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bunniekittiee · 6 months

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Movie Night

I wanted to do headcanons for a movie night with some of the men from MK cause rn I wanna watch a movie and eat snacks and cry my feelings out lol. I just did gender neutral reader instead of fem.

A little nsfw but only at Kung Lao and Raiden’s part . Not detailed or anything, just hinted at.

Characters- Tomas, Kuai Liang, Bi-Han, Kung Lao, Raiden

Tomas-

He was probably the one to suggest movie night. He loves watching movies, as well as spending time with his s/o.

He will make sure to set aside time for movie nights so that he doesn’t miss it or get sidetracked with other things.

Tomas likes to watch comedy movies, but he will watch a good horror movie.

He doesn’t like action movies too much as he lives in the action. He doesn’t want to see what he does on a day-to-day basis on the tv screen.

He will watch Spiderman though (hehe). Thinks Spiderman is great. Peter Parker reminds him of himself (hmm I wonder why).

Tomas doesn’t get scared very easily when watching horror movies. He can expect the jump scares a lot of the time.

But he doesn’t mind if his s/o cuddles into him or grabs onto him if they’re scared. He thinks it’s cute.

He likes to tease them about it.

Tomas loves to have a lot of snacks available for him and his significant other. He will go shopping beforehand and get everything for movie night.

Will make crazy concoctions of his popcorn with M&M’s and chocolate syrup sometimes (I’ve had that before I will admit it and it was good so don’t even bully him)

He likes the saltiness and sweetness of his weird popcorn concoction.

Absolutely feels like crap after he eats a lot of bad snacks. He’s got a bloated tummy, and he feels a bit gross.

Will ask for a tummy rub during the movie.

Likes to wear matching pjs during movie nights.

Kuai Liang-

He looks forward to movie nights because that is when he gets time to relax and spend time with his lover.

He and his s/o will eat a meal while watching movies. He prefers it that way a little bit.

So he will have their kitchen cooks prepare what they want so it is ready for their movie time. Or sometimes Kuai Liang will make it himself.

He is a great cook, he is skilled at many things.

Loved cuddling while watching movies. He will increase his body temperature to be his s/o’s personal blanket.

Expect a lot of kisses from Kuai, he’s v affectionate, esp during movie time.

He will like to watch romance or rom-coms. He isn’t a horror fan, he will watch them but he isn’t into it really.

Kuai doesn’t get scared, he is just tired of seeing bloodshed. When it’s something he deals with everyday, he doesn’t want to see it at home when he’s relaxing.

But paranormal movies are a little different, he will watch those.

Sometimes gets a little paranoid but he won’t admit it.

Kuai dresses comfortably during movie night so he’s typically shirtless and in lounge pants or sweats. Maybe even his boxers, it just depends.

Liang will indulge in snacks though, even if he prefers meals. But nothing crazy. He’s not like Tomas where his sweet tooth is crazy big, but it’s still there.

Will fuck up a pack of cupcakes to himself. Licks the container clean.

Bi-Han-

He’s the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, why should he waste time watching Hollywood films?

You put on the Addams Family, and he’s glued to the screen. He finds it interesting.

It’s hard to sit and watch a movie with Bi-Han. He has to find the time to watch a movie, but also because he has a hard time sitting still.

Not in like an ADHD way, more like in a “there’s important work I need to do and I’m stressing about it” kind of way.

He will watch anything but Johnny Cage’s films. If his s/o put one of his movies on, Bi-Han is walking out and going back to his paperwork.

How dare they waste his time like that?

He does like fantasy films despite living in a fantasy world himself. He’s never seen a dragon, but wouldn’t that be cool to see?

He’s sure they exist in one of the realms. He just has to find it.

Doesn’t really snack on junk food, he’s more of a fruit salad kind of guy (fruit salad is good tho so i cant blame him).

Eats his vegetables. Ugh, why Bi-Han?

He will indulge in some sweets like dark chocolate, but that’s the farthest he will go. He’s just never been a fan of sweets or carbs I guess.

Party Pooper Bi-Han.

But he will buy his s/o all the snacks they want and what foods they want as well. He’ll even have the chefs cook something.

He wants his lover to be happy and content. Plus he doesn’t mind if they eat junk food. He thinks it’s cute.

Will make the temperature cold so his s/o cuddles with him closer. He pretends like he doesn’t do it on purpose.

Kinda prefers to watch TV in bed rather than sit in the living room or somewhere else.

He only feels that way because he can turn over on his side and go to bed if he’s tired enough. On a couch, he can’t do that.

Especially on the uncomfortable ass couches in the Lin Kuei palace that are not made for comfort. He would rather get his spine ripped out.

Kung Lao-

You have to have an entire four-course dinner catered to this man during movie time.

He’s a bottomless pit. He has to do a lot of shopping if he knows he and his s/o are having a movie night.

He will eat so many snacks it’s ridiculous.

He likes comedy movies, but he will sit down and watch a horror movie too.

Slasher films to be specific. Doesn’t like poltergeist movies, he’s afraid he will be haunted.

He won’t admit that though. But if he and his s/o watch a poltergeist movie he will do his best to seem like he’s not scared.

Is the type to overanalyze horror films and point on the flaws or how unrealistic it is.

Has choked laughing at a comedy film and it just about gave his s/o a heart attack.

If cuddling ensues, be prepared to have crumbs stuck to you. He makes a mess.

Kung Lao was also the one to probably suggest movie night similar to Tomas.

Will give his s/o small kisses during the movie but doesn’t do it too much. He knows he will get too horny, and there will be no point of return.

Sometimes there has been movie nights ‘ruined’ by his horniness. I say ruined lightly because it’s not really ruined yk.

He just gets distracted easily. He cant help it.

Does make up for it with another movie night and tries to control his horniness but don’t bet on it.

Raiden-

Big on cuddling, absolute cuddle bug.

Has a lot of blankets ready and will make the house cold so he and his s/o can cuddle close.

Likes watching family kind of movies or romance. Doesn’t like horror really.

He’s a mix of junk food and healthy food. He likes to keep his physique nice.

But he doesn’t care if his s/o eats junk food, he will buy them anything they want.

Raiden will give his s/o small kisses during the movies, and he will pull them closer to his body. He likes having them close to him.

He’s a big softie as everyone knows, so movie time is mainly just kissing and cuddling. He’s not outwardly sexual about it.

But he won’t turn his s/o down if they engage in it.

Tends to fall asleep during movies. He gets so comfortable esp around his s/o, so he feels sleepy.

Loves it when they play with his hair. It makes him feel even more drowsy.

He loves their fingers going through his locks and the sensations.

Doesn’t outwardly ask for a massage during movie time but he may hint at it.

BONUS!!!!!!!!

Liu Kang-

He’s excited for movie time!!

He does love some relaxation after a stressful day. He has a lot of stress in his life being Earthrealm’s Protector.

So he likes to unwind when he can. Liu Kang is never against taking mental health days.

He likes to watch peaceful movies. Something romantic but not heart wrenching.

Horror movies aren’t something he wants to watch. He’s seen much worse in his life.

They aren’t frightening to him, but he does like it when his s/o cuddles closer to him because they’re scared.

Makes him feel big and strong.

Showers his s/o in kisses. Kisses all over their face and body. He attacks them with kisses.

Smiles when they kiss him back.

Cuddles are great with him, he holds his s/o in his lap practically and he is just v comfortable to be around.

After watching sci-fi movies, he likes to discuss different theories both he and his s/o may have about the lore of the movie.

He likes to hear them talk about things that they’re questioning and what they’re interested to know.

Of course, he doesn’t have the answers, but he likes to theorize.

