#i want to see a war movie that's set within that world

[madschiavelique]

I want more thoughts pleaseeee 🙏

okidoki so this ask refers this one right here which itself refers to this one right here. this au appeared in my mind while rewatching the movie Troy with Brad Pitt where I thought "huh Miguel as the Achilles in this movie and reader as Briseis would be delicious".

And then it all clicked in my mind.

SO, let's get started on what has been cooking in my mind for the last 3 hours : a soldier!miguel o'hara x slave(?)!reader enemies to lovers

content warnings : mentions of war, blood, killings, fire

Let's picture this in a sort of ancient greek setting, where a king (kinda Agamemnon) wants to govern over the entire country - and then world - which leads him to engendering many, many wars. In this army, his most fierce and strong fighter is Miguel O'Hara. He is bigger than any man, stronger, doesn't care if the work is messy, and has a profound rage within him.

Because you see, before turning into the killing machine he now is, he used to be happy and live a life of peace. When he was away to hunt to bring back food in the family, he came back to his village completely destroyed and burnt. And when he arrived to his home, completely dilapidated and still smoking, he found the two dead bodies of his daughter and his wife.

He turned around, finding the flag of a kingdom, which instantly turned into his enemy. He went to his king, offered his services to him, and got enrolled, because he knew his king was seaking a union in all kingdoms, which meant for that in (his king's point of view at least) to spread terror. He learned fast to fight, to a point where it was frightening, the other soldiers wondering if he hadn't been touched by the gods themselves for him to have every asset of a great fighter multiplicated by 3.

He went on many battles afterwards, every bit of hate his body accumulated over time descending on his opponents like a pure red fury with no regret in the rage it was indulging. Of course, his rank in simple soldier upgraded. Many respected him, or maybe feared him - who knows, the line between these two is unclear afterall.

It doesn't take long until the king considers him as his most valuable asset, like the strongest card in a game, the equivalent of a joker = all powerful.

Few years pass, and the King decides it is time to attack the kingdom in which you live.

You are an adept in your city's temple, honouring aphrodite. You're pure, graced by the beauty of gentleness, of altruism, and you're loved by each and everyone around you. You were living a peaceful life in your faith for the Gods.

But it all came crashing down.

The city's bells had rung, in the most frightening way : an attack. You had heard of the many wars the king was creating, and in hopes for it never to come up here, you immediately rushed to your temple, praying for your goddess to help you.

But the temple was attacked, many soldiers entering it and wrecking anything in their way. They took some adepts, both males and females, and brought them to the king.

Miguel was outside as you were taken from the temple, his rage glowing in his eyes like the most dangerous fire you had ever seen. He was all covered in blood, his sword piercing the skin of his adversaries as if it was butter. Your eyes made a contact, yours full of tears and fear, his overflowing with dark wrath.

Your were taken to the king's tent, him observing each and everyone of you. The men who could still wield a sword were proposed to join the army, the one who refused died as well as the old ones with trembling hands. The women were not even asked anything, they instantly became slaves.

But you, when the king passed you... oh you had something, a beauty gifted by aphrodite himself would he say, so he kept you by his side. The sounds of swords ringing against each other in the distance stopped, but the dry smell of burnt was still present in your nose as the battle came to an end.

The generals and soldiers and all these violent people came back, among them Miguel. His gaze was... certainly different from the one he had in the city. He was impassive, just waiting for what the king would say.

You were still by his sides, and he pointed to you, saying that Miguel O'Hara, his greatest fighter, after so many years of good services, deserved to have for himself such a beauty like you.

Miguel looked at you, from head to toe, his gaze not revealing anything of his thoughts. He just accepted the gift his good king gave him.

He doesn't have time to fall in love again, nor the heart for it, he thinks. You're brought to his tent, absolutely frightened. This man is the biggest most muscular and violent being you've ever seen, and knowing what he looks like when killing people doesn't help at all in finding calm in yourself.

The night is already here when you enter his tent. The soldiers leave, tying you to the the central pole of the tent. He starts to undress himself, and you look away, your eyes only witnessing the many scars travelling his body. He splashes himself of water, removing the blood from his skin before looking back at you. You're silent, and immobile.

Docile, he thinks. He knees to your level.

"Got a name ?"

No response from you. He sighs, he's too tired to seek after you. It bothers him however that you're bound, so he unties your wrists.

"Don't escape."

You rub your wrists, looking up, still not saying a word. He goes to his bed, and just collapses on it. The battle was rough, and he's too tired to do anything.

That's when you try and think of an escape plan. An idea comes to your mind - first, kill him, second, run. Maybe killing him would be a waste of time, but you need to clean a bit of the names he killed by doing so. Lucky you, you're in the tent of a soldier, which means there's a good choice in weapon.

Your eyes catch the glint of a knife, and you grab it silently. Then, you approach, getting on the bed, crawling over him until finally, you place the knife right under his chin.

His eyes pop open, but they show no sign of surprise. He knew, he kew you would attempt such a stupid thing.

"Pointy thing you've got here, careful or you might cut yourself." he jokes. "Come on," he almost leans in the blade to get closer to your face, "just do it."

"Aren't you afraid ?" you ask, his calmness making your confidence crumble.

"Everybody dies in the end," he smiles, "so come on, do it."

But you never killed anyone before, and even now when you have all the advantage, you can't manage to actually push the blade or slide it. How does men like him make it look so easy ?

He takes your confusion as an opportunity to turn you over so that you're under him with your knife still placed under his chin.

"Didn't think you'd be this stupid to try something like that on me," he says, his brows furrowing and his lips stretching in a sneer.

"Didn't hink you could align a full sentence," you reply.

it's true that Miguel didn't seem like a chatty person, because he avoided it. Other soldiers said that him speaking was a waste of his energy, but he would say it'd be a waste of time.

His sneer streches wider.

"You seem less boring than I thought."

He takes the knife in your hand with great ease, and just collapses once again but onto you, his entire weight making it impossible for you to move away.

"You can't leave anyway, there are guards outside of the tent." he mumbles into your neck, inhaling your sweet smell.

You smell like peace.

AND I COULD WRITE SO MUCH MORE ON THIS BECAUSE I HAVE OTHER BLURBOS IN MIND BUT I WANT TO KEEP SOME OF THE REST AS A SURPRISE WHEN I'LL WRITE IT HEHEHEHEHE

but also, if y'all really want me to write this, you gotta hype me up for it cuz i gotta find that motivation sdfgfdbgrzer

#mads' asks ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎ #mads' thoughts ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎ #miguel o’hara x reader #miguel o'hara x you #miguel o'hara x y/n #miguel o'hara smut #miguel o'hara imagine #miguel o'hara across the spiderverse #miguel ohara x reader #miguel ohara x you #miguel ohara x y/n #miguel ohara smut #miguel ohara imagine #miguel ohara #miguel o'hara #miguel x reader #miguel x you #miguel x y/n #atsv miguel #miguel atsv #miguel spiderman #spiderman 2099 #atsv #atsv x reader #atsv smut

[hooked-on-elvis]

ELVIS interviewed during filming of 'Change of Habit'

— AMONG OTHER THINGS, YOU'LL LEARN ABOUT HOW ELVIS DID SOME IMPROVISATION IN HIS LINES FOR THE MOVIES AND HOW SELF CONSCIOUS HE WAS ABOUT HIS OWN FILMS

Filmed on location in the Los Angeles area and at Universal Studios during March and April 1969, Change of Habit was released in the United States on November 10, 1969.

Elvis Presley On Set: You Won’t ask Elvis Anything Too Deep?

Elvis talks, but he doesn't say much

BY WILLIAM OTTERBURN-HALL HOLLYWOOD – The notice outside the big grey double-doors was simple and to the point. SET CLOSED, ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE. You find notices like this outside a lot of film studios, and they tend to have a certain elasticity. This one, outside what looked like an aircraft hangar but was actually Stage D at Universal Studios, meant it. Inside, Elvis Presley was filming. And where Elvis goes, the barriers go up as if some sinister germ warfare experiment were being carried on within. Like a suckling infant, he is swathed and coddled against the realities of the world outside, as if he were made of rare porcelain rather than hewn from good old-fashioned Tennessee stock. But this day he was on show. I had been given the magic formula. The secret open-sesame known only by its brand name of “Colonel Parker’s Okay” had been handed me. The doors swung wide, and I was in. They say Colonel Parker is the man who built Elvis from the erotic gyrating days of the swiveling Pelvis through 14 long and fruitful summers to his present status, by pushing and pulling his protege through the tricky cross-currents of pop music taste. I wouldn’t know. I had asked to see him, this onetime Texas fairground barker, to thank him for the green light. But he was always somewhere else. In his office at Universal, over at Metro, down in Palm Springs, in Las Vegas to lay the trail for the next live show... always somewhere else. No matter. Who needed Colonel Parker when Elvis himself was alive and well and filming? The Publicity Man who escorted me as close as if he were handcuffed said proudly: “I’d like to work with him again, he’s so sweet and uncomplicated. I was surprised you got through – no one’s talked to him yet, you know. There must have been a good breeze blowing.” The good breeze continued to blow as far as the set. A mauve-walled pad with kitchen adjacent and a king-size bed visible through half-drawn yellow curtains. Elvis sat at a table, staring at his hands, while three mini-skirted girls, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara McNair and Jane Elliott, scurried around with trays of food.

L-R: Mary Tyler Moore, Jane Elliott and Barbara McNair.

The film is about three nuns who pose as nurses to “identify with the people” in a Negro ghetto in New York. The title is Change of Habit (yes, it is) and stars Elvis as a medic who falls for one of the nuns. Elvis is wearing a paint-stained blue denim shirt and tight blue jeans. He looks relaxed and affable and rather meatier around the jaw-line than one remembers from previous films. Marriage (back in May 1967 to Priscilla Beaulieu) is obviously agreeing with him. His eyes have that smoky slow-burn of the old-time movie vamp. He seizes a guitar and strums a few chords. It’s the last week of shooting, and like the good days between exams and the end of term.

