#to be clear i like this character he is awesome and fascinating and he is like a ship in a bottle i can rattle around

[ipsen]

I’m so sorry for what I’m about to do.

Now this is a point of contention because I do want to put the question on the table: what IS Arima’s life dream? Is it really a world for ghouls? Is it really? He’s against V, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he cares about ghouls dying unnecessarily (because well, he kills ghouls unnecessarily).

So let’s look at the one thing he does “for ghouls”: his death.

Let’s see how his death affects everyone who knows him. They love his ass. Fura cries over him. Koori continues to idolize him, down to the point he evokes his name when fighting the Taxidermied Owl. Kaneki tries to emulate his idea of him as his successor (we all know how that turned out). Hirako and Squad 0 (a bunch of literal children) quit their fucking jobs because of him.

All of this because he martyrs himself. He wants to die so bad, and when he finally kills himself, he is loved by everyone. Sound familiar?

(re 53)

So yes it IS a stupid plan. It’s stupid to the point of being childish. But hey—

(re 43)

(re 21)

— I’m just musing.

Arima's plan was so stupid like the dude was completely unbeatable and instead of fighting V on his own with also unbeatable Eto he?? left his title and life dream to some guy that could barely touch him in combat??

The impact from having THE ghoul investigator teaming up with ghoul would have been soooo much more, for the humans especially, than whatever Kaneki had going on. Especially paired with the Takatsuki is a ghoul reveal and her new book release. As for the ghouls, all Arima had to do was. stop killing them.

And instead of that, he killed Shachi and gave Rize to V and then made Kaneki his successor like???

[thegoldencontracts]

Tease

Summary: You flustering twst characters. What's not to love?

Characters: Azul, Jade, Leona

Azul Ashengrotto

"You're really pretty, you know."

Azul's eyes widened. You just continued staring at him with a fond little grin, giving him a small wave.

"P-Pardon?"

Though you were really just saying your thoughts aloud, you couldn't help but take notice of how his face flushed, eyes looking anywhere but you. It was clear you'd flustered him quite a bit.

Cute.

"I said," you continued. "You're, like, really pretty."

"D-Darling," Azul said with a sigh. "Please refrain from such antics."

You just smirked.

"Hey, I'm being honest!" You were. You also thought it was funny watching him try to hide how embarrassed he was.

Azul just sighed, returning to his work.

"Wait!" You said, waving him over.

An unimpressed, "Yes?"

You pressed a kiss to his cheek, dousing whatever ire he had.

"Thanks!" You said, turning back to your own homework as you watched Azul practically bluescreen in your peripheral.

Jade Leech

Jade was always quite the tease. That was simply a fact of your relationship, it seemed. Not that you minded.

But, that didn't mean it wasn't sweet when you finally get the chance to tease him back.

"Ah, apologies," he said lightly one day while talking about some of his newest mushrooms. These new ones were all rare, and fascinating, too. How did he even get his hands on them? "I must've frightened you with all this talk of mushrooms."

Eh? That wasn't true at all! It was always awesome listening to Jade talk about his mushrooms. The way he explained things was just fascinating to listen to, and sometimes the facts you learned even helped you during Alchemy!

"Keep going!" You said. "I like hearing you talk."

Besides, he usually wasn't this expressive. There was something so captivating about the way his eyes sparkled whenever he talked about his newest spores, or his new terrariums.

You really didn't expect the way his face turned red at that, eyes blown open in shock.

"Jade?" You said. He cleared his throat hastily.

"A-Apologies," he said, hastily composing himself. "That was rather rude of me. Let us move on."

You gaped at him.

"Are you embarrassed?"

Jade's eye twitched.

"Let us move on from this topic of discussion," he said pointedly.

So he was. No way. Of all people, Jade Leech? Embarrassed about something? It was almost too good to be true!

"No way," you said. "That's so cute-"

"Not a word more about this, please," Jade said, looking awfully meek. You just laughed.

"Sure, sure," you said. "Not a single word more."

Leona Kingscholar

Leona has an odd habit of helping you in the weirdest of ways. Instead of asking you if you needed help, he'd always just "happen" to have whatever you needed lying around. It pretty quickly became apparent he did it on purpose.

Really, you didn't get why he hid it. You always appreciated the help!

"About that worksheet or whatever you couldn't finish, I found a book about it lying around. Take it if you want."

You checked the book. It was pretty much perfect for what you were doing, filled with small notes too. Leona clearly did this on purpose.

"Thanks!" You said. "Love you!"

Leona stared at you for a moment, before instantly averting his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I..."

He trailed off, seeming rather embarrassed.

"Huh?" You asked. Leona glared at the floor like it had personally offended him.

"What're you gawkin' at, herbivore?"

"You're cute."

Leona scoffed.

"Love you too," he said, before waving you off. "Now go- do whatever it is you were doin'."

You laughed. He looked so embarrassed.

"Of course."

[bougiebutchbitch]

I'm not in the ofmd fandom but I am intrigued by the drama. spill the tea?

OH GOD OKAY

Where do I begin lksdlgkfds

Okay so

There’s this nasty little gremlin-man in ofmd called Izzy Hands. He’s a sour, mean, skrunkly, disabled little cunt who is a firm believer in Respect and Discipline (in a very queer subby way).

This is to say: he is. Explicitly. Queer. He does drag on the show, and has a whole coming-out scene. He is a kinky masochist. He confesses his love for another man, and basically ruins his own life & everyone else's, because he is sooooo pathetically jealous about this man (his captain!) falling for some milquetoast loser white rich guy, when Izzy, a badass leather-wearing working-class sword-swinging swashbuckler, is right there making puppy-eyes at him.

He's wrong! He's horrid! He's a bastard, pickled in piss and vinegar! He's five-foot-nothing of spite and gay self-loathing! He's very fun to watch, and very, very queer.

People still insist that he’s straight. And racist. Despite there being 0 textural evidence to support this, and the creators of the show repeatedly saying that this is absolutely not what they wrote.

Why do people hate him so much? Simple! Because he ‘got in the way’ of the main ship.

Yup. It’s basically ‘bash the girl who gets in the way of our m/m otp’ only the girl is a grizzled 50-something year old pirate.

The main ship, btw, is between Ed Teach, an awesome complex flawed hopeful beautiful character of colour; and Stede Bonnet, another awesome complex flawed character. Who is a white guy. And who happens to be a rich plantation owner from the 1700s. Based on A LITERAL SLAVE OWNER. Who is explicitly shown to be a Problematic White Guy with fucked-up racist views.

Like. He’s not a perfect guy. The show makes this very, very clear - to the point where Stede pushes Ed into sex super-fast immediately after Ed says he wants to go slow, and this makes Ed run away and freak out.

But somehow, Certain Fans still insist that Izzy is to blame because :checks notes: he makes one cheeky, friendly joke about them finally getting together that is clearly given & received in good spirits.

Yeah.

There's a lot of this cognitive dissonance going on. And it's very, very wilful.

Basically: a certain subset of people who ship Ed and Stede refuse to exercise the slightest bit of critical thought of Stede’s views and actions (which are a representation of the white landed gentry!) but insist on maliciously twisting literally everything Izzy says or does to cast him as The Ultimate Villain. Whereas anyone watching the show can tell that he starts off as an antagonist-with-a-deeply-hidden-heart-of-gold, whose entire arc is about growth and redemption.

I think 99% of this is projection. Stede and Ed are not perfect by any means, but these people are so dead-set on shipping a Cute Fluffy Romance (when that. Really isn’t what the show gave us) that they have to create a villain out of Izzy and blame all of Stede and Ed’s fucked-up choices and actions on him, in the most contrived ways. Which has the added bonus of them deciding that Izzy, a white guy, is somehow responsible for literally ALL of Ed’s genuinely awful, abusive, and interesting choices in S2, where he went on his villain arc. Even though Izzy was the main victim of this villain arc. Rather than, y’know, giving Ed the agency to make his own damn decisions and acknowledging that he is a flawed and fascinating character who Hurts People but still deserves a happy ending, like literally every other main character on ofmd. Nope. Gotta infantalise that man of colour and pretend he has no control over his own life and his morality is goverened by the white men around him!

Then, they get to portray Stede as his white saviourTM who swoops in and saves Ed from ‘his own darkness’ with the power of love. 😊 because that’s not Problematique in the slightest 😊

It’s… fucked up, to put it plainly. But honestly, as much as there is a problem with their dogged insistence that Izzy is the root of all iniquity on the show, and that Ed and Stede are pure perfect angels who never did any wrong... what was worse was the relentless harassment enacted by that side of the fandom against anyone who dared show a liking for Izzy’s character. Like, it’s not the worst fandom out there by any means, but it really did make the fandom feel hostile to anyone who didn’t ship the main ship.

SO - yeah. That's the tea! OFMD was a fun show with lots of cool flawed characters. But the fandom was a cesspit, fuelled mostly by a Certain Group Of Fans' desperation to make their ship Perfect and Morally Pure - which resulted in them throwing an interesting, well-rounded, morally grey queer disabled character under the bus, and harrassing anyone who enjoyed him.

