when you compare this relationship to what he has with like with his other two love interests, it makes this ship fall completely flat. It’s pretty...bland and honestly kind of shallow. It’s like the story just tells you they’re in love but there’s no answer to why they’re in love. Make him fall in love with her for her without necessarily forcing his need to save everyone on her.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

I may not like how they got there, but in the end Arturia was able to pass peacefully.

I acknowledge that Shirou was important and made a change in her life.

That ending scene where they meet after so long, NGL is pretty sweet.

A lot of my headcanons happen post-Shirou, so there’s also that.

Archer x Rin -Ship it

What made you ship it?

Tsundere x Cynic has gotta be one of the best dynamics out there.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

His true identity. The fact that she dragged him all the way across space and time to return as her Servant, that’s just bloody fate at work.

The fact that he keeps acknowledging she’s a strong Master despite his later conduct in UBW.

Archer is ridiculously crass and Rin is easily riled up. In the Fifth Holy Grail War, they had the best Master-Servant relationship period. They have this explosive chemistry that just works so well.

When he smiles at her at the end of the route, and you just know that Tohsaka’s gonna be stubborn enough to make sure Shirou doesn’t end up going down the exact same path.

I think it’s sweet that he ends up going along with her whims because he secretly likes housework.

THE PRINCESS CARRY/ CATCH. MAN OH MAN.

Unlike the previous ship mentioned here, these two actually stand on equal ground with each other.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't think it's exactly an unpopular opinion, but I think they really ought to have more official content y'know? Rin is important in every route, and Archer's the actual climax of UBW and also entirely significant across three routes.

Medusa x Sakura - Don't ship it

Why don't you ship it?

Because while journeying through the routes, I always saw Rider as more of a best friend/sort of motherly figure to Sakura.

Or that Rider fulfilled the kind of relationship that she wanted to have with Rin, while Sakura unknowingly filled the void Medusa's sisters left in her life. I thought she was more of a guardian angel really, not a romantic interest. Kind of like how Heracles was to Illya.

What would have made you like it?

If I could maybe forget about the threesome with Shirou and the implied romantic feelings Rider has for him in Ataraxia that would be great.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Sakura deserves all the happiness in the world and I really do believe that Rider could fulfill that.

This ship DEFINITELY DEFINITELYYYYYY NEEDS MORE CONTENT

Diarmuid x Cú - Ship it

What made you ship it?

oooh this probably sounds surprising since based on my content you'd think, no i dont ship this BUT I DOOOOOOO (i just happen to hc them as bros more often)

Honestly what did make me ship it is the parallels.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

IMO They have the biggest potential for hurt/comfort amongst all the ships mentioned here.

They can help each other get through their trauma. Their whole relationship would be extremely healing and supportive.

I love that Diarmuid seems to have idolized Cú Chulainn at some point and honestly who wouldn't be honored to stand beside him, no?

They could be up to the funniest shenanigans because Cú is chaos and Diarmuid would absolutely be an enabler because when he isn't angst-ing he's super damn chill.

Bros being bros hahahah...unless?

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Not really. Maybe that I think Lancer Diar and Cascu would get along better and Saber Diar and Lancer Cu would also get along better but honestly any form is good this ship is good

#akampana asks #bedivere #arturia pendragon #artoria pendragon #irisviel von einzbern #emiya Shirou #archer #rin #tohsaka rin #Medusa #sakura #sakura matou #diarmuid ua duibhne #cu chulainn #long post

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fishoutofcamelot · 4 years ago

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Hi there! I hope you’re well. I just wanted to send a message to thank you for the elyan content 😍 he is my favourite knight but for some reason I never see much of him on tumblr! So it’s awesome to see him on your blog. I hope I didn’t bother you with this ask 🙈

I AM doing well, actually! And you didn’t bother me, asks will probably never bother me <3

I could go on for a million years about why no one makes content about Elyan - and sometimes forget he exists altogether - but I don’t wanna start drama so we’ll just. Not touch that topic with a 10-foot pole

BUT! Elyan IS a fantastic knight, and the fact that he is your favourite knight too is very iconic and sexy of you. Elyan fans/stans are the sexiest members of this fandom. That’s not even opinion, that’s just science

So! Here’s a list of Elyan headcanons, because he’s worth it:

Elyan is ace. Them’s the facts

He’s also gay but in that stage where he’s questioning if he might be bi. Unfortunately, he died before reaching an answer

I hate to talk about Hogwarts Houses in 2020, but he is one hell of a Hufflepuff. Elyan is his name and protecting his loved ones with life and limb is his game. It is very easy to earn his loyalty, and once you have he will ride straight through Hell for you

Elyan likes hoods. He wears hoods whenever he can (i mean c’mon, that outfit in season 3 was serving some killer looks)

He’s just a protective older brother to literally everyone in Camelot. Yes, even Gaius

Gwen, Elyan, Leon, and Merlin have family game night once every month. They all gather in their old house in the lower town to get drunk, play some dice games, and spend the whole night goofing off

Only a few people know about game night. Even fewer people have seen it with their own eyes. Arthur and Gwaine frequently try to sneak in to see game night for themselves, but somehow never succeed

Elyan loves swimming. They don’t get many chances for it, but whenever they do, Elyan is the best swimmer out of all the knights

He’s also like. Really good at sneaking up on people. Consistently rolls high on stealth checks

Out of everyone in the Round Table, Elyan is the most easily spooked. He hates it when they gather around the fire to tell ghost stories, bc he will NOT be able to sleep the rest of the night after that

Why do people think there’s no dynamic or chemistry between Elyan and Gwaine??? Those two had a SOLID friendship and I will not stand for this disrespect (also, Perelyan is good but Elyaine is godtier imo)

Elyan is bad at blacksmithing. Like really bad. No one even understands how that works, considering he spent his whole childhood training under his father. All the blacksmithing talent apparently went to Gwen somehow

He likes bugs. When he was a kid he would go out in the woods and collect beetles and stuff to stick in little terrarium jars. He’d even give them names and backstories and personalities. Sometimes he would sit under a tree and tell Gwen stories about all these adventures his bugs would go on when no one was looking

Leon HATED bugs, and got creeped out by them, which meant Elyan was legally obligated to harass him about it

Elyan doesn’t get much chance to catch bugs anymore, but he’s also the only member of the Round Table who can put up with spiders

Spider in the armory? Everyone is freaking out while Elyan just calmly picks it up and lets it outside - but not without lots of snark and eye-rolling, of course

The reason Elyan ran away from home was because his mother had died and he saw it as a personal failing. He felt that it was his fault she was dead, because he couldn’t protect her, and left Camelot because he couldn’t bear the shame of guilt

In the last few years of his time away from Camelot, Elyan fell in love and lived out an mlm cottagecore fantasy where he and his lover raised wyverns together. But when Morgause came to capture him, she killed his lover and burnt their wyvern farm to the ground

Elyan tries not to let his grief be known, though. Not just because he doesn’t want to burden Gwen with his pain, but also because his lover had magic and he could get arrested for having fallen in love with a sorcerer

Morgause had Elyan captive for a while before Gwen showed up. She even used the nathair on him in small increments; not long enough to kill him or damage him irreparably, but enough to make him suffer. It’s for this reason that Elyan was able to bounce back from being tortured by Morgana whereas Gwaine didn’t survive it, because Morgause had already microdosed him with that kind of pain two years ealier

Still traumatizing, though. Like. This boy is EXTREMELY traumatized, can someone please get him some therapy???

Moving back to Camelot with Gwen was simultaneously healing and harming. Healing, because he visited his dad’s grave, rebuilt his relationship with Gwen, and his companionship with her, Merlin, and Leon helped him move on from the pain of his loss. But harming because of all the anti-magic prejudice that surrounded him, and every time someone said magic was evil it was like another dagger in his heart. That was his dead lover they were talking about and calling a monster. Someone who was kind and compassionate and funny, who didn’t have a lick of evil in them, who would have burned at the stake by Camelot’s laws

Elyan didn’t think about what it meant to be a knight of Camelot when he agreed to be knighted. But he was just so determined to fight and kill Morgause, the woman who had killed his lover and his wyverns and abducted him from his home, that he didn’t even think about it. He just wanted Morgause dead. It wasn’t until a few days later when he realized that being a knight of Camelot meant enforcing Camelot’s anti-magic laws, and this realization naturally caused him distress

Instead of abandoning his knighthood, Elyan found a compromise. He would support Arthur in everything, until magic got involved. If Arthur ever captured druids or put sorcerers to death, Elyan decided he would smuggle them out of the city. He would never actively kill or capture those with magic, and would sometimes even try to sabotage efforts in capturing harmless magic-users

Elyan knew full well what Dragoon was doing. He knew that Gwen and Arthur’s love was true and required no enchantment, meaning Dragoon had simply framed himself to get Gwen out of a jam. He appreciates Dragoon, and even though he supposedly killed Uther, Elyan can’t even fault him for that. Elyan wanted to kill Uther too