The atmosphere on the set is hip and loose, full of leather-clad youth and clever in-talk. The director is thin and intense, wears a check shirt and gym shoes, and is called Billy Graham, which is going to look interesting on the posters of a swinging nun. Elvis produces some dialogue. He is never likely to win an award as an actor, but he knows what the kids want and he gives it to them. The girls are talking about a party. The cameras turn. Elvis says: “You get a lot of people down here on a Saturday night, and all the old hates come out. Before you know it they’re bombed out of their skulls and you’ve got World War III on your hands.”

The scene is this one below. NO, it was not cut out during the editing of this movie.

Earth-quaking stuff. But this simple homespun philosophy is off-key. “Bombed out of their skulls” wasn’t in the script. And the director isn’t too happy about it. “It’s a good line,” says Elvis. “Okay, okay,” says Billy Graham. The line stays. Maybe it will come out in the cutting room, but it’s there for now. “The whole thing is downhill,” says a technician. “He don’t talk to anyone, except his own friends.” There is no sign of tension, but then Elvis has nothing to be tense about. He can go on churning out the same thing for another decade, and they’ll still queue to see it. If he’s over the top, as some unkindly souls occasionally try to make out, he doesn’t seem bothered. He is 34 . . . Raised in Memphis . . . Once a truck-driver, stumbled into records, took the world by storm as the original snake-hips . . . Now lives in cloistered seclusion in a colonial mansion near Nashville, with a Rolls, a solid gold Cadillac, a wife, a daughter (Lisa Marie, aged one) and several bodyguards for company . . . Has made 29 films, grossing 220 million dollars at the box office, and sold more than 200 million records.

Elvis Presley and director William A. Graham on the set of Change Of Habit (Universal 1969) between takes.

Elvis heads for his trailer in the far corner. A group of friends (known in some quarters as the Memphis Mafia) close around him like a football scrum after a loose ball. The code-word is given. I am beckoned over. The good breeze was still blowing. “You won’t probe too deep, will you?” The Publicity Man asks anxiously. “This is just an informal chat, that’s the deal. So keep it light and airy, okay?” Well . . . okay. I checked my notes. Does Elvis fly high on acid trips? Does he see himself as a prophet for the new generation? Does he think his style is too square? Does he have any sexual hang-ups? His marriage altered his attitude to life in any way? Does he kick his cat? Does he have a cat to kick? What are his views on pop, religion, hippies, demonstrators, Vietnam? Stuff like that. No, I wasn’t going to probe too deep. In the dressing room Elvis shakes hands in a firm grip. “This is Charlie, this is Doc.” Two small, burly men light leather jackets and open-neck shirts rise and shine briefly and subside again. The trailer feels a bit crowded.

Elvis Presley on the set of Change Of Habit (Universal 1969). Mary Tyler Moore, Elvis and director William A. Graham share a joke between takes.

Elvis talks. He speaks slowly and carefully, and puts a lot of space between his words. “The film? Uh, well . . . it’s a change of pace for me, yeah. It’s more serious than my usual movies, but it don’t mean I’m aiming for a big dramatic acting scene, no sir. The way I’m headed, I want to try something different now, but not too different. I did this film because the script was good, and I guess I know by now what the public goes for." “Most of the scripts that come my way are all the same. They’ve all got a load of songs in them, but I just did a Western called 'Charro', which hasn’t any songs ‘cepting the title tune. It did have a couple of nude scenes, but they’ve been cut. Anyhow, can you imagine a dramatic Western where the hero breaks out into song all the time?” He has said plenty, and now he leaps to his feet, hands flashing to imaginary holsters, and sings in a deep drawl: “Go for your guns . . . you’ve got ’til sundown to get outa town . . . ” It could be the start of a promising sketch. The others follow suit, singing, clowning, all on their feet. If this is the Memphis Mafia, they’re a friendly bunch.

Elvis on set of 'Change of Habit' (Universal 1969) talking to fans.

Elvis sits down, and everyone stops singing. He eyes himself in the dressing room mirror. “I don’t plan too far ahead, but I’m real busy for a while now. I’ve got a date in Vegas, and maybe another film after that. Then I’m going to try to get to Europe, because I’ve always promised I would and I’ve got some good, faithful fans over there.” Slow-talking Elvis may be. But he certainly isn’t the slow-witted hick from the backwoods his detractors make out. If he is, then he’s a better actor than they give him credit for. Get through to him, and you find a pleasant, honest, not-too-articulate hometown boy who has been protected for his own good from the hysterical periphery of his present world. The party was warming up. Elvis cracked a gag. Charlie cracked a gag. There was a call from the door. Elvis was wanted, and the good breeze was still blowing as he made for the set, one hand on my shoulder. Charlie and Doc were all smiles.

Elvis and his manager, Colonel Parker, on set of 'Change of Habit' (Universal 1969).

“Okay?” said the P.M. “You did real fine.” "Well . . . not quite." I said. "This Colonel Parker, would he be around for a word later?" Elvis stopped in his tracks. The P.M. went a whiter shade of pale, and whispered something to a friend. The friend nodded in sympathy. “I must tell you about an experience I had like that once,” he said, eyeing me as if I’d just crawled out of the woodwork. Elvis said: “I think he’s in Palm Springs. I’m not sure...” He hurried off. The P.M. said: “Don’t let’s push our luck any more. We never trouble him for too long a time. You should be very happy. You had more than anyone’s had in years.” Somewhere along the line, unaccountably, the good breeze had dropped. This story is from the July 12th, 1969 issue of Rolling Stone.

Source: www.rollingstone.com

#elvis presley #elvis movies #change of habit #mary tyler moore #barbara mcnair #jane elliott #1969 #60s movies #1969 movies #elvis articles #elvis interview #rolling stone magazine #vintage articles #vintage magazine

[queen-breha-organa]

I wanted to briefly come back online and discuss the WGA and, in turn, the current writer's strike.

I know my opinion matters very little, and I don’t consider myself an expert or a valuable voice in this matter. However, since I talk about Star Wars a lot, I wanted to discuss the strike because these things go hand in hand. I think it’s unfair to ignore the real-world circumstances that shape the media you enjoy. Knowing the context of something is important. And beyond that, this situation has just been on my mind, and I wanted to express my thoughts somewhere. 

Firstly, all workers should be paid living wages. All workers deserve to be treated fairly and compensated fairly. All workers deserve safe, productive, and fair working environments—end of story.

I’ve been seeing a lot of jokes along the lines of “I didn’t even know media had writers these days,” and while I understand the joke and the potential humor in it, I feel like it’s important to realize that this is entirely why the WGA is striking in the first place.

The writer’s rooms are shrinking. Writers are being overworked. Writers are being underpaid. Writers are being dismissed and undercut. These factors lead to poorly written and poorly managed shows because the individuals who write the bones of the shows are exhausted and burdened by corporate interference, unreasonable deadlines (especially in animation), unfair wages, and stale corporate agendas.

Additionally, these writers often aren’t given the opportunity to oversee or manage their writing while it’s being filmed. Instead, companies are acting as if the writing process ends before the filming process so that they can shorten the writer's contracts and pay them less. However, in actuality, the writing process is often most valuable during the filming process. 

Some things work on paper but don’t work on the day. Maybe the joke doesn’t land, or an actor can’t deliver the line as intended. Writers are needed on set to rework and revise these lines, so the process can run smoother without sacrificing story and believability. Now some actors are incredible at improvising and can make these things work. However, overall, without writers on set, you usually end up with awkward/stiff dialogue or scenes that make no sense. Writing doesn’t stop in the writers' room.

Another massive force driving this strike is the evolution of streaming services. 

With “traditional” tv reruns, the network airing the media has to purchase the viewing rights of the episode or the show. This money is then extended to the people who worked on the show in the form of residuals. It makes sense. Something you worked on makes money, so in turn, you get money. 

However, streaming services have broken this mold by allowing consumers to watch whatever media whenever they want. Streaming services claim that it is no longer possible to pay residuals for these shows since they don’t know how often or when the shows are being watched. This is a lie.

Companies will brag privately in shareholder's meetings and publicly in articles about streaming shows that have done well. We’ll read headlines like “Stranger Things’ Was Most-Streamed TV Show in 2022” or “‘Star Wars’ vs. Marvel: Which Disney+ Shows Are Most-Viewed.” These articles and the data within them prove it is possible to know how frequently shows/movies are being watched on streaming services. Still, companies are only willing to shell out this information for bragging rights and not for fair payments.

In 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapk earned $32 million. In contrast, the WGA website states, “Median weekly writer-producer pay has declined 4% over the last decade. Adjusting for inflation, the decline is 23%.” These writers are merely asking for 3%, while CEOs are given the moon.

This is unacceptable.

If you’re reading this post, if you’re on Tumblr and engaging with fandoms enough to have this post written by me, a Star Wars blog, circulate on your feed, media writing has affected your life. Writers have impacted you and your daily routine and hobbies. 

You should care about this strike. You should be supporting this strike. 

We all want our favorite shows to come back, we all want to reunite with our favorite characters, and we all want to see their stories, their triumphs, and their struggles. 

But the real people behind these stories and behind these characters are far more important than any fictional narrative. 

These writers have crafted the worlds and stories we love, and by supporting them, we can return the favor and craft a better world for them too.

#Writers strike #real people matter more than the new season of your favorite show #Long post

[alpaca-clouds]

BELLE and the fantasy of a non-corporate internet

Just a little thing I kinda want to end out this week speaking about democratized media on. Because there is this little thing in Mamoru Hosoda's newest movie BELLE... I am honest: I am not entirely sure whether it is something Hosoda and his team thought about when making this movie. But... this movie has this wonderful little anarchist moment.

BELLE is all in all not really an anarchist movie. Nor is it Solarpunk. But it picks up this theme, that goes through several movies Hosoda has done. His "internet triology" how I like to call it:

Digimon Adventure: Bokura no Wargame

Summer Wars

BELLE

Three movies that are not only connected in aethetic, but also in theme. All three of them having a plot that takes place online for good chunks.

And that theme is of the internet connecting people all around the world. Of allowing people all around the world to connect.

The Digimon Adventure movie focuses on the idea of the young millennials in that movie having access and understanding of this new virtual world, that the older generation lacks. In the Japanese version of the movie there is a prolonged gag sequence of Yamato and Takeru trying to get access to the internet with a lot of confused adults thinking about whether or not they have this access.

