#but its just one shot and its onscreen for three seconds

[that-ari-blogger]

Spiraling Upwards (The Price Of Power)

Repetition is the bread and butter of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The series is about cycles of abuse and trauma, and the tragedy inherent in that. It's about breaking out of those rythms, and to do that, it needs to establish what is holding its characters back.

But, showing the same thing over and over again is boring. It's stale, and overplayed, and stale, and overplayed, and stale. See what I mean?

Season three of the series shakes things up. It is a masterclass in twisting a formula to its breaking point, and that starts with The Price Of Power.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She Ra and the Princesses of Power)

The title of this episode has so many meanings that it's impressive. The price of power is what it says on the tin, but it could relate to almost any character in this.

Shadow Weaver finally has her villainy catching up to her (side note, the animation of SW's magic side effect, which I will be referring to as "death juice", is stellar), and it is sapping her life. Catra is realising that her security wasn't as solid as she thought. Adora is making a Faustian bargain with her abuser. Even Angella is weighing up decisions about her family and her kingdom.

Angella's compete lack of willingness to let Adora near the source of her trauma sets her up as an actual maternal figure for Adora, rather than the simple source of authority that she has been up until this point. Remember this, it will come up later on in the season.

That reframes the conflict between Angella and Shadow Weaver's conflict, turning it into mother vs mother, and their ideologies come into conflict. Altruism vs selfishness. And, with that in mind, I'd like to do a shot breakdown of that scene.

The principle I will be using here is screen presence. Typically (I am using the word "typically" here because this isn't a rule, its a generalisation. There are exceptions), the person who takes up the most of the screen has the most control in the scene. This stems from a few places, but mostly it's just that humans are hardwired to associate "big" with "powerful", so the person who is the largest in your perspective has the most power.

Stable, wide shot. Nothing is really happening yet, Shadow Weaver is learning her surroundings and how trapped she is. She is small, and crouched, and boxed in by that barrier and forcefield. Simple stuff.

This shot is diagonal, bending backwards so that the audience can look over Shadow Weaver's shoulder at Angella. The two are roughly equal in screen presence, so the angle sells the power dynamic, mostly. It is a bit up in the air at this point, the audience isn't sure which way this interaction will go.

"This is a prison?" "Why does everyone keep...? Of course this is a prison."

Look who's the largest now. Shadow Weaver looks down on Angella, as she finds a crack in her psyche, and the queen reacts predictably. Now Shadow Weaver has a weakness she can exploit, and she takes control.

We are closer to Shadow Weaver than either Angella or Castaspella, reflecting the immediate change in dynamic. Now Angella and her sister-in-law vie with each other for control, disorganised against a monolithic force.

These two are powerless against her. She frames them in the smallest possible space, her very presence confining them and removing their agency.

This should be Castaspella taking control. She accuses Shadow Weaver of something concrete, but Shadow Weaver takes that away. The camera draws in, removing Castaspella from the frame, literally siphoning off her control of the scene.

This scene wasn't the point of this post, but I felt it needed a little more time, as it shows just who Shadow Weaver is. She is a parasite, who feeds on other people's trauma and wounds. She leads with the fact that she has hurt this woman's daughter, then plays on her deceased brother, then turns that same blade into Castaspella.

It is also worth noting that this is Shadow Weaver at her worst. She has been given a chance to try something new, to gain empathy and healing from people who would probably give it to her if she was honest with them. But Shadow Weaver is two things: cruel, and ambitious. She is awful to the people she needs, in order to get to the person she wants.

That person is Adora, of course. This season shakes things up by changing the trajectory of the arcs. Instead of Catra falling further and further, with Adora managing to climb out of her own trauma, it's the reverse. At least until the end.

So, Adora begins in a good place, and Catra begins at rock bottom. Adora has a support network, and feels in control of her own life, but Catra wakes up in a jail cell, reliving her recent punishment at the hands of Hordack.

This is also the season in which ideologies get challenged most overtly. Starting with Glimmer and Bow.

Bow believes that good people do good things and bad people do bad things. Which is a neat sentiment and I kind of agree. The problem, is that he has associated "bad people" with "the horde", and has rationalised Adora as different because of She-Ra. To his credit, when he is confronted about this, he rethinks things. Bow is a simple character, and he needs to be to contrast with the rest of the cast.

Glimmer has that black and pink morality that I mentioned in my post on Rolling With It. She believes in a very distinct idea of good and evil that doesn't really match up with the rest of the series. She skirts the edge of being an anti-hero at times, which is a phenomenal choice for a story about war. Most obviously:

"Listen up, lady. After all your kidnapping and mind-wiping, I am just looking for a reason to serve up a little payback. So, if you do anything to hurt Adora..."

So, at this point, Glimmer thinks Shadow Weaver is working for the Horde, which would make her a prisoner of war. I'll let you decide what this means.

Adora believes in redemption, and this is where things get funky, because Adora has done the same thing as her friends. She has associated morality with allegiance, and this is a false positive, mostly.

I want to stress that the Horde destroys environments, levels settlements, and definitely kills civilians off camera, amongst other things. I am adamantly not trying to both-sides this conflict and I don't want any of that nonsense in the replies to my posts. What I am saying is that switching sides without changing behaviours doesn't immediately make someone a good person.

Shadow Weaver switches sides to the princess allegiance, but then routinely pressures the protagonists to corrupt themselves and actively get themselves killed. Shadow Weaver does not get redeemed, she gets a sea change.

It is also notable off hand that Adora thinks she has switched side, therefore her own redemption is finished and she has fully healed. But Shadow Weaver still moves her like a puppet on a string.

That is core to Adora's arc in this season and the series, the idea of personal agency vs the influence of others. Adora received a similar change in circumstances when she discovered she was She-Ra, so she thinks that Shadow Weaver will change as well.

What Adora is missing is the balance. Yes, her circumstances helped her, but she made a choice to be better. She was given the information about the Horde's evil, and made an informed decision to become a hero. Later on in the series, this will come up again with the Old Ones and their weapon, and again, Adora will make a decision to do what is right, not what her side thinks.

This is, however, more complicated, because the question of redemption is more complicated than a Tumblr post can properly address. I can try, but I recommend literally any philosopher ever to philosophise. So here goes my attempt.

Anyone can be redeemed, but "can" is the operative word there, not "will". Redemption is an informed choice to be better, and in my most humble of opinion, the truly evil people are the ones who refuse it. I think that She-Ra as a whole agrees with this premise.

This episode sets up a ton of thematic ideas in direct opposition to each other, telegraphing to the audience that the season will go into these in detail, but also that the season will be about dissecting preconceptions.

Most notably, the third season of She-Ra will discuss Adora's idea of redemption becoming more nuanced, as Shadow Weaver actively disproves her premise, and she has to rethink things.

Which brings me to Catra, who is on the receiving end of all of these themes in quick succession throughout the season. For the moment, however, she is confronted with two. Connection, and preconception. Catra wakes up from a nightmare, in a cell. She believes that having friends will only cause her irreparable pain, and as a person who craves safety and emotional security, that isn't a risk worth taking.

Then Scorpia and Entrapta actively try to rescue her from death and succeed. It is imperative to understand that this catches Catra by surprise. She is used to that conditional acceptance that was Shadow Weaver's style, and has internalised Adora's departure to match those behaviours. Hordack hasn't helped.

But here she is, at her lowest so far, and Scorpia and Entrapta stick their necks out for her, and it pays off. This is the power of friendship crystalised in its most pure and realistic form.

Season three centres around Catra almost achieving her own healing, and she does it on her own terms, accompanied by Scorpia, the embodiment of unconditional kindness. In essence, her spiral downwards has been reversed.

Redemption is weaved throughout Catra's entire journey, and while it isn't explicit in this episode, it is still an important element to bring up, because Catra is an explicit link to Shadow Weaver here, as well as Adora.

Shadow Weaver is given the chance for redemption, and intentionally refuses it. Catra is being given a similar opportunity to get away from the place that is directly causing her villainy, and improves, mostly.

It doesn't succeed, though, does it? Neither spiral completes. Catra almost heals, but comes crashing down, and Adora nearly succumbs to nihilism, but manages to claw her way out at the last moment. They try to break the mould and fail, but they rupture the neatness of this tragedy in the act, and if it can be torn, it can be broken.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Ok, here we go. Season three is my favourite season of She-Ra, so this is going to be a fun set of posts to make, because I have a lot of things to say.

This season fully eschews simplicity and revolves around having as many moving parts as possible. Everyone gets an arc, everyone gets a different thing that they are dealing with. Some stories don't even collide directly, but have massive impacts on each other.

This season shows that the story can be subverted while characters try and fail to do so. It's possible, but they can't do it without each other.

There's a storm coming, there's nuance in the air, and the winds are starting to change.

Next week, I will be looking at Huntara. The episode, not the person. I mean, kind of the person, but in an analytical sense. That got weird. Stick around for more analysis of this series if that interests you.

Previous - Next

#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #character analysis #what's so special about...? #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #spop glimmer #spop adora #spop catra #spop bow #spop shadow weaver #spop angella #she ra #adora #catra #she ra catra #she ra adora #she ra bow #she ra glimmer #she ra angella #she ra shadow weaver #she ra princess of power #she ra spop #protect bow at all costs #the man walks up to a mage and tries a card trick that he isn't particularly good at. he is precious beyond all measure #theres also one shot in the entrapta hordack conversation where the lighting animation goes through the roof #but its just one shot and its onscreen for three seconds

[silveragelovechild]

A few months ago I saw a photo of Zac Efron and I thought he looked awful. The normally good looking dude had a bloated face and his lips looked liked they were about to burst with too much filler.

Well, I’ve learned that photo must have been taken during the production of his new movie “The Iron Claw”. Efron must have been bulking up to play professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich.

The movie a “based on the true story” of the Von Erich brothers, wrestlers who are beset by one tragedy after another.

Efron plays Kevin Von Erich, the second born son. He’s good in this dramatic role and he’s a better actor than his Himbo resume suggests. But he hasn’t abandon fans of his Himbo persona - Efron often appears on screen shirtless, just wearing speedo style wrestling briefs.

But I didn’t think the movie was entirely successful. The movie recounts the various injuries, deaths, and suicides of Kevin Von Erich’s brothers. But they are often depicted off screen and in quick succession. As I watched, I thought it was sad, but I didn’t feel sad.

The film doesn’t delve too deeply into the cause of the tragedies. The most obvious culprit is what looks like the loveless environment the brothers were raised. Sure, the boys often talk about how much they love their parents and each other. But the parents come across as emotionless zombies.

Father Fritz (played by Holt McCallany from the series “Mindhunter”) ranks his sons by his “favorites”. He’s another one of those stage mothers who failed in achieving his own dream so he spends the rest of his life driving his sons to achieve it for him. His love comes with conditions that his sons can’t meet.

Mother Doris (played by Maura Tierney) is no better. Kevin asks his mom to intervene when he thinks the father is too hard on a younger brother Mike (played by Stanley Simons). Her answer is that the brothers need to work it out themselves (she’s too busy getting ready to go to church). Later she tells her sons that god loves them - but it’s substitute for real affection.

Another force behind the “curse” is depression that must run in the family. The brothers are told not to cry at a brother’s funeral. So they suppress their emotions, but the impact of the loss didn’t go away. Then when suicide is added to the mix, it plants the seed of possible escape for their unhappiness. (BTW, the movie doesn’t include the actual youngest brother Chris who also died by suicide).

As Kevin falls further down in order of his father’s “favorite” ranking, I kept wanting him to quit his career as a professional wrestler. I wanted him to take his wife and children as far away as possible from his emotionally stunted parents and away from professional wrestling. I think the artificiality of professional wrestling was a major contributor of the Von Erich curse, with its preordained outcomes, focus on brutality, and the condoning taking of steroids. But he didn’t. Three of Kevin’s children became professional wrestlers as well.

A couple additional notes:

Brother Kerry is played by Jeremy Allen White who stars in the TV series “The Bear”. I haven’t watched it (I don’t subscribe to Hulu) and I was curious what he was like as a performer. The jury is out…

Brother David is played by Harris Dickinson. I saw him in 2022’s “Triangle of Sadness” and did not recognize him. He was good but the curse got him too early in the film.

At some point an onscreen title mentions Kevin Von Erich is 6’2” tall. I had a silent chuckle because Efron is only 5’8”. Kerry Von Erich was also 6’2” but Jeremy Allen White is even shorter at 5’7”.

Harris Dickson and Stanley Simons, who play brothers David and Mike, are 6’2” and 6’1” respectively. This explains why Efron and White needed to sit on the fence for this publicity shot.

The real Von Erich brothers:

#the iron claw #review #zac efron #jeremy allen white #the bear #himbo #professional wrestling #Von Erich curse #death and suicide #short and tall

[beeffilledshark]

An unhinged Gundam fanatic brainrots over the new Witch From Mercury OP/ED

Ok, I’m gonna go off the deep end really quick and talk about the brain worms that have infected me after rewatching the Witch From Mercury s2 premiere three whole times (I will likely watch it another three times by the end of the day so either I’ll be following it up or just redo this eventually)

So, I’m very used to the second OP/ED being slightly worse than their predecessors in most anime so Slash and Red:Birthmark (WHICH IS A FUCKING INSANE NAME FOR THIS SHOW) being bangers absolutely fills me with joy. However, let’s talk about some of the framing and visuals they chose to include.

(WARNING, THIS IS A LONG ASS POST BECAUSE I WATCHED THE FIRST SEASON 8.5 TIMES)

Alright. So the Slash op. Yeah.

So first off, of course we have to talk about Suletta and Miorine’s backdrops when they’re onscreen together. The detritus and ruins Suletta is surrounded by, as she’s EXTREMELY capable of causing massive acts of destruction with Aerial, compared to the green pastures Miorine nurtures in her green house and her former desire to return to Earth: upsetting, beautiful, tragic, all of the above. Also, Miorine was the strongest proponent for making GUND-ARM.inc a medical company since she found out about the original intent of the gund-arm system. Of course she would want to stop war and make everything a sunny, picturesque place.

Next elephant in the room: MIORINE FALLING INTO THE DEPTHS OF AN ABYSS

I feel fairly safe in claiming this is purposefully emulating the abyss at Plant Quetta we see whenever Quiet Zero is brought up (WHICH I WILL GET TO) but with Elnora egging Miorine on to finish Quiet Zero, I have a VERY distinct feeling something is going to happen to her while she’s working on this silly little project.

In addition, each shot of Miorine is intercut with clips of Suletta either starting to run, or actually running forward to a brighter place.

I have a distinct feeling this is indicative of Suletta having to save her from some kind of situation with Quiet Zero. The first clip of her fully sprinting is immediately followed by Miorine’s reflection shattering in a mirror. I can’t cite them specifically, but there were twitter discussions/discussions I had with friends that an aspect of uploading a person into a Mobile Suit (see aERIal theory [LETS BE FUCKING HONEST ITS BASICALLY CANON]) with Swarm drones would break apart their consciousness in a way so that each gund-bit is autonomous (mostly brought about by the fact each Gund-bit looked like Eri when the Elan Who Got Evaporated saw them). This is much more of a crack theory, but feels pertinent given how op1 finishes with a reflection of Eri looking at a Mobile Suit control console.

MOVING on, more aERIal proof I feel like I don’t have to explain this one. Hi girlie. Hope you’re having fun zooming through space and killing people.

