#thrilled to have sequels for both coming out but its a dangerous game!!!! its a dangerous game

[fiftytwotwenty]

Movie Monday - May 4th, 2020

"Best Science Fiction Film..."

Best Science Fiction Film, a Hotly Debated Topic which we plan to dissect.

First... Let's define the Genre:

Science fiction film (or sci-fi film) is a genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as robots/andriods, interstellar travel, alien world and extraterrestrial life, time travel, and ESP. (wikipedia)

But When in Doubt Follow These Three Simple Rules:

Humans come from Earth

Earth-Based Monsters are created by Scientists/Man (Godzilla)

No Unexplainable Magic or Ghosts

The Dissection:

Let's go Straight to the Juglar... First on the Chopping Block:

Star Wars (1977) is getting the Early Boot for Not Being Fully Faithful to the Sci-Fi Genre - Remember We need an emphasis on Science.

It does depict Interstellar Travel, Alien Worlds, and Extraterrestrials, but it also packs in elements of Magic (The Force) and Ghosts.

And Before Hate Speech Rolls in because I stated Star Wars is Not Sci-Fi Enough or for calling "The Force" magic take it from George Lucas himself. In 2015 he declared Star Wars is not Science Fiction Film but a Fantasy Film in the Guise of a Space Opera.

Sorry to Say on Star Wars Day...so let's Just Let the Fourth be With You.

NEXT UP

Blade Runner (1982) brings a glimmer to my eye whenever I think of it.

A grandiose tale of Man and Android cohabitating in a world of cyber punk.

Packed with Strong Visuals, Stellar Acting, but sadly it's Story, much like it's protagonist, Rick Deckard, has identity issues.

* Granted "Blade Runner 2049" May Answer Fans Unanswered Questions *

Blade Runner has SEVEN Different Cuts which can majorly redirect the protagonist's journey making the movie a vast conversation piece which can split a room.

We Love You, But You Still Have Some Demons to Sort Out.

NEXT UP

Let's Go to April 3, 1968...

Probably one of the Best Days in Cinema... The wide release of Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey:

Yes, both films had earlier premieres to create buzz, but April 3, 1968 is considered the Wide Release for both Films...

Planet of the Apes (1968) is a strong personal favorite and has sparked an intriguing Cinematic Universe with its follow up sequels and strong prequels and we cannot forget its comic and animated series as well. Just imagine the joy, wonder, and discussion Planet of the Apes created in 1968...The Story, The Makeup, The Sets, and The "Damn It All To Hell" Ending...

The movie kicks off with interstellar travel and crash lands into some Heavy Ape-Shit Catastrophe with themes rooted in Race, Slavery, Government, Evolution, Destruction of Humanity, and one can even argue Animal Rights and Time Travel.

Best Science Fiction Film? Sorry, Charlie. What keeps this from Top Spot...

Looking at Production History of the Film a lot scientifically strong elements were striped away during rewrites of Rod Sterling's (of The Twilight Zone) first drafts to help save on the film budget which did lead to a more Primitive/Dystopian feel that we see in the film, but also opened the flood gates for a more Campy Vibe and at times Baffable Dialogue and Plot Points.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a hardstriking take on Science Fiction. Fans and Critics will state Stanley Kubrick broke the Sci-Fi mold with his stunning detailed filming techniques, brillant cinematography, and his jaw dropping space realism.

The ground which 2001 transverses is mesmerizing. To think Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke started writing the book/script of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1964. The first day of filming was December 29, 1965 - 3 Years, 6 Months, and 21 Days before the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (July 20, 1969). With its Film Production, Film Release, and Majestic Visuals it can be somewhat easy to buy into the Moon Landing Hoax - Some Conspiracy Theorists' actually believe Moon Landing is footage from Stanley's cutting room floor...

But that was Stanley Kubrick - He was meticulous - He studied Educational and NASA space exploration footage and had conversations with Astronomer Carl Sagan so he can make the most realistic depictions of space travel.

So, is 2001: A Space Odyssey the Best Science Fiction Film?

No.

2001 is a strong contender and no one can argue against the film's techinical tenacity, but it's not numero uno.

You can say 2001 was revolutionary for its time, but so was Le Voyage Dans La Luna (1902) and Metropolis (1927).

Or you can say the movie is flawless and that I am just too young and I "don't get it". There is a multitude of things we can say about 2001 in all of it's praise but we then cannot exclude its short comings. The pacing is long winded and the plot is flat so much it pulls it out 1st place contention.

2001: A Space Odyssey is not a movie - It's an Experience - It's Art.

Remember, film being a form of Art and Expression, can be Easily Appreciated but does not have to be Enjoyed.

....

So... We knocked off Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: A Space Odyssey...

What possibly could be Top Dog?

.... Dustin, Drum Roll, Please...

Ridley Scott's Alien (1979):

A Sci-Fi Horror Flick that follows a Crew of a Commerical Space Tugger who answers a distress call from a nearby moon on their way home only to be diminished by a Stowaway Parasitic Threat.

This film is laced with unnerving tension from the beginning which still stands up to the test of time:

Let's start with the cast/crew. Nowadays a Sci-Fi flick is going to be casted with juiceheads - big Hollywood types, but not Ridley's Scott's Alien.

We follow a "down to earth" crew - everyday/humanized characters - which allows for the audience to empathize and increases the threat in dangerous game of cat & mouse on screen (similar formula in Die Hard). And its hard not to mention Ridley Scott introduced the world to one of the First Major Female Action Heroes, Sigourney Weaver.

And Lordy, Lordy, the production design alone! Who can forget the Claustrophobic Maze of the Spacecraft or the Alien in all its forms: The Egg, The Facebugger, The Chestbuester, and the Xenomorph!

Stanley Kubrick never had the CAHONHES to depict any type of Extraterrestrial Lifeforms. Scott took the risk and ever since all other Space Creatures in cinema have stood in judgment and comparison of the Xenomorph since 1979.

Simply, The Movie as a Whole is a Full Tilt Thrill Ride:

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

- Planet of the Apes (1968)

- 2001: A Space Odyssey

- The Thing (1982)

- Blade Runner (1982)

- Terminator (1984)

- Aliens (1986)

- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

- Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

[kuwaiti-kid]

The 20 Best Star Wars Books of All Time (Canon and Legends)

With the recent reveal of the Star Wars: The High Republic mixed-media series, now seems like a great time to look back on the novelizations, stand alones, and book series that have been an integral part of building the rich and expansive universe that we know and love today.

The first Star Wars novelization was released six months following the premiere of Star Wars: A New Hope. Ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, but credited to George Lucas, Star Wars: From The Adventures of Luke Skywalker was the first venture into worldbuilding beyond the cinematic universe.

Over the course of forty-three years, nearly five hundred books have been added to the Jedi Archives, uh — I mean the Star Wars library. In 2014, almost four hundred of these novels were decanonized by Lucasfilm to refocus the canon around The Walt Disney Company’s restructuring of the franchise.

The Expanded Universe was rebranded as Star Wars Legends, but it was far from forgotten by its fans or the authors of the new canon novels.

The Ten Best Star Wars Legends Books

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (1991)

You would be hard-pressed to find a fan of the Star Wars Expanded Universe who doesn’t love Timothy Zahn’s novels. He introduced us to beloved characters like Mara Jade and Thrawn.

Set five years following The Return of the Jedi, Zahn kickstarted the Expanded Universe with an enthralling story that followed the continuing adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. Grand Admiral Thrawn attempts to track down a pregnant Princess Leia, while Luke Skywalker faces off with the smuggler Mara Jade (who just so happens to be the former Emperor’s Hand).

It is by far one of the best stories in the Expanded Universe.

The Han Solo Adventures (Trilogy) by Brian Daley (1979-1980)

Daley’s series recently returned to Star Wars discourse after High Republic author Cavan Scott tweeted out his current reference material for another project.

The trilogy follows Han Solo and Chewbacca through their days as smugglers in the capitalistic Corporate Sector, as they uncover a slaving ring, rescue kidnap victims, and face-off with a religious cult.

If you loved  Solo: A Star Wars Story, you’ll love this trilogy.

The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore (1999)

Set twenty-one years following the destruction of the Death Star, Salvatore did the unthinkable in Vector Prime. Sanctioned by George Lucas himself, the character death depicted in this novel is the only original series character to die in the Expanded Universe.

It is the first novel in a nineteen-book series entitled The New Jedi Order. While this novel sacrificed the life of a beloved character, it also introduced the villainous race of the Yuuzhan Vong.

The original trilogy characters are paired off with the younger generation (the Solo children) throughout the novel, before converging at the crux of a devastating battle.

Star by Star by Troy Denning (2002)

The Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign throughout the galaxy, leading Anakin Solo to concoct a dangerous plan to thwart their attacks. Denning’s novel delved a devastating blow for the Solo family as their youngest son Anakin Solo sacrificed his life to buy time for the rest of the team to kill the voxyn queen and escape from the Vong.

This is a book filled with death and destruction, and it proves to be a real page-turner.

Dark Journey by Elaine Cunningham (2002)

If you love Jaina Solo, then the tenth novel in The New Jedi Order series is the one for you. Dark Journey follows Jaina as she struggles with despair and her need for revenge following the death of her brother Anakin Solo and the Vong’s capture of her twin Jacen.

They retreat to the Hapes Cluster, where they encounter the grieving Teneniel Djo and the familial struggles of the Hapes. The Former Queen Mother attempts to arrange a marriage between Jaina and Prince Isolder — an offer Jaina rejects.

Enemy Lines (Duology) by Aaron Allston (2002)

This pair of novels can easily be read as a singular story. It follows Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, Han and Leia Solo, Lando Calrissian, Wedge Antilles, and Jaina Solo as they respond to the Yuuzhan Vong’s capture of Coruscant.

Wedge is a stand-out character throughout this novel, and I believe this characterization is one of the reasons that he remains a beloved minor character. The rebellion’s determined efforts lead them to a victorious battle on Borealis, though the Vong are far from defeated.

Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry (1996)

This novel was Perry’s contribution towards the ambitious mixed-media series (also called Shadows of the Empire) created by Lucasfilm in 1996. The series included both a novel and junior novelization, a comic book series, a video game, action figures, a soundtrack, trading cards, role-playing games, posters, and so much more.

Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the novel introduced readers to the Black Sun criminal overlord, Prince Xizor, whose primary motivation is to seek vengeance against Darth Vader. He does that by plotting to murder Luke Skywalker once his heritage is revealed. It’s a brilliant book that can be read as a stand-alone or as part of the mixed-media experience.

Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn (2004)

Three years following the marriage of Luke Skywalker to Mara Jade, the couple struggles to balance their marriage and their duties as Jedi. Led by an urgent transmission, they journey together on a quest to locate the remains of the Outbound Flight expedition, which had been destroyed by Grand Admiral Thrawn on the planet of Niruan decades ago.

Expecting to find a graveyard of destroyed Dreadnought ships, they are surprised to find intact vessels and signs of life among them. Luke and Mara Jade come up against the vicious Vagaari to rescue the survivors of the errant Outbound Flight project. If you love Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker — this is the novel for you. They are at their best when they’re working together.

Black Fleet Crisis (Trilogy) by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1996-1998)

Sixteen years following the end of the Original Trilogy, Kube-McDowell’s novel picks up with an era of peace for the New Republic. This trilogy of novels sits somewhat outside of the canon of The New Jedi Order and X-Wing series and provides a slightly different approach to the beloved heroes of the universe.

Chewbacca returns to Kashyyyk to be with his son; Luke works towards higher Jedi enlightenment in a self-built hermitage on Coruscant. Unlike other novels that focus on the characters and their arcs, this series is more focused on political and military plots.

The story follows the genocidal campaign of former Imperial slaves, referred to as Yevethan forces, as they seek to conquer the Koornacht Cluster.

This story deviates drastically from what we know about Luke and Leia’s mother, Padmé, thanks to the prequel trilogy, as Luke travels to the planet Fallanassi to learn more about his mother’s homeworld. Overall the trilogy makes for a great Star Wars story.

Wedge’s Gamble by Michael A. Stackpole (1996)

Wedge Antilles and his X-Wing pilots, the Rogue Squadron, plan to infiltrate the Imperial High Command controlled Coruscant. Still, first, they free the imprisoned Black Suns criminals in hopes of bringing down the Empire.

The story is a race against time for the rebels as they work to take down the planetary shields protecting Coruscant. In the process, allies are lost, and a traitor is discovered among their ranks.

It’s the second novel in a ten-part series and proves to be a fast-paced read.

 The Ten Best Star Wars Canon Books

The Last Jedi by Jason Fry (2018)

Of the three novelizations included in the Sequel Trilogy era, Fry’s work stands out. He masterfully adapted Rian Johnson’s screenplay, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and shed new light on aspects that may have been lost to the casual viewer.

The book provides readers with a look inside the heads and hearts of nearly every character seen in the movie — which genuinely enriches the story.

Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Grey (2016)

The novel delves into the ramifications of Senator Leia Organa’s heritage, as trusted allies turn against her at the revelation that she is Darth Vader’s daughter.

Grey delivers an incredibly poignant look into Leia’s psyche throughout this ordeal as well as how she handles balancing being a mother and a senator.

Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse (2019)

If you were not overly thrilled with the dynamics between Finn and Poe in The Rise of Skywalker or were hoping to read more about Leia’s last days with the Resistance, this novel is a surefire favorite. Roanhorse truly knows these characters inside and out, and she brings a fresh, exciting adventure to bridge the gap between the Battle of Crait and the Resistance’s base on Ajan Kloss.

Leia works diligently to rally the forces after their defeat at Crait, which brings the familiar Inferno Squadron members, Shriv Suurgav and Zay Versio, into the picture. An interesting element of the novel is the recruitment of defecting Imperial forces that are welcomed into the Resistance. Overall the stakes are low in the story, but it still manages to deliver a memorable read.

Last Shot (Star Wars): A Han and Lando Novel by Daniel José Older (2018)

Created as a tie-in to Solo: A Star Wars Story, Older’s novel covers five storylines told in five parts with a mix of flashbacks between Han Solo and Lando Calrissian as they face a new threat by an old foe.

It also covers aspects of Han’s marriage to Leia, as well as his relationship with his young son, Ben Solo — which helps readers understand how things fell apart by the time The Force Awakens occurs. If you loved Daley’s Legends series about Han Solo, you’ll love Older’s novel.

Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy by Chuck Wendig (2016-2017)

The trilogy expands the extensive period between the end of Return of the Jedi and the start of The Force Awakens. Wendig introduces readers to Norra Wexley and her teenage son Snap Wexley (later seen on screen) and delivers an engaging storyline for Wedge Antilles.

The story follows the New Republic as they work towards defeating the remaining members of the Empire. This series also introduces Emperor Palpatine’s Observatory on Jakku — an exciting piece of foreshadowing for The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn (2017)

The first in a series of three novels, Zahn returns to Star Wars and reintroduces Grand Admiral Thrawn to the Star Wars canon. The story begins with the exile of the Chriss warrior, Mitth’raw’nuruodo (Thrawn), and follows his path to the Empire alongside Imperial Cadet Eli.

Thrawn offers to serve Emperor Palpatine in order to protect his people. Throughout the novel, Thrawn’s calculated tenacity allows him to climb the ranks within the Empire, ultimately rising to the position of Grand Admiral. Thrawn is a fan-favorite, and this series is just the beginning of his storyline.

Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno (2016)

If you watched Rogue One and wanted to know more about Orson Krennic or Galen Erso, this is the novel for you. It covers Erso’s research into the energy kyber crystals under the Celestial Power project and follows his concerns as he realizes his research might be used for something devastating.

It’s an interesting approach to members of the Empire and shows the duality among the ranks and the inner confliction at the advent of the Star Destroyer. Familiar faces like Tarkin and Saw Gerrera also appear in this novel.

Battlefront II: Inferno Squad by Christie Golden (2017)

Golden’s novel follows the members of the Empire’s elite team of soldiers, the Inferno Squad, as they deal with the ramifications of the theft of the Death Star plans. The central characters, Lieutenant Iden Versio, Lieutenant Junior Grade Gideon Hask, and Lieutenant Commander Del Meeko, are all featured in the EA Game’s Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Versio and her team are tasked with eradicating the remaining members of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans, newly reformed as a terrorist cell known as the Dreamers. Gideon and Del infiltrate the Dreamers, while Iden is arrested for alleged sedition after intentionally revealing her disillusionment towards the Empire — which leads to the Dreamers rescuing her.

It’s not often that we get to see how members of the Empire fully believe that their actions are the right actions, and this novel delivers.

Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed (2019)

The first of a trilogy of novels focused on a group of New Republic pilots. The series crosses over with Marvel comic series Star Wars: TIE Fighters and has a forthcoming sequel novel Shadow Fall arriving in June. The book explores the costs of war in the wake of the Battle of Endor as it follows Yrica Quell, an Imperial defector.

Freed introduces readers to a colorful group of pilots (featuring X-Wings, U-Wings, and Y-Wings) who react with different degrees of suspicion when Yrica joins the squadron. It’s a compelling piece of fiction that is rooted heavily in the military aspects of Star Wars and strongly reminiscent of the 1990s X-Wing series.

Star Wars: Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston (2016)

Dave Filoni created Ahsoka Tano for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and she quickly grew into one of the most beloved characters from the Prequel Trilogy era. The young adult novel starts with Ahsoka during the Siege of Mandalore and explains how she came to adopt the pseudonym Ashla after fleeing to the remote Outer Rim Moon, Raada.

In the shadow of the growing threat of the Galactic Empire, Ahsoka works alongside Bail Organa and the Rebellion to evacuate the at-risk villages on Raada. Obi-Wan Kenobi also appears in this novel and struggles with the grief of Anakin’s betrayal as he remains in hiding on Tatooine. Overall it’s a great novel exploring an aspect of Ashoka’s life that had yet to be explored.

The final season of The Clone Wars is currently airing on Disney+.

Choose Your Adventure

While we endure the post-The Rise of Skywalker world, there is an entire galaxy’s worth of Star Wars novels out there to read.

Check out your local library or used bookstore and track down some of the older Legends books or jump on Amazon and pre-order the new The High Republic series.

Choose your own adventure, and as always, may the Force be with you.

The post The 20 Best Star Wars Books of All Time (Canon and Legends) appeared first on Your Money Geek.

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[harrypotttor]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

As far as Harry knows, his parents were killed in a car crash when he was an infant, and he’s stuck with his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Like a modern Cinderella, Harry sleeps in a closet and waits on his relatives hand and foot while his pudgy cousin Dudley is spoiled rotten. But as Harry’s 11th birthday approaches, all of that changes. A gentle giant named Rubeus Hagrid shows up to inform Harry that he is a wizard by birth and invite him to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

At Hogwarts, Harry finds much of what his pitiful life has lacked. Close friends. Bits of his own family history. Magical skills. Recognition. And a starting position on the Quidditch team (think airborne soccer)—an honor unheard of for a “first-year.” But he also gets a few things he didn’t bargain for, including a mystery and a ferocious three-headed dog named Fluffy. Most formidably, he finds he’s the object of renewed hatred from the evil Voldemort, who killed his parents. Harry meets the challenge head-on and faces off with this villain so wicked other wizards won’t even speak his name. Voldemort gets what’s coming to him, but you can be sure he’ll be back in the sequels.

watch harry potter movies

positive content: Two prominent teachers at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, are some of the finest authority figures to grace a kids’ movie in quite some time. Professor McGonagall is stern and a stickler for rules. But rather than scorning her, Harry and his friends like and respect her. Dumbledore proffers wise advice and teaches common sense. He becomes like a father to Harry, comforting him when he misses his parents and taking time to talk through his questions and problems.

When Harry is being assigned to one of Hogwarts’ four houses, the “sorting hat” assesses his character, then applauds him for having “courage, talent, not a bad mind and a thirst to prove [himself].” During the course of the story, it becomes clear to Harry that—just as Lucifer was once a high angel—these talents could just as easily have landed him in the malevolent Slytherin house as in the noble Gryffindor. His own human potential for “going bad” bothers Harry until Dumbledore reminds him that he asked not to be put in Slytherin and teaches him that choosing the good over the bad makes all the difference.

The evil acts of dark-side wizards—such as killing a unicorn for its life-giving blood—are denounced. In addition, lines spoken by villains expose dark-side philosophy, which is then refuted when the scoundrels are defeated. For example, one of Voldemort’s followers says to Harry, “There is no such thing as good and evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it.” Harry swiftly and strongly opposes both this villain and his sentiments.

When Harry discovers that it wasn’t a car crash that killed his parents, he also learns that his mother actually died saving his life. Dumbledore instructs him on the importance of sacrificial love, telling Harry, “love leaves a mark that lives in your very skin.”

Harry, Ron and Hermione go on an Indiana Jones-like adventure, solving puzzles and dodging obstacles to unravel their mystery and find the sorcerer’s stone. One leg of the course is a life-sized chess game in which captured pieces get smashed by their opponents. As an accomplished chess player, Ron gets to call the shots, and in a heroic act, he sacrifices his knight (and gets injured in the process) in order to save Harry.

spiritual content: The big debate about Harry Potter, of course, is whether its magic is of a spiritual or mechanical nature. More on that follows, but for now, magical elements are listed here as “spiritual content.”

Before he discovers he’s a wizard, Harry accidentally dissolves the glass over a snake cage at the zoo. This begins to make sense to Harry when Hagrid comes to take him to Hogwarts. The giant asks, “Did you ever make things happen that you couldn’t explain?” The light comes on for Harry—his mysterious power comes from being a wizard. Hagrid makes Dudley grow a pig’s tail. Doors open Ali Baba-style to a series of taps from Hagrid’s pink umbrella (which also happens to shoot fire). Harry and friends get to the platform for the Hogwarts Express by walking through a brick wall in a London train station. On the train, Ron tries to put a spell on his pet rat to turn it yellow. Other spells are of similar sort, spoken in Latin and intended to make changes in the physical realm. Harry and his friends take classes in Potions, The History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, etc. Their school supplies include robes and magic wands which they purchase on a magical street called Diagon Alley. When Harry goes to pick out a wand, he finds that it is the wand that instead “picks” him. Wandmaker Mr. Ollivander tells Harry that the wand he was “destined for” is “brother” to the wand Voldemort used to kill Harry’s parents and give him his scar. At Hogwarts, the ceiling in the Great Hall is “bewitched” to look like the night sky. Staircases move under the influence of permanent spells. The school celebrates Halloween with a huge banquet, but it also celebrates Christmas in the same way. The dormitories are supervised by silvery-gray ghosts. The head of Harry’s dormitory is Nearly Headless Nick, who died 500 years previously in a botched decapitation.

Missing from the movie (and at no great loss) is the one class that, in the book, came closest to mentioning supernatural contact—Divination. Also missing is a particularly troublesome line in which Dumbledore says, “To the well-organized mind, death is just the next great adventure.”

All the villains in The Sorcerer’s Stone are practitioners of “The Dark Arts.” Their spells come in the form of curses and are used to harm other wizards. Foremost on the dark side is Voldemort, who uses a death curse to kill Harry’s parents and to try to kill Harry.

Also very troubling is the overarching idea that Harry is “rescued” from a miserable life by a bunch of wizards and witches. Of course, there are two ways to see this. Viewers who bring to the movie a background in Christian fantasy may see it as somewhat similar to C.S. Lewis’ Narnia—a magical world far more exciting and “fitting” for the human spirit than the plain physical world. On the other hand, there’s the likely interpretation that Harry is being “saved” by witchcraft, a disturbing idea to say the least. The immediate emotional impact of film makes the concept even more dangerous, because passive thrill-seekers won’t necessarily ponder and process it as they might while reading a book.

sexual content: None.

violent content: Uncle Vernon never hits Harry, but he treats him roughly at times. He also tries to shoot at Hagrid, but the giant bends the end of his shotgun. Scenes that flash back to the death of Harry’s parents are short and discreet, showing only a flash of light and Harry’s mom falling to the ground.Hagrid kicks down a door when he comes to retrieve Harry from the Dursleys. (He then apologizes and puts it back in place.) One student gets caught on a runaway broom, crashes into a building and falls, breaking his wrist. Ron accidentally gets hit in the nose with a broom handle. A huge digitally animated troll smashes up a school bathroom and tries to hurt Hermione. A wand up the nose (gross!) distracts him and his own club eventually knocks him out. A Quidditch match turns ugly and Harry is nearly knocked from his flying broom. Ron, Harry and Hermione get trapped in the clutches of a vining plant with a vicious will of its own. The chess scene is intense, with many shattering chess pieces. Ron gets forcefully knocked to the ground.

Because watching film footage takes less time than reading pages, Harry’s final battle scene is actually shorter in the movie than in the book. Thankfully missing is a lot of Voldemort’s dialogue in which he repeatedly instructs a follower to kill Harry. Still, the scene is intense, and for young viewers, scary. Things look grim for Harry at first, until he discovers that his mother’s love has placed a seal on him that makes it impossible for his enemy to touch him. (Instead, physical contact causes his foe to be charred to a crisp.) The evil wizard Voldemort leaves the building in a dramatic and somewhat frightening rush.

crude or profane language: There’s a line about someone falling on his “a–.” Ron once exclaims, “Bloody hell!” Also: three misuses of God’s name and one use of “d–n.”

drug and alcohol content: On several occasions, Hagrid talks about visiting a pub. He enters one and the bartender says, “The usual, Hagrid?” to which Hagrid replies, “Not today. I’m on official Hogwarts business.” One student tries to turn water to rum, but fails.

other negative elements: Though it’s arguably played down from the book, Harry and his friends sometimes break rules with impunity. For example, Harry is told not to fly on his broomstick; he does it anyway (albeit for noble purposes) and ends up being rewarded with a starting spot on the Quidditch team.

conclusion: Aside from the exceptions noted, Harry Potter the movie is quite faithful to Harry Potter the book—a smart move on the part of filmmakers, who knew any significant departure would quickly alienate the target audience. The masterfully made film offers virtually no surprises. That leaves us dealing with the same questions that have been lurking since the first copy of J.K. Rowling’s book rolled off the press. Is it fantasy magic or occult magic? Does the distinction even matter?