This shifts in Summer Wars, where the internet suddenly is a place that everyone uses over a lot of different access points. In the finale we see people use the internet via phones, laptops, high end computers and video game consoles. Though it also gives a warning of us not relying on it too much.

And then we have BELLE, which focuses on the internet as a place where people can truly be themselves and connecting with each other, while being unable to connect in the real world (partly because of distance), as well as the internet of a place to rediscover yourself and as a medium to help each other.

But all three movies kinda have one scene in common. There is a scene towards the finale where all seems lost and the character outmatched by the antagonist. (I am gonna say something about the antagonists in a moment.) And then... everyone gets together. And by everyone I mean everyone. In Bokura no Wargame it is the emails of encouragement and the spirits of all those kids and teens watching the battle that allow War Greymon and Metal Garurumon to fuse into Omegamon. In Summer Wars it is the fact that everyone risks their accounts by handing them over to Natsuki that allows them to beat the AI in hanafuda. And in the finale of BELLE it is everyone banding together to sing and no longer supporting the self-appointed moderators that allows Suzu to make Kei hear her voice. It is the connection of people via the internet that allows people to succeed in these movies.

But there is one thing in which BELLE differs from the other two movies - or rather all three movies differ from each other.

Bokura no Wargame still very much is set in Web 1.0, before social media and the bottlenecking of the internet. Again, the movie makes this big thing out of the internet being a thing for the youth.

Meanwhile Summer Wars is set within a very corporate "everything platform". And while this movie does have some message about "yeah, maybe having all that data within one system is a bad thing, actually", there is not really a comment about the company running OZ and whether maybe one company should not own the one platform that in this world basically IS THE INTERNET.

BELLE is different in that regard. Because BELLE makes a point out of the fact that U is an open source platform that was created to... basically run anarchical. There was not supposed to be an central control. That the users were supposed to have control over their experience on the platform. But because the creators also did not want to have "control" over it, big companies just took over and devided U up between themselves, creating that moderation team that is seen as the antagonists within the movie. And here is the thing: That big scene of everyone coming together and singing? Yeah, that is the scene in which the users take the control over the platform back from the companies. And since U is basically the the internet in this world... Part of the finale is basically the users taking back their control over the internet.

And... I don't know. I have not seen people talk about this so far. But to me it is the nice and utopic part in this movie.

The internet is such a great thing to connect people. And that is something that Mamoru Hosoda has definitely understood better than many other film makers. And we just... should not let big coorporations take this from us.

#web 1.0 #web 2.0 #democracy #anarchy #belle #belle movie #mamoru hosoda #digimon adventure #digimon #summer wars #take back the internet

[driftwithme]

According to the pacrim wiki, Coyote Tango was the first jaeger the program lost. By that time, Pentecost and Tamsin were not piloting anymore. It was June, 2016.

The order of pre-knifehead fallen jaegers is:

- Coyote Tango. Destroyed in combat against Itak. On its second set of pilots. June, 2016.

- Victory Alpha. Destroyed in combat against Raganarok. The pilots survived. July, 2016.

- Tacit Ronin. Abandoned because its pilots died of neural overload. July, 2016.

- Lucky Seven. Abandoned because one of its pilots was decommissioned. 2019.

Following this pic from the wiki:

We know that the first jaeger was launched in 2015 (Brawler Yukon) and the last in 2019 (Striker Eureka).

The golden age of the jeager program was from 2017 to 2019, three years of gaining more than they were losing. The peak was in 2019, with 20 active jaegers. The bottom was in 2025, with no jaegers left.

2024 was the year with more deaths, with 8 j-pilots going KIA. Then 2025, with 7 deaths between the Double Event that killed both Cherno and Crimson, and Operation Pitfall, who claimed Pentecost and Chuck.

Between 2019 and 2023 there were 9 KIAs.

Which means Yancy was the first jaeger pilot to die on combat. It makes sense, given the reaction of Penecost to hearing that they had lost Gipsy's signal (and Yancy was dead).

It marks:

- 2019-20: 1 lost jaeger, 1 pilot KIA.

The list of fallen jaegers Post-Knifehead:

- 2020-21: 2 lost jaeger, 1 pilot KIA.

- 2021-22: 3 lost jaegers, 2 pilots KIA.

- 2022-23: 2 lost jaegers, 3 pilots KIA.

- 2023-24: 8 lost jaegers, 2 pilots KIA.

- 2024-25: 0 lost jaegers, 8 pilots KIA.

- 2025: 4 lost jaegers, 7 pilots KIA.

Let's compare all this info with the following Kaiju War Timeline from the wiki:

A) 2013-2014: The Feral Burst. There were no jaegers yet to defend humanity against the 3 kaijus that invaded the world.

B) 2015-2019: The Long Game, Part I. There were 24 jargers up around this period, with a total of 13 kaijus making contact.

Special mention to the Beckets, who got an impressive mark of 5 kills during those years. It means they helped killed more than a 1/3 of those bastards during the golden era of the jaeger program. For what I see, Raleigh is the only pilot who had ever abandoned the jaeger program because he wanted to, not because he was hurt or kicked out.

C) 2020-2023: The Long Game, Part II. The amount of kaijus who invaded in those three years equals the amount of kaijus who made contact within the first 6 years of the war. It means the precursos sent as many kaijus in half the time. Humanity went into this phase with 19 jaegers. By the end they had 4.

2024 reports 13 kaiju attacks. It makes sense that they lost 8 jaegers and 10 pilots more or less in that year. With 12 jaegers active, it is more than a 1vs1 situation. Something tells me that most of Striker Eureka's kills were during this phase.

Special mention to the Hansen, btw. *During Chuck active years, he participated in almost third of the kaiju killings that happened then. I don't know Lucky Seven's score in this race, but *Herc's win amount to a 1/4 of the whole kaiju fights during his active time.

*The count stops at Mutavore. It does not include the Double Event or Pitfall.

If we include Post-Mutavore but not their participation/assistant at killing Leatherback:

- Chuck: 11 kills, 35 kaiju appereances during his active career (almost a 1/3).

- Herc: 12 kills, 44 kaiju appearances (not counting 2016 and adding at least 2 kills of the Lucky Seven era; around a 1/4).

Yet again, if by statistics alone, Mako is the most winning jaeger pilot of the movie. In her active years there had been 5 kaijus and she has helped kill 4. It's worth mentioning that her debut was on a double event followed by a triple event, with the only Category-5 ever saw. Impressive, to say the least.

On the other hand, Raleigh has helped kill or killed himself almost half of the kaijus that had appear on his active years.

Here: (ratio is 19-20 kaijus, 9 kills).

- 2025: 6 kaijus, 4 kills.

- 2015-2019: 13-14 kaijus, 5 kills.

The Hansens record is impressive just in the sheer size of their killing count, which is still not complete given I don't have the info on Lucky Seven. Meanwhile, Raleigh and Mako are impressive for the efficiency record.

Of the 51 kaijus that invaded the Earth, Gipsy and Striker combine to 20 kills. That means 2/5 of the total.

The last three j-pilots hold the best or most insane records of the program. Herc with the most wins, Mako with the best efficiency and Raleigh fucking Becket who had solo piloted twice and explode a jaeger in another world.

#pacific rim #pacrim #pacific rim 2013 #pacrim 2013 #pacific rim worldbuilding #raleigh becket #chuck hansen #mako mori #yancy becket #hercules hansen #herc hansen #stacker pentecost #marshall pentecost #ppdc #pan pacific defense corps #j-tech #jaegers #ppdc records #jaeger program #driftwithme.referenceforfic #long post

[1863-project]

Okay, was thinking about it and I remembered a lot of you were very young or not even alive for this, so:

When 9/11 happened I was 12 and had just started 7th grade. I grew up in a suburb of New York City. 12 people from my town died, including a firefighter whose son was in my younger brother's CCD group.

Things changed SO fast. Practically overnight. Suddenly, we were all hypervigilant, and after the immediate response of assistance from around the world, the prejudice was oozing from nearly everywhere. In northern New Jersey, we had and still have a large west (Middle East) and south Asian population. They were hit the hardest.

People freaked out just because a mosque was going to be built in lower Manhattan within several blocks of Ground Zero at one point. It was ridiculous and the Islamophobia was so fucking awful and infuriating. It still is. It didn't go away. For the most part, New Yorkers are usually good to each other because there's literally someone from everywhere here, but this was legitimately terrifying. People would even attack Sikhs - who weren't Muslim, Sikhism is its own thing - because they saw the turbans and made a decision based on racism (i.e. bin Laden had a turban so these people must be like him).

The "patriotism" was miserable. "Freedom fries" happened because people were mad that France didn't want to go into Iraq with Bush in 2003. We all thought it was stupid then too.

The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) got blackballed because they came out against said war. They were one of the biggest country acts in the world at the time. In general, country music went through a massive tonal shift post-9/11 and became far more "patriotic" and conservative. Johnny Cash wouldn't have recognized it.

The Flash movies that inevitably popped up satirizing politics were...something. You can find most of them archived on YouTube these days. But that was how the internet tended to cope back then.

The shift from happiness to paranoia was so fucking fast. I went from a world where my biggest concern was pre-ordering the GameCube to being worried about politics and death all the time. All the news showed was footage of people dying for weeks. Politicians started using the footage in commercials. You just had to keep reliving the trauma of it over and over again. I stopped watching the news.

It was, looking back on it, a huge galvanizing point for the American right. Politicians started using 9/11 to justify so many things. This was where I began to see as a young teenager that you could use people's prejudices to get a grip on power and get what you wanted. I didn't like it.

People started drawing memorial art almost immediately. The phenomenon of memorial art being done decades later with cartoon characters still persists on deviantART to this day, but when it started, it was mostly people doing vent art because it's really upsetting to be a kid and see death on that scale on the news.

It took me 15 years to go back to the site after 9/11. I'd been as a kid in 1997 and I went up in the South Tower with my family. I didn't set foot there again until 2016, 15 years after the attacks. I found the name of the firefighter whose son was in my brother's CCD class. It was surreal.

This chapter of American history arguably closed for many people in 2011, when bin Laden was killed in a raid. I remember watching the Mets play the Phillies that night. Daniel Murphy, who I'd named a cat after two years earlier, was at bat, and suddenly the crowd started chanting "USA." I used my Blackberry to check the news and that was how I found out. I was a senior in college, about to graduate. I don't even remember how I felt, just that the way I found out was so fucking weird.

