#this is actually my monster island Tom

[lycanpunk667]

Putting this guy through more horrors than thought humanly possible actually

[foone]

whats your favourite narnia book if you have one

Since I grew up as an autistic christian, I have many Narnia Opinions!

So, my favorite book for it's own reasons is probably The Magician's Nephew. I'm always a slut for worldbuilding and backstory and that novel is basically just only that. Some guy we know from another book goes on an adventure and in the process gets to be involved with the creation of one world and the destruction of another? kick-ass.

Best book to adapt? The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. 1988 BBC version, 1979 Cartoon version, 2005 theatrical? All good, in their own ways. The BBC version is just perfectly 80s and the costumes are amazing (because they are costumes! they did all the monsters by sticking a guy in a big costume and I love it), the cartoon version captures the fucking whimsy of a story where SANTA SHOWS UP AND GIVES EVERYONE PRESENTS and the first person to offer any serious lore about the situation is named MR BEAVER. And the 2005 film has the big battles and CGI and Tilda Swinton as the White Witch which is... so much. I love them all.

But the best book adaptation is the 1990 BBC The Silver Chair. Hands down. It's got Tom Baker's Puddleglum, Warwick Davis playing an owl, 0£ BBC budget greenscreened giants (MULTIPLE TIMES), a group of people discovering IT'S A COOKBOOK and one of them being offended by the cookbook saying they don't taste very good, the bad guy turning into a giant rubber snake. a witch trying to gaslight some humans into believing the sun is a myth, and the ultimate salvation of Eustace Scrubb: a boy who almost deserved being named that.

And since I can't not list basically everything Narnia ever made, BBC's 1989 Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is pretty good too. It's a fun "road movie", in that it's an odyssey into a fictional Mysterious Ocean of Here There Be Dragons.

Lotta hits in that one. It's also got a "collect the macguffins!" plot where they're trying to collect the Seven Lost Lords.

But yeah, it's like... the first Island gets them a lord and they get to end slavery. Next up, Dragon TF island (The dragon is Greed... but it's also just a literal fucking dragon). Next, Gold TF island. Gold, it turns out, makes you go insane in your lust for wealth, even if you're already a Prince of a whole country. The gold is Greed, but it will also just fucking kill you because you'll be turned into gold.

Then it's the island of the ugly invisible one-foot guys and it turns out they cast a spell to turn invisible so no one could see how they're ugly but they're not ugly, they just think they are? and then it goes "HEY LUCY COMPARE YOURSELF TO YOUR OLDER SISTER" and she's like "I'm ugly.... unlike her. Maybe I should use magic to STEAL HER BEAUTY?!" and it's like, wow. Is there maybe a theme here about self-esteem in your appearance? and Clive Officemax Lewis is over there going I'LL NEVER TELL.

Anyway it's got the good line about how the Wizard in charge of the ugly invisible one-footed pogo-idiots is that how he eagerly awaits the day that they can be ruled by wisdom, instead of magic. It's a fun approach to magic: it's something that is a shortcut, a crutch, and it's a poor replacement for Wisdom, even when used by "the good guys". Tell me, Mr. FedexKinkos-Lewis, do you have any opinions on the complicated relationship between Christianity and magic? oh, you do? I never would have guessed!

They also find The Island Where Dreams Come True. They don't land there, they just fish a screaming man out of the ocean who is trying to escape it. The sailors hear it's The Island Where Dreams Come True and are like "wow, I could have my own ship!" and he yells no, you fools, not dreams like your wishes and imaginations, your actual dreams come true on this island.

and everyone agrees: Get us the fuck away from this island and lets never return.

Anyway I'm not gonna talk about THE ENTIRE MOVIE/BOOK but it's got a great weirdness at the end where they reach the end of the world (which is flat. It's okay, this is Narnia, a completely different world with different physical rules than Earth), and it's a waterfall, but a waterfall going up?

It turns out Heaven is on the other side of it. They turn around, but the anthropomorphic mouse is like "ehh, I'll take that journey" and becomes the Elijah of Aslan's Country, their equivalent of heaven.

Narnia, won't you?

[pooks]

back on my straw hat!Ichiji bullshit and i am cooking

here's some headcanons i've got;

headcanon number 1 imagine Classy Trio (Ichiji, Robin and Brook) just casually having tea and watching the usual Zoro and Sanji bickering/sparring session

Ichiji: I can't believe that my brother in law will be a ball of sentient moss. But as long as he makes my little brother happy.

and the kicker is that Robin and Brook just agrees (especially Brook, who probably the biggest ZoSan shipper XD). the classy trio is a very sophisticated group, they have teatime with biscuits and discuss various topics

no one understands how it works and no one bothers to. post-timeskip, they're the second strongest fighting group after the Monster Trio. in fact, during Wano Arc, Ichiji joins Robin and Brook to save Sanji from Black Maria (Ichiji is bi and demiromantic, so he's kinda immune to female enemies trying to seduce him. he's already given away his heart for Robin and Franky.)

second headcanon Ichiji reminding certain pirates of Red-Haired Shanks is a running gag. even better when poor Ichiji doesn't even know who the guy is.

the first time Luffy put his hat on Ichiji's head to comfort him (he had a bad mental health day and nearly resorted to self-harm), Luffy went still for a moment or two because he instantly got reminded of Shanks. Ichiji isn't complaining about the hug he got from his captain, but it was nice and a little confusing.

(then later at Loguetown, Buggy nearly flipped his shit because he thought Shanks came back to haunt his ass XD)

it went so far that Ichiji got called "Shanks" by some pirates who has met the guy and poor Ichiji is like "who?"

(once Ichiji gets to meet the actual guy, it's gonna such a spiderman meme)

headcanon 3 Ichiji canonically likes whiskey, but i decided to add rum to his favorite drinks. he drinks sometimes with Zoro, but is unable to outdrink him (he comes third in alcohol tolerance, behind Zoro and Nami). Ichiji likes rum because he believes "a real pirate should like rum"

post-WCI and he turns to alcohol to deal with it. he doesn't gave good trauma responses and it goes far enough to make Chopper worry for his health. enough that Nami threats to throw the rum overboard if he doesn't square up.

this prompts him to nearly fight Nami for the sake of rum

Ichiji: you would dare to challenge me?! Nami: bring it on, bitch boy!

Sanji puts an end to it by locking all alcohol behind five locks in the galley. he's the cook, after all, and the galley is his dominion. Zoro and Ichiji has to wait until dinner to get their sake resp. rum

headcanon four Ichiji is tall and very muscular in canon, but in this au, he's slightly different

he's still taller than Sanji and while he has a little more distinct muscular structure, he's also a little more slender. this is a side effect from starving on the rock with Sanji and Zeff, so it has affected him in his later years. he's not a buff hunk, but he's not a slender twink either (google the english diver Tom Daley, that's sorta his body physique).

Ichiji also have a more androgynous face and dresses himself in a non-binary way. this is the reason why Brook mistook him for a woman at their first meeting, but Ichiji set him straight (lmao) after that. he's aware that gender is fluid and isn't always strictly male or female.

post timeskip and he's more comfortable in who he is. he did a lot of soul-searching for the two years he trained on an unknown canyon island and officially comes out as bisexual, demiromantic and genderqueer. he still uses he/him pronouns since he feels most comfortable with them.

headcanon 5 Ichiji keeps Zeff on the loop of most things and he does it whenever he gets a chance. he has the dial number to the Baratie memorized in his head and he gets his chance whenever he comes across a den-den mushi (for public use, often found in most inns at the islands they dock)

he informs Zeff where they are, what kind of adventures they've had so far, how he and Sanji are doing and asks how things are at the Baratie. he's sorta like a "dutiful son" (he canonically are, but it's very debated if it's because of his modifications)

the relationship between Zeff and Ichiji is portraited in a more mature-ish way. Ichiji is the older son, so he knows and understands more while Sanji is a little more bratty.

the minute there's total radio silence from Ichiji during WCI and there's shady people around the Baratie, that's when Zeff knows something is wrong

headcanon 6 Ichiji has the worst potty mouth. we all know that Sanji is foul-mouthed, but Ichiji is worse.

believe me, when they grew up on the Baratie, Ichiji listened to the cooks around him swearing and cursing up to a storm in the kitchens. everyone thought that he didn't care, compared to Sanji who mimicked them constantly (and got a pegleg on his head). but now, Ichiji was quiet because he was learning and memorizing from his surroundings until he got old enough to swear casually.

Ichiji isn't allowed around Chopper when he's in a bad mood, because his curses are so crude that neither Zoro or Sanji wants the little doctor to learn that.

no, he doesn't care if he's a bad influence. Ichiji has always done whatever he wanted. XD

[iknowthegammer]

“Tails.exe: The Original Creepypasta” created by Iknowthegammer (that’s me!)

“At June 13th of 2014.. today was my 21th birthday.. My name is Tom Johnson.. at 21 years of old my 19 year old friend Eric gave me a exact copy of Sonic 2 not only does it look great but the strange awareness about it saids “Beta Version 0.2” then I thought it will be well worth to try..”

Chapter 1: the bloody hills

“so I booted up the game to my consoles to my surprise.. the game is the same with the final release the only downside is that there is only 5 levels instead.. maybe this is still unfinished but as I played the first zone tilted “Green Hills” but there is no sighting of Emerald Hills which I was confused if this was actual zone supposed to be Green Hills..

it cuts to the zone I picked.. I played sonic this time.. it still feels like I am remembering things from the past but I decided to played throughout the zone.. still as silent but when I reached some point at the middle of the zone.. the background cuts to black and the message pops up in red text said “Well Hello.. My name is tails.. Would you Like to play hide & seek?”

I felt concerned if that was tails or no.. I don’t know why would a character like to play hide & seek with sonic or what to expect.. so as I reached the end..

the white text appears above me said this to me “do you really remember this?” and there was all the dead animals around.. it reminds me of the original Sonic.Exe which I wasn’t afraid so I finally found tails..

instead of him teleporting me.. he turn his head and look at me while sonic gets afraid of what’s gonna happened to him and I was teleported into something different.. that wasn’t in the original release

Instead I was on angel island but this time it more burned down and all of it was left of the remains of the trees and bushes than anything however the sky is blue.. and when I played throughout the zone tails appears in front of sonic.. when I get closed to him he disappears

he mentioned about the game being Hide & Seek in there and when the entire island was burning again.. at this point I play throughout the zone and the countdown timer was 15 secs..

as I knew this is supposedly hide & seek so as I run throughout the zone until it reach zero.. the message said “ready or not here I come!” and I try to get sonic as far away.. the dreadful music sounded like it was the drowning sound but the audio sounded like it was glitchy..

the next thing I know is that tails is chasing sonic from the behind.. as I knew this is happened.. that wasn’t tails but rather than a version of him chasing sonic at this point.. sonic trips over and landing face to the rock causing his face to be messed up..

I couldn’t controll or even move him.. this “tails” suddenly breaks his next and ripped it off.. I had no thoughts but seeing sonic corpse look almost real to me.. and “tails” would turn his head to me once again.. informing that his name in a message.. “nice to meet you.. tom.. my name is Tails.exe.. we’re gonna have so much fun :)”

at this point I knew this wasn’t tails but rather then an entity controlling or possibly impersonating him in general.. it cuts to the level selection screen.. the background of it was an red clouds and all it was changed to an horror like feeling.. as nervous I was I decided to play mighty in the second zone.. being marble zone..”

Chapter 2: The Horrors Await..

