#anyway here i am back on elfman

[steddieas-shegoes]

ok so hear me out: i think steve would be a huge fan of oingo boingo. maybe robin introduced him or maybe eddie who knows point is steve is like really obsessed with them, and if anyone (but robin) asks he always just says he likes the music, thinks it’s fun or whatever but in reality? in reality he thinks danny elfman is hot. and like only robin knows and she just keeps having to bite her tongue from mentioning that steve so clearly has a type (weird bizarre punk musicians that give off big nerd vibes) anyway maybe robin finally points it out and steve denies it hard and just keeps saying that they don’t look that much alike and robin can kinda agree in some ways (mostly different hair) but in some ways steve is also just wrong (big eyes, same build, same energy) but either way it did the damage because now steve can’t like stop thinking about it and maybe eddie convinces corroded to cover one of their heavier songs (maybe grey matter or insects) to impress steve (because he’s so gone for that man) and steve kinda just like has no choice but to date eddie

Okay I won't lie, I was today years old when I realized Oingo Boingo was Danny Elfman's band. I was also today years old when I realized that despite knowing OF them, I apparently didn't know any of their songs well enough to do this. So I am just a major disappointment all around today, but I did something! Hopefully this something is good enough to pass the test! - Mickala ❤️

------------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t the first time Robin caught Steve dancing to them. She’d waited for the song to change last time before walking fully into the room, but this time, she couldn’t wait.

“Oingo Boingo, Steve? Really?”

Steve jumped and quickly shut off the boombox playing a tape that he owned.

“Robin! When did you get here?”

She smirked at him being flustered, and was that…embarrassment?

“Oh, relax. I already knew you listened to some of their music,” she said as she stood next to him, reaching down to grab a cookie from the cooling tray he was placing them on. “I may not understand it completely, but I have my suspicions.”

“It’s just fun! Easy to dance to, ya know?” he sounded like he was trying to convince himself of this as much as Robin.

“Uh huh. Definitely nothing to do with how similar a certain dingus looks to Danny Elfman. That can’t be a reason.”

She smirked as Steve flushed bright red and turned away from her to pretend like he was busy.

“It’s not a reason. They don’t even look that similar,” he insisted.

“Suuuuure. These are good, by the way,” she pointed at the cookies with her mouth full of the last bite of the one she’d already stolen.

“Thanks. Mrs. Henderson’s recipe. Dustin wanted some and she’s been busy with work so I thought I’d make them for Hellfire tonight,” he shrugged.

“Always taking care of your kids, huh?”

“Did you come by just to annoy me?”

Robin rolled her eyes, jumping up to sit on the counter and watch Steve put the next batch of cookie dough into the oven.

“No, that was just a bonus.”

“So? Why’re you here?”

“Vickie and I have a date tonight. I need to borrow a sweater,” Robin sighed.

“You have sweaters.”

“But none as nice as yours! C’mon, Steve! I promise I will wash it and bring it back to you by this weekend. It’s not like you’re using it for a date.”

“Ouch,” Steve said, throwing his hand to his chest dramatically. “Fine. But not the yellow one. I am wearing it for Hellfire.”

Robin raised her brows, but didn’t comment, jumping off the counter and kissing his cheek before running upstairs.

—---------------------------------------

“Sorry to be so early!” Eddie yelled into Steve’s house as he opened the front door.

The music was loud, so he realized Steve probably didn’t hear him.

If he didn’t want a nail bat to the head, he needed to be careful and not scare him.

He set his bag down by the couch for now, walking towards the stairs to go to where the music was coming from.

He stood in the doorway of Steve’s room, smiling to himself as he watched Steve dance around his room while he got ready.

He was shirtless, and his belt wasn’t done, his hair was still a little wet from a shower, and Eddie was going to start drooling.

He snapped himself out of it when he realized what Steve was listening to.

“Didn’t really take you for an Oingo Boingo fan, Stevie,” Eddie said just loud enough to be heard over the music.

Steve almost tripped over his own feet, barely catching himself on the corner of the dresser.

“Eddie! You’re early!” Steve tried to look casual, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

“Yeah, sorry. Just wanted to be all set up and make sure you didn’t need help with something,” he said, genuinely apologetic for scaring him.

“Oh,” Steve seemed to relax and walked over to the stereo playing the music, turning it off instead of turning it down. “If you wanna go set up, I’ll be down in a few.”

“You good? I really didn’t mean to scare you,” Eddie said, coming into the room a bit, big eyes looking up at Steve from under his lashes.

“I’m good, yeah,” Steve said, small pink tint dusting his cheeks as he looked down at the sweater on his bed.

“Good. Like that sweater on you, by the way,” Eddie winked before turning and leaving the room.

He pretended to ignore Steve’s groan and the immediate sound of someone falling onto their bed.

—---------------------------------

Hellfire went longer than usual that night, but Steve didn’t really mind.

It’s not like he had any other plans, and he liked having the house full.

That’s why he had the kids over for movie nights once a week, why he invited Robin to stay with him when they had closing shifts together, why he even offered his home as the new meeting place for Hellfire Club in the first place.

Everyone stayed to help clean up a bit, but Eddie was very protective of his things, so they all slowly scattered after bringing trash and empty plates to the kitchen for Steve to handle.

Eventually, Steve walked to the dining room to check on Eddie’s progress, and froze when he saw him looking at the new poster he’d gotten.

“So you’re not just a casual fan then?” Eddie smirked, like he was teasing.

It wasn’t the first time he teased Steve about his music taste, but it was definitely the first time Steve didn’t blame him for it.

“I mean, they’re just different. I like different sometimes,” Steve shrugged.

Eddie put the poster back in the corner where Steve had hidden it among a few other items he’d picked up while shopping earlier that week.

“You do?” he asked, more serious than this conversation probably needed to be.

“Yeah. Robin told me I need more things that make me happy for me, and they’re one of them.”

Eddie nodded, couldn’t help but feel a little proud that Steve was actually listening to advice and actually accepting that he deserved to enjoy things just for him.

“Good. Then enjoy them. I’m not judging, just surprised,” Eddie clarified.

“Okay,” Steve said with a small smile.

“Okay,” Eddie smiled back.

—------------------------------------------

The stage was bright, brighter than usual.

Or maybe Steve just was getting the start of a migraine.

Or maybe Robin was right and Eddie just lit up his world in different ways.

It was hard to say, but it was certainly easy to watch Eddie be a star on stage.

He was always flashy, always bigger than life, but on stage, it was more.

“Hey, you good?” Robin nudged him from her spot in the corner of the booth. She was hiding from the bartender who tried flirting with her for the last two trips to the bar.

“Yep,” he replied with a smile.

“Alright! Next up is a new one for us. It’s a cover of a song by a band that may be a joke to a lot of you, but it’s kind of a favorite of someone really important to me. Hope you don’t mind that I made it metal, Stevie,” Eddie smirked towards the corner where he was sitting.

Steve’s stomach flipped as he heard the intro guitar.

“Wow, Eddie loves you so bad,” Robin teased.

“Shut up, Robin,” Steve said, waving his hand at her, unable to look away from where Eddie was singing his favorite song.

He was mesmerized, and despite the more metal sounds Corroded Coffin performed it with, he loved it.

“That was Grey Matter by Oingo Boingo, performed by your favorite local shitheads, Corroded Coffin. Goodnight!”

The stage lights went off, and the crowd cheered.

It wasn’t a big crowd, it never was, but it grew every week they performed, and tonight was definitely the biggest crowd they’d had yet.

He could see the shadows of the band moving to break down their equipment and instruments, but surprisingly, Eddie’s shadow was missing.

“That sure seemed like an act of love,” Robin teased, kicking his foot under the table.

“He was just being nice. He wants me to keep liking what I like,” Steve tried to sound convincing, but even he could recognize that it was more than just a friendly thing to do.

“I do.”

Steve turned quickly, Eddie’s fond smile looking back at him from much closer than he was expecting.

“Eds!” Steve jumped up and threw his arms around his neck in a tight hug. “Can’t believe you covered my favorite song! It was great.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, wrapping his arms around Steve’s waist and relaxing against him. “It was good?”

He could just barely see Robin rolling her eyes in her seat, sipping on some fruity drink that the bartender probably only made her because he wanted to fuck her.

Steve pulled back a little, but kept his arms around Eddie’s neck.

He’d only had one beer, but he suddenly felt drunk off of the smell of Eddie’s cologne and sweat so close to him.

The room blurred away, and Steve realized there was no reason for him to not take a chance.

Eddie covered his favorite song by a band he didn’t even like, made him feel seen and understood with something he hid from everyone except Robin, was leaving his band to clean up without him to come over and see how he did.

“I’m gonna kiss you,” Steve breathed out, ignoring Robin’s groan of ‘finally.’

“Because of the song?” Eddie gulped.

“Because of you.”

Steve had kissed a lot of people in his lifetime, probably more than the average 20 year old, even.

Not a single one of them could compare to the way his lips fit against Eddie’s, to the way Eddie’s hands squeezed his hips before deepening the kiss, to the way his tongue licked along his bottom lip hungrily, testing how much Steve wanted to try to get away with in public.

Hawkins may not be very safe for them, but this bar was. The owner didn’t tolerate any kind of bullying or harassment, and anyone who dared try to fight would be permanently banned.

Steve couldn’t help the little whimper he let out when Eddie’s thigh rubbed just right against the front of his jeans, where he couldn’t hide the fact that he was half-hard.

“Might wanna take this to the bathroom,” Robin told them.

Eddie pulled away, leaving them both breathless, panting in the space between their lips.

“Home?” Steve asked.

“Dingus! You’re my ride!” Robin exclaimed.

“Ride home with Jeff, he’s got my van,” Eddie said without turning around.

“Ride home in your van with people I barely know? Are you insane?” Robin sounded mad, but Steve kind of didn’t care.

“I trust them,” Steve said, still looking at the way Eddie’s eyes were shining in the low light of the bar.

“Great. When I get left on the side of the road for dead, you can tell my parents that you trusted them. That’ll go well.”

“Robbie, I promise you’ll be fine,” he said, pulling away to look at her with an annoyed face. “Please.”

She sighed and stomped her foot.

“Fine. But only because you’ve wanted this so long and if I have to hear one more thing about how Eddie’s curls bounce when he gets excited during Hellfire, I will stab myself with the nearest dull object,” she said before walking away.

“You talk about my curls bouncing?” Eddie teased.

“She’s dramatic. I may have mentioned it in passing one time.”

“Uh huh.” Eddie gave him a quick peck on the lips. “So, wanna explain the Oingo Boingo thing or did I just do something really dramatic over a band that you don’t actually like that much?”

“No, I do love them,” Steve laughed. “Robin said it’s because Danny reminds me of you, which is stupid because he doesn't and I wouldn’t even like a band just because of that when you’re in a band already.”

Eddie’s brows raised as he tried to explain.

“And also, he doesn’t even look like you that much. I guess maybe the eyes a little, and he’s pretty energetic or whatever, and like really talented, but. But that’s it!”

“That’s it?”

“Yes!”

“Oh my god, I love you so much,” Eddie laughed.

Steve froze.

“What?”

Eddie paled when he realized what he said, his eyes wide as his heart started racing in his chest.

“I. I didn’t mean to say that.”

Steve tried not to let the pain show on his face, the hope immediately exiting his body in a rush.

“Oh. Right.”

Steve let his arms drop to his sides, bit his lip to hold back the impending tears.

“No, not like that! Wait. Okay. It’s not because it isn’t true, okay? I do love you. I just didn’t mean to say it like that. Not when we just kissed for the first time,” Eddie tried to explain. “I just don’t wanna scare you off. I’ve never loved anyone before and I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Steve gave his cheek a kiss, smiling as he realized that Eddie may actually have him beat on being a bit clingy.

“I won’t be scared off. I love you,” he whispered against his ear.

“You don’t have to say it just because I did.”

Steve kissed his neck and pulled away to look at him.

“I’m saying it because I do. And maybe I’m hoping you’ll cover more Oingo Boingo songs,” he joked.

“My love for you knows no bounds, my king,” Eddie bowed, kissing the back of his hand. “I shall cover whatever you wish!”

Steve giggled, probably would have been embarrassed about his reaction if Eddie didn’t obviously enjoy it, smiling up at him.

“So you’ll do Careless Whisper next?”

“My love knows one bound,” Eddie grimaced.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #robin buckley #ficlet #request #stobin #just something silly really

[lucy-and-rebecca]

Let's talk about Fairy Tail women.

A while ago I came across an ... interesting post that can be summarised as 'fanservice is bad and hence all the female characters are written badly'. I've seen a lot of takes alonge these lines.

I've said it a million times, I don't like the fanservice in fairy tail but claiming that the fanservice automatically makes the writing of the female characters bad is a very shallow way of looking at the story. The over sexualization of the female characters is only one criteria we should consider while discussing how female characters are handled in the story. Unfortunately most of the time that ends up being the only criteria. I also think a lot of the times this is used as an excuse to hate on the female characters in fairy tail.

So here are some of my reasons as to why I absolutely love the way fairy tail women are written.

Flipping the damsel in distress trope.

During the phantom lord arc Lucy is kidnapped and Natsu went out to save her. A very classic setting for the damsel in distress trope. What makes this moment different is Lucy, the princess stuck in a tower, decided to jump. That moment is so important for her character. Lucy chose to jump because the alternative was having to return home to her abusive father and she jumped because she knew Natsu would catch her. That scene both simultaneously showed the audiance how much Lucy dreaded going back to her father's house and how much faith she had in her guildmate. That scene wasn't there to show Natsu saving her, that moment was there to flesh out Lucy's character.

They Unfridged Lisanna.

Fridged girlfriend/wife is a trope where the female lover of the male protagonist is killed, sometimes even before the story begins and the sole purpose that female character serves is to be a source of angst for the male protagonist. Lisanna was almost that. But she was brought back. Even before that she wasn't just limited to being Natsu's source of angst. She was Mira and Elfman's sister. I don't particularly like Lisanna but she's alive and she's living her life with the people she loves. That will always be a positive thing.

Self sacrifice is bad actually.

A lot of times, especially for female characters self sacrifice is presented as a virtue. It's presented as a selfless noble thing. During tower of heaven arc, Erza learnt that that's wrong. she realised she's loved and wanted. She learnt that her life matters and the people who love her would be miserable without her and nothing good will come from her death. She learnt that self sacrifice will only lead to pain for everyone she loves.

Passing bechdel test in the most unexpected situations.

In case you don't know the criteria for passing the bechdel test are, two named female characters talking to each other about someone other than a man. This test is mainly for movies but we can apply it to tv shows, anime and manga by seeing how often it passes the bachdel test rather than if it passes it. Like how someone did for Doctor Who. (I am genuinely tempted to do this for fairy tail anime.)

Anyway getting to the point, you would think that's very easy to achieve and yet so many stories fail at it so very often. While this test is by no means a sure shot way of measuring how feminist something is, I do think a show with a lot of important female characters who have good relationship with one another will pass the bechdel test a lot more frequently compared to a show that doesn't.

Fairy tail passes the backdel test somewhat frequently, sometimes in unexpected ways.

At first we are lead to believe that Erza and Kagura are connected because of Jellal and Simon. So it's only natural that they will talk about those two men during their fight. And yet their fight during grand magic games passes the bechdel test. Because their relationship goes beyond those two men. Erza knew Kagura from their childhood and she wanted their relationship to be defined by that rather than anything else. Erza didn't tell Kagura how she should feel. She understood and respected Kagura's feeling. All she wanted was for Kagura see her as her own person. The reason why this scene managed to pass the bechdel test was because despite everything Erza and Kagura's relationship is not defined by the men in their lives.

Women with power

Time and time again fairy tail has portrayed women wielding immense power. Fairy tail has also portrayed women in position of power. Hisui didn't just remain a princess, she became a queen. Fairy tail was founded by a woman. Dragon Slayer magic was invented by a woman. Characters like Urtear and Brandish are unmatched in power. Powerful women in fairy tail feel powerful, they don't feel power for a woman or power despite being a woman, they feel powerful.

Future Lucy died in her own arms.

Future Lucy is a characters who went through unimaginable pain and suffering and ended up dying. But she died to protect her past self. She died in her own arms and made the past version of herself promise her that she will fight for their future. Even though we know that our Lucy is perfectly fine that scene hits like a truck. Natsu in that moment remembers how happy Lucy was when she got her guild mark. That's a painful memory in that moment because future Lucy has lost everything. She has lost her guild along with her guild mark. Natsu and everyone else there is sad and angry because future Lucy deserved to happy and that happiness was stolen from her. Even when it comes to showing Natsu's pain it's entirely selfless. Even after all the pain she went through in the end she was at peace and the story made sure we knew that. Future Lucy is one of the few characters who dies in fairy tail and like all the other deaths in fairy tail this too is meaningful. Fairy tail would never kill of a character, let alone a female character for shock value.

Power of friendship but like siriously.

From Erza and Mira's childhood rivery to Lucy and Brandish's current rivery, to Wendy and Chelia's relationship that's two steps away from blossoming into romance fairy tail has so many complex relationships between it's female characters. It is so hard to put into words. I absolutely adore the relationships fairy tail women have with each other. They are sweet, bitter, silly, loving and everything else that you could possibly imagine. While not all, most of their relationship are also build on their own without a male character being involved. What I mean by that very often we will see two female characters being friends because their boyfriends are friends or because they had a crush on the same guy but they put aside their differences or the girlfriend and sister of a male character becoming friends. Those examples exists in fairy tail too but they are just so rare. And because we have so many dynamics between the female characters those type of relationship don't stand out.

#fairy tail #fairy tail 100 yq #fairy tail 100 year quest #lucy heartfilia #erza scarlet #wendy marvell #women of fairy tail

[witchern]

just got done seeing the re-release of sam raimi's spider-man on the big screen and now y'all are gonna hear my thoughts whether you like it or not:

the danny elfman music kicked on during the opening credits and i had full-body goosebumps before the marvel logo even came up on screen because i'm a fucking loser.

speaking of opening credits, remember when movies used to have those? i miss it. bring them back.

the upside-down kiss remains the greatest cinematic kiss of all time. don't argue with me when i'm right.

the setup and repetition of "don't tell harry." fantastique.

the cinematographyyyy. bitch. the way the camera follows spider-man swinging through traffic, up and around buildings, across the city…..i just don't get the same feeling of movement in either of the reboots. they're too clean. they're like iphone commercials. they're gross.

speaking of iphones, during the festival scene in times square there was a billboard ad for cingular and i thought about how i used to have a cingular phone and i almost committed suicide in the theater. i'm so old.

everyone calls her "aunt may" – including norman osborn, a grown-ass man. 'twas adorable.

"and i know i'm not your father—" "then stop pretending to be!" maybe i WILL kill myself in this alamo drafthouse.

watching this made me miss having regular-degular goons and scumbags in comic book movies. i'm tired of the "i want to rule the world, i want all the power" schtick. rob a bank. hijack a train. kidnap the mayor. have fun with it. you're in a comic book movie, for fuck's sake.

the balance between campy fun superhero stuff and earnest, genuine emotion was better than i remembered – and one never came at the expense of the other.

jk simmons. nothing else to add here – i just wanna remind people that he fucking crushed this role and burned it down and nobody has been able to touch it since.

on a similar note: willem dafoe. he didn't just chew the scenery – he had a fucking feast. fuck, man. he's great.

unrelated to the film-making itself, but....what exactly is the military purpose of a glider where the pilot is completely exposed? and why did it already look like a halloween machine before osborn becomes the goblin? questions i ask.

anyway, i realize you could hand-wave a lot of this as me falling for the nostalgia of it all (which i absolutely am), but also...i dunno. there's an undercurrent of sincerity to this movie that i just don't really feel in comic book movies anymore. that's probably because the current spate of comic book movies aren't even really movies anymore – they're products. they're vacuum-sealed, rubber-stamped, climate-controlled products to sell you a disney+ subscription or whatever the fuck the warner bros equivalent is (is it max? i think it's max). and every movie has an ending setup that tries to sell you on the next product, and the next, and the next...

anyway. with this first spider-man, yes it's silly at times, but this movie embraces it, warts and all. there's a well-balanced mix of goofy dialogue ("are you in or are you out?" "it's you who's out, gobbie – out of your mind!") and heartfelt moments (i mean, do i even need to say it? "with great power comes great responsibility"). i know it's a hack thing to say "they don't make movies like they used to" but.....man, they REALLY don't make movies like they used to.

#*t #part review; part rant #i'm INCREDIBLY bummed i won't be around to see the spider-man 2 re-release #and uhh. i think i'll be skipping the re-release of the third one lmao. #but i'm glad i made it to at least the first one. what a movie.

[kakusu-shipping]

Fairy Tail Ships

Some Rando came at me on my main for a ship I hadn’t even said a single word about on a post about a character not involved in said ship so now I’m just gonna write down all my Fairy Tail ships unprompted out of pure spite

Multi and Probably Problematic shipping a-hoy under the read more be wary!

Okay so as every other of this kind of post will plainly spell out I always have One Guy who is just the Ship bicycle. This character could kiss literally anyone and I would be more than happy. Typically they in fact do.

For Fairy Tail, it’s Gajeel Redfox

You would not believe your eyes if my first fucking Gajeel ship was Gajeel/Gajeel. I love Edolas Gajeel and up until that point Earthland Gajeel interacts with pretty much no one positively. I fully believe he hard made out with himself. First kiss. First time? The full shebang. Canon as far as I think.

Following that IMMEDIATELY is Gajeel/Lily. My god. My God let’s just give Gajeel a beefy cat man to homoerotically throw around. “That’s My Cat” I love him he’s so fucking stupid he makes out with Lily on the regular.

Gajeel/Levy is probably the best developed canon ship in Fairy Tail and that’s really not saying much but I think they’re cute. The only caviot is Levi pegs him. I’m sorry, Gajeel cannot be a top.

I think Gajeel/Natsu is funny as hell they’re so violent. Gajeel thinks Natsu’s the dumbest man he’s ever met. They don’t kiss they bite.

Gajeel/Laxus is just as funny but just because they both think they’re the smart one in the relationship.

After that all I might loose a bit of steam but Romance in this show is rarely interesting but here’s some of my takes anyway;

Laxus/Freed is always a free sail Freed pining from the beginning Laxus having no idea what his own feelings are until some time mid season 7. Laxus taking everything casually and Freed over thinking every little piece of affection he gets. They’re an uncommunicative mess and I love them.

I like Juvia/Grey not because I think it’s a well balanced and fleshed out canon romance, but because I love Juvia and want her to be happy and think Annoyingly Horny Stalker and Too Tired For This Shit is the funniest trope. Also Transfem Lesbian Grey, Demiromantic Bi/Pan Juvia

Speaking of Stalker/Obsession ships, Lucy/Flare??? My god I had not-antagonist Flare for 3 episodes and I will never let her go. Red headed Lesbian raised by a Village of Giant Men. Get yourself a blondie GF you deserve it.

Another Stalker/Obsession because I’m just gonna keep on goin; Erza/Sho???? Hello??? That was one baby me was entranced by. Love when the stalker is also the bottom. I love Sho I think he’s so cute, I think his obsession with Erza is so cute, I think his Sister Complex is so cute.

More Erza tops a little sibling!! Erza/Kagura!! What is it about Erza that gives everyone who meets her an Incest Kink?? I love her. I love Kagura she’s SO pathetic after her angst over Jallal is swept under the rug for no reason (no I’m not salty about that)

SPEAKING of Kagura; Kagura/Millianna is very cute I am on board. The Lesbian Kagura content for those without the taste for Sister Complex.

Elfman/Evergreen is so funny to me because this is a Bisexual man with a huge preference for Men who really REALLY wanted to fall in love with a Man and be Married Manly Men who grow into Old Men together but no. He just HAD to catch feelings for The Prettiest Girl in his guild. He’s so mad about it. Whole ass that “But I am in love with a MAN. RIGHT NOW.” meme but gender swapped.

Gildarts/Cana is so freaken good that YuGiOh Episode with Scorpio during the Eclipse Spirit Arc where he says he wants her to call him Daddy and she says she Would if he’s Been Around More you two I am going to scream don’t talk like that we’re trying to d-d-d-d-dddddDUEL

Also Eclipse Scorpio’s crush on Cana is cute as hell I love him he just wanted to play YuGiOh with a Hot Girl and she deserves a little boyfriend like him I’m all for them

Seven steps back tho the BEST Lucy ship, hands down, is Lucy/Taurus and I am SO INCREDIBLY SAD I’m alone on this! T4T Lucy/Taurus is my EVERYTHING!! Give him a SMOOOOOOOOOCH!!

Panther Lily/Samuel is so good to me another little freak with an unwarranted Incest Kink I love Samuel so much he’s so weird I want him to come back so badly please bring the little weirdo back so he can call Lily Big Brother some more for no god damn reason

Panther Lily and Edolas Coco is Very Cute and if it wasn’t for Gajeel being so unabashedly into Panther Lily that whole arc I would have appreciated it more.

Speaking of Exceed X People ships, Sting/Lector are like!!! Super good!!! Exceptionally solid I love them both so much!!