Merlin is the little brother Elyan always wanted, and Elyan is the older brother Merlin never had. They act so much like siblings it’s not even funny, and some people question if they were actually raised together

He and Merlin like to team up and tease Gwen. They’ll walk behind her and chant stuff like “Gwen and Arthur sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G”. They’re like children, and it’s both very funny and very annoying

Gwen gets her revenge, of course. She always gets her revenge

They also team up to be like. Super protective of Gwen. The vetting process Arthur had to go through - between Elyan, Leon, AND Merlin - in order to date Gwen was ridiculous

Arthur: Merlin I’m literally your boss. Your friend. You've been my personal manservant for like six years now

Merlin: Yeah, which means I know exactly how much of a dick you are

After being possessed by the druid ghost, Elyan is a lot more in tune with the supernatural

Am I suggesting that Elyan can now see, talk to, and interact with ghosts, and even starts a little agency where he goes around helping them complete their unfinished business? Why yes, yes I am

When Gwen was banished, Elyan wanted to go with her. But she asked him to stay behind and keep an eye on Agravaine, as she suspected him of treachery, and to stop him from taking over Camelot should Agravaine make a move. And, well, Elyan has never been able to say no to his sister

Elyan and Merlin decided to try and find a way to prove Gwen’s innocence. There’s no way she was acting of her own accord, after all. There was some kind of enchantment at play, there had to be. Merlin doesn’t tell him about Shade!Lancelot directly, but does propose it as a theory regarding how Lancelot had come back from the dead. Elyan supports the theory 100%

About two months after the wedding, Merlin and Elyan locate the enchanted bracelet, and Gwen and Lancelot’s names are finally cleared

In Avalon, Elyan, Freya, and Lancelot spend the whole time watching/narrating the events of season 5 like sports commentators. They are all mutually exasperated at Merlin’s antics

When Arthur shows up in Avalon, the only reason Elyan doesn’t punch him in the face is because he’s too busy restraining Lance from doing the same

He does, however, give him a strong talking-to about how “all your magic and you still can’t save my life” is a horrible thing to say actually

Lancelot, however, is more upset about the “I guess I was wrong” speech

Gwaine shows up in Avalon like. SUPER traumatized. He died while being tortured by a nathair, died in a way that he perceived to be failure, and he’s kinda messed up because of that. Elyan, who has already had a few years to cope with nathair torture, is the one who helps Gwaine heal from his trauma

In the 21st century, Elyan gets reincarnated along with everyone else. His childhood is plagued with weird dreams, dreams that terrify him. Snakes and pain, wyverns and fire, all of it. He meets an old man who calls himself Merlin, who helps Elyan through the pain of remembering his past life. For once, Elyan gets to be taken care of instead of the other way around. For once, he is allowed to be vulnerable and weak and struggling. He doesn’t hide his tears. He gets the help he needs and works through his trauma

And one day, many years later, he is walking down the street when he sees someone who looks oddly familiar. The face of an old lover, perhaps

Thanks for the ask! <3

#Merlin Fandom Stop Forgetting About Elyan Challenge #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merlin #bbcm #ask #fish post

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sneakyboymerlin · 4 years ago

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For the character thingy- Morgana

First Impression: Loved her. Wasn’t too in love with her, given the misogyny of the writers—in season 1, she doesn’t really do anything, ya know? Has the occasional prophetic vision, gets sick for everyone else to worry about, her apparent sexiness is emphasized… pretty much the definition of objectification there. But then season 2 comes around and you realize she’s textually gaining agency, so maybe that’s intentional? Hmm. Anyways, she’s making some morally grey choices in s2, but you can’t help sympathizing with her. Then season 3 comes around, and I’m left devastated by the fact that she’s just lost all the love that she had for her friends (Merlin, Gwen, and Arthur particularly). Understandable, with a full year of separation under Morgause’s tutelage, but very difficult to watch her become the enemy of my other faves. She has a point, though, as she’s fighting for her freedom under Uther. Then she becomes more and more unhinged and I’m enamored with that particular villain aesthetic she has going on. Tragic but fitting end—love how it’s played out so personally instead of a ginormous mid-battle scene.

Impression now: It’s pretty clear she was always intended to be the main villain of Uther’s creation, as the character of Morgana often is in adaptations of the Arthurian legend. I understand the point of her starting out very one-dimensionally good was 1) an effect of her lack of autonomy, before Merlin and Morgause teach her about her magic, and 2) to emphasize her downfall and the differences between the “old” her and the “new” her. I think the writers should have given her character a more nuanced exploration from the start; however, it’s easy to spot some instances in the first two seasons where her flaws probably spawned from. I’m also not a fan of narratives that tell you what to believe, so while it’s undeniable that Morgana became a villain, I wish it weren’t so “tell don’t show.” They could have conveyed a more compelling slide into villainy if the writing for it wasn’t so heavy-handed. Her actions are a little more nuanced than “fights for her freedom but in evil ways” imo, though I know this is an unpopular opinion amongst the fandom. It’s pretty obvious that she’s not fighting for the freedom of her people so much as trying to regain the privileges she had before finding out she has magic— she doesn’t necessarily fight for change unless it affects her in some way, or at least doesn’t take away her privileges. It’s always going to be easier to say “feed the poor” than to starve on the streets, and she shows her true colors when uses her higher status to threaten Merlin and Gwen. She’s the most protected person in Camelot, possibly all of Albion (barring Princess Vivian perhaps) but for the first time in her life, those privileges are conditional—she no longer has them just because she’s Uther’s ward. There’s real fear there, as she realizes she’ll likely be executed as a traitor, but she is also aware of her class privilege and Uther’s nepotism, which she’s not afraid to take advantage of. This wouldn’t be a problem if she extended her aim beyond restoring her own privileges, rather than leading armies against Camelot knowing that the poor and defenseless are the most vulnerable to her attacks, or trying to kill Gwen simply because she’s going to become queen. Morgana views the people as something disposable that she’s entitled to/can be used to accomplish her own goals. Basically she’s the face of white feminism and classism in a palatable package, whether the writers intended it or not.

Favorite moment: 2x03, where she’s returned to Camelot. There’s so much going on in this moment. For one, she has to pretend that she’s been rescued, and that Uther is her savior from her magical assailants, when it’s the exact opposite: the Druids rescued her, and she’s been essentially kidnapped back to Camelot to live under Uther again. She now has the knowledge to be well and truly terrified, but also to understand herself and deflect the internalized hatred of magic she’s learned her whole life. It’s a small moment, but it conveys so much about how her life is going to be from here on out.

Idea for a story: I’ve been meaning to write a fic about the year she was with Morgause between seasons 2 & 3, and how she became the person we saw in 3x01. Imo, Morgause gave her ultimatums and convinced Morgana it was the only way, and given her solitude and feelings of loss/betrayal, she was more susceptible to this form of manipulation. She may as well have joined a cult. I’d love to look into this period of her life, which the writers apparently thought wasn’t worth looking into.

Unpopular opinion: As stated above, Morgana’s goals were self-oriented. I don’t think she was ever inclined to do things for the greater good because it was mostly hypothetical from her place as Uther’s ward—nepotism is strong among the Pendragons. Any trait can, of course, be a good thing at times, but she takes it to the extreme in the wrong direction.

Favorite relationship: Merlin and Morgana. I love the angst of the friends to enemies, especially considering the secrets between them (the ones they do and don’t know about each other). It all makes for a very unique, compelling relationship, especially when one’s goals could easily benefit their enemy as well, but neither condones the other’s approach.

Favorite headcanon: The reason that she only tells Merlin (besides her physician) that she has magic is because she knows he rescued Mordred from certain death. This heightened the betrayal she felt in 2x12. Turning on Merlin had nothing to do with his feelings about magic, because she knew these were positive (in addition to Mordred, there was Will and the fact that he kept her magic a secret for about a year). It had everything to do with the fact that he was willing to sacrifice her life for the greater good. Morgause gave up on her plan for the Knights of Medhir and the fever-sleep spell to save Morgana because she never really cared about what happened to anyone besides herself and Morgana. Their mutual prioritization of each other is part of what drew them so close together.

#bbc merlin #morgana pendragon #ask game #mine

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typinggently · 4 years ago

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Who you ship with your feral Bruce? Batfamily, JL, Villains, Crossover and others? Can you talk to us about this ships?

Ohh that was a delight to think about! It took me a while to sort through my feelings and thoughts, but I hope this…makes sense.