“I loaded into marble zone playing as mighty and then at first I thought it was going to be the same thing.. except it wasn’t instead there were countless sonics in bluish-gray colour so I jumped on to them and find out they can be easily defeated

not as I was expected but to my surprise all the badniks were somehow turned into zombie like monsters with the corpses of animals inside of them.. not only that but I play through the entire zone until I almost reach the end.. the message pop up and said this “poor mighty.. where is your flying friend?”

this likely means that Ray is somehow involved with it.. however I got no time and finished the zone and moved on to 2nd marble hill zone.. this time it was different..

instead of being in marble zone.. I was in “you can’t run” zone as there was no mentioning besides there was an corpse of knuckles laying on to a certain wall and the message in blood reads “I am not that strong..” maybe it could relate to something that must’ve killed him..

instead I go inside the black hallway now being in marble hill zone again.. as I was confused if I was Hallucinating but as I moved on and when I go the end of the zone.. tails.exe is holding ray’s tail.. and said to mighty “oh mighty.. you didn’t save your friend in time.. oh well I guess you deserve what’s left for you is gone..”

at this point I was in a fight against tails.exe.. I attacked him with jumping on top of his head.. instead I press a button that cause mighty to dashed on to tails.exe.. at this point mighty was slammed and hit on the floor.. tails.exe then stomped on mighty’s back and killed him..

I was angry towards that demonic fox.. I was frustrated how he treated sonic, ray and now mighty.. despite all of that.. instead I was playing Amy in hill top zone.. my favourite character of all the sonic franchise.. I was a big fan of her.. she reminds of my mother.. so when I played throughout the zone..

I come across with an flicky.. and then an brick fall on to it.. saw the horrible fate to it.. Amy was scared.. the terrified face of hers.. I was shocked to think that all the characters in this game weren’t actual characters.. they were the previous people who played it..

I had no choice but to make sure that Amy wasn’t attack.. I dodge all the spikes.. when I reached the end of the zone.. I knew that was it but I was wrong and Amy stop and looked.. at the body of sonic.. dead.. this was my chance to have her complete the zone before anyone could.. but it was too late.. tails.exe grabbed her by the body and ripped her apart with the blood boiled of my eyes.. I had fear into me..

I was crying.. raging to saw what tails.exe done to her.. it almost felt like it was a cry for help.. tails.exe knew what he was doing to trigger my said emotions.. this time I couldn’t bare for it.. and I was moved to Labyrinth zone..”

Chapter 3: the terrifying truth (part 1 & 2)

“As playing Labyrinth Zone.. I went on to play silver.. as an child back in the days.. I got an game called “Sonic 06” despite as usual the new characters were silver & blaze mostly due to them being much cooler I would thought to have..

as for now I continued playing the zone.. apparently I was not even allowed and instead the message pop up on my phone text is by the name of Tails telling me to turned off the game and burned it to the ground.. I told him “why” and he didn’t respond

I had no choice but to play the game.. so I all done for.. then tails texted me about something that wasn’t discovered.. “tails.exe is not an entity.. is a god.. the blood god.. he reincarnated and copied me.. Killed my friends.. I have no time left.. he already knows you.. DESTROY THE CARD”

I was shocked and finding out that tails.exe is a blood god.. by the name of Khorne.. the one involved with the blood term.. was he the one who killed all of them.. did he know that I was here? I then went on to play throughout the zone and before I reached the end I saw tails.exe instead he was in front of silver without any movement or anything..

Tails.exe turned around and see me through the tv.. he told me about everything.. “do you want to know the story?” I said “Yes” tails.exe told the truth behind the tv

“once a day.. once 33 years ago.. I was a lead developer.. with no life experience.. always getting hate on and fired from the jobs.. I had no choice to take my life.. this doesn’t end what was the happiest ending..

I ended up inside of a beta release of Sonic 2.. there were some stuff and I found out that I can create stuff.. I took all my time of making all of this for you to know..

That I wanted the revenge of those who criticised and bullied me in school for all these years.. I learned the creepypasta.. it was about sonic.exe.. I turned myself into an entity being now known as “tails.exe” at 2008 I trapped all the 10 victims of the game..

and put all of them into each sonic character that represents their gender

and put them inside the cage what it was to feel like freedom and killing them all by one.. felt like bullying and they were held into my purgatory.. I took their lives.. I own all of them.. I WAS THE ONE WHO BELIEVED THAT I AM GOD.. NO.. ONE.. CAN’T.. STOP.. ME..”

then when he finished the story I knew and decided it was my chance.. to make sliver run away from him.. then I dodged all the obstacles and making into the end.. it was finally time that I- I..

Tails.exe grabbed him and smashed his face into the ground before my eyes.. I have no idea if it will be the end of him.. completed an zone would do the trick but I was wrong..

Tails.exe said to me “You are silly to know how much I hate when they run away from me”

I played blaze instead.. and brought back to act 2 of labyrinth zone..”

“As playing blaze.. I walked down to a staircase that looked similarity out of place.. so as I go past the obstacles and killed off the sonic clones.. however this act was long and then I reached and completed the zone at the end then all of sudden..

Blaze was in a mirror room.. as there is no sighting of tails.exe.. there was an old white looking figure that looks like eggman.. eggman said this “so you may have found me? Answer your question” I said “why is everyone inside of his world and why are they facing the torture?”he said this to me

“Is that the only question you asked? Well tails.exe was your average middle school nerd.. in a good school named “Red Hills” despite his lack of having friends..

he was smart and intelligence enough to have his photo of his face in “the red hills school’s office” which to everyone.. they were just pissed and just jealous to how this boy was..

when he graduated from his school and moved on to college.. he was then granted to become an developer of sonic the hedgehog.. and game focused on being an rivalry to Mario..

as working in his office.. he will then get tired and always get picked on.. getting bullied.. and be beating up.. putting himself to ending his life from the mass of depression and suicidal thoughts..

People knowing that they hate this person.. felt horrible on what they did.. so when I heard of this new outlet.. I was an administrator at this time and seeing him as an teacher favourite boy as a Christ to all humanity..

as I went into the old abandoned building where sega was and found an tv that was old.. I went to check it and transferred into the soul of eggman and not when I was sure to do about..

he was there but his name was then on to be “Tails.exe” right about he was gonna to kill me.. he then forgives and helped me around this time.. so I did..

but to be honest his name was “Kevin Tender” and that’s what you needed to know”

I understood and found out about him.. he wasn’t an developer.. he was an smart boy in “Red Hills” who went to completing his high school and college.. despite that eggman vanished into the air..

as I was about to talk to myself.. tails.exe or should I say Kevin strikes me again this time in the mirror room.. I try breaking the minor as blaze and she started to get tired I tried to warn her about it but she didn’t know I was saying.. and the she collapsed on the floor from the exhausted breath.. next to Kevin..

he grabbed her by the neck and pulls out the claws and I screamed “STOP..” he then kills and rips her apart.. to know what was about to happened and he said this..

“why do you persist me? Is it because they don’t know their consequences? You can’t save them.. so does him..”

Is he referring to eggman? Then the screen turns black and as it turned back on.. to see an small stone structure of Tails.exe (Kevin) himself.. he was floating up top.. and all the victims there too.. on the ground.. they were like zombies.. so does the gray sonic is here

He pay an close attention to me.. saying that tails was Eric trying to tell me to turned it off.. “you see Tom.. Eric was trying to save you and you didn’t listen.. this is your last chance to turned it off.. but you didn’t listen.. so give it your last shot to escape my wrath..”

I- I didn’t know this was Eric all the time.. and my fate will be sealed inside this world forever.. Eric then messaged me to turned the tv off.. so I did.. at this moment I went to sleep and thinking about the horrible mistake in my life..

chapter 4: the incident of 2008 (part 1 & 2)

“as August 3rd of 2014.. Eric messaged me once again about an news article stating that 12 people went missing the only noticeable difference was they were some tvs being left on in the Sega Building.. glowing red obviousness..

the article said

“On May 6th of 2008.. 12 people went missing inside of their houses, buildings or parks police are trying their best on the look outs for anyone missing.. please call us with the phone number or send us an email for further investigation.”

not as creepy but I known there were 6 out of 12 people.. as I known very deeply I messaged him if it’s ok and he replied “Idk maybe cheek it or so” so I turned on the TV to see what’s happening instead of scary stuff happening..

there was an character selection screen of other characters being mentioned “rouge the bat” “shadow the hedgehog” “Sally” and “trails”.. nothing was ever revealed anything sinister

This character caught my eye knowing that character never usually appeared in sonic media nor does it ever appear before my eye.. I decided to choose shadow as an option..

I mentioned there was an 5th zone to be played it was “Scrap Brain Zone” but there were 3 new zones that are added.. “top hill zone” “Ancient Ruin zone” and “Finale Zone”

this caught the attention of being unaware if tails.exe showed up so as I decided to played the 5th zone instead

As shadow and everything was perfectly fine almost.. of course.. there were corpses of same dead animals from green hills and alway clones of sonic as not as I was assumed of.. by that I caught a glimpse of an red figure walking away..

I run as fast I could to get to that red figure and he was knuckles that red guy who was seen in a nightmare before marble zone.. not only does he looked normal and stand still and turned around and looked at me if I was being seriously annoying

He said that to me “look man I don’t know who you are but please stop following you might get me the attention of Kevin and ended up killed for”

I was concerned if he was gonna die or not.. so I left him alone and hoping that he survived or not.. knuckles was grabbed by tails.exe (kevin)

and at this point I was tired of having him killed many people in my life before and he cause so much problems.. not only that but I have to urged to jumped on to him.. instead he crushed knuckles neck and rips off his arms

and used his new found power to lift shadow’s neck up and scraped him into the floor and he was not that happy.. I try my best to mashed the buttons but it didn’t work.. he was pissed off that I left him alone for 2 months and not only does it not looked happy he stated this “at 15th of August is doomsday.. don’t be waiting :)..” and he disappeared

the 15th of August was my Friend’s Girlfriend’s birthday this entire time I knew I have messed it up..

there was only 3 characters at the spot.. and to be fair there was a new message from an unknown user called “John” that I usually not know about him or how he found me.. and he said this to me that the incident did happened at 2008 the same year where 12 people went missing was not because of the way I think..

The reason why they were trapped inside of this game was the string of code that allows him to travel inside and outside the real world.. Kevin can travel into the real world.. trapping his victims inside the tv almost if he can teleport..

this is what he wanted.. to have me leave him alone by his game.. but at this point I can’t let tails.exe terrorise the world apart..

thus for that reason I chosen to go with and played “Sally” the only character in this game.. at first arriving I was inside of an castle instead not only that but I heard an sound and quickly go into hiding..

there was an massive hand appearing out of no where with an eye.. there was some time left on the corner.. this is the last chance and barely survived from this.. the messaged that Kevin said was interesting

“After 2 months you finally gotten interested of playing this game.. when he told you to turned the tv off.. are you blind?”

this doesn’t normally happened but usually I continued.. and went to play “top hill zone” not as bad as I say.. but as continuing to played throughout the zone I noticed that the enemies looked like tails instead of sonic and as I was playing..

I was instead “sonic” but wasn’t he normally dead? As I was gonna to play him.. the messaged pop up by Kevin saying “wait how did sonic get revived.. how..”

I play through the zone.. at this point I went throughout the enemies and completed the obstacles and at the end.. there was an cutscene not entirely new but tails.exe (Kevin) then teleported.. this is what he said to me

“so I heard when you completed the zone you get to revived someone and someone would either die for it.. making you get sonic alive.. but instead I choose to fight.. but if you lose you lose the character”

this is the part I had in my moment.. I dodged all the attacks from tails.exe and jumped on him a few times.. at this point it felt like it is the totally end to him.. at one final blow it was done.. he said this “this is the last time you will ever see me.. but I will come back”

at this point it was at night and I went to bed..”