Rouge and Frosch as well but I feel like they’re super out of balance. Rouge is infantalizing Frosch and/or Frosch is not an adult in the world of Exceeds

Five steps back again because none of my thoughts are ever organized Second Best Lucy Ship is Lucy/Loke I just love a lot of Lucy/Celestial Spirit ships but this one This One is so cute I love how extra romantic he gets after going back to being Leo one of few ships I could actually see tying the knot and getting married.

Fuck it I’m just gonna keep talking about Lucy’s celestial spirits; I think Aquarius was Lucy’s first love and also her second mommy I don’t think they ever dated but to Lucy the love she felt for Aquarius was both Familial and Romantic when she was little. She claims Aquarius as her first kiss, despite it being a motherly peck when she was like 6.

Lucy/Virgo is super funny and I am positive it has Doujins out there made by men for men that I Do Not Want To See. I am putting the Asexual label on Virgo and shipping it from there.

Aquarius/Layla Lesbian Lovers in the Historical way. Layla had her Good Friend Aquarius come stay with her while her husband was away on business. They were Very Good Friends.

More spirit stuff Grey/Eclipse Cancer is so fucking funny Cancer literally opened Grey’s heart, they Yuri On Iced around with a Rainbow Gradient following them. Grey is repressing this so hard.

SPEAKING of Grey repressing he is Gay; Grey/Sugarboy??? Am I obsessed with the Catholic Arc of Fairy Tail? Yes. Yes I am. But Edolas Sugar Boy as well. Grey has such a Thing for your average stereotypical Gay Man and he is doing everything in his power to ignore it. I think he wants to be one of them.

Ultear/Meredy is SO FREAKEN CUTE. Mother/Daughter *chefs kiss*. They would both die for the other to live and they attempt it multiple times. Am I made Ultear eventually succeeded? Yes. Extremely. Get back here dammit you’ve already asked and the answer was No.

Lucy/Michelle more Stalker/Obsession more Sister Complex with a little dash of objectophilia post Catholic Arc. I love how the Fairy Tail anime just dropped Every inanimate object has thought, emotion, will, goals, and feelings but is unable to act upon them or even knows they have such feelings without forbidden magics and just Expected me to be Okay with that. I am not. I never will be. Michelle wants to fight Aquarius for taking Lucy’s first kiss right in front of her.

Wendy/Sherria are exceptionally cute. I don’t have much to say I just think they’re cute and wholesome and should be girlfriends.

But ALSO I think Mest/Doranbolt’s crush on Wendy is very cute I bet he beats himself up over liking a little girl. He’s her first kiss, she initiated it.

ALSO ALSO Doranbolt/Lahar is canon and I’m SO MAD THEY KILLED LAHAR LIKE FOREVER MAD. My Buddy Cop to Lovers...

Macao and Wakaba are a “Didn’t realize I was Gay and In love with my best friend until AFTER I was married to a woman” pair and I love them. They keep their relationship a secret. Make out in the guild’s storage room. Mira’s caught them once or twice and promises to keep their secret, so long as she never catches them with their pants down that close to the cheese again.

Levi/Lucy are a cute Best Friends to Girlfriends kind of ship. No one would notice if they started dating because they’d act the exact same as before 

But also Cana/Lucy?? Same energy in that no one would really know they’re dating until Cana gets stupid clingy/protective when other people hit on Lucy.

Mavis/Zera is under appreciated I know Zera isn’t real and is just a projection of Mavis’ loneliness and isolation but also she’s Mavis’ gay thoughts a WLW side. Her self love and care in personhood. They kiss.

Canon evil lesbian queens Kyoka/Seilah is a lot more than I expected out of this program and I am so here for it!! Go girls go!!!

Dimaria/Brandish as well, evil lesbians having a bad spat and taking it out on the entirety of Fairy Tail is very funny to me. They are toxic and horrid and I hope Brandish gets away from her.

Kamika/Cosmos, while not evil, are just as canon lesbians and I love that for them. Also Lolicon Cosmos.

There at the start of the War Arc when Toby and Millianna were walking into war together and he’s looking at her with a flush on his face little guy got puppy love and I!!!! Am all about it!!! She’s a lesbian for sure but she’ll make an exception for him. I don’t think he knows what a gender is anyway

I think that fact that Ichiya and Nichiya most certainly Fuck is not discussed enough in this fandom this man fucks his own Fursona I need more people to speak of this.

Okay now my take on the Big Ships and Canon Shit because I actually didn’t talk about them above I focused on what I’d actually like to see.

Natsu/Lucy is. Fine. I saw someone say a headcanon that Natsu thought they were dating the whole time and I love that. ADHD Natsu who decided he liked Lucy and was going to ask her out but Forgot and then Forgot he Forgot and proceeded to think they were an official couple for 9 more season.

Natsu/Lisanna is also pretty okay. I love baby love, I love them as kids playing house playing marriage awkward dancing and kisses on the cheek and holding hands. They were eachother’s first love and that means so much to me there’s very little that could ever make you forget your first love. (Side note I think at this age Elfman had a crush on Natsu but didn’t say anything sense Lisanna also liked him)

Erza/Jellal bothers me. Maybe I just don’t like Jellal as a character enough yet but not only is he Not In The Guild like every other main series ship, he also is on some pretty thin ice on being an Antagonist or not. But, like above, he was Erza’s First Love and that really is kind of a Big Deal, being actually In Love for the first time. I think they could heal, and I’d love to see that actually play out. If anyone has any fics where this is a Real Issue that they talk about and face I would actually love to read them.

Mavis/Zeref is also pretty. Okay. I don’t like it, I think it’s pretty forced, I think the fact that they had a child when Mavis died after their first kiss is a fucked concept everyone’s avoiding despite it being the most interesting part of the ship. He’s her pathetic little meow meow, she’s his last shred of sanity decaying in his arms as he desperately plants kisses over her small prepubescent body. It’s VERY Dead Dove and everyone is avoiding it.

Happy/Carla... is this one people actually ship or just something in the background? Honestly Happy feels so much Younger than Carla most of the time despite them probably being the same age. He just acts like a little fool. I don’t like it. I think Carla deserves better. And is also a Lesbian.

Now for the end of my list a collection of characters I don’t have ships for but would Really Like To because I Love Them as characters and just want them to smooch somebody (would also love X reader fics with them)

Bickslow

Warren Rocko

Reedus Jonah

Tono Rabbits

Goldmine

Boze

Jura Neekis

Yuka Suzuki

Erigor

Lapointe

Dan Straight (The fucking guy of all time)

Toma Fiore

Jacob Lessio

Nadi

Yajima

Capricorn

Horologium

Deneb

#Ship List #Fairy Tail #Proship #No one report me no one report me block and move on this is a personal list #Behold me for I am tired and not interested in 13 year old Jacob VS Edward but Anime Girls discourse #If I'm going to be attacked for a ship I'd like it to be one I actually care/post about #My god this program is 13 years old kfgjdfkjghkdf #I'm like mid Season 7 as of making this post so I haven't met all the characters or witnessed all the ships #but this is pretty good so far as I'm concerned #Makarov is not in the Characters who should have a ship list because he does not need one he has me his husband #Unfortionely being married to him means I cannot kiss Reedus Jonah right on the mouth so someone get him a cute boyfriend stat #This might be the first Ship List post I make with no Polyships #Lily/Gajeel/Levi can be poly I like that idea #They both pound Gajeel's ass okay I like that that's canon #Does anyone even remeber Boze he was a throw away character from Gajeel's OG guild and I thought he was Very Pretty #and hoped he'd eventually come back #but he does not and that's just a waste of a pretty guy with a crush on Gajeel in my opinion #Also everyone from the Catholic Arc needs to come back I miss them so much they are my Favorites #Grey is an enigma he either realizes he Likes Men or realizes He's a Girl and I cannot decide which

[those-celestial-bodies]

DSITMOM Spoilers

Much happier with the use of magic this time around. The notes scene was cool!

While Wanda's magic never really gets any more complicated than magic beams, I'm cool with it. It still felt more dynamic.

I loved the twins in this, I was really moved by how much I could see Wanda missed them and was devastated by their loss

CLEA CLEA CLEA CLEA CLEA

LOVE the casting! Over the moon to see Charlize as Clea!!!

I don't think anyone was shafted here. I think it's still Strange's movie, it still clearly gave him room to grow and change and learn about himself. He never got insulted by the story or sidelined for another character.

I think it was quite smart of them to tap into the fact Strange's presence in the MCU has been, to date, "maybe I shouldn't, but I'm always right so I will anyway".

Xochitl was great, definitely leaves you excited to see more from her. Not sure how I feel about her learning magic, but I guess for her character and how they're treating her powers, it works for her to have a secondary powerset

Those Billy and Tommy reliefs at Darkhold Castle, huh? We didn't get to see Tommy's up close, but he did have one

There was a lot of Wanda in the opening logo thing! Her ascending as Scarlet Witch, her and her family in their Incredibles moment (my fave), and her vs Thanos in the main logo! I didn't see a Vision specific one, which is too bad because he was, for awhile, the last figure you could see in the logo

The lack of musical themes carrying over from WandaVision makes me sad. :( It slots in perfectly with Elfman's style too! Why :(

I am fine with Christine in general, but I don't think she ever really elevates herself over "Stephen's love interest"

I quite liked Krasinski as Reed. I know the fanon version of Reed is that he's just a mega asshole all the time but he's really not. He's quite a bit warmer than people give him credit for, and I think Krasinski nailed that. Loved that he mentioned children--Valeria deserves to be there.

Soooo can Wanda depower all Captain Marvels? I assume because the power is Infinity Stone based?

The XTAS theme playing makes me wonder if that was literally meant to be the animated version's Xavier? I don't think so, right? Wanda does actually exist in that universe as Magneto's daughter. I would have KILLED to have him bring that up!!

I think I've said before that I like Wanda in the horror genre in general, and this whole thing backed me up about it.

I'm glad they distanced themselves a bit from runes. I think they're kind of lame, sorry.

I ended up liking the costume more than I thought I would! It looked quite good in motion, the flowiness of the fabric paid off. Less plasticky than the WV one (although I like the WV sleeves more).

I honestly wonder if, next we see Wanda, she's not going to be the amnesiac bride of Doctor Doom. There's something so funny about that, but the timing does check out.

I guess it's good they didn't cast the teen Billy and Tommy yet, since we're probably a bit of a ways off from seeing them.

#dsitmom spoilers #doctor strange #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch

[pencilofawesomeness]

jgxjfdhfs HTRYDS | Nightmare Scenes bc i am Looking <3333

Haha, yes! Good eye! That's an upcoming drabble/side story that should appear after Demon Tales. It's gonna be a bunch of hurt/comfort snippets (because y'all know that brings me great joy) of the dragon fam, when someone has a nightmare and gets comforted by someone else, rinse repeat. (And I also use it to sneak it a lot of plot retrospection, if you feel me.)

I already have a scene and a half of it written, but here's a little sneak-peak :)

Natsu woke up with a gasp, struggling to put air in his lungs. With each breath, his back ached and obstructed him from getting the air he needed.

He blinked up at his ceiling, the stars behind his skylight getting blurrier and blurrier with each blink. Natsu tried to focus on them anyway, and on breathing, because otherwise… otherwise…

He would just see Lisanna die again.

It was bad enough when it was just the memory, but in his sleep, his brain merged memories and imagination in the worst of ways. He has seen so many different takes on the same event, and they were all terrible. The phantom image of icicles protruding through Lisanna’s chest, falling midair, still echoed behind his eyelids. This time, Elfman even turned into an ice dragon, which was a new development to his dream that he didn’t appreciate, because Elfman died too, and even if they weren’t as close, Elfman was still his guildmate. Or, he had been.

His bedtime brain just hated him. Natsu always knew this, but it became so worse when it was active. It certainly didn’t help that his body’s dumb muscle memory forgot that breathing was important sometimes, and his still-not-healed back made catching up on air all the more difficult.

#ask #ask game #wips #htryds wip #character death tw #it's funny cause i wrote this write before the first natsu yuan fight in dt #and i called back to the breathing thing #except then i realized that this instance of the breathing thing wasn't published yet #and i couldn't remember if/where else i did it before #but yeah headcanons fun times #i bully natsu a lot don't i? #but i bully everyone else in this too so it's okay #he's just the one i wrote first #and i know how much you enjoy natsu enevera XD

[khelinski]

I watched ‘Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness’ a second time – and this time around, on an IMAX screen. No, didn’t see it in 3D. I guess that fad is back. This film would be fitting for 3D, but my eye-balls (and migraines) can’t handle it. Guess I am getting old!  ;p

Anyways – on a technical level, and I don’t know if this has anything to do with Sam Raimi, but, this could be the first Marvel film in the long line of Marvel films in which the color-grading is different from all the rest of the films. I like that. I like that, a lot. That’s one of my biggest complaints about the Marvel films in general – that no matter how different apart they may be in genre, scope, galaxy – the color-grading is always the same. The director/ director of cinematography should have the control of the look of the film.  Luckily with this film, while there is the typical Marvel formula; the mise-en-scene (starting with the look – followed by the tone) – it feels like a Sam Raimi film. And I was in a movie house (old school lingo, there) with some audiences that wasn’t exactly prepared for a Sam Raimi film. They thought they were seeing a Marvel film. They were. What they were actually seeing – was a double feature. A Marvel/Sam Raimi double feature! Having Danny Elfman do the score; adds a little bit to the ‘madness.’ He also scored Raimi’s Spiderman films – and ‘Darkman.’ I noticed the generic comic book action movie bits, but I also noticed the familiar Elfman gothic bits thrown in from time to time. That builds up the tone. Some Marvel films don’t even bother with a proper score [insert ‘Iron Man’ here].

I think my biggest pet-peeve would be – adjusting the story line. I like Doctor Strange. As a character, and liked the first film. But – Wanda/Scarlett Witch has more of an interesting character arc/story line. One of the reasons why I loved ‘WandaVision’ was because it was about grief. I can relate to that on so many levels. I think, many people can. This woman lost her family in one phase of her life. Then her brother in another phase. And then, the man she loved in another phase. I read people complaining about how the first part of the show was slow, but, I liked that. Take that back, I loved that. I love slow-build up’s. And though, I really enjoyed this film, I wished this film took its time (if you want really great horror – choose the horror with slow build-up’s). The ending of ‘WandaVision’ included the typical Marvel third act boom, blast, visual overload climax it’s known for – and, I didn’t care for the two Visions – but, Wanda finally becoming Scarlett is great. Her leaving that town, heartbreakingly great.

Wanda in this film, I really like – but – it’s like – seeing two band’s co-headlining a tour, and you would prefer the one opening the other to end the night off. You know what I mean? Wanda deserved better. And with the [obvious] X-Men reference somewhere in the film and this is just me, as a writer (not so much, a fan, because, there is only so much of the comics I know) – one adjustment that could’ve made this film standout better – play out different ideology’s (which is the core of X-Men) rather than good/evil. Wanda has done evil shit, yes – but, she is not evil. She had her reasoning’s. She’s not your monster of the week – which is also refreshing for a Marvel film to see (the buildup).

Disney/Marvel may get some backlash from people with this film. The unexpected horror elements. ‘It’s too violent.’

A few adjustments would have made it a perfect Marvel film. A R rating would have made it a perfect Sam Raimi film. For what it was, it was just right for my dark soul.

#doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #wandavision #marvel #Sam Raimi

[gralunaisland]

Analysis of the Daphne Arc

Be warned.

While I am a fan of Gray Fullbuster, this post calls him out for some of the ridiculous actions he takes. No one is free from criticism, (to pretend otherwise is folly), and I hope my fellow Gray stans will listen to this critique with an open, mature mind. Plus, it ties into bashing gr//via and juvia, so it’s for a good cause, people!

I like how pro-gr////vians use that one scene from the dragon lady arc as a gr///viugh moment. That arc where the lady obsessed with dragons kidnaps and almost kills Natsu by putting him into her fake dragon? And the scene where the whole guild is questioning why Gray would betray Natsu like this? Yeah, that scene. The one where juvia steps in and tries to guilt trip everyone for doubting Gray.

I shall be debunking the arc as well as analyzing Gray's and juvia's actions below.

Gray has stupid reasons for betraying the guild

I don’t know about you guys, but I always found that side arc and that scene so stupid. The reason for Gray betraying and putting Natsu through excruciating pain and putting Wendy, Carla, and Happy in danger as well as causing harm indirectly to Lucy, Erza, Makao, Wakaba, and Elfman, was “so Natsu would learn the value of following through with his promises”????

Yes there’s also the “you have to destroy the dragon from the inside”, but that could’ve been figured out by telling Natsu the whole plan and making sure the others weren’t in danger themselves. He also could’ve never handed Natsu over in the first place, like Master Markarov said. But nooo, he’s gotta learn a lesson.

But seriously. I love Gray, and yet I was so mad at him during this tiny side arc. He’s really trying to teach Natsu a lesson that fulfilling his duties to the guild is more important than finding Igneel by putting him through a horrendous ordeal that will kill him given time, even though Natsu had made that promise (to save the City Without Sound) when he was a small child?

You’re really going to give an adult Natsu a punishment for something his 10 year old self did? Especially when little Natsu was desperately looking for his missing father, Igneel. He’s already distracted enough, what with his father missing and all, and instead of Gray telling Natsu sooner to help that hidden village, he decides to wait like 7 whole years to surprise him. If he really cared about the cursed people, he would’ve told Natsu sooner! That city has been waiting for basically a decade!

What kind of lesson is this???

Besides, it’s not like, as a young adult now, Natsu is solely obsessed with Igneel and spends every waking moment chasing after him (unlike someone *cough cough* juvia *cough cough*). Natsu almost more than anyone loves his guild with his whole being and will do anything for his friends, so I really don’t see the need for a lesson here.

And what’s more is that Gray somehow made it about himself, saying Natsu is the only one he needs to prove himself to because “Natsu has Igneel whom he can beat, and Gray doesn’t have Ur”. I see practically no correlation.

juvia is an awful guild mate and as toxic as ever

All that to say, Gray’s terrible reasoning in my opinion does not excuse him for the betrayal he made against several members of his guild. If his plan failed, he could’ve even killed them. I really think Gray was out of character here, but that all seemed like a set up to promote gr/////viugh anyway, so no wonder it was poorly written.

Because when the other guild members are horrified and Cana is demanding that Gray wake up and look at his handiwork (Elfman being severely injured) and everyone is wondering why he would do this to his family, juvia is there to put her body in between them and to shove Cana away from shaking Gray’s shoulders, yelling and I quote:

“Leave him alone! Don’t you dare call him [a traitor and pathetic]! My beloved Gray would never turn his back on Fairy Tail! What happened to hearing both sides of the story before you start accusing someone? I have faith in him even if the rest of you don’t. I always will.”

Instead of this being sweet, it’s purely insane. Trust is something you don’t hold onto blindly. Gray’s done nothing to prove his absolute trustworthiness to juvia, besides have abs and be decent to her, and yet even in the face of all he’s done to the guild members, she doesn’t care. she doesn’t care that Natsu is in danger, that Elfman is hurt, that Gray had put many members in harm’s way, that the dragon is on its way to destroy Magnolia.

she’d rather make herself look better by saying “I have faith in him even if the rest of you don’t” even though what he’s done are things he needs to answer for, and his sorry reasoning does nothing to help excuse it either.

she tries to make it sounds like a bad thing that the other guild members are mad at Gray’s actions.

Um, if you hurt my close friends and put at least one of them at risk of death, then I’m sure as heck going to be mad at you, even if you’re also a close friend.

If you don’t hold your friends accountable for their actions, it’s my firm belief you’re not actually friends.

Trust and faith are sorely earned, and yet they can be broken easily, and to blindly believe in Gray when he hasn’t even tried to apologize or explain himself is just showing more of her weakness. It’s unhealthy because it basically shows that in their “relationship”, Gray can do no wrong, and that could lead to both of them getting hurt. Plus, like I said, it shows juvia really doesn’t care about the other guild members, once again proving she’s only a Fairy Tail member because she “loves” Gray.

Plus, we can’t even say that she’s just giving him the benefit of the doubt until he explains his reasoning. she just said “I always will [have faith in him]”, meaning that no matter his reasons for betraying the guild, no matter what he does in the future, none of it matters because juvia will whole-heartedly believe in Gray. That’s just stupidity.

What’s more, Gray seems even more traitorous when he responds to juvia’s insanity and Cana’s anger by saying:

“That’s enough. It’s alright. You’re supposed to take me to see Gramps, right? I’m ready unless you want to sit around and chat some more.”

Obviously his tone was a part of the charade to make the audience believe he still was a bad guy, again poor writing because it’s so out of character AND completely unnecessary, but seriously. He’s got this rude tone and doesn’t apologize to Elfman or anyone here for no reason. He doesn’t have to pretend to be a bad guy anymore, yet he still acts like one.

And of course all juvia does is blush, look after him leave, and say “oh Gray”, rudely ignoring Levy who asked her if she was alright after that confrontation. Asking her if she was alright doesn't even make any sense, considering how juvia was the one butting in where she didn't belong. His guild mates are doing the right thing by holding him accountable to his actions. He could do anything and still be considered an angel by juvia. Tell me which one is the healthy response to Gray’s betrayal? (Ding ding ding, it’s his guild’s).

Closing notes

That was just a sucky idea for an arc I gotta say. In any case, please do let me know what y’all think! Thank you for your time.

#anti gruvia #fairy tail discourse #gray fullbuster #anti gray fullbuster #like seriously gray I love you and all but this was just dumb #Mashima at it again with the poor writing #daphne arc #anti juvia #anti juvia loxar #anti juvia lockser #fairy tail #fairy tail discussion #gralunaessay #fairytail #anti gray x juvia #anti gray fullbuster x juvia lockser #gruviugh #gruvia can burn #gruvia sucks

[qobiin]

to live for us

pairing: gratsu (gray x natsu)

genre: angst, fluff | established relationship, canon-compliant

warnings: mentioned suicide attempt, post-galuna island arc, hurt/comfort, gray needs therapy

word count: 1684

summary: Natsu and Gray finally sit down and talk about Gray's Iced Shell attempt on Galuna Island.

“We need to talk.”

Natsu looks up from the drink Mirajane set down on the table before him a few minutes ago. Gray is standing in front of him, arms crossed against his chest in an attempt to stop his hands from subconsciously removing his clothes.

It never works, but Gray is of the mind that it makes him appear more intimidating than he actually is. Of course, Natsu isn’t sure he could ever find someone who wears underwear with hearts on them intimidating.

“Finally!” Natsu cheers, forcing a smile onto his face even when it’s the last thing he wishes to do. “Back home then?”

Gray nods even as he scowls, but he turns on his heel and immediately makes his way towards Fairy Tail’s doors anyway. Natsu jumps up from his seat and waves goodbye to Lucy who is sitting at the bar with Erza.

Happy looks up at him as he stands, but Natsu only has to wave wordlessly at him before the blue cat returns to focusing on his food. Gray is already halfway across the room, not one to wait or beat around the bush for important conversations like the one they are going to have. Natsu follows after him with his signature smile stuck in place, making sure to not have anything appear out of the ordinary about this situation.

He catches a few Fairy Tail members giving them odd glances, probably due to his and Gray’s lack of fighting and loud taunting. Natsu only waves pointedly at them before they avert their gazes and return back to what they were doing beforehand.

Natsu does not try to be subtle as he sniffs the air, taking in the familiar mix of scents in the guild. Everyone in the guild has known him long enough to know about the extent of the abilities he gained through the Dragon Slayer Magic that Igneel taught him as a child. There’s no need to be secretive around his hoard anyway.

Out in the streets, trailing after Gray as he leads them home, Natsu tones down on his sniffing as best as he can. If he garners a few strange or confused looks though, he doesn’t beat himself up about it. Most of these people will write off his behavior as a weird wizard thing and continue on with their day as they give him a wide berth. There is no need to worry.

His attention is drawn back to the moment when the scents start to signal his proximity to their home. Gray reaches the front door first and unlocks it, leaving it open for Natsu behind him.

The smell of home almost knocks him off his feet as he crosses the threshold. It’s just his, Happy, and Gray’s scents here, with hints of Erza scattered all around. Albeit, Gray’s scent is a bit stale considering the fact this is his first time returning home since they came back from Galuna Island.

They escaped punishment for breaking guild rules because the master wasn’t there but Natsu would like to not switch bodies with anyone ever again. It has been a few days at this point and still, Gray has not returned home. Natsu has been waiting patiently for this moment when they will sit down and discuss what is wrong.

Gray is sitting on their bed, shoes off and hands gripping the bottom of his shirt. Natsu reaches out and stops him from stripping, eyes on Gray’s face as the man focuses back in on the moment at present.

“Thanks,” Gray mumbles sullenly, his gaze downcast.

Natsu doesn’t say anything. He merely waits.

“I know you’re mad at me, but if you could tell me why you’re mad at me, it would make my apologizing to you much easier,” Gray scrambles to say after a moment of silence has passed between them.

Natsu tilts his head to the side and inhales, tasting the nerves and fright swirling around the edges of Gray’s scent. He exhales heavily, sitting down slowly on the bed beside Gray.

He leans back and lies down, keeping his eyes on the ceiling and not the man who should have been home with him these past few days. “I’m not mad.”

Gray twists at the waist to stare at him, his shoulders a stiff line that Natsu isn’t sure he has permission to soothe just yet. “Lying won’t help.”