It was a really stressful, bizarre climate to grow up in. In the time between my 12th and my 22nd birthday, I saw my entire world get turned upside down overnight, massive waves of prejudice, unnecessary wars that killed even more innocent people, literal war crimes (tw: rape, murder, prisoner torture, every other bad thing you can think of under the sun), and the rise of false patriotism and nationalism, which you can still see the right wing harnessing today.

If you're going to mock something here, mock the false patriotism. Mock "Freedom Fries." Mock George W. Bush. Just...don't mock the actual moments where people died. Too many innocent people died from the attacks themselves, the Islamophobia afterwards, and the wars that followed. That shit isn't funny.

#history

[avelera]

Andor brings the importance of money and economic systems back to mainstream sci-fi/fantasy

So fun fact, one reason I love "Andor" so much is that they have money in it.

Right off the bat, in episode 1, they start establishing that things cost money in this sci-fi industrial town where we find ourselves. People have jobs. There are things people can't do because they have money. There's things that even people with money, like Mon Mothma, can't afford because money isn't infinite and it requires logistics to move around. There are haves and have-nots in this society and the Rebellion will sink or swim based on if it can pay its people and purchase equipment. One of the first major arcs is a bank heist.

Ok, so why is this so huge? Shouldn't it be obvious that money makes the world go 'round, even in a sci-fi setting like Star Wars?

Well, here's the thing. Think about all the Disney-owned movies you've seen. How many of them talk about money in any kind of concrete terms? It does happen, but it's quite rare and it's almost never to the extent that money matters in "Andor". A character might have "rich" or "poor" as a character trait, but economic systems are rarely discussed, why certain people do or don't have money isn't discussed.

This is for a very good reason. Back in the mid 20th c., entertainment companies like Disney made a conscious choice not to talk about economic systems in their stories. Why? Because to do so forced the story to take a stance in the existential battle between Capitalism vs. Communism. Even seemingly innocuous story choices like the injustices a poor kid might face in a story could be seen as taking a stance, not something you wanted to invite with things like the Red Scare going on.

But it's really a shame that this choice, which was in response to the political conflicts of the time, has been so perpetuated and that companies like Disney still avoid the concretes of money in most of their works. And that warps the conversation within those works and within society at large as a result. More often in mainstream genre fiction stories as a result, stories must play to fantastical elements and undefined Good vs. Evil to explain why a conflict is taking place between two sides. Certain "So what?" factors and plot elements don't quite line up. Money and resources are at the heart of most real world major conflicts, but by focusing on "good" and "evil" instead you obfuscate the interests involved, the motivations involved, what everyone is getting out of a conflict when they choose to help or not to help. You can't feed yourself on idealism alone.

By leaning into the existence of money, resources, and the haves-and-have-nots of a society, Andor is able to couch its story of revolution in real world limitations for the characters and real world obstacles. It makes everything deeper, more satisfying, more understandable as to why anyone is doing anything. It's hard to talk about fighting a fascist state like the Empire if you don't talk about complicit corporations, or forced labor (because even the Empire can't afford to pay for the sheer amount of labor it needs otherwise) or how everyone on the Rebellion side can afford these fancy X-Wings.

I hope shows like Andor will be taken to heart, not just by more mainstream works of genre fiction using the inherent conflicts that arise from a defined economic system, but also by younger creators who may have grown up on a steady genre fiction diet of "money only sort of exists when it's needed for the plot, if at all". So much worldbuilding is impossible if you don't understand who has resources and what economic systems are being employed. So much character conflict is shallow if you can't define who has money, who has resources, and who has obstacles from not having a limitless supply of those things, and what are those obstacles?

It's super refreshing to see and I will reiterate, Andor is perhaps the best show out there right now from a writer perspective and everyone should watch it.

#andor #star wars #writing #worldbuilding

[phantomenby]

And you call yourselves vampires

Don’t know if you’ve ever watched the originals or vampire diaries, but what about poly!lost boys with a vampire!s/o that’s like the original vampires? Like regular stakes don’t kill them, sun doesn’t burn them, and they can use compulsion?

Thank u para la anon <3 I hope u like it

It would be interesting

They're definitely isolated under Max's influence

and I think it shows by the fact they don't fully understand the thread of the Emersons and the hunter heritage

You would be a welcome treat and I'm sure they'll welcome you to their pack

But first, a little fun

-

You were a traveler, ever since your sire had gotten sick of keeping you by his side you had traveled all over the world in your two hundred years of freedom.

The best part about being a vampire was the ability to keep going no matter how much the world around you changed.

You had been born in 1654 to a noble family that was respected for its large farmland and wealth from ruling over the town your father's lineage had passed down through the generations.

When you were nineteen years of age you were in your second season of courting after being too ill to complete the first, you were quite the frail little human.

Your sire had found you not long after your birthday, when you were walking through the extravagant gardens on your family's land, he hadn't wasted a moment before hypnotizing you and convincing you to come home with him.

Within a few days, you had completed your turning and were now destined to live with him for eternity.

Or so he had thought, not expecting you to be so defiant considering the environment you were raised in, being taught to respect a man's word above all else.

Now it was nearing the end of the twentieth century and the new millennia would soon be upon you.

Only now you were in a much better place, having met your true mates after the first world war. You had traveled over to the new world in the mid-nineteenth century but had never gone further than Texas, once you entered the West coast you had felt a pull in your chest leading you closer to the sea where you met them.

Your four precious boys.

-

"God, I hate this fucking shithole, I swear all it's good for is the sun," you kicked the bathroom wall, hissing as your nail hit the cold tile, it wouldn't leave any damage but it always stung.

You had moved to a town on the edge of the West Coast of the US, wanting to find somewhere known for its sunny weather that you could blend in to, when your friend John had recommended this place to you you had thought it would be like living in a movie. Instead, you were calling out plumbers most days to fix the ancient water system of your beach house.

"That boardwalk better be worth it or John's gonna lose his head for this," muttering angrily to yourself as your shower finally turned on, icy water spraying you and making you jump back with a yelp, "fucking shit!"

Huffing angrily you glared at the steady stream of water now flowing from the tap, steam rising as it warmed up. Stepping in you let it run over you, soothing your muscles. Rubbing your flesh with sweet-smelling soap you began to hum, since you woke there was a funny feeling in your chest, but not knowing what was causing it you decided to just ignore it. It wasn't a sign of danger so you were safe and free to relax. Grabbing a bottle of two in one shampoo and conditioner you had stolen from a hotel you stopped at you began to lather it in, enjoying the scent of cocoa butter coming from it.

Your shower had set you in a better mood, washing away any anxiety about a new place you had yet to explore. When you arrived at three in the morning, driving along the front til you reached your new home, you were surprised to see so many people still out and about in the early hours of the morning.

Regardless it would mean being out late when you went hunting wouldn't be seen as too odd.

Good thing I don't have any neighbors, you thought wrapping your fluffy blue robe around you and heading to the suitcase you had packed full of clothing. Unzipping it and reaching in looking for your yellow bathing suit, pulling out some loose pants and a cropped shirt. The heat didn't affect you the same as humans but it would certainly look odd if you dressed like you did back at home in Scotland.

You spun in front of your mirror, admiring yourself, "ah! You're a star babe, now for the shoes-" you looked around the room for your heeled boots, picking them up from beside the door and sliding them on after some thick white socks with pale yellow flowers on them.

"Now I just need my bag- fucks sake dude you left it in your car," forget about neighbours, good thing no one lived with you, they'd think you mad with how often you talked to yourself. Though that's how it was for most nomads, even when they settled down like you did.

Waltzing outside you let the sun warm your skin, hopping into your convertible and smiling in glee at the sight of your wallet still there even after being exposed overnight.

The sun was low in the sky, signaling the end of your first day in the town, you had spent most of it unpacking and looking at maps to decide what you wanted to do. Santa Carla was full of cliffs and woodlands and would be perfect for hunting and exploring in your free time. So far you hadn't met any others like you but you could sure as hell sense them, they weren't the same as you but they held an air of familiarity.

As you drove down you took in all the shops, there were more as you got to a central part of the coastline, the boardwalk, as it began to light up your eyes took it in with awe. It certainly boasted a lot of fun things to try, you could tell your favorite would be the Ferris wheel, the view must be amazing from that height.

Parking in a large lot besides some houses you made sure to lift the roof back up, taking note of all the delinquents standing by the wire fences, watching people coming and going with dark looks. At least if they did do any damage you could justify eating them, you had a feeling food would be in abundance here.

The night was lively, crowds were growing the darker it got as people flocked to the vibrant beacon in front of them, you were becoming immersed in the scents of fried food from various stalls and it was then your stomach decided to let out a large rumble.

Well when in Rome you thought, usually avoided anything too greasy, yes you could digest it but it always made you a little bloated in the morning. But looking around at the stalls before you it seemed there was little else to choose from, so you decided to walk towards a hotdog stand and grab two, scarfing them down as you headed towards the end of the boardwalk.

Climbing into a lone rider seat on the Ferris wheel you gazed around at the sight before you, the higher you got the smaller the humans below looked and the more peaceful it became as their chatter droned out to a dull buzz.

The ocean was even better, dark and imposing, like a deadly abyss surrounding the town. If you stared into the sky long enough you could see distant stars glowing above, unfortunately, the light pollution from modern technology made it much harder to appreciate the sky at night.

Once it began to descend you decided to look towards the opposite end of the boardwalk, feeling an odd tug in your chest. Expecting it was coming from another supernatural being you let your eyes rake over the crowd, skirting along the edges of the various buildings when you assumed they might be lurking in the shadows, perhaps having also sensed you.

Instead, you noticed nothing, the only ones looking devious enough were the gangs gathering and glaring at each other, there was the group of 'surf-nazis' you had already had been warned about by John and his partner Jay who were known to harass innocent beach goers if they so much as breathed near the water when a good wave was rising.

Moving on your eyes flickered over to a video store, in front were a group of bikers who were-

Wait

They were staring at you, well two of them were, a platinum blonde man who was smirking like he knew a joke you weren't in on as he took another drag of his cigarette and a stony brunette with the glossiest hair you had ever seen on a man. There was no way they should have been able to lock on to you from this far away, it was easy to tell that they were something non-human, nothing like you but something nonetheless.