My main ship for Bruce is Superbat. It’s my fav for any interpretation of Batman, since I really like how well they compliment each other. The comradery, the silent understanding, it’s all just incredibly romantic to me. The idea of a kind-hearted, apple-sweet sunshine being head over heels for this bundle of energy, who in turn tries to romance him in any way possible? It’s so sweet imo. I love it. They both don’t feel like they belong, in some way, and they find a kindred spirit within the other. They give each other the freedom to be authentically themselves around each other and that’s just so tender and sweet to me. Aprt from the fact that I sprinkled a little of Henry Cavill’s ”Cardio” vibes into Clark and kept Rob’s “spit in my mouth” vibes for Bruce, so…they’re evenly matched.

Another ship I really like is TwoBats. Which is a bit of a misleading name since I think those two have a relationship that mostly happens outside of their nightly identities. Bruce might be a loner in some ways, and he definitely prefers his own company, but he also forms strong bonds with a select few and those feelings run deep. I think Harvey liked him, was fascinated by him and enjoyed his company a lot. Meanwhile, Bruce is very intense in his crushes. I like to think that Harvey liked Bruce, then couldn’t help but like Batman, too, simply because Bruce was so desperately into him and it translated even when in the cowl? And I like the angst, the tenderness of their post-incident relationship. There’s anger there from Harvey’s side and hurt from Bruce’s, but it’s misdirected since it’s not aimed at but targeted at each other? Super interesting. Heartbreaking. Love it lots.

There are a lot of people I like to see with Bruce. Which is to say – I don’t have an emotional attachment to the ship, but I like to think about it and I just think it’s nice to look at? If that makes sense?

A lot of the villains. Bane is a favourite, Croc, Slade. It’s just appealing to me to ship him with villains in general and I could definitely see more. For one, it’s interesting to think about (Slade the slick manipulator, Bane the straight-edge anarchist etc etc) – but tbh, it’s also just hot. I love the adrenaline, the fighting. Hot.

With canon Bruce, I also like grown up Dick or Jason? Those ships definitely toe some lines but Dick just like Clark has the sunshine-tenderness that compliments canon Bruce’s nihilism, and as for Jason – Someone could tell Bruce he’s a dramatic bitch, you know? Could be healing. I haven’t thought much about those two with feral Bruce, though. I feel like Bruce is too young and erratic to have Robins in their 20s? I feel like the relationship Dick has with Bruce, that’s built on a shared past and Jason, who has that grudge towards his former mentor…I’m not sure I could make that work with this Bruce.

I have to admit that my knowledge of the JL is just…very limited. Batman was my favourite superhero as a child and I read a lot of those Comic Anthologies for him (and spiderman too? idk why, I don’t have that many feelings towards P. Parker but we had them at our library) and watched almost all of the films as well as the 60s show. Thus, I know about his villains and his Robins, but I never really got into the league. But just based on aesthetics, I like him with Arthur. It’s just? Hot? I’m very easy when it comes to that stuff. But really, I could probably see him with a lot more of them, I’ll just have to do more research. It’s a bit difficult to know where to start, since I don’t know where to watch the show etc.

In general, those lists could definitely be extended. Hal? Mr Freeze? A lot to think about.

Truly, I haven’t thought much about crossovers. A few years ago I had a phase where I read some Tony Stark/Bruce? But I wouldn’t exactly call that a ship of mine, and I don’t know whether I would ship him with Feral Bruce.

I’m mostly clueless when it comes to crossovers, though, so if someone has any ideas, I’m all ears <3

A honourable mention should be Selina and Bruce. I 100% think those two would click and I definitely like their energy. However – I can’t really say that I ship it per se, since I wouldn’t produce or consume content for them. Which doesn’t diminish the fact that I acknowledge and support that relationship/energy.

I tried to keep this short, so I hope this makes sense. In general, I’m definitely open for a lot of things, I have very few hard limits and I’m always open for suggestions! ❣️

The only thing I do not like and will not support is BatJokes. But that’s it I think :Y

#feral bruce hours #superbat #twobats #aquabat #uhhhh and the rest xx #anon #ask #I 1000% support the martian manhunter btw I'm just still trying to figure out who he IS

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skinks · 4 years ago

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hi!!! what are your favourite movies? like actually good ones but also any trashy comfort movies? is IT (2017) one of them?

Hello!! IT (2017) IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THEM oh man, thank you for this, I love talking about movies!!!! This is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked me. Apologies for how absolutely off the rails this got, I just... love movies so much lmao

I’ve said this before, but opening night of IT ch1 was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, I’m so glad I got to see it with a fully packed audience who were all laughing and screaming together the whole way through. I’m a huge fan of... everything ch1 was doing, the 80s nostalgia, the summer-coming-of-age themes, the solid ghost train funhouse JOY of the Pennywise performance and scares, the washed-out cinematography, the tiny background details to make everything that much more eerie, the kids’ ACTING?!

Like, a lot of the time I find child actors can be really awkward and stilted to watch, but I remember leaving the cinema really impressed by JDG and Sophia Lillis in particular. I liked that they were all allowed to be little shitheads with potty mouths, it felt like a callback to 80s movies like The Lost Boys or Stand By Me. The whole thing worked to make me really care about what happened to the kids (even if I do still have issues with how they handled Mike. I understand even ch1 had limitations with juggling so many characters, but still). I saw it another 2 times in the cinema and have rewatched it at least, I dunno, 7-10 more times since then?

Add to all of that the retroactive CANON R+E baby pining subplot? I just love it, as if that wasn’t obvious by now given my Whole Blog. It’s a really special movie to me!

Anyway!! Ok, the main handful of movies I rewatch all the fucking time are:

Back to the Future, The Lost Boys, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jaws, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Ocean’s 11, POTC 1, The Dark Knight, Inception, Die Hard, LOTR trilogy, Snatch, The Nice Guys, Logan Lucky, Mad Max Fury Road, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Tomb Raider (2018)...

Those are the easily consumable ones that I’ve seen so many times I don’t really have to concentrate or think about them, but I really love them and unfortunately often KEEP rewatching them instead of new stuff. It would take too long to go into why I love all these movies so much because I could write the same amount as I already did for ITCH1, and everyone already knows why those movies are good, so, lol.

I think I’m gonna have to subdivide and categorise this whole post because there are too many separate criteria for... goOD MOVIES, AUUHH 😩

Okay so first off, HORROR MOVIES? I’m especially in love with Re-Animator (1985) and its sequel Bride of Re-Animator, they’re such good examples of camp and batshit 80s practical effects, and also EXTREMELY funny. I’m actually just gonna post my list of my fave horror movies that I do actually keep on my phone at all times lmao. These are in no particular order:

Wholeheartedly recommend every one of these. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was watching Hereditary in the cinema, hoo boy. Mother! by Aronofsky is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had (and I actually saw it on the same day I saw IT ch1 for the first time!! That was a fun day)

Psycho (1960) and The Fly from 1986 should also be on there but I couldn’t fit them in the screenshot.

I’m a HUGE fan of a ton of martial arts movies too, like Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man, The Raid movies, John Wick 3 is my fave of the trilogy, Drive from 1997 with Mark Dacascos is incredible, SPL 2, Ong-Bak, Operation Condor, Project A, Iron Monkey, and Zatoichi (2003) are some favourites.

My favourite Tarantino is Reservoir Dogs, fave Coen brothers are Raising Arizona, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and O Brother Where Art Thou. Love some old-timey colour correction and weird offbeat dialogue. I also love Goodfellas!!! And Donnie Brasco! And The Firm, I’m so easy for any good crime/law/gangster/heist procedural like that, especially if they’re from the 80s or 90s in a super dated way.

Fave Disney movie is Tarzan, favourite Ghibli movies are Spirited Away and Lupin III. I remember watching Spirited Away during a thunderstorm one time and it being.... god! Transcendent! Favourite Pixar movie is The Incredibles (the first one. ALSO the documentary “The Pixar Story” is great and well worth a watch, it’s very comforting for some reason) and my favourite Dreamworks movies are HTTYD1 and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.

I tend to watch more anime movies than tv shows, so stuff like Akira, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Journey to Agartha, and my ultimate fave anime is Sword of the Stranger (2008). The climactic fight in that movie is fucking stunning and should be counted in “bests fights” lists right alongside anything live action

Also if we’re talking animated movies another hearty favourite is Rango, and a Belgian stop-motion (which at one time I considered my favourite movie ever) called Panique Au Village (2009) which is one of the funniest movies ever made imo.