“I’m not mad,” Natsu repeats, relaxing as their scents begin to blend together. “I’m worried about you. You scared me back there when you were going to sacrifice yourself to restrain Lyon. You knew by doing it your way you were going to end your life and yet you tried anyway.”

The silence that befalls them then is deafening. It goes on long enough that Natsu wonders if he should be angry after all. After a few seconds of contemplation though, he decides that anger would not help him right now and waits patiently for Gray to say something.

However, the longer the silence continues, the less likely Natsu believes that to be. Gray isn’t known for talking about feelings. Not just his own, but discussing feelings in general always gives his face a pinched quality that Natsu can’t help but laugh at sometimes.

He isn’t laughing now.

“You remember what I said when I asked you if we could find a place together, right?” Natsu asks once he is certain Gray won’t say anything without more prompting.

Natsu sees Gray’s nod in the corner of his eye and grins up at the ceiling as he thinks of the memory. Gray’s eyes had gone wide with surprise, his scent expanding with the force of it and appealing to Natsu so much he barely realized how close he had been getting until Gray pushed him back with a hand on his bare chest. Natsu had leaned in again to bury his nose in Gray’s neck anyway and gulp down lungfuls of his scent, smiling as Gray threaded his fingers through his hair and asked him why.

“I told you that you were the first in the guild to be added to my hoard when we were children. That I would want you near almost always and would despise every moment that we were apart,” Natsu recalls, his smile softer at the edges now. “I told you I fell in love with you when we were teenagers and that I would like to make you my mate in the future and you accepted.”

Natsu waits again, just to see if Gray will say anything at all before he uses his last-ditch effort. “How am I going to make you my mate if you’re not there for the future?”

Gray makes a sound as if Natsu has just kicked all the air out of his chest. They have fought and sparred enough times for Natsu to know what that actually sounds like so when Gray wheezes, he sits up quickly. He reaches out and takes Gray’s hands, biting his lip as the man who is his opposite in almost everything finally begins to cry.

Natsu moves closer until he can wrap his arms around Gray, tucking his head under Natsu’s chin as he shakes. His breath hitches but Natsu only clutches him tighter, holding him securely in his arms even as Gray somehow migrates to his lap. Natsu doesn’t mind that, he just holds on and waits.

Eventually, Gray’s sobs begin to make sense. Most of what he is saying is a mantra of “I’m sorry”s and half-aborted “I didn’t mean to do that”s, but Natsu gets the gist. He shushes and rocks Gray in his arms, focusing on their scents instead of the urge to cry with his mate.

When the worst of Gray’s tears have dried up, Natsu kisses the side of his head and pulls back far enough for their gazes to meet. Gray’s eyes are red-rimmed and puffy but he isn’t avoiding Natsu’s gaze anymore and that’s definitely a start.

“I think what happened with Ur was only dragged back up at Galuna Island and you never really healed from it,” Natsu ponders aloud, tilting his head in silent question and continuing when Gray nods tiredly. “She raised you like Igneel raised me and we’ve never gotten over suddenly losing them. Have we?”

Gray has to clear his throat twice before he says, “I don’t think we’ll ever be over that.”

“No,” Natsu agrees. “We won’t.”

“I should talk to someone,” Gray murmurs, the corners of his mouth twitching with amusement when Natsu raises an unimpressed brow at him. “A professional. Mirajane has been saying I should talk to the Good Doctor who helped Elfman after…”

Natsu smiles bitterly in response. Elfman was not the only one who had to talk to the Good Doctor after Lisanna died after all. Gray knows about this, of course, but Natsu had never strived to convince him of talking to the Good Doctor until now.

“I can let them know at my next session to expect an inquiry from you?” Natsu suggests.

Gray nods, leaning in quickly to press a kiss to Natsu’s cheek. “I’m still sorry. I just didn’t know how to fix things back on Galuna Island.”

Natsu nods but knows without seeing that his smile is not as bright anymore. “I think you just have to remember that you’re not alone anymore. Neither of us is and I’ll always have your back. We’re Fairy Tail members and you’re the one who I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want us both to have long futures ahead of us.”

Gray’s cheeks flush a light pink, his scent curling with both embarrassment and quiet joy. “It will be hard, but I’ll try. If not for me or for you, then for Ur. For the life she gave me by giving up her own.”

“For Ur and Igneel,” Natsu agrees. “May they look upon us and see us happy. Together.”

“Together,” Gray assures him before he leans in and their lips meet in a soft kiss.

a/n: i forgot to post this when i first posted it on ao3, but i hope you all like this! this was written for icewhisper as part of the secret snipers exchange 2020!

#gratsu #gray x natsu #natsu x gray #fairy tail #ft #oneshot #f:ft #g:angst #g:fluff #t:oneshot #p:gray/natsu #tlfu #m: fic

[armorsleevedsinglehit]

madara’s voice and other sundries

naoya uchida embodies madara for me. i love the way he speaks very slowly (and often softly!) and with genuine Intent, but that he also has these moments when you can hear the anger and grief and just unhinged rage in his voice, especially in his battle cries at the end of ep 366 and his screaming “you bastards killed izuna” in 368. you can just feel how powerful madara is from naoya uchida’s voice alone; you feel that he’s ancient, that he’s been through tragedy after tragedy and become hardened and bitter, that there’s this immeasurable weight behind his words. and i love that when he speaks you feel like he has all the time in the world to deliver his words (something i think that he and hashirama share, which really distinguishes them from the rest of the characters. you really get the sense that they’re from a different time).

A kind of odd thing that i debated on when i started this blog was how madara’s speaking voice would translate to written text, in a way that still felt true to his character, because there’s so much that uchida conveys with his voice that you just can’t do through text. and then there are other logistical issues as well, like, how strong of a writer is he? how is he at expressing his emotions on this blog, which is meant to be a personal space for him? i struggled with this to maybe a surprising extent, but i wanted to make sure more than anything that his character consistently gets through in the way he expresses himself. this medium, madara’s blog, is such an interesting challenge for me. madara is at most late 30s here; he’s been through a lot, but he’s not the same character that we meet in episode 322 who has died and been brought back to life multiple times. he still has that very human quality to him, which i wanted to show in the way he talks on here. you may or may have not noticed that madara doesn’t use a lot of commas, and yes, i know how grammar works; the lack of commas was a conscious choice on my part. i try to have him write mostly short, simple sentences, because he feels to me like the type of person who wants to just get to the point quickly when he’s talking about his own issues. i don’t see him as a particularly eloquent or talented writer, so it can sometimes be really hard to get across everything he feels in his heart and his mind with just his words. but it also forces me to simplify my own words and ideas, which i feel is gradually making me a stronger writer. (i have noticed myself omitting commas in my other writing, a lot of which is academic, so that’s something to watch out for lol.)

but all that aside, let’s actually talk about madara’s voice. because it’s one thing to hear naoya uchida’s voice and be like “okay, that’s really nice,” but if you’re reading a fic and madara has a piece of dialogue, what exactly does that sound like? i’d argue that finding that voice is actually super hard, especially if you just watch the sub and don’t speak japanese, because you’re not fully able to translate all the little twists and tones and inflections that uchida puts into the character. 

so you have that slow, soft voice, but it’s often got a very rough quality to it as well, both from overuse (he gets hoarse easily) and because the katon has fried his vocal chords. and at least in my headcanon he smokes (not religiously- he smoked way more during the war), so that definitely gives him a rasp, a bit of a crackling quality. but i also feel that he’s got kind of an unexpected range, partly because he’s usually speaking way down at the bottom of it (listen to naoya uchida’s regular voice; it’s much higher than madara’s!) plus quite a bit of vocal fry; he tends to purr. he’s got a voice well suited for jazz (because i adore jazz and i do whatever i want on my blog), if jazz even exists in the naruto universe. i don’t know exactly how to describe it but his voice has a sort of old-timey feel to it, the way an old radio announcer from the 1940s sounds (though possibly less excitable). the way he speaks definitely sounds like he’s from another time.

and i think he has a nice singing voice too! he doesn’t sing much, only very quietly to himself when he thinks no one else is listening, and he’s not professionally trained, but if he were to really belt it out (especially in his teenage days- before he ruined his lungs a bit) he’d have a nice, powerful, distinct voice with a bit of a growl to it. my mind always goes to oingo boingo era danny elfman, or maybe a cross between him and pete burns. (COMPLETELY unrelated side note, if you’ve ever wondered about modern au madara’s wardrobe, just look at literally any image of pete burns from the 1980s. i mean...come on.)

i also quickly want to give a quick shoutout to neil kaplan and xander mobus, who voiced adult and child madara in the english dub, because i think they both did a great job. kaplan obviously took inspiration from uchida’s performance (even though he kind of sounds like he’s got a cold the whole time) and i find xander mobus’ raspy texas drawl kind of incredibly charming. his performance (especially his little outbursts) makes me think that madara trained himself to speak in a more professional manner when he got to be clan leader, and before that, he spoke very informally- lots of “ain’t” and its equivalent. 

anyway, after all this, i am only really able to come up with descriptions and real-world approximations to what i feel like madara’s voice should sound like...but i think that’s okay, because naoya uchida provides a stunningly good interpretation, and besides that, everyone who reads the manga or watches the show will have their own interpretations as well. (i feel like i’m wrapping up a youtube video essay as i type the next sentence.) really though, let me know what you think!! do you have any madara voice headcanons that you’re dying to share? 

#headcanon #long post #meta

[fallen029]

Late Night Bumps

"What are you doing?"

This was the groggy question of Laxus Dreyar as, with bleary eyes, he ran a hand through his blond locks and tried to make out the shapes in the darkness before him. Back at his place, he usually fell asleep forgetting to turn off a light or lamp somewhere in the apartment, leading to having some amount of light, were he to awaken in the dead of night. This wasn't the case, however, at the Strauss place it seemed.

It was dark. Completely dark. The blinds and curtains were pulled tight in Mirajane's bedroom and, though Laxus could sense both Elfman and Lisanna had come home at some point in the night, neither seemed to have left the hall light on. No one ever did in the Strauss house, it seemed.

Still, through streaks of moonlight he could kind of make out Mirajane moving around the bedroom, her shadowy form confusing him a bit. It must have been her climbing out of bed that awakened him. It was cold now though. The bed was. Emptier. Fall had only been upon them for a few weeks, but already, the evening temps had skewed rather low so far.

As he pushed up, Laxus found himself shivering involuntarily as the blanket cascaded down his chest, leaving him mostly bare. Blinking at where his girlfriend stood, before the bed now, he saw something he couldn't quite make out in her hand.

"Is that a fucking ax?" he asked, but not really in alarm. No. It was more of a dreamy reaction. A throw away, drowsy question. Dazed and, somehow, disinterested.

"No," she answered simply before humming. "Well, I guess some people might say so."

Laxus hands came up to his eyes this time and, rubbing hard against them, the slight pain was enough to awaken him fully. When he dropped them, he felt as if he could see a bit more clearly and was able to recognized the strange shadowy shape held in his girlfriend's slender hand.

"It's your guitar," he said a bit dumbly and, as it was, Mirajane nodded easily. Through a fought yawn, Laxus questioned, "Why?"

"Can't sleep," she answered him simply with a shrug. "Usually when I can't, I get up and strum a bit, until I fall back asleep. But I didn't wanna wake you. Too late though, I guess."

"Yeah." That time he let the yawn escape before he finished his agreement. "Too late."

He and the woman hadn't been together that long. Err, well, maybe they had, in a certain sense of the word. It had nearly been a year since the first time he and Mirajane found themselves going out on a serious date with one another. While the connection was there though, he was gone frequently, on jobs, while she was very busy at the bar most days. It was hard for the two of them to find time together.

About a month or so ago now, they had a more serious discussion when, after being invited to a rather ritzy ball, Mirajane found herself having to take Lucy instead of one of her typical suitors. Which she enjoyed the night, she made it clear to Laxus, when she saw him next, that it hadn't been her intention to go home alone that night and should he wish to be sure she didn't next time, he'd best either be accompanying her or giving her a good reason to miss out on such an event.

The man didn't really have relationships in that way often. Official ones. Exclusive. Monogamous. That last word alone made his blood run a bit cold and fear late nights, when he was feeling low or high, good or bad, just needing someone, when the only person he was supposed to need would be far away. The idea of losing her, however, losing the moments like he was having at the moment, was too strong. Too much.

He'd take going to bed with cold showers a thousand times over never finding himself in the demon's bed again.

Or worse; knowing while he was messing around with another woman, one of those suitors was back home with the one he really wanted.

It was how he found himself invited over to the Strauss house, anyways, that evening. He'd gotten home from a job and Mirajane took off immediately, rushing right off to the market as he had a beer and shared his tale of conquest with also recently returned Thunder Legion. After procuring the proper supplies, she took her dragon home, made him a big meal, and heard the story for herself. Well, a version of it.

Perhaps a more exaggerated one, even.

"When do I get to do it, huh?" he questioned with a big of a grin, maybe, it was always hard to tell with the man as his smiles were either open and evil or slight and sincere. As he stared across the kitchen table from his demon that night though, his tone was light (if not a bit inebriated) and his lips were upturned a bit as he went on, "Get to make you dinner?"

"What?" Mirajane asked with a raised eyebrow as she leaned against the table, staring over at him with her glassy blue eyes. "My dinner wasn't good enough for you, dragon?"

"Of course it was. It was the best fucking dinner I've ever had."

"Watch your mouth," she reminded, though it was with a grin of her own and the slayer only held his head higher in response.

"But," he insisted still, tapping a hand against his chest, "I'm a bit of a master chef myself."

"Is that true?"

"I mean, it's not not true," he said over her giggles. "I've traveled the continent, demon. I've picked up a few dishes I can whip up along the way."

"Alright then," she said with a nod of her head. "Name the place and I'll be there."

"What if I said tomorrow night? Huh?" He shifted back in his chair as she rose, making room for when she came to claim his lap. As she did so, he only insisted, "I'll make you somethin'."

"You can make me anything you want, Laxus." Nuzzling her head into the crook of her neck, she liked the feeling of it, getting a good, deep chuckle from the man. "Anytime."

When they really retired to bed that night, Mirajane only reminded Laxus that she'd be gone in the morning, off to open up up the guildhall, and to be courteous of her siblings, would would surely arrive home sometime that night and would be around to tease him in the light of a new day.

But it wasn't dawn or anywhere close to it as Mira stood before the bed and he sat up in it, eyes locked in the darkness with hers.

"Come get back in bed," he told her. "I'll help ya sleep."

"Mmmm, no, Lax, this is really the only way to do it," she insisted to him. "Trust me, I've tried other ways. When I can't sleep, I have to strum a bit and then-"

"Well, where are you going?"

"The living room," she said with a shrug. "I'll play till I fall asleep on the couch."

"My woman ain't sleeping on that couch."

"I'm really small," she insisted to him. "Sleeping on a couch is actually really cozy for me."

"I said that fucking couch. That deathtrap, dumpster fodder you have."

"Okay, you're about to be the one sleeping on it."

"My couch," he went on, a bit more awake now, "back at my place? Best piece of furniture money can buy. So comfortable. Your two decade old couch that came with the house you bought when you were fifteen? Not even worthy of my ass, much less my woman."

"Dragon, it's late," she complained now. "I need to do this to fall back asleep. So-"

"Then do it." He patted the bed. "Right here. C'mon."

"I don't want to keep you up."

"I ain't going to sleep, in your bed, with you on the fucking couch. I'd just be laying here, waiting for you to stop strumming, and then go carry you to bed."

Mira took a moment to respond before saying, "Okay, I like that idea."

"Demon, no."

"But it would be so cute."

"Come sit down," he ordered, voice a bit gruffer than it usually would be with the woman, "and play your guitar. Now. So we can both go back to sleep."

Mirajane clearly had a complaint on her tongue, but she swallowed it with a bit of realization as, when he didn't move to lay back down, she could tell he planned on listening to her.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked as, slowly, she climbed back into bed, nestling her acoustic on her lap. "Listen to me pick at my guitar at two in the morning?"

"If it helps my woman fall to sleep?" At her finally rejoining him back in bed, the slayer tugged the covers back up around himself. "You fucking bet I am."

Mira made a face and a noise of annoyance in the back of her throat before, softly, telling him, "Fine, but you better promise to carry me to bed one day."

"I'll carry you from a couch to a bed," he assured her. "But I'll only carry you from your couch to a bath tub."

"Lax-" she started to gripe, but stopped to instead muse, "Actually, that would be cute too."

He rolled his eyes, the slayer did, but as she began to actual strum a few chords, he took to shifting back down and closing them instead. With a soft breath, he whispered, "Do you take requests?"

She hummed her next words, in time with her strumming, as she informed the man simply, "No, dragon."

"That's okay," he decided with one last yawn as, at the feeling of her being there, in bed with him at least, even if it was cross-legged and further down, he was given all the comfort he needed to finally drift back off. "I won't for dinner tomorrow either."

#Miraxus #Mirajane Strauss #Laxus Dreyar #Fairy Tail #Fanfiction #Laxus #Mirajane #Mira

[millennial-star-gazer]

Fire And Gold: Chapter: 1: A Simple Spark (Nalu lovefest 2019)

Fire and Gold

Nalu Lovefest 2019 Prompts: Magic, Memories, Reckless, Worship & Cravings (All Implied)

Genres: Romance, Humor, New Adult Fanfiction

Pairing: Nalu/Endlu (Natsu x Lucy & E.n.d. Natsu x Lucy)

Rating: T-M for language, steamy and mature adult sexual content (all consensual) in these and future chapters. Reader Direction is advised.(You've been warned!)

Summary: Let the day be known when fire tested gold in the most intimate sense. The forging of a mating bond between the dragon-demon hybrid and celestial maiden while further strengthening the relationship they already have. Natsu finally confesses his romantic feelings for Lucy at and asks to claim her as his mate and queen; though not without it taking a bit for it to fully sink in for the poor, baffled woman. The first chapter is one of my entries for  @nalulovefestofficial 2019 and part of my ongoing Nalu (The Demon-Dragon and His Celestial Princess) anthology series set not too long after the events of the original manga/anime.(Slight Au).

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Chapter 1 : A Simple Spark

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A/N: Hey peeps, I'm back! You miss me lol? Anyway, this time I'm coming at you with the first chapter of my one new Nalu fics, (Fire And Gold) which is also an entry for Nalu Love Fest 2019. ( @nalulovefestofficial). Fun Fact: This fic along with Tantric Flames and other upcoming Nalu WIPS are now part of my ongoing The Demon-Dragon and His Celestial Princess (TDDACP) anthology series (slight au) with Fire and Gold set before the rest- a prequel of sorts. Course, this entire series is a slight au on account of it being set not too long after the events of the original Fairytail manga/anime and other reasons as you may all know. Please see the summary, A/N at the end of this chapter or Tantric Flames for more info. Anyways, I don't have too much else to say here. A special shoutout to the fantastic @bmarvels, ( @bmarvels) @doginshoe ( @doginshoe) and @goddesofimortality ( @goddesofimortality) (tumblr) for taking the time to help me proofread, edit, and further develop this chapter—thanks guys! Oh and an extra kudos to, Brit ( @bmarvels) who provided great suggestions for the title of this fic, chapter title and literary quote (which include all of those that you see here. Thanks again girl! Anyways, I'll let you all get on with the story. Without further ado, here is Chapter 1 of Fire and Gold! Enjoy!

(Note: Scroll down past the cut/read more button for the links and actual chapter).

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Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail which instead belongs to the one and only Hiro-sensei instead!

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Read More Fire And Gold On Here and Other Platforms

 If reading this on the desktop, then copy and paste the links into another window on your browser.

1. Fire And Gold

A. Tumblr

Chapter: 1      Next:(Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/189326665518/fire-and-gold-chapter-2)

B. Fanfiction (Click Here:) (or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13410012/1/Fire-and-Gold)

C. A03 (Click Here:) (or here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20851052)

 2. Master Rec Post  Of All My Writing(Click Here) or here:

(https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/179665258923/master-fic-rec-post)

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Legend

Italics: Flashback/literary or song quotes (If Any For The the Most Former)

Bold: First Person Thoughts

Bolded Italics: empathized word

Bolded Italics: outside of main story): A/N

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"He felt now that he was not simply close to her,

but that he did not know where he ended and she began."

(Leo Tolstoy: Chapter XIV in Part V Of Anna Karina)

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"I love you ."

"Oh hey, Natsu. Sorry— couldn't quite hear you over all the commotion. Can you repeat that please?"

Lucy turned to face her coral-haired best friend whose onyx eyes met her gaze; with what only could be described as genuine earnest; Most often seen when a critical weighed heavy on his mind—- aka a stark contrast to her cordial interest. She wasn't fibbing in her request for Nastu to reiterate his previous statement either — what with the whole guild being abuzz from the usual activity and all. Anyone who cared to listen in would most likely hear the various conservations between other guild members: Warren bemoaning to Max about his "complete and utter lack of a non-existent sex life— the hell man? I'm a freakin' dreamboat!"

Said sandmage's less -than - complimentary - quip of "if you're calling yourself a 'dreamboat', then no wonder none of the ladies aren't exactly jumping at the chance for a hookup. Hell, pretty sure I'd much rather be forced to look at picture of Ichyia in-assless-chaps-riding -a- gay unicorn than knock boots with you regardless of whether I was female or into dudes. "

"Fuck you man!"

"What does a chump like you know about getting laid anyway? "

"Lot more than you think, ya' piece of—- yeowwww! The hell dipshit?! Did you just ram a broom-handle up my ass?!"

"Yeah? So what if I did? What exactly are you gonna do about it?"

Elfman's crow from the sidelines about how "settling your differences with fists is so freakin' manly!" Macao and Wakaba squabbling over who "the rightful owner" of a much-coveted, lottery ticket was— typical chatter, really.

Not that any of this matters at the moment when Natsu’s  trying to talk to me.

Nastu on the other hand, didn't pay the background noise any heed; who instead letting his eyes stay trained on Lucy.

"I really do wanna hear what you have to say. What were you trying to tell me?"

"Okay," he let out a measured breath, as if steeling his nerves, "Just wanted to say that I love you."

"Aw Natsu—I love you too! " the celestial mage gushed, touched by the dragonslayer's sentiment even it was a little out of the blue. " it's kinda out of the blue that you're telling me this— but I appreciate it just the same. There's no one better I could have as one my best —".

"No Luce," Natsu cut his blonde partner off with a slight shake of his head—- extremely perplexing to say the least. "That isn't what I meant."

"Okay... what did you mean? Lucy questioned, the intensity of the fire wizard's gaze sending her pulse racing."

"Something else" came his sober reply . "Not to say that you're not one of my best friends or that I don't consider myself extremely lucky to have ya' in my life— but my feelings aren't exactly the platonic kind. Hasn't been for a while. Guess what I'm trying to say is I'm in love with you."

Natsu's last words really threw the key- holder for a loop.

"W-wait? What?" was all she could utter in response with an owlish blink.

What he's saying? I mean, yeah, I'm totally head-over-heels in love with the dude— but he can't possibly feel the same way, right?

"I don't understand..."

"Still not sinking in yet, huh? Fine— I don't have a problem with repeating what I said if that helps."

"You don't?"

"No. I…"Natsu began to reiterate, enunciating each and every word with deliberate precision. "Nastu Dragneel, am in love with you Lucy Heartifila— as in head over heels."

"No, no, no, you can't be!" Lucy was still in vehement self-denial; or should she says her, poor addled-brain was short circuiting from trying to process her teammate's words. Not to mention how mortifying the heated-infused blood she could feel rising in her cheeks was. "You're my best friend and I'm not exactly the only single woman here. Far prettier girls here if you ask me—pick of the lot. No, you can't be in love with me—- just no way."

"Oh for the love—"

The celestial mage swore she caught a glimpse of slanted brows above scorching emerald fire in Salamander's eyes before his mouth was smashing down on hers in a searing kiss ; Needless to say, said female was caught completely off guard. Still, smooth lips were moving against hers with such insistent urgency that the mage couldn't help but automatically respond in with just spirited vigor; even during a rowdy chorus of catcalls, whistles and cheers heard from onlookers that she vaguely registered.

Natsu's hand meanwhile was instinctively pressing on the small of Lucy's back; while the other arm snaked around her waist to pull her flusher against him. Just as hers circled together around the nape of his neck at the same time. The next thing the celestial mage knew he was further deepening the kiss by running his tongue along the seam of her bottom lip; that was then being sucked into his mouth. Not only was the tactic tantalizing enough to light sparks of in Lucy's blood, but it also drew an airy moan out of her; which was more than well received by Natsu who growled in approval against her lips sending a tingly shiver down her spine.

My God is he  a stellar kisser! Was all the only thought that crossed the summoner 's mind could; before all else was scattered by the insatiable fire wizard's velvet tongue slipping past her lips. The sensation of his tongue massaging hers though before sweeping/dragging along the roof of her mouth; Oh and a heady suck on Lucy's own for good measure—- all of that was what the stars were behind the mage's shut eyes were bursting from. Not to mention the rush of liquid heat between her legs.

More, more, more, Lucy craved more—- drowning in the ecstasy of it all, courtesy of Natsu. The fire-breather's defined leg wedging between the gaps her thighs, her fingers through his hair with a snug grip. Supple, masculine, hands all over creamy skin before skating down to—

"A-hem..."