“at August 5th.. I went off the bed and turned on the tv.. assuming there will be 2 final zones left to complete before.. I picked sonic again and at this time it was different at most.. the zone was called “Ancient Ruins” which was rather interesting but rather than it seems..

No enemies were to be found and there were some obstacles being hard.. I tried my best to not fall into the spikes but luckily I completed the zone and moved on to act 2.. it was always silent but still noisy

in act 2 of Ancient Ruins I stumbled upon knuckles before he disappeared.. no to be doubt about it but as I went to the waters as controlling sonic.. the music just turned on and so as the enemies appeared.. tails.exe (Kevin) appeared right before second

this resulted into the end of the zone where it was pitch black and back.. this time was no more different.. sonic’s leg was been chained up and the timer was counting down in 5 seconds before drowning in a cold deep water.. tails.exe is right next to sonic smiling oblivious as sonic was screaming and moving around

and then he was not moving.. tails.exe eyes were pitched black.. and said this

“Do you really understand how unfortunate this soul has? Do you not cared enough about it.. it’s best to end it all”

Tails.exe has returned not in the ways I think.. he obviously knows that I am trying to do my best to save them but nothing has it will ever changed.. not even slightest.. he is more than he is..

as completing the 2nd final zone.. it was for the first final zone to completed and hoping eventually for that.. I picked rouge for the final zone this time was even different.. instead I was in an awkward sort of setting in this once..

At almost feels like it yet again the stone is here.. with all the pain and suffering.. the characters are here.. and so as tails.exe (Kevin) on top of the stone statue and looking directly at me.. and saying to me before it will end..

“This is the final day.. this is it.. you finally reached the goal.. you think before playing each zone.. for now on there is not escaping from this.. you set your soul to me..”

and rouge’s gets crushed and this is the end or.. I so I know..

this game was complete.. nowhere to be sight but at rightfully deserved.. I have to get the good ending of this game maybe in a way or so.. maybe if I can somehow completed all the zones 1 to 7”

Chapter 5: the end of the game.. (coming soon)

[blue-character-brawl]

The brackets are finally here!

(sorry for the poor quality of the bracket images lol it’s the best i could do)

Two quick propaganda rules:

1. Propaganda is good and encouraged, just don’t send any negative propaganda. This tournament is for fun, and anti-propaganda kinda ruins that.

2. If you do make propaganda, you can either send it through my ask box, or you can reblog the post with your propaganda. Either is fine!

These 6 brackets will go on until there’s only one character left in each. Once the six semi-finalists are chosen, there will be two battles of 3, and then the winners of that will go against each other in the finals! Each poll will last for one day, but the finals and semifinals will be a week each. The posting schedule will be one bracket a day, meaning that day 1 will be bracket 1 round 1, day 2 will be bracket 2 round 1, and so on. The first set of polls will drop tomorrow (March 30) at roughly 4:00 PM EST. Now, onto the actual matchups!

Bracket 1:

Cam (Rhythm Heaven) VS. Casey (Deca Sports)

Grover (Sesame Street) VS. Rosita (Sesame Street)

Cookie Monster (Sesame Street) VS. Gonzo (The Muppets)

Blue (Blue’s Clues) VS. Flippy Doggenbottom (Toontown)

Bluey Heeler (Bluey) VS. Bandit Heeler (Bluey)

The Tesseract (Marvel) VS. Captain America (Marvel)

Blue (Overly Sarcastic Productions) VS. Blue (Animator VS Animation)

13th Doctor (Doctor Who) VS. The TARDIS (Doctor Who)

Lancer (Deltarune) VS. Lance McClain (Voltron)

Link (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) VS. Zelda (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Navi (Legend of Zelda) VS. Fi (Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)

Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney) VS. Trucy Wright (Ace Attorney)

Mega Man (Mega Man) VS. Megamind (Megamind)

MePhone4 (Inanimate Insanity) VS. Four (Battle for BFDI)

Teardrop (Battle for Dream Island) VS. Sadness (Inside Out)

Blue Album (Weezer) VS. Blue Meanie (Yellow Submarine)

Bracket 2:

Scott Wozniak (Scott the Woz) VS. Jacob (Alpharad)

Big Pauly (Papa Louie) VS. Watergirl (Fireboy and Watergirl)

Abby (Wii Sports) VS. Saburo (Wii Sports)

Kris (Deltarune) VS. Berdly (Deltarune)

Powerade VS. Gatorade

Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson) VS. Luka Couffaine (Miraculous Ladybug)

Gooey (Kirby) VS. Goo (Inanimate Insanity)

Benrey (HLVRAI) VS. Bubby (HLVRAI)

Gus Porter (The Owl House) VS. Anne Boonchuy (Amphibia)

Agent (Penguinronpa) VS. Gary the Gadget Guy (Club Penguin)

Mordecai (Regular Show) VS. Blue-footed Booby (Real Life)

Wish Bear (Care Bears) VS. Grumpy Bear (Care Bears)

The ocean (Real Life) VS. Elsa (Frozen)

Cinderella (Cinderella) VS. Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

Doc Hudson (Cars) VS. Sally Carrera (Cars)

Mudkip (Pokémon) VS. Squirtle (Pokémon)

Bracket 3:

Marth (Fire Emblem) VS. Lucina (Fire Emblem)

Chrom (Fire Emblem) VS. Dimitri (Fire Emblem)

Donald Duck (Disney) VS. Dewey Duck (Ducktales)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog) VS. Leonardo (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Sans (Undertale) VS. Queen (Deltarune)

Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls) VS. Finn the Human (Adventure Time)

Gumball Watterson (The Amazing World of Gumball) VS. Perry the Platypus (Phineas and Ferb)

Squidward Tentacles (SpongeBob Squarepants) VS. Inkling Boy (Splatoon)

Bubbles Utonium (Powerpuff Girls) VS. Bloo (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends)

Logan Sanders (Sanders Sides) VS. Patton Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Jay Walker (Ninjago) VS. Nya (Ninjago)

Tom (Eddsworld) VS. Thomas the Tank Engine (Thomas and Friends)

Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender) VS. Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Sapphire (Steven Universe) VS. Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe)

Nightwing (DC Comics) VS. Superman (DC Comics)

Wendy Darling (Peter Pan) VS. Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz)

Bracket 4:

Craig Tucker (South Park) VS. Goombario (Paper Mario)

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) VS. Kaito (Vocaloid)

Michael J. Caboose (Red vs Blue) VS. Leonard Church (Red vs Blue)

John Egbert (Homestuck) VS. Vriska Serket (Homestuck)

James P. Sullivan (Monsters, Inc.) VS. The Genie (Aladdin)

Wheatley (Portal) VS. V1 (Ultrakill)

Frosta (She-Ra) VS. Mermista (She-Ra)

Falco Lombardi (Star Fox) VS. Blu (Rio)

R2-D2 (Star Wars) VS. Bo-Katan (Star Wars)

Mountain Dew Voltage VS. Blue Gushers

Pablo (The Backyardigans) VS. Tuxedo Sam (Sanrio)

Crackle (Rice Krispies) VS. Blueberry Muffin (Strawberry Shortcake)

Blue (Pokémon) VS. Piplup (Pokémon)

Nightcrawler (X-Men) VS. Mystique (X-Men)

Sayaka Miki (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) VS. Tsumugi Shirogane (Danganronpa V3)

Shun Kaido (Saiki K.) VS. Teruhashi Kokomi (Saiki K.)

Bracket 5:

Soundwave (Transformers) VS. Optimus Prime (Transformers)

Frankie Stein (Monster High) VS. Lagoona Blue (Monster High)

Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) VS. Roadrunner (Looney Toons)

Merryweather (Sleeping Beauty) VS. Hades (Hercules)

Zazu (Lion King) VS. Benny the Bull (Dora the Explorer)

Samus (Metroid) VS. Shovel Knight (Shovel Knight)

Toy Bonnie (Five Nights at Freddy’s) VS. Spheal (Pokémon)

Lucy van Pelt (Peanuts) VS. Numbuh 2 (Codename: Kids Next Door)

Nebula (Marvel) VS. Steve (Minecraft)

Blue Alien (I’m Blue by Eiffel 65) VS. Shiver (Splatoon 3)

Barney Calhoun (Half-Life) VS. Blue Beetle (DC Comics)

Vivi Yukino (Mystery Skulls Animated) VS. Naoto Shirogane (Persona 4)

Ciel Soleil (RWBY) VS. Bloom (Winx Club)

Jack Harkness (Doctor Who) VS. Spock (Star Trek)

Gwen (Total Drama) VS. Rosalina (Super Mario)

Mugman (Cuphead) VS. Sea Fairy Cookie (Cookie Run)

Bracket 6:

Teddy (Bob’s Burgers) VS. Blue M&M (M&M’s)

Sailor Mercury (Sailor Moon) VS. Silvermist (Disney Fairies)

Bibble (Barbie) VS. Sylvie (Wander Over Yonder)

Simon Seville (Alvin and the Chipmunks) VS. Dory (Finding Nemo)

Tsunami (Wings of Fire) VS. Bluestar (Warrior Cats)

Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony) VS. Metal Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Beauregard Lionett (Critical Role) VS. Jester Lavorre (Critical Role)

Veronica Sawyer (Heathers) VS. Smurfette (The Smurfs)

Undine Wells (Sleepless Domain) VS. Idia Shroud (Twisted Wonderland)

Lan Wangji (The Untamed) VS. Korra (Legend of Korra)

Pokotho (Hatchetfield) VS. Langa (Sk8 the Infinity)

B.O.B. (Monsters vs Aliens) VS. Vergil (Devil May Cry)

Vault Boy (Fallout) VS. Jake Sully (Avatar)

Phantasma (Scooby-Doo) VS. Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians)

Tutter (Bear and the Big Blue House) VS. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Disney)

Spy (Team Fortress 2) VS. Baljeet Tjinder (Phineas and Ferb)

As stated previously, the first round of polls, which will be Bracket 1 Round 1, will begin on March 30, at approximately 4:00 PM EST. See you then!

[schmem14]

SMUT-O-METER

Credit to @anaxandria-writes for this idea on the Discord Server, MY WORKS in order of Spiciness. (As always, mind the tags!)

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 Are you okay there? (PWP: hold the P)

There's Something About Ernie (Ernie x Draco x Harry) The Seven Sexcruxes of Tom Riddle (Tom x Hagrid) Harry Sandwich (Harry x Draco x Theo) Of Vines and Fiendfyre (Hermione x Neville) Mistletoe, or Die F***ing (Fred x Harry x George) The Golden Trio is Mine (Draco x Ron x Hermione x Harry) Strictly Professional (Draco x Hermione) HP Kinkuary 2023 Collection (Multi) HP Cocktober 2022 Collection (Multi) HP Kinktober 2023 Collection (Multi)

🌶🌶🌶🌶 Keep a glass of half and half handy, this might burn your mouth. 