As for TRASHY movies, I’m not sure if that’s the right word for how I feel about these ones but.. dumb/silly/slightly guilty pleasure movies? Ones that I feel need some kind of justification lmfao

Troy - something u must know about me is that I’m a giant slut for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, so if a movie smashes historical and mythological nonsense together with fun costumes and sword fights, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Even if they should have made Achilles and Patroclus gay. Other movies in this vein are King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Immortals (2011)

Gods of Egypt - I know all the reasons this movie is whitewashed bullshit. But it was already bullshit with giant Anubis mecha and giant snakes and bad acting and ridiculous CGI and frankly I had a blast at the cinema (my friend who I forced to come with me did not have a blast. Sorry H***)

Avatar - yes, the one with the big blue people. This movie gets a lot of flack nowadays but I really do enjoy it just for the spectacle. The full CGI world technology was so new at the time and I love to wallow in the visuals and daydream about riding a cool dragon around in the jungle

George of the Jungle - I’ll defend this movie to the death ok this movie shaped me as a person, it is fucking hilarious and Brendan Fraser is the himbo to end all himbos. It’s perfect. The song Dela is perfect. I still want to write a reddie AU about it. It’s one of the best movies ever made and I’m not being ironic

Set It Up - I KNOW this is a dumb Netflix original romcom but consider this; it was funny and the leads had great chemistry. I got butterflies. I once watched it and then literally immediately set it back to the start so I could watch it again

The Brady Bunch Movie - when people talk about great satires or parodies you will see them bring up the same movies over and over again, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap etc, but they never talk about The Brady Bunch Movie from 1995 for some reason, which they should. It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and every time i watch it somehow it gets funnier

Some more general favourites that I do still love but don’t rewatch as often, and don’t wanna go into more detail about are:

Moon (2009), Crna Mačka Beli Mačor, The Sixth Sense, Parasite, The Handmaiden, Tremors, Wet Hot American Summer, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, The Secret of My Success (I love kitschy 80s movies, is that obvious by now), The Green Mile, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, The Odd Couple, Breaking Away, Pan’s Labyrinth, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Artist, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Call Me By Your Name, Master and Commander, Pacific Rim, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legend (1985), Emma. (2020), Flash Gordon, Trolljegeren, Hross í Oss, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, WarGames, District 9, Ajeossi (2010), Tracks (2013), Sightseers, Mud (2012), Pitch Black, Four Lions, Shaun of the Dead, Starship Troopers, The Truman Show, Withnail & I....... Jesus Christ ok I need to stop

NOTABLE EXTREME FAVOURITES that I didn’t include in the regular rewatch list because they’re too heavy/not as well known/require more attention.:

Thin Red Line (1998), Badlands (1973) both dir. Terrence Malick

Malick’s brand of dreamy impressionistic filmmaking is something I find really appealing, both of these movies are gorgeous and unusual and poignant and, in the case of Thin Red Line at least, have a lot of things to say about a lot of rough subjects. I don’t totally understand all those things sometimes, but a theme with a lot of my favourite movies is that I’ll be more likely to love something long-term if it raises unanswered questions, or is surreal/esoteric etc. Plus the cinematography is incredible, and I wish there was a way to get Jim Caviezel’s narration from The Thin Red Line as an audiobook because it’s very poetic and soothing.

Let the Bullets Fly (2010) dir. Jiang Wen

This movie is WILD, it’s so much fun. It’s sprawling and intricate and epic and smart and really fucking funny, it! Has! Everything! A gang of very tolerant outlaws!! Jiang Wen’s beautiful broad chest!!! Chow Yun Fat absolutely DECIMATING the scenery, and the two of them outsmarting each other in order to gain control of a small Chinese town!!! Plus it’s long, but it packs so much nonsense and intrigue that it goes by really fast. Wow what a flick

A Field in England (2013) dir. Ben Wheatley

I know I included this in my horror list but aaaaahhh ahhhh Wheatley is one of my favourite directors (he also made Sightseers, and is directing the Tomb Raider sequel which makes me absolutely rabid.) This is a surreal black-and-white psychological horror black comedy set in the English Civil War about some deserters who may or may not meet the Devil in a field. People eat mushrooms. It’s bonkers. I love being blasted in the face with imagery that I don’t understand

Mandy (2018) dir. Panos Cosmatos

Speaking of being blasted in the face!!!!! This movie... I saw it in the cinema and I can’t even begin to explain the experience, but I’ll try. My favourite review site described it like this:

“...somewhere between a prog album cover come to life and a metal album cover come to life, and subscribes to both genre's artistic tendency towards maximalism: what it ends up being is basically naught else but two glorious hours of being pounded by bold colors...”

So, prog and metal are my two favourite genres of music. This movie opens with the quote “When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead.” and then a King Crimson song, it is SURREAL to the nth degree, it’s violent and bizarre and Nic Cage forges a giant silver axe to destroy demonic bikers and there is a CHAINSAW DUEL. A galaxy swirls above a quarry. Multiple animated horror nightmare sequences. At one point a man says “you exude a cosmic darkness” and releases a live tiger. At another point Cage says, in a digitally deepened voice, “The psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You’re drowning. I’m swimming.” and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years

Paper Moon (1973) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Really fantastic movie set in the Great Depression (and also in black & white) about a conman and a little kid who may or may not be his daughter, running cons across the Midwest. It’s beautifully shot, so sharp and sweet and the progression of their dynamic is really well done because they’re played by an IRL father and daughter. Tatum O’Neal was NINE YEARS OLD and she’s so amazing in this movie she’s actually the youngest person to win a competitive category Oscar. I keep trying to get people to watch this fbdjfjdbf it’s wonderful

Alpha (2018) dir. Albert Hughes

THIS MOVIE IS A VICTIM OF BAD MARKETING ok, the trailers made it look like some twee crappy sentimental Boy And His Dog Adventure, plus it had voiceovers in American-accented english? That’s a total disservice to one of the coolest things about this film; the fact that they got a linguist to construct an entirely original Neolithic language that all the characters speak for the entire runtime. And yes, it is eventually a Boy And His Wolf adventure, but it’s COOL and fairly brutal, and it has some really incredible cinematography. The landscapes are so strange and barren and alien, you really get the sense that this is an ancient world we no longer have any connection to. And it’s also about like, the birth of dog & human companionship sooo it’s perfect.

Free Solo (2018) dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

The Free Climbing Documentary. I loved climbing as a kid, I love outdoor sports, and I love movies that elicit a physical reaction in me, whether that’s horny, scared, real laughter, overwhelming shivers, or in the case of Free Solo - HORRIBLE SWEATING TENSION. Like, I knew about Alex Honnold beforehand because of this adventure film festival I go to every year and I followed him on IG so obviously I knew he lived, but the actual climb itself was torture. My hands sweat every time I see it!! It’s incredible, such a cool look into generally what the human body can do, and more specifically, why Honnold’s psychology and life means he’s so well suited to free soloing. It’s such an exercise in getting to know an individual and get invested in them, before they attempt something very potentially fatal.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

I can’t even talk about this. When I was around 13 I snuck downstairs to watch this on TV at 11pm in secret, and my life was forever changed. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t seen Brokeback at the age I did. I seriously can’t talk about this or I’ll write an even longer essay than this already is

God’s Own Country (2017) dir. Francis Lee

The antidote to Brokeback Mountain, I’m so glad I managed to see this one in the cinema too. It makes me cry every time, as someone who’s spent years working on a cold British farm with sheep it was very realistic, which is expected since Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire. I love that this movie isn’t really about being closeted, but about being so emotionally repressed and self-loathing that the main character finds it so hard to accept love. Or that he deserves to be loved. The cinnamontographies.... lordt... but also the intimacy and sex scenes are fucking searing wow who hasn’t seen this movie by now. 10 stars. 20 stars!!!

Tomboy (2011) dir. Céline Sciamma

I saw this years ago but I’ve never forgotten it, it cut so deep. It’s from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it’s about a gnc kid struggling with gender and misogyny and homophobia in a really raw, scrappy way, it reminded me very much of my own... childhood... ahh the central performance is amazing for such a young age. I haven’t seen Portrait yet but I feel like if you went nuts for that, you should definitely check this out, it’s lovely.

Donnie Darko (2001) dir. Richard Kelly

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS MOVIE I UNDERSTAND LESS AND LESS and that’s what I love so much about it. I love surreal movies, I love time-fuckery and stuff about altered perception etc etc and Donnie Darko scratches all my itches. I wish I could find a way to figure out an IT AU for it, because I know it would work! Somehow! Plus it’s got the subdued 80s nostalgia and I found it at an age when I was really starting to explore movies and music and the soundtrack FUCKS.

Offside (2006) dir. Jafar Panahi

I wish more people knew about this!!! It’s an Iranian film about a disparate group of women and girls who are football fans and want to watch Iran’s qualifying match for the World Cup, but women aren’t allowed into the stadium, so they all get thrown into the Stadium Jail together? They don’t know each other beforehand, but it’s about their changing relationships with each other and the guards and just, their defiance alongside hearing the match from the outside and WOW it’s so lively. Great dialogue and very funny, and such a different kind of story from anything you usually see from Hollywood.

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

This movie... I guess it’s the ideal. This is the platonic ideal of a film for me, it has fantasy, magical realism, glorious visuals, amazing score and costumes and production design and a really interesting, heartbreaking relationship at the core of it. I don’t know why so many of my favourite films feature incredibly raw performances by child actors but this is another one, Catinca Untaru barely knew any English and improvised so much because of that, and it’s fascinating to watch! Also the dynamic with Lee Pace is one of my favourites, where a kid forms a friendship with a guardian figure who isn’t their parent, but the guardian grows to really care for them by the end. It’s like Paper Moon in that sense. What is there to even say about this movie, it’s pure magic joy tempered and countered by genuine gutwrenching emotional conflict in the real world, it’s also ABOUT old moviemaking, in a way, and it’s stunning to look at!