The distinct noise of awkward throat clearing along with dry coughs of "a freakin' room you two— get one" from one nauseated-sounding Gray  burst the pair's intimate little bubble. The blonde-haired member of the two meanwhile, just barely managed to bite back a noise of protest when the other pulled back ever so slightly.

"Huh—- looks like we got a little carried away just now" Nastu panted with a chuckle, though there didn't seem any hint of sheepish repentance in his voice at all — quite the opposite actually. More like he was extremely pleased with the turnout of events, if the smug grin spreading across his lips was anything to go by.

"Yeah—I'll say," came Lucy's reply, voice coming out a little ragged. Mavis knows that the euphoric high of the kiss was still singing in her veins. Not to mention the Natsu's forehead touching against hers; along with onyx-green piercing thrift honey-brown that the zodiac wielder swore she could get lost in too— profoundly intimate beyond words.

It's like he can see straight into my soul.

"Definitely attracted an audience."

"An audience, she says?" Cana's voice broke in from somewhere on the sidelines; which was practically dripping with dry sarcasm. "Gee—I wonder why."

"Yeah, me thinks our dear friend Lu stated the obvious" came Levy's wry quip." She did."

"Those two did get pretty hot and heavy," Lexus put in as a thoughtful observation. "Gotta hand it to Natsu though— dude has major kissing game."

"That's for sure" Gajeel concurred, sounding impressed." He managed to get bunny girl all hot just now. And she's clearly no slouch when it comes to kissin' either."

"Really?" The ice wizard cut in, with what sounded like a derisive snort." Cuz I beg to differ. I mean Lucy, sure, she did a great job. But lava - breath?! Watching him suck face was beyond nauseating! Ugh... So much cringe—pretty sure I just puked in my mouth just now. Anyone got some bleach on hand to permanently burn the gag-worthy image from my retinas?"

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A/N: That's the first chapter of Fire & Gold folks! Hope you enjoyed and feel free to let me know what you think! Now for a little background info on this fic and rest of the TDDACP anthology series including tantric flames) for those who are wondering. As stated previously, TDDACP that's set shortly after the events of the original Fairytail and 100 years quest in a way (which explains how the series is slightly AU and canon divergent). Team Natsu managed to successfully complete the century quest in a matter of a few months which enabled resume their normal lives at the guild. Natsu is still a dragonslayer-demon hybrid with full access to his dragonslayer and etherious magic that he can tap into from either mode . Moreover, all elements of his heritage can play a major influence on his personality and strength as wizard (among other aspects). Anyways, said wizard is fully aware that he's head over heels for Lucy though finally worked up the courage to confess as seen in this chapter. I'd like to point to point out that Natsu technically being an etherious dragonslayer -demon hybrid is still pretty much established canon based on what we've seen in the anime/manga series (including in 100 years quest during that battle with Ignea).

Same goes for Nalu being mutually and passionately in love and other with all the types of passion attraction that comes from it- the physical and sexual types included (even if they have yet to fully confess). (Sidenote: Levy is still expecting but isn't that far along in her pregnancy yet). All in all , this pretty much sums up why this series is only slightly au and canon divergent. Hope this background information provides enough insight to you all!

In other news: major bummer about the Fairytail anime-aka one of my favourite animes/manga series ending for now, huh? I mean talk about there being a major void in our hearts now lol.  That said, we still have 100 years quest, city heros, Eden's Zero along with that giant crossover manga(Fairytail, EZ, and Rave Master combined) which are all excellent series for us to continue to enjoy and look forward to! Plus, there's a great chance of that animated FT sequel/ 100 year quest anime adaption being in the works based on what we've been hearing.

Anyways, pretty much said all that I wanted to for now folks ! Don't forget to let me know what you think, like, reblog and share! Oh and be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter and more Nalu Wips. Feel free to check out the rest of my writing, my other lovefest entry (Chapter 8 of Tantric) and those from the other amazing participants as well! (Corresponding links are above, in the navigation bar and bio if reading this on tumblr. See other writing platforms for links as well! ) All right, that's all for now folks ! Until next time— take care!

#nalu lovefest #nalulovefest #nalu love fest #nalu lovefest 2019 #fairytail #ft fanfics #nalu #endlu #natsu x lucy #e.n.d natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #etherious natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #future lucy dragneel #gray fullbuster #gajeel redfox #levy mcgarden #cana alberona #erza scarlet #fire and gold #millennial star gazer writes #millennial stargazer

[wherethesunsails]

lantern, maple, harvest, fireside, bonfire, pumpkin?

lantern - how did you meet your best friend? What were your first impressions of each other?

! Let me go see if i have the wherewithal to find our very first message give me a moment ok so i messaged you the first time on july 29th 2018 and i remember it was super awkward at first just because. it’s the whole getting to know each other bit but i do remember that we hit it off really well from the beginning and i know that we talked So much when we first met its so funny scrolling back through our old dms on your old account because we messaged Constantly in those first few months it’s so funny but anyway i do remember that i have loved you since the Very beginning of our friendship and that you were super easy to talk to and get along with and that awkward stage didn’t last very long 

also i’d like to introduce everyone to this quote that i have from elliot from september sixth 2018 “ random: here's a quote from roosevelt that i liked a lot and am ending a chapter on and wanted to share lol"Ahead of us are much bigger fights. We and our Allies will go into them as we went into Sicily - together. And we shall carry on together."” so. the Teddy Roosevelt thing isn’t new.

maple - is there a hobby / skill that you’ve always wanted to try but never did?

hmmmmmm nothing immediately comes to mind i suppose i’ve never actually done crochet idk if that counts bc i do in fact know how to knit lmaO

harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why?

b- bilbo baggins

ok here’s the thing. lotr was kind of. like really the first hyperfixation i ever had and it’s also one that’s super easy to fall back into so it’s always been sort of. my default for whatever lmao

fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?

h- hobbit clothes lmao NO wait ok we’ve discussed this. We all are familiar with mr thranduil sexy elfman’s wardrobe, yes? that.

bonfire - describe your dream house.

No okay listen. I know i keep bringing up tolkien stuff but Anyway i want to live in Bag End So fucking bad i’m-

pumpkin - do you think that humans are inherently good or bad?

idk. I really don’t think either is necessarily true I think that it largely depends on the way that people are raised and the things that create who they become and the choices they make

[deanky]

Here are some little like ‘reviews’ of all the Oingo Boingo albums... Under cut LOL... I just like to talk about Oingo Boingo I am so obsessed right now they have become tied for Mr. Bungle as favorite band... But anyways... Hope you enjoy ^_^

Only a Lad: Very fun sound as a whole. I enjoy how like poppy and synthy it is and stuff and that one weird electronic voice Mr. Elf man does in like every song. I remember like actually not liking most of the songs first time I heard it and I’m not sure why because I enjoy 9/10 out of them a lot now... But then again I like almost never really like an album the first time I hear it LOL I have a mean soul. A lot of the songs have pretty evil words in them but I have like slight respect for how much hatred Danny Elfman seems to have had for everyone on the entire planet at the time of writing. And for the majority of songs I cannot really complain about because I think it fits theme of like very happy sounding song but nasty words in it duality of man and such. Only one I really do not like is Capitalism because it has the whiniest lyrics of all and also it just does not sound good like as a song I think I am sorry. I must say it. Forgive me. I was so thrilled hearing Nasty Habits for the first time because I really like songs that sound like a homosexual cartoon villain would sing them to you. Well that’s all. Only a Lad itself was one of the first songs of theirs I heard except sped up and it had a picture of anime Bart Simpson on it. I like it. Good song. Recently I cannot stop getting it and Little Girls stuck in my head. That’s all

Nothing to Fear: Everything about this album is sooooo sooo good it is like so incredibly catered specifically to my tastes. One of the few albums I have loved immediately as soon as I heard I finished listening for the first time and was immediately like oh this is going in my favorites. I add some points also for absolutely incredible beautiful cover art it’s got weird colors weird animals logo made of worm things it’s so beautiful it makes me want to cry.  I think it gets SLIGHTLY weaker in its second half but that is hard not to do with albums. That said though a lot of songs that I felt were slightly worse at first have risen to being my favorites of the album like Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai. Didn’t know what to think about Running on a Treadmill at first but I think it works very well in its simplicity and it is very catchy I can imagine people like singing it on actual treadmill and like jumping around abd being in zero gravity for some reason it is like that music video where they are in the plane but it is treadmills. Well, hi. The only ones that feel like slightly slightly worse to me are Whole Day Off and Islands but I think I am growing to like both of those a lot more too. My favorites though are Grey Matter and Insects and Wild Sex and also Nothing to Fear the titular song and Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai which is over half of the songs so I think that’s good.  I remember listening to Private Life like 5 times before listening to the rest of the album but I always forgot how it went immediately after not sure why because I’d say it is a reasonably catchy song. Anyways INCREDIBLE album. Rude lyrics? Still a thing but tend to be much more agreeable like it is obvious who is being made fun of in like Grey Matter and Nothing to Fear and I say the fun making is well deserved! Even though I may be the target of Grey Matter I understand and I am sorry. The general sound is also amazing I LOVE all the weird noises and metal stuff and clanks and clonks and all the xylophone. Dude the xylophone is so good. Synth and xylophone and guitar they are all best friends and they sound so cool together and I think xylophones should be more widely used in like “pop” music as a whole whatever that defines. I keep wanting to start a band and just play xylophone. Like what’s anybody gonna do to stop me? I love xylophone. That’s all

Good for Your Soul: I wasn’t so impressed by this one the first time I heard it but it quickly wormed its way up to a very close #2 and possibly even tied with Nothing to Fear as my favorite album of theirs. The album art on this one is also really good I will say! I felt like slightly let down at first by it just because it’s so hard to live up to how beautiful of a cover Nothing to Fear has in my mind. But its art is so cool too. Muscle man in wobbly world. What’s more to love (Side note I enjoy the song Wobbly World it is not an Oingo Boingo song it is by Devo I should listen to more Devo.) The first time I listened the only songs that REALLY jumped out at me super hard were No Spill Blood and Fill the Void, and I think those 2 are still tied as my favorites. I LOVE the whole like rhythm No Spill Blood has going on and the weird animal noises and also the lyrics they are not about Animal Farm they are about The Island of Dr. Moreau he did those surgeries don’t you know he made the animals have to be men and they were like are we not men but they didn’t say they were Devo sorry I keep talking about Devo in this Oingo Boingo album review. And BTW Fill the Void also is really great and has possibly my favorite set of lyrics in any song ever to exist which is the part like “Every little thing is a piece of a larger thing / Every little fish is a tyrant of the sea / Every little atom is a master of his family / Every single piece calls my name / What do they want from me?” It is so good it makes me go so insane I love it. Another song that works really well in just being a simple thing.  It is so nice and cool it feels like being in space and you are in one of the levels of one of those Kirby spinoff games where he’s like a ball and you’re rolling him around NOT Canvas Curse the other ones like Dream Course I think. Anyways though while I wasn’t super big on all the other songs they ended up like slowly coming back into my head one by one until I was obsessed with all of them. First it was Pictures of You. Then it was Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me (would put that in my top 3 as well) and then Dead or Alive and then Little Guns and then Cry of the Vatos and then Wake Up It’s 1984 and then Sweat and then the titular song AND Who Do You Want to Be it was like. Wow. What a world.  WDYWTB + Good for Your Soul + Sweat were the 3 that didn’t really do it for me as much for a while but now I’ve been really enjoying them too so I think I can say I love every single song on this album. It is becoming my best friend. It’s sooo good. It feels like living in one of those fake Utopian cities and there’s actually something sinister going on behind the scenes. Like I will start seeing colors and freaking about it any time soon. Random memory that unlocked in me is that I used to be incredibly obsessed with The Book Thief and its concept of death when I was in like 6th or 7th grade like uncannily so but I never talked about the book ever I just hid it away in my mind. My sad story. Sorry everyone. That’s all

So-Lo: This one is technically just Danny Elfman but you know it is an Oingo Boingo album man they got the whole band there they were just having licensing issues because new label and stuff is my understanding. And they were like. Well let’s take advantage of this and do some less standard Oingo Boingo songs. That is how I grasp this situation I don’t know how correct I am her I actually don’t know that much about O.B. outside of the songs at this point I still cannot name any non-Danny Elfman member and I am really sorry for this and must learn to atone for my ways. This is a good album though. Once again has really good cover art I will say.  It’s like well hello there Mr. Elf man you’ve got some eyes sliding off your face and some funny colors and are controlling some little puppet things maybe it’s like you do you man LOL am I right or am I right! I like this album. This was yet another one where I listened the first time and was like. Man I’m not really feeling it with any of these songs. However I do enjoy that they all sound kind of like they were recorded on a Sega Genesis. I mean it does have very Genesis-y noises I know this was the 80s and it would be more accurate to say the Sega Genesis soudns like this album but you know what I mean. Anyways nothing grabbed me at first but upon my second listen I became extremely obsessed with the song “Go Away” and then listened to it on repeat for 2 hours straight and it still hasn’t got old for me I still like it very good song. Definitely my favorite. Tied with Everybody Needs which is also a very fun song I became similarly enamored with like a day later but didn’t listen to quite as much LOL. But anyways I went through that oh-so-familiar process which I must warn you is also the process I go through for every single album after this! - Where all the other songs started worming their way into my head and I was like oh brother I am beginnign to like them all now! Good for Your Soul, I think, marked like more obvious change from songs tending to be like “This is what Danny Elfman thinks of the world phrased in a humorous way” to more like actual stories and stuff, although the former wasn’t rid of entirely and the latter hadn’t just popped up or anything. But I think this album continued that in a really nice way and while it can be vague, listening to it I always feel that there is like one solid story all the song narratives go throughout. Someone pointed out in like Youtube Comments that Go Away feels like the sadder side of Cool City and to me it feels like the whole album is kind of in that vein. Seems to me like all the songs are in the Cool City itself and you’re seeing like the various different horrible things that go on in that town and horrible people that live in it. Yknow? Like Tough as Nails and Everybody Needs make me think of like various awful weird a$$ holbs living there and then stuff like Sucker for Mystery and Lightning and It Only Makes Me Laugh. Well they are clearly from the perspectives of some guy. The same guy? Maybe maybe not I don’t feel like they are the same guy. But it feels like they are like experiencing weird horrible sh*t in this horrible town that is filled with racists but also gay people. I like this album I enjoy it

Dead Man’s Party: OK I am sorry to say. This is a good album but it hasn’t COMPLETELY grown on me yet. But I DO like it a lot. I enjoy it it’s good. I really really love Just Another Day and the titular song and Heard Somebody Cry and Nobody Lives Forever and Weird Science which is over half of them so not bad all things considered. And I do not DISLIKE any songs. But the other ones haven’t quite grown on me yet. This album does kind of shift into like the more commercial stuff it’s not like generic pop or nothing. But it is like slightly strange to get used to. That said. The songs I like I REALLY like thye are so good. No One Lives Forever is an incredible incredible song just like Nasty Habits it fulfills my love of songs that sound like they are being sung by evil guys in cartoons but are not they’re actually being sung by Danny Elfman who is an evil guy in real life. Sorry I didn’t mean it he probably is not that evil I’m sure he’s perfectly nice Mr. Elf man if you are reading this I apologize. Anyways though. I like the general sound of this album I will say! I think though it has thing going on where like, in my mind, some of the songs feel like way too happy and overly peppy almost like mocking. I have a weird mind and a weird way of processing things and I am also incredibly afraid of everything on this planet so keep that in mind BTW I am sorry. But like Stay and Fool’s Paradise and Help Me and Same Man I was Before all have that kind of feeling to me, it’s like these are so cheerful and cheesy sounding to me it kind of scares me a little bit. However... I am starting to feel this less with Help me and Stay, and also I felt this a little bit with Heard Somebody Cry at first as well and I no longer do. So maybe I’m still going through the motions of song-liking as I do.  As I said though the favorites on here are incredible. Weird Science may have been written for strange movie deal and they may be really saddened by its memory or maybe just the music video’s memory but it’s a very fun song nevertheless. Dead Man’s Party itself it really fun true classic. Very orange song to me. It’s orange and purple like I hear it and I am like ah yes I am experiencing orange and purple. Very nice shades of orange and purple though, and they are mixing together in pleasing ways and throwing a big party and everyone’s invited you might even say it’s a dead man’s party heh heh heh (grins devilishly). I think this like takes the kind of narratives in Good for Your Soul and So-Lo and like takes it to best form! In that it has a very clear yet not super specific narrative going on throughout the whole album, I really like whenever an album has songs set up so pleasingly and nice like that it makes me sad when they’re just like in random order. But of course this album is all about death and accepting it and stuff and like all the different feelings of sadness and happiness and stuff that all go into it! And I like its message a lot, like obviously you shouldn’t want to die but don’t fear it. It has a very nice depiction of the afterlife. I like all the stuff in Beetlejuice and Corpse Bride with their similar interpretations too although Beetlejuice isn’t quite as positive about it LOL. I want to watch Corpse Bride again. I want to see another singing Danny Elfman skeleton. I want to see the Peter Lorre worm. My one complaint with the album narrative is that Weird Science goes at the end it kinda ruins the whole story a little bit but I can’t fault them because like where COULD they put it?  I think it might work kind of well as the first song because like trying to make frankenstein guy before all the accepting death stuff makes sense. But also. It would be a weird opener. Also the album art is so incredible I love it I want to join their party it’s beautiful. I did not mean for this review to get as long as it did. They just keep getting longer each album I’m sorry the length does not show my opinion but I just keep getting more excited each album

Boi-Ngo: Will admit this one is my least favorite. And once again my bias shows because it has cover art I don’t like very much. It’s just real guys looking at you. Where’s the funny Oingo Boingo touch where’s the charm people!??!? it makes me sad. And also, as a whole, while I DO like most of the songs I feel like I don’t like them as much as I like any of the ones on other albums, and it also has my least favorite song I’ve heard other than Capitalism which is We Close Our Eyes sorry I’ve seen a lot of people who really like that one but it just scares me. It feels so insincere to me it makes me feel that thing once more where it’s like this song is waaayyy to happy and peppy to not feel like it’s kind of sinister deep down. I apologize. It is a fun album however! I think it kind of goes back more to “Danny Elfman’s humorous observations about life”, which is not always a bad thing, but it seems to revert a little bit too much back to like him just being kind of whiny and not making much of a point in like, say, New Generation. Although it is a nice song I think! It scares me when he goes like now he’s got you by the balls. I understand the point of that lyric. But it frightens me.  I think my favorites are Home Again, Elevator Man, Not My Slave (although lyrics feel like slightly concerning), Outrageous, and Pain. Which once again is more than half the album so shows what I know complaining about it this whole time. 

Dark at the End of the Tunnel: I feel bad for this album because before listening to it I always forgot it existed, like I listened to Boi-Ngo and was like aw man I only have one album left! Oh wait nevermind I have 2. And now I keep fearing there’s another one I forgot not including like the live albums and singles stuff. Maybe there is.... haunting me But anyways... I already did like incomprehensible post talking about this one earlier LOL which inspired me to do more equally incomprehensible things on all the other albums hence this post. So I’ve already said a lot of what I have to say about this and hope not to repeat it too much... but... LOL I was so afraid wondering if I would actually like this one or not... I wanted to just because of how awesome the cover art is. And I was afraid because I wasn’t really a big fan of most of the songs at first. But I think with this album and the whole Boingo era they were moving towards like more orchestral stuff and changing their sound and all... So it was a bit strange to get used to at first but the more I listened the more I enjoyed everything I guess like taking in all the instruments and textures and what not. A lot of the songs in this one also feel like kind of creepily cheery but I think it works best for this album specifically, because as I’ve said before it feels very intentional - there is like whole dual thing of more dark mysterious sections and light-hearted happy sections in most of the songs. Although my top 3 are all songs that mostly just have the former going on... Right to Know, Long Breakdown, and Run Away.  I also really enjoy When the Lights Go Out, Skin, Out of Control (though it still feels like vaguely scary to me LOL), and Glory Be... But I keep finding myself getting all the others stuck in my head as well. So still growing on me LOL! I am beginning to appreciate all the other songs more for those cheerier parts as well yknow... I think this whole album has a very fantastical vibe to it LOL but definitely like, a very old fantasy. Like they discovered this album in a giant wizard’s tower like ten thousand years ago and now it’s been unearthed again. But it was created by a child wizard who was like 5 years old. But still had a wizard beard. That’s the guy on the cover I’ve decided. Little wizard from long ago.  However... It does feel like it’s kind of setting up something. Like all the songs do... whole album is good but feels like it’s kind of a preparation for the next one. Which doesn’t make it bad! Just like I feel like it’s kind of part of a set... Incomplete on its own yknow? I would probably rank it in my lower 4 of all the albums but I’ll still say I enjoyed it quite a bit, that is no insult. And I like wizards

Boingo: This album is SO good dude. I’m glad this is what they left off on. Really great finishing album... I have a weird timeline involving this one because it was actually the first album I listened to, my dad showed it to me, but I only ever listened up to Lost Like This before very recently and by recently I mean today and I am still listening to Changes for the first time as I write this which is probably a bad idea but I am doing it anyways. Anyways though... The first O.B. songs my dad showed to me ever were Insanity from this album and Dead Man’s Party the song, and despite how different their two sources are they both have extremely similar structure I think. And so I kind of painted this picture of like all Oingo Boingo songs being similarly structured around 6-7 minutes and mostly repeating the same different sections in slightly different ways. And I am pleased that this album kind of fulfills that - a lot of the songs are like 2-3x longer than they really need to be but I enjoy that because I love long songs.  As I mentioned earlier, DatEotT feels like it’s just the beginning of something, and this provides a very satisfying ‘second half’. I think it works well by itself too, though! Boingo marks such a big change musically from everything else before even DatEoT but it somehow stays very true to their old spirit anyways.. But everything feels so much grander and I really like it. Almost every song has a pretty wistful melancholy feel but at the same time ALSO almost every song but like a different set of almost every song is very big and bombastic. So it definitely has that “well this is our last album goodbye” feel to it. But it’s OK. It’s like a big grand finale. If there was a like an Oingo Boingo musical that had every single song for some reason and lasted like 10 hours I feel like the other albums could be switched around the whole thing regardless of their actual releases, but this one would HAVE to be last. Adding to that, I feel like it really like takes a lot of the earlier concepts I’ve liked a lot in previous albums and had them return. Like So-Lo, many of the songs have pretty different narratives, but all feel like they can be one loose intertwined thing. Pedestrian Wolves and Lost Like This definitely feel connected for one... and like Insanity and Changes provide like nice bookends where the first is like analyzing the world around us and then the second is analyzing the self. Side note. Danny Elfman is always referring to himself as stupid in Oingo Boingo songs. And sometimes it’s just like PoV character or something. But it ticks me off a little bit because he is like clearly not stupid he is like a crazy evil genius.  But ALSO I’m not really sure what exactly the whole story of Boingo is, but it just feels connected in some sort of mysterious way yknow? Maybe it will appear to me later... If Dark at the End of the Tunnel was created by a little five year old wizard ten thousand years ago, this was created by the same wizard when he was reaching the end of his life and was in the wizard’s nursing home in like the 1920s. It still feels like mildly aged, there is SOMETHING about it that feels like it’s meant to be played on like an extremely old awful record player, but it has a much more modern feeling. It almost feels like another interpretation of the afterlife... Maybe that more Beetlejuice kind where it’s just like real life at first but if you peek around the corner you’ll find all the weird sandworms and colorful ghosts and stuff. Anyways though. This album is so good. Not my favorite right now, but definitely in top 3, like at the moment of writing this I would say. #1 is Nothing to Fear. #2 is Good for Your Soul. #3 is Boingo. But I am loving it soooo much on my first actual full listen even though I’ve had time to like absorb half the songs already admittedly. So it might end up being my favorite after all! I think my 3 favorite tracks also on this are Insanity, Lost Like This, and Hey!. Random completely unrelated parallel to my other favorite band. I like that they have a song called Hey! and Mr. Bungle has a song called Hi! It all fits together. And they both have the exclamation point. But anyways ALSO since I’ve only finished listening for the first time Changes finished while I was writing this BTW. I am still figuring out my opinions on the rest of the songs. Don’t think the I am the Walrus cover QUITE does it for me, I like Spider and War Again but not sure if they’re favorites. I hated Can’t See/Useless the first time I listened but now I like it how about that! ONE MORE thing I like about this. Is its songs feel like continuations of stuff in other albums. Although that may just be because of similar themes! Like, War Again feels like a continuation of both Nothing to Fear and Little Guns but it’s about similar subjects to both. And Tender Lumplings, Little Girls, no real explanation needed there. Insanity and Nasty Habits match up pretty well, with both just being like about hating the world although Nasty Habits is more specific than that LOL. Mary is a girl who is unfairly ostracized, Johnny of Only a Lad is a boy who is unfairly praised, you know.  And also one more thing ONE more I know this one ALSO kinda has the classic Danny Elfman yells about things stuff going on but I feel like this is the album where it works best. But maybe I am just a hypocrite. OK that’s all. Hi

#definitely going to delete this later LOL I get embarassed #but i had fun writing all this incomprehensible stuff

[adramaticbeauty]

Miraxus Fanfic

Here is your overdue fanfic. I love you girl💕 Happy Birthday @aconstellationofmemories and I hope you like it🎂 My girl is growing up *sobs*

Fine Like Wine

"Let me have another round, Laxussss!"