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inf3ct3dd · 8 months

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ellie headcanons pt.5!!!

warnings: nada

content: loser!ellie x reader headcanons

authors note : ellie dug a hole into my skull and moved in

⁃ against bags for no reason. like her pockets are constantly full of things. random receipts, money, headphones, EVERYTHING. she takes her pants of and they jingle cuz they're filled with COINS.

⁃ knows how to do a back bridge and just HAS to let everyone know. you're watching tv and she's just on the floor like "look"

⁃ i feel like shes the type of person to just start fully eating an orange in the middle of class. like ur listening to the teacher talk and you're just hit by the most aggressive wave of CITRUS from behind you

⁃ constantly fighting the air... like she's just in the kitchen punching and kicking at NOTHING just because. she's always coming up to you and like take punching you and doing her own sound effects like “PWAH PWAH WAM WAPOW"

⁃ jar hoarder 😞😞 every time you buy anything that comes in a jar she's keeping it. literally won't let you throw them away!!! you guys don't even have cups anymore, its just jars and mugs.

⁃ speaking of mugs, ellie has just as many stupid mugs as she does stupid tshirts. absolutely has a lot of garfield mugs be she LOVES GARFEILD

- would buy a dry-erase board for your fridge and leave u little notes and drawings

⁃ "Every single time I see you, I become horny like a triceratops" with a little drawing of a triceratops"

⁃ breaks into incoherent ramblings when shes sleepy... like insane hypotheticals

"what if our bed just completely exploded right now"

⁃ whenever ur on facetime and it gets quiet she just breaks out into song. not even like good, trying singing but BAD SINGING.

⁃ she does that whenever it's quiet !!!

⁃ is listening to music CONSTANTLY. her headphones are actually attached to her ears like all DAY she's listening to something.

⁃ HATES THE BIG LIGHT (iykyk) she lives for low/ natural lighting definitely has so many lamps and led lights

⁃ can never sit normal.... like she is not beating the gay ppl sitting weird allegations she sits so ODD

⁃ will spend literal hours in the pool. doing flips, pretending to be a mermaid, 'making up' her own tricks, she lives for it & !!!

⁃ refuses to dress right for the weather. it'll be like 90° outside and shes in a whole hoodie and jeans.

⁃ has the WEIRDEST subway order. probably puts banana peppers on her shit 😭😭 she swears its the best thing ever

⁃ love's campy comedy movies, esp lesbian ones and horror movies (but im a cheerleader, bottoms, scary movie, etc) also def loves coming of age movies

⁃ has a letterbox account and makes extremely thought provoking reviews

literally her

⁃ always taking candids of you, and they're literally her favorite pictures

⁃ every time she sees two things next to eachother she's like "oh my god it's literally us!!"

⁃ one time she crashed her car and it literally fully flipped over and she just crawled out of the trunk and called you like "you would NOT believe what just happened to me."

- absolutely a waffles girl she needs the texture she likes the CRUNCH

⁃ but like she also loves bacon pancakes. like she's obsessed w adventure time and she makes bacon pancakes ALL THE TIME and she sings the song while she makes them

- eats trail mix like all day....she buys the giant jars and you make fun of her cuz she "likes eating nuts"

⁃ the most secret swifty ever. like she refuses to let it be known but she fully sobbed when she listened to folklore for the first time

⁃ obsessed w those baby sensory videos. like she will literally be entertained for hours

⁃ LOVES the lego movies, esp lego batman

⁃ the MOST honest shit talker ever like you'll be like "yeah she's just a really bad person" and she'd be like "she's also like disgustingly hideous...

⁃ her search history isn’t even weird or gross its just…random. like she’s definitely googled “how do cotton candy machines work” before

⁃ family guy enjoyer.....

⁃ her cf story is like insanely long n its filled w random memes she reposts and insane ramblings

taglist!!!! if ur name is crossed i can't tag u :((

@syrenada @dinaissoprettyoml, @kingofmylastkiss @as2rid @greencacty @melissabarrerass @bratydoll @lov3lylotus @forelliesposts @echostinn @f3r4Ifr0gg3r @r3wbeef @leatheredhearts @mousymaven @mina-281@princessguardian444 @calystas-morning-tea @horror-whoree @slutshies @bearieio @mag-mfm @bubs-world @paran0id0blivi0n @sawaagyapong @bbygrIshelbs @gayh0rr0r @p|9ys @ellieslilsIvvt @dollietes @elliesmellsbadd @ibloom4u @ddreabea @beestar120 @brunettedolls-blog @girlwonderchloe @elliesgflol @maris-koffin @emonopolyman @iloveeyousblog @fr3sh-tragedies @ilovaffles @certifedcrybunny @elleatethat @baldph0bic @clouded-whispers @4rt3m1ss @saggykneecaps @swtsuna @ellesslutt @minixmel @yuyans-stuff @owmoiralover @thecowardwrites @lunascerebro @elliestrwbrry @iwantsoda @teeveegirl @dinasmoon @urnewghostfriend @k3ym4ra @bratzboydoll @ungodlyvenus @lav3nd3rhaze @scokslvoer @iloveunrealpeople @realwinehouse @nehemiahlicious @onedeaddreamer @teawithnosugar @r4t1ku5 @villainousbear @mentallymarriedtonatasharomanoff @gay4tiddies @uraesthete @lil-elliesgf @neighborhood-houseplant @sagessensationalstuff

#ellie williams x reader #loser!ellie #ellie x reader #ellie x y/n #ellie tlou #ellie the last of us #ellie williams x you #ellie williams tlou #tlou part 2 #tlou fic #tlou headcanons

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mrshesh · 10 months

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hi! do you have any general hcs for the cod:ghosts boys?

general headcanons - call of duty: ghost's

overview: general headcanons of the call of duty: ghost's boys!

pairing: none!

genre: fluff, pure tomfoolery

a/n: hi anon! i'm thrilled i finally got a request for these boys. i love them so much, it's getting a bit unhealthy. you're truly the best for requesting them! i hope you love it!

x logan walker

He sucks at puzzles. He’s smart and tactical, but puzzles are on another level of difficulty for him.

He likes doodling a lot. If he has a pen and a surface to draw on, he will sketch a small smiley or a caterpillar. It has become such a habit that he doesn’t even think about it when he does it. It got so bad that once, Keegan called him out on it mid-doodle, leaving Logan embarrassed for a week.

He loves the ocean, but beaches annoy him. He hates sand. (I firmly believe his hate for them is from Hesh throwing sand in his face as children.)

He has a picture of him and Hesh as kids in his wallet. He feels calmer when he looks at it, getting into the habit of peeking at it when stressed.

He’s an avid Deftones enjoyer. He loves Beware and Diamond Eyes.

He likes caramel-scented things, but he doesn’t like the taste of it.

He has some insane dirt on Elias, and, of course, Hesh knows all of it.

For some odd reason, he’s phenomenal at parallel parking.

x david "hesh" walker

He loves movies. He can watch any genre! Horror? Great! Action? Love. Romance? Cute! Comedy? Perfect! He loves it all. Shows, however? Nope.

He takes pride in his nails being clipped and filed at all times. He was a nailbiter in his teens, so he cares about his nails more than he should today.

He can’t cook to save his life.

Eminem is his go-to artist. He loves and respects many artists, but Eminem will always be at the top of his list. He loves Stan.

He’s respectful in general.

He’s extremely secure and confident, yet he’s still pretty nervous when he talks to girls.

He loves long car rides. Driving around in his car while listening to his favorite songs brings out a unique joy in him.

He, unlike Logan, loves beaches! (He wasn’t the one who got sand thrown on him, so he’s thriving.)

He hates coriander.

x elias "scarecrow" walker

Unlike his son, Elias is great at puzzles! He’s disappointed Logan didn’t inherit that quality. He mourns it every day.

He loves pickles. (Same.)

He manipulated himself into liking beer many years ago.