[annymation]

What things annoyed and infuriated you the most in Wish 2023 (or Canon!Wish)?

OOOOH BOY! You just gave me permission to open a whole can of worms! Let's gooo!

Okay so here's a list:

I don't like how weak the reveal of what Magnifico actually does is. Asha finds out that he doesn't grant all the wishes, awesome, that would be a cool reveal, except, it's not a reveal, she freakin KNEW THIS! Asha herself said to a kid "It could be you someday" COULD! Asha, you said COULD, as in, there's the POSSIBILITY he'll grant that kid's wish, not a certainty! Not to mention if he only grants ONE wish per month then OF FREAKING COURSE not all wishes are granted. Okay, case in point, there's no grand reveal that the king is doing something no one knew, Asha apparently just forgot how their kingdom works.

Now hear me out, I am NOT one of those people that says Magnifico is a hero and Asha is a villain, I wanna make this clear, because although I find people who legit think like that kinda funny and I reblog their takes from time to time, I also find it frustrating that Disney managed to make a STRAIGHT, WHITE, MAN, IN A POSITION OF POWER, MORE LIKABLE THAN THEIR SECOND BLACK PROTAGONIST! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE US HATE HIM!!!-ahem- But, although Magnifico is the most likable character in the movie, I do not see him as a hero, no no no, keeping the wishes away from the people of Rosas is bad, pretending that he'd grant Sabino's wish only to say SIKE was bad, saying he'd never grant Asha family's wishes was bad. So, am I saying Magnifico is a villain?... No. That's topic number 2, Magnifico wasn't a villain, he was a jerk. A jerk does not a villain make. I didn't feel threatened by that man for not a single minute, and that's including when he was possessed by the evil book, speaking of which.

That dang book both ruined and saved the movie honestly, because yeah, although it's a stupid way to make Magnifico an actual villain, but in a way that makes us sympathize with him since he's not in his right mind, and the last thing you want is for the audience to feel bad for your villain... Well, there's exceptions of course, but that's a whole other subject. But even though the book caused all this damage, it also gave us King unhinged, campy, straight up evil, fruity, voiced by Chris Pine having the time of his life Magnifico, and I loved every second of it, I ate possessed Magnifico up, I was living for every cringe cliche evil dialogue that came out of him, like hell yeah, that's what I've been waiting for, that's what it's all about WOOOOOO!!! I loved him so much I just copy pasted his personality into the Magnifico in my rewrite, although, my version is actually willing to kill teens, while Canon Mag seemed more hesitant for some reason, my headcanon is that Magnifico was fighting the curse deep down, and that's why his magic actually didn't hurt anyone, so... That's sad, hope he breaks out of the mirror and kills them all Idk

We're on topic 4 and this is not even half of my problems oh my... Anyway, Asha is boring. And I mean like, in a way that feels intentional, how did they do it? It's fascinating how she has nothing going for her, she doesn't stand out, doesn't have any internal conflicts at the start of the movie, something ALL Disney princesses have: Belle doesn't fit in with her village, Mulan struggles to make her family proud, Mirabel struggles to make her family proud x10.000, Moana wants to explore the sea but can't, Ariel wants to explore the land but can't, Jasmine wants to get out of the castle but can't, Cinderella is a victim of domestic abuse, ya'll get the idea, all these girls get their struggles that make them compelling, what's Asha's struggle that has been with her for most of her life?... Uh... Her grandpa, this dude we just met and seems pretty happy... Doesn't have his wish granted yet... Ok, what else? Oh yeah everyone in town seems to love her and dance along with her to show tourists how cool the kingdom is... Uhum... So yeah she has no compelling struggles that hook us with her from the start, and the conflict she DOES get, as I explained before, feels underwhelming.

The setting, oh the setting. Like, don't get me wrong, the architecture is pretty, but nothing about it screams SPAIN to me, where is the cultural food? Where are the bulls? Where's the stuff we associate with the Iberian Peninsula? They did such a good job in Encanto, what the heck happened? Oh and did I mention that most of the animals that appear in the forest are not even native to the Iberian Peninsula, there would be no racoons in a medieval setting there, considering they're an invasive species that was brought there from North America, something that, I assume, wouldn't be possible back then, as I don't think the americas were even discovered yet, but anyway, there they are, racoons hanging upside down from their tails, something they can't even do. Sorry for expecting biology accuracy from my disney movie guys, but you can't just make Encanto, that was freaking amazing with it's inclusion of so many gorgeous latin American animals, and then do whatever Wish is, like bruh where were the Lynxes??? They're an endangered species there, Disney could've raised awareness!!!

The music...

Valentino was absurdly annoying, and it would be SO EASY to make a baby goat cute! Baby. Goats. Are. Cute. SO WHY DID YOU MAKE HIM UNFUNNY GOAT THAT MAKES BUTT JOKES???

Characters were unmemorable, Asha's mom didn't do anything, Sabino, whose supposed to be the backbone of the story, is barely a character, and again, it's not like Disney hasn't made likable elderly people before, Moana's grandma, Mama Coco, but my guy Sabino was just... There.

Aaaand I probably could go on and on but I can't think of anything else, feel free to share your own problems with the movie yall.

[inklessletter]

No, but hear me out; Steve is genuinely good with kids and toddlers. Like, absurdly good. He engages with them because he finds them not only adorable, but really fun to be around. Steve kind of gets how they think, loves to play with them, their funny logic, how seriously they take what’s happening in their busy little minds. He finds them fascinating, and they often surprise him in the best ways. Steve respects them, and kids perceive that and love and respect him back. Also, to Steve, spending time with kids is socially freeing. When he’s around kids he’s not worrying about social cues, or saying something wrong, or can stop paying attention to his manners or his looks.

Steve loves kids, and kids love him back. 

And Holly Wheeler is the living proof of that.

Read it on Ao3

There is a bonus scene of this, just saying

—

You drew stars (around my scars)

Mike was the only one in the family who actively resisted to like Steve. Since he set foot in the Wheelers household, everyone in the family seemed to be head over heels for him. He had heard his father admitting more than once that Steve was a fine good young man; his mom was delighted with him since the very first dinner because he helped with the cleaning up after every time (he even brought flowers every now and then, ugh); and of course, he had to endure Nancy’s annoying pining and giggling for months. Then they started dating and he was at home almost every day and it was insufferable having him around every goddamn day. 

But the worst one was Holly.

Before Steve, Holly used to chase Mike around, wanting to be with him all the time. Of course, Mike shoved her out almost every time, especially when his friends were over. Lucas understood him; he knew what having an annoying little sister was like. Sometimes she was around, when they were drawing their D&D characters, Will would save a seat for her and let her borrow his big box of colors, or Dustin gave her treats under the table.

Mike Wheeler didn’t want to deal with Holly after him all the time, but when Steve showed up, Holly got totally smitten with him. He wouldn’t pressure her to give him a kiss, but instead, he high fived her. Steve called Holly “Super Star”.

“Hey, what’s up, Super Star? How was school today? Did Timmy borrow your doll? Again?”

“Hey Super Star, wanna sit next to me for dinner? I bet I can beat you, I’ll eat my baby carrots faster than you!”

“I heard Super Star was feeling funny in the tummy today. Are you okay? Will you feel better if we make a tea party with your stuffed buddies? Yeah?”

Then, suddenly Super Star didn’t want to do anything with Mike anymore. Now it was all Steve. 

(Sure, Mike didn’t like having her around, but he didn’t want Steve to steal her from him either. That’s two out of two, not that long ago, Nancy actually DMed campaigns for him and his friends, and then she decided she liked him and now it was suddenly a dumb game.)

When Nancy dumped his stupid ass in November of 1985 Mike almost made a happy dance. The nightmare was over.

But the fucker appeared at the door the day before Christmas with a gift for Holly. He didn’t stay for dinner, but he handed it to Karen. 

It was a stupid light board.

Dustin was suddenly attached to him now. Now they were friends. Lucas was also fond of him. Steve was cool now for his friends too, apparently. And don’t get him wrong, what he did to defend them was amazing. He hated to admit that it was a little bit cool (but Steve’s panicked face when he woke up in the back of Billy’s car driven by Max was awesome). 

Yeah, after all that shit they talked a little bit. Mike made himself crystal clear that he still didn’t like him, and Steve just sighed and told him that he knew. Mike was about to go victorious after that, but Stupid Steve had to add “anyhow, if you need anything, you can always reach me.”

He still kept showing up for Holly’s birthdays. He still brought her Christmas presents secretly. Mike knew that Steve showed up considerably early when he was going to pick him up and his friends to give them a ride to the arcade, or to the mall, or wherever just to spend half an hour playing with Holly. 

Holly laughed the loudest whenever they were playing in the living room together. And it’s not that Mike wasn’t glad that his sister was happy, it was just— He couldn’t be so flawless. Nancy called him bullshit, she must have seen something in him. No one was that perfect.

He was still around for the upcoming apocalypses. He was starting to make peace with the fact that Steve wasn’t going anywhere, when he stole yet another friend from Mike.

Now he and Eddie had bonded. 

