#i do think the movies played a part in this (mostly in his introduction and early scenes) but even there he's more than just the stoner

[spidermansona]

Thinking about how the fandom just turns Merry into a stoner when he's one of the most observant and smart characters. He knew about the ring before even Frodo did. He was the leader of the conspiracy to help Frodo leave the Shire gathering supplies and getting things ready, all without Frodo's knowledge. He liked maps and boats (pretty unusual for Shire hobbits) and is much more than just the guy who smokes a pipe.

#merry brandybuck #lotr #lord of the rings #meriadoc brandybuck #not even getting into all the battles he distinguished himself in #he's so much more responsible than some of yall paint him as #i do think the movies played a part in this (mostly in his introduction and early scenes) but even there he's more than just the stoner #he's one of my favorite characters if you couldn't tell

[riality-check]

daisy jones-adjacent au. part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. tw substance abuse, ptsd, references to past torture (canon, the russians.) part 7.

ao3

Writing the album is, somehow, the easy part, even after Steve put his foot in his mouth.

He had his suspicions, but he shouldn't have asked that. It was a dick move, and he's been trying not to be a dick for the past few years. So, he apologized and didn't bring it up again.

Eddie softened after that. Like he wasn't expecting Steve to apologize. He accepted it, and things have been good since.

Well, more than good, if Steve's being honest. Things have gotten a lot better since.

He's noticed a few things, even after their permanently discontinued game of "truth or truth." Mostly, the things Steve has noticed have been about Eddie, like:

He laughs at the dumbest things.

He quotes books and movies constantly.

He has an accent that he masks unless he's tired.

He hates strong smells.

He deflects by becoming bigger.

There's more. A lot more that Steve has noticed, but listing everything about Eddie's brilliance and stubbornness, his courage and obnoxiousness, his gorgeous face and sharp tongue would take all day. Steve has noticed a lot over these few weeks spent hunched over instruments and notebooks at his house, and he thinks Eddie has noticed him in return.

He hopes so.

It's been a long time since Steve has wanted to be noticed beyond the superficial adoration of fans. It's been a long time since Steve has wanted to be known.

There are a plethora of reasons for why that's a bad idea. Steve is able to forget them momentarily when he sees Eddie smile.

All too soon, after far too long, they're done writing. They start recording, and that is the hard part.

It always is. There's always something wrong with the levels or slightly out of tune, or someone sneezes right into the mic on the first good take. There's things that work and things that don't, and, always, songs on paper that have to get fixed before they can be songs on the radio.

The album has good bones, though. It's angry and hopeful and scared and sad and triumphant. It's music, it's art, it's life.

And once they can make it work, it's going to be great.

That's what Steve is doing now. Making it work. He's awake at 4 AM on a Tuesday, sitting at a piano and trying to rework the bass line to stop it from clashing so much with the melody.

The only good thing about this situation is that he's made it to seventy three hours awake for the first time, courtesy of a well-timed line right before he got to work.

If it keeps working, he might trash the pills entirely.

He plays the introduction to the song again on his right hand and starts adding low notes on his left. As it is, it sounds empty. To much distance. But if he raises it a fourth-

"Steve?"

He freezes, fighting back against the instinct to jump away from the piano like a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. He forgot that the band has been crashing at his house - it's close to the studio and he has the rooms to spare - and because he forgot that he wasn't alone, he failed to remember that most people aren't awake at this hour, nevermind working.

So, he calmly turns around to see Eddie, in pajamas, standing in the doorway, blinking sleep out of his tired eyes.

Steve swallows and hopes that Eddie is too tired to catch him openly staring.

"What are you doing?" Eddie whispers.

"Reworking something," Steve says. "Trying out something different for the bass line in Envy, the one that's giving us trouble."

Eddie covers his mouth to yawn. "Couldn't sleep?"

Steve wonders when the last time he thought that was a bad thing was.

"I can be quieter," he says. "I was just trying to fix this. But that can wait until morning."

"Steve," Eddie says, and he's got that look on his face.

Steve hates that look.

Eddie looks at him like he can see inside his skull, inside his heart, and read his DNA letter by letter. He looks at him like he can see everything about Steve: past, present, and future.

And there's pity in every second of it.

Steve can't stand pity.

"I just- I gotta see the whole picture, you know?" he continues so Eddie doesn't get to voice that pity. "And you guys all have your instruments, but piano gives me everything. I can play the bass and the guitar and sing and- I'm just able to get it better that way. Where are you going?"

Eddie is almost out the door again. "I- I can't be here, Steve."

"Why? Are you tired? You can go-"

"You're high, and I know that if you offer me something, I won't say no."

Oh.

"Eddie, I wouldn't-"

"And even if you don't, if you take something in front of me, I know I'll ask for some," he says, like it's a fact, the same way the sky is blue.

"I'm not- I wouldn't do that to you," Steve says. No point in denying that he's high, not when they both know it. "I wasn't- I'll get off the piano. I'll read, or, well, reread something instead."

He gestures aimlessly at the bookshelf on the wall near the door. It's crammed full of recommendations from Dustin and Robin and Erica and Nancy. All of them have been read at least once, most of them twice.

"You like to read?" Eddie asks.

"No, I hate it," Steve says, completely genuinely.

Eddie huffs out a quiet laugh. "I will never understand you."

"I know."

Because that's the thing. No one can understand it, can understand him, unless they were in Hawkins, Indiana, too. Unless they saw what he did. Unless they signed the same NDAs. Unless they fought the same monsters and went to the same other world and endured the same things.

Eddie, like most other people, will never be able to understand.

So, his smile fades as he stands there in the doorway, confused.

"I like stories, but I hate reading," Steve explains. "I just do it to fill-"

"I can read to you."

Steve stops mid-word. "What?"

"If you want to hear the story without reading," Eddie says. "I like reading. I can read to you."

Steve has spent seventy four hours, at this point, awake. He is sitting at a piano bench at 4 AM on a Tuesday, high on cocaine, and is staring at a hot guy his age who, over the past few weeks, has alternated between seemingly hating him and smiling that smile.

Forgive him for making the stupid decision to say-

"Okay."

Eddie smiles, though it's tired. He takes a book from the shelf at random and walks out the door. Steve has no choice but to follow, back to the guest room Eddie has taken as his own.

Eddie turns on the bedside lamp and lays down underneath the rumpled sheets.

"Come on," he says, patting the space next to him. "I don't bite."

"You sure?" Steve jokes, but he climbs on alongside him, careful not to touch.

He really wants to touch.

He's not thinking straight.

Eddie cracks the book open and starts reading in a low whisper.

Steve can barely understand what he's saying, but that doesn't matter. What matters is Eddie's voice, quiet and rough and breathy. What matters is Eddie's voice, steady and soothing.

It's nice. It's really nice.

Steve finds himself curling up, closer and closer, until his head is on Eddie's chest.

His eyes slip closed at hour seventy-five.

And the next thing he knows, he's standing with his back to a corner, holding a metal, foldable music stand in front of him, with a voice hoarse from screaming.

Clearly, he fell asleep.

Fantastic.

Sometimes, he's able to tell what the nightmare was before he actually remembers it. It's all in the little habits he's developed.

When he finds himself checking to see if all his fingernails are still attached to his hands, blinking nonexistent blood out of his left eye, and still murmuring Robin's name, he knows that this one had to be about the Russians.

And then the memory of the bone saw, of the screaming, of taking hit after hit after hit crashes into him so hard he almost doubles over.

He reminds himself he's safe. That he's unharmed. That Robin is safe in her dorm at UCLA. That they never got Dustin or Erica.

That all of this is fucking useless.

He's gotten it all out. He's written song after song about all of it, all of the monsters and the fighting and the fear and the good in spite of it all. He writes and plays and sings close enough to all of it to almost break the NDAs.

And none of it is of any use at all because, years later, Steve still can't fucking sleep.

He swallows. Swallows again. Tries to breathe, even if it's in the form of great, heaving gasps.

And that's when he realizes that Eddie is standing right in front of him. Clearly confused, clearly terrified.

This is why, though he can never understand Steve, he shouldn't know him, either. This is why Steve can't reach out and touch.

Because even if he could explain it to Eddie, even if he would lie and say he believed him and understood, no one wants someone who can't make it through a night without waking up at least three times. No one wants to have to calm someone down from weekly screaming fits brought on by the back of their eyelids.

"Get out," he says.

"Steve," Eddie says, and there's that pity again.

Steve can't stand pity.

"Get out!" he shouts, heedless of the fact that he's probably waking everyone else up, that this is the room Eddie is staying in.

He can go to Steve's room. Everything in there is hidden, so he can't break his sobriety unless he snoops.

Steve hopes he doesn't snoop. He doesn't want to drag Eddie down to where he's at.

Eddie nods and makes his way to the door. Before he leaves, he stops and looks back.

"I don't know what you're running from," he whispers. "But when it catches you-"

"What?" Steve snaps.

"Let someone know."

If Steve were in a better state of mind, he'd ask what the hell that meant. But he's shaking and tired, so goddamn tired, that he watches Eddie go.

He sits on the floor, in the corner, still holding the music stand. The sun is up. It streams through the windows along with the sounds of birds chirping.

And Steve wonders how he's supposed to live the rest of his life like this.

He makes it an hour before he falls asleep sitting up on the floor. He makes it two more before he wakes himself up again, checking his fingernails.

#ria writes #dja au #this part is long and also a doozy #apologies #steddie #steddie ficlet #steve harrington #eddie munson #st #st ficlet #stranger things #stranger things ficlet #tw drugs #tw substance abuse #tw torture #rockstar eddie munson

[number5theboy]

I just want to talk about how TUA’s pilot episode uses specifically the Phantom Medley, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ as interconnected character (re-)introductions, because they are so, so good.

So, the Phantom of the Opera Medley gives us our first, mostly silent introductions to five out of the seven siblings. Everyone is doing their thing: Luther is on the moon, Diego is being a vigilante, Allison is at her movie premiere, Klaus is released from rehab and instantly relapses, and Viktor is playing the violin part of the medley by himself on a stage. It establishes what each of them has going on in their life, and it establishes that all of them are alone. The Medley is an instrumental arrangement of several songs from the musical adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera, which is an interesting choice in itself, being a story about a brilliant, reclusive, and unhinged genius who harnesses a young girl’s talent for his own personal gain. There is more to it, but this is the relevant part, for obvious reasons. This is also the scene where we see the siblings find out about the death of the shadowy figure that nurtured their powers and abused them for selfish reasons. If the medley had used the lyrics of the musical, the first song used in the medley – the main theme – has as its key lyrics the following: “The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind.” And isn’t that something for the adults introduced to this melody, whose puppet master messed them up so badly during childhood that that still lingers in all of them, a throughline of that first season?

To this first introduction, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ serves as a re-introduction. It’s the same principle: a musical montage that focuses on each sibling to an overarching song. The theme of being alone is carried through, but this time, surprisingly, they’re not lonely. They’re not unified, they are certainly not getting along, but you get a feeling of their shared past. There is something that tethers them together. And where in the Medley, only Viktor could hear the music, because he was playing it, this time, the music is fully a part of the world. They’re all listening to the same song. They’re alone, but they’re not. They’re alone together, which is a step closer than it was in the Phantom Medley. And while the first montage focuses on what they were doing, established their occupations, this montage just gives us them…being. Existing, without anyone watching. Not their father, not the other siblings. We get such good insights into their personalities. Luther’s un-awareness of his own body leading him to accidentally punch the plane model. Diego’s array of dorky dance moves. Allison’s hesitance before she gets more and more into the song and allows herself to let loose. Klaus dancing with the ghost of his father. Viktor’s dancing being contained and unassuming. The title line, ‘I think we’re alone now’, just perfectly fits, and it’s a great example of visual media recontextualising a song’s lyrics. The original song is about sex, specifically the prohibition and taboo of teenage sex, and with the framing of the show, the lyrics instead become as literal as they could be. “Children behave / That's what they say when we're together / And watch how you play / They don't understand,” becomes about their childhood, about how they were never allowed to be kids, how they had to obey their father’s whims. And now he is gone, and they are alone, and it is good. Kind of. Sort of. While that iconic slow zoom-out visually shows that, their unity, despite all their differences, it is also all of them inside the Umbrella Academy. Them, and Grace, and Pogo, still in an environment that Reginald made. Reginald is still inside their minds. He is gone, but the structures he built, the damage he did to them is not. It’s this moment of catharsis, this instant where each and every one of the siblings allows themselves to be, to live, just for a moment, brought together by Luther playing a song loud enough for everyone to hear, where they think they’re free of Reginald’s abuse, and the rest of the show is them finding out that the death of an abuser doesn’t erase the effect he had. And then the music gets disrupted by someone quite literally crashing the party. But he crashes it from outside the house, because he is the one least concerned with (and, in this season, very clearly least affected by) Reginald.