Now the Elan clip is very interesting for me, especially with the given color palette. Dividing him into two by a blue wall leads me to think this Elan might not end up being a complete shit person/villain. My hope is that Aerial breaking the Gundam’s curse will bleed into Elan’s Gundam somehow, finally freeing him from Peil’s grasp and letting him live rather than be a disposable lab rat that has to follow orders.

Alternatively, it may be demonstrating a Dissociative Personality Disorder subplot similar to Allelujah from 00 or just the fact there’s at least 6 Elans out there somewhere. I’m not entirely certain what to make of this portion of the op, but it’s definitely brain food to munch on for a little bit. I have a feeling my thoughts will mature on this portion as we see more of the show.

NOW SOMETHING I FOUND INTERESTING about the Mobile Suit sizzle reel is the lack of any new Mobile Suits. We still have the Pharact

the Michaelis

and even the fucking Darilbalde which I’m honestly shocked by.

Most Gundam shows will tease new Mobile Suit designs like all the new villains in IBO as well as the upgraded variants of the Gundams (same with 00). Yeah, the three flagship Mobile Suits of the Benerit Group are upgraded, especially with their new weapons, but I’m just surprised there’s no advertisements of the new Gunpla models like the Demi Barding or Gundam Schwarzette which ABSOLUTELY has to show up in this season since they’re slated for a Q3 release by Bandai.

I absolutely don’t mind seeing these guys again since I do fucking love all of the wfm Mobile Suit designs, it’s just interesting to note.

OK LAST POINT TO MAKE ON THIS OP AND THAT REALLY GETS ME is the clip of Suletta running. For literally 4 frames, it looks like she’s about to trip and fall before it cuts back to her running normally again. I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT THEY MEANT BY THIS but I am EXTREMELY concerned it will have something to do with her struggling to move forward. Incorporating my crackpot theory about Miorine being stuck in Quiet Zero like Eri, maybe it’s her trying to rationalize fighting her fiancé in a Mobile Armor.

Final point I would like to bring up with regards to the op are the tomatoes. Originally, I thought it was supposed to be Eri reaching for them (since she was shown in the shot with Elnora previously), but turns out it’s likely a memory Miorine has of her mother given the white hair in the background.

Nothing I can think of to talk about, really, but the fact we actually see a portion of Miorine’s mother is extremely surprising since they’ve gone fairly out of their way to not depict her other than the VERY brief funeral shots.

But to finish the op off, I do love the theme of Suletta moving forward to join Miorine in the light. It’s a great throughline to have for this latter half of the show, especially given the themes and importance they put on Suletta and Elnora’s philosophy. 

Ok, interim break for me to explain my Quiet Zero theory.

The first time we see it, Elnora is giving “Aerial’s network architecture pattern” to Delling to help bring Quiet Zero to its “final stage.”

NOW WITH ALL OF THE aERIal THEORIES GOING AROUND, I really cannot help but think Aerial’s network architecture is somehow Eri’s consciousness/being/WHATEVER she did to that poor girl. So by giving him this, Quiet Zero is going to be able to absorb/take in someone’s consciousness to help pilot it. In addition, the express purpose of Quiet Zero, according to Elnora, is the complete annihilation of war (BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW WELL THAT WENT IN THE ANNO DOMINI TIMELINE in 00) so odds are, it’s some kind of fucked up Gundam weapon that would be able to outclass anything that tries to fight it.

So I’m 99% sure the finale is going to be a Gundam Mobile Armor that will absorb Miorine and wreak havoc until Eri and Suletta Newtype their way into stopping it from blowing shit up with their Super Space Empathy. Other than IBO, all Gundam shows eventually explore the Next Stage of Humanity with Newtypes, Innovators, Coordinators, and even fucking X-Rounders or whatever (I’m sorry I haven’t watched Gundam AGE yet). Plus it was already hinted at by the Vanadis Institute since they wanted to, essentially, forcibly evolve humanity with the Gund-Arm format. Also, the Gund-bits are a given for Gundams in Ad Stella and Almost Every portrayal of Mobile Armor in any Gundam show has funnels or little drones that run around like Hashmal or the Neo Zeong. So a Mobile Armor isn’t really that far of a stretch, just Miorine being stuck in it is.

In any case, my fucked up hope is Miorine goes crazyinsane after being uploaded into a Mobile Armor and Aerial does Permet Score 10 or something where she and Suletta Understand Each Other Without Misconceptions.

OK Red:Birthmark. Ed of all time.

Honestly, this might be my favorite Gundam ed (more so than the 8th MS team, even) and honestly could be my favorite Anime ed of all time. Fucking gorgeous to look at with such a pretty color palette, Sunrise really outdid themselves with this one.

Ok, Item 1: THE PURPLE SPACE BACKDROP. You cannot look me in the eye and tell me this does not evoke the same aesthetic that UC timeline Newtype connections do. Suletta willing this into existence makes me feel that even being a clone of Eri or whatever the fuck, she’s still able to sense or use an evolved sense to understand people.

NEXT UP, AND WORST OF FUCKING ALL, IS BLACK GHOST MIO MIO. WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT DID THEY MEAN BY THIS

This is what honestly made me concoct the Quiet Zero-Miorine theory because there is absolutely no way in hell they just Decided to portray Miorine like a fucking ghost trying and failing to connect AND LITERALLY TOUCH Suletta while she’s still influenced by her mother.

We ONLY ever see Quiet Zero portrayed as a gaping black void and I can’t think of anything else that uses black as a motif or thematic element other than the Pharact, at best (arguably more dark blue/navy than black). Either way, something bad is going to happen to Mio and I fear for that girl’s life.

I feel like I don’t even have to fucking talk about THIS shit

Like alright Sunrise. Is she being killed by Aerial??? Is she turning into Aerial??? Why does she have the Gundam lines appearing on her skin??? IS ELNORA GONNA TURN HER INTO A GUNDAM TOO??? /hj on the last point

IN ANY CASE, this was a fucking choice but is also one of the most beautiful sequences I’ve seen. I also saw a youtube video that compared this to Utena’s sword drawing scenes which I thought was really funny. I’m not really convinced this is a purposeful reference, despite the two shows’ similarities in plot because of the writer, but if it turns out Aerial is drawing power from Suletta or that Suletta is actually the reason Aerial doesn’t kill its pilot because she’s a Witch From Mercury Newtype, then I’m gonna break my keyboard. Maybe the Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercurys were the ones we made along the way.

In any case, Aerial’s influence on Suletta and it directly leading into her losing Elnora’s headband and her hair falling feels like there will be a direct consequence of letting Suletta interact with Aerial so personally and directly. My hope is that Aerial will be the reason Elnora’s brainwashing finally fails and Suletta will be able to make her own decisions for herself and choose to do what she wants to do. The headband was established as Elnora’s sway over Suletta WAY early on (like episode 3 or whatever where we see Suletta getting dressed and putting it on while talking to her) so I feel like this climactic moment may be tied to. the Miorine. quiet zero theory.

Ok, now this just turns into me fawning over how utterly stunning this ed is. I really cannot express how much this animation appeals to me, combined with the colors and her dress GOD it just feels so perfect. She’s like a witch controlling the gund-bits but instead of using them to fight, she creates art and beauty, something Suletta has been striving for since the formation of the GUND-ARM company with Miorine. Critically, she believes Gundam and Mobile Suits can be made to help people, not just to commit acts of violence like the Earth Witches think.

Like, I can’t really add any theories here. It’s just amazing. 

Also, FUCK OFF WITH THE DRAKENGARD 3 REFERENCE. IT MIGHT BE A BIT OF A LEAP BUT IT’S AWFULLY FUCKING STRIKING AND I CAN’T DEAL WITH IT.

Regardless, more fodder for the Miorine Mobile Armor theory with this shot. It has to be intentional with this coloring, Please let me know if anyone has an idea what else her being in black could possibly mean, I am genuinely interested to hear people’s thoughts.

The rest of the ed is just these bitches being gay as hell. I’m including screenshots because they’re my little guys and I like seeing them happy.

Also they’re fucking pendants with each others’ hair color FUCK YOU IM GONNA CALL YOU BOTH SLURS

Also, slightly frightening pose for Miorine to adopt while they’re spinning. I feel like it’s either her putting her trust and faith in Suletta that she won’t let go or it’s representative of her being put in a meat grinder.

Alright, final note: Aerial looking like the 0 Gundam in Setsuna’s memories from 00. Alright. Just store these two lesbians in your heart and keep them there I guess. Fuck you. ALSO dazzling, I can’t talk about how much I love the visuals of this ed.

And the fucking hand tremble ARE THEY BOTH SCARED WHY THEY’RE IN EACH OTHER’S GRASP IM SO TERRIFIED

TLDR OF THIS DUMB ASS POST; IM VERY NEURODIVERGENT AND VERY HAPPY

The new op and ed of this show is wholeheartedly magnificent. It packs so many visuals that are ripe for theories/analysis and this is just my insane take with what Gundam I have watched (basically wfm, ibo, 00, and a splattering of UC timeline stuff). I’m absolutely sure people with different Gundam experiences will find either marginally different, to COMPLETELY different ideas/meanings from these clips, but this is just something I wanted to type up instead of doing work askjdasfkasf.  This doesn’t even touch on any of the lyrics and how that ties into the show, but I’m absolutely certain it will kill me when the translations find their way onto my dash.

Also I need to spread Mobile Armor Miorine to any one else who’s insane enough to think it might happen as well <3

if you made it this far, thank you for listening to my fucking batshit rant we’re almost 2.25k words in Jesus.

#mobile suit gundam #witch from mercury #witch from mercury spoilers #wfm #wfm spoilers #gundam #miorine #suletta

[linkspooky]

Hello!

I was wondering what inspired you to have Mimiko and Choso interact in Werewolf?

They are two characters I would never thought would interact, but I absolutely love their interactions and friendship throughout the fic. It’s like the Nanako-Mimiko-Junpei friendship that I deeply love!

Is one the reasonings is to give Choso a sort of found family?

Sure, I can give you a peek into my chaotic story planning process. So, as I've said previously before I even start a fic I jot all my ideas on paper. Basically just scenes I think would be cool or things I want to happen in the story. Brainstorming is obviously different than an outline though because you can't shove every single idea you have into a story, otherwise the story will be too long.

So in the outlines I try to be as efficient (read: lazy) and cut scenes and characters down, basically how can I tell the story in as few scenes as possible (every scene I cut I don't have to write, which saves me a lot of work yay!)

Werewolf and its prequel Three's Company basically started with the thought "I don't have a lot of female characters in my fic, I should write some more female focus fics." Then, Werewolf became "The Mai Fic". It didn't really materialize until I watched the Fear Street Trilogy, and the second movie ended on a shot of two sisters who were complete opposites and spent all their time fighting with each other spending their final moments reaching out for one another. All the chapters in Werewolf are named from tracks on the Fear Street soundtrack because of that inspiration. So basically it goes Ideas -> Characters -> Scenes -> Exposition and in between parts.

The plan was always to include Choso in the fic, because of two reasons number one Nobara never really had to face the fact she murdered Choso's brothers and felt very little guilt about it unlike Yuji, and second it's timeline wise takes place right after Origin of Obedience. Also, since my previous fic Butterfly Curve took a deeper look at Mahito, I wanted to feature Choso in a fic. The idea of making Noranso the main antagonist literally came from my friend going "It's kind of lame Choso has six other brothers but we're never going to meet them because Gege doesn't think they're important."

In my original draft for Choso's involvement in the story he was not going to spend time with Mimiko at all. The first plan was that Choso, Mahito, and the curse spirit Non/Not-Mai would all be visiting the village together and act as a secondary antagonist to Noranso. This idea got axed for two reasons, one it would be a pain to write three characters every time that trio was onscreen, number two I couldn't come up with a good enough explanation for why Non was still alivein some form after the end of the Junpei fic because that was sort of her final hurrah.

The next idea was to have Mahito and Choso together, to contrast their different beliefs of what a cursed spirit is, and what humans are. Mahito considers himself a "true" cursed spirit and despises humanity and human values, whereas Choso is ambiguous on whether he's human or a curse, neutral to humanity, and values his connections to his brothers in a really humanlike way. This idea got cut because I like Mahito. No, I really like Mahito. I know everyone hates Mahito, but that's exactly what I like about him. I wanted to make Choso the focus of this fic, the same way Mahito was the focus of my "Butterfly Curve" fic, but if I shoved Mahito into this one I knew he would take focus away from Choso. So I cut Mahito.

The third idea was to send in Choso alone, but I thought we already kind of had a scene like that in Shibuya, we saw Choso revenge driven and alone and fighting against Yuji. I didn't want to just copy that scene exactly but with Nobara instead of Yuji. So from then on I needed two criteria for Choso's inclusion in the fic, 1) it had to be someone he played off of well, 2) someone who wouldn't draw attention away from him.

That's when I decided to throw Mimiko in. Number one because I have used Mimiko and Nanako as a pair of twins to contrast Maki and Mai's relationship before. Mimiko being the weaker sibling between the two, needing Nanako to boss her around and make all her decisions for her resembling Mai always needing to be protected by Maki when they grow up together. Mimiko and Choso also resemble each other, they're both really morose, quiet, they're kind of broody outwardly, while hiding deeper emotions inside themselves.

Then I realized there was a deeper connection there, because Choso and Mimiko are both entirely codependent on their blood siblings. They were both abandoned by their parents so their blood siblings makes up their entire connection to the world around them, Mimiko and Nanako pretend they're the same person divided into two bodies so they won't ever lose the connection they have as siblings, and despite how much Choso genuinely cares about his siblings he's also like kind of delusional about his family like he imagines them in his head constantly cheering on big bro and imagines a more wholesome family than he really is. For example, Yuji is kind of neutral on Choso though he shows him some affection whereas Choso would die for Yuji in an instant.

So my idea was to have these two characters interact to show you can move away from blood family as the only family you're ever going to have. Mimiko has already taken the first step in this. After losing Geto her and Nanako thought there was no one else in the world who would take care of them, but then Michi made taking care of Mimiko and Nanako his only priority, and they were able to befriend Junpei which showed they can make connections with people outside of their closed off little family. The idea was also to continue Mimiko and Nanako's arcs from previous fics by having Mimiko just learn to function on her own by going solo the whole fic. Therefore to show this slight change in Mimiko's thinking, number one she goes out of her way to do something kind for Choso in their very first interaction because 1) she notices how much Choso is suffering from the loss of his siblings, and 2) she understands that loss because number one if she were to lose Nanako it would destroy her, and two she lost Geto who was the most important person to her besides Nanako.

Choso is in the middle of what is basically a desire for murder-suicide against the two people who killed his brothers because he believes he cannot live past the loss of them, and that was something Mimiko once belived that she couldn't go on without Geto and yet she made new connections to Michi and Junpei. Therefore when Choso has his big moment of attempting that revenge against Nobara that he's willing to die right then and there fore, it's Mimiko who pulls him back from the edge and literally heals him with RCT.

I also wanted to write a fic more focused on Choso's mourning of his brothers, because that was essentially kind of skipped over because he focused more on revenge than feeling his sadness at the loss of them, so in this fic Choso is essentially called upon to feel his sadness around someone like Mimiko who understands his loss. Mimiko realizes that Choso may act like the oldest brother, but deep down he's just a crybaby.