How to Care for Your Monster Book: A Guide by Rubeus Hagrid (Hagrid x Monster Book) How to Catch a DILF (Draco x Albus) What the Portraits Saw (Draco x Hermione) Bedknobs & Broomsticks & Enemies You Shouldn't Sleep With (Marcus x Oliver) Draco Malfoy and the Sparkly Green Boots (Draco x Harry) Solace (Harry x George) Pumpkin Spice Smorgasbord (Hermione x Draco x Theo) Awakening (Draco x Hermione) Peaches and Cream (Draco x Hermione) All Sorts (Remus x Aberforth) Atonement (Percy x George) A Merciful Alternative (Lucius x Draco) Monster Mash, Graveyard Smash (Ron x Draco x Harry) Elaterium (Draco x Neville) Fucking Perfect, Actually (Ron x Cormac)

🌶🌶🌶 Solid hit of spice with a bit more substance

One Small Eternity (Pansy x Ron) Mastermind (Draco x Ron, Draco x Harry, Harry x Ron) Flying on Ice (Draco x Ron) Ron and Draco Go on an Island Adventure [Gee Thanks, Hermione] (Draco x Ron) Lost at Sea (Ron x Harry, Others x Harry) From Sunset to Star Rise (Ron x Harry) Inheritance (Draco x Hermione) All's Fair in Love & War & Paintball (Multi) Forever in Your Debt (Ron x Mary Cattermole)

🌶🌶 It’s still there, you just have to dig for it

In for a Knut, In for a Galleon (Draco x Hermione) Heart in a Box (Harry x Luna) 93 Diagon Alley (Harry x George) When Malfoy Met Granger... (Draco x Hermione) Bring Her Back (TransFem Luna x Theo) Not Now, Not Ever (Draco x Millicent’s cat) Amorous Congress (Padma x Terry x Michael) HP Saffics Summer Exchange 2023 (Multiple, all femslash) Iris (Neville x Alice) 31 Days of Weasley Collection 2023 (Multiple)

🌶 Keepin’ it cool (No smut)

Peeling Potatoes (Harry x George) Dear Hermione (Hermione x Draco) Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (Hermione x Draco) The Test (Hermione x Draco) The Kissing Booth (Hermione x Draco) Fifty-Three Years (Hannah x Susan) Lost and Found (Harry x Luna)

[feotakahari]

I want to hear about your strategy RPG with the unrotting forest zombies!

It wasn’t strategy, it was RPG Maker. It was two or three hours long, with four (tiny) dungeons, three endings, two secret characters, and one adorable shapeshifting slime monster. Sometimes I think of trying to get it to work again, but I’m not sure where the issue is. (Everything high-level in RPG Maker still looks perfect, so there must be an issue somewhere lower down.)

In retrospect, not everything I tried worked. I wanted this “knife fight” setup where neither you nor your enemies have much HP, but RPG Maker works better for more padded combat where you have time to U-turn when your strategy fails. But I still like the contrast between the almost cartoon-like world and the suffering the war brought, as if the war was something that shouldn’t have existed and fundamentally tainted the world.

Here’s my old character list. (At the time I wrote this, I referred to the elves as Aetheril from the island of Aether, as opposed to Humans from the continent of Huma.)

Graciela "Gracie" Rosith: Heroine. A field medic in the Human army, thought dead in the war with Aether. Actually a slime monster pretending to be Gracie, but don't tell anyone! Can mimic other characters' highest and lowest stats.

Maralia "Marie" Rosith: Speed specialist. A newly recruited scout in the Human army. Half-Aetheril, and unhappy that people keep bringing it up like some sign of disloyalty. Can't control her inherited magic. Sister of the original Gracie.

Royce Adams: Attack specialist. A Human soldier, conscripted at the tail end of the war with Aether. Survived the near-annihilation of the western front, and he's bitter as hell about the whole debacle. Picked up some unusual magic from overexposure to withering energy. Really just needs therapy.

Tomasio "Tom" Fleureis: Magic specialist. Aetheril defector and brilliant magical researcher. Worked on the magic weapon that ended up blowing up the western front. Breathtakingly self-absorbed. Grandfather of Gracie and Marie.

Billiam "Billy" Sanford: Resistance specialist. Wealthy young nobleman, a prodigy at magical barriers. Basically a huge nerd. Tom's research assistant. Has a thing for Marie.

Defense specialist: Beneath notice.

Luck specialist: Watching and waiting

[ariparri]

I think harvest town lore would be interesting if the dead archeologist group (Ella and Elly mom,Bill mom,lulu mom,Jessie dad aka the people in the graveyard that Tom Cole visited don't know what the group is called but I know their archeologist searching something while there's an earthquake that led to their death)

Was turned out to be alive and lived in some island that they got teleported by the earthquake like a magic portal and if we found that island we also find the death archeologist group and they can help us with uncovering harvest town stories find something,etc maybe we can get a few fondness from some people like tom Cole if we found them idk yet haven't really know the actual harvest town lore so maybe I'll put it in my fanon au

I like to believe the archeologist group is still alive and have definitely teleported somewhere. Another dimension maybe. I've caught up to the story to know a bit about what happened to them and how they're connected to the monsters in the swamp area. They might be in another dimension based on how the monsters react to us telling them about how the earthquake and this purple light was the same as when the group disappeared. And in the swamp area you find old discarded notes by someone talking about how they were trapped there or the like.

It would be cool if the group can provide something for us as we continue to play. But given the slow development of the game, the truth about the group's whereabouts may take a while.

[bagheerita]

I am a SO ready to talk Godzilla movies. I’ve only seen a handful of them compared to like the dozens I know exist-the more recent ones where they were trying to do Avengers but the big Monsties-but god I love them.

Admittedly Kong is seared into my brain because it came out at the Height of my Tom Hiddleston obsession-I even own it in dvd like I was that deep-so that’s the one I remember the best. And it’s the one I like the most because of the wide range of monsters we get to see. Big Buffalo guy? The skull lizards? Fuck yeah love my monsters wish more movies were monster movies lol.

Anyways, the others are more spattering in recollection. But I wanna ask, which of these movies is your fave, why, and what do you think of the empty core earth/godzilla goes into the center of the earth to recharge like Superman does to the sun? I remember finding that very. Odd? But ripe for interest bc in Kong they set up that whole. Under-earth world the skull things came from.

I've also only seen a handful of the movies... exactly 6 Godzilla/Monster-verse related movies (that I can recall anyway): the original Gojira and the original King Kong. And then Godzilla 2014, Kong Skull Island, Godzilla King of the Monsters (watched last night), and Godzilla vs Kong (watched today!).

I've only seen each of them once, and Kong Skull Island is the only one I saw in the theater (Tom Hiddleston obsession what....😅😅💚❤). Watching Godzilla KotM's last night was the first time I'd actually seen several of the monsters I already knew of through cultural osmosis, like Rodan and Ghidorah, which was very cool.

My favorite is hard to say. (I mean, to say the best movie would be easy: it would be Gojira, because I think it's awesome and perfect and very much a product of its time that said what it needed to say. But I feel like it's an entirely separate genre than the other movies I've seen.) I enjoyed Skull Island and I remember it being slightly better story-wise than the Godzilla movies, IE it made me care more about the human characters and they had better development and reasons for what they were doing.

Since it's the one I just watched I might say KotM is my favorite, just because I loved all the monster battles, and because there are apparently no locked doors in this world (Millie Bobbie Brown can just walk into Fenway Park, and also her family home that's been abandoned for months/years, without any keys or any problems). And also because of Charles Dance, who is a fantastic villain even though he looked like he was phoning it in and even though he didn't get eaten by a dragon (It was all I wanted... what was promised. lol). GvK was fun, but not quite enough to overcome the silliness of the premise. (like, come on, giant monkey versus radioactive dinosaur. who do you think wins? I did like that the movie turned it into a team up against Mechagodzilla/the ghost of Ghidorah.)

The first mentions of the Hollow Earth Theory kind of took me by surprise, so it took me awhile to get over the silliness of it especially the gravity inversion lmao. (Just last month or so I finished watching Sanctuary, which has its own Hollow Earth theory lol) But I did really love the concept of Godzilla's temple where he would go to recharge in KotM. (Too bad they blew it up 😭 Or did they?? Maybe Godzilla's temple where he hangs out can withstand nuclear blasts? 🤔) I love the idea that he would go to this place of ancient worship to rest and regain his strength, sleeping among the memories of when he was perhaps more literally a god. The whole "recharging from the center of the earth bc there's radiation" is whatever. The origins of Godzilla have changed so much to get him to fit into this new idea of him and his place within the world and what he represents, so... sure. The Earth is a hollow, Godzilla recharging battery. 👍

I really liked the development they did for Hollow Earth in GvK. I like that Kong's axe gets charged up by Godzilla's blasts. And I loved that when you see Kong's "throne," Godzilla is carved into the stones around the base of the throne. To me this suggests that rather than a rivalry, Kong and Godzilla have an ancient symbiosis: Godzilla is King Kong's guard dog... or perhaps "court wizard" in the sense of the archetypal magician, with the knowledge and power to comprehend a balance within nature that he then "advises" the "king" about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno but I think that would be really cool. I'd love to see more "monsterverse" movies with fewer human characters getting in the way (though I did really like Millie Bobbie Brown's posse wandering around and stumbling onto Mechagodzilla; that was a cool way to reveal that information to the audience). But more stories specifically about the interactions between these ancient creatures would be very interesting. In the special features for KotM they say that Mothra is the only female monster, which is kind of odd. I suppose Godzilla never really "dies" so he doesn't need to... reproduce in a standard-for-higher-Earth-life-forms way, but I'm pretty sure I remember Kong having parents in Skull Island, which I guess makes him (or his mom) an outlier if we're roping him into the monsterverse. Though the continuity for any of these stories is very loose (in KotM there are kaiju on every continent, but GvK is 3 years later and all of them... left? Everything's normal now. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you? And then Godzilla rolls up in Hong Kong and trashes it. There's one shot of a "kaiju bunker" or whatever, but no other preparations or any sort of contingencies for what to do if attacked by world-destroying monsters which last happened 3 years ago).

Anyway I hear there's another Godzilla movie coming out this year, and one called GodzillaXKong which I can only hope is the shipper movie we've all been waiting to see!! ;b

[themovieblogonline]

Netflix’s Skull Island Anime Adds To Kong's MonsterVerse Mythos In A Cool New Way

Netflix’s latest animated series Skull Island is a continuation of the Kong dynasty with a brand new approach. The anime-styled new show is an incredible new story that finally does justice to the human characters within the Kong storyline. Instead of them just as set-dressing in a movie about monster fights. Something the live-action movies have constantly attempted and failed. But as I’ll point out in this Skull Island anime review, the humans are actually the main focus and heart of this new show. Spoiler-Free Skull Island Anime Review The Skull Island anime is the first official other media content, as in not a direct sequel to the live-action movies, that is firmly rooted in within the MonsterVerse. Seemingly canon, the series is taking place after the events of the live-action Kong: Skull Island from 2017 with Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson. The events of the movie are seemingly referenced throughout the show as easter eggs. But time around, a new group of modern-day characters are shipwrecked on Skull Island, trying to find their way off. Along the way, they discover new threats, friends and larger agendas at play as they find out the true depths of this monster-filled island. Throughout the journey, they meet new monsters, try to survive and witness the Island’s larger-than-life protector, King Kong himself. Skull Island Anime Is Engaging As Hell! Netflix’s new Skull Island anime comes from the awesome animation studio, Powerhouse Animation. The same studio is responsible for amazing Netflix hits like Castlevania, Seis Manos, Blood of Zeus and Kevin Smith’s Masters Of The Universe: Revelation. And similar to all those projects, Skull Island is just as visually stunning, and brutal in its action sequences and monster-fights. Skull Island also does something the live-action movies have thus far, failed to do; make us give a crap about the human characters. The story starts with Charlie (Nicolas Cantu) arguing with his sea captain father, Cap (Benjamin Bratt) about not wanting to spend any more of his free time on ships at sea searching for new creatures, but rather going to college instead. We also meet his friend Mike (Darren Barnet) whose father is just as obsessed with discovering new sea life as Charlie’s. But when Charlie rescues a girl named Annie (Mae Whitman) from the sea, everything changes. How The Human Characters Are The Main Focus Of Skull Island After the shipwreck, Mike and Charlie quickly discover they are on the titular Skull Island, the same one from the live-action movie that is home to various monsters and creatures. Not to mention, King Kong himself. The two, out of their depth young men team up with Annie, who seems to live on the Island too, and her bear-lion animal friend named, Dog. Together they try to find Charlie’s father and a way off the island. Cap, by the way, is with a covert team of mercenaries and scientists who are also on the island, to capture Annie, for reasons unknown. With all these subplots working independently, they collide into a much bigger story full of adventure, intrigue and awesome monster fights. And the story of these characters, relationships and dynamics are actually as interesting, if not more so, than the cool monster weirdness. Skull Island Connects To The Live-Action MonsterVerse On top of being a typical Powerhouse Animation series that is full of amazing visuals, an amazingly well-written story and great character dynamics, it’s also full of easter eggs to the live-action universe. There is mention of the Hollow Earth theory which is what the Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021 movie focused on. My review of the Skull Island anime wouldn’t be complete without mentioning how these references are just casually littered throughout the series, clearly setting up a larger plot or connection. The voice cast is excellent, and the series really does a great job of creating new characters and a new plot to move the Kong mythos forward. Betty Gilpin as Irene, the head of the mercenaries is really intriguing and her involvement is a larger mystery that I can’t wait to see pay off. The iconic Phil LaMaar is also in this as Irene’s general or confidant, or maybe even more. It’s interesting to see what the Skull Island anime will do to the future of the MonsterVerse, especially given Godzilla vs. Kong 2 is in development as well. We’ll have to wait and see how well the anime does on Netflix to find that out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzVEn9C0Ndw Skull Island is now streaming on Netflix. What did you think of the Skull Island anime? Did you catch all the MonsterVerse connections? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter at @theshahshahid. Read the full article

[disappointingyet]

The big 2024 round-up: More or less mainstream

This is one of three parts of my look back at this year in movies, alongside The big 2024 round-up: Arthouse and documentary and my Films of the year.