Five gets his own musical (re-)introduction, and he gets it seven minutes before the end of the episode. Different from his siblings, we get to see his personality before he gets his musical key scene. And we meet him as a kid first, his arrogance, his powers, the use of teleportation to knock a guy out with a stapler. He then appears to inadvertently interrupt the first moment of unity his siblings have had in decades. He brushes off their father’s death. Casually reveals that Reginald has been dead to him for 45 years. It doesn’t matter to him. He has other things on his mind, but of course he doesn’t tell them, why would he? The arrogance is still there, his powers too. He’s insufferable, the viewer understands, and different. Different because he looks like a kid, a literal embodiment of the Umbrella Academy at its height, all knee-high socks and blazer, frozen in time, while at the same time having lived a very different life from his siblings. That’s all the viewer knows of him, by that point. And then ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ happens, and the understanding of the character shifts abruptly, as do the stakes for the entire show. While the introduction scene with the Phantom Medley and the re-introduction scene to ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ are about these different siblings, apart, but maybe closer than they think they are, united by the loss of their father, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ shows you that this one has a completely different set of problems from his siblings. Namely, he is being tracked down, a wanted man, a very skilled killer. The two montages are so calm in comparison to the breakneck (pun intended) pace of Five’s kill spree. He takes out half a dozen men armed with machine guns by outfoxing them, killing them with a wide variety of items in a wide variety of different ways. While ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ contrasts the Phantom Medley, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ contrasts the Five previously established in the show, especially his childhood self, and shows how his skills have developed. The innocence of the school uniform is quickly lost when he uses its tie to strangle a man to death. The first line in the song is ‘Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it’s Istanbul / Not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople.” It’s about how something is technically the same thing – a schoolboy, perhaps – but time has irrevocably changed it, and it can never go back to that old version, because it hasn’t existed in a long time. It’s about Five, and it’s about the apocalypse, and the Commission, but it’s not about Reginald. ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ is the only non-diegetic song of the three discussed here, as in, it is not part of the show’s internal universe. The song is not playing in a jukebox in the diner. It doesn’t partially exist in the universe, like Viktor’s violin being the violin in the medley, or Luther playing the vinyl in the house. It is so different in principle and execution from the other two scenes, but it is still a scene meant to convey an understanding of the character, just like the other two are.

And despite it being purposefully and obviously different, I still think that ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ belongs to the other two scenes, that they form a united whole of introductions to the Hargreeves siblings. The diner scene rhymes with the other two, I think, in its marked differences, but there are threads that tie them together. How the violin is a key instrument in both the Phantom Medley and ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’. How the medley shows the Hargreeves in the lives they had carved out for themselves away from Reginald, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ positions them in the house they grew up in, in the Umbrella Academy, Reginald’s domain, whereas ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ is set in a place where the kids defied Reginald. How the theme of loneliness and being alone threads through all of them. How the songs are, in order, partially diegetic (siblings apart but tied together by their past), fully diegetic (siblings enjoying the same thing despite being physically apart) and non-diegetic (the one sibling that is apart from them in age, time, space, part of his upbringing, you name it). How pertinent the lyrics are in each case, even the ones that aren’t technically in the song. I just think all three of them are brilliant needle drops that add so much to the story, the understanding of the characters and their relation to each other, just in the microcosm of this one pilot episode. Also they’re all incredible bangers.

#my meta #tuamre #Soundtrack #i love all of these scenes SO much they are so good at showing and showcasing these characters

[fortune-fool02]

The Way It Has To Be

Miguel O'Hara x Villain female reader

Summary: He's reminiscing once again and wonders why canon can be cruel.

Warning: Spoilers for Miguel's past, angst. Use of both the movie and comics. Light mentions of body-horror and insects -mostly centipede- Blood.

Word count: 1,603 words

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Please leave feedback/comment and reblog as I really appreciate it. Thank you. Also, if you guys want, I am up for writing a second part of this?

Please enjoy.

Over the time he had spent watching over the multiverse, Miguel had seen many things, many tragedies and hardships that all of them must endure to continue on their own stories and their own universes.

It was part of being Spider-Man. It was their 'curse' in a way. The canon events were moments that had to happen, something decided long before they were event born, carved out just for them; and it would not be denied of those events.

Miguel stared at the screen in front of him, unable to help himself, he knew this wasn't going to solve anything but he had to watch it again. His fingertips lightly brushed over the keys before he typed in a name and began to scroll through the different events like flicking through chapters of a book. A book that he had helped to construct and compose.

The warm hue of the amber glow painted his face as he stared at the screen in front of him, then pressed play.

He was standing beside a young woman, a look of concentration on his face as he examined a sample of blood under the microscope. His hair swept out of his face a little, faint clicking heard as he gently adjusted the magnification to get a more clear image through it. The cells seemed to be reacting to the introduction of the new drug, and for the moment, held stable. Hope flickered inside him as he watched, mentally counting the seconds before that hope was snuffed out as the cells began to try to reject the drug, and soon decomposed. Another failed attempt.

"Maldita sea." He cursed, leaning away from the microscope and running a hand through his hair with a low, heavy sigh. [Name] looked at him, sympathy painting her face as she rose her hand up and gently patted his back.

"Hey, it's alright, Miguel. We'll get there, okay?" She tried to encourage him. This project was one they had both been assigned for, and had a bit riding on this. Alchemax always demanded the best with no exceptions. They wanted this drug ready as soon as possible, no matter what. [Name] picked up the clipboard and recorded down the results before adding on a possible solution.

Miguel looked at her for the moment, a light smile on his lips. Even when pressed with failure after failure, she always found a way to look for the brighter side of things, to find a solution to the problem and gain the results they seek. She always tried to find light. [Name] often stood there with Miguel, offering her torch to keep him from being consumed by his troubles, and she didn't mind at all. Someone to help keep his head above the water, to lean on for comfort.

"Okay, let's see." [Name] spoke softly, glancing up at Miguel and showed him the structure of the idea. That soft smile of hers that radiated possibility and hope.

The video ended there. The last frame frozen on her sweet smile as she looked up at Miguel. He let it linger for a moment before moving onto the next moment.

"What do you mean you're off the project?" Disbelief dripped off Miguel's voice as he stood there, his expression contorted with shock as he watched [Name] poured herself a cup of coffee. Despite her, seemingly, calm expression, Miguel saw the way she gripped the cup's handle. The light tremble as she poured the hot liquid into it.

"That's exactly what I said to Stones. Apparently, he thinks my skills can be put to use elsewhere." She said, bitterness chewing away at her. She had spent so long ironing out this project and they were so close to a breakthrough only for that bastard she called a boss to kick her off. "I then told him that he can shove his pen up where the sun doesn't shine." The empty cups shook a little as she slammed the coffee jug back onto the counter a little harder than intended before bringing her hand to her face, pinching the bridge of her nose and breathing deeply to calm herself. Both her and Miguel worked on this project together, they worked so harmoniously with little issue. But their boss didn't see it as such.

A soft frown tugged Miguel's lips at this and he walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her to pull her into a comforting embrace. "Va a estar bien." He softly whispered against her, his hand moving in steady, slow circles on her back as she leaned into his warmth. The light tremble in her shoulders grew as a faint dampness did on his chest from her. If her face was not pressed against his chest, he would have noted the look in her eyes as the tears fell. It wasn't sorrow.

His hand hesitated lightly as it hovered over the next video. Something cold gnawing away at him. He was fully aware of the next video, but he couldn't stop now.

Something was off. Miguel could feel it. [Name] had been acting distant since she was cut off from the project, occupied with her own little thing that she refused to share the details of with Miguel. But it wasn't just that. Chemicals were going missing. Samples vanishing from their secured containers. And she would not stop fussing over the centipedes. They were a branch of the department that studied them and she had taken quite an interest in them. The few times that Miguel actually saw her out of work, she would look exhausted, worn down to the bone. More so than when she had been working with him.

"Don't worry about me, Miguel. I've got it all sorted." [Name] would always tell him with a smile. But it was always strained, lacking that sweetness to it. Now, he was worried.

An alarm had been triggered Alchemax and he was the first on the scene as Spiderman. There was blood splattered along the once white corridors, smears running all the way along the ceiling as if the workers had been dragged along it. Their bodies torn apart, mangled piles of flesh and bone that it was close to impossible to identify them. The people he worked with. Colleagues of his. He followed the trail, avoiding disturbing the bodies, and soon reached the source. There was shouting in one of the larger observation rooms, a bloodied handprint on the glass of the door.

[Name] turned her head towards the sound of the doors opening, her eyes blinking in surprise. "Spiderman? I wasn't expecting you to get here so quickly." Miguel took one look at her and felt dread claw inside him but he kept his voice steady. Her hands, her body, covered in blood that didn't belong to her. Something close to claws emerging from her nails and something about her stance seemed off. Like she was struggling to remain still. Twitching.

Stones laid at her feet, still alive, with her foot on his chest. "Miss [Surname], back away from him now." Miguel ordered. She was his friend, someone he cared about, but he didn't want to do this. He didn't want to have to arrest her. He prayed she wouldn't make this more harder than it had to be. Her eyes narrowed lightly, something flickered across them that he didn't like.

"You don't get it. This bastard worked me to the bone for so long, he pushed me down at every chance he got, and then he stole my work after kicking me off my own damn project!" Her foot pressed harder onto his chest, earning a crack from the bones and a pained cry from him. That anger he caught a mere glimpse of in the break-room all those weeks ago was equivalent to a forest fire, and she was going to ensure innocent people got burnt. "Never good enough for it. Never good enough for anything! So I proved him fucking wrong! I proved him that I am stronger than him!"

Her bones cracked sharply, a light groan slipping her lips as she hunched over, her arms wrapped around her abdomen. "I am capable of great things, I know I am. You never gave me the chance. Now, I'll fucking show you how strong I am!" Before Miguel could do anything, he watched as [Name] threw her head back, letting out a pained scream. Two large appendages burst forth from her back, layered with pointed spikes along the edges of them, blood splattered around, dripping off them as they coiled and thrashed about. Flesh crawled up along them, forming along the appendages until they finally stopped growing, now trailing behind her like a twisted cloak. Her jaw unhinged, her fangs elongating as her lower jaw split open, developing into mandibles before she finally turned back towards him.

Her eyes completely blacked out, showing no sign of the sweet, compassionate woman he once knew. How could this happen to her? How could she willingly do this to herself?

The video stopped just as [Name] had turned to lunge at him. Miguel staring at the frozen image of [Name]'s twisted form and that pain he felt that day still present. He couldn't bring himself to watch their fight again. To relive that pain. He didn't stop her that day, and, in truth, he didn't even know where she was anymore. A part of him hoped that there was a chance that she could still be saved, still be redeemed. Being Spiderman was a sacrifice, he knew that. But it didn't mean he liked it.

#atsv miguel #miguel x reader #miguel ohara #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara #spiderman2099 #spiderman 2099 spiderverse #spiderman: across the spiderverse #spiderman 2099 #spiderman across the spiderverse #across the spider verse spoilers #across the spiderverse #across the spider verse #atsv x reader #atsv

[trollsedits]

Hello, I read your introduction. I heard that your Vietnamese are correct?

Can you do maybe like a brozone headcanon on how each brother individually would react to a Vietnamese troll or someone who speaks Vietnamese like a relationship? Sorry if you can't understand what I'm trying to explain, but if you know what I mean

Chào anh em là con gái miền Tây! Haha yes I am Vietnamese I would like to say that I hope in the future troll movie they would recognize V-pop (Vietnamese pop trolls) since there was a K-pop in the trolls movie world tour but I am just so curious to know what Vietnamese trolls would look like cause I would be a Vietnamese pop troll myself haha anyways yes of course I will make brozone headcanon on a Vietnamese troll speaker!

———————————————————

A little background so Let’s just pretend: there is a tribe in the trolls village so far away that no trolls has ever heard of it not even Queen Barb or Queen Poppy has ever heard of them.

They are known as the V-pop trolls (Vietnamese pop trolls) but there’s not just pop Vietnamese trolls there’s also Vietnamese music genres that the trolls lived in V-pop village with the Viet pop trolls.. let me explain

You have the ca trù trolls: these trolls are also a Vietnamese genre of music their singing style is storytelling with origins in the northern part of the V-pop Village it mostly lead by a female trolls vocalist…

Then you have your Chầu văn trolls they are also in the northern part so they are close to the V-pop trolls village their style combined with singing, dancing and playing instruments with rhythm,pause and tempo.

There’s Vietnamese folk music trolls they fall under almost all of the genres that I mentioned

Then you have your cải Lương trolls: they are like a reformed theater trolls is a modern version of folk opera in V-pop village and they are spoken with drama and sometimes is so touching you would cry….

Again, all of these trolls genres all live under Viet pop village so they’re not separated from the other trolls genres there is more Vietnamese genres but I’ll explain more when I talk about brozone and meeting a Viet-pop troll.