These questions are both difficult and worthwhile. Fantasy (not just “make believe,” but a rich literary tradition with extensive principles and precedents) has made use of wizards and magic for centuries. Even Christian fantasy has employed “good witches.” Sometimes it has been as clear-cut as Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, sometimes not. Christian fantasy fans contend that such tales have a powerful ability to convey truth and that real-world rules don’t apply in fantasyland. Well-respected Christian author Chuck Colson explains that Harry’s magic is of an entirely different nature from real-world witchcraft: “Harry and his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into animals—but they don’t make contact with a supernatural world.”

Similarly, Wren Walker, a practicing witch in Clearwater, Fla., and co-founder of the Witches Voice, an umbrella group for witches and Wiccans worldwide, insists that Harry Potter could never be an instructional piece for real-life witchcraft. “Spells tend to be more like prayers for most Wiccans and witches that practice it in the religious sense,” says Walker. “We don’t use ‘abracadabra.’ If somebody wanted to pick up the book and do the things in it, it wouldn’t be witchcraft.”

Richard Abanes, author of the book Harry Potter and the Bible, disagrees. While Rowling insists her stories are imaginary, she “admits she has been studying witchcraft to make the books more ‘accurate,'” Abanes told Crosswalk.com, which reports that Rowling also claims a significant minority of the sorcery appearing in her books is “material that was once believed in Britain.” “What she fails to mention,” Abanes says, “is that the vast amount of the occult she borrows from historical sources still plays a role in modern witchcraft.”

Such debate within the Christian community (and outside of it) will continue to rage. But even if Harry Potter‘s magic isn’t of the occult, it still carries with it serious dangers. First, Rowling’s stories—unlike Lewis’ or Tolkien’s—are neither a Christian allegory, nor do they subscribe to a consistent Christian worldview. And second, we live in a culture that glorifies and promotes witchcraft and the occult. No matter what the essence of Harry’s magic, the effect of it is undoubtedly to raise curiosity about magic and wizardry. And any curiosity raised on this front presents a danger that the world will satisfy it with falsehood before the church or the family can satisfy it with truth. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone definitely raises those curiosities. That, accompanied by violent and scary scenes, a few mild profanities, and hints at moral relativism should be enough to keep families from shouting hurrah for Harry.

[rebelsofshield]

Panels Far, Far Away: A Week In Star Wars Comics 10/9/19

The journey to The Rise of Skywalker begins, Darth Vader makes the hunters the hunted, Tarkin gets in touch with his inner Peter Cushing, and two Jedi navigate a turf war in a strong and crowded week of Star Wars comics.

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #2 written by Cavan Scott and art by Francesco Francavilla and Kelley Jones

One of the thousands of charms of Star Wars is how it has been haven for cult and genre actors since its very start. Last year, during Tales from Vader’s Castle, Cavan Scott finally tapped into Christopher Lee’s past as Count Dracula to deliver the Dooku vampire tale we have always wanted. Keeping that same spirit alive, Scott channels another horror icon with Star Wars roots in Peter Cushing’s Tarkin. Yes, we get a Tarkin Frankenstein story here and yes it is a lot of fun.

While the stories told in this Adventures spin off are never particularly intense, Cavan Scott has consistently managed to draw from classic horror tropes in fresh and fun ways that are creepy and unsettling in all the right October vibes. This episode which plays out like a Frankenstein horror tragedy sees a stitched together monstrosity made by Tarkin attempting to exact revenge on the man who ruined his life. In traditional Mary Shelley fashion, it’s the monster who gets the most sympathetic play here and Scott really seems to be enjoying himself as he restructures this seminal scary story for a Star Wars setting.

Art wise, this issue is once again a little uneven. The frame sections by Francesco Francavilla are dependably great. Vanee remains a suitably creepy antagonist and by issue’s end the series has taken a turn that will hopefully ramp up the tension. Kelley Jones’s Tarkin story is fairly disappointing though. Environments feel bland and ill defined and character’s faces often feel blurred or lacking in detail. It’s not particularly clear if this is decision made by Jones or the issue’s colorist Michelle Madsen, but the result is a visually bland segment for what is otherwise a really fun tale.

Score: B

Star Wars: Allegiance #1 written by Ethan Sacks and Luke Ross

Turns out we are getting two weekly Star Wars comics in October! In addition to Vader’s Castle, the Journey to The Rise of Skywalker begins in Star Wars: Allegiance.

The First Order’s invasion of the galaxy marches on. With the Resistance still recovering and the Republic practically obliterated, few stand in the way of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren’s advancing forces. When the neutral planet of Tah’Nuhna is bombarded by the First Order fleet, General Leia decides that the time has come to take more direct action. Taking a team including Rey and Rose, she leaves to find allies among her old friends on Mon Cala. Meanwhile, Finn and Poe attempt to locate a key weapon stash, but may have attracted attention from dangerous parties.

As much as I enjoy the sequel trilogy, one of my biggest frustrations has been that the secrecy surrounding these films means that the time between films is often low on tie-in media for its characters and stories. I grew up with the Clone Wars multimedia project telling the story of the galaxy spanning conflict set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and it’s hard not to wish that something similar could have unfolded between 2018-2019 with the invasion of the First Order. As a result, there is a certain novelty to a story like Allegiance. This is still a mostly uncharted year for the Galaxy Far, Far Away and getting to check in on pretty much every major character from the Sequel Trilogy still carries a special thrill.

This issue proves to be mostly set up though. The idea of Leia reconnecting with the Mon Cala and other allies during this new war is an interesting one and it ends on a cliffhanger that hints towards some intrigue in the future. However, as a whole, nothing much of consequence happens here. Much of the issue is writer Ethan Sacks setting the stage for the next three issues, which feels misguided given the relative shortness of this comic’s runtime. It is still fun to read, but it is hard to not leave wishing for a little more meat on what has been presented. At least the wait is only one week for more.

Luke Ross’s dark and shadowy pencils at first may seem like an odd fit for a script that is at times fairly playful and silly, but it does work to create a larger feeling of dire straits and desperation. Our heroes are in a tough spot in this story and it could really get worse at any time.

Score: B-

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order-Dark Temple #3 written by Matthew Rosenberg and art by Paolo Villanelli

Dark Temple continues the trend of being the most “Star Trek-y,” Star Wars story in some time. Luckily, this plays to the narrative’s benefit. The idea of the Jedi functioning as a sort of monastic Star Fleet is not a bad one and seeing a Jedi trying to navigate intense planetary conflicts is a great conceit for a story.

This has been Dark Temple’s best storytelling feature since its first issue and it only continues here. Cere has unwittingly gotten involved in a land war between an ancestral people and the encroaching forces of a galactic corporation. Writer Matthew Rosenberg improves on his characterization of Cere here. While she has yet to really distinguish herself as an individual, Rosenberg can mostly get by with making her react to the dramatic circumstances around her. It is hard not relate to her plight as a young woman stranded far away from friends and resources and attempting to navigate such a complex situation with the potential for deadly violence.

Rosenberg adds a nice wrinkle to this conflict that comes as a genuine surprise and complicates things even further for Cere and the people she is protecting. While the exact nature of the titular temple remains a mystery and it is still unclear what exactly the Second Sister prologues mean, this series continues to entertain and intrigue on its own merits even without being a tie-in to the upcoming video game.

Art wise, Paolo Villanelli continues to knock it out of the park. With his vibrant colors that shine both in moments of peacetime and in violence or his creative character design, Dark Temple continues to be the best looking Star Wars comic on the stands.

Score: B+

Star Wars: Target Vader #4 written by Robbie Thompson and art by Stefano Landini

From day one, Robbie Thompson’s Target Vader has always promised one thing: bounty hunters facing off against Darth Vader. Finally, this moment of reckoning comes as Beilert Valance and his team conduct the final step of their plan, and the result is the best issue of this series so far.

Target Vader delivers some simple, violent pleasures. Thompson jettisons the bland uninteresting mystery and forces these colorful but undeveloped characters into a life or death battle royale. In an inspired move, Thompson peppers in brief moments of backstory for each hunter, often times just before their untimely demise. It doesn’t do enough to really make up for the shortcomings of the first several issues, but it adds an emotional punch to the blaster shots and lightsaber swings.

Thompson keeps this battle a suspenseful ebb and flow. Neither Valance’s team or Vader remain on top for too long and the circumstances are often upended from page to page and the end result feels refreshingly inevitable. For the first time, I am genuinely excited to see where this comic goes from here.

Visually, this issue is also a step in the right direction. Stefano Landini draws a mean Darth Vader and in general he nails the fight scenes with some impressive panel to panel choreography. The kicked up dust of battle and movement of character distracts from some of the shortcomings of past issues and the result makes for enjoyably action packed chapter.

Score: B+

[artyloreviews]

Film Review - Polar (2019)

A thrilling and ultraviolent neo-noir film, that is guaranteed to get your adrenaline pumping, whilst also giving you a good laugh with it’s sheer ridiculousness .

As a fan of Mads Mikkelsen’s work, I was instantly drawn to this gritty neo-noir film, which cover depicted a drenched and snow-soaked Mads with gray hair and an eye-patch, looking suspiciously a lot like Big Boss from the Metal Gear series, which by now you should know is near and dear to my heart. Upon watching the trailer out of curiosity, I found that this was going to by one of those films over which the word ultraviolence was pasted in big bold and blood-red letters. I was instantly hooked and I anticipated the release with glee.

Upon viewing it however, I can’t help but wonder whether I think Jonas Åkerlund’s Polar is simply a lower budget attempt to emulate the success of the John Wick franchise, by melding it stylistically with the Dark Horse graphic novel Polar: Came from the Cold, or a great, straight to the point action film, that is enveloped in Tarantino-esque storytelling, gratuitous violence and beautiful cinematography. In the end, I believe it is a bit of both. The parallels that can be drawn between Polar and John Wick are clear as day, as both their plots revolve around a retired assassin being forced back into action; however, the difference is that in John Wick’s universe, there was some semblance of cleanliness and professionalism to assassination, a sort of class act per se. In Polar’s world, however, assassination is this act of gratuitous bloodshed, where everyone but the main character seems to believe killing the target to be secondary to killing each and every innocent bystander on the way to the target itself.

Mads Mikkelsen plays Duncan Vizla, referred to as The Black Kaiser throughout the film; a renowned and ruthless assassin, who I couldn’t help but see is a somewhat different manifestation of Mikkelsen’s other role as Hannibal Lecter, sharing the same sensibilities of professionalism and showmanship in murder. His persona is built as this scarred, yet carefree veteran in his field, who seems to inspire awe in all of his peers. The only somewhat sane character in the film – Vivian, repeatedly warns that people ought to “not fuck with him” (which, ironically, every second woman featured in the film seems to do or has done previously), shining a light on his dangerous nature, much like the stories about John Wick and his infamous pencil, that are constantly retold throughout that film’s dialogue. And yet he is this kooky old man, who inflates balloons and hangs cardboard “Happy Birthday!” letters above his fireplace, chops and sorts his neighbor Camilla’s firewood, has difficulty picking what brand of sweets to buy at the shop and accidentally shoots the dog after being woken from his PTSD-infested dreams, only to replace it with a goldfish, as well as going to a local school to show kids knife tricks and pictures of sun-dried corpses, and presents Camilla with a goddamn gun as a heartwarming gift. I’d go as far to say that he is bloody lovable in a twisted and endearing way.

On a side note, after he shot his dog after the first shown occurrence of said dreams, I had this expectation that as a man who always sleeps with a gun in his pocket, he’d continue to perform the same accidental ballistics after every subsequent dream. To my immediate shock, the next time he decided to doze off was in a bloody passenger plane. I was just bracing for that inevitable moment where some innocent bystander was about to bite the bullet, but for better or worse it never happened.

The overall visual presentation of the film is probably its strongest asset. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the recreation of scenes from the graphic novel, but there is a distinguishable picturesque quality to every frame in the film. Even throughout the marketing material, one can see the clear comic-book-esque symmetry. The color grading is a whole topic on its own. Scenes with Duncan are show in this very high-contrast low saturated gray, while most scenes featuring the supporting cast feature this very vivid neon saturation where the colors pop and sometimes bleed into each other, showing this clear contrast between the old and grizzled Kaiser and the newer younger blood out to get him. The only thing that has any color to it in Duncan’s life is perhaps those dreams he keeps having, which are bathed in saturated dark reds and a lot of glitchy, distorted visuals. Even the typography used throughout the film shared that iconic VHS displacement. The addition of Gothic lettering among the brief flashes of titling is very stylistic in referencing the Germanic origins of Duncan’s nickname – him being The Black Kaiser. The layers of effects however made it almost impossible to read the text in the split second it is shown on screen, which left me waiting for character’s names to appear in dialogue, so that I can confirm that what I read was right. The cinematography is usually amazing, each shot being framed and lighted in a way that only a graphic novel could entail. However, the film features a lot of fish-eyed lensed drone photography which clearly differs in quality to the cinema-grade cameras used for the rest of the film, leaving it looking amateurish at some of the key points in the plot.

