#you should watch it because its a fucked up evil film that makes you feel inspired and horrified at the same time

[burning-sol]

Watched Gattaca for the first time in full and the real horror of it is that some people watch Eugene DIE at the end and think to themselves... "Oh! This is an inspirational movie! Eugene killed himself because he 'accomplished his life goal' by helping Vincent succeed!" Really shows how utterly entrenched in ableism society is if there are people who watch a man DIE but that doesn't take away from the movie's "aspirational" ending because the guy who isn't a wheelchair user got to live his dreams happily in space :)

I didn't have subtitles on so my auditory processing issue caused me to miss integral lines (so I am relying on other people's notes about the dialogue on the imagery I missed, since I haven't had a second watch through yet), but holy shit. Even I having missed core pieces of dialogue could understand the ending when I'd thought about it because like... Think about what Eugene said. "I gave you my body and you gave me your dreams." There is an equal exchange here, it's mutual gain. The characters both have an established dichotomy. How could you see one of them die and not infer the other died too? ..besides the obvious ableism.

And there's an extra layer of frustration there too because Vincent IS disabled as well. Have you fallen victim to the able-bodied mask he put up - that you're meant to be reminded IS a mask throughout the film - because he was able to get so far? Because he can walk while the other disabled person can't? Fuck youuu.

I'm actually really interested what disabled people think of the movie because it's actually a really conflicting ending tbh. In the end, the disabled characters die and don't get to live more of their life when really they deserved so much better... Which is sad. But it's also a spit in the face to inspiration porn and it doesn't reward the characters for being exceptions to a discriminatory system. This video about Coco was really illuminating for me because... Yeah. Being an exception to a system IS a win, but only for that individual, meanwhile many others like them are still dealing with the same withstanding system and we're usually just shuffled past that like it isn't a big deal.

I would say that in terms of ableism, the movie overall does very much feel like it suffers from "catgirl racism" in terms of premise - but narratively it doesn't? It's got a weird vibe to it. Btw I call catgirl racism the phenomenon of people trying to make narratives where they talk about discrimination but they use substitutions as if to make the subjects more "sympathetic" to the majority audience - e.g when people try to talk about racism but instead of having black characters they make them pale skinned catgirls, or in this case if someone were to try to talk about ableism but instead of disabled people you have people who are able-bodied but aren't "genetically perfect". Bonus negative points if they treat the actual marginalised people in their work poorly see RWBY's treatment of black people or the misinterpretation of Gattaca's ending where the guy in the wheelchair dies and that's just meant to be fine I guess.

There's still a lot more analysis I want to read up on and reviews of the movie... Interviews and I didn't get to look at the special features so that would be cool. There's a lot I wanna get to know about this film because I think it's pretty neat.

Something about the movie I thought was pretty neat is the people along the way that helped Vincent, because he does die in the end but it's kind of hopeful in a way? Like, yes, the system is still intact, but there are so many more people against the system than you think and will have your back even at the risk of their own livelihoods.

And if I had to state a downside it's that idk I wish Irene felt a bit deeper in terms of character because I find it hard to believe she didn't clock Vincent sooner than what she actually did. I had thought she already knew before the investigator came to Eugene's place, but then there's this whole "I don't even know who you are!!" thing?? I really find it hard to believe between him throwing away her hair and the road crossing and him sneaking out of bed to go scrub himself free of skin on the beach and so on... I also wish there was a bit more it said about sexism considering there IS some presence of it in the movie, and yet that doesn't become a subject of bonding between her and him?? You know, society telling them that there are certain things they can't be? (Which feels very pertinent considering they specifically work in a space agency...)

Yeah. I guess I think overall it's a good film but there's certain things that probably could have been refined to make it even better. So anyways...

[pattydia]

Hey so (sort of complicated question; I apologize because I’ve been thinking about this today and I agree with you about strange darling), what are your thoughts regarding: feminism re: strange darling and gone girl? Because they both sort of tackle the same subject- women faking being assaulted- but one of them is written by a woman. I personally think gone girl is more feminist than strange darling, which I think has issues in that regard; but I’d be interested to hear your take!

such a good question thank you anon. i have been thinking about this for hours and my thoughts are still not going to be that coherent but here goes:

okay so first and foremost i think female characters SHOULD be allowed to be multifaceted and selfish and murderous and evil!!! there’s no reason that every woman in media should be some sort of glowing endorsement for ~women as a whole~ because a) BORINGGG and b) god knows male characters aren’t held to that standard!!!

my issue with strange darling’s woman protagonist (antagonist?) is not with her actions (because: fiction) but rather with the fact that she seems to be the projection of some kind of misogynistic fantasy that the writer/director holds. women doing bad things is not the issue; using a woman doing bad things as a GOTCHA! moment is.

to me it feels like mollner is getting his kicks from making up a type of woman to get mad at — a woman who offers sex and then rescinds it, a woman who lies about being assaulted — because these are literally the worst things a man can imagine a woman doing to them. the fact that she’s a murderer is almost secondary; her REAL crime is that she’s fucking men over!

because of that i don’t view gone girl in the same way even though it tackles similar themes. idrk what makes a feminist film or if every movie with female leads should be aspiring to be a feminist film but …. women writing complex women characters will always get at a layer of honesty that men simply cannot access because it comes from the personal experience of living in this world as a woman!

anyways, i struggle with strange darling because its plot relies so heavily on “upending” gender stereotypes in a lazy way that doesn’t say anything more than ‘lol you THOUGHT it was the MAN who was bad cause he’s a MAN but ACTUALLY it’s this BITCH WOMAN!!’ and then the scene with the cops towards the end is so ham-handed in its ‘woman believes fellow woman; is PROVEN WRONG like an IDIOT while level-headed MAN was CORRECT ALL ALONG!’ messaging that it’s kind of laughable.

this isn’t to say that i didn’t find the film interesting or entertaining. i think it’s beautifully shot and well acted but suffers from a weird and heavy-handed script. i won’t lie my perception of it was heavily clouded on my first watch by shirtless and bloodied kyle gallner but now i am seeing more clearly!!

[katethevampire]

All right so the new episodes just came out like 20 minutes ago for me (oh yeah me from the future here it ended up taking me about 3 hours to finish watching the episodes cuz I kept pausing to write stuff in between so uh yeah lol) so everything under the cut will be my live reaction to everything. I'll add time stamps so you know where I'm at in the episodes. I can guarantee you that I will be sticking to my promise about potentially eating paper if I'm wrong about Sir Pentious not dying. Which honestly now I'm not sure if anyone will die, it was pretty much confirmed in a live stream that angel dust isn't going to be the one to die so my money is on one of the Angels. Also I'm using voice to text and while I'll try and fix any misspellings or wrong words I might miss them.

LOTS OF SWEARING PROBABLY also I very much abuse capslock

EPISODE 7

00:51- I love Sir Pentious looking at Keke I just thought I should mention that

01:03- OH MY GOD NO KEKE MOVED TO HIS LAP AND HE'S PETTING HER I LOVE HIM SM

01:10 aw Alastor was sleepy you guys woke him up!

01:22- I CAN'T EVEN APPRECIATE RAZZLE AND DAZZLE BEING CUTE CHARLIE IS CRYING

01:29- he did the gay little hand thing

01:50- okay so I've already seen this part because of the small leak but I cannot get over the fact that Alastor has his shoes on the bed!! Like man take those off you're getting it dirty!!!!

01:59- mfs kicking his feet on the bed acting like a high school girl about to ask out her crush on the phone at a sleepover like dude you're a serial killer you can't do this to me 😭 also I should probably slow down cuz I'm making an update literally every 2 seconds

02:18 BROS CHECKING HIS NAILS AND DOING THAT POSE WHILE MAKING FUN OF HER ABOUT THE FACT THAT SHE UNINTENTIONALLY MIGHT HAVE CAUSED THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS 💀💀💀 so fruity i love

2:33- Alasto be like "it's called masking deary. Ever heard of it?"