You let your eyes leave them as the ride reached the ground, no longer able to see them over the large crowd between you.

Shoulda worn heels...

You kept talking to yourself in your mind, pushing through the humans waiting at the bottom of the ride and sliding your way through all the other tourists, heading towards the edge of the pier. If they were something other than human, the last thing you needed was for them to have an advantage over you. Stalking from the sidelines was always easy.

But walking through awful, smelly, grabby humans was not.

It was easier to go behind the stalls, where walls and sellers separated you from the rest of them, and you were well hidden.

When you reached the final stall you kept yourself behind it, pressing your chest to the wooden wall and leaning around it slightly, hoping to be subtle. You could see where they were, the tall lodge-like building that music and drunk tourists were slipping out of.

But they were gone. Their bikes were still there. With a huff you stepped forward, planning on getting a whiff of their scent before disappearing back to your home.

You were unable to take more than a few steps before a long pale arm reached forward and yanked you back, finding yourself pressed against a wall?

"What the hell man-" when you looked up you met milky blue eyes, followed by a dark smile, like you were being mocked.

"Well well, what do we have here boys?"

"Looks like a fan David," you looked to your left to see a brunette, god he's hot. They all were, like sirens reborn with legs, made to pull you in. "Smells pretty tasty too."

"Uh-" you tried moving away, only to realise there were two firm hands on your hips keeping you still. It was another blonde. Only with wild sandy hair that had been teased to the high heavens.

"Awe don't cha wanna stay and have fun with us?" he'd be cute if he didn't reek of weed, maybe he bathed in it like catnip.

"N-no! Let go of me!"

They laughed, and it echoed. The sound like a warning bell ringing in your mind. You stilled, tense and a growing irritation bubbling in your chest.

Your mind grew foggy and you could feel yourself being pulled away from your small hiding spot, the two blondes you had been sandwiched between wrapping around you, taking you in the direction of a ramp that led down to the dark beach.

"Mmmm you smell like cherries," what the hell.

Ok. Ok. This was fine, it's not like they could actually do any damage to you. You had existed for centuries there was no way four- wait what are they.

You let yourself go limp, now being supported by the sandy blonde who laughed, squeezing you to his chest.

And oh my god, you could hear it. Well, you couldn't hear anything. Not a bead, not a thump, none of the tha-dump you heard from the heart of a human.

Well, this ought to be interesting.

You were quite far down the beach now, feet leaving slight imprints in the ground.

Finding yourself suddenly free was confusing, stood with your back to the ocean, the four men in front of you.

"They're weird." We're they inspecting you?

"You're weird," you took a step back, and their smiles widened, "why-"

Just breath.

"What are you?" just cut to the chase idiot, if they're a threat just, like, fly away.

The four of them shared a look, and you had some idea that they must be using a mind link of sorts, something you were used to from your brothers and sisters. T

aking the chance to inspect them up close you raked over their clothing, it was odd, you really couldn't pinpoint what they were. Though that was more of your friend, Rhea's specialty, a rather intelligent witch who picked you out within minutes even while you were using a protection rune.

When your eyes met the bare chiseled chest and abs of the brunette you paused, truly appreciating the view.

He smirked when he noticed, uncrossing his arms to give you a better look. You were going to die soon anyway, so why not let you boost his ego a little.

"We can be anything you want us to be babe, why, got something in mind?" tall-dumb-and-sandy-blonde was watching you gawk at his friend, kinda bummed your attention was no longer on him.

They felt kinda nice in my arms...

David sent Paul a look, turning his milky blues back to you.

"Wanna know?" he grinned when you nodded, watching you step back a little, "Well, you asked for it."

His eyes began to glow, his face changing in front of your eyes.

Oh my god. "Oh my god," his friends followed, bones jutting out, eyes turning the same firey orange and yellow combination. "OH MY GOD"

They laughed, enjoying your reaction. Though they quickly stopped when you snorted, Dwayne and David shared similar frowns on their demonic faces.

"What's so funny, huh?"

You waved them off, laughter erupting from your mouth, soon you were hunched over as the mocking sounds grew in volume.

Now they were angry, humans tended to behave oddly in the face of danger but this was still odd to them, I mean, you were practically barking in their faces.

Marko huffed, hands on his hips, "what's so funny asshole?"

You looked back up at them, taking in the boy's stances which resembled a disappointed mother more than the vile creatures they were supposed to be.

Taking a deep breath you straightened your back, wiping away your tears and fighting to control your laughter as your cheeks kept themselves in a tight grin, teeth flashing.

"S-sorry it's just-" you choked, a giggle slipping through, "you're one of those kinds of vamps y'know? Can't expect me not to find it funny, never met one who can make their face all pointy- hey!"

You jumped away in time to miss the second tallest form lunging at you, his teeth bared in a snarl as his long arms reached for you, talons just missing your shoulder.

Holding your hands up you began to shuffle back, shoes filling with sand as you fought to calm your chest, "geez dude-", you spun again, the smaller blonde whizzing past you in an array of reds and blues, "hey! Hey! We're on the same team-"

It went on for a while until you noticed that they were trying to spin you until you were dizzy, feet rising off the ground longer than you thought vampires were able to. Though it was obvious from the small changes they had demonstrated that you were vastly different.

David huffed, finishing the cig he had lit on the way down the beach, "enough."

Paul and Marko stopped, flashing their teeth and moving the stand a meter away from you, keeping your sides flanked.

Cold eyes met yours and you began examining the face that framed them. He was sharp, nose thin and pointed with a slight upturn and thin soft lips. Cute but less like a man and more like a, well a hedgehog. The spiky blonde hair didn't help.

"Our turn to ask," you smoothed your face over, crossing your arms and jutting your hip in a way you thought would make you look cool, "what are you?"

You chewed your lip, thinking on it, "I'm god."

His brunette friend blanched, fists curling and shoulders slumping.

David tilted his head, "oh", nodding he crossed his hands behind his back meeting your gaze, "well, god, what are you doing in our home?"

"Uh," you relaxed, thinking for a moment, "technically I am everywhere."

He grinned, presenting his sharp canines to you and walking over to place a hand on your shoulder, "come with us then, god."

-

They had warmed up to you pretty quickly after that

Marko and Paul kept toying with you but now you were in David's hands and it was more jesting than pushing you about and trying to get their claws into you

Once you had gotten on the same page "species-wise" they were more curious than anything.

Though you kind of wish you had let them try and eat you when they tried to push you onto the Church ground to see if you would set on fire

-

"Ok so let me get this straight," you were swinging upside down, body hanging over the edge of the bridge while Paul floated beside you, his long mane circling his head, "you can fly, you sleep, but you can't go in the sun no matter what-"

He nodded, humming and reaching for your hand to play with the rings adorning your hands, his own flashing in the pale moonlight.

Marko was beside you, and his soft curls drifted in the wind and kept tickling your arms, "but you can go faster than us, and go out in the sun", he was still pretty pouty about that.

It hadn't taken them long to warm up to you when they finally found out what you were. Honestly, it was their first time properly meeting another of their kind who wasn't one of Max's weird business friends.

Dwayne had asked you about your jewelry, most of it enchanted in some way and one being the reason you were free to roam during the daytime.

-

It was the start of a beautiful friendship

And eventually something more

They never got over just how different they were to you, but not that they minded.

It was only when you kept on going out during the day that they got antsy, I mean, the sun wouldn't burn you

But what if

Eventually, you started sleeping in the cave with them, though you didn't have the weird pointy bat feet and at one point they dragged a mattress into their hidden nest

Now you spent each day lounging beneath them, often waking up in their arms

Unfortunately you couldn't get past their faces, it took months for you to be able to hunt alongside them without laughing too much at their pointy faces

#the lost boys #the lost boys imagines #marko the lost boys #tlb #the lost boys x reader #marko tlb #poly lost boys x reader #dwayne tlb #david tlb #the lost boys fic #the lost boys 1987

[spacehostilityy]

So I watched Cursed by Light for the first time yesterday (even though I started watching sds circa 2017, I'm just late to the game🤪) and I have so many thoughts !! Might do more analysis later, but here's my initial thoughts

I NEED more Meliodas and Zeldris interactions like it is a NECESSITY

Elizabeth was so badass in this movie I love her and it made me want to see "Bloody Ellie" even more omg

On the topic of Elizabeth, I love her bc she's such a girls' girl. Like, find her a woman, and they will be besties. I mean Merlin, Diane, Elaine, Gelda, even Derieri - she's just such a girl lover !!

And it's pride month so legally, everyone has to agree with bi!Elizabeth... jk... kinda lol (honestly every single sin is queer in my head, im prohecting my queer onto all nnt char)

Cursed by Light DEFINITELY best movie like hands down

BUT I actually kinda wish that the Supreme deity plotline was part of the show rather than a one off movie

Like I want it as a season. I feel like her character had so much potential not only for cool plots and battles, not only for the resurrection of the goddess race and the problems that would cause, but also for Elizabeth's emotional and physical/power arc

Anyway I will be thinking of at least a half season to combat the SD, complete with flashback to and before the Holy War and Elizabeth defeating her mother with those famed goddess powers that the demon race was so afraid of

And of course, within this season would be lots of brother bonding, and a large amount of time set in the demon realm where we get to explore the society and world, along more with the demon bros' past as individuals and together

Meliodas atones for both his betrayal of his brother, and that of his people who he probably should have been protecting

Plus maybe some gowther (bc I love him) and original demon lore bc that would be cool

#tess rambles #demon bros #supreme deity #goddess elizabeth #bamf!elizabeth #demon mel is best mel #seven deadly sins #nnt #7ds #demon king #gowther #nanatsu no taizai #elizabeth liones #elizabeth nnt #nnt headcanons #original demon #chandler #cusack #zeldris #melizabeth #geldris #diane nnt #derieri #elaine nnt #cursed by light

[speedwalkingtheplanes]

Willow characters as D&D classes and races not because I can't sleep, but because I don't want to write tomorrow's session

Unlike my Percy Jackson version of this post, Willow has pretty clear ties to D&D, especially the 2022 show, so I'm not really going to be changing characters' races for this list. For all intents and purposes, they could be played in the world they're in, rather than adapted into a high-fantasy setting like I did with PJO. That said, I will be taking a couple of liberties with it, and trying to make it at least a little interesting. Same rules as the last one: minimal reflavoring, and no hombrew or unearthed arcana.