Another aspect of the visuals, which some may find refreshing in the current politically safe age of cinema, while others can find it to be incredibly jarring and distracting, is the generous displays of gratuitous sex and/or T&A featured liberally throughout the run-time of the film. It seems that each and every character in Polar’s universe has slept with each other, or is yet to do so. The difference with other graphic novel adaptation, Sin City, which by any other mean can be cited as a direct influence on this film’s style, can be drawn in a sense that even in a city filled with vices, there was this tasteful approach to the sexual, often being purely implied. Polar on the other hand has no such restraint and appears to flaunt it at every opportune moment, which I found to be garish and unnecessary, as it provided nothing to the film’s substance.

One of the best aspects of Polar is dedmau5’s amazing soundtrack. With heavy lingering synth melodies and energetic electronic beats, it creates an amazing atmosphere of tension and serenity, especially in scenes of intense drama. The tracks that stood out the most on my first viewing were “somb”, which was used in the serene and calm opening to the film, followed by “cabin”; with its very nostalgically charged synth, rhythmic drums and haunting baseline, introducing us to Duncan. “chill” features a very tense and unnerving piano tune, signaling that not all is right as a sign of what is to come. On the more action-packed side however, the heavy hitters are “midas heel”, “main” and “nosedive”, each used in some of the most visually intense bloodbaths you will ever see, pumping with adrenaline and keeping you on edge with heavy electronic beats and whining synths. And none of that youth dub-step shit, that one could expect – dedmau5 provides an honest to god EDM soundtrack with his staple melodic progressions and no-nonsense sound, mixed to perfection.

The last point of contention I could think of is probably the ending. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I would describe it as initially surprising, but well hinted at throughout the film on second inspection. One could see it as an attempt to generate a sequel, though I am not familiar enough with the original graphic novel to say what that could entail.

Overall, I believe that Polar is a fantastic film, that wears its inspirations on its sleeve and creates an ultraviolent romp of revenge and drama, filled with all the staples of a gritty Neo-noir setting, featuring larger than life humans, able to withstand a lot of punishment, but dish out a lot as well. Even though that some aspects of its plot seem unnecessary, along with the purely visual bloating, I’d say it is worth it to sit down and watch through, but probably not with your parents, especially if you are a fan of Mads Mikkelsen or films like Kill Bill, Sin City and John Wick. I’d go as far as to say that if you enjoy video games like Hotline Miami, this can definitely be a nice intro into that type of cinema.

8/10

[rorschacheatsbeans]

Film. thing

From @is-this-blogging

What’s the most depressing movie you’ve ever watched?

The Orphanage directed by J.A. Bayona. A Spanish horror film with a harrowing story about a mother looking for her lost son. Produced by Guillermo Del Toro.

What’s the most disturbing movie you’ve ever watched?

Serbian Film. Disturbing but pretentious and needlessly disgusting. Do not watch. Only watched out of curiosity.

An actor/actress you’ve seen in more than 8 movies?

Name the movies. Harrison Ford (duh): Indiana Jones 1, 2, 3, 4 and Star Wars 4, 5, 6, 7 added to Witness, The Fugitive, Air Force One, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, American Graffiti, Ender’s Game, and Patriot Games to name a few off the top of my head.

Also the incredibly underrated Patrick Wilson: Phantom of the Opera, Hard Candy, Watchmen, The A-Team, Insidious, Prometheus, The Conjuring, Insidious 2, Bone Tomahawk, The Conjuring 2, Aquaman, Annabelle Comes Home.

A film you could watch on repeat for the rest of your life?

What We Do In The Shadows. The greatest vampire film of all time. Also any Star Wars movie.

What’s the very first film you remember watching?

Jurassic Park. Over and over and over. Also the first 2 Toy Story films come very close. Also Star Wars again.

A film you wish you hadn’t watched?

Project X, that awful found footage party movie. White privilege: the movie personified.

A film you wish had a sequel?

John Carter. The fun 2012 sci-fi epic starring Taylor Kitsch taking place on Mars. Sadly was met with mixed reviews and underwhelming box office returns opposed to a massive budget. Also hope Alita: Battle Angel gets one. Barely made its budget back, but that’s at least a positive for futures prospects of a continuation of the story.

Which book would you like to see adapted into a film?

Percy Jackson :( or a proper Slaughterhouse 5 adaptation. They’re finally doing Dune again so there’s that. Dune (the book) is so old it influenced Star Wars, so that’s gonna be interesting.

The most aesthetically pleasing movie you’ve ever watched?

The Fall directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Lee Pace. Cinematography, costumes, and set design take influence from old epics and surreal paintings to incredible effect. Also, Last Jedi obviously. Phenomenal work from Steve Yedlin there.

What’s your favourite movie director?

Edgar Wright, Taika Waititi, or Lynne Ramsey in modern times. Akria Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick for all time.

Your favourite movie genre?

Musicals and horror. Meaning their intersect is right up my alley. So Little Shop of Horrors, Rocky Horror, and Sweeney Todd are just awesome in my mind. Maybe not Sweeney Todd anymore because Johnny Depp sucks.

A movie that holds a special place in your heart?

A few. Men in Black 3. One hell of a finale and a fun ride. Star Wars 7. The first time I saw it was the most amazing experience ever. Insurmountable joy. Also Spider-Verse. Greatest superhero/comic book film of all time. All 4 Evil Dead movies are wonderful. Never get enough credit for the horror and comedy.

Your favourite comedy film?

A lot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, What We Do In The Shadows, 21 & 22 Jump Street, Spaceballs, and Booksmart.

A music video you would love to see developed into a film?

Take on Me. Fuck it, just make the Spider-Verse sequel including that style for one of the Spider-People.

A film everyone loves but you hate?

American Hustle. Annoying and unfulfilling. Amy Adams was a shining light though. Not universally praised, but still loved by many.

A film you love but everyone else hates?

Man of Steel gets a bad wrap from many despite mostly positive reception but I love that film.

Which cinematic universe would you like to live in?

The MCU, DECU, and Star Wars universes are way too dangerous in my mind. I’d just want to be a Spider-Person with (the other) Miles In Spider-Verse. Seems more chill and less apocalyptic.

What’s your favourite biopic?

1982 Gandhi’s great but the man it’s based on is obviously not as great as he seems to be (Google: Gandhi racism). Schindler’s List is a given despite how depressing it is. The Theory of Everything is also phenomenal. The Favourite is also a likely highly fictionalized yet incredible biopic.

Mainstream movies or indie movies?

Why not both? Blockbuster thrills and stories exploring the human condition have far more intersect with both mainstream and indie films in mind than given credit to by most people.

Old movies or contemporary movies?

Why not both again? Though sadly older movies are obviously harder to access. Hopefully more classic film archives will have hd versions online in the future.

A film with an amazing soundtrack?

Baby Driver and Guardians of the Galaxy obviously come to mind. Impeccable use of golden oldies to set atmosphere and drive story.

[falkenscreen]

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM

These films are better the second you realise they don’t take place on earth.

Yes it looks like our world but New York et al is merely the stage not the setting on which this tale elapses. With the Greek, Roman and altogether classical symbolism more blatantly rampant here than ever before, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is not of our world, he is a Demigod; scrambling to complete his tasks before the high table of Olympus.

References to rowboats, passage to the underworld, Dante etc being only a little more complex than can be found in a Dan Brown novel are by the by however. Returning Director Chad Stahelski, too Reeves’ stunt double across innumerable projects, assures us this universe is never so interested in it’s symbolism than the creative ways Wick can kill his ever-growing horde of pursuers.

Having John dispatch his first with a copy of Dante’s Inferno should drive the point home for anyone still thinking that this series has aspirations far beyond some of the most captivating, kinetically staged fight sequences in recent mainstream cinema.  

And the sequences are thrilling, with Reeves and his long-time collaborator behind the camera sharing a partnership rarely seen in film. Permitting a dynamism between cast and crew as interchangeable and seamless as ever, the talented creatives and indeed star being familiar and able to rely on each other to such a degree both grounds and illuminates the action either when Reeves is so evidently performing a dangerous stunt or one by it’s nature near-imperceptibly demands a stand-in.

It near goes without saying that Reeves is excellent in this role. It’s his best one to date; ideally suited to his emphatic if finite acting range. Fans of one of Hollywood’s most debated stars will relish his deadpan, rage-filled return.

Parabellum ramps it up for several sequences featuring among several prominent martial artists Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman, both veterans of The Raid series; too a clear influence on the Wick films. One mirror-filled encounter, if a carbon copy in respects of John Wick 2’spenultimate clanger, is still transfixing to watch; the nicely foreshadowed addition of something as seemingly mundane as a belt being handled beautifully.

Mark Dacascos is the best of the bunch as Zero; a Wick fanboy and biggest foe. He is the only counter who is given much personality in this, save Asia Kate Dillon’s ‘Adjudicator,’ yet another symbol-ridden advent well-framed against the conveniently fiery dungeons of the Continental. Lance Reddick’s Concierge Charon, here returning for a third outing, gets a little bit more to do this time around with some welcome character development beyond being relegated to the wallflowers. Ian McShane does his God/Demigod thing.

Halle Berry joins proceedings as another Continental manager who deserves a film all on her own. Game of Thrones veteran/90’s heartthrob Jerome Flynn rocks up with a terrible Vito Corleone impression to cash in a paycheck.

Now to the plot dear me. Yes the answer to whether a film doesn’t have a plot is sometimes “but did you enjoy it” yet good films, and the first two Wick flicks certainly count among those, almost always have one to speak of.

Immediately picking up from the first sequel’s conclusion, John is now excommunicado (one of the film’s most entertainingly symbolic flourishes); running for his life from everyone in New York City – because everyone in New York is an assassin. Keeping this up for the better part of the first hour the initial action sequences, including one that takes place in what can only be an antique knife store, are the best of the film as fights, if brazen, become heavily repetitive.

Introducing a plot sometime around the second act it’s all over in 20 minutes and just a pretext for John to reunite with some other folk before carnage reignites. No the plot was not the best thing about the first John Wick film but it gave it a fun basis for striving in such creative directions; it’s simplicity endearing beyond all else. The absence of anything even remotely constituting the thought that went into the backbones of the first two films does not recommend Parabellum, nor do the attitudes of the villains to John.

Much of what drove John Wick was the incessant underestimation of John as his opponents, alongside us, gradually come to reckon with the extent of his destructive power. There’s no such turnaround here; with everyone primed and ready we get no such satisfactory arc for our main guy.

Moreover, for a film built on a universe of stated order, it annoyingly breaks its own rules. Seen not just in a needless subversion of the Continental rules at the moment John makes it to the hotel, the Adjudicator strangely goes out of their way to punish one of John’s allies for collaborating with him in the last entry even though they had clearly been acting according to the same laws handed down to everyone else.

When John does visit a locale that is not his home, the energy of the world wanes as the premise of simply anyone and everyone being an assassin nay resonates so strong. What makes the New York setting so palpable is simply, as McShane’s Winston pointedly elucidates, that such a world can exist within the hilariously exaggerated confines of this city as many are predictably busy doing their own thing and might not bother so much as to whether assassins’ games were going on around them. It doesn’t ring true in Parabellum’s other, much more traditional setting, nor in a confrontation in the middle of New York’s busiest transport hub where characters can inexplicably, frustratingly vanish.

It’s fine to imagine this world, as this author prefers, as one that only resembles our own to the extent that it is a backdrop, or otherwise a version of our planet where seeming millions of well-trained slaughterers can teem just beneath the surface. Recommending the Wick series as a classical, modern-set parable is fine, yet that doesn’t fly when this sequel makes ostensible strides to affirm the real-world setting while having characters miraculously evaporate into thin air or survive things no mortal possibly could.

Either direction is fine, you just can’t have it both ways. To note even Hercules, in most adaptations, had well-defined physical limits; no such luck for stretches here. When the symbolism does reach its height during an escapade in the wilderness it’s to diminishing effect in what is the least impressive sequence in the entire now saga.

We do thankfully get a little more insight into John’s world or underworld as you might have it with Anjelica Huston entering the fray, though why Belarus is always the go-to nondescript reference for intendedly clandestine action films where they don’t want to make up a country I’ll never know; it’s not that difficult to find on a map.