2:44- if he wasn't saying this in such an evil manner right now I'd be saying he's so me frfr

3:07- what do I even say to that line. He popped off but also like respectfully I think I've heard a third grader say the exact same thing

3:53- OKAY SO I WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING BUT I'VE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN LOOK AT THIS FRAME, this could easily be the profile picture for someone's film review channel and I'm not 100% sure that people will understand what I mean by that unless you know a very specific person

04:38- Alastor is in his hat man era

4:33- okay so a few things, thank you subtitles for telling me that the music is edgy I feel like just the word tense would have worked on its own but I appreciate it nonetheless. Number two, I don't like seeing the girlies be mad at each other :(

05:34 I will support my boy Sir Pentious through and through he did nothing wrong!!

06:54- not the voice I was expecting for Rosie but pop up Queen she speaks the truth

07:24- ROSIE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE ALASTOR. Also his confusion, I love him so much

11:04- she's kind of like that one Pokemon

Ad time!- I DON'T CARE ABOUT VITAMIN PILLS THAT DOUBLE MY LIFESPAN

11:13- catabettes! Cannibals and catabettes!!! This is going into my vocabulary from now on. Also this frame that I paused at I love her face.

11:57- ugh, susan. All my homies hate Susan

12:54- I have a dream, I'm here to cause a scandal in the cannibal square

13:37- :( well it wasn't obvious to me I just thought the x over the eye was to look cool :(

14:35- SONG FUCK YEAH

15:26 If this song came out years ago I know for a fact there would have been an undertale parody version of it. Also I just got a cosmic brownie and some chocolate milk let's go guys we're eating good tonight

16:00 HOLY FUCKING SHIT SHE CAN JUST GROW BACK HER WINGS

16:30- therapist Rosie is not something I thought I'd be seeing today but honestly I love it. Also I don't think I'm going to be able to finish these episodes today because I'm only a little over 15 minutes through and I've been watching for like almost over half an hour and also I just realized that what if Lucifer is the one that dies?

18:12 ALASTOR GAVE HER HIS MICROPHONE I'M GOING TO EXPLODE INTO A BAJILLION CRYING PIECES RAHHHHHH

19:38 I'm going crazy I'm going insane right now bro literally what how I don't know what to say I love this act I don't know, it's just really good I don't know what to say like this is cool I don't I DON'T KNOW! IT'S I I LIKE IT everybody in cannibal town is cool and I like them and it's like 10 seconds later now and they're literally So based like free food like so me I don't know I'm just rambling at this point

20:56 ALASTOR AND ROSIE'S LITTLE DANCE THEIR LITTLE TIPPY TAPS OH MY GOD YES

21:06- alastor, you know it's not right to make someone your political puppet. Your little dances are cute though so I'll allow it for now.

I don't know why it thought I was speaking Spanish for a second but anyways that episode was really cute and good and I liked it but I'm also scared for the next episode cuz like now I'm wondering is someone actually going to die or were people just lying. I feel like either Adam is going to be the one to die or it's going to be Lucifer cuz they mentioned a lot in the previous episode about how Charlie needs to take up the throne and get ready to take her place on the throne like why does she need to take her place on the throne? Isn't that her dad's job??? Please don't kill Lucifer off please please please 🙏 also I'm still not on board and probably will never will be on the whole political puppet thing. Like I just know I just have a feeling in my bones that alastor's favor is going to be something like "Let me be the ruler of hell lololol" or something anyways

EPISODE 8

01:01-Why are you watching other men get fucked?🤨 (/j)

01:19 🥺 I love 🥺 I oove him so 🥺 so much 🥺🥺🥺 does he have a spatula like spongebob

02:02- wait so how is Vox watching them like does he have bug cameras in the air like those little guys in v3 (woah now I have to put a Danganronpa spoiler on this)

03:42 SOFT ALASTOR FANFICTION WRITERS QUICK WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN!!!

04:18- I'm not even the biggest huskerdust shipper but awwwww also I don't ship him with anyone but I just want to see Sir Pentious happy pleaseeee also the little Melody of loser baby in the background

04:48- ugh I am clutching my heart right now Sir Pentious is my SON and I LOVE HIM

04:58- what the fuck that ao3 tag was canon this WHOLE TIME???? WHEN DID YOU GUYS HEAR ABOUT THIS?????

05:05- I told you angel dust wasn't going to die

05:38- it's like the song but different! Reprise it's called a reprise also is Mimzy gonna come back

07:15- Vox, you know that you guys are going to die if they lose too right?

Okay I can't timestamp this cuz I'll just be pausing every 2 seconds but just know that everything I'm saying after this is from 07:52 to whatever number I put after later right here->09:47

Okay, so this might be a weird comparison but you know like My Little pony Battle scenes? This feels like that in the very best way possible where they have the scenes with all the different characters fighting with the different music.

Oh my God yes Cherry bomb and angel dust I love them also that was a fire transition also I JUST NOTICED THAT SIR PENTIOUS HAT ALSO HAS THE EYE DOES HE JUST HAVE I HATS FOR EVERY OCCASION

Uh oh Adams angry he's going to do a my hero academia

Oh shit it actually worked that's not good.

I TOLD YOU I CALLED IT VOX IS HORNY

Oh my God that is such a cool shot guys someone should make that frame of Alastor their computer background

OH MY GOD WHOEVER ANIMATED THAT SCENE I LOVE YOU I'M LITERALLY GIVING YOU A METAPHORICAL KISS ON THE MOUTH IN THE PLATONIC SENSE ALASTOR LOOKED SO COOL

Guys I think Adam's going to die

😨 okay so Alastor's microphone just broke and I paused it to add that emoji but as I did the people I live with got home so I'm going to have to pause it for there? I'll update if I get prime working on my phone. Also isn't alastor's microphone alive? Maybe that's the character that died.

Update: all right I got it set up on my phone about 30 minutes later now we're resuming

09:47- okay so I think it's interesting that Alastor pretty much lost all his powers as soon as his microphone broke, my guess is probably that whoever has his soul (lilith, eve, or anyone else) gave the mic to him.

09:53- I like the detail that Alastor is still smiling even though he literally just got slammed against the wall, also Vox has the biggest hate boner for Alastor like

10:02- Alastor: "Have to disagree with you there, radio's not dead." Hun you are bleeding out I'm sorry but I don't think you can gaslight girlboss your way out of this one, also I'm sorry to tell you but the only thing they play on my local radio station now besides music is like, a show that's only on at like 7 in the morning where people call to complain about how their husband wraps Christmas presents

10:38- haha silly also EGGS!!

10:43- NO WAIT MY BRAIN DIDN'T REGISTER THAT THAT EGG WAS CRACKED THEY KILLED THE FUCKING EGG!!!!!! Angel, kill them.

11:12- no no no Sir Pentious you better not I don't want to eat paper

11:21- good for him

11:44- NO GOD DAMN IT PLEASE HAVE A REVEAL THAT ALASTOR OR LUCIFER OR SOMEONE ELSE SAVED HIM PLEASE 🙏🙏🙏 I AM BEGGING ON MY HANDS AND KNEES

12:03- okay this is really cool but is he actually dead cuz I'll legitimately be really sad if so

12:50- *that one vine* "*gasp* Adam."

13:23- KILL HIS ASS CHARLIE

14:12 yes Vaggie, queen shit

SIR PENTIOUS ARE YOU DEAD /J OR /SRS?????

14:35 I KNEW IT I KNOW HE WAS GOING TO COME BACK I MEAN I GOT KIND OF SPOILED CUZ I I SAW THE COVER OF THE EPISODE BUT WOAH 10/10 ENTRANCE

14:44- gasp! His face!

15:00- he is, so stupid. I love him.

15:51-okay I went quiet for a minute cuz there were so much happening but oh my God what do I even say this is just so cool also I don't know if this is intentional or not but the blood stain on Charlie's hair is shaped like an apple

16:34- NIFFTY RAHHHHHHH

17:08- wait okay I had a brief thought that maybe lute was actually Eve but I think I'm wrong on that

17:13- Sir Pentious would've liked pancakes :((((((

Ad Time! I don't care about hard Rock Cafe I just want to know whether or not Sir Pentious is actually dead please I'm going through all the stages of grief right now and Brandan Rogers just came on my screen as Katie killjoy please

18:04- Keke :(

Oh my God they're going to find him in the rubble right? ... Right?? Right guys right???????