—————————————-

I’m gonna leave the relationship ship out for this part but I will definitely include it on the next headcanon that I write sorry about that I should have mentioned that first but it makes me so happy that someone is interested in my culture because I been embracing my Vietnamese culture a lot more ever since growing up in the US <3 and I say for all the culture don’t be scared to embrace your culture is a part of who you are and no one couldn’t take it away from you is apart of your heart your life style I think you guys reading about my trolls headcanon would hopefully let you all know a bit about my culture and I hope you all feel inspired to write your own trolls version of your culture Tag me if you do I would love to hear about other people traditions and culture <33

————————————————————-

John Dory:

-This dude has been traveling around the trolls village for the past 20+ years alone and when he came across a super isolated village he went to see what the village is about.

-when he came to the village he saw so many beautiful ancient decorations and he noticed that the trolls looked different from his own kind so John began to explore the village a bit further

-He also noticed what those trolls were wearing how some of them wore different outfits as he went farther into the village he saw how some trolls wore this long beautiful dress called a áo từ thân (it was a common dress in the north part of the Village) as he walked farther he also saw how some also wore a short version dress called a ao ba ba (which was common in the north) to remind you again all V-pop trolls and their differences Vietnamese genres all live in one village but there’s a different path way to get to a certain place in their village that what John Dory was doing

-As John headed back to where he came from he also noticed how some trolls wore modern Ao Dai it was so different than what he saw the other trolls wore when he was exploring the village

-As John came across to this folk soft like music playing as he saw this beautiful trolls wearing a modern áo dài playing a Vietnamese folk music with a instrument called “đàn tranh” Vietnames string zither he was so touch how she played it so softly he never heard anything like this before

-John came up to you and said Hi but he noticed that you don’t speak any English you understand some English but you couldn’t speak it very well

“I really like the instrument you played I never heard anything like this before.”

-You sat there and smile at him he insists that you keep playing that Dan tranh so you did and he immediately falls in love with the sound of it

-John will try his best to speak Vietnamese even if he doesn’t pronounce it right but at least he is trying and he won’t make it sound like he’s making fun of your accent or language

-He will try any Vietnamese food even if it sounds weird to him he doesn’t want to be rude even if it tastes bad he probably kindly declined it next time if anyone offered a dish that he doesn’t like

-he will definitely wear a male version of the modern ao dai he will never want to take it off and he would probably buy some for his little brother when he see them again especially bitty B who he misses dearly…

-Over the years you and John have help each other he helped you with English so you were comfortable with speaking it and you helped him with Vietnamese and teaching him about the culture and he so grateful that you offered him a place to stay and teach him about your culture

John: “Cam ơn Em (Thank You so much! [Y/N]) for taking care of me over the past year I’ve learned so much about your culture I will miss you and I hope I come back to visit you again soon!

Y/N: No,I should thank you anh John Dory you taught me English I will miss you a lot but please do come back soon anh! You gave him a hug before he leaves for his another adventure

-John will definitely bring some of your culture back to his brothers and pop village he would share what he learned and the instrument that you taught him how to played

-He will definitely cry when he leaves the village because seeing you and the others waving goodbye to him hoping that he will have a safe trip as he turn around he saw you in tears crying and waving goodbye to him hoping he’ll come back to visit you again one day he knows you’ll be there waiting for him to come back..

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That’s just the tips of the iceberg right that first part is when John Dory first came across the village moving on.

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This one for Bruce and clay is gonna be kinda similar in some ways where they came across a trolls like you when they hear you sing and played an instrument but I would like to say that clay would noticed how homesick you are and stuff anyways let’s get started shall we…

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Bruce/Spruce:

-After brozone broken up spruce had traveled around not like John Dory did but he was walking around to escape his life and never returned back to his boy band days he hear a very beautiful instrument playing..

-As he saw a beautiful female trolls who wore a Ao từ tuần who was playing a two string guitar known as the “Dan Nguyen” as spruce was interested so he sat down waiting for you to finish once you finish he would applause him being a heartthrob he would go up and start a conversation with you

Spruce: hey,Great guitar you got there I think you played such a wonderful job I never heard that kind of music because I’m Spruce what’s yours name I never heard any music like this before like ever I need to know more.

Y/N: Thank you! I’m [Y/N] and this guitar is called Dan Nguyen it been in my family for many generations my grandpa gave me this before he passed away his last wish for me is to play this and have everyone hear it is my grandpa way of showing other trolls our culture we lived in a very isolated part of the trolls village called V-pop. You smile sweetly at him

Spruce: I’m sorry yo hear that your grandpa passed away. (He dose not think twice or anything on how you ended up here all it matters that he really wants to know more about your culture)

-You agreed to helped him learn more about your culture and your music over time spruce change his name to Bruce because he wanted to leave his boy band days away and you were proud of him for doing that.

-He love every single Vietnamese foods that’s out there he will learn how to make Vietnamese food he will probably open a restaurant a Vietnamese restaurant some where on vacay island

-He learns how to speak Vietnamese pretty quickly every words he pronounced it was just on point if he ever step foot into the V-pop village they will mistaken him as one of their own kind because of how good his Vietnamese is also he could and will sing all kind of Vietnamese genres out there just to make you happy more like impressed you with his Vietnamese skills that he learn from you ☺️

-He will definitely bring some of the Vietnamese culture that you taught him back to his brother when he see them again

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Clay:

-After being cut off from the rest of the trolls during the bergens escape clay and other trolls were finding a place to stay as they were looking he heard something or more like some one playing a beautiful instrument.

-Clay was worried that the bergens will hear you as he came closer to you he saw you wearing a Vietnamese hat called “non la” and you were wearing a beautiful white plain Ao dai he mistken you for a ghost because of your outfit

-you also played the Dan Ty ba which was a traditional orchestra which made clay even want to come closer to you

-as he heard you sing Vietnamese folk music he really liked the sound of it he was worried that the bergens would hear you but it kinda sounded quiet when you sang it

-Clay got closer he introduced himself to you and you did the same

-Overtime you lived with the Putt-Putt trolls until you can safely make it back home or that what you hope but you became homesick over time you didn’t hate the putt putt trolls or anything but it was missing something that was apart of you your whole life

-Clay often noticed you feeling homesick and how you miss your family he would often see you cry or hold onto your “non la.” Also how often you would sit by yourself playing a sad note on your Dan Ty ba

-He would want to make sure you’re alright

Clay: hey, [Y/N] are you alright I’ve been noticing how upset you looked is something wrong is okay you can talk to me about anything?

Y/N: I’m just homesick, being away from my family and my village really takes a turn Vietnamese music and culture is apart of my life growing up I really like it here with you and Viva and the others but sometimes apart of me is missing

-As you got up and walked away crying clay felt very bad he knew he had to do something to make sure you feel safe as much as he wants you to go see your family again but he doesn’t want you to get eaten by a Bergens

-Clay would spend all his time despite being a licensed CPA he will spend his time reading and learning how to speak Vietnamese and more about your culture

-Like Bruce clay learned how to speak Vietnamese pretty quickly his pronunciation was perfect cause he spend all his time reading a book on how to speak Vietnamese for beginners

-He would also learn and also have the other putt putt trolls pitch in to cook/make the place feel like home to you

-It would take viva hours trying to get you out of the house as you finally agreed to as you came out you heard music not any music it was the music that reminded you of your home and your people you began to cry tears of joy and give clay a tight hug…

Y/N: Oh thank you thank you so much Clay you didn’t have to do all that for me but I really appreciate you all pitch in and took the time to learn my culture and my people my family would be so proud of me

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I cried when I was writing clay part because it deals with being homesick and I understand that feeling I live in the state when I go to Vietnam for a vacation when I had to go back I would spend the entire plane ride crying and brawling my eyes out so seeing a troll like clay who would go beyond the way to learn your culture makes me smile so much.

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Floyd:

-Traveling alone to start his solo career he came across to this soft and beautiful sound

-as he went closer to where the sound was he came across a ancient village known as V-pop village just like John did he noticed how each different trolls tribes wore different outfits

-But suddenly Floyd heard the instrument played again as he got closer he saw a beautiful girl played such soft instrument called “Dan bầu” is a Vietnamese string instrument but then it hit him when he heard you sing “Cải lương” Floyd never heard anything so soft and yet touching

-Being a sensitive troll that he is he can’t help but cry on how good it sound he may not understand what you’re saying but something about the rhythm just makes him cry for days because it was like a blend of Vietnamese folk song and classical music as-well

-Overtime, Floyd would learn Vietnamese his pronunciation wasn’t good but wasn’t as bad as John was but he try to sing cai luong and also learn how to play the Dan bầu but fail the others trolls made fun of him but you offered to helped him

-You gave Floyd a private lesson on how to play the instrument overtime he was getting pretty good and you were impressed with his skills

-Overtime his Vietnamese pronunciation got even better to the point he can finally sing cái lương you were impressed how much he has improved he thanked you a lot for helping him he couldn’t have learned that without your help

-Once he left the village he would take something special back with him which was a new skills and learning a new language all together thanks to you.

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Sorry if Floyd was short but I definitely could see him singing cái lương because he is the sensitive one and when you listen to it (Yep, it sounds super sad and emotional my parents always listen to this) and him being able to play a Vietnamese instrument it just makes it better

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Lastly, Branch:

-After saving all music kind from Queen barb with Queen poppy as all the music genres came together as one it only took him a second to see a different kind of trolls

-He saw you with your beautiful black hair and you were wearing a beautiful modern áo dài with your non la you were walking around shopping for fruits

-Branch would go to poppy and ask her if she seen any other troll like you before because something about you was different from the other trolls and their music

-One day he finally came up to you and introduced himself to you and you did the same he didn’t know how to start the conversation but you knew what he wanted to ask so you got straight to the point

Y/n: I’m a Vietnamese pop troll I know it seems crazy but we lived in a isolated place in trolls village we have different genres of Vietnamese music just like you guys but I’m a pop troll just like you guys but the only difference is that I sing in Vietnamese

-You would have to demonstrate to branch and sing Vietnamese pop music in Viet which he finally understood branch was so interested in learning the Viet pop style so he asked you if you could help him

-Branch started off not pronouncing any Vietnamese words correctly you didn’t mind because you know he didn’t mean at anyway to make fun of your language but still you helped him through it

-Overtime, his pronunciation gotten better and he was able to sing a whole Vietnamese pop song without messing up the words

-Branch learned so much from you and your tradition and he also hopes he can share this wonderful music and culture with his girlfriend Queen poppy and the others trolls in the village aswell his brothers if he ever sees them again

-Branch also adore the traditional outfit you put him in which is a modern male ao dai just like John he would ask you to make some for his brother aswell for Queen poppy which you happily agree to do

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Again, sorry if both branch and Floyd was short but I really enjoyed writing this and hopefully you guys learn a bit about Vietnamese culture I may be an American but being Vietnamese always and will be apart of who I am

Anyways, If you want me to do a part 2 I’ll do it maybe I can explain more about the food/fashion and the language barrier there’s so much to share to all of you in the trolls fandom about my Vietnamese culture and I hope you do the same with your culture I look forward to coming across to reading those 🩷✨

Also sorry for any grammar mistakes I’ll go fix it haha :^)

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#trolls band together #dreamworks trolls headcanon #trolls fanfic #floyd x reader #branch x reader #john dory x reader #bruce x reader #clay x reader #trolls fandom #trolls #dreamworks #brozone #fanfic #vietnamese #clay #Bruce #John Dory #branch #floyd #trolls branch #trolls floyd #trolls bruce #trolls clay #trolls movie #trolls john dory #trolls headcanons #Vietnames culture

[greenbirdtrash]

Decided to post some of my clothing analysis of the musical Once-ler. Most of my takes here are outdated (since i didn't had a chance to get acquainted with the script back then, but now i've got a better understanding of some things and the exact timeline, so lots of updated info and the contexts will be added when needed), but some of the listed speculations here are still pretty interesting to think about. It's actually kinda crazy how i came to that, building my own imaginary character profile and the timeline without the chance to watch the entire show, but just from analysing the available photos and the reviews. And the fun thing is..some of my speculations actually fit the story quite well. So..

Part one: Introduction.

[July, 23]

"Again, my conclusions may be wrong because of the fact that I only saw the fragments and photos from this musical, I cannot be completely sure that the slight difference in some of details and elements is present due to a certain story arc or the fact that the "test show" was performed in a different place and with slightly different props, but it's hard not to notice that during the course of events, the clothes of our beloved problematic capitalist change, maybe not as drastically as in the 2012 movie, for example, but this undoubtedly plays an important role in his development as a character (especially considering that we are looking at a stage adaptation with its own nuances, but more on that later) and reflects a certain kind of changes that he goes through in the process. Why is this so important? I'll try to explain.