Dune Part 2

I was surprised how much I liked the first instalment of the Lawrence Of Arabia-inspired space epic – with the effect that I approached Part 2 with much higher expectations. Which in many ways it met. My main issues: the way this very long film suddenly starts rushing towards the end, and I wasn’t sold on Austin Butler as the new bad guy. But in pretty much every other way, Denis Villeneuve, cast and crew have made exactly the movie they set out to make, and it’s impressive and sometimes thrilling.

More thoughts here

The Wild Robot

I'm strongly of the view that the machines are not our friends. This very pretty computer-animated movie argues maybe they could feel love, given the chance? It's the story of Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), an advanced domestic robot who is shipwrecked on an island with no people but plenty of animals. After a lot of misunderstanding with the inhabitants, she befriends an unpopular fox and has to adopt a gosling she's accidentally orphaned. As I feel I say often these days, the first half of the film is much better than the second, but it's sweet and looks great and is pretty endearing.

Challengers 

I enjoyed Luca Guadagnino’s tennis movie – and it is a actual sports pic rather than the steamy drama that just happened to be set on the ATP circuit that many had assumed – while being fully conscious of its flaws. Zendaya, blonde bloke (Mike Faist) and bloke who looks like Jonathan Richman (Josh O’Connor) are tennis prodigies who fancy each other – but more than sex, this is about ambition and using other people as pawns to outwit fate. The bits where characters talk worked better for me than the ones where they don’t. One of several movies this year that really hinge on whether you like the ending.

Full review here

The Bikeriders 

Who do you get to play strongly accented, authentic working-class Chicagoans? Why, south-west London child of privilege Tom Hardy and Liverpool’s Jodie Comer, of course. In fairness, I think Comer is excellent in this GoodFellas-esque tale of 1960s motorcycle club who kind of accidentally turn into a bike gang. For the first 20 minutes or so, it’s one of the best films of the year. As the story gets grimmer, it loses some momentum. Well worth seeing, though.

Full review here

Monkey Man

In which Dev Patel boldly reinvents himself as an action movie writer-star-director, in a film in which he both repeatedly gets the shit kicked out of him and kicks the shit out of a lot of other people. It’s set in India (although filmed in Indonesia), there’s some good atmosphere stuff and a couple of great action set pieces. Unfortunately, it also seems to want to say SOME BIG IMPORTANT STUFF about India and religion and politics and corruption and marginalised communities that Patel (who, it should be noted, comes from Harrow) is completely out of his depth with. 

The Iron Claw

Brutally depressing based-on-a-true-story wrestling drama. Basically, a classic horrible ex-wrestlers bullies his sons into attempting to do whatever it was that he never managed to do (it's a lot like the story of the Beach Boys, only with people chucking each out of a ring). It goes well occasionally, but he’s a monster and they all suffer and eventually… yeah. Means something to wrestling folk, I guess. People were impressed by how Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson managed to turn themselves into reasonable approximations of 1970s grapplers. It’s all competently made and acted and so on, but I don’t get the point of this kind of sadistic misery fest. 

Snack Shack

This starts off as a hyperactive retro teen comedy – it’s hard to follow what the characters are gabbling about in the first few scenes – but eventually switches gears, how successfully I’m not so sure. Our protagonists are a pair of super-precocious, entrepreneurial 14-year-olds looking for lucrative ways to spend the summer before high school. They end up in charge of the snack kiosk at the local pool and meanwhile, they’re both drawn to the slightly older army-brat girl who is only in town for a couple of months. The year, by the way, is a thankfully pre-web pre-mobile 1991.

I’d heard really good things about this one, and it nails the vibe of the time and place,  and the three leads (Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Abdalla) are well cast. But I didn’t like the two dudes much and I think we’re meant to be somewhat rooting for them. And it kept reminding me of far, far better movies: Dazed And Confused, The Myth Of The American Sleepover, Licorice Pizza…

The Fall Guy

Did I enjoy this? I certainly did. Am I aware of its flaws? I undoubtedly am. Quite why it needed to use a title and some character names from the early 1980 Lee Majors TV show that only a few of us remember is somewhat inexplicable. They could have simply started from scratch with the idea of a stunt man who investigates a crime. I think Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling are charming together, vital in a film that’s as much romcom as action movie if not more. I was less sold on it as a showcase for the art of stunts – it’s not well-shot enough to convey what we’re meant to be seeing. And the plot is super-flimsy. But the funny bits, for me, outweigh the ropier stuff.

Twisters

Idealistic grad student Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) goes storm chasing with experimental tornado-busting chemicals, it goes horribly wrong, cut to a few years later and one of her old chums (Anthony Ramos) tempts her back into the game. On the tornado circuit (which is a thing, this film would have you believe), they clash with a group of noisy YouTubers led by Tyler (Glen Powell). With the characters, we drive trucks into the path of various tornadoes, we’re asked to rethink Kate’s/our first impressions of some of the characters and it’s all leading up to a mega-storm climax. I think that’s about it? 

Twisters is a film that knows exactly what it is and delivers pretty solidly. Somewhat depends on just how charming you find Powell, meanwhile I found Edgar-Jones a lot more tolerable than I expected. 

Le Comte De Monte Cristo

The folks who brought us the recent two-part Three Musketeers are back with Dumas’ other most famous work. It has similar features: they’re taking it seriously, using tangibly there historical buildings, it’s in French… I’m instinctively treating these as assets for the movie and yet I fell in love with the story as a kid watching the 1934 Hollywood version. 

As with Les Trois Mousquetaires, French + location shooting doesn’t mean more faithful adaptation of the book. The emphasis here is on how cruel the drive for vengeance makes Edmond Dantes, something occasionally overstressed in the dialogue here when it is already clear from the action.

Still, there’s a good reason this has been endlessly adapted – it almost always works (although I advise avoiding the 1975 Richard Chamberlain one), and this is more than decent.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice A.D. 2024

Tim Burton’s very belated sequel is a movie of excellent bits and dud spaces in between. The biggest nostalgia hit for me was actually the opening credits, triggering not just memories of the original but a whole comedy-horror era including other Burton films alongside Men In Black, Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners…. 

Anyway, Winona Ryder’s Lydia is now a telly medium, her daughter (Jenna Ortega, very much the Ryder/Ricci heir) doesn’t like her and her boyfriend is her dodgy producer (Justin Theroux). With her stepmom (Catherine O’Hara), they all end up back at the house from the original movie and there inevitably summon Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton.) 

The better parts of the movie happen in the place where the newly dead are being processed – the design is great and reminiscent of early Burton films. 

The consensus – which I agree with – is that the movie is overstuffed with characters and inconsequential story. Plus, I think it suffers from the lack of less-eccentric characters along the lines of the ones played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin in the original. (I also find Ryder’s brittleness hard work.)

But if you liked Burton and have understandably stepped away, this is worth nipping back for as long as you have modest expectations.

Heretic

Imagine Aaron Sorkin wrote a horror movie – it wouldn’t exactly like this but it might be similar. The set-up: two young women (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) doing their Mormon missionary duties arrive at a rather Grimm’s Fairytales-like isolated cottage and are welcomed in from the storm by the owner (Hugh Grant), who is suspiciously eager to discuss questions of faith. Run! Run! But, of course, they don’t.

This is a very, very talky film. Grant’s character is one of those guys (yes, I relate) with too much time to ferment his theories, now seizing his chance to inflict them on an initially willing audience.

That will be maybe an overdose of words for many horror heads. And then when the film does switch in thrills-and-scares mode, it feels a bit second-hand and underwhelming. 

But if you do like horror with a theological slant and/or are enjoying Hugh Grant’s bad guy years, there’s fun to be had.

The Substance 

First, a fair question various people have asked in response to critics blithely referring to this as ‘body horror’ – what do they mean? Like The Fly, is probably the simplest answer. This has no jump scares and the violence happens in one relatively short burst but there’s lots and lots of gross stuff happening to human bodies, including deformities and entrails. Hope that clarifies things.

The Substance has a point it wants to make about the entertainment industry’s disgust at aging female bodies. It has a distinct look, with lots of strong colours, sometimes contrasting with very white rooms, long corridors… The vibe feels 1970s although it is set now. And it has Demi Moore, in the What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? and Sunset Boulevard tradition of once-huge stars making films about women showbiz no longer has a place for.

If you’re the kind of person who likes a film that is focused on its theme, then you might dig The Substance. I liked the design but that was about it. The film is an unjustifiable 2 hours 20 – it’s said most of what it’s usefully going to say in the first 40. It’s a satire but it’s not funny. I guess Moore is fine but it’s a big waste of Margaret Qualley and the only other actor with anything to do is Dennis Quaid, basically as the evils of TV personified. Not keen. (MUBI)

Inside Out 2

The biggest hit of the year – and yet somehow a bit under the radar? The follow-up to many mental health professionals’ favourite Pixar movie picks up with Riley hitting puberty and some new emotions staging a coup in her control room. The awkward business of romance is avoided (this is still a kids pic) – instead the external part of the plot hinges on (ice) hockey camp and the potential to climb the teenage social ladder by dumping your old friends for potential cooler ones. Meanwhile the internal plot has Joy, Anger etc as exiles in the far reaches of Riley’s mind. Almost inevitably not as good as the original but still quite traumatising at moments. 

(Disney+)

Anyone But You 

This is technically a 2023 release but snuck out right at the end of the year. It was initially thought of as a flop but then did the now-rare thing of picking up steam at the box office as the weeks went by, and I became a bit fascinated with it as passed $50 million… $100 million… $200 million! on a $25 million budget, prompting thinkpieces about whether the romcom was back and whether Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney were now A-list stars.

Through all of this, I hadn’t actually seen the movie. I was just enjoying it as a business story. Then eventually I saw it and… yeah, it’s not very good. The plot is Shakespeare-derived and maybe that’s part of the problem, it’s got that exhausting romcom thing of characters doing a bunch of random stuff because the film can’t have them get together yet. There’s also a tiresome raunchiness that feels forced. 