18:10- fat nuggets survived that's good I see a rock that looks suspiciously shaped like Sir Pentious military hat whoa guys I wonder if that means anything and it looks like it's up like someone is standing? Whoa I wonder if they'll check behind that rock please

18:16- wait is he actually dead I'm genuinely about to cry

19:16- I am not crying about his death until the episode ends I am not crying until it is 100% CONFIRMED that he died

20:50- omg alastor's alive, he's in his Jack's skeleton era that means that maybe Sir Pentious is also-

21:08- friends :) he said friends just saying

22:04- I TOLD YOU I FUCKING TOLD YOU I TOLD YOU THAT BY DYING IT WAS JUST A CHARACTER BEING REDEEMED I TOLD YOU I'M SO SMART I'M NOT EATING PAPER HAHAHAHAHA I'M THE GREATEST MAN ALIVE HE'S NOT DEAD MY SNAKE BOY ISN'T DEAD HOW DID I GET SO ATTACHED TO HIM I DON'T KNOW BUT I LOVE HIM YES I CAN'T EXPRESS MY EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW I'M GENUINELY SO HAPPY THIS IS WHY THIS IS WHY I WAITED UNTIL THE VERY END TO CRY ABOUT HIM I KNEW HE WASN'T GOING TO BE DEAD THEY WOULDN'T KILL HIM OFF THEY WOULDN'T KILL MY SNAKE BOY OFF JUST LIKE THAT

22:34- you're telling me Lilith was just doing hot girl shit on the beach for 7 years.

[understandingbimbos]

If you are specifically only interested in bimbofication as transformation AND bimbos as a cultural figure, I feel like that’s a difficult perspective to reconcile. Because there are hardly any bimbofication-transformations in mass media. Popular bimbo (or bimbo-ish) figures are almost always just “like that,” the bimboism is essential to their personality and always has been. Hot girl makeover narratives are a popular genre but they usually go to pains to make it clear that the subject’s personality/sense of self is mostly unchanged.

Anyways I think your writing is really interesting and articulate and hope you keep going. Do you have a sense of your target audience? I feel like your work probably doesn’t appeal to most people in the fetish because it’s nuanced and critical, which is a good thing, but hard if you want more people to read/engage with your stuff. Good luck!

I want the book to be open to and palatable to outsiders as a source of information, but I don't have specific or concrete audience besides that. I would like my approach to the subject matter to be somewhere between Dworkin and Scott McCloud.

And... yes, you do not see bimbofication in the mainstream. The closest I've seen any film come to it is Nightmare Sisters from 1988 and Repligator from 1998, and calling either of those mainstream is being very generous. I think there's also a bit part in Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. And the comic adaptation of Dragon's Lair has Daphne getting dumber while she's trapped in her bubble, there's no growth but she already has a sexy/curvaceous body.

Then there's those two episodes of Sabrina, the one where she gets stuck looking like a walking pinup, and one where her evil doppelganger curses her to become stupid and boy crazy. There's that infamous scene from Leprechaun 3 with Stretch. One sort of indirect one that sticks with me, and I think I've mentioned this before, is what happens to Lorraine in Back to the Future 2. When Marty goes back to the bad present that Biff fucked up and his mom now an alcoholic trophy wife in a glitzy dress and big fake implants, but I don't know if that stuck with anyone else.

Lastly, I've seen others cite the animated explanation sequence in The Stepford Wives (2004) and Foxy Loxy's transformation in Chicken Little (2005). I don't think I've posted anything from any of these movies, and I really probably should.

I'm also not sure if this is something I've actually posted or just thought about but it struck me quite recently that bimbofication is really just an inverse of the Galatea myth, as in Pygmalion, as in My Fair Lady, as in Born Yesterday, Pretty Woman. Where you have in these narratives low-class women and sometimes straight up actual bimbos being reformed and becoming proper ladies, bimbofication is the exact opposite. You don't see it because it is a narrative tragedy, nearly horror, nowhere near romantic, a proper lady becoming a common whore...

(Which reminds me, I forgot the best "mainstream" "bimbofication" sequence, Halle Berry in Movie 43, remind me to post this later)

Anyway, like I was saying, a nightmare. But when we consider it in the context of Pygmalion, ancient myth, the very idea of bimbofication becomes a lot less insane. Pyggie took to crafting Galatea because he saw women practicing prostitution and begin to detest "the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women". It only stands to reason that there have been at least some people throughout human history, way before any of us were around, before bimbos, before bimbofication, that felt the exact opposite -- people who detested not whores but the stuffy or virtuous woman. People who's ideal Galatea would be no pure and innocent but wanton and shameless. And when George Bernard Shaw adapted and modernized this story in 1913, I'm sure that idea wormed its way into the head of even more people, even though we may never know. Someone had to read or watch the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins and dream of the opposite, respectable lady to stupid bitch.

(Which reminds me... I forgot The Twilight Zone Episode, Number 12 Looks Just Like You. I have a post drafted on my other blog referencing that you might see soon. Maybe. Maybe not.)

I guess that's all to say, you are absolutely correct that there is no real basis for bimbofication in popular media. The seeds have existed here and there for a long time but that doesn't mean any of it was a direct or intentional influence. I think I made a forum post asking bimbofication authors about it and their frame of reference seemed to be entirely underground science-fiction and other erotica writers.

And who's to say who inspired by the bimbofication BDSM people, or how far back that goes? Or the artists who draw transformation sequences? Who drew the first bimbo TF sequence? Did the idea just come to them? That's kind of the thing.

Respectable lady to stupid bitch slut, no matter how niche this fetish is, is NOT a novel concept by any means. For those of who are into bimbofication as a revenge fantasy, its pretty much basic misogyny, no different than Pygmalion's, just in a different direction.

[bagadew]

Tagged by @vonlipvig

Last song I listened to: We Like to Party (aka The Vengabus) by the Vengaboys. This damn song arrived inexplicably in my head this morning and WILL NOT leave. In an attempt to exorcise it like the demon it is, I listened to this song in its entirety. Unfortunately this didn’t work, and I now know more words to The Vengabus (it’s coming and everybody’s jumping, New York to San Francisco an intercity disco)

Last book I read: Which Way to Anywhere by Cressida Cowell, the writer of How To Train Your Dragon, doing a sci-fi story, of course I read and enjoyed this. I loved the dynamic between the siblings, the cool morally grey space teen, and watching a small magic baby forcibly adopt the space equivalent of OG Alvin the Treacherous. There were other less funny things I enjoyed (like the neat way it conveyed the fact that Daniel is living in a house that is effectively being haunted by his wife’s ex husband) but to be honest I don’t have the time to really go off on one, and this only makes sense to like 1% of you anyway.

Last film I watched: Oh jeez, it’s been a fair few weeks since I watched a film, and I sort of fried my brain with my own filming schedule. I’m 75% sure it was Kill Bill part 2 though, cos my brother and I realised we’d never seen The Kill Bill films, and it seemed like it would be our jam (and it was).

Last TV series I watched: Shogun. I’ve been watching it with my family every week, starting because Dad had read the book and wanted to watch it. As someone who knows basically nothing about that period of Japanese history, I’m finding it very interesting, and I feel like, weirdly, I’m getting a better understanding of some of the cultural influences behind some of the Japanese fiction I already know and enjoy.

Last video game I played: Trauma Center Under the Knife. Both a bastard game that I hate and a brilliant game that I love. The characters and story are great and I love them, but I’m pretty sure surgery is the thing I am worst at in this life and I should be struck off and never allowed in an operating theatre again. I am currently trying to kill an evil spider that lives on the heart of a child experiment (because this game is wild) and I am slightly scared that this isn’t the final boss of the game. In a thousand different universes that child has died of heart spider, but heart spider has to get lucky a thousand times… The Flailing Muppets Who Possess Derek Whenever He Does Surgery only has to get lucky once!

Last thing I googled: Trauma Center Savato strategy. Look The Flailing Muppets Who Possess Derek Whenever He Does Surgery needs all the help she can get, ok?

Last thing I ate: 3 packets of mini eggs. I got a lot of Easter chocolate to eat through.

Sweet, savoury or spicy: I alternate between preferring sweet and savoury dependant on an unknowable force beyond my control or understanding. Right now I like sweet things the best (hence the chocolate eggs).

Amount of Sleep: Full 8 hours baby! I finally fixed my sleep schedule out of necessity of not dying last week!

Currently Reading: Gideon the Ninth! Turns out this book is really good, I can see why you guys like it so much.