Working with perception through colors and shapes is one of the most basic things in design that always works, and even being in some cases comically exaggerated, it remains effective because a person somehow always builds a certain association based on the things they saw. Like, we look at the warm green color, and it immediately reminds us of leaves, etc, etc.. Long story short, the aspect of different clothing, colors and patterns on a character who's going through different phases will be very important here. I saw someone else pointing the same thing out in one of the reviews, can't remember which one tho. Anyway, my huge thanks to Rob Howell for giving us all these amazing designs.

What I always loved in stage performances of all kinds and the theater as a whole concept, is the fact that you won't find there such thing as "narrow cinematic frame" in which you can just remove or cut out everything that simply "does not fit" into it, oh no.

In stage performances and musicals, the whole color extravaganza of the stage and the carefully carved environment will talk to you (yes, talk!), and actors are required to do much more than just show a certain face at a certain moment. Nope, it's completely different here, and most of the theatre actors are just built different as well. Spent some of my best years near them, that was an amazing experience. Anyway-

Being able to play simply with with your voice and face is not enough to be a good actor here, especially considering that even if you're lucky to have the most magnificent facial expressions......they are not particularly visible even from the middle rows. Even though most projects and plays are recorded with professional equipment from the close range (mostly for archive purposes), and for some plays you can even get the binoculars with no problem, it is impossible to rely solely on facial expressions.

And here's where costumes and choreography come into play.

So, the costumes...

From what I saw and read, I would say, we are introduced to this Onceler in a pretty interesting way.

At the time of his departure from home in search of a better fate, we are looking at a very ambitious young dreamer who just.. let's say, he doesn't fit into his original environment, neither by his character traits, nor by his ideas about inventions, nor visually. The visual clearly emphasizes this, and I got the impression that among all the green riot of chaotic colorful prints that prevail in his family's clothes, in his tailcoat he kinda looks like a "black sheep" among them, even despite the fact that he shares the same green aesthetic, but his design is not "too much" or hard to look at. In fact, we are still able to spot him even when he's surrounded by his family. According to this adaptation's background, their family is VERY poor, and all they own is an old mill(?) on which they all work tirelessly. Not a particularly wide space for revelry and elements symbolizing prosperity or luxury (yk, tailcoats are quite expensive), so to speak. Things were not going great for them, so perhaps such an expensive thing as a tailcoat in their conditions is some kind of a reference to the guitar of the 2012 version (for which, according to some information available on the web, the 2012 Onceler has been saving up for a long time). Perhaps (and most likely this guess will be more correct) our hero slept and saw himself in a completely different society - with a much higher and richer status [UPD: This guess was partially confirmed after i saw the script, so I will take this as canon. After all, in the stageplay, the young Onceler literally devotes an entire scene to the song about his dream of getting rich on his great idea], and perhaps he also believed that "clothes make the man" and planned searching for glory in the same outfit, I can't tell you for sure, but the fact is that visually he does not fit into his environment at all, he's "an oddball" with his head hovering somewhere in the clouds, and his clothes, among other things, help us draw a imaginary line which separates him from his surroundings and giving us a subconscious signal that he is just different. Not like them. We all faced rejection in one way or another, and we know what not being able to fit feels like, and it also kinda helps us to put ourselves in his shoes, feel his ambitions, and to start sympathizing with him as a character. [UPD: It works really well within the canons of this adaptation, I couldn't remain indifferent to it, and David Greig turned him into exactly that kind of beautifully written tragic deep character that I wanted to see, and at the end of his story, it broke my heart..in a good way, of course.]

Also, there's something really silly about how he looks at the start, he spots the funky striped fingerless gloves (Not the canon long ones, but still..That's a nice touch, every Onceler needs his gloves, and also it looks like he also has a watch on his left arm? Interesting..), some kind of a vintage green fedora, very fluffy green hair, green shirt and green pants with a slightly different "cold" color, brown suspenders and even a bright green neckerchief for some reason, so his green aesthetic is pretty much complete. Idk, his whole look during this phase kinda gives me the countryside vibes, maybe it was actualy intended? Especially considering what his family does for life?[UPD: It kinda was.]

Actually, he leaves the house just because his room and his bed is suddenly rented out for some pennies [UPD: Everything turned out to be much worse and funnier at the same time, he was literally kicked out by his family (You can literally feel their low expectations for him) just for them to take in a random person with "more reasonable ideas", but despite this, all his interactions with the "Bed-stealer" during the first act made me smile and giggle a lot, Small Ed is a great character addition and a pure comedic relief], and this probably becomes his last reason in favor of collecting all of his not very vast possessions and go seek his fate in the hopes that somewhere in this world there will be a better place for him.."

#lorax musical analysis #lorax musical #onceler #the onceler #the lorax #lorax #lorax 2023

[slytherinqueenrose]

Total bastard |Percy Hynes White|

Pairings: Percy Hynes White x Polish!F!Reader

Warnings: bit of cursing, stereotypes about cars, mentions of Harry Potter, let me know if I missed something. It’s shitty by the way.

Additionally: Y/N - Your name, Y/L/N - your last name, Y/F/N - your friend’s name, Y/C/B - Your car brand/car of your choosing

A/N: Hello! That’s my third writing here on Tumblr and I must apologise for the grammar! I’m Polish so English is not my first language and don’t feel too comfortable using it. I’d be very grateful for any feedback about it because I truly don’t know if it’s even comfortable for you to read 😩

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You may be wondering how does working on Wednesday set look like and the only word that comes to my mind and describes it perfectly is MAGICAL.

That was my first - let me call it - serious job. I took part in few other productions as an intern mostly and I played a background character only once before getting the role of Wednesday’s cousin. Coming back to the topic - even though I have some experience in films and I know exactly how everything looks behind the scenes, the set of Wednesday was something totally different and new.

Maybe it’s because most of the cast was young and not too popular (not counting Jenna and some other actors of course). That was the first place where I felt like I belong there.

But I also met somebody who desperately tried to break my heart or so I understood it.

Let’s start with a quick introduction. My name is Y/N, I was born in 2000, in Poland which makes me different from my movie character all the way. I was kind of stressed about joining the cast mostly fearing that I won’t be accepted. I mean, they all have became really good friends and what if I they treat me as an intruder ?

The trip to Romania was excellent even though some turbulences happened during my flight. Firstly I was wondering about driving a car (which would take about 12 hours but I thought of taking some stops in Slovakia and Hungary). I love travelling to new places but I decided that buying flight tickets and rent a car while in Romania definitely will be a better option. I needed some way of transport and I truly hated the public communication.

I did as I said, I rented a car and was heading straight to the hotel. The atmosphere of Romanian forests was just wonderful. So mysterious yet so beautiful. I couldn’t get enough of looking at the surroundings and I took few stops on the way to take pictures of as many views as I could.

After an hour or maybe a little bit longer I finally arrived at the hotel. It was just a simple building, not too pretty nor ugly. Cozy actually. It’s totally fine though. I don’t feel too comfortable in luxury places.

“Shitty drivers.” I muttered while trying to park my car on a parking lot. I have to mention that I’m a pain in the arse if it comes to driving. I always stick to the rules and rarely try to break any which often makes other people go insane. I remember my very first time in the US. I rented a car with my friend and she was laughing her arse off almost every time I drove. The only text a remembered after coming back home was “we’re driving with a very sick Jaguar. Almost dead”. And to make it even funnier, I have been overtaken by a bicycle.

Minute of silence, please.

But coming back to my thoughts.

After seeing this one black BMW parked totally wrong, I got a clever idea. What to do to piss off its driver? I parked my car correctly so there was no option for whoever owned that black car, to get inside. Sorry not sorry. I left the car and took my luggage and just when I was heading to the building, someone called after me.

“What do you think you doing? I can’t get into my car, you daughter of the devil!”

I quickly turned around to see a young man opening the black vehicle with his automatic pilot.

“Fly then.” I said with a grin.

“May you move your shitty Y/C/B so I can leave the parking lot?” He added visibility furious.

“Shitty Y/C/B you say. Well, does your BMW have working indicators or they are to cause a huge explosion if you use them?” I asked and raised my brows at him.

Before you’ll start hating me for this I must explain something. Polish people truly hate BMW drivers. It’s not like we don’t buy those cars - we actually do and they are very popular. However seeing a BMW using indicators is something worth celebrating. Does not happen too often, tho. If you happen to see a BMW with working blinkers, you can be sure it’s police driving it.

I didn’t even wait for his response, expecting it to be rude, and just turned around again and that’s when I noticed a certain boy that was portraying Ajax in the show. He was laughing his arse off while leaning against the hotel entrance.

“Well done, whoever you are. Jake is a total shit and makes everyone go crazy with his behaviour.” He said while extending his hand to me which I gladly accepted. “Georgie Farmer, Ajax Petropolus, call me whatever you want.”

“Nice to meet you, Georgie. I’m Y/N Y/L/N. I’m going to portray Wednesday’s cousin, Verity.” I replied with a smile.

“You have a funny accent. You’re not American for sure, aren’t you? I didn’t mean to offend you, of course.” He added.

“Don’t worry about that. English is not my first language so I’m not a mistress of speaking it. The truth is I usually fail doing so.“

„Stop saying so. You speak very well. I like the Brit or Australian sounding. But what’s your nationality then?”

“I come from Poland. Not too far away from here actually which I’m pretty glad about. At least my flight wasn’t tiring.”

“Woah, is that the country which is famous from pierogis?” He gasped visibly amazed and just when I nodded, he grabbed my hand and pulled me after him inside the hotel. I started giggling like crazy. I was totally over the moon because someone seemed to like me and that felt incredible.

“So I suppose you’re pretty stressed now before meeting the rest of the cast but there’s no need to worry. We are all very friendly and really excited to meet new cast members. Some of us are also pretty insane like Percy for example or Oliver but I’m sure that you’re gonna feel comfortable around them.” He said with a pure excitement, opening one of the doors for me. ”I believe that Emma dreams about giving newbies a hotel tour just like Enid would but what about me being your guide today? She’s rambling too much while showing people around.” He said. Well, isn’t it like he was rambling too?

“As long as you keep smiling and being all excited.” I replied winking at him.

And honestly that was the best beginning of a new friendship in my whole life. We spent around an hour running around the building while he was trying to show me everything. And I mean totally EVERYTHING. He even showed me a secret underground room where he, Percy and Oliver meet from time to time to gossip about what had happened during their day. Boys.

“And so this is the last room of ours. We call it a freak day room because we spend most of our free period here. A lot is happening here everyday so don’t be scared seeing whatever is going on there right now.” He said less enthusiastically.

“I’m prepared to see the worst.” I replied giving him a reassuring nod. I could already hear laughter coming from there and I felt sick from fear. I’ve never used to be too confident, not even mentioning popular. I was just a plain, grey, unknown and the least liked person in my school years. I’ve never had real friends. All of my “friendships” usually come to an end after few months.

“Guys, guys, guys, attention please.” Georgie spoke while entering the room. All the laughter stoped and everyone looked at him at once. “Percy, may you please stop this ungodly singing?” He added. “So I want to introduce a new person to all of you and-“

“You met someone new and didn’t tell us sooner?”

“I’m sorry, Emma but I needed to give her a quick tour and talk a little bit. Whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Y/N, Polish miracle with a funny accent.” Georgie chuckled pulling me into the room. I almost fell noticing all those glances.

“Hiya, nice to meet you!”

Let’s say that the very first day with the whole cast was just amazing. Everyone had a lot of questions, some simple, some weirder. We had a lot to discuss and considering the fact that the boys opened a champagne and then another and another, it resulted in a killer headache on the next day.

But it doesn’t matter.

Percy does.

Since the very first time we laid our eyes on each other, there was a sort of a weird tension between us. I felt pretty shy for no reason and he seemed to judge me. Or so I understood because I usually think that people are gossiping about me which never happens actually.

The thing is that he was acting different in my presence. For example this one time when he was listening to music and singing in a tent, he stopped immediately after I joined him and few other cast members. His face expression made me feel sorry for interrupting their fun time however was it my fault that I was just being curious about what was going on in there? Oh, ok. I’m a bit nosy but IT WAS OUR TENT and I had a full right to go in there.

The second time I felt bad was the Halloween day. Emma and I were simply preparing our costumes in our “freak day room” when Percy came. He just leaned on the doorframe with his arms crossed on his chest and was looking at what the both of us were doing. Then, he chuckled and raised his eyebrows.

“What?” I asked confused.

“Well, don’t get me wrong but wouldn’t it be just enough if you would have gone to the festival right after waking up? You know, all sleepy and messy.” He said with his characteristic grin. What was that supposed to mean?

“I was thinking about that actually.” I replied a bit upset forcing a small smile. Yeah.. He basically thought I was ugly. I can’t say I wasn’t though. At the age of 23 I had a lot of insecurities which may seem to be odd for many people.

“What are you planning to wear, Percy?” Emma asked.

“A beautiful smile and my fave hat. Enough to make all ladies gasp.” He chuckled and then left.

“He’s unbearable.”