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

I know I included this in my “most rewatched” section but it deserves its own thing. We all know why this movie is fucking incredible. I remember clutching my armrests in the cinema and feeling like my skeleton was being blasted back into the seat behind me and tbh that is the high I’m constantly chasing when I go to see any movie. What a fucking gift this film is

Théo et Hugo dans le Même Bateau (2016) dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

I only found this movie last year and it became an instant favourite. Initially I was just curious because I’d never seen a movie with unsimulated sex before, but it’s so much more than the 18 minute gay sex club orgy it opens with. No, not more than, AS WELL AS. The orgy is important because this movie is so candid and frank about sex and HIV treatment in the modern day, it was eye-opening. Another thing that really got me is that I’d never seen a real-time film before. It’s literally an hour and a half in the lives of these two men, their intense connection and conversation and conflict in the middle of the night in Paris, with some really nice night photography and just!!! Wow!!! AMAZING CHEMISTRY between the actors. This is such a gem if you’re comfortable with explicit sexual content.

Ok. This is already over 3k but film is obviously one of my ridiculous passions and I can and do talk about it for hours. I’ve been reading magazines about it for years, listening to podcasts and reading review blogs and recently, watching video essays on YouTube because the whole process is so interesting to me and I want to learn more!!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of valuing form over narrative. The idea that story can often come second to the deeper physical experience and emotional reaction that’s created by using ALL the elements of filmmaking and not just The Story, y’know? Whether that’s editing, shot composition, colour, the sound mix, the actors, how it should all be used to heighten the emotional state the script wants you to feel. And so, I think for a few years now this approach has been influencing the types of films I really, really love.

I think I love surreality and mind-bending magical realism in films specifically because the filmmakers have to use all those different tools to convey things that can be way too metaphysical for just... a script? I’m always chasing that physical response; if a movie can make me stop thinking “I wonder what it was like to set up that shot” and instead overwhelm that suspension of disbelief, if I can be terrified or woozy or crying for whatever reason, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I watch so many fuckin movies, and why I’ll always remember nights like seeing IT (2017) for giving me another favourite.

Thank you again for this question, I didn’t mean to go so overboard. Also there’s no way to do a readmore on tumblr mobile so apologies to anyone’s dashboard 😬

#long post #films #this is like bill hader being asked to pick his fave comedies and he gives a 4 page list #he has such good taste though ahhahbfhfhfhh lemme talk with him nonstop about movies while i ride him. thank you

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dillydedalus · 4 years ago

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april reading

oh yeah this is a thing. anyway in april i read about uhhh.... first contact (twice), murderers on skis & victorian church politics

the yield, tara june winch a novel about indigenous australian identity and history (now and throughout the 20th century) in three narrative strands. imo the narrative strand that consists of a grandfather writing a dictionary of his language (wiradjuri) in order to prove a claim to some land is by far the strongest, but overall i liked this quite a lot. 3/5

land of big numbers, te-ping chen a solid short story collection focused on modern china and young(ish) chinese people, both in china and the diaspora. i particularly liked the stories that had some slighty surreal or speculative elements, such as one about fruit that strongly evoke emotions when eaten and a group of people stuck in a train station for months as the train is delayed, which imo use their speculative aspects in effective (if not super subtle) ways to talk about society. 3/5

the pear field, nana ekvtimishvili (tr. from georgian by elizabeth heighway) international booker prize longlist! a short, fairly depressing read about a 18-year-old girl at a post-soviet school for developmentally disabled childred (but also orphans, abandoned children & other random kids) who is trying to get a younger boy adopted by an american couple. there seem to be a lot of novels set at post-soviet orphanages etc & imo this is a well-executed example of the microgenre, with the pear field full of pears that are never picked bc they don’t taste right as a strong central image. 3/5

the warden, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #1) ah yes, a 6-part victorian series about church politics in an english town, exactly the kind of thing i’m interested in. not sure why i committed to at least the first two entries of the series but here we are. despite this lack of interest (and disagreement with most of the politics on display here) i found this quite charming; trollope has a gift for an amusing turn of phrase & making fun of his characters in benevolent ways. 3/5

the lesson, cadwell turnbull first contact scifi novel set on the virgin islands, where an alien ship arrives one day. the aliens seem benevolent & share helpful technology, but also react with extreme violence to any aggression. they claim to be on earth to study.... something, but it’s never entirely clear what. the book makes some interesting choices (like immediately skipping over the actual first contact to a few years in the future, when the aliens are already established on the islands) but i thought much of it was kinda disjointed and confusing. 2/5

the heart is a lonely hunter, carson mccullers look, i get it, it’s all about the isolation & alienation (& dare i say loneliness) of 4 miserable characters projecting their issues on the central character singer, who is kind and patient and also deaf and mute, thus making him the perfect receptacle for their issues without really having to connect with him as a person and how that isolation hinders them socially, artistically, emotionally, politically, but like... i didn’t really like it. i didn’t hate it but i just felt very meh about it all. 2.5/5

acht tage im mai: die letzte woche des dritten reiches, volker ulrich fascinating history book about the last week(ish) of the third reich, starting with the day of hitler’s suicide and ending with the total surrender (but with plenty of flashbacks and forwards), and looking at military&political leadership (german and allied) as well as prisoners of war, forced laborers, concentration camp prisoners, and everyone else. very interesting look at what kästner described as the “gap between the not-anymore and the not-yet.” 3.5/5

firekeeper’s daughter, angeline boulley) i’ve been mostly off the YA train for the last few years, but this was a really good example of contemporary YA with a focus on ~social issues. ANYWAY. this is YA crime novel about daunis, a mixed-race unenrolled ojibwe girl close to finishing high school who is struggling with family problems, university plans, and feeling caught between her white and her native familiy when her best friend is shot in front of her and she decides to become a CI for an fbi investigation into meth production in the community. i really appreciated how hard this went both with the broader social issues (racism, addiction) and daunis’ personal struggles. there are a few bits that felt a bit didactic & on the nose (and the romance... oh well), but overall the themes of community, family, and the value of living indigenous culture are really well done & i teared up several times. 4/5

the magic toyshop, angela carter i love carter’s short stories but struggle with (while still liking) her novels so far. this one, a tale of melanie, suddenly orphaned after trying on her mother’s wedding dress in the garden, coming of age and awakening to womanhood or whatever. carter’s really into that. it’s well-written, sensual as carter always is, and the family melanie and her siblings are sent to, her tyrannical puppet-maker uncle, his mute wife and the wife’s two brothers, both fascinating and offputting (& dirty) make for an interesting cast of characters, but overall i just wish i was reading the bloody chamber again. 3/5

barchester towers, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #2) (audio) lol tbh i still don’t know why i am committing to this series about, again, church politics in 19th century rural england, but it’s just so chill & warm & funny (we love gently or not so gently - but always politely - mocking our characters) that i’m enjoying it as a nice little trip where people do some #crazyschemes to gain church positions or fight over whether there should be songs in church or whatever it is people in the 19th century fought about. it’s very relaxing. there also is a lot of love quadrangleyness going on and that’s also fun. trollope has weird ideas about women but like whatever, i for one wish mrs proudie much joy of her position as defacto bishop of barchester, she really girlbossed her way to the top. 3.5/5

semiosis, sue burke (semiosis #1) i love spinning the wheel on the “first contact with X weird alien species” & i guess this time we landed on plants! plant intelligence is interesting and the idea of plant warfare is really cool. i do like the structure, with different generations of human settlers on the planet pax providing a long-term view but this allows the author to skip over a lot of the development of the relationship between the settlers and the plant and locating the plot elsewhere, which i think is ultimately a mistake. i might continue w/ the series tho, depending on library availability. 2.5/5

one by one, ruth ware a bunch of start-up people go on a corporate retreat to a ski chalet in the alps, avalanche warning goes up, one of them disappears, presumably on a black piste, the rest get snowed in & completely cut off when the avalanche hits and then they get picked off *title drop* (altho really not that many of them). nice fluff when i had a miserable cold (not covid) but fails when it tries to go for deeper themes... like an attempt to address classism and entitlement sure... was made. also like what kind of luxury skiing chalet does not have emergency communication devices in case internet/phone lines are down... i’d have sued just for that. 2/5