Currently watching: A documentary on Honey Ants, these creatures are cool and fucked up in a way I would love to apply to humans in a work of fiction. Living larders for instance are an incredibly messed up idea.

Tagging: @thelastlivingme @bluejaybytes @lightflame @saltykrispycake and whoever else wants to do it!

[chellyfishing]

i’m trying to finish one last book before my year-end book post goes up so i’m gonna talk about games and tv first. not too many of either to talk about this year tbh but i apparently still have so many words.

no movies post bc i don’t log my films anywhere and i simply cannot remember what i watched. maybe i should make 2024 the year of using letterboxed. not enough to talk about with new music either. 2024 can also be the year of getting back into music.

games: i actually haven’t played much ffxiv this year. well in the first half i sorta did but i have barely touched it since like. august. except to keep my houses from getting demolished. i did finally finish myths of the realm last week, since they wrote that entire storyline for me specifically. i need the minion so bad yoship help.

in march capcom gave me a birthday prezzie with the release of the resident evil 4 remake which i’d had preordered since last year (the only games i’ll preorder and pay full price for are resis and ffxiv expansions). i don’t need to explain this to you. it’s incredibly good, the best of the extremely good remakes so far i think. i haven’t played the dlc yet but i’m excited to think there is more of this game i still have to play. btw ashley defense squad. i’ll brook no ashley slander in my house.

i can’t remember exactly when but i think it was some time in the summer that i finally, finally finished breath of the wild! i’m so behind the curve on this one, but i did at least get to start tears of the kingdom in the same year as everyone else. umm, i have to admit i remain ambivalent to this approach to zelda. i have to challenge myself to figure out how much of that is because iT’s DiFfErEnT but genuinely i think the things i dislike about it, i would still dislike even if i had nothing to compare it against. i really wish i thought it was the best zelda ever like so many do but i guess i just struggle to find a flow state with either of them which is why it’s taking me so fucking long to finish them lmao. still obviously extremely good and beautiful! like still head and shoulders above most games, easily, a good time overall!! (wish nintendo wasn’t the way that it is.)

i should mention that one day in july i fucked around in catlateral damage while streaming for bella. this is a very basic game, literally you are just a cat’s paw knocking things over, but man when you just need a brain-free giggle? it did its job.

also in july i played the sequel to oxenfree, which is a game that i love. this game didn’t click with me quite as much, i haven’t revisited it since i finished it, but there are probably also other reasons i shan’t get into that aren’t the game’s fault. idk i feel a bit unqualified to give a final verdict without playing it to completion but i guess the fact that i’ve had it for months and not bothered to do that yet is a kind of verdict in itself since with oxenfree i went straight back in till i got that final ending and platinum trophy.

for basically all of autumn i of course played baldur’s gate 3. i’m very sad that my extreme anhedonia has hit before i could play the new epilogue. i tried to load up one of my finished games but i ran into a problem because the only way to back up your saves is in the cloud so you can’t shuffle files around or make copies, only overwrite, and don’t get me STARTED again or i’ll start spitting i’m so SICK of PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT AAAAAHH. anyway it’s a pretty good game. i won’t be surprised or mad if neil wins the bafta but it really really should be samantha please if there’s justice in this world.

tv: season 3 of only murders in the building. umm, idk. it’s not a revolutionary show but it’s comforting, it doesn’t feel stale yet, and there’s just a lot of talent at work here. just fun to watch.

i watched almost all of neon genesis evangelion but couldn’t finish it because i decided to have an (unrelated) emotional breakdown instead. i’ll finish it eventually if for no other reason than i owe it to phil. shinji is baby.

finally got to the first season of our flag means death. just a delight. i love fun pirate adventures and i love the queers. unfortunately watched it right before the second season released and haven’t gotten to that yet.

did watch the second season of good omens though. i think they made the right choice to scale it back because honestly once you’ve averted the apocalypse trying to outdo yourself becomes a fool’s errand. also, jon hamm’s butt what who said that.

that’s it i think. as i said no season 2 of ofmd, not even the new flanagan yet which i had really been looking forward to for a long time. i dunno ya girl is struggling to find any pleasure in life atm.

[pearwaldorf]

I finished watching RRR last night. It's really long, ridiculous in good and bad ways, and absolutely a piece of Hindutva propaganda (background). There are people who think nobody should watch the film because of how loathsome its tenets are, and I understand that. I also think it's useful to understand how this sort of thing works when it's done well, because honestly? Most Western propaganda fucking sucks. It has to work as entertainment first to make people receptive to its message, and it goes down so, so easy when you do it right.

The tonal whiplash of the movie is honestly incredible. I watched the first hour during a work night and felt like I staggered out of a pinball machine. It is so overwhelming all you can do is try your best to keep up. And that sort of exhuberance is attractive, in an age where it feels like every film is either calculated to show how fucking smart and clever the writer-director thinks he is or some sort of Disney mass-market grey nutritional paste.

It's so much it's almost camp, especially every interaction Ram and Bheem have. Like of course there are cultural differences in how men express affection towards one another, but it can only explain so much. There are literal! montages! Ram does a full Cyrano de Bergerac for Bheem to help him court Jenny! He takes an L in the dance contest so his bro can look good in front of his crush!

Please understand, I don't want to impose a Western gaze on something that should not be interpreted this way (and if I've missed the mark I'm happy to hear about it). But there are only so many fanfic tropes I can deal with dancing their way on screen, sometimes literally, before I can conclude it crosses the line from homosocial to homosexual. (Also given the Hindutva stance on homosexuality, it would not surprise me if somebody was just like "No they're just really good friends I swear.")

The dynamic between Ram and Bheem becomes so much more uncomfortable after Ram reveals his mission. Bheem is, and I say this with affection, strong of heart and dumb of ass. I know some of it is meant to reflect his naivete as a tribesman, but sweetheart, when your bestie shows up in the literal uniform of the colonizer I don't think the appropriate response is "Are you yanking my chain?"

Maybe I wouldn't make so much of it if I didn't know about the movie's nationalist stances. But in that context a man who hits so many of the uneducated but noble savage tropes explicitly submitting to somebody who we later see as the literal representation of Rama is, uh, really troubling.

Random observations I just wanted to throw out there:

That first bit where the crowd is storming the barracks? Every person Ram beats down has a turban or a skullcap. And that's kind of gross.

Every woman in a piece of media pushing nationalist messages is the same flat cutout, I swear. Seetha has no personality other than to exist as the exemplar of (Hindu) womanhood. Jenny is kind and compassionate but in an essentialist way that sets her off as uncorrupted by colonialism and empire, unlike her evil aunt.

The portrayal of the British as ridiculously, cartoonishly evil but somehow still grossly incompetent (ie the Star Wars stormtrooper problem) trivializes the real harm and devastation suffered by the entire country under their rule.

It's not a movie I would watch again, but I think it was useful to get a glimpse inside a propaganda machine. Knowing more about your enemy enables you to understand how they're going to try and get into your head. And given that Modi doesn't appear to be going anywhere and there's plenty of people sympathetic to Hindutva ideals here in the States, it's good to know about.

[gloriousprincesscreature]

This is how I spend a weekend

I watched Minority Report on Friday night although I had a strong hunch that I would Not Like it, because Tom Cruise is smoking hot in it. Turns out, I did not like it, but Tom Cruise was hot. Absolutely no regrets.

And then I spent the entire Saturday thinking about the blocking and set design in Minority Report, woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. So I went back and watched thirty more minutes of grey dreck just so that I could stare at Tom's beautiful face and on Sunday morning I am exhausted.

Now its 3pm on Sunday and ... I am rewatching the rest of Minority Report because TC is positively glowing in every shot he appears in.

I don't know what it is about this guy, there's just something magical that draws the eye to his face at the exclusion of everything else on the screen.

Observation 1: He can do the subtle eyes shimmering with tears really well. We don't even know what really happened with John's son the first two times this expression appears and I am already sad because I'm empathizing Hard, and hey, I am a deeply unemotional person due to being dead inside. OCD and a lousy job will do that to a person. But I'm also terribly, terribly aroused. The script is thin with regard to John's character but TC's vulnerability and the thin, almost bruised-looking skin under his eyes just Does Things to me.