People call him DILF all the time. It has happened too many times to count. He finds it funny, while Hesh and Logan are horrified every time.

He doesn’t know how to put on chapstick. He puts it between his lips and swipes it back and forth, not on his lips.

He got so much action when he was a teenager/young adult. He tells Logan and Hesh to “live a little” so they can experience that life, too.

He doesn’t listen to music often, but when he does, he listens to either Korn or Chris Isaak.

He adores Riley, sometimes stealing him from Hesh without warning.

x keegan russ

He secretly enjoys ASMR. It helps him unwind and de-stress, but not sleep, surprisingly.

He’s excellent at the game Mafia.

He has made way too many people giggle excitedly because of his voice. He finds it amusing but disturbing at the same time. He knows it’s attractive, but that many people? He has even made Elias giggle like a schoolgirl because of his vocal folds.

Keegan strikes me as a Slipknot fan. He finds Killpop and Vermillion to be sexy.

He loves grocery shopping.

He talks to himself a lot. He’s antisocial and quiet around others, but when Keegan’s alone, he keeps having full-on conversations with himself. Merrick caught him doing it once - he never brought it up again.

He enjoys lasagna a bit too much.

He had a motorcycle phase as a young adult. It got so bad he learned how to do a wheelie on them, but his love for them has died down in the many years he’s been alive.

He thinks wine is gross.

x thomas merrick

He cannot stand bananas. Everything about them makes him gag.

He gets such a rise out of being a bitch. He’s already annoying by default but strives to be even more insufferable for the fuck of it.

He, Alex, and Keegan smoke while being sentimental together at least once a month. (It’s always with Keegan and Alex - Elias, David, and Logan get left out.)

He listens to underground metal like Sold Soul, and he thinks it makes him superior to everyone else. (And he gatekeeps it.)

He’s immune to pretty much all physical pain except for waxing. It’s enough to make him cry.

He loved trains as a child.

His comfort song is Toxicity by System Of A Down.

His appetite is insane. This man can eat a horse and still be hungry by the end of it.

His calves are huge for some reason.

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man-down-in-hatchet-town · 4 months

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Hey, you!

Yeah, you!

Do you crave more ✨canon queer stories✨ in your fandom experience? Are you begging for more major character representation that you don’t have to headcanon for yourself?

Then have I got the kickstarter for you!

The Tin Can Bros (a comedy trio and makers of live theatre, digital sketches, webseries, you name it! You might know them from all the work they’ve done with Starkid—founding Tin Can Brothers Joey and Brian played Ron and Quirrell in A Very Potter Musical) are launching a brand new season of projects, most of which contain QUEER MAJOR CHARACTERS AND THEMES. These guys have got gays, they’ve got lesbians, they’ve got trans and gnc characters, they’ve got wholesome first love and Hannigram levels of fucked-up toxicity. It’s a whole cornucopia!! They’re planning to produce work in Los Angeles, NYC, London, Edinburgh, and Adelaide, but there will be digital tickets so you can watch where ever you are!

We’ve got:

-Two Rocky Horror-style concerts of the cult-hit, spy-movie parody musical Spies Are Forever. Gay protagonist who will sear himself into your heart! Seriously, his relationship with fellow spy Owen will emotionally destroy you for at least seven years.

-A concert of the developing musical This Could Be on Broadway, which follows a group of high school kids putting on a production of The Matrix: The Musical (not a show in real life) in their theatre department. A bunch of the central kids are canonically some flavor of queer, and there’s a central, very sweet lesbian romance that includes a trans character. She’s played trans actress Esther Fallick, who also worked with TCB as a consultant to make the character and show as authentic as possible. Seriously, if you want to see a trans teen thriving in their own skin, this is the show for you.

-An Edinburgh Fringe Fest production of The Solve It Squad Returns, a Scooby-Doo parody that follows the parodic versions of the Scooby Gang when they reunite as fucked-up adults to finally confront the almost-twenty-years-past traumatic murder of their dog Cluebert. I promise it’s funnier than it sounds. Esther, the Velma-esque super genius, is gender non-conforming and identifies with they/them pronouns. They also have a girlfriend WITH a boyfriend!

-A workshop reading of the QUEER SCI-FI TELEVISION COMEDY PILOT Intelligent Life. Unlike the other projects I’ve mentioned, this one is new to the TCB fans, but will follow a pair of ex-boyfriends forced to survive together in an extra-terrestrial colony. From the sound of it, there will be plenty of queer supporting characters as well. This frankly sounds like it could be tumblr’s dream show, and it’d be great to support its development.

-The Great Debate—a live comedy game show where comedians debate silly things. While this obviously won’t have narrative gay rep like the other projects, it will showcase gay talent (at the very least, Tin Can Brother Corey will participate in every show) and may include debates involving queer topics.

-Gross Prophets, in which three wannabe gurus/cult leaders lead a seminar on the path to enlightenment. This is a completely new stage musical so I honestly don’t know if it will contain any queer characters or themes. But the TCB queer track record is pretty good!

Guys, I’m so genuinely so excited by this season. But all this awesome queer art won’t happen unless we get their kickstarter funded. And they need our help! So let’s get fundraising!!

TLDR; Comedy group Tin Can Bros are attempting to fund a season positively filled with queer stories and characters, and they need help! If you want to support the creation of queer theatre and the development of queer TV, consider checking them out and giving to the kickstarter!

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saintofdaggers · 4 months

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so we all know and love 'KILLING IS DISTASTEFUL!! …to me' but here are some other comedy gold moments from Saw V that I hold very dear

Strahm saying "fuck you" to a dead body

him getting Sawtrapped immediately after he ignores being told to stay put

"Peewee... shit."

one of the guys in the elevator shaking his head in disapproval when Hoffman blocks the way (actually Hoffman getting more and more nervous through that entire scene is pretty funny)

when John pulls the syringe out of Hoffman's neck and it makes a blade sound effect

"Relax!" "I AM FUCKING RELAXED!"

"What sort of shady shit have you been up to, hm?" "I'm a senior VP for a real estate development company." "So you're boring too" (and Brit's little :/ face when she hears that)

Charles says that he works for The Herald like he expects a Pulitzer any day and Mallick just goes "That's a massive accomplishment? You work for a gossip rag?" (get him <3)

when Luba tells Mallick to get in the bathtub that will very much kill him if he does and he says "Yeah, I'm more of a shower guy"

(actually, what the fuck kind of swamp sludge bath bomb did Hoffman put in that tub to make the water look that gross? I wouldn't get in there either even if it wasn't a Saw trap)

Brit stabbing Luba and clearly not giving a single fuck that she just killed someone

Hoffman solemnly saying "Nobody made it" and immediately hearing "We got a live one!"

Paul just no-selling Hoffman attacking him during his kidnapping (get him <3)

John recording his last message to Jill in his Jigsaw robe

this exchange when Brit and Mallick realize they screwed themselves over by killing off the others during their test: "Oh, whoops..." "Big fucking whoops"

genuinely my favorite Saw movie ever

#saw v #sawposting #saw movies #saw franchise #saw tag #my posts

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nothingenoughao3 · 1 month

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Why we wanna transition to Mad Scientist (or, revulsion and queerness in horror)

(Hi, @ash-eats-film! This is the thing I mentioned!)

Horror has a few baseline emotions it tries to inflict on the audience. This has been written about for decades, most famously by Stephen King, but the baseline elements most writers agree on are as follows.

Dread: Anxiety over what is about to happen

Terror: The fear of what is occurring right this second

Revulsion: Being forced to interact directly with what's happening right now

Black comedy: Being tricked into laughing at either the terror or the revulsion

Horror: The trauma response to what just happened

A great example of this can be seen in The Evil Dead II (YT link that doesn't include the full context, but does have the, uh, money shot). There's the dread of realizing there's something in the root cellar; the terror of when the Deadite pops up in the trapdoor; the combined revulsion and black comedy of Ash jumping on the Deadite's skull/the door, popping out its eyeball which shoots into Bobby Joe's mouth, and then the horror of what just went down rolling over Ash and his current companions.