They were often together and that riled Mike up like no other. Hawkins was full of people, did Steve have to put a goddamn spell on anyone around him?

Even when Mike hosted in his basement the Hellfire campaigns after Eddie graduated, Eddie showed up at his front door with Steve.

“You are not a Hellfire member, Steve,” Mike deadpanned.

As an answer, Steve lifted a box. A brand new toy doctor kit. He smiled.

“I didn’t come to see you anyway. Isn’t Holly’s birthday this weekend? I have an early gift for her.”

“You’re so lame.”

“Get new material, Wheeler,” Steve rolled his eyes.

Eddie observed the interaction, both of them coming in. Mike closed the door.

“Well, I mean, I’m not surprised you want to spend so much time with Holly, I guess you need someone of your intellect so you can stop feeling stupid all the time around adults.”

Steve stopped for a second. He looked at him as if he wanted to actually reply. He let out a sigh, and went upstairs. God, Mike resisted the urge to fully smile. He glanced at Eddie, who was giving him a dead serious, borderline angry look.

Mike rolled his eyes.

“Wheeler, while I do appreciate that you’re hosting the new campaign, I’m gonna say something, and I’m gonna say this just once, so listen carefully. Treat him like this once more, and you’re out of Hellfire.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“That’s bullshit!” 

“No, you being an asshole with him is. I already lectured Dustin for this, and now I’m lecturing you. I will not tolerate any Hellfire member to behave like this towards friends. That, that is bullshit.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“Like hell he’s not. He cares for you, he does shit for you and you not only do not thank him, you pay him by treating him like shit. He’s saved your ass several times. He pays your fucking late dues, man. Like, shit, give back the tapes on time, Christ.”

Mike was fully uncomfortable now. He crossed his arms and bit his tongue to not snap at Eddie any more.

“Look,” Eddie said, calming his tone. “I don’t know if anything happened between you two, and I don’t want to know, but he’s going through a lot lately. A lot, Mike. You don’t—Shit, you don’t have to like him. Just—just don’t treat him like this, okay? I’m serious about cutting you off Hellfire if you keep this shit.”

Eddie headed down the basement, and Mike was left uneasy.

That afternoon was by far his worst performance in D&D. He had been replaying the conversation with Eddie in his head on and off all the time, but Eddie didn’t give him shit for it, because he knew.

Eddie, an understanding DM as he was, called on a break, and Mike bolted upstairs.

He headed to Holly’s bedroom, the door wasn’t closed all the way. He stopped before coming in to put his thoughts in order and apologize properly. He heard the voices behind the door.

“Doctor Super Star, there are no more patients for you to save! You did great! You cured them all!” Steve said in a funny voice.

“But your tummy hurts!”

“My tummy hurts? Oh, no, ugh! It hurts so bad!”

Mike peeped, still hidden, observing the scene. He saw Steve doing a pretty poor performance of a faint, and he fell, belly up over the rug, amongst the plush toys scattered around. Holly, dressed as a doctor, rounded him and kneeled at his side. 

“I’m going to give you an injection to save you!”

“Oh, please, Doctor Super Star, please, it hurts so bad! N-no, Holly, holly don’t lift my—”

Holly did, and Mike froze. 

Both Wheelers looked at the sudden exposed skin of Steve, all covered in nasty, pink scars. Eddie’s words resonated in the back of his mind loud and clear, and he suddenly understood what Steve was going through lately. Those scars were—God, they were gruesome. That must have hurt like shit. He heard what happened, but now he was seeing it.

That could have been his sister.

Or Robin.

That could have been anyone there, but it was Steve.

Mike gulped, feeling a heavy weight in the pit of his stomach. 

“It’s okay, Holly,” Steve spoke softly, but Mike could feel the nervous, vulnerable tone after his words.

Holly passed a finger ever so slightly, over one of the scars. She looked both curious and serious. Steve’s abdomen flinched a bit.

“Does it hurt?” Holly asked, softly.

Steve closed his eyes and put on a flaky smile, facing the ceiling.

“Yeah,” Steve whispered. “Yeah they—they hurt sometimes.”

Steve let her wander her small hand, examining his torso. 

“They’re pretty.”

A silence. A broken voice. “They’re not.”

“Yes, they are. They look like stars.”

Then, Holly, slowly, put against his stomach a bright pink toy syringe and faked an injection.

“Now you’re cured. Now it doesn’t hurt.”

Mike couldn’t see Steve’s whole face, but he saw enough before he turned away from Holly to see. His expression crumpled, and he saw Steve’s bob apple up and down a couple times. If he wasn’t crying, he was about to.

“You cured me, Doctor Super Star. Good job!”

“Wait! I’m not finished!”

Holly jolted to his drawer, where he kept all her drawing stuff. She came back with a few colored sharpies, and got back to the same position she was before. Steve observed her. 

Then Holly put the sharpie nib softly against Steve’s belly, and he observed.

She drew stars over Steve’s scars.

“See? They are pretty. They’re stars.”

Steve smiled at her. She beamed.

“They are stars. They are pretty.”

After a few seconds, Steve cleared his throat and suggested Holly tidy up all around and draw for a little bit in the living room. Only then Mike reacted, and left the hallway, going back down to the basement.

By the look he gave Mike when he came back, Eddie must have noticed something weird in Mike, but didn’t say anything.

When it was time for all of them to leave (seriously, Mike had been a total disaster), Eddie hushed them all to the van. Steve was saying his goodbyes, and then Mike spoke before he left.

“Hey, Steve.”

He turned around. “Yeah?”

There was a silence, in which Mike tried to find the words. Steve waited.

“I never—I will give the tapes back on time from now on. I’m sorry for that.”

Steve was puzzled. 

“Okay?”

Mike was shit apologizing. Mike was shit communicating, at best. He was shit at being vulnerable. Mike was shit at feelings.

“Yeah, and—thank you for—you know. The, um—yeah.”

Mike pursed his lips, crossed his arms. He pinned his eyes to the floor. He could feel his ears and his cheeks grow hotter and pinker.

“Yeah. No problem.”

He could feel Steve’s soft smile in his voice.

“You can go now.”

“Yeah, okay. Bye, Mike,” he said. “Good night Doctor Super Star!” 

Holly waved him from Karen’s arms. She even threw him a kiss. He captured it in the air and put it in his pocket.

Mike rolled his eyes.

Ugh.

[renard-dartigue]

Today's Bravern episode was awesome, had alot of funny moments. I'm convinced Bravern's VA is having a blast lol.

Also

Lulu: You got games on your phone?

Spoiler discussion below

So Superbia is back and that is genuinely fascinating because he might give us more hints as to where Bravern and deathdrives come from.

Something that really stood out to me was the fact that before Superbia could speak Japanese, he was clearly trying to communicate in his original language. Isn't it strange how Bravern doesn't understand this language? How does he know Superbia's name then? I legit believed Bravern knew because Superbia told him during their fight in Hawaii. But I guess that wasn't the case???

Its also strange how Bravern isn't baffled by Superbia's return, almost like he expected him to come back after exploding. Like how do I put this? Ok so clearly, this isn't the same Superbia as the one Isami and Bravern defeated. He must have been rebuilt. Whether or not he has the same memories isn't clear since Superbia doesn't seem to know Bravern. Or maybe he does but because of the language barrier he didn't understand Bravern's fancy introduction. Regardless, there is a possibility that Braven doesn't know everything about deathdrives.

My biggest questions right now are: Is there a chance to bring Superbia to their side? Does Superbia only want Lulu because she makes him stronger? Or does he have a similar attachment to Lulu as Bravern does to Isami? Because if its the latter I could definitely see Superbia joining their side if its the only way he can protect Lulu. Cause let's face it, ain't no way that girl is leaving her dad's(yup thats Smith) side willingly. Personally, I hope Superbia joins the team just to see him and Bravern talk more. I'd love to watch two giant robots bicker over dumb shit while Isami losses his mind lol.

Also, I love Smith dude. This isn't American bias or anything. (Especially given what my country's leaders are doing right now but let's not get into it). When Smith is positive its so infectious and I think him and I are on the same wavelength. There is this moment when him, Isami, and Bravern are flying over to Japan and Bravern says one of his wacky phrases followed by an awkward silence. I literally, out LOWD, say "Ookay". And right after that Smith says "Ookay" in the EXACT same way and I started wheezing dude. 💀

Ok ok that's enough rambling lol. Now to wait another week for (hopefully) some answers.

For once I gotta say, the English in this hasn't been as painful as some other animes I've seen. Both Smith and the Major have been pretty alright. (What I'm saying is that I'm not cringing as much when a primary English speaking character doesn't pronounce English words right.)