The ending embraces John Wick’s B movie roots more than anything to date; the series’ strongest departure from that otherwise roundly evinced as prestige schlock fare. Resembling favourite third person shooters in whole episodes as Wick dispatches differently-uniformed assailants depending on their garb with increasing numbers of shots, come for the action but really try not to think too hard about all this.  

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is in cinemas now

[hmpolar]

Resident evil movie collection 4k

Is there something supernatural afoot or simple psychosis, and what does Isaac want?īut the characters and mysteries are superficial at best. Isaac and Grandpappy seemed to know more about the house and its current inhabitants than they should, but McAulay wants to stretch out the reveals behind the threat to the Chambers. The uncertainty gets further exacerbated with the arrival of their unwanted guests. To keep allegiances from shifting wholly to Jessica, she comes across as emotionally manipulative she uses tears and guilt to coerce John into complacency. John may be the adulterer, but he’s presented as mild-mannered and more eager to please, whereas Jessica is the icier, more assertive of the pair. Writer/Director Alex McAulay attempts to instill ambiguity from the outset. Tensions simmer then explode when over-friendly neighbors Isaac ( Jacob Lofland ) and his Grandpappy ( Doug Van Liew ) invite themselves for dinner. Jessica wants to keep her daughter Anna ( Lia McHugh ) sheltered from the strife and plans a family retreat at an isolated estate in the Louisiana bayou as part of reparations. Jessica doesn’t want a divorce she wants to maintain their family and their lifestyle. John only admits his adultery when Jessica reveals tangible proof, then quickly agrees to his wife’s demands. Jessica Chambers ( Angela Sarafyan ) calmly waits for her husband, John ( Paul Schneider ), to arrive home from work so she can demand a confession of his extramarital affair. Trying to guess what is happening keeps you on the hook for a while, but the more the answers flow, the less interesting this thriller becomes.Ī House on the Bayou opens with a marital confrontation. A House on the Bayou uses that to its advantage, shrouding its horrors in mystery. Anderson and Milla JovovichĪ remote location and uninvited guests make for a tension-filled scenario that could inspire a variety of chills and thrills. RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER BONUS FEATURES

Project Alice: The Interactive Database.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION BONUS FEATURES

Resident Road Map: Reflections on the Future of the Series.

“Under the Umbrella” Picture-in-Picture.

Theatrical and Extended Cuts of the Film.

“Game Over: Resident Evil Reanimated” Documentary.

Alternate Ending with Director Paul W.S.

“Based on the popular video game series by Capcom, the Resident Evil franchise stars Milla Jovovich as Alice, a superhuman security expert pitted against the sinister Umbrella Corporation as the world’s population is transformed into flesh-eating creatures by one of its most dangerous biological weapons.” The collection includes Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse (both the original theatrical version and an extended cut), Resident Evil: Extinction, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Resident Evil: Retribution and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter as well as hours of bonus content across all six films, including rare archival featurettes that have been previously unavailable on disc.

While the 4K is a big selling point, the biggest news is that the collection includes the extended cut of the film’s sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which allegedly was only released in Germany. In addition, the films will also be available digitally in 4K with HDR. Sony announced today the Resident Evil 4K Ultra HD Collection, which brings all six films together in a limited-edition gift set, is releasing on November 3rd, 2020. Anderson‘s Resident Evil saga, which featured Milla Jovovich as the ass-kicking Alice, is getting a massive box set from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Note: If you purchase one of the awesome, independently chosen products featured here, we may earn a small commission from the retailer. "Based on the popular video game series by Capcom, the Resident Evil franchise stars Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) as Alice, a superhuman security expert pitted against the sinister Umbrella Corporation as the world's population is transformed into flesh-eating creatures by one of its most dangerous biological weapons." Anderson and Milla JovovichĤK Ultra HD: All films presented at 2160p Ultra High Definition resolution with HDR 10 and Dolby Atmos immersive audio + DTS-HD MA 5.1 original theatrical audio tracks (DTS-HD MA 7.1 for RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER) aspect ratios varyīlu-ray: All films presented at 1080p High Definition resolution aspect ratios and audio configurations vary RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER BONUS FEATURES: RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION BONUS FEATURES: 3 comments

"Under the Umbrella" Picture-in-Picture.

[gamergate-news]

Women and games yes. Women and game facing conflict and adversity? DON’T YOU DARE!! Am I crazy or is this the Guybrush Paradox in action?

The Last of Us, a video game released to critical acclaim in 2013, follows a man’s journey, along with his adolescent female charge, through a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. The game, though popular with critics and gamers alike, is characterised as extraordinarily graphic and rife with edgy, gritty and often gruesome themes and images — it is, after all, the apocalypse. Both central and peripheral characters meet brutal — and in some cases, egregious — ends, all in the name of entertainment and painting a vivid and violent world.

In the past couple months, Naughty Dog studios, the company responsible for the first The Last of Us, has confirmed the sequel is in its final stages pre-release. Then, on October 30, the studio posted a sample cinematic from the upcoming The Last of Us Part II. There is no better word for this short sequence than graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.

The Cinematic

In it, a female cult leader — we have to assume — orchestrates the torture and near-hanging of two other female characters, including a particularly grotesque sequence in which one woman has her arm pulverised by a hammer. In the end, the timely entrance of a young man saves the two, and more vivid hammer action follows. The gaming community, for its part, reacted with mixed reviews and impressions.

Some lauded the The Last of Us Part II’s trailer as a gritty masterpiece, praising the lifelike graphics and realistic staging of the fight scenes, the palpable gore, and shiver-inducing destruction of human bodies, as really evoking the apocalypse for viewers. Others have lashed out at Naughty Dog for going too far in this direction, brushing up against the region of gore-porn in place of a substantive and sensitive storyline. Many viewers commented on the targeting of female characters in The Last of Us Part II’s in-game cinematic as a ploy for easy thrills.

Whatever your opinion of the first game and this recently released cinematic, the outrage at female suffering in video games is nothing new. For the past decade, the feminist movement has taken a keen interest in the overtly male-dominated area of gaming. While the presence of women has skyrocketed in gaming in recent years, the industry still caters to an overwhelmingly male population.

Casual Cruelty

Anita Sarkeesian is a known name in the gaming community. She first rose to the public spotlight during the height of the Gamergate attacks in 2014, in which a loosely organised group of gamers targeted prominent female players and commentators. During this period, Sarkeesian, along with other vocal figures, received threats of death, rape and other deeply troubling actions. The Gamergate posters claimed to be combating expanding progressiveness and feminism in the video game community.

Sarkeesian, for her part, has written extensively on the topics of female objectification in video games. In many ways, these personal attacks served to underline her commentary on the male domination of the industry and the dangerous implications and echo-chamber effects of such an isolated population. One of Sarkeesian’s most-debated areas of writing is the explicit and continued use of casual cruelty on incidental female characters.

“Enforcing the expendable image of these women carries a massive and terrifying implication of its own.”

It is one thing for the female body to be put on display in a playable — quite literally empowered — fashion. Games like Mortal Kombat and League of Legends, though featuring well-endowed female characters in uniformly revealing outfits, allow these characters to be played and utilised in the same capacity as any male characters. Though the distortion of the female body in these games carries its own set of problems, these characters appear on a fundamentally even field as any other characters.

For Evil Purposes

Given this, Sarkeesian’s focus has drifted to narrative-driven games. In them, female characters are often relegated to marginal and unplayable roles and are subject to aggression and violence on the part of male antagonists as a means to drive the storyline and elicit a natural emotional response from the player. Cinematics such as those found in The Last of Us II potentially fall into this category.

In Sarkeesian’s estimation, there is no more straightforward way of demonstrating who is righteous and who is evil than by causing violence to incidental female characters. Male gamers fall prey to the age-old tropes of chivalry and feeling a deep, guttural reaction when exposed to female harm. This type of response is warranted when characters gradually develop over the course of a storyline and are tragically ripped from us. However, Sarkeesian says this is rarely the case.

Instead, the inconsequential female characters appear as simple tools to advance the storyline and accentuate the depravity of certain — typically male — characters. Game developers seem to have this all down to a science and will usually target female sex workers or women in otherwise compromising positions — the social “throwaways.” Enforcing the expendable image of these women carries a massive and terrifying implication of its own.

Aesthetic

However, female objectification manifests in another, hugely popular video game trope. In this, the typical “sexiness” of women portrayed in video games since the genesis of story-driven titles is mixed with violence as a means to evoke an edgy and dangerous but aesthetically pleasing world.

Instead of using specific and active instances of violence against women to evoke an emotional response, certain games utilise casual violence as a sort of game aesthetic. These titles portray women’s suffering as set pieces for certain stages of the game and allow the player to indulge in certain fantasies vicariously. From the exotic dancers of Grand Theft Auto to the trailer for Hitman: Absolution, women appear framed in demeaning and deadly ways for the benefit of the player.

Some Concerns From Gamers

This phenomenon is a slippery one to pin down: What constitutes excessive violence or humiliation on the part of non-player female characters, and what is reasonably accepted as a game aesthetic? There are arguments to be made that eliminating female-directed violence from games contributes to an unrealistic worldview for players.

Violence against women does exist in the real world and can be found more graphically in certain locations than others. To keep the escapist roots of video games alive, perhaps disallowing specific scenarios or areas is not the best way forward.

Further, enforcing the notion that bad guys participate in violence against women has its benefits, for all the weak story writing such tropes contribute to. If nothing else, studios still rely on the moral indignation players feel when experiencing violence against women, normalising how unacceptable such action is.

Anonymity

The real problem, it seems, is the portrayal of the characters targeted. They are anonymous, inconsequential to the story and simply introduced for the brief, unconscious reaction they elicit from the player. Video games struggle horrifically — for the most part, at least — to meet the Bechdel Test, which is a measure of gender depiction in media. The test only includes three rules: there must be at least two named female characters, those women must talk to each other, and they must talk about something other than a man. The majority of movies and video games alike do not meet this simple criteria, and that is simply lazy. Female anonymity is lazy. This technique does not do justice to the women of our world — or of any world these games are meant to create.

MEANWHILE.....

Does anybody remember that scene in heavy rain when you had to cut off your own finger?

I guess all this is okay RIGHT?

Just saying we do a lot of WAY more horrible things to MALE PROTAGONIST in video games WAY more often.

We also allow them to be very despicable characters and do very despicable things. Spec Ops the Line “white phosphorus” scene and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 “no Russians” Mission come to mine.

But that’s just my opinion.

[ayearofpike]

The Last Vampire 5: Evil Thirst

Pocket Books, 1996 179 pages, 18 chapters ISBN 0-671-55050-0 LOC: CPB Box no. 654 vol. 9 OCLC: 34952388 Released June 4, 1996 (per B&N)

Sita has not heard from her new friend and her baby, and is worried that her daughter might have already carried out her evil scheme. There is a way she can find out, though: a local anthropologist claims to have a document written by a teacher in ancient Egypt that foretold the next coming of a Christ figure, to be born on the day that Sita’s friend had her baby. It adds fuel to the fire that this might be for real when Sita realizes the teacher was her friend, back when she first left India, and Sita knows of her abilities. Maybe together, Sita and the group that has formed around this ancient text can save the baby. Or maybe not.

For what should have been a straight-up  sequel, this book certainly throws in a new story all of a sudden. We’re following Kalika, we’re wondering what’s going to happen to this immaculate conception baby, and now there’s Egyptians. As per usual, it seems that Pike can’t ever leave a thread of research unexplored in multiple books. We got the Egypt thing in The Visitor and The Lost Mind, so I guess it was just something he was learning about and excited to share.

I remember, at the time, being excited that these last three Sita books were coming out in such quick succession. Finally, I said to myself, he’s got a plan of where to take this story and will finish it up and get on with his other work. And TLV4 certainly lived up to that promise. But I got to the end of this one and thought: OK, that’s wrapped this up. Where could he possibly take it from here? (Answer: we’ll find out next time.) Unpopular opinion: I thought The Hunger Games could have been done (and stronger) in one book. So I wasn’t super thrilled when Pike all but closed the story here and BUT WAIT there’s one more coming this fall!

That’s not to say that this was a bad story, necessarily. We start with Sita and Seymour (who of course isn’t leaving her again) in line for a lecture on this ancient text, three months after the confrontation with Kalika on the pier. You might remember that Sita had told her friend to call in a month, so naturally she’s upset and anxious that she hasn’t heard from her. She hasn’t told Seymour how she brought him back to life — as far as he’s concerned, he passed out in the cold water and woke up in the mountains. But they go in to the lecture, pausing to meet the anthropologist’s adult son, who gives Sita a ladyboner for only the second time in recent memory. 

The lecture is a lot like stuff we’ve seen. The anthropologist (whose last name is Seter; this will be important later) talks a little bit about how he found the document and what it says in regards to a messiah, but mostly he answers questions. Sita has a couple of pointed questions about the calendar system and the gods mentioned in the text, which has her intended effect of getting Doc and Son to meet with her after the lecture. She says she wants to see the whole thing, and to convince them to let her into its presence she claims to have another document written by this ancient teacher. Of course there is no such thing; Sita didn’t even know this one existed, and she hung out with the teacher literally the whole time she was a teacher. But she’s still a vampire, and so she’s able to hypnotize the boys into believing her and letting her follow them to their facility in Palm Springs, where the scroll is kept.