Often, revulsion and black comedy go hand in hand. That's because they're tension relievers. The revolting thing becomes ridiculous, and you laugh at how ridiculous it is. This lets you settle down in the midst of the gore and death, just slightly, just enough to get through it... so the horror can fully set in for you, too, once it's over.

You also, often, question your own stability if you laugh in the middle of a gross-out horror scene: "Am I sick? Is there something wrong with me for laughing at X?" This is even worse if the villain starts laughing--now you're questioning whether you're IDing with the monster. Are you okay? Is something wrong with you?

Revulsion is often framed as the slutty member of the good, proper, morally-upright brigade of horror. We have a name for folks who seek out gross-out horror--they're gore-hounds, a term that is virtually always pejorative when applied to other people. We call certain types of horror "torture porn" or "gore porn", as though it is inherently sleazy and sexual to rely on this specific emotional reaction. (Note that we don't have "black comedy-porn", or "dread hounds", even though a dread hound sounds really fucking cool.)

Not to go off on a huge tangent, but I think the issue with media that overly relies on revulsion is that it's unbalanced, not that it's bad. A movie that's nothing but dread never has any emotional payoff. A movie that's nothing but terror never lets the audience relax back into their seats and, paradoxically, will become boring (imagine two hours of jumpscares).

So forth and so on: all aspects of horror rely on each other to survive. That includes scenes that make you go "Awww, sick" while nervously cackling.

Here's the thing: in previous generations, revulsion was similarly understood to be an essential part of horror, but what led to a revolted reaction was very different.

Lovecraft (boo this man! BOOOOO) understood the power of revulsion, which was the source of a lot of his strangest and most vivid descriptions. It was also the source of some of his most bigoted ideas working into his stories. The undercurrent of "non-WASPs are evil because they are repulsive" is as pervasive in his work as "the universe is incomprehensibly vast". You kind of can't get around that.

But there's another thing Lovecraft did to generate revulsion. He wrote a number of stories where an unhealthy focus on corpses, graveyards, graverobbing, and the like is, indirectly or directly, associated with sexual perversion.

How many, you may ask? Off the top of my head, there's "The Loved Dead", "In the Vault", "The Disinterment", "Pickman's Model", The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, "The Hound" and "Herbert West: Re-Animator". All of these tales share certain themes, which don't repeat beat-for-beat in each tale but do overlap:

Male character becomes obsessed with dead bodies--whether that's stealing them, having sex with them, desecrating them, or resurrecting them.

He is comfortable around death and the dead to a degree that is unusual, sometimes explicitly stating that he prefers the smells/sights of death to those of life.

Terms like "fiendish", "hellish", "abnormal" and "perverse" are used to describe him; his gaze towards dead bodies or to experiments may be framed as "leering" or "speculative".

He is frequently a twink; often described as being frail, if not noticeably beautiful; he may recall being mocked for being "bookish" or "weak" as a child.

He is superficially charming in a way that gets him by in polite society, but not long-term nor in-depth.

He often ensnares an otherwise "normal" man to share his obsessions, effectively recruiting him as an assistant... until the "normal" guy realizes he's about to go on the chopping block (or, in at least one story, already was on the chopping block).

Their crimes involve a lot of sneaking around late at night, locked doors, whispering so they don't get caught (or they'll be killed), secretiveness, glee at getting away with it, and frequently, sharing the same living space.

The Unrepentant Evil Dude is often killed at the end of his tale in a way that implies vigilante/mob justice is at hand.

The other may be allowed to live if he's very sorry and frames the whole story as being the fault of the other guy, or he may die too while affirming his horrible demise as just, even if it terrifies him.

(One could make an argument that Wilbur Whateley fits into some of these tropes. It's me I'm one)

If this all sounds very gay, Lovecraft probably would have agreed. He had as dim a view of homosexuality as he did on most other things that were Outside The Norm. In other words, we were supposed to see Richard Upton Pickman with his ghouls and think, "Ah, yes, this is a metaphor for queerness", only we were supposed to be revolted by that revelation.

This same attempt at revulsion can be easily read into Victor Frankenstein, and probably more Mad Scientists than I can name offhand (but feel free to in reblogs). Frankenstein's "crimes against nature" were connected to dead bodies as well, and likewise involved a lot of sneaking around, locked doors, and worry about what would happen were he caught with this naked man-thing he's keeping in his dorm. His crime, as with his parody character Herbert West, is creating life outside the bounds of heterosexual cisgender sex. This was meant to revolt readers' sensibilities as much as the whole cutting-up-corpses-and-stitching-them-back-together thing would.

This is why, if we're being honest, "Re-Animator" and "Bride of Re-Animator" are not necessarily gay… they're homophobic. This might be controversial, but stick with me.

I feel like Gordon and Yuzna were tapping into that old-fashioned Revulsion Handbook, including from the source material, which thematically linked Herbert West with queerness. (I'm using "queer" a lot here, but I would personally include trans-friendly readings under that rubric; I'm using "queer" in the analytical sense and not solely in the identity sense.) This means that, ironically, a lot of what we could point to as queer subtext is actually homophobic text.

This is reinforced by the novelization of the first film, written by a homophobe who got Trumpist brainworms later in life. He wanted to make West repulsive to the reader, and therefore, he tried to make West more gay. And IT WORKED.

To be clear, I'm not accusing anybody, other than the novelist, of being a homophobe. There's a difference between possessing internalized bigoted beliefs which express themselves in writing, versus utilizing tropes originating in bigotry because That's What's Done Around Here. (I can understand why others might not perceive a meaningful difference.) Like the Cuzco lizards, this queerness-as-villainy is definitely a stupid thing ported in from the source material.

I do think that this is why everybody but Our Queen Barbara Crampton seems embarrassed or nonplussed by all the transfags pestering them about fellatio tapes. It's because they don't get why this thing appeals so much to us. It shouldn't. If anything, they should be canceled for having yet another queer-coded villain, along with a number of other plot choices of questionable taste (I'm looking at you, The Head Scene, and I don't like what I see).

Only, uh, it didn't work out that way long-term, did it?

I thank Cronenberg and venereal horror for this, in part. Brutally queer despite not being explicitly gay, venereal horror is what happens when the characters should be revolted, but aren't.

This kind of thing is horrifying for crossing the line twice: first by being disgusting, then by having characters respond as though it is exciting, or sexually stimulating, or if nothing else, normal. They are perverse. They leer at the dead and the subjects of their experiments. And the disgusting monsters at the center of these narratives are celebrated. Their twisted sexualities are explored with the same brave frankness other filmmakers give to milquetoast cishet missionary nonsense. Their political views are given life and air, and usually, they're right. Their deaths, if they come at all, are framed as tragedies brought on by society's sick rejection of the flesh their brave experimentation.

Cronenberg's the dude who unironically thinks that Shivers (trigger warning for literally everything) has a happy ending. My man David's got subscriptions where others have issues.

Venereal horror has given us a new metaframework for looking at the repulsive, the monstrous, and the problematic and responding to it… differently.

Now here's another thing: Lovecraft likewise provided a structure for embracing the grotesque and the queer.

Pickman, the Decadent artist, paints photorealistic, enormous portraits of ghouls. Literal flesh-eaters. He is fascinated by them, comfortable with them. "Model" heavily implies that Pickman is a ghoul changeling--switched at birth with a human child. This leans into Lovecraft's ideas about heritability being a major source of horror, of course, and seems run of the mill until you get to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

In there, Pickman appears again, but this time as a ghoul. He has cast off his human social shackles and joined the beings he loves, beings who understand him and support him. Kadath is notable in that the ghouls are actually... like... reliable, loyal, and morally good? Carter's opinion pretty much is, "They do eat human corpses and they smell awful, but they're all very nice and want to help me on my quest, so maybe they're not so bad (if not as good as the cat army)".