"No. You have had enough. You're already annoying enough as it is." Laxus commented, still holding the alcohol bottle out of Mira's reach.

"Ugh,you are no funnnn." Mira whined as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes playfully. She then continued to stare at the glass she had in her hand as she scoffed.

" Seems like you care about me Laxus. Do you?" Mira peered up at him with her mischievous, but enchanting ocean blue eyes. Laxus swallowed hard.

Everyone had been invited to Lucy's celebration for her new novel's success. Honestly Laxus had never planned to go in the first place. Places that required suits was never his style. But the old man had threatened to kill him if he didn't show up. 

Talking about supporting family and whatnot. Even though he barely knew the girl, he guessed they were all 'family'. Mira had given him a tux even though he hadn't asked for it. Well she did have pretty good taste, as he did look pretty good in his black tux. Still, he never asked.

Mira had seemed the most excited about the party the day before, and now here she was being drunk at the party. Mira stared up expectantly at him as if she expected him to say something. He couldn't help but notice a small smirk on her pink lips. 

"What?" Laxus grumbled.

"You didn't answer my question. I asked did you care about me!" She giggled. 

Laxus felt his cheeks burn as he looked away.

"Of course I do. You are part of the guild and we are family…"

"No not like that!" Mira said furrowing her eyebrows as a small pout crossed her lips.

He knew exactly what she meant. But Mira was drunk and he was not going to confess this way to the Take Over Mage. He didn't like to admit it to himself but he was very fond of the mage. In fact, his feelings had recently been even stronger than before. 

Ever since she came to visit him in the hospital during the Grand Magic Games, he had looked at her differently. She had thought he was sleeping, but he could hear her cries of pain and sadness. When he peeked and saw the tears fall down her cheeks as he laid in bed injured, he was reminded that she was not just the bar maid of the guild. 

She was also a woman. The physical attraction he felt for her was undeniable. The way she always brushed her silky white hair back when she was cleaning. The way her cheeks would tint a bit pink when she smiled to her guildmates. It was all beautiful to him. But he didn't know how to handle his feelings for her. Not yet anyway.

" You're drunk Mira. I can just take you home. Or I can get Elfman-"

"I don't want to leave, Laxus. I want to dance." She was strangely calm for a drunk when she said that.

"So dance."Laxus shrugged.

" With you. I want to dance with you." Laxus almost dropped his wine glass. 

He knew where this was going. Sorry but Laxus doesn't dance. He wasn't a dancing man. But the way her blue eyes glistened, threatening to let tears fall made Laxus feel weak. She placed a delicate pale hand on Laxus's chest.

"Please? It will only be a minute…"

Laxus gulped. He tried to form the word 'no' but he was so locked in her eyes that he couldn't get it out. Why was this so damn hard? Maybe...he wanted to dance with her? Maybe he wanted to feel her close to him. To breathe in her scent and pull her close in an embrace.

 "If you promise to go home after this. You're still drunk." He mumbled, cheeks burning.

Mira's face instantly brightened as she excitedly stood up and waited patiently for him to stand up as well. Once they were a space on the dance floor, Laxus couldn't help but feel nervous.

Where was he supposed to put his hands again? He couldn't even remember the last time he had danced with a girl. Mira guided his  hands to her hips as she smiled up at him.

" Must not do this very often?" She whispered with a teasing tone as she put her arms around his shoulders. 

"I wasn't that bad…." Laxus huffed avoiding eye contact. 

" I was just teasing Laxus." She giggled as she suddenly rested her head on his broad chest as her body slowly swayed along with the music. 

He stiffened. He couldn't concentrate now. Not when her head was on him like this. He could feel her soft silvery hair touching his skin, sending shivers up his spine. But sooner or later he relaxed his body as well and they were  moving to the rhythm of the music.

Their breathing and movements were intertwined, acting as one entity. Her body felt so...right against his. It felt like it fit as perfectly as a puzzle piece. Laxus didn't even notice when the song had stopped before Mira whispered in his ear.

" The song is over Laxus. Let's take a break. My legs are a bit tired."

Laxus quickly regained his composure as he separated his body from hers, though everything in him protested against it. He led her to a seat and he plopped down beside her. Mira smiled at him and then looked behind her, surveying her surroundings.

" Lucy must be proud huh? She made a wonderful book and got it published." 

"Well with all the crap everyone in the guild was put through, I'm sure she had plenty of inspiration." Laxus scoffed. 

Mira chuckled and a sad smile quickly overcame her lips." I always wanted to have an accomplishment like that. To be able to leave a mark on the world before I am gone. That is what I truly wish." 

Laxus took a moment to think and finally nodded." That sounds nice. Something to leave behind…" Laxus couldn't think of anything that he could leave behind before he was gone.

" I guess," Mira slowly continued," I would like to at least leave children behind. My last legacy." She smiled to herself.

Laxus's eyes widened. He had never thought about children or making a...family. He could actually see Mira making a family. She could cook, clean and she was great with children. He could see her being a wonderful mother...and wife. His heart ached when he thought of her being another man's wife. Touching her. Loving her. It made his blood boil. 

He sighed." I'm sure you will be able to find a good man who can give you all that you want. You deserve the world."

He had uttered those words before he had even thought about it. His face burned and he didn't meet Mira's eyes even though he felt hers on him. But soon he felt small soft hands touch his. 

"Can you walk me home, Laxus?"A small smile graced her lips as Laxus put on a confused expression.

" You are more than capable of protecting yourself.You know that right, Demon?" Laxus let out a deep throaty chuckle that sent shivers down Mira's spine. It was such a rich sound and Mira thought he should do it more often.

" That doesn't mean I don't want good company!" Mira said, exasperated.

There was a pause before she heard a heavy sigh come from the blond mage.

" Alright. Let's go."

They bid farewell to their friends before heading off into the night. They walked quietly, appreciating the comfortable silence of the deserted street. The only thing lighting their way being the moonlight shining off the cobblestone road. But the silence was soon broken by Mira.

" Laxus? Do you really only think of me as family? Nothing else?" Uncertainty laced her voice with a tinge of sadness. 

Laxus's heart almost leapt through his chest. 

"Well I- I mean I just-" Laxus finally gave in. What could it hurt?

" I don't think of you that way at all. It feels more than just family to me when it comes to you. I mean, when I think about you, I feel more than that. Like you mean more to me than regular friends or family. I- I don't really know how to explain it."

Mira finally stopped. Laxus stopped along with her. He noticed they had made it to her house. Her moonlit eyes met his and a fierce battle erupted. 

" I know exactly what you mean Laxus. I feel the same way. You mean more to me than you know."Laxus thought he had imagined her saying those things but he knew he wasn't mistaken when he saw the look in her eyes. 

He felt entranced by her beautiful face. The night sky added with the moonlight made her seem like an angel. She steadily walked closer and placed a hand on his chest. He felt his heart beat faster than it ever had before. He saw her face move her face closer to his and his breathing hitched.

They were only inches apart and he could feel her warm breath fan his lips.

"Wait, Mira. I…can't. You're still drunk. I can't take advantage of this situation." He grumbled, red staining his cheeks. Mira blinked before she let out a giggle.

"I'm not drunk Laxus." 

"But-"

" You think I would get drunk with only 3 glasses of alcohol?" She purred, batting her eyelashes playfully. 

Laxus stared at Mira in disbelief, and Mira leaned in quickly taking his lips on hers. It was like electricity shot through him when they made contact. But it was definitely a shock he could get used to.

"I can hold my alcohol a lot more than you think." She whispered after they separated.

" Of course you can demon." Laxus chuckled." You have way too many tricks up your sleeves, minx." he commented cupping her cheeks to pull her into another kiss.

End-

I hope you liked it Min! I was late haha. Sorry but where I live its still your birthday so🤷.

#Happy Birthday Min #Please wish her a Happy Birthday! #Miraxus #Mirajane #Mira #Laxus #fanfic

[tentpoletrauma]

Transcript of our Wolfman 2010 Podcast

Unknown Speaker  0:12   Welcome to Tentpole Trauma, the podcast where we look at movies that came with hype and high hopes, but left with crushing disappoint either critically at the box office are both. Free from the weight of expectations, we seek to examine these underperformers under a new light parsing through the good, the bad and everything in between the hopes of gaining a better understanding as to why they failed to find their audience.

Unknown Speaker  0:43   Warning, there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen the movie that we're discussing today, I suggest you stop the podcast and go watch it. Then when you come back and listen, you'll get more out of the discussion. This episode we examine the 2010 remake of The Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:23   I've been a universal horror fan for as long as I can remember. So I was pretty excited back in 2010 when the Wolf Man remake got rooms I've been following the production I knew Benicio del Toro was playing the Wolf Man, which I thought was great. I knew the original director left and was replaced with Joe Johnston, who I liked but didn't think was that inspired of a choice. But still, I was really excited to see it even after numerous delays. The first signs of real trouble were the extremely tepid reviews and tepid is a kind descriptor, but I maintained my enthusiasm and on opening weekend dragged my pointedly disinterested girlfriend to see it. The movie started promisingly enough with a pretty cool werewolf attack. But as the stilted drama set in, I could feel the audience snickering and turning against the movie. And more importantly, I could feel my girlfriend turning against me for dragging her to see this thing. We didn't last much longer. Still, over the years, I've maintained a certain affection for the film, even buying it on blu ray to have it as a, as I call put on in the background kind of movie, something that's visually pleasing that you can just look at not really pay attention to it. Over the years, I've even tried to get friends and family to watch it with me and perhaps reevaluate the film. But usually I'm just met with a healthy serving of side eye and skepticism. So am I insane for liking this maligned movie? I guess that's a question we'll have to address today as we deep dive into the 2010 remake of the wolf, man.

Unknown Speaker  3:19   All right, this is Sebastian, and I'm here today with Jennifer Hello, and Chris.

Unknown Speaker  3:25   Hey, how's it going?

Unknown Speaker  3:26   And we're gonna be talking about the Wolf Man remake from 2010. Directed by Joe Johnston, who did Captain America The Winter Soldier, and he did the Rocketeer and Jurassic Park three, and written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote seven and some other stuff. So you know, there's kind of a pedigree there. I already in my intro talked about my experience with this film. Jennifer, do you have any previous experience with this film?

Unknown Speaker  3:57   Yes, I do. My first exposure to this film was through you insisting that I watched this film, I think it was probably around 2012 or 2013. Does that sound right?

Unknown Speaker  4:10   It sounds right.

Unknown Speaker  4:10   Yeah. And I remember just not really, not really getting that into it. I was just kind of I wasn't, I didn't hate it by any means. But I just was kind of like, okay, that's, it's that was fine. But then watching it for the podcast. I had a different experience this time, which we'll go into also watching, both theatrical and the unrated version made a big difference. So But yeah, I did not see it in the theater. I it's not really I'm a horror person but, and I like universal monsters. The creatures more my guy, but I'm not you know, not super

Unknown Speaker  4:58   Wolfie Okay, Chris.

Unknown Speaker  5:01   Um, yeah, so my experience with Wolf Man was, I saw Dracula in high school loved it thought it was great. I thought it was like a great goth movie that everybody seemed to be into. And goth was a big thing. And then Frankenstein came out, which was, I guess, and unofficial sequel to that it still had the same vibe had a good director and a bunch of golf production design. And that was not

Unknown Speaker  5:32   just to be clear, we're talking about the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brown a Frankenstein.

Unknown Speaker  5:37   Exactly. And so I was kind of following that thread. Because I love Dracula, even though I it's flawed. And then Frankenstein came out, which I didn't love as much, but it was still a good time. And then Wolf Man came out. And I believe it was touted as like the third of a trilogy of, you know, the same type of pedigree we're gonna make, we're gonna give this treatment to these three monsters. And I believe, I don't know why I didn't see it at the time that it came out. Maybe because the reviews were bad or I was busy or something like that. But it took until now that Sebastian was doing this podcast that I was like, Oh, I guess it's time to watch it. And, and I've seen it for the first time.

Unknown Speaker  6:22   All right. Well, before we get into your feelings on the movie, let's just kind of dig in. This movie had a troubled production. It was originally going to be directed by Mark Romanek, who's a pretty cool director. Yeah, one one hour photo. Mm hmm. And

Unknown Speaker  6:38   lots of great music videos, too.

Unknown Speaker  6:41   That's right. And I was working at cinephile at the time and Benny not to name drop but Benicio del Toro would come in. And he was a huge Wolf Man fan. And he was really excited that he was going to get to play the Wolf Man. And I'm a huge Wolf Man fan. I love the 1940s original, so I was excited for him to play it. But it took a long time for the movie to come out. Because there were just you know, Mark Romanek, ended up leaving at the last minute, and there were like delays, Joe Johnson took over and had to just work with whatever they had. And you know, then it ended up with the release ended up being delayed, for whatever reason, so it ended up like taking two years for you to come out. But that's a little background on the movie. So let's just get into it. It starts with the universal logo. So this is definitely they're setting it up that this is a universal monster movie. In the the theatrical version. Yeah, it's cool. And the theatrical version. It's pretty easy. It's just black and white, but in the unrated version, you get a sort of more old school like 1940s universal logo.

Unknown Speaker  7:51   Yeah, I love that. It's really up. It's updated, but feels old school and it's like, it's really the right way to go iPod.

Unknown Speaker  7:58   Yeah, it sets the tone. I don't know if they intended this to be the first of the quote unquote, dark universe that they were trying to do. A few years back, they would keep saying, you know, they, they I think they set it with this movie. Then they set it with Dracula Untold. Then they set it with the Tom Cruise mummy. They were really hoping to do a marvel universe of universal monsters, which I would have been game for. But they

Unknown Speaker  8:23   shouldn't that should have been the tagline.

Unknown Speaker  8:27   But they couldn't seem to get that going. Anyway. So this isn't really the beginning of the dark universe because there is no dark universe. It starts off with some Danny Elfman music, which reminded me a lot of the 1979 Dracula that came out in the disco era with Franklin gela Mm hmm. It really borrows some themes. for that.

Unknown Speaker  8:48   To me the score just sound doesn't sound like Danny Elfman at all it very it to me, it just sounds like they're ripping off the score of the Coppola Dracula, you know, with that sort of luxurious string arrangements. And it's a strange like, I remember thinking like didn't then I think he is he a Czech composer for the Coppola Dracula, and he had died. So I was like, who composes because it sounds exactly like him. So and I was shocked to see that it was Danny Elfman because it doesn't sound like his trademark, you know, score at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:22   It doesn't sound like a kooky circus.

Unknown Speaker  9:26   Not at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:27   No, I think he was intentionally trying to evoke that apparently, he was originally hired to do the score. And then they tried to go with another score, I think and then they went back to his score. Anyway, it just sort of typical of the sort of troubled production of this, this movie. And anyway, moving on, it opens with the quote from the original the, you know, man becomes a wolf when the wolf Bane bloons that's straight from the original and it's pretty stylish in a sort of computer generated way. Yeah which is a which is a thing I think this movie it can either be a plus or a minus to you like it's very you know they're going for that really God thing but it's pretty computer CG golf.

Unknown Speaker  10:14   Yeah, agreed 100% I think

Unknown Speaker  10:17   that's the problem. That's what that's something that makes the Bram Stoker Dracula standout is that they went with a lot of old school visual effects and just you know, the feel of the whole thing was purposely sort of antique whereas this the production design works but the filmmaking techniques are very modern and in their hidden Miss You know, sometimes they work and then sometimes you see Oh, that's just a Morph cut that just, they just put in there because they could.

Unknown Speaker  10:46   Okay, so we get the opening attack, which is, you know, we later find out is Larry Talbots. I'm gonna call him Larry just because I think that's funny. Larry Talbots brother getting attacked on the Moore's there's sort of a voiceover from Emily Blunt, which didn't feel added anything to it really. And you know, we get this whole attack, which is pretty cool, but I feel like it It feels very rushed.

Unknown Speaker  11:13   The whole beginning feels rushed. Like, well, the voiceover from Emily Blunt in the theatrical version is she's writing a letter to Larry. Right. Yeah. So she's and you know, we're getting this this backstory. And that was, like the beginning. I just felt like, Is it me? I don't know what, what just happened? What is going on here? Like is it just it felt it feels like we just, it zooms by and not in a good way. Just wait way too much too fast. And it just feels like it's just kind of thrown together. And that Yeah, I was completely just baffled at that some of the things that were going on,

Unknown Speaker  11:56   well, in the unrated cut, you get a little more of the attack, and we get this whole scene of Larry acting. He's supposedly on stage in London, he's performing Hamlet or something. And Gwen does not write a letter to him in this version, she actually comes to the theater and he's backstage and he sort of got a cool bathrobe on he sort of rock starring out and she floors him to come check because I think his brother is missing at that point. But he sort of puts her off but she kind of gives him a guilt trip. I felt like compared to the theatrical version, where all you get is this voiceover from Emily Blunt. And you're suddenly right at the right at Blackmore Manor, I felt like the unrated version was an improvement.

Unknown Speaker  12:49   Yeah, I see, having watched both of them, I definitely can see how the pendulum swung hard both ways. You know, like, the Extended Cut is way too long. There's way too much intro, you know, it'll take like half an hour before like that Gypsy attack happens. So I understand why they cut a lot of that stuff, because it's just needless exposition. But now hearing Jen's reaction to it, I think, you know, they obviously cut maybe too much, because they're, they're really just, you know, trying to keep it tight and compress everything so that it gets going. But I will say having watched the Extended Cut that man, it's kind of a slog and a drag to, to get to where the movies going,

Unknown Speaker  13:30   you're sort of coming at it from the opposite end of Gen where you felt like the extended was taking too long.

Unknown Speaker  13:35   Definitely. And in you saying that it's a troubled production and that the you know, the director got swapped out at the last minute totally makes sense, because this feels very, you know, made by committee where nobody had a strong vision. And they were like, Okay, well, it's too long. Well, now let's make it too short or whatever. And, you know, no one actually said I understand the story. We're gonna make this happen. This is you know exactly what it's gonna be like, it definitely feels that way where there's not a strong vision hand at the helm.

Unknown Speaker  14:06   I wouldn't want more. This was like, in this case, it just for me, I was like, I felt so much more like, Oh, this is what they're doing. Because I remember even being like, is Larry an actor? like is that what he was doing? Because it's like literally like just like a quick flash of him on the stage or something. And I'm like, wait, and setting up also with Emily Blunt. Like, because throughout the film, I was like, Okay, I know she's supposed to be you know, it's complicated, but she's, you know, supposed to be kind of a love interest. And I just wasn't really feeling it. But then with this at the beginning with her coming there, there was this more to their relationship, and I actually was more invested, so to speak, but yeah, so anyway, the the unrated worked worked for me, especially in the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  14:51   I wouldn't say that in any version, their relationship is is a strong point of the movie, but in the theatrical cut, you get nothing zero, you're like, I don't care at all, at least in the unrated cut you you have some reason to care. They've had some scenes that are meaningful. Yeah, in the in the theatrical, there's nothing.

Unknown Speaker  15:15   Um, well, this is just kind of a general note on just about the action and how the wolf, you know, plays out in his attacks. Like, it's something, there's movies like Jurassic Park, or, you know, other werewolf movies, which gives you that sense of, you know, a wild animal attack. And, you know, if you've ever been around, like, you know, an angry dog or anything like that, you get that sense, where it's like, oh, my God, like anything can happen. But when he attacks it, it feels more like a bus hit. And then an animal attack, you know, because he just comes in out of nowhere and just slams. It's like, half jumpscare, half bus hit. And it just, I don't know, I just feel like it doesn't, it doesn't work. It's not a unique way of, you know, having him attack and it just doesn't feel scary to me.

Unknown Speaker  16:02   It feels more like a superhero thing. Yeah. And I feel and I think that a lot of this movie has that kind of feel where it's almost more of a superhero movie, even though the superheroes, you know, killing people. It just has a more modern superhero vibe to it in a weird way. If that makes any sense.

Unknown Speaker  16:21   Absolutely. This is relates to a point that I have with just the story in general that I feel like they set up a lot of things that never pay off. Like, why haven't be an actor, why, you know, have the meet backstage at the beginning. It's just, there's, there's so many weird threads in this story that just don't seem to pay off. And, and I feel like I feel the story being stretched. And like we were saying, the right amount of information is somewhere in the middle between the theatrical and Extended Cut. But there's just so many ideas in this story that never pay off that they were trying to, like, give love to some and then not enough for the others. It's just kind of a mess. I think

Unknown Speaker  17:07   with the him being an actor, I totally know. There's definitely things I agree with you Chris that never come to fruition, but I feel like part of the him being an actor is like they're trying to paint this picture also, which I think again, is more represented in the unrated version, is that he is such an outsider to the town, as at this point, like he's totally like a fish out of water. Like, you know, and I think like even at one point Anthony Hopkins is this you know, kind of says something along the lines of like, oh, coming back to the you know, small town or something along the lines of that, you know, so I think they're trying to make him like just as uncomfortable they're like not wanted there you know, even without even before all the other stuff happens that that's I mean, but yes, there's so many things that are set up the door really pay off but that's that's all I could gather from from going into his acting career.

Unknown Speaker  18:02   Maybe it's also to say that his Mid Atlantic accent is because he's an actor and has been away for so long. That's right. Oh, he's in New York. That's where he picked up this weird accent. Like, I also

Unknown Speaker  18:12   think that's what it how it was in the original, which didn't really play into anything in the original film either. But I think they just that's why because that's the character gotcha as as known from the 1940s film, you know, in the unrated cut, we get a scene on a train with the great Max von seido like why do you cut Max von side obviously, Larry is looking at a picture of his mom and then Max von seido sitting across from him and Max von seido. Has this silver wolf cane, which to your point Chris doesn't end up paying out in any real way in the movie. And it's only in there and I think this might be the the overall answers your question as to why things don't pay out and why they're in there is because in the 1940s movie, he's the Wolf Man is killed by his father with a wolf head cane just like that. Okay, so it's

Unknown Speaker  19:13   a setup without payoff as like a twist to the old be the people who knew Okay,

Unknown Speaker  19:20   yeah, the cane is not the strongest point of this movie. Okay, so we get to Blackmore Manor, which is the Talbot estate, we find out at that point that his brother's dead. You know, I think the production value whatever you feel about this movie, I think the production value is pretty great. All the locations are really cool. I love the look of the manor. It looks like a you know, kind of like a rundown Downton Abbey. Yes. With lots of leaves in the interior and my squeaking, lots of squeaking. We get Anthony Hopkins and he's you know he's doing you're pretty much like standard late period Anthony Hopkins performance. But it's one of those cases where he's Anthony Hopkins and he, he's totally watchable. It's you know, it's he's not doing anything. He seems kind of half asleep in a way. And he's not doing anything spectacular, but he's just great because he's Anthony Hopkins.

Unknown Speaker  20:16   totally true. Totally agree. Yes. I just Yeah, he's just kind of being creepy and just yeah, doing doing his thing. And it's a great I think opening scene to having him come in there looked up. Definitely rundown Downton Abbey. Lots of spider webs just kind of in disarray. But yeah, it's that I was happy, happy just to spend some time with with Anthony.

Unknown Speaker  20:42   You know, Anthony Hopkins at 50% is still better than most people's on 100% Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker  20:48   Yes. Yeah, the productions that design is definitely stellar. I mean, it's got that golf feel and it's definitely the I think the best thing about it, you know, I mean, the cinematography as well with the high contrast lighting and the smoke everywhere, everything looks right. You know, they they definitely spent the right amount of money and, and have the right fuel going. It's the other stuff. It's the story and the acting that to me don't work. And Anthony Hopkins can do no wrong. Of course, he's definitely phoning it in and like you said it, his phoning it in is already better than most people's full throttle. But can we talk about Benicio for a second? Like I feel like he is not giving me much of anything. And I'm also trying to think of what other lead roles he's had where he's knocked it out of the park. Like he's always great as the crazy sidekick. And I think maybe he's not capable of pulling off the lead in a movie like this where there's not a lot to Larry. I mean, he's just this mopey guy. He's supposed to be an actor, but like, I feel like I get nothing from his character.

Unknown Speaker  21:53   He's definitely trying to, I believe, especially with his haircut and everything, which is not terribly flattering on him. He's got a sort of like almost bowl cut,

Unknown Speaker  22:04   like a Caesar cut. Yeah, that was was that the style at the time? Was that cool?

Unknown Speaker  22:08   Or it was? I don't think so. He looks a little puffy. And he's kind of looks a little overweight. So I think he was trying to actually invoke Alon Chani Jr, who played the Wolf Man in the original. I mean, he was a huge, huge fan of that movie. But I also think he might be a little checked out because I think he was very supportive of Mark Romanek. And when I think he was a little upset that, you know, they switched out directors, and, you know, he may have been sort of checked out. We need

Unknown Speaker  22:45   to have a term for that, like, you know, like Marlon Brando with Island of Dr. Moreau when an actor gets ditched by the director, and then just phones in the movie, like, Can we call that something? Well, but I don't know.

Unknown Speaker  22:56   I don't I wouldn't compare those two because Brando and Island of Dr. Moreau is crazy. Right? Right. Like, does whatever

Unknown Speaker  23:04   you want. Well, he Benicio should have done that, you know, that would have been more interesting.