There are like 20 True Believers at the place, and Sita’s been eavesdropping across the traffic and knows they have weapons to protect the Next Coming from the Dark Mother. She also knows they are suspicious of her, so she tries not to alarm them. Though she does touch a five-thousand-year-old papyrus scroll with her bare hands while she reads her teacher’s handwriting. Yes, it looks real. She promises to show them her imaginary scroll later, then goes out to the desert and meditates on what she saw. This allows for a nifty device where Sita can remember how she met her teacher, some hundred years after she was turned, and how even before she started having visions and healing people Sita knew she was special.

She goes home in the morning and immediately the phone rings. Of course it’s Kalika, taunting Sita about her wild goose chase after this scroll and warning again that she won’t be stopped in her search for the baby. Sita picks up enough background audio to get an idea of where Kalika might be staying, and Seymour thinks maybe this was intentional. He saw Kalika open up B-Baller and wants to get the fuck out, but Sita knows that this might be an opportunity to get rid of her, if she can get the True Believer Militia to take her out. To get Seymour on board, she finally tells him the truth of his death and rebirth. But before they call in the heavy artillery, they have to find Kalika, so they track down buildings that match Sita’s audio clues and find Kalika living in the first one they check. Lucky? Or on purpose?

Sita and Seymour take off for San Francisco to corner Doc and Son after another lecture, with articles that show the danger of the Dark Mother. OK, so a lot of them are murders caused by Eddie, and there’s also the Matrix/Blade chase and the nuclear explosion. The only thing she has in her file that Kalika actually did is a story about a dead b-baller who had his throat ripped apart. Still, it’s enough for Doc and Son to believe that there’s a dangerous force in Los Angeles and they’d better try to take it out. They send a strike force into Kalika’s apartment, twenty people with assault rifles and body armor, in a pincer formation through the door and both balconies, but she murders them like so many ants. Sita races over to try and stop the carnage, but Kalika hits her with a still-dying body and chucks her off the eighteenth-story balcony into the pool, because Pike.

By the time she gets back to the observation window, it’s too late. Kalika has killed the snipers posted there, and basically made Doc shit his pants and give up everything about the ancient Egyptian document. (Lucky for Son, he wasn’t in the room.) They blast back to the True Believer facility, and sure enough the basement is a wreck and there are scraps of parchment everywhere. Sita reads about the coming strife in the early months of the Next Coming and where he’ll encounter it, about war between worshippers of Set and worshippers of Isis, and on a separate piece of papyrus (of a different texture) about the coming of the Dark Mother, Kali Ma. So everything she understands is true.

But she still doesn’t understand where this document came from. She meditates on her relationship with the teacher some more, and remembers how she didn’t cast Sita out upon discovering her vampiric nature. She thinks about how the teacher slowly turned into a miracle healer, with herbal remedies and some kind of auric repair service, before being discovered by the region’s queen and being asked to interpret a dream. The teacher interprets it to the queen’s satisfaction (and her high priest’s consternation) and is then kept on to work in the palace. Surely there will be no conflict of interest.

Sita next finds herself in B-Baller’s mom’s house again, where she learns that he was diagnosed with end-stage leukemia and given three months to live. New information that might change how she views her daughter’s nature. She still doesn’t know where to look for the next step, though, so she decides to check back at the ice-cream truck where she found Book 4′s deus ex machina, just in case there’s another one. And sure enough, the homeless dude is there, and he wants to play blackjack, which gives Sita just enough clues to go along with the ancient document and realize: New Friend and Baby are at Lake Tahoe. Yes, somehow this ancient Egyptian was able to predict that there would be a casino there, where you could play blackjack, and the storage and dealing device they’d use to hold cards at the tables would be called a “shoe.” Shhh, just go with it.

We get another flashback chapter, where Sita tells us about the queen going whole-hog in reversing the state religion from Set-worship to Isis-worship (as alluded to in the document), and Sita having to protect her teacher friend from countless assassination attempts. They happen as the high priest of Set is a master of Seedling, forcing others to do his will, and his will is to have minions go kill the usurper. (Which ... I fuckin’ told you, this is Cold One II.) This ultimately leads to Sita facing off against the high priest out in the desert. She feels like, hey, no sweat, I’ve been a vampire at least as long as Edward Cullen, I can take this dude. But what she didn’t realize is that the high priest has invoked an ancient lizard through the use of mind-melding and identical twins (which, like ... you know) and is stronger than she realizes. Plus he has power over the elements. He melts her sword, stabs her with a poisoned dagger, and manipulates the sand to lock around her limbs, then leaves her in the desert to be eaten by flies while he returns to town and takes over. At high noon, sure enough, there’s a massive earthquake that knocks Sita free of her bonds, and when she gets back to town ... there is no town. There’s just a hole. So she figured the high priest lost control and ended up killing everyone, including himself.

The remaining four Freedom Fighters drive to Tahoe and quickly triangulate on the house where New Friend is hiding. But they’re too late — Kalika has been there, and grabbed the baby, and is boating out across the lake with him. Sita manages to sink the boat, but Kalika and the baby make it to an island. She swims out there and corners them, but before she can make Kalika do anything Doc’s Son arrives to help. Or does he? Quick as anything he’s got a knife to Sita’s throat ... a knife that looks oddly familiar. 

Remember the last name and how I said it would be important? Seter. Set-er. Set worshipper. Now, I’ve left out the part about how this dude was adopted by Doc as an older teenager, which might throw a wrench into the foreshadowing of the name. Like, would a high school senior really change his name even if he was taken in by a caring old man? I’m not sure I’m all the way on board with this, even if it was needed to make him seem more connected to the cause by giving him the same name up front.

So he takes Sita’s gun and blasts the unholy fuck out of Kalika, then cuts Sita’s throat with the poisoned dagger and stabs it into her back, and then he boats off with the baby, who only now starts crying. Sita figures it’s all over, she misread the scroll and now humanity is totally fucked. Only Kalika works her way over to Sita and feeds her the blood pouring from her exposed heart, giving enough to heal her mother before she dies. When Sita makes it back to shore, she finds Doc dying of heart failure, unable to believe that his adopted son would have betrayed him so hard to the point of having a heart attack. She also finds Seymour bleeding out from a shotgun blast to the stomach. (I really don’t know if Pike knows how a shotgun works, if he thinks you can shoot one nine or ten times without reloading.) There’s no more Jeebus Baby blood, so she has to turn him. And that’s the last we hear from Seymour in this book.

Sita has more important things to do, like finding Jeebus Baby and Lizard Priest. And she thinks she knows where they’ll be: at the place where New Friend had relations with a giant blue star. She starts thinking about New Friend, which makes the star show up, and once more Sita is floating as a transparent ghost vampire or whatever the hell. She spots Lizard Priest below, and he’s waiting for someone: a spaceship full of lizards that is made of some kind of ethereal stuff. Sita realizes that her only chance is to go into the spaceship and possess one of the lizard aliens. She’s in the strongest and ugliest one when the ship lands and the aliens start taunting the baby. But Sita forces the alien to look into the baby’s eyes, and the mesmer of the baby protects her from being subjugated by Seedling, and she grabs the lizard’s knife and stabs Lizard Priest in the eye. And suddenly the spectral aliens disappear, and Sita has Lizard Priest’s knife embedded in his eye. She does the other one and grabs the baby, and then slits his throat for good measure. There’s a whoosh as the spectral aliens take off, and Sita and the baby start back to the car.

And that’s the end of The Last Vampire 5: Evil Thirst! So you see what I mean by ending the story? Sure, they have to drive back to Lake Tahoe or whatever and return the baby to his mom, and Seymour’s a vampire now at long last, but ... is any of it necessary? Is it even germane to the part of the story that will come next? I honestly don’t remember, but I think probably not? We’ll find out next time, as the Pocket editions of the Sita stories come to a close.

[sinfulfolk]

In Search of Doors: V.E. Schwab

A simply marvelous Tolkien Lecture by the wonderful writer Victoria Schwab.

Schwab speaks of J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Susanne Clarke and so many more writers who have my world astonishing, more hopeful and yes, stranger as well. I truly enjoyed every moment of this thoughtful, insightful, challenging and evocative talk by a writer I admire and enjoy. I hope you enjoy too!

And here is a list of the books by her that I have enjoyed the most:

THE VILLAINS SERIES

Superpowers don’t make you a superhero.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates―brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. But when they discover a connection between near-death experiences and supernatural abilities, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find―aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, and driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge―but who will be left alive at the end?

    Coming this September, the super-powered sequel…a woman who can turn her enemies to ash. A girl without a face. And of course, Victor Vale is back…

    THE CASSIDY BLAKE SERIES

  Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn’t like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead . . . and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost.

So things are already pretty strange. But they’re about to get much stranger.

When Cass’s parents start hosting a TV show about the world’s most haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here, graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless phantoms. And when Cass meets a girl who shares her “gift,” she realizes how much she still has to learn about the Veil — and herself.

And she’ll have to learn fast. The city of ghosts is more dangerous than she ever imagined.

THE MONSTERS OF VERITY SERIES

In a world where violence breeds monsters, there’s no such thing as safe.

  Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

    Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be.

When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own.

  THE SHADES OF MAGIC SERIES

Magic, mayhem, and multiple Londons.

  Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Officially he serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador. Unofficially he’s a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

  Four months have passed since the events of Darker Shade. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port. But while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life, and those who were thought to be forever gone have returned—meaning that another London must fall.

    The precarious equilibrium among four Londons has reached its breaking point. Once brimming with the red vivacity of magic, darkness casts a shadow over the Maresh Empire. Who will crumble? Who will rise? And who will take control?

    THE ARCHIVED SERIES

Imagine a world where the dead are shelved like books.

  Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Mackenzie is Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive. Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da’s death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

  Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she’s struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn’t easy — not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she’s really safe.

Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She’s sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she’ll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels?

  In Search of Doors: V.E. Schwab was originally published on Ned Hayes

[stephicness]

Discipline -- Ravus Nox Fleuret x Ardyn Izunia

Lazy writer Steph is lazy, because as soon as I start drifting into the naughty territory, I throw my hands up and go ‘I give up on life!’ So then I find a stopping place just before it all, and then just let my mind wander on its own.

Perhaps one day, I’ll just sit and write mindless smut. BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!

But nevertheless, have a sequel to my ancient fic, Deceiving. I’ve been sitting on this request since I basically started writing here on Tumblr, but hey! Better now than never, yeah? :D You can read the first part over on AO3, or somewhere buried here on Tumblr.

WARNINGS: Implied NSFW, Getting into NSFW Stuff, Choking/Breath Play

It was hard enough simply prying himself from bed every morning, in all honesty. Even harder when he knew his day would entail constant meetings of the same pitiful revenge ploy that the Niflheim Empire wished to enact upon the (not so) poor continent of Eos. First a meeting with the Emperor, then one with the Minister, then another pointless one with both, and another (not as painful) meeting with the cute little fox he always did enjoy mingling with. The meetings felt endless, and yet he still wasn’t quite done for the day. He had one meeting that he had unfortunately put aside until the very last moment, reaching all the way until the dregs of the evening when every other task in the world had finally ceased.

A meeting with the deputy commander. Oh, scratch that – the new high commander, now that the brutish Glauca was ‘relieved’ of his duties. Perhaps a tragedy within the Imperial ranks, but Ardyn could hardly say he really would miss the man. All revenge-plots and no play made a man dull, after all. Not to mention he was hardly around due to the infiltration mission that the old commander had been on for what felt like a century. Perhaps not, but centuries, days – they all pass by so fast.

But it wasn’t any nuance to Ardyn, no. Because with Glauca off playing Glaives and Robbers, Ardyn had the pleasure of getting quite acquainted with the new high commander, both before his promotion and subsequent arm roasting and after. And Ravus certainly a treat compared to how Glauca was. The brutish general would often shut Ardyn down before any antics arose. But Ravus? The young man tried. He tried so hard, and it always ended so feebly before his temper got the better of him. Angry scowls, bitter words, followed by a haughty remark about having now time for Ardyn’s antics before he either attempted an escape or forced himself to resume his work. Despite the air of professionalism that Ravus always tried to hold, he was a very short-tempered man, simply masking it behind an air of stoicism that Ardyn always seemed to break somehow.

Ardyn always did enjoy breaking things, after all.

But due to delays in his scheduling, Ardyn found himself late to the meeting with the grumpy commander. It was mostly because a traumatized little fox, temporarily confined to janitorial duties, was simply begging for an excuse to betray the commander’s orders, but also simply because he enjoyed making Ravus wait, provoking the impatient scowls from him and ultimately being there to rile Ravus up even more. And so, he found sometime for the precious little fox to do, even if it left Loqi in a disheveled daze in one of the storage closets within the barracks by the end of it. Ardyn wiped the corner of his mouth and smirked to himself. He still had it in him, it seems.