Observation 2: He can't convey anger with depth. It's just shouting.

SPOILERS AHEAD. If you can even spoil a twenty year old movie. Maybe with expensive vacations and designer lingerie. I'm too poor to have ever tried.

Observation 3: The movie is better on a second watch. I can mentally filter out the silly comedic/action elements that should not have been there in the first place. Without them it's a straight up neo-noir in the vein of LA Confidential. Just as in LA Confidential, there's a Twink (Danny Witwer/Colin Farrell), an evil authority figure, and a beautiful, deeply tormented, emotionally repressed cop.

Observation 4: TC's eyebrows and hair have never looked better.

Observation 5: John Anderton is in love with Lamar Burgess. Of this much I am sure. He saves his only real smile for Lamar and ... hahahaha ... we all know what happens next.

I'm replaying bits of this compulsively. Something intensely fucked up and loving happened between these two men.

"Remember, the eyes ... the eyes of the nation are on us right now. And we both know, I'm not the generation anyone listens to, but people trust you, John. When you speak of your absolute belief in pre-crime, they know its a belief born of pain, not politics. I always understood that, and I may have even encouraged it, to help with the cause. [Deep sigh] But now, your pain is hurting both of us."

Lamar meets John eyes briefly before looking away. John has been looking at Lamar the whole time. John continues to gaze at Lamar with so. much. Love. Concern. And all these feelings just getting in the way of what is So Obvious to Us. Lamar is hiding something. John is honest.

"They're not gonna take it away from us. [long pause. Continues to stare into the face of his Beloved/Teacher/Saviour/Master. Makes a vow] I won't let them."

We stay with this moment for awhile before cutting away (BUT NOT LONG ENOUGH). Which is (still) lovely and a lot of modern films don't do this.

I think, I think this is the most intimate, personal interaction in this movie. Minority Report is poxy with zooming camera, overbearing soundtrack, office environments. But when Lamar and John speak, its quiet and the camera just stops fucking around and doesn't get in the way.

Max von Sydow is class. He's inherently slinky and he purrs.

These two minutes hold the seeds (or fragments? fragments) of a much better movie.

At this moment, I don't know if Tom Cruise can Act, but that face was carved by the Gods.

*deep sigh*

I can't finish the rewatch.

[xxgothchatonxx]

I posted 8,811 times in 2022

819 posts created (9%)

7,992 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thottiehardy

@missielynne

@absurdistplayer

@ilike-moss

@scorpio-karma

I tagged 6,860 of my posts in 2022

Only 22% of my posts had no tags

#interview with the vampire - 436 posts

#hannibal - 358 posts

#our flag means death - 310 posts

#dracula - 266 posts

#myst is me - 209 posts

#dracula daily - 207 posts

#precious fluffy angel - 205 posts

#the sandman - 173 posts

#what we do in the shadows - 163 posts

#once upon a time - 149 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#or my favourite - 'this relationship that is full of red flags is actually toxic because the guy is old...' i've seen that at least twice 😂

My Top Posts in 2022:

#4

"they brought back what makes Dracula so terrifying as a villain, especially to women" my dude I need to HEAR this essay PLEASE

Yeah I really should have said "particularly to women" because the general theme is applicable to anyone of any gender but in this film, it's about women- this is why I shouldn't write reviews late at night, bloody hell. 

(edit) I feel I should clarify something - please do not watch The Invitation thinking that it’s going to be an A24-style Serious Horror Flick. While it’s got some serious themes included in the story, it is still very much a love-letter to old relatively-campy gothic horror vampire flicks. I had a ton of fun watching this film, but I also picked up on the thematic elements, too. 

Anyway - I'm going to be vague here because I don't want to spoil things but here it goes (and this is a combo of my opinions and what the director/writer has said about her intentions)

The way I see it, The Invitation is based around the interpretation that Dracula is a symbol of rich, powerful older generations preying on, controlling and wanting to destroy younger generations. In this case, preying on, controlling and wanting to destroy women. It also explores how that level of power corrupts others and drives people (particularly rich, powerful people) to do insanely immoral acts, just for the sake of approval from their higher-ups. And just how far back this kind of evil goes.

It also explores how women from different eras and class backgrounds react when having their choices taken away from them. Some are power-hungry and are more than happy to sacrifice their choices for the sake of a higher position and don't give a shit about when it happens to women in lower classes, while others are struggling to find the courage to stand up for themselves so they accept that this is the right way for them to live and try desperately to find the positives in this.

But then there's Evie, the main character. She is modern woman from a working class background who is looked down on by her rich clients at her job where she works as a catering server, and can't stand it when she sees workers being mistreated by their bosses. So she's brought into this grand, elegant world filled with luxury and is swept off her feet by the lord of the manor. But then she realises that the price she must pay in return is the loss of control over her life. To basically become a prisoner and slave to her master/husband's whim... yeah, not-spoiler-alert-cos-its-in-the-trailer, she doesn't take that lying down.

So, to summarise - it's all about breaking this centuries-old cycle of violence against women and dismantling a system that thrives off the oppression of women.

Very topical film, wouldn't you agree?

But yeah, in conclusion - I fucking loved this film. These themes are present throughout and made even clearer as the film goes on. I highly recommend checking it out (it seems to be divisive so it might not be good to you but that’s ok if that’s the case - this is just my opinion) and I hope my vague ramblings make sense 😂

458 notes - Posted August 26, 2022

#3

Hmm... a dandy gentleman who is mocked by his peers because he can’t live up to stupid society’s standards of what a “real man” is... and a laidback yet grumpy chaotic Goth who has a notorious reputation but is really not that bad, all things considered... 

I guess what I’m saying is, Stede and Edward are (well, might be, it sure looks like it) the Ineffable Husbands: Pirate Edition.

461 notes - Posted March 11, 2022

#2

One thing I really appreciated about The Sandman on Netflix was that it wasn’t gratuitously violent. This is a dark comic series, I understand that. But, personally, I think it’s way more effective when its either implied or you see the aftermath and even then not nearly as much as you’d think. 

And I know the show did tone down some of the most disturbing elements from the comics but even then, it was still effectively disturbing without being gross about it. There was also a lot of focus on the dread and suspense building up to the horrific act than showing the actual act. Which is really good because that gives you more time to connect with the characters, so that when they do die or don’t die, you have a relatively strong emotional reaction. 

Look, i’m a “less is more” kind of gal. And I thought that was extremely well executed here. 

678 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Remember when it was revealed that Morticia’s mum was the Wicked Witch of the West? 😂

1,078 notes - Posted January 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[swagmother]

Alright, here comes 10+ movie reviews from some miscellaneous week in March that I guess I was particularly compelled to watch multiple erotic things, feel free to scroll by very quickly and ignore me forever :

Secretary: it was alright…. Empowering in ways some might say but also sexual but not necessarily because it also begs the question: what is …. Sex(y)??? No one will ever know…. :[

All Ladies Do It: This was definitely sexual and also a solid 3/5 at a generous most, I think most people like butts so if you yourself are a butt enthusiast you’d probably have no qualms watching this

Couples Retreat: Awful…. Vince Vaughn is incidentally the inventor of guitar hero in this but it’s really just about how you should preserve bad relationships, Get this out of my face

Never Been Kissed: Another awful movie! It certainly had potential initially but things started getting exceedingly worse extremely fast, this movie does not see anything wrong with a high school teacher being attracted to a supposed 16 year old, and when it’s revealed Drew Barrymore actually isn’t 16 and is an undercover reporter, he’s like “you LIED, how could you….” Buddy…. Wow

All My Friends Hate Me: this one was pretty alright, if you have an anxiety disorder and watch this you will probably be really upset after because it turns out your friends actually do hate you and you’ve been a big pathetic narcissistic loser your whole life!!! And if they don’t think that yet, your anxiety will definitely make them feel that way soon…. That’s the moral of the story

Violent Cop: true to its name, this is about a cop who certainly has an adjective of sorts. I think this also was pretty alright, I really enjoyed the direction and cinematography which I expected because those qualities (among others) were also very strong in the previous Takeshi Kitano films I’ve seen! I do think this was my least favorite of his so far though, the SA stuff felt a little unnecessary in my opinion, plot was alright

The Boondocks Saints: I think I may have seen this at some point during highschool but if so I certainly didn’t remember. This just felt like a ginormous Tarantino rip off but it was still good ish…. Willem Defoe of course was amazing, that uhh goon for the mafia with the long hair was pretty funny… other than that I kinda hated it tbh I lied before sorry

The Worst Person in the World: I feel like i don’t have that much to say about this one but I really enjoyed it. It was just a really good movie with much pain and humor as well, i would recommend it….