Maxxxine

I did something maybe a little odd, seeing this without having watched the two previous director Ti West + star Mia Goth horror movies – X, to which this is a direct sequel, and Pearl, a 60-years-earlier prequel. But neither of those seemed that appealing, while Maxxxine’s promise of a recreation of scuzzy ‘80s LA plus some Hollywood satire seemed more my bag.

And the look, the apartments, and particularly the video store, deliver. The soundtrack goes a bit too obvious. There are scenery-chewing opportunities gleefully seized by Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo Esposito and Bobby Carnevale. Elizabeth Debicki also gets some speeches about the horror-director-as-artist that you could maybe take as  satire but I suspect are West’s own views. 

Pretty cool.

Conclave

Handsomely mounted – so much scarlet! – political almost thriller. The pope has died and Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is in charge of the election of his successor. He’s in a unique position: he’s in charge of procedure but also a voter and an active member of one of the factions, the cardinals are sequestered and he alone gets news from the outside world. So he’s our point-of-view character. 

The early front runners are a charming American liberal (Stanley Tucci), a charismatic Nigerian representing the less developed world (Lucian Msamati), an outspoken Italian reactionary (a barnstorming Sergio Castellitto) and a smarmy American centrist (John Lithgow), but we know from real life that papal elections can have twists. 

By nature of the story, we’re mostly spending time with a bunch of not-young men. The film, adapted from a novel by Robert Harris, puts us in the liberal camp and seems pretty undisguised in its sympathies. Stylistically, the film harks back to a time when guys-in-a-room talking equalled mainstream entertainment – Twelve Angry Men but slightly more recently the John Grisham era of 1990s – but it’s careful to be current with its ideas.

A film made in Italy by German director Edward Berger with an international cast could seem a bit worrying but Conclave is what it promises: a well-crafted, well-acted middlebrow movie.

Juror #2

So I’d mentioned Twelve Angry Men and John Grisham in my Conclave mini-review and then I saw Clint Eastwood’s new film, which for stretches is fully in tribute mode to Sidney Lumet’s classic while being set, Grisham-like, in the south. There’s something satisfyingly familiar about so much of this film, with the hook being that Juror #2 (Nicholas Hoult) realises he was present in the build up to the crime… and maybe more than that? You get Toni Collette as the politically ambitious prosecutor and JK Simmons as a retired cop who has somehow snuck onto the jury. It’s a solid piece of work from 94(!)-year-old Clint, only slightly weakened by the miscasting of Hoult as a journalist working hard to stay sober.

Emilia Perez

This is a film in which there is a scene that contains a character doing the Carrie Bradshaw thing of narrating what she’s typing while the camera zooms in on the words – and, at the same time, there’s Les Mis-flavour singing -on-the-march going on. This is a film that would like you to think it has something to say about Mexico’s troubles that was filmed in Paris, written and directed by French people and whose third lead (playing a Mexican) is an American pop star whose Spanish is audibly non-native. In other words, sometimes a film is just so far from what you like, it feels unfair to judge it.  

In case you don’t know. Emilia Perez is a a musical directed by Jacques Audiard’s film about a Mexican cartel boss (Karla Sofía Gascón) who transitions to a woman and maybe a better person. Gascón is good in places, people have raved about Zoe Saldaña in this film but I don’t get it and I don’t blame Selena Gomez, I blame the people who cast her.  (Netflix)

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die

I was very pleasantly wrongfooted by 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, which was way better than a legacy sequel to a pair of noisy ‘90s action comedies should be. The downside of that is I approached this one with unreasonable expectations. 

The attempt at freshening things up is that Will Smith’s Mike, usually the cocky one, is now anxious, while Martin Lawrence’s Marcus feels invincible after a near-death experience, so the balance of their partnership/friendship is flipped, or at least that’s the idea. 

If you’ve seen any of the previous films, you know what to expect. There are gags, explosions, fast cars etc. it’s fine but it’s absolutely never surprising.

[greensparty]

Album Reviews: Sleater-Kinney / The Smile

This week it's like I'm nostalgic for the good old days of January 2024. Way way back in the beginning of this year, I got to review Sleater-Kinney's Little Rope and The Smile's Wall of Eyes. Both are easily among the best albums of this year so far. This week, I got to review the Deluxe Edition of Little Rope as well as The Smile's second studio album of 2024, Cutouts.

Sleater-Kinney Little Rope Deluxe Edition

The Pacific Northwest indie rockers Sleater-Kinney have been on my radar since 1997’s Dig Me Out (got my copy on vinyl). They’ve done some great albums, but that still stands as my personal favorite. I saw them headline the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island in 2002 and they blew me away. The band’s 2019 album The Center Won’t Hold was a polarizing album that was so polarizing drummer Janet Weiss left before its release, but I actually really dug it and I even named “The Future is Here” my #1 Song of 2019. Their first post-Janet Weiss album was Path of Wellness, which I named my #6 Album of 2021. There are purists who feel it’s not the same band without Weiss. But Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein have kept the band going and their album Little Rope, released in January. This week sees the release of Little Rope Deluxe Edition.

album cover

Deluxe album cover

In my review, I noted that after after Weiss's departure with the album Path of Wellness, "as much as I liked the album - it is a band trying to figure out how to go from being a three-headed monster to a two-headed monster. But with this one, Brownstein and Tucker are clearly past that transition and diving back into the indie rock sound they perfected over the course of the last 30 years." In March, I got to see them live on St. Patrick's Day in Boston at The Paradise performing a number of the songs off of Little Rope, doing 9 of the 10 album tracks. So you're probably wondering, why an expanded edition of an album that came out only eight months ago? Well it has all 10 of the Little Rope tracks as well as three new songs recorded during the recording session, live versions of some of the songs recorded in Australia, and the Frayed Rope Sessions EP, which had stripped back versions of some of the songs.

Brownstein and Tucker front stage at The Paradise on 3/17/24

Bottom line: The original album itself is one of the best albums released this year and you can expect to see it on my Best Albums of 2024 list. The Frayed Rope Sessions are actually rather interesting versions of some of the songs. It's not just a bunch of remixes where they all get lost in the shuffle and don't measure up to the originals, they are actually kind of interesting. The live tracks are good but are they worth re-buying the album you already have? Not really worth re-buying but I'd say some of the new tracks are worth buying on their own, like "Here Today", which could've been included on the album. As a fan I definitely dug these bells and whistles, but what really matters here is the original album!

For info on Sleater-Kinney

Little Rope: 4 out of 5 stars

Little Rope Deluxe Edition: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Smile Cutouts

At what point does a side project become its own thing and not just a side project of a bigger band that is the "day job" of the members? That's, maybe, more of a philosophical question that encompasses more than just an easy answer, but you got to admit it's an interesting question! Singer Thom Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood are among the strongest members of Radiohead, a band filled with strong personalities. Add to the two of them, Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner and their side project The Smile is a band that is bigger than the sum of their parts. I named their first album A Light for Attracting Attention my #1 Album of 2022! That album was good enough to be a Radiohead album. Earlier this year they released Wall of Eyes, which I’d go so far as to say it’s actually better than some Radiohead albums. After debuting some new songs on their UK tour earlier this year, they have surprised everyone with their third album and second of 2024 with Cutouts, which drops today from XL Records. Somehow they found time to record in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios!

album cover

I am a huge fan of Radiohead and through this blog I’ve been fortunate enough to cover a number of the band members’ solo and side projects, i.e. guitarist Ed O'Brien AKA EOB’s album Earth, drummer Philip Selway’s album Strange Dance and the live album Live at Evolution Studios, bassist Colin Greenwood toured with Nick Cave last year, Yorke’s soundtrack to Suspiria, and a number of Jonny Greenwood’s soundtracks (You Were Never Really Here, There Will Be Blood and Spencer). Just this past April, Yorke released his soundtrack to Confidenza. Jonny Greenwood is currently scoring Paul Thomas Anderson's next film The Battle of Baktan Cross as well. But you need to differentiate the solo and side projects from Radiohead. Having said that, it can be hard when you notice the musical sensibilities coming out in their music. For example on Cutouts, one of the standout tracks "Instant Psalm" bears a clear correlation to the Radiohead outtake "I Promise" that was featured on the OK Computer 2017 box set OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017.

The Smile's Skinner, Yorke and Greenwood smiling

Bottom Line: I out and out loved Wall of Eyes and I gave it a very rare 5 out of 5 stars, so this is a tough act to follow whether it was released in the same year or years later. My initial reaction after listening a few times is that it's not as mind-blowing as Wall of Eyes, but it definitely has something special when these three play new music together. My goodness - if this is some thrown together last minute album, it's better than some albums that take years and years to make. It's also a grower of an album that gets better on each listen. The art rock and jazz sound coming into the alt rock is something these guys have perfected. Now if only The Smile would play the U.S. again! Or better yet, Radiohead releases a new album and when they tour, The Smile opens!!!

For info on The Smile

4.5 out of 5 stars

[stereogeekspodcast]

[Transcript] Season 3, Episode 9. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1 Review

Why is the earth shaking? Could it be... Godzilla? The Stereo Geeks weren't planning to watch Monarch: Legacy of Monsters but once we started watching it, we could not stop. Ron and Mon discuss what kept us going back to the show, what could have been done better, and how that father-son acting duo worked out. Warning, spoilers ahead.

Did you enjoy Monarch: Legacy of Monsters?

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters image courtesy Apple TV+.

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks.

Today we're discussing Apple TV+'s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

I'm Mon.

And I'm Ron.

Let's talk about this show.

So we have 10 episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

It's split into two timelines.

One is set in the 1950s, when the Titans are first spotted, and Monarch is being set up.

And the other is in 2015, after a Titan attack and the search for answers.

So let's delve a little bit deeper into what all this means, because you're probably wondering, who are the Titans?

So Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a TV show, which is the latest installment in the Monsterverse franchise.

And to explain, the Monsterverse is this American franchise, and it's a shared fictional universe, something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if you like.

So this Monsterverse features Godzilla, King Kong, and a bunch of other characters who were originally created and owned by Toho Company Limited.

This franchise started with Godzilla, the movie in 2014, which starred Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Then we had Kong's Skull Island with Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston, which I had no idea was connected to Godzilla, but it is.

Following which, we had Godzilla, King of the Monsters.

This is a direct sequel to the Godzilla movie.

This was starring Millie Bobby Brown.

And the sequel to that was Godzilla vs.

Kong, which I have not seen.

I didn't even know this movie existed, so this is news to me.

And Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is connected to all these films.

The next film is going to be Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

That's coming out in 2024.

None of these are related to apparently the superior Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus One.

We have not seen that yet.

It's on our list.

I have to admit, I'm a little bit confused because I thought all the promos were for the same TV show, and it turns out Godzilla Minus One is a movie.

I have to say, Godzilla is not like a thing that we follow.

He was, you could say, in the background of our childhood.

I remember us catching a few Godzilla movies or snippets here and there, but really he wasn't really a thing for us.

But we decided to watch this show after seeing a few of the promos.

It looked kind of interesting.

And well, surprisingly, the show was compelling.

We could not stop watching it.

I think it helps that you don't have to watch all the other movies to understand what's happening in this show.

In fact, in my opinion, some of the reveals were actually more exciting because I completely forgot what had happened in the movies I'd seen.

First episode in, I was hooked.

I don't know why I was hooked.

But I mean, one of the reasons could be the fact that it really does deal a lot with the aftermath of the G-Day disaster.

It's the day that Godzilla attacked San Francisco.

I've always found that very interesting.

How does humanity pick itself up from mass tragedy?

And then in the first episode, we find out about Hiroshi's double life.

Yeah, I needed to see more of that.

Honestly, this show is unpredictable in so many ways, not always in good ways, but it keeps you guessing and really keeps you wanting more.