[moltengoldveins]

so, I am already Adoring the discourse on The Creator, the new sci fi AI film that came out recently, but I’ve yet to see anyone talk about the fascinating religious undertones to the whole movie? Like, I’m Christian. I’ll be the first to admit my bias here: I tend to look for faith and spiritual undertones when consuming media because it’s an integral part of the way I see the world. but this movie was SO COOL?? Like, the Complete Lack of any sort of faith shown in the American characters in contrast with the AI and the Asian characters, a total shift from the modern cultural idea that religion and AI are incompatible. There are monks that are droids and simulants. The kid uses her technology powers by making a “praying” motion. There’s a robot preaching a pretty classic Judeo-Christian Messiah narrative to a bunch of kiddos. There’s only ONE American character given any sort of obvious religious identity and it’s that One Trooper Lady when she mentions Valhalla. This is such an interesting decision and I’m fascinated to know what y’all think of it. NOT TO MENTION (and this is by FAR my favorite part) the fact that the religion and the AI conflict and the treatment of human life are all implicitly bound up together. The Americans believe that the AI are ‘just programming,’ that they aren’t real, that they don’t have souls. The New Asians don’t. And that seems to bleed into the way they treat Humans as well? The kind girl near the beginning of the film, clearing the blast zone with Taylor, panics when she sees an AI online for the first time because she recognizes that he behaves like a person, while Taylor is cold, unresponsive, and insists that it’s just programming. The Americans SAY they value human life because humans are really people and AI aren’t, but they treat civilians and combatants, AI and Humans, Exactly the Same. Almost like, if you reduce one thing with a soul to ‘just programming, not of value’ that starts messing with the way you treat Everything Else. The New Asians, as far as the narrative tells us, don’t plan on retribution for the war. They’re careful with civilians, to a certain extent (I don’t love the van scene with the kiddos tbh :( feel like that was out of place? And the AI lady, the girlfriend of Taylor’s friend who was killed as well, interesting nuances there) and they treat one another like people ought. There’s very little distinction given between the more android and more human AI, which I think is awesome, and the climax of the arc of Taylor’s character happens In A Temple. The end of the story is a message of hope for reunification in heaven AND hope for reunification on earth. That’s. That’s so cool. Like. I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in Ages. I can’t Ever remember seeing that kind of message done in a story that isn’t painfully preachy. One thing that often bothers me about modern film and media is the idea that religion and spirituality has to be handled in one of three ways: entirely unmentioned, preachy to the absurd, or blatantly disrespected. It’s not a universal problem, but it’s pretty widespread. I couldn’t tell what faith the directors ascribed to in this film, but I could tell they were discussing it intelligently and I LIKED THAT. I liked it a lot. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, my tastes, and beliefs: I’m willing to bet a lot of Christians won’t like this movie because they’re hung up on the lack of a blatantly Christian or preachy narrative. I’m willing to bet a lot of other people won’t like it because it tackled spirituality at all. But I liked it, because it looked at the world we live in and spoke of what it saw. It wrestled with the topics of death and life and souls and heaven and national pride and racism and capitalism and love and what it means to be a good person and it did it really well, and I admire that.

please please let me know what y’all thought of the movie? I’m really interested in knowing what people picked up on or thought the movie was saying. God bless y’all, and have an excellent weekend :) 💜

[otherworldlygate]

Once again it's Regal appreciation hour by which I mean day by which I mean year by which I mean lifetime.

I was very much prepared to not write any fanfiction this year, but I cannot divorce myself from how awesome my favorite Symphonia blorbos are and so I am writing yet another stupid fanfic. I feel feral about these characters in general but Raine gets quite a lot of attention (because she's wonderful, obviously) so I don't want to focus on her too much. Regal, on the other hand, has been underappreciated in the ToS fandom since the game's release day, so I must advocate for him.

I've been RPing as him for the last year or so, and together my RP partner and I have written about 320,000 words of a story. I'm having a blast, and a big part of that is because Regal is, despite the flaws in the storytelling of ToS as a whole surrounding him (and how all of the Tethe'alla characters kind of fall flat), a rather well-conceived and implemented character. Yeah, his clothes are dumb (I'm happy to retcon that outfit with zero regrets) and the game blows through his story at such a breakneck pace he doesn't get the space or the arc he deserves (he should have taken his shackles off as part of his 'sacrifice' to fight the angels), but he is a genuinely fascinating character who feels, just like many of the others do, as if he belongs very specifically in the world he was created for.

I know a lot of people like to write him as this sad sack of shit just absolutely lost in the grief sauce (see the part about how he didn't get the arc he deserved), but I think that's a mistake. See, the biggest bump in the road for Regal was his lack of understanding of what was happening and why. When you think about it, he was faced with having to kill Alicia seemingly out of nowhere. Like one day he's just minding his business and the next Alicia is gone and very quickly after that she's a monster trying to kill him AND HE HAS NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON. He has no answers. All he knows is that he killed her, and his autistic* brain latches onto that detail because it's all he has.

You have to think, too, about the fact that the game gives him nobody. His parents are dead. George, the only person even remotely close to Regal--someone he's known his *whole life*--betrayed him. (George didn't mean for things to go Like That and he's sorry he did it, but HE STILL DID IT.) Regal doesn't have friends and the extra material makes it clear that he was literally raised, specifically by his father, to be a workaholic. Do you think anyone came to see him in prison? He fought in a coliseum for his life for YEARS. He was on friendly terms with some of the other inmates but the guy had eight years to just sit there and get stuck in the loop of knowing he killed the one person he'd let himself get even remotely close to.

Which is something else people always downplay for some reason. The shit with Alicia isn't just "guy is sad because he killed his girlfriend." It's very much, "guy was born and bred to take on the family legacy" except in this case the family legacy is a company, an island, a noble bloodline, and also the absolutely insane idea that work and profit is all that matters. Everyone else is out to get you. Keep the workers dissatisfied but keep them hooked just enough that they'll never leave. Take no time for fun or friends or merriment. Everything in your life is a business transaction. Don't ever forget it. It's us vs. them. You're alone and you have to make this your entire life or it'll all fall to pieces and it will be your fault.

The drama cd in particular really honed in on that way of being raised and it makes his entire character make complete sense. At a relatively young age his father died and he ended up on top (though it's stated he had to work as a CEO before he was elected via a board to the position of President). Having no other guidelines other than what he was taught--and what George himself adhered to--Regal followed that path...until he ended up miserable, because, despite the way he was raised, he's a goddamn empath**.

After literal YEARS of occasionally running into Alicia and talking to her, he starts forming a connection to her--which is important because he's never allowed himself to do this before. And at one point he realizes he doesn't even know her name...which comes as a surprise to him...and brings with it shame. After this, he starts living for himself. He listens to his employees--something his father never did. He starts enacting rules to protect his employees, particularly from things that would hurt them in the field, because part of what was making him so miserable was wrestling with the empathy of their terrible working conditions on top of just hearing his father's manta repeating itself in his head all the time.

I cannot stress enough how important this is. Alicia, despite being a love interest and someone he was interested in seriously dating and perhaps someday marrying (the details of their relationship are never known but it's almost more tragic if they were just starting to be serious), WAS STILL HIS EMPLOYEE.

He was supposed to protect his employees. He was doing so much to ensure his employees would be safe. And then he killed Alicia.

Alicia, the one person he allowed himself to get close to.

Now, consider the fact that he was raised as a tool and not a beloved son; he was not allowed to have friends and not allowed to make merry. He was under his father's thumb until his father's untimely death--a death, by the way, that only surprised him with its suddenness; he did not grieve that man!! Regal, as a 25-year-old man, had ZERO coping mechanisms. All he had was the truth he was raised under and the fact that he went against that truth AND WAS NOW BEING PUNISHED FOR IT. How can someone like this think of anything except that they are the reason George was put in a position where he had to get rid of Alicia? That the only reason Alicia was experimented on and turned into a monster was because of her connection to Regal?

IT MAKES ME FEEL SO FERAL!!!

The events of the game open his eyes to the ACTUAL truth, to what actually happened AND WHY IT HAPPENED TO ALICIA. In the end he learns he had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. If he had not befriended and started falling for Alicia, she still would have died--it's just, if she hadn't had a more direct connection to Regal, who knows where she might have met her end. Alone, forgotten? At least someone knew her as she was; at least someone can tell Presea the kind of person her sister was.

The ToS fandom has always loved joking about how Regal's just into punishment as a kink or whatever (and I'll never forgive the shitty non-canon-in-my-heart sequel for leaning so hard into that angle, fuck you fuck you fuck you) but let's be serious about it for a hot second. Yes, I think learning this information puts him on a better path, but you can't erase 8 years of self-loathing and fear instantly. Did you guys really think this man would just forget about the darkest years of his life and start frolicking in fields of flowers?

The trauma he's endured goes so much deeper than "I killed the person I loved," and boiling it down to that really does the character a disservice. The "born for a specific purpose, not allowed to exist outside of that purpose" bit is also given to Colette and Zelos, but while their role is being a sacrifice whose only use is dying or procreating to continue the line to have more sacrifices (absolutely also traumatizing btw), Regal's situation feels a lot more like indoctrinated religion and, very specifically (and no I am not kidding), religious trauma. Again, he endured that very controlled lifestyle complete with a mantra from birth into his early 20s, and the MOMENT he broke away from it too far, his life came crashing down around him in a very painful and traumatizing way.