In the Realm of the Senses: big sex movie, it was way more fucked up than I had anticipated and I even saw things that I uhhh I don’t know I was kinda uncomfortable! That’s all I have to say

Antichrist: big sex movie, it was way less fucked up than I had anticipated but it was still fucked up… I had been meaning to watch this for years and it did not disappoint, like I’ve been saying since the day I was born: live spelt backwards….. is evil

Ravenous: this was a good cannibal movie, and I don’t mean just like “good” but I mean it is so good its the first time I watched a cannibal movie and I was like hmmm I should definitely send my cells to get synthesized into meat as soon as it is accessible to the public so I can eat myself and make my friends eat me too and then they can get their own synthesized meat and I’ll eat them too and it will be extremely chill times

Force Majeure: if i was the wife I would’ve uhhh…. I don’t know I think just doing anything would be better than staying with this big loser…. The kids are super toxic as well and giving very bad vibes, she certainly needs to cut ties with those toxic ipad children and Mr. Loser like imagine going on a skiing trip with this gaggle of goons and you think you’re about to die from an avalanche and your husband abandons you and your children but it was a false alarm and everyone’s fine and your husband is like “haha that was close good thing I was right there next to you guys the whole time” and then he whines and cries about being a big loser the whole rest of the trip

Shotgun wedding: it was fine

The Hunt: this was also fine

Dogtooth: this was great and also really fucked up I would absolutely recommend it

Maniac: this was… I have mixed feelings about this… I think Elijah wood does a pretty good job at acting which is a really good skill to have when you act for a career. There were also some cool gore moments/practical effects but not many overall, this take on a first person pov was…. Interesting

The Stunt Woman: I thought this was good! I really enjoyed watching it, Michele Yeoh is extremely cool and it was a touching movie…

[garak]

here are my thoughts on the x-men movies since ive finished most of them

x-men (2000): in my top 3. love mags and xavier in this one mostly because its ian mckellan & patrick stewart. my main gripes are with the merging of magnetos and mystiques brotherhoods & the exclusion of destiny from the brotherhood. magneto being willing to sacrifice his life & another mutants for his dream to be realized seems pretty accurate but i feel like they didnt make it clear enough that if the plan worked he would have died too...? HATE wolverine trying to put the moves on jean grey but thats true regardless of whether its a movie or a comic or a stageplay for all i care.

x2: the plot of this one kind of lost me mostly because i havent read god loves man kills yet so i didnt have any basis to understand wtf was going on except stryker was there and hes evil. love maggy in the prison being emo and shit although them deciding when he can or cant fly or use certain powers seems pretty arbitrary... ? i feel like deathstryke is treated pretty poorly by the plot here seeing as shes you know kind of an important character who they never introduce properly. nightcrawler looks better in this movie than he does in the later ones but still not good.

last stand: ive already talked about the choice of angel & worthington industries as the villains in this one so i won't go over it again. i think its DEEPLY funny that scott disappears and wolverine finds his glasses (which he cannot live without) just lying around and doesn't think "hey i wonder what happened to cyclops" until jean is quite literally unbuckling his belt halfway through trying seduce him. why does no one in these films seem to give a fuck about what happens to cyclops he dies in the first 10 minutes of the movie and its never addressed. also prof x dies in this one and i dont remember how he comes back to life so what was that. also they fuck up bobbys characterization SOOOO bad like i know they didnt know he was gay and he is kind of a player but in the comics kitty uses him as a rebound then breaks up with him and then his younger self (teleported to the future from the 60s) is like "why arent you gay. i'm gay" and bobby is like "no i'm also gay. i just act straight because of irish catholic guilt". so having him cheat on rogue with kitty and pressure rogue into getting the mutation blocker thing so they can have sex is retroactively an insane plotline. sorry im bobby drakes number one fan and this is so fake. also beast is so hot in this movie. what? who said that. also the phoenix plotline sucks and also magneto was right to try and explode the factory or whatever

origins wolverine: INCREDIBLY funny movie serious excellent. completely unintentional in how funny it is but so enjoyable to watch. why was cyclops there? why was emma frost there? what is going on in this movie? why is wolverine naked all the damn time? why does he know the blob? why can he BEAT the blob? why is the blob in this movie? seriously what the fuck is going on in this movie? x-men origins wolverine does not have answers to these questions. its really great to see the awful cgi claws though. i liked that gambit was in this movie.

first class: i have a lot of questions on this one. why is hank here. why is mystique acting like a child when she should be over 70 years old at the least. why would they get my hopes up by putting banshee and moira in the same movie but then not give them a relationship. why the fuck is scott summers' younger brother here. however it does well by making you root for magneto and then being like "and everybody then teamed up with magneto because hes awesome and abandoned xavier except for hank because theyre both centrist democrats" like you know what. so true. i like how mags just starts drama constantly for no reason like why was he fucking w mystique like that... good for him i guess but hes so gay in this movie its not even funny. okay it is funny but only a little.

the wolverine: i fell asleep during this one so i don't know but it seemed weird and racist in many ways and wolverine was a complete bitch during it for NO reason as always. also its so funny to see him fail on screen with basic japanese when in the comics he gets mind wiped and regains the ability to speak japanese before he regains english like that guy is an r/whiteguyswithasianwives prodigy. i liked deathstryke in this movie the actress was very cool. why didnt wolverine take the deal to save his friend and not be immortal anymore when he fucking hates being immortal half the time like bro come on... i hate him sorry

days of future past: okay at this point they should have known bobby drake was gay. so why all that with kitty. also why blame MYSTIQUE for the creation of the sentinels dawg she had nothing to do with that in the comics. the sentinels were not purple enough OR big enough btw. also, where is rachel summers. you cant do days of future past without rachel summers. either way this was a pretty good movie. quicksilver was excellent.

apocalypse: guys. why is scott summers wearing raybans. here are some other questions i hate about this movie: why is cyke's backstory never properly discussed. why do they give cyke angel or bobby's personality. why does nightcrawler look so bad. why would apocalpse choose angel over literally anyone else. why is it never addressed that nightcrawler is mystique's son. why is psylocke here if theyre not going to do anything with her. why is xavier such an annoying liberal. why would they introduce a new magneto daughter when he already has like 3 to pick from. why dont hank and mystique just sort their shit out. why does mystique go to bat so hard for maggy. why does jean already have telepathic abilities when she and scott meet thus making the way they originally get together (one of the main reasons i give a fuck about their relationship) impossible. who is the girl with the yellow hoop earrings they hang out with. dazzler??? why does jean have the phoenix spirit in her if she hasnt died yet. why isnt storm in her home on the mountain at this point. why is moira not scottish. why introduce her son if theyre not going to do the moira son plotline. last but not least, why would they include any character in this movie who wasnt quicksilver when hes obviously the best character by a wide margin and all scenes that dont include him are basically worthless. otherwise i quite enjoyed it. i liked angels haircut and im so glad they FINALLY made xavier bald.

i will add my reviews of new mutants, dark phoenix, deadpool, etc. once i watch them

[thatnerdyqueer]

lmao ok so I just finished watching V for Vendetta

and I have a lot of ThoughtsTM

before you read HUGE TW OK. homophobia, transphobia, racism, antisemitism

Ok so I should preface this by saying the movie itself isn't homophobic, transphobic, particularly racist (as far as I know, I'm white so I've probably missed stuff and I apologise if I have), antisemetic (but again, maybe I missed stuff) or any of that.

in fact in my opinion it was an amazing, and extrememly terrifying movie.

But, it did feel like watching a highlight reel of all the worst parts of the political climate of 1930s germany and of course of the past few years.

now onto the funny bit:

I was watching the credits and I saw that it was a Wachowski sisters movie and omfg god it immediately made SO MUCH SENSE lol

when I say that V for Vendetta was SO TRANS I mean it. Like, in ways that I can't really articulate now bc I'm too tired but I might explain later, it was so trans. So. Trans.