Willow Ufgood: Halfling Transmutation Wizard. Yeah, I know that all of the magic-users in the Willow-verse are referred to as sorcerers, but I think there's some nuance between how they use magic, and Willow, despite his intuition, certainly does not find his magic born within him. He doesn't necessarily have a natural gift for it, but rather finds careful study and many of years practice aiding him in becoming the magician he is by the time of the series, not to mention receiving a spellbook at the end of the movie. I struggled for a little while to decide what his subclass is, as we only really see him doing generalist magic. That said, war magic or order of scribes are out, seeing as he isn't a battlemage at all, nor does his spellbook play as important of a role as a scribe's would. So, considering his feats of returning Raziel to her human form, and restoring the Galladoorn warriors, transmutation feels like the most apt option for him.

Madmartigan: Human Swashbuckler Rogue/Battle Master FIghter. I had initially thought Madmartigan would be a champion, but thinking back on his fight against the Nockmaar soldiers, I think it's fair to say that he exemplifies the Art of War qualities that are so prevalent in the subclass. Swashbuckler is much more clear-cut. He nails one-on-one combat, and certainly has the high charisma necessary for the class, not to mention how he aids Franjean in picking the lock on the cage.

Sorsha Tanthalos: Human Hexblade Warlock. We don't see a lot of Sorsha's capabilities, so I'm gonna play flavor far more than mechanics with her. We know that she is a skilled fighter, and we see some of that, but I like the idea that her patron is her mother, and her pact ends after Bavmorda's defeat. She's certainly charismatic enough to trick Madmartigan into letting down his defenses enough to allow her a chance to escape from him, and was seemingly quite the leader in the quest for Elora, so I don't feel that this is too much of a stretch.

Rool/Franjean: Fairy Fey Wanderer Rangers. These two are interesting. I had almost made them gnomes, but I think them being fairies themselves (alongside the other Brownies) makes a bit more sense. They're definitely rangers, what with their affinity with animals, tracking abilities, and association with other fey creatures.

Airk Thaughbaer: Human Crown Paladin. We don't see a lot of Airk, but given that Madmartigan named his son after him, I think it's reasonable to put him on this list. He's kind of the ideal Galladoorn knight, fighting for country and fellow man against the forces of darkness. While I definitely think he's a paladin, other sublcasses might work for him.

Bavmorda: Tiefling Undead Warlock. Bavmorda being a tiefling is really only because she has the name "The Demon Queen." (And yes, I know that tieflings are infernal and not abyssal, but there isn't an abyssal race in D&D, so this is what I've got.) Her class and subclass seem pretty clear-cut. We find out in the series that she had made a pact with the Withered Crone, so she's clearly a warlock, though whether she's undead or undying is up for debate. In all honestly, they really aren't any different, and undead is just better.

General Kael: Human Berzerker Barbarian. Kael's so cool, but we also don't see much in the way of his combat ability. He's certainly very skilled, and he can also take a beating (the man took a sword to the face, and then kept fighting after getting stabbed), not to mention his shouting about "Now you die!" That feels very much like a raging barbarian to me.

Kit Tanthalos: Human Champion Fighter. Champion was my first choice for Kit, but I thought that I should dig deeper for her and kept trying to find something else. I've seen people say that she's a swashbuckler, or a battle master. I've even seem some people say that by the time she has taken the Kymerian Cuirass, she's gained three levels in artificer and become an armorer. And I hate all of that, because it's all too damn much. I think Kit's most important arc as a character is learning that she isn't the invnincible fighter she thought she was, and that her main character syndrome doesn't actually make her the main character. As far as that goes, I came back to champion, because I think the simplest fighter subclass conveys that journey really well.

Airk Thanthalos: Valor Bard/Oathbreaker Paladin. Airk is really interesting to me from a character creation perspective. He's clearly high charisma and low wisdom, and he isn't too shabby with a sword. He could very easily just be a paladin, and the Crone's corruption caused him to be an oathbreaker, but he's just too charming for me to not make him a bard too.

Jade Claymore: Human Samurai Fighter/Devotion Paladin. I've seen a lot of people say that Jade is a battle master, and while I see it, I think Samurai is a significantly more interesting choice for her. She's definitely not an average knight, and we can clearly see her wisdom in her fighting and her decision-making. As for paladin, Graydon aptly points out that her devotion is her driving force on the quest. If it's that important, than I'd say it counts as an oath.

Scorpia: Human Scout Rogue. There isn't a lot to go on for this one, unfortunately. She's clearly well-versed enough in combat to beat Jade, though I'd argue that she's simply a higher level. Being a scout would be beneficial for the forest-swelling Bone Reavers, and we see her have some skill with a throwing knife, which feels much like a roguish quality to me. (Ignore that Airk Thaughbaer also kills someone by throwing a knife.)

Thraxus Boorman: Human Berzerker Barbarian/Swashbuckler Rogue. I figured that Boorman was a barbarian/rogue early on, and was pleased when I saw some other people saying the same thing. I don't think Berzerker really fits him, but the only other non-magical barbarian sublcass is battle rager, and that fits him even less. (Seriously, there needs to be more non-magical barbarian subclasses.) It is possible that he never made it to three levels of barbarian, and just has a one or two level dip. (If i were to optimize him, it'd be two levels. That way reckless attack can be used to proc sneak attack at any opportunity.) I also don't think his rage is purely angry, but instead reflavored into sorrow that is masked with humor. As Madmartigan's squire, it makes sense that they would have the same rogue sublcass, and we definitely see Boorman's charisma shine through the series. Plus, like Madmartigan, he can pick locks. Ish.

Graydon Hastur: Human Lore Bard. Yeah, he's said to be a sorcerer in the show, but the man casts magic with his flute and gives other characters inspiring pep talks. If that doesn't make him a bard, I don't know what does. College of lore because he's very booksmart, and collects dead languages and ancient stories like an old lady collects little spoons.

Elora Danan: Protector Aasimar Divine Soul Sorcerer. And finally, the chosen one herself. I really wanted to make her wild magic, but divine soul unfortunately just makes more sense. I feel that of the sorcerers in the franchise, she's the only one that's actually a sorcerer. We don't know anything about how Raziel's magic works, so there's really no figuring her out, and Cherlindrea is more of an archfey than anything else. Elora, on the other hand, has an inborn aptitude for magic. She still has to practice, and reads Willow's spellbook, but that's more about control than power for her. As the child of the prophecy, and the one destined to defeat evil and unite the lands, it makes sense to me that she would be an aasimar, a divine being imbued with the power of celestials. She also has the chef feat.

There's certain characters that I left out, either because we don't see enough of them for me to properly gauge what they might be, or I think they'd be better with monster stat blocks than character sheets. But maybe I'll revisit this later and figure out characters like Silas, Lilli, and Ballantine. In any case, let me know if you disagree, I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.

#willow #willow 2022 #willow ufgood #madmartigan #sorsha tanthalos #kit tanthalos #airk tanthalos #jade claymore #scorpia #thraxus boorman #graydon hastur #elora danan #bavmorda #general kael #dungeons and dragons

[minnowtank]

something i've been thinking about is how i think part of encanto's plot is designed in such a way that it avoids mentioning or alluding to politics? this is a little difficult to explain but i'll try to. when i watched the movie for the first time, i thought it was a bit silly that bruno was shunned from the casita and, instead of just leaving the village like a normal person, decided to live within the house's walls. it just seemed like a strange plot point to me. at first i thought that the movie wanted to make things relatively uncomplicated by keeping the story within the small village setting. but at the end we see in a flashback that the casita came into existence as a result of abuela's former hometown being devastated by an unnamed conflict that also killed her husband. i recently searched up what conflict was being represented here, and it was most likely the 1000 days civil war in colombia (1899-1902 i think). this was a war between the liberals and the conservatives. and at one point it also involved the US and some other european countries backing up the conservatives for their own interests.

so the casita village is deliberately closed off from the rest of the nation due to the miracle of the candle, which means it's untouched by the politcal and economic consequences of what was apparently one of the most devastating wars in the country's history. one thing you will also never know is where abuela, her husband, or the rest of her family members are/were aligned politically. the nature of the casita village makes it so that they might as well be in their own alternate dimension. we never even get context as to why abuela's village got attacked in the first place, because the war is never talked about.

am i saying that the movie should have been (more) political? well no because it would be a mistake to trust disney with talking about anything remotely political; im just mentioning something i noticed and haven't seen anyone else bring up. but i just think it's interesting that the film is all about generational trauma, and in encanto the specific trauma here all stems from abuela's war losses, and yet the war is basically not a thing in the movie, and none of the characters have conflicts with each other because of it. if a natural disaster caused abuela's husband's death and the resulting miracle, it would have been exactly the same. the movie is also very passionately colombian and tries to represent its culture accurately, but its characters are simultaneously completely cut off from the actual country. i just think it's interesting.

also i realize that the 1000 days war took place when abuela was young and lost her husband, and the main events of the movie with mirabel take place about 50 years later. that being said, the war still had massive political and economic consequences. im just thinking what the movie would be like if mirabel had to find bruno by leaving the isolated village and seeing the rest of columbia outside of casita town. would doing that complicate the movie's straightforward message? because they would have to contend with the awkwardness of the casita town being cut off from everything and mention the war more? how would bruno fare outside of the town? would he want to come back? would he think the madrigals are selfish for keeping their powers to themselves and their village and not helping anyone outside of it? isabela can literally grow food (?? i think). would he use his power of visions to help people outside of the town? i think it just opens up a can of worms.

like realistically that would be a conflict right?? i know magic isnt real but imagine if the candle casita situation took place in real life. abuela would talk about the war right?? they would have their own political leanings? like it's just so fascinating that there's this entire village that's blissfully unaware of everything that's going on around them. it's the 1950s during the main plot and there's been two world wars and continued influence from the USA. people would argue about if they should remain closed off right? like it's just so fascinating but the movie's like nah who gaf about the outside world. like it's just so maddening to me. HELP! im thinking way too hard about this sorry

#🐟 #encanto

[tamelee]

random question but if you were to change ONE thing about the naruto universe (naruto, naruto shippuden, baruto), what would it be? i love reading your opinions. they're so well-put but feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer or if you've answered something similar before :)

Oh, thank you! *-* And I have before maybe? But my answer might’ve changed by now!