#choso #mimiko hasaba #authors notes #fanfic asks #nobody dies au #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #askspookies

[boattonki]

Ryan adams midnight wave 2017 podcast

#Ryan adams midnight wave 2017 podcast movie#

#Ryan adams midnight wave 2017 podcast movie#

The trauma buried deep in Fox’ subconscious has been there for many years. You have never seen anything quite like Jennifer Fox’ “The Tale.” Sure, the film has relevance due to today’s #Metoo and Time’s Up-driven zeitgeist, but the artfulness that comes with this movie is second to none. Memories blur which makes this bold and brave movie always a step ahead of us as it feels like a confessional from someone that is discovering herself through art. Driven by a soulful, brave performance from Laura Dern as Jennifer Fox, she has to give so much of herself here that this damn near qualifies as one of the bravest female performances ever given onscreen, who else could pull this off? This is a messy and ambitious effort about the traumatic sexual experiences Fox had when she was just 13-years-old, raped by a man she thought she was in love with. However, any thought that this would be a by-the-books movie would be sorely mistaken. Jennifer Fox won the grand jury prize at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival for her documentary “Beirut: The Last Home Movie.” The Tale comes as her first narrative feature. In fact, eight of the ten movies I included in my top ten of the festival were led by a female performance, five of the ten films were directed by women. The cinematic female voices that were being shown on-screen resonated throughout town. More than 32% of this year’s films were made by women, a festival high and you could feel the difference everywhere you went. I saw close to 50 movies at this year’s festival, many were inconsequential and non-starters, but that’s always been the case here, as Sundance is a festival which aims to give first-time filmmakers a shot, despite the rookie mistakes that may arise from such a venture. This year’s crop of Docs that will surely make waves include Robert Greene’s “Bisbee ’17,” Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” RaMell Ross’ “Hale County,” Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers,” Alexandria Bombach’s “On Her Shoulders,” and Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” which told the touching, humane story of Fred Rogers. If you were adventurous enough to look beyond the premieres at the 1500 capacity Eccles theater, you would find incredible independent cinema, made by tomorrow’s visionaries, stamped all over the festival’s NEXT section, or even the Documentary sections which have become a hotbed for Oscar-nominated non-fiction, just this year 3 of the 5 Best Documentary nominees made their premieres at Sundance in 2017 (“Icarus,” “Strong Island,” and “Last Men in Allepo). No, if Sundance 2018 proved anything it was that the festival had reached a point in its history where it was damn near impossible not to find great movies scattered through its program. There was all that and so much in more in artfully rendered midnight entries such as “Hereditary,” and “Mandy,” which has Nic Cage avenging his wife’s murder in ways that are too good to reveal. This is the year the midnight section came to be more than an excuse to shock, horrify or disturb. And yet, if you could burst out of that bubble, and look beyond the major premieres that disappointed, you would find gem after gem. The 2018 Sundance Film Festival might just be remembered as the festival that preceded the incredible 38th edition, where some of the best movies of 2017 had their debut (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Get Out,” “The Big Sick,” “Mudbound,” “A Ghost Story,” “Columbus,” “Wind River.”) This 39th edition has, more or less, been seen as a disappointment for many, there was no movie that could unite all journalists attending this year’s edition.

#Ryan adams midnight wave 2017 podcast

[ave-aria]

Rewind

Ectober Week 2020 Day 3: Rewind Summary: Maddie can't believe what she's seeing on the security tape. In shock, she hits rewind. Tags: Reveal fic, Blood, Angst, Implications of character death, Tragedy, Trauma, Oneshot

-

Rewind.

Maddie keeps her eyes on the tv screen as the figures wind their way backwards to the start of the video. She won't look away. Can't. Doesn't dare.

If she looks away, she'll have to focus on something else. The quiet, dusty lab around her. The uncleaned ecto-weapons by the door. The green blood smattered on the blade.

The hollow, empty house looming over her head…

The video hiccups a bit as she hits the start of the feed. Old VHS tapes are odd like that, buzzing out with static where the film wore thin from too many pauses and restarts. It's a sign she's hit the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

It was an old security tape, filched from the lab. Onscreen, three teenagers, her son at the lead, slip into the camera's field of view. Maddie leans closer, enraptured by the movement, even though she's seen this moment enough times to have it seared into her brain.

Maybe, if she focuses hard enough, she can learn the secret - how to rewind her own mistakes, go back to a time when none of it has happened, just like in the video.

"Whoa, check it out! This thing's huge! I can't believe your parents built this!" A pause, while the kid adjusts his glasses. "Bummer that it doesn't work though, dude."

"Damn. Was it really supposed to open a portal to the underworld?"

"It's 'The Ghost Zone,' Sam. And yeah. My parents were pretty heartbroken when it didn't work. It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

The detached, clinical angle of the shot doesn't do the moment justice. Danny'd always been such a kind boy, thoughtful and empathetic to a fault. Maddie's throat closes up a little, leaving her struggling to breathe. They had been upset. Unbearably so. Their life's work - as Danny put it - fizzled out before their very eyes. It'd been a hard loss to take, one that she and Jack might never have recovered from, had the Portal not miraculously started working on its own, days later.

God. Now she almost wishes it hadn't.

A bright flash draws her from her reverie. Maddie blinks at the screen. A camera flash. In her distraction, she's missed part of the video; Tucker's casual "Lighten up, dude,", Sam's request for a photo op, Danny grabbing a hazmat suit to pose with while she dug the device from her backpack.

"—Got it," Sam waves the printed Polaroid to air out the negative.

"Okay. I showed you the portal. Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back here any minute."

Where had they been that day, anyway? Maddie wonders. Grocery shopping? Visiting the park? Moping, as they tried anything to get their minds off of their most recent failure? If they'd been there —

If they'd been there—

"Come on, Danny," comes Sam's voice, treacherous in its fascination. "A Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious?"

Danny looks into the Portal, clutching the custom white suit made specially for him. Sam smirks, knowing. "You gotta check it out."

Maddie hits pause.

Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Pause. Rewind.

"You gotta check it out."

Rewind.

"—gotta check it out."

The remote feels cold and heavy, like ice in her hand. In that moment, a selfishness grips her. She could blame Sam. For all if it. Everything that happened, it all started here, and it started because—

—But she can't blame Sam, because the next moment, Danny turns back, his eyes sparkling with an adventurous spirit. It's a spark of curiosity, brimming at the thought of the unknown; a look she's all too familiar with, one she's seen often on her daughter's face, her husband's - even her own, in the mirror.

"You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that Portal?"

That curiosity, it's a Fenton trait, not one that needs to be stoked like a fire. That spark's been burning within him, since the cradle.

"Don't go in," she whispers, as if her advice could change the course of history. Even if he could hear her, though, it would be no use. He can no more resist the call than he can resist breathing.

He pulls on the hazmat suit. Skintight, white with black edging. It's like staring at a photo-negative. Watching her son, Maddie's stomach twists.

How couldn't she see it before?

"Alright. I'm going in." He says. His first footsteps echo, loud, in the hollow of the blacked out Portal…

Maddie's breath shudders in. She grips the remote and, before she can stop herself, hits the button.

Rewind.

She watches as her son walks backwards, double-time, out of the entrance to the Portal. The panic that gripped her fades.

"Mads?" From somewhere up above, echoing down the staircase, comes her husband's voice. Maddie is glued to the video screen, and almost doesn't hear him. Regardless, she definitely can't answer. What would she even say?

"Maddie?" His heavy footsteps echo in the stairwell, trudging closer. "Are you down there?"

A hitch in the tape. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Drawn by the sound, Jack trudges the rest of the way down the narrow staircase. She feels a slight reverberation in the floor when he reaches the landing behind her. She doesn't turn around.

"The police called back. Officer McNally said he'd file a missing persons report, and they promised to keep their eyes open. But—" she hears the way uncertainty causes his voice to die in his throat when she doesn't turn to greet him. After a long moment of silence, he draws up to her side. "What are you watching?" he asks at last.

"It kinda just… fizzled out. I hope they're not too upset."

Question. He'd asked a question. Maddie swallows and struggles to answer. "Security tapes," she chokes out.

Understanding, an incomplete kind, dawns on Jack, and vigor jumps back into his bones. "Mads, that's brilliant!" he booms. "Why didn't I think of it? He comes into the lab all the time! We can use the security tapes to see when he last—"

"I found this tape in Danny's room," she interrupts.

Again, his voice falters in confusion.

"Under the bed," she elaborates, as if that will help. And continues watching, detached.

"Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back any minute."

The flickering light of the tv fills the lab, ominous in its glow. Jack hesitates. Maybe he's picked up on the subtext by now. Maddie can picture his eyes drifting from the staticy screen to the items in front of it, scattered across the table. He reaches out fro the shoebox sitting beside the tv. Taped to its front, written in the cursive, unmistakable scrawl of their son's handwriting, is a note that reads:

'If I Never Come Home'

"Maddie, what is this." Jack's voice is uncharacteristically heavy. Looking to her for guidance. For answers.

For once, she has none to give.

"Watch," Maddie whispers, still trapped by the screen. Automatic, her fingers hit the button.

Rewind.

With no other options to grasp at, he does.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Watches as the kids approach the Portal.

"Aren't you curious?"

Watches as their son zips up the hazmat suit.

"Alright, I'm going in."

Watches as he disappears into the empty cavity of their greatest invention.

Click.

Watches as it thrums to life, with a scream.

"Da—Danny no!" Jack yells in tandem with the two remaining teens. He lurches forward, hand outstretched, to stop the agony onscreen. "He's not - when did he -"

"It's old, Jack," Maddie whispers. "From when the Portal started working."

Jack spins to stare at her. "You mean - Danny's the one who—" he's visibly struggling with the information, the same way she did, on her first viewing. "But—he never said—"

Right, Madie thinks. He never said anything. Jack's confusion is laughable, though. Why Danny never told them—that much is painfully clear.

"Guys?" Over the yelling and the panicking and the electric cackle from the Portal, their son's terrified voice cuts through the din. "G-guys help, what's happening?!"

Tucker and Sam are black silhouettes stumbling backwards from a swirling green glow, but they freeze and scramble to right themselves, lurching forward to catch someone as he stumbles through the gate.

Phantom - Danny - emerges from the portal, falling to his knees.

"…No," Jack says. Disbelief is thick in his voice. "That can't be… no."

Maddie lifts the remote.

Rewind.

A flash of light. A curdling scream. A shock of confusion, panic, scramble.

Danny Phantom stumbles from the portal.

Jack stares for a long time. Then he reaches out, snatching the lid of the shoebox for a second look at the evidence. The note, accusatory, stares back at them.

"This is how he tells us." Jack doesn't often whisper, but it seems like he can't do anything else. Her husband looks at the empty shoebox, the screen, the VCR. "Our son is Danny Phantom, and this is how he tells us. I…" he trails off.

Maddie almost can't believe it, how easily Jack arrives at the conclusion. It took her twelve viewings for her to wrap her mind around it, and it still hasn't really sunk in. But then, that's always been Jack's strong poing - those intuitive leaps of logic. Ones every scientist both loathed and envied.

"Did it kill him?" he moves seamlessly onto the next question that tripped her. Somehow, Jack's voice is even quieter this time.

Maddie shakes her head no. If they watch the video long enough, about ten minutes in, Danny manages to change his way back to human. If their invention did kill him, it wasn't permanent. Not that time, at least.

She's too close to thinking about it.

Rewind.

"But—" she can't stop Jack from thinking, though. He barrels on, heedless of breaking the fragile grasp Maddie has on her sanity. "But if all this time — Phantom—"

A hitch in the tape.

"We've been—"

Press play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

"—Don't tell me we've been trying to waste our own kid—"

If Maddie weren't so detached, she might laugh. Waste. God, he can't even say it.

"Trying?" she asks instead. Bitter, the word sticks to her tongue.

She's not looking at the tape now. She's looking at him. And Jack, oh, Jack, he just stares down at her, a dark horror growing in his eyes.

He whips around to look at the bloodied weapons sitting at the base of the stairs.

Exactly where they left them two days ago, after that nasty ghost fight. When they came home to find a broken house, their daughter crying at the kitchen table, and their son just - gone.

"No." Jack backs up a step. "No no no no no no no—"

A flash of light. A curdling scream—

In an instant, Jack is moving. He snatches up weapons, whatever he can find, and bolts for the staircase, vaulting his way up to ground floor. Distantly, Maddie hears the doors slam. The RV thrumming to life. The screech of tires as Jack peels out of the driveway.

In the cold wake of his departure, Maddie turns back to the tv. She should go after him, she knows. But she's not quite done watching. Jack's always been a man of action, after all, but she's the analytical one, who studies, who marvels, who gathers the facts she sees.

Phantom, onscreen, slumps against his friends while he drips ectoplasm to the floor. He stares down at his white-gloved hands, his glowing green eyes wide in shock. Maddie wonders if he knew, then, what would become of him. What his parents, who raised him, who swore to protect him, would do.

She can't face those questions. Not yet. Not yet. Instead, she lifts the remote.

And rewinds.

A good scientist, a rational scientist, never draws conclusions while she's still gathering evidence. So as long as she's still watching—

A hitch in the tape. She's at the beginning. Maddie presses play.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

As long as she keeps watching, she doesn't have to do anything with this information. All she has to do is watch.

So she watches. She rewinds. And she plays. She can't look away—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here—"

She doesn't dare.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down h—"

All she can do is rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let y—"

And rewind—and rewind—

"Mom and Dad would kill me if—"

Until she finds evidence contrary to her theory…

"Mom and Dad would kill me—"

Or she finds Its inevitable End.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they knew I let you down here."

Rewind.

"Mom and Dad would kill me if they—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

Rewind.

"Mom—"

-

[AO3] [FFN]

#Danny Phantom #Ectober #EctoberWeek2020 #Rewind #Reveal Fic #Identity Reveal #Maddie Fenton #Jack Fenton #Character Death #sorry for the length #oneshot

[inabottlelikelightning]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags :)

got tagged in this a While ago (@grenadinepeach thank u <3 <3 <3) and i thought i’d give it a shot since i’ve been in Quite a few fandoms

rules: show us your ten favorite characters from ten fandoms and then tag ten people to do the same.

1. theo raeken — teen wolf

yeah this can’t be a surprise to anyone. this man somehow inspired me enough to actually Start Writing. absolutely wild. love him to death. bamf dumbass. also it doesn’t hurt that he looks Like That.

honorable mentions: allison, lydia, kira. (sorry liam)

2. steve rogers — marvel

some of you may not know this about me but i was into marvel for Quite Some Time. i have to say 💓💗💖💞💝💘💕steve rogers 💞💓💗💖💕 in both the mcu and 616. and, like. avengers assemble. there is just something so.. [chefs kiss] about someone who has suffered So Much and still strives to just be a really good fucking person. i could write a whole essay on this mf. i love him a lot

honorable mentions: peter parker (SUCH a close second, not mcu because Yikes but aaaa 616 peter my beloved), peggy carter, miles morales, natasha romanoff

3. arthur ?????

i have seen inception an unspeakable amount of times and the most interesting thing is the Crumbs of information we have about all of the characters. he’s resourceful, he’s competent, he’s a great dresser. 10/10 don’t know anyone else who could take down a hotel full of men in a three piece suit with spontaneous changes in gravity. like godDAMN that’s attractive.

honorable mentions: i mean. there are only 7 total characters so, like.. eames i guess??

4. minerva mcgonagall — harry potter

oh MAN she was the Original bamf. screamed every time she came onscreen/on the page because i knew shit was about to go down. the only unproblematic character, and the only one fandom hasn’t absolutely Ruined. an accidental gem in the series, there’s no way joanne knew what she was doing here

honorable mentions: luna lovegood, neville longbottom, remus lupin

5. magnus bane — shadowhunters (TV)

okay so i just watched this series and good GOD it was so much better than the books. i felt like in the books magnus was always sidelined but the show really let him shine in all his warlock glory. absurdly powerful + very nice blazers + kickass eyeliner + amazing jewelry + cat dad + disgustingly kind + adopts various individuals as children as he goes through life because 💖💕💓💗found family💕💓💗💘. bisexual poc king. fucking love him, 17,000 exes and all.

honorable mentions: alec lightwood, izzy lightwood, raphael santiago

6. jared dunn — silicon valley

if you haven’t watched this show i would actually recommend it. it’s impressive. but jared is, by far, one of the FUNNIEST characters i have ever experienced in my whole life. the only reason he isn’t #1 on this list is because i feel a duty to everyone ^^ up there, but jared is. GOD. physical depiction of “perfectly pleasant and put together until he goes APESHIT”

honorable mentions: gilfoyle, bighead

7. crowley — good omens

true chaotic neutral at its finest. a bastard of a man, who Tries To Be Good Anyways. sad and pining. mortals believe he’s mafia, which is fucking hysterical to me. SINCE I STARTED THIS I FOUND OUT WE ARE GETTING A GOOD OMENS S2???? RISE TF UP

honorable mentions: aziraphale, anathema device

8. mazikeen — lucifer

she’s just.. uhhhh. she’s SO…… G O D. no words except that she’s the only reason i got through the 2nd season. so happy that she finally got a gf ❤️ she absolutely deserves it

honorable mentions: ella, trixie

9. toph beifong — avatar

absolute fucking legend. blind and kicked ass 24/7. this is my daughter and i love her very much. also apparently i’m an earthbender???? not too sure abt that one tho

honorable mentions: sokka, katara

10. alaric saltzman — the vampire diaries

okay couldn’t put a gif for this one bc of the tumblr limit but vampire hunter sticks around and acquires a vampire bro and a vampire daughter and trains a vampire hunter son and then acquires a vampire coparent to his 2 biological witch daughters… fantastic trope. i feel bad for him because his wives keep dying but he was a GIFT in the vampire diaries, no one did it like him

honorable mentions: bonnie bennett

tags: @attempted--eloquence @frustrateddumbbar @thecenturiestrickle @rohesiawrites @ttp5000 @cordelia---rose @songbvrd @li0nh34rt @edge0fmydesiree @lucilucialu

#theo raeken #❤️ steve rogers ❤️ #arthur #minnie mcG #magnus bane #jared dunn #crowley #mazikeen #toph beifong #alaric saltzman

[rosiegeee]

Background One Second Gays/Last Minute Gays in Disney Movies

Disney has a very long history of making queer coded characters, mostly villains, and despite there being several opportunities in the past two decades to make characters that have actual speaking lines LGBT, there are next to none. Here are, to my knowledge, the only confirmed LGBT characters/couples in Disney movies.

Lefou and his dance partner. 2017 Beauty and the Beast.

Lefou is in a good portion of the movie, and he clearly has something for Gaston, but when Gaston point blank asks Lefou why he isn’t with any girl, Lefou doesn’t have a gay panic moment where he tries to hide anything, or says he’s gay/bi. He gives a genuine answer that women just don’t like him, which implies that he truly wants to be with a woman. In the last five minutes of the movie Lefou is dancing with a woman and is smiling and having fun, than his partner leaves and is replaced with a man, and Lefou’s face turns to confusion and not a look of attraction, although the man seems interested in him. What I’m saying is that Disney said how proud they were of making Lefou gay, but had no true set up, had the character genuinely says they like women, than when he has his gay moment he looks uncomfortable, and not in a questioning-my-sexuality kind of way. Lefou is a last minute gay.

Officer Specter. Onward

This character is far better than Lefou, but still falls in the one second gay category. She’s not in a good portion of the movie, but she does have speaking lines, and one of them is she mentions her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s daughter. She is probably the best character on this list, and that is sad because she’s in less than ten minutes of the movie and although we don’t need to, it would have been nice to see said family, even just a picture would suffice. Still she is only one of three characters on this list who makes it specifically clear that they are LGBT, while the others had to be confirmed outside the film by the film makers.

Bucky and Pronk

They are introduced as Judy’s loud next door neighbors and were confirmed nine months after the films release that they were a married couple and not brothers, the actor for these two had to confirm it, and in four years Disney has not debunked it so its Canon, but could be debunked by disney if they feel like it. If they are a couple than that makes them the first LGBT couple in disney, and how were they portrayed, yelling and arguing at each other in every scene they are in except the nudist shot. They fall into the retroactively gay category, and In my eyes the disappointing category.

Bobby. Avengers: Endgame.

Do you know how long it took me to find the name of this character. Five minutes, when all it should take is typing in “Gay grieving man in Endgame” into Google, but he was such a small character that I had to go through 3 different MCU wikia pages to find his name. He is one of the three confirmed for sure onscreen LGBT characters. He’s talking to Steve Rogers five year after the snap in group therapy about his date with a male character, and how he misses his previous boyfriend. If Valkyrie never gets confirmed onscreen this is all the MCU has. I classify him a one minute gay. (Side note Bobby here is taking to the man that risked his life multiple times to save the life of Bucky just so they an stay platonically together without Bucky asking him too, where as Peggy, the woman Cap marries at the end of this movie, begged Steve to get off the ship and we know there were parachutes, not that he needs them, and that once he changed the course of the plane he probably could have jumped ship to be with her, but instead choose suicide[He also thought Bucky was dead at this point.] So read into that as much as you want and think about how much sense the final scene of Endgame made.)

Commander Larma D'Acy and Lieutenant Wrobie Tyce. Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker.

Bet you also didn’t know the name of the woman D’Acy was kissing in this scene, did you? D’Acy was a minor character who was in all three sequel Star Wars movies and I honestly liked her even before I knew she was gay, but considering how much hype and teasing by ALL the actors that FinnPoe would become canon, this felt like a punch in the gut. In fact all they had to do was make the obviously gay Poe canonoticly gay but still single and I would have settled for that, but instead D’Acy, who was barely in the films and hadn’t mentioned her wife at all in 3 movies or are seen together before this point on screen, was the one to be confirmed on screen to be gay. These two fall under the last minute gays category. 

Lesbian couple in Finding Dory and Lesbian Moms in Toy Story 4.

If these two couple have names, I couldn’t find them. The first two should because I think one has a speaking role and therefore should be credited, but I couldn’t find it, if you know write a comment. The Finding Dory couple could literally just be friends and we would never know if Disney hadn’t been all like “Look at the gay characters we gave you, we’re so proud.” The mom’s in Toy Story 4 are more obviously a couple, especially in there second appearance in the end, but they are so far in the background that you could easily mistake the black mother for the Caucasian mom’s husband if Disney hadn’t again advertised these characters as there glorious representation. These two couple fall under the background/ confirmed off-screen one second gays category.

So in total, counting mentioned partners that never were on screen, the number of confirmed LGBT people in all of Disney is 15. After reading this I hope it becomes blaringly obvious why Disney needs more prominent LGBT representation. If this were done with racial representation Disney would not probably still be in business. Raya and Luca gives me hope, but only slightly, so if you want your Queer Disney fix, your going to have to stick to Tv, books, and shorts for now.

#Gay #Lesbian #Lesbians #Lesbian moms #Lesbian mothers #Gay moms #Gay mothers #Finding Dory #Toy Story 4 #Beauty and the Beast #Beauty and the beast 2017 #Star wars #the rise of skywalker #Onward #Zootopia #Avengers Endgame #Endgame #Lefou #Officer Specter #Bucky and Pronk #Bobby #Larma D'Acy and Wrobie Tyce #Commander D'Acy #D'Acy #Disney you cowards #Disney #luca

[athenagrantnash]

Gunpowder Milkshake review

There are four elements to a film that, when all are achieved, can elevate a film from “good” to “great”; and any film that can achieve at least two of these elements is certainly a good and enjoyable film.

These elements are (in no particular order)*:

Aesthetic

Cast (charm, likeability, acting skill, etc)

Characters

Writing (story, script, dialogue etc.)

*While all four elements are important, writing is in my opinion the most important of the four.

So does Gunpowder Milkshake achieve all of these elements? Let’s discuss. (not a spoiler free review)

1) Aesthetic

I cannot say enough good things about the aesthetic of this film. The lighting, the camerawork, the set design, the costumes, it is all top notch. There is never a moment where what you are looking at isn’t visually engaging.

One of my favorite elements is how much is said about each character based on their costumes. 

Karen Gillan’s Sam wears an orange jacket for the majority of the film - a jacket she stole because she didn’t like the clothing provided for her. Early in the film it’s established she doesn’t quite know what kind of assassin she is - she is as undefined as her jacket. But there’s a sportsmanship about her, as she won’t kill the three stooges when they aren’t trying to kill her, and she draws the line at ever letting a child be in danger.

Chloe Coleman’s Emily spends the entire movie in a yellow coat - representing the optimism and joy that comes with childhood innocence, an innocence that at the end is marred by the blood red handprint across the back of her coat.

The clothes worn by Angela Bassett’s Anna May, Carla Gugino’s Madeleine, and Michelle Yeoh’s Florence are all very similar, but specific to each character.

Anna May wears dark blue - signifying depth and power - and she has more layers than anybody else - Madeleine has the sweater/jacket, Florence has the vest, and Anna May has both. And just like her clothing, she has layers. You can sense the power and ferocity, and anger that lies rippling just below the surface, only just barely kept in check. 

Florence wears green - signifying serenity - , and her outfit has nothing loose or soft about it. She is exactly as she appears to be - exactly as a tiger stalking its prey appears to be - quiet, contained, serene... deadly. It’s her serenity that keeps Anna May’s ferocity in check, but don’t mistake that for safety.

Madeleine wears pink - signifying kindness - and instead of Florence’s vest or Anna May’s vest/suit jacket combo, she instead wears a soft sweater. She is kind, trusting to her instincts, and protective of Emily. But her kindness is not weakness - just look at her weapon of choice if you disagree.

And while everybody else is wearing bright and/or striking colors, Sam’s orange jacket, Emily’s yellow coat, Anna May’s blue suit, Florence’s green vest, Madeleine’s pink sweater, Scarlet - completely at odds with her name - is wearing colors that are practically nondescript. She has isolated herself from the other Librarians, and that’s shown in a beautifully subtle way through her clothing. And yet, in a further note of subtlety, she is wearing soft oranges, showing her connection to Sam (also in orange) and how that connection is what brings her back from her isolation. Her clothing is loose, but not soft, reflecting a deceptive casualness, which matches her personality perfectly.

I’m not even going to touch on the visual brilliance of the lighting, set design, and camerawork because words literally will not do it justice. You just have to watch and see for yourself.

Additionally, an argument can be made that, since “action” is not its own category, that would fit into this section too - and while it’s literally impossible to top how visually engaging the lighting/set design/camerawork/etc. are, the action is certainly on par with it. The fights are all incredibly fun and creative, and they take advantage of the setting they are placed in, the road blocks or handicaps the characters have to work with, and at no point ever feel stale, repetetive, or boring.

So where does this movie rank in aesthetic? 5/5

2) Cast

There is not a weak link in this entire cast! Karen Gillan, Lena Heady, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino, Paul Giamatti - every single one of these actors has proven time and again how much talent, charm, and onscreen charisma they have. Relative newcomer Chloe Coleman legitimately holds her own, even among such a star-studded cast, and is simultaneously sympathetic, charming, likable, and absolutely adorable.

Even bit players like the three stooges that Sam takes out, Emily’s dad, the doctor, and Jim McAlester play their roles to perfection.

As a side note, am I the only one who was a little bit disappointed that McAlester’s first name was Jim? It would have been hilarious if his first name was Kevin, and then we could have drawn our own conclusions about the criminal turn Kevin McCallister’s life took when he truly embraced his childhood propensity for chaos.

So where does this movie rank in cast? 5/5

3) Characters

This is where the movie starts to falter a little bit. Every single character is likable, but a lot of that can be attributed to how excellent the cast is.

Most of the characters are fairly cookie cutter, and while there is nothing about them that is particularly annoying or stereotypical, none of them have enough depth to truly be “great” characters.

The closest any character has to having any sort of depth or complexity is Nathan, who - while he doesn’t hesitate to send an entire army after Sam - sends her a private message and provides the only help he can.

Not that any of the characters are bad - I think my analysis of the lead lady’s clothing proves my opinions on that pretty conclusively - but they could have been better

Additionally, at just under 2 hours there is barely enough time to develop them properly. Florence in particular could have been much further fleshed out in ways that are not solely inferred through the costume design and acting.

The relationships between Emily and Sam, Sam and Scarlet, Scarlet and Anna May, Sam and Madeleine, Anna May and Madeleine, and Madeleine and Emily are done fairly well. I understood each dynamic and how it worked in the larger story that was unfolding. Florence had none of that - to the point that (if not for the inferred analysis based on clothing) I’m still not entirely sure if she or Anna May was the de facto leader of the librarians. If they had added something - either her legitimately having a moment where she takes charge or (even better) establish a rivalry between Florence and Anna May over who is in charge that would have done a lot, but unfortunately as it stands Florence didn’t get the development that Michelle Yeoh deserved.

So where does this movie rank in characters? 3/5

4) Writing

If the movie started to falter a bit when it came to its characters, it faltered even more when it came to the writing. In fact it’s the writing that can be blamed for the characters not given the development they should have gotten, even if these are two different categories.

And yes, it’s an action film, so technically the plot takes second place to the fisticuffs and gunplay - and while I’m not going to hold the genre against the film, even as an action film the script could have been a lot stronger.

Most importantly, the movie should have been at least thirty minutes longer in order to allow more growth and development for each of the characters. One scene that should have been in the movie was one of Emily while she was captured by McAlister. He should have tried to turn her against Sam, not realizing that the revelation that he had killed her dad had already done that. But Emily is smart, and the more he talks the more she realizes she’s directing her anger at the wrong person. Then when Sam turns herself in so that she’ll be safe it solidifies it for her - Sam might have pulled the trigger, but she’s not the heartless killer that she should be angry at.

And that is just one example of how a longer runtime and a few more rewrites could have given the story and characters a lot more depth.

Now onto the white elephant in the room.

“There’s a group of men called the firm” (yes, I’m going there... somebody has to).

I get what the film was going for, but this is the most perfect example of why it needed one or two more rewrites. 1) If it’s a group of men, why is Sam working for them and why is she recognized as the best at what she does? The movie is trying to imply inherent sexism, but because it felt the need to slam us over the head with that line all subtlety was lost.

Sam could have just called it “a group” and then we the audience would see that while men and women work for them, the ones calling the shots are all men. And then to turn around and show how much more prepared, professional, and competent the Librarians are would make this point in a much more subtle and compelling way. There is a lot more power in using that kind of storytelling than in explicitly telling your point to the audience in so many words. 

However, while most movies that go this route make all their male characters useless or stupid, Gunpowder Milkshake did manage to not do that. Other than the three stooges, which Nathan chose to send after Sam because he didn’t want her killed, therefore by design are supposed to be useless, all of the people that our mains go up against feel like legitimate threats.

And I’m glad, because as a woman I do not like the recent tendency to turn men into useless idiots and then imply that is the only way the women managed to defeat them. I want women going up against men who are at their best, and still win. And this movie did that.

Additionally, I will say that the whole “group of men” thing is a minor quibble on my part, as it doesn’t fall into the pitfalls most other movies who are making this point fall into. But it is unfortunately an example of why the writing could have been much better.

Add in some awkward dialogue that only worked because of how ridiculously charming and likable everybody in the cast is, and we unfortunately have writing that is sub par and does not live up to the standards set by the other three elements. The aesthetic, the cast, and even the characters deserved better writing.

As a side note: Where do these people get their milkshakes that they manage not to melt even after three hours? Because that’s some circa 3000 level galaxy brain and I want it.

So where does this movie rank in its writing? 2/5

Conclusion:

I said at the top that for a movie to be “great” it has to meet all four elements, but to be "good” it only has to meet two, and Gunpowder Milkshake  definitely  meets two of the elements.

Where it begins faltering and falls short of being “great” is in the characters and the writing, which is a shame because the brilliance of the cast and the genuinely engaging and breathtaking aesthetic deserved to be in a movie that can be called great.

I would love a sequel to this movie that does flesh out the relationships better, provide more depth to the characters, and allows for the writing to match the quality of the cast/aesthetic.

So what is my total ranking for this film? 3.5/5

It’s good, and I will definitely watch it again and recommend it to people, but it so easily could have been great.

#gunpowder milkshake #karen gillan #lena heady #angela bassett #michelle yeoh #carla gugino #look at that I managed to actually be professional and write a whole interview that didn't include simping over A ngela B assett #y'all should be proud of me

[i-know-my-value-darling]

Supernatural stars reflect on the show's undying legacy

Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins discuss 15 years of fantasy, family, and flannel. 

"We only get one shot at this." Sam and Dean Winchester are surrounded. The monster-hunting brothers are standing on the edge of a cliff. They look to Castiel, their brother in arms — or is it wings? — but even he can’t help. One move in the wrong direction could ruin everything. After years of fighting demons, going toe-to- toe with Satan himself, and saving the world multiple times, they once again find themselves in a position of having to perform under pressure. But this situation is unlike anything they’ve ever dealt with before. All eyes are on them as they have one shot…at getting the perfect picture.

It’s a dry, hot August day in Malibu — when people were still allowed to gather outside — as Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins prepare for the last setup of their final Entertainment Weekly cover shoot. With a bottle of champagne in each of their hands, Ackles once again reminds them they get “one shot” to do this right. But if their characters can shoulder the weight of the world, surely these three can handle a photo. Read the whole story below

The champagne soaking is meant to be a celebration of 15 years, of making television history. Supernatural, the story of two brothers destined to save the world, is the longest-running genre show in the history of American broadcast television. (So old, the first three seasons shot on this thing called film.) What started as an underdog story, living its first few years on the verge of cancellation, has become an institution, a milestone to which other shows aspire. Supernatural not only survived the move from The WB to The CW after its first season — it’s now the final WB show left standing — but became the backbone of the now highly successful CW network. Over the years, the sci-fi series has aired on every weeknight, helping to launch shows including Arrow and The Vampire Diaries. The network moved it one final time, most recently, to Mondays, to help Roswell, New Mexico expand its audience. “Supernatural is a major link to many of the shows that we have successfully built to market,” The CW’s chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz says. “Almost every one of our shows has had it as a lead-out or a lead-in.”

And to think, it all started as a promise to bring horror to television. After Supernatural creator Eric Kripke had finished working with Warner Bros. on 2003’s Tarzan series, he pitched the idea of a reporter who travels around hunting urban legends. As he puts it, it was a Kolchak: The Night Stalker rip-off. But when he realized the story would benefit from having brothers at its core, he started writing. “At the time, The Ring and The Grudge were huge hits in theaters,” Kripke remembers. “We said, ‘We’re going to take that experience and we’re going to put it on TV,’ and the initial goal was to be scary.” After Warner Bros. passed on his first, what he calls “uptight,” draft, Kripke had to reassess the kind of show he was creating. “I canceled all my Christmas plans and wrote that second draft in three weeks,” he says. “That was when the show got its sense of humor, because I was locked alone, over winter break, in my office. I couldn’t do anything fun, so I started entertaining myself.”

The show was still scary, but it was also funny and, over the years, would continue to evolve. Sure, you could say it’s a little bit X-Files — in its early days, the show often used the line “The X-Files meets Route 66” — and there were definite Star Wars influences (Sam and Dean were originally based on Luke Skywalker and Han Solo). But no combination of pop culture is going to perfectly describe Supernatural because the show has managed to do something remarkably rare in the age of peak TV, where audiences are so overwhelmed with content that an original idea seems foreign: It’s created a truly one-of- a-kind experience.

For starters, it’s a show about two flannel-wearing, beer-loving, blue-collar dudes from Kansas who for a good chunk of their lives traveled from cheap motel to cheap motel, paying for gas and greasy diner food with a mix of fake credit cards and money they earned scamming people at the pool table. “Almost all television is about rich people or, at the very least, middle-class people,” co-showrunner Andrew Dabb says. “The fact that we’ve been able to take this Midwestern blue-collar approach to this genre feels like we’re breaking the mold.”

But the mold-breaking didn’t stop there. Supernatural might’ve started out as a horror show with some snarky one-liners, but it evolved into some of the boldest, most experimental (and certainly strangest) stories on the small screen. “We’re a show of big swings,” co-showrunner Robert Singer says. “I used to say, with every idea, ‘This will be a home run or they’ll cancel us,’ but every year we wanted to do something really nuts." And when he says nuts, we’re not just talking about the episode with the talking teddy bear or the murderer targeting imaginary friends. Those are just some standard monsters of the week. We’re talking about the black-and-white episode shot like a classic Hollywood monster movie, or the episode that introduced Chuck (Rob Benedict), a prophet — who’d later reveal himself to be God — who was famous for writing a book series called Supernatural. That, of course, led to Sam and Dean attending a Supernatural fan convention as the show continued to redefine what it meant to inject a series with meta humor. And the swings never stopped. Season 13 featured a Scooby-Doo crossover as an animated Sam, Dean, and Castiel solved a case alongside the Mystery Inc. gang. And in season 14, after giving God a sister a few years prior, the show made the Big Man Himself its final villain. “I don’t think any idea, barring some production concerns, has been viewed as too crazy,” Dabb says. “Because we know that our fans are smart and that they’ll follow these guys anywhere.”

So long as each episode features Sam and Dean — and the occasional heartfelt talk on the hood of the Impala — the show can do just about anything, which is another reason Kripke had to rewrite his first draft of the pilot. Originally, Dean was the only brother who knew about monsters growing up, bringing Sam up to speed later in life. It wasn’t until Kripke figured out that they needed to be in this together that the series snapped into place. Because at the end of it all, they’re two brothers bonded by the loss of their mother and a life spent on the road with an absentee father. (It just so happens that their mother was killed by a demon and their father hunted them.) The familial dynamic — the irrational codependency, as the angel Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) once called it — is the most important part of the show. “The first inkling I had that we had something special was shooting the pilot,” Kripke says. “It was the scene on the bridge when Sam and Dean talk about their mother. It was the first time that you really saw their chemistry and their connection as brothers on full display. Because I’ve always said this show begins and ends with whether you believe that sibling relationship.” But Sam and Dean weren’t just the center of the show. For many years, they were the show.

Supernatural has never been an ensemble drama. For the first 82 hours of the series, Ackles and Padalecki were the only long-running series regulars — Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan briefly joined for season 3, appearing in 12 episodes combined. But Sam and Dean weren’t just in every episode; they anchored every episode. (They skipped table reads because there would’ve been only two actors there.) “I had many moments of not only questioning, ‘Can I keep this up?’ but an answer of ‘I cannot keep this up,’ ” Padalecki, 37, who’s been vocal about his struggle in the early seasons, says. “I borrowed strength from Jensen.” But even Ackles, 42, admits it was a tough job. “The 23-episode seasons were nine and a half months of filming,” he adds. “It was a lot of work, but I always came back to: I still enjoy it, I still like telling the story, I still like these characters and the people I work with.”

Not only did the guys stick around, they built a reputation of having created one of the warmest sets in the business, with a number of crew members staying with the production all 15 seasons. It all dates back to a talk Kripke had with his stars during the filming of the series’ second episode. “I said, ‘The show is about your two characters, and with that comes this responsibility,’ ” Kripke says. Padalecki remembers the exact setting of what he calls their “Good Will Hunting moment,” a bench in Stanley Park in Vancouver, where they film. It was a chat both actors took to heart. “We’d both been on other sets,” Ackles says. “We knew we wanted to enjoy it, to have fun with our crew; we wanted them to like us and us to like them and to have fun doing what we do.” It’s an attitude Pedowitz hopes bleeds into other CW shows, an attitude that launched an annual tradition where the CW chairman/CEO takes his new casts out to dinner with the Supernatural guys, a chance for the vets to share advice. “It’s always the most flattering situation,” Padalecki says, recalling a moment he had a few years back with the late Luke Perry, who was a part of the Riverdale cast. “Luke was sitting next to me and he was like, ‘What y’all have done and what we hear about you guys, it’s really cool to be associated with y’all in some way, shape, or form,’” he recalls. “And I’m sitting there pinching myself.”

It’s a behind-the-scenes legacy that’s perhaps just as impressive, if not more so, than the onscreen legacy. Collins, 45, who started as a guest star and the show’s first angel in season 4, has become the show’s third-longest-running series regular, and he still remembers walking onto set his first day. “When you’re coming onto a show as a guest star, it can be a little bit nerve-racking,” Collins says. “Coming to this set, it was an immediately different vibe. Think- ing about working on other shows in the future, that’s something that I aspire to bring with me.”

A similar reputation extends to the fans as well. Not only is the #SPNFamily one of the most dedicated fandoms out there, it’s also known to be a pretty nice one. (Not many fandoms can say they’ve helped launch a crisis support network for their fellow fans.) But their dedication isn’t just about seeing what crazy twist God throws at Team Free Will next. Thanks to fan conventions and social media, the viewers are just as invested in the lives of the actors. Supernatural’s not just about the words on the page, it’s about the actors saying them. “When you’re dealing with the public taste, there’s an alchemy of great writing, a great idea, and the close-up that’s required,” Peter Roth, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group, says. “You need stars who you want in your living room.” And you need stars who want to be in your living room, and who, even after 15 years, care so deeply that they get emotional while taking photos in Malibu.

"It's going to be a long eight months," Ackles declares. Standing on that same ledge, an hour before the champagne shot, Ackles, Padalecki, and Collins walk away from a group hug after unexpectedly starting to tear up. It might be the setting — looking out over the ocean — or the occasion: their last-ever photo shoot. Or maybe it’s the fact that they’re almost a month into filming their final season.

It had been a question posed to the stars for years: How long will this show continue? How long can it continue? “Even my mom and dad were like, ‘When are you going to be done with this?’” Ackles says with a laugh. It was a decision the network and studio had ultimately put into the actors’ hands, and it was a conversation they’d been having for a while. Back in 2016, Padalecki told EW, “If we don’t make it to [episode] 300, I think Ackles and I will both be truly bummed.” But in season 14, they hit 300…and then kept going. While filming episode 307, they announced the upcoming 15th season would be the end, which will bring them to a total of 327 episodes when all is said and done. “[Jared] and I were always married to the fact that we never wanted to go out with a diet version of what we had,” Ackles says. “We wanted to have enough gas left in the tank to get us racing across the finish line. We didn’t want to limp across.” Padalecki remembers the moment it hit him — not the decision to end it, but rather the opposite. “We had that moment where he and I both realized that we didn’t want it to end,” he says. “It finally got to a point, ironically, where it was like, ‘I never want to leave this. I could do this until the day I die, and then if I get the choice when I’m dead, I’ll re-up!’ But you never want to be the last person at a party. We just knew. That’s not to say there haven’t been vacillations, but we all trust the decision that was made.”

Starting in July 2019, the cast and crew returned to Vancouver to begin filming the final season, but in March 2020, with two episodes left to go, they were sent home. For years, fans had wondered what, if anything, could stop the Winchesters, and now it seems we have the answer: a global pandemic. As sets closed amid social-distancing measures due to the spread of COVID-19, it didn’t take long for fans to start connecting the dots, sharing relevant GIFs from episodes that featured viruses, most notably Chuck telling Dean to hoard toilet paper “like it’s made of gold” before the end of the world in season 5’s “The End.” (Did we mention that Supernatural is also kind of psychic? In a season 6 episode, Dean calls Sam “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which just so happens to be the role Padalecki has lined up after this ends.)

When production paused, it all felt a little like we were living in an episode of the show, just waiting for Sam and Dean to drive up in Baby, open those creaky doors, and save us. They might not be able to do quite that, but the thing with the Winchesters is that they never stay down for long. When Supernatural is able to safely resume production, it will. And though there are only two episodes left to film, fans will enjoy a total of seven unseen hours, including the return of Charlie (Felicia Day) and a mystery woman who visits the bunker and, for some reason, gives Sam and Dean all the holidays they never got to celebrate. “She makes Christmas for them and Thanksgiving, birthday parties, and all that. It’s a very good episode,” Singer says, adding, “I don’t know when it’s going to air.”

That’s the thing—no one knows, not even the guys who took out Yellow Eyes, stopped Leviathans, defeated Death himself, and are supposedly destined to be the messengers of God’s destruction. But Sam and Dean do know the value of a good plan B. “Obviously it’s a horribly unfortunate situation we’re in, but the silver lining is that it gives us an opportunity to recharge,” Ackles says. “We had just finished episode 18, we shot one day of episode 19, and I was reading these two monster scripts thinking, ‘It’s like we’re at the end of a marathon and they want us to sprint for the last two miles.’ I feel like this almost gives us an opportunity to refocus and go into the last two episodes and hit them with everything we got.” Because when they do return to set, shave their quarantine beards, and step back into Sam and Dean’s shoes for the last time, they’ll have one shot at ending this thing…and they’re determined not to miss. 

Photos: Peggy Sirota for EW 

https://ew.com/tv/supernatural-stars-cover-ew-to-reflect-on-the-shows-undying-legacy/

#supernatural #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #misha collins #last season #season 15 #entertainment weekly #cover story #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #full post #SPN #spn family #new photo #new photos

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The programming reflected the theater’s cast-a-wide-net mandate. This was the go-to place for the new Star Wars or Jackass or Hangover as well as midrange horror and action pictures, Oscars contenders, and even art-house flicks that had earned their way into the mainstream. It helped that it was within walking distance of Atlantic Avenue, with its restaurants and bars, and next door to a Barnes & Noble (with a magazine rack that carried buff bait like Sight & Sound, Empire, Cinéaste, and Film Comment). Because it was a neighborhood theater, just ten minutes’ walk from my family’s apartment at State and Hoyt, it played host to so many personally resonant moments it’s hard to know where to begin listing them.

There was the time when a packed house for The Simpsons Movie sang along with Homer’s song “Spider-Pig.” And the time I took my kids to see Where the Wild Things Are on opening night, waited too late to buy tickets, and ended up crammed into the furthest front-row seat on the right-hand side of the theater, mashed against the wall; I was miserable throughout the previews, but once the movie began, it was so wonderful I forgot about where I was sitting.

My daughter and I used to attend double features on weekend afternoons, each picking a film. One Saturday in December 2008, I chose the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and she picked The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The former was so dull we left halfway through (“My first walkout!” she said and high-fived me). I had been widowed two years earlier, and when Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) told Benjamin (Brad Pitt), “We’re meant to lose the people we love … How else would we know how important they are to us?” I burst into tears and had to leave the theater because I couldn’t stop crying. I continued in a stall of a men’s room that was otherwise unoccupied.

After a few minutes, the door opened, and I heard an employee pushing a mop bucket with a squeaky wheel. “Hey, dude, are you okay?” he asked. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I called out. “It’s that damn movie that’s got me like this.”

And now, a whole damn theater. 

— Matt Zoller Seitz

* * * *

Dumb, loud spectacles and jump-scare slashers were the main excuses to watch anything at Court Street because you likely weren’t going to catch all the dialogue over the audience chaos anyway. On opening night of Final Destination 2 (2003), a screaming match broke out — as they often did — which escalated as a woman took off her shirt and slapped a guy with her bare breasts. In turn, her disapproving boyfriend started a fistfight with the stranger, which spilled out into the aisle. They tripped over an old man whose son (grandson?) started whaling on both of them. Twenty minutes later, a popcorn fight broke out. I got drenched in soda, but at least nobody pulled out a gun, as I’ve witnessed there on three occasions. From the widespread cackling over Kurt Russell’s drowning scene in Poseidon (2006) to the widespread confusion over the avant-garde comic mayhem in Crank: High Voltage (2009), the closest thing to a bona fide grindhouse theater in post-Giuliani NYC was never boring, even when the movies were. 

— Aaron Hillis, film programmer

The vibe of the physical space was lame, generic corporate theater chain. The layout created constant escalator bottlenecks. And if you were foolish enough not to bring your own snacks, the concession stands were impossible to find. What made it fun was all the weirdos who went there. I remember seeing The Others in a completely packed house, stuck in the first or second row. The lady next to us reacted so loudly and enthusiastically to everything that happened onscreen that I figured it must be her new favorite movie ever. Then at the very end, after the big reveal (spoiler: Nicole Kidman was a ghost the whole time) and the camera pulls away in that final tracking shot, this woman stood up and screamed, “WHAT?? There’s no fuckin’ monsters in this??” and angrily stormed out.

This poor woman had held out hope for an hour and 40 minutes only to end her night with disappointment. I hope she snuck into Jurassic Park III, which was playing on the next screen over and did have monsters. 

— Michael Bonfiglio, filmmaker

The Regal Court Street theater was my childhood movie theater. Once my horizons expanded to other theaters in the city, I stopped visiting for a long period, but having a MoviePass account in 2017 reinvigorated my drive to visit my home theater. I didn’t have to pay money for garbage movies like the Ed Helms–Owen Wilson buddy comedy Father Figures, which I watched with a moderate-size crowd on a weeknight. No one was laughing. Then came a moment when Wilson utters his signature catchphrase: “Wow.” A guy in the theater immediately shouted his best Owen Wilson impression at the screen: “Wow.” I echoed back one of my own: “Oh, wow!” Now several other people in the audience were chiming in with their own “oh, wows,” as if we were all declaring we were Spartacus. This went on for two whole minutes, everyone cracking up at the “oh, wows” now drowning out everything else onscreen. If that isn’t a compliment to the community that Regal Court Street built, I don’t know what is. 

— Rendy Jones, film critic, Rendy Reviews

The Regal was the place to be as a 12-year-old on a Friday night. You’d start by hanging out at the Barnes & Nobles next door until it was movie time or the B&N staff caught on that it wasn’t water in that Poland Spring bottle the nine of us kept passing back and forth. My friends had more than a few sexual escapades in the building: One described the hand job he received during a crowded screening of Saw as “life-changing.” It was one of few places where customers felt at liberty to act out against corporate America. It was a free-for-all. You dropped trash anywhere but the garbage: in the theaters, the hallways, down the gap between the escalators, watching it fall five stories from the top floor. The staff — bless their souls — seemed to give less than a shit. You were free to shout obscenities, down your Bacardi Gold, or find out what kind of noise half a box of Sno Caps makes when dropped from fifty feet. Amid the dizzying chaos, maybe you’d even get to catch a movie, too. 

— Matteo Mobilio, associate photo editor, New York Magazine

* * * * *

It was a place where the better show was often in the audience. It could be a lively pack of teens asking you mid-movie if you’ll run to the liquor store across the street to procure some vodka (“orrr peppermint schnapps,” slurred the white girl in the back) or a man sitting next to you eating a halved honeydew directly from the rind with a spoon while searching for nude photos of the star on his phone. Catcalls. Fistfights. Pandemonium.

It was a movie theater that could turn the wrong audience off from ever going to the movies again. It was also a theater that could gift the right audience one of the best nights of their lives. In many ways, it was a relic of a different approach to film exhibition; one that turned a blind eye to, if not embraced, wild-eyed riffraff heckling a terrible movie. And if you were lucky enough to ever witness that chaotic energy firsthand, you understand why so many New Yorkers are holding their torches high for the Regal UA Court Street theater. 

— Mike Sampson, Alamo Drafthouse creative area director

[Vulture Magazine]

#interactive theatre #movie houses #NYC #Brooklyn #Vulture Magazine

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x17: Home Sweet Home - Details

Alright, let’s talk details!

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x17. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

As many  have already pointed out, Maggie and Judith talking about the stars and how “she” is looking up at those same stars is interesting. Sirius symbolism, and of course they’re talking about Michonne, but when they use the pronoun, it could be adapted to anyone. Beth, obviously. But even Rick or anyone else who is missing.

I did notice something of a “rule of threes” theme in this episode. Right at the beginning, when loading the wagon, Lydia counts, “one, two, three.” That wouldn’t be very noteworthy on its own, but later in the episode, exactly three of Maggie’s people fall to the snipers. So again, a bit of a theme.

Also, Lydia is wearing a bright pink shirt at the beginning when she counts to three. I noticed it mostly because the color is so bright and it might be the cleanest thing Lydia has ever worn, lol. Not sure what it points to. This is such a minor scene, it’s hard to draw any conclusions. But it caught my attention.

When they go to see the ruins of Hilltop, it’s interesting that the only thing really left standing is the water tower. Water = Beth, so we always make note of things like water towers. It almost feels like a “standing amidst the ruins” sort of thing.

As they walk to get Maggie’s people, we do hear some interesting dialogue. Cole says there’s shelter 10 miles to the East. Just having 10 (think roman numeral X) and East in the same sentence catches my ear. At one point, one of them says “if we’re lucky.” So, Luck Theory. And we see lots of shots of sunlight filtering through the trees. We’ve always seen that as a Beth symbol.

Okay, let’s talk a little more about the cut on Maggie’s arm. It’s a rather large cut across her left forearm, right? And I mentioned yesterday that it isn’t the same as Beth’s because it’s on the wrong arm. Although, it IS in the same place as Beth’s cast, just the opposite.

So, here’s why I noticed it at all. There are two other times when we saw a big cut like this. Since the Leah rumors broke, I’ve rewatched the episode Scars several times. In that episode, Judith gets a cut in the exact same place: her left forearm. It looks exactly like Maggie’s does in this episode. That can’t be a coincidence.

The only other time I remember seeing this exact cut was on Tyreese in 4b. Now, I don’t want to freak anyone out, but Ty’s cut definitely foreshadowed his death. When he was bitten in 5x09, the bite came in exact same place he was cut.

Now, I don’t at all think this suggests both Maggie and Judith getting bitten and dying. I’m sure the symbolism is more complex than that. I just don’t understand exactly how they’re using it, yet. 

What I can say for now is that all three of the episodes I’ve seen it in (and there may be more; these are just the ones that spring to mind) are Beth-heavy episodes, at least when it comes to symbolism. So there’s 5x09 (she’s actually in Ty’s death hallucination), this episode, where she’s mentioned twice after 6 years of silence, and then Scars. I still haven’t posted my Scars post, yet. I just have a lot of stuff to post right now, but I’ll get it posted eventually. Just trust me when I say that episode has TONS of Beth symbolism in it. So, we’ll just leave it at that for now.

Maggie and Daryl’s convo:

So, I’m getting a lot of messages about how people are disappointed that we didn’t get more of a reaction from Daryl when Maggie said Beth’s name. And I get it, but let me answer this two ways.

1.  It’s not all that surprising. We saw Daryl’s huge reaction to losing Beth in Coda, in Them, and then in pretty much every episode for the next 3+ seasons. Eight years have passed since he lost her, and, while of course her death still affects him and of course he’s not over it, it’s not unrealistic that he has his reaction to it more controlled now.

2. Having said that, I actually disagree that we didn’t get huge reactions here. They looked subtle onscreen, but again, they were never going to have him burst into tears in this scene. That wouldn’t have really worked for the scene, or been terribly realistic. So let me lay out what we did see.

First off, when Maggie first says Beth’s name (“Bethie”), we don’t see Daryl’s face, but we can kind of see the side of his head in the foreground. When she says the name—like, the INSTANT she says it—he sort of tosses his head. Almost like a nervous horse. There’s definitely a reaction there guys, even if we can’t see it directly.

But pay attention to him when it DOES show his face again a few seconds later. He keeps shifting his eyes to Maggie’s face and away. He does it at least half a dozen times over several seconds. Again, it strikes me as him being nervous about something. And you know it has to be the mention of Beth.

So why is he nervous? Is it merely the mention of her name that makes him nervous? Is he afraid he might get emotional, and is trying not to? Because we don’t have a window into Daryl’s thoughts, there’s no way to know for certain. But the reaction is there. You just have to watch closely for it.

And to confirm it even more, I watched him closely a minute or two later when she starts talking about Glenn and Negan. If anything, you’d think that would be the subject that would make him more uncomfortable. Both because he dealt with so much guilt over Glenn’s death, and because one might see Maggie returning to Negan as a free man would feel like something of a betrayal. I could see Daryl feeling guilt over that.

But when she starts talking about Glenn and Negan, his eyes don’t do the shifty thing. At all. He just watches her steadily with no hint of discomfort. It’s ONLY when she mentions Beth that his eyes shift.

And before I move on, I want to mention one more things you can all go look for. (Yes, I’m giving you permission to go watch that scene over and over again. :D) 

Just before Maggie says Beth’s name, she has a peculiar reaction, too. Now, she’s talking about Glenn and Beth sort of simultaneously, so it’s hard to say whether this reaction is for her talk of Glenn or Beth. What I mean is, it’s right before she says that after Bethie died, she and Glenn talked about going to the ocean. She feels the need to throw in that it would have only been for a little while, not forever. So maybe that’s what she was feeling discomfort over saying: that she and Glenn contemplated leaving the group for a time.

But if you watch, right before she says the line, “after Bethie died,” her eyes get wide and she shrugs as though she’s about to says something she doesn’t want to.

So it may be about Glenn, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s because she realized she had to mention Beth as part of her explanation, and she knew that would be triggering for Daryl. Go watch that again and tell me what you think.

I don’t think I have to go over the importance of the ocean symbolism, right? Beth = water, and we’ve seen tons of ocean/boat symbolism around her. She also mentions the waves and the sunrise here.

In the morning, Cory calls the containers they sleep in “rust coffins.” Kind of an interesting label, suggesting death. But of course the thing that came to mind is the coffin Daryl lay in at the funeral home.

Kelly checking the truck, as I talked about yesterday, brought a lot of callbacks to mind, including Bob, and the notebook is something we could link to Beth through her journal/notes, as well as to the note left as part of the wolf trap in 5x16. This truck was even a little reminiscent of the “How the Harvest Gets Home” trucks.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was Daryl’s line about how he’s gone looking for Connie “so many times.” That doesn’t actually make much logical sense. From what they show us, this episode picks up directly after 10x16. It would be different if weeks had passed and this was there way of telling us that Daryl has been looking for Connie in the interim. But this is literally the next day. How could he have gone looking for her “so many times?” Sure, we saw him searching a little bit early in S10, but the Whisperer War always got in the way, and honestly, I don’t think we saw him search more than two or three times.

So my point is, this is kind of a discontinuity. But I think it’s purposely placed to emphasize how often Daryl looks for people and maybe be another way of reminding us both of Rick and of Beth.

Maggie says, “We don’t know that.” Pretty much exact Beth dialogue and it’s about whether any of her people survived the fire and might still be alive in the woods. That’s exactly what Beth said this line about in 4b after the prison. Just saying.

Another line that jumped out at me was Cory saying that The Reapers had followed them. He didn’t know how. He’d been so careful. But somehow, they did.

Now, maybe this guy was just an awesome tracker. But I feel like this line had meaning. Like maybe they truly shouldn’t have been able to track Maggie’s group, but somehow still found them. Kind of makes me wonder if we should be linking this group to the CRM or not.

There’s been some discussion about whether Kelly and Elijah might become love interests. I’d be okay with that. And I can see that the way they connected and became all simpatico in this episode might be leading to romance.

Now, here’s why that might be important from a TD perspective. Did you notice the pear he gave her at the end? 

I looked up pear symbolism. As with all things, different cultures treat it differently. But in Chinese symbolism (and there’s a lot of that in the show) it sometimes means ‘separation.’ So there’s a superstition that friends and lovers should not eat pears together or they may be separated.

So when I first looked this up, I wasn’t really thinking of Elijah. As Kelly is definitely a Beth proxy in many ways, and also based on symbolism we’ve seen around her in the past (S9/S10) that I wasn’t sure how to interpret, I was thinking that maybe at some point she’ll be kidnapped or taken and be separated from Maggie. On TTD, Lauren said Maggie and Kelly became surrogate sisters in this scene. So I thought that maybe, on top of all the Beth symbolism, maybe this is also pointing toward another (surrogate) sister separation on the horizon.

But then it occurred to me that Elijah gave her the pear, and that’s probably really important. If (and this is still a big if) they become love interests, her separation will probably be from him. I’m just saying we might have another Bethyl proxy in the making on our hands. ;D

I have to say that I thought the scene where Daryl grabbed Maya and put a knife to her neck before realizing she was one of Maggie’s people is one of my favorites. You heart has to go out to the poor woman. She’s been traumatized like 5x over at this point. But she was looking at Daryl like he was a serial killer. Every time I watch that scene, I laugh. It’s rough being Daryl.

So how about the title? Well, we’ve already established that Daryl said this back in Still, at the moonshine shack. And given that I think Hershel Jr.’s arc here was a small scale replay of Beth’s (missing, searched for, eventually found and brought back to Alexandria) it makes sense that they used this line here.

But I think you can go as simple or as complicated as you want to with this. Because we also had the “coming home” theme in this episode a LOT. And it’s fitting, of course, because this was Maggie’s homecoming (which you could also see as a type of Beth’s arc, of course). But if you apply the “coming home” theme to what Daryl said in Still, all that tells me is that Beth and Daryl are one another’s “home.” And if Daryl is ever going to find his real home again, it will have to be with Beth, wherever she is.

For the record, I think they’ll explore Daryl’s side of this theme a lot with Leah. He was lonely, and searching for a home, and maybe he’ll think he’s found one for a time with her, but she’s not his real home.

Okay, finally, the song played at the end, You Want it Darker, has TONS of biblical symbolism in it. Since this post is already long, I’ll wait until tomorrow to post it.

Anything you can think of that I missed?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[buzzdixonwriter]

The Purple Monster Strikes

Recently in an online discussion of 1950s sci-fi films, the old Republic serial The Purple Monster Strikes came up.

Why is came up I’ll mention later, but first let’s note it: 

was made in 1945 

was the last 15 chapter Republic serial

is awful

Not eyeball gouging / brain melting / soul scorching awful the way The Lost City or Gene Autry And The Phantom Empire or Captain Video are awful, but awful enough…

…yet at the same time, worthy of comment (as we’ll soon note).

1945 is a crucial year.  Despite the Nazis last ditch Battle of the Bulge, WWII is clearly winding down to an Allied victory in both Europe and the Pacific. 

American audiences feel tired of the war wand want something else in their entertainment, even low brow / low rent entertainment like movie serials.

Republic produced three serials that year:  Federal Operator 99 proved surprisingly good, Manhunt Of Mystery Island (their next to last 15 chapter serial) tried some new ideas that while interesting didn’t prove interesting enough to be tried again, and The Purple Monster Strikes brought interplanetary thrills back to the theaters, only this time instead of visiting Mars, Mars (at least two of ‘em) came to Earth.

As noted in my overview of Federal Operator 99, Republic serials of that year looked…inexpensive.* 

This is especially true of The Purple Monster Strikes which really needed a bigger budget, a better script, and adequate production time for the type of story it was trying to tell.

That story?

In a nutshell:   The Purple Monster is a one-Martian invasion come to steal the secret of the “jet plane” (the script uses the term interchangeably with “rocketship”) from Earth and take it to Mars where it can be mass produced and used to attack our world (Why?  WTF knows or cares?).  To achieve this The Purple Monster bumps off the scientist in charge of the project, physically possesses his corpse by turning into a ghost-like entity, and tries to kill a nosy investigator and the late scientist’s niece.  In the end The Purple Monster tries to escape Earth only to get blowed up real good (Did I mention this is silly, stooped, and trite?  I did?  Good).

So why am I interested in The Purple Monster Strikes?  Well, for two reasons, the second and more important one we’ll save for the end, the first is that when watched with fully informed eyes, it’s a testament to the single greatest contribution the serials made to filmmaking:  The production board.

Lemme ‘splain what that is.

In the old days of movie making it was a folder with slots for narrow strips of colored cardboard to be slid in.  The strips were color coded for interior or exterior scenes, night or day, specific locations, second unit or special effects, etc.

These strips were grouped together on the production board so all the exterior day shots at one location could be filmed back-to-back, followed by all the night shots there before moving on to a new location.

The colored carboard strips were further broken down to match production numbers in the shooting script (“Scene 37:  The bandits take the town”), key props and costumes, stunt work, but most importantly actors / characters in the scene.

You want all your most important / expensive / difficult stuff grouped together…but you also need to figure out what you didn’t need so you could pare down your budget.

For example, if you need someone to play a policeman in Scene 1 and in Scene 12 but those scenes are shot two seeks apart, maybe it’s cheaper to have two different actors playing two different policemen for one day each than keep one actor on call for two weeks.

Likewise, if you’ve got an actor in a key supporting role, put all his scenes together.

This necessitates shooting out of sequence, but shooting out of sequence is now pretty much the industry norm for any filmed or taped production.

The serials invented the production board and the rest of the industry speedily glommed onto it.

Once you know what to look for in The Purple Monster Strikes, you can pretty much break down which scenes were shot when.

Case in point: Masked heroes and villains aside, serial characters rarely change costume except to match stock footage from earlier productions.  It’s not especially notable for male characters but females typically wear The Same Damn Dress in Every Damn Scene.

So when heroine Linda Sterling gets dunked in a water tank midway through The Purple Monster Strikes, you can bet that was her last day of filming since they were no longer worried about ruining her costume.

Likewise when a female reinforcement from Mars arrives, the exact same location right down to the same car parked in the same spot are used even though the female Martian doesn’t arrive until 2/3rds of the way into the story.

You wouldn’t notice this week to week in a movie theater, but they’re painfully obvious when bingewatching.

Case in point: There are never more than four characters onscreen at any time; this was all the production could afford on any given day.  If a fifth character showed up, one of the others needed to be knocked unconscious (if they were lucky) shot and fall off camera (if they were unlucky), or disintegrated (if they were really unlucky).

For example, the hero and heroine could be talking to a scientist (day 1 / shot 1) when three baddies show up at the door (day 2 / shot 1).  The first baddie shoots the scientist, who falls off camera then enters the frame and knocks out the heroine, who conveniently falls behind a counter (day 1 / shot 2).  The other two baddies enter and a huge brawl erupts (day 2 / shot 2).  The heroine revives (day 1 / shot 3) and shouts a warning at the hero.  The hero blasts a minor baddie who falls off camera as the other two baddies flee the scene (day 2 / shot 3), then the heroine rejoins the hero (day 1 / shot 4).

Binge watching also reveals a lot of sets and props reused again and again.  The same footstool is used as a weapon more than once, a prop valve in one chapter serves an entirely different function in another, and while serials frequently reused stock special effects shots, The Purple Monster Strikes doesn’t just use the same exploding car shot twice in the same serial, not just twice in the same chapter, but twice in the same car chase!

(Speaking of which, whenever they get in Linda Sterling’s car you know the odds are 50-50 it’s going off a cliff in a big flaming fireball.  The Purple Monster Strikes has her going through so many identical make automobiles you’d think she owned stock in a car dealership.)

Anybody familiar with Republic serials is going to find a lot of reused sets and props here.  Having seen Manhunt Of Mystery Island recently, I immediately recognized their ubiquitous warehouse set, the Republic Studios loading dock doubles as two different factory exteriors, and having lived in Chatsworth several years I can practically name each and every rock in the exterior scenes.**

On the plus side, bonus points for some impressive looking props, including a rocket test engine that provides the explosive cliffhanger for the first chapter, a double-barrel disintegrator that looks like a giant set of binoculars (I wonder if it was originally a military surplus training aid), and a spaceship seen under construction for most of the serial that proves to be the most striking design the redoubtable Lydecker brothers ever created (a pity it’s glimpsed only briefly before being blown up in the last chapter; Republic should have reused it for their later sci-fi serials instead of the dull unimaginative designs they went with).

Fun factoid: Mi amigo Donald F. Glut, filmmaker / NYTimes bestselling author / film historian, knew The Purple Monster hizzownsef, Roy Barcroft, and reports Barcroft had the wardrobe department sew a secret pocket in his costume for his cigarettes! 

Speaking of Barcroft, he’s the best thing in this serial and he ain’t that good.  A perennial bad guy in serials and B-Westerns, he normally turned in a satisfying performance, but the script for The Purple Monster Strikes gives him nothing to work with.

I mentioned previously how Federal Operator 99’s script works more often than not and gives its characters something the actors can work with, but The Purple Monster Strikes?  Nada.

Every line is a clunky flat declarative sentence exposition dump of the “I’ll take this strange medallion we discovered to Harvey the metallurgist to analyze” variety.

Even Linda Sterling can’t do anything with this though she tries to find an appropriate facial expression for whatever scene she’s thrown in.

As for nominal star Dennis Moore, I won’t say he’s wooden but in one of the innumerable fight scenes Barcroft hurls a coatrack at him and for that brief moment the coatrack delivers a far more memorable performance.

Sidebar on the fight scenes: They are choreographed expertly, among some of the best Republic ever staged, but directors Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred C. Brannon -- both serial veterans who could do much, much better -- really dropped the ball in shooting them.  They’re shot almost entirely in wide angle longshots using slightly sped up photography instead of intercutting to keep the pacing fast.

The rest of the cast consists mostly of stuntmen carefully enunciating their one line before the fists start flying, or older male actors who deliver surprisingly good performances compared to everyone else.

But that script -- oh, lordie, that script!  This was made in 1945 and they’ve got a damn organ grinder in it!  Organ grinders vanished from the public sphere with the damn of movies; by the 1940s they were found only in comic books and animated cartoons; in other words, kid stuff.***

It’s clear the writers on The Purple Monster Strikes (Royal Cole, Albert DeMond, Basil Dickey, Lynn Perkins, Joseph Poland, and Barney Sarecky) considered this mere juvenile pablum, not worthy of even the smattering of sophistication they sprinkled on Federal Operator 99.

An adult can watch Federal Operator 99 and at least feel the story makes some kind of sense and the characters, however imperfectly enacted, at least offer adult motives and behaviors, but The Purple Monster Strikes is just insulting to the intelligence (I mean, they call the female Martian invader Marsha.  Seriously?).

Okay, so why do I think this is worth writing about?

Because The Purple Monster Strikes is the bridge between WWII and the Cold War.

Most of the major tropes of 1950s sci-fi are reactions to Cold War anxieties, and those anxieties are transplanted WWII anxieties.

Before WWII, American moneyed interests waged a relentless PR campaign against communism, socialism, and labor unions (sound familiar?).

Forced to make peace with the Soviets during WWII, these moneyed interests -- now heavily invested in what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex -- bit their lips as US pop culture portrayed the Russians as gallant allies against fascism (and they were; credit where credit is due).

As soon as the war ended, however, and in fact, even a little before the end (see The Best Years Of Our Lives; great movie), they were already recasting the Russians as treacherous authoritarian atheists out to conquer the world.

As noted earlier, American audiences felt weary of a relentless diet of war related entertainment and in the waning days of the war turned eagerly to non-war related stories. 

Likewise studios, not wanting to get caught with rapidly dating WWII related material nobody wanted to see began actively developing different kinds of stories.

After four years of intense anxiety, the country needed to come down but couldn’t go cold turkey.  Science fiction (and hardboiled mysteries and spy thrillers) provided safe decompression.

1945 marks a significant sea change in Republic serial production.  Sci-fi would become a more predominant theme, infiltrating other genres such as the ever popular masked mastermind (viz. The Crimson Ghost).

Federal Operator 99 would be the last highwater mark for more plausible serial stories, but crime and undercover espionage remained serial staples to the bitter end.

Only Manhunt Of Mystery Island seemed a misfire and even in that case it only meant the masked mastermind returned to more traditional origins instead of the inventive backstory created for Captain Mephisto.  

What The Purple Monster Strikes did was take a very familiar set of WWII cliches and stereotypes then recast them in a (relatively) safe science fictional context.

The closest prototype to The Purple Monster Strikes is Republic’s G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon, as racially offensive as you could hope to imagine, and turn the inscrutable “yellow” villains into malevolent purple ones (later green when colorization was added).

By making the literally other worldly alien the “other”, 1950s sci-fi sidestepped the worst implications of their own themes:  

Invasion 

Subversion 

Fifth columns 

Loss of soul / identity / individuality (personified in bodily possession by alien intellects)

Paranoia

The Purple Monster Strikes lacks the wit and wherewithal to fully exploit these ideas, but it sure could hold them up for everyone to get a quick glimpse.

As childish and as inane as the plot may be, by the end when hero and heroine realize there is literally no one they can trust, The Purple Monster Strikes dropped a depth charge into preteen psyches fated to go off six years later with the arrival of The Thing From Another World and countless other sci-fi films and TV episodes afterwards.

Did The Purple Monster Strikes create this trend?  No, of course not – but as Stephen King pointed out in Danse Macabre regarding the incredibly inane The Horror Of Party Beach’s selection of nuclear waste dumping as their raison d'être for their monsters:

“I’m sure it was one of the least important points in their preproduction discussions and for that reason it becomes very important.”

King’s point is by not giving the matter much thought, The Horror Of Party Beach’s producers simply tapped into a subconscious gestalt already running through the culture and said, “Yeah, nuclear waste, wuddup widdat?”

Likewise, The Purple Monster Strikes’ producers / directors / writers didn’t sit themselves down to analyze Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four but rather picked up on the forever war current already moving through the American body politic.

War without end, war without ceasing.

And if we can’t define an enemy by name or place, so much the better!  The war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on drugs…

The war on terror.

The forever war thrives on the faceless unknowable enemy with the unknown but clearly malevolent anti-American agenda.

“Them”…against…U.S.

As an artistic achievement, The Purple Monster Strikes is sadly lacking in nearly all aspects, but as a cultural artifact, it’s still a clear warning.

Only not about “them” but about…us.

  © Buzz Dixon 

  *  read “cheap”

** Republic’s low budget backed them into an overlapping series of sci-fi serials, loosely referred to as the Rocket Man / Martian invasion serials by fans.  The Purple Monster Strikes’ costume was reused for Flying Disc Man From Mars (which featured a semi-circular flying wing already featured in Spy Smasher and King Of The Mounties) and again for Zombies Of The Stratosphere, but between those two serials the wholly unrelated King Of The Rocket Men was released.  Zombies… is a sequel to both Flying Disc Man… and King Of The Rocket Men but Radar Men From The Moon introduces a new character -- Commando Cody -- who wears the same rocket pack as the heroes of King… and Zombies… but faces a lunar, not Martian menace then he spins off to become Commando Cody:  Sky Marshall Of The Universe in a quasi-serial (i.e., no cliff-hangers, each chapter a complete adventure) fighting a third alien invasion!

***  Or the works of Bertolt Brecht, but that ain’t what Republic’s going for here.

#Roy Barcroft #The Purple Monster Strikes #serial #sci-fi movies #1950s science fiction movies #Cold War

[shinelikethunder]

"#'what circumstances exactly' you ask? congrats! now you're asking the right questions#feel free to join the rest of us in arguing endlessly over the answers at essay length because this shit's complicated" i'd love your thoughts!

(re: the tags on this post about suspension of moral disbelief)

I mean, there are plenty of finer details lurking in that “exactly” that I won’t even pretend to have well-formed answers for. But applying the concept of ‘suspension of disbelief’ to morality is just... a thing people do with stories. All the time! The decision to play along with it can be well-judged or ill-judged, just like most other human exchanges of ideas, and the demands a story makes of its audience can be beneficial or pernicious or just plain expedient. All you really need for it to be in play is:

some kind of moral skepticism to suspend (re: consequences, risk, what really matters here, the innate horrificness of a transgression, whatever)

some sufficient incentive to suspend it (catharsis, Feeeeels, wish fulfilment, digging into the appeal of something that’d be a terrible idea IRL, neat thought experiments, compelling trainwrecks, having more important things to Story about...)

some level of confidence that this is a temporary setting-aside of scruples for the duration of your stay in Fictionland, not actual persuasion about something you’ll potentially take with you into real life that demands fuller scrutiny

And there’s no one uncomplicated answer on that for any story. Different people are gonna have different reactions to the same work, on all three points. There are fandoms I just never got into, because the main characters didn’t grab me enough for there to be any incentive to play along with whatever their Standards-Warping Special Snowflake Bullshit was. There are others where I ate that shit up but grumped about it the whole time, because the writing seemed to be huffing its own paint fumes re: narratively vs actually justified. And others where it wasn’t bullshit or grump-worthy at all, because the story knew damn well when it was offering to take you for a ride and when it was in dead earnest and when it was having too much fun to know for sure. (And the last point, about RL persuasion, has a whole stable of sub-essays about intent, responsibility, actual effectiveness at persuading, risk of actually picking up unexamined bullshit vs. sheer annoyance at being sold a load of crap you have no interest in buying... it’s all complicated!)

The “moral suspension of disbelief” mechanism itself, though? It’s a routine part of telling and being told stories. It’s in play every time you don’t give a shit about the widows and orphans and rich inner lives of the redshirts getting killed off. Every time you take satisfaction in watching an obnoxious character meet an outlandishly awful fate they would never have deserved in real life. Every time you root for a protagonist pulling a long-shot heroic stunt that would recklessly endanger everyone around them if the laws of narrative probability weren’t so thoroughly in their favor.

I’m going to haul out Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a movie I love dearly, for examples of both a success and a failure at getting me, personally, to suspend judgement. On pretty much the same highly-morally-charged question of fact--the efficacy of torture, and how it’s portrayed in fiction. The success: I really don’t give a fuck that the movie trotted out a bunch of hoary old chestnuts about torture, brainwashing, and miraculously competent mindfucked double agents to get from Point A to all the tasty layers of identity porn we’re really here for. It’s convenient handwavium presented as Literal Comic Book Science. The traditional fearmongering about inhuman foreign enemies and their magical exotic mind-control techniques is a vaguely-gestured-at red herring; the onscreen horror is homegrown and ugly. The tropes themselves are a crock of shit, and the later movies completely dropped the ball on questions of responsibility and rehabilitation, but zero claims or assumptions about reality are being put forth here, except that The Really Bad Shit Is Coming From Inside The House.

The same can’t be said for Steve, Sam, and Natasha getting from Point A to Point "Obligatory exposition the movie could just as easily have delivered any other way” by... uh... staging a mock execution on a Hydra mole? And doing it as a quick, dirty, totally effective, totally-justified-by-the-Proverbial-Ticking-Clock, nasty-but-efficient way to get 100% accurate information out of someone who has zero incentive to cooperate. All of which is taken so thoroughly for granted that the whole scene, particularly the idea that Steve might consider it unconscionable, is played as a joke. That’s fucking rancid. Doubly rancid for this movie (whose politics are otherwise “what if the real fascism was the national-security state we built along the way”) to be blithely regurgitating the exact same War on Terror propaganda talking points that are still used to "justify” actual, real-life, really fucking recent US war crimes. Triply rancid to have the character who is literally called Captain America, who is supposed to be the country’s idealized conscience in the face of whatever its most topical ongoing failings happen to be, ringleading that shit. Listen, I love this movie, but that scene is straight-up morally indefensible. It skates by on good comic timing juuust long enough for the next big plot point to click into place and divert your attention before you can think too hard about it. But think about it for five seconds and it’s vile.

There was also a weird trend in some of the first waves of fanfiction after CA:TWS came out, which I suspect was the result of a mismatch in moral-disbelief-suspension between that movie and Person of Interest. Overall the tonal, thematic, and subject-matter overlap between the two canons is downright uncanny, but it’s not 100%, and one of the little differences is that the crew of maladjusted weirdoes on Person of Interest are big on “covert surveillance of your friends & loved ones as Actually A Gesture Of Affection.” A number of popular authors who’d written in both fandoms ported that over to CA:TWS fic as an endearing quirk to spice up the character dynamics, and let me tell you, it hit real differently in that universe.

#meta #Anonymous

[tomorrowsdrama]

Give me your romance drama recs / drama update

I’m in the mood for a romance drama but am kind of stumped on what I should watch, so PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR RECS!  It can be kdrama, jdrama, cdrama (just maybe not contemporary cdrama since those really aren’t my bag), whatever.  Or even a period English piece.  I’m watching Do You Like Brahms? and really enjoying that so I wouldn’t mind something similar.  Of course, I am also down for something more adult/steamy.  Dysfunction is fine but it needs to have a happy ending.  I guess I’m feeling kind of sappy.  The key is that I want to swoon/feel those butterflies.  

To kind of give you an idea of what I’ve watched/am watching:

Currently Watching

Do You Like Brahms? - LOVE LOVE LOVE.  Slice of life and sweet romance done right.  When Song Ah and Joon Young smile at each other, I smile along with them.  Adorable and sweet without being twee.  An undercurrent of melancholy without being morose/a kill joy.

My Beautiful Bride - I’m loving this and highly recommend it for anyone who likes thrills, action, and a HOT  male lead single-mindedly devoted to his otp, who will go to the ends of the earth to be with her.  He literally lives only to make his otp happy.  While his love for her is what drives the plot of the story, this isn’t necessarily a romance drama.  I mean, sure, I swoon and my heart flutters when I see him beat a group of gangsters to a bloody pulp with nothing but his fists and a key.  And trust me when I say my hormones rage like crazy whenever he’s onscreen.  But I’m looking for a more ordinary kind of love story to add to my roster of dramas.  My Beautiful Bride is like two straight shots of the strongest whiskey in a shady dive bar - it’s intense, exciting, and totally gets me amped up.  However, sometimes I need a break from the Johnnie Walker and slight sense of danger and want a nice, soothing, cup of warm tea instead. 

Cruel City/Heartless City - So I know I just said I needed to mellow out my current watch list but I just LOVE this drama.  It’s got a great otp but again, its main focus is not romance.  Although, it does have one of the hottest kiss scenes in recent years.  If you thought Jung Kyung Ho was nothing but a lanky, beta, weenie, this drama will totally change your mind.  Plus, this is a re-watch so I don’t have to pay attention to everything.

Finished

Flower of Evil - I fully expected to not like this drama before it started because of the terribly misleading promos.  The only reason I checked it out was because I liked Moon Chae Won and Lee Jun Ki.  And boy am I glad I did!  I love me a devoted otp who also stop to take the time to make out.  The way Ji Won saved Hyun Su by just being herself and loving him and the way Hyun Su devotes his entire life to taking care of Ji Won and being a good husband to her - *chef’s kiss*.  OH, also, Kim Ji Hoon’s glorious long hair.  

My Unfamiliar Family - I don’t usually watch family dramas, but this was a nice little surprise.  The romance was sweet.  The healing family trauma aspect was heartwarming and done very well.  Not overwrought at all.  Some of the red herrings/misleading endings threw me a loop but overall, I enjoyed how they resolved the misunderstandings and conflict.  The re-discovery of love between the parents was nice to watch.  Really easy and enjoyable watch with a great slowburn friends to lovers pairing.  I identified with the female lead a bit too much sometimes heh.  Fun fact: The actor playing the dad also played the king in The King and the Clown who was obsessed with Lee Jun Ki’s character.

Dropped

When I Was the Most Beautiful / When I Was the Prettiest - This drama was so disappointing, it kind of upset me to be honest.  The first two episodes started off so promising.  My early 2000s dysfunctional jdrama with questionable teacher/student relationships loving ass thought I was finally getting a return to the good ol’ days (before anyone says anything, no, I do not condone teacher/student relationships in real life).  I mean, they had Ji Soo, the king of playing high school students with impossible one-sided crushes who you want to root for, playing a high school student with a one-sided crush on his art student-teacher.  We also had renowned hottie Ha Suk Jin playing his older brother and Im Soo Hyang playing the woman in between the two hot brothers.  It had all the makings of a wonderful throwback to the old school dramas. But instead, we got stuck with whatever the hell this drama is.  Anyway, disappointing!

The Merchant: Gaekju - I love Jang Hyuk.  I love sageuks.  I love Jang Hyuk in sageuks.  But this story just wasn’t working for me and there was not enough shirtless Jang Hyuk to keep my attention.

Kinda Watching On/Off

Me Too, Flower!  - An old drama that I randomly picked up because I wanted to watch something with Yoon Shi Yoon.  I am only watching this because of the Yoon Shi Yoon-Lee Ji Ah pairing because frankly, the rest of the drama kinda bores me.  Something I put on after work when I don’t want to be too involved/don’t need to concentrate too much.

Angry Mom - I started re-watching portions of this drama because of how pissed off I was about When I Was the Most Beautiful and the disappointment I felt when I foudn out Kim Hee Sun was playing Joo Won’s mom instead of lover in Alice (although from the looks of the posts in the tag, maybe she’s gonna be both? hahaha).  This is Ji Soo’s break out role and for good reason.  His crush on Kim Hee Sun’s undercover high school student mom is adorable and not creepy at all because (1) He doesn’t know she’s an ahjumma (a bit of suspension of disbelief is required for this drama because no matter how great KHS looks, high school student she is not); and (2) it’s completely one-sided and not reciprocated by KHS at all.  Sigh, I just want to watch KHS in a hot noona romance and Ji Soo in a good romance where (1) he gets the girl and (2) the plot is not completely asinine.

Stopped Watching but Really Need to Return to 

Ever Night S1 - Ok, I literally have less than 10 episodes left of this drama but for some reason I keep on putting it off.  I have a real problem finishing dramas I love.  Aside from the fact that I get easily distracted and hop from one drama to the next quite often, I think it’s also because I don’t want the drama to end.  I know there’s a second season, but it just doesn’t seem the same.  Anyway, I should just buck up and finish this drama already.

Novoland Eagle Flag - I took a break because the angst was just non-stop and I needed something a bit lighter. 

Six Flying Dragons - I binged like 10 episodes one day and took a break to give my poor eyes and brain a rest.  Then, in true me fashion, I got distracted by some other drama and now I can’t remember where I left off.

Mr. Sunshine - I love Lee Byung Hun as an actor and I am also a big fan of Byun Yo Han.  This is also the hottest Yoo Yeon Suk has ever looked to me.  But I kind of lost interest when it became apparent that all three male leads were going to be in love with the female lead.  I like the female lead just fine but it’s kind of annoying how everybody is in love with her.  I know this is a quality drama but honestly, I don’t think I will return to this unless I have nothing more interesting to watch. 

#drama update #drama recs #do you like brahms? #my beautiful bride #cruel city #flower of evil #my unfamiliar family #when I was the most beautiful #the merchant gaekju #me too flower #angry mom #ever night #novoland eagle flag #six flying dragons #mr. sunshine #kdrama

[louryanalarcon]

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone

08 May 2021

I did something. I read an entire book strictly for leisure for the first time ever really! And I fell in love with it! As you recall, I watched Shadow and Bone on Netflix, and it was fantastic, perhaps the best show I’ve watched since The Witcher and Game of Thrones. Can you tell I have a thing for fantasy series? Well in short, I loved the tv show so much I couldn’t wait another year for season 2. I needed to dive head-first into the Grishaverse and see what lies ahead. See, I tried doing the same with Game of Thrones, but those books are so dense I could barely keep my eyes open. It was like reading a bible. In contrast, these Grishaverse books are much more my speed. I know, they’re Young Adult novels, probably meant for teenagers and a younger crowd, but so is Harry Potter, right? Besides, I never was one for reading, but I can read these books like it were a tv show on paper. I swept through the first book in less than a week! I never do that. Reading is different. I see the allure now. It’s patient, slowly building up as you go until you find yourself a hundred pages in and you’re like, “Hmm, this shit alright.”

Anyways, I have some time on my hand and since I finished both book one and season 1 of Shadow and Bone, I want to write my thoughts on the books and the show. Which one do I prefer? Ultimately, I like the show more – if for one reason alone: the casting of Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux as Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev. The diverse cast is very much appreciated and they’re all incredible, but to cast two Asians in the lead roles… I can’t express my appreciation for that. In fact, I’m thankful for having watched the show first because now as I read the books, I can’t help but see Asian Alina and Mal fall in love. Am I a sucker for a good love story, of course, look who you’re talking to? But the thing is too, the show really breathed some life into Mal’s character, compared to his otherwise dull book counterpart. I love their love story… that’s really all I have to say about that.

Well, I think I’ve found my new addiction for the next couple months. To think I would like reading so much to the point that every day after work, I’m reading for two or three hours? At least, I’ve found something to keep me preoccupied.

30 May 2021

Well, finished the Shadow and Bone Trilogy – all in less than a month. Never was one for reading, (or continuing old entries), but here I am. I don’t know why I never posted, but I’m going to try to be less of a perfectionist and more personal. This is a blog after all.

Anyways, did I like it? Of course, I did. Considering the fact that I pretty much haven’t read an entire book cover to cover since forever, and now here I am trying to give a book review? It’s odd, but I want to try. What I loved the most about the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is the friends-to-lovers romance between Alina and Mal. I fell in love with them on screen, and honestly, their book counterparts aren’t too bad, especially if you imagine Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux in their place.

As far as the first book, Shadow and Bone, is concerned, I basically knew everything that was going to happen after having already watched season one on Netflix. So, that kind of took away some immersion and shock from pivotal moments in the story. However, there was some things the show did differently. By the way, I’m diving right into spoilers, so, sorry in advance. Mal never kisses Alina in season one, whereas in the books, he kisses her right before they meet the stag. I can’t help but feel like this was done purposely to heighten anticipation for their eventual onscreen kiss sometime in season two. I was okay with it. I don’t assume the show will follow exactly what goes on in the books, and that’s fine. Perhaps I was too harsh on book Mal because I felt like he kind of fell flat and never really showed more of himself. But as I continued, I grew to like him. Book Alina is much different than her show counterpart. In the books, she is very unconfident, not nearly as brave, and truthfully, not nearly as beautiful. Jessie Mei Li is almost too gorgeous to play the role, but then again, I’m not really complaining. Some might find Alina as pretentious, and yes, sometimes her constant doubt and jealousy can be, but it really does show what goes on in a young woman’s mind, particularly one who is not typically beautiful or sought after. And incredibly enough, she finds herself in a love-rectangle?

Book two, Siege and Storm, is my favorite. The introduction of Sturmond, Tolya and Tamar, and Zoya’s greater role in the story was what made me love it. First off, Sturmond’s surprise true identity reveal of him being Nikolai was maybe the biggest surprise of the entire series for me. Nikolai is great; his wit and charisma is charming and an appreciated change from the doom and gloom that sometimes characterizes Alina. Also, Tolya and Tamar, being Shu made me relate to them even more. I loved the fact that he’s huge and she’s small and wiry. It was nice. Zoya Nazyalensky. What more can I say? She is my favorite character in the series. The raven-haired Squaller – I’m in love with her. Maybe it’s because Sujaya Dasgupta is gorgeous, or maybe it’s because I love the “mean-girl to nice-girl” trope. She is great, but honestly, I wish we got to learn more about her outside of her incredible beauty. Maybe I’ll find out in the King of Scars duology, which I am currently on right now.

Finally, book three, Ruin and Rising, is probably second on my list. It ended well but took its time to get rolling. I never liked the Apparat, so the beginning of the book was not my favorite. Also, Nikolai wasn’t there to liven things up. It was very gloomy down there underground. But as they ventured up and eventually reunited with Nikolai, then things started rolling. Also, the Apparat kind of just fell off there. Like, we never really learned his true motives. Again, I still have the King of Scars duology to read, so there’s still room. For me, the Apparat’s arc felt unfinished. But oh well, didn’t really care for him. Mal being the third amplifier… I didn’t expect that to be honest. I should listen more carefully. If anything, I guess I didn’t like the final battle. In contrast, Siege and Storm’s final battle felt more climactic and consequential. Alina was left within an inch of her life, her hair turned white, her powers gone, the Darkling’s power gained, a coup, and the crew was forced underground. It was epic. This on the other hand, wasn’t really on that level. There wasn’t much of a battle at all. People get shot and bit, and then Alina kills Mal. It wasn’t so much an epic standoff between Alina and the Darkling so much as it was Alina gaining her third amplifier and winning by default. I went in thinking she had to harness the power of all the amplifiers and defeat the Darkling. Nothing of the sort came about. Perhaps Mal was the true Big Bad since it was his death that rid the Shadow Fold. I’m sort of torn because I’m happy Mal came back alive because he and Alina get their happily ever after, but his “death” didn’t mean much. So, he lived two lives? Also, Alina is left without her powers… I don’t know man, for why?

All in all, I’m happy with Alina and Mal’s ending. Their arc is finished. Orphans of Keramzin bringing up an orphanage of their own, and kissing beneath the stairs while the staff watches from afar? I can dig it. I decided to jump right into King of Scars (mainly for Zoya and Nikolai) rather than start Six of Crows. There are some spoilers unfortunately, so if you really like Nina then don’t do this. Otherwise, I’m mainly concerned with Zoya and Nikolai and the other characters from the original trilogy. So, that’s where I’m at. I’ve gained a newfound hobby and escaped into a new fandom. Reading can be fun sometimes. Give it a try.