That definitely was true. The way he laughed at me made me go insane every time. When I couldn’t hold the arrow properly, there he was, laughing his arse off. Same after all my bloopers. We also had a pretty heated argument scene one day and he couldn’t hold his laughter. I didn’t know what was going on. Was I truly this bad at acting? Not even mentioning the way he used to mock my accent and made me feel sorry that it was more British than American. Well, it’s not my fault! Polish schools ONLY teach British vocabulary and accent. It’s more familiar to all of us and additionally I used to grow up only having British or Irish idols. Who doesn’t remember One Direction for example? I was a number one fan and honestly I wouldn’t make it with my English without them. Before I met Percy I thought that the way I spoke didn’t matter but it clearly did. I truly started to have enough.

I can’t not mention the fact of being a Potterhead which was for some reason too funny for him. He used to walk around pointing at me with his fingers and go with “expelliarmus” or “abra cadabra” which wasn’t even a Harry Potter spell (and he knew that but wanted to see me explaining it to him and getting embarrassed). At this point I was truly frustrated.

“I’m so glad I have a bit more free time today. I was thinking about visiting the nearby shopping centre. What about you, Joy?” I said while eating lunch. That was the first day after a month of shooting when I was needless on the set. The most of my scenes have been recorded already and now it was only Jenna and her serie family time.

“I was there loads of times and I never get bored of going there. I will for sure keep you a company. I need to buy some stuff especially after Georgie ate almost all of my candy!” She laughed with pure happiness on her beautiful face.

“What are we doing today ladies?” Percy asked, putting his hands on Joy’s shoulders.

“We plan on escaping and doing some illegal stuff. Wanna join?” She replied with a smirk knowing just well that he definitely would accompany us if it really meant something illegal. He was overly confident and usually into rebelling.

“Does it mean few hours of shopping in cosmetic stuff which I ain’t understand? Then thanks.”

“We’re definitely planning on robbing a jewellery shop.” I said winking at him.

“Would be such a reward to have some new shiny necklaces, wouldn’t it? I bet it could ease your embarrassment after yesterdays fails on set. I really think you’re shitty sometimes.” He chuckled and made my heart shatter.

“Yeah. You’re right. So what about leaving soon, Joy? I think I’ll go to take my phone and car keys now.” I added not looking at him.

“I need to take a shower before we leave. Give me at least an hour, is that fine?” She asked smiling friendly.

“Sure. Take your time.”

As I said I went to my room and just sat there, looking at the wall. I’m shitty. That’s what he thought. How cool is that?

But no. It wasn’t what made me sob. Just not yet. The real reason of my future tears was much worse.

About a week later, just few days before Christmas, we all decided to have a lovely, friendly free period after work without caring about the job, without rehearsing, basically it was supposed to be just a chill out. Eating, doing nothing, maybe dancing a little, you know just a normal evening with friends. I was heading straight to our day room when I heard something what broke my heart into millions of pieces.

“What about you and your screen lover, artist?” Georgie laughed. Gossiping about me then. Fine. I just stood there behind the door to hear more and that was a mistake I wouldn’t make twice if I could turn back time.

“Y/N is… well, let’s say that I really couldn’t get more fantastic partner.” Percy scoffed, purest sarcasm in his voice. “I thought they’re going to hire a hot Latino chick for this role but then she came and I’m… huh. Can’t get over this. It’s a simple misunderstanding. You see, someone like her and someone like me. Not to mention that she’s one or two years above, isn’t she? Like a mama.”

“Oh yeah, I can totally agree, mate.” Olivier replied chuckling.

With that I didn’t even bother to listen to them anymore. I headed back to my room where I decided to call my bestie via FaceTime to let all of my negative emotions out. I sobbed hard for another half an hour and she was just there, looking at me and simply not talking. She was wonderful. She had no idea what happened but was waiting until my cries died, giving me some time before finally listening to the story and starting comforting me.

„Naprawdę nie wiem, co takiego mu zrobiłam.” („I literally have no clue what I’ve done to him to deserve it.”) I said, wiping the tears out of my face.

„Moje biedactwo. A przedstawiają go jako aniołka. Posłuchaj, siostra. Może i traktuje cię w taki a nie inny sposób, ale czemu to ma dla ciebie takie znaczenie?”

(„Poor little thing. Can’t believe he’s portrayed as such an angelic person. Listen to me, sis. He may be treating you like this but why does it actually matter to you?”) Y/F/N replied but just after that we heard my door being opened. I didn’t turn myself in the sound’s direction because I could clearly see in my phone screen who entered my room.

Percy himself.

But what the fuck did he want? I decided to stay unbothered and show no emotions at all. At last I didn’t want him to know that I was eavesdropping. Happily he does not know my mother language so it wasn’t too difficult to continue my conversation without his suspiciousness.

“Wiesz… Podłapałam małego crusha na tym dzieciaku. Nie wiem czemu. Zazwyczaj zachowuje się jakby się naćpał, ale jest dość uroczy i…”

(„You know… I might have fallen for him a bit. I know it’s ridiculous but he’s usually acting high like shit but he’s cute at the same time…”) I replied and saw a clear disbelief in my bestie’s face expression.

“On ci rujnuje samopoczucie z dnia na dzień coraz mocniej, a ty się w nim zakochujesz. Powinnaś się przebadać.”

(„Can’t believe it. He’s making your self confidence fall more and more everyday and you’re just casually falling in love. You should go and see the doctor real quick.”) She added visibly angry.

As we continued discussing this and that, I felt a movement on my bed. Percy sat cross legged behind me with a faint smile on his face which made me truly uncomfortable.

“Jak on w ogóle może tak o, wparować do twojego pokoju i gościć się w nim jak u siebie? Zwłaszcza po tym co powiedział.”

(„It’s so bold that he’s able just come to your room like nothing happened and simply feel like he’s being at his own place. Especially after what he said.”) Y/F/N said looking him straight in the eye. “Wydaje mi się, czy zaraz rzuci na mnie klątwę? Może Avada Kedavra?” (“Is he trying to hex me right now? Or maybe he’s planning on using Avada Kedavra?”)

„Możemy zmienić temat?”

(“May we stop talking about him?”) I asked with a forced smile.

But then I felt a very delicate tapping on my shoulder so I finally turned around to face Percy.

“You didn’t join us. Something’s wrong?

Yes, Percy. Yes. You happened.

“Powiedz mu co o nim myślisz i daj znać jak poszło.”

(“Tell him what you think about him and let me know how it went.”) My bestie added before ending the call.

“I don’t feel too well today so I just decided to stay here and spend some time alone.”

“Come on, sweet things, I know you’re lying.”

What did you call me?

“No idea what you’re talking about. I have a right to feel bad”.

“Something is clearly bothering you”.

How come that he was able to read my mind?

“Well maybe you wouldn’t need to worry about such a shitty thing if I was a hot Latino chick.” I retorted not daring to look him in the eyes. It took him off guard immediately.

“Wait, what?” He asked confused and then his face dropped. “Y/N, have you heard what I said down there in our day room?”

“Obviously. Look, I’m sorry that I got the role and you have to look at my Polish shitty face. I wish I looked different but I can’t. Also sorry for being shitty on set. And additionally I’m sorry for talking the way I do and I’m extremely sorry for liking what I like. I-“ I was cut.

“It’s a misunderstanding, sweet things. Let me explain, please.” He pleaded taking my hand into his and I just nodded. “I didn’t mean anything bad by saying all that stuff earlier. It might have sounded bad or so but I am very happy to have an honour of working with you. What I said about your acting was just a way to tease you. I like when you get flustered. I’m not laughing at the way you sound. I find it extremely attractive. I have a weakness for girls speaking languages and changing accents. Harry Potter is absolutely fine and I like it too. I mean, I like it a lot and even have a Dark Wand somewhere at my house. And what I said today… Sweet things, it was all positive. You see, I truly couldn’t get any better person to portray my lover. You’re just perfect doing your job. I also didn’t mean anything - I swear - anything bad talking about you and I feel like I wouldn’t be enough for you. So that’s why I told that someone like me couldn’t be with someone like you. You’re just much more mesmerising and too good to ever be mine. I’m so sorry about making you feel bad all this time.” He added with a pure sadness in his eyes.

This time I was taken aback.

“Wait, does it mean that-“

“I like you and truly wish we could start all over again. If you want of course. I get it if you don’t feel like being with someone younger.”

“You know that the age doesn’t really matter?”

“So is that a yes?”

“It doesn’t hurt to try though. But don’t you dare calling me “mama”. Like ever again.”

“Of course not. Never.”

Yeah, he was absolutely going to call me that. Seeing his little grin made me realise he’s not the one to trust at all.

To: Bestie 😈

Percy and I got together.

That might piss her off.

From: Bestie 😈

HAVE YOU GONE NUTS!

_____________________________________

A/N: I really am going to shit myself not knowing your opinion 🥲.

#percyhyneswhite x reader #percy hynes white x reader #percy hynes white imagine #percyhyneswhite #percy imagine #wednesday #xavier thrope imagine #xavier x reader #xavier x you #xavier thorpe #xavier thrope fanfic

[alittlefrenchtree]

Do you think Taylor's acting is good?

Omg i’ve been dying to answer to this question since I got it and I’m so happy to finally have the time.

I think it’s very interesting and layered so I’m going to try to be as coherent as possible.

For reference, I’ve watched, The Kissing Booth 2, The Kissing Booth 3, 1Up and of course, Red White and Royal Blue. I don’t plan to watch anything else from his past filmography but I’m looking forward for what the future brings for him.

Sooooo where to start? 

I met him with Alex, so let’s start with Alex. Unlike many, I was more pulled in and hooked by his performance than I was with Nick’s one. (Not saying Taylor’s better than Nick (nor the other way around), let me finish) 

I very much agree with Matthew (one thing we agree on at least ��) when he said that Taylor became Alex when Nick was carefully holding Henry and protecting him. Taylor was so organic as Alex I was almost immediately on board with him. For me, it was everything to do with the sincerity and heart with which he played him, rather than being an award worthy performance or not. It wasn’t perfect but it was perfectly Alex so it was good. And I suspect the very few of my issues with it would fall on the directing and the editing of it rather than Taylor’s work.

To touch a bit on the subject of Henry and Nick. I’ve danced around Nick’s performance a little bit more (with ups and downs) and I’m starting to understand that it was more because of who Henry is as a character and less about Nick’s acting. The performance is growing on me (Nick is also grown on me, so it also helps) and I have good hope that, if when we get a sequel, it would be even better on my side.

Getting to know a bit more of Taylor after that, I wondered if, the reason why he was such a good Alex was because Alex was mainly… Taylor with a few additions. Part of that is true and even if it doesn’t made the job particularly easier, it still asks questions of his ability to play someone who isn’t him at all (even if imo everyone can find an angle to every character but it’s another debate for another time). But there are few details in his performance as Alex that gives a lot of hope about his ability to be subtle about things. Like Taylor and Alex have the same kind of energy but he has adjusted it to feel more young than his own. They’re both confident but in very different ways. So even the things that are him, he has shaped them to be right for Alex. 

Outside of Alex, I actually like him in TKB2 and TKB3. It helps that the main couple of the movie is so dumb and nobody is actually rooting for them but it was really easy to take Marco side (his character introduction was the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time) and Taylor was a good Marco. But it’s kind of hard to see if an actor is good with a role like Marco. You can see if someone is bad (so you can see Taylor isn’t) but it’s hard to see how good he can be.

1UP was basically useless, so we can’t say anything about that. I hadn’t even planned to watched it but it was about esport (or at least it tried to be about esport) so it got me extra curious but it has nothing in it so 😂 Taylor was brought there to be gorgeous and intolerable and he was gorgeous and intolerable so job done I guess? 

All of that being said, I think the most important part of his answer is that Taylor is just starting. He has just started and he has so little worthy to be judged on, it’s almost too early to answer the question. Like I was saying in a previous ask, a lot of how he’s going to develop as an actor will be up to the people (directors, mostly) he’ll be working with and I’m impatient to see the choices he’ll make.

Thank you so much for asking this question, I had a good time digging into my thought about this :) 💜

#alft asks #taylor zakhar perez #tzp

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Gonna break the rule and go off anon 😉

What is your ranking for your favourite Chris Evans movies/TV shows????

Niamh! do you know how hard this is.

Top ten-

Snowpiercer- Really is anyone surprised? I loved this film for how dirty, tragic, and beautiful it was, Curtis is my husband forever and ever. I love him.

Captain America Trilogy- Loved them all, especially The Winter Soldier. I have watched them so many times.

Puncture- God this movie was so tragic and Mike was such a mess but I still really enjoyed this movie and appreciated the issues this film covered.

Avengers Trilogy- comfort series for sure. I will never forget seeing Endgame in theaters, that scene still makes my heart race.

Defending Jacob- Loved Andy! So so much. Probably too much. It's not higher on the list because it's a tv show and tv shows are hard for me to watch cause it felt like such a long movie.