I’m such an idiot though, I read over the ‘Universe’ part and wrote a whole answer about what I would’ve changed about the story itself :’)!! I changed it~

Do you mean the Setting? Politics? The System? Powers? It’s hard to say what I would change because any necessary changes had to be discovered by the characters themselves. For most questions we already have answers. (Though not all are executed.) The Setting was a platform for problems and the characters caused a plot to happen which purpose was to find answers, right? On towards the great aha-moments~

To me anything ‘boruto’ isn’t included in the Narutoverse though, because it really has nothing to do with ‘Naruto’ and it’s an entirely different world where a lot of things contradicts what we knew about it and the issues about the world are forgotten and blamed on aliens because that’s easier I guess and we can keep pretending to all be happy besties because Sasuke was right and we have a common enemy 🙄

But introducing that concept in Part 2 with Kaguya and her sons is definitely something I would change. Everyone can start reading/watching 'Naruto' and understand that using Jutsu through energy from within the body is more than enough. A little exposition here and there to see how that works with the body or whenever anything new came up, was all that is needed. But even then, it wasn’t really necessary to understand the physics of it all and I bet rarely anyone really remembered the first time as I rarely see 'stamina' mentioned. Literally no one. No one ever. Not a single soul needed an explanation about some magical fruit hanging from the 'god tree' that one alien lady one day decided to eat. (I'm getting scared for Sasuke now ngl.)

It’s like watching horror movies. The ‘horror’ literally gets destroyed when they show what the mysterious and invisible antagonistic demon/ghost/killer ACTUALLY is. Give it an appearance or over-explain and you ruin all the fun. Have you seen Paranormal? That's why the first one worked despite the low rating and why the ones where they gave the ghosts a shape/body didn't. And this sorta happened with ‘Naruto’ as well. We didn't need it, nor Kaguya's sob-backstory, or the excruciatingly drawn-out Shinobi war because of it. I guess one thing that really has always annoyed me about it as well is that it made people believe that Naruto and Sasuke’s bond solely relied on fate/destiny even if that wasn't said specifically. That their feelings all of a sudden were presupposed and had nothing to do with.... the entirety of their journeys like wth! The whole point for them was to find their individuality only to say in the end that SIKE the only reason they even interacted was because they had ancient chakra clinging to them. As if all they have done didn’t matter because it wasn’t even them, it was influenced by Hagoromo's alien children. Come on now. 

So, I would remove the entire explanation about the origin of Chakra. It is perfectly fine to create a world where that just is. We don’t need to know why and neither do the characters. Shinobi are all born in a world where that is normal and no one cares about finding it out either because it doesn't even matter, IT WASN'T THE ISSUE. I would keep the real issues in the world and have them fix, acknowledge and face them all because it is the world that they’ve always known and to their knowledge always has been. Rabbit aliens be damned. 

#asktamelee #anti naruto ending #away with alien propaganda #naruto talk

[organ-market]

Unsung Beauty: Caves in Fictional Media

Hang Son Doong, Vietnam

Around a year ago, I started obsessing over cave tragedy videos on YouTube. Videos about tragedies in Sand Cave, Nutty Putty, or any other deep hole in the ground where something goes wrong were formulaic, repetitive, and worst of all the guy I was watching used the exact same music in every video, but despite it all those videos inspired an infatuation with all things deep within the depths of the Earth. I soon stopped watching "caving gone wrong!" videos in pursuit of something with a little more taste and love. I read about Hang Son Doong's expansive size and gargantuan formations, Mammoth Cave's rich history and winding chambers, and countless more fascinating oddities of our natural world. My infatuation with caves deeply burrowed into my everyday as I spent hours reading about caves all across the world. I had no idea such an interesting and diverse world existed beneath my feet! I found that there is an unsung beauty deep within the natural splendor in the twisting caverns below us all.

To complement my newfound obsession I sought out movies, television shows, and games that involved caves but my search turned into a desperate scavenge as media that revered caves the way I did was beyond scarce. Apart from scholarly articles and the odd documentary, caves were widely known but as an interest they were somewhat niche. The only fiction I could find fascinated with caves to any degree was solely horror in genre. While disappointed I could see why this was the case; caves are dark, damp, and play on a litany of common human fears, but writing off caves exclusively as a vehicle of horror is an egregious waste of enormous potential!

Neil Marshall's The Descent, 2005

As much as I enjoy movies like The Descent and In Darkness We Fall, where its titular characters underestimate the depths and labyrinthine chambers of the caverns that eventually entomb them, there needs to be more diversity in cave fiction that explores the majesty and wonder of caves, the rich history some of these caves have that could make for compelling narratives, or the captivating creatures that call caves home. I would kill for a show about speleologists (Scientists who specialize in caves.) who explore and discover fascinating species of troglobites, (Animals that strictly live within caves.) and find incredible rock formations worthy of a name. I would love to see a historical drama about The Kentucky Cave Wars during the 1920’s when private cave owners used malicious tactics to gain a competitive advantage. The closest thing I have to the latter is the musical, Floyd Collins, based on the real man who was trapped in Sand Cave a almost a full century ago.

Far too often are caves relegated to being obtuse holes in mountains that have nothing to offer in our collective narratives. The portrayal of caves in these movies are incredibly bland! (Although I did enjoy how the humanoid creatures in The Descent bear close resemblance to real world troglobites!) Caves can be lush or barren, dry or wet, claustrophobically tight or breathtakingly large. If caves were ever one thing it is that every one is a unique little snowflake forged in different ways over a timespan inconceivable by our human minds. The caves featured in popular media are largely interchangeable with one another, we could place the lead characters of In Darkness We Fall in any old hole! Caves are products of geological history and their defining landscapes shape how they turn out. Hardly do media about caves explore this uniqueness and that's a genuine shame.

Cave of the Crystals, Mexico

There is a severe drought of cave fiction that borrows the beauty of caves. I want to see a setting inspired by the otherworldly wonder of the ginormous Hang Son Doong in Vietnam, the largest cave in the world, so large, in fact, it can form clouds within it. I need to see the towering crystals present in Mexico’s Cave of the Crystals, a cave adorned with enormous gypsum crystals which make the curious scientists seem so tiny. I demand to see set pieces in movies inspired by the fantastical Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand which resemble the night sky. I write all of this hoping to push back against the narrative that the sole function of a cavern in stories is for a protagonist to get lodged under a rock, or consumed by its depths, I hope to encourage others to see how diverse and unique caves are.

Mojang Studio's Minecraft, Caves and Cliff Update, 2021

Thankfully, for you and me but particularly me, I’ve recently seen an influx of gorgeous caves reminiscent of my natural darlings. Although these appear to be notable exceptions, the colorful world of video games have delivered to my doorstep some magnificent offerings of unparalleled beauty. While somewhat few and far between, games like Minecraft and Elden Ring spoil a cave enthusiast like me to take part in exploring the depths I daydream about on the daily. The new swallowing expanses of hollowed chunks of rock in Minecraft were directly inspired by Hang Son Doong! I was delighted to see the inclusion of pale, blind cave fish inspired by the real world fish that lack pigment and eyes due to evolving in an environment where those features were no longer necessary.

Although I haven’t gotten very far in FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, the opening cave had me absolutely overjoyed. The careful attention to detail with an opening in the cave ceiling allowing light shrubbery to grow did not go unappreciated! A screenshot of ginormous glowing crystals looming above Tarnished gazing upon them torch in hand, left me thinking back on the real world Cave of the Crystals. The interactivity of video games lends itself well to being able to bask in the glory of these digital recreations of the caves I’ve grown to love. Being able to meander in these physical spaces is just so special and an unbelievable gift.

FromSoftware's Elden Ring, 2022

I haven’t delved into the portrayal of caves in literary fiction but from a glance it seems just as filled with horror as other mediums, but I’m sure there’s some gems in there waiting to be found. As it stands I remain starved for passionate, loving portrayals of my beloved caves in the media I consume and I continue to curse myself for obsessing over such a niche little thing. I will admit however that every little unique depiction of caves that sings about their beauty has me jumping for joy because their rarity makes them feel all the more special. Like a gift on an otherwise ordinary day, it’s always such a pleasant surprise. If you’ve watched, played, or read something that constructed a narrative surrounding caves that called on their natural majesty, PLEASE I beg of you to let me know about it! I hope to see more and more diverse representations of what caves can be in all forms of popular media in the years to come! Keep it real y'all <3

 -Ghost Emoji 👻

#organmart #om-ghostemoji #cave #caves #personal essay #need more cave representation #elden ring #minecraft #the descent

[ryanmeft]

Movie Review: The Boy and the Heron

12 year old Mahito watches as bombs fall on Tokyo in 1943, and the hospital housing his mother is incinerated. He and his father promptly relocate to the countryside, where he marries his late wife’s sister and runs a munitions factory, but Mahito has little interest in these things. He is not disrespectful. He simply wants to be by himself. During one of his wanderings in the grounds, he spots a mysteriously behaved gray heron who leads him to a ruined tower hidden in an out-of-the-way corner. There his aunt eventually disappears, and though he doesn’t liker her that much, his father does. So he, the dutiful son, must find and rescue her.

Many of the films of traditional animation master Hayao Miyazaki start this way, with a disillusioned and lonely child discovering something magical. Few, even among his storied filmography, lead us on a journey like this one. The tower was said to either have been built by his great grand-uncle or fallen to earth in a star, but either way, when Mahito follows the heron inside while looking for his missing aunt, he enters one of those worlds only Miyazaki can deliver.

By this point the heron has hinted at his true nature, via a nose and a pair of eyes peeking out from its long beak. The interior of the tower it leads Mahito to is a ruined staircase, but much like the abandoned amusement park in Spirited Away, there is more here than there appears. Here I will stop describing the plot and begin feasting on some of the visual delights.