Now, you might think the religious trauma parallel is unfounded, if not also the indoctrinated religion aspect of it, it could just as easily be a parallel for an abusive and controlling relationship, right down to the betrayal from someone who is supposed to have your best interests at heart the moment you step outside of that control to the feelings of shame and self-loathing and "you did this to yourself."

So whenever I see people joking about what a sad sack of shit he is or whatever, I'm just astounded, especially if it's coming from someone who loves literally any other character in the game. Like, you'll definitely have your blorbos, and I totally understand if Regal just ain't it for you, but I find it really disconcerting that someone might find (for example) Yuan's trauma deeply meaningful but see Regal's as stupid or silly.

I'm pretty sure I started this post to talk about how easy it is for me to RP as Regal because he's just such a great character to sink into and write about, particularly because I like to imagine that, starting in the post-game, he deeply regrets some of the choices he's made in his life, and, rather than lean into the things that have already transpired, he seeks to do what he can to better the world around him with the resources and power that he has.

It's like the ultimate fuck-you to the way his father raised him. He's not wasting the skills he's developed, but he's also not using them to hurt people or for personal or Lezareno profit.

I think most of us love writing about characters who have to work through their trauma, but there's an extra layer here that I particularly enjoy with Regal. With Raine I'm all about her inability to trust easily and her struggle to feel truly comfortable around other people, but with Regal I think it's maybe specifically related to the fact that he has had a lot handed to him that he didn't necessarily want, and his self-sacrificing nature lends itself to him feeling obligated to take it. I fully believe Regal would be happier and better off stepping away from Lezareno and from his family's toxic ass legacy*** (or at least not working it full-time as the acting President) but I can't ignore the fact that...these things are all he has and all he knows. So writing about him attempting to get back into the swing of things, maybe struggling to find time for himself, falling into workaholic patterns by mistake, learning to set boundaries between his private life and his job...all while not being fully satisfied and finding more fulfillment in charity work and other pursuits, just makes him feel like a very well-rounded character. Like...it's believable that he would continue to work a job he didn't particularly love specifically because not only does he not know anything else, but he knows with this position of power he can make a lot of things happen that would be impossible if he just twiddled his thumbs on the sidelines--like financial assistance going to Palmacosta, or his duties as a nobleman to try to get better laws passed in Tethe'alla, etc.

This was a pretty clumsily-written post and for that I am truly sorry. I've just been absolutely insane lately thinking about Regal and I had to get some of why I think he's such a wonderful character out into the world.

:)

*this is just my headcanon but a lot about Regal screams autism to me.

**this is canon as far as I'm concerned. I wrote him this way far before I ever heard the drama cd, and the drama cd just solidified it for me tenfold.

***there's a scene in the hotel with Lloyd I think where Regal says his family's legacy on Altamira started when Tethe'alla flipped over to being a flourishing world last, which means they were in a position of power great enough to build an empire on Altamira already at that time (800+ years ago). I don't want to get into how awful this probably was or how evil the family was because I think you can all imagine that for yourselves. Also, nobody ever mentions the fact that Regal is the last of his family line, but it's a very convenient built-in control tactic to guilt someone into doing as they're told or risk bringing shame to a family that's been going strong and unbroken for over 1,000 years.

[ckret2]

On a scale of one to ten, 1 being "This has gotten annoying and offputting," 10 being "This is awesome and I love how engaged you guys are," and 5 being "You do you but I'm getting bored with the topic," how are you feeling about the Gender and Pronouns discussion? Seems like people (including me) exploded your page for a bit there.

I'd give it a 7 I think.

I wouldn't have already prior to this conversation put this much thought into how sentient polygons can be trans—much less taken an alien with he/him pronouns, stuffed him in a body with a vag, and declared he's got three overlapping alien genders that have absolutely nothing to do with either these pronouns or this body and that are weird even by his species's standards—if I didn't think the topic of speculative gender is fascinating. I'm the person who wrote this post. This is a topic of great interest to me.

It's only a 7 because of the preoccupation with pronouns, specifically, in a way that makes it clear that people are looking at this very alien character that I've been taking pains to keep alien and assuming that his understanding of gender and How Gender Should Be Recognized is identical to early 21st century English-speaking humans' understanding of gender. I've had three different people writing in on the assumption that it's a given that this alien who's never said anything about his pronouns except "whatever" would jump for joy to be assigned some English neopronouns.

I'm his writer. I am using his primary English pronouns, every time I talk about him. I'm using his pronouns right now. Divorce "he/him" from inherent implications of masculinity.

So, tl;dr: +7 points for conversation exploring ways gender can be different & alien for an alien species; -3 points for the part of the conversation fixated on trying to wedge alien gender into our framework.

[saltedcaramelchaos]

ao3 is an entirely unknown universe to me so i shall be making my remarks about the new statement here:

WHAT

WHAT

WHAT

that was fascinating and terrifying and enthralling because CHIPS AND FISH but also like i have so many concerns for chip and questions and-

first i have to say, that was REALLY good, like insanely good- I felt on the edge of the edge of my seat the entire time

also like, who is that fire eye guy and will he be making another appearance in the future?? it's such a morbidly entrancing character that i now want to like, inject into a story of my own (or at least the concept of such a character) - IT WAS SO WELL-TOLD AND I COULD PICTURE EVERYTHING CYSTAL-CLEAR

overall that was an absolutely amazing statement and i think it's especially cool for me 'cause i can really appreciate just how well you did the 'Chip voice' if that makes sense

brilliant job of it ak, i'm LOVING the au :333

AHAHAHAHAHAAaAA YES YESS THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR- (all good on the ao3 front lol, you might need an account to comment?)

yaaaayy ty king!! I'm glad that was the vibe!

HEHEHEHEE!! yes he will be making another appearance >:) I've got plentyy planned for Chip, worry not...

I'm so glad that came across :0- I'm really trying to get everyone's character voices distinct in this, so that's awesome that it sounded like chip to you!!

THANK YOUUU <333 glad you enjoyed it :D!

[thebibutterflyao3]

Let’s talk Black Brothers angst and the best friend’s brother trope, especially surrounding a Jegulus relationship. As the oldest sibling by two years, I would have been horrified if my best friend dated my little brother in high school or college.

Not because my brother was a bad person, or because my friends were. It simply felt like an invasion of my personal space. Your friends are often an escape from family, especially if you have a toxic parent, or parents. I can completely understand Sirius seeing Jegulus as a betrayal of trust by James and/or an invasion of his personal space by Regulus.

Some of that emotional response may come from fear of losing one or the other if the relationship failed, distrust of his brother if he’s still under their parents’ influence, or from physical disgust at the thought of the relationship itself. Either way, Sirius has a plethora of reasons to object to it outside of being selfish and wanting one, or both, all to himself. However, even if he is being selfish, so what? No character is without flaws and if Sirius’s flaw in a fic is that he’s selfish with his friends, let him.

Some fans act like Sirius Black isn’t an impulsive, dramatic bitch in the HP universe. This man tried to kill an enemy using his werewolf best friend as a weapon, stalked his own godson in a menacing dog form multiple times in and out of the wizarding world, immediately went on a revenge spree when James and Lily were killed, and laughed hysterically when he was arrested afterwards. The man who broke into both Hogwarts and a dorm full of sleeping children to try to murder a rat with a KNIFE, used the knife on the portrait when she wouldn’t let him in, kidnapped Ron to get to his pet, ran into dangerous situations without a second thought, gave a full on villain’s rant then taunted Remus and Snape in the shrieking shack, and loudly argued with anyone who disagreed with him…all while WANDLESS.

That man isn’t one to sit back and see what happens, or go along with it if he disagrees. Sirius Black will make it his life’s mission to annoy the piss out of James AND Regulus while seeing the entire thing as an attack on him personally. No Voldemort or Death Eater bs necessary.

If you would rather write a fic that shows Sirius being sweet and accepting of Jegulus, please do! I love reading fluffy versions of them getting along. Just keep in mind that when some of us write him as an impulsive, dramatic bitch, we are using his canon characterisation. Also, the sibling dynamic between the brothers will range greatly based on the back story the author gives them and how they are influenced by their own experience as a sibling (or not).

Personally, I’ve explored their relationship from three angles in my fics. Antagonistic, supportive, and reluctantly ambivalent. All three were a fascinating dive into sibling relationships. I encourage you to explore their dynamics, don’t box yourself into one head-canon! You don’t have to agree with him to understand or relate to Sirius’s perspective, even if he’s over the top.

As a bonus if you read all that: my brother actually ended up marrying one of my friends and they are very happy together. It was super weird for while, but having one of my friends as a sister-in-law is honestly awesome. I cheered them on when it was clear they were good for each other.

[twig-tea]

Grand Guignol

Wanted to write down my thoughts on this movie because it was AWESOME and I don't want to forget lol. Non-spoilery thoughts above the cut and spoilers below it.

First of all, the colouring of this film is gorgeous. Everything is in dull greys and navy blues and cream, except for the red, and the red is throughout. There's red roses, red lighting, red ties, red viscera, and so, so, so much blood. It makes for a really stunning watch, to see this heightened red spurt and colour the white clothing of the protagonists, and on their faces.