Gifted- Beautiful story and it always makes me tear up

Playing It Cool- This movie was messy but I loved it because of that. Even the storytelling was a mess.

Before We Go- Honestly simple and not exciting but it had some beautiful scenes in it and I was so proud of the work he did for this.

Knives Out- Ransom really was just a piece of the artwork of this film. Top Tier, I am so glad I got to see it in theaters.

Ghosted- Honestly, I thought this one was good, even for all the hate it got. Cole was a disaster and unreasonable at times, over dramatic, but I loved it. Also, I think he had better chemistry with Ana than some of his other female co-stars over the years.

Push- One of those films I saw right around the time it came out and I just liked it. If they just left out his love interest, it would have scored higher.

Losers- Just a fun movie! He should do more comedy.

The Red Sea Diving Resort- This film has so many mixed reviews but I did enjoy it beyond Chris being fucking beautiful in it.

The Gray Man- Fucking Lloyd man... I just loved that mustached prick more than I should have.

What's Your Number? This was a cute one and I absolutely adored him working with Anna. I wish they did more films together.

Fantastic Four 1 and 2- Johnny was a cutie and I had a little crush on him back in the day.

Streetkings- I have only seen this movie a couple times but always enjoyed the drama.

Sunshine- What a interesting Sci Fi. Only watched it once or twice, mostly in bits and pieces, and I find myself getting really frustrated every single time that no one just listened to James.

Lightyear- It was cute. It won't be one I watch regularly though, but cute.

Loss Of A Tear Drop Diamond- I wanted to throttle all of them, but I did love Jimmy in those suspenders and Chris trying his hardest at that accent.

The Nanny Diaries- Cute, but not really my kind of movie.

Cellular- HAHAHA I did love this back in the day, BUT rewatching it I forget that my standards for films has gotten higher and I do cringe. Especially with Jessica popping in, I just don't like her or Jason Statham all that much. William H Macy though... loved him. Lol.

TMNT- I loved this for him, but it wasn't MY TURTLES from the 80's and 90's, so yeah I was judgy.

Fierce People- everyone was just annoying in this movie. I kinda liked it, I kinda didn't. Depends on the day.

The Perfect Score- probably if I had watched this when it came out, I would have loved it. I only recently watched it a few years ago and had a very "just wait till you all start actual adulthood" frame of mind. Lol.

Not Another Teen Movie- My first ever introduction to Chris and I absolutely hated Jake although I admit I still laugh at his insulting jokes.

The Ice Man- So I will give Chris credit in his acting in this, I wouldn't have realized it was him except I mainly watched it to see his work in this. I can't say it was a great film, for me it felt slow. But I can see where others would like it for the true crime aspect of it.

Scott Pilgrim- His part was small but funny. I will never get over the eyebrows. Beyond that part, I didn't have an interest in the rest of the film.

Never Seen -

The Newcomer- no real interest.

London- Y'all really don't know the absolute dislike I have for Jessica Biel. She is the main reason I don't watch this film. Syd also sounds like an absolute prick and I would probably hate him with a passion. I know, I'm sure I am missing out on some great scenes, but... I just don't think I could listen to Jessica's character and Syd whine and carry on the whole movie.

The Battle for Terra- No real interest.

Or the few shows he was in as a kid.

So, how do we compare? I know you didn't ask for reasons, but I am in a writing slump and wanted to give something.

#amber answers

[avalonmoonshinesstuff]

I just realised Something about a portion of fandom I don't really engage with all that much. Because I don't want to, btw.

In all other shows, movies, books, etc, every single bad person is at least somewhat 'ugly' according to the narrative. The 'problematic' characters rarely get acknowledged because there are so many good looking characters who are good themselves (I remember Annabelle from the first book of Percy Jackson, I think, and there were more ofc).

However, Rowling's main idea about appearances was that it was an illusion. Every single good looking character is either reprehensible or ends up dying (Cedric) in the same book they were introduced*. The story wants to be relatable to how every teen feels, and no matter what, we all have insecurities.

However, they're just teens, and on top of that, at least one or more of our main teens have done something terrible or badwrong (Hermione with skeeter and Marietta). So, they aren't exceptionally beautiful and neither are they exceptionally good. Even the side characters who are popular come across as jerks to some of their family members, making their sibling cry.

This creates a problem for the people who don't have a sense of self yet, or are so scarred they can only look at life through black & white lenses.

The Halo effect playing greatly onto the above, we're presented with another set of teens, two of whom are described as extremely sought after by the opposite sex, one of whom is popular, and the final one who has endeared himself by showing ugly Snivellus his place (via map and the Verbal Sparring). They all, by the end of this introduction, understand that Snivellus is badwrong and doesn't deserve anything good.

'It's clear he's the villain, and has been since forever, see, these people agree with me and they're the Protagonist's parents.' Whether this is believed because of the Halo effect or taking Harry's perspective to mean a God pov, I can't tell. The point being, they are even more convinced.

They want an escape from how difficult it is to sort out their feeling about these people the author keeps throwing at their face so why not attach to the characters who are dead or strongly attached to the protagonist (so they can never be badwrong in later books). A safety blanket of sorts, if you will. And in doing so, they completely ignore the nuances of the scenes presented in the last book. Because they are attached, they'd rather call badwrong Snivellus' love impure than explore what the montage of all his memories implied. That beauty is skin deep.

The thing about people who like such black and white scenarios and people is: they will always fall prey to the Halo Effect. And it's extremely painful to be disillusioned about your favourites. So they may never get disillusioned.

All this to say, sometimes I wonder why that part of the fandom is like 'that'. And it's just that this is the safety net in this series, or this is just how vanilla people outside of fandom coming in can take.

And that's fine (coz I'm crazy for the marauders era as well, just with a slightly wider taste pallet).

TL Dr: The antis are attracted to wholesome ships and since Rowling made it so difficult to find such ships until much later where you are emotionally connected with each character, the antis attached to a bunch of (mostly) dead people who, by association to the Hero of the story, being pretty, popular, and clear on their behaviour with the badwrong confusing character, are all good. They were desperately looking for the safety net in the books and found some. Also, since antis are the way they are, maybe they believe the fictional character being dead means people would not criticise their wholesome ship? Idk.

A/N:

*The only properly handsome man - Bill - barely gets mentioned, marries a beautiful woman, and imo the only reason he doesn't die is because he didn't revel in his handsomeness or popularity (him liking Snape in school is so cute + that disqualifies him from being popular with the antis since he likes the badwrong character). Also, he was literally scarred on his once handsome face to show that his wife actually loved him and didn't just choose him to have beautiful babies. Her being a veela and owning her Frenchness were already flaws (in the narrative's opinion) so all she needed was a scarred husband. Now, they both don't have to die 🤣.

#idk what to tag lol #this isn't about him so I won't tag him #not hp related #not really #at least a little #hp #anti anti #proship #proshipping #if you read the undertones of me telling you that your fav isn't that great #im sorry #sincerely #this is just a post on anti behaviour #and I don't actually believe the whole of that part of the fandom is like that #its just that #the most cencorship and shaming I've faced came from that part of the fandom #in which I don't engage but enjoy silently (via ao3) because I genuinely don't want to talk to yall #d r a m a #fandom analysis #yay bill and fleur lived because of Character 'flaws' #i love those dumb marauders btw #just in a different way #than him #fandom

[rylliejay]

Okay, do not take this as a negative. I really really enjoyed the movie. THAT said, i feel it could have been better, it could have been great.

So. Here's how I'd have edited Rebel Moon, if Zack Snyder had asked.

1) id have opened en media rez. Played like ten seconds of the scene from kora's flashback when she's charging across the dusty battlefield. She plants the flag. Hard cut to the silence of her plowing the field.

2) when the old man is asking her why she can't settle down, "i can't take a lover (buzz word) it means something different to me. I'm not made like that. -" im a child of war etc....

3) instead of kora telling Gunnar unprompted her entire life story, she mostly stops after describing her planets demise, saying the only reason she survived is because they took her to be a soldier

4) everything's the same except when Gunnar says he knows when the bloodaxes are hiding makes the scene when noble tortures the informant redundant. Either Gunnar doesn't tell the audience or some lackey comes up to noble and tells him "we've found where the bloodaxes are" we already know he's willing to torture, we already know where they are, the only thing this scene tells us is how the nail guns work. But we can figure that out on our own. It's a nail gun .

5) tarak's introduction left a lot to desire. The way everyone came in and started asking about everything, i feel since everyone else is talking about their damage it would have followed the im world logic for him to say something about "my only crime to the motherland is to exist. But their crime against me is great and worthy of retribution. Except I'm stuck here." Or some such. Idk i feel it was muddy

6) having kora tell Gunnar about the princess being hope personified was redundant since Jimmy and sam already had the same conversation. Idk what else she'd say here, but i feel it could be distinguished a bit more. Maybe since the OTHER scene that it's copying (other flashback) is shortened then that would help this one stand on it's own?

7) kai standing around evil monologuing to the trapped heroes and then IMMEDIATELY noble standing around evil monologuing to the trapped heroes is extremely redundant. Also, this is now a big reveal that kora was adopted by what's his face. The regent. Everyone turns to look upon her in mixes of horror and wonder.

8) the line "i never really liked the pilot" should have been said while walking past his body and kicking it or something. He was a major character who was killed. He should be treated like a main character. It literally only takes showing his body when that line is said and holding off the pan out by 2 seconds.

9) I'd also have Kora slowly go from saying "we need to save Gunner's home" to "we need to save my home" because i spent most of them movie thinking she'd completed her whole arc in the first however many minutes before she slaughtered the soldiers things protect sam. But she DOES have an arc, as shown by the lines "sometime something i want to live" talking to the old man vs. " It is (a good place to die)" at the end. That she wants to spend her whole life here until she dies. That she found something worth dying for. But she never takes about it . She should talk about it more. We should see it

PLEASE don't take this as me not liking the movie, if I didn't like it i wouldn't have cared enough to write this out. It was a BEAUTIFUL movie with interesting characters who i am excited to see more of. My list is under 10 points, that's pretty good. Can't wait for part 2 to come out!!

#rebel moon #zack snyder

[adultswim2021]

Robot Chicken #79: “Please Do Not Notify Our Contractors” | September 13, 2009 - 11:30PM | S04E18

I have to finish a Jeopardy board for my “online friends” game night tonight, so I’ll make this as brief as I can, which is usually not very. Four longish sketches for me to comment on! 

One is a parody of the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I think. I only saw that movie once ever in my entire life. I don’t think I like Indiana Jones, like, at all. Anyway: This is about the knight that is guarding the holy grail, and how he got along for all those years before Indiana Jones got there. It also explains why there were so many other grails there to confuse him; they were fast food cups from him ordering in. I don’t hate this premise, I just hate hearing Breckin Meyer doing a British accent. It just sounds like a high school drama student approximating Monty Python sketches to me. 

There’s a sketch where a father hides in his young son’s closet to prove to him that there’s no such thing as a bogeyman. It backfires, because he learns that his son is domming his teddy bear and now he’s trapped in there as to not confront this terrible truth. I’m not sure if I missed the full joke of this sketch; there were key phrases that seemed to suggest that the kid was playing out some role playing fantasy he has or reenacting a trauma from a previous living situation? He does say the teddy bear is adopted? Like, I’m honestly not sure if the joke is that the kid is planning to rape his adoptive father or something, I genuinely feel like i missed a key detail. NOT SPENDING MORE TIME ON THIS TO FIGURE IT OUT, SORRY.

There’s a very long sketch where it’s Beast from Beauty and the Beast on a dating reality show where he fucks and sucks various beauties of various backgrounds. Technically this is a new idea, I guess, but the tropes of reality shows have been fodder for comedy for so gosh darn long, and none of those jokes seem particularly inspired. The funniest joke in this is the running gag of the angry mob that keeps interrupting it, but then I remembered about January 6th and instantly got PTSD from it :( 

Okay; the best sketch of the night was Montage, about a superhero of sorts who helps people by showing up an enacting a montage. There’s been comedy about the montage trope for years, but the part where he does a montage to age up a house thief so that he becomes too frail to complete his crime is pretty inspired. And the ending was really good, where Montage’s nemesis End Credits man shows up, for both being a clever joke and also letting me know that the show was about to end. 

EPHEMERA CORNER:

The Office (UK) (September 19, 2009 - 12:00AM)

I recently watched a video where a British man defended the post-classic era of the Simposns. It only solidified my personal theory that as outsiders to American culture, British people are less likely to be able to discern the very clear difference between good and bad episodes of The Simpsons. But this is a two-way street, mostly resulting in Americans not realizing Ricky Gervais sucks until he became the most cartoonishly awful version of himself. 

Did I love The Office back then? Yes. I haven’t tried to watch it in full in probably 20 years or so, so I don’t know if it “holds up” (I mean that in the least obnoxious way possible). I only got into the American Office after exhausting rewatches of the British one, after being told how much better it got after it’s first season (of which I saw the first episode, a remake of the first British episode, and hated).