fake accounts, lauren oyler the microgenre of ‘alienated intellectual(ish) probably anglophone person has some sort of crisis, goes to berlin about it’ is my ultimate literary weakness - i almost never really like them, they mostly irritate me & yet i can never resist their siren call. this one is p strong on the irritation, altho at least the narrator does not ascribe much meaning to her decision to go to berlin after she a) discovers her boyf is an online conspiracy theorist (probably not sincerely) and b) gets a call that said boyf has died, it’s really just something to do to avoid doing anything else. but other than that it’s so BerlinExpat by the numbers, like she lives in kreuzkölln! put her somewhere else at least! there is one scene that elevates the BerlinExpat-ness of it all (narrator asks expatfriend for advice on visa applications, expatfriend assures her that it’s really easy for americans to get visa, adds “especially now” while literally, as the narrator remarks, gesturing at the falafel she’s eating) other than that, the novel is.... fine. it’s smart, but not really as smart as it thinks it is, which is a problem bc it thinks it’s just sooo incisive. whatever. 2/5

the tenant of wildfell hall, anne bronte this is reductive but: jane eyre: i could fix him // wuthering heights: i could make him worse // wildfell hall: lmao i’m gonna leave his ass anyway i enjoyed the part that is actually narrated by the titular tenant of wildfell hall, helen (which thankfully, i think, is most of it) because the perspective of a woman who runs away from her abusive alcoholic of a husband is genuinely interesting and engaging, while gilbert, the frame story narrator who falls in love with helen, is.... the worst. i mean he’s not the worst bc the abusive husband arthur is there and hard to beat in terms of worseness, but he’s pretty fucking bad. imagine if helen had found out that gilbert attacked her secret brother over a misunderstanding, severely injured him & LEFT HIM TO DIE & then (when dude survived & the misunderstanding got cleared up) apologised like well i guess i didn’t treat you quite right! she’d have to run away from her second husband as well! poor girl. 3/5

#the books i read #long post #lol i keep forgetting to finish & post these #anyway gilbert fucking sucks! like his name is gilbert you can do better helen

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littlebetesofeverything · 4 years ago

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Women Rocking Hollywood 2020: Supporting Female-Helmed Film and TV

Hit me with the new stuff coming, baby!

They open with a clip of The High Note. It has two ambitious women who are unapologetic about their careers. It shows how they are held back by things like sexism, ageism and are NOT set against each other (Thank God)

It breaks down the myth that only 1 woman can be at the table at a time. It does ask what women give up to succeed

There were a lot of collabs behind the scene to point those subjects out.

They took everyone with experience and helped them get where they should be to lift up women in the industry

Being a young mother and a producing director in a pandemic is a lesson in juggling and shifting responsibilities

Ava DuVernay hires first time female directors to help them be able direct TV shows, since it is hard to break into TV as a female director

There is a lot of women uplifting other women, and I love this song.

The Old Guard trailer again!!! God I love this movie

I like how so much of it is just Charlize Theron kicking ass 😍😍😍

please give me all the deleted scenes bc Joe in sunglasses is a gift

“found family is at the center of the story” Hell Yes it is

The female characters just feel different in this world and they are badass warriors

One of the leads is a young black woman and that is still rare since Black Panther (Kiki Layne/Nile is awesome)

The fight sequences are the best and there all kinds of weapons they use

She didn’t want to use stunt doubles because the stories are character driven and wants to show their faces (and it pays off imo)

The guys gave respect as a stunt team, which is awesome

Despite the premise, there is a grounded, real feel to the world and characters. It affected all aspects of development

Relationship between 6000 year old and rooky immortal is a trope with a new twist and also parallels the actors themselves too

She has a knack for picking women who will become famous: Kiki Layne is the new actress in this movie

Gina (the director) saw innate toughness, and saw her in Beale Street (thought she was too soft). She nailed Nile in 5 seconds into her audition and had a desire to do great

GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!

Zetna being the director for Cursed (Netflix TV show) was really cool because she met the writer of the book

There is a lot of worldbuilding because it is a fantasy show and they want it to have heart. They made it as a coming-of-age story for the young woman

Putting people of color in the spotlight (Arthur is black and Australian) is important but also for it to be about the best actor too

To focus on the Lady of the Lake and tell her story is an amazing opportunity and turns the myths on its head

Women only make 31% of the behind the camera people

ReFramed is an initiative to put women in the seat of control. Many of the women on the panel have gotten the ReFramed stamp

it has the possibility of being an example for golden standard of equitable creation. Hulu has partnered with it so far

The badge is on the imdb page and on the ReFramed website. Hulu is actually in a 3 year partnership for a project with ReFramed to sponsor women in the industry

I love all the work being put in to give women the opportunity to thrive and grow. Can’t wait to see what they show us next!

#sdcc #comiccon #comiccon at home #he high note #the old guard #cursed #reframed

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k-s-morgan · 5 years ago

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Hello! I adore your writing and your way of talking about obsessive relationships. The world choice in your works is amazing and I get very sucked into the characters. Any good obsession fics or pairings I should know about?

Hello! Thank you so much, I’m happy to hear this!)) With obsession, I don’t think I’ll be able to offer anything new, so I’ll just make brief mentions of most of my ships (since they all have this element) and list some key obsession stories)) I’ll start with non-canonical ones and proceed from there.

But first: if you’re interested in original fiction, this series is deliciously long and focused on dark romance and obsession. Alessandra Hazard is also a great writer, though her stories are lighter. This and this ones are particularly great, imo. The second one also has considerable power imbalance. Now, on to the ships and obsessive fics.

1) Tom/Harry. I already provided a list of my favorite fics here, almost all of them have an obsessive element (it goes with the territory! :D)

2) Snape/Harry. One of my most favorite stories focusing on dark romance and crazy obsession ever, not just based on ships, is Desiderium Intimum. It’s originally written in Polish, I participated in the translation but had to drop it eventually. However, the story itself is finished and it’s easy to read the remaining chapters through one of online translators. This is what I did (since I don’t know Polish), and the impact was absolutely amazing and powerful anyway. Harry might come across as weak at first, but it’s understandable due to the circumstances, and he matures a lot. Crazy jealousy, obsession, possessiveness, passion, it has everything.

3) Will/Hannibal… there is no point in offering any links since I don’t know a story about them where obsession wouldn’t be present :D However, I have a weakness for Omegaverse Bright Hair Above the Bone, it’s a work of art.

Firenze is a creepy, beautiful AU: obsessive Hannibal with power and student Will with issues of his own.

Odalisque along with connected Time Stamps is a very long, very crazy dark (and complete!) AU story that is probably even more obsessive than the show itself. It has lots of sex (which I’m usually not a fan of), but it’s hot and the relationship itself is outstanding, obsessive/possessive, and beautiful. In short: Will is a hooker who enjoys murdering his clients; Hannibal is a client who enjoys murdering the hookers he hires. They still fall in love — eventually.

4) Merlin/Arthur. Obsession and unhealthy devotion are the foundation of this relationship, so if you haven’t watched this show, I definitely recommend it. I thought it was rather childish and light at first, but it’s not, and slowly and gradually, it turns into a heartbreaking but hopeful tale of self-destructive, obsessive love. My favorite story is probably Rheged. Obsession is strong in it, but it likely won’t make much sense to those who haven’t watched the show. A modern story is Now I Will Unsettle the Ground Beneath You: lots of obsession that neither side can fight.

5) Sebastian/Ciel from Black Butler anime. While the relationship is not canonically romantic, it has lots of subtext and these two are utterly obsessed with one another. My favorite modern AU story is Fool Me Twice. It has many triggers, it’s unhealthy as hell, but it’s great. I can’t find any copies available, so if anyone needs one, just PM me. Here’s the description (not mine, taken from here): Sebastian catches a glimpse of Ciel at an airport and instantly becomes an obsessive stalker. Eventually he gets his hands on Ciel but Ciel easily turns the tables on him. He blackmails Sebastian into becoming his butler (read: slave), using Sebastian’s obsession with him to his advantage. Deliciously twisted mind games ensue.

I also love The Service of the Demon. I didn’t finish translation, but the original is finished and can be translated via Google. It’s dark and full of obsession that grows into love.

Persona is my favorite post S2 story with dark and obsessive Sebastian (although it might not look this way at first).

6) Brian/Justin from American QAF. It’s more ordinary and grounded relationship, but it does have an aspect of obsession. It’s unhealthy, intense, and romantic. Unfinished Wedlocked is a Royal AU that you could read without watching the show — from what I recall, it’s dark and obsessive.

7) Dean/Castiel. Hautley’s Bend: a complete story, totally AU, so you don’t need to know anything about it. Obsession is amazingly portrayed, and the relationship is very complex.

#my fics #recs #shipping

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xxsealitwithakissxx · 4 years ago

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“We’re more ghosts than people.”

After around 5 months (I know that’s basically ages these days, but I wanted to take my time... then quarantine happened) and a lot of patience, boah that’s an understatement, I can say it was worth it.

I figured it was fitting to end on the character we started with.

“Vengeance is an idiot's game.”