Unknown Speaker  23:08   Yeah. I think he's got his moments. I think we know when he's getting ready to change and stuff. I think he does good. But I agree, when we're doing the sort of straightforward stuff and he's just trying to be sort of, you know, mysterious romantic lead. It doesn't really work. And I don't think that that's his, his wheelhouse. No,

Unknown Speaker  23:28   I was fine with it. I just I think but also, I'm just like, such a fan of his I really like him a lot. So I'm, I'm just giving him a pass. Like, I don't know, I was fine with it. I wasn't looking at him and his performance that critically, especially once I got to see the unrated version and got to spend some more time with Larry lots and lots of more time with Larry so I knew what was uh, what was really going on with Larry. But yeah, I thought I thought his performance was was fine for for what it is.

Unknown Speaker  24:01   Okay, so moving on, he goes to the village to see his brother's body which is being kept in a slaughterhouse. I don't know if that was common for the time or if they just thought it would be a kind of a cool touch. But we get sort of a you know, quick shot of the body and I feel like the gore effects are good. Overall, in this movie, they make a real attempt to lean into the our rating, which I appreciate a lot of the times it's sort of CGI gore and violence, but you know, they don't hold back which I like about the movie.

Unknown Speaker  24:36   I thought that scene was gross like I in my notes I wrote yuck because it was just that's how I felt because I mean, it's our I yeah, I had the same question. I was like as this is how it was done. I was like are they just really hate Ben and they hate the tall but family and they just throw them in here and that the slaughterhouse because this is this is gross. I mean, and they're like you really feel it because it's like, Benicio is like just covering His face and I'm like buying it I'm like, this place stinks. This is this is nasty. And I thought also when they pull it back it was it was good good like it may be the first time it made me kind of jumps is like oh, like it wasn't ready for for that like, though there was some serious wolf chowing down on Ben.

Unknown Speaker  25:19   Well, and I think you might have a point about the town's folk, because in the next scene, we go to the pub, and the town's folk are sort of talking about the brother's death. And you know, Larry's there at the, in the corner at a table and he's, you know, hearing them talk. He looks a medallion that he found on his brother, which isn't very well explained. The townspeople are blaming the Gypsy, and we you know, we get a werewolf story. You know, a lot of this reminded me of the pub scene and American Werewolf in London. Absolutely. Now in the unrated version, one of the guy starts talking smack about the family, you know, talk smack about his mom going crazy. And Larry, the scene ends with Larry throwing a drink on the guy, which, again, I felt this made the scene better in the theatrical cut. It's just the scene. He doesn't interact with him at all. He's just sort of sitting there. So I felt like the unrated cut at least shows you Oh, he doesn't get it. He doesn't like the villagers. They don't like his family. This is probably why he left and puts a nice button on that point.

Unknown Speaker  26:26   Yes, I agree. Because Yeah, and the theatrical he's just sitting over there kind of just sulking and listening. And the townspeople are also alluding to the fact that it might you know, it might not have been a beast it could it like they're kind of talking about seems like they were I think they're talking kind of about like jack the Ripper or something like that. I do remember they're kind of talking about that there's there's a mentally unstable, you know, man that could have done this or something.

Unknown Speaker  26:52   Right. And wasn't a Hugo Weaving, like was his last case was the Ripper. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  26:57   yeah, he was. Yeah, he was on the Ripper case, which Yeah, Larry kind of needles him with because obviously, they never caught jack the Ripper. So

Unknown Speaker  27:06   and I think like they were also kind of alluding to Larry's mental state, which we learn more about later.

Unknown Speaker  27:13   So this this whole pub talk, and you reminding us that you know, this happened in American Werewolf in London. And how it's, it's pretty much the same scene, same beats, you know, beware don't go out and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, trying to be spooky warning. But I feel like it there's no twist on it. You know, in Frankenstein, and in Dracula, the mo was, let's go back to the book. Let's go back to the source. Let's let's do it really was in the book that in because it's never been done. beholden to the book, The way we're gonna do it. And that was what they were thinking. Whereas with Wolf, man, what was the mo here, you know, to be beholden to the old movie, because they're just retreading all these cliches without adding anything new to them. I feel like they're, they're just, you know, are here's the tip here, we're gonna do the Wolf Man story, the way it would be as if it were a cliche. And you're like, well, so why All right, I guess we get some better special effects. Get some good actors get some good lighting and production design, but there's no imagination, there's no umph to it to me.

Unknown Speaker  28:21   Well, they're I think they're just trying to update the whole thing for a modern audience who don't want to go back to the 1941 and watch it. But to your point, they're kind of taking from just werewolf movie history and kind of throwing it all throwing it all in there because they don't have a book source. They do. You know, there is no novel of the Wolf Man. The 1940s movie was the original version of it. So you know, I kind of see what they're doing. I feel like they're just trying to sort of update Yeah, Gothic werewolf movie as an abstract, not as a specific thing. Got it. Now in the unrated cut, we get a dinner scene with dad, Gwen, Larry and the Kim fail sheet See, doesn't get introduced at all, or he gets really barely introduced at all in the theatrical version. He's just sort of standing in the background. And they dine on baked eel, which is just about the grossest thing I can imagine. I can't think of anything that I'd like to eat less baked eel. And they talk about the superstitious villagers. And we get a real sense that there's tension between dad and Larry here, which I like and it gets really uncomfortable for Gwen and she leaves. I appreciated the scene because it set up more of the dynamics dramatically.

Unknown Speaker  29:46   Yes, I appreciated this as well. Also with his, I believe he called him his manservant, the Kim Valle. Seek. I that was another thing we're like in the future. conversion. I was like, when did we meet this guy like it happened so fast with him and that the electrical version I was like, Wait, what? What's going on here? And you

Unknown Speaker  30:09   want to know who he is yours that guy?

Unknown Speaker  30:11   Yeah, no, you definitely want to know who he is. So yeah, I appreciated more of him. The seek is another thread that just never pays off.

Unknown Speaker  30:20   Did you see in the unrated cut when he picks up the guitar and starts ripping on some Soundgarden,

Unknown Speaker  30:26   I would have loved to have seen that.

Unknown Speaker  30:28   Now, in the theatrical version, they cut right to the manor. And, you know, there's this sort of awkward scene where Larry goes to Gwen's door and he's like, Hey, I'm here. And I know, when you've seen the unrated, you can see that this is a scene they threw together to sort of set it up that they've met. Yeah, at this point, because, you know, she's in the theatrical she's only written him a letter. But there is this weird thing where the letter she wrote, keeps coming up, again, in the unrated version, which didn't happen in the unrated version. So when a mess, yeah, like as an editor, I think it's interesting to have you on this conversation specifically, Chris, because you are an editor. And you've probably been involved in some projects where they've had to sort of cobble things together from different versions definitely

Unknown Speaker  31:21   obviously just left in and they're like Foghat who cares. And you know, I'm sure it made sense in like, probably like, the first, you know, maybe two and a half hour cut of it, and then they just kept chopping away. And then who knows who they brought in to do a hack job, but I'm sure a lot of those threads were left in and they just, instead of, you know, in that in specifically in that scene, if you look where he meets, I think it's the theatrical cut where he meets her for the first time in the hallway. A lot of his dialogue is on her. So it's just ADR him saying, like, I got your letter, very nice to meet you. And you can totally tell that they just ADR, those lines into shoo in that he is meeting here for the first time there. So yeah, this, it's definitely a mess. And there's a lot of those things that I think people just wouldn't notice on our first viewing. But now we're analyzing it. Yeah, you're like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker  32:16   no, I wouldn't if I only watched the unrated cut, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. It's just because I'm familiar with both versions. What what I find kind of weird about it is that you would assume the unrated cut was closer to say the assembly directors of the assembly cut and then they whittled it down. But she talks about the letter in the later scenes in the unrated cut so it's almost as if they made the decision to cut it down while they were still filming

Unknown Speaker  32:47   it. Maybe it was like a bigger even bigger thing where she wrote him a letter then went to visit him then you know, like so it's probably a thing on the thing on the thing. And then they were just like, let's all just cut it out. And

Unknown Speaker  32:58   I think that would have made sense since actually Chris because it would have like that she could have written him first and then he didn't respond and then she went in person, because you know, he wasn't responding. The other thing that I wanted to point out about when she does when he goes to her door, is that her maid or lady and waiting or whatever you want to call her is Yara Greyjoy Did you notice that? No way from Game of Thrones? Yeah, I was like, Oh my God, that's the Greyjoy sister tiara,

Unknown Speaker  33:28   which was like can you miss her? She disappears I think

Unknown Speaker  33:31   you might get her on one more scene like but very very brief.

Unknown Speaker  33:34   That's like the only reason for me to go back and watch

Unknown Speaker  33:38   Yeah, we're giving away your hand Chris

Unknown Speaker  33:42   and just to touch upon Emily Blunt now you know i think you know she's well cast in this movie. I guess she does a really good job considering what she's been given which I think is a pretty thankless role. There's not a lot to it but I mean, she gets some moments to cry and stuff and I you know, I think she delivers I think a case could be made for the her being the best for sure in the movie. I agreed.

Unknown Speaker  34:08   Let me bring up one more point about just the brothers story in general like why I don't maybe this is originally in you know, in the original Wolf Man, but it just makes no sense to have this brother standing in the way of a the love story, all of it just like why doesn't Why don't they just give the story to Benicio and have him be in love with her. And it's like this trifecta between him and Anthony Hopkins. It just seems to be a step too far.

Unknown Speaker  34:34   The brother is just a plot device to get him

Unknown Speaker  34:37   but he's so important because it's like oh, that's Emily Blunt's you know, fiance and all this stuff where it just seems like they could have figured out a different way of doing it. You know, it seems like

Unknown Speaker  34:47   a gothic romance kind of thing. You told Oh, the dead brother, you know, okay. It adds a layer of you know, sadness to it.

Unknown Speaker  34:58   They just need to do it. It was I agree they just needed to get him as far as like the why why that's important is just like because it comes to you know, to light later about you know how much she hates his father and how much he hates this town and like wouldn't come back so it's like and and again if we you know if we do believe that there was a letter and then there was her going there and you know, I mean there could have always been some sort of kind of thing between them because yeah, it's the whole Gothic like, you know, longing and all that stuff. Yeah, but yeah, it's just I think it's totally just to get him back home and to just make it the most dysfunctional family ever. We pretty much and worst dad award of all time. Yeah, we'll come to find out later.

Unknown Speaker  35:47   And I will say this. I don't think that Benicio del Toro and Emily blonde have sizzling on screen chemistry. On speaking of worst dad award, we get another scene with Talbot and his dad and Anthony Hopkins looking out the telescope to the moon. Again, the telescope is a reference to the original film. His dad in the original film, who was played by Claude Rains is fascinated with his telescope, but the telescope never comes into play later. So it's yet another sort of reference that doesn't have a real point in the story.

Unknown Speaker  36:25   That scene I do love that Anthony Hopkins takes the time to blow out almost every single candle that he has in the room which I'm like you know what fucking a that's realistic you know like with the production design like this year like how many freakin candles does this guy have and they show him like you know what, it's time to go to bed this was a ritual we used to have I would you'd have to sit here open up this thing blow inside put it out and it's actually a fun callback when you see him in his sorry spoiler when if we just jump ahead to his little man cave or wolf cave thing? There's like 8 million candles there and I just kept thinking like how long is it gonna take him to blow these in his gave man it will take a long time.

Unknown Speaker  37:06   It was the family crypt I believe

Unknown Speaker  37:08   Okay, I'm surprised he didn't make his poor Kim fail manservant Yeah, blow out all these candles. But I thought also Chris I noticed the candles as well. And I was also really impressed with like, some of the cool like lantern type devices they have like candles as well like kind of these like kind of mini torch type things. I don't know what you would call it but I was like I thought that was really again with the production design. The attention to detail was was really cool.

Unknown Speaker  37:37   You know that blowing out all the candles thing was was all Hopkins I was like, I need to blow out all these.

Unknown Speaker  37:45   Okay, Anthony, go ahead.

Unknown Speaker  37:48   All right now in the unrated cut, we get Larry going to Gwen's room. But it's a different scene than in the theatrical and he apologizes for making her uncomfortable into over dinner and gives her items of her brothers. It's you know, it's not like a great scene or anything, but it definitely helps sort of, you know, you feel that her character is more endeared to him by it, as opposed to in the theatrical where you don't really understand why she would be endeared to him at all, because they don't even really have any real scene. So again, I feel like it's a better scene. Then we get to one of few sequences in the film where Larry is having a flashback. It plays like a dream sequence but he's not sleeping he's awake. And he's just sort of having these traumatic flashes of

Unknown Speaker  38:42   maybe he took the spice

Unknown Speaker  38:46   and he's playing with his brother and the mother's watching you know they wake up at night and something sinister is going on in the house like in the hallway This is

Unknown Speaker  38:54   where we see the blood come out of the sidewalk I remember that being a very cool image

Unknown Speaker  38:58   Yes, yes, I believe that's where we see that it's all done in this very stylish Gothic kind of look, but it feels a little like they're trying hard to be trippy and spooky and I don't know if it's they kind of go like a little too far I think with some of the techniques, but he goes out into the garden we get a cool topiary had some cool topiary hedges a gorilla which I appreciated the topiary a gorilla, for sure you know in the movie looks expensive. They didn't spare any expense, which is why it's appropriate to do for Tentpole Trauma because they spent a lot of money on this movie and it bombed so I feel that it's appropriate for this podcast no

Unknown Speaker  39:42   doubt and I will say that the night scenes all look like they're shot at night, you know, and the lighting is great. And you know, there's no Day for Night here at all. And kudos to those cinematography for making it look appropriately scary.

Unknown Speaker  39:56   Yeah, I mean, I think the cinematography is is impeccable. I forget who the cinematographer was. I feel that it fits in with the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brana. Frankenstein, at least in that regard where you know, you know, it's high high production value update.

Unknown Speaker  40:15   Interesting. The cinematographer is Shelley Johnson. And he was also the cinematographer for Captain America The First Avenger. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  40:25   yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Because that same director, right

Unknown Speaker  40:28   buddies with Joe, but also what to Chris's point about, you know, bringing up a new agreed with that as well bringing up the superhero feel to some of the film anyway.

Unknown Speaker  40:38   Yeah. And Joe Johnson also did the rocket tear, which was also sort of a throwback, superhero 1940s type of things. So it's kind of his wheelhouse. I can see why he was hired for this when Mark Romanek left the production.

Unknown Speaker  40:51   He was also a special effects guy, right? Did he work on Star Wars? Yeah, stuff. So

Unknown Speaker  40:57   yeah, he was like a Spielberg protege, a guy who came up through Spielberg. Yeah, we get to see a quick shot of a D aged Hopkins with a goatee and the dead mother and it's sort of framed to look like a suicide. She's got a straight razor in her hand, you know, but I think at this point, nobody's really thinking that that is a suicide. The mother having, you know, spoiler the fact that the mother was killed by Hopkins, is really not a surprise at all. You know, even on first viewing, you're like, she didn't kill herself. It's kind of one of those performances by Hopkins where, you know, immediately he's a bad guy, you know, sort of like the sort of like the jack nicholson shining, where you're like, yeah, of course, he's gonna go crazy. He's clearly crazy.

Unknown Speaker  41:49   Yeah, even if you don't know exactly what his deal is, you know, he killed her, like you don't even if you don't know how it went down, you know what I mean? Like, there's more more to be revealed, but you immediately know that he's, he's the villain.

Unknown Speaker  42:03   And in that scene, Benicio, I feel like gives nothing right after you see his mother dead. Like, that was one of my notes. When you see that happen? You think, you know, I'm, I'm reliving this childhood trauma, and it cuts to him. And he's just like, Oh, yeah, I remember that. And I'm like, Whoa, what's going on here? Why didn't anybody direct this guide? Or? I don't know. That's an example of my of a moment where he he failed to deliver for me,

Unknown Speaker  42:29   I feel like it's a little unfair to judge his performance. Totally. Because the the editing is so suspected it but I feel like a lot of the especially the scenes where he's having these flashbacks, they could have been, like, put together from something else. Like I would have to have read the script to know if this was all intended to be in there. From the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  42:50   Maybe I'm reading too much into Larry. And maybe I'm just too much of a Binney SEO defender. But I also think that, you know, as we find out more, you know, sorry, spoiler alert, that Larry spent some time in asylum. Yeah. And they did a lot of bad things to Larry, I don't know if he is even able to have the proper emotional responses at this point. Because I mean, you see what goes on in the asylum. It's bad news. So maybe Larry's just tapped out like this is, you know, like, this is all the reaction that he can muster. Or maybe he just saves it all for the stage.

Unknown Speaker  43:31   Alright, so then moving on, we go to the brother's funeral. There's, you know, more Gothic imagery, then Larry and Gwen haven't have a moment by the waterfall. He talks about his father's cruelty. And then that's, as you were mentioning, Jen, where we get our first mention that he was put in an asylum, and then after that sent to America, this sort of waterfall setting will also come back into play at the very end.

Unknown Speaker  43:58   Yeah, that's where he says, Gwen says, Ben said that you guys played here as children. And Larry says it was our refuge. So we

Unknown Speaker  44:05   find out that Glen is leaving. You know, whatever. This is all happening super fast. It just feels like the scenes are really cut to the quick here. Then we get Lawrence goes off to find the gypsies because he's learned that his brother was involved with them or something like that. And you know, I like the Gypsy camp. It's pretty cool. It's you know, it's about what you would expect from a big budget movie Gypsy camp. Geraldine Chaplin, the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, is the gypsy woman

Unknown Speaker  44:36   I know she's also I know her from Do you guys know the movie with Holly Hunter home for the holidays? Do you remember that at all with like, Claire, I've heard of her name. Well, I highly recommend it. It's really good Robert Downey Jr. and Holly Hunter. And anyway, it's a fun holiday film, but that's where that's where I reckon

Unknown Speaker  44:52   Downey Jr. was in Chaplin.

Unknown Speaker  44:55   Oh, interesting. Yeah, good connection.

Unknown Speaker  44:57   Also on this scene, we get a quick Rick Baker cameo Rick Baker's the famous makeup artist who did design the way he designed American Werewolf in London and lots of Famous Monsters he designed just did he work on this? He did. He designed the werewolf. We get a quick cameo of him here. He's the guy that's just kind of on lookout and he's watching and then he gets slammed by the werewolf really quickly.

Unknown Speaker  45:24   I also wanted to bring up that before we get Larry going to the Gypsy camp, which by the way, we all know is not a good word, but that's just how they use it. And the film. Yes, just disclaimer. I was it's a little puzzling that Larry's Dad, I made a note of this because he's like telling him me like, you know, yeah, you should stay inside because it's going to be a full moon. I don't want to lose you too. And then he says all of that and then it's like cut too. We see Larry riding off to the Gypsy camp like you know, whatever, dad, because he of course he's not going to listen to him. So I guess as I'm talking it through now I'm thinking like, maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology to like to get

Unknown Speaker  46:04   him to go out. It is weird though. The way it cuts right from him saying Don't go Don't go out and I don't

Unknown Speaker  46:11   want to lose you too. And then yeah, he's there he is galloping away another great cut.

Unknown Speaker  46:17   We get the prerequisite in a universal monster movie. We get villagers with torches they show up for the bear because they're they blame the gypsies bear for the attack on Larry's brother. The bear is very clearly not a real bear. It's a CG bear. But you know, we don't want them torturing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  46:36   well, did you hear what he said? He says to somebody says like he doesn't all he does is dance. And I was like, Oh, that's sad to like dancing berry circuses.

Unknown Speaker  46:48   Yeah, but that's like

Unknown Speaker  46:49   somebody said that he's supposed to be an old like bear that's like about to be put out to pasture. Right? Like, I think the pub people are like, there's no way that bear could have done this. He's so old. And yeah, you feel a lot of sympathy for that bear even though he's CG.

Unknown Speaker  47:02   At least they don't have the bear fight the werewolf and get torn apart. Well, that would be more so I

Unknown Speaker  47:07   will say the claws through the policeman's mouth is pretty cool. That was one of the cool dads. I love that shot

Unknown Speaker  47:13   high. high praise for that, Chris. Yes, that that. I love that. I love that kill.

Unknown Speaker  47:19   Yeah, that's, you know, that's what happens the way the werewolf attacks that camp. And you know, we get that shot and a bunch of other pretty fun gore moments. This is when the movie really comes alive. For me these scenes. There's a lot of fair criticism to be had of the film when it's trying to be dramatic, but I feel like when we get to werewolf faction, it's pretty good werewolves. Action. I mean, yes, yes. Guilty of maybe being a little too CG at times. But you know, I don't know. I'm just happy to see a wolf man werewolf running around killing people. You know, I like the way the werewolves run on all fours. At some points. It's a little goofy, but I just like it.

Unknown Speaker  48:02   That's great. It's almost like, you know, in Transformers when they transform to the different mode to go faster. You know, it's like, yes, it's almost like a cheer moment. Like, you know, if the movie were better, you would definitely be cheering at that part. Because you're like, I need to go fast. I don't do this boop, boop. And then it's just great.

Unknown Speaker  48:19   I love it too. It's It's It's total chaos when when wolf wolf thing happens, but it's like chaos in the best way. It's like it's exactly it's like for all the the slow burning that's going along. It's like you really get a payoff. And I love this scene in particular, because you have people screaming, it's the devil. Yeah, the devil. And then yeah, it's just total chaos. And then like he, there's like the little boy or the little girl that like loses or mom or dad or the mom's looking for them and like the kid wanders off or there's just like, it's Yeah, just so much so much happening. And like it's really intense. And like, you're Yeah, you're just kind of on the edge of your seat, literally. Sure.

Unknown Speaker  48:57   But in the in the Extended Cut, it takes like, what 4050 minutes to get to this point. Is it Yes, definite reason why they cut it.

Unknown Speaker  49:06   At this point. You know, we get to sort of see that Larry has a hero in him. He grabs a gun and sort of goes to help people being attacked. There's this one kid who runs off he goes to help him the kid runs off into this like Stonehenge. Yes. Like I don't think it's literally supposed to be Stonehenge in

Unknown Speaker  49:27   England or there's just mini stone hedges like all around the corner in the countryside. I have the same

Unknown Speaker  49:32   exact same thought I was I just was like, is there just one that we know of here in the states are there there are many, many of these.

Unknown Speaker  49:40   Makes me want to live in England even more. I'm a druid No, you can just have a mini Stonehenge in your neighborhood. How cool would that be?

Unknown Speaker  49:49   You know the neighborhood stonehedge you know,

Unknown Speaker  49:51   and it's super foggy and gothy which I love. I'm a sucker for that kind of imagery. I don't care if a computer is doing it. I love it. That's the point where we get that Lawrence's attacked by the werewolf and bitten really savagely on the neck. So we know he's now bearing the mark of the wolf. And the villagers show up and drive the wolf away with their guns. And they bring Larry to the gypsy woman. And you know, everybody's basically telling her to kill him, but she won't do it. She tells them, he can only be released by someone who loves him. And we're all wondering who's

Unknown Speaker  50:33   this his dad doesn't love him let

Unknown Speaker  50:36   him fail. But stitching up of the wound was pretty gross in a good way. That was great. Like what she's stitching it up that was

Unknown Speaker  50:42   with one of those long curved needles.

Unknown Speaker  50:45   fishing hook. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  50:46   that was that was cringy. And a good way

Unknown Speaker  50:49   not to bring it back to Bram Stoker's Dracula again, but there's I feel like with Dracula, you almost get more bang for your buck. Because Dracula can be Dracula. He can be a bat and he also becomes a wolf. And the wolf in that is almost more interesting, because he can do way more things. Even as sex. Yeah. Which is more than you can say for this, you know, but I mean, I guess this is again, doing the classic wolf thing, but I would have liked a little bit even more craziness with with the wolf here, where, what else could he do? You know, but I know they're trying to keep it classic.

Unknown Speaker  51:24   Yeah, but then you'd be dealing with angry werewolf, right? Tell you what you can and can't do with a werewolf. And if you don't think that they'll do that, think again. Because horror fans can be really pedantic about what their movie monsters are allowed to do. If you ever want to find out go wander into a zombie conversation because there's a lot of strong feeling and a question

Unknown Speaker  51:47   Where did the term like isn't lichen, right, that lycanthrope? Like and throw? When did that become coming to use? Because I know what it was that underworld? Is that? Is that where they use it the most? But, you know, was it always around? Well, they call them lichens. Okay. Right.

Unknown Speaker  52:04   I think it's been around since the 1800s. I didn't research it. I don't know. But it's it's a term that's been around a while it's been around before,

Unknown Speaker  52:12   because it's in one of the books where she's researching. And I was like, oh, there's that word again. But like, when did pop culture? When did the movie start using it? Because I don't remember it from the 80s. It definitely

Unknown Speaker  52:22   no, it was definitely being used in the 80s. It was, it

Unknown Speaker  52:26   was it seems like instead, like you know how they go the Batman instead of Batman. They're like, let's say let's call them this. And so we don't have to call them werewolves now. And it just seems like like let's latch on to a new term.

Unknown Speaker  52:38   Yeah, it's a kind of it sounds sort of scientific. So it Yeah, sound smart. Right. When you say it?