The cinematography is also a lot of fun. So many dirty shots, where the creepy decorations of this school sit in the foreground and the characters having a conversation are left blurred in the background. Quick, hard cuts, so it's not clear whether something was real or not.

And I love the tension being around what is real vs what is fake rather than jump scares. The way cinema and pranks and voyeurism is woven into this plot to make everything more confusing is so well done; it puts us in the same situation as the characters stuck in this school with no clear sense of what's happening or why.

Most of all this was just fun. It was a wild ride where gross, gory, discomforting, messy, and generally weird shit happened constantly lol and I really, really enjoyed the experience.

Cutting here because I couldn't help but spoil from here on out.

I also really love the subtext of the show re: queer as monstrous. There is a suggestion that at least two of these characters were sent to this school abandoned by their families in order to be sacrificed because they are gay, or queer in some sense. The other characters have stories about doing physical harm to those around them, but at the least for Kenta, it's implied that whatever is going on with him and dressing femme--i won't assume--is what got him sent here (this is early in the film so I'm not counting it as a spoiler).

I had to laugh at the excessive lube; Japan's lube game is always incredible. We never get a normal amount of lube in a Japanese BL, and I live for it.

Also really enjoyed the cannibalism subtext! Cannibalism is always such an interesting theme in horror because it's such a taboo. This felt very Rocky Horror-like with the constant viscera shots and the open questions on characters' faces about where it came from.

The message in this film was so fascinating. Normally we get the trope of 'you have to defeat yourself ' as a hero's journey to get past self-doubt in order to win. In this case, Itsuki tells us he was forced to participate in...it's not entirely clear, bullying and mutilation at the least. He seems traumatized by the experience, and it's not clear how much damage he did on his own. But by the end of the film, after the teacher gave him the gun and told him to defeat himself, he manages to move through whatever was holding him back, and he fully embraces doing violence to others. He kisses Teshio, when he was surprised by/recoils from the kiss from Kenta. He laughs, glories in, is freed by the way he mutilated Teshio's corpse, and flashes back to his memory of when he was "forced" to hurt his classmate in his old school, but this time he's similarly elated. He had some initial reaction to seeing Kenta in a dress and wig--Shinji wondered if he wanted to wear it himself--and after the cult dresses him in heels, a dress, and wig, he does not remove them even after he's free and limping in the heels to drag along that sledgehammer. In this case, the hero's journey is one to freedom from moral constraints, allowing in the monstrous--both murderous and queer--parts of Itsuki to overcome any fear or self-hate or physical limitations, and to be victorious. And then we get the final scene, with the uncertainty as to whether the entire film has been a play, whether the play is in Itsuki's mind, or whether it's a metaphor for the audience to represent what happens. I think the uncertainty is the point. The entire film has been messing with our ability to tell what's real and what's fake, and maybe in the end it doesn't matter. Itsuki is dead; whether metaphorically because he's mentally snapped, or literally because he's killed himself, or because the whole thing was a metaphor and he's embraced his weirdness and joined this weird club and found acceptance in this group that puts on horror plays...the Itsuki who was traumatized and terrified of himself is gone by the end of the film, he's defeated the enemy within. I loved that.

And there's something in this film about how it gets us to be interested in this weird friend group before it starts killing them off for the sake of... entertainment, a ritual, to free their parents of the embarrassment, it's not entirely clear which. But there's something implicit in the morality here that these characters are humanized before they're demonized, and that we are set up to see the ritual as cruel and the level of violence as undeserved. This part reminded me of Gang of Cherry; these kids are fucked up, and cruel, and weird, but don't deserve the even more fucked up and cruel situation they're in, which in turn makes them even more fucked up and cruel, until it's a twisted version of enlightenment, when all you are is cruel and fucked up, and delighting in the purity of the emotion.

Anyway that's way too much navel-gazing for what is essentially 1.5 hours of intentionally bad blood-spraying camp and actors who didn't kiss in their BLs kissing in this. Big fan.

If you want realism, sexiness (there is a sex scene but it is not what I would call sexy; it's intentionally discomforting/edged with tension), romance, or a happy ending in the traditional sense this is not for you. If you like campy horror, strategic cinematography, gratuitous gore, gratuitous tongues, being discomforted, psychological horror, and metaphors on metaphors, I think you'll enjoy.

[donnerpartyofone]

7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57

Woah, thanks for all the numbers! I did 7 in the previous post, but let's see:

17. "opinion on insecurities" hahaha, I didn't even read all of these before I reblogged that thing! My most immediate reaction is that sometimes when you're trying to have an honest reckoning with your flaws and handicaps, people tell you you're just being insecure, and this is one of the central frustrations of my entire existence. If you're forced to constantly pretend that you're awesome and capable of anything, it makes it a lot harder to come to terms with what isn't working. But everyone has insecurities I think, they're probably unavoidable. I guess some people base their entire personality around an insecurity and that's not great, but I think the only thing to do is to try to be honest and lucid about your weaknesses. That's the only point you can proceed from.

27. If I gave you a real accounting of all the things I hate, you would regret it! It's a lot of things, TOO MANY things. I'll just pick one for now: I hate movies about characters who are sort of reclusive, where other characters mob up on them and force them to participate in society as if this is a great gift, as if all human beings want the same thing and that thing is extreme amounts of attention and activity, as if no human being could possibly just enjoy their own company and some peace and quiet. There are a lot of variations on this theme but a good example is THE STATION AGENT. I was like, what the fuck, leave that guy alone!

37. Hmm I also have a lot of favorite actors since I spend most of my time watching movies. Last night I rewatched the incredible THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER and I was thinking about how Timothy Carey is like Nicolas Cage before Nicolas Cage, like they're descended from the same stock somehow. They even look alike to me. And then I was thinking about how Michael Moriarty has that same kind of manic, improvisational energy, and all three men are tall. Actually Nic Cage isn't as tall as I always think he is, but Moriarty is 6'3" and Carey was a little over. So Timothy Carey and Nicolas Cage have more similar faces, but Michael Moriarty and Timothy Carey are more the same height. I do not know what this is meant to prove.

47. "Turn ons," eh? I'm prejudicially inclined toward people who are really smart and articulate, but I also like it when people are strangely naive and sweet. I like hairy, vascular forearms and hands, and glasses, and widow's peaks. I like people who have obsessions. I'm totally straight but I'm fascinated by tough, androgynous women and tomboys. I like men who look like weird movie villains. I am attracted to basically all weird movie villains.

But now I want to volunteer one "turn off" from #48, which is that I have zero tolerance for people who are really into deliriously dysfunctional sadomasochistic relationships. Which is what most media will tell you is "true love" or something, and it does look pretty good from the outside, I mean who doesn't want to dissolve into a morbid, swooning obsession? But having experienced a couple of those things, it became very clear to me that they are essentially infantile, ugly, and stupid, and people who insist on that dynamic are like a baby who cries over their shitty diaper and pisses in your face when you try to change it for them. I almost miss being able to enjoy that type of libidinous delirium, but the whole thought of it just makes me sick now. People who pretend to be vampires are never as cool as they want you to think they are.

57. My favorite animal is all reptiles. I like a lot of animals, but reptiles and amphibians more than anything. Right now I'm doing this study of Italian cannibal movies which I knew were full of animal cruelty, but somehow I managed to forget that reptiles seem to get the worst of it. :(

[marquisedegramont]

Who are your top five favorite characters in John Wick?

-🧸 (<- If this hasn’t been taken yet)

[ Ooohhh I think this list would be pretty clear based on who is reading this but yeah here are my top five! :D ]

𝟓. 𝐈𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐅 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐕

It was already a big start when I watched John Wick and really liked Alfie Allen’s performance as Iosef. Only just recently I started to like-like Iosef as a character more. I love his sort of biker aesthetic with the leather jacket and hoodies, which is a BIG difference from the other three big bads of the movie series since they’re all dressed in this formal-business sort of outfit which really goes to show Iosef’s difference in terms of character to literally everyone in the movie series.

𝟒. 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊

The man, the myth, the legend! He’s obviously gonna be on this list because the movies aren’t completed without him and he’s genuinely such a well-written character it’s just that most people (atleast on other platforms) just know John for killing an entire criminal organization over a dog and while yes that’s true, I can literally just yap over and over about how Daisy just symbolizes John’s remaining innocence and his connection to Helen/the overworld.

𝟑. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐃𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑

Watching John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and actually noticing everything after watching the fourth movie in the series was like a hit to the face. So Adjudicator— fucking awesome! I loved their entire wardrobe throughout the movies and how they all look so stylish yet refined. And I love the subtle story telling with their dangly earring which represents the fact they don’t necessarily have everything under control and so does the High Table.

𝟐. 𝐆𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 𝐃’𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐎

People truly sleep on Gianna because, hey, she got like ten minutes worth of screentime and had relatively a short time alive for the audience to look at her and like her as a character. But to me, I love her. I love my bitches who show up once and then never again. She’s evil, she’s ruthless, she’s a cunt; Santino’s just mad he can’t do it like her. Aka, be as good as her when it comes to ruling the Camorra. I love her so much, because as much as we were so close to see a truly ruthless individual who is a woman rule something as large and brutal as the Camorra, and also be a canon seat holder in the world of the High Table— Gianna remains one of my favorite due to how beautiful she is and how intuitive she was, her death scene was just absolutely beautiful.