Within is a gate to a world somewhere between life and death. It is a water world where the sun seems never to fully rise or set, where gigantic fish prowl an underwater realm, and where even desolate swampland is beautiful to behold. It constantly surprises us. Mahito encounters a neolithic tomb behind a golden gate, a gaggle of white, joyful spirits that look a little like the video game character Kirby, throngs of hungry pelicans and multi-colored giant parakeets wielding forks and knives, and another tower that seems to exist in an ethereal reality, filled with randomly numbered doors that tantalize our curiosity.

To say Miyazaki, and his Studio Ghibli, are known for visual beauty is an understatement at this point. Multiple museums and coffee table books are dedicated to it. Yet in his latest the master and his crew top themselves, and deliver his most gorgeous film to date. Every frame is worthy of being isolated and studied as a piece of art. My favorite bits include those afore-mentioned Kirby Spirits ascending into the night sky and that giant tomb calling to something deep inside the viewer, but it’s so hard to pick and choose that I will have to watch the film a few more times so I can implant them all in my mind.

The movie does not only have visuals going for it. After a couple movies in which appearances trumped depth, Miyazaki made the more subtle The Wind Rises, about an airplane designer during the war. He has now returned to the glory days of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, with a film as moving as it is beautiful. I dare not reveal all the secrets of all the characters, but helping or hindering Mahito are a daring female sea captain, a mysterious woman with power over fire, a regal parakeet king who serves his people first, a mysterious man who harbors important information, and always that strange heron-man. They all factor into an emotional finale that leaves us holding back tears. This is a stunning achievement of both splendour and emotion, and the best film from Miyazaki in over 20 years.

Verdict: Must-See

Note: I don’t use star ratings. Here are my possible verdicts:

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid Like the Plague

#hayao miyazaki #animation #animated #the boy and the heron #japan #fantasy #mystery #adventure

[nicklloydnow]

“The transfer of True Lies has a truly vile quality to it, a feeling like someone clandestinely dosed you with LSD just a hair below the threshold. At times it can look passable in motion, but then you notice something out of the corner of your eye: a thick fold of skin, a framed photo of a child, folders that are too thick at the margins, cheeks that look rendered. It’s that familiar dread at the pit of your gut when you spot AI generated imagery, a combination of edges not looking quite right and surfaces that are simultaneously too smooth and too sharp. A crime was committed here, and you can tell.

The transfers of Aliens and The Abyss are markedly less bad than True Lies, but I still have difficulty watching them. The skin looks sterile and waxy with too much film grain removed. Everything looks like it has raytracing on. Both transfers are, however, within acceptable parameters for most normal people.

The recent transfer of Titanic got a similar treatment, with similarly mixed reactions online.

“Why would you do this?” is a logical question. It’s worth contextualizing who handled these “restorations” – namely Park Road Post, a subsidiary of Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films. They have worked on multiple films in the past, but the two that are most germane here are Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old and the 3-part Disney+ documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Both movies recontextualize pre-existing footage and, importantly, do so with an aggressive use of machine learning. They Shall Not Grow Old upscales and colorizes old World War I imagery in an attempt to set the bloodshed in a more modern context, while Get Back recycled footage shot for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be, including moments never before seen by the public, to elucidate the process behind the creation of some of The Beatles’ most iconic songs.

(…)

I wish we had stopped Jackson then and there. As my good friend Danielle joked, this was a trial balloon. People praised Jackson for doing this to Lindsay-Hogg’s footage in the name of restoration, and it emboldened him to do worse things. Before the True Lies debacle, the most recent example of this was the aggressively saccharine and confusing Now & Then, a long unfinished demo now finished by Ringo and Paul, edited together with archival footage of younger John and George composited in an a fashion that can be charitably described as tremendously weird.

Lest I am accused of being a luddite, I firmly believe there are many use cases for this technology. Nvidia’s DLSS and competing variants generally work very well on the games they are trained on. I regularly use Flowframes in the rare case that I need interpolation. I have often used waifu2x and now chainner if I need to photoshop a still and my source is bad, and there are databases of countless AI upscaling models. But the flip side to this is that these technologies are often used in place of proper ingest. “Crap in, crap out” is a truism for a reason. I spend a lot of time regularly capturing VHS and Laserdisc at the highest possible quality for fun, and when I see people who should know better say “Just use Topaz” (a commercial AI upscaler) instead of learning how to correctly ingest footage and deinterlace it, it makes me want to pull out my hair, because it almost uniformly looks bad to anyone who works with video professionally.

When you finally do see a piece of footage transferred well, it can be breathtaking. Good archival practices require a lot of institutional knowledge and labor. It’s an art when done well, and the people who do it care so much about what they do. But the modern application of much of AI is precisely about taking labor out of the equation. Why transfer a tape correctly when we can just have a computer guess badly instead? What if crap goes in, and it doesn’t come out?

What makes all of this worse is that True Lies, as I understand it, did not need to be shoved through the AI wringer. According to The Digital Bits, Park Road Post had a recent 4k scan of True Lies from the original camera negative. Park Road Post’s own website claims they have a Lasergraphics Director 10K film scanner on the premises. So what is the purpose of adding AI to this mix? Why do that to a perfectly fine-looking film? What is gained here, other than to slightly yassify an Arnold film? At this point, maybe they are simply doing it just to say that they did, because the technology is lying around, like a loaded gun with the safety off.

Nerds who post on blu-ray forums as a rule often need to calm down, and the forum threads I have read about this are no exception, but there are certain cases where a filmmaker is just wrong about how their films should look. Lucas is the infamous notable example, but Cameron is not innocent here in his treatment of his own films. Wong Kar-wai is another notable example, as what he did to Ashes of Time is criminal as was his recent “remasters” of his movies like In The Mood For Love. In certain rare conditions like this, it’s healthy to question if directors have the best interests of their own films in mind, as Cameron himself personally approved of these remasters.

What actually chills my blood more than anything is the thought that a lot of people think this all looks pretty good. You see this mindset at work whenever an AI fetishist posts a stable diffusion image of a woman with 13 fingers, 40 incisors and comically huge breasts. There’s an entire portion of the population that takes overt pleasure in the over-smoothed, perverts that prefer all media to be fast, high frame rate, and scrubbed squeaky clean. The cameras on our phones don’t simply capture images anymore, they compute them and ‘optimize’ them. It’s Italian Futurism in 4k, a noise reduction death drive. It’s not simply enough for much of digital cinema to look crystal clear and lifeless; the past should be denoised, grain managed and cleaned to conform to that standard. It is expedient and profitable if people don’t remember what film is supposed to look like.

I don’t think anyone gets into preservation to destroy film. I believe that everyone involved with this process worked hard and had the best interests of the film in mind, but the exact nature of restoration itself can vary wildly. I believe that some companies get blinded by new tech, get high on their own supply, and that can result in work that is destructive instead of restorative. I don’t know what the solution to this is in the world we live in, outside of decoupling film preservation from the profit motive whenever possible.

But I am certain about one thing. For a while, much of gaming tried looking like Aliens. Now, Aliens looks like a video game. And that doesn’t sit right with me.”

#aliens #abyss #true lies #titanic #james cameron

[sugutoad]

Matchup Trade for @nicosavior456!

↳ Thank you for doing Matchups at Sugutoad

Note from Anna: Hey Muiz! I’m also very excited to do this matchup trade with you. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. I was tempted to not give you Reyna at first but I just gave in as she was the best suited in my eyes. 

↳ “ You’ve never seen a legion at war”

༉‧₊˚. REYNA AVILA RAMÍREZ-ARELLANO #HEALING LOVE; I won’t lie to you // i know he’s just not right for you // and you can tell me that I’m off // but I see it face // when you say he is the one that you want // and you’re spending all this time in this time in the wrong situation // and any time you it to stop; forbidden love, opposing sides, Romeo and Juliet, slow burn, helping one another find the deepest part of them, early winter mornings; collapsing in bed, cold eyes softening, scarred hands tangled in curls, each other’s anchor;settling one another, subtle nods in acknowledgment, white lies and silver tongues

༉‧₊˚. Though originally choosing Annabeth Chase with princess-like curls, you spoke on how you didn’t wish to have her so I ended up choosing Reyna.  It wasn’t chosen because of your love for her but rather how you can change Reyna into her best self. Ah, Reyna's reasons for falling for Muiz? Well, let me try to put it into words for you. Reyna was drawn to you like a moth to a flame, captivated though she couldn’t entirely herself on why. From the moment she met you, there was an undeniable spark between them that set her heart ablaze, she was tempted to ignore foolish feelings. She knew how it was going to end up, it always ended the same way — a broken heart left in pieces. Firstly, your honesty was like a beacon of light for Reyna. Your sharp mind and quick wit fascinated her, and she found herself constantly engaged in deep conversations with you.  Reyna would be enamoured by your kindness and compassion. You always went out of your way to help others, and your selflessness touched Reyna's heart deeply. You ignited a fire within her soul, challenging her, supporting her, and loving her unconditionally. With you by her side, Reyna felt like she could conquer the world. It is a beautiful tapestry woven with trust, respect, and an unbreakable bond. 

༉‧₊˚. Your kind and assertive nature could complement Reyna's strong and determined personality. They could balance each other out, with you providing a calming presence to her and Reyna bringing a sense of strength and assertiveness within you, both searching and bringing the deepest part of one another. Both of you value honesty, which is important for a strong foundation. I doubt there is ever a miscommunication with you two, conversations are direct. Tangling your words is frustrating for the two of you, arguments rarely occurring. 

༉‧₊˚. Though not originally caring for anime of any sort as she was completely busy, once figuring out your love for it, she decided to watch. More specifically, the ones that you enjoy. Late movie nights with a cup of hot chocolate, as the couple quietly discuss their opinions to one another. She would definitely let you play with her dogs, it’s like heaven to be with her. Always making sure that you are alright and commenting on your mistakes while great loyalty still exists. She is an enigma, so sweet when she is around you but a monster in battle. She will gladly punish anyone who dares to look the wrong way at the son of Demeter who stole her heart, repairing it slowly without ever realizing.

Runner Up: Annabeth Chase

#matchups #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson matchups #reyna x oc #reyna avila ramirez arellano #reyna ramirez arellano #It’s been so long since I did a proper matchup that is not a life one #Moots! #matchuos are still close fyi