Unknown Speaker  52:44   Well, it was first, the first mention of the word according to Wikipedia, was in 60. Ad.

Unknown Speaker  52:51   Whoa, wow.

Unknown Speaker  52:52   Yeah. Okay. So it's a it's a it's a Greek word, apparently. And it's translation. It's leukosis, which is Wolf and anthropos, which is man says Luke can throw pa or throw PA. That's where it comes from. The definition of it is that it's a form of madness involving the delusion of being an animal usually a wolf with corresponding altered behavior. But yeah, so it's been around for a long time. I don't know when it was, like, like subset I don't know when it was first mentioned in films, but it's it's a term that's been around a long, long time. It's used in movies and stuff earlier than you think. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used in the original Wolf Man or werewolf of London, which was the first official will universal were watching not American. Were right London, werewolf and of London. But um, yeah, good research. Interesting fact. So Lauren, Larry is brought back to the manor. When comes back, and like Glenn keeps coming and going. In the movie. It's like, just stay put, when

Unknown Speaker  54:02   the funeral is over. What is she doing? Like leaves?

Unknown Speaker  54:05   And then she comes, you know, it's just like, Why are Why are they moving her around so much in the story, just have her stay there. Who cares? It's a weird, baffling you know, sort of plot thing that keeps happening. You know, Larry's his head is swimming from I don't know, you know, being infected with lycanthropy. And we're getting these sort of dreamy, you know, heroine visions. You know, we get the sort of Gollum looking wolf boy,

Unknown Speaker  54:35   so Gollum. Yes. I wrote down the same thing.

Unknown Speaker  54:39   It looks like they just took the like, they took the Gollum model. Just through some, just, He really looks like Gollum. And you know, we'll later learn what that will boy is and it all it's, it's all fine, but it just seems kind of, you know, thrown together to add some scares or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  55:00   And then this is an again this is this is when Kim sale seek showed up and in the theatrical version, I was like wait, who is this guy again? It was just so like in the unrated. We get so much more of him. Anyway, so he shows up he comes in with a tray. And then you know Larry's like oh take when I thought you were leaving and Gwen's like this place is it's possible to escape. And this is, you know, this is Besides, this is the least I can do. Yeah. And then we see Larry, starting to heal.

Unknown Speaker  55:30   Then we pass over the spot where Anthony Hopkins and Emily blonde pass each other on the stairs. And he just I was just about to bring that up. I love I mean, talk about classic, awesome Anthony Hopkins where he's just eating the apple and just gives her the creepiest stare in the world. I love it.

Unknown Speaker  55:47   Well, that's only in the unrated cut. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  55:50   How could they cut that? But I mean, come on, like,

Unknown Speaker  55:53   yeah, I mean, in in the unrated cut. This whole section is much better because it's really montage in the theatrical and the unrated. They kind of let it breathe a little like, you know, we get that scene, like you said, where they pass each other on the stairs. And you can tell while he's eating the apple that he really doesn't want her there.

Unknown Speaker  56:11   Now, does that make sense with I'm sorry to skip to the end again. But he said, is he supposed to be in love with Emily Blunt? Okay, because there's a certain point where he's like, your brother was gonna take her away from me and blah, blah, blah, and I can't deal with her being away. I was like, wait a minute, what was was he into her the whole time? And I was totally confused.

Unknown Speaker  56:30   No, Chris, I felt the same way. But I think and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it was just because she kind of reminds him of Gen Y.

Unknown Speaker  56:40   Right? Because then the statue of his dead wife looks exactly like Emily Blunt too. Right. So yeah, okay. All right. I guess that makes but

Unknown Speaker  56:48   I had the I had the I had the same thing though, too. But then again, I was like, Okay, this is Gothic, like anything go right. Like the dad could be in love with her too as Emily Blunt. You know, it was like, damaged, you know, like that movie damaged.

Unknown Speaker  57:00   Yeah, you know, now that you're bringing it up, I think maybe you might have a point. And I've seen this movie more times than you guys. And I never that never really sunk in to me because it's so sort of thrown in there. But yeah, I think you know, he does have sort of some weird thing for her because she reminds him of his his dead wife.

Unknown Speaker  57:20   Maybe Anthony Hopkins was like remember legends of the fall? That's the only type of movie I'm going to do where everyone falls in love with the girl all three brothers.

Unknown Speaker  57:27   Well, yeah, it's a real crime against cinema that that Apple moment was cut out of the theatrical a great people needed to see that on the big screen. So Lawrence is better sort of miniseries just kind of seems like he's been on a like five day bender.

Unknown Speaker  57:45   Got a stiff neck right, that scene?

Unknown Speaker  57:47   Yeah, the doctor comes and checks him out. And you know he's healing miraculously which the doctor is clearly unnerved by Hopkins. Dad is kind of being nice to Gwen but it feels sort of threatening now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe he's attracted to her as you pointed out, just a basic like Okay, it looks like he's on the mend kind of part of the story. But we know better. He you know, he's looking at his wounds and he's seeing how how much healing he's gone through. And then Kim fail when they get the real scene with Kim fail seek. And Larry where he's the Sikh is in the dining room or something and he's like loading up

Unknown Speaker  58:33   cleaning the he's cleaning the gun or

Unknown Speaker  58:36   elephant gun or whatever it is.

Unknown Speaker  58:38   Yeah, he was cleaning guns

Unknown Speaker  58:40   and you'll we learn that he's been there. The Sikh has been there since Larry was a kid. His name is Singh. Yes. You know, he shows. Larry is the silver bullet that he's made. Well, he

Unknown Speaker  58:53   says, and then Larry says to sing now that you thank you for remembering his name. He says, Are you preparing for a war? And then sing says Do you believe in curses? Mm hmm.

Unknown Speaker  59:05   Yes. And that's it. This is when we really it's really driven home that sing is the man servant. And everybody needs a man servant. I think

Unknown Speaker  59:14   I need man's servant.

Unknown Speaker  59:16   Now incomes one of my favorite character actors, especially when he's playing a villain Hugo Weaving. He shows up as the inspector not really a villain in this case, but he is an antagonist. Weaving is just basically doing Agent Smith from the matrix here but he's doing like Agent Smith of Scotland Yard basically, it's pretty much the same performance. He goes to the manor to question Lawrence about the going the wolfy goings on. You know, Hopkins is sort of like gatekeeping but Larry's like no, go ahead, let them in. I'll talk to them. So they have the sort of scene in a in the park. Where we even starts off by saying, you know, I've been following your acting career, Mr. Anderson, and you know, starts off sort of ingratiating himself, and then the questioning becomes more pointed. You know, he's bringing up Larry's time in the asylum, and then he brings up how, oh, he's an actor, so maybe he's playing another role, you know, or, you know, this implication that, uh, you know, an actor would be more, you know, likely to be a murderer. And, you know, I think that's when Larry sort of needles him about not catching jack the Ripper.

Unknown Speaker  1:00:38   Yeah, but he's no, he's no Van Helsing from when actually when Anthony Hopkins played Van Helsing, he did bring a little bit more craziness to the role where it's like, everyone's kind of stuffy in this movie, and I feel like this would have been the opportunity for him to bump it up a notch and be like, a little bit different than this like stuffy straightlaced Scotland Yard guy, you know, in Anthony Hopkins, Van Helsing literally humps, Billy Campbell in Dracula, you know, and it's like, Yeah, he plays him totally crazy. And I feel like this movie could have used a little bit more like passionate melodrama over the top, you know, acting just to just to make it more a little bit entertaining. Yeah. Jen, like you're saying like, Alright, so if Benicio is, is a mopey guy who's like, all inward and whatever, you need something to balance that out. Like there needs to be a little bit of Yeah, agree. You know that other flavor?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:29   Yeah. And there's definitely no performance in this that goes, it's sort of in the crazy direction of, of Anthony Hopkins, and Dracula, or of Gary Oldman, and Dracula. Yeah, nobody's nobody's boring it on to that level. The movie could have benefited from a little more. Hey, agreed. Then now then there's some more hallucinations outside. There's another scene with Glenn, where he teaches her how to skip stones. Were you guys swept into the romance of this?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:59   Honestly, that's the one moment that they actually have that I feel like feels human. And I was like, I guess that's it. They're in love. That's it. That's all we get.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:07   That's all it takes Chris. That's all it takes.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:11   Stones a love that will stand the test of time, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:02:15   Oh, I think I might be skipping ahead. But there's that other moment where he she says something to him and then there's a big close up of her lips and he's just like losing control because she's so sexy and alluring and yeah, I feel like that's the one deep moment of sexuality in the movie that I feel like could have been threaded throughout the entire thing. Everybody is just driven crazy because of because they're Woolfson you know, tie it to sexuality and then this whole thing that peeked out for a moment there maybe that was from Roman x you know idea but like they didn't really go go there with it. It's just like this odd one moment where it's like oh, I got to get away from you Emily because you know you're driving me crazy.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:56   He sends her away again Yeah, right that point

Unknown Speaker  1:03:00   go skip some rocks.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:03   But no, he has like yeah, I think that is in the moment, Chris because it's like we're getting his Wolfie hearing and then I think he's like Wolfie horniness

Unknown Speaker  1:03:12   with it's, it's it's very, it's just a few See, it's like a another scene. Okay, it's right. It's right around that area. It's a different scene, but

Unknown Speaker  1:03:20   it's close by where he's like, yes, zooming in on her like her pouty lips and like, kind of, I think maybe even like her chest area or something like her neck

Unknown Speaker  1:03:28   or something. He's like, like the nape of her neck. And he's like, looking at her pulse.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:32   Yes. That's the point of the movie, as Anthony Hopkins will later say is like, it's so good to be the wolf. Let the wolf free. Like, you know, that should have been been nice to struggle the entire time has been like, well, like, it feels good to be the wolf. But no, I can't I know, I can't but where's that touched on in a second? But, you know, I feel like if that's your thesis of the movie, that's the reason why the main bad guy loves being the wolf. And I feel like that's an interesting concept, you know, and they touched on that in what Emily's Hulk. He knows like, the craziest things I like when I Hulk out and yeah, so I feel like that could have been explored and brought to, you know, a satisfying the Matic point.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:13   I think he's got a complicated relationship with his wolf Enos because he's like, I think, you know, he would maybe if he didn't have such the past that he did and the family issues that he did, he might be able to lean into it more, but I think it's because of all this family stuff that's happened and like all this, like, you know, all the stuff that happened to him or whatever, he doesn't really get to enjoy being a wolf. Like we just get, because usually I feel like with the wolf, man, there's usually some enjoyment and then there's remorse. Afterwards, you know, like when they come back down or whatever, it's like going on a bedroom, you know? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:50   But it's definitely while it's on and it's always been a sort of metaphor used in at least in movies. It's often been a metaphor for alcoholism. Yeah. You know drug addiction beat yeah yeah right and I think to Chris's point like a probably would have been strengthened better if we got some sense of being you know for for beneath CEOs care we get it from Hopkins but oh yeah like from beneath to his character that this is can be fun and exciting and exhilarating and you know you get a rush out of becoming this monster and killing

Unknown Speaker  1:05:26   I don't think he allows himself to have that

Unknown Speaker  1:05:29   so you know the villagers are sort of you know gathering up in there you know they've they they think they know what's going on here and they want to take Larry in they have this really creepy priest with them. They show up at the the manor we see them sort of in montage making silver bullets and stuff. We see that the full moon is coming so we know that you know, Larry is gonna wolf out soon. We get a quick sort of scene with Hugo Weaving at the time. Totally not buying into this werewolf shit. He keeps asking for a pint of bitter please.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:03   Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:05   And the lady in the pub is not having it because her husband was killed by the wolf. So she's like, you should be out there looking for this killer. And he says all he wants is his beer. Yeah. And yeah. And she's, she's like, so bent out of shape. He was like I you know, there, there are rules. I can't just hang around here, you know, rules that will keep us from a doggy dog world. And then he's just like, you know, where's my pint of better? I skipped today, the scene where the they show up at the manor with a priest. And Hopkins comes and fires at them with his his gun. And he's like, oh, sorry, I meant to hit you.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:41   He apologizes for missing. Right. It's pretty great. And it's sort of you know, you're it's a weird kind of moment, because he you know, you haven't really seen him sort of stick up for Larry. Yeah, but now he's like, he's sticking up for him. And you know, he's like, my men servant is hiding in the on the roof. And he's a crack shot. Yes. But he's not really there. Seek is not on the roof. It's a bluff. Right.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:03   And that's when he says to Larry, he's like, that's what he says. He goes, you're not the only actor in the family.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:09   Yeah. So it does pay off. It does pay off. So

Unknown Speaker  1:07:13   yeah, basically, we're all just heading towards Larry turning into the Wolf Man, which is what we sort of been waiting for. Basically, dad knows it's coming and he lures Larry out to the family mausoleum. He's got it all set up with candles and everything. And you know, the mom's sarcophagus is there, which is a pretty sweet sarcophagus. Later in a hallucination, we see it sort of, you know, it's this carved marble thing and we see it move and say something to me. It's

Unknown Speaker  1:07:42   technically a wife Kane, isn't it? Kind of Yeah, keep

Unknown Speaker  1:07:46   that's where he keeps his wife. Every good wife deserves a mausoleum. That's right. Anyway, so you know, they go down into the crypt, and we find out that and this is a little confusing, because he like closes a cage door. And you think that he's the dad is going to lock him in? Mm hmm. But I think it's just to separate them like he doesn't we don't see Larry breaking out of anything, so he's not locked in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:14   Oh, it's because he's gonna turn into a werewolf too. Yeah, right. That's where that's where he goes all the time to keep everyone safe, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:08:22   Yes, right. Yes. But usually thing has to come in a lot. I think he gets he has to lock it from the outside.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:28   Yes. That's you know, that's what he says is saying locks me he says that later. He says Singh locks me in every time I change. But you know, I don't want to be locked in anymore. The wolf must must outright and so it's just a little the way it's sort of blocked is a kind of confused, confusing to me, because we see him close a cage kind of door between them. But neither of them is actually trapped in there. Because then Larry starts to change. We get the first real werewolf transformation that we see. It's good. It's see again, it's very CG. You know, and I know I from what I know about the movie about the production. Originally they wanted to do practical transformations and Rick Baker was really excited to do that. But because Roman EC left under such short notice, Joe Johnston didn't feel he had the time and you know, I remember people who were fans of Wolf Man having a lot of problem with that at the time. Let's do CG needs to be needs to be practical and I mean, I agree it would have been better if it had been practical but

Unknown Speaker  1:09:43   absolutely i mean that's that's your money shot right there. That's why people come to see the movie is to see you know, the transformation and if then to that if you're going to make the Wolf Man update you got to do I'm not saying it shouldn't have been maybe it should have been a mix of CG and yeah and practical, but they should have, you know, it's like, oh, I don't have time to do that. Well then don't do the movie. Yeah. Like, I feel like that's, that's an important section of the movies is the transformation. Right? And if you can't be, you know, American Werewolf in London, right, then why bother

Unknown Speaker  1:10:14   here? Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get why it happened. It is a disappointment. And if they had pulled off something really spectacular, it would have been a selling point for the move. Yeah, yes. But, you know, and, and this is, you know, key. This is pertinent to the point of this podcast, I think, you know, the transformation was shown a lot in the trailers. And I think, you know, it was very clear from the trailers that it was CG, and I think that that turned a lot of people off. Yeah, they saw that and they were like, yeah, just looks like a CG mess.

Unknown Speaker  1:10:47   I'll give you the moaning sounds so painful, like waves like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:52   just like, God Damn, that sounds painful, man. Like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:56   he's bringing it there, Chris. He's bringing it. He's coming alive.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:01   And I and I like the things that they focus on in the transformation. I like they show his hand getting all gnarly. Yeah, they show his like, leg getting bent back like a wolf. scenary. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like they knew what to focus on.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:18   They just write the concepts there. Yeah, the

Unknown Speaker  1:11:20   concept was there. They just you didn't have the time to execute it in the way that would have been the most effective.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:27   And along with what Chris said, with the moaning I think the sound was really good for the transformation, too. There's a lot of the like the crack, you know, here the bone. Yeah, it's gross. And then yeah, like, I always love like, when the feet come out, like the shoes and stuff to like, just everything just busting out and just like, yeah, does gnarled and knuckled and, yeah, it's just a it would have been It's a shame. I agree with what you're both saying, if it could have been a mix of CG and practical, I think that would have really been been something that could have been a standout for the film, but, but I think also, yes, that's something that our fans want. But our fans also have, you know, set the bar high with like you're saying with like, American Werewolf in London, or the howling? Like you have, like, you know, these transformations. Can we talk about the way he looks though? Because, yeah, I think I think he looks great. And I know you love him to Sebastian because he looks like

Unknown Speaker  1:12:23   Hold on, though. When we first were watching it together. You said you didn't think that the the wolf man looked very good.

Unknown Speaker  1:12:31   I came around to it though. I came around to it. Well, because of

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   why did you

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   because because I think as we talked earlier about the effects, like there's certain times where it looks better than others. Like there's certain lighting, there's certain things like it just there's times where he looks better. there's times where he truly looks like our action figure, which is what I want him to look like, we have a wolf man action figure. And he looks I mean, I think he's identical to that. But then there was like, the first maybe it was the first shot of him. When we watched the theatrical version. I was just kind of like, I don't know. And it could also be just because like it was more of the the maybe the movement of him as well like being more like, like we said, like more superhero esque or something. I don't know, but later, I don't know. I grew to be like, Alright, no, I'm into this. Like, I like the way he looks now. But yes, you're right. In the beginning, I was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:26   Well, I mean, I brought it up. The reason why I brought it up and wanted you to restate your feelings on that is because you're not alone. There's a lot of people who don't like the look of it. I have friends in the horror community who weren't into the design, and I like the design the reason why I like the design is because it evokes the original Wolf Man. It's an update of the original Wolf Man. And it's also a sort of take on the Oliver read werewolf from

Unknown Speaker  1:13:57   Curse of the werewolf,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:58   right Curse of the werewolf the hammer werewolf movie it's sort of a combination of those two more the Oliver read werewolf and in his clothing,

Unknown Speaker  1:14:07   I love the clothing and for me that that kind of makes it I mean, I don't I'm not aware of you know, the various looks as you guys are but to me it feels like the correct way to update the classic werewolf you know, and when he's got bad vest and shirt on and just the the shape of his head and the way everything looks. Yes, it's, you're like, that's, that's perfect. You know that that? That's him?

Unknown Speaker  1:14:31   Yeah, I love that too. And it's that that sort of vest look is sort of similar to what Oliver Reed is wearing in the curse of the werewolf. Yeah, I love the costuming of it. I really like the look of it. I understand like at first glance it seems maybe a little awkward. But it works for me his he doesn't really have an extended snout like a lot of modern werewolves do it's sort of you know, more compact like the original Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:00   I think it's what I like about it.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:01   I like that too.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:02   Well, to me, there's a difference between just a werewolf and the wolf. Ah,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:06   wow. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:08   the Wolf Man looks more like a man. Yeah, he's a specific type of werewolf. He's

Unknown Speaker  1:15:14   right, man. You know, recently recently, I discovered I think I watched like on YouTube or something about special makeup effects for thriller, and they were mentioning how that is actually aware cat, right? Oh, because he's, you know, they got the long whiskers and it's a flat face as well. And I'm like, Oh, that's why that that stands out to me as well. Is that that? That look is very cool, too. And yeah, and I think I'm on your wavelength Sebastian, where I think it's cool. The design is always cooler when it's more man than wolf.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:46   Yeah. This is when we get the first Howl, which I think sounds pretty great. You know, who was involved in making the howl?

Unknown Speaker  1:15:54   I do. But I'll let you deliver x interior. No.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:58   You did the stuff for Dracula?

Unknown Speaker  1:16:00   No, it was David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons. The clap

Unknown Speaker  1:16:04   the two classiest people in the world. Yeah. I

Unknown Speaker  1:16:07   don't know. And you know, it's fitting that we're discussing this now because Eddie Van Halen just passed away the day before yesterday and was sad, really sad. super sad piece Eddie. So yeah, I mean, I don't know how much of David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons there is actually in the howl but they were apparently brought in to record some howling for the howl. So the villagers try to trap the Wolf Man with this like deer and that sort of dugout trap. But you know, it doesn't go well for them. One of the guys gets pulled into the trap and the Wolf Man messes him up pretty bad. There's some good slashing and gore

Unknown Speaker  1:16:49   we haven't talked about because I think this might notice is I don't know if this is the first one this might be the second one because there's there's definitely a couple throughout the film, the wonderful decapitations this film deliver? Yeah. And yeah, it definitely happens. I think it might happen also at the first Gypsy wolf out but it definitely happens during this time with the little pit or whatever. You totally the decapitation.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:13   No, it happens. One of the guys who is one of the river Yeah, no, he goes into like quicksand or something. Yes. Um, he's one of the guys. He's the guy in the Extended Cut that he throws the drink at

Unknown Speaker  1:17:25   that he has probably his beef with. Yes, yes. Yes. That's why I was talking about was so satisfactory because of now knowing what goes down in the pub. I'm like, Oh, that. That's why Paul had some meaning behind it.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:37   Yeah, that that guy runs into what looks like quicksand. And he gets stuck there and the Wolf Man, Wade's out to where he is and swipes off his head with a claw and it goes flying. And it's extremely satisfying. Yes, I really like this whole sequence. It's action packed and gory and fun. And this is basically why you come to a wolf man movie, in my opinion.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:02   Yeah. I mean, I always could use even more blood. Like when, you know, granted, there's a lot of killing and maiming. But like there's not a lot of splashing of blood like that's to nitpick. You know, I just would like a little bit more splashes

Unknown Speaker  1:18:17   more blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:18   Okay, so then we get the scene, but that's in every werewolf movie where the werewolf wakes up and the next day and he's all covered in blood and rags. He's a human again. I've all been there. Yeah, we've all been there. You know, he's sort of near the manor. I don't know. He's like out in the backyard. I don't know where he is. But he's

Unknown Speaker  1:18:36   inside a tree tree. He's He's in a tree like the trees like hollowed out and he's like, curled up in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:42   Yeah. And dad is there basically like laughing at him like, Oh, you did some terrible things.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:50   Yeah. reminded me of your two terrible Mariel

Unknown Speaker  1:18:57   these clearly delighting in the fact that like he's been on that Lawrence has been on a murder rampage.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:03   This movie had been more successful that you've done terrible things could have been like a classic line. Yeah, you know, if everybody knew this movie, people would be quoting that left and right, you know, after that, nyan that bachelor party you've done.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:17   But yeah, he basically dad basically gives him up to the villagers who knocks him out, then, you know, they they haul him to London to back to the old asylum. And you know, they've got the total cliche German doctor, clearly based on Freud. They put him in this chair, which is pretty amazing. I have no idea if this is based on anything real but they dunk him in a big pool of ice. And like what looks like an electric chair, but it's just an ice dunking chairs a

Unknown Speaker  1:19:47   great image though. Yeah, and like whoever Who cares if it works, it looks like straight up torture, but it looks so cool. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:19:54   we go back into sort of montage mode here which I'm not crazy about. It's you know, he's He's getting tortured. Like at one point he's got like a bit nice teeth and he's like, jabbering, like, I also think that we're supposed to pick up on the fact that time is passing here. Yeah. Which, Jen, I know you had a problem with it because you're like, there's this place is just got nothing but full moons.

Unknown Speaker  1:20:20   I said the same thing like they never show a not full moon. Like, here

Unknown Speaker  1:20:25   it is. I think the montage is are supposed to serve as a feeling of passing of time without like, you know, doing the cliche thing of showing like a calendar whipping by really sad. You know, I mean, it's

Unknown Speaker  1:20:38   a month goes by because he's got a turn at some point. And I believe that they're trying to set up the fact that they all do think that he's really legit crazy. Yes, because he's acting crazy. And so that you know, the payoff later will be everyone thinks he's crazy. And then he's not aware. Well, yes,

Unknown Speaker  1:20:53   Hopkins shows up to hang around his cell as Lawrence is sort of straitjacketed. And then we get the story of, you know, how dad became a werewolf, which was he was, you know, out in the Himalayas or something. And he went to a cave, and the Gollum werewolf boy was in the cave. And that werewolf boy bit him and that's, you know, how he became a werewolf. If you're wondering why that's the story. It is similar to the setup of the story in werewolf of London. The original werewolf movie from that was actually before the Wolf Man

Unknown Speaker  1:21:35   sounds vaguely racist.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:36   Yeah, probably.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:38   There's some feral Asian kid man. Goddamnit.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:42   Yeah, it was racist. We'll just assume it's racist if it's old. And this is when we get confirmation in a flashback that dad killed mom as a werewolf. which is surprising to no one. And, you know, we get to look at the Anthony Hopkins werewolf and the Anthony Hopkins Wolf, man, it's it's pretty good. It looks more like it's CG than makeup to me. I you know, it's just for a flash. So who knows? My guess is probably Anthony Hopkins was not keen to put on tons of makeup. So he's probably you know, they probably had to do it like that, because he wouldn't go for it.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:24   Well, it's also where we learn that this is when Larry says to dad, like you should just kill yourself. And he's like, I consider that but life is too good.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:34   Yeah. I like I like Wilson is awesome. Yeah, yeah. But he but he gives Larry a straight razor and it's like, yeah, kill yourself. And then, you know, so yeah, he gives Larry the razor and then he we see Hopkins leaving this the Siloam. And he's he's jamming down on the harmonica as he walks out.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:56   Yeah, I said to even said to you, I was like, Who is playing the harmonica in this asylum? And you're like, that's Hopkins like he's just like do to do on the little mouth harp going down the

Unknown Speaker  1:23:08   hallway. A little john popper?