So let's get into some of the negatives.

The show is so inconsistent with storytelling.

Is Monarch good?

Is it bad?

When did Monarch actually begin?

Even that's up for debate.

Like they say one date at one point and somebody else is convinced it's another date.

Very confusing.

Also, please explain why Hiroshi made the life choices that he did.

10 episodes, we still don't have an answer.

And let's not even get into what's actually happening in the show.

I can't say I understood most of what was going on on screen.

And I don't believe I understood people's motivations either.

I know this is a fictional fantastical show about kaiju and monsters.

Even then, I would like the science to make some modicum of sense.

I can't say it did.

Maybe because of the unpredictable nature of the story and the characters especially, I was just like, you know what?

It's inconsistent and some of the actions are beyond belief.

But this is riveting stuff.

I want to see more of what's happening.

And I also like to say that I love how this show goes back to the Japanese roots of this character.

When I say this character, I mean Godzilla.

He's the main character, come on.

A lot of stuff when it gets commentated by the US, they kind of forget its origins or its roots.

So it's nice that Godzilla or in the original Japanese pronunciation, Gojira, its heritage is actually acknowledged in this show.

That being said, the Titans, the monsters of the title, aside from Godzilla, I was not that impressed with the other designs.

With Godzilla, I love the scale of this monster.

Apparently, it's even better in Godzilla minus one.

I can't wait to watch that movie.

But in this one, especially, you feel the scale, you feel the fear and this rippling design of this creature.

The others, I don't know, they just look like very poor knockoffs.

For me, I wasn't really thinking that much about the science or the inconsistencies.

I was really going with the flow because, like, you have a very innocuous start.

You have Kate, played by Anna Sawai, basically going to Japan from San Francisco, and she's going to settle her father's estate because he's been declared dead.

And when she goes there, she finds that he's got another wife and a child.

And her newly found brother, Kentaro, played by Ren Watabe, his immediate animosity towards Kate.

I really enjoyed watching that because that is a very natural reaction.

He's angry at his father.

His father is not here.

He's apparently dead.

He's going to take it out on the first person he can, and that's Kate.

And it was such a great foil to his mother's desire to know her husband's other child.

So for me, on the one hand, I was a bit upset that we didn't see as much of a Godzilla.

Ten episodes and maybe three or four glimpses.

The last episode, though, was outstanding.

Oh, my God.

But this is the kind of stuff that kept me riveted.

And the other thing that I really liked was Kate's response to G-Day.

She completely shuts down, which is, again, a very natural reaction because we realize, and it takes a couple of episodes, they don't show it immediately.

We just know that something bad happened to her.

All her students died.

She was the only one who got off the school bus and she watched all of them die.

That's not something that you can just bounce back from.

This trip to Japan is literally the first time in a long time that Kate is being human.

And then we learn, again, this is also slowly eeked out, that it wasn't just her students that she lost.

It looks like she also lost her girlfriend, who she was cheating on.

Like father, like daughter, apparently.

Yeah, I have to say, I really like the younger actors in this show.

Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, and especially Ren Watabe.

They really held their own and carried the show.

Sawai, I felt like she was so sweet and she was so emotional as Kate.

And you really feel for this character, who's been through so much.

And she faces an even more ridiculous circumstance in the very first episode.

She thought surviving a literal monster attack would be the worst thing she ever faced in her life.

Well, wait till you get to Japan.

Talking about Kiersey Clemons, her May is such an anomalous character here.

Honestly, at first, I thought she's just a tech person.

You always have the tech person in these monster movies.

But then we kind of slowly find out that May and Kentaro were in a pretty strong romantic relationship.

She's learned Japanese while she's been there.

And then May just starts revealing that she's got all these secrets.

She's not telling us what secrets, but there are a lot of secrets.

And these are the kind of things that will get her killed.

And everybody around her as well.

Unlocking those truths about May, there's an entire episode that's dedicated to that.

That's how important a character she is.

It really kept me riveted.

But I would say that once those secrets are revealed, I felt like May kind of faded into the background.

She didn't have as much to do.

But the show still tries to keep some kind of a focus on her.

Because then she kind of becomes the love interest for Kit.

Yeah, I've seen Clemence in a few other places, and I've never been all that impressed by her.

But I really dug this performance of hers as May.

She's really someone who's no nonsense.

She's also scared, she's angry, she's kind of lost.

And then it becomes this really sweet kind of thing between her and Kate, where they're always looking for each other and trying to help each other out, and it's really, really adorable.

Oh yeah, that was just so cute.

I really like the fact that, you know, there's romantic chemistry between the actors, and any other show, they might have just ignored it.

But I was kind of relieved that the show just went with it and said, okay, fine, these two have great chemistry, let them be a couple.

It sucks for Kentaro though.

But there's a love triangle in the past as well.

Yeah, see, this is where the story issues come in, because it wasn't until Kate and May have this really sweet moment, not a romantic moment, but it's the start of one, that you realize, oh, this is the start of a love triangle.

Oh, they're paralleling something from 1950.

A better writing team would have made that connection more seamless, and not just that connection.

It would have been throughout the show with other parts of the story.

But I really want to talk about Ren Watabe.

To me, he was the star of this show.

I also think he got a lot to do.

Kintaro is really the emotional core of the story.

He also goes off alone on several occasions.

Those are stupid decisions, but you know, that's focusing only on him.

So I found that he was carrying a lot on his shoulders on his own.

He was really excellent and really understated as well.

I genuinely would love to see more of him in Hollywood, but I do not know.

But yeah, these young folks, really, really good.

Let's go to the storylines in the past.

So we've got Keiko, who is a Japanese scientist.

She meets Lee Shaw, played by Wyatt Russell, and Will Randa, played by Anders Holm.

Now this is where the other love triangle comes in.

I have to say they didn't have as much chemistry as the three in 2015.

Honestly, the romance makes no sense in this show.

It's absolutely bizarre.

Like, who's in love with whom?

Why?

How do the timelines on some of these romances even work?

Why is X kissing Y when they were actually marrying Z?

I don't understand what is happening.

Weird, weird, weird.

Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Keiko is an amazing character.

Like, she was my favorite on this show.

She is formidable.

She's smart.

She's also really passionate about her work, and especially to protect the Titans.

I really liked that about her.

She doesn't want to blow the Titans up.

She doesn't just see them as a threat.

She sees them as a whole bunch of other creatures who have been happily living side by side with humanity and she wants to protect them and learn from them.

Mari Yamamoto was really good as Keiko, but I think she needed more story.

I feel like she got the emotional angles, and yes, her passion for her work and these creatures was great, but I just felt like she needed to be more of a doer.

Well, there's a reason why she didn't get as much story as we would have liked, and that's kind of something that happens in the very first episode.

And the rest of the season, I felt like it subsumed the fun science stuff that Keiko was doing with the Keiko-Lee-Billy love triangle in a way that added a layer of complexity to their interactions, but I'm still struggling to understand why Keiko got with Billy at all.

He seems to be a bit thick to me.

No offense, but I was wholly unconvinced by Anders Holm, who plays Billy Rander in this show.

Not sure what vibe he was going for.

I mean, it's kind of explained in the last episode, but at the same time, throughout the show, I'm like, he seems to be on a different plane than the rest of the show characters, so I was just not interested in watching this character at all.

But I love the casting choice of Wyatt and Kurt Russell playing the same character at two different ages.

I'll admit, the Nippo baby conversation comes into the fray here, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

I don't know about you, though.

For me, it does put a spotlight on how Wyatt lacks the charisma of his dad.

I mean, I'm not even the biggest Kurt Russell fan here, though we did watch a lot of Tango and Cash's Kids, so that might explain a lot.

But even then, I'm like, Kurt Russell just has this presence, and he's so good.

And then whenever it was Wyatt, it's like, okay, yeah, he's doing his thing, but oh, no, let's bring Kurt back on the screen.

Honestly, I really liked watching the Russells.

It was so unexpected.

And I love the…

Obviously, the camera did these things where you're looking at one person's face and then you go to the other ones.

But there was such synergy between their characters.

I really was very impressed by that.

And yes, I agree.

Wyatt doesn't quite have the charisma of his dad, but you can kind of see why Keiko liked him.

And you can kind of see why the young people in 2015 just follow Lee Shaw, even though they don't know who he is, they don't know his connection to their dad.

They just go with him.

But there's just something about Kurt Russell.

His Lee Shaw is just so scarily driven and he's almost like way too enthusiastic and funny and jolly, but at the most inopportune moment, like everybody is terrified around him and he's like, oh my god, this is amazing what's happening.

What?

No, we are almost going to die.

But I loved watching him.

Yeah, I think, you know, when you're watching somebody like that, who's got just so many levels to his performance, the way his face lights up and he sees this particular person and other times when he knows something and he doesn't want to reveal it or he's like a little bit scared, but again, Macho Guy doesn't want to reveal that.

You see that and then you've got all these characters in Monarch.

They were the weakest link for me.

Everybody, I know they were doing a good job, but they just were so dull.

All those performances were so dull.

The characters were so dull.

But that final scene in the finale though, huh?

I'm not even that invested in the Monsterverse and I got so excited.

Bring on season two.

Honestly, this is the kind of show where you come for the titans, but you stay for the human drama.

And with that ending, we need a season two.

And that's it from us talking about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Let us know how you like the show.

See you next time.

Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email stereogeekspodcast@gmail.com. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[shaanks]

@lady-lauren the sweetiest pea thank you so much for the tag!!

What are your favorite books and why?

These are in no particular order

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King - there's always been something really compelling to me about kind of understated, internal horror like this. This girl steps off the path on the Appalachian trail to take care of something, and when she goes to try to find the path again, she can't. There are eventually some potentially supernatural elements, though given that the narration is through the lens of a child, its hard to determine, but like. MOST of what drives the fear and discomfort and alarm of this story is a child, having to go down inside themselves physically and psychologically to survive being lost in a place that absolutely could kill them. I've read it so many times, I always end up going back to it, and it's actually really short comparatively.

The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks - this is one of a pretty long series of fantasy stories, and I love like a TON of the installments, but aside from LOTR this particular book, the way it handles magic and the cost of using it, the way that loss and grief and purpose are handled, and the characters that have to figure things out in this particular book are like. Some of my favorite high fantasy iterations of all time.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi - this one is, admittedly, like a children's book, except it really also isn't. It's historical fiction set in the 1800s about a like. high society girl, who is set to take a voyage from England to Rhode Island to meet/visit family. She becomes aware only after leaving that she's not only the only girl on board, she is the only passenger booked, period. it ends up being a pretty harrowing story, and there is a lot of depth to her fear and the allies and enemies she makes on board. I read it in like middle school and it's held a special place in my heart ever since.

Demon in my View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - this for me is like. THE vampire novel that got me into the genre and that I kind of subconsciously measure everything against. There are a couple other books in this series that are also really good and fun but this is The One for me. It's my ultimate version of the classic cliched "I've always been different and no one's ever seen me until He Did" and then "he" is a centuries old vampire that's looked 25 the whole time who is different in the same, nebulous way lmfao.

Honorable mention: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - it's an honorable mention bc I haven't managed to finish it yet but it's literally this incredible nightmare monster of a story that is somehow so incredibly compelling and also like someone attempting to write down an incoherent fever dream while it is still actively in progress. I don't know how to recommend reading this book to anyone, but I also think it's 100% worth cost of entry to try.

your turn! (no pressure, as always!): @gumgumvibecheck @wyvernslovecake @mandiemegatron @quinloki @petrichorium

and literally anyone else who wants to play, I also love hearing about what people like to read and what everyone's tastes are!

What are your favorite books and why?

I’ve been seeing weird discourse going around about anti-intellectualism, and people are always always talking shit on booktok. I’m tired of it.