𝟏. 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐒 𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐃𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓

We all saw this coming. He’s practically my brand, in fact I am him. He is me and he is I, don’t mind the fact he died in 2015 and I got pushed into this world against my will in 2005. Look at him. He’s literally the perfect villain for a movie like John Wick Chapter 4. He’s a cunt, played by Bill Skarsgård, he has a fuckass French accent, he never shows up in scenes without his pocket watch, the shoes are Prada and the suits are Valentino. All his suits are drenched in glitter, and every scene feels like he owns the place. The Louvre? The Louis Vuitton Foundation? The Palace of Versailles? The Palais Garnier? The fucking Tour de Eiffel? He’s always surrounded by his bodyguards, he’s eating cake and living his best life. God, he’s literally me. I am him bro. He is literally me. He’s a ruthless and brutal little cunt ass bitch who finds pain fascinating but I do not have a single fiber in my body that gives a hecking shit. Anna Wintour would have loved him. If there was an Anna Wintour in the John Wick world, Vincent would be her fucking soul son. If you were to tell me the bitch named Keith from Barbarian would suddenly be throwing on a French accent and walk the way he does now, I would have exploded. Vincent is nothing but the pure embodiment of the campiness of John Wick Chapter 4. The suits, the character, the attitude, the sheer level of audacity. He is a mixture of the villains before him, he is the campiness of John Wick Chapter 4, he is Bill Skarsgård having fun, he is an insufferable bitch who deserves the way he died and even then, his death was both relieving and also beautiful. The Marquis, Vincent Bisset de Gramont is everything in a John Wick villain; the design, the European, the mythology references, the hatred for John, the cowardice, the deceitful nature, the ability to serve so much cunt yet be so cringefailure loserboy at the same time. Chad Stahelski made a great decision casting Bill Skarsgård as the Marquis de Gramont because I cannot think of another 6’4 white man who looks like a disturbed Victorian era child who has never seen a cellphone. He looks like he would get pissed off if you called him cunty and he would die if you gave him Sprite to drink. Making a guillotine joke around him would have you executed on site. He has a nice ass and beautiful, glorious hips and thighs that he is gatekeeping from the community using his glittery tailcoats. He is a thirty three years old twink with perfect thighs and even better fashion. His hair has so much hairspray I don’t think that shit was moving for the duration of the movie. The perfect villain to have ended John Wick alongside the legend himself. The motherfucker comes from Southern France and I hate and love him even more because of that. He is such an insufferable little shit that if I were there in the agreements scene I would have done everything in my power to make sure the duel starts now so I can leap across the table and rip him to shreds with my bare hands. I am kissing him with tongue afterwards. I hyperfixated on him and hated him at first but then I remembered that his fanbase was lacking at the time so now I’m him yeah sorry Chad Stahelski himself told me I am him so yeah move out of the way ladies. Or don’t. I’m married to like three women I don’t know because I’m him. His hell is being middle class in Paris because I said so.

[spiderdreamer-blog]

2023 at the Movies: A Year in Review

2023 has been an odd year for American cinema in particular, between overall tepid box office outside of a few big hits and the combination of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes affecting release dates as well as promotional tactics. (Just so we're clear, this is a Union Solidarity Blog) But it was a fascinating year artistically nonetheless, especially on the blockbuster end. What this list aims to achieve is sort of a capsule review of the theatrical releases I saw (not counting streaming-only films even if I ended up seeing theatrical releases ON streaming) and how I felt about them in capsule review form. And even then, there's still stuff I need to catch up on like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Oppenheimer, Elemental, or Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Anyhoo, on with my list, in chronological release order:

John Wick: Chapter 4: Much like its titular hero, there are perhaps some signs that this franchise could benefit from taking a bit of a rest. Some of the worldbuilding is going from knowingly absurd to just plain absurd, and a couple early action beats, while fun (NUNCHUCKS), are a little familiar in terms of director Chad Stahelski's neon-as-fuck aesthetics. Ultimately, it's not too much to derail things, as Keanu Reeves proves a capable grounding lead like always, and the Parisian third act is giddy, comically overblown violence in the grand John Wick tradition that reaches an unexpected poignancy. The supporting cast might also be one of the best in the series; while Asia Kate Dillion's unflappable Adjudicator is missed from the last installment, we do receive Bill Skarsgard doing an OUTRAAGEOUS French accent as a smarmy villain you really want to see dead by the end of this, Donnie Yen as a clever, funny spin on the blind swordsman trope, Rina Sawayama is both badass and touching, Shamier Anderson stands out by dialing down, and my beloved Clancy Brown has some of the best implicit "are you fucking kidding me" reactions I've seen in a while.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: I was honestly dreading this for a while. Illumination Entertainment is a perfectly cromulent animation studio who makes films that, with a couple exceptions, represent pretty much everything I dislike about American family filmmaking: loud, hyperactive, deficient of nutritional value, and did I mention loud? But the trailers started impressing me in terms of how well they adapted the candy-colored toybox Nintendo aesthetic to a wider theatrical scope. And if nothing else, casting Jack Black as Bowser would probably be pretty awesome (spoiler alert: he was). Thankfully, it manages to be an immensely entertaining, zippy adventure film that minimizes potential annoyances at nearly every turn. This is primarily thanks to a ready-to-play, enthusiastic voice cast (outside of Black, I particularly like Pratt and Day's brotherly dynamic and Anya Taylor-Joy doing a Disney Princess-esque comedy action spin on Peach), a smartly simple story structure, and leaving a lot of potential open for the future like Seth Rogen's lovable ready-for-spinoff-movies Donkey Kong. It may not rock the boat, but it was better than it had any business being, and that counts for a lot in my book.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The Marvel Cinematic Universe and I are admittedly on a bit of a break. Not because they're doing anything WRONG per se, just that a lot of their shows and movies haven't enticed me as much in the past year. I did get out to see this, though, which is both the best all around MCU film since Endgame and very possibly the best film of its own trilogy. James Gunn pulls out all the stops emotionally for his Marvel swan song (godspeed to you over at the still-in-progress trashfire that is Warner Bros. Discovery, good sir), crafting a beautiful, resonant journey for all the characters. The ensemble cast fires on all cylinders, for one. While Bradley Cooper is the obvious vocal standout as Rocket takes center stage, it's assuredly the role of Chris Pratt's career (other non-Mario/Marvel directors, take note! You can in fact have this guy be funny, credibly tough, AND sympathetic instead of missing out on the other two), Zoe Saldana navigates a difficult emotional dance, Pom Klementieff finds real heart in Mantis, Dave Bautista is still one of our most interesting wrestlers-turned-actors in the choices he makes, Karen Gillan has slowly become of the MCU's MVPs as Nebula, Will Poulter is endearingly dunderheaded as a comedic take on Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji proves a truly vile villain who exemplifies the maxim of "if you really want an audience to just HATE a motherfucker, have him torture cute animals". And of course Gunn's musical tastes remain impeccable, such as a Beastie Boys needle drop that prompts a truly bitchin' fight scene (oddly the second time this specific song happened this year in a Pratt-led vehicle). It's funny, it made me ugly cry at SEVERAL points, and I got to see a psychic cosmonaut dog beat people's asses with her mind. What more could I want?

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse: Into the Spider-Verse was a revolution and a revelation for what the American animated film industry could accomplish artistically and technically. How could a sequel possibly live up to it? Across does, against all odds, proving to be the Empire Strikes Back to the original's Star Wars in terms of going darker/more complex on the emotions and to greater visual heights (albeit with the caveat that maybe next time, we can manage the production better and not crunch people so much). Co-directors Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers, and Joaquim Dos Santos (who I've stanned as one of our best animation action directors from Justice League Unlimited through Voltron Legendary Defender) craft a propulsive narrative that asks big questions about who and what Spider-Man is. And while those will have to wait to be fully answered in the third installment, what it sets up is no less compelling or thrilling. Shout-outs in particular go to Hailee Steinfeld, who has to anchor this film with Gwen as much as Shameik Moore's still-iconic Miles; Daniel Pemberton for an outstanding score; Oscar Isaac for giving rich complexity to Miguel O'Hara, who could have felt like a boorish bully in lesser hands; and Jason Schwartzman for not just proving he transitions REALLY well into voicework between this and projects like Klaus, but being by turns pathetically funny and terrifying in ways I've never heard him be as the Spot. Can't wait to see where that goes next time in particular.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: "Pleasant surprise" comes to mind. While I never hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much as most, it was definitely a little underwhelming as a possibly final Indy adventure. (Not helping is that Steven Spielberg immediately turned around and made an infinitely better indy movie in the form of The Adventures of Tintin) So I was curious to see how going to the well for seemingly the real final adventure would work this time around. Thankfully, director James Mangold proves he has a good eye for creative action, even if nothing here quite reaches the heights of the original trilogy, and Harrison Ford does some of his best acting in ages as a weary, burnt-out Indy; one always got the sense that THIS was much closer to his heart than Han Solo. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a terrific foil to him, joyously amoral (or so she says), while Mads Mikkelsen finds a new spin on coldly cruel cinematic Nazis; he has a tense reintroduction scene that had me squirming in my seat. Add in a slam-bang ending and a touching epilogue, and I'm pretty happy with where things end up for our favorite archaeologist. A solid B+, which we could use more of nowadays.