This feels like Lovecraft acknowledging that his entire approach of linking queerness, death, and revulsion is fundamentally flawed. Once you become familiar with the repulsive, it becomes not-really-that-repulsive-at-all. You can find beauty in it, and amusement, and love. Pickman embracing his ghoulish nature isn't all that different from Seth Brundle's overall lack of revulsion at his body's transformation. And it's not that different from what a lot of transmasculine folks go through, either.

It's not that transmascs, trans men, and/or transfags don't see what West does as crimes against nature. It's that we're all very fucking tired of being accused of crimes against nature. We're tired of not being able to look at socmed without finding accusations that we're disgusting perverts who sneak around behind closed doors to corrupt innocent, promising people to be our lackeys and partners in crime.

Hell, I refer to my wife as "my partner in crime" not because it's a cute way of acknowledging how well and how much we work together both in life and creativity. It's also because we could have been arrested for our relationship when we got together.

We were illegal.

There was a lot of sneaking around and whispering and trying not to get caught and "what if they call the cops on us if we're clocked". Can I tell my friends about this? Will they reject me or rat me out? Where am I safe? Nowhere. Best to lock the door and then check it again to be sure. Best to be very quiet.

Best to act like a graverobber trying to get their grisly wares back home before good, decent, Christian folk see them.

So when I hear "Blasphemy? Before what God?!", I read it as (whether he's ace or aro, gay or achillean, trans man or transmasc or genderfucked) a queer slogan of defiance, instead of a defense of graverobbing, corpse desecration, and non-consensual resurrection.

We're told we and our bodies are repulsive, so being told that Herbert is also repulsive makes him more relatable. Instead of wondering what the hell's wrong with him for shooting up reagent, we all theorize that it's actually T or has similar effects--because we're all told that T is a toxin that will horribly change and disfigure our bodies. He dresses in a three-piece suit for school, and instead of reading him as a stiff and overly-formal little freak, we assume he's layering up because he hasn't found a hoodie he likes yet.

He cackles at his horrific creations, and instead of saying "What a fucking freak (anguished)", we say "What a fucking freak (affectionate)" and laugh along with him. Who among us hasn't taken apart our Barbies and tried to combine their parts with the Kens? What is a doll, or a human, but a collection of parts to be rearranged? Haven't we also been told we're freaks for rearranging our own parts?

We've already been told by society at large that we are Herbert West. We're just embracing it, in the proud tradition of venereal horror fans who are not revolted when they ought to be, and I think that's delightful.

#fandom meta #reanimator #re animator 1985 #bride of reanimator 1991 #bride of re animator #herbert west #headcanon #transmasculine #body horror #venereal horror #cronenbergian #writing trope #i live for analysis #lovecraft #this has been rattling around in my head for ages and probably isn't going to cover everything or be correct but here we all are anyway #hope y'all like it

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youremyheaven · 2 months

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Rahu & Ketu: The Nodal Urge To Rebrand ✨

I got an ask several days ago that triggered some thoughts✨in me lol. A lot of people in the public eye often have a drastic change in image? where they go from one extreme to another and the person who asked me about this also suggested that perhaps its a Nodal (Rahu + Ketu) thing to swing between extremes. So, i did some digging and turns out it is indeed true. It is a very Nodal tendency to rebrand yourself and be in the public eye in several different avatars.

The Rahu naks are: Ardra, Swati & Shatabhisha

The Ketu naks are: Ashwini, Magha & Mula

5/6 of these nakshatras belong to the Shudra caste which is the lowest caste (Outcaste naks exist outside the caste system entirely). Ashwini is the only Nodal nakshatra that is not Shudra caste and as you will see, it does not show up as often in the placements for any of the people I'll mention on this post. The themes of Ashwini and its place in the hierarchy are all different compared to the other Nodal naks. All that said, broadly speaking when one is Shudra caste and at the bottom of the hierarchy, one is always trying to climb up the ladder and be "accepted" by mainstream society, this means embodying different avatars at different times. This is only a partial explanation as to what contributes to this specific nature of Nodal natives. The other explanation is that both Rahu & Ketu are disembodied and never feel "whole". Every other planet brings with it certain structure, principles, qualities and boundaries, Rahu & Ketu being shadow planets lack any of this. Lacking form, lacking definition, lacking any inherent purpose means limitless freedom to be anyone or anything. Most people feel bound by their identity, they're x so they can't be y. But when you have no inherent identity, you can be xy and the whole alphabet lol and that kind of seems to be what a lot of these people embody.

Arnold Schwarzenegger- Mula Moon

Arnold was a bodybuilder, he later became an actor and after that turned to politics and was the Governor of California. Most people cannot devote themselves to one career and he's had 3 incredibly successful careers. He wasn't some average bodybuilder, he was one of the greatest, he was Mr Universe, he isn't a particularly talented actor but he worked his strengths (action movies) and has starred in some of the most iconic films of all time?? and his movies have grossed over $1 billion and he served two terms as a Governor?? yk how many celebrities have turned to politics and failed lol? He also married into the Kennedy family. He has Pushya Sun and a Punarvasu stellium so I will attribute his longevity and continued success to that but the rebranding is def on his Mula Moon.

Drake, Ardra Moon

I dont even think most people now know this but Drake was a teen actor initially. He was on the show Degrassi yearsss before he became a rapper.

Ricky Gervais, Ardra Sun & Mercury, Mars in Magha and Ketu in Shatabhisha

Ricky Gervais started his career in the 80s as a singer and was part of a synth pop duo named Seona Dancing before he turned to stand up comedy and writing.

Dwayne Johnson, Mula Moon

He was an extremely successful WWE wrestler before he switched to acting. Now he's one of the highest paid actors.

Taylor Swift, Ardra Moon

She was a teen country singer before she became a popstar. Not many people who cross-over can do it successfully. Taylor is an anomaly.

Caitlyn Jenner, Swati Sun, Rahu & Rising

She was an Olympic medal winning world class athlete then a reality star and now a transphobic weirdo who is a transwoman

Lady Gaga, Swati Moon

Gaga went from being an edgy avant garde popstar to being a method actor?? lol, she's definitely channelling old hollywood starlet these days for sure

Troye Sivan, Magha Moon & Mars, Rahu in Swati, Ketu in Ashwini

he was a teen YouTube sensation before he became a mainstream singer. very few people successfully shed their influencer image and Troye is one of them

Taylor Momsen- Swati Moon

she was a child star, then a teen star on Gossip Girl and is now vocalist of a rock band

Brie Larson- Swati Moon

she was a child actor, released music as a teenager, then was a supporting actor in indie films and then became an Oscar winner was most notably Captain America

Drew Barrymore, Shatabhisha Sun

Drew was a child star, then later did some edgy roles (after she went to rehab, was emancipated etc) and posed nude for Playboy etc, then started doing romcoms in the 2000s and is now a vv successful daytime TV host

Katy Perry- Swati Sun & Rising

she started out with church music before becoming a pop star and now TV personality

Madonna- Magha Rising & Mercury with Ketu in Ashwini

She went from like S&M sex bomb to Evita to Earth Mother, and several personas and styles in between. she's had more personas than i can count tbh

Matthew McConaughey, Swati Sun & Mercury

all throughout the 2000s he was best known as a romcom leading man not a serious actor and now he's an Oscar winner

Ariana Grande, Ardra Sun

Ariana was a supporting actor on a Nickelodeon show and now she's one of the biggest popstars ever. not many people can do that (manyyy child star turned singers have flop careers)