So approximately forty-five minutes late, Ardyn finally approached the commander’s door, giving a weak effort to straighten out his attire before he nonchalantly pushed aside the door and entered into the commander’s office, ready to give his usual greetings with his overly eccentric accent-

“Good evening, Chancellor.”

Beaten to the punch, Ardyn stood there as the door shut itself behind him. Surprising to hear Ravus greeting him first. Even more surprising to not see Ravus working but, instead, sitting on the edge of his desk, long legs crossed over each other in a regal fashion with his arms folded over his chest with prideful impatience as heterochromatic eyes pierced into Ardyn through thin black reading glasses. Ardyn found himself arching an eyebrow in response, finding it nearly impossible to hide the smirk over his face. Ravus always was an attractive man, but something about seeing him in glasses with his hair pulled back was a delectable sight.

He couldn’t help but imagine being the one to pull back on Ravus’s hair instead.

“I believe you are nearly an hour late to our meeting together.”

Ardyn chuckled, taking his hat off and giving a low bow to Ravus with mock respect. “My sincere apology, dear Ravus. Though to be fair, I’m only fifteen minutes until an hour late.”

“Lateness is lateness.”

Ooh, that authoritative voice again. It always did send a fun shiver down Ardyn’s spine.

“You know how I do not tolerate lateness, Chancellor Izunia. Especially when it prevents me from returning to my quarters for a pleasant night’s rest.” Ravus’s gaze narrowed while nails tapped against the metal of his prosthetic arm. “I do not care for the latency of information that I require to do the task at hand, nor do I care for being made to wait on you of all people.”

“But I’ve arrived, have I not?” Ardyn purred in response, setting his hat aside on one of the tabletops before he migrated over towards the seats before Ravus’s desk, gliding his hand over the back of it but not yet taking his place there. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed yet, but I too have many a task to take care of. People to converse with, goals to accomplish, gossip to indulge in. Social endeavors and the like.” He turned his head towards Ravus, a tilt in his head and a crooked smile spreading over his lips. “Though I’m not quite sure you’re too familiar with the idea of socialization.”

“Socialization, yes. Fraternization, no.”

“Oh, you wound me~” The chancellor dramatically flicked his wrist upward, resting it near his forehead as he batted his eyes. “My poor heart cannot take your ridicule!”

“Your nonsense is only becoming more of a burden to me than a pleasure, Chancellor.”

Ardyn simply chuckled to himself, looking down at the commander as he stood in front of him between the chair. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the desk on either side of Ravus, distance becoming less as he leaned towards the spectacle-wearing commander with a devilish smile over his face. “Perhaps I can attempt to make it more pleasurable for you then, Commander. I'm sure I can find a way to satisfy you. Perhaps have you begging for me, praising me for allowing you release." Ardyn’s lips ghosted over Ravus’s cheek as his gruff voice purred by the commander’s ear. “Tell me, dear Ravus. What is it that you desire? What is your wish?”

The scoff from Ravus was to be expected from such a remark, but the actions to follow truly did catch the chancellor off-guard. Often, Ravus would simply remain in his place and keep denying the chancellor’s advances. But instead, Ardyn found a metal hand reaching forward, pressing against his chest until the Chancellor found himself thrown back with such immense force. It hardly felt like he staggered on his feet before being tossed so easily into the chair behind him, skidding back slightly as a result while Ravus rose to his feet. The chancellor rubbed his chest after having lost his breath momentarily, only to find Ravus’s foot pressed against his crotch and the commander towering over Ardyn with an imposing glare.

“Chancellor Izunia, perhaps my personality has not been revealed to you with such clarity.” The commander adjusted his stature to where his knee rested in between Ardyn’s legs. Ravus’s hands wandered over the chancellor’s shoulders, resting themselves momentarily on the sides of Ardyn’s neck before they tugged gently at the orange scarf that was tucked away around his neck. A grin only spread over the red-haired man’s face, submitting to the removal of his scarf as he leaned back in his seat and watched Ravus cautiously.

“I am someone who despises when plans go array. When they are ruined by bumbling fools or disregarded by sleazy men like you. They are untrained, like dogs who need to be trained and taught by their master to where they show order, obedience, and loyalty.” He carefully tucked the scarf around Ardyn’s neck as he fixed it a bit, one end looped about and adjusted to a knot that caused Ardyn to wonder just how fashionable that knot was in a scarf.

“So, Ardyn…” Ardyn had to gulp in response. The first time Ravus ever spoke his first name was in such an erotic tone. would you like to know what would make my desires come to fruition? What my wish is exactly?”

There was no time for Ardyn to reply. Instead, Ardyn was silenced as Ravus pulled hard on the scarf, tightening the orange fabric around Ardyn’s neck and asphyxiating him when he was jerked forward toward Ravus. Ardyn only now noticed what the knot has resembled: a noose. Amber eyes met the blue and brown gaze above him, seeing no man before him – but a demon. One whose expression slowly shifted from a frown of disdain to a smirk of malice.

“I wish you make a dog like you beg for my forgiveness.”

Ardyn found himself blinking hard in surprise. Oh. Oh my~ Just from the commander’s voice, Ardyn found a heat surge through him, as if frenzied by the notion that Ravus thought he would get Ardyn to beg to begin with. He had to admit, seeing Ravus in such a state was thrilling, if not seductive. But Ravus was playing a dangerous game, for Ardyn very rarely allowed himself to be taken off-guard like this. Ravus was a controlling man, but Ardyn was always the one in control of the situation, even when Ravus thought he had full authority over Ardyn.

Perhaps he would just play along with the situation a bit further, however. After all, Ravus seemed so confident than he could ‘train’ a dog like himself, so why not let him try and humor him a bit?

Besides, seeing Ravus in a new light like this caused Ardyn to lick his lips eagerly, rasping from his controlled breathing as he stared up at Ravus with a teasing expression. “Really now? You wish to train me of all people? Such a ruthless man, you are.”

This only resulted in Ravus moving from Ardyn, jerking the man onto his hands and knees as he held the scarf upwards with Ardyn’s neck following. The chancellor gasped, hand reaching up to grip onto the scarf as Ravus eyed the other man with a stern expression. “Men like you deserve to be punished for your actions, especially when they result in me having to wait.” Ravus tugged Ardyn up to his feet, another gesture to prove just how much control he had over Ardyn as Ardyn reluctantly obeyed. Being pulled forward, Ardyn and Ravus’s bodies pressed together tightly, distance closing once more but Ardyn behind denied the chance to kiss Ravus with the commander pulling back on the make-shift noose around the chancellor’s neck.

“Besides, what was that that you said to me before… ‘You’re more than welcome to punish me any day?’”

Ardyn’s fiendish grin spread over his face once again. “So you don’t actually ignore me, now do you, dear Ravus~?” The chancellor suddenly gasped as he felt his head being jerked around again and the scarf tightening around his neck.

“Did I say you can speak?” Ravus’s eyes narrowed into a scowl, lips finally brushing together enough for Ardyn to breath the commander’ air. Sweet, just like the other man’s unhealthy diet. “And who gave you the permission to call me by my name?”

Ardyn simply chuckled in response, whispering in response as his arms wrapped themselves around Ravus’s waist. “My apologies, master. Perhaps I should be punished for such disrespect.”

Ravus growled in response. “Oh, you will be.”

[wit-craft]

sorry if this is weird and random but do u know any good books with lesbian characters? u just seem like the type of person who would

First of all, can I just say I’m thrilled that i give off that impression? Clearly, I’m doing something right. Second, yes! I do! Not as many as I’d like, but still (also, I’m including bi girls because it does widen the the selection a little.)

Adaption by Malinda Lo

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

they’re sci-fi YA novels with a bi main character and they’re really fun!! There is a love triangle, but it’s resolved super well in the sequel, Inheritance. I promise even if you hate love triangles (I do) just stick it. I don’t want to spoil anything but like… trust me.

The Summer I Wasn’t Me by Jessica Verdi

She never meant for her mom to find out. And now she’s afraid that what’s left of her family is going to fall apart for good.

Lexi knows she can fix everything. She can change. She can learn to like boys. New Horizons summer camp has promised to transform her life, and there’s nothing she wants more than to start over.

But sometimes love has its own path…

This is just about the only realistic fiction/coming out story on here— I’m usually not a huge fan. But I read this when I was younger and first coming to terms with my sexuality so it gets a spot.

Ash by Malinda Lo

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Have you ever wondered what Cinderella would be like if it were gay and had proper faeries? Wonder no more; Ash is the book for you! Seriously though, Lo is a godsend when it comes to queer si-fi/fantasy YA fiction. She has a couple more books that I haven’t read yet but look just as good.

And I Darken by Kiersten White

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

Okay so… technically, this one probably doesn’t really belong on this list but like. Guys. It’s so good. And there are lesbians, they’re just not quite main characters, and there’s other queer characters who have larger parts. It’s based on the stories of Vlad the Impaler, re-imagined if he were a woman. The pov characters are Lada (Vlad) and her brother Radu, and I love them, and their messy ass relationship, both so much. It’s all set in the royal court of the ottoman empire, in the midst of the crusades, and there’s so much about fascinating political-religious tensions, and it’s historical fiction (queer historical fiction!!! (queer historical fiction not set in Western Europe!!!)). The sequel is Now I Rise, and features the lesbians more heavily.

The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer

Three thousand years ago, a god told a lie. Now, only a goddess can tell the truth. Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want–except for freedom. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice. Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny. But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.

Have you ever thought Ancient Greek Myths were too heterosexual? Probably not, but now they’re even gayer! A re-imagining of Hades and Persephone where Hades is a woman. It’s a really quick read with a great love story and I highly recommend it.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story. 

I am a sucker for a good adaption of myths and fairy tales, and this is probably my favorite. The plot, the concept… it’s so original and just absolutely delicious. The writing was good, if not the best I’ve ever read, but the characters were wonderful. Also, I picked it up without knowing it was gay, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Oh, but don’t worry– Mina and Lynet aren’t together, there’s no weird stepmother/daughter shit going on. They have separate love stories.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer,” who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways…But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

Betrayal! Unbetrayal! Mutual betrayal! Mutual unbetrayal! It’s a wild fucking ride y'all. It also gets pretty fucking dark, but there’s a happy… enough ending, because I don’t do shit without happy endings.

Every Day, David Levithan

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

Eh, I debated whether to put this on here. As you can see, it’s about a kid who wakes up in a different body every day– be it guy or girl. From what I recall, “A” themself doesn’t every assign a gender to themself, and the book is in first person from their perspective, but the Goodreads description does use he/him pronouns. I read it as a non-binary/genderfluid person who falls in love with a girl, and it’s a really good book, so. Take it or leave it, it’s up to you. On an unrelated note, I think there’s a movie coming out soon.

That’s all I can think of at the moment! Hope you find something you like.

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/20/17: CUBE(s)

Why worry about the Christmas Creep, when you can enjoy the Blogtober Sprawl!

CUBE is one of those movies whose reputation I always remember better than I do its contents. My hazy recollection, of a piece of canned theater that comports itself as an unusually grisly made for TV movie, tends to take a back seat to the passion people seem to have for it. Perhaps I have more of a fondness for its category than I do for the film itself--that is, I tend to file it with certain rental items that regularly terrify normallos who don’t ordinarily partake of the horror genre. (Oddly, the somewhat similar EVENT HORIZON is the other most memorable entry on this list) In my conversational experience, even people who don’t even have a favorite HELLRAISER installment may still remember CUBE in greater detail than they’d like. It’s an intriguing achievement.

Director Vincenzo Natali’s feature debut has a premise I don’t much care for: A kooky collection of strangers find themselves trapped in undesirable circumstances, where discovering the invisible links between them may be the key to their survival. Luckily for me, this tired narrative takes place in the heart of a mysterious network of high tech rooms variously housing some nightmarish boobytraps. The potential hero, a notorious escape artist, is knocked off right away, leaving behind a baffled gaggle of people who have to assemble their collective strengths (architect, math whiz, doctor, etc) to determine a way forward, which is easier than remembering how any of them came to be there. Bets can be placed and easily won on which twists and turns will lead the most tolerable characters to their questionable victory.

Loud summer stock-y acting and the clunky unraveling of clues is counterbalanced by the movie’s carefully sustained suspense; Even if you aren’t worried about which character will crack next, then you can focus on which of them will be slap-chopped into geometric gore by the cube’s mechanized traps. My major complaint is that I could have used more of these sadistic, mostly-wire-based devices, and less bug-eyed bickering among performers that are not really equipped to carry what is essentially a one-set play on the backs of their dramatic abilities. You may already have guessed that the only really important character in CUBE is in fact the deadly and design-forward cube itself, which was conceived for the film by a mathematician.