Unknown Speaker  1:23:13   Yeah, the character is musical. He's always playing the piano. And I know that Anthony Hopkins always plays the piano and like, anytime he can put it in it, put it into a movie, you know, he even writes the the pieces and then so he'll play some noodle on the piano and there'll be like, leave it in. What is that? He's like, I wrote that. And then so though, he does that a lot, because he's pretty accomplished pianist. Oh,

Unknown Speaker  1:23:37   cool. So that's totally cool. Okay, yeah. Nice. All right, cool. Well, that's good to know. Then we go on to what may be the best scene in the movie, which is the very ill advised nighttime asylum lecture. I mean, at first I'm like, why are they doing it this this at night, but then the doctor says like, I'm doing this to show you He won't turn into a werewolf. Yeah. Oh, good. But yeah, so they're in like a you know, theater, operating theater or whatever. And they will and Bernice CEO, and he's in you know, like, it's strapped down chair. It definitely at this point, we're veering into sort of dark comedy, because the the doctor is, you know, lecturing with his back turn to Benicio about how he's not going to turn into a werewolf and how he's just crazy. And Benicio is like, you need to go get out of here. I'll kill all of you. And and nobody's listening. And then so the doctor is lecturing, and he starts to change behind him. And the guys in the theater are like pointing like like, Look, look behind you. And he just keeps talking. Oh, good. It's pretty funny.

Unknown Speaker  1:24:51   Best don't The only thing that bothers me is that he doesn't kill everyone. I want everybody in that room that it should have been a pile of bodies, man, like That was the only minor quibble with that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All those fuck all those guys.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:06   Yeah, I mean yeah, they did promise everyone would die and not everyone died

Unknown Speaker  1:25:10   and the transformation they do like show his like jaw like snapping and like eath rolling into weird place. Yeah, that was cool it like oh we'll save some weird transformation stuff for this time so that you know you see different anatomy changing

Unknown Speaker  1:25:26   yeah and the first transformation is done in that crypt and it's sort of dark and there's candlelight so you know yeah this is like bright You know, this is a brightly lit Yeah, nothing operating theater and he's, you know, they're really showing you the change.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:40   I think that change looks really good here. Actually, I was I was really like, I was super super into this and just really ready for Larry to fuck everybody up. And it just it looked so much the change. I just I liked it so much better in this in this scene. And I don't know if it was pot, you know, partially because it was leading up to something it was going to be very satisfying. You knew it was going to be

Unknown Speaker  1:26:02   just the sweetest plum. It's all about the scene and wanting to see him go apeshit on all these doctors it's it's a lot of fun. There's a funny moment where one of the one of the doctors is trying to get out and the guy's at the door and another guy's in the door and not letting him out. And meanwhile, Larry's carving through people left and right.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:25   The guy at the door is like like mopping the floors. Yes. Like I think it's locked. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:33   The most it's not my job.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:35   There's some like slightly poor wirework here where you can tell like when he actually throws the the main doctor out the window. Yeah. And it's just like there's no way to him at all. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:47   the gravity

Unknown Speaker  1:26:48   so it's out the window instead of actually being thrown. But you know, it's nitpicky, you know,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:54   it's this. It's the satisfying though. It's still all satisfying.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:57   Yes. Yeah. Oh, and I just love that one part where he I think he's got a big chunk of a guy in his mouth. Yeah. And he just he looks at it. That's when he spots the actual doctor. And then the piece of meat just drops and he's like raw.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:11   It looks like a liver.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:12   Yeah. Is that is a great shot, like that is so good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:16   And they throws the doctor out the window and he lands on the Oh, yeah, that spiked fence, you know, which is always good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:23   skewered.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:24   Yeah, somebody skewered on a spiked iron rod fence is always a winning proposition. So Larry escapes from the asylum, he basically goes on sort of a rooftop chase scene. They have the seat, they have, you know, the sort of prerequisite scene where he like, gets on a gargoyle and howls at the moon. You know, it's an easy lay moment. But I'm an easy lay for gargoyle perches, pretty much like that. whenever it's in a movie, we get Hugo Weaving has clued in to this and he's sort of chasing him on ground while the Wolf Man is running across the rooftop, we get a really, you know, this sequence really sort of highlights this running thing where he's running, you know, along the roofs, and then he drops into the onto all fours and starts around all fours. Again, this moment feels to me kind of like a superhero movie moment, you know, because he's going from rooftop to rooftop, you know, and I can see why maybe some people you know, who are expecting a more sort of straightforward, grounded horror movie might not like this stuff, but I like big budget spectacle. And this is where the movie is sort of delivering on that

Unknown Speaker  1:28:45   for sure. Why Why would you have an issue with this just because it's too CG and too fantastical. It's just

Unknown Speaker  1:28:50   not a horror movie thing. It's you know, it's it's like a like I said, it's like a big budget, it's more of a sci fi or superhero thing

Unknown Speaker  1:28:59   because to him like jumping off of rooftops, or just to be like a big sort of animal loose because me isn't that what American Werewolf in London ends like that. So,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:09   right, but not done with $100 million in computer. Right, right. Right facts. Okay, I didn't

Unknown Speaker  1:29:15   have a problem with it. I was enjoying it. And I just was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:19   you're kind of you know, you're more of a horror fan than a sci fi or superhero movie fan. So like, I

Unknown Speaker  1:29:25   was okay with that. Okay, no, didn't bother me at all. No, I was just like, like, it's been like, it's, it builds up so much to this moment, where I kind of feel like, you know, I know we talked about earlier that, you know, Larry doesn't get to fully enjoy his wolfing. But I feel like for a minute here when he's like going all around London and do I mean, I think he might might be enjoying this rooftops for a minute, you know, like being able to, like okay, maybe this isn't all bad. You know, like there's, you know, the superhuman strength that he has. But yeah, I just, I mean, it's such a such a climax that it comes to With everything that happens at the asylum, and then he's just like, you know, he's just he's just going balls out. So I think they deliver. They

Unknown Speaker  1:30:09   there's a fun sort of little bookend to the scene where he sort of jumps down and he's in, you know, I don't know, Piccadilly Circus or something like that. A train, there's a train car that gets derailed, and it like runs over a dude while it's getting derailed. And you see the guy like, pretty great and falls over on its side, and it's full of people. And the Wolf Man like jumps on top of it. And he looks in through one side window, and there's a really cool shot of him, like looking in through the glass, and then breaks through the glass and like falls into the train car and then start slashing away at people really messing them up. I think the action is pretty well done. Could it be a little better, maybe. But I think for the most part, and this might actually be one area where Joe Johnston was a pretty good choice to come in. Because I don't imagine Mark Romanek would have really cared very much about these action sequences, Drew and Johnston does. I mean, he's not like known for being a great action director, but he's solid, you know, he did Jurassic Park three, which has some fun sequences. So you know, he comes from the Spielberg camp, so he knows what he's doing with action.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:19   And the action is not the sticking point here for sure.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:23   Lawrence goes on his werewolf bender. And he ends up under a bridge as we all have been after a bender by London Bridge, in fact, and he drinks some wakes up in the morning and he's back in his tattered bloody clothes. And he like drinks some really gross water from a puddle. And then we learned that Gwen apparently owns an antique shop or something in London, which is not set up at all. No, but she's she's going to her open up her store for the day. And Larry has I guess, figured out I mean, it says her name on the if you look at the signage on her store,

Unknown Speaker  1:32:06   wait, wait, is this where we learned that? That Mary Poppins and Wolf men are in the same universe?

Unknown Speaker  1:32:10   God? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:13   Yeah, so she goes into her antique store that hasn't been set up. And he's like sleeping under something in their table or some table. And then, you know, they have a scene, he tells her that he knows his father was the original werewolf and she wants to help him. We get more sort of romance moments here, which don't necessarily

Unknown Speaker  1:32:36   that's in quotes, romance, right? No, but

Unknown Speaker  1:32:39   we get it, we get a kiss here.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:41   All right. It was so hot, I forgot.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:45   Anyway, Hugo Weaving shows up and, you know, he shows her the newspaper drawings of the wolf carnage. And, you know, he basically detains her, you know, they figure out that Larry's been in there and they they think he's hiding behind a mirror. And he like shoots the mirror and, but behind the mirrors like this pan's statue, like a statue of the god Pan. I'm a pan fan. Not a Peter Pan fan

Unknown Speaker  1:33:13   and pan Greek god Pan, one half goat the other half man.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:19   Yeah, so yeah, the mirror gag is cool. In the and now in the unrated cut. That's where we get the scene of Larry walking around London. And there's a paper boy selling papers like Wolf Man kills everyone. And Larry buys all the papers from him sort of weird comedic moment that doesn't really fit but you know, and we get this montage as both of them make their way back to the Blackmore mansion, cheese on a train and a horse and stuff. But poor Larry's, he's just hoofing it the whole way. That's right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:55   I'm in through the Moore's looking very for Lorne.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:58   Yeah. And there's, there's like a solid five to 10 shots of him, depending on which version you watch it like just walking. If they didn't do that, everybody like would it just work? could look. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:34:12   yeah. You can't when Gwen is trying to find Geraldine Chaplin's gypsy woman. So she does eventually meet her in a barn. And you know, there's this whole sort of scene where she's talking about how much you know, she wants to save him. And it's kind of like uncomfortably anti feminist sort of moment. You know, where it's like I can change him that kind of thing. Like I can change the abusive boyfriend, right oh man, which was a little uncomfortable there.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:46   Also at this time, though, there's there's a total souped up scene going on with Hugo Weaving. Yes, it right in the carriage and loading up a silver bullets. Yeah, he's a believer now.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:57   Yes, he's turned turned a corner on This Wolf Man, this werewolf business and he's ready to like lay down some silver bullets.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:04   Wouldn't all of London have turned believers after a giant Wolf Man just came marauding like in Piccadilly square. I mean come on what's going on fake

Unknown Speaker  1:35:14   fake news Chris fake news.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:18   There were crazy urban myths going around London in that period there is a famous sort of monster called Spring Heeled jack that would like supposedly come jumping down from roofs and like attack people and then jump away into another roof doing impossible things so that kind of stuff actually happened in London and there was never any explanation for it. I'm sure I'm in all parts of the world but they're famous stories from London of crazy crazy stuff like that so so Larry makes it back to the manor just in time for the full moon but poor Kim fail seek manservant is dead. He's a corpse sort of hanging on the wall. So I guess we're to assume that a pop killed him didn't have any more use for me. Yeah, that was

Unknown Speaker  1:36:08   why I wanted to see what happened to him I mean what

Unknown Speaker  1:36:11   well they sort of set him up as a badass so

Unknown Speaker  1:36:14   yeah, he's a great shot and then like way he's just dead

Unknown Speaker  1:36:18   it is off screen and we don't get I mean we can only assume that it you know it was dad we'll find out when he did it you know Yeah, but it's Yeah, he deserved he deserved it on string screen kill if he was going to

Unknown Speaker  1:36:32   die He Larry gets the key off of the dead seek that unlocks his case full of his trunk full of silver bullets. The dog who we haven't mentioned I forget his name but he gets a nice sort of a big dog he gets a nice jumpscare here and one thing I appreciated there's a shit is about to go down in the manner but Larry lets the dog out Yeah, he lets him go

Unknown Speaker  1:36:57   this the wolf and also let the deer go at 1.2 and chase a man instead of a deer yeah

Unknown Speaker  1:37:02   the deer with when they first try to trap him with the deer he doesn't kill the dog

Unknown Speaker  1:37:06   is Samson By the way, Sam Samson Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:09   Nice. Larry. Here's dad in the parlor playing the piano laying it with bloody fingers. Yes. Little shot. Very Yes. It's the Sikhs blood on his fingers. I don't know. Somebody's blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:20   Well, there's a there's a dead guy on like the chair.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:23   All right. It's the it's like the inspectors pal.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:26   You go weavings right hand guy. Yeah, man. We get sort of Hopkins doing the supervillain speech. It's pretty great Hopkins ham. So yeah, they they kind of have their big confrontation moment. Hopkin hits him with the cane that point it's a little bit repetitive just because I feel like we already kind of got the supervillain speech from dad at the asylum and we're just kind of getting more of that Hopkins starts throwing shit around and this is I love

Unknown Speaker  1:37:54   when he throws that chair it's so badass

Unknown Speaker  1:37:57   but but it's totally what you were saying where the wire work is kind of like suspect like it just kind of flying off

Unknown Speaker  1:38:04   but Hopkins man just like the look on his face and the way he's so nonchalantly does it it's ridiculous but awesome at the same time

Unknown Speaker  1:38:11   I didn't I didn't have an issue with any like I just like buy in that these like wolf dudes have all the strings in the world so like anything is gonna be like just like nothing you know? It's like no, I like it in concept it's

Unknown Speaker  1:38:23   just like technically if you're if you're really paying attention to it yes, it looks a little like somebody yanking a wire and pulling a yeah pulling a piece of furniture off exactly right. So they both wolf out and they do the thing where they like charge at each other and like smash chests to definitely a host matrix C type of werewolf wire fight for for a minute, and it ends with Larry. decapitating dad just great good decapitation, it's you know kind of CG looking but it's it's a pretty good death. And doesn't he doesn't his head like fly into the fireplace?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:05   I know he kicks

Unknown Speaker  1:39:06   him into the fireplace okay yeah, he

Unknown Speaker  1:39:08   kicks him to the fireplace right but

Unknown Speaker  1:39:10   the head actually we see the head kind of de wolf Yeah, it starts like going back to dad but another thing about dad wolfing out and then having the big fight which I appreciated because I was able to differentiate as to who was who was the dad shirtless?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:26   Thankfully only as a werewolf Yeah, that's shirtless. So gwenan Hugo show up and yeah, the Wolf Man bites Hugo which is a setup for a sequel that'll never happen. I think they're you know, the sequel was gonna maybe be Hugo Weaving as inspector werewolf or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:46   I would have watched that.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:47   Yeah, me too. I totally would have watched that. We do get Hugo Weaving in Joe Johnston's next movie, Captain America because he plays the Red Skull. So I guess maybe they liked working together. Who knows. And you know, the manner burns down because that's what manners always have to do in our movies. The Wolf Man chases going out into the woods with the torch wielding villagers following after them because you got to have that universal monster movie. You know, the woods look cool. She's sort of hiding behind some trees and there's lots of fog. And he sort of, you know, chasing, chasing, you see him in the background. He chases or to the waterfall where they had that moment, but not the place where they skipped stones, the waterfall,

Unknown Speaker  1:40:31   where the where the brothers had there was a refuge

Unknown Speaker  1:40:33   refuge.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:35   Yes. He's sort of like, tackles or pushes her down to the ground. But she's like, No, me, you know, me good acting here from I mean, she's good. The whole movie. Oh, yeah. She's great, really good moment here, where she's sort of trying to convince him to kind of recognize who she is, even though he's in wearable form.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:55   I liked that. You could see her in his pupils, by the way that I thought it was. I mean, I know it's kind of hokey or whatever. But I appreciated that.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:02   Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is kind of hokey. But yeah, it's the scene you need to have, yes, the werewolf movie. villagers are coming, basically, you know, he's gonna kill her. But then he, she gets through to him, and then he, you know, he stops, then they hear the villagers coming. And then she shoots him because she's got a gun with her with silver bullets, presumably in it a little. I mean, I would have preferred the cane. But, I mean, why didn't she have the cane? And then, you know, pulled out the knife and stabbed him in the heart or something. And then he, you know, transforms back into Larry and dies in their arms. And they have this sort of, you know, sad, doomed love moment, which, you know, honestly, no one cares about.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:49   I cared. You care? Yeah, I did. Actually, I did. I did actually. Well, that that moment was like, I mean, it was because he, he like kind of he starts to after she shoots him, and then he kind of like turns over to a side. And then he kind of I think he grabs her arm, like a little, a little bit of a jumpscare. But then you can see he's coming back to being Larry. And then he says, that's when he was like, thank you. And he was like, it had to be this way. You know, it's like he was this, you know, now he's tortured guy and I don't know, I I actually didn't care.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:22   I cared. He dies, and Hugo shows up and we see that he's got the cane and you know, again, they're sort of I think it's sort of, you're supposed to sort of think, Oh, this this is he's going to be in the sequel. And then you know, they show the moon and there's more of Emily's voiceover and then we're out. And you know, we've got sort of horror movie style Wolf Man and credits, which are pretty cool. They're, you know, they're stylish and cool.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:50   I can't help but think of, you know, Dracula, where Amina chops Dracula's head off. And, you know, they're this sort of lovers souls that are always meant to be so that makes sense to me that, you know, she should be the one to kill them. But I just feel like they're trying to shoehorn that same story into this by by the Gypsy saying, it has to be someone who loved him. I'm like, Well, does she even say like, oh, for his soul to be fine, or I mean, like, what's the point of that? Like, would he have lived if anybody else shot him with silver bullets? Like, why does it have to be someone who loves him? It just it seems like they're just really forcing a story at this point.

Unknown Speaker  1:43:26   I think. I think they are sort of going to that. Well, they're, you know, I think there's figuring Hey, it worked for Dracula, you know, right. It'll work for the wolf. Man. I definitely think this movie is is trying to capture the magic of in some ways of that Coppola Dracula, that's definitely what it's aiming for. Right. I mean, some people hate the Cobo Dracula, so right. No, it's not like that movies universally loved either. Sure, sure. It's more people like it now than they used to. But I remember back in the day, nobody was hankering for more of that. Well, there's a lot of problems. You know, everybody was just like, Look, you know, sucked, you know, and like, actually, it's, it's not like it was that beloved at the time.

Unknown Speaker  1:44:08   It made money though. That's why they made so

Unknown Speaker  1:44:11   and this movie didn't. So on that note, you know, my sort of feelings about why this movie tanked. Like I said, I think that trailers unfortunately, by showing the CG transformation, I think turn some people off. I think that Benicio del Toro is not the kind of actor or leading man that brings in money, you know, like he's just not. If this had been Brad Pitt or somebody I think it would have probably stood a better chance even though like Benicio, and I know he was really passionate about doing this. I think that probably didn't help. And I think that, you know, when it came out, the reviews were pretty abysmal. And I think that is largely due to the sort of editing, I think that the editing is bad. And I think that sort of hurt the movie critically, I don't know if if they had released, the longer version in the theaters, if that would have been received any better probably wouldn't have been. Because I think like Chris fairly pointed out that I think a lot of the problems are in the script, unfortunately. Yeah. So you know, I don't think it was going to do that well with critics, either way, but if it had been more embraced by fans, then maybe there would have been some word of mouth and it wouldn't have tanked nearly as badly, but even a bigger sort of issue. And I think that we're seeing this with all of these universal these attempts at these universal monsters is that, I don't know if people care about them. You know, like, they've tried now with Wolf Man, they've tried with, you know, a new Dracula. They've tried with the mummy with Tom Cruise. And it's like, there, none of them are hitting it. It's too bad. Because obviously, I'm a fan. I love the universal monsters, but I just don't think that they're big money movies. Now, you know, the recent Invisible Man that just came out, did it smart, because it's a low budget movie. It's contemporary. It's not hinting on your love of the Invisible Man. To sell it. It's, it's just giving you a movie with an invisible man and calling it the Invisible Man. And it's like a, you know, whatever, a $5 million movie as opposed to 100 million dollar movie. So it's, you know, 150,

Unknown Speaker  1:46:32   right?

Unknown Speaker  1:46:34   Yeah, or whatever, if you bring the budgets of these things way down and do these sort of scaled back attempts at rebooting these series and do them, you know, in a modern setting, which isn't to my preference, because I like the cool Gothic setting, but you know, you could probably do Gothic for cheaper than 100 and 50 million How

Unknown Speaker  1:46:56   do you know how much it costs to make shape of water? Because that's, I mean, that's clearly got some creature going on.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:02   Yeah, I mean, but it was probably, you know, 50 million or something, but the shape of water wallet had a lot of design and really rich design and everything. It didn't have a lot of action. The action is what costs a lot of money. Yeah, for a lot of these things, you can have something look great and have it be period and stuff but as long as you're not throwing in like massive action sequences, you know, you're not going to reach that hundred million dollar mark or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:31   But also how much did Anthony Hopkins get walk away with here? I feel like he you know, he was commanding some money

Unknown Speaker  1:47:39   the costs were high you know, and I think something like shape of water, though it's not like cheap it's not you know, Michael Shannon isn't gonna demand $50 billion

Unknown Speaker  1:47:51   right felt like they weren't holding back on the budget on anything here. I feel like they were just like open the floodgates and just make the best movie we can and

Unknown Speaker  1:48:02   there's a lot of good things here though. I like it you know there was the It looks good like I mean it's just it's it's kind of it's it's a bummer and I you know I would love to see the the universal monsters live on I haven't seen an attempted a creature film and that's why I was thinking of shaper water but now I don't know it's it's it's it's weird because like I said, in the beginning my first watch I was kind of ambivalent about the whole thing and then watching closely, the theatrical and the unrated version. I just came to like to film a lot more

Unknown Speaker  1:48:39   Yeah, I think if you were to see this bar if you were to see this movie, you know at a bar with the sound off you'd probably be like this movie looks incredible. Oh my god the Wolf Man Anthony Hopkins is in this Emily Blunt you think this is the greatest movie and then you'd go home rented watch it with the sound and go wait this movie sucks like what what happened? You know because the production design the cinematography all there so so many of the elements are right but then the crucial elements like the story the editing and the direction fail and that's it's kind of like right down the middle where you got half good half bad and then it just doesn't come together and knowing that you know every everybody it went forward with last minute director change will pull the rug out from any production I think so. Just look at solo or and you know, like I mean, like they brought it into port it's not a terrible movie. I you know, it was watchable.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:39   You mean the Wolf Man or

Unknown Speaker  1:49:40   the wolf? No, the wolf sorry the Wolf Man was watchable and is a fine enough movie but especially with the watching the Extended Cut was a bit of a drag.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:50   So you prefer the you prefer I prefer

Unknown Speaker  1:49:52   the theatrical cut because it just gets to the point, you know, gets to the gore and gets to the but I understand why you would watch the Extended Cut, if you were just you want to luxuriate in the feel of the movie because the feel of the movie is, is good, you know, they got the gothic horror thing, you know, we've gone over it and yeah, I just I think that it's just too boring. And they needed to add some more interesting twists and add a little bit more, you know, modern lies juice to it, yeah, in order to in order to make it stand out.

Unknown Speaker  1:50:23   And then also, to piggyback on that Chris was, you know, I feel like, because, and you brought this up to Sebastian, it's like, Who is it really for? Because, like you said, it's not, like, there's elements of it that aren't something that a horror fan is going to really be into, you know, because of more of the action type. Like, the sequences and it's just, I don't know, I didn't I don't know if it was really defined for a person, so or it could have become like, I had a cult following. He other than, you know, having like, the basis of being the Wolf Man, but the actual film didn't have like that thing that it's like, oh, you know, this is what horror fans like, loves. I mean, you kind of have that because you love the way he looks. But like, if if, you know, if, like we said earlier, if like the transformation could have been kick ass, then like, that would have been something that people were talking about, you know, if it would have been at the transformation, or, like, if there would have been some real hamming it up, like, we would have got like full Hopkins, like, you know, being really Machiavellian, like over the top or something like that. there needed to be something that had people talking.

Unknown Speaker  1:51:40   Well, I think your point of, you know, who is this for? It's not quite, you know, hitting the target for horror fans. It's not quite hitting the target, because there's too much sort of slow drama scenes. Exactly. Or for fans of big spectacle action movies, or sci fi or whatever stuff with big money and big production designs not really hitting that target. And it's not really hitting, it's definitely not hitting the target for people who are into period dramas. If that's what you're going for, so ivory,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:17   it is not

Unknown Speaker  1:52:18   I think, you know, it's, you know, yes. They didn't know who they were making this for, which I think is going to be a theme that we find a lot in this podcast.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:29   They made their made it for podcasters in 2020

Unknown Speaker  1:52:33   to dissect

Unknown Speaker  1:52:35   this will be great for them.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:37   That's who this is made for. All right, well, um, that wraps up our discussion of the 2010. Wolf Man, thank you for joining me. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:47   yeah, thank you.

Unknown Speaker  1:53:01   That about does it today for Tentpole Trauma. If you like what you heard, check out our social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Just look for Tentpole Trauma. That was easy, wasn't it? If you like us, hit subscribe, and leave us a sterling review on iTunes. If you dare. If you really like us, head over to patreon.com and get involved in one of our fabulous tiers. You'll be glad you did. Want to communicate with Tentpole Trauma, send an email to Tentpole [email protected] we'd love to hear from you. And who knows, one day you may even get your email read on one of our shows. Well, thanks for listening, and we'll see you real soon.

#movie #unrated version #anthony hopkins #theatrical version #wolf #dracula #wolfman #emily blunt #benecio del toro #frankenstein #universal monsters