Snoop Dogg- Ashwini Rising, Swati Mercury conjunct Venus

He was a rapper who was frequently in and out of prison. He later converted to Rastafari and released an album based on it and then converted to Christianity and released a gospel record and now is just some weird stoner uncle when he used to go to award shows with half naked girls on leashes

Rihanna, Shatabhisha Sun

when i was growing up Rihanna was a singer who released music pretty much every year but she's now a billionaire businesswoman who sells makeup and lingerie

Martha Stewart, Mula Moon, Swati Rising

she was a model, then a stockbroker and then became a TV personality

Zendaya, Ashwini Moon

she was a disney child star, a singer and became a hyper-successful fashionista who also acts

Rooney Mara, Ashwini Sun

she had a complete change in image and went from playing supporting roles to being an avant garde serious art movie actor

Dua Lipa, Magha Sun

Dua had a veryy different style and sound back in the day before she embraced the 80s synth sound and rock-glam style and became a pop princess

Lana Del Rey, Ardra Sun

she used to sing under her real name Lizzy Grant and made vv different kind of music before she became Lana Del Rey

these are all the examples i can think of rn, lemme know if you have other examples in mind<33 ill add more if i find them

#astrology notes #vedic astro notes #sidereal astrology #astrology observations #nakshatras #astro notes #astro observations #vedic astrology #astrology #astroblr #rahu #ketu #jyotish #swati #shatabhisha #magha #mula #ardra #ashwini

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schlock-luster-video · 1 year

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On June 6, 1997, Beavis and Butthead Do America debuted in Sweden.

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physalian · 4 months

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Writing Tone in Fiction (Or, Pacing your Story, Part 2)

See this post all about pacing and as the two go hand-in-hand. If you read that, I may repeat myself a little here. Tone, and how abruptly you change it, how radically you change it, and how you break it whether on purpose or on accident says a lot about your experience as a writer, and how well you planned out your plot.

**Trigger warning for mentions of mature themes**

What is Tone?

“Tone” is the maturity of the work, signaling whether or not your characters have to censor themselves for young readers. It’s also restricted by the genre, whether this is a comedy and what kind – slapstick or gross-out humor – or a scary movie about ghosts, but not graphic body horror. It sets expectations about the amount and degree of romance readers can expect, if the scene will fade to black before anything happens or if you’re in for a raunchy sex scene, or somewhere in the middle. It also helps audiences gauge whether or not characters can die in this universe, and how graphically if they do beyond Disney’s tried and true “villain falling ambiguously from a tall height” deaths.

OSP recently did a piece on Tone Armor, a device similar to but less obvious than Plot Armor where the established tone means that, no matter how dire the circumstances, your hero won’t actually die, the world won’t actually end, and a happily ever after is on the horizon. Red also discussed what happens when you break your established tone with the shocking death or mistreatment of a character, but more on that later.

How to Decide Your Tone

Depending on your genre and intended audience, content for younger readers demand quite a bit of censorship (though can get away with many, many things worse than death). In the US at least, movies go through the MPAA rating system to determine what’s permitted by the rating given – how many swear words, whether you can show blood, topless women, graphic assault, graphic violence, if and how characters can be killed or how gummy and resistant to damage their bodies are.

If you’re writing for children, you both have less freedom to write violent carnage, and more freedom to get really creative within the limits of your tone box. I can expect the kid protagonists of my fantasy adventure to murder countless monsters that dissolve into gold dust, not bloody carcasses. I can expect the villain to perhaps die from a stab wound, but probably not get decapitated, disemboweled, or drawn and quartered, at least, not ‘on screen’.

If you’re writing for adults, adults do still expect a warning for how graphic anything can be, whether that’s sex scenes, fight scenes, murders, assaults, bloody battles, garish injuries, dead pets, dead children, etc.

Unless you’re already planning to break your tone, you need to know fairly early on whereabouts you want to set those expectations. If none of the characters even allude to sex and you write in a graphic assault, your audience is going to be pissed, and horrified. If none of your characters even allude to sex, and you hint that one was assaulted off-screen, you will still upset your audience if you don’t give them time to prepare for the possibility.

You can soften the violence and graphic content you’ve previously established and few might complain about it not being gritty enough, but going the other direction puts you in a very precarious position. Choosing more mature themes will inevitably alienate younger readers, those with triggers, and those that just want to have a lighthearted good time. The trade off? You’ll invite readers with a work that’s exactly what they’re looking for.

Establishing a Tone

I’m writing this post today because I finally sat down to watch Game of Thrones. One can’t avoid spoilers for a series as massive as that, so I was prepared for the graphic violence, all the gratuitous sex, the infamous Red Wedding, murdered kids, horribly bloody battles, and the like. GoT, the TV adaptation at least as I can’t speak to the books, establishes exactly what to expect in the very first scene: Three people happen upon the site of a graphic mass murder, limbs and body parts strewn everywhere, kids among them, who come back to life as ice zombies to kill them.

That episode continues with a beheading, incest, more incest, attempted child murder via defenestration, a brother selling his little sister into marriage, rampant nudity, and… I’m sure I missed something.

**Spoiler Alert for Season 4**

What I was not at all prepared for was the graphic death of Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal). It’s quick, it’s violent, it’s graphic and gruesome and incredibly well-acted… it was also far more horrifying than the Red Wedding, at least to me. Murder is murder but the way this character went out almost had me quit watching right then and there. Google at your leisure.

It wasn’t necessarily outside the realm of possibility, but most everyone else died via stabbing, arrows, beheading, burning, falling, eaten by wolves, crushed, etc. This was deeply unsettling, particularly because it’s live action, not a cartoon like Invincible.

It did its job, and it’s the only moment to feature in nightmares and make me lose my appetite, so… well done? In the following Previouslies (correct me on the actual word) they don’t even show it, cutting around the actual moment because it’s just that horrible.

This was four seasons into an eight season show and nothing like it had happened before. In a tone already as dark and explicit as TV can get, poor Oberyn pushed it over the edge entirely. It broke the established tone.

Amazon’s The Boys treads the same very thin line, only these people have superpowers for a whole new level of deeply disturbed body horror.

So, when you’re establishing a tone in the realm of “less graphic than Game of Thrones but still terrible,” you can go one of two ways: Horrify your audience straight out of the gate, or slowly creep up to it with allusions and hints until they’re fully prepared for it when it hits.

If your characters have free reign of every swear in the dictionary, start with the “f*cks” and “sh*ts” as quickly as you can as part of their vocabulary, whether you intend to use the words sparingly or after every other word in their dialogue.

If you’re writing a multi-series work that intends to ramp up the rating as it goes, you don’t have to cold open with a murder, but establishing that characters do at least die in this world is a start. Establish that assault happens in the background, that killing happens, or animal cruelty. Your readers with triggers will thank you for it and read something else.

Unless you intend to shatter the tone and shock your audience with it later.

Breaking Tone via Killing Characters

The most effective tonal breakage I can think of that wasn’t even graphic, just dark and incredibly well done: Disney’s animated Mulan. The movie had been your standard Disney musical complete with grand animation for its sing-along song. Soldiers singing, dancing, laughing as they march off to war, all for a girl worth fighting—

The singing stops. The score stops. Their smiles drop. Cut to the scene before them that has murdered this Disney musical in cold blood and it’s a decimated battlefield, the snow-covered and burned bodies of their far better trained and more competent fellow soldiers, and the love interest’s father.

Mulan only briefly reprises one track in the climax, but otherwise, this happy-go-lucky sing-along has rudely and horrifyingly become a war movie. It’s still Disney, so it doesn’t get violent or graphic, but they shattered the tone in glorious fashion.

Breaking tone happens all the time, for minor events and major character deaths. It doesn’t become an issue of “you just alienated your audience” unless the tonal breakage is the aforementioned sudden graphic assault or other sensitive triggers.