It was soooo white lmaooooooooo. Like it kept talking about evil conservative politics and how gay people and shit are used as scapegoats, and while that was super powerful I was kinda confused as to why they like, totally glossed over intersectionality and other methods of oppression. It was weird to watch such a "progressive" film that didn't touch on race, like, at all. The closest they came was a guy getting arrested for owning a Koran. And the guy was white. (played by Stephen Fry My Beloved, no hate to him, he was fantastic as always and also I'm super scared about that fall he had I hope hes ok :( anyways). And then the second I saw that the Wachowski sisters made it I was like ooooooooooooooohhhhh thats why it just blatantly ignored racsim and had 0 (zero) characters from ANY ETHNIC BACKGROUND OTHER THAN FUCKING ENGLAND :/ Which, yknow, aside from being hurtful to the vast majority of the population of earth, just makes for a less interesting, less vibrant, less powerful story. It's about freedom, willingness to die for a cause, and rebellion for fucks sake. It shouldn't just be white.

Ok other ThoughsTM

It was weird, but also kinda touching to have V be the "guy" that fought for it all.

I don't really have the words for it at the moment, but in as simple terms as I can.

I was surprised at the unrealistic, but also extrememly important suggestion that a striaght, white, cis guy (assuming V was all of those things, even though he was hella fruity and queer coded) could ever allow himself to become the revolution, to become something bigger than himself, and more importantly, to be selfless enough to devote himself to the liberation of completely separate groups of people.

And, look, I'm not saying that they can't do that (Neil Gaiman as a shoutout, you stand up unabashedly for queer people, trans people, refugees, women, sex workers, disabled people, people of colour, etc etc and maybe thats because you're jewish so you know what fucking happens when you ignore discrimination for a little bit and allow it to fester because it aint you thats getting attacked so why should you care and anyway thats not a rant that I want to have), but I was just surprised, and kinda dissapointed that they did

Because its unrealistic. When as a white person ever been the champion of a a movement against racism? When has a man ever been a figurehead for feminism? Etc etc.

which brings me to my next point.

V's arc still disappointingly revolved around falling in love with a woman. Which really just felt like a way to distract straight viewers from his actual character arc so it was less confronting for them and they will never actually understand him or connect with him properly. I watched it with my parents (both straight), and there were moments when I felt completely sure that they were not grasping the point of a scene, or a line, or whatever. And they felt all righteous and content because they watched a movie about gay people fighting back or whatever, but the main character was still A FCUKING STRIAHGT MAN WTF.

And let me be clear. I DONT HAVE ANY OBJECTIONS TO HIM FALLING IN LOVE. I DONT AHVE ANY OBJECTIONS TO HIS LOVE INTEREST BEING A WOMAN. I'm just annoyed that the messaging was subtle enough that straight people and allo people distracted by a heterosexual romance would miss it. Yes, his love for Evey was tragic. Yes, it was beautiful. But no scene with them was ever actually about their love. It was about something bigger. Which I don't think my parents quite grasped.

Anyway. Conclusions.

Was it a good movie? Absolutely yes!

Will I be watching it again? Absolutely yes!

Was it a terrifying documentary about the world as we know it? Yes!

But could it have been more effective by diversifying slightly more? Yes.

(btw I am fully aware that this movie was made in 2005 and we need context and shit)

So yeah. Those are my thoughts. If you made it this far, wow. You're either a bit V for Vendetta fan, very passionate about activism, or not really concentrating properly.

So uh yeah.

[blondrichclosetwitch]

But her friend is nowhere to be seen, and she's hooked to the silver screen, but the film is a saddening bore for she's lived it ten times or more

“ …cause I wrote it ten times or more.”

I hate to inform you but I have my own fucking plan

I went home with the waitress, just like I always do

Send lawyers, guns and money

The shit has hit the fan

Lately, I've not slept a wink since this half-pint imitation put me on the blink

“I don’t know if you’ve seen that film, or remember seeing it, but I’ll tell you……..I had a good time.”

I'm not sleeping

There's something about you, girl, that makes me sweat

I can't talk about anything else instead of you

I'm trying to

You better catch me or I'll kill you

And why can't you look me in the face?

But I shouldn't put any questions to you that I don't really want the answers to

Finders, keepers, when you creep inside my mind it's madness

Y'all want us dead

just 'cause the skin is the black type (ah)

I'm tapped in the matrix, I'm back and they hate it

we the master of the path that we blazin', you dig

engine, I'm fishtailin' on some sloppy shit (skrrt)

Internet bringin' old lyrics up, like I hide the shit

Free 'em, don't fuck with the law like, damn, Gina

So calm the fuck down before we duck rounds and fireballs that make your family have to duck the fuck down

We frontline, we got the molotov that we can chuck now

'Cause anytime we movin' up, it's like a "What the fuck now?"

They playin' games, we strappin' up, we cock and aim

We aim to shoot, we shoot to claim what we need

We done with pain and the grievin, but put this plastic on first, 'cause shit is hittin' the fan, Scott

I want you so bad, Babe

It's driving me mad, it's driving me mad

Don't look at the carpet, I drew something awful on it. Can’t you see?

“No touch!”

I'll never touch you

Bring your alibis*

We are programmed to receive*

It’s not easy for me to talk about

You should've known better than to have let her get you under her spell of the weather

I got you where I want you, you're deader than ever and falling for forever

I'm playing head games with you

If you should ask, then maybe they’d tell me what I would say

Let it go

Because of you I need to rest, oh yes*

Because it's you that sets the test

And the road is coming to its end

Now the damned have no time to make amends

Neptune City

…and no one will help us

Oh, watch out, watch out I'm cheating on you

My hands are red

My hands are red from sealing your red lips

Neptune City (if you have three planets in pisces, this is your jam)

You starve and near exhaust me

Stalked in the forest, too close to hide

“I said that lie already.”

By blood we're bound

Honestly I kinda always trance out on the married song, so I dunno

Don't ask me what I think of you

Might not give the answer that you want me to

Lauren: There's a voice I always trust; it’s friendly helping hand tells me leave, I must

“Baby, forgive me.”

And the world's got me dizzy again

You'd think after 22, I'd be used to the spin

And it only feels worse when I stay in one place

So I'm always pacing around or walking away

But it all boils down to one quotable phrase

“If you love something give it away”

You may be offended and you may be afraid, but don't walk away, don't walk away

It's four o'clock, it's got to stop

Tell him, "Take no more"

Apologies to future me's and you's

I'm not gonna end up a nervous wreck like the people I know who are nervous wrecks

Though I'm not gonna name names

(Yours was an exception)

We gotta go back

You know I love your art

The ocean washed over your grave

And when the mirror breaks I wouldn't miss it for the world

Call it blackstar, call it painstar

Or stare into the face of whatever it is that's facing you

Did they tell you...

Did they tell me...

What happened to you?

(It'll take some time

But somewhere down the line

We won't be)

Love never fails

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast-

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres-

You set me free, I set you free

(Life is sad and so is love)

Worth noting not the news is :51, starting to track that number: a fortune teller, a sea bird feather

(Also worth noting that when I asked Steel in 2020 if the Tarot Reader had anything to do with his death, he told me to hit shuffle and not the news started to play. I still remember the gasp coming out of my mouth. That was probably the beginning of clarity.)

4:59 pink rabbits which is so fucking loaded I can’t even

Years in the makin, and don't y'all mistake it

You know careers take off, just gotta be patient

Most of y'all gon' squeal

Most of y'all just envy, but jealousy get you killed

Most of y'all throw rocks and try to hide your hand

Because it's all in your eyes, most of y'all tell lies

Something happens when everybody finds out

You don't know me, -, I done changed

Now I am older, I'm getting so much bolder with my head up high(I was half a second late)

I'm stalkin' and walkin' you're my movie star

What you think of this idea:

You and me and no-one else

Your friends at work will disappear

And that guy you're with he was never there

Every night rewind the dream

Tv static sex in flame

Its comin' down real fast in my mind I will not live without you you you

(This playlist has been going since 10:58 am)

Oh, William

If you have to go, I will get by

I will follow you and see you on the Other Side

(might as well add that when this would play in 2017, it would accompany a scene of fake Stella convincing Psychic Jakk to kill himself (to join her on the other side), so it’s not my favorite memory)

I fear the whole world is starting to believe you

[sindar-princeling]

ep 5 thoughts!