The Office airing on Adult Swim is one of my favorite bits of Adult Swim lore. Because it was promoted for weeks with Ricky Gervais being, for it’s time, funny and cheeky in promos. You got the impression he riffed them all out, letting his naturally-amusing arrogance drive them with inspired one-liners. The show’s odd runtime meant that Adult Swim had to air it in 45 minute time slots with extensively long introductions with Ricky Gervais talking about the episode for a few minutes before letting it play. 

The difference between the promos he cut and the intros, despite being the exact same camera setup, was stark. Ricky would pretentiously prattle on about how David Brent was (I used to do an impression of this and it made two people laugh really hard, so I consider it one of my greatest bit) “huuurrtiiing”, almost like we’d failed as an audience by this character buffoonish. Ricky was basically preparing us for watching a Ken Loach film, and not an above-average BBC Sitcom. It could very well be the first instance of me thinking “this dude seems like he sucks”. 

Surprisingly, these intros seem to be missing from the internet. I keep teasing the fact that some day I’ll dig out my DVD-Rs and try and find this stuff to post somewhere, but who knows at this point. I genuinely don’t know where they are and I have so much fucking shit I need to purge just to get to the pile that MIGHT contain them. But maybe some day. Enjoy the one promo I found, which doesn’t really illustrate what I’m talking about almost at all. Sorry.

MAIL BAG

The Boondocks pilot got leaked online archive DOT org/details/boondockspilot

Nice!

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #robot chicken #Youtube

[thessalian]

Thess vs The IMDB Game Again

As I may or may not have mentioned, I preordered Horizon: Forbidden West the minute it came up for pre-sale - the first time I've done that for a game since Dredge (and before that since ... I think Dragon Age 2, honestly). And then I thought: "Sylens. Lance Riddick. Oooooooooooh that's gonna hit different, given he passed not long after that..." So, at least in part to cheer myself up, I played the IMDB Game with Forbidden West. You know, "I've Heard That Voice Before", but with a restriction of "What have they been doing since HZD, if they were in HZD?". While doing that, I answered that question about a whole bunch of other bits of media that I hadn't run through the IMDB Game that comprehensively yet.

For instance, Erend - John Hopkins. ...Well, to avoid spoilers for a massively huge game, if you're playing BG3? Look up "Arnell Hallowleaf", because they don't really name the guy in any IC way and it's easy to miss any indication of it OOC because that's some fraught shit in the House of Grief. And if you really want irony, his first introduction to video game VA was "Sword Coast Legends", so hopefully his poor character got more of a look at the Sword Coast than poor Hallowleaf ever did...

Varl - John Macmillan. Those of you who watched The Sandman? That's the version of Morpheus Nala sees, when she sees him in hell. Was also in a couple of episodes of House of the Dragon as Ser Laenor Velaryon, if you're into that kind of thing.

Tilda Van der Meer? That's a new character. Let's see ... Carrie-Ann Moss?!? TRINITY? ......Wait. No, I'm sure I knew that Aria T'Loak was voiced by Trinity from the Matrix movies and just forgot. There is no way I would just not know that.

Kotallo - another new one. Hrm. Noshir Dalal ... Huh. That reminds me that I need to actually sit down and watch Candela Obscura. As it stands, I've probably heard him in Guild Wars 2 somewhere. (I really should log back into that...)

Regalla, another new one... Angela Bassett. Well. They got some names for the sequel, didn't they? Seriously, while she's Ramonda forever for some people, for me it's mostly everything she played in American Horror Story.

Erica Luttrell. I know that name. I know I know that-- Ah. Aura Lorelei. I'm sure it says something when she's done so much and I mostly recognise the name through Critical Role-- Huh. Wait. Various voices in Dragon Age: Origins!

Right, that's enough of that. Mostly because I should probably nip to the shops now, if I'm doing so, because a big dark cloud just kind of blotted out the nice partly-sunny day and I'd rather not walk out in the rain.

#Thess plays video games

[borbsbirbs]

GI: Actor AU... but they meet their actors

Part 2

TW: Nothing, but it's a long textpost so i'm still putting it under a read more

MASTERLIST

As "Lucas" stood up, Diluc drew his blade, anticipating him to step back in fear or shock, just not- wonder.

"Miki, look!" he chirped. "The actual Favonius Greatsword! Imagine doing Cori’s fight choreography with that." His eyes were practically glowing, light shining in his pupils.

"Alright, let's just- put the bigass sword down, thank you-" the Kaeya-clone muttered, brushing his bangs back, revealing a slight eyepatch tan. Despite the situation, Diluc held back a smirk.

Hesitantly, he lowered the blade.

Kaeya-copy clapped his hands, letting out a forced smile. Too obviously bothered, Diluc noticed. "Lovely, lovely, Introduction time! I'm Mikail, I play, well, obviously Kaeya in Genshin Impact and Lucas-"

"That's me!"

"Yes, Lucas, I know. Plays Diluc. Pretty obvious, by the hair colors." 

An uneasy silence fell between the three.

Diluc didn’t know what to think of the copies, as they whispered between themselves. 

As time crawled on, more people began to wake. 

"Impressive," Albedo murmured from beside him. "Versions of ourselves, almost perfectly visually identical."

A sigh echoed from the other side of the room, a girl who's facial structure resembled Albedo's, though her silver hair trailed far down her back. "I'm... Well, you can call me Cori," She said, shrugging on a perfect copy of Albedo's own jacket.

"So you are the Cori that they mentioned?" Diluc asked, recalling something about her ‘choreography.’

"Yes," She said, voice soft as she nodded. "It's not my name, but I kind of prefer it? I'm the Choreographer for the Genshin Impact Movie Fanproject... and somehow also the director, though that was mostly unintentional." Her hand brushed through her hair as she finally made proper eye contact with Albedo.

It was odd. It was definitely his face, but everything else was a bit off.

Her hair was unlike his own, long and flowing silver. Her voice was softer than his own, and had no birthmark. And yet, she seemed to reflect Albedo's form before him.

Another voice, familiar yet uncannily different as Sucrose sat straight up, glasses nowhere to be seen. Human ears were barely hidden by her hair as she glanced around, looking across the room. 

"Dammit, were we supposed to be filming again? I didn't think we were doing another Albedo related scene until..." She trailed off, eyes glancing around the room. "Huh." she muttered. "Cori, why're you half in costume and why is there an Albedo there? Didja find someone to play Subject Two?"

"Sucrose?" Albedo called out, unsure of himself. Not-Sucrose shrugged.

It was very clearly not the Sucrose that the Teyvatians knew as their own. She did not stutter, nor flinch, instead standing tall as she took initiative to speak.

"I mean kinda? I do play as Sucrose, but only in the Fanmovie. Hashtag-not-sponsored. Oh, I'm Honey. Ironic, right? I mean, sucrose is in honey, I think." 

Play.

A choreographer.

"I... see." Albedo muttered.

"So? What's your name, newbie?"

"I am Albedo-" he began, abruptly cut off by 'Honey'.

"Cori, you found someone named Albedo to play Albedo? Are you not going to be acting again?"

Acting.

Diluc glanced around his side of the room. Every vision holder he knew, from Barbara to that one bartender cat was there, but who would...

The leader of the Yun Opera House.

Miss Yun Jin would know. 

Gently, he stirred her awake, watching as her eyes slowly peeled open and took in the room around her.

"Where am I?"

"That's what we'd like to know," 'Mikail' replied. "One moment we're getting ready to film, next thing we're in a room with the very characters we play."

"How strange." Cori placed her hand on her chin, a perfect imitation of the pose Albedo does. 

"That was... Oddly satisfying." The Alchemist copied her pose. "Is that what I look like when I do that?"

Cori flinched slightly. "...heh, I guess I picked up that habit after doing it so many times..." She muttered. "But yes, Miss Yun Jin, we don't know where we are... though we do have a television here for some reason. And a gaming PC"

Tele Vision, Albedo noted. A strange compound word, what was a Tele anyway? More importantly, what did pee-sea mean?

Yun Jin's eyes widened, realizing exactly what 'Mikail' had said

The very characters we play.

#borbs actor au #genshin actor au #characters meet actors #genshin impact #genshin #if you're reading this #diluc genshin impact #diluc genshin #actor!diluc #borbs writes #actor!kaeya #kaeya genshin impact #albedo genshin impact #sucrose genshin impact #actor!sucrose #actor!albedo #yun jin genshin impact #actor!yun jin #modern au #techinically? #genshin modern au #not really but almost

[twinhood-2dot0]

A Shallow Dive Into: Batman’s Rogues Gallery

­­­­I’ve introduced you to the Batfam, but an even more crucial a part of the Batman mythos is his Rogues Gallery, since the villain makes the hero, and all. Despite being mostly just troubled human beings, they’re one of the most varied and the most famous groups of villains. Some of them also represent some part of Batman’s psyche, which will be the ones I’ll get into first.

Joker

Joker is so prominent, there are as many theatrical versions of Joker as there are Batman’s in this century. Count ‘em, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (unarguably the best), Jared Leto in the DCEU (Worst one ever. Not gonna miss him in the new DC Universe.), Joaquin Phoenix in the eponymous movie, wait wait wait, are there actually more Jokers??? There’s also the cameo in The Batman played by Barry Keoghan! Okay, did not expect that. So, it’s 4 Jokers to 3 Batmen. Interesting. He’s also in all 4 Arkham games, so much that fans were jumping with joy when they thought he wasn’t going to be there in the 3rd and 4th games. Welp, even if he was overused, they probably had one of the best usage of the character in those games, and, I mean, can you really complain when Mark Hamill is voicing him?

Anyways, The Joker, in most versions, was a member of the Red Hood Gang (you might recognise that name. Yes, Jason Todd named himself after a previous identity of his killer.) who fell into a vat of acid (by Batman himself, most times). The acid bleached his face, and turned his hair green, and- in some versions- psychologically scarred him enough to turn him into the Joker. Do I really need to introduce Joker? Well, even so, kinda ruins the point of this post if I don’t. Joker is a psychopathic, possibly insane, supervillain with a sadistic sense of humour who has smarts that rival Batman’s and dedicated himself to ruining Batman’s life and hopefully breaking him psychologically. Most of his weapons include deadly prank objects or playing cards related stuff. His calling card is the Joker, the playing card version. The Joker famously said in Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke” “If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”. The Joker holds the belief that all it takes is One Bad Day™ to turn into what he did, and that is what he tries to do to Jim Gordon in the aforementioned graphic novel. This is the aspect of Batman that he embodies. They both had One Bad Day™ but became the polar opposites of each other.

Riddler

A much less prominent character in theatrical releases, but probably one of the best in the comics. I think the terrible Jim Carrey version in the equally terrible Batman Forever had something to do with that. The Riddler, aka Edward Nashton/Nygma depending on the story, (although I prefer Nygma, because, well, E.Nygma) is another criminal mastermind, but he is obsessed with proving that he is smarter, sorry, “intellectually superior” to Batman. “[Nigma] exhibits personality disorders consistent with a fanatic narcissist, egocentrism, and megalomania crossed with severe obsessive compulsion". – Batman in Arkham Knight replying to Catwoman asking “What’s Eddie’s problem?”. Riddler has figured out Batman’s identity once, although with the help of a Lazarus pit. How did Batman not get exposed? Check this out. I think that’s a great way to characterise Riddler with just one page.

A lot of Riddler stories tend to make him a little goofy, so I loved Matt Reeves’ take on him in The Batman and also his stories since the New 52. In the movie, he’s an orphan who was left to suffer due to the corruption in Gotham politics so he commits, well, political killings to fight corruption. I think Riddler was the perfect villain for the movie, as it’s an introduction to a new Batman and his psyche. This villain represents Batman’s intelligence.

Two-Face

Harvey Dent was a district attorney who was an ally in the court for Batman and Jim Gordon. Harvey was the White Knight, supposed to save the city from crime and corruption buuuuut one of Salvatore Maroni’s men splashed acid on his face during a trial, permanently disfiguring half of his face, and breaking him, leading to him developing a split personality, insanity, and an obsession with duality. Two Faces, dual pistols, two sides of a coin. He’s obsessed with flipping his once double-headed coin with a disfigured side to make decisions. You betrayed him? Heads you die, tails you go free. Also look at this detail from Arkham City.

His courthouse has two sides, one well-kept and the other trashed, just like him.

Scarecrow

Co-antagonist of Batman Begins and Arkham Knight. Damn, poor guy, always has to share the spotlight. At least his arc in Arkham Knight was decent enough. Jonathan Crane is a brilliant psychologist, obsessed with fear, and develops a toxin called the uh Fear Toxin. It makes inhalers hallucinate their greatest fears (or not, sometimes it’s just a disturbing warping of the environment, like seen in Batman Begins). Scarecrow doesn’t have much of a niche beyond making Batman face his fears, sadly, I think he’s a pretty awesome villain. Yeesh, he has a crap ton of origin stories, and with the speed DC seems to be creating relaunches, I don’t know if anything I say will be relevant for long. I just started reading Rebirth after finishing the important Post-Crisis storylines and they did like 3 more relaunches after that ;-;. Scarecrow represents the fear aspect of Batman. As Batman famously said, “Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot”, so he dresses up as a bat to strike fear into criminals.