Major character deaths are a whole separate monster to tackle and I’d like to, but for today’s purposes I’m talking about killing major characters when the possibility of any of our heroes dying was never established.

For anyone who never read Lord of the Rings and didn’t know the curse of anyone played by Sean Bean, losing Gandalf to another ambiguous high fall was one thing, but Boromir straight up dies in battle. Sure the story is surrounded by death and darkness but you expect heroes in a world like this to have some pretty hefty plot armor – and Boromir had so much room left to grow. In the grand scheme of the story, though, Boromir’s death was as far from shock value fodder as possible.

Sirius Black is another heartbreaking loss, but not entirely outside the realm of possibility – killing off Ron or Hermione would have been. Any mentor figure is automatically doomed with rare exception, especially ones in fatherly roles.

Bianca di Angelo is a different matter. She’s not the first death mentioned in Percy Jackson but she’s a brand new character and despite all the dangers the heroes have already been through and the warnings from the prophecy, actually killing her off for good broke the tone. Suddenly this war was real and there were lasting consequences.

Game of Thrones’ “Red Wedding” didn’t just shock audiences because a bunch of people died, it was which people that died. Robb Stark, eldest son and heir to Sean Bean (so of course he’s dead) and one of the siblings of the “hero” family had been leading a war effort to rescue and then avenge his father. He gets betrayed and murdered, along with his mother and a fair chunk of his army, caught by surprise at a wedding, because he broke an oath and married for love instead.

I knew of the scene and knew that Catelyn Stark was there just from the one time I’d seen the clip years ago, and as it got closer I worried it was Robb’s wedding, but I still wasn’t prepared for the death of the hero of the show. Jon’s off in the north doing his own thing and so is Danaerys. This was the bright-eyed usurper, the avenger, the never-lost-a-battle upstart. No author would ever kill that hero.

They’d established that anyone can die, similar to the Walking Dead in some ways, but this was a whole new level of boldness, killing off Robb. At the time of this post, I haven’t seen past season 4, but I know more deaths are coming.

Deciding to murder your hero, in any other story, would not go over well with your audience. Killing any major character is a decision that should be made with a deep understanding of the consequences or else you end up like Walking Dead after they killed Carl for shock value and never recovered their audience viewership.

—

It’s not just dead protagonists, it can be worldly tragedies, the heroes actually losing a battle, or the war, a uniquely horrifying monster or cryptid or villainous act. Or it can be a character beginning to contemplate self-harm and possibly attempting to end their own lives. It can be the reveal of an abusive relative, or an incestuous relationship. It can be mental health problems, sudden and un-curable disease and disability.

It can be less-dire things too, but I’m not much for writing comedy.

Tone, like pacing, doesn’t have to remain consistent throughout the entire story. If it’s a lighthearted comedy, let it stay a lighthearted comedy if you want to. You can change tone progressively, with hints and near-misses, or drop a bomb on your audience with a big reveal. What you do and how you implement it is entirely dependant on the story you’re writing.

Most audiences expect a book that isn’t written for elementary schoolers to mature over time and most genres come with set understandings. But hey, I hear Animorphs can get incredibly dark with a bunch of mature themes.

In general, killing a character just for shock value is rarely worth it in the long run. In general, writing in triggering subjects without warning to an audience that wasn’t prepared for it also isn’t worth it in the long run — save it for a different book.

If fanfiction authors leave author’s notes everywhere warning about the subject matter ahead, published authors can do the same, in my opinion. Content warnings should be a thing and it doesn’t have to spoil the surprise. Include it as a forward to your book, letting potential readers know that such and such work they’re considering spending real money on contains mentions of, or explicit depictions of, any and all mature and sensitive themes. You never know who’s out there picking up your book expecting a good time. Do right by them and give a little heads up and you might gain a fan you wouldn’t have otherwise.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools

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cellarspider · 3 months

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12/?? Things come to a head

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⛬

We return to that shambling mass of a film, Prometheus.

Content warnings for body horror, contagion-y stuff, something that loosely be described as medical horror, It’s Been 0 Days Since Our Last Incident, and me, going on a ramble about movie gore to distract myself from The Madness.

There's a lady in this scene who's had a number of speaking lines so far–the maybe-chemist. She has a name, but it doesn’t matter.

But I'm going to call her Doctor Frankenstein.

They have just got the helmet off the head, revealing that it’s truly, unmistakably humanoid. They have noted that there are “new cells” on the head. In the business, we call that “decomposition”, but Doctor Frankenstein is not concerned with this. In fact, she immediately proposes a new plan.

Doctor Frankenstein has had the brilliant idea to plug a big cable into the head like it’s a guitar amp, and zap it with electricity to wake it up.

Yes. This is what the movie goes with.

You know, Alien included a similarly shambolic first examination of an alien subject, but it was performed because said alien was attached to a man’s face, and all they had to try and fix that was the contents of a cargo ship’s medbay, with the only qualified personnel being the corporate android who had been ordered to consider the crew expendable. The crew of the Prometheus has no such excuse.

Well, except for David, he has precisely the same excuse, but he’s not trying to poke wires in anybody’s ears.

Doctor Frankenstein calls for enough amperage to run three electric kettles (cite 3), then all the way up to two Titan RTX graphics cards before the head starts to get what appears to be a massive migraine.

I know this expression well, migraines can feel very much like someone is subjecting me to unnatural horrors.

This is getting a little extreme, though. Yes, when the head starts pulsing, they realize they may have made a mistake.

I’d say this was inexplicable behavior on their part, unbelievably hasty and foolish–and I will say it, actually, it deserves to be said. But in context, this is the team that did so little prep for entering the alien structure that they didn’t notice the giant fuckoff skull carved into the outside of it.

Knowing how much Shaw and Holloway read into the intentions of the Engineers from the depictions they found on Earth, they probably would’ve interpreted this as a good sign, somehow.

Anyway, they put a sneezeguard down over the head before it explodes.

Good job everyone. This is like what would’ve happened if Napoleon’s savants took one look at the Rosetta Stone and decided “maybe we should try hitting it with hammers. Surely that’ll make the knowledge fall out.”

From a horror perspective, this scene only works in two contexts: First, gross-out. Generally found in schlock, exploitation, and outsider art flicks, the tone of gross-out content can be highly variable, but there are two general trends I'd mention, which are of relevance to this movie.

First, gross-out tends to exist in that weird alternate space where lots of comedy movies do: characters will behave in unreasonable ways for no apparent reason. Within the film, this is treated as the universal norm, besides maybe a straight man character who highlights the absurdity. Gross-out is often like that, but pushes different boundaries of acceptable behavior than a traditional comedy.

This is, bafflingly, what Prometheus increasingly feels like. It feels like it's transitioning into gross-out schlock, and yet it never goes all the way.

Second: the audience for gross-out is largely self-selecting. If you're watching John Waters' Pink Flamingos, you expect things to get messy. You are looking forward to things getting messy. A head exploding is perfectly par for the course in gross-out horror. One might even be disappointed if there wasn't an exploding head.

But again, this movie was not marketed on gross-out. It was marketed as a tense, Alien-esque horror movie. If you followed that premise like I did, you're not in the theater to view a debauched spectacle, you're there for the movie to put a well-paced squeeze on the characters and your nerves, where half the horror comes from having the room to really think about how frightening the core concepts of the series are.

Does Alien involve some shocking gore? Sure does! But in Alien, Kane's fate is not there to make you laugh and exclaim "ewww!" at how far the film's gone, the film tries to make you very aware of how horrifying his demise is.

So, there's an alternate way this scene works, if you're coming in from that perspective. I don't think the movie intended this as much as the gross-out, but it's what I drew from it at the time: the scene works if you decide not to focus your sympathies on the human characters at all, or even David, and think about it from the perspective of the head.