I know most post stuff like this on reddit, but honestly I rarely feel comfortable posting there. I’m not exactly a prolific ‘cowgirl’, what long history I’ve accumulated over the course of many months can possibly be said that hasn’t already resulting in hundreds of upvotes? I mean, I’m happy for those people, it simply makes me all the more nervous. Also, ignore the Compendium. Just.... jesus, I can not. 360 is close enough, imo. Anyway, knowing it’s over feels equally like having a weight lifted and leaving a close friend behind knowing you might not see them again. I was literally a day from getting this on my birthday, lol.

Does that sound exaggerated? Probably. Yes, the game managed to hit me in the feels more than once on certain occasions. Ngl, I imagine my day one horse Sauron was probably in horse-y heaven looking down like ‘fuck all you had to do was leave me in the stables but naw fam, you had to be a hero’. That scene had me pissed more than anything. The fact that we left him there, without a grave or anything just... pffft. That actually made me turn off the game for a bit. That and the Lenny plus Hosea bit. And the Molly bit. And Susan bit. And I may have gone back and burned a rat. But you know what? Let’s move on.

It didn’t help that my dear mother had taken to alternating between watching and helping me make decisions throughout the story (*cough*novel*cough*) and became attached to some of the characters, notably Orthor. I spelled that correctly, I swear. She was on the verge of tears more than once, just don’t tell her I said that. :p

What baffled yet continued to draw me in most is watching the downfall of the charismatic, prideful (c’mon look at that gif), and arguably hypocritical leader Dutch and his loyal fanbase gang. By the third chapter’s ending, shit hit the fan so much I wondered how everyone still alive managed to stay within the group, or be relatively sane enough by the 6th chapter. I had never seen such loyalty in a video game before. Seriously. Mind you, I hadn’t played the first game (I will eventually once my recovery period is over, lol) and still knew some of what happened to the ‘Miltons’, so the ending didn’t hit too hard.

Perhaps it’s just my personal rl issue with the ‘blind leading the blind’, but I had a little gripe with a bunch of... mostly capable adults following this one man by word alone from camp to camp while running from the law and not once questioning if they should wake up tomorrow and go, hey, maybe I’ll try to think for myself today. Granted, they were a makeshift family of sorts, I can understand how they all came to trust Dutch after hearing each individual backstory. It’s teetering on the very edge of CULT LEADER I AM A CULT LEADER, but I can still understand the why’s and how’s that came to be the Van Der Linde gang, jokes aside. He is above all, human, and coupled with his inability to ‘fight nature’ I think that is what makes him so intriguing to watch (Not to mention Benjamin‘s phenomenal voice acting...and the whole cast for that matter). I notice a certain theme that people rarely, if ever seem to speak of in old westerns that is sometimes present. One man strolls into some obscure town and threatens to take over, be it with violence or by other means, with or without a gang of dunderheads trailing his wake, and the townsfolk willingly surrender. Until of course one unsung hero snatches said villain’s glory of badassary from under him and all is right again.

RDR2 isn’t like that. Not entirely. My point is it has elements of this sprinkled inside its storyline. At least, for the first and second half. It both confused and irritated me that most people were so easily brought back then, maybe it’s still like that now at times with Social Media so present in our lives, but I digress. I’m not writing this to step on toes or tell you what to believe, I just wanted to share this experience. A 120hr (hello fellow completionists) or so journey into a redemption story, a remarkably immense detailed landscape, and its colorful yet very complex characters. Despite some plot holes here and there, which I’d expect for a prequel of this size, I think I identify with John the most. Charles as well. Not trying to downplay his shortcomings, but he never really brought into Dutch’s bullshit plans, not truly anyway. As they say hindsight is 20/20. When listening those early camp dialogues and later ones you can tell just how in depth the writing goes, I’d argue that half the specific lines at camp and reading Arthur’s journal are better than what the cutscenes have to spell out for you.

I won’t linger on what’s been said a hundred times, how much a lot of us love Orthor (I’m sorry I’ll leave) and most of the other members, along with the immersive gameplay. It certainly didn’t become boring as I initially thought. I’m not too big on westerns... Roy Rogers, Bat Masterson, Maverick, and of course the Fist Full of Dollars trilogy suffice really. I actually wonder if R* will be able to top it. Two years later and some people are still in their feelings about it like it came out yesterday. With that type of impact, it will definitely be a challenge.

Now what’s left? Oh, a few stranger missions and some places I haven’t explored fully... Hmm. Or maybe I’ll try out 100% on pc...

Ha. The epitome of my humor ends there because I’d rather be hit by that train. How my hands aren’t broken or severely bruised is anyone’s guess. But really, thanks for reading if you made this far. Stay safe, guys. <3

#rdr2 #rdr2 100%#rdr2 100 #arthur morgan #spoilers obviously #john martson #60% of that time was probably spent taking pictures #I see no shame in that #text post #what is my life #gifs #rt I didn't know how to put this into comprehensible words #so sorry if it's cringe

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morganaiefay · 4 years ago

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I feel like writing meta today, so building off my last post about how I'd like each of the four main characters' story to develop, here are what I think would be their mortal flaws and how they both doom and save them

Arthur's mortal flaw is pride. He's been raised as a king's son and a prophesied legendary king himself. he thinks he's better and more worthy than anyone else. he disregards others opinions in favor of his own and he doesn't like to accept when he's wrong. this all could be overcompensating for his insecurities, born out of the inmense pressure placed on him by the prophecy and, more closely, his father's expectations of him. He's afraid he will fail so he acts like he's infallible. Of course this makes him annoying as fuck but it's also what let's him break from his father legacy and ultimately become a better person. if he let himself be ruled by his insecurities, without trying to overcome them, he would follow unquestioningly on his father's footsteps, trying to be the king Uther would have wanted. but his pride pushes him to be better, to actually become the men he likes to think he is. and for that he needs to learn humility, to the point of accepting that maybe he's not the one who should be king (in my personal headcanon)

Merlin's mortal flaw is also pride in a way, arrogance maybe more exactly. he's always been different, special, he's more powerful than anyone and he knows things very few other people know. he's been foretold to be the greatest sorcerer that even was and help bring about the kingdom of Albion. he thinks he always knows best, and acts accordingly, trying to make things the way he thinks is right. this is also overcompensating for his insecurities, much the same way Arthur does. they both have an enormous weight upon their shoulders, but if Arthur is supposed to be a great king Merlin is supposed to make that happen. he's called to action in a way Arthur's not, and he has the secret of his magic on top of it. he's terribly afraid to fail and make the wrong choice so he overcompensates with arrogance, convincing himself of the righteousness of his decisions. this can lead him through a dangerous path of becoming a sort of tyrant in the shadows, imposing his will on others. but that confidence on his own way to do things is also what lets him ultimately free himself from the constrains of "destiny", disregard the prophecy and actually learn to do the right thing, which is maybe not what's been foretold. I don't think Merlin needs to learn humility quite as Arthur does, his thing I think is about letting go, being willing to let things happen outside his control, seeing other ways to approach things and accepting that there might be a better option than his.

Morgana's obvious mortal flaw is wrath. anger is the emotion of self-preservation, the emotion that protects the body. so it makes sense that Morgana has a problem with it. since her father's death she's been on her own, with no one squarely on her side. she's dependant on Uther's good will for everything. protection, status and the very roof over her head. she's self centered because she's been more or less on survival mode for a long time. sure Camelot's her home, but it's not completely stable, or even safe once she realizes she has magic, and her future is in the hands of a man she doesn't really like and who fundamentally hates those like her. but she's also a noblewoman, used to have to care only for herself, to think herself above others, and that contributes to her self-centeredness. so Morgana has a wrath problem born out of her self-centeredness. when she's personally wronged she can't let it go, she's consumed by the anger and she loses perspective on anything else, she becomes cruel and unyielding. this causes a lot of damage to both herself and the people around her, but her anger is also what moves her, what gives her her drive to fight for justice. being able to remain unaffected in the face of injustice is a terrible thing, Morgana's reaction is the right one, but she needs to learn temperance, to manage her anger and use it in helpful ways and ultimately to become less self-centered, to be able to put aside her feelings of anger sometimes and to let go of revenge when it's needed, to achieve something better and greater than herself

and at last once again, Gwen. her thing is more complicated than the rest, not as easy as assigning her a deadly sin. imo this is mostly because the writers wrote her as almost flawless at first, which nice because Gwen is perfect but also not nice because characters need flaws to be interesting. so for this one I'm taking certain liberties and maybe ignoring or stretching canon a bit.