No judgments whatsoever—doesn’t matter what age group it was written for or how awful the author might be—I want to know your favorites, I want to know why you love them, and I want this to reach as many people as possible, so please don’t hesitate to tag others!

I’ll start! In no particular order:

A Series of Unfortunate Events - the series that got me into reading in the first place. Also the series that holds the first book that ever gave me a visceral reaction while reading it.

To Kill a Mockingbird - has one of my favorite literary figures of all time (Atticus Finch), some of my favorite quotes, and really just kind of changed how I viewed the world and the privileges I have in it.

Dune - changed the way I look at world building entirely. I’ve only read the first book and only because it was assigned summer reading, but I’m so glad I did. I’ve never looked at fiction the same way.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - I actually can’t pick just one or two reasons. It’s really a fantastic book all around. The world building, the history, the characters, the settings, plus how it all comes together in the end. I’ll never not recommend it to people.

Your turn!

@lady-lauren @kweenkatsuki-fics @entirelysein-e @aceofbooks @monst @theoxenfree

[spade-riddles]

Submission:Analysis of the scene in the Anti-Hero video

I am shocked at the loudness of the scene about the gaylor and hetlor sides of the fandom. I think it shows Taylor really understands the dynamics of the fandom to a minute degree, and is trying to communicate with hetlors, gaylors, and jerk through it. Here are my thoughts:

Chad is wearing headphones, suggesting he is the only one who is *really* listening to her music.

The queer-coded son Chad is more likable and sympathetic, but also pretty pissed off and annoying too (guilty lol), using her to make podcasts and books that are ultimately about himself

"Growing Up Swift" sounds like he's about to say "Growing Up Gay," a common trope.

Nice that she calls us the Chad though, like as opposed to the virgin in the Chad/virgin memes. Like she's calling gaylors cooler. The character has a kind of outlaw vibe, cynical, doesn't care what people think, hates everybody especially fake obnoxious swifties/Preston and Kimber making fake sad faces. So true for us

Preston and Kimber yelling at Chad for recording the funeral for his podcast, like how hetlors criticize us for prying into her life for evidence even though they're the ones who are actually harming her

The ritzy son Preston using her name to get into the country club is like the twitter-famous swifties who exclude gaylors and clout-chase in the fandom

Kimber calls Chad "you monster" like how Tay calls herself a monster on a hill, aligning herself and Chad in their queer-coded villain-ness

Chad is wearing sunglasses while the other two are taking selfies, reflecting how gaylors are often more anonymous online than hetlors

Kimber says "great well, good job chad, you finally pushed it too far" and he replies "what are you implying by that." This sounds like it could be dialogue in a movie where a character is glass-closet gay, but also sounds exactly like how the hetlors are always accusing gaylors of ruining Taylors career/life, sometimes in a subtly (or overtly) homophobic way, homophobia that they justify with "you're crazy, you're a bad fan." Also resonates with don't blame me "they say she's gone too far this time" about being too loud 

Chad says he flew all the way here from Ibiza, an island known for clubbing and tourism. Chad seems excluded from the rest of the family like gaylors must find remote corners of the fandom to congregate to avoid attack. Tourists come have a fun wild time in Ibiza/Gaylorland, and it can be pretty fun to stay for a while, but Chad seems to possibly live there full time. Full-time gaylors living on our clubbing/tourism island can attest it can get lonely sometimes

Chad being the one to excitedly exclaim "there's probably a secret encoded message that means something else" is very gaylor side of the fandom; the other two agree that mom does that but they're not as excited about it and they don't immediately think of it and turn to it the way we do. They're more used to ignoring the secret encoded messages haha. They are very gullible when she writes "there's no secret encoded message" and just stop looking, like the hetlors do every time she hetsplains some nonsensical narrative about tom Hiddleston or whoever lmao

I think she is also poking fun at Jerk with the portrayal of this family dynamic. He is, in fact, the gay son in a ritzy country club family. He is desperate not to be seen that way, to fit in instead of sticking out like Chad does. Naming Kimber something so close to Kimby is like a threat to Jerk -- it's like saying, I could out you easily in some piece of art, I could write about your family, I could say your name in a lyric, I am not afraid. Chad says Preston name-drops mom to get into his country club, like how Jerk's PR and clout is majorly helped by his association with KK. 

I think it harkens back to TLGAD too, as Kimber wants the beach house so badly, which we can assume is Rebekah Harkness's Rhode Island house from the song. I always thought TLGAD was partially a threat to Jerk, as his family is an American dynasty and Taylor plans to have a marvelous time ruining it. Kimber wants that house, and Taylor doesn't allow them to continue the dynasty in it. It could even be a metaphor for taking the baby, cutting off his lineage. Who knows if she never showed up indeed.

In the end, it is the homophobic country music fans and those who need to identify with a specific (straight) form of womanhood that will turn on Taylor if she comes out, as seen through Kimber killing her and then showing up in the Fearless dress. Mainstream clout-chasey hetlors (Preston) will side with homophobes and point fingers at gaylors (Chad) like they always do. When Chad calls out what's really going on a terrible fight erupts. I think this shows Taylor sees us duking it out over her on the internet and feels bad about how ugly it can get, watching us all get hurt and feeling powerless to stop it even though it's about her

The fact that she's leaving both the gaylors and the hetlors out of the will makes me think she might not give us the explanation we want, even in the end; we may be just as disappointed as the hetlors. Maybe she's preparing us for the idea that when she leaves Toe, she won't immediately get with KK or publicly come out/explain anything. She may just be a single cat lady for a while, and we may just end up with 13 cents :/ Even though we are the more sympathetic gay son, we still may get nothing in the end... at least she warned us.

[thealmightyemprex]

Halloweenathon: The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo

It aint the spooky season without talkin about everyones favorite mystery solving dog ,and why not talk about the series where he first encountered real ghost and teamed up with Vincent Price

This 1985 series follows Scooby Doo (Don Messick) Shaggy (Case Kassem ),Daphne (Heather North ),and Scoobys nephew Scrappy (Also Don Messick ) as due to the manipulations of two ineffectual ghosts who wish to gain respect , Weerd (Arte Johnson ) and Bogel (Howard Morris) , Scooby and Shaggy have let loose 13 evil ghosts who seek to use the Chest of demons to rule the world ,and with the help of a con artist named Flim Flam (Susan Blu ) and a powerful mystic named Vincent Van Ghoul (Vincent Price),the gang must capture the malevolent ghosts

So my relationship with the Scooby Doo franchise is....Odd .For years I have said I am not a fan ,but realized I kind of am one .Specifically I am I find the Scooby Doo formula kind of a slog ,of the villain just being some greedy captalist dressed up as a monster(Cept for Pup Named Scooby Doo that show rocks ) .....What I love is when the monsters are real ,hell when I was a kid it was a huge deal to see Scooby Doo on Zombie Island where the villains are legit life force eating cat monsters...But older Scooby fan s will know that this was not first time he faced real monsters :There were the movies Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School and Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf(Which I like but I know people dont ) .....And of course The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo

Now while I grew up on reruns of various Scooby shows like the original Scooby Doo Where Are You,The New Scooby Doo Movies ,A Pup Named Scooby Doo and so on......This is one I never saw in reruns,and honestly I only heard about it cause one of my favorite horror actors Vincent Price was a main character ,so for Spooky month I decided to watch all 13 episodes

Now .....THis show might be the weirdest Scooby show I have ever seen .The show was developed by Tom Ruegger ,who would go on to do Animaniacs,Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid and you can kind of see some of his sensibilities in this show,in that it runs on rule of funny ,and there are a lot absurd and fourth wall jokes(The weirdest one involving a woman complaining about fire being used in a kids cartoon in a scene involving a dragon,which then becomes Scrappy calling her racist against Dragons ....This is an actual scene ) ..You also get aesthetic things like to modern fans this show to watch.....Cause Fred and Velma arent in it ,of the main group its just Daphne , Shaggy and Scooby.Also since its the 80's they have their 80's redesigns (I refer to this era as the Red shirt Shaggy era )

As for character depictions Shaggy is pretty much himself,scared of monsters and loving food ,and Casey Kasem is great as always .I think this might be my favorite use of Daphne who is kind of the voice of reason and sort of leader . SCrappy makes his fnal appearence in a Scooby show and I am just gonna say it....I .DONT.HATE .SCRAPPY.I think he has his fun moments and I think this might be the best use of him ,as he really works as a double act with the equally overconfident Flim Flam

Scooby Doo is himself....But this might just be the most interesting depiction of Scooby ,because his fear of ghosts is depicted in a few episodes like crippling PTSD ,like facing real ghosts is taking a toll on poor Scooby .Also....WE MEET SCOOBYS PARENTS !!! I dunno that just blew my mind

Now lets talk about the new characters we meet a kid con artist named Flim Flam ....I think I hate Flim Flam .Not entirely hat,mind you ,he has some funny moments ,Susan Blus vocal performance is good and again I love his double act with Scrappy ....But he is so smug and cocky you just want him to shut up sometimes.Add to that he was a network addition and the writers hated him,and I dont blame them

We also have recurring villains in Weerd and Bogel who basically latch on to which of the 13 Ghosts is the big bad of the episode,and are the comical villains in juxtaposition to the often more serious 13 Ghosts. Not much to say ,they are fine though comedians Arte Johnson and Howard Morris deliver great vocal performances

The best part of the series however is Vincent Van Ghoul,a powerful sorcerer who guides the team .Part of why he works is he is played by the legendary Vincent Price.Much like Flim Flam the inclusion of a big name celeb was a network but which one was up to the creative team,The choice of Vincent Price I think was a brillaint one .Personally I like to describe Vincent Price as a master of Cozy horror,he's spooky but there is sense of fun and comfort to him and the honestly the same goes for Scooby Doo even at its creepiest .He is also just a genuinely good voice actor with a wonderful sense of humor so he is a perfect fit for the show .Now the show could have coasted on being a saturday morning cartoon starring Vincent Price (The character is even designed to look like Price ) but truthly Van Ghoul is a fun character on his own.Van Ghoul is both the wise expostion guy ,but he is also the team dad who will just hang out with the gang .He also has his faults that make him more endearing ,he gets grumpy and one of my favorite moments he's revealed to be an obnoxious house guest .He's truly a funny character and he adds a bit of spice to the show

The shows humor is mixed ,sometimes it is really funny,mostly when they just go off the rails or show off the comedic timing of both Casey Kasem and Vincent Price ......Other times,especially when its Flim Flam it can be annoying .Animation is ....Well its both a Hannah Barbera cartoon AND it was made in the 80's so its not great though there are some good designs

Now my top 5 episodes are

5.Its a Wonderful Scoob-Scooby quits the gang and is shown what the world will be like if villain of the week Time Slime won .Its one where Scooby truly is a hero have to have it

4.The Ghouliest Show on Earth -A circus themed adventure with my favorite the 13 Ghosts ,Professor Phantazmo played by the amazing Alan Oppenheimer

3.Scooby in Kwakyland -The gang are trapped in a newspaper comic ,theres is some great art direction and I adore the side plot about Vincent being a house guest

2.A Spooky Little Ghoul Like You -Vincent is placed under a love spell by the seductress Nekara who plans on draining his power .Good plot and just fun

1.Thats Monstertainment -The gang is sucked into a old Frankenstein movie and must play the parts till they can find a way out.What can I say I love old monster movies and this to me was the funniest episode

Overall its not a perfect show ,but if you like Vincent Price,Scooby Doo and bonkers cartoons I reccomend it

@ariel-seagull-wings @amalthea9 @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @the-blue-fairie @themousefromfantasyland @angelixgutz @princesssarisa @filmcityworld1