Also they Poochie-d Shia LaBeouf, which is hilarious to me on several levels.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One: The Mission: Impossible franchise has undergone a curious metamorphosis from where it started as one of many oldies TV adaptations in 1996 to a purposefully old-school action franchise. Director Christopher McQuarrie has become a pro at these over the last three installments, and Dead Reckoning (now no longer a part one, as the back-in-production followup will be retitled) has lots to offer both large and small for action fans even outside of the continued spectacle of Tom Cruise Possibly Wants To Die On Camera. Obviously the big stunt sequences remain a draw, like a terrific car chase through Rome or the climactic journey onboard the Orient Express because trains are ALWAYS bitchin' locations in movies. But just as good are pleasures like a tense cat-and-mouse game in an airport where nobody's quite sure whose side Hayley Atwell's thief Grace is on, Henry Czerny coming back to the franchise after 27 years and looking as shiftily patriotic as ever, Pom Klementieff on this list for the second time looking really hot as she whoops ass, and Cary Elwes getting an unexpectedly choice exposition monologue. Plus the whole deal with the A.I. villain ended up being, uh, fairly relevant.

Barbie: A brilliant human comedy from an unexpected source. This could have gone wrong in so many different ways, I can easily imagine a version that's WAY more lugubrious and, crucially, much less funny. But director/co-writer Greta Gerwig has quickly become one of our best talents between this and the wildly-different-but-has-more-in-common-than-you'd-think Little Women (I also still need to see to heard-it's-excellent Lady Bird). With an infinitely clever script (I love in particular that the "real world" is just as ridiculous in its own way as Barbieland) and Sarah Greenwood's impeccable production design, Gerwig and her cast craft a feminist fable that remains light and funny even at its most strident and angry. Margot Robbie has never been better, hilarious and gut-punching by equal measure, America Ferrera ends up as the unexpected heart of the piece, and Ryan Gosling is absolutely hysterical as Ken while still making him intensely sympathetic. He and Robbie deserve Oscar noms in particular. No, I'm not kidding. Might expand this one to a full review at some point tbh.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: I missed this in theaters and regret it immensely, given that this is a hilarious, cheerfully irreverent take on characters who've really managed a surprising amount of relevance in the modern age. Actually having teen actors voice the Turtles makes them feel so authentic, and they're matched well by an equally game cast like Ayo Edebiri's thoroughly modern April O'Neill, Jackie Chan as a more bumbling-but-heartfelt version of Splinter than usual, and Paul Rudd going full surfer bro as Mondo Gecko. And of course the scribbled-notebook underground comics vibe of the animation is a neat bit of full circle aesthetics if you know these guys' origins.

Wish: All of you are wrong and being dumb about this movie. It's not that I can't grok some of the criticisms as being legitimate, to be fair; for example, the songs, while very good on their own IMO, don't always hit the iconic level of a Frozen or Encanto. But the vitriol with which they've been expressed, and this odd narrative that Disney is in the toilet artistically and needs to nebulously "fix" things, is something I can't at all agree with. It's gorgeously rendered, for one; yes, I would potentially like to see a return to full 2D animated films for the studio at some point too. But if they're gonna experiment even marginally with CGI, I applaud co-directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn making it look this painterly as a starting point. And as with a lot of modern Disney, there's real richness and inner life to these characters. Ariana DeBose is a winning heroine as Asha, who feels distinct from other "princesses" by essentially being working class and unionizing the kingdom. And Chris Pine as Magnifico is a Disney Villain for the ages, blending real complexity in his relationships with scenery-chewing madness. (Also am I the only one who got major "studio executive/CEO" vibes off him?) If this is "mid" or "bland" Disney, I really question what some of y'all are seeing that I seemingly can't.

Also I liked the 100th anniversary references, sue me. The last one in particular gets points for quiet charm rather than grandstanding.

The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki, anime's favorite grumpy old man, comes back out of retirement for like the fifth time. Seriously, remember when Princess Mononoke was supposed to be his last film 25+ years ago? I'll believe his "last film" is truly his last when he's in the cold, cold ground. Regardless of the continuing saga of Old Man Won't Retire Because He Seemingly Can't Be Alone With His Own Thoughts, this is a brilliant, haunting spectacle of animation that might be a new favorite for me. Some have called it confusing, whereas I go for "dreamlike", possibly his most to date. Nearly every frame is suffused with longing and melancholy (though this also has some of Miyazaki's best comedy in a while), and, oddly like Wish, this feels like a true career reflection, if a bit more fraught and questioning what legacy truly means. Joe Hisaishi contributes possibly his moodiest, most dissonant score, with little of the bombast or whimsical charm that typifies his music, but it works unfathomably well. Credit also to the dub, with Robert Pattinson as funny and menacing as you've heard, but Luca Pandoval is also excellent as our stoic lead Mahito, Florence Pugh manages to be both a total badass and a funny old woman (it makes sense in context, I promise), Christian Bale puts forth a fascinating two-step with his boisterous father, Gemma Chan and Karen Fukuhara nail some complex emotional turns, Willem Dafoe nearly steals the whole thing in under two minutes, Dave Bautista makes a real meal out of a part not much bigger than that, and Mark Hamill finds resonance as a tired old man.

[akihabaradivision]

Criss's Thoughts on Obihiro Division

Hisoka Tetsumasu

"Hisoka-san's ranch? Oh, it's definitely on my list of places to explore! I mean, with all the history he has, there's got to be some kind of supernatural energy there, right? Horses are such spiritual creatures too; they have this wise look, like they've seen things we can't even imagine. I haven't had the chance to sneak onto the ranch yet, but believe me, it's tempting. I've heard stories about places where animals live being crossroads for spirits, and I'm curious if Hisoka-san's ranch is one of those places."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were spirits lingering around, maybe even watching over the horses. It would be fascinating to investigate and see if there's any truth to the tales. Plus, I think it would be pretty cool to meet Hisoka-san in person. Despite his past, I bet he has some interesting stories to tell. And who knows? Maybe the spirits are drawn to the place because of him. It's all speculation at this point, but I’m eager to find out more. Ghosts or no ghosts, Hisoka's ranch is definitely a place where the veil between worlds feels thin."

Daiki Kamiyama

"Daiki-kun's superhero antics are totally cool! I mean, who doesn't love a bit of mystery and adventure under the cover of night? We've bumped into each other a few times while I'm out on my paranormal investigations, and let me tell you, it's always a blast when he's around. His enthusiasm for superheroes and doing good is just infectious. I think it's awesome that he's trying to make a difference, even in his own unique way."

"We've explored a couple of spooky spots together, and Daiki-kun's bravery really shines through. It's like he's in his element, you know? I can't help but admire his dedication to his hero persona. Sure, it might be a little risky, but life's too short to not chase after what you believe in. Plus, having a 'superhero' by your side when you're chasing ghosts? That's just epic! I'd say we make a pretty great team when it comes to exploring the unknown!"

Jack Verrill

"Jack-san is like a character straight out of a manga! The stoic butler with a mysterious air about him—it's just like something you'd read in a story, and I find it pretty amusing! Whenever I'm hanging out with Daiki-kun and Jack-san is there, I can't resist teasing him a bit. I’ll sometimes just throw out a classic line like, 'The butler did it!' when we're talking about mysteries. He usually just gives me this look that's a mix of exasperation and amusement, which only makes it funnier!"

"Honestly, I think Jack-san's presence adds a whole layer of intrigue to any situation. He's got this vibe that he knows more than he lets on, and I respect that. It's clear he cares a lot about Daiki-kun, and his dedication to his role is something you don’t see every day. But I do wonder what secrets he's keeping. With someone like him, you just know there's a wealth of stories behind those quiet eyes. Maybe one day, he'll share some of them with us. Until then, I'll keep enjoying the mystery that is Jack-san, the enigmatic butler. Because, after all, he is just... one hell of a butler." Criss giggles to herself.

Veiled Vanguard

"I like these guys! They're an interesting bunch! I've hung out with them a few times, and it's always an adventure! Hisoka-san's ranch has this mysterious vibe that's just so captivating, and Daiki-kun's enthusiasm for heroics is super contagious. Even Jack-san, with his stoic butler act, has a certain charm. They're like characters from the paranormal fanfics online come to life, and I love that!"

"When it comes to facing them in the Division Rap Battle, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit torn. On one hand, it's going to be epic. But on the other, I've gotten to know them, and they’re not just opponents; they're friends too. It's going to be tough to go against them, but that's the nature of the game, right? We all want to win, but more than that, we want to share our stories, our music, and our hearts. So, no matter what happens, I'll give it my all and hope that our friendship can withstand the competition."