I propose that Gwen's mortal flaw is indecisiveness. she very well balanced on most aspects. she's kind but not meek, she's brave and smart but not arrogant, she just and strong willed but not ruthless or despotic. but maybe she lacks decisiveness to pick a side.

and I mean pick a side regarding the central conflict of the show. reform vs revolution, Merlin vs Morgana, Camelot vs magic. I said in my previous post that I imagine her siding with Morgana at first, after her father's death, and joining the magical resistance. but Morgana is still too consumed by anger and personal revenge and ultimately Gwen can't stay with her (maybe over a fundamental disagreement over what should happen to Merlin). so she comes back to Arthur/Merlin's side, although she would never betray the resistance and divulge its secrets, so she's also not squarely on team Camelot. this indecisiveness puts her in a complicated position all on her own, in a sort of no man's land. people on both sides can distrust her and hold against her the fact that she's unwilling to make a definitive decision ("you always have a choice, sometimes it's easier to believe that you don't" "you always have a choice but you have to make it") (that would be an awesome exchange between Gwen and another character, Morgana maybe). but, of course, her position in the middle of conflict is what in the end let's her serve as a bridge between the two sides and carve a way forward that avoids further death but that doesn't let Camelot's crimes go unpunished.

#another horribly long post without a read more #I Am sorry #meta

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defenders-core · 5 years ago

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STOP PITTING DEFENDERS AGAINST EACH OTHER

DOCTOR STRANGE's hands SURE SEEM TO BE FEELING BETTER

THE HULK loves BEANS

NAMOR keeps LEAVING THE TEAM

VALKYRIE is PERFECT

NIGHTHAWK is a FILTHY CAPITALIST

SILVER SURFER PHILOSOPHIZES a lot

HELLCAT is BETTY AND VERONICA meets CATWOMAN and that should be ENOUGH FOR YOU

DEVIL-SLAYER liked a HIPPIE once

DAIMON HELLSTROM had a ROUGH CHILDHOOD

ARAGORN is a VALUABLE MEMBER of the team

LEDGE got HURT one time

MAN-WOLF is a trained ASTRONAUT

BLACK GOLIATH should really just be called GOLIATH

MAR-VELL is DEAD

CAPTAIN ULTRA saw the Defenders on TELEVISION once

FALCON is #MYCAPTAINAMERICA

HAVOK was RUINED by AXIS

HERCULES is CHO'S BEST FRIEND

JACK OF HEARTS has no CONTROL

MARVELMAN is now called MIRACLEMAN

PALADIN is a THUNDERBOLT

POLARIS doesn't get to do much with her SIBLINGS

PROWLER is Spider-Man's BODYGUARD

STINGRAY has met NAMOR BEFORE

TAGAK THE LEOPARD LORD hasn't been in a comic since THE 1970s

TORPEDO was killed by DIRE WRAITHS

WHITE TIGER was in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN--the SHOW, not the COMIC

MS MARVEL was CAROL DANVERS UNFORTUNATELY

PECOS is a COWBOY

BATROC is besties with GWENPOOL

BEETLE is MACH X NOW

WHIRLWIND was a recurring villain in AVENGERS EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES

ELECTRO was bitten by EELS OR SOMETHING

JOE THE GORILLA prefers CHOKEHOLDS

LEAP-FROG's son is named EUGENE

PORCUPINE is a good BABYSITTER

LOOTER likes METEORS too much

TITANIUM MAN worked for THANOS briefly

THE THING changes back into ben grimm ANNUALLY

ANGEL is very ATTRACTIVE

CLOUD is a CLOUD

CANDACE SOUTHERN is VERY RICH

ANDROMEDA lives in ATLANTIS

INTERLOPER thinks meme pages should be APOLITICAL

MANSLAUGHTER used a HOSTAGE SITUATION to join the team

DAFYDD AP TOWERTH is related to KING ARTHUR

SPIDER-MAN has a DOCTORATE

WOLVERINE is the BEST at what he DOES

NOMAD has unnecessarily large BOOTS

SPIDER-WOMAN likes ROAD TRIPS

NAMORITA is DEAD

SLEEPWALKER only ever fights NIGHTMARE FOR SOME REASON

SCARLET WITCH turns enemy units into BOXES

THUNDERSTRIKE is BOOTLEG thor

WAR MACHINE is suffering from PTSD

NORTHSTAR is HAPPILY MARRIED

DOCTOR DRUID replaced DOCTOR STRANGE once

SEPULCHRE was chosen through NEPOTISM

CADAVER is just a ZOMBIE

U.S. AGENT should have stayed on the DARK AVENGERS

DAGGER is in a cool TELEVISION SHOW

DEATHLOK terrorized a HOSPITAL once

RED RAVEN is basically SAMUS ARAN

ARDINA is GIRL SILVER SURFER

BLAZING SKULL should still be called SKULL THE SLAYER because that name is AWESOME

WASP supports CORY BOOKER

WONDER MAN lived in rogue's BRAIN ONCE

JUNTA was LEGALLY REQUIRED to join the team

BLACK PANTHER is the best MCU MOVIE

BLACK PANTHER (SHURI) killed a bunch of SKRULLS

ANT-MAN'S ANTS ANTS ANT-MAN

BLACK WIDOW doesn't really deserve a movie but HERE WE ARE

TIGRA does deserve a MOVIE

STORM is super FUN in MUA3

TARANTULA just misses her FAMILY

COLLEEN WING was WEIRDLY UNIMPORTANT to fearless defenders

ELEKTRA TECHNICALLY is a defender in MUA3

THUNDRA deserves BETTER

MAGMA was the protagonist of X-MEN LEGENDS

DELPHYNE GORGON is amadeus cho's GIRLFRIEND

KID RESCUE is YINSEN'S DAUGHTER

COLOSSUS was a DRUGGIE in the ULTIMATE UNIVERSE

FAIZA HUSSAIN is the best captain britain DON'T @ ME

ANNABELLE RIGGS should still be ALIVE

FRANKIE RAYE is called NOVA AND THAT'S CONFUSING

ANT-MAN is also sometimes GIANT-MAN

HAWKGIRL has an ELECTRIC MACE

DARKHAWK should have an ONGOING

CAPTAIN AMERICA has AMERICA'S ASS

NOVA deserves to TAKE A BREAK

IRON FIST I MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU

LOA was awesome in the TWO SERIES I READ WITH HER

DRAX THE DESTROYER's daughter is ALSO A DEFENDER

RED GUARDIAN was the victim of CHARACTER ASSASSINATION

DAREDEVIL is BLIND

LYRA's gimmick is kinda NONSENSICAL but it's FINE

DANI MOONSTAR is a BADASS SHIELDMAIDEN

MISTY KNIGHT has a ROBOT ARM

SHE-HULK broke the FOURTH WALL before it was COOL

GRITTY isn't a defender BUT THAT'S VALID

GARGOYLE just wanted to save his TOWN

BLACK KNIGHT gave valkyrie his HORSE

BEAST led the TEAM for a WHILE

LUKE CAGE knows THE N WORD PASS ISN'T REAL

HAWKEYE is the only good LANDLORD

REN KIMURA should really get A CODENAME already

BLACK CAT randomly went evil for a while in 2014 without a GOOD EXPLANATION imo

RED SHE-HULK has an AWESOME SWORD

YELLOWJACKET is high-key one of my FAVORITE CHARACTERS

WONG should really RETIRE ALREADY

CLEA makes good VALKYRIE COSTUMES

AMAZO should have been allowed to KILL LEX LUTHOR

DOCTOR FATE KIDNAPS CHILDREN

JACK NORRISS works for THE MANDARIN in the MCU

SHOCKER got the HEAD OF SILVERMANE

ELSA BLOODSTONE survived in MARVEL ZOMBIES LAND

MOON KNIGHT is MARVEL's MOON KNIGHT

MOONDRAGON used ICEMAN AS A BEARD

ICEMAN used MOONDRAGON AS A BEARD

AQUAMAN has a cool HARPOON HAND

JESSICA JONES

HIPPOLYTA WRECKS SHIT

DOLLAR BILL made an ADVERTISEMENT ONCE

SOLOMON GRUNDY was BORN ON A MONDAY

DEADPOOL doesn't often have FEET

GHOST RIDER is in DETROIT

NICK FURY stole an EYEBALL

ATLAS is a great THUNDERBOLT

KRANG was chosen by the UNIVERSE to be a defender

HOWARD THE DUCK was created by STEVE GERBER

RHINO doesn't have SWEAT GLANDS anymore

BOOMERANG got his own team and WASTED IT

LIBRA is an ESCAPED ANDROID

SUPER-SKRULL helped SHE-HULK save his DAUGHTER

MELTER is also a FILTHY CAPITALIST

GEATAR will probably be the TASERFACE OF GUARDIANS 3

NO-NAME OF BROOD was a CREATIVE and AWESOME ADDITION

BLOB doesn't like being called BUB

TOAD is a JANITOR

PLANTMAN throws COCONUTS

OVERMIND pretended to be NIGHTHAWK'S EX-GIRLFRIEND

THANOS BOTTOM TEXT

NITRO shouldn't have KILLED THOSE KIDS

LUNATIK is ONE-SIXTH OF A FILM PROFESSOR

#marvel's defenders #defenders #defenders-core #marvel

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