Okay, that’s a few of the famous ones. Batman’s has a huge gallery of rogues and a lot of important ones that I failed to cover here, like the Al Ghul family, so I might have to create a second, and maybe a third part. Hope your journey into the DC Universe, if you do decide to partake (which you probably won't because you're such a busybody over-achiever :P so these might all just be boring and a waste of time) won’t be as daunting because of all these posts.

#batman #dc comics #a shallow dive into #arkham asylum #joker #the riddler #scarecrow

[h-worksrambles]

Where to start with Sonic the Hedgehog

With the Sonic Movie 2 proving so successful, and two new game releases on the way, there’s likely to be a lot of new people getting into the Sonic fandom for the first time. So, because I’m in the mood to write about Sonic, I decided to give my suggestions for which games to get into the series with. This will go over why I like these games and would recommend them, which one is a better gateway depending on your taste, and what platforms you can/should play them on (I know console limitations mean not everyone has a luxury of choice, but it’s worth comparing versions to give people the best chance to enjoy the series). I’m mostly going to stick to 3 recommendations but I’ll mention a few others. My logic for which games make the best start is based around: -Which ones have good platform availability and are easy to get a hold of. -Which ones I think are just genuinely good games that I don’t have to recommend with an asterisk. -Which games aren’t too hard and have a beginner friendly learning curve. I’m also sticking to the games because it’s the part of the series I know the most about. If you want to start with one of the TV shows or comics, by all means do so. They each have aspects to enjoy. Go with whatever looks good to you. These are just my suggestions. 1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Why start here?

You absolutely could start with the 1991 original if you wanted to. But for my money, the sequel from 1992 is a stronger game on most counts, and is just as good, if not better as an introduction. This was the game that introduced Sonic’s best friend and kid-brother figure, Tails, who joins Sonic in most of battles against Dr. Eggman going forward. The two set out to rescue the many animals Eggman has transformed into robots, and prevent him from launching his copyright-violating space station, the Death Egg.

This game game basically takes all the foundations the first game laid down and amplifies them. There’s more levels and they’re all more fast paced, consistently solid and not too hard (except maybe the last one, yeesh). This game also establishes how the Chaos Emeralds will work in all the games going forward, with a downright iconic reward if you put the work in. 2 is still a blast to come back to. If you like 2D platformers and want to see the series’ early roots of popularity, 2 is a great place to start. It’s not as overwhelming as 3 to a newbie but less primitive than 1. Where to play it? Andoid, iOS or all current consoles (from June 23rd) You can play Sonic 2 on Android, iOS or Switch. It used to be on PC but was delisted very recently. It will be back on PC, as well as Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X and their last gen counterparts as part of the Sonic Origins collection on June 23rd. If you’re working with older systems, you can also find it on the 3DS eShop as well as the Sonic Mega Collection on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube. And there’s even more than that. There’s a ton of different ways to play it but for my money, the Android and iOS (with a controller if you have Bluetooth) is a pretty good way to get the most out of it. It has widescreen, extra features, even Knuckles is playable. This version is going to be the basis of Origins’s release, so that may welll become the new best way. Otherwise, go with the mobile version. More like this? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Mania, Sonic Advance As for where to go from here, the Sonic Origins collection will also feature Sonic 1, CD and 3, all of which I would highly encourage you to check out if you enjoy this one. Especially Sonic & 3 Knuckles, the best of the classic games as far as I’m concerned. There’s also Sonic Mania, an anniversary game which serves as a spiritual succcessor to the 2D classics, on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC. It’s a fantastic game in its own right, but check it out once you’ve tried the classics and you’ll get even more mileage out of it once you see what a love letter to the rest of the series it is. You may also consider the Sonic Advance and Rush games on GBA and DS respectively, which build on this game’s 2D platforming routes with more characters and new mechanics. This game is still a key part of the entire franchise’s DNA and I still love it to death. 2. Sonic Adventure

Why start here?

Sonic’s first full 3D outing from 1998 is another fine place to jump onboard. Play as 6 characters, each with their own short campaign, as part of a wider story to save Station Square from Dr. Eggman, as he unleashes an ancient, mysterious monster known as Chaos. A lot of modern fandom culture tends to be very centred around characters more than anything, especially here on Tumblr. If that’s where your interest in the series lies, I would especially suggest starting here. After making the jump to 3D, the series shifted from simple but subtle envoronmental storytelling to more involved stories with fully voiced cutscenes. This game will get you familliar with several of the staples of Sonic’s cast, not just Sonic, Tails and Eggman, but also Sonic’s friendly rival Knuckles the Echidna and his self proclaimed girlfriend, Amy Rose. Combined with how it digs into the backstory of the Chaos Emeralds, this is a great entry point to the world of Sonic. This is also the game that brought Sonic’s gameplay into full 3D for the first time, and overall it does a pretty impressive job. Sonic is fast and nimble, and there’s a lot of fun to be had dashing through the levels or flinging yourself across them with his signature spindashes. However, you also get explorable hub worlds, a pet simulator side quest, and five playable characters other than Sonic with their own abilities and gameplay styles, from treasure hunting in sandbox levels, a puzzle platformer with slight stealth or even a linear run-and-gun. This game is certainly one of the more robust entries as far as content goes, but its everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach may not be the best starting point for everyone. Its camera, controls and cutscenes do have a degree of the jank of early 3D gaming, and while it’s certainly a bigger package than Sonic 2, I don’t know of it’s quite as polished. Still, if you appreciate variety in your games and you’ve played enough popular games from the late 90s/early 2000s to get used to some of the quirks of early 3D platformers, there’s a lot to love here. Where to play it? PC with mods, or PS3/Xbox 360 As for how to play it, your main modern(ish) options are PC, PS3, or Xbox 360. There’s also a Gamecube port known as Sonic Adventure DX and of course, the Dreamcast original. It’s worth noting that ports of Adventure are extremely controversial, often criticised for bugs and visual downgrades the original didn’t have. The PS3 and 360 versions can get the job done if you have no other options, but if you have the means, I’d suggest the PC version. It has a very active modding community and an easy to install mod loader that not only reformats the game to be more like the Dreamcast original, but also adds tons of quality of life additions the original didn’t have. It’s probably the closest to an Origins style remaster Adventure is going to get for a while. It’s also thankfully not super demanding to run. Most recent PCs and even laptops should run it without too many problems.   More like this? Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Advance If you like Adventure, I recommend going directly onto its sequel Sonic Adventure 2, which is on all the same platforms, (again, go with PC if you can) builds on and streamlines the general structure and gameplay styles of Adventure 1, brings back several of the same characters (plus some new ones) and is even more story and cutscene-heavy than the first. If you have any sixth gen consoles, (i.e. PS2, Xbox or Gamecube) Sonic Heroes, while a tad more unorthodox, has many of the same building blocks as the Adventure games and many of its characters return there. The Gamecube version of Heroes is considered to be the most solid while the PS2 is much more poorly optimised. And, while I already recommended them in the earlier section, the Advance games takes the characters as they look and sound in the Adventure games into gameplay more reminiscent of the series’ roots. If Sonic 2 will sell you on the rock solid fundamentals of the series both visually and mechanically, Adventure will get you used to mood and feel of Sonic. With its varied gameplay, focus on a large cast of characters, and slicker, almost anime-esque aesthetic, and a fantastic pounding soundtrack by Jun Senoue, Adventure is a great summary of what to expect from Sonic. It may not be quite as easy to jump on board with as the classics in my opinion, but its still a worthy entry point. 3. Sonic Colors

Why start here?

Released for the Wii in 2010, this game sees Sonic and Tails travelling to ‘Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park’, a theme park in space the scientist is using as a front while he captures and exploits alien beings called Wisps. It’s nowhere near as story and character heavy as Adventure, but much like Sonic 2, this is a nice introduction to the core staples of the series: Sonic and Tails’ friendship, their rivalry with Eggman, and the light theming about saving the environment from an evil scientist (albeit with a sci-fi twist). Sonic has been around for a long time, and has experimented with a lot of different styles, especially after its jump to 3D. Sonic Adventure is a great series introduction, but it’s not quite representative of how the games play today. Colors meanwhile, is a great window into the series’ modern identity. The game plays like a hybrid of platformer and racing game. Sonic alternates between 2.5D sidescrolling platformer sections and more open 3D ones. You still run and jump your way to the goal, but he can also now increase his speed with a chargable boost, or drift around tight corners. When you finish a level, you recieve a rank based on your clear time and score, and you’re encouraged to replay levels looking for secrets and shortcuts to help get the best rank possible. Colors also spices this up with the introduction of the Wisps. Sonic can find these alien creaturesin the levels and harness their abilities for a variety of power ups. These not only look awesome, but are crucial to find the shortcuts you’ll need to get the best paths. In part thanks to this, Colors isn’t quite as fast paced as some of the other games in the series. It’s still a game about going fast at its core, but the game puts a lot more emphasis on platforming, score chasing, and using Sonic’s new abilities to find secrets. As such, it may not be the best starting point if you’re here for that ‘gotta go fast’ spectacle. Fortunately, the fact that it plays a little more like a traditional platformer than something like Sonic Unleashed, helps make it less overwhelming and more welcoming to newcomers. And the loop of chasing those elusive S Ranks feels really satisfying once you get into it. Colors is a compact, polished and very replayable title with plenty of charm. If you’re not really an old school gamer and want to start somewhere a little less retro, this is a great place to get acclimated to modern Sonic gameplay. Where to play it? Wii, DS or all current consoles MAYBE Sonic Colors first came out on Wii, and that’s probably the best place to go if you want to experience it as originaly intended. I would also absolutely suggest trying the version on DS if you can. This was made by a different studio, and is strictly a 2D platformer as a successor to the Sonic Rush games. While I myself haven’t had the chance to play it, I certainly love Rush and I’ve actually seen quite a few fans say they prefer this version to the Wii version. So by all means go for it. That said, the Wii version is pretty old now and you may be eyeing Sonic Colors Ultimate, the remaster from 2021 which is on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC. The thing is, much like Sonic Adventure DX, this remaster is...divisive. Not only have the changes to the visuals and music been a point of contention with fans, but it launched in a very buggy state, especially on Switch. It has thankfully been patched since, and if modern systems are your only bet, it should get the job done, though I’d still avoid the Switch version if you can help with it. The remaster will do, but I’d say go for the two original releases if you can.

More like this? Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, Sonic Rush If you like Colors, then I would definitely suggest seeking out the other mainline games Sonic Team released in this timeframe with similar gameplay, or the ‘Boost games’ as fans tend to call them. Specifically, I’d point you to Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations. Both of these were released on PS3 and Xbox 360. These console versions are servicable, but Generations has a PC release which can be up-rezzed visually and has an absolutely gigantic modding community. Unleashed meanwhile, has backwards compatibility on modern Xbox consoles which improves the already impressive visuals and (much less impressive) framerate drastically. These games are even more fast paced than Colors and experiment with other gameplay styles a little like Adventure, which may make them slightly less welcoming at first. But once you get your feet wet with Colors, I’d say these two are just as good, if not better. If that high-speed boost gameplay appeals to you, and especially if you liked the DS version, then Sonic Rush and its sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure, the games that inspired the mainline series Boost gameplay, are excellent titles as well. And while Sonic Frontiers looks drastically different, its core essentials (at least control wise) seem to retain a lot of the Boost games’ DNA. In its day, Colors was, alongside Unleashed and Generations, something of a rennaissance for Sonic, and whether you’re looking to keep up-to-date with the latest entries on the series, or go back and explore the roots, Colors will get you on board very handily. And those are all three of my suggestions for where to start with the Sonic series, at least in terms of games. Sonic has been so many things at this point, and in doing so, he’s gained no shortage of fans. In many ways, these three indicate just some of the ideas and styles these games have experimented, and I’ve suggested some contemporaries for each of them. But don’t feel the need to restrict yourself. Just because you started with 2, don’t feel you have to restrict yourself to the classics. Nor should you feel confined to the modern games if you choose to start with Colors. Use this guide to get your foot in the door with the series, but once you’re in, go wild! Pick up whatever games look cool to you. Look for which games feature your favourite characters. Dive in and have a blast. Sonic is a series that has and does mean a lot to me, and right now, the series is in a pretty good place, with the potential to bring in lots of new faces. And if this guide is at least a little useful to any of those newcomers as they venture into a series I love so much, I couldn’t ask for more than that.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic 2 #sonic adventure #sonic colors #sonic origins #sonic frontiers #beginners guide #welcome to the fandom