I have often wondered how much more or less satisfying the movie is when you have some understanding of math. If you’re like me, you hear actors rattling off sets of data and projections that are meant to explain their environment, and you think, “OK, this movie appears to involve actual mathematics, and it is showing its work. That’s all I need to know.” What I personally find most satisfying about CUBE is not this peculiar form of realism, but its unanswerable questions. Huge amounts of screen time are spent with the crotchety cast debating the plausibility of a government conspiracy, alien invasion, or “Most Dangerous Game” scenario, until someone finally offers, with apparent certainty, one genuine explanation. A person who turns out to have been involved in the cube’s construction--which was completed by a vast crew of independent contractors working blind with no context for their individual tasks--reveals that there simply is no overarching authority, no purpose for the structure, and no logic in the selection of its prisoners. The cube, he claims, is a product of pure entropy. That is, from origins unknown, a haphazard and increasingly complex system of contract work, delegated processes, bureaucratic mandates, corporate red tape, and other such Kafkaesque ailments of modern professionalism led to the production of an object, owned by no one, used for nothing, that continues to suck up unwitting civilians for no reason on absolutely no one’s watch. If you have ever worked for a major corporation, this is a chillingly convincing proposal, and it may set CUBE up to become increasingly relevant as years pass.

If you have seen the sequel and prequel to CUBE, you may be gearing up to argue with me, so I’ll just tell you right now that I’m perfectly happy to take the original movie by itself, please and thank you. I would say that the evil cube creep and maintenance crew that reveal themselves in CUBE: ZERO serve only to ruin the movie with their obnoxious ironies and quirky performances, but there’s really nothing to ruin other than the first scene’s mind-bending display of bubbling grue, a pleasure that is never to be repeated. The slightly superior CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE also offers a singular thrill, this one coming at the movie’s climax, in which the cube appears to both implode and explode endlessly. This is not so easy to address in this context, but I must insist that if you have ever done as little as one single drug in your entire life, even within the safety of a dentist’s chair, this sequence will just about turn your hair white with its impossible authenticity. The nauseating impression of infinity, the multidimensional symmetry, the impossibly diffuse light, the sensation of being in a place both emptily vast and deeply interior, and the horrifying feeling of simultaneously falling and flying are a perfect reflection of what the mind does when untethered from the consciousness. It is on that basis alone that I am able to recommend anything about the CUBE sequels, although if you find that to be a draw, you may be better off just going out and doing some drugs.

[silverwindsblog]

hi I have a big problem with how Anzu is written in yugioh and I wonder how much you agree. She is so weak and helpless and i wish the anime gave her more important and more mature nature and more complicated personalty. She is even worse in fanfiction! Everyone writes like they hate her or she is like really girly and damsel in distress. How would you write her different? have you seen anyone write her better. Sorry i am new to your page if you answered this question already

Hello anon. I don’t believe I have this type of question before, so no worries.

I strongly disagree on Anzu is weak and helpless. She has a badass, take no shit attitude in season 0 yugioh (both anime and manga). Not only she defended Yugi from bullies, she also bashed the globe on a brainwashed professor so they can escape from Shadi’s control, guided the group in Death T to avoid falling blocks. Oh, it happen offscreen but she even punched a man for touching her butt at work and got fired from it (manga based). Her badass attitude got really toned down and got reduced into a love interest role, which I have to admit as an Anzu fan, I’m disappointed on Anzu’s wasted potential. I can see why some people aren’t fond of Anzu and seeing her as a non action girl if people are not familiar with season 0 Yugioh in both anime and manga. The creators were more focused on Joey, Yugi, and Seto’s character development more so than female characters. Shounen anime (at least back in the 90’s), are more focused on male characters since their intended main audience are young boys. Female characters were used by creators as as eye candy and have limited roles that are stereotypical. For example, love interest, clingy jealous girl, the nagging wife, etc.

Despite that her badass attitude is toned down from season 0, she is strong. I just wish that the creators expand more of her character and have more complicated personality. She’s certain of her future as a dancer for a 16 yer old which is impressive. How many 16 years old already knew what they want in the future? Many adults don’t know what they want in their 20’s. She’s adventurous, headstrong, and confident. Season 0 Yugioh revealed that she’s the type of person that believe one can make one’s future rather than passively get through life. She rejected the fake psychic’s services and said something like “That I can make my own future and see it for myself.”

She helped both Yugi and Atem open up more, find Atem’s past by suggesting to go to the museum, supported her friends to go on when they want to give up, doesn’t take Seto’s attitude, and discover Atem’s name. If it weren’t for Anzu discovering Atem’s name, Atem would lost to Zorc.

I saw people wrote Anzu pretty well as a well rounded person and doesn’t fall into the homophobic girl/slut shaming for the fan’s shipping, damsel in distress, or make her a villain. I have some fanfic recs that has Anzu as a well rounded person. Some fanfics have shipping and I tagged them.

Schadenfreude by Scribbler

Variation on a Theme by Scribbler

A what if Anzu solved the puzzle instead of Yugi. Well written and fleshes her out along with other characters more.

Dandelion Days by Scribbler

A story how Anzu and Yugi become friends.

A Really Quite Serious Story About Hugging by Scribbler

Peachshipping. Explores Anzu and Yugi’s relationship on their moments when they hugged each other.

The Price of Fame is Not Tax Deductible by Scribbler

The North Wind and the Sun by Scribbler Anzu/Seto (Azureshipping)

Something Quiet to Ease My Mind by Scribbler

Anything by Scribbler honestly since she’s focused really well on Anzu and peachshipping (romantic & friendship). She does a nice job developing their relationship.

Ghost by kallistra (My all time favorite story). Vanishshipping. No words can describe on how well written and how much I love the story. Has a lot of Egyptian mythology. Be mindful that it’s rated M for drugs and alcohol, sexual assault, and a lemon.

I’m Not Your Salvation by Cryptographic_Delurk

Summary: Joey didn’t think about her much at first, except to dislike her. Jounouchi and Anzu get off to a rough start. This is, however, only the start. Friendship fanfic.

Author’s Warning: The misogyny tag isn’t there lightly. If you’re sensitive to portrayals of male objectification, sexual harassment, or assault of women, you might want to skip. Rated M for swearing.

Vices by Atemusluckygal

Summary: The Seal of Orichalcos is much more dangerous than a spell card, its agenda much grander than a game. Rated M for mature content (TW inside). Contains subplot Revolutionshipping, discussed Peachshipping.Be ware that there are dark themes that are not suitable for children. I love this story, but be mindful of the dark themes. It’s not pretty.

Anything by Saffroncremebrulee for Anzu centric/revolutionshipping centric. I love her writing style.

From Business To Pleasure by Higuchimon

Seto/Anzu (Azureshipping)

Chills and Thrills by Higuchimon Jououchi/Anzu (Devotionshipping)

A Sane Cheerleader by darkrunnerAnzu x Otogi (Persevereshipping)Oneshot. Short, but I love it. I like this pairing and it’s a fun one to explore.

Boiling Point by: Ryou VeRua Very short revolutionshipping. What happens when you mess with Anzu. The bullies learned the hard way. Moral of the lesson.  She has legs of steel. And don’t fuck with Anzu.

A Revolution of the Spirit by Jenivi7Poker game with Revolutionshipping. Funny and I love how flirty Anzu and Atemu are to each other.

Define Dancing by darkrunnerRevolutionshipping

Memento by: DoubleplusgoodduckspeakerMirrors don’t tell lies, Anzu. To regain that which is lost all you need to do is come back. MarikxAnzu (Manipulashipping)

Fifteen Minutes by DoubleplusgoodduckspeakerYou don’t always get your happy ending, but sometimes that’s a blessing in disguise. Danceshipping MaixAnzu.

Completion by Cymoril AvalonDeath had stolen everything from Anzu, but after the story was over and life pursued its own end, she discovered that sometimes, love really does transcend physical boundaries. AnzuXYami no Yuugi (Revolutionshipping)

Pollux by palomino333Sequel to Dealing With It. Set after DOMA. “In that moment, Anzu grasped the fact that she had never felt so sorry for him before. Yami was surrounded by friends, but he was so alone.” Revolutionshipping.

The Sands of Solipsism by: Raving In The RainTea, an aspiring ballerina, never had a solo until the company put on “The Sands of Solipsism”. The role of Sekherta, the murderous Egyptian queen, is all she’s ever dreamed of. But when her rival dancer mysteriously dies, Tea’s dream becomes a nightmare; for whoever has the lead role is haunted by the sadistic queen’s spirit who wants revenge on her ancient husband- Yami. Revolutionshipping. On hiatus.

If I were to write Anzu for a story, I would expand Anzu’s backstory on how she and Yugi became friends. I would expand more on how she is independent & adaptive from the traveling due her family’s work. I would write her as a headstrong woman, while trying to avoid making her short tempered. She’s an expressive person and is not afraid to show her emotions. However, she is not easily flustered unless it’s someone she likes or in extreme situations. Once she’s more comfortable with someone she likes, she’s not easily flustered. Being emotional does not make a person weak. She’s emotional, but as a dancer, she is able to express her emotions as well staying calm in stressful situations considering that she has to do dance auditions for scholarships. In the manga, Anzu is the one in charge for leading the group to avoid the falling blocks at Death T. I would write her as a strong person yet have insecurities when it comes to love.  She can be naive with trusting people too much, but she’s not taking shit from someone who mess with her. If a man cat calls her or say something sexist, Anzu would respond back with a sassy atttitude or call him out for cat calling.

Hopefully I answer your question! Thanks for the ask!

[inkyardpress]

Your September TBR

September brings a hint of whimsy as we prepare for all things back to school, pumpkin spice, and cable knit. Prepare for the imminent fall snuggle-down by adding these A+ September reads to the top of your TBR pile.

If There’s No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Lena Wise is always looking forward to tomorrow, especially at the start of her senior year. She's ready to pack in as much friend time as possible, to finish college applications and to maybe let her childhood best friend Sebastian know how she really feels about him. For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic—one of opportunities and chances. 

Until one choice, one moment, destroys everything. 

Now Lena isn't looking forward to tomorrow. Not when friend time may never be the same. Not when college applications feel all but impossible. Not when Sebastian might never forgive her for what happened. 

For what she let happen. 

With the guilt growing each day, Lena knows that her only hope is to move on. But how can she move on when her and her friends' entire existences have been redefined? How can she move on when tomorrow isn't even guaranteed?

Mark your calendars and prepare your hearts, If There’s No Tomorrow comes out September 5! Add it to your Goodreads shelf.

The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics

From the outside, the Cane family looks like they have it all. A successful military father, a loving mother and five beautiful teenage daughters. But on the inside, life isn't quite so idyllic: the Cane sisters can barely stand each other, their father is always away, and their neglectful mother struggles with addiction and depression.  When their youngest and most beloved sister, Rose, dies in a tragic accident, Mona Cane and her sisters are devastated. And when she is brought back from the dead, they are relieved. But soon they discover that Rose must eat human flesh to survive, and when their mother abandons them, the sisters will find out just how far they'll go to keep their family together.

Be ready for these thrills and chills on September 26.

If I Fix You by Abigail Johnson

When sixteen-year-old Jill Whitaker’s mom walks out—with a sticky note as a goodbye—only Jill knows the real reason she’s gone. But how can she tell her father? Jill can hardly believe the truth herself. Suddenly, the girl who likes to fix things—cars, relationships, romances, people—is all broken up. Used to be, her best friend, tall, blond and hot flirt Sean Addison, could make her smile in seconds. But not anymore. They don’t even talk. With nothing making sense, Jill tries to pick up the pieces of her life. But when a new guy moves in next door, intense, seriously cute, but with scars—on the inside and out—that he thinks don’t show, Jill finds herself trying to make things better for Daniel. But over one long, hot Arizona summer, she realizes she can’t fix anyone’s life until she fixes her own. And she knows just where to start…

New in paperback September 26.

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

The battle for the Crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail? With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent. In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.

Available September 19th from Harper Teen.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure and to live a lifetime in a single day. 

Available September 5 from Harper Teen.

Warcross by Marie Lu

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire. In this sci-fi thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu conjures an immersive, exhilarating world where choosing who to trust may be the biggest gamble of all.

Available September 12 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books.

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

The story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge. Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat. Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.  An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.  A bad romance, or maybe three. Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.  A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her. A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Available September 5 from Delacorte Press.

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken. His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent's mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them. But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

Available September 5 from Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children’s Books.

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price. Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Available September 26 from Macmillan.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized among them. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes – a weakness that could cost him his life. Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love, violating the fair folks’ ruthless Good Law. There's only one way to save both their lives, Isobel must drink from the Green Well, whose water will transform her into a fair one—at the cost of her Craft, for immortality is as stagnant as it is timeless. Isobel has a choice: she can sacrifice her art for a future, or arm herself with paint and canvas against the ancient power of the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

Available September 12 from Margaret K. McElderry Books.