I love the dwarven ring that looks like a building by a small bridge, what a cool design

I like that Celebrimbor is a mix of meaning well but also proud and almost- hubristic? feels like he's going to be like I Didn't Think Sauron The Deceiver Could Deceive Me when it all goes to shit

not sure I like that Sauron is present for everything now, because his presence has implications in this world. are rop creators implying that the Doors of Durin are also influenced by him, like the Rings he helped make? or are they just ignoring the fact that Sauron's power is present in his creations? or did they not think about it at all? this world has rules, and it weakens the story to just drop some of them whenever it's convenient

(like I know he may not have even touched them, but just the fact that he's here makes you ask questions)

"to credit your contributions" okay nvm you heard it here first - the doors of durin were made by sauron too I guess (i am. pretty sure they want to imply that but it's so ridiculous that it's hard to actually believe)

Celebrimbor and Sauron are the most interesting plotline I swear

Celebrimbor is growing on me, I didn't like him much in season 1 but he gets more depth here, there's more to work with for him in terms of plot

a nice little detail of Celebrimbor patting Sauron on the arm and Sauron standing there for a few seconds like. did that lowly thing just fucking touch me

it tickles me a bit that Sauron mentioned Earendil to, of all people, Feanor's grandson. "that guy whose sons were kinda-sorta orphaned because of your uncles..... he was a truly great man wasn't he?" like what do you say to that ajsjsjdjdjdjd

"perfection of the three, thrice perfected" WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE SEVEN THEN. STOP JUST WRITING THINGS BECAUSE YOU THINK THEY SOUND COOL

I really liked Ar-Pharazon's speech, yeah king lead that island to ruin through the power of your hubris. it's in moments like this that you wish the whole show was like this

I'm still not sure why the eagle's coming meant Pharazon should be king, though

Elendil and Miriel have such a nice dynamic. I loved her telling him to be the calm at the eye of the storm

Earien annoys me so much why is she here again. why did they have to invent an entire daughter for Elendil, she should have been a new character

WHY did gil-galad's vision look so out of place compared to literally all other scenes. it was filmed like bits of a documentary

I love Disa's insights into the whole situation

"two hundred for a bloody rock?" would you believe a dwarf said that line. would you fucking believe it

did the balrog finally wake up from its 5-episode-long nap? also that tunnel didn't even seem that long. it's kinda hard to believe the dwarves have that little of the mountain mapped

I think it's a really smart choice to have the dwarves' greed be mostly the rings' fault, takes a bit away from the antisemitic stereotype present in the books. it's presented less like their inherent trait and more like a side effect of the rings - they affect everyone equally after all

Celebrimbor's anvil-shaped paperweight ansnsnsnsajsksmnd

this show has a tendency to assign causation to the wrong things I think - they made Mordor be created instead of just be a land that's slowly filled with evil and killed by the shadow: they make men's rings be inherently different instead of acknowledging that the rings reflect their owners. the nazgul are not wraiths because they wear rings with specific properties - they are just corrupted by the rings' evil, and the wraithness is an effect of the corruption, not a property assigned to men's rings specifically. I don't know if I'm explaining this well but it's kind of a "correlation is not causation" thing

Sauron looking like a mini-eye as he watches from a tower was such a nice touch

the Numenorean seashell candles are cute. I also love the wall ornaments looking like seashells

ohh Valandil being nearly drowned was brutal, it was a good scene. same for that annoying Whatshisname washing the sword in the shrine's water

I really would have liked the forging to be more gradual, though, it's going so fast you don't have time to sit in any sort of dread or worry for what's coming

well we all know how well swearing things goes for people in middle-earth :)

I like that they show Sauron quickly reacting to obstacles and constantly twisting the truth - not all of his moves make sense to me lore-wise, but it's accurate characterisation for him

really nice performance from Charles Edwards this episode

rop season 2 episode 1 thoughts

at this point you gotta admire the creators' dedication to absolutely bizarre choices when it comes to sauron. 15 minutes in I'm already going what the hell and fuck. like what was that supposed to be. genuinely

Charlie Vickers has grown on me; he still doesn't have much to work with in terms of the script or the plot though

this whole introductory sequence was there....... I'm not sure why? we could already extrapolate all that, and I mean All That, from the previous season

it still pisses me off that Galadriel is The Main Idiot and Everything Is Her Fault

also, I am reminded by all the plot and worldbuilding choices that annoyed me before. why is mithril important for the elves' survival again?

CIRDAN HIII CIRDAN <33333

I'm so glad they kept his beard

believe me, I AM trying to find things to like about this show, but the plot choices feel like so much unnecessary drama. Galadriel and Elrond fighting feels.... tiring. I feel like all Galadriel does is fight with people

oh are we getting Rhun?? 👀 Nice

this is a personal opinion but the elven women have wayyy too strong and modern-looking make-up

it's a shame galadriel gets the ring because she's power-hungry and reckless, not because she's one of the mightiest elves in middle-earth. she SHOULD be power-hungry, don't get me wrong, it's one of her best traits, but this way you don't put any sort of accent of how very important and mighty she is

sauron having a Badass Walk into mordor at the end of s1, which was a really cool shot to end a season on, only to then get himself in chains and then turn away and come back to Celebrimbor has got to be the most '???' moments of this show. they really have no idea what to do with him

overall I'd say my main gripe, apart from the plot solutions, is that this show doesn't have much to say. it's showy, it's lore-heavy (even if I don't like the lore they came up with), but so far it still has little heart and thought behind it. to me at least it doesn't feel like it really wants to tell you something

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

[tibby]

LOVE your posts about Bobby Dagen. OBSESSED with the jigsquad wanting to torture him 10% he is profiting off their trauma and they’re all protective, 90% because it’s funny. thank you for your service

oh thank YOU! bobby dagen being such a flop character and his entire narrative being so poorly executed is so frustrating because the idea of a fake jigsaw survivor is SO good and could have been excellent if it was in a better film. unfortunately as it was it was weird and disjointed and messy and the only good thing to come out of it was lawrence being gay and evil and the reapperance of simone and mallick my beloveds.

HOWEVER. as this is my city now i do have a lot of feelings about the idea of bobby dagen in the jigsquad universe because they absolutely would take it personally and they obviously do not have normal reactions to things. and it'd be one thing if he was just doing it in his free time to pick up girls or whatever (which. while still shitty. is not SUPER high on their list of People We Should Trap) but he's making a profit off of it and has the nerve to come to jigsaw survivor meetings every so often and talk down to ACTUAL survivors for not healing well enough or whatever. and sure maybe lawrence is only going to those things to scout for new members of team torture and maim and maybe they don't have a right to judge when they're to blame for what happened to everyone else in that room. but also it's offensive. maybe they ARE a little petty but also fuck you dude.

and it's also like. whether they're aware of it or not they're ALL still playing one of john's games, because he's dead and buried but they're still trapped in this life, continuing his legacy because they no longer know any other way to be. and they're all fucked up because of that and because of their original games, mental and physical scars that are very very real and not something they just made up to sell a book. lawrence lost his foot and adam's arm will never have full mobility again and everything john did to amanda will take years for her to unpack and hoffman's sanity is hanging on by a thread. THEY have to actually live with all of that and it's sickening to them to watch bobby dagen claim that he knows what he's been through when he's never had to experience anything like it.

so it just is natural for them, in all their mentally warped minds, to be like "okay well if this guy wants the physical and mental scars that come with surviving a jigsaw trap then we'll give it to him."

i think the ONLY part they'd have moral qualms about is putting joyce in the brazen bull, because they know that she doesn't know the truth (which is also anger inducing, because bobby is lying not only to the world but also to the woman he claims to love) but. they're also all well aware that losing the person you love the most is its own unique kind of suffering.

and i think it just adds to the deliciously devious nature of the fact that...bobby's game is designed to almost guarantee his survival. it's everyone else who suffers because of his lies, and it's a game set up to leave bobby scarred and mentally broken and guilt ridden but alive. just like he wanted, right? he gets the scars on his chest and the mental trauma and gets to tell the story about how he survived.

they make sure bobby dagen gets everything he wanted out of his game. and now he has to live with the consequences.