It’s patently impossible that what they did actually “woke up” the brain inside that skull. But if we sink to the movie’s level and entertain the idea for a moment, what in the hell have they just done to this Engineer? The last thing the head would’ve remembered was running, falling, decapitation, and then this. They just tortured this poor bastard for no adequately explained reason. There’s none! “I think we can trick the nervous system into thinking it's still alive” is the entirety of the explanation. It makes about as much sense and seems as thoughtlessly violent as anything in Mad God (2021, content warning for body horror).

I already spent all my anger about desecrating bodies in the name of shambolic pseudoscience, I have no more rage to give for now. And similarly in the theater, I hit my limit. I’d already hit a different limit back when they landed the Prometheus on top of some archaeology, but now I’d fully given up on this movie being what I’d hoped it would be.

The maddening thing that keeps me obsessed with it is that it keeps throwing random scraps of that hypothetical movie into the mix anyway, bouncing me like a yo-yo between scenes.

But for right now, the yo-yo is still on the descent. Having exploded the first sample of alien biology ever touched by science, they apparently stuck some of it in a generic, science-y DNA machine. What does the DNA machine tell them?

“DNA match”.

The movie does not actually explain what this means. It thinks it does, but in a very vague and handwave-y way that ends up being even more hilarious than if they’d just been out-and-out wrong. Because this is what I do for a living, I want to science at this for a bit.

But I’ve written enough about it for an entire post on its own, so that will wait until next time.

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Citations for alt-text rambles, as well as some text-text rambles:

1. https://www.behance.net/gallery/78297841/Semiotic-Standard (contains a high-quality download for the symbols, should ye wish them for yourselves)

2. https://www.sculpturedepot.net/clay-wax-tools/product.asp?Steel_Tools

3. Doctor Frankenstein calls for 30 amps first, then 40, then 50 in the space of several seconds. According to wikipedia, an electric kettle is about 16.6A, and a 288W high-performance graphics card would require 24A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(current) That graphics card isn’t mentioned by name, but it matches up with the wattage reported by Tom’s Hardware for a Titan RTX (cite 4). Running with two of these things, you might be able to run 4k Ultra settings on some games without tanking your framerate. They could’ve been playing video games and seen way more exploding heads.

4. https://www.tomshardware.com/features/graphics-card-power-consumption-tested

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)#Design

6. https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/f4rf63/for_the_chestburster_scene_in_alien_1979_the/

7. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8e/2f/9b/8e2f9b0716746aac7ce5b2f369bf4082--aliens--scene.jpg

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype#Human_karyogram

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centromere

10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centromere#Telocentric

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_banding

12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteinogenic_amino_acid

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula_language

#Prometheus 2012 #Prometheus (2012)#This movie is a study in so much tonal dissonance #It was so pretty and yet so broken #insert Benoit Blanc “compels me though” meme here

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toon4thought · 6 months

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Adam Sandler's "Leo" was just plain NICE.

It takes a simple, downright silly idea about a talking pet lizard helping the kids of a 5th grade class, and even the long-term substitute teacher herself, with their problems to help bring out the best in them - and ties it into stuff like finding new purpose during a mid-life crisis; all the while constantly sprinkling in so much wholesomeness that with each new kid he visits, you instantly feel the bond being formed. It can feel a bit segmented, but it allows for multiple situations to be covered while giving the audience something new to look at.

Gotta compliment Adam Sandler's performance as Leo himself here; it's such a cartoony voice, but he delivers with such a commitment that I am never hearing an actor. He gives Leo the sweet balance between his old, tired side and his wise, experienced side that is needed for this story to work. It shines best whenever he has to belt a quick number, though granted that's unsurprising for Sandler. Everyone else, including his own family, seamlessly slip into their roles too.

The humor quite caught me by surprise too, considering Happy Madison. While the slapstick can get a bit much, and there are one or two truly gross gags, most of their infamous hallmarks are surprisingly subdued. Much of what we get is more observational, or is otherwise done in credit to the characters, such as how Leo name-dropping old movies (which sounds lame on paper) doubles to show how old and behind-the-times he is. It's not like there's some big comedy gold, but there's a lot of little moments that left me smiling and charmed. In general, this film really knows how to establish character with dialogue alone; the snarky, tired comments from Leo and Squirtle at the beginning being a highlight.

There are some turns near the end that can feel a little forced or half-baked (especially with Ms. Mirkin), but the heart remains to the end and it still manages to finish on the simple note it should. Animation is also pretty standard, but that too is elevated by some smart staging choices and a few scenes that mix up the style.

Overall, while it's by no means a film that *excels*, it sure hit a lot harder than it had any right to, especially from a company like Happy Madison, and they deserve big props for that. Like Leo himself, some much-needed comfort can come from the most unexpected of places.

#animation #adam sandler #leo adam sandler #netflix animation #netflix leo #leo netflix #happy madison

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the-s1lly-corner · 6 months

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Date nights w/ Masky and Hoodie include!

pairing masky and hoodie together in this post since i think their ideal dates are just. very similar, so i dont see much point in giving them their own separate posts... that said they will have their own segments since i do think they would have some key differences!

MASKY:

both of these guys dates include urban exploring, i think! though i do think masky would be drawn to areas that are little more dangerous or run down; bros just a little silly. thats not to say he wouldnt run off or let you get hurt... no actually the opposite is true, hes not letting you out of his sight, and hes going to do his damndest to make sure that not even a single scratch gets on your skin. very protective of you, he is.. a lot of the places you guys explore tend to be more run down, as implied above; with more stuff to look out for and avoid. honestly dates with either of these guys are more like workouts...

for more chill dates, though, i think movies are in order! not theatres, obviously, since masky totally refuses to take off his... mask... and that might raise some suspicion... if theres anything hes more possessive of than you, then its his mask.. so at home movies it is! youre in charge of snacks and hes in charge of movies! you guys kind of bounce around a lot of genres, i think. from comedy to horror to sci fi, you guys wouldnt be bound to a single genre or franchise... mm cuddles are nice, i think! masky would make a nice cuddle buddy, i think! aww look he even watches you sleep to make sure nothing is going to come in and hurt you! that totally isnt unnerving! just pray you dont wake up with sleep paralysis and see him hunched over you in the dark

HOODIE:

also into urban exploring but between the two his are more... not too intense of crazy ... with masky its more like crawling and jumping across stuff and moving through gunk and rubble. whereas with hoodie its more so maybe having to just move a few things but ultimately its mostly just casual exploring without having to do some insane parkour to get through stuff or crawling along the gross yucky ground. can definitely see him bringing a knife or spray can so you guys can mark your initials somewhere. maybe im silly, but i love the idea of hoodie being soft just for his partner. giant bulky man who doesnt speak and would beat someone up in an instant but is very sweet and affectionate with his partner. depending on how fucked the place you guys are at is, you guys might even spend the night if its not too run down. bonus bonus, imagine getting to the roof and its like, solid enough and you guys lay down together and watch the stars.. oooouuuguuggh...

as for other date ideas, these boys seem to be struck with the same at home dates a lot of the creepypasta characters i write for will be struck with... what can i say? hoodie doesnt like parting with his mask; though hes less possessive with it than masky... and in my au, at least, as far as everyone knows brian is missing or even dead. would be a little... weird if he was spotted just. walking the streets. baking dates. maybe im soft for this idea, but the idea of working together with someone to make something to be shared if just so sweet (pun intended). pulls out my favorite trope; character a guiding character b's hands for something.. in this case it can be cutting something, or rolling something out and ueueueueue

i just think that would be so so nice

#creepypasta headcanon #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #creepypasta x y/n #masky x reader #masky imagine #masky x you #hoodie x reader #hoodie imagine